July 9, 2021

From the NYT: “Pandemic Wave of Automation May Be Bad News for Workers.” The need for social distancing led restaurants and grocery stores to seek technological help. That may improve productivity but could also cost jobs.

From Politico: “Workers are reaping benefits in the post-Covid economy. But their power may not last.” Quoting Andy Levin’s remarks in the article: “I think the gains of workers will be evanescent…they will not last.” Translation for our side: the window for organizing these workers may be smaller than we would like.

For example (NYT again): The current alignment of late-pandemic, social-justice-oriented, early-Biden administration politics could help create the conditions [in Seattle] for an empowered, well-organized workforce capable of challenging Amazon. 

Easy segue: Our comrade Sarah Leonard reviews the latest book on Amazon and its discontents: “[Alec] MacGillis’s book belongs to the age of devastating inequality, with a sense that the United States is not just unequal but divided in its politics and values, perhaps united only by an extreme skepticism that democratic governance is anything but a joke.” From the New Republic via Portside.

From the AP: “Six Months after Capitol Assault, Corporate Pledges Fall Flat” … Dozens of big companies, citing their commitment to democracy, pledged to avoid donating money to the 147 lawmakers who objected to Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s victory … [but] it was largely an empty one. Six months later, many of those companies have resumed funneling cash to political action committees that benefit the election efforts of lawmakers whether they objected to the election certification or not.”

From our Maryland comrade Bill Fletcher Jr, touted by Duane Campbell in the North Star blog: an essay on how to create a narrative of radical success using a famous formula.

Our comrade Brian W notes that labor is demanding more power around the world, and in some cases succeeding in countries struggling with the “resource curse.”

MDC DSA comrades have been talking about and swapping around on Slack this 1986 (!) Michael Parenti video “so-called poor countries” — “you don’t go to poor countries to make money … countries are rich … it’s the people who are poor.” A good example of how the facts of corporate imperialism are constants.