Portside

Tennessee poet Ben Weakly sings of a soldier’s valor as sacrifice for the living.

This book, which won the American Book Award last month, aims to reorient our thinking about slavery, by focusing on "slave-breeding," a practice that helped ensure the institution's survival after the Constitutional ban on the transatlantic trade went into effect in 1808. In this review, Malcolm Harris discusses the implications of the practice, by outlining just how central slavery was to the production of U.S. wealth.

In his speech on immigration, the Republican presidential candidate echoed hardline stances once voiced by unions. But decades of union campaigns have drawn immigrants and minority voters into their fold.

Labor should work alongside the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition with more than 50 organizations, to usher in a radically new economic and social order. The path won’t be easy. But recent history has shown that one of the ways to get at this new reality is through union bargaining.

Squeezed out of right-wing power roles for her gender, Phyllis Schlafly led the GOP war on women for a generation.

"This demolition is devastating. These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings cannot be replaced. In one day, our sacred land has been turned into hollow ground." —Dave Archambault II, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman

Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid is over—but as his campaign army deploys down-ballot, more and more progressive challengers are claiming victory. Berniecrats include not just progressive politicians taking up Sanders’ mantle, but also political outsiders heeding Sanders’ call-to-revolution.

Unsafe spaces; Climate coffee crisis; Charter schools unmasked; Gender jeopardy; Trump vs “the American Way

Moonlight is a profoundly moving film about growing up as a gay man in disguise, a difficult and damaging journey that’s realised with staggering care and delicacy and one that will resonate with anyone who has had to do the same. We’re starved of these narratives and Jenkins’ electrifying drama showcases why they are so hugely important, providing a rarely seen portrait of what it really means to be a black gay man in America today. It’s a stunning achievement.