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Labor in History: Mobtown and the Stirring of America’s Unions

Bruce Vail In These Times
The six-week-long "Great Railroad Strike" involved an estimated 100,000 workers in more than a dozen states, and succeeded in paralyzing much of the nation’s transportation system. The strike was brutally crushed by state and federal troops with more than 100 dead and thousands injured. The strike itself may have failed to achieve the B&O employees’ original goal of wage restoration, but it stimulated the growth of unions, particularly among rail workers.

Seeking Justice—or At Least the Truth—for ‘Comfort Women’

Christine Ahn and Foreign Policy In Focus The Nation
Not only has Japan failed to compensate the surviving comfort women, but Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has led a nationalist campaign to adamantly deny Japan’s shameful criminal past, has revised history textbooks that previously contained information about Japan’s military sex slaves and is also threatening to revise the Kono Statement.

The Cooperative Economy

Gar Alperovitz/Scott Gast Orion Magazine
Developing a democratically oriented alternative to capitalism can’t be done overnight. This work requires a different sense of time and a deep sense of commitment—the bargaining chips are decades of our lives. But the shifts are already happening in places like Cleveland and Boulder. What we’re seeing is the prehistory, possibly, of the next great change, in which a movement is built from the grassroots that becomes the foundation of a new era.

A New Way to Verify Nuclear Weapons, With Math

Bill Andrews Discover Magazine
Examining actual weapons would be a breach of confidentiality: how they’re made and put together is secret, and the fewer people that know what’s inside a nuclear bomb, the better. Luckily, a group of scientists have devised a way to use math, and neutrons, to figure out if something’s actually a nuclear weapon, without learning anything about what’s inside it.

TUC LBGT Makes a Stand Against Harassment

Joana Ramiro Morning Star
Delegates to British Trade Union Congress LBGT conference take stand against homophobic slurs and hate crimes. TUC Assistant General Secretary states "We know that LBGT workers are two and a half times more likely to face workplace bullying and discrimination.

No Renewed Iraq War

United Electrical Workers-General Officers UE
In 2002 the members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, UE, approved a convention resolution opposing George Bush's plans to invade Iraq. Twelve years later the Officers of UE re-affirm their opposition to Obama renewing the war in Iraq.

Getting to the Bottom of Fecal Transplants

Ricki Lewis Public Library of Science
The bottom line is fecal transplants work, and not by just supplying a missing bug but a missing function being carried out by multiple organisms in the transplanted feces

The U.S.-Mexico Border - A Constitution-Free Zone

David Bacon ACLU STAND Magazine
Under the Fourth Amendment, the people of the United States are not supposed to be subject to random and arbitrary stops and searches. But within 100 miles of a U.S. border, these rules don't apply.

Graphs Show How Obama's Been Abusing His Power (Or Not)

History News Network Staff / Andy Borowitz The New Yorker
“The United States Constitution guarantees the American people that its government will be free from activity. Again and again, President Obama has broken that sacred trust.”