National

Mayors stand up for cities: U.S. out of Iraq; Maine rally for Iraq pullout, impeachment; State universal health care passes Wisconsin Senate; FBI gives Wall St. and Main St. criminals a break

OAKLAND, Calif. — The blue T-shirts of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports were everywhere, proclaiming that port truck drivers, area union members, neighborhood residents and environmental activists are united to win decent pay and conditions for the drivers and a healthful environment for the Port of Oakland’s workers and neighbors.

ATLANTA — Ten thousand community and human rights activists, trade unionists and young people converged in this city of epic civil rights struggles June 27-July 1 at the first United States Social Forum.

PHILADELPHIA — The No Child Left Behind Act and the Supreme Court rejection of school desegregation programs drew harsh criticism July 3 as 9,000 teachers and other school workers opened the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly here. The four-day conference met under the slogan “Great public schools, a basic right for every child.”

The great, recurring question that is often asked by people of good will about the Holocaust and the crimes of the Nazi regime is, “How could this happen?” Yet many of these same people think nothing about asking a couple why they want to adopt a disabled child, or whether they would like to be “relieved of the burden” of caring for a child with Down’s.

English is so dominant in this country that it is hard to get Americans, even university students, to learn other languages. And, although first-generation immigrants may struggle a bit with English, their children here almost always are fluent in it, and by the third generation, the problem is not to get people to learn English, but to re-teach them the language of their grandparents. When politicians try to turn a non-problem into a problem, you can bet that the purposes are demagogic

The signers of the Declaration of Independence must be turning in their graves this July 4th over the shredding of basic democratic rights by corporate right-wing politicians in Washington.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The New York Police Department is running wild in Black and Latino neighborhoods, using racial profiling as a tool of choice, charges a group of students and residents of Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood.

WASHINGTON — One week before our nation’s July 4 celebration, thousands of protesters wearing Statue of Liberty crowns and holding signs reading “Torture is wrong” rallied on Capitol Hill to demand that Congress restore constitutional freedoms shredded by the Bush administration.

WASHINGTON — Animado por la victoria contra la derecha republicana en las elecciones del pasado noviembre, tres mil activistas en la quinta conferencia anual “Take Back America” (Retomemos a América) aplaudieron y vocearon la demanda de los oradores que el Congreso tiene que poner fin a la guerra en Irak, restaurar los derechos sindicales y promulgar servicios de salud universal.