Bill Bumpus
Bumpus on the line
In case you're wondering whether unemployment is a bigger problem now than in past recessions...
Chomsky on Haiti [CounterPunch]
By KEANE BHATT
For decades, Noam Chomsky has been an analyst and activist working in support of the Haitian people. In addition to his revolutionary linguistics career at MIT, he has written, lectured and protested against injustice for 40 years. He is co-author, along with Paul Farmer and Amy Goodman of Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup. His analysis "The Tragedy of Haiti" from his 1993 book Year 501: The Conquest Continues is available for free online. This interview was conducted in late February 2010 by phone and email. The interviewer thanks Peter Hallward for his kind assistance.
What Does $400 Million Buy You These Days?
By DAVID MACARAY
“I worry that no matter how cynical I become, it’s never going to be enough.”
—Lily Tomlin
The way the Republican Party, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and American Enterprise Institute (not to mention the mainstream media) tell it, organized labor is able to get the Democrats to do pretty much anything it wants them to do because, as everybody knows, the Democrats are in labor’s pocket. That’s how powerful America’s unions are.
Emergency Relief and Solidarity needed for Haiti
The delegation made a short video about our trip, "Haiti's Tourniquet" which we're selling for $15 (includes shipping) to raise money for our comrades in Haiti, and any donations large or small are greatly appreciated.
You can purchase videos and send donations to: Nathaniel Miller, PO Box 31909, Philadelphia, PA 19104-- please mark checks "IWW Haiti Fund," and note if you want a video. Contact nathaniel@iww.org to arrange online payment, or for other questions.
Labor's Beating Heart
By DAVID MACARAY
One of life’s gross inequities is that the people who actually do the work receive relatively little in the way of credit or compensation, while the people in charge of the work—the ones who plan it, assign it, oversee and critique it—receive regular promotions and large paychecks.
This discrepancy wouldn’t be so objectionable if it could be shown that the planning and supervisory aspects of the job were what made all the difference—that it was the boss’s contributions, the efforts of the guys in the front office, and not those of the workers on the floor, that determined the success or failure of a venture, but, unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
read moreInvolvement in Amirault case makes Martha Coakley unfit to replace Ted Kennedy as Senator [Examiner.com]
Martha Coakley, the current Massachusetts Attorney General, is not fit to be a United States Senator. Anyone who thinks so only needs to study the Fells Acres Day Care case. The Fells Acres Day Care was started by Violet Amirault and run with the help of her son, Gerald, and his sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave. In the midst of the daycare sex abuse hysteria of the 1980s, all three were charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse.