by Alice Hines The first retail worker strike against Walmart has spread from Los Angeles, where it began last week, to stores in a dozen cities, a union official said Tuesday. Walmart workers walked off the job in Dallas, Seattle,… Read More ›
Economy
Wal-Mart Strike: Dozens Of LA Workers Walk Off The Job In First-Ever Strike Against Retailer (PHOTOS)
by Kathleen Miles For the first time in Walmart’s 50-year history, workers at multiple stores have gone on strike, even though their jobs are not protected by a labor union. More than 70 Los Angeles Walmart workers from nine stores… Read More ›
Land sold off and used for biofuels could have fed 1 billion people – report
2 million kilometers of foreign purchased land in developing countries is either idle or used for Western biofuel production, according to a British charity. Oxfam’s report estimates an area the size of London is sold every six days. The report… Read More ›
Judge throws out charges against Occupy Chicago protesters
BY DAN MIHALOPOULOS They were handcuffed, hauled out of Grant Park and stuck in jail for up to 24 hours — even though the maximum penalty for a curfew violation includes no jail time. But now, a judge said the… Read More ›
Food Stamp Ridicule Humiliates Woman At The Supermarket
By Arthur Delaney Cindy Nerger of Warner Robins, Ga., said she and her husband aren’t proud when they use their food stamp debit card to buy groceries. “I felt shy when I used them and my husband does, too,” Nerger,… Read More ›
Jean-Claude Brizard, Chicago Schools CEO, Was Nearly Invisible During Teachers Strike
CHICAGO — When teachers on strike took to the Chicago streets for nine days this month, news cameras followed the union president, the head of the school board and the mayor. The Chicago Teachers Union and city representatives would meet… Read More ›
Clinton: Libya needs a Wal-Mart
Former President Bill Clinton has an idea of what beleaguered Libya needs: a Wal-Mart. Speaking at his eighth annual Clinton Global Initiative summit on Sunday, he challenged Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke to open a store in the troubled region to… Read More ›
America’s hidden unemployed: too discouraged to count
By Lucia Mutikani (Reuters) – When Daniel McCune graduated from college three years ago, he was optimistic his good grades would earn him a job as an intelligence analyst with the government. With a Bachelor of Science degree from Liberty… Read More ›
The US Labor Movement and China
A Time for Honest Self-Reflection by ALBERTO C. RUIZ The statistics are chilling. In a country where workers have no real right to organize a union, they face an ever falling standard of living. The workers’ attempts to organize independent… Read More ›
Mitt Romney Video: Barack Obama Voters ‘Dependent On Government’
WASHINGTON — The overwhelming majority of voters who back President Barack Obama do so because they are “dependent on government” and “believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing,” Mitt Romney told a closed-door gathering of… Read More ›
Mayor goes to court to end Chicago teachers strike
By Jason Meisner and Hal Dardick Tribune reporters Chicago Public Schools students will miss a seventh day of classes Tuesday as Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s attempt to get the courts to quickly end the teachers strike did not produce immediate results…. Read More ›
Judge strikes down Wis. law that effectively ended collective bargaining for public workers
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge on Friday struck down nearly all of the state law championed by Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers. Walker’s administration immediately vowed to appeal, while unions, which… Read More ›
What’s Driving the Chicago Teachers Strike
Targeting Teacher Evaluations by BINOY KAMPMARK “This was a strike of choice, a bad choice for our children and not necessary,” decried an irritated Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. 350,000 students and 26,000 teachers have stayed out of classes now for… Read More ›
De-constructing the Middle Class Myth: Analysis of the Labor Aristocracy
The myth of the middle class is persistent in our society. Its existence is questioned only by those who question the system of capitalism itself, for the existence of a “middle class” is an ideological construction built to protect and… Read More ›
Why I Won’t Vote (1956) by W.E.B. Dubois
On October 20, 1956, W. E. B. Du Bois delivered this eloquent indictment of US politics and why he won’t vote in the upcoming Presidential election. Du Bois condemns both Democrats and Republicans for their indifferent positions on the influence… Read More ›
The Red Phoenix 