DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — They still wake before dawn in desert dormitories that pack a dozen men or more to a room. They still pour concrete and tie steel rods in temperatures that top 110 degrees. They still spend years away from families in India and Pakistan to earn about $1 an hour. They remain bonded to employers under terms that critics liken to indentured servitude.

But construction workers, a million strong here and famously mistreated, have won some humble victories.

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Photo: Montrealers gather to mark the anniversary of the Israeli attack on Lebanon.

MONTREAL: To mark the 1 year anniversary of the Israeli attack on Lebanon hundreds of people gathered in Montreal for an evening of testimonials, poetry and presentations on the impacts of the 2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon. One year ago, Israel launched a military assault on Lebanon, commencing a 34 day war that left more than 1300 Lebanese civilians dead, large parts of the national infrastructure destroyed and southern Lebanon littered with over one million unexploded cluster bomblets.

This Montreal community commemoration was organized by Al-Hidaya Association, Association des jeunes libanais musulmans (AJLM) and Tadamon! Montreal…

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Tadamon! Montreal is appealing to you to spread the word, support & get involved in the upcoming popular mobilization against the ‘Security and Prosperity Partnership’ (SPP) summit in Montebello, Quebec at which U.S. President George Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper & Mexican President Felipe Calderon will be meeting between August 19th & 21st.

Current information on the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)
summit & demonstrations visit Indymedia Montabello.

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Map: The Palestinian Bantustan Matrix, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

Is it right to declare a state before the state build its economy, its productive bases?

Is it possible for a huge bureaucratic apparatus to last while there is no local productive base to meet its enormous salaries and needs?

Is it possible to achieve freedom without sovereignty?

Is it possible to sustain democracy without independence?

These are the main reservations against Oslo Accords (OA), and against the recent elections of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBG) for the Palestinian Self- Rule (SR), in spite of its technical success.

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Download the report from Ghassan Bannoura of IMEMC from the A-Infos Radio Project.

Listen to a report produced by Ghassan Bannoura of the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) on the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the occupied Palestinian West Bank on Thursday, August 2nd for the first time since Hamas took control of Gaza. It’s the latest in a series of strides Washington has taken to show its support for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and to push for Middle East peace talks. On the day of Rice’s visit to the occupied Palestinian territories the Israeli Army carried out several invasions in the West Bank, kidnapping twelve Palestinians.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 16th, 2007, 12 Noon, Sharp!
Demo and Action against CSIS and the SPP
Dorchester Square, Peel metro

As a part of the week of action against the Security and Prosperity Partnership (PSP), the People’s Assembly against Security Injustice (PAASI) invites you to a demonstration to denounce the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) role in the criminalization, harassment, and profiling of refugees, immigrants and non-status people.

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A community discussion focused on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of
North America (SPP) & the potential effects on our communities from Montreal’s
Côte-des-Neiges district & beyond…

MONDAY, AUGUST 13th, 5:30pm
5347 Côte-des-Neiges, 2nd floor
Centre communautaire de la Côte-des-Neiges,
metro Côte-des-Neiges

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Listen to a special edition of Radio Tadamon! focused on commemorating the July 2006 Israeli military assault on Lebanon, a 34 day war that left over 1300 Lebanese civilians dead, large parts of the national infrastructure destroyed and southern Lebanon littered in over 1 million unexploded cluster bombs.

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New report documents past quarter century of Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians…

‘The Price We Pay’ seeks to counterbalance influence of Jewish lobbies
on US policy in Middle East, questions morality of American aid to Jewish state

BEIRUT: Israel was once reprimanded by the United States for its use of cluster bombs in civilian areas. In 1984, The New York Times credited Franklin P. Lamb’s first book with gathering the evidence that spurred former President Ronald Reagan’s administration into cutting off Israel’s supplies of US cluster bombs. A quarter-century on, Lamb returned to update “Israel’s War in Lebanon” (South End Press, 1984) in the wake of last summer’s war. The result is the substantial report “The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel’s Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon (1978-2006).”

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Three racist, discriminatory decisions undermine Israel’s democratic character…

One of the clearest rules that distinguishes a democratic state from a non-democratic state is the principle of equality when it comes to rights and obligations. In a democratic country, all citizens regardless of race, religious, gender or origin are entitled to equality when it comes to national assets, services and resources, and all citizens regardless of race, religion, gender or origin are equally obligated by national duties.

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