Portside

The battle before, during and after the election

Reader Comments: Israel-Gaza War - Calling for Ceasefire, Stopping the Bombing, Freeing the Hostages, Responses to Portside posts; Healthcare Today; How to take action in solidarity with UAW members on strike; Announcements; more....

Reader Comments: Clarence Thomas Lived Large Thanks to Nazi Worshipper; GOP Expels Black Representatives for ‘Representing While Black; Ukraine War, NATO; Bill Fletcher Jr.'s new crime novel; Celebrate The Legacy of Charlene Mitchell;

The players who make America’s pastime possible have had enough of dismal working conditions, and they’re organizing to change them.

Why reject a safe states strategy? Some might claim doing so can't help Trump win again or that Trump's re-election would not matter all that much. We hope that no one in 2020 will make such irresponsible and patently false claims.

Bill Fletcher's post on the recent midterm elections and what progressives need to do, in order to win, sparked a number of reader responses. Fletcher drew on lessons from the elections, and past elections, putting forward a call for progressives to effect politics that can improve the lives of the majority in our country. Below is a long post from Jonathan Nack, a response from Ed Hunt, further comment from David Schwartzman, and a note from Portside Moderator.

[This is] a paper presented as an argument for a position. It is not presented as a final position. It is, instead, inspired by the content of the February Left Strategies web discussion on the labor movement. This paper does not try to present the ideal tactics or all elements of strategy. It does, however, attempt to identify--for purposes of discussion--issues and concepts for consideration in the development of a full-blown left labor strategy. Feedback is welcomed.

Thus, organizing a union really must be a community affair.

... if the candidate has a real mass base, is building a broad progressive front around a clear, transformational program, and sees the candidacy as one step in a multitiered process, then it might be worth going for it.

Last month, a small delegation of African American artists traveled through Israel and Palestine to get a firsthand look at the daily lives of Palestinians. What they saw shocked and angered them, and their eyewitness accounts are sure to spark debate here as heated as any confrontation in the Middle East. Bill Fletcher Jr., senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, led the delegation and shares his perspective on the region.