Portside

Less than a month after Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi became president of Egypt, he launched a massive cut in state subsidies causing fuel, bread and other prices to rise dramatically. The new austerity plan has provoked anger from consumers, taxi drivers and shop owners, and threatens to spread to other sectors.

‘Lax enforcement’ is not the culprit—U.S. trade and immigration policies are. The failure of Central America's economies is largely due to the North American and Central American Free Trade Agreements and their accompanying economic changes.

Changes in labor market policies and practices have played an important role in the dynamic of rising inequality and wage stagnation for the vast majority. One example of a change in labor market policy that has eroded the standing of typical workers vis-à-vis their employers and contributed to this dynamic is the right of workers to earn overtime pay premiums for working excessive hours.

Shock and anger have engulfed Israeli and Palestinian societies since they learnt last week of the barbarous murder of children from their communities. Hours after three Israeli teenagers’ bodies were located, a Palestinian youth, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, was kidnapped, beaten and burnt to death, apparently as revenge.These horrifying events should serve as a lesson in the obscene futility of vengeance. Sadly, that was not the message implicit in much of last week’s coverage

The “honest brokers” all too often agree with our occupiers that the destructive spread of settlements is on “disputed,” not occupied, land; and that we and the Israelis must “work out” our differences across a table. With the negotiation rules thus rigged, justice will forever remain elusive.

De Beauvoir & Sartre in Cuba; Black women & evictions; Pepper spray drones; Alt rabbi; Revered hippy; Soccer understood

A majority of union members today now have ties to a government entity, at the federal, state or local levels. Roughly 1-in-3 public-sector workers is a union member, compared with about 1-in-15 for the private-sector workforce. The typical union worker now is more likely to be an educator, office worker or food or service industry employee rather than a construction worker, autoworker, electrician or mechanic. Far more women than men are in unions.

People are not just riled up, they're on the move. Backed by Public Citizen, Common Cause, People for the American Way, Free Speech for People, Move to Amend, the Communications Workers of America, and other national groups, local and state coalitions have been tilling the grassroots across the country and are producing a bounty of support for an amendment. If you're not already doing it, do all you can-join in, stand up, speak out, stand strong. History is calling us.

The new president of the largest teachers union in the country will become the voice of roughly 3 million teachers at perhaps the most critical moment in the National Education Association’s history. First item on the agenda: Win back the public.

The June 27 pro-union rally by an estimated 400 students, activists, ministers and workers in front of the mile-long Nissan plant here was the perfect culmination of the Mississippi Freedom Summer 50th Anniversary Conference in nearby Jackson.