Skip to main content

The Master/Servant Relationship: A Medieval Horror Romance

Peter Hall-Jones New Unionism
Why do we defer from 9 to 5? The “master-servant relationship” is a feudal phantom that still haunts today’s workplaces, thanks to English common law. Peter Hall-Jones argues that it’s time to exorcise the old ghoul. The workplace democracy movement aims to do just that, but where do unions fit in? The way they respond to this agenda might well determine their relevance in the workplace of the future.

Prayer for Anything but Prayer

Chris Emslie Rattle
Alabama poet Chris Emslie writes: "This is a poem in response to [the] shooting in Orlando….a poem that…expresses… gratitude to be both queer and alive. I dedicate it to the shooter…in the spirit of maintaining dignity in the face of hatred."

Enforcement of Puerto Rico’s Colonial Debt Pushes Out Young Workers

José A. Laguarta Ramírez Dollars & Sense
As living conditions in Puerto Rico continue to deteriorate students and young workers from the island will continue to flood those places where family connections and job opportunities pull them. Not all will be targets of violence because of their multiple identities, as the Orlando victims were. Their fate, however, will continue to be a reminder of how invisible forces pattern seemingly random events in the lives of individuals and communities.

Achievement. Invulnerability. Comportment

Marilyn Richardson Women's Review of Books
Two startlingly realistic books by black female authors offering rich, contrasting and brilliantly wrought views of racial conditions for affluent and impoverished African Americans.

Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy

Harry Targ Portside
In this new book, Jerry Harris traces the links between the current stage of the development of transnational capitalism and the decline of democratic norms throughout society. Harry Targ guides us through this terrain, and, along the way, raises some critical questions about the significance of Harris's findings for today's social movements.

‘Indian Point’ Documentary: Chief Nuke Regulator Forced Out By Industry

Lewis Beale Daily Beast
'Indian Point' directed by Ivy Meeropol takes an unblinking look at the dramatic debate over nuclear power by going inside the aging plant that looms just 35 miles from New York City. With over 50 million people living in close proximity to the facility, it has stoked a great deal of controversy in the surrounding community, including a vocal anti-nuclear contingent concerned that the kind of disaster that happened at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant could happen here,

Pay Disparity is Stunning Between CEOs, Workers

Jon Talton Seattle Times
It is no coincidence that CEO pay has reached astronomical levels at the same time that income inequality has widened to a level not seen since the eve of the Great Depression or even the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. A wide body of scholarship has linked the two. CEOs, who earn 335 times the pay of their average employee, make up a big chunk of the 1 percent. Some ideas to change that are kicking around.

MANY ARTISANAL BRANDS OWNED BY BIG COMPANIES

Tom Philpott Mother Jones
Big Food is snapping up smaller, independent companies operating in niches of the industry that are actually growing, like organics. Three much-loved small players recently succumbed to the appetites of larger players.