contributions

Whereas: our ancestors fought tirelessly in this country for the right to organize unions and ensure that our government recognized this right because it is a cornerstone of democracy, and
Whereas: that because of unions and solidarity among working people we have been able to win basic human rights, including employer paid health care, social security and retirement benefits, safe working conditions, decent hours and wages, education for our children, social services for the (…)

An Israeli missile strike killed Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi on Saturday, hospital officials said. Rantisi’s son Mohammed and a bodyguard were also killed in the attack on the Hamas chief’s car, hospital officials said.
The militant Hamas leader was one of Israel’s top targets after it had assassinated Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin in an airstrike last month.
Rantisi’s car was hit with missiles Saturday evening on the road outside his home, leaving only the burned, destroyed (…)

Israel assassinated top Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi in a missile strike on Saturday, dealing another major blow to the militant group before a planned U.S.-backed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians surged onto Gaza’s streets, vowing to avenge the foremost figure in a group that has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings. Israel said it had killed a "mastermind of terrorism."
The helicopter attack was especially devastating for Hamas, which (…)

Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi was killed in an Israeli helicopter missile strike
on his car Saturday evening.
Rantisi was the newly-appointed head of the militant group in Gaza, following
the assassination of Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in
a similar Israeli strike last month. Two other people were killed in the strike.
Palestinians ran into the street following the strike and called for revenge.
Israel had previously tried to kill Rantisi in a (…)

THE RADICAL: Why do editors keep throwing "The Boondocks" off the funnies page?
by BEN McGRATH
The New Yorker
Issue of 2004-04-19 and 26 \ Posted 2004-04-12
On the day of Saddam Hussein’s capture, last December, the left-leaning political weekly The Nation celebrated its hundred-and-thirty-eighth birthday. It was a Sunday night, and the weather was dreadful—forbiddingly cold and wet, heavy snow giving way to sleet—but three hundred people could not be deterred from dropping five (…)

Mbeki’s ANC heads for crushing victory despite growing discontent over poverty
By Declan Walsh in Johannesburg
The Independent (UK)
The African National Congress was heading for a crushing victory last night in South Africa’s third election since the end of apartheid 10 years ago. With 62 per cent of polling stations declared, President Thabo Mbeki’s party had 70 per cent support, seven points more than the liberation hero Nelson Mandela scored in the 1994 election.
Tony Leon’s (…)

Friends all over the world,
Thank you very much for your support. I have just received the news that
our
three friends are released in Baghdad. They have been detained by
resistance
fighters from last Thursday in Iraq.
I believe that we, Japanese peace activists, must continue our fight
against
US occupation.
First of all we must demand to stop the massacre in Falluja. And also we
must demand Japanese government to pull back troops immediately from Iraq.
As you know, (…)

I am Asako KAGEYAMA, a NGO staff in Hokkaido Japan, who wrote a letter to ask you help the three Japanese citizens who captured in Iraq.
Tonight, I heard the news that they have released, I saw them on TV in good health.Thank you very very very very very much for everything you have done for them and us.
Since I wrote the letter, I have got many responces from many places of the world, that are big encourragement to us all. From time to time, groups of the people associated to WSF and no (…)

Arab television station Al-Jazeera on Thursday showed footage of the trio
The three appeared unharmed. Nahoko Takato, a 34-year-old aid worker who worked
with street children in Iraq, cried into her hands. Noriaki Imai, who went to
Iraq to raise awareness about the effects of depleted uranium munitions, shook
hands with a committee member. The third hostage, 32-year-old photojournalist
Soichiro Koriyama, also was shown.
They were released in good health to the Muslim Clerics (…)

New GMO food labelling laws come into force
Brussels, 15 April. New food labelling laws giving consumers better information about ingredients originating from genetically modified (GM) crops come into force on the 18th April 2004 in Europe. The legislation has been welcomed by Friends of the Earth Europe, who have called on countries throughout the world to implement similar labelling laws to give consumers the right to decide whether to eat GM foods.
The new European laws were (…)