Near Food Riot in Milwaukee, WI, USA

The wave of food riots against skyrocketing food prices that has rocked the developing world from Haiti to Egypt is knocking at the door in the United States. Earlier this week in Milwaukee, nearly 3,000 hungry people showed up at 3am to receive emergency food coupons. The cops had to show up in force because several people were trampled in the desperate scramble for the woefully inadequate aid. While the offer was initially extended to the victims of the recent flooding in the state, officials reported that the majority of the people who showed up were not flood victims but victims of poverty and the weak economy. This is just one more example of how working people in the industrialized nations are not immune to the global food crisis. Hopefully working people in the US will take after their brothers and sisters in other countries and aim their outrage at the government that has proven to be criminally negligent to the plight of people suffering from economic recession, rising food and fuel costs, lack of health care and rising unemployment.