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.

 

Vaccines Face a Deep Distrust in the Black Community

Chicago hospitals struggle to recruit people of color, hit disproportionately hard by COVID, for vaccine research. ‘It will be a double tragedy if African Americans refuse to take the vaccine,’ one expert says.

A Brief History of Georgia's Racist Runoff Voting

Georgia’s adoption of runoff voting was aimed at maintaining segregation by, as one advocate put it, preventing ‘the Negro bloc vote from controlling the elections.’

Trump’s Last-ditch Effort to Rig the Census

The Court must decide whether to follow the Constitution’s clear text — or to rubber-stamp an illegal effort by Trump

Trump’s Final Cruelty: Executing Prisoners

Two weeks from now, the Trump Administration plans to execute a forty-year-old man named Brandon Bernard. His death, by lethal injection, would be the ninth carried out by the U.S. government since July—the ninth, in fact, since 2003.

A Crisis Reveals What Is in Our Hearts

This oped by Pope Francis appeared the day after the Supreme Court’s new conservative majority late Wednesday night sided with religious organizations in New York that said they were illegally targeted by pandemic-related restrictions.

Poland: Revolution in Times of the Pandemic

While the protests are set to drown in a rising wave of the pandemic, we are witnessing a profound mentality shift in Poland.

David Dinkins: In Memoriam

While his views may not fit squarely in a democratic socialist framework, Dinkins’s praise of a “gorgeous mosaic” of different races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, living and working together does.

Fossil Fuel Industry: ‘We’re Good for People of Color’

An Aliso Canyon relief well being drilled on December 14, 2015.
The fossil fuel industry is increasingly casting itself as an ally of communities of color and defender of their financial well-being. The goal is to bulwark oil and gas against ambitious climate change policies by claiming the moral high ground.

Pandemic Aid Ends and Californians Face Brutal New Year

Jacques Gene and his 7-year-old son, Wyatt, at his home in Cool, near Sacramento.
Absent last-minute federal and state pandemic aid, Californians will be in for a rough new year. Some 750,000 Californians are set to lose federal unemployment benefits the day after Christmas, and 2.1 million could lose their homes weeks later.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Passing Progressive Bills

Why are we putting so much money into law enforcement when we need money that helps people have opportunity? We can increase our spending on critical areas, we can ensure people have health care, education, good living wage jobs.
Read more

Culture

Portside Says: Multiracial Democracy or No Democracy at All

Portside
The danger of a fascist-like regime consolidating its power has been averted. For now. But make no mistake: The issue of whether we will move forward or be dragged into an abyss has been postponed, not decided. Please help - Portside's annual appeal.

poetry

Thanksgiving Letter from Harry

Carl Dennis poets.org
The prize-winning poet Carl Dennis offers an ironic thanksgiving greeting, one that reminds us of what blessings we North Americans have as well as the abuse we have made of those very blessings.

books

Bella Abzug - The Fighter

Maggie Doherty New York Review of Books
On the feisty congresswoman’s posthumous return to the spotlight. Abzug’s encounters with sexism pushed her toward feminism, and so did the support she received from female constituents and supporters after she was elected.

film

The Mythic Whiteness of the Hillbilly

Ellen Wayland-Smith Boston Review
Ron Howard’s Netflix adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy continues a long tradition of seeing hillbillies as a symbol of pristine American whiteness. It’s the same nostalgia Trump has mobilized on the far right.

Labor

labor

Why Teamsters Failed to Deliver in 2020 Election

Ryan Haney and Sean Orr Teamster Rebel
Pre-election survey data collected by the IBT was never released, but anyone working at UPS, YRC, or other major Teamster employers would tell you that the membership was sharply divided on whether or not they supported Trump.

labor

“Free Shipping”, a Review

Anonymous Stansbury Forum
I know free shipping is not free, because I feel the toll it takes on my mind and body every day.

labor

Steward's Corner: A Path Out of Fear

Ellen David Friedman Labor Notes
Right now, it feels like fear is saturating us. But fear, confusion, and delusion are combining to squander the power we could have. There is a lot we can do to help each other combat the source of fear. The first step is talking to one another.

Friday nite video

video

Let It Go: A Trump Parody

You did it, America! “Let It Go" from Frozen by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. Lyrics by me, SongBird.

video

Trump & Election Results | John Oliver

A week after Joe Biden’s win in the US presidential election, John Oliver discusses Donald Trump’s various attempts to overturn the results, why his claims don’t hold water, and the consequences of indulging him.