Portside

Thirty-five thousand Los Angeles teachers may possibly strike. Their demands include a 6.5 percent pay increase, smaller class sizes, more funding for school counselors, nurses, and librarians, and a cap on the proliferation of charter schools.

Africa’s children are generally healthier, live longer, are better schooled, and can aspire to a better life than those before. However, this modest progress cannot hide the challenge that remains. Hunger and lack of schools is still too common.

Despite its weaknesses, writes reviewer Ó Broin, this book "is an important contribution to the strategic debate for those of us committed to political and socio-economic alternatives based on principles of democracy, equality and social justice."

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India and Zimbabwe: National Strikes, Germany and Nepal: The Fate of the Left, Sudan and Bangladesh: Showdowns With Power

The Republican rising star struggled for two days to get clarity with regard to his appearance at a "white pride" - Ku Klux Klan event in 2002. Initially, his office tried to keep things vague, suggesting it was "likely" Scalise attended. He was a veteran state legislator then, elected from the same precincts where David Duke once ran strong. When it became clear he was not just present but a presenter, Scalise started spinning scenarios that might explain it all away.

Kenworthy thinks that capitalism working at its best—an Americanized version of the Nordic model—would be worth fighting for. I agree.

When unions serve the interests of the few, they lose their way and their ability to be forward-looking. But one of the better-kept secrets is that invariably, they also quietly become alienated from their own members. Inevitably, if the leadership of the PBA continues to ignore and fail on this challenge, new leadership will be destined to take it up.

The American public and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawk nation in which careless spending and strategic folly combine to lure America into endless wars it can’t win.

Despite the ongoing pandemic of violence against women, the threats online and the harassment on the streets, women’s voices assumed an unprecedented power in 2014, writes Rebecca Solnit.