Nov 22, 2003

President George W. Bush’s state visit to London this week has provoked an “unwelcoming” response of huge proportions, with mass demonstrations, teach-ins, debates, school walkouts, film showings, poetry readings, and plays organized to oppose Bush’s policies and those of his British counterpart, Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s visit to South Korea last week provoked stormy demonstrations over a period of several days. It was Rumsfeld’s first visit to the country as Bush’s defense secretary, and one of his main objectives was to discuss South Korea’s planned troop deployment to Iraq to help with the U.S. occupation.

Security forces smashed a “tent city” outside a glass factory operated by the leading glass producer Pasabahce in Eskisehir, Turkey, and detained 100 union members including two officers of the Kristal-Is union, on Nov. 7.

Ecuadorian campesino and environmental leader Angel Shingre was murdered on Nov. 4 in the city of Coca, Orellana province, where he lived. Shingre was a member and leader of numerous peasant and environmental groups in the region.

Lesotho: Strike leaders arrested; Russia-China-South Korea: Giant gas pipe planned; Cuba: Development, not war; Tunisia: Hunger strike for civil liberties; Canada: Workers locked out

Delegates to the 13th Biennial Convention of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 in Illinois called upon members of Congress to refuse to approve the Bush administration’s request for additional funding for Iraqi reconstruction unless such funding is part of a genuine multilateral coalition under the auspices of the United Nations and unless it is coupled with commensurate federal funding for cash-strapped state and local governments.

The ugly face of imperialism is now in full view with the revelation of the U.S. occupation command’s economic initiatives in Iraq:

PHILADELPHIA – Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP) Hospital nurses were on the picket line at the hospital’s entrance here early on Nov. 11. Their signs expressed the issues preventing Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 112 from signing a contract: “No Mandatory Overtime” and “On Strike for Patient Safety.” The 271 nurses at MCP Hospital in Philadelphia are members of the Pennsylvania Nurse’s Association, an affiliate of the OPEIU.

Police departments have joined immigrant rights advocates in denouncing the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal (CLEAR) Act, H.R. 2671. The proposed law would require local police departments to enforce federal immigration laws or face losing critical federal reimbursements.

An unprecedented turnaround took place during contract negotiations between the 33,000 Chicago Teachers Union members and the Chicago Board of Education. Both the union’s governing body, the House of Delegates, and the rank and file members voted no to the first contract proposal recommended by newly-elected President Deborah Lynch on Oct. 16. The major sticking points were the length of the proposed contract – five years – health care costs, school day extension partially offset by a shorter school year and lack of improvement in working conditions.