Growing movement wants military out of schools
PHILADELPHIA — When schools opened last month, “Opt Out Campaign” activists were outside high schools in cities and small towns around the nation. They were there to let the students know they can stop their schools from giving their personal information to military recruiters.
Labor and civil rights groups: We demand jobs, justice in Gulf
Oct. 29 rally in Baton Rouge to demand a ‘new direction’ for U.S. Gulf Coast union leaders hailed an action campaign launched by the AFL-CIO Sept. 30 to defend workers’ wages and rebuild their hurricane-torn states while turning the nation in a new direction that puts “people before profits.”
Virginia gubernatorial race heats up
FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — The “Old Dominion” of Virginia is supposedly a bastion of right-wing Republicanism, but there is a good chance that a moderate Democrat will win the gubernatorial election on Nov. 8, succeeding another moderate Democrat.
Harry Gaynor: fighter for open housing, social justice
Harry Gaynor, a longtime fighter for peace and justice, died in Chicago on Aug. 19 of heart failure. He was 90.
Chicago hosts world film fest
The 41st Chicago International Film Festival runs Oct. 6-20. One hundred five films representing 36 countries, and four programs of shorts, will be featured at the AMC River East (Illinois and Columbus) and the Landmark (Diversey and Clark). Nineteen films will compete for the gold Hugo Award at this country’s longest-running film festival. Chicago will star in four homegrown features.
Liberation music for the rebel soul
Internationally acclaimed jazz bassist Charlie Haden has convened the Liberation Music Orchestra for the fourth time since its inception in 1969. It began as a jazz response to America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Although the ensemble has undergone vast personnel changes between recordings, it has been consistently and markedly progressive and has taken its inspiration from sources such as popular Latin American movements, the Black liberation movement and the Spanish Civil War.
Jazz, struggle and Katrina
Actor Danny Glover and actor/singer Harry Belafonte made these remarks at the PBS/BET-televised Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit concert on Sept. 17.
The cry was and is unity!
“How do we stop Bush?” is the burning question of the day for the working class and democratically minded people, fighting against vicious attacks on our unions, living standards, democratic liberties and even our very lives. This challenge was brought into sharper focus with Bush’s racist betrayal of poor and working-class African Americans during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Hurricanes and snowmobiles
In 1565, Queen Elizabeth was whisked off to Windsor Castle. The idea was to escape the plague, which was ravaging London. Understanding the contagiousness of the disease, she ordered her henchmen to hang anyone who ventured to her castle door from London. The poor were left to fend for themselves. In other words, escaping the plague was class-driven.
Capitalism at $3 a gallon
After the New Orleans disaster, gas prices skyrocketed in a matter of days, shooting well over $3 a gallon everywhere in the U.S. While the prices have begun to come down somewhat, they are still substantially above what they were before the storm, and analysts are predicting that home heating oil will rise by 31 percent this winter.
