GPJA #463 (3 of 3): International news & analysis

GLOBAL PEACE AND JUSTICE AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER No. 463, May 25, 2013

STATS OF THE WEEK

– Back in 1996, the developed world’s top 10 percent took home 8.9 times the income of the bottom 10 percent. That gap in 2010: 9.8 times. Over those same years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports, the U.S. gap between top and bottom 10 percent rose from 12.5 to 15.9 times.

– Harold Meyerson, The Upside Down Economy, American Prospect, May 13, 2013. Two-thirds of the rise in corporate profits between the end of the dot-com bust and the collapse of 2008 came directly from the lower wages corporate execs paid their workers.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“Sometime when you feel very brave and defiant and haven’t been invited to one particular college function, read the terrible chapter in [Marx’s] Das Kapital on ‘The Working Day,’ and see if you are ever quite the same.” F Scott Fitzgerald – comment to his daughter a few days before he died.

“It’s not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true.” —Henry Kissinger

“Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.” – Bertrand Russell

FEATURES

Major retailers refuse to sign Bangladesh agreement http://www.smh.com.au/national/major-retailers-refuse-to-sign-bangladesh-agreement-20130516-2jnzp.html

WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS

Company profits depend on the ‘welfare payments’ they get from society

The free market is a myth. From drug patents to quantitative easing, businesses make money because of state help http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/05/company-profits-welfare-payments-society

Inequality: there’s no stopping it! http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/inequality-theres-no-stopping-it/

OECD: Inequality Rising Faster than Ever http://inequality.org/oecd-report-inequality-rising-faster/

LAND, LABOUR & THE ENVIRONMENT

America’s first climate refugees: Newtok, Alaska is losing ground to the sea at a dangerous rate and for its residents, exile is inevitable. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2013/may/13/newtok-alaska-climate-change-refugees

Climate Change Denial is Costing us Trillions, Threatening Farming, Fishing, Animals (Video) http://www.juancole.com/2013/05/trillions-threatening-farming.html

Geoengineering: Can We Save the Planet by Messing with Nature? http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/20/geoengineering_can_we_save_the_planet

Farmers Union in Canada Warns against Fracking http://johnriddell.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/farmers-in-canada-warn-against-fracking/

The market recipe for cooking the planet http://aworldtowin.net/blog/the-market-recipe-for-cooking-planet.html

Big Oil’s Hit Men have a Contract to Whack the Earth (Engelhardt) http://www.juancole.com/2013/05/contract-whack-engelhardt.html

CULTURAL DISSENT

Review: Raising Expectations (And Raising Hell): My Decade Fighting for the Labor Movement http://tinyurl.com/axmp7vw

AFGHANISTAN

Bombing Kills 15 in Kabul, 6 Americans: Is this What Winning Looks Like? (+ VICE video) http://www.juancole.com/2013/05/failure-afghanistan-winning.html

This is what winning looks like http://www.vice.com/vice-news/this-is-what-winning-looks-like-part-1

CANADA

Scab Grain Ship Accosted by Watery Picket http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2013/05/scab-grain-ship-accosted-watery-picket

All signs point to deepening opposition to the fossil fuel industry assault in British Columbia http://www.rogerannis.com/all-signs-point-to-deepening-opposition-to-the-fossil-fuel-industry-assault-in-british-columbia/

British Columbia Election Frustrates Labour, Environmental and Indigenous Activists by Roger Annis http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/827.php

CUBA

“Cuban Democracy” versus “American Democracy” – Part I of an interview with Arnold August, author of Cuba and Its Neighbours: Democracy in Motion http://www.globalresearch.ca/cuban-democracy-versus-american-democracy/5335208

MALI

Mali pressed to hold national election while relations with Tuareg in the north debated http://www.rogerannis.com/mali-pressed-to-hold-national-election-while-relations-with-tuareg-in-the-north-debated/

PACIFIC

Honouring a pledge for Tahitian independence http://cafepacific.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/honouring-pledge-for-tahitian.html

PALESTINE

Israel jails conscientious objector Natan Blanc for tenth time http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/13/israel-jail-conscientious-objector-natan-blanc

PHILIPPINES

Peace talks suspended and disappearances continue http://aps-nz.org/2013/05/18/aps-may-update-peace-talks-suspended-and-disappearances-continue/

PORTUGAL

Portugal’s Left Bloc Confronts Austerity – Interview with Francisco Louçã http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/823.php

SLOVENIA

Manifesto of the Initiative for Democratic Socialism http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/822.php

SWEDEN
Stockholm riots & violence enter 4th day

UK

Death of Margaret Thatcher Reopens the Debate Over Her Cruel Legacy http://www.spectrezine.org/death-margaret-thatcher-reopens-debate-over-her-cruel-legacy

USA

Medea Benjamin v. President Obama: CodePink Founder Disrupts Speech, Criticizing Drone, Gitmo Policy http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/24/medea_benjamin_v_president_obama_codepink

Do You Know the $8.25 Man? The $8.25 man, Bloomberg News wrote in December, has worked at McDonald’s for twenty years. Still, he can’t get forty hours a week or anything more than minimum wage http://viewpointmag.com/2013/04/26/do-you-know-the-8-25-man/

Editorial: Fast food and the future of the working class http://tinyurl.com/a4kzroo

Labor wrestles with its future http://tinyurl.com/bbyo8go

84 Percent of NYC Fast Food Workers Report Wage Theft in a New Survey

http://www.thenation.com/blog/174375/84-nyc-fast-food-workers-report-wage-theft-new-survey#ixzz2TW47f5Xz

75 Years in Prison For Videotaping Police http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34968.htm

Tomgram: Andy Kroll, A Democracy of the Wealthy http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175700/tomgram%3A_andy_kroll%2C_a_democracy_of_the_wealthy/

100 Days of Guantanamo Hunger Strike: Special Coverage http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34984.htm

Corporate Profits Are Up 4X and Their Taxes Have Fallen by 50% — Meanwhile the Workers’ Payroll Tax Has Doubled http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34992.htm

NYT must investigate biased reporting on Venezuela, Honduras http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54113

Coalition of Immokalee Workers Targets Wendy’s in Fair Food Campaign to Improve Wages, Conditions http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/20/coalition_of_immokalee_workers_targets_wendys

VENEZUELA

New labour law ‘part of transition to socialism’ http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54112

President Maduro of Venezuela