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Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it.

As Aid Ends, Empire Endures

Marjorie Namara Rugunda Africa is a Country
Western donors are cutting budgets, but the aid model they built—rooted in control and dependency —still shapes Africa’s development. As aid shrinks, the work ahead is not just to survive the cuts, but also to refuse the system that made them matter.

Red States Eviscerating Child Work Protections

Michael Hiltzik Los Angeles Times
Florida is not the first state to loosen child labor protections, or even the most aggressive in that effort. Last year eight states, all led by Republicans, did so, according to a tracking by the labor-affiliated Economic Policy Institute.

Ryan Coogler’s Road to “Sinners”

Jelani Cobb The New Yorker
The film represents a departure for the “Black Panther” director, and a creative risk; it grapples with ideas about music, race, family, religion—and vampires.

US Defeat in Vietnam

Michael G. Vann Jacobin
The US invasion of Vietnam was a catastrophe for the Vietnamese people, resulting in millions of deaths. Fifty years ago today, the US-backed regime finally collapsed as North Vietnamese forces took control of Saigon.
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