Portside

The Obama administration’s new rhetoric on testing shows the tide may be turning against corporate education reformers.

On November 12, thousands of college students in nearly 100 cities are walking out of class to demand tuition-free public college, a cancellation of all student debt, and a $15/hour minimum wage for campus workers across the US. The protest has been dubbed the “Million Student March.”

By networking the large number of signups by union, Labor for Bernie organizers have encouraged members to begin grassroots campaigns within their unions to generate pressure on leaders for “no endorsement” and/or for “broad membership debate and discussion about the candidates and their stands on the key issues for working families.”

"A lot of what we do was done 25 years ago covertly by the CIA." Alan Weinstein, one of the founders of the National Endowment for Democracy

Bidhya Devi Bhandari is deputy leader of the ruling Communist party and campaigned to secure women's rights under the new constitution.

This may be the most relevant legacy of Franz Kafka’s tale. It is a reminder that in a world dominated by capital, terror is so commonplace as to be almost hidden in plain sight. And in so being, it is capable of turning the human condition into something unspeakable.

Since Obama first announced the bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria in 2014, critics have warned that such tactics would likely lead to "mission creep" in the two countries. As the number of troops in Iraq has steadily grown over the last year and a half, this will be the first acknowledged presence of U.S. soldiers in Syria—a country against which the U.S. has not officially declared war.

The New York-based poet Darrel Alejandro Holnes addresses the matter of walls--geographic boundaries, borders, fences--that attempt to delineate the peoples on different sides and the ultimate hypocrisy, futility of the effort.

Vampire bats, unlike werewolves and ghosts, are real critters, and at this time of the year they get lots of mentions. But their image, research shows, doesn't really do them justice. Vampire bats do drink blood, but they are also the most social of bats, cuddling and grooming each other at far higher rates than other bats. And this may be the surprising reason that they're so social.