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50 Years On, Steinbeck’s Classic Still Packs a Punch

Barry Healy Green Left Weekly
This year marks the 50th anniversary of John Steinbeck’s great mythic novel of alienation under US capitalism, Of Mice and Men. The story is of lonesome labourers, reeling from the Great Depression, wandering from farm to farm seeking respite from their endless oppression.

Year One: When Black Women Lead

Steven W. Thrasher The New York Review of Books
Black women have long known that America’s destiny is inseparable from how it treats them and the nation ignores this truth at its peril.

What to Black People is the National Anthem?

Lisa Brock Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership
On Veterans day, the idea of the veteran was touted by POTUS and his supporters as an emotional counterweight to the protesting athletes. Dr. Lisa Brock reminds us that African Americans have historically had a conflictual relationship with US militarism.

Can My Children Be Friends with White People?

Ekow N. Yankah The New York Times
As against our gauzy national hopes, I will teach my boys to have profound doubts that friendship with white people is possible. When they ask, I will teach my sons that their beautiful hue is a fault line. Spare me platitudes of how we are all the same on the inside. I first have to keep my boys safe, and so I will teach them before the world shows them this particular brand of rending, violent, often fatal betrayal.

In Recording, John Kerry Says Israeli Government Doesn’t Want Peace

Alexander Fulbright The Times of Israel
In recordings published Tuesday by Channel 10, (In Israel) America’s former top diplomat can be heard praising the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to nonviolence following a wave of terror attacks beginning in the fall of 2015, which he said has been ignored by Israelis due to right-wing configuration of the current government.“The Palestinians have done an extraordinary job of remaining committed to nonviolence.

Poison Ivies

Chris Lehmann The Baffler
The Paradise Papers, Elite Universities, Endowments, Tax Avoidance, and The Engines of Inequality

Iowa Workers Defy Attempt to Weaken Their Unions

Bill Knight Pekin Daily Times
Under a new anti-union law, public-sector unions must re-certify each time they’re scheduled to bargain new contracts, every two or three years. Right-wing backers of the law hoped it would weaken unions by forcing them to devote time and resources to the recertification process and lead workers to drop their membership. But the members of the state's 468 union locals voted overwhelmingly to stick with their union.