Bush threatens ILWU and hard-won labor rights
Nothing is more fundamental to America’s conception of itself than the freedom of speech and assembly. Unions, declared illegal in the early years of the republic, have fought for those rights for three centuries. But unionists have still not entirely won the most basic right: to organize at the workplace and to protest bad conditions by refusing to work.
One year later, public mood shifts
A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows two different Americas – one in September 2001 and the other in September a year later. The differences are striking. Seldom have there been such shifts in the public mood in such a short time.
The Bush administration charts course towards global catastrophe
The biggest threat to world peace and our nation’s security emanates not from the caves of Afghanistan, but from the Oval Office in the White House. If anyone thought that Bush’s talk about unending war was hyperbole, they now know they were wrong. Afghanistan, it appears, was a dress rehearsal for military aggression, regardless of international law or world public opinion, against other sovereign states and peoples.
World demands sustainable development
At the 1992 United Nations summit meeting in Rio de Janeiro, the assembled peoples declared, “Human beings are the center of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.” Out of that meeting came Agenda 21.
NOW applauds rejection of Owen nomination
The National Organization for Women applauds the Senate Judiciary Committee’s rejection of Priscilla Owen, a right-wing ideologue nominated to the Court of Appeals by the Bush administration.
Lawyers fight Bush judicial nominee
MILWAUKEE – On Aug. 30, phone calls, e-mails and faxes came in and out of the downtown office here that houses the city’s chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, in preparation for a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Wisconsin is the only state with two senators on the committee, and both were considered swing votes in the fate of the nomination of Priscilla Owen, which was defeated Sept. 5. George W. Bush nominated Owen in May to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and she received a confirmation hearing in July.
The disappearing jobs of summer
This summer in New Haven, Conn., my neighborhood block watch held a meeting in response to a series of car break-ins. The police lieutenant told us he talked with 16 kids who were likely to cause trouble in the neighborhood, and they all needed jobs. The lieutenant called all the local businesses, but only two jobs came through.
Workers flush restrictive bathroom policy
Workers at the Jim Beam Distillery have backed the company down from its policy that restricted toilet breaks for workers on the bottling line at its Bullitt County, Ky., bourbon distillery. The workers and union there had been challenging the year-old policy since its inception.
Black farmers picket USDA
About 100 African-American farmers picketed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington Aug. 22 to protest stalling on delivery of restitution payments for thousands of Black farmers who were denied government crop loans because they are Black.
International notes
Britain: Broad opposition to Iraq strike / Kenya: Police attack protesting teachers / Indonesia: Court orders trade union leaders to pay $2.34 million / France: Union says 35-hour workweek at risk
