Gildan Orders Haitian Subcontractor to Reinstate Union Workers

By Alison MacGregor, Montreal Gazette. Gildan Activewear Inc., a Montreal-based apparel firm, has ordered its Haitian subcontractor, the Genesis S.A. factory owned by Haiti’s Apaid family, to reinstate four workers illegally fired in September for forming a new union.

Continue reading →

Sweatshops: Stepping Stone or Dead End? | Tremplin ou cul-de-sac?

By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 5 of 7. Are low-wage, low-skilled assembly industries in Haiti really a “stepping stone” to more complex industrial development? In the Mexican maquiladora boom areas, the water table is dropping by 1 to 1.5 meters every year due to intensive use of water; the blue dye run-off from jeans pollutes rivers and irrigation ditches; 67% of homes have dirt floors, and 52% of streets are unpaved. (English | French)

Continue reading →

Climate Change Blamed for Storms, Flooding, Drought

By Cathy Yamsuan and Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Two months before the recent huge loss of lives, Filipinos were warned to guard against climate change by protecting forests and improving drainage, as if a forest could indefinitely hold back the rising sea levels and more violent storms caused by the climatic changes brought on by the carbon emissions from developed countries.

Continue reading →

Brazilian MINUSTAH Troops Torture Three Haitians Near Death | Trois individus torturés par des agents brésiliens de la MINUSTAH | Soldados Brasileiros da MINUSTAH Torturam Três Haitianos Quase Até à Morte

By RNDDH Staff, Alter Presse (French) | Defend Haiti (English) | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Enough is enough. No Haitian should render MINUSTAH personnel any more service, and this should continue until we see their backs. On the night of December 13-14, 2011, Brazilian soldiers robbed, undressed, and beat nearly to death three young Haitian men, whose truck broke down after they delivered water to Cite Soleil. (English | French | Portuguese)

Continue reading →

Iceland Recognizes Palestine

Press Release, IceNews. After a parliamentary resolution that passed unopposed, the Government of Iceland, on 15 December 2011, recognised Palestine as an independent and sovereign state within the pre-1967 Six Day War borders. This is the first recognition of Palestine by a Western European or Northern European country.

Continue reading →

Iceland’s Ongoing Revolution | La révolution en marche de l’Islande | La revolución en marcha de Islandia | Por que a Islândia deveria, mas não está nas notícias

By Deena Stryker, Daily Kos. In Iceland the financial crisis resulted in people recovering their sovereign rights through a new approach to direct participatory democracy that led to a new Constitution. (English | French | Portuguese | Spanish)

Continue reading →

Originator of Slave Trade Finished as a Colonist

By Staff, BBC | WSWS. Last month, cash-strapped Portugal, which had been ordered by the IMF to privatize, went to sell shares in its state-owned companies to Angola, a former colony that became independent in 1975. To put this story in perspective: 50 years ago, to conclude 450 years of Portuguese control of the trading cities on the Arabian Sea, India had to expel Portugal forcibly from Goa. Western progressives and conservatives alike find these role reversals hard to swallow.

Continue reading →

Massive Rally Marks Anniversary of Aristide Landslide in Free and Fair Elections | Rassemblement de Fanmi Lavalas à l’occasion du 21ème anniversaire des élections libres et démocratiques en Haïti

By Staff, AHP | Translated by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thousands of Fanmi Lavalas supporters rallied on Friday December 16th to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the elections that brought Father Jean Bertrand Aristide to the presidency of Haiti with more votes in 1990 than both presidential candidates combined received in the 2011 2nd-round elections. (English | French)

Continue reading →

Hungarian Journalists Stage Hunger Strike to Protest Govt Meddling

By Patrick Glennon, In these Times | Balázs Nagy-Navarro, You Tube. Four journalists and members of Hungary’s Television and Filmmakers Independent Trade Union are in the seventh day of a hunger strike to protest their government’s infringements on free speech.

Continue reading →

Beware the Peddlers of Despair | Mefiez-vous des marchands de desespoir

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. All around us empires are tearing a trail of destruction. This is not a sign of strength but one of weakness, because the aim of empire is not to destroy but to conquer.

Continue reading →

Cranes Overstay Their Welcome as Weather Grows Warmer | Las grullas ya no pasan

By Julio Godoy, IPS | Tierramérica. Common cranes normally migrated in September from their spring and summer habitat in Europe to spend the autumn and winter in northern Africa. But climate change is altering their natural migratory patterns, sparking conflicts between farmers and environmentalists. (English | Spanish)

Continue reading →

The Real Global Warming Signal

By Tamino, Open Mind. With the bulk of the fluctuations due to natural factors removed, the continued course of global warming since 1979 is undeniable. Five different measures of the eath surface and lower-atmosphere temperatures agree on this, and the last two years (2009 and 2010) were the two hottest.

Continue reading →

Prayer to Masks: a Poem by Leopold Sedhar Senghor | Prière aux masques : Un poème de Leopold Sedhar Senghor | Oración a las máscaras : Un poema de Leopold Sedhar Senghor

Leopold Senghor was a Senegalese poet and statesman who served as his country’s first president from 1960 to 1980. (English | French | Spanish)

Continue reading →