Key Points
Coca Eradication
read more
Human Rights
Drug Trafficking & Money Laundering
Key Points
HIV/AIDS in Africa: Time to Stop the Killing Fields
Use of Children as Soldiers
Key Points
Post-9/11 Economic Windfalls for Arms Manufacturers
Key Points
U.S.-Iraq: On the War Path
Key Points
An “Affirmative Measure” to Help Prevent the Commission of War Crimes by the Bush Administration
The Last Porto Alegre
ItÂs not Paris or Tokyo, Beijing or New York. Nor is it São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. Enthusiastic residents of Porto Alegre, Brazil will tell you that their modest city of 1.5 million people in the countryÂs deep South is Âthe last bastion of socialism and rock Ân roll. Indeed, stalls covered with black Iron Maiden t-shirts stand in the public markets, and the municipality long served as a stronghold of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the Brazilian Workers Party. But today Porto Alegre is best known around the globe, especially among those inclined to hold a critical opinion of capitalism, corporate power, and U.S. military aggression, as the original home of the World Social Forum.
Democracy’s Eclipse in Russia
As editorialists from across the United States and Western Europe have reiterated lately, Russian democracy is under assault. During a joint press conference following the recent summit meeting in Slovakia, President Bush outlined for President Putin the importance of Âa rule of law and protection of minorities, a free press, and a viable political opposition. BushÂs comments represented the culmination of months of growing U.S. dissatisfaction with the backsliding of democracy
in Russia, a dissatisfaction ostensibly based on three recent developments in Russia: the campaign against former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the progressive limitations on independent media, especially television, and the decision to abolish direct elections for RussiaÂs regional
governorships.
The Toxic Border
In early September 2002, the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras (CJM) put out a call to border activists, urging them to act quickly to salvage one of the few remaining complaints filed under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC)Âthe case of mistreated workers at Customtrim/Autotrim. Inside the cavernous San Diego Convention Center, the CJM had learned, the temporary Binational Working Group on Occupational Safety and Health was holding a secret discussion between U.S. and Mexican government officials, supposedly to find ways of protecting the safety and health of maquiladora workers.