Portside

“If Detroit fails it will hurt our nation as a whole. It will send a message to minority and urban youth that their futures are as hopeless as they seem and the country doesn't care. It will add to a national atmosphere of hopelessness and decay. And we will have missed an opportunity to turn the tide for America's cities.”

While a depleted, discredited and disorganized nuclear utility moves to restart its other reactors, its stricken units at Fukushima continue to hold the rest of us at the brink of apocalyptic terror.

Today, the Dream Defenders--a multiracial, multiethnic group of young people--celebrated the 10th day of occupying Florida's state capitol. They say they're not leaving until Florida takes concrete steps to deal with the bigger issues exposed by Trayvon Martin's shooting. When Gov. Rick Scott met with them and suggested they "pray" about racial profiling, they responded, "Faith without works is dead."

Reader's Comments - North Carolina and Voting Rights; Socialist Youth Reunion; Zimmerman Acquittal; Internet & Inequality; Farmworkers; Wall-Mart; Petition - Save Worker Education Program at Brooklyn College; Announcements - Forgotten History of Civil Rights: The March On Washington - Book Signing & Forum- NYC- Aug 1; Confronting the Climate Crisis- Bay Area- Aug 2; Legacies of the March on Washington- NYC- Aug 16; Jean Damu, R.I.P.; Margrit Pittman Memorial - Oct 6

In the upcoming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the issue will be what it has always been: will there be an end to the Israeli occupation and an agreement on the borders of a Palestinian state?

Larger-than-expected crowds set to flock to Washington for 50th anniversary of King's 'I have a dream' speech in wake of recent court decisions that have fulled renewed debate on race