May 3, 2003

U.S. troops killed 15 Iraqis including at least six children and wounded 75 at a rally near Baghdad April 29, and killed another two civilians and wounded 18 the next day during a march of 1,000 people protesting the earlier killings. Although U.S. commanders claimed the shootings were in self-defense, witnesses said the troops had not been threatened.

SAN FRANCISCO – Delegates to the 32nd Convention of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), celebrated their recent contract victory and targeted the 2004 elections as the next major battle facing their members.

NEW HAVEN – Five peace and labor organizations in Connecticut have been selected to receive People’s Weekly World Newsmaker Awards at an annual May Day rally to be held here on May 4.

WASHINGTON – Spring showers didn’t dampen demonstrators’ spirits in Upper Senate Park April 29 as they gathered to protest the Bush administration’s inaction on the national health care crisis.

OAKLAND, Calif. – After an outraged cross section of Oakland residents took to the streets on April 26 to protest and then made their case at an emotionally charged hearing, the Oakland City Council voted 7-1 on April 29 to hire an independent panel to investigate the unprovoked police attack on peaceful anti-war demonstrators and on dock workers waiting to go to work April 7. Dozens of protestors and nine workers, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), were injured when police opened fire using wooden dowels, rubber bullets and concussion grenades.

The following is a statement issued by the Communist Party USA National Board on April 30.

While the world’s eyes were focused on Iraq, the same Bush administration that invaded that country in defiance of world and U.S. public opinion used the crisis to escalate its already onerous pressure on Cuba.

A firestorm of protest continues to hover around Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) for remarks bashing gays and lesbians.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Death penalty is an act of racism

The death penalty in the United States remains an act of racial injustice, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) said in a report on the continuing role of race in capital cases in the U.S. African Americans account for only 12 percent of the U.S. population, but are more than 40 percent of those on death row and one in three of those executed.

CLEVELAND – In a powerful display of unity, union salt miners have twice in three weeks beaten back an effort, led by the head of David Duke’s local white supremacist organization, to decertify the Teamsters at Cargill Corp.’s facility beneath Lake Erie.

In their first public forum, the nine Democratic presidential contenders were judged on the basis of their programs to meet the needs of children. The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) 30th annual conference, April 9 to 11 in Washington, D.C., made human needs the focus as the 2004 election campaign begins.