Category: Power Building
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New Book Labor Power and Strategy Helps Organizers Think Seriously About Chokepoints
By Peter Olney and Rand Wilson for LaborNotes, published Feb. 15th 2023 John Womack is well-known in the United States as one of the foremost historians of the Mexican revolution, as the author of the seminal Zapata and the Mexican Revolution. However, his writings on strategic sectors and strategic workers have not received the same attention.…
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Overt racism has made it difficult for right-wing evangelicals to retain non-white followers
Christians are splitting with the religious right over Trump, COVID and Black Lives Matter, creating opportunities for those interested in social justice. By Paul Engler for Waging Non Violence, published July 19, 2022, CC-BY 4.0 A potentially historic political shift is currently taking place within an unexpected group of Americans: evangelical Christians. In the wake of…
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Brazil’s Ecocidal Meat Industry is Funded by Big Investment Firms
It’s largely accepted that clearing land for cattle accounts for 70% of Amazon deforestation, with the rate of rainforest cutting accelerating drastically since President Jair Bolsonaro took office at the start of 2019. Between August 2020 and July 2021, 13,235 square kilometers (5,110 square miles) were lost, the highest level since 2006. That devastation is likely to increase in…
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How Public Pension Divestment could Wreck the Corporations that are Wrecking the World
By MICHAEL MCCANN & RIDDHI MEHTA-NEUGEBAUER for Yes! Magazine Originally published in November of 2021. Still just as relevant. A massive oil spill on the California coast caused by a broken pipeline is shining a harsh light on the fossil fuel industry, just as the world prepares for another climate summit in November. In recent years, the…
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Three times Central American migrants bolstered the US labor movement
Elizabeth Oglesby, University of Arizona Tech workers, warehouse employees and baristas have notched many victories in recent months at major U.S. companies long deemed long shots for unions, including Apple, Amazon and Starbucks. To me, these recent union wins recall another pivotal period in the U.S. labor movement several decades ago. But that one was…
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‘Liberate the tractors’: the right to repair movement that’s regaining control of our devices
Michael Stead, Lancaster University and Paul Coulton, Lancaster University The software that runs John Deere tractors was successfully “jailbroken” at this year’s DEF CON hacker convention, enabling farmers to repair or retune their equipment without engaging with the company that sold them their vehicles. The hacker involved, who calls himself Sick Codes, was responding directly…
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Food security ‘experts’ don’t have all the answers: community knowledge is key
Scott Drimie, Stellenbosch University and Michelle Eichinger, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam South Africa is in the grips of a food system paradox. It’s a country known for its agricultural production and has a sophisticated policy framework. Yet, millions of its residents are malnourished. Nearly one in four children are stunted as a result of their mother’s…
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To Transform Work, Start with Schools
By RUBEN ABRAHAMS BROSBE, originally published by Yes! Magazine Not long ago, before the pandemic, I was teaching fourth grade. One of my students, a quiet boy who wore his hair in a long ponytail, hated school. Much of the content felt overwhelming for him, and so he would often run out of the classroom. …
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What Can Unions Do Now to Defend Abortion Rights?
By Sarah Hughes, originally posted on LaborNotes The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health on June 24 overturned the Roe v. Wade precedent, erasing the constitutional right to an abortion. Already for years, large parts of the U.S. have severely restricted abortion—especially hurting those least likely to have resources to travel for care, including poor, Black,…
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Prisoner Prophet: Revisiting George Jackson’s Analysis of Systemic Fascism
By Colin Jenkins for The Hampton Institute, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 The rise of Donald Trump has brought talk of fascism to the forefront. While comparing US Presidents to Hitler is certainly nothing new – both Obama and W. Bush were regularly characterized as such by their haters – Trump’s emergence on the national political scene…
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