Special Offer for New Readers! Subscribe to Socialist Action Newspaper at a
2011 2011-05Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 3 →
The words are the paper's own, from its digital file; the division into articles was made by machine, so a box or caption can end up inside the article next to it.
Scan page 3
Her. Pennsylvania has been accused of “rubber-stamping” applications for natural gas wells, spending as little as 35 minutes reviewing the average site’s paperwork and potential environmental impact. And Corbett has kept off the table any question of a state tax on drilling. Meanwhile, the gas industry has been campaigning to greenwash natural gas as “the bridge to a clean energy future,” particularly ExxonMobil, whose subsidiary XTO Energy had a 13,000-gallon fluid spill in Pennsylvania last year. Gas is promoted as a “cleaner” alternative to other fossil fuels because burning methane releases less carbon into the atmosphere per BTU than coal or oil. But a Cornell study, published in the May issue of Cli... Teachers union (continued from page 2: “Illinois teachers-union leaders bow before the Democrats”)
sions later. This strategy is something like a person allowing a tiger to eat his arm in the hope that the tiger will be satisfied. But the taste of that arm only wets the tiger’s appetite.
The mainstream media has applauded the legislation, as it would weaken the unions. At the same time, they have called for more flesh from the teachers’ union. On April 14 the Chicago Tribune ran an editorial endorsing the proposed education “reforms,” but at the same time it said, “Those reforms, should they be signed into law, don’t mean lawmakers can pat themselves on the back and figure their long-term job is done. It isn’t. Too many Chicago students need help right now.
“That’s why we’re glad to see a separate bill that would offer private school tuition support to as many as 30,000 Chicago school kids back on the Senate’s agenda.”
The Tribune views this education reform law as the first round in the decimation of public education; labor leaders should take them at their word. The ruling class and LOW INTRODUCTORY PRICE: $5 FOR FIVE MONTHS.
SEND IN THE COUPON ON PAGE 2. OFFER ENDS JUNE 1.
their henchmen have become emboldened, not pacified, with the proposed new law and labor’s surrender. The last thing Chicago teachers, students, and parents needed was an emboldened Rahm Emmanuel, the mayor elect. Emmanuel, even before assuming office, has made it clear he has union busting on his mayoral agenda. Emmanuel has announced that he will appoint as CEO of the Chicago public schools Jean-Claude Brizard, the head of the Rochester, N.Y., school district, who in his tenure there sought to bust the teacher’s union through concessions and charter schools. Emmanuel has also declared war on the city’s other unions, demanding they take concessions.
Although the proposals in Illinois are not as extreme as in Wisconsin and Ohio, Illinois’ politicians have accomplished for the ruling class what the Tea Party governors have not—labor’s submission to concessions. In order to successfully fight back against the antiworker assault foisted on teachers and other public workers labor, must adopt a new strategy—breaking with its dead-end dependence on supporting the political lesser evil. The lessons of Illinois may ultimately be more important than the lessons of Madison for the labor movement. n Globally, more than 935 million people go hungry every day. The dramatic rise in food prices adds millions monthly to the mass of starving people. It precipitated the “Arab Awakening” from Tunisia to Egypt. It sparked food riots in Bangladesh, and now confronts Afghanistan with a 50 per cent shortfall in funding for food operations.
Food prices soared 36 per cent over the past year, according to the World Bank. Why? Severe weather and crop diseases certainly took their toll.
But other causes are man-made (even if you think climate change is not). Market speculation and the diverting of farm land to biofuels are two of the causes, and they are no freaks of nature. They are the products of capitalist greed.
Corn, cassava, canola, and sugar are increasingly used to make ethanol to power cars and trucks. “Global maize prices rose about 73 per cent in the six months after June 2010,” said the World Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development Team. Forty per cent of the U.S. corn crop now goes into ethanol production.
Using food to make fuel is profitable for business, but as a substitute for oil, it’s like flipping humanity from the frying pan into the fire—with no reduction of the impact of carbon-burning on nature.
Since world population is predicted to top 9 billion by 2050, the urgency of increasing food production cannot be overstated. At the same time, the hypocrisy of the capitalist rulers should never be underestimated. In 2008, leaders of the G20 countries pledged $22 billion over three years to help poor countries increase food production. According to the World Bank fund set up to administer this money, only $400 million has so far been received.
How long will the starving wait? How long can capitalism get away with murder? n Socialist Action may 2011 3
Scan page 4
Arm Nabil / AP