part 2 ______________________________ ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN News * Analysis * Research * Action ______________________________ - AFIB No. 259, July 23, 2000 - ***** GREEN LEFT WEEKLY E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.greenleft.org.au - Number 412, 19 July 2000 - ----- ____________________________________________________________________ Argentina: MOTHERS OF PLAZA DE MAYO ATTACKED ____________________________________________________________________ The following statement was issued by Argentina's Mothers of Plaza de Mayo on July 3 to support groups around the world. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo campaigns for the disappeared. In the early hours of Saturday, July 1, the intelligence services once again invaded and sacked the Mothers' Bookshop. Over the past five years, the Mothers' House (Mothers of Plaza de Mayo's headquarters) has been burgled and attacked six times and our president's home three times. The bookshop, three months after it opened, had the words "Long live Massera" and "Old whores" painted on its walls and was burgled a few days later. Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera was navy commander in chief at the time of the March 24, 1976, military coup and a member of the military junta that took power. The junta disappeared, executed and jailed tens of thousands of Argentinian political activists and drove millions into exile. After being jailed for some of the crimes he committed during this time, he was pardoned in 1990 by President Carlos Menem. The intelligence services cannot deal with the fact that the Mothers have the solidarity of our people, who are the ones who make possible the (Mother's) newspaper, bookshop and university. The Mother's Bookshop is situated opposite the offices of the National Social Security Administration, which is guarded 24 hours a day by two police officers. The Police Department headquarters is around the corner, and two blocks away is the National Congress building. We have no doubt as to who is attempting to subject us to fear. The Mothers are convinced that the struggle against the enemy is not over, even more so with the [present Argentinian] government, that is a servant of the United States. We request that protest email or faxes be sent to the Argentinian government: Sr Presidente de la Nacion, Dr Fernando de la Rua, fax +0054 11 4344 3789, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Where possible, please send copies to the minister of the interior at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] All rights reserved, Green Left Weekly. Redistribution permitted with this notice attached. Redistribution for profit prohibited. ***** PINOCHET WATCH Produced by the Institute for Policy Studies E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tni.org/campaigns/pinochet/watch/watch22.htm - No. 22, 14 July 2000 - ----- ____________________________________________________________________ THE U.S. SECRECY SYSTEM As Much as Has Been Declassified on Chile, Much More Remains ____________________________________________________________________ By Peter Kornbluh* Compared to Chile, where the recorded secrets of the Pinochet era remain desaparecido like so many hundreds of victims, the United States has a relatively open system of access to classified government documents. There is a freedom of information law that can be used by "forensic historians"--investigators, scholars and students who want to exhume the long hidden documentation of U.S. national security agencies on, say, the U.S. role in Chile, or human rights abuses under the Pinochet regime. There is the discretion of the President to order agencies like the CIA and the Pentagon to release their secret records--without military intimidation and the fear of inciting a coup. And there is a public constituency for the "right to know" what the government has done in the good name of U.S. citizens, but without their knowledge. But, as the release last week of documents on the death of three Americans in Chile shows, there remains a pathology of secrecy within the U.S. government that is difficult to overcome. The keepers of the secrets--in furtive agencies such as the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the U.S. military-- just don't want to let them go. No matter that the documents could shed light on the murders of two Americans, Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, by Pinochet's men after the coup, or solve the disappearance in 1985 of Boris Weisfiler near Colonia Dignidad, helping to bring solace and closure to the families of all three men. Protecting "sources and methods," and covering up misconduct and malfeasance from years ago are far more important priorities. When the Clinton White House ordered a special "Chile Declassification Project" in February 1999, the names of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi--two Americans abducted, tortured and executed by the Chilean military in the days following the coup--were high on a list of prominent victims about whom the national security agencies were directed to review and release their files. Nevertheless, when the first release of documents took place one year ago, not a single page of CIA or Defense Department documents on either man was included. Those two agencies simply chose to ignore the President's directive. And despite protest from the Horman family, when the second installment of documents was released on October 8, 1999, only State Department records were declassified; intelligence and military documents remained hidden away in locked filing cabinets and secret vaults. Considerable public and behind-the-scenes political and moral pressure forced these agencies to finally release documents on the Horman and Teruggi cases, as well as that of Boris Weisfiler last month. But, judging from the pathetic amount of documents actually declassified on June 30th, their effort to find and declassify records was less then complete. The CIA, whose under cover agents staffed many of the Embassy posts in 1973 that dealt with the Horman and Teruggi disappearances, has long been thought to have key files on their fate. Yet in the now famous case of Charles Horman, the CIA released all of 6 documents--almost all of them memoranda generated by the CIA's Congressional liaison and the CIA legal office in Washington. Most of those half dozen documents were heavily censored; blacked out were references to other documents that could have, and should have been declassified. Not a single cable or memo from the CIA station in Santiago was released; not a single intelligence report on any discussion with sources in the Chilean military about Horman and Teruggi; not a single inquiry from Headquarters to the Station about their murders; not a single file on Chilean agents such as Rafael Gonzalez with whom CIA agents had contact. The Defense Department proved a bit more forthcoming than the CIA; but it remains unwilling to declassify the history still in its possession. Sources inside the Clinton Administration say that the Pentagon has documents on the Horman case that it located but still refuses to release. Since there has always been speculation that Horman's chance encounter with U.S. Naval personnel in Vina del Mar after the coup somehow contributed to his subsequent murder, the declassification of all Pentagon records are imperative to recording this history, pursuing the guilty, and bringing closure to this case. To be sure, there were many important documents that were declassified. The FBI, after much procrastination, finally declassified a December 1972 report that showed that Frank Teruggi was under surveillance for purported radical affiliations. That document raises the question of whether U.S. intelligence on Teruggi was ever passed to Chilean authorities at the time of the coup. And the State Department released substantive files of cables and reports on the 1985 disappearance of Boris Weisfiler near the suspicious German enclave known as Colonia Dignidad. Those files will hopefully contribute evidence and leads to the court case that the Weisfiler family has brought in Chile. They will also help Chileans to learn more about the controversial cult-like colony of German expatriates--one declassified cable described it as "a religious sect led by a charismatic leader similar to Jim Jones in the Jonestown (Guyana) disaster"--which lent avid support to the brutal rule of the Pinochet regime. Overall, the Clinton administration's special declassification project on Chile, which is expected to generate over 22,000 previously secret documents by the final release in mid September, 2000, has been of great benefit to Chilean and American citizens alike. The declassified U.S. files can and will contribute to advancing the cause of human rights and justice in Chile. Chileans will have learned hidden details of the dark history of Pinochet's repression; and the declassification of the U.S. version of this history will hopefully serve as a model and impetus to pressure the Chilean military to divulge its own secret archives of atrocity and impunity, contributing to stronger democratic structures built around openness and accountability in governance. But for the U.S. declassification of documents on Pinochet to be true to democratic principles of the United States, those U.S. agencies that continue to cover up and obstruct the release of the full record on Chile will have to be held accountable--in the court of public opinion and perhaps the court of law as well. History can be hidden, at least temporarily, but it cannot be disappeared. "To get to justice you have to get to truth," Charles Horman's widow, Joyce, said at a press conference last week. "And our road to truth has been excruciatingly long." We are getting closer to the end of the road, but we are not there yet. When the entire record is finally declassified, there will be truth and justice for the families of victims, accountability for governments, and finally a victory for the principle of the right-to-know--in both Chile and the United States. *Peter Kornbluh is a specialist on U.S.-Chilean relations at the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research organization in Washington D.C. that has led the campaign for the declassification of U.S. records on Chile. His book, The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier of Atrocity and Accountability will be published next year. The Institute for Policy Studies is an independent center for research and education founded in 1963. IPS has worked to bring Pinochet to justice since the murders of two IPS colleagues, Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, at the hands of Pinochet's agents, in 1976. Copyright 2000 Institute for Policy Studies ***** ____________________________________________________________________ WEB SITE POSTS SECRET CIA BRIEFING PAPERS ____________________________________________________________________ THE WASHINGTON POST Nation and Politics Sunday, July 23, 2000; Page A02 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28051-2000Jul22.html By Vernon Loeb and Doug Struck Washington Post Staff Writers A secret CIA overview of the U.S. intelligence community prepared for visiting Japanese intelligence officials has been posted on an Internet site frequented by activists opposed to government secrecy, prompting security concerns among intelligence officials and their overseers on Capitol Hill. The CIA briefing, containing some sensitive information about budget trends and so-called "hard" intelligence target countries, appeared a week ago on Cryptome, an Internet site (http://jya.com/crypto.htm) maintained by John Young. Young is a New York City architect who started posting government documents on encryption and intelligence issues six years ago. He said he posted the secret CIA document, together with lists naming hundreds of agents from Japan's Public Security Investigation Agency, after receiving the documents from a source in Japan. CIA officials have not asked Young to remove the briefing from the Web site, but he said two FBI agents called him on Thursday and forwarded a request from the Japanese Ministry of Justice that the lists be removed. Young refused, saying publication of the lists contributed to public awareness of how government agencies function. Young said he posts documents that interest him and lets others figure out whether they are authentic or sensitive. "Our little site got started by letting people tell us," he said. Young said the source who provided him the CIA briefing materials did so under a pseudonym. One senior intelligence official said that official visitors from Japan's Public Security Investigation Agency were authorized to receive the secret briefing at CIA headquarters in June 1998. "But public disclosure of that information is troubling," the official said. "In terms of the information [contained in the briefing], it is not insignificant. We're always concerned when classified information is disclosed publicly." Written briefing materials--presented by Charles E. Allen, the assistant director of central intelligence for collection--state that executive boards had been created to review plans for penetrating five "hard target" countries--Iran, China, North Korea, Cuba and Russia. The countries are singled out for focus under Presidential Decision Directive 35, an order issued by President Clinton establishing national intelligence priorities. Allen's calling card--including his home telephone number, his secure satellite telephone number and two e-mail addresses--is also part of the briefing materials. The briefing materials also contain closely guarded budget and personnel figures, stating that from fiscal 1991 to fiscal 1999, the National Foreign Intelligence Program, encompassing all civilian and military foreign intelligence activity, lost 20,559 employees. Despite those losses, the documents say, personnel costs grew from $4.7 billion to $5.4 billion. Had no personnel cuts been made, the briefing materials add, personnel costs would have been $1.4 billion higher in fiscal 1999. The intelligence community's total budget, encompassing 13 agencies and dominated by spending for satellites and other major technical systems, is thought to be around $30 billion. "I was very disturbed to learn that there may be a classified CIA document posted on the Internet," said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "The committee has spoken to Mr. Allen and will continue to examine whether any classified information has been disclosed, and if so, by whom." Ichiro Shinjo, head of the General Affairs Department of Japan's Public Security Investigation Agency, said the Japanese government believes that a PSIA employee who resigned under pressure in December 1998 is the source of the briefing materials. The employee, who was prosecuted and put on probation, has since posted rosters and other documents from the PSIA on Web sites under his own name, Shinjo said. In fact, Hironari Noda recently published a book titled "CIA Spy Training: An Experience of One Agent of the PSIA." On the cover of the book is a picture of a CIA "Certificate of Training" presented to "Hironari Noda, for completion of the intelligence analysis course in June 1998." The document posted on Young's Web site is entitled an "Intelligence Community Overview for Japanese Visitors" from the PSIA. It is dated June 22, 1998. Copyright 2000 The Washington Post Company ***** ____________________________________________________________________ BUCHANAN'S BID TRANSFORMS THE REFORM PARTY ____________________________________________________________________ THE WASHINGTON POST Nation and Politics Sunday, July 23, 2000; Page A04 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28524-2000Jul22.html By Thomas B. Edsall Washington Post Staff Writer Patrick J. Buchanan's presidential bid has turned the once-centrist Reform Party into a magnet attracting leaders and activists of such extreme right organizations as the National Alliance, the Liberty Lobby, the Council of Conservative Citizens and the League of the South. Many of these white nationalist groups are promoting Buchanan's candidacy in their publications and on their Web sites, and one controversial group set up an independent committee to back his bid for the presidency. Some leaders of these organizations have held Buchanan fundraisers, collected petitions for Buchanan and spoken at state Reform Party meetings. The flood of support from the extreme right, including groups that are intensely anti-black, anti-Jewish and anti-immigrant, reflects the profound transformation of the Reform Party. Buchanan's candidacy is turning the party from a secular organization predominantly focused on trade and campaign finance reform into a hard-right party opposed to abortion, critical of the influence of Israel and adamantly opposed to affirmative action. Buchanan's harsh critiques of the "Israel lobby," of third world immigration and of such civil rights leaders as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. have resonated with groups that see Jews as corrupters of American culture and that see blacks and Hispanics as threats to white majority rule of the United States. Buchanan insists that he is neither racist nor antisemitic. Angela "Bay" Buchanan, his senior campaign adviser and sister, declined to be interviewed for this article but issued this statement: "My brother Pat does not now and has never belonged to any organization or group that preaches or practices intolerance or hatred. . . . And if any member of any such group has gravitated to our campaign, it was without our knowledge, or consent. But if they have, they probably did so because they came to believe the malicious lies about my brother spread by such institutions as The Washington Post. You do your worst; we shall do our best." Operating far outside the mainstream of political debate and discussion, the activities of hard right organizations in the Reform Party and in behalf of Buchanan include: * An e-mail to members of the National Alliance from Will Williams, a leader of the group who has become active in the North Carolina Reform Party, said: "It's our job to get out there in our areas, to raise consciousness, attract and radicalize 'those very people'--OUR people--then organize them into a majority. Many good people will have joined a much more radicalized, White-friendly Reform Party come November. . . . It is going to be a very interesting year with the Jews constantly screaming 'NAZI!' at PB [Pat Buchanan]." The e-mail was provided to The Post by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Williams said in an e-mail interview that he is "interested in the Reform Party becoming the party of the White." William Pierce, who heads the National Alliance, estimated that the overwhelming majority of his supporters and members who vote will vote for Buchanan. "Among Bush, Gore and Buchanan, Buchanan would be a hands-down winner," he said. Pierce said that his goal in dealing with American Jews is to "get rid of them, get them out. . . . I want to get them out of our lives, out of our country, off the levers of power." He said he has not worked out specifics of how he would propose to do this. * Buchanan supporters have solicited petition signatures at two meetings of a "white rights" group called American Friends of the British Nationalist Party. A recent editorial in the group's newsletter said that until recently there has been "no Nationalist party in the U.S. that even comes close to the BNP and other similar parties on mainland Europe, like France's National Front or Australia's Freedom Party. . . . However, as it now looks like Pat Buchanan is going to be the Reform Party's candidate for President, we suggest that you give your support to the Reform Party. . . . "Our type of people--Nationalists--have been joining the Reform Party all across America and this is going to almost guarantee that Buchanan will be its candidate in November. . . . The Reform Party could soon become an American Nationalist party in all but name." * The Liberty Lobby, which the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes as "the most significant antisemitic propaganda organization in the United States," has set up an independent Americans for Pat Buchanan committee. The Lobby's publication, the Spotlight, has run numerous favorable articles about Buchanan. In 1991, the Spotlight described Zionism as "a world political engine of massive power which, allied with the power of the supercapitalists, effectively controls all aspects of western political, intellectual, religious and cultural life," according to the ADL. * Alabama League of the South, a pro-secession organization, recently published an article in its newsletter declaring that "conservatives do have a place to go. The Reform Party is America First on nation-defining issues. . . . It is essential that Buchananism lives on after the 2000 election." * Don Wassell, David Duke's 1988 presidential campaign manager and the head of the American Nationalist Union, has editorialized in his Nationalist Times tabloid: "It's now or never for rank-and-file conservatives to prove they are patriotic Americans first, and party supporters second. Pat Buchanan has methodically and effectively . . . taken over the Reform Party with the intention of making it into a genuine America First alternative to the two-party tyranny." * Leaders of the Council of Conservative Citizens (C of CC), which grew out of the defunct White Citizens Council, an organization that opposed civil rights legislation in the 1960s, have become active in the Buchanan campaign and the Reform Party. In South Carolina, Francis Bell, the state C of CC chair, won the post of secretary-treasurer of the Aiken County Reform Party chapter. "I think Pat Buchanan is the only person who is running for president that is morally adequate to run this country," she said. In Illinois, the liberal Center for New Community reported that Father Dennis Pavichevich of the Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral and vice-chair of the Northern Illinois C of CC, held a $100-a-person fundraiser for Buchanan on June 30, and John Kelly, chair of the Northern Illinois C of CC, was among those who attended. Pavichevich said in an interview that he flies the Confederate flag in front of his house because the flag "is a Christian symbol, it's a symbol against tyranny . . . a symbol against the tyranny that is leading us into the new world order." He said the fundraiser was not a C of CC function. A survey of C of CC members found that Buchanan was the choice of a solid majority, according to Gordon Baum, the group's CEO. Buchanan had 55.5 percent. Texas Gov. George W. Bush was second at 12.5 percent. Baum said the C of CC has not endorsed Buchanan. * Don Black, founder and director of Stormfront, a white nationalist Web site, said, "Those within our organization who are politically active do, as you surmise, support Buchanan. . . . I support Buchanan. He is not one of us, but culturally he is." Stormfront promotes on its Web site such books as "The Biological Jew," by Eustace Mullins, described as "proof that the Jews are a race and not just a religion. Jewish inherited political traits are left wing." Stormfront displays such articles as "Who Rules America?" which stated: "By permitting the Jews to control our news and entertainment media, we are doing more than merely giving them a decisive influence on our political system and virtual control of our government; we also are giving them control of the minds and souls of our children." Black said in an interview that he believes "we can restore white majority rule to the U.S. while we are still a majority during the next three or four decades." Copyright 2000 The Washington Post Company ***** ____________________________________________________________________ GERMANY WARNS OF NAZI WEB HIT LIST ____________________________________________________________________ ASSOCIATED PRESS Saturday, July 22, 2000 9:48 AM ET BERLIN (AP) - Neo-Nazis are targeting left-wing representatives and foreigners for attacks by publishing lists on the Internet with their names, addresses and photographs, German justice officials say. There have not yet been any attacks on people named in the lists, also published in extremist periodicals, Urlich Kersten, head of Germany's main domestic law enforcement agency, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper in an article to be published Sunday. The director of that agency, the Bundeskriminalamt, told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung newspaper that the greatest risk of violence is in eastern Germany. Manfred Klink said a study showed that 40 percent of neo-Nazi motivated crimes took place in the former East Germany - despite its accounting for only 19 percent of the reunified Germany's population. Meanwhile, police said a mosque in the town of Uetersen, about 18 miles west of Hamburg, was the target of a failed arson attempt early Saturday morning. The motive and identity of the suspects, who threw a Molotov cocktail at the building, wasn't known, but witnesses saw two people driving away on a motor scooter. The fire extinguished itself and caused about $475 in damage to the building. Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***** ____________________________________________________________________ MILLIONAIRESS LEAVES RETREAT TO NEO-FASCISTS ____________________________________________________________________ THE SUNDAY TIMES News: Britain Sunday, 16 July 2000 http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/07/16/stinwenws03013.html Adam Nathan and Nick Fielding A MILLIONAIRESS has bequeathed her home in Liss Forest in Hampshire to a neo-fascist group linked to the terrorist gang behind the 1980 Bologna railway station bombing that killed 85 people. Rosine de Bounevialle, who died last Christmas, was a right-wing Catholic and former confidante of A K Chesterton, the founder of the League of Empire Loyalists (forerunner of the National Front) and cousin of the writer G K Chesterton. According to sources who have infiltrated the far-right movement, shortly before her death she placed the £1m Forest House in trust. It is now likely to become the centre for the International Third Position (ITP), a neo-fascist movement dedicated to the destruction of Israel. One of the trustees is Roberto Fiore, a multi-millionaire businessman and former member of the Armed Revolutionary Nuclei (NAR), which planted the Bologna bomb. In 1985 Fiore, who has lived in London since 1981, was sentenced in absentia to nine years' jail in Italy for his role in organising the NAR. His extradition was repeatedly refused by successive British governments. A second trustee is Colin Todd, a former National Front member who has spoken of his admiration for Saddam Hussein and paid visits to the Iraqi dictator. He became de Bounevialle's drinking crony in her final years. Todd, who is registered as the owner of the telephone line at Forest House, and Fiore, are both founding members of the ITP. According to the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, the house has become a "training centre" for neo-fascists. "It has become a rendezvous for right-wing extremists," says Mike Whine, of the Jewish Community Security Trust. This weekend, at the six-bedroom Edwardian house, which is sheltered from view by woodland, a man claiming to be Todd, with a large black dog on a chain, refused to comment to a reporter. A neighbour described how, during de Bounevialle's life, skinheads used to visit the house and sing campfire songs in the woods. "She was very right-wing, a strong Roman Catholic, but she was also kind-hearted," said the neighbour. Fiore is alleged to have been an informer for MI6, the secret intelligence service. He lives in a £1m home in west London and has built up a £20m business empire. The Charity Commission is investigating claims that his charity shops have used their income to fund fascist activities in Spain. De Bounevialle used the cellars at Forest House to store the A K Chesterton archives, which have become required reading for today's far-right activists. Together with Chesterton, de Bounevialle ran the Jew-baiting magazine Candour. The magazine was recently turned into a website by ITP members at Forest House. Additional reporting: Justin Rigby Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. ***** ____________________________________________________________________ ANOTHER LAW - ANOTHER COUNTRY ____________________________________________________________________ By Mumia Abu-Jamal, M.A. Column Written 7/8/2000 Source: Mark Clement, [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Thursday, 20 July 2000 - "The common law of this country remains the same as it was before the Revolution." -- Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth (1799), U.S. Supreme Court United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Ellsworth, speaking just over 20 years after the American Revolution, gave voice to the inherent conservatism of the American judiciary, which sought to protect the interests of the established, by appealing to the laws (and legal precedents) of a nation that was just defeated in battle: England. This same conservative, and indeed repressive spirit has led the courts into disasters throughout U.S. history, like the 1857 Dred Scott decision, (saying slaves brought into free territory remained slaves, and that blacks were not U.S. Citizens), the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling (1896) (which upheld racial segregation as constitutional), and the 1883 Supreme Court holding that invalidated the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which gave blacks equal rights in public accommodations and jury duty. In these, and literally hundreds of other cases over 200 years, the courts conserved a constricted, repressive status quo, not freedom. Indeed, the struggle for freedom from state repression is ongoing, for the courts have been, and in many ways continue to be, the enemies of freedom and liberty. Let's examine another example of law and revolution. Let's look at a nearby neighbor: Cuba. In October 1999, several leading Cuban jurists came to San Francisco as guests of the National Lawyers Guild National convention. At a public forum called "Crime and Justice in Cuba," hosted by the International Peace for Cuba Appeal, Dr. Ruben Remigio-Ferro, President of the Supreme Court of Cuba (the equivalent of the American Chief Justice) and Dr. Mayda Goote, former Assistant Attorney General of Santiago province, (the island's second largest metropolitan area, located in Cuba's southeast region) held forth on their country's criminal justice system. Speaking just 40 years after Cuba's Revolution, the two described a system that sounded far more humanistic than America's. And while Chief Justice Ellsworth noted the continuity of British common law despite the American Revolution, Cuba's President Judge of the Supreme Court spoke of the clean break represented by the Cuban Revolution, Dr. Remigio spoke of important structural differences: There are profound differences between the justice system of Cuba and the judicial system of the United States. In the first place, the origins of each are historically distinct. But, the most important differences are based on the perception of how things should be organized in the judicial system. In revolutionary Cuba, justice is administered by the people. This is not just a slogan. In Cuba, the idea of an impersonal judge doesn't exist. All the courts are composed of professional judges and lay judges. Lay judges are peasants, workers, professionals, housewives, university students, who form the judicial panels along with the professional judges. They have the same rights to make decisions on the cases that are submitted to the courts. Lay judges are elected by neighbors, trade unions, and other mass organizations. They serve for 30-day terms. Their presence on the court assures that justice is not just administered technically, but that it reflects popular will and sentiment [fr. Drs. Remigio & Goite, "The Cuban Criminal Law System and the Social Role of Cuban Prisons," Guild Practitioner [57:1] Winter 2000, p. 32] Dr. Remigio was himself elected to the Supreme Court by a national constituent assembly. As an Afro-Cuban, the son of peasants from a "humble background," the President Judge leads a court that he could not even address before the Revolution. When Pope John Paul II recently visited Cuba, Presidente Fidel Castro remarked on his years in law school, before the Revolution, when he wondered why there were no black faces there. In Cuba, the Revolution didn't mean continuity, but profound transformation. Dr. Goite spoke on both sexism and racism in pre-Revolutionary Cuba, where women were regarded as little more than objects of male pleasure. A free and independent Cuba has led to a state where women now constitute over 60% of the labor force in the fields of education, science, health, technology and culture. Dr. Goite explains: Cuban women have had a substantial impact on society. This has been achieved only because they have had the opportunity to study and develop themselves.... Cuban women have become indispensable to society. For example, in the law school of the University of Havana, there are currently 1,225 students who are studying law and 1,005 of them are women. [id, Guild Practitioner, p. 34] If Dr. Goite's figures are right, that means over 82% of the present class in the nation's largest law school are women! It is doubtful that any comparable U.S. law school can make that claim. (Further, Cuba, which views education as a human right, provides it for free!) This is not to portray Cuba as some sort of paradise, for after 40 years of a crippling embargo by the U.S., and a decade after the collapse and betrayal of the former Soviet Union, it is clearly in the grip of serious economic problems, which they have called the Special Period. Yet, even so pressured this remarkable society is serving human needs, creating more doctors per capita than any nation on earth, and expanding the realm of human liberty, rather than, as the U.S. has done, becoming the Prisonhouse of nations, with over 2,000,000 people in American jails. Copyright 2000 Mumia Abu-Jamal. All rights reserved. ** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, material appearing in Antifa Info-Bulletin is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes. Submissions are welcome. ** * * * ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN (AFIB) 750 La Playa # 730 San Francisco, California 94121 To subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Inquiries write: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Via the Web --> http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aff/afib.html Archive --> http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aff/afib-bulletins.html ANTI-FASCIST FORUM (AFF) Antifa Info-Bulletin is a member of the Anti-Fascist Forum network. AFF is an info-group which collects and disseminates information, research and analysis on fascist activity and anti-fascist resistance. More info: E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Web: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aff Order our journal, ANTIFA FORUM, cutting-edge anti-fascist research and analysis! 4 issues, $20. Write AFF, P.O. Box 6326, Station A, Toronto, Ontario, M5W 1P7 Canada ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ ++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++ ++++ see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++
