MARCH 20, 2026

Remembering Claudia Jones in an age of division
The pioneering Afro-Caribbean activist understood that freedom could only be won through solidarity across communities. Her legacy offers vital lessons at a time when progressive politics risks losing that shared purpose. At the core of Claudia Jones’s life and times and indeed of the wider civil rights movement was the idea of collective resistance. History has shown that resistance based on need and the language of rights, justice and solidarity rather than victimhood and identity, is likely to provide the most effective weapon against oppression and authoritarianism. It might also just serve as a more promising basis for building a new politics of liberation that puts us back on track and gets us to the finishing line. Morning Star via Portside 

Trump now calls war reporting ‘treason’. His attacks on the press are escalating fast

The US president is using the language and the strategy of authoritarians once again.
“There’s nothing completely new in Donald Trump’s latest attacks on reporters. But they’re more extreme now and ever more indicative of what he wants: a docile press that provides propaganda – not factual journalism – for everything he does, including for his misguided war in Iran. He even suggested this week that news organizations could be charged with treason for, as he baselessly sees it, spreading false information and thus helping America’s enemies.” The writer, Margaret Sullivan, is a former ombudsman at the NYT and WaPo, and points out that having his own private law firm in the Justice Department makes media organizations wary (and self-censoring) about being sued for free by Trump. Big Media  would almost certainly win, but it would be very expensive. Capitalism is always striking again. The Guardian

No, America Is Not Respected

Thanks to Trump, we’re held in contempt even by our closest allies.
Trump constantly insists, in speeches and social media posts, that he took over a weak, despised nation and restored its international reputation. This is clearly something that matters a lot to him and his sense of self-worth. It’s also the total opposite of the truth. A stunning poll from Politico — just released, but taken last month — confirms what I and other observers strongly suspected: America is now widely despised, despised like nobody has ever been despised before. I don’t mean that we’re disliked, although that too. But this isn’t a case of oderint dum metuant — let them hate so long as they fear. Instead, the world increasingly holds America in contempt. Adding to that contempt is Trump’s casual threat to “take” Cuba, so this melancholy but not hopeless report on Cuba by Vijay Prashad, who was recently there as part of a solidarity delegation, reinforces the danger.  His conclusion, watching Cuban children at play, is a reminder of what the struggle is about and the need to maintain hope, no matter Trump’s “they’re next” bluster. Paul Krugman Substack via Portside

America needs a movement to curb billionaires’ power

The country’s 900 billionaires have far too much influence over our government and economy.

Ending Citizens United’s floodgate of billionaire bucks for politics would be a hard slog either by a reshaped Supreme Court or a constitutional amendment. “But the easiest way to give average Americans more political power vis-à-vis billionaires would be to enact more public financing laws. The Brennan Center for Justice, a non-profit public policy group, says ‘small donor public financing that provides a multiple match on modest donations has proven especially effective’ in amplifying the political voices of regular people. One model is New York City’s campaign finance law, which provides an eight-to-one match for contributions up to $250. Meanwhile, Congress should pass a law requiring full disclosure of all campaign donations – far too many donations remain secret. Dark money groups, non-profits and shell companies that pump money into elections without disclosing their donors spent a record $1.9bn in the 2024 elections.” The Guardian 

Donald Trump’s Racism Mirrors Jeffrey Epstein’s
Epstein’s eugenicist views are in line with the longstanding genetic determinism of Trump. There is no bigger racist science believer than the current occupant in the White House, Clarence Lusane writes. “The real-world impact of racial eugenics theory long shaped public policy, political status, and life opportunities. In the United States, a belief in the genetic inferiority of Blacks helped foster slavery and then Jim Crow segregation, and led to tens of thousands of African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and individuals with physical and mental disabilities, as well as prisoners being sterilized. By 1913, 24 states and Washington, D.C., had passed laws allowing enforced sterilization.” TomDispatch via Portside 

Misogyny is found in sad yet unexpected places
The news about Cesar Chavez is a sad reminder of how deep misogyny runs in our society — and the need to recognize that no one, and certainly no union leader or activist, should be unaccountable. Read the moving statement of Dolores Huerta, co-founder of UFW, former DFA honorary chair, and at age 96 still an activist for immigrant rights and women’s rights. Monica Ramírez, the founder of Justice for Migrant Women, amplifies Huerta’s statement in one of her own. Medium