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Gilets Jaunes: A Pioneering Study of the ‘Low Earners’ Revolt

Le Monde Diplomatique
The scale of the movement and the speed with which it was formed are striking, outside trade-union organizations and political parties. Who are the gilets jaunes? What do they want? Are we witnessing a renewal of the forms of protest and politics?

What’s Good for the Country? New Owners for GM

Toni Gilpin Labor Notes
GM recently declared that it will close three major assembly and two smaller transmission facilities in North America. This despite GM’s recent robust profit reports - while labor costs make up less than 10 percent of the average vehicle.

Dialectics of Christmas

Fred Halliday Verso
A vintage holiday treat from the UK's Black Dwarf, Christmas 1969*, where the author analyzes the dialectic of Christmas in which the desire for happiness is marshaled into a tool of subjection (and alcoholic oblivion).

You Don’t Hate Mondays, You Hate Not Being Yourself

Drake Caeneus Medium.com
Perhaps we don’t really hate Mondays. What we really hate, maybe, is the nagging sensation that we are not fully present in our own lives. Mondays nudge us to ask: In how much of this life am I truly free?

Clearwater Music Festival Keeps Pete and Toshi Seeger's Legacy Alive

Jim Farber; Steven Jonas
This weekend's Clearwater Festival will be the first without Pete and Toshi Seegers, founders and mainstays of the Clearwater organization, started 49 years ago. Pete Seeger lived their lives as peoples' artists, fighting for peace, civil rights, nuclear disarmament, defense of the environment, and as a socialists.

The Rosenbergs were Executed 61 Years Ago Today - The Rosenbergs' Last Letter

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Rosenberg Fund for Children
On June 19, 1953, hours before their execution, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg wrote one final letter to their two young sons: Michael and Robby. Your lives must teach you, too, that good cannot really flourish in the midst of evil; that freedom and all the things that go to make up a truly satisfying and worthwhile life, must sometimes be purchased very dearly...civilization had not as yet progressed to the point where life did not have to be lost for the sake of life.

Tidbits - June 19, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments - Iraq; Ruby Dee; Cecily McMillan and Wall Street; Ukraine; Detroit Shuts Off Water to Thousands; Working Families Party; Civil Rights Movement; Children's Literature and Diversity; Common Core; Testing; Support Philly Jewish school teachers; Gabriel Kolko; Hatriot Politics and Las Vegas Killers; Argentina and US Banks; The Presbyterian Church and Divestment; Net Neutrality; Historic Slave Cemetery Bulldozed In Houston; Freedom Summer 2014