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This week on Uprising —

* Susan George of ATTAC France on french politics in the aftermath of the employment protests
* Tom Wetzel on US Unions and the decline of the labor movement
* Empire Notes by Rahul Mahajan on coverage of the Haditha massacre
* The Black Commentator on the Verichip.

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Empire Notes on media coverage of the massacre in Haditha.

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on media coverage of the massacre in Haditha.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Susan George on French Politics

GUEST: Susan George, Board Chair of the Transnational Institute, and Vice President of ATTAC, France, author of many books, including “Another World Is Possible If…”

French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy has backed a new immigration bill that would attract only skilled workers while keeping less skilled ones out of France. The bill has sparked protests from immigrant communities who call it racist. In the aftermath of the massive protests that rocked France earlier this year over a government employment contract, Sarkozy is poised to run for the Presidential election next year. Meanwhile, activists are engaged in an internal discussion over how they should respond electorally after their stunningly successful protests that repealed the employment contract. I had the chance to speak with Susan George, a well known activist and scholar in France. She is the Board Chair of the Transnational Institute, and Vice President of ATTAC, France, and author of many books, including “Another World Is Possible If…”

For more information, visit www.tni.org.

Black Commentator on the Verichip

Glen Ford, co-publisher of The Black Commentator

The Black Commentator is an online political magazine bringing you commentary, analysis and investigation from a black perspective. Today’s commentary is on the Verichip.

The Black Commentator is online at www.blackcommentator.com.

Tom Wetzel on US Unions and the Labor Movement

GUEST: Tom Wetzel, Board of Directors of the San Francisco Community Land Trust

From June 1st through 6th, dozens of activists and intellectuals from around the country and world gathered at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to discuss vision and strategy for a new and just society, while rejecting sectarian and vanguardist tendancies. Among those present was Tom Wetzel who presented a paper entitled, “Unionism and Workers’ Liberation.” Wetzel sits on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Community Land Trust. In his paper, he defines a union as a “mass organization through which workers force the employers to do things the employers would rather not do, or force the employers to avoid doing things they would like to do.” But he says, US unions often defy this definition in their own interests. According to Wetzel, “The failure of American unions to be an effective means of collective resistance to the corporate assault of the past quarter century, their top-down structures, their narrow vision, corruption and CEO-level salaries are features that hold back the development of a sense of collective power, self-confidence and capacity for struggle within the working class in the USA.” Wetzel draws heavily from Robert Fitch’s book, “Solidarity for Sale: How Corruption Destroyed the Labor Movement and Undermined America’s Promise.” I spoke with Tom Wetzel earlier this week where he began by explaining the decline of the US labor movement.

For more information, read Wetzel’s paper and find out more about Robert Fitch’s book at www.solidarityforsale.com.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Workers need to be able to feel that the organizations are “theirs,” and are capable of being a means to the pursuit of their own aspirations. That’s precisely the point to “self-management” of the mass organization.” – Tom Wetzel