World

It was November 19, 2009, at 3:15am.

Dwarfing recent opposition protests, more than 100,000 supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez marched in Caracas on February 4 in defence of the government and to celebrate 18 years since Chavez led a failed civilian-military uprising against a corrupt government in 1992.

The December 7-18 United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen was supposed to “seal a global deal” to tackle climate change. It failed miserably.

There has been much ink spilled in the corporate press about the number of dollars and soldiers being committed to Haiti by “the international community”, but as a January 20 US ABC News headline bluntly put it: “In rebuilding Haiti, opportunity knocks and companies profit.”

After holding power in Chile since the end of Pinochet’s military dictatorship in 1988, the social democratic coalition Concertacion lost power to the right wing Alianza coalition in the December and January elections.

During the 1960s, radical student movements broke out in countries across the world. Unlike in Europe, North America or Australia, Pakistan’s student movement proved strong enough to overthrow a government.

Further evidence of the authoritarianism of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime came with the February 8 arrest of former general Sarath Fonseka, who had stood against Rajapaksa in the January 26 presidential elections.

US National Director of Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair presented the “annual threat assessment” before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on February 2

The statement published below has been signed by the Working People’s Association (Indonesia); Confederation Congress of Indonesia Union Alliance; the Singapore Democratic Party; the Socialist Party of Malaysia; Socialist Alternative (Australia); Socialist Alliance (Australia); and Socialist Worker New Zealand. If your organisation wants to sign this joint statement, email [email protected].

What I found most striking about President Barack Obama’s first “State of the Union” address before Congress on January 27 was what he didn’t say.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton engaged in some fearmongering on Iran on the February 7 edition of CNN’s State of the Union.

On the January 18, 2009, Israel pulled its troops out of the Gaza Strip leaving many Palestinians with tremendous losses. Israel’s war on Gaza, known as Operation Cast Lead had begun on December 27. The vicious attack killed 1417 people, wounding 5303 and leaving many thousands homeless, widowed and orphaned. To add pain to misery, many women who were pregnant at the time gave birth to defected children due to inhaling white phosphorous. One year after the attack, after its was confirmed by the United Nations Goldstone report, the Israeli government finally admitted that white phosphorous was used during its war on Gaza.