Portside

New Dixie has replaced the aristocracy's black slaves of Old Dixie, by the local (white) aristocracy's institutionalized bigotry against poor people, now of all ethnic groups. What used to be their purely racist bigotry has, it seems, devolved into a crushing, pervasive, classist, bigotry in the South.

You have to make a choice, as a listener, if music matters to you as more than mere entertainment. And you and I have spent our entire lives with that conviction. This is not just entertainment, this is our lifeblood. This matters.

“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long shot.” -- Charlie Chaplin:

The arrival of national landlords has raised questions about the long-term effects on mom-and-pop landlords, neighborhoods and affordability.

[Moderator's Note: The translation below was sent from Cuba's Permanent Mission to the United Nations. The translation previously posted by Portside had many problems which is why we are re-posting. Below the English translation is the original in Spanish.]

Charts illustrating that while corporate profits have rebounded, more than four million Americans have been without work for six months or longer, and the price of continuing long-term unemployment isn't just borne by the jobless and their families. It's dragging down the entire economy—to the tune of $1 trillion a year.

Since the 2008 recession, companies have increasingly turned to temporary employees to work in factories and warehouses and on construction sites. The temp industry now employs a record 2.8 million workers.The trend carries a human cost. A ProPublica analysis of millions of workers’ compensation claims shows that in five states, representing more than a fifth of the U.S. population, temps face a significantly greater risk of getting injured on the job.

Dean Baker refutes Bill Keller's New York Times article, "Inequality for Dummies," published on December 22, (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/opinion/inequality-for-dummies.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0) in which he contrasts the "left-left against the "center-left.

According to a new paper on women and unionization by progressive think tank the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), "Even after controlling for factors such as age, race, industry, educational attainment and state of residence, the data show a substantial boost in pay and benefits for female workers in unions relative to their non-union counterparts. In other words, all other things being equal, unions are good for working women.

The time appears to be ripe for a new wave of urban reform. Both socialists like Seattle’s Sawant and progressives like New York’s de Blasio have a chance to popularize “left wing of the possible” ideas that seem bold but not preposterous. But as their socialist and progressive counterparts over the past century recognized, good ideas don’t become policy without social movements behind them.