IV385 - January 2007

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The United States and Israel are trying to strengthen the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Fatah), at the expense of the Prime Minister, Ismaïl Haniyeh (Hamas). Consequence: inter-Palestinian confrontations have multiplied, and the risks of a civil war have increased. - read article...

“The great majority of Iraqis see that the very presence of the (US and other) foreign troops is fueling the deterioration of the situation: it has fueled the growth of the insurgency for a long time, and now it is fueling the civil war itself.” - read article...

As the war become ever more unpopular in the US Iraq, George Bush is making a desperate gamble, trying to pacify Baghdad by sending more than 20,000 extra troops. This could lead to a bloodbath and result in a further political defeat for the failing ’war on terror’ - read article...

The US Democrats won both houses of Congress in November of the back of disillusion with the war in Iraq. But what do the Democrats promise at home? - read article...

One again reproductive rights are under attack in the US. Some states have already mofified their abortion laws, and in the last year more than 500 anti-abortion bills were introduced in state legislatures. Diane Feeley reviews the renewed offensive against women’s rights. - read article...

February 11th will be a major day in Portuguese political and social life. A second national referendum will take place around the issue of abortion. - read article...

Supporters of the right to legal abortion are accused of supporting the ‘holocaust of innocent, unborn children’, while women still undergo back-street abortions, risking their health or even life. Every year the police register several dozens of instances of infanticide or abandoning of babies just like in the 1930s. Poland has managed to travel back in time. - read article...

The arrogance of neoliberalism, although certainly challenged in some Latin American countries, seems to face a cooling of opposition everywhere else, as if there was an exhaustion of the “expansive wave” of the movement for global justice. What can we expect from the second World Social Forum to be held in Africa (following its polycentric version in 2006, held in Bamako, Caracas and Karachi), where all the evils of globalisation in its different phases are concentrated? Will it give a second breath to the movement, a greater and firmer radicalism in the area of alternatives? - read article...

Conditioned by centuries of feudalism, victim of totalitarian regimes, prey to political banditry, this is the situation of Ethiopia today. The current regime has not brought democracy to the country or settled ethnic problems. The great powers only see the Horn of Africa as a strategic zone. Since 9/11 the will of the US to co-opt Ethiopia to control terrorism has borne fruit. - read article...

As the size of his victory in the presidential elections became clear on the night of 3 December, Hugo Chavez joined his supporters from the balcony of the Miraflores palace. Under torrential rain, he sang with them the national anthem and shouted ‘Long live socialism!’ The task now, he said was to deepen the socialist revolution in Venezuela. - read article...

We reprint here passages from Hugo Chavez’ speech on 15 December to representatives from grass-roots election campaign bodies: “We here are going to build Venezuelan socialism, the Venezuelan socialist model.” - read article...

Contemporary Colombia clearly ranks as one of the most difficult settings in which to wage resistance for social justice. At the same time, the abundance of injustice demands such resistance. Evil Hour in Colombia, the new book by Forrest Hylton, demonstrates a deep and penetrating understanding of the sociocultural, economic, and political post-Independence history of Colombia. It is a powerful indictment of the imperial practices of the US state. - read article...

Much attention is focussed on Cuba, given the illness of Fidel Castro and the widespread debate over what will happen on the island without him. As a result IV has decided to open a debate on Cuba, staring with a contribution from Jean Castillo, a member of the LCR in France. - read article...

This is a story about a country where over 200,000 men women and children were displaced by war in a year; a country where 600,000 people from the minorities are confined and denied basic human requirements; a country where shelling and air raids are the only Christmas and New year fireworks for tens of thousands. In this country nearly 5000 have been killed within a year and nearly 2000 have been made to disappear within eight months. - read article...

Well known global justice activist Au Loong-Yu explains the reasons for China’s spectacular economic growth - and some of its deadly consequences for Chinese workers. - read article...

As the recent murders of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and former spy-in-exile Alexander Litvinenko make clear, anyone who attempts to expose the political subterfuge and corruption in Russia today can pay with their lives. And Russia’s new bourgeoisie looks likely to demand an ever more authoritarian state. - read article...

A strong local shop stewards movement needs to be consciously built. In a climate of defeat this is no easy task. Only a real upsurge can present the basis for building a movement to approach those of previous generations. But that does not mean we do not have concrete tasks we need to take forward now. - read article...

Our articles on the floods in Pakistan have given details of how to send financial aid to the Labour Relief Fund. If it is more convenient for you, you can also send funds through the Europe Solidaire Sans Frontieres account. - read article...

Pakistan is facing worst ever floods of its history. Torrential rains have unleashed flash floods in different parts of the country since last three weeks. Water levies broke leaving the people exposed to flood water. More than 12 million people have suffered due to these floods. More than 650,000 houses have collapsed, mainly in villages. Thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed due to flood water. Houses, live-stock such as cattle’s and goats, household goods, clothes, shoes and other items have been destroyed. Residents of villages are currently without drinkable water, food, shelter and in need of clothes. In particular, the situation is dire for children and women and they are in desperate need of food and clothing. Disease is spreading fast in the areas affected due to lack of drinkable water. In particular, flu, fever, diarrhea, cholera have been noted and are spreading. - read article...

An unexpected, unthinkable, yet - concerning current circumstances - quite expectable and natural thing has occurred yesterday night. Three public social activists that have always expressed a consistent antifascist attitude and shunned civil indifference have been detained. - read article...

We, the participants at the Istanbul ESF, affirming that we have a strong engagement aganist all war and occupation and that we are for a politial resolution of the Kurdish issue, have made the following resolution : - read article...

Under the impulse of the World Bank and international capitalist institutions, the Moroccan regime started a privatization process of the universities and attacks against the right to studiy. The announcement of the “Emergency plan” to the university at beginning of the academic year, i.e. of the brutal aggravation of these attacks, put a spark to the powder. The class-struggle trade unionists of fight, organised within the UNEM, are at the forefront of the mobilization against the “Emergency plan”. - read article...