Notes from the Surf
Chess with Dad
http://www.chainbear.com/?issue=231
"Every day at lunch, I'd meet my father for chess"
A good work ethic
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=517
"My parents made sure I had a good work ethic."
ENVIRONMENT: A Consumer Culture Revolution
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=2780
"This consumerist culture is the elephant in the room... religion, government, the media, businesses and education all have key roles to play... Culture, after all, is for making it easy for people to unleash their potential, not for standing there as a wall to stop them from moving forward."
United Auto Workers at the Detroit Auto Show
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/detroit-auto-show-auto-union-holds-jobs-protest/
"We can help the cause of global warming while putting people back to work"... At the onset of World War II, he said, it took the federal government less than a year to convert auto plants into military plants... "We need the same kind of deployment now, except this is a different kind of war"
What kind of Freedom are we fighting for anyway?
http://www.indypendent.org/2010/01/15/army-imprisons-soldier-for-singing-against-stop-loss-policy/
"Army Specialist and Iraq war veteran Marc Hall was incarcerated by the U.S. Army on December 11, 2009, in Liberty County Jail, Georgia, for recording a song that expresses his anger over the Army’s stop-loss policy."
Haiti: So far from God, so close to the United States
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24391.htm
"From 1915 to 1934, the U.S. Marines imposed harsh military occupation, murdered Haitians patriots and diverted 40 percent of Haiti's gross domestic product to U.S. bankers... Despite having been bled dry by American bankers and generals, civil disorder prevailed until 1957, when the CIA installed President-for-Life François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Duvalier's brutal Tonton Macoutes paramilitary goon squads murdered at least 30,000 Haitians"
Venezuela: Defying Comparative Advantage Theory
http://news.brunei.fm//2010/01/14/venezuelas-chavez-expropriates-sugar-mills/
"It was like economic slavery... the exclusive dependence on hydrocarbons must be stopped by increasing production designed to diversify... I’m not saying that we are able to make everything here, but we can surely make most of the things"
Ecuador: `Citizens' Revolution', socialism for the 21st century
http://links.org.au/node/1460
we don’t talk about competition, we speak of coordination... an unequal distribution of income, price represents anything, not the intensity of preference... "enough with this theology that tells us to endure exploitation in life because after death you are going to have the Kingdom of Heaven". No, the Kingdom of Heaven must be made here – it is the kingdom of justice. You have to struggle against injustice.
Billings Wobblies: "replace corporate interests with employee control in every single enterprise"
http://www.billingsnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=999:in-billings-wobblies-attempt-labor-comeback
"In the first two hours of the day, workers produce enough goods and services to pay the company’s bills. The next six hours’ production goes to profits and taxes... There’s no time to nurture children or marriage... an unconscionable income for the few at the top while the majority is scrambling to pay the light bill and mortgage."
The Growth of Citizen Co-Ops
http://www.alternet.org/story/144969/?page=entire
"In contrast to this country, where small rural communities face the loss of industrial jobs, they're seeing growth... It's night and day... when 50 people own their business in their own neighborhood where they live, they're not going to send those jobs somewhere else."