Portside

The March 3rd assassination of Berta Caceres, coordinator of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (COPIHN), sent shock waves across the country, sparking outrage and demands for an independent investigation. Last month COPIHN issued an international appeal warning of government complicity in the increasing violence directed at the indigenous opponents of the notorious Aqua Zarca Dam Project. Caceres won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015.

People across the globe are organizing local actions to decry current priorities that spend $1.75 trillion/year on arms when our planet is in crisis.

Over the next few weeks, hundreds of cities and campuses worldwide will be participating in Israeli Apartheid Week, which aims to raise awareness about Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial project and apartheid policies over the Palestinian people. IAW is an opportunity to partake in something truly global while strengthening local efforts in support of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.

Aside from the fact that unions seldom use their most powerful weapon, the strike, and aside from the fact that even fewer unions ever mobilize and organize their biggest asset, the members, our biggest problem in bargaining is that labor’s financial analysis of corporations only touches the surface. It misses the vast bulk of corporate hidden wealth. Labor economist Les Leopold explains how companies hide their wealth in his new book, Runaway Inequality.

As wealth becomes concentrated in fewer hands, so does political and social power via foundations and non-profits. In the January issue of the New York Review of Books, veteran journalist Michael Massing noted that, in the past 15 years alone, “the number of foundations with a billion dollars or more in assets has doubled, to more than eighty.” A study by the watchdog organization Global Policy Forum, finds that foundations are so powerful they bypass governments and UN.

Ultimately, the blame for the state of American electoral politics can be laid at the feet of both major parties. Most ordinary Americans are frustrated with the status quo, evidenced by the majority of voters who call themselves “independent.” It should not surprise leaders from either party that voters are rejecting establishment candidates. But given the perils of Trump’s politics, the stakes are higher than they have ever been.

We crafted the essay below from personal and historical experiences for a series of talks on Jewish radicalism in the United States. Rather than survey a growing literature on labor and leftwing politics we chose to write about four Jewish radicals representing different twentieth century moments. The Jewish experience in twentieth century America helped shape sectors of liberal, progressive, socialist, and communist politics, right up to the present day Sanders campaign

The greatest hope for a peaceful and democratic Syria is its civil society, now in tatters as a result of regime repression and the rise of the militias.

In the same weeks that astronomers sighted the brightest supernova and the sound of a radiation wave confirmed Einstein's gravitational theory, the poet Maggie Clark turned her eye to the human dimension and noted the death of a great poet C.D. Wright.

The critics of Bernie Sanders' economic plan fail to reckon with the long-term benefits of a single-payer health care system.