Bill Weinberg

Duygu Asena, Turkish feminist writer, dies at 60

Note, of course, that her work was banned. From Middle East Times, July 31:

ANKARA -- Duygu Asena, a renowned Turkish journalist and writer who devoted much of her work to promoting women's rights, has died at the age of 60 after battling a brain tumor for the past two years, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Mexico: Lopez Obrador begins "permanent" protest

As hundreds of thousands or even millions of supporters marched and rallied in and around Mexico City's giant Zocalo plaza on July 30, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), presidential candidate of a center-left coalition in Mexico's July 2 elections, called for a "permanent assembly" until the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) orders a recount of the vote. He asked his supporters to set up encampments in the Zocalo and at 47 other points in the capital but to behave in an organized and peaceful manner. "Andres Manuel, hang in there; the people are rising up," the crowd chanted.

US judge orders Palestinian freed

On July 27, US District Court Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. of Los Angeles ordered the government to free Southern California Muslim community leader Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, a Palestinian who has spent two years detained on an immigration violation. Department of Justice lawyers responded to the judge's order by filing a last-minute motion on July 28, seeking an emergency stay and claiming that Hamdan is a danger to the public and that he might flee while his deportation case is pending in the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Hatter denied the request the same day, but it was unclear when Hamdan would actually be released from the Terminal Island detention center where he has been held since his arrest on July 28, 2004.

Jew-haters reap Lebanon windfall

The first one we've all heard about. From DPA, July 30:

Muslim charged in Jewsh center shooting
A Muslim man who allegedly killed a woman and wounded five others inside a Jewish community centre in Seattle, Washington, gained entry by holding a teenaged girl at gunpoint, police said Saturday.

Oaxaca: government offices blockaded

Rejecting a dialogue with Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the striking teachers and their supporters in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca occupied the streets around the state government buildings in the capital for a third day July 29, blocking the entrances. The state government has been forced to operate out of hotels on the outskirts of Oaxaca City. One of the hotels was also blockaded by some 70 members of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), the group coordinating the protests.

China: workers revolt at Mickey D's contract factory

The really amazing thing about China is that both the knee-jerk right-wingers who love to hate it and the idiot leftists who love to love it are both laboring under the illusion that it is Communist. The self-serving capitalist elite that run the country do so in the name of a "Communist Party." But nothing is less Marxist than to assume that this, or the elite's occassional bursts of anti-Western rhetoric, have anything to do with the fundamental economic structure—which is obviously, oppressively capitalist. This illusion is especially surreal in the face of growing, seemingly spontaneous and uncoordinated revolt by Chinese workers and peasants. The left in the West should be offering vigorous solidarity to the rebelling workers and peasants in China. Certainly not cheering on their oppressors. From Forbes via CorpWatch, July 27:

Somalia: Ethiopia-Eritrea proxy war?

From Reuters, July 29:

The United States sent its most explicit warning yet to Horn of Africa foes Eritrea and Ethiopia on Saturday to stay out of the escalating crisis in Somalia where they are believed to be backing rival sides.

Congo: genocide continues on election eve

Pushed from the headlines by multiple crises in the Middle East, genocidal warfare continues in Congo even on the even of elections. This July 28 New York Times op-ed piece by Aidan Hartley, a television journalist who witnessed a massacre of a village by UN "peacekeepers" earlier this year, is a rare exception to a general media blackout.

Congo’s Election, the U.N.’s Massacre

The Democratic Republic of the Congo will hold its first legitimate elections in four decades on Sunday. The United Nations peacekeeping mission there has played the role of electoral midwife, so if the vote is free and fair it will be among the global body’s greatest successes on the continent.

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