Portside

Focus on jobs and restarting the economy, not deficits and cuts to social programs. 'A reminder that we don't need to cut teachers and school lunches when we can eliminate wasteful giveaways to fossil fuel corporations.'

Everybody's talking about Pope Francis, but nobody's asking about his role in Argentina's bloodiest war. Critics of new Pope Francis have claimed that he maintained his silence as Argentina's brutal military dictatorship raged a dirty war against left wing activists. Claims were made in the wake of the publication of an interview with Argentina's former military dictator Jorge Videla.

Readers Comments on: Wealth Equality; Robert Reich on raising the minimum wage; Unions and evictions; Wither the Socialist Left? - another response to Mark Solomon; LA School Board election and Big Money; Hugo Chavez: Lest We Forget; Guns, the NRA and Newtown; Why not better unions; Philip Bonosky Memorial April 21 in New York; Francisco Aruca R.I.P.; Robin Hood rides again - April 20 - Washington; The Literary Left - Tribute in honor of Alan Wald - March 21 - Ann Arbor

President Obama called for a modest raise in the federal minimum wage to $9, and several Democratic legislators have upped his bid with a proposed increase to $10.10. But an insidious effort to lower the wage floor is already underway much closer to the ground - in the state legislatures. Among the proposals are measures to undercut minimum wages for teenage workers, restrict overtime pay and repeal or ban local laws to improve working conditions.

Staughton Lynd's tribute to Herbert Shapiro, fellow historian and staunch civil rights and anti-racist activist.

After the children's massacre in Newtown, the absolute last thing the National Rifle Association wants out there in the public domain is ANY images of what happened that tragic day.

Labor is in trouble which is not news to our readers. Michael Hirsch describes some of the obvious problems and some ways forward. He believes unions should have more of them against us approach. This was something Occupy Wall Street did very successfully. For a short period of time they changed the dialogue away from austerity to the needs of working period. Other ideas include community and union based electoral campaigns, workers papers, international organizing.

We don’t have a class either sociologically or politically in any position yet to do much better.