Portside

“Teamster pensions are in trouble because of greed, incompetence and corruption,” Rita Lewis told In These Times. Excessive pay to plan administrators and outlandish fees to financial advisors have drained the fund, she says, echoing Warren’s emphasis on Wall Street malfeasance, and a first step should be to clean house at the offices of Central States Pension Fund, the organization that collects and distributes pension monies for some 400,000 union members and retirees.

The WFP just confronted the biggest test of its 18-year existence, and came through with colors flying. And that’s not all. Just as importantly, some units of our normally hidebound union movement stuck with the Party despite short-term incentives to defect. When the history of class politics in our time is written, the choices made both by the Party and by its loyal union affiliates may figure importantly.

Corporate trolls; Verizon strike; ISPs' eye on you; Bum Rush; Local media to the rescue

The new Mapplethorpe film begins with the voice of Senator Jesse Helms exhorting everyone to, "Look at the pictures!" He was protesting an exhibit of Mapplethorpe's work that he viewed as pornographic, and we see the conservative politician waving what he viewed as smut, seeking to inflame the culture wars, despite the fact that Mapplethorpe had died just a few months prior at the age of 42 of AIDS. That protest turned out to solidify the artist's legend.

Many taxi drivers love the entrepreneurial nature of the work but they still want and need security and protection. Recent developments of the gig economy in the states of Washington and California are breakthrough moments for the potential to organize workers against companies like Uber. We can't wait for the courts to figure out the gig economy: we have to be organizing now, despite the challenges.

Remarks by the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, during the closing of the 7th Communist Party of Cuba Congress.

The flourishing of soul food’s sub-genres has been fun to watch (and eat), but it has also meant that fewer African-American chefs are embracing traditional soul food. Some side-step the cuisine in order to avoid being pigeon-holed as a “soul-food cooks,” while others follow their passions for other flavors.

A years-long struggle to eliminate an undemocratic system of at-large voting in Whittier California has resulted in an historic victory for the community. Democrat Josue Alvarado has won a hard-fought electoral campaign to become the first person elected to represent Whittier’s newly configured Council One. He is only the second Latino to hold a council seat in that city in 118 years!

A conversation with Tony Romano of the Right to the City Alliance. What are the systemic challenges to democratic and equitable control over public space? What kind of popular mobilizations can build towards systemic alternatives guaranteeing the human right to housing? To help answer these questions, we spoke with Tony Romano, Organizing Director for the Right to City Alliance. Our conversation is below.

Le Carré's 1993 novel comes to life in a six-part AMC series. John Powers says the show, which jets from Egyptian streets to posh Alpine lodges, is one of the most enjoyable thrillers he's seen on TV. Over the years, le Carré's anger at those in power has become less ambiguous and more sharply focused, whether he's going after drug company profiteering or America's approach to the War on Terror.