World

  • Nationalisations push Venezuela further toward socialism

    As Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution continues to deepen and accelerate, President Hugo Chavez has announced a spate of pro-worker changes, which mark a continuation of the Chavez government’s orientation toward the country’s oppressed, and a victory against the right-wing offensive that has heightened since Chavez’s re-election in December.

  • War and repression continue

    The Sri Lankan Army (SLA) has met strong resistance in its attempts to seize areas of the island country that are controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE are fighting for an independent state in the predominantly Tamil inhabited north and east of Sri Lanka.

  • Pakistan: Protest against Farooq Tariq's detention

    On June 12, Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) organised a protest in front of the Lahore Press Club against the illegal detention of LPP general secretary Farooq Tariq, who was arrested on June 5 and given a three-month detention order. Braving 47°C heat, more than 300 protesters gathered, raising slogans against General Pervez Musharraf’s regime and demanding the immediate release of Tariq and all other political prisoners.

  • Hamas Gaza victory a blow to US policy

    Following the near-complete seizure of military control of the Gaza Strip on June 14 by armed supporters of the Hamas party, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the leader of the rival Fatah party, issued a decree dissolving the PA Hamas-Fatah “national unity” government, dismissing Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh and declaring a “state of emergency” in both the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

  • Pakistan: US double face on media freedom and democracy

    During Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Panama on June 5, she described Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s decision not to renew the licence of Radio Caracas Television as his “sharpest and most acute” move yet against democracy. She urged the Organisation of American States to send its secretary general to Caracas to look into the move and deliver a full report on his findings. Rice declared: “Freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of the government. Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially a democracy.”

  • Indonesia: 'The people want fundamental change'

    Green Left Weekly’s Vannessa Hearman spoke to Agus Jabo, chairperson of the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas), in Jakarta about the new party’s campaign plans and its defence against ongoing attacks from right-wing organisations.

  • South Africa: Sackings fuel national strike, protests

    Up to 2 million workers have hit back at the African National Congress (ANC) government’s sacking of striking health workers, its deployment of army strikebreakers and increasing police violence against strikers. On June 13 the more than 700,000 teachers, nurses, health workers and other government workers on strike for higher pay were joined by hundreds of thousands of other unionists and supporters in a nationwide solidarity strike. Hundreds of thousands of people marched across the country.

  • Iraq: US officials plan post-Bush occupation

    “The Bush administration and top military commanders are looking beyond the promised September progress report on Iraq and are preparing Congress and the American public for a long-term presence of US troops in the occupied nation”, the June 8 New York Times reported, adding: “Officials have started downplaying the importance of the September assessment by Army General David Petraeus and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker as they work to lower public expectations about any quick progress in Iraq.”

  • Agent Orange victims go to court in the US

    An estimated 3 million Vietnamese are suffering from the horrendous health effects inflicted by the dioxin-laden herbicide Agent Orange, which was employed liberally by the US during the Vietnam War. In 2004, the victims, represented by the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA), initiated a legal action in the US against nearly 40 chemical companies that supplied the chemical.

  • Destabilisation plot fails in Venezuela

    The latest campaign to destablise the government of socialist President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, by groups who receive funds from the US government, appears to have largely failed. The attempts of a minority of students based on the old elite universities — who have held often violent protests in recent weeks — to present themselves as a “new” movement fighting for democracy have been exposed.

  • G8 on track for 5 million deaths

    Two years ago we were assaulted with the spectacle of Bono and Bob Geldof promising to help “make poverty history”. The two pop stars, both well past their use-by date, played leading roles in organising the 2005 anti-poverty Live 8 concerts and as a result scored a much-reported invite to address the July 2005 G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland. That summit adopted a debt-relief and aid plan for Africa hailed by Bono as a “little piece of history”. Geldof declared the summit a “qualified triumph” for the world’s poor. The issue of global warming also featured at the Gleneagles meeting, with the G8 resolving to “act with resolve and urgency” to tackle climate change.

  • Protests in Palestine mark anniversary

    On June 5, thousands of Palestinians and international solidarity activists throughout Palestine marked the 40th anniversary of al Naksa (the calamity), the beginning of the 1967 war and the illegal seizure of the Palestinian territories.