So I'll be in Paris on Thursday afternoon and all of Friday. Does anyone know of any good anti-Sarko demonstrations to attend?

We have met the enemy, and it is us — Pogo

Why the rise of the Left Party has cast the Social Democrats into a gloom

Why is a small party founded by east German former communists causing national ructions? One reason is that the economic upswing has left so many Germans behind. Unemployment is at its lowest level since the early 1990s, thanks partly to the reforms that Mr Beck now wants to roll back. But many of the new jobs offer lower pay and less security than those lost during the downturn, notes Markus Grabka of DIW, a research institute in Berlin. Relative poverty has jumped, with 17% of Germans earning less than 60% of the median in 2005, up from 12% in 1999. Income-tax cuts have helped the rich; the middle class has shrunk.

On these matters the Left Party is saying what most Germans seem to be thinking. According to one recent poll, 82% of Germans want to lower the retirement age from 67 (reversing another reform), two-thirds want a minimum wage and 72% think the grand coalition should do more to promote social justice. Half want German troops out of Afghanistan, but the Left Party is the only one that unqualifiedly agrees. Unlike the Greens and the Free Democrats, it has no reason to flirt with either party in the grand coalition (the SPD refuses to consider it as a potential partner at federal level). It likes to claim it is Germany's only real opposition party.

But reform is good.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Tell Congress: Limbo Rules Are Unfair and Unsafe

Rail workers' time should be their own, but the rail corporations don't see it that way.

Many engineers and trainmen are forced to sit in limbo for up to eight hours at a stretch without pay. Even after working 12-hour shifts, they cannot sleep. They cannot read. They must sit in their trains and remain vigilant, waiting to be relieved. After 20 hours on the job, they only get eight off, before being asked to pilot tons of commodities and dangerous chemicals through American cities and towns.

These needless hours increase train crew fatigue, and fatigue is the leading cause of railway accidents.

H.R. 2095, the Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007, would limit limbo time by amending the laws that govern the amount of time railroad operating crews can work.

This important bill is scheduled to be voted on by the House of Representatives Wednesday, but the White House is opposing the legislation. The Bush administration's so-called "statement of administration policy" shows once again that the White House cares more about corporate bottom lines than individual rights and public safety.

Increasingly these things seem to be transnational, that is to say that the same issues are confronting workers in industrial sectors across national boundaries.  I think that there's an argument that neoliberal elites have been able to create international norms, because they are organized and hold political power. It seems to me it's about damn time the Left work to do the same creating international norms that protect worker's rights and the environment.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

What if the strike is controversial among unions because the union heads are playing politics and refused to cooperate with GDL?  GDL already feels left out.

(What if) any strike would get bad media coverage because the media is neoliberal?

What if GDL fails?  The other unions are free to keep trying separately, as they do now, calling GDL an outcast.  But if GDL wins a better contract, the others will try harder to match it and "management" will be weakened.

(As to Beck and Munte, the photo makes me want to slap both of them with some reality.)

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.