Asia-Middle East
International Worker / Issue 05 Sunday 22 Jan 2006
PRESS COMMUNIQUÉKirkuk: Thousands of people demonstrate
AGAINST THE HIGH COST OF LIVING AND LACK OF FUEL
In the afternoon of the 1 st day of January 2006, thousands of people demonstrated in Kirkuk to protest the high cost of living and lack of electricity and fuel. The demonstrations started at Raheem-awa neighborhood and reached Almaas. In Ikhwan circle the demonstrators attacked two gas stations and burnt them. They also burnt down the administration of the Private Projects for Petroleum Products. Police and military forces then attacked the protesting masses… Read more
International Worker / Issue 05 Sunday 22 Jan 2006
Iraq: The yanquis in retreatT he parliamentary elections in Iraq form part of the “political process” the yanquis are setting up to prepare a “withdrawal”, that will be no such thing. Imperialism aims to maintain military bases in Iraq and to exercise undisputed air and navy power (the Iraqi (new army” lacks air and naval units capable of defending the borders; it is barely more than an army of occupation against its own people). The also aim to continue w… Read more
International Worker / Issue 04 Friday 16 Dec 2005
Amir Peretz: The Zionist Lula?T he election of Amir Peretz, the general secretary of the Histadrut (trade union confederation), as president of the Israeli Labor Party triggered a crisis of all the political system. It led to the withdrawal of the Labor Party from the "government of national unity" with Ariel Sharon, to the call for new elections at the beginning of 2006 and to the division of the Likud. Peretz in the Histadrut Amir Peretz split in 1996 from the Labor Party … Read more
International Worker / Issue 04 Friday 16 Dec 2005
Free Muhamad KanaaneAND ALL THE PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS
Muhamad Kanaane, Secretary General of the Palestinian movement Abna el-Balad (“Sons of the Land”), and his brother Husam, leader of the same movement, political prisoners of Zionism. We call for their immediate freedom. … Read more
International Worker / Issue 04 Friday 16 Dec 2005
Iraq: Referendum under OccupationA FARCE WITHIN A TRAGEDY
T he infamous “regime change” exported by the Armed Forces of U.S. /British imperialism and their ‘Coalition of the Willing’ war criminals develops as a historical nightmare, combining features both of a tragedy and of a farce. The October 2005 “referendum” for the “new Constitution” in Iraq is such a farce within a tragedy. An electoral process for the “founding document of democracy” has t… Read more
International Worker / Issue 03 Tuesday 2 Aug 2005
Death SquadsThe existence of “death squads” in Iraq can no longer be hidden. The so-called “police command units” are made up of members of the militias of the parties which form the government. They make their rounds through the cities and the neighborhoods on the hunt for “suspects” belonging to the resistance, who are later found murdered. Just in the last week two cases of mass murder at the hands of the death squads were reporte… Read more
International Worker / Issue 03 Tuesday 2 Aug 2005
Iraq: Imperialism organizes its “withdrawal”T wo years after the occupation of Baghdad, American imperialism has failed to reach the strategic objectives that led to the invasion. It has failed to “reshape” the map of the Middle East; on the contrary, it depends on the “goodwill” of Syria and Iran to stabilize Iraq’s frontiers. Behind the Zionist withdrawal from Gaza protrudes the American failure in Iraq. After two years of combat, the most powerful army in … Read more
International Worker / Issue 03 Tuesday 2 Aug 2005
The United States: a gendarme without recruitsFor four consecutive months, the US Army was unable to meet its minimum quota of new recruits. In spite of having reduced the minimum requirements for induction and having upscaled the economic benefits, recruits are still lacking. The reason is that there are not that many youth willing to enlist in order to get themselves killed in Iraq. This has led one analyst of military affairs ( The New York Times , 27 Jun) to point out that the “v… Read more
International Worker / Issue 03 Tuesday 2 Aug 2005
39,000 Iraqis assassinatedMore than 39,000 Iraqis have died as a direct consequence of combat or armed violence since the start of the US invasion in 2003. The estimation, made by the Swiss Institute of International Studies, provides figures considerably higher than those reported earlier: the Iraqi Body Count , based on press reports, for example, estimated that the number of Iraqis killed by violent means in the last two years is 28,000. The Swiss institutes's estimation is … Read more
International Worker / Issue 03 Tuesday 2 Aug 2005
Fallujah: The resistance returnsLast November, during the biggest urban military operation since the war in Vietnam, US troops destroyed the city of Fallujah with the declared objective of “wiping out resistance.” Thousands of civilians were assassinated by the indiscriminate bombing; tens of thousands were obliged to flee. The “marines” shouted victory in the middle of the ruins of the city and piles of dead bodies . Eight months later, in spite of a rea… Read more