Portside

Much attention has been given in recent years to low-wage work in the fast-food industry, big-box retail, and other service sector industries in the U.S. The rise of low-wage business models in the service sector has often been contrasted to business models of the past, when blue collar jobs in the manufacturing industry supported a large middle class in the U.S. Recent research found that manufacturing production wages now rank in the bottom half of all jobs in the U.S.

The food activist group, Eco Practicum, came together for five days in New York City for the third annual program produced in partnership with Our Name Is Farm, a training aimed at building “effective advocacy for a better food system.”

On average, manufacturing jobs still pay better than most jobs available to people without a college degree. But there isn't anything special about manufacturing that made it a source of good living wage jobs for so many decades. The real reason why some terrible manufacturing jobs became good jobs is simple: unions. We may not bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. in large numbers, but we can work to revitalize and rebuild unions.

The CBS drama’s dramatic finale brought a sad but fitting end to a show that has always been a little bit awkward about its female friendships.

Liberal condescension towards white workers is code for a broader anti-working class agenda.

In launching a cycle of plays grounded in English history, Shakespeare was able to show his audiences the blood-soaked story of their own becoming, the history of their creation as a nation. (From an American vantage, it would be as though a present-day playwright were to track our history from Jamestown to World War II, focusing most intently on the span stretching from the Revolutionary through the Civil Wars.

There’s an argument that was put forth by an earlier journalist, I.F. Stone: “All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.” In my experience, this is absolutely a fact.

The 1985 police attack on the MOVE house is one of the last times a police department dropped an actual bomb on its residents.

Should we really leave law enforcement to police themselves? That’s the question.

Citing an alarming increase in the incidence of childhood cancers and neurological disorders, the Pesticide Action Network’s new study concludes pesticide use is having a devastating impact on the health of children in agricultural communities. A child’s growing body is particularly vulnerable to the harms of pesticide exposure. Yet, according to the report, children in agriculture communities are being exposed to a “double dose” of pesticides.