Myanmars road map to crisis
KOLKATA, India — Ibrahim Gambari, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy to Myanmar (formerly Burma), arrived in Yangon, the country’s largest city, on Sept. 29. He departed on Oct. 2 to report back to the UN Security Council in New York. During his visit, he had met the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as the leader of the military junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
Organizing, elections focus of Change to Win
CHICAGO — The Change to Win labor federation held its second annual national convention here Sept. 24-25, where it emphasized union organizing campaigns and a drive by its seven member unions to change the makeup of Congress and put a pro-worker person in the White House.
To cut smog, change truckers status, report says
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Port of Oakland, the country’s fourth largest port, drives much of the San Francisco Bay Area’s economy, and the port’s container trade is expected to double in the next 20 years. But a newly released report warns that this projected growth is threatened by the diesel pollution from trucks moving the containers, which causes soaring lung disease rates for nearby residents and port workers. At the same time, truck drivers endure dismal economic and working conditions.
Supporters rally for single-payer health care
CHICAGO — Imagine that every U.S. resident received a health insurance card that could be presented to any doctor or hospital for a full range of medical benefits. As a patient, you would pay nothing, and you would receive no medical bills.
Demand grows to drop charges on Jena 6
Pressure mounted on LaSalle Parish prosecutors to drop all charges against the “Jena Six” following the release on bail, Sept. 27, of Mychal Bell, the only one of the African American teenagers to be tried and convicted in the little central Louisiana town.
Black Caucus meets to unleash the power
WASHINGTON — With determined strides, warm hugs and the steely glint of struggling for justice in their eyes, over 20,000 African American leaders from all walks of life, from students to Ph.D.s, from business executives to workers, from elected officials to precinct captains, and from award-winning artists to a high school marching band, streamed into the 37th annual Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference here, Sept. 26-29.
Unusual coalition wins judgeship nod in N.Y.
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — This is not a big election year here, but on Sept.18 there were primaries for two state district judgeships and for the much more important County Surrogate judgeship. Usually the Brooklyn Democratic machine, which has been notoriously corrupt for decades, picks the Surrogate candidate and there is no contest.
Always Jewish, lately Palestinian
A POEM: Always Jewish, lately Palestinian
A Canadian Reds great restlessness
Faith Johnston’s “A Great Restlessness: the Life and Politics of Dorise Nielsen” is an absorbing political biography of one of Canada’s long-forgotten Communists who fought for the rights of women and children and played a role in shaping Canada’s postwar social legislation.
Bolivian adversaries step back from brink
The current struggle between Bolivia’s newly empowered indigenous people and poor against the country’s old, ousted power brokers seemed headed for an impasse when the two sides took a breather.
