Portside

Most US union members belong to very large, highly bureaucratized organizations - the 3 million member NEA, the 2 million member SEIU, the 1.3 million member AFSCME and Teamsters, and so on. Change - whether it be to elect a new slate of officers or to change organizational culture - is a daunting challenge: There are often complex hoops that member-activists and local leaders have to jump through to get dissenting or diverging voices heard.

Ask yourself this: Do you know the name of any one of the victims killed in the West Chemical and Fertilizer Company disaster? Do you know how many of them there were? Their ages, aspirations, what they looked like, whether they left behind children or what messages they last posted on Facebook? Do you know if there is an explanation yet for what caused the explosion? Or if investigators are still searching for one?

Readers Comments: Henry Kissinger; Richie Havens; Chechnya, Terrorism; Whither the Socialist Left; Korea; Venezuela; Texas Plant; Nude Protests; Robin Hood Tax; Labor's Organizing Model; Announcements: Angela Y. Davis, Feminism & Abolition: Theories & Practices for 21st Century - Chicago - May 3; Labor Historians - AFL-CIO Needs Your Help: Organizing: New & Forgotten Methods; Maudelle Shirek Memorial - Berkeley - Apr 30; Resource: Workers Memorial Day - April 28

While the acute tensions of the past month appear to be receding - all of the parties involved seem to be taking a step back - the problem is not going to disappear and, unless Washington and its allies re-examine their strategy, another crisis is certain to develop.

Femen’s April 4 protests in response to death threats against Tunisian nude blogger Amina Tyler have prompted much debate. How do we reconcile the need to defend free expression with the ambiguities of using nude women to market feminism?

Though the West Chemical and Fertilizer Company hadn’t had a safety inspection since 1985 and had lied to the Environmental Protection Agency about explosives on the property, it will likely and literally get away with murder.

Workers walk out at some McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, Macy's in push for higher wages, union

Exciting plans are under way for the Labor Fightback Conference, to be held at the Rutgers University Student Center in New Brunswick, NJ, May 10–12, 2013.

"Workers expressed concerns about the building and nothing was done," Liana Foxvog, of the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), told IBTimes UK.

Bombing in Boston: Social Media Got It Wrong; Digital Surveillance Got It Right; Cell Service Could Have Gotten Shut Down; Organizing Against CISPA Ramps Up; Crowdsourcing the Gun Control Bill; YouTube Shoots Down Viacom Again; The Orwellian Potential of Google Glass; NY Post Circles the Drain; A Virtual Newsroom Wins a Pulitzer; The Ongoing Gender Gap of the Global Internet; Bringing E-books to Third World Phones