Portside

An anonymous customer service representative for a U.S. telecommunications company writes of the tremendous pressures on workers in customer service jobs, which pay just above the hourly minimum wage. Because of the low pay, these workers must rely on end of the month performance-based pay bonuses to get by. “Pay for performance” bonuses can add several hundred dollars a month to a paycheck. But it’s a very precarious way to make ends meet.

The Spanish jurist who issued arrest warrant for Augusto Pinochet reflects on the battle to unseat impunity in Chile and Argentina, and Spain's efforts to shake off its collective amnesia. Impunity, as the absence of justice, is the second of two assaults on both the law and the dignity of victims. Garzon asserts it is a mistake to advocate for peace while disregarding demands for justice. No amnesty law should obstruct access to justice for victims.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Ayelet Shaked Justice Minister in his fourth government. In the most extremist right-wing government in Israeli history, Shaked is perhaps the most extreme. She has openly asserted “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy” and made genocidal calls for the destruction of the Palestinian nation, “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.”

The displacement of black and Latino households was so dramatic during the recent foreclosure crisis that it should be seen as a 'mass migration event,' according to the lead author of a new Cornell University study. The study found Black and Latino neighborhoods faced home-loss rates at approximately three times that of white areas. This high rate of home-loss, along with white flight, resulted in a massive resegregation of urban America.

Amid controversies about surveillance from Big Brothers, there's also the matter of what the Little Brothers and Sisters know and exploit. Colorado poet Jared Smith takes an ironic view of what it means to know too much and therefore nothing at all.

The New Voice wasn’t just about growth, it envisioned a labor movement that reclaimed its place as a powerful force for justice in the community and strongly allied with the country’s progressive intelligentsia. But organizing was the magic word.

As a mom, it's my responsibility to demand an end to this cycle of violence, institutionalized racism, and police militarization.

Science has told us all sorts of fascinating things about the uniquely intimate link between mother and child at the biological level, and reminds us how essential motherhood really is to human experience as a whole.