Portside

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

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.

Previously Portside posted the 'Draft Proposal' - Think Paper by Bill Fletcher, Carl Davidson and Pat Fry. This has generated some discussion in progressive, left and socialist circles in our country. Here are some of the comments made by Portside readers. At the bottom are links to the related posts that have appeared on Portside in the past.

Thousands of Israeli Jews, many of them young and educated Tel Avivians, are casting their ballots with the country's perennial underdog...For the past 15 years I've been active in Hadash, but now, because the Joint List will be an even more powerful force in the Knesset, I feel more motivated than ever to vote,' says the 32-year-old doctoral student in anthropology. 'There is a real opportunity now to make a difference.'

Syriza opened itself to the social movements that emerged to challenge austerity and has become their political voice. It did what parties are supposed to do. It's appropriate to be inspired. Podemos - the new left-wing party in Spain is shaking things up there. Spain's elections are in the fall. Spain has a much bigger economy than Greece, so the prospect of an anti-austerity, anti-oligarchs party in power there is an even deeper challenge to the economic status quo.

Eleanor Marx Aveling, the youngest daughter of Karl Marx, was renowned in her time as a revolutionary activist and champion of modern culture and literature. Julia M. Klein takes a look at a new biography of this once famous, but now little-known, figure.

Deal averts threatened strike by the only grad student union recognized by a private university in the US.

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

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.

"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."