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Breaking the Law? Northwestern Football Coach Pressures Players Not to Unionize

Dave Zirin TheNation.com Blog
It takes an enormous amount of chutzpah for Fitzgerald to so strenuously oppose the efforts of his players to have a seat at the table when he is making $2.2 million per year and received a $2.5 million loan from the school upon signing his most recent contract. Yet Fitzgerald's stance is not only distasteful. It may be illegal.

Historic Failure for Social-Democratic Left in French Elections

Elisabeth Gauthier transform! (European Network for Alternative Thinking and Political Dialogue)
The recent French municipal elections...The abstention levels of 39% were a record high for municipal elections. They were particularly high in areas most affected by the crisis; in metropolitan communes; among the young; workers; and voters of the Front de Gauche (Left Front) and of the FN (National Front). In addition, almost 3 million potential voters were not registered to vote.

Chris Hani's Political Legacy

Sean Jacobs Africa Is A Country
Chris Hani was assassinated April 10, 1993. Yet in the view of this author, he should not be made into an ideal type or used to settle political scores in the present. And further, any observer of contemporary South Africa can't help noticing that while Chris Hani is still lionized and his name invoked in speeches and songs, the principles he stood for no longer animate the political project of the liberation movement he laid down his life for.

The Piketty Panic and Video of Stiglitz and Krugman on the Significance and Right-wing Hysteria over Piketty

Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty
New scholarship by the French economist is a bona fide phenomenon - and the right is terrified. Thomas Piketty argues that the main driver of inequality - the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth - threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. He calls for political action and policy intervention. Video - Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman on the significance of the work, and the stir.

Tidbits - April 24, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments - 2014 Moral Freedom Summer Organizer Fellowship (Correction); Jews Speak Out against censorship bans; Auto Parts Strike; Carl Bloice remembered; Charlie Chaplin Legacy; Chris Christie; Announcements - Harlem Celebrates-Duke Ellington's 115th; May Day Rally in New York; Third Annual NYC Film Festival - Global Labor Solidarity; Cuba travel; Volunteer opportunities in El Salvador

Net Neutrality: We Need a Better Deal

Eric Klinker Bittorrent Blog
If Internet service providers are allowed to give preferential treatment to certain kinds of traffic, the open Internet will have been paywalled shut. The solution lies in fairer regulation and in better, more people-powered technology.

Friday Nite Videos -- April 25, 2014

Portside
'Toreador': A Random Act of Culture. What the 1% Don't Want You to Know. Guns: Not Our Words. Schizophrenia: What's in My Head? Matt Taibbi Explores Criminal Injustice With Bill Maher.

Khalidi: It's Time for Palestinians `to get off their knees' and Turn to Europe and ICC

Philip Weiss Mondoweiss
Rashid Khalidi said today that the US opposition to the reunification of Palestinian parties exposes the "farce" that is the peace process. It is in fact a "bring them to the table on their knees process," and the U.S. rejects a Northern Ireland model- in which George Mitchell negotiated among all parties to the conflict- because the Israel lobby won't let it pursue that course.