Portside

The behavior of the Obama administration gives every Latin American and Caribbean leader pause.

Wage theft, foreclosures, Karzai's petty cash,Gitmo, austerity and more ...

The U.S. was wrong to use health workers to target Osama bin Laden.

Most pundits are careful about not advocating for direct U.S. military intervention in Syria (that is left to the Republican politicians who appear on the Sunday shows). But their message boils down to a concern over the credibility of the president's threats of violence more important than the credibility of his evidence. The White House has been saying their reticence is informed by the Iraq debacle; many pundits don't seem to have learned a similar lesson.

The Life and Death of Words, People, and Even Nature: From Walking Libraries and a God Named “Word” to What Sherlock Holmes Never Said. Passages excerpted from Eduardo Galeano’s new book, Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History (Nation Books).

There is a long tradition in this country of children—primarily in rural areas—learning to shoot at a young age. But there is a point where all reasonable people need to admit that a kid is too young to own and/or shoot a real rifle that shoots real bullets. Four years old—the age the Kentucky boy who shot his 2-year-old sister apparently was when he received a Crickett rifle as a gift—is way, way too young.

Flash mobs strive to overcome the chasm between the two opposite meanings of 'actor' -- one who acts, or one who performs while others watch. In a flash mob, ordinary people act, momentarily seizing and transforming a public space with their actions. As they catch the spirit of the moment, the audience become actors too. Also, Muhammed Ali, Plan B, Ry Cooder, and a Black/white prom in Wilcox Co, Georgia.

Teachers at one of Chicago's largest charter- school networks - run by the United Neighborhood Organization - have voted to organize into a union. Public school teacher, responds to question - what is behind charter schools. Idea of a motivated community of adults - parents, teachers, administrators - creating a unique school from the ground up, designed to serve that particular community - are not charter schools. AFT calls for moratorium on Common Core testing.

The only way back to political relevance for socialists lies through realistic engagement with politics as it exists today.

Songs for and inspired by May Day - The Last Internationale Demand That 'Workers of the World Unite!'; Union Town by Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman; "This Land Is Your Land" with Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie & Fred Hellerman; L'Internationale - Pete Seeger in English and the original French; "The Internationale" conducted by Arturo Toscanini--BANNED by U.S. censors!; Max Roach: We Insist! Freedom Now Suite