Requirements:
. 3+ years campaigning experience and a track record in achieving change
. The willingness and confidence to challenge powerful governments and corporations
. Imaginative, analytical problem solving . An innovative approach to devising campaign strategies and communications
. The ability to lead, manage and motivate staff within a core campaign team
. Drive, self-motivation, dedication, a high degree of initiative and teamwork
. A belief in peaceful direct action and the aims of Greenpeace
CLOSING DATE: 24 OCTOBER 2007.

Last Friday was the two-month anniversary of the abduction of Haitian human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. Lovinsky has been one of Haiti’s most persistent and effective human rights activists in Haiti for almost 20 years.

ADAD Statement 10/10/07 - Objections to Transfer of Cases to Rwanda ADAD Denounces the Transfer of ICTR Cases to Rwanda as a Violation of the Rights of the Accused to a Fair Trial and Urges the ICTR Judges to Reject the Prosecution's Motions for Transfer The Association of Defence Attorneys at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) unequivocally condemns the transfer of any cases to Rwanda.

On Monday over 200 Women of Zimbabwe Arise and Men of Zimbabwe Arise activists marched through the city of Bulawayo. WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams said representatives from Harare, Mutare, Masvingo and rural Insiza joined local members to demand ‘peace’ and an end to police harassment from the brutal regime. The group of singing protestors marched from near St Mary's Cathedral, pausing to send messages of solidarity to Bishop Pius Ncube, whose courageous outspokenness against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe has often made him a target of the State.

A call for papers has been issued for Labour Crossings: World , Work and History, an international conference to be held at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa from Friday 5 September to Monday 8 September 2008, and organised by the History Workshop and the Centre for Sociological Research, South Africa, in association with the International Association of Labour History Institutions and the International Conference of Labour and Social History.

Sept. 30 march for disappeared Haitian fighter for human rights Haiti demonstrations : demand safe return of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 30, 2007 - Haitians are assembling beginning 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning at Place des Martyrs in the capital city, for the annual mass march to commemorate the US-backedmilitary coup that overthrew Haitian democracy and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on September 30, 1991.

Police arrested ten people who were part of a large group of protesters blocking the N4 highway linking South Africa and Botswana earlier this month. Residents of the tiny village of Ntsweletsoku were so angry about the persistent water shortages in their area that they resorted to violent demonstrations to attract the attention of the authorities. Ntsweletsoku is part of the arid Lehurutse area in South Africa’s North West Province close to the border with Botswana.

Dear Mr Nayager,

Forgive me for taking your time, but I felt that, given what I have heard about you and what is going on there, I had to do everything possible to reach you in a way that, maybe, just maybe, no one has been able to do.

A Nigerian governor has sacked the entire 34,000-strong workforce in his state for refusing to heed a call to suspend their one-month old strike over pay, a government spokesperson said on Thursday. Public-sector workers in the south-western state of Oyo launched the industrial action last month to force Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala to pay increases approved by his predecessor.

While civil society movements have grown, become more vocal and are leading municipal protests, they pose no immediate threat to the ruling African National Congress (ANC), analysts say. These non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have made their presence felt recently by staging service delivery protests across the country, especially in Gauteng. The government has responded by accusing the organisers of misleading communities, saying development plans were already in place.

At least 200 people gathered outside the Zimbabwe embassy in London, in protest against the repression of labour in Zimbabwe. Several groups including the Trade Union Congress, Action for Southern Africa, the National Union of Journalists and the Zimbabwe Vigil participated to show solidarity with workers. The demonstration took place as ZCTU leaders remained in hiding following their pursuit by state security agents.

Oxfam International is looking for a Campaign Manager to provide overall leadership, vision, management, coordination and strategic direction to the various elements of the Oxfam International Rights in Crisis conflict and humanitarian response campaign. This position will provide overall strategic leadership and coordination to the various elements of the Oxfam International Rights in Crisis campaign.

A cabinet committee will investigate the violent countrywide service protests and MPs lack of basic services might lead to social instability. Government spokesman Themba Maseko yesterday said the committee was probing the causes of the protests and would determine what steps needed to be taken to resolve the issue. The announcement came amid reports that at least 11 protesters in Soweto had been arrested for burning down the home of a councillor this week.

The FOI Bill of 2007 is an Act of Parliament to enable the public to access to information in the possession of the Government and public authorities, to establish systems and processes to promote proactive publication and dissemination of information; and for connected purposes. This petition asks the Kenya National Assembly to pass the FOI Bill 2007. It will be tabled in the House pursuant to Standing Orders 163-167.

Koni Benson from the International Labour Research and Information Group in Cape Town argues that contrary to stereotypes in the South African mainstream media, there is solidarity and a common agenda between South Africa's poor, and asylum seekers and migrants in the region, notably from Zimbabwe, and amongst women's groups, with roots in the liberation struggles.

The dominant story in the mainstream press in South Africa is that the South African poor act out of desperation when migrants and refugees are violently attacked. That the 'problem' is competition for scarce resources and that SA must first get its house in order, and solve the poverty crisis; and then desperate South Africans will stop lashing out at desperate asylum seekers.

This story of displaced frustration and resentment does not fairly represent the range of opinions, and even more importantly, the organised actions of the poor and working class in South Africa who invest precious resources in directly supporting refugees and migrants, especially in the case of Zimbabweans right now.

In fact, new research is showing that while xenaphobia is rampant and often played out amongst the poor in South Africa, it is also precisely some of the poorest South Africans living in shack and townships who have been most sympathetic to the struggles of Zimbabweans worst affected by the current crisis.

South African movements of the working class have mobilised around the politics playing out in Zimbabwe right now. In fact, the issue of Zimbabwe has captured the attention and has been prioritised by grassroots activists in South Africa. These are groups of people, many of whom are unemployed, and struggle with the challenge of solidarity within the same neighborhoods and the same city to fight for basic survival like water, housing, electricity, and health care. Yet they are taking a stand about Zimbabwe. Why?

This support is not only forthcoming out of sympathy for the hardships inflicted by the power wars of Mugabe and the like, but rooted in the belief that, like during repression of activism during the liberation struggle in South Africa, international solidarity is decisive right now for Zimbabweans who are resisting an 'elite transition', which will not change the structures of inequality in any meaningful way for the poor.

At the recent 'Towards an Africa Without Borders' conference in Durban, one Bulawayo debt cancellation activist argued for solidarity between the poor in South Africa and in Zimbabwe, because our interests are in the same pot. South African activists at the conference likewise argued that 'we see our problem as rooted in poverty and elite deal-making, which sees no international boundaries'. In this view, President Mbeki and his SADC counterparts will not act against the Mugabe regime in defence of the Zimbabwean people. Rather, they are angling for an 'elite transition' similar to the ones in South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where those who have the backing of the rich and powerful, work out among themselves how to divide the power and money. From this perspective, the majority of the people are excluded from the process, and, inevitably, the resulting system leaves them at the mercy of the oppressors and exploiters and trapped in the associated poverty and social crises.

With this motivation to mobilise, over 2,500 people come out in protest in Durban to criticise the Mugabe regime. Abahlali baseMjondolo has hosted members of the Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA) in shack settlements, worked with the Zimbabwe Crisis Coalition, and written comparisons of Murambatsvina and shack demolitions in South Africa. In Cape Town, People Against Suppression and Oppression of People (PASSOP) have held regular pickets. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the Social Movements Indaba have appointed Africa desks to better address the issues. These movements have an impressively clearly defined 'enemy', and it is not displaced Zimbabweans crossing the border in search of survival.

In Cape Town, for example, women from a range of grassroots organisations from seasonal women farm workers, to refugee women, to anti-eviction activists, to unionists, to wellness centre organisers came together after the violent attacks on women activists in Zimbabwe in March, to analyse the relationship between state and domestic violence and speak out on the way elite politics were being played out across women's bodies.

They argued: 'We see no distinction between domestic and state violence, or between Zimbabwe and South Africa when it comes to responding to the attack on our sisters... the violent the victimisation of everyday women through demolition of houses and businesses in Operation Murambatsvina, and as political and feminist activists has a specific dynamic where women are hardest hit, and attacked on multiple levels at once.'

They collectively wrote a solidarity statement and in April held a picket on the days the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) convened a stay away. 'We write this statement to acknowledge and listen to the pain of Zimbabwean women and to support their quest to become full citizens which we in South Africa are also fighting for. We recognise that in the context of poverty, displacement, violence, and exclusion state oppression adds another unbearable layer to women's oppression which we are determined to fight together...we in South Africa know too well the gap between the hard earned theories set out in law, and the reality of women's access to justice in practice.'

Most interestingly these women welcomed Zimbabweans into South Africa, arguing: 'We recognise the national boundary between us and Zimbabwe as a colonial creation and just as we were welcomed into Zimbabwe during our struggle, we welcome Zimbabweans fighting for a free Zimbabwe into South Africa.'

These organisations of the working class may be small and weak but they are adamant to support Zimbabweans worst affected by the ongoing power struggles. Their perspectives and actions are being overlooked in official talk about Zimbabwean refugees 'flooding' across the border and the rhetorical questions of how South Africa can possibly help because of poverty issues 'at home'. In fact, the South African poor are arguing that the meltdown in Zimbabwe shares its roots with the same forces rapidly entrenching poverty across the region. It is precisely this support by struggling South Africans for Zimbabweans attempting to organise for an alternative Zimbabwe that is being ignored in the press. They are falling further and further off the radar of the South African imagination in which the poor are continually painted as inherently xenophobic.

* Koni Benson is a researcher at the International Labour Research and Information Group in Cape Town.

* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Hundreds of representatives of social and labour organisations, faith-based, community-based and health networks, small farmers, traders, women and youth organisations, and developmental, human rights and environmental NGOs from across the whole of the Southern African region have gathered in a Peoples Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, 15-16 August 2007, parallel to the SADC Heads of State summit.

The National Civil Society Congress is a representative and legitimate voluntary Civil Society membership umbrella body, which reflects the diversity, growth, evolution and sophistication of the Kenyan Civil Society. The National Civil Society Congress anchors its coming into being and existence more on a broad based popular legitimacy than on legality and legalese. Among its core objectives is to provide and function as the platform for all Civil Society (CS) sectors to interact, share information and harmonize their interventions and proactive approaches on key national issues.

The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA), the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) are pleased to announce the Africa/Asia/Latin America scholarly collaborative initiative encompassing joint research, training, publishing and dissemination activities by researchers drawn from across the global South. The workshop will take place in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, from 19 to 20 November, 2007.

The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) is a non-profit legal advocacy organization dedicated to promoting women's equality worldwide by guaranteeing reproductive rights as human rights. Reproductive rights, the foundation for women's self-determination over their bodies and sexual lives, are critical to all women's ability to achieve their full potential. CRR seeks an International Advocacy Director. Deadline for applications is October 31, 2007.

The world’s ancient forests continue to be destroyed at an alarming rate – threatening both biodiversity and the global climate. Do you want to do something about it? Do you have a talent for creating positive change? If so, you might be the person we are looking for to join our international team as a forest campaigner. Closing Date: 21 September 2007.