Page 698 – Toward Freedom

How Agri-Food Corporations Make the World Hungry

Al Huebner February 9, 2010 Al Huebner

Last November the World Summit on Food Security in Rome issued a declaration that the world is now hungrier than ever before. Significantly, this is not the result of food shortage, with world production at 11/2 times that needed to feed every man, woman, and child on the planet. The root cause of this insecurity is the food system itself, which is controlled by a handful of global monopolies. In fact, the crisis comes at a time of record global profits for the world's agri-food corporations.

Vancouver Winter Olympics: A Festival of Corporate Greed

Roger Annis, Vancouver February 8, 2010 Roger Annis, Vancouver

Source: Green Left Weekly

On February 12, the corporate sporting behemoth known as the 21st Winter Olympic Games will open to great fanfare here. In a time of economic hardship and government cuts to social programs across Canada, huge sums of public money have been spent to stage this uber spectacle.

Billions of dollars have been spent constructing venues, a new convention center and airport terminal; widening and paving untold kilometers of roads and highways; building a hugely expensive rapid transit line connecting the city’s airport to its downtown; and erecting new hotels to serve the influx of corporate sponsors and spectators.

The hotel, travel, restaurant and real estate industries hope to make a killing off the influx of out-of-town spectators and partygoers. Construction companies have already earned hundreds of millions of dollars during the years of preparation furiously pouring concrete and asphalt. read more

The Corporate Takeover of U.S. Democracy

Noam Chomsky February 8, 2010 Noam Chomsky

Jan. 21, 2010, will go down as a dark day in the history of U.S. democracy, and its decline. On that day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government may not ban corporations from political spending on elections-a decision that profoundly affects government policy, both domestic and international.

Chile: Activists Fear Setbacks Under Rightwing Government

Pamela Sepúlveda February 4, 2010 Pamela Sepúlveda

Source: IPS News

(IPS) – Trade unions and non-governmental organisations in Chile are worried that rightwing billionaire Sebastián Piñera’s election as president will mean setbacks in terms of social policy and respect for labour and social rights.

Statements by the conservative president-elect, who triumphed in the Jan. 17 runoff vote, with regard to overhauling state-owned enterprises to boost efficiency and adopting policies aimed at increasing economic growth, sparked concern among the labour movement, environmentalists, indigenous peoples’ associations and other social organisations. read more

Beer Battles: Workers in Belgium Take on Brewing Giant

Benjamin Dangl February 4, 2010 Benjamin Dangl

Brewery Workers at Road Blockade*

For two weeks in January Belgian brewery workers blocked roads, set fire to beer crates, kidnapped managers and handed out free beer as part of their tactics against job cuts proposed by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer. The company announced the cuts in spite of profits of $1.55 billion in the third quarter of 2009. "This is the ugly face of capitalism," Roger Van Vlasselaer, the leader of a major Belgian union said.

The Violence of Work: New Book Brings Work Out of the Shadows

Micah Uetricht February 3, 2010 Micah Uetricht

It's 6:00 PM and you've just arrived home from work. Stomach growling and body exhausted, you dial your favorite restaurant and order a chicken Caesar salad, delivery; at the door, you exchange pleasantries with the deliverer and pay. The only thought you might give to those who made your meal possible is one of annoyance-the chicken is overdone, or the cook forgot the croutons. But what about the farm worker who cut and picked the lettuce your overcooked meat now lies on, despite his aching back and throbbing hands?