Portside

The greatest threat to the European “way of life” is not migration. It is that Europeans will swallow the lie that some human lives matter less than others. The behavior of the British and European elite towards migrants is not simple inhumanity. It is strategic inhumanity, weaponized inhumanity designed to convince populations fracturing under hammer-blows of austerity and economic chaos, that there is an “us” that must be protected from “them”.

President Obama’s approval for Shell Oil drilling in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea has undermined his recent push to protect the environment and provoked an angry reaction from environmentalists. The August 17th decision comes two weeks after the release of the United States' most aggressive attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the Clean Power Plan, and just days after Obama announced he will visit Alaska later this month to highlight the impacts of climate change.

PPT's assertion that "public mass transit is part of the infrastructure of any healthy and metropolitan area" made sense not only to the labour movement, but also to significant elements in the business community, gaining support from Democrats, Republicans, independents and Greens, as well as socialists. A wedge was driven into the Republican administration itself, between the secretary of transportation and the extreme right-wing elements.

Following the resignation August 20th of Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras and the announcement of snap parliamentary elections, 25 Syriza lawmakers who opposed the recent bailout deal formed a new Popular Unity Party and will challenge Tsipras and Syriza in September elections. Former Syriza Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis will head the new party. With its 25 members, the Popular Unity Party becomes the third largest party in the Greek parliament.

In this mordant poem, Lee Rossi moves between massive tragedy and small tragedy, and the human temptation to avert the eye from the one or the other.

One can delude one's self into believing that race can be avoided; but at the most awkward moments, it rears its ugly head and tears movements apart. In fact, it is the #BlackLivesMatter movement that has elevated this question to a national discussion point. There is an important segment of the progressive movement who strongly believe that economic injustice and a narrowly defined version of class can and must serve as the unifying feature of a progressive movement.

Last month in Vienna the US and Iran agreed to unprecedented inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities in return for lifting of sanctions. Yet, at Friday prayers and political rallies, hardline Iranians continue to shout "death to America," as they have for decades. Conservative US politicians cite the chant as proof Iran remains hostile to the US and can't be trusted to implement the nuclear accords. But Iranians have a very different interpretation of the slogan.

More than three-fifths of American Jews who express an opinion support the Iran deal, compared with a bit more than half of Americans overall. But among the official “Jewish leaders,” this is hardly the case. Plainly, the idea that American Jews speak as a monolithic bloc needs early retirement. So does the idea that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads, or represents, the world’s Jews.

The petition says, “Jon Stewart is more than qualified to tackle the moderating job. Mr Stewart has interviewed 15 heads of state, 22 members of the United States Cabinet, 32 members of the United States Senate, 7 members of the United States House of Representatives, and scores of other political leaders from this country and around the world while establishing himself as the most trusted person in (satirical) news.”

WeTheProtestors.org, a group that has played a prominent role in organizing the protests against police violence and especially the disproportionate use of force against African Americans in the year since the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, has put forward a set of ten specific policy proposals aimed at ending police violence, including limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability