“Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel”
with
Max Blumenthal, journalist, and blogger, formerly a writer for The Daily Beast and Al Akhbar, author of Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party and the New York Times best-selling Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel  

In Goliath, Max Blumenthal takes us on a journey through Israel-Palestine, painting a startling portrait of Israeli society under the siege of increasingly authoritarian politics as the occupation of the Palestinians deepens.  He tells the story of Israel in the wake of the collapse of the Oslo peace process.Through his far-ranging travels, Blumenthal illuminates the present by uncovering the ghosts of the past—the histories of Palestinian neighborhoods and villages now gone and forgotten and how that history has set the stage for the current crisis.

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Under Siege: A Report from Gaza
with 
Mahmound Abu Rahma, the Communications and International Relations Director at the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights - Gaza

Mahound Abu Rahma recently  wrote "Understanding Israel’s Actions," in which he states: "It is essential that U.S. citizens understand that this conflict should not continue to be viewed as a symmetrical one anymore and while they largely do not hear about it there are vicious violations of international law against Palestinians every day; including closures/blockades, settlement activities (population  transfer on our land) displacement, killings, detention and torture."

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Detroit Cuts Water Service To Thousands Who Can’t Afford To Pay
with
Demeeko Williams, Detroit Water Brigade
and
Tom Stephens, Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management

“This is everybody's fight, water is a human right!” the protesters chanted. In recent weeks, activists in Detroit have mobilized against the city's efforts to cut off the water supply to 120,000 delinquent accounts, or over 300,000 city residents. From June until September, the Detroit Water and Sewage Department(DWSD) will be cutting off citizens' water supply at a rate of 3,000 per week. According to the DWSD, 4,500 households have already been turned off. Further, in the past ten years Detroit residents have seen water rates rise by 119 percent. The city council apporved an 8.7% rate increase just last month. Many believe the rate hikes and  the imminent shut-offs are an attempt by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevin Orr to make the DWSD more appealing to potential investors in a bid to privatize the city's utilities.  As news of the water shut offs spread the United Nations issued a statement last week that said that the city's plan "constitutes a violation of the human right to water."
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Scenes from an Endless Dinner in Detroit Part 1
by Kate Levy 

Levy provides background and analysis of Detroit's bankruptcy crisis by resenting misconceptions about Detroit as well as the logic some local activists bring to the table. 
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What’s At Stake: The Supreme Court Ruled on Two of the Most Important Worker-Rights Cases In it’s History 
with
Nicole Berner, SEIU Associate General Counsel 
and 
Richard Blum, Employment Law Project The Legal Aid Society

Join us and our experts to analyze two of the most significant decisions by the Supreme Court ever regarding workers rights.  The U.S. Supreme Court decided Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, that 
employers can impose their religious beliefs on their workers through their business policies. Hobby Lobby, a for-profit, private, nationwide chain of arts-and-crafts stores, objects to providing 
contraception to its employees as mandated by the Affordable Care Act.  The implications of this case for women’s reproductive rights and its potential for licensing discrimination in the workplace masquerading as freedom of religion are frightening.   And then there’s Harris v. Quinn, a “First Amendment” case involving home-care workers in which the Supreme Court decided that they do not have to pay “fair share” fees to the union who represents them.  This case pitted public employee unions against labors longstanding foe, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which helped bring the case.  This case has been characterized as an attempted kill shot aimed at public-sector unions with serious spill over implications for private sector workers as well.

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U.S. Government's $1.3 Trillion Purchasing Power Could Lift
8 Million Workers Out of Poverty 
with 
Robert Hiltonsmith, Demos Policy Analyst & co-author of new 
Demos report Underwriting Good Jobs

Eight million workers rely on low-wage jobs supported by the federal government’s $1.3 trillion in annual spending according to a new report by the public policy organization Demos . Building on Pres. Obama’s executive order that raised the minimum wage for hundreds of thousands of federally contracted workers, it calls for raising labor standards more broadly. The Good Jobs Executive Order advocated in the report would apply to the entire workforce of federally-supported employers significantly benefiting women and minorities – who make up a large percentage of low-wage workers in the federal purchasing footprint. It advocates for
spending agencies to incorporate higher workforce standards when 
evaluating and awarding federal contracts including collective bargaining rights, living wages and good benefits, compliance with workplace protection laws and other applicable business regulations, and limits on excessive executive compensation. 

Plus
Army of New Rosie the Riveters on Strike in Nation’s Capital
Low-Wage Women Call on President Obama to Allow Collective Bargaining for Federal Contract Workers

Hundreds of low-wage federal contract workers working for fifty companies doing business at federal sites – like the National Zoo, Pentagon and Union Station – walked off their jobs .  Led by an army of working women dressed like Rosie the Riveter, they marched through the Smithsonian National Zoo, where workers are joining the Good Jobs Nation campaign for the first time.  This is the 8th strike by low-wage federal contract workers in the past year.
And 
Progressive Caucus Supports Good Jobs Policy
with
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) 

Representative Ellison said the progressive caucus of the House supports these actions and plans to submit a proposal to the White House that would focus on low-wage workers employed by federal contractors. Ellison said he is unsure of how the President would respond to a proposal for executive action, but the representative pointed to President Obama’s past actions as evidence that he would likely be sympathetic.Ellison underscored that he supported “Good Jobs Policy” as means of significantly reducing gender 
inequality in the workforce.

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