• Pool Boots Kids Who Might "Change the Complexion" | NBC Philadelphia
  ""When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately.""
  (tags: northamerica race class)
• Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey » The Crisis Now
  Marxist geographer and anthropologist David Harvey in conversation with Chris Harman about the current financial crisis.
  (tags: blog northamerica international capitalism marxism)
• Nationwide strike at South African World Cup building sites | libcom.org
  "

  Some 70,000 construction workers in South Africa have gone on strike, halting work on stadiums being built for the 2010 World Cup.

  Unions are threatening to continue the strike as long as necessary if their demands for a 13% wage increase are not met. Organisers say they are confident the grounds will still be ready, unless the strike continues for months."

  (tags: southernafrica union workers)
• GA Zyuganov's Meeting with President Obama: Communist Stand Firmly for the Defense of Their Country — Communist Party of the Russian Federation
  "In a conversation with the American Presiden,t Zyuganov said that the Communists would strongly defend the national and state security interests of their country. "Today Obama has a chance to take a step toward Russia: to stop the expansion of NATO and to abandon the missile defense system in Europe, which nobody wants, and to think about how to work together for answers to global challenges of our time.""

  "В разговоре с американским президентом Г.А. Зюганов подчеркнул, что коммунисты будут твердо отстаивать национально-государственные интересы и безопасность нашей страны. «Сегодня у Обамы есть шанс сделать шаг навстречу России: прекратить расширение НАТО, отказаться от никому не нужной ПРО в Европе, подумать о том, как вместе искать ответы на глобальные вызовы современности."

  (tags: northasia international northamerica foreignaffairs communism politics)

• EurasiaNet Civil Society – Armenia: Crackdown Victims' Families Have Little Hope for Justice
  "Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s decision to shut down the commission investigating the deaths of the 10 people killed during March 2008 clashes between police and protesters has prompted families of the deceased to fear that those responsible for the deaths will escape punishment."
  (tags: news CentralAsia politics humanrights)
• Melissa Roxas Speaks X Revisiting Orapronobis/Fight For Us | Prometheus Brown
  "Though now over 20 years old, Lino Brocka’s Orapronobis (1988) becomes more relevant than ever. A film about paramilitary groups in the Philippines who abduct, kill and torture suspected “rebels” while the government turns a blind eye (or more likely, clandestinely supports and funds these operations), it’s Brocka’s most articulate and scathing political expression. And a damn good film. It’s still banned from public screening in the Philippines, though some people have mistakenly tried to convince me otherwise. Presently, the Philippine government has refused to acknowledge responsibility for Melissa Roxas’ ordeal, even arrogantly claiming that her abduction and torture was “stage-managed” (whatever the fuck that means) before even launching a formal investigation and despite overwhelming evidence that only the military could have launched such an operation."
  (tags: blog southeastasia northamerica humanrights politics rightwing)
• TwitPic of Pro-Democracy Pro-Zelaya Supporters in Honduras
  via: http://angryarab.blogspot.com
  (tags: latinamerica humanrights media)

Click on the pic.

And here’s some hip-hop to accompany the photo:

And while we’re at it, ya’ll might as well order …A Peaceful Riot…, or download it on iTunes.

Click on the pic.

• American Woman Is Freed After Philippines Abduction – NYTimes.com
  "According to the human rights group Karapatan, more than 200 Filipino activists have been kidnapped and never heard from since 2001, the year President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power. Others have turned up dead or showing signs of torture."
  (tags: news southeastasia humanrights)
• Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah on Disputed Iran Election – NYTimes.com
  "The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment."
  (tags: news middleeast elections politics religion)

• Clergy: Baptist Seminary Discriminates | 
  One of the colleges at my graduate school seems to be in some hot water. Racism within the Graduate Theological Union is pretty much an everyday occurrence.

  "The American Baptist Seminary of the West (ABSW), located in Berkeley, has a rich history in theology dating as far back as its founding in 1871. However, lately, the institution is receiving attention in the community due to charges of racism that are being raised by students.

  Students are charging that ABSW, one of nine charter institutions of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, has been driving out highly qualified and well-respected racial-ethnic professors. Further, students say that when they asked to meet with the administration to discuss their concerns, their requests were denied."

  (tags: news northamerica academia race)
• America never was America to me. « The Marxist-Leninist
  "In recognition of the Forth of July, I’m posting the following poem by the great revolutionary African American poet, Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again”."
  (tags: blog northamerica history art)
• Coup drives deep divide in Honduras | csmonitor.com
  "Honduras, one of the poorest nations in the region, has long been divided along the same class lines that characterize most of Latin America. The elite have historically had a tight grip on the political scene, but Zelaya vowed to empower the poor, raising salaries and supporting single mothers. "He is the only person generating change in this country," says Angel Castro, a hospital administrator in Tegucigalpa."
  (tags: news latinamerica class humanrights politics)

Over at The Excerpt Mill I post an excerpt from an article about Slavoj Žižek’s thinking on capitalism and liberal republican style democracy:

[Slavoj] Žižek believes that, today, any genuine and legitimate anticapitalist stance must be complemented by an attack on liberal democracy, on the grounds that holding on to the latter functions as a blackmail against the implementations of radical political projects.

• IMF Survey: Households Hit Hard by Wealth Losses
  "The financial crisis has erased a considerable amount of household wealth in many advanced economies. The precipitous fall in asset prices—across equity, bond, and housing markets—has eroded the value of financial and housing assets and the net worth of households, according to IMF research."
  (tags: northamerica capitalism)

The latest post on my blog The Excerpt Mill is about the labor center KMU, in the Philippines:

By “genuine,” we mean that the KMU is run by its members.  The members are given all information and decide the policies which run the organization.  By “militant,” we mean that the KMU will never betray the interests of the working class, even at the risk of our own lives.  The KMU believes workers become aware of their own human dignity through collective mass action.  By “nationalist,” we beleive the wealth of the Philippines belongs to the Filipino people and that national sovereignty must never be compromised.

• Reporters Sans Frontières : Media Blackout in Honduras
  (tags: latinamerica journalism media rightwing humanrights)
• LENIN'S TOMB: Coup d'etat in Honduras
  "Zelaya has been irritating the country's ruling class for some time with his support for Chavez and the 'Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas', and his calls for drug legalisation, but the attempt to maybe, pending a possible future referendum, democratise the system a little was a step too far. The Miami Herald, naturally enough, vocalised the propaganda of the would-be putschists a couple of days ago, namely their speculation that the aim might secretly be to try to remove the cap on presidential re-elections and thus have some sort of elected dictatorship just like that Chavez monster."
  (tags: blog latinamerica imperialism northamerica rightwing humanrights)
• Obama's First Coup d'Etat: Honduran President has been Kidnapped
  "Such an initiative has never taken place in the Central American nation, which has a very limited constitution that allows minimal participation by the people of Honduras in their political processes. The current constitution, written in 1982 during the height of the Reagan Administration's dirty war in Central America, was designed to ensure those in power, both economic and political, would retain it with little interference from the people."
  (tags: latinamerica law humanrights rightwing imperialism northamerica)
• Chinese Progressive Association
  "Founded in 1972, the Chinese Progressive Association educates, organizes and empowers the low income and working class immigrant Chinese community in San Francisco to build collective power with other oppressed communities to demand better living and working conditions and justice for all people."
  (tags: northamerica leftism race workers)