Five principles for building powerful coalitions

by Amanda Tattersall In Power in Coalition, I argue that not all coalitions are made equal. While alliances between unions and community organizations are an important and useful strategy for social change, their power and success varies greatly depending on the strategic choices of those involved. The most successful coalitions are ones that seek to [...]

UAW President Bob King and Jesse Jackson lead Detroit march for jobs

By David Green Over 10, 000 Detroiters marched down Washington Boulevard from the UAW-Ford National Programs Center to Grand Circus Park on Saturday, August 28th to demand jobs, peace, and justice. The march was organized by United Auto Workers (UAW) President Bob King and Operation PUSH founder and director Reverend Jesse Jackson. It commemorated the [...]

The easiest way to rob a bank is to own one.

Cover via Amazon Responding to the Great Recession:  Book Reviews.          by Duane Campbell The  current Great Recession was created by finance capital and banking, mostly on Wall Street, ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs,  AIG, and others.  Finance capital owned the banks, and they robbed the banks through investment and trading  schemes including [...]

Newly Opened Trader Joe’s Greeted by Protesters Supporting Tomato Pickers

by Arieh Lebowitz August 19th, NYC: The Jewish Labor Committee joined nearly 100 people at a demo in front of a newly opened Trader Joe’s store in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, to inform consumers about the human rights abuses against farm workers harvesting the tomatoes sold by the company, and to demand that the company sign [...]

The Corporate “Race to the Bottom” and the Blindspots of Power Elite Liberalism

by Leo Casey This post originally appeared on Dissent’s Arguing the World blog. In upstate New York, a bitter strike between Mott’s Apple Juice and its production workers has become the latest battle against the “race to the bottom,” the process of undercutting labor market standards that has plagued American labor for the last three [...]

I recognize you do amazing work, but you’re still not getting minimum wage

by Richard Negri Someone sent me an email earlier entitled, “U.S. Senate Declares National Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week.” The big week of recognition is slotted to begin September 12th. In the announcement for “Recognition Week,” Senator Ben Nelson says, “Direct support professionals provide an invaluable service to the millions of Americans living with disabilities. [...]

CIW, Sodexo reach agreement

Student/Farmworker Alliance August 23, 2010 – Yet another chapter in the historic alliance between students and farmworkers has been written today, as Sodexo becomes the fourth leading food service provider (following Bon Appetit Management Co., Compass Group, and Aramark) and ninth corporation overall to heed the demands of the Campaign for Fair Food and partner [...]

Meet Eliseo Medina, next SEIU Secretary-Treasurer

by Harold Meyerson In the wake of the resignation last week of Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, Mary Kay Henry, the new president of the Service Employees International Union, sent a memo  to members of SEIU’s International Executive Board announcing that she intends to nominate Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina to Burger’s former post, the second highest [...]

This Labor Day, Let’s Salute All Union Stewards–and Their Cutting Edge at Kaiser

by Steve Early The real heroes of what’s left of the labor movement are not people with full-time union jobs, union-furnished cars and credit cards, and union benefits that dues-paying members don’t get anymore. It’s the men and women who take time out from their regular jobs, under the baleful eye of their boss, to [...]

John Atlas: ‘Seeds of Change’ book events in NY and NJ

John Atlas will have book-signing reading events for Seeds of Change: the Story of ACORN, America’s Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group in New York and New Jersey this week and early September. August 26, 7 pm: Bluestockings book store, Lower East Side of Manhattan at 172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington, 1 block [...]