(Flickr/Ben Wurdmuller) A sculpture outside a bar in Rochester, New York
I wish I had come out as bisexual earlier, and I'm sometimes embarrassed that I didn't given how much less I had to lose than those in far more hostile environments; I was at a socially liberal college, and I didn't have to fear being estranged from my family. Being attracted to women meant that I could pursue romantic relationships with the gender everyone expected me to without feeling like those relationships were dishonest, but I was troubled by a growing sense that the important people in my life didn't know the whole story. Part of what kept me from doing something about it sooner was the stereotype that bisexuals were lying to themselves -- that, for men, bisexuality was just a pit stop on the way to gayville.
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)Verizon workers picket outside one of the company's central offices Monday, Aug. 8, 2011, in Philadelphia.
The first of 45,000 Verizon workers went back to work last night after union representatives reached an agreement to end, at least for now, the largest American strike in four years. The standoff -- which started when Verizon tried to roll back benefits and protections for workers in its landline department -- ended without a contract for the company's unionized workers. But Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), says they have reached an "agreement to restructure bargaining" and that Verizon has backed down from the 100 concessions it asked its workers to make.
(Flickr/Kheel Center, Cornell University)Strikers during the 1933 Dressmakers' Union strike take a break in a diner.
Nearly 3 million workers went on strike in the United States in 1952. In 2008, fewer than 100,000 did. In his new book, Reviving the Strike: How Working People Can Regain Power and Transform America, veteran union negotiator Joe Burns writes that American strikes have changed from "a means to bring economic pressure to bear" to "a weak form of moral witness." He argues that the decline in the frequency and efficacy of strikes is a cause, not a consequence, of the decline of the American labor movement. The Prospect spoke with Burns about what's changed, who's responsible, and what labor should do about it.
Wisconsinites head to the polls tomorrow for recall elections in six state senate districts. These elections (and two next week) will determine whether Governor Scott Walker will retain a Republican state senate majority, and will also gauge the likelihood that he'll face his own ouster in January. They'll also provide a rare test case for a brand of populist, anti-corporate campaigning that activists often call for but many Democrats shy away from. These Democrats are using a class-based message in six districts red enough to have elected Republican state senators on the same day Barack Obama was elected president.
Wisconsinites head to the polls tomorrow for recall elections in six state senate districts. These elections (and two next week) will determine whether Governor Scott Walker will retain a Republican state senate majority, and will also gauge the likelihood that he'll face his own ouster in January. They'll also provide a rare test case for a brand of populist, anti-corporate campaigning that activists often call for but many Democrats shy away from. These Democrats are using a class-based message in six districts red enough to have elected Republican state senators on the same day Barack Obama was elected president.
