Portside

History teaches us that sometimes an issue is so great that it should be the yardstick for measuring the wisdom of voting for or against the platform. And Medicare for All is that issue.

As part of America’s reckoning with its oppressive past, the nation now faces the question not just of what statues and other images should be taken down, but what else – if anything – should be put up in their place.

“After living 60 years…as a Black man from Jamaica,” writes poet Geoffrey Philp, “a DNA test … [revealed} my Jewish ancestry. I am astounded by the endurance of Nazi propaganda and the need for constant vigilance.”

Should activists sit this election out? Not if you believe in activism. The right tactical call for activists is to elect the politicians they're most able to cajole, persuade, and pressure. That means viewing politicians in a different light...

There would be far more elected officials like Jamaal Bowman and AOC, if New York complied with the new Party reforms. The Democratic National Convention’s Rules Committee voted unanimously to keep in place the small-d democratic reforms...

If the Trump administration is willing to spend trillions to bail out corporations, banks, and airlines, why is it not willing to put up the $400-500 billion necessary to ensure the safety of our nation’s schools, children, and educators?

Discussion article - Never in our lives have we experienced such a global phenomenon. COVID-19 attacks our physical bodies, but also the cultural foundations of our lives. COVID didn’t lay America low; it simply revealed what had long been forsaken.

Reader Comments: Defeat Trump, Defeat His Base, Elect Progressives; Kamala Harris and another VP candidate - Charlotta Bass; COVID; Danger - October Surprise with Iran or China; Matt Herron - R.I.P.; Republican Voters Against Trump; Announcements

The pandemic crisis necessitates the need for solidarity among the working class. A revival of trade unions, focusing on new strategies that can fully adapt to the dynamics of India’s informal economy, is vital for building up this solidarity. 

Labor journalist John Swinton visited the Marx family on vacation in Southern England and wrote this dispatch showing Marx in his last years - no less astute, productive and committed to the class struggle than at any time in his adult life.