The Problem Keeping America From Being the Democracy It Should Be

Donna Edwards Cosmopolitan
The struggle for a more perfect union is the struggle for a union that welcomes all voices. As important as it was to elect a black president in 2008 and as it will be to elect a woman president in 2016, that is simply not good enough. We are neither post-racial nor post-gender. We must be honest about the depth of the problem in order to unloose the structural barriers that contribute to it -- the money, the process, the lineage. It may require some to step aside.

This Is What Insurgency Looks Like

Jeremy Brecher Labor Network for Sustainability
The call to Break Free from Fossil Fuels envisioned "tens of thousands of people around the world rising up" to take back control of their own destiny; "sitting down" to "block the business of government and industry that threaten our future"; conducting "peaceful defense of our right to clean energy." That's just what happened.

Special to Portside: Austrian Election Report

Stan Nadel Portside
Half the voters in one of the richest and most successful countries in the world, one with one of the highest standards of living and one of the best social welfare systems-universal health insurance and a strong safety net - have turned against the parties that have brought them those benefits - and done so in favor of a far right wing party with Nazi party roots that has built its success on promoting fear of immigrants and possible future economic decline....

Unions Split as Bitter U.S. Campaign Exposes Divergent Agendas

Tim Jones and Mark Niquette Bloomberg
The split amid an unexpectedly contentious Democratic primary season has exposed contrasting agendas in organized labor. Trade unionists are exercised by international deals, which they blame for the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs. Service workers less affected by globalization advocate collective-bargaining rights and wage protection.

Film Review: 'Kaili Blues' A New Language for Chinese Film

J. Hoberman The New York Review of Books
Kaili Blues, an eccentric, remarkably assured first feature by the young Chinese director Bi Gan, is both the most elusive and the most memorable new movie that I’ve seen in quite some time—“elusive” and “memorable” being central to Bi’s ambitions. - J. Hoberman

It Pays to Be White

Jeanette Wicks-Lim Dollars & Sense
Assessing how White people benefit from race-based economic inequality.

Cooking With Cannabis

Jonathan Thompson The Guardian
In the two years since Colorado legalised cannabis, chefs in the state have been finding new ways to make a meal of it.