Tidbits - Sept 7, 2017 - Reader Comments: Long Arc of Protest; DACA; KKK Terror; Differing views: How Should We Protest Neo-Nazis; Health Plan that We Need; Spam Filtering; Healthcare Growing - Workers Not Sharing; Children's Book to get; Announcements; a

Reader Comments: The Long Arc of Protest; DACA; Korea; KKK Terror; Differing views: How Should We Protest Neo-Nazis; Fukushima Leak; The Health Plan that We Need, With No Copays; Spam Filtering is a free speech issue; Resources: Healthcare Sector is Growing, But Workers Aren't Sharing; Children's Book Celebrating Labor Movement; Anti-BDS legislation impacts You; Announcements: Conversation: "The Color of Law"; 60 Years of Peace Action; and Union Day of Action - Oct. 19

Portside
Printer friendly  
Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements and Shorts - September 7, 2017,Portside
Resources:
Announcements:

 

Re: The Long Arc of Protest

"....the effectiveness of social movements cannot be measured through the sheer numbers of people they are able to turn out. Instead, the strongest movements are the ones that develop "narrative capacity," "disruptive capacity," or "electoral and/or institutional capacity." Narrative capacity is the ability to attract public attention and introduce new issues or frames into the political debate. Disruptive capacity is the ability to interrupt the normal workings of political or economic institutions. Electoral capacity is the ability to punish or reward elected officials at the ballot box. Social movement tactics are meant to signal these capacities to governing elites."
    ====
The tension I see is one between honoring the liberation tradition, just to call it something; and creatively addressing the immediate landscape. Whatever we choose to call ourselves; we have not been overly adept at doing so.
Tom Neale
    ====
Narrative, Destructive, and Electoral abilities needed for changes
Melodie Wettlaufer
It's not just kids. Many of these people are married and have kids and wives. Some have businesses and employ others. Hundreds have served or will serve in the military.
David Denson
This quote is from an essay in an online magazine called Portside. It is a thought provoking magazine. I came across the quote yesterday and it kept me up last night...The U.S. is as much the aggressor under Trump as North Korea is and has been... Of course North Korea is building nukes to defend itself while Trump thinks he can win a war with them...
"The United States is in the process of building a vast nuclear arsenal that appears to be aimed at having the ability to fight and win nuclear wars. The fact that the concept of fighting and winning a nuclear war is completely divorced from the realities of nuclear weapons effects has not deterred the United States from moving forward as if such an objective is possible."
Larry Loonin
(posting on Portside Culture)
Sounds like a must read as they march through our streets in support of Trump.
Ray Markey
Abbeville chronicles the unveiling of a historical marker dedicated to the brutal death of Anthony Crawford a century ago. Lynched in the town square of Abbeville, South Carolina, Crawford was a successful African-American farmer who argued with a white merchant for a fair price for cottonseed. For his "crime," he was publicly stabbed, shot and hanged by a white mob, and his family was subsequently run out of town. Crawford's murder counts as just one of the 4,084 racial terror lynchings identified by EJI in 12 Southern states between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 1950, and yet is one of only a handful of deaths recognized today by public markers.
Disraelly Gutierrez Jaime
As a African American baby boomer and taking into account the long history of KKK, Racist and White Supremacy of all type. Annoying them or not protecting our space and communities does now make them go away. It's about Self Defense, and not being disrespected or hurt.
I'm peaceful until you hurt or attack me.
Muata Greene
    ====
The left has long had a problem with fair press coverage and, after reading this article, I spent some time looking at how media covered clashes between white supremacists and counter protestors. 
Across the spectrum of coverage there was a bias that, if one were looking at the stories without some background, would lead the viewer/reader into going along with trumps assessment of shared responsibility (at best) or blaming the left outright (at worst). The purpose of any protest is to elicit some response, the trick has always been to get the desired response, this is especially difficult when the media coverage tends to the right. I can't help but wonder that a concurrent issue is the free pass mainstream press has gotten by all the talk of "fake news": while rejecting out right the coverage of Briebart - are we then to take CNN as the whole truth?! Looking at the coverage of mainstream press of Venezuela answers that question.
None of us wants to be a pawn used by the opposition, i agree with the articles suggestion that we need to demonstrate what we stand for, in a peaceful way, and not as a counter protest.
Steve Krug
    ====
    ====
I think your article about opposing Nazis by avoiding them is incredibly wrong. The fault is not with anti-fa, it is with the bourgeois press that equates the aggressive violence of the fascists with the community defense violence of the rest of us.  We showed in Berkeley that unity of many levels of resistance can defeat and throw back, the nazis.  They will attack POC, queers, and anyone else who does not fit their standards, whether we fight or not.  Any street we relinquish to them is a street where they are free to attack who they choose.
from a friend: If you have never really grappled with the concept of violence, when and to what extent you would use it in various contexts, and when and by whom you consider it justifiable, then now is the time to wrestle with your thoughts and challenge your preconceived notions and your "good intentions". Be clear about what your intentions really are and make sure you want to own them to your grave. Acting on them, particularly in times like these, is what defines us as individuals.
A few points about intentions and using physical force against another:
1. Using physical force with the intention* of causing bodily harm and/or death is called VIOLENCE.
*The intention of white supremacists/Nazis/fascists is violence against non-Aryan groups at every level, in any way possible. Their explicit goal is to eradicate everyone who is not their brand of white.
2. Using physical force with the intention* of protecting oneself and one's community against bodily harm and death is called SELF DEFENSE.
*The intention of people exhibiting self defense behaviors is to survive violent attacks, to live another day.
3. When a relatively small group bands together with the intention* of defending those lives being threatened by individual and genocidal violence, and they do so at great personal risk, this is called HEROISM.
*The intention of these community self defense groups is to protect people being threatened by white supremacists. They are there to defend these people against fascist violence.
Fighting fascists, an inherently and wildly violent and genocidal group, is self defense. PRACTICING SELF DEFENSE IS NOT THE SAME THING AS INSTIGATING VIOLENCE.
To those that practice non-violence, even in the face of the explicit genocidal violence of fascism, I understand that you may have the intention of upholding your personal sense of morality. You may buy into the bogus media propaganda that demonizes the black bloc. You may not question the context or facts of a video clip or take a few minutes of research to find out a Nazi instigated a particular fight, or even believe fascists instigate violence with their very presence because they actively threaten and harm non-Aryan people every single day and spread hate speech to incur more harm and death. You may not want to understand that ceding any power to a fascist individual or group that preaches genocide is laying the path for the death march of so many others that do not have the privilege of being able to have this ignorance.
It's really easy to preach non-violence when your back isn't against the wall, when your friends aren't being stalked and having their lives threatened, when your community isn't the one that was put in gas chambers, when your children's lives aren't daily threatened by police violence and Neo-Nazi nooses and bullets. But really, I ask you, if it was your family on the front line, would you hesitate to debate the morality of using physical force to survive? Maybe so. That is your choice and you get to make that choice about self defense for yourself and your family.
You can believe in non-violent tactics due to the best of intentions, due to your moral code or your analysis of efficacy. And also because violence is an ostensibly horrible, odious thing to go through if you don't have to. You can engage as non-violently as you'd like or choose not to engage at all in the struggle against rising fascism. That is what privilege in this context affords.
But at the very moment you aid in suppressing the ability of communities to defend themselves- be it by perpetuating media lies and myths of protests and related tactics, approving of increased militarization of a police force that stands on the sidelines while fascists fire guns into crowds and cops kill black children in their parks and in their beds, by turning an eye or approving of potential legislation that will criminalize those at protests that attempt to protect their identity from fascists so that their lives are not threatened via doxing, etc.- at that very moment, you are only doing "good" for white supremacy. If you impose this false sense of morality on others in a way that robs them of their ability to protect themselves from harm, then your intention* has shifted and you have to own it.
*The intention spreading like wildfire among people not under violent threat by fascists is to DISEMPOWER THREATENED COMMUNITIES, to keep them from defending themselves against white supremacists/fascists/neo-Nazis. The outcome of these intentions directly aids white supremacists in their violence against non-Aryan peoples. Your intentions, then, are not just morally bad or wrong. They are, from any broad, historical lens, EVIL.
Scott Braley
    ====
Laurie Marhoefer's interesting essay, via Todd Gitlin and Portside, makes an historical argument against confrontational, perhaps violent, counter demonstrations. While I am not quite on board with the historical analogies, I do like her outcome. Counter demonstrations do not advance our progressive agenda. The possibility of violent confrontation reduces the number of people willing to engage. How though do we respond to violent attacks on us? Disciplined nonviolence in the face of Klan, Nazi or police violence is for the few of us willing to engage in it. Won't the rest of us be swept from the streets? At some demonstrations, marshals, peace keepers and or security volunteers help but how would that play out in the face of serious right-wing attacks?
Daniel Millstone
    ====
Demands have to be made on police, in the run-up to fascist demonstrations. Where they fail to stand between demonstrators and counter-demonstrators, as in Cville & Berkeley, investigations, hearings, strong meetings with public officials are called for. Don't wait for more killings.
Todd Gitlin
    ====
I'm not going to get into it, but I think Todd is wrong.
The whole issue needs to be recast in terms of class politics, strength and organization and not in terms of a popularity contest.
David Berger
    ====
Marhoefer's history here is spot on. Self defense is still justified even if it gets played as aggression, but looking for a fight is counterproductive now and was then too. Looking for a fight in the streets is no way to build a powerful organization and is lousy class politics--just macho posturing like with Weather.
Stan Nadel
    ====
I'm not arguing with her statements about past events. I think the application of them to our conditions is mechanical.
Daniel Millstone
    ====
But violent antifas consistently misrepresent the history to justify their actions so it is important to correct their version. As to mechanical application, no, but learning from past experience, yes...
Yes, yes, yes!  At last a serious historical analysis of some very bad antifa "politics"
Stan Nadel
    ====
2017 America is not 1933 Germany. Demographics are different. In 20 years we will be majority non white. In Germany most people were anti Jewish. Here most people are not anti Black or anti Hispanic or even anti Muslim. I do not expect fascism to arise from fighting the KKK. The governments and media are sympathetic with removing statues. We won in Charlottesville by getting statues removed in many cities. Without the publicity, that would not have happened.
Having said that, I think the author has a point in having separate gatherings when racists try to provoke us. That is a good idea, but for a different reason. The real Nazis are not in the streets but in the suites. The street Nazis are a diversion from the schemes of the real Nazis, who are the right wing bourgeoisie. The latter are the ones who want war and a police state and suppression of the working class. So I propose when the street fascists show up anywhere, we call a rally elsewhere against a bank, politician, agency or corporation. Instead of a "joy festival," we aim anger at corporate exploitation. Our message: "Fight the real fascists, the criminal banksters", "Race war is a diversion from class struggle", "Banks, not minorities, are the enemy". "Warmongers, not scapegoats, are the enemy". "Bankers are more dangerous than the KKK", "NSA is more dangerous than KKK", "CIA is more trouble than KKK", "War Machine is more dangerous than KKK", "Fight City Hall, not losers", "Fight Wall Street, not losers", In govt bldgs: "Whose suites? Our suites", "Beware deliberate fascist diversion!", "Risk jail against war, not KKK", "Real fascism is Wall Street", "Fight real fascism: Wall Street", "Don't waste ammo on decoys", etc etc etc
Richard Ochs
By Doug Struck
August 31, 2017
For more than two decades, the Coeur d'Alene community came together, rejecting the vision of white supremacist Richard Butler's small band and organizing a tenacious effort to drive them out without the dangerous confrontation seen recently in Virginia.

White supremacist Richard Butler leads a parade through downtown Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in October 2000. The march came after a $6.3 million judgement against him and his Aryan Nations group in a lawsuit the previous month that cost the group its 20-acre compound.
Photo credit: Tom Davenport/AP // The Christian Science Monitor
Read more here. 
The Congress of the United States of America has failed miserably in containing the mandate of this president, allowing him to perform questionable actions, like pardoning Arpaio.
Victor M.carreras Roena
    ====
What did it take to suddenly change a couple of people's status from vacationers to illegals in Maricopa County? Nothing more than the fact that they "looked" Hispanic! Two Canadian vacationers of Aboriginal (Metis) heritage were arrested by the henchmen of this Arpaiao SOB....and their ordeal began!....their identification papers and money were confiscated, their RV and tow behind truck along with their possessions were also confiscated ....and they were turned over to Federal authorities - who were surprised when the two demanded to be able to call the CANADIAN embassy hotline! Long story short, it took several weeks , several thousand dollars and the hiring of a lawyer to unravel the mess. The towing company was accused of theft after refusing to turn over the couple's RV and truck (after receiving a Federal warrant for the owner's arrest, they complied - and strongly denied any wrong doing, stating that they are only contractors for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department and they followed the terms of their contract).The sheriff's department claimed throughout the ordeal that it never happened - which was apparently their standard method of "explaining this stuff"......Nobody knows what courier company entered the Couple's lawyer's office and dropped a large envelope with ALL of their papers in it, did not provide a receipt or ask for a signature and simply left immediately!
The couple sued but as was also the custom, it never went to court and was settled outside of court for what I understand to be an amount well over a million dollars! Since ALL of these matters are agreed to be sealed in return for the acceptance, scant details ever emerge so it is not actually know exactly how much money, over the years, this maniac has cost the taxpayers of Maricopa County for these out of court settlements. It is speculated to be upwards of 50 million dollars!
The man was a menace!...and the people of that area should be saying good riddance
David Green
".Aristotle said the rule of law is better than the rule of men. Having law above us guides us - away from our corrupt destructive impulses, enabling greater peace, liberty, prosperity and security. The current head of the U.S. has wrought havoc on rule of law norms by inciting hate and lawlessness and sowing chaos - the antithesis of law and order. His hasty pardon of a cruel racist sheriff post-Charlottesville is simply the latest action taken to undermine the judiciary and divide people.."
George Lessard
Lefty Cartoons by Barry Deutsch
September 2, 2017
[Barry Deutsch writes and draws Ampersand, a political comic with a generally progressive sensibility. A new Ampersand comic appears in every issue of Dollars & Sense Magazine.]
First peoples become Turtle Islands first "climate change" refugees.
Clyde Grubbs
Thanks for the more accurate headline portside!
Josh Davis
    ====
The world oceans are dying, before our eyes. It has been traded for the greed of a handful of psychopaths!
Extinction is coming
Giovanni LiCalsi
Medicare is not single-payer insurance.  Vision and dental payments can kill your pocket book.  We need a real system of system of system of single payer all health insurance.
Claire Carsman
    ====
It blows my feeble mind that anyone would draft a single payer bill without the close cooperation and input of PNHP. It also blows my mind to START with concessionary elements in a bill knowing that compromise is part of the so-called democratic process of enacting legislation. Too bad for me, my son, my grandchildren and great-grandsons and our neighbors who will all die early because of profit-driven, capitalist health insurance instead of real health care.
Leanna Noble
    ====
We're hearing that Sanders' team might not include copays in his bill due to the pressure of Left activists. Let's keep up the pressure! Please let me know if you'd like help setting up a phonebank for this using the script below. 
I'm very excited for DSA to be able to play a key role in the fight for single payer healthcare/Medicare for All in the coming months and years. Thanks to the decay of the current system, Trumps attacks on Obamacare, and Sanders' championing of a Medicare for all system in front of millions of voters since late 2015, healthcare is now an essential battleground for socialists to be able to win more and more working people to Left politics. 
In Solidarity,
Jeremy Gong
    ====
You may have heard that Senator Bernie Sanders will release his much anticipated Medicare for All legislation in the Senate on September 13th. Senator Sanders — a long-time champion of workers and leading advocate for single-payer — has not officially released the language of his current draft legislation. But some details have been circulated among single-payer advocacy organizations. And while DSA welcomes the newfound embrace of single-payer healthcare among other federal legislators, we want to ensure that any Medicare for All legislation offers the most robust vision of the program.
According to other single-payer advocacy organizations, the current draft of Sanders’ legislation might mandate copayments for medical services for most Americans. This would undermine support for single-payer reform among most workers. Many would see no major cost savings over their current coverage, as over 80% of insured Americans already suffer copayments with their existing plans. We must urge Senator Sanders to remove all language of patient-side cost sharing.
For DSA, Medicare for All means a health system that works for workers. In order to make that vision a reality, our task is two-fold: 1) to increase public awareness of an improved Medicare for All system that would socialize healthcare costs and expand coverage to everyone and 2) to ensure that whatever legislation is introduced is held to the highest standard. And as DSA delegates affirmed at our August National Convention, single payer healthcare is but a step towards a truly socialized healthcare system.
We call on DSA members and local chapters to organize phone banks to Senator Sanders’s office to urge the Senator to remove all language of copayments from his latest draft, and to advocate for the following five principles of Medicare for All: 
  • A single program — not a patchwork.
  • Comprehensive coverage — essential health benefits including inpatient and outpatient services, drugs, supplies and medical equipment, dental, optical, long-term care, and reproductive care.
  • Free at the point of service — financed through taxes based on ability to pay, not shifting costs onto the sick: no fees, no copays, no deductibles, no cost-sharing from the patient side.
  • Universal coverage for all U.S. residents — non-citizens included.
  • Jobs — replacement and severance for those affected by the transition.
Below is a brief script and info for contacting Senator Sanders’s office. You may have to contact the office several times before someone returns your call. Be persistent and proactive. Our first step toward building a strong movement for Medicare for All is making sure that whatever legislation is introduced is worthy of our full support.
In solidarity, 
Maria Svart, DSA National Director
-----
Call: Senator Sanders' Washington, DC office, (202) 224-5141
Script:
“Hi, my name is [name] from the Democratic Socialists of America. I am calling in regards to Senator Sanders’s draft Medicare for All Senate legislation.
 
As democratic socialists we support the spirit of Senator Sanders’s Medicare for All position. However, we strongly oppose the inclusion of copayments or any patient-side cost sharing. We believe in a Medicare for All program that is free at the point of service, comprehensive, universal and would provide jobs for those affected by the transition.
 
DSA’s 30,000 members will be a strong ally in the fight for Medicare for All, but we want to ensure that any legislation will cover all residents and will be financed through taxes and not through shifting costs onto patients. Will Senator Sanders promise not to include any language of copayments or patient-side cost sharing from his current draft?
 
Thank you and send my thanks to the Senator for leading in this fight, for standing up for workers and for helping to build a truly universal health system.”
(posting on Portside Labor)
Anti-Unionism is like an aggressive tumor.  If ignored it will kill you. 
Alexander Hagan
    ====
Here's a terrific article from Labor Notes about the ongoing budget battle in Connecticut. It serves as an important refutation of what's being said by politicians and gubernatorial candidates from both parties as well as the mainstream media. Solidarity,
Andy Piascik
Revolution, not tepid social democracy.
Linda Janczewski
"It's all big pharma's fault."
You're all ignorant idiots. None of you appear to see this as the converse of an increase in domestic violence: if you look with an unbiased eye, they're one and the same.
And, in case you were all ignorant of this, there is a one-to-one correlation between an increase in domestic violence... and lack of jobs.
How big is the actual underground economy, barter, being paid under the table? Do you really believe the huge numbers of people that are allegedly "out of the workforce"? What do they do, every one of them are on their parents' or friends' couches? Living under bridges?
Hell, there are vastly too many people working two and three part-time jobs just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.
You want a *real* solution? In 1972, the top tax rate on individuals was 70%, and no, I'm not making that up, go to irs.gov and find it yourself.
Double taxes on the rich, to start. Double the corporate taxes... and then give them *maybe* a 5% break on those taxes, based on the number of full time jobs they introduce, paying a minimum of a living wage, plus benefits.
Tax every company - and I'm looking at YOU, Walmart - 110% of tax dollar spent on things like food stamps that their employees qualify for to survive.
Cut, by 1%, the deductions above for not offering fixed shifts, or at least regular rotations at fixed dates during the year, not "I'll let you know next week, or maybe this week, or maybe today, whether you're working today".
Here's an open bet: I've got $5, right here on the table, to anyone who can *prove* by trying it and finding it doesn't work.
Mark Whitroth
"Monday's for hot dogs and brats, tomatoes and ice cream, whatever helps you honor the American labor movement and the contributions its workers have made to the strength and culture of the United States. (Here's Paul Robeson, singing "Joe Hill .")
Michael Munk
(posting on Portside Culture)
Unfair. Jane Austen depicted the upper class society of her day and how women, especially women without money and "family" were trapped. It is not her fault that her work has been commodified and diminished.
Sonia Collins
Interesting that a Harvard faculty member would now be writing on Sacco and Vanzetti. Former Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell was one of a panel of three that advised Governor Fuller *not* to pardon them, in 1927. In 1940, when Lowell came to a dinner at Harvard, my father's roommate, Bertram Slaff (they were both Class of '42), organized a group that distributed leaflets saying:
"If it hadn't been for you, Sacco and Vanzetti would still be alive today."
Heywood Broun had written: "It's not every wop that gets the President of Harvard to pull the switch on him!" (That line appears in the opera, mentioned below.)
Up until his death in 2010, the most important academic scholar on the subject in Boston was Howard Zinn, of Boston University. Howard helped encourage my completion of Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964)'s magnum opus, the opera SACCO AND VANZETTI, which I worked on from 1975 to 2001. Every critic that attended the premiere, concertante with piano, at the White Barn Theater in Westport CT Aug. 17-19, 2001 praised it. (See here.)
Unfortunately then came 9/11, just weeks later, and no opera company wanted to present a work where the heroes were anarchists and the villains law enforcement.
But times have changed, perhaps. A historical marker was laid on June 12, 2017 at Marc Blitzstein's birthplace in Philadelphia (see video here), and the Philadelphia-based International Opera Theater has announced plans to present the orchestral premiere of the work, in Italy, Aug. 24-26, 2018.)
Stay tuned.
Over the last month, we have received an unusually high number of reports that Microsoft is aggressively putting messages sent by our servers in the spam or junk folders for people who use a @hotmail.com or @outlook.com email address or otherwise use Microsoft servers to receive email messages.
(This problem does not impact users of the Outlook email program - only users who  use a corporate service provider owned by Microsoft.)
In addition, we've received information from other movement providers that they are experiencing the same problem.
We have been corresponding with Microsoft, working diligently to fix this problem and are confident that we will fix the problem so we can ensure that everyone who we send email to receives it in their inbox (please see our service advisory for more information)
However, this flare up is emblematic of an enormous problem that we cannot simply fix with a technical solution: the Left has become dependent on corporate email services.
May First/People Link members send over 200,000 messages per day. We analyzed the data and determined that:
Approximately 2/3 of the recipients of our messages are  using just three corporate email providers: Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Due to their near monolopy status, these corporate providers can virtually dictate email policies and norms. Each of them filters and detects spam in opaque and proprietary ways - allowing them to essentially silence speech they either  consciously object to or that falls into a pattern that their algorithms flag.
In addition, through algorithms that favor large email providers, they are effectively shutting out smaller providers, leading to even more concentration of ownership.
We believe that all mail providers must provide transparency in their filtering policies to protect against this kind of abuse.
For us, this is a free speech issue because it's about people's right to communicate and organize.  In the age of increased Internet monopolies and centralization, that ability is being challenged and we work to answer that challenge and defend that right.
237 Flatbush Ave, #278
Brooklyn, NY 11217
The healthcare sector is one of the most important sources of jobs in the economy. Healthcare spending reached $3.2 trillion in 2015, or 17.8 percent of GDP, and accounted for 12.8 percent of private sector jobs. It was also the only industry that consistently added jobs during the Great Recession, and grew 20 percent between 2005 and 2015. Despite this growth, wages have either declined or been stagnant over the past decade for healthcare workers in hospitals and outpatient centers.
A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation with additional funding provided by the Nathan Cummings Foundation, describes the changing patterns of jobs and wages for healthcare workers, specifically in hospitals and outpatient clinics over the decade from 2005 to 2015. The healthcare sector has become more demographically diverse over the decade, but as jobs shift from hospitals to outpatient centers, wages are declining or stagnating, and inequality is increasing. (See healthcareworkers.us for more info and related blog posts.)
The report, “Organizational Restructuring in U.S. Healthcare Systems: Implications for Jobs, Wages, and Inequality,” provides a detailed breakdown of which groups of workers are experiencing stagnant or declining wages. For instance, the report finds that employment in outpatient centers has grown six times the rate of hospitals, but the only demographic group in these facilities to see wage gains is white men ― and these are modest. Some other highlights include:
  • Job growth in outpatient facilities was disproportionately high for black workers (65 percent growth rate), Hispanic workers (103 percent), and Asian/others (82 percent), and within these groups, women’s job growth outpaced that of men.
  • Overall median real hourly wages rose very modestly in hospitals, increasing by 75 cents over the decade from $23.79 to $24.54. This was an increase of 3.2 percent over the decade, or less than a third of a percent a year on average.
  • The findings in this report show that the unraveling of hospital-based employment systems is associated with greater wage inequality. Wages have declined over the decade in outpatient care facilities, with notable declines in the pay of black men employed as medical technicians or as health aides and assistants.  In hospitals, the rise in real wages among healthcare professionals and the modest fall in wages for non-professional groups suggest that inequality has increased within hospital settings.
Eileen Appelbaum, co-author of the report and Senior Economist at CEPR, stated: “Declining real wages in outpatient services cannot be explained by factors that often influence wage determination: educational level, age, or the share of workers who are part-time or foreign-born. Educational attainment rose for virtually every occupational group ― in some cases, substantially ― and is higher in outpatient care centers than in hospitals.”  
Rosemary Batt, co-author and Cornell University professor, points to institutional explanations such as changes in union density. “While union density increased among professional employees between 2005 and 2015, union density has fallen among non-professional employees, particularly in outpatient settings. This may have contributed to the decline in median real wages for these workers.”
For more on the report’s findings, including blog posts and related materials, see healthcareworkers.us. 
1611 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 293-5380
Give children a book that celebrates a labor union!
Imagine children reading about a union that saves a worker's job!
Give Children the Holiday Classic That Builds the Labor Movement!
For years sanitation worker Jake has repaired and painted broken toys he pulled from the trash on his rounds and given to the children in the local shelter at Christmas. But when an angry motorist turns Jake in to the sanitation company, Jake is fired for breaking city regulations. His union takes the case to arbitration. There, the union brings in a crowd of children, who show the judge the toys Jake gave them and testify that the gifts taught them the true spirit of the holidays. The judge reinstates Jake, and the union announces they will organize a city-wide toy collection for all the children in all the shelters: the Good Guy Jake Toy Drive.  
Release date September 5, 2017.
Order a copy: click here!
Bring a copy of Good Guy Jake to your neighborhood school, library and bookstore, and ask them to order the book. Children, teachers and parents will learn about the good work that unions do for their members. Spread the word far and wide!
A girl testifies that Jake taught her the true spirit of the holidays.
415 Argyle Rd. 6A
Brooklyn, NY 11218
When politicians refuse to tell the truth on Palestinian rights, it’s up to us to speak up. We’re doing just that on the Israel Anti-Boycott Act with a new infographics series that explain how this bill could affect you.
The sponsors of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, a legislative attempt to criminalize boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) activism, responded to an avalanche of criticism by claiming that the bill wouldn’t impact  everyday activists.
But in reality, this draconian anti-free speech bill could have severe consequences for you if you are active, or even just vocal, in the movement for Palestinian rights. How? That's what we explain in a series of four infographics using the examples of a social media user, student group, church congregation, and private investor. 
These infographics show you the possible consequences of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act becoming law, and make the need to act now crystal clear. Please spread them far and wide by sharing on social media. 
Thank you for standing up for BDS and Palestinian rights.
P.O. Box 21539
Washington, DC 20009
(703) 312-6360
The New York chapter of The American Constitution Society and the New York Legal Assistance Group welcome Richard Rothstein to discuss and sign, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, on Wednesday, September 13th at 5:30 pm.
In this groundbreaking history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein explodes the myth that America's cities came to be racially divided as the result of individual prejudices, personal choices to live in same-race neighborhoods, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, The Color of Law uncovers a forgotten history of how racially explicit policies of federal, state, and local governments created the patterns of residential segregation that persist to this day. The Color of Law concludes that because residential segregation was created by government action in violation of the constitution, we are obligated to remedy it.
Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson says “Rothstein has presented what I consider to be the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation.”
The New York Times Book Review says, “While the road forward is far from clear, there is no better history of this troubled journey than ‘The Color of Law’.”
Richard Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute, a fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and is a Senior Fellow at the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley
This event is free and open to the public. You may share this invitation with others, but your and their RSVPs will help us prepare.
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
5:30 p.m. 
New York Legal Assistance Group
7 Hanover Square 18th Floor,
New York, NY 10004
For more information or to purchase the book, please go here.

Please join us for the Peace Action Fund of New York State's 60th Anniversary Gala, where we will be honoring Harry Belefonte with our Life-time Achievement Award. Standing Rock hero LaDonna Brave Bull Allard will be our William Sloane Coffin, Jr. Peacemaker Award recipient, and our emcee will be Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK. 
The gala dinner will be held on Friday, October 13, 2017 at the historic Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive in Manhattan from 
6 – 9PM. Join us for a night of inspiration and music to celebrate Peace Action’s 60th anniversary
Help continue the work of the nation's largest grassroots peace network which began 60 years ago in New York City as the Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy and merged with the Nuclear Freeze movement in the 1980's. The work of Peace Action is needed today more urgently than ever.  
Click here to buy tickets, become a host, or buy a journal ad for the event. 
We look forward to celebrating 60 years of peace activism with you and hope to see you there. 
Sincerely, 
Sally Jones, Chair
Peace Action Fund of New York State
Church St. Station
PO Box 3357
New York, NY 10008-3357
This past year, we have witnessed a historic level of action across North America-the Women's March, airport rallies protesting the Muslim ban, May Day actions, calls to extend TPS and DACA and protect immigrant rights, demonstrations against white supremacy, and more.
Now, more than ever, it's time for working people to take a stand-and stand together. That's why this Labor Day, UNITE HERE is announcing our upcoming Union Day of Action on October 19, 2017.
We are planning to mobilize more than 20,000 members in 20 cities across North America to show that standing together in union is the best way to create an economy that works for everyone-not just the wealthiest 1%.
Stay tuned for more info about actions near you!  Sign up here for action alerts or just text OCT19 to 877-877.
275 7th Avenue, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10001-6708
Tel. 212-265-7000

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)