Portside

Artists, writers,musicians and similar occupations are under attack. Low pay and lack of health benefits for most are major problems. Can unions help make their lives better? The author gives a brief history of organizing in these fields.

Every Friday afternoon since 2009, residents of the West Bank town Nabi Saleh have taken part in demonstrations against the Israeli occupation by marching to a spring that has been taken over by the settlers of Halamish but is on Palestinian-owned land.

Audio obtained by The Nation confirms an instance of New York City's police union cooperating with the NYPD in setting arrest quotas for the department's officers. Critics of quotas say the practice has played a direct role in increasing the number of stop-and-frisk encounters since Mayor Michael Bloomberg came to office. Patrolmen explained the pressure to meet quota goals has caused some officers to seek out or even manufacture arrests to avoid department retaliation.

The liberal establishment willfully played along with the preposterous claims that led to the Iraq War.

"You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans - my fellow veterans - whose future you stole."

Yes, the Iraq War was a war for oil, and it was a war with winners: Big Oil. It has been 10 years since Operation Iraqi Freedom's bombs first landed in Baghdad. And while most of the U.S.-led coalition forces have long since gone, Western oil companies are only getting started.