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Can democracy in the United States survive naked dictatorial ambition and Christian nationalism in 2024? The biggest danger today: a vengeful would-be dictator and a cultist Christian nationalist movement that are reaching for absolute power in our country. Please help us to inform, to mobilize and to inspire the forces of multi-racial, radical, inclusive democracy to defeat this threat in 2024.

The Cop City Referendum and Atlanta's Voter Suppression

The Elias Law Group is supporting the Vote To Stop Cop City Coalition.

Massachusetts Blues

It’s not just far-right Republicans who undermine democracy. A majority of voters in the Bay State favor progressive policies, but don’t get them. Why not?

Israel Deserves the Global Criticism It Is Receiving

Israel has only itself to blame for the the public outrage against its apartheid reality and the horrific war on Gaza.

Trump Election Threatens To Make America Fascist Again

Trump is considering invoking the Insurrection Act on his first day back in office.

The Challenge to the Left in 2024

Can democracy in the United States survive naked dictatorial ambition and Christian nationalism in 2024? Here is how we -- the Portside moderators -- see it. And how you can help Portside.

Dispatches From the Culture Wars – December 5, 2023

Alan Moore's appeal for democracy

Can Poetry Move Us to Love in Times of Human Cruilty?

San Francisco’s third poet laureate, devorah major, speaks on Palestine and how poetry can help us connect as we navigate the violence of our world.

This Week in People’s History, Dec 5–11

Union pickets outside Republic Windows and Doors Factory
Si, Se Puede! (in 2008), Exposing FBI Crimes (1973), Bartenders Win Half a Loaf (1948), Great Art at Greater Prices (1933), Don't Forget the Genocide Convention (1948), Don't Forget Human Rights, Either (1948), $1 Million Is Chump Change

COP28: Challenge the Power of Fossil Fuel Capitalism

The environmental destruction caused by wars, occupations and the military-industrial complex are compounding the climate crisis.

The Middle East’s Real History

Zionism emerged in response to 19th-century European antisemitism — but its aims in Palestine drew upon Western colonial ideologies. To present the current conflict as a timeless feud denies both European responsibility and Palestine’s multiethnic hi
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Culture

food

Why Turkey for Christmas and Thanksgiving?

Troy Bickham, The Conversation Modern Farmer
Turkey is practical for serving to a large crowd. In England, King Henry VIII regularly enjoyed turkey on Christmas day a century before the Pilgrims’ feast.

tv

Rustin the Liberal Biopic Versus Rustin the Labor Activist

DUSTIN GUASTELLA Jacobin
Netflix’s new feel-good Bayard Rustin biopic, Rustin, claims the civil rights hero has been forgotten because of his sexuality. But it was his fiery and provocative class politics that makes him both controversial and prophetic today.

poetry

Taking Sides

Irwin Keller
California Rabbi Irwin Keller chooses no sides in the wars but pleads for unconditional peace.

books

The World That Municipal Socialists Built

Justin H. Vassallo Dissent
Urban socialists blazed a path toward social democracy. Leftists who want to reclaim this tradition face a whole new set of obstacles.

Labor

labor

Harry Bridges and the ILWU – Then and Now

Peter Olney Stansbury Forum
Time to follow the containers, march inland and organize! Time to build a multi-union organizing project. Time to strategize and organize!" Read Robert Cherny’s “Harry Bridges Labor Radical, Labor Legend”, University of Illinois Press 2023.

labor

Laney Graduate Students Vote To Unionize

Ilah Ross Emory Wheel
Laney Graduate School students have voted to unionize after years of advocacy, making Emory University the first private university to have a graduate-worker union in Georgia and the second in the South.

Friday nite video