It was 6 a.m. on Nov. 16, 1989, when a
gardener named Obdulio Ramos saw that six Jesuit priests and his wife
and daughter had been gunned down by soldiers in El Salvador.
LOS ANGELES -
The UC regents are expected to put the final seal today on a hefty 32
percent tuition increase as students resume the protests that shut down
their board meeting three times Wednesday and required campus police in
riot gear to maintain calm.
Students, furious at the increase that will bring their yearly fees
above $10,000 for the first time, rushed the UCLA building where the
regents were meeting, throwing food, sticks and vinegar-soaked red
bandannas meant to look like blood.
The anti-sweatshop movement at dozens of American universities, from Georgetown to U.C.L.A., has had plenty of idealism and energy, but not many victories.
Until now.
The often raucous student movement announced on Tuesday that it had achieved its biggest victory by far. Its pressure tactics persuaded one of the nation's leading sportswear companies, Russell Athletic, to agree to rehire 1,200 workers in Honduras who lost their jobs when Russell closed their factory soon after the workers had unionized.
WASHINGTON - When student Hemnecher Amen joined a protest outside the White House recently, it was the latest visible opposition here to US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hardly anyone took notice.
"There's a lot of apathy and a growing disconnectedness to what's going on in world affairs," the frustrated Howard University junior told AFP as some 200 people, including a handful of students, gathered for the march.
"Students are more interested in trying to get a job and make money. That's essentially the bottom line."
Al Gore has sought to inject fresh momentum into the Copenhagen build-up, saying he is certain Barack Obama will attend and predicting a rise in civil disobedience against fossil-fuel polluters unless drastic action is taken over global warming.
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan - Angry Afghan villagers
protested Thursday against what they said was the killing of 11
civilians by foreign troops, but local authorities said only fighters
were killed.
The NATO-led force said it had fired a rocket from the ground at a
group it believed to be planting a roadside bomb in Babaji in Helmand
province. It said it was not aware of any civilians in the area and was
investigating the incident.
TEHRAN - Police clashed with supporters of Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran on Wednesday when a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. embassy turned violent.
Reformist website Mowjcamp said police opened fire on protesters at Haft-e Tir square, but there was no independent confirmation of the report. "Some people were injured," Mowjcamp said, reporting other protests in the cities of Shiraz and Rasht.
The occasional sign at an antiwar demonstration used to ask, "What if they had a war and nobody came?" Unfortunately, right now the question is more like "What do we do when they have an antiwar demonstration and nobody comes?" While I can't readily come up with a satisfying answer to that one, I thought it might at least be a useful first step to find out why they're not coming.
BREAKING NEWS: The Coalfield Uprising is spreading across the nation.
As millions of pounds of explosions rip across their mountain
communities, including the clean energy landmark of Coal River
Mountain, scores of residents from the Appalachian coalfields have
joined with supporters from across the country in a series of sit-ins,
die-ins, protests, and a haunting "Day of the Dead" funeral procession
and sit-in in the courtyard of the Washington, DC headquarters of the
Environmental Protection Agency.
At least three doctors will be risking arrest in civil disobedience actions during Mobilization for Healthcare for All's
third wave of actions this week, which are being held to demand an end
to insurance abuse and to demand real health care reform for all.
