When Barack Obama was elected, many labor activists had great hopes for a turnaround for the union movement, which has been shrinking alarmingly over the past several decades. But nearly a year into Obama's presidency, things don't look so bright. Longtime labor organizer and journalist Steve Early talks about the state of unions in the midst of economic upheaval, as well as the legacy of sixties radicals in the labor movement today, union democracy, and conflicts within the movement itself.

Is secularism the modernizing, progressive answer to stuck-in-the-past religion? Janet Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini call into question the secularism-religion binary; they contend that a kind of Christian secularism dominates US politics. They also see gender and sexuality as central to the development of both the neoliberal agenda and what they call Barack Obama's Neo-New Deal.

In Beyond the Fields, Randy Shaw describes how the United Farm Workers pioneered a grassroots organizing model that fueled political struggles of all kinds. Shaw suggests that an Obama spin-off organization be created that draws from the UFW model. Also, Steven Gale discusses the plays and politics of the late Harold Pinter.

It may be a new day under Obama, but economic black clouds loom. Immanuel Wallerstein reflects on Obama's victory and describes the current crisis as a depression, placing it in the context of broad political-economic trends. Ismael Hossein-Zadeh enumerates several flaws in Paulson's bailout plan and suggests a homeowner-centered alternative.

In his acclaimed ten-play cycle, August Wilson sought to illuminate the 20th-century Black experience. Professor Harry Elam, Jr. and actor Brent Jennings describe Wilson's project, both generally and in the context of the play Joe Turner's Come and Gone. And Ian Williams spells out foreign policy priorities for Barack Obama.