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News Releases

  • Africa: Analysts Available

    DEBORAH TOLER Policy analyst with the Institute for Public Accuracy, Toler said today: “While this latest trip to Africa by Clinton is supposedly about stability and democracy, the corporate agenda also needs to be scrutinized. In exchange for paltry trade benefits, the ‘NAFTA for Africa’ African Growth and Opportunity Act made sub-Saharan Africa the only region in the world now subject to MAI [Multilateral Agreement on Investment] conditions. The recently announced loans from the Export-Import Bank are intended to undermine Brazilian and Indian sales of less expensive generic AIDS drugs and encourage African countries to go even further into debt…

  • Electricity Deregulation: The Costs

    HARVEY WASSERMAN Author of the just-released book The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation and senior advisor to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Wasserman said today: “Utility deregulation is a $200 billion scam that will gouge both the ratepayer and the environment for decades to come.” CHARLIE HIGLEY Energy research director for Public Citizen and author of the report “Money Harvest: Utility Holding Companies Are Threshing Ratepayers,” Higley said today: “The public has the right to control the electric power industry — reliable and affordable electricity is an absolute necessity in our modern society. Electricity deregulation, which…

  • Post-Convention Analysis

    DARA SILVERMAN National organizer of United for a Fair Economy, Silverman said today: “At the marches in the street, at trainings and in the Shadow Conventions, the themes of economic inequality and the concentration of corporate power were the basis of almost every message… Already 66 corporations, including AT&T and Raytheon, have given over $50,000 to both Al Gore and George W. Bush’s campaigns for president.” More Information NORMAN SOLOMON Executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Solomon appeared on the PBS “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” on Wednesday. He said today: “Let’s face it: Most of the words that…

  • Interviews Available on Democratic Convention

    REV. JAMES LAWSON Pastor emeritus of the Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, a colleague of Martin Luther King Jr. and a protester, Lawson said: “People are continuing the historic way of social change — they are in the streets risking jail and position, working to change the status quo.” GARRICK RUIZ A member of the Direct Action Network in Los Angeles, Ruiz was hit by approximately 10 rubber bullets on Monday evening when police opened fire. He said: “I was trying to get people out of the area while avoiding a stampede, but the police started firing off…

  • Core Democratic Constituencies?

    VAN JONES National executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and executive director of Bay Area Police Watch, Jones said: “We have a great deal of concern about the plans of the LAPD given their long history of unlawful police violence and disregard for civil liberties. Both parties have participated in building up larger and larger and less accountable police forces coast to coast, and it’s not surprising that both parties are now relying on those overgrown police forces to stifle dissent.” TRACY KATELMAN Environmental co-chair of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, Katelman said…

  • Perspectives on Sen. Lieberman’s Policies

    RABBI MICHAEL LERNER Editor of Tikkun magazine, a bimonthly Jewish critique of politics, culture and society, and author of Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul, Lerner said today: “It’s great that a Jew is on a major party ticket but unfortunately, just as many African Americans noted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did not represent the interests of their community, so many Jews have mixed feelings about the selection of Lieberman. Sen. Joseph Lieberman joined with Bill Clinton and Al Gore to create the Democratic Leadership Council precisely to transform the Democratic Party from its traditional…

  • Below the Surface in Philadelphia

    RON McGUIRE “What we’re seeing in Philadelphia is a First Amendment crisis that could become a First Amendment catastrophe,” said McGuire, an attorney working with the R2K legal collective. “The authorities in Philadelphia have set bail for demonstrators facing misdemeanor charges as high as $30,000. It’s unprecedented. We have $1 million bail set for demonstrators facing felonies. The police commissioner has called on the federal government to use the anti-racketeering and conspiracy laws to prosecute demonstrators.” More Information LOUIS DUBOSE Editor of the Texas Observer and co-author (with Molly Ivins) of Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George…

  • “Compassionate Conservatism”?

    WILLIAM HARTUNG Senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute and author of the recent report “Lockheed Martin and the GOP: Profiteering and Pork Barrel Politics with a Purpose,” Hartung said today: “Bush-Cheney is the arms industry’s dream team. Bush tried to give Lockheed Martin a contract to run the Texas welfare system. Lockheed Martin VP Bruce Jackson, a finance chair of the Bush for President campaign, was heard to brag at a conference last year that he would be in a position to ‘write the Republican platform’ on defense. Under Cheney, Halliburton went from 42nd to 18th on the…

  • Republican Convention: Issues of Economic Justice

    RICKIE SOLINGER Author of the forthcoming Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Abortion, Adoption and Welfare in the U.S., Soliger said today: “If the Republicans believe ‘no child should be left behind,’ they really ought to consider that children who might be left behind in this country are the children of poor mothers — the women who welfare ‘reform’ put in danger. Most Americans think today that motherhood should be a class privilege, a status available only to women who have enough money.” GALEN PYLER Co-chair of the organizing committee of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, which…

  • The Conventions: Brought to You by Corporate America

    The Republican Party convention has a price tag of more than $50 million. The Democratic Party plans to spend about $35 million on its convention. Federal funds will cover $13.3 million for each of those two conventions. Large corporations will cover the rest, many with major issues pending before the government. Among the GOP’s top donors: Motorola, Verizon Communications (formerly Bell Atlantic) and Comcast Corp ($1 million each), Philip Morris ($250,000), Enron ($250,000) and Blue Cross/Blue Shield ($100,000). Among the Democrats’ top donors: SBC Communications ($1 million), United Parcel Service ($1 million) and Boeing ($100,000). Some companies have contributed to…

  • First Casualties of War

    ROGER NORMAND Executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights, which has recently put out several fact sheets on Afghanistan, Normand said today: “Afghanistan was one of the world’s poorest and most devastated countries even before this crisis. The UN has abandoned its relief operations, and all neighboring countries have sealed their borders.…

  • Foreign Policy and Terrorism

    ZIEBA SHORISH-SHAMLEY Founder and director of the Women’s Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan, Shorish-Shamley said today: “It is unfortunate that it took a tragedy of this magnitude for the world to take notice of the ongoing tragedy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Several years ago, I quit my position as a university professor…

  • Opponents of Terrorism and War

    THOMAS GUMBLETON A Catholic Bishop from Detroit, Gumbleton said today: “The Pope has called for ‘peaceful negotiations and dialogue’ in the current crisis…. Some have rushed to portray us who are opposed to the Bush administration’s plans as naïve and lacking realism. But if you look at the facts, it is clear that it is…

  • Preventing Further Disaster

    HARVEY WASSERMAN A specialist in nuclear issues, Wasserman warns of the possibility of a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility. More Information CHRIS TOENSING Toensing is editor of Middle East Report. More Information PERVEZ HOODBHOY Hoodbhoy is a professor at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan. More Information REV. GRAYLAN S. HAGLER Pastor at the Plymouth…

  • “Not in Our Names”

    Some family members of the victims killed in the September 11 attacks are speaking out in opposition to the administration’s apparent military plans. Judy Keane, who lost her husband Richard, said: “Bombing Afghanistan is just going to create more widows, more homeless, fatherless children.” [CNN, 9/25] Jill Gartenberg, whose husband Jim was killed, said that…

  • Legal Issues: * Where’s the Evidence? * Civil Liberties

    On Monday, President Bush said: “We’re acting based on clear evidence, much of which is classified, so it will not be disclosed.” Today, Attorney General Ashcroft testified in favor of granting the government new powers. The following legal analysts are available for interviews: JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley said…

  • The Economy: Now What?

    ROBERT POLLIN Professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Pollin wrote “Economic Slide Makes Spending Respectable” in today’s Los Angeles Times. He said today: “U.S. economic policymakers have failed for almost a year to respond adequately to the looming global recession. As the stock market plunge makes clear, the calamitous events of…

  • Critical Voices

    PHYLLIS BENNIS Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-editor of Beyond the Storm: A Gulf Crisis Reader, Bennis said today: “In Bush’s speech we got no doctrine, no strategy, no evidence. What we did get was a lot of Wild West rhetoric — dead or alive material. In Afghanistan, 25 percent of the…

  • Military Options: Where Would They Lead?

    AS’AD ABUKHALIL Associate professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus and fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, AbuKhalil is author of the article “Islam and the Study of Central Asia.” He said today: “Learning about Islam is not terribly instructive here, just as…

  • Alternatives to More Violence?

    ALI ABUNIMAH Vice president of the Arab-American Action Network, Abunimah drove from Chicago to New York City just after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. His writings since then have elicited substantial response. He said today: “While we grieve and come to terms with this outrage, people in the Mideast and in the…

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