Jan. 27, 2007

WASHINGTON — Determined to stand with the American people, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and leaders of the antiwar movement blasted President Bush for refusing in his State of the Union speech Jan. 23 to heed the people’s will and bring the troops home from Iraq

CHICAGO — The battle to fund human needs instead of war or tax breaks for the super-rich found its expression right in the heart of the Midwest.

As the Feb. 5 date for his court martial approaches, Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada continues his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq.

The concerns of most Americans who find it harder and harder to make ends meet, and who want to bring our troops home from Iraq, were ignored by George W. Bush in his State of the Union address, as if the 2006 elections to change the country’s direction had never happened.

Organized labor played a key role in preparations for the Jan. 27 Washington antiwar march. Over the past three years, labor bodies at the national, regional and local level have become increasingly outspoken on the Iraq war. This process started with resolutions from local and central labor councils and was given a boost by the formation of U.S. Labor Against the War in the fall of 2003.

WASHINGTON — Mass organizations with millions of members celebrated House passage in 42 hours of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 100-hour agenda. They demanded that the Senate do the same, including raising the minimum wage, slashing college loan rates and eliminating $14 billion in federal giveaways to Big Oil.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The walls of the meeting room were lined with photos of dozens of women, their warm and friendly faces contrasting sharply with the close-ups of their swollen, work-scarred hands, mounted below.

NEW ORLEANS: Low-income residents fight to ‘come home’
ARLINGTON, Va.: Caseworkers for wounded laid off
PITTSBURGH: ‘Save public transit!’

Civil rights groups see a chance to make important gains during the next two years with the new dynamics in Congress. In a letter earlier this month to members of the House and Senate, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights outlined 16 key issues that the 200-member civil and human rights coalition plans to win.

The Bush administration, in a letter last week from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to Congress, seemed to back away from its assertion that it has the right to spy on phone conversations of anybody in the U.S. without a warrant if the conversation is with someone in a foreign country.