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News Releases

  • Trade Policy Issues: Africa and China

    As Congress considers key legislation about trade relations with Africa and China, the following policy analysts are available for interviews: EZEKIEL PAJIBO Senior policy analyst with the Africa Faith and Justice Network, Pajibo said today: “This Africa trade bill will not improve the conditions for most people in Africa. It fails to provide for desperately needed debt cancellation, poverty reduction or an end to structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It will, however, help major multinational corporations. It doesn’t lay the basis for Africa to have a manufacturing capability. Instead, it continues with what…

  • Nike and Sweatshops

    SARAH JACOBSON A coordinating committee member of United Students Against Sweatshops, Jacobson studies at the University of Oregon in Eugene. She said today: “The decision of the University of Oregon to join the Worker Rights Consortium was made after a year-long process that involved faculty, students and administrators. President Dave Frohnmayer signed onto the WRC only after a three-fourths majority election by students, after the unanimous recommendation by an advisory committee established by the president in the fall and after a vote by the University Senate. CEO of Nike and UO alumnus Phil Knight has responded by pulling $30 million…

  • 25 Years Later: Perspectives on the Vietnam War

    BARBARA SONNEBORN On her 24th birthday, Sonneborn was informed that her husband was killed in Vietnam. Twenty years later, she felt compelled to travel to Vietnam. The result was “Regret to Inform,” an Academy Award nominated film (nationally broadcast on PBS earlier this year) which documents the experiences of widows from of all sides of the Vietnam-American war. She is now organizing the Widows of War Living Memorial which provides a forum for widows of war to tell their stories and become a force for peace. Said Sonneborn: “When I went to Vietnam I knew that war was the enemy,…

  • Non-Proliferation Treaty

    As participants from around the world gather at the United Nations for a month-long conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the following policy analysts are available for interviews: JACQUELINE CABASSO Executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, Cabasso is at the UN conference in New York. She said today: “The U.S. is doing a big PR blitz trying to convince the rest of the world that it is in compliance with Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires the nuclear powers to negotiate the end of the arms race and the elimination of nuclear weapons. In…

  • Perspectives on Earth Day

    In connection with Earth Day, the following people are available for interviews: KRISTEN BOYLES A staff attorney with the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund specializing in Clean Water Act litigation, Boyles said: “As we celebrate Earth Day 2000, it ‘s important to remember that all life on our planet depends on water. Unfortunately, clean water is fast becoming a scarce commodity in the United States. Despite our need for clean water, there are currently attacks on the Clean Water Act in Congress which would undermine laws protecting our rivers, lakes and streams.” More Information RICK HIND Legislative director of the Greenpeace…

  • Interviews Available on IMF and World Bank

    As protests continue in Washington against policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the following are available for interviews: CAROL WELCH International policy analyst for Friends of the Earth and coauthor of the recent report “The IMF: Selling the Environment Short,” Welch said today: “The IMF deals in environmental destruction. It pushes countries to exploit natural resources to meet short-term financial needs. In Cameroon, exports of raw logs increased 50 percent in a three-year IMF program.” More Information CHERYL PAYER Author of The Debt Trap: The IMF and the Third World and Lent and Lost: Foreign Credit and…

  • With Protests Underway, Interviews Available

    As thousands protest against the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, the following are available for interviews: QUENTIN DRISKELL An attorney with the National Conference of Black Lawyers and the National Lawyers Guild, Driskell is providing legal assistance to protesters. He said today: “There’s a complete atmosphere of repression in Washington: the illegitimate preemptive arrests, the expansion of the restricted area around the World Bank building, the storming of the Convergence Center. The authorities seem bent on not allowing peaceful protests to go forward. The tactics that they’ve resorted to almost seem as if…

  • Analysts Available on Stock Downturn

    As Wall Street ends a week of plummeting stocks, economists who have warned of a massive price bubble are available for interviews: DEAN BAKER Dean Baker has written extensively about the over-valuation in the stock market the last three years, including a recent article in Dollars and Sense entitled “The New Economy: A Millennial Myth.” In an Institute for Public Accuracy news release on March 16 of this year — as the stock market was rising — Baker, who is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, warned about elation: “The main feature of the ‘new economy’ is…

  • IMF and Debt: Analysts Available

    As thousands gather in Washington to protest the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the following analysts are available for interviews: DENNIS KUCINICH A member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Kucinich (D-Ohio) said today: “Unless debt relief is delinked from a requirement of countries to follow IMF economic policies, the main beneficiary of Congressional funding for debt relief is the IMF. That’s because the IMF will receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, while poor countries will have to follow IMF dictates about government spending, health and education policy, monetary policy, privatization. But the IMF…

  • Critics — Some Unexpected — of IMF and World Bank

    Critics of the IMF and World Bank include Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Harvard Institute for International Development and an advisor to countries around the world. Today he told “Inside Capital” that the IMF, “with the very heavy backing of the U.S. government, really tries to run countries all over the world, and they don’t do a very good job of it.” Also, the former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz, now at the Brookings Institution, has written a New Republic piece quite critical of the IMF. Here are other critics of the IMF and World Bank, available for interviews:…

  • Genocide Denial

    “Imagine for a moment that a magnitude 8 earthquake occurred somewhere in the world, and the Western corporate media refused to use the word ‘earthquake’ in reporting it, instead talking ambiguously of a ‘tectonic incident’ that had caused buildings to collapse and people to die.”

  • Espionage Act Defendant Asif Rahman Will be Held in Pre-Trial Detention

    “Based on pure speculation the government claimed Rahman was ideologically motivated and therefore more dangerous than other defendants. If taken to its logical conclusion, it would mean the government believes whistleblowers who act out of the public interest are a greater threat than spies who betray their country for financial gain.” 

  • Trying to Make Sense of RFK Jr.

    “It’s absolutely true that RFK Jr. is an unusual political figure. But it’s also true that he has deep roots in our politics going all the way back to his uncle, John F. Kennedy. The Kennedys have always been present in our political system because mainstream Democrats have tried to recapture the political magic of…

  • Israel Bombing Gaza, Lebanon, Syria

    “HTS has every reason to approach the UN Security Council and to charge Israel with aggression, both for Israel’s encroachment on territory of Syria beyond the illegally occupied Golan Heights, and for Israel’s bombing of Syria’s naval fleet and other military sites.”

  • Insurance CEO Shooting Highlights Street Crime vs Corporate Crime Contrast

    “We often view street violence as a moral failing deserving punishment; in the corporate world, we often view decisions that cause harm as unfortunate but necessary byproducts of business. But the public’s shocking reaction to Thompson’s shooting suggests that people are interpreting the ruthless tactics of private health insurers as forms of violence akin to…

  • Threats to Regulation of Formaldehyde

    New reporting from ProPublica found that under the incoming Trump administration, regulations to curb formaldehyde are under threat. Formaldehyde is one of the most widespread toxic pollutants and causes more cancer than any other air pollutant. Under President Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency will release its final health assessment of formaldehyde by the end of…

  • Syria’s Future: Democracy or Subservience to U.S., Turkey and Israel?

    “The Israeli bombardment of Syrian military facilities had weakened the Syrian armed forces’ logistical and ordinance capabilities. These attacks had been sustained and painful for the Syrian armed forces…. The nearly three years of conflict in Ukraine had certainly denied Syria the ability to call upon further Russian assistance for the protection of Damascus or…

  • “Israel is an Apartheid State Responsible for Genocide”

    “You have crossed all lines and nurtured the most vile of human impulses, but the world is finally glimpsing the terror we have endured at your hands for so long, and they are seeing the reality of who you are, who you’ve always been. They watch in utter astonishment the sadism, the glee, the joy,…

  • Police Raid Pro-Palestine Students’ Home in FBI-Led Graffiti Investigation

    In a letter Tuesday night on the George Mason raid, more than 80 groups, including chapters of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine at Mason and 11 other schools, called on Mason to revoke the trespass orders, reinstate the SJP chapter, return laptops and phones to the two students, and conduct a full independent…

  • Thiel Pal and Anduril Co-Founder Eyed for 2nd Highest Pentagon Post

    Striving for political influence in a perpetual quest for business-sustaining government contracts, Anduril has become a prominent Washington lobbyist, especially regarding AI regulations. Palantir has likewise secured positions in high places like the U.S.-China Economic Security and Review Commission, which advises lawmakers on the U.S.-China relationship.

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