World

  • VENEZUELA: 'We have eliminated illiteracy'

    Robyn Marshall, Caracas Since it took office in 1999, the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has implemented a number of programs and reforms to help the poor. Assisting in the process of change has been the Bolivarian Circles, through

  • VENEZUELA: 'Workers must take the initiative'

    Margarita Windisch & Susan Price, Caracas One thousand delegates crammed into the Teatro Teresa Careno to hear President Hugo Chavez open the first Latin American Conference of Enterprises Recovered and Controlled by Workers, held on October

  • EAST TIMOR: APCET takes on regional agenda

    Robyn Waite, Dili The Asia Pacific Coalition for East Timor (APCET) is a coalition of Asian human rights groups and East Timor solidarity networks that was founded at a conference in Manila in 1994 with the aim of galvanising solidarity with East

  • BOLIVIA: Elections on a muddy playing field

    Pablo Stefanoni, La Paz Bolivia is once again on the path of political uncertainty, after the Constitutional Tribunal (CT) on September 22 ordered the Congress to modify the electoral law (used to convoke the December 4 general elections) to

  • PACIFIC: Defeat for colonialists

    Norman Brewer, Auckland In elections on May 9 in New Caledonia (Kanaky) and on May 23 in French Polynesia (Te Ao Maohi, also known by the name of its main island, Tahiti), both pro-French ruling parties unexpectedly found themselves unseated. In

  • Pakistan earthquake appeal

    Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific is collecting donations from Australian activists to send to Pakistan for the Labour Relief Camp for Earthquake Victims. The LRCEV is a coalition of progressive organisations, including the Labour

  • IRAQ: Chalabi and the Cheney gang: Thieves fall out

    Doug Lorimer Ahmad Chalabi, who up until a few months ago had been the Bush administration's favourite to head Washington's puppet regime in Iraq, now stands accused of duping the US into invading Iraq. On May 18, US deputy defence secretary Paul

  • UNITED STATES: US plots Cuba invasion

    Stuart Harrison A US$80 million fund has been approved by US President George Bush to help the United States achieve "regime change" in Cuba. The second report from the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, released on July 5, outlines

  • IRAQ: Referendum rigged by US-backed parties

    Doug Lorimer While US President George Bush praised the October 15 referendum on the new Iraqi constitution as evidence of Iraq's "progress toward democracy", preliminary results of the voting released by the Independent Election Commission of Iraq

  • BRITAIN: 2000 rally for Palestine

    More than 2000 people rallied in Trafalgar Square on May 15 to demand that the wall built by Israel be halted and dismantled. The rally called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.From Green Left Weekly,

  • SOUTH AFRICA: Protests cause cracks in ANC-led alliance

    Leo Zeilig, Johannesburg The March 1 municipal elections in South Africa have again triggered questioning of the future of the Tripartite Alliance, the coalition led by the governing African National Congress (ANC) that includes the South African

  • RUSSIA: Terrorists, hostages and double-speak

    Boris Kagarlitsky, Moscow The number of dead and wounded in the Beslan tragedy was stunning, but so were the authorities' lies. They minimised the number of hostages and casualties. They said there were Arabs and "one black" among the terrorists.