contributions

by Stefania Milan
"We still believe in the welfare state. The challenge for us here today is to defend and promote public services," Dave Prentis from the British union UNISON said at a meeting on public services and the welfare state at the European Social Forum.
Union activists and associations are coming together to oppose a proposal presented in January 2004 by the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union (EU), on ’services in the internal market’.
The proposal (…)

A political crisis has escalated in French Polynesia, where at least 15,000 people have staged the Pacific territory’s biggest ever protest rally.
Supporters of the ousted pro-independence president, Oscar Temaru, demanded the dissolution of parliament and fresh elections.
They thronged the streets of the Tahitian capital Papeete on Saturday.
Mr Temaru, who was removed from office by a censure vote eight days ago, has accused France of interfering.
In May, Mr Temaru became the first (…)

On 6 May last, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution which,in effect, authorised a "pre-emptive" attack on Iran. The vote was 376/3. Undeterred by the accelerating disaster in Iraq, Republicans and Democrats, wrote one commentator, "once again joined hands to assert the responsibilities of American power."
The joining of hands across America’s illusory political divide has along history. The native Americans were slaughtered, the Philippines laid to waste and Cuba and much of (…)

Thousands of protesters, including the grieving parents of killed soldiers, have marched in London to demand the removal of British troops from Iraq.
Up to 100,000 people joined in the rally at Trafalgar Square, organisers the Stop The War Coalition said.
Police estimated about 20,000 people took part.
Rose Gentle, whose soldier son Gordon was killed in Iraq, said: "It’s time for Tony Blair to pull the troops out, innocent people are getting killed."
’Government to blame’
She (…)

U.S. General Vows to Review Protective Measures After Army Reservists Refuse Iraq Mission
BAGHDAD, Iraq Oct. 17, 2004 - The U.S. Army will study protective measures for supply vehicles and add steel plating to vehicles if necessary, a general said Sunday, after members of a Reserve unit refused to deliver supplies down a dangerous route in Iraq partly because they were concerned their vehicles were in poor shape.
Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers, commanding general of 13th Corps Support (…)

By Neela Banerjee and Ariel Hart The Army is investigating members of a Reserve unit in Iraq who refused to deliver a fuel shipment north of Baghdad under conditions they considered unsafe, the Pentagon and relatives of the soldiers said Friday. Several soldiers called it a "suicide mission," relatives said.
Some 18 members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company, based in Rock Hill, S.C., were detained at gunpoint for nearly two days after disobeying orders to drive trucks that they (…)

By Associated Press
Jeffrey Lucey was just an ordinary kid from small-town America. He grew up loving his parents, his high school sweetheart and backyard whiffle ball games in this quiet, picturesque community bordering the Quabbin Reservoir.
Even his decision to enlist in the Marine Reserves in 1999 was run-of-the-mill, uncluttered by the anxious sense of patriotism that inspired many others to join the military after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
``He just (…)

By Sam Hamod
This is a massacre, not a war in Iraq. The U.S. bombing Samarra, Fallujah, Baghdad and other cities, killing hundreds of civilians and calling them terrorists is like the massacres of the Native Americans during America’s push westward.
In this case, it has to do with America’s push eastward.
What is also troubling is that no major media outlet, no major politician—none are callig this what it is, an immoral, unmitigated killing of hundreds of Iraqi civilians every week. (…)

by Jane Stillwater
"Praise the Lord and pass the information!" Did you know that in the undecided states, only 26 electoral votes are up for grabs — while the red states supposedly have a lock on 228 votes.
Are we going to let George Bush get away with that? Having almost half of our nation living in heathen darkness, believing un-holy lies and practicing baby-killing? That’s just plain un-Christian!
Don’t send me to some swing state to persuade undecided voters. Send me to Alabama! (…)

Since September 11 Britain has been warned of the ’inevitability’ of catastrophic terrorist attack. But has the danger been exaggerated? A major new TV documentary claims that the perceived threat is a politically driven fantasy - and al-Qaida a dark illusion.
Andy Beckett reports
Since the attacks on the United States in September 2001, there have been more than a thousand references in British national newspapers, working out at almost one every single day, to the phrase "dirty bomb". (…)