Oct. 13, 2007

Drive 60 miles northwest of Manhattan and you’re on a New Jersey road winding beneath mountain ridges exploding with fall colors reflected in a string of lakes. As you think you might be in Shangri-la, you pass a billboard proclaiming, “Welcome to West Milford — a Clean Community,” signed by the Republican mayor. An American flag flutters atop a pole next to it.

About 43,000 autoworkers streamed out of their workplaces Oct. 10 at Chrysler plants across the nation, launching a second nationwide auto strike within a two-week period, but this one lasting only about four hours.

It takes a leap of faith to believe that this lovely city can be rebuilt from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, given the cruelty of President Bush who concealed his administration’s abandonment of the working people of New Orleans with honey-sweet promises, all of them broken.

Some 2,000 Latino leaders and activists from throughout the United States met in Los Angeles Oct. 5-9 to map an action plan and social justice program for the 2008 elections. Their goal is to bring out 10 million Latino voters who can play a decisive role in the presidential and congressional elections.

Children’s advocates stood vigil outside Republican lawmakers’ district offices across the nation Oct. 4 to demand that they override President Bush’s veto of a $35 billion increase in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

In an unprecedented referendum, Costa Rican voters Oct. 7 ratified a “free trade” treaty with the United States, putting their nation on track with neighboring Panama, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala — plus the Dominican Republic — to join the U.S.-sponsored Central American Free Trade Agreement. Under CAFTA, tariffs and quotas will phase out over 10 years.

Six years after the 9/11 attack, the fog of profiteering, corruption and secrecy continues to whirl around the demolition and reconstruction of the World Trade Center site.

The wages and working conditions of union autoworkers have always set standards for all manufacturing. These in turn have put upward pressure on wages and benefits for all workers. But in today’s political and economic climate, major contract negotiations in the manufacturing sector are hell.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun made history Oct. 2 when he walked across the Military Demarcation Line, which separates North and South Korea, and became the first ever head of state to do so. He traveled to the North to meet with his counterpart, Kim Jong Il, on Oct. 3-4.

CHICAGO — Over 200 people met at San Lucas United Church here Sept. 21 for the launching of the Afro-Latin@ Institute of Chicago. Its mission is to help strengthen research and build activist networks among Latinos of African descent in the United States.