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How Seattle Fought for $15 and Won

Alyssa Figueroa Alternet
The organizing director of 15 Now explains the tactics, obstacles and lessons learned from Seattle's fight for $15.

Tidbits - June 12, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments - Politics and Post-Capitalism; Gabriel Kolko; Shondes - Blacklisted by the `Jewish Community; Yuri Kochiyama; Guantanamo: Bowe Bergdahl; Jewish Day School vs. Teachers Union; Blood Type; Europe post Elections; Supreme Court Ruling on Teacher Tenure; US Foreign Policy. Announcements - Dialogue with Leaders of Mexican Labor Movement - June 26 - New York: 45th contingent Venceremos Brigade; Peoples Climate March - New York - Sept. 20-21

Reader Response Common Core Math Standards - They Do Add Up

Kate Abell; Bill McCallum Portside
New York public school teacher Kate Abell responds to earlier Portside post, on Common Core, adding the perspective of a math educator. "The Common Core Math Standards are far and away the best tool for supporting teachers in the teaching of mathematics that I have ever encountered. The standards themselves are written in a way to help teachers deepen their own understanding of mathematics, make connections between math topics.. and pass this on to their students."

Socialist Dialogue Needed in the East/South China Sea

Duncan McFarland Portside
Vietnam is justified in protesting the Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea. China is right in countering the US military buildup in southeast Asia. Duncan McFarland, who was in Vietnam at the height of the dispute in early reports from Vietnam and China. His conclusion: The working class should resist divide-and-conquer.

Ruby Dee, a Ringing Voice for Civil Rights, Onstage and Off, Dies at 91

Davis Family; Bruce Weber; Rep. Maxine Waters
Actor, author, activist Ruby Dee took her final bow at home in New Rochelle, New York on June 11, 2014. She was a gifted and talented woman who joined with her late husband, Ossie Davis, to produce and present some of the most enjoyable and inspirational stage productions and movies of the last half century.

Gabriel Kolko, Left-Leaning Historian of U.S. Policy, Dies at 81

By William Yardley New York Times
“The New Deal illusion survives because it is a very useful to today’s Democratic Party,” Kolko wrote in 2012. “It needs myths, but if one knows the truth about it then we have the basis for understanding the essentially conservative nature of today’s Democratic Party.”