Washington, D.C. – Thousands of people from across the United States marched here, Sept. 29 against the war in Iraq and the pro-war policies of Congress. The crowd gathered in response to a call put out by the Troops Out Now Coalition. Many nationalities and all age groups were represented. The demands included support for the Iraqi people, the release of the Jena Six, ending the U.S. intervention in the Philippines, justice for Katrina survivors and an end to the occupation of Palestine.

Asheville, NC – Over 150 students, community activists and members of the Coalition for College Access (C4CA) gathered on the campus quad for a walkout and rally, raising the demand “Education for all!” at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA), March 31.

Washington, DC – Over 20,000 demonstrators marched here on Sept. 15 to protest the U.S. occupation of Iraq. At the same time, dozens of demonstrations were held in cities across the country. Initiated by the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition, the Sept. 15 protests were timed to coincide with top U.S. General David Petraeus’s report to Congress on the ‘surge’ earlier this week. Bush and Petraeus stated they will continue the war, but the response of the protesters was loud and clear: “End the war now!”

Plainfield, NJ – A move to close Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey has triggered a storm of protest. Plainfield would hardly be a city without the 125-year old Muhlenberg Hospital.

Newark, NJ – On Aug. 25, almost 44 years to the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech to between a quarter and a half million people, the Peace and Justice Coalition, an alliance of more than 120 peace and justice organizations, will march in Newark, New Jersey.

Asheville, NC – After several months of investigation into the University of North Carolina-Asheville (UNCA) budget situation, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) met with Chancellor Anne Ponder to address students’ grievances against the administration. The statement, What We Want & What We Believe , was presented by an SDS delegation of students and community members on May 1, International Workers Day.

In March, U.S. antiwar activist and Freedom Road Socialist Organization member Kosta Harlan attended a historic international solidarity conference in Italy with leaders of the Iraqi resistance ( see “Voices of the Iraqi Resistance,” Fight Back!, March 2007). Since returning to the United States, Harlan has traveled to college campuses and cities across the South, speaking to hundreds of students and antiwar activists about the Iraqi resistance. He spoke at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Chapel Hill, and Charlotte; at Winthrop University in South Carolina; at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and at community centers in Winston-Salem and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Saint Paul, MN – Local leaders of the Twin Cites peace and justice movement announced their planned march route here at a June 7 press conference. The massive demonstration on Sept. 1, 2008 will coincide with the Republican National Convention. A large map of the march route was displayed.

San Salvador, El Salvador – In an historic day here, June 1, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren were sworn in as the new president and vice-president of El Salvador. Funes and Sanchez Ceren are members of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a leftist political party which was formerly a guerrilla movement that fought against the U.S.-backed right wing dictatorship in El Salvador in the 1980s. Funes and Sanchez Ceren won election on March 15, marking the first time there will be a leftist government in El Salvador’s history.

The revolution in Nepal took another step forward with the election of Pushpa “Prachanda” Dahal voted in as the first Prime Minister on August 15th. He won overwhelmingly with 464 of 577 votes cast in the 601 person National Assembly. The loser from the Congress Party obtained 113 votes. This defeat is important because the Congress Party represents the old landowners and wealthy bosses who are putting up roadblocks as the people march towards a new Nepal. The new Prime Minister, Prachanda, as he is popularly known, is the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), and the vote reflects both the mandate granted to his party by the people and the unity built with twenty-one other parties. This new phase of the revolution, ruling the country, follows ten years of fighting a people’s war against a corrupt and hated monarchy and the rich elite. The monarchy is history. The people of Nepal are in power. In the nationwide elections, held in April of this year, Prachanda's party was overwhelmingly favored, getting nearly double the next highest tally for any other party. The CPN (M) ran on a platform of creating a democratic republic, national development for the benefit of all, and equal rights for Nepal's neglected minorities

St. Paul, MN – The Salvadoran community and supporters gathered here on the evening of March 15 to watch election results and celebrate a historic victory for the left in El Salvador. On March 15, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez-Ceren were elected president and vice-president of the small Central American country. Funes and Sanchez-Ceren are from the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist political party that led an armed liberation struggle in the 1980s, and became an electoral political party after the Peace Accords ended El Salvador's civil war in 1992.

San Salvador, El Salvador – About 20,000 people marched in San Salvador on Saturday, July 7 protesting against the arrest and detention of 13 political activists in Suchitoto, a town in El Salvador’s rural department of Cuzcatlán.

Caracas, Venezuela – Despite the rain, 500 people demonstrated here, at Plaza Venezuela, Aug. 1, to protest Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, and the U.S. support for Israel’s` offensives. Speakers, poets and singers denounced U.S. imperialism and Zionism from the stage.

On the same day that George W. Bush declared, “I have earned political capital in the campaign, and I intend to spend it,” high-ranking administration officials said that Bush’s second term would bring a refocusing of energies on Latin America. In the first year of his second term, Bush hopes to pass the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or DR-CAFTA, in an effort to gain passage of the full Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2006.

Washington, DC – People from around the country gathered here on August 12 to demonstrate against Israeli/ U.S. wars in Lebanon and Palestine. The demonstrators, mostly Arab-Americans, demanded an end to US aid to Israel and the end of Israeli occupation in Palestine and Lebanon. Families, with children and grandmothers, joined with students in front of the White House, chanting “No justice! No peace! US out of the middle east!” and “Israel is the terrorist – occupied people have the right to resist!” Organizers stated that about 30,000 people were in attendace.

Less than a week after the U.S. elections, labor leader Gilberto Soto was assassinated in Usulutan, El Salvador. Soto, a Salvadoran who emigrated to the U.S. in 1975, was a Teamster organizer in New Jersey, an activist with CISPES – the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador – and a long-time member of the FMLN, El Salvador’s left political party. The FMLN has actively opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, both in the legislature, where they hold a plurality of the seats, and in the streets, where they have led tens of thousands of people marching against CAFTA and against the war in Iraq.

Athens, Greece -Demanding “No to anti-people politics,” tens of thousands of workers, students and youth rallied across Greece in mid-December to open a 24-hour general strike that virtually shut down the country’s businesses and industry. The strike was called by the All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME) and the General Trade Body of Greece (GSEE) in response to proposals in the 2006 budget that would cut public services including health care and education, abolish the eight-hour work day, decrease pensions and benefits and open up at least eight Sundays a year for work.

Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide was forcibly removed from office by U.S. military personnel Feb. 29 and flown to the Central African Republic. U.S. troops, with assistance from France, now occupy the country. Supporters of President Aristide are hunted, murdered and jailed.

Jackson Heights, NY- The Queens office of U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley (D-NY) was the site of a picket May 4 as constituents called for the congressman to introduce legislation to cut off funding for the war in Iraq and to impeach Bush and Cheney for war crimes. Picketers chanted, “Hey Joe Crowley, what are you waiting for? Impeach Bush and stop the war!” and other chants while circling and beating drums. A coffin standing on the sidewalk represented the growing number of U.S. troops and Iraqis killed in the war in Iraq.