Portside

The U.S. has now effectively traded a universal military draft for the far more insidious policy of economic conscription. And while it has become something of a ritual for civilians to address veterans with: “Thank you for your service,” to commend those who have voluntarily put themselves in harm’s way, the ritual also betrays a more profound reality. We are thankful we ourselves aren’t economically desperate enough to have to enlist in this country’s endless wars.

What Berger taught is not just how to look at an image - but to look through it and ask why and how.

“If the Professor Watchlist were a research paper, I’d give it an F,” says Peter Dreier.

In 2012, prognosticators were definite about what would happen to America if Obama were reelected. Here is how their predictions turned out.

For a generation after World War II, America was far more equal than we are today. Can we ever get that back? Of course we can—the obstacles are political, not economic.

Can Trump's administration include rabid Zionists and rabid anti-Semites at the same time? Of course it can.

Poet Tessara Dudley speaks of vulnerability, the burden of being "not"--"we will know every word we speak is true/we will know every word counts for nothing."

Today is the first day of the 115th United States Congress. In less than three weeks, this Congress will join with President-elect Donald J. Trump to claim a mandate they do not have for policies that most Americans do not support. Together, they will seek to enact a bigoted and anti-democratic agenda, threatening our values and endangering us all.But Americans have the power to resist this dangerous turn. We know because we've seen it before.

An open letter to Obama, penned by US attorney involved in the case against the Native American activist, is a stunning development in his bid for freedom. A senior US attorney who was involved in the prosecution of Native American activist Leonard Peltier has requested that Barack Obama grant clemency, with a rare plea that has energized the campaign to free the high-profile indigenous prisoner.

2016 began with a bang: French telecommunications giant Orange announced in early January it was dumping its Israel affiliate. Meanwhile, churches, student unions and local activists continued to organize strong boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns that caused panic among Israeli leaders.