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Making Tax Fair Would Guarantee Social Security for Future Generations

Ellen Dannin, Truthout Op-Ed Truthout
Today, some people believe that Social Security will not be there for them even though there are equitable solutions that will fully fund Social Security for the foreseeable future. In planning for the future of Social Security, Social Security is not a private opt-in or -out choice like the decision to fund an IRA. Instead, for decades, it has involved employees and employers providing secure retirement benefits generation after generation.

Home Is Where the Fight Is

Alexandra Bradbury Labor Notes
You don't have to look far to see the connection between workplace and housing struggles. People lose their homes or get evicted from rentals because of unemployment, underemployment, low wages, or health care bills. Organizing works: activists consistently force the banks and mortgage lenders to back off specific homes.

Hugo Chávez Kept his Promise to the People of Venezuela, and to Latin America

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
The late Venezuelan president's Bolívarian revolution has been crucial to a wider Latin American philosophy - "History will affirm, justifiably, the role Hugo Chávez played in the integration of Latin America, and the significance of his 14-year presidency to the poor people of Venezuela" former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

McDonald's Guest Workers Stage Surprise Strike

By Josh Eidelson The Nation
Alleging unpaid wages and repeated retaliation, McDonald’s workers in central Pennsylvania launched a surprise strike at 11 this morning. The strikers are student guest workers from Latin America and Asia, brought to the United States under the controversial J-1 cultural exchange visa program. Their employer is one of the thousands of McDonald’s franchisees with whom the company contracts to run its ubiquitous stores.

Arkansas Adopts a Ban on Abortions After 12 Weeks

By Erik Eckholm New York Times
Arkansas adopted what is by far the country’s most restrictive ban on abortion on Wednesday — at 12 weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can typically be detected by abdominal ultrasound.

On the Legacy of Hugo Chávez

Greg Grandin The Nation
After the last presidential ballot - which Chávez won with the same percentage he did his first election yet with a greatly expanded electorate - even his opponents have admitted, despairingly, that a majority of Venezuelans liked, if not adored, the man.

It’s Time to Tax Financial Transactions

Katrina vanden Heuvel The Washington Post
On Friday at midnight, the sequester kicked in, triggering $85 billion in deep, dumb budget cuts that sent “nonessential personnel”— such as air traffic controllers — packing.