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A ’60s Radical Comes Back with Conservative Allies

By D.G. Martin Durham Herald-Sun
The former radical leader now finds himself in partnership with former adversaries as an advocate for school choice and vouchers. He says he is “a novelty, an outspoken black man and former large system school superintendent who supported a growing movement that was largely championed by conservative white people."

If Not Now, When? A Labor Movement Plan to Address Climate Change

Jeremy Brecher, Ron Blackwell, and Joe Uehlein New Labor Forum
The labor movement has not adequately addressed climate change - primarily employment based, rather than a comprehensive strategy to truly address the problem. The authors argue that unions need to step up and mobilize for a real solution that includes a government program that puts people to work converting to a climate-safe economy.

Freeport-McMoRan Destroys Famous "Salt of the Earth" Labor Union

David Correria La Jicarita
The local Steelworkers union Shores decertified is the inheritor of Mine-Mill Local 890, a union made famous by the 1954 film “Salt of the Earth”, which dramatized Local 890’s 1951 Empire Zinc strike. A number of members of the creative team behind the film had been blacklisted by Hollywood.

Texas' New Voter ID Law Is Racist

Steven Rosenfeld Alternet
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Scathing Dissent Offers 12 Reasons Why Texas' New Voter ID Law Is Racist. Ginsburg dissent calls out thinly veiled GOP voter suppression.

Ebola Galvanizes Workers Battling to Join Unions, Improve safety

Mica Rosenberg Reuters
"Most workers were interested in forming a union before, but there was trepidation," said Anthony Reynolds, who cleans airplanes flown by American Airlines and US Airways, Lufthansa and others. "I think now this might be what puts us over the hump to get everyone on board."

Ebola, Capitalism and the Idea of Society

Rob Urie CounterPunch
The U.S.has sent soldiers to West Africa while Cuba has sent emergency health care workers. The difference is fundamental: Cuba sees both public purpose and moral imperative to help those stricken with Ebola and the U.S. sees a threat to profits at ‘home’ and a military exercise to ‘contain’ the spread of Ebola abroad.

Memory Loss

John Green Morning Star
Stereotypes about German history and about the German Democratic Republic distort history. Simplifications of the past inhibit our ability to understand the nature of fascism and anti-fascism, to understand the complexities of socialism.