Category Archives: Labor
What are we spending?
via @cevra
Continue reading →Tax the Rich
This is the best thing I’ve seen in ages. Beautiful composition, I keep watching it over and over. A time lapse compilation of the ongoing protests in Madison, Wisconsin. Edit to add: Over at Balloon Juice, garage mahal from Wisconsin gave me a link to this set of panoramic 360-degree pictures from inside the Capitol building and from the rallies. View them in high-def and full screen if you can. They are extraordinary.
Continue reading →Union solidarity rally
Last Saturday, all over the country, people gathered in solidarity with the union protesters in Wisconsin. Denver had a nice turnout, 2-3,000 people came together at the capitol building. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and the crowd was raucous and high-spirited. We had a great time, and hope the folks in Madison know that we stand behind them, completely. The top picture is from MoveOn’s flickr page, which has many pictures from rallies all over the country. The bottom picture is mine.
Continue reading →Rallies Saturday in support of Wisconsin Unions
MoveOn is organizing rallies in all 50 states tomorrow (Saturday) at noon. We’ll be going to the rally in Denver (west side steps of the Capitol building). Find your nearest rally at the link. I’m sure you’ve seen this shocking footage of last night’s very late and extremely rushed vote in the Wisconsin Assembly. Republicans got their majority vote and then shut down voting before the Democrats even had a chance to finish voting themselves. The Dems say they will follow up to see whether this action was even legal. I hope they do pursue it, because this incredible action … Continue reading →
Shared sacrifice
Cartoon by Pat Bagley.
Continue reading →A massive failure of the private sector
Over at Salon, Andrew Leonard interviews Joseph McCartin, a Georgetown University professor who writes on the history of the labor movement. The whole interview is worth reading, but this portion really struck me for its clarity on the economic situation we find ourselves in these days. …an even more important factor is basically a 20- or 30-year period of failure in the private sector. What we are really looking at here is a private sector that for quite a long time now has not generated a lot of rising income for the great majority. It has not generated stable benefits … Continue reading →
Standing with the unions
On, Wisconsin!
Continue reading →Unions and the Tea Party are united on trade
When it comes to free trade treaties, workers in this country are very skeptical. In fact a new NBC/WSJ poll finds that 65% of union members and 61% of Tea Party sympathizers say that free trade has hurt the U.S. I think there are some sectors in the U.S. that have benefited from free trade treaties. Certainly stockholders and CEOs have become fabulously wealthy as they chased cheap labor and poor environmental standards around the globe. But the race to the bottom has hurt U.S. workers, who are now consistently being told that they need to accept the “new reality” … Continue reading →
Stephen Colbert speaks truth to power
I am not a religious person, but I know Colbert is, so I suspect that his study of gospel informed this profound moment in his Congressional testimony on migrant workers last week. Despite our different frames, I found this bit of his statement, when he moved out of character, emotionally deep and true.
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