Portside

The dead hand of grand fortunes past is still poisoning our present.

Essential workers need food stamps more than others. Non-white Americans are more likely to work in these essential yet low-paying jobs; over half of those who worked essential jobs and received SNAP benefits in 2018 were either Black or Latino.

These two books are helpful background sources for the issues involved in today's protests for black lives. Although each is a few years old, they are both worth a second look.

Reports and analyses from everywhere, as the world churns

While some in the labor movement are seeking to distance themselves, most are supportive even as they call for reforms.

So our message must be clear: Time’s up for Donald Trump! You will get blasted in the popular vote and crushed in the Electoral College.

Mary Stanton’s new book, Red, Black, White: The Alabama Communist Party, 1930–1950, helps recover this history through the story of one of the party’s most important sections: District 17, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.

James Loewen, a sociologist who taught at the University of Vermont, discovered thousands of sundown towns throughout the United States, including New England.

Biden’s unconditional support for Israel’s rightwing government is not only less and less popular among Americans, but it guarantees continued repression against Palestinians and continued unrest in the region.

Two recent documentaries, both now streaming, try to unpack the McCarthyite Trump-whisperer—progenitor of the postmodern political world we now inhabit.