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Tidbits - November 24, 2016 - Reader Comments: Not a Revolution - Yet; Slavery, Democracy, the Electoral College; The U.S. Working Class; This Was Not a Working Class Revolt; Labor Leaders Deserve Their Share of the Blame; and more....

Portside
Reader Comments: Not a Revolution - Yet; Hamilton; Enabling Neo-Fascists; Slavery, Democracy, the Electoral College; Understanding the U.S. Working Class; This Was Not a Working Class Revolt; Remembering Tony Mazzocchi; Social Security is NOT Going Broke; Labor Leaders Deserve Their Share of the Blame; Honor the Thousands of Undocumented Workers; Venezuela; Flu Shots: Facts & Fallacies; and more.. Announcement: What Happened? What Now? - Labor Forum with Bill Fletcher

Urge President Obama to Grant Clemency to Leonard Peltier

Portside
It is not too late for President Obama to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, imprisoned for past forty years. Peltier was a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), which promotes Native American rights. In 1975, during a confrontation involving AIM members, two FBI agents were shot dead. Peltier was convicted of their murders, but has always denied killing the agents. The judge who authored the decision denying a new trial, has since voiced support for his release.

Labor and Politics - Labor Must Become a Movement; Learning the Right Lessons from 2016

Moshe Marvit; Jake Rosenfeld onlabor
With the election of Donald Trump, labor faces a unique opportunity. It will face hostility in all branches of the federal government, and will have to maintain a multi-pronged fight. Yes, union density numbers are at historically low levels, and the bulwark of public-sector unionism may suffer a major blow at the Supreme Court through a case challenging the constitutionality of fair-share fees in the public sector...It has the existential imperative to reform itself.

The "Women's March on Washington," Explained

Emily Crockett Vox
It could be the biggest mobilization yet in response to a presidential inauguration. March organizers hope that the work of the march will reach far beyond January 21. The work of this march is not only to stand together in sisterhood and solidarity for the protection of our rights, our safety, our families and our environment - but it is also to build relationships and mend the divides between our communities.

Four Ways to Look at Standing Rock: An Indigenous Perspective; 'People Are Going to Die': Father of Wounded DAPL Activist Sophia Wilansky Speaks Out

Kayla DeVault; Nika Knight Yes! Magazine
Kayla DeVault writes, Standing Rock requires us not to forget cultural identity. Conversations about climate, loss and damage, must include loss and damage done to a way of life, to the sustainability of an entire identity of people. Is devastating policy brutality against water protectors in North Dakota a harbinger of what's to come? Interview with Sophia Wilansky's father, who was injured Tuesday by a concussion grenade after police assault on water protectors.

Why Trump Really Won: It’s Not Just Race, Gender and Class

Jonathan Michael Feldman Portside
We need a reconstructive politics that would link opposition to the far-right to a nationally embedded Green New Deal, sustainable reindustrialization, new budget priorities to cut military expenditures and fund job creation and integration, and the development of economic democracy.

Were the Framers Democrats?

Cass Sunstein The New Rambler
This book, says reviewer Cass Sunstein, "might well be the best book ever written on the founders and their handiwork." It is the kind of book that helps provide useful context for this complex political moment. Readers interested in this topic might also look at America's Constitution: A Biography, by Akhil Reed Amar (Random House, 2005).

To Resist a Trump Presidency, Ask: “What Would the Abolitionists Do?”

Linda Hirshman Washington Post
What can anti-Trump liberals and progressives actually do? With his party in control of the White House and Congress, and with Trump about to tip the balance of the Supreme Court, it’s easy to despair over how little leverage the Democrats seem to have. One episode from history reveals reasons to hope. In 1850, like the Democrats and their allies in 2016, the abolitionists took a terrible hit...

What About the Black Working Class?

Tanzina Vega CNN Money
Amid all of the talk about economic populism this election cycle, one group has been largely left out: working class Americans of color.