Portside

Chris Hani was assassinated April 10, 1993. Yet in the view of this author, he should not be made into an ideal type or used to settle political scores in the present. And further, any observer of contemporary South Africa can't help noticing that while Chris Hani is still lionized and his name invoked in speeches and songs, the principles he stood for no longer animate the political project of the liberation movement he laid down his life for.

New scholarship by the French economist is a bona fide phenomenon - and the right is terrified. Thomas Piketty argues that the main driver of inequality - the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth - threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. He calls for political action and policy intervention. Video - Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman on the significance of the work, and the stir.

Reader Comments - 2014 Moral Freedom Summer Organizer Fellowship (Correction); Jews Speak Out against censorship bans; Auto Parts Strike; Carl Bloice remembered; Charlie Chaplin Legacy; Chris Christie; Announcements - Harlem Celebrates-Duke Ellington's 115th; May Day Rally in New York; Third Annual NYC Film Festival - Global Labor Solidarity; Cuba travel; Volunteer opportunities in El Salvador

Nevada rancher and media star Cliven Bundy has been repudiated by some prominent right wing backers because he hasn't learned that the days of blatant racism are past, and that more covert racism is called for.

If Internet service providers are allowed to give preferential treatment to certain kinds of traffic, the open Internet will have been paywalled shut. The solution lies in fairer regulation and in better, more people-powered technology.

'Toreador': A Random Act of Culture. What the 1% Don't Want You to Know. Guns: Not Our Words. Schizophrenia: What's in My Head? Matt Taibbi Explores Criminal Injustice With Bill Maher.

The Center for Constitutional Rights found not a single inmate had ever successfully challenged being put in these special prison units through the prison’s appeal process. “It just sort of traps these prisoners in this kafkaesque situation where theres actually no meaningful review happening at all.”

Rashid Khalidi said today that the US opposition to the reunification of Palestinian parties exposes the "farce" that is the peace process. It is in fact a "bring them to the table on their knees process," and the U.S. rejects a Northern Ireland model- in which George Mitchell negotiated among all parties to the conflict- because the Israel lobby won't let it pursue that course.

Nevada coverage of the Bundy standoff has made it clear that Bundy is breaking the law, right-wing media, and Fox News in particular, have propped up his cause with a PR campaign that romanticizes his lawlessness and the armed militia groups that helped him force a standoff with federal agents - even as Bundy and his supporters were engaging in revolutionary, insurrectionist rhetoric and repeated threats of violence against government authorities.

Gabriel García Márquez taught us how to live with loss, and he told us, over and over again, that other utopias are possible.