Portside

As many as 400 workers at more than 60 fast food restaurants in the Detroit metro area walked off the job on Friday. The fast food strike in Detroit is the second major labor action to hit an American city’s fast food industry this week: On Wednesday and Thursday, more than 100 workers in St. Louis walked off the job at roughly 30 different restaurants. These rolling walkouts followed similar actions in New York, central Pennsylvania, and Chicago.

In an interview, United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain argues that the era of “free-trade” deals like NAFTA has been a disaster for the US working class and that smart tariffs can help bring back good auto jobs.

That was the week that was

The executive order signed Thursday night covers all or some unionized employees at around 20 agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, State, Justice, Energy, Interior, Treasury, Defense.

The administration is attempting to incapacitate the redistributive and social protective arms of the state, while exploiting its vast bureaucratic powers to silence, threaten, and deport.

Unprecedented mass protests hit Serbia

The flailing and unpopular party elite needs to be replaced with fighting economic populists.

It’s happening here, now