Portside

Lawmakers expected to reject requests to exempt education and health spending from measure UN official calls the most socially regressive in the world

Time cover tromps Trump; Identity politics; Vets at Standing Rock; Bannon, indie filmmaker; Oakland fire; International f.u.

Japanese activists have launched their own Fight for $15 movement, calling for a national minimum wage of 1500 yen per hour. The activists were inspired by the US movement, but also many of them were moved to get involved in social justice work after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. The movement wants to raise wages but also build a broader movement to counter the growing right-wing and anti-immigrant forces in Japan.

For the first time Canada might be capable of shipping significant amounts of oil to markets other than the United States (assuming the project is actually completed — a big question mark given ongoing First Nations' legal challenges and resistance from British Columbians).

In the era of Trump, we will need to consolidate counter-power via participatory democracy and economic self-management at the local level.

Labor icon Maria Elena Durazo speaks with Capital & Main about the threats to working people and immigrants from a new Trump administration—and how to fight back.

This Power Pint Discussion Guide and List of Additional Resources are available for download: Post-Election 2016: Changed Terrain Demands a New Orientation Resource List: Post-Election 2016 Discussion In the wake of Donald Trump's victory November 8 partisans of equality, justice and peace are grappling with a number of knotty questions.

An issue of this magnitude clearly isn’t down to a few shady companies.

Analyzing offender data on roughly 1.5 million US prisoners, researchers from the Brennan Center for Justice concluded that for one in four, drug treatment, community service, probation or a fine would have been a more effective sentence than incarceration. The study also concluded that another 14% of incarcerated individuals had already served an appropriate sentence. These people could be released within the next year “with little risk to public safety”.

Promises that a free lunch can be had by relying heavily on private investors for infrastructure should be viewed skeptically. Tax credits dangled to entice private financiers and developers to provide infrastructure provide no compelling efficiency gains and mostly just open up possibilities for corruption and crony capitalism.