Portside

If well organized and militant union members at Verizon—who have gone on strike against the company and its predecessors in 1983, 1986, 1989, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2011 and now—can’t stop the outsourcing and destruction of decent jobs, unorganized workers spread across the planet in industries like telecommunications will find the task insurmountable.

Le Carré's 1993 novel comes to life in a six-part AMC series. John Powers says the show, which jets from Egyptian streets to posh Alpine lodges, is one of the most enjoyable thrillers he's seen on TV. Over the years, le Carré's anger at those in power has become less ambiguous and more sharply focused, whether he's going after drug company profiteering or America's approach to the War on Terror.

Corruption is not the cause of the effort to oust Brazil’s twice-elected President, Dilma Rousseff, merely the pretext. Brazil’s elite and their media organs have repeatedly failed to defeat Rousseff and her Workers' Party at the ballot box. So the plutocrats are now attempting, through a bizarre mélange of evangelical extremists, far-right supporters of a return to military rule, and non-ideological backroom operatives, to simply remove her from office.

On this month’s 50th anniversary of one of the all-time edgiest Beatles tracks, our super rich have a special reason to look back fondly on the lads from Liverpool.

For the fourth year in a row, bills to expand voters' access to the ballot box have outpaced those restricting voting, in terms of both introduction and passage. Among the most popular reforms are laws expanding voter registration, including automatic registration and online registration.

Harriet Tubman was a fighter, and impatient for the freedom of her people and the suffrage of her sex; she repeatedly put her life on the line for what she believed in. And one hopes that’s how she appears on the $20 bill.

I know the Americans think me an opponent of their drone wars. They are right; I am. Singling out people to assassinate, and killing nine of our innocent children for each person they target, is a crime of unspeakable proportions. Their policy is as foolish as it is criminal, as it radicalises the very people we are trying to calm down.

Workers said they began speaking frequently among themselves about the low pay, no benefits and no chance at permanent employment. They decided to organize to get a union.