MARCH 27, 2026

Labor Wins When They Run Union Members for Office
A new report from the Center for Working-Class Politics, Arizona State University’s Center for Work and Democracy, and Jacobin shows how labor can play to its strengths — and win. The secret? Run more union members for office. Jacobin via Portside

Have You Paid Your “Intuit Tax”? Tax prep oligarch Sasan Goodarzi blocks the “public option” for tax filers.
If you are already angry about paying taxes April 15 to fund Trump’s fragrant fantasies, a reminder that a free, simple IRS tax prep method was nixed — by an oligarch who makes his money on tax prep — is guaranteed not to improve your mood. The Nation.

What happened to the black women Trump purged from the federal work force? Over a year later, they are struggling to find financial footing and make sense of the racist backlash that displaced them.
Black women have been fired from the federal work force since Elon Musk’s rampage more than any other group, says Katica Roy, a gender economist who crunched the numbers. They comprise 6 percent of the overall U.S. labor force and 12 percent of the federal labor force. But of the almost 300,000 federal jobs slashed in 2025, Black women were a stunning 33 percent of those cuts. Hammer and Hope via Portside

War Dollars, Care Dollars (and No Sense) — It seems like a good time to compare [with updates] the running tally of war dollars with the cost of relentless attacks on public care provision in the United States.
As of March 16, the cost to the U.S. military of the combined U.S-Israeli attack on Iran has been estimated to be as high as $1 billion per day (you can find an accounting ticker online). However, this estimate may be too low, since the Pentagon put a price tag of $5.6 billion on the munitions expended on the first two days of the attacks alone and has now asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran. We can compare the spending spree of war dollars with the cost of  relentless attacks on public care provision in the United States over the last year and reflect on why the resulting debris is not getting more attention. Dollars and Sense via Portside

Treason in the Futures Markets: People close to Trump are trading based on national secrets 
Economist Paul Krugman documents how Trump’s threats to bomb Iranian power stations prepped an already rattled oil market to take a big plunge Monday morning — then, VERY shortly before he reversed himself, unidentified entrepreneurs jumped in to profit hugely on the market’s relieved response to the TACO. Where are those “tips” coming from? Read on … Paul Krugman’s Substack via Portside

Positive program of solidarity needed; concrete solidarity makes port
The expansion of U.S. imperial assaults around the world alongside U.S. actions that fuel existential crises facing the world need to be stopped. Resistance to the empire, to notions of U.S. exceptionalism, are needed now more than ever. But Max Elbaum, in an article in Convergence adds, however, that saying “No to the Empire is Not Enough,” that we need a positive program, a positive politics to build solidarity worldwide — which includes reviving and building upon past global initiatives. >> One concrete act of solidarity was the “Our America to Cuba Convoy” — over 600 people from 33 countries brought material aid and expressions of support to Havana. Read “For Cuba, Humanity Made Solidarity,” Granma’s report on the March 21 welcoming ceremony for those who made the journey. And see France 24 video coverage of the first material aid boat’s arrival.