Information is power. Our mission at Portside is to seek out and to provide information that empowers you -- that empowers the left. Every day we search hundreds of sources to connect you with the most interesting, striking and useful material. Just once a year we appeal to you to contribute to make it possible to continue this work. Please help.

PG&E: Don’t Break it Up. Take it Over

The potential bankruptcy of the California utility whose negligence likely plays a role in California’s wildfires is an opportunity for the public to gain control of the state’s energy destiny

The US military Prepares for Global Combat

With Pentagon budgets reaching record levels -- some $717 billion for 2019 -- Washington has stayed the course, while beginning to plan for more expansive future conflicts across the globe. Today, not a single square inch of this ever-warming planet.

Forget Elections—Labor Needs To Get Back to Its Roots

Social organizing, (not elections) built the labor movement. When 19th-century American workers had virtually no institutional or political voice or power, they developed both by caring about and for each other.

What White Supremacists Know

The violent theft of land and capital is at the core of the U.S. experiment: the U.S. military got its start in the wars against Native Americans.

Dispatches From the Culture Wars - November 21, 2018

Cabbies Shun Proud Boys, Rabbis Defend Migrants, Democrats' Blues, Agenda Items, Sister Power, Voter Rights Prospects

New Evidence of Bannon/Cambridge Analytica Brexit Role

The possibility that Brexit and the Trump campaign relied on some of the same advisers to further far-right nationalist campaigns has set off alarm bells on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Election Within the Election

Only by firmly linking democracy and civil liberties to concrete programs of social and economic justice can working-class unity be built.

New Attorney Generals Could Thwart Trump’s Worst Moves

Attorneys General can make a real difference, particularly if they are willing to consistently bring lawsuits against the presidential agenda both to protect their state and the country as a whole.

Troika of Tyranny: Imperialist Project in Latin America

Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are today threatened by US imperialism. The first salvo of the modern Age of Imperialism started back in 1898 when the US seized Cuba along with Puerto Rico and the Philippines in the Spanish-American War.

A National Abolitionist Victory for Public Health!

banner and demonstrators for end of police violence
"The passage of this statement and the recognition of policing as violence is a huge victory against racism and classism in this professional field. Our goal is for this work to be used to further organizing, research, and education..."
Read more

Culture

film

The Queer Coming-of-Age Movie Arrives

Spencer Kornhaber The Atlantic
For some kids rule-breaking is less a route toward self-definition than a requirement built into existence. That’s the reality recognized by a recent crop of films centered on the queer teen, a figure who until now has been cinematically marginal.

food

Is Peanut Butter Good for You?

Sophia Gottfried Time Health
Peanut butter, despite its high fat content, is a nutritional treasure, full of protein, fiber, minerals and vitamins.

poetry

POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN AMERICA, 2018

Charlotte Muse
It’s the opposite of attention deficit disorder, observes poet Charlotte Muse; we inhabit “a cloud of mosquitoes,” while the other guy gets richer, stronger.

books

Looking Back at the 2016 Campaign

Christian Lorentzen Bookforum
Ben Fountain's "Beautiful Country Burn Again" revisits (and tries to make historical sense of) the convulsions of the 2016 election as prelude to--and forewarning of--the perfervid run-up in Trump country to the 2018 midterm contests.

books

America: The Farewell Tour

Tony Weller Tony's Blog: Weller Book Works
"Hedges’ assessment of the sickness of our times is searing in its directness," writes reviewer Weller. "His rage is palpable in his scolding of the system we take for granted, one we preserve at our own peril."

Labor

labor

There Is Power in This Union

Michael Kazin Dissent
The Democrats’ midterm triumphs in Nevada would not have been possible without Culinary Workers Union Local 226.

labor

Our Annual Fund Appeal - Counting on Our Readers' Support

Portside moderators Portside
We can move our country forward by moving it to the left. The Resistance and the gains in the recent elections are dramatic evidence that something fundamental is happening. Portside will continue to do our part. We ask for your help once a year.

labor

Question 1: The Road Not Travelled

Jason Pramas Dig Boston
A broader appeal by Question 1 in Massachusetts could have resulted in a win for nurses and patients.

labor

Striking Marriott Workers in Boston Reach Agreement With Hotels

Katie Johnston and John Hilliard Boston Globe
The union, Unite Here Local 26, declined to release details of the agreement until the remaining 5,000 Marriott workers who are on strike in San Francisco and two locations in Hawaii settle their contracts.

labor

Staten Island Goes Purple

Shaun Richman The American Prospect
MOSTLY ABSENT FROM THE STORY of Max Rose’s ground-breaking victory are unions. The New York state AFL-CIO endorsed Donovan, the Republican incumbent. Many individual unions did the same

Friday nite video

video

Drain the Swamp

Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp.” But considering the culture of corruption inside of his administration, Washington is looking awfully...swampy.

video

Boy Erased | Movie

There are 77,000 people currently being held in conversion therapy across America. This is one gripping story.

video

Team Trump Spreading Doctored Jim Acosta Video

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted a doctored video clip from Infowars in which they sped up Jim Acosta's hand movement in an effort to discredit a reputable journalist. She should be forced to resign for this.

video

Congo to the Mississippi | Playing For Change

Starting under the hot African sun in the village of Lukala in the Congo, we added musicians wherever we traveled for the past few years until we finally added the piece with Grandpa Elliott playing the harmonica solo in New Orleans.