Material of Interest to People on the Left

Portside Snapshot - November 10, 2017

GOP Attacks Healthcare, Now Seeks to End Medical Tax Break


Kate Zernike and Abby Goodnough
New York Times
Ending the medical tax break could be a ‘gut punch’ to the majority of the country. Eliminating the medical-expense deduction would end a source of relief that has helped millions of people cope with steep medical costs in a country without comprehensive, universal health coverage.

Colonialism’s Legacy: Neglect in Puerto Rico, Suffocation in DC


Bill Mosley
The Washington Socialist
By now the botched, indifferent response of the Trump administration to Hurricane Maria’s devastation in Puerto Rico has been well-documented. Puerto Ricans, however, are not the only US citizens whose lack of democratic rights has affected its quality of life, and for the worse. The same can be said for the residents of Washington, DC, the nation’s capital.

Unions and the Gig-Economy: The Case of AirBnB


Steven Tufts
Socialist Project
The so-called gig-economy is celebrated, maligned, fetishized, and qualified by analysts. Whether it is called the collaborative, platform, crowd-sourcing, or sharing-economy, the rise of peer-to-peer exchanges does raise important questions for workers. Do emerging ‘sharing-economy’ platforms such as Uber and Airbnb mark a significant shift in production and distribution systems? Are they emancipatory or exploitive?

Tidbits - November 9, 2017 - Reader Comments: Election Day Victories - Lessons Going Forward; Painters Union Supports Nicaraguan Workers; Why Soviet Union Collapsed?; Lots of Announcements; and more....



Portside
Reader Comments: It's a New Beginning - Election Day Victories; AFL-CIO Delegates Support #BlackLivesMatter; Lessons for Democrats; Painters Union Support Nicaraguan Workers and their Families; Readers Debate: Why Soviet Union Collapsed; Workers' Tips; Lots of Announcements: Los Angeles, Pasadena, Culver City, New York, and Cuba; and more....

Looking Back on October, 1917


Carl Davidson
Changemaker Publications
November 7, 1917, the American writer John Reed said, was "Ten Days That Shook the World." A hundred years on, the anniversary of the October Revolution is celebrated and debated. But, for more than seventy years the revolution inspired millions around the world, in the belief in socialism, and for an end to colonialism. The failures of the Soviet Union have not however diminished the hopes, aspirations and renewed faith in socialism - a socialism of a different type.

The New Workers, and New Militancy, of the Seventies


Justin Miller
The American Prospect
During the 1970s women and people of color were organizing their workplaces at impressive rates — they just weren’t winning. Lane Windham in her new book recounts that history and its consequences.

Identities and Solidarity: The Struggle for Justice in the Holy Land


David Finkel
Against the Current
A collection of essays curated by the progressive group Jewish Voice for Peace, the book under review provides a diversity of perspectives and standpoints exploring critical questions concerning uses and abuses of antisemitism in the twenty-first-century, focusing on the intersection between antisemitism, accusations of antisemitism, and Palestinian human rights activism.
 
 

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