-> Jason Kenney is disrupted and confronted over two days in Montreal

-> Kenney intends to bring in Refugee Appeals Division to distract from previous and upcoming attacks on migrant rights

In the Philippines poor children die at three times the rate of the children of the rich, according to latest UN data. Under-five mortality rates are 66 child deaths to every 1000 live births amongst the poor, compared to 21 child deaths to every 1000 births amongst the rich.

Senator Manny Villar has a secret alliance with the Ampatuan clan, principal suspects in the brutal massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao province, and he has to explain how he intends to give justice to the Ampatuans’ victims, the Liberal Party demanded today.

* The following text, published in # 57 of El Libertario, Venezuela, condenses the vision of the theme of the author, who died in the middle of 2009, who thanks to the work developed in her Free School Paideia, in Mérida, Spain, was a contemporary exponent recognized for the practice and the theory of libertarian education.

John Chuckman

Hillary Clinton, in a just-published piece on the Afghanistan mission (see note at bottom), offers us nothing helpful or enlightening, only boiler-plate American slogans, the kind of stuff you’d hear from some provincial Congressman giving a Fourth of July speech in a place like Muncie, Indiana.

Indeed, her use of the question-begging word “mission” in the title to describe what has been the pointless conquest and occupation of a people signals the vacuity of the words that follow.

Source: www.onelawforall.org.uk

Several hundred joined a rally in London’s Hyde Park organised by One Law for All to show their opposition to Sharia and religious-based laws in Britain and elsewhere and to demand universal rights and secularism.

At the rally, over 20 speakers and performers exposed the discriminatory and brutal nature of religious laws.

The rally heard from people with direct experiences of Sharia law, including Iranian-born activist Sohaila Sharifi and Somali-born secularist Ismail Einashe.

We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree.

New issue of Le COUAC out on the news stands

Malalai Joya, elected by the people of Farah, and banned from parliament for denouncing criminals of war (though her democratic mandate was to last till the current elections), spoke to an audience of 300 at Conway Hall in central London (July 2009). She has survived five assassination attempts, had her passport taken away by Karzaï, and must constantly take various precautions in Afghanistan. We invite you to hear what a woman fighting for human rights and justice has to say...

The following is an official message from a grassroots movement in Israel named New Profile, which is part of a larger coalition of Israeli groups opposed to the occupation and repression of Palestinians and to the militarization of Israeli culture. Currently, the Israeli government is using methods that are becoming more and more repressive, which is why we feel it is important to share this with you. Below their summary of the situation, you will find links to related articles and a call to action.

Excerpts :

We would like to reiterate that police harassment of New Profile and the interrogation of eleven of our members are not isolated events. They are part of a virulent drive of state McCarthyism, a stepped-up systematic persecution of left-wing activists and voices. This drive arguably obviates the remnants of Israel's claim to democracy and parodies its ludicrous boast to representing a single democratic beacon in the Middle East. // Among human rights organizations in Israel, Adalah for instance is still preparing a report on the recent, sharp escalation in combined state and university repression of student activists and [...] will soon be publicizing their comprehensive report on state violence against activists, left-wing groups and individuals, as well as their international supporters.

For more than a week, Iran has been convulsed by mass demonstrations denouncing election fraud. Hundreds of thousands have repeatedly taken to the streets to denounce the government, which is now threatening, and beginning to carry out, a bloody crackdown. This time around, imperialist intervention is veiled: the White House feigns neutrality, the Western media go all out for the opposition, while in the background various agencies provide vital technical aid. In reality, all candidates in the presidential vote swear allegiance to the Islamic Republic, and the supposed moderate reformers are no less butchers and enemies of poor and working people than the conservative "populist" government. The situation cries out for revolutionary leadership independent of all factions of the theocracy, to wage a struggle for workers revolution against imperialism and clerical reaction.

Many Indian nationals had their marriages in India and domicile in the United States. They travel back to India for the purpose of obtaining divorce judgments according to the Hindu law. The issue of jurisdiction becomes important factor for the recognition of their foreign divorce judgments in the United States. This article analyzes this issue.

* Remembering the Stonewall Rebellion (The Stonewall Inn, a gay and lesbian neighborhood bar with a large number of African American and Latino patrons, was also well-known as a safe space for those who did not conform to gender norms...)
* Socialists Protest NYC Library Cuts
* A Socialist Speaks: An Interview with David McReynolds
* Peruvian Strike Backs Indigenous Protests
* The "Colombianization" of Chihuahua
* Celebrating Howlin' Wolf and Les Paul

http://socialistwebzine.blogspot.com/

On March 17th, two American journalists - Euna Lee and Laura Ling - were taken into custody by the North Korean military. The two women were reporting on the trafficking of women along the border with China.
The women were charged with "hostile acts" and illegally entering the country, then sentenced to 12 years of "reform through hard labor."

:: included here: quick links to know more, video, and cyberactions !

The International Queer Solidarity Network calls for a European mobilization, with support from the United States, that will stand in solidarity with Queer Bulgaria