>not in accidental juxtaposition, but because wealth creates
>poverty, an inevitable outcome of economic exploitation
>both at home and abroad. How could such an analysis gain
>any exposure in the capitalist media?"
>
>Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi wrote: "How can we be
>free to choose if the media injects us day and night with
>false information? The media has developed an ideology of
>individualism based on destroying the resistance of the
>individual. It glorifies the individual, the star. It
>destroys the idea of collective resistance. . It divides
>people by religion, ethnicity and race, under the idea of
>difference, diversity and authentic identity, but it
>globalizes capital and profit under the idea of One World
>and One Humanity."
>
>The final chapters of the book discuss low-cost media
>alternatives such as video, radio, micropower radio and the
>Internet.
>
>"Capitalism has no solutions to the horrendous social
>problems of hunger and unemployment of millions. Activist
>alternative media can be a powerful force if they see
>themselves as part of the historic struggle," concludes
>Flounders.
>
>This insightful book is highly recommended. Readers can
>get this book at leftbooks.com.
>
> - 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: <003401bfd581$5b84f1c0$0a00a8c0@home>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] More Pentagon drug peddling
>Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 17:50:14 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 15, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>MORE PENTAGON DRUG PEDDLING
>
>By Andy McInerney
>
>It has a worldwide apparatus. It is armed to the teeth. It
>has a long history of drug trafficking.
>
>No, it is not the mafia. Nor is it any of the drug
>cartels--although these often do its bidding.
>
>It is the United States Pentagon.
>
>The latest revelations of Pentagon drug smuggling come
>from Seoul, south Korea. On May 30, a U.S. Air Force
>captain was arrested on charges of smuggling 2.5 kilograms
>of cocaine from Panama to Korea. The captain was held on a
>U.S. military base, his identity kept secret.
>
>Anti-social crimes committed by members of the 37,000 U.S.
>occupying troops are routine in south Korea. The same week,
>another unnamed U.S. officer was arrested with his son on
>charges of raping a Korean bartender in the southeastern
>city of Taegu.
>
>Nor is drug trafficking new to the Pentagon. Heroin and
>cocaine trafficking by U.S. military forces and the Central
>Intelligence Agency during the Vietnam War and the covert
>war against Nicaragua has been documented. In both cases
>profits were used to support anti-communist thugs and death
>squads.
>
>More recently, the head of the U.S. "war on drugs" in
>Bogot , Colombia--Col. James Hiett--plead guilty to
>laundering profits from his wife's heroin shipments. That
>trafficking operation was based at the U.S. embassy in
>Bogot .
>
>None of these crimes should shock anyone familiar with the
>history of the Pentagon. Imperialist occupying armies
>routinely commit the most outrageous crimes against the
>people in the countries that they occupy. The residents of
>Vieques, Puerto Rico, are living testimony to that abuse.
>
>The only surprise might be the sheer arrogance of a
>government to wage a brutal war against the people of Latin
>America and the people of the United States under the cover
>of a "war on drugs."
>
>--A.M.
>
>
>
>A real war on drug trafficking would begin with the
>Pentagon and the biggest banks in the United States that
>profit from the billions of dollars in the drug trade.
>
> - 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: <003a01bfd581$6eab97e0$0a00a8c0@home>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Workers around the world: 6/15/2000
>Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 17:50:46 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 15, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD
>
>SOUTH KOREA: UNIONS STRIKE FOR 40-HOUR WEEK; PILOTS WIN
>
>Tens of thousands of workers walked off the job on May 30
>to push their demand for a 40-hour workweek. The workers
>are members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.
>
>The workweek in south Korea is 44 hours, generally eight
>hours daily Monday through Friday and half a day on
>Saturday.
>
>The government agreed to submit a bill as long as bosses
>okayed the measure--which they have been unwilling to
>consider. "We can't trust the government's continuing lip
>service," said KCTU spokesperson Sohn Nak-koo. "We need to
>show our strength."
>
>The KCTU estimated that 70,000 responded to the strike
>call on the first day. On May 31, 10,000 workers
>demonstrated in Seoul to support the shorter workweek.
>Other slogans targeted the government's plans to allow the
>sale of Daewoo Motor Co. to foreign corporations.
>
>Following the 1998 financial crisis in south Korea, the
>government imposed a series of anti-labor laws. These laws,
>dictated by the International Monetary Fund, included
>opening the country wide to penetration by U.S. and
>Japanese capital.
>
>At the same time that the KCTU flexed its muscles in the
>street May 30, pilots celebrated a win. About 1,300 Korean
>Air pilots had threatened to strike with the KCTU on May 30
>if their demands for union recognition were not met. On the
>eve of the strike, the government recognized the pilots'
>union.
>
>INDONESIA: STUDENTS DEMAND SUHARTO PROSECUTION
>
>The dictator Suharto, who ruled Indonesia with U.S.
>support for over 30 years, no longer sits in power in
>Jakarta. But he is still a lightning rod for democratic
>opposition in the country.
>
>On May 30, hundreds of students rallied near Suharto's
>home. They demanded that Suharto go to trial for corruption
>during his regime.
>
>Suharto has been under house arrest since April. However
>this provision ends on June 11 and no trial date is set.
>
>The week earlier, on May 25 and 26, student demonstrations
>turned into pitched battles against riot police. On May 25,
>riot police blocked a march to Suharto's home on Cendana
>Street in a wealthy Jakarta neighborhood. Police opened up
>on the crowd with batons and tear gas. Chants erupted from
>the students: "Burn Cendana right now!"
>
>The next day, students retaliated by torching military
>vehicles. Jakarta police spokesperson Lt. Col. Zainuri
>Lubis warned of "anarchy."
>
>The fall of Suharto in 1998 on the heels of student
>democracy protests and economic crisis strengthened the
>massive archipelago's working-class movement. But pro-U.S.
>forces have retained state power despite Suharto's
>departure.
>
>Ominously, a wave of anti-communist rallies have been
>organized by the "Work for National Care" (KPB). This
>organization is dominated by members of Suharto's old
>government and military figures. President Abdurrahman
>Wahid has called for an end to the ban on communist parties
>and literature--a move that the KPB opposes.
>
>PERU: DICTATOR FUJIMORI HOLDS ON--FOR NOW
>
>Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori claimed victory in
>national elections May 28. But the iron vise with which he
>has ruled the country since 1992 is beginning to crack.
>
>Fujimori was first elected in 1990. In 1992 he stage a
>"self-coup," disbanding the Congress and seizing
>dictatorial powers with the security apparatus to fight the
>country's two revolutionary insurgencies, the Peruvian
>Communist Party and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
>(MRTA).
>
>Peru's traditional ruling class parties lined up behind
>him to fight the PCP and the MRTA. But after the threat
>posed by these groups lessened in 1998, Fujimori's big-
>business opponents began to clamor for their old posts.
>
>These forces coalesced behind Alejandro Toledo, a
>Stanford-educated former World Bank official who challenged
>Fujimori in the elections. He withdrew from the runoff
>elections, charging that Fujimori would rig the elections.
>Most independent election observers noted massive fraud.
>
>Despite the obvious fraud, the United States government
>backed off any threats against Fujimori's government. While
>the U.S. maintained a friendly posture toward Toledo, it
>has provided massive military support to Fujimori's
>dictatorship, first to fight the PCP and MRTA and recently
>to build support for intervention in neighboring Colombia.
>
>The struggles within Peru's ruling class have opened a
>window for the Peruvian masses to struggle. Mass
>demonstrations under the slogan "No to dictatorship" have
>erupted into street battles between workers and riot
>police.
>
>Toledo has called for mass demonstrations during
>Fujimori's swearing in ceremonies. "I can assure you that
>we are not going to allow him to be sworn in," he said on
>June 1.
>
>Following the elections, United States officials urged
>Toledo to moderate his protests. But the torrent of anti-
>Fujimori protest may prove to be a Pandora's box for the
>Peruvian ruling class and their U.S. backers.
>
>ARGENTINA: MASS PROTESTS HIT IMF MEASURES
>
>A wave of protest is facing Argentinian President Fernando
>de la Rua's attempts to impose an Interna tional Monetary
>Fund-backed austerity program. The IMF is trying to push a
>12 percent pay cut for civil servants, a $1.4 billion
>budget cut and a tax increase of up to 22 percent on
>personal taxes.
>
>Argentina's unions drew over 100,000 people into the
>streets of Buenos Aires on May 31. That was one day after
>an IMF team arrived in the capital to inspect the
>government's economic measures.
>
>The unions announced plans for a one-day general strike on
>June 9. "Nothing will move in Argentina, not even the
>leaves on the trees," warned Hugo Montoya of the General
>Workers Federation (CGT).
>
>All the main union federations in Argentina backed the
>strike call. Even the normally conservative Catholic Church
>in Argentina is backing the protest wave.
>
>"We are preparing a coordinating front against the
>adjustments," warned United Left leader Patricio Echegaray.
>
>COLOMBIA: POLICE ATTACK HOSPITAL WORKERS
>
>Police brutally attacked a demonstration of hospital
>workers in Santa Fe de Bogot , near the capital of
>Colombia, on May 26. The workers were protesting cuts in
>state financing, which has caused several hospitals to
>close. The workers met police guns and tear gas with rocks
>and bottles.
>
>WAVE OF DEATH SQUAD KILLINGS WIDENS
>
>Dozens of people have been killed in recent weeks as death
>squads terrorize wide areas of Colombia. In the department
>of Guajira, the death squads killed nine people on June 3,
>according to an RCN report. The massacre brings the total
>number killed by death squads that week in the department
>to 12.
>
>The night before, eight peasants were murdered in two
>separate attacks by members of the United Self-defense
>Forces of Colombia (AUC). The AUC is a network of
>paramilitary death squads headed by Carlos Castano which
>works closely with the Colombian Armed Forces.
>
>These murders are part of the terror campaign against the
>Colombian population. They are aimed at decimating the
>support for the revolutionary movements in Colombia.
>
>In another example, Colombian Communist Party leader Pedro
>Nel Hernandez was murdered with his two sons in the
>department of Northern Santander on May 31. Days earlier,
>Communist Youth leader Marlys de la Ossa was gunned down in
>the department of Cordoba.
>
>ECUADOR: UPRISING LEADER FREED; JAILED AGAIN
>
>Col. Lucio Gutierrez, one of the leaders of the January
>popular uprising in Ecuador, was released from prison on
>June 3. His release followed a blanket amnesty issued by
>the congress for all those arrested for their roles in the
>uprising.
>
>But within days, Gutierrez was jailed again by the
>military high command. The popular leader was charged with
>giving interviews to the press, against the wishes of the
>military.
>
>The January uprising culminated in the brief seizure of
>power on Jan. 21 by popular forces led by Antonio Vargas of
>the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador,
>Gutierrez, and former Supreme Court Justice Carlos
>Solorzano. The uprising was betrayed by maneuvers on the
>part of the military high command.
>
>Many organizations had been planning a welcome march upon
>Gutierrez's release. The military high command avoided this
>by releasing him in the middle of the night.
>
>In the days prior to his release, Gutierrez gave an
>interview to IPS in which he stated that "the function of
>the army is not to repress." He also criticized his
>government for turning over the Manta Base in eastern
>Ecuador to the U.S. Armed Forces as part of the campaign
>against the Colombian revolution.
>
>"If Ecuador involves itself in the Plan Colombia [the
>U.S.-Colombian governments' answer to the insurgencies], it
>will be converted into a new Vietnam and would be obeying
>extra-national interests."
>
> - 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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