AAUMC calls upon labor unions in the US to support labor organizers imprisoned by the Egyptian Government, the second largest recipient of US foreign aid [$2 billion].

Members of the independent Textile Workers League: Kamal el-Fayoumi, Tarek Amin and blogger Kareem el-Beheiry were detained on the 6th of April during a two-day uprising by the urban poor and textile workers in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla, protesting the price increases of basic commodities. A strike was scheduled on that day to take place at Ghazl el-Mahalla, the largest textile mill in the Middle East and home to 27,000 workers, but was aborted by police troops occupying the factory. Peaceful demonstrations erupted in the town after the failure of the strike, and soon turned bloody with police opening fire on the protestors, killing at least three.

http://arabist.net/arabawy/2008/04/06/police-abort-mahalla-strike/

As we witness the continuous massacres against the people of Gaza , who are fighting for their survival as a society, we also share with them the sorrow of losing a beloved leader, Dr. Ahmad Maslamani who died suddenly as a result of a blood clot in his brain. He was fifty years old, and leaves behind him a wife two sons and a daughter.

Dr. Maslamani devoted his life to the struggle for liberation for the Palestinian people. He was truly a people's leader and will be missed very much. We would like to express our condolences to Dr. Ahmad Maslamani's family, his comrades and his colleagues from Union of Health Workers Committees and Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.

The U.S. administration of George W. Bush is trying unskillfully and unsuccessfully to cover up the unprecedented political and military failures of its last two terms in office, by claiming to deliver "peace" in the Middle East. This has meant yet more attacks upon the suffering people of Palestine: apartheid wall, home demolitions, siege on Gaza, miserable life in the refugee camps, new camps for Palestinian refugees now forced to flee Iraq, censoring and arresting activists in the U.S., hand picking leaders and squeezing them again and again, planting civil war among family members - all in an attempt to obtain more concessions.

Hermanos y Hermanas,

On Thursday, September 27th the janitorial contractor at 90-7th St. (the new Federal Building) was notified the effective, Monday, October 1st they would no longer be holding that contract and that they would need to inform their staff of the lay-offs. The janitors were notified of the lay-offs on Friday, September 28th. Exemplar, the new contractor, did not offer any of the janitors employment or give any explanation as to why. The Government Services Agencies which is in charge of offering contracts to vendors gave no explanation as to why the sudden change was made or even went to say thank you to the janitors.

The Arab Labour Force in Israel

Every fifth citizen of Israel is Palestinian Arab, and these 1.2 million people are largely excluded from the benefits of citizenship and the national economy. Systematic discrimination by state and general public permeates every sphere of public and private life, including employment and social security.

Israels Poverty Report 2005, published by the National Insurance Institute on August 30, 2006, revealed worrying socio-economic trends for the population as a whole, and for Arab citizens in particular. Sawt el-Amel summarised the information provided by the poverty report as follows (Israels Poverty Report Not Representative for Arab Population, Sept. 5, 2006):[1]

Increase of overall poverty rate: almost 100,000 Israelis (overall population: 7 million) slipped below the poverty line in 2005, more than half of them children;