Portside

For too long organized labor has failed to ask the Dems, ‘Which side are you on?’

The medical marijuana shop next to a tattoo parlor on a busy street in Los Angeles looks much like hundreds of other pot dispensaries that dot the city. Except for one thing: On the glass door - under a green cross signaling that cannabis can be bought there for medical purposes - is a sticker for the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW), the nation's largest retail union.

Chinese workers to vote on union leadership.

The Center for Media and Democracy says the Pennsylvania effort is part of a nationwide campaign against unions by right-wing business groups, such as the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity and the Tea Party organization FreedomWorks.

Many activists rely on fiction for inspiration, new perspectives, and, of course, entertainment. For some of us, novels even helped start us down our paths of activism. But—which novels? A survey of a handful of labor activists and educators revealed their favorite class-conscious novels.