Portside

How Wall Street Skims Higher Education. Richard Pryor & Maya Angelou. Documentary: Citizen Koch. John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, "I'm In The Mood." John Oliver: Stop Cable Company F**kery.

Corporate interests have taken credit for reducing private-sector unions to a fraction of their former strength, and for eroding public-sector collective bargaining, especially since the 2010 “Tea Party midterms.” A resurgence in low-wage worker organizing, sparked by growing inequality in the United States, promises to help defend the rights—and paychecks—of vulnerable workers. But corporations and their paid shills aim to snuff out the movement before it catches fire.

Reader Comments - Edward Snowden, NSA and NBC; Police Crimes; U.S. Cuba Policy; Tiananmen Anniversary; Ralph Fasanella's Art; Prisons and Solidarity Confinement; Workers and Labor; Taxes and Economic Growth; Carbon Pollution; New Populism; Sexual Harassment; Sexual assault of women protestors in India; Les Orear - R.I.P.

If you want to understand why it's the case that on the one hand, the U.S. public and the majority of Congress turned against the war in Afghanistan a long time ago, and yet on the other hand, it's been so hard to end the war, this week's warmonger media storm against the diplomatic rescue of U.S. prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been very instructive.

On March 28 Brooklyn rock band The Shondes were disinvited from the Washington Jewish Music Festival, at which they were scheduled to perform on June 2, due to band members' views on Israel and Palestine. Jewish groups are now asking artists: "On behalf of the Jewish people, are you now or have you ever been a signatory to a boycott of Israel?" Shondes members, singer Louisa Rachel Solomon and violinist Elijah Oberman, wrote this open letter in response.

Events appear to be moving toward a political solution to the East-West standoff over Ukraine. But as Clausewitz once noted: "Against stupidity, no amount of planning will prevail." Conn Hallinan looks at the possibility of a resolution to the standoff in Ukraine.

Japanese-American activist and Malcolm X Ally, Yuri Kochiyama, has died at the age of 93. She spent two years in an internment camp and helped win reparations for Japanese-Americans. She was with Malcolm X when he was assassinated. She inspired generations. Tributes from 18 Million Rising and the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA; links to some of her writings and interviews.

Legal experts say that the ruling, which allows inmates at Pelican Bay who have been held in solitary confinement for more than a decade to sue as a class, paves the way for a court case that could shape national policy on the use of long-term solitary confinement.

All great religions instruct their followers on how employers should treat their workers. Living wages are at the center of our deepest moral and faith traditions.