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.

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January 24, 2021

Thousands of Illinois Drivers Would Get Their Licenses Back Under a Criminal Justice Reform Bill

Melissa Sanchez ProPublica

If Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs the measure that lawmakers passed this week, motorists will no longer lose their licenses for unpaid red-light and speed camera tickets.

January 24, 2021

Chicago Teachers Are Voting on Whether to Defy Monday's Reopening Order

Barbara Madeloni Labor Notes

If CTU were to strike over reopening schools, it would be a safety strike.

January 24, 2021

Introduction to Budget “Reconciliation”

Richard Kogan, David Reich Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

In the Senate, reconciliation bills aren’t subject to filibuster and the scope of amendments is limited, giving this process real advantages for enacting controversial budget and tax measures.

January 24, 2021

One Good Thing: FX’s A Teacher Depicts A Teacher and Student’s Affair With Pain Intact

Emily VanDerWerff Vox

FX’s A Teacher unmasks itself as a condemnation of a storytelling trope too often characterized as innocent, sexy fun.

January 23, 2021

Auf Wiedersehen to Mike Pence, the Franz von Papen of the Trump Administration

Bill Mosley Outside the Box: Beyond the Conventional Wisdom

Pence tried to have it both ways, to inherit the mantle of both old-line conservatism and Trump’s toxic brand of white-nationalist demagoguery. The chances are he’ll gain neither. This verdict of his Nuremburg is likely to be political oblivion.

January 23, 2021

France Vows 'Symbolic Actions' but No Apologies for Colonization of Algeria

Adlène Meddi Middle East Eye

Algerians arrested in 1956 during the war of independence from France.

While a new French report highlights moves to reconcile Paris and Algiers on 132 violent years of colonization, some thorny issues remain, not the least of which is France’s refusal to apologize for its wrongdoings during its brutal colonial rule.

January 23, 2021

Social Security Transition Report For The Biden Administration

Social Security Works Social Security Works

While important for everyone, Social Security benefits are particularly important to women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and others who have suffered discrimination.

January 23, 2021

Experts Tell Biden Key Environmental Priorities for the South

Carly Berlin Southerly Magazine

A protester seeks to block the Byhalia Connection Oil Pipeline in southwest Memphis, TN.

Southern community leaders, environmental activists and lawyers, discuss the most urgent environmental issues the Biden Administration should tackle, including environmental justice, industrial pollution, government transparency, and disaster aid.

January 23, 2021

Opening the Door to a More Democratic UAW

Nelson Lichtenstein Labor Notes

More important, the agreement calls for a vote of all 400,000 members to decide whether they want direct election of top leaders.

January 23, 2021

'Lord of the Flies,' Revisited

Jim Hightower Common Dreams

In striving to institute a culture of justice, it's self-defeating to assume humankind is innately selfish, as Golding did in "Lord of the Flies." Rather, we should rally the majority, appealing to their natural instincts for an egalitarian society.