Daily Report
Solidarity with Iranian transit workers
From the UK's Iraq Union Solidarity, March 17:
Support the Tehran busworkers!
Since April 2005, Tehran busworkers have combatted mass jailings and sackings to insist on their right to form a union and claim unpaid wages. Most recently, bus workers protesting the laying off of hundreds of their colleagues for taking part in a strike on 28th January were handed a list of 46 confirmed dismissals. The list includes five members of the union's executive who are still in prison.
Wisconsin towns launch anti-war referendums
From Madison's Capital Times, March 18:
Wisconsin will blaze a trail in April when, for the first time, voters will go to the polls as part of a statewide effort to pass referendums opposed to the war in Iraq.
NYC: arrests at Iraq war protest
Sarah Ferguson writes for the Village Voice, March 19:
Seventeen demonstrators were arrested Sunday for blocking traffic as part of a funeral procession intended to transform Times Square into a "Zone of Mourning" on the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Repression follows Zapatista tour
The Zapatista "Other Campaign" continues to advance across central Mexico, drawing attention to local struggles. In Guanajuato, Subcommaner Marcos was denied entry to the state prison, the Social Rehabiliation Center (CERESO), where he sought to visit political prisoners, on the grounds that he refused to remove his ski mask. In a press conference outside the prison, Marcos accused both Guanajuato governor Juan Carlos Romero Hicks and Mexican vice president Ramon Muñoz of ties to the ultra-right paramilitary network El Yunque. (La Jornada, March 14; Marcos statement, March 13)
Mexico: wildcat rocks mines
Tens of thousands of Mexican miners went on strike from March 1 to March 3 at 70 companies in at least eight states--Hidalgo, Coahuila, Guerrero, Chihuahua, Queretaro, Michoacan, Guanajuato and Mexico state--in a wildcat action protesting local conditions and government intervention in the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM).
Bolivia: three ex-presidents charged in foreign oil deals
From EFE, March 16:
Bolivia’s attorney general filed charges Thursday against three ex-presidents and eight former energy ministers for signing contracts with foreign petroleum firms that violated the laws of the Andean nation. The accusations are directed against Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, Jorge Quiroga and Carlos Mesa.
Deadly protests and sweeps in West Papua
Another escalation in the ongoing struggle in West Papua. From AP, March 20:
Calm returned to Papua Province yesterday after three days of tension following a deadly protest against a massive US-owned gold mine in the eastern Indonesian province.
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