Q&A: “Migrant Workers Bring Vibrancy to the Labour Movement”

Day labourers looking for casual work are familiar fixtures on corners outside home improvement and garden stores across the United States. Less visible are the workers centres that have grown up in many locales to serve and organise these mainly immigrant and undocumented workers.

ASIA: Regional Railway Links Aim to Boost Trade, Cooperation

A train journey from Singapore to Shanghai may not be the stuff of dreams anymore. So too the prospect of travel by rail from Seoul to Samarkand.

POLITICS: Women’s Groups Seek Gender Equity at U.N. Summit

An international coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), mostly comprised of women’s groups, is calling for a "gender equitable" response to the global financial crisis, which is to be debated at a U.N. summit of world leaders next week.

AFRICA: "Boost Development Through Labour-Intensive Farming"

Development in Africa should be boosted through labour-intensive production on small to medium-sized farms. To advance food security in Africa, governments should assist small farmers with credit lines and infrastructure while buffering them against fluctuations in world food prices.

POLITICS: Is West Undermining Summit on Financial Crisis?

When a Western diplomat was asked whether his country would be represented by a head of state at next week's U.N. summit meeting on the global financial crisis, his response was tinged with sarcasm and contempt.

LABOUR: World Leaders, ILO Call For Urgent Reforms

A crisis summit organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to halt millions of job losses across the world due to the global economic slowdown ended Wednesday with a ringing call by its host to act now and put "the workers first before anything else."

DEVELOPMENT: Asia Pacific Tourism on Road to Recovery

As it battles to regain its stature, one of the world's most resilient industries - tourism - is expected to overcome the current global economic recession at least by next year.

GUATEMALA: Crisis Hits Local Governments in Pocketbook

Incomplete infrastructure works and development projects and dismissals of teachers and municipal employees are some of the consequences of the global economic crisis in rural Guatemala, due to the central government’s decision to cut the budget for the country’s 333 municipal administrations.

EGYPT: Workers Reeling Under Financial Crisis

The global financial crisis has forced Egyptian companies to lay off thousands of workers, and provided cover for firms to evade their legal and financial obligations to their workers, labour rights groups warn.

Q&A: "The Global Crisis Is Really About a 140-dollar Barrel of Oil"*

Sitting in the restaurant of Vancouver's posh Fairmount Waterfront Hotel, the former chief economist for one of Canada's largest banks doesn't seem like the typical apocalyptic peak oil theorist.

LABOUR: ILO Urges Action on Financial Speculation

World leaders, employers and trade unionists, meeting here at a crisis summit on employment, welcomed a new ‘Global Jobs Pact’, but warned that any delay in its implementation would worsen the problems created by financial speculation.

U.S.: Crisis Must Reshape Economists’ Thinking, Krugman Says

It is too optimistic to say the United States is headed for a Japan-style recession, according to Nobel laureate Paul Krugman.

BALKANS: Now Fighting to Invite Serbs

Two decades back many people in what was once Yugoslavia were fighting Serbs. Today some are fighting to invite them over.

DEVELOPMENT: Africa ‘Not Badly Hit’ Despite 16 Million More Poor

Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan believes that Africa has not been affected as ‘‘profoundly’’ by the global economic crisis compared to other regions in the world - despite the number of Africans living in poverty having increased by 16 million in the last year and annual growth dropping from six to one percent.

SWAZILAND: Donor Support For Health Sector Drying Up

As the global economic downturn begins to take its toll on developing countries, Swaziland's health system - already strained by the burden of HIV/AIDS - has come under severe threat. The third of the national health budget which comes directly from donor agencies is abruptly drying up.

GHANA-ECONOMY: Credit Crunch Starts To Bite

When the news of the global financial crisis broke in Ghana last year, the then-President John Kufuor said the country’s economy was insulated against the effects of the credit crunch being reported in Europe and the United States. There now seems to be an admission now that ripples are being felt.

DEVELOPMENT: ‘‘19th WEF on Africa Just About Elite Agendas’’

The 19th World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, which kicks off tomorrow, is a space ‘‘for the rich and powerful elites who control the global economy and who seek to further open Africa’s economy in collaboration with a tiny minority of corrupt elites in Africa.

DEVELOPMENT: Thousands March as Food Crisis Deepens

An estimated 300,000 people across the globe hit the streets Sunday to support the World Food Programme (WFP) and its mission to feed hungry schoolchildren and battle malnutrition worldwide.

LABOUR-US: Unions Embrace Street Corner Solidarity

For Pablo Alvarado, the genesis occurred back in 1999 when janitors in Los Angeles were on strike. Some of the cleaning companies came to the corners and workers' centres where day labourers gathered and tried to hire workers to cross the janitors' picket lines, he recounted to IPS.

U.S.: GM Gets Billions, Says No Money for Crash Victims

U.S. taxpayers have given 50 billion to rescue General Motors, but the company says it should not have to pay a penny to people harmed by known defects in its vehicles.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Twilight of the Fossil Fuel Era?

The world has turned a green corner toward a more sustainable future, with investments in clean energy outpacing fossil fuel power generation for the first time.