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The Future of Work - Three Reports

Miles Brundage, Glenn Gutmacher, Andrew McAfee
Two reports on a recent Oxford University study that predicts that nearly one-half of existing jobs in the United States will be replaced by robotic machines in the next generation. Plus, a video of a related lecture by an MIT economist who specializes in the impact of technology on employment.

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Employment Gap Between Rich, Poor Widest on Record

Hope Yen AP
"The people at the bottom are going to be continually squeezed, and I don't see this ending anytime soon," said Harvard economist Richard Freeman. "If the economy were growing enough or unions were stronger, it would be possible for the less educated to do better and for the lower income to improve. But in our current world, where we are still adjusting to globalization, that is not very likely to happen."

Mobilizing for War, Not Jobs

Carl Bloice, BC Editorial Board Black Commentator
What if the White House had, at any point over the past four or so years, mobilized the full force it now deploys for permission to bomb Syria on behalf of a measure to deal with the tenacious joblessness and growing economic insecurity we see around us every day?

Tidbits - August 29, 2013

Portside
Quote of the Day - Michelle Alexander: Dr. King was speaking out against the Vietnam War, condemning America's militarism and imperialism; Reader's Comments: March on Washington; Black Unionists; Full Employment; Bradley Manning; Syria; Wal-Mart Workers Winning; U.S.'s 1 Percent So Much Richer; Visualization of Every Protest Since 1979; Announcement - Memorial for Margrit Pittman - New York - Oct. 6

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East Bay Fast-Food Workers to Strike Thursday

Heather Somerville Contra Costa Times
The Bay Area strike is one of a series of nationwide one-day strikes -- timed for Labor Day and the 50th anniversary of the historic civil rights-era March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The strikes are the culmination of months of fast-food walkouts that began on the East Coast, organized by New York-based grassroots movement Fast Food Forward, and have rippled across the country.

The 1963 March on Washington Then and Now

Martin Bennett and Fred Glass Beyond Chron
The `new majority' of youth, minority, gay and lesbian, women, labor, and immigrant voters is the foundation of a new March on Washington coalition. A contemporary civil rights movement that incorporates immigrant rights, climate justice, reproductive rights, & marriage equality may converge with a revitalized labor movement committed to organizing low-wage, youth, and immigrant workers - to once again bring pressure from below to usher in a new era of progressive reform

Time to March on Washington—Again

Ari Berman The Nation
The Supreme Court’s decision gutting the Voting Rights Act in late June and the acquittal of George Zimmerman less than three weeks later make this year’s march “exponentially more urgent” with respect to pressuring Congress and arousing the conscience of the nation, says Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, a co-sponsor of the march.

labor

The Expendables: How the Temps Who Power Corporate Giants Are Getting Crushed

Michael Grabell ProPublica
In cities all across the country, workers stand on street corners, line up in alleys or wait in a neon-lit beauty salon for rickety vans to whisk them off to warehouses miles away. Some vans are so packed that to get to work, people must squat on milk crates, sit on the laps of passengers they do not know or sometimes lie on the floor, the other workers’ feet on top of them.
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