Portside

June 22 kicked off AFL-CIO Worker Center Advisory Council. There, UCLA Labor Center’s Victor Narro presented the center’s most recent analysis of labor-worker center partnerships, Building a Movement Together: Worker Centers and Labor Union Affiliations.

The Iranian revolution was not "Islamic" and "Islamist" forces who took over needed pseudo crises to implement their agenda. The "hostage crisis" was the first and "nuclear policy" is the latest of such crises that portray "Iran vs. the world." The other side, the US and some regional powers, too, welcome such a "bogeyman" role by Iran. This scheme, due to its economic and political costs could not continue further.

On May 18 in Fresno, California, the state's Court of Appeals for the 5th District ruled that a key provision of the state's unique labor law for field workers is unconstitutional. Should it be upheld by the state's supreme court, this decision will profoundly affect the ability of California farm workers to gain union contracts. At issue is the mandatory mediation provision of the state's Agricultural Labor Relations Act.

Late Friday night Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced Greece will hold a referendum on July 5 to ask Greek citizens if they approve the proposed bailout agreement put forward by Greece’s foreign creditors. “I call on the Greek people to rule on the blackmailing ultimatum asking us to accept a strict and humiliating austerity without end and without prospect, ” Tsipras said. Included: Tsipras’ address to the Greek people and a link to the creditors’ proposal.

While the Pentagon admitted decades ago that it used American troops as test subjects in experiments with mustard gas, until now, officials have never spoken about the tests that grouped subjects by race. And it wasn't just African-Americans. Japanese-Americans were used as test subjects, serving as proxies for the enemy so scientists could explore how mustard gas and other chemicals might affect Japanese troops. Puerto Rican soldiers were also singled out.

While the international media has devoted extensive coverage to the barbaric destruction of museums and archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State, not so with the continuing aerial vandalism perpetrated in Yemen by Saudi Arabia. The same obscurantist ideology by which the Islamic State justifies its destruction of cultural heritage sites appears to be driving the Saudis’ air war against the precious physical evidence of Yemen’s ancient civilizations.

Although the White House has repeatedly said it would not add “boots on the ground” to wars in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, etc., the assurance is bogus. U.S. ground forces have been active in Yemen, and more recently Syria, and the Obama Administration, which has delayed the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, is now adding 450 U.S. “commandos” to the 3,000 military advisers in Iraq.

In arguably the strongest signal Congress has ever sent in support for Palestinian human rights, 19 members of Congress sent a letter June 20th to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urging the Department of State to make the human rights of Palestinian children a priority in the U.S. bilateral relationship with Israel. The letter was initiated by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), and focuses a Congressional spotlight on Israeli military abuse of Palestinian children.

Public sector unions are playing defense. They need a plan to convince employees to join (or stay in) the union. But they're operating in a difficult terrain, after years of cuts and concessions.