From The Express Tribune:

International Labour Day is observed throughout the world on May 1 to commemorate the martyrs of the US city of Chicago who laid down their lives in May 1886, while demanding an eight-hour working day. The day has since been observed regularly by industrial workers and labourers across the world, marked by rallies and seminars in which they demand their rights enshrined in labour and industrial laws.

While workers have been denied their rights in many parts of the world, Pakistan is no different. The previous government took some good decisions regarding the working class. It increased minimum wage, lifted the ban on trade unions, repealed anti-labour laws like the Removal from Service (Special Power) Ordinance 2000 and Section 2A of the Services Tribunal Act of 1973, and came up with a new labour policy.

Despite some good laws, most Pakistani workers are still exploited due to the non-implementation of laws.
Human history is the story of exploitation under specious excuses of race, gender, caste or creed. However, the driving force underlying all such discriminations has been the ambition of the idle few to prevail upon the industrious majority. Work is the ultimate virtue, the absence of which afflicts communities and nations with ignorance, deprivation and disease. In this era of globalisation where privatisation is rife, labour laws are essential to protect the rights of the working class.

Far from being a purely denominational event, Labour Day is a celebration of justice, peace and equality. Workers’ rights cannot be guaranteed in a world ruled by the might of classes, cliques and states. The dignity of labour is intrinsically woven in the matrix of human collective.

From The Nation:

On Black Friday, hundreds of Walmart workers protested the superstore’s unfair labor practices and “Always Low Wages” policy. While Walmart’s bottom-line business model has made the Walton family billions, their employees in California were 40 percent more likely to need public assistance. Walmart is not only slashing prices on flat-screen TVs—they’re suppressing wages and costing tax payers millions of dollars. Nation columnist Melissa Harris-Perry checks the numbers to see why the Walton’s “Live Better” math—which claims their low-price model benefits all families—doesn’t quite add up.

From DemocracyNow:

We turn now to a major new exposé on the cover of The Nation magazine called “Mitt Romney’s Bailout Bonanza: How He Made Millions from the Rescue of Detroit.” Investigative reporter Greg Palast reveals how Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney made some $15 million on the auto bailout and that three of Romney’s top donors made more than $4 billion for their hedge funds from the bailout. Palast’s report is part of a film-in-progress called “Romney’s Bailout Bonanza.” Palast is the author of several books, including recently released New York Times bestseller, “Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps.”

From HuffPo:

The disparity, with Republicans spending $41.7 million and Democrats spending $23.5 million, illustrates a strategic gamble on behalf of the GOP presidential nominee to bury President Barack Obama and burn past him during the closing weeks of the campaign.

“Patience is a virtue,” one Republican source said of the decision to hold resources until the last weeks of the campaign.

The Republican source, who like all others would only discuss ad buying strategy and details on condition of anonymity, put the ad disparity at somewhat smaller than $18 million. The source offered the following data for the money being spent on both national cable and swing state television ads between Oct. 8 and Oct. 14.

1. Romney campaign: $17.7 million
2. Obama campaign: $16.5 million
3. The Karl Rove-started American Crossroads: $7 million
4. The Romney supporting super-PAC Restore Our Future: $6 million
5. The Obama supporting super-PAC Priorities USA: $4.2 million
6. The National Rifle Association: $1.3 million
7. The conservative American Future Fund: $400k

See also:

• More Romney Bundlers Revealed
  Sixty-three registered lobbyists have raised $14.3 million for the Romney campaign, and despite the campaign’s refusal to publicly disclose its list of bundlers — elite fundraisers who tap their personal and professional networks to raise funds. In addition, we’ve identified 37 of Romney’s other, non-lobbyist bundlers, whose names the campaign has refused to disclose.
• Backed by Adelson, Republican Pro-Israel Group Targets Obama
  With support from casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and a board laden with well-connected luminaries of GOP fundraising, the Republican Jewish Coalition is making a strong push to turn just enough Jews against Obama to deny him re-election.

From Democracy Now:

The Supreme Court opens its 2012-2013 term [yesterday] with a landmark case to decide whether survivors of human rights violations in foreign countries can bring lawsuits against corporations in U.S. courts. The case centers on a lawsuit that accuses the oil giant Shell’s parent company, Royal Dutch Petroleum, of complicity in the murder and torture of Nigerian activists. Some legal analysts are comparing this case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, to the landmark campaign finance ruling in Citizens United. In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled corporations have broad rights under the First Amendment and can directly fund political campaigns. The court is now being asked to decide if corporations have the same responsibilities as individuals for violations of international law. The court’s ruling will also impact numerous other human rights cases being heard by lower courts. We’re joined in New York by Baher Azmy, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

From ThinkProgress:

It turns out that 96 percent of Americans have used government assistance at one point or another in their lives, ranging from Social Security to grant programs. In a New York Times op-ed Monday, Professors Suzanne Mettler and John Sides point out that a vast majority of Americans have some tie to the government and that, in 2008, 96 percent of people used government help. The data comes from a 2008 Cornell study of 21 social programs:

The survey asked about people’s policy usage throughout their lives, not just at a moment in time, and it included questions about social policies embedded in the tax code, which are usually overlooked. What the data reveal is striking: nearly all Americans — 96 percent — have relied on the federal government to assist them. Young adults, who are not yet eligible for many policies, account for most of the remaining 4 percent. On average, people reported that they had used five social policies at some point in their lives. An individual typically had received two direct social benefits in the form of checks, goods or services paid for by government, like Social Security or unemployment insurance.

As Sides and Mettler are quick to point out, the survey does not include “government activity that benefits everyone — national defense, the interstate highway system, food safety regulations — but only tangible benefits.”

From The Nation:

They’re gathering in newly set up offices in critical swing states. Some of the locations have a tinge of irony for a supposedly grassroots, ordinary citizens-led organization: In Saddlebrook, Arizona, they’ll be meeting in a country club; in Clearwater, Florida, the local AFP field director rented space from an outsourcing company called TAC Worldwide. But the work the AFP machine is doing is no laughing matter for liberals. The Koch network has a sophisticated targeting system, as well as an army of experienced Republican campaign hands to guide the effort. The volunteers even receive Samsung Galaxy tablets to quickly log information and move on to the next potential Romney voter.

Its the beginning of an extremely well-planned get-out-the-vote effort that duplicates what an entire national party would attempt. And its been four years in the making.

In 2009, the Koch network created a model called the Wisconsin Prosperity Project to move the state to the far right. After witnessing the Democrats’ stunning 2008 ground game, the operatives in Wisconsin were determined to out-organize liberals. They hired Tea Party organizers, invested heavily in front groups (like the MacIver Center), ran constant advertising and coordinated with employers to hold propaganda meetings with workers. Tea Party bus tours in the state, fully financed by AFP, were “designed” to help elect Republicans.

…

The Koch network, which is actively training Tea Partiers, via a partnership with True the Vote, to harass and intimidate voters, may tip the scales in this election. And you won’t see their work on television, or through FEC disclosures (they refuse to register their grassroots electioneering as independent expenditures). Like Wisconsin, liberals might see the ground shifting beneath them, and wonder what happened.