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It’s Time to Crack Down on the Toys ‘R’ Us Vulture Capitalists

Winnie Wong and Michael Kink The Nation
Billionaire fund managers and their firms must pay for the damage they’ve caused. Toys “R” Us workers need immediate severance pay—if Bain and KKR were to forgo their predatory profits, each worker would receive about $15,000 in severance, a pittance for what in many cases is a lifetime of diligent

Getting Back the American Dream

Roy J. Adams Portside
The American Dream, should be one of equality and inclusion, with fundamental rights of all Americans guaranteed. Unionization as a seamless aspect of democratic society; universal collective bargaining and full employment an essential policy goal.

The Unmet Promise of Equality

Fred Harris and Alan Curtis New York Times
“Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal.” Fifty years ago, on March 1, 1968, these were the grim words of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, called the Kerner Commission after its chairman, Gov. Otto Kerner of Illinois. Today the situation is worse.

Autopilot Economy Tracker

Economic Policy Institute
Benchmarks to beat in order to claim policy-driven improvements to American wages and employment

A New Deal to Save Europe

Yanis Varoufakis Project Syndicate
Until recently, any proposal to "save" Europe was regarded sympathetically, albeit with skepticism about its feasibility. Today, the skepticism is about whether Europe is worth saving. The European idea is being driven into retreat by the combined force of a denial, an insurgency, and a fallacy. progressives need to ask a straightforward question: Why is the European idea dying? The answers are clear: involuntary unemployment and involuntary intra-EU migration.

Martin Luther King, Institutions and Power

Jared Bernstein Washington Post
Honoring King's vision and legacy thus requires not simply remembering his most well-known dream: a racially inclusive society very different from the one that existed in his, or sadly, our own time. It requires recognizing the need to redistribute the power from the oppressive, exclusionary institutions, many of the same ones - housing, schools, criminal justice, the economy - he fought for until the day he was taken from us. What does honoring that vision mean today?

From Germany: Horror and Sorrow

Victor Grossman Portside
Victor Grossman reports from Berlin on causes of the spate of violence striking Germany and across Europe. We need not look too far to find possible causes of such hatred or, frequently, of distorted despair. I think of what so many have gone through. War-torn home towns, shootings, explosions and bombings in their native Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, a terrifying flight to get away, to find some haven, where they can escape and perhaps even realize their hopes and wishes.
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