Portside

Yes, the Iraq War was a war for oil, and it was a war with winners: Big Oil. It has been 10 years since Operation Iraqi Freedom's bombs first landed in Baghdad. And while most of the U.S.-led coalition forces have long since gone, Western oil companies are only getting started.

Ten years ago, in March of 2003, Iraqis braced themselves for the anticipated "Shock and Awe" attacks that the U.S. was planning to launch against them.

Robert Chrisman and the Black Scholar occupied the vanguard of the struggle for recognition of Black Studies as a serious academic endeavor.

More than medical care, it can open the door to the democratic empowerment of millions of poor Americans.

For all its vaunted efficiency, capitalism has foisted wasteful inequality and environmental ruin on us. There is an alternative.

Growth of Radical Right Wing Groups * Getting Rid of Lifeline "Obama Phones"? * Class Issues in Honey Boo Boo * Tech Companies Support Gay Marriage * Disney Video Game Shows Girls How to Climb the NYC Social Ladder * Father Hacks 'Donkey Kong' for Daughter * New Building Design for New Uses at Public Libraries * The Rise of `The American Conservative' * Surprising New Immigrant Geography * The `Harlem Shake' and Class Politics

The spread of "Right-to-work" legislation is damaging to union membership and especially dues collection, and therefore has long been a strategy of the bosses. However, some left union activists have argued that automatic dues collection and membership is anti-democratic and the unions would be stronger if dues were "hand collected." But is this the best way to communicate with workers? Or are there other ways to strengthen unions and union democracy?

When an important leader of the political opposition hints that a military coup might be preferable to the current chaos, and when a major financial organization proposes an economic program certain to spark a social explosion, something is afoot. Is Egypt being primed for a coup?

This is as noted by the New York Times, "a golden age for corporate profits." Corporations have simply stopped paying their taxes. Pay Up Now just completed a compilation of corporate tax payments over the past five years, using SEC data as reported by the companies themselves. The firms chosen are top-earners who have filed 10-K reports through 2012. Their US Tax figures represent the five-year total of "current" payments.

The fact that employers have stopped providing good health insurance or good retirement benefits also has nothing to with technology or globalization or any of the other alibis. In a reasonable society, health insurance and decent retirement would be tax-supported and part of the basic package for everyone. The great hidden injustice in our society is the set of lead weights being placed on the feet of young adults. Your generation should be in the streets.