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Cold War Modernist

John H. Brown American Diplomacy
Scholars are producing increasingly detailed accounts of how the U.S. government utilized artists and culture in the Cold War anti-Communist crusade. According to former diplomat John H. Brown, this new study, by Greg Barnhisel, shows that an important factor in making modernism work for U.S. Cold War interests involved "defanging modernism of its radicalism and turning it into an international vehicle for whitebread all-American convictions."

Countess v Communist in Battle to Become Mayor of Madrid

Ashifa Kassam The Guardian
Charismatic and tough as nails, the two ideologically opposite women are leading the showdown for the job of mayor of Madrid, in one of the most closely watched electoral battles to emerge from the political and social transformation gripping Spain.

Spotlight on Baltimore

Todd Cherkis Labor Notes
'The murder of Freddie Gray was like a boomerang,' says West Baltimore resident Randolph Ford, 'flipping the status quo around to where the unity of the people and the fight for social justice has strengthened.' Ford is a leader in United Workers, a Baltimore-area worker center. Through the Fair Development Campaign, our group and others in the labor movement here are calling for a new kind of development.

Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google

Amien Essif Alternet
Of course, you don’t have to be homeless to use a library, but that’s the point. You don’t have to be anyone in particular to go inside and stay as long as you want, sit in its armchairs, read the news, write your dissertation, charge your phone, use the bathroom, check your email, find the address of a hotel or homeless shelter. Of all the institutions we have, both public and private, the public library is the truest democratic space.

Labor for Bernie

Steve Early Jacobin
Bernie Sanders has a long record of supporting pro-worker policies. Vermont union members learned long ago that the mutual benefit derived from their work with and for Sanders goes far beyond the results of labor’s usual (and sometimes tawdry) transactional relationships with public officeholders.

Food Across the Curriculum

Restaurant Hospitality editors Restaurant Hospitality
Liberal arts courses across the curriculum include food as a central topic of academic study

This Is What Energy Democracy Looks Like

Asbjørn Wahl Trade Unions for Energy Democracy
Climate change is going on. Millions of people are losing their livelihood, their homes, their jobs – and many also their lives. Time is therefore ripe for a massive mobilisation of social forces from below to put pressure on our political leaders. Trade unions will have to play a decisive role in such a mobilization. It is a question on what kind of society we want to develop.