Portside

Facing a wave of anger over concessions—and with the 2016 election fast approaching—Teamster brass are taking aim at members' right to vote.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority (IBA) has banned a radio advertisement from B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, which listed the names of children killed in Gaza. The IBF ruled the human rights organization's advertisement was 'politically controversial' and banned it. B'Tselem's appeal to the IBF was rejected July 23rd. It will petition Israel's supreme court on Sunday, July 27th, to get the ban overturned.

Hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, a right-wing Republican, has found allies among former President Bill Clinton's team in his efforts to reap super profits by squeezing the economic life out of Argentina. Argentina is but the latest victim of "Wall Street vultures," who prey upon economically distressed countries by buying up the bonds of debt-strapped countries for "pennies on the dollar" and then demand payment in full.

India ranks an abysmal 101st in progress towards bridging the gender gap among the 136 nations surveyed by the World Economic Forum in 2013. This is due, in part, to the fact that 160 million Indian women are confined to their homes performing so-called household duties. While women comprise only 14-15 percent of the formal labor economy, women are increasingly forced to manufacture garments and handmade items in the home, as part of an unregulated "informal economy."

The small San Francisco Bay Area city of Richmond is no longer a company town, but the giant Chevron Corporation is attempting to use its tremendous wealth and influence to return the city to the days when its City Council majority was commonly known as the "Chevron Five."

Ellen Cantarow reports on the email Dr. Mads Gilbert sent to friends July 19 from Gaza -The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with [the] maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent. Jonathan Shapiro, world renowned cartoonist "Zapiro",likens Israeli attacks on civilians to Göring's attacks on civilians in Guernica.

Remarks by Georgetown University professor Maurice Jackson at memorial for Charlie Haden, Los Angeles, July 20, 2014. Jackson spoke at the memorial for jazz legend Charlie Haden at the request of his widow, Ruth Cameron.

What emerges from Gerald Horne's new book, "Counter-Revolution," is a picture of courage, heroism and betrayal. Most importantly, it is a history that accounts for the fact that so many "advances" of democracy in the United States have been at the expense of Africans and their descendants, people brought in chains to the shores of the United States. What emerges is a glimmer of understating why white supremacy in the United States is so virulent.

First they privatized the toll roads, then the highways, then the prisons, then public transportation, then parking garages and street parking meters. Now the water...Now Detroit. he newly enacted Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act holds promise for life in a world shaped by climate change. However, privatization proponents are working hard to privatize ownership and control our water infrastructure.

Reader Comments - Woody Guthrie; On the Waterfront; McCarthyism; Screenwriters and the Blacklist; Third Party politics; Israel, Palestine, Gaza, Israeli peace movement and War Crimes; Zionism and the Jewish community; Saudi Arabia's role; Prisoners, Parole (or lack) and Obama; Teachers; Food; Thank you, Anonymous and contributions to Portside; Screenwriters and the Blacklist: Before, During, and After - New York - August 22-September 2