The wave of "China military threat theory" whipped up by the US military is a dangerous practice, involving its attempt to obstinately place China in a "rival" position.

NOT unexpectedly, the Non Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) month long (from May 2 to May 27) five-yearly Review Conference failed after the US spent the entire period either arguing about procedure or demanding that disarmament obligations of nuclear weapon states were outside the scope of discussions.

What do Big Bird, Elmo and Snuffleupagas have in common? They are a target of the Republican Party. Once again, Congressional Republicans are cutting the budgets of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

On June 16, Representatives Abercrombie (D-HI) and Jones (R-NC) introduced a resolution calling for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq called "Homeward Bound."

The 93rd Session of the International Labour Conference is meeting in a year which commemorates the anniversary of our organization, WFTU, which was founded at the end of the Second World War 60 years ago, just after the creation of the UN.

Last March, this website reported that official and media sources had uncovered the use of napalm by US military forces in Iraq.

The rapid rise of China as a major actor in the global economy is provoking a reconsideration of whether free trade is still in America’s interest.

Despite stringent government regulations that ban the airing of the supposed wiretapped conversations between the President and Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, progressive groups are finding more ways to circulate the content of the controversial tapes.

The mainstream media’s response to the announcement that the G8 had agreed to cancel $40 billion dollars in debt for eighteen countries in third world, mainly African.

The Communist Party of Britain political committee drew attention to the refusal of pro-constitution politicians to accept the clear decisions by French and Dutch voters to reject it. John Haylett told the committee that, "...But both the French and Dutch campaigns highlighted the institutionalisation of neoliberalism across the continent and, in the Netherlands, there was the added factor of resentment at the concentration of power among the larger countries.”

Have the leaders of the world’s most parasitical and piratical nations had an epiphany? No. They are deploying the “failed states” doctrine: any debt cancellation must be met by “targets for good governance and fighting corruption”. Bush ... announced that the USA would increase its African aid by $647 million. Again, this is hyperbole over substance. The US is near the bottom of the ladder of the rich nations in foreign aid, a lousy 0.2 percent of GDP (and most of this flows back to the US).

The Japanese government stands at a crossroads over a choice between continuing to represent U.S. interests in Asia and establishing an independent foreign policy as a member of Asia in cooperation with other Asian countries in making efforts for peace, equality, and mutual benefits...In this regard, we must recall that Japan is the only Asian country to wage a war of aggression and colonize this region.

More than 30,000 suicides per year have been recorded for seven straight years. The number for last year was 2,000 fewer than the 2003 peak. It is extraordinary that 89 people commit suicide a day. Those who killed themselves total 227,000 in the past seven years, equivalent to the vanishing of a medium-sized city...The number of suicides has not decreased because the unemployment rate remains high and many people are experiencing business failures and hardships in their daily lives.

On Monday, May 30, Minister of the Economy Rafael Correa announced that the country would no longer abide by the IMF surveillance programs that Gutiérrez had signed, a proposition that the Ecuadorian Congress has since ratified almost unanimously. These now repudiated pledges had focused on macroeconomic indicators and assigned ninety percent of Ecuador’s oil revenue to debt repayment, rendering the country incapable of providing sufficient funds for social initiatives

A bipartisan group of lawmakers announced plans to introduce a resolution calling for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq beginning in October 2006. The effort follows a failed Democratic amendment to a spending package requiring the Bush administration to provide an exit plan within 30 days. The Democrats’ amendment was killed by Republicans in committee.

Corruption in the Republican Party isn’t a new story. Calls for much needed investigations of Vice President Cheney’s relationship to big oil and its creation of the administration’s energy policy have been ignored. Investigations into the payment of journalists to propagandize for the administration didn’t go far as GOP leaders sat on efforts to get at the truth.

Advancing to the floor of the Senate, Terrence Boyle’s Appeals Court nomination passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote. Initially the committee postponed consideration of Boyle, signaling strong opposition to Boyle’s nomination.

There is a lot of talk about the American Empire. Indeed the name empire is correct, but it’s necessary to clarify one point well: the empire is not the American people, but the empire of the American capitalism.

Recent reports by two large trade union federations praised Iraqi workers for rebuilding their labor movement after the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime, in the face of war and terrorism, and in the face of anti-worker policies imposed by the occupying authorities and the governing coalition.

There is a saying among the poor people when they are ill: “What will I do if I get sick? Well, I will either get better or die.” Many even don’t seek to see a doctor when their sick anymore because it’s a luxury they can't afford.To see a doctor when ill is a basic necessity of life that is clearly being denied to a large number of people-something that can not be continued any longer.