Portside

Mainstream measurements create an artificially low unemployment number. Alternative methods are necessary to get a better picture of what is really going on in the labor market.

The right of foreign investors to sue governments in international tribunals is one of the most extreme examples of excessive power granted to corporations through free trade agreements and investment treaties.

New reports show an escalation in civilian casualties from U.S. operations in Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia — and a pattern of U.S. denial about the scale of the problem.

Among the most controversial topics in feminism are the race and class questions, which have motivated many women to develop new theories that encompass multiple realities taking into account region, race, economy and sexuality.

In the middle of her senior year at Pomona High in eastern Los Angeles County, Amber Rose Howard was arrested and booked into county jail. Howard had been accepted into several colleges when she was admitted to jail on felony charges.

Millions of dollars are being vacuumed out of public schools and into the corporate pockets -- or fraudulent execs.

The way most of us “participate in electing our political leaders” is by voting. A tiny minority also “participates” by contributing more than $123,200 to federal political campaigns. In 2012, just 591 donors reached that limit on giving to federal candidates. For some perspective, that represents a little more than 0.000002 percent of the U.S. voting age population.

A new book profiles alternative models of labor organizing in New York City, including worker centers and innovative strategies to organize workers in one of the most unequal cities in the country. New Labor in New York, edited by Ruth Milkman and Ed Ott, is now available from Cornell University Press.

In the U.S. strikes are expected to include the first walkouts in Philadelphia, Sacramento, Miami and Orlando. Outside the U.S., the protests are expected to include protests in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America and Central America.

New Labor in New York raises many questions about the future of labor organizing, but it also provides many examples of concrete victories for workers long ignored by the conventional labor movement. Those victories are often small, but they are building; the organizations may be siloed, but they are aware that they are part of something bigger.