Workers' Liberty

Zimbabwe teachers plan strike; Botswana mineworkers seek reinstatement; migrant workers strike in Hong Kong.

Following the 1884 Berlin conference where the big powers carved up much of Africa and distributed the parts among themselves, the Spanish state claimed a protectorate over a large part of what is now known as the Western Sahara.

On 16 November Congolese “rebel” leader Laurent Nkunda — self-declared protector of the minority Tutsi population in Congo — agreed to a ceasefire with Joseph Kabila’s government. This ends weeks of fighting in eastern Congo between Nkunda’s group, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), and the central government army backed up by UN troops. 250,000 have fled their homes, to makeshift shelters and camps away from the fighting. They are now at risk of death from diseases such as cholera.

The December election was, by all accounts except the Kenyan government’s, rigged to ensure the “re-election” of president Mwai Kibaki. Since then Kenya has been plunged into ethnically-based violence.

From 5 to 7 September the first summer school of the PST [Socialist Workers’ Party of Algeria] took place in Algiers, with about 200 activists and sympathisers taking part, from 19 regions.

IRAN

On 9 April 2007, Iranian security forces detained Mahmoud Salehi, under the pretext that he must liaise with prosecutors over arrangements for a May Day demonstration.

by robin sivapalan

THE North London Workers’ Liberty forum “What next in Somalia after military intervention?” on 22 February was attended by about 70 people, including many Somalis living locally in Wembley.

By Sacha Ismail based on a longer article by Wondimu Mekonnen, former lecturer at Addis Abba University and Ethiopian Teachers’ Association

On 14 December, Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA) activist Ayalew was detained without a warrant by the Ethiopian government. Ayalew has reportedly been tortured and denied medical treatment while in police custody. His relatives and fellow ETA members are now extremely worried, as they have not known either his health condition nor his whereabouts since 18 December. Another activist, Mengistu, disappeared on 15 December.

By Cathy Nugent

At the end of last year the Islamist group which had been in control of much of Somalia since June 2006 — the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) — was driven out of the capital Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops, acting on behalf of the Somalia’s “official” government. The US probably gave the Ethiopian troops technical support.

I really wish I wasn't doing so many posts about George Galloway. But he keeps on saying/doing outrageous stuff - eg. on the veil, and on abortion - and until his footsoldiers notice that the Emperor has no clothes, I'll have to keep pointing out his nakedness.

The National Union of Students' Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual campaign has organised a demonstration to protest against the continued persecution of LGBT people in Uganda - assemble 4pm, Friday 22 September 2006 Ugandan High Commission, 58-59 Trafalgar Square, London WC2.

No deportations to Iraq!

The Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq held a successful and well-attended conference in London on Saturday 24 June, opened by John McDonnell MP.

By Chris Reynolds

In the Middle Ages, Ethiopia was not underdeveloped.

More: http://www.aliscnetwork.org/index.html

By samm farai monro

At the Southern African Social Forum (SASF) held in Harare Gardens between 13-15 October, 3000 radical souls came together to discuss their struggles.

By Ben Davies

Just one month after the leaders of the G8 countries, the world’s richest, gifted the world’s poorest nations a few more crumbs from their table, we see a gut-wrenching example of the true scale of world poverty and inequality — the famine in Niger.

Activists from the GMB and No Sweat protested outside the Eritrean Embassy in north London on 14 July in defence of three jailed Eritrean trade union leaders. Tewelde Ghebremedhin (chair of the Food Workers Federation), Minase Andezion (secretary of the textile workers' federation) and Habtom Weldemicael (leader of the Coca-Cola Workers Union) have been detained without trial or charges.

After their own fashion, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown do have a “third way”. Their friend Peter Mandelson, now European Union trade commissioner, explained it in the Independent on 4 July.

African partnerships

Paul Wolfowitz, the new head of the World Bank and prominent neo-con has given support to Blair and Brown’s idea of massive and increased aid to Africa. He pledged to persuade Bush of the necessity and justice of this plan. He also said that “there were real partners [in Africa] with whom the west could work.”

By Dale Street

The government’s professed concern for human rights and poverty in Africa stands in marked contrast to its treatment of refugees from Africa.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign (JDC) estimates that the total external debt of low-income countries is $523 billion (£260 billion). Debt is a huge problem.

How can hunger, poverty, and suffering through preventable or curable disease be ended?

By Paul Hampton

The voices of African workers have been missing from the recent media frenzy about Africa. Even on the left the general picture of Africans is of passive victims of disease and malnutrition in need of charity.

Gordon Brown says that the European countries should stop apologising for their role as colonial powers in past. Colin Foster explains why to “forgiving and forgetting” the past will stop us from understanding the problems African and other Third World countries face in a post-colonial present.

Sudan

The Nairobi peace agreements this January brought to an end — in theory, at least, 21 years of civil war in Sudan, which have killed at least 400,000 people and forced nearly five million to flee their homes.

AIDS

In Western Europe and North America, death rates for those with HIV/AIDS have been cut dramatically through the use of antiretroviral drug treatment. In poor countries where six million people with HIV/AIDS need treatment, only 400,000 - less than 8% - are receiving it. In Africa, home to 26 million HIV/AIDS victims, only 1% are receiving treatment. The UN was understating it hugely when it commented that "treatment and care are not yet reaching the vast majority of people in need" (December 2003).

By Paul Hampton

These notes are based on materials from the Jubilee Debt Campaign for a No Sweat meeting in London 14 July 2005 More info: Jubilee Debt Campaign.

From Eric Lee, Labourstart

We have received a report from Geneva regarding the arrests and detention without trial of three trade union leaders in Eritrea. You may remember Eritrea — it is sometimes in the news because of its ongoing conflict with Ethiopia (from which it won its independence several years ago). But what you may not know is that the country is a single-party state which brutally represses dissent.