> WW News Service Digest #101
>
> 1) War crimes tribunal June 10
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 2) Pentagon planned to nuke the moon
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 3) On the picket line: 6/6/00
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 4) Comrade Grandpa Bear, presente!
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 5) New York: Poverty soars while profits boom
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 6) Olympics protest targets Texas executions
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 7) Protesters confront Albright again
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 8) Ho Chi Minh: Liberation fighter & Vietnam's leader
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 1, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL JUNE 10:
>THE BEST SENTENCE: A MOVEMENT TO ABOLISH NATO
>
>By John Catalinotto
>New York
>
>People are coming to New York from around the world to put
>U.S. and NATO leaders on trial for last year's aggression
>against Yugoslavia and the ongoing occupation of Kosovo.
>
>On June 10 people from at least 16 countries who have led
>the movement against NATO's war will gather to hear
>evidence and render a verdict regarding charges of crimes
>against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The
>tribunal will hear evidence on 19 charges prepared in July
>1999 by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
>
>But, organizers say, the International Tribunal on
>U.S./NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia is not simply reviewing
>the past. "The Pentagon and NATO," International Action
>Center co-coordinator Brian Becker told Workers World, "are
>clearly guilty of the most extreme war crimes against the
>people of Yugoslavia." The IAC initiated the tribunal last
>July.
>
>"These crimes have a method and an objective," said
>Becker. "Their goal is to impose Washington and Wall Street
>domination over all of Eastern Europe and into the former
>republics of what was the USSR. The war against Yugoslavia
>was a prelude to new aggression in the region. It also
>holds dangers for all of North Africa and the Middle East,
>and possibly for sub-Saharan Africa and South America.
>
>"In light of this," Becker continued, "the most effective
>sentence the tribunal can render will be to use its
>authority to launch a world-wide movement of the people to
>abolish NATO. This is not merely a slogan, but will become
>a crusade for all those who oppose war and colonialism."
>
>THE TRIBUNAL'S AUTHORITY
>
>"The tribunal's authority comes from the prestige and the
>record of its participants," said Becker. They come mostly
>from NATO countries and from those subject to potential
>attack from the Pentagon and NATO, like Korea, Iraq, Cuba,
>and Haiti, for example.
>
>The following have accepted invitations to participate:
>
>* Charles Pascal Tolno of Guinea (Conakry), president of
>the Association of African Writers.
>
>* Angeles Maestro Martin, member of the Spanish Parliament
>and a leader in the movement to stop the sanctions on Iraq.
>
>* Ben Dupuy, former Haitian ambassador to the United
>Nations.
>
>* Olga Mejia, former president of the Panamanian Human
>Rights Organization.
>
>* Retired admiral Elmar Schmaehling, who has become a
>leading spokesperson in the anti-war movement in Germany.
>He will be accompanied by at least five others who have
>organized tribunals in Germany, including a June 2-3
>Europe-wide tribunal coming up in Berlin.
>
>* Monica Moorehead, a leader of the Millions for Mumia
>organization in the U.S., will speak on the links between
>racism and war. Also participating will be representatives
>of those who fought the IMF/World Bank in Washington in
>April.
>
>* Rom activist Shani Rifati will report on the plight of
>his people in NATO-occupied Kosovo.
>
>* Michel Collon, an author and activist from Belgium who
>has confronted NATO spokesperson Jamie Shea at public
>meetings with exposures of Shea's lies. Collon will bring
>his new book "Monopoly," and his video "Fifteen Belgians
>Under the Bombs."
>
>* Ismael Guadalupe, a leading spokesperson of the movement
>fighting the U.S. Navy's use of Vieques, Puerto Rico, for
>target practice.
>
>* Jorge Farinacci of the Puerto Rican Socialist Front.
>
>* Raniero La Valle, Italian religious leader.
>
>* Fulvio Grimaldi, filmmaker, and three others from the
>Italian tribunal movement. They are holding their national
>meeting on June 3.
>
>* Gilles Troude, a member of the editorial board of the
>French monthly anti-NATO magazine Balkans-Info.
>
>* Margarita Papandreou, former first lady of Greece, a
>center of militant anti-war actions in Europe. Others
>involved in the Greek anti-NATO movement are expected.
>
>* Canadian author and lecturer Michel Chossudovsky.
>
>* Roland Keith, a Canadian who served on the observer
>mission in Kosovo at the end of 1998 and the beginning of
>1999.
>
>* Depleted uranium expert Rosalie Bertell from Canada.
>
>* Environmental expert Janet Eaton from Canada.
>
>* Scott Taylor, a Canadian expert on the expulsion of the
>Serb people from the Krajina in Croatia.
>
>* Leading members of the "Slav Tribunal" organized out of
>Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other former USSR republics.
>
>* Representatives from the tribunal in Austria, which
>found Austrian politician Wolfgang Petritch guilty for his
>role in delivering the Rambouillet ultimatum to the
>Yugoslav leaders, thereby provoking the war.
>
>* California professor George Wright, an expert on Angola.
>
>* Malcolm Cummings, who helped organize a tribunal hearing
>in Sydney, Australia.
>
>* Chicana activist Gloria La Riva, who produced the video
>"NATO Targets."
>
>* IAC co-coordinator Sara Flounders.
>
>* IAC organizers Pat Chin and Richard Becker. The Boston
>IAC, which is holding a hearing on June 4 in collaboration
>with Serbian organizations, will also bring a delegation.
>
>* Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general and founder
>of the IAC, will preside over the tribunal.
>
>"On May 21, another child was killed by a leftover NATO
>cluster bomb and two were badly wounded," said Brian
>Becker. "All were Kosovar Albanians from Pristina. More
>countries in Eastern Europe, from the Baltic states to the
>Balkans and even the Caucasus, are pleading to join NATO as
>they submit to a new colonialism.
>
>"This shows all the more that the tribunal must not only
>look back over the criminal war but look forward to
>building a movement to abolish NATO."
>
>The tribunal will be held at the Martin Luther King High
>School Auditorium at 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in
>Manhattan. Doors open at 10 a.m. The program runs from 11
>a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, call the IAC at (212)
>633-6646.
>
> - 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: <064801bfc8e2$faf33470$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Pentagon planned to nuke the moon
>Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 16:26:17 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 1, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>PENTAGON PLANNED TO NUKE THE MOON
>
>By John Catalinotto
>
>I didn't know the Pentagon planned to nuke the moon.
>
>I just knew that Sputnik paid my way through college.
>
>Sputnik was the world's first artificial satellite. The
>USSR launched Sputnik on Oct. 4, 1957, before the U.S. had
>attained the ability to send a satellite into orbit. Soviet
>science stunned the world with this accomplishment,
>especially the U.S. military and political establishment.
>They had believed that the socialist Soviet Union, arisen
>from economically backward Russia and then devastated by
>the World War II Nazi invasion, could never leap ahead of
>them in space.
>
>Sputnik provoked a huge increase in scholarships for
>scientific subjects as the U.S. rulers desperately sought
>scientific-military dominance in the space race.
>
>A generation of U.S. youths, fascinated by mathematics,
>physics, or engineering, had wondered how they could afford
>to study these subjects in college and graduate school.
>After Sputnik, they had to wonder no more. Even young women
>were encouraged to study science.
>
>During my first semester at City College of New York, my
>physics instructor, a right-wing Ukrainian emigr�, made it
>clear why we students had to study hard and learn fast. "We
>have to beat the Russians," he said.
>
>But the establishment's reaction did more than provide
>scholarships.
>
>Some of the greatest minds at the service of the U.S.
>ruling class--with the help of the young Carl Sagan, it
>turned out--also came up with a plan to steal back
>worldwide leadership in a hurry.
>
>They would put a nuclear weapon on a rocket and launch it
>toward the moon. When it struck, it would explode. That
>would scare the Russians and win back U.S. leadership.
>
>Long suppressed, news about this wild plan was finally
>revealed by physicist Leonard Reiffel, the director of the
>project and later NASA deputy director during the Apollo
>program, in a letter in the May 4 issue of the scientific
>journal Nature.
>
>Approved by the hard-nosed generals of the U.S. Air Force,
>the plan won support from many in the Eisenhower
>administration. It was not just a wild idea of some Dr.
>Strangelove, the all-too-believable monster of the 1964
>film of the same name. It was not just a contingency plan
>like thousands of others worked out in the back rooms of
>the Pentagon.
>
>The ruling class's wild anti-communism had given this
>scheme a level of respectability that placed it close to
>operation.
>
>Finally a few of the cooler-headed anti-communists
>realized that since the U.S. space program was in its
>infancy, rockets might well crash back on earth. This, they
>surmised, could be a problem.
>
>That particular plan was shelved, but it gave way to giant
>hydrogen weapons, multi-warhead missiles, the 1962 missile
>crisis over Cuba. Later came Star Wars and other weapons
>systems just as dangerous for humanity--but greatly
>profitable for the military-industrial complex.
>
>My physics instructor became a professor at Columbia
>University and a major spokesperson for the nuclear power
>industry. His career continued on its upward course until
>the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.
>
>The Cuban Missile Crisis convinced me to give up any
>remaining ambition for a scientific career. Instead I
>joined Workers World Party. I thought the U.S. ruling class
>was reckless and dangerous and had to be fought.
>
>And that was even before I learned they had planned to
>nuke the moon.
>
> - 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: <064901bfc8e3$21d08bb0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] On the picket line: 6/6/00
>Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 16:27:22 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 1, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>ON THE PICKET LINE
>
>OREGON TEMPS ORGANIZE
>
>Temporary government workers in Oregon cast a
>groundbreaking vote to unionize on May 11. The 600
>temporary state employees voted overwhelmingly to join the
>Oregon Public Employees Union, Local 503 of the Service
>Employees International Union. They may be the first
>temporary public workers to go union, according to Local
>503 spokesperson Sheila Engles. As soon as the ballots were
>counted, the union told the state it plans to start
>contract talks in the next few weeks.
>
>"Instead of waiting for the state, we wanted to get to the
>table and bargain and make changes as soon as possible,"
>said Steve Ward, director of organizing for Local 503. The
>temp workers want a contract that will include benefits
>they've long been denied sick leave and vacation time.
>
>The union also sees the Oregon vote as a warning to
>private and public employers nationwide that temps won't
>tolerate being used to perform permanent workers' jobs
>without adequate compensation.
>
>Exploitation of temps has grown as the bosses try to cut
>back on payrolls and benefits. In Oregon alone, more than
>70,000 workers hold temporary or part-time jobs. But many
>of them are probably a lot like public planner Joyce
>Felton. She got fed up with her perma-temp status and voted
>for the union to gain guaranteed job security.
>
>SUPPORT MoMA STRIKERS
>
>The strike by Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) staff in New
>York City is entering its fourth week, and the union is
>appealing for support on and off the picket line. The
>workers, members of United Auto Workers Local 2110, walked
>off the job April 28 in a fight against substandard wages,
>health care cuts, and unfair labor practices by museum
>management. They are also upset by MoMA plans to
>temporarily lay off scores of workers during a four-year,
>$650-million expansion project.
>
>Another important strike issue is winning an agency shop,
>so all workers who benefit from the contract will
>automatically pay dues to strengthen the union. MoMA is
>currently an open shop, requiring the union to constantly
>sign up workers for membership. Through non-stop
>organizing, the union has managed to sign up two thirds of
>eligible MoMA employees. An agency shop would ease this
>process, since all the workers would automatically be
>represented by Local 2110. Then the union could concentrate
>on enforcing and improving the workers' contract with MoMA.
>
>Following a successful May 12 strike rally at MoMA,
>negotiations resumed on May 15 for the first time since the
>walkout began. The union has appealed for supporters to
>join in another rally on Thursday, May 25, at 6 p.m.
>outside the museum entrance at 11 West 53rd St. near 5th
>Ave.
>
>Readers can support the strike by sending e-mail to Museum
>Director Glenn Lowry at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] urging him to settle the contract.
>Volunteers are needed to walk the picket line outside the
>museum seven days a week until 6 p.m., and 7:30 p.m. on
>Fridays. Contributions are also needed for the Striker
>Hardship Fund. For information on how to help, contact
>Local 2110 UAW, 113 University Pl., 5th fl., N.Y., N.Y.
>10003.
>
>STRIKING ACTORS BLAST RACIST, SEXIST AD
>
>A racist, sexist, offensive ad designed to slander the
>striking Screen Actors Guild has backfired against the
>agency bosses who placed it. The shocking ad appeared in
>Shoot magazine, a weekly trade publication widely read in
>the advertising industry. The ad depicted an elderly
>African woman's breasts with the words "In South Africa,
>this is what SAG means," and announced that high-profile
>commercial director Marcus Nispel would be moving to South
>Africa to work because of the three-week actors' strike.
>SAG immediately condemned the ad.
>
>"We believe it's one of the most racist, sexist and
>misogynistic ads we've ever seen," said Anne-Marie Johnson,
>an actor on the television series "JAG" and head of the
>Equal Employment Opportunity Committee for SAG and its
>strike partner, the American Federation of Television and
>Radio Artists. "To visually victimize women and
>specifically people of color goes beyond the pale. We are
>just in shock," she said.
>
>Nispel works for the RSA USA agency. As condemnations of
>the ad poured in, RSA owners Tony and Ridley Scott
>scrambled to cover themselves, apologizing for their "huge
>mistake" and claiming that, "Our intent was not to offend
>people of color, women or anyone else by the use of our
>advertisement in the recent edition of Shoot. For that we
>are truly and deeply sorry." The Scotts, who directed
>"Gladiator," "Alien," and other feature films, went on to
>claim they knew nothing about the ad in advance and were
>"sickened and appalled" by it.
>
>But the striking unions weren't buying the story. The
>presidents of SAG and AFTRA issued an open letter calling
>on RSA clients to dissociate themselves from the agency
>"and from the racist, sexist and union-busting principles
>
__________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki - Finland
+358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081
e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
___________________________________
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe/unsubscribe messages
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
___________________________________
