Press release - May 13, 2009

Belgian city of Ghent first to introduce meatless days

Starting May 13, the Belgian city of Ghent, one of the 370 European climate cities, may very well become the first worldwide to officially promote a weekly meatless day.

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have taken to the streets on May Day to protest against their government's handling of the financial crisis.

* The following article was originally published on Jan. 30 2009 in El Mundo, a Caracas daily. Written by a member of the editorial collective of El Libertario www.nodo50.org/ellibertario , it calls attention to what we fear is a bloody attack against these original inhabitants of the western part of the country.

* In the difficult times being experienced by the Venezuelan labour movement, perhaps the most dramatic issue have been the criminal acts that kills tens of trade unionists to the passivity of the pseudo-revolutionary government and the silence of his admirers from outside the country. It speaks about it this text of El Libertario # 55, January-February 2009.

COMMOM PRESS RELEASE

16 October 2008

On 7-8 October 2008, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the United Nations marked the anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights which assures everyone’s entitlement ‘to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food’.

Sixty years after signing that declaration of good will, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is planning the celebration of ’World Food Day 2008’ set to ‘highlight the plight of 923 million undernourished people in the world’.

This is a two-part investigation into the situation of immigrant textile workers in Bacau and Sibiu, Romania, and their organizing efforts as well as the larger context of exploitation of low wage immigrant labor by Romanian companies.

In January 2007 the BBC reported on a strike involving 400 Chinese
female textile workers of the Wear Company in Bacau in Eastern Romania.
During the strike, Sorin Nicolescu, director of the firm, was physically
attacked during the strike by about 100 angry women. “Instead of
working, they threw themselves at me with forks and spoons. I called the
police and security. It’s just not acceptable to be attacked in my own
country, in my factory, by female workers, to whom I have made every
concession!” said Nicolescu in a statement to the press at the time.
After the strike, through which the workers aimed to impose higher wages
and better working conditions, significant numbers of women handed in
their notice and returned to China. (1)

Beset by the shortage of labour-power in Romania, Wear Company has again
hired labour-power from Asia, this time 500 contract-workers from
Bangladesh.
The following report is based on personal conversations with some workers.

We have to work like horses!"

Filipina Textile Workers in Sibiu, Romania

Mondostar in SibiuLike many other companies in the Romanian textile and construction sectors, textiles firm Mondostar has had to struggle with a persistent labour shortage for several years. Amongst the local workers hardly anyone is willing to work for the low wages paid in the textile industries. Since three months ago Mondostar has employed 95 women from the Philippines in order to counteract the shrinking supply of labour. Hoping for a good job in Europe, the workers from the Philippines borrowed money while still in their home country. They needed the money in order to be able to pay the high fees of the recruitment agency in Manila. The agency recruited them for Mondostar, signing a contract which entitled the workers to a basicwage of US-Dollar 400 and 100 per cent extra for overtime. In fact the women were never paid this wage. The following report is based on conversations with some of the Filipina workers.

Poland: Biggest ever miners’ underground occupation

Urgent solidarity action needed!

Paul Newberry, GPR (CWI Poland)

* With a lot of rhetoric and propaganda the Chavez administration has advanced different examples of co-management which, they claim, demonstrate their desire to transform Venezuela’s relations of production. A compañero from Europe visited us recently and got to know two of the most celebrated cases: Alcasa and Invepal. Here is the report he prepared for El Libertario # 51 about the actual working conditions in the country’s most “important” co-managed businesses.

A group of activists from the "8 de Marzo" collective squattered the old wedding hall "Milano". One week later, and one hour before starting a neigbourhood afternoon snack organized for the neighbours and local people as a part of the "presentation working days", the police sealed the building and started a pressure campaign trying to nip the project in the bud before it could grow.

Commit to boycott all Tiriac businesses to protest against the anual hunts organized at Balc!

Sign the petition and pass it on:
 http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/800795825

Let's make our voice heard and put a stop to these massacres!

World Fair Trade Day May 13, 2006 - Fair Trade Organisations NOW!

This year's theme will focus on the unique role of Fair Trade Organisations. Fair Trade Organisations range from producer groups and Fair Trade companies, to retailers. The Fair Trade network consists of producer and consumer cooperatives, shops, collectives, advocacy groups, unions, producer groups, family workshops, Fair Trade shops, Internet stores, catalogues companies, religious institutions, NGO's, regional networks, national networks and many more.

AtomStroyExport may use Tianwan-type reactors for Belene project

Russia's AtomStroyExport has proposed to install reactors of the VVER 466B type at Bulgarian nuclear power plant (NPP) at Belene, on the Danube.

World Watch Magazine - May/June 2006

In "Brave Nuclear World"—part one of a two-part series—contributor Karen Charman questions whether the latest effort to bring nuclear power back to life will be any more successful than the other five nuclear revivals that have been predicted since the industry first collapsed a quarter-century ago.

The world's largest contract manufacturer is Foxconn, a Taiwanese company that almost never makes the headlines. The company manufactures the iPod Nano for Apple, PlayStations for Sony, cellphones for Nokia, personal computers for HP and Acer. With a worldwide staff of 100,000, Foxconn bills itself both as Taiwan's largest privately owned enterprise and as the No. 1 exporter of goods from mainland China. In the new global ecology, it is a potent survivor. Watch the eight-minute corporate video [ http://www.foxconnchannel.com/video/Foxconn2004.wmv]: When the deeply baritoned announcer intones the word "globalization" near the end, his voice resounds with satisfaction.