The African Socialist International, in unity with other organizations of the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, proudly announces the launch of an international workers party that will begin contesting for state power in Sierra Leone.

This month, one of the Anti-Eviction Campaign's coordinators, Ashraf Cassiem, is going around the U.S., speaking at college campuses and meeting with activist to share information about post-apartheid community struggles, particularly with the forced removals and the resulting protests taking place in the run up to the 2010 World Cup.

DiasporaKenyan reports on renewed attacks by police and security forces on communities in Kenya’s Samburu East. ‘Thousands of residents have been displaced as they now flee in terror, remembering the February 21 attack on Lerata and Kalama communities', in which innocent villagers were beaten, raped and terrorised, DiasporaKenyan writes.

The African Union Panel of the Wise held its seventh meeting at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 9 and 10 November 2009 under the chairmanship of Ahmed Ben Bella.

The President of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Lovemore Matombo, and four other unionists were set free on Thursday after a Victoria Falls magistrate threw out charges against them. The 5 were arrested on Sunday for holding consultative meetings with workers in the town. Police, acting on instructions from Mugabe’s regime, claimed the leaders had violated the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) by holding the meetings without police permission. The magistrate however ruled that trade unions were exempt from seeking police authority for their meetings.

“It’s only us who can really understand our challenges and come up with appropriate solutions. The time for talking is over. It’s now time for action.” These words, from a participant in the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s community conversations on social cohesion, expressed the determination with which the Albert Park community began its second series of community conversations. This community in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), stressed by poverty and insecurity, clearly views dialogue as the way to unearth the causes of their problems and take decisions.

The Partnership for Change has urged President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to cooperate with the ICC and ensure The Special Tribunal Bill is passed and enacted into law within two weeks, failing which, Kenyans resolve to "starve the government of money".

A coalition of human rights organisations have expressed deep concern about the hostile context in which human rights defenders and journalists operate in The Gambia where hindrances to freedom of expression, arbitrary arrests and detentions, murders and judicial harassment against them are recurrent.

Interface is a new journal produced twice yearly by activists and academics around the world in response to the development and increased visibility of social movements in the last few years - and the immense amount of knowledge generated in this process. Interface welcomes contributions by movement participants and academics who are developing movement-relevant theory and research.

In this week’s [mp3] In this week’s labour news roundup, tens of thousands of Nigerian citizens protest over the government’s plan to deregulate the downstream oil sector, five Zimbabwean farm workers have been shot and injured with rubber bullets on a farm in the Chinhoyi area, and a South African mineworker is killed. This bulletin is part of a partnership between Worker’s World Media Productions and Pambazuka News that seeks to highlight labour issues affecting Africa’s workers.

A network of African civil society and international organizations today called upon African Union (AU) states to use the AU's upcoming session about the International Criminal Court (ICC) to promote the court's ability to prosecute the world's worst crimes fairly and effectively.

Kenyans for Justice and Development welcome ICC Prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo’s intervention towards helping Kenyans find justice for the chaos of early 2008. The ICC’s intervention is a major step towards holding criminally accountable all those who masterminded and executed the 2007/2008 pre and post election mayhem.

The spokesman of Kenya Youth Alliance, Njuguna Gitau, has been shot dead. Mr Gitau was shot in the head on Nairobi's Luthuli Avenue, according to witnesses at the scene. They said he had been walking on the street with four men when an argument broke out. Two of them drew pistols and shot him before the attackers fled the scene.

On November 2, 2009, grassroots leaders drawn from the countrywide networks of Bunge la Mwananchi met and developed a position on the debate of holding to account post election violence (PEV) perpetrators in Kenya on the eve of ICC sepcial prosecutor Ocampo's visit.

CJN!SA and CJN! have united in calling all people to raise the voices of the global South, defend the rights of people and nature, and strengthen solidarity in the fight for climate justice.

Civil Society Organisations from across the Commonwealth and beyond meeting in London on 13 October 2009 have issued a strong message to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2009 regarding their obligation to protect and uphold human rights and fundamental freedoms, as enshrined in the 1971 Declaration of Commonwealth Principles and other subsequent Commonwealth communiqués and declarations.

The International Budget Partnership has released “It's Our Money. Where's It Gone?”—a new documentary film on the work one of its partners, MUHURI (Muslims for Human Rights), is doing to involve communities directly in monitoring the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in Mombasa, Kenya. The CDF allocates approximately one million dollars annually to each member of parliament to spend on development projects in his or her constituency but provides for no meaningful independent oversight. This is the story of ordinary Kenyans stepping in to do something about it.

A recent round of talks has failed to achieve agreement between Morocco's unions and the government on several of organised labour's key demands. Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi began his annual "Social Dialogue" with leading Moroccan unions on Monday (October 26th) in Rabat.

Gender Links is commissioning submissions that will be used as part of activities for 16 Days of Activism 2009. Commissioned pieces may be used in a booklet to be launched on Human Rights Day entitled “World Cup 2010: Problems and Possibilities" and/ or distributed to mainstream media and through the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum unreservedly condemns the arrest and detention of NANGO Board Chairperson Dadirai Chikwengo and Chief Executive Officer Cephas Zinhumwe on Sunday, 25 October 2009. The conduct of the police in Victoria Falls is reminiscent of the repression and clamp down on Civil Society and political opposition forces that was taking place before the inception of the Inclusive Government.