Dear Readers:

We hate to admit that WW4 REPORT is facing an existential crisis, but circumstances have forced this conclusion. We depend on the success of our twice-yearly fundraising efforts to keep publishing, and $1,000 is about the minimum that constitutes success. Thus far, we have been able to meet that goal in pervious fund drives. However, since we published our fund appeal at the beginning of July, we have received only seven donations, totalling $175.

Marking their completion of 10 ten years in prison, the two accused Zapatista collaborators being held at the state prison in Tacotalpa, Tabasco, began an indefinite hunger strike July 10 to demand their liberation. The prisoners, Angel Concepcion Perez Vazquez and Francisco Perez Gutierrez, say they are also demanding the release of the peasant protesters detained in May at the village of San Salvador Atenco in Mexico state, and all political prisoners in the nation of Mexico. A group of Chol Maya campesinos have also launched a permanent vigil outside the prison in support of the prisoners. Release of the Zapatista political prisoners is a key demand of the Zapatista National Liberation Army. (La Jornada, July 11)

Tibet's historic isolation is about to be radically broken, both by a new Lhasa-Beijing rail link (the world's highest), and the opening of a new border crossing into India through Sikkim. Tibetan nationalist leader (and Dalai Lama nephew) Khedroob Thondup portrays the rail line as an artery for Tibet's militarization, making the Himalayan realm a possible staging ground for a Chinese invasion of India. From Reuters, July 5:

A nephew of the Dalai Lama has likened a new railway linking China and Tibet to a second invasion of his homeland that will make its people "an endangered race".

The Israeli peace group Gush Shalom placed the following paid statement in Haaretz and the International Herald Tribune on July 7:

The march of folly
The offensive on land, from the sea and from the air does not put an end to the launching of Qassam rockets. It is leading to their increase.

From the Iraq Freedom Congress, July 1:

An Appeal to Libertarian Forces in the World
Support the Oil Workers Strike for a Secure, Prosperous and Free Iraq

The IFC Executive Bureau decided in an emergency session following the July 1, 2006, meeting of IFC and southern oil workers’ trade union leaders (who hold positions on the IFC Central Council) to provide full support to the oil workers’ strike. The oil workers will strike for the following demands:

From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 3:

Nicaraguan presidential candidate Herty Lewites died late Sunday of an apparent heart attack. The son of a Jewish migrant, Lewites, 66, was the country's best-known citizen of Jewish descent.

A taped message purported to be from fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar was broadcast on Geo TV, a commercial station in Pakistan June 25. The voice on the tape issued a challenge to the Afghan government and foreign troops fighting insurgents in the country, saying "They cannot solve the issue of Afghanistan based on their wisdom and thinking." Afghanistan is a Muslim country where believers are in a majority and outsiders will never be able to impose their ideology, the statement said. "The rulers of Kabul will not be able to run the country with the wisdom of others, and God willing they will be destroyed," the tape said. Taunting President Hamid Karzai, the voice said: "If today the American military abandons you, you have no standing. Russia's military also came to Afghanistan — remember its fate." (NYT, June 26)

Italy down. Spain down. Now Japan. From AP, June 20:

TOKYO -- Japan ordered the withdrawal of its ground troops from Iraq on Tuesday, declaring the humanitarian mission a success and ending a groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits of its pacifist postwar constitution.