March 4: National Day of Action to Defend Education (4)

3/02/10 •

From the coordinating committee of the March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education:

As people throughout the country struggle under the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, public education from pre-K to higher and adult education is threatened by budget cuts, layoffs, privatization, tuition and fee increases, and other attacks. Budget cuts [...]

Public to Unions: Drop Dead (4)

2/24/10 •

CHRIS MAISANO
For years, the AFL-CIO has touted a 2006 survey in which almost 60 million unorganized workers said they would join a union if they could. These positive numbers were supported by other polls that showed that solid majorities of the U.S. population had a favorable view of labor unions and saw them as necessary [...]

TV Review: “Undercover Boss” and the misfortune of labor (2)

2/23/10 •

PETER FRASE
“To be a productive worker is therefore not a piece of luck, but a misfortune.” –Marx, Capital
“Are you a good team player/remember the boss is your best friend/kill your head.” –Born Against
CBS chose to premiere their new reality show, “Undercover Boss”, after the Super Bowl, indicating that they expect big things from it. And [...]

Unconventional Wisdom: An Interview with Doug Henwood (24)

2/21/10 •

Brooklyn-based Doug Henwood has been among the few articulate voices on what Perry Anderson likes to call “the vanquished left.” Doug has been publishing an irreplaceable newsletter, Left Business Observer, which examines politics and economics with a scientific rigor and without the moral exhortations or hyperbolic spasms of his contemporaries, since 1986.  He also hosts [...]

Humanizing Galt (3)

2/15/10 •

BHASKAR SUNKARA
CBS is on quite the roll. A few hours after running a 30-second spot encouraging women to forgo medical advice during high-risk pregnancies, because after all they might somehow survive and give birth to the future backup quarterback for the Detroit Lions, they premiered their new reality show “Undercover Boss.”  A viewer of “Jersey [...]

Producteurs, sauvons-nous nous-mêmes (0)

2/15/10 •

What happens when a structurally corrupt and politically complacent labor movement meets the biggest crisis of capitalism in generations?  Ask the Bureau of Labor Statistics…

Susan Watkins in the new issue of New Left Review:
That neoliberalism’s crisis should be so eerily non-agonistic, in contrast to the bitter battles over its installation, is a sobering measure of [...]