We are approaching a time when critical decisions will be made on Afghanistan; whether the U.S. government will expand the war for years, sucking us into a quagmire of unimaginable proportions, or disengage, increasing the possibility of investing in health care reform, modest responses to the danger of climate change, and jobs and justice for workers.

On this episode we'll play our interview with Scott Marshall, chair of the Communist Party's labor commission, about the recent AFL-CIO national convention and labor's role in the demonstrations at the G-20 events in Pittsburgh.

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 1 (acn) Former US President Bill Clinton, now appointed as UN special envoy to Haiti, praised the support given by Cuba and Venezuela to that Caribbean nation to improve its precarious social and economic situation.

Mayoral candidate and City Council President Lisa Borders's most influential supporter--who helped guide her back into the race and reportedly raised about $270,000 for her at a fundraiser he hosted--Mr. Tom Bell, is a well-known Atlanta business leader.

Just days after Republican Sen. David Vitter, R-La., called for an investigation into ACORN for assisting a fake prostitution ring, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Louisiana Office of Disciplinary Counsel against Vitter for violating rules of professional conduct by repeatedly soliciting real prostitution.

Suel Jones can be found most every morning around 8:30 in his favorite café on Nha Tho Street, in the quiet part of Ha Noi's Old Quarter, just west of Hoan Kiem Lake. He's one of dozens and dozens of US veterans who live in-country full or part-time to work at undoing some of the war's devastation … in Viet Nam.

“There is very little class consciousness in this country,” one high-level leader in the AFL-CIO told me several years back, during the nadir of the Bush-Republican Party stranglehold on the US government. “So, if the labor movement is going to grow, build strength, win victories and win more political power, we need to build coalitions with the community,” he concluded.

While in a Florida union hall recently (yes, Florida!), I heard several members discussing the right-wing attack on Obama’s healthcare plan as a gateway to socialism, at which point one woman asserted, “If the public option is socialism then socialism is what we need!”

Since the collapse of the socialist experiment in the USSR and Eastern Europe the question of how to make socialism successful has become more pertinent than ever before.

A new agreement between the United States and Colombia is being discussed, including the use of Colombian military bases by the US (two navy, two army, and three air force), adding 1,400 US military personnel, and a further $5 billion in aid over a period of 10 years.

The association of Italians with Communism in the United States has been obscured by the unfounded assertion that in 1927 Italian American radicalism along with Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti died. This perspective predominates despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

A progressive interviewer recently asked Michael Moore, "Are you a socialist?" He avoided a direct answer, which he typically does when questioned like this. This time he responded defensively, “I never read Marx.” The short of it, Michael Moore is a filmmaker. A damn good one too.

Political Islam is a concept that has existed in Egypt for almost a century. It emerged in 1920 as a reaction Egypt’s occupation by the United Kingdom and the lack of resistance of this occupation on the part of the ruling monarchs of the time.

Carlos picks me up with his dated Soviet-made Lada at the Jose Marti International Airport on a hot sweltering day in Havana. It’s been eight months since I’ve seen him, last January to be precise, when I came to the island on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. “How’s it been?” I ask him as we begin the 20 minute drive to central Havana.

The serious Obama spoke today [Sept. 22]. Recently, I recognized two positive features in his behavior: his attempt to make healthcare available to the 47 million Americans who don’t have access to it, and his concern for climate change.

According to South Africa's Mail & Guardian, Brazil is making a major push in the region and, it is reported, this is not necessarily pleasing to the ruling African National Congress government in Pretoria.

So far the White House has offered no timetable and no "exit strategy" for Afghanistan. Instead General McChrystal and other military leaders are pressing for the addition of tens of thousands of new American troops and a commitment to remain in Afghanistan for years to come. 


Peace groups internationally are putting the pressure on President Obama this fall, as he ponders the request from Gen. McChrystal for a “surge” troop escalation in Afghanistan. Thankfully, leading Democrats and even former President Clinton are urging caution, though few are taking the wiser step of recommending a pullout.

Since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China sixty years ago, on October 1st, 1949, the economy of this nation, under the direction Chinese Communist Party, has become a model of prosperity.