Skip to main content

2016: The Canadian Labour Movement in Review

Doug Nesbitt RankandFile.CA
Almost every single province in Canada is ruled by a government committed to deep austerity cuts and assaults on workers rights. The tasks seem large, but as with various local labour battles, campaigns like the Fight for $15, and organizations like Iron & Earth, workers are constantly being pulled together in common struggles against common enemies.

Across the Color Line: Interview with Author of new Du Bois Biography

Scott McLemee Inside Higher Ed
The interviewer doesn't exaggerate in ranking W.E.B Du Bois as the 20th century's pre-eminent African-American author and thinker, crediting his founding and stewardship of the NAACP's The Crisis with granting him not just an agenda-setting role in civil-rights history but also international influence. Before going into detail with the biographer, he also praises Mullen for a work that is a timely introduction to this impressive and somewhat imposing figure.

A Vital Chapter in Jazz History

Michael J. Agovino The Village Voice
In the 1970s a group of African American experimental jazz improvisors organized musician-sponsored concerts in a network of lower Manhattan lofts. The music they produced was not only sonically adventurous, much of it was also driven by a host of social concerns. Michael Heller has published a new history of this movement. Michael J. Agovino helps guide us through this important cultural moment.

The Long History of Black Women’s Exclusion in Historic Marches in Washington

Ashley Farmer African American Intellectual History Society
The Women's March on Washington has the potential to be a unifying event if organizers and participants fully recognize that calls for solidarity often ring hollow for black women and that many black women see the recent election as the latest iteration of white feminists’ betrayal.

Living, or Reliving, the African-American Experience

Bill Mosley Washington Socialist
This museum tells a story. African Americans overcame centuries of oppression to record achievements in all walks of life, including the election of one of their community as president. But To preserve the gains celebrated in the museum’s galleries, it will be necessary to continue to draw inspiration from the displays on the resistance to institutional racism.

Getting a Fighting Start on 2017

Portside
Please join us in getting a fighting start on 2017 by making a contribution to Portside. Guaranteed, this contribution will fuel our work to fight back against Trump all year long. If you've already contributed, thank you! If you intended to contribute but haven't yet, please click here to make a contribution now. The Portside moderators contribute their efforts without pay, but your contributions are the life blood that will sustain our daily operations.