As Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's regime crumbled on August 23 after a rebel uprising and NATO bombing, United States President Barack Obama said: "For over four decades, the Libyan people had lived under the rule of a tyrant who denied them their most basic human rights."
Obama would know 鈥 his government's support in recent years allowed Gaddafi's regime to do so. Indeed, the NATO bombing campaign targeted Libyan forces the US had armed and trained.
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The United States is facing its gravest housing crisis since the Great Depression.
By at least one measure, today's crisis is worse. Housing prices have now fallen 33% from their peak, compared with 31% during the depression.
Yet despite the almost unprecedented nature of the housing collapse, the administration of US President Barack Obama has remained stunningly passive if not utterly disinterested.
This inaction is criminal given the fact that the largest US banks have used illegal means to file and carry out foreclosures.
The steady stream of revelations of political, military and corporate bastardry from the stash of US diplomatic cables leaked to WikiLeaks became, in late August, a torrent.
It is about to become a deluge.
Between December and August, the number of secret US cables published by WikiLeaks was fewer than 20,000 of the more than 250,000 in the whistleblowing website's possession.
After 15 days on strike, 45,000 workers from United States鈥 telecommunications company Verizon marched in to work on August 23 after getting agreement from their stubborn employer to bargain.
The communication and electrical workers will be working under their old contracts while talks continue. They agreed not to strike again for 30 days.
During the strike, which stretched from Virginia to Massachusetts, Verizon was unable to provide timely installation and repairs, and reports of outages plagued the company.
The tens of thousands of cables released by WikiLeaks since August reveal a wide variety of lies told by the US government and crimes in which the US government is complicit or helped cover up. www.wlcentral.org provides a daily rundown, with links, to some of the key cables.
Below are three cables that depict the apparent covering-up of US military war crimes in Iraq; the riding rough-shod over the popular will of nation in Ireland; and the way the US government seeks to divert attention from its crimes with calculated media spin.
Fred Magdoff co-author, with , of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism: A Citizen鈥檚 Guide to Capitalism and the Environment, spoke to Scott Borchert of Monthly Review Press.
Foster is a featured speaker at the Climate Change Social Change activist conference in Melbourne over September 30 to October 3.
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Why did you decide to write a book like this, and why now?
A poll commissioned by new online campaign found 61% of Australian people agreed a 鈥減ublic inquiry into the Australian media is necessary so the public can better understand the relationship between politicians, corporations and media outlets鈥.
NewsStand, backed by GetUp, then launched an online on August 11 calling for parliament to 鈥減ublicly scrutinise the media landscape as a whole鈥, which quickly gathered almost 30,000 signatures.
Dismissive letter on depression not helpful
Mark Harris鈥 well-balanced and thoroughly materialist short analysis of depression (GLW #888) did not warrant Dr David Faber鈥檚 dismissive (GLW #892): 鈥淚f you want to be Marxist, demonstrate a little historical materialism please.鈥
National environmental justice and indigenous rights organisation the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) that took part in the largest act of civil disobedience in decades at the White House in Washington DC from August 20 to September 3.
The purpose of these actions was to send a direct message to President Barack Obama to deny approval of the 2739 kilometre Keystone XL pipeline.
According to Australia鈥檚 outgoing discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes, racism is still a big problem in Australian society.
This is nothing new. Racism has been an issue in Australia since the very beginning of white colonisation, when Aboriginal people were forced from their lands to make way for the new colonial Australia.
But racism, like our society, has changed with the times. This throws up new challenges in tackling it.
"The pay offer is a lemon" has been the theme of protests by Australian Taxation Office (ATO) workers around Australia over the past two weeks.
Workers have put lemons on their desks and stuck up posters of lemons to symbolise their rejection of management's pay offer of 9% over three years, which is less than the rate of inflation.
Some workers have called for strike action in the tax office, as has happened in other government agencies.
It has become a cliche in mainstream media and political discourse that feminism is no longer necessary in society. However many ordinary women disagree.
麻豆传媒 Weekly asked members of the newly formed Feminist Collective of South Australia about feminism鈥檚 relevance today.
Emma Gray-Starcevic said: 鈥淲omen still earn on average 17% less than men in Australia, and are under-represented in a huge number of jobs, especially in industries such as law, business and politics 鈥 jobs synonymous with high wages and powerful positions.
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