On August 20, Uruguay’s sole union confederation, the Inter-union Plenary of Workers–National Convention of Workers (PIT-CNT), organised its first 24-hour general strike since the centre-left President Tabare Vasquez, from the Frente Amplio (FA), was elected in 2005.
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A Rudd government plan to punish parents dependent on welfare with up to three months’ loss of income if their children play truant has been condemned as “elitist and out of touch” by Tasmanian Aboriginal leader Michael Mansell.
An arrogant ALP state government, with only the approval of cabinet, announced on August 28 it would start selling off NSW energy retailers as well as public land to energy corporations for future power stations.
Under pressure from Iraqis opposed to the ongoing occupation of their country, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamil al Maliki released a statement on August 25 calling for the complete withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq by 2011.
Announcing on August 29 a decree to organise a referendum to be held on December 7 on the proposed new constitution, Bolivian President Evo Morales declared: “We must advance in the re-founding of Bolivia to guarantee a state for multiple ethnic groups.â€
The following is a heavily abridged talk by Mario Masuko at the Zimbabwe-Swaziland Solidarity Conference held in South Africa, August 10–11, 2008. Masuko is president of Peoples United Democratic Movement (Pudemo).
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has intervened in a land dispute in the Sierra de Perija region, near the countryÂ’s north-western border with Colombia, where the Yukpa indigenous people have occupied 14 large estates to demand legal title to their ancestral lands.
Four thousand people turned out for a campaign rally for independent presidential candidate and long-time anti-corporate and consumer rights activist, Ralph Nader in Denver, according to an August 29 CQpolitics.com report.
Afghanistan lives in fear of US-sponsored warlords.
On August 27, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the end of negotiations with former owners Ternium over the nationalisation of the Sidor steel factory, stating that the government would “take over all the companies that it has here”, insisting Ternium “can leave”.
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