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We Are One: Remembering King’s Struggle for Labor Rights

by Michael Honey

“It is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.  And I need not remind you this is our plight as a people all over America.” – Martin Luther King in Memphis, March 18, 1968April 4 marks forty-three years since an assassin killed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis.  That date has special meaning this year. “We Are One” events all over the U.S. are fighting for collective bargaining rights, and more broadly, a reversal of

Can't We Afford to Teach Civics Any Longer? Can We Afford Not to?

by Richard Dreyfuss

"An American government exam taken by all high school students in Maryland would be eliminated next year under the proposed state budget, a surprising shift in policy that comes just three years after the test was made a graduation requirement. Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal cuts $1.9 million from the Maryland State Department of Education budget that would pay for the test and its grading. ... Some educators expressed immediate concern that social studies would get less attention in high schoo

Haley Barbour’s “Nixon to China” Opportunity on Race

by Chris Myers Asch

“Run, Haley, Run!” cry many conservatives searching for a champion in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Unions Could Turn Wisconsin into a Big Victory

by Julius G. Getman

The union movement faces a crisis. It has failed to organize effectively in the private sector, and public-sector unions, which contain the majority of union members, are under attack across the country.  Wisconsin has led the

Anti-Union Measures About Power, Not Money

by Melvyn Dubofsky

The battle that is currently being waged in four Midwestern states—Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan—by Republicans against public employees, their unions, and their Democratic supporters is not about state bud

Illegal Immigration and the Dilemma of American Unions

by Vernon M. Briggs, Jr.

Over its long and often turbulent evolution, the American labor movement has confronted few issues as persistently and as difficult has those related t

National Education Standards: Here They Come Again!

by Kevin R. Kosar

Remarkably, Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, has come out in favor of national education standards (Washington Post, February 16, 2009).  She declared that “Abundant evidence suggests that common, rigorous standards lead to more students reaching higher levels of achievement.”  She decried “the uneven patchwork of academic standards for students” across America, and asked, “Should fate, as determined by a student's Zip code, dictate how much algebra he or she is taught?”

The Peace Movement Today

by Lawrence S. Wittner

Recently, when commentators have bothered to notice the American peace movement, they have pronounced it dead.  But this is far from the case.

How Public School Budget Cuts Herald the End of Equality in the United States

by Mark Naison

Throughout the United States, the nation’s public school system is being savaged by budget cuts that will make a mockery of federal legislation designed to reduce the achievement gap between children in low-income and high-income districts.  In Detroit, the school district has been told by the state to close half of its schools to close a $347 million deficit, leading to high school classes that could contain as many as sixty students.  Providence, RI just handed out pi

Michelle Obama's Support of Breastfeeding is No Slippery Slope to a "Nanny State"

by Janet Golden

Remembering Frank Buckles, the Last Doughboy of World War I

by Jeffrey S. Reznick

Last weekend, America lost its sole surviving “doughboy” of World War I, Frank Buckles. His death marks a poignant moment in our nation’s history.  With his passing, our direct and living connection to the Great War is now gone, leaving only artifacts, images, memorials, and words to link us to the “War to End All Wars” and to the nearly 4.5 million men who wore the American uniform in that conflict. The First World War was the first chapter i

It’s 1968 All Over Again, and King’s Fight For Unions Is Still Essential

by Michael Honey

In light of the clash of wills in Wisconsin, we should remember the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One of King’s slogans that we rarely hear is this one: “all la

Wisconsin: A History of Leading the Nation for Better or Worse

by Nancy C. Unger

Wisconsin doesn't often provide political leadership at the national level, but when it does, it's like that old nursery rhyme about the little girl w

Lessons for Wisconsin From the Flint Sit-Down Strikes of 1936-37

by Mark Naison

With the state legislature in Wisconsin occupied and surrounded by thousands of state workers and their supporters, and with schools closed throughout the state because of teachers calling in sick, I cannot help but think of the greatest strike and building occupation in the history of the American labor movement—the Flint Sit-Down Strikes of 1936-37.  Though the Wisconsin struggle is being led by government workers, and the Flint strikes involved workers involved in automobile producti

College Athletic Reform and Presidential Cheerleaders

by Ronald A. Smith

“College presidents,” stated Harvard’s long-time president in 1905,” certainly cannot reform football.”  How prophetic.History has shown the wisdom of Harvard’

A California Resource Worth Protecting: The UC System's Global Writers

by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

In this fast-changing, increasingly interconnected world, it's difficult to stay an informed global citizen. To remain on top of things, you need a strategy for swiftly getting up to speed whenever parts of the world you previously knew little about begin making headlines, as Haiti did last year and countries of North Africa have in 2011. I've found that one useful strategy, whenever a new setting commands attention, is to come up with the name of someone with a demonstrated a

Is Test-Driven Educational Reform Sapping the Joy in Learning from the Nation’s Classrooms?

by Mark Naison

Sometime during my childhood, probably before the age of eight, I fell in love with learning new things.  Maybe it was the trips to the Bronx Zoo and the Museum of Natural History I took with my parents; maybe it was the explosions I made with my chemistry set (which today would mark me as a future terrorist!); maybe it the wonder of reading about dinosaurs and how humans evolved from apes; maybe it was the excitement of memorizing the capitals of every state and the batting averages o

Glenn Beck’s Next Target after Piven: Nixon?

by Tamar W. Carroll

Glenn Beck not only distorts history but his warped view of the past has made it almost impossible for us to discuss seriously the appropriate role of the government in providing for the general welfare as well as the rights and responsibilities of citizens.  For much of the twentieth century, Republicans and Democrats shared a belief in basic American fairness and the desirability of improving the lot of all Americans.  They also recognized the right of citizens to public expression

Michael Vick and the Politics of Prison Redemption

by Jennifer Graber

Michael Vick won’t be playing in the Super Bowl next week.  But The Sporting News recently named him the Comeback Player of the Year.  In December, President Obama reportedly called the owner of the Ph

History Left Behind in Education

by Ronald W. Evans

History in the nation’s schools is in trouble, plagued by a business-driven reform emphasizing coverage and test scores over quality, depth, and meaning.  What has resulted in many classrooms might best be de