• Nearly a million stateless Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh camps have been mostly forgotten by western nations focusing on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Nearly 6 years ago, tens of thousands of Rohingya were forced out of villages in western Myanmar by the Army and Buddhist militants. Today, the Rohingya are interned in overcrowded camps and denied the right to work.
(“Stateless Rohingya Could Soon Become the “New Palestinians,” Guardian, May 30, 2023)
• Over recent decades Minnesota has been a reliable blue state in presidential elections, Barack Obama won it twice, Hillary Clinton won it in 2016, and Joe Biden won it once more in 2020. But in the state legislature, power has often been divided. So, when Democrats won control of both the State House and Senate in 2022, it gave progressives a golden opportunity to push for sweeping reforms.
(“The New Minnesota Vikings,” American Prospect, May 22, 2023)
• Reformers are demanding a shakeup inside the United Food and Commercial Workers union. With 1.2 million members the UFCW is one of the largest private-sector unions in America, and the largest inside the AFL-CIO. While the union boasted about defending the rights of essential workers in supermarkets and other retail outlets during the COVID pandemic, many of the temporary wage increases won were rolled back by grocery chains as the pandemic faded, shaking confidence in the UFCW’s ability to wield power effectively.
(“Clean Up in UFCW,” In These Times, May 2, 2023)
This week’s News Summary was narrated by Anna Manzo.
