Portside

Campaigners take legal route after success against big tobacco and other industries led to change

It’s Henry Kissinger’s 100th birthday today. The fact that this monster is celebrated instead of in jail tells you that he’s part of a much bigger problem — and that problem is America’s global empire.

Minnesota just banned captive audience meetings, presumably understanding that it is unreasonable to force working people to attend mandatory meetings at which their boss delivers to them the equivalent of an Ayn Rand book reading.

Going back more than 20 years, FISA court rulings have complained of FBI agents lying to the court and abusing the law. As long as the FBI periodically promises to repent, the FISA court entitles them to continue decimating the Fourth Amendment.

Homelessness and poverty are the tragic results of unfettered capitalism and raging inequality, whether it’s in rural West Virginia or in San Francisco’s Tenderloin.

“I was told that if I tried to discharge myself, or seek care elsewhere, that I could be arrested for trying to kill my child”

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and some of his organization’s largest affiliate unions are getting behind Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. But others are pushing Michigan Rep. Andy Levin, a former Service Employees International Union organizer.

Austerity in response to these circumstances can only make conditions worse. Cuts in government spending at the same time as unemployment and threats of eviction hang over many heads is a recipe for deep recession.

Activists say the key was actually talking about working-class issues.

For several reasons, the left is an indispensable component of the Democratic coalition. For one thing, contrary to centrists’ claims, progressive policies like free health insurance, green energy, and a $15 minimum wage are broadly popular.