Global briefs
HAITI: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organisation of American States has released a report condemning atrocities committed in Haiti since September 30. The Commission expressed concern about reported arbitrary arrests and detentions in the last two months including the October 2 arrest of the president of the Haitian Senate and three other politicians associated with the government of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, as well as the arrest of Father Gerard Jean-Juste in his Port-au-Prince parish. The commission emphasised the serious nature of reported threats and violent acts against human rights activists, journalists and the media in Haiti, as well as actions of armed gangs that are reportedly preventing delivery of humanitarian aid to the country's flood victims.* * * BRITAIN: Scientist Steven Hawking and London Mayor Ken Livingstone joined a moving ceremony in Trafalgar Square on November 2 to remember the thousands of people killed in the US war on Iraq. The names of thousands of Iraqis who have died were read one by one, along with the names of the over 1100 US military dead, 69 British military personnel and many victims from other nations. Parents and relatives of dead British soldiers participated, along with trade union leaders, celebrities from sports, the arts and science, and many rank-and- file activists.* * * NIGERIA: A second general strike to protest against rising fuel prices began on November 16. The strike was called by the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC). Union leaders accused the giant oil transnational Shell of being the "enemy of the Nigerian people", and called for action against the company, which accounts for about half of Nigeria's oil exports. NLC head Adams Oshiomhole said this time the strike would be total and indefinite in length, and would affect both the production and export of crude oil. Last week the government introduced grants and tax cuts to help offset the recent 23 percent fuel price hike, but did not act on the NLC's key demand to lower prices at the pump.* * * ATHENS: At its meeting in Athens on October 31-November 1, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) endorsed the decision of a previous joint meeting in Beijing to establish a standing International Trade Union Forum. The Beijing meeting had brought together the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the WFTU, the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU), the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions (ICATU) and the General Confederation of Trade Unions (GCTU) of countries of the former Soviet Union. The WFTU welcomed the Forum as "an open platform and as an important step to raise the level of international trade union united action at the present time in the struggle for the economic and social demands of the working people all over the world".