In These Times -- Weekly Newsletter June 16, 2011

Exiled Honduran Leader Returns | Dumped FBI Docs Reveal Fear of Antiwar Activists | Moberg on the State of Labor | Lehmann on Oprah

June 16, 2011 (In These Times) -- Today, In These Times Communications Director Joe Macare is with Contibuting Editor and Working InThese Times stalwart Mike Elk at Netroots Nation, fighting over a handful of power outlets and spotty Wifi access with 2,000 progressive activists, bloggers, organizers, policy wonks and media people. You can watch live streaming coverage and highlights from the conference on our website, courtesy of The UpTake and Free Speech TV. 

This week: Jeremy Kryt reports from Honduras on Manuel Zelaya's return from exile, and the country's slide toward becoming a failed state. Halfway through a year in which labor in the U.S. has been subject to unprecedented attacks but has also found a new energy, David Moberg looks at what unions are doing to fight back, and interviews Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen, who says "the Chamber of Commerce as well as all the lesser known groups like ALEC see organizations of working-class people as political obstacles to getting [their] agenda." 

Plus: David Sirota castigates the American government's reckless approach to the health and safety impacts of energy policy, while Chris Lehmann has equally harsh words for the cult of Oprah Winfrey. 

And on The ITT List blog, read how accidentally dumped FBI documents have revealed the agency's fear of antiwar activists, how Alabama has passed an even more extreme anti-immigration bill than Arizona's S.B. 1040, and about recent protests in Chicago against the Defense Of Marriage Act and overpaid CEOs at McDonald's and other corporations. 

And did you know? We're still accepting applications until June 24 to be In These Times' new part-time, salaried blogger. If you want to create and maintain a new blog for us, and if you have a dedicated online audience, a demonstrated awareness of the current state of progressive politics and debates, and a uniquely engaging voice, check out the full job description for more details. 

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NEWS/FEATURES 

• Zelaya Returns: "When it touched down on the tarmac, Zelaya's plane was greeted by 25,000 desperate but hopeful Hondurans," reports Jeremy Kryt from Tegucigalpa. 
• Unions Work to Turn the Tide: "Unions face real threats, but their resistance has begun to show how they can build a bigger, more inclusive, more powerful grassroots movement of working and middle-class Americans for economic democracy," claims David Moberg. 
• 'The Attacks Were All Coordinated': CWA President Larry Cohen explains the importance of political organizing for unions to achieve legislative success and greater justice for workers in an interview with David Moberg. 

  COMMENTARY 

• America's Energy Ethos: Do, Regardless of Harm: "I thought we would witness the Fukushima reactor meltdown and agree to stop pursuing energy policies that we know endanger our health and safety. How naive I was," writes David Sirota. 
• Oprah's Celebrity Pyramid Scheme: "The curious thing about Winfreyism is that it leads ultimately into a blind alley, as therapeutic theologies of the self always will," writes Chris Lehmann 
• The Royal We: Jane Miller looks back on the royal wedding, concluding that "here in the U.K., we're nearly all ambivalent about the strange institution we're saddled with, and the dysfunctional family at its center." 

  The ITT List 

• FBI Agent's Accidental Document Dump—and Uncle Sam's Fear of Antiwar Activists: Candace Bernd explains the significance of the documents left behind by FBI agents in their raid of peace activists in Minnesota, and gives updates on the growing movement against FBI repression. 
• Alabama Has Gone Further Than Arizona's S.B. 1070. Why So Little Protest?: "If progressives and liberals can agree about the law's discriminatory nature—and if even the bill's supporters have proudly declared it to be harsher than Arizona's S.B. 1070—then where is all the outrage?" wonders Cole Stangler. 
• 'You Are the Hamburglar': Stand Up! Chicago to Protest Overpaid Executives, Undertaxed Companies: Chicago's unemployment rate has hovered between 9 and 11 percent since the end of 2008—but corporate CEOs are making high salaries and big profits. Ryan Williams reports on local protests. 
• Civil Unions Not Enough for Chicago LGBT Activists Pushing for DOMA Repeal: Illinois has recognized civil unions, but not everyone is satisfied, including a coalition of LGBT rights groups who rallied in Chicago's Boystown neighborhood on Saturday. Candice Bernd has more info. 

  EVENT NOTICE 
  You might be surprised to learn that In These Times has a community art gallery, Art In TheseTimes, right in our offices. We're excited to announce that the next installation will be 'WI Rise Up', a collection of posters and photographs from the 2011 Wisconsin movement to defend collective bargaining rights. 

   

  The exhibition is a collaboration with Nicolas Lampert and will feature prints and placards he has collected as an active participant in the labor and community rallies in Madison. We'll be hosting an opening party starting 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 23, at 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago, and anyone who can make it is encouraged to come!