Portside

It's time to face a harsh reality: the GOP no longer behaves like a traditional American political party. It has become an extremist party. Moderates and sensible conservatives need to firmly reject and condemn this deeply disturbing and dangerous trend.

Diane Ravitch upends the "bad teachers" narrative...The stakes for our country could not be more profound. The labor movement and the public education system are two critical institutions of American democracy. And they are two that go hand in hand. Teachers unions have played a critical role in advocating for public education, but you'd never know it from mainstream media coverage - there is a great need to lift up this tradition.

In 1965, the year his father and 1,000 field laborers - the first wave of Filipinos to the United States, known as manongs - began the grape strike that set the stage for the boycott that would lead Cesar Chavez and thousands of farmworker families to create the nation's pioneering agricultural labor union, the United Farm Workers...On Sept. 8, 1965, Filipino farm workers organized by Mr.Itliong crowded into the Filipino Community Hall, where Filipino elders still gather

Pallo Jordan's speech at the Bisho massacre memorial lecture in King William's Town, Eastern Cape, on September 7, 2012

After more than a decade of top-down dictates, disruptive school closures, disregard of teachers' and parents' input, testing that squeezes out teaching, and cuts to the arts, physical education and libraries, educators in Chicago said "enough is enough." With strong support from parents and many in the community, teachers challenged a flawed vision of education reform that has not helped schoolchildren in Chicago or around the country. It took a seven-day strike -

Bonnie has balanced an astonishing musical range with a message and a way of carrying herself that are firmly rooted in her Quaker heritage

Greek workers carried out a 24-hour general strike today as 50,000 people demonstrated in Athens against austerity. The conservative coalition government is proposing $15 billion of further cuts to pensions and salaries...When Greece took an unfortunate pioneering role in the economic crisis, economic shock therapy meant that most working people saw their lives turned upside down in a matter of a few months..

Why did they strike? After 17 years of reform and disrespect, they were fed up with the bullying. They were tired of the non-educators and politicians telling them how to teach and imposing their remedies. Reform after reform, and children in Chicago still don't have the rich curriculum, the facilities, and the social services they need.

Poverty, inequality, violence, race and investment matter. They must be a part of any long-term solution.

Three posts reflecting on victory of Chicago teachers & students after the strike - Diane Ravitch, Jesse Jackson and Juan Gonzalez