Sep 7, 2002

Si la Marina de Guerra de Estados Unidos pensó que el pueblo puertorriqueño iba a dejar las protestas y desobediencia civil en contra de las maniobras bélicas en Vieques, se equivocó.

Neither driving rain nor boiling heat could keep working families home on Labor Day 2002. Across the country, thousands marched, demanding, an end to the corporate corruption and greed that is destroying the economy, jobs, healthcare and pensions. Perhaps Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) struck the dominant chord in his Labor Day message:

NEW YORK – Tens of thousands of union members gathered at Battery Park here Sept. 3, just blocks from where the World Trade Towers used to stand. They came to honor the 600 union members and thousands of other workers who died last Sept. 11 and to declare to the Bush Administration that national security will not be used as a pretext to impede workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively.

Ciertas cartas que en inglés se llaman cartas “no match” (“no corresponde”) se están convertiendo en un arma contra inmigrantes en las manos del gobierno y de los patrones.

CHICAGO – With the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks upon us, lawmakers are speaking out against the Bush-Cheney plan to invade Iraq in the name of the “war on terrorism.”

JOHANESBURGO – Miles de manifestantes marcharon a la Cumbre Mundial para el Desarrollo Sostenible el 28 de agosto para llamar la atención de los jefes de estados reunidos aquí sobre una multitud de cuestiones que van de aceso a agua potable, tierra para los sin tierra, soberanía para Palestina, y la necesidad de fuentes renovables de energía. La protesta empezó en Alexandra, un municipio negro de más de medio millón de habitantes afueras de Johanesburgo.

Contract talks between the Machinists Union (IAM) and Boeing were in a state of limbo as of press time. Although the existing contract expired at midnight on Sept. 1, the IAM agreed to extend the contract for 30 days at the request of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).

CLEVELAND – “Only 100 percent union is acceptable!” said Laborers’ International President Terrence O’Sullivan, grand marshal for Cleveland’s Labor Day Parade, Aug. 31, the largest parade ever.

The Bush administration used the tragedy of September 11, 2001, to push forward an agenda that had been long in preparation. Most of the repressive provisions of the USA/Patriot Act had been broached before, with some dating back to the Nixon administration.