Portside

Many Portside readers follow developments in the international socialist movement, including recent developments in South Africa. Here is the declaration from the recently concluded Congress of the South African Communist Party. Some readers may find it a hopeful sign of the SACP's returning to its role as a critical partner in the governing coalition with COSATU in the governing coalition. Others may feel that the SACP is not being critical enough. What do you think?

Reader Comments: Capitalism in our Future?; Bosses - Like Dictators - and now one is our President?; More on School Charters; Trump's Made in America or Working Class Internationalism?; Looking at Radical History - Black Panther Party, Paul Robeson, Peekskill, Dashiel Hammett, IWW; UN and Banning of Nuclear Weapons or a Return to "Duck Under Your Desk?"; South Africa, Israel; Rasmea Odeh; Resources; Announcements; and more...

A South African court ruled that the trade union federation Costau is guilty of hate speech and anti-Semitism because of its support of Palestinian rights. The union denounced the ruling as an attack against workers’ rights to offer solidarity, freedom of expression and the struggle for justice and dignity for all.

This is the spirit of the Quinceañera at the Capitol event: to celebrate the resistance to SB4 by highlighting our commitment to our communities and culture. After all, SB4 isn’t just about politics: it will sow fear and distrust into our communities and break apart our families. To resist this harmful and hateful law, we will draw on the incredible power within the very communities that SB4 will affect.

From the Combahee River Collective Statement: "We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in Black women’s lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously."

Efforts to define and manipulate the definition of “family” in immigration matters are not new. For more than 100 years the government has done so, often reflecting political exigency and racial bias rather than the real needs and desires of families.

A review of the martyred German/ Polish Marxist's revolutionary's writings, with special emphasis on her seminal work, Reform and Revolution (1900, revised 1908). The classic essay is available in numerous collections of her work, and is accessible on line at Marxists.org

Mark Rosenthal died July 15, 2017. He was a rank and file trade unionist who helped change the face of the New York City labor movement in the late 1990's and beyond. He was a founding member of the Committee for real Change in DC 37, AFSCME and former Local 983 President. Steven Greenhouse's article in The New York Times September 30, 1998 is a fitting tribute to Mark Rosenthal

Mark Rosenthal died July 15, 2017. He was a rank and file trade unionist who helped change the face of the New York City labor movement in the late 1990's and beyond. He was a founding member of the Committee for Real Change in DC 37, AFSCME and President of Local 983. Steven Greenhouse's article in The New York Times in 1998 is the best obituary Mark could have.

Here is yet another entry in the history of how the blacklist impacted Hollywood during the McCarthy era, and how artists resisted through their art.