David Long reports on the eruption of protest in Jefferson County, Colo., in response to a conservative school board’s attempt to censor the U.S. history curriculum.
Read the report: The Jeffco rebels | SocialistWorker.org.
Curated Links
Detroit Up For Grabs
Jerry White of the Social Equality Party describes how Detroit is currently being carved up by the bankers in what will become a model for other American cities in decline.
Detroit, the former auto capital of the world, is in the final stages of a bankruptcy process that has from the start been a conspiracy of the banks against the city’s working class population. Closing arguments in federal bankruptcy court are scheduled to begin next week, a legal formality before the city’s brutal restructuring plan is approved by the judge.
The so-called “Plan of Adjustment” will gut the pensions and health benefits of more than 30,000 current and retired city workers, sanction the sell-off of public assets, and provide a legal fig leaf for the termination of water and other vital services to entire working class neighborhoods.
Last week, some 200 investment bankers from throughout the US gathered at the Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance at the University of Michigan to discuss the business opportunities emerging from the carve-up of Detroit.
Read more: The carve-up of Detroit – World Socialist Web Site.
Stanley Aronowitz on a Post-Political Labor Movement
In These Times has an interview with Stanley Aronowitz on how the labor movement falters and how it might recover.
Post-political means that the union movement may endorse candidates or run its own, but essentially does not rely on electoral politics and public officials—that is, the state—to fulfill its goals. Instead, unions should rely on their own resources, on their own members and on their own imaginations to create conditions to make their members’ lives better, in the way that unions, especially in the early-to-mid-20th century, once established and ran very good, moderate-cost cooperative housing.We’ve been relying for so long on politicians to solve problems that the union membership no longer really relies on its own power. The proper word is really “post-electoral” or “post-state,” and it once had a tremendous resonance among large numbers of workers.
Read the interview: A ‘Post-Political’ Labor Movement – In These Times.
That Alienation You Feel is Part of the System
Some things that we take for granted as “part of life” don’t necessarily have to be that way.
The Militant has an excerpt from The Marxist Theory of Alienation by Ernest Mandel and George Novack, explaining that alienation is not a natural eternal condition of humanity, but rather a product of social relations under capitalism.
Read the excerpt: The Militant – September 22, 2014 –Capitalist system dehumanizes and alienates workers.
The Deep State
Long time Congressional staffer Mike Lofgren writes about the real rulers of the United States.
Yes, there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose.
Read More: Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State | Blog, Perspectives | BillMoyers.com.
Art Versus Gentrification
Chicago-based artist Amie Sell talks about her work, the censorship of her installation, and the relationship of art, social class and gentrification.
Read the Interview: Art (as Social Organism) vs. Gentrification – Red Wedge Magazine Red Wedge Magazine.
What’s Happening In Ferguson?
Here are a couple of links which yield some perspective on the situation in Ferguson. I’ll post more as I find them.
Why Ferguson burned: Explaining St. Louis area riot to kids, outsiders : Parenting | St. Louis Post Dispatch. – Aisha Sultan
A Missouri city erupts against police murder | Socialist Worker. – Nicole Colson
Things That Caught My Eye – Week of August 4th, 2014
Here are some links to articles that caught my eye this week.
6 Ways Wall Street Is Hosing Chicago Teachers – Matthew Cunningham-Cook unpacks how the country’s biggest investment firms are endangering the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.
We Need to Fight for Equality – William Spriggs reflects on how the Labor Movement and the Civil Rights Movement must be united.
Catholic Social Teaching and Adjunct Faculty Organizing – John Russo writes about Catholic Universities and the Social Teaching of the Church.
Some Facts That Poverty-Deniers Don’t Want to Hear – Three-quarters of conservative Americans think poor people have it easy. Paul Buchheit shows that they don’t.
Imagine If People Were Paid What Their Work Is Really Worth to Society – Professor Reich imagines.
Films that Debunk Corporate Education Reform – A list of must-see videos from Diane Ravitch’s Blog.
Israel/Palestine FAQ – Who are the Palestinians? Who are the Israelis? Is Folk Singer David Rovics a self-hating Jew? Find out in this FAQ.
Do Palestinians Really Exist? – When he was nine years old, Dean Obeidallah finally learned about his father’s people.
Debunking Israeli Propaganda on Gaza
Israel claims that it is merely exercising its right to self-defense and that Gaza is no longer occupied. Here’s what you need to know about these talking points and more, from The Nation’s Noura Erakat.
Read the article: Five Israeli Talking Points on Gaza—Debunked | The Nation.
Understanding the Latest Wave of Immigration
Justin Akers Chacón offers some context with regard to the latest wave of immigration from the South.
The children and youth coming to the U.S., chiefly from Central America in the current wave, are victims of faceless economic, political and military policies engineered and implemented by the U.S. government, either unilaterally, or working through ruling elites in the region.
These young migrants are journeying north to be reunited with their families or in a desperate search for work and security. It is a further indictment of the U.S. government’s inhuman immigration policy that these innocent victims are treated as criminals and undesirables.
Please read the full article: Children forced on a dangerous journey | SocialistWorker.org.