Too often feminists and leftists dismiss the importance of sports in society and only focus on the machismo culture encouraged by professional/college athletics. Although that culture is real to an alarming extent, I dare say it is also an elitist attitude that is not conducive to mass organizing and needs to be re-considered.
Reader Comments- Shutdown; Tea Party; Keystone XL; Pensions; AFL-CIO Convention; Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap; Class War; Education & Testing; Edward Snowden; GE; Israel;
Announcements - Healthcare Crisis in Indiana -Lafayette- Oct 26; Protest Idan Raichel - Israeli Artist and Israeli Army Supporter -New York- Oct 27; Pack the Court: New York Stop and Frisk Case- Oct 29; Labor Education Open House -NYC- Oct 30; ALBA Human Rights Documentary Film Festival- New York- Nov 22 - 24
Despite the massive attention it's gained, this movement is still in its infancy. It must be built with strong workplace and community networks. This summer, we went on strike for very concrete demands. But we also went on strike for dignity, respect, and power. Because militancy works. My bosses don't taunt me about going on strike anymore. After striking, I got a raise - and more than a dozen co-workers asking me how they could join the union.
The recent AFL-CIO convention marked a long overdue strategic shift. The shift is to speak for the whole working class.
Reader Comments- Mexico teachers; Social Security; Israel; Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap; McDonald's; Grad Student unions; Jobs; Unemployment;
Announcements- NYC - Full Employment and the Right to a Job: (Oct 18); Film showing - Anne Braden-Southern Patriot(Oct 24); D.C - Government Surveillance in Communities of Color; So.Calif - Government Spying, Immigrant Detention Policies(Nov 12); Louis E. Burnham Award Welcomes Applicants
Today in History-Salt of the Earth
On the heels of recently report showing that taxpayers lose when fast food workers, who receive low wages, are forced to seek public assistance (Univ. of California), fast food workers and their allies rallied in cities across the country. Front-leading New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio called for not only supporting efforts to raise the minimum wage, but to also help these workers organize.
"It's really hard for me to feed my two kids and struggle day to day,Do you think this is fair, that I have to be making $8.25 when I've worked for McDonald's for ten years?" (Nancy Salgado addressing McDonald's USA President Jeff Stratton's speech at the Union League Club of Chicago.)
There is a growing impatience with austerity among public-sector workers, as the government prepares a budget for 2014 that will inflict a seventh year of spending cuts and tax increases. Irish governments have sought to control costs in response to the country's worst-ever property and banking crisis that started over five years ago. The country is obliged by its bailout with the European Union and International Monetary Fund to public sector spending and jobs cuts.
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