Opening Taksim Square
Istanbul’s Taksim Square rose up on May 29, and the “Occupy Gezi” movement has since exploded across several Turkish cities, taking various forms. Last week, it went on strike.
Winter 2025
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Belabored Podcast #9: Who Stole My Wages?
Uprisings in Turkey and the role of labor unions, international actions targeting McDonald’s, ongoing conflict at Palermo’s Pizza, and an independent organizing campaign at an upscale New York deli. Plus the debut of Belabored Explainers! This week: wage theft.
Banality and Brilliance: Irving Howe on Hannah Arendt
Margarethe von Trotta’s new film, Hannah Arendt, revisits the furor provoked by Arendt’s analysis of the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. “Within the New York intellectual world,” wrote Irving Howe, Eichmann in Jerusalem “provoked divisions that would never be entirely healed.”
Looking Back at the June 4 Massacre, Twenty-Four Years on
Many supporters of the Tiananmen movement hoped that the regime would reassess the protests of 1989. A similar set of 1976 demonstrations were initially dubbed “counterrevolutionary riots” but then reassessed as a “patriotic” struggle. But the situation relating to the June 4 Massacre is very different.
Belabored Podcast #8: Bad Green Jobs and the Long Strike
Savannah port truckers organizing; Seattle fast food workers striking; Chicago teachers suing; and a bankruptcy judge’s blow to retired mineworkers. Sarah discusses the new NYC bike share program through a labor lens. Josh talks about the first prolonged strikes by US Walmart employees. And find out how to participate in Belabored’s new explainer!
A Realistic Radicalism
Gar Alperovitz argues that a return to the welfare state is now rendered impossible by globalization and ecological brinkmanship; state socialism is equally unacceptable, but something more just and viable is possible.
The Most Dangerous Court in America
The D.C. Circuit is the training ground for the Supreme Court and the place where much of the nation’s regulatory framework is decided. In its current form, it is one the most dangerous courts in the land.
Belabored Podcast #7: Social Arsonists
Josh and Sarah interview Gabriel Thompson, biographer of Fred Ross, the little-known organizer who trained Cesar Chavez. They also discuss the latest strikes by low-wage workers, a strike in Dubai of immigrant workers, & more.
Tocqueville in China
One of the most vibrant intellectual discussions in China this year, and one of the CCP’s cheapest propaganda campaigns, began with a tweet on Weibo, China’s premier micro-blogging service and anointed online town square.
The Costs of China’s Mega-Cities
In 2012 the Chinese government announced that for the first time in history, more people lived in its cities than in the countryside. It’s the result of an urbanization campaign that the country’s leadership has promoted, with spectacular results.
Belabored Podcast #6: “That Can Get You Fired”
Obama’s appointments to the National Labor Relations Board rejected, new strike authorizations, and Sarah and Josh discuss the state of fast food workers’ organizing efforts. They interview journalist Jake Blumgart about recent developments around anti-sweatshop activism, at-will employment, the future of Atlantic City, and high-stakes testing at a sushi restaurant.
Young U.S. Citizens Call on Obama to Reunite Families
On May 2, as President Obama arrived in Mexico City, hundreds gathered outside the heavily fortified United States Embassy to protest his visit, U.S. immigration policies, and U.S. economic and political influence in the region.
The Pollution Crisis and Environmental Activism in China: A Q&A with Ralph Litzinger
The last year has seen a dramatic uptick in press coverage of Chinese environmental issues. There have also been a number of books published on the subject, with more due out soon. So this seemed a good moment to get in touch with Ralph Litzinger, an anthropologist based at Duke University.
Syria: What Ought to be Done?
Many people have been criticizing President Obama for dithering over what to do in Syria. Not me; dithering seems an entirely rational response to what’s going on there. The difficulty is that we don’t really know what we want to …
China’s Youth: Do They Dare to Care about Politics?
Young people in China are divorced from their country’s recent history. With no memory of Mao Zedong, they can glean little from a censored environment. Their parents, by and large, don’t talk about their experiences
