Portside

Building a Doomsday Machine (1950), A Rogue Agency? (1975), Origins of International Women’s Day (1909), Gradual Emancipation Is Better than None (1780), Kicking Jim Crow off the Bus (1955), Robeson’s Best (1940), Happy Birthday, Vivaldi! (1725)

It is a song that turns the tragic tale it begins with into a veritable shout, for it concludes not as a somber dirge for one fallen fellow worker but as a soaring call for collective action and for all working people to stand up for their rights.

Pioneering black singer Paul Robeson was born on this day (April 9) in 1898. One of America’s great radical figures, it was his encounters with Britain’s labour movement which inspired his socialist and anti-imperialist politics.

In celebration of Black History Month, we’re tracing the origins of Bob Dylan’s reverent and timeless Civil Rights anthem “Blowin’ in the Wind”

Reader Comments: Democrats' Immigration Policy; Presidential Immunity !?!; Aleksei Navalny; Alabama Decision Weaponizes Religion; More Gun Shootings, Deaths; Artists Call for Ceasefire Now; Paul Robeson New Documentary; Cartoons; more.....

Nixon's corporate funders guilty (in 1973). World's first video game (1958). Raves for Robeson's Othello (1943). Saturday Night Massacre (1973). Demonstrators shut down Tokyo's trains (1968). The truth hurts (1963). Fortress Germany (1938).

Rockin' Solidarity Forever. Victor Jara | Manifiesto. Writers' Guild of America Strike Song. GmacCash | On Strike (UAW). Lisa Simpson's Union Strike Folk Song | Dan Cribbs. Paul Robeson | "Joe Hill". Why Auto Workers Are Striking.

Reader Comments: Hollywood Strike to Limit AI is for You and Me - We Are All Extras; DeSantis Using State Guard as Private Army; Negro League, Baseball Integration, the Left; Hollywood Labor Films; War on Women - Russia Says Give Birth Early;