During the war against Vietnam, it was not until 1970 that the US union movement took protest action in an organised manner. And even then, it was a pro-war demonstration called by New York鈥檚 Building Trades Council in support of President Richard Nixon. However anti-war unions responded to that demonstration 鈥 held on May 20 and drawing 50,000 workers (many of them paid to attend) 鈥 with a protest of their own. While it only drew half as many people, it was a significant milestone 鈥 it was the first time that US unions formally organised an anti-war demonstration.
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The US Department of Energy announced January 30 that it is pulling out of the Futuregen Project in Mattoon, Illinois 聴 the United States聮 US$1.8 billion 联clean coal聰 demonstration plant, scheduled to start construction next year. The DoE had committed to paying 74% ($1.3 billion) of Futuregen聮s costs.
As Victorian Labor Premier John Brumby prepared to deliver his first annual 鈥渟tatement of government intentions鈥 to the opening of the 2008 parliamentary session on February 4, about 100 protesters gathered on the steps of Parliament House.
On February 3, 300 angry Goulburn Valley residents, many of them farmers, blockaded the Sugarloaf reservoir just north of Melbourne to protest the construction of a pipeline from the Goulburn River to Melbourne鈥檚 water supplies. The Goulburn River feeds into the Murray River system, increasingly drained by irrigation and, for many years now, a record drought.
The Western Australian Deaths in Custody Watch Committee (DCWC) has called an urgent public meeting for February 13 to plan a campaign to demand justice for an Aboriginal elder who died on January 27 in the custody of Global Solutions Ltd (GSL), which is contracted by the state government to transport prisoners.
US officials want their puppet Iraqi government to agree to a long-term 联status of forces agreement聰 that would give the US military 联broad authority to conduct combat operations and guarantee civilian contractors specific legal protections from Iraqi law聰, the January 25 New York Times reported.
鈥淐elebrating the completion of nine years in office, Venezuela鈥檚 President Hugo Chavez presented what he considered to be some of the main economic achievements of his government鈥 according to a February 4 Venezuelanalysis.com article.
The polling company Opinion Research Business (ORB) has released detailed data confirming that the death toll from the Iraq war has exceeded 1 million people 聴 more than the total number killed in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
鈥淲ith food prices rising, Haiti鈥檚 poorest can鈥檛
afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies鈥, according to a January 29 Associated Press article by Jonathan Katz.
The socialist journal Links, initiated by the Australian Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) to promote international socialist collaboration and regroupment, has been relaunched as an online-only publication.
The Shock Doctrine
By Naomi Klein
Allen Lane, 2007
576 pages, $32.95 (pb)
By Naomi Klein
Allen Lane, 2007
576 pages, $32.95 (pb)
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