Portside

In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class Americans.

Inside stores, shortages are evident. Meat and produce are rapidly disappearing from shelves, and aren’t being replaced because truck drivers in the Teamsters union are refusing to cross the picket line.

Koji is a fungus believed to have been domesticated in Asia. As the spores grow, they release enzymes that break down proteins and starches into sugars. This reaction is also why koji mold is used to turn soybeans into miso, and rice into saki.

Joel Jordan is a retired teacher activist who spent many years organizing with the Los Angeles teachers’ union (UTLA) before relocating to Oakland where he helps coordinate the California Alliance for Community Schools.

The American Museum of Natural History is facing an internal insurrection — and the threat of staff resignations and boycotts — over its refusal to cancel a gala next month celebrating Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

As with many epic fantasies, the show’s heroes are framed as liberators and defenders of the common people—despite holding absolute power.

On Tuesday, the United Auto Workers (UAW) filed for an election to represent all 1,709 of the plant’s hourly employees, requesting that the election be held on April 29 and 30.

The son of Mexican immigrants, the poet José Olivarez explores the ambiguities (and realities) that determine who labels whom in the discourse of ethnic identity.

A look at the state of investigative reporting and long form journalism, a former New York Times editor details threats to an informed public coming from the decline of newspapers and the rise of social media gimmicks that beggar fact-based writing.

India's labor market primarily operates within the informal sector and is fraught with the most precarious of conditions, but in an environment where workers can lose their jobs for speaking out, most keep quiet to survive.