Portside

Frank Rosen, longtime labor leader and political activist, died Nov. 28 in Chicago. Rosen took part in many of the seminal moments in Chicago history, from studying nuclear physics under Enrico Fermi, to fighting to defend civil liberties in the McCarthy era, to the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, to electing Harold Washington as mayor, all while helping thousands of members of his union struggle for decent wages, benefits and dignity on the job.

Every year, Portside asks our readers for their help and support. This, however, is not like other years. What months ago was a scary thought is now our, and the world's reality - a Trump presidency. We need to work together, to build, to organize, and to understand what works, and what doesn't. Portside provides reportage, inspiration, investigation and analysis that are needed more than ever. We promise to do our part. Will you help?

"If they create an Enemies/List," says the poet Taj James, "Sign me up." Only by showing our solidarity with those so-called enemies can we hope that the listmakers themselves become the "enemies" of the people. These are words for our unfortunate times.

Although it was not programmable in the modern sense, some have called it the first analog computer.

In the 1960s, the agency sought to fight Communism through the students’ rights movement. There’s little reason to think its tactics have changed.

If anyone can overcome the hurdles for a Latino mayoral candidate in Chicago, it's Garcia given his lifetime commitment to a multiracial coalition—not just talking the talk, but 30 years of walking the walk.

The boundary separating white Anglo upscale school districts from the burgeoning non-white and non-Anglo populations in downscale communities is fast becoming a flashpoint inside America.

Even though the four counts do not include cold blooded murder, we in West Virginia and the rest of the world know that the big man is on trial for the deaths of those men just as the nation knew that Al Capone’s trial on tax evasion was for his part in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. There will be no one in the courtroom or on the jury that doesn’t remember that morning. There is no one in Raleigh County that doesn’t know who ran Massey Energy.

Hundreds of Los Angeles teachers have been put on leave and in limbo. It’s been called “teacher jail,” and it’s not far off from the “rubber rooms” New York City tabloids have made famous. In both places, the tactic is used to scapegoat teachers and unions.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), emboldened by the mid-term success of conservative Republicans at the state and federal levels, will be meeting December 3-5 in Washington, D.C. to develop its policy agenda for 2015 and beyond. ALEC will be seeking, among other things, to "preempt" state and local level minimum wage increases, promote local "right to work" legislation, forestall shareholder activism, and increase school privatization.