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Who Is Responsible for Puerto Rico's Debt?

Ed Morales The Nation
There's evidence some of it is illegal - and activists agree that Washington's colonial control over the island's economy helped create the crisis. We are urging members of Congress to put the people of Puerto Rico first and oppose H.R. 5278 as currently written, said SEIU 32BJ President Hector Figueroa. We need a real solution and Congress must get back to work immediately to provide a path forward that allows Puerto Rico to negotiate a feasible debt restructuring plan.

Tidbits - April 28, 2016 - Reader Comments: Puerto Rican Coalition Against Debt Formed; Verizon Strike; Sanders, Hillary and a Revitalized Left; Beyonce's Lemonade; and more...

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Reader Comments: Puerto Rican Coalition Against Debt Formed; Verizon Strike; Sanders, Hillary and a Revitalized Left; Sanders Allies - June Conference - Future of the Movement; Beyoncé's Lemonade; Harriet Tubman currency; and more; Announcements: Ways to Justice - Perspectives on Nonviolence, Civil Resistance and Self Defense; ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism - 80th Annual Celebration Abraham Lincoln Brigade; Rise of the Right forum (California and New York)

Thomas Piketty: A New Deal for Europe

Thomas Piketty; translated by Anthony Shugaar The New York Review of Books, February 25, 2016 issue
Only a genuine social and democratic refounding of the eurozone, designed to encourage growth and employment, will be sufficient to counter the hateful nationalistic impulses that now threaten all Europe. We should put together a conference of eurozone nations on debt-just like those that were held in the postwar years, to the notable benefit of Germany. The objective would be to reduce public debt as a whole.

Beyond Open Borders

Lilia Fernández NACLA
As the history of Puerto Rican migration to the US indicates, the seemingly distinct campaigns for immigrant rights and those for racial justice ought to be viewed as interdependent and complementary struggles. This may prove the key to creating a more just and sustainable approach to migration policy.

Puerto Rico: The Crisis Is About Colonialism, Not Debt

Linda Backiel Monthly Review
Puerto Rico is in crisis. But the crisis is not about how to pay Wall Street. It is about the impact of centuries-long economic devastation on the men, women, and children—especially children—that live in Puerto Rico. While failure to pay the banks and the vultures makes headlines in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, the human misery caused by five centuries of colonialism does not.

How the US Set Sail on a Sea of Red Ink

JP Sottile Truthout
A majority of Americans struggle daily to stay afloat on a sea of red ink, perpetually threatened by wave after wave of debt. This hasn't always been the case. The phenomenon can be traced back to 1978, when the US economy was sailing into dire straits.

labor

What is really at stake in the Greek crisis

IUF Editorial IUF Bulletin
The social savagery called austerity could never produce the result it was ostensibly intended to deliver because the negotiations were never about economics, but about regime change. So stated the International Union of Food and Allied Workers in a statement issued prior to the successful "no ' vote on Sunday. IUF called for increased union solidarity for Syriza and the Greek people.

Preliminary Report of Greek Parliament Debt Truth Committee - Debt Cannot and Should Not Be Paid

Debt Truth Committee, Hellenic Parliament Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt
The Hellenic Parliament established the Truth Committee on Public Debt mandating the investigation into the creation and growth of public debt, and the impact the conditionalities attached to the loans have had on the economy and the population. All the evidence we present shows Greece not only does not have the ability to pay this debt, but also should not pay this debt because the debt is a direct infringement on the fundamental human rights of the residents of Greece

Greece: Memory and Debt

Conn Hallinan Dispatches From the Edge
For German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, “memory” goes back to 2007 when Greece was caught up in the worldwide financial conflagration touched off by American and European speculators. Berlin was a major donor in the 240 billion Euro “bailout.” Schauble wants that debt repaid. Millions of Greeks are concerned about unpaid debts as well, although their memories stretch back a little further.

Wrong-Way Obama?

William Greider The Nation
He may be leading us toward economic catastrophe.
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