Archives

For posts before June 2012, please follow these links to our archives.

E.g., 2013-06-20

Victory For Evergreen Strikers

June 19, 2013
Portside Labor
http://socialistworker.org/2013/06/17/victory-for-evergreen-strikers
SOCIALISTWORKER.org
Student support workers at Evergreen State College win strike. They are members of The Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME. After 17 months of negotiations followed by mediation they went on strike May 28. Their new contract goes into effect July1. This is a rare example of an effective strike in recent years.

Labor Seeks Influence in New York’s Mayoral Race

June 19, 2013
Portside
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/nyregion/labor-seeks-influence-in-new-yorks-mayoral-race.html?pagewanted=1&hp&_r=0
New York Times
After more than a decade of sitting out the fiercest race in town, leaders of the United Federation of Teachers are plotting a comeback.

Protests Spread to 77 Cities in Turkey

June 19, 2013
Portside
http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Global-Action/Protests-Spread-to-77-Cities-in-Turkey
AFL-CIO Now
The AFL-CIO supports these Turkish labor federations’ call for immediate end to the brutal police crackdown in Turkey. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sent a letter to Prime Minister Erdogan supporting the demands of the unions.

Ardent Words - Plus Water, Fire, Air and Dirt

June 19, 2013
Portside
Berlin Bulletin No. 58
At present the polls wobble between six and nine percent for The Left. Yet if ardent speeches like those three, with no punches pulled, can be followed by an equally vigorous election campaign, that two digit goal, though by no means easy, may not be unattainable.

Rousseff Salutes Brazil Protests, Cities Cut Bus Fares

June 19, 2013
Portside
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/18/us-brazil-protests-rousseff-idUSBRE95H10B20130618
Reuters
"Brazil woke up stronger today," Rousseff said in a televised speech in Brasilia. "The size of yesterday's demonstrations shows the energy of our democracy, the strength of the voice of the streets and the civility of our population."

Media Bits & Bytes – Tech Sector Barrels Along

June 18, 2013
Portside
Portside
Tech Companies have been in bed with the Pentagon for a long time; Feds Swap Data with Thousands of Firms; Balloon-powered Internet on the Horizon; Emotional Data Tugs at Internet Heartstrings; Uncertain Funding for Nonprofit News Sites; Who Needs Reporters Anyway?

NLRB Poster Rule Likely Dead After Second Federal Court of Appeals Ruling

June 18, 2013
Portside Labor
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2013/06_-_June/NLRB_poster_rule_likely_dead_after_second_federal_appeals_court_ruling/
Reuters
The decision on Friday by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a 2011 rule that required employers to post, physically or electronically, a notice describing workers' rights under the National Labor Relations Act. It was the second time in as many months that a federal appeals court has rejected the rule, after the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals said last month the poster rule violated employers' free speech rights.

America Feeds the Rich

June 18, 2013
Portside
http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130618/america-feeds-the-rich
Campaign for America's Future
The Farm Bill that is expected to pass the U.S. House this week explains income inequality in America.

Thousands Gather for Protests in Brazil’s Largest Cities

June 18, 2013
Portside
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/world/americas/thousands-gather-for-protests-in-brazils-largest-cities.html?emc=eta1&_r=0
The New York Times
The growing protests rank among the largest and most resonant since the nation’s military dictatorship ended in 1985, with demonstrators numbering into the tens of thousands.

From Ike to “The Matrix”: Welcome to the American dystopia

June 17, 2013
Portside
http://www.salon.com/2013/06/16/from_ike_to_the_matrix_welcome_to_the_american_dystopia/
Salon
We live in a country that embodies three different dystopian archetypes at once: America is partly a panopticon surveillance-and-security state, as in Orwell, partly an anesthetic and amoral consumer wonderland, as in Huxley, and partly a grand rhetorical delusion or “spectacle,” as in Dick or “The Matrix” or certain currents of French philosophy.

Iran to send 4,000 troops to aid President Assad

June 17, 2013
Portside
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-to-send-4000-troops-to-aid-president-assad-forces-in-syria-8660358.html
The Independent
Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East. For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites.

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