Analysis

My fellow workers — are you feeling the love? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have called for a march on Washington in support of workers’ rights! Has the class struggle ended? Or is it still about the money?

Estaba atormentado por la malaria; un torrente de lluvia tropical le golpeaba el techo de su choza en Indonesia. Entre el sudor y los calambres escribía sobre ideas; ideas grandes. Fue 1856 y el naturalista Alfred Russel Wallace escribía sobre la evolución de las especies.

As Congress returns to the subject of immigration, the Bush administration has stepped up arrests and deportations of immigrants. Meanwhile, in his State of the Union message, Bush once again stressed the creation of a new guest worker program. Both have to be countered by the immigrant rights movement.

It’s an oft-repeated truism: our children are our future. By that measure, however, our country could be heading for a pretty dismal time, according to a UNICEF report released earlier this month.

For casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election, women’s rights pioneer Susan B. Anthony was arrested, tried, convicted and fined $100 (which she never paid). In a famous 1873 speech to the court titled “On Women’s Right to Vote,” Anthony drew a profound connection between the struggles for African American rights and for women’s rights.

Excerpts from the remarks of Roger Toussaint, president of New York City’s Transport Workers Union Local 100, on the occasion of its Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration, Jan. 15.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s staffers have been cooking up a scheme for six months with former Sen. Phil Gramm to sell the state’s lottery. Texas’ efforts can be seen as part of a larger effort to privatize public assets, not only scandalous, but also a response to the financial crises that many states are facing.

New York’s new Democratic governor Eliot Spitzer has pledged to reform state government, and that’s widely welcomed. But Spitzer has already shown himself to be a very mixed bag — no surprise, given his background and his relationships with some Democratic Party centrists and in the corporate world. Still, he’s an improvement over Pataki.

In his Washington Post column, Eugene Robinson writes, “If you’ve been following the … Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby perjury trial, I can understand how you might confuse Dick Cheney with Tony Soprano. Cheney’s office is beginning to sound a lot like the Bada Bing, minus the dancers.”

The fight against racism is even more urgent today. There is nothing more important on the agenda of the progressive forces worldwide than the fight to end the scourge of racism from our planet.