By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
In this feature-length documentary, low-wage immigrant hotel workers in Southern California battle for new contracts with Disney and Hyatt. The campaigns are hard-fought, but unions in the US are a shadow of their former selves – membership stands at a 100-year low, as corporate power has grown to unprecedented heights. The hospitality workers of Unite Here demonstrate creativity and determination in their struggle for justice on the job, but will that be enough?

By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE

Civil society leader Jesse Jackson, in Sweden on July 4, 2011 for that nation’s annual weeklong festival of politics, speaks about labor under attack, corporate power in ascendancy, and the need for a mass uprising of ordinary people. He also offers encouragement to students of Cal State Northridge, who are reeling from yet another fee hike, as the state budget implosion continues.