Taxation and you: Obama vs. McCain
The numbers are finally in! John McCain’s Double Talk Express has been hitting Barack Obama hard at every opportunity spreading all kinds of misinformation about his tax plan. According to McCain, Obama’s tax plan will mean more taxes for you. By “you,” either McCain is mistaking his audience for wealthy businessmen, or he is outright lying. Either way, the numbers are in, and the right-wing “maverick” has gone down hard over the facts.
Unity the only road to victory
Recently, at political events I attended, I came in contact with supporters of Ralph Nader and Green candidates. They held forth on how those candidates were “much better than Obama” because they took “much better positions.” What folks tried to explain to them was that it isn’t what you say but what you do that counts, that the huge people’s movement behind Obama could actually defeat the ultra-right and create conditions for real, progressive changes! Nader, Greens and others are just not in that position.
The union and I why labor unions are good for labor
I arrived at the University of North Florida (UNF) in the fall of 1979 as an untenured faculty member with two contractual guarantees. The first was the bargaining agreement between the faculty union and the state Board of Regents, in effect a due process document that offered collective protection and a route for protest that could end in the final court of appeal for labor agreements — binding arbitration. The second was a four-year “letter of appointment,” in effect a separate employment contract. It was issued to protect me against the uncertainties of the special pot of money dedicated to supporting my new faculty line.
EDITORIAL: Wrong course after 9/11
The seventh anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States passed this week with Americans united in their terrible memories of the loss of life and destruction that resulted from the attack. We are united also in our determination to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening again.
Is Freddie Mac REALLY never coming back?
The Bush administration seized control this week of the scandal-ridden mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as the drive for profits by the corporate executives running them threatened both the financial markets and the entire U.S. economy.
Letters: September 6
Needed: new voters Good book Showdown? Single-payer Stop thieves Being in Denver
Editorial: Union organizing helps the economy
The labor movement’s nationwide drive to get a minimum of 1 million signatures in support of the Employee Free Choice Act is close to the 75 percent mark. It has caught on like wildfire.
New political realignment takes shape
DENVER — Sitting in Invesco Field at Mile High here Aug. 28 was awesome. The significance of Barack Obama’s historic presidential nomination was reflected in the inter-generational crowd of 84,000, many union members, all races and nationalities, moved to activism by their own life stories under the cruel, greedy and corrupt Bush administration.
Calif.s most vulnerable in peril with state budget still in limbo
If California’s budget, now stalled since July 1, isn’t resolved by the end of the Labor Day holiday, it will set a dismal new record.
Railroading immigrants and the Constitution
Federal immigration officials swept into Postville, Iowa, in May and detained nearly 400 workers at a kosher meat processing plant. Swiftly, local enforcement and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency arrested, charged with crimes, extracted pleas and sentenced 297 of these individuals by the end of the following week. Apparently, this shock and awe strategy was specially designed to drop the hammer on undocumented workers doing backbreaking jobs under reportedly sub-optimal conditions.
