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Occupy Cleveland – circa 2011-10-21 “Welcome to the Plutonomy Machine,” began a 2005 report by three Citigroup analysts to their investor clients.1 The report called the United States a “plutonomy” — an “economy powered by the wealthy,” where “there is no such animal as ‘the U.S. Consumer’ …” There are rich consumers, few in number, […]

On the last day of March, Ohio governor John Kasich signed the Republicans’ anti-democratic law, Senate Bill 5 (SB5). Soon after, a citizens alliance began using the state’s democratic public referendum law to repeal it.1 9 With 40-some clauses that weaken workers and their unions, SB5 practically cancels the public worker’s right to collective bargaining, […]

My 85-year-old father, whom we call “Pappy,” has his land line telephone service with AT&T. Last spring, AT&T sent Pappy a DSL modem and a brochure with a cheery welcome to its internet service. But he hadn’t ordered it. And when we realized that neither had any of his children ordered it, Pappy sent the […]

The Speed-Up “I wanted a union not so much for the money,” said line worker Peter Schmitz, “I wanted a union … to have a little say so about the speed of that line. Like I say you couldn’t do quality work, it just wasn’t possible that you could do quality work the way you […]