In Dhaka, Bangladesh, an angry May Day march descended on the city center with drums, red flags, and chants of "Hang the killers, Hang the Factory Owners!" In Jakarta, Indonesia, some of the tens of thousands of marchers were dressed as ants—complete with bright red outfits and antennae—to depict the exploitation of workers. In Hong Kong, the ranks of marchers were swollen past 10,000 by striking dockworkers and their supporters. In Greece, transport came to a halt as thousands of public-sector workers walked off the job in a one-day strike. May Day protests in downtown Seattle turned violent, with police using pepper spray to disperse anarchists who pelted them with rocks, bottles, metal pipes, fireworks and a skateboard. (CSM, CNN, AFP, SCMP, May 1)

Police clashed with protesters in Cairo Jan. 24, eve of the the second anniversary of the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak. Demonstraors calling for the fall of  President Mohamed Morsi tried to dismantle a concrete security barrier that blocked a street leading to Tahrir Square, focal point of protest movement that broke out on Jan. 25, 2010 and led to Mubarak's resignation 18 days later. The walls were erected last year to protect government buildings in the area. The National Salvation Front opposition bloc has called for rallies "in all the Tahrir Squares of the country." (Middle East Online, Jan. 24)

World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg will be leading a weekly walking tour highlighting struggles for urban space on New York's Lower East Side over the past generation—including the squats, community centers, community gardens and Tompkins Square Park.  In addition to Tompkins Square, a focal point of popular resistance in the neighborhood since the 1850s, the tour takes in La Plaza Cultural and other community gardens, site of the evicted Charas/El Bohio community center, the former Christadora Settlement House, the historic Saint Brigid's Church (recently saved from destruction by a community acitivst campaign), the Lower East Side Ecology Center, and the former site of the Esperanza Garden, destroyed by city bulldozers in 2000. The one-hour tour leaves from the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) in C-Squat, 155 Ave. C between 9th and 10th Streets, every Sunday at 3 PM.

On the evening of Dec. 27, authorities in Mexico's Federal District (DF, Mexico City) released 13 men and one woman who had been in detention since Dec. 1 on charges of "attacks on the public peace" during protests that day against the inauguration of President Enrique Peña Nieto. A total of 106 were arrested during the demonstrations, in which masked youths caused considerable property damage; 92 of the detainees were released within eight days, after human rights organizations and the DF's own Human Rights Commission (CDHDF) presented evidence that many were clearly not involved in the destruction.

A wave of store lootings, the first in Argentina since 2001, started on Dec. 20 when people with covered faces broke into six supermarkets in San Carlos de Bariloche, in the southwestern province of Río Negro. At the request of local authorities, the center-left government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sent 400 members of the Gendarmería militarized police to the city, which is best known as an Andean ski resort popular during the Southern Hemisphere's winter. The national government blamed small criminal gangs, while local authorities said anarchist groups were responsible.

Noam Chomksy is held in such God-like reverence by the leftoid legions we get a kick out of calling him out on the things he gets egregiously wrong. Now he has just visited the Gaza Strip, and his screed about it on In These Times, "Gaza, The World's Largest Open-Air Prison," is of course getting gobs of attention. And it would serve as a basic primer on Israel's official choking of Gaza—if it weren't for some sloppy corner-cutting where the facts are concerned. Chomsky sets the background for the discussion in his usual terms:

We recently noted the frightening rise of the neo-fascist "Golden Dawn" party in Greece, which actually now holds a parliamentary bloc despite the fact that its leaders (including sitting MPs!) are accused of violent attacks on immigrants. On Sept. 22, Digital Journal reported that these sinister creeps were making an effort to organize the Greek diaspora, launching local chapters in Melbourne, Australia, and in Astoria—the Greek neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. They launched a New York website (now seemingly disabled) that spouted the predictable populist pabulum, e.g.: "Our goals are to promote and support the Golden Dawn's nationalist ideals and vision for Greece among the Greek diaspora. We must resist and overcome the genocidal multi-culturalist, and anti-Hellenic agenda of the New World Order." And they organized an event to collect food and clothing to send back to Greece, ostensibly to aid families thrown out of work in the country's current econo-cataclysm. A photo from the event is online at the website Fuck Yeah Anarchist Banners, with a caption helpfully informing us: "This is NOT an anarchist banner. This is a fascist banner, being hung by organizers from the Golden Dawn neo-fascist party. They are violent, antisocial racists. It is being hung at the Stathakion Cultural Center."

Venezuela's populist President Hugo Chávez of the United Venezuelan Socialist Party (PSUV) was re-elected by 54.42% of the vote, with 90% of the ballots counted as results of the hard-fought race came in the night of Oct. 7. Young opposition candidate Henrique Capriles of the Primero Justicia coalition had 44.97%. Over 80% of Venezuela's 19,119,809 registered voters participated in the election. As the results were announced, Chávez supporters poured into the streets, with a massive and spontaneous party breaking out in front of the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. (VenezuelAnalysis, Reuters, AVN, Aporrea, Oct. 8)