Portside

This is one of a series of articles published by Capital and Main focusing on the systemic dysfunction that plagues the care services provided to the elderly and disabled in California, with a focus on the current battle over funding In-Home Supportive Services.

Leadership and organizing cannot be simply tweeted into existence. Movement-building is forged in struggle, through people building relationships within organizations and collectives. Social media is only one part of a much larger effort . . . Group-centered leaders are at the center of many concentric circles. They strengthen the group, forge consensus and negotiate a way forward. That kind of leadership is impactful, democratic, and more radical and sustainable.

Not only have states been generally slow to restore the cuts to public school funding that they made during the 2007-2008 economic downturn, but there are often extreme disparities between the per pupil spending in wealthy school districts and low-income districts.

Divestment won’t move Exxon Mobil directly — that’s impossible; the company is dug in, and someone else will simply buy the stock when it’s sold. But divestment will undercut the industry’s political power, just as happened a generation ago when the issue was South Africa.

Quotas create incentive for authorities to detain more immigrants than they would otherwise need to, report says

A new front in the battle over retirement security for California’s public employees opened June 4 with the release of the language for a proposed ballot initiative that would virtually outlaw traditional defined-benefit pension plans for future state and municipal workers. The so-called “Voter Empowerment Act of 2016,” would effectively shift all new public employees from the various defined-benefit plans currently in place to 401(k) plans, beginning in 2019.

According to the United Nations Report on Children and Armed Conflict, the number of Palestinian children killed in the occupied territories in 2014 was the third highest of all situations monitored by the UN, following only Afghanistan and Iraq. But in response to diplomatic pressure from the U.S., UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made the last-minute decision to leave Israel off the UN’s annual list of states and groups that gravely violate children’s rights.

In a secret summit meeting at his Venetian Hotel, limited to only right-wing Zionist organizations and individuals that could pledge $1 million dollars, and one media outlet, the Israeli newspaper he owns, Sheldon Adelson and fellow billionaire Haim Saban launched their $50 million effort to derail university campaigns to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel (BDS). Adelson and Saban stressed their goal was to get all pro-Israel actors on campus to work together.

The growing app-based service economy relies on legions of underpaid and underprotected contract workers. Today's self-employed workers pay an additional 7.5 percent in income tax and cannot qualify for an earned income tax credit. They have no guarantee of equal protection under laws mandating minimum wages, sick leave or family leave, nor do they have protection against workplace discrimination, harassment or injury, unless they prevail in a lawsuit.

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