Nov 22, 2003

MIAMI – As thousands of union members, environmental and human rights activists massed here to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit, hundreds of community activists from low-income neighborhoods, immigrants and farm workers completed a 34-mile, three-day march on Nov. 18, chanting “Free Trade, No Way!” to the beat of drums and music. Leafleters gave out information to the onlookers. Motorists honked and flashed peace signs.

WASHINGTON – Senior citizens, African American, Latino and white, packed the ornate Senate Caucus Room Nov. 19 and cheered as speakers blasted a prescription drug plan that provides meager drug benefits for some senior citizens while opening the door to the privatization of Medicare.

If you’re angry about the suffering and harm caused by the Bush administration’s anti-democratic corporate agenda, don’t miss the exciting “2004 – Bush Out the Door!” reception on Dec. 7, to be held at 3:00 p.m. at 37 Howe St., New Haven, Conn. The event will kick off a year of activism, organizing and coalition building to defeat right-wing Republican control of Congress and the White House.

The U.S. unleashed a massive bombing attack on central Iraq Nov. 18, dropping 2,000- and 1,000-pound bombs around Baghdad, a little over five months after President Bush declared the end of “major combat” May 1.

Supermarket entrances up and down the Golden State were the focus of grocery worker strike support activities this week. Three thousand longshoremen held a work stop meeting during a rally in front of the Albertsons store in the Los Angeles harbor town of San Pedro on Nov. 10. Several days later, 150 of the 70,000 grocery strikers packed their placards into buses and vans for a 500-mile trip north to the state’s Bay area where on Nov. 16 they spread their picket lines to Safeway stores in San Jose, San Mateo, Contra Costa County and Fresno.

WASHINGTON – Calls resounded on Capitol Hill for senators to block enactment of the 1,000-page Energy Policy Act, a Christmas tree laden with sugarplums for the oil and gas monopolies. The House approved the energy bill 246-180, with 46 Democrats joining 200 Republicans in support, on Nov. 18.

“Another day longer, another day stronger.” That’s how striking Tyson Foods worker Sherri Anderson summed up the status of what is shaping up to be an epic labor battle. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney visited the picket line in Jefferson, Wis., on Nov. 7 to show the federation’s support for the striking food workers.

ATLANTA, Ga.: Patriot Act inspires dictatorships, says Carter; BIRMINGHAM, Ala.: The Cubans are coming! The Cubans are coming!; El PASO Tex.: Racial double standard in U.S. Army; WORCESTER, Mass.: Workers strike French company

Right-wing radicals recently suffered a setback in Texas when the State Board of Education refused to ban 11 biology textbooks that presented evolution as scientific fact instead of a hypothesis. The ultra-conservative radicals mounted a campaign to prevent the board from accepting nine of the texts for use in the state’s public schools because they contended that the way that the texts presented evolution was inaccurate.

NEW YORK – Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg sustained a major defeat on Election Day when the electorate overwhelmingly voted down the proposal for nonpartisan elections that he bankrolled.