Tens of thousands of students and their supporters marched in cities across Colombia on Nov. 3 in a continuing struggle against proposed changes to Law 30, the legislation that has governed higher education since 1992. More than 1.8 million students from 37 public universities and at least 17 private ones have carried out an open-ended strike since Oct. 11 to protest the changes, which they say will "reduce education to a commodity." They are also protesting Colombia's free trade agreement (FTA) with the US, which the US Congress approved on Oct. 12.

Oil prices rose Nov. 6 to $95 a barrel, a more than seven-week peak, on heightened concerns about Iran's nuclear program and rumors of impending Israeli military strikes on the Islamic Republic. The tensions come as the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report finding that Iran is capable of developing a nuclear weapon, although stopping short of saying it intends to do so. (Reuters, WP, Nov. 7) Days earlier, Israel successfully tested a long-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The Jericho 3 missile, fired from Palmahim air force base, was seen by tens of thousands of Israelis. Many called the emergency services and radio stations in panic, believing it was an incoming missile. Defense minister Ehud Barak said: "This is an impressive technological achievement and an important step in Israel's progress in the missile and space field." (Irish Times, Nov. 3)

Israel's public sector workers walked out for four hours Nov. 7, shutting down trains, buses, airports, banks, government ministries and municipalities. Traffic jams clogged Tel Aviv, and the city's stock exchange and Ben Gurion International Airport were closed. A general strike by the Histadrut Labor Union was limited to four hours by an order of the National Labor Court. The union is demanding that the government officially hire some 250,000 contract workers, who are denied representation and job security. (Haaretz, JTA, AFP, Nov. 7)

Occupy Boston activists "stormed" the Israeli consulate in Beantown Nov. 5 in protest of the Gaza blockade. The activists—chanting "Occupy Wall Street not Palestine"—were also protesting the interception of the Gaza-bound "Freedom Waves" flotilla by Israeli naval forces the day before. Israel says it has started deportation of 22 detained on the two-ship flotilla, including Greek crew members. The Electronic Intifada website provided a live map, which followed the ships' course after they departed the Turkish port of Fethiye on Nov. 2, indicating that the vessels were still in international waters when they were intercepted. The Israeli military also admitted that the interception happened in international water. (Tripoli Post, Nov. 7; YNet, Nov. 5)

Sandinista candidate and incumbent President Daniel Ortega was re-elected to lead Nicaragua Nov. 6. The United Nicaragua Triumphs Alliance headed by the Sandinista party (FSLN) won some 64% percent of the vote, followed by the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) candidate Fabio Gadea with 30%, and the Constitutional Liberal Party candidate Arnoldo Alemán with 6%. The US State Department expressed its "concern" with "reports" of "procedural irregularities and voter intimidation." A youth of 18 was shot in the leg in a clash between Sandinista and opposition supporters in Jalapa, Nuevo Segovia department. Local PLI supporters said soldiers fired on the crowd. Electoral violence was also reported from Totogalpa, Madriz department, where a truck belonging to a local cooperative had its windows smashed.

Retired military general Otto Pérez Molina emerged victorious from Nov. 6 run-off elections for the presidency of Guatemala, vowing a crackdown on crime and drug-related violence. Pérez Molina was elected despite being accused by rights campaigners of having overseen genocide when he commanded military forces at Nebaj, Quiche department, in 1982-3. Pérez Molina will take office the first week of January. The US embassy released a statement congratulating him.

The future of Colombia's FARC guerillas is in question following the death of leader "Alfonso Cano" at the hands of the Colombian army Nov. 4. Local media reports anticipate a power struggle between "Iván Márquez" and "Timochenko." Marquez, FARC's "foreign minister," is portrayed as more moderate than Timochenko, commander of the feared Bloque Magdalena Medio. Both leaders have the geographical disadvantage of being in the northeast of the country or even in Venezuela, far from the FARC's heartland in Colombia's south. Two other possible successors mentioned by analysts are "Pablo Catatumbo," commander of the Western Bloc, and "Joaquín Gómez," commander of the Southern Bloc. Gómez is said to control the FARC's drug trafficking operations in Nariño and Putumayo departments. Catatumbo, said to have been Cano's principal rival, runs the FARC's elite "special forces" that have been carrying out deadly attacks in Cauca and Nariño departments. (Colombia Reports, Nov. 5)

For the first time since the 1999 Seattle protests, a movement in the United States is in the vanguard of global resistance to capital. But this time, the stakes are much higher. Now, from Europe to the Arab world to South America to Manhattan and Oakland, the planet seems headed into a revolutionary situation. Occupy Wall Street, which has brought the struggle to the very nerve-center of world capitalism, has responsibilities on a world scale. There are some things that it is very important that we get right.