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LBJ Was No Liberal Hero  

From 1964 to 1968, close to 34,000 Americans died in South Vietnam. We will never know how many Vietnamese women, men, and children perished during those years, but the total, according to most estimates, was at least one million. Among …



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Belabored Podcast #49: Mapping New York’s New Labor Movements, with Ruth Milkman  

In New Labor in New York, editors Ruth Milkman and Ed Ott of the City University of New York analyze thirteen worker centers and labor groups focused on the new “precariat”: traditionally non-union sectors like street vendors, domestic workers, struggling freelance “creatives,” and restaurant workers. This week on Belabored, we speak to Milkman about what these case studies tell us about the future of labor.



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The Palestinian Authority in the World Court  

The announcement by Mahmoud Abbas that the Palestinian Authority, which he leads, is now taking steps to join fifteen international agencies has a striking parallel to events that took place in the United States fifty years ago this month. That’s when Malcolm …



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How to Criticize “Big Philanthropy” Effectively  

Criticizing philanthropy (or philanthropists) of any kind is tricky. To most people, a negative appraisal sounds off-base and churlish—yet another instance of “No good deed goes unpunished.” Criticizing the immense private foundations that finance and shape the market-model “reform” of …



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New Board Members and Contributing Editors at Dissent  

We are pleased to welcome three new editorial board members to Dissent. Leo Casey is the Executive Director of the Albert Shanker Institute as well as a long-time friend and contributor to the magazine. Sarah Jaffe is an accomplished labor …



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Would Saul Alinsky Break His Own Rules?  

Cross-posted from Waging Nonviolence. Although Saul Alinsky, the founding father of modern community organizing in the United States, passed away in 1972, he is still invoked by the right as a dangerous harbinger of looming insurrection. And although his landmark …



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Belabored Podcast #48: Athlete-Students’ Big Win  

Is the era of the student athlete over? This week on Belabored, Lee Adler joins us to discuss the groundbreaking NLRB decision that Northwestern University’s football players are employees and thus eligible to form a union. Plus: a growing campaign to opt out of standardized testing, the difference between unemployment and retirement, the struggle against Amazon in Europe, and more. 



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The Problem with Counting  

That publishers routinely fill their mastheads and bylines with a disproportionate number of white men should hardly come as a surprise when even getting a foot in the door of the industry requires a significant amount of capital, both economic and social.



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The Myth of the U.S. “Insourcing Boom”  

“Over half of big manufacturers say they’re thinking of insourcing jobs from abroad,” crowed President Barack Obama in this year’s State of the Union address. Riding the wave of populist anti-offshoring sentiment that served him so well in the 2012 …



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Belabored Podcast #47: Retail Hours, Wholesale Injustice  

This week on Belabored, we speak to activists with the Retail Action Project and Women Employed about the impact of unfair scheduling on the lives of retail workers. We also discuss the Supreme Court drama over employer-sponsored health insurance and reproductive rights, “the end of jobs,” labor protections for unpaid interns, Wall Street’s attack on Los Angeles, TaskRabbit, and more.



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Rand Paul Doesn’t Stand a Chance  

Libertarianism is suddenly in fashion. Denouncing the NSA, Rand Paul draws cheers both from young leftists in Berkeley and young conservatives in D.C.—and narrowly leads in early polls for the 2016 presidential nomination. The Koch brothers—who once bankrolled the Libertarian Party—plan to spend …



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Belabored Podcast #46: What’s Left, with Adolph Reed  

This week, Belabored talks to political scientist Adolph Reed about his recent article in Harper’s magazine, examining the broad prospects for today’s left, the need to focus on inequality, why the labor movement matters, and why Democrats relying on big money donors is like keeping a Komodo dragon in your bedroom. Plus: a strike in Vermont, a lawsuit at McDonald’s, a modest proposal for executive salaries, and more.



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Risk, Rated X: Geopolitics and the Pickup Game  

In January, the well-known pickup artist Roosh V created a sub-forum on his website to discuss the Ukraine conflict, thanks to “heavy interest” in the topic among his fans. What will happen if the “pussy paradise” joins the European Union?



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Putin to West: Go Frack Yourself  

By the time Crimeans went to the polls yesterday, it was clear that their referendum on secession added little more than rhetorical flourish to a military and political fait accompli. With over 95 percent of those polled voting to join …