A recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board allows employers to ban off-duty fraternizing among co-workers, severely weakening the rights of free association and speech, and violating basic standards of privacy for America's workers.

What has changed this year is that in some parts of a southern belt sweeping from the border with Burkina Faso to Chad, food prices are critically high, while the value of livestock has crashed. A 100 kg bag of millet, the staple grain, sold for around CFA 8,000 to 12,000 (US $16 to $24) last year but now costs more than CFA 22,000 ($44).

Today's election begins a cycle of power renovation in Venezuela, which will continue with the December national congressional elections and the 2006 presidential election.

Congressional Republicans are worried, and they should be. Under their leadership, say the polls, Congress' approval rating couldn't fall much lower. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats are viewed more and more has having an agenda that is closer to the interests of the majority of the people. While one may poke holes is this conclusion, all the numbers point to the possibility of an electoral shift in the 2006 election.

U.S. employers added 207,000 new jobs in July, while the national unemployment rate remained at 5.0 percent, the Labor Department reported on August 5. Yet for one group of workers in America, there is little to cheer about when it comes to being hired by employers.

George Bush threw a big bone to rightwing Christian fundamentalists this week when he told a press conference that the "theory" of "intelligent design" (something out there, most likely a supreme spirit, call him Tom, Dick, Jehovah or Allah, made the material universe) should be taught alongside the theory of evolution in schools.

Encourage the creation of a common platform for Venezuela’s youth and student movement by encouraging the participation of different social, student, political, indigenous, ecumenical and other organizations...Uphold the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), as a true alternative to imperialism’s neo-liberal model

PEACE, WAR AND IMPERIALISM
I. Peace, safety and a world free of nuclear weapons.II. Preventing and resolving conflicts.III. Military alliances and militarism.IV.International solidarity and the struggle against imperialism.V.Blockades, embargos and sanctions: crimes against humanity.VI.International cooperation at the regional level.

Norman Solomon's new book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death," opens with a disturbing prologue.  The U.S. media has refused to give serious coverage to the Downing Street Memos on the grounds that they are "old news."  In the initial pages of his book, and supplemented by the rest, Solomon makes a case that both outdoes and undoes that claim. 

As if reflecting the comparable divisive events now afflicting the U.S. labor movement, Hugo Moyano was officially installed on July 14 as the Secretary General of Argentina’s largest trade union conglomerate, the General Confederation of Workers (CGT)... Moyano now faces a double challenge in trying to internally unite the beleaguered CGT and to externally deal with a radically different labor market than his forebearers have known.

Either our hayseed of a president fails to appreciate the complexities at issue in Iraq or he simply hopes to keep the American public in the dark for as long as possible. While it's a close call, in light of this administration's abhorrence of truthfulness and openness, particularly regarding Iraq, the latter seems more likely.

The president of the National Coordinating Committee of the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, David Velasquez, said the International Broadcast Center (IBC) will ensure the event reaches the world.

U.S.-Latin American policy has been marked by erratic and often discontinuous relations with its southern neighbors, betraying an ambivalence toward the region that does not augur well for its future political development.

I wonder: in America today, has the word “progressive” become just a museum exhibit? Maybe. On a summer day in Manhattan, my wife, daughter, and I escape the intense heat of midday by walking the shaded paths of Central Park.

For the length of next year, the nearly 600,000 residents of Washington, D.C., will continue to pay federal income taxes and to send their kids to die in Iraq (thus far in greater proportion than any other area of the country), but will be deprived of any representation in either house of Congress.

The government of Colombia’s failed policy of demobilizing right-wing paramilitary groups is in fact strengthening their power without furthering a genuine peace, according to a report based on interviews with former paramilitaries, government officials, and "other insiders" published by Human Rights Watch earlier this week.

CAFTA is modeled on the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) that has destroyed communities, labor and environmental standards, and jobs for over a decade. CAFTA will bring more of the same. The agreement will only benefit the large transnational corporations, particularly those based in the U.S; it will undermine local laws, protections and regulations in the name of "free trade"; it will devastate small farmers and indigenous communities; it is a blow against national independence, sustainable development and self-sufficiency.

A new survey released last week shows that Americans are increasingly worried about the economy. The Consumer Confidence Index declined by three percent in July. Economists monitor the index closely because consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of all economic activity in America.

The death of Dr. John Garang de Mabior, longtime leader of the struggle for a just peace in southern Sudan, casts an ominous shadow over the prospects for sustaining the north/south peace agreement signed this past January in Nairobi. For the unfortunate truth is that there is no leader within Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) that has his qualities of leadership, realism, wide experience, and deep intelligence.

August 6 and 9, 2005 mark the 60th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. United for Peace and Justice urges you to join with thousands of people at four central U.S. nuclear weapons sites to call for an end to the development and production of nuclear warheads. There are also local activities planned in scores of cities around the nation.