I put this board together for my day job at Learnist. Sometimes I do have a bit more fun than ought to be allowed.
Hedges on Malcolm’s Prophetic Voice
“Sometimes, I have dared to dream … that one day, history may even say that my voice—which disturbed the white man’s smugness, and his arrogance, and his complacency—that my voice helped to save America from a grave, possibly even fatal catastrophe,” Malcolm wrote.
Read the entire essay: Chris Hedges: Malcolm X Was Right About America – Chris Hedges – Truthdig.
Obama’s “Middle Class” Budget
Here are the highlights of President Obama’s proposed “Middle Class” budget.
- INCREASE Military Spending by $38 BILLION
- CUT Corporate Tax Rates by One-Fifth
- CUT $400 BILLION from Medicare, Medicaid and the Department of Human Services
What a champion of the average family! No?
The Dalai Lama, Marxist
“We must have a human approach. As far as socioeconomic theory, I am Marxist.”
Read the Article: “I Am Marxist” Says Dalai Lama | Newsweek.
SYRIZA’s Historic Win
European politics has been plunged into a volatile new era following a historic victory in Greece’s general election by far-left radicals committed to ending years of austerity.
More than five years into the euro crisis that started in Greece in October 2009 and raised questions about the single currency’s survival, Greek voters roundly rejected the savage spending cuts and tax rises imposed by Europe which reduced the country to penury.
The Guardian reports: Syriza’s historic win puts Greece on collision course with Europe | World news | The Guardian.
Not Lovin’ Racism at McDonald’s
McDonald’s workers who were fired last year after being told, “There are too many black people [working] in the store,” filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the company Thursday alleging a widespread pattern of racial and sexual discrimination and harassment at three stores in Virginia.
Read More: McDonald’s workers sue fast food giant over racial and sexual discrimination » peoplesworld.
Ten Classics: The Communist Manifesto
Socialist Worker published a series on ten classics of the socialist tradition back in 2008 and 2009. I think that these works would form the basis for a marvelous book club or discussion group, which I may eventually attempt to organize.
In the first installment, Todd Chretien writes about the Communist Manifesto.
Liberal and conservative historians want you to believe that society has always been divided between the rich and the poor, the weak and the strong, men and women, etc. — division based on money, race, nationality is built into our human nature.
The Manifesto takes a radically different view: Humans lived for thousands of years in what Marx and Engels called “primitive communism” — by which they meant societies that existed in every part of the world where cooperation and mutual reliance, and not competition, formed the basis of survival. At the time, this was based on cutting-edge anthropological research that was very controversial, but today, all but a few right-wing cranks accept that this is the truth about pre-class human society.
Read the article: The Communist Manifesto | SocialistWorker.org.
Read the book: Manifesto of the Communist Party | Marxists.org.
Report: $15 Fast-Food Minimum Wage Possible
The fast food industry could adjust to a $15 per hour federal minimum wage without cutting jobs, according to a new study from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute.
Read it: A $15 U.S. Minimum Wage: How the Fast-Food Industry Could Adjust Without Shedding Jobs | PERI.
Railroad Workers Reach Out
With public attention focused on the railroads in a way it hasn’t been for decades, the cross-craft solidarity group Railroad Workers United is seizing the opportunity to teach the general public “railroading 101”—and teach rail workers “environmental politics 101.”
Read More: Rail Workers and Environmentalists to Teach Each Other | Labor Notes.
Charade of the Union
Eric Ruder weighs in on SOTU 2015.
“Memories of another second-term Democratic president came flooding back. During Bill Clinton’s presidency, when Democrats controlled Congress during his first term, Clinton didn’t mention raising the minimum wage in his public statements. However, once the Republicans swept into Congress in 1994–riding a wave of discontent with Clinton’s broken promises–Clinton regularly used the issue to put the Republicans on the spot, trapping them between a broadly popular measure and their corporate backers who detested the idea.”