July 21, 2007

WASHINGTON — Democrats kept the U.S. Senate in session all night, July 17-18, seeking to stop Republican efforts to block a vote on pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq within 120 days.

Jimmy Massey, a founding member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), says active-duty soldiers and their families are turning against the Iraq war as more and more learn the nation was duped into the war by George W. Bush’s lies about nonexistent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

DETROIT — Meeting in the heart of Motor City, a historic center of autoworkers and the African American working class, the NAACP placed ending racism and inequality and strengthening labor/Black unity high on the agenda of its 98th annual convention.

This weekend I’m going camping. I’ll be getting The Book — “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” — delivered to the campsite via owl. Yep, we’ve made special arrangements.

Student loan debt has more than doubled over the past 10 years. The average college graduate will leave school this year owing $19,200, according to the nonprofit Project on Student Debt. However, the House of Representatives approved the College Cost Reduction Act on July 11, which would lower interest rates on student loans and increase aid to low-income students who want to go to college

DEARBORN, Mich. — More than 500 women made it clear that women’s concerns encompass racial equality, health care, war and peace, youth issues and more, as they gathered here at the National Organization for Women’s 41st annual conference, July 13-15.

John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich stood out among Democratic presidential candidates in a national MoveOn town hall on the climate crisis this month. The two clearly captured a public desire for a president who offers forthright action to take on the global climate crisis and also protect and enhance workers’ livelihoods.

Eighty teachers and other school worker members of the American Federation of Teachers are spending two weeks in New Orleans this summer, helping fix up damaged homes and schools, and tutor students in the hard hit Ninth Ward.

OAKLAND, Calif. — As Waste Management of Alameda County’s lockout of nearly 500 union drivers entered its third week, mountains of garbage continued to grow in many parts of Oakland and neighboring communities. Solidarity with the members of Teamsters Local 70 continued to grow as well.

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger says the union is not entering the upcoming contract talks with Detroit automakers with givebacks in mind. “We’re not going into negotiations in a concessionary mode, I’ll tell you that,” Gettelfinger said July 11 after speaking at the NAACP national convention in Detroit.