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Defining Moments and Crystal Stairs

Charles M. Blow, Op-Ed Columnist New York Times
“Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” And yet, we must continue to climb, “sometimes goin’ in the dark, where there ain’t been no light.”

U.S. Turns Blind Eye as Saudis Fund Jihadists in Syrian Conflict

Patrick Cockburn Democracy Now!
So, you know, it is extraordinary that al-Qaeda has been the great sort of winner of the conflicts over the last—whenever it is, since 9/11, and they’ve—and managed to make such tremendous gains without much opposition from Washington or London or Paris.

Organizing Community Unions

Roxanne Dubois rabble.ca
By reaching out to groups of people who have not traditionally been union members, we at Unifor are challenging ourselves, and the labour movement, to include in our fight those who need it the most, and by doing so, to be true to one of the most basic union principles there is. In the union's plea for economic justice, fair labour laws, decreased inequality and more, involving new members in our work can only be an asset.

Who Ain't a Slave? Historical fact and the fiction of 'Benito Cereno'

Greg Grandin The Chronicle of Higher Education
Melville's tale describes the deep structures of a racism that was born in chattel slavery but didn't die with it. Racism, in the United States at least, was grafted onto slavery, while at the same time disguised by a potent kind of individualism, a cult of individual supremacy, based on the fantasy that some men were born natural slaves and that others could be absolutely free.