Leftnews.org

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

walker — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:58:32 +0000

This report from from TD bank is too fantastic and has to be shared. Below are some excerpts:

“Jobs are sorely lagging behind this rebound. The unemployment rate is understood to be a lagging indicator, but employment itself has tended to be more coincident. By historical standards, employment is nearly half a year behind ‘schedule’.”

“[Recovery] must eventually translate into a generalized household willingness and ability to use their plastic at the counter, and not indefinitely forestall paying it back.”

“Uncertainty about future income forced households to delay large purchases, while a tightening of standards (e.g. lower credit limits for credit cards) has translated to lower supply of revolving credit. The demand side has naturally lagged and seems well aligned with still weak employment prospects.”

To simplify – everyone is broke and everyone knows the party is over. No-one is interested in racking up credit card debt or “tapping their home equity” to buy cheap crap from china anymore.

Children of Gaza: Scarred, trapped, vengeful | Independent

Faiz — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:30:45 +0000

“Here is where they shot my brother Ibrahim, God bless his soul. And here is the F16 plane that threw rockets into the house and trees, and here is the tank that started to shoot,”

Mandate for resistance: Clare Solomon elected ULU President | Counterfire

Graham — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:17:17 +0000

–Socialist activists elected at the University of London Union.

Breaking Yugoslavia | New Left Project

Jeff — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:08:51 +0000

Diana Johnstone is the author of ‘Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions’. She spoke to NLP on the wars in the former Yugoslavia, western involvement and the trial of Slobodan Milosevic.

Welcome to the world’s first Murdochracy | John Pilger

Jeff — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:04:01 +0000

“In 1983, there were 50 major corporations dominating the world’s media. By 2002, this had been reduced to nine. Rupert Murdoch says that eventually there will be three, including his own. If we accept this, media and information control will be the same, and we shall all be citizens of a murdochracy.”

Statscan good, Kevin Page bad, PMO says – The Globe and Mail

Graham — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:44:10 +0000

–Page is under fire from the spin-doctors he tore a strip off a few days ago.

Vale Inco’s offers fails to impress strikers

alex_c — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:32:02 +0000

“If anyone was voting yes to Vale Inco’s offer to settle the 10-month strike by United Steelworkers, they were not admitting it out loud in the halls, the basement and the parking lot of Caruso Club on Thursday morning and early afternoon. “

Greece reels under impact of general strike

alex_c — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:59:36 +0000

“On the eve of the latest strike the European Trade Union Confederation expressed its “whole solidarity” with Greece… The ETUC roundly condemned unelected EU institutions for “giving an entirely wrong message – speculators are not to be touched while workers and governments are pressed to cut wages, social benefits and public services.”"

See also CBC’s coverage (with photos).

US politicians condemn Afghanistan war

alex_c — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:56:49 +0000

“Progressive US legislators have branded Washington’s military presence in Afghanistan an unconstitutional “foreign occupation” and warned that “history shows all empires end because they expand too far.”… The outcome of the vote, 356-65 against the resolution, was never in doubt – but the three-and-a-half-hour debate gave those who oppose President Barack Obama’s war policies a platform to vent their concerns.”

Die Linke Mps thrown out of Bundestag for Afghanistan war protest

alex_c — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:54:47 +0000

“Following a speech in German Bundestag by MP Christine Buchholz against sending more troops to Afghanistan the MPs of DIE LINKE held banners with the names of those Afghans killed in the Kundus bombing wich was orderd by the German army in September 2009. The president of parliament threw them all out of the room, because they were acting against the rule of parliament.”

Sanctions on Iran: What’s Missing from Obama’s New Dialogue

alex_c — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:50:46 +0000

“But this new promise “to move forward without preconditions” should be viewed in the wider context of continuous economic and military pressures on Iran and on the entire region of the Middle East. While the United States has convinced the international community to apply sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program, the tool that the United States itself uses to apply pressure on Iran is sanctions on that country’s petroleum sector. Iran seems to be a case in point where U.S. concern for nuclear weapons proliferation in the Middle East is selective at best, while the preconditions of sanctions are applied yet again on another major oil exporter of the region.”

Greenspan’s Nightmare by Mark Weisbrot

alex_c — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:41:15 +0000

“As Greenspan details in his book, the reason for his nightmare is that the world was depleting its stock of hundreds of millions of unemployed people, including those of the former Soviet Union and also in rural China. In other words, “too many” of them had become employed, and this was allowing for wages of factory workers in China to rise…. Is there something wrong with this picture, that one of the world’s most powerful economic decision makers (at the time) dreads the decline of mass unemployment and rising wages among people making 80 cents an hour?”

An Angry Woman

Jeff — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:06:52 +0000

“There’s no democracy under occupation.”
Malalai Joya in an interview with L’Humanité.

Flaherty’s Budget Forecasts Not ‘Prudent,’ Page Says (Update2) – Bloomberg.com

Graham — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:13:33 +0000

–Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer is slowly becoming one of my favourite people on the Hill these days. With the current government doing everything that it can to hide reality behind political spin and bread and circuses, Page seems to be able to cut through. It is too bad that it is not making the headlines the way that it should.

Lethal missile attacks in Pakistan | Al Jazeera English

Faiz — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:48:48 +0000

“At least 15 people have been killed by two suspected US missile strikes in a Pakistani tribal region”

This is the 19th US attack on Pakistan this year.

Rally for Striking Steelworkers

alex_c — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:39:45 +0000

“Rally for Steelworker Locals 6500 and 6200 on strike at Vale Inco in Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey’s Bay.

Three years ago, Vale – a giant multinational corporation, based in Brazil – bought Canada’s mining company Inco. Now it has forced 3,500 miners and smelter workers in Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey’s Bay out on strike. It’s demanding huge rollbacks in pensions, nickel bonus and seniority rights.”

-Video footage of the rally. “We know where the wealth comes from, and we know who it should belong to”. “When we bring the system down, she’ll be there to help it fall”. Some great quotes from the rally.

New Brunswick’s political parties questioned on women’s priorities on International Women’s Day

alex_c — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:16:14 +0000

“New Brunswick’s political party leaders were grilled on issues pertaining to women’s equality at a roundtable discussion today, International Women’s Day, in Moncton.”

Have you been seeing red squares?

alex_c — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:10:00 +0000

“The students’ manifesto demands that the government restore post-secondary funding, and provide more grants instead of loans to students applying for financial aid. “We are aware of arguments that would have us believe that our university degrees are a privilege that grant access to higher salaries and rewards. These arguments serve to justify the payment of tuition as a sort of access fee to a privileged stratum of society. We reject these arguments. While we agree that those who benefit more have a greater responsibility to support public institutions which guarantee the freedom of all, we feel that the Canada Income Tax Act currently serves this function, and should be used appropriately in the public interest.”"

-STU and UNB students are organizing against the neoliberal model for post-secondary education.

Israeli go-ahead for 1,600 new settlement homes | Guardian

Faiz — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:44:14 +0000

“[The announcement] came just a day after the Israeli defence ministry announced 112 new apartments would be built in the occupied West Bank.”

Totalitarian Democracy? The Crackdown on Israeli Dissidents | Counterpunch

Jeff — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:42:12 +0000

“A new law makes it a crime for Palestinians to observe “Nakba,” or “Catastrophe,” Day commemorating the loss of their land when Israel was created in 1948.”
Shame on the state of Israel. Shame on Canada for not taking a stand for human rights.