May 2004 Archive 

Ten tumultuous years "Red Pepper, breaking a decade; New Labour, broken and decayed,’ suggested a wit in the office. But now is not the moment for narrow triumphalism (beyond celebrating the larger font size and the monthly miracle performed in getting the magazine out at all).

Scotland’s brave new world Roz Paterson celebrates the plurality and electoral success of the Scottish Socialist Party

Background to Rwanda Ten years ago, beginning on 6 April 1994, more than one million Rwandans were massacred in a three-month bloodbath. The dead were mainly Tutsis, the minority ethnic group in Rwanda who made up about 14 percent of the then eight million population. All were unarmed civilians. Their killers, extremists from Rwanda’s ruling Hutu majority, had embarked on a premeditated mission: to exterminate an entire people. But it was not only Tutsis who suffered. Tens of thousands of moderate Hutus were also slaughtered because they were political opponents of the one-party Hutu state and natural obstacles to the genocide.

The Sadr revolt On the surface, it is a battle of two political wills: the US-led occupation forces ranged against a seditious young cleric, whose brand of political Islam, historical grievance and thwarted nationalism runs deeps among the young, urban, overwhelmingly Shia poor of Iraq’s central and southern cities.

Senegalese workers bet against lottery privatisation Up to 1000 protestors coursed through the streets of Dakar in April 2004 to protest against a plan aimed at privatising the Senegalese national lottery, LONASE. The protest took place on the same day that the World Bank announced the cancellation of $850m dollars of Senegal’s debt.

Campaigners hold supermarkets to account Some of the UK’s leading supermarkets face an uncomfortable summer as campaign groups aim to hold corporate retailers to account for their impact on people and the environment.

Why I joined the Greens Peter Tatchell says the Greens are now the radical left party.

The end of the oil age Fossil fuel companies are about to become industrial dinosaurs. Efforts to postpone their extinction would only accelerate the overheating of the planet.

Uncovering the financiers of the genocide Ten years ago, beginning on 6 April 1994, more than one million Rwandans were massacred in a three-month bloodbath. The dead were mainly Tutsis, the minority ethnic group in Rwanda who made up about 14 percent of the then eight million population.

Interview: Iraq’s Union of the Unemployed The sensation caused by the fights of the past weeks and the rhetoric about the deaths and kidnapping of Western guards and journalists are taking our minds away from the economic colonisation of Iraq and the increasingly dramatic life conditions of millions of Iraqis. While contracts for reconstruction proliferate, nothing has been done for those without a job or any subsidy, pension or health care. Even those with a job haven’t received a salary for months.

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