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Tidbits - December 25, 2014- Holiday edition

Portside
Reader Comments-Colbert Nation; Is It Band Enough Yet; Southern Jim Crow Murder; Cuba; How America's Relationship With Cuba Will Change; We express our condolences - Millions March NYC and Center for Constitutional Rights; Angela Davis on police violence; Youth Shall Lead in struggle against police violence; Political Athletes; "Negro-Jewish Unity" and IWO; torture; FBI; Panama invasion; New resources: On Torture; Staughton Lynd book; Stevie Wonder; theater review

Thank Postal Workers by Fighting to Save the Postal Service

John Nichols The Nation
The House and Senate passed a “CROmnibus” spending bill packed with giveaways to Wall Street, big banks and big corporations and then quit town. Congress failed to take what the unions representing postal workers identify as the most necessary immediate step to aid the postal service: initiation of “a one-year moratorium on a reduction in service standards and plant closings.”

Fighting Anti-Semitism and Jim Crow: “Negro-Jewish Unity” in the International Workers Order

Jennifer Young AJS Perspectives
Established in 1930 after a schism within the Jewish socialist Workmen's Circle, the IWO's founding members came from the ranks of prominent leaders of the American communist movement. Supporting the left wing of the New Deal, IWO leaders hoped that once workers came to see state-supported healthcare, unemployment insurance, and minimum wage as a right, they would work to put the Communist Party at the helm of a worker-led American revolution.

Who Gives the Orders? Oakland Police, City Hall and Occupy

Scott Jay LibCom
The recent declaration of "war" by the NYPD police union shows how the police are a political institution who do not simply follow orders from elected leaders. A similar revolt occurred among Oakland police during Occupy Oakland.

Judge Strikes Down Wage Boost for Some Home Workers

Associated Press The Washington Post
Under the ruling, home care agencies and other third-party employers can continue denying minimum wage and overtime pay to workers who provide primarily “fellowship and protection” as opposed to more extensive care.

Big Union Win

Scott Jaschik Inside Higher Ed
The National Labor Relations Board issued a ruling last week that could clear the way for much more unionization of faculty members at private colleges and universities.

Syria: Turkey In the Fray

Conn Hallinan Foreign Policy in Focus
There are myriad ways that a peaceful resolution of the Syrian civil war can be derailed, but the pieces for an agreement are on the table. Failure to put them together will accelerate the destabilizing effects of the war in neighboring countries and deepen the misery of the Syrian people.