Portside

Ruby Dee's Best-Known Films. The Walmart Economy. Buddy Can You Spare a Dime? Movie: Belle. Why Is the Solar System Flat?

A court ruling that California's teacher tenure law is unconstitutional has stirred a heated debate. Four commentators, including Diane Ravitch, discuss the pros and cons in the New York Times' "Room for Debate" column.

Reader Comments - Politics and Post-Capitalism; Gabriel Kolko; Shondes - Blacklisted by the `Jewish Community; Yuri Kochiyama; Guantanamo: Bowe Bergdahl; Jewish Day School vs. Teachers Union; Blood Type; Europe post Elections; Supreme Court Ruling on Teacher Tenure; US Foreign Policy. Announcements - Dialogue with Leaders of Mexican Labor Movement - June 26 - New York: 45th contingent Venceremos Brigade; Peoples Climate March - New York - Sept. 20-21

New York public school teacher Kate Abell responds to earlier Portside post, on Common Core, adding the perspective of a math educator. "The Common Core Math Standards are far and away the best tool for supporting teachers in the teaching of mathematics that I have ever encountered. The standards themselves are written in a way to help teachers deepen their own understanding of mathematics, make connections between math topics.. and pass this on to their students."

Vietnam is justified in protesting the Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea. China is right in countering the US military buildup in southeast Asia. Duncan McFarland, who was in Vietnam at the height of the dispute in early reports from Vietnam and China. His conclusion: The working class should resist divide-and-conquer.

Ever since the Occupy movement hit the streets, an explosion of worker unrest - especially among Walmart employees, workers at fast-food chains, janitors, and hospital workers - has shaped the political life of America's cities.

Actor, author, activist Ruby Dee took her final bow at home in New Rochelle, New York on June 11, 2014. She was a gifted and talented woman who joined with her late husband, Ossie Davis, to produce and present some of the most enjoyable and inspirational stage productions and movies of the last half century.

The Next Page: Dark days in the Electric Valley Historian and former chief union steward Charles McCollester revisits the little-known Westinghouse walkout of 1914

“The New Deal illusion survives because it is a very useful to today’s Democratic Party,” Kolko wrote in 2012. “It needs myths, but if one knows the truth about it then we have the basis for understanding the essentially conservative nature of today’s Democratic Party.”

Uber claims disruption boosted users by 850% as continent-wide demonstration causes traffic chaos from London to Madrid.