Portside

Economic inequality leads to racism, xenophobia and plutocracy.

Many New York unions are joining the Women's March on Washington including District Council 37, the United Federation of Teachers, the New York State Nurses Association, the National Writers Union, Writers Guild of America East, United Food and Commercial Workers 1500, New York State United Teachers and 32BJ SEIU.

In reviewing two new books on the 20th Century's intertwined histories of labor, the Democratic Party, the Civil Rights movement, and the African American people, Rich Yeselson offers a nuanced and deeply informed assessment of this complicated tale.

Fear and uncertainty punctuated immigrant rights rallies across the country, as speakers shared their worries about the future of the country. Actions occurring simultaneously in fifty cities in the first large-scale immigration demonstration since the election.

Mothers—and some fathers—are increasingly suing employers for discriminating against working parents. They are succeeding.

1. Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Oscar López Rivera, a victory for the Puerto Rican independence activist who is considered to be one of the world’s longest-serving political prisoners. 2. Chelsea Manning, the US army soldier who became one of the most prominent whistleblowers in modern times when she exposed the nature of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan is to be freed in May as a gift of outgoing president Barack Obama.

Davos Man is also fine with government regulations that reduce the bargaining power of ordinary workers. For example, Davos Man has not objected to central bank rules that target low inflation even at the cost of raising unemployment. Nor has Davos Man objected to meaningless caps on budget deficits, like those in the European Union, that have kept millions of workers from getting jobs.

Unlike previous truth commissions dealing with governments and non-state actors, this truth and reconciliation commission would be charged with investigating, identifying, and presenting past falsehoods, lies and wrongful actions by individuals, political parties, operatives and media biases that affected the outcome of this year’s election campaign undermining our democratic process at any cost in order to get elected.

Springsteen the musician has also been an artist of the word, and this book confirms his artistry in that second medium. Few literary genres can be as inane as stars’ autobiographies, and while Born to Run has enough concert anecdotes to satisfy the curiosity of any fan, it is a sustained, satisfying, and thoroughly readable self-portrait.

Don’t be rude; Get out; NBC (normalizing buttkissing corporatists); Media’s big problems; Media’s big score; Resources for resisters; The Russian hot potato