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2017: The Canadian Labour movement in review

Gerard Di Trolio RankandFile.CA
Unions in Canada suffered some setbacks in 2017. However, movements like the Fight for $15 and Fairness show a potential way ahead. In 2018, those looking to renew the labor movement need to build power from below, encourage greater membership involvement, forge international solidarity, and confront governments, even those that are ostensibly friendly.

Tidbits - January 4, 2018 - Reader Comments: Extreme Poverty Returns; GOP Tax Robbery; Bitcoin; Iran; Nuclear Tests; Recy Taylor; High School Protests; Immigrant Rights; Climate Change and the Left; and more....

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Reader Comments: Extreme Poverty Returns; GOP Tax Robbery; Bitcoin; Iran; U.S. Nuclear Tests; Rape of Recy Taylor; Puerto Rico; High School Protests; Yemen; Global Refugees; Cold War history of immigrant rights; Story of Ferdinand; Correction: Subversive Involvement: Chicago and HUAC - Tribute to Dr. Quentin Young; Climate Change and the Left; and more....

What #MeToo Can Teach the Labor Movement

Jane McAlevey In These Times
For the #MeToo moment to become a meaningful movement, it has to focus on actual gender equality. Lewd stories about this or that man's behavior might make compelling reading, but they sidetrack the real crisis... Until we effectively challenge the ideological underpinnings beneath social policies that hem women in at every turn in this country, we won't get at the root cause of the harassment.

Dozens of Israeli Teens: 'We Refuse to Enlist Out of a Commitment to Peace'

Haggai Matar +972 Magazine
Sixty-three Israeli teenagers have published an open letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu on Thursday, declaring their refusal to join the Israeli army due to their opposition to the occupation. The group calls itself the "2017 Seniors' Letter," continuing a long tradition of similar letters sent by high school seniors announcing their refusal to join the army, dating back to 1970

Hollywood Women Unveil Anti-Harassment Plan for the Working Class

Cara Buckley The New York Times
300 powerful women in Hollywood have announced a new group called Time's Up to lead a national campaign against the systematic sexual harassment of women from Hollywood to working-class communities across America.. Among those taking part are actresses Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria, America Ferrera, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington, as well as producer Shonda Rhimes, Universal Pictures chairwoman Donna Langley, and lawyer Tina Tchen. (Daily Beast)

Seymour Melman and the New American Revolution

Jonathan Feldman CounterPunch
Seymour Melman believed that both political and economic decline could be reversed by vastly scaling back the U.S. military budget which represented a gigantic opportunity cost to the national economy. He believed in a a revolution in thinking and acting centered on the reorganization of economic life and the nation’s security system.  The core alternative to economic decline was the democratic organization of workplaces.