As someone who has been a union member since I was a Marine with the American Servicemen’s Union until I retired last year as a Teamster as well as a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, I have lived the reality of mistreatment of workers in the United States.
Happy Do Nothing Day. By Edward Curtin edwardcurtin.com In a country with Mount Rushmore that celebrates ruthless and frenetic westward expansion, it might be a bit naïve to suggest a Do Nothing Day. National holidays are great – so many…Read more →
Fires rage in the Amazon as Brazilian President Bolsonaro becomes a target of global indignation, writes Pepe Escobar. By Pepe Escobar in Curitiba, Brazil Asia Times Brazil has always been a land of superlatives. Yet nothing beats the current, perverse…Read more →
We celebrate Labor Day by honoring workers — especially the forgotten workers. Stay-at-home mothers who home school their children are often forgotten. Others who are forgotten are those who work in school cafeterias, those who empty bedpans in nursing homes, and ordinary local guys, like my plumber. He is smart, honest and he never overcharges. These are just ordinary people. Most have no degrees — no fancy pieces of paper to frame and hang on their walls. These are the “good guys”. They keep our country and homes running. They are the real backbone of the economy.
On June 19, 2019, President Donald Trump bragged at his re-election kickoff rally in Orlando that, thanks to his leadership, the wages of American workers “are rising at the fastest rate in many decades.”
Aviva Chomsky reports on the complexities of labor’s response to the Green New Deal and little-known divisions over the plan within the environmental movement. By Aviva Chomsky TomDispatch.com When it comes to heat, extreme weather, wildfires, and melting glaciers, the planet is now in what…Read more →
The immigration policies of the U.S. government are once again igniting opposition. This time from members of the agriculture industry who say that blocking immigrants from entering the country is doing more harm than good.
U.S. farmers who depend on migrants as “guest workers” for their harvest are facing considerable financial losses. It’s the result of migrants being detained and deported at the U.S. – Mexican border.
One of the nation’s largest sources of agriculture is Southern California.
I spend a lot of time on the phone with congressional candidates trying to figure out who to believe and who not to believe. How progressive are they? How courageous? How capable? It didn't take much of a discussion to figure out AOC was going to be a super-star if she ever beat Joe Crowley, which seemed impossible to everyone (but her and her posse). But she beat him-- and she's a superstar. Sometimes we get disappointed. I talked so much about how great Jared Golden (ME) would be... but did he ever turn out to be a dud! I got that all wrong.
