Information is power. Our mission at Portside is to seek out and to provide information that empowers you -- that empowers the left. Every day we search hundreds of sources to connect you with the most interesting, striking and useful material. Just once a year we appeal to you to contribute to make it possible to continue this work. Please help.

 

Archives

For posts before June 2012, please follow these links to our archives.

Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun and the Imminent Rerecording War

Eriq Gardner Hollywood Reporter
From the artist standpoint, the influx of private equity into the music business raises the temperature as well. Swift may have hit an industry nerve by pointing to how the Carlyle Group financed Braun's acquisition of Big Machine.

Here nor There

Clint Smith Adroit Journal
The poet Clint Smith, born and raised in New Orleans, writes from a wistful perspective of the city “kept from becoming.”

Fascism in Multiple Translations

Yuliya Komska Boston Review
Far-rightists glorify one nation united under one language, yet are adept at using translation to spread their politics. E-commerce behemoths like Amazon allow fascism in translation the reach and veneer of a successful global business venture.

“We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now”:

Thomas J. Adams Labor: Studies in Working-Class History
This book is a must-needed introduction to the rising international labor movement against the neoliberal wage and labor regime.

The Cranberry Caucus is Insanely Powerful

Dan Nosowitz Modern Farmer
You may not know that there is such a thing as the Congressional Cranberry Caucus.
...the cranberry industry is saying that it is unfair for them to have to correctly label their added sugars, because a product, like raisins naturally have a high sugar content, and thus (correctly) do not need to use the “added sugar” phrasing.

Redlining

Ashley M. Jones Steel Toe Review
The Alabama-based poet Ashley M. Jones has a thing or two to say about “redlining” (aka housing discrimination).

Why is the Workplace a Dictatorship?

Eric Dirnbach Organizing Work
A deep dive into why our workplaces are authoritarian private governments—and why we can't see it.