WW News Service Digest #244
1) Chained to Debt
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) Youths Under Seige
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
3) FARC Presents its Case to World
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 22, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
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EDITORIAL: CHAINED TO DEBT
The clouds of a worldwide capitalist economic whirlwind are
not just gathering any more. The storm has already begun.
Japan is in deep crisis. Here, each new day brings word of
more layoffs. The stock markets are in turmoil. Tens of
millions of people who have carefully planned their lives to
survive all the pitfalls of this most ruthless of all
capitalist countries--no universal health care, no welfare,
no long-term unemployment insurance, no public affordable
child care, no low-cost housing, limited mass transit--are
either already in pink-slip shock or are staying awake
nights wondering how they'll pay all the bills if their job
gets axed.
So what is the Bush administration doing about it? What
wonderful plans does this compassionate conservative have
for us all?
The administration is pushing through a bill making it much
harder for people to declare bankruptcy. Suddenly bad credit
is a sin. Senators are crowding to the podium to denounce
those who have maxed out on their credit cards or who found
that buying a house, a car and some furniture has put them
over the limit. "In my 40 years of dealing with Congress on
bankruptcy legislation," says Lawrence P. King, a law
professor at New York University, "this is the worst I have
ever seen."
Of course, a year ago these borrowers were the consumers who
were going to juice the economy. In fact, the banks, finance
and credit card companies sent out 3 billion solicitations
last year trying to get us to buy, buy, buy and worry about
how to pay later. "Easy credit!" they said. "If your bank
says no, Champion says yessss!"
The banks also got Congress to toss out the Glass-Steagal
Act that separated banking from the stock brokerage
business. Then began a huge campaign. Banks' "investment
advisers" dogged customers with any savings, giving them
glowing projections on how much they would gain by putting
their money into the stock market. The bankers, of course,
get a commission on every trade. But now the market is bear
territory, people's savings are disappearing, and all of a
sudden the same banks and corporations are demanding new
legislation to keep a chain around the legs of debtors.
It's expected to pass the Senate soon. This is an issue on
which working-class organizations can take the lead in
defending all debtors from such onerous legislation.
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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 22, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
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YOUTHS UNDER SEIGE
Capitalism's war against young people keeps getting dirtier.
On March 9, a Florida judge sentenced 14-year-old Lionel
Tate to life in prison for killing a playmate when the boy
was just 12. The children had been playing in the style of
TV's popular professional wrestling shows.
Anyone who has seen kids roughhousing under the influence of
these violent--and highly profitable--shows can easily
understand how a child might end up dead or seriously
injured.
To convict a child of first-degree murder in such a case is
an outrage.
But in Florida, home of Gov. Jeb Bush and the stolen 2000
election, the outrageous can become legal reality overnight--
especially when an African American is the accused.
Tate and the child who died, 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick, are
Black. The prosecutor and judge were white. A jury convicted
Tate on Jan. 24, but many of the jurors later said they felt
pressured and that the boy should not have been tried as an
adult.
Broward County prosecutor Ken Pado witz carried out a
vicious courtroom and media campaign against Tate and his
mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate. Padowitz simultaneously
pushed for a first-degree-murder conviction while bemoaning
the mandatory life sentence it carries to the media.
Judge Joel T. Lazarus could have reduced the life sentence.
But he turned a deaf ear to the community outcry, claiming
"the evidence of guilt was overwhelming."
Tate was to be immediately put in an adult state prison.
Bush, under pressure, had the child transferred to a
juvenile facility, but so far has made no move to grant him
clemency. Tate's attorneys and supporters are now planning
their next moves.
The number of juveniles being tried as adults is growing,
especially in cases involving youths of color. The criminal
injustice system no longer even puts up a pretense of trying
to "reform" people under 18.
The profit system has no future to offer young people,
especially the most oppressed. And the system's guardians
know that sooner or later the anger of millions of youths
will turn against capitalism.
That's why they'd rather lock up Lionel Tate and other
juveniles than provide them with education, counseling and
opportunities.
That's why they'd rather turn schools into virtual prisons
than provide students with a real future.
But repression breeds resistance. The jailing of youths,
police terror and suppression of protest rights will explode
in the bosses' faces.
In the meantime, revolutionaries and progressives must do
everything they can to oppose the war on youths while
providing an avenue of struggle for those young people who
want to fight the system, but don't yet know how.
Free Lionel Tate!
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 22, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
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WITH YANKEES ABSENT: FARC PRESENTS ITS CASE TO THE
WORLD
By Andy McInerney
Talks between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-
People's Army (FARC-EP) and the Colombian government opened
up again in the town of Los Pozos on March 8. Twenty-five
countries and international organizations sent official
delegates to witness the talks, which are being held in the
five municipalities vacated by the Colombian government two
years ago.
The recent meeting was the product of one in February
between FARC-EP Commander Manuel Marulanda and Colombia
President Andres Pastrana. The two signed the Los Pozos
Accord, which broke an impasse that had been in place since
November. The FARC-EP had frozen the talks at that time to
protest the government's refusal to address the wave of
paramilitary death squad attacks across the country.
FARC-EP Secretariat member Alfonso Cano read a statement on
behalf of the insurgency's General Staff. "We are dealing
with the task of democratically rebuilding a sovereign
homeland, respectful of other's opinions and with social
justice," he said.
"But creating the bases for this task after 53 years of
uninterrupted official violence is difficult, because the
obstacles raised are serious and the enemies of
reconciliation are very powerful."
The statement pointed out the decades-long practice of
paramilitarism, "the illegitimate and shameful child of the
Colombian State."
Cano also singled out the role of the International Monetary
Fund as a cause of the impoverishment of millions of
Colombians. He called for a five-year moratorium on the
payment of Colombia's foreign debt, and challenged the
Colombian government to invest one-third of the budget
during this period for the process of social reconstruction.
This money should be prioritized and dispensed by the Table
of Dialogs, where both the FARC-EP and the government have
equal representation.
He also called for three new international events to be held
in Los Pozos: one on crop substitution for illicit crops,
another on the foreign debt, and a third to address the
unequal distribution of land.
INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE WELCOMED
>From the beginning, the FARC-EP has been able to use the
dialog process as a means to reach wider layers with its
message of radical social change, both in Colombia and
around the world. Every meeting has become an exposure of
the crimes the Colombian elite has committed over the years
on behalf of their imperialist masters. By contrast, the
FARC-EP's program of land redistribution, social ownership
of Colombia's wealth, and reorganizing the armed forces
points the way to what they call a "new Colombia"--the
socialist path.
The Colombian government and the big business press tried to
portray the presence of the international delegates, and the
agreement to form a 10-nation "facilitating commission," as
a concession on the part of the revolutionary movement. In
fact, the FARC-EP has sought to bring international
attention to its struggle for years.
In June 2000, the FARC-EP hosted a public audience where
thousands of peasants were able to present their grievances
in the presence of several dozen international observers.
Prior to that, the FARC-EP toured Europe along with
government representatives to explain its views of the
dialog process.
The new facilitating committee is composed of
representatives from Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, France,
Italy, Canada, Spain, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden. It is
charged with helping to keep the talks from breaking down,
as they have several times since the most recent dialog
process began in January 1999.
What the FARC-EP leaders have opposed from the beginning is
any direct role of other countries in the talks themselves.
They have also refused government demands for "international
monitors" in the cleared dialog zone.
U.S. GOV'T REFUSES TO ATTEND
The two sides in the Colombian talks invited the U.S.
government to send a representative to the meeting. That
invitation was flatly turned down.
Instead, U.S. State Department spokespeople used the
invitation as an opportunity to criticize the FARC-EP.
U.S. President George W. Bush diplomatically called the
issue one "that the Colombian people and the Colombian
president can deal with." That leaves out of the picture the
fact that the U.S. is already intensively involved in the
Colombian civil war, to the tune of $1.3 billion last year.
Under the so-called Plan Colombia, the U.S. is providing
combat helicopters, counterinsurgency training, and
biochemical warfare for use against supporters of Colombia's
revolutionary insurgencies. Colombian activists call the
package a "declaration of war" against the Colombian people.
FARC-EP leader Manuel Marulanda was not surprised by the
U.S. refusal to come to the talks. "What are we going to do
about it? We can't beg them," he said. "If they don't want
to come and speak with us, then neither can we do anything
special to invite them."
For the Colombian government, the refusal was more of a
blow. Pastrana is under fire by some elements of the
Colombian ruling elite who want to abandon the talks
altogether, and having a U.S. presence in his corner at the
talks would be a publicity coup.
The U.S. government, beginning with former president Bill
Clinton and now continuing with Bush, has clearly opted for
the military solution. Plan Colombia is aimed at stiffening
the military's resolve and readiness to meet the FARC-EP on
the battlefield.
ELN BREAKS OFF TALKS
During the time when talks between the FARC-EP and the
government were frozen, Pastrana tried to shore up his
"peace" credentials by promising talks with the country's
second-largest insurgency, the National Liberation Army
(ELN). He offered to withdraw from a zone in northern
Colombia to prepare for talks with the ELN. The ELN is
proposing a national convention in the zone.
But Pastrana's promises were never matched with deeds. In
fact, while promising the zone, government-linked death
squads organized a campaign against the zone. Peasants were
herded into anti-ELN demonstrations at the tip of the
bayonet. Human rights groups documented the role of the
death squads and drug lords in organizing the "mass"
demonstrations.
This anti-ELN campaign coincided with a military offensive
against the insurgency in southern Bolivar province.
On Mar. 8, the ELN announced that it would "temporarily
suspend" the talks it has been carrying out with the
government. A letter from ELN Commander Pablo Beltran
charged that "there do not exist conditions neither of
security nor of credibility to carry out any new meetings
with the negotiation teams."
Battles continue to rage; U.S. mercenaries under fire
The talks between the FARC-EP and the government have been
taking place without a ceasefire. Battles between the
revolutionary movement and government troops are a daily
affair.
On March 4, units from the Jose María Cordova Bloc of the
FARC-EP wiped out a paramilitary base in the northern
Antioquia province. On March 10, FARC-EP combatants attacked
a communication center in El Valle.
On Feb. 18, the daily battles saw U.S. soldiers in combat.
The Feb. 22 Miami Herald reported that U.S. mercenaries paid
by DynCorp, a Virginia-based outfit that boasts of providing
logistical support to "every major wartime contingency
including Korea, Vietnam, Grenada and Desert Shield/Desert
Storm," came under fire during a search-and-rescue mission
in southern Colombia.
A Feb. 25 Associated Press report quoted a U.S. Embassy
official in Bogota as saying, "Sure the Americans get shot
at. We had 125 bullet impacts on aircraft last year, and I'm
sure that Americans were flying some of those aircraft."
The presence of mercenaries--undoubtedly linked to the U.S.
military and CIA--on Colombia's battlefields raises the
specter of a new, massive escalation of U.S. intervention,
including the direct participation of U.S. troops, on behalf
of its client regime in Colombia.
