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.

 

An Ancient Aquatic System Older than the Pyramids

Gunditjmara people used the system to redirect and modify waterways to maximize aquaculture yield.

Charlie Chaplin and Truly Modern Times

Is he relevant today beyond his reputation as a comic icon?

Clinton Says Sanders Achieved “Nothing” Why She's Wrong

Sanders secured $11 billion in funding for federally subsidized clinics that, by law, must operate in communities considered medically underserved due to poverty, elevated health risks and a shortage of health care providers.

Black Abolitionists Believed in Taking Up Arms

Long before the Civil War, black abolitionists shared the consensus that violence would be necessary to end slavery. Unlike their white peers, their arguments were about when and how to use political violence, not if.

The High Cost of Having a Baby in America

The average delivery now costs more than $4,500—even with insurance.

The Lebanon Uprising Hits 100-Day Mark

Protesters Allege Torture by Security Forces

Germany's New Old Militarism

“If you want peace you must prepare for war," - despite its history, support for a growing and aggressive military finds many such rationalizations in today's Germany. Meanwhile, the peace movement continues to demand base closures.

Racial Disparities High in Maryland's Prisons

While only 31% of Maryland residents are black, more than 70% of Maryland’s prison population is black, a percentage that is more than twice the national average. And about 80% of people serving 10 years or more in Maryland prisons are black.

How Britain Helped Iran Destroy Its Left Opposition

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s first Supreme Leader
According to declassified files, in 1983 Britain (and the CIA) helped Iran’s new Islamic regime crush the last opposition to its rule, providing information that was used to arrest and execute hundreds of members of Iran’s communist Tudeh Party.

The New Coronavirus Started in a Wildlife Market

Medical workers near a hospital in Wuhan, China.
The Wuhan coronavirus has now been confirmed in multiple countries and health officials see a common thread with past outbreaks. The Wuhan virus, like the SARS before it, is zoonotic, a disease that started in animals before spreading to humans.
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Culture

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Are Black Women Being Let Down By TV’s Mental Health Storylines?

Jazmin Kopotsha Refinery29
Bearing in mind the statistics that confirm the stigma surrounding mental health among black and Asian communities, it wouldn’t be too much of a jump to make the correlation between ethnic minorities successfully seeking help for mental health.

poetry

To Combat Antisemitism, Write a Villanelle

Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach Rattle
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach wrote this poem in response to the presidential executive order changing the status of “Jew” from a religion or ethnicity to a nationality.

film

The Trinidadian That Inspired Sam Mendes’ WWI Epic, ‘1917’

Janine Mendes-Franco Global Voices
'1917' is based on Alfred Mendes’ role as a messenger when he served in the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade, training as a signaller in France. He was thereafter sent to Belgium, with the rest of his battalion, to win back the village of Poelcappelle.

tv

We’re Lucky to Have Little America

Kathryn VanArendonk Vulture
 Little America wants to give its episodes extra meaning by being based on truth, because, especially right now, it is heartrending and lovely to see stories about American immigrants that are based on real lives.

Labor

labor

Reckoning With the AFL-CIO’s Imperialist History

Jeff Schuhrke Jacobin
Over the past century, the US government repeatedly disrupted leftist movements and supported or carried out coups around the world - aided by American labor leaders. A full reckoning with the AFL-CIO’s collaboration with US imperialism can help us.

labor

Bernie’s Labor Support Snowballs

HOLLY OTTERBEIN POLITICO
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in the foreground at an inside rally. While many national unions have stayed neutral, more progressive-minded local unions and labor groups are coming out in force for the Vermont senator.

labor

The Politics of Pensions: No Bailout for You

Marc Dann and Leo Jennings III Working Class Perspectives
Federal officials have floated a number of proposals for dealing with the dilemma of underfunded multi-employer pension plans.  Most have one thing in common: they punish the innocent victims. The contrast with the bailout of bankers is striking.

labor

2019 Was the Year Tech Workers Organized

Haidee Chu Mashable
Toxic workplace culture, terrible pay, union busting, weapons contracts, anti-immigrant work, and political misinformation. Tech workers finally had enough.

labor

Trump's Gotta Go! Trumpism Too. Please Help.

Portside
Trump is on trial. We will, of course, present the case for his conviction and removal. But beyond that, we will work to vaccinate society against Trumpism by providing a continuous stream of fact, analysis and vision.

Friday nite video

video

Trump Has Lied 16,241 Times

Trump celebrated three years in office by paying tribute to himself and somehow brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. into it