Archive | Portside

May 20, 2017

Amid “Constitutional Crisis,” Bernie Sanders Urges Workers To Seize Means of Production

Kate Aronoff In These Times

The first, the WORK (“Worker Ownership, Readiness and Knowledge”) Act, would direct more than $45 million in funding to state-level employee ownership centers, aimed at providing training and technical assistance to current and prospective worker-owners. A second piece of legislation would establish something called the U.S. Employee Ownership Bank, via $500 million in funds for low-interest rate loans and financial assistance for workers who want to buy out the business

May 20, 2017

AT&T Workers Start 3-Day Strike in Contract Impasse

Noam Scheiber The New York Times

Workers are also frustrated that they are being asked to pay more of their health-insurance costs, he added, and that changes in retail workers’ commissions have limited or reduced their take-home pay. As part of its next contract, the union wants to bar AT&T from changing its commission structure unilaterally.

May 20, 2017

The Death of a Mexican Journalist Who Said No to Silence

Monica Campbell Public Radio International (PRI)

On May 15 crusading Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cardenas was gunned down in the streets of Culiacán, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa. He was the sixth journalist murdered in Mexico in 2017. Valdez reported on life under the rule of the drug cartels and the collusion between government authorities and organized crime. His final article was on the deadly attacks on teachers working in Sinaloa’s dangerous neighborhoods, six of which were killed this year.

May 20, 2017

“A Doll’s House, Part 2” Takes 19th-Century Play to Funny, Clever Feminist Present

Lucy Komisar The Komisar Scoop

Fifteen years after she slammed the door, Nora returns to Torvald’s house as the Betty Friedan of 19th-century Norway. As created by Laurie Metcalf from the script by Lucas Hnath, she is smart, witty, sarcastic, tough and likely to make women cheer. I did!

May 19, 2017