Soapy's blog

Two months after workers launched wildcat strikes in the Mexican city of Matamoros, 89 “maquiladora” factories, mostly in the auto parts, electric, and metallurgical industries, have agreed to workers’ demands for a 20 percent raise and a bonus of 32,000 pesos (US$1,655)—half of the average yearly salary. The strike wave has become known across Mexico as the “20/32 movement.”

Investors and top executives have used profits at GM to enrich themselves for years, while insisting mass layoffs are an unavoidable fact of economics.

Manning’s lawyers believe the government may be trying to prove Manning perjured herself during 2013 testimony. Developments come as Manning enters third week of imprisonment.

Fake news about Venezuela is a lesson wrapped in a lesson of why we are not in a position to decide the fates of other countries.

A recent report in The Guardian exposes the fraud of Amazon's October wage hike stunt. It also raises the question: was this all simply intended to stave off a unionization effort that began last summer?

Largest North American strike wave in decades grows. Rebellion exposes union betrayal, is met with repression from “left-wing” government and a near total media blackout.

As pundits decry war crimes committed by the Assad regime in Eastern Ghouta, a look to how the punditry viewed the US' 2004 assault on Fallujah

As the Syrian conflict drags on, the world watches with horror as all involved countries ruthlessly pursue their own interests at the expense of the Syrian people. This first post will focus on the Assad regime.

Despite years of unqualified failure, nation's liberal intelligentsia announces full support as US redoubles its efforts in its catastrophic "war on terror"

Progress in music is slowing down, a look at how neoliberalism and developments in music production and distribution may be to blame

Hillary’s paranoid rage and the campaign’s infighting made a mockery of the slogan “Stronger Together”

The privatization of music education has turned it into a commodity, and with students becoming increasingly addicted to instant stimulation and gratification, a pretty bad one

The rise of “black power” led Pete Seeger to realize he had become a towering figure in a movement he didn't fully understand. The way he dealt with criticisms of him and his friends holds lessons for today.

Cheerleaders for Syrian intervention refuse to learn lessons from recent history

Mark Fisher's Ghosts of My Past shows the world through Fisher’s eyes, a beautifully depressing elegy for cultural progress and passion in a world dominated by cheap stimulation and the marketplace

The 2008 Clinton campaign played an instrumental role in spreading rumors that Barack Obama was a Muslim not born in America

Critics attacked Trump after he drew a moral equivalency between the actions of Putin and the U.S.

Democratic Party icon Robert Rubin's evasion of prosecution for criminal activities related to the housing bubble represents a notable triumph in the history of neoliberalism.

The Obama administration's approach to illegal immigration was to severely enforce penalties for immigration related crimes. This approach led to record deportation numbers and an unprecedented explosion in the immigrant prisoner population.

As Obama leaves office, a quick look back at a little known chapter in his administration reveals much about his presidency.