Out of the Fields, Onto the Screen: What ‘Cesar Chavez’ Gets Wrong About the Labor Movement Out of the Fields, Onto the Screen: What ‘Cesar Chavez’ Gets Wrong About the Labor Movement
The new film turns decades of organized struggle into the inspiring tale of one man.
Apr 9, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Tim Barker
Mozillagate, Brendan Eich and Right-Wing Hypocrisy Mozillagate, Brendan Eich and Right-Wing Hypocrisy
Conservatives are suddenly very unhappy to see moral judgments about sex and families invading the corporate realm.
Apr 8, 2014 / Michelle Goldberg
Noted Noted
In 2011, the Renaissance Providence Downtown Hotel gained some unwanted notoriety when Joey DeFrancesco quit his service job with the help of his bandmates in the What Cheer? Brigade. A video of Joey’s raucous exit has 4.3 million views on YouTube. “They were stealing our tip money, paying us poverty wages, making us work double or triple shifts,” DeFrancesco told The Nation. “When I quit, I didn’t want to go quietly.” On December 4, the workers declared a boycott. The Unitarian Universalist Association, which had intended to hold its annual business meeting at the Renaissance, canceled 847 reservations. Local politicians voiced their support. On March 19, thanks to the combined efforts of students and hotel workers, the Brown University Community Council (BUCC) voted to discourage the Brown community from patronizing the Renaissance. Since the fall, members of Brown’s Student Labor Alliance had been marching with Renaissance workers on the picket lines. When the boycott started, students invited the hotel workers to attend a BUCC meeting and share their stories with administrators. “We have certain leverage at Brown,” says Mariela Martinez, a Brown senior and SLA member, “We have to use it.” Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50! When the university president cut off hotel worker Santa Brito in the midst of her testimony, the SLA went outside official channels, handing out hundreds of leaflets at Brown’s extravagant 250th anniversary events. At the next BUCC meeting, SLA members packed the room. The council voted almost unanimously to support the resolution, which “encourages the Brown community to take all appropriate measures to avoid holding any events at the Renaissance Hotel in Providence during the current labor dispute.” Martinez, who comes from a working-class family in South-Central Los Angeles, says of the Renaissance workers, “They are facing real intimidation on a daily basis…. We’re just going to class and going to meetings.” Says hotel worker Marino Cruz, “They are fighters, just like us.” Read Next: StudentNation, The Nation blog by and for student activists and journalists
Apr 8, 2014 / The Editors
Last Week, Students Struck in California, Walked Out in Newark and Sat-In at Dartmouth. What’s Next? Last Week, Students Struck in California, Walked Out in Newark and Sat-In at Dartmouth. What’s Next?
A wave of campus action sparks mass mobilization, police repression—and administrative concessions.
Apr 8, 2014 / StudentNation / StudentNation
Brown Students and Workers Unite to Convince the University to Boycott an Exploitative Hotel Brown Students and Workers Unite to Convince the University to Boycott an Exploitative Hotel
Students and workers stand up in the face of Renaissance Hotel’s horrific labor practices.
Apr 7, 2014 / StudentNation / Sam Adler-Bell and StudentNation
Why Are Teachers and Students Opting Out of Standardized Testing? Why Are Teachers and Students Opting Out of Standardized Testing?
Rejecting standardized tests, teachers are waging civil disobedience in the classroom.
Apr 7, 2014 / Michelle Chen
How UK Law Ties Immigrant Domestic Workers to Their Abusive Employers How UK Law Ties Immigrant Domestic Workers to Their Abusive Employers
The UK seems keen on abandoning its most vulnerable workers to the rule of the master of the house.
Apr 4, 2014 / Michelle Chen
Will America Once More Turn Its Back on Civil Rights? Will America Once More Turn Its Back on Civil Rights?
States are cutting back voting days, repealing same-day registration and creating strict voter identification requirements.
Apr 3, 2014 / Katrina vanden Heuvel
The McCutcheon Decision Is Disastrous—Here’s How You Can Fight Back The McCutcheon Decision Is Disastrous—Here’s How You Can Fight Back
Join the growing movement in support of a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United and ending the ever-growing influx of big money into our politics.
Apr 2, 2014 / NationAction
Can Soccer Save the Left? Can Soccer Save the Left?
In the London neighborhood of Forest Gate, the spark of a soccer revolution is brewing.
Apr 2, 2014 / Mark Bergfeld