By Mark | November 28, 2012 Last night, I had the occasion to speak with world-renowned hip-hop provocateur Boots Riley on a wide range of subjects spanning from his childhood in Detroit, spent in a household of Communist organizers, to his current work, organizing people in his neighborhood as a member Occupy Oakland. And, of course, we touched on his equally [...]
Also posted in Art and Culture, Civil Liberties, Detroit, Economics, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged 21 Grams, 9/11, advertising, Alex Rivera, American Splendor, anti-capitalist, at-risk youth, Barbara Ransby, Bill Maher, Boots Riley, California, Capitalism, civil rights, class, College of Ethnic Studies, Communism, Congress of Racial Equality, CORE, Danny Goldberg, dark comedy, fast food workers union, Five Million Ways to Kill a CEO, foreclosure defense, fundraisers, Greensboro, guillotine building workshop, Happiness, hip hop, ILWU, independent film, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, interviews, Japanther, Jeff Clark, K-Mart, Kev Choice, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, La Peña Cultural Center, labor history, labor movement, Led Zeppelin, Levi's, longshoremen, lunch counter sit-ins, Magic Clap, Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night, militancy, NAACP, Nirvana, North Carolina, Oakland, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Sandy, Ohio Players, Oscar Grant, Ozone House, picket lines, police brutality, political hip hop, political organizing, Politically Incorrect, Port of Oakland, Progressive Labor Party, Prop 21, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, rap, revolution, rhetoric of violent revolution, San Francisco, San Francisco State, San Francisco State strike, scabs, SDS, sit-down strikes, Sleep Dealer, social justice, Sorry to Bother You, speaking truth to power, Street Sweeper Social Club, Students for a Democratic Society, sympathy strikes, Taft–Hartley Act, Ted Hope, The Coup, The Guillotine, The Ice Storm, threat of violence, unions, United Steelworkers, USW, Walmart, Walter Riley, Washtenaw Eviction and Foreclosure Defense, we need a revolution, WEFD, Woodruff's, work stoppage, World Trade Center | By Mark | November 22, 2012 Last night, Walmart warehouse and retail employees in Southern California walked off their jobs and began picketing. They were joined this morning by Walmart employees in Seattle. And, if all goes according to plan, a great many more will join them tomorrow, on Black Friday, when employees from over 1,000 Walmart stores are expected to [...]
Also posted in Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged anti-consumerism, Buy Nothing Day, consumerism, Corporate Action Network, food stamps, labor, labor movement, Making Change at Walmart, Rob Walton, Stand Up Live Better Fund, strikes, UFCW, unions, United Food & Commercial Workers, Wal-Mart, Walmart, welfare, Winning Words Project | By Mark | November 19, 2012 A few days ago, upon hearing that Hostess Brands Inc. was going out of business, I posted the following, assuming that it would just be a matter of time before folks on the right started floating conspiracy theories involving Michelle Obama and her “nanny state” jihad against junk food. As my friend Steve Cherry quickly [...]
Also posted in Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged asshole CEOs, Bakery, Confectionery, conspiracy theories, game theory, greed, Hostess, Hostess Ho-Hos, junk food, King of Kona, labor, Michelle Obama, nanny state, Teamsters, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, twinkie defense, Twinkies, unions, Wonder Bread | While I don’t generally make it a practice to steal posts outright, in their entirety, from other sites, I just read something on Metafilter that I want to share with you. It concerns the busting of the machinists’ union at Caterpillar, and I really doubt whether I could say it any better. Here’s the post, [...]
When I flew into Providence a few weeks ago, to attend the Netroots Nation conference, I caught a taxi from the airport to the hotel with a fellow by the name of Bob Sloan. Bob, like me, had won one of the Democracy for America scholarships, and we talked about our work as we made [...]
Also posted in Civil Liberties, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged ALEC, American Bail Coalition, Bill McCollum, Bob Sloan, Boeing, Bureau of Justice Assistance, CAD, Charlie Crist, Clearwater, company towns, computer drafting, corporatocracy, corrections, cubicles, Dell, Democracy for America, Department of Correction, early release bond, Escod Industries, ex-prisoners, factory, factory work, Florida, Floyd Glisson, GEO Group, HP, IBM, Indiana, Indianapolis, Jack Eckerd, James Crosby, James McDonough, Janet Reno, Jeb Bush, job training, jobs, Keefe Commissary, Koch brothers, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, minimum wage, National Correctional Industries Association, NCIA, Netroots Nation, Newt Gingrich, Nordstrom, OnShore Resources, Pam Davis, Pat Nolan, PIE Program, PIECP, pride, Prison Fellowship Ministries, prison industrial complex, Prison Industries, Prison Industries Act, prison industry, prison labor, prison reform, Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises, prison sentences, prisoner advocate, prisoner rights, Private Correctional Facilities Act, private prisons, privatization, Ray Allen, recidivism, restitution, Right on Crime, slave labor, stand your ground, tethers, Texas, the cost of incarceration, tough on crime, UNICOR, unions, US Technologies, Wackenhut Corrections Corp, workers rights | 
