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Rosalyn Baxandall, Feminist Historian and Activist, Dies at 76

William Grimes The New York Times
While teaching American studies at the State University of New York at Old Westbury, she, Linda Gordon and Susan Reverby assembled primary documents, including letters and diaries, that offered a sweeping history of women and labor. Their book, “America’s Working Women: A Documentary History, 1600 to the Present” (1976), was acquired for Random House by Toni Morrison, then a young editor there.

Getting the Export-Import Bank to Pay Dividends

Dean Baker Truthout
If we have to give handouts to big corporations, it seems reasonable to put some conditions on the cash. After all, we put all sorts of conditions on TANF benefits of $500 a month, it seems reasonable to ask something of the companies that get tens of millions of loan subsidies through the Ex-Im Bank. This should be a great opportunity to see where people really stand.

Firefighters Union Owes Clout to Its Free-Spending Chief

Noam Scheiber The New York Times
The International Association of Fire Fighters is a small union of just under 300,000 members with political influence far beyond its size. The obvious reason for this is the respect many Americans have for firefighters, who consistently rank as some of the country’s most admired professionals. The less obvious reason is Harold A. Schaitberger, a tall, barrel-chested man with meaty hands and rheumy eyes, who has served as the union’s general president for over 15 years.

On Police and Stolen Native Lives: A Lakota Mother Speaks

Kelly Hayes and Remy Truthout
July 2015 Paul Castaway was shot and killed by Denver police while holding a knife to his own throat. Police initially claimed that Castaway, a mentally ill Indigenous man, had charged them with a knife after stabbing his own mother. Surveillance footage would later contradict those claims and support the accounts of Castaway's family and other witnesses, who have maintained that Castaway menaced no one but himself with the knife in his hand.

Michael Lebowitz's 'The Socialist Imperative': 'A must-read for revolutionaries'

Doug Enaa Greene Links
Despite my criticisms and questions, Socialist Imperative is a must-read for revolutionaries. Compared to others who look for imaginary revolutionary subjects, Lebowitz remains animated with the belief that the working class “makes itself a revolutionary subject through its struggles -- it transforms itself .... which is the simultaneous changing of circumstances and self-change. It makes itself fit to create the new world" (p. 243).

European Left Debates a 'Plan B' Against Austerity

Liam Flenady Green Left Weekly
Europe's left needs a Plan B at its disposal, which will allow any future left government in Europe to face down the blackmail from the European establishment — including threats of expulsion from the eurozone.

Review: ‘Death of a Salesman’… in Yiddish. At the New Yiddish Rep.

Christopher Peterson OnStage Blog
The Yiddish/Jewish element increases the feelings of isolation and societal pressure in Willie and his family in a way that seems both inherent, yet also novel. The job of art is to make familiar things new and new things familiar; this rendition does both, in its own mysterious way.

Will Chrysler Workers Vote Contract Down a Second Time?

Dan DiMaggio Labor Notes
65 percent of UAW members at Chrysler voted no on the first deal, which they felt did not do enough to eliminate the two-tier system or protect jobs. This time around, the UAW International has hired PR firm BerlinRosen to sell the tentative agreement to members via social media. The UAW represents 40,000 workers at Chrysler.