Archive | March, 2011

  • Day of Anger on Friday in Saudi Arabia

    Cyber activists have created a group on Facebook calling for a “Day of Anger” on Friday in the eastern Saudi region, following the arrest of a Muslim cleric.

  • ALBA Countries Support Venezuelan Initiative to Seek Peace in Libya

    Bolivian, Ecuadoran, and Cuban Foreign Ministers David Choquehuanca, Ricardo Patiño and Bruno Rodríguez, and Nicaraguan Vice Minister of Economic Relations and External Cooperation Valdrack Jaentschke, all say that their governments support Venezuela’s initiative to create an international commission to seek a negotiated solution to the internal conflict in Libya. The officials made their position public […]

  • NATO’s inevitable war (Part II)

    When Gaddafi, aged just 28 and a colonel in the Libyan army, inspired by his Egyptian colleague Abdel Nasser, overthrew King Idris I in 1969, he implemented important revolutionary measures such as agrarian reform and the nationalization of oil. The growing income was dedicated to economic and social development, particularly educational and health services for […]

  • Venezuela’s Position on Libya

      Venezuela’s proposal to “set up a Goodwill International Commission for the search for peace in Libya” mentioned in the statement below has been accepted by the government of Libya but rejected by the opposition Libyan National Council, France, and the United States. — Ed. This statement records Venezuela’s position on United Nations General Assembly […]

  • How I Became a Socialist

      “Workin’ hard scarred my proletarian flesh I used to go to sleep drunk every night depressed Slavin’ for a check, a couple hundred at best While the boss getting’ rich off my blood and sweat And all the crumbs I get go to bills and rent I ain’t workin’ all my life just to […]

  • Call for an Audit Commission on Greek Public Debt

    We the undersigned believe that there is a pressing need for an Audit Commission to examine Greek public debt.  Current EU and IMF policy to deal with public debt has entailed major social costs for Greece.  Consequently, the Greek people have a democratic right to demand full information on public and publicly-guaranteed debt. The aim […]

  • No Tahrir in Benghazi: A Racist Pogrom Rages On against Black Africans in Libya

    American progressives and peace forces have been in a state of joyous delirium in recent weeks as they experienced vicarious, televised popular victories in Tunisia and Egypt.  Watching unarmed crowds achieve tentative victories against entrenched, U.S.-backed regimes produced a kind of giddiness on this side of the ocean — an otherworldly feeling that, somehow, the […]

  • Missing in Madison — Where’s Obama? Nurses Offer to Buy President’s Shoes to March with Workers

    The past two weeks have been a “Where’s Waldo” moment for President Obama. He’s been largely a bystander while tens of thousands of American workers, joined by students, and community allies, marched in Madison’s snow and freezing temperatures, and slept on the floors of the capitol, to defend their most fundamental right to freedom of […]

  • NATO’s Inevitable War (Part I)

    In contrast with what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya occupies the first spot on the Human Development Index for Africa and it has the highest life expectancy on the continent. Education and health receive special attention from the State. The cultural level of its population is without a doubt the highest. Its problems […]

  • Why Taxing the Rich Makes Sense

    Over the last half century, the richest Americans shifted the burden of the federal individual income tax off themselves onto everybody else.  The three convenient and accurate Wikipedia graphs below show the details.  The first graph compares the official tax rates paid by the top and bottom income earners.  Notice especially that from the end […]

  • Ohio: Rigged Game

      Ohio’s Senate Bill 5 passed today, 17-16. — Ed. Rigged Game So, after a full and fair debate on SB#5 before a Committee the majority of whom are Republicans, the Bill was going down to defeat.  Two Republican Senators, Hughes and Seitz had reasoned the Bill was unfair to public employees and was overreaching. […]

  • March 1st Protest to Defend Ohio’s Working Class

    No on Senate Bill 5, 1 March 2011 Panayiotis T. Manolakos is an independent economist, writer, and activist based in Ohio.  The photographs above (available at www.flickr.com/photos/ptmanolakos/sets/72157626052775127/) are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print

  • Black Africans Live in Fear in “Free Libya”

    Al Jazeera reports that Black African workers now live in fear in the rebel-held territories in Libya.  Some of them have been attacked by mobs, others have been imprisoned, and some of their homes and workshops have been torched.  “Many African workers say they felt safer under the Gaddafi regime,” says Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, […]

  • URGENT!  Don’t Let the Tea Party Take Over the Ohio SB 5 Hearing Room

      Late in the evening after SB5 protesters held the biggest rally at the Statehouse in 15 years, word has just come out that SB5 may come up for a vote this Wednesday, March 2nd. We can only guess whether this was timed to coincide with the Tea Party rally scheduled for the Statehouse that […]

  • It’s Up to You to Take Action and Fight Back

      Senate Bill 5 will destroy the way of life of hundreds of thousands of Ohioans and hurt our communities.  One way to take a stand is by coming out to the biggest Statehouse rally yet TODAY: from 9 AM, Statehouse‘s West Lawn on the High Street side.  The Senate Insurance, Commerce, and Labor Committee […]