Portside

Congratulations to Columbia University student activists in the group, Columbia Prison Divest, who successfully launched a campaign protesting their school's investment in private prisons. Columbia University will sell its roughly 220,000 shares in G4S, the world's largest private security firm, as well as its shares in the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the U.S.

Divestment won’t move Exxon Mobil directly — that’s impossible; the company is dug in, and someone else will simply buy the stock when it’s sold. But divestment will undercut the industry’s political power, just as happened a generation ago when the issue was South Africa.

2014 was the year of the vicious Israeli massacre of Palestinians in the Gaza strip. It was also a year of unprecedented international solidarity with Palestine, and huge steps forward for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. The Israeli paper, Haaretz says BDS is now the top issue for American Jews.

Reader Comments - Iraq; Ruby Dee; Cecily McMillan and Wall Street; Ukraine; Detroit Shuts Off Water to Thousands; Working Families Party; Civil Rights Movement; Children's Literature and Diversity; Common Core; Testing; Support Philly Jewish school teachers; Gabriel Kolko; Hatriot Politics and Las Vegas Killers; Argentina and US Banks; The Presbyterian Church and Divestment; Net Neutrality; Historic Slave Cemetery Bulldozed In Houston; Freedom Summer 2014

The financial infrastructure of the new economy is under-developed. Waiting for Wall Street to deliver the financial instruments we need for a sustainable economy is like waiting for Exxon to build the renewable energy system we need to avert climate catastrophe. It is not going to happen. The movement needs to be equally focused on moving capital out of fossil fuels and into the new economy as it is readying the economy to absorb this new flow of capital.

In 2005, Palestinian civil society issued a call for a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights. A truly global movement against Israeli Apartheid is rapidly emerging in response to this call. What is the genius of the BDS movement?

Climate Change crossroads - Super-Typhoon Haiyan, possibly the strongest such storm ever to hit land; Australia, elected a climate-change denialist as prime minister is experiencing its hottest year on record; the rest of the world is living through the seventh warmest year on record. And...young activists organizing a growing campaign to pressure universities and colleges to divest from the giant energy companies, to change the mood and calculations of our moment.

“We will not rest, until you divest.”

Increasingly, the rabid far-right 'pro-Israel' camp is carrying out repulsive, hate-filled attacks on Jews whose most cherished wish is to see a stronger, more democratic Israel. It is time to take a stand. The celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking became embroiled in a deepening furor today over his decision to boycott a prestigious conference in Israel in protest over the state's occupation of Palestine.