Portside

Reader Comments: Congress Plots to Undermine Retiree Pensions; Is It Bad Enough Yet?; Angela Davis: the unbroken line of police violence; James Baldwin on Racism; LAWCHA's Teacher/Public Sector Initiative; #BlackLivesMatter Takes the Field; They Fear and The Kill; Thousands March to Protest Police Brutality; Torture - Senate Report, Lessons from Latin America; Trade; Chanukah 2014; CELEBRATING CHARLIE HADEN memorial and celebration of his life - New York - Jan. 13

Celebrations marked the 50th Anniversary of the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley. The FSM, along with the Civil Rights Movement, the Southern Freedom Movement, and organizations like SNCC and CORE inspired a generation. Yesterday, marking the 50th anniversary, there were celebrations and a rally - today the struggle is continuing - in Berkeley, in the U.S., and worldwide, like the Hong Kong students are showing.

Fifty years ago, Ella Baker said, "Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest." Michael Brown's murder by a Ferguson, Missouri, cop has, once again, provoked a national conversation about how far the United States has come in its quest for racial equality.

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

Japanese-American activist and Malcolm X Ally, Yuri Kochiyama, has died at the age of 93. She spent two years in an internment camp and helped win reparations for Japanese-Americans. She was with Malcolm X when he was assassinated. She inspired generations. Tributes from 18 Million Rising and the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA; links to some of her writings and interviews.

Carl Bloice, Portside moderator, journalist, editor, political theorist, activist and teacher, died April 12 in San Francisco, after a long battle with cancer. He was 75. He was one of the founding moderators of Portside, responsible for the Saturday posts, including writing REWIND, composed of the Quote of the Day and Toon of the Day, which he assembled. Carl leaves behind a world enriched by his contributions, with friends throughout the world.

On the line are the lives of decent hardworking Americans, trying to cross over into the dignity of work but still caught in the barbwire of an historic global recession. The jobless rate for young African Americans (16-19 years old) was 35.5 percent in December.

Reader Comments - Kshama Sawant's election; The Vietnam Antiwar Movement; AFL-CIO's new road; Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA; Religious Freedom, or Reproductive Freedom; Israel Boycott Movement Controversy; Chris Christie; Bill de Blasio; Announcements - Chicago (Jan. 18); New York (Jan. 21, 24 and 30); Bay Area (Jan. 22) Today in History

The wrangling between the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) had two main goals. In its election campaign the SPD had tried to sound leftish so as to keep or win back the votes of union members and at least some progressive voters. But now, to become part of a "grand coalition" government, it had to tone down such escapades and sooth the fears of big biz bosses.

For now, Bill de Blasio is a populist hero of our times, at least for now. Is a revived Populism blowing in that wind? Maybe so. Signs of a change in the weather have been sprouting here and there. There was the occupation of the State House in Madison. And then there was the occupation of Wall Street. Mini uprisings of the most abused and intimidated workers at fast food outlets, car washes, even at Wal-mart register not so much desperation as bravery, a will to resist