By Jim Miles - December 24, 2008

My immediate response to those in our government who fear socialism is to ask them to renounce their inclusion in their very generous pension plans (voted on by themselves of course, no conflict of interest there), their participation in the universal health care that Canada provides, the safety net of Canada pension, old age security and social assistance that assist other members of their families who are not intelligent enough to get in on the government dole.

By Nikos Raptis and Chris Spannos - December 24, 2008

The most important aspects...are the joblessness, the salaries of...the "generation of the 700 Euros" [about US $ 970 per month], the University degrees that are almost useless, the flight of Greek companies to neighboring countries in search of cheap labor, the "flexible" treatment of hiring and firing, the unbelievably high prices in the Greek supermarkets much above the ones in the rest of the European Union, the scandalous treatment of the money of the taxpayers by the Government, the unbelievably bad condition of the National Health System, the exorbitant profits of the Greek banks, and finally the "strange" insistence of the Greek governing elite to follow the "neo-liberal" economic model after what has happened worldwide.

By PANOS PETROU - Counterpunch

On the night of December 6, a special police squad in Athens murdered a 15-year-old student in cold blood in Exarchia, a neighborhood with a long tradition of activism among young people, the left and anarchists...This was only the latest instance of police brutality against immigrants, and left-wing and anarchist activists--especially youth, in the wake of a major youth resistance movement against privatization of education that rattled the right-wing government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis.

By JAMES COCKCROFT - November 28-30, 2008

Indigenous peoples in Indo-Afro-Latin America, especially Bolivia and Ecuador, are rising up to take control of their own lives and act in solidarity with others to save the planet. They are calling for new, yet ancient, practices of plurinational, participatory, and intercultural democracy. They champion ecologically sustainable development; community-based autonomies; and solidarity with other peoples locally, regionally, and internationally...Their values are often different than those of the United States or Europe. One indigenous leader has stated: “We give what money we have not to banks to collect interest but to others – and their gratitude is the interest we receive.”

By Nikos Raptis - Znet

To try to persuade people about the existence of police brutality is rather redundant. Recent cases as the sodomizing of the young black in a Manhattan subway station, or the revelations about the master-torturer police officer in Chicago are a minuscule recording of what is going on in police stations all over the face of the earth. So, no wonder that the first people to be punished during an uprising are the brutal policemen.

By LEO PANITCH - December 4, 2008

The political crisis that has suddenly erupted in Canada adds yet another dimension to the seemingly unending shockwaves set in motion by the global financial crisis. The sheer political escapism that led all the leaders (even the NDP's Jack Layton) to solemnly pledge during the recent federal election not to run a deficit - when it was already clear that the severity of this crisis is such that no government can avoid a deficit even if wants to - has now rebounded on us with a vengeance.

By ROGER BURBACH - Counterpunch

Evo Morales is the latest democratically-elected Latin American president to be the target of a US plot to destabilize and overthrow his government...[T]he Bolivia coup attempt was a conscious policy rooted in US hostility towards Morales, his political party the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and the social movements that are aligned with him.

By Federico Fuentes - October 28, 2008

The right's offensive to topple [Evo] Morales, which climaxed with the September 11-12 "civic coup" attempt, has been decisively rolled back by the combined action of the government and social movements.

Cuba says it is sitting on more than 20 billion barrels of offshore oil in the Gulf of Mexico. That's more than double what the U.S. figures Cuba has, and would represent more oil than the U.S. has in reserve, according to the BBC. If true—and if the reserves can be recovered—that would turn Cuba from a big oil importer into one of the world's 20 biggest exporters.

by Dan La Botz - October 8, 2008

The government is moving cautiously to deal with the unfolding crisis, but the opposition political parties and labor unions have begun to call upon the government to prepare a plan to protect the interests of Mexico's working people. Mexico's independent labor union alliances have mobilized for years against neoliberalism and in defense of social property. Now they will face a greater challenge.

By Roger Annis - October 06, 2008

Canada's minority Conservative Party government has called a federal election for October 14. Serious issues confront voters - war in the Middle East and Afghanistan, the economic downturn that will grow out of the U.S. financial crisis, and climate change that endangers human life on our planet. But four of the five parties in the federal parliament are avoiding serious debate on these issues...The fifth, the labour-based New Democratic Party (NDP), has a platform that responds to many working class needs, but it is evading vital issues.

By CARL FINAMORE - Counterpunch

Never before has the half-century decline of American labor revealed itself more clearly than in the last several weeks...Largely relegated to the sidelines, national union officials are making little effort to interject independent working-class solutions into the current debate of how to resolve the enormous social crisis affecting millions...[T]he silence of a genuine alternative is deafening. It is also unprecedented during previous times of profound crisis in American history.

By DAN La BOTZ - September 26, 2008

Everything...starts with rejecting the idea that we should save capitalism or reform capitalism. It begins by putting human beings rather than banks at the center of our economic thinking to build a socialist society.

by Tanya M. Kerssen & Roger Burbach - September 24, 2008

A popular upheaval is sweeping Bolivia, threatening the departmental capital of Santa Cruz, the bastion of the right wing rebellion against the government of Evo Morales. Some twenty thousand miners, peasants and coca growers are moving on the city to reclaim state institutions occupied by autonomist [right-wing] forces. They are also demanding the resignation of the Santa Cruz prefect (governor), Rubén Costas, and the apprehension of Branko Marinkovich, an agro-industrial magnet who heads up the Santa Cruz Civic Committee comprised of large land owning and business interests.

Federico Fuentes

Four retired and one active Venezuelan military officials have been arrested, a further 33 questioned and the US ambassador expelled in the wake of the September 10 revelation of a planned coup and assassination attempt against President Hugo Chavez.