Portside

The Democrats are the through-line in U.S. political history, which is the first reason we need to understand them. A second reason is that figuring out the left’s relationship to the Democratic Party is crucial for left strategy today.

At the same moment that Trump was riding his horse Xenophobe through a narrow passageway in the Electoral College to the presidency, California elected only Democrats..., extended progressive tax revenues and ...locked out anti-immigrant policy...

The movement we have been building across the country is propelling cohorts of new leaders, many of them women of color and queer and trans folks.

As I see it, the challenge ahead is to build progressive infrastructure everywhere we can, but especially in key states that were narrowly won by Trump in 2016 – Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania – and in key states such as North Carolina...

Jovanka Beckles, a two-term city councilor, county worker, and past Labor Notes Troublemakers School speaker, now advances to the November run-off for Assembly District 15, which includes Richmond, Berkeley, and part of Oakland.

The most important thing we need to be doing right now is organizing and movement building. Period. Dot com. No ifs, ands, or buts.

"We also have to be willing to keep telling our stories because when we have a seat at the table, we can bring stories of our communities to the forefront," said Myya Jones, a 23-year-old candidate for the Michigan State House.

The far right, racism, militarism, inequality, and poverty are all centered in the South. The majority of African Americans, the main protagonist of progressive politics in this country, live in the South. And the South has more electoral votes, battleground state votes, population, and congresspersons than any other region. The South is changing rapidly, giving rise to more progressive demographic groups - especially Black and Latino migrations...

Reader Comments: Time to Stop Honoring Traitors Who Fought for Slavery - Take Down ALL Symbols of Hate - Sign the petition; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Colin Kaepernick; Growing Up White in America - Unlearning the Myth of American Innocence; DSA's Convention - initial reader responses - what do you think?; Will Democrats Support Single-Payer in future elections; The Forgotten World of Communist Bookstores; lots of resources; and more....

Why the white worker theme is harmful. It’s a mistake to racialize an economy that harms the entire working class. What has happened to more whites now is that the market has moved past them as well. It took almost 40 years to get to this point, in the near term no recipe of policy fixes will sufficiently remedy the effects. Democrats need to focus on reversing those long-term trends, but also must have something to offer workers now.