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Around the world
The centennial anniversary of International Women’s Day was
commemorated throughout the world by marches, rallies and meetings. Though
themes differed, the activities showed women expressing their rights,
protesting injustices and demonstrating solidarity with their sisters in
struggle....
Posted Mar 17, 2010
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International Women’s Day is a holiday in revolutionary Cuba. At the Cuban
Interests Section in Washington, D.C., on March 8, a reception saluted the
accomplishments of Cuban women through the 51 years of socialist construction
and the women of Haiti struggling for reconstruction and independence. Just
returned from three weeks working in the Cuban medical brigades in Haiti, two
young African-American women doctors trained at the Cuban Latin American School
of Medicine spoke briefly and joined the celebration....
Posted Mar 17, 2010
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A long-standing tactic that oppressors use to stop the struggle for liberation is
repression. It mainly backfires on them. As the age-old but accurate slogan
declares, “Repression breeds resistance.”
This is exactly how to describe the case of Melissa Roxas....
Posted Mar 17, 2010
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It is often hard, even up to now, to talk about my experience. But the reason
why I tell my story is because it is also the story of many others, and it
reflects the experience of many Filipinos who have been abducted and tortured
in the Philippines. Not all of them have surfaced, not all of them have
survived, and those who did have been afforded very few opportunities to speak
about what happened to them....
Posted Mar 17, 2010
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According to journalist Rick Rozoff, “The U.S. military has already been
involved in counterinsurgency operations in Mali and Niger against ethnic
Tuareg rebels, who have no conceivable ties to al-Qaeda, not that one would
know that from Levin’s comments.” Former U.S. diplomat Daniel
Simpson was quoted recently in regard to the Pentagon’s involvement in
Somalia as saying that the operation was designed to “test out AFRICOM
ground and air forces in Djibouti for direct military action on the
continent.”...
Posted Mar 17, 2010
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A recent statement issued by the Obama administration indicates that it is
planning to carry out aerial bombardments in the Horn of Africa nation of
Somalia. The announcement comes amid intense fighting in the capital of
Mogadishu between the two Islamic resistance movements, Al Shabaab and Hizbul
Islam, and the U.S.-backed Transitional Federal Government that is ruling the
country....
Posted Mar 14, 2010
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The Obama administration continues to support the ruthless Honduran oligarchy
in its war against a nonviolent political and social movement led by the Frente
Nacional de Resistencia Popular. The movement has united peasants, workers,
trade unionists and students; the Garifuna, Afro-Honduran and Indigenous
communities; and lesbian/gay/bi/trans/queer activists, women’s groups,
intellectuals and Christians guided by liberation theology....
Posted Mar 14, 2010
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The Greek Parliament passed a very stringent set of austerity measures March 5
that will cut public-sector salaries and freeze pensions for both public- and
private-sector workers, cut services and raise taxes....
Posted Mar 14, 2010
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Faced with a referendum to approve a deal that would have cost every person in
Iceland a quarter of their income for the next eight years, 63 percent of
Iceland’s registered voters ignored the light snow and came out to
massively reject the deal. With almost all the ballots counted, 94 percent were
“no,” with spoiled and blank votes outnumbering the 2 percent who
voted “yes.”...
Posted Mar 14, 2010
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Four of every five public-sector workers in Portugal walked off their jobs on
March 4 to protest government plans to decrease pensions, eliminate and
outsource jobs and continue a freeze on wages. Trade unions representing more
than 500,000 such workers joined the strike....
Posted Mar 14, 2010
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Against all odds the southern African nation of Zimbabwe is celebrating its
30th year of independence from British settler-colonialism....
Posted Mar 11, 2010
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Statements issued in solidarity with the
March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education....
Posted Mar 10, 2010
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The Pentagon offensive against the Afghan city of Marjah was public-relations
media hype from the very first day. The sole purpose of the offensive in Marjah
was to convince the U.S. population and increasingly tepid NATO allies that
this imperialist war is winnable.
U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is now the longest foreign war in U.S. history,
on both the air and the ground....
Posted Mar 7, 2010
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The latest effort in the process of regional integration of the Latin American
and Caribbean countries took place on Feb. 22-23 in Cancún, Mexico, with
the participation of 32 independent nations.
The new organization, called the Community of Latin American and Caribbean
States (CLACS), is an attempt to create a body that would not include the
United States or Canada, in order to establish an independent bloc that can
respond to and pursue the interests of the region....
Posted Mar 7, 2010
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On Feb. 23, massive demonstrations took place across Spain; 70,000 took to the
streets in Madrid, 50,000 marched in Barcelona and tens of thousands more
joined in ten other cities. The country’s two leading unions organized
these actions to protest Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero’s proposed
labor law reforms, especially the plan to raise the retirement age from 65 to
67....
Posted Mar 7, 2010
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Recently, a French head of state visited Haiti for the first time since 1803.
That’s when Napoleon’s army was decisively beaten at the Battle of
Vertières by an army of ex-slaves who displayed exceptional valor and
determination. Vertières was an especially humiliating defeat because the
racist and colonialist French ruling class did not believe an army of Black
people either kidnapped or born into subjugation, could defeat veteran French
soldiers in hand-to-hand combat....
Posted Mar 7, 2010
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An international campaign is demanding the release of 43 health care workers
illegally arrested by the Armed Forces of the Philippines as they provided
medical care for poor people in Morong, Rizal. Known as the Morong 43, they are
being detained at Camp Capinpin, an army headquarters....
Posted Mar 5, 2010
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A major initiative aimed at achieving gender equality in Africa is under way.
The African Women’s Decade — 2010-2020 — has been adopted by
the African Union, the continental organization that encompasses 53 member
states....
Posted Mar 4, 2010
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Despite extensive media coverage of the recent Winter Olympics games in
Vancouver, British Columbia, most television viewers outside Canada did not
hear about the resistance to the games and the many protests that took place in
Vancouver and elsewhere....
Posted Mar 3, 2010
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A second general strike in two weeks shows that Greek workers are standing up
to the bosses’ and bankers’ attempt to force them to pay the costs
of a problem the workers had no responsibility for creating: the capitalist
economic crisis. This determined resistance is what’s behind the
headlines on the financial pages about the euro’s stability and European
Union negotiations with the Greek regime....
Posted Mar 3, 2010
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Excerpts from a declaration of
the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) in Chile. It explains how the
inequalities and injustices existing in Chile impact on the disaster, what the
people need now and how revolutionaries should act under these emergency
conditions....
Posted Mar 3, 2010
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As the March 7 national election approaches in Iraq, the number of U.S. troops
occupying the country has slipped below 100,000 for the first time since the
U.S.-led invasion seven years ago. The Pentagon plans to change the name of its
Iraq effort on Sept. 1, from “Operation Iraqi Freedom” to
“Operation New Dawn” when 50,000 troops remain....
Posted Feb 28, 2010
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More than 4,000 people from 70 different German cities came to Berlin Feb.
20 to demand that German troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan....
Posted Feb 28, 2010
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The fraud and failure of microloans and micro-financing as the bankers’
solution to global poverty can most clearly be seen in Bangladesh today, where
microloans first gained international fame and support....
Posted Feb 24, 2010
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The elected leaders of the 16 countries of the euro zone gathered in Brussels,
Belgium, on Feb. 11 and said they would work to prevent Greece from defaulting
on its debt. By Feb. 14, they made it clear that their intention is not so much
to bail out the Greek government but to pressure it into making a direct attack
on the Greek working class....
Posted Feb 22, 2010
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The Union of South American Nations — UNASUR — held an emergency
meeting on Feb. 9 in Quito, Ecuador, to examine the situation in Haiti after
the earthquake and make plans for short- and long-term assistance to the
destroyed nation. Exterior ministers and special envoys from Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Guyana, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela and the presidents of Colombia,
Paraguay and Peru joined current UNASUR President Rafael Correa from Ecuador
and Haitian President René Préval....
Posted Feb 22, 2010
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Haiti remains a country devastated by the Jan. 12 earthquake. The disaster has
been successfully used by the United States as a pretext for reoccupying the
country with thousands of military troops....
Posted Feb 19, 2010
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Viktor Yanukovych, who has declared his opposition to joining NATO, won the
recent presidential election in the Ukraine. He defeated Prime Minister Yuliya
Tymoshenko, who was a leader of Ukraine’s pro-Western “Orange
Revolution” in 2004....
Posted Feb 19, 2010
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It is now several days since U.S. Marines stormed into the town of
Marjah in Afghanistan, backed up by helicopter gunships, fighter jets and
drones. Some 9,000 U.S. troops are taking part in Operation Moshtarak, which
means “together” in the Dari dialect — a bright idea from
some psyops genius meant to beguile the local population....
Posted Feb 17, 2010
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On Jan. 27 Jose “Pepe” Lobo was inaugurated as the new president of
Honduras. His inauguration was the product of illegitimate elections held under
a coup d’état, with pervasive repression of the opposition forces
and with only 30 percent of eligible voters participating in the elections....
Posted Feb 17, 2010
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Progressive residents of Germany won a victory as 12,000 people used their
bodies and their organization to blockade a neo-Nazi march in Dresden, a major
city in Saxony, located on the Elbe River in the southeast of the country near
the Czech border. It was a welcome triumph not only over the fascists but over
the German government which was prepared to defend the neo-Nazi marchers....
Posted Feb 17, 2010
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As the people of Haiti continue heroic efforts to recover from the Jan. 12
devastating earthquake that has claimed at least 200,000 lives, they are facing
a new challenge — an occupation of 13,000 U.S. troops and advanced
weaponry. This new occupation was sanctioned by the United Nations on Jan. 22
without any say from the Haitians themselves....
Posted Feb 12, 2010
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Are the global problems of grinding poverty, illiteracy and hunger faced by a
majority of the world’s population a mere accident of history? Is the
enormous inequality and underdevelopment of the formerly colonized countries of
Africa and Asia due solely to the crimes of conquest by European colonial
powers 100 and 200 years ago?...
Posted Feb 12, 2010
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As in the U.S., autoworkers in Europe are confronted with a capitalist
restructuring agenda that involves plant closings and mass layoffs. Workers are
fighting back on more than one front....
Posted Feb 11, 2010
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Contagion and uncertainty worry the capitalists worldwide after the European
Commission accepted Greece’s economic recovery plan. Whether this plan
will resolve the Greek government’s huge deficit, which is about 12.7
percent of the total production of Greece’s economy, is unclear....
Posted Feb 11, 2010
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Statements from both the U.S.-NATO occupation command and the spokespeople of
the Afghan resistance indicate that a military showdown looms in Helmand
province of Afghanistan, specifically in the Marjah area. At the same time, the
deaths of three U.S. operatives in Pakistan — either Special Forces or
mercenary “contractors” — exposes the growing U.S. military
involvement in that nuclear-armed country of 170 million people....
Posted Feb 10, 2010
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Militant organized demonstrations of outrage and anger took place throughout
Pakistan when news of a guilty verdict for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was announced on
Feb. 3. A jury in a New York federal court found Siddiqui guilty of seven
counts, including attempted murder and armed assault without premeditation....
Posted Feb 10, 2010
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More than 10,000 people gathered under a sea of red flags to open the First
Convention of the Socialist Party of Bangladesh, and then held a militant mass
march through Dhaka’s crowded streets. Hundreds of nationally elected
delegates and many thousands of participants attended the Dec. 30-31 Convention
of the SPB, which was formed in 1980. They presented a powerful challenge to
the Western corporate media’s view of Bangladesh....
Posted Feb 7, 2010
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Local labor union members and officers, along with members of the San
Francisco Labor Council, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and
community supporters, picketed and spoke outside the Mexican Consulate at
noontime Jan. 29 in downtown San Francisco....
Posted Feb 7, 2010
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The 20 U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships, 63 helicopters, 204 joint operations
vehicles and approximately 13,000 military personnel — 10,000 afloat and
3,000 ashore — occupying Haiti, were sanctioned by the U.N. as of Jan.
22. No request from Haiti was needed — the U.S. wanted to send troops and
it did. The occupation and the U.N. approval have no legal basis....
Posted Feb 7, 2010
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Some 2,752 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, in the airplane attacks in the
U.S. Their deaths have been marked and mourned. Today just the words
“World Trade Center,” “9/11” and “al-Qaida”
bring to mind attacks on civilians and fear of other such attacks....
Posted Feb 7, 2010
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The people of Haiti are undergoing incalculably great suffering. We, the
International League of Peoples’ Struggle, convey our deepest sympathies
to the Haitian people for their loss and express our most heartfelt recognition
of their plight. We join the people of the world in lending our wholehearted
support to help ease their suffering and call on our member organizations and
allies to extend immediate rescue and relief support to the victims in
Haiti. At the same time, we direct our strongest
denunciation against the U.S. government for deploying military forces in Haiti
instead of the personnel of U.S. civilian agencies who are trained and equipped
for rescue and relief aid....
Posted Feb 4, 2010
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It is useful in understanding the current situation in Haiti to examine
its roots — in particular why Haiti should be regarded as a country with
an African culture and how U.S. and other imperialist interventions in Haiti
met a stubborn and tenacious resistance....
Posted Feb 3, 2010
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Has Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared a U.S. cyber cold war on
China? Clinto’ speech targetting China is filled with aggressive cold war references to the Berlin Wall and
an “Information Iron Curtain” as well as other cold war rhetoric,
like a speech from the U.S. State Department during the Reagan years....
Posted Jan 31, 2010
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Various organizations and governments throughout Africa are working to provide
relief to the people of Haiti in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake and
subsequent aftershocks. In South Africa, churches, mass organizations and the
government are encouraging the people to immediately come to the aid of
Haiti....
Posted Jan 31, 2010
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On Jan. 4, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed
“instability” in Yemen posed “a global threat.” Why is
Yemen unstable? Where does the “threat” really come from? Why are
U.S. cruise missiles killing civilians in Yemen?...
Posted Jan 30, 2010
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From a letter was written by Iranian progressives:
Today the big question facing the peace and justice movement is whether
Washington is planning a military attack against Iran. Shocking as such a
thought might be, this is exactly what is being debated and contemplated at the
highest levels of American politics....
Posted Jan 28, 2010
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Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s trial for alleged attempted murder of FBI
agents and U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan entered its second week Jan. 25 in New
York City....
Posted Jan 28, 2010
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The U.S. secured its occupation of Haiti when the Pentagon
placed 13,000 troops in the country around the capital and on nearby ships,
with at least 4,000 more scheduled to arrive. It’s now two weeks after a
magnitude 7.0 earthquake leveled the capital city and nearby towns, wreaking
havoc on the population, and in doing so eliminated the Haitian government
bureaucracy, police and the United Nations military mission....
Posted Jan 27, 2010
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The relief effort in Haiti is happening despite a lack of any real
mobilization on the part of the U.S. on the ground there. The U.S.’s
main priority was not to rescue those trapped under rubble nor to provide
relief to survivors of the quake....
Posted Jan 27, 2010
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Where to donate for Haiti....
Posted Jan 27, 2010
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Using the pretext of fighting terror, the U.S. government has expanded its war
into the poor Arab country of Yemen....
Posted Jan 24, 2010
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Haiti had been the most prosperous of all the French colonies during the period of slavery. After the proclamation of independence on Jan. 1, 1804, France and the United
States both blockaded Haiti....
Posted Jan 20, 2010
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‘We should be there in Haiti — to help rebuild the country’'...
Posted Jan 20, 2010
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Boston school bus drivers host meeting to organize relief....
Posted Jan 20, 2010
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$100 million = 1% of Goldman Sachs’' bonuses...
Posted Jan 20, 2010
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While U.S. focuses on troops and control of airport....
Posted Jan 20, 2010
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‘Food, water, medical aid, not military occupation’...
Posted Jan 20, 2010
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Party of deposed President Aristide barred from election....
Posted Jan 20, 2010
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From Fox to New York Times, blaming the victims....
Posted Jan 20, 2010
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Not a traditional history book or textbook, but a
people's history....
Posted Jan 20, 2010
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After a brief holiday interlude, the Honduran resistance went back to the
streets with renewed energy and commitment. On Jan. 7, 15,000 people marched
from the Polytechnic University to the National Congress in Tegucigalpa....
Posted Jan 17, 2010
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This year’s economic plans in the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea will put greater emphasis on the development of light industry and
agriculture, promising a surge in the living standards of the people....
Posted Jan 17, 2010
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The murderous mercenary outfit formerly known as Blackwater and now called Xe
has been making headlines all January, with most stories showing how deeply
committed the CIA and Pentagon are to outsourcing a portion of the task of
re-conquering the former colonial world....
Posted Jan 17, 2010
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Despite the Pentagon’s unmatched high-tech weapons and firepower, the
U.S. military is bogged down by glaring weaknesses rooted in the capitalist
system it operates to defend. The resistance fighters, with far less firepower,
have shown the ability to innovate and adapt their tactics to the needs of
their war to liberate Afghanistan....
Posted Jan 17, 2010
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The new year began with the U.S. government announcing new intensive airport
screening for anyone traveling from or through 14 countries — the four
unilaterally designated by the U.S. as “states sponsoring
terrorism” and ten others allegedly “of interest.” One of the
most obvious indications that this arbitrary list has nothing to do with
protecting air travel or residents within the U.S. is the listing of socialist
Cuba as one of the 14....
Posted Jan 15, 2010
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For the third time in a year, Viva Palestina, the international relief effort
led by British Member of Parliament George Galloway, has broken the siege of
Gaza....
Posted Jan 15, 2010
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Dennis Brutus died at age 85 on Dec. 26, battling cancer,
climate change and capitalism....
Posted Jan 15, 2010
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On Jan. 7, African migrants, including some from Nigeria and Togo, rebelled
against racist attacks by white Italians and the police in Italy. Many of these workers, who are both documented and undocumented, work in the citrus groves in the poorly developed southern part of the Italian peninsula....
Posted Jan 14, 2010
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The earthquake that flattened Haiti’s capital and brought a new
calamity to millions of people in that heroic but impoverished country has
awakened calls for solidarity and aid from the vast majority of the
world’s people. ...
Posted Jan 14, 2010
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Fight Imperialism Stand
Together extends its solidarity to Haiti, its people and the
peoples’ movements....
Posted Jan 14, 2010
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The corporate media in the imperialist countries have much to say about the
Arab countries and developments in the Middle East. Rarely, however, do these
media permit people from the Middle Eastern countries to speak for
themselves. Recently Workers World interviewed Dr. Adel Samara, a Palestinian Marxist from the West Bank city of Ramallah....
Posted Jan 10, 2010
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“Reflections” by Fidel Castro: The youth are more interested than anyone else in the
future. Until very recently, the discussion revolved around the kind of society
we would have. Today, the discussion centers on whether human society will
survive....
Posted Jan 10, 2010
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A bomb explosion in a Central Intelligence Agency camp in Khost Province of
Afghanistan on Dec. 30 resulted in the deaths of seven experienced operatives,
including the base commander. The attack struck a heavy blow against the
U.S.-led occupation....
Posted Jan 7, 2010
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In December a two-day strike halted production at the FIAT automobile assembly
plant in Termini Imerese, near Palermo, in Sicily. Workers were protesting
FIAT’s plans to shut down the plant, which employs 1,400 workers, this
year. As of Jan. 3 the Termini Imarese workers are on temporary layoff until
Jan. 7....
Posted Jan 7, 2010
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Thousands of Greek workers took to the streets in 63 cities on Dec. 17, called
out by unions protesting a government austerity program. The All-Workers
Militant Front (PAME), which is close to the Greek Communist Party, and Syriza,
the Coalition of the Radical Left, supported the action....
Posted Jan 7, 2010
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Viva Palestina has entered Gaza! A Jan. 6 post on the Viva Palestina Web site reports, "One month,
thousands of miles, ten countries, one ship and four flights later, Viva
Palestina has begun to enter the besieged Gaza Strip." The entry of the caravan into Palestine follows days of negotiations with
the Egyptian government, who on Jan. 5 withdrew its negotiators and sent some
2,000 riot police to the VP camp at the port of Al-Arish. ...
Posted Jan 6, 2010
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Demonstrators around the world marched in solidarity with the people of Gaza on
the one-year anniversary of Israel’s massacre there and to demand an end
to the Israeli blockade of Gaza....
Posted Jan 6, 2010
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It appears from statements by Obama administration officials and U.S.
intelligence sources that further military attacks are being planned against
Yemen. This impoverished country on the Arabian Peninsula has been bombed
several times in recent weeks. Reports indicate that the U.S. is behind these
actions, in which dozens of people are reported to have been killed....
Posted Jan 6, 2010
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Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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