Archive | Commentary

  Testimony before the Insurance, Commerce, and Labor committee, 17 February 2011 Statehouse Mobilization against SB 5 and Kasich’s Anti-Worker Agenda Date: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Time: 1 PM Location: Ohio Statehouse, 1 Capitol Square, Columbus, OH Click here for more info. Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee for giving me the […]

  Testimonies of four UFCW members before the Insurance, Commerce, and Labor committee, 17 February 2011 Testimony of Mr. Don Watkins on SB 5 Statehouse Mobilization against SB 5 and Kasich’s Anti-Worker Agenda Date: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Time: 1 PM Location: Ohio Statehouse, 1 Capitol Square, Columbus, OH Click here for more info. I […]

  Why Are We in Afghanistan?  Written and directed by Michael Zweig.  Illustrated by Mike Konopacki.  Edited by Trish Dalton.  Produced by Trish Dalton, Michael Zweig, and the Center for Study of Working Class Life. As we approach the 10-year anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, polls show that 63% of Americans now oppose […]

  “O, Tunisian people, rise up against the remnants of the dictatorship!” Fatima Thawadi, Primary School Teacher: We will not negotiate with this government, and we will never give up.  The Tunisian people will have the last word.  This crystal building in the middle of the capital, the RCD should fear to stay in this […]

  Sadri Khiari, Tunisian activist exiled in France since early 2003, is one of the founding members of the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic (PIR), of which he is currently one of the key leaders.  He has published, among others, Tunisie. Le délitement de la cité : coercition, consentement, résistance, éditions Karthala, Paris, 2003; […]

I am taking a second, between various important analyses that are currently taking up my time, to refer to two issues that should be known to our people. The United Nations, at the instigation of the United States, the creator of poverty and chaos in the Haitian Republic, decided to send into Haiti its forces […]

An independent recount and review of 11,171 tally sheets from Haiti’s November 28 election shows that the outcome of the election is indeterminate.  The review, conducted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), found massive irregularities and errors in the tally.  A report detailing the recount’s findings, and methodology, will be made available […]

  December 27, 2010 Indian American Muslim Council deplores the verdict of life imprisonment handed to Dr. Binayak Sen and expresses alarm at the judicial process which resulted in his conviction. Dr. Sen, considered as one of the most prominent Human Rights activist in India, was falsely implicated on the basis of evidence allegedly planted […]

  “We are here because some of us and our friends voted for change.  What did we get?  What we got was a more effective imperial CEO.” — Bruce A. Dixon of Black Agenda Report, Chicago, 16 October 2010 Video by Labor Beat (27 November 2010).  For more information: <[email protected]>; <laborbeat.org>; 312-226-3330. | Print  

The end of 2010 brings renewed Washington rhetoric, media hype, and academic me-too declarations about the US economy “recovering.”  We’ve heard them before since the crisis hit in 2007.  They always proved wrong.  But recovery noises are useful for some.  Republicans claim that government should do less since recovery is underway (of course, for them, […]

  The historic election of Barak Obama brought with it high expectations for a new direction in American foreign policy towards Cuba.  Unfortunately, hope has turned into disappointment halfway through his first term: the President continues to miss opportunities to alter the dynamics of the consistently contentious US-Cuba relationship. While the recent discharge of political […]

On 20 December 2010, the New York Times reported (Mark Mazzetti and Dexter Filkins, “U.S. Military Seeks to Expand Raids in Pakistan”): “Senior American military commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for an expanded campaign of Special Operations ground raids across the border into Pakistan’s tribal areas. . . .  Now, American military officers appear confident […]

The long awaited liberalization of energy commodities in Iran has finally begun.  President Ahmadinejad stated: “At this stage, we don’t want to free prices, rather we are going to regulate and reform them.”  How regulated will this new system be? Iranians with private cars get a monthly ration of about one full Iranian tank of […]

  Listen to the interview with Jerica Arents and Mary Dean: Jerica Arents: What’s interesting, we heard many people who are in higher echelons of society [in Bamiyan Province in Afghanistan] say that “US forces need to stay, they are protecting us,” but ordinary people, ordinary Afghans, whom we talked to said, “We want the […]

While the US may be the world’s single superpower in military terms, it faces another superpower: the voices of war-weary millions who detest violence and killing.  In Afghanistan, in the United States, and among the populations of countries whose governments have joined the NATO coalition, millions of people are calling for an end to war […]

Indian Justice Has Failed Dr Binayak Sen To: The President of India, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi We, the undersigned are shocked at the conviction of well-known public health doctor and human rights worker Dr Binayak Sen by a Raipur Sessions Court on charges of ‘sedition’ and ‘waging war against the Indian State’.  The conviction carries […]

“We believe the US and NATO forces cannot liberate Afghan women, nor defeat the Taliban, nor bring peace and stability to Afghanistan.”

Caracas, 24 Dec. AVN — The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, sent a message of hope and faith to the people as part of Christmas festivities, with a handwritten card that he showed at an event held in the Miraflores Palace in Caracas: Below is the Christmas message from the […]

  “I thought to avoid the clichés of friendship that usually involve showing Indian and Pakistani flags waving in harmony.  Instead I took my camera into a Mumbai slum where so many of the powerless and penniless live and face daily indignities and uncertainties and yet retain their spirit of resistance.  What has resulted is […]

“Everybody wanna fuck with the Taliban, from Kabul to Pakistan.” Chris d’Eon is a musician based in Montreal, Canada.  His album Palinopsia, which includes “Kill a Man with a Joystick,” is available now from Hippos in Tanks. | Print