Aug 20, 2005

Geoff Bottoms of the UK’s Cuba Solidarity Campaign heads up the fight for the Cuban Five in that country. Commenting on the Aug. 9 decision of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that awarded René González, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, and Gerardo Hernández a new trial, Bottoms said, “We campaign for their freedom in the light of this ruling … knowing that we are pushing at an open door.”

UNITED NATIONS — International Youth Day was commemorated here Aug. 12 with activities celebrating youth culture in all of its diversity — from Brooklyn to China — as well as more poignant reminders of the desperate situation faced by hundreds of millions of young people around the globe.

The U.S. Senate voted last month to keep restrictions against financial aid and training for the Indonesian military.

Chile: Pinochet kin charged with tax evasion; S. Africa: Probe farm workers’ eviction; Britain: Strike supports catering workers; China: Unsafe mines sharply criticized; Haiti: Members of Congress write Bush

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Workers at Arden House nursing home here unanimously ratified a “great contract” Aug. 16 morning after being locked out for two weeks. They won substantial increases in wages and benefits as a result of workers’ solidarity and support from family, elected officials and other unions.

Oil hit $65 a barrel on speculative markets last week, an all-time high. Gasoline and heating fuel prices quickly followed. Natural gas is not far behind.

With gas prices skyrocketing out of control, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said he is stepping up his fight to pass the “Gas Price Spike Act of 2005,” HR 2070. The legislation, introduced by Kucinich in May, is currently co-sponsored by 37 members of Congress.

Like many parts of the country, Fairfax County, Va., just west of Washington, D.C., has seen a recent increase in documented and undocumented immigration from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. Like elsewhere, one visible sign of this increase has been groups of young Latino men waiting in certain open-air areas (such as the parking lots of Home Depot stores) to be offered jobs by contractors or homeowners looking for someone to do construction, painting or gardening work.

There is no disagreement among all of labor that workers and their unions did a good job mobilizing members to vote in 2004. The problem that most of labor agrees on is that the Democratic Party dropped the ball. A large percentage agrees that building the independent role of labor is a clear lesson.

In an eerie echo of events three years ago, the Bush administration is raising the specter of a U.S. pre-emptive military strike over allegations Iran is developing nuclear weapons.