Portside

Let me take this opportunity to thank J Street for the bold voice that they’ve provided in support of American leadership in the Middle East and efforts towards peace between Israelis and Palestinians. I understand that, given the political climate in this capital, that has not always been easy. I also applaud them for being part of a broad coalition of groups that successfully fought for the historic nuclear agreement between the U.S. and its partners and Iran.

Preemption is a legal term that allows corporations to boost their profits by suppressing local government power, community groups and citizens.

Ten private-sector union pension funds have applied to the U.S. Treasury Dept. for the green light to slash retiree payouts, the Pension Rights Center says Among them are labor organizations affiliated with the auto industry, several from the trucking industry and others from the iron workers and bricklayer unions. Sixty-eight plans are listed as having “critical and declining status,” meaning they too will soon have to apply for permission to cut retiree payouts.

For exposing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pvt. Chelsea Manning suffered nearly seven years in prison, an ordeal President Obama finally has ended but without acting on the crimes she revealed, says Marjorie Cohn.

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis recently made the Trump administration’s first overseas trip. His destination: South Korea and Japan. In South Korea, Mattis’ first stop, women demanding genuine human security are at the forefront of the resistance.

Black traditions of struggle and defiance to oppression helped define the meanings of freedom and citizenship in the United States.

Increases in policing produces these results: insecurity; broken families and occupied communities; divestment of public resources for education, health, recreation, housing; disenfranchisement for communities targeted by policing and courts; fear and hatred; more inequality; more racism; more human rights abuses; more violence; public debt as the militarized state redoubles itself; and environmental injustice.

New bilateral trade agreements between the UK and the USA could see the former being forced to lift restrictions on food imports from the latter, including some products that have up to now been banned.

In this ongoing "Interviews for Resistance" series, experienced organizers, troublemakers and thinkers share their insights on what works, what doesn't, what has changed, and what is still the same. Today's interview is the twelfth in the series.

Arkansas poultry workers, Brooklyn warehouse workers and house cleaners, Twin Cities roofers, and thousands of students in places like Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Charlotte, North Carolina. They were all among the tens of thousands who stayed home from work or school across the country during Thursday, February 16’s “Day without Immigrants.”