Noted Noted
In 2011, the Renaissance Providence Downtown Hotel gained some unwanted notoriety when Joey DeFrancesco quit his service job with the help of his bandmates in the What Cheer? Brigade. A video of Joey’s raucous exit has 4.3 million views on YouTube. “They were stealing our tip money, paying us poverty wages, making us work double or triple shifts,” DeFrancesco told The Nation. “When I quit, I didn’t want to go quietly.” On December 4, the workers declared a boycott. The Unitarian Universalist Association, which had intended to hold its annual business meeting at the Renaissance, canceled 847 reservations. Local politicians voiced their support. On March 19, thanks to the combined efforts of students and hotel workers, the Brown University Community Council (BUCC) voted to discourage the Brown community from patronizing the Renaissance. Since the fall, members of Brown’s Student Labor Alliance had been marching with Renaissance workers on the picket lines. When the boycott started, students invited the hotel workers to attend a BUCC meeting and share their stories with administrators. “We have certain leverage at Brown,” says Mariela Martinez, a Brown senior and SLA member, “We have to use it.” Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50! When the university president cut off hotel worker Santa Brito in the midst of her testimony, the SLA went outside official channels, handing out hundreds of leaflets at Brown’s extravagant 250th anniversary events. At the next BUCC meeting, SLA members packed the room. The council voted almost unanimously to support the resolution, which “encourages the Brown community to take all appropriate measures to avoid holding any events at the Renaissance Hotel in Providence during the current labor dispute.” Martinez, who comes from a working-class family in South-Central Los Angeles, says of the Renaissance workers, “They are facing real intimidation on a daily basis…. We’re just going to class and going to meetings.” Says hotel worker Marino Cruz, “They are fighters, just like us.” Read Next: StudentNation, The Nation blog by and for student activists and journalists
Apr 8, 2014 / The Editors
This Modern World This Modern World
Apr 8, 2014 / Tom Tomorrow
Snapshot: The End of Mexican Oil Snapshot: The End of Mexican Oil
A statue of Lázaro Cárdenas, the Mexican president who nationalized the country’s oil reserves in 1938. In December, a constitutional “reform” measure was passed to open the country to foreign oil companies. Last month the denationalization process began with Pemex, Mexico’s national oil company, naming fields it would like to retain.
Apr 8, 2014 / Brian Tlamintzi
Israel Celebrates a Return to the Status Quo in the Middle East Israel Celebrates a Return to the Status Quo in the Middle East
Many Israelis, Netanyahu included, were never serious about seeking a two-state solution in the peace negotiations.
Apr 8, 2014 / Column / Eric Alterman
Prison Culture: How Biases Trump Evidence and Land People in Jail Prison Culture: How Biases Trump Evidence and Land People in Jail
The imprisonment of an American couple in Qatar reveals biases in criminal justice, at home and abroad.
Apr 8, 2014 / Column / Patricia J. Williams
I Dream of Sheldon With the Bright Orange Hair I Dream of Sheldon With the Bright Orange Hair
(Sung by Republican presidential candidates to the tune of “I Dream of Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair.”) I dream of Sheldon with the bright orange hair. He need but beckon, and I’m quickly there. The views of Sheldon are OK by me. Always I agree, whatever they might be. Many are the good things about him. I love each. Mostly, though, I love the way he does free speech. I dream of Sheldon with the bright orange hair. He need but beckon, and I’m quickly there.
Apr 8, 2014 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Can Al Jazeera America Save Cable News? Can Al Jazeera America Save Cable News?
The network wants to reshape the market. But first it must reach—and win over—its viewers.
Apr 8, 2014 / Feature / Reed Richardson
Why Are Black Students Facing Corporal Punishment in Public Schools? Why Are Black Students Facing Corporal Punishment in Public Schools?
A growing controversy over use of the “paddle” to discipline children has a painful racial subtext.
Apr 8, 2014 / Feature / Sarah Carr
Why Is California Penalizing Poor Women for Wanting to Be Parents? Why Is California Penalizing Poor Women for Wanting to Be Parents?
California is known for protecting a woman’s right to choose. Will this be the year the state extends that same right to poor women?
Apr 8, 2014 / Dani McClain
What If the Minimum Wage Were $15 an Hour? What If the Minimum Wage Were $15 an Hour?
Inside the movement that’s pushing to make a living wage a reality in Seattle.
Apr 8, 2014 / Feature / Sasha Abramsky