In the worn out meeting room of worker-run Cerámica de Cuyo, Manuel Rojas runs a rough hand over his face. The mechanic recalls forming the cooperative after the company boss fired the workers in 2000: "We didn't have any choice. If we didn't take over the factory we would all be in the streets. The need to work pushed us to action."
As the historic march flooded into the old colonial central plaza, there was a moment of great jubilation. From the side streets flowed legions of people from the feeder marchers, swelling the ranks of the main body. As the rivers of indigenous marchers merged, a tremendous roar filled the air as hundreds of smiling faces greeted each other like long lost brothers and sisters re-uniting-which of course in many respects, they were.
Hovering over the proposed immigration bill is the cloud of ethnic cleansing. When we think of ethnic cleansing we think Darfur, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia. Maybe its time we started thinking Hazleton, Pennsylvania and Whitewater, Wisconsin, and Farmer's Branch.
With hundreds of thousands of Latino-led immigrants marching in the streets for family reunification and legalization, and similar numbers of anti-immigrant groups lobbying their representatives, the recent "grand compromise" between Democrats and Republicans is not simply about immigration and labor policy. It deals with the heart of who is considered American.
Holding the Bully's Coat: Canada and the U.S. Empire is a refreshing examination of Canada's role in the American Empire.
This week's quiz question: What is the psychological difference between Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's admission, "I acknowledge that mistakes were made here," and George Bush's comment in his January address to the nation, "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me"? Everyone knows that public figures resort to this cliché to distance themselves from responsibility for their actions; what else is new?
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019