> WW News Service Digest #190
>
> 1) Texas plans post-election killing spree
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 2) NYU workers win union shop
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 3) March remebers 400 killed by INS policies
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 4) WWP hits streets with election message
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 5) Vieques supporters drape Statue of Liberty
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 6) Nov. 7, 1917 & Nov. 7, 2000
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 7) Oil company profits explode
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
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>Message-ID: <003801c04b9e$84ba6d20$0a00a8c0@linux>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Texas plans post-election killing spree
>Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 00:15:39 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="Windows-1252"
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>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Nov. 16, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>STRUGGLE GROWS TO STOP LEGAL LYNCHINGS:
>TEXAS PLANS POST-ELECTION KILLING SPREE
>
>By Gloria Rubac
>Houston
>
>This year alone, Texas Gov. George W. Bush has executed
>mentally ill people, juveniles, a battered woman and
>revolutionary activists. Thirty-three prisoners have been
>put to death in this state so far this year. Seven more are
>scheduled to die before yearend--but not until after the
>November presidential election is past.
>
>In fact, four executions are scheduled during the 10 days
>following the presidential election. Another three are set
>for December, with three more slated to follow in January.
>
>During the presidential debates, Vice President Al Gore said
>he supports the death penalty and has no quarrel with Bush's
>record of 144 executions. Gore refused to call for a
>moratorium despite many studies showing how the death
>penalty is used disproportionately against people of color
>and the poor.
>
>Three Texas prisoners whose cases are receiving public
>scrutiny are Calvin Burdine, a gay man; Miguel Angel Flores,
>a Mexican citizen; and Johnny Paul Penry, who is mentally
>disabled. Flores and Penry are among those scheduled to die
>in November.
>
>COURT: SLEEPING LAWYER OKAY
>
>Burdine was tried in 1984 and represented by a court-
>appointed attorney, Joe Cannon. According to several jurors
>and the court clerk, Cannon often fell asleep. In fact,
>Cannon reportedly dozed while prosecutors cross-examined
>Burdine--a grilling that took up 72 pages of the court
>transcript.
>
>As a result, Cannon said nothing during this cross-
>examination, even when Burdine was asked clearly prejudicial
>questions about his sexuality.
>
>One year ago a federal district judge overturned Burdine's
>death sentence. The judge ruled that this was a no-brainer,
>noting that reversal should be automatic when a defendant's
>attorney sleeps during the trial.
>
>But in a shocking 2-1 ruling on Oct. 27, the Fifth U.S.
>Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that it is impossible to
>determine that counsel slept during "a critical phase" of
>Burdine's trial.
>
>One of the two judges who voted against Burdine is Edith
>Jones. George Kendall, a staff attorney with the NAACP Legal
>Defense and Education Fund in New York, noted that "Jones is
>on every short list I have seen for Gov. Bush's possible
>Supreme Court nominees."
>
>Njeri Shakur, a leader of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition
>Movement in Houston, told Workers World, "The Oct. 27 ruling
>by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is saying that he
>didn't prove that his attorney slept during the 'important'
>parts of his trial and therefore no harm was done.
>
>"This ruling is a total mockery of anything related to
>justice," Shakur stressed. "Calvin Burdine should be
>released from death row."
>
>Burdine's attorney is appealing this ruling to the full
>Fifth Circuit Court and to the U.S. Supreme Court if
>necessary.
>
>HIGH PROFILE CASE DRAWS SUPPORT
>
>Despite a string of outrageous court rulings, death-penalty
>foes and immigrant-rights activists are waging a struggle to
>stop the Nov. 9 execution of Miguel Angel Flores, a Mexican
>citizen on death row in Texas.
>
>Flores' attorneys and family have taken his case to the
>international community and the U.S. State Department, as
>well as to Bush and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
>
>In a formal protest to the State Department on Oct. 19,
>Mexican government officials said that they didn't find out
>about the charges against Flores until nearly one year after
>he had been sentenced to death. They asked that the sentence
>be commuted to life. And they requested that the State
>Department intercede with officials in Texas.
>
>Three European diplomats joined Mexico in appeals to Bush
>and the pardons board to halt the execution of Flores.
>
>The French consulate in Houston reported on Nov. 4 that
>French and Swedish ambassadors to the U.S., and the head of
>the European Union's Delegation of the European Commission,
>sent a letter requesting a stay of execution. Their letter
>cited provisions of international law under the Vienna
>Convention on Consular Relation that should have allowed
>Flores to contact Mexican officials.
>
>Anti-death penalty activists held a militant protest at Bush
>campaign headquarters here on Nov. 3. Campaign workers were
>so upset that they called the Houston police. The cops
>responded with seven squad cars to handle the 20 protesters.
>
>Many members of the Flores family attended the demonstration
>and spoke to the crowd and to reporters.
>
>Another demonstration is planned for Election Day.
>
>FILM HIGHLIGHTS FLORES CASE
>
>On Oct. 23, the film "La Espalda Del Mundo" ("The Back of
>the World")--winner of the prestigious International Critics
>Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival--premiered in
>Texas.
>
>This moving film highlights the effects of Texas executions
>on prisoners' families. Each member of the Texas Board of
>Pardons and Paroles received a videocassette of the film.
>
>The film includes a series of interviews with Flores'
>family. In one of them, his grandfather Tomas Rangel says,
>"If Miguel is given a date of execution I would rather be
>dead. I don't want to be alive for his execution because I
>don't think I could deal with it."
>
>One of the central issues raised by Flores' current
>attorneys in the film is the failure of his original trial
>lawyer to call any members of his family to testify on his
>behalf during the penalty phase of the trial.
>
>Flores' lawyers are urging Bush to directly intervene in
>Flores' clemency appeal.
>
>These attorneys cite a little-known provision of Texas law
>that allows the Board of Pardons and Paroles to investigate
>and consider a recommendation of commutation of sentence in
>a case based on the governor's written request.
>
>A third scheduled execution drawing attention is that of a
>mentally disabled man, Johnny Paul Penry, who is set to be
>killed on Nov. 16.
>
>Penry, who has the mental abilities of a 6- or 7-year-old
>child, has supporters around the world. They charge that the
>execution of a mentally disabled prisoner is a violation of
>human rights and international laws.
>
>'CHANGE IS COMING!'
>
>The last year has been a tumultuous one for the 3,600 people
>on death row in the U.S., as well as for the growing
>movement of anti-death penalty activists.
>
>In January, the governor of Illinois called for a statewide
>moratorium on executions. This set off a chain reaction of
>events that have exposed the raw racism and blatant
>injustice of capital punishment being carried out in the
>U.S.
>
>Over 30 U.S. cities have now called for a moratorium on
>executions.
>
>The dam of public questioning about the use of the death
>penalty burst forth into public criticism and outrage around
>Texas and the world with the June 22 killing of Shaka
>Sankofa, also known as Gary Graham.
>
>The failure of Bush and the courts to stop the execution of
>a man whose many supporters argued was innocent--a man who
>never had the opportunity to have a court consider all the
>new evidence in his case--caused reactions from skepticism
>to militant outrage.
>
>>From that day forward, every time Bush said that Texas had
>never executed an innocent person, his credibility waned.
>
>Since Sankofa's legal lynching, the pace of executions has
>slowed down considerably in Texas. There have been only two
>this fall. Bush had averaged one execution for every two
>weeks he was governor.
>
>For Bush to have executed a Mexican citizen and a mentally
>disabled man before the election would have caused even more
>scrutiny of his state's assembly-line death machine that has
>already become a public embarrassment.
>
>'A NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT'
>
>But now Texas is set to break its own state record of 34
>executions in one year, set in l998.
>
>In a broad critique of capital punishment in Texas, an
>October report by the Texas Defender Service concludes that
>the state's death penalty system is in dire need of change.
>The report cites prosecutorial misconduct, racial bias,
>phony experts and inadequate lawyers for poor defendants.
>
>This report follows another critical study, presented last
>month by a committee of the State Bar of Texas, that
>described the state's system of providing legal
>representation to the poor as "a national embarrassment."
>
>Shakur observed, "The movement to stop the racist, anti-poor
>death machinery is growing, especially in the poor and
>oppressed communities where we feel the direct effect of the
>prisons and these legal lynchings.
>
>"The murders this year of Kamau Wilkerson and Shaka Sankofa,
>two revolutionary African men, will not be forgotten. We
>will avenge their deaths.
>
>"No matter who is the next president," Shakur concluded, "we
>will be in Washington on Jan. 20 to protest his
>inauguration. There we will demand freedom for revolutionary
>political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and we will demand that
>all executions be stopped."
>
>- 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: <004b01c04b9e$e44ad7c0$0a00a8c0@linux>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] NYU workers win union shop
>Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 00:16:14 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="Windows-1252"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Nov. 16, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>AFTER STRIKE THREAT: NYU WORKERS WIN UNION SHOP
>
>By Shelley Ettinger
>New York
>
>Clerical and technical employees are voting on a new
>contract that includes union rights they spent 22 years
>fighting for. Graduate employees are celebrating a National
>Labor Relations Board ruling granting them collective-
>bargaining rights.
>
>The battles aren't over. But things are certainly looking up
>for workers at New York University, the biggest private
>university in the United States.
>
>In early November, leaders of Teachers Local 3882 announced
>that they had reached a tentative contract settlement with
>NYU. The highlight is a strong union security clause.
>
>The open shop is now history at NYU. With this contract,
>every clerical and technical employee hired at NYU will have
>to join the union or pay an equivalent agency fee.
>
>The union characterized several other matters as
>breakthroughs--first-time contract items. They include:
>health and safety language; paid release time for union
>officers; substantial improvements in job descriptions and
>job classification systems that will provide more ways for
>the union to protect workers' job rights; and a $250 signing
>bonus in holiday paychecks.
>
>The contract also includes across-the-board increases for
>all workers. The raises range from 19.3 percent to 21
>percent over five years, with the bigger percentage
>increases going to lower-paid workers. And there are
>substantial improvements in benefits, including dental
>coverage, life insurance and sick days.
>
>The ratification vote by NYU's 1,600 clerical and technical
>workers is being conducted by mail ballot. Union leaders
>expect a resounding "yes" vote.
>
>The contract is historic not only for all it achieves. This
>is also the first time in many years that a settlement was
>reached before the deadline.
>
>HISTORY OF STRUGGLE
>
>Officials and activists in Local 3882 credit the contract
>victory and the speed with which they won it to three
>things.
>
>First, the local has a history of struggle, including two
>strikes. The NYU administration knew it would be taking on a
>mobilized membership in a serious fight if it stonewalled on
>the union's demands. The workers, mostly women and people of
>color, had made it clear that they expected serious
>improvements in this contract.
>
>The second factor was the increasing strength of organized
>labor. The national labor movement was watching NYU. Midway
>through negotiations, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney spoke
>at a campus rally. And just before the NYU talks started,
>workers at the Museum of Modern Art had won a five-month
>strike. Formerly an open shop, they now had the same agency
>shop the NYU union ultimately won.
>
>The third factor was graduate-employee organizing.
>
>Last year teaching assistants at NYU, fed up with low pay
>and practically no benefits for long work hours, formed the
>Graduate Students Organizing Committee. They brought in the
>Auto Workers union and petitioned the NLRB for an election.
>The election was granted, and took place in April.
>
>NYU, backed by funds from all the Ivy League universities
>and represented by notorious anti-labor law firm Proskauer
>Rose, refused to recognize the union. When the graduate
>students voted on union representation, NYU filed an appeal,
>demanding that the ballots be impounded pending a decision
>on the appeal.
>
>Joint strike threat wins contract
>
>The NLRB's ruling on that appeal was expected at any time.
>So during the clerical union contract talks the NYU
>administration faced a terrifying prospect.
>
>If the labor board ruled in favor of GSOC, and if NYU failed
>to reach a settlement with Local 3882 before the old
>contract expired, the two unions could walk out on strike
>together.
>
>That threat brought Local 3882 its contract victory. A
>tentative agreement was in place when the old contract
>expired Oct. 31.
>
>The very next day the NLRB announced its decision: Graduate
>employees have the right to a union. The ballots cast in
>April must be counted. If the majority voted for the union,
>NYU must negotiate.
>
>The ballot count is slated for Nov. 8. However, NYU
>administrators have made it clear they intend to defy the
>board and tie the matter up in the courts for as long as
>possible.
>
>Still, the graduate workers are ecstatic--at both their
>victory and the clerical union's. Local 3882 has pledged
>solidarity with GSOC as this struggle continues.
>
>[The writer was a member of Local 3882's bargaining team.]
>
>- 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: <005301c04b9e$ebf398e0$0a00a8c0@linux>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] March remebers 400 killed by INS policies
>Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 00:17:00 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="Windows-1252"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Nov. 16, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>MARCH REMEMBERS 400 KILLED BY INS POLICIES
>
>New York anti-racists, led by the Coalition for the Human
>Rights of Immigrants, rallied on Nov. 2 outside the
>Immigration and Naturalization Service office to mark the
>"Day of the Dead." They marched in protest for the over 400
>people who died while trying to enter the United States in
>the last year. They also protested U.S. immigration policies
>that deny people the right to enter the country safely and
>with dignity.
>
>Demonstrators said that U.S. immigration policies force
>people to take more dangerous routes. People drown, die of
>dehydration or exposure to heat or cold, in car crashes or
>are run over by trains. Others suffer suffocation in sealed
>containers or are murdered outright by Border Patrol agents
>and vigilantes. They die in rivers and deserts along the
>
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