Portside

The U.S. military is a key climate polluter, likely the “largest organizational user of petroleum in the world,” according to a congressional report released in December 2012. Beyond its immediate carbon footprint—which is difficult to measure—the U.S. military has placed countless countries under the thumb of western oil giants. Social movements have long sounded the alarm over the link between U.S.-led militarism and climate change.

"It’s a hard struggle when a member of your family passes away. But this Day of Awareness can mean that her memory will live on forever.”

Scaffolding for an assessment of the correlation of forces after the battles from Trump's inauguration through the GOP's failure to repeal Obamacare, and what the next year may hold in store. Note added April 7: This piece was finalized just before Trump's air strike in Syria. For updates on that extremely dangerous escalation, see the links added to the paragraph terming this "an aggressively militarist, war presidency" below.

The attack on public sector unions intensifies. Public sector unions must now form audacious, coalitions and alliances with private sector unions, and those secular and spiritual organizations.

For five weeks teachers in Argentina have been on strike almost continuously, using the days they do go to school to explain to students and parents the reasons for their conflict with the national government.

Big Little Lies and the problems of whiteness, access, class, and privilege intersecting with feminism.

In a country with Latin America’s highest death rate from diabetes, peasant communities are at risk thanks in part to Coca Cola addiction.

The new law is aimed at protecting the Central American nation’s environment and natural resources. Approved on March 29 with the support of 69 lawmakers from multiple parties (out of a total of 84), the law blocks all exploration, extraction, and processing of metals, whether in open pits or underground. It also prohibits the use of toxic chemicals like cyanide and mercury.

I would say that science plays many roles in society; it definitely plays many roles in a democratic society. It is impossible to be completely apolitical, but I think that science is nonpartisan. There really is a difference between being not partisan and being political.

Cloaking its efforts in the language of civil rights, a right-wing think tank has launched a coordinated attack against the Indian Child Welfare Act, passed to protect Native American children from their forced removal from their families and tribes. The Goldwater Institute’s stated goal is to have the Supreme Court strike down the ICWA. But, tribal members say these efforts are also intended to undermine the legal foundation of Native American self-determination.