Portside

More than 20 million people, and nearly one-third of all hourly employees over 18 make more than the existing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour but less than the $10.10 per hour increased federal minimum wage unsuccessfully promoted by the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats earlier this year. The Pew Research Center's Fact Tank provides a profile of where these "near-minimum-wage" workers work and what they are paid.

Legislation by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois Legislature, would have made deep cuts to employees retirement benefits. The so-called "pension reform law" was ruled unconstitutional by a Illinois Circuit Judge today.

The Democratic establishment’s obsessive concern with winning over socially liberal affluent swing voters meant the party failed to run a populist national campaign on issues that would have appealed to working people of all races

It’s easy to see how evolution can account for the dark streaks in human nature—the violence, treachery, and cruelty. But how does it produce kindness, generosity, and heroism?

'The danger of oppression is not just being oppressed, it’s becoming an oppressor.'

“A lot of people are using the term bittersweet, but I don’t think that’s enough to describe the amount of emotion I’m feeling right now”

President Obama: Fixing Immigration. The Browning of America. The Case for Napping at Work. Cuban Music in the Streets. Documentary: The Other Side of Immigration.

At its peak in August 1917 the IWW had a membership of more than 150,000. Nine months later, the union was in total disarray. This sad state of affairs was, of course, partly the result of a calculated decision by the federal government to destroy the IWW. But only partly. Eric Chester's book looks at some the inner-conflicts within the organization that contributed to its demise.