World

Angry workers at the Waterford Wedgewood’s crystal factory in Kilbarry, Ireland have begun an occupation of the factory, following the announcement on January 30 that the factory would be closed.

The ninth World Social Forum ended on February 1 in Belem with its “Assembly of assemblies” adopting “dozens of resolutions and proposals to be the subjects of a programme of mobilisations around the world in 2009”, according to a February 2 Inter-Press Service report.

On February 2, President Hugo Chavez led the celebration of 10 years of his time in office with a caravan and mass rally in the Caracas.

“The choice facing Israel in eight days time concerns peace, and the country can say yes to peace or no to peace … A dove of peace is sitting on the window ledge, and we can decide to open the window and let it in, with all the apprehension, or slam the window shut”, Kadima party electoral candidate and current Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni told an international media conference on February 2.

The abridged interview below with Walden Bello, from Focus on the Global South, was carried out and published by Alejandro Kirk for the Inter-Press Service about the tasks facing the World Social Forum (WSF), which met between January 27 and February 1 in the Brazilian city of Belem. The full interview can be read at http://www.ipsnews.net.

More than 120,000 people marched in London on January 31 against the genocidal war being carried out by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) that has conquered Tamil-controlled areas in Sri Lanka’s north and east at massive cost to the civilian population, according to Tamilforum.com.

“The reform is aimed as a personal project. This is neither revolution nor socialism, but personal ambition”, argued Federico Black of the student organisation Furthering the Country to the virulently anti-Chavez Venezuelan daily El Universal.

Hundreds of thousands of workers and small farmers marched across Mexico, on January 30 in a huge mobilisation for economic and human rights.

A boat of Burmese refugees found off Indonesia claimed on February 3 that they had been towed out to sea and set adrift by Thai authorities.

The following press release was issued on February 3 by the secretariat of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee. For more information on the global BDS campaign, visit http://www.bdsmovement.net. On February 6, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) announced that members of the affiliated South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) "achieved a great victory" when a ship carrying Israeli goods to South Africa was unable to offload due to a SATAWU-imposed boycott.

More than 1000 people, including 920 elected delegates, attended the inaugural congress of Power of the Masses Party (PLM) on January 30.

The following article is by Kavita Krishnan and is reprinted from the January issue of Liberation, which is produced by the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist. Krishnan is the editor of Liberation and is the national secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association. She is a featured guest at the World at a Crossroads conference in Sydney, for more information or to register, visit http://www.worldatacrossroads.org.