Portside

Beyond 10 days, most meteorologists will say, there is little predictive skill. This is largely due to the "butterfly effect," in which only a very small change in initial conditions will have huge changes after about 10 days.

South African President Jacob Zuma’s apology April 4th has done little to resolve the political crisis wracking South Africa. The March 31st Constitutional Court ruling he used his position for personal gain and “failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution,” came on the heels of allegations by respected members of the African National Congress that an influential business family allied with Zuma had offered them cabinet posts in return for political favors.

Charity analysis of the 50 biggest US businesses claims Apple have $181bn held offshore, while General Electric has $119bn and Microsoft $108bn

A talk given at the "Labor for Bernie" national conference, April 1, 2016 in Chicago

The report, Fracking by the Numbers: the Damage to Our Water, Land and Climate from a Decade of Dirty Drilling, was published Thursday and analyzes data released by government and industry sources over the past ten years.

Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center, recently edited a new book with the Rev. James Lawson Jr., a renowned civil rights activist who worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and helped launch key campaigns for social justice. For generations, he has taught the principles of nonviolence to civil rights leaders, committed activists, community organizers and, in recent years, UCLA students as a guest lecturer.

Unfolding events of the past several months have confirmed that the presidential contest now underway is the most historically significant in at least the last 50 years. The reasons for this are several according to long-time activist Linda Burnham in this April 2016 piece.

Science nowadays often starts from the assumption of continuity between humans and animals, while shifting the burden of proof to those who insist on differences. Anyone who asks me to believe that a tickled ape, who almost chokes on his hoarse giggles, is in a different state of mind than a tickled human child has his work cut out for him.

Branch Rickey certainly deserves credit for confronting his fellow owners and their racist attitudes by signing Jackie Robinson and, in doing so, advancing the cause of civil rights. However, there is more to this story than Rickey and Robinson. In fact, the desegregation of baseball came after a decade-long campaign by black and left wing journalists and activists.

After Occupy in 2011, and the wave of fast-food strikes the following year in New York City, the movement to raise wages took a new turn and a bolder stance: $15 an hour and a union. When the campaign first began, that pay demand seemed like a pipe dream. Yet the call for $15 resonated. Now, the movement has scored victories in two of the biggest states in the country.