Portside

We've all been waiting for the grand jury's decision, not because most of us expected an indictment. District Attorney Robert P. McCulloch's convoluted statement resembled a victory speech. For a grand jury to find no probable cause even on the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter is a stunning achievement...If the police contributed to the "epidemic" of violent deaths, a case can be made for the complete withdrawal of the police from Black and Brown neighborhoods.

"...it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard." [March 14, 1968]

For a Native American, the story of Thanksgiving is not a very happy one. Jacqueline Keeler, a member of the Dineh Nation and the Yankton Dakota Sioux finds occasion for hope. Poem for Thanksgiving 2014 by Seymour Joseph. Svati Kirsten Narula's research article, How America's Thanksgiving Turkeys Got so Huge - doubling in size in 50 years.

Reader Comments - Darren Wilson Acquittal - Reader Responses; Black Friday Protests; Election Lessons for the Left; Immigration Reform; Ursula K. Le Guin, Pension Reform(?); Water Grab; Facebook Drivers Vote Union; Berlin Wall's Fall - Reflections from the GDR; Israel Lobby and Ukrainian Fascists; Mexico - 43 students murdered; Israel, Palestine and Rasmeah Odeh; The Selfless Gene; Announcement - New Politics Forum on the Environmental Crisis - New York - Dec. 9

Wal-Mart, Target, Macy's, Radio Shack and other retailers are requiring their low-paid workers to report. Why? There is nothing essential about buying gewgaws, gizmos and garments from these mass marketers of consumer excess that warrant them forcing their employees to give up their family meals on this one day of Thanksgiving.

Friday’s actions aren’t going to leave its stores empty or its business model overhauled. So what would make them a success from the perspective of the labor activists?

As we said, the police have a lot of explaining to do.

I went into Monday uncertain whether Michael Brown's killing was murder or a legally (if not morally) justified shooting into which the rage and righteous indignation over generations of police killings of black men - continuing right up to today - was being poured. After reading Wilson's testimony, I felt pretty confident that Wilson was a liar - at least about critical elements of his story.

The ultimate aim is not to win over more believers, but to produce a new kind of person: the Muslim Brother. This is a person striving for a new world through a spiritual struggle that reproduces the experience of early Muslims.

With a new generation of anti-racist leaders emerging, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor looks at how the movement growing out of Ferguson can confront police violence.