Jul 17, 2004

CHICAGO – Two of the nation’s most active unions formalized their merger here July 8-10. The action put into life the kind of new tactics that their leaders say are needed to reverse the decline of organized labor’s numbers. click here for Spanish text

PHILADELPHIA – “The race is on, and the consequences of loss” in the 2004 elections “are almost too dire to bear,” Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, told the organization’s 95th annual convention held here July 10-15.

HOUSTON – The 15th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba stopped here on July 3 and was greeted by African drummers at the SHAPE Community Center.

Although 20 percent of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s final report on Iraq remains secret, what was released July 9 sheds the cold light of day on the Bush administration’s intelligence used to support its first-strike policy leading to war with Iraq.

NEW YORK – In a break from a more than 20-year tradition, this city’s labor movement will forego its usual celebratory parade and instead hold a Labor Day protest of the Bush administration in front of the Republican National Convention.

WASHINGTON – By a stunning bipartisan vote of 50 to 48 on July 14, the Senate rejected the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA).

PHILADELPHIA – The City Council’s passage of a $3.4 billion budget on June 11, a budget that includes steep cuts in a local income tax that funds many municipal services, has prompted anxiety and anger among city workers here.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn.: Protesters to Bush: ‘The WMDs are here’ / NEW YORK CITY: Sexism costs Morgan Stanley $54 million / WASHINGTON: FCC ruling endangers firefighters, police / CANNELTON, W.Va.: Anger meets mine closings notice / DETROIT: Seniors defy ban on Canadian drugs

Vancouver, British Colombia – After an absence of 12 years, the Young Communist League (YCL) is back on the Canadian political scene.

Despite recent pledges by the Sudanese government of President Omar el-Bashir to address the acute humanitarian crisis and the ongoing militia attacks on Black African civilians in the Darfur region of western Sudan, where thousands have been killed and over a million have fled attacks by government-backed militiamen, few changes have been observed on the ground.