Green Left Weekly issue #819 - International News

Burma: Karen people face starvation and uncertainty

“There’s no village”, 75-year-old Sam Telly said. “I’m from a hiding place.”

Chavez: Only US withdrawal can ensure peace in LA

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on November 15 that the only “practical solution” to tensions with neighbouring Colombia, which escalated as a result of an October 30 military pact between the US and Colombian governments, is an “immediate” end to the deal.

Honduras: Regime’s electoral circus rejected

The article published below is by Santiago Reyes, a representative of the Honduras National Front of Resistance Against the Coup (FNRG) based in Australia. It has been translated from Spanish by Anabel Morales.

John Pilger on West Papua: Free the forgotten bird of paradise

When General Suharto, the West’s man, seized power in Indonesia in the mid-1960s, he offered “a gleam of light in Asia”, rejoiced Time magazine. That he had killed up to a million “communists” was of no account in the acquisition of what Richard Nixon called “the richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest prize in south-east Asia”.

Twenty years on: one wall falls, others rise

November 9, the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin wall, was the occasion for self-congratulation by supporters of the capitalist system. They talked of the wall’s fall as heralding a new era of freedom.

United States: The struggle for equal marriage rights after Maine

In stark contrast to the surge of pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activism, and legislative and legal progress in recent months, Maine voters overturned equal marriage rights in a referendum on November 3 by a margin of 53% to 47%.

United States: Military commissions continue under new act

The administration of US President Barack Obama has announced it will bring five Guantanamo Bay detainees to the US for prosecution in federal courts.

United States: Obama’s ongoing war of terror

The Guantanamo Bay prison camp is still open and conditions inside it are reportedly worse than before US President Barack Obama took office. It has been reported that the camp will not be closed by the January deadline set by Obama.

Venezuela: Socialist party elects delegates amid debate over direction

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), led by President Hugo Chavez and created to help deepen the process of radical change, held nationwide delegate elections on November 15 for its First Extraordinary Congress. The congress will be held over the next several weekends in Caracas.

India: Tetley starves workforce

Tata, the transnational Indian conglomerate whose wholly-owned subsidiary Tetley makes the world famous Tetley Teas, has taken 6500 people hostage through hunger, IUF.org said on November 12. The se include 1000 tea plantation workers and their families on the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal, India. The workers have been locked and denied wages for all but two days’ work since early August

Malaysia: ‘Real power comes from the people’

More than 200 activists, including a large proportion of youth and women, packed Kuala Lumpur’s Chinese Assembly Hall for the first day of Socialism 2009, an annual conference organised by the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM).

Mexico: United movement stops the country

Since the US and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the number of Mexicans illegally crossing the border into the US seeking employment has risen to 500,000 a year.

Nepal: The struggle for civil supremacy

The article published below is by Hisila Yami, a leading figure in the United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M). Yami is the author of People's War and Women's Liberation in Nepal. This article is abridged from eKantipur.com.

South Africa: Miners sue gold giant over diseases

Eighteen former South African workers who suffer from silicosis or silico-tuberculosis are bringing a test case against the mining giant Anglo American South Africa (AASA), a subsidiary of the British-based Anglo American Corporation, the British Guardian said on November 17. The workers were employed by AASA between the 1970s and 1998.

Sri Lanka: IMF approves further $328 million

Ignoring calls from the Washington-based Human Rights Watch to tie the granting of further money to the Sri Lankan government to demands such as resettling the more than 250,000 Tamils imprisoned in detention camps, the International Monetary Fund has granted the regime a further $329.4 million.

United States: The fight for equality equality goes on

In the wake of a narrow loss to the right wing in Maine in a November 3 referendum on whether or not to reverse same-sex marriage equality in the state, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activists mobilised across the country to raise their voices for equality.