Portside

A socialist win in Seattle demonstrates that ordinary people are receptive to unapologetic left politics. Can Seattle socialists expand their base and advance progressive reforms like rent control and a tax on the richest residents? And what can left activists elsewhere take from Seattle to launch their own progressive candidacies?

Bolick; Comics; Bundys; Wheaton cheatin'; Central Park jive; Motown murals

Past Moore movies have proven that huge audiences can be found for political documentaries. Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine was the highest-grossing documentary until Fahrenheit 9/11 snagged that record, and Sicko is in the top 10 for the genre. But all those films aimed their fire squarely at the United States, while Where to Invade Next aims a meandering Hi-Liter at a smattering of countries. And we all know that outrage is an easier sell than optimism.

“[In Bulgaria] after 1989 there was [a] group of British experts who came to give advice on democracy. . . . There was a man in this delegation who warned me about the baby in the bath. He saw what was going to happen. There were a lot of good things that were achieved by socialism, but we threw the baby out in the water.” “Veneta”

“Fewer workers are producing more and working longer hours, yet all workers have seen their conditions fall immensely over the last forty years.” This crisis must be understood if the forces of progress around the world hope to unite toward the goal of social transformation and revolution.

The first week of the new year brought hope and cheer for some. But for many Southern immigrant communities, it brought fear.

Recent research at Harvard is just part of an emerging picture of coffee as a potentially powerful elixir against a range of ailments, from cancer to cavities

A new report goes beyond the sanitized inspection regimes to hear from the workers themselves.

Jim Crow laws across the South mandated that restaurants, hotels, pool halls and parks strictly separate whites and blacks. Lynchings kept blacks in fear of mob violence. There were thousands of so-called “sundown towns,” which barred Blacks after dark with threats of violence. So in 1936, a postal worker named Victor Green began publishing a guide to help African American travelers find friendly restaurants, auto shops and accommodations in far-off places.

Robert N. Rhodes, Professor Emeritus of African American Studies, passed away December 2015. He began his career as an activist and concluded it at Ohio University, where he inspired generations of students.