May 6, 2006

It was a May 1 like no other. On the day celebrated around the world as International Workers Day, 2 million-plus people marched in the U.S. for justice and a path to citizenship for immigrant workers.

NEW YORK — On a perfect spring day 350,000 people flowed down Broadway April 29, marching to bring the troops home from Iraq, for health care and education, to rebuild a nation torn by war, hurricanes and Bush administration lies.

NEW YORK — The Young Communist League and the Communist Party USA set themselves a task: raise $65,000 in just a month and a half to help finance the YCL’s national convention in Brooklyn May 27-29. The campaign was a total success.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — “Today we march, tomorrow we vote” is the theme of this year’s celebration and presentation of People’s Weekly World “Newsmaker Awards” on the occasion of International Workers Day.

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — “We will not allow you to leave any stone unturned to find out why my husband died,” said Samantha Lewis, pointing her finger directly at elected officials at a May 2 hearing here on the Sago Mine disaster.

After a lull lasting more than a year, the corporate press is, once again, zeroing in on the situation in Sudan’s Darfur region. This sudden attention corresponds with a drive to build a national political movement against the Sudanese government and in favor of U.S. military intervention in Africa’s biggest country.

The massive immigrant rights demonstrations, work stoppages, boycotts and voter registration efforts, embraced by millions of immigrants and their supporters from coast to coast May 1, have sent a powerful message to Congress: We are Americans who deserve rights and respect, not repression!

DETROIT — A clarion call for unity was sounded at a Labor Summit on Affirmative Action and Segregation here April 28. Conference-goers heard the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and local civil rights and labor leaders urge the civil rights movement, labor and their allies to turn out the vote in November to defeat the Bush agenda.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — After two months of struggle, including picket lines, demonstrations and a three-week hunger strike, striking janitors at the University of Miami have won the right to unionize through the method of their choice, a card check process.

TAMPA, Fla. — A federal judge sentenced Palestinian rights supporter Dr. Sami Al-Arian to 18 months of additional imprisonment prior to his deportation, ignoring both a jury verdict and recommendations from federal prosecutors.