Category Archives: Global Politics

Muslim Frenchwomen Struggle With Discrimination as Bans on Veils Expand – NYTimes.com

So far, France has passed two laws, one in 2004 banning veils in public elementary and secondary schools, and another, enacted in 2011, banning full face veils, which are worn by only a tiny portion of the population.

But observant Muslim women in France, whose head coverings can vary from head scarves tied loosely under the chin to tightly fitted caps and wimple-like scarves that hide every strand of hair, say the constant talk of new laws has made them targets of abuse, from being spat at to having their veils pulled or being pushed when they walk on the streets.

In some towns, mothers wearing head scarves have been prevented from picking up their children from school or from chaperoning class outings. One major discount store has been accused of routinely searching veiled customers.

Some women have even been violently attacked. In Toulouse recently, a pregnant mother wearing a head scarf had to be hospitalized after being beaten on the street by a young man who called her a “dirty Muslim.”

Statistics collected by the National Observatory Against Islamophobia, a watchdog group, show that in the last two years 80 percent of the anti-Muslim acts involving violence and assault were directed at women, most of them veiled.

via Muslim Frenchwomen Struggle With Discrimination as Bans on Veils Expand – NYTimes.com.

Controversial (fascist) population control bill becomes law in Myanmar

Myanmar’s president has signed off on a law that says couples must space their children 36 months apart. This is the first of four “race and religious protection” laws proposed by Buddhist nationalists.

“Takes lots of gall for these folks to claim to be Buddhists.”

via Controversial population control bill becomes law in Myanmar.

A Teachers’ Day Protest in Mexico City Brings an Army of Police into the Streets

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It’s Teachers’ Day. And in Mexico the teachers have been some of the most militant and vocal forces against privatization, government corruption, police repression and the failed drug war.

via A Teachers’ Day Protest in Mexico City Brings an Army of Police into the Streets.

League of the South Chieftain Talks ‘Race War’ | Hatewatch

“We Southern nationalists do not want a race war (or any sort of war). But if one is forced on us, we’ll participate,” wrote Hill on the LOS website. “Southern whites are geared up and armed to the teeth.”

Such statements may come as a shock, given the fact that the LOS has spent much of the last two years attempting to promote its message to “regular” southerners through the use of mainstream, conservative messaging on issues such as “traditional marriage” and the “demographic displacement of southerners.” Of course, that was never a very honest presentation. After all, Hill is the same man who at a Georgia LOS meeting in 2011 urged his constituents to begin stocking up on AK-47s, hollow-point bullets, and, most remarkably, tools to derail trains.

via League of the South Chieftain Talks ‘Race War’ | Hatewatch.

Robert Reich: To Play the Game or Change the Game – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

Robert Reich: To Play the Game or Change the Game – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.

In fact, Americans made only one percent of the products that generated Nike’s $27.8 billion revenue last year. And Nike is moving ever more of its production abroad. Last year, a third of Nike’s remaining 13,922 American production workers were laid off.

Most of Nike’s products are made by 990,000 workers in low-wage countries whose abysmal working conditions have made Nike a symbol of global sweatshop labor.

As wages have risen in China, Nike has switched most of its production to Vietnam where wages are less than sixty cents are hour. Almost 340,000 workers cut and assemble Nike products there.

In other words, Nike is a global corporation with no particular loyalty or connection to the United States. Its loyalty is to its global shareholders.

Leftist Party’s Win in Alberta May Affect Future of Oil Sands – NYTimes.com

With an economy dominated by the oil industry and a conservative, free-market political tradition, Alberta has long been cast as the Texas of Canada. But on Tuesday, not only did the province’s voters put the Progressive Conservative Party out of power after 43 years, they elected a government from the far left of Canada’s mainstream political spectrum.

The unexpected rise of the New Democratic Party, which was partly founded by labor unions, may have implications for Alberta’s oil sands, which, many critics say, enjoyed a light regulatory touch under Conservative governments. And with a federal election coming this year, the result will not be welcomed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative whose party’s power base is in Alberta, along with his own parliamentary constituency.

via Leftist Party’s Win in Alberta May Affect Future of Oil Sands – NYTimes.com.

Robert Reich: Trans Pacific Trickle-Down Economics – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

What we should have learned by now about trickle-down economics is that nothing trickles down.

If the Trans Pacific Partnership is enacted, big corporations, Wall Street, and their top executives and shareholders will make out like bandits. Who will the bandits be stealing from? The rest of us.

via Robert Reich: Trans Pacific Trickle-Down Economics – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.