Wolfowitz telling Guatemala and Mexico what their problem is??? Guatemalan peasant and environmental organizations plan demontrations to reject the visit of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on April 28. While Juan Tema visits Canada to tell Canadians that his community of Sipakapa does not want Canadian/American gold mining companies to proceed with exploitation, Wolfowitz visits Guatemala to promote mining exploitation of American and Canadian mining companies. As stated in the link: “Wolfowitz, a neoconservative, has been booed in all his recent public appearances. One of the main arguments against him is related with his role in the military strategy that led to the US invasion to Iraq. The president of the World Bank is a former US official, and one of the closest associates of republican president George W. Bush. Despite the rejection sparked by his visits, Wolfowitz does not seem to learn: yesterday during the most recent conference he gave in Mexico he said that the country’s main problems: migration, violence and unemployment, are not the responsibility of the international agencies. He said that the Mexican crisis “is more related with investment and competitiveness than with the recommendations of the Washington Consensus, and of the multilateral agencies”.”

–More from the ubiquitous Noam Chomsky. This is from his new book Failed States.

–A little more on the May Day (May 1st). International Workers’ Day in commemoratation of the gain by US workers of the 8 hour work day. The struggle was not completely won and must continue. International solidarity still remains.

–Today is National Day of Mourning for Workers Killed and Injured on the Job. We must support all struggles of workers to promote saftey on the workplace. We must support all actions against employers that put profit ahead of workers’ saftey and rights.

–Where have Neo-Labour in Britain gone? To the right. They need to be either dragged left or replaced. The question is: How?

–People organizing and making decisions… sounds like democracy, doesn’t it? We must start at the community level and join with other communities to push forward.

–The workers are at odds within the NY Transit Union over the capitulation of the union leadership to the city. There is an easy way to fix this, however, just elect new leadership from the ranks.

–The Left leanings of the Netherlands were not lost afterall. It seems it took a right-wing government to convince the people that they wanted something different. Support the rise of the Socialist parties in the Netherlands.

–Looks like the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) are getting back in action in the US. It would be nice to see a lot more student radicalism on campuses than what is now occurring in the US.

–Even Gorbachev thinks that the G8 is on the wrong track with Nuclear and Oil energy promotion… We must find alternative energy solutions and at the same time reduce our energy use if we are going to stave off environmental disaster.

–Making friends with leftists around the world. Nicaragua is a hot-bed of leftist love for the Venezuelans and their new form of equitable trade agreements. The people are starting to gain the benefits of their labour. It must continue…

–Have a read about who SAMATE are in Venezuela and what they have been up to over the last 6 years. The opposition group that is backed by big capital interests (mostly out of the country) have lead the many failed attempts to oust Chavez.

–Same old story. Workers get cut and the bosses get a raise.

–This is a good decision for the teachers to make. They can help lead the battle against the cuts that are coming from the conservative “Liberals” and the liberal “NDP” that exist out in BC. The Left really needs to make some gains in the party out there if it is going to make a dent in the type of programs that these right of centre parties put in place.

–Do you believe this? An NDP MP stands up for striking workers and they are denounced. What kind of nutty system exists here where a political representative gets attacked for standing up of the people that elected them?

An interview with Castro concerning the Venezuelan revolution. It appears that Castro played a more active role than I previously though. Interesting read.

Chávez doesn’t know what’s happening in Caracas or the rest of the country. They’ve already tried to execute him, but the men in the firing squad have refused and threatened to mutiny. Many of the soldiers who guard Chávez are ready to defend him and to prevent his assassination. Chávez tries to gain time with the bishop. He writes drafts of a statement. He fears that once he finishes the letter, [his captors] will arrange to eliminate him. He has no intention of resigning. He declares that they’ll have to kill him first. And that there will be no constitutional solution then.

A historical overview of the origins of May Day in the U.S. The eight hour day movement should serve as an example of organized labour fighting for concessions from capital that benefit everyone. Unions, socialists, activists and all workers have to increase militancy today in order to gain concessions lost in an era of neo-liberalism.

Labour unrest is starting to surge in the U.S. following 9/11. Workers are fighting back after employers have used agressive bargaining tactics in “unprecedented ways.”

“A Native American woman is at war with the US. For 30 years she’s been fighting to keep her ancestral land — and now the United Nations is on her side.”

At the Newmont annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday, which had to be moved from downtown Denver because of fear of protests, representatives of the Western Shoshone asked Newmont to promise not to seek privatization of Indian lands that are targets for mining.

The strike situation in Mexico is escalating. Police were sent in to break a picket line and the Mexican government is attempting to undermind the union in its negotiations. A bourgeois state always backs the employer.

World labour leaders converge on the Philipines to conduct a fact finding mission concerning the 71 murders and abductions that have happend recently.

In Saskatchewan the Miners’ union and management share responsibility for safety. The union’s involvement saved lives. Unfortunately miners in the U.S. and China wern’t so fortunate.