Portside

Songs for and inspired by May Day - The Last Internationale Demand That 'Workers of the World Unite!'; Union Town by Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman; "This Land Is Your Land" with Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie & Fred Hellerman; L'Internationale - Pete Seeger in English and the original French; "The Internationale" conducted by Arturo Toscanini--BANNED by U.S. censors!; Max Roach: We Insist! Freedom Now Suite

The only way back to political relevance for socialists lies through realistic engagement with politics as it exists today.

Teachers at one of Chicago's largest charter- school networks - run by the United Neighborhood Organization - have voted to organize into a union. Public school teacher, responds to question - what is behind charter schools. Idea of a motivated community of adults - parents, teachers, administrators - creating a unique school from the ground up, designed to serve that particular community - are not charter schools. AFT calls for moratorium on Common Core testing.

In a scarcely-noticed lawsuit filed in federal district court in Los Angeles, a conservative nonprofit, the Center for Individual Rights, claims that California's system for collecting dues or fees from public employees abridges free speech. RELATED: 10 California teachers are suing in federal court to stop mandatory fair share fee collection. The lawsuit seeks to expand last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision involving union activity in a California special election.