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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.

Egyptian Regime Responds to Economic Crisis by Repressing Workers

Pino Dragoni il manifesto
In the past 11 months, 151 workers and trade unionists have been arrested in Egypt and at least 2,691 have been fired taking legal strike actions. Repression of conflicts in the workplace has increased dramatically within the last few months, together with the worsening economic crisis. Recent economic and monetary policies have caused a dramatic deterioration in the living conditions of workers and the middle classes.

Life on Mars

Magdalena Ball Blogcritics
This week the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, named Tracy K. Smith as the U.S. Poet Laureate for 2017-2018. Smith is the fifth African American poet and the fourth black woman to hold the honor. She is the author of three books of poems, the most recent of which, Life on Mars, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. A link to the Library of Congress citation, and a review, from 2012, of Life on Mars, are posed below.

Future of Unions in Balance as Trump Prepares to Reshape National Labor Board

Nicole Hallett The Conversation
A new Republican-controlled National Labor Relations Board could roll back pro-union decisions dating back decades. This could be devastating to already weakened unions. With private sector union membership hovering at a dismal 6.4 percent – down from about 17 percent in 1983 – nothing short of the end of the labor movement could be at stake.

The Hidden Radicalism of Southern Food

John T. Edge The New York Times
In the South, America has identified food-system problems and developed solutions. Today, as Americans agitate for food sovereignty, the bold agricultural ideas conceived in the late 1960s by Fannie Lou Hamer and other radical Southerners suggest paths for us to follow out of our food deserts.

Rebuild Collective Power of Working People Around the Globe

Richard L. Trumka AFL-CIO
The OECD should be in the business of helping people build democratic institutions that give them economic and political voice—guardians of equality and democracy. The alternative to addressing wage stagnation and the status of working people in the global economy is not more of the same elite dominated globalization. The alternative is an escalating crisis where the false promises of authoritarianism and racism threaten to overwhelm the democratic ideal.

"Master of None" Returns With Class and Daring For Season Two

Max Havey Vox
Master of None's second season tackles the intersection of queer identities and race, as well as the diversity of New York City, painting a fuller picture of the city than shows that have come before like Girls, or even Louie.