Portside

Social Security surfaced in the very first days of the campaign, thanks to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie going after the program with the zeal of a born huckster, demanding to raise the retirement age. In 2010 equivocation and deficit-reduction obsession from President Obama squandered Democrats' good will on the subject. But this year anything less than an embrace of expansion this time is likely to leave the base unsatisfied.

Are European leaders making impossible demands of the current Greek government as part of a strategy to get rid of it? The European Central Bank not only trained its guns on the new government but started firing on Feb. 4, just nine days after the election, when they cut off the main line of credit to the Greek government.

The FBI's practice of falsely testifying to guilt based on pseudo scientific "hair comparisons" has lead to a mass disaster of false convictions – at least hundreds of cases. Now begins the "herculean effort to right the wrongs."

Federal authorities are treating an 85-year-old Catholic nun like a nuclear saboteur.

Videos: Fraud city: Atlanta & Wall Street. Football Town Nights. Battle for the Internet. Greece: Austerity Isn't Working. Willie Nelson & Trigger.

Previously Portside published Michael Brie's, The Tragedy of Party Communism and responses from three socialist activists - what lessons there may be to draw on, and which to forget. Here are additional responses from Nina Udovicki, Gilberto de Leon, Dynamite Hallinan and Scott Tucker. Those responding see capitalism as a system that needs to be abolished and socialism as an alternative - A socialism that is different from the past, and democratic.

The blockade is still in place. Travel restrictions still exist. Guantánamo Bay is still illegally occupied by the U.S. military and used for imprisonment and torture. The U.S. government still funds USAID projects aimed at undermining the Cuban government. Today, it is still critical that the Venceremos Brigade, IFCO, and all friends of Cuba are persistent in defending Cuba's national sovereignty and right to self-determination.

An outline for social transformation in the United States, inspired by South Africa's Freedom Charter. The Democracy Charter, summarized below, seeks to enlarge the public's understanding of the connectedness of these issues as a way to achieve a social transformation of American society. This is the ultimate purpose of our movement.

Reader Comments - Fast Food Strike, Low-Wage Workers Struggle for More than Wages; TPP - LAtest Leak; Hillary Clinton, Fracking and 2016; Eduardo Galeano; CIA Infiltration at Home; Anne Braden; Sundown Towns; 'Driving While White'; Cuba Coops; NYT and Russian Wages; Charter Schools; Walton Wealth; Announcements: Walden Bello in New York; Vietnam - The Power of Protest and In Defense of the Public Square - Washington

The callousness of America's political and business leaders is shocking. A new report from UNICEF, on the well-being of children in 35 developed nations, turned up some alarming statistics about child poverty. More than one in five American children fall below a relative poverty line. The United States ranks 34th of the 35 countries surveyed, above only Romania and below virtually all of Europe plus Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. (The Washington Post)