Portside

After four years as a growing, thriving voice of Walmart workers, the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) re-launched itself on Thursday. Founded and funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, OUR Walmart will now rely more heavily on a coalition of 20 community-based partners. OUR Walmart will not attempt to gain union recognition, but continue its fight for $15 an hour minimum pay and improved working conditions and protections.

This week’s military coup by Burkina Faso’s elite presidential guard on the eve of the scheduled Oct. 11 national elections has sparked widespread resistance and at least 10 deaths. General Gilbert Diendere, the former commander of the Regiment of Presidential Security, trained and funded by the U.S. and France, is the coup’s leader. He is also the former chief of staff to ex-President Blaise Compaore, ousted after 27 years of misrule by a 2014 popular uprising.

Warsan Shire, a Kenyan-born Somali poet based in London, addresses the terror and desperation of migrants forced to leave their homes seeking safety, shelter, hope even in strange and often inhospitable lands. Hers is a language of experience and insight, capturing the tension of the current crisis of uprooted people. .

"Right-to-work" is coming to the public sector. The key to survival is social movement unionism.

Former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi and Republican front-runner Donald Trump share a flaunted machismo and political incorrectness, saying outrageous things to get free media coverage, and targeting predominantly blue-collar white males who feel threatened by globalization, multiculturalism and women’s rights. Berlusconi was initially dismissed as wholly unelectable. His political momentum lasted more than 20 years.

“It’s worth it, once you realize what you’re fighting for,” says Ahmed Mohamed. And what is he fighting for? He looks around the room, and like any American 14-year-old grappling with issues beyond his control, he answered with the rising inflection of a question. “Not just for Muslims?” he said. “But for anybody who has been through this?”