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State of the Left and Social Movements in Russia

By Boris Kagarlitsky, translated by Renfrey Clarke Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal
Russian activist Boris Kagarlitsky surveys and analyzes social protests in his country.

Union Brings Fight Against Patriot to Charleston

By Taylor Kuykendall State Journal (West Virginia)
"If you don't have anybody following you," Cecil Roberts, president of the UMWA said at the rally, "you're not a leader; you're just taking a walk. When we walk out of this building today I'm going to be a leader because there is going to be 5,000 of you walking behind me."

Professors From Triangle Universities Slam State Republican Policies

By Georgia Parke The Duke Chronicle
Duke faculty, alongside professors from North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, held an eight-person panel discussion, “Save Our State: Scholars Speak Out on North Carolina’s New Direction,” titled to address issues including health, environmental and educational polices in a Republican-dominated North Carolina state government.

Guest Workers As Bellwether

By Josh Eidelson Dissent: A Quarterly of Politics and Culture
As pseudo-stateless workers, guest workers face all of the obstacles confronting any U.S. workers who try to organize, and then some.

Atlanta Test Cheating: Tip of the Iceberg?

Valerie Strauss Answer Sheet Blog
It would be easy to think that the Atlanta cheating scandal by adults on standardized tests is the worst we have seen, given last week’s startling indictment against former Atlanta schools superintendent Beverly Hall and 34 others under a law used against mobsters.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars - Spring Break Edition

Portside
Peru Billboard Wrings Water from Air; Tips for Facing Racist and Sexist Online Attacks; Catholic Colleges Go After Condom-Distributing Students; Model for Quality Academics Broken; Triangle Fire Building will get a Memorial Wrap; Wal-Mart Doesn't Have Enough Workers to Keep the Shelves Stocked; Conservatives Stick to Name Brands; Cuba Releases a Shoot-Em-Up Video Game Based on 1959 Revolution

Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Shame of Three Strikes Laws

Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone
Despite the passage in late 2012 of a new state ballot initiative that prevents California from ever again giving out life sentences to anyone whose "third strike" is not a serious crime, thousands of people – the overwhelming majority of them poor and nonwhite – remain imprisoned for a variety of offenses so absurd that any list of the unluckiest offenders reads like a macabre joke, a surrealistic comedy routine.