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Shalom Alechem

The Barcelona Gypsy Klezmer Orchestra creates a modern interpretation of 'Shalom Alechem' in music, dance and video. For more Alt-Xmas music, go here and here.
 

Who Ain't a Slave? Historical fact and the fiction of 'Benito Cereno'

Greg Grandin The Chronicle of Higher Education
Melville's tale describes the deep structures of a racism that was born in chattel slavery but didn't die with it. Racism, in the United States at least, was grafted onto slavery, while at the same time disguised by a potent kind of individualism, a cult of individual supremacy, based on the fantasy that some men were born natural slaves and that others could be absolutely free.

Organizing Community Unions

Roxanne Dubois Rabble (Canada)
By reaching out to groups of people who have not traditionally been union members, we at Unifor are challenging ourselves, and the labour movement, to include in our fight those who need it the most, and by doing so, to be true to one of the most basic union principles there is. In the union's plea for economic justice, fair labour laws, decreased inequality and more, involving new members in our work can only be an asset.

Swell of Boycotts Driving Israel Into International Isolation

Barak Ravid Haaretz
Western activists and diplomats are focusing on Israel's settlements in the Palestinian territories, and if peace talks fail, the rain of boycotts and sanctions could turn into a flood. This past week a second American academic organization overwhelmingly endorsed the economic and academic boycott of Israel.

Lessons from the Christmas Truce of 1914

Gary G. Kohls, MD Portside
Military chaplains seem to be another cog in the apparatus of making war maximally effective. Christian chaplains seem to not pay much attention to the Ten Commandments either, especially the ones that say "thou shalt not kill" or "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's oil". 99 years ago one of the most unusual aberrations in the bloody history of warfare - never allowed to be repeated again - occurred.