Jan. 19, 2008

BALTIMORE — Mayor Sheila Dixon has filed a lawsuit charging Wells Fargo bank with targeting African American homebuyers for subprime loans. The groundbreaking initiative has thrown a spotlight on discriminatory lending across the nation in violation of federal law.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Union members from across the U.S. are gathering here Jan. 17-21 for labor’s annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the history-making Memphis sanitation workers’ strike. King was assassinated here in 1968 while supporting the striking workers’ stand for dignity and union rights.

Colombia: FARC releases hostages, Zambia: Rich mines, poisoned water, Pakistan: Food shortages loom, Mexico: Copper miners attacked, Iraq: WHO counts civilian deaths, Spain: Clinic workers strike over abortion harassment

CLEVELAND — At a rally here this month with hundreds of labor leaders, public officials and community supporters, Dennis Kucinich kicked off his campaign for a seventh term in Congress, defiantly blasting corporate interests seeking to unseat him.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama won the backing Jan. 9 of the 60,000-strong Culinary Workers Union in Nevada. The endorsement followed announcements by the 450,000-member parent union, Unite Here, and the national Plumbers and Pipefitters Union that they were backing the Illinois senator.

As Congress reconvenes for the new year, the newly elected Board of Aldermen in New Haven joined cities across the country speaking out for peace.

Three recent New York Times articles have captured the essence of a new gilded age in America: “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” by Bob Herbert; “The Richest of Rich, Proud of the A New Gilded Age,” by Louis Uchitelle; and “Report Says that the Rich are Getting Richer Faster, Much Faster,” by David K. Johnston. The current gilded age has been fueled by deep tax cuts for the wealthy and mountains of debt — government debt, corporate debt and household debt — plus the inhumanely cheap labor of globalization.

In the buildup to the 2008 elections, the right-wing Republicans have decided to make immigrants the scapegoat for the failure of the Bush administration and the shortcomings of the capitalist system. Right-wing personalities on cable TV, on talk radio and in newspapers are fueling this process. Vicious lies are being told about immigrants.

En las preparativas para las elecciones de 2008, los republicanos derechistas han decidido convertir a los inmigrantes en el chivo expiatorio para las catástrofes de la administración de Bush y las deficiencias del capitalismo.