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Tidbits - July 3, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments - Detroit denied water access; Whither the Socialist Left? Round 2; Dead Young Men: Mississippi, Israel, Palestine; Music Changes the Way You Think; Whole Foods Busts Unions; SCOTUS; Harris v. Quinn; Education - Obama's Failed Approach; Karl Marx Is Making a Comeback; Verify Nuclear Weapons-With Math; Ruby Dee; Friday Nite Videos

Is There a Ma Joad for the Piketty Era?

Katie Baker Daily Beast
In the 75 years since novelist John Steinbeck published his masterpiece about the Okie migration, the towering Ma Joad has faded from archetype to anachronism. Ever since Steinbeck published his opus on the plight of the Dust Bowl migrants in 1939, readers have warmed to Ma as a paragon of folksy integrity - "an unforgettably vigorous figure, like Mother Courage without the corruption or rapacity," - and, more recently, praised her as a feminist icon...

The Cooperative Economy

Gar Alperovitz/Scott Gast Orion Magazine
Developing a democratically oriented alternative to capitalism can’t be done overnight. This work requires a different sense of time and a deep sense of commitment—the bargaining chips are decades of our lives. But the shifts are already happening in places like Cleveland and Boulder. What we’re seeing is the prehistory, possibly, of the next great change, in which a movement is built from the grassroots that becomes the foundation of a new era.

Popular Movements Toward Socialism: Their Unity and Diversity

Samir Amin; Editors of Monthly Review Monthly Review
Samir Amin writes "the movement toward socialism" is a new stage in the decades old struggle of humankind for a more just and equitable society, since the time that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels first wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848. Introduction by the editors of Monthly Review on attempt to bring together a variety of global struggles under the rubric of the "movement toward socialism,"

Tidbits - June 12, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments - Politics and Post-Capitalism; Gabriel Kolko; Shondes - Blacklisted by the `Jewish Community; Yuri Kochiyama; Guantanamo: Bowe Bergdahl; Jewish Day School vs. Teachers Union; Blood Type; Europe post Elections; Supreme Court Ruling on Teacher Tenure; US Foreign Policy. Announcements - Dialogue with Leaders of Mexican Labor Movement - June 26 - New York: 45th contingent Venceremos Brigade; Peoples Climate March - New York - Sept. 20-21

labor

Dark Money, Dirty War: The Corporate Crusade Against Low-Wage Workers

Mariya Strauss Political Research Associates
Corporate interests have taken credit for reducing private-sector unions to a fraction of their former strength, and for eroding public-sector collective bargaining, especially since the 2010 “Tea Party midterms.” A resurgence in low-wage worker organizing, sparked by growing inequality in the United States, promises to help defend the rights—and paychecks—of vulnerable workers. But corporations and their paid shills aim to snuff out the movement before it catches fire.

Attack on Piketty’s Capital Gets it Wrong

Mike Konczal; Jennifer Rankin; Chris Giles; Neil Irwin
Piketty's central theme is not that inequality of the ownership of wealth is going to skyrocket. The central theme is that the 1% already owns a lot of the capital stock, and the capital stock is going to get gigantic relative to the rest of the economy. Whatever the weakness this meg-tome and mega-best seller, there is no denying - the rich are getting richer, the poor, poorer. (And Piketty is not a Marxist.)
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