Portside

Retail work does not have to pay poverty wages. New study compares work in Europe and the U.S. For all the power of market forces, from automation taking over routine tasks to globalization squeezing retailers’ margins, there is nothing inevitable about low-quality retail jobs. Social norms and political institutions can make them better, or worse.

The so-called gig-economy is celebrated, maligned, fetishized, and qualified by analysts. Whether it is called the collaborative, platform, crowd-sourcing, or sharing-economy, the rise of peer-to-peer exchanges does raise important questions for workers. Do emerging ‘sharing-economy’ platforms such as Uber and Airbnb mark a significant shift in production and distribution systems? Are they emancipatory or exploitive?

Reader Comments: Single Payer; World Citizenship; Unions are NOT Created by Labor Law; Puerto Rico is Getting Squeezed, and that was Before Hurricane Maria; Confederate Statutes and the Myth of Robert E. Lee; Resources; Announcements; and more ...

Reader Comments: The Long Arc of Protest; DACA; Korea; KKK Terror; Differing views: How Should We Protest Neo-Nazis; Fukushima Leak; The Health Plan that We Need, With No Copays; Spam Filtering is a free speech issue; Resources: Healthcare Sector is Growing, But Workers Aren't Sharing; Children's Book Celebrating Labor Movement; Anti-BDS legislation impacts You; Announcements: Conversation: "The Color of Law"; 60 Years of Peace Action; and Union Day of Action - Oct. 19

Relying on the photographs, reporting and video in the mainstream media can give you a false idea about the marches and demonstrations against white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers in San Francisco and Berkeley last weekend. What role should the labor movement play in beating back the resurgence of fascism? Resistance, while a powerful concept, is far too vague. Local 10 ILWU demonstrates what can be done.

Reader Comments: Truckers Strike Against "Owner-Operator" Debt and Poverty; Trumpcare Down, But Not Out; Working Class Whites Organize Against Racism; Slavery; Workers and Unions; Roseanne Barr; Handmaid's Tale and Race; Herb March - Untold Working Class and Communist History; Julian Assange; More on the United and Popular Front - Reality, Theory and Relevance for Today; Honduras; CIA Torture; AlterNet is Hiring; and more....

Media coverage of the 2016 election often emphasized Donald Trump’s appeal to the working class. There’s just one problem: this account is wrong. Trump voters were not mostly working-class people.

Reader Comments: Trump Failure Answer is Single Payer; Gorsuch-"Originalist" Disaster; Israel Segregationist and Apartheid; Left Growth Today - Religious Left, Socialists, Feminists; Censorship and Art - Emmett Till painting; PBS; Maine Fishermen; Job Growth and Worker Injury; Resources: Teachers’ Union Guide for Immigrant and Refugee Children; Announcements: Black Women in the Media; Chicago-April 4; 81st Annual Celebration of the Lincoln Brigade; and more...