February 2012
11 posts
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You Cant Have Capitalism Without Racism — Looking... →
Malcolm X was Assassinated 47 years ago today. In remembering his legacy we direct you to a 2005 article by Hank Gonzalez from the 40th anniversary of Malcolm’s death.
Indiana and the “Right to Work” →
By Marty Harrison
“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as ‘right-to-work.’ It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining… We demand this fraud be stopped.” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In no state is there a legal right to a...
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Breaking News: Ninth Circuit Rules Prop 8 Is...
Comment by Nick Shillingford
A Federal appeals court has ruled that Proposition 8, a ballot initiative banning same-sex Marriage recognition in California starting after Same-Sex Marriage legalization in 2008, is unconstitutional. The court said in part that the law “serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to...
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Forum Report-back: 70 attend forum on rape culture...
By Ginger Jentzen
With the help of the Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) Pride Club, and the enthusiasm of 70+ people in attendance, Socialist Alternative lead a panel and discussion entitled “Dismantling Rape Culture, Dismantling Capitalism,” on February 1st. The panel examined cultural acceptance for sexism and objectification of women, victim-blaming and homophobia, in an...
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Mumia Abu-Jamal out of solitary confinement for...
Comment by Ryan Timlin
On January 27th, for the first time in 30 years, Mumia Abu-Jamal has been put in General Population after being held in Administrative Custody (“The Hole” or Solitary Confinement) at SCI Mahanoy, Frackville, PA for seven weeks.
The sudden change in the Governments decision comes on the heels of the pouring out of anger around the Troy Davis Execution. In Troy Davis case...
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Susan G Komen for the Cure deprives 150,000+ women...
Comment by Kelly Bellin
Update: Due to the intense fightback, Susan G Komen for the Cure has reversed their decision to remove all funding from Planned Parenthood. This in itself is a success for Planned Parenthood in not only the re-funding, but the surge of support (and donations) that they received in reaction to being persecuted by SGKomen. Women need accessible reproductive health services,...
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January 2012
24 posts
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Kansas City Ends Domestic Violence Ordinance -... →
By Ann Waddell
In October, the District Attorney of Shawnee County, which encompasses Topeka, Kansas, announced that he would cease to prosecute domestic violence cases within the city of Topeka.
He argued that with recent budget cuts he no longer had sufficient resources and that the city should take on the burden of these prosecutions.
The city council responded by repealing their ordinance...
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Answering Common Questions - Socialism FAQs →
By Brandon Madsen
With the rise of the Occupy movement, opposition to the existing political and economic order has gone mainstream. It’s hard to imagine that the bandana-clad woman on the cover of Time magazine – representing “The Protestor,” Time’s “Person of the Year” – has many nice things to say about capitalism, and the ubiquity of the Guy Fawkes mask – popularized by “V for Vendetta”...
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Obama Overrules FDA, Restricts Birth Control for... →
By Andrea Perry
Obama recently defended the decision of his Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, to continue limiting the over-counter availability of Plan B, the morning after pill, to women under 17. The Federal Drug Administration approved the over-counter use of the drug for women of all ages last February and says this is the first time the Secretary of Health has...
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Big Media Bought the Politicians. Don’t Let Them...
Comment by Nick Shillingford
The internet has given people across the globe previously unprecedented access to information and the ability to communicate with individuals in almost any city center. But the increase in free sharing of information, music, books, films and other media has also begun to eat into the profits of the huge media companies of the world.
While the executives of the huge...
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A Historic Day for Graduate Assistants!
Comment by Tom Raley
Just today, Graduate Assistant employees at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities delivered a request to University President Eric Kaler to file a joint petition for union certification. The Graduate Student Workers Union/United Auto Workers (GSWU/UAW) have been organizing a union drive on campus to organize the 4,500 graduate assistant employees, and upon obtaining a...
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20 Hour Workweek Called for by Capitalist...
Comment by Tom Raley
A recent article published by the Guardian of London claims that top economists are now urging something that we as Socialists have long argued for. The article claims that the working week should be cut to a maximum of 20 hours. This is an interesting read, coming from a relatively mainstream news source; and all in all, a policy like this just makes sense.
...
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Taking the Occupation Home: Fighting foreclosures...
By Kenny Guenther, Minneapolis
The foreclosure crisis is hitting the Twin Cities hard. According to a study by Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, Minneapolis alone has had over 13,000 foreclosures since 2006, with a majority of evicted families moving out of the city.
In November, a campaign was launched by a coalition of activists, including Occupy Minneapolis and Socialist Alternative, to...
Greece: New round of austerity announced by... →
Xekinima national meeting discusses balance sheet of 2011’s class struggles and prospects for workers’ fight-back in 2012
Niall Mulholland, CWI
Yesterday, the German and French governments put pressure on Greece to “find a solution” to its debt crisis, threatening to deny its government another 130bn euro bailout unless it reaches agreement with its bondholders. Investors are being urged to...
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Kazakhstan: In defense of the oil workers →
Union bureaucracy and ’left’ groups attack CWI’s solidarity with strikers
Rob Jones, CWI Moscow
With unbelievable brutality, the Nazarbayev regime in Kazakhstan attempted to break the spirit of oil workers in Zhanaozen and Aktau, using troops, police, live bullets, mass detentions, curfews and torture. Even the regime admits that 16 people were killed and many more wounded in December. The...
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Nigeria solidarity: Hundreds protest at London... →
Diaspora protest against fuel subsidy removal
Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales) reporters
Hundreds of Nigerians gathered outside the Nigeria House Embassy in central London on Friday 6 January. They did so to join with their brothers and sisters who, in their country of origin, have moved into struggle against the removal of the government’s fuel subsidy, a move which has pushed the...
Nigeria: For a strategy and tactics to ensure... →
For a serious fight against President’s New Year “gift”. No rotten compromise!
Article from special edition of Socialist Democracy, paper of the Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI in Nigeria)
The declaration of “indefinite strikes, mass rallies and street protests” by both NLC (Nigeria Labour Congress) and TUC leaders, against the so-called fuel subsidy withdrawal by the...
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Kazakhstan: Curfew and state of emergency extended... →
Nazarbayev regime cancels elections in city
Campaign Kazakhstan reporters
Campaign Kazakhstan has appealed again today for donations and messages of protest to support the fight against the dictatorial Nazarbayev regime after state forces carried out a massacre of workers on 16 December. Previous reports from witnesses on the ground, as well as extensive coverage of the struggle as it developed...
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Tar Sands Timetable Sped Up - Payroll Tax Bill... →
By Joshua H. Koritz
Two days before Christmas, 2011, President Obama signed a bill that forces a decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days as part of a two month payroll tax cut extension. The Keystone XL pipeline would transport oil from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada to refineries in Texas.
If approved by Congress, the land needed for the underground pipeline would...
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Nigeria: General strike against fuel price hike →
For all out mass action from 9 January!
Leaflet produced by Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI in Nigeria)
The dramatic attack on living standards launched by the Nigerian government this week provoked a wave of protest as has been featured on socialist world.net. Now, in response to pressure from the working and poor masses, the Nigerian Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress have announced...
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India: Nuclear energy projects are high ways to... →
Jagadish G Chandra, Bangalore, New Socialist Alternative (CWI India) In the past century, the dropping of the Atomic Bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Three Mile Island accident, the unforgettable tragedy at Chernobyl and the recent nuclear disaster at Fukushima are warning signs on the imminent dangers of nuclear energy.
Whatever may be the arguments and parading of lies by the pro nuclear...
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School Reform by the 99%
Comment by Chris Gray
Who’d have thought that education reform could happen without high-stakes testing and dismantling public sector unions? While U.S. public schools are constantly compared to the successes of European, specifically Scandinavian, schools pundits of America’s corporate education “reform” neglect the fact that these regions were the scenes of massive...
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Al Jazeera Documentary on Decline of U.S. Labor...
Comment by Chris Gray
This short Al Jazeera documentary on the “Decline of labor unions in the U.S.” does an excellent jobs of showing the long-term decline and major challenges facing the unions. But it also shows the huge potential to rebuild union power and numbers out of the mass anger building up within working class communities and among the youth. The blurb introducing the...
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Socialism More Popular Than Capitalism Among Youth... →
Despite near universal demonization of socialist ideas in the corporate media and political establishment, according to a new Pew Research Center Poll half of young people aged 18-29 view socialism positively while only 43 percent react negatively to the term. In the same age group, only 46 percent have positive views of capitalism, while 47 percent view capitalism negatively.
While these...
December 2011
9 posts
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Against National Standards and National Tests
Comment by Chris Gray
Here is a good read for those who think beyond the classroom and standardized tests when they hear anything about education “reform”. While offering a powerful challenge to the constant statements of corporate-backed education “reformers” from both political parties, Krashen’s article does not offer any real solutions to the various aspects of poverty he identifies as the...
North Korea: Death of Kim Jong-Il →
By Gerbrand Wisser, Ofensief (CWI in Netherlands)
The death of the long time Stalinist dictator of North Korea brings no relief to the workers of the country. They suffered many years under Japanese occupation (1905-1945), then during the Korean war (1953-1955) and many, many years of the most ruthless Stalinist rule. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economy of North Korea suffered...
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No progress at climate conference →
By Pete Mason, from the Socialist, paper of the Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales)
When is an agreement not an agreement? When it’s an agreement to reach an agreement in the future.
Far from being a “huge step forward” as Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne insists, claims of success at the climate conference in Durban, South Africa are fraudulent.
The...
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Kazakhstan | Brutal and bloody attack has not... →
Only united and extensive workers’ action can end this dictatorial regime!
Following yesterday’s violent attacks on a peaceful demonstration in support of striking oil-workers in Zhanaozen, West Kazakhstan, the authorities are facing problems preventing the spread of the protest.
According to reports from worker activists, 4,000 workers from the neighbouring Kalamkas oil field have downed tools...
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Reported 70 Dead & 500 wounded by riot police in... →
Today, at Kazakhstan’s independence day, more than 3000 people assembled peacefully in Zhanaozen, to promote the demands of the oil workers who have been on strike since May. Police and special forces attacked the meeting and opened fire on the strikers and their families. By around 10 a.m., London time, 50 had already been killed, with at least 500 more wounded. Administrative buildings and the...
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West Coast Ports Shut Down - A Big Step Forward... →
Port terminals up and down the west coast were successfully shut down on December 12 – a major victory for both the Occupy Wall Street and labor movements. The December 12 port shutdowns were organized to strike back against systematic police violence when police repressed and evicted occupations in city after city across the country, violating citizens’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech...
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Occupy Activists Shut Down Washington State... →
On Monday November 28th the Washington State Government started a special session to discuss cutting an additional two billion dollars for the already stretched state government budget. Some in the Democratic Party suggested offsetting some of the cuts with a state sales tax, which will disproportionately tax the poor, and only prevent new cuts to education. This not only does not address the...
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Eurozone: Into the Abyss? →
Everything in Europe has turned into its opposite. The euro was intended to speed the integration of the participants and create a stable currency zone. Instead, it has currently become the main immediate source of instability and crisis in the world economy. Following the subprime crisis and collapse of the banking system in 2007-08, with a flight from complex financial packages and derivatives,...
November 2011
6 posts
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Defend the Occupy Movement! — Build actions to put... →
United mass mobilizations needed to protest police crackdowns, and stop the cuts, layoffs, foreclosures, and tuition hikes
In the last week the ruling elite have mobilized their police forces in an attempt to smash the Occupy movement, which they correctly see as a threat to their rule. Democratic and Republican Party mayors and city councilors have sent out their police to obediently do the...
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Defend Occupy Wall St! THURS: Day of Action -...
National Day of Action in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street
On the two-month anniversary of OWS we, the 99% of Minnesota, will take a stand to say:
STOP POLICE REPRESSION of OUR MOVEMENT!
We, the 99%, have the right to PEACEABLY ASSEMBLE!
We, the 99%, have the right to DEMAND JOBS and EDUCATION!
We, the 99%, have the right to OPPOSE BUDGET CUTS!
We, the 99%, have the right...
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Democrats Propose to Cut Medicare, Medicaid and... →
As we move closer to the November 23 deadline for the Congressional “Super Committee” to present its plan to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal budget deficit, both major parties have put forward proposals which sharply attack Medicare, Medicaid, and other social programs. If these policies go through, it will be the most devastating attack on New Deal programs since they were first established....
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Eurozone Crisis: Failed G20 Summit Takes Eurozone... →
The G20 meeting of the world’s most powerful government leaders on 3 and 4 November was a “No Cannes Do” summit. The discussions were hijacked by the Greek crisis. George Papandreou’s call for a referendum on the eurozone bailout package - additional loans for even more savage cuts - infuriated European leaders and led to the withdrawal of the package.
So the Greek deal, first...
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Occupy Oakland Calls General Strike - Unions Take... →
“Going forward, the unions in particular need to seize the moment. Mass resistance by the 99% against the 1% through building major national actions to stop the budget cuts, layoffs, and other attempts to make working people pay for the economic crisis is the way to build this movement. In coordination with the occupy movement, community organizations, and left groups, organized labor has an...
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Capitalism, Social Movements and Police Repression →
“On September 24 an #OccupyWallStreet protester videotaped a NYPD officer macing peaceful protesters in the face for no apparent reason.
The video shows several women standing calmly as the police unroll and surround them with a bright orange net. Once the women are corralled, a white-shirted police officer walks up to the group and sprays them all in the face with pepper spray. He then...