Wade Rathke:

Pearl River     In the United States when dealing with a program that is touted as a lifesaver for what will likely be fifty million unemployed workers and another program that is designed, ostensibly, to help small businesses retain their workers, we all know the topline horrors.  For workers, the stimulus checks are still on their […]

Pearl River     May Day traditionally has been marked around the world with workers marching under the banners of their unions and labor-friendly political parties.  In the USA, Labor Day marks the end of the summer, rather than the advent of spring, which has been celebrated since pagan times and has now been converted into a […]

Pearl River     Losing your job through layoffs or even temporarily in a furlough is a terrible thing.  For years, state unemployment divisions, under the brutal thumbs of corporate dominated conservative legislatures and governors have seen it as their jobs to make it as hard as possible to access the benefits, despite the fact that it […]

Pearl River     There were some pieces of the Airbnb business model that had appeal.  Homeowners that were willing to open their own homes to visiting guests seemed like it could build relationships and even, dare I say, community, especially when visiting foreign lands. Our family had that experience staying in Mexico City one Christmas and […]

New Orleans     Today, I’m sharing a guest piece that I contributed to the Working-Class Perspectives series on the even of May Day and during a difficult time for workers around the world. May Day 2020: Workers in the Pandemic Time Posted on April 27, 2020 by Working-Class Perspectives Around the world, the first of May, […]

New Orleans       I’ve got no complaints.  Regular calls around the world tell me every day how lucky we are.  We have a roof over our heads, so we in fact can shelter-in-place, and that’s not true for hundreds of millions.  We have food to eat and children who scold us for not being more […]

Pearl River     Waking in the predawn I found a wonderful and moving email in my in-box from two brothers and comrades in our shared organizing trade and mission, Mike Gallagher and Keith Kelleher.  Mike sent along a poem he had written about the amazing Geneva Evans, an early and longtime leader, in our efforts to […]

Pearl River     You can’t make this stuff up.  Dr. Trump’s advice to the country to inject disinfectants and pour on the UV rays has brought him the kind of ridicule that he richly deserves and has tirelessly earned, but so rarely received. A friend posted a picture of himself holding a bottle of Clorox with […]

Pearl River     We all know people we go to for medical advice, either seriously or in jest.  We have a host on one of our radio stations who calls himself Dr. Ed.  One of our team would regularly ask Dr. Ed for medical advice, just to hear Dr. Ed remind him that he was not […]

Pearl River     This whole thing about religious opposition to the stay-at-home orders and the social distancing can sometimes seem a head scratcher.   In central Louisiana a minister already noted for refusing to call postponement of church services was arrested for attempted assault, which he admitted, after he tried to back a church bus over a […]