> > WW News Service Digest #87 > > 1) La Riva in Cuba: U.S. Top Human Rights Violator > by [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 2) Albert Nuh Washington, Presente! > by [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 3) Media vs. Mumia > by [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the May 11, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >LA RIVA IN CUBA: "U.S. IS NO. 1 VIOLATOR OF HUMAN RIGHTS" > >[Following are excerpts from Gloria La Riva's speech at >the May Day rally in Havana, Cuba. La Riva spoke >representing the National Committee to Return Elian Home to >his Father in Cuba. She is also Workers World Party's >candidate for U.S. vice-president.] > > > >It is with great feelings of solidarity and joy that I >join you today here in Cuba, the first free territory of >the Americas. International Workers Day was born in the >United States but the imperialists have virtually outlawed >its celebration there in order to separate the U.S. working >class from our class brothers and sisters around the world. >But international solidarity cannot be dismissed or >destroyed no matter how hard the reactionaries try. > >There are many countries in the world with a bigger >population, bigger territory, or bigger economy than Cuba. >But there are no countries that have greater prestige than >Cuba, and no leaders who are more respected and honored >than President Fidel Castro. The United States is a very >large country with great wealth, but it treats much of the >rest of the world like its slaves. > >What accounts for the great respect for Cuba in the world? >It is the revolution, a revolution that continues to live >and develop today, a socialist revolution which placed the >land, the resources and the destiny of Cuba in the hands of >the working class. The only true path to freedom is the >path of socialism! > >Today we have the special satisfaction of knowing that >Elian is reunited with his father and family. Our >satisfaction will not be complete, however, until Elian, >Juan Miguel, Nersy and Hianny are once again on Cuban soil. > >The 40-year U.S. war against Cuba is continuing, as is the >heroic resistance of the Cuban people. At the same time >that the Clinton administration took the position that >Elian should be returned to his father, they were also >furiously maneuvering, using all kinds of bribes and >threats, to get a resolution passed in Geneva to condemn >Cuba for "violations of human rights." > >This outrageous charge was passed by a very close vote: 21 >yes, 18 no, and 14 abstentions. Look at some of the >countries that voted "yes": Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile >and Argentina. What do they have in common? All of them had >fascist military/death-squad regimes in recent decades, >regimes that together slaughtered hundreds of thousands, >tortured and imprisoned hundreds of thousands more, and >drove millions of their own citizens into forced exile. > >These are the judges of Cuba? Could anything be more >corrupt and ridiculous? > >What else do they have in common? All of those right-wing >death-squad regimes were funded and armed and supported by >the United States. > >The truth is that the number one violator of human rights >in the world today, without any doubt or question, is U.S. >imperialism, the same government that brought this >fraudulent charge against Cuba. > >How many people has the United States killed in Iraq from >the bombing and 10 years of sanctions? Yugoslavia was >brutally bombed for 78 days for refusing to be part of >NATO's expansion. > >And it is not only internationally that the U.S. grossly >violates the most basic human rights. Today millions are >homeless in the U.S., the richest country in the world. >Fifty percent of all African American children--and 26 >percent of all children--live in poverty. Fifty million >people have no health care--no health care at all! Public >education is rapidly deteriorating, while violence in >schools has escalated. > >This is the "freedom" the right wing wants to give Elian! > >Today, 2 million people are imprisoned in the U.S., the >majority of them African Americans, Latinos and other >people of color--six times as many people as just 20 years >ago. Nearly 4,000 wait on death row, many of them innocent. > >Many people in the U.S. are carrying out a great campaign >to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Black revolutionary >falsely accused and convicted, who is imprisoned in >Pennsylvania. Known as the "voice of the voiceless," Mumia >represents not just one person, but all of those struggling >against the racist, anti-poor death penalty. > >It is U.S. imperialism, not revolutionary Cuba, which >deserves to be placed in the dock of history. We >congratulate the Cuban government and people for holding >hearings on the crimes of the U.S. rulers, for having the >courage to speak the truth for 41 years, only 90 miles from >the greatest enemy of humanity. > > - 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: Wed, 3 May 2000 22:31:45 -0400 >Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII >Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT >Subject: [WW] Albert Nuh Washington, Presente! >Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the May 11, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >ALBERT NUH WASHINGTON, REVOLUTIONARY FIGHTER FOR >JUSTICE > >By Greg Butterfield >New York > >Albert Nuh Washington, one of the New York 3 defendants >and a lifelong fighter against racism and capitalism, died >of liver cancer April 28 at the Coxsackie Correctional >Facility in New York. The political prisoner had served 28 >years of a 25-years-to-life sentence. > >His comrade Sundiata Acoli said of him: "Nuh is beloved by >all of us PP/ POWs, and he's highly respected." > >Nuh, Anthony Jalil Bottom and Herman Bell were framed for >the murder of two New York police officers as part of the >U.S. government's war against the Black liberation >movement. > >After the revelation of the FBI's covert domestic terror >campaign COINTELPRO, new evidence came to light proving the >three men's innocence. But New York continues to hold >Bottom and Bell behind bars. > >Gov. George Pataki refused a community appeal for Nuh's >release on grounds of terminal illness. > >In a 1998 essay Nuh recalled: "I became exposed to Pan >Africanism at an early age in the house of my grandmother, >who rented rooms to African and West Indian students. For >the African students the subject of independence was always >at the forefront of their conversations. > >"Words like communist and socialist were used to describe >persons who wanted a government based upon social and >political equality. So at a young age I became socially >conscious." > >He remembered: "In my teens I began to listen to the >Nationalists who spoke on the street corners of Harlem, >while Black newspapers reported the lynchings of Blacks in >the Southern states. > >"Long before Malcolm X said there should be an eye for an >eye, my mother impressed upon me the right of self-defense >and like for like. So it was inevitable that I would end up >at odds with the system of white supremacy." > >Nuh went on to become a member of the Black Panther Party. >Later he went underground with the Black Liberation Army. > >After his capture Nuh continued to closely follow world >political developments. He devoted much of his time to >analyzing the lessons of the BPP and BLA experience in >order to help future revolutionary generations. > >Nuh will have a traditional Muslim burial. For information >readers can call the Jericho Movement at (718) 657-9572. A >public memorial service is also planned. > >Comrade Albert Nuh Washington, presente! > > - 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: Wed, 3 May 2000 22:33:24 -0400 >Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 >Content-transfer-encoding: Quoted-printable >Subject: [WW] Media vs. Mumia >Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the May 11, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >MEDIA VS. MEDIA: WHY THEY CENSOR "VOICE OF THE >VOICELESS" > >By Fred Goldstein > >Here's how it works in the United States. > >Look in any government directory and you will find no >Ministry of Information. No one is legally required to >submit articles to an office of censorship before >publication. > >Yet the organs of censorship exist. And they are all the >more powerful precisely because they don't officially exist >and therefore cannot easily be targeted. > >On the weekend of April 29-30, what you might call the >Ministry of Misinformation and Disinformation--or in this >case, No Information--gave another demonstration of its >power in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. On April 29 a >standing-room-only crowd gathered at Antioch College, a >small, prestigious private college in Ohio, to hear Mumia's >taped commencement address. Sharing the program was Leslie >Feinberg, a transgendered activist and managing editor of >Workers World newspaper, and an ardent supporter of Mumia. > >The event could hardly have been more newsworthy. A Black >death-row prisoner taking on the role of educator, giving a >commencement speech to a majority white, middle-class >audience of academically advanced students. What more could >the news media, ever in search of the novel, the >sensational, the startling, have wanted in their perpetual >rating wars? > >And, in fact, there was a swirl of controversy-weeks of >threats of violence from the Fraternal Order of Police. >Then a white supremacist group entered the fray against >Mumia and the students. > >The organizers started receiving many interested phone >calls from the media, including ABC World News/Weekend >Edition. Informed they were coming, the students prepared >for the logistical problems of a press encampment. > >But at the last minute, only Fox News of Philadelphia and >an Ohio network showed up. > >When the day was over, the opinion makers of the >capitalist class were all in lockstep. The real corporate >Ministry of Information--the New York Times, Washington >Post, the Los Angeles Times, Dan Rather of CBS News, Peter >Jennings of ABC, Tom Brokaw of NBCchosen not to print or >utter one syllable about the event. > >Fox News and CNN reportedly gave it a few seconds. The >Associated Press put several modest-sized stories on the >wires. They even appended the text of Mumia's excellent >six-minute speech. So the information was available. But it >was suppressed. > >Mumia is an internationally known Black journalist. His >cause is so obviously just and politically important that >it has been taken up by much of the world movement. Amnesty >International has declared him a political prisoner and is >campaigning for a new trial. So the utter fear of the high >and mighty U.S. billionaire media giants of this one Black >man on death row is worthy of analysis. > >Their fear bespeaks a profound feeling of vulnerability on >the part of the ruling class and is, ironically, a sign of >the greatest hope for Mumia's case and for the struggle. > >What did Mumia tell the students at Antioch that so >frightened the censors? > >First he summarized the individual contributions of >fighters like Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Paul Robeson, >W.E.B. Du Bois, Ella Baker and Angela Davis. > >He then concluded by saying, "Although they are and were >extraordinary individuals, they worked with movements that >truly transformed consciousness and how we look at the >world. Their lives teach us all what it means to betray >one's class, to contribute to the movements that have >meaning, and to work on behalf of the oppressed." He urged >the students to "think of the lives of those you admire. >Show your admiration for them by becoming them." > >FROM EVERGREEN TO ANTIOCH > >What is notable in the way the media tried to make this >very important occasion into a non-event is the sharp >contrast with the way they had handled Mumia's commencement >address to Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., last >June 11. That event got significant publicity in the >capitalist media. The viciously hostile title of "convicted >cop killer" was dropped and Mumia's international >reputation was referred to on the networks. > >College President Jane Jervis was quoted in the New York >Times of June 12, 1999, as saying that Mumia had used his >talents to "galvanize an international conversation about >the death penalty, the disproportionate number of Blacks on >death row, and the relationship between poverty and the >criminal justice system." > >She was further quoted as saying that "Abu-Jamal is a >`convicted cop killer' only in the same sense that Nelson >Mandela was a `convicted terrorist.' Abu-Jamal was >fraudulently convicted and framed." > >The message Mumia sent to the Evergreen students was >similar to the one he gave at Antioch. He extolled Malcolm >X, Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton, MOVE bombing >survivor Ramona Africa and other militants, and applauded >"people of diverse ideologies and lifestyles who shared >something in common: a commitment to revolution." > >He told them that "the existing order is not amenable to >real, meaningful and substantial transformation. Out of the >many here assembled, it is the heart of he or she that I >seek who looks at a life of vapid materialism, of >capitalist excess, and finds it simply intolerable. It may >be 100 of you, or 50, or even 10, or even one of you who >make that choice [to become committed to revolution]. I'm >here to honor and applaud that choice, and to warn you >that, though the suffering may indeed be great, it is >nothing to the joy of doing the right thing." > >One can only conclude that just one year ago the bourgeois >media did not feel any qualms about publicizing such an >event. They undoubtedly considered the Evergreen >development a harmless aberration. They reacted to it as a >news opportunity and gave the impression that there might >be some reconsideration of their previous vicious policy of >slander and silence. > >But then came Seattle! > >RULING CLASS FEAR OF NEW MOVEMENT > >Suddenly a new movement had surfaced. It was composed of >thousands of youth who were indeed fed up with the >"existing order" and were finding "a life of vapid >materialism" and "capitalist excess" totally intolerable. >And they were showing it by an act of rebellion against >that order, as represented by the World Trade Organization. > >It turned out that when the Evergreen students turned to >Mumia for guidance, it was not a harmless aberration but a >true harbinger. It turned out that Mumia had his finger >directly on the pulse of a new development and did all he >could to inspire it at the time. And he fully understood >what was on the students' minds, where they were at, and >how to help them make the next step to open a struggle. > >This is what the media moguls and their political >strategists learned, which is why this time they conspired >to block out Antioch. They want to keep the powerful, >persuasive and knowledgeable "voice of the voiceless" from >reaching the new movement, as well as the Black community >and the restless ranks of the labor movement-particularly >at this moment of instability in the stock market and fears >of an economic bust. > >But it is already too late. It is no longer within the >power of the capitalist media to keep Mumia's voice from >the growing resistance movement. More and more people are >taking up the cause of Mumia and amplifying his voice. > >The power of the people will soon force the media and the >entire capitalist establishment to deal with Mumia. > >SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER > >The phrase "speaking truth to power" aptly describes >Mumia's instransigent advocacy of struggle and exposures of >the ruling class, even as he remains in their bloodthirsty >clutches. > >Mumia's is the ideology of resistance to all aspects of >the racist, repressive order of capitalism and imperialism. >His message falls upon the movement and the new generation >like fresh rain on parched soil. > >When the Seattle demonstrations took place, he wrote, "The >specter of tens of thousands of workers, environmentalists, >human-rights activists and anarchists seizing the streets >of Seattle was a stirring sight indeed." He characterized >the police declaration of the "protest-free zone" as the >"First Amendment-free Zone" and asked, "In whose interest >was this cordon sanitaire established? The citizens of >Seattle, or the moneyed gentry of global capital?" > >His conclusion about Seattle was that "it revealed the >fault line underlying the lie of the great `economic >miracle' of the 1990s. It revealed the justifiable fears of >American workers. It revealed who politicians work for. It >revealed the nature of the police. It can, it should be a >beginning." > >Mumia has spoken out on every issue important to the >movement and the struggle. He has condemned the U.S. >occupation of Vieques; declared solidarity with the Puerto >Rican political prisoners; called for the freedom of >Leonard Peltier, a "spiritual warrior, guilty only of >daring to be Indian in a nation where red people weren't >really supposed to survive." He has championed the return >of Eli=A0n Gonz=A0lez and declared Cuba to be "the free >territory in the Americas." > >On the occasion of Texas's execution of revolutionary >Black militant Ponchai Wilkerson, he issued a scathing >statement entitled "Abolish the Racist Death Machine." He >denounced the homophobic murder of Matthew Shepard, the >assassination of abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian. In >his analysis of the murder of Amadou Diallo, he carefully >juxtaposed it to the subsequent murder by the New York City >police of a Jewish man, Gideon Busch, who was mentally >disturbed and gunned down. "Busch's life," wrote Mumia, >Diallo's life, was expendable in the larger interests of >the consolidation and projection of state police power." > >He has issued a statement on the Los Angeles janitors' >strike in which he decries the fact that "corporate profits >are at an all-time high" and yet "those people who clean >the gleaming towers of wealth in urban cities are treated >like . trash and refuse" by the bosses. > >He characterized the war in Yugoslavia as "not about >ethnicity" and "not about genocide" but about "who will be >the boss of the next century." He exposed the U.S. >sanctions against Iraq that "transform Iraqi hospitals into >death chambers and mothers' wombs into tombs." It is all in >"the interests of the world's oil magnates and >multinationals, to discipline Iraq and wreak a deadly pall >over the rest of the Arab world, over any who dare proclaim >ownership and mastery over the oceans of oil that exist >under Arab earth." > >Mumia's political pronouncements and analyses, >miraculously generated from his tiny high-security cell on >death row, are both a genuine danger to the ruling class >and an inspiration that strengthens the movement against >capitalism and oppression. > >Mumia could not be facing the death penalty were it not >for rampant racism and the increasingly repressive nature >of the capitalist state. The ruling-class campaign to >divide the workers with racism is a principal prop of the >capitalist order at the present time. It is the cutting >edge of their attack on welfare, the super-exploitation of >immigrant workers, the spreading of low wages. It is what >lets them fill the jails with Black and Latin working-class >youths and revive the death penalty. > >The struggle against racism and repression thus becomes >the cutting edge of the struggle against capitalism at >home. There can be no greater contribution to this struggle >than to get Mumia a new trial and finally set him free. > > - 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) > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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