Portside

On Aug. 15, teachers in the Del Valle Independent School District return to the classroom, but most of us will go back earlier. We love our students, and we cannot wait to prepare for their arrival. As we return to our classrooms, we always notice those who do not: experienced teachers who have left, whose loss is a loss for our students.

A new political action committee has formed to influence the outcome of Los Angeles school board races, filling a gap created when a group of civic leaders, which includes former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, decided to sit out next month's key upcoming election. The new organization, Great Public Schools Los Angeles Political Action Committee, joins other outside groups involved in the campaign to replace Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, who died in December.

There will be a mail-in vote for union representation from July 21 to Aug. 4 for teachers at the "I Can" charter school in Northeastern Ohio. The American Federation of Teachers plans to file Unfair Labor Practice Charges for alleged retaliation against nine teachers whose contracts were not renewed. Teachers are concerned over class sizes as large as 40, and special needs students not having their needs met. Click the link at the bottom to watch the video.

Veteran labor activist and labor reporter, Steve Early, looks at the growing number of third party candidates and the growing support they are receiving from the labor movement. He pays particular attention to the long history of successful third party candidates in the State of Vermont.

An independent Scotland would give us the opportunity to construct a social solidarity that would say we are not prepared to let reaction destroy our economy, our jobs and our community. My choice is based not on nationalism but on how best to push forward the interests of my class.

As more and more workers become part-time employees they and their advocates are fighting for steadier hours.

The dominant neoliberal consensus today is that class, race, and gender are just issues of identity. The dominant narrative claims that none of them are structural forces worth bemoaning. None of them have the power to determine our life chances if we don’t want them to. To the contrary, it is the invisibility of the structural dimensions of class, race, and gender that defines current social relations of power

How will the clash over education reform between neoliberal democrats and teachers unions play out in the presidential elections?

The largest Union in Britain, UNITE, endorsed a call to Boycott, Divest and Enact Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, because of its treatment and occupation of Palestine. Another article explains the BDS movement.

Rallies, marches and picket lines were held at schools, council offices and town and city centres across Great Britain and Northern Ireland as public workers protested decline living standards, working conditions and a threat to their right to strike.