Portside

Conservative arguments make it seem like poverty is a puzzle. But, according to Philip N. Cohen, we've already figured out ways of reducing poverty among large sections of the population. We should just use what works to reduce poverty.

A new party of the Left in Spain has surprised pundits by winning big in last Sunday's elections by running on an an-austerity program. Mark Weisbrot offers some background and an analysis of how these developments fit within the overall "post-recession" Eurozone crisis.

The 40th anniversary of the demise of baseball's oppressive reserve clause is cause for celebration for those who care about labor rights in sports and society as a whole. But we should also realize the ways that the trajectory of the new baseball labor structure resembles some of the most pressing political economic problems facing Americans today.

When Flint, Michigan Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency last week in light of a dramatic water crisis, it brought national attention to the current troubles facing that town. This report on Weaver's declaration also contains some historical background to this crisis.

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan has been brewing for the past year. Now researchers have found lead in the drinking water. Flint mayor Karen W. Weaver has declared a state of emergency. This week a researcher alleged that government officials knew the water contained lead.

The centennial celebration of Joe Hill's execution is being marked by concerts, symposiums, meetings and forums, and the publication of new books, or new editions. Labor historian Paul Buhle reviews two of these. Franklin Rosemont's Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture, with a new introduction by David Roediger; and Philip S. Foner's The Letters of Joe Hill, with new material by Alexis Buss and foreword by Tom Morello.

Five months after Sandra Bland was found hanging in a Texas jail cell, her family still searches for resolution. An intimate look at a life interrupted published in Chicago Magazine last week.

Nothing suggests she was a danger to the community, so why was she kept in jail?

The Voyage of the Sable Venus, the highly regarded debut poetry collection by Robin Coste Lewis, won the national book award this year for poetry. The title poem unites art history with the history of slavery and racism. Here, Dan Chiasson introduces this book, which has become a must-read across the literary spectrum.

The effects of the gas on the people of Bhopal have been nothing short of catastrophic. Birth defects continue to occur among families affected by the gas leak and contamination of water at a higher-than-average rate even now -- 30 years after the explosion at the Union Carbide plant.