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.

Attacks on the Women’s March Expose Race and Class Bia

leaders of Women's March in 2018
Attacks on the Women's March are counterproductive for everyone. The fight for social justice requires us to face and address together and compassionately the fundamental differences used to keep many communities apart and in fear of each other.

Women Now Run the Military-Industrial Complex

“Through a multiyear commitment from Raytheon, Girl Scouts will launch its first national computer science program and Cyber Challenge for middle and high school girls,” states a promotional page.

MLK's Internationalism: More Important Than Ever

It was Dr. King’s radical shift towards internationalism, anti-capitalism, and anti-imperialism that frightened those in power by challenging their ability to use alternate methods of control in the post-civil rights era.

Congress's Bill Defends Freedom of Disabled

People in wheelchairs confronting police
On January 15, disability justice activists celebrated the reintroduction of the Disability Integration Act (DIA). This monumental piece of legislation is an important step forward for the full civil rights of those with disabilities.

Rage Against the Narrative: Understand Psychic Violence

brutal lynching of Will Brown
America’s 45th presidency of Donald Trump has pulled the ugly scab off the bloody sore of racial capitalism and heteropatriarchy baked into the body politic of the United States.

Most Coffee Species At Risk Of Extinction

While plant species around the world will have to cope with warming temperatures and a changing climate, coffee is especially vulnerable to these changes.

Star Wars Revisited: One More Nightmare From Trump

There is probably no greater illusion in the field of national security than the idea of credible missile defense.

For People with Disabilities-Chgo Police Consent Decree

Access Living’s Coleman says that real change in the police department will require a culture shift. People need to stop “looking at disability as an ‘other’ community, but as a part of our human nature.”

The Horror of Trump’s Wounded Knee Tweet

The president poked fun at a devastating massacre and reinforced racist, misogynistic stereotypes.

Time to Break the Silence on Palestine

Martin Luther King Jr. courageously spoke out about the Vietnam War. We must do the same when it comes to this grave injustice of our time.
Read more

Culture

tv

'Informer': TV Review

Tim Goodman Hollywood Reporter
A taut, twisty new series from Amazon and the BBC touches on race, class, immigration and terrorism.

poetry

The Wall (running the changes)

Philip Fried
New York poet Philip Fried traces the evolution of THE WALL, “the quintessential barrier/for keeping the future out and the past in.”

books

Why the Working Class Matters

Steve Early LA Progressive
With the rise of popular interest in socialism, this book goes beyond promoting efforts boosting needed protective legislation and improved social welfare for working people to look globally at struggles against capital and strategies for winning.

books

AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order

Robert D. Atkinson New York Journal of Books
Kai-Fu Lee is a venture capitalist from China whose new book surveys the impact and future of Artificial Intelligence on his society as well its prospects in Western countries. Reviewer Atkinson offers a mixed assessment.

Please Help Us End Our Annual Fund Appeal With a Bang!

Portside moderators Portside
If you've meant to contribute to support Portside but haven't yet done so, this is your last opportunity for the season. Every year, we ask our readers to support Portside - from Thanksgiving until the end of January. So please act now.

Labor

labor

Federal Workers: Shutdown and Out

Saurav Sarkar Labor Notes
By January 14, the TSA itself was conceding that the national rate of sick calls was three times as high as the same day a year ago.

labor

Is The Los Angeles Teacher Strike A Different Kind Of Strike?

Peter Greene Forbes
Teachers across the country face a systematic underfunding of public schools and a systematic devaluing of the teaching profession by leaders who say public education should be swept aside to make room for a system of private free-market education.

Friday nite video

video

Cardi B & Nancy P Take on Trump

Trump fires back at Nancy P after she proposes postponing the State of the Union address. Cardi B sounds off about the government shutdown. Michael Kosta unpacks the use of crowdfunding to help unpaid federal workers.

video

Shoplifters | Movie Trailer

In this award-winning gem, a veteran shoplifter and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold and take her in, testing their family bonds. Full review.
 

video

Stacey Abrams | How to Respond to Setbacks

In an electrifying talk, Stacey Abrams shares the lessons she learned from her campaign for governor of Georgia, some advice on how to change the world -- and a few hints at her next steps. "Be aggressive about your ambition," Abrams says.