Portside

Congressional sit-in over continued failure of Congress to tighten firearm laws. The historic sit-in in the House is impressive, but the two proposals they are demanding a vote on are very problematic. The Congressional sit-in protesters should be congratulated for standing up for their principles. And they should be pressured to make sure their plans to act on those principles don't undermine other principles of civil rights and equality.

They're peacefully resisting US-style neoliberal measures intended to crush the unions-a backbone of Mexico's social-justice movements. Taking union leaders hostage, murdering unarmed teachers and students, firing thousands, and closing one of Mexico's most progressive institutions are serious violations of human and labor rights, and of the rule of law itself. Now, 200,000 doctors to join teachers in Mexico national strike.

As we head toward the Democratic National Convention, I often hear the question, "What does Bernie want?" Wrong question. The right question is what the 12 million Americans who voted for a political revolution want.

The U.S. Supreme Court has voted 4-4 in one of the most consequential immigration cases in recent history, United States v. Texas. The High Court's failure to fall one way or another in the case leaves in place a lower court decision that blocks the Obama administration's deferred action immigration initiatives known as DAPA and the expansion of DACA from being implemented. An Atlanta coalition of local community organizations have launched an ICE Free Zones campaign.

Reader Comments: Orlando - Attack on LGBTs; Criticism of Portside and Moderators response; Gov. Cuomo's Anti-Free Speech Move Against BDS; Alina Nurses Strike; Why White Workers Left the Democratic Party; Announcements: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation - 15th Annual National Conference - October 14-17; New Edition of Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching; BROADWAY FOR ORLANDO - "WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE" - solidarity recording....more

As living conditions in Puerto Rico continue to deteriorate students and young workers from the island will continue to flood those places where family connections and job opportunities pull them. Not all will be targets of violence because of their multiple identities, as the Orlando victims were. Their fate, however, will continue to be a reminder of how invisible forces pattern seemingly random events in the lives of individuals and communities.

Afrofuturism posits a future that disrupts the present and calls out its injustices. Krista Franklin produces poetry and visual art in the Afrofuturist tradition. Her poems and art works have been published in Black Camera, Copper Nickel, and Encyclopedia, Vol. F-K. Franklin’s work has been exhibited nationally in the U.S., and was featured on 20th Century Fox’s ‘Empire’ (Season Two). She is interviewed on Berlin Art Talk about her artistic interpretations of the future.

My wish as I mourn the lives lost in Orlando? Let all families hold their loved ones dear; and let our LGBT American Muslims live their lives with dignity, openly and freely.

In this new book, Jerry Harris traces the links between the current stage of the development of transnational capitalism and the decline of democratic norms throughout society. Harry Targ guides us through this terrain, and, along the way, raises some critical questions about the significance of Harris's findings for today's social movements.

The Mexican government followed through on its threat to use force against striking dissident teachers.