In September of 2008 the New York Federal Reserve gave the U.S. insurer American International Group (AIG) an $85 billion loan as part of the bailout of Wall Street. The NY Fed told AIG to pay big banks in full the $62 billion AIG owed for credit default swaps. In addition, the NY Fed told AIG not to tell the public how much they owed or who they were paying off. The government bailout of AIG has been increased three times since then and now totals more than $180 billion.
En todo el país, mas trabajadores estamos perdiendo nuestros trabajos y nuestras casas. Cada semana, la cantidad de personas que llegan al fin de sus beneficios del desempleo crece. En cada estado, están cortando los presupuestos de las escuelas publicas y los programas que sirven a los pobres y a los trabajadores. La salud esta en crisis y el congreso esta debatiendo un rescate para las corporaciones de seguro medico. Las nacionalidades oprimidas – la gente afro-americana, los chicano y latinos, los asiáticos y los nativo-americanos son los mas fuertemente golpeados por la crisis económica.
La Organización Socialista del Camino de Libertad denuncia la escalada de la guerra sangrienta e injusta estadounidense en Afganistán. Condenamos la decisión por la Casa Blanca y el Pentágono para la ‘oleada’ de mas de 30.000 fuerzas de EE.UU. y la OTAN en Afganistán en un intento de estabilizar un régimen fallado de la ocupación.
Across the country, more working people are losing our jobs and our homes. Each week, the ranks of those running out of our unemployment benefits grow. In every state, public schools and programs that serve poor and working people are being cut. Health care is in crisis and congress is debating another bailout for the insurance companies. Oppressed nationality – Black, Chicano, Latino, Asians and Native Americans – are hit the hardest by the economic crisis.
Freedom Road Socialist Organization denounces the escalation of the bloody and unjust U.S. war in Afghanistan. We condemn the decision made by the White House and Pentagon to ‘surge’ over 30,000 U.S. and NATO forces into Afghanistan in an attempt to stabilize a failing occupation regime.
In September, the U.S. government released its annual report on health insurance coverage, showing a continuing decline in private health insurance and the huge number of people who had no health insurance for all of 2008. That same month Democratic senators released their proposal for health insurance 'reform.' However, this proposal could end up as more of a bailout of the for-profit health insurance corporations than a solution to people's health care needs. The best solution for working people, a government run, single-payer health insurance program, was endorsed by the AFL-CIO national convention in September. But this single-payer health insurance plan has been largely excluded from the health care debate by the Obama administration and the corporate media.
La Organización Socialista Camino de Libertad (Freedom Road Socialist Organization) lamenta el fallecimiento del líder palestino Yacer Arafat (1929 – 2004). Expresamos nuestro pesar por la sensible perdida de un luchador por la libertad que trabajo incansablemente por la emancipación de Palestina.
We are saddened by the death of Manuel Marulanda, commander in chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP). At the same time, we are inspired by the powerful example of his life and work. Marulanda embodied the struggle of the Colombian people for national liberation and socialism. He was both a Colombian patriot and an internationalist – a persistent advocate for a united Latin America free from domination by U.S. imperialism. Marulanda was a Great Liberator, in the tradition of the Simon Bolivar.