Solidarity 068, 3 March 2005

Rosalind Robson reviews “The Dirty Business” , 1 March, Channel 4 Andrew Gilligan’s investigation was part of a series of Channel 4 films about the US’s organisation and sponsorship of torture around the world. Officially both the US (and the UK) condemn the use of torture and human rights abuses. But it is fair weather opposition. What would Gordon Brown have said if any reporter had bothered to ask him whether, on his recent visit to China, he had given the government an ear-bashing about their abuse of human rights? He might have replied like this: “Well, er, as mindful as I am about those...

Zely Ariane is the secretary-general of the People’s Democratic Party (PRD), the only openly socialist party in Indonesia. The party played a central role in the movement to overthrow Suharto in 1998. It is the only party supporting the right of the Acehnese people to self-determination. Ariane spoke to Australian socialist paper Green Left Weekly about her recent visit to Aceh. I went back [to Aceh] as part of the mobilisation of members of SEGERA, the Aceh solidarity group, to help deal with the aftermath of the tsunami. We mostly sent Acehnese activists because of military repression. Of...

US hotel workers are locked in a bitter dispute that has now lasted more than six months. Fourteen San Francisco hotels are affected whilst others in Los Angeles are still at odds after year-long contract talks. Hotels affected in California include Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott and Four Seasons. Hotels have curbed financial fallout from strikes and lockouts by hiring temporary workers or bringing in replacements from non-union hotels. But as hotel ownership has become more concentrated, unions are now trying to organise nationally to break the fragmentation that has characterised previous...

By Mark Osborn A year after the fall of the populist, pseudo-radical government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, conditions for the workers and poor of Haiti are terrible and getting worse. Last year, in May, 2,000 people died as a result of floods that hit the south of the island state. In September another 3,000 died following a tropical storm that hit the north of Haiti. Fighting broke out in November 2004 as gangs, perhaps based on Aristide’s party, killed opponents in the capital, Port-au-Prince. In the last six months 250 people have died in political violence in the capital. Last weekend a...

The owners of the Hacienda Luisita in the Philippines will shut down its operations in March to thwart workers involved in a bitter dispute. The four-month dispute at the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT), the biggest sugar refinery in the Philippines, began in November when workers belonging to the CATLU union organised a strike following deadlock in the collective bargaining agreement talks. Employers sacked union leaders and threatened workers. CATLU received solidarity from another local union, the ULWU farm workers’ union. On 16 November, seven demonstrators were killed by bullets when an...

Fair Trade Fortnight, World Development Forums, Night of Action for Trade Justice and Eyewitness from Nicaragua. Read on for details. Fair Trade Fortnight Runs from 1–13 March. Events and meetings on campuses and in towns throughout the UK. Information and a diary of events on the Fair Trade web site . World Development Forums …in March include this meeting on 30 March, 7pm at St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London: “The Commission on Africa: agenda for change or wish list?” Speakers: Myles Wickstead, Head of the Secretariat of the Commission on Africa; Meghnad Desai, Professor of Development...

Thousands of public-sector workers attended rallies and lobbies on Friday 18 February to protest at government plans to downgrade public-sector pensions schemes. Friday 18 February was called by the TUC as a nationwide day of protest on pensions. Demonstrations, protests and rallies were held in: Cambridge: a demo in the town centre. Workers at Addenbrooke's Hospital held workplace meetings about the NHS Pensions Review. Camden: UNISON organised an open-topped double decker with a specially-made banner proclaiming “strike now to save our pensions”. Croydon: Pensioners Alliance groups, Croydon...

By Rachael Webb At the end of February representatives from international road transport workers’ unions met to fight an international low wage threat. The meeting included people from Belgium, Germany, Poland, Denmark, UK and Ireland, Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania. We met in Vilnius, Lithuania in order to plan a delegate meeting at Eastbourne T&G Centre on the 7 May. Before then there will be a series of local meetings between freight drivers to decide on our delegates and debate and discuss our strategy for fighting against the low wage threat. The Vilnius meeting agreed five points for...

By Colin Foster Members of the civil service union PCS, and local government members of the public services union Unison, are balloting for a strike on 23 March against the Government’s plans to cut their pensions. Their ballot results are due on 9 March, for Unison, and 11 March, for PCS. The college lecturers’ union NATFHE and the teachers’ union NUT are consulting members about a further strike on 14 April - since 23 March is in the school and college holidays - and some smaller unions are set to join both dates. Bit by bit, since the 1980s, both the state pension and private sector...

Falah Alwan , president of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions of Iraq, spoke to Solidarity when he visited Britain in February. The interpreter was Houzan Mahmoud. In the last two months there has been a huge wave of strikes: textile workers in Kut, power workers in Nasiriyah, aluminium products workers in Nasiriyah, chemical workers in Baghdad, leather workers in Baghdad, and agricultural workers. There were different reasons for different strikes. Many were a response to high fuel price rises. That led to a wave of strikes to raise wages. Others were in response to the threat of...