Page 783 – Toward Freedom

Presidential Death Match: Media’s Big Event

Greg Guma May 6, 2008 Greg Guma

Presidential elections have been media spectacles for almost 50 years, roughly since television became the national drug. One landmark 1960 production, arguably the first televised "presidential death match," pitted Jack Kennedy, an Arthurian figure to be sure, against Dick Nixon, doing a creepy Richard III imitation. Their TV debate is said to have turned the tide, but the election itself was questionable, and high Camelot hopes were cut short by assassination and war.

Vermont Peace Activists Occupy General Dynamics Weapons Plant

Benjamin Dangl May 2, 2008 Benjamin Dangl

On May 1st, International Workers’ Day, ten peace activists in Burlington, Vermont entered General Dynamics and locked themselves together in the main lobby of the building in protest against the company’s weapons manufacturing and war profiteering. University of Vermont student Benjamin Dube, one of the dozens of other activists present at the event, leaned out a window of the lobby, and pointed to the GD building, explaining, “This is the gas tank of the war machine, and we are the sugar.” read more

Peruvian Women Rally Against Rising Food Prices

Toward Freedom May 1, 2008 Toward Freedom

On April 30 in Lima, Peru, over 2,000 women protested against rising food prices. This recent outburst is part of a food crisis that is sweeping the globe, from Kazakhstan to Haiti. In Lima, women from poor communities and soup kitchens beat on empty pots and carried signs in front of the congress, chanting to President Alan Garcia: "The pot is empty, Garcia!"

May Day Special: Talking With Workers Around the World

Free Speech Radio News May 1, 2008 Free Speech Radio News

On a special May Day 2008 broadcast, we'll hear from worker's struggles around the world. We go to New York, where Abdulai Bah introduces us to domestic workers and day laborers asserting their rights and demanding justice. We'll hear from Rami Al-Meghari in Gaza, where worker's options are grim after the shutting down of nearly 4,000 industries due to Israel's closure of the territory since June 2007. Garegin Khumaryan takes us to villages in Georgia where an entire generation of children have no idea what their fathers look like - as their fathers have had to leave to faraway lands to find work. Finally, Marie Trigona gives us a tour of one of Argentina's best-known worker-run enterprises: the Bauen Hotel in Buenos Aires.

Washington’s Role in Conflict Between Tibet and China

Various Authors April 30, 2008 Various Authors

The following articles provide viewpoints that counter mainstream media coverage of the conflict between Tibet and China. They pay particular attention to role of Washington and the Western media in the crisis.

“Free Trade” & the Battle for the Soul of the Democratic Party

Mark Engler April 25, 2008 Mark Engler

"Free trade" has produced some of the most contentious political debates of our times. In a famous April 2000 article in the New Republic, economist Joseph Stiglitz argued, "Economic policy is today perhaps the most important part of America's interaction with the rest of the world. And yet the culture of international economic policy in the world's most powerful democracy is not democratic." During the Bush years, economic policy received far less attention in political discussion than before; the use of military force took center stage.