Last May 1, more than 1 million people joined the May Day celebrations in Caracas, Venezuela. Since then, Venezuela聮s impoverished population, led by socialist President Hugo Chavez, has taken over more workplaces, set up more cooperatives, established hundreds of free public education and health programs, organised their neighbourhoods and taken big steps towards exercising 聯popular power聰 in their country.
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On January 11, SX News reported that the gay magazine had been barred from being provided to detainees at Sydney聮s Villawood immigration detention centre.
On February 19, campaigners for the repatriation to Australia of David Hicks again demanded that the Australian parliament seeks his immediate release from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
A chain of events triggered by the passage of a new agrarian reform law, part of the 鈥渁grarian revolution鈥 of indigenous President Evo Morales, has brought into sharp relief the drive by the right-wing opposition to overthrow Morales鈥檚 government, even if it means pushing Bolivia towards a civil war.
It鈥檚 been more than five years since the first hooded, shackled men were brought to the US prison at Guantanamo and although not a single prisoner has been tried or convicted of any crime, more than 400 still remain, including David Hicks.
Abdias Jean was murdered on January 14, 2005, shortly after finishing his lunch near his home in the Village de Dieu slum.
Tamworth, 595 kilometres north of Sydney, each year welcomes more than 50,000 people to its music festival. The town boasts it is the Australian equivalent of 鈥淣ashville鈥, albeit on a small scale.
High-profile pro-democracy campaigner and parliamentarian Akilisi Pohiva has been arrested by police in connection with a riot last November that left seven people dead. Following the riot, a state of emergency was declared, giving police the power to detain people without charges for seven days. Some 700 others have already been arrested, including Pohiva聮s fellow-MP Isileli Pulu, who was charged with manslaughter, sedition and abetting property damage. According to Radio NZ International on January 19, Pohiva says the motivation for the riot will be revealed in court. 聯He knew what the people were upset about聰, RZNI correspondent Mateni Tapueluelu said. 聯They were upset because the very peaceful approach that they聮d made to the government demanding political reform hadn聮t worked. And he knew why their anger spilled out and this is why he made a statement to that effect, which is now interpreted by the government as meaning that they [the pro-democracy movement] did plan it.聰
Carrier strike group diplomacy
"I made a statement last night that I had ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region ... We will use our full diplomatic resources throughout the Middle East." 鈥 Emperor George Bush
A January 19 press statement by the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre condemned Indonesian military operations in the Central Highlands (Puncak Jaya) region, which have forced thousands of locals to flee to the bush. The operation follows the killing of two military personnel near Mulia in December, which the military has blamed on the Free Papua Movement (OPM). The PCRC鈥檚 Rex Rumakiek said that 鈥渢he response is again no different from operations in previous years. Instead of the police working with tribal leaders, churches and NGOs to find those responsible, a full military operation is the Indonesian army鈥檚 choice of action.鈥 Rumakiek called on the Australian government to send a fact finding mission to West Papua before finalising its bilateral treaty with Indonesia. 鈥淎ny treaty including the exchange and acceptance of aid in any form with Indonesia at the present time is shameful and must be condemned outright.鈥
The case of Melbourne man Jack Thomas should be ringing alarm bells over the use of the so-called anti-terror laws in Australia. Thomas鈥 case demonstrates that these laws can be, and are being, misused for political purposes against someone who is not a terrorist.
Cochabamba is a city with a history of struggle. In April 2000 the people stood up against the privatisation of their water supply, threw out the multinational Bechtel and retook control of the local water company. In October 2003 they joined the thousands of people on the street in El Alto, La Paz and other cities to defend the right of the people to nationalise the country聮s gas reserves, effectively forcing, then president and champion of the neoliberal economic model Gonzales Sanchez de Lozada to flee the country.
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