Portside

The Warren Buffett owned Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway pushed hard for a railroad union to agree to one person crews. Despite support from Union leadership, the membership rejected the one person crew contract.

Facing a Scottish referendum on independence September 18th that suddenly appears to close to call, the not so united United Kingdom and its pro-unionist partners in Scotland are panicking and resorting to desperate measures. If, after 307 years as a part of the United Kingdom, Scotland votes to secede, the UK loses one-third of its land mass and 10 percent of its Gross National Product.

Cuba's Minister of Public Health announced September 12th that Cuba would be sending a medical team of 165 experienced medical professionals to Sierra Leone to help combat the Ebola crisis there. The announcement, which came at the World Health Organization's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, represents "the largest offer of a foreign medical team from a single country during this outbreak," according to WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan.

A damning report released last week by the Sentencing Project lays bare how racial bias, and the interconnecting systemic structures that reinforce it, disproportionately affect African-Americans. The report, a powerful condemnation of the "perversity" of racial oppression, reveals how "the overassociation" of blacks with criminality has a devastating impact on society in general and Black and other people of color in particular.

In yet another example of a corporation using international laws to prevent countries from restricting their profits, an obscure tribunal housed at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. will soon decide the fate of millions of people in El Salvador. At issue is whether the government of El Salvador will be punished for refusing to let a Canadian mining company operate on its territory because it wants to protect its main source of water.

In ten days, world leaders are coming to New York City for a UN summit on the climate crisis. UN Secretary- General Ban Ki--moon is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution. With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we'll take a stand to bend the course of history. We'll take to the streets to demand the world we know is within our reach.

Weakening ISIS requires eroding the support it relies on from tribal leaders, military figures, and ordinary Iraqi Sunnis. Here's how to do it without bombs. As has been the case with so many presidents before him, he is telling the rest of the international community that national sovereignty can be violated at will without regard for international law, the U.N. Charter and other treaties whenever it suits the U.S.

The meaning of the Zephyr Teachout-Tim Wu 'victory' - not just for New York and New Yorkers - but for the whole country. This was a loud and clear message from the grassroots that says - "Enough, the people - all the people - come before profits." This was the message to the Democrats, especially to Hillary Clinton, and others - You better listen up. People are going to vote their values.

Think of this as the year that democracy of, by, and for the billionaires shall not perish from the Earth. In other words, these days, if you have billions of dollars, you can shout from the skies and the rest of us have to listen. They are: Sheldon Adelson, Charles and David Koch, Sam Walton, Rupert Murdoch, Linda McMahon, or hedge fund honchos like John Paulson and Steven Cohen.

Reader Comments - Remembering September 11 and The Other 9/11; Fast Food Strikes; Retail Workers Find Better Deals With Unions; Justice Dept. to Probe Ferguson Police; Working Families Party; Death Row; Israel Confiscates More Palestinian Land; One-Third of Israelis Consider Emigrating; Wal-Mart-ization of Education; Wages for Housework; Gluten-free; Eugene Debs and Debs Museum; Charlie Haden; New resource - International Human Rights Law: Violations by Israel; more..