Portside

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Rubble Bucket Challenge; Kids' artist hits profiling; White Ferguson betrays itself; Race/class in Silicon Valley; Cooper Union - Cooper vs. $; Klein's latest

Portside previously ran Mark Solomon's piece, Whither the Socialist Left - 2. Portside previously posted some of the comments received in Tidbits. Here are two, longer and more in depth responses by Duncan McFarland and Ethan Young. Portside welcomes additional reader responses, and will help further facilitate this discussion.

Portside previously ran Mark Solomon's piece, Whither the Socialist Left - 2. Portside previously posted some of the comments received in Tidbits. Here are two, longer and more in depth responses by Duncan McFarland and Ethan Young. Portside welcomes additional reader responses, and will help further facilitate this discussion.

Reader Comments - Detroit denied water access; Whither the Socialist Left? Round 2; Dead Young Men: Mississippi, Israel, Palestine; Music Changes the Way You Think; Whole Foods Busts Unions; SCOTUS; Harris v. Quinn; Education - Obama's Failed Approach; Karl Marx Is Making a Comeback; Verify Nuclear Weapons-With Math; Ruby Dee; Friday Nite Videos

Last year Portside published Whither the Socialist Left? Thinking the "Unthinkable", which created a lot of controversy, discussion and debate. Now, the author has written an update "Whither the Socialist Left? Round 2." Today he finds the broad progressive community remains largely fragmented, lacking a coherent overarching vision that would not only react to recurring crises, but offer ideas and values to guide and illuminate the road to more transforming change.

500 peopled attended the weekend Jackson Rising conference earlier this month, conceived of by Chokwe Lumumba. Making use of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to run as an independent in the Democratic primary, he defeated the incumbent and forced a runoff. Given that Jackson is an 80% Black city, he then won overwhelmingly. So when he died suddenly and his supporters in a state of shock, the opposition moved quickly to counterattack.

There's a growing population of people who have to make ridiculous choices between paying for food or paying for rent or paying for health care - basic necessities. There's actually a need for us right now to create a whole new generation of smart policies. The fight for raising the minimum wage and all these wage campaigns are actually part of creating a long-term vision around what economic democracy looks like and needs to be.

Historian Mark Solomon looks at the prospects for a new socialist left.