Portside

How government commissions became alibis for inaction.

Illinois is what I would call a quasi-slave state. And what’s surprising to people is that it existed here within the law. It begins with the colonial slave laws that came from France (because Illinois was a French territory).

The reissue of Vivian Gornick’s The Romance of American Communism invites a new generation to reflect on what it means to live a life of political commitment—where the passionate pursuit of justice meets organized political action.

Many of Trump's critics see fascist tendencies in his rhetoric glorifying violence and disregarding the rule of law, democratic processes, and civil liberties; Trump and his supporters regularly embrace traditions of American fascism themselves.

Reader Comments: Unite to Defeat Trump; Lynchings, Racial Violence; Trump's Arms Race; Problem When So Many Police are Vets; Teachers Union: Cops Out of Schools; Labor and Police; McCarthyism and Black Freedom Movement; Southern Communists; Roy Cohn;

This book argues the fight for true equality begun 150 years ago continues and draws clear connections between the limitations and loopholes written into these 19th century amendments and the most intractable debates dividing 21st century America.

Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin tackle the questions of what lessons we can learn from this pandemic and how society may organize moving forward.

A look at how Jim Crow affected the treatment of African Americans fighting the Spanish flu

To the north, the Barents Sea, an offshoot of the Arctic Ocean, bounds them both. This remote region -- approximately 800 miles from Oslo and 900 miles from Moscow -- has, in recent years, become a vortex of economic and military activity.