Jul 20, 2002

Another round in what many see as the most important congressional debate on health policy since 1994 opened on July 15 when the Senate began a scheduled two-week debate on competing plans to provide prescription drugs for some 40 million Medicare beneficiaries.

Racism is the most poisonous element in a witches’ brew of reactionary and ruling-class ideas that block a clear-sighted understanding of British political reality. But for the non-white ethnic minorities – who now make up 7.1 percent of the population – racism is an inescapable fact of life.

The battle to rein in corporate fraud by toughening accounting standards moved to the House of Representatives during the week of July 15 after clearing the Senate by a vote of 97-0.

DALLAS, Texas – One of ten caravans of supplies for Cuba passed through here July 13. They raised money and medical equipment at a covered-dish dinner at the First Community Church. The “caravanistas” began in Canada. They brought an ambulance and a 12-seater school bus. Caravanistas Shirley Lord and George Harris of Winnepeg said that they expect to rendezvous in San Antonio with the other nine groups from all over North America, and with Reverend Lucius Walker of Pastors for Peace.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and United Parcel Service announced a tentative contract settlement on July 15. The Union had said its more than 210,000 members who sort, load and deliver more than 13 million packages a day at UPS, would strike if there was no deal by the time its current contract expires on July 31.

The longshore workers who load and unload the cargo ships on the West Coast are locked in a struggle for a new contract. Their union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), is under attack by the employers, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which wants to cut benefits, undermine the union hiring hall and outsource jobs to non-union, low-wage states and other countries.

Traditionally, economists have looked at war in one of two ways. First, in terms of the cost of the resources expended on military and the other expenditures associated with war. This approach tries to measure the costs of war not just in terms of the human suffering involved, but also the losses in terms of expenditure foregone, which could otherwise have contributed to development and provision of basic needs to the people.

CHICAGO – Voceando consignas en apoyo a sus esfuerzos de organizar un sindicato, 100 trabajadores y gente apoyándolos hicieron piquetes en la entrada principal del Parque Zoologico Lincoln el 13 de julio mientras los ricos en patrocino llegaban ricamente vestidos en limosinas para asistir al Baile Anual de Gala.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, titled, “Malaria strikes growing number of U.S. travelers,” brings to mind the problems of British travelers of years-gone-by when they went round the world enjoying the fruits of empire.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) lashed out at Bush administration plans to privatize Social Security at a July 15 press conference here.