history Archives

GENERAL STRIKE: IS THE TRUMP VICTORY SPARKING THE RETURN OF LABOR’S MOST POWERFUL TACTIC?

NYC (1970) February 22, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS You know we live in interesting times when general strikes get discussed matter-of-factly in an American big city newspaper. A subject which would have only been raised in a publication like the Boston Globe in recent decades to attack it. But

JASON PRAMAS February 22, 2017

HARD DRUG TRUTHS: END MANDATORY MINIMUM DRUG SENTENCES

January 10, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS The opioid crisis is dire enough without adding insult to injury. With almost 12,000 deaths from overdoses in Massachusetts since the year 2000—increasing sharply in recent years with fentanyl-laced heroin hitting the streets—the human cost to users, their families, and our communities is

JASON PRAMAS January 10, 2017

50 YEARS OF YEAST AND LOVE

An oral history of Haley House AS TOLD TO THE BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM If hungry people had to count on seasonal compassion, the poor would likely starve but for the holidays. The government only assists so much; in Boston, for example, it’s been two years since the closing of

CHRIS FARAONE November 22, 2016

PLAY TO WIN: UK LABOUR PARTY LEADER SHOWS THE AMERICAN LEFT HOW TO MOVE BEYOND SYMBOLIC POLITICS

September 29, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Last week—as is the case many weeks every fall and spring in Boston—notices of small scripted protests by an array of area progressive nonprofits, unions, and student groups got me thinking about the rut the anti-corporate American left has been stuck in for

JASON PRAMAS September 29, 2016

GE BOSTON DEAL: THE MISSING MANUAL, PART 4

February 29, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS In May 2012, three former GE executives were imprisoned after being convicted on multiple charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and defraud the United States. Dominick Carollo, Steven Goldberg and Peter Grimm had all worked for GE Capital—the financial division that operated

JASON PRAMAS February 29, 2016

GE BOSTON DEAL: THE MISSING MANUAL, PART 3

Image by Kent Buckley February 15, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Returning to our ongoing look at General Electric’s recent and inconvenient history of violating the public trust, in part 2 of this “missing manual” the corporation got out of the subprime housing loan market just in time to avoid

JASON PRAMAS February 15, 2016

GE BOSTON DEAL: THE MISSING MANUAL, PART 2

Image by Kent Buckley February 1, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Two weeks after the first installment of this Missing Manual, we now know that GE will receive up to another $100 million of Boston’s largesse in the form of reopening the Old Northern Avenue Bridge and $25 million in

JASON PRAMAS February 1, 2016

GE BOSTON DEAL: AN ACTIVIST HANDBOOK

Images (from 2012 protest against GE in Boston) by Chris Faraone January 28, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Say friend … is a multinational corporation with a terrible reputation, a limitless PR budget, and a penchant for backroom deals with fawning politicians bleeding your state for hundreds of millions of

JASON PRAMAS January 28, 2016

GE BOSTON DEAL: THE MISSING MANUAL

Image by Kent Buckley January 18, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS The saga of GE’s flight from Connecticut began with the June 2015 passage of a very much needed package of state tax increases aimed at raising an extra $1.1 billion over the next two years. By extending a temporary

JASON PRAMAS January 18, 2016