Portside

Reader Comments - Healthcare; Faculty Unions; NATO and the Ukraine; State Surveillance; Venezuela; Nelson Mandela, South Africa and SACP; MSNBC labor dispute; Germany; Voter Fraud in Iowa - 0.00075%; New Books - Rosa Luxemburg; Diners Guide to Ethical Eating; Jobs with Justice; A Letter from Leslie Cagan, Phyllis Bennis, Bill Fletcher & Other UFPJ Founders

Mayor Bloomberg pushed through re-zoning of nearly 40 percent of New York City. Bill de Blasio campaigned against urban gentrification. Can the new mayor reverse the trend? Can big-city electoral coalitions buck the trend of the real estate and financial speculators? Author Michael Hirsch reviews the new book about Chicago's mayor Rahm Emanuel - the mayor of the 1% in the second largest city of the country.

A behind the scenes look in North Korea to explain the dramatic recent events in Pyongyang. Events there show a Shakespearean tragedy that has ended with the execution of the person widely seen as the power behind the throne. No one performs Shakespeare in the theaters of Pyongyang. Instead, he is enacted in the corridors of power.

The state of education is in disarray just like the state of capitalism.

The Left wants to give people the chance to do something with their lives, by giving them time and space away from the market.

The centre-left candidate won with about 62% support, the highest share of votes for any presidential candidate since the country returned to holding democratic elections in 1989.

After a series of one-day strikes, marches and demonstrations, about 220 food- service workers at two Smithsonian museums will be represented by a union in contract negotiations for the first time.

And yet for all the shortcomings of the government’s strategy, the main reason for America’s persistent poverty is the disappearance of jobs with decent pay that can take workers above the poverty line without the government’s help.