Whatever Happened to the Proletariat? by DAVID ROSEN

The Left Forum was held in New York on the May 29th-31st weekend and thousands attended.  It offered numerous panels led by academics, activists and independent thinkers of every strip as well as film screenings and public plenaries.  Everyone ran into someone they knew from a past life or started a new friendship.  While a lot of grey-haired veterans of the …

Flipping the Script: Rethinking Working-Class Resistance By Henry A. Giroux

I have often thought about when that moment came in which my working class sensibility turned into a form of critical class consciousness. For most of my youth, I was defined by ruling-class types and mainstream institutions through my deficits, which amounted to not having the skills and capacities to do anything but become either a cop or firefighter. For …

Bernie and the Plutocrats by ROBERT HUNZIKER

Senator Bernie Sanders’ candidacy for the presidency of the United States is in full blossom, on tour with rousing speeches to standing room only extraordinarily motivated crowds. Senator Sanders, the tough-minded Independent with socialists’ tendencies, is labeled a long shot to win the Democratic nomination, especially in the face of the odds-on-favorite Hillary Clinton, whose political machinery is so well …

In Search of the Democratic Soul – Richard Eskow

A Google search for the phrase “soul of the Democratic Party” yields thousands of hits, because the struggle for that soul has been a perennial subject of debate. I’ve probably used the phrase myself. But after a week spent tracking the independent left’s political progress, I’ve become even more convinced that politicians should seek the soul of the country instead. Tap into that, and the …

Iowa State University goes bananas over GMOs – Tim Schwab

When news circulated that the first people to consume a new GMO banana would be student guinea pigs at Iowa State University, the university community had questions. A recently released, redacted copy of the initial “informed consent document” that ISU lead researcher Wendy White gave to students doesn’t appear to mention that the GMO banana has never been approved as …

The Organization Question in US Progressive Politics By: Jack Rasmus

Déjà vu All Over Again

So now the cycle has begun again. As the great American philosopher, Yogi Berra, once said: “It’s déjà vu all over again.” Among union leaders, leaders of various ethnic organizations, church leaders, liberal academics, and all the rest that consider themselves “progressives,” one today hears the same refrain: Elizabeth Warren, Senator from Massachusetts, is our preferred candidate. If Hillary implodes before November 2016 national elections, we have Elizabeth Warren in the wings. Hillary may be the only one who can win against a Republican. But Elizabeth will keep Hillary honest and ensure she, Hillary, adopts appropriate progressive positions during the 18 month campaign that lies ahead. Push the Democratic Party to the left and Hillary will have to follow.

And this year we are especially fortunate, progressives add. Now we have an even more progressive candidate, left of Warren, waiting to step up as well—the Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who also announced his candidacy for president in recent weeks. If Warren pushes the party left, then Sanders, just outside the party (actually always with one foot in it) can pull her still further left. And who knows, if Hillary falters, Sanders might actually push Warren to finally enter the race, providing her ‘left cover’ for her candidacy, as they say.

Obama’s Ugly Show of Presidential Petulance – Jim Hightower

When the going got tough, Barack got in a huff, and then he got gruff. President Obama has worked himself into such a tizzy over the TPP that he’s lashing out at his progressive friends in Congress. He’s mad because they refuse to be stereotypical lemmings, following him over this political cliff called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It masquerades as a …

Bernie Sanders Just Introduced Legislation to Fund Free Undergrad Ed with Wall Street Transaction Taxes‏ – Deirdre Fulton

A broad coalition of nurses, students, religious and civil rights groups, environmentalists, labor and housing advocates on Tuesday praised Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) plan to use a so-called Robin Hood tax on stock transactions to fund tuition at four-year public colleges and universities. Sanders introduced two bills on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.—one to eliminate undergraduate college tuition fees for students attending public colleges and universities …