World

This article and petition was prepared by a group of young Cambodian women activists. * * * Evictions and forcible confiscations of land ranks as one of Cambodia's most pervasive human rights problems, and in fact is growing worse. Such actions, coupled with total impunity and a lack of the rule of law, are leading to violence fuelled by deep dissatisfaction over existing resettlement schemes. This in turn leads to violent responses by companies, the authorities and the law enforcement agencies.

This photo essay by Tom Grundy, an activist-journalist based in Hong Kong, shows the 180,000-strong candlelight rally held in Victoria Park, Hong Kong on June 4 to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre in Beijing. It is republished with permission from his Hong Wrong blogsite.

A group of unemployed people slept on the streets last weekend before being coerced into working for free — at the queen’s jubilee. It is the latest shocking story of life under the Tories’ Work Programme. Up to 30 jobless people were bussed into London from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth to work as stewards. Workers from Bristol say they were dumped in London at 3am on Sunday. Some said they had originally been told they would be paid for the work. But when they got onto coaches they were told they’d be doing the work for free—or lose out on a chance of paid work at the Olympics.

Pro-democracy campaigners Republic continued their campaign against the monarchy with a protest outside St Paul's Cathedral on June 5. The Queen and her royal sidekicks were attending a service at the cathedral, which was the long-term site for the Occupy Movement camp in London. Members of Republic, unintimidated by taunts of God Save the Queen, held up placards saying: "9,500 nurses or one Queen?" and "Republic Now!"

Active solidarity with the Quebec strike movement against fee hikes, which has lasted more than 100 days in the face of Premier Jean Charest's crackdown, is crucial for all struggles against austerity. The Quebec government is targeting the right to organise collectively. This means spreading the red square everywhere. The red square is the pervasive symbol of the Quebec student movement, whether pinned to clothing or used as a graphic on signs, leaflets, culture jams or websites.

The Venezuelan government has strongly denounced the “Human Rights Report” published by the US State Department on May 24. Venezuela's Attorney-General Luisa Ortega Diaz said the US lacks the moral authority to issue human rights reports on other countries. “How can they be issuing reports if the United States is the world’s leading military power and the protagonist of the principle wars that shake the planet?” she said on Venezuelan state channel VTV.

Austin Mackell is an Australian journalist based in Cairo who reports on Egyptian politics, the labour movement and life on the street. In February, he was arrested in Mahalla el-Kubra while reporting on an attempted general strike. He spoke to Green Left Weekly's Patrick Harrison. A longer version of this interview can be found on here. * * *

Greece's Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) dramatically increased its vote in Greece's May 6 elections, to take second place on a clear platform of rejecting the savage austerity measures that seek to make Greek people pay for the capitalist crisis. Some polls show SYRIZA a clear first in the new June 17 elections, called after no party was able to form government.

Workers in the United States know they are losing ground in the current Depression, as they are watching the rich going in the opposite direction. A decline in real wages comes on top of stagnation of wages in the three previous decades. A new report issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says: “The recent recovery in the United States appears unusual from a historical perspective … with a much stronger rebound in profits relative to labor income.

On March 24, 1976, after a sustained period of economic instability and rising violence, a military coup led by General Rafael Videla overthrew the democratically elected government. Over the next seven years, thousands of Argentineans were kidnapped, tortured and assassinated by the country’s military and security forces. The Argentine Armed Forces set up clandestine concentration camps where people suspected of being opposed to the so called National Process of Reorganization were held without a charge, tortured and murdered by their captors.

India exports food while millions go hungry “At a time when [India's] total food stocks are likely to swell to a record 75 million tonnes by June 1, out of which nearly 25 million tonnes of the stocks will be piled up in the open for lack of storage space, the demand for allowing exports [of wheat, which is now banned] is already growing. Ministry of Commerce has already started an exercise to know how much quantity of wheat can be allowed for exports.

The political crisis in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has reached farcical new depths before elections later this month. Peter O'Neill was elected prime minister by parliament on May 30 for a third time since August. It was a bid to undermine a Supreme Court ruling on May 21 that again reinstated Sir Michael Somare as prime minister. However, the vote may be illegal, since parliament had already been dissolved before the upcoming election, Reuters said that day.