>
>proportion of the work force that is in unions remains
>flat, at 13.9 percent.
>
>Yet unions remain the only organized expression of the
>workers as workers. That's why an event like the AFL-CIO
>Working Women 2000 conference in Chicago the weekend of
>March 11-12 was so important.
>
>Five thousand women workers were there, from many unions
>and from every region in the country. About 60 percent of
>the participants were white and 40 percent women of color.
>By far most of the women of color were African American,
>although there were also Latina and Asian women.
>
>In the huge hall packed with 5,000 women workers, there
>was a sense of the awesome potential for struggle. There
>was electricity in the room. These workers seemed ready for
>battle.
>
>And they were provided with plenty of information and
>motivation for battle. AFL-CIO Working Women's Department
>Director Karen Nussbaum reported on thousands of "ask a
>working woman" meetings held around the country, and on a
>national survey. The number-one issue for women workers is
>better pay. Other key issues are health care, paid medical
>and parental leave, retirement benefits and union rights.
>
>Lula Bronson, an African American Service Employees
>organizer, reported on the drive to win union rights for
>home health aides in Illinois. Noemi Fulgencio, a cashier
>at the Metropolitan Opera cafeteria here in New York, told
>how she and her co-workers are fighting for union
>recognition.
>
>WNBA basketball star Kym Hampton of the New York Liberty
>thrilled everyone with her story of fighting for decent pay
>and benefits for women athletes--and riled everyone up when
>she pointed out that although the WNBA players now have
>their first union contract, the minimum salary is $25,000
>compared to the $250,000 for the NBA. "Who stole the zero?"
>she asked.
>
>Myung Ja Koo, a Korean immigrant worker, told of the
>horrible conditions Asian women face in electronics-
>assembly shops on the West Coast. Farm Workers Vice
>President Dolores Huerta said that any time a government
>body made up only of men tries to meet it should be
>declared an illegal assembly and shut down.
>
>Workers told of struggles at Bridgestone-Firestone, the
>University of Illinois and Delta Airlines. A leader of
>United Students Against Sweatshops who was recently jailed
>for the sit-in in Madison, Wis., spoke.
>
>And there was a stirring call to action from Dita Sari,
>the courageous young labor leader who was just recently
>released after being imprisoned for three years by the
>U.S.-backed Indonesian government. Sari named U.S. banks
>and corporations, the IMF, the World Bank and WTO as the
>causes of Indonesian workers' misery. She called for real
>international solidarity, not just rhetoric.
>
>When she finished speaking, the workers rose to their feet
>in an ovation as AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda
>Chavez-Thompson embraced her.
>
>In some ways, Dita Sari's talk was the most important of
>the weekend. It was certainly the most political, the most
>overtly class-conscious, and the most anti-imperialist.
>
>And it shone a spotlight on the central glaring problem of
>the conference.
>
>For Dita Sari's talk was the last one of the weekend. It
>was delivered to a hall that was half empty.
>
>At some point between the time the original conference
>brochure was prepared and when the final schedule was
>printed, someone in the Sweeney leadership realized that
>the Saturday afternoon plenary session would be the best
>attended, the high point of the conference.
>
>Originally the Saturday afternoon session was to be on
>organizing and international solidarity and the Sunday
>morning one was to focus on the bourgeois elections and the
>Al Gore campaign. Instead, the schedule was flipped to
>devote the Saturday afternoon plenary to Gore.
>
>Reports by Dita Sari and other leaders of actual women
>workers' struggles were relegated to Sunday morning when
>most people were already heading home.
>
>Here is the core contradiction, the one-step-forward-one-
>step-back, undo-with-the-right-hand-what-the-left-hand-is-
>doing problem of the Sweeney leadership: the failure to
>lead the workers wholly in the direction of genuine
>independent struggle. The failure to break from reliance on
>the Democratic Party--a party that represents the boss
>class.
>
>It's more than a failure. It's a betrayal. Here were
>workers ready to struggle. And here were their leaders
>talking of struggle. Ultimately, however, where do the
>leaders lead? Not toward real struggle, but down the tired
>old dead-end alley of bourgeois electoral politics, making
>workers who want to fight the capitalist class instead be
>captive to it.
>
>This is accomplished by lying to the workers.
>
>When Al Gore spoke Saturday afternoon, the workers roared
>and stomped and waved signs. They were genuinely fired up.
>Why? Because he was presented, and he presented himself, as
>the candidate of class struggle.
>
>Listening to his speech was quite instructive. He told the
>women he is himself a working parent. That he knows what
>women workers want. And he'll fight for it all.
>
>Gore promised a national commitment to quality child care.
>After-school care. Universal preschool. To raise the
>minimum wage.
>
>In fact, he concluded, "I will put the concerns of working
>women right at the top of America's agenda."
>
>That is simply not true. He won't. But only through this
>claim can Gore win workers' support, and get them mobilized
>to do the legwork and phone calling and so on so he can get
>elected.
>
>Does the Sweeney leadership actually believe Gore will be
>this great labor president? Most of them know better. But
>they are afraid of Bush and the Republicans.
>
>And they are oriented so heavily toward bourgeois-
>political action instead of toward mass worker action that
>they don't know what else to do but rely on "friendly"
>politicians instead of on worker mobilization.
>
>Especially in the wake of the ouster of the Ron Carey
>leadership at the Teamsters, there is an even heavier
>reliance on the Democrats now than earlier in the Sweeney
>years. There is in fact some deterioration, a letting up on
>the emphasis on organizing, and this is the direct result
>of the desperate, fearful obsession with electing Gore.
>
>There were 85 workshops at the conference. There were
>nearly 50 plenary speakers. Topics included international
>solidarity, living-wage campaigns, lesbian/gay/ bi/trans
>workers, contingent workers, health care, organizing and
>violence against women. Women from the Boeing strike were
>there. Women from poultry-processing plants in the South.
>And so on.
>
>Yet overall, the emphasis on the Gore campaign was so
>heavy that you could easily forget about these struggles.
>
>Instead of palling around with Gore, Sweeney should be
>marching against the police killing of another unarmed
>Black man by New York cops.
>
>Labor should be organizing prisoners and demanding living
>wages and union rights for them.
>
>Labor should be protesting the exclusion of the Irish
>Lesbian and Gay Organization from the St. Patrick's Day
>parade and congratulating the state of Vermont for moving
>closer to equal rights for same-sex couples.
>
>Labor should be standing with the People's Republic of
>China against U.S. imperialism, not leading a jingoistic,
>racist mass campaign against China.
>
>And what about clear-cut union issues--like workfare
>slavery? And full rights for immigrant workers? Labor has
>the right position on these struggles on paper, but why
>isn't it organizing struggles on them instead of organizing
>political campaign rallies for millionaires?
>
>And where is labor in the struggle to free Mumia Abu-
>Jamal? Many local unions have passed resolutions and gotten
>involved. But the national leadership shrinks from taking
>on the racist ruling class in such a direct confrontation
>as defending this political prisoner.
>
>Yet winning a new trial for Abu-Jamal would strengthen the
>entire working-class movement and help push back the
>bosses' ongoing offensive against the workers and
>oppressed.
>
>Luckily, this alternative perspective was heard at the
>conference. A Workers World Party delegation reached out to
>the women workers with a message of revolutionary struggle.
>WWP members handed thousands of labor fliers for the May 7
>rally for Mumia at the Madison Square Garden Theater.
>
>Presidential candidate Monica Moorehead herself opened the
>2000 Workers World Party election campaign at the
>conference. Thousands of beautiful new Moorehead/La Riva
>campaign brochures were handed out. Moorehead chatted with
>women workers at a "meet the candidate" reception.
>
>Despite the AFL-CIO's heavy-handed push to line up the
>workers for Gore, these women's openness to the
>Moorehead/La Riva campaign showed that workers can be
>reached with another approach--one that is grounded in
>optimism and confidence in the power of the working class.
>
>
>
>- END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <00ab01bf972d$bf3e0ae0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Vieques movement rejects Clinton-Rossello deal
>Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 09:15:31 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Mar. 30, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO:
>GROWING MOVEMENT REJECTS CLINTON-ROSSELLO DEAL
>
>By Berta Joubert
>
>Washington is rushing to implement the "Clinton-Navy-
>Rossello agreement" allowing the U.S. Navy a continued
>presence in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, anti-military
>and solidarity actions are expanding. They demand that the
>Navy get out of Vieques completely.
>
>The U.S. Navy occupies two-thirds of Vieques. It has
>conducted live-fire training there since 1941.
>
>A bomb dropped by a U.S. Marine Corps jet there killed
>civilian security guard David Sanes last April, arousing
>massive protests, including a vigil in the target area and
>a mass march of 200,000. The Navy had to suspend exercises.
>
>As of mid-March the U.S. House and Senate were both
>deliberating the merit of two projects President Bill
>Clinton submitted in February. One returns the western part
>of Vieques to the Puerto Rican government. The other
>allocates $40 million to hand out to the Viequenses.
>
>The U.S. military stores ammunition on part of the 8,200
>acres of land comprising Vieques' western area. The U.S.
>Navy would retain 100 acres for the infamous ROTHR radar
>installations and for other communications facilities.
>
>Labeled "anti-drug," this radar is really a military
>installation directed against Latin America. It has aroused
>many protests in Puerto Rico.
>
>According to the U.S. government, the $40 million would be
>a "bottomless Aladdin lamp granting wishes to the people of
>Vieques."
>
>This money would supposedly finance health research,
>install a fire alarm system in the airport, construct a
>commercial dock and improve sea transport; construct an
>artificial reef, and directly compensate fishers' losses
>due to Navy bombardments.
>
>It would also finance a referendum in which the Navy
>offers the population of Vieques some choices. They can
>choose being bombarded with live ammunition forever--in
>which case the "magnanimous" Congress will throw in another
>$50 million--or with inert ammunition for three years,
>after which the Navy would leave.
>
>Still more, it would pay to improve highways and bridges,
>fund a training program, preserve and administer natural
>resources, and establish an economic-development office.
>
>The Pentagon made very clear that no disbursement would be
>made until the U.S. and Puerto Rican governments clear the
>restricted areas of the anti-Navy activists who are camping
>there. The Pentagon brass hope to re-start military
>practices next May.
>
>Without waiting, Washington is going full-steam ahead with
>parallel actions to implement Clinton's directive. It named
>Adm. Kevin Green, 1991 Gulf War veteran, as the head of the
>U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command based in Puerto Rico. He
>will also be the liaison between both governments, the
>person to implement the "agreement."
>
>Forced to show "good faith" in the face of mounting
>resistance, last week the United States started to remove
>the 1,650 tons of conventional ammunition buried in
>underground warehouses in the western part of the small
>island. Most of these weapons will be stored in the U.S.
>Base Roosevelt Roads in the Big Island, Puerto Rico.
>
>Another "good-faith" action was the Feb. 28 return of 110
>acres of land adjacent to the Vieques airport, which the
>people of Vieques have been demanding for years.
>
>`TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE'
>
>The people of Vieques and Puerto Rico say, "Too little,
>too late!"
>
>They will accept nothing less than the complete and
>immediate withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from Vieques' soil.
>Anybody who tries to prevent that result will receive their
>just contempt, as shown by the recent demonstrations
>against Gov. Pedro Rossello while he was at the governors'
>convention in Washington.
>
>Rewarded by Washington for being a traitor to his people,
>Rossello was invited to a special dinner and stay in the
>White House for one night. He was even mentioned as a
>potential candidate to head the Health Department under an
>Al Gore administration, should there be one.
>
>Several demonstrations in Washington made sure the message
>from the people of Vieques was delivered: "Rossello,
>traitor, Vieques is not for sale."
>
>U.S. puppets from the pro-statehood ruling party in Puerto
>Rico, the PNP, are trying everything to close the deal with
>the United States. They organized a state-sponsored
>demonstration to counter the 200,000-plus anti-Navy
>demonstration two weeks earlier, only to come up with much
>smaller numbers than projected.
>
>Meanwhile the struggle in Vieques is being energized by
>the mounting solidarity in Puerto Rico, the United States
>and beyond. Coalitions have come together across the United
>States. The latest is the Pro-Vieques Coalition of
>Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
>
>International solidarity has been growing. In Puerto Rico
>last month, Cuban, Dominican and Haitian representatives
>celebrated a "Caribbean Unity Day for Vieques." In mid-May
>a delegation from the Human Rights Commission of the
>Government of Argentina visited Vieques to show its support
>and pledged to work on behalf of the struggle.
>
>PENTAGON FEARS COPYCAT PROTESTS
>
>The Pentagon fears Vieques-type actions springing up in
>other places where Washington has military facilities. But
>it is too late. Scottish activists are protesting the U.S.
>Navy's use of the Cape Wrath range. This is where the
>battle group USS Eisenhower had to go for practice after
>the Vieques activists forced them out of their range on the
>small island.
>
>A spokesperson for the Scottish group said: "We are here
>to show solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico and to
>stop Scotland being shelled by the U.S. Navy. We are trying
>to protect the seabird colony on Cape Wrath and also trying
>to protect the people of Iraq from being bombed."
>
>Activists from the Vieques struggle were planning to join
>their Scottish comrades in early March in their joint
>struggle against the U.S. Navy.
>
>Meanwhile in Vieques, even the children are committed to
>the Navy's ouster. In a very moving display called "We Want
>Peace for Vieques," elementary school students showed
>through artwork their view of the Navy's presence: a black
>boot crushing the island, bloody bullets falling on their
>schools, a crying tree. It is these children, and the
>promise of a free Vieques, that fuel the energy of those
>fighting against the Pentagon.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <00b501bf972d$f5b8ba70$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Women of El Salvador: 'Your struggle is mine'
>Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 09:17:03 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Mar. 30, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>WOMEN OF EL SALVADOR: "YOUR STRUGGLE IS MINE"
>
>[The following is excerpted from a talk by Magda Miller at
>a Workers World Party International Women's Day meeting in
>Los Angeles on March 10.]
>
>You may be surprised that as a Mexican I am speaking about
>women from El Salvador, but their struggle is my struggle,
>too.
>
>I have my personal experience. I was the child of a mother
>who illegally transported hundreds of people into the U.S.
>from Mexico and El Salvador in the late 1970s during the
>peak of the Salvadoran immigration.
>
>After [a Salvadoran woman] crossed the border in San
>Isidro, she thought she was home free. Not yet, because she
>was still a woman. She still had to face prejudice,
>language barriers, sexism, scrutiny for leaving her
>children behind, and the tremendous challenge of starting
>over with nothing. Many times, she had not even a single
>blood relative.
>
>What would drive hundreds of thousands of women to make
>the journey?
>
>El Salvador has the second-largest population of the six
>Central American countries. A civil war broke out between
>the government and its people in the 1970s. The U.S.
>government armed and trained the army and paramilitary
>death squads, leading to a massacre of thousands of
>civilians in 1979.
>
>The streets of San Salvador had to be washed with fire
>hoses to remove the blood from the streets. Soldiers
>kidnapped young boys from farmlands and armed them.
>
>After the civil war in El Salvador, hundreds of thousands
>of women were alone. In all cases, women were left to fend
>for themselves and pull through. Refugee camps were built
>to house women and children left homeless by the
>destruction. Those camps still exist today.
>
>As a result thousands of women immigrated to the U.S. in
>search of a better life for their children.
>
>I had put this out of my mind for 20 years, until January
>when I traveled to Iraq with the Sanctions Challenge to
>deliver medicines. In the Jordan airport, there were 12
>young women from Sri Lanka. I was told they were coming to
>Jordan to work as maids.
>
>And then it all came back to me and I started thinking
>about all the Salvadoran women I met as they came to this
>country.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
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