Portside

Gerald W. McEntee, the longtime president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFL-CIO), who led the union to historic growth, positioning it as a voice for working people and a force to be reckoned with in the nation’s civil rights movement, died Sunday, July 10, 2022.

There can be long periods where it feels impossible to amend the Constitution. But then conditions change and in a very short period of time there can be three, four or five amendments. The heart of the story is progressive change.

Grilling, baseball and fireworks, first replaced by symbols -- and now by a country tearing itself apart. July 4, 2022, falls in the midst of devastation. It is Independence Day in America with independence under current and relentless assault.

The musician and activist has escaped her homeland – but its repression still torments her. She talks about being beaten and jailed, nuclear threats and the dangerous power of women

Lawmakers this week will rubber stamp a bill authorizing tens of billions more to the Defense Department that it didn’t even ask for.

Research shows that the ways we engage with our food--appearance, smell, utensils, even background music--play a role in how healthily we eat.

When we stereotype or lazily assume low-wage workers to be  “low skill,” it reinforces an often unspoken and pernicious view that they lack intelligence and ambition, maybe even the potential to master “higher-order” skilled work.

And it is a critical juncture for Palestinians generally, failed by their leaders, divided among themselves, dismissed by the Israelis and forgotten internationally.

Today’s National Guard represents the evolution of the original state militias, created for military purposes -- fighting enemies from Indian nations on this continent to rebels in the Philippines.

The world has since got so used to companies taking over what were long functions of the state that the Trump administration is now considering handing over the Afghan war to them.