“In this country, there’s no time for love. Nobody make time for love.” That got everybody laughing because Marie was eight months pregnant.

In September 2006, Bolivian President Evo Morales went before the United Nations, asking the General Assembly to reverse the UN ban on international trade of coca-products, which has been in place for nearly half a century.

“Verify the documents, I thought. What the hell is that about? Trembling, I moved forward to the first row and settled into an empty armchair. That bit about the verifications was like a knife through my heart. If they try to verify them, I’m screwed…. I would have sold my soul to the Devil for that visa, but there was no time for the ceremony.”

In 1903, when Japanese and Mexican immigrant workers wanted to unionize in California, the American Federation of Labor denied them a union charter, refusing to work with non-whites. The Industrial Workers of the World, on the other hand, embraced workers of all colors, as long as they were a little “red.” At less than $4 an hour, some Mexican workers in Brooklyn today earn little more than they would have in 1903—and these workers are again turning to the IWW.