World

As Gaza struggles to rebuild despite Israel’s ongoing near-total siege, more than 300 people in more than 100 vehicles are leading a convoy to bring aid and hope to the Palestinian territory.

The article below, by Jamal Juma, is abridged from <http://www.electronicintifada.net>. Juma is the coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (visit http://www.stopthewall.org). A leader of the South African Palestine Solidarity Committee mentioned in this article, Salim Vally, will be a guest speaker at the World at a Crossroads conference, Sydney Girls High, April 10-12. For more information, or to register, visit http://www.worldatacrossroads.org.

The article below is abridged from a February 9 statement released by East Timorese president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta calling for an immediate end the conflict in Sri Lanka.

Following a week of inspections of privately owned rice processing facilities aimed at assuring the supply of essential foods at regulated prices, the Venezuelan government announced plans to expropriate a plant owned by the multinational food company Cargill, which was found to be modifying all its rice in order to evade price controls on basic food items.

On March 7, the second Campaign Against Climate Change UK Trade Union Conference was scheduled to be held in London, bringing together activists from left groups such as Socialist Resistance, the Green Party and Respect, as well as rank-and-file trade unionists and officials.

John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is the coauthor with Fred Magdoff of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences, recently published by Monthly Review Press. This is a heavily abridged version of an interview was conducted by Mike Whitney that first appeared at Dissident Voice.

The attack on Sri Lankan cricket team at Liberty Chouck, Lahore on March 3 left eight policemen dead and six Sri Lankan cricket players injured in firing that lasted 25 minutes.

Polls on the March 15 presidential vote show the election will likely open a new progressive chapter in El Salvador’s long, violent history of war and dictatorships with a victory by the left-wing Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), which is promising to build a people-centred government.

One of the many upsetting aspects to being in your 40s is hearing people your own age grumbling about “young people” the way we were grumbled about ourselves.

While the US and European economies are in recession, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund inspired “export” oriented policies being followed by the government of India are about to create social and environmental catastrophe in the name of “special economic zones” (SEZs — geographical areas in which less regulations on labour rights, environmental practices and other areas are applied on companies).

Since January 20, Guadeloupe has been providing a tremendous lesson in social resistance to the local bosses and the French government. Its people have responded to the growing insecurity with an historically unprecedented general strike.

Thousands of civilians have been killed or injured and hundreds of thousands are in danger from hunger and disease, as the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) continues its brutal offensive against the Tamil people in the island’s north-east.