Lessons From the Stop and Shop Strike

The face of the striking worker is no longer an old-timey coal miner or burly auto worker. Over the past couple of years, the faces of striking workers have been our woefully under-paid public school teachers as part of the Red for Ed movement. Recently, service sector workers have also been rising up and demanding better pay and working conditions, from McDonald’s workers striking against sexual harassment, to Marriott hotel workers striking against low wages, overwork, and unsafe working conditions. In our own backyard, 31,000 New England grocery workers went on strike for 11 days in April against Stop & Shop and its massively-wealthy multinational parent company, Ahold Delhaize.

Worcester Needs a Fare-Free and Reliable Transit System

On May 22, the Worcester Regional Research Bureau (WRRB) recommended that Worcester’s city bus system (the WRTA) be made “fare-free” to increase efficiency and ridership. Less than a week later, at City Council, Councilmember Gary Rosen delivered a verbal attack on the WRTA and proposed a motion to declare it “possibly obsolete.”

Stonewall To Today: What the Queer Movement Needs To Win

On June 29th, 1969, the patrons of the mafia-run gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, fought back against discrimination and hate by refusing to accept police brutality. Attendees of the bar drove out the cops—who were making their regular rounds of harassment and arrests—and flooded into the streets to protest. The ensuing riot against police aggression was a defiant act against the capitalist system that had pushed the LGBTQ community into hiding and isolation.

Why We Need a Socialist Green New Deal

Over the past several months few political moves have received as much public attention as the “Green New Deal” (GND) proposed in the US Congress by Democrats Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey. Progressives and liberals of all kinds have spoken out in support of the ideas contained in the proposal and not entirely without good reason. Many of the ideas contained in the GND proposal could be great for working class and poor people in the US.

What the Woosox Stadium Means for Worcester’s Workers

After the Pawtucket Red Sox failed to secure a large enough loan from Rhode Island in an attempt to renew its contract with the Pawtucket city council, Worcester and Massachusetts officials rushed to the table with big developers to offer an even bigger handout of $135 million.