Portside

1. From Republic to Reich, Brick by Brick
2. Historians Challenged and Fighting Back
3. Working Class Brooklyn Stands for Palestine
4. ICE Raids Are Targeting Asian Immigrants Too
5. MA Bill Pushes Back Against Gender Attacks
6. Blacklist is Back
7. Japan or Krypton, Dean Cain Ain’t ICE Material
8. Baiting Mamdani
9. Building Trades Unions Divided 
10. Disability Cultural Center in SF

From Republic to Reich, Brick by Brick

By David Corn
Mother Jones

It’s been a long-term desire of right-wingers to smash the state and disempower these public servants—and make way for an economically libertarian and socially conservative regime that, in the case of Trump, would be ruled by an autocrat. Government would no longer have the potential to be a countervailing force to the power of corporate interests and wealth. 

Historians Challenged and Fighting Back

 • What If History Died By Sanctioned Ignorance?   By David W. Blight, The New Republic

 • Showdown at the American Historical Association   By Daniel Falcone, CounterPunch
 

Working Class Brooklyn Stands for Palestine

By Joe Maniscalco
Work-Bites

New Yorkers increasingly outraged at the “deliberate” and “systemic” starvation of Palestinian families in Gaza—and the U.S. role in perpetuating the slaughter—shut down traffic at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn on Sunday, resulting in the arrest of 17 refusing to abandon the protest.

ICE Raids Are Targeting Asian Immigrants Too

By Julian Do
American Community Media

Raids targeting Asian immigrants are occurring in garment and fashion wholesale shops, shopping centers, massage parlors, nightclubs, restaurants and grocery stores across California, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Washington and Minnesota. Asian immigrants have also faced quiet arrests at workplaces, at courthouses and during routine check-ins with immigration authorities.

MA Bill Pushes Back Against Gender Attacks

By Alison Kuznitz and Colin A. Young
WBUR

Surrounded by health care advocates and curious tourists peering into Nurses Hall, Gov. Maura Healey signed an expanded shield law Thursday giving patients and providers in Massachusetts a new layer of defense against out-of-state intrusion into reproductive and transgender care.

Blacklist is Back

WR Immigration

The U.S. Department of State has significantly revised the Foreign Affairs Manual which provides guidance to consular officials to implement a stricter interpretation of the law which bars immigrant visa issuance to members and affiliates of the Communist Party or any “totalitarian” party. 

Japan or Krypton, Dean Cain Ain’t ICE Material

By Eboni Boykin-Patterson
Daily Beast

Margaret Cho ripped MAGA Superman Dean Cain for becoming ICE Barbie’s sidekick in a new recruitment video for the DHS, telling him pointedly, “You’ll never be white.” The comedian argued Cain, whose Japanese ancestors were held in internment camps, was “dumb” for joining ICE’s deportation efforts.

Baiting Mamdani

By Benjamin Balthaser
Spectre

The Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) logged in nearly seven thousand Islamophobic social media posts about Zohran Mamdani, generating tens of millions of views and engagements. While socialist politicians such as Jamaal Bowman or Bernie Sanders have certainly incurred the wrath of the ruling class, neither have been subjected to such vitriol or calls for state violence. 

[Portside clarification: Rev. Al Sharpton has not yet endorsed, but has not denounced Mamdani as stated here. Sharpton has advised Mamdani to avoid anti-Israel rhetoric -- which has not been used by Mamdani. Rep. Ritchie Torres denounced Mamdani, but has since endorsed him.]

Building Trades Unions Divided

By Natascha Elena Uhlmann and Keith Brower Brown
Jacobin

The Trump administration is attacking jobs and wages in the building trades, as well as the rights of immigrant workers. Building trades unions have been divided over whether to try to curry favor with the president or confront the attacks head-on.

Disability Cultural Center in SF

By Jason Beal
ABC7

In 1977, over 100 disabled activists occupied a federal building in San Francisco for nearly a month, demanding their civil rights be recognized. Today, that same spirit of resistance and community lives on through the opening of a new disability cultural center mere steps away from the site of that famous protest.