Portside

Based on estimates from the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA), about 14% of the population have received inaccurate and/or delayed water bills for months. Campaign to Reform PWSA, hopes to end what they see as the PWSA's coercive attempts to shake down citizens for money. They also hope to alter PWSA to be more transparent and responsive, because right now PWSA has become a smokescreen for Veolia Environment, largest private water company in the world.

Tula Connell draws insights from the award winning Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert (2014) to understand the events at Rana Plaza and the role of cotton empire today. She also updates us on the efforts of workers to gain rights, and what is blocking it..the empire of cotton.

New investigative reports from two prominent nonprofit news organizations and the International Campaign for Responsible Technology ICRT link the legacy of harm to electronics workers and communities in Silicon Valley to continuing harm to electronics workers globally, particularly in South Korea, Vietnam, and China. Two feature stories from this hard-hitting new series tell this compelling story and underscore urgency to create safe, sustainable electronics industry.

The heartless combination of the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, the House Republicans flatly shunning the immigration bill and the series of police murders of unarmed Black men should be a wakeup call about the grave dangers posed by the far right and may give rise to a renewed motion among African Americans that could give much needed new impetus and political focus to the progressive movement.

Just as in the 1850s (with the Dred Scott decision and the Fugitive Slave Act), the Southern labor system (with low pay and no unions) is wending its way north.

In many Native communities genocide is not a thing of the past, but an everyday struggle.

Assuming the results hold up, the particle raises the question: how is this put together? There are two options, as shown at top. One is that it's put together like known particles, with multiple quarks interacting through gluons. The alternative is that it's a hybrid composed of two particles we already know about. But this would have to be held together by a force we're not familiar with. Either way, there's some distinctive physics waiting for a more detailed analysis

How a new generation of tech-savvy activists made violence against African Americans into global headline news

Ajamu Dillahunt, founding member of Black Workers for Justice, a grassroots organization focused on empowering African-American workers to become leaders in the Black Freedom and labor movements. The text below is from an oral history interview conducted on May 8, 2014. This interview was supported by the Southern Oral History Program and is a part of a larger oral history project focused on documenting the recent political upsurge in North Carolina and across the South.

The Lancet, one of the world’s most respected medical journals, comments on the final report on the World Health Organization’s handling of the Ebola crisis, a devastating critique of the WHO and its member states, which “fatally let down the people of West Africa.” It criticizes the report for not addressing lack of accountability and chronic underinvestment in the WHO, the need to create resilient health systems, and the need for universal health coverage.