Portside

• Americans Don’t Miss Manufacturing — They Miss Unions - Ben Casselman (FiveThirtyEight)
• ADL Leader: Massacre of Armenians was ‘Unequivocally Genocide’ - Travis Andersen (Boston Globe)
• Pfizer Blocks the Use of Its Drugs in Executions - Erik Eckhom (New York Times)
• The Black Conversation Around Larry Wilmore’s ‘Nigga’ Remark Was Really About Something Much Bigger - Rembert Browne (New York Magazine)
• Loach Film On Shame of Poverty in Britain Moves Cannes To Tears - Fran Blandy (AFP)
• Russian Officials Threaten to Boycott Next Eurovision After Victory for ‘Political’ Ukraine Entry - Adam Withnall  (The Independent)

Americans Don’t Miss Manufacturing — They Miss Unions          

By Ben Casselman
May 13, 2016
FiveThirtyEight

For all of the glow that surrounds manufacturing jobs in political rhetoric, there is nothing inherently special about them. Some pay well; others don’t. They are not immune from the forces that have led to slow wage growth in other sectors of the economy. When politicians pledge to protect manufacturing jobs, they really mean a certain kind of job: well-paid, long-lasting, with opportunities for advancement. Those aren’t qualities associated with working on a factory floor; they’re qualities associated with being a member of a union.

ADL Leader: Massacre of Armenians was ‘Unequivocally Genocide’

By Travis Andersen
May 14, 2016
Boston Globe

The Anti-Defamation League said Friday that the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians that began in 1915 was “unequivocally genocide” and for the first time expressed support for US government recognition of the killings as a genocide.

Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, said Greenblatt’s statement “is new in that it’s very explicit in breaking with [the Turkish government’s] denials.”

While the ADL has never denied that a massacre took place, the organization said in 2007 that a similar congressional push was “counterproductive.”
 

Pfizer Blocks the Use of Its Drugs in Executions

By Erik Eckhom
May 13, 2016
New York Times

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced on Friday that it had imposed sweeping controls on the distribution of its products to ensure that none are used in lethal injections, a step that closes off the last remaining open-market source of drugs used in executions.

More than 20 American and European drug companies have already adopted such restrictions, citing either moral or business reasons. Nonetheless, the decision from one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturers is seen as a milestone.
 

The Black Conversation Around Larry Wilmore’s ‘Nigga’ Remark Was Really About Something Much Bigger

By Rembert BrowneMay 7, 2016
New York Magazine

The 2016 White House Correspondents' Dinner was hosted by The Nightly Show’s Larry Wilmore. In his speech, in keeping with the tradition of the annual roast, the comedian made many jokes. One of those involved looking at the president of the United States, Barack Obama, and saying, “Yo, Barry. You did it, my nigga.”

The takes that came out in the days afterward were a reminder about who gets to draw the lines, make the rules, and declare what’s right and wrong, appropriate and disrespectful, when it comes to the use of that word.
 

Loach Film On Shame of Poverty in Britain Moves Cannes To Tears

by Fran Blandy
May 13, 2016
AFP

Director Ken Loach denounced the British government's "conscious cruelty" towards the poor Friday after his film about the poverty and humiliation inflicted upon them by welfare cuts had critics at the Cannes film festival in tears.

The left-wing director, who turns 80 this year and is known for shining a light on the downtrodden, also got lengthy applause and shouts of "Bravo!" at a press conference after "I, Daniel Blake" was screened.

"The most vulnerable people are told their poverty is their own fault," Loach told reporters. "If you have no work it is your fault that you haven't got a job.

"It is shocking. It is not an issue just for people in our country, it is throughout Europe and there is a conscious cruelty in the way we are organising our lives now," he said.

Russian Officials Threaten to Boycott Next Eurovision After Victory for ‘Political’ Ukraine Entry
By Adam Withnall  
May 15, 2016
The Independent

Russian officials have suggested the country could boycott the next Eurovision song contest over what they see as the politically-motivated victory of Ukraine’s entry “1944”.

The winning song was a slow-paced ballad by Jamala, a 27-year-old Crimean Tatar, and Ukraine said its title and lyrics referred to the ethnic cleansing of her people under the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Russia, whose own entrant Sergey Lazarev went into the competition as the bookmakers' favourite, had tried to get Ukraine’s song banned from the competition, describing it as a clear political statement over the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and as such a violation of the contest’s rules.

But the result was wildly celebrated in Ukraine itself, where people hailed the spotlight on Stalin’s brutal treatment of Crimean Tatars – including Jamala’s own great-grandmother.