Portside

The successes of the civil rights movement were hardly based on simply revealing the racism of the United States. The Black Panthers and civil rights movements were about creating alternative bases of power, e.g. structures be they in law, mass mobilizations or community organizations that went beyond venting a narrative.

Politicians are getting fat off the destruction of the lives of young black men and women, who are the overwhelming victims of American policing and unjust practices of the judicial system. "Broken windows" policing has criminalized entire communities, leading to thousands of frivolous arrests that ruin people’s lives.

It is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.

At America’s court of last resort, a handful of lawyers now dominates the docket.

Cotton is so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible, yet understanding its history is key to understanding the origins of modern capitalism.

An evolutionary arms race keeps humans and bacteria right where they started.

An increasing number of people are realizing that the entrepreneurial hucksters promoting “sharing” are abusing the deeper meaning of “trust,” “collaboration” and the simple generosity of spirit that makes people human.

When your reforms are getting negative attention from the SEC and FBI, perhaps you need another word to describe them.

The revelations in the Senate Committee's Torture Report make it the most disturbing scandal in recent U.S. history. The number of different crimes committed by the CIA and documented by Senator Dianne Feinstein’s committee is truly extraordinary. But, for the Obama Administration, the CIA torture scandal can't end fast enough. But torture is a war crime and the architects must be held accountable to ensure this rampant criminality never happens again.

The Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases are examples of how prosecutors manipulate the grand jury process. Criminal grand juries, with their secrecy, lack of oversight, and disregard for the rules of evidence, serve no useful purpose and make a mockery of justice. If we abolish criminal grand juries, at least the deaths of Brown and Garner will not have been in vain.