The Brazilian team’s performance in the World Cup opener mirrored the host country’s preparations for the event—moments of brilliance offset by disorganization, self-destructive lunges, farce, corruption, and a dubious result. If this is victory—no thanks. Back in 2007, when Brazil …
This week brought bad news for public schools, when a California court ruled in Vergara v. California that teacher tenure laws were unconstitutional. Belabored talks to California teacher Frank Wells about the implications of the lawsuit, the motivations behind it, and why tech companies are so interested in changing schools. Plus: World Cup unrest in Brazil, a win for child care workers in Vermont, and more.
It is an old question in social movements: Should we fight the system or “be the change we wish to see”? Should we push for transformation within existing institutions, or should we model in our own lives a different set of political relationships that might someday form the basis of a new society?
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century merits ongoing praise for the renewed attention it has drawn to the challenge of American inequality. The decade of collaborative and comparative work on the trajectory of top incomes that it represents, as …
In the post-1989 era, “there is no alternative” became not only the slogan of Poland’s economic transition but a very palpable reality. Today, as Poles celebrate #25yearsoffreedom, aggressive free-market reforms are still the order of the day, and the right is rising. So what does Poland’s post-communist generation actually have to celebrate?
President Obama is “madder than hell” at the Department of Veterans Affairs. At issue is whether VA hospitals in the Southwest and elsewhere used off-the-books lists to hide the fact that veterans often waited months to see doctors, dozens allegedly …
As activists shine a spotlight on labor abuses surrounding the Guggenheim and NYU’s expansion to Abu Dhabi, Belabored speaks with Andrew Ross about global labor struggles and the role that the arts and academic communities can play in transnational movements for social justice. Plus: Sheryl Sandberg’s latest “Lean In” fail, Jeff Bezos as the World’s Worst Boss, Uber organizing, and more.
Dissent invites you to join us for two panels at this year’s Left Forum, which will be taking place this weekend (May 30–June 1) at John Jay College in New York City. Register for Left Forum here. Cloud Labor: Working …
Rikers Island is a bleak atoll in New York City’s East River, festooned with razor wire, home to some 13,000 prisoners, and run by correctional officers (“New York’s boldest,” as they call themselves) with serious attitude issues. It was not …
Community organizers and those who write about them have a bad habit of exaggerating the divide between “organizations” and “movements.” Building the kind of people power we need to slow, halt, and reverse present trends requires of various organizing camps …
Bernie Sanders may actually run for president. The feisty Senator from Vermont is giving dinner speeches in Iowa, telling journalists he’s “prepared” to campaign, and is deciding whether he wants to compete for the Democratic nomination or take the “radical” …
In the latest escalation of the low-wage workers’ movement, fast food workers went out on strike this week in hundreds of cities around the globe. Sarah and Michelle speak with Tsedeye Gebreselassie of the National Employment Law Project about the importance of local victories in this global struggle, and why workers must lead the way. Plus: miners’ deaths abroad and at home, teachers’ ongoing resistance to high-stakes testing, Thomas Piketty, and more.
Few scholars have done as much as Frances Fox Piven to describe how widespread disruptive action can change history, and few have offered more provocative suggestions about the times when movements—instead of crawling forward with incremental demands—can break into full sprint.
On Monday, May 5, Occupy Wall Street activist and friend of Dissent Cecily McMillan was unjustly convicted of assaulting a police officer at an Occupy protest. In response to this egregious verdict, members of the Justice for Cecily team have collaborated with fellow activists, writers, and editors to produce the Free Cecily! gazette.
Over the past few weeks, the essays in the Our Inequality series have developed a historical explanation for our growing divide. The introduction discounted the importance of the “usual suspects” in this story: globalization, technology, and demography. (Because these trends …
