News and analysis

Last November we
reported how Binyam Mohamed had been tortured with the enthusiastic participation
of the British security services. 

Miliband has
slapped a gagging order on the High Court to hush up the incident on the ground
that it endangers national security. It is quite clear is all that is really endangered
is the Miliband’s reputation How can the man possibly posture before the world as
a democratic and defender of civil liberties if this shameful secret comes out?

‘Shock therapy’, or rapid mass
privatisation, in the former Soviet bloc 1990s was responsible for the early
deaths of 1m people. This is the principal conclusion of a paper published in the
medical journal ‘The Lancet’ (15.01.09). Not
only did privatisation devastate the economy and the means of feeding, clothing
and housing their people; it also shredded the social welfare system and all
the social support mechanisms built up over decades. As a result unemployed, desperate
people with no hope just went to pieces.

On December 5, 2008 over 200
recently-fired workers at the Republic Window and Doors factory in Chicago occupied
their plant, demanding that they be paid their vacation and severance checks.
The occupation ended victoriously six days later when the Bank of America and
other lenders to Republic agreed to pay the workers the approximately $2
million owed to them.But the workers didn’t stop there. They are now
seeking ways to restart the factory and potentially operate it as a worker-run
cooperative.