Chinese Workers Organize

Te US-China trade benefits the ruling class in both countries, and exploits the working class in both. It's not the US versus China, nor is it US capital versus Chinese capital, it's rulers against the ruled.

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/wildcat-unions-springing-chinese-fact

African Countries Develop Alternative to IMF Strategy

I have some doubts about the African Development Bank. At best it has been ineffective, at worst it has been an arm of the big international banks. However, the ideas expressed in this video, if implemented, would constitute a break with neoliberalism. And that's a good thing.

The New York Times, All The Ruse That's Fit To Print

As ever, leading from the rear, the ever dependable purveyors of hysteria beat the empire's war drums.

[Assad] "appears determined to join his father in the ranks of history's blood-stained dictators, sending his troops and thugs to murder anyone who has the courage to demand political freedom."*

What, no WMD? Where's Judy Miller when you need her?

*As quoted by Stephen Lendman: http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman300411.htm

Humanitarian Depleted Uranium Update

http://www.countercurrents.org/custers300411.htm

Egypt Warns Israel: Don't Interfere With Opening Of Gaza Border Crossing

This empty, public threat has more to do with the government in Egypt wanting to appear to be revolutionary ( as opposed to counterrevolutionary, which it is ) to appease the Tahririans. This is pander.

http://www.countercurrents.org/haaretz300411.htm

All Arabs To March On Israel On May 15th

I'll be rooting for them but I fear this will become a bloodbath. Let's hope not.

http://www.countercurrents.org/ezzat300411.htm

Guantanamo Detainees Stage Hunger Strike

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1104/S00685/guantanamo-detainees-stage-hunger-strike.htm

Unions fume over Qantas 'strike busting' training

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g7DW7O_4C37o_uGOiHOq1fhEfrzw?docId=CNG.5608774259bde2e96ee4c17501ae73ed.161

Vietnamese workers end strike after Taiwan company hikes wages

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1635378.php/Vietnamese-workers-end-strike-after-Taiwan-company-hikes-wages

MLK, Labor, And Collective Bargaining

"You are doing many things here in this struggle," [MLK] assured them. "You are demanding that this city will respect the dignity of labor." Too often, he said, folks looked down on people like them, people who did menial or unglamorous work. But he encouraged them not to bemoan their humble state. "All labor has dignity," he said.

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/C4/20110405/OPINION05/104050315/Leonard-Pitts-Jr-Full-circle-war-against-workers?odyssey=nav|head

Canadian Postal Workers Fight For Collective Bargaining Rights

A whopping 94.5 per cent of Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) across the country voted this week in favour of striking if they do not reach a desirable collective agreement with Canada Post.

http://www.stalbertgazette.com/article/20110423/SAG0801/304239963/national-vote-could-lead-to-another-strike

Libya: Why the Worst is coming from the West

Great article

http://vibeghana.com/2011/04/21/libya-why-the-worst-is-coming-from-the-west/

Irish Police Joke About Threatening Eco-activist With Rape

"Give me your name and address or I’ll rape you"

http://anarchism.pageabode.com/andrewnflood/garda-corrib-rape-threat

Some Cool Pictures Of Trolleys

A little off topic but since I drive a trolley [I arc, therefore I am] and since a goodly number of my visitors are my co-workers, I thought I'd post this.

Photo #18 is of Jackson and 14th circa 1936. I was surprised at how little it has changed--save for the absence of Vietnamese restaurants and jewelry shops.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/transportation/gallery/Trolley-buses-from-around-the-world-14606/photo-959213.php

Pilots Turn India Into No Fly Zone

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Pilots-strike-Air-India-headed-for-partial-lockout-mass-sackings/articleshow/8121755.cms

"It is a subterranean fire"

I sent the comment below to the Socialist Worker, if they respond or post my comment I will note it on this blog.

I enjoyed this article but I must say I am puzzled by some of the wording. Reading this one would get the impression that Parsons was the only anarchist of the eight. They all were! The labor movement in Chicago, leadership and rank and file, was dominated by anarchists. Spies' The Arbeiter Zeitung was as anarchist a paper as Pouget's or Most's. The quote from Spies is decidedly anarchist.

Why doesn't the author want to acknowledge this? It's deceptive. There is much too much sectarianism on the left! The author grossly inflates the role played by socialists and diminishes the role of anarchists in the worker's movement, at least as it relates to the Haymarket affair. Shame on her, and on the Socialist Worker. You have distorted history just the way the bourgeois media/textbooks do. If you want to help workers, tell them the truth about their history.

http://socialistworker.org/2011/04/29/it-is-a-subterranean-fire

Questions About "Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation"

Terrific analysis, as always, from Ali Abunimah.

http://www.countercurrents.org/abunimah290411.htm

As A Holocaust Survivor, AIPAC Doesn't Speak For Me

http://www.countercurrents.org/epstein290411.htm

Oil Bosses Rake In Record Profits As US Economy Stalls

Exxon-Mobil, the world’s biggest and most profitable corporation, raked in a staggering $10.7 billion in profits during the first quarter of 2011, the company reported Thursday. The figure was a 69 percent increase over the same quarter last year, and the highest quarterly profit since 2008, the last time oil prices topped $100 a barrel.

The company’s total revenues hit $114 billion in the first quarter, making it likely that in 2011 it will break its 2008 record of $458 billion, and could become the first oil company to reach half a trillion dollars in revenue. Exxon-Mobil’s revenues exceed the Gross Domestic Product of all but 18 of the 194 countries listed by the World Bank.

Who rules?

http://www.countercurrents.org/martin290411.htm

Somebody Doesn't Like Gilad Atzmon

Who's behind all the lies about the anti-Zionist panel at Westminster University in London?

The London JC reported today that Westminster University cancelled anti Zionist event.

The event is not cancelled!!!...


http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/no-cancellation.html


In spite of Jewish 'anti Zionists' bragging about themselves being the force behind Ghada Karmi's 'pullout' from a panel event with me this Tuesday, Ghada just wrote to me and asked me to quote her.

"I'm delayed here (in Jordan) and will not be back in time for the event, and that is the reason for my not attending."

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/ghada-karmis-pullout-update.html

The Myth Of Competition: Debate Over Debit Card Regs Misses Some Potentially Pro-Consumer Rules

If competition benefitted consumers it would be illegal.

http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/debate-over-debit-card-fees-obscures-potentially-pro-consumer-provisions

THE INVISIBLE HAND: CASE STUDY IN STRIPPING AWAY ELECTION RIGHTS

Did you think they would actually let us vote?

As the late great George Carlin said: "They own you."

More great work from Bev Harris

http://www.opednews.com/articles/THE-INVISIBLE-HAND-CASE-S-by-Bev-Harris-110428-969.html

The Death Of Democracy In An American Town

There is no place in the United States that more cruelly illustrates the intensifying conflict between corporate power and democracy than Benton Harbor, Mich., the first city to be placed under what some Michiganders call “financial martial law.”


http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/7237/democracy_vs._profit_central_issue_in_benton_harbor_takeover/

As Election Begins at Calif. Hospitals, Workers Claim SEIU ‘in Bed With Management’

Has to be read to be believed.

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/7235/as_union_election_begins_at_calif._hospitals_workers_claim_seiu_in_bed/

Radiation in the Homeland: Honeywell’s Guilty Plea Shows Importance of Unions

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/7108/honeywells_guilty_plea_shows_importance_of_unions_in_prevent_radioacti/

Massachusetts' Unions Betrayed By Democrats

Representative democracy is an oxymoron.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2011/04/27/house_votes_to_limit_bargaining_on_health_care/?page=1

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/deval-patrick-im-not-turning-massachusetts-into-wisconsin.php

Syria Beware, Western Humanitarianism Headed Your Way

"He who controls the past, controls the present." George Orwell

Past being actively redefined in the service of imperialism. How timely is this report from the aptly named Associated Press, just when the Assads are in jeopardy. Here's one for the coincidence theorists.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110429/ap_on_re_eu/un_syria_nuclear

Bill signed to close last coal plant in Washington

Yippee, we're coal free.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014910059_apwaoffcoal1stld.html?syndication=rss

Quote O' The Day, April 29, 2011

"No matter how cynical I get, I can't keep up."

Lily Tomlin

Rebellion in the Brazilian Amazon

I'm a big fan of Zibechi. I recommend his Dispersing Power.

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/brazil-archives-63/3004-rebellion-in-the-brazilian-amazon

The CIA’s Man in Libya?

Yes.

http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/04/22/the-cia-s-man-in-libya/

BANGLADESH: Women Defy Islamic Clergy

http://ipsnews.net/newsTVE.asp?idnews=55419

Brazil at Risk of Agrarian Counter-Reform

The international business cycle, as usual, creating misery for working class people.

http://ipsnews.net/newsTVE.asp?idnews=55414

Enterprise Zones introduced across England

UK gov' says it has no money for social programs but it somehow finds the funds for this.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/zone-a26.shtml

Federal Reserve chairman outlines class war policy

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/bern-a28.shtml

Chavez Makes Sleazy Deal To Protect Venezuelan Drug-runner With Deep Ties To His Government

What a sell-out.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/vene-a28.shtml

Bolivian Workers Settle Strike With Government After 5,000 Teachers Clash With Riot Police

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/boli-a28.shtml

Voter Suppression Campaign In Wisconsin

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/27/dems-wisconsin-republicans-propose-morally-repugnant-voting-bill/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=b26e55989a-4_28_114_28_2011&utm_medium=email

Supreme Court Lets Corporations Ban Class Actions

http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman280411A.htm

Authorities Give Conflicting Accounts of Latest Toxic Releases from BP's Texas City Refineries

The Rothschilds have struck again.

http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/authorities-in-texas-give-conflicting-accounts-of-emissions-from-texas-city

Workers mobilize to stop GOP’s job safety cuts

http://www.peoplesworld.org/workers-mobilize-to-stop-gop-s-job-safety-cuts/

Overturning child labor laws: top priority for GOP

http://www.peoplesworld.org/overturning-child-labor-laws-top-priority-for-gop/

Shanghai Truckers Strike Ends

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110422/bs_nm/us_china_strike

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/22/china-strike-idUSL3E7FM07L20110422

Truckers fees were cut, thus alleviating loses from increased fuel costs. In other words, the truckers won.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3741843c-6e85-11e0-a13b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Ks0vICk3

Great Essay On China By Dylan Ratigan

Dylan is as economically and politically canny as they come. It is a mystery to me that the author of this article remains committed to capitalism. He perspicaciously sees through its lies, has the ethics to be outraged by its injustices, and the courage to speak truth to power as he likes to say, yet he still insists it can work. I don't get it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/how-much-longer-for-the-r_b_855127.html

Arundhati Roy On The War Between The Indian Government And The Maoists

Courtesy of the Kasama website:
http://kasamaproject.org/2011/04/27/arundhati-roy-against-the-indian-govts-operation-green-hunt/#more-29863

Quote O' The Day, April 28, 2011

"The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know." -Harry S. Truman

Two Articles About The Riots In Bristol, UK

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/oli-conner/observing-stokes-croft-riot?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=714440&utm_campaign=0

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/ryan-gallagher/reporting-riot-in-britain-how-police-spun-battle-of-stokes-croft?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=714440&utm_campaign=0

California teachers step up the action

This is an important step forward for the CTA, the statewide body of the National Education Association, as it is now taking direct action to stop budget cuts. By calling for a limited occupation of the Capitol, the CTA is implicitly invoking the labor struggles in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and elsewhere, which have been sparked by anti-union legislation.

http://socialistworker.org/2011/04/27/california-teachers-action

Financial Heist of the Century: Confiscating Libya's Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF)

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=o8b4necab&v=001RTSvD7iYYABjMZvHZ6S3E4W0EqjH2Ty932BbMzmTypWBGFhD5jInMYqximYVxfjzYnt-vagPdS_cpmXNraPVH6Wf06JhSpbCviCEw0ue1XwBMg7OEUNSIg%3D%3D

Quote O' The Day, April 27, 2011

"The two parties have combined against us to nullify our power by a 'gentleman's agreement' of non-recognition, no matter how we vote ... May God write us down as asses if ever again we are found putting our trust in either the Republican or the Democratic Parties."~~W.E.B. DuBois (1922)

Los Angeles: Budget crisis used to press attack against city workers

[Mayor] Villaraigosa, a former union organizer, has threatened that if the deal is not passed, he will impose more than seven weeks, or 36 working days, of unpaid furloughs, for an overall pay cut of approximately 14 percent. “I’ve had discussions with other union leaders, and I see a path to getting agreements across the board,” Villaraigosa said. “But as I said, if the bargaining units choose not to approve this, we’ll just have to move ahead with 36 days of furloughs.”

The proposed budgetary agreement also includes the elimination of cash overtime for city workers, an additional 1.5 percent salary decrease in exchange for an extended Christmas holiday, the elimination of several hundred positions, most likely leading to layoffs, and cuts to police and fire services. Incredibly, the plan purports to cut $100 million from the city’s 10,000-strong police force without laying off a single officer.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/labd-a27.shtml

Ex-CIA chief: Kadhafi was good partner

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110426/pl_afp/libyaconflictsyriapoliticsunrestusintelligence?utm_campaign=DTN+Libya+Uprising:&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Peaceful pro-democracy protests in Moroccan towns

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110424/wl_africa_afp/moroccopoliticsunrest_20110424202648

Update On The Killing Of South Africa Activist Andries Tatane

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-04-18-police-under-fire-after-ficksburg

Police break up Mauritanian youth rally against government

http://www.africasia.com/services/news_africa/article.php?ID=CNG.d697e8d3b4ba273459109ad8e2bb5b0b.641

Swaziland: Youth leaders tortured and forced to confess during mass protests

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/72797

Open for business: World Bank to reinvest in palm oil amid criticism

The gang-bankers strike again.

“Although it is clear that the new policy has taken on board some of the comments made by NGOs and government agencies during the consultations, some provisions remain weak. The policy as adopted would discourage but still allow the takeover of indigenous peoples’ and local communities' lands without their Free, Prior and Informed Consent.

http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-568287

PORTUGAL: Commemoration of Revolution Turns into Protest Against IMF

"We don't want the IMF", "The struggle continues" and "April 25 forever, fascism never again" were some of the chants most often repeated by the demonstrators. The more prominent participants in the march included elderly veterans of Portugal's colonial wars, decked out in their camouflage fatigues, many of whom had replaced the regimental emblem on their hats with a red star.


http://ipsnews.net/newsTVE.asp?idnews=55385

Capital's War Against Teachers, The Honduran Front

Wisconsin's Lost Strike Moment

Good piece.

http://libcom.org/library/wisconsins-lost-strike-moment

Farmers say 'no fracking way' to Shell

http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/default.asp?2,27,3,2282

Brutal State Terror In Bahrain

http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman260411.htm

British Teachers Vote For Strikes

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=24656

Eyewitness Account Of Recent Riot In Bristol, England

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=24664

The Israeli Descendants Of Jews From Arab/Islamic Countries Write Open Letter Of Solidarity With Arab Revolutionaries

And what a letter it is.

http://972mag.com/young-mizrahi-israelis-open-letter-to-arab-peers/

The gradual awakening of the Moroccan people

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24472

US Bombing Yemen

http://www.yementimes.com/defaultdet.aspx?SUB_ID=35975

State Department wants passport applicants to reveal lifetime employment history

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/25/state-department-wants-passport-applicants-to-reveal-lifetime-employment-history/

Who's Your Daddy?

Time to meet the people who own you.

In 1962 Mattei died in a mysterious plane crash. Former French intelligence agent Thyraud de Vosjoli says French intelligence was involved. William McHale of Time magazine, who covered Mattei’s attempt to break the Big Oil cartel, also died under strange circumstances...

Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust began illuminating the New World with funding from Kuhn Loeb and Rothschild banking families. While the Rockefellers worked the American side of the energy matrix, the Rothschilds consolidated their control over Old World oil resources...

By 1920 Exxon, BP and Royal Dutch/Shell dominated the world’s booming oil business, with the Rockefeller, Rothschild, Samuel, Nobel and Oppenheimer families, along with British and Dutch royals owning the brunt of their stock. Two other Rockefeller babies, Mobil and Chevron, weren’t far behind the Big Three. The Texas Murchison family – themselves patronized by the Rockefellers – controlled Texaco, while the Mellon family – with its own ties to the Rockefeller fortune – controlled Seventh Sister Gulf Oil...

The Four Horsemen have interlocking directorates with the international mega-banks. Exxon Mobil shares board members with JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada and Prudential. Chevron Texaco has interlocks with Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. BP Amoco shares directors with JP Morgan Chase. RD/Shell has ties with Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, N. M. Rothschild & Sons and Bank of England.

http://deanhenderson.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/the-four-horsemen-behind-the-oil-wars/

Fear That Man Who Wears A Cheap Watch

An absolutely hysterical piece of journaganda from Spain's El Pais (The Nation). It's one of those newspapers with whom Wikileaks shares its documents[?] and this latest release is a real knee-slapper. A cheap Casio watch "is the mark of al-Qaeda." And they use these timepieces to make bombs, according to some Guantanamo inmates. According to Luis Doncel, the author, that many of the men captured and taken to Guantanamo had these cheap watches corroborates the information presented by the aforementioned informants. The terror network would deliver these watches to al-Qaeda training camp recruits in Afghanistan and they would learn how to make explosives out of them.

That's as far as I got because I was laughing so hard by this point that my eyes were watering. Who knew that Casio made weapons of mass destruction! They wont be cheap much longer though...

[Spanish]http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Casio/barato/distintivo/Qaeda/elpepuint/20110425elpepuint_13/Tes

Where Have We Heard This Before: Dahal volte face has Maoists livid

Twain said that history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Marx said something like historical events come in pairs, the first as tragedy, the second as farce.* What has just happened to the Maoists of Nepal is both. Throughout the history of revolt, we see this type of betrayal happen time and again. Snatching defeat from the maw of victory, Maoist leader Dahal agrees to peace terms offered by the faltering, desperate government. Draw your own conclusions.

http://www.sananews.net/english/2011/04/23/dahal-volte-face-has-maoists-livid/

* Referring to Napoleon and his nephew, Napoleon III, respectively. Marx called the latter a "grotesque mediocrity."

Rat/Her Billboard Attacked

http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/node/557

A Bourgeois Revolution In Yemen?

According to CNN, The Yemenis are rebelling because they want "a modern, 21st-century, free-market society with economic opportunity."

Well, apparently not all of them.

Bernie Sanders' Guide To Corporate Freeloaders

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pulGX2z_1mc/Ta2mzLOs3rI/AAAAAAAAAjU/UoEL8R6KC6I/s1600/bernie-sanders-corporate-tax-4001.jpg

Courtesy of http://allpowertothepositive.blogspot.com/

Meet Former CIA Officer Robert Steele

I am cautious about "ex" intelligence officers. There certainly are legitimate defectors, but most are poseurs. And this citizen-based open source intelligence thing really makes me wonder what his motives are. Nevertheless, what he says is true, if belated.

Economic Hit Men Now Used on Americans

Please remember that these two are committed to capitalism. This isn't Marx interviewing Engels. Kudos to both for telling the truth: It's class war. And you and I are the targets.

Democrats and Republicans escalate campaign against health care programs

Cuts through all the dreck nicely.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/budg-a25.shtml

MLK's Greatest Speech: "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"

It's about the immorality and inhumanity of war and imperialism. It had quite an effect, back in the days when Americans still cared about such things.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet/riversidetranscript.html

Sumaj Kawsay

It means living in harmony with nature and one's fellow creatures. Bolivia is expected to pass a law like no other: It gives civil rights to Mother Nature.

http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2011/04/law-of-mother-earth-behind-bolivias.html

“Emergency powers” dictatorship seizes a Michigan city

Scary stuff.
http://www.peoplesworld.org/emergency-powers-dictatorship-seizes-a-michigan-city/

'Medicare For All' Bill Expected To Be Voted On By Vermont Senate

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/medicare-all-bill-expected-be-voted-v

Small plane full of cocaine crashes in New Mexico lake

Will somebody call Langley and tell them to come and clean up their mess.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/25/small-plane-full-of-cocaine-crashes-in-new-mexico-lake/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=0e19310e19-4_25_114_25_2011&utm_medium=email

IMF sees China topping U.S. in 2016

The question is why has global capital decided to move the world's industrial base from here to there? It would be easy (and maybe accurate) to attribute it entirely to labor costs, but is there a larger macroeconomic agenda?

The Chinese government is communist in name only. If one looks at the Chinese Investment Bank one sees the all the usual predators--the Bush, Rockefeller, Rothschild families etc, the same people who dominate Western commerce. Across Africa, the Mideast, and the New World, there is a groundswell of resistance to international capital. Is it possible that it will be easier for the people who own the world to perpetuate their rule with a non-white management team? Is this why they created Obama? Just about everywhere in the world there is resistance/resentment of white/Western dominance of international commerce and politics, will a Chinese profiteer have a better chance of securing trade concessions from the Third World than his white counterpart? In recent years the face of colonialism has changed, Why?

I don't know, just something I've been wondering about lately.


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27962.htm

Washington State is No. 1 in Bestiality

Okay, a little off topic for this blog, but I just couldn't resist.

Well everybody has to be good at something, must be all the drizzle...
http://publicola.com/2011/01/26/washington-state-is-no-1-in-bestiality/

Another al-Kidda Terror Plot Foiled

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/04/tsa-give-invasive-pat-down-to-8-year-old-oregon-boy/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=df27791a34-4_14_114_14_2011&utm_medium=email

The Just And Easy Solution To The Debt Crisis

Please consider filling out the form.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Solving-the-debt-crisis-wi-by-Scott-Baker-110418-670.html

I've received a lot of positive feedback on my essay linked below. Iflike most people you don't understand monetary policy, this might be useful as an introduction.
http://saveourcola.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-everybody-should-understand-about.html

Grady Warren, The Neo-Nazi Candidate For President

It is probably unwise to give this man any attention but this is just too rich to pass up. Gotta be seen to be believed. He's the perfect dupe, the prototype reactionary.
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/meet-grady-warren-tea-party-stalwart

Obama's Slapstick Open Mic' Routine

By yours truly: http://www.countercurrents.org/fryett240411.htm

Thailand's Military on the Offensive

And threatening to dissolve parliament.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703922504576272432046756072.html

Swaziland: Protest mass arrests of trade unionists

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=904

France: occupations of secondary, primary and infant schools

http://libcom.org/news/france-occupations-secondary-schools-primary-schools-infant-schools-21042011

Wildcat walk-out shocks Dundee council bosses

Precisely what they should have done.
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=24603

Human Trafficking In Hawaii And Washington

Disturbing. If Valley Fruit Orchards and Green Acre Farms, both here in Washington, are not shut down they must be boycotted.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jWsPUOJwcGYslP26aGAD7hGBAMXw?docId=6625875

Another Sad Union Story

http://wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/hosp-a22.shtml

Union Leadership Stands in the Way of Working People in Wisconsin

http://thetbf.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/labor-gets-fucked-and-labor-leadership-does-gasp-nothing/#comment-236

Interview With Member Of The Left Independent Group Of Tunisia

Insight and information.
[At bottom]
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2011/04/12/two-interviews-tunisian-left-activists

From rebellion to reform: Bolivia’s reconstituted neoliberalism

Informative, well-written article about Bolivarianism in Bolivia. I agree with the author's conclusions. Many on the left, myself included, had high hopes for that movement particularly in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador. However, it now has descended into welfarism. It's better than what it displaced, but not quite the people-powered revolution we had hoped.

http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-rebellion-to-reform-bolivias.html

Syria unrest: 'Bloodiest day' as troops fire on rallies

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13167433

US-backed Bahraini Regime Stops At Nothing To Quell Protests

Bahraini forces open fire on protesters
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/176147.html

Bahrain called on to stop hospital crackdown
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20110422/thl-uk-bahrain-doctors-b2e59e8.html

The Gravedigger Of The Egyptian Revolution Laying It On Real Thick

The Iraq war taught him that deliberate deception was not limited to small countries ruled by ruthless dictators, ElBaradei writes in The Age of Deception, being published Tuesday by Henry Holt and Company.

Indeed! The black art even extends to regime loyalists turned sham dissidents.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27945.htm

‘Disappointed’ supporters greet Obama in California

Change requires courage.

[Hey, they stole my line! I shoulda copywrited "Obusha".]

Side Splitter O' The Day: Obama team to investigate oil market fraud

The team will be looking into ways the White House can help.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/22/obama-team-to-investigate-oil-market-fraud/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=e17cebfb18-4_22_114_22_2011&utm_medium=email

Union Worker, Please Read This

More importantly, a vote against the legislation by the executive board and the delegates would reaffirm the CTU leadership's commitment to union democracy, as opposed to presidential fiat.

http://socialistworker.org/2011/04/21/teachers-union-reform-crisis

What have we learned:


1, Capitalism sucks.

2, It can't be fixed.

3, It's undermining education in Chicago (and everywhere else).

4, Karen Lewis has to go.

5, Rahm Emanuel has to go

6, The Illinois Senate has to go.

7, Reform is nothing more than a chimera.

8, Unions, while beneficial, are powerless against Wall Street.

9, SB7 has got to go.

10, Presidential fiat has got to go, in unions and in everything else.



"We will not be free until the last bureaucrat is strangled with the entrails of the last capitalist." Anarchist maxim

Mass Teacher Layoffs and School Closures Hit Detroit

Save for perhaps Newark, is there a city anywhere in this country that has suffered more from the ravages of capitalism than Detroit?

Detroit teachers union members will soon be replaced with charter school teachers, if emergency manager Robert Bobb has his way.

http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/mass-teacher-layoffs-and-school-closures-hit-detroit

Capitalisn Cannot Be Fixed, A Defeat In Victory's Clothing

http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2011/04/video-nlrb-slaps-boeing-punishing-strikers

Gee, whose side do you think Fox News is on?

Postal Workers Union Caves

I don't wish to be too hard on these postal workers as they have immediate concerns-making a living--but this is a victory for the plutocracy. They got exactly what they wanted. They got the UAW to agree to binary pay scales etc in '08, that they have now succeeded in doing the same thing with a very strong public sector union is a very bad sign indeed. A deathknell perhaps.

http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/postal-union-brings-back-work-divides-it

Egyptian Teachers Protest Government Snooping, Strike Ban

A doff of my cap to teachers! They have been the spine and soul of the resistance to the class war being waged by international capital against working people.

http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/egyptian-teachers-protest-government-snooping-strike-ban

The Gang-bankers Phony Twitter Campaign

I'm becoming a big fan of Marian Wang.
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/banking-groups-stir-consumer-fears-on-debit-card-regulations-via-twitter

Two Decades On From Apartheid And Not Much Has Changed In South Africa

Great article about South Africa and the killing Of Andries Tatane

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72753

According to Emmie Chanika of the Malawi Civil Rights Commission, Tatane was shot by the police.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/72783

On this page you will see a graphic video of the death of Tatane at the hands of the police.

http://www.abahlali.org/

Public sector strike paralyses Botswana

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=24602

Bahrain Descends Into The Abyss

At least 32 doctors, including surgeons, physicians, paediatricians and obstetricians, have been arrested and detained by Bahrain's police in the last month in a campaign of intimidation that runs directly counter to the Geneva Convention guaranteeing medical care to people wounded in conflict. Doctors around the world have expressed their shock and outrage.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/bahrains-secret-terror-2270675.html

The organization said that on 16 March the Bahraini government launched a clearly planned and orchestrated crackdown using excessive force to suppress protests calling for political change and reform.

Security forces used shotguns, rubber bullets, tear gas and, in some cases, live ammunition, sometimes at very close range, and in circumstances where the use of weapons such as shotguns and other firearms could not be justified.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE201104212318&lang=e

Disinformation Alert. Mohamed elBaradei's Steaming Dogpile

Nobody gets to be the UN's top nuclear watchdog unless he is 100 percent kosher to Wall Street. As head of the IAEA, it was his task to make sure nobody threaten capital's lucrative imbalance of power. He was their enforcer, now he's trying to do damage control by posing as a victim of Western parties, the same factions in whose interests he now acts and would rule Egypt. The revolution will be officially over if elBaradei becomes the next president. He's a counterrevolutionary.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175893.html

Renewables Cannot Meet Our Energy Needs?

Tell it to Scientific American magazine. Petroleum is class war folks, it's that simple. We are dependent on fossil fuels, and the supply is controlled by the same families who own the big banks, big pharma etc.

http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/04/07/heres-an-energy-boost-100-percent-renewables/

NYT Journagandist Tom Friedman Exposed

http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/04/19/three-cups-of-t-friedman/

Why the Lese Majeste law in Thailand is an abomination

Terrific article.

Lese Majeste is undermined or harmed majesty. Basically it means one cannot do or say anything that would reflect negatively on the dignity of the monarchy.

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article21054

Tunisia: “Great dangers threaten the revolution”

A view from the left.
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article21041

Israël et les révolutions arabes

Not many, if any, of my readers whom I know can speak French, and I don't get much traffic from Francophone countries, but this interview was good enough that I thought I'd post it.
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article21013

Pakistan Left parties statement on 10 years of “War On Terror”

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article21004

Informative Interview With Tunisian Leftist

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article21070

Crackdown on the trade union movement in Bahrain

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article21081

Labor Shorts

http://ideasandaction.info/2011/03/labor-shorts/

The S&P debt warning: Wall Street extortionists demand savage cuts

If you think this is an unintended consequence of the economic collapse of '08, sue your parents--they gave you the wrong genes.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/pers-a20.shtml

Not Loving It, Masses of US workers apply for low-wage jobs at McDonald’s

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/mcdo-a20.shtml

Interview With Bassam Haddad On The Protests In Syria

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/1302/democracy-now-interview-with-bassam-haddad-on-syri

Who Is Curt Weldon, US' Unofficial Envoy To Libya?

http://www.voltairenet.org/article169407.html

Some Theories As To Who Is Responsible For The Recent Murders Of Pro-Palestinian Activists

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55308

Robert Gates on his way out ?

http://www.voltairenet.org/article169389.html

Silence Shrouds Egypt's New Security Agency

Of course it does.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55320

Gov. Scott Walker Reportedly Planning Financial Martial Law In Wisconsin

According to the reports, should a locality’s financial position come up short, the Walker legislation would empower the governor to insert a financial manager of his choosing into local government with the ability to cancel union contracts, push aside duly elected local government officials and school board members and take control of Wisconsin cities and towns whenever he sees fit to do so.

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/04/16/gov-scott-walker-reportedly-planning-financial-martial-law-in-wisconsin/

You Knew This Was Coming To The Big Apple: The plot to kill rent control

http://socialistworker.org/2011/04/20/plot-to-kill-rent-control

Governor Walker's Divide And Conquer Strategy For Privatizing Wisconsin's Higher Education

Fresh from his attack on public-sector unions, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has proposed a two-year budget that includes over $1 billion in cuts to education funding, including $250 million taken from higher education.

In response, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has engaged in negotiations with Walker to implement what is known as the New Badger Partnership (NBP). In exchange for less state aid, UW-Madison would get greater autonomy under the NBP. Martin has also advocated that the university should break away from the rest of the statewide UW system. The agreement would establish a separate Board of Trustees for UW Madison, with the governor appointing 11 of its 21 members.

http://socialistworker.org/2011/04/20/new-badger-partnership

Here's a link to the interviewee's excellent blog. It's endorsed by the Washington Post, but don't let that put you off.
http://eduoptimists.blogspot.com/

BofA Branch In NYC Occupied By Protesters: Come Out WithYour Hands Up

Yemeni Protesters Dying, Children Included

http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/19/yemeni-police-open-fire-on-protesters-one-killed.html



UNICEF says 26 children killed in Yemen protests

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

GENEVA: The UN children’s fund says 26 children have been killed during violent protests in Yemen over the last two months.

UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said Tuesday that most of the children killed in clashes between security forces and anti-government demonstrators died of wounds from live ammunition.

Opposition groups in Yemen have staged a series of protests demanding the ouster of longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

A Year After Gulf Tragedy, Offshore Oil Companies Still Shielded by Liability Limits

And what limits they are! It's just unbelievable.
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/a-year-after-gulf-tragedy-offshore-oil-companies-still-shielded-by-liabilit

Message From The Shackdweller's Movement In South Africa: We Are Under Attack

Warning: If you follow the link you will be taken to a video in which a man, Andries Tatane, is beaten to death. He fights with several police and suffers a wound in the center of his chest. He is shown after the scuffle and he appears to have survived it but then he collapses. The last scene is of an ambulance hurrying him away.

http://www.abahlali.org/

Humanitarian Typhoid, Cholera, and TB

The article linked below, written by an Egyptian blogger, also says that Egyptians are stranded in Libya and their government is claiming that they can't get their ships into Libya's ports.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/04/libyan-revolution-supernatural-allies.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

The Sad Sad Truth About South Africa Under ANC Rule

Excellent article
http://mondediplo.com/2008/05/13southafrica

Police Attack Protesting Workers In Mozambique

In whose interest does the state act?



http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/04/13/mozambique-police-attack-protesting-workers/

Big Oil Tries To Hide Its Plunder Of Uganda

http://www.independent.co.ug/column/guest-column/4074?task=view

The Egyptian Revolution And The Threat From International Capital

http://www.counterpunch.org/elich03222011.html

Mugabe A Homophobe? Who Knew!

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-04-14-mugabe-blasts-british-gaydom-in-funeral-rant

Times Are Tough For Billionaire Land Speculators

Forbes warned in February that the uprising in Egypt might have a spillover effect on billionaires with investments in the...

http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/18436

Republican humor

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/17/ca-gop-official-sent-picture-of-obama-as-chimp-didnt-think-it-was-racist/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=d0c73317b1-4_18_114_18_2011&utm_medium=email

The Murder Of Vito Arrigoni

Are the Salafists interviewed in this video responsible for the murder of the Italian?


I don't know who killed the activist and communist journalist, but I have doubts about the official story. I've been reading his blog [Italian http://guerrillaradio.iobloggo.com/] and it seems that Palestinians, even Salafist fundamentalists, would be far down the list of suspects.

The Great Israeli Security Scam

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175380/tomgram%3A_ira_chernus%2C_the_great_israeli_security_scam/#more

Frank Debate On Libyan War

PressTV - The Link - April 6, 2011 from Click Faster on Vimeo.

State Violence Against Teachers In Honduras

Tear gas, live ammunition, tanks spraying a mix of water and pepper gas, illegal detentions, trumped up charges, violent beatings, disappearance attempts and murder are some of the tactics that the post-coup regime is deploying against the pro-democracy people's movement and public school teacher's movement...

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3000-protestors-across-honduras-challenge-idb-funded-shock-program-met-with-violence-and-repression

Sarah Palin, Sociopath Or Idiot Savant?

Pity the poor post-feminist demagogue, a pawn in a game whose rules are beyond her. The diva of dissimulation? Hired gun? Knight-errant of redneck populism? What gives pleasure to a nihilist after the last beer has been drunk? I know not. Neither does she. I just hope they drop a few bucks on the dresser before they leave her motel room. A woman destined to be remembered for being forgotten.

Sister Sarah spoke at a Tea Party gathering in Madison, Wisconsin where she referred to the Budget Repair Bill protestors as a "violent rent-a-mob." I understand they will be naming a trailer park after her in Wasilla.

Anarchy erupts in Greece as austerity bites

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/anarchy-erupts-in-greece-as-austerity-bites-2269023.html

Aborigines to block uranium mining after Japan disasterl

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/aborigines-to-block-uranium-mining-after-japan-disaster-2267467.html

US House of Representatives votes to abolish Medicare

http://www.opednews.com/articles/US-House-of-Representative-by-Patrick-Martin-110417-182.html

Norman Finkelstein, Short Documentary

There are some people who just make my skin crawl: Donald Rumsfeld, Scott Walker, George Will...

One is interviewed in this film. Is there anyone more repulsive than Alan Dershowitz? At the end he says Finkelstein "is not a scholar, he's a propagandist." The pot blackens the kettle.

What has always puzzled me about the distortionist efforts of the Zionist claque, or any other for that matter, is how guileless it all is. In this film, Noam Chomsky says Finkelstein is a careful, methodical scholar. Dershowitz asserts the opposite. How bold the latter is! A reading of Finkelstein's work will expose Dershowitz as the loathsome liar he is, yet he is willing to take this chance. One would think that he would employ a more artful argument, one that he could defend if challenged by somebody who might read the work in question, but he is confidant enough to bleat out this accusation that even the most ardent Finkelstein-haters would recognize as baseless.

My only problem with the film is its title. However controversial Finkelstein might be, he is not a radical. Or if he is it is not discussed in the books in contention in the documentary. I've read everything save Beyond Chutzpah, and there is no talk of radical politics in what I've seen.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27893.htm

Bolivian workers strike against government salary decree

I hate to say it but the Bolivarian revolution has failed or been co-opted. Chavez has turned out to be a clown (or worse); Evo Morales is making decisions which are very hard to square with his professed philosophy; and Correa in Ecuador is being sued by that country's indigenous whose lands he keeps leasing to multinationals in the name of growth. These three have been better than their predecessors, and they have made an impact with their welfare programs, but none of them are devolving real political power into the hands of the people.

There is hope. Their popularity, once sky high, has been steadily dwindling. Let's hope the people of those countries will revive Bolivarianism by taking power directly into their own hands.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/boli-a15.shtml

Education Scam In Alabama

"How does the education scam work? Here is how Bob Lowry describes it:

"The money, part of an "at risk fund" controlled by Dr. Joe Morton, state superintendent, was paid to the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools (CLAS), which hired a Birmingham software company to provide an after-school learning program based on video games called Kids College.

"The software company, Learning Through Sports Inc., was formerly a partnership between Brian Shulman, a former Auburn football player, and Auburn Network Inc., a multimedia company owned by House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn.

"Hubbard, president of Auburn Network, sold his interest in Learning Through Sports in 2005 to Shulman, according to a letter on file at the Alabama Ethics Commission. Hubbard declined to be interviewed for this story. But he said in a statement that he trusts Morton's judgment in the matter."

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Republican-Henchmen-Get-Th-by-Roger-Shuler-110414-707.html

White House, BP tried to spin oil spill science, emails reveal

BP is a foreign corporation, not an Obama constituency. So why would his White House go to bat for them? The third largest contributor to his presidential campaign was J P Morgan Chase. What does that bank and BP have in common? They are owned (in the main) by the same family--the Rothschilds.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/15/white-house-bp-tried-to-spin-oil-spill-science-emails-reveal/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=49f8d21121-4_15_114_15_2011&utm_medium=email

Operators And Riders Unite To Save Public Transit

[I assure you that it has no effect upon my opinion, but in the interests of total disclosure I am an ATU member.]
http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/get-bus-transit-union-looks-ally-riders

Budget Deals Deep Cuts to Obama Administration’s Transparency Sites

More good work from a terrific young journalist.
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/budget-deals-deep-cuts-to-obama-administrations-transparency-sites

Humanitarian Depleted Uranium

http://www.countercurrents.org/mountain150411.htm

Why Does The West Want To Partition Libya?

Here is Horace Coleman's detailed and incisive answer. It's a must-read analysis for anyone wanting to understand the conquest of Libya.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72590

Mass Arrests Of Protesters In Bahrain As Crown Prince Bin Hamad Al Khalifa Warns Of Zero Tolerance

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/Bahrain-Thirty-one-protesters-killed-600-arrested-since-February-group-says_311903716211.html

Al Khalifa regime gets vote of confidence from sponsor:

In Washington, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said "security alone cannot resolve the challenges facing Bahrain", but highlighted that "the United States has a decades-long friendship with Bahrain that we expect to continue long into the future."

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/bahrain/bahrain-moves-against-two-opposition-groups-1.792651

Nation Building In Iraq

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/04/14/145325.html

Egyptian junta steps up violence as protests and strikes continue

Terrific article looks at the specious nomenclature of bourgeois democracy
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/cair-a14.shtml:

A report published recently by Barclays with the ominous title “Point of No Return,” which was dealt with in the Egyptian daily Al Ahram, reveals the real thinking of the representatives of international capital with regard to the economic situation in Egypt. One problem identified in the report is that the ongoing strike wave is primarily responsible for a decline in the productivity of Egyptian factories. A second problem is that concessions made to workers’ protests has led to higher wages. While this may be “good for workers,” it is a blow to “competitiveness,” the British bank wrote.

One reason for optimism, according to the report, is the ruling military council. Barclays praises the junta for ensuring “an orderly transition to democratic rule” and taking the “necessary” measures to “reduce uncertainties and provide clarity with regard to medium-term prospects.”

The only criticism directed towards the Military Council in the report is the decision to re-examine some of the contracts with foreign investors concluded under the Mubarak regime. This, the report concludes, sends the wrong signals regarding the future course of the Egyptian economy, despite all the declarations made in favour of a free market economy.

The report by Barclays makes clear what the international banks expect from the new Egyptian military dictatorship—the brutal repression of the Egyptian working class and a continuation of the neo-liberal policies carried out under Mubarak. The events of recent days and weeks have shown that the Military Council, led by Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, are more than willing to comply with the demands of big business and the banks.

French Neo-colonialism In Africa

"The aggressive posturing of the French...is a...concern to anyone who believes that violence should be a tool of last resort...In Côte d'Ivoire as in Libya, the French government has been on the forefront of demanding direct military intervention...More sympathetic observers argue that the aggressive tack is in part due to a desire to avoid a second Rwanda; the more cynical amongst us find it far too coincidental that the increasingly unpopular [Sarkozy], caught underfoot in Tunisia, is pushing for a war with a government [Libya] that apparently helped finance his presidential campaign and another [Cote d'Ivoire] that has consistently rebuffed his attempts at intervention."
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/72525

Massive Strike In Honduras

"The protesters took over several cities, while police tried to quell protests and get hundreds of students and teachers out of the streets."
http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2011/april/13/centralamerica11041302.htm

Teachers had just returned to work after a strike in protest of new education law imposed by the military junta which deposed Zelaya.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/01/2144511/teachers-strike-fuels-unrest-in.html

A Socialist Parable From Canada's Tommy Douglas

CLampdown In Bahrain

Excellent report of the US' silence on the subject by Propublica's superb Marian Wang.
http://inteldaily.com/2011/04/u-s-stays-mum-as-bahrain-unleashes-brutal-crackdown/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+inteldaily%2Ffeeds+%28Inteldaily.com%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

BP Oil Spill Photo

Aerial view of the BP oil spill site off the coast of Houma, La., on July 13, 2010. (Melanie Burford/ProPublica)

The article with which this photo appeared shamelessly tries to posit the giant Rothschild oil company as a victim after the fact:
http://www.propublica.org/article/spillionaires-profiteering-mismanagement-in-the-wake-of-the-bp-oil-spill

The Budget Charade, And How It Is Helping The Biggest Banks In The World Illegally Confiscate Homes

http://www.propublica.org/article/amidst-foreclosure-crisis-proposed-budget-would-slash-housing-counseling

Humanitarian Trust Fund

Air strikes, cruise missiles, a new central bank, a national oil company and refining contracts, and now the Libyan rebels get a trust fund. Oh how the milk of human kindness o'erflows. Meanwhile  Saudi, Bahraini, Yemeni and Egyptian rebels are being tortured and murdered.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/04/20114134730363347.html

Yemeni Rebels Pledge Not To Be Dispersed

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110412/wl_mideast_afp/yemenpoliticsunrest

Justice Denied For The Dalit Girl Thrown Into Fire By Upper Caste Men

The Dalits are the lowest cast in India sometimes called "Untouchables."

Warning: This is hard to read.
http://www.countercurrents.org/chandra120411.htm

Red Star Over Zambia

I wonder what Edgar Snow would say about today's Chinese government.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12973534

The World Bank Wouldn't Lie, Would It?

 “The World Bank should check its facts...".
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-567917

National Security, And The al-Kidda Terror Network

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-3sH1GaO_nw#at=63

Wisconsin Election Fraud

Terrific article:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/100-Reasons-for-Revolution-by-David-Glenn-Cox-110410-260.html

Unionbusters target crews that run Washington’s ferry boats

http://www.peoplesworld.org/unionbusters-target-crews-that-run-washington-s-ferry-boats/

CIA Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles Acquitted Of Perjury

Ah the evil dialectic of exigent capitalist politics! Megrahi, obviously innocent of blowing up an airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland, is sacrificed by his government, at the insistence of the UK and US, to get sanctions lifted. Carriles, who boasts of blowing up a Cuban airliner, is protected by the US government.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/10/luis-posada-cuba-denounces-us-acquittal-cia-agent

Ugly Union-busting In Pakistan

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article20959

Icelanders Reject Onorous Debt Payment Plan

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27857.htm

Here's an analysis by Michael Hudson, author of Super Imperialism, a book which made quite an impression on me in my youth.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27851.htm

"Maikel Nabil found guilty of insulting the military and spreading false news."

For which he gets three years.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/2011411135325204241.html

New York City Teacher's Chilling Analysis Of The Undermining Of Public Education

“Imagine,” said a public school teacher in New York City, who asked that I not use his name, “going to work each day knowing a great deal of what you are doing is fraudulent, knowing in no way are you preparing your students for life in an ever more brutal world, knowing that if you don’t continue along your scripted test prep course and indeed get better at it you will be out of a job. Up until very recently, the principal of a school was something like the conductor of an orchestra: a person who had deep experience and knowledge of the part and place of every member and every instrument. In the past 10 years we’ve had the emergence of both [Mayor] Mike Bloomberg’s Leadership Academy and Eli Broad’s Superintendents Academy, both created exclusively to produce instant principals and superintendents who model themselves after CEOs. How is this kind of thing even legal? How are such ‘academies’ accredited? What quality of leader needs a ‘leadership academy’? What kind of society would allow such people to run their children’s schools? The high-stakes tests may be worthless as pedagogy but they are a brilliant mechanism for undermining the school systems, instilling fear and creating a rationale for corporate takeover. There is something grotesque about the fact the education reform is being led not by educators but by financers [sic] and speculators and billionaires...It is extremely dispiriting to realize that you are in effect lying to these kids by insinuating that this diet of corporate reading programs and standardized tests are preparing them for anything,” said this teacher, who feared he would suffer reprisals from school administrators if they knew he was speaking out. “It is even more dispiriting to know that your livelihood depends increasingly on maintaining this lie. You have to ask yourself why are hedge fund managers suddenly so interested in the education of the urban poor? The main purpose of the testing craze is not to grade the students but to grade the teacher.

U.S. Government Looting Social Security To Wage Wars

http://inteldaily.com/2011/04/u-s-government-looting-social-security-to-wage-wars/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+inteldaily%2Ffeeds+%28Inteldaily.com%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Egyptian Chronicle Blogger Zeinobia Casts Doubt On Army Defectors

Excellent post from excellent blog:

"There is still this psychological barrier between the journalists and covering army related issues , ok but I am pretty amazed that those defected officers were not connected by the journalists even for curiosity.  The Egyptian national TV is still proving that it has got a lot of time to become the Egyptian people’s TV.
"Now moving to the activists and defected army officers whom exactly we do not know their full names or even how many they were. We got contradicting stories in a strange way. Some claimed 3 of them were killed while when I was following the matter in twitter live , I read that 3 of them escaped. The army denied that any of them were killed. Again contradiction with emotional talks makes things worse."
http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/04/biggest-enemy-for-our-revolution.html

Egyptian socialists on the state attacks on protesters in Tahrir Square (April/9/11)

"The Military Council is the guardian of dictatorship and corruption."

"We must continue our revolution until the country has been cleansed and Mubarak's Military Council has been removed from power."

Amen!

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=24469

Brief Speech By Cindy Sheehan About Republocrats

I love this woman!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPj8__HZBTo&feature=player_embedded

The European Workers’ Movement : Dangers and Challenges

The hairs on my anarchist back stand up when he talks about an insufficiency of leadership on the left, but all in all an excellent summary of the current state of affairs.
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article20990

Egyptians Protest At Israeli Embassy In Cairo

http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2011/04/09/breaking-news-israeli-embassy-in-cairo-under-siege/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+SabbahsBlog+%28Sabbah+Report%2

Murder In Tahrir Square

Egyptian Army, the one the Western media lauded so tirelessly, attacked protesters in Tahrir Square who had defied the curfew.

The army was aided by police and plain-clothes officials, presumably from Suleiman's secret police. They claimed they only fired blanks.

It is not clear if the raid was to disperse the crowd or to retrieve army personnel who had defected to the protesters.

Here's are two good reports of the violence:
http://www.yalibnan.com/2011/04/09/egyptian-soldiers-attack-tahrir-square-protesters/
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/20114921821599558.html

And here an excellent round-up of media coverage:
http://firedoglake.com/2011/02/26/tahrir-in-barbed-wire-as-army-attacks-egyptian-protesters/

And here a video of the attack:


The moment critique of any revolution comes when those groups of armed enforcers--army, police, secret services--are ordered to use lethal force to disperse or repel defiant demonstrators. When they do, as in the Russian Revolution of 1905, the rebellion is defeated. When they refuse, as in the Russian Revolution of 1917, it succeeds, at least for a while. In February, the Egyptian Army was ordered not to disrupt the protests, as it was hoped that the removal of the detested Mubarak would placate the protesters. In this new case, with the counterrevolution in full sway, the orders the street soldiers will receive will not be the same. Much is at stake for imperial interests now, as Egypt goes so goes the entire oil-rich Arab world. The revolutionaries have showed great resolve, their determination has been impressive. They have been an inspiration, but ahead lies a minefield. For the revolution to succeed, they must win the support of rank and file soldiers. Then the new revolutionary government must be able to withstand the assault that will certainly come from reactionary forces abroad. In order to survive this onslaught, they will need help. The new revolutionary Egyptian government could not hold up under siege from the combined forces of the US, UK, and Israel. Their only hope will be that the respective populations of those nations rise up in protest and manage to thwart the attack. An awful lot has to go right for Egypt's revolution to prevail, and the odds are not in their favor. But with the near universal disgust with the West's many incursions into Arab lands, there is a chance, admittedly quite slim, that critical mass may be achieved.

Inshallah!

In solidarity with our brave Egyptian comrades!

The Revolt In Syria

This is the best report I've seen.
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/1200/protests-on-the-rise-again-in-syria_a-report-from-

Saudis Protest Presence Of Their Military In Bahrain

Gee, I thought the Bahraini unrest was a Shi'a/Sunni conflict. So then why are these Sunni Saudis rallying to the cause of the Shi'a in Bahrain?

It's the media's function to cast the news of the day in a light which is favorable to the ruling class. That is their raison d'etre. The people of the Mideast are protesting neoliberalism and imperialism. As that is unacceptable to the neoliberal imperialists who control the media, some fiction is created to obscure the truth.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/173913.html

One helluva boost: JPMorgan CEO sees compensation jump 1,500 per cent to $20.8million

It seems the Rothschilds have weathered this crisis and emerged in good shape once again. The bailout has worked wonders for them.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1375023/JPMorgan-CEO-sees-compensation-package-jump-1-500-cent-20-8m.html

Peacemama Talks About The Faux Left

Cindy is organizing a grass-roots campaign to build sustainable, self-governing, localist communities:http://revcoms.wordpress.com/

If Voting Changed Anything, They Would Make It Illegal*

Litmus Test: If you find the claim made in this article-America's elections rigged-difficult to believe, then you have no idea how the world works; who controls the process; and just how unscrupulous, often lethally so, they are.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/To-The-American-Media-Tim-by-Jonathan-Simon-110408-959.html

*Emma Goldman

Oakland Teachers Shut Wells Fargo Branch

It's becoming increasingly obvious that teachers and their unions are leading the fight against draconian austerity measures. So I guess there is something to be gained from the imprimatur of establishment respectability and the undeserved legitimacy it confers after all...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/04/05/18676405.php

Michigan Teachers Mull Strike

http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/will-michigan-teachers-walk

Protesters spend night inside Washington state Capitol

http://www.theolympian.com/2011/04/06/1607333/protest-to-go-all-night-inside.html

The World Bank's War On Africa’s Family Farmers

Great article by Joan Baxter.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72302

"Ohio bill would allow recall of governor, lawmakers"

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/07/ohio-bill-would-allow-recall-of-governor-lawmakers/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=78eaac6c66-4_7_114_7_2011&utm_medium=email

*THE UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT & THE WOMEN’S SOCIAL FORUM MARCH FOR TOILETS THIS FRIDAY*

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/72398

Texas Company Exploits Mentally Ill For Decades

Ain't Capitalism Grand?
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/04/06/2979831/texas-company-sued-for-abuse-of.html

How much longer?

The Ghosts Of Puppets Past

 Saddam's Ghost in Tripoli
by Gado















http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/72400

ABC Journalist Was FBI Informant

This story may not be entirely accurate. It paints the journalist as turning over his source to the FBI. I think it is more likely that he was the recipient. The Center for Public Integrity may have been snookered, or is misnamed.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/3112/

Ohio Sues Company To Which It Gave Charter School Contract

http://www.propublica.org/article/charter-schools-outsource-education-to-management-firms-with-mixed-result

Interview With The Great Arundhati Roy, Gotta Be Seen To Be Believed

It's all here in a nutshell. All of it! If there is anyone out there who still believes that the large, international media are the fourth estate; that they are independent of government or class loyalty; that they serve the interest of the public; that they try to convey the truth such as they understand it; then you need to see this video. As you do, please note how the loathsome interviewer, Sagarika Ghose, Senior Editor CNN-IBN, the military-industrial-media complex' woman in Delhi, tries to bait Roy with captious, facile, and tendentious questions. Please note further that at the end Ghose mischaracterizes Roy's answers in a dismissive, condescending tone intended to discredit. This is slander of an outspoken, uncowed activist undertaken by the media on behalf of its bourgeois patrons. Ghose makes no effort to conceal her hostility, nor does she ask a single question which might elicit an ingratiating response. Everything Ghose put to Roy was an attempt to get the latter to say something that could be used against her. What occurs in this interview has nothing to do with journalism. It is defamation directed against a woman who has become a thorn in the side of the ruling class. This is Macchiavellian! It is as close to good versus evil as one can come where human beings are concerned.

Fortunately, Ghose was in over her head in this case. It is clear to anybody with two IQ points to rub together that the interviewer was eclipsed in courage, intelligence, originality, and humanity.

Maine Legislature Considers Weakening Child Labor Laws

Excellent editorial with brief history of the subject.

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/dont-weaken-child-labor-laws_2011-04-01.html

Shocking Article About Multinational's Strategy To Deny Benefits To The Disabled In England

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=24468

The Cult Of Capital

Capitalism depends upon apathy. The elite, its beneficiaries, must keep the masses, its victims, in the abeyance of indifference. That one should own the factory and be enriched by its revenues while the workers who create that wealth pass their lives in poverty and insecurity, is in conflict with the morality of a high percentage of the world's population. Consequently it is the task of the ruling class to inure its vassals to injustice to such a degree that they no longer recognize it, and accept it as natural or necessary or endemic when they do. Hence the most liberatory, redemptive thing we can do is to care about one another. It is the sina qua non of emancipation.

Here's a brilliant article which deals, as I read it, with this theme.

http://inteldaily.com/2011/04/financial-totalitarianism/#comment-14847

The International Banking System, Birthplace Of Poverty

"The Federal Reserve is committed not to the health and wealth of citizens, but to that of the international banking system. New information on lending programs reveals the depth to which this is true.

"Today we begin with the Rothschilds. The following is taken from a London letter, sent to the Rothschild's New York operators on commencing business in the U.S.:

"The few who can understand the system will be either so interested in its profits, or so dependent on its favours, that there will be no opposition from that class, while, on the other hand, that great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that Capital derives from the system, will bear its burden without complaint and, perhaps, without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests."

Humanitarian Oil Concession

CIA-led Libyan rebels export oil.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-04-05/libya-rebels-ready-to-export-oil-as-qaddafi-forces-advance.html

Yemen's Saleh Killing Civilians, Why No Humanitarian Intervention Here?

"Saleh has clung to power, saying Yemen will sink into chaos if he goes."

Well, at least he has a sense of humor.

http://www.13wham.com/news/world/story/Yemen-opposition-appeals-for-international-help/-mT-4_BPS0izUGCH-rBuzg.cspx?rss=105

General Strike In Daraa, Syria

"the residents of Daraa want more than a switch in governor".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110405/wl_mideast_afp/syriapoliticsunrestdaraa

Bahrain firms fire hundreds of strikers in crackdown

"It's illegal in Bahrain and anywhere else in the world to just strike. You have to give two weeks' notice to your employer," said one executive who did not wish to be named...Bahrain has increased its arrests of bloggers, activists and Shi'ites, with more than 300 detained and dozens missing since last month's crackdown on the pro-democracy protests."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/05/bahrain-idUSLDE7340DA20110405?rpc=401

The West-backed elBaradei Launches His Presidential Campaign In Egypt

Shameless, spurious pandering to the legitimate anti-Zionist sentiment of Egyptian voters. If he gets elected, one can be sure that he will quickly find an excuse to renege on this promise to confront the Israelis in Gaza.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/207810

How Powerful Is The Zionist Lobby?

They've managed to convince Goldstone to retract his report of several hundred pages. What a humiliation for him! He now has to claim, or admit depending how one looks at it, that he's an absolute idiot.
http://www.sabcnews.com/portal/site/SABCNews/menuitem.5c4f8fe7ee929f602ea12ea1674daeb9/?vgnextoid=03c5e15a2152f210VgnVCM10000077d4ea9bRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

Counterrevolution Continues In Egypt

http://www.afrol.com/articles/37624

Zambia's Chinese-owned copper plant workers strike

Communism Chinese style!
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE72O0BO20110325

Condom Recycling

Poverty is not an accident, or irremediable inherent condition, or a necessary evil (as the evil say), or unfortunate unintended consequence of technological progress, it is a policy. It is the contrivance of the international plutocracy who, through the debt-based monetary system, ensure their perpetuation as an elite and our eternal servitude to them by creating a scarcity of money. One of the many horrendous effects of this criminality is the inability of third-world nations to halt the spread of preventable diseases.

Capitalism, ladies and gentlemen, has got to go.

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=92309

A statement from the Revolutionary Socialists of Egypt on foreign intervention in Libya issued on the 20 March 2011.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=24398

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Sociopath

What is so striking about Brzezinski is his candor. There's not even a wisp of prevarication in anything this "moderate" says. He makes it plain: The US has commercial interests in the region and it should do whatever it must to retain control thereover. There is no talk of supporting the Libyan rebels because their cause is just, nothing so quaint or prosaic as that, only the sang-froid of self-interested calculation. One would think he would at least pretend to have a conscience, but no!

Anarchism, Political Violence, And The London "March For The Alternative"

http://countercurrents.org/fryett030411.htm

Top Lies, Distortions, Prevarications, Obfuscations, Obviations etc Of The War On Libya (thus far)

In no particular order

1, It's a "no-fly zone."
   It's an airborne assault which has targeted tanks, schools, hospitals, broadcast facilities. It is an air campaign like any other--savage.

Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald Brags About Busting Unions

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/29/wisconsin-gop-senator-boasts-we-have-broken-the-power-of-unions/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=d552486361-3_30_113_30_2011&utm_medium=email

Potential For Referendum In Ohio To Overturn Union-busting Bill

"It bases raises on management-controlled performance measures, not seniority, prevents public workers from striking, mandates much higher health costs for workers, and allows a decertification vote if 30 percent of members sign a petition. Contracts can be declared null and void if a town or school district declares financial emergency.”
http://www.labornotes.org/2011/03/ohioans-can-overturn-anti-labor-bill-through-referendum%E2%80%94again

Republican Tom Marino (PA) Has A Question For The President About His Libya Policy

"Marino asked.... 'Where does it stop?' he said. 'Do we go into Africa next?' I don't want to sound callous or cold, but this could go on indefinitely around the world."

Not to worry Congressman, you don't sound "callous," just stupid.

Quote O' The Day, 4/2/11

The truth shall set you free, but first it's gonna really piss you off.
Dylan Ratigan

Union-Busting Bill Passes House In New Hampshire As Thousands Protest

"Today, the New Hampshire House will vote on a budget so heartless in its approach to the poor, the disabled and the mentally ill as to be immoral. Should it become law, New Hampshire will be a different state, one that under the guise of "personal responsibility" replaces the social compact with the survival of the fittest."
[http://www.concordmonitor.com/print/248603]

The Committee meeting became a bit contentious:

A Light To The Nations

Why is their political strife in Palestine? Because Palestinians are xenophobes!

You just can't make this shit up.

First law of propaganda: Assert the opposite. Warning: Even as Zionazis go, David Horowitz is particularly vile. I felt as though I needed a shower after listening to this.

And to think, he used to be a left-wing radical. One can only marvel at the reversal...and wonder whose interests he served in those days.

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/david-horowitz-spreading-kosher-hatred-brooklyn-college.html

Egypt, The Empire Strikes Back

Strikes and protests to become illegal and female activists given "virginity tests."

http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/126329/20110324/egypt-protest-mubarak-army-gag-media-ban-protest-strike-criminalize-military-generals-emergency.htm

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/03/egypt-military-forced-captured-female-protesters-into-taking-virginity-tests.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+BabylonBeyond+%28Babylon+%26+Beyond+Blog%29

New Wrinkle In The Foreclosuregate Scandal

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/we-can-track-widespread-insurance-fra