Portside

Crackdown in Israel; Two, three, many Fergusons; Rightbloggers go apeshit; Ebola and Big Pharma; Aunt Jemima's vengeance; Co-op state of mind

For global companies that have shifted production to Southeast Asia's low-cost manufacturing hub, greater cross-boarder labor coordination could mean less room for wage bargaining, a squeeze on profits and maybe even higher price tags on anything from shoes and clothing to cars and electronics appliances. But even as wages rise, labor activists are confident they aren't at risk of pricing themselves out of the market.

Militarization shows that police and governments are "willing to sacrifice the lives of the community members based on the actions of a few." — Chauniqua Young, Center for Constitutional Rights

The protesters, organizing under the motto "Block the Boat," first converged at the International Container Terminal on Saturday, a day before the Piraeus arrived at the port. Longshore workers responsible for unloading the vessel refused to do so, not because they are taking sides in the fight between Israel and Hamas, but because they would not work "under armed police escort - not with our experience with the police in this community," said Melvin MacKay.

The legacy of nationalism looms large over our program, and over my own studies of Yiddish literature and culture.We learn about the Bundists, the largest and most influential Jewish socialist movement both in Czarist Russia and in interwar Poland which sought to walk the fine line between celebrating and fostering Jewish workers and their culture (meaning especially Yiddish), while remaining a part of the international socialist movement and opposed to nationalism.

A Book Review of Unsettled/Desasosiego: Children in a World of Gangs, Photographs by Donna De Cesare; University of Texas Press, 2013 Donna De Cesare spent two decades taking photographs of Salvadoran young people, documenting the impact of violence on their lives. Her work is as far from media stereotype as one can get. She clearly loves the Salvadoran people whose lives have intersected her own, and her involvement with and commitment to them extends over many years.

“If Detroit fails it will hurt our nation as a whole. It will send a message to minority and urban youth that their futures are as hopeless as they seem and the country doesn't care. It will add to a national atmosphere of hopelessness and decay. And we will have missed an opportunity to turn the tide for America's cities.”

Move aside Florida, North Carolina is now the new poster child for voter suppression. The Moral Monday movement in the state is now more important than ever. Maybe someday we’ll look back at this period as the turning point when the nation realized just how important the Voting Rights Act was and is.

The trend toward larger prison populations has finally stopped and reversed in many states. Ten years ago, only ten states had reduced their prison populations, in 2012 prison populations declined in 27 states and incarceration rates fell in 29 states.

A CO2 emission rate standard that allows averaging across all electricity generators could reduce electric sector CO2 emissions in 2020 by 380 million tons compared to business as usual, or 16 percent, without significantly increasing electricity prices.