Portside

For followers of Hayek eager to smash the “para-government,” Trump must look like a godsend. How might conservatives do so? By advancing drastic institutional changes even Hayek conceded could seem undemocratic, such as making voting a once-in-a-lifetime act, for example, and lengthening legislative terms to fifteen years. Resting on popular support, the welfare state’s curtailment required attacking democracy.

Georgia will have to do away with its exact-match voter registration verification scheme thanks to a lawsuit filed last year by voting rights advocacy groups. The program resulted in the disenfranchisement of some 42,000 people, disproportionately people of color -- but now it's being considered by other states including Florida, Virginia and West Virginia.

Day was part of a growing movement of strikes against Trump's immigration policies: 'We're making a statement that this country is sustained by us'

The union defeat at a South Carolina Boeing plant was devastating, but it wasn't inevitable. Labor can still organize the South.

U.S. policymakers and the major media are embroiled in a heated debate over the purported Russian meddling in U.S. politics, but Israeli interference in U.S. politics is the conspiracy in plain sight that no one talks about. Israel intervenes in U.S. domestic and foreign policy all the time, but it never is a scandal. The reason is simple. The U.S. Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, and the major media, including the so-called liberal media, are all complicit.

After the pity party's through, let's get organized. There was one exception to the dearth of Democratic leaders who championed populist proposals. Sen. Elizabeth Warren crisscrossed the country attempting to galvanize the electorate in key Senate races. One thing has not changed: "The stock market and gross domestic product keep going up, while families are getting squeezed hard by an economy that isn't working for them." Now is the time for Warren or Bernie Sanders.

This past weekend, COSATU, South Africa's labor federation voted to expel NUMSA, the National Union of Metal Workers. To give readers a better understanding, Portside is posting many of the relevant documents (sorry for length of this post): Tyotyo James (COSATU deputy president) interview prior to expulsion; COSATU official statement; NUMSA response to the expulsion; ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe on Developments in COSATU.

Bill Fletcher's post on the recent midterm elections and what progressives need to do, in order to win, sparked a number of reader responses. Fletcher drew on lessons from the elections, and past elections, putting forward a call for progressives to effect politics that can improve the lives of the majority in our country. Below is a long post from Jonathan Nack, a response from Ed Hunt, further comment from David Schwartzman, and a note from Portside Moderator.

We send our solidarity to the parents of the dead and missing students, to the millions of student protesters, and to the Mexican people! We condemn the murders and human rights violations by the Mexican government and the drug cartels. And we condemn the U.S. and Canadian governments for their support of the Mexican state. Please join in signing the statement below. Your support can make a difference.

Reader Comments- Voter Suppression; Election Failure by Democrats; Progressive Victories You Didn't Hear About; Federal Judge Guts Nationwide Ban On Housing Discrimination; America Rigged for Massive Wealth Transfer to the Rich; Global Economic Divide; Cuban Five and Alan Gross; Fracking Banned in Denton, TX; Ferguson; Inner City Schools Function Like Prisons; A Good Movie Tip; Women's Labor Music Announcements- Labor Notes Hiring; Events in Oakland and New York