A World Cup Win for Brazil?
FIFA thought Brazil was an easy mark, but has learned what every three-card monte dealer knows: when the law comes around, you better fold up your table and beat it, or you might find yourself in real trouble. Police in …
Winter 2025
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Prison to Table: The Other Side of the Whole Foods Experience
It’s not clear what shocked people most about the report in Fortune that Whole Foods Market sells goat cheese and tilapia prepared with prison labor—the horrendous exploitation of prisoners for a base rate less than one-tenth of Whole Foods’ starting …
Putting Hobby Lobby in Context: The Erratic Career of Birth Control in the United States
Originally posted on Families as They Really Are at The Society Pages. Nearly fifty years ago, in the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut case, the Supreme Court declared birth control legal for married persons, and shortly afterwards in another case legalized birth control for single …
Letter From Jerusalem
The myth of a united Jerusalem has helped lead us to this horrible moment.
How Unions Should Respond to Harris v. Quinn
This week a 5–4 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court took away the power of a union to collect mandatory “agency fees” from the Illinois home care workers it represents in collective bargaining. The decision, in Harris v. Quinn, will …
Why the Village Voice Strike is “Part of a Much Greater Fight”
On Tuesday, members of UAW Local 2110—which represents twenty-seven staff writers, editorial assistants, listings editors, and sales representatives at the Village Voice—voted to authorize a strike at the nation’s historic alternative-weekly newspaper after their three-year contract expired Monday.
Belabored Podcast #55: The Ugly Side of the Beautiful Game, with Dave Zirin
This week, Belabored talks to sports critic Dave Zirin about the wildcat strikes, street protests, and police crackdowns on the fringes of the World Cup in Brazil. Plus: a look at the White House’s new push for “family-friendly policies,” the latest teacher-bashing crusade led by ex-Obama flacks, the economic assault on young black men, and more.
Quoted by Monica Lewinsky
“Monica Lewinsky quoted you. Did you hear?” a friend called to say. My first reaction was: I’m being pranked. But there in Monica Lewinsky’s recent Vanity Fair essay, “Shame and Survival”—her account of what happened to her after her affair …
Will the Rise of the Far Right Mean More Human Trafficking in Europe?
By depriving immigrants of rights, governments help foster the demand for illegal trade in human lives.
What This Month’s Jobs Report Doesn’t Tell Us
This month’s jobs report was widely celebrated for showing that—after adding 217,000 jobs in May 2014—the United States had finally returned to the December 2007 (pre-recession) level of employment. This is a useful comparative benchmark, underscoring the unusual depth and …
[AUDIO] Left Forum Panels 2014
Last month, Dissent hosted two panels at Left Forum in New York City, moderated by Belabored co-hosts Michelle Chen and Sarah Jaffe. Listen to both panels below. We apologize for any glitches in audio quality. Cloud Labor: Working in the …
Brazil Starts the World Cup With a Hangover
The Brazilian team’s performance in the World Cup opener mirrored the host country’s preparations for the event—moments of brilliance offset by disorganization, self-destructive lunges, farce, corruption, and a dubious result. If this is victory—no thanks. Back in 2007, when Brazil …
Belabored Podcast #54: Teacher Tenure on Trial
This week brought bad news for public schools, when a California court ruled in Vergara v. California that teacher tenure laws were unconstitutional. Belabored talks to California teacher Frank Wells about the implications of the lawsuit, the motivations behind it, and why tech companies are so interested in changing schools. Plus: World Cup unrest in Brazil, a win for child care workers in Vermont, and more.
Should We Fight the System or Be the Change?
It is an old question in social movements: Should we fight the system or “be the change we wish to see”? Should we push for transformation within existing institutions, or should we model in our own lives a different set of political relationships that might someday form the basis of a new society?
The Wage Crunch in Perspective
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century merits ongoing praise for the renewed attention it has drawn to the challenge of American inequality. The decade of collaborative and comparative work on the trajectory of top incomes that it represents, as …
