Tidbits-Sept. 10: Reader Comments: New Nazis Win in German State Elections; Portside’s Gloria Steinem’s Final Essay; ICE Horrors Continue; Three Book Launches: Red Lives; Mahmoud Khalil’s No Land To Stand on; Angela Y. Davis, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Reader Comments: New Nazis Win in German State Elections; Portside's Gloria Steinem's Final Essay; ICE Horrors Continue; Three Book Launches: Red Lives; Mahmoud Khalil's No Land to Stand On; Angela Y. Davis, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor; and more....

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Tidbits - Reader Comments, Announcements and cartoons - Sept. 10, 2026 | Portside

 

Announcements:





 

Re: Gloria Steinem's Final Essay
 

I am posting this piece because i think that it is important and helps us get context.  I have been astonished by the purist, cancelist attacks on Steinem that ignore the totality of her life and work.  If you don't want to read this, please keep going.  If you are pissed with me for posting this, you can un-friend me.  I could not care less.  But I am posting this anyway.  I am sick and tired of the ultraleft purism that is destroying any chance we have of defeating the fascists and building for a progressive future; a purism that believes that only those who share 98% (maybe 97%) of our beliefs are worthy.  In any case, and to borrow from another great writer, I am submitting this for your consideration:

Bill Fletcher Jr.
Posted on Facebook

     =====

I spoke to Steinem's legacy in my social movements class on Thursday. I told my students that I had been on the other side of various questions with her, and that there were people in the women's liberation struggle who were critical of her from the outset, but that she had been a profoundly important and often brilliant figure in the broader movement. And then I came home to find my social media feeds filled with what so obviously is a troll farm-generated effort to stir up divisions. Eyes on the prize.

Ben Manski
Posted on Facebook

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)

     =====

If by "troll farm" you mean the American Left, that's accurate.

Daraka Larimore-Hall
Posted on Facebook

     =====

To do diligence as a "source of "material of interest to the Left", you really need to post Jacobin's fine piece by Jennie Brown on "Gloria Steinem Was the Godmother of Neoliberal Feminism." 

I assure you it's much more interesting than the New Yorker piece.

Carol Hanisch

     =====

Portside missed the main story of Gloria Steinem's career. If interested, I covered it here:

"GLORIA STEINEM: The Inconvenient Reality Behind The Feminist Icon" ... "
Despite her public image, her private life was a stark contrast to her radical role."

Mark Taylor

     =====

Thank you very much. As noted above, the ultra left attacks by mostly men and now featured in a Jacobin hit piece ignore Steinem’s enormous contributions to women of all backgrounds . I think they reveal the deep discomfort many men have with women’s efforts to achieve a modicum of equality.

Nora Lapin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Could not agree more.

Elena Antonia Mora
Posted on Facebook

     =====

Thank you for posting this. The vitriol has come mainly from men. The leftist purity has been a smokescreen for the worst male chauvinist misogynist crud I have ever seen.

How can anyone argue that fighting for equal rights for women doesn’t help “working class women”? I have worked as a psychotherapist FOR A SALARY in healthcare settings for most of my life. I didn’t own the clinics and doctors I worked for. Does the fact that I had advanced degrees mean that I was not “ working class “?

These so- called lefty purists are the ones that have bought into the myth that income level determines class, and thus denies that it is the relationship to the means of production that determines class

They have bought into the myth that “ middle income “ equates with the ownership of the means of production

I join you in your disgust

Thank you again

Jeanne H. Ross
Posted on Facebook

     =====

Ultra purist leftists. So sick of that refrain. Bc of course it’s purist leftists who got Trump elected & not failed centrist Dems? Bc of course it’s purist leftists who got Roe overturned.

Damn … if we only had fewer purist leftists the whole MAGA fascist movement would just collapse.

And of course if the deluded purist leftists would just stop criticizing American heroes

FDR … great guy, love the New Deal but hush … don’t talk about the racist sexist compromises with Dixiecrats to get Social Security

Lincoln … great guy, freed enslaved people. But nah, lets not hang a confederate generals.

Susan Feiner
Posted on Facebook

     =====

Diunital view, not dichotomous.

The CIA connection is part of Gloria Steinem's legacies. She was a strident anticommunist, and her feminism and other POVs were affected by that. She could champion "easy" anti-imperialist opposition to U.S. foreign policy---Southeast Asia, Chile, Grenada, apartheid, Iran---but ignore the difficult ones: Indonesia . . . The Dominican Republic.

Those realities coexist with her numerous, invaluable "goods."

Ronald A. Tyson
Posted on Facebook

     =====

PURIST ? CANCELLIST ? HUH? WHAT ? “In my experience, The Agency was completely different from its image; it was liberal, nonviolent and honorable." THAT IS what Agent Gloria said of the CIA --------- and she loved her some US war criminals, did she not ? Albright, Killary, Kissinger ---

Penelope Mace
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Let's make this a teaching moment! Have we forgotten how enmeshed US liberalism was with anticommunism and the Cold War in the 1950s and early 1960s? And hey, that might mean cooperating or taking funds with the US national security state, e.g., the CIA. This includes people we remember as "activists." Many of our most iconic figures with, for example, the NAACP and the AFL-CIO had ties with FBI and/or CIA figures and operations. Read about the early days of SDS--they were under pressure to toe the liberal establishment's anticommunist line. So was SNCC. And SNCC's rejection of that pressure was decisive. Read James Forman's account. The CIA was particularly concerned with overseas Americans. Ask Richard Wright. In the 1970s James Baldwin looked back ruefully and noted that in 1956 he was "covering, for Encounter (or for the CIA) the first International Conference of Black Writers and Artists, at the Sorbonne, in Paris."

Martha Biondi
Posted on Facebook

     =====

Here’s a good response, in Gloria Steinem’s own words to those, primarily from the puritanical left (and mostly men without the least bit of self-awareness), who have cast scorn on Steinem before she was even buried in the ground. I’m guessing most haven’t read a lick of her writings or studied the advances for women’s equality with her involvement and leadership. The arc of her remarkable life was to remake this diverse world into one of full equality, gender and racial and justice for all. RIP.

John Bachtel
Posted on Facebook



 

Best Labor Day Cartoon  --  Matt Wuerker
 

 


Matt Wuerker
September 1, 2026
Politico
 



 

Re: A Casualty of a Cruel Immigration Policy
 

simply horrible

Howard Krosnick



 

Re: On Looking Over My Shoulder for ICE
 

This is excellent. And so moving.

Nelson Lichtenstein



 

Mike Johnson believes in the divine right of kings  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Ann Telnaes
 

The Speaker serves only Trump


After the Labor Day holiday and the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, Congress will return for only four days before heading back to their districts to campaign for the midterms. Guess it doesn’t matter that Congress isn’t working since Speaker Johnson isn’t doing his job and letting Trump spend taxpayer money for his vanity projects without congressional approval anyway.

Ann Telnaes
September 5, 2026
Open Windows- Ann Telnaes
 



 

Re: Hegseth Must Go – if Trump Won’t Fire Him, Congress Must Impeach Him
 

Get rid of all of them

Karen Lee Wald

     =====

Hegseth is how we get out of Iran.

The story is that Hegseth betrayed Trump by lying to him, giving him bad advice, promising a victory he can't deliver, and this is making Trump look bad. It should not only be effective, it is true.

Jim Hess




 

Re: Where Hatred Lies
 

This is cold. Read it.

Ethan Young
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

All too true. As a secular Jew who believes that Israel is committing genocide, the self-righteous defense of Israel’s genocide by primarily New York Jews makes me absolutely furious.

Nora Lapin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Omer Bartov, our hero and my erstwhile colleague. A great human being.

Paul Buhle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page




 

Re: I Refused To Train the AI That Could Replace Me
 

"Here's a shovel. Dig your grave."

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on Portside's Facebook page




 

Re: The Sewer Socialists Were Pragmatic Class Warriors
 

Did the City of Milwaukee have a public bank, similar to the U.S. Postal Savings Bank?

Tell me what changed for Milwaukee after 1960?

What utilities became public in addition to water and sanitation services?

I have an observation: the television show "Happy Days" provides no lessons; there was no sense of community in the story, except that Lavern and Shirley had decent union jobs at the bottling factory.

Peter Nickitas, attorney, Conover, WI




 

Lake America Straight Ahead  --  Cartoon by The Daily Nurk

 

 


The Daily Nurk
September 5, 2026
The Daily Nurk #456
 




 

The Emperor's New Clothes  --  Cartoon by Marc Keelan Bishop

 

 


Marc Keelan Bishop
August 27, 2026
marckeelanbishop
 




 

Webinar: The Struggle Against Racism Within the Cuban Revolution - September 17  (U.S.-Cuba Normalization Conference Coalition)

 



Cuba Webinar
🗓️ THURSDAY SEPT 17, 2026
⏰ 8 pm Eastern (Havana time)
⏰ 5 pm Pacific
📌 Register now: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Fo_idMB0R0G2bQOv4Lw90w

Featuring:
🔸 Yohan Rodríguez Torres - Cuban screenwriter, audiovisual producer and journalist with Belly of the Beast
🔸 Dr. Rosaida Ochoa Soto - Specialist in Epidemiology with over 40 years of experience in health promotion, disease prevention, gender and race issues in Cuba
🔸 Dr. Norma Guillard Limonta - Psychologist, feminist and social activist in Cuba
🔸 Alexis Hernandez - Professional Dancer in Havana, Cuba
🔸James Early - Applied Humanities and Cultural Heritage Policy Administrator

Organized by: U.S.-Cuba Normalization Conference Coalition  




 

Book Talk - Red Lives: Our Years in the Communist Party - New York - September 24  (Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives)

 

 


Book Talk -- Red Lives: Our Years in the Communist Party, Vol. 1
 

Thursday, September 24th, 6-7:30 PM
Bobst Library, Room 251
REGISTER HERE

Join the editors of Red Lives: Our Years in the U.S. Communist Party, 1950-2000, to celebrate the publication of the first volume of this three-volume text. As a whole, the three-volume work covers decades when thousands worked to form socialist organizations in direct response to the failures of capitalism. Volume 1 focuses on the labor movement and union organizing, and the coming-of-age of post-WWII activists, and it brings to life nearly fifty first-person testimonies. Volume 1 includes a foreword by noted Historian, Robin D.G. Kelley.

Editors Geoffrey Jacques, Carol Pittman and Jay Schaffner will be in conversation with Professor Penny Lewis, Chair of the Labor Studies Department at City University of New York (CUNY) School of Labor and Urban Studies. Books will be available at the event for cash purchase; credit card purchases can be made via the publisher.

REGISTER FOR RED LIVES BOOK TALK  




 

Mahmoud Khalil, Live in Philadelphia - September 25  (CAIR-Philadelphia and Mavey Books; co-sponsored by MERIP)

 


MERIP is thrilled to announce that we are co-sponsoring a live event in Philadelphia featuring Mahmoud Khalil, celebrating the release of his memoir No Land to Stand On: Notes on Detention. This event has been co-organized by CAIR-Philadelphia and Mavey Books, a minority and women owned independent bookstore in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. 

Khalil and other protesters who were central to the college encampment movement against the genocide in Gaza, were targets for detention and repression by the Biden and Trump administrations. Our Spring 2026 issue of Middle East Report, “Campus Politics–Palestine and the New University Order,” provides critical analysis and discussion of transnational student activism and repression. 

Tickets to this event and a pre-event reception are available at the link below. All tickets come with a signed copy of Khalil’s book. Mavey Books will also donate 10 percent of the proceeds to ANERA, a nonprofit organization that supports orphans and families in Palestine. 

Tickets  

James Ryan
Executive Director

[James Ryan is the Executive Director of the Middle East Research and Information Project] 




 

How We Get Free: Angela Y. Davis, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Sarah Haley, and Ula Y. Taylor - Oakland - September 28  (Haymarket Books; Hammer & Hope and Department of African American Studies and African Diaspora Studies, UC Berkeley)

 

 


September 28, 2026 at 7.00pm – 9.00pm

The Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts


Register  


Join Angela Y. Davis, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Sarah Haley, and Ula Y. Taylor for a book launch and conversation about the legacy of the radical black feminist Combahee River Collective at a special Haymarket Books 25th anniversary event.

The four will be discussing the legacy of the radical Black feminist Combahee River Collective, including the collective’s groundbreaking statement. Click here for tickets to the event. 

Cosponsors: Hammer & Hope and Department of African American Studies and African Diaspora Studies, UC Berkeley.




 

Call for Papers - Radical Assembly 2027 - Facing Despair, Fighting Despair (22-24 April 2027, NYC) -  Deadline for abstracts:  September 30, 2026

 


 

Radical Assembly wants to offer the stage to explore these questions by creating a comradely and egalitarian space of dialogue for Marxists. Following the legacy of the Socialist Scholars Conference and the Left Forum, and based on the successful model of the international network of Historical Materialism conferences around the world, Radical Assembly will be an inclusive and non-sectarian gathering for thinking about the great problems that we are facing and how to best understand and address them. Keenly analytical but not trapped within a sterile scholasticism, we encourage papers and panels that attempt to explain social phenomena and explore concepts and ideas with an eye toward transforming and overcoming the authoritarian present. Our first conference will take place on the campus of Borough of Manhattan Community College from April 22-24, 2027.

Call for Papers

The political situation in which we find ourselves is one of great brutality, anxiety, and despair. As the forces of capitalism have increased their capacity for coercion and command, as never-ending wars and authoritarian regimes have proliferated, the dominated classes (especially the younger generations) are faced with a future that appears to be brutish and bleak. The automation of disciplinary power that Gilles Deleuze so keenly foresaw over thirty years ago has intensified and matured to the point that our societies of control seem to be incapable of being resisted, reformed, or replaced.

It is precisely this despair that we need to face and fight. Whereas the typical response to pessimistic or unpleasant realities is to try to downplay or ignore them, to stop worrying and look on the bright side, we believe that it is fundamental for our collective intellectual integrity and political courage to face the difficult and unpleasant truths of our historical moment. Thus, facing despair, the central theme for our upcoming conference, is understood as a necessary first step on the long march toward a more democratic and radical future. We must recognize and understand our despair as we work toward an ever more complete analysis of the defeats that have created these bleak realities as well as toward developing political strategies and principles that can guide our efforts to transform our societies.

To that end, Marxist theory remains the indispensable theoretical reference to understanding the contradictions and dynamics of the conjuncture, from capitalist accumulation, transformation of the state, and new forms of imperialism and genocidal violence to all the struggles around race, gender, and sexuality.

Radical Assembly wants to offer the stage to explore these questions by creating a comradely and egalitarian space of dialogue for Marxists. Following the legacy of the Socialist Scholars Conference and the Left Forum, and based on the successful model of the international network of Historical Materialism conferences around the world, Radical Assembly will be an inclusive and non-sectarian gathering for thinking about the great problems that we are facing and how to best understand and address them. Keenly analytical but not trapped within a sterile scholasticism, we encourage papers and panels that attempt to explain social phenomena and explore concepts and ideas with an eye toward transforming and overcoming the authoritarian present. Our first conference will take place on the campus of Borough of Manhattan Community College from April 22-24, 2027. It is expected to include over 100 panels and over 1000 participants.

In line with the central theme of this year’s conference, we invite contributions that address the following non-exclusive questions:

Automation and control, inside and outside the workplace

  • Technology and its relation to class struggle

  • Fossil capitalism, climate catastrophe and permanent ecological crisis

  • The authoritarian and disciplinary transformation of the state, and the return of the question of fascism

  • Financialization as capitalist class strategy

  • Palestine: resistance and solidarity against genocide

  • Imperialism and anti-imperialism in an era of forever wars and imperial hubris

  • US hegemony in decline, the rise of China, and the new dynamics of the global south: rifts, antagonisms and multipolarity in a changing world

  • Social reproduction, gendered power, sexualities, and contemporary libidinal economies

  • Feminist, queer, and trans futures

  • Racial capitalism, black liberation, and decolonial perspectives today.

  • What to do with the ‘opium of the people’: Marxism and religion

  • Abolition and/as socialist strategy

  • Disabled people’s political struggles and organizing strategies

  • Health, solidarity, and the new politics of care

  • Art as resistance and creation

  • The challenge of municipal socialism

  • Utopias, programs, and the need to reopen the strategic debate

  • Anti-work as strategy and horizon

  • The labor movement then and now

However, the conference aims to serve as a space of broad comradely discussion of all issues related to critical Marxist theory and research across the globe and across all disciplines and interests, including philosophy, political economy, sociology, literary and cultural studies, history, political theory, and so on. That means, general submissions are also encouraged.

Deadline for abstracts: Wednesday, 30 September 2026

Read more here