News Releases

  • Billionaires vs. Zohran Mamdani

    “A social-media screed by hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman (net worth: upward of $9 billion) was damn near apoplectic that activists and voters had so terribly transgressed. Ackman described himself as ‘a supporter of President Trump’ while expressing a fervent desire ‘to save the Democratic Party from itself.’ Mamdani’s policies, Ackman wrote late Wednesday night, ‘would be disastrous for NYC. Socialism has no place in the economic capital of our country.’”


  • As Israel Kills Aid-Seekers, Fasters at UN Hold News Conference

    The “Veterans & Allies Fast for Gaza” began May 22 “when six members of Veterans For Peace and allies traveled to New York City to stand at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. It has grown to over 800 people across the country and includes small groups in South Africa, Canada, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Hong Kong and Australia. Friends of Sabeel, NA has added critical behind-the-scenes support.” Fasters at the U.N. have limited themselves to “250 calories per day, considered medically to be a starvation diet and the amount reported early this year as the average available” to Palestinians…


  • Trump is “Far from a ‘Peace President’”

    In a news conference on Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the White House’s latest strikes on Iranian nuclear sites “highly successful.” But longtime anti-war activists see the strikes as a horrific decision by the Trump administration to attack a country that had not attacked the United States.


  • Nationwide Impacts of Science Funding Cuts

    The Science and Community Impacts Mapping Project (SCIMaP) has created an interactive map that reveals the projected nationwide impacts of the Trump administration’s cuts to NIH funding for crucial health research, including on cancer, diabetes, dementia and more. The White House has proposed budget cuts to NIH research of $18 billion compared to FY 2024. Those cuts are projected to cause more than $46 billion in lost economic activity, given that every dollar of NIH support translates to 2.5 dollars of economic activity. 


  • Does Mamdani’s Win Mean Voters Will “Embrace Truly Progressive Change”?

    In a statement, RootsAction said “we announced our support on the day his campaign launched in October because we knew that his platform — with such planks as freezing rent, creating free bus service, and no-cost childcare — was tailored to help working people in New York City, not the landlord lobby.”


  • War with Iran: * Media Coverage * Corruption at IAEA

    “The New York Times‘ echo of the standard Israeli and U.S. propaganda line offers an opportunity to critically examine this most recent justification for aggressive war. The premise here was that Iran is working to build a nuclear weapon, something that forms the backbone of the Israeli propaganda campaign justifying their actions. The only problem is that there is no evidence whatsoever for this position. Not only is there no evidence that Iran is building a nuclear weapon, there is no reason to think that if they did, they would be anything other than defensive weapons.”


  • Why Did the U.S. Bomb Iran Now?

    “Israel seeks to be the regional hegemon and for a long time Iran stood in its way. The real threat Iran has historically posed to Israel, rhetoric aside, has never been existential but rather strategic and ideological.“


  • Trump “Has Usurped” Congressional War Powers, “Summit of Impeachable Offenses”

    “President Trump has usurped the war power of Congress in making the United States a belligerent against Iran by systematic provision of intelligence, weapons, advisors, and military personnel in support of Israel’s criminal war of aggression. Mr. Trump tacitly acknowledged American belligerency in boasting, ‘we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran’ and bugling for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender.’”


  • Israel’s Gaza Killing Spree, Netanyahu’s Manipulation of Americans

    “Israel murdered this baby along with two of his siblings yesterday in Jabalia. … the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, BBC, and others! … You justified his killing with your coverage, even before he was born. Even after his murder, you did not run a story on him. You dehumanized him and his family. You dehumanized all Palestinians, most of whom were born under occupation and siege.”


  • “Impunity is Fueling Israel’s Spiraling Aggression”

    The New Statesman writes in “Impunity is fueling Israel’s spiraling aggression” that “Israel attacked Iran not out of fear but out of hubris. … This is the overwhelming lesson Israel has drawn from the past 20 months amid its intensifying onslaught on Gaza: there is no limit to what the world will let it get away with. Now, as it bombs its sixth neighbouring state or occupied territory in less than two years, there should be no doubt that impunity is the lifeblood of Israel’s far-right government, and the fuel driving its spiraling aggression. Until it runs up against firm…


  • Welfare: Bipartisan Success?

    LIZ ACCLES Accles is national coordinator for the Welfare Made A Difference National Campaign, which today launched a public education drive. Accles can arrange interviews with current and former welfare recipients; some of their stories are available on the web page. More Information FRANCES FOX PIVEN Piven is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology…

  • Analysts on UN Summit

    NOAM CHOMSKY Author of a number of books on international relations, most recently Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs, and Institute professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chomsky said today: “The UN Millennium Summit has a nice wish list — it calls on governments to do lots of good things like…

  • Debating the Debates: Who to Include?

    JAMIN RASKIN Law professor at American University, Raskin represented Ross Perot in 1996, chairs the Appleseed Citizens’ Task Force on Fair Debates and has also advised the Nader campaign on the debate issue. Raskin said today: “While the two major parties are squabbling over details of what kind of debates they want, the full breadth…

  • Analysts Available on Colombia

    LARRY BIRNS Director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Birns said today: “President Clinton’s waiving of human rights constraints on the Colombian military to enable it to receive over $1 billion in U.S. military assistance is a dangerously provocative step.” Birns, who has spoken with the Colombian president and recently returned from a trip to…

  • Disasters: Forest Fires and Nuke Subs

    CHAD HANSON Executive director of the John Muir Project and author of Big Timber’s Big Lie in the current issue of Sierra magazine, Hanson said today: “The fire risk is coming from twigs, shrubs and saplings, material less than four inches in diameter. It’s not a problem that the timber industry in any way can…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

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