May 5, 2007

CHICAGO — Hundreds of thousands of immigrant rights activists and supporters marched through downtown here May 1, demanding an end to raids and deportations, and calling for comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 12 million undocumented workers.

CHICAGO — August Spies told his executioners that if they went ahead with the hanging they would ignite a fire that could never be put out.

NEW YORK — How can the labor movement get its message to the general public in the face of a mainstream media that either ignores or paints a negative picture of it?

Reacting with outrage to President Bush’s May 1 veto of a bipartisan appropriations bill requiring troops to withdraw from Iraq, opponents of the war staged hundreds of protests around the country May 2, while at the same time they planned strategy for the ongoing struggle to end the war and prevent an attack on Iran.

Last November, South Dakota voters overturned a state abortion ban by a 12 percent margin. The April 18 Supreme Court anti-abortion ruling shows the court is “farther to the right than these conservative ‘red states’ voters,” says Kathi Di Nicola, media relations director for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

CHICAGO — A coalition of the multiracial organized labor movement and its community allies scored a stunning victory in the April 17 municipal runoff elections when 8 of 12 labor-backed candidates were elected to the City Council.

PROVO, Utah: BYU students protest Cheney
LEWISTON, Maine: Pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living

President Bush gave Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a vote of confidence last week. But labor, peace and civil rights activists in New Mexico are raising sharp questions about Gonzales’ firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, suggesting it was revenge for Iglesias’ failure to carry out the White House agenda just before the Nov. 7 elections.

TUCSON, Ariz. — A 14-member delegation of African Americans investigated human rights abuses of immigrants, Mexican Americans and indigenous communities on the U.S.-Mexican border, in an April 26-29 fact-finding tour here.

NEW YORK — Dozens gathered April 25 to hear Dalia Sachs, co-founder of Women in Black in Haifa, Israel, speak on the impact of 40 years of Israeli occupation on Palestinian life, and the impact of a militarized society on Israeli people, particularly women.