Portside

How does our epoch of political polarization compare to the decade that was rent over the issue of slavery before the Civil War? Historical analogies can be misleading, but the controversies that bedeviled that age still haunt us. In certain ways, they foreshadow our own divided house.

Let's put Black, women of color, Indigenous, anti-capitalist and queer-centered feminist politics at the heart of the overall struggle for justice in the coming year. What could that look like?

Congress created compassionate release as a way to free certain inmates, such as the terminally ill, when it becomes “inequitable” to keep them in prison any longer. Despite urging from lawmakers of both parties, officials deny or delay the vast majority of requests.

Today, only a third of all prisons provide ways for incarcerated people to continue their educations beyond high school.

Our schools should teach dissent. Indeed, a flourishing democracy depends on an informed and active citizenry who will speak out when they find laws to be unjust.

Truly International; Whitewashing rural America, parts 1 and 2; Reclaiming MLK’s mission; Inventing the inclusion rider; Just say no

The sanctuary movement needs an anti-war voice. This article was produced in partnership with Foreign Policy In Focus.

“History,” Winston Churchill said, “will be kind to me, for I intend to write it myself.” He needn’t have bothered. He was one of the great mass murderers of the 20th century, yet is the only one, unlike Hitler and Stalin, to have escaped historical odium in the West.

Four Chicago-area students discuss why they are taking active roles in their schools' walkouts on March 14 to remember the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

At a community meeting last fall, we asked our members if they feared being pushed out of South Los Angeles. All hands were raised.