Thoughts on Rebuilding the “American Dream”

Van Jones

By David Roddy

Thomas Jefferson’s promise of a new government “deriving just powers from the consent of the governed” under the premise that “all men are created equal,” seems to have fallen short. After years of recession and rampant unemployment followed by waves of right-wing austerity and xenophobia, the Dream, to some, needs rebuilding.

The Ground We Walk On: A History of The Jackson Miners Union (Post 12)

A Week of Confusion

By David Roddy (Previous posts in this series here.)

The week between Friday the 17th and 24th of April 1903 shut down the gold mining communities of Amador County. Until the mine-owners guaranteed an eight-hour workday, higher wages, and recognition of the Jackson and Amador Miners Unions, the miners refused to work.

1883 cartoon depicting the American workman tied to the fire of monopoly.
From Puck Magazine.