F
WW News Service Digest #212
1) Pentagon's Toxic Damage to Balkans Exposed
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) Victory for J20 Protesters
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
3) Black Officials Speak Out Against Vote Theft
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
4) San Francisco: Activists Meet, Then Hit Streets
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
5) Martin Luther King & J20
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 18, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
AFTER DU KILLS NATO SOLDIERS: PENTAGON'S TOXIC
DAMAGE OF BALKANS EXPOSED
By John Catalinotto
A storm of protest in Europe has ended the period when
governments and the media alike ignored or played down the
threat to soldiers and civilians from pollution by
radioactive and toxic depleted-uranium shells. By Jan. 8,
deaths of European occupation troops in the Balkans had
raised DU to a major issue dividing the NATO countries.
This increased attention has encouraged groups fighting DU
use to renew their call for an international ban on these
dangerous weapons. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark
and the International Action Center, which have played a
leading role in the struggle against DU in the United
States, have long demanded a complete ban.
Now elected officials within some European governments have
picked up the call. German and Italy have officially called
for a moratorium on DU use and brought the discussion to
NATO. Amid growing public pressure, the British government
reversed itself and offered medical tests to any troops who
request them.
The Portuguese government has begun to investigate polluted
areas of Kosovo, the Yugoslavian province occupied by NATO
troops. U.S. forces used DU weapons extensively there during
the 1999 bombing war against Yugoslavia.
The French government has complained about U.S. procedures.
In Italy, where 12 Balkans veterans have cancer and five
have died of leukemia, a storm of public outrage has sparked
government demands that DU be banned.
In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. One
Portuguese soldier has been diagnosed with cancer since
returning from Kosovo. Spain has begun examining 32,000
troops who were in Bosnia or Kosovo.
The French veterans' group Avigolfe forced Defense Minister
Alain Richard to admit his lies in covering up about DU.
Outgoing United Nations Administrator in Kosovo Bernard
Kouchner made a "urgent appeal" to the World Health
Organization to send public-health experts to monitor the
possible health risks.
CIVILIAN POPULATION THREATENED
With such turmoil in Europe over the danger to occupation
troops, it is both inevitable and necessary that two other
questions be raised.
The first is: What damage has been done to the civilian
population in the regions involved? The soldiers can easily
leave and go home. The inhabitants of Bosnia and Kosovo are
under permanent threat.
The civilian population most under DU threat is that of
southern Iraq, where about 60 times more DU waste was left
after the Gulf War. There the population has suffered three-
to six-fold increases in many cancers, as was revealed by a
Basra University study presented to a symposium in Gijon,
Spain, last November.
The second question is: What about health problems among
U.S. troops stationed in Bosnia and Kosovo? So far there
have been no similar reports of leukemia deaths or illnesses
as there were after the Gulf War. But as news of European
fear spreads to the U.S. media, as it had begun to do by
Jan. 8, U.S. veterans who have been ill will begin to come
forward.
While the Pentagon and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
have denied there is any serious danger from DU weapon use,
NATO's own warnings to troops in Kosovo contradict these
claims. The military considered DU shells something to be
handled with care.
Besides the IAC, the Spanish Committee in Solidarity with
the Arab Cause--which organized the Gijon symposium--along
with the Pasti Foundation and others in Italy have begun to
reach out to the population to build support for an
international ban.
Ramsey Clark is about to lead the IAC's fourth Iraq
Sanctions Challenge to bring solidarity and medical aid to
that embattled country. This trip, which will bring 50
people from the United States and six other countries to
Baghdad on Jan. 13, will also conduct an investigation of DU-
related problems in Iraq.
The Challenge participants include Damacio Lopez, a New
Mexico activist who has written extensively on DU since the
early 1990s, and IAC Co-director Sara Flounders, who co-
edited the book "Metal of Dishonor: How the Pentagon
Radiates Soldiers and Civilians with Depleted Uranium
Weapons."
Flounders told Workers World: "The Sanctions Challenge will
perform a service by interviewing Iraqi scientists and
doctors who have investigated DU's impact on the Iraqi
population. The sanctions have isolated these scientists
from their colleagues around the world, prevented them from
obtaining the proper equipment and stopped them from
publishing their results internationally.
"Washington is responsible for enormous suffering in Iraq
and should be made to pay for the cleanup and care of the
population.
"The Pentagon left 600,000 pounds of DU in the Gulf region,
and smaller but still large amounts of DU in Bosnia, Kosovo
and other parts of Serbia," she said. "They left it in armor-
penetrating shells, land mines, in 'smart bombs' and other
munitions."
"The first step," Flounders said, "is to bring out the
truth. This will also help the people of the Balkans and the
troops who served there."
Flounders also said that Palestinian organizations had
demanded an investigation of possible Israeli use of DU to
repress the Intifada that started last Sept. 28. The IAC
first raised this issue in November.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 18, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
VICTORY FOR J20 PROTESTERS: POLICE FORCED TO GRANT
PERMITS
Special to Workers World
Washington
Organizers of the Jan. 20 counter-inaugural demonstration
scored an important victory on Jan. 9 in Washington. "We
have forced the police to reverse their position, which they
announced earlier to the media, that no protest permits have
been granted," said International Action Center Co-director
Brian Becker.
"We have always asserted that we had the permits in
accordance with existing DC law and regulations," Becker
told Workers World. "Even though we submitted our permit
applications more than two months ago, we had never heard
officially from the responsible police agencies.
"We believe the police were consciously dragging their feet
to try to create a climate of confusion, uncertainty and
fear so as to dissuade the general public from attending the
demonstration."
On Jan. 4 the IAC's attorneys at the Partnership for Civil
Justice sent a detailed letter to the Metro Police, the
Capitol Police, the Interior Department and the National
Parks Service asserting the protesters' right to the
permits.
The letter also asked for clarification on a detailed list
of questions regarding permits, access to demonstration
sites, police plans regarding demonstrations and public
access to the inaugural route and the area around the
inaugural route.
In a meeting held at the National Parks Service Jan. 9, the
various police agencies acknowledged that the IAC does in
fact hold a permit for a counter-inaugural demonstration at
Freedom Plaza (14th St. and Pennsylvania Avenue NW), the
Justice Department (10th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW) and
McPherson Square (15th St. and I NW).
Freedom Plaza is to be the main gathering site for the J20
protest, Becker said.
'A MAJOR VICTORY'
"This reversal by the police is a major victory for the IAC,
other demonstration organizers and all those who want to
demonstrate against racist disenfranchisement, the death
penalty, in support of a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal and
other issues in contrast with the right-wing policies of the
incoming Bush administration," asserted Larry Holmes, a co-
director of the IAC.
"This victory was a consequence of public pressure,
political mobilization and legal efforts," Holmes explained.
"Although this is a significant victory, there are other
outstanding issues that remain to be clarified, and if the
various police agencies are not forthcoming with an adequate
response guaranteeing the rights of the public to express
opinions and demonstrate against George Bush's polices, the
lawyers for the IAC are prepared to take legal action."
Following the meeting with the police agencies, the IAC held
a news conference in Washington that drew reporters from
over 20 media outlets, including NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox, Nippon
TV, USA Today, the Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News
and the Associated Press.
Speakers included Becker and Holmes representing the IAC and
Mara Verheyden-Hilliar and Carl Messineo representing the
Partnership for Civil Justice. The news conference was later
broadcast on the C-SPAN cable network.
ACCESS TO PROTEST SITES AT ISSUE
The most important outstanding issue concerns the access of
demonstrators and the public to the inaugural route and even
to the permitted sites that the IAC holds for demonstrations
and rallies.
"The metropolitan police force, in tandem with the Secret
Service, has announced that they are establishing check
points that could affect the flow of people into these
areas," Becker explained.
"At the meeting today with the police agencies, neither the
National Parks Service nor the Metro Police would tell
demonstration organizers where the check points will be
established, when they will be established, whether
identification would be required to pass through the check
points, whether people would be frisked, whether materials
would be subject to confiscation, whether people will have
to pass through a metal detector and other details."
Becker said: "Given the conduct of the police in the
Washington area in the past year, the issue of access to the
demonstration sites and police conduct is vital to the
upholding of the First Amendment rights of the
demonstrators."
As examples, Becker cited the arrests of 678 demonstrators
in an act of preventive detention at an IAC-sponsored
demonstration on April 15, 2000; the illegal raid on the
convergence center for the anti-IMF protesters in
Washington, also on April 15; the systematic demonizing of
demonstrators in the media by police officials; and the
calculated effort to create a climate of fear for those
attending the demonstration.
The second outstanding issue has to do with the disparate
treatment accorded the presidential inaugural committee and
the applicants who are seeking to protest. The inaugural
committee has been given bleachers to accommodate 42,000-
plus people along Pennsylvania Avenue.
"It is entirely in the discretion of the inaugural committee
as to who is entitled to tickets for those bleachers,"
Holmes said. "The result is that Pennsylvania Avenue, a
public thoroughfare, and the inaugural parade, a public
event, have been effectively privatized.
"George W. Bush's corporate and banking donors have been
given access to a constitutionally-mandated event while
depriving equal access to those who oppose the death penalty
and Bush's right-wing policies."
Holmes said: "All those who want to demonstrate on Jan. 20
should feel that they can come and participate in a legal,
orderly and disciplined protest. This should give further
impetus to organizing in Washington and in cities around the
country. We know of more than 40 organizing centers where
buses and car caravans are being organized to bring
protesters to Washington.
"At the same time," he concluded, "important outstanding
issues must be clarified to the satisfaction of the
demonstrators in accordance with the constitutional
guarantees of free speech or further legal action will be
taken.
"Most important, our message to all January 20 mobilizing
centers is organize, organize, organize. J20 will be
remembered as a historic next step in the construction of a
new movement for social justice."
The J20 protest was initiated by the International Action
Center. Hundreds of organizations and prominent individuals
have endorsed and joined in building for the protest.
They include: International Concerned Family & Friends of
Mumia Abu-Jamal; Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right of Return
Coalition; All African Peoples Revolutionary Party; Anthony
Freddie, Gary Graham/Shaka Sankofa Justice Coalition; Texas
Death Penalty Abolition Movement; Campaign to End the Death
Pen alty; Colo mbia Action Network; Connecticut and New
Jersey Greens; Critical Resistance; DC Coalition to Stop the
U.S. War on Iraq; Detroit Coalition to Stop the Execution of
Mumia; Disabled But Able for Mumia; Food Not Bombs of New
Brunswick, N.J., Rochester, N.Y., Richmond, Va., and Oly
mpia, Wash.; Gabriella Network; Global Women's Strike; Haiti
Support Network; INCITE: Women of Color Against Violence;
Ismael Guadalupe, Committee for the Rescue and Development
of Vieques; and Justice Action Movement.
Also: Leslie Feinberg, co-founder of Rainbow Flags for
Mumia; League of Indigenous Soveriegn Nations; Martha
Grevatt, national secretary of Pride At Work (AFL-CIO);
Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights; Monica
Moorehead and Gloria La Riva, Workers World Party
candidates; New York Free Mumia Coalition; Queers for Racial
and Economic Justice; former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey
Clark; Refuse & Resist!; Ray Martinez Jr., chapter chair,
Service Employees Local 668, Philadelphia; the Rev. Al
Sharpton, National Action Network; San Francisco Labor
Council (AFL-CIO); Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State
Killing; Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty; and
Washington Peace Center.
Updated information, including a complete list of organizing
centers, is available on the Web sites www.mumia2000.org and
www.iacenter.org. For bus information, call the IAC at (212)
633-6646 in New York or (202) 347-9300 in Washington.
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 18, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SHAKING UP CAPITOL HILL: BLACK OFFICIALS SPEAK OUT
AGAINST VOTE THEFT
By Monica Moorehead
A dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus staged a
symbolic protest during the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress
that certified George W. Bush as the next president. The
delegation included Reps. Maxine Waters, Alcee Hastings,
Corrine Brown and Jesse Jackson Jr.
Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College
vote to Bush, 271-268.
The protest again shined a national spotlight on the racist
conspiracy concocted by Bush, his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb
Bush, and the U.S. Supreme Court to capture the presidency
by politically disenfranchising thousands of Florida voters,
particularly in the African American community.
Florida was only the tip of the iceberg. Reports from around
the country indicate that fraud and intimidation were used
to invalidate the votes of the African American and other
oppressed communities.
One by one the Black representatives took the podium in
front of both Democrats and Republicans to challenge the 25
electoral votes that the Bush forces stole in the Florida
election. They talked about how the theft of these electoral
votes was the result of another form of racial profiling:
"voting while Black."
That means African American voters were harassed or
discouraged from voting because Republicans knew that Black
voters would tend to vote for Gore, the "lesser evil"
candidate, due to heavy anti-Bush sentiment.
Jeb Bush, like his brother, is a racist who opposes
affirmative action. He is pro-death-penalty and pro-police-
brutality. Florida civil-rights groups and students carried
out a large voter registration drive in preparation for the
election.
The Democratic Party leadership did nothing of substance to
oppose the Republicans' gross violations of the 1965 Voting
Rights Act. Their inaction reflects their staunch loyalty to
defending the capitalist class and its repressive state
apparatus.
FORCED TO USE FAULTY VOTING MACHINES
The Black representatives spoke about the experiences of
African Americans who were forced to use faulty, outmoded
voting machines that helped to invalidate tens of thousands
of votes.
These voters were also intimidated by a heavy police
presence at the voting precincts. Some were turned away from
the polls because their names were mysteriously missing from
registration lists or because they failed to show multiple
forms of identification.
Many Black voters were falsely accused of being convicted
felons.
Over 4 million convicted felons are permanently barred from
voting in the United States. As a result, over 200,000
African Americans were denied the right to vote in Florida--
the highest number of those disenfranchised in any state.
Many Haitian voters were turned away because of a lack of
bilingual instructors to explain the voting process.
Waters, Hastings, Jackson, Brown and others once again
exposed the illegal intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court,
which halted the recount of disputed votes in West Palm
Beach and elsewhere in Florida and sealed Bush's fate. They
repeatedly referred to Bush as "president-select" rather
than president-elect.
GORE BLESSES BUSH THEFT
Ironically, as each representative stated her or his reasons
for protesting, Vice President Al Gore ruled the lawmaker
out of order with a bang of his gavel. Gore is president of
the Senate and presided over the ratification vote.
Congressional procedures state that an objection to the
electoral process is invalid unless at least one senator
joins in the protest. Of course, not one senator would sign
the objection.
When Waters said, "I don't care that it is not signed by a
senator," Gore replied, "The chair would advise that the
rules do care." His response was met with the approval of
Republicans, who clapped with unrestrained glee.
Gore closed the session with the words, "May God bless our
new president and new vice president and may God bless the
United States of America," ad nauseum.
CBC members left the session together in a sign of unity.
After their protest, they held a news conference to announce
that demonstrations against the Florida election outcome
would take place at the Supreme Court in Washington and
Florida's state capitol in Tallahassee when Bush is sworn in
Jan. 20.
On that day the International Action Center and hundreds of
other groups will hold a protest along the inauguration
parade route. The IAC also stands in solidarity with the
other anti-racist actions.
Demands of the IAC-initiated protest include: Free the Black
vote; end the racist death penalty; free death-row political
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal; and jobs and schools, not prisons.
[Moorehead was Workers World Party's 2000 candidate for U.S.
president.]
- END -
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 11. tammikuu 2001 10:24
Subject: [WW] San Francisco: Activists Meet, Then Hit Streets
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 18, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SAN FRANCISCO: ACTIVISTS MEET, THEN HIT THE STREETS
By Anne Sadler
San Francisco
More than 80 Bay Area activists crammed into the office of
the International Action Center Jan. 6 for a meeting to
organize for the Jan. 20 protest in San Francisco against
George W. Bush's inauguration. It was the biggest mobilizing
meeting held by the IAC here since the onset of the 1991
Gulf War.
Representatives of local activist groups and the media
attended. A major article about the effort appeared the
following day in the San Jose Mercury News.
There was an update and orientation on the work for the
national demonstrations in San Francisco and Washington. How
to build effective community outreach was another major
topic.
The group reviewed the IAC's flier on "13 Reasons to Protest
at Bush's Inauguration." Those reasons include fighting the
racist death penalty, opposing the disenfranchisement of
Black voters, defending the rights of immigrants, women and
lesbian/gay/bi/trans people, and opposing U.S. intervention
from Iraq to Colombia.
Those at the meeting heard an update on the ongoing effort
to obtain a permit to assemble in Washington. They saw a
videotape of CNN's recent interview with IAC Co-director
Brian Becker about the inaugural protests.
Later, activists broke down into smaller groups to reach out
to various communities, with special attention to African
American and Latino communities. They passed out fliers and
put up posters.
Outlying cities and communities, including Berkeley,
Oakland, Sacramento, Pleasant Hill and San Jose, were also
reached. In all, nearly 10,000 posters and fliers were
distributed on this singularly productive Saturday.
The Jan. 20 demonstration will gather at 12 noon at San
Francisco's Civic Center Plaza, near the BART
station. For more information, readers can call (415) 821-
6545 or e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] For bus tickets from Los
Angeles, call (213) 487-2368 or e-mail
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 18, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
EDITORIAL: MARTIN LUTHER KING & J20
Think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and you think of the
Struggle against racism and the struggle for civil rights. Jan. 15 is
his day.
It's a time to remember what he stood for. It is a time to
remember how, in the last year of his life, King joined the
struggle for civil rights with the struggle against the
Vietnam War.
Then he took it one step further. He was assassinated while
joining these struggles to the fight for workers' rights as
he stood in solidarity with striking sanitation workers in
Memphis.
There is now an opportunity and a challenge to carry on Dr.
King's struggle: to take his day and extend it into a week
of struggle for freedom.
Saturday, Jan. 20, marks the inauguration of George W. Bush
as U.S. president.
It's true Bush represents basically the same oppressive and
exploitative class forces that Clinton did--corporate and
financial USA. The workers and especially the very poor, and
the people of Iraq and Yugoslavia, got no breaks from that
Democratic administration.
But now Bush is taking office. As a champion of capital
punishment, Gov. Death shows the most brutal face of racist
injustice. By appointing John Ashcroft as his attorney
general, he threatens women's right to choose abortion and
lesbian, gay, bi and trans people's fight for equality. His
presidency not only demands resistance, it inspires people
to come out into the streets against him.
And they will.
On Jan. 20 many organizations will be mobilizing and
bringing people to Washington to protest the new
administration. Some will protest the Republican theft of
the presidency. In itself this theft was nothing
extraordinary in U.S. electoral politics, but it was so
blatant because Bush lost the popular vote. Some will make a
more basic protest against the disenfranchisement of African
Americans and new citizens that was so apparent in Florida.
And others--like those who join the demonstration called by
the International Action Center--will be raising many of the
important issues for the working class here. They will fight
for abortion rights and workers' rights; against the
militarism and threat of new wars that extends from the
Clinton administration to Bush's; and against corporate
globalization.
Most important, at the center of this protest is the issue
most vital for the working class, youths and progressive
movement in the United States today: the fight against
racism, symbolized by the struggle to free Mumia Abu-Jamal
and tear down the prison-industrial complex.
Workers World newspaper calls on its readers and supporters
from the East to go to Washington and those from the West to
go to San Francisco on Jan. 20. Make the issues symbolized
by Dr. King the center of protest. Show the world that the
new administration has already stirred up resistance
throughout the land.
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki
Phone +358-40-7177941
Fax +358-9-7591081
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
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