Portside

Retail giant faces trial over its campaign to snuff out worker strikes. The NLRB complaint, similar to an indictment, lists incidents involving more than 60 workers in 34 states, as well as a Wal-Mart official's warning on national television to workers not to participate in Black Friday actions.

It took years of political evolution for King to understand nonviolence not merely as a moral force, but as an effective strategy for leveraging political change. Yet his embrace of that idea allowed him to shape history.

Marc Beallor reviews a new book of essays on what socialism might look like, and how it might be realized, in the USA

Bruce Springsteen & Jimmy Fallon rework "Born To Run" to address the Fort Lee, NJ bridge scandal.

Patterson, New Jersey proposes $25,000 for municipal workers in new contract. There are other parts of this contract that could be better but this is a major step forward for low paid workers.

Social democrats wrongly thought the reforms they won were won for good. The left used to beat itself up, sometimes quite literally, with debates over reform vs revolution, parliamentarianism vs extra-parliamentarianism, party vs movement - as if one ruled out the other. The question for the 21st century is not reform v revolution, but rather what kinds of reforms, with what kinds of popular movements behind them. In Greece, the lesson has been learned by Syriza.

If the wealthy paid Social Security taxes on their full salaries (and we aren't even talking stock options and other forms of bonuses that are not subject to Social Security taxation) the Social Security Trust Fund would likely be able to expand benefits.