The shockwaves were recorded almost instantaneously by seismological stations around the world, but neither Sri Lanka nor India is part of the international tsunami warning system. Although the wave took at least 90 minutes to travel to South Asia, no-one was alerted to the danger and nothing was done to avert the terrible tragedy that has killed thousands, left millions without homes, food or water, and wreaked havoc on crops and businesses.
wsws.org/articles/2004/dec2004/tsun-d27.shtml


Chinese factory employees make gains as they begin to flex industrial muscle

[...] By one estimate, more than 80% of the world's Christmas trees and 75% of the toys that are wrapped up under them are produced within a 50-mile radius of Shenzhen port. The dense cluster of production lines is also the origin of many gifts for adults, including clothes, shoes and electrical appliances.

International retailers and manufacturers outsource here because Guangdong's labour costs are among the lowest in the world. More than 80% of the 10 million population of Shenzhen and neighbouring Dongguan are migrant workers from the countryside. They have no rights to residency, little or no support from trade unions and often get paid a lot less than the minimum wage of 610 yuan (£38) a month. [...]

"I was very frightened. I've never been on a strike before. But now things are a little better," said a Sichuanese woman who has spent most of the last two decades working 100-hour weeks for about 1 yuan (6p) an hour. "There has been almost no change in the past 20 years. Even now, I get the same amount of money each month, but at least I don't have to work so hard for it."
newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2004/12/816309.shtml


Peaceful Demonstration in Cap Haitien a Success Despite Ongoing Repression

On December 16, 2004 10,000 people flooded the streets of Cap Haitien chanting and dancing for over four hours as they risked their lives to peacefully commemorate Jean Bertrand Aristide's 1990 electoral victory in Haiti's first democratic elections [ see the video ]. Organizers stated that their two primary demands of the demonstrators were the return of the constitutional government of Haiti and the release of all political prisoners.
www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml


“We must be vigilant that we don't sink into the morass of sectarianism, mixing, pettiness etc. We must not get involved in unprincipled slanging matches etc, into positions that are sectarian, anti-revolutionary, morally damaging, that give succour to the enemy and that confuse and divide the working class.”
www.marxist.com/Europe/ta_power_document.htm


“Finance capital does not want liberty, it wants domination”, stated Hilferding correctly. American imperialism, the most powerful imperialism on the planet, has been seeking this role for the last 100 years. It wanted the 20th century to become the “American Century” as the 19th was the “British Century”. The imperialist foreign policy of the United States, as in all capitalist countries, is dictated by the needs of the oligarchy (the military-industrial complex) that rules America. For seventy years the US ruling class was desperate first to destroy and later to contain the Soviet Union after 1945. The nationalised planned economy, despite its totalitarian character, was regarded as a deadly threat to capitalism. The Cold War was a period of intense military and diplomatic rivalry between the two incompatible social systems underpinned by the threat of mutual nuclear annihilation.
www.marxist.com/Theory/imperialism_highest_stage.htm


What means other than guerrilla warfare can victims of conquest respond with to horrors like Abu Ghraib?
newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2004/12/816273.shtml


A joint ABC/Washington Post poll released Monday showed this strategy is apparently working. The poll found 56 percent of Americans now feel the war is not worth its costs, a record high and up from 49 percent in July.
newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2004/12/816269.shtml


Photoillustrations by Chris Kaihatsu
community.webshots.com/user/ckaihatsu/