Portside

"Right-to-work" is coming to the public sector. The key to survival is social movement unionism.

Warsan Shire, a Kenyan-born Somali poet based in London, addresses the terror and desperation of migrants forced to leave their homes seeking safety, shelter, hope even in strange and often inhospitable lands. Hers is a language of experience and insight, capturing the tension of the current crisis of uprooted people. .

New books and research in African American history and culture. Recent or soon-to-be published books, which the African American Intellectual History Society feels would be of interest to readers. Regrettably the cost for some puts these out of reach of many - but there is always your public or school library. Suggest that these be ordered.

Meet Greensboro, North Carolina native Rhiannon Giddens; see and hear why she has taken the music world by storm. Hear her music, and that of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. See why she is stretching the borders of traditional folk music, blues, country and old-time music. Hear her tribute to the Charleston Nine.

America's unions have been in retreat for decades - but can history point toward some fresh starts? Steve Fraser's book The Age of Acquiescence reminds us that America's worker movement-100 years ago-was a rather militant creature compared to today. Then, it was worker militias, "bread and roses," and unabashed class conflict; now, it's defense and dwindling membership, and disappointing Democrats. How did we get here? Is there still power in a union?

African American Kamilah Brock, a banker, was driving her BMW in Harlem. Police did not believe that African American woman could own a BMW or be a banker. She was taken into custody, transported to a psychiatric ward, stripped and forcibly, and repeatedly, injected with sedatives - for eight days. She is now suing New York City. Only in America...in 2015.

Reader Comments: Left and Labor Dialogue on Sanders and Corbyn; A Sanders - John Lewis ticket?; David Hilliard on Black Panther film; 9/11 and Cancer; Labor Debate on Who to Endorse; Kim Davis; Student loans and College Costs; Sean O'Casey; Reconstruction; Announcements : Chicago Freedom Struggles Through the Lens of Art Shay -Sept 17-Dec 19; Operation Condor film, Bolivia's Largest Film Ever, Coming to NYC Theaters; Witness Venezuela's Elections This December

To ignore race, C.L.R. James often said, in many contexts and many ways, was a disaster in any social understanding; only the ignoring of class would be worse. Or to put it in his own words: The race question is subsidiary to the class question, and to think of imperialism in terms of race is disastrous. But to neglect the racial factor as merely incidental, is an error only less grave than to make it fundamental.

In order to sustain the tremendous humanitarian solidarity the public has shown recently towards refugees we need to connect it with solidarity in the workplace, and union campaigns to establish a floor level of rights and decent jobs for everyone.

Pharmaceutical firms have a history of suppressing unfavourable results from drug trials. It’s time to compel them to publish data in full.