Portside

When U.S. politicians talk about Scandinavian-style social welfare, they fail to explain the most important aspect of such policies: selfishness. The choices Nordic countries have made have little to do with altruism or kinship. Rather, Nordic people have made their decisions out of self-interest. Nordic nations offer their citizens - all of their citizens, but especially the middle class - high-quality services that save people a lot of money, time, and trouble.

Tuesday voters flooded to the polls and caucuses in Arizona, Idaho and Utah. Hillary Clinton won Arizona, but Sanders gained in the delegate count by swamping her in the Idaho and Utah caucuses, generating turnouts that overwhelmed caucus sites. Arizona lines were so long because election officials in Phoenix's Maricopa County, the largest in the state, reduced the number of polling places by 70 percent from 2012 to 2016, to just one polling place per every 21,000 voters

The Zika virus, and responses to it, have shone a light on the inadequacies of abortion and family planning laws in Latin America. Nevertheless, the Zika outbreak represents an opportunity for Latin America to review its sexual health policies and address long overdue issues, from access to contraception and abortion to a machismo culture that fosters sexual violence and discrimination.

This new report by the Prison Policy Initiative offers some much needed clarity by piecing together this country’s disparate systems of confinement.

Study after study has shown that the presence of police in schools does not make schools safer.

Rekia is not forgotten. Her spirit lives in current organizing and protests in Chicago and around the country.

Unlike the other four presidential candidates, Democrat Bernie Sanders declined the invitation to speak at the AIPAC conference in Washington on Monday, and instead delivered a foreign policy address in Utah. The speech has gotten wide circulation because of its affirmations of Palestinian human rights. Katie Miranda imagines what would have happened If Bernie Sanders had delivered his Israel speech at AIPAC instead.

Let's Work Together to Defeat Anti-BDS Legislation!

Workers of the Chinese Daily News just won a $7.8 million settlement against the company for wage theft and work place violations. The settlement also includes funds to support legal clinics for workers to obtain information about their labor rights. This is one of the largest wage justice settlements in Asian American labor history. APALA, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, supported the workers of the Chinese Daily News for years.

Mike Davis, Marxist sociologist, on the Trump phenomenon and why young people are so open to socialism. In this interview, Maria Christina Vogkli, a London School of Economics sociology alumnus, and George Souvlis, a PhD candidate in history at the European University Institute in Florence, speak with Davis about the roots of his political identity, the pernicious effects of Clintonite policies, and the importance of this year’s presidential primaries.