Portside

Millions of Americans believe that President Obama has normalized relations with Cuba and ended over 50 years of US efforts to strangle its economy. They might have been puzzled when the United States stood up against every other nation save one, in opposing the UN General Assembly resolution that passed, 191-2, on October 27, 2015.

As part of the National Single Payer Strategy Conference in Chicago, the Labor Campaign for Single Payer has released an important new briefing paper "Turning Chevys into Cadillacs: The ACA Excise Tax and the Future of Healthcare Bargaining". The conference was the biggest convening of Single Payer advocates ever in Chicago described as very exciting, great turnout and energy from union activists and leaders across the country.

As Capital & Main reported recently, drivers with one of the larger trucking companies serving the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike just before dawn October 26th. These drivers are on the front lines of a critical fight impacting the future of work in the United States: “misclassification,” a condition in which companies wrongly treat their workers as “independent contractors” rather than as employees.

APA ends torture complicity; SXSW stands up to gamergaters; UK's new book love; Jindal has to show Planned Parenthood the money; Democratic revolution in Rojava

Following the visit of a delegation of AFL-CIO leaders from Connecticut to Palestine this Fall as guests of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), the Connecticut AFL-CIO adopts a comprehensive resolution in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and for peace and justice for the Palestinian people.

The finally tally is almost everything Erdogan wanted, although he fell short of his dream of a supermajority that would let him change the nature of the Turkish political system from a parliamentary government to one ruled by a powerful and centralized executive—himself. And while the AKP now has a majority, it is at the expense of re-igniting the war with the Kurds, a conflict that has cost Turkey $1.2 trillion and some 40,000 lives.

 A failure to cap carbon emissions guarantees another result as well, though one far less discussed. It will, in the long run, bring on not just climate shocks, but also worldwide instability, insurrection, and warfare. In this sense, COP-21 should be considered not just a climate summit but a peace conference—perhaps the most significant peace convocation in history.

"To be a transformative political leader Sanders needs to engage in full-scale political education about the impossible self-defeating logic of pursuing economic growth and national security in conventional ways."

Workers from Alameda County Industries made the decision to join ILWU Local 6. They convinced the city to provide funding to raise their wages in a new union contract. Their wages are now steadily increasing and will reach $20.94/hour in 2019. Photo essay by David Bacon.

Black Lives Matter activists are concerned about intra-racial violence. But they don’t see police and prisons as the solution.