ZIMBABWE: 78 women arrested at rally
An attempt to protest on World Refugee Day in Bulawayo was met by fierce repression on June 19 as participants and bystanders were arrested for "holding an illegal gathering". Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) said it was holding the protest because "life for many Zimbabweans is the life of refugees". Woza lobbies for women's rights and holds regular protests against President Robert Mugabe's government. A lawyer for the group said 43 women remained in custody on June 21.
SOUTH AFRICA: Protesters demand Bush increase health spending
On June 24, Durban, East London, Cape Town and Johannesburg each hosted hundreds-strong protests demanding that US President George Bush spend money on health care over warfare. The protests were organised by the Treatment Action Campaign, which presented a statement to the US consulates in Durban and Cape Town that called on Bush to invest more in the global fund to fight AIDS; stop undermining public confidence in generic medicine and the Doha agreement on public health; and stop obstructing reproductive choice and condom distribution. For a copy of the full statement, visit <http://www.greenleft.org.au>.
PALESTINE: Apartheid wall met with resistance
Activists continue to risk their lives to stop the construction of the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank. On June 17, hundreds of protesters braved tear gas to halt construction after clashes with the Israeli Defense Force at a section of the wall near the Jewish settlement of Ariel. On the same day, two elderly Palestinian men sitting in front of bulldozers briefly stopped construction in the Salfit region, before the men were tear-gassed. Three days later, 200-300 people protesting the construction of the wall at the Salfit village of Az Zawiya were assaulted by the IDF with tear gas, sound bombs and wooden batons. Forty-one people were injured. [For more information on protests against the Apartheid Wall, visit <http://www.iwps.info>.]
HAITI: 5000 Aristide supporters demonstrate
A June 18 march in Port au Prince demanded the return of deposed Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and called for the removal of interim prime minister Gerard Latortue. Protest organisers accused Latortue's government of sacking more than 3000 phone workers sympathetic to Aristide, and subjecting other Aristide supporters to arbitrary arrest.
COLOMBIA: Uribe threatens Peace Community
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez has attacked the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, threatening its members with arrest for "obstructing justice" and announcing the dispatch of a US-trained army unit to the region. San Jose de Apartardo declared itself a peace community in 1997, refusing to support any of the armed forces in the country's conflict. Since then, 130 residents have been killed, including seven on May 22 when a bomb exploded in a local disco. A May 24 condemnation of the bombing by the community's leaders may have triggered Uribe's action. Uribe accuses the peace community of being a front for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). [For more Latin America news, email <wnu@igc.org> to subscribe to the Weekly News Update on the Americas.]
UNITED STATES: 1500 workers walk off the job
Production came to a halt at the Maytag appliance factory in Iowa on June 10, as 1500 workers walked out in a dispute about health care coverage. The company wants to increase the out-of-pocket costs for medical care to $4000 per year, and freeze the base pay rate on which future pay increases are calculated. The company is a hard negotiator: in October it announced that it was closing an Illinois refrigeration factory and moving production to Mexico, where it could pay workers $2 an hour. Nevertheless, after two weeks on strike, the workers remain resolute. [For more information on the strike, visit <http://www.uaw997.org>.]
SRI LANKA: Workers fight union busting
Garment workers at Workwear Lanka have appealed for international help to support legal action to resolve a dispute caused by the wholesale sacking of union members. When in December 2003, Workwear Lanka employees formed a branch office of the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union, management individually interrogated every worker and asked those who had joined the union to resign.
Since then, 100 of the plant's 700 mostly female employees have been fired, demoted, suspended or transferred for union activity. The workers applied in January to the labour department for protection, however, a lengthy process failed to force the company to even obey department directives, nevermind meet the union's demands of reinstatement for the persecuted union members. [To help, or for more information, visit <http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/04-06-10.php>.]
From Green Left Weekly, June 30, 2004.
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