Midcoast commons

By Midcoast Democratic Socialists

Additional Column Posts (1 - 20 of 20)

• Health care from the Wizard of Oz

  By Rob Wasserstrom - Jan 14
  When Paul LePage became governor in 2011, infant mortality in Maine tracked the U.S. average. Nearly 13,000 babies were born here each year and ...
  

• Paying the corporate tax on health care

  By Rob Wasserstrom - Dec 18
  Two weeks ago, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that more working-age people in Maine are dying than in most other states. ...
  

• Poverty isn’t partisan – or is it?

  By Susan Reider - Nov 20
  In this hyper-charged political environment, we've heard that criticism of the President is treason, opposition is partisan posturing, election ...
  
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  Closer than you think: Maine and California

  By Rob Wasserstrom - Oct 22
  Reading about the recent wildfires in California, it's hard to avoid drawing parallels between Pacific Gas and Electric Company to our own CMP. ...
  
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  Thompson Murch: Rockland's labor congressman

  By Robert Wasserstrom - Sep 26
  Few people remember that a Knox County labor leader became Maine's first progressive congressman. In 1877, Thompson H. Murch cofounded the Granite ...
  

• Support the workers

  By Dylan Cookson - Aug 29
  Labor Day was first celebrated in Rockland in the 1890s. The labor movement had been spreading across the country for decades, but the Labor Day ...
  

• Learning from history: democratic socialism in Maine

  By Robert Wasserstrom - Aug 01
  Debates about the future of democratic socialism have a long history in the Midcoast. By the late 19th century, Knox County had become “the ...
  

• Opioids and the failure of capitalism

  By Robert Wasserstrom - Jun 20
  Most of us know that Maine is going through an opioid crisis. Last year, 335 Mainers died of opioid-related causes. In 2017, one in seven newborn ...
  
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  Scientist and socialist: Norman Wallace Lermond, 1861-1944

  By Susan Reider - May 09
  Midcoast Maine has had no shortage of interesting and colorful characters over the years, like Norman Wallace Lermond (1861-1944), of Thomaston. ...
  
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  For deep democracy, an economy of healing, and a livable ...

  By Dwight Hobbs - Apr 11
  The Green New Deal has reentered the public imagination, thanks in large part to the public actions of young organizers who understand the ...
  

• Some seasonal thoughts

  By Susan Reider - Dec 23
  Our annual celebration of the birth of Jesus always makes me wonder what kind of a country we are. The Christian Right claims ownership of the ...
  

• Energy conservation and the climate crisis

  By Rob Wasserstrom - Dec 05
  In a recent “Deep State” article, Free Press reporter Lance Tapley argued that energy conservation could help us get off “the road to world ruin” ...
  
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  Veterans Day

  By Rob Wasserstrom - Oct 31
  On Nov. 11, Veterans Day, take a look at one of those Civil War statues and ask yourself: What did those men fight for? We should all be grateful ...
  
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  The power of money

  By Susan Reider - Oct 10
  Americans pride ourselves on having the best quality of life, the best political and economic system, the best future for our children. But does ...
  

• Hello, Gilded Age -- we're back!

  By Robert Wasserstrom - Sep 12
  In the early 1900s, Rockland, Bath, Lewiston and Portland were major centers of labor conflict in Maine. Among other reforms, union members wanted ...
  

• We owe more than we own

  By Robert Wasserstrom - Aug 15
  Did I read that right? Unwilling to reverse LePage's tax cuts for wealthy people, Gov. Janet Mills would like us to borrow another $249 million ...
  

• CMP is eating our lunch

  By Susan Reider - Jul 18
  When I first read that Central Maine Power was asking for a rate hike again this year, I almost laughed. After all, it bungled the rollout of its ...
  
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  Power in people's hands

  By Dylan Cookson - May 23
  A few weeks ago, State Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, hosted a talk in Rockport on his proposal to replace both CMP and Emera Maine with a ...
  
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  Moving without fear to a carbon-free future

  By Sarah Miller - Apr 25
  Global warming is frightening. There's no way around that. What there's no reason to fear is the transition off fossil fuels and onto renewable ...
  

• Democratic Socialism: Old Midcoast ideas are new again

  By Susan Reider - Apr 04
  This just in: If the federal minimum wage had kept pace with Wall Street bonuses since 1985, the minimum wage would now be $33.51 per hour. This ...