World

Lee Sustar, Chicago Call it the wishbone strategy — grab hold of a big part of the labour movement, give a hard pull and hope to end up with the biggest piece. That's the method of the seven-union Change to Win coalition, whose three biggest

On August 4, 90% of nurses went on strike across Fiji after the government failed to agree to agree to their demands. The nurses are demanding a wage rise and are refusing to accept a pay cut due to a recent overpayment. Labour minister Kenneth Zinck

Doug Lorimer Under the headline "Military Plans Gradual Cuts in Iraq Forces", the August 7 New York Times reported that it had been told by "three senior military officers and Defense Department officials" that at a classified briefing given to

Some 20,000 delegates from more than 140 countries attended the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students on August 8-15 with the theme "For peace, solidarity and against imperialism". Australia-Venezuela solidarity brigade participant Paul Benedek

Bernie Stephens, Harare The finding by UN Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka that Operation Murambatsvina (drive out rubbish) — the bulldozing of informal settlements — has left up to 3.3 million Zimbabweans "deeper in poverty, deprivation and

Rohan Pearce The August 1 death of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al Saud triggered a predictable, and nauseating, flurry of tributes from the "Coalition of the Willing" — the Iraq invasion alliance of Australia, Britain and the US. In

Conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan was sentenced on August 10 to four years' jail, two years each for the charges of "Insubordination before command" and "Insubordination before command for trying to escape from military service". Turkish law

On August 10, Pastors for Peace announced that they would take their campaign to secure the release of seized aid to the road. On July 21, US customs officers seized 43 boxes of computer equipment intended for Cuban children with special needs from

The following is abridged from a July 27 article by Thamrin Ananda, the chairperson of the Acehnese Popular Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA). The negotiations between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to resolve the Aceh

Simon Cunich The US is considering enforcing sanctions against Venezuela after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suspended cooperation with the US "counter-narcotics" Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). According to the August 8 Washington Post, a

Political science professor Kenneth Good, who has taught at the University of Botswana for 15 years, lost an appeal in the Botswana courts on July 27 over his deportation from the country. Good was deported on May 31 as a "threat to national

Max Lane "The mobilisations on July 23 when Arroyo gave her state of the nation address to Congress were the biggest since the anti-Arroyo actions began", Sonny Melencio told Green Left Weekly by phone on July 27. Melencio is vice-chair of Bukluran