Portside

After a decade of wielding the military stick, it’s time for some carrots.

Today, the AFL-CIO is seeking to arrest labor's decline through its Working America affiliate, which is a groundbreaking effort at large-scale community organizing, and has some as yet undefined alliance with such other progressive groups as the Sierra Club and the NAACP.

WikiLeaks Rescues Edward Snowden (Literally!); Correcting Bruce Sterling's Revisionist Cyber-History; Lavabit Email Encryption Service, Bites the Dust; Turf Wars in the Internet Underworld; Pirate Bay Turns Ten!

Research shows that to prevent next harms to young people, it helps to analyze individual tragedies as part of patterns we can counteract collectively. FBI data shows African Americans comprise around half of all youth arrests for murder. Conclusion: African American youth commit around 2 percent of homicides in the United States--you'd think it was 92 percent from media coverage.

Research shows that to prevent next harms to young people, it helps to analyze individual tragedies as part of patterns we can counteract collectively. FBI data shows African Americans comprise around half of all youth arrests for murder. Conclusion: African American youth commit around 2 percent of homicides in the United States--you'd think it was 92 percent from media coverage.

David McReynolds, co-worker with March on Washington organizer Bayard Rustin, in the War Resisters League, remembers the march, the country and Washington, D.C. in 1963. The slogan was "Jobs and Freedom." The link was very deliberate - for what was freedom without a job? He is also critical of Rustin's rightward turn after the march and his support of the war in Vietnam.

Israeli author Larry Derfner says American Jewish community must refocus anti-Semitism outrage on it's own "dirty laundry." The ADL goes after anti-Semitism with a fist, it goes after Israeli racism with a sigh. When the Jewish state is this riddled with racism, its advocates abroad should be a little less outraged over the offenses of gentiles. They should be a little more humble - and a lot less hypocritical.

The Workers Defense Project, founded in 2002, has emerged as one of the nation's most creative organizations for immigrant workers. Its focus is the Texas construction industry, which employs more than 600,000 workers. It is one of 225 worker centers nationwide, aiding immigrant workers. Workers Centers show what is possible, and may help infuse new life into the labor movement.