May 10, 2003

May 1 is a symbolic day of struggle and international solidarity among all the workers of the world. It is also the day I was born.

The Bush administration continues to foster belligerency and the threat of war against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (north Korea).

TEL AVIV – Acts of escalated state terror, engineered and ordered by the Israeli rulers and their so-called security forces, have injured over 200 and cost the lives of at least 25 Palestinians and five Israelis during the last week.

Hundreds of people stood waiting outside the gates of Camp Garcia, the U.S. Navy’s firing zone in the island municipality of Vieques. They were waiting until 12:01 AM, May 1, the first full day when the Navy would no longer be in control of Camp Garcia.

IRAQ / CUBA / ISRAEL / GREECE / BRAZIL / JAPAN

AUSTIN – When the Texas House of Representatives passed HB 2292 on April 25, the stark vision of what compassionate conservatism looks like came more sharply into focus: fewer social services that are more difficult for working people to gain access to, wholesale privatization of these services, and the loss of thousands of public service jobs.

CHICAGO – “The Illinois budget crisis: Taking action to protect people’s needs” will be the theme of a forum to be held Thursday, May 15. Currently the State of Illinois faces a budget deficit of nearly $5 billion in 2004.

Sad to say, the fact that the official unemployment rate jumped from 5.8 percent in March to 6.0 percent in April is not the most troubling statistic in the Labor Department’s April unemployment report.

On May 1 the Philadelphia City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for a ballot referendum on November 4, 2003, for an addition to the City Charter requiring the Department of Health to prepare a plan for universal healthcare coverage that permits every Philadelphian to obtain decent healthcare on a regular basis.

Job safety and health under the Bush administration features less enforcement and increased big business clout, a new AFL-CIO report titled Death on the Job: A Toll of Neglect, says. The report was released as unions across the country celebrated Worker’s Memorial Day on April 28.