In the aftermath of the September 11thattacks people starting mobilizing to oppose the arbitrary detentions of South Asian, Arab and Muslim people, the rollback of civil rights and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But 9/11 also spawned a lesser known workers justice movement known as the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) United.
Source: Democracy Now
In Chile, thousands of people marched in Chile Sunday to commemorate the 38th anniversary of the U.S.-backed coup and the more than 3,200 people who were killed during Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship. Near the end of the march, clashes broke out between some demonstrators and police officers. Police responded by using water cannons and tear gas. Twenty people were arrested.
Corporations aren’t hiring, and Washington is gridlocked. Here’s how we take charge of our own livelihoods.
With 1% of Americans controlling 40% of the country’s wealth, we examine the gap between the rich and the rest.
The richest one per cent of Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country’s income and control an astonishing 40 per cent of its wealth.
Inequality in the US is more extreme than it has been in almost a century – and the gap between the super-rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years.
Meanwhile, in Washington, a bitter partisan debate over how to cut deficit spending and reduce the US’ $14.3 trillion debt is underway. As low and middle class wages stagnate and unemployment remains above nine per cent, Republicans and Democrats are tussling over whether to slash funding for the medical and retirement programmes that are the backbone of the US’ social safety net, and whether to raise taxes – or to cut them further.
Source: The Nation
The notorious Somali paramilitary warlord who goes by the nom de guerre Indha Adde, or White Eyes, walks alongside trenches on the outskirts of Mogadishu’s Bakara Market once occupied by fighters from the Shabab, the Islamic militant group that has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda. In one of the trenches, the foot of a corpse pokes out from a makeshift grave consisting of some sand dumped loosely over the body. One of Indha Adde’s militiamen says the body is that of a foreigner who fought alongside the Shabab. “We bury their dead, and we also capture them alive,” says Indha Adde in a low, raspy voice. “We take care of them if they are Somali, but if we capture a foreigner we execute them so that others will see we have no mercy.”
Source: Foreign Policy in Focus
In 1936, a church group commissioned a film “to strike fear in the hearts of young people tempted to smoke marijuana.” But it was not until the 1970s that Reefer Madness — billed as “the original classic that was not afraid to make up the truth” due to its grotesque portrayal of the supposed dangers of marijuana — obtained cult status.
After the scare tactics of the 1930s, U.S. marijuana policy varied depending on the political climate, even as scientific research consistently debunked extreme claims that the plant caused uncontrollable violent behavior, physical addiction, and insanity.
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