Cameron's humiliating defeat over Syria attack

British PM David Cameronfrom Roger Silverman in LondonIt was one of those moments that mark a turning point in history: the defeat this week of David Cameron’s parliamentary motion paving the way for Britain’s participation in the planned US military intervention in the Syrian civil war. It came after years of endless futile foreign wars and economic crisis, during which all but the super-rich had suffered crippling drops in living...

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Attack on Syria: The hypocrisy of Obama, Kerry and co.

Two Sec's of State.  Ask her about dead children John?by Richard MellorAfscme Local 444, retiredThe billionaire John Kerry who also functions as the US Secretary of State is ready to teach the Syrian dictator Assad a lesson. He called Assad a "thug and a murderer", and says the US can’t let a dictator get away with such serious crimes; unless it’s one of the US’s dictators of course.  "History will judge us all extraordinarily...

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Thoughts on the struggles in Northern Ireland

This description of Ireland below is very similar to the events that took place here in the US that led to the increase of the black middle and upper middle class. Meanwhile, the conditions for black workers and youth continue to worsen.by Sean O'TorrainI was back home in the North of Ireland a few months ago at a wedding. I was seated beside a middle class Catholic couple who has a relative who joined SF and has a local council position now. They played no role in the military campaign of the Provos. Only when it became a mass movement did they...

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CIA wars aren't fought to defend US workers interests.

by Richard MellorAfscme Local 444, retiredThe Washington Post has published the secret US Intelligence budget that the paper received as part of a package of information from Edward Snowden.  The $52 billion of taxpayer funds it appears often fails to protect “national security” the Post argues.Naturally, representatives of the bankers and other coupon clippers that we bailed out after the crash  are already saying the Post has published...

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Israeli soldiers disciplined for dancing Gangnam Style with Palestinians

The Zionist regime is facing its most serious assault in decades. Israeli soldiers on patrol in the West Bank came upon a dance hall where Palestinians were having a shindig. The usual bullying and brutality directed at Palestinians didn’t occur; something far more dangerous did. It appears the soldiers joined Palestinian men who were dancing to the now famous “Gangnam Style”. Israeli army spokespersons consider the incident very “serious” as "the soldiers exposed themselves to unnecessary danger and were disciplined accordingly," AP reported....

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Fast food workers actions exceed expections.

Demonstrations and strikes of fast food workers for a $15.00 an hour minimum wage were expected in 35 cities today. One mass media outlet, CNBC, are so far reporting such events in 60 cities. Also that on many occasions when activists turn up outside restaurants workers inside at work take off their hats and come out and join them. There are also reports that while the employers continue to sharply condemn the workers and their demands that in some sectors they are making concessions behind the scenes. The reasons seem to be to undermine the...

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The Restaurant lobby, the other NRA

With fast food workers around the nation walking off the job tomorrow I thought it would be of interest to readers to know a bit more about the  National Restaurant Association. This piece below is from AlterNet.The Other NRA: How the Insidiously Powerful Restaurant Lobby Makes Sure Fast-Food Workers Get Poverty Wages and Have to Work While Sick Fast-food workers feed their families on a pittance while the big corporations resist fair...

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The Radical Tradition of Autoworkers

Andy Piascik Interviews retired autoworker Greg ShotwellThe sit-down strike by General Motors workers in the winter of 1936-37 was one of the galvanizing events in U.S. labor history. Similarly, the efforts of the primarily African-American autoworkers of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the other RUM’s sparked the resurgence of rank and file militancy in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. In more recent years, the New Directions caucus and Soldiers...

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Down in the Jackson Hole

By Michael RobertsCentral bankers from all over the world gather each August underneath the Grand Teton mountains in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for their summer symposium to discuss the global economy and what central bankers can do about it.  This year, Ben Bernanke, head of the most important central bank, the US Federal Reserve, is not present.  He is about to end his term of office at year-end, so perhaps he saw no need to attend. ...

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Art and politics. Separate?

I am on another list where a Comrade said that art and politics were separate. I was/am not sure on this. In fact I would have to say that until I would hear more I am against this. Anyway here is the response I put on to this other post. Sean. I write:" Comrade  I am not sure what you mean when you say art and politics are different worlds. I think you are also saying that music and politics are different worlds. If this is so I think we should struggle against this. Or are you saying that such a struggle would be impossible to win given...

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Fukushima: more radioactive water, more uninhabitable land

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Labor, value and capitalist production

by Richard MellorAfscme Local 444, retiredIf we ask workers, or even capitalists where profit comes from, the answer generally is that it comes from selling the product that the particular industry makes above its cost of production. But this is not so.  Profit is made not by selling a product higher than the cost of making it it but in the labor process itself.  The capitalist sells the commodity the worker makes for more than the capital...

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Mexican Teachers: "Education is Not a Class Privilige, It is a Social Right"

by Jack Gerson The previous post on this blog, Ken Hanley's article "Mexico Teachers Strike Closes Classes in Several States", gave a partial picture of the massive and bitter struggle that has been going on across most of southern and central Mexico for nearly a year, including months-long and ongoing mass strikes of teachers in several Mexican states. The root cause of the conflict is the attempt by Mexico's new president, Enrique Pena Nieto, to...

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