Red Pepper News

Guantanamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike

200 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are on hunger strike, according to a lawyer representing a number of clients at the base.

Clive Stafford Smith, who returned from Guantamo a week ago, told an audience at the Greenbelt Christian Festival in Cheltenham: 'The world needs to know that these guys are going to die in the next two to three weeks. They are starving themselves to death.'

Taking on Wal-mart: some talk, little action

Oscar Reyes. Heard the one about the worldwide union mobilisation against Wal-mart, the global supermarket chain which owns Asda in the UK? Well, don’t hold your breath. A Union Network International (UNI) conference in Chicago, which brings together service sector unions from across the globe, has opened a ‘channel of communication’ with the company. Experience shows that this may not be enough to change the behaviour of a firm George Monbiot once called ‘the most ruthless employer in the world’, and whose own propaganda site dedicates considerable effort to bashing unions. But some positive initiatives have come out.

Locked out journalists strike back

Journalists locked out of Canadian public broadcaster CBC are striking back by creating their own alternative media source. 5,500 employees have been locked out by the stating, after they rejected management plans to put more staff on temporary contracts. In response, they have launched CBC Unplugged, which gathers dispatches from picketlines and uses blogs to gather lockout-related news and music. The site also raises wider issues about casualisation in the media industry.

US and Iraqi military launch new attack on Al Qaim, Western Iraq

Doctors for Iraq are reporting that a new offensive has been launched on the city of Al Qaim in Western Iraq. The city is under curfew and eyewitnesses have reported heavy bombing. US and Iraqi forces have attacked Al Qaim several times in the past few months, and the health and humanitarian situation inside the city and surrounding areas is desperate.