- Hopelessness We Can Believe In (8/29/2008) - In a coffee shop in western Pennsylvania the morning after Barack Obama's muted acceptance speech in the arena, I overheard a conversation that made me wonder 'why bother.' "Forget about it. It's all over," said one excited man, the ringleader of five donut-dunking middle aged white men. He went on to advise his compatriots, "Anything you own in your own name, get it out of your name before they take it away." The others mumbled… …
- Goodbye, Queens. Hello, Brooklyn (8/4/2008) - I'm not a well-traveled person. I secured a reputation of sorts in grad school, on the first day of Elaine Bernard's global labor movements class. As we went around the room for introductions, and everyone explained who they were and where they came from (yes, yes, they were the union, the mighty, might union) and discussed their various international contacts and trips abroad, I introduced myself with a flip "Shaun Richman, AFT, Queens, NY. Frankly,… …
- Another Day Older and Deeper In Debt (7/21/2008) - We socialists, I hope, are not the types to revel in I-told-you-so's, but for years we've been sounding the alarm that the consumer purchasing power of our fellow patriotic Americans could not be counted on to fuel the global economy. Wages for working Americans have been essentially stagnant since the 1970's, leaving a huge amount of consumer debt to preserve the American Way of Life. But, we warned, one day we will all have to… …
- Keep Your Riches, Give Me a Bonus Track! (6/29/2008) - Finally getting their due after a generation and a half of younger bands cashed in on their legacy, the Replacements are in the midst of the rock-n-roll equivalent of a Presidential exploratory committee for a reunion tour. First came Jim Walsh's adoring biography, and now the Mats' early funny records get the deluxe treatment from Rhino records, re-mastered and fleshed out with bonus tracks. The Replacements' later years on a major label were marked by… …
- Blame It On the Solo Career (6/1/2008) - Ever since "Satellite Rides" failed to make them stars and lead singer Rhett Miller cut loose for a middling solo career, the Old 97s have reunited every four years to record a mellow studio album. Their latest, "Blame It On Gravity," seems slight and easily dismissible, but so did their last long-player, "Drag It Up," which turned out to be a real sleeper and is probably the Old 97s record that I listen to the… …
- Toward Social Justice (5/31/2008) - One of the greatest revelations of the year for me was seeing Bill Fletcher Jr. speak at New York's Left Forum this past March. For years I've been familiar with Fletcher, who is, perhaps, the most prominent left intellectual in the U.S. labor movement, who was a special assistant to John Sweeney in the early years of this administration and still a trusted figure in the mainstream labor movement despite his socialist barnstorming. But this… …
- Questions Over Union Neutrality (5/11/2008) - SEIU's been facing an increasing amount of scrutiny from the press and from the left lately for its unconventional approach to bargaining to organize. This has been prompted in large part by the California Nurses Association's controversial decision to intervene in a carefully negotiated and long-planned "neutrality" organizing campaign by SEIU in Ohio, and SEIU's shockingly violent response at the 2008 Labor Notes conference. In the midst of this controversy, the Wall Street Journal reports… …
- Christ May Be King, But At Least He Spares Us Monarchistic Thinking (4/4/2008) - Teachers at ten New York City schools went on strike Friday over the high cost of health care, but their union was not sued, their president not imprisoned and their members not fined two days of pay for every day out on the picket line. What gives? The teachers in question work at Catholic schools in the archdiocese of New York so their union is not subject to the same draconian law that would apply… …
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- A Cut-Out Bin Classic: “Self Abused” by S*M*A*S*H* (3/22/2008) - In the rock-n-roll hype that followed "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the UK had a brief "scene" that failed to take off. Dubbed the "new wave of the new wave," it was compared to the summer of 1977 (although, doesn't the N.M.E. compare everything to the Sex Pistols?) and lasted even shorter. The most prominent of the groups, S*M*A*S*H*, failed to make an impact when their only long player, "Self Abused," landed on these shores. It… …
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- Take a Break, Client 9 (3/12/2008) - Born under a lame duck, for most of my living memory we've had only two governors in New York. Twelve years of Democrat Mario Cuomo and twelve years of Republican George Pataki. Now, in the blink of an eye, we just burned through another one. I'm not shedding any tears for Client 9, but I am somewhat dumbfounded that he was felled so quickly by something so...trivial. At Monday's Labor Research Association awards dinner, NYS… …