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Scholars for Social Justice Launches with 100+ Members

Scholars for Social Justice Scholars for Social Justice
Scholars for Social Justice (SSJ) is a new formation of progressive scholars committed to promoting and fighting for a political agenda that insists on justice for all, especially those most vulnerable.

Punishing Dissent in the Age of Trump: What’s in a Riot?

Yael Bromberg , Eirik Cheverud Common Dreams
Defendants are facing over 60 years in prison. Trials for the inauguration protesters begin mid-November and will continue for a year. As media ramps up coverage, do not forget what these trials are about—not rioting, not broken windows, but punishing dissent.

labor

Iranian workers continue to struggle for independent trade unions

Mehrnoush Cheragh Abadi Equal Times
During Iran’s post-revolution reform era (1997-2005), a new wave of trade unionism began in the country. However, this spring of unionism quickly turned to winter, and most union leaders were arrested when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005. Nowadays, any attempts by workers to organise strikes are met with severe repercussions by security agents. Nonetheless union resistance is growing.

labor

India: Workers Vow to Fight Maruti Suzuki Murder Charges

Sindhu Menon Equal Times
Since 16 March, over 100,000 workers across India have participated in work stoppages after a court sentenced 13 unionists to life imprisonment. The charges stem from deadly clashes that took place at the at the Maruti Suzuki India Limited auto plant in 2012 after management refused to recognize a union formed in a bid to end the mass casualisation of jobs and improve working conditions. India's auto industry is one of the world's largest.

books

Adorno's The Authoritarian Personality

Christopher Vials Against the Current, March-April 2017
Based on research during and immediately following World War 2, this pathbreaking book analyzed the proclivities individuals might have toward support for authoritarian regimes, stressing preconceived attitudes on race, class, sexuality and nationalism, concluding that fascism’s attraction came not (or not just) from political agreement but from a personality structured by larger, repressive social forces in which sociological influences upon ideology are mediated.

New Anti-Protesting Legislation: A Deeper Look

Traci Yoder National Lawyers Guild
Trump’s three executive orders on policing, the large number of state legislatures dominated by Republicans, the pro-policing and pro-business attitude of the current administration, and the constant and growing spontaneous demonstrations protesting Trump all combine to produce an atmosphere in which many powerful interests have a stake in suppressing mass dissent.

Sovereignty and the State of Emergency

Jean-Claude Paye Monthly Review
The U.S. government, following the 9/11 attacks, expressed no intention of reforming its Constitution. It was left free of any procedure for exception or emergency. This does not mean that the United States has remained a more democratic country than France. Attacks against privacy, civil rights, and, above all, habeas corpus have proven even more virulent in the United States than in Europe.

Sixty Years Ago: Congressional Red-Hunters Set Their Sights on Bridgeport

Andy Piascik Portside
Passed into law in 1940, the Smith Act made it illegal to "teach, advocate or encourage the overthrow" of the government and extended to any member of an organization that allegedly did so. The notion that in 1956 the Communist Party was interested in, let alone capable of, overthrowing anything was patently absurd. From a 1940's peak of around 80,000, the CP's national membership had dwindled to perhaps 10,000 by the time of the hearings in Connecticut.

Exonerate Our Mother, Ethel Rosenberg

Robert Meeropol and Michael Meeropol Rosenberg Fund for Children
Petitioning Attorney General Lynch and President Obama: Exonerate our mother, Ethel Rosenberg. Our mother was not a spy, and her execution was wrongful. Her conviction was based on perjured testimony and prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. The charges against our mother and the threat of the death penalty were meant to intimidate her and our father into cooperating. Sign te petition (below) -
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