Portside

The exit from a dystopian future does not rest with a brave individual or a small group of high tech activists who undermine the state. Rather, it rests in winning the confidence of millions that there is an alternative to chaos and dystopia that is not to be found in one or another variant of authoritarianism. This is the challenge for the global Left . . .

Volkswagen is touting a University of Tennessee study that determined controversial incentives from the state of Tennessee for the expansion of VW’s assembly plant in Chattanooga are, in fact, a damn good investment for the state. The sunny conclusions of the report may even be mostly accurate, at least with some context. Problem is, Volkswagen paid for the study. Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First said he believed numbers for created jobs were exaggerated.

In its second season, Halt tells the story of two women laboring to bring a new, better technology to consumers with an assist from a houseful of gamers. Lean In, Gamergate, and the ongoing under-representation of women in tech hang heavy over the episodes.

On May 24th, the two parties that have ruled Spain since the late 1970s were dealt yet another substantial blow, this time in regional and municipal elections. They were defeated in the main by independent political forces rooted in prominent local struggles and committed to developing a coalition between new or smaller Left parties and community organizations around a common platform; one developed through radical democratic and grassroots participation.

North Charleston, South Carolina, has received strong praise for its handling of the fatal police shooting of 50-year-old African American Walter Scott. According to the media, the city's quick response saved it from becoming another Ferguson, MO. But, North Charleston's response should be understood not in contrast to Ferguson but in the context of Ferguson and a national upsurge of protest against racist policing.

There are plenty of shocking statistics in a recently rediscovered 2014 study on suicide from the World Health Organization. The report found that suicides are responsible for half of all violent deaths in men and 71% of violent deaths in women. It also showed that globally, suicide is the second leading cause of death for all young people between the ages of 15 and 29 years old. Yet, somehow, it took us until now to notice just how badly it affects young women.

A new website called Canary Mission is publicizing the identities of pro-Palestinian student activists to prevent them from getting jobs after they graduate from college. But the website is keeping its own backers’ identity a secret. “It is your duty to ensure that today’s radicals are not tomorrow’s employees,” a female narrator intones in a slick video posted to the website’s YouTube account. The website has posted profiles of dozens of students and recent graduates.

It took more than 40 years, but Attica’s survivors and families of the deceased had finally convinced a judge to force the State of New York to release sealed records relating to deaths of some 39 inmates and staff following the 1971 prison uprising. But the documents released May 21 provide little information as to who was responsible for the dead and wounded when state officials decided to forcibly retake the prison, and why no one has been held accountable.

Amy Schumer - Bill Cosby in the Court of Public Opinion. Movie: We Are Many. Democalypse 2016: Bernie Sanders. Stiller & Meara on Computer Dating. Margaret Atwood - First Writer for Future Library.