7 Reasons to Raise the Minimum Wage to $15

Robert Reich shows why at $15 minimum wage would help lift millions of people out of poverty and help grow the economy. Call your Senator today at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to support raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Manu Chao -- "El Viento"

Twelve Hondurans who have been mutilated by “La Bestia” - the immigration journey north - tell their stories. They want to share their stories with President Barack Oabama and ask him to end deportations.

John Oliver: Government Surveillance

There are very few government checks on what America’s sweeping surveillance programs are capable of doing. John Oliver sits down with Edward Snowden to discuss the NSA, the balance between privacy and security, and dick-pics.

Honky Tonk Women

Playing for Change gets together Keb' Mo' and Mermans Mosengo to produce this slow, bluesy version of "Honky Tonk Women"

Friday Nite Videos -- April 10, 2015

Portside
Keb Mo: Honky Tonk Women. John Oliver: Government Surveillance. Manu Chao -- "El Viento". 7 Reasons to Raise the Minimum Wage to $15. More Horrific Police Violence Filmed.

The Fissured (Working-Class) Workplace

Tim Strangleman Working-Class Perspectives
We should not to romanticise the work of the past, indulge in ‘smokestack nostalgia’, but equally we need to acknowledge a world we may be losing. While the ‘job for life’ may have been a fleeting experience for a few, the social patterns that that stability engendered were profound for generations of workers and can still be seen working their way through the contemporary workplace

Tidbits - April 9, 2015 - Police Killings; Jewish Establishment Tries to Silence Critics; Guatemalans Infected with STDs; US Cold War with Iran; US Trains Neo-Nazis; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments - Police Killings are Epidemic; Jewish Establishment Tries to Silence Critics; Yavon Kaplan - new Israeli refusknik; New Video - Feeling Good About Apartheid; Guatemalans Infected with STDs; US Cold War with Iran; Indiana; Islamic State - Cancer of Modern Capitalism; US Trains Neo-Nazis in Ukraine; Announcements - Worker Rights Conference; #BlackLivesMatter; 79th Annual ALBA Celebration; Today in History - Paul Robeson - Born 1898

Culture After Google

Emilie Bickerton New Left Review
Anatomy of a cultural product with the potential to ameliorate social inequities but threatened by digital corporate conglomeration and hijacking by the security state. Book covers the implications for cultural democracy in various sectors-music, film, news, advertising-how battles over copyright, piracy and privacy laws have evolved, counterpoints to invasive data-mining and a "People's Platform" supporting the politics of a fightback.

MLK's Call to Honor Peace, Justice and Our Planet Still Challenges Us

Jacqueline Cabasso, Joseph Gerson and Kevin Martin Truthout
Thousands of peace, social justice and environmental activists from around the world will gather in New York City from April 24-26 for the Peace and Planet Mobilization for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World - challenges articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King. Peace and Planet convenes prior to the April 27 - May 22 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference at the United Nations, bringing the voice of civil society to the governmental confab.

Responses to The Tragedy of Party Communism

Kurt Stand, David Cohen and Jack Radey Portside
Two weeks ago Portside published an essay by Michael Brie, The Tragedy of Party Communism. Here Kurt Stand, David Cohen and Jack Radey reflect on their participation in the socialist movement, what lessons there may be to draw on, as well as which to forget. For today's and tomorrow's socialists, they see socialism as a system that could be reformed, capitalism a system that needs to be abolished.