July 19, 2008

Peru: Workers, peasants mount general strike
Somalia: U.S. complicit in humanitarian disaster
Saudi Arabia: Domestic workers abused, exploited
Britain, Ireland: Unions protest Israeli crimes
Japan: Guests pressure G8 host
Panama: A measure of justice but more is needed
Panama: A measure of justice but more is needed

Karl Marx once noted, “The rate of profit is the motive power of capitalist production. Things are produced only as long as they can be produced with a profit.” Does this apply to food?

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the United States had the chance to do something good and right, Barack Obama said in a major Iraq policy speech this week. But a failure of leadership and ideas on the part of the Bush administration led us down the wrong path.

Speaking out for Nader
Best take on Obama
How loathsome
Note of thanks
Don’t forget

A fruitful way to understand the fanatical efforts of America’s right wing is to realize that they want to turn back the clock and the calendar. Their efforts are clearest within the Texas Education Agency, where crazy scandals are epidemic.

As I left the theater after watching “The Visitor” I started thinking about all the things we have lost in the last eight years. Loss of civil liberties and justice are a couple of the main casualties that have been delivered to the working class behind the veil of the “war on terror.” This movie highlights the human victims of the terrorism that has been used against all of us.

My son, where are you that I can’t find you.
I’ve searched for you in gullies.
On pathways, in rivers and in oceans,
And in all the different places
Where I’m told that “there are bodies.”

Barack Obama’s sizeable opinion-poll lead among Hispanics over John McCain was reflected in the reaction to their speeches to the 5,000 participants in the National Council of La Raza’s annual conference here July 11-15. “Obama spoke to all the important issues to our community. It was a very good speech that helped connect him to the Latino community,” said Raul Yzaguirre, who served as NCLR’s president from 1974 to 2005.

Three United Nations agencies have warned of a decline in Palestinian living standards, with a new report showing that high food prices and falling incomes are forcing families to manage with less and lower quality food.