From globalexchange.org

“Free Trade” & the Battle for the Soul of the Democratic Party

"Free trade" has produced some of the most contentious political debates of our times. In a famous April 2000 article in the New Republic, economist Joseph Stiglitz argued, "Economic policy is today perhaps the most important part of America's interaction with the rest of the world. And yet the culture of international economic policy in the world's most powerful democracy is not democratic." During the Bush years, economic policy received far less attention in political discussion than before; the use of military force took center stage.

From Creative Commons

Worldwide Food Shortages: The Rich Have Already Eaten

More Empty Shelves
Food riots in Haiti brought the issue of hunger to the front gates of Haiti's presidential palace and death to a United Nations peacekeeper from Nigeria who was shot by the crowd surging from a slum area of Port-au-Prince. The Prime Minister, Jacques-Edouard Alexis, was forced to resign for having failed to act despite sharp increases in the price of food over the past several months, pushing people who are already poor into deeper poverty.

At a farmers blockade in San Pedro, Buenos Aires Province

Argentina’s Soy Storm: Tensions Rising Among Farmers

At a Farmer Road Blockade in San Pedro
Argentina has often been described as the bread basket of the Southern Cone, with plenty of fertile land for grains and cattle. In fact, the economy is based on agro-exports. But with soy production taking over massive tracks of land, producing food crops for domestic consumption has become an increasing challenge for the resource rich South American nation. With world food prices soaring, soy critics worry about Argentina's ability to feed its own people at affordable prices.

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Aimé Césaire: A Black Orpheus Puts Away His Lyre

Aimé Césaire
Aimé Césaire, the Matinique poet and political figure died on April 17, 2008 at 94. He had been mayor of the capital city, Fort-de-France for 56 years from 1945 to 2001, and a member of the French Parliament without a break from 1945 to 1993. First elected to Parliament as a member of the Communist Party, he had left the Party in 1956 when he felt that the Communist Party did not put anti-colonialism at the center of its efforts.