Portside

As unrest simmers in the Middle East and the United States edges toward detente with Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia are trying to ride out the storm together.

Seattle pauses surveillance plans; Journalists on the move; Google wins book-scanning decision; Supercomputer Watson for all; Writers persecuted for digital media use; Google bigger than print industries.

With an awareness of climate change growing and as intensifying floods, fires, droughts, and storms become an inescapable feature of daily life across the planet, more people are joining environmental groups and engaging in increasingly bold protest actions. Sooner or later, government leaders are likely to face multiple eruptions of mass public anger and may, in the end, be forced to make radical adjustments in energy policy or risk being swept aside.

Boeing's fight against its machinists raises a terrifying possibility about U.S. capitalism. It appears that instead of industrial growth translating into national prosperity, the United States is beginning to conform to what economists call the Iron Law of Wages, which says the natural price of labor is subsistence. The only reasonable pay for workers, the theory goes, is enough to sustain them to live and work to produce value for their bosses and nothing more.

Woman who led 2011 student uprising joins lower house as Michelle Bachelet comes top in first round of presidential election.

Book Review: A Freedom Budget for All Americans, By Paul LeBlanc and Michael D. Yates; New York: Monthly Review Press

Union-backed groups mount new strikes, announce a potential federal complaint, and promise a big Black Friday.

The National Labor Relations Board issued findings today that Walmart broke the law by firing or penalizing workers who went on strike or tried to unionize. Meanwhile, the company draws criticism for sponsoring a food drive for needy employees. Rather than raise wages, Walmart blames a weak economy for its slow sales rather than a flawed business model. Finally, a senior editor from Fortune magazine makes the case that Walmart can afford to raise wages by 50%.