Portside

There’s a new case against public-sector unions headed to the Supreme Court. But the challenges it presents are anything but new. The Janus v. AFSCME case just the latest in a in a long line of right-wing funded attacks on labor unions—but it would be a big one. And, yet again, the expectation of a unfavorable ruling has renewed a urgent debate about not only how public-sector unions should prepare but whether they should radically change their missions.

#WeToo; Blame sex; Operation Remap; Walkout; Rights disabled; Chasing voters

Conservative attorney Hans Bader exemplifies the love affair between extreme right-wing ideology and corporate influence in the Trump administration.

In earlier periods of U.S. history, progressive forces have been most effective in inflicting defeats on reactionaries when they coupled their resistance with a positive program that met the needs of millions of working people. Some of these campaigns achieved signal victories. Others fell short but are worth remembering today when many millions are mobilizing to defeat the right and looking to construct a better country out of the ashes of the Trump era.

Critics argue that NAFTA has accelerated the global “race to the bottom,” where governments dismantle workplace and environmental protections in order to attract capital investment. The tri-national participants in last week’s Chicago gathering protested outside the Mexican Consulate Friday afternoon, calling on the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto to listen to the demands of Mexico’s workers in the NAFTA renegotiations.

What are we actually fighting for? The loved ones of lost soldiers deserve more than comforting words. They deserve justice.

As much as the film taps into a venerable tradition of observational realism (witnessing, never editorializing), it’s not “objective.” An indisputable ally of the disenfranchised, Baker honors his subjects by telling their stories honestly, without Hollywood distortion or flattering embellishment, and through a gaggle of actors mainly plucked from the area, not central casting.

The still fledgling campaign focuses on organizing to raise wages and delays question of union structure. No one seems sure about the shape of a fast-food union. Many formations are possible. Since wages and other employment laws differ by city and state, one could envision local or regional contracts that establish a basic compensation structure, benefits and freedom from arbitrary firing. A more ambitious version would be national in scope: a framework agreement...

Living in the USA where people learn world geography through frequently fought overseas wars, Americans are accustomed to reading about places where we've fought wars - Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. But one formerly war-ravaged part of the world most Americans don't think much about is Okinawa. What's it like to have 20 percent of your small, crowded island home occupied by more than 32 foreign military bases and some 50 restricted air and marine military training sites.

Gilda Haas of Dr. Pop shares insights from her recent study tour of Mondragon.