Portside

Measles, like polio and smallpox, is a horrible disease - it's still a major killer of young children in the developing world. The creation of a vaccine was widely welcomed. Measles is so contagious that it is used as the indicator disease to show deficits in immunization coverage of all vaccine-preventable diseases-which means the problem goes well beyond measles. We are now seeing outbreaks of whooping cough in the US, mumps in Britain and tuberculosis more widely.

Reader Comments - Ferguson and Racism; Venezuela - New Coup, Made in USA; Selma, Voting Rights and Today; International Women's Day, Wonder Woman; Netanyahu, Israel, GOP and Iran; Wisconsin Attack on Unions; Ukraine; Death Penalty, 'Justice', Incarceration; Leonard Nimoy; Books on Upton Sinclair, Michael Harrington; Announcement - Triangle Shirtwaist Fire commemoration; Today in History

The inevitability of the presidential candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton often focuses on her gender and her twenty years as a Washington insider. Two books under review, Hard Choices, by Clinton herself, and HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton by Jonathan Allen, Amie Parnes, give insight into both the 2016 elections and what a Clinton presidency would mean.

A new AFL-CIO Commission on Racial and Economic Justice will attempt to create a "safe, structured and constructive opportunity for local union leaders to discuss issues pertaining to the persistence of racial injustice today in the workforce and in their communities, and to ensure that the voices of all working people in the labor movement are heard."

Dennis Boyer, a retired AFSCME staff member, believes that the unions in Wisconsin need to be much more aggressive in their fightback. This should include consideration of the use of a general strike.

Dennis Boyer, a retired AFSCME staff member, believes the Wisconsin unions should have been more aggressive in their fightback against Walker. Included in his recommendations for the struggle going forward is the consideration of a general strike.

Palestinian children are taken from their beds in night raids and not returned to their families for months.

"We just want to simply tell America what their faith is about. America talks about democracy, but they’ve kept us from voting for years. And even when they give us the vote on paper, politically, they turn around and take away the important part of what we fought for and what they said they were giving, all right? The truth is that we have to work together to save ourselves politically, save ourselves spiritually and save ourselves physically."

Violence against women — including rape, murder and sexual harassment — remains stubbornly high in countries rich and poor, at war and at peace. One recent study found that domestic violence against women and children alone costs the global economy $4 trillion.

Alexis Tspiras, the Greek prime mininster, says Berlin has ‘a moral obligation’ to make amends for years of Nazi occupation