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What Is a Country For?

Rebecca Gordon TomDispatch
Many of the folks I know are getting ready to play serious defense in 2017, and they’re not wrong. Before we take up our three-point stance on the national line of scrimmage, however, maybe we should ask ourselves not only what we’re fighting against, but what we’re fighting for. What kind of United States of America do we actually want? Maybe, in fact, we could start by asking: What is a country for? What should a country do?

There Was No Such Thing as “Progressive Neoliberalism”

Johanna Brenner Dissent Magazine
On January 2, 2017 Portside posted "The End of Progressive Neoliberalism" by Nancy Fraser http://portside.org/2017-01-02/end-progressive-neoliberalism. Here is a reader response which call for a "critique of liberal multiculturalism and liberal feminism, while advancing a socialist-feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist vision. And let us try to leave behind the sectarian divisions that have hampered us and seize the opportunity to build a new left."

Collective Bargaining Can Still Work

Andrew Strom On Labor
Some critics, including some in the labor movement, suggest that unions have to abandon collective bargaining and pursue other strategies for worker gains, such as winning higher wages through legislation. But collective bargaining can still work, and it is still necessary.

In the Fantasy Land of Labor Theorists: Andy Stern’s Latest Contribution

Jay Youngdahl In These Times
As inequality and its consequences mount, even more struggles and progressive formations will emerge. They are likely to be imperfect and messy, but from them useful ideas as to the future of collective worker action will become clearer. One thing is sure, though: Such a vision will not come from Andy Stern.

The Rebel Girl

Mary Anne Trasciatti Jacobin
As we build a movement to thwart Trump and win genuine social change, the activist life of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is instructive.

What Does Environmental Justice Organizing Look Like in the Time of Trump?

Laurie Mazur Grist
What our communities need so intensely right now are real examples of a vision for a new culture and society, right in their own neighborhoods. They need to be able to touch and feel and experience them and also experience building them as participants in our democracy.