Portside

Should public school educators be as optimistic about the coming year as the rising stock prices of our numerous Fortune 500 corporations? Not so fast. As those entities earning record profits continue to shirk their responsibilities, the District is forced to balance its budget on the backs of the only individuals they have some sort of control over - their teachers.

Boeing workers ratify contract in close vote. NYU graduate workers vote to unionize in overwhelming vote. In a contest between mobile capital and a skilled workforce the workers at Boeing were at a distinct disadvantage. At NYU after years of frustration due to unfair labor laws the UAW and the graduates students prevailed through skilled organizing and perseverance.

An interview with historian Michael Honey about his new biography of John Handcox, a sharecropper, union organizer, and folk singer.

The resources and the breadth of the organization make it singular in American politics: an operation conducted outside the campaign finance system, employing an array of groups aimed at stopping what its financiers view as government overreach. Members of the coalition target different constituencies but together have mounted attacks on the new health-care law, federal spending and environmental regulations.

Beginning in 1964 and stretching through today, conservative leaders systematically undermined the programs that shaped Johnson’s War on Poverty, frequently deploying racist and sexist arguments to take away public assistance from the poorest Americans. Their rhetoric didn’t directly undo these social programs, but it chipped away at their foundation and altered Americans’ perceptions about the proper role of government.

Rail strike raises the issue of privatization, paves way for general strike in on February 25.