‘May Day’ Militancy Needed To Create The Economy We Need

By Kevin Zeese & Margaret Flowers Seventy years of attacks on the right to unionize have left the union movement representing only 10 percent of workers. The investor class has concentrated its power and uses its power in an abusive way, not only against unions but also to create economic insecurity for workers. At the same time, workers, both union and nonunion, are mobilizing more aggressively and protesting a wide range of economic, racial and environmental issues. Continue reading

After 70 Years of Repression, Gazans' Great Return March is Modern Exodus

As Israel celebrates seven decades and prides itself on being the only democracy in the Middle East, the reality in Gaza undercuts that self-image and instead testifies that Israel is a state that is both racist and violent. GAZA — As the U.S., U.K. and France bomb Syria, claiming to support its people but in reality adding misery to a country that has had more than its fair share of violence, the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is almost completely ignored by the international community. This is because the perpetrator of this seven-decade-long disaster is Apartheid Israel. Continue reading

Any U.S. Attack on Syria Is International Gangsterism

APRIL 10, 2018 — The pending military intervention into Syria by the United States represents yet another case of unilateral illegality that continues the systematic assault on international law and morality that has characterized U.S. foreign policies since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, when the United States found itself without any countervailing global power. The result for the people of the world has been unending military conflicts, destabilization and the destruction of whole nations. Continue reading

Why I am an Environmental Activist

When I was in ninth grade, we learned in social studies that the Athabaskan tar sands in Alberta, Canada were a source of future resource wealth. Flash forward to 2018 and the tar sands oil has morphed into the Keystone XL pipeline issue. New technologies for extracting oil—shale oil extraction and fracking—are even more harmful to the environment than traditional oil wells, whether in the ocean or on the lands of Texas or New Mexico. We are living through a time when the effects of climate change increasingly affect our daily lives. Climate change does not just mean global warming. It means all kinds of extremes, extreme drought, extreme hurricanes, extreme flooding, extreme sustained cold temperatures. It means unusual winters of very cold or too much “above average.” It means more Harveys, Irmas, Marías are in store. Continue reading

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Today memorializes the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King's death was undoubtedly one of the most horrific crimes of the century. 50 years later, while reflecting on his life, we must ask ourselves where are we in reference to what he stood and fought for? Examining many areas that Dr. King battled, we can first look at poverty issues. In 1968, only 10% of whites lived in poverty while almost 34%, if not more of blacks were also devastated. Before he died he began organizing a Poor People's Campaign to dramatize the plight of poor folks in America and to signify that as a collective voice they demanded change and action. Continue reading

Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Murder of Unarmed Palestinians by Israeli Security Forces

APRIL 2, 2018 — A reported 17,000 Palestinians peacefully marched in Gaza on March 30 as they made their historic demand for a right to return to their ancestral lands when they were met by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) snipers who opened fire, killing 17 people and wounding about 1,500. The Great Return March was the beginning of a six-week long protest that was due to end May 15, the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) marking the day 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes by the new state of Israel in 1947. Continue reading

The Time to Oppose War is Now; Greens take Action

Momentum toward war is escalating dangerously with new additions to the Trump war cabinet, John Bolton as national security adviser and Mike Pompeo as secretary of state. Bolton is a war criminal for supporting torture and lying to justify the Iraq war. He and Pompeo oppose the Iran nuclear deal. Pompeo is an aggressive war hawk who would rather seek regime change in North Korea than de-nuclearization. There is a bi-partisan march to militarization. After the Pentagon requested a record amount of spending on war, Congress almost unanimously added tens of billions to the military budget, which is now 57% of US discretionary spending. ‘Russiagate’ continues to foment hatred at Russia and President Putin, and the recent use of a nerve agent to kill a Russian émigré and his daughter in England are leading to talk of greater conflict with Russia. Continue reading

Candidate suppression in Illinois

For the most part, I can be calm about the stacked deck we call elections in the state of Illinois. It's constantly angering, yes, but I can control that anger; I can speak calmly and with dispassion on this issue about which I am so passionate. Today I am having a hard time with that control. Continue reading

Is That a White House Advisor in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Helping Him Fleece Me

It's time to evict the slumlords taking up residence in the Trump White House There are many ways to get federal housing assistance. A person can apply to live in public housing or they can receive a rent subsidy for living in private accomodations. Public housing—of which there are approximately 1.3 million units across the United States—is managed by regional housing authorities. According to the United States Housing Market Conditions Summary, nearly all the people in this housing are old, disabled or have young children. In fact, it might surprise you that more than half of all public housing is occupied by extremely low income elderly individuals or the severely disabled. Most of these folks have an income of less than ten grand each year. If you’ve been paying attention to current events, that means that a publicly housed elderly or infirm guy’s three year income still totals less than the cost of the dining set HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, blames his wife for ordering for his office. Continue reading

Working Americans Need Independent Politics

Do working people have any reliable friends on the political field? We're long past the point where Democrats can claim to be the party of workers. Republicans have never been sympathetic, except in their most mendacious flights of campaign rhetoric. The spectacular victory of the public school teachers' strike in West Virginia, in which they won all their demands, occurred without major-party support. The West Virginia Mountain Party, affiliated with the Green Party, endorsed it on February 18. Continue reading