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The Battle in Seattle, 15 Years On: How an Unsung Hero Kept the Movements United

Jonathan Rosenblum Yes!
This month marks the 15th anniversary of the “Battle in Seattle,” the historic protest against the World Trade Organization in 1999. The author, a labor and community organizer for 31 years, was at the time director of Seattle Union Now, a joint project of the King County Labor Council and the AFL-CIO. He remembers Tyree Scott, a quiet presence in the labor movement who urged unity when it mattered most.

As Latest UN Climate Change Meet Begins, Naomi Klein's Book is Worth Another Look

Chuck Idelson National Nurse Magazine
On the eve of the latest United Nations Climate Summit in Lima, Peru, even the New York Times noted November 30 that scientists and climate-policy experts "warn that it now may be impossible to prevent the temperature of the planet's atmosphere from rising by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. With so much at much at stake, why have world leaders done so little to embrace comprehensive, mandatory solutions, relying instead on modest, market-based proposals for voluntary reductions?

Remembering the Wades, the Bradens and the Struggle for Racial Integration in Louisville

Rick Howlett WFPL, The News for Louisville, an NPR affiliate
On a October morning, Ebbs is standing next to a historical marker erected near the Wade home site a few years ago. "I’ve made sure that my children understand the significance of the fact that there’s a monument here and it is our blood relatives that went through what they did to receive something like this. So I make sure that I definitely give it the respect that it’s due."

What a Housekeeper at Harvard’s Hotel Tells Us About Inequality

Lydia DePillis The Washington Post
Food service workers at Harvard are members of UNITE-HERE Local 26. After two years, they earn $21.73 per hour on average, while for many years the DoubleTree hotel in Cambridge owned by the university non-union housekeepers earned only about $15 an hour. Last year, housekeepers at the hotel mounted a push to join Local 26 as well. Hilton, which owns the DoubleTree chain bumped salaries to $18 an hour— but has so far managed to avoid a unionized workforce.

The CIAs Student-Activism Phase

Tom Hayden The Nation
In the 1960s, the agency sought to fight Communism through the students rights movement. There's little reason to think its tactics have changed.

Police Violence Is Not Inevitable

Steve Early YES! Magazine
Four Ways a California Police Chief Connected Cops With Communities A critical look at any institution with as much power and authority invested in it as the police is probably a good thing.