There is a fact about Venezuela that is largely unknown to people in the United States: in addition to possessing a huge oil reserve, Venezuela was also one of the two initiators of OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) forty-five years ago.

The five month-long strike/lockout of 75,000 California grocery workers was an important test in a new phase of the class war being waged by Corporate America against workers and their unions. At stake in this long battle was the right of workers to have healthcare and to enjoy union protection.

Some in the anti-war movement are discussing what slogans and demands they should raise. The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition demands, "Bring the troops home now , end the occupation of Iraq." Some other groups call instead for turning the Occupation Authority over to the United Nations.

Using the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act and other measures issued by Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft, the administration has launched a domestic war at home against the people of the United States that complements its global war for empire.

When the Cuban people, under the leadership of Fidel Castro and the July 26th Movement, overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959, it heralded a new day. Within a few years, the revolution began a major literacy program, overcame massive unemployment and inaugurated the most far-reaching healthcare plan in Latin America.

On May 1, 2003 - the same day that George Bush declared "victory" in Iraq - the U.S. Navy was forced to pull out of Vieques, Puerto Rico, as a consequence of a four-year campaign of civil disobedience that reinvigorated and united the movement.

Colombia is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in this hemisphere, having received $2.5 billion over the past four years. This money goes to Colombia's military, which has one of the worst human rights records in Latin America and works hand in glove with the right-wing paramilitary units responsible for the murder of unionists and peasant leaders.

While the Bush administration and the Justice Department have carried out a war against Muslim, Arab and other immigrant communities, they hypocritically tried to pose as the "friend of undocumented immigrants" on January 7, 2004, when Bush proposed a "sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws.

Can you imagine what the reaction would have been if the Bush administration told the truth about why the U.S. was dispatching hundreds of thousands of troops to Iraq? "On behalf of Exxon, Texaco, Mobil, Haliburton, Bechtel, Citibank and Chase Manhattan, we intend to re-conquer Iraq and all of the Middle East.

Ciudad Juarez, a maquiladora-driven border city near El Paso, Texas, has been the site of over 380 unsolved murders of women - called femicides - over the past decade. Since 2002, these murders and disappearances have extended to Chihuahua, the capital of the state.