The fear of being seen as “socialist” is deep seated. It is time to get over it, and reclaim the word, as gays did the word “queer.” The concept that the Earth and its wealth belong to society must be redeemed. Everything, ultimately, is riding on it.
Thanks to a donation from a reader in New York City, we have exceeded our winter fund drive goal of $2,000. The total now stands at $2,250. If any other readers want to thusly encourage us, please feel free…!
The Israeli government said it will move ahead with “sensitive housing projects” in East Jerusalem and the West Bank as a rebuttal to UNESCO’s decision to grant Palestine full-member status. The US meanwhile cut funds to UNESCO.
Thousands of protesters blocked the Port of Oakland Nov. 2, bringing work there to a halt, as the city’s teachers and nurses and many businesses honored a general strike call. Protesters also blocked downtown streets, and seized an abandoned building near City Hall. Police only intervened in the wee hours of the next morning, evicting the occupied building, using tear-gas and rubber bullets and arresting some 80.
Photo: Climate Connections
OK, our winter fund drive now stands at $60. So we have $4,940 to go. Now eight of you have responded. Do we really only have eight readers? Our web states indicate we have thousands. Well, then…?
As the Kenyan military and Shabab rebels accuse each other of killing civilians in southern Somalia, a BBC report suggests Nairobi hopes to carve a separatist enclave to be called “Azania” out of Somalia as a military-controlled “buffer zone.”
As elite voices in the West call for breaking Libya up along “tribal lines,” the country’s Berbers—who have the most to fear from a centralized Arab-dominated regime—issued a statement calling for a unified state with equal rights for all.
From the San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 28: S.F. crash badly injures person in wheelchair SAN FRANCISCO — A person in a wheelchair suffered life-threatening injuries today after being hit by a pickup truck in a South of Market intersection, San… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
BBC quotes several Taliban commanders boasting of the aid they receive from Pakistan’s ISI. Afghan President Karzai reacts by telling Pakistani TV: “God forbid, if ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will stand by Pakistan.”
Obama announced that all US forces will be withdrawn from Iraq by the new year—but in fact thousands of private contractors and hundreds of military advisors will remain in a program coordinated by the Pentagon’s Office of Security Cooperation.
Human Rights Watch applauds Obama’s move to send US military advisors to help crush Uganda’s notoriously brutal Lord’s Resistance Army, while Michelle Malkin and other right-wing bloggers decry the intervention.
The Solomon Islands' Prime Minister Rick Hou is threatening to "blacklist" the companies involved in a 100-ton oil-spill near a UNESCO World Heritage Site. "The impact on the marine life and the coral is already massive with much of it irreversible," he said. The bulk carrier MV Solomon Trader ran aground a month ago off Rennell Island, while loading bauxite ore in a cyclone. Because of the storm, it took salvage crews several days before they could reach the stricken craft. Compounding the damage, Indonesian-owned Bintan Mining, which chartered the vessel, continued to operate as the oil flowed into the sea, with other ships maneuvering around the wreckage, churning up the oil. Rennell Island, known locally as Mugaba, is home to some 1,840 people, who overwhelmingly rely on fishing for their livelihood. The World Heritage Site covers the world's largest coral atoll. (Photo via Radio Australia)
