World

Coral Wynter & Jim McIlroy, Caracas Maria Rosa Jimenez is a leader of the Frente Francisco de Miranda (FFM), the major organisation mobilising young people in support of Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution. She will shortly be touring Australia to

Doug Lorimer "An opinion poll suggests most Iraqis feel their lives have improved since the war in Iraq began about a year ago", BBC News reported on March 16. The BBC was referring to a survey of 2652 Iraqis conducted over the last six months for

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

On August 2, the Traprock Peace Center's Sunny Miller interviewed Mordechai Vanunu, Israel's most famous whistleblower. Once a technician in Israel's power plants, Vanunu was kidnapped from Italy, convicted of treason in a secret trial and jailed for

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

Family members of soldiers now in Iraq have become a central pillar of the US movement against war and occupation. Military families and veterans groups mobilised for a protest on March 20 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of Fort Bragg.

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

Roberto Jorquera On August 15, the people of Venezuela begin to vote on whether to recall their president, Hugo Chavez. The overwhelming majority of polls show that Chavez will defeat the recall bid. The opposition has in fact refused to publish

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,

Alison Dellit "The Haitian constitution is working", US President George Bush told the media on March 1. It might seem an odd way to describe a country overrun by armed thugs and, now, foreign troops, and whose elected president has been kidnapped