June 9, 2007

When Israeli Communist Meir Vilner co-signed Israel’s Independence Charter on May 14, 1948, he, and the Jewish/Arab Palestine Communist Party he was representing, stressed the promise contained within the charter: to help implement the United Nations resolutions providing for two independent states, Israel and Palestine — a promise still deferred.

The Bush administration’s planned anti-missile complex in eastern Europe and its joint development of an anti-missile system with Japan are raising the specter of a new Cold War with far-reaching consequences for global political stability.

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“This type of action by labor leaders was very important. If labor leaders all across the country would do this we would make a lot more progress on health care and many other issues.”

I read with interest Wadi’h Halabi’s article “Healthy planet a low priority for capitalism”. While I agree strongly with the argument implied by the title and the statement that “the capitalist class is incapable of reversing the destruction of humanity’s environment,” I am skeptical of the assertions made about “the genuine environmental accomplishments that have followed socialist revolutions.”

The “benchmark,” or goal, that the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the United States invaded Iraq is the privatization of Iraq’s oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds.

The eruption of internal clashes between Fatah and Hamas recently in Gaza was a renewal of the fighting that blighted the Strip in the months before the agreement to form a unity government. It came as little surprise, since tensions have been running high and the Mecca agreement failed to deal with the underlying causes.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer is proposing a major expansion of New York’s bank of DNA samples. Currently, New York state collects DNA from those convicted of serious crimes. Spitzer is proposing to include people convicted of most crimes (including those found guilty of any misdemeanor, such as drug offenses, harassment and unauthorized use of a credit card).

Cuba is a sporting power thanks to the efforts of the revolutionary government to promote the practice of athletes on a mass scale, permitting the island to insert itself among the most privileged places in the international arena. But the socialist island does not limit itself to these goals alone. Cuba also offers educational opportunities, free of charge, to other nations.