July 19, 2008

The drama is intensifying around California’s budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. Last week the Legislature’s Budget Conference Committee announced a counterproposal to roll back many of the draconian cuts to health, education and social services proposed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The people of Ireland voted resoundingly against the Lisbon Treaty in a popular referendum vote June 13. The vote was 53.4 percent “No.” Opponents of the pact said the vote demonstrated the strong will of the Irish working people to reject a treaty that serves only the interests of big business and the military.

CHICAGO — “Can you imagine a federal law that promoted community schools — schools that serve the neediest children by bringing together under one roof all the services and activities they and their families need?

The nation’s capital played host to over 10,000 elected delegates of the National Education Association’s 87th annual representative assembly July 1-6. Teachers, educational support and administrative personnel were joined by thousands of other allied professionals and trade unionists and guests at what was billed as the world’s largest democratic deliberative body.

The assembly’s festive atmosphere did not diminish the fact that teachers were acutely aware that public schooling and its future is a main item on the nation’s domestic agenda, especially in this presidential election year.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is still struggling to track the Salmonella SaintPaul food poisoning outbreak that has sickened more than 869 people in 36 states and the District of Columbia since the first reported case in New Mexico April 10.

The financial crisis that has been sweeping the United States and much of the capitalist world since last summer reached a new phase when mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac moved near insolvency. This unfolding crisis may be the worst threat to the U.S. economy since the Great Depression.

The United Steelworkers union made history with its convention just held in Las Vegas. That’s history with a capital H. The kind of history that can forever change labor and our country. The kind of history that was made in 1935 when the CIO — Committee for Industrial Organization — was formed.