Portside

Perspectives on left politics from Chile, UK and Germany, and reports from Mexico, Hong Kong, France, Bolivia, India and Kenya

The United Electrical Workers was one of America’s mightiest unions. Many leaders were leftists who challenged corporate power, so UE was decimated by McCarthyism. The union survived and UE's model of militant, democratic unionism can revive labor.

We, the undersigned democratic socialists, want to make clear that the priority for the left in 2020 should be the electoral defeat of Donald Trump and the Trumpist Republican Party in November.

The Harvard professor on science and scepticism – and why climate deniers have run out of excuses

A new study suggests there are actually very few voters who are consistently in the middle on issues.

Progressives often applaud the idea of “speaking truth to power.” But this concept is hazardous. If taken literally and deployed as a single-minded strategy, it can divert attention from the crucial need to take power away from those who abuse it.

Once you remember that every struggle waged by the oppressed against the oppressor class and their allies is asymmetric, it is possible to construct a strategy that holds the potential to win.  When you assume that you are fighting the oppressor on, more or less, equal terms, you are guaranteeing your own defeat.

With the nominating process now behind us, the question for supporters of Bernie Sanders both unwavering and critical is simple: What is to be done now?

Reader Comments: The Life and Death of Daniel Berrigan; Gary Tyler Free After More Than 40 Years; Does an Inside-Outside Strategy Have a Chance? - The People's Summit; Sanders' Impact on Millennials; Digital history project - When Socialists Won Elections; Get Cops Out of Schools; What's the Israeli Army Afraid Of? - Tair Kaminer Fights On; Italian Court Rules Food Theft 'Not a Crime' If Hungry; Rolling Stones to Trump: Stop Using Their Songs at Campaign Events

In the current cycle are two related but distinct problems. First, progressives have no national electoral strategy to speak of. Second, elections cannot be viewed simply or even mainly within the context of the pros and cons of specific candidates. Progressives are very divided about the relative importance of electoral politics, and our near exclusive focus on the candidates, that there is no coherent national progressive electoral strategy.