Peter Dreier: This year’s May Day rallies will focus on issues like pushing Congress to adopt a fair budget and raise the federal minimum wage, but the central focus will be on pending legislation for immigration reform.
About Peter Dreier
Peter Dreier teaches politics and chairs the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. This article draws on the last chapter (called "The 21st Century So Far") of his book, The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame, published by Nation Books in July: http://100greatestamericans.org/
Good Timing for a Progressive Partnership
By
Peter Dreier: Progressive activists sometimes joke that if you put three lefties in the same room you’ll soon have five different organizations. Personal egos, ideological splits, and competition for funding often lead to fissures, factions, and “family” disputes.
The Real Story of Baseball’s Integration That You Won’t See in 42
By
Peter Dreier: The new film ignores the broad-based movement that helped make Jackie Robinson’s arrival in baseball possible, as well as the first black major-leaguer’s own activism.
Is the Supreme Court Going to Settle for “States’ Rights” on Same-Sex Marriage?
By
Peter Dreier: When children born this year reach voting age 18 years from now, they will take same-sex marriage for granted. And they will surely wonder how it was even possible that America once deprived gays and lesbians the right to marry.
Gay Marriage: The Tide Has Turned and There’s No Going Back
By
Peter Dreier: Although no one can be sure how the current Supreme Court justices will vote, the American public has already made up its mind. Public support for gay marriage has hit a new high.
Steve Zimmer Defeats the Billionaire Boys Club With a Cost-Effective Los Angeles School Board Campaign
By
Peter Dreier: The Zimmer-Anderson school board race attracted national attention, including articles in the New York Times, because it was seen as a test of the effort by corporate power-brokers to run schools like businesses, a strategy that they and the media misleadingly call “school reform.”
Who Are the Billionaires Trying to Defeat Steve Zimmer?
By
Peter Dreier: The outcome of Tuesday’s LA School Board District 4 election has national implications in terms of the billionaires’ battle to reconstruct public education in the corporate mold.
Why Are Walmart Billionaries Bankrolling Phony School ‘Reform’ in LA?
By
Peter Dreier: The Walton family have poured millions into a privatization-oriented, ideological campaign to make LA a laboratory for their ideas about treating schools like for-profit businesses.
Oscars Show Takes Prize for Sexism, Homophobia, Anti-Semitism, Racism
By
Peter Dreier: There were no hooded sheets, burning crosses, N-words, or “fag” jokes. But bigotry comes in various shades. Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony was ugly and unfunny.
The Grapes of Ross
By
Peter Dreier: Fred Ross Sr. was a political Johnny Appleseed, planting his ideas, and hoping they’d bear fruit in the future. Ross once said, “A good organizer is a social arsonist — one who goes around setting people on fire.”
Rosa Parks: Angry, Not Tired
By
Peter Dreier: Rosa Parks’ defiance of Montgomery’s segregation laws was not an isolated incident. It was part of a lifelong crusade to dismantle Jim Crow.
Obama Asks America to Learn the Radical Lessons of Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall
By
Peter Dreier: The President’s inaugural speech invites us to organize and mobilize to build on the power of grassroots organizing and social movements he invoked by referring to Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall.
Martin Luther King Was a Radical, Not a Saint
By
Peter Dreier: it is easy to forget that in his day, in his own country, King was considered a dangerous troublemaker. He was harassed by the FBI and vilified in the media.
Mainstream Media Downplay NRA’s Close Ties to Gun Industry
By
Peter Dreier: when reporters use adjectives to describe the NRA, they don’t call it an “industry-backed” or “gun manufacturers-funded” group. Instead, they describe the NRA in terms of its political clout, calling it “powerful,” “influential,” “deep pocketed and widely feared”
25 Best Progressive Victories in 2012
By
Peter Dreier: Progressives are rarely satisfied. It is part of our political DNA. There’s so much injustice in the world, it’s sometimes hard to feel that we’re making progress. But as Chinese philosopher Laozi reminded us, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Eleanor: The Radical Roosevelt Deserves Her Own Worthy Film
By
Peter Dreier: Eleanor Roosevelt, an important historical figure, has never been depicted in movies, including “Hyde Park on Hudson” accurately. It’s about time!
New York Times Puffs Fix The Debt Corporate Lobby
By
Peter Dreier: Peterson’s Fix the Debt agenda would simply exacerbate the recent trends of widening inequality and declining living standards for most Americans, a chasm we haven’t seen since the Gilded Age of the late 1800s. This so-called “solution” is bad for the economy and bad for the country.
How NRA’s Wayne LaPierre Got the Media to Change the Subject.
By
Peter Dreier: It is time for the media to bury Wayne LaPierre where he belongs — in the business section, not the front pages.
NRA’s Wayne LaPierre: Public Enemy #1
By
Peter Dreier: The blood of the 26 victims of the Connecticut shooting, including 20 young children, is on LaPierre’s hands. He didn’t pull the trigger, but he’s the NRA’s hit man when it comes to intimidating elected officials to oppose any kind of gun control and the nation’s most vocal advocate of gun owner rights.
Fifty Young Progressive Activists Who Are Changing America
By
Peter Dreier: In the next decade, America will be transformed by a new wave of progressive activism, led primarily by organizers, thinkers, and politicians born after 1960.
Tom Hayden at Oxy Thursday Night – “From the 1960s to Barack Obama: What Now?”
By
Tom Hayden will be speaking at Occidental College this Thursday on the topic, on “From the 1960s to Barack Obama: What Now?”
Activists Try to Stop Banks From Foreclosing on Cancer Victims
By
Peter Dreier: Wells Fargo Bank and US Bank have chosen to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month by trying to evict breast cancer survivors from their homes.
Why I’m Boycotting Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Book
By
Peter Dreier: People of conscience don’t have to buy his books or buy tickets to his movies, and can urge others to do likewise. He is an embarrassment to all Californians.
Look for the Union Label for Your Labor Day BBQ
By
Peter Dreier: Labor Day should be a celebration of the labor movement’s accomplishments and a reminder that there are still workers struggling to improve life for their families, communities and society.
Farm Worker Heat Death: California’s Harvest of Shame
By
Peter Dreier: Last week the temperature in California’s Central Valley went above 110 degrees. Can you imagine laboring in weather like that with the searing sun beating down on you for 8-10-12 hours a day?
My Five Minutes with Bill O’Reilly
By
Peter Dreier: It was clear from the get-go last night that Bill didn’t want to talk about Pete Seeger. He wanted to talk about why I called him a “right-wing buffoon”
Mitt’s Mansions, the Foreclosure Crisis, and the Election
By
Peter Dreier: TBy taking on the banking lobby, and helping millions of homeowners who are suffering because of Wall Street’s risky and illegal practices, Obama will help guarantee his re-election in November.
Is Barack Obama a Radical Socialist, a Pro-Business Sell-Out, Both, or Neither?
By
Peter Dreier: These contradictory views of Obama reflect not only the nation’s ideological chasm but also a country whose stances on economic and social issues are constantly in flux.
Billie Jean King and Remarkable Success of Title IX
By
Peter Dreier: But as we celebrate yesterday’s 40th anniversary of Title IX — the path-breaking law that opened up more opportunities for girls and women in education and in sports — we should recognize the extraordinary courage and leadership of Billie Jean King.
Rosa Parks and Mother Teresa: Justice vs. Charity
By
Peter Dreier: Rosa Parks deserves to be in the same human rights pantheon as Bishop Romero and Eleanor Roosevelt. But not Mother Teresa.
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
Recent Comments