Portside

It’s important to highlight the people who put their bodies on the line in front of Walmart stores around the country over the years to get the company to take this incremental step. Conservative pundits are spinning the Walmart move as a evidence that the free market will get corporations to do the right thing. Actually, the stock market gave the move a harsh negative judgement, with Walmart stock prices dropping 3 percent.

Of course it’s the same struggle: “It’s the same people,” says Saru Jayaraman, the director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. “Young people working in fast food are the same people as those who are the victims of police brutality. So the Walmart folks are talking about #blacklivesmatter and the #blacklivesmatter folks are talking about taking on capital.”

Reader Comments- Race inequality...by the Numbers; Darren Wilson Acquittal; Workers and Students Leave Jobs, Classes in Nationwide Walkout for Ferguson; Thanksgiving; Univ of Virginia Finally Confronts Its Rape Problem; Madison Teachers Recertify Union; Walmart Black Friday Protests; Price of 13-Year War on Terror; Chile; Israel's Jewish State Bill; 2014 and Future Elections; ALEC Blueprint for 2015; Wanted: A Challenge to Clinton; Chicago's Mayoral Race (correction)

Redemption Song: Playing for Change. #BlackoutBlackFriday. Michael Brown Protesters Urge Black Friday Boycott. Free Education Demo: London. Walmart Workers' Flash Mob.

Reader Comments - Darren Wilson Acquittal - Reader Responses; Black Friday Protests; Election Lessons for the Left; Immigration Reform; Ursula K. Le Guin, Pension Reform(?); Water Grab; Facebook Drivers Vote Union; Berlin Wall's Fall - Reflections from the GDR; Israel Lobby and Ukrainian Fascists; Mexico - 43 students murdered; Israel, Palestine and Rasmeah Odeh; The Selfless Gene; Announcement - New Politics Forum on the Environmental Crisis - New York - Dec. 9

Organizers are expecting to see protests in 1,600 stores.

Ebola facts; Black colleges in trouble; Unwholesome Whole Foods; Blue-state diaspora; Striking for the boss

Walmart, the largest retailer in the world and the largest private employer in U.S. announces the elimination of insurance for an estimated 30,000 part-time workers and across-the-board hikes in health insurance premium costs for the remainder of its workforce. Despite soaring profits, Walmart is cutting health insurance for its part-time workers even as it is "systematically eroding full-time jobs."