Global News and Analysis

Tens of thousands of European workers protested austerity measures by the EU throughout the continent – the largest demonstrations taking place in Brussels and Spain.

“I have just lived through one of the most terrifying experiences of my life” renowned Spanish actor Willy Toledo, tells me over the phone in the early hours of September 28. He, together with six other international observers had just accompanied 28 Saharawi human rights defenders on their trip back from an international conference in Algeria to their home in Layoune, Western Sahara, the mineral-rich former Spanish colony controlled by Morocco.

“As we came out of the airport we were surrounded by about 150 policemen” said Toledo. “They eventually let us pass but when we got into town we were confronted by even more police blocking us from getting to the house where a reception had been organized for the activist’s return.” There was a tense stand-off as hundreds of Saharawi supporters gathered to protect the activists, helping to forge a path to the house. “The police were pushing and shoving us, shouting abuse and spitting on the women” says Toledo breathlessly. “Once we were inside the house they tried to force their way in, beating on the door with batons.” read more

Source: Truthdig

Nemesis was the Greek goddess of retribution. She exacted divine punishment on arrogant mortals who believed they could defy the gods, turn themselves into objects of worship and build ruthless systems of power to control the world around them. The price of such hubris was almost always death.

Nemesis, related to the Greek word némein, means “to give what is due.” Our nemesis fast approaches. We will get what we are due. The staggering myopia of our corrupt political and economic elite, which plunder the nation’s wealth for financial speculation and endless war, the mass retreat of citizens into virtual hallucinations, the collapsing edifices around us, which include the ecosystem that sustains life, are ignored for a giddy self-worship. We stare into electronic screens just as Narcissus, besotted with his own reflection, stared into a pool of water until he wasted away and died. read more

Source: Grit TV

The war on drugs. We keep calling it that, it seems, because we like wars on abstract concepts. Like the war on terror, the war on drugs racks up one hell of a body count, and its victims are mostly innocent civilians with no more love for the corrupt regimes that rule them than we have.

Molly Molloy, who runs Frontera List, which focuses on border-related news and specifically Ciudad Juarez, and Charles Bowden, author of a new book on Ciudad Juarez, both call it not a war on drugs but a war on the poor. read more

Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

Facts or no facts, many people simply do not want to believe that undocumented immigrants coming to this country don’t steal jobs and undermine the American economy. When economic studies come along that challenge their preconceptions, they don’t take kindly to the troublesome conclusions.

Recently, economist Giovanni Peri — an associate professor at the University of California, Davis and visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco — wrote a paper for the Fed summarizing recent research in immigration economics. Evaluating the data, Peri concluded that, “on net, immigrants expand the U.S. economy’s productive capacity, stimulate investment, and promote specialization that in the long run boosts productivity. Consistent with previous research, there is no evidence that these effects take place at the expense of jobs for workers born in the United States.” read more

Source: In These Times

In the exceptionally cold and rainy spring of 2009, April 18 was a bright and warm Saturday, and in Bucks County, Pa., about 2,000 people filled the fields of Washington Crossing Historic Park. George Washington had launched the Christmas Night attack across the Delaware River that proved the resolve of the fledgling nation in 1776, and now, it was the site of the first Bucks County Tea Party. People brought lawn chairs, tiny American flags and bold yellow banners with the “Don’t Tread on Me” image from the Revolutionary War. read more