inthesetimes

AIPAC and allied groups have spent nearly $30 million backing Haley Stevens, while her campaign has outspent Abdul El-Sayed 12 to 1.

Danny Postel reports on the money, coalitions and stakes in Michigan’s Senate primary.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/abdul-el-sayed-haley-stevens-michigan-senate-primary-democratic-party

“Not a single nail will leave.”

Sarah Lazare reports that Genoa dockworkers made that promise as the Global Sumud Flotilla sailed for Gaza—then helped turn it into port blockades and general strikes against war on Iran and genocide in Gaza.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/dockworkers-six-countries-announce-port-strikes-october-30

Americans are still working long hours, with no federal guarantee of paid vacation, sick days or parental leave.

Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon revisit the long fight for shorter hours—and why a 32-hour week will require organized labor with the power to win it.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/four-day-work-week-labor-unions-juliet-schor

“They're doing this with the active assistance of the U.S. and financial assistance from, up until very recently, institutions like the UAW.”

UAW delegates have voted to divest $400,000 in Israel bonds—a historic first for the union.

Maximillian Alvarez talks with the rank-and-file workers who helped make it happen.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/united-auto-workers-divests-from-israel-uaw-palestine-gaza

Crypto investors are calling their own industry an “unlicensed casino.” Meanwhile, AI-generated fiction is becoming training material for more AI.

Miles Kampf-Lassin checks in on the strange machinery of late capitalism.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/crypto-ai-hallucination-late-capitalism

Trump launches a war, possibly ends it, demands a Nobel Peace Prize and prepares to get back to terrorizing immigrants.

Tom Tomorrow follows the self-proclaimed dealmaker’s logic to its bleak conclusion.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/trump-comic-tom-tomorrow-iran-deal-strait-of-hormuz-deal

"What’s for dinner tonight?"

"Chart."

Alex Hood takes aim at the experts who confuse rising markets with a functioning economy.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/itt-comics-alex-hood-bloodless-quant

A labor movement capable of changing people’s lives needs organizers, durable institutions & journalism willing to follow the struggle closely.

Become a sustainer at $25/month by August 7 & claim one of 10 signed copies of Hamilton Nolan's The Hammer: https://bit.ly/itthammer

Michigan’s Senate primary has become a national test of the Democratic Party’s future.

Danny Postel reports from Metro Detroit on the contest between Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens—and the communities that could decide it.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/abdul-el-sayed-haley-stevens-michigan-senate-primary-democratic-party

From Genoa to Tangier, dockworkers have been refusing weapons shipments, shutting down ports and answering calls from Palestinian trade unionists for international labor action.

Sarah Lazare reports that unions in six countries are organizing with the demand: “Public resources must be used to meet people’s social needs, not to finance war.”

https://inthesetimes.com/article/dockworkers-six-countries-announce-port-strikes-october-30

The AI boom is also a military buildup. Sarah Lazare reports on the Pentagon money reshaping Silicon Valley, and the tech workers risking their jobs to resist the use of their labor for surveillance, detention and war.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/ai-military-tech-workers-palantir

“Labor could establish Amazon Aid Centers in the metro areas where Amazon operates multiple facilities.”

The Missouri Workers Center is already experimenting with the idea. Rand Wilson and Peter Olney make the case for taking that organizing model nationwide.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/amazon-labor-organizers-fight-for-15-seiu-teamsters-union

Texas’ boarding home system fills a gap for people who can’t afford nursing homes or access other long-term care. An investigation by Ottavia Spaggiari documents what can happen when that gap is filled by facilities with few guardrails.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/texas-boarding-homes-elderly-disability-justice-healthcare-investigation-nursing-neglect-abuse

A peace deal can promise withdrawal, reconstruction and an end to war. But the machinery built around Gaza’s destruction doesn’t disappear with an announcement—and neither do the corporations that armed it, enabled it and profited from it.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/gaza-palestine-israel-genocide-tech-elon-musk

New York’s attorney general is now suing Kalshi, alleging the platform is running an illegal gambling operation.

Hadas Thier saw the larger story clearly: prediction markets are turning everything from elections to wars into wagers.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/prediction-markets-kalshi-polymarket-inflation-silicon-valley-capitalism

“When I realized I wasn’t going to be allowed to leave…”

Angelique Estes’ account opens onto a larger investigation of Texas boarding homes, where Ottavia Spaggiari reports that vulnerable residents can face neglect, abuse, and little oversight.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/texas-boarding-homes-elderly-disability-justice-healthcare-investigation-nursing-neglect-abuse

A 4-day work week sounds great. But workers didn’t win the 8-hour day because employers suddenly became generous.

Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon look at what it would take to make shorter hours a durable right—not a workplace experiment.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/four-day-work-week-labor-unions-juliet-schor

“It can be a powerful practice, with deep possibility for personal and political transformation—if we face what we’re mourning.”

For Tisha B’Av, Andrue Kahn and Dania Rajendra asked what grief can reveal—and what it can make possible.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/grief-as-a-rupture

“Abolition provides toolkits to think about harm, our responsibilities to stop harm, and our responses to harm when inflicted.”

For Calvin John Smiley, organized labor can provide a base for putting those principles into practice.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/julio-foolio-unions-and-sweat-equity

Every federal arts dollar draws $9 in nongovernment support. But the NEA’s inflation-adjusted budget has fallen sharply since 1980. J. Patrick Patterson argues that art should be treated as civic infrastructure.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-big-idea-publicly-funded-art

For every $1 million spent on the military, 6.1 jobs are created.

The same amount spent on healthcare creates 11.6 jobs. Education creates 17.1.

Sarah Lazare looks at the trade-offs of America’s permanent war state.

Copublished with Workday Magazine

https://inthesetimes.com/article/permanent-war-state-iran-workers-struggle

From @redemmas@kolektiva.social in Baltimore to Pilsen Community Books in Chicago, J. Patrick Petterson reports, radical booksellers are building democratically governed spaces where the public is invited to do more than shop: to gather, learn, and organize.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/cooperative-bookstores-big-idea-collective-sustainability

As workers around the country hit the streets for May Day, the question of power is hard to miss: Who gets to disrupt the economy, and for whose benefit?

Art by @mcfadden@mastodon.social

May Day is Friday, and the question is urgent: “When do we shift from mass mobilizations to mass economic action?”

Alex Han looks at the latest coordinated strikes and militancy, arguing that a general strike may be less impossible than it sounds.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/alex-han-general-strike-trump-brandon-johnson-chicago-minnestora-shut-down

A 50% rent hike hit Pilsen Community Books. Instead of closing, the co-op relocated and expanded its role as a radical bookstore, community hub, classroom and organizing space.

J. Patrick Patterson reports.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/radical-booksellers-community-organizing-cooperative-