>given to the courageous masses of women and other
>progressives who demon strated in the 1960s and 1970s for
>equal rights.
>
>Although the "glass ceiling" remains very thick, women
>have made tremendous strides in the sports world due to
>Title IX funding. In 1999, the U.S. Women's Soccer Team won
>the World Cup, dubbing themselves "The Title IX Team."
>
>Such women as Dot Richardson, the shortstop on the Gold
>Medal softball team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and
>Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper and Chainique Holdsclaw of
>the Women's National Basketball Association All-Stars have
>demonstrated the power and strength of women athletes.
>Thousands of young girls now have athletic role models.
>
>Title IX legislation was not easily won. Even after its
>passage, Senators John Hightower and Jesse Helms proposed
>amendments and introduced bills to weaken its provisions.
>Fortunately, they were defeated--again a testimony to the
>powerful women's movement.
>
>Title IX did not just open up the doors to women's sports
>participation. Sexist discrimination prevented many college
>women from entering law or medical school at that time. The
>law requires that any high school or college receiving
>federal funds cannot discriminate on the basis of gender.
>Now, 40 percent of medical students are women.
>
>The benefits to women's participation in sports are many.
>Sports can teach the basics of camaraderie, discipline and
>healthy competitiveness. It has proven health benefits:
>lowering the incidence of obesity, osteoporosis, coronary
>artery disease, teen pregnancy, and breast cancer later in
>life. Immediate benefits include increasing teen self-
>esteem, academic grades, and ability to overcome shyness
>and teenage "blues." Girls and young women benefit from
>learning leadership skills and much needed "people skills."
>
>When Nixon signed the Act in 1972, only 31,000 U.S. women
>were involved in college sports. That number has tripled.
>
>Again, credit can be given to the women's liberation
>movement. Today 87 percent of parents--many of whom were
>influenced by the civil rights, women's and
>lesbian/gay/transgender/bisexual struggles--accept the idea
>that sports are equally important for boys and girls.
>
>This is an especially impressive statistic when understood
>in the context of the U.S., where the dominant culture has
>for so long lauded women's bodies for their sexuality
>rather than their physical fitness.
>
>SPORTS ARE BIG BUSINESS
>
>However, while the tremendous strides made due to Title IX
>are to be applauded, its limitations under the current
>profit-hungry capitalist system must be recognized. Sports,
>like all else in the U.S., is a business, one controlled by
>media monopolies such as Time/Life-Warner, Adelphia Cable
>and Turner Networks.
>
>Professional sports in all capitalist countries create and
>produce a product for consumption. As a business that
>exploits its workers, it produces surplus value, generates
>capital and--most importantly to the sports bosses--makes
>super profits.
>
>The media likes to dwell on the high salaries paid to some
>male sports superstars. But these salaries are small in
>comparison to the big franchises' mega-profits.
>
>For example, former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly's
>starting salary was $1 million per year during his career.
>In 1989, the Bills generated $6 million in season ticket
>sales, $600,000 in television ads during the first year of
>Kelly's contract and $250,000 in radio and newspaper ads.
>
>Salaries for women athletes lag far behind those of male
>counterparts. And for sports workers such as coaches and
>trainers, the salary gap becomes a huge chasm. When
>education and experience are equal, male coaches' yearly
>salaries average $95,711 as compared to female coaches'
>average of $41,149.
>
>One unintended effect of the fact that Title IX raised
>coaching salaries for women's teams was that it caused more
>men to apply. As a result, 1.9 percent of head coaches of
>men's teams are women, while 45 percent of women's team
>coaches are men.
>
>Budget figures for collegiate athletics show a similar
>pattern. Universities, largely run by men, recognize that
>men's sports are a powerful draw for fund raising and act
>accordingly. Some $184 million more are awarded yearly for
>men's athletic scholarships.
>
>But the days of acceptance of male athletic dominance are
>numbered. Women are fighting back.
>
>Heather Mercer, a Duke University senior, filed a sex
>discrimination suit against Duke for denying her an
>opportunity to place kick on the football team in 1997. A
>high school place-kicking champion, Mercer refused to be
>intimidated by Big Sports. Duke's coach claimed Mercer
>would be a "distraction" in uniform on the bench, though he
>always shoved her in front of the media as a token.
>
>And last year the Women's Champion Soccer Team went to the
>White House to call for sports parity. The women's movement
>benefited from the massive publicity that they generated.
>
>Only an economic system that is profit oriented has made
>women, people of color and lesbian and gay people feel like
>second-class citizens.
>
>Socialist countries have made physical fitness a part of
>every child's education. While the capitalist media
>frequently derided the German Democratic Republic women's
>prowess at the Olympics, U.S. teams could rarely compete
>with them. Chinese women gymnasts still rank among the most
>graceful and able in all the world.
>
>The young women who have benefited from Title IX funding
>will go on to lead other important struggles, in sports and
>many other areas. The confidence, discipline and fitness
>that they have gained will help to make them future leaders
>in the ongoing struggle for social progress.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <008901bf9139$f64d55d0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Progressive Haitians warn of 'coup by election'
>Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 19:27:51 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Mar. 23, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>PROGRESSIVE HAITIANS WARN OF `COUP BY ELECTION'
>
>By G. Dunkel
>
>The Provisional Electoral Council of Haiti, known by its
>French acronym CEP, has announced the postponement of local
>and parliamentary elections set for March 13.
>
>Some Western diplomats are tsk-tsking over a threat to
>democracy and international aid. But they and the corporate
>media are saying nothing about the role of the United
>States, in particular the State Department's Agency for
>International Development (USAID); its semiofficial
>subsidiary, the International Foundation for Electoral
>Systems (IFES); and its Canadian subcontractor, Code Inc.
>
>Haiti has no long tradition of formal, bourgeois
>elections. However, it did have a truly democratic election
>in 1990, when Jean-Bertrand Aristide, marshaling
>overwhelming popular support, became president in a
>smashing defeat for the U.S.-backed candidate. But then
>came a military coup. As part of an agreement to get the
>United States to return him to power, Aristide agreed not
>to extend his term to make up for the coup years. Ren�
>Pr�val was elected president in 1995.
>
>Parliamentary elections three years ago were basically
>fair, according to international observers. Aristide's
>party won most of the contested seats. The bourgeoisie in
>Haiti, and their backers in the United States, didn't want
>to accept this victory. A period of intense political
>maneuvering followed.
>
>USAID and IFES came up with an idea they felt they could
>sell to the Haitian bourgeoisie and the CEP. They would pay
>for a system of photo voter identification that would
>provide every Haitian with her or his own ID. The company
>called Code would ship and install the systems and provide
>the film and other materials needed. The total cost would
>be around $10 million.
>
>THE PLOT THICKENS
>
>Photo IDs are nothing new in developed nations, and even
>in many lesser developed nations. But most people in Haiti
>have never had their picture taken. The country is too
>poor. In fact, until last year most passports were
>handwritten.
>
>The National Peoples Party (PPN), a progressive nationwide
>popular organization in Haiti, early on pointed out that
>the purpose of these IDs was not really to identify voters.
>The CEP made sure that registration offices were few and
>far between. Workers doing the registration often were not
>paid. Sometimes the power went off, making the fancy
>Canadian ID machines worthless.
>
>The CEP claims that over 3 million people have already
>been registered. But many organizations doubt that
>assertion. They say this new system will actually keep many
>Haitians from being able to vote.
>
>"The CEP is making an ideological coup d'�tat by giving a
>lie every day," said Duclos B�nissoit, spokesperson for the
>public transportation drivers' union. He said that the
>figures being given by the CEP did not square with the
>quantity of materials given to the registration offices.
>
>PROTESTS AT CLOSED
>REGISTRATION OFFICES
>
>The people haven't taken this lying down. All over the
>country, protests and demonstrations were held in front of
>the closed registration offices, sometimes by voters and
>other times by employees who hadn't been paid. The CEP was
>accused of wanting to foment a civil war, of provoking mass
>violence by refusing to allow the masses a chance to vote.
>
>If the people can vote, they are not going to vote for the
>candidates of the bourgeoisie. But the United States knows,
>as does any realistic observer of Haiti, that Jean-Bertrand
>Aristide is going to be reelected president. He is by far
>the most popular politician in Haiti and other candidates
>for president don't stand a chance.
>
>The bourgeoisie's only hope is to stack the parliament
>with his opponents, tying him up before he even starts to
>run. They are also anxious to hold the parliamentary
>contest long before Aristide runs so he does not act like
>an "aircraft carrier" for the other candidates in his
>party.
>
>Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the PPN, said in a press
>conference on Feb. 21, "We think that the primordial
>responsibility for this situation which is developing falls
>on the CEP and also on USAID, a branch of the U.S.
>government and the IFES." He was referring to the violence,
>the protests, the disintegration of the rule of one person-
>one vote, the whole "coup by election," as he called it,
>that is unfolding.
>
>After CEP postponed the elections, the French ambassador
>chimed in that they shouldn't be delayed too long. Next was
>the turn of Canadian Ambassador Gilles Bernier to join the
>chorus with, "The delay should not be too long because that
>could cause the country a lot of problems," according to
>Reuters.
>
>The UN Security Council warned Haitian electoral
>authorities about the importance of "remaining close to the
>electoral calendar." On March 6, UN Secretary General Kofi
>Annan echoed the demand for "prompt, free and fair
>legislative and local elections for the restoration of
>Haiti's Parliament and for strengthening Haiti's
>democracy," according to his spokesperson.
>
>Progressive Haitians see these comments on their internal
>affairs as obnoxious and condescending, and warn they could
>serve as justification for further UN intervention in
>Haiti, even though the UN mandate in Haiti technically
>ended March 15.
>
>In this matter, as in so many others, the UN is merely
>serving as a front for the United States. Haiti is not a
>big economic stake for the U.S., but it is strategic. It is
>the country in the Caribbean with the deepest and strongest
>popular resistance to U.S. imperialism, outside of Cuba. No
>way does the U.S. want to see it slip even a bit from its
>grasp.
>
> - 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: <008e01bf913a$0c432180$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] French unions keep up militancy
>Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 19:28:28 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Mar. 23, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>TAX AND SMELTER WORKERS ON STRIKE
>
>FRENCH UNIONS KEEP UP MILITANCY
>
>By G. Dunkel
>
>Tax returns were due in France on March 15. But many
>didn't get in on time this year because the workers in the
>tax section of the Finance Ministry were on strike.
>
>In Paris, between 60 percent and 80 percent of the Tax
>Centers were out, according to L'Humanit�. Out of 850
>centers nationwide, said the union of tax workers, 400 were
>on strike. Of course, the ministry involved claimed a much
>lower figure, but taxpayers in the south of France were
>given an automatic extension.
>
>The system currently in place dates back to the time of
>Napoleon. It strictly separates the assessment and
>collection of taxes. The government was planning a
>restructuring that would affect about 140,000 workers.
>Until Minister of Finance Christian Sauter was faced by a
>growing strike that could severely cut tax collections, he
>saw no need to talk to the unions involved about the
>planned restructuring.
>
>Now he has suddenly found time to talk to the union, which
>is concerned that tens of thousands of the workers it
>represents are facing layoffs.
>
>OCCUPY ALUMINUM SMELTER
>
>Meanwhile, some 410 workers have been occupying the
>Pechiney aluminum smelter in Dunkirk since mid-February.
>They want a 35-hour week, which has been established as the
>normal work week in France, subject to local negotiations.
>
>Some 90 percent of the operators and 70 percent of the
>skilled workers have joined the strike. Besides a shorter
>work week, they want 40 more workers hired, 15 more days
>off for operators and 19 more days off for day workers.
>
>In the middle of February, the workers locked management
>out of the plant but kept on producing aluminum ingots to
>keep the machinery in working order. In a lawsuit to get
>entry back into the plant, management is claiming to have
>lost 40 million francs--about $8 million.
>
>Dominique Wailly, a delegate from the CGT, the most
>militant French union confederation, told Reuters-France,
>"Management proposed seven and then 14 givebacks, which
>would have produced a cut in our salaries, profit-sharing
>and seniority bonuses."
>
>The unions involved also pointed out to Reuters that 5,100
>workers have been laid off from this division over the past
>three years, saving the company three billion francs--about
>$600 million.
>
>Pechiney is a big multinational producer of basic
>industrial goods and chemicals. This plant in Dunkirk is
>one of its most profitable operations, even though workers
>there put in 350 hours less a year than the international
>average in the industry.
>
> - 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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