R.e.N.

107 slave laborers freed in Mexico City

2009-12-18T19:33:00.000-08:00

Mexican authorities have freed 107 indigenous people who officials say were being held as slave laborers in a Mexico City factory disguised as a drug rehabilitation center.

Twenty-three suspects were arrested in Thursday's raid, said Miguel Angel Mancera, Mexico City's attorney general. Two more were arrested Friday morning, officials said. The victims ranged from 14 to 70 years old, and some were tortured, Mancera told CNN affiliate TV Azteca. Some victims also suffered sexual abuse, he said.

"They were beaten," he said. "Several have wounds, serious wounds. We even have some of the victims with fractures."

All of the victims were suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition, he said. Some were taken to a hospital. The captives, some of whom speak only indigenous languages and no Spanish, were locked in the building, which had bars on the windows and a fence outside, he said. They made handbags and clothespins and were not paid. Their only daily meal consisted of chicken legs and rotten vegetables, Mancera said. "The vast majority of the food we found was spoiled," he said.

Video of the inside of the building showed filthy and crowded living conditions. The men and women worked 8 a.m. to midnight and were given only a half-hour food break. They were not allowed to go to the bathroom, and many soiled themselves, officials said. The attorney general labeled it "cruel and inhuman treatment." The victims, he said, were abused mentally and physically, "with all sorts of pressure." Most of the victims were nabbed off the street by some of the suspects under the guise of giving them treatment for alcoholism or drug addiction, the attorney general said... CNN>>

Aristide Supporters Protest Election Ban In Haiti

2009-12-16T19:52:00.000-08:00

Supporters of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide marched through Port-au-Prince on Wednesday calling for his return from exile and protesting his party's exclusion from upcoming elections. Several thousand protesters joined in the protest march, which marked Aristide's rise to power as Haiti's first democratically elected president in December 1990. The demonstrators accused the government of President Rene Preval, a one-time Aristide ally, of planning a fraudulent legislative ballot on February 28 and said they would boycott the vote in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Aristide's populist Fanmi Lavalas political movement has been banned from participating in the election on grounds it failed to meet the legal requirements for registration. "There will be no election in February, there will be a selection. What the authorities are planning is really a big farce," Dr. Maryse Narcisse, a leading member of Aristide's party, told Reuters. "The president and election officials are the masterminds behind the plan to exclude the majority of the population from the vote," said Narcisse, who spoke as she marched with others through the streets of Port-au-Prince. No one in Preval's cabinet was immediately available for comment.

...

"We want Aristide back here now. He is our leader and Preval is a traitor," said Moise Sanon, a 30-year-old demonstrator, wearing a Haitian flag and a poster emblazoned with Aristide's image. NYTimes>>

Video: Naomi Klein: Fate of Planet Rests on Mass Movement for Climate Justice

2009-12-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of activists from across the globe are gathering every day in downtown Copenhagen for the people’s climate summit, the Klimaforum. On Thursday night, Shock Doctrine author and journalist Naomi Klein addressed a packed hall at a panel on ecological debt and climate justice. Democray Now>>

Questions over police's account of Peru clash

2009-12-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

Two days after violence erupted in the Peruvian province of Huancabamba, leaving two dead and eight injured, fingers are being pointed at police for their role in the events. Police said they had arrested two suspects for a fatal attack in November at Zijin Mining's Rio Blanco copper project, but were fired upon during an attempt to detain a third suspect. But Rosa Quedena, a lawyer for the Ecumenical Foundation for Development and Peace, rejected the official version provided by police regarding the deaths of two locals on Wednesday.

“There was not a fight, the police got to the place and simply started shooting to scare the villagers, who were blocking their way,” Quedena told Peruvian radio station CNR... Mining Weekly>>

Haiti: charge manipulation in 2010 elections

2009-12-04T18:59:00.000-08:00

On Nov. 25, Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced that it was rejecting the applications of 16 of the 69 parties that submitted candidates for legislative elections scheduled to be held on Feb. 28. The largest of the rejected parties is the Lavalas Family (FL) of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996 and 2001-2004); among the others were the Lespwa ("Hope") coalition, until now the party of current president René Préval; Working Together to Build Haiti (KONBA); the Union party; and the Solidarity Effort for the Construction of the People's Camp (ESCAMP), formerly part of Lespwa. Voters are to elect 98 of the 99 members of the Chamber of Deputies and 10 of the country's 30 senators.

Critics charged that President Préval was manipulating the elections to favor the Unity party, a new coalition with which he is replacing Lespwa, part of a process in which a number of parties and coalitions are regrouping. The Union party said it had been rejected after its coordinator, Chavannes Jeune, turned down an invitation from Préval to join Unity. CEP president Gaillot Dorsainvil insisted on Nov. 26 that the council had acted independently to exclude parties that hadn't complied with the law.

Several of these groups are split by internal conflicts, as had been the case with the FL when the CEP wouldn't include it in the April 19 Senate elections earlier this year—the party had originally presented two different lists of candidates, and Aristide, the head of the party, reportedly refused to sign necessary paperwork as a protest against his removal from office in 2004. But this
time LF director Maryse Narcisse presented a unified list with an authorization signed by Aristide, who has been in exile in South Africa since 2004.

Aristide confirmed this in an interview on Nov. 25 with Radio Solidarité, saying that the CEP's decisions "shouldn't be dictated by the government." The ex-president, who usually avoids interviews, announced that he didn't want to remain the head of the FL and that after a party congress was held, he would devote himself to education. WW4 Report>>

Haiti: Aristide’s Party Is Banned

2009-12-04T18:56:00.000-08:00

Haiti’s electoral council banned Fanmi Lavalas, the influential party of the exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from next year’s legislative elections. It was one of 17 groups, including the Lespwa movement that formed around President Rene Preval, listed as banned because they submitted improper documents. Mr. Aristide, who was overthrown during a 2004 rebellion and is living in exile in South Africa, said in an interview with Radio Solidarité that the decision to eliminate Lavalas was “an electoral coup d’état.” Haiti’s legislature chose a new prime minister last week, and tensions remain high over the presence of 9,000 United Nations peacekeepers, who arrived in the impoverished country after the 2004 rebellion. NYTimes.com>>

Chiapas Anti-Mining Organizer Murdered

2009-12-01T07:12:00.000-08:00

Mariano Abarca Roblero, one of Mexico's most prominent anti-mining organizers, was shot to death on the evening of November 27, 2009, in front of his house in Chicomuselo, Chiapas. He left behind a wife and four children. Another man was wounded in the shooting.

The incident comes just days after Abarca filed charges against two Blackfire employees, Ciro Roblero Perez and Luis Antonio Flores Villatoro, for threatening to shoot him if he didn't stop organizing against Canadian mining company Blackfire's barium mine in Chicomuselo. According to a formal complaint filed by a government employee who works in the Chicomuselo municipal building, Roblero Perez arrived at the municipal building to say that he had gone to look for Abarca to "fuck him up in a hail of bullets." He also reportedly said that Abarca and other people were on a list of people Blackfire management wants to hurt. Blackfire public relations manager Luis Antonio Flores Villatoro was mentioned in the government employee's complaint as one of the people responsible for the list.

Ejido* authorities from the Nueva Morelia ejido in Chicomuselo county took the complaint seriously and helped Abarca launch an investigation. The day before the murder, Roblero Perez and Flores Villatoro were summoned to testify regarding the alleged death threats, but they failed to appear... Narcosphere>>

Students storm UCLA building to protest expected UC system fee increase

2009-11-19T19:13:00.000-08:00

Students march in front of Covel Commons at UCLA, where regents will be voting on a fee increase later in the day. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

About 30 students stormed UCLA’s Campbell Hall and barricaded the doors with chains and bike locks early this morning to protest a student fee increase that is expected to be endorsed by the University of California’s Board of Regents today.

[Updated at 8:39 a.m.: The UC Regents have started to meet, and hundreds of students have surrounded the building, protesting the proposed fee hike.]

Students who spent the night were sprawled outside Campbell Hall in sleeping bags. They carried posters and signs that read, “Don’t take our education away” and “Don’t privatize, democratize.” Many wore bandannas over their faces.

Dozens of other students spent the night camped out in tents on top of Parking Structure 4. Hundreds of other students are expected to join the protesters and demonstrate at the UC Regents meeting that will take place later today.

The proposed two-step student fee increase would raise UC undergraduate education costs more than $2,500, or 32%.The annual cost of a UC education, not including campus-based fees would rise to $10,302.

Kyle Tramberly, a junior at UC San Diego, said he did not sleep since arriving at UCLA late Wednesday night.

“I’m here in solidarity with people across the state of California that are being subjugated to these outrageous fee increases,” he said. “I can’t afford the fee increases, personally. I have to take out private loans in order to cover this. It’s completely unjust to put the burden on students.”

A key committee of the UC Regents backed the two-step hike Wednesday, despite appeals from students who urged the board to at least postpone a vote. About 500 student and labor-union activists demonstrated outside the meeting. Fourteen were arrested. latimes.com>>

Protesters Clash With Police in Nepal

2009-11-12T19:03:00.000-08:00

Communist protesters clashed with the police and surrounded the Singha Durbar, the seat of government in the center of the Nepalese capital, as they called for the resignation of the president, local news agencies reported Thursday. The police fired tear gas at a crowd of protesters that was blocking access to administrative offices in the capital, Katmandu, and the news portal República reported some minor injuries to police officers and picketers.

The demonstrators began gathering in Katmandu before dawn, many of them arriving on buses from outlying towns and villages, according to Nepalnews.com, and thousands of heavily armed National Police officers were mobilized. Photos of the scene showed large crowds in the streets, and some reports said tens of thousands of protesters had assembled. Signs calling for “civilian supremacy” could be seen, as well as red flags bearing the hammer-and-sickle emblem.

Most civil servants and politicians were able to reach their offices in the Singha Durbar, although local schools were closed for the day, The Himalayan Times reported. The protesters were led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the former guerrilla fighter better known as Prachanda, who had been the leader of the 10-year Maoist insurgency that overthrew the Nepalese monarchy in 2006. The Nepalese republic was formed in May 2008.

Earlier in the week, Prachanda warned the government that he and his supporters could be forced to “take up arms” if the government used the police and military to block demonstrations, Nepalnews.com reported. As the head of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Prachanda was elected prime minister in August 2008. But he resigned from office on May 4 when the president, Ram Baran Yadav, overruled his firing of the head of the army, Gen. Rookmangud Katawal. Prachanda and other Maoist leaders have charged that the general defied a United Nations-backed peace accord by refusing to integrate about 20,000 former guerrilla fighters — most of them jobless and living in United Nations camps — into the Nepalese military. Since withdrawing from the coalition government, Prachanda and his supporters have held several mass protests demanding the resignation of the government and the removal of the president. NYTimes.com>>

Three nights of riots in French town after 21-year-old dies in police custody

2009-07-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

Firefighters tackling a blaze last night in Firminy, central France, after clashes between police and youths for the third consecutive night. Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

French riot police firing teargas and plastic bullets have struggled to contain three nights of rioting and arson by youths on suburban estates in the Loire, amid protests over the death of a 21-year-old in police custody. High-rises in Firminy, a small town bordering countryside on the outskirts of Saint-Étienne, saw running battles between police and youths in the early hours of this morning after Mohamed Benmouna, a local supermarket cashier, was taken from his police cell in a coma and died in hospital.

Benmouna, who had been arrested on extortion charges, died on Wednesday. Police said he attempted to hang himself in his cell and fell into a coma. His Algerian family, sceptical of the official story, have filed a lawsuit to establish the circumstances of his death and whether police violence was covered up. The local state prosecutor, Jacques Pin, said a postmortem confirmed Benmouna died of suffocation and his body showed no trace of violence or police abuse. But he said video surveillance equipment that would normally have filmed Benmouna's cell was not functioning properly. The police inspectorate has opened an investigation.

For three nights, youths have taken to the streets of Firminy to riot over the death, burning local shops, torching dozens of cars and stoning police, despite repeated pleas for calm from the family. Last night the family and 200 locals staged a peaceful sit-down protest outside their block of flats. But later groups of youths began torching buildings and cars and stoning police. The local bakers, chemist, tobacconist and hairdressing salon were razed. Two hundred riot police were brought in to control rioters with teargas and plastic bullets. Six arrests were made... Guardian>>

Peru gets new prime minister

2009-07-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

Deadly protests last month lead to opposition deamands for cabinet changes

The Peruvian president has named a member of his pro-business ruling party as prime minister after bowing to opposition pressure to shake up his cabinet. Saturday's appointment of Javier Velasquez came as Alan Garcia faced the worst crisis of his term in office with his approval rating plunging to 21 per cent. Velasquez, a member of the APRA party and the head of congress, will take over leadership of the cabinet.

"The country wants order and social inclusion and I am sure the cabinet that Velasquez leads will meet these objectives," Garcia said at the presidential palace.

He retained Luis Carranza, the finance minister and a favourite of investors, who is in the middle of rolling out a $3.2bn stimulus programme to boost the economy. As prime minister, Velasquez will face growing calls from unions, indigenous groups and the poor for the government to increase social spending... Al Jazeera>>

Nigeria rebels declare ceasefire

2009-07-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Nigeria's main rebel group in the Niger Delta has said it will observe a 60-day ceasefire following the release of their leader by the government. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said on Tuesday that it was also halting its attacks, which have crippled Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, to allow for peace talks with the government.

"Hopefully, the ceasefire period will create an enabling environment for progressive dialogue," Mend said in a statement.

The 60-day ceasefire period begins on Wednesday. Henry Okah was released from detention in the central city of Jos on Monday after being the first senior rebel to accept an amnesty offer from Umaru Yar'Adua, the president. After Yar'Adua's decision to drop treason and gun-smuggling charges against Okah, Mend said on Monday that it considered "this release as a step towards genuine peace and prosperity if Nigeria is open to frank talks and deals sincerely with the root issues once and for all"... Al Jazeera>>

Viva Palestina Lifeline II Enters Gaza

2009-07-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy enters the Gaza Strip, breaking the deadly Israeli blockade imposed on 1.5 million Palestinians for a second time. The American aid convoy carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of supplies for the people of Gaza crossed the Rafah border on Wednesday upon receiving permission from Cairo after a 10-day delay. The 200 activists are allowed to stay in the coastal territory only for 24 hours, a Press TV correspondent reported. Viva Palestina activists, all Americans, including Charles Barron, a New York City Councilman, say that they have been stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing for about 10 days despite earlier arrangements. The humanitarian aid convoy consisting of 50 vehicles is the second organized by British Member of Parliament and Press TV presenter George Galloway. Viva Palestina>>

Gerard Jean-Juste (1946 – 2009)

2009-07-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

Supporters embraced the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was often considered the Martin Luther King Jr. of Haiti in fighting for civil rights. (Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press/File 2004)

One killed in UN clash at Haitian priest's funeral

Mourners clashed with U.N. troops after a popular priest's funeral in the Haitian capital on Thursday and a demonstrator was killed by gunfire that witnesses blamed on the peacekeepers. Thousands of mourners gathered at the Port-au-Prince Cathedral and the surrounding area to pay their last respects to Roman Catholic priest Gerard Jean-Juste, a champion of Haiti's poor who died of a stroke on May 27 in Miami. He was 62. After the funeral, mourners and supporters of ousted ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest with whom Jean-Juste was a close ally, took to the streets in protest. Some accused the government of former Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue of causing Jean-Juste's death by imprisoning him in 2005 on charges that later proved false. Jean-Juste became ill with leukemia while in prison. Several witnesses said U.N. troops shot and killed a young male demonstrator as a convoy prepared to leave Port-au-Prince to bury Jean-Juste in his hometown of Cavaillon.

"I saw several U.N. troops firing gunshots and immediately after I saw the man laid on the ground," Jean Mathieu, who said he was nearby, told Reuters. "I did not see anybody else shooting. I am sure the U.N. soldiers are the ones who shot the demonstrator."

A spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Haiti, Sophie Boutaud De La Combe, confirmed that U.N. soldiers shot in the air to deter protesters who were throwing rocks at them, but she did not rule out that gunshots fired by U.N. troops could have hit the victim... Reuters>>

Video: Haiti protester shot during funeral

UN peacekeepers have been blamed for the death of a young man shot during the funeral of an activist priest in Haiti. Protesters demanding the return of former President Aristede had been carrying the coffin towards the presidential palace when the man was killed. The United Nations admits its forces fired warning shots during the demonstration. Alix Kroeger reports... BBC>>

"Thank you Bill Clinton" - one more assassination by UN troops in Haiti

Brazilian soldiers with the UN occupation in Haiti (MINUSTAH) killed a young man — from the neighborhood of Solino — leaving the funeral of Father Gerard Jean Juste on June 18 as he was getting ready to board a bus leaving with the cortège headed to the town of Cavillon, Haiti. Father Jean-Juste was closely aligned with former President Jean Bertrand Aristide and the Fanmi Lavalas political organization that has been a target of US led destabilization of the country. Many at the funeral accused the UN of provoking a confrontation at the politically-charged event at the to disrupt the momentum and organizing of the popular movement—Fanmi Lavalas is calling for a boycott of tomorrow's runoff elections for the Senate. The shooting occurred shortly after they had arrested another mourner — Denis Fernand of Bel-Air — wearing a t-shirt handed out by the activist group Veye Yo that was founded by the Liberation Theology priest that had a picture of "Father Jeri" in prison displayed with the words, "Jery ou ale, Batay la ap kontiye." (Jery, even though you leave us, the struggle will continue.) thousands of activists all over Port au Prince are now wearing this t-shirt. Three HaitiAction.net correspondents were within thirty yards of the arrest and shooting... Haiti Action>>

Video footage shows UN shooting at crowd in Haiti

Haiti's largest privately owned TV station, Radio Tele-Ginen, released video footage today that contradicts denials by the UN that they only fired shots into the air during a funeral for Catholic priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste on June 18. The footage obtained by HIP clearly shows two shots being fired by Brazilian troops from the back of a small pickup truck at crowd level. The second shot was fired in the direction of the front of Haiti's national cathedral where one of the mourners was killed by a single shot to the head. The UN has since claimed that they were not responsible and that their troops only fired warning shots into the air. They also claimed to have performed an autopsy on the victim and made the assertion that he had been "killed by a rock thrown by the crowd or hit with a blunt object." Witnesses and journalists have countered that the U.N. is trying to cover-up the incident. This is not the first time U.N. troops in Haiti have been accused of killing innocent Haitians. On July 6, 2005 the UN launched a raid on the community of Cite Soleil where residents accused them of committing a massacre. Haiti Action>>

Gaza civilians 'killed by drones'

2009-07-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Israeli military makes extensive use of drones in combat situations

Israeli drones unlawfully killed at least 29 Palestinian civilians during the Gaza conflict six months ago, the rights group Human Rights Watch says. It cited six attacks in which operators of pilotless aircraft allegedly failed to verify if targets were combatants as required by the laws of war. In three of the alleged cases, the group said the unmanned aircraft had fired on children playing on rooftops... BBC>>

Peru's indigenous people win one round over developers

2009-07-02T10:28:00.000-07:00

Tribal leader Luis Pizango and his supporters blocked a main road leading to Peru's interior for two months to show their anger. (Chris Kraul / For The Times).

Peruvian tribal leader Luis Pizango says private investment in his part of the Amazon has brought only misery to him and his people. Deforestation by loggers ruined tribal hunting grounds. An oil spill in the nearby Corrientes River diminished fishing. A 10,000-acre African palm plantation to produce biofuels displaced dozens of families. And a government plan to build a port facility on the Huallaga River to ease trade with Brazil stands to limit his people's access to the waterway. The Shawi indigenous people in northeastern Peru have many reasons for bitterness, Pizango, who is apu, or chief, of the group, said last week at a roadblock set up a few miles west of Yurimaguas to protest government policies.

"It's been a long trajectory of abuse," Pizango said. "We got tired of it."

He and others had blocked the main road leading to Peru's interior with tree stumps and rocks and set up makeshift tents with plastic sheeting along the highway shoulders. The surrounding terrain of Loreto province was a rolling green moonscape that long ago had been clear-cut by loggers.

Peru Overturns Decrees That Incited Protests

2009-07-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

Ashaninkas and Machiguengas, indigenous peoples of Peru, protested against the government's plans to open large parts of the Amazon for drilling, logging and dam building. (Tomas Munita for The New York Times)

Peru’s Congress on Thursday overturned two decrees by President Alan García that were aimed at opening large areas of the Peruvian Amazon to logging, dams and oil drilling but set off protests by indigenous groups this month in which dozens died. The move appeared to ease tensions with the indigenous groups, which had continued with their protests and road blockades in parts of Peru despite Congress’s decision to suspend the decrees last month. After the vote on Thursday, however, some indigenous leaders said they would lift the scattered blockades and halt the protests.

“Today is a historic day for all indigenous people and for the nation of Peru,” said Daysi Zapata, a leader of the Peruvian Jungle Inter-Ethnic Development Association, a group representing more than 300,000 people from Peru’s indigenous groups.

The apparent end to the impasse came after at least 24 police officers and 10 civilians were killed in clashes and acts of retaliation in northern Bagua Province, some of Peru’s bloodiest political violence since a two-decade war ended in 2000. The decrees, issued by Mr. García as part of a regulatory overhaul for a trade deal with the United States, were intended to open parts of jungle to investment and allow companies to bypass indigenous communities to attain permits for petroleum, biofuels and hydroelectric projects... New York Times>>

Unlikely Ally for Residents of West Bank

2009-07-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

Ezra Nawi, a Jewish Israeli, helped Palestinians set up an outpost adorned with the Palestinian colors, above, to protest an illegal Israeli settlement.(Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times).

Ezra Nawi was in his element. Behind the wheel of his well-worn jeep one recent Saturday morning, working two cellphones in Arabic as he bounded through the terraced hills and hardscrabble villages near Hebron, he was greeted warmly by Palestinians near and far. Watching him call for an ambulance for a resident and check on the progress of a Palestinian school being built without an Israeli permit, you might have thought him a clan chief. Then noticing the two Israeli Army jeeps trailing him, you might have pegged him as an Israeli occupation official handling Palestinian matters. But Mr. Nawi is neither. It is perhaps best to think of him as the Robin Hood of the South Hebron hills, an Israeli Jew helping poor locals who love him, and thwarting settlers and soldiers who view him with contempt. Those army jeeps were not watching over him. They were stalking him.

...

“The settlers keep the Palestinian farmers from their land by harassing them, and then after several years they say the land has not been farmed so by law it is no longer theirs,” Mr. Nawi said. “We are only here to stop that from happening.”

That is not the view of the settlers.

“He is a troublemaker,” asserted Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a spokesman for Israeli settler communities in the area. “It’s true that from time to time there is a problem of some settlers coming out of their settlements to cause problems. But people like Nawi don’t want a solution. Their whole aim is to cause trouble.”

True or not, Mr. Nawi is now in trouble. Having spent several short stints in jail for his activism over the years, he now faces the prospect of a long one. He is due to be sentenced Wednesday for assaulting an Israeli policeman two years ago during a confrontation over an attempt to demolish Palestinians’ shacks on disputed land on the West Bank. The policeman said Mr. Nawi struck him during that encounter. Mr. Nawi denied it, but in March a judge convicted him. What is left of the Israeli left is rallying around him, arguing that Mr. Nawi is a known pacifist who would not have raised his hand against anyone...New York Times>>

In Venezuela, Land 'Rescue' Hopes Unmet

2009-07-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

Ramón Barrera arrived at a former ranch dreaming of his own small parcel filled with crops. Six months later, he has only some scrawny pigs. (By Juan Forero -- The Washington Post)

Dreaming of a new life, Ramón Barrera came to El Charcote, a vast farm here in northwestern Venezuela, several years after President Hugo Chávez's populist government had expropriated the property from its longtime owners and begun distributing parcels to small farmers like him to work. Six months after he arrived, Barrera's dream is still just a dream -- his 37 acres are fallow, so he spends his time feeding grain to nine scrawny pigs. He and other farmers trying to earn a living on the farm's sunbaked expanse said the technical help they had been promised never materialized.

"Things are serious here. There is no water, no electricity, no comforts," said Barrera, 64. "There is no credit. There is nothing. How are people supposed to work?"

Chávez's so-called back-to-the-land movement calls for the redistribution of land -- increasingly properties that the state has taken over in what officials term a "rescue" or "recuperation." The objective is to ensure "food sovereignty," thereby reducing dependence on imports. But nearly five years after the measures were implemented nationwide, farmers and agriculture experts say, Venezuela is not only far from self-sufficient in food, but also more dependent than ever on foreign countries. Food imports rose to $7.5 billion last year, a sixfold increase since Chávez took power a decade ago. That has not stopped the government from accelerating its policy of dismantling big haciendas, holdings that officials often describe as unproductive. Owners are compensated, unless authorities accuse them of having acquired their properties illegally. Those who take over are promised courses in farming; some are settled in newly built communes. The policy is rooted in a 2001 law and driven by Chávez's insistence that the land belongs to everyone...Washington Post>>

Chavez may end patents on medicine in Venezuela

2009-07-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

President Hugo Chavez has vowed to shake up the rules governing intellectual property rights on medicines and other products in Venezuela, the socialist's latest move against the private sector.

"A song is intellectual property, but an invention or a scientific discovery should be knowledge for the world, especially medicine," Chavez said late on Saturday.

"That a laboratory does not allow us to make a medicine because they have the patent, no, no, no," Chavez said.

Chavez, who has nationalized many Venezuela industries and is critical of the private sector, ordered his trade minister to analyze the patent rules in the OPEC nation. Reuters>>

Grassroots Lessons From Latin America: An Interview with Michael Fox

2009-06-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

Michael Fox is a Brazil-based independent journalist and co-producer of the new documentary Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas (PM Press). He is also the co-author of an upcoming book called Venezuela Speaks: Voices From the Grassroots, also available through PM Press and set to be released this fall. Throughout his research for this film and book, and as a radio and print reporter who has covered political and social issues across Latin America, Fox has come to know to hopes and struggles of the region’s social movements, and what US activists might learn from the experiences of these movements.

In this interview, he talks about what lessons US activists might consider from social movements throughout Latin America, and the challenges of applying Latin American activist strategies in the US under an Obama administration. Toward Freedom>>

Peru: Premier Asks to Revoke Laws

2009-06-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

Prime Minister Yehude Simon said Monday that he would ask Congress to revoke laws aimed at increasing foreign investment in the Amazon rain forest after clashes early this month between the police and indigenous groups that opposed the laws left at least 34 people dead. Mr. Simon, left, signed a pact with tribal leaders in the jungle city of San Ramón that included a promise to present a bill in Congress by Thursday to rescind the laws, the Andina state news agency reported. Tribal leaders said they would call off the protests if the laws were lifted. NYTimes>>

Iran’s Latest Protests Are Seen as the Toughest to Stop

2009-06-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

An an iconic photograph of antigovernment demonstrations in Iran a student with flowing black hair and a headband held aloft the bloody T-shirt of a wounded protester. After his face appeared on the cover of The Economist magazine in July 1999, Ahmad Batebi paid dearly for it, enduring nearly a decade of imprisonment and torture before fleeing into exile.

On Tuesday, as he watched the swelling antigovernment protests in Iran from suburban Virginia, Mr. Batebi described a sense of dread mixing with happiness. “Every society has to make their own version of freedom and democracy, and that is what the Iranian people are doing right now,” he said through a translator. “But I know that people are being beaten, some are going to jail and some will be killed.” The Iranian government tolerated student-led uprisings in 1999 and 2003 for only a few days before unleashing fearsome crackdowns, sending Basij vigilantes onto campuses, where they flung a few students from the windows; bloodied as many heads as they could with bricks, chains or truncheons; and jailed scores... NYTimes>>

Jamshid/Reuters. After Ahmad Batebi raised a bloody shirt in Tehran in July 1999, his image became a well-known symbol of dissent. More Photos »

Defiance Grows as Iran’s Leader Sets Vote Review

2009-06-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in silence through central Tehran on Monday to protest Iran’s disputed presidential election in an extraordinary show of defiance from a broad cross section of society, even as the nation’s supreme leader called for a formal review of results he had endorsed two days earlier... NYTimes>>

Behrouz Mehri/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. The Iranian opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, appeared publicly for the first time in more than two days on Monday. More Photos >

'One shot dead' at Iran protest

2009-06-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

At least one person has been killed in Tehran after armed men opened fire during a rally by tens of thousands of people protesting against Iran's election results. Clashes were reported on Monday hours after the rally, held in defiance of a ban imposed by the interior ministry, began. An Associated Press photographer in Tehran's Azadi Square said one person had been shot dead and several others appeared to be seriously wounded. The incident occurred in front of a local base of the Basij, Iran's volunteer paramilitary force, which had been set ablaze. Al Jazeera>>

Nepal strike paralyzes capital

2009-06-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

A general strike called by Nepal's former Maoist rebels to protest against the alleged killing of one of their leaders has shut down Kathmandu, the capital. Shops, schools and businesses closed on Monday as members of the Young Communist League (YCL) gathered in main intersections of the city to enforce the strike. Protesters burned tyres and forced cars and buses off the road, with demonstrators vandalising at least three cars for defying the strike. The strike came days after Rajendra Phuyal, a local Maoist leader, was found dead in Kathmandu. Al Jazeera>>

Ex-Pinochet army conscript charged with folk singer Victor Jara's murder

2009-06-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

Victor Jara, who was killed in the first few days of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. Photograph: Reuters

It was the atrocity which symbolised Chile's descent into dictatorship: soldiers used rifle butts to smash the hands of Victor Jara, a political activist and folk singer, so he could not play guitar. Then they shot him 44 times. Yesterday, almost 36 years later, justice caught up with one of killers. José Adolfo Paredes Márquez, a former conscript in Augusto Pinochet's army, was charged with murder. The burly 54-year-old was tracked down in San Sebastian, a spa town outside the capital Santiago, where he was working as a waiter and gardener.

Activists who have campaigned for the case to be reopened welcomed the announcement but urged authorities to focus on arresting commanding officers. "There are other people responsible – those who ordered the torture and the execution," said Joan Turner Jara, the singer's English-born widow. Jara, a political songwriter and poet and high-profile supporter of socialist President Salvador Allende, was among thousands swept up in the aftermath of Pinochet's CIA-backed coup in September 1973. The author of El cigarrito and Manifiesto was herded into Santiago's football stadium which was used as a mass jail. Guardian UK>>

Marijuana and cocaine should be legalised, says Latin American drugs commission

2009-06-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

Marijuana and cocaine for personal use should be decriminalised because the "war on drugs" has been a disaster, according to some of Latin America's most powerful politicians and writers. The current international policy on drugs encourages corruption and violence that is threatening democracy throughout the continent, according to the former president of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who is a co-president of the Latin American commission on drugs and democracy. As well as politicians, the commission includes the writers Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, and Paulo Coelho of Brazil....Guardian UK>>

Video: Gaza - No right to life

2009-06-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

With the lack of medical services in Gaza, critically ill patients must travel into Israel for treatment. Many are asked to collaborate with Israeli intelligence services before they receive aid. It has been alleged that if they refuse to become informers they are refused medical treatment. Inigo Gilmore reports. Guardian UK>>

Is fascism on the march again?

2009-06-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

Does the election of two BNP MEPs and the success of the far right elsewhere in Europe mean we are facing the threat of fascism? Or is this just a protest vote that will quickly fade? Leading historians give their verdicts... Guardian UK>>

The hunt for Rosa Luxemburg

2009-06-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

Rosa Luxemburg's grave has been a shrine for years, but does it really contain her body? Photograph: AP/Markus Schreiber

Germany is in the grip of a mystery. Does a body, discovered in the basement of a Berlin hospital, belong to the murdered firebrand communist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg? Luxemburg was long believed to have been buried in an eastern Berlin graveyard, after being shot and thrown into a canal on government orders in 1919, two weeks after she and Karl Liebknecht founded Germany's Communist party.

That was until forensic scientist Michael Tsokos stumbled across the headless torso of a woman in a glass case in the basement of the forensics department of Berlin's Charité hospital several weeks ago. Pathologists say the likelihood is that the remains are those of Luxemburg - the torso is similar to her in body size and shape and, like her, has a dislocated hip. But they need DNA evidence to make a definitive claim. The search has been on. They had hoped to find Luxemburg's DNA in saliva traces on postage stamps on letters she sent, until it was discovered she sponged them with water... Guardian UK>>

French anti-filesharing law overturned

2009-06-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

The French judiciary has ridden to the rescue of the country's web users, striking down a controversial new law which would have allowed the state to cut off the internet connections of illegal filesharers for up to a year. The ruling is a blow to French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who had characterised the so-called "three strikes" law as a crucial weapon in the fight against online piracy. The Hadopi law, named after the government agency which was to police the new regime, was also used by many in the content industry as an example that could be followed in the UK. But France's constitutional council ruled today that "free access" to online communications services is a human right and cannot be withheld without a judge's intervention. The council also ruled that the method of policing the web envisaged in the law breaches a citizen's right to privacy. Guardian UK>>

Plan to Charge Homeless Rent for Shelters Withdrawn, for Now

2009-06-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

Remember that new city policy of charging the homeless rent for shelters? It's been reversed, at least temporarily. Homeless advocates were going ballistic, and the Times says the program was administrated haphazardly, with erroneous charges sent to some working homeless who were deemed sufficiently solvent to pay rent (which of course would have doomed their chances of ever being not homeless). We'll see if this is an excuse to just revoke and forget about this dismal plan, or whether they try to sneak it back in later. This seems a good time to mention that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which Obama signed into law in February, sent $1.5 billion to state and local homeless services, and New York City is expected to get about $74 million to help house homeless residents under its care. Village Voice>>

Amazon forest and Peru's indigenous movement

2009-06-12T08:21:00.000-07:00

Tomas Munita for The New York Times

Protesters gird for long fight over opening Peru's Amazon

Faced with a simmering crisis over dozens of deaths in the quelling of indigenous protests last week, Peru’s Congress this week suspended the decrees that had set off the protests over plans to open large parts of the Peruvian Amazon to investment. Senior officials said they hoped this would calm nerves and ease the way for oil drillers and loggers to pursue their projects. But instead, indigenous groups are digging in for a protracted fight, revealing an increasingly well-organized movement that could be a tinderbox for President Alan García. The movement appears to be fueled by a deep popular resistance to the government’s policies, which focused on luring foreign investment, while parts of the Peruvian Amazon have been left behind.

The broadening influence of the indigenous movement was on display Thursday in a general strike that drew thousands of protesters here to the streets of Iquitos, the largest Peruvian city in the Amazon, and to cities and towns elsewhere in jungle areas. Protests over Mr. García’s handling of the violence in the northern Bagua Province last Friday also took place in highland regions like Puno, near the Bolivian border, and in Lima and Arequipa on the Pacific coast.

“The government made the situation worse with its condescending depiction of us as gangs of savages in the forest,” said Wagner Musoline Acho, 24, an Awajún Indian and an indigenous leader. “They think we can be tricked by a maneuver like suspending a couple of decrees for a few weeks and then reintroducing them, and they are wrong.” NYTimes>>

Peruvian police fire on unarmed indigenous tribes' oil and gas protest

Indigenous tribes who are protesting about oil and gas projects in the Amazon clashed with Peruvian security forces on Friday, leaving dozens dead and injured. The bloodshed broke out before dawn when police tried to lift a road blockade by thousands of Awajun and Wambis Indians near Bagua in the remote province of Utcubamba, 870 miles north of the capital Lima. Both sides reported at least 30 deaths - including nine police - and dozens wounded. Each blamed the other for the mayhem. Police in helicopters fired live rounds at peaceful protestors and dropped tear gas canisters, killing 22 protestors, indigenous leader Alberto Pizango told reporters in the capital Lima. "I hold the government of President Alan García responsible for ordering this genocide." The government said police were attempting to retake control of a lawless area when they came under attack from tribes who were armed with guns and set fire to government buildings.

The advocacy group Amazon Watch backed the indigenous version of events. "Eyewitnesses report that police attacked from both sides firing real bullets into the crowd as people fled into the hills. As the unarmed demonstrators were killed and injured, some wrestled the police and took away their guns and fought back in self-defence, resulting in the deaths of several police officers." NYTimes>>

The Amazon is Dying

Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, writing in the Guardian in March, offered us these words of hope: "No country has a larger stake in reversing the impact of global warming than Brazil. That is why it is at the forefront of efforts to come up with solutions that preserve our common future." Lula's words are fine. But we are still waiting for real action. For the last 10 years, Greenpeace has been working in the Amazon alongside communities to protect the rainforest. Last week, Greenpeace released a report which was the result of a three-year investigation into the role of the cattle industry in driving illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The report, Slaughtering the Amazon, reveals the devastating impacts cattle ranching is having on the climate, biodiversity and local communities. GaurdianUK>>

Amazon deforestation leads to development 'boom-and-bust'

Chopping down the Amazon rainforest to make way for crops or cattle has no economic or social benefit for local people in the long term, according to a major new study. The finding undercuts the argument that deforestation, which causes 20% of the globe's greenhouse gas emissions, leads to long-term development. Conservationists showed communities develop rapidly but temporarily when forests are cleared. But rates of development quickly fall back below national average levels when the loggers move on and local resources near depletion.

...

The researchers said that the cycle occurred because, at first, the newly available natural resources in an area of cleared forest attract investment and infrastructure. New roads can lead to improved access to education, medicine and an increased overall income gives people better living conditions. But once the timber and other resources dry up, things change. "A lot of the agricultural land is only productive for a few years so once you lose that, you also lose that as a source of income," said Ewers. "On top of that you tend to have much higher populations because a lot of people have been attracted to the area." This higher population has to survive on ever-dwindling local resources, pushing the standard of living right down again. GaurdianUK>>

An aerial view of cattle farm is seen in an Amazonian deforested jungle close to Maraba. Photograph: Paulo Whitaker/Reuters

Shell In Nigeria

2009-06-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1993. Photograph: Greenpeace/AFP

Shell Pays out $15.5m over Saro-Wiwa killing

The oil giant Shell has agreed to pay $15.5m (£9.6m) in settlement of a legal action in which it was accused of having collaborated in the execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni tribe of southern Nigeria. The settlement, reached on the eve of the trial in a federal court in New York, was one of the largest payouts agreed by a multinational corporation charged with human rights violations. GaurdianUK>>

Shell Settlement with Ogoni people stops short of full justice

Shell's decision to settle out of court with a group of Ogoni people rather than take them on in New York means a measure of justice has come to the Niger Delta. The sum of $15.5m (£9.6m) may be peanuts for the company and nothing can compensate the 500,000 Ogoni people for generations of devastating pollution, human rights abuses and persecution. But while Shell insists that the result is no admission of guilt, it nevertheless represents a triumph for an impoverished community over one of the richest companies in the world. GaurdianUK>>

Chequered history: Shell in Nigeria

The case is not the first against Shell in Nigeria. Hundreds of minor cases are brought each year, mostly by individuals for damage to crops or pollution. Most are settled out of court with a few hundred dollars. The company regards them as a small community tax. But others are more serious. In 2006, after an order by Nigeria's parliament, a court ordered Shell to pay $1.5bn (£95m) to the Ijaw people for damage done to the environment years before. Shell has appealed. Also, in 2005, the company was ordered to stop gas flaring but refused, asking for more time. Shell is thought to be most vulnerable to cases brought to foreign courts. This month, four fishermen and farmers from the Niger delta are representing their villages in a Dutch court. They say that their livelihoods have been affected by pollution and accuse Shell of failing to adhere to international standards on "good oilfield practice". GaurdianUK>>

Polluted land: in the oil zone of Nigeria's Ogoniland

To reach the oil spill near the village of Otuegwe 1, we had to swim through swamp forest after a five-mile tramp through cassava plantations. We smelt it first – the stench of garage forecourts and rotting vegetation. Hundreds of hectares of forest were dead, and pools of crude oil spilled out in every direction. Chief Promise, who swam with us, angrily rejected Shell's allegation that the spill had occurred because of sabotage. "People died, hundreds of people were ill," he said. "Nets, fishing pots, huts were lost. This is where we fish and farm. We have lost our forest." This was Ogoniland nearly 10 years ago. Shell cleaned that spill up and gave the community cash and a water purification unit, but millions of cubic metres of gas are still burned off every year here, and tens of thousands of gallons of oil are spilled into the environment. Night in the delta for many communities is a lurid red from the flaring. The creeks are polluted, there are fewer fish and the land is degraded. GaurdianUK>>

'We have to' charge working homeless rent, says Mayor Bloomberg

2009-05-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

"Mayor Bloomberg Saturday defended a new policy that's forcing the city's working homeless to pay rent.

'Everybody else is doing it, and we're told we have to do it, so we're going to do it,' Bloomberg said of the new policy, which requires the working homeless to pay up.

The rule, from a 1997 state law, has already affected 511 families - and could leave hundreds more stranded, advocates said. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said the 'shocking' policy hurts the homeless and should be reversed.

'If this is a state requirement, New York City should be taking the lead in getting it changed,' Stringer said.

'It makes no sense,' said Legal Aid attorney Steven Banks, who vowed to fight it through the courts." New York Daily News>>

Chávez and Morales Force Sweeping Land Reform Measures

2009-05-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

"...Historically, much of the land parcels in these Andean nations has been under the tight control of a relatively select few multinational corporations, as well as elite European-descended land-holding families. Many of the latter were for decades, often sanctioned by corrupt officials to use coercion or other unscrupulous practices, including counterfeit land titles, to wrest land with murky legitimacy from the indigenous population. Today, leaders like Chávez and Morales are striving to rectify history’s injustices by returning the property back to its original owners. These grassroots initiatives on the part of the indigenous have been controversial, to say the least..." Cutting Edge>>

Financing Venezuela’s Communal Councils

2009-05-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

"...David Velásquez, Minister of Popular Power for Participation and Social Development, declared in 2007, "We have the enormous responsibility of going beyond those who want to convert the Community Councils into instances for receiving and administering resources, or instances that fail to realize that they (the councils) are a new form of state, of government, a new form of society in construction." In a country where corruption and incompetence are serious problems, participation is seen as a potential antidote, sidelining and replacing ineffective, inefficient, or corrupt parts of the state. With the financial crisis only temporarily contained by Venezuela's foreign reserves, the prospect of reduced government revenues makes these concerns urgent. Yet if the logic is clear, how do I know this argument will fail to convince?

The reality is that although Velásquez aspires to a new participatory state, many exist to be "gone beyond." A large number of Venezuelans do not understand the community councils as transformative, seeing them simply as a means of accessing finance with which to improve their communities. The results coming from councils have been extremely varied, and while it may appear unsustainable, we should recognize community based development is far from bad. This said, the corresponding mentality indicates something at fault, some gap between the participatory ideology and Venezuelan reality. It is in this gap that my response has fallen." Venzuela Analysis>>

Bankruptcy of responses to Macassar land occupation underlines Western Cape housing crisis

2009-05-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

"...Macassar, a formerly ‘coloured’ area, is now bursting at the seams with overcrowded houses, occupied by both coloured and African families (and even a few whites). Both coloureds and Africans participated in the occupation. Macassar is one part of Cape Town’s housing crisis, where there is a backlog of some 400,000 homes, increasing by some 20,000 a year, but with a maximum of 8, 000 houses a year being built. Backyarders in Macassar pay exorbitant rents to the house-owners of some R300-R500 a months, and that is why they want decent homes of their own.

Before the elections, backyarders in Macassar had approached mayor Helen Zille several times with letters and SMSes. She eventually said she would get Dan Plato to visit them to hear their grievances. He never came. After the elections people decided they would have to go it on their own. They identified a piece of vacant land and spent three days cleaning it in preparation for a picnic and sports event on Saturday 16th, but this was wiped out by the first of the Cape’s winter storms.

So on the night of Monday 18th they gathered at 6pm to build, and succeeded through the night in erecting a number of complete shacks; many others brought their furniture to put on their intended shack sites. The DA-ordered eviction on Tuesday morning was illegal under the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from, and Unlawful Occupation of, Land Act of 1998 (PI), which states that any built structures require a court order before people are evicted from them. People put up the shacks again, but they were torn down again and this time the materials were confiscated.

The initial response of the community was to try to occupy the adjacent N2, which the police prevented. People returned to the road next to the field they had occupied and marched up and down, singing and toyi-toying. The police became very restless and tried to block the marches by parking police cars three abreast in the road but people just marched through without touching the cars." Abahlali>>

Macassar Village, 19 May 2009

Young Pakistanis Take One Problem Into Their Own Hands

2009-05-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

"...A group of young Pakistani friends, sick of hearing their families complain about the government, decided to spite them by taking matters into their own hands: every Sunday they would grab shovels, go out into their city, and pick up garbage. It was a strange thing to do, particularly for such students from elite private schools, who would normally spend Sunday afternoons relaxing in air-conditioned homes. But the students were inspired by the recent success of the lawyers’ movement, which used a national protest to press the government to reinstate the country’s chief justice, and their rush of public consciousness was irrepressible."

...

"...A long-term cycle of corrupt, weak governments interrupted by military coups has caused Pakistan’s political muscles to atrophy, leaving Pakistani society, particularly its poor, hopeless that it will ever receive the services — education, water, electricity, health — that it so desperately needs." NYTimes>>

Members of “Responsible Citizens” collected garbage in the Gulberg neighborhood of Lahore. Zackary Canepari for The New York Times

Peru army to quell Amazon protests

2009-05-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

"...Peru has authorised its army to reinforce police in quelling protests by indigenous groups over land, oil and mineral rights, the ministry of defence said. The government "authorises for 30 days the intervention of the armed forces to ensure the continued functioning of essential services in select districts" of the Amazon rainforest region, a statement from the ministry of defence said on Saturday. The military said their involvement seeks to ensure the operation of roads and airports, and the supply of water and electricity.

Protesters from a movement of 65 indigenous groups declared an "insurgency" against the government on Friday for refusing to repeal laws that threaten their ancestral land and resources. Demonstrations erupted in response to government moves to open the region to oil exploration and development by foreign companies under a set of measures that Alan Garcia, the Peruvian president, signed in 2007 and 2008." Al Jazeera>>

Italy law cracks down on migrants

2009-05-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

"...The Italian parliament has passed a controversial law aimed at deterring illegal immigration through measures including fines of thousands of dollars.

The law, which was passed by 297 votes to 255 with three abstentions, creates an offence of illegal entry or residence on Italian soil punishable by fines of between $6,750 and $13,500.

The vote came as the government of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, was already under fire for sending would-be immigrants back to Libya last week without allowing them to apply for asylum." Al Jazeera>>

German workers stage protest

2009-05-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

"...Tens of thousands of workers from across Germany marched through downtown Berlin yesterday to call for increased government measures to protect their jobs and prosperity.

German unions organized the protest as part of a Europe-wide effort to demand action to protect their jobs during the economic downturn. Protests in Belgium and Spain were held Friday." Philadelphia Inquirer>>

Iraq: Important victory of industrial strikes

2009-05-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

"...We received these short news items on significant labour struggles in Iraq in the oil industry in Basra, and a gathering of the Electricity workers in Nasiriyah. We publish them for the interest of our readers. They show that the Iraqi labour movement is beginning to recover from the devastation of recent years and achieving important victories." IMT>>

Workers call for action on jobs

2009-05-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

"...Thousands of workers from across the UK have taken part in a protest march in Birmingham to call on the government to help the UK's manufacturing industry. The demonstration was followed by a rally in the city, which was chosen as a venue because almost one-in-10 people in the West Midlands is now unemployed." BBC>>

Hundreds of marchers waved union flags and banners

Video: Construction Workers Demo in London

2009-05-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

"...Construction workers travel to London on May 6 to demonstrate against a new wave of exploitation. Workers gather outside London Olympics site as the sun rises, and later outside Parliament, to make their voices heard and to demand justice for all workers." IMT>>

Clandestí: Forbidden Catalan Cinema Under Franco

2009-05-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

"...Clandesti: Forbidden Catalan Cinema Under Franco focuses on a generation of independent filmmakers whose innate unwillingness to conform forced them to produce, distribute, and exhibit radical films in Catalonia, with the furtive hope of sending them into the rest of Franco’s Spain. Shooting under the pretense of amateur filmmaking, they hid within crowds of protesters, producing works that were often highly creative and experimental. They used short ends—bits of unexposed footage left over from shoots—made available to them by sympathetic professionals and distributed their films in recreation centers, private homes, cinema clubs, universities, social and cultural associations, and even parochial schools." Film Society of Lincoln Center>>

View excerpts from films in the series: Pragda>>

Argentina's Worker-Run Factories

2009-05-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

Video: Argentine Journalist Sergio Ciancaglina on "Sin Patron: Stories from Argentina's Worker-Run Factories"

"...Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein documented the struggles of Argentine workers occupying their factories in the 2004 film The Take. We play an excerpt of the film and speak to Argentine journalist Sergio Ciancaglini, co-author of Sin Patrón: Stories from Argentina’s Worker-Run Factories." Democracy Now>>

...

Video: "Argentina's Occupied Factories"

"...Over the past five years there has been an important and continuous movement in Argentina to occupy failed or failing factories and run them via what the Argentines call workers' control or worker self-mangement. This video, based on a tour of many occupied factories and discussions with various participants at every level of the movement, reports the features and lessons of the experience." ZNET>>

Kerrey Will Leave New School in 2011

2009-05-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

"...Bob Kerrey will step down as president of the New School when his contract expires on July 1, 2011. His departure, announced on Wednesday evening at a meeting of the New School’s board of trustees, will end a stormy tenure in which he raised the sprawling and progressive university’s national profile but repeatedly clashed with faculty members and students."

...

"...Founded in 1919, the New School emerged as a haphazard patchwork of schools that Mr. Kerrey repeatedly tried to knit together into a unified institution — often facing steep resistance from full-time faculty members, who issued a vote of no-confidence in December, and from students. Student protesters had two sit-ins at a university building in December and April; the latter occupation resulted in 22 arrests when the police retook the building, at 65 Fifth Avenue." NYTimes>>

Photographs from The New School in Exile>>

U.S. air strike victims say Taliban long gone

2009-05-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

Afghans who lost family members in a U.S. bombardment last week say Taliban militants fled hours before the U.S. attack -- an account that contrasts with Pentagon claims about an incident that has come to encapsulate an uphill battle for Afghan hearts and minds. Haji Sayed Barakat, who lost two children and his wife of 35 years in the May 4 attack, said Taliban militants were present in the area but had moved on two hours before the U.S. air strikes.

In a voice more confused than angry, the Afghan farmer gestured toward his three remaining daughters, now recovering in the sterile quarters of Herat hospital's new burn ward.

"My girls, do they look like Taliban?" he asked.

Afghan officials say 140 people, including 95 children, died in the operation in the country's western Farah province. The figures, if confirmed, would amount to the largest number of civilians killed in a single incident since U.S. forces helped oust a Taliban government in 2001. The deaths sent public anger reverberating through the Kabul government at an especially fragile moment in the war, with a summer showdown with the resurgent Taliban looming. In Farah city, a stone-throwing mob shouted, "Death to America," before they were scattered by police gunfire this week. President Hamid Karzai and Afghan lawmakers have repeatedly called for an end to U.S. air strikes.

"How can you expect a people who keep losing their children to remain friendly?" Mr. Karzai said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." He called civilian casualties the "biggest concern of Afghanistan and a damage to the effort against terrorists." Wahigton Post>>

Photograph by Jason Motlagh / The Washington Times

Detroit: 12000 Abandoned Homes / 19000 Homeless

2009-05-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

Life Goes On Around Body Found Frozen In Vacant Detroit Warehouse

Inside the abandoned Roosevelt Warehouse in Detroit, a body lies frozen in a block of ice. (Max Ortiz / The Detroit News)

"...What happened to this person, one wonders? Murder in Motown is a definite possibility. Perhaps it was death by alcoholic stupor. Perhaps the person was crawling around in the elevator shaft trying to retrieve some metal that he could sell at a scrap yard. In any event, there the person was. Stone-cold dead.

The building is known as the Roosevelt Warehouse, once belonging to the Detroit Public Schools as a book repository. Located near 14th Street and Michigan Avenue, the warehouse burned in 1987 and caused something of a scandal as thousands of books, scissors, footballs and crayons were left to rot while Detroit schoolchildren -- some of the poorest children in the country -- went without supplies.

The building was eventually sold to Matty Moroun, the trucking and real estate mogul who is worth billions of dollars and is the largest private property owner in the state of Michigan. Among other properties, Moroun owns the decrepit Michigan Central Rail Depot that squats directly next to the warehouse. The train station has become the symbol of Detroit's decay. Like much of his property in southwestern Detroit, Moroun's warehouse and the train station are gaping sores.

The warehouse is so easily accessible, a person in a wheelchair could get in with little effort. There are holes in the fence and in the side entrance. The elevator shaft is wide open. It appears no one has ever tried to close the bay doors.

A colony of homeless men live in the warehouse." Detroit News>>

...

In Pictures: 100 Abandoned Houses

"...As the entertainment district flourished, and Brush Park began to transform into something new, I realized the other approximately 135 square miles of Detroit was largely ignored. The excitement about Detroit’s “rebirth” took center stage, while much of the rest of the city was becoming largely abandoned. Even Brush Park itself was still largely abandoned, but with the remaining tenants of Brush Park buildings being pushed out, and many of the old houses torn down, I moved on to other areas, where Detroiters were attempting to make a life among abandoned and burned out houses. Often times, the neighborhoods were almost completely abandoned. In these neighborhoods I encountered concerned citizens, packs of wild dogs, 20 foot high piles of toilets, and houses with the facades torn off, filled with garbage." 100 Abandoned Houses>>

Outrage at 'slavery' in Bolivia

2009-05-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

"We are very scandalised by what we've seen … We have seen indigenous people, the original owners of the land, who are now in a situation of landlessness, forced labour, servitude and extreme poverty," Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, head of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, told reporters in La Paz.

Between 30 April and 5 May, Ms Tauli-Corpuz led a mission to investigate the situation of forced labour amongst the Guarani people in the eastern lowlands of Bolivia, a region known as the Chaco.

"This is a relationship of strong servitude that condemns these people to poverty and dependency on the landlords," says Alejandro Almaraz, Bolivia's deputy land minister. BBC>>

Teresa Barrio, pictured with her granddaughter, calls herself a slave

Protests in France Spread to Hospital Workers

2009-05-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

In a further sign of discontent with President Nicolas Sarkozy’s legislative program two years into his mandate, hospital workers took to the streets of France on Thursday to show their anger over government policy, while protesters continued to block students from some universities.

Coming after two large strikes in recent months, demonstrations on May 1 and several cases of workers’ kidnapping their bosses to protest layoffs, the agitation is adding to the sense of anger about government measures. Yet the continued weakness of the political opposition and the unwillingness of the biggest unions to pursue more radical action is allowing the government to hold the line for now.

“We have a paradoxical situation,” said François Dubet, a professor at the University of Bordeaux. “On the one hand, there is rising discontent; on the other, the opposition is quite dispersed and hasn’t yet created a unified movement.”

The agitation is causing unease within the government. “The problem is that the government was elected on a free-market platform, and in the current climate it’s becoming harder to defend those changes,” said a cabinet official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. NYTimes>>

Opponents protest over homeless charged rent in NY

2009-05-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

Advocates for the homeless in New York are criticizing the city's recent enforcement of a state law requiring homeless people to pay a portion of their earned income to stay at shelters.

The advocates, along with elected officials, gathered on the steps of City Hall on Thursday to protest enforcement, which began May 1. They called the practice "misguided," "counterproductive," "senseless," and "absurd."

But city officials insisted Thursday their hands were tied. State regulators forced the Department of Homeless Services to comply with a 1997 law that overhauled New York's welfare programs. News Day>>

Nepal Maoist protesters clash with police

2009-05-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

Police in Nepal used batons on hundreds of Maoist protesters rallying Monday in the capital Kathmandu in support of their party leader Prachanda, who resigned as prime minister last week.

Riot police moved in after the group of about 400 protesters tried to march towards the office of the president, an officer at the scene, Ganga Budathoki, told AFP.

Police used batons to force back protesters after they tried to break through a security cordon.

Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal -- known as Prachanda -- stepped down as prime minister after his attempt to sack the army chief was blocked by the president.

The Maoists accuse General Rookmangud Katawal of refusing to integrate 19,000 of their fighters into the regular army, as stipulated by a 2006 peace deal that ended a decade of civil war.

Maoist supporters chanting "Down with the president" and "Scrap the unconstitutional coup" have been since protesting daily on the streets of the Himalayan nation's capital. AFP>>

Nepal Government Still in Limbo

2009-05-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

The midnight, Saturday deadline set by Nepali President Ram Baran Yadav to reach consensus on the formation of a new government for Nepal has come and gone with no sign of agreement between the 25 parliamentary parties.

Nepal's major parties have engaged in ongoing strategy sessions since Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda, resigned earlier this week in protest of the President's refusal to oust the Nepali army chief.

Nepal's government remained in limbo as the clock struck midnight in Nepal's capital of Kathmandu-the official deadline set by Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav for the formation of a new unity government.

Nepal's Major party members will remain in meetings well into the early morning with a major announcement on the next-step slated for mid-day Sunday, according to an official in the President's Office.

Earlier this week Prachanda resigned after the Nepali President Yadav blocked his move to fire army chief General Rukmangad Katwal. The Maoist premier had attempted to oust the Army chief general for refusing to incorporate 19,000 former Maoist fighters into the Nepali army - as originally assured in a 2006 peace deal. VOA News>>

Afghans protest over Farah deaths

2009-05-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

Afghans have staged an angry protest following the suspected deaths of up to 100 civilians in a US-led air raid in the western Farah province.

Shots were fired on Thursday as the demonstrators threw stones at government offices in the town of Farah, the provincial capital.

Several people were wounded in the melee, Gul Ahmad Ayubi, a health department official, said.

The protest came as US and Afghan investigators examined demolished buildings and graves in two villages.

The results of the joint investigation were not expected to be announced until Friday.

Police and Rohul Amin, the governor of Farah, say they have received information that suggests more than 100 people could have been killed when US-led forces launched the raids on two villages.

If the casualties are confirmed, it would be the largest loss of civilian life in a single attack since US troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001. Al Jazeera>>

Nepal Maoists hold fresh protests

2009-05-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

There have been more protests by Maoists in Nepal, after the president blocked the sacking of the army chief by the Maoist-led government. Additional troops have been deployed in key areas of the capital, Kathmandu. The fresh tension comes a day after clashes between demonstrators and security forces. The Maoist Prime Minister, Prachanda, resigned on Monday following the dispute over the sacking of the head of the army. BBC>>

Nepal police clash with protesters

2009-05-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

Riot police have clashed with hundreds of female protesters from Nepal's communist party. About 500 women had gathered in front of the president's office in the capital, Kathmandu, on Thursday to demand that he dismiss the head of the army. A number of the protesters were injured after they were beaten with bamboo sticks as they tried to break through a police cordon around the building. Al Jazeera>>

New Kasama Pamphlet: On the Maobadi and the Crisis in Nepal

2009-05-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

Far too few people in the world know about the communist revolution in Nepal — the promise it holds and the danger it is in. And, remarkably, a sharp struggle has broken out among those who do know about it — among the communists and Maoists of the world. And that struggle (strangely enough, sadly enough) has focused on whether or not to denounce the Maoists of Nepal (for wandering too far and too creatively from certain cherished formulaic precepts). Kasama>>

Ben Peterson on Nepal: This is Essentially an Anti-Maoist Coup

2009-05-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

The last 48 hours in Nepal has seen a flurry of activity and has created the illusion of a political situation has been rapidly changing.

While there has been a series of developments within the parliament and within the government, and the alliances and support of different political parties has been removed and realigned- the essence of the political situation remains unchanged.

...

The last few days has made perfectly clear to anyone watching Nepal the real balance of forces within the country. The elected government is in no position of power, even on a question as elementary to any democracy such as civilian control over the military. The real power brokers are 1) those in a position of power within the country. The bureaucrats, the military, the rich, ex-royals and the feudal land lords- largely grouped behind the political leadership of the Nepali Congress and 2) those international forces that wish to preserve the status quo in Nepal as it serves their interests, namely India and the United States of America. The established political parties are all firmly integrated into this system as well which the current political crisis clearly proves. The CPN(UML) while initially giving its approval to the government, backed down and joined the opposition under the pressure of these international forces. Kasama>>

Police break up Nepal protest

2009-05-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

Riot police in Nepal have broken up a protest outside the president's office and detained several demonstrators a day after the country's Maoist prime minister resigned. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the prime minister, resigned after Ram Baran Yadav, the president, blocked the government's attempt to sack the country's army chief. Tuesday morning's protest in Kathmandu took place despite a ban on rallies and with a large security presence on the streets of the capital. Al Jazeera>>

Nigerian unions call for anti-government protests

2009-05-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

Nigerian unions said Friday called a series of anti-government rallies to protest against key policies including privatisation of refineries.

"Together with our civil society ally, we will commence the national rallies from Lagos on Wednesday May 13," Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, Abdulwaheed Omar, said during a May Day rally in Abuja, attended by about 20,000 workers.

"We shall begin a series of national rallies, protests to put pressure on government to reverse its plan to deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry and privatise our refineries," Omar said. AFP>>

Peru Indians block jungle airport in land protest

2009-05-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ashaninka and Yines Indians are blocking an airport in the central Peruvian jungle town of Atalaya as well as two stations on a northern oil pipeline to protest laws that they say threaten their ancestral land and resources.

Edson Rosales, spokesman for an Indian rights group in the Amazon, says 15,000 Indians have been protesting since April 9 and plan to start taking over oil and gas rigs. He says laws passed in December open the door to privatization of water resources and jungle land used by the Indians.

The protests reported Thursday are similar to 11 days of disruptions last August that saw Indians block roads and clash with police. That unrest led Peru's government to repeal two laws designed to make it easier to sell tribal lands. Associated Press>>

Nepal government splits over general's firing

2009-05-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

Nepal's government ordered the country's army chief of staff fired Sunday, touching off street protests and a split in Nepal's Maoist-dominated ruling coalition.

But Gen. Rookmangud Katawal has refused to accept his dismissal, and Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav -- the constitutional commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces -- has told Katawal to remain in office, a presidential spokesman said.

Nepal's Cabinet voted to dismiss Katawal after the military refused the government's order to stop recruiting about 3,000 new soldiers to fill vacant positions when it has yet to take in former Maoist rebels, as a 2006 peace deal required.

The move prompted the Maoists' largest coalition partner to quit the government, the party's leader said.

...

The Maoists hold 238 of the 601 seats in parliament, while Pokharel's party has 108. The Maoists could continue to hold power with the support of smaller parties, but Pokharel said his party is working to form a new ruling coalition. CNN>>

Nepal: Events Unfolding as We Speak

2009-05-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

This morning the Maoists in government made the decision to remove Gen. Katawal from his position of Chief of Army Staff after his repeated political based insubordination. This was done after 10 days of trying to reach consensus with the other political parties, up until a final cross party meeting this morning. This consensus was not possible to come too, and due to this the Maoists have made this decision on their own.

As a result of this, reactionary and anti-democractic forces are trying to unseat the overwhelmingly elected government

...

It is becoming clear that the political opposition, including parties previously within the government, are trying to find ways to destroy the Maoist government and to remove them from any form of power. This situaion is chaning by the minute, but it is clear that very important and decisive struggles are playing out as we speak.

At the same time, there are rallies in various places by the supports of the government to support the government and the Maoist party in its decision. Lal Salam>>

In pictures: May Day protests

2009-05-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of thousands of people have take to the streets on May Day to Protest against their governments. BBC>>

South Koreans protest against government on May Day

2009-05-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

Thousands of South Koreans took to the streets Friday, demanding jobs and denouncing government policies in mostly peaceful May Day protests.

Police said about 16,000 people converged on a park near the National Assembly to mark the international labor day. They waved signs and chanted ant-government slogans under clear skies. Some called on South Korean President Lee Myung-bak step down.

"I am here to be with the people screaming for jobs and kicking and screaming to keep their jobs," said Kang Ki-kab, leader of the progressive Democratic Labor Party. Associated Press>>

Greek police fire tear gas in May Day protest clash

2009-05-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Greek police fired tear gas against May Day demonstrators who burnt at least one car in the streets of central Athens on Friday.

"It's a group of 300 people at the Athens Polytechnic," a police official said. The clashes with self-styled anarchists came after more than 6,000 people marched peacefully in the Greek capital in the traditional May Day rallies. There were no injuries or arrests.

More than 4,000 police officers were deployed in central Athens to prevent violence. Greece saw its worst riots in decades in December, fuelled by discontent with a slowing economy and high youth unemployment.

"We won't pay for their crisis," read banners at the central rally held earlier today by the country's main trade union GSEE, which represents about 2 million employees.

Unemployment is rising for the first time since 2004 in Greece as the economy grinds to a halt and may even contract in 2009 for the first time in 15 years, according to the IMF. Reuters>>

French Unions Lead May Day Protests, Europe Marches

2009-05-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

France’s eight labor unions joined for the first time for May Day demonstrations across the country to protest government measures on the economic crisis as insufficient and corporate leaders as out of touch. Protests also took place today in Berlin, Athens and Istanbul. In Russia, tens of thousands of demonstrators for and against the government marched against a backdrop of rising unemployment and economic gloom, the Associated Press said.

“Labor is changing; for the first time in perhaps decades, we are in agreement at the core,” said Francois Chereque, secretary general of France’s biggest union, Confederation Francaise Democratique du Travail, in an RTL radio interview today. “There is a strong unity among the unions.” Bloomberg>>

May Day sparks clashes in Germany, Turkey

2009-05-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

Police and hundreds of protesters clashed in Germany and Turkey ahead of May Day demonstrations on Friday, as discontent over the global recession is expected to swell the number of protesters in planned labour rallies around the world. About 3,000 police officers were deployed on the streets of Berlin on Friday after battling about 200 youths who set trash cans on fire and threw bottles at police while shouting anti-capitalist slogans. German news agency Deutsche Welle reported 48 riot police were hurt and 49 people were arrested. But authorities said the clashes were more subdued than in previous May Day demonstrations in the city in recent years. CBC News>>

Protesters set fire to dustbins during a protest on a street in Berlin early Friday. Demonstrators were fighting with police forces during the traditional protests before May Day. (Gero Breloer/Associated Press)

Poverty hits African Americans hard

2009-05-01T19:16:00.000-07:00

You get a sense of the problems in this part of Chicago, even before the lorry turns up at St Columbanus church. It is miserably cold and wet, and yet around the back of the car park there is a queue forming. They stand patiently, faces screwed up against the wind. The lorry arrives and the volunteers get to work, unloading the food. Then they allow the queue of people to come in. It looks like a farmers' market, but this is food aid, in the world's wealthiest country. BBC>>

Serbian supermarkets come to aid of poor

2009-05-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

The social stores offer cut-price goods to Serbs who are suffering financial hardship. Some of the discounts are up to 70% compared to the prices charged in other supermarkets, with many goods half the usual cost.

"The government prepared a social programme to deal with economic crisis in Serbia, but it was not enough and that is the reason the union devised this project," says Nebojsa Rajkovic, the general secretary of the Association of Independent Trade Unions. BBC>>

Jerusalem settlement 'extended'

2009-05-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

Construction has begun on approximately 60 new homes in a Jewish settlement in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli campaign group Peace Now says. The work, in East Talpiot settlement, is aimed at creating a belt around East Jerusalem that would sever it from the rest of the West Bank, the group says. Settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law. BBC>>

Election highlights economic zone anger

2009-05-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

Most farmers oppose the SEZs because they say they will lose crops at a time when a soon-to-be-completed dam will ensure high quality irrigation and more produce. They allege that the government is now postponing the irrigation scheme and delaying the supply of water to this land in a bid to hasten their departure.

...

Ashirwad Mokal, owner of about 11 acres of rice-growing land, is also displeased.

"If public opinion does not matter, why go through the consultation exercise at all?" he asks.

"Industrialisation is possible without displacing farmers. I don't think you need over 30,000 acres to make a profitable industry. We would like to speak to the private companies who are proposing the SEZ. Instead the government is doing land acquisition on their behalf."

Dr Mokal also points out that farmers - who in general are not well educated - are not likely to find good alternative jobs.

"Recently when a factory was set up, locals could not get any other jobs except loaders." BBC>>

Haitians shun senate elections

2009-04-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

Fanmi Lavalas, a party widely supported by the country's poor, was barred by Haiti's provisional electoral council from fielding candidates, for not fulfilling legal requirements. It urged the estimated four million registered voters to boycott the elections and has vowed to take action if the government insists on the legitimacy of the polls. Al Jazeera>>

Indian Maoists hijack train

2009-04-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

Maoists have taken over a train carrying about 300 passengers, on the eve of the second round of voting in Indian national elections. At least 200 Maoists launched their raid on the train on Wednesday in Jharkhand province and forced the driver to take it to Latehar station, police said. The group later fled into the jungle, after which police released passengers on the Mugalsaria to Barkakana train at Daltangunj railway station, Jharkhand. Sarvendu Tathagat, a local government official, said: "All the passengers have been released and they are safe." Al Jazeera>>

France arrests scores of migrants

2009-04-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

French police have arrested at least 150 migrants in a raid on a makeshift camp near Calais, a Channel port, in an attempt to stop a people-smuggling route. Al Jazeera>>

Italy takes in stranded migrants

2009-04-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

About 140 migrants have arrived in Italy after spending days stranded aboard a cargo ship in the Mediterranean. The Turkish ship, the Pinar, had been the subject of a standoff between Italy and Malta over who should take in the group after the ship rescued them from two boats. Al Jazeera>>

Military exports to Israel reviewed following Gaza conflict

2009-04-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

In a written statement to MPs, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, announced that all current and future licences permitting the export of military equipment would be reviewed in the light of the three-week Operation Cast Lead.

Miliband said Britain provided less than 1% of Israel's military imports. But he acknowledged that some components supplied by Britain were "almost certainly" used by Israel in its military offensive. Guardian>>

Wider Drug War Threatens Colombian Indians

2009-04-25T19:12:00.000-07:00

...as Colombia’s war for control of the drug trade intensifies in frontiers like this one, with new combatants vying for smuggling routes and coca-growing areas where Indians eke out a meager existence, it is adding to the already grave toll on the nation’s indigenous groups. At least 27 of the groups are at risk of being eliminated because of the country’s four-decade conflict, according to the United Nations, and human rights organizations worry that the new violence is pushing even deeper into the Indians’ ancient lands. NYTimes>>

Israel snubs UN Gaza war inquiry

2009-04-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson has confirmed to Al Jazeera that it will not co-operate with a United Nations investigation into alleged war crimes during the 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip. Up to 1,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed before Israel ended the offensive in January. Thirteen Israelis, 10 of them soldiers, were killed during the same period. Al Jazeera>>

Deaths in Maoist raid on India mine

2009-04-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

As many as 11 police officers and four Maoist fighters have been killed in a nine-hour shootout at a mine in eastern India, according to police. Dozens of armed Maoist fighters stormed a bauxite mine in the Panchpatmali area of Orissa on Sunday and held about 100 miners hostage before police regained control on Monday, officials said. None of the workers held inside the mine were harmed, said the director of the National Aluminum Company (Nalco), the state-owned mine company targeted in the attack. The Maoists have stepped up attacks in eastern and central India in advance of the country's general election in April and May, which they are boycotting. Al Jazeera>>

Afghanistan's women find their voice

2009-04-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

What appears to have spurred the women activists was last week's television broadcast by Mohseni saying Karzai must not bow to western pressure to change the law. "We couldn't agree on whether to have a demonstration until Mohseni said that no one has any right to change the law," said Fatima Hussaini, one of the young activists involved.

"We had to show that he is not the only leader of the Shia and that he has no right to do this to women." Guardian>>

Teargas canister shot kills Palestinian demonstrator

2009-04-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

A Palestinian demonstrator was killed today when he was hit by a teargas canister fired by Israeli forces during a weekly demonstration against the West Bank barrier.

Bassem Abu Rahmeh, 29, was hit in the chest by a high-velocity gas canister during the protest in Bil'in. For the past four years Bil'in has been the scene of a weekly demonstration against the barrier, which cuts the village off from a large slice of its farmland. Guardian>>

Egypt's state circus joins growing unrest

2009-04-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

"We can't live on our current wages and we don't want to see this place privatised," explains the 52-year-old. "We'll keep on walking out here for as long as it takes for our voices to be heard."

El-Grasy is the latest Egyptian to join a wave of strikes that has seen almost 1.5 million workers down tools in the last five years. Since the start of the government's tough economic reforms in 2004 almost every industrial sector has seen walkouts and protests as part of what Joel Beinin, director of Middle East studies at the American University in Cairo, calls "the largest social movement the Middle East has seen in half a century. Guardian>>

Iraq parliament promises to push Shell out of gas deal

2009-04-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

Expectations that foreign companies will cash in on Iraqi oil riches were called into question last night after a key parliamentary body in Baghdad pledged to "push Shell out" and halt a forthcoming licensing round.

The warning from Jabir Khalifa Jabir, secretary of the Iraqi parliament's oil and gas committee, was seen by financial analysts as a serious threat to western investment opportunities in a country that holds the second-largest oil reserves in the world. Guardian>>

Italy Blocks Cargo Ship Carrying Rescued Migrants

2009-04-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

“All I want is to help these people so they don’t die,” Ms. Erdogdu said in a telephone interview from Istanbul.

“This is a cargo vessel,” she said. “There is no closed space, there are not enough blankets and not enough bathrooms.”

But Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro of the Italian coast guard said on Saturday that the migrants were “in good health,” although “they are a little worn,” according to The Associated Press. The coast guard had taken two Italian doctors to visit the ship, he said. NYTimes>>

Police Arrest 22 at New School Building

2009-04-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

"Witnesses said that the protesters had sought to leave the building by a side door, but were pushed back and pepper-sprayed. The witnesses said that several students pushed open a door that exited onto 14th Street, and that police officers stationed outside that door used pepper spray on the students in the corridor and slammed the door shut." NYTimes>>

Protesters draped a banner from the roof of 65 Fifth Avenue.

Students re-occupied New School

2009-04-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

"Sometime in the early morning of Friday April 10th a group of approximately 18 students took over and occupied the Graduate Faculty building at 65 5th Avenue in New York. Students were able to hold and occupy the building for several hours before a mass of police, estimates coming in at around 100 NYPD on the scene, raided the building, pepper spraying and arresting all of the students inside." New School In Exile>>

The New School Reoccupied

2009-04-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

"Taking back our building, our school, our education, our city" The New School Reoccupied>>

US court allows apartheid cases

2009-04-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

"A US court has ruled that victims of South Africa's apartheid-era government can sue General Motors, IBM and other corporations accused of complicity in human rights abuses. A federal judge in New York ruled on Wednesday that joint actions against the corporations under a US law allowing rights claims from abroad should be addressed in a US court. Car-makers Ford and Daimler and defense firm Rheinmetall are the other companies set to face legal action from South African plaintiffs." Al Jazeera>>

Greeks strike over spending cuts

2009-04-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

"Protests against government spending cuts have closed banks and schools across Greece and disrupted the country's transport system. The country's two biggest labour unions called a 24-hour strike on Thursday after the government announced a salary freeze for many civili servants and a one-off tax increase for higher-income earners. They also complained of job losses, the relaxation of employment regulations and plans to modify the rights of women in the civil service." Al Jazeera>>

French workers release 'bossnapped' British bosses

2009-04-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

"Employees at French plants run by Sony, Caterpillar, 3M and German car parts maker Continental have held bosses hostage in recent weeks in protest against proposed job cuts and plant closures. They have let them go within a day or two, often after winning some concessions." Guardian UK>>

Protesting workers at the Scapa factory in France where senior managers were 'bossnapped' on Tuesday. Photograph: Laurent Cipriana/AP

Video: G20 protest footage: police vs demonstrators

2009-04-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

"Police surveillance at this week's G20 demonstrations was all-encompassing. Officers with long lenses and video cameras were perched on buildings and behind lines of riot police, and evidence they captured of criminal activity will – quite rightly – help find and prosecute the small number of troublemakers. Of course, we also now know that information gleaned about protesters – even those who were peaceful and law-abiding – will find its way on to a police database. But what about all those other cameras? Just as the media and police make use of new technology, so too do demonstrators using camera phones and camcorders to capture what, in their view, was heavy-handed policing tactics. Much of that footage is trickling on to YouTube." Guardian UK>>

Clashes mar Nato allies' summit

2009-04-10T17:11:00.000-07:00

"Running battles have erupted and a hotel has been set ablaze after thousands of protesters clashed with police near the Nato summit being held in Strasbourg. Riot police used water cannons and teargas after about 10,000 people turned out for demonstrations in the French city on Saturday." Al Jazeera>>

Israeli exports hit by European boycotts after attacks on Gaza

2009-04-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

"Israeli companies are feeling the impact of boycott moves in Europe, according to surveys, amid growing concern within the Israeli business sector over organised campaigns following the recent attack on Gaza. Last week, the Israel Manufacturers Association reported that 21% of 90 local exporters who were questioned had felt a drop in demand due to boycotts, mostly from the UK and Scandinavian countries. Last month, a report from the Israel Export Institute reported that 10% of 400 polled exporters received order cancellation notices this year, because of Israel's assault on Gaza." Guardian UK>>

UN appoints Gaza war investigator

2009-04-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

"The United Nations has appointed a former war crimes prosecutor to investigate offences allegedly committed by Israeli and Palestinian fighters during Israel's war on Gaza. Richard Goldstone, a Jewish judge from South Africa, will lead a fact-finding team on the mission, ordered by the Human Rights Council in January." Al Jazeera>>

Shell in court over alleged role in Nigeria executions

2009-04-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

"In a New York federal court, Shell and one of its senior executives are to face charges that in the early 1990s in Nigeria they were complicit in human rights abuses, including summary execution and torture. The Anglo-Dutch company, if found liable, could be forced to pay hundreds of millions of pounds in damages. No multinational has ever been found guilty of human rights abuses, although two previous cases saw major claims settled outside court." Guardian>>

Israel on Trial

2009-04-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

"Chilling testimony by Israeli soldiers substantiates charges that Israel’s Gaza Strip assault entailed grave violations of international law. The emergence of a predominantly right-wing, nationalist government in Israel suggests that there may be more violations to come. Hamas’s indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli civilians also constituted war crimes, but do not excuse Israel’s transgressions. While Israel disputes some of the soldiers’ accounts, the evidence suggests that Israel committed the following six offenses..." Guardian>>