During WWII, either Germany or Japan would have just loved to have destroyed America's renowned Steel Industry. So why have we permitted the grasping Free Trade Gang to do it? Hundreds of thousands of middle class jobs have evaporated. Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point Plant is the next victim on the growing hit list.

Reflections on the peace and justice mission of the late Phil Berrigan, dated, 12/09/02. Scene-St. Peter Claver's R.C. Church, in West Baltimore, at the Christian Wake Service for the Dissenter Emeritus.

Over the weekend thousands of Iranian students continued their protests to demand political reform. Their voices were raised in support of Hashem Aghajari, the college professor who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy. But the student movement is broader than dissent over one injustice.

The U.S. labor movement grows more skeptical of Bush's plans for Iraq. Opposition to the Iraq war includes the Washington State Labor Council, United Electrical Workers, New York state nurses, the Wisconsin SEIU, the California Federation of Teachers, Pride at Work (the AFL-CIO gay workers organization), New Mexico carpenters, and several central labor councils. David Moberg reports.

Venezuela's upper and middle classes, opposed to Chavez's government, have protested in wealthy neighborhoods, while the poor defend "their" president. A key issue has been the state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, which the wealthy want privatized, but Chavez struggles to keep it public. Richard Gott reports.

Now is the time to terminate war and military aggression and only the Christian church can do it as our obligation to the founder of our religion, Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah of Israel and the Son of the Living God. Peace Church Challenge is a ministry dedicated to return Christianity back to its Apostolic roots by turning churches and denominations toward religious objection to war and military aggression. Visit the website:
http://www.peacehost.net/peacechurch . For a free copy of the book Conflict of Ages, email your name and address to peacechurch@jps.net
Regards,
Dan Shubin, director, Peace Church Challenge

A force of habits: Nuns raid silo site Trio tweaks nose of military, refuses to renounce activism.

Jeremy Rifkin argues that the fossil-fuel era is entering its sunset years and a new energy regime is being born that has the potential to remake civilization along radically new lines: hydrogen. With the potential to end the world's dependence on oil, what is in doubt is not the technological know-how to make it happen but the political will to transform the hope of hydrogen into a democratic reality.