Inauguration 2017 Special Coverage w/ Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, Ralph Nader & More
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From Public Citizen's Corporate Presidency site: "44 Trump administration officials have close ties to the Koch brothers and their network of political groups, particularly Vice President Mike Pence, White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney."
Dark Money author Jane Mayer on The Dangers of President Pence, New Yorker, Oct. 23 issue on-line
Can Time Inc. Survive the Kochs? November 28, 2017 By Jane Mayer
..."This year, among the Kochs’ aims is to spend a projected four hundred million dollars in contributions from themselves and a small group of allied conservative donors they have assembled, to insure Republican victories in the 2018 midterm elections. Ordinarily, political reporters for Time magazine would chronicle this blatant attempt by the Kochs and their allies to buy political influence in the coming election cycle. Will they feel as free to do so now?"...
"Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America" see: our site, and George Monbiot's essay on this key book by historian Nancy MacLean.
Full interview with The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer March 29, 2017, Democracy Now! about her article, "The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency: How Robert Mercer Exploited America’s Populist Insurgency."
Democracy Now! Special Broadcast from the Women's March on Washington
The Economics of Happiness -- shorter version
Local Futures offers a free 19-minute abridged version of its award-winning documentary film The Economics of Happiness. It "brings us voices of hope of in a time of crisis." www.localfutures.org.
What's New?
April 28, 2013
From Farida Akhter in Bangladesh: “Forced to die”: Garment workers in Rana Plaza
“Forced to die”: Garment workers in Rana Plaza
by Farida Akhter, UBINIG, Bangladesh
"Rana Plaza, the eight-story building housing at least four garment factories in the building’s third to eighth floors, collapsed on the morning of April 24, 2013. It was not just an accident. The day before, the inhabitants of the buildings saw large cracks developing in the building and local engineers advised evacuation. Accordingly, the shops on the first floor and a private bank took measures for evacuation. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Association (BGMEA) warned the garment factory owners of the building and asked them not to open the factory until they gave clearance. The workers were asked to leave in the afternoon of 23rd April.
But next day, April 24th, the factory management (from third to eighth floor) asked the workers to return to work and threatened to sack or not pay the salary to those workers who would not come to work. The garment workers did not want to come. They were afraid that the building might collapse anytime. Fearing the threat of being fired or losing salary, in the morning, around 8:30 am, more than 70% of the workers (roughly 3,500), were inside the building. The majority of them were young girls. There was a power cut (which is quite normal every day), so the generators were on. The building trembled and within two minutes it had collapsed, leaving no way to get out.
Sohel Rana, the owner of Rana Plaza, is a close affiliate of a Member of Parliament Talukdar Murad Jong of the ruling party Bangladesh Awami League. He built the eight story building obtaining the approval for only 5 storys from the municipal authorities in 2008. He built the building without following any building code, flouting rules and abusing his political clout. There was no one to monitor or see to the safety of the thousands of workers working in this building.
Aoshi, a female worker rescued after 36 hours of the collapse said, “Work at the (garment) factory was stopped following discovery of a crack in the building. We were not supposed to come (to work) following day. But we were asked to come and told that there will be no problem.”
So it was not an accident, it was simply an organised killing." ...
Read full report here, pdf download, 4p.
Farida Akhter is a founder and Executive Director of the NGO UBINIG (Policy Research for Development Alternatives) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and a longtime spokeswoman for global justice and solidarity.
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