Portside

In 21st century late capitalism, defending the commons means defending public spaces and public services that are irreducible to mere profit-value. There are few better examples of common spaces than conduits of public and private communication. A conscious, directed effort to save postal services in the United States and Canada should be a priority of the movement for economic democracy.

There’s nothing like realizing that our regulators and our corporations rely on semi-educated guesses, dependence on corporate testing of chemical compounds, and squeaking by on the lucky chance to make one feel safer.

Poverty is not just a function of lack of adequate income. Providing income alone does not eliminate poverty.

As written, this bill does not protect the rights of racial minorities against discrimination at the polls. The North Carolina State Conference of Branches of the NAACP is not willing to accept any legislation which does not mandate that North Carolina is designated as a covered jurisdiction.

Sharon died last week, eulogized by the very people he despised and turned into a shallow folk hero. The Ministry of Education compared him to Moses. In real life he was a very complex person, as complex as Israel. His personal history is interwoven with the history of Israel. His main legacy was catastrophic: scores of settlements which he implanted all over the West Bank – each of them a landmine which will have to be removed at great risk when the time comes.

There is something about the Common Core standards and testing, about their demand for uniformity and standardization, that reeks of early twentieth century factory-line thinking. In the present climate, the Common Core standards and testing will become the driving force behind the creation of a test-based meritocracy.