Gaza: Palestine Red Crescent Society launches emergency appealGaza: Palestine Red Crescent Society launches emergency appeal
By admin | January 2, 2009
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has launched a preliminary emergency appeal for 6.8 million US dollars (4.9 million euro, 7.2 million Swiss franc) to support its response to the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip. The PRCS spearheads emergency medical evacuations on the ground in Gaza and remains at its highest state of alert in the Occupied Territories.
The suffering that is being witnessed on the ground in Gaza shows once again that civilians are paying the ultimate price in terms of loss of life and mounting numbers of wounded. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is extremely concerned about the fate of civilians in the conflict area and is especially concerned about the safety of the medical and volunteer staff of its member national society.
The IFRC supports the PRCS appeal as a necessary mean to increase the National Society’s capacity in responding to the needs in the Gaza strip.
Find this article at:
http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/News/08/08123101/index.asp
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Hunger and homelessness grow across US cities
By admin | December 20, 2008
By Oliver Richards
18 December 2008
Both the number of homeless and the demand for emergency food assistance have increased substantially in US cities, according to the findings of the most recent survey from the US Conference of Mayors Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness.
Available resources are severely strained due the economic crisis, while demand for food assistance has increased by 18 percent over the past year.
The Hunger and Homelessness Survey was released on December 12 and is based on a survey of 25 cities that provided information on food and homeless assistance for the period from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2008. Given the increasing economic slowdown, one can safely conclude that the figures provided in the survey have only continued to grow worse. Read the rest of this entry »
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US government bailouts: poverty wages for auto workers, trillions for bankers
By admin | December 17, 2008
By Jerry White 
16 December 2008
In the debate over federal assistance to the failing Detroit automakers, the clear consensus has emerged within the corporate, political and media establishment that auto workers must accept sharply lower wages and benefits as part of any industry bailout.
The White House, Congress and the incoming Obama administration all insist that substantial sacrifices are needed. The United Auto Workers union, which last year negotiated a fifty percent reduction in the wages of new hires, has pledged to reopen contracts with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler and make pay and benefits “fully competitive” with the non-union factories operated by their international competitors in the southern US states.
Such a course of action would result in a historic reversal for auto workers who would then be earning some $14 an hour—or, adjusting for inflation, about half what their counterparts made in the 1960s.
The Democrats and Republicans made no similar demand for sacrifices from the banking executives and financial speculators who were handed $700 billion in last September’s bailout of the Wall Street banks.
In fact, whatever supposed restrictions on executive pay and bonuses were included in that rescue package have proven to be a farce. The banking executives and big investors continue to enrich themselves without needing to account for how they have used trillions in public funds.
A report in the Washington Post Monday, headlined, “Executive Pay Limits May Prove Toothless,” made this clear. The article noted that the Bush administration inserted a last-minute loophole into the legislation that has rendered meaningless any restrictions on executive compensation. Read the rest of this entry »
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Who is Paul Volcker? Obama appoints a longtime enemy of the working class
By admin | November 29, 2008
By Patrick Martin , 29 November 2008
President-elect Barack Obama announced Wednesday the appointment of former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker to head a White House advisory board to oversee the new administration’s policies for stabilizing financial markets. The selection of the 81-year-old Volcker puts an inveterate enemy of the working class at the side of the new president, and demonstrates the class character of the right-wing government that Obama is assembling.
In the course of the week, Obama selected his entire economic team: Timothy Geithner, currently president of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, who will become secretary of the treasury; Lawrence Summers, former Clinton treasury secretary, who will head the National Economic Council, the chief White House group for coordinating economic policy; and Peter Orszag, who will become budget director. Summers, Geithner and Orszag are all protégés of former Clinton treasury secretary Robert Rubin, former CEO of Goldman Sachs and now director and vice chairman of Citigroup.
These appointments have been greeted favorably on Wall Street, with a 1,200-point runup in stock prices since Geithner’s name was made public last Friday. Congressional Republicans hailed the selection of Geithner and Summers, and an op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal November 28 by former Bush political adviser Karl Rove was headlined, “Thanksgiving Cheer From Obama: He’s assembled a first-rate economic team.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Socialist Party Obtains Write-In Ballot Access
By admin | August 18, 2008
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