Portside

Arnold’s spokespeople bristle at the suggestion that the billionaire is out to cut pensions, insisting that he only wants a realistic accounting of the under-funding problem. But the similarities between what Raimondo did in Rhode Island and what the Arnold Foundation advocates nationwide are striking.

Book Review: Inside Syria:” The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect “ by Reese Erlich Forward by Noam Chomsky, Prometheus Press, New York 2014 The book covers Syrian history without bogging the reader down. This is, after all, a report on the on-going civil war. But Erlich does not glide over the important details, including how the U.S. camel first put its nose under the tent.

Guy Standing argues that there is a new class in the global economy - the precariat. The precariat is growing, but fighting for democratic rights. Will the precariat be the vanguard of a new progressive era?

Free-market globalization is strengthening that which is barbaric and regressive and smashing what is beautiful,” Examples, are the death of traditional handicrafts, such as pottery, and the loss of languages. At the same time, horrible institutions such as caste-based village councils are being bolstered as a backlash against the rural displacement caused by globalization.

Russel Brand reminds us that all who grew up under Thatcher were taught that it is good to be selfish, that other people’s pain is not your problem, that pain is in fact a weakness and suffering is deserved and shameful.”

The MAS’ response to protests has been to follow an approach of seeking dialogue and consensus, retreating where necessary, but always attempting to continue to drive the process forward towards its goal. Morales constantly sums up this approach using the Zapatista slogan “to govern by obeying”.

From the margins where injustice shapes the landscape of everyday life, individuals like Jeremy Hammond and Mumia Abu-Jamal expose the lies of the government and hypocrisy of the criminal justice system. From the darkness inside, they cast a light on what those in power don’t want us to see.

Before launching headlong into a third Iraq War it’s important to step back and review the costs of the past 13 years of combat. Not surprisingly, the sacrifice of war, monetary and otherwise are disproportionately borne by people of color and the young.

As “now it can be told” theater, TimeLine’s Chicago premiere, the second coming of this angry work, works equally well as an exercise in conspiracy-theory paranoia, journalistic sleuthing at its most dangerous, and a cumulative plea for transparency in foreign policy, banking, and law enforcement (Edward Snowden anyone?).

Two thousand telecommunications workers walked off their jobs in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine on October 17 after FairPoint Communications imposed its final bargaining table proposal.