Issue 696 | May 8, 2009

War and Antiwar

  • A surge of violence in Iraq shows the continuing conflicts lying just below the surface--and could shake up U.S. plans to shift forces to Afghanistan.

National

  • The Bush administration torture memos give the grisly details of a sick system, but it's not the first time the U.S. government carried out such barbarism.

  • The guessing game is on about who will replace Justice David Souter, but there are bigger questions worth asking about the Supreme Court.

  • Attention is settling on the possible role of the factory farming system in the swine flu outbreak--specifically, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods.

International

  • The swine flu outbreak has exposed the absence--even in the U.S., and certainly in poor countries--of any capacity to deal with a pandemic of any kind.

Opinion

  • Whole Foods' corporate leaders claim to operate according to a "mission" that promotes social responsibility. But something sinister lurks beneath the surface.

  • The strongest argument for socialism is the simplest--that capitalism is incapable of meeting the needs of the majority of people.

History and Traditions

  • Karl Marx's critique of capitalism seems prophetic today, but his economic analysis can't be separated from his vision of a revolutionary new society.

Labor

  • United Teachers Los Angeles members are getting ready to walk the picket line for one day in a fight against planned layoffs of 4,000 teachers.

  • More than 700 health care union workers and activists met in San Francisco April 25 to formally launch the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

  • Nearly 100 people turned out to an executive officers candidates' debate held by the United Educators of San Francisco.

Activist News

  • In protests across the country on May Day, thousands of activists marched and rallied to demand the rights that all workers deserve.

  • Students at the University of Vermont marched on administration offices April 22 to stage a sit-in in two joint actions.

  • Some 250 students and faculty walked out of classes April 22 at City College of New York in Harlem to protest looming tuition increases.

  • Students and colleagues of Dr. Nagesh Rao have launched a campaign over the rejection of his tenure application.

  • Over 250 students walked out of class and rallied at University of California-Santa Cruz to oppose cuts that are sweeping the UC system.

  • A crowd of 40 people came out to show opposition to anti-immigrant racist Tom Tancredo in Pawtucket, R.I.

  • Students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst organized to show that bigots and sexists aren't welcome on campus.

  • Antiwar activist and British MP George Galloway drew some 1,000 people to a Southern California meeting on the fight for Palestine.

Readers' Views

  • Some liberals and leftists are rushing to defend right-wing speakers after recent protests on the grounds that protesters were violating "free speech."

Books and Entertainment

  • American Violet is an important new film that exposes the racism that is central to the "war on drugs."

  • The documentary Slingshot Hip Hop tells the story of the struggles of Palestinians through the music of Arab rap artists inside Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.