>hundreds of new police.
>
>The Feb. 5 Philadelphia Daily News reported on police
>plans to lock down the city during the Republican Convention
>in late July-early August to prevent "a repeat of Seattle's
>World Trade Organization meeting riots." The cops cited the
>certainty of pro-Abu-Jamal actions.
>
>Clearly, the Mumia Abu-Jamal solidarity movement will have
>to raise the stakes in the coming weeks and months as it
>works to broaden support for the death-row freedom fighter.
>
>For more information on these and other upcoming actions,
>readers can visit www.mumia2000.org or call (212) 633-6646
>in New York, (415) 821-6545 in San Francisco, or (215) 476-
>8812 in Philadelphia.
>
>
>
> - 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)
>
>
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 00:33:42 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>Content-transfer-encoding: Quoted-printable
>Subject: [WW] Vieques to U.S. Navy: "None of the Above"
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 17, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>VIEQUES TELLS U.S. NAVY "NONE OF THE ABOVE"
>
>By Berta Joubert
>
>"295 Days of Peace taken from the Oppressor,"
>reads a sign
>at the entrance of the U.S. Naval Base `Camp
>Garc=A1a' in
>Vieques, Puerto Rico.
>
> The activists camping in front of the base
>update the
>sign daily, adding one more triumphant day
>without military
>exercises in the island--a result of their
>unrelenting fight
>against the U.S. Navy.
>
>The recent "agreement" imposed by the U.S. Navy
>and the
>Clinton administration upon Puerto Rican Gov.
>Pedro Rosell=A2
>has only added more determination to those
>participating in
>the civil-disobedience actions--which they
>prefer to call
>acts of civil "rescuing."
>
>The agreement, manufactured by the Navy, calls
>for a
>referendum among the people in Vieques to decide
>between
>only two choices: either accept military
>exercises with live
>ammunition forever, or accept them with inert
>ammunition and
>the withdrawal of U.S. forces in three years.
>
>However, the Navy brass have made it clear that
>they have
>no intention of leaving. In a joint news
>release, Navy
>Secretary Richard Danzig, Naval Operations Chief
>Adm. Jay
>Johnson and Infantry Corps Chief Commander Gen.
>James L.
>Jones wrote, "We hope that, with time, the
>relationship
>between the Navy and the people of Vieques will
>improve to
>the point where their needs will mutually
>accommodate."
>
>It is the Navy that will dictate the date of the
>referendum--any time between nine months before
>or after May
>1. The Navy will choose the time most beneficial
>to its
>aims.
>
>Again, Danzig, in a show of arrogance and
>contempt toward
>the people of Vieques, said, "I think it is
>useful for the
>people of Puerto Rico in general and of Vieques
>in
>particular to have some time to talk among
>themselves and to
>evolve their position in respect to this."
>
>But the people of Vieques have suffered and
>talked about
>the Navy for over 60 years now--and have decided
>that the
>Navy must go.
>
>`NONE OF THE ABOVE!'
>
>The idea of a referendum is not new in Vieques.
>For years,
>many on the island have expressed their view
>that the United
>States will manipulate the votes by including
>U.S. Navy
>personnel and their sympathizers in the
>referendum.
>
>Ismael Guadalupe, leader of the Committee for
>the Rescue
>and Development of Vieques, said that U.S.
>mainland citizens
>who live or have properties in Vieques are
>already taking
>steps to register to vote.
>
>His group, in the forefront of the struggle, has
>been
>conducting an educational campaign on the
>island, orienting
>its people on the consequences of a referendum.
>They
>recently drove a car caravan through
>neighborhoods,
>distributing informational fliers on the issue.
>
>And they are planning an orientation public
>meeting. They
>are discussing ways to respond, including a
>lawsuit and a
>boycott of the referendum.
>
>They are particularly outraged that there is not
>even
>mention of a third alternative in the referendum-
>-"None of
>the Above."
>
>Disobedience encampments in the restricted
>military areas
>are being beefed up and the construction of a
>permanent town
>in the area is advancing. Outside, on the Big
>Island of
>Puerto Rico, the reaction to the agreement has
>been equally
>strong.
>
>Plans for a Feb. 21 demonstration against the
>Navy and the
>agreement are gaining momentum. Students and
>organizations
>at all levels are regrouping and reorganizing to
>deal with
>this newest challenge, finding ways to repudiate
>the
>agreement.
>
>COLONIALISM UNMASKED
>
>This is also an election year in which the new
>governor
>and mayors will be elected from one of the three
>bourgeois
>parties. In Puerto Rico these parties represent
>the three
>different positions on the status question.
>
>The current administration of Pedro Rosell=A2 from
>the PNP
>is seen by all outside his party--and maybe
>within it, yet
>silent--as a traitor to the people of Puerto
>Rico for his
>acceptance of the agreement on Vieques.
>
>He is also the personification of privatization,
>which in
>Puerto Rico after the telephone workers'
>"People's Strike"
>has remained a four-letter word that has brought
>too much
>misery and layoffs.
>
>They are the pro-statehood New Progressive Party
>(PNP),
>the "stay the colony as is" Popular Democratic
>Party (PPD),
>and the pro-independence Puerto Rican
>Independence Party
>(PIP). Vieques is top on all their agendas.
>Until Rosell=A2
>broke the consensus, there has been united
>opposition to the
>Navy's presence in Vieques.
>
>Many accuse the governor of "back-dealing" the
>Vieques
>agreement in return for political favors--meaning the
>endorsing of the statehood for Puerto Rico by President Bill
>Clinton.
>
>Clinton, for his part, has asked the U.S. Congress to
>extend the industrial tax credits for U.S. companies
>established in Puerto Rico until the year 2008. He also
>asked for $118 million for a train project for Puerto Rico,
>the disbursement of taxes on rum owed to the island, an
>inflationary adjustment of the Food Assistance Program, the
>payment of $114 million collected by U.S. Customs on imports
>to Puerto Rico, and $2.5 million for a plebiscite on the
>nation's status.
>
>Both Clinton and Rosell=A2 hope all this will mutually
>benefit their parties in the coming elections.
>
>The PPD, being the colonial party, has shown its
>contradictions. Its forces mostly reject the agreement. But
>they are divided about participation in the civil-
>disobedience actions.
>
>Commonwealth--colony--status has always won in every
>referendum. However, referenda that would institute "English
>only" as the official language on the island or that would
>strip its people of their nationhood have always been
>defeated.
>
>The PIP is running Rub=82n Berr=A1os, whose credibility has
>grown as a result of his consistent camping in the
>restricted area since last May. Berrios--a social democrat--
>was just named president of the Socialist International.
>
>Vieques has brought the status question to the forefront.
>It clearly exposes the crude reality of a colonized nation:
>powerlessness, forced and manipulated consultations,
>disregard and contempt for its people, and the
>super-
>exploitation of its workers.
>
>But the status and the ousting of the Navy from
>Vieques
>cannot be achieved through voting. It will be
>won the way
>precious and lasting victories are won--in the
>streets.
>
>U.S. Navy out of Vieques now!
>
> - 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)
>
>
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 00:36:07 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>Content-transfer-encoding: Quoted-printable
>Subject: [WW] Mexico City: Cops Raid Campus
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 17, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>MEXICO CITY: COPS RAID CAMPUS. STUDENTS VOW TO
>CONTINUE STRIKE
>
>By Leslie Feinberg
>
>Hundreds of federal police took control of the main campus
>of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in
>Mexico City in the early hours of Feb. 6. The police raid
>aimed at ending the strike launched by almost 300,000 UNAM
>students last April. But students vow that their strike
>action will continue.
>
>More than 700 students were reportedly arrested in the
>pre-dawn raid. No one was reported injured. Students raised
>their fists or flashed the "V" for victory sign as they were
>led out by police armed only with clubs and riot shields.
>
>Family members and supporters attempted to block the
>rented tourist buses that were commandeered by police to
>take the students to jail.
>
>BEGAN OVER TUITION
>
>The strike first ignited when the university
>administration tried to impose restrictive tuition. The
>student strike finally forced the administration to back
>down from the tuition charges on Jan. 6 and the UNAM rector
>resigned. But the students continued to press for
>fundamental democratic reforms of the university. Their
>struggle won support from broad sectors of Mexican society.
>
>This prolonged struggle comes at a time when "Mexican
>workers have lost 25 percent of their purchasing power since
>the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement," according to
>an article by UNITE garment union president Jay Mazur in the
>January/February issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Behind
>this dry statistic is growing desperation and rebelliousness
>among the Mexican masses.
>
>Increasingly, a college education is needed just to earn a
>living wage. Access to education has become a major working-
>class issue in Mexico.
>
>Reporting on the Feb. 6 raid, the New York Times noted
>that "the operation today demonstrated the government's
>resolve to end the strike, which had in recent weeks become
>Mexico's premier political issue, eclipsing even the
>presidential election campaign."
>
>But 800 members of the UNAM
>General Strike Council (CGH) met at the Autonomous
>University of Mexico-Xochimilco on Feb. 8 to declare that
>the strike is "still underway." They demanded first and
>foremost the "immediate and absolutely unconditional release
>of all of our imprisoned compa=A4eros."
>
>The students stressed, "The government and the rector are
>mistaken if they think that the detention of nearly a
>thousand members of the CGH--political prisoners--and
>unleashing a witch hunt are going to stop this movement."
>
>The daily La Jornada reported on Feb. 8 that more than 80
>organizations had declared their support for the CGH,
>including the Zapatistas and many unions. The Zapatistas,
>centered in the rural state of Chiapas, are one of several
>organizations in Mexico leading struggles, often armed, in
>defense of the rights of poor Indigenous farmers against the
>big landowners and police.
>
>The courts freed the majority of the student prisoners
>within days of the campus takeover by police. But scores of
>other youth remain behind bars awaiting trial on more
>serious charges.
>
>Protests quickly spread to demand freedom for the jailed
>strikers. Loved ones and other supporters held militant
>demonstrations on Feb. 6 and 7 outside the federal police
>headquarters and the North Penitentiary in Mexico City where
>most of the youths were held.
>
>Faculty and students at the Metropolitan Autonomous
>University in northwestern Mexico City staged a one-day
>support strike on Feb. 8. Students at the two other campuses
>of that university are also voting on whether to join the
>demonstration, according to a Feb. 8 Associated Press
>report. Students at other universities also demonstrated
>their support for the imprisoned strikers.
>
> - 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)
>
>
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 00:37:43 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>Subject: [WW] Haider & Austria: Street Fighting Erupts
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 17, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>HAIDER AND AUSTRIA: STREET FIGHTING ERUPTS AGAINST
>NEW RIGHTIST REGIME
>
>By John Catalinotto
>
>Thousands of people have been marching in the streets of
>Vienna and other Austrian cities since Feb. 4, battling
>police with unusual militancy. They are protesting the new
>regime in which an openly anti-immigrant, ultra-right
>electoral party with Nazi roots has been brought into the
>government.
>
>Many around the world are asking if this development in
>Austria will mean an upsurge of neo-Nazi attacks on the
>working class, especially immigrants and minorities.
>
>Political activists and revolutionaries are also asking if
>the new government's expected anti-worker offensive will
>arouse mass protest from labor unionists. And can these
>protests go beyond the limitations of the Social Democrats
>and become clearly anti-capitalist?
>
>On Feb. 4, Austrian President Thomas Klestil swore in a
>coalition government of the conservative People's Party and
>the ultra-right Freedom Party. Each party had won 52
>parliamentary seats in the fall election. Together their 104
>votes make up a majority of the 189 members of the Austrian
>parliament.
>
>Sharply breaking with Austrian tradition, this is the
>first time since the 1970s that the Social Democrats are not
>the backbone of the regime. The Social Democrats have been
>the leading party in a "grand coalition" with the Peoples
>Party since 1986. It was called the "red-black" coalition
>after the two parties' colors.
>
>But even more important, this is the first time the so-
>called Freedom Party will be part of the government since
>the racist demagogue Joerg Haider took over its presidency
>and associated it with Austria's Nazi past. This is now
>called the "blue-black" government, since the Freedom
>Party's color is blue. Haider himself does not have a post
>in the new government.
>
>The new regime aroused diplomatic protest from Western
>European capitals and Washington, with threats to cut
>tourism to Austria. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
>Albright said Haider's actions were "unacceptable."
>
>The anti-immigrant policies of most of these imperialist
>governments and their recent genocidal wars against Iraq and
>Yugoslavia, however, disqualify them as honest opponents of
>Haider.
>
>The mass revulsion to the regime, however, is honest. On
>the first day some 4,000 people gathered to protest at the
>parliament building, where they battled police. Police
>reports claimed 40 cops and 13 protesters were injured and
>"several police vehicles damaged."
>
>Even after Social Democratic leaders criticized this
>militancy and tried to call off the protests, thousands
>gathered at parliament on Feb. 5 and then marched, first to
>FP headquarters and then the march swelled as it went
>through immigrant communities. Some marches grew as large as
>20,000 strong.
>
>There have also been anti-Haider protests in Paris and
>Berlin.
>
>CONDITIONS IN AUSTRIA
>
>Austria is no longer the center of an empire, as it was
>before World War I. Its 7.8 million people enjoy high living
>standards. Unemployment is lower there than in most of the
>European Union.
>
>Austria was a legally neutral capitalist state bordering
>on and competing with the socialist camp during the Cold
>War. As a result, the Social-Democratic-led governments had
>to concede many social benefits, including job security,
>health care and retirement income, to Austria's workers.
>
>But since the counter-revolution in Eastern Europe, the
>Austrian capitalists have begun chipping away workers'
>social benefits. This accelerated as the Austrian regime cut
>government expenses to satisfy the European Union's rules
>for joining the single European currency, the Euro.
>
>At the same time, the regime moved toward militarizing and
>participating in the planned European Defense Force and in
>NATO--a taboo under the Austrian Constitution. A popular War
>Crimes Tribunal in early December condemned regime members
>for aiding and abetting NATO's war against Yugoslavia.
>
>Most Austrian workers belong to unions. The union
>leadership has close ties to the Social Democratic
>establishment. Instead of fighting the social-service cuts
>and militarism, this leadership went along with them.
>
>Now Austrians feel less secure economically. They consider
>both the politicians and the labor leaders as parasites
>interested only in their own personal advancement.
>
>HAIDER'S ROOTS
>
>In the absence of a strong left-wing opposition, many are
>susceptible to Haider's program of scapegoating immigrants.
>Haider poses as an anti-establishment populist. He won over
>40 percent of the vote to become governor of Carinthia, and
>the Freedom Party won an unprecedented 27 percent in last
>fall's national election.
>
>Haider's parents were active Nazis in Nazi-led Austria.
>Haider himself has prais ed Hitler's employment policies,
>called SS officers "good men" and described Nazi
>concentration camps as "punishment" camps. But when these
>statements hurt his political opportunities, he publicly
>apologized.
>
>Some 9 percent of Austria's population are immigrants.
>About 46 percent of them are from the former Yugoslavia and
>another 19 percent from Turkey. (Feb. 5 Christian Science
>Monitor) Like immigrants in the United States, they tend to
>do the hardest jobs--although in Austria most will at least
>be in labor unions. Also as in the United States, they are
>the target of xenophobic and racist attack.
>
>Haider blames immigrants for Austria's problems. He calls
>Yugoslavs "burglars" and demands that the "over-
>foreignization" of Austria be stopped. He sounds like a
>California racist pushing an "English-only" referendum, or
>maybe like a more successful Patrick Buchanan.
>
>Under this pressure from the right, the Social-Democratic-
>led coalition has already cut legal immigration from 15,000
>to 8,000 people per year.
>
>The Revolutionary Communist League, which is active in the
>anti-Haider demonstrations, points out that Haider's Freedom
>Party is not fascist in the classical sense. The FP is an
>electoral party, not a mass reactionary movement born out of
>social crisis. Unlike Hitler's Nazis, the FP has not trained
>reactionary gangs to physically combat the workers and
>immigrants.
>
>The FP-PP coalition wants to put on an express track the
>same "neoliberal" policies the Social Democrat-led coalition
>was carrying out slowly.
>
>According to an anti-Haider leaflet distributed by the
>Movement for Social Liberation, the new regime plans to
>raise co-payments for medical procedures to 20 percent, cut
>pensions, especially to injured workers, and increase taxes
>on cigarettes and gasoline. It aims to reduce wages--as in
>the United States--and subsidize the capitalists instead.
>
>The capitalists of course like this part. But if the FP
>program also arouses militant opposition from the workers,
>bourgeois enthusiasm for the coalition could be short-lived.
>
> - 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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