World

John Cleary There are about 35,000 electrical industry workers in Venezuela. They are organised in 30 unions, which together form Fetraelec. About 80% of all workers in the electrical industry are in unions. A new leadership was elected in

Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia, the first US soldier to go public with his refusal to fight Bush's war in Iraq, was convicted of desertion on May 21 and sentenced to a bad conduct discharge and one year of hard labor. Tod Ensign, the director of GI

Merhdad Valipour Up to 500 bus drivers in Iran's capital were arrested on January 27 in an attempt by the Iranian authorities to pre-empt strike action called for January 28 by the 9000-member Union of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company.

On June 11, Suzanne Swift was arrested at her mother's house in Eugene, Oregon. Swift, a soldier in the military police, had refused to return to Iraq. The Register-Guard reported on June 15 that Swift says she will not redeploy because "she was

Margarita Windisch & Susan Price, Caracas In January, the Sixth World Social Forum will take place on three continents: Africa (in Mali), Asia (in Pakistan) and Latin America (in Venezuela). The Caracas forum is scheduled for January 24-29 on the

Eric Ruder Israel has focused its reign of terror on Gaza. While on March 21, Israel announced it had "thinned out its presence" in the Rafeh refugee camp — home to 90,000 Palestinians — it remained under heavy siege. The Israel Defense Force

Jim McIlroy, Caracas In a series of fiery speeches on the closing day of the World Social Forum, January 29, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the US government that a US attack on Iran would be "10 times worse than Iraq". "Enough already

An annual survey of trade union rights violations published on June 7 by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions found that 115 trade unionists were murdered in 2005 for defending workers' rights, more than 1600 were violently assaulted,

Ernest Tate, interviewed Peter Camejo for Relay magazine. Tate has known Camejo since the late 1950s, when Peter was a leader of the Young Socialists Alliance and a leader of the American Socialist Workers' Party. In the 1960s, Peter gained national

Louay Alzaher Last month, "civilised" Britain troops revenged themselves on the police headquarters of Basra city, because the police had arrested two British commandos, disguised in traditional Iraqi dress, who had fired on Iraqi police, killing

Green Left Weekly's Ra£l Cienfuegos interviewed Ra£l Reyes, a member of the leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The United States and the European Union label the FARC a terrorist organisation, and in Colombia the

Patrick Bond, Durban The ruling African National Congress will win the vast majority of seats in the March 1 elections for South Africa's city, town and district councils, given the lack of left electoral opposition. An ANC vow that half of its new