Portside

Social movements ought to place private military contractors at the center of a broader critique of authoritarian neoliberalism and America’s permanent war economy.

Calling for a general strike now bears no relation to what mass strikes have meant in the past. The flight from reality shows up in activists’ blasé attitude to history and their very distant relationship to the working class.

We all know that at this moment everything is on the table. This year has been astounding, sometimes inspiring, and ultimately menacing. It gave lightning flashes of what a people's movement could accomplish. But the election outcome is ultimately brutal -- a nightmare President and administration packed with white nationalists, ultra-billionaires and militarists that threaten the existence of the entire democratic system. No one, no group and no institution is safe.

This year's Super Bowl between the Falcons and Patriots is viewed by many across football as a battle of cultures. On one end, some in the game see the Patriots as a conveyor belt of winning machinery, aligned with Donald Trump, but despised by a large swath of the American populace. On the other are the Falcons, a talented, less rigid team, supported by a city starving for a winner and viewed as the welcome alternative in this fight.

The top lawyer at the National Labor Relations Board issued an official opinion this week that players at all 17 private colleges in the FBS are employees of their schools. It is a significant expansion of a 2014 ruling by NLRB regional director Peter S. Ohr that Northwestern football players are employees.

In some of the most brutal authoritarian regimes, labor unions have been the anchor of a broad working-class movement for democracy. Think South Africa, Brazil, South Korea. Our worker movements, political movements and unions must be wary of co-optation. We are not here for one-off gains for some of us. We are here to build broader movements for all of us. The minimum wage is a tool for organizing as much as it is a policy outcome.

State election officials want to see Washington help out with their real issues or get out of their polling booths.

When you don't prioritize teachers, you can't say you prioritize students

A comprehensive database of events lets researchers explore potential causes.

The dispute is not over their wages. It's Honeywell that's demanding deep concessions in their new 5-year contract, including the elimination of cost-of-living increases and pensions for new workers, cuts in overtime pay, subcontracting out work, restricting representation rights, and more.