March 8, 2012

Revealed: The best and worst places to be a woman

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/revealed-the-best-and-worst-places-to-be-a-woman-7534794.html

Revealed: The best and worst places to be a woman
An Independent on Sunday investigation to mark International Women's Day unearths some surprising results...

When more than half of the world's population wakes up on Thursday – the 101st International Women's Day – it will be hard to know whether to celebrate or give in to despair. A British woman will face the prospect of at least 14 more general elections before women equal men in the Commons. But a woman in Qatar will be six times more likely to go to university than the man next door.

The global gender gap defies simple solutions. Eighty-five per cent of countries have improved conditions for women over the past six years, according to the World Economic Forum, but in economic and political terms there is still a long way to go.

"From London to Lahore," says Oxfam, "inequality between men and women persists." Here The Independent on Sunday explores the best places to be a woman today.

1. Best place to be a woman: Iceland..

...more..

March 8, 2012

Seamus, the dog-on-the-roof, a political icon

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/opinion/collins-dogging-mitt-romney.html?_r=2&hp

Dogging Mitt RomneyBy GAIL COLLINS
Published: March 7, 2012

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this, but Mitt Romney once drove to Canada with the family Irish setter on the roof of the car.

Seamus, the dog-on-the-roof, has become a kind of political icon. You cannot go anywhere without running into him. There are Seamus T-shirts and endless Web sites. This week, the story was a New Yorker cover, with Rick Santorum playing the role of the Irish setter.

<snip>
At some point — possibly in response to the excitement about being passed by tractor-trailers while floating like a furry maraschino cherry on top of the car, Seamus developed diarrhea. And Romney, who had designated all the acceptable rest stops before beginning the trip, was forced to make an unscheduled trip to a gas station. Where he kept the family in the car while he hosed down the station wagon and the dog, then returned to the highway.

<snip>

People, does any of this sound appealing? Elect Mitt Romney and he will take the nation on the road to the future. Some of us will be stuck on the roof. The rest of us will be inside singing camp songs and waiting for the day when the master plan lets us stop to visit the bathroom. Plus, anybody who screws up on the way to the future gets the hose.

Anyhow, we are now at a post-Super-Tuesday lull in the campaign, and I am ready to answer Seamus questions.

..more..

March 1, 2012

100,000,000 workers grind India to a halt in one of world's biggest strikes ever

From Occupy Wall St. (FB)
On Feb. 28th, 100 million workers in India went on Strike! http://bit.ly/zvPlp7

100,000,000 workers grind India to a halt in one of world's biggest strikes ever

One of the world's largest ever strikes began at midnight on Monday 27th Feb and will end at midnight tonight. Up to 100,000,000 Indian workers from different sectors and industries are calling for a national minimum wage, permanent jobs, and much more.

As reported by libcom blogger working class self organisation in January:

Quote:

Over a dozen of India’s largest trade unions have called for and signed up to the strike. The strike will affect many sectors, including public sector banks, ports and docks, railways, insurance, road transport, energy workers, miners, and aviation workers.
“Recent months have seen a mounting wave of militant worker struggles in India, strikes for union recognition in India’s expanding auto sector, including a two-day occupation of a Hyundai plant, a wildcat strike by Air India personnel, and walkouts by telecom workers and coal miners against the central government’s privatization plans.”

The different unions have a variety of different demands, they include gaining the same rights and protection for temporary and contract workers that permanent workers have, raising and extending the minimum wage, resisting the attacks on trade unions, stopping price rises, the creation of a national social security fund, increase in pensions, and combating corruption.

..more..

and, Massive Student Protests and Occupations in Spain: http://bit.ly/yhPGhl

Student protests erupt across Spain

By Jas Chohan

29-F as it has already being termed saw mass student protests around the Spanish peninsula. The latest marches took place in the almost immediate aftermath of those against the passing of new Labour Reform Laws, which have made it easier and cheaper for companies to sack their employees with little forewarning.

The student strikes were focused on cuts in education but also in the public sector among other areas that face austerity measures. The Spanish student movement has made it clear it very much sees itself as part of the globally ‘lost’ generation, doomed to earn little if anything. Barcelona made the biggest headlines yesterday, with estimates of some 70,000 students having taken to the streets. Seven public Catalan universities and the ‘United Platform in Defence of Public Universities’ called the strike there, which shut down the centre of the city for hours. Large banners reading ‘We Will not Pay for their Fraud’ and ‘We Will Save Public Universities’ led the demonstration. Strong police aggression faced protestors in Barcelona though, the city whose riot police are famed nationally for their frequently heavy handed policing tactics.

In the whole region of Valencia some 134,000 secondary students alone supported the education strikes, which comparatively were more peaceful. However, only last week student protestors there faced strong police repression in protests against austerity measures in education. The events of the past week undoubtedly spurred on and strengthened yesterdays marches around the country, which took place in solidarity with those in Valencia and against police forces that increasingly seem to enforce law through brute force.
The momentum of protest looks to continue in many of the cities, with the students of the Autonomous University of Barcelona having called another day of strikes for Thursday. All across the country, demonstrations have taken place within the context of cuts facing the nation as a whole. Yesterday once again calls for another general strike reverberated on the streets, with students and workers uniting against the criminal measures being proposed by the conservative Popular Party (PP). The protests have been carried out with strength in numbers and with a spirit of societal solidarity before a cutting government, which faces mounting pressure on all fronts


Today, a National Right to Education Day of Action in the US: http://bit.ly/z7FT9s

http://occupywallst.org/