We often hear about U.S. teachers being paid poorly for all the work they do to educate children. But did you know that 63 percent of teachers report buying food for the classroom each month with their own money? That’s… Read More ›
Labor
The Labor Movement in America
2013: A Short Story
Willis Smith awoke to the sound of his radio alarm and rose from his bed. So began another day living under the System. There was no time to have breakfast, given the demanding hours required by his employer. Given the… Read More ›
Miami Considers Jailing Homeless People For Eating, Sleeping In Public
By Scott Keyes Being poor could soon be a crime in the city of Miami. As though life weren’t already difficult enough for people who can’t afford regular housing, they could soon find themselves thrown in jail and their possessions confiscated… Read More ›
American Party of Labor Statement on the George Zimmerman Verdict
George Zimmerman is a murderer. On February 26, 2012 Zimmerman stalked and shot his victim, 17-year-old High School student Trayvon Martin, unarmed and on his way home from a convenience store. On July 13, 2013 he succeeded in escaping justice… Read More ›
Who Will March for Marissa Alexander?
by Marissa Jackson On the morning after the Morning After, the racial tension in this country could be popped with a needle. If the prevailing narrative is to be believed, Black America is furious, outraged and depressed about George Zimmerman’s… Read More ›
Detroit files for federal bankruptcy, marking largest case in US history
The city of Detroit has filed for federal bankruptcy, or Chapter 9 protection, which could mean municipal employees are laid off, assets sold and services like trash collection, which have already been cut to the bone, further scaled back. Detroit… Read More ›
McDonalds Tells Workers To Budget By Getting A Second Job And Turning Off Their Heat
By Annie-Rose Strasser McDonalds has partnered with Visa to launch a website to help its low-wage workers making an average $8.25 an hour to budget. But while the site is clearly meant to illustrate that McDonalds workers should be able to live on… Read More ›
Thousands protest Zimmerman verdict as DoJ vows to restart hate crime inquiry
Thousands took to streets across the US on Sunday, as protests against the acquittal of George Zimmerman entered their second day. Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer, shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. The Justice Department said Sunday… Read More ›
McDonalds’ suggested budget for employees shows just how impossible it is to get by on minimum wage
By Robyn Pennacchia McDonald’s has partnered with Visa to make a website dedicated to showing its employees how to properly budget their meager peasant salaries. However, what it actually does is illustrate the fact that it is nearly impossible to get by on minimum wage,… Read More ›
A Disturbing Sign of the Times
Recently a news story about a McDonald’s worker suing her employer has started making the rounds on the internet. Twenty-seven year old Natalie Gunshannon of Dallas Township (Pennsylvania) found that instead of receiving her first paycheck via direct deposit or… Read More ›
New mayor of Miss. capital rejects gentrification
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A one-time black nationalist was inaugurated as mayor of Mississippi’s capital city Monday, saying he wants Jackson to be a unified community where people of diverse backgrounds can make a living…. Read More ›
On the Day of American Independence
Today is the 4th of July, a holiday celebrated all over the nation as the date of American Independence from the British crown. I was considering burning an American flag to protest US foreign policy, imperial aggression, indigenous holocaust, sponsorship… Read More ›
How Fast Food Companies Steal Workers’ Pay
by Seth Freed Wessler Olivia Roffle has worked at Papa John’s Pizza in St. Louis, Mo., for three years and she hates it. “It’s just not an enjoyable place to work,” she says. The 23 year old, who is enrolled in… Read More ›
Philadelphia Closes 23 Schools, New $400 Million Prison Being Built
By Michael Allen Philadelphia officials are closing almost two dozen schools and decimating the budgets of the remaining schools under a so-called “doomsday” education plan. However, amid all these cuts for education, the state of Pennsylvania is building a new $400… Read More ›
It’s Juneteenth 2013. More Black people are in prison than were slaves and Paula Deen wants to bring slavery back
Today is June 19, or Juneteenth. While the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, slaves in Texas didn’t find out slavery was over until June 19, 1865, hence commemorating this date as the end of legal slavery in… Read More ›