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Trump and Russia - Readers Respond to Recent Portside Posts

Pittman; Atkins; Fuller; Smith; Gugliotta; Stand; Lowe; Portside
Portside readers have weighed in, as you often do, on the issue of Trump, Putin, Russia, the revival of a new-Cold War, and foreign interference in our electoral process. Here a number of readers, including some Portside moderators, express their individual views, on what they feel should be the position of the left, for democracy, and opposed to militarism, increases in the military budget, and re-vamped calls for a new-nuclear laden Cold War against Russia.

Paul Robeson's Songs and Deeds Light the Way for the Fight Against Trump

Jeff Sparrow The Guardian
The great American radical showed how ordinary people mattered more than stars - a lesson today's celebrities could do with learning. These are strange times for popular music and politics. On the one hand, the opposition to Donald Trump now extends so deeply into the entertainment industry that the president struggled to find any real talent willing to play his inauguration.

Solidarity with Immigrants or Welcome to the Police State of America; California Example: Training - Solidarity and Defense Against Immigration Raids

Bill Boyarsky; David Bacon Truthdig
President Donald Trump wants to impose a police state on undocumented immigrants. Workplace raids - sometimes called 'silent raids' - have been a mainstay of immigration enforcement, will likely ramp up. Now - predawn raids, arrests and deportation of undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of the most minor criminal offenses, and stops of dark-complexioned motorists and pedestrians - will become the norm, in the new anti-immigrant policy to be soon rolled out.

How Immigrants Built the American Left—And Can Build It Again

Nelson Lichtenstein Dissent Magazine
If and when a twenty-first-century left comes into being, immigrants—whether freshly arrived or one or two generations in—will be at the heart of it. A path to citizenship for all those now rendered vulnerable by their resident status is essential to building a more pluralistic, multicultural society. Yet a new left must go further, not merely defending the civil liberties of these new Americans but seeking to give them a new power and a new voice.

Fighting voter ID laws in the courts isn't enough. We need boots on the ground

Molly J. McGrath Los Angeles Times
Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have focused on challenging voter ID mandates in court. That’s essential, but it’s not enough. As court battles proceed, we must acknowledge our collective obligation to voters by investing in on-the-ground, in-person support.

When Stuart Hall was White

James Vernon Public Books
Stuart Hall, the Jamaican immigrant who became one of the premier left wing intellectuals in the United Kingdom during the last half century, was a pioneering theorist on the rise of the right wing in modern politics, an major exponent of postcolonial theory, and a founder of Cultural Studies as an academic discipline. In this ironically titled review of two new important books of Hall's writing, Vernon offers a compelling portrait of this important figure.

‘The Salesman’: Will Academy Members Give it an Oscar To Protest Trump?

Anne Thompson Indie Wire
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who won an Oscar in 2012 for “A Separation” and whose second Oscar-nominated film, “The Salesman” is playing on more than 65 screens and could pass the $1 million mark this weekend, grabbed a lot of press when he canceled his plans to attend the February 26th Oscars ceremony following President Donald Trump’s 90-day visa ban for citizens from seven Muslim countries, including Iran.