By WILLIAM WOOD — CHICAGO — Despite a torrential downpour and thunderstorms, more than 2000 low-wage workers and supporters marched up 22nd St. in Oak Brook, Ill., to the McDonald’s national headquarters on May 25 to demand a $15 minimum wage and union rights. The company’s annual shareholders’ meeting was held there the following … Continue reading Low-wage workers demand $15 and a union
By CHRISTINE MARIE “Astro Noise,” Whitney Museum of American Art, Feb. 5 – May 2, 2016. In the “Seeds of Time,” Frederic Jameson famously wrote of our cultural moment, “It seems to be easier to imagine the thorough-going deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism; perhaps that is due … Continue reading Laura Poitras: Astro Noise
By MARK UGOLINI A spirited and determined group of about 150 current and former Nabisco bakery workers and their supporters demonstrated on May 18 at Mondelez International’s annual shareholder meeting in Lincolnshire, Ill. Workers protested the company’s decision to lay off 600 of the 1200 workers at its Southwest side Chicago plant. Mondelez International is … Continue reading Nabisco workers protest layoffs and downsizing
By JOE AUCIELLO “Eye in the Sky,” (2016), a film directed by Gavin Hood, written by Guy Hibbert, with Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman. The arc of the suspense story is familiar enough. Begin the tale in normal times, introduce a disruptive element whose threat deepens until it is ultimately destroyed, and conclude with a … Continue reading Eye in the Sky
By BILL ONASCH This year’s Earth Day, hosted by the UN, was staged to be all about climate change. The chosen venue came attached with some historical irony. The land for the New York City complex housing the United Nations Headquarters was donated by John D. Rockefeller. His father started him off as a director of … Continue reading Capitalism cannot solve the climate crisis
By JEFF MACKLER U.S. primary election math pundits are now calculating that Bernie Sanders cannot win the Democratic Party presidential primary contest. His impending demise, and indeed his Democratic Party candidacy itself, has sparked a wide-ranging discussion and debate in the U.S. socialist movement, and in broader circles, that reveals an extraordinary level of confusion … Continue reading Sanders, socialism and the U.S. left in crisis
By MIKE PINHO and BILL ONASCH On April 13, nearly 40,000 Verizon workers on the East Coast, from Maine to Virginia, walked off the job. In the largest U.S. strike in five years, workers from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) walked out in response to the … Continue reading Verizon workers fight corporate greed
By MARK UGOLINI Chicago State University (CSU) announced the layoff of more than 300 employees, effective on April 29. Widely considered only the first round of layoffs, it impacts about one-third of the university’s workforce. CSU and other Illinois state universities have been denied funds for nearly the entire academic year, resulting in layoffs, furloughs, … Continue reading Students, staff protest cuts at Chicago State
By ANN MONTAGUE In one of the early Democratic Party debates, in order to inflate her credentials as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton threw out an off-the-cuff comment about her relationship with Henry Kissinger: “I was very flattered when Henry Kissinger said I ran the State Department better—better than anybody had run it in a … Continue reading Clinton, Kissinger and the coup in Honduras
