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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.

The Big News in the Union Rift Over the Working Families Party

Jim Pope Portside
The WFP just confronted the biggest test of its 18-year existence, and came through with colors flying. And that’s not all. Just as importantly, some units of our normally hidebound union movement stuck with the Party despite short-term incentives to defect. When the history of class politics in our time is written, the choices made both by the Party and by its loyal union affiliates may figure importantly.

A Victory for Democracy in Whittier California

Jimmy Franco Sr. LatinoPOV
A years-long struggle to eliminate an undemocratic system of at-large voting in Whittier California has resulted in an historic victory for the community. Democrat Josue Alvarado has won a hard-fought electoral campaign to become the first person elected to represent Whittier’s newly configured Council One. He is only the second Latino to hold a council seat in that city in 118 years!

Notes on the Election

Linda Burnham Portside
Unfolding events of the past several months have confirmed that the presidential contest now underway is the most historically significant in at least the last 50 years. The reasons for this are several according to long-time activist Linda Burnham in this April 2016 piece.

Nonviolence and Social Movements: The Teachings of Rev. James M. Lawson Jr.

Stefanie Ritoper UCLA Labor Center
Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center, recently edited a new book with the Rev. James Lawson Jr., a renowned civil rights activist who worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and helped launch key campaigns for social justice. For generations, he has taught the principles of nonviolence to civil rights leaders, committed activists, community organizers and, in recent years, UCLA students as a guest lecturer.

“We All Have a Right to the City and Must Fight to Win It!”

The Next system Project The Next System Project
A conversation with Tony Romano of the Right to the City Alliance. What are the systemic challenges to democratic and equitable control over public space? What kind of popular mobilizations can build towards systemic alternatives guaranteeing the human right to housing? To help answer these questions, we spoke with Tony Romano, Organizing Director for the Right to City Alliance. Our conversation is below.

The Science Behind the DEA's Long War on Marijuana

David Downs Scientific American
Experts say listing cannabis among the world’s deadliest drugs ignores decades of scientific and medical data. But attempts to delist it have met with decades of bureaucratic inertia and political distortion

The new Gilded Age: Close to half of all super-PAC money comes from 50 donors

Matea Gold and Anu Narayanswamy The Washington Post
Despite the mixed impact that big-money groups have had on the presidential contest so far the biggest surge of cash is likely to come this fall, when millionaires and billionaires aligned with both parties fully engage in the fights for control of the White House and Congress.

The Death Gap

Sam Pizzigati OtherWords.org
The richest Americans now live 10-15 years longer than the poorest.
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