Abundant protests against austerity

The New York Times may have buried the news on A6 but the European Day of Action yesterday did mobilize millions of workers, from Spain to Brussels, in opposition to the new austerity measures. The Sacramento Bee [ht: rw] posted 36 images of the protests.

United states of mobile homes

Percent of Housing Units That Are Mobile Homes or Trailers Universe: Housing units Data Set: 2009 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates Survey: American Community Survey, Puerto Rico Community Survey United States by State

Chicago’s slumping shoulders

Like the rest of the country, the people in Chicago, Cook County, and the surrounding municipalities are suffering in the current depression. According to the Chicago Tribune, Like the rest of the country, the Chicago area experienced heavy job losses, home foreclosures and lower median household incomes from 2006 to 2009, which forced some people [...]

Cartoon of the day

Severance pay and unemployment

Spanish workers delayed their general strike against austerity measures—including the new labor law—to coincide with the European Day of Action. The new labor law includes cuts in severance pay, with the excuse that they will lead to lower unemployment. However, new research demonstrates exactly the opposite. Countries with low levels of severance pay suffer on [...]

“No to Austerity”

Today is the previously announced European Day of Action against the imposition of austerity measures. There’s a general strike in Spain, the first in 8 years, involving 10 million workers. Additional protests are being staged in Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Rome, Paris, Riga, Warsaw, Nicosia, Bucharest, Prague, Vilnius, Belgrade, and Athens. Updates can be found here.

Protest of the day

According to the Associated Press, police stand beside a cement truck which rammed the front gates of the Irish Parliament in Dublin today. A cement mixer rammed into the gates of the Irish parliament in an apparent protest at the country’s catastrophically expensive bank bailout. Written across the truck’s barrel in red letters were the [...]

Halloween costume of the day

Public art of the day

“Legacy” Gaia I am calling this series Legacy and it is a very basic attempt to reinscribe the figures who have shaped our landscape back onto the surface of their legacy, the infrastructure and policies that we have inherited and must navigate.

Class and higher education

Class is still the defining feature of university education in the United Kingdom. This is especially true at the “posh” universities. According to a new study reported in the Guardian,  eight of the 10 universities with the lowest proportions of working-class students were in the prestigious Russell Group of research-intensive universities. With just 11.5% of [...]