May Day celebrated in Toronto by Christian Whittall The Free Times Cafe was packed to the gills on the evening of Saturday, May 1, for Toronto’s 24th Annual Socialist May Day Celebration. The lively, convivial atmosphere may have seemed in sharp contrast to the rather dire-sounding theme for this year: “Eco-Socialism or Extinction”. But what… [Read more…]
May 24, 2010
by Mumia Abu-Jamal Recently, there was published an extraordinary article in the journal, Foreign Affairs. Penned by the conservative British historian, Niall Ferguson, of Harvard and Oxford Universities, he surveys the trends that spelled an end to half a score of great Empires. His basic thesis is that great and powerful empires can fall with amazing rapidity, often in the… [Read more…]
May 24, 2010
by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith ARNING TO CONSUMERS: Do not charge any of the products displayed in this film to your credit card. “The Joneses,” German writer/director Derrick Brote’s first film, could be considered a social critique on America’s endemic, debt-ridden, buying lust. It is a morality tale, a fable: be careful what you want, it could kill you, or hurt you,… [Read more…]
May 24, 2010
by John Leslie PHILADELPHIA—On April 26, nurses and medical technicians at Temple University Hospital approved a new contract to end their militant 28-day strike. The strikers succeeded in defeating the most objectionable provisions sought by Temple—a “gag rule,” an open shop, staffing changes, and staggered expirations for the union contracts of the two bargaining units. The provisions of the… [Read more…]
May 24, 2010
by Christine Frank Despite growing domestic and international opposition, the Lula government of Brazil plans to go forth with the construction of the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon that flows through the northeastern part of the country. The construction of the megadam will mean the flooding of an estimated 500… [Read more…]
May 24, 2010
by Gerry Foley The April 7 uprising in Kirghizia (sometimes called Kyrgyzstan), the mass uprising that overthrew the corrupt tyrant Kurambek Bakiyev, himself the beneficiary of a mass uprising five years ago that overthrew his predecessor, Askar Akaev, was a new sign not just of continuing political ferment in that country but of growing instability… [Read more…]
May 24, 2010
by Clay Wadena The oppressed people of the Earth have stepped forward forcefully into the climate-change debate with new declarations emerging from the “The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth,” held near Cochabamba, Bolivia, in late April. The statements, which were formed in various workshops, accurately placed the responsibility for… [Read more…]
May 24, 2010
by Andrew Pollack In recent weeks, the main flashpoint of the global economic downturn has been Greece, where strikes and demonstrations continue to challenge attempts by the continent’s ruling classes to force workers to bear the burden of the country’s deepening debt crisis. But in the U.S. all eyes were on charges filed by the… [Read more…]
May 24, 2010
by Gerry Foley Iraq’s disputed and inconclusive election continues to draw commentary in the U.S. press that the country’s political crisis could “delay the withdrawal of American troops.” But the journalists who make this ominous observation never ask what American troops are doing there, and why it should be their obligation to solve the country’s political problems?… [Read more…]
May 24, 2010
by Christine Marie In April, two well-known progressive figures, Code Pink leader Medea Benjamin and scholar of working-class cultural history Paul Buhle, went to press to champion a new “Left-Right Alliance Against War.” Such an alliance was the topic of a Feb. 20 conference held, according to Buhle, “auspiciously, the day after the Conservative Political… [Read more…]
May 24, 2010
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