Portside

Black History Month is a time for looking back on the civil rights movement and the lives of its pioneers. One of them was a man whose name is far less widely known than those of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks or James Farmer. He was Bayard Rustin, whom some have sought to celebrate in recent years as an unsung hero of the movement, one who never received his due recognition because he was gay.

Public schools in recent years have sustained assaults from believers in the privatization of the public education system. The powers that be plan a data-based reinvention of teacher education that will require the closing, or reinvention of colleges of teacher education. If these plans go through, a majority of the nation's teachers and teacher educators could lose their jobs in the next 10 years, replaced by people who will largely be temp workers-making minimum wages

Call to action was written by Adriana Garriga-López, Ph.D. (Kalamazoo College), and Shir Lerman, M.A., M.P.H., PhD Candidate (University of Connecticut), with Jessica Mulligan, Ph.D. (Providence College), Alexa Dietrich, Ph.D., M.P.H. (Wagner College), Carlos E. Rodríguez-Díaz, PhD, MPHE, MCHES (University of Puerto Rico), and Ricardo Vargas-Molina, M.A. (University of Puerto Rico). The authors are members of the Society for Medical Anthropology's Zika Interest Group.

Some progressives joined with the racist, reactionary right in opposing Evo Morales' bid for another term in office. They forgot that a ‘Yes’ for Evo was a yes for the longer history of struggle and hope for its future. As the gas bonanza enters difficult days, we can hope that the progressive ‘No’ of the NGOs and the bookish classes can return to the popular ‘Yes’ of the movements. For those on the edges of society, Evo had come to mean hope and possibility.

The punditry is already rushing to crown Clinton the Democratic winner. However, the growing divide among Democrats between the older and the younger deserves more attention. The Clinton campaign people are certain that the threat posed by Trump or Cruz will help mobilize Democratic turnout. But a party whose leaders are selling more of the same may well find it hard to inspire young voters and independents who are looking for a very new deal.

Robin D.G. Kelley makes the case that the university is not an engine of social transformation, activism is. He opens a debate published by the Boston Review. Respondents include: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Barbara Ransby, Charlene Carruthers, Michael Eric Dyson and others.

Black youth-led groups organizing for justice played a key role in Kim Foxx’s win in the Cook County state’s attorney’s race Tuesday night. And they’re showing no signs of slowing down.

The fact that many children can get breakfast at public school may well be thanks to a revolutionary act that brought down the fury of Hoover’s FBI. To dig deeper into this history, and ask about the lessons it holds for modern food activists, Nathaneal Johnson spoke with Murch, a professor at Rutgers University and the author of Living for the City: Migration, Education and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California.

CSPG's Poster of the Week honors Internatio­­­­­nal Women's Day by commemorating Berta Cáceres, a well-known indigenous environmental leader in Honduras who was assassinated in her home recently.

Here's a unique piece on twenty-first century American war -- and war-gaming. This is a new-style “war game” that Tom calls “Do-Over” and that anyone, 12 to 75, can play in their home or workplace based on the latest war headlines. Consider this a different way of looking at and taking in the global war on terror (and other American conflicts) in these years. Check it out and then play a round of Do-Over yourself!