Portside

The cost of low wages at Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) are at the center of a new report released last week by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Low wages are an issue across the economy, but Wal-Mart, as the country's largest private employer, has long faced closer scrutiny than other companies.

"This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy. This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens’ right to speak and associate anonymously and guard against unreasonable searches and seizures..."

If the September convention lives up to the spirit of today’s internal debate and AFL-CIO pursues policies recommended by the white paper, it stands to be the most significant convention since the 1995, when John J. Sweeny and his backers ousted the old guard Cold War warriors.

The Idle No More movement connects First Nations’ sovereignty to the protection of the Earth for all people—Native and non-Native alike.

Personalizing Google Maps; Mapping Istanbul’s Protests; National DNA Database; Biometrics and Consumer Behavior

New Layer of Secrecy at Guantánamo Court

There has been widespread outrage in Europe over the scope of the National Security Agency's PRISM surveillance program. European experts, however, are not surprised by American whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations.

The objective of the protests is to push institutions in the European Union to change radically their policies of social and labor cuts and to fulfil the commitments of promoting economy and employment.

NSA phone surveillance will have 'chilling effect' on ACLU'.

Changes are happening. Despite the challenges, more unionists are taking on the job of reform, pushed by the desire to save their unions and keep employers from implementing their unfettered agenda. In the process they are bucking the conventional wisdom that workers should live with less than previous generations.