Portside

The involvement of Turkey -- NATO's second largest military force -- in support of Syrian and other Islamist forces is of long-standing. One part of Turkish territory along Syria's border has served for the past two years as a fallback zone for DASEH (ISIS) Islamists as well as to Al Qaeda. However, neither the US or French governments have asked Turkish authorities to stop helping the Jihadists.

Turned away by unions, ignored by officials and shunned by their own community, it wasn’t until the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) group twinned with a small mining town in south Wales that anyone would take them seriously. LGSM went on to raise over £20,000 for the miners and their families and hosted one of the most audacious fund-raising events in the history of the1984-85 strike, the Pits and Perverts Ball.

As Britain, France, and other European states edge closer towards military alliance against ISIS, the anti-war movement is at a crossroads. ISIS is a barbarous creature, but as in so many other cases of humanitarian intervention, military action against it by the western powers is likely to increase its appeal to many resentful of Western domination. Like the war against Iraq and the bombing of Libya; this intervention is doomed to create an even worse situation.

I can’t stress enough how important it is for me, as a black climate justice advocate, as well as for my people, to see the climate movement show solidarity with the people of Ferguson and with black communities around the country striving for justice. Other movements have stepped up to the plate: labor, LGBTQ and immigrant rights groups have all taken the firm stand that they have the backs of the black community. Solidarity and allyship is important in and of itself.

The Freelancers Union’s attempt to claim 34 percent of the population as mostly delighted freelancers clouds our understanding of the need for reform. While the Freelancers Union is doing important work to support a select group of freelancers, its approach isn’t likely to work for other independent workers; those workers who are more replaceable may still need to go to war against industry leaders if they’re going to access acceptable working conditions.

Economist Juliet Schor is known worldwide for her research on the interrelated issues of work, leisure, and consumption. Her books on these themes include The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer, and Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth (retitled True Wealth for its paperback edition). She is also a professor of sociology at Boston College. —Eds.

UNITE HERE and the Teamsters have been quietly negotiating a contract with Harrah's Hotel and Casino in New Orleans for the last six months that, when inked, would double the size of organized labor's tiny footprint in the New Orleans tourism economy.

Edward E. Baptist’s brilliant book, The Half Has Never Been Told, soars because of the author’s decision to root his analysis in the human dimension.

Roughly 20 to 25 percent of all union contracts have recently contained some kind of two-tier payment. Such arrangements, often made in response to threats of plant closures or job losses, can turn into strategies for long-term suppression of wages. They can also generate conflict and resentment among workers making vastly different amount of money and undermine solidarity.

So far, 121 countries have signed the treaty, and 154 voted in favor of its adoption in April 2013 in the General Assembly. The successful entry into force of the ATT will be a big win for arms control campaigners and NGOs, who have been fighting for the regulation of the arms trade for more than a decade.