Portside

The Jon Stewart Mysteries Presents. Amandla Stenberg: Don't Cash Crop On My Cornrows. Do Federal Taxes Reduce Income Inequality? The Wanted 18: Movie Teaser. Jimmy Page: How Stairway to Heaven Was Written.

Poor wages, precarious jobs, absence of benefits, no social security and denial of union rights are the patterns of the global fast food industry which relies on the labor of millions of workers employed by a few giant coporations operating under the names of different brands.

Reader Comments - Chicago election; Police Killings; Reparations; Prisons; Jewish Anti-Zionism; Charter Schools vs. Public Schools; Cuba; Latin America; Iran; Burkina Faso; Guatemala; Scientologists; Game of Thrones; Science Fiction and the Hugo Awards; San Francisco and Labor History; April 26 - Peace and Planet for nuclear abolition; Remembering Jim Knutson

How do Syriza's origins and Greece's political economy affect its capacity to govern? Jacobin interviews Michalis Nikolakakis, political adviser to the minister of economy, infrastructure, maritime affairs and tourism. Before joining Syriza, Nikolakakis was also active in the youth wing of Synaspismos. Here he discusses the origins of the Greek crisis, the relationship between Syriza and the state, and what accounts for the rise of the radical left in Greece.

Best-selling author Carl Hiaasen reflects on the national epidemic of police going after African Americans: When is the last time you heard of a white man in a Mercedes-Benz being pulled over for driving with a broken taillight? It has probably happened somewhere, some time, but there's a better chance of your car being hit by a meteor.

Obama's strategy is to change Cuba, not through regime change, but by promoting capitalism within the country through support of a petty bourgeoisie. The fundamental objective of US policy has always been to bring Cuba back into the capitalist orbit. Today in Cuba a socialist state is actively promoting cooperatives, thereby devolving economic power to people at the grassroots level. There is a rejuvenation of civil society underway - a socialist civil society.

How the minimum wage hurts us all. Is $15 an Hour a Realistic Goal for Fast-Food Workers? -- Even the Wall Stree Journal says YES -- If all workers earned at least $15 an hour, there would be a ripple effect through hundreds of occupations.

Gentrification is no myth, and saying so is magical thinking. Through oral histories and a solid grasp of urban history and urban geography, journalist GW Gibson shows not just its quite palpable and direct contribution to the displacement of low-income people, but, using New York City as his template, traces the radical decline of affordable housing city-wide. Case closed!

With the spread and growth of protests against police violence, two questions have captured the public imagination: Will these events lead to a new civil rights moment? If so, where is the next Martin Luther King Jr.?