Voting results released on Oct. 23 showed Puerto Rico's teachers rejecting by a 18,123-14,675 margin a bid by the Puerto Rican Teachers Union (SPM) to represent them. The "no" vote was vigorously promoted by the teachers' current union, the militant Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR), which the Labor Relations Commission excluded from running in the new election. The Puerto Rican government decertified the FMPR after it defied a law against strikes by public employees in late February with a militant 10-day job action over wages, classroom size and health issues.

On Oct. 21 residents of San Francisco de Macoris in the northeastern Dominican province of Duarte started what was planned as a two-day civic strike for improvements in health and education services; in street and road maintenance; and in infrastructure work. The area has been the scene of numerous protests for years over these and similar demands.

A statement from the General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI), Oct. 27:

In Basra Thousands of Workers Take to the Street Against the Government Anti-Workers Policy
In a coordination effort with the Labor Unifying Bureau, thousands of workers from various industrial sectors took to the streets of Basra on October 27, 2008 marching towards the municipal building where the officials offices to denounce the ministry of Finance decrees that resulted in massive cut backs in workers salaries.

The nearly 40,000 indigenous Colombians who marched on Cali in a two-week cross-country trek to meet with President Alvaro Uribe in a dialogue on land reform and human rights issues are preparing to return to their homes in Cauca department to the south, after being stood up by the president for a meeting scheduled over the weekend. Indigenous representatives arrived the morning of Oct. 26 at Cali's municipal building for the meeting, but kept waiting three hours they finally decided to leave.

This weekend, the Dalai Lama told his followers he has lost hope of reaching agreement with China on the future of his homeland. The future course of the Tibetan movement—including the possibility of an historic switch from demanding autonomy towards seeking full independence—will be the focus of a meeting next month of around 300 delegates representing the global Tibetan exile diaspora.

The US has plundered global wealth by exploiting the dollar's dominance, and the world urgently needs other currencies to take its place, a front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the Chinese Communist Party's People's Daily said Oct. 24. "The grim reality has led people, amidst the panic, to realize that the United States has used the US dollar's hegemony to plunder the world's wealth," said the commentator, Shi Jianxun, a professor at Shanghai's Tongji University.

Australia has ordered an investigation into claims that up to 20 Afghan asylum-seekers were killed by the Taliban after being forcibly returned to their country. A TV documentary reports that those who died were among 400 Afghan asylum-seekers denied entry to Australia by the outgoing John Howard administration. Their fate was examined by a research group, the Edmund Rice Centre, which says it has proof of nine deaths.

Mexican authorities say they have dealt a severe blow to the Tijuana Cartel with the arrest of Eduardo Arellano Félix, the last in a ruling clique of five brothers to be captured or killed by authorities in recent years. Arellano opened fire on soldiers and federal agents Oct. 25 as they raided a home in the upscale Tijuana suburb of Fraccionamiento Pedregal. After a shoot-out, Arellano—who had a $5 million US State Department price on his head—was subdued and flown to Mexico City. "He is pretty much the last major player of what was once the powerful Arellano Félix organization," said Eileen Zeidler of the San Diego DEA office. (San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 27)