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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.

Words and History: The Trouble With “Genocide Joe”

Fred Glass The Stansbury Forum
Ascribing personal responsibility to Biden for the carnage in Gaza takes our eyes off the prize, which is the structure of imperialist oppression, on the one hand, and building the broadest possible movement to fight it, on the other.

How Alabama Communists Organized in the Jim Crow South

Robin D.G. Kelly, Daniel Denvir Convergence
In 1930s Alabama, Communist Party members fought brutal repression to organize black and white workers in the Jim Crow South. Their efforts remain a source of inspiration for those fighting racism and exploitation today.

Slavery Was Crucial for the Development of Capitalism

Robin Blackburn, Owen Dowling Convergence
Historian Robin Blackburn has completed a trilogy of books that provide a comprehensive Marxist account of slavery in the New World. He spoke to Jacobin about the intimate links between the slave systems in the Americas and the origins of capitalism.

How Britain Made Paul Robeson a Socialist

Taylor Dorrell Tribune Magazine
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.

The Premises of the Diplomatic Mission Shall Be Inviolable

Vijay Prashad Tricontinental
From Israel’s bombing of Iran’s embassy in Damascus to Ecuador’s raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito, leaders feel emboldened by the impunity granted by the Global North to disregard diplomatic norms and respect.
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