World

South Africa is "not ready" for the introduction of a 40-hour week, African National Congress labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana declared on October 17. Mdladlana was commenting on a feasibility study on reducing the current 45-hour working week.

The following is a statement, slightly abridged, from the coalition of Korean unions and radical groups protesting against the October 20 summit of the Asian-European parliamentary meeting, ASEM, in Seoul. Today, the United States, the World Trade

While the rest of the world is racking its brains trying to figure out why the world's currencies are plummeting against the US dollar, the United States elite is using the strong greenback to set in concrete its dominance of the world economy. The

SEOUL — In a series of lively demonstrations here on October 20 — dubbed O20 — against the Asia-Europe Meetings (ASEM), South Koreans linked up with the worldwide people's movement against corporate tyranny. The first ASEM, opened in Bangkok

On October 18, the United States Senate approved legislation that will tighten the blockade against Cuba. The legislation was passed by the US House of Representatives last week. Claims that the bill has relaxed the blockade are untrue. For the

PORT MORESBY — Human rights lawyer and Melanesian Solidarity (Melsol) activist Powes Parkop has warned that West Papua will soon erupt into a more explosive and bloodier war than East Timor. The Papua New Guinea government must deal with the West

Oil giant Anglo-Dutch Shell in September lost its appeal to prevent a jury hearing a multi-million dollar civil suit in New York. The case, brought against Shell by Nigerian exiles, charges Shell with aiding and abetting the torture and murder of

PRAGUE — In the city of Kafka, hundreds of international visitors have been left wondering about the precise name of their crime, after the Czech police began a policy of random arrest following the global day of action against the World Bank and

Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people took to the streets of Serbia last week. Belgrade was blocked with contingents from all over the country: Cacak, Kraljevo, Kragujevax, Nis and other such working-class centres which led the

So advanced is Cuba's national health system, in spite of the strictures of poverty and a US economic embargo, that a child born there will live a longer healthy life than a poor child born in the world's richest country. Even a nation as wealthy as

There were no major announcements, no new policy initiatives, all the drama was outside with the protesters, and the meetings finished a full day early. Nevertheless, when the annual meetings of the World Bank and International

South African musician and "People's Poet" Mzwakhe Mbuli — jailed on trumped up charges of armed robbery — attended a hearing of the Amnesty Commission of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Pretoria on September 18. The