The Wisconsin Idea

Departments

The Big Idea: Ethanol

The United States is the world’s largest producer of corn, most of it is grown in the Midwest, and almost all gasoline sold in the United States contains ethanol, a corn-based renewable additive to fuel.

J. Patrick Patterson

Viewpoint

Exiting Prison With No Money, No Credit and No Way to Avoid Debt

How the consequences of incarceration and reentry create financial–and social–debt.

Calvin John Smiley

Viewpoint

Fighting Privatization Is Good for Mental Health

Dedicated community leaders and persistent organizing are helping make Chicago’s new expansion of public mental health services a reality.

Elena Gormley

Viewpoint

Low-Wage Corporations Are Fleecing Their Workers to Massively Inflate CEO Pay

Why don’t low wage workers earn more? Because their bosses plowed $522 million into manipulating their stock price—and CEO paychecks—instead.

Sarah Anderson

Departments

Debtor Organizing Can Transform Our Individual Financial Struggles Into a Source of Collective Strength

Alone, our debt is a liability. Together, it’s our leverage.

J. Patrick Patterson

Labor

Los Angeles Teachers’ Road to Durable Power, 2014–2016

United Teachers Los Angeles’ transformation into a strike-ready, progressive union offers lessons for how today’s labor upsurge can produce durable, transformative union power, writes former UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl.

Alex Caputo-Pearl

Labor

The Baristas Who Took Over Their Café

Baltimore’s 230-year-old tradition of workplace democracy is experiencing a revival.

Osita Nwanevu

Can a National Strike Save a Closed Plant? A Town Depends On It.

The UAW is calling up locals to stand by Stellantis workers in Belvidere, Ill., who were promised a reopening.

Sarah Lazare

EWOC Is Modeling a Path Forward for Labor

The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee is providing crucial lessons for unions and organizing everywhere. It might be an example of labor’s best bet.

Eric Blanc