Test nbr. 3 - March 6
Portside
third test
Jordan Klepper sets out to determine the likelihood of another gun owner stopping an active shooter.
Portside aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world, and to change it.
Media Bits and Bytes
December 8, 2015
Score one for workers; Net neutrality again; Apps and gigs; Delta blues; Hardwired for racism
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Klein, Corbyn Call for Mass Protest at COP21
December 8, 2015
"We will be mourning the lives already lost to climate disruption, in solidarity with the lives lost to the tragic attacks here in Paris and enlarging that circle of mourning," Klein said. "By taking to the streets, we will be clearly and unequivocally rejecting the Hollande government's draconian and opportunistic bans on marches, protests, and demonstrations."
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Philippine People: Attack from Washington
December 5, 2015
A tribunal this year uncovered grave violations against the human, economic, and cultural rights of Filipinos by Washington and their own leaders.
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Isis Shouldn’t Dictate How We Address Refugee
December 2, 2015
We must not let Isis’s crimes dictate how we address the refugee crisis – or privacy. Some want to exploit the Paris attacks in order to justify seizures of power to meet their own political ends. We should not let that happen.
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What We Learned In Chicago
December 2, 2015
October's national single payer strategy conference in Chicago was truly an historic event. For the first time in decades, national single payer advocacy organizations came together around a joint agenda and focused on building unity and strategic clarity as we work to finish the job and make healthcare a right for everyone in America.
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Microscopic Structures of Dried Human Tears
December 6, 2015
Photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher captures tears of grief, joy, laughter and irritation in extreme detail
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Income inequality: Can't Fix It by Tweaking
December 6, 2015
The disparities in wealth that we term “income inequality” are no accident, and they can’t be fixed by fiddling at the edges of our current economic system. These disparities happened by design.
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Eric Garner Grand Jury Decision Still Stings
December 6, 2015
Cops become instant media villains for decisions made in frenzied minutes or seconds. But the politicians and judges behind them spend months and years of calculation building walls to hide the same acts. Most of the time, they get away with it. Even in the most high-profile cases, justice is a marathon.
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Pages
Portside Culture
Review; "The Big Short"— Capitalism Gone Mad
The Progressive
Based on actual events and characters, Short focuses on the fall of the housing market, leavening what many might find extremely dry, complicated subject matter with humor. While the so-called business press completely missed the story until this 'shit' hit the fan, the film tells how a few investment outsiders stumbled upon the unfolding crisis and bet against it. ('Short' is Wall Street-ese for 'bet').
UCC are developing foods of the future using synthetic biology
Irish Examiner
Using synthetic biology, scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs are working on a series
of cutting-edge projects to affect the future of food.
Geopolitical Fictions: Fantasy, Reality, and International Diplomacy on ‘Madam Secretary’
Flavorwire
Most international political thrillers rely on the interplay of fantasy and reality, using real countries and familiar politics in the frame of a fictional narrative. What makes CBS’s Madam Secretary unusual, even within that context, is that its episodes actually borrow from recent international events, relationships, and histories. The show’s universe can often feel like a surreal look into a parallel reality.
Work
Poet Lore
James Scruton dedicates this poem about his own white-collar labors to the late Philip Levine, the poet who celebrated working-class people who spent their lives “digging or pounding…wrenching or drilling.”
Marxism and Ecology: Common Fonts of a Great Transition (long)
Great Transition Initiative
Socialist thought is re-emerging at the forefront of the movement for global ecological and social change. In the face of the planetary emergency, theorists have unearthed a powerful ecological critique of capitalism at the foundations of Marx's materialist conception of history.
Have Guns, Will Liberate
The Baffler
This ethnographic study of America's gun culture focuses on Detroit and Flint, Michigan, and it both confirms and challenges aspects of received wisdom about our country and our firearms.
Portside Labor
Socialists Should Aspire Beyond Labour’s Post-War Consensus
Morning Star
By all means, look to the past. Learn and be inspired, but do not try to turn the clock back. The ultimate aim of socialism should be the abolition of capitalism — anything less than this is reformism in the service of capital. Socialists may disagree about the pace of transition, or the means of enacting revolutionary change — but their ultimate aim must be the end of capitalism.
Big There Contracts: Who Won?
Against the Current
The 2015 UAW/Big Three contracts took 67 days and multiple attempts to ratify, resulting in what most autoworkers see as a partial victory.
Mexican, U.S. Workers Bring Employer Charges Under NAFTA
In These Times
A transnational coalition of labor unions and community groups in the United States and Mexico charged multinational retail corporation Chedraui Commercial Group with violations of municipal, federal, and international labor law on November 12, filing unprecedented dual claims under compliant mechanisms embedded within the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Four reasons for labor to cheer in the South
Facing South
Labor activists and other progressive folks in the South have four new reasons to cheer: a United Auto Workers victory in Chattanooga, the rare criminal conviction of a coal mining boss in connection with the death of miners who worked for him, the victory of a populist Democrat in Louisiana's gubernatorial race, and a union victory in Laurel, Mississippi.
The Bangladesh Accord - a Model to Secure Workers Rights in Global Supply Chains?
Global Labour Column
The Bangladesh Accord negotIated by global labor and lnternational human rights groups after the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013 contains important protections for workers. Nonetheless, its effectiveness is limited by the weakness of unions on the ground in Bangladesh and by the pro-corporate global regulatory framework.
Worker Wins Update: From Airports to the Airwaves, Workers Make Gains Over Busy Fall
AFL-CIO NOW
Union organizing victories across the country from Phoenix Airport Fueling Agents to Barnard College Adjuncts is good news for the labor movement.
Portside Aims to Provide Varied Material of Interest to People on the Left - How You Can Help
Portside
Portside aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world, and to change it. Every day, we try finding and sharing the most interesting and useful material we can, aimed at helping remaking the world into a fairer and more peaceful place. Once a year we appeal to readers to contribute to sustain the infrastructure that makes Portside possible. It may be the biggest return on investment you'll ever get.
Friday Nite Videos
Posted by Portside on December 11, 2015
Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" was a 1965 single by The Impressions, reaching #3 on the Billboard R&B Chart and #14 on the Billboard Pop Chart. The gospel-influenced track reflected Mayfield's growing of social and political expression.
Posted by Portside on December 11, 2015
The Nightly Show's Mike Yard and Ricky Velez struggle to find the hilarity in Donald Trump's Islamophobic immigration plan.
Posted by Portside on December 11, 2015
Driver is the founder of Arts in the Armed Forces, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing thought-provoking and impactful contemporary theater currently “in theater” to American military personnel.
Posted by Portside on December 11, 2015
From the outrageous mind of director Adam Mckay comes The Big Short (Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt) with the true story of the traders who 'shorted' the world economy.
Posted by Portside on December 5, 2015
Texas senator and presidential hopeful Ted Cruz is rising in the polls, but he may also be the the man most hated by his congressional colleagues.
Posted by Portside on December 4, 2015
Will Smith portrays Dr. Bennett Omalu, a medical doctor (and immigrant) who confronts the power of the NFL when he investigates and publishes proof of the systematic brain damage and dementia among professional football players.