Global Left Midweek – April 17, 2024

Internationalism and democracy

Voters Want Tax Day To Look Different for Billionaires

New polling from the National Women’s Law Center and MomsRising found that nearly 80% of respondents supported increasing investments in the caregiving agenda by raising taxes on the wealthiest and big corporations.

Berlin Police Raid & Shut Down Palestinian Conference

As Germany intensifies its crackdown on pro-Palestinian voices, we speak with Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis, one of the planned speakers at a conference in Berlin last weekend that was forcibly shut down by police.

Trumpism Is a Small Business Owner’s Revolt

The MAGA movement changed its strategy after January 6, attempting to seize control of the Republican Party from the bottom up. Finish What We Started follows the Right’s long march through America’s political institutions.

Climate Activists Celebrate ‘The End of Coal’

With the last of New England’s coal plants now set to close, the No Coal No Gas campaign is reflecting on the power of fighting together.

Media Bits and Bytes — April 16, 2024

Warning! Small publishers are on the ropes

US Approves Largest Offshore Oil Export Terminal

"Nothing about this project is in alignment with Biden's climate and environmental justice goals," said one campaigner.

This Week in People’s History, Apr 16–22

A drawing of "Justice" being tortured
U.S. Torture Exposed, not Punished (in 2009), Dixie Demands “Bread or Blood!” (1864), Wasn’t That a Time? (1959), Justice Delayed Isn’t Justice (1989), An Unforgettable Song (1939), Why the U.S. Lost in Vietnam (1969), How the U.S. Was Built (1889)

How To Trim the Richest Down to Democratic Size

We're going to need to think big ... but maybe start small

Words: The Trouble With “Genocide Joe”

Ascribing personal responsibility to Biden for the carnage in Gaza takes our eyes off the prize, which is the structure of imperialist oppression, on the one hand, and building the broadest possible movement to fight it, on the other.
Read more

Culture

food

New York City’s New Gilded Age

Linette Lopez Business Insider
Beneath the city's victory over the pandemic and dining's glorious return is great divide between the haves and the have-nots. This new economy reveals the dramatic difference between those who can handle an inflationary shock and those who cannot.

poetry

The One Who’s Left Water

Jed Myers First published in Tinderbox
Washington state poet Jed Myers pays homage to the “one who’s left water” for the migrants crossing Arizona deserts facing “liberty or a cage.”

food

The Black Farmers Growing Rice

Liz Susman Karp Ambrook Research
A hopeful Southern project is helping reclaim lost heritage while building livelihoods, rebuilding old foodways, and rejuvenating land.

Labor

labor

America’s Newest Doctors Fuel Efforts To Unionize

Tina Reed Axios
A new generation of doctors struggling with ever-increasing workloads and crushing student debt is helping drive unionization efforts in a profession that historically hasn't organized.

labor

Why Is It So Hard To Unionize a Bar? It’s Complicated.

Gabe Del Valle Punch
Death & Co.’s recent union drive could have made history. But the failed effort underscores the challenges that come with unionizing bar staff, even as restaurants, cafés and hotels see an uptick in labor organizing.

labor

Chile on Strike: Worker Anger Spills Over

Ursula Fuentes Rivera speaks to Eric Campos Morning Star
We aim to break the deadlock that we see between a right wing that obstructs change and a government that gives in to it. So, rather than being against the government, we want it to return to the original content of its reforms.

Friday nite video

Civil War | Movie

It's more than a thinly veiled Trump story. In theaters April 12.