The Latest Defeat

Robert Brenner Jacobin
The tentative agreement reached between the ILWU and the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association (PNGHA) would impose a major reduction in working conditions and shop floor power, including the loss of the union controlled hiring hall, and no overtime pay until after 12 hours. The agreement would prevent work stoppages because it would allow the employer the right to use its own managers to replace union workers during work stoppages.

Sanctions & the Dollar: A Fall From Grace?

Conn Hallinan Dispatches From the Edge
Unless the institutions of international finance are wrested from the control of a few wealthy nations, and unless there are checks on the ability of the U.S. and its allies to devastate a country's economy over a disagreement on foreign policy, those figures bode for some serious trouble ahead.

St. Louis Prosecutor Has "Long Standing and Personal Bias"

Jamelle Bouie Slate
Demonstrators massed in Clayton, Missouri Thursday, August 21st, to demand a Special Prosecutor investigate the police killing of Ferguson teenager Mike Brown. They charged St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch has a long-standing and personal bias in favor of the police and should be removed from the investigation. Also on Thursday, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks said, "It is impossible to believe" McCulloch can be "unbiased in this case."

Friday Nite Videos -- August 22, 2014

Portside
How Economic Inequality Harms Societies. Peter Case -- House Rent Party. The Racial Wealth Gap in America. Guantanamera Around the World. The Racism of the US Criminal Justice System in 10 Charts.

How Economic Inequality Harms Societies

We feel instinctively that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong. Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart.

Peter Case -- House Rent Party

Peter Case tells the tale of a modern day house rent party. Filmed during the Music Fog sessions at the 2010 Americana Music Festival in Nashville, TN.

The Racial Wealth Gap in America

Though the United States is one of the wealthiest countries, to many Americans this prosperity remains out of reach. Blacks and Hispanics who are striving to make a better life for themselves and their families are not given the same asset building opportunities. Full research here.

The Racism of the US Criminal Justice System in 10 Charts

The shooting of Michael Brown offers Americans yet another reminder that their criminal justice system is riddled with racial disparities. From encounters with police to prison sentences, Ferguson is another drop in a very full bucket.

The Coming Race War Won’t Be About Race

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar TIME
Kareem Abdul Jabar says that Ferguson is not just about systemic racism — it's about class warfare and how America's poor are held back