From Vietnam to Iraq at Toronto Film Fest
Aware of the connection between art and politics, many artists over the years have lent their names to social change. A couple films at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival document the ordeals of two world-famous artists sharing many similarities, albeit years apart.
Health care crisis up close & personal
I work in Philadelphia with a group that is trying to get health care for all. Our overall goal is the passage of legislation that would create a government funded, single-payer health care system in the United States.
New Yorkers aim to shift Congress
HYDE PARK, N.Y. — People have long said that New York, with at least four vulnerable Republican-held congressional seats, is a battleground state. And as national scandals continue to engulf the Republican Party, local Democrats are getting a boost.
Chicagoans fight surging utility rates
CHICAGO — With 57,000 households having their heat shut off, people unable to cook, no hot water for bathing, and the chill of fall setting in, low-income Chicagoans are looking to use the upcoming election for governor to press for a law that would allow them to pay their utility bills based on their limited incomes.
Bound and dug in debt and glut
Two stories roiled Massachusetts this summer. Seemingly unrelated, the two are connected by the contradictions between incalculable wealth and spreading poverty, a glut of capital and deepening individual and governmental debt, and extraordinary monopolization and growing social atomization.
N.Y. transit strike assessed
NEW YORK — Several hundred transit workers, labor activists and academics gathered Sept. 28 for a conference titled “Assessing the NYC Transit Strike of 2005.”
WORLD NOTES
Britain: Union revolt erupts at Labor Party meet China: Communist Party sacks top leader Iraq: Death and chaos, according to UN South Africa: ‘Respect yourself,’ Archbishop Tutu says
Left-wing festivals showcase politics, culture
ATHENS, Greece — Autumn festivals organized by Communist parties and their allied youth groups are a longstanding tradition in many European countries, especially in Greece, Portugal, Spain and, since 1991, in the Czech Republic.
Pressures on Bolivian leader mount
Prior to a recent soccer match in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 40,000 spectators intoned the state’s hymn and then chanted “Autonomy!” They ended by shouting obscenities aimed at President Evo Morales, the recently elected former peasant leader of indigenous origin.
