Portside
Material of Interest to People on the Left
Portside
Material of Interest to People on the Left
The Networks of Women Behind the Polio Vaccine
Socialists Have Fought to Disempower the Supreme Court
Urban Hospitals of Last Resort Cling to Life in COVID
Illinois Flat Tax Heads to the Ballot: Two Articles
The Battle for Mail-In Ballots
Hold The Line: A Guide to Defending Democracy
Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration
The Abraham Accords: A Fever Dream of Dictators
Miami Dolphins Give Funds to Florida Rights Restoration
Friday Nite Videos | September 18, 2020
Culture
tv
The Boys Confronts Real American Nazis Better Than Most Comic-book Stories
Polygon
Amazon's The Boys' Stormfront is a frightening picture of modern fascism.
poetry
Ode to SARS-CoV-2
Kansas City poet H.C. Palmer puts the blame on Trump (where it belongs): “For the past 8 months, the president watched with indifference as hundreds of thousands of Americans died and tens of millions were disabled from COVID-19."
books
The Wages of Whiteness
The New York Review of Books
A deep dig into the literature on white supremacy shows how even such salient insurgent movements for social justice and racial equality as Black Lives Matter can be transmuted by corporate manipulation into instruments of ruling class stability.
books
White Women Were Avid Slaveowners
The New York Times
This new book offers new insight into how deeply slavery defined the lives of the enslavers and their families. It gives us new data regarding the scope of control that white women and girls, as well as males, had over the enslaved.
film
How Cuties, A French Movie On Netflix, Became Part of America’s Culture War
Vox
A movie critiquing the sexualization of young girls is accused of doing the thing it criticizes. Here’s how the controversy started — and why it matters.
food
The Secret Life of Groceries
SF Chronicle
A new book researching the grocery business reveals the unsustainability of American shopping.
tv
The Labor Abuses of Ellen DeGeneres
Jacobin
Ellen DeGeneres’s reputation as the kindest celebrity in America has finally been shattered. But it’s not just her “mean streak” that’s the problem — it’s that she’s an exploitative boss, who cheated her employees at the height of the pandemic.
Labor
labor
Labor Day 2020: California Farmworkers At Risk
Beyond Chron
A deepening COVID-19 crisis–now surging in most California agricultural counties–puts farmworkers in the pandemic’s crosshairs.
labor
Trade Unions Need New Strategies
The Bullet
It is not difficult to understand what employers are after. They want to abolish the welfare state, to privatize and corporatize ever bigger parts of our economies and societies, and to defeat the trade union movement.
labor
NORTH CAROLINA NURSES WIN UNION IN LANDSLIDE AFTER BITTER OPPOSITION
The Intercept
The victory is the largest at a nonunion hospital in the South since 1975, and is the first private sector hospital union win ever in North Carolina.
labor
Organized Labor and the “Cold Civil War”
The present is explosive because of the fusion of crises. In this situation, organized labor has been inconsistent; sometimes paralyzed; other moments outspoken. Left unaddressed is the "cold civil war," created by political polarization.
labor
AFSCME, NAACP Launch Historic Partnership to Mobilize Black Voters
Atlanta Daily World
AFSCME, NAACP launch historic partnership to mobilize Black voters. This partnership kicks off with a joint four-state presidential radio buy on African American radio stations in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina.
labor
The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure
Time
The upward redistribution of income has cost Americans workers $50 trillion over the past several decades. On average, extreme inequality is costing the median income full-time worker about $42,000 a year.
labor
Striking in the Coronavirus Depression
Labor Network for Sustainability
This article is part of a series on how workers are organizing in response to COVID-19 and the COVID-19 Depression.
Friday nite video
video
'Heat Rays,' Blue State Deaths and Sedition Charges
With President Trump blaming "blue states" for coronavirus deaths and Attorney General William Barr calling for sedition charges against protestors, you might have overlooked the revelation that the U.S. has a secret heat ray weapon and considered using it against demonstrators in Washington DC.
video
Old Man Fibber | Roy Zimmerman
With another Supreme Court nomination looming, Old Man Fibber is back in the headlines. "Ol' Man River" music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, parody lyrics by Roy Zimmerman and Melanie Harby
video
Kajillionaire | Movie
From acclaimed writer/director Miranda July comes a profoundly moving and wildly original comedy about con-artists Theresa (Debra Winger) and Robert (Richard Jenkins) and their only daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) who to swindle, scam, and steal at every opportunity. Release on September 25.
video
Trump Eviscerates Trump
video
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died at age 87. Here's a look at the legacy she leaves behind.
video
Trump and Fox News Double Down on COVID Cover-Up Defense
President Trump claims his lies to the public concerning coronavirus were about being a “cheerleader” for the United States, and his friends find someone else to blame. #DailyShow #TrevorNoah #Trump
video
Babylon | Los Pinguos
“Babylon” is the first single from Los Pinguos' new album, Hummingbird. It bridges the gap between roots reggae and a contemporary Latin sound.
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