It is 8pm and in squares, parks and streets across Buenos Aires, people begin to gather in their hundreds, to discuss, to debate and to organise. Neighbourhood assemblies meet in the open air on the warm summer evenings. "Today a meeting of the local assembly hits the ratings of even the most popular TV programme," reports journalist Stella Calloni.
Everyone who ever saw it remembers The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil, the 1973 play by John McGrath, who died last week. The play traced a continuing history of exploitation and class struggle in Scotland, from the savage expulsion of the peasantry to the arrival of the multinationals in the 1970s.
"There is no longer a case of a winter beds crisis-there is a total beds crisis all the time." That was the reaction of a worker at the Whittington Hospital in north London after the furore that erupted over the treatment of 94 year old Rose Addis. Rose's family complained that she was left unwashed for three days in the hospital's casualty department.
"My union has supported Labour candidates in every election since it was founded more than 100 years ago. But no longer can the party take the support of our members for granted."
British Paratroopers deliberately murdering unarmed civilians as they desperately try to run away or crawl to safety. This is what people who watched the recent TV dramas Bloody Sunday and Sunday would have seen.
Two forums, two visions of the world. That's what is taking place at opposite ends of the American continent this weekend. The world's rich and representatives of global corporations are gathering at their World Economic Forum in New York. In the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre tens of thousands of people are converging for the World Social Forum, which challenges everything the New York meeting stands for.
The debates in Porto Alegre have been given added urgency by the unfolding crisis in nearby Argentina. Friday of last week saw a new eruption of mass protest, with clashes with police in the capital, Buenos Aires, and people attacking banks in some cities. The protests were organised by the neighbourhood assemblies that are springing up across the capital and other cities.
Around 150,000 post workers are voting on strikes over pay. The ballot closes on Thursday of next week. Workers have shown support for strikes at mass meetings during the last week. That feeling now needs to be turned into a big vote for action.
George W Bush has given Israel the signal to unleash all-out war on the Palestinians. Last week he backed the menacing presence of Israeli troops around the offices of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Arafat is now a prisoner of those forces, his every move tracked and controlled by his enemies.
Murder, mutilation, robbery and starvation-that is the reality of life for those Afghans who survived George W Bush's war on terrorism. The US bombing and the turmoil that has followed has moved hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Many now cling to life in refugee camps. Starvation stalks the country. One camp is home to 150,000 destitute people. International aid organisations admit they are overwhelmed. In the southern city of Kandahar revenge killings and mutilations have become common.
TWO corporations, whose dodgy dealing led to the biggest bankruptcy in history, have deep links to New Labour. US energy giant Enron was the world's seventh biggest company until it collapsed a month ago with billions of dollars of debt. The scandal surrounding its collapse threatens to engulf US politicians close to Enron, including George W Bush.
WORKERS ACROSS Northern Ireland have given a marvellous glimpse of how to defeat bigotry and sectarianism. Protestants and Catholics struck together, marched together and stood united against sectarianism on Friday of last week.
