by Dr. Hisham Bustani, Amman, April 2, 2002Five Days of Rage in Jordan for Palestine and the Expulsion of the Zionist Embassy------------------------------------------------------------------- Protests all over Jordan- Police violates the campus of Jordan University- Police causes hundreds of injuries- Demands of the Jordanian Arab massesFor the past five days, the Jordanian Arab people were in continuous, non-stop, in-the-street solidarity with their brothers in Palestine who are facing the severest Zionist attack since the beginning of the Arab-Zionist conflict.Last Friday, the demonstrations began in various locations in Amman. One demonstration started down-town Amman and was quickly attacked by anti-riot police. Another demonstration in Al-Rabia area heading for the Zionist Embassy … [read more]

First report by the International Solidarity Delegation from besieged IraqOnly a few days in Iraq are sufficient to give us a clear impression about the people´s opinion. Whether we are talking to people on the streets in Baghdad, Basra or in the Shiite holy cities Kufa, Nadshaf or Kerbela, whether we are interviewing official representatives, the answer is everywhere alike: "They might as well bomb us. We cannot do anything about it. But they won´t get us on our knees."The embargo lasting for more than ten years has had devastating effects on Iraq. Especially in the hospitals and above all in the Southern region around Basra we experienced terrible situations. After the usage of depleted uranium ammunition by the US, the toll of cancer and malformations has incredibly risen. The … [read more]

Jerusalem, March 19, 2002Sergio Yahni, Co-Diretor of the Alternative Information Center, was sentenced last night to 28 days for refusing to serve reserve duty in the Israeli military.Below is a letter which Sergio composed to the Israeli minister of defence outlining his objections to serving in an organisation which oppresses the Palestinian people and commits war crimes.We are still awaiting final confirmation of the exact military prison to which he wil be transferred. In the meantime, letters of solidarity may be sent to rtic@alt-info.org or AIC, POB 31417, Jerusalem. All letters will be taken to Sergio when we are permitted to visit him (in approximately ten days).19 March 2002 To: Minister of Defence Ben EliezerMinistry of DefenceAn officer for whom you are responsible has … [read more]

MARCH ON THE WHITE HOUSE APRIL 20THby the International A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition The Washington Post frontpage headline of March 14 couldn`t be clearer: "U.S. will take action against Iraq, Bush says." Bush made it a central point in his March 13 press conference that the U.S. will do whatever it takes to overthrow the government in Iraq. The U.S. seeks to replace it with a regime that will function as a proxy for U.S. interests in the region.When Vice-President Dick Cheney traveled to England this week he requested a commitment of 25,000 British troops to be part of a larger 250,000-invasion force for war in Iraq (The Independent, March 8, 2002). Some in Blair`s Cabinet may split on the issue. The British and European press are ridiculing Bush`s war plan and more and more public sentiment … [read more]

Appeal for SolidarityAppeal : Thirty seconds were all it took for the Tunis High Court to deliver a sentence of 11 years and 3 months... On Saturday, 2 February 2002, in conditions of extreme police violence and inside the Tunis High Court, 30 seconds were all it took to sentence Hamma Hammami and Samir Tà¢amallah to 9 years and 3 months in prison. Abdeljabbar Madouri, who was not present, received the same sentence and with 2 additional years tacked on, and for articles of indictment that have not been made public. Ammar Amroussia, who was sentenced in absentia in 1997 to 2 years and 9 months in prison - and who also reemerged on 2 February after 5 years in hiding - was physically attacked by the police upon his exit from the courthouse and then arrested. The International Committee to … [read more]

Demonstration in Montreal, CanadaToday March 17, approximately 150 people gathered in the Cote-des-Neiges neiborhood in Montreal to condemn the debarkment of the U.S. troops in the Philippines. They demanded that U.S. troops withdraw from the Philippines right now and condemned the expansion of the U.S. war from Afghanistan to the Philippines, and probably soon to Iraq. The demonstration was organized by the Centre for Philippine Concerns (CPC), a Montreal-based group which supports the national democratic movement in this country.Starting from the McKenzie-King park near the Cote Ste-Catherine metro station, protestors took to the streets and marched in this workers neiborhood where many Filipino are living, chanting slogans both in French, in English and in Tagalog. At different points … [read more]

Solidarity Conference with Political Prisoners in the USThe Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL) has the pleasure to invite you to attend the International Conference in Solidarity with the political prisoners in the United States, "Tear Down the Walls"that will be held in Havana, Cuba, from March 27th-29th 2002 in Palacio de las Convenciones.This important conference would be an international meeting on winning freedom for U.S. political prisoners, sponsored by a broad coalition of U.S. based groups and activists.Aware of the solidarity that you has always shown with just causes of this similar nature, the Executive Secretariat of OSPAAAL request the honor of your affirmative response to the present invitation before March 10th.Following … [read more]

Assisi, Italy, August 3 - August 10, 2002Saturday, August 3, 2002 21.30: Presentation and Concert_________________________________________Sunday, August 4, 2002 10.00 Plenary Session: Inquiry on Porto Alegre Anti-globalisation and the World Social Forum: left liberalism vs. anti-imperialismJ. Peirero, Professor, BrasilMoreno Pasquinelli, Spokesman of the Anti-imperialist CampLeonardo Mazzei, Confederation of Communists, Italy16.00 Workshops: 1. Build an anti-imperialist pole in the anti-globalisation movement – towards Saloniki 2003Dimitrios Pavlidis, Anti-imperialist Committee Saloniki, Greece Gheorgios Xilouris, Student movement of Athens, Greece Stelios Agkoutoglou, Communist Party of Greece (ML)2. Empire and ImperialismConstanzo Preve, Professor and Philosopher, Italy3. ATTAC, … [read more]

Call for the Anti-imperialist Camp 2002Assisi, Italy, August 3-10, 2002Since their most sacred symbols – immeasurable wealth, military omnipotence and invulnerable despotism – have come under attack at their very centre, the USA has launched a hysterical military campaign in order to reinforce their supremacy over the world instead of making a step backwards. Bush has made it clear that the aggression against Afghanistan, carried out after the attack on Yugoslavia, was only the beginning. The next victim of his imperialist megalomania will be Iraq, a country which has already been severely hit and devastated by a cruel embargo. And who will be next? On the Emperor´s black list there are North Korea, Iran, Somalia, Cuba and Colombia. Any country that is not willing to submit to the … [read more]

Urgent Appeal for SolidarityOn October 2001 PT. Wirapetro Plastindo, one of FNPBI held demonstration. Action begun with marched from Pasar Mangkang to Factory. Protestor yields their slogan enthusiastic. However only Bambang Suhardi (HRD) met this protestor. Finally workers delegates , Manpower department, assisted by police agree to negotiate. Workers ask the assistances from FNPBI regional organizer but manpower department did not allow them to do it. Police intimidate negotiation by limiting time and forces to fulfilled only normative rights . Negotiation ended at 12.00 and employers insist to limit negotiation on normative rights. At 15.00 Mass action continue to strike all the reported was chased away from factory. 11 October 2001Mass action marched to District level House … [read more]

By Robert Fisk, Middle East CorrespondentIt is the "vision" thing again. When President George Bush wanted Arab support for the US bombing of Afghanistan in September, he suddenly announced he had a "vision" of a Palestinian state. Then it disappeared off his radar screen. Yet now it`s back in a watered-down, US-framed UN resolution that affirms "a vision of a region where two states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side..." Could it be that Mr Bush has another war in mind for the region, that perhaps Vice-President Dick Cheney, now touring the Arab world and Israel, wants Arab support for an attack on Iraq? UN resolutions don`t disappear as fast as presidential "visions" and the world now has the idea …­ and it`s only an idea …­ embedded in a serious UN document. Indeed, it`s … [read more]

PFLP Press Release Ramallah: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has commented about the meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, and Speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, Ahmad Qurei. The Popular Front stated that this meeting constitutes a departure from the will of the Palestinian people and provides a political cover for the crimes, the massacres, and the mass butchery of the government of Zionist unity and for its decision to continue and intensify these crimes against our people, as it also circumvents the option of resistance struggle that has brought Sharon`s military program to a real impasse after the qualitative blows of the resistance demonstrated the failure of this program in its confrontation with the intifada and resistance. The Popular Front … [read more]

By Teresa Gutierrez, Mexico CityMore than 600 participants representing dozens of countries around the world on March 4 and 5 took part here in the Second International Encounter in Solidarity and for Peace in Colombia and Latin America.This historic conference reflects the growing worldwide movement against U.S. intervention in Colombia, specifically against the menacing Pentagon "Plan Colombia." It also reflects the deepening solidarity of the progressive and revolutionary movements in Latin America and the Caribbean that each day is growing stronger and bolder.The Second Encounter had significant support from a broad and prominent sector of anti-war, peace and progressive elements. Conveners included Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel; Ahmed Ben Bella, former president of … [read more]

Rome, March 9, 2002Despite heavy rain and the boycott by the big mass media as well as by a big part of the pacifist left, 100,000 people demonstrated yesterday, March 9, in Rome in solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada. This was, in fact, the biggest demonstration in support of the Palestinian cause ever in Italy. Moreover, there is no doubt that this was also the biggest mass manifestation in support of Intifada that has ever taken place in a western country. The idea to hold this demonstration was launched in October last year by the Forum for Palestine. Thanks to the efforts of a united basis committee (part of which was the Italian section of the Anti-imperialist Camp) this idea could become reality. The call for this demonstration included five points: withdrawal of the Israeli … [read more]

Amman, Jordan, March 9, 2002At noon sharp on Saturday 9, 2002, a human chain suddenly formed on the sidewalk between the First and Second Circle in Amman, Jordan. Every few yards a sign was raised: "Support the Intifada, No to Defeatist Initiatives"; "Lift the Official Arab Siege on Iraq"; "Palestine is ARAB"; "Sharon and Bush are Partners in Crime"; "NO to the Aggression on Iraq and the Palestinian People"; etc.. Each sign was repeated dozens of times in one sequence as if to make the point clear to whomever it may concern, and to passers-by who started gathering around like the clouds before the rain. A line of dedicated activists and citizens stood SILENTLY steadfast beneath those signs to underscore the point: WE CANT WATCH WHAT´S GOING ON IN PALESTINE AND IRAQ IN SILENCE … [read more]

...concerned with the future of democracy in IndiaFriends, In a few days from now India´s parliamentary system of democracy will face one of its gravest challenges. Not by an attack on Parliament from the outside, but ironically from the very people who presently preside over it by virtue of an opportunistically cobbled together alliance that seems devoid of any coherent programmes and principles, save one, sticking to power at all costs. In fact many of its constituents, including the Samata Party, the BJP-Sena alliance, the DMK, the TMC, the Akali Dal etc have lost elections at the state level after assuming power in Delhi. Most recently in fact, the leading party in this alliance, the BJP, has been defeated in the elections in UP, even though the party had made its … [read more]

by: Communist Mazdoor Kissan PartyOn Wednesday, 13th February 2002, in Lahore (Pakistan), a press conference and a large procession was organized by the Communist Workers Peasants Party (CMKP) and ASR Resource Center in collaboration with other progressive organizations. The venue for this event was the Lahore Press Club. The press conference and protest has been held at a critical moment, when the peasants of Pakistan are fighting tooth and nail against the oppression and violence perpetrated on them by the state and feudal lords. On the one hand, the poor peasants of Charsada (Hashtnagar, NWFP) are warding-off a brutal act of forceful evictions from their lands. On the other hand, the military, in alliance with (MNCs), IMF and WTO, is imposing its imperialist-dictated agenda on the poor … [read more]

Statement by the Anti-imperialist CampThe corporate media does not know how to cope with Milosevic´s accuse against NATO. In order to avoid a collapse of the amalgam of lies, which have been proven to be fakes by the ex president´s arguments, these very same lies are being once again inflated and endlessly repeated, for example:The picture from Trnopolje, which suggests a Serbian concentration camp by showing an emaciated man behind a barbwire is displayed again and again on all the TV screens of the world – despite the fact that the photograph was taken from inside the fence. A fact which actually should be known to the journalists.The alleged massacre of Racak, which was used as the pretext to legitimate the NATO attack, has been refuted by both Dr. Helena Ranta, head of the … [read more]

Statement by the Anti-imperialist CampColombia: Pacification will never bring peace for the peopleThe Colombian oligarchy breaks off the peace process with the FARC after not having succeeded in imposing its "peace" without structural changes.On Wednesday, February 20, Colombian president Pastrana announced the definitive breaking off of the peace process with the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejercito del Pueblo – Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-Peoples Army) and gave orders for the immediate entering of troupes into the demilitarised zone of San Vicente Caguán. The pretext for this breaking off of negotiations, which had already been announced by the "anti-terrorist" crusade of US-imperialism, was the alleged kidnapping of senator Jorge Eduardo Gechem … [read more]

by Brasilian Trade Unionists Open Letter to the Trade Unionists and Activists Participating in the World Social Forum 2002 in Porto Alegre, Brazil Dear Brothers and Sisters,We, the undersigned Brazilian trade unionists, want to open a dialogue with you. We are living through a terrible situation the world over. The U.S. government, under the cover of the United Nations, is using the heinous terrorist attacks of September 11 to intensify a political agenda of "full-scale, protracted war" -- as Bush himself has stated. It is a war that started with the bombing of Afghanistan and is far from over.In neighboring Argentina, the people -- after years of governments that had submitted to the dictates of the IMF and applied the politics of privatization, destruction of workers` rights, and … [read more]