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This week, Belabored probes the scandal behind the World Cup with author Dave Zirin, who’s been tracking the wildcat strikes, street demonstrations, and police crackdowns outside the rim of Big Football’s revelry. His new book, Brazil’s Dance with the Devil (Haymarket), shows how workers, activists, and fans all lose in the game of global capital, and how the tenuous balance of populism and neoliberalism is starting to fray in post-Lula Brazil.

We also look at the White House’s new push for “family-friendly policies,” the new Massachusetts Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, a tussle over a $15 minimum wage in Democratic-run Rhode Island, and the latest teacher-bashing crusade led by ex-Obama flacks. Finally, we recommend reading on mine workers and environmental justice, along with a closer look at the economic assault on young black men.

News

Meet The Hotel Workers Going On Hunger Strike For A $15 Minimum Wage (ThinkProgress)

Obama alums join anti teachers union case (Politico)

Sarah: What’s Campbell Brown Doing Smearing Teachers All Over the Media? (Alternet)

Obama pushes for family-friendly workplaces at campaign-like ‘summit’ (Reuters)

Working Moms Strike, Urge Obama To Require Collective Bargaining For Contractors (Workers Independent News)

Michelle: Massachusetts Nannies and Housekeepers Now Protected From Long Days, Abuse, Sexual Harassment (The Nation)

Conversation with Dave Zirin

Edge of Sports

Brazil’s Dance with the Devil

World Cup coverage at the Nation:

Luis Suarez may bite, but FIFA sucks blood

From the World Cup to the Washington football team, indigenous people fight to be seen

Dispatches from Brazil’s World Cup: Real estate frenzy provokes ‘psychological attack’ to oust favela residents

Don’t tear gas the tourists!

No one lives here anymore

Is a ‘systematic political campaign’ responsible for Brazil’s World Cup protests?

Brazil’s Dance with the Devil on the Eve of the World Cup

Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!

Michelle: Trish Kahle, Rank-and-File Environmentalism (Jacobin)

Sarah: Kai Wright, Why Young Black Men Can’t Work (ColorLines)

The post Belabored Podcast #55: The Ugly Side of the Beautiful Game, with Dave Zirin appeared first on Dissent Magazine.