OK, so I went to see the latest Michael Moore movie (Capitalism: A Love Story) last night. It was basically what I expected - progressive politics presented through an effective mixture of laughter and pathos. As always, Moore asks good questions; has good points to make about the shortcomings of our… Read full post »

As OS readers may know, Toyota announced about a month ago that it plans to pull out of the plant in Fremont, California that it operates together with GM under the aegis of a joint venture called NUMMI. This plant employs thousands of people. Supplying the needs of the plant, its… Read full post »

By Charles Rachlis and Organian

The authors are California state employees currently experiencing mandatory furloughs, as well as members of Humanists for Revolutionary Socialism.

In his quixotic quest for ways to balance the deficit-ridden California budget without imposing any part of the burden on… Read full post »

Sorry I've been away so long from OS. I've missed a lot, I'm sure, and there's no way I can catch up. My "political matrix" has acquired an international connection, and that has taken up a lot of my time. Here's a sample of the sort of thing we've been working on.  … Read full post »

Rather than repeat here what Charles Rachlis posted on this subject - which is a collaborative effort among Charles, me, and two others - I will simply link it here and ask my readers to click over to Charles's OS blog and read it - and comment - there. I've turned… Read full post »

(UTLA's "No Layoffs" Logo)

The United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), which represents 48,000 public school teachers and health and human services professionals in the Los Angeles area, has voted overwhelmingly to hold a one-day strike on May 15 to protest against the school district's planned l/… Read full post »

In many countries all over the world - not just in the former USSR - today, May Day, is celebrated as International Workers' Day. Even here in the US, today will be marked in many cities with marches, rallies, speeches, and other events in honor of working people. May Day has… Read full post »

As the economic crisis continues, unemployment and foreclosure rates rise, and government programs are threatened with drastic budget cuts, many people are looking for some way they can fight back and preserve their standard of living against further erosion. By now it must be clear even to those who… Read full post »

 I managed to come up with two this week.

How to get me hot?
Whisper these names in my ear:
Marx, Lenin, Trotsky

Mingling of bodies
Each lusting, each lusted for
Love dialectics Read full post »

In the picket line,
Surreptitious caresses.
Now, private union. Read full post »

In case there's anyone out there in the OS community who has wondered where I've been for the last - well, almost a week now: Thanks for thinking of me. I'm back. I missed you, too. Medical issues - pressing and temporarily debilitating, but minor, eminently fixable and not at all serious,… Read full post »

Inspired by the (relative) success of yesterday's political sonnet, I am following it up today, in honor of Dirty Haiku Thursday, with the following political dirty haiku:

 "Obscene": What is it?
Hard cock meets welcoming cunt
Or a homeless child? Read full post »

Normally I don't participate in the purely fun-and-games stuff on OS - though I do enjoy reading it when I have time (gotta love that Freaky Troll!). But the sonnet thing that's going around now gives me a chance to participate without breaking my vow only to post politically related blog entrie… Read full post »

Almost three months ago, I (among others on Open Salon) blogged here about the occupation of the Republic Windows & Doors factory by its workers, who were laid off without the severance pay legally owed to them by the owners. Three months later, it appears that the workers have come out… Read full post »

On Thursday January 29, France experienced what the UK Guardian termed "the first general strike to hit a major industrialised nation since the start of the global financial crisis." Millions of workers stayed off their jobs and took to the streets instead, demanding that the French government h… Read full post »

Just a quick note - with apologies - I haven't had much time to spend here lately, and there are a lot of things I would have like to say that have gone unsaid. But here's one I couldn't pass up.

Just out of curiosity, I took a look at the… Read full post »

I was asked recently, in response to a comment I posted on someone else's blog, what I am doing to effect positive change in society. I answered the question there (see this link), and also addressed the same issue in a comment on another blog (here), but it does raise a… Read full post »

Introductory Note: People who have read my blog before may notice that this post is not in my usual style. It is a statement written by a friend, who asked me to post it here on his behalf, because he neither has, nor wants to have, a blog of his own.… Read full post »

Today's news brought a very interesting AP story, as reported on the San Francisco Chronicle's webpage, here.

The workers are only demanding the vacation and severance pay they are owed, rather than demanding that the plant be turned over to them for operation under their control. Still - it's a… Read full post »

In their comments on my post about how I define socialism, Wayne Gallant and Flammable opined, or at least implied, that what I described is an unattainable utopia because it does not take into account the greed inherent in human nature. I wanted to write more about "human nature" and socialism… Read full post »

There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about what “socialism” means, particularly among Americans, who generally have no direct experience even with the faint echo of it that can be discerned in European-style social democracy. (See Charles Rachlis’s post “Why do Ame… Read full post »

[Updated to change title from "Human Nature" to "Human Behavior"] 

Ok. I said I wasn’t going to post until after the election was over. And although I have written some posts since I said that, they haven’t squarely related to the reasons I originally started this bl… Read full post »

A question about the New Deal came up during a discussion at dinner the other night that no one there could answer. I called my mom, who has a doctorate in American history and lived through the New Deal as a teen, and she couldn’t answer it either. So I’m throwing… Read full post »

As it does like clockwork every four years, organized labor supported the Democrats in this presidential election, and if anything, their support for Obama was even more enthusiastic than usual.  According to a post-election article in Bloomberg News, for example, organized labor spent more than… Read full post »