Portside

Our ship of state, writes Berkeley poet Susan Cohen, may be facing extinction, but there's no practical escape that will suffice; alternatively, we may resist.

We cannot engineer a more equitable nation simply by dressing up institutions in more shades of brown. Instead, we must confront structural racism and the values of our institutions.

As Obama passes the keys and the codes to Donald Trump at the end of this week, so many liberals mourn the passing of what has been, remain in a state of disbelief for what has happened, and express deep anxiety about what is to come. It is a steep cliff – politically, rhetorically and aesthetically – from the mocha-complexioned consensual intellectual to the permatanned, “pussy-grabbing” vulgarian. But there is a connection between the “new normal” and the old.

Economic inequality leads to racism, xenophobia and plutocracy.

Many New York unions are joining the Women's March on Washington including District Council 37, the United Federation of Teachers, the New York State Nurses Association, the National Writers Union, Writers Guild of America East, United Food and Commercial Workers 1500, New York State United Teachers and 32BJ SEIU.

In reviewing two new books on the 20th Century's intertwined histories of labor, the Democratic Party, the Civil Rights movement, and the African American people, Rich Yeselson offers a nuanced and deeply informed assessment of this complicated tale.

Fear and uncertainty punctuated immigrant rights rallies across the country, as speakers shared their worries about the future of the country. Actions occurring simultaneously in fifty cities in the first large-scale immigration demonstration since the election.