World

In stark contrast to the surge of pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activism, and legislative and legal progress in recent months, Maine voters overturned equal marriage rights in a referendum on November 3 by a margin of 53% to 47%.

Since the US and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the number of Mexicans illegally crossing the border into the US seeking employment has risen to 500,000 a year.

United States: UN investigator slams 'shameful neglect' of homeless "A United Nations special investigator who was blocked from visiting the US by the Bush administration has accused the American government of pouring billions of dollars into

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on November 15 that the only “practical solution” to tensions with neighbouring Colombia, which escalated as a result of an October 30 military pact between the US and Colombian governments, is an “immediate” end to the deal.

“There’s no village”, 75-year-old Sam Telly said. “I’m from a hiding place.”

The article published below is by Santiago Reyes, a representative of the Honduras National Front of Resistance Against the Coup (FNRG) based in Australia. It has been translated from Spanish by Anabel Morales.

The administration of US President Barack Obama has announced it will bring five Guantanamo Bay detainees to the US for prosecution in federal courts.

When General Suharto, the West’s man, seized power in Indonesia in the mid-1960s, he offered “a gleam of light in Asia”, rejoiced Time magazine. That he had killed up to a million “communists” was of no account in the acquisition of what Richard Nixon called “the richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest prize in south-east Asia”.

Tata, the transnational Indian conglomerate whose wholly-owned subsidiary Tetley makes the world famous Tetley Teas, has taken 6500 people hostage through hunger, IUF.org said on November 12. The se include 1000 tea plantation workers and their families on the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal, India. The workers have been locked and denied wages for all but two days’ work since early August

November 9, the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin wall, was the occasion for self-congratulation by supporters of the capitalist system. They talked of the wall’s fall as heralding a new era of freedom.

The article published below is by Hisila Yami, a leading figure in the United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M). Yami is the author of People's War and Women's Liberation in Nepal. This article is abridged from eKantipur.com.

Eighteen former South African workers who suffer from silicosis or silico-tuberculosis are bringing a test case against the mining giant Anglo American South Africa (AASA), a subsidiary of the British-based Anglo American Corporation, the British Guardian said on November 17. The workers were employed by AASA between the 1970s and 1998.