>
> WW News Service Digest #98
>
> 1) On the picket line: 5/25/00
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 2) Philadelphia protest hits police terror
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 3) International solidarity: Mumia supporters take to the streets
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 4) Vieques protesters challenge ban
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 5) Newsweek: Bombing Yugoslav civilian targets worked best
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 6) Cuban Adjustment Act: Eli�n's tragedy made in USA
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the May 25, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>ON THE PICKET LINE
>
>GLOVES OFF AT OSU
>
>For those who may still think universities are ivory
>towers, removed from the real world of the class struggle,
>consider Columbus, Ohio. There, some 2,000 service and
>maintenance workers at Ohio State University have been on
>strike since May 1. Each passing day brings dirtier anti-
>worker tactics by the administration. But each day also
>brings more support for the workers from students and the
>community. "This is not a depressing strike," said
>Communications Workers Local 4501 President Gary Josephson.
>
>Five days before the workers walked out, a group of
>students and other supporters walked in to Bricker Hall,
>the OSU administration building--and they have refused to
>leave. The occupiers say they will stay until there is a
>fair contract settlement. Other solidarity has come from
>poet Maya Angelou and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, both of
>whom canceled scheduled speaking dates at OSU rather than
>cross a picket line. The Council of Graduate Students
>passed a resolution urging everyone to boycott businesses
>that pay rent to OSU. Teachers have moved classes off
>campus--even in the face of a McCarthyite campaign by
>administrators urging students to anonymously name names of
>professors who support the strike.
>
>The university's other moves include using students as
>scab bus drivers. Not only are the student scabs put on the
>road with no special training, but OSU Transportation and
>Parking Services Director Sarah Blouch told the student
>newspaper the Lantern that "the student drivers are working
>more than 60 hours a week." Elsewhere on campus, truck
>drivers are refusing to deliver packages across strikers'
>picket lines--so administrators are forcing work-study
>students to hand-deliver mail.
>
>Solidarity, however, rules. Faculty, student and community
>supporters staged a daylong support event and teach-in on
>May 11. Backers included the AFL-CIO, American Association
>of University Professors, Afrikan Student Union, NAACP,
>Teamsters and others. And a major strike-support
>demonstration was set for May 15. Strikers and supporters
>planned to march from the union hall to City Hall. Outside
>City Hall, a rally was planned. Inside City Hall, workers
>were set to demand that local politicians go on record
>supporting the strike and denouncing OSU's attempts at
>union busting, and that they pass anti-scab and living-wage
>legislation.
>
>UC GRAD CONTRACT
>
>Labor is celebrating the victorious end to one of the
>longest-running organizing struggles in modern U.S.
>history. Seventeen years after they started fighting for
>union rights, graduate-student employees at the University
>of California have won a first contract. Ratification votes
>on the tentative pact between UC and the Auto Workers are
>set at eight UC campuses.
>
>"We're overjoyed," said Christian Sweeney of the union's
>UC Berkeley chapter. "We are ecstatic. It's been a long,
>hard road, but we're finally there."
>
>The contract provides a 9.5-percent wage increase over
>four years, retroactive to last October. For the first
>time, tuition will be completely waived for graduate
>employees. The union won language protecting the workers
>against being forced to work outlandish hours. Most
>important, UC now becomes the biggest university in the
>country with union rights and protections for graduate
>employees. As recently as December 1998, when the workers
>staged a four-day strike, administrators were still
>refusing to acknowledge that teaching assistants are
>employees. In contrast, when the tentative agreement was
>announced on May 10, UC President Richard C. Atkinson
>termed it "fair to academic student employees."
>
>NYU BLOCKS VOTE COUNT
>
>Why doesn't New York University learn the UC lesson and
>recognize the graduate employees' union? Well, for one
>thing, NYU, the biggest private university in the country,
>has a lot more money to throw around. And it's putting the
>money to use not only on its own behalf. NYU is fighting to
>deny rights to graduate employees at all the private
>schools. Yale in particular, where graduate employees have
>been struggling for their rights for years, has a strong
>interest in the outcome at NYU.
>
>NYU administrators took their latest step during and after
>the April 25-27 union-representation vote on the Greenwich
>Village campus. First, according to the Auto Workers, "the
>university placed 120 graduate students on the voting list
>who are not on the payroll." Then "university
>administrators also swept through business-school classes
>and urged `everyone to vote, even if you aren't working as
>a TA, GA, or RA.'" In addition, according to the union,
>"the university `inadvertently' left more than 70
>legitimate voters off the list who were then forced to vote
>subject to challenge." Why? "The clear intent of these
>actions is to increase the number of challenged ballots,
>which also serves to increase the opportunity for the
>university to create post-election legal mischief and
>delay," the union asserts.
>
>Ballots were to have been counted May 1. Instead, the
>National Labor Relations Board has sealed them pending
>NYU's appeal of the ruling that recognized the workers'
>collective-bargaining rights. Doctoral candidate Kimberly
>Johnson, a leader of the organizing drive, commented, "Is
>there any better evidence of why graduate student employees
>need an organized voice at their work place?"
>
> - 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: <004f01bfc50f$8cd2cdb0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Philadelphia protest hits police terror
>Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 19:35:16 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the May 25, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>15 YEARS AFTER BOMBING OF MOVE:
>PHILADELPHIA PROTEST HITS POLICE TERROR
>
>By Joe Piette
>Philadelphia
>
>"Injustice reigns in this country," Ella Forbes told a
>crowd of hundreds assembled in Philadelphia May 13 to
>protest against police terror. Forbes was describing a
>climate of racism so pervasive in the (in)justice system
>that cops routinely get away with murder, and people of
>color are often found guilty of crimes they did not commit.
>
>Today's demonstration was timed to commemorate the May 13,
>1985, police-terrorist bombing of the West Philadelphia
>MOVE home that killed six adults and five children. May 13
>was also the International Day of Support for Mumia Abu-
>Jamal, a well-known victim of police terror.
>
>The action, called by Mothers Organized Against Police
>Terror and International Concerned Family & Friends of
>Mumia Abu-Jamal, was also meant to support mothers who lost
>loved ones to police terror, the day before Mothers Day.
>
>Ella Forbes, whose son Erin was killed by police last
>January, was joined by friends and relatives of other
>victims of police abuse in the loud and colorful march. It
>began at the Roundhouse Police Headquarters, where Reverend
>Benjamin Greene told the crowd to remember the 1985 police
>bombing of MOVE by "dropping a bomb on racism and
>injustice."
>
>Moises DeJesus, Kenneth Griffin, Donta Dawson, Tommy Webb,
>Erin Forbes, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Marquis Edwards, each one of
>the MOVE 9, Jamel Nichols--these and other names of people
>victimized by Philadelphia police were carried on white
>poster board by marchers. As the crowd marched and chanted
>through the East Market Street shopping district,
>bystanders eagerly took leaflets, some even joining the
>protest.
>
>At City Hall, relatives of police terror victims spoke,
>including Barbara Vance. Parole officers killed Vance's
>nephew, Kenneth Griffin, in 1997. George Webb described how
>a cop killed his brother Tommy in December 1998.
>
>Ramona Africa and Pam Africa recounted the police attack
>against MOVE in 1978, for which nine MOVE members were
>convicted of the murder of Officer Ramp, who was most
>likely killed by police gunfire. Justice was again absent
>in 1985, when not one official was convicted of any crime
>for the bombing of the MOVE home and the destruction of a
>whole city block. In fact, the only adult survivor of that
>fire, Ramona Africa, was sent to jail for six years.
>
>Dozens of red "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal" flags were peppered
>through the audience. Several speakers urged the crowd to
>be present on Abu-Jamal's first day in federal court before
>Judge William Yohn.
>
>A huge 65-foot quilt, made up of colorful squares of
>material emblazoned with freedom slogans for Abu-Jamal and
>sewn by a group of women organized by ICFFMAJ member
>Fatirah Aziz, was held up along the curb for passers-by to
>see.
>
> - 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: <005501bfc50f$a17872b0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] International solidarity: Mumia supporters take to the streets
>Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 19:35:51 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the May 25, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY:
>MUMIA SUPPORTERS TAKE TO THE STREETS
>
>By Greg Butterfield
>
>Thousands of workers and anti-racists worldwide took to
>the streets May 13 in support of death-row journalist and
>political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The actions came less
>than a week after 6,000 people filled New York's Theater at
>Madison Square Garden, organized by Millions for
>Mumia/International Action Center.
>
>The clock is ticking down to an important hearing on Abu-
>Jamal's case. Federal Judge William Yohn has not yet
>announced the date. When he does, Abu-Jamal's supporters
>say, they will mobilize to pack the courtroom and surround
>the federal courthouse in Philadelphia.
>
>The May 13 International Day of Action for Mumia Abu-Jamal
>was launched at a Feb. 19 organizers' conference in New
>York. It quickly became a rallying point for international
>supporters of Abu-Jamal--especially in Italy, where actions
>were held in 14 cities.
>
>It also began a "summer of resistance" that will include
>mass protests at the Republican and Democratic Party
>conventions.
>
>A week of actions began May 7 at the Madison Square Garden
>event. Demonstrations, teach-ins and labor meetings
>followed throughout the week. They culminated with the
>demonstrations on May 13.
>
>It was the 15th anniversary of the Philadelphia police
>bombing of MOVE headquarters.
>
>Eleven MOVE family members--including five children--died
>that day. An entire African American neighborhood was
>burned to the ground.
>
>IN THE U.S.
>
>A Western Regional Mobilization for Mumia in San Francisco
>brought out thousands of students, union members and
>activists to demand a new trial for the former Black
>Panther. They came from throughout California.
>
>Several unions participated. They included a delegation
>from the International Longshoremen's Association Local
>1422 of Charleston, S.C., which marched with the
>International Longshore and Warehouse Union. A
>representative of the local announced that this year's
>Labor Day event in Charleston will demand the removal of
>the Confederate flag from the State Capitol and freedom for
>Abu-Jamal.
>
>Workers World Party vice-presidential candidate Gloria La
>Riva spoke about her participation as a guest speaker at
>the massive May Day rally in Cuba. La Riva spoke to more
>than a million people there about Abu-Jamal's case, and
>gave President Fidel Castro a message from the U.S.
>political prisoner.
>
>La Riva denounced the racist U.S. criminal justice system,
>which targets African American men.
>
>The demonstration was initiated by the Bay Area
>Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
>
>In Chicago, hundreds demonstrated downtown as part of the
>Midwest Mobilization for Mumia. Activists came from
>Milwaukee, Detroit, Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, and
>other areas.
>
>Speakers included Delbert Tibbs, a wrongfully convicted
>person who spent years on death row, and Tina Beacock of
>the Chicago Teachers Union, which recently passed a
>resolution calling for a new trial.
>
>"This rally today will become part of the decision-making
>process," said Standish Willis of the African American
>Committee to Free Aaron Patterson and Mumia. He said the
>powers that be took careful note of the size and militancy
>of pro-Abu-Jamal actions. are also hearing from the other
>side, from the police who want Mumia executed.
>
>"What we're doing today is just evening up that decision-
>making process," Willis said.
>
>During a militant march some young people stopped traffic.
>When police tried to use horses to push people onto the
>sidewalk, the protesters stood their ground.
>
>Twelve activists were arrested during the march. Police
>threw a newspaper box at one woman. Protesters spied at
>least five cops who had removed their badges to avoid
>identification, according to the May 14 Chicago Sun-Times.
>
>Hundreds more rallied in Abu-Jamal's hometown,
>Philadelphia, to combat police brutality. Many families of
>police-terror victims spoke. They included Ramona Africa,
>the only adult survivor of the 1985 bombing.
>
>The march was organized jointly by Mothers Organized
>Against Police Terror and International Concerned Family &
>Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
>
>Houston activists held a day of activities called
>"Liberation Education/Act Your Rage." Those who came out to
>the El Dorado Ballroom joined in workshops on Abu-Jamal's
>case, the death penalty and police brutality.
>
>That night there were performances by Freedom Sold, Mezza,
>Zin, and other local musicians, poets and spoken-word
>artists. Houstonians United for Mumia sponsored the event.
>
>AROUND THE GLOBE
>
>Actions in London; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Madrid, Spain;
>Vienna, Austria; Valletta, Malta; and other cities targeted
>U.S. embassy buildings.
>
>In Paris, between 2,000 and 3,000 protesters--including
>members of the CGT labor federation--marched, shutting down
>busy intersections on their way to the U.S. Embassy.
>
>"Free Mumia, the voice of the voiceless," they chanted.
>"Clinton, Bush--assassins!"
>
>Pan-African journalist Julia Wright, coordinator of
>International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-
>Jamal/France, described the farce of Abu-Jamal's 1982
>trial: He had "no chance, being Black, poor and a political
>dissident. No way his side of the story would be heard
>fairly," she said.
>
>Wright, the daughter of African American author Richard
>Wright, explained, "I know had my father been alive, he
>would have done something for [Abu-Jamal] too."
>
>Asked by a reporter why he was marching, Fall Momar
>pointed to his 2-year-old daughter Yonde. "This is the
>reason. It's an expression of unity that is not for me, but
>future generations." (Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14)
>
>L'Humanite, the daily newspaper of the French Communist
>Party, had urged its readers to come out in a May 12
>editorial.
>
>Trucks and other big vehicles were an integral part of the
>demonstration in Berlin, where protesters aimed to tie up
>traffic to bring attention to Abu-Jamal's plight. After a
>rally at the U.S. Embassy, protesters attended a teach-in
>on the state of Abu-Jamal's legal case at Humboldt
>University.
>
>Meanwhile, in Hamburg, Germany, anti-racists lit torches
>and drummed for Abu-Jamal as they marched through the
>Reeperbahn district.
>
>At an April 15 national conference in Italy, Abu-Jamal's
>supporters decided to embark on actions across the country.
>
>A call issued by the National Coordination for Mumia Abu-
>Jamal says: "Today the battle to save Mumia's life is
>emblematic of the struggle against the racist, anti-poor
>death penalty in the U.S.A., a form of `legalized lynching'
>used primarily against Blacks, Latinos and all those who
>don't have enough money to afford a good legal defense.
>
>"[Abu-Jamal's] work in denouncing all injustice, and in
>particular the police brutality and corruption in his
>native Philadelphia, which earned him the name of `voice of
>the voiceless' . has continued unflaggingly during his long
>years on Pennsylvania's death row."
>
>May 13 demonstrations were held in the Italian cities of
>Milan, Florence, Cezna, Ravenna, Palermo, Bari, Naples, La
>Spezia, Pecara, Sassari, Ferrara, Forli, Bologna and
>Perugia. An action was held in Rome on May 12.
>
>The Italian activists have established a form of protest
>called "Free Mumia Corner." The protesters take over a busy
>intersection and transform it into an on-the-street teach-
>in with signs, speeches, music, banners and literature
>tables.
>
>Video showings were planned in Pisa and other cities later
>in the week.
>
>Actions were also held in Cayenne, Guyana; Barcelona,
>Spain; Vera Cruz, Mexico; Quebec, Canada; the Czech
>Republic; Switzerland; Oslo, Norway; and Luxembourg.
>
>[Brenda Sandburg in San Francisco and Phil Wilayto in
>Chicago contributed to this story.]
>
>
>
> - 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: <005b01bfc50f$b9189300$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Vieques protesters challenge ban
>Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 19:36:30 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the May 25, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>VIEQUES PROTESTERS CHALLENGE BAN
>
>By Berta Joubert-Ceci
>
>"Volveremos." We will come back to the struggle.
>
>That was the promise shouted by dozens of Vieques
>activists after their 14-hour detention at the U.S. Navy's
>Roosevelt Roads base in Ceiba, Puerto Rico.
>
>The activists had participated in the people's encampment
>at Camp Garcia, the U.S. military base in Vieques. For more
>than a year before their eviction May 4, they successfully
>prevented the Navy from testing weapons there.
>
>Twenty fisher boats set out earlier in the day from
>Vieques and the Big Island to bring these comrades home.
>
>With Puerto Rican and Vieques flags flying from the boats,
>the activists chanted their promise and shot flares into
>the night sky. As they approached the shore, a multitude
>awaited them. The crowd joined in their chant. It was a
>heroes' welcome.
>
>But the Vieques they returned to was an island under siege
>after "Operation Access to East."
>
>ISLAND UNDER SIEGE
>
>After the eviction, the U.S. government enclosed the
>eastern part of Vieques--the Navy's shooting range--with
>cyclone fences.
>
>Federal marshals and marines patrolled the inland area,
>while Coast Guard vessels kept watch by sea. Helicopters
>hovered low over the island. Riot police in full gear
>patrolled the streets in the civilian sector. Activists
>were threatened with $250,000 fines and 10-year prison
>terms if they reentered the restricted areas.
>
>But "volveremos" was not an empty promise. On the night of
>May 13, some 50 activists cut the Camp Garc�a fence and
>walked toward the shooting area. Two hours later they were
>detained and taken to a federal prison in P.R.
>
>The imprisonment stemmed from their refusal to cooperate
>with the "authorities" by not giving their names or other
>information. There were leaders of the Vieques struggle
>like Ismael Guadalupe from the Committee for the Rescue and
>
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