Cuomo Must Lead Charge for Public Financing in New York State Cuomo Must Lead Charge for Public Financing in New York State
If the Governor makes good on his campaign promise, New York would be the biggest state yet to challenge last year's Citizens United decision.
Apr 6, 2011 / Katrina vanden Heuvel
Bad Credit: How Payday Lenders Evade Regulation Bad Credit: How Payday Lenders Evade Regulation
The $30 billion-a-year industry continues to fleece borrowers with high rates and shady terms.
Apr 6, 2011 / Feature / Kai Wright
In Baltimore, a Test for an Alternative to Payday Loans In Baltimore, a Test for an Alternative to Payday Loans
Small-dollar loan programs are providing a cushion for the poor in Maryland—and spreading around the country.
Apr 6, 2011 / Feature / Adam Doster
Reclaiming the Politics of Freedom Reclaiming the Politics of Freedom
Since the ’70s, liberals and leftists have misidentified the source of conservatism’s appeal.
Apr 6, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Corey Robin
New York City Teach-In Resonates with OU Audience New York City Teach-In Resonates with OU Audience
Apr 6, 2011 / StudentNation / StudentNation
UMass Joins National Teach-In on Campuses Calling for Equality in America UMass Joins National Teach-In on Campuses Calling for Equality in America
National teach-in staged on college campuses across the country came to UMass Amherst Tuesday. The teach-in called for greater economic equality in America.
Apr 6, 2011 / StudentNation / StudentNation
Localism Index Localism Index
Are we doomed to an economy controlled by a few corporate giants? Maybe not. Independent businesses are making a comeback.
Apr 6, 2011 / Feature / Stacy Mitchell
Melissa Harris-Perry on the Demonization of Public Services Melissa Harris-Perry on the Demonization of Public Services
Republicans have created popular anxiety about public services by linking them with highly stigmatized members of our society.
Apr 6, 2011 / Press Room
Puzzle No. 1627 Puzzle No. 1627
From the April 10, 1976, issue. Be sure to vote in our contest to pick the new Nation puzzlemeister! ACROSS 1 Rather sudden warning concealing the iron cost, according to the ad. (5,6) 9 and 10 Last words for such as Galahad, as one hears. (4,5) 11 A turkey perhaps used to be a body too small to be divided. (4) 12 Via Roma? Not exactly—rather northeast of it. (7) 13 Fooled someone with a perpendicular broad front. (7) 15 Supporter in an old king’s collection of school buildings. (8) 16 Swift creatures. (6) 18 For a clean sweep, see one who can tell you about it ahead of time! (6) 21 Sort of where the partridge was at Christmas? That’s clever! (8) 24 Butter portion that possibly offers protection. (7) 26 See 3 down 28 At this place she is possessive, to a point. (4) 29 Part of the day one follows with a beautiful and voluptuous woman. (5) 30 See 6 down 31 An unwitting soccer player might get such an admonition to hit the ball. (3,4,4) DOWN 2 and 25 It might offer a solid squeeze, despite the source of power. (9,5) 3 and 26 across Marathon story, as it happens. (7,7) 4 Finds fault with poor horses. (4) 5 Completely big-hearted plaything. (7) 6 and 30 Some kidding around to measure this bird! (9) 7 Alternatively, coming up to a couple of small establishments shows style. (6) 8 Conducted inside, also made for the city. (6) 14 You have to take a lot of interest in this business, or it won’t exist. (5) 17 Damage done to a bent coin on a thing one might play. (9) 19 Cut and copied again? (6) 20 Most of the early surrounding could never be considered ethereal. (7) 22 Good fellow altogether proper like this? (7) 23 Arabian Nights’ Home Guard? (6) 25 See 2 down 27 The habit, in part, of one traditionally on her toes. (4)
Apr 6, 2011 / Frank W. Lewis
Letters Letters
‘Class Warfare!’ Our Rallying Cry! Hillsborough, N.C. Finally! Eric Alterman writes of the only issue that subsumes all the rest: class warfare [“The Liberal Media,” March 28]. When the right talks of class warfare, the left acts as if this distasteful topic should never be talked about. It won’t even use the term, as if it delegitimizes anything that follows. Ronald Reagan initiated the relentless organized assault on the middle class and the poor, carried on by every president since, with support from a paid-for Congress, the right’s think tanks and the usual demagogues. If Frank Luntz can construct frames that advance right-wing class warfare, it is time for the left to use this term as our rallying cry. We must illustrate with specifics what has been done to the middle class and the poor. I used to wonder how a decimated middle class would be able to buy goods when finally tapped out. Now I understand that business no longer cares about the domestic market, which after all is only 300 million. There’s a whole world of billions out there desperate to consume. We are marked down for clearance. Alterman laments that no one in the media challenged Rick Santelli’s disgusting comparison of public pensions and the slaughter of 9/11. Such a challenge will never happen, because our media are the problem. Consider the evening “news,” as formulaic as infotainment can be. Headlines, followed by the disease of the day and whatever “human interest” stories (Charlie Sheen? Baby in a well?) can be squeezed between the drug and car ads. If they can divert us with this garbage, no one will notice that we’ve finished second in today’s ferocious class warfare. M. DAVID PRESTON Clara Zetkin & International Women’s Day Jackson Heights, N.Y. In a March 28 “Noted” item, Kate Murphy uses the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of International Women’s Day and the release of a report from the White House Council on Women to assess the economic inequalities women still face. She acknowledges the role of Clara Zetkin in initiating the celebration of International Women’s Day. But her description of Zetkin as a “German activist and politician” is too brief. Zetkin was a leader of the revolutionary wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany for nearly four decades spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her opposition to World War I led her, along with her close friend Rosa Luxemburg, to split from that party and help found the German Spartacist League. She became a founding leader of the German Communist Party and a Reichstag delegate representing that party. Zetkin died in exile in the Soviet Union shortly after the Nazis came to power. She is interred in the Kremlin wall. It is rare today in the United States for revolutionary voices like Zetkin’s to gain a hearing. But the role of revolutionary socialists in the growth of the international labor movement is an essential part of its history. Zetkin wrote, “The main task is, indeed, to awaken the women’s class consciousness and to incorporate them into the class struggle.” Perhaps such words deserve a hearing today, as attacks on the American labor movement intensify in a manner that will surely have a disproportionate ill effect on women. TOM TILITZ Get the L Out—APA, Not ALPA Denver Steve Early wrote in “Vermont’s Struggle for Single-Payer” [March 28] that Brian Dubie is a member of ALPA, the Air Line Pilots Association. Dubie’s union is the APA, Allied Pilots Association, not ALPA. As a liberal I am irritated that any union member would support the Republican agenda, and I do not want my proud union, ALPA, associated with him. By the way, many ALPA members came from across the country to protest with and support the people of Wisconsin. JAKE SANDERS
Apr 6, 2011 / Our Readers