Portside

Last February British Columbia's Civil Liberties Association filed a complaint demanding to know why the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) considers critics of Canada's petroleum industry a threat to national security. But, last week the CSIS said the association's complaint was "overly broad," and took steps to limit the inquiry into why the agency was spying on environmental groups and sharing its information with the oil companies.

The number of Texas clinics providing safe abortion services to women were reduced to eight overnight. On Thursday, the conservative judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed an earlier court decision that had allowed 13 other clinics to remain operating in the country's second largest state. According to one clinic operator, Texas now "faces a health care crisis, brought on by its own legislators.”

The massive demonstrations in Hong Kong are an enormous test for China's commitment to its complex "one country, two systems" approach to Hong Kong, implemented after Britain's return of the region to Chinese sovereignty in 1984. Student demonstrators and others are challenging China's decision on how the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong will be selected and the very meaning of the "high degree of autonomy" promised to Hong Kong's residents.

Two articles on Venezuela. The first is on the takeover of an abandoned Clorex factory, by the Venezuelan government. The second is about the assassination of a young member of the Venezuelan Socialist Party.

Forty leading Jewish Studies Professors have denounced the pro-Israel group, AMCHA, for degrading the "currency of academic freedom." AMCHA is circulating a list of 218 professors it charges with "an anti-Israel bias" or "antisemitic rhetoric." The Jewish Studies Professors in North America said AMCHA's monitoring of university lectures and conferences is "deplorable " and "strains the basic principle of academic freedom."

We urge President Obama to replace Holder with a public interest not a corporate lawyer; that will put the rule of law before corporate power. This appointment is an opportunity to shut the revolving door between big business and government. We also hope the next attorney general will put rule of law ahead of the security state, prosecute torture and other war crimes, protect privacy from US intelligence agencies and protect Freedom of Speech, Assembly and Press.

Under the settlement, these workers, who were supported by the hospitality union Unite Here, also will receive preference in hiring at future Boston-area Hyatt hotels, although many said they would be reluctant to return to a Hyatt unless it is unionized. Nationwide, about a quarter of Hyatt hotels have a union presence, and Marc Ellin, senior vice president at Hyatt, said future Hyatts in Greater Boston “could involve union representation

Last Sunday’s march was an important step toward building a popular movement for climate justice, which, in turn, is a necessary condition for more radical actions—like the ones FWS organized. The dichotomy between the PCM and FWS is a false one. What the world saw last week in New York was a vibrant movement ecosystem in which a broad mobilization and its radical edges engaged in a critical interplay.

Far from offering a new or original vision of collective good, the Hindu right-wing, which is Modi's political home, peddles a recycled imperial understanding of India and is parasitic upon some of its worst civilisational assumptions and the repressive institutions the British Empire bequeathed its former possession. These include laws criminalising 'sedition' and criminalising homosexuality, both of which are embraced enthusiastically by the Hindu right.

The artist's essay that follows accompanies the 'online unveiling'—exclusive to Common Dreams—of Shetterly's latest painting in his "Americans Who Tell the Truth" portrait series, presenting citizens throughout U.S. history who have courageously engaged in the social, environmental, or economic issues of their time. This painting of union organizer and food community builder Peter Kellman is his latest portrait.