Taking Sides in Iran

by Robert Parry
Consortium News
June 18, 2009

There are lots of good reasons for wishing that the bombastic Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be toppled by the political struggle playing out on the streets of Tehran, but there is still that troubling question of whether he actually won the election...

The U.S. news media casts aside objectivity in covering Iran's election despite the real question of who won

The Free Market's Marked Men: From The Niger Delta To The Amazon

by Amy Goodman
Democracy Now!weekly column
June 10, 2009

Ken Saro-Wiwa and Alberto Pizango never met, but they are united by a passion for the preservation of their people and their land, and by the fervor with which they were targeted by their respective governments. Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian government Nov. 10, 1995. Pizango this week was charged by the Peruvian government with sedition and rebellion, and narrowly eluded capture, taking refuge in the Nicaraguan Embassy in Lima. Nicaragua has just granted him political asylum. Two indigenous leaders—one living, one dead—Pizango and Saro-Wiwa demonstrate that effective grass-roots opposition to corporate power can take a personal toll...

Greenpeace Misses the Boat with Its Green IT Campaign

GreenerComputing
By Preston Gralla, June 8, 2009

Greenpeace recently made headlines with its "CoolIT Challenge" in which it issued a scorecard about the green IT actions of top technology vendors such as IBM, Dell, Sun, Intel, and Cisco. Greenpeace concluded all of them were doing a poor job --- but it's Greenpeace itself, not the tech firms, that missed the boat. The Greenpeace campaign, while well-intentioned, is simplistic and misguided...

Domestic Workers Fight for Bill of Rights

Democracy Now!
June 12, 2009

The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, if passed, would amend New York state labor law and guarantee the over 200,000 nannies and housekeepers in New York state a living wage, overtime pay, sick leave, severance and health benefits, and protection from employment discrimination. It would be the first such bill in the country to challenge the exclusion of the nearly two million domestic workers countrywide from national labor law and set an important precedent for other states. We speak with a nanny-turned-organizer...