Portside

"I can’t think of a previous batch of statuette-season contenders so politically on point and of the moment, and I credit — although that’s not quite the right word — Donald Trump. His rise and presidency have brought so many of the cancers of American life to the surface, where we can no longer avoid them, and the movies reflect that. He’ll be at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards not just as the butt of a gazillion jokes. He’ll be there as an inspiration."

Welcome to Interviews for Resistance. We’re now nearly one year into the Trump administration, and activists have scored some important victories. Yet there is always more to be done, and for many people, the question of where to focus and how to help remains. In this series, we talk with organizers, agitators, and educators, not only about how to resist, but how to build a better world.

When Denis Estimon, a Haitian immigrant, came here in first grade, he felt isolated -- especially at lunch. In high school, he started a club called "We Dine Together" and is now opening chapters in schools around the country.

The intersection of climate change and mass incarceration is not unique to California, but as the state experiences its deadliest and most destructive year on record for wildfires -- including the second-largest in the its history -- the state's incarcerated firefighter Conservation Camp program has come firmly under the microscope.

Higher education has been financialized, transformed from a public service into a lucrative cash cow for private investors.

“Many people don’t even have $100 in the bank, so paying 10 percent to a bond agent means that money won’t be going toward rent or food.”

With respect to Korea, what Americans get from their mainstream news media abounds with crucial omissions and misleading distortions resulting in a false portrayal of the geopolitical realities.

Maine People’s Alliance (MPA) is a statewide organization with a significant base: 32,000 members. One in 17 households in the state have been actively connected with the organization in one way or another: receiving its newsletters, giving money or coming to meeting. MPA recently won a resounding victory, winning Medicaid expansion through a ballot initiative that received 60% of the popular vote, including in districts that had voted for Trump in 2016.

America has a long, complicated track record of dreading that robots would take our jobs.

Taking land by force was not an accidental or spontaneous project or the work of a few rogue characters. The violent appropriation of Native land by white settlers was seen as an individual right in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, second only to freedom of speech.