PRAGOTI

Only two members of the Congressional Black Caucus mustered the courage to oppose a House Resolution in support of Israel's savage assault on Gaza, last week. An additional seven CBC members sought cover by voting "present." The remaining 30 Black lawmakers (the delegates from Washington, DC and the Virgin Islands cannot vote on the House floor) gave their assent to a statement that could have been written by the Israeli government - and probably was,writes Glen Ford.

Philip Agee ,a former CIA covert operations officer,who now lives in Havana,writes about how United States imports subversion and civic unrest to overthrow Governments hostile to it.

Nearly 30 years after President Jimmy Carter signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the United States remains the only democracy that refuses to ratify the most significant treaty guaranteeing gender equality. One hundred eighty-five countries, including over 90 percent of members of the United Nations, have ratified CEDAW.

The U.S. auto giants are an example of how things work in the age of unbridled corporate power. Of how the collapse of restraint on that power fractures economy and society. P.Sainath writes in The Hindu.