Portside

Responses from Portside readers to the statement of the U.S. Peace Council on Russia's Military Intervention in Ukraine.

From Lebanon, Iraq and Syria to Sudan and Yemen, millions of people in the Middle East whose lives were already upended by conflict, displacement and poverty are now wondering where their next meals will come from.

According to reports from Yale's Chief Executive Leadership Institute, a colossus of Mexican food conglomerates still maintains operations in Russia.

Worker organizing is on the upswing. Here are some principles for building capacity and bottom-up power—in your union drive and in the ongoing functioning of your union.

At the turn of the last century, Ukraine’s labor movement was subject to tsarist domination and divided along linguistic lines. The revolutions of 1917 inspired calls for self-determination and the formation of a common Ukrainian identity.

The coolest rejoinder to the manly, cacophony of trucks barreling down a D.C. street, horns blaring, was one lone chill biker, languidly pedaling in front of them: "#BikeMan slowing down the forces of #DumbTruckIstan." Not all heroes wear capes.

It happened again this week, as it has happened more than 100 times so far this year. Police in Louisiana and Minnesota shot and killed two more black men. Stop asking us to be calm. Stop asking us to wear the mask. Stop asking us to take whips, nooses and now police bullets without emotion. In the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, "We are sick and tired of being sick and tired." Two years after Ferguson, police induced murders are continuing...#BlackLivesMatter

The disgraceful history of voter disenfranchisement is no secret. For more than a century, African Americans (and other marginalized groups) were restricted or evendisqualified from voting. Today these practices are formally outlawed, yet we still see patterns in voter turnout that indicate that voting discrimination is alive and well. Non-voters also tend to be younger, less educated, and less affluent than their voting counterparts.

A thoughtful and nuanced look at the role identity played in this year's primary contest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton by a Sanders supporter. Hillary's passionate female (and male feminist) supporters are speaking with sincerity about their hopes for a gender revolution. The reality is that women work for less pay; do more childcare; are often single parents; must weather sexual harassment, abuse, and assault throughout their lives...

On both sides of the Atlantic, citizens are seizing upon trade agreements as a source of their woes. While this is an over-simplification, it is understandable. Today's trade agreements are negotiated in secret, with corporate interests well represented, but ordinary citizens or workers completely shut out. Not surprisingly, the results have been one-sided: workers' bargaining position has been weakened further, compounding the effects of legislation undermining unions.