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Jay Z: For Father's Day, I'm Taking On the Exploitative Bail Industry

Shawn Carter TIME
Carter, known as Jay Z, is a lauded recording artist, philanthropist and father: "When black and brown people are over-policed and arrested and accused of crimes at higher rates than others, and then forced to pay for their freedom before they ever see trial, big bail companies prosper. This pre-incarceration conundrum is devastating to families."

The Conservative Case for Unions

Jonathan Rauch The Atlantic
The decline of the business model of old-style industrial unions may have been economically inevitable, but the lack of any new model to replace it has been socially calamitous. Unions will not be easy to fix, but allowing them to innovate would be a first step, and possibly also a last chance. How a new kind of labor organization could address the grievances underlying populist anger.

The Pittsburgh Fairy Tale

Patrick Vitale Jacobin
Pittsburgh's much-touted revival has remade the region for the wealthy while leaving workers and the poor behind.

A Powerful, Disturbing History of Residential Segregation in America

David Oshinsky The New York Times
As Richard Rothstein contends in “The Color of Law,” a powerful and disturbing history of residential segregation in America, the government at all levels and in all branches abetted this injustice. “We have created a caste system in this country, with African-Americans kept exploited and geographically separate by racially explicit government policies,” he writes. “Although most of these policies are now off the books, they have never been remedied . . .

Philando Castile Verdict a Painful Result of Laws Rigged to Protect Cops

Shaun King New York Daily News
According to American case law, if cops believe their life is in danger, it does not matter if it truly is or isn't, all they have to do is believe it. The decades old cases of Tennessee v Garner and Graham v Connor both shaped for future juries what police could and could not get away with.

Rigged, Forced into Debt, Worked Past Exhaustion, Left with Nothing

Brett Murphy USA Today
A yearlong investigation by the USA TODAY Network found that port trucking companies in southern California have spent the past decade forcing drivers to finance their own trucks by taking on debt they could not afford. Companies then used that debt as leverage to extract forced labor and trap drivers in jobs that left them destitute.

Don't Make a Bad Deal Worse: UE Statement on Renegotiating NAFTA

UE General Executive Board UE
UE's General Executive Board denounced Trump's racist and jingoistic proposals for a renegotion of NAFTA and instead called for a new set of trade policies that prioritize workers common interests and relies on international solidarity as its cornerstone. Any renegotiation of NAFTA must be oriented around the improvement of workers’ lives and protection of the environment focused on those regions of the continent where conditions are the most desperate.

Eat the Food You Trust: Lessons from Food Fraud 2017

Roy Manuell New Food Magazine
Food Fraud 2017 highlighted just how serious an issue food fraud has become. It’s organised, criminal and widespread, but there are solutions that we must explore. Consumer trust in the food industry is on the decline in light of scandals such as the inescapable European horse meat incident in 2013 and melamine milk incident in China.These are two examples of what we call food fraud.