- The End of Easy Oil (8/22/2005) - There's lots of hand-wringing over the totally-surprising rise in gas prices in the press (I mean, who would have ever predicted that rising demand and limited supply would cause price increases?). USA Today unwittingly finds a silver lining: As she folds clothes at a Laundromat near her home in San Pablo, Calif., Thamara Morales, 30, counts up the ways high gas prices have changed her life...Trips to Wal-Mart are out. The closest one is about… …
- The Column That Never Was (8/21/2005) - The column that I was hired to write for a certain Queens weekly has been canceled before the first piece was even published. That piece, a critical look at the fall-out from Congressman Greg Meeks' support for CAFTA, did not appear in this past Thursday's issue, although an editorial lavishing praise on the Congressman for his championing of banks over people, was featured rather prominently. I called to find out what happened, and was told… …
- Meeks and CAFTA: Follow the Money (8/20/2005) - Gregory Meeks is catching well-deserved heat for his support of the Central American Free Trade Agreement - a NAFTA-style trade deal that narrowly passed in Congress last month. Defeating the bill was the top political objective of organized labor this summer, and Meeks was one of only 15 Democratic congressmen to join with Bush and the Republicans in supporting the bill. Meeks has enjoyed dependable support from labor - over a quarter of all financial… …
- The Boss, and the Boss’ Boss: the Strike at British Airways (8/13/2005) - The wildcat sympathy strike at British Airways is wonderfully inspiring and a real victory for working people around the world. Of course, the mass media is emphasizing the nightmare stories of tourists stuck in traveler's limbo, and complaining that this isn't even British Airways' fault. Like hell, it's not. Like many modern corporations, British Airways has subcontracted a major department - its in-flight food service - to another company. You come across this all the… …
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- Congressman Meeks on the Defensive (8/9/2005) - On July 27, the US House of Representatives narrowly passed CAFTA by a vote of 217 to 215, thanks to 15 Democrats who went to the other side and voted with the Bush regime for multinational corporate interests. My representative, Gregory Meeks was one of the "CAFTA 15". Like any good citizen, I called his office before the vote to express my opposition to the bill. Now that the bill has passed, I have a… …
- We Should Be Working on the Rail Road, All the Live Long Day (8/6/2005) - One of the more frustrating tendencies of narrow-minded NIMBYism is the knee-jerk opposition to railroad expansion in Queens and Long Island. Residents in Maspeth are already howling because Congressman Jerrold Nadler has secured 100 million federal dollars for the design of a rail-freight tunnel under the harbor, from Bayonne to Bay Ridge, a project that he has long-championed to rebuild the port of New York and bring back the region's capacity for shipping and manufacturing.… …
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- Wal-Mart No Way! Volunteers Needed! C’mon, Aspiring Extras! (8/1/2005) - Staten Island is not enough, Wal-Mart now has its eyes set on Coney Island. There's a new community group fighting to keep Wal-Mart out of Brooklyn, Wal-Mart No Way. They're raising money to put anti-Wal-Mart ads on teevee during the mayoral race. In fact, they're having a fundraiser, um, tomorrow (details below). If you can attend, please do. If you can afford a donation, please be generous. …
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- “…We Got Ideas, To Us That’s Real…” (7/27/2005) - I'm back in New York after ten days in Amherst, for the summer residency of the ULA Labor Studies program at UMass. The program is fantastic. The campus is beautiful. The curriculum is vital. The faculty is brilliant. The student body is awesome. The community of students is really the reason to enroll in this program. It's a great mix of union staffers, elected officers and rank-and-filers (many of whom are having their tuition paid… …
- The Homeless Hilton (7/12/2005) - Mayor Bloomberg has announced plans to shut down the city's largest homeless shelter, the 335 unit Carlton House in South Ozone Park, Queens. The mayor claims that there just aren't enough homeless people to fill the former luxury hotel. The City's Department of Homesless Services' website brags, "This is the first time in DHS history that a facility has been closed solely because the capacity is no longer needed." Is the homeless population going down?… …
- The Cycle of Terrorism (7/11/2005) - What follows are my opening remarks for the Socialist Party's Free Speech Forum In Defense of Lynne Stewart (which went very well, thanks to those of you who attended): On behalf of the Socialist Party, I want to welcome you to our Free Speech forum in defense of human rights attorney Lynne Stewart. This forum is cosponsored by the New York City and New Jersey locals of the Socialist Party, and the party's Direct Action… …