Abused
Marie was certain this would be the best holiday ever. After the two-year separation, she was back with her children and had found a job. The apartment was small and dark, but to Marie, it was filled with light.
Street Spirit
Poetry, April 2011
LENT 2011
(Spring Renewal)
by Maureen Hartmann
This year there have been
uprisings of the grassroots
against oppressive governments,
like Wisconsin, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia.
The protests are signs
of a growth in consciousness.
A maturation, like a small amount
of yeast in dough for a large loaf,
spreads throughout the Earth.
This year the grassroots implant,
even in many deaths,
seeds of hope and renewal.
Immigrant Workers Protest Mass Firings at Chipotle
The logic of mass firings is brutal: Make it impossible for undocumented workers to earn a living, buy food, pay
The Survival of Poetry in the Face of Repression; Poetry, March 2011
Since I am the voice of a violet, crushed by soldiers’ boots, I write poems…
Russian poets in gulags,
People’s Power and the Struggle Against Poverty
Not only can the clever use of moral authority bring issues to an ignorant public, it can expose to public conscience the hidden agenda of those wielding unjust power.
Ending Family Homelessness: A Tale of Two Systems
In the late 1970s, the richest 1 percent of Americans earned about 9 percent of the nation’s income. By the start of the Great Recession, the rich were getting more than 23 percent of total income. Yet real income for the rest of us has remained stagnant, and the number of Americans in poverty is rising.
Oakland Landlord Found Guilty for Swindling Tenants
“There has been a lot of work involved in going after Thomas for ripping off people’s security deposits, and going after him was very difficult.”
— Attorney Aram Antaramian
Fund Human Needs by Cutting Bloated Military
Congress and President Obama should join forces to put America back to work, even if investments in education and infrastructure cause short-term deficits. Money in the wallets of low-income and working-class people is the best recipe for raising demand and producing economic growth.
Pentagon’s Stealth Spending Spree
We’re reducing government spending by shrinking investment in our long-term well-being while ignoring the military budget. Even cutting nearly a trillion dollars out of the defense budget over the next 10 years would leave the government spending 14 percent more on defense than it did during the Cold War, according to an analysis by the Sustainable Defense Task Force.
HUD’s Plan to Sell Out the Nation’s Public Housing
As a country, we must stop gambling with people’s homes. We must change our priorities and work for a fair housing policy that ensures everyone has a safe, decent place to live.
There are better alternatives than selling off public housing, but we will have to organize en masse to win them.
Hunger and Food Insecurity on the Rise: East Bay /San Francisco
Lydia Gans and Buford Buntin share reflections on living hungry in the San Francisco Bay Area. The economic crisis is spreading the problem of hunger beyond families that are totally destitute. An estimated 42 percent of the households served by the Food Bank have at least one person who is employed, yet they still do not have enough money to buy all the food they need.
Police Shooting of Disabled Man Triggers Outrage
by Carol Harvey
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter an iPhone video shot by a passerby appeared on You Tube, San Francisco Police Department