Jan 25, 2003

Millions protested in hundreds of cities, in at least 37 countries around the globe Jan. 18-19 weekend, denouncing the Bush administration’s threat to attack Iraq. Some highlights:

TEL-AVIV – Israel faces a very deep and dangerous economic crisis. 2002 was the worst year Israel has had since the first few years of austerity after the war of Independence (1949-53). The annual rate of inflation and consumer price index hikes reached 6.5 percent, up from one to two percent over the previous few years. Unemployment at the end of 2002 stood, according to official figures, at 10.4 percent of the civil workforce. Long-term unemployment is at almost 14 percent.

HYDERABAD, India – The Asian Social Forum (ASF) was held in the capital of the Indian state Andra Pradesh from Jan. 2-7. Conceived as a part of international debates that have been taking place after the birth of the World Social Forum in Brazil, ASF has become the venue for organizations, unions, intellectuals, workers, dalits, peasants, tribals and activists who are engaged in creating an alternative world order and socio-economic system.

BERLIN – On Jan. 12, over 80,000 people kept alive the tradition of visiting the memorial sites of two great left-wing leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, on the second Sunday in January.

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil – Under the banner “No to militarization and war: another world is possible,” the World Social Forum, a gigantic meeting of the world’s progressive movements, opened Jan. 23 with a march of up to 100,000 people from more than 100 countries, with flags and banners flying, through this lively port city.

Europe: Dock strike hits ports / South Africa: Campaign vs. AIDS discrimination / Colombia: Gov’t raids union offices / South Korea: Metal workers protest anti-labor repression / El Salvador: Protest health care privatization

SACRAMENTO – Sacramento High School, which has been in operation since 1856 and is the second-oldest high school west of the Mississippi, is in danger of being closed by the Sacramento City School Board, paving the way for takeover by a private corporation.

The problem the Bush administration has with Venezuela’s populist President Hugo Chavez, is his “heretical” views about the disposition of Venezuela’s oil wealth. Chavez believes that oil revenues generated by Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) should benefit the people of Venezuela rather than being recycled back to the United States.

Commentary


The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) membership approved this week their contract by a vote of nearly 90 percent. This culminated a life and death battle into one of the most significant labor victories of our times.

BOSTON – History was made in this New England city with the coming of the new year. Felix Arroyo, the first Latino member of the City Council was sworn into office on Jan. 6.