Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here or on Stitcher here. Check out the full Belabored archive here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis.
Desperate to get virtually anything passed in Congress, the Republican majority is pushing a tax plan that will devastate workers, undermine the social safety net, and give a bad deal to just about everyone in the country except the ultra rich. So it’s hard to know where to start when exploring the legislation’s myriad horrors. But in this episode, we talk to some of the people protesting the bill: graduate student workers resisting a punitive tax hike that will explode the cost of higher education, and one union’s campaign to demand that corporate America make good on promises that the bill will benefit ordinary workers.
In other news, we look at Black Friday strikes, Universal Basic Income in Canada, Trump’s long-buried labor abuse scandal, and Congress’s latest plan to deny children healthcare. With recommended reading on unions changing Silicon Valley and what can be done about the threat of national “Right to Work.”
If you think our work is worth supporting as we soldier on through Trumplandia, please consider becoming a sustaining member of Belabored or donating or subscribing to Dissent. Help keep us going for the next 140 episodes!
News
Canada Tests ‘Basic Income’ Effect on Poverty Amid Lost Jobs (ABC News)
Amazon faces ‘Black Friday’ strikes in Germany, Italy (DW)
Trump Paid Over $1 Million in Labor Settlement, Documents Reveal (New York Times)
For This Congress, Children Come Last (New Republic)
Conversation
Jody Calemime, CWA general counsel
Will a Corporate Tax Cut Lift Worker Pay? A Union Wants It in Writing (New York Times)
The Tax Bill Battle Shows the Left Needs a “Single Payer of Fiscal Policy” (In These Times)
Senate GOP tax bill hurts the poor more than originally thought, CBO finds (Washington Post)
Ian Bradley-Perrin, Hannah Khoddam, graduate student workers
Michelle: The GOP Tax Plan Would Make It Even Harder to Be a Grad Student (The Nation)
The GOP tax bill could be a disaster for PhD students (Vox)
The Ivy League Has An Unexpected Friend in Donald Trump (Huffington Post)
@SaveGradEd on Facebook, Twitter
Argh, I Wish I’d Written That!
Michelle: Lizzie O’Shea, Tech capitalists won’t fix the world’s problems – their unionised workforce might (Guardian)
Sarah: Mindy Isser, How the Labor Movement Can Win Under National ‘Right to Work’ (The Nation)
The post Belabored Podcast #140: Resisting the Taxpocalypse appeared first on Dissent Magazine.
Source: Belabored