Turkish activists who have been on hunger strike in protest at the treatment of political prisoners in Turkey聮s F-type isolation prisons have ended their 聯death fast聰, following the Turkish government聮s announcement that it would improve conditions in the jails. Prisoners will now be able to meet together in groups and have greater time to socialise and see visitors. Lawyer Behic Asci was taken to hospital for treatment after ending his fast, after 293 days without food. Since 1982, 122 protesters have lost their lives through the death fasts. Human rights groups, student organisations and unions joined demonstrations in recent months in support of the campaign. The Australian TAYAD (Solidarity with Political Prisoners) committee, in a January 26 statement welcoming the decision, said: 聯We will continue our struggle with all different means of resistance until isolation is removed totally.聰
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Last month, total US military casualties in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion exceeded 50,000 dead and wounded. By January 28, 3071 US soldiers had died in Iraq and at least 47,657 had been wounded, according to Pentagon figures.
Chanting 鈥渂ring our troops home鈥, anti-war protesters rallied in front of the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 27 to pressure President George Bush鈥檚 administration to end the war on Iraq, now only two months short of entering its fourth year.
A mixed message 聴 combining celebration and auto-critique 聴 came from the Nairobi World Social Forum, held from January 20-25 in a massive sports complex 10km from the city. The 60,000 registered participants heard triumphalist radical rhetoric and yet, too, witnessed persistent defeats for social justice causes, especially within the WSF聮s own processes.
More than 200,000 public service workers in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) held a nationwide strike on January 31, which is being followed by a two-week overtime ban. The February 1 Morning Star reported that 聯the action hit 200 government departments, halted important court cases and paralysed passport offices, benefit centres, and tax offices聰. In addition, the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff was forced to abandon proceedings, and in London the British Library, Tate Modern and Tate Britain were closed.
The Battle For Islam 聴 Looks at how in some Muslim countries, it is women who are leading the charge for change. SBS, Friday, February 9, 1.30pm.
Reuters reported on February 3 that at least 23 people had died in armed clashes between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza during the previous 24 hours. The deaths helped bury a short-lived ceasefire that had been declared by the groups <197> the two largest Palestinian political parties <197> on January 30. In the two months prior to the ceasefire, more than 60 Palestinians had been killed, half of them between January 25 and January 29.
Comrade Roberts: Recollections of a Trotskyite
By Kenneth Gee
Desert Pea Press, 2006
207 pages, $29.95 (pb)
By Kenneth Gee
Desert Pea Press, 2006
207 pages, $29.95 (pb)
At an extraordinary Ard Fheis (congress) of Sinn Fein held in Dublin on January 28, delegates voted overwhelmingly to endorse the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), long known for its discriminatory and violent practices towards the Irish republican movement and Northern Ireland Catholics. About 90% of the 982 delegates at the congress accepted the motion put forward by Sinn Fein聮s Ard Chomhairle (national executive), paving the way for a devolution of power to the Northern Ireland Assembly as outlined in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Prosecutors are calling Amber Abreu a murderer. But the 18-year-old is a victim of restrictions on access to abortion. Prosecutors recently charged Abreu, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, with 聯procuring a miscarriage聰 聴 a felony that can carry a penalty of seven years in prison. They say they are planning to file additional charges, including a possible homicide charge, against her.
聯As long as I聮m breathing, I will fight with the foreign troops who are coming to our country聰, said Abdiqadir Hassan Diriye, Associated Press reported on February 1. Hassan Diriye was one of hundreds of protesters in Mogadishu demonstrating in response to the African Union聮s announcement the day before that three battalions of AU 聯peacekeepers聰 would be deployed in Somalia.
A foretaste of US President George Bush鈥檚 plan to use 41,500 US troops to 鈥渟tabilise鈥 war-torn Baghdad came on January 24 when the US occupation forces conducted their second assault in a month on the city鈥檚 Haifa Street neighbourhood.
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