>
> WW News Service Digest #76
>
> 1) Kazakhstan workers' leader arrested
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 2) Celebration to feature Vietnamese
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 3) Socialists and China
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 4) More U.S. war crimes in Korea exposed
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 5) On the picket line: 4/20/2000
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Apr. 20, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>KAZAKHSTAN WORKERS' LEADER ARRESTED
>
>By Bill Wayland
>
>On April 6, Madel Ismailov, leader of the Kazakhstan
>Workers Movement and a former construction worker, was
>again imprisoned by the U.S.-backed dictatorship of
>Nursultan Nazarbaev. He has gone on hunger strike to
>protest his unconstitutional arrest.
>
>Ismailov is charged with "addressing an illegal meeting,"
>a rally against high prices and unemployment that was held
>on Jan. 30 in the city of Almaty. On that day secret police
>tried to grab Ismailov after the rally, but he was rescued
>by the crowd.
>
>On April 5, Ismailov was ordered to appear in court,
>although a statute of limitations on the charge against him
>had expired. When he arrived with his lawyer and friends,
>he was told that they would not be allowed to go to court
>with him. Ismailov refused to enter the court without
>representation and returned home. He was arrested the
>following morning and immediately sentenced to 15 days in
>prison. The last time Ismailov was arrested--in 1998 for
>"insulting the president"--he was also given a relatively
>short sentence, but the regime refused to release him. He
>was held for nearly a year in a concentration camp where he
>almost died. Another KWM activist died as a result of poor
>medical care in prison. Ismailov's friends and family feel
>his life is in danger.
>
>With 17 million people, Kazakhstan is the fourth most
>populous republic of the former Soviet Union. It is rich in
>oil and gas, and Exxon, Chevron and other U.S. oil
>companies have large investments there. But coal, steel and
>other industries that flourished in Soviet times have been
>demolished on orders of the International Monetary Fund,
>and whole regions of the country have been reduced to
>hunger. As in other former Soviet republics, life
>expectancy has plunged for working people. The prison
>population has mushroomed.
>
>The Kazakhstan Workers Movement was formed to resist the
>IMF-backed privatization policies of Nazarbayev's regime.
>Although it has met all stated requirements, the regime has
>refused to allow the KWM to register as a legal
>organization. On April 15, U.S. Secretary of State
>Madeleine Albright will visit Kazakhstan in a show of
>support for Nazarbayev's brutal anti-labor policies.
>
>Just before his latest arrest, Ismailov visited the United
>States as part of a delegation of Kazakhstan opposition
>leaders who met with members of Congress. While in the
>States, Ismailov visited New York City, where he was hosted
>by the International Action Center and met with former U.S.
>Attorney General Ramsey Clark. In New York he also walked a
>picket line to protest the police murder of unarmed Haitian
>immigrant Patrick Dorismond.
>
>The IAC is urging its friends and supporters to protest
>Ismailov's imprisonment. Faxes may be sent to President
>Nursultan Nazarbayev at 011-7-3172-326182, 011-7-3172-
>324769 or 011-7-3172-327274 and to Ambassador B. Nurgaliev
>at the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Washington
>at 202-232-5945. The embassy may be phoned at 202-232-5488.
>Protests can also be faxed to U.S. Ambassador at Large for
>Central Asia Stephen Sestanovich at the U.S. State
>Department at 202-736-4710. Protest letters may also be e-
>mailed to the IAC ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and the IAC will
>fax them.
>
> - 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: <008801bfa990$37a61800$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Celebration to feature Vietnamese
>Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 19:45:46 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Apr. 20, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>CELEBRATION TO FEATURE VIETNAMESE
>
>It has been a quarter of a century since the thrilling
>news flashed around the world: the Vietnamese, in a
>lightning move, had finally liberated Saigon. The remaining
>U.S. personnel were scrambling onto helicopters on the roof
>of the U.S. Embassy. The flag of the National Liberation
>Front flew over the whole country.
>
>The victory came after generations of war and suffering
>imposed on the Vietnamese people by many would-be
>conquerors: France, Japan and finally the United States.
>
>Representatives of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam will
>join anti-war activists in New York on April 30 to
>celebrate the 25th anniversary of the end of the war. A
>teach-in from 12:30 to 5:30 will be followed by an evening
>celebration at 6 p.m. The event will take place at the
>Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, 30 W. 68th St. See the web
>site www.vietnam25.org for more details.
>
>--Deirdre Griswold
>
> - 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: <008e01bfa990$4c843220$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Socialists and China
>Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 19:46:21 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Apr. 20, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>SOCIALISTS AND CHINA:
>
>"LET'S STRUGGLE TO END U.S. PRESSURE
>ON ONE-FIFTH OF THE HUMAN RACE"
>
>[Speech by WW Editor Deirdre Griswold to a panel on China
>at the Socialist Scholars Conference, April 2.]
>
>
>
>I'm here as the representative of a party that makes no
>apologies for its long support of the Chinese Revolution,
>including the early building of the communes and the aims
>of the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. We were inspired
>by and supported the attempts by the Maoist leadership to
>revive revolutionary Marxism in the world communist
>movement.
>
>We viewed the transition from the Mao period to the
>leadership of Deng Xiaoping, and the reforms he instituted,
>as a shift to the right--by the right, I mean, of course,
>within the context of the Communist movement, which has a
>left, a right and a center.
>
>Today, however, I'm here to defend China from the campaign
>against it that is reaching a fever pitch in the United
>States. I'm here in solidarity with the People's Republic
>and with the Chinese Communist Party.
>
>On April 12, members of Workers World Party will be in
>Washington to reach out to workers at an AFL-CIO
>demonstration there to tell them: China is not your
>problem. Your problem is the capitalist class right here in
>the United States.
>
>That's who's responsible for the low wages, for the
>layoffs and plant closings. That's who is depriving you of
>medical coverage and a decent pension. Shouldn't this be
>ABC for any labor leader?
>
>The union leaders have called this demonstration to oppose
>normal trade relations between the United States and China.
>In effect, they are calling for sanctions on China, and for
>keeping it out of the World Trade Organization, under the
>slogan "No blank check for China."
>
>They accuse China of having sweatshops, low wages and
>unpaid prison labor. We will say to the workers at that
>demonstration, "If you really care about the workers in
>China, then you will struggle to end U.S. pressure and
>hostility against that country, not increase it."
>
>China, with one-fifth of the world's population, has the
>right to join any world body. For years, the United States
>prevented the rightful government of China from taking its
>seat in the United Nations. We all know that the
>imperialists dominate the UN. Was that any reason why
>leftists should oppose China's membership?
>
>The same thing goes for the World Trade Organization.
>What's wrong with that body is that the imperialists
>dictate the terms of world trade. That's what we have to be
>against.
>
>There are two basic reasons why we, a revolutionary
>Marxist party in the United States that is fighting for
>socialism, support China today. One is because China as a
>nation is still in a struggle to retain and exercise its
>independence in a world dominated by the United States and
>other imperialist powers.
>
>In that sense, China, despite its vast population and the
>tremendous strides it has taken to modernize its economy,
>is still, in Leninist language, an oppressed nation. It
>still must struggle every day to eradicate the poverty and
>underdevelopment that come from a century of having been
>invaded and looted by the colonialist and imperialist
>powers.
>
>It is under constant military pressure from the Pentagon,
>which has ships and bases all over the area and is even
>threatening to establish a missile defense system on
>Taiwan--which is part of China.
>
>The United States has fought two major wars on China's
>borders--one in Korea and another in Vietnam, Cambodia and
>Laos. The CIA trained a mercenary force of Tibetan counter-
>revolutionaries in the mountains of Colorado for many
>years. Even though the U.S. government's official position
>is to recognize one China--including Taiwan--and its
>territorial integrity, nevertheless a constant campaign
>emanates from here to "Free Tibet," meaning separate it
>from China.
>
>So just from the point of view of the right of all nations
>to live and develop free of imperialist threats and
>intervention, we must support China.
>
>The second reason we are here in defense of China is that
>the present Chinese state and social structure were created
>by a great revolution, one of the greatest the world has
>ever seen. That revolution uprooted the old system by
>expropriating the propertied classes--the landlords and
>most of the capitalists. The state structures created in
>that epic struggle, beginning with the Long March, were
>based on the workers and peasants. China has changed a
>great deal since liberation, but that state has not been
>broken up or defeated in a counter-revolution.
>
>If it had, believe me, we all would know it. The same pack
>of wolves that is now savaging the former Soviet Union
>would be fighting over the choicest parts of China. The
>state-owned sector of the economy, including the basic
>infrastructure for modern industry and commerce, would be
>torn down, chopped up, or just allowed to rust away.
>China's financial institutions, which control the lifeblood
>of commerce and investment, would fall under the control of
>the imperialist banks. The workers and peasants would be
>faced with a crisis of unimaginable proportions.
>
>This is what has happened all over the former USSR and
>Eastern Europe. It is not what is happening in China.
>
>Let me make our position very clear. We know that China
>has invited Western and Japanese capital to invest in joint
>enterprises there, and that this investment now amounts to
>many hundreds of billions of dollars. We know that China
>has opened up a market in goods, labor and capital. And we
>know that, along with technology and access to world
>markets, all this inevitably brings inequality and the
>exploitation of workers.
>
>But China is not a capitalist country. The bourgeoisie
>does not have free rein there--the state that exists is not
>their state. Nor is it a comprador, puppet regime created
>by the imperialists to suit their interests.
>
>The question of which class controls the state is of the
>utmost importance.
>
>In the Soviet Union, the bourgeois counter-revolution took
>over the state in a cold coup after decades of erosion of
>the Party leadership. In China, that has not happened.
>
>The Chinese state reaffirmed its essentially socialist
>character in 1989, when it suppressed a counter-
>revolutionary movement. The danger from that movement went
>far beyond the seemingly innocent demonstration of students
>in Tiananmen Square.
>
>Remember that shortly after Mikhail Gorbachev went to
>Tiananmen to encourage that movement, what had been a
>peaceful standoff erupted into bloody fighting. Gorbachev
>himself was seen at that time by many socialists and
>communists, especially in the West, as a proponent of
>democratic socialism. Today he is one of the most hated
>people in Russia. He paved the way for the destruction of
>everything the workers in all the former Soviet republics
>built up over 70 years. He let the wolf in at the door.
>
>The most important thing about Tiananmen is that the
>socialist state drew the line, and said to the counter-
>revolution, "You shall not pass."
>
>I'm sure there has been a great deal of discussion and
>debate in China about how Tiananmen could have been
>avoided. And undoubtedly the collapse of the Soviet Union
>since then has opened many more eyes to the great dangers
>that it represented.
>
>It was very heartening to see last year that what brought
>the youths into the streets in China was not a pro-U.S.
>demonstration, but just the opposite: an outpouring of
>indignation all over the country at the U.S. bombing of
>China's Embassy in Belgrade during the vicious war against
>Yugoslavia.
>
>China today is feeding, clothing and housing one-fifth of
>the world's population. And this at a time when hundreds of
>millions of people elsewhere in Asia, in Africa and in
>Latin America are falling into desperate poverty, when
>countries that have been plundered for generations by
>imperialism are told that just the interest on their debt
>to the imperialist banks equals their gross national
>product--at a time like this, the people of China are
>making steady progress.
>
>As you have heard from our Chinese comrade today, and this
>is also confirmed in the capitalist press, China is
>developing its means of production, applying the
>scientific-technological revolution to agriculture as well
>as industry. Consumer goods are in much greater abundance.
>
>But there is a downside. The market that now exists in
>China has inevitably brought about class divisions. There
>is a new bourgeoisie. But there is also a large and growing
>proletariat--and that is a prerequisite for the further
>development of socialism.
>
>We in the United States who believe in socialism, and who
>know first-hand the most destructive effects of the
>capitalist market, worry that the socialist government will
>find it increasingly difficult to contain the problems
>caused by the market. It can do great damage to the
>solidarity of the masses, whose cooperation and hard work
>have done wonders when China had little else.
>
>But our worries have nothing in common with the attacks on
>China coming from capitalist politicians or the leaders of
>the union movement here.
>
>The anti-communism in some of the ads for the April 12
>rally sounds like the old Cold War days. It is totally a
>diversion from labor's task here.
>
>Do they want to fight sweatshops? The Latino and Asian
>garment workers in this city can show them plenty.
>
>Do they want to end forced prison labor? In this country's
>prison-industrial complex--one of the fastest-growing
>industries in the United States--the worker inmates, most
>of whom are people of color, cry out for help. How they
>would rejoice if labor decided to organize behind the bars!
>
>Any discussion of socialism and the world situation
>inevitably leads back to this country. When will the
>working-class movement here openly and boldly break with
>capitalist politics? When will unity be forged between the
>struggle against capitalist exploitation and the movements
>for national liberation and an end to racism?
>
>Will the political situation in the United States continue
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