Information is power. Our mission at Portside is to seek out and to provide information that empowers you -- that empowers the left. Every day we search hundreds of sources to connect you with the most interesting, striking and useful material. Just once a year we appeal to you to contribute to make it possible to continue this work. Please help.

 

What Next For British Labour Movement

Early exit polls have suggested a Tory landslide, with Leave-voting areas switching away from Labour according to predictions. Two completely contrasting visions for our future were on the ballot paper. Labour’s offer went further than two years ago

Jewish Opposition to Trump’s Executive Order

Trump's order won’t protect Jewish students against Nazis or Nazi recruitment, won’t prevent campuses from scheduling important events on Jewish holidays, or protect Jewish religious spaces; will target growing student movement for Palestinian rights

What’s Wrong With the Republicans?

The Trump Republican Party has inherited, and continues to make use of, the legacies of this nation’s twin evils: slavery and imperial expansion. Today's Republicans are very different from those of the Nixon era.

In Marseille, the French Left is Finally Uniting

Divisions on France’s left have helped Macron and le Pen dominate the political terrain. In the country’s second city, grassroots pressure has forced them to put aside differences — ahead of March 2020’s elections, promising a “Marseille Spring.”

Dec.12-Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, Short

Reader Comments: Impeachment Matters; 2020 Elections and Anti-War Vote; Trump Jobs Creation are Low-Wage; Free Public Transit - Kansas City Sets Example; Family Separation as Nativity Scene; Greta Thunbeg: TIME Person of Year; Resources; Announcement

Young Climate Activists Storm COP 25 Stage

Protesters with Fridays for Future demand world leaders at the global climate summit urgently address the planetary emergency.

Student Loans a Lot Like the Subprime Mortgage Debacle

"Once again, it's the mismatch between the debt and the borrower's income, their ability to repay."

Don't Think Sanders Can Win? Check Out His Campaign

There was a time in America when being called a socialist could end a political career. Not anymore.

U.S. Trade Offensive Takes Out WTO as Global Arbiter

The Appellate Body’s paralysis risks creating a system of economic relations based on power rather than rules.

Global Left Midweek - December 11, 2019

COP25 / UK Election / Palestine / France / Uruguay / Iraq / Colombia / India
Read more

Culture

books

Both Sides Now: The Myth of Media Objectivity

Marissa Brostoff BookForum
Objectivity may be tricky; fairness in reporting is not. The book author blasts the media for using a rhetoric of neutrality to marginalize insurgent POVs. Truth may be contingent on time and place, but leading news venues only serve power.

food

This object speaks. What does it say?

Shane Mitchell Southern Foodways Alliance
This potholder could have been an emblem of the abolitionist movement, but is now considered offensive by modern standards.

Mark Zuckerberg and I

Brendan Walsh Rattle
“I’ve become obsessed,” writes the poet Branden Walsh, “with trying to understand the compulsions and sickness of a society that believes billionaires are a healthy/natural component of civilization.” He tries here to humanize just one.

books

Monopoly and Its Discontents

Gerald Berk The American Prospect
It's no Marxist critique of class power--would that it were--but Matt Stoller's Goliath, aimed at moving the Democratic Party off dead center, slams all the right enemies in urging the resuscitating of the anti-monopoly tradition of the 20th century

Labor

labor

ILWU President's Message: Response to Massive Fine

William E. Adams ILWU Dispatcher
The ILWU was fined $93.6 million over a labor dispute in Oregon, a sum which could bankrupt the union. Union President Adams explains that the ILWU will fight the judgement in court and will continue to defend its members, no matter the outcome.

labor

The Working Class Battles The Man in Harvard Strike

Adrian Walker The Boston Globe
In its first week, the strike drew support from colleagues in the labor movement. Some deliveries of supplies were halted when UPS workers refused to cross the picket line. Construction workers at Harvard Medical School stopped working on a facade.

labor

In Wisconsin, the Teamsters Faced a Revolt from Below

Alice Herman In These Times
Sampson and her colleagues ran a campaign to elect a new slate of officials to head the Teamsters local. The slate, which called itself Rebuild 695 and was comprised mostly of Madison Metro Transit employees, came 96 votes short.

Friday nite video

video

Why Billionaires Won’t Save Us

Hasan Minhaj dissects how the ultra-rich use philanthropy to get richer, distract from the injustices on which they built their fortunes, and dictate politics and policy

video

Who Is Worse: Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell?

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich discusses the most dangerous politician of his lifetime, who has damaged our country in ways that will take a generation to undo...Mitch McConnell

video

The Report | Movie

The plot follows staffer Daniel J. Jones and the Senate Intelligence Committee as they investigate the CIA's use of torture following the September 11 attacks. It covers more than a decade's worth of real-life political intrigue. Starring Adam Driver and Annette Bening. Streaming on Amazon.

video

Dark Waters | Movie

Mark Ruffalo stars as an attorney who goes after DuPont for dumping toxic wastes in West Virginia. But more than a simple "superhero triumphs" docudrama, Dark Waters is a dark tale of the human consequences of corporate power for everyone it touches.