Archive | February, 2011

  • Egyptian Workers Strike for Minimum Wage and Independent Unions

    Workers’ demonstrations have swept across Egypt demanding an increase in the national minimum wage, an end to corrupt factory management, and the creation of independent workers’ unions. Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk are filmmakers based in Cairo, Egypt.  Read Rizk’s blog Tabula Gaza at <tabulagaza.blogspot.com>.  Follow Rizk at <twitter.com/tabulagaza>.  This video was released by the […]

  • The New American Workers Movement and the Confrontation to Come

    The new American workers movement — born in the last few weeks in the giant protests in Wisconsin and Ohio — faces a fateful confrontation this week.  In Madison and Columbus, Republican legislators are pushing to abolish public employee labor unions and tens of thousands of workers are protesting and resisting.  We have seen nothing […]

  • “We’ve Been Reaching Out to Many Different Libyans Who Are Attempting to Organize in the East”

      Here’s another clue about the real balance of forces in Libya, which has been obscured by the concerted corporate media propaganda.  Washington has decided that the Libyan rebels don’t have what it takes to take Tripoli, where about half of Libya’s population live, on their own (as the rebels admit themselves) and that the […]

  • Imperialists Prepare for Military Intervention in Libya

    The Libyan exiles and defectors begging for no-fly zones failed to get them at the United Nations Security Council on Saturday, but they are inching closer to lining up Western military support nonetheless.  This just in from the Wall Street Journal today: The Pentagon is repositioning warships and planes in the waters off Libya to […]

  • Rally to Save Ohio’s Middle Class

      Tues. March 1 starting 10AM going all day West Lawn of the Statehouse THE SENATE IS EXPECTED TO VOTE ON SENATE BILL 5 TUESDAY. For more info, visit <www.protectohiofamilies.com>.   var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print  

  • What Does the Libyan Opposition Want?

    As everyone knows, Muammar Gaddafi is an authoritarian dictator.  Authoritarian dictators are a dime a dozen in world history, though, so that is not what would distinguish him from the rest of his kind in history books.  What might make him stand out is this: in the twilight of his autocratic career, Gaddafi had become […]

  • PFLP Condemns the Gaddafi Regime’s Massacres against the Libyan People

    22 February 2011 The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demanded an immediate end to the bombardment and massacres against the heroic Libyan people, condemning the killing of demonstrators committed by the Gaddafi regime. The PFLP demanded the protection of the Libyan people and their rights, and emphasized its support for the demands of […]

  • Musa Sadr in Libya?

    In 2007, Gaddafi expressed ambitions to revive a Fatimid state to create the foundations for a renaissance in North Africa, in a bid to attract the attention of Shia scholars and leaders.  In vain — for he unapologetically also expressed shockingly undemocratic sentiments to the effect that elections and coups are no different!  His failed […]

  • Egypt: Mass Strikes and the Military Junta

    Everyone is rightly upset about what the army did in Tahrir Square last night.  Let’s remember, however, the military already moved against peaceful protesters in Suez and is accused of involvement in arrest and torture of hundreds during the uprising.  And almost every day there is a statement from the army warning strikers and protesters, […]

  • We Condemn the Killing of Innocents, But We Cannot Accept Intervention in Libya

    Statement of Ambassador Rodolfo Reyes, Permanent Representative, before the Human Rights Council on the Situation in Libya, Geneva, 25 February 2011 Mr. President: Less than 72 hours ago, Cuba, through its Foreign Minister, communicated the following in Brussels: “We are following with utmost attention the current events in the internal affairs of Libya and their […]

  • We Won’t Back Down: Join Us Tuesday at the Ohio Statehouse!!!

    Come rally with us on Tuesday, March 1 at 9 a.m. when it is believed the Senate will vote on the bill!  Sources tell the union that the Senate Insurance, Commerce, and Labor Committee will only consider amendments to Senate Bill 5 on Tuesday and will no longer be hearing testimony.  It is likely that […]

  • Al Jazeera Promotes Libya’s “Crown Prince” Who Calls for Military Intervention in Libya

    Al Jazeera received a lot of kudos for its exciting coverage of the intifadas in Tunisia and Egypt.  Many of us in the West in particular found it to be a useful source of information, since the Western media’s coverage of them, largely shaped by imperialist preferences as always, was quantitatively lesser and qualitatively worse […]

  • Cynicism’s Danse Macabre

    The politics of plunder imposed by the United States and its NATO allies in the Middle East is in crisis.  This was inevitably unleashed with the high cost of grain, the effects of which are being felt with more force in the Arab nations where, despite their enormous oil resources, the shortage of water, arid […]

  • Standing Up for Workers’ Rights in Wisconsin

    Ahmad Fuad Rahmat is a graduate student at Marquette University Milwaukee. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print

  • Demonstration in Defense of Workers’ Rights at Ohio’s Statehouse

    No on Senate Bill 5, 22 February 2011 Panayiotis T. Manolakos is an independent economist, writer, and activist based in Ohio.  The photographs above (available at www.flickr.com/photos/ptmanolakos/sets/72157626002955057) are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print

  • What Is the National Front for the Salvation of Libya?

    In his blog Lenin’s Tomb, Richard Seymour asserts confidently: Because the trouble for the US and UK governments in this revolt is that they really, really don’t want Gadaffi to fall.  Gadaffi is someone with whom they can do business.  By contrast, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, long a leading element in […]

  • Azmi Bishara on Libya

      On Al Jazeera, Dr. Azmi Bishara said that the violence unleashed in Libya against the Libyan people is beyond belief — indicative of desperation on the part of the political order — or rather “disorder” — in Libya, attempting to put a quick end to the uprising before escalation, as the situation is a […]

  • The Trial: The Untold Story of the Cuban 5

    The Trial is a Documentary by Rolando Almirante, narrated by Danny Glover and presented by ICAIC and Telesur. You can view the entire documentary below and read articles by Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada about the Cuban 5.

  • The Cynical Dance Macabre

    The policy of plunder imposed by the United States and their NATO allies in the Middle East has gone into a crisis. It has inevitably unraveled with the high cost of grain, the effects of which can be felt more forcefully in the Arab countries where, in spite of their huge resources of oil, the […]

  • Bahrain’s Potential Domino Effect in the Persian Gulf

    On my first nighttime visit to Pearl Square I couldn’t help but notice the immense number of youth amongst the huge gathering of tens of thousands of people in the midst of an atmosphere of joy and victory. University students and teenagers who were able to organize themselves by resorting to the latest trend of social media in the Arab world told me that what they were demanding were basic rights and equality.