The Trans Pacific Partnership is a proposed new trade treaty which opponents call NAFTA on Steroids. NIJwJ believes that it will eliminate many thousands of jobs for US workers, create new obstacles to environmental protection, climate protection, food safety , and workers’ rights. It will also increase the cost of prescription drugs, and impose new, extremely restrictive rules on the exchange of information and “content” on the internet.
The Trans Pacific Partnership is a threat to democracy because it gives multinational corporations the right to sue nation states, including the US, which pass laws which interfere with a corporation’s “expected future profits.” So, if the US passes the Employee Free Choice Act, or a Carbon Tax, or even a “Buy American” law, the United States could be sued for doing that. The case would be tried before a three person panel, made up of corporate lawyers, who could impose substantial fines (to be paid out of taxpayer money) or possibly the law could be overturned. These tribunals would be held in secret and there would be no appeal.read more
The MENA Solidarity Network-US promotes awareness of, and support for, the ongoing wave of mass revolutionary struggles in the Middle East and North Africa–popularly known as the Arab Revolutions.
We were founded by groups and individuals from the left and workers’ movements who recognized the need to oppose Western imperialist threats to attack Syria while also continuing to defend Syria’s popular revolution against the Assad dictatorship and its allies. We thus oppose all forms of imperialist intervention in the region while supporting popular struggles against all who would deny democratic rights or enforce economic exploitation.
We are committed to the principle of international solidarity from below, which supports the struggles of the oppressed against their oppressors in all of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Bahrain, and other countries. We cannot, as people of conscience, ignore the call for “Freedom, Dignity, and Social Justice” coming from revolutionaries throughout the region.
We believe that these mass movements share deep socioeconomic roots and are the beginning of a revolutionary process that will continue to unfold in the coming years. We stand in solidarity with the people of the Middle East and North Africa as they go through this process and create their own history and oppose any intervention from our own government.
We defend the rights of all people to practice, or not practice, any religious faith of their choosing. Based in the United States, we see a particular responsibility to defend Muslims from Islamophobic vilification and discrimination.
We highlight and applaud the role of women in the revolutions, and support their full rights and equal participation in society and in the revolutionary process.
And we pay particular attention to the struggles of workers and poor people, defending their rights and drawing attention to their struggles.
We call upon all groups and people who agree with us to sign onto our statement and join our network to oppose US intervention and help build solidarity with our brothers and sisters struggling for freedom and justice in the Middle East and North Africa.
Our planet is becoming a perilous environment for humans and other living things. It is becoming toxic. Our air, water, land, food, and animals are being contaminated daily: toxic water from fracking, overflowing landfills, the destruction of the earth through coal removal and processing, depleted topsoil through monoculture crops, methane about to be released from the thawing of the permafrost in the Arctic, overfishing of our oceans, GMOs in our food, bees dying from pesticide use. The list goes on. Most urgent is global climate change caused by our use of fossil fuels.
We must change our economy and our culture. We must disengage from the current economic model which requires constant growth and which stimulates artificial “needs” while not fulfilling genuine human needs. We must move away from our consumerism and materialism. We must stop rewarding greed and extraction.
We must build community by doing such things as encouraging local self-reliance in food production.read more
Share thisThe American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) had its 40th anniversary meeting in Chicago, Illinois, at the posh Palmer House (a Hilton Hotel) from August 7-9. ALEC claims that 1,200 people attended its meeting this year; the conventioneers included state legislators, corporate lobbyists, and right-wing operatives. ALEC was greeted by more than twice as many protestors, who came out to speak out against ALEC’s regressive policies. Whether they came to protest ALEC’s wage suppression agenda or its bills to voucherize public education or ALEC’s deadly legacy of “Stand Your Ground” gun laws, protesters carried the message “Stand Up to ALEC.”Here are some of the best images from ALEC’s annual meeting, which may not make the official ALEC photo album.Protestors drop three banners inside the Palmer House Hilton (Source: US Uncut)
As corporate lobbyists and legislators were arriving, the Illinois Moral Monday Coalition made good use of the stunning background of the Palmer House lobby to drop simultaneously several anti-ALEC banners from the balconies. Six of the dozens of participants were arrested for their acts of civil disobedience in speaking out about ALEC.
Some of the banners read: “ALEC Makes For-Profit Prisons,” “Moral Monday: No To ALEC,” and “ALEC Attacks All Workers.” The Chicago Moral Monday Coalition partners include: local clergy and laypeople, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), National Nurses United (NNU), US Uncut, Chicago Youth Climate Coalition, Chicago Fracking Working Group, Communities United Against Foreclosures and Evictions, Young People’s Assembly on Violence and Youth Services Project, Southside Together Organizing for Power.read more
Promoting peace, a stronger democracy, and social and economic justice through education, dialog, and action
Protestors drop three banners inside the Palmer House Hilton (Source: US Uncut)