Bill Bumpus Somerville MA - An injury to one is an injury to all

Authorities are investigating nearly 100 letters containing a mysterious white powder that were addressed to several Republican lawmakers in Kansas, with the sender referring to themselves in the letters as “your secret despirer.” What do you think?

Read more...

CHESTERFIELD, MO—Stating there was nothing he wanted more in the entire world than to be incarcerated in the eastern European nation, local 13-year-old Aiden Wilson was reportedly begging his parents Wednesday to let him go to Romanian prison. “Come on, Mom, you have to let me go—it’s where Andrew Tate is,” said…

Read more...

WASHINGTON—Underscoring the impact of the pandemic on student learning, a new study released Wednesday by the Department of Education found that most U.S. students are unable to name all 50 numbers. “Assessments taken from students during the 2022 to 2023 school year showed that the majority of students can only name…

Read more...

LOS ANGELES—The internet was lit ablaze with fierce debate Wednesday morning as cooking podcast host Lisa Quinn was reportedly under fire for her controversial claim that vaccines give you potatoes. “I’m just saying that there is data indicating that there are otherwise healthy people, kids even, who get vaccinated,…

Read more...

Commentator Joe Rogan has a history of making contentious and problematic remarks on his incredibly popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. The Onion examines some of his most controversial statements.

Read more...

KALAMATA, GREECE—With time running out to ensure that no one made it out alive, emergency crews were dispatched Wednesday to help a boat full of refugees sink. “As soon as it became clear that a ship off the coast was carrying displaced peoples from the Middle East and North Africa, we immediately rushed into action…

Read more...

ATLANTIC OCEAN—In the midst of a frantic search for the missing OceanGate submersible on Wednesday, rescue teams reportedly detected the sound of Savage Garden’s “Truly, Madly, Deeply” playing underwater. “We have yet to identify the source, but nearby the site of Titan’s disappearance, we began picking up the upbeat…

Read more...

DAYTON, OH—In a scenario that bystanders referred to as ripped directly from the pages of Isaac Asimov, a real-life science fiction premise reportedly played out Wednesday as local man Gregory Winters employed a so-called mechanical pencil. “Why, it’s as if the lead is spontaneously generating from that—what was…

Read more...

Pride Month Profiles: Ally Burt

For Pride Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various LGBTQ+ union members who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Ally Burt of the Fire Fighters (IAFF).

Ally Burt serves as an at-large executive board member for IAFF Local 644 in Lincoln, Nebraska. She also serves on the Nebraska State AFL-CIO executive board. Burt actively participates in charitable giving events sponsored by her local.

Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 06/21/2023 - 10:43

Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Phoenix Becomes Second 'Drunk Shakespeare' Company to Organize with Equity

Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Actors, stage managers, bartenders and servers for "Drunk Shakespeare" in Phoenix became the second company of the franchise to organize with the Actors’ Equity Association (Equity). Chicago's company joined several weeks ago. Workers for the Phoenix production unanimously chose to unionize to pursue achievable solutions to recurring problems. “We learn so much from each other—collaboration and communication make the show better and make the workplace better," said Clara Kundin, a performer in "Drunk Shakespeare" Phoenix. “Going Equity means we can pull from a greater pool of actors next time we’re hiring. Union workplaces are strong workplaces.”   

Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 06/21/2023 - 10:03

TALLAHASSEE, FL—In an effort to connect with voters while on the 2024 campaign trail, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) ended a fundraiser Tuesday by approaching a World War II veteran and shaking his tongue. Several reports indicated that the governor first noticed the D-Day veteran at the press event, at which point he…

Read more...

Illinois has become the first state to legislate against the banning of books in public libraries, a practice that has been on the rise across the United States as conservatives look to suppress some books dealing with race, history, and LGBTQ topics. What do you think?

Read more...

WASHINGTON—Calling the venture the first step in a sweeping plan to transform the nation’s infrastructure, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Wednesday a $1 billion investment in horses. “Horses can walk on all types of terrains, which is great because it means we won’t need roads,” said Secretary of…

Read more...

SEATTLE—Debuting a new, streamlined classification system, librarians at the Seattle Central Library announced Wednesday that they have officially dropped the Dewey Decimal System in favor of organizing all titles under “B” for books. “This is going to make things so much easier for staff, as well as for patrons who…

Read more...

Move over, wine moms, there’s a new type of negligent parent in town. If you happen to know a mother who smokes cannabis, here are things you should never say.

Read more...

DES MOINES, IA—Accusing the woman of engaging in a “questionable” amount of work on her emotional wellbeing, sources confirmed Wednesday that local 30-year-old Emma Offner was getting a little old for self-discovery. “Trying to learn anything new about yourself past the age of, like, 26 is honestly super cringy,” said…

Read more...

Last week, on a visit to Washington, D.C., I spent some time in two new museums and walked away wondering why we don’t have museums like that in the U.K.

The first was the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This museum, established by an act of Congress in 2003 and finally opened just seven years ago, is enormously popular. It tells the story of the Black experience in America, from slave ships right up until the Black Lives Matter movement. One cannot walk through its many rooms and not be moved.

Some of the rooms warn the visitor: a thick red border around an image is likely to prompt strong feelings of discomfort. This was particularly true in a room about lynchings, where many images made for difficult viewing.

Equally moving were the videos and photos of the civil rights leaders, including Dr Martin Luther King and many lesser-known ones—Bayard Rustin, who organised the 1963 March on Washington and his mentor A. Philip Randolph were both given attention — though it was not mentioned that either was a socialist.

The main message of the museum infuriates all of Donald Trump’s supporters in its unflinching depiction of the horror of centuries of slavery, oppression and racism. To the American Right, the museum would be seen as a terrible example of ‘woke’. To the rest of us, it’s indispensable.

The second museum, also new but not nearly as crowded, was the National Museum of the American Indian. This massive museum at the heart of the national capital tells a painful story of conquest, betrayal and, ultimately, genocide.

I thought I knew my American history pretty well. Still, I learned much — including the full horror of the ‘trail of tears’, which was the forced expulsion of vast numbers of indigenous people from their traditional homelands.

Visiting these two museums, I could not help but wonder if they would survive a second Trump term in the White House — indeed, I’m surprised they survived a first one. The strong negative message both museums conveyed — by telling the truth, I should add — is the opposite of the ‘make America great again’ story told by the Republican Party (and not only by Trump).

But I also began to think about why we don’t have national museums in our capital about the history of the British Empire.

Liverpool has a museum about slavery, but that only tells part of the story. And there’s a narrative told by some British politicians that it’s a good story — a story of how moral leaders like William Wilberforce ended the slave trade and the positive role played by the Royal Navy in enforcing the ban.

Museums like the Imperial War Museum exist to teach a version of British history that culminates in 1945. One does not admire Spitfire aircraft at the RAF Museum or walk on the decks of the H.M.S. Belfast on the Thames to get a critical view of British history.

It’s almost impossible to imagine a large national museum in the centre of London that would take on the truth about the British Empire in far-away lands in Africa and Asia or the history of British rule closer to home, in Ireland.

The two museums I visited in Washington gave prominence to Nat Turner, a slave who led a bloody rebellion against his masters, and Sitting Bull, the warrior chief whose troops dealt a shattering blow to the U.S. Army in the battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.

Can one imagine a museum here in Britain that would tell the story of Bobby Sands and the other Irish Republican prisoners and their hunger strike? Or the Amritsar massacre in India in 1919? Or the establishment of concentration camps during the Boer War?

The history of the British Empire provides just as many examples of oppression and resistance as does U.S. history, but there is little appetite to show these off here. And yet, if we are to counter the false narrative promoted by Tory historians who carry on endlessly about the problem of ‘woke’ history, maybe we need to consider doing what the Americans have done.

Maybe it’s time for a national museum about the British Empire.

This article appears in this week’s issue of Solidarity.

LabourStart headline - Source: MD Matters

LabourStart headline - Source: ID Capital Sun

LabourStart headline - Source: UNI Global Union