Portside

“A veritable tour de force in archival and oral history documenting 1950s Cuban worker activism, and in the process, compelling us to revisit the nature and extent of the role of labour in the Cuban Revolution then, and now.” Professor Emerita Jean Stubbs, Queens University, UK, author, Tobacco on the Periphery: A Case Study in Cuban Labour History and Cuba: The Test of Time.

The Haitian Revolution sowed fear in the hearts of Cuba's slaveholding class. In Freedom's Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution, historian Ada Ferrer undertakes a comprehensive evaluation of the impact made by the Haitian Revolution on Cuba, then still a Spanish colony located only fifty miles from Haiti's western sea borders.

Changes are happening and the Cubans are trying to figure out how to accommodate them within a socialist framework.

On December 17, 2014, the U.S. and Cuba announced the restoration of diplomatic relations, and the U.S. abandoned its 55-year effort at regime change through political isolation and economic sanctions. One year later, however, difficult questions regarding relations with Cuba remain unanswered and unaddressed. And how will relations be normalized when what has constituted “normal” for 200 years has been the presumption of U.S. entitlement to impose its will on Cuba?

Reader Comments: Donald Trump - Anti-Muslim policies are steeped in racism, anti-communism and fascism; Chicago - CITYWIDE WALK OUT PART 2!! Rahm Emanuel & Anita Alvarez Must Resign - Friday, Dec. 18; End of Jewish History?; The Wal-Mart Effect; Kohler strike; Barbara Ehrenreich, working class, race, class, and privilege; Lincoln Brigade; Climate Change and Oil Wars; Cuba; The Big Short; Multicultural trip to Cuba; No Tidbits for next three weeks

President Obama has the constitutional power to shut down the prison there and return Guantanamo to Cuba.

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

Millions of Americans believe that President Obama has normalized relations with Cuba and ended over 50 years of US efforts to strangle its economy. They might have been puzzled when the United States stood up against every other nation save one, in opposing the UN General Assembly resolution that passed, 191-2, on October 27, 2015.

Reader Comments: Sanders Ignites a Populist Movement; How Sanders Should Talk About Democratic Socialism - readers offer differing views; Clinton and Labor Support; Argentina; Indonesia and the Act of Killing; Vera B. Williams and Children's Literature; A Progressive Song To Tap Your Feet To! from Kristin Lems; Announcements: Paul Robeson Play - More Performances - Hackettstown, NJ; Cuba Speaks for Itself - New York- Nov 4; Washington, DC- Nov 7; Bay Area- Nov. 13

Reader Comments: Refugee Crisis, Solidarity and Worker Rights; Radical Roots of Great Grape Strike and the United Farmworkers; Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders; Woman Held in Mental Health Facility Because Police Didn't Believe Her; Rhiannon Giddens and Old-Time Music's Black Roots; Announcements - New York and Los Angeles - Greece,Spain, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Cuba