Portside

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is pushing for what would be the longest-ever contract with the teachers’ union: a nine-year deal that would let the city stretch out potentially huge retroactive pay increases. A nine-year deal for teachers would actually date to Nov. 1, 2009, when the union’s contract expired. But it would extend for another four and a half years — after Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, would face re-election in 2017.

Based on the leaks — and the history of arrangements in past trade pacts — it is easy to infer the shape of the whole TPP, and it doesn’t look good. We should accept the short-term pain, [some] say, because in the long run, all will benefit. But as John Maynard Keynes famously said in another context, “in the long run we are all dead.” In this case, there is little evidence that the trade agreements will lead to faster or more profound growth.

Scientists from Brandeis University and the University of Pittsburgh show how identical cells differentiate

The Immokalee, Florida farmworkers who have won battles against some of food industry's biggest corporations take aim at Publix and Wendy's

[This is] a paper presented as an argument for a position. It is not presented as a final position. It is, instead, inspired by the content of the February Left Strategies web discussion on the labor movement. This paper does not try to present the ideal tactics or all elements of strategy. It does, however, attempt to identify--for purposes of discussion--issues and concepts for consideration in the development of a full-blown left labor strategy. Feedback is welcomed.

The well-intended regulations don’t do enough to protect students who are easy prey for for-profit universities.

NNU is also concerned about the long term contribution that tar sands oil and the Keystone pipeline will make to the global rise on greenhouse gas emissions and the climate crisis – and the growing adverse health issues inflamed by climate change.