Labor begins new push for Employee Free Choice Act
WASHINGTON (PAI) — Flanked by workers harassed or fired for trying to form unions, labor leaders and key lawmakers reintroduced the Employee Free Choice Act on April 19.
World Notes
Canada: Set Wal-Mart protest for May 7; Czech Republic: Defend democratic rights; Kuwait: Women to vote; Nicaragua: ‘Week of action’ vs. CAFTA; Southern Africa: AIDS devastates farm workers; Indonesia: Sailors protest U.S. security rules
New peace initiatives under way in Sudan
The gravity of the present Sudan crisis is perhaps best depicted by a 1994 Pulitzer-prize winning photo of a vulture intently awaiting the death of a famine-stricken, emaciated child seen crawling towards a distant UN food camp. It is not clear what happened to the child, but there are indications that Sudan is mustering the will to survive.
Indian communists call for uprooting inequality
NEW DELHI — The 18th congress of Communist Party of India (Marxist) concluded April 11 with a rally of 100,000 people at Talkatora Stadium here. The extreme heat and sun couldn’t keep the overflow crowd away.
Labor pushes minimum wage hikes
To counter the anti-people program being put forward by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his corporate backers, the California Labor Federation is putting forward its own program for economic recovery.
Calif. hotel boycott grows: Korean, Mexican unionists pledge support
San Francisco and Los Angeles hotel workers’ long-running contract battles to save quality health coverage and win decent wages and reasonable workloads are intensifying, with “street heat,” boycott successes and growing international solidarity.
National Clips
LOUISVILLE, Ky.: Protest ‘Justice Sunday’; SANTA CRUZ, Calif.: Police attack tent city; ST. PAUL, Minn.: Stop CAFTA; CHAPEL HILL, N.C.: Protect public health, marchers say
Keep your greedy hands off Social Security
WASHINGTON — Thousands cheered at a Capitol Hill rally April 26 as lawmakers and leaders of labor, retirees, women, youth of color and the disabled vowed “no compromise” in the battle to block President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security.
Communists host meet on religion
DES MOINES, Iowa — “The word of God and communism are hand in hand,” said Diana Sowry, a school bus driver from Ashtabula County, Ohio. She was one of a group of clergy and lay people participating in a conference on religion sponsored by the Communist Party USA here April 15-16.
Barbara Jean Hope, activist and writer, 59
Barbara Jean Hope died April 8 in Philadelphia after an intense battle with cancer. She was 59.
