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 ›
Economy
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 Dictator You Didn’t Know About
He’s a virtual dictator who presides over a virtual one-party state controlled by his own ethnic minority. True, he has been elected multiple times, but he relies on violence and intimidation to win “mind-bogglingly one-sided elections.” (1) In the last… Read More ›
Philadelphia woman faces charges for feeding poor children
A woman may be fined $600 for each day she provided free food to children in a poor Philadelphia neighborhood for the past few months. Angela Prattis, 41, of Chester Township has been distributing free healthy lunches in a neighborhood… Read More ›
80 Percent of Public Schools Have Contracts With Coke or Pepsi
Schools That Limit Junk Food and Soda on Campus Have Lower Obesity Rates By Tom Philpott Is your kid’s public school a Coke school or a Pepsi school? If you don’t know what I mean, consider yourself lucky. Starting in… Read More ›
Will the US Really Experience a Violent Upheaval in 2020?
Circa 1870, the North fought the South in the Civil War. Half a century later, around 1920, worker unrest, racial tensions and anti-Communist sentiment caused another nationwide upsurge of violence. Then, 50 years later, the Vietnam War and Civil Rights… Read More ›
“Iran and Everything Else” by Michael Parenti
Occasionally individuals complain that I fail to address one subject or another. One Berkeley denizen got in my face and announced: “You leftists ought to become aware of the ecological crisis.” In fact, I had written a number of things… Read More ›
Alexander Cockburn, Acerbic Writer and Critic, Dies at 71
By COLIN MOYNIHAN Alexander Cockburn, the mordant left-wing journalist and author who though born in Scotland thrived in the political and cultural battlegrounds of the United States, died on Saturday in Bad Salzhausen, Germany, where he had been receiving medical… Read More ›
Houston Janitors’ Strike Goes Citywide
Governor Mitt Romney got all the press at the NAACP convention in Houston on Wednesday, but janitor Alice McAfee got a standing-o. She spoke to a packed auditorium about her plight and that of over 3,000 fellow janitors in the… Read More ›
Many Wall Street executives say wrongdoing is necessary: survey
(Reuters) – If the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes were to go out with his lantern in search of an honest man today, a survey of Wall Street executives on workplace conduct suggests he might have to look elsewhere. A quarter… Read More ›
Unions Fight Scranton Mayor After He Cuts Pay to Minimum Wage
By MICHAEL COOPER and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH When the city of Scranton, Pa., found itself down to its last $5,000 in the bank last week, its Democratic mayor took a highly unusual step: he unilaterally cut the pay of city… Read More ›
IMF reduces US economic growth forecast
WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday lowered its estimates for US economic growth for this year and next, and urged policy makers to do more to help the housing sector and support the tepid recovery. In its annual… Read More ›
Major Rent Strike Against Millionaire Slumlord Catches Fire in Brooklyn
By Laura Gottesdiener As foreclosures continue to put historic pressure on the nation’s rental market, slumlords now have more opportunity than ever to prey on the most vulnerable of tenants. The electrical box in the basement of multifamily brownstone on… Read More ›
On Individualism
Introduction: A Fetish for the Individual Above All People in the United States are taught that all of life’s fortunes and misfortunes are brought about solely by the actions of the individual. We are taught that a person, by virtue… Read More ›