A Review of The Death of Conservatism by Sam Tanenhaus and Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party by Max Blumenthal read more »

read more »

Attorneys at Manhattan Legal Services recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of five Washington Heights residents against their landlord for harassment. The suit alleges the landlord, Vantage Properties LLC, violated the Tenant Protection Act and alleges the owners harassed, threatened and intimidated tenants in an effort to dislodge them from their [...] read more »

Labor Day Directed by Glenn Silber Catalyst Media Production, 2009 Labor Day is a documentary funded by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) about the union’s involvement in electing Barack Obama president. The film is a good agit-prop vehicle for motivating union members to get involved with SEIU’s formidable get out the vote organizing and not a political [...] read more »

read more »

read more »

State Senator Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) avoided being convicted of a felony yesterday (though he was convicted of misdemeanor assault) stemming from an altercation with his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo. Sen. Monserrate has been a vocal ally for the tenant movement in its fight to repeal vacancy decontrol, though he co-led the coup this past [...] read more »

read more »

read more »

Race has always been central to American politics. At Jamestown, the first sustained European settlement in the North America, there were African slaves. After Jamestown, white settlers massacred Native Americans over the centuries for their land and resources and even those lofty founding founders writing the Constitution – that document of freedom – enshrined [...] read more »

read more »

read more »

City housing officials laid out their plan to deal with multi-family building foreclosures yesterday at the New York City Council. In the Council’s Community Development committee, council members grilled newly minted Department of Housing Preservation Development commissioner Rafael Cestero on the foreclosure crisis. HPD’s commissioner laid out a plan to tap federal bailout and stimulus money [...] read more »

The statewide campaign to end vacancy decontrol and strengthen the rent laws is quickly coming to a head. Tenants groups targeted Republican South Brooklyn State Senator Marty Golden on Friday by holding a boisterous rally in front of his Fifth Avenue district office in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The rally featured two marching bands, including the [...] read more »

As Venezuela rolls on in the World Baseball Classic, defeating the Netherlands 3-1 in Miami, Venezuelan nationals let their voices known on politics. The Venezuelan crowd booed slugger Magglio Ordonez when he came up to bat during the game for his unabashed support of leftist President Hugo Chavez. From the Associated Press (“Magglio Ordonez booed by [...] read more »

Stuy-Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants won a victory yesterday when the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court ruled that their landlord must reimburse up to 3,000 tenants money for rent overcharges. Tishman Speyer, the owner of Stuy-Town and Peter Cooper Village, the East Side bedrock of Manhattan middle-class housing, will have [...] read more »

The Village Voice laid off veteran columnist Nat Hentoff in late December and he wrote his last column for the Village Voice this month. I won’t miss him. I know I should like Hentoff and lament his firing as yet another marker of the demise of print journalism. I should commend Hentoff’s weekly columns railing against [...] read more »

After pouring at least $300 million into supporting Democratic candidates for the White House and Congress last year, labor unions are hoping that the new president will help enact their number one legislative priority: The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). read more »

Wall Street’s mortgage and credit crisis will have a huge price tag and tenant advocates fear one casualty could be a swath of New York’s affordable housing stock. Call it Wall Street stabilization over rent stabilization. read more »

City-wide tenant groups will make the case for wide ranging rent reform tomorrow at a rally at the Harlem State Office Building Plaza starting at 5:30pm. The state office complex is located at 163 West 125 Street, just east of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (7th Avenue).   The date of the protest [...] read more »

The venerable progressive radio station 99.5FM WBAI has gone into yet another month-long fundraising drive this September as bitter infighting continues on the station’s ruling Listener Station Board (LSB) and the budget deficits mount. read more »

Today most newspapers have no labor reporters. New York Times correspondent Steven Greenhouse’s new book, The Big Squeeze, makes the case that the media should pay more attention to the plight of the working class and the labor movement. read more »

The Rent Stabilization Association (RSA) has filed a lawsuit against Intro 627a – The Tenant Protection Act – in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn championed the legislation that combats landlord harassment of tenants and Mayor Bloomberg signed the anti-harassment [...] read more »

  One of the largest progressive community based organizations in the country, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) announced its founder has stepped down. Wade Rathke, who founded ACORN in 1970, left his position as the organization’s chief organizer after an embezzlement scandal that occurred eight years ago surfaced last month involving his brother [...] read more »

The Rupert Murdoch owned New York Post is notorious for spinning facts to meet its right-wing world view. But is it also missing the facts? Today’s screaming headline “HOME STREET HOME, Absentee bum booted from apt.” is an article about an evicted Hell’s Kitchen tenant, Michael Tsitsires, and omits [...] read more »

  Salsa star Jose “Cheo” Feliciano celebrated 50 years in the music industry with a legend-laden concert at Madison Square Garden’s WaMu Theater on Friday night. Latin-jazz and salsa performers Eddie Palmieri, Ismael Miranda, Roberto Roena, Bobby Valentín, Papo Lucca and Johnny Pacheco and percussionist Jimmy Sabater shared the stage with Feliciano on June [...] read more »

The Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) will vote to raise the rents in over one million rent stabilized apartments later today. That the RGB will raise rents in our very expensive city is a foregone conclusion – they raise the rents every year – the question is by how much. The RGB, comprised of two landlord representatives, [...] read more »

Tomorrow the Hoosier state votes in the Democratic primary. It has been a long time since Indiana has had such an important place in the electoral process – 1968 to be exact when Bobby Kennedy stumped through the state. Eight years earlier my grandmother shook another Kennedy’s hand as he campaigned at the Catholic church [...] read more »

Olympic fever appears to be sweeping the world from the scenes at the ceremonial torch relays. Diving and gymnastics fans are so excited about this year’s summer games they are somersaulting and catapulting themselves upon the actual torch. Even the Paris police force is getting into the spirit by wearing rollerblades while accompanying the torch [...] read more »

After a pair of legislative victories in the New York City Council penalizing landlord harassment and protecting Section 8 tenants, the housing movement hopes to continue its luck in the political muck that is state government. read more »

The common narrative of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s “cleaning up” the streets to make it “safe” for people in the suburbs to move back, is so well-worn it’s cliché. Kim Moody’s, From Welfare State to Real Estate tries to set the record straight about New York’s recovery. read more »

Yesterday the New York City Council unanimously passed Intro 627-A, a bill that gives tenants the right to sue landlords for harassment. The bill was cosponsored by Speaker Christine Quinn among 34 other council members. The harassment bill is a big victory for tenants under the gun to move out of affordable rent-regulated apartments that [...] read more »

The New York City Council will vote on Feb. 27 on Intro 627-A — a tenant anti-harassment bill. Intro 627-A would be the first law on the City’s books to penalize tenant harassment. read more »

Shitty landlord got you down? Lights out in the hallway? Non-payment notice posted on the door? You are not alone and now you have recourse of action. The New York City Council’s Housing and Buildings committee held a hearing on Thursday Feb. 7 to discuss Intro 627-A – a tenant anti-harassment bill. Intro 627-A would be [...] read more »

In 2008, labor unions will spend big and mobilize hundreds of thousands of workers to organize new members and campaign for Democratic Party candidates. The nuts and bolts of labor struggles are often lost in the presidential race, however. read more »

As temperatures plunge, many New York City tenants will break out their ski masks, wool gloves, long-underwear and down coats — just to stay warm inside their apartments. read more »

Toyota is in GM’s rearview mirror and is closer than it appears. Toyota is poised to be the top-selling carmaker in the world (over GM). Its non-union employees do not bargain for contracts and have salaries, health care and other benefits inferior to Detroit’s UAW members. Toyota’s non-union workforce was the 800-pound gorilla at the UAWGM contract negotiations, as GM seeks to bring UAW members down to the level of Toyota workers. read more »

Sin Patrón chronicles the confused state of Argentina’s trade union movement, many of whose workers just wanted the boss to return, pay them their due, and to return to work the next day—even months after the original occupation. But Argentine society questioned the capitalist system as it crumbled and many workers went further and took power in their shops and communities. Unfortunately in many cases, union officials along with the boss abandoned the workers. In one case — the Metallurgical Workers’ Union — workers believe the union used the appliance factory’s revenue as a slush fund for its political allies. read more »

The tiered-wage system pits newer port workers against veteran workers who earn more and prevents newer workers from getting better raises. As the ship companies flood the ports with cheaper and younger laborers, abolishing the tiered wage system has become a rallying cry for reformers. Union progressives also advocate that the ILA use its resources to organize non-union laborers in the ports since the ILA has lost thousands of members in recent years. Labor Notes reports that the ILA would have $8.6 million available for organizing efforts if they capped salaries of top union officials to $100,000. read more »

The plain-looking Puerto Ricoborn Lavoe, notorious for coming late to shows because of his heroin habit, was booted from the band but toured successfully for two decades after. Lavoe died broke and strung out from AIDS in 1993. Fourteen years later, as other Latino musical genres gain popularity, Lavoe’s life gets another look. read more »

Mosess “Moe” Fishman was a great man. A truck driver and laundryman who had to drop out of school during the Depression, he arrived in Spain in April 1937 with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of American volunteers who fought on behalf of that country’s progressive, democratically-elected government during the Spanish Civil War. More than 2,500 American communists and fellow travelers joined the brigade to fight for freedom and democracy against the fascist coalition — the Catholic Church, monarchy and sections of the military led by Gen. Francisco Franco — that overthrew the government. read more »

A Review of Welcome to the Terror Dome By Dave Zirin. Haymarket Books (2007) read more »

You just moved into a new apartment that is overextending your budget, but the location is great and the rent is the rent, right? No. You could be paying too much and even if you are, you could have some money coming to you. If you live in a building subject to rent stabilization — a building with six or more units built before Jan. 1, 1974 — it is against the law for the landlord to overcharge. Even if the landlord says that you are not stabilized, the landlord may have deregulated your apartment illegally. A landlord can deregulate an apartment only when there’s a vacancy and the rent surpasses $2,000. read more »

Just weeks later, in October, Ricci disappeared while on trial for racketeering with two other ILA officers. Ricci was acquitted but it did him little good. His bullet-ridden body was found in November 2005 after a customer at a New Jersey diner complained about a “foul odor and a mass of flies swarming around the trunk of a car” in the parking lot. read more »

The Longshore Workers Coalition (LWC) is an upstart faction vying for union democracy in the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA.) read more »

Since beating a labor racketeering rap two years ago, top officials with the troubled International Longshoremen Association (ILA) could now be jockeying for the power to lead the East Coast Union. An unsigned flier circulating throughout the New York/New Jersey ports over the past couple weeks is calling for a “Walk in Solidarity” to protest cuts in health benefits and poor financial management. read more »

Stranger In A Strange Land, Encounters In The Disunited States By Gary Younge The New Press (2006) and Bitchfest Edited by Lisa Jervis & Andi Zeisler Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2006) read more »

Once tenants have been evicted from a building, its value skyrockets. Developers are free to remodel apartments and jack up the rents. Phony demolitions are a bureaucratic backdoor to evicting tenants and raising rents. In the past, a demolition meant razing a building. Phony demolitions often leave roofs, walls and even entire floors intact. read more »

MOBSTERS, UNIONS, AND FEDS: THE MAFIA AND THE AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT (2006) BY JAMES B. JACOBS NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS read more »

While the election is a referendum over the strike, Toussaint’s leadership style is also in sharp focus. Toussaint’s enemies do not hold back their anger and disgust, and the personal is very much the political. read more »

Transit Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 washes their “laundry outside in public even before it’s dirty” – so says Local 100 president Roger Toussaint, alluding to his adversaries’ sniping in the upcoming union election. read more »

After months of promises, Democratic frontrunner for governor Eliot Spitzer elaborated on his thin housing platform in a roundtable discussion with tenant organizers on Aug. 16. Spitzer has been coasting on high poll numbers as a gaggle of Democrats try to curry favor with his campaign. Dems from the conservative Ed Koch to progressive pro-choice groups have endorsed Spitzer. The only problem is that Spitzer is reluctant to take strong positions that protect tenants and which offend the real-estate industry. read more »

“I noted it in my book; I was shocked at how late he was,” said a rookie housing attorney who wished not to give his name for fear of retaliation. “When his court is open and he’s not there, nothing can move forward.” read more »

Known to tenants as “Marvin Markup,” Markus works at Goldman Sachs as a managing director and investment banker in municipal financing. He earned his nickname as chair of the RGB in the early 1980s, when it raised rents an astronomical 11 and 14 percent at a time when arson was the landlords’ preferred tool to deal with ailing apartments. read more »

The city government has not been able to strengthen rent controls or tenant protections since 1971, when the state Urstadt law was enacted. read more »

“Phony demolitions” are the latest rabbit landlords are pulling from their hats to evict rent-regulated tenants from their affordable apartments. Exploiting a loophole in the rent-stabilization law, landlords doing “gut renovations” of apartments are claiming that they are demolishing buildings, although they are leaving the roof, walls, and in many cases entire floors intact. read more »

Landlords take thousands of New York City tenants to housing court every year. But tenants can fight back by starting a tenant association to improve living conditions in their building and neighborhood, and even bring the landlord to court for repairs. FORMING A TENANT ASSOCIATION You have a right to form a tenant association. Talk to your [...] read more »

A Review of the Film MOUTH TO MOUTH, DIR. AND SCREENPLAY BY ALISON MURRAY (2004) read more »

The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map To History’s Most Important Political Document Phil Gasper, ED Haymarket Books Haymarket Books has published an annotated version of one of history’s most notable political tracts, The Communist Manifesto. Edited by Phil Gasper, Haymarket’s release is helpful for first-time readers of The Manifesto, with notes that put the document in modern language and [...] read more »

Sensing growing power that immigrants carry in the United States, organizers are pushing the envelope and calling for a general strike and commercial boycott on May 1. Millions of immigrants who have toiled quietly in poor working conditions under fear of deportation took to the streets this spring to demand immigration reform. The first mega-march [...] read more »

A history of the U.S.'s use of immigration to stoke fear amongst the American people. read more »

Immigrants rallied in the millions to protest the punitive bill in the House of Representatives, but what do they want? Many unions and immigrant rights groups have backed the McCain-Kennedy bill. A compromise Senate bill, like its House counterpart, pumps more funds into detentions, deportations and a militarized border, but it includes a guest-worker program [...] read more »

A review of "Planet of the Slums" by Mike Davis read more »

Both Leftist and Right- Wing parties saw gains in the elections amid reports of irregularites and violence. read more »

For the average man at Mardi Gras, beads are payment for a flash of Mary from Minneapolis’s breasts. They are mementos draped over the beer-bottle collection in college dorms or just as easily discarded to the street after the party is over. read more »

In case you missed it, Rats should be required reading for all New York City residents. Almost every building that I’ve worked with as a tenant organizer has had a problem with roaches and mice. But the worst tenements have rats. Sullivan’s book takes you to the back alleys and slums of New York and [...] read more »

The one thing a tourist hates is other tourists. And you know who I’m talking about: skin sun-burned to hell, goofy t-shirts that read “Life is a Beach” and the requisite oversized sombrero. They are the throngs shuffling off cruise ships docked in Montego Bay, Jamaica, or the crowd at an all-inclusive hotel slurping piña [...] read more »

Housing groups pressure NYCB to do a better job of monitoring buildings where it holds mortgages. read more »

he federal government gives over $140 million each year to abstinence-only programs even though their effectiveness is suspect. Furthermore, sociologists Peter Bearman and Hanah Brückner, found that young people who took a pledge were one-third less likely to use contraception after becoming sexually active than their peers who had not pledged. Below are some quotes from federally funded textbooks and workbooks. read more »

When the spring semester at New York University begins on Jan. 17, several hundred striking graduate student workers will be back on the picket line. read more »

In an increasingly bare-knuckled brawl, NYU President John Sexton issued an ultimatum to striking graduate student employees on Nov. 28: that either they return to the workplace or lose their salaries and jobs. read more »

read more »

Venerable Tompkins Square Parish ‘Nearer to God’ read more »

Representatives from three Iraqi labor groups conducted a U.S. tour in June discussing the occupation, insurgency and the state of workers’ rights and organizing in Iraq. read more »

If Wartski’s past actions are any indication, he will continue to flout the law, and jail may be no deterrent. “The building used to be residential, now they are catering to the tourist trade. It’s impossible to know how long you can be there,” said Jack Berger, 88, a resident of Dexter for 25 years. read more »

Something odd is happening in the decades-staid AFL-CIO – a group of unions is challenging do-nothing unionism and the funneling of the labor federation’s millions into the Democratic Party. Coming out of the labor federation’s March meeting in Las Vegas, a group of unions led by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) argued that the AFL-CIO should place more resources into organizing the unorganized and create a leaner and more centralized labor movement. read more »

Harlem’s historic Abyssinian Baptist Church rocked and riveted to fusion jazz and a long line of speakers marking the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. Organizers of the Feb. 21 commemoration also recognized community activists who received the “Spirit of Malcolm X” award. read more »

“I don’t understand these Christian issues,” says Local 466 president Gene Grant, another foundry worker. “To me, the issue is how do you make a living?” read more »

Marion, a working-class town of 25,000 a hour northeast of Indianapolis, is demolishing abandoned homes at a record clip as the population declines and homeowners default on mortgages. The city is also struggling to lease out empty factories while confronting tight budgets for schools and other basic services. read more »

A Christian Manifesto and the Great Evangelical Disaster by Francis Schaeffer; Crossway Books (1984) read more »

On Nov. 5, a group of armed men gunned down Teamsters representative Jose Gilberto Soto at his mother’s house in Usulutan, El Salvador. It appears Soto was murdered because of his interest in organizing Salvadoran port truck... read more »

Knowing that “accidents” occur on the docks, rank-and-file longshoreman Diego Martinez took the stand Sept. 22 to testify about election fraud at Newark Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen Association (ILA). Dozens of longshoremen from Louisiana to New Jersey had filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking an injunction against the master contract that covers the entire east coast, ratified in a disputed unionwide vote on June 8. Federal Judge Victor Marrero denied the rank-and-file members’ request and the contract went into effect Oct. 1. read more »

Genovese crime family soldier George Barone allegedly whacked so many people he couldn’t keep track. “I didn’t keep a scorecard, but it was probably ten or twelve,” Barone testified in Gambino boss Peter Gotti’s trial last year. Barone got his start in the 1940s as a longshoreman ship cleaner by day in Manhattan. By night, he was a mob hit man “protecting” Genovese interests in the International Longshoremen Association (ILA). These days, the now sickly, aging enforcer is better known as CW-1 (a cooperating witness), and Barone’s cooperation with federal authorities is leading to the arrests of top ILA officials. read more »

read more »

read more »