Portside

Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and its allies, suffered a major setback March 10th, when a law to privatize Mexico’s water resources was shelved. President Enrique Peña Nieto had attempted to “fast track” approval of the General Water Law, but the rapid mobilization of grassroots opposition forced the indefinite postponement of a vote on the legislation that would place water distribution under private sector control.

There is renewed interest in the potentially huge profitability of African agriculture - and seed systems are a key target. The Gates Foundation and the US Agency for International Development are working with Monsanto, Syngenta, Yara and others, to impose seed regulations friendly to multinational corporations that will reduce the role of Africa’s public sector, and marginalize the small farmers whose seeds and labor feed the continent.

At the 104th anniversary of the Triangle Fire in New York City, poet Tom Karlson reminds us that factory tragedy remains a real issue in the global garment-making industries.

With baseball's opening day this week, Malik Abduh's "Barnstormers" evokes the days when race prejudice barred great athletes from the major leagues.

Scientists know that we have taste receptors for fatty acids in our mouths and intestines. They are studying if fat meets the criteria to qualify as a primary taste along with sweet, salt, sour, bitter and umami.

Here's one approach that would put labor on the offensive: an initiative for a new law providing all workers with due process rights to challenge unjust discipline and discharge, "Just Cause for All."

Rap artist Baba Brinkman doesn't argue for science over religion; he uses evolutionary science to explain religion's origins, function and development.

When more and more can be done by fewer and fewer people, the profits go to an ever-smaller circle of executives and owner-investors. It may be that a redistribution of income and wealth from the rich to the rest of us becomes the only means of making the future economy work.

A new illustrated children’s book, Rad American Women A-Z, offers kids the chance to educate themselves on women’s history and the alphabet at the same time.