Jan. 14, 2006

In November, representatives of over 50 communist and left parties met in Nicosia, Cyprus, to discuss “The New World Order and Its Consequences in the Greater Middle East.” The meeting was hosted by AKEL, the Communist Party of Cyprus.

This weekend’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 77th birthday comes amid a growing popular upsurge against the sharp challenges posed by the Bush administration and its giant corporate backers to every ideal the great civil rights and peace leader fought for.

In the past week’s hearings on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, much attention has focused on his attitudes toward Roe v. Wade, and the right to privacy that underlies the Supreme Court’s historic 1973 decision upholding a woman’s right to choose abortion.

Unnecessary deaths; Outrageous claim; Easier way to pass the word?; Postcards for impeachment; Workers for political office; LabourStart contest; Free the Cuban 5

The latest campaign of the anti-immigrant forces is to take away the right to U.S. citizenship of children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States.

Q: Why don’t you change your name? A lot of people would agree with your ideas but they are scared away by the word “communist.”

Film reviews

Corporate concentration in the news media continues to take a toll. Trivialization of news that blurs the distinction between news and entertainment and under-reporting of serious issues are the trends.

In 1997 Annie Proulx wrote the short story that would become “Brokeback Mountain,” the tale of Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, two Wyoming “country boys with no prospects, brought up to hard work and privation,” who happen to fall in love.