“Obama and the right’s “brave new world” first appeared on PeoplesWorld.org on May 23, 2013. Read it on PeoplesWorld.org.

Political pundits seem to agree that the past couple of weeks haven’t been kind to the Obama administration. First, the controversy around the administration’s handling of the terrorist attack in Benghazi resurfaced. Then the story broke that the IRS has allegedly been targeting tea party organizations applying for special tax exempt status. And finally an uproar greeted the Justice Department’s sweeping subpoena of Associated Press journalists’ phone records.

“Keep hope alive, build a transformative movement” first appeared on PeoplesWorld.org on April 10, 2013. Read it on PeoplesWorld.org.

It is easy to become frustrated with the pace and the scale of change in recent years. Over the past 30 years or more, we have lost far more battles than we have won. Nearly every section of the working class – none more so than racially oppressed workers – has lost income, job opportunities, and rights as the capitalist class has ferociously pressed its offensive. Entire regions have been turned into economic wastelands. Many cities have become placeholders of poverty, inequality, and racial segregation. The temperature of the planet tracks upward. And wars and the buildup to wars for geoeconomic and geopolitical advantage, albeit disguised in the language of containing threats to world peace and stability, continue apace.

“Hugo Chavez empowered and united” first appeared on PeoplesWorld.org on March 12, 2013. Read it on PeoplesWorld.org.

The powerful voice of Hugo Chavez – a voice for economic justice, democracy, empowerment, national independence, continental solidarity, peace, anti-imperialism, and socialism – has been stilled.

While local and global elites sigh in relief and belittle his life in the major media, the untimely death of Chavez is also evoking a heartfelt cry from millions of abused, marginalized, and exploited people across the globe – none more so than in Venezuela and throughout Latin America.