Tens of thousands of Mexican workers from a wide range of unions left work and took to the streets on April 28 to express their opposition to the labor policies of center-right president Vicente Fox Quesada and to demand the resignation of Labor Secretary Francisco Javier Salazar Saenz. A major focus was the death of two unionists in the government's attack on striking steelworkers in Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan on April 20. (See our last report, in which, following our source, we incorrectly identified a steel plant in Lazaro Cardenas as "Metal Steel"; the plant belongs to Mittal Steel Lazaro Cardenas, a subsidiary of the huge Mittal Steel multinational.)

In Mexico City, what was intended as a one-hour general strike at noon ended up snarling traffic until past 4 PM. Different unions affiliated with the independent National Workers Union (UNT) held simultaneous rallies at the Labor Secretariat offices, at the offices of the Luz y Fuerza electric company and at other locations around the city. Workers in the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Campesinos (CROC), an old-line union affiliated with the once-ruling centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), struck at the city's most luxurious hotels and restaurants, while about 400 garment workers affiliated with the CROC walked out in the Tlalpan section of the city. The CROC reported that workers honored the strike at textile, manufacturing and assembly plants in the states of Tlaxcala, Puebla, Mexico, Queretaro and Hidalgo.

From El Universal, April 16, via Chiapas95:

The special prosecutor's office set up by President Fox to investigate the violent campaign against leftists more than a generation ago failed to file its report on the case Saturday, the day it was due. The Attorney General's Office (PGR), to which the Special Prosecutor's Office for Past Social and Political Movements (FEMSPP) answers, said Saturday that the report "will be delayed."

Subcommander Marcos of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), speaking in Mexico City's historic Tlatelolco Plaza May 3, stated that the Zapatistas are officially going on "red alert" in response to violence in San Salvador Atenco, a village in the state of Mexico which has declared as a Zapatista-style "autonomous municipality." (Notimex, May 3) Later that night, six of 14 state and federal police officers detained by Atenco's rebel authorities, the Frente de Pueblos Unidos en Defensa de la Tierra, were released. News reports said they had been severely beaten. (APRO, May 4)

From Venezuelanalysis, May 2:

Venezuelans celebrated International Worker’s Day yesterday with two large marches that wound through the streets of Caracas. One in support of the Chavez-led “Bolivarian Revolution,

A "hoax"? What the hell is that supposed to mean? If the leaflet was produced by one or two lone wackos instead of an organization, so much the better. But it was assuredly produced by real racists. From CBC News, May 4:

A pamphlet that called on people in Caledonia to discuss a "final solution" to the "Indian problem" is a hoax, says the Ontario Provincial Police.

The pamphlet was handed out as some people who live in and around the southern Ontario town held a rally and march against an aboriginal occupation, which has halted construction on a housing development nearby.

It seems Mehlman and the AJC have not heard the message from more moderate elements of the Israel lobby, or from right-wing pollster Frank Luntz. The following May 3 AP article ran in the Jerusalem Post:

'Iran nukes threaten Jewish people'
The head of the US Republican Party said Tuesday that Iran's nuclear program threatens Israel, the Jewish people and the United States, and "we must confront an evil ideology head on."

Sarah Ferguson writes for the Village Voice, May 2:

A Day Without White People
On May Day, the masses rose up in New York. But where were the white peaceniks?
A bit of revolution hit the streets on May Day in New York. Folks will debate the size of the crowd that jammed Union Square and beyond yesterday afternoon. People filled sidewalks along side streets, searching for a way into the rally. By 3 p.m. the park was full; by 5 it was bursting--so much so that police pulled back the metal barricades blocking 14th Street and let the throngs spill down Broadway an hour before the rally inside the park was supposed to end.

Just as the PUK shows signs of losing control of its stronghold in northern Iraq, it launches attacks across the border in Iran—with doubtless US (and likely Israeli) assistance and direction. Iran, of course, replies by bombing Kurdish civilians, which will only inflame things. Also note the role of the PKK in Iranian Kurdistan. This indicates that the PUK raids serve a dual purpose: not only to help destabilize Iran, but to steal the separatist thunder from the PKK-backed guerillas. From AP, May 2: