Fresh audio product: broligarchs and their scribes, the New York intellectuals
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): January 30, 2025 Eoin Higgins, author of Owned, on tech moguls and the journalists, like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi, who work for them • Ronnie Grinberg, author of Write Like a Man, on the mostly male, mostly Jewish New York intellectuals
More on union density: who and where
A follow-up to yesterday’s post about historical trends in union density. Today, a look at demographics and geography. Once upon a time, the stereotypical union member was a factory worker. That hasn’t been the case for a long time. In 2024, manufacturing accounted for 10% employment and only 8% of union membership. In 1983, the numbers were very different: 22% of employment and 30% of union membership. Last year, not quite 8% of manufacturing workers were unionized—higher than private services, where it’s under 6%—but that’s down hard from 28% in 1983. demographics… Read More
Unions lose some more
Here are the headlines for my last five writeups of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual accounting of union density: Union density: yet another low (2020) Pandemic boosts union density (2021) Union membership resumes its fall (2022) Union density keeps falling (2023) Unions had a flat 2023 (2024). It’s not hard to detect a theme here: near-relentless decline. The only recent up year was 2021, which came about because more nonunion workers lost their jobs than union workers during the worst months of the pandemic, raising the density numbers. (Density is the… Read More
The Gaza ceasefire: an interview with Mouin Rabbani
This is a lightly edited transcript of an interview that I did with Mouin Rabbani on the January 23, 2025, edition of Behind the News. Rabbani is a journalist and analyst with a deep understanding of the Middle East. He has served as Principal Political Affairs Officer with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group. He is the co-editor of Jadaliyya, an ezine that covers the region, where he also hosts its Connections podcast. I asked Rabbani to comment on… Read More
Fresh audio product: Gaza ceasefire, sex work today
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): January 23, 2025 Mouin Rabbani on the Gaza ceasefire and Trump’s plans for the Middle East • Angela Jones and Bernadette Barton, co-editors of Sex Work Today, on that topic
Tariff follies
Our new emperor has a well-advertised love of tariffs. They appeal to his grandiosity, as dramatic imperial gestures that will bring the world to heel at no cost to Americans, given his stubborn delusion that foreigners, not consumers, pay the duties. Should he carry through with his threats to slap 10%, 20%, 30%, tariffs on imports—many of them on products that aren’t even made here, so there aren’t any domestic substitutes—prices will rise significantly, quite the turn for a guy who ran against Bidenflation. I’ve written about Trump’s tariffs for Jacobin, notably… Read More
Fresh audio product: SF’s tech bro saviors, the Resnicks and California water
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): January 16, 2025 Laura Jedeed, author of this article, talks about San Francisco and tech moguls’ plans to “fix” it • Yasha Levine, co-director of Pistachio Wars, on the Resnicks and water in California
Fresh audio product: the Y2K era, S Korea’s political crisis
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): January 9, 2025 Colette Shade, author of Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything, on culture at the turn of the millennium • Tim Shorrock discusses the political crisis in South Korea
Fresh audio product: best of 2024
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): January 2, 2025 A look back at highlights of 2024. Three interviews on Israel’s many wars: Rashid Khalidi and Pankaj Mishra with a historical perspective, and Annelle Sheline adds a former insider’s view. Then, Aziz Rana on the awfulness of the US constitution, Anna Kornbluh with a cultural critique of immediacy, and Brooke Harrington on the offshore money-hiding racket. Concluding with a memorial to Jane McAlevey.
LBO News from Doug Henwood 