Labor, Trade, & Finance Archives - Page 98 of 235

Tax Day and America’s Wars

by Jo Comerford | Apr 13, 2010

Matt Ryan, the mayor of Binghamton, New York, is sick and tired of watching people in local communities “squabble over crumbs,” as he puts it, while so much local money pours into the Pentagon’s coffers and into America’s wars. He’s so sick and tired of it, in fact, that, urged on by local residents, he’s decided to do something about it. He’s planning to be the first mayor in the United States to decorate the façade of City Hall with a large, digital “cost of war” counter, funded entirely by private contributions.

The Iranian Tsunami

by Conn Hallinan | Mar 12, 2010

Earthquakes, like the recent Haitian and Chilean monsters, are not subtle events: They flatten buildings, crush houses, and turn infrastructures into concrete and steel confetti. But earthquakes can also generate a power that remains largely unseen, until a huge tsunami rises out of the sea and obliterates a coastline.

The Homeless in Bahia: The Utopia of “Good Living”

by Raul Zibechi | Mar 5, 2010

Millions of Brazilians have serious housing problems. The Movimiento Sin Techo (Homeless Movement) seeks to organize them, and to occupy abandoned properties and land on the outskirts of the city to pressure the government.

Ghana’s 2010 oil ‘boom’: Ensuring public interest over private gain

by Mawuli Dake | Feb 25, 2010

With Ghana on the verge of an oil ‘boom’ in 2010, Mawuli Dake considers the steps and measures needed to ensure the country derives full and equitable benefit from the resource. While Ghana’s mining industry has historically been characterised by a lack of transparency and the dominance of foreign multinational interests, Dake stresses that the burgeoning oil industry must not be allowed to go the same way.

Latin America: C-

by Manuel Perez-Rocha | Feb 12, 2010

Recently I had the opportunity to accompany two labor union leaders from my country, Mexico, to meet with high-level officials of the Obama Labor Department. The meeting was an example of the kind of new U.S.-Latin America relations that so many hoped would come from an Obama presidency.

Guiding Haiti’s Roadmap to Recovery with Human Rights

by Monika Kalra Varma, Kerry Kennedy | Feb 1, 2010

Overwhelmed by sadness, empathy and disbelief, the world’s eyes are focused on the rescue and relief efforts for those in Haiti. However, many who have worked in Haiti fear that a preventable long-term disaster lies on the horizon if international interventions don’t break with past patterns. As international aid begins to pour into Haiti, we have a brief moment to break with past mistakes and bring real change to the country.

Global Economy: C

by Sarah Anderson | Jan 21, 2010

Barack Obama raised the hopes of global justice advocates by committing to significant changes in our international economic policies. As president, however, his efforts to implement alternatives have been slow to get off the ground.

Trade Policy: B

by fpifadmin | Jan 15, 2010

The Obama administration is earning a B on trade policy so far, mostly on the grounds that no news is good news in this area. Some analysts might feel it is more accurate to give the administration an “incomplete.”

Bye-bye, Dubai

by John Feffer | Dec 28, 2009

It’s bad enough when a person drowns in debt. Shock waves multiply when a corporation teeters on the verge of failure. The economy becomes even more agitated when a country declares bankruptcy, as Iceland did in 2008 and Hungary and Latvia almost did in 2009.

The Art of Extraction

by John Feffer | Dec 23, 2009

The teacher assembles a collection of chocolate-chip cookies and toothpicks. This is how the elementary school children are supposed to learn about the costs associated with coal mining. Each cookie is a mining property. The students each receive $19 in play money, which they use to buy these properties. They examine the cookies closely to determine which ones to buy. They map their cookies. They buy mining equipment in the form of paperclips and toothpicks. Each minute spent extracting a chocolate chip costs $1. The chips that they do not surreptitiously eat can be sold for $2 apiece. When they are finished, the students must restore their property to its original condition using only their tools, a process that also costs money. Only after this labor can they determine their profits — and the costs of the mining process.