Category: Civil Rights

Gay men and women across the country are taking part in today’s “Day Without a Gay” economic boycott. Outraged by the recent passage of California’s Proposition 8 to overturn state rules allowing same-sex couples to marry, they and their supporters want everyone to be clear on where they stand. Here is what’s happening in Huston.

The federal manslaughter indictment of five Blackwater Worldwide security guards in the horrific massacre of more than a dozen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad may look like an exercise in accountability, but it’s probably the exact opposite — a whitewash that absolves the government and corporate officials who should bear ultimate responsibility.

When it comes to protecting George W. Bush and his administration, Attorney General Michael Mukasey is stretching legal arguments as far as his predecessor Alberto Gonzales ever did – now even invoking the “Nixon Defense” for justifying presidential wrongdoing.

Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards indicted in Washington for the 2007 shooting of Iraqi civilians plan to surrender to the FBI today in Utah, a person close to the case said, setting up a fight over the trial site. The five guards, all military veterans, were indicted for their roles in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

President-elect Barack Obama put himself on the side of the workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory Sunday:“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” Obama said Sunday at a news conference.

The worker occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory on Chicago’s Goose Island by members of UE Local 1110 went into its third day on Sunday, and workers have vowed to continue the occupation until they are paid back pay and benefits, or until the plant is re-opened. An rally was held Saturday in support of the occupying workers.

BILL AYERS: In the recently concluded presidential race, I was unwillingly thrust upon the stage and asked to play a role in a profoundly dishonest drama. I refused, and here’s why. Unable to challenge the content of Barack Obama’s campaign, his opponents invented a narrative about a young politician who emerged from nowhere, a man of charm, intelligence and skill, but with an exotic background and a strange name.

Workers who got three days’ notice that their factory was shutting its doors have occupied the building and say they won’t go home without assurances they’ll get severance and vacation pay.
About 250 union workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors plant in shifts Saturday while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind.

Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, shut down the country’s legislature yesterday until January 26, in an effort to avoid a no-confidence vote that he was about to lose. This has provoked a constitutional crisis. Canada’s parliamentary opposition reacted with outrage. The opposition accused Harper of undermining Canada’s democracy. Thousands demonstrated yesterday in protest of the shut-down.

Though many on the left put forth an analysis that appreciated the importance of defeating McCain and the Republican party, few of us were prepared for the raw emotion that surfaced in the wake of Barack Obama’s victory on November 4th. Cities across the US celebrated spontaneously in the streets and it seemed like the whole world celebrated with them. People’s feelings of joy can be attributed to a wide range of reasons, but a few of them seem primary.

The American mainstream media has finally broken the story of the deployment of US combat troops inside America, news that the alternative blog media have been announcing and discussing since early September, three months ago. The deployment of US troops inside the country is the first time this has been done, plus it is in violation of American traditions and a number of laws, such as the Posse Comitatis Act. Here is the Washington Post article, which talks about 20,000 troops in 2 years.

Miami housing activists are organizing homeless people to illegally move into foreclosed homes. “We’re matching homeless people with people-less homes,” Max Rameau said with a grin. Rameau is part of a group of like-minded advocates who have formed Take Back the Land, which so far have moved six families into foreclosed homes, with nine on a waiting list. The organization also helps the new “tenants” with secondhand furniture, cleaning supplies and yard upkeep.