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A Great Vision

Kim Scipes Substance News
A writer tells the story of his left wing family. Reviewer Scipes takes us on a tour.

The Conservative Case for Unions

Jonathan Rauch The Atlantic
The decline of the business model of old-style industrial unions may have been economically inevitable, but the lack of any new model to replace it has been socially calamitous. Unions will not be easy to fix, but allowing them to innovate would be a first step, and possibly also a last chance. How a new kind of labor organization could address the grievances underlying populist anger.

Eat the Food You Trust: Lessons from Food Fraud 2017

Roy Manuell New Food Magazine
Food Fraud 2017 highlighted just how serious an issue food fraud has become. It’s organised, criminal and widespread, but there are solutions that we must explore. Consumer trust in the food industry is on the decline in light of scandals such as the inescapable European horse meat incident in 2013 and melamine milk incident in China.These are two examples of what we call food fraud.

Don't Make a Bad Deal Worse: UE Statement on Renegotiating NAFTA

UE General Executive Board UE
UE's General Executive Board denounced Trump's racist and jingoistic proposals for a renegotion of NAFTA and instead called for a new set of trade policies that prioritize workers common interests and relies on international solidarity as its cornerstone. Any renegotiation of NAFTA must be oriented around the improvement of workers’ lives and protection of the environment focused on those regions of the continent where conditions are the most desperate.

In Its First Season, The Handmaid’s Tale’s Greatest Failing Is How It Handles Race

Angelica Jade Bastién New York Magazine
How can you attempt to craft a political, artistically rich narrative that trades in the real-life experiences of black and brown women, while ignoring them and the ways sexism intersects with racism? The bodies and histories of black and brown women prove to be useful templates for shows like The Handmaid’s Tale, but our actual voices aren’t.

A Day in the Life of a Day Laborer

Stephen Franklin In These Times
He waits along with more than 100,000 others who gather daily on dozens of street corners across the United States, according to figures from 2006. It is a world, where workers are often cheated out of their wages, injured on the job and then left without medical care, according to a 2006 survey. Where workers who complain often suffer retaliation by employers who fire them, suspend them, or threaten to call immigration officials.

California Looks to Expand Overtime Pay

Margo Roosevelt Orange County Regiser
"Two weeks after the November presidential election, a Texas judge put a hold on a sweeping reform of federal overtime standards that would have raised the wages of 4.2 million Americans. President Barack Obama’s administration appealed the ruling. But after Donald Trump took office in January, the appeal was delayed. Now California and a handful of other states are moving to enact the Obama proposal. Their reasoning: workers have seen their pay erode"

Cab Drivers Union Says Chicago Taxi Industry Is Nearing Collapse

Jeff Schuhrke In These Times
The union stresses that the decline of the taxi industry is a loss for the broader public. Unlike most rideshare vehicles, taxis serve people without bank accounts by accepting cash, and they also have more stringent requirements on providing access to people with disabilities.

War Alphabet

Jill McDonough Poetry Daily
What is war? Jill McDonough’s alphabetical poem evolves from World War I’s soldier-oriented them vs. us to the hidden terrors of today’s warfare: CIA, NSA, Black Ops, ETC.

Bill Clinton: His Career a Disaster for Black Americans

Nathan J. Robinson Jacobin
With all the toxicity coming out of the White House and the GOP-dominated Congress, it's important to remember how insufferable were the politics of the neoliberal Democrats in power under Bill Clinton. The book under review (an article derived from the book is below) should help us remember how malignant were the Clinton years when it came to economic and social justice.