Portside

The momentous 2019 election battles will be over on April 2, but the struggle for the heart and soul of Chicago, for a “freedom city,” will continue.

My tendency as a labor historian has always been to look at life beyond the workplace. Life taught me that working people are multi-dimensional. They care about many things in addition to work and unions, they bring multiple concerns and aspirations.

David McReynolds, lifelong pacifist and socialist, died last Friday. Twice a presidential candidate, lifetime member of the War Resisters League, well-known photographer, was the first out gay man to run for President.

One of Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz’s contributions to discussions of Jewish identity was her theory of what she called radical diasporism - that Jews can honor their Jewish identity, history and culture without believing that Israel is their homeland.

If politics is the art of the possible, then radicalism must be the capacity to imagine new possibilities

More than one poll has affirmed that our country’s rising political demographic group wants to see more government intervention in the economy. Young Democrats lean socialist, and people of color are disillusioned with the capitalist system.

Whether pushing for action on climate change, peace, LGBTQ equality, feminism, reproductive choice, or fighting racism, Leslie Cagan’s voice, presence, and expertise have long been visible - for more than 50 years.

Reader Comments: Nunes Memo - Big Dud; Puerto Rico - many still without power; Union Membership Growth...Amidst Decline; Medicare for All - Canadian Readers Tell Their Story; Teaching Slavery; Antonio Gramsci; Trump's Military Parade - in song; Olympic Truce Actions; Cuba's Historic Literacy Campaign; The Puerto Rican Socialist Party; Scholarships for Young Activists; 50th Anniversary of the Orangeburg Massacre; and more....

The focus of the exhibit, Do Not Resist? 100 Years of Chicago Police Violence, curated by For the People Artists Collective, is on the past 100 years of police brutality in Chicago. In particular, we wanted to draw attention to the resistance that’s happened here.

SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are not new. What is relatively new is the decision by companies to ramp up the potential impact of their cases by bringing charges under the federal racketeering statute called RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), a law which facilitates suits against sprawling criminal enterprises.