The science of struggle and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.
The quagmire of the Rev. Wright is media-generated. They mercilessly crucified him by spinning big lies about his sermons. The effect included threats on his life and family and bombing threats on his church. His congregation, 8,000 strong, is being hounded and church services are disrespected.
We are workers, not criminals
In the big immigrant marches that swept the country on May Day in 2006 and 2007, one sign said it all: “We are workers, not criminals!” Often it was held in the calloused hands of men and women who looked as though they’d just come from work in a factory, cleaning an office building, or picking grapes.
Unity will bring victory
The one message voters are sending with the unprecedented upsurge in the primary turnouts is that they are determined to turn the page on 35 years of ultra-right control of their destinies.
The right to vote
Last week’s Supreme Court decision allowing states to require a photo ID to be able to vote is a big step in the wrong direction.
Thinking globally about food
A billion people are at risk of starvation this year, according to United Nations estimates on the impact of rapidly rising food prices. Over half the increase is in major U.S. agricultural commodities like corn (heavily subsidized by U.S. government policy), arising from the conversion of production to “biofuel” products like ethanol. The latter has been championed by George W. Bush — his simple-minded solution to reliance on Mid-East oil. Actually it costs as much energy to make biofuel as is produced when it burns. Fill up an SUV with ethanol and you will consume enough food to feed a child for a year.
McCain endorses health care rip-off
TAMPA, Fla. — Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, unveiled his health care plan at the Moffitt Cancer Center here April 29, calling for private health savings accounts. An hour or so later, Florida union health care workers convened a news conference nearby to blast his scheme as a carbon copy of George W. Bush’s discredited “medical savings accounts.”
Now its about stopping a third term for Bush
Barack Obama became the likely Democratic nominee for president May 6 after a blowout victory over Hillary Clinton in North Carolina and his squeaker of a loss to her in Indiana.
What will it take to bring progressive change?
“I never looked at the primaries before, but this year they got my notice,” a former factory worker now stuck in a low-wage health care job exclaimed to me recently. She stays glued to the election news on TV whenever she can.
EDITORIAL: Keep our eyes on the prize
It’s a good sign to see Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama providing leadership on race and gender equality. The candidates decided to dial down the volume on what was becoming a brew of racism and political wrangling that would only leave voters with a bad taste in their mouths.
Labor returns to Memphis for King Day
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Union members from across the U.S. are gathering here Jan. 17-21 for labor’s annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the history-making Memphis sanitation workers’ strike. King was assassinated here in 1968 while supporting the striking workers’ stand for dignity and union rights.
