Portside

The phone bank on Florence Avenue near Western is fully staffed on a Thursday afternoon. Its 20 callers could be hawking solar paneling or copper water pipes to anyone who answers. Instead, the men and women here are selling change in the most populous city in the most populous state in the nation. On this day, shortly before the election, they are contacting potential voters about three of California’s 17 ballot propositions.

For decades, the military and the VA have repeatedly turned to one man to guide decisions on whether Agent Orange harmed vets in Vietnam and elsewhere. His reliable answer: No.

The great insurgencies that brought back democracy to many countries in Latin America after decades of military dictatorship are now targets of growing assaults by police, military and private militias. From Honduras to Argentina, from Brazil to Colombia, labor, indigenous and black social movements are embattled. The governments’ criminalization of social movements is “legitimizing” death squads, murders and in some cases massacres.

Michael Eisenscher, National Coordinator Emeritus, U.S. Labor Against the War shares his thoughts on 2016 elections.

The vegetable photographs of Charles Jones are remarkable, being ahead of their time in still life photography, and presenting a very modern view with the careful framing and studio portraits.

The actions taken recently by law enforcement at the Dakota Access pipeline site have made it plain that the climate crisis cannot be adequately addressed until we come to terms with the history that climate change and the policing of communities of color share.

We're all trying to figure out the next steps. So many face immediate threats from both fascist-leaning Trump supporters and the far right Republican state in waiting. We and millions of other refuse to accept this...Portside contributes our best to find and share the most interesting and useful material we can aimed at remaking the world into a fairer and more peaceful place. Once a year, we appeal to readers to contribute - to help make all this possible.

The future of the sketch series Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace has become a political flashpoint for the subversive network.

As one union staffer told me: “What they seem to have missed is that the way to reach blacks, Latinos, and women is the same way you reach the white working class: progressive economics, and knock on their doors. And guess what? The allegedly ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’ white working class is cool with a multicultural coalition as long as you give them the progressive economics..."

Influenza kills around 36,000 people annually in the U.S. but they are the least effective of all our vaccines. The influenza virus is constantly changing, and there is a lot of guesswork involved in choosing which strains to use in each year’s vaccine.The benefit to the population depends on individuals getting the vaccine. They may not benefit personally, but they indirectly benefit others by reducing transmission rates in the community and increasing herd immunity.