Efforts to narrow the racial wealth divide must address the disparities that are at the heart of our nation’s founding and still run through its veins in the 21st century.
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Economic Justice
Combating inequality means both lifting up and building power at the bottom, and breaking up concentration of wealth and power at the top. That’s why we work at the intersection of economic and racial justice through projects designed to build leadership and self-empowerment of black workers, immigrant workers, and low-wage workers, youth and families affected by incarceration, along with projects aiming to reverse the rules that criminalize poor people of color, and projects fighting to ensure that the wealthy and Wall Street corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
Latest Work
In the Ukraine War, We Can Make Oligarchs — Everywhere — the Big Losers
Ending the tax-evading ways of Russia’s rich could be a giant step toward reining in oligarchy worldwide.
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Top-Heavy Philanthropy Explained in 8 Charts
How the concentration of wealth is warping the giving sector, from our Charity Reform Initiative.
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Don’t Wait for Billionaire Philanthropy to Fix America
Billionaire donations mostly ignore global pandemic, ecological crisis, spiraling wage and wealth inequality, and racial inequity.
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Guatemalan Water Defenders Celebrate 10 Years of Resistance
An attempted assassination, criminalization, and violent eviction in 2014 didn’t stop the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya in Guatemala.
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How Did Flying Cars Become the Next Big Thing?
Another reminder that plutocracies can indeed solve problems — for plutocrats.
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What Can Biden Say About the Economic State of Our Union?
Strong jobs numbers are not enough. The president should keep pushing a bold legislative agenda while deploying every executive tool at his disposal to achieve a more equitable economy.
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A Sea of Trouble: Seabed Mining and International Arbitration in Mexico
The Gulf of Ulloa off the coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico teems with marine life, from gray whales to lobster. Its seafloor is also rich in phosphate, a key component of fertilizers, at the center of a multi-billion-dollar arbitration suit that US company Odyssey Marine Exploration has brought against Mexico under the terms of […]
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Nearly Two-Thirds of Jefferson County, Alabama Residents Support a Union at Amazon
A new survey commissioned by the Institute for Policy Studies shows the extent of local support for unionization efforts at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse.
Read moreNew Survey Shows Nearly Two-Thirds of Jefferson County, Alabama Residents Support a Union at Amazon
A new survey commissioned by the Institute for Policy Studies and conducted by New South Research shows the extent of local support for unionization efforts at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse.
Read moreIPS Projects
Reports
The Other Side of the Storm
What Do Black Immigrant Domestic Workers in the Time of Covid-19 Teach Us About Building a Resilient Care Infrastructure?
Bay State Billionaires
Massachusetts billionaires’ wealth surges 46 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Executive Excess 2022
The CEOs at America’s largest low-wage employers are grabbing huge raises while workers and consumers struggle with rising costs.
REPORT: Silver Spoon Oligarchs
How America’s 50 Largest Inherited-Wealth Dynasties Accelerate Inequality
Executive Excess 2021
Low-Wage Workers Lost Hours, Jobs, and Lives. Their Employers Bent the Rules — To Pump up CEO Paychecks.