On Nov. 16 the largest US labor federation, the AFL-CIO, presented its 2011 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award to Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, general secretary of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers and the Like of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM). AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and United Steelworkers (USW) president Leo Gerard made the presentation at ceremony in the federation's Washington, DC headquarters; Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) and Rep. Mike Machaud (D-ME) also attended. The two US labor leaders both have links to the Mexican miners' union: Trumka is the former head of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), and Gerard and the USW have been working closely with the SNTMMSRM, which represents steelworkers as well as miners.

Haitian activists have started an international campaign to force Port-au-Prince apparel assembly plants to rehire six union members who were dismissed in the last week of September, allegedly for their union activities. As part of the campaign, Yannick Etienne, an organizer with the Haitian leftist group Batay Ouvriye ("Workers' Struggle"), was in Montreal on Nov. 14 meeting with local labor rights activists and with media to put pressure on Gildan Activewear Inc., a Montreal-based apparel firm that has garments stitched at one of the Haitian plants.

Students began returning to classes in Colombia's public universities on Nov. 17, a day after the government of right-wing president Juan Manuel Santos formally withdrew a proposed law that the students considered an effort to privatize higher education. The Broad National Student Panel (MANE), the coordinating group for the student movement, quickly responded by announcing the suspension of a month-old strike that had shut down the country's public universities and many of the private schools, although the group said students at some universities may stay on strike over local issues.

Kuwait's emir, Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, has ordered authorities to tighten security in the Persian Gulf mini-state after the parliament building was stormed by dozens of protesters on Nov. 16, as hundreds more demonstrated outside. Hundreds, including opposition lawmakers, have been protesting weekly outside parliament, demanding an investigation into corruption charges. "The Kuwaiti constitution can no longer accommodate the movement on the street," said Islamist lawmaker Jamaan al-Harbash, calling for an end to Kuwait's ban on political parties. "There must be a system of political parties in Kuwait so that it becomes a democracy that fosters state institutions rather than a clannish, tribal state. At a time when other Arab states are progressing, there is a dangerous regression taking place in Kuwait."

Up to 20,000 people remain in Cairo's Tahrir Square, with thousands more in surrounding streets, despite ongoing efforts by security forces to remove them in a third consecutive day of protests Nov. 21. "The people want the fall of the marshal," demonstrators chanted, referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi—Mubarak's defense minister for two decades and now head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). Egypt's military-appointed interim prime minister Essam Sharaf and his cabinet offered to resign in a bid to defuse the protests, but the SCAF has not indicated it will accept the resignations. Over 20 have now been killed and more than 1,500 wounded in the three days of street fighting. Doctors at a field clinic near Tahrir Square reported seeing as many as 10 bodies killed by live ammunition, an escalation from the tear gas and rubber bullets the security forces have previously used. Leaders across the spectrum—secularists and Islamists alike—have endorsed a call for a "million man march" on the 22nd to demand a new civilian government.

The new leader of Colombia's FARC guerillas, Rodrigo Londoño AKA "Timochenko," issued a harsh criticism against Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos Nov. 19, in his first official communique since taking over the FARC leadership. "To hold power and to present yourself as threatening and brutal... this cannot win the sympathy of anyone... [H]istory teaches us that the vast majority of human beings hate this kind of bravado," wrote Timochenko, in the communique titled "This is not how it is, Santos, this is not how it is." Timochenko went on to criticize the way that the country was celebrating the death of FARC's former leader, Alfonso Cano, saying it exposed "the macabre face of this beautiful democracy."

Hundreds of protesters against Egypt's military rulers remain camped in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a third day, retaking the plaza in clashes with security forces after being evicted in a police assault. At least 13 protesters were killed over the weekend, as security forces used tear gas, baton charges and live bullets. Demonstrators threw stones and petrol bombs at armored personnel carriers and troops. Officials say up to 900 have been injured, including at least 40 security personnel. Protesters pledge to remain in Tahrir Square until the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) cedes power. In the canal city of Suez, troops fired live rounds into the air to stop protesters from storming a central police station. Protests also broke out in the cities of Qena and Assiut, with 55 arrested nationwide.

A funeral procession in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar erupted into clashes between Israeli forces and locals on Nov. 20, after a man in an unmarked vehicle, initially identified as a Jewish settler, fired towards the group and Palestinian mourners responded by throwing stones. Israeli forces shortly arrived at the scene, and started firing tear gas at the Palestinians. Soldiers also stormed into two Palestinian houses, using the roof as a base to fire on Palestinians below. Troops threw a tear gas canister inside the truck of a local resident, who suffered injuries. Israeli forces also closed the road through the area and shut ordered shop-keppers to shut down their stores. An Israeli army spokesperson later told the independent Ma'an News Agency the man who fired on the procession was an army official traveling in a civilian vehicle paid for by the army. (WAFA, Ma'an News Agency, Nov. 20)