Portside

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Writers once busy in prestigious magazines rationalizing war and torture are now confronting the obdurate pathologies of American life that stem from America’s original racial sin. Coates wonders why those once fierce in defending bloody imperial missions now embrace him for describing American power from the rare standpoint of its internal victims. Yet the danger for Coates is not so much seduction by power as a distorted perspective caused by proximity to it.

Power depends on correlation of strength. The bourgeoisie and its minions use the judicial power to suit their interests as if this was a monarchy, with no oversight by society. They trampled on the Constitution in order to reach their goals. The working class has only one space where it can exert its political power: mobilization on the streets.

Leaders from the women’s and civil-rights movements, labor unions, environmental-justice groups, the religious community and others announced plans to mobilize in Foley Square on Feb. 24 during a massive, nationwide day of action. The Working People’s Day of Action, convened by the workers’-rights organization Jobs With Justice, will include events in dozens of cities across the country, according to the New York State AFL-CIO.

Internet activity of all visa applicants, visa holders and green card holders is now tracked.

It has become clear that Chicago activists have the ability to rally allies on campuses nationwide for what once would have been a parochial concern.

The dramatic growth of YDSA chapters confirms that millennials don’t think capitalism is working for them.

100 Parkland students travelled 450 miles to the state capital while others at dozens of high schools walked out in support of #NeverAgain

This poet and this book have just won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award based at Claremont Graduate University. The prize is given to a mid-career poet, and is one of the top literary prizes given in the United States. It is a significant testament to the power of Smith's work. This review shows wide-ranging and powerful art that Patricia Smith practices.