Global News and Analysis Archives - Page 242 of 294

Forces aligned with Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi have launched new assaults to regain control of several towns captured in a popular uprising over the past two weeks. Meanwhile, two U.S. warships have moved through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea toward Libya under orders by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. As talk of potential Western military intervention grows, we speak to Horace Campbell, a professor of African American studies and political science at Syracuse University. read more

Dancing with Dynamite in Latin America: Toward Freedom Editor West Coast Book Tour

Toward Freedom March 3, 2011 Toward Freedom

Toward Freedom editor Ben Dangl will be on a west coast book tour in March with his new book, Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America.

“Ben Dangl breaks the sound barrier, exploding many myths about Latin America that are all-too-often amplified by the corporate media in the United States. Read this much-needed book.”—Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!

In the past decade, grassroots social movements played major roles in electing left-leaning governments throughout Latin America, but subsequent relations between the streets and the states remain uneasy. In Dancing with Dynamite, award-winning journalist Benjamin Dangl explores the complex ways these movements have worked with, against, and independently of national governments. From dynamite-wielding miners in Bolivia to the struggles of landless farmers in Brazil and Paraguay, Dangl discusses the dance between movements and states in seven different Latin American countries. Using original research, lively prose, and extensive interviews with workers, farmers, and politicians, he suggests how Latin American social movement strategies could be applied internationally to build a better world now. read more

How the Rich Soaked the Rest of Us

Richard D. Wolff March 2, 2011 Richard D. Wolff

Source: Truthout

How the rich soaked the rest of us: The astonishing story of the last few decades is a massive redistribution of wealth, as the rich have shifted the tax burden.

Over the last half-century, the richest Americans have shifted the burden of the federal individual income tax off themselves and onto everybody else. The three convenient and accurate Wikipedia graphs below show the details. The first graph compares the official tax rates paid by the top and bottom income earners. Note especially that from the end of the Second World War into the early 1960s, the highest income earners paid a tax rate over 90 percent for many years. Today, the top earners pay a rate of only 35 percent. Note, also, how the gap between the rates paid by the richest and the poorest has narrowed. If we take into account the many loopholes the rich can and do use far more than the poor, the gap narrows even more. read more

Climate: Putting people over money

Dahr Jamail March 1, 2011 Dahr Jamail

Source: Al Jazeera

While debate about whether climate change is real or not continues in the US, the world’s leading producer of CO2 emissions per capita, those already living with the effects, like Jose Domingo Cruz in El Salvador, don’t have time to debate.

“Our storms are increasing in number and intensity,” Cruz, a member of his community Civil Protection Committee that responds to community needs during natural disasters, told Al Jazeera while standing on a levy that ruptured during Tropical Storm Agatha last year. “All of us attribute this to climate change.” read more

Egypt: Net Tightens Around Mubarak Cronies

Cam McGrath February 28, 2011 Cam McGrath

Source: IPS News

Toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s cronies and political allies could not be touched for years, but his departure has stripped them of protection. Now they are under investigation for corruption and graft – and many Egyptians expect to finally see justice.

“It’s a beautiful time for all Egyptians,” says Sherif El-Sharkawy, a small business owner in Cairo. “We watched for years as these men raped our country with impunity.”

Anti-corruption campaigners accuse Mubarak and his cronies of treating Egypt as their own private estate, plundering its resources and funnelling their ill-gotten wealth into offshore accounts. They maintain that a small group of ruling party officials and business tycoons with close ties to Mubarak were given preferential treatment in land deals, allowed to buy state assets at a fraction of their value, and that they enriched themselves at the public’s expense. read more

Vermont Film Screening of Crossing the American Crisis

Toward Freedom February 25, 2011 Toward Freedom

Film Screening of Crossing the American Crisis: From Collapse to Action

Saturday, February 26 · 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Vermont Workers’ Center – 294 N Winooski Avenue, Burlington, VT 05401

Free and Open to the Public, Parking Available

Join us at the Vermont Workers’ Center to see the debut screening of Crossing the American Crisis: From Collapse to Action. From filmmakers, Michael Fox and Sílvia Leindecker, Crossing the Crisis explores the recent financial meltdown and current economic crisis from the perspective of American workers. The film features the Vermont Workers’ Center and other grassroots organizations. Michael Fox will be at the VWC to present his film. read more