On January 15, the New York Times ran an interesting piece on older workers. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited in the story, the US workforce is a lot older now than it was at the onset of the Great Recession in December 2007. Total employment of workers under the age of 55 […]
Archive | News
News updates or analysis.
Tunisia: UGTT Demands Dissolution of Government
1. The General Union of Tunisian Workers is a national organization necessarily interested in political affairs, given its history of struggle during the colonial epoch and the period of the construction of the modern state, considering the dialectical links among economy, society, politics, and culture in the process of development, but out task has become […]
Tunisia: Get Lost, RCD!
The dictatorship changes masks in Tunisia . . . and the Tunisian people says, “Get lost, RCD!” Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print
Downturn Continues to Lower Union Membership
The labor market recession continued to exact a toll on union membership, which fell sharply in 2010. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unionized share of the U.S. workforce dropped to 11.9 percent last year from 12.3 percent in 2009. The private sector unionization rate fell to 6.9 percent in 2010, from 7.2 […]
“The Year 1789 of the Tunisian Revolution”: Interview with Jean Tulard, Historian of the French Revolution
Jean Tulard is a historian, specializing in the French Revolution and revolutions in general. According to Tulard, the future of the Tunisian uprising will depend on the role played by the army. In a month of uprising, the Tunisian people has successfully toppled the Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali regime. Is it a revolution? Right now […]
Cuomo’s Class Mobilization
Many of the most interesting — and from a left perspective, most disturbing — developments in U.S. politics today are occurring at the state level. As the excellent Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has documented, the aftermath of the recession wrought by the financial crisis has plunged virtually every U.S. state into a deep […]
Fox News’s Glenn Beck Incites Threats against Professor Frances Fox Piven
January 20, 2011, New York — Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) issued a written appeal to Fox News president Roger Ailes to help put a stop to the increasing threats against progressive Professor Frances Fox Piven, largely incited by Fox News host Glenn Beck. In the letter, co-written by Legal Director Bill Quigley […]
Families Divided by US Deportation
Past US administrations have deported illegal immigrants, but under President Obama the process has accelerated. This video was first released by Al Jazeera on 19 January 2011. | Print
Solidarity with Choi Daniel, aka Black Comet, a Zainichi Fighter against Racism in Japan
We, the Black Comet Defense Committee, appeal to all fighters against discrimination in the world: We would like to let you know what happened on a street near the Shibuya station, Tokyo, on December 4, 2010. Choi Daniel (崔檀悦), also known as Black Comet, a young Zainichi Korean sociologist born in Japan, protested, alone, […]
The Tidal Wave of Nonsense on Demography
The debate over the demographic trends in the United States and other wealthy countries can be described a debate between those who care about our children and those who want more of them. This is apparent once a little bit of logic is applied to the tales of demographic disaster being hawked by those concerned […]
Aristide Should Be Allowed to Return to Haiti
Haiti’s infamous dictator “Baby Doc” Duvalier returned to his country this week, while the country’s first elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is kept out. These two facts really say everything about Washington’s policy toward Haiti and our government’s respect for democracy in that country and in the region. Asked about the return of Duvalier, who had […]
Goldman Sachs Again
So now we know about the $15 billion plus 2010 pay package for Goldman Sachs partners and employees. The top rungs will get their many millions each, with lesser and lesser amounts going down the GS hierarchy. The mass of its over 35,000 employees will, as usual, get much, much less than the top. In […]
The IMF and Ireland: What We Can Learn from the Global South
This paper highlights a number of concerns about the nature of the EU-IMF loan agreement with Ireland. It is based on the experience of global justice organisations that have long monitored the impact of IMF policies in the Global South. The paper first takes up that experience and highlights the pernicious impacts the IMF — […]
Tunisia: “RCD Out”
Calls are mounting for disbanding the Rassemblement constitutionnel démocratique (RCD) or at least banning it from participation in the transition government of Tunisia. Amid streets chants of “RCD out,” the RCD leadership (such as it still exists) first kept a low profile and then felt compelled to do “something.” That something translated into a […]
Tunisia: Major Opposition Parties Issue Statements Rejecting Unity Government
20 January 2011 19 January 2011 As 4 opposition ministers announced their resignation from the Unity Government, protesters once again took to the streets to express their rejection of any RCD involvement in the interim government. Protesters shouted “RCD, Out Out!” and were greeted by tear gas, water cannons, and even live ammunition fired […]
Borderline, 1 & 2
Monique Renault, born in Rennes, France, is a feminist animator in the Netherlands. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print
Crisis!
“Crisis? What crisis? Every time they say we are in crisis, we pay, the same as usual.” — Kalvellido The day when all the businessmen commit collective suicide . . . I’ll believe that crisis thing. Juan Kalvellido is a Spanish cartoonist. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print
Grave Human Rights Violations Continue in Honduras
Tegucigalpa, 19 January 2011 The National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) denounced today that, in Honduras, grave human rights violations persist under the Porfirio Lobo Sosa administration. According to Berta Oliva, Coordinator of the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), her organization documented 1,071 human rights violations in just […]
Interview with Sandy Pope, Candidate for General President of the Teamsters Union
Sandy Pope: For twelve years Hoffa has promised to restore the power of the union, and we have done nothing but go backwards. We have lost thousands of members, thousands of good union jobs. We’re not organizing [non-union] companies that are going up against our union competition. The members don’t have faith that the union […]
A Welcome Prison Victory at Youngstown
Three death-sentenced men went on hunger strike in Ohio State Penitentiary on January 3 to win the same rights as others on death row in the state. On Saturday January 15, the twelfth day of their protest, a crowd of supporters gathered in the parking lot by the tiny evangelical church at the entrance […]
