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Excommunicated Over Abortion

Robin Peterson October 20, 2010 Robin Peterson

Source: In These Times

The swift excommunication of a nun for approving an abortion has triggered a debate over church doctrine—and raised questions about whether Catholic hospitals routinely break federal law.

Earlier this year, Sister Margaret McBride was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for approving an abortion needed to save a woman’s life. An administrator at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, McBride was part of the hospital’s ethics committee that decided in November 2009 to allow a 27-year-old woman with pulmonary hypertension, or high blood pressure in the arteries that supply blood to the lungs, to terminate her 11-week pregnancy. Due to her condition, the woman would almost certainly have died without the abortion. read more

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Ending Africa’s Hunger Means Listening to Farmers

Stephen Leahy October 19, 2010 Stephen Leahy

Source: IPS News

Africa is hungry – 240 million people are undernourished. Now, for the first-time, small African farmers have been properly consulted on how to solve the problem of feeding sub-Saharan Africa. Their answers appear to directly repudiate a massive international effort to launch an African Green Revolution funded in large part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Instead of new hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, family farmers in West Africa said they want to use local seeds, avoid spending precious cash on chemicals and most importantly to direct public agricultural research to meet their needs, according to a multi-media publication released on World Food Day (Oct. 16). read more

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Bring Cochabamba to Cancun!

Various Authors October 18, 2010 Various Authors
Source: Green Left Weekly World People’s Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights held in Cochabmba, Bolivia in April. Photo: TheCityProject/Flickr

The following call was issued by Canadian-based non-government organisations, community groups and individuals to join the growing global movement for climate justice. It calls for mobilising in the lead-up and during the United Nations climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, over November 27-December 10.

The call was issued at a meeting of the endorsees with Bolivian President Evo Morales during the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York on September 23. The Bolivian government hosted a “people’s summit” for real action on climate change in Cochabamba in April that drew representatives of social movements and parties from around the world. read more

Cindy Sheehan speaks at an antiwar demonstration

US: Spying and lying about the left

Brian Lenzo October 13, 2010 Brian Lenzo

Source: Socialist Worker

Cindy Sheehan speaks at an antiwar demonstration

THE U.S. peace group “Peace of the Action” has discovered documents showing that it and many other organizations have been under surveillance for many months by a private agency called the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR).

Founded by antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, Peace of the Action has focused on opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by pressuring legislators and organizing demonstrations and civil disobedience actions at visible places around Washington, D.C. read more

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In Vermont, Shades of McCarthy

Terry J. Allen October 12, 2010 Terry J. Allen

Source: In These Times

At a September 23 debate, Republican candidate for Vermont governor Brian Dubie waved a sheaf of 8.5 x 11 printouts in the air. He announced he was holding a “list” of inmates “who need to be incarcerated,” and said his Democratic rival Peter Shumlin’s proposed corrections reform plan would free the criminals. Fanning the papers, Dubie charged:

“These are the 780 individuals that are on that list. On this list there are people that deal with pornography with children. There are drug dealers. There’s a comprehensive list of who these people are. That’s what my ad says. That’s what the list is.” Watch the video. read more