>control that was supposed to remain behind the scenes. > >They made an enormous effort at forcing imperialist >neoliberalism down the throats of the oppressed countries on >behalf of the multinational corporations. They openly >carried on fund-raising from big business in shameless >Republican style. Their repressive legislation was brutally >racist, anti-poor and anti-working class, as they >implemented the budget demands of the bondholders. > >In the scheme of U.S. politics, the Republicans were >supposed to be the party of big business and the Democrats >the party of the common people. Of course, this was never >true. But Clinton and Gore have accomplished what volumes of >political argument could not accomplish--they discredited >the two-party capitalist political system before a new >generation. > >To be sure, breaking with the two-party system of corporate >rule is not an end in itself. The question of how to take >the struggle forward must still be answered. But it is >nevertheless a vital and indispensable beginning on the road >to building an independent revolutionary struggle against >the capitalist system. > >Should this struggle widen and spread to the masses, the >ruling class and the Democratic Party leadership is fully >capable of reviving its demagogic liberalism. > >But for now, since the protests in Seattle and Washington, >the bourgeoisie has realized that the youths who are >carrying out resistance to corporate domination, racism and >repression, whatever their ideology, are irreconcilably >opposed to the manifestations of capitalism and the two >bourgeois parties. > >Beginning in Philadelphia and now in Los Angeles, the >bourgeois establishment is officially treating them as >enemies to be intimidated and crushed. The illegal jailings >and beatings in Philadelphia and the heavy use of military- >style police force in Los Angeles can only be understood in >that light. > >The government's nervousness was evident when the LAPD >raided Patriotic Hall, where the Shadow Convention and the >Independent Media Center were housed, on Aug. 14. On a >trumped-up claim that a van was filled with explosives, the >police shut down the hall while the IMC was preparing to >upload a broadcast about the demonstrations to 150 stations >through a satellite connection. > >In place of the IMC broadcast the police sent a message >saying the program had been closed down by the LAPD. >Activists were forced to stand outside for six hours. > >REPRESSION BREEDS RESISTANCE > >Among the many accounts of the attack on the Rage concert, >one by Los Angeles Times staff reporter Joe Mozingo shows >that the government has much to fear. > >Mozingo was covering the demonstrations and rushed to the >site of the attack to join the crowd. A phalanx of 20 >mounted police and a line of foot cops encircled the crowd >and drove it towards a corner into another phalanx of police >with shotguns armed with beanbags and rubber bullets. > >"They began to shout 'Don't shoot,'" wrote Mozingo, and >then, "they were push ed onto Olympic Boulevard. The group >stopped just past Francisco Street. The police ordered them >to move. They didn't. > >"The horses were lined up--23, side-by-side. Hundreds of >other officers were in tight formations. ...Then boom!" > >Rubber bullets were flying. Mozingo himself was shot several >times. > >The crowd retreated and then "stopped under the overpass of >Harbor Freeway. The police lined up 50 yards away behind >spires of smoke. ... Again, after repeated orders to move >on, shooting erupted in trails of sparks. ... We ran away >again and had several other stand-offs on Olympic." > >Protesters were picking up rubber bullets as souvenirs. >Finally the crowd was pushed out of the area. > >But it is clear from this report that the concert-goers, >almost all youths, did not flee in panic or fear. They were >angered into resistance and held their ground in the face of >overwhelming force. They only dispersed when they had no >means to overcome police firepower. The crowds in Seattle >had similar fight-back reactions against police attacks with >rubber bullets and tear gas. > >This is the first development of a sustained resistance >movement in a generation. > >It comes after the defeat of the USSR and the great setback >for the socialist camp. This defeat paved the way for the >triumphal march of U.S. corporations all over the Third >World and for the arrogance of the Clinton administration >and its repressive policies at home. It arises in a much >more reactionary political atmosphere, both nationally and >internationally, than existed during the 1960s and early >1970s. It has tested the ruling class and drawn a vicious >reaction. > >The ruling class feels free to dispense with all elementary >norms of capitalist democracy. It is setting the police free >to do virtually anything they want to suppress any >manifestation of militant resistance. > >But in the long run this strategy is bound to fail. In fact, >the struggle can become an invaluable education that will >ultimately make the movement stronger. > >All organizations that consider themselves Marxist or >socialist, despite ideological and tactical differences, are >duty bound to give support to this movement and to help turn >the capitalist strategy of destruction into a means to fan >the flames of resistance. > >- 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: <010401c007eb$c3f6e320$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [WW] Western wildfires: Blame the profit motive >Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 21:37:55 -0400 >Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="iso-8859-1" >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the Aug. 24, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >WESTERN WILDFIRES: BLAME THE PROFIT MOTIVE > >By G. Dunkel > >Since June, wildfires in the western United States have >burned an area larger than the state of Connecticut--almost >4.4 million acres. Some won't be controlled until the snows >come. > >Hundreds of houses have been destroyed and thousands more >damaged. An electric transmission line from Montana to the >West Coast melted. Another was badly damaged and put out of >commission. > >This loss of power--topped by a heat wave--pushed >California's power grid to the edge of a meltdown Aug. 1-2. >(Los Angeles Times, Aug. 12) > >Smoke, ash and flames have closed major highways and small >roads. In some areas, the fires' heat sterilized the soil, >which won't recover for decades. When the wet fall and >winter weather comes, the burned-over areas will face >rockslides, mudslides and flash floods because of the >absence of ground cover. > >Federal experts project the cost of controlling these fires >to be $1 billion. Estimates of the property damage done so >far are not available. (Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 14) > >The fire season will last at least six more weeks. > >AN ELECTION ISSUE? > >In this election year, the magnitude of the losses has given >Republican politicians a chance to blast the Clinton >administration. > >"The Clinton administration didn't cause these fires, but >their policies have left the Forest Service under-funded and >under-prepared for this crisis," Gov. Marc Racicot of >Montana charged. Racicot claimed Clinton has "a philosophy >... that leads to explosive fires that destroy everything." >(New York Times, Aug. 12) > >The American Forest and Paper Association, a group closely >identified with the Republican Party, chimed in its support >for Racicot's attack. The AFPA, a proponent of ecologically >damaging logging practices, claimed the Clinton >administration did not understand "that to save a forest you >have to cut a tree." > >The White House dismissed Racicot's charges as "nonsense." > >But the administration also had to answer more serious >charges made in a memo leaked by a former U.S. Bureau of >Land Management official. The memo charged that the >department was under-funding the training of federal and >local firefighters and the staffing of fire suppression >efforts. > >The Clinton administration admitted that funding had been >cut. But it asserted the cuts were reasonable. > >The BLM's preferred approach to controlling wildfires is >called "prescribed" fires. These are fires that are >intentionally set and controlled to remove the fuel that >otherwise allows explosive fires to take off. > >This approach has its limits. Earlier this year a BLM-set >fire raged out of control in Los Alamos, N.M. It destroyed >over 200 houses and threatened the government's premier >nuclear research laboratory. > >100 YEARS OF LOGGING > >Ecologists, firefighters and other experts say that before >1900 numerous small fires marked the Western areas of the >United States and Canada every year. These natural fires-- >many of them started by lightning--cleared the forests of >accumulated dead leaves, grass and other fire fuel. They >promoted plant growth and left between 30 and 80 widely >spaced large trees per acre--trees that could survive most >fires. > >The expansion of the logging industry in the late 19th and >early 20th centuries left a lot of brush on the forest floor >and promoted the growth of crowded stands of small trees. >Fires grew bigger and more explosive, culminating in the >Bitterroot Blaze of 1910, which produced hurricane force >winds, killed 87 people, and burned up to 4 million acres of >prime forest. > >The government's response was the "10 a.m. policy." In 1910 >the U.S. Forest Service, the predecessor of the BLM, >mandated that every wildfire be put out by 10 a.m. the day >after its detection. > >The rigorous suppression of wildfires protected the most >profitable resource the forests contained--timber. At the >same time, it allowed a hazardous buildup of brush, dead >trees, grass and other fuels. > >Today the situation is potentially even more deadly than it >was 90 years ago, given the increasing number of "dream >homes" built deep within Western forests. > >Laird Robinson, a former Forest Service smoke jumper who >collaborated with the late author Norman MacLean on the book >"Young Men and Fire," has joined scientist Kevin Ryan of the >Forest Service Fire Laboratory in Missoula, Mt., and others >in calling for a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar effort to >solve the problem. > >According to the Aug. 11 Seattle Times, their plan calls for >thousands of forest restoration workers to cut and burn >through the dangerously choked timberland of the West. > >But even its proponents know that such a plan, while it >meets an obvious need and would supply employment to >thousands of people for years, won't fly. It would have to >be organized by the federal government, which is in the >process of shedding its responsibilities for welfare and >health care and doesn't intend to take on any new ones, >however necessary. > >The BLM won't even completely fund the 1,300 full time >firefighters it has, much less train thousands of new >recruits in the rigorous and complicated techniques. > >Those capitalist profiteers interested in cutting timber >want it done in the cheapest, quickest way possible. They >don't want to cut a few trees here and there over thousands >of acres of forest. > >Meanwhile, capitalists interested in selling "unspoiled >vistas" to tourists or building "dream houses" oppose any >mechanical removal of trees, which they see as an opening >wedge for full-scale logging. > >The government shows no sign of trying to resolve this >conflict. From year to year the potential for a much greater >catastrophe grows. Only a system that assesses the needs of >society as a whole can carry out a careful plan to reduce >the wildfire risks to a manageable level. Socialism is the >name of that system. > >- 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: <010c01c007eb$e7610ca0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [WW] NATO troops seize Kosovo mining complex >Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 21:38:54 -0400 >Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="iso-8859-1" >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the Aug. 24, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >Kosovo > >NATO TROOPS SEIZE MINING COMPLEX > >By Sara Flounders > >Claiming they were concerned about controlling air >pollution, some 3,000 NATO soldiers stormed a lead smelting >plant in Zvecan at 4:30 in the morning of Aug. 14. The plant >was the only functioning industry in the vast Trepca mining >complex in northern Kosovo, a few miles from the city of >Mitrovica. > >At 6:30 a.m., in a further attack that had nothing to do >with air pollution, NATO soldiers closed down and >confiscated the equipment of Zvecan's Radio S--the only >station that dared to report information critical of NATO. > >The northern part of Mitrovica is the only remaining multi- >ethnic part of Kosovo. Thousands of Serbs, Romani people, >Slavic Muslims, other nationalities and peoples of mixed >backgrounds have been driven out of other areas by Kosovo >Liberation Army thugs and vigilante groups. Many have fled >to the north side of the Iber river. > >There, with the local Serbian population, they have resisted >more than a year of KLA attacks in an economically >devastated region. > >The surprise attack by NATO shut down the only radio station >and the main source of employment for the local population. > >The mines, with their smelting, refining and power centers, >once constituted one of Yugoslavia's leading export >industries and a main source of hard currency. It was the >major source of jobs in the region. > >Defending the pre-dawn attack, Bernard Kouchner, the head of >the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said, "As a >doctor and chief administrator of Kosovo I would be derelict >if I allowed a threat to the health of children and pregnant >women to continue for one more day." UNMIK is the police >force set up by NATO to administer Kosovo. > >Kouchner has never had a word of criticism for the >environmental havoc NATO created throughout the entire >region with the use of depleted uranium weapons, the bombing >of chemical plants and the use of cluster bombs. > >If you find it hard to accept that NATO is suddenly >concerned with pollution, it's worth looking for what is >really at stake. > >'MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF REAL ESTATE' > >On July 8, 1998, New York Times reporter Chrisopher Hedges >wrote, "The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining complex is >the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans." >Hedges described glittering veins of lead, cadmium, zinc, >gold and silver. > >The Stari Trg mine is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal >treatment sites, warehouses, freight yards, railroad lines, >a power plant and the country's largest battery plant. It is >the richest lead and zinc mine in Europe. There are also 17 >billion tons of coal. > >It was George Soros, the multi-billionaire financier, who >wrote Kouchner's script. > >Paris-based journalist Diana Johnstone, in a Feb. 28 report, >described a policy paper by the International Crisis Group. >This is a think tank set up by Soros to provide guidance in >the NATO-led reshaping of the Balkans. > >The think tank publicly called on Kouch ner to take over the >management of Trepca and to use the pretext of environmental >hazards to shut the Zvecan smelter down. > >The Soros group stressed that the takeover should happen >before new elections in Yugoslavia so that the opposition >could blame Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for the >loss of Trepca. The elections are now six weeks away. > >At the time this proposal was made there was no pollution-- >the lead smelter was not even in operation. It was closed >for several months after the NATO bombing. > >Production in this state-owned industry started again only >two months ago, at great sacrifice and expense. The hard >currency it could have earned was desperately needed to >rebuild Yugoslavia's ravaged economy. > >SKIMMING THE PROFITS > >With the seizure of the smelting plant in Zvenca, NATO will >control the entire Trepca complex. > >Proving once again that NATO is the military arm to insure >primarily U.S. corporate control, the first move after >seizing the complex was to turn it over to a consortium of >private mining companies. This consortium--ITT Kosovo Ltd.-- >is a joint venture of U.S., French and Swedish companies. > >The most interesting partner in this deal to control Trepca >is the U.S. company Morrison Knudsen International. On July >7 Morrison Knudsen merged with Raytheon Engineers and >Constructors, a major military contractor that makes Patriot >missiles and radar equipment for the Pentagon. > >This is an enormously lucrative deal. ITT Kosovo Ltd. will >administer Trepca, appoint executives and a board of >directors, develop the investment strategy and skim the >greatest profits from every possible deal. > >Those in the Albanian population who hold illusions that >control by these corporations will mean the return of the >thousands of well-paid, secure jobs with benefits that >existed before the war should read the plans multi- >billionaire Soros has in store. > >Once NATO has control of the whole industrial complex, >according to the International Crisis Group, foreign >investors will develop a very modern, highly profitable >facility with a small workforce. > >In this outright theft of an industry that was built by the >efforts of all the peoples of Yugoslavia, Soros's think tank >recommends that the management and administration be made up >of foreign executives "in order to prevent corruption"! > >- 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: <011401c007eb$f96dde50$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [WW] Target: Lumumba >Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 21:39:24 -0400 >Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="iso-8859-1" >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the Aug. 24, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >Editorial > >TARGET: LUMUMBA > >The year was 1960. The people of the Congo had just wrested >independence from Belgian imperialism. Their leader was 35- >year-old Patrice Lumumba, who declared he was ready to seek >Soviet assistance to drive out the remaining Belgian troops. >To the people of Congo, he was a hero. > >To the Cold Warriors in the Eisenhower White House, Lumumba >was a "communist agent." To Belgian ruling circles, he was >an upstart African who dared to challenge their murderous >rule as anything but benign. > >To both sets of imperialist rulers, Lumumba was a target. He >was someone to be pushed out, gotten rid of, eliminated. >Assassinated. > >U.S. and Belgian imperialist interests competed then--and >still compete--in the Congo. And they both compete with >French and British corporations. But they all agreed in the >summer of 1960 that Lumumba must be destroyed. > >This year new official material has come out that backs up >the rumors, leaks and rational analysis that the CIA and/or >Belgian secret services and military connived with corrupt >Congolese officials--namely Joseph Mobutu and Moise Tshombe-- >to get rid of Lumumba. > >Orders for the U.S. hit came directly from the top. As the >British Guardian publicized this Aug. 10, U.S. President >Dwight Eisenhower told a meeting of the National Security >Council that he thought Lumumba should be erased. > >According to Robert Johnson, the minute-taker at that Aug. >18, 1960, meeting, who spoke to a Congressional committee in >1975, Eisenhower turned to Allen Dulles, director of the >CIA, "in the full hearing of all those in attendance, and >saying something to the effect that Lumumba should be >eliminated." > >Johnson recalled: "There was stunned silence for about 15 >seconds and the meeting continued." > >According to many reports, Dulles and the CIA put a plan in >motion to poison Lumumba with biological agents so he would >fall ill and die, and the United States would escape blame. >This elaborate plot failed, for while U.S. imperialism is >capable of attempting the greatest crimes, it does not >always succeed. > >The CIA made dozens of similar elaborate attempts on Cuban >President Fidel Castro's life, and the Pentagon carried out >simpler direct bombing strikes aimed at Libya's leader >Muammar Qaddafi and Yugoslavia's elected President Slobodan >Milosevic. > >But sometimes the murderers succeed. In September 1960, >following a coup led by Mobutu, Lumumba wound up under house >arrest. When he attempted to escape, U.S. and Belgian agents >helped his enemies capture him. He was turned over to >Tshombe's forces and murdered on Jan. 17, 1961. > >A book written last year by Ludo de Witt, based on Belgian >government documents, shows how officials and officers from >that country were actively working to get rid of Lumumba >just as the CIA was. Whoever struck the final blow, both >imperialist powers were acting like what they are: organized >criminals. Highly organized. But still criminals. > >Lumumba, on the other hand, was a national hero. And a >revolutionary liberation hero for the world who is still >inspiring the people of the Congo to fight for their >independence. The last words he wrote while awaiting his >death that January show why: > >"History will one day have its say, but it will not be the >history that is taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or in >the United Nations, but the history which will be taught in >the countries freed from imperialism and its puppets. Africa >will write its own history, and to the north and south of >the Sahara, it will be a glorious and dignified history. > >"Do not weep for me, my dear wife. I know that my country, >which is suffering so much, will know how to defend its >independence and its liberty. Long live the Congo. Long live >Africa!" > >- 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. 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] ___________________________________
