by T. Wesołowski May Day Chicago 2016, as with previous marches in the city, an enthusiastic and energetic affair. While the total crowd of workers marching was smaller in previous years, it certainly did not lack in working-class fervor and… Read More ›
Economy
Donald Trump and the Rise of American Neo-Fascism
– The American Party of Labor, and Marxism-Leninism in general, defines fascism as the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinist and most imperialist elements of a ruling class exercised through a fascist political party or organization having… Read More ›
Michael Parenti: 85 Billionaires and the Better Half
The world’s 85 richest individuals possess as much wealth as the 3.5 billion souls who compose the poorer half of the world’s population, or so it was announced in a report by Oxfam International. The assertion sounds implausible to me. … Read More ›
Michael Parenti: What’s a Slum? Urban Poverty and Marginality in America
When I was about thirteen-years-old I chanced upon an article in Henry Luce’s Life magazine that described East Harlem ( a Manhattan working class neighborhood) as “a slum inhabited by beggar poor Italians, Negroes, and Puerto Ricans,” words that stung… Read More ›
I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave
My brief, backbreaking, rage-inducing, low-paying, dildo-packing time inside the online-shipping machine. —By Mac McClelland “DON’T TAKE ANYTHING that happens to you there personally,” the woman at the local chamber of commerce says when I tell her that tomorrow I start working at… Read More ›
“Dreadful Deceit”: Race is a myth
A historian argues that one of the defining elements of American culture is merely a “social fiction” by LAURA MILLER Jacqueline Jones’ provocative new history, “Dreadful Deceit: The Myth of Race From the Colonial Era to Obama’s America,” contains a startling sentence on… Read More ›
Los Angeles to join New York and 50 other U.S. cities with ban on feeding homeless people
By Clare Kim As the number of homeless people in Los Angeles County continues to rise, the City Council is weighing a ban on feeding homeless people in public areas. City Council members Tom LaBonge and Mitch O’Farrell, both Democrats, introduced the resolution… Read More ›
Why Poor People’s Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense
By Linda Tirado What we know about poverty is often academic. It’s rare to have a poor person actually explain it on their own behalf. So this is me doing that. There’s no way to structure this coherently. They are random… Read More ›
“Riots always begin typically the same way”: Food stamp shutdown looms Friday
The head of the largest food bank says the $5 billion annual cut will take a week of meals off millions’ plates BY JOSH EIDELSON Food stamp recipients face a massive benefit cut set to kick in when stimulus funds expire… Read More ›
Ron Paul’s Campaign Manager Died of Pneumonia, Penniless and Uninsured
by SETH ABRAMOVITCH At CNN’s Tea Party-indulging debate on Monday, Ron Paul, a medical doctor, faced a pointed line of questioning from Wolf Blitzer regarding the case of an uninsured young man who suddenly found himself in dire need of intensive health care…. Read More ›
Stress of Childhood Poverty May Have Long-Term Effect on Brain
By Nicole Ostrow Children raised in poverty or in orphanages experience chronic stress early in life that can have long-lasting effects on the brain, setting them up for future mental and physical ailments as adults, two studies found. The stress of… Read More ›
Poverty Has Same Effect On The Brain As Constantly Pulling All Nighters
BY BRYCE COVERT The mental strain of living in poverty and thinking constantly about tight finances can drop a person’s IQ by as much as 13 percent, or about the equivalent of losing a night of sleep, according to a new study…. Read More ›
Despite lobbyist claims, piracy not killing media industry, study shows
Online piracy is not the scourge of the media industry, as proponents of a crackdown on copyright infringement claim, says a new study. Creative business is doing well, with those embracing the new realities of digital sharing even flourishing. The… Read More ›
Chiquita Looking to Block Lawsuits Against Its Funding of Death Squads
by MAX RIVLIN-NADLER Chiquita Brands International, giver of bananas and well-known supporter of Colombian death squads, is trying to get a federal appeals court to block a lawsuit brought against it by the families victimized by their paid mercenaries. And they might just… Read More ›