Matt Taibbi: Everything Is Rigged

Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone
The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There's no price the big banks can't fix.

Absolutamente Quilapayun

Note from Holly Near: Put out recently by Quilapayun, a Chilean ensemble that lived in exile after the military coup, this youtube shows footage from the 70s as well as honors the young people who are building a strong student movement today to protest the right wing government recently elected in Chile following the progressive leadership of President Michelle Bachelet. I had an opportunity to work with Quilapayun in the seventies and eighties and again when I went to Chile a few years ago. We sang at a men's prison in the northern part of the country.

Just Cancel the Sequester

Alan Grayson personally went to John Boehner's office with 300,000 signatures demanding an end to the sequester - THIS is what happened next.

Friday Nite Videos -- May 17, 2013

Portside
A&F Gets a Brand Readjustment. Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate. Just Cancel the Sequester. Everyone But Cheney and Rumsfeld. Absolutamente Quilapayun.

Labor Wrestles With Its Future

Harold Meyerson The Washington Post
Unions face an existential problem: If they can’t represent more than a sliver of American workers on the job, what is their mission? Are there other ways they can advance workers’ interests even if those workers aren’t their members? A new labor movement might resemble a latter-day version of the Knights of Labor, the workers’ organization of the 1880s that was a cross between a union federation, a working-class political vehicle, and a fraternal lodge.

As Obama's National Economic Agenda Falters, Activists Must Mobilize in States

Randy Shaw Beyond Chron
The current political environment shows that activists must be flexible in choosing which political arenas are most open to their goals. Opportunities for state government to enact progressive economic measures are there for the taking, but are not being seized due to a lack of grassroots pressure that is connected to the exclusive focus on federal action.