EDITORIAL: Taxes: for what? from whom?
It’s tax season. But what, exactly, does our tax bill pay for? For one, the $161 billion the Bush administration is spending in the coming year on the immiseration of Iraq and Afghanistan. Given that astronomical figure, it’s astonishing that this is only about 14 percent of all military spending.
A call for justice
NEW YORK — The last couple of weeks have been very hard for the Bell family. The grand jury indictments released in March were met with heavy criticism for not going far enough.
Stealing an election New Mexico style
Over the last 100 years, voters in New Mexico have experienced a number of efforts to steal an election: everything from the range wars of the 1870s, the denial of the Indian vote and the terrorizing of Chicanos to modern-day thievery.
Mother on hunger strike for immigrant families
CHICAGO — “I’m real emotional these days, especially because of what’s happening with all the raids and deportations,” said Elvira Arellano. Along with her pastor, the Rev. Walter Coleman, Arellano began a 25-day hunger strike on Good Friday, April 6.
Anti-immigrant law runs aground in courtroom
After a nine-day trial in which civil rights and civil liberties groups challenged a Hazleton, Pa., city ordinance that critics say scapegoats and demonizes immigrants, city officials appeared to fail in their courtroom defense of the law last week.
The debate youre not hearing: immigration and trade
A central fact has gone largely unstated: Corporate globalization and U.S. trade policies have more to do with how many people cross our borders illegally than U.S. immigration policy or any potential reform thereof.
Transport workers: Enough is enough
“Enough is enough!” is the message the Transportation Trades Department of the Machinists union wants to get across to the White House and Congress next month. A Capitol Hill rally, set for noon on May 17, will be followed by congressional lobbying.
Go where the money is: tax the rich
It is no surprise to working families that the rich are getting richer and richer while the rest of us are using our credit card to buy groceries.
Judge resigns from Trinidad case
Colombian left-wing leader Ricardo Palmera, also known as Simon Trinidad, was about to go on trial in Washington, D.C., for supporting terrorism and conspiring to take hostages, when on March 26 Judge Thomas Hogan unexpectedly removed himself from the case.
Thirsty Smithfield workers win water, at last
The determination of a united workforce, backing from a union trying to help them organize and support from a national campaign have combined to result in a victory for workers in the livestock department at Smithfield Packing’s Tar Heel, N.C., plant.
