World

At a rally of tens of thousands in Plaza Caracas on January 23, President Hugo Chavez called on Venezuelan workers to mobilise for the electoral battle for the “Yes” campaign for a vote in the February 15 referendum in favour of a constitutional amendment to abolish the two-term limit on elected positions in Venezuela.

The “war” that is going on in Sri Lanka is a liberation struggle of the Tamil people for their right to self-determination, which would enable them to exist with equality, dignity and safety in the area of historical habitation of the Tamil people — the north and the east of Sri Lanka.

“Huge crowds have taken to the streets in France to protest over the handling of the economic crisis, causing disruption to rail and air services”, according to a January 29 BBC News report.

Ongoing mass demonstrations in response to a severe economic crisis has led to the collapse of the Icelandic government. Prime Minister Geir Haarde resigned on January 23 along with the whole government cabinet.

John Bellamy Foster is editor of US socialist publication Monthly Review, professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and author of a number of books including Marx’s Ecology. This interview with him on the economic crisis is republished with permission from WIN magazine, the journal of the US-based War Resisters League (http://warresisters.org/win).

“What truce are they talking about. We work on the land just like farmers. We don’t have bombs. These people don’t want to make any truce”, Khalil Mohamed Breaim told Al Jazeera on January 28.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on January 20 that the government would not permit violent protests by “the pitiyanquis [“little yankies”]”, according to the January 21 Ultimas Noticias.

Germany began a "super election year" on January 18 when the west German state of Hesse went to the polls for the second time in twelve months.

There is a humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, where the Tamil minority in the island’s north and east are facing annihilation at the hands of the Sinhalese-dominated government.

Once again, Israel demonstrated that it possesses the power and the lack of moral restraint necessary to commit atrocities against a population of destitute refugees it has caged and starved.

The article below is abridged from a January 21 US Socialist Worker editorial, http://www.socialistworker.org.

Cuba is the top-ranking developing country when it comes to protecting children’s rights, according to a new Child Development Index (CDI).