Category Archives: International

Asian Tribune: Sri Lankan unions betray university workers’ struggle

World Socialist Web Site

The Sri Lankan trade unions have carried out another miserable betrayal.

On June 8, just days before a proposed indefinite island-wide strike, the Inter University Trade Union Joint Committee (IUTUJC) called off all industrial action in defence of employees at the University of Colombo who had been disciplined over protest actions. The decision sets a dangerous precedent for the victimization of other sections of workers seeking to defend jobs, conditions and basic rights.

The workers were among tens of thousands of non-academic university staff from the country’s 15 universities who launched an indefinite strike on April 27 to demand the rectification of salary anomalies as well as payment of a promised salary increase and monthly compensation allowance (MCA). The IUTUJC unions shut down the strike on May 7 in return for part payment of the MCA.

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MSNBC: Venezuela students keep pressure on Chavez

It could be the birth of a new opposition movement in Venezuela: Thousands of university students — their hands painted white as a symbol of nonviolence — returned to the streets Monday, keeping up a week of protests against President Hugo Chavez’s decision to force a popular TV station off the air.

Unlike earlier protests by opposition parties, the student marches have been dominated by a new generation of Venezuelans taking to the streets for the first time by the thousands in a coordinated challenge to Chavez.

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The New York Times: Cheated of Future, Iraqi Graduates Want to Flee

They started college just before or after the American invasion with dreams of new friends and parties, brilliant teachers and advanced degrees that would lead to stellar jobs, marriage and children. Success seemed well within their grasp.

Four years later, Iraq’s college graduates are ending their studies shattered and eager to leave the country. In interviews with more than 30 students from seven universities, all but four said they hoped to flee immediately after receiving their degrees. Many said they did not expect Iraq to stabilize for at least a decade.

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BBC: Israeli boycott divides academics

The University and Colleges Union is debating a motion that academics should consider the “moral implications” of links with Israeli universities.

The University and Colleges Union is debating a motion that academics should consider the “moral implications” of links with Israeli universities.

The proposal condemns Israel for its “denial of educational rights” for Palestinians, citing invasions, curfews, checkpoints and arrests.

But Sally Hunt, UCU’s new general secretary, criticised the demands.

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The Guardian: Research funders to disregard Israel boycott

Research councils in the UK said this afternoon that they would still allow collaboration on projects with Israeli institutions despite the decision by the university lecturers’ union to back calls for an academic boycott.

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Jersusalem Post: ‘UK scholars using Soviet-like tactics’

British academics who have endorsed a boycott of Israeli researchers are adopting the “reprehensible tactics of the former Soviet Union, which colored its scientific research with its own political views,” said Prof. Alik Honigman, chairman of planning and development at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Medical Faculty.

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NAFSA: Association of International Educators issued a resolution at its business meeting Thursday in Minneapolis urging the government of Iran to immediately release Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari. Esfandiari, who directs the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, has been imprisoned in Tehran since May 8, charged with “seeking to topple the ruling Islamic establishment.” The NAFSA resolution comes as academics continue to step up their protests of Iran’s actions with letters and petitions.

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The New York Times: 3 Iranian-Americans Charged With Spying

Three Iranian-Americans, including U.S. academic Haleh Esfandiari, have been charged with endangering national security and espionage, Iran’s judiciary spokesman said Tuesday.

The charges, which were denied by relatives and colleagues, were another example of Iran’s stepped up accusations that the U.S. is trying to use internal critics to destabilize the government.

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The New York Times: Iran Accuses American of Revolution Plot

The Islamic Republic of Iran yesterday accused a prominent American academic it imprisoned two weeks ago of conspiring to foment a velvet revolution there.

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