This webcast is an amazing thing to witness. @OccupySandy teaming up with a biker club to clean up homes in New York's Staten Island ravaged by the hurricane. Doing what FEMA can't, or won't. The Occupy Sandy movement has been fascinating to watch in action, many of the volunteers are experienced in just this sort of effort after aiding recovery efforts in NOLA after Katrina, and in Haiti after the earthquake. After being declared "dead" and "without purpose" by the media, this leaderless volunteer movement showed the world what community activism really means, and what the ability to mobilize at a moment's notice can accomplish.
In the video below, brief interviews with a few Occupy Sandy volunteers. This is Jacobi Church in Sunset Park where the volunteers are gathering and organizing the donations.
The Obama campaign, trying to shore up the president’s support among female voters in crucial swing states, is hitting Mitt Romney and Representative Paul D. Ryan in a new ad that targets their positions on a number of issues important to voters who support abortion rights.
Being broadcast in Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Ohio and Nevada, the ad, called “The Same,” tries to draw a contrast between Mr. Obama and the Republican ticket on social issues -- women’s health in particular -- which Democrats believe will be critical in November.
The ad tells how Romney promised to get rid of Planned Parenthood, a family-planning group, and of backing proposals that would take away a woman’s right to choose. It touts Obama's efforts to fight Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood.
It also highlights the Romney-Ryan extremist view on abortion, that opposes it even in cases of rape or incest.
The anti-abortion stance will no doubt receive extra scrutiny this week after the death of a pregnant leukemia patient who died after her chemotherapy was delayed over anti- abortion laws in the Dominican Republic. She then suffered a miscarriage early Friday, followed by cardiac arrest, and doctors were unable to revive her.
This Youtube video has good footage of the damage as a result of the July 18, 2012 riot at the Maruti Suzuki plant in India, but it is a continuous loop of the same images for over 6 minutes.
Outsourcing to cheap foreign labor may have to eventually become a thing of the past as now auto workers in India have resorted to deadly violence in their desperate efforts to have India's outdated labor laws overhauled, and their wages increased.
Hiding in his office near New Delhi as workers armed with iron bars and car parts rampaged through the factory, Maruti Suzuki(MRTI.NS) supervisor Raj Kumar spent two terrified hours trying to comprehend the warzone his workplace had become.
By the end of the day, one of his colleagues had been burnt to death and dozens wounded, many with broken bones, as a long-running struggle between the shop floor and management exploded at a factory racked by mistrust.
While police investigate and the carmaker counts its mounting losses, the July 18 clash has rattled corporate India and shone a light on outdated and rigid labour laws in a country where cheap labour drives manufacturing and draws foreign investment. High inflation, a shortage of skilled labour and rising aspirations have emboldened workers' demands.
"There was always a strong sense of unease," Kumar, 43, told Reuters as he stood outside the locked factory gates more than a week after the riot in the industrial town of Manesar.
"We are living in fear... The kind of violence these guys showed was unbelievable."
Hyundai and Honda plants located in India have also seen labour unrest in their plants as some labor laws date as far back as 1920.
Since July's rioting, Maruti Suzuki has remained on shut down, with its some 2,500 workers in hiding fearing punishment from the company, criminal charges or both.
Troubles for Maruti began as far back as 2000, when workers hunger-striked for better wages. The best and highest paid manufacturing workers in the area are paid 25,000 rupees a month, the equivalent of just $445.79 in U.S. currency.
