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Weekly Roundup: March 5, 2021

PUBLISHED

At the Blog

Genevieve Lakier and Nelson Tebbe kicked off the week with a reconsideration of the public/private distinction in First Amendment law, triggered by the “Great Deplatforming” of Trump and others who have used social media for mass deception and instigation of violence.

Then Ben Palmquist explored what a deeper restructuring of health care provision on democratic principles might look like, going well beyond the question of financing and into questions of governance.

In LPE-Land

The Democracy Beyond Neoliberalism conference continues! The next event is next Friday, March 12, titled “Moral Economy after Consumer Sovereignty” featuring both the LPE Blog’s current and previous Managing Editors!

Don’t forget to check out videos of the events you missed (available on the conference page).

Elsewhere on the Internet

Luke Herrine

Ann Larson, my brilliant former collaborator at the Debt Collective, has written a characteristically incisive piece on working the checkout counter during the pandemic.

Skanda Amarnath and Alex Williams put together a detailed and fascinating analysis of how to think about the macroeconomic implications of the microchip shortage and what it means for inflation, among other things.

In response to growing calls for collective bargaining from Uber and from some thinkers the right, a group of left-leaning folks–including many LPE-ers–has put together an open letter on the values that collective bargaining should embody. A great concise read on how to think about collective bargaining–and one that you can sign if you support it!

Caroline Parker

It’s incredible to me how each iteration of the Twentieth Century Synthesis story gets somehow sharper. In case you haven’t seen the latest from the LPE faculty co-directors in Boston Review, treat yourself!

For LPE & climate folks, you should look at this webinar course on the Green New Deal for organizers and attorneys. The course is being run by Power Shift Network and Break Collective and this week’s speaker was Camila Bustos, who wrote about climate accountability and the legal industry for the blog last month. You can watch all the recent sessions, including Camila’s, here.  

And a big, beautiful decarceration bill had its first hearing in the Colorado state legislature yesterday. SB 21-62 would limit cash bail and empower sheriffs to safely depopulate county jails (as they have been during the pandemic). There was testimony all day, including from Colorado Freedom Fund’s Elisabeth Epps, who wrote for the blog about abolition and bail funds last year.