Randy Shaw: Alice Walton and her family have earned riches by denying workers adequate benefits and living wages. What the museum really needs is a large painting of a Wal-Mart worker suffering from unmet health problems,
Occupy Movement, Labor on Collision Course with Obama
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Randy Shaw: If President Obama and fellow Democrats agree to a deficit reduction deal that cuts Medicare, Social Security, and other programs serving the 99%, expect an electoral calamity for Democrats in 2012.
Occupy Movement Enlists New Activists for Social Change Struggles
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Randy Shaw: Occupy has gone beyond the usual suspects and given a new generation of activists a desperately needed vehicle for advancing progressive change.
Obamacare Offers Path for Obama’s Re-Election
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Randy Shaw: If voters believe that Obama’s re-election is essential to preserve national health care reform – which, for all of its shortcomings, is better than the status quo and is popular with voters – the President has a path to victory.
Occupy Movement Must Resist Pressure for Specific Demands
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Randy Shaw: You know that Occupy Wall Street and its local, national and international progeny have reached a level of success when everyone is offering advice. Unfortunately, the most commonly offered view – that activists must get specific about their demands – is entirely wrong.
Why Nonviolent Resistance Beats Armed Struggles for Regime Change
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Randy Shaw: But as much as the Left has romanticized Castro’s armed overthrow of the Bautista regime, and Ho Chi Minh’s military defeat of the United States to unite Vietnam, in most cases violence is less likely to achieve revolutionary change than nonviolent strategies.
Defying Skeptics, Occupy Wall Street is Winning Over Mainstream
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Randy Shaw: A surprising shift has occurred in mainstream attitudes toward the openly anti-corporate Occupy movement: after first ignoring and then downplaying the effort, skepticism has given way to praise.
Labor Occupies Wall Street, But Democrats Go in Reverse
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As the grassroots campaign against Wall Street grows, Democratic politicians are moving in the opposite direction. President Obama has secured the House Republican support necessary to pass three trade bills strongly opposed by organized labor and most Democrats. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who like Obama was elected with huge labor funding and ground support, [...]
What Activists Can Learn From Occupy Wall Street
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Randy Shaw: The greatest lesson of Occupy Wall Street is hard to dispute: many have not given up hopes for real progressive change, and are now more likely to focus outside the electoral process.
Has the Obama of 2008 Really Returned?
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Randy Shaw: If Obama were really committed to showing that he backs real change he could start by withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. That would certainly send the type of people-first message that Americans long to hear.
Brooklyn GOP Win Shows Voters Distrust President Who Cries Wolf
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Randy Shaw: With the President still ignoring cries from his base for confrontational and dramatic action, did anyone really expect those Brooklyn Democrats to be highly motivated to get to the polls?
Obama Paving Perry’s Path to Presidency
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Randy Shaw: When you try to understand how Rick Perry defeated Barack Obama in the 2012 election, look to the summer of 2011. That’s when Obama did almost everything possible to alienate the voters he needs for re-election. Obama began with a humiliating surrender to Republicans on the debt-ceiling deal, leaving even longtime supporters questioning his leadership.
The Rise and Fall of Leland Yee
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Randy Shaw: Leland Yee thought he had it all worked out. He moved to the left politically on labor and good government issues in preparation for the 2011 mayor’s race, and was positioned to embody the hopes of those seeking San Francisco’s first Asian-American mayor.
Anti-Teacher Union “Reformers” Hoisted on Own Petard
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Randy Shaw: After years of teachers union bashing and corporate-led school “reform” efforts, anti-public school forces are now on the defensive. And the main reason is that the statistical measurements do not support their arguments, and even show a pattern of falsification.
Where’s Howard Dean?
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Randy Shaw: At a time when President Obama is openly ignoring this “Democratic wing” while currying favor with “independents,” Dean is publicly silent over the president’s rightward shift.
Why Romney Would Defeat Obama in 2012
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Randy Shaw: Romney’s problem getting the presidential nomination goes beyond his stuffed shirt image, fabled car trip with a dog strapped to the roof, or the many other reported stories that bolster depictions of him as “weird.” He’s not trusted by movement conservatives, and even the moderate Republican pundit class is down on him.
Volunteering: The Challenge of Making a Difference
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Randy Shaw: The rise of community service (abetted by high school students desiring to boost their college applications) over the past two decades has not stopped dramatically increasing social and economic inequality and an increasing disbelief in once universally accepted scientific theories such as evolution.
As Food Stamp Numbers Hit Record Highs, Luxury Sales Boom
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Randy Shaw: While Democrats are not nearly as zealous or extreme in their policy proposals, there is now a bipartisan consensus that budget deficits – not unemployment or poverty – are the nation’s top problem.
To Rebuild the American Dream, Put Pressure On Democrats
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Randy Shaw: A progressive coalition that claims to be “Bigger than the Tea Party” must hold Democrats accountable as effectively as conservatives do for Republicans .
Obama’s Progressive Blacklist
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Randy Shaw: In bypassing Elizabeth Warren, it is now clear that Van Jones’ appointment was a complete aberration, and that Obama imposed a progressive blacklist from the start
Elected on Hope, Obama Governs Through Fear
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Randy Shaw: Obama ran for president preaching hope and rejecting appeals to fear, but now has become exactly what he railed against.
Christie, Kasich Win Media Cheers While Public Pays the Price
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Randy Shaw: Eliminating this human element allows Christie, Kasich and others to avoid appearing like plutocrat-serving elitists who do not care about common people.
Jerry Betrays Cesar, UFW, and His Own Legacy
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Randy Shaw: Brown’s alignment with wealthy growers against indigent workers picking crops in the fields surely has Chavez turning over in his grave, and shows that the Governor views the UFW as just another group he is willing to betray.
Gay Marriage Offers Lessons for Immigration Reform
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Randy Shaw: Gay rights advocates have been far more publicly critical of the President than immigrant rights groups, and have done a far better job of holding Obama accountable for his actions rather than his words.
Republicans Giving Obama Re-Election Pass
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Randy Shaw: An obvious fact: the Republican Party is content with trying to take back the Senate in 2012 and does not see the presidential race as its top priority.
Weiner Coverage Highlights Media’s Troubling Priorities
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Randy Shaw: Lost amidst the Weiner mania was media analysis of the slowing economy, or the departure a few days later of Austan Goolsbee, President Obama’s top economic advisor.
How Obama Can Revive Hopes for Change
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Randy Shaw: In hindsight, activists should have taken it upon themselves to become the vessels of hope rather than trusting Barack Obama. But at this political moment, it is Obama who is best positioned to restore the hopes of his core supporters.
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Labor Needs Organizing, Not Politics
Randy Shaw: Many feel that unions have invested far too much time and money in electoral work that has not produced promised results, at the expense of ongoing worker organizing to build membership.