Oct 25, 2003

Congress voted to approve the Bush administration’s $87 billion package for the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, but not without vocal and sometimes vehement opposition by lawmakers and peace activists.

PITTSBURGH – As far as working families are concerned, nothing good came out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Economic Policy Institute estimates that NAFTA has cost 765,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs since 1993.

OAKLAND, Calif. – Youth groups and unions on the front line for youth and workers’ rights will be honored at this year’s Northern California People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo banquet on Sunday, Nov. 9.

Widening reports of low morale among U.S. troops are adding to pressures on the Bush administration to find a bailout for its failed Iraq policy.

Workers’ Correspondence

LOS ANGELES – Millions of Southern Californians have let the giant Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons grocery chains know that, despite the victory of Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, there has been no shift to the right in the thinking of working people.

AUSTIN, Texas – On Oct. 14, Texas Democrats filed suit in federal court to block the Republican redistricting power grab. The motion contends that the redistricting map, which the Republican-dominated Legislature approved on Oct. 12, violates the voting rights of minorities.

PHOENIX: Defending labor’s rights at America West Airlines / FORT STEWART, Ga.: Soldiers rip Army health care / WASHINGTON: Hailing down racism / NEW HAVEN, Conn.: Yale Law School sues Pentagon / DETROIT: Public outcry over home health care cuts

While 900 immigrants and their supporters were making their way through the United States towards Washington and New York, a bill was being filed in Congress that would legalize the immigration status of undocumented farm workers.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Eighteen hundred clerical employees of the University of Minnesota, members of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3800 at the Minneapolis, Duluth, Morris, and Crookston campuses, went out strike on Oct. 21.

A resolution adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council calls upon the “House of Labor” to oppose “the foreign policy disasters led by the most right-wing president in memory.”