U.S. band plays to 50,000 in Cuba
HAVANA — With an inspired 26-song set, Audioslave made history May 6, playing by far the biggest show for an American band in Cuba.
Social Security rooted in grassroots struggle
Three years before President Franklin Roosevelt enacted Social Security, the Communist Party issued a pamphlet saying: “Social insurance is a system of government support to give workers financial assistance, thus affording them a measure of security in case of accident, sickness, death of the wage earner, unemployment, child bearing, or dependent old age. ... The fight for social insurance must go on because it is a fight for security in the daily struggle for existence faced by every member of the working class.”
Neocons lay siege to the ivory towers
In the months ahead, California’s state Senate Committee on Education will consider a bill that pretends to strike a blow for intellectual honesty, truth and freedom, but in reality poses a profound threat to academic freedom in the United States.
A triumph for humanity disrespected by Bush
The end of World War II in Europe was celebrated this past week in Moscow, capital of the “former Soviet Union,” the world’s first socialist nation, which made the greatest contribution to victory over the fascist Axis.
EDITORIAL: Legalized robbery
With one stroke of a pen a federal bankruptcy judge in Chicago legalized robbery. When Judge Eugene Wedoff allowed United Airlines to dump its responsibilities to pay its workers’ pensions, Wedoff gave the seal of approval to corporate thievery.
Nuclear weapons and humans cannot coexist: A Japanese survivor speaks out
In 1945 I was 16 years old. On the morning of Aug. 9 that year, I was riding my bicycle 1.8 km north of what was to become the hypercenter of the explosion of the atomic bomb.
Breaking the stranglehold of the insurance industry
Buying protection against the possibility of future risks is as old as time itself. In the corporate world, this system of protection is called insurance. Everyone faces the risk of fires and damage to a home or apartment. Damage to an automobile is another example. That is why fire, property and auto insurance is an accepted fact in everyone’s life. The issue that is raised is the level of profit that insurance carriers demand to guard against that risk.
Airline workers pensions crash and burn
The union representing United Airlines’ flight attendants warned of the demise of the nation’s defined-benefit pension system after a bankruptcy judge gave the airline the go-ahead to dump billions of dollars of pension obligations owed to members of four unions, the flight attendants, pilots, and ground crews May 10.
Iraq upgraded from quagmire to morass
Situation disastrous but not catastrophic, defense sec’y says
Perfect storm on pensions, health care
Quickly converging with the debate on Social Security is the worsening state of the U.S. private pension system.
