Portside

Cambodian garment workers have been engaged in militant workplace actions to demand higher wages. Despite anti-union violence, including killings and arrests, workers continue to strike for better wages and working conditions.

The Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973, making possible a re-united Vietnam. Patricia Hynes reports and observations from March 2014 trip to Vietnam to investigate the plight of 3rd generation Agent Orange-dioxin victims, dioxin contaminated sites, and ecological restoration in order to inform Americans of the on-going legacy of the “American War” in Vietnam and our responsibility and opportunities for undoing this legacy.

Pennsylvania’s “Silencing Act,” passed in latest attack on Mumia and other prison writers, faces court challenge from journalists

And so, dear artists, be brave. The world will not spin without you. This is hard work, this singing and dancing and painting and acting and drumming and fiddling and filmmaking. Hard work is this truth telling, this noticing. We may get the attention of a thousand or the attention of one. Still, may we all remember that we are who we are, each carrying a note required in the larger chord.

What Syriza stands for is what Spain's newly elected Republican government stood for in the early 1930s at a time when the Nazis were on the rise. A democratic Greece under Syriza would represent what democratic Spain represented for the international left in the 1930s. The prospects for a different outcome are better, provided there is strong international support for giving a Syriza government the breathing room it will need.

The Greek people must be thanked for putting the need for changing the course of economic policies firmly onto the European agenda. The stakes are high. A failure in Greece will be seen as vindication of austerity as the only option. Those convinced that Europe needs to change cannot sit on the fence, but need to engage in support of the new winds of reform

Crackdown in Israel; Two, three, many Fergusons; Rightbloggers go apeshit; Ebola and Big Pharma; Aunt Jemima's vengeance; Co-op state of mind

For global companies that have shifted production to Southeast Asia's low-cost manufacturing hub, greater cross-boarder labor coordination could mean less room for wage bargaining, a squeeze on profits and maybe even higher price tags on anything from shoes and clothing to cars and electronics appliances. But even as wages rise, labor activists are confident they aren't at risk of pricing themselves out of the market.

Militarization shows that police and governments are "willing to sacrifice the lives of the community members based on the actions of a few." — Chauniqua Young, Center for Constitutional Rights

The protesters, organizing under the motto "Block the Boat," first converged at the International Container Terminal on Saturday, a day before the Piraeus arrived at the port. Longshore workers responsible for unloading the vessel refused to do so, not because they are taking sides in the fight between Israel and Hamas, but because they would not work "under armed police escort - not with our experience with the police in this community," said Melvin MacKay.