Portside

The chaos in the Middle-east which has led to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing ISIL’s barbarous rule is the result of fifteen years of Western interventionism. How can France ever take a convincing stand against ISIL while claiming to be the main ally, and provider of fighter planes, to the Gulf monarchies. The real question, to which French diplomacy has so far given no convincing answer, is not how to win the war but how to put an end to it.

Is contemporary altruism the new activism? Or is it what writer Teju Cole once called an iteration of a "White Savior Industrial Complex"? Ashley Karlin takes up these complicated questions in this review of Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World, by scientist-turned-Buddhist philosopher Matthieu Ricard. The answers, she suggests, may have as much to do with questions of power as with the desire to do good.

On Wednesday, the Chicago City Council voted on a resolution to reaffirm the City's "status as a sanctuary city, and its commitment to remain a place of sanctuary and refuge for refugees from all around the world."

Equity, Growth and Community, a new book by Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor

California is facing the gravest threat to its natural beauty on record but many of us view the state’s expanded fire season as a cyclical anomaly – a belief sometimes spread by the mainstream media. To climate and environmental scientists, a new kind of fire and the expanded fire season are evidence that global warming is creating a new and vastly expanded fire danger to the West.

Speech broadcast Saturday, Nov. 14, to the TEDxHavana conference on the Cuba-United States normalization process. More than two thousand attended.

Please join us for our next national HangOut, which is being jointly hosted by LeftRoots with the former Left Strategies network. Featuring special guests M Adams and Biju Mathew on left strategies for liberation! Together we will discuss what we mean by ‘transformational strategy’, why it is crucial and how we can move forward together to build a movement that wins!

A 26 person delegation from the All Okinawa Council visited Washington, DC November 19 and 20 to ask members of the U.S. Congress to use their power to stop the construction of runway for the U.S. Marine base at Henoko into the pristine waters of the South China Sea. The delegation is concerned about the environmental impact of the new facilities and the continued militarization of their island.

Prior to the Boston Globe’s investigation, the sexual abuse of minors by priests was one of the Catholic Church’s worst-kept secrets. Spotlight's telling of the Church’s sex abuses reminds viewers how good, honest journalism has the power to transform a community.

The terrorists' target; Why transphobia won in Houston; Justice vs free speech?; Mormons walk away; White suicide and racism