Portside

The current Israeli government is unlikely to permit advances in religious freedom such as civil marriage, equal funding of non-Orthodox institutions and reducing the power of the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate...an alternative to the rigid and insular Judaism that permeates Israeli public life must remind the Israeli state about the power and wisdom of a pluralistic approach to Jewish life, said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, of the Union for Reform Judaism.

True story about BAE Systems, the UK's largest aerospace and weapons company. BAE is the major bad guy in the play, as well as a major bad guy among arms traders. (In 2010, BAE pled guilty in the U.S. to charges of false accounting and making misleading statements in connection with an arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The issue was bribery to get a Saudi contract. British Prime Minister Tony Blair quashed an investigation there, as he wanted the contract.)

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Rich countries make money by owning things – physical and intellectual property – and setting global standards the rest of the world must adhere to. This also means an economic shift within these countries, away from well-paid, secure, skilled jobs in industry to a precarious, service-based economy.

The 250,000 member American Postal Union endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for President.

The Executive Board of the 200,000 member American Postal Workers Union has endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for President.

Portside is proud to bring our readers a full chapter from the book Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA. Periodically Portside will be sharing with our readers chapters and excerpts from books we feel are noteworthy. What better way to launch, than a book about socialism-in the USA. Ron Reosti's chapter - A Democratically Run Economy Can Replace the Oligarchy - argues we can democratically design and control an economy that satisfies the needs and desires of the people.

This new book traces the antiwar work of visual artists in the United States over the last eighty years. Paul Buhle offers some useful context for understanding this widely varied scope of creative activity as it ranged from antifascist paintings and murals to the poster art of the Vietnam War years to the politically engaged art of the current era.

Elizabeth Warren is proposing to fund a one-time Social Security boost for seniors by ending the taxpayer subsidy for CEO bonuses. Otherwise, seniors will get no increase in Social Security this year. So far, Hillary Clinton as has not taken a position on this or several other measures to improve benefits and assure the solvency of the program. Clinton will have another opportunity at Saturday’s Democratic debate to be clear about where she stands.

Take a look at Monday’s headlines. The Mizzou protest was the nation’s top story, but it was closely followed by a series of university-related controversies. It was as if American colleges had become the front line of the culture war: a battleground for civil rights akin to the occupied campuses of the 1960s.