Portside

Reader Comments: Chicago Police Killings of African Americans; Hillary and Labor; Readers debate Democratic Socialism; U.S. history and refugees, then and now - doors closed to Jews, while Japanese Americans are interned; Young Workers; NUHW Wins Battle with Kaiser; Quebec Rolling Strikes; Close Guantanamo; Who Benefits From A Post-Paris "Clash of Civilizations"?; Suffragette - Portside readers weigh in; Announcements: Book Sales; Worker Coops; Puerto Rico Fightback

Evoking Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr., the Vermont senator bridged the aspirations of New Deal liberalism with the democratic socialist tradition.

Today in America we not only have massive wealth and income inequality, but a power structure which protects that inequality. A handful of super-wealthy campaign contributors have enormous influence over the political process. In his 1944 State of the Union speech, President Roosevelt outlined what he called a second Bill of Rights. This is one of the most important speeches ever made by a president but, unfortunately, it has not gotten the attention that it deserves.

Albert Einstein's take on this question was surely influenced by the general crisis of 1914 to 1945, which profoundly shook the faith in inexorable progress and the belief in universal schemes of history. The lessons of that crisis still mark our present moment: historical determinism, outside of the academic cloisters of analytic Marxism, has very few adherents today. The question of why socialism remains as pressing for us as it was at the time of Einstein's writing.

Reader Comments: Black Futures, #BlackLivesMatter - Not More Cops; Harry Belafonte on Activism; Socialism - Making a Comeback; Building a Left Movement and the Sanders campaign; Mideast War Escalation - Syria; Wealth Data and U.S. Economic Inequality; China Pivot; Okinawa Missiles, Cuba and Nuclear War; Israel; 2016 elections, primaries and the military budget; satirical articles on Portside

Rosa Luxemburg was at the center of revolutionary politics from 1898-1919, a very complex political time. Connecting her perspectives to the many now obscure movements of the pre-WWI era can get confusing for those who have not much studied the period. That’s why the graphic novel format used by Evans is so vital to understanding Luxemburg’s role.

The word socialism is in the air these days. Socialism of many varieties has been enjoying a comeback in Latin America for some time. Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, Lula da Silva, the late Hugo Chavez have been the region's dominant leaders in this century. And now there is a remarkable resurgence of European socialism. And, and, the candidate everyone is talking about is...Bernie Sanders, democratic socialist.

Reader Comments: Sanders Ignites a Populist Movement; How Sanders Should Talk About Democratic Socialism - readers offer differing views; Clinton and Labor Support; Argentina; Indonesia and the Act of Killing; Vera B. Williams and Children's Literature; A Progressive Song To Tap Your Feet To! from Kristin Lems; Announcements: Paul Robeson Play - More Performances - Hackettstown, NJ; Cuba Speaks for Itself - New York- Nov 4; Washington, DC- Nov 7; Bay Area- Nov. 13