By Michael Albert | ZSpace | What should be the approach of leftists, progressive, and anyone with even a smidgin of concern for those suffering economic distress in hard times?

A fast growing right-wing politico-religious presence plans to implement an end-times, Christian theocracy in the US. | Paul Rosenberg | AlJazeera Opinion

Joel Beinin | Foreign Policy

A status update on the Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly.

“[I]f there was any idea that the US could offer an alternative model of development for the populations of the Middle East, it now lies in ruins. It is more than unfortunate that Libya had to be reduced to ruins for this to become apparent.”

See also: Libyan rebels have conceded ground since bombing began | The Independent

“The regime controls around 20 per cent more territory than it did in the immediate aftermath of the uprising on 17 February.”

“[W]hatever happened here, there have been emerging splits in rebel ranks, and the likelihood that there could be a “war after the war” is looking greater”

See also: Libyan rebels fear rift after death of Abdel Fatah Younis | The Guardian

“The president of the National Transition Council (NTC), Abdul Mustafa Jalil, announced on Thursday night that Younis had been assassinated by pro-Gaddafi agents. But the lack of detail, and the fact that earlier that day Younis had been arrested on the orders of Jalil, have raised questions about the circumstances of his death.”

“Hague said 91 million pounds ($149 million) of oil assets in the U.K. belonging to Libya’s Arabian Gulf Oil Co. are being unfrozen to help the council meet “basic needs” including the provision of fuel and salaries. The NTC controls the company. … Britain has “put its bet firmly on the NTC” by recognizing the rebel council as the legitimate Libyan government”

by Barry Finger | MR Zine | “There is a kernel of truth to these concerns about the prospective enlargement of the public sector and its effect on accumulation, but that truth is buried under a mountain of erroneous reasoning which buries other possibilities.”

Ex-Prime Minister on Potential Peace Negotiations | Gareth Porter | CounterPunch

By Andrew Jackson | Rabble.ca | As the U.S. and Europe turn from stimulus to fiscal austerity, claims are heard that spending cuts actually stimulate economic growth. However there is rarely any such thing as expansionary austerity.

–Our government is afraid of facts.

John Feffer | The Oslo terrorist took aim at multiculturalism, not Muslims

Richard Wolff reports on the mass movements against austerity policies in Europe | TRNN

Michael Ratner: There is a North America-wide strategy to take away the right to mass protest | The Real News

By Simon Tremblay-Pepin | Rabble.ca | In the first of a three-part series, Simon Tremblay-Pepin discusses the NDP wave in Quebec and a rise of support for left-wing ideas.

–The rules of liberal democracy are being undermined…

“In reality, the worker-Communist should say to the fascist worker: of course, 95 percent of the population, if not 98 percent is exploited by finance capital. But this exploitation is organized hierarchically: there are exploiters, there are subexploiters, sub-subexploiters, etc. Only thanks to this hierarchy do the superexploiters keep in subjection the majority of the nation. In order that the nation should indeed be able to reconstruct itself around a new class core, it must be reconstructed ideologically and this can be achieved only if the proletariat does not dissolve itself into the “people,” into the “nation,” but on the contrary develops a program of its proletarian revolution and compels the petty bourgeoisie to choose between two regimes. The slogan of the people’s revolution lulls the petty bourgeoisie as well as the broad masses of the workers, reconciles them to the bourgeois-hierarchical structure of the “people” and retards their liberation.”
-Trotsky’s writings on Fascism are indispensable for preparing for the defense of workers’ organizations during a period of economic crisis and reaction. See also, Fascism: What it is and how to fight it. In this essay, LT looks at the mistakes of the KPD during the Comintern’s “Third Period” that shortened Hitler’s road to power, and how the SPD that paved that road. Specifically examined is the Nazi Prussian Referendum, called the “Red Referendum” by the adventurist leadership of the KPD.

–The people of Europe must stand together against the fascist spreaders of hate, it is the only way to stop them.

Public media must be strengthened and expanded, and strict regulations enacted for private media firms. Corporate personhood should be abolished, but does Hartmann realize this puts capitalism into question?

Breivik is not a Norwegian oddity, but symptomatic of a growing culture of politically motivated violence across Europe | Matthew Goodwin | The Guardian

by Murray Dobbin | “The NDP has to figure out a way of remaking their electoral-machine party into something very different — something that can have aspects of a movement as well as a party.”

by Frank Ackerman and Elizabeth A. Stanton | “Our research incorporates an up-to-date understanding of climate risk and uncertainty, and finds that the true cost of carbon emissions could be almost $900 per ton today, and more than $1,500 by 2050.”