Halliburton Co. will pull out of Iran after its current contracts there are wound down, its chief executive said Friday.

"On Jan 15, 2005 the community at Plachimada celebrated 1000 days of resistance against Coca-Cola. For the past year the Coke plant at Plachimada has been closed because of the determined resistance of Advasi women who started [an] anti-Coke agitation and the Perumatty Panchayat (Local Government) [which] served notice to the company and went to the High Court."

"Coke and Pepsi are threating the fundamental right to life by mining ground water and creating local water famine. They are also threatening the right to life by selling hazardous soft drinks loaded with toxic chemicals."

"The Venezuelan President visited the Lagoa do Junco agrarian settlement in
Tapes set up by Brazil's Landless Movement (MST), and later held a press
conference with more than 120 media organizations, where he criticized the
U.S. government for claiming to lead a fight against terrorism while
undermining democracy in Venezuela."

Launched at the World Social Forum

January 26-31, 2005

WHEREAS, Haiti became the first Black Republic in 1804 when its enslaved people defeated Napoleon's army, the most powerful of its day, and abolished slavery. Ever since, Haiti has stood for Black liberation and the liberation of oppressed people everywhere. Haiti offered Simon Bolivar refuge, guns and other supplies, and led the way for the abolition of slavery throughout the Americas. The colonial powers have punished Haiti ever since: among other things the U.S. led a 60-year political boycott, and France forced Haiti to pay the modern equivalent of $21 billion U.S. for its slaveowners' losses, which led to a crippling debt and the world's first structural adjustment policy. From 1915-1934, the U.S. occupied Haiti, and an act of the U.S. Congress established the Haitian army;

"[T]he Prince Edward Island Legislative Assembly [is] to hold committee hearings into the pros and cons of genetically engineered (GE) products.

The committee will set the dates for hearings today. This landmark discussion could inform a decision that would establish PEI as Canada's first GE-free province."

"Tens of thousands of people have been celebrating at an open meeting in the Bolivian province of Santa Cruz which has initiated moves towards autonomy.

The meeting agreed to set up a provincial assembly, but stopped short of unilaterally declaring self-rule."

"Iraq's influential Association of Muslim Scholars has told Aljazeera that the low turnout by Sunni Arabs in elections was due to a lack of real choice and military occupation."

Anarchist People of Color's Ernesto Aguilar writes on sexism in the movement, with an emphasis on legitimacy and systemic change and a critique of personal-is-political approaches. Although he's direct in pointing out men having weak gender politics, he also takes anarchists to task for failing to develop an anti-sexist political culture as well.

"Despite being an obvious institutionalized phenomenon to people of color and even some of us white folks, white privilege is typically denied, and strongly, by most of us.

Usually, this denial plays out in one of two ways: either we seek to shift the focus of discussion to our status as members of some other group that isn't socially dominant (so, for example, whites who are poor or working class will insist that because of their economic marginalization, they effectively enjoy no racial privilege at all), or we retreat to the tired but popular notion that all have an equal opportunity in this, our colorblind meritocracy."

"WASHINGTON - Officers of the Central Intelligence Agency and other nonmilitary personnel fall outside the bounds of a 2002 directive issued by President George W. Bush that pledged the humane treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody, Alberto Gonzales, the White House counsel, said in a document."

A group of individuals acting in solidarity with Secwepemc traditionalists
defending their territory against the expansion of Sun Peaks Resort
distributed flyers at the January 26 screening of the NFB film "Two Worlds
Colliding".  The film premiere was being held at the Delta Bessborough in
Saskatoon and featured the important film by local Saskatoon filmmaker Tasha
Hubbard on the freezing deaths of Lawrence Wegner, Rodney Niastus and Neil
Stonechild.  The event was attended by over 300 people both Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal.

Haiti lies

yves engler

The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, finally decided to report on Canadian operations in Haiti. In Saturday's paper Marina Jimenez wrote about Canada's ongoing role in the hemisphere's poorest nation.

"The notion that, you know, somehow we're not making
progress [in Iraq] I -- I just don't subscribe to. I mean, we're having elections."

George W. Bush

"[E]ven as the Americans proclaimed their mission as one designed to introduce democracy and human rights in Iraq, they fought against demands for early elections even from putative allies like the Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They also maneuvered to put into place a self-governance and electoral plan that, through carefully circumscribed United Nations involvement, they thought would ensure that the hand-picked Iraqi leadership would enjoy some legitimacy, with the elections scheduled for Sunday providing an added boost of Shiite support."

by Ron Collins | Original to resist.ca

Approximately 35 Tahltan's, led by their Elders, have been occupying their band office in Telegraph Creek BC (Turtle Island) since January 17 in protest of mineral extraction deals being made without consultation by Chief Band Councilor (Indian Act Chief), Jerry Asp.

When Asp returned from negotiations with Shell Canada in Calgary, the elders demanded Asp's resignation saying "Our land, resources and rights are being sold out from under us." They went on to say, "He has done enough harm to our People, and puts us in danger of losing everything."