Oct 11, 2003

MILWAUKEE – Huddled under rainhoods and umbrellas beneath the cold October rain, several hundred assembled here on a dead-end street a few hundred yards outside the Italian Community Center to express their outrage at George Bush.

NEW YORK – Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Pérez Roque made a powerful indictment of the United States’ role in harassing and blackmailing the Cuban people and government throughout the last 40 years when he spoke at the Church of the Intercession in Harlem on Sept. 27.

Taking a page from the “preemptive warfare” book of the Bush administration, the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon brazenly sent warplanes to bomb what it called a “Palestinian militant training camp” deep inside Syrian territory on Oct. 5. It was the first major Israeli attack on Syrian territory in 30 years. The Syrian press described the site of the bombing, Ein Saheb, as a Palestinian refugee camp.

“3.2 million private sector jobs have disappeared ... the largest sustained loss of jobs since the Great Depression.”

Cuba: U.S. charges of bioterrorism a ‘lie’ / South Africa: ‘Red October’ focuses on farm workers / India: Unions vs. oil privatization / Italy: General strike looms over pensions

LORAIN, Ohio – Over 150 city workers and their supporters packed the City Council chambers here on Sept. 23, demanding that the Republican mayor withdraw his attempt to outsource the city’s tax department.

CHICAGO – President George Bush came to town Sept. 30 for a $2,000-a-plate lunch at the swanky Sheraton Hotel with Republican fat cats and corporate CEOs to raise millions for his re-election campaign. What he probably didn’t see from his limousine was the greeting he got from hundreds of demonstrators calling for an end to the occupation of Iraq and for his defeat in the 2004 elections.

Tens of thousands of members of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) voted to accept a new four-year agreement with General Motors and the multinational corporation’s parts division, Delphi. Although the new contract, covering 117,000 active GM auto workers, 30,000 at Delphi, 234,000 retirees and 63,000 surviving spouses, preserves health care and enhanced pensions, it allows for two plant closings.

On Sept. 3, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) introduced HR 3000, the United States Universal Health Service Act. This bill, or one very similar to it, has been introduced every year in Congress since 1973.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – State Representative Senfronia Thompson, Democrat of Houston, is a Texan who stands tall for democratic rights, equality, and government that provides quality public education, health care, and other entitlements as basic human rights.