Archive | Portside

MEMORIAL DAY MASSACRE: Workers Die, Film Buried

May 12, 2023

Film explores the tragic, but largely forgotten, 1937 incident in Chicago when police shot 40 steel workers and supporters (mainly in the back) and killed ten of them. Commentary by Studs Terkel, Howard Zinn, and Gore Vidal.

Native Americans Demand Accountability | Retro Report

May 12, 2023

Native Americans demand accountability for a federal policy that aimed to erase Indigenous culture. Lesson plan for educators, coming soon.

Where Are All the Denisovans?

May 12, 2023

In 2010 geneticists uncovered an entirely new branch of human evolution, which they called the Denisovans. Today I make the argument we have found them. Source.

May 12, 2023

This Is What Would Happen if Biden Ignores the Debt Ceiling and Calls McCarthy’s Bluff

Robert Hockett The New York Times

The current debt ceiling nonsense is a case of one faction of Congress being pitted against Congress itself. It's time to end this absurdity.

May 12, 2023

‘The Forever Prisoner’: Abu Zubaydah’s Drawings Expose the Depraved US Torture Policy

Ed Pilkington The Guardian

For 21 years, the Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah has been in US custody without charge, tortured and sexually humiliated, with no prospect for release.

May 12, 2023

HomeVestors Praised ProPublica’s Reporting, Then Tried To “Bury It”

Anjeanette Damon, Byard Duncan and Mollie Simon ProPublica

The “We Buy Ugly Houses” company held a virtual meeting for its franchises to outline a plan to “minimize visibility” of our investigation.

May 12, 2023

Lessons From Barcelona’s 8-Year Experiment in Radical Governance

Mark Engler and Paul Engler Waging Nonviolence

Activists who took over Barcelona’s City Hall have made lasting progressive gains, while also confronting the limits of being in power.

May 12, 2023

Labor Organizers Launch a New Model for the Fight Against Private Equity

Derek Seidman Truthout

Photo of a trader at work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Workers are fighting back against private equity — the ruthless industry that strips and flips companies for profit.

May 12, 2023

I Am Not a Robot

Lisa Allen Ortiz Bennington Review

Not a robot, suggests poet Lisa Allen Ortiz. Prove it and she deftly does.

May 11, 2023

Weaponizing the Debt Limit Should Not Be Normalized

Josh Bivens and Samantha Sanders Economic Policy Institute

President Biden should do “whatever it takes” to avoid an economic catastrophe. House GOP-led efforts are to blame for the impending debt crisis. In 2011, the GOP’s demands for massive spending cuts sabotaged the Great Recession recovery.