Somerville, MA - More than 400 mostly immigrant factory workers of Angelica Textile Services initiated a strike on December 10 after contract negotiations between the workers' union, UFCW Local 1445, and the company stalled. The workers, who had been without a contract since December 1, formed a picket line outside the plant on the morning of December 11 and were joined by local members and officers of other unions and community organizations who spoke at a midday rally with more than 100 supporters.

Somerville, MA - Over 60 people filled a lecture hall at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University on Thursday to hear a panel of Honduran social movement leaders speak about the growing resistance movement against the recent coup d'etat in their country. On June 28, 2009, Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, the elected President of Honduras, was detained and beaten by elements of the Honduran military under Gen. Romeo Vásquez, and forcibly flown to Costa Rica. The president of the National Congress of Honduras Roberto Micheletti was then illegally voted in as President of the current de facto government of Honduras by a simply show of hands in the Honduran Congress. The U.S. has thus far refused to act to help reinstate President Zelaya, and the State Department led by Sec. of State Hillary Clinton has been accused in the world press of working to delay efforts by the Organization of American States, the European Union and the United Nations towards that goal.

SOMERVILLE, Mass. - For the past four days, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in coordination with local police have raided numerous homes statewide - many in the middle of the night - and arrested over 80 immigrants (an unknown number of whom are undocumented) in what has appears to be an accelerating government campaign against so-called "illegal aliens" nationwide.

SOMERVILLE, Mass. - We spoke with MA State Representative Carl Sciortino (D-Medford/Somerville) recently at his campaign office.