Skip to main content

How Seattle Elected a Socialist

Black Sheep - A Socialist Podcast
Socialists in Seattle: Kshama Sawant's Campaign Assistant Anh Tran interviewed by Andrew Sernatinger and Tessa Echeverria

King of the Outcast Teens: Kurt Cobain and the Politics of Nirvana

Dawson Barrett Portside
In recognition of the anniversary of the death of Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain, a host of retrospectives will recognize both the raw potency of Cobain's songwriting and the tragedy of his heroin use and suicide. They will hide that Nirvana was a band of rebels.

Four Points about the 1971 FBI Break-In

Glenn Greenwald Greenwald Side Docs
It's easy to praise people who challenge governments of the distant past, and much harder to do so for those who challenge those who wield actual power today.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars - Post-Racial Society Edition

Portside
Newly Published Photographs Share Rich Lives of Former Slaves After Emancipation; Web Series Tells "What Black Folks Don't Do"; Customs Destroys Rare Bamboo Flutes; NYT & NPR Maintain Latino Stereotypes; Native American Studies Association Supports BDS; Chart Illustrates You Vote What You Drink

Why Socialists Need to Run in Elections, and What They Can Do When They Win

Carl Davidson Keep on Keepin' On
The main reason for entering electoral or even government terrain and waging struggle there is not so much to `show' the power of our organizations. Rather it is mainly the matter of an earlier step: to build these organizations in the first place, or to take the miniscule ones we have now, and through these struggles, grow and multiply them.

“Soiled by the mud of the street:” Pope Francis and the Working Class

Brian R. Corbin Working-Class Perspectives
Francis is calling for a wider struggle in the defense of the poor and working classes. He writes: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”

Art Spiegelman's Life in the "Shadow of Maus"

Eric Wuestewald Mother Jones
There is a major retrospective of Art Spiegelman's Life that runs through March 23 at the the Jewish Museum in New York City. I caught up with the esteemed artist to talk about life after Maus, his rejected New Yorker covers, and how Mad magazine shattered Norman Rockwell's America.

Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State is like saying the US is a White State

Juan Cole Informed Comment
Saying Israel is a Jewish state in the sense of observant believers would be like asserting that the United States is a Christian state even though about 22% of the population does not identify as Christian (roughly the same proportion as non-Jews in Israel). The point of the US first amendment is to forbid the state to to “establish” a religion.