June 10, 2006

Because Congress has refused to raise the $5.15 an hour minimum wage since 1997, coalitions of labor, religious and community groups are organizing voters to do so, one state at a time. So far 21 states and Washington, D.C., have done so. Similar campaigns are under way in another dozen states.

The massacre of Iraqi civilians, including women and children, by U.S. troops in Haditha and elsewhere is having far-reaching repercussions for Iraq and the U.S.

Can you have a business office without a business manager? No, and yes. The People’s Weekly World for the past few years had such a set-up, but no one on the editorial board would recommend it as a model

CHICAGO — Over 100 community supporters, including religious leaders and elected officials, rallied here in front of the immigration court building June 1 as about two-dozen former employees of IFCO Systems, who were arrested as part of a nationwide raid by federal agents in April, went to their first deportation hearing.

A huge conventional bomb test — ironically named “Divine Strake” — has been postponed “indefinitely,” but the struggle goes on. That was the message June 3 as protesters gathered in Reno, Nev., to continue their opposition to plans to detonate 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil at the Nevada Test Site, where over 900 nuclear tests took place between 1951 and 1992.

Fifty-seven million Americans say they’d join a union if they had a chance. And due to a hard-fought, close to the ground campaign, legislation to give them that right is now within striking distance of victory.

A variety of progressive, issue-oriented forces are at work in the Ohio elections, trying to build a political movement capable of ousting the ultra-right from control of state government in November.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.: Wal-Mart is hazardous to your health
BALTIMORE: Residents demand chromium cleanup
HARLAN COUNTY, Ky.: The cost of two miners’ lives — $360,000
WASHINGTON: High court to hear challenge to Brown v. Board of Education

Labor and progressive forces scored significant victories and mounted important challenges in California’s June 6 primary election.

WORCESTER, Mass. — Massachusetts may be well on its way to getting its first African American governor after the state Democratic Party convention endorsed Deval Patrick, with 58 percent of the delegates’ votes, on June 3. Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Riley received 27 percent while venture capitalist Christopher Gabrielli squeezed through with slightly over 15 percent, the minimum needed to qualify for the Sept. 19 primary election ballot.