Portside

To combat violence you must look at the concrete inequities and practices that breed it. To protect expression that's endangered you have to engage with the substance of what was said, not deny it. That means attempting dialogue with those who peacefully condemn or disagree, not trying to shame them into silence. Nothing is quick, nothing is easy. I support free speech. I oppose all censors. I abhor the killings. I mourn the dead. I am not Charlie.

In an escalating dispute with President Obama, Republican in the United States House of Representatives passed a bill to cut any funding to the Department of Homeland Security for suspending the deportation of undocumented people. This bill rescinds Obama's 2014 orders for DHS to defer the deportation of undocumented immigrants with US-born children (who are US citizens) as well as suspend the deportation of undocumented young people brought to US as children.

A long-term alternative to war can only be built by popular movements in Iraq and Syria. These movements still matter, and they deserve our solidarity — not our bombs.The expanding U.S.-led war on the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS, has largely fallen off the radar of U.S. social movements. The answer to complexity is not to do nothing. With the great crimes and historic blunders — from Palestine to South Africa to Afghanistan — the task is to figure out what to do.

Initially facing 20 years in prison under Florida's "10-20-life" rule, Marissa Alexander's case focused national attention on the treatment of domestic abuse survivors by the justice system, particularly women of color, as well as Florida's mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

The court case could pose a major threat to public-sector unions whose clout grew in the 1970s after the high court upheld laws requiring all employees who benefit from collective bargaining to contribute to the union. Although teachers and other public workers may refuse to pay dues used to support a union's political activities, they can still be forced to pay a so-called "fair share" fee that covers operation costs.

An interview with historian Eric Foner about what it's like to teach the Civil War, what his experiences with teaching online have been like, and how history is made and interpreted.

Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected is a new report by the African American Policy Forum and Columbia Law School’s Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies. The report is based on a new review of national data and personal interviews with young women in Boston and New York.

Oil workers belonging to the United Steel Workers of America put-up picket lines in Northern California, Texas, Kentucky and Washington State this week. It has been 35 years since Tony Mazzocchi helped lead a strike against big oil.

Three articles on the USW strike of oil workers at nine different refineries. This is the first big strike of oil workers in thirty years.

Vicente Navarro writes on the growth of Podemos and his role in shaping the party’s economic programme. He argues that the anti-austerity and pro-democracy narrative put forward by Podemos has deeply resonated with the Spanish electorate, and that the party now poses a major threat to the Spanish political establishment.