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Let’s Stop Downgrading Workers and Jobs in Supply Chains

Steve Cotton Equal Times
Downgrading workers and their jobs in the global supply chains must be stopped. Strong union organising, intelligent union strategies and collaborative working underpinned by robust international standards, is the way to do it.

Nina Simone's Backlash Blues

John Lahr London Review of Books
A biography of the iconic Nina Simone. Using rare archival footage, audio recordings and interviews (including talks with her daughter and extracts from Simone's private diaries), this examination of her life highlights her musical inventiveness and unwavering quest for racial justice, while laying bare the personal demons that plagued her from the time of her Jim Crow childhood in North Carolina to her self-imposed exiles in Liberia and Paris.

In Praise of Latin Night at the Queer Club

Justin Torres The Washington Post
Author Justin Torres reflects on Latin Night at the queer club: "You didn’t come here to be a martyr, you came to live, papi. To live, mamacita. To live, hijos. To live, mariposas....for a moment, I want to talk about the sacredness of Latin Night at the Queer Club. Amid all the noise, I want to close my eyes and see you all there, dancing, inviolable, free."

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Ashutosh (Ash) Jogalekar The Curious Wavefunction
In what reviewer Ashutosh (Ash) Jogalekar calls a "poignant and beautiful, simple and without frills and from the heart" exposition, Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli guides us through seven of the main ideas of physics. These are, Jogalekar writes, not just ideas that have advanced our understanding of science, but they are also ideas that have "expanded our consciousness and connected us to our origins and future."

What Does ‘Latinx’ mean? A Look at the Term that's Challenging Gender Norms

Yesenia Padilla Complex
Latinx (pronounced “La-TEEN-ex”) is a gender-inclusive way of referring to people of Latin American descent. Used by activists andsome academics, the term is gaining traction among the general public, after having been featured in publications such as NPR to Latina. But where did Latinx originate, and is everybody on board with using it?

What Does ‘Latinx’ Mean? A Look at the Term that's Challenging Gender Norms

Yesenia Padilla Complex
Latinx (pronounced “La-TEEN-ex”) is a gender-inclusive way of referring to people of Latin American descent. Used by activists andsome academics, the term is gaining traction among the general public, after having been featured in publications such as NPR to Latina. But where did Latinx originate, and is everybody on board with using it?

What Will Bernie Do?

Robert Borosage Campaign for America's Future
Sanders has been clear all along: He’s building a movement for radical change. Clinton won the nomination. She gets to choose whether to embrace that movement or ignore it, whether to adopt that platform or avoid it, whether to change the party or maintain the old order.

The Split: 19 Reasons the Democrats Will Remain Divided

Naomi Klein, Rick Perlstein, Jill Filipovic, Keeanga Taylor The New Republic
What do divisions in the Democratic party mean for its future? Featuring Naomi Klein, John Judis, Rick Perlstein, Rivka Galchen, Mark Green, Keeanga-Ymahtta Taylor and more.

It’s time for the left to save the Europe debate from the Tories

John McDonnell Red Pepper (UK)
The question for the left, is whether we can transform the operation of the European Union. It's the same question asked by the left about any state institutions – whether it's the local council, the national government, or any transnational institution. We have the opportunity to re-route the referendum debate away from Tory Brexit and into a debate about the democratic future of Europe.

NYC: The Power and Politics of Norman Seabrook's Correction Officers' Benevolent Association

Will Bredderman and Jillian Jorgensen Observer
Politicians are eager to distance themselves after correction officers' union leader Norman Seabrook became the best-connected figure to fall in a corruption investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Seabrook was arrested on fraud charges, accused of accepting a $60,000 bribe—reportedly delivered by Jona Rechnitz, a donor of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at the center of a gift-for-favors scandal —in exchange for investing union money into a risky hedge fund.