May 20, 2006

OAKLAND, Calif. — As part of a nationwide campaign by the Service Employees union to organize security guards, workers at ABC Security Services are in the midst of a drive to win justice on the job and recognition for their union, SEIU Local 24/7.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Republican Gov. Jeb Bush has publicly abandoned Rep. Katherine Harris, stating she could not possibly defeat incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson in November

U.S. jitters over the prospect of dwindling world energy supplies are mounting daily. “Peak oil” and similar concepts are entering our everyday language. In socialist Cuba the outlook is somewhat different. Cubans know what an energy crisis is. Oil supplies there peaked 16 years ago and then, with the fall of the Soviet Union, plummeted by 50 percent.

To the dismay of the Bush administration and its European Union allies, the UN General Assembly endorsed Cuba’s nomination to the newly created UN Council on Human Rights on May 9.

The Cuban Five — Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, René González, Gerardo Hernández and Fernando González — were defending Cuba against right-wing, Miami-based terrorism when they were arrested by U.S. authorities almost eight years ago. Despite an international outcry, they remain unjustly imprisoned.

Cuban President Fidel Castro speaks during the Cuban television program “Round Table” in Havana, May 15, where he called a Forbes magazine report naming him one of the world’s wealthiest rulers “rubbish.”

TRIVANDRUM, Kerala, India — Communist-led electoral coalitions registered substantial gains in two Indian states and several other regions this month in a development that observers say will have national repercussions.

Do you remember a few years back when all those people ran out and bought diesel-powered cars because the fuel was so much cheaper than gas? Heck, diesel was just a by-product of gasoline, it’ll always be cheap. Or so it seemed at the time.

NEW YORK — Several hundred unionists, students, teachers and elected officials turned out May 11 to support New York University graduate teaching assistants, represented by GSOC/UAW Local 2110, who have been on strike for six months.