Portside

The United Nations has declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses, nutritious sources of protein which include peas and many kinds of dried beans.

German workers continue their fight against Amazon, over low pay and poor working conditions in the warehouses. The union Verdi is trying to push the retailer to raise pay in accordance with collective bargaining agreements in the industry. They have been striking at warehouses on and off since May 2013.

Rather than boycotting Oreos, we should figure out how workers in the U.S. can join with newly employed cookie workers in Mexico to advance an agenda that will benefit both.

On behalf of the millions of working people we represent, we believe that the TPP is unbalanced in its provisions, skewing benefits to economic elites while leaving workers to bear the brunt of the TPP’s downside. The TPP is likely to harm the U.S. economy, cost jobs, and lower wages.

In this bittersweet poem, Tony Gloeggler, a New York City poet, draws on his experience working with developmentally disabled people to explore the tentative nature of relationships.

Using original source material Brian Dolinar arrives at a different explanation of why the popular front of 30s and 40s broke up, than that of mainstream media of that time, and since. The key agents of disunity were not the Communists but the manifold assault by the rightwing establishment. The US ruling class used opinion-molding Red-scare and Red-baiting campaigns in the mass media and culture. A lesson for today with the re-growth of the radical right.

The concerns of Front National voters are, in fact, much the same as that of left-wing parties, but the solutions the far right proposes could not be further from the values of trade unionism. The challenge is to deconstruct the discourse of the FN. It’s easier to blame refugees than to call into question the role of capital in the economic crisis. Unions must explain that to workers and to organise the mobilisation.

UNITE HERE's Culinary Union Calls for Immediate Contract Negotiations. We voted yes to make our jobs good jobs with fair wages and job security, said Celia Vargas, a housekeeper at the property. We won that vote, so our voices and votes should be respected.

One book that's making it onto lots of people's best-of-the-year lists is Counternarratives, a collection of stories and novellas by John Keene. It's an extraordinary collection that uses historical fiction to make visible the human beings that racism and imperialism have pretended were not there. Not only that, but, as McDowell shows us in his review, this is a set of awfully good stories, too.

Based on actual events and characters, Short focuses on the fall of the housing market, leavening what many might find extremely dry, complicated subject matter with humor. While the so-called business press completely missed the story until this 'shit' hit the fan, the film tells how a few investment outsiders stumbled upon the unfolding crisis and bet against it. ('Short' is Wall Street-ese for 'bet').