Walden Bello on Brazil, India Farmers Fightback, Cuba's Constitutional Moment, Québec Solidaire Breaks Out, Mexican Labor Realigns, Scots Women Workers Hit the Streets
The defiant display of Palestinian flags in Glasgow last week by Scottish fans of the Celtic soccer team raised over $200,000 in donations online, all marked for two Palestinian charitable groups. Activist fans of Scotland's Celtics soccer team - the working-class, historically progressive community already facing punishment for flying Palestinian flags at a recent game against Israel to protest the Occupation - have launched the fundraiser.
In the bleak political landscape following the British elections, trade unionism faces a huge challenge -- a challenge of leadership, a challenge of purpose and a challenge of survival. We need a new, clear vision to lead the movement not for the next five years but for the next generation — a vision that questions organisational activity, as well as industrial and political strategies.
The union is safe, for now, but Scottish National Party’s new position in Westminster could mean the beginning of the end of the United Kingdom as we know it
The idea of 11th-century Scotland as a foreign land for the invading English army created powerful political possibilities in the dramatist’s mind ... with reference to Afghanistan and Iraq (and, perhaps, now Libya) ... seeing the play’s events from the perspectives of both the invaders (who, of course, consider themselves liberators) and the occupied population carries some rather profound implications for the politics of the modern world.
Catalonia has decided to recast its planned November 9 referendum on independence as a nonbinding consultation.Why are so many Scots (45% in September's referendum) and Catalans (50% in recent polls) set on leaving now? The answer is surely a desperate search for sovereignty with longstanding resentments over discrimination by the power centers in their respective states. Like many other Europeans, they feel cheated by their governments' response to the Great Recession.
The bracing campaign for independence gave Scots a vision of a real political alternative.
Reader Comments- People's Climate March - climate change, environmental activism, labor unions; Syria, Iraq, ISIS; public education; labor organizing; Zephyr Teachout - Working Families Party, Democratic Party, 2016 elections; Spain, Scotland, Cuba, Gaza, El Salvador; racial bias; worker cooperatives;
Announcements - Film Screening African Americans in Spanish Civil War; Mobilizing Against Inequality Book Launch; Southern Tenant Farmers Union celebrates 80th anniversary
Without a socialist consciousness, an independent Scotland risks becoming a smaller — and even more reactionary — version of its southern neighbors.
Reader Comments - Detroit Denying Its Citizens Water; New Voices for Peace by Jews; Politics and Lies Triggered an Unintended War; UK's Largest Union Backs Boycott; Portside Readers Respond - Whither the Socialist Left; How Social Movements Can Win; Bernie Sanders; On the Waterfront and Working-Class Studies; Scotland; Common Core and Bill Gates; Equal Rights Amendment
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