The unemployment rate for Puerto Rico is currently 12.6%. The island is also $72 billion in debt. And Republicans in Congress are opposed to providing the territory with the same type of bankruptcy protections that are available to the states. To… read more
In his 1941 State of the Union, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt outlined his vision of America as redefined by the New Deal and as defining itself against the imminent threat of fascism. (Eleven months later, the U.S. would enter World War… read more
Since 1994, San Francisco’s LaborFest has brought together workers, artists, and scholars to memorialize America’s labor movements, past and present. Through panels, films, concerts, and site visits, it aims to foster dialogue across lines of race, ethnicity, gender, and craft. This… read more
On this day, April 8,1935, Congress approved the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, establishing the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unemployed people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public… read more
Ever since the New Deal’s National Youth Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and a brief flurry of public-spiritedness during the Kennedy years, America has minimized both expectations and opportunities for public service. Fewer Americans than at any time in… read more
Inspired by the New Deal arts programs, Creative Action Network (CAN), an online community of mission-driven artists, announced a crowdsource campaign to create a new collection of “See America” posters celebrating America’s national parks. Within a few weeks about two… read more
The government and the news media would like us to believe that the recession triggered by the financial crisis of 2008 is behind us and the economy is up and running at a fine clip. But the reality is not… read more
Stephen Seufert, a recent college graduate and blogger in Pennsylvania, has sent us this excellent op-ed piece he recently published in a local paper, The Bucks County Courier-Times. Thank you, Stephen, and we hope that more young Americans come to… read more
Robert Reich, Living New Deal board member, has been getting a lot of attention lately, thanks to his new film, Inequality for All. He has been interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and by Bill Moyers on Moyers… read more
Yet again we are reminded that the United States has not invested enough in maintaining and expanding the national infrastructure since the New Deal/Postwar Era. As a result, bridges collapse, sewage systems overflow, and parks go to seed, among other… read more