Aug 3, 2002

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – There was a time when just about every family in New Britain had someone working at Stanley Works. Now, New Britain, once known as the machine tool capital of the world, is ground zero in the national fight against corporate thievery.

SAN FRANCISCO – The AFL-CIO, San Francisco’s mayor and other leaders pledged support to West Coast dockers at a rally here July 24, as the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s (ILWU) contract battle rages on.

NEW YORK – Workers chanting, “Who’s city? Our city!” rallied here outside the New York Stock Exchange with laid-off workers from WorldCom, Enron and Arthur Andersen to tell Corporate America, “No more business as usual!”

CHICAGO – Amid mounting concern about the Bush administration’s threatened attack on Iraq, close to 200 peace activists at Peace Action’s 15th annual national congress here July 27-28 vowed to campaign for “justice not war” and turn back the growing militarization of U.S. foreign policy.

Now, a week after the Israeli Gaza City air-terror strike, after protests and deliberations, everybody in Israel agrees: the hurdling of a one-ton explosive bomb into the midst of a densely populated urban area with the aim to assassinate one person, alleged by the security people to have been a major “terrorist leader,” was utterly wrong.

RUSTENBERG, South Africa – Nearly 1,000 delegates and guests attended the 11th Congress of the South African Communist Party (SACP) here, July 24 to July 26. Blade Nzimande, SACP general secretary, in his political report to the Congress said the gathering was “the largest ever of our great and glorious party.”

The death of some 48 civilians and 100 wounded due to a July 1 U.S. bombing of the Afghan village of Uruzgan is emerging as a potentially volatile situation both for the new “warlord-dominated” Afghan government as well as the Bush administration.

Tom Ridge, head of the White House’s Homeland Security Office, says that new anti-terrorist rules and regulations will not infringe on the health rights of people. He uses a new term, “tear line,” to refer to the line between the demands of anti-terrorist rules and people’s rights. In this case the federal department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stands to lose important activities.

DALLAS – The North Texas Coalition for a Just Peace is targeting August 11 for workshops on the theme: “Are we safe yet?” The four expected topics are: nuclear threats, international relations, domestic civil liberties and the environment. The event will be held at Grace Church in East Dallas.