Portside

Reader Comments- Teachers Protests in Brazil and Mexico; Shutdown and Social Security; , GOP Playbook; Two Countries in 2014; Koch Bros. Monster Out of Control; Ghost of McCarthy; Lessons from Germany; Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap; Mission Accomplished? More Responses; Annnouncements- Trans-Pacific Partnership Forum - New York-Oct 25; Concert Celebration for Jon Fromer - New York-Oct 26 Social Cost of America's Race to Incarcerate - Chicago-Nov 7; Shorts, Job Announcement

Definitely go out and buy Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to Americas Public Schools by Diane Ravitch. Reign of Error lays out step by step the relentless thirty year drive to either centralize the education of the young - on one hand - or divest it entirely into privatized hands on the other. Finally, the two sides have joined forces on a strategy that simultaneously does both. (Deborah Meier)

March draws biggest turnout since wave of protests during Confederations Cup in June, and anarchist groups clash with police.

'Reforming' schools by giving tax money to corporations is a distraction from the system's real problems - poverty and racial segregation.

Reader Comments - German Election; Average American Family Pays $6,000 a Year in Subsidies to Big Business; Monsanto and GMO Labeling; Pope Francis; Announcements - Political Economy of the Environment -- URPE Conference in Brooklyn - Oct. 5; A Message from Cynthia Nixon - Curriculum of Change Celebration - New York - Oct. 17; New Populisms and the European Right and far Right Parties (new resource)

Progressives supported Prop 30 to send more money to schools but now the funds are headed to prisons. How could this happen - and can it be stopped?

The NYPD Division of Un-American Activities; Toni Morrison Responds to Ohio School Board Prez; When did Sadness Become a Disease?; Taking Over the Judiciary; "Commie Camp"