Portside

The situation in Venezuela is dramatic but this does not explain the centrality of the country in all the news reports. Situations of greater seriousness in other countries are totally ignored by the same media. In Colombia, since the beginning of the year, 46 social movement leaders have been assassinated and in the last 14 months 120 have perished. More terrifying is the scene in Mexico. Every day some journalist is added to the long list of students, teachers . . .

In order to win universal health care, we have to understand what — and who — we're up against. In health care, private providers and private financing mechanisms were well ensconced long before any meaningful public intervention. The stakes are very high and, historically, a diverse array of private health interests have spent lavishly on political campaigns, and haunted congressional hearings and anterooms.

Blocker blocked from blocking; Local news vs Goliath; Netflix saves the day; Google j’accuse!; Digital democracy in Detroit

Kathryn Bigelow's film about 1967 Detroit riots grapples with a harsh legacy of racism in America.

The Los Angeles Black Worker Center was founded seven years ago to increase access to quality jobs for African-Americans. Rather than focusing solely on job training, the Center is working to connect people with actual jobs through programs like the LA Local Hire program.

As California stands at the height of the worst housing crisis the state has ever seen, hundreds of tenants across multiple cities are taking matters into their own hands by confronting corporate landlords to demand a freeze on rent increases. The tenants and organizations leading this are part of a new, broad-based coalition, Housing Now!, to fight for the repeal of the statewide restrictions on rent control - established by the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act.

Contrary to the rhetoric dominating the news cycle right now, trans liberation doesn't look like gender non-conforming bodies in military uniforms killing civilians overseas. It doesn't include rallying for entrenchment into the military-industrial complex that furthers the imperialist aims of the United States, or assimilating in hopes that a country that has never cared for trans lives will begin to.

Many Bridges, One River is the first published collection of interviews with organizers and activists who have been working in Vietnamese American communities throughout the United States, starting in the 1970s. These interviews document the strategies and lessons learned in the fight for social justice and progressive social change by Vietnamese Americans with powerful insights dealing with red-baiting, inter-generational differences and sustainable activism.

Olive oil fraud abounds: some producers blend cheap nut, seed, or other vegetable oils with just enough olive oil to lend the look, taste, and aroma of the real thing. Other perpetrators dilute extra-virgin olive oil with lower-grade olive oil, or mislabel lesser olive oil as extra-virgin. Last, though not nearly as appalling, packers intentionally mislabel the country of origin.

Should anything go awry with the 2020 count, it could have political implications affecting how voting districts are drawn or how language minorities can access the ballot. Important funding decisions are also driven by Census data. Nationwide, nearly $600 billion in federal funding is allocated to states based on Census numbers, according to a recent report by the George Washington Institute of Public Policy. Southern states receive $179.2 billion of that total.