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MAGA’s Revanchist Roots: A Tale of Tropes

Jerry Lembcke CounterPunch
Signs that MAGA is enmeshed in post-Vietnam War culture begin with its namesake. Make America Great Again is an adoption of Ronald Reagan’s assertion that it was “Morning in America Again,” - the country was moving on from its Vietnam War nightmare.

This Week in People’s History, Sept. 12–18

Newspaper headline: Florida Deaths Mounting Deadly hurricane in 1928. Slave-catchers stymied (1858). Feds' forgeries flop (1918). Deadly racist church bombing (1963). Settlers take over Cherokee Strip (1893). Thin-skinned cops get served (1994). Eugene Debs speaks truth to power (1918).

This Week in People’s History, May 23 . . .

Portside
Mural by Diego Rivera showing workers in an automobile factory Historic auto workers contract. 1st Amendment protects mail. U.S. army crosses ocean for the first time. Ford Company thugs assault union organizers. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan released. Major union victory in Rochester. Court throws out FBI frame-up

Tidbits – Apr. 20, 2023 – Reader Comments: Clarence Thomas = Corrupt; Mifepristone Ruling; Supreme Court “Ethics”; Biden’s Right Turn and 2024; Lula’s Plan: Global Battle Against Trumpism; LBJ vs. MLK; Danger of Nuclear War; AI, Labor, and Tech;

Portside
Reader Comments: Clarence Thomas = Corrupt; Mifepristone Ruling; Supreme Court "Ethics"; Biden's Right Turn and 2024; Lula’s Plan: A Global Battle Against Trumpism; LBJ vs. MLK; Rising Danger of Nuclear War; AI, Labor, Tech; Cartoons; Announcements;

The Cold War Was Never About Democracy

Vincent Bevins, Loren Balhorn Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
After World War II, the Indonesian Communist Party threw itself into democratic politics and outreach to broad segments of society. Western intelligence agencies were worried because they knew that the PKI was not coercing people into giving them power — they were simply growing in popularity.

books

Staughton Lynd: The Perils of Sainthood

Paul Buhle Portside
Staughton Lynd seemed like a personal force almost more than a person within the antiwar movement of the 1960s. My Country Is the World largely and usefully recounts the controversies that came with his rise in the peace movement of the middle 1960s

labor

Extreme Chutzpah! Authoritarians Launch Existential Attack on Fla. Unions

Steve Wishnia Work-Bites
Public employees would have to sign a form, in 14-point type, larger than the rest of the text, stating, "Florida is a right-to-work state,” “union membership and payment of union dues and assessments are voluntary,” no employee may be discriminated against “for refusing to join or financially support a labor union.”

Tidbits – Feb. 16, 2023 – Reader Comments: States Can Tax the Rich; Black Studies Vital, Necessary; History Seeing ‘Socialism’ Under Every Bed; Ukraine War; Ohio Train Derailment; Holly Near Tribute; Paul Robeson 125th Birthday Celebration; More…

Portside
Reader Comments: States Can Tax the Rich; Black Studies Vital, Necessary; History of Seeing 'Socialism' Under Every Bed; Ukraine War; Ohio Train Derailment; Holly Near Tribute; Paul Robeson 125th Birthday Celebration; Cartoons; lots of Announcements;

A Good Life Rule for Leftists: Never Talk to the FBI

Michael Myerson Jacobin
Being a leftist — or worse, a child of leftists — in the mid-20th century meant constant harassment from the FBI. From my childhood in the 1940s and ’50s through the upheavals of the ’60s, I only told them one thing: take a hike.

We Are Long Overdue for a Paul Robeson Revival

Peter Dreier Los Angeles Review of Books
In the 1970s, Robeson’s admirers — boosted by the upsurge of black studies and black cultural projects, the waning of the Cold War — began to rehabilitate his reputation with various tributes, documentary films, books, concerts, exhibits, and a play
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