Portside

For "Saint Cole," his second book-length effort, Noah Van Sciver stayed close to home, weaving a fictional tale with plenty of basis in reality for many young people lacking both the financial clout for higher education and the job opportunities needed to carve out a small slice of the American Dream. We spoke with Van Sciver about Joe's opportunities, such as they are, and the real world struggle of the working class to stay motivated and improve their circumstances.

This localist agenda is part of Mayor Spencers ambitious program to create a fairer and more sustainable local economy whose businesses stay put and where money spends more time circulating locally among networked enterprises. His administration is promoting worker cooperatives, energy efficiency, public banking, a local food shed and urban agriculture, remunicipalization of jobs (like the Socialists before them), and creating new jobs by reclaiming the citys waste.

TPP is a corporate power grab clearly worthy of Seattle-caliber mobilization. But the fight against this reprehensible deal requires different types of tactics. And the place to start is by derailing “Fast Track,” the mechanism that would allow TPP approval to rush through the U.S. Congress with little debate and no amendments.

Republicans and right-wing supporters defeated in Kentucky "Right to Work" vote.

Progressive Senators who have already criticized the administration on other economic issues — Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Tom Harkin — wrote a letter last spring to Obama, applauding his decision to revisit overtime pay. But in their letter, the liberal Senators also set forth their desired threshold: Around $54,000 per year, rather than $42,000, the amount the Obama administration is supposedly eying.

The Republican plan could dramatically roll back the federal role in education.

The Demise of Acute Health Care in Quincy, Massachusetts - Implications for Surviving Community Hospitals. On Friday evening December 19th at midnight, Quincy Medical Center ceased admitting patients. The last in-patient was discharged on December 23th.

Fast-food and retail workers demonstrating in record numbers, cities across the country raising their minimum wage under public pressure, student athletes gaining recognition as employees of their universities, the labor movement has seen some important—and, at times, unexpected—victories this past year.

A simple, broad labor statement of unity — supporting New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's efforts, the right in a democracy to protest against police brutality and the good work of the majority of decent police officers, and calls for a new campaign to regulate handguns like the one used to murder two policemen and a citywide dialogue on racism and policing — is in order.

The year had a spirited and determined feel. Every time we turned around there was another sit-in or strike, ingenious job action or raucous flash mob.