Many workers and unions in Australia and other imperialist countries have been involved in campaigns to stop jobs from being sent offshore to Third World countries. Unions in the rich countries usually think that this is an issue that only affects them, but the off-shoring of jobs to other countries, or to “free trade zones”, heavily impacts on workers in Third World countries, as capitalists try to drive workers’ wages and conditions ever lower.
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Pope Benedict XVI is travelling to Brazil in May for an important bishops meeting. To prepare the way the Vatican has slapped down Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino, one of Latin America major theologians and a survivor of the 1980s Salvadoran death squad war.
Around 5000 lawyers protesting on March 21 vowed not to rest until they succeed in removing General Pervez Musharraf from office, forcing the withdrawal of the reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and gaining assurance of a full independent judiciary capable of protecting the constitution. They called for the establishment of a truly democratic government through free and fair elections. The dispute was sparked on March 9 when Musharraf suspended Chaudhry.
(in response to Gunns withdrawing its pulp mill from the independent assessment process and Tasmanian premier Paul Lennon planning to approve it anyway)
Today was a victory for democratic forces, not only for the Labour Party Pakistan, but for all the other parties who were able to go onto the streets in support of democratic rights, LPP general secretary Farooq Tariq told 鶹ӳ Weekly Jim McIlroy in Lahore on March 26, following a round of demonstrations.
george bush, the war criminal
says he's only killed
about
30,000 Iraqis, more or less
he's also killed more than 3000
US soldiers
but that's the price you must pay
for oil-ocracy, unleaded liberty, kerosene coalition
benzene
Zalmay Khalilzad, the departing US ambassador to Iraq, told journalists in Baghdad on March 26 that US embassy and military officials had met several times with representatives of Iraqi groups that have ties to the anti-occupation resistance movement.
The two-month-old government of leftist Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and the popular movements that back him have emerged triumphant in their first battle with the oligarchy and the traditional political parties that have historically dominated the country. Correa in his inaugural address in January called for an opening to a “new socialism of the 21st century” and declared that Ecuador has to end “the perverse system that has destroyed our democracy, our economy and our society”.
On March 25, Iran announced it would limit inspections of its nuclear activities by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency to its legally binding requirements under the country 1974 nuclear safeguards agreement with the IAEA.
In front of more than 2000 promoters for the Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) on March 24, President Hugo Chavez called for all the political parties that support him to unite behind the new party. These promoters will carry out the first stage in the formation of a united pro-government party by the end of the year. Chavez emphasised that a united party is vital for the success of the Bolivarian revolutionary process.
On the grass outside an abattoir on the Western Plains of New South Wales, in the dark, cool air, a few workers are forming the late-night shift of a picket. Some journalists are hanging around, talking to them. It is less than a week after the federal government new industrial relations legislation, known as Work Choices, has taken effect. The men are outside the Cowra abattoir, not inside, because they have received termination notices. Twenty-nine have been sacked from their jobs for operational reasons.
Sixteen landed estates will be expropriated for Venezuela land reform program, announced President Hugo Chavez on March 25, during his television program Alo Presidente. The total area of land that will thus become available for redistribution to peasants and agricultural cooperatives will exceed 330,000 hectares in the states of Apure, Anzoategui, Barinas, Guarico, Portuguesa and Aragua.
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