"Chinese Massacre" dramatizes little-known history
Playwright Tom Jacobson takes a Howard Zinn-like "people's history" look at Los Angeles, revealing a little-known pogrom against L. A.'s then-200 inhabitants of Chinese ancestry.
The battles that must be won
Re-electing Obama in 2012, preserving unions and public services, defeating racism, advocating for LGBT rights, fighting for a massive jobs program and ending the wars overseas are must win battles.
"Carancho": Film noir that can't get much darker
We know what corruption and film noir look like, though, and "Carancho" is a fine example.
Common and hip hop are as American as apple pie
Conservative media pundits and Republican extremists deliberately used Common's invitation by the White House to condemn the Obama administration.
What would U.S. socialism look like?
I am often asked thought-provoking questions about U.S. socialism and what it would look like. My reply is something like this.
Labor independence: Not much to do with a party label
A recent article by Mike Elk illustrates what is wrong with too much of the left's thinking on labor today.
"Brothers of Bella": vintage music with a red tinge
Musically, "Brothers of Bella" is masterful, with rambunctious piano playing backed by accordion, bass, guitar, and drums. Yet the band doesn't stretch beyond the realm of classic music styles.
Sugar's bittersweet history
The history of sugar is a fascinating, complicated and ongoing journey that takes us through the brutal depths of slavery to the heights of resistance and abolition, to the ingenuity of invention from Hershey's milk chocolate to Brazil's biofuels.
Big oil, government sacrifice kids for profits
Another reason to curb Big Oil: scientists are warning of danger to fetal development from chemicals found in crude oil.
