Portside

Presidential action needed when 3.4 million Americans are living without electricity, 40% of them without potable water, and hundreds of thousands without shelter. When some 80% of its agricultural crops were wiped out. This is an apocalyptic scenario. We can't even know what is going on very much because there is no wifi most places. Some entire towns haven't been heard from! But this President tweets about football players who protest racism.

Frank Serpico, who testified against NYPD police corruption in 1972, joined more than 100 African American uniformed officers who demonstrated at a rally supporting NFL player Colin Kaepernick's objections to police abuse and inequality. "Kaepernick was not disrespecting the flag or our vets. I believe that Kaepernick was protesting a corrupt system of justice that allows some police to use excessive force, even the taking of innocent life, without consequences"

Reader Comments: From Louis Armstrong to the NFL - Michael Meeropol remembers; MLK was also called `Disruptive' and an `Agitator'; Eight-Year Old Football Players Kneel; My Flag - A poem by Seymour Joseph; Puerto Rico Calamity; Reproductive Health Care; Police Unions; Brazil; Resources; Announcements; and more....

Indian farmers - carrying the Red Flag of the Kisan Sabha and the Communist movement - used the technique of the mahapadav (sit in) to stop local governments from operating and to paralyze the state. This forced the neoliberal government to negotiate. Perhaps if the French workers hear about this struggle and its victory, it might inspire them in their own battles against anti-labor laws.

Portside readers continue to weigh in to The Vietnam War, PBS series by Burns and Novick, The impact of the war on the country, the role of the peace movement; and today the impact of discussion of the war and the new series on a country living in the "time of Trump".

On October 1, Catalonia will hold a referendum on independence from Spain. As the vote nears, the Spanish government is increasing its repression which is increasing the resistance amongst the Catalan population.

Stephen Greenblatt gives a new look into one of our civilization's origin myths and its role in the development of misogynist discourse.

“I knew that I had come from this very dark place — I was abhorrent to society,” said Michelle Jones, a Ph.D. candidate at N.Y.U. who was released from prison in August after serving 20 years. “But for 20 years, I’ve tried to do right, because I was still interested in the world, and because I didn’t believe my past made me somehow cosmically un-educatable forever.”

Mapping Social Movements Through the 20th Century, a project directed by Professor James N. Gregory, allows us to see where social movements were active and where not, helping us better understand patterns of influence and endurance. It exposes new dimensions of American political geography, showing how locales that in one era fostered certain kinds of social movements often changed political colors over time.

Willie Parker discusses his Christian faith, teen moms, and what’s next for abortion access.