Free and Fair Elections in Haiti
'...the incoming Bush administration pressured the Inter-American Development Bank to take the lead in canceling over $650 million in development assistance funding in order to undermine Aristide’s presidency. Since the latter’s expulsion, Washington, after superimposing an extra-constitutional interim government on Haiti, has lifted its weapons ban on the island and now has given the corrupt and ill-trained local police force the firepower to terrorize peaceful demonstrators.'
Darfur: “Acquiescence to Genocide is Indefensible” : PA Commentary
The Bush administration secured Khartoum’s promises to promote Bush administration foreign policy objectives in Northeastern Africa and the Middle East in exchange for material assistance and tacit legitimation of its ruthless regime.
People's Republic of China: “World Needs a Healthy, Strong China”
'The “China threat” theory which ceased to beat the drum for a while following the breakout of the war in Iraq shows a trend of making its way back in America recently. Among those who preach the “China threat” theory, some have little knowledge of China’s contemporary development and policies, hence many misunderstandings.'
Cost of War: The Impact of War on US Communities
This week several thousand supporters of public education marched in Lansing, Michigan demanding that Michigan’s government fully fund public education. A severe budget crisis brought on by massive cuts in grants and spending by the federal government and grinding economic recession in that state has the Republican-controlled legislature targeting public schools and colleges for cuts.
UZBEKISTAN: OSCE Andijan report reaffirms need for inquiry
Based on 44 in-depth interviews by the ODIHR[Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights] team between 26 May and 2 June, with asylum seekers who had fled Usbekistan living in the Suzak Camp near the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border, the report provides a first hand account of what activists both locally and abroad have called a massacre...The fact that the ODIHR team was barred from visiting Andijan and speaking with residents there can not be ignored.
The Not So Odd Couple: Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro
Chávez and Castro’s mutual affection for each other began 11 years ago when Chávez visited Havana upon his release from a Venezuelan prison in 1994, after staging a failed coup. Since then, the two men have remained friendly and after Chávez won the Venezuelan presidency in 1998, they have collaborated on several trade and political programs.
South Africa: Building Working Class Power, Building a Strong, United ANC
There are ideological forces in our country ... whose entire political programme is premised on [obedience] to the G8. Whether it is the developments around comrade Zuma or worker rights, these forces do not give our local challenges their own value and dignity - they are all conceptualized as useful sacrifices to the G8, tokens of our compliance. These forces do not look at their own country with the eyes of South Africans...
Iraqi Workers Fight Occupation and Privatization
A group of trade union leaders representing various Iraqi labor unions called for the end of the US-led occupation at a press conference in Washington, DC early last week...When the CPA took power it developed a so-called transitional law that adopted a 1987 labor code written by Saddam Hussein that severely restricted the right of Iraqi public sector workers to organize unions and collectively bargain...sponsored by United States Labor Against the War
Australia: Howard Government Considers Outlawing Strikes
The proposed new laws place iron fisted restrictions on the rights of workers to defend themselves and their rights. They expose individual workers as well as their unions and union officials to massive compensation claims from anyone who claims to have been affected by their actions.
Iraq and the Politics of Quagmire
As polls show dwindling support for Bush’s Iraq war, the administration has ramped up its rhetoric about why it went to war. It claims that Iraq was the center of the global terrorist threat and that the September 11th attacks justified the invasion.
