Portside

President's party thwarts opposition hopes of denting Maduro's power in what it called a referendum on his performance

The members of the University of Illinois Chicago, have voted to go on strike after fifteen months of negotiations. Among the faculty members key demands are improvements in pay for adjunct professors. In light of Congress planning to fail to extend unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed, we present Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird's video of "March of the Jobless Corps".

The "Budget Deal." abandons the unemployed, while increasing the military budget, and ignores massive job creation. Reducing projected sequester cuts will save jobs, but half the mindless across-the-board sequester cuts continue in fiscal year 2014 and three-fourths in 2015. The deal provides relief from some destructive sequester cuts. But it sustains Washington's focus on deficit reduction and its commitment to austerity. Thanks to the Campaign for America's Future.

Media coverage of Nelson Mandela's release from prison failed to mention there was strong evidence that the CIA had tipped off South African authorities to Mandela's location in 1962, resulting in his arrest. So with coverage of Mandela's death dominating the media now, can the story of the CIA's role in Mandela's capture be told?

When Mandela was captured in 1962 the police did not know that he had been overseas for military training and was Commander in Chief of the recently formed Umkhonto we Sizwe, Spear of the nation, (MK). Only later, when Rivonia was raided and they came across documents that pointed to Mandela's wider role. Raymond Suttner worked with Nelson Mandela when he was first released from prison, here he writes his reflections, and a glimpse of history - much not previously known.

Reader Comments - Nelson Mandela; Republic Windows - CEOs Going to Jail; Minimum Wage; Healthcare - Single-Payer; Syria; India homophobia; Austerity; Living Wage - Low wage workers; Books to read (or to give; or both); Announcements - Suggestion for Year-end Giving - Davis-Putter Scholarship; Shostakovich For The Children Of Syria - Carnegie Hall, New York - January 13

What would it mean to extend solidarity to the ecosystem? That's the question at the heart of this conversation with union activist and environmentalist, Sean Sweeney. Even conservatives are saying that 50 years will be more than sufficient to witness the worst impacts of climate change. And if past is prologue, poor and working-class communities will be hit doubly hard. Climate change is a class issue, and yet the trade union movement continues to drag its feet.

Google is aggressively moving into the business of developing a newer class of robots - those designed to be more mobile, versatile, and human-like. The goal: expanding the market for robots to small- and medium-sized companies in order to reduce their labor costs. Google recently acquired a suite of robotics-related companies, including one in Japan, and has created a new division within Google to consolidate research and development in this field.