Eyewitness report: Washington U students sit in for justice
ST. LOUIS — I am one of roughly a dozen students at Washington University who walked into the admissions office of our school April 4 carrying food, commitment, clothes, books, nerves and a passion for economic justice for the workers on our campus. We’ve been sitting in for 15 days and conducted a hunger strike for six of those days. We won’t be leaving until justice — in the form of a living wage for campus workers — is achieved.
National Clips
BILLINGS, Mont.: Legislature condemns Patriot Act; SPRINGFIELD, Ill.: Protest weakening of lead standards; THREE RIVERS, Texas: Hometown honors hero; BIRMINGHAM, Ala.: Deaths blamed on privatized jails
Border bigots get cool reception
TUCSON, Ariz. — The Statue of Liberty made a quick trip to Tombstone, Ariz., on April 1, welcoming all new immigrants coming to America in search of jobs and freedom. She also came to have her say about the Minuteman Project, a group of armed civilians invading Arizona in the month of April who claim the U.S. government hasn’t done enough to “secure” the Mexican-U.S. border.
L.A. mayors race could make history
LOS ANGELES — With less than a month to go before the May 17 vote in the heated mayoral runoff here, there are strong signs that City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa could become the city’s first Mexican American mayor since 1872.
U.S. seen as roadblock to ending nukes
NEW YORK — The Bush administration — not the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Iran, or any other “rogue state” — is most responsible for the threat of nuclear proliferation, say organizers of the March and Rally for Peace in Iraq and Nuclear Disarmament Worldwide set for May 1 at the United Nations.
Communists launch online discussion
With a newly launched web site, the Communist Party USA is inviting broad discussion on how Americans can defeat the Bush agenda and build a bigger and stronger movement for peace, democracy, jobs and equality.
New industrial union pushes working-class power
LAS VEGAS — It was the fire from below that powered up the merger convention of the USWA and PACE, held here April 11-14. Five thousand workers, their families and guests shared stories of battles on picket lines and in battleground state polling places. Many conversations started with, “Let me tell you what that son of a Bush did in Ohio …” or Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Indiana or Southern California.click here for Spanish text
Workers Memorial Day 2005: In Memory of Gary Puleio
Gary was killed on the job at a concrete plant on August 15, 2001. He had been employed there only three months as a cement truck driver and fell 25 feet to his death, from a cement tower, while shoveling gravel off the hopper to clean it.
Nuts and bolts of building the U.S. global empire
Have you ever wondered how the U.S. government and big business gained global power, the nuts and bolts of it? How they were able to bypass Congress in this effort?
U.S. military killing the witnesses
NEW YORK — José Couso, a Spanish journalist, died April 8, 2003, when an American tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. The hotel was housing 300 journalists, and was considered an oasis of safety in a city that had been under heavy bombardment since the war’s opening. Baghdad had become a sea of fire and Couso was there “to bear witness,” as his brother Javier put it at a recent event here.
