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Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and Why Unions are Needed

Duane E. Campbell Talking Union, a DSA labor blog
The movement led by Cesar Chavez , Dolores Huerta and others created a union and reduced the oppression of farm workers for a time. Then the corporations and the Right Wing forces adapted their strategies of oppression. The assault on the UFW and the current reconquest of power in the fields are examples of strategic racism, that is a system of racial oppression created and enforced because it benefits the over class -- in this case corporate agriculture.

Coney Island Exposed America's Spirit

Randy Shaw Beyond Chron
Coney Island's standing for some 147 years as inspiration for artists, from its inception as an elite seaside resort through its days as an entertainment mecca and leisure refuge for New York's working people, up to its more recent decline and the closing in 2008 of Astroland, its last iconic amusement park.

Students Occupy Swarthmore College in Fossil Fuel Divestment Protest

Suzanne Goldenberg The Guardian
Nearly two-thirds of Swarthmore’s 1,500 students signed a petition last December calling on the university to exit coal, oil and gas holdings. The Swarthmore Mountain Justice campaign is calling for an immediate freeze on new fossil fuel investments, followed by a staged withdrawal over five years.

The Scene of the Crime

Seymour M. Hersh The New Yorker
A reporter’s journey to My Lai and the secrets of the past.

MI5 and the Hobsbawm File

Frances Stonor Saunders London Review of Books
The British security service, MI5, its war on communism, and its file on Eric Hobsbawm, 'one of the pre-eminent British historians of the 20th century.'

The Tragedy of Party Communism

Michael Brie Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
"The consciousness that violence is always something evil, that it always violates human dignity, and therefore needs to be controlled very strictly — requiring the strongest moral and institutional checks — could quickly be lost in Leninism. Rosa Luxemburg’s dictum, that the ‘true essence of socialism’ is the connection between ‘ruthless revolutionary energy and tender humanity’, was continuously reduced to the remorselessness of the communist ‘cause’."

Groundbreakers: How Obama's 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America

Andrew Mayersohn Boston Review
It's clear that President Obama out-organized his opponents in both of his runs for president. But how did he do it? Elizabeth McKenna and Hahrie Han, in Groundbreakers, shows us how. As Andrew Mayersohn notes in this review, "giving people meaningful responsibilities is a powerful way to engage them and keep them engaged." This is a vital lesson in politics, one that Team Obama, in two national campaigns, realized with spectacular results.

Adjuncts Struggle to Unionize at a Liberal College

Michelle M. Tokarczyk Working-Class Perspectives
Adjuncts make up about 70% of the American professoriate. Adjuncts usually make $20,000–$25,000 a year, often by teaching courses at various institutions each semester. They have no job security, and frequently receive no health or retirement benefits. But they have begun fighting to improve their lot. SEIU is organizing in several states.