Apr 16, 2005

NEW YORK—Sixty years after U.S. atomic bombs destroyed two Japanese cities, incinerating hundreds of thousands of civilians, mayors from around the world — led by the mayors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima — as well as survivors of the 1945 atomic destruction will join a massive rally in New York City’s Central Park to demand the worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons.

Labor and immigrant rights organizations assembled at San Jose’s State Building April 7 to kick off national days of action against the Bush administration’s virulently anti-immigrant Real ID Act, now pending in the Senate. They urged a flood of calls and faxes to California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, neither of whom have expressed a position on the measure.

In 1913 President Woodrow Wilson, expressing his customary arrogance toward the peoples of Latin America, promised to “teach South American republics to elect good men.” The Bush administration’s attitude toward the newly elected left-leaning governments in South America, toward Haiti’s ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and toward socialist Cuba continues this chauvinistic tradition.

HOUSTON — Noted civil rights lawyer Leonard Weinglass blasted U.S. policy on Cuba at Texas Southern University here April 5, charging that the government has been “overtly or covertly attacking” the socialist island since 1960. Over the past 40 years, he said, more than 3,000 Cubans have been killed as a result of bombings and other attacks by right-wing Cuban exiles.

A notorious anti-Castro terrorist who is still wanted by Venezuela on terrorism charges has been admitted into the United States, underscoring the hypocrisy of the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror.

Conservative forces in Mexico, alarmed by the electoral successes of left-wing movements in South America, are showing signs of mobilizing to prevent similar developments in that country.

Côte d’Ivoire: Peace pact signed; Iraq: War doubles child malnutrition; Mexico: U.S., Mexican unionists rally; Nepal: Hundreds still detained

Two leading Democratic strategists, James Carville and Stanley Greenberg, publicly took their party to task for its “just say no” approach to President Bush’s proposed privatization and benefit cuts. “To say there is no problem simply puts Democrats out of the conversation for the great majority of the country,” they warned. “Voters are looking for reform, change, and new ideas, but Democrats seem stuck in concrete.”

The steelworkers’ retiree meeting sprung to attention when Mary Pullins walked in. Veteran of 24 years at US Steel and only 103 years old, she walked with sure steps to the speaker’s stand.

WASHINGTON (PAI) — With hearings set to start on the controversial Central American Free Trade Agreement, the AFL-CIO issued a scathing critique of the trade pact, saying it would hurt Latin American workers as well as their U.S. colleagues.