One of the most original and provocative books of the past decade is Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt.
βA critical look at salaried professionals,β says the cover, βand the soul-battering system that shapes their lives.β
Its theme is postmodern America. But it also applies to Britain, where the corporate state has bred a new class of Americanised manager to run the private and public sectors: the banks, the main parties, corporations, important committees, the BBC.
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Celebrated US author and poet Alice Walker is among 38 people who will join Audacity of Hope, the ship sponsored by US Boat to Gaza as part of an international effort to break Israelβs maritime siege ofΒ Gaza.
Walker has authored more than thirty books, the best known of which is the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Color Purple.
In a June 22 televised speech from the White House, United States President Barack Obama announced plans to withdraw 10,000 US soldiers from Afghanistan in 2011 and a further 23,000 in 2012.
This would leave US soldier numbers at about 70,000 the same as before the official "surge" by occuyping forces began at the end of 2009.
Britainβs Channel 4 said on June 24 that the reduction in soldier numbers would be partially compensated for by increased use of armed, pilotless drones.
βDuring the first years of the siege, we could still manage, but nowadays we have no alternatives,β says Dr Hassan Khalaf, deputy health minister in Gaza.
βIt is a major crisis: many health services have stopped, and Iβm afraid this will spiral out of control, because Gaza doesnβt have the essential medicines and suppliesΒ needed.β
Cancer, kidney, heart and organ transplant patients, as well as patients needing routine surgeries, including eye and dental surgery, have been suffering for the past five years under the Israeli-led, internationally-backed siege of the Gaza Strip.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and his PASOK party government survived a June 21 confidence vote in parliament. This came ahead of a parliamentary vote scheduled for a week later on the austerity measures demanded of Greece in return for new loans from the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Greece is in the grip of a desperate economic crisis. The government bailouts, engineered by the EU and IMF, have come with demands to slash spending, cut the wages and benefits of workers, and privatise public enterprises.
On June 20, 20 workers, members of the Textiles Clothing and Footwear Union Australia (TCFUA), made their way from Melbourne Town Hall to a boutique called Scanlan and Theodore. The workers were employees of a company called Blossom Road, which made products for the high-end fashion label.
How is the government getting away with this idea that a public-sector pension is a βluxuryβ?
Is it something that suave bachelors show off, saying: βOnce Iβve taken you for a spin in my Aston Martin, how about I show you the mid-range forecast for my teacherβs pension over a bottle of Veuve Cliquot.β
A pension is a necessity, so you might as well say we simply canβt go on enjoying the luxury of a sewerage system, given that the amount of waste weβre flushing is 35% higher than in 1996, so from 2015 weβve got to throw it out the window otherwise weβll end up like Greece.
Over three nights last week, hundreds of thousands of people watched something very rare: a Reality TV show that actually showed some reality.
About 120 people attended the Pitt St Uniting Church on June 18 for the launch of Refugee Week, which was the themed βFreedom from Fearβ.
Five women singers from Sierra Leone in traditional dress and headgear opened the event, which was hosted by the Refugee Council of Australia and NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors.
The chairperson, SBS Datelineβs Yalda Hakim, who is also a former refugee from Afghanistan, said she had just returned from Tunisia where 100,000 foreign workers are crossing the border to escape the fighting in Libya.
About 150 protesters rallied at a mining expo in Toowoomba on June 22 to protest the expansion of coal and coal seam gas mining in the Darling Downs region.
They confronted state mining minister Stirling Hinchliffe to demand that other areas in Queensland should be exempted from coal seam gas mining β similar to the recent rejection of a mining permit in Toowoomba, the June 23 Brisbane Courier Mail said.
Community Voice, a united ticket of the left and progressive community in Wollongong, was formed on June 18 after a thorough discussion focussed on putting local council back in the hands of the community.
More than 40 people attended including, Reverend Gordon Bradbery, who nearly won the seat of Wollongong in the recent NSW election; Dr Munir Hussain, chairperson of the Omar Mosque; leading members of progressive parties the Greens and the Socialist Alliance; independent and community activists; trade unionists and other activists.
The public wants meaningful action to address climate change. The 2010 annual Lowy poll found that 86% of Australians support climate action. Forty-six percent said they supported strong action and a further 40% supported gradual steps.
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