[This article first appeared in the September issue of Jacobin.]

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men." – Abraham Lincoln

Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, often plays a useful role in exposing lies by political candidates. Sometimes, however, its factchecking is rather tendentious. Its coverage of the abortion stance of the 2012 Republican Party platform is a case in point.

[This is an expanded version of a letter sent to the New York Times and not printed.]

A Public Forum

The Neoliberal Assault on Disability Rights

Thursday, October 4, 2012 7:00pm
New York University
Room 803, Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, Manhattan

sponsored by New Politics, Radical Film and Lecture Series(RFLS),
and Campaign for peace and Democracy (CPD)

I’ve been asked by readers how they can show their support to teacher unionists in Chicago and Colombia, whose struggles I describe in my recent NP post.  One way is to contribute to the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) Solidarity Fund. The billionaires are pouring big bucks into defeating this movement and union dues alone won’t be able to cover the union’s costs in trying to win this battle to protect public education.  

You wouldn’t know it from the US media, but the education wars are heating up globally.  Three of the hottest spots are Chicago, Chile, and Colombia.  The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has revved up its struggle to protect public education in that city, with a vote to issue a 10-day strike notice (no strike date set).

Harrison and Landy recently returned from a trip to Greece, where they met with activists and others to gain a better understanding of the popular upsurge against the Greek government’s austerity program.

[Reply to Bill Balderston's article, "Occupy Oakland and the Labor Movement."]

     I am going to focus my remarks on section 2 of Bill Balderston's article, which he subtitled "The Battle of Longview". Bill and I have very different views of the outcome of this battle, and what that outcome is likely to mean.

      The Mexican presidential election that took place on July 2 is over—but it is not done. Tens of thousands of Mexicans have been marching every week for almost a month in Mexico City and other cities throughout the country against what they call the “imposition” by Mexican election authorities of Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) as president of Mexico.

         I have read many analyses of the failure to recall Gov. Walker in Wisconsin, and I am astonished that not one even mentions American industries either outsourcing or just folding their tents because they are unable to compete with foreign companies. Steel is an example of the latter: many steel workers now work as greeters at Walmart.

         Surely this is an important cause of labor’s sad decline. Industrial capitalism has given way to finance capitalism, as everyone knows.

[Introduction by Dan La Botz: As tens of thousands throughout the country protest the results of Mexico’s presidential elections, a group in the State of Veracruz has issued a statement calling upon Mexicans to both refuse to recognize the results of the election and to engage in a campaign of civil disobedience to make it impossible for the new government to rule.