There are doubts about the institutions responsible for the rule of law in Honduras and the government’s protection of human rights, acknowledged the U.S. State Department in an Aug. 8 report. Unfortunately, the State Department says virtually nothing about the widespread impunity regarding violations of freedom of association or the threats and violence aimed at labor activists.

One of the first positive results from the war in Iraq was the re-emergence of a trade union movement—literally one month after the United States and allies went into that country in March 2003, five trade unions formed, representing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi workers. Since then, union members, especially those in unions representing oil workers, have been at the forefront of the push for a democratic society in the face of foreign strong-arming, said international Iraqi oil policy expert Greg Muttitt.

In response to protests by foreign students exploited in a factory subcontracted by the Hershey Company and advocacy by the AFL-CIO and our allies, this week the U.S. State Department announced that it will make major revisions to a guest-worker and cultural exchange visa program and barred participation by a major player in the program, the Council for Educational Travel, USA (CETUSA).