Jul 13, 2002

According to some judges and pundits, sweatshops, school vouchers and an eighth grade education offer salvation to the children who reside in the world’s slums, ghettos and barrios. In an op-ed piece entitled “Let Them Sweat,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently took “muddle-minded liberals” to task for opposing global sweatshops.

Health care, U.S.-style, increasingly has to do with markets and money. The suffering of the poor and excluded are back-burner items. The pharmaceutical industry, which is presently on a roll, provides ample evidence of what happens when profits come first and human needs second.

Since the 1950s and the start of the Cold War, there has been a consistent placement of military bases and military and atomic production facilities in the Southwest. The Southwest region, comprised of Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Nevada, was especially suitable for this development because of the sparsely populated areas and wide use of lands, and also because, historically, these states were low-wage states.

When I lived in the Bronx, one of those traveling carnivals came into our neighborhood. They set up their equipment in a public park, tearing up the grass and knocking down a stone gate.

Solidarity Day rallies held on June 27 at the West Coast ports of Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle brought together a powerful united front of unions and community groups together with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) as 10,500 of its members face a fierce battle over its new contract and a possible intervention by the Bush administration.

New footage obtained by the BBC shows clearly that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deliberately shot at fleeing civilians at close range in the Jenin market attack on June 21. The major media outlets have been depriving U.S. citizens of the truth in the Middle East conflict.

CHICAGO – Young Communist League (YCL) National Coordinator Libero Della Piana and I found time to talk on a busy Monday morning this past week. He is here meeting with area YCL clubs, friends and members in preparation for the organization’s 7th National Convention, which will take place here November 22-24.