Portside

• American Psychological Association: No More Participation In Torture, ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’ - Steph Bazzle (Inquisitr)
• SXSW Interactive Changes Tune, Announces Day-Long Online Harassment Summit - Sam Machkovech (Ars Technica)
• Explosion in Sales of Left-Wing Literature Accompanies Corbyn’s Rise - Professor Wu (Nothing in the rulebook)
• Judge Orders Louisiana to Continue Funding Planned Parenthood - Victoria Cavaliere (Reuters)
• Power to the People: a Syrian Experiment in Democracy - Carne Ross (Financial Times)

American Psychological Association: No More Participation In Torture, ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’

By Steph Bazzle
November 1, 2015
Inquisitr

The American Psychological Association has informed the U.S. government that it will no longer take part in torture, or “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Furthermore, the APA warns, if individual psychologists choose to be involved with the torture of detainees, they may face sanctions up to and including loss of license to practice.
A series of actions that the U.S. Government calls “enhanced interrogation techniques” were designed, the ACLU says, to:  “…psychologically [destroy prisoners] through the infliction of severe mental and physical pain and suffering.”  The ACLU is bringing the suit on behalf of three plaintiffs, Suleiman Abdullah Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and the estate of Gul Rahman. The lawsuit alleges that Rahman died due to the torture he faced.
 

SXSW Interactive Changes Tune, Announces Day-Long Online Harassment Summit

By Sam Machkovech
October 30, 2015
Ars Technica

The SXSW Interactive 2016 festival began announcing panels and discussions last week, but two of those—one specifically about online harassment and abuse and one with apparent ties to the GamerGate hashtag—were canceled on Monday due to "threats of on-site violence."
After a massive outcry about the cancellations, which included threats from Buzzfeed and Vox Media to pull their support from SXSW, that decision was reversed on Friday—and then some. SXSW Interactive Director Hugh Forrest posted an announcement that the two canceled panels would not only return but be rolled into an all-day Online Harassment Summit—which, at this point, includes 25 announced speakers in all.
The previously canceled panels would have weighted the explicit concerns and recommendations of anti-harassment advocates with a conversation about open-ended topics like "the current social/political landscape in the gaming community" and "the journalistic integrity of gaming’s journalists." The latter panel's moderator eventually took to GamerGate-affiliated forums to seek support for its content. Forrest noted that with the panels' reinstatement, SXSW would "work with both groups to develop the most productive focus for their appearances," but based on the list of 19 new speakers, we expect the Online Harassment Summit will now focus largely on the harassment half of the original plan.

Explosion in Sales of Left-Wing Literature Accompanies Corbyn’s Rise

By Professor Wu
October 30, 2015
Nothing in the rulebook

Vivian Archer, manager of Newham Bookshop, which stocks a wide variety of literature, says that interest from consumers has clearly shifted to the left.
“Basic things like the Communist Manifesto have been the biggest sellers,” Ms Archer said. “It’s people trying to find out about the history of the Labour movement; the trade union movement; and there are also a lot of new books on the NHS and the NHS has been a major issue. And, of course, anything on austerity.”
The publishing industry at large has clearly recognised the shift toward left-wing ideals, too, and bookstores across the UK are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of a much-anticipated Jeremy Corbyn-themed Adult Colouring Book.

Judge Orders Louisiana to Continue Funding Planned Parenthood

By Victoria Cavaliere
October 30, 2015
Reuters

A Louisiana judge issued an order on Thursday blocking attempts to defund Planned Parenthood clinics in the state, finding that more than 5,000 low-income patients would lose access to healthcare including cancer screenings and gynecology exams.
Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican candidate for president, moved to strip the group's funding this summer after the release of secretly recorded videos about how Planned Parenthood handles the tissue of aborted fetuses.
Jindal's efforts were met with a temporary block by deGravelles earlier this month, followed by the preliminary injunction on Thursday that will prevent attempts to defund the organization as both sides continue to wrangle in court.

Power to the People: a Syrian Experiment in Democracy

By Carne Ross
October 23, 2015
Financial Times

The onset of the Syrian revolution in 2012 saw the collapse of the Assad regime’s authority across much of Syria. When this vacuum opened in Rojava, the Kurdish Democratic Union party (PYD) sought to fill it by building a new form of democracy from the bottom up.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the democratic experiment in Rojava is the justice system that has been established alongside self-government. In Jazira, one chair of the justice committee (again a young woman) explained that since courts and punishment represented the coercive dominance of the state, such institutions had been replaced by a kind of community justice, where “social peace”, and not punishment, was the objective.