Portside

Reader Comments: Obama changes course on Social Security due to primary campaign and sharp debates - thank you Bernie; Muhammad Ali remembered; Voter Repression; Reason right is on the rise - is it beginnings of fascism?; New York labor activism - teachers, taxi drivers, B&H workers solitary June 14; radical leisure and denial of summer vacations; opposition to Gov. Coumo anti-BDS executive orders - smacks of McCarthyism; Dixie Chicks new tour hits out on Trump; more...

Passed into law in 1940, the Smith Act made it illegal to "teach, advocate or encourage the overthrow" of the government and extended to any member of an organization that allegedly did so. The notion that in 1956 the Communist Party was interested in, let alone capable of, overthrowing anything was patently absurd. From a 1940's peak of around 80,000, the CP's national membership had dwindled to perhaps 10,000 by the time of the hearings in Connecticut.

There's evidence some of it is illegal - and activists agree that Washington's colonial control over the island's economy helped create the crisis. We are urging members of Congress to put the people of Puerto Rico first and oppose H.R. 5278 as currently written, said SEIU 32BJ President Hector Figueroa. We need a real solution and Congress must get back to work immediately to provide a path forward that allows Puerto Rico to negotiate a feasible debt restructuring plan.

Branko Milanovic offers us not just a plethora of facts about income inequality but brings them into a sound and rigorous global perspective, showing that what are too often treated as isolated national issues are on a world scale income massively maldistributed. While some nations saw the growth of a middle strata (China, for one) the real increase in world income is owned by the unprecedented 50-percent rise in incomes for the top 1 percent globally.

Executive orders are meant to avert imminent or existential crises that cannot await legislation. It's as if we are being asked to believe that BDS is some deplorable enemy endangering our very existence as a free society, and that only those who really care, take action on behalf of the rest of us, who have not yet awoken to the grim reality. For Cuomo, fighting this fight on behalf of Israel is all about "freedom, liberty and democracy".

As Clinton’s speech recognized, a Trump presidency promises an unprepared, dangerous foreign policy. But her refusal to engage with the real, robust alternative offered by Sanders may say more about her own war-driven foreign policy than anything else.

The Democratic establishment wants Sanders and his supporters to report for duty and line up behind Clinton — to put aside their dreams and enlist. Sanders and his supporters are building a political movement both inside and outside the Democratic Party. They have their own agenda. But while this country needs change far more profound than anything Clinton champions, defeating Trump is essential to the progress of that movement.

It seems that if you are a distinguished citizen of the most exceptional country on the planet, even war crimes have their rewards. Consider, for instance, the millions of dollars that were paid for memoirs by top Bush administration officials responsible for creating an American offshore torture regime at CIA “black sites” around the world. Must-reads all! Rebecca Gordon considers what “justice” for such figures might look like in a different and better world.

Dr. Nadine Naber explores Black-Palestinian solidarity in this excerpt from her forthcoming article in the Critical Ethnic Studies Association journal, Volume 3, Issue 2.

To accommodate workers’ tight schedules, “we had to be creative,” said Rodríguez. Trainings took place after work, often in the nearby Laundry Worker Center office, with small groups of six to eight workers, sometimes running from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m.