The battle between Republicans and labor unions in Ohio, Wisconsin and other states is ostensibly about public workers' pay, benefits and bargaining rights. What is really at stake, however, is labor's influence -- not just in the American workplace but in American politics. Unions operate as a counterweight to the demands of corporations and Wall Street, and that is precisely why its opponents have seized upon state fiscal troubles to try to destroy its remaining clout.

Thousands of people protested in two Turkish cities on Friday in response to the detention this week of seven journalists, a development that has prompted new expressions of concern from Europe and the United States. Protesters in Ankara and Istanbul, many of them media workers, called for an end to repression of Turkish journalists and chanted in support of Nedim Sener of the newspaper Milliyet and Ahmet Sik, who is known for his reporting on human rights abuses.

If there were ever a doubt about whether the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is a journalist, recent events erase all those doubts and put him at the forefront of a movement to democratize journalism and empower people. The list of WikiLeaks revelations has become astounding. During the North African and Middle East revolts WikiLeaks published documents that provided people with critical information. The traditional media has relied on WikiLeaks publications.