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Tidbits - November 17, 2016 - Reader Comments: Analyzing a Very Close Election; What Now, What Next?; Revenge of the Forgotten Class; Announcements: and more...

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Reader Comments: Analyzing a Very Close Election; What Now, What Next?; Revenge of the Forgotten Class - What Impacted How White Workers Voted?; A Message from the Past for us Today - from A.J. Muste; Announcements: 2016 Election Debrief; Announcing the AltoTrump.com Website; The Spanish Civil War & the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: 80 Years Later; Puerto Rico: Facts and Realities of Living Under PROMESA; Clemency for Leonard Peltier - week of actions; and more...

Labor Leaders, Alarmed By Trump, Reach For A German Analogy

Annie Karni Politico
Leaders of the Jewish Labor Committee compare Trump's victory to the rise of the Third Reich in German. Stuart Appelbaum, executive vice president of the United food and Commercial, noted that “back in the 1930s, our founders saw the importance of building alliances and coalitions that could stand together for their values, and stand up against anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry.”

Necessary Trouble: A New Protest Movement Emerges

Ken Nash Public Employee Press
With the far right now soon to command government, ongoing movements are also growing to challenge corporate domination, white supremacy, environmental degradation, union busting and organize workers in low-paid industries. Written before the November election, Sarah Jaffe's book chronicles these and other struggles, letting the activists--many new to politics-speak, and suggesting the fight for social and economic justice is ongoing, no matter which party reigns.

The Sellout

Reni Eddo-Lodge The Guardian
This novel by Paul Beatty won England's Man Booker Prize last month. He is the first American writer to ever win the award. Here is a review of the book.

'Sanctuary Cities' Vow to Protect Immigrants From Trump Plan

Gene Johnson NBC
Leaders in Seattle, San Francisco and other so-called "sanctuary cities" say they won't change their stance on immigration despite President-elect Donald Trump's vows to withhold potentially millions of dollars in taxpayer money if they don't cooperate.

Slavery, Democracy, and the Racialized Roots of the Electoral College

Christopher F. Petrella African American Intellectual History Society
Race and racism in the U.S. context have long served as some of the most significant guarantors of democratic structures and institutions. In short, U.S. democracy itself is a racial project whose fulcrum hinges on policies of inclusion and exclusion.

Not a Revolution -- Yet

Mike Davis Verso
We should resist the temptation to over-interpret Trump’s election as an American Eighteenth Brumaire or 1933. Progressives who think they’ve woken up in another country should calm down, take a stiff draught, and reflect on the actual election results from the swing states.

Trump Says Go Back, We Say Fight Back

Robin D.G. Kelley Boston Review
I am not suggesting that white racism alone explains Trump’s victory. Nor am I dismissing the white working class’s very real economic grievances. It is not a matter of disaffection versus racism or sexism versus fear. Rather, racism, class anxieties, and prevailing gender ideologies operate together, inseparably, or as Kimberlé Crenshaw would say, intersectionally.

Shocked by Trump? It’s Time to Get Involved in the Fightback

Gary Younge Red Pepper (UK)
The battle lines are clear. Democracy is in peril and the left must take itself seriously electorally and politically. Ruth Potts speaks to Gary Younge, who was based in Muncie, Indiana, for the US election, about the implications of Donald Trump’s victory.

Where are the Unions?

Janice Fine Boston Review
Janice Fine contributes to a forum on "After Trump." She argues that many people care about inequality, but not all like unions. Some think unions are too conflictual, but Fine argues this is necessary to win the kinds of demands we need to win.