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Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on Labor, Obama, and the Employee Free Choice Act.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information. …

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John C. Fremont by Subversive Historian Gabriel San Roman

One hundred and sixty-two years ago on this day in people’s history, Lieutenant Colonel John C. Fremont became governor of the newly conquered territory of California. On January 16th, 1847 Commodore Robert Stockton appointed the so-called “Pathfinder of Western Exploration,” to the position following the Capitulation of …

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Oil prices have fallen to $37 a barrel today, dropping 27 percent since last week. The low prices reflected at the pump are a welcome relief to car drivers across the country but few are paying attention to the global and domestic implications of those prices. According to author Michael T. Klare, low …

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With less than a week before Barack Obama is inaugurated as the nation’s 44th President, news reports have surfaced regarding his plans to nominate Julius Genachowski as the next chair of the Federal Communications Commission. If confirmed to the position, Genachowski would head the FCC during an administration that outlined numerous media and telecommunications policy …

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While the Vietnam war holds a prominent place in American history books, most Americans know little of the US’s secret war in the neighboring country of Laos. After nearly a decade of bombing, the US withdrew from Laos leaving behind thousands of Laotian soldiers to face punishment and even execution for collaborating. The family of …

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Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht by Subversive Historian Gabriel San Roman

Exactly ninety-years ago on this day in people’s history, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were assassinated in Germany. On January 15th, 1919 in the midst of an uprising, the two revolutionaries were abducted, tortured and murdered by the Freikorps. Luxemburg, a Polish Jewish intellectual, …

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Senator Hillary Clinton faced a relatively friendly crowd at her Senate confirmation hearing yesterday. As Secretary of State, Clinton will be the principal spokesperson for the President on US foreign policy. The hearings were framed by the phrase “Smart Power” which Clinton described as diplomacy being at the “vanguard of foreign policy.” While Clinton’s positions …

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While most workers will get time off next Monday to observe Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Starbucks baristas will be busy serving coffee and won’t even get holiday pay. Working conditions at the mega-café chain often do not live up to the ideal. In late December a New York judge ordered the reinstatement …

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As the Israeli offensive in Gaza has entered its nineteenth day, the Palestinian Ministry of Health is reporting that nearly one-thousand lives have been lost with more than three hundred children among the dead. Israel’s military said it carried out its latest overnight strikes on sixty targets as reservists are being prepared for possible …

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Plessy v. Ferguson by Subversive Historian Gabriel San Roman

One-hundred and thirteen years ago on this day in people’s history, the Supreme Court of the United States legitimized “separate but equal” segregationist policies. On January 14th, 1896 justices returned an 8-1 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that a Louisiana law separating whites and blacks on …

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