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Women's March 2019 -- Portside Readers Weigh-In

Jay Schaffner Portside
Last week Portside posted Rosalind P. Petchesky's piece, An Appeal to Jewish Women to Support the 2019 Women’s March and Its Leaders. Preserving the unity and diversity of the anti-Trump movement is crucial. Here are responses from Portside readers.

Jews, Anti-Semitism, Racism and White Supremacy

Michael Harriot The Root
Two things can be true at once. Jews are individually and collectively victims of anti-Semitism - violence, hate speech, bigotry, and prejudice - and Jewish people are beneficiaries and upholders of the American system of white supremacy.

Who Benefits from Trump’s Trade War?

Koichi Hamada Project Syndicate
A trade war with China poses a serious threat to the US itself, which is bound to suffer severe losses due to trade diversion; and broader damage, as tit-for-tat tariffs reduce overall exports, undermine total global trade, and world economic growth.

Voyages of the Damned

Roberta Schine Portside
When I was a child, my parents used to tell us the story of the St. Louis. Now we are comparing the Central American exodus to this doomed ocean-liner. “We sometimes refer to the caravan as the ‘St. Louis' aka "The Voyage of the Damned'.

An Uber Labor Movement Born in a LaGuardia Parking Lot

Adrian Chen The New Yorker
On January 29th, Uber had reduced fares in more than eighty cities in the U.S. and Canada. Drivers in some of those cities, including San Francisco, San Diego, Tampa, and New York City, have reacted with strikes and protests.

Michael Moore's New Film Features Portugal's Groundbreaking Policy of Not Arresting People for Drug Use

Sharda Sekaran Drug Policy Alliance
Watching Moore’s film may be the first time many Americans get a bird’s eye view of Portugal’s groundbreaking approach to drug policy. It may also be the first time many of them see the prisons in Norway, where inmates are taught how to reintegrate into society by allowing them to live as much like normal people and as little like prisoners as possible. Kudos to Michael Moore for showing what’s possible when we shift from punishing people to finding ways to help them...

 What Do Cubans Think of Normalization With the United States?

 Sujatha Fernandes The Nation
Cubans are now divided on whether they think normalization is a good thing for Cuba. A younger generation desiring greater economic opportunities, as well as entrepreneurs, small-business owners, artists, and others well-placed to reap the benefits, have welcomed the changes. But many of the older Cubans I spoke with—particularly those who work in the state sector of the economy - now seemed to believe more firmly that normalization will have a negative impact.