Bill Fletcher, Jr.

When I awoke on Friday morning, December 12th, I turned on my computer. The first thing I saw was that the deal being worked on in the Senate to provide the automobile companies with loans had fallen through. The explanation offered on MSN: the United Auto Workers (UAW) refused to take a pay cut. I…

When it comes to Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the silence is deafening, at least outside of Palestine. One wonders how many international conventions the Israelis need to break before there is an actual global outcry and action against their repeated human rights abuses against Palestine. The blockade of Gaza is only the latest in a…

It has been interesting to watch and listen to a debate unfold among many progressives regarding how to assess the initial direction of President-elect Obama. I have, however, found a particular tendency a bit unsettling. It is a tendency to make certain assumptions regarding Obama’s actual intent and then to project his decisions, for instance…

With the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. Presidency, his former Senate seat is now open. A series of discussions are unfolding as to who Illinois Governor Blagojevich should appoint. One of the more interesting names is Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. There are three main reasons that I am interested in seeing his appointment:…

I found myself facing a peculiar choice. Because I was taking Election Day off to do election work, I could have submitted an absentee ballot. In fact, that would probably have been the most logical thing to do. It would have saved me a lot of time. I kept procrastinating in filing for such a…

Ok folks, it is time to decide. Do we feel that there is nothing particularly different between Obama and McCain such that it does not matter who wins, or, in the alternative, have we concluded that there is enough that is different that we MUST cast our vote for Senator Obama? In case you have…

The “Joe the Plumber” story has unraveled, yet Senator McCain continues to make reference to what is, in fact, a mythical character. Sure, there is a Joe, but he is not what he described himself to be. This has been exposed. Yet, McCain continues to reference “Joe the Plumber” as if to lend credibility to…

In the face of economic crises there is always a search for scapegoats. Particularly in the case of modern capitalism, there remains a certain level of disbelief that crises are built into the system, i.e., that capitalism generates crises (and always has!). Because many of us would rather believe that capitalism is a rational system…

I had almost literally just finished reading William Gumede’s acclaimed biography of South African President Thabo Mbeki, Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC: Second Edition (New York: Zed Press, 2007), when it was announced that President Mbeki was being sacked by the leadership of the African National Congress. To say…