In Defence of Marxism interviews Houzan Mahmoud, representative abroad of the Organisations of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, and also active in the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions. She speaks about the struggle for women and workers’ rights in Iraq under the occupation, and how this is related to the struggle for socialism.

“Twenty years ago a protest against what had been dubbed the poll tax erupted in violence and led to rioting that could be heard in nearby Downing Street. Some of those who were there remember the day’s events.”
Progressives must always support progressive taxation. The burden should fall on those who profit most from living in a capitalist society.

The Real News interviews political economist Gerard Dumenil.
Part One: Neoliberalism imposed a new discipline on worker, cutting the progress of purchasing power.
Part Two: Neoliberal trends setting up a terrible future of inequality and exploitation for the workers.

Upon reading Thomas Friedman’s March 10, 2010 New York Times Op-Ed, “It’s Up to Iraqis Now. Good Luck,” I felt compelled to try to make some sense for myself of this timely example of the dawning of a liberal apologetics for Iraq. Presently, America struggles with the paroxysm and travesty of Iraq, while liberal apologetics cleanse the way to the future. Not long ago, many contended over the “lessons of Vietnam.” What will be the lessons of Iraq?

By Joyce Green and Darlene Juschka | Two University of Regina professors speak out after they and colleagues were misrepresented about their positions on ‘Project Hero’ — leading to hate mail and a media in feeding-frenzy mode.

Evidence counts for nothing in faith-based Tory policy and business interests trump poverty reduction in Canada’s blind pursuit of a Security Council seat. | Gerald Caplan

Thousands rally against use of strikebreakers in ninth month of dispute with Brazil’s Vale.

Have a look at what these academics, scorned by the media and by politicians, actually wrote.
We must struggle for free post-secondary education for all.

Some good news, at least. It ought to have come years earlier.

Interesting to see there is a kind of schism happening the far right in the US. It’s expected when Democrats’ policies have shifted to the right, and the left is non-existent. At this point it’s a matter of branding, like selling the same beer under different labels to two different market segments. The Democrats will sell themselves through appeals to (a form of) rationality, and the GOP will appeal to utter irrationality. Hopefully the most powerful country on earth will not collapse into fascism.

More an Ann Coulter, because she merits so much ink, apparently. I’m posting it for anyone who wants more on this debate. This op-ed is pretty weak, I think, compared to CounterPunch article below.

Troops out now.

“Ironically, Canada has quite a history of suppressing free speech. But the victims of this suppression are never the extreme-right.”

The English Defense League have found a new enemy: Communism! And I thought they were just a racist, islamophobic one-trick pony.

“When ransom is received, fixed costs are the first to be paid out. These are typically:
• Reimbursement of supplier(s)
• Financier(s) and/or investor(s): 30% of the ransom
• Local elders: 5 to 10 %of the ransom (anchoring rights)
• Class B shares (approx. $15,000 each): militiamen, interpreters etc.
• The remaining sum — the profit — is divided between class-A shareholders.”

“Nine members of a Michigan-based Christian militia group have been indicted on charges of seditious conspiracy, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence.”

But not terrorism.

The activities this Michigan based Christian militia group is alleged to have been engaged in should be contrasted with the activities another religious Michigan based militia group was recently involved in.

Addressing the plenary, CPV general secretary Nong Duc Manh declared that by 2020, the “fundamental infrastructure for a socialist economy will be completed, with an appropriate political, ideological and cultural superstructure to serve as a foundation for an ever more prosperous socialist nation.” | The Morning Star
Hmm. . . I’m not totally convinced. We shall see. Good luck with your struggle, comrades!

Left Labour activists have continued the fight to reclaim the party with a “people’s agenda” aimed at galvanising support for progressive policies.
For more info on the People’s Agenda click here.

“Some individuals involved in the implementation of Overcoming Poverty Together assert that their plan will put an end to the devastating effects of the Equal Opportunity Program put in place by the provincial government in the 1960s.”
Read the article to learn how mendacious this proposition is.

–The International Labour Organisation has blasted the government of Saskatchewan for its ridiculous anti-labour legislation.

“Because he is an African American, there he suffered the affronts of discrimination, as he relates in his book; there he knew about the poverty in which tens of millions of Americans live; there he was educated, but there he also enjoyed, as a successful professional, the privileges of the rich middle class, and he ended up idealizing the social system where the economic crisis, the uselessly sacrificed lives of Americans and his unquestionable political talent gave him the electoral victory.”

“Many of these journalists used their spaces as a platform to denounce the rupture of the institutional order in June 28 and the violations to human rights committed by de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti.”