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Small California Town Resists Chevron's Control

David Helvarg San Francisco Chronicle
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."

Letter from Gaza

Ellen Cantarow Le Monde Diplomatique
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.

Remembrances of Charlie Haden

Maurice Jackson Portside
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.

Book Review - "The Counter-Revolution of 1776"

Ted Pearson Portside
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.

Water Wars and Creeping Privatization

Ellen Dannin, Truthout News Analysis Truthout
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.

Tidbits - July 24, 2014

Portside
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

When the Union’s the Enemy: An Interview with Cleo Silvers

Andrew Elrod Jacobin
In the auto plants of 1970s Detroit, where an all-white management and union leadership confronted a darkening workforce, grievances often assumed a racial edge. Of all the rank-and-file caucuses that formed in this tumultuous period, perhaps none was more militant than the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.

Arizona Takes Nearly 2 Hours to Execute Inmate

By Erik Eckholm The New York Times
Capital punishment by lethal injection has been thrown into turmoil as the supplies of traditionally used barbiturates have dried up, in part because companies are unwilling to manufacture and sell them for this purpose.

Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League

By William Deresiewicz The New Republic
We recognize that free, quality K–12 education is a right of citizenship. We also need to recognize—as we once did and as many countries still do—that the same is true of higher education.

We Are Israeli Reservists. We Refuse to Serve. A Petition.

By Yael Even Or The Washington Post
To us, the current military operation and the way militarization affects Israeli society are inseparable. In Israel, war is not merely politics by other means — it replaces politics. Israel is no longer able to think about a solution to a political conflict except in terms of physical might; no wonder it is prone to never-ending cycles of mortal violence. And when the cannons fire, no criticism may be heard.