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> Mon., Oct. 13, 2003
FSRN
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Today's lead stories:
Over Two Thousand Palestinians Now Homeless
Gearing up for the FTAA - Activists meet in Uruguay
Milwaukee: Protesting Right Wing Foundation
FSRN Exclusive: Indian Tea Workers Speak Out
Indigenous People: Transform Columbus Day
FSRN Headlines by Nell Ahbram
Bush Opens Public Lands To Mining Interests -- Mitch Jesserich
With another late Friday afternoon announcement, the Bush
administration angers environmentalists with its ruling to
allow mining companies to dump more toxic waste. Mitch Jeserich
is in Washington.
Ghettopoly -- Ama Buadi
The controversial game Ghettopoly sparked protests throughout
the nation and even toy giant, Hasbro, is hot under the collar.
Ama Buadi files this report.
Swiss Peace Accord -- Oula Farawati
Leading Israeli opposition figures and former Palestinian
ministers have drawn up an unofficial draft peace treaty to
replace the dying US backed Road Map for Middle East Peace.
Oula Farawati reports Aman Jordan.
Grocery Workers Strike -- John Hamilton
Seventy thousand unionized supermarket workers in Southern
California hit picket lines following a breakdown in contract
talks. Managers at three major grocery chains want employees
to accept a freeze on wages, higher health care rates, and
a two-tier wage structure that would see newly hired workers
earn far less than their senior counterparts. John Hamilton
has more.
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Over Two Thousand Palestinians Now Homeless
The Palestinian Emergency Government held its first meeting
today- appointing new cabinet members including a senior official
from the Fatah party to act as Interior Minister. It also
seems likely that this emergency government will extend beyond
its mandated 30 day period. Even so, according to the Israeli
daily Haaretz, the newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister
Ahmed Qurei- sworn in only days ago by Yasser Arafat-- says
he will not serve after the 30 day period. The Palestinian
political appointments took place as the Israeli military
launched another raid on the Occupied West Bank city of Jenin-
during which the Israeli Military rounded up at least 15 Palestinians.
Jenin has been under continuous Israeli military curfew for
the past nine days. However, the Israeli military lockdown
and round-ups in Jenin pale in comparison to the events in
the southern Gaza Strip over the weekend during which Haaretz
reports that approximately 2000 Palestinians were left homeless
after the IDF bulldozed hundreds of houses on the Egyptian
border. Mohammed Ghalayini reports from Rafah.
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Gearing up for the FTAA - Activists meet in Uruguay
This weekend in Montevideo, participants of the Uruguay
Social Forum discussed what they called the increasing threat
of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) on the southern
countries, and how to organize against it. In the face of
the next round of negotiations of the FTAA in Miami next month,
the southern cone is seeking economic sovereignty. The South
American economic block countries are also experiencing changes
- last week ex -argentine President Eduardo Duhalde was appointed
to lead Mercosur starting December. The alliance was created
in 1991 to strengthen integration between Paraguay, Uruguay,
Brazil and Argentina. Pauline Bartolone, Evan Henshaw Plathe
and Agustin Fernandes have this report from Montevideo, the
capital of Mercosur.
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Milwaukee: Protesting Right Wing Foundation
In Milwaukee this weekend, campus and community activists
protested an unusual target - a private foundation. Critics
of the Bradley Foundation say it is the wealthiest and most
influential right wing foundation in the US and trace a variety
of conservative domestic and foreign policies back to its
coffers. Diane Farsetta from Pacifica Affiliate WORT in Madison
has more.
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FSRN Exclusive: Indian Tea Workers Speak Out
The tea industry in India is facing the biggest ever crisis
since the country switched over to the new economic policies
of what some describe as rabid globalization, a change from
India’s previous path of a crude form of socialism.
Falling tea prices, factory lockouts and retrenchment of workers
over the past months has led to tragic starvation deaths of
workers and workers retaliating by taking up arms. In one
incident last week in North East India, as workers protested
for improved working conditions and back-pay, the police opened
fire and 7 workers were killed. In another incident, workers
beat and killed a tea estate manager. This as many tea estates
in Nepal, Sri Lanka and India have been locking out or retrenching
workers en masse. Our correspondent Vinod K. Jose traveled
through the workers slums in the tea plantations of Southern
India and reports, in this FSRN exclusive that tea workers
complain their tea estate owners have shut their doors to
save money while grabbing government subsidies given to struggling
plantations.
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Indigenous People: Transform Columbus Day
As the country today marks Columbus day, indigenous peoples
around the nation are using the holiday to build awareness
of their struggles. Genocide, rape, pillage, colonization
and slavery are some of the charges which indigenous peoples
throughout he Americas say Christopher Columbus is responsible
for. And today, resistance and ultural survival are the basis
for this year’s “Transform Columbus Day”
ceremonies, attended by more than 2000 people on two consecutive
days in Denver, Colorado. Tim Russo and Luz Ruiz bring us
this report from the traditional Cheyenne Arapahoe territories.
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