Global briefs
CHINA: China's State Council (cabinet) has outlined measures to ease the growing gap between rich and poor, and urged local authorities to improve their systems of welfare and disaster relief. "The meeting also discussed ways to improve the medical system in the countryside, support poverty-stricken areas and help support those laid off from state factories", Xinhua news agency said. The State Council also pledged to strengthen support for poor farmers, including training in production methods and possible small loans, as well as more job training to laid-off workers.* * * THE NETHERLANDS: Some 200,000 protesters marched in Amsterdam against cuts to welfare and health coverage, as well as a freeze on civil service salaries and the minimum wage. "They're taking away our social security, which we're very proud of in The Netherlands", said trade union negotiator Sjerp Holterman. A poll by the national radio network found 60 percent of the Dutch public opposed to the cuts .The unions accused the government of abandoning the country's tradition of consensus-based labour relations. Union federations have boycotted talks with the government and employers, and have demonstrated in parts of the country where strikes are rare. Last month 50,000 protesters brought the Port of Rotterdam to a halt for a day.* * * EQUATORIAL GUINEA: High-ranking US military officials have been linked to accused plotters of a coup attempt earlier this year that sought to overthrow oil-rich Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Theresa Whelan, a Pentagon official responsible for African affairs, met twice in Washington with London-based businessman Greg Wales before last February's coup attempt. Wales is an alleged coup organiser, though he has denied the accusation. Washington has denied Nguema's charges. Shortly after he was allegedly paid $US8000 by Simon Mann, now jailed in Zimbabwe on coup-related charges, Wales participated in a Washington conference of the International Peace Operations Association, made up of US private military companies. There, Whelan told the group the Pentagon was eager to see them operate in Africa, saying they were cheaper and spared the US the need to be visible on the ground. Wales met with Whelan again shortly before the failed coup.* * * USA: In a strange post-industrial twist, most people who have lost their jobs in the garment industry are first-generation Mexican women. They typically are illiterate and speak little English. They came to El Paso in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, when the American factories moved down from the northern states in search of cut-rate border labour. With those factories having moved out of El Paso, these American citizens find they are members of the obsolescent class. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a big impact on the low-skilled, low- wage Latino workers near the border. California lost 116,000 jobs from 1993 through 2002 because of NAFTA, many of them textile jobs.