Portside
Material of Interest to People on the Left
Portside
Material of Interest to People on the Left
Friday Nite Videos | August 17, 2018
It's Time for #MeToo in the Catholic Church
Elizabeth Warren Proposes a Second New Deal
When a Young Trump Went to Russia
The 52-State Strategy: The Case for Puerto Rico
Aretha Franklin, Thank You! Rest in Peace
Journalists Are Not the Enemy
Coordinated Campaign to Suppress Criticism of Israel
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz-Feminist, Jewish Theorist Dies
Aug 16, 2018-Reader Comments, Announcements, Resources
Culture
poetry
Gone . . .
California poet Lee Rossi explores the impact of toppling old heroes, their myths, their monuments, their wrongs.
books
Simone Weil, Meditations on a Corpse: Sketch for an Article
New Left Review
A pungent and exhaustive evaluation of the short-lived, pre-war popular front government of France, written on the heels of its demise by the brilliant French writer Simone Weil, with an introduction by the NLR editors.
books
What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City
Society of Environmental Journalists SEJ Bookshelf
This book, by pediatrician, scientist and activist Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, is the first-hand account of record of the Flint Water Crisis, written by the person that brought the catastrophe to the public's attention.
film
‘Crazy Rich Asians’: Why Did It Take So Long to See a Cast Like This?
New York Times
For Asian and Asian-American viewers, "Crazy Rich Asians" which opens on Aug. 15, is important not just as something of a cinematic Halley’s comet — before “Joy Luck Club” in 1993, there was “Flower Drum Song” in 1961, and now what?
food
The Oscars of the Food World Finally Give Women and Chefs of Color Their Due
The New Yorker
Of the twenty-three categories of James Beard Awards this year, (some of which were awarded to groups or entire restaurants), well over half were won by women or people of color.
tv
'Claws' Has the Best Politics on Television
Complex
Representation alone isn’t enough to make a show political. You have to do something with it. Claws finds a way to tie its characters to a broader political narrative in almost every episode.
poetry
Operating on the Body Politic
Dispatches from the Poetry Wars
New York poet Philip Fried makes a diagnosis of brain damage to explain the body politic of a certain politician with orange hair.
Labor
labor
The Workers Lab: The Union-backed Accelerator Helping to Disrupt Capitalism
Equal Times
The Workers Lab uses the tech-based incubator approach to organize for worker rights and justice.
labor
UPS Is Flush With Cash. It’s Up to Workers to Demand the Company Cough It Up.
In These Times
We should all be rooting for high profits and bull markets, since those are the conditions that lead to the invisible hand delivering better conditions for workers. Yet for some reason, that hand is nowhere to be found at United Parcel Service (UPS)
labor
Unions Brought Black Americans into the Middle Class. They're Now Being Decimated.
The Guardian (US edition)
For many black Americans, unions have been life-changing ladders to the middle class. Black workers organized in labor unions have better pay and fairer treatment. But the hard-fought gains of the black labor movement may be be under threat.
labor
Nixon Strikes a Blow for Labor: Why Returning Public-Sector Workers the Right to Strike, as a Last Resort, Makes Sense
New York Daily News
Cynthia Nixon, who is challenging Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination for governor, has called for eliminating the strike ban for New York State public workers.
labor
Medicaid Officials Target Home Health Aides' Union Dues
NPR
A rule proposed recently by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, under the Trump administration, would prohibit home health aides who are paid directly by Medicaid from having their union dues automatically deducted.
labor
The Wind at Labor’s Back
New York Times
Missouri voters sent a strong pro-worker message Tuesday by overturning an anti-union law.
labor
Missouri Voters Overwhelmingly Reject ‘Right to Work’
Labor Notes
After an all out effort by the labor movement, voters in Missouri rejected "right to work" legislation by a 2-1 margin. This reprised a labor victory from 40 years ago when voters rejected similar anti-worker legislation.
Friday nite video
video
Astroturfing
Organizations can hire fake advocates who create the illusion of real support for their message. It’s a shady practice called astroturfing that can warp the public perception of anything...even astroturfing.
video
A Ride Through Oakland With Boots Riley
Boots Riley, frontman of the politically-charged hip-hop group 'The Coup' and director of movie Sorry to Bother You, reflects on his music, his future, and his relentless revolt against capitalism during a tour of the streets of Oakland.
video
Amos Lee - “Dying White Light”
"I'm trying to undone what you've done
To the innocent minds of our daughter and son"
video
Movie | Fahrenheit 11/9
Palme d’Or–winning documentarian Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11) turns his attention to another significant date, examining the legacy of Trump’s ascension to the US presidency on November 9, 2016. In theaters everywhere September 21.
video
Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson Remember Aretha Franklin
Don Lemon and stars Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson remember the late, great "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin.
video
Thank You, Koch Brothers!
Bernie Sanders thanks the Koch brothers for sponsoring a study that shows that Medicare for all would save the American people $2 trillion dollars over a ten year period. Probably not what they intended to do, but that is what a study of the Mercatus Center - significantly funded by the Kochs - shows.
video
Prophets of Rage | Who Owns Who
From the debut album of Prophets of Rage (Tim Commerford, Tom Morello and Brad Wilk from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, DJ Lord and Chuck D from Public Enemy, and B-Real of Cypress Hill).
Spread the word