WW News Service Digest #217
1) Not Just a Coup
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) Mumia to J20: "Build a Revolutionary Movement"
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
3) The Protest Bush and the Cops Couldn't Stop
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
4) Rebel Against Racism
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 25, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
EDITORIAL: NOT JUST A COUP
As we go to press on Jan. 17, sources in the imperialist
governments of Belgium, Britain and the United States are
claiming that the president of the Congo, Laurent Kabila,
has been shot and killed by one of his bodyguards. The
government of the Congo, however, after an emergency cabinet
meeting, said that Kabila is wounded but alive and receiving
medical treatment in another country. It announced that his
son, Gen. Joseph Kabila, would be in charge of the
government and armed forces temporarily.
Many sources are calling this a coup, one backed in all
likelihood by Rwanda and Uganda. These two countries invaded
eastern Congo in the summer of 1998 and have been fighting a
war there ever since for control of the rich mineral
resources in the area.
This explanation barely scratches the surface, however. The
cause of the world's biggest war, involving at least seven
countries, goes far beyond the battlegrounds in central
Africa. The 1.7 million estimated deaths and millions of
refugees are casualties not just of a regional power
struggle but of a vicious subterranean war among the
insatiable imperialist powers.
In particular, the U.S., France and Britain are hell-bent on
carving up Africa again after a period in which the African
people, with the support of the socialist countries, fought
to achieve some measure of independence from colonial and
imperialist domination.
The Congo is cursed with great wealth. That attracted
Belgium's rulers, who murdered and maimed millions during
the colonial period. In the 1950s an independence movement
arose. The Congo's first elected president, Patrice Lumumba,
was murdered in 1961 by soldiers in cahoots with the CIA.
U.S. capital has played a big role in the Congo since early
in the 20th century when the Rockefellers began exploiting
the minerals there.
The news media in the imperialist countries are generally
branding Kabila a "failed dictator," as though his problem
comes from the Congolese people. However, an Associated
Press story from Kinshasa on Jan. 17 admitted what his real
problem was: he had been "angering investors" by not
agreeing to a power-sharing formula with Rwanda and Uganda.
The Western media have been referring to the conflict as a
civil war, even though they also admit that opposition
groups in eastern Congo are little more than fronts for
these two countries.
Rwanda and Uganda have both received much attention and
military support from Washington in recent years. They are
regarded in Africa as being aligned with U.S. ambitions,
especially in the Congo.
Kabila, on the other hand, has been receiving support from
Angola and Zimbabwe--both countries that fought hard for
their independence and are trying to keep control over their
own rich resources.
Bush's new secretary of state, Gen. Colin Powell, has said
he wants to pay more attention to Africa. There is no benign
"attention" from imperialism. Plunder and domination are
built into any relationship forged by this predatory
economic and military power. The movement must demand now
more than ever: U.S. hands off Africa!
The only attention the U.S. should pay to Africa is
reparations for the monstrous slave trade and extraction of
resources that have enriched the U.S. ruling class.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 25, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
MUMIA TO J20: "BUILD A REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT"
As the U.S. presidency changes hands, many, perhaps
millions, feel in their guts that American democracy is in
peril. Many feel that they are witnessing the inauguration
of a great naked thievery, and that their election was
stolen from them.
I can understand those feelings. I really can. But it may
surprise you to know that I don't agree. For the truth is,
both major presidential candidates were millionaires and
despite what they said, both were auditioning for jobs for
the rulers. And the rulers, the mega-rich, have never had
much use for democracy.
American history is the struggle for democracy, one that is
far from finished as Florida taught us. It is struggle
between planters and landless, between property and poverty,
between rich and poor, between capital and labor.
Don't tell me about so called "Founding Fathers." These
were, for the most part, men of means, who talked about
human liberty and equality while they held thousands of dark
bodies in human bondage. They didn't care about no
democracy. They cared about property. And as in Florida,
American democracy depends on having the fewest people
possible participate.
Hey, we talk a lot about democracy. How about this? How many
of you think you voted for president? Well truth is, most of
you didn't. Over one hundred million people voted in the
election, but unless you're a member of the Electoral
College, unless you are one of the 538 people, you didn't
vote for president. To paraphrase Tina Turner, "What's
democracy gotta do with it? Answer: not a damn thing."
What happened on Nov. 7 was a creation of a political
dynasty. Today you'll see the coronation of George II. The
King of Death, whose White House throne is made of bones.
What's democracy gotta do with it? If this system, this
government, really cared about democracy, why would they
make voting like an obstacle course? If democracy was
prized, then voting would be the easiest thing in the world
instead of a frustrating headache. Again what's democracy
gotta do with it?
English playwright, Tom Stopperd once wrote, "It's not the
voting that's democracy, it's the counting." That says it
all, doesn't it?
It's past time to build a people's movement, a worker's
movement, a radical and a revolutionary movement that
changes this sad state of affairs. Let us begin. Now.
Ona Move!
Long Live John Africa!
>From death Row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal
January 13, 2000
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 25, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
THE PROTEST BUSH AND THE COPS COULDN'T STOP
By Gary Wilson
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley famously said of the police riot
that disrupted the Democratic Convention in 1968 that the
police are there "to preserve disorder."
Something similar might be said of police in Washington
preserving the disorder known as the unelected presidency of
George W. Bush.
The Washington police have conspired with the incoming Bush
administration to use all their powers to try to stop
demonstrators from voicing their opposition along the
inaugural parade route Jan. 20.
There is no doubt that tens of thousands will show up at the
inauguration parade to protest the incoming Bush
administration. They will come from Washington itself and
they will come from around the country on buses, trains,
planes and automobiles.
Jan. 20 will see the biggest counter-inaugural demonstration
since the second criminal administration of Richard Nixon
took office in 1973.
The overwhelming tide of demonstrators that is heading for
Washington forced the police to finally grant permits for
the mass protests.
For months the police had worked in secret with the Bush
inauguration committee to defy the law and not grant permits
to the demonstrators. When it became clear that tens of
thousands were coming to demonstrate whether or not a permit
was issued, the police admitted that the legal permits for
several sites claimed by the Bush inauguration committee in
fact legally belonged to counter-inauguration protesters.
However, police attempts to block the protest did not stop
after publicly issuing the permits to protesters. Rather,
the tactic changed.
Police instead announced that for the first time in over 200
years police checkpoints would be set up to approve people
and signs entering the mall area of Washington.
Protest organizers are challenging this attempt to set up a
mini police state to prevent protesters from being seen and
heard along the inaugural parade route.
Workers World talked with several top organizers of the
counter-inaugural protest at the International Action
Center. From these interviews it is possible to get an
inside picture of the events that led up to the Jan. 20
protests and the biggest government effort in decades to
block political protests in Washington.
Those who were interviewed include Teresa Gutierrez, co-
director of the IAC and a central figure in the progressive
coalition organizing the Jan. 20 demonstrations. Gutierrez
heads the U.S. Out of Colombia Committee, a nationwide
organization that opposes the U.S. military buildup, begun
by the Clinton administration, which threatens to open a new
Vietnam-type war in Colombia.
One aspect of the protests that Gutierrez has been focusing
on is defending the rights of undocumented immigrant workers
who are being threatened if they join the protests.
"The Bush administration thinks it's okay for undocumented
workers to come to Washington to cook their food and tend
their gardens, but not to protest," she said.
WW also interviewed the two IAC representatives who met with
the police on Jan. 9 when the permits were finally issued:
Larry Holmes and Brian Becker.
Holmes and Becker are also co-directors of the IAC, and both
are veterans of past political demonstrations in Washington.
Both, like Gutierrez, were arrested last April 15 in
Washington, when the police rounded up almost 700 anti-death-
penalty protesters the day before planned demonstrations
against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The
illegal arrests were an attempt to intimidate and prevent
the anti-IMF actions.
The picture that emerges from the interviews, reports in the
Washington Post and public statements by the police is that
something similar is being attempted this time.
Some of the protest organizers call this the post-Seattle
strategy. That is, ever since the new protest movement
against the oppression and destruction wrought by global
capitalism emerged in Seattle in December 1999, the police
have adopted a strategy toward demonstrations that is on the
borderline of constitutionality.
This strategy was seen in Washington in April and over the
summer at the protests outside the Republican and Democratic
conventions.
PROTEST PLANNED NO MATTER WHO WON
The struggle for the counter-inaugural protest started three
months ago, on Oct. 6. That's when the IAC applied for
permits for three protest sites at the Jan. 20 inauguration.
The focus of the protest was to show opposition to the death
penalty and support for a new trial for political prisoner
Mumia Abu-Jamal. Both George W. Bush and Al Gore support the
death penalty, so it did not matter which one won.
According to the federal law that covers protest permits for
the District of Columbia, unless the permit is denied within
24 hours the permit is automatically granted. Apparently the
permit was granted at that time, but the police refused to
confirm it.
In the meantime, a hard-right majority of the U.S. Supreme
Court handed the presidency to George W. Bush, who had half
a million fewer votes than Al Gore nationally. The high
court did this by upholding the disenfranchisement of
thousands of voters in Florida, particularly in the African
American community.
These events changed the character of the demonstration. Not
only would the protests at the inauguration draw tens of
thousands, but there would be many more issues raised.
Getting the permits became even more important. A broad
sector of the population could be expected to join the
protests: from the African American majority who live in
Washington to union members across the country and all the
rest who want to protest the illegitimate crowning of George
Bush II.
Last April's events showed that the Washington police had
adopted a new strategy of non-cooperation with
demonstrations. Their refusal to acknowledge the permits
appeared to be aimed at intimidating anyone thinking of
going to the Jan. 20 protests. The TV images of police
gassing and beating demonstrators last April might be enough
to discourage a big turnout for the Jan. 20 protest.
The police then started a campaign in the mass media to try
to criminalize the Jan. 20 demonstrators. Police officials
started talking about terrorist threats and violence.
What they hadn't counted on was how deep and widespread the
anger is with the incoming Bush administration. In fact,
each passing day saw more groups and individuals joining the
IAC's call for a demonstration. Each day the estimates of
the protest's projected size rapidly increased.
As it became clear that the police tactics weren't
intimidating protesters, the police moved to grant the
permits on Jan. 9.
Many questions remained, however. What about the giant
bleachers the police have already erected in the areas where
protesters hold the permits? Also, with the announcement of
police checkpoints to enter the area, what good are the
permits if the protesters are not allowed access?
Holding a permit is clearly not enough. The nearly 700
protesters illegally arrested last April had a permit for
their peaceful demonstration. Though there was no legal
basis for the arrests and all the charges were later thrown
out by the courts, the legalities did not stop the police
from making mass arrests.
The IAC began to publicize the many ways the police were
attempting to deny the rights of counter-inauguration
protesters. At a Jan. 9 news conference Holmes and Becker
laid out many of these facts, joined by the IAC's lawyers
from the Partnership for Civil Justice. The news conference
was attended by the major media and broadcast on CNN and C-
SPAN.
WASHINGTON POST ACTS AS POLICE PRESS AGENT
The IAC offices in Washington and New York were flooded with
thousands of calls of support. The next day, however, the
Washington Post carried a front-page story that was
practically a news release written by the Secret Service.
Most of the story quoted the Secret Service on possible
threats from terrorists carrying shoulder-held missile
launchers. There were pictures of supposed Secret Service
training for just such a possibility at the parade.
The absurdity of implying that the legal protests were
somehow a front for launching a missile attack on the White
House only angered more people. An outraged worker at the
Washington Post approached IAC organizers to let them know
that the original front-page story had been about how
protesters' rights were being denied. On orders from the
top, that story was replaced with the one the Secret Service
dictated.
That story about protesters' rights has since been buried.
But the Washington Post reports continue to read like they
are dictated by top police officials.
Then, on Jan. 16, the IAC went to court to try to protect
the rights of all demonstrators. Organizers sought an order
to have the bleachers and other obstructions removed so that
the protests can be held peacefully--that is, without
threats from the police.
This includes removing the 16 checkpoints that will make
getting into the inaugural parade area like Robin Hood
having to get permission from the sheriff of Nottingham to
pass through the checkpoint at the bridge over the moat
surrounding the White House castle.
Six of the checkpoints are reserved for an elite few who
have paid high fees to the Bush inauguration committee for
tickets. The other 10 checkpoints are supposed to handle the
other half-million people expected at the parade, including
demonstrators with permits.
That means that each checkpoint will have to pass about
50,000 people through each gate. The police indicate they
may detain and search anyone carrying protest signs, banners
or literature.
The legal basis for this, they say, is a new law passed two
years ago that gives the Secret Service emergency powers
over the inauguration. Under this law, the police contend,
they can do almost anything they want.
The Secret Service has refused to meet with the IAC and has
refused to make public what rules and prohibitions it has
ordered under its emergency powers.
There was no sign at the IAC offices of worry about the
police. Volunteers kept coming in. The phones rang nonstop.
The list of cities sending buses kept getting longer.
There can be no doubt that the wide opposition to the
incoming Bush administration will be seen on the streets of
Washington Jan. 20.
-
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 25, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
REBEL AGAINST RACISM!
By Monica Moorehead and Larry Holmes
Martin Luther King III, president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, issued a powerful statement on Jan.
12, 2000, about the case of Black revolutionary, political
prisoner and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The statement was written in honor of King's father, the
slain civil-rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who
would have turned 72 this Jan. 15.
It reads in part: "First of all, at the SCLC we are
unequivocally opposed to capital punishment. The conductors
of the evil system of injustice made Abu-Jamal a political
prisoner and now they have planned his execution. As
'conscience-raising members' of the global society, we
cannot afford to sit back and let an innocent man die."
"The world must know that the judge purposely withheld
'crucial evidence' from Abu-Jamal's case," King wrote.
"Experts say this evidence alone could have brought an
acquittal. We can no longer afford to allow bias in the
criminal justice system to continue.
"We must stand by Abu-Jamal's side, just as we stood by the
sides of Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, Ben Chavis and Joann
Little."
He continued: "I do not believe it is incidental that I find
myself protesting for the life of this innocent man one
month after my family and I received the verdict from a
multicultural jury that said my father's assassination was
part of a conspiracy. Martin Luther King Jr. was brutally
murdered because he spoke out against social injustices.
"Today we must unite together in the name of justice to stop
the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a young man who was
respected in the community for reporting stories about
economic and social injustices.
"We must come together as a family in the spirit of my
father, who said, 'the arc of the universe is long but is
bent towards justice,' and never give up until we save the
life of our brother, Mumia Abu-Jamal," King concluded.
This moving statement of support for Abu-Jamal should have
been printed in every major newspaper across the country.
The question is: Why wasn't it?
CORPORATE MEDIA WHITEOUT
King has stated on more than one occasion that he firmly
believes that Abu-Jamal is innocent and should not be
executed. And King is certainly not viewed as a radical, a
revolutionary or someone who is against the capitalist
system.
Such a statement could go a long way toward attracting
broader support for Abu-Jamal.
One would think that a statement from the leader of a well-
respected civil-rights group, as well as a son of the most
famous civil-rights leader, would warrant some attention
from the mainstream media. But with few exceptions there was
dead silence.
The same can be said for the media whiteout of the barbaric
execution of Wanda Jean Allen in Oklahoma Jan. 11. Allen was
an African American lesbian who was poor and mentally
disabled. She was the first Black woman to be executed in
the United States since 1954.
Even the New York Times, the mouthpiece of the so-called
liberal capitalist establishment, did not see fit to report
on this atrocity.
Think of how millions of women took a great interest in the
sexual-harassment case that Anita Hill brought before the
1992 Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee
Clarence Thomas. In the same way, millions of women would
have taken a great interest in Allen's case and organized
against her execution, had it been reported in the major
media.
Then there's the issue of how George W. Bush ascended to the
presidency. His victory came about mainly due to the
political disenfranchisement of thousands of Black voters in
Florida.
Bush--along with his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida
Attorney General Katherine Harris and other Republican Party
leaders--carried out a racist conspiracy. This has been well
documented.
But the big-business media have done their best to downplay
this fact since the U.S. Supreme Court voted five to four in
Bush's favor and halted the Florida recount.
RULING CLASS FEARS ANTI-RACIST REBELLION
What do Mumia Abu-Jamal's case, Wanda Jean Allen's execution
and the Florida vote theft all have in common?
They are all manifestations of racist repression.
The corporate-dominated media know racism is at the core of
these issues and more. So why do they ignore it or actively
cover it up?
Because it's in the best interests of safeguarding
capitalist rule to give little or no attention to racist
repression.
At the heart of maintaining the U.S. capitalist system--a
form of class rule based on production for profit and the
exploitation of wage labor--is a racist ideology based on
white supremacy.
What do the media and the billionaire ruling class fear more
than anything?
They fear rebellion of all types. What the bourgeois class
especially wants to avoid is working-class rebellion based
on unity against racism.
That's why they fear Abu-Jamal. He symbolizes rebellion.
Support for his cause transcends racial and class lines,
especially where young activists and revolutionaries are
concerned.
Abu-Jamal is a longtime Black revolutionary. He understands
that racism and repression do not exist in a vacuum, but are
integral components of the capitalist system that makes the
rich richer and the poor poorer. They are part and parcel of
the system that denies oppressed people their basic
democratic rights--including the right to vote.
Not only does Abu-Jamal speak out militantly on these
subjects. He also inspires young people in the United States
and worldwide to rebel against the entire capitalist system.
That's why the corporate media have tried to marginalize and
vilify Abu-Jamal, labeling him a "cop killer" at every
opportunity. They hope to scare away any mass support for
the former Black Panther, so they can proceed with their
plan to silence his revolutionary voice through state-
sanctioned murder.
Abu-Jamal is a modern day Gabriel Prosser, Nat Turner,
Denmark Vesey and John Brown all rolled into one. These
heroic individuals were all Southern slaves except Brown.
They were all executed for attempting to organize their
brethren to rise up against their oppressors in the name of
liberation and social justice.
The worldwide workers' movement and all progressives,
especially inside the United States, must do everything
necessary to stop the legal lynching of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS PROTESTS
The ruling class wants to carry out racist repression but
avoid the rebellion of the masses against this oppressive
system. They dispatch the police as occupying armies from
Harlem to Watts to try and keep the oppressed masses in
check. But they know that rebellion is the inevitable
reaction to exploitation and repression.
It's no wonder that the U.S. ruling class was so nervous
when members of the Congressional Black Caucus staged a
protest and walkout against the selection of George W. Bush
as president at a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. The
CBC members saw this as a golden opportunity to again raise
the specter of voter disenfranchisement.
This protest was one kind of rebellion. The bourgeoisie had
hoped that the Florida vote theft had finally been swept
under the rug rather than have it once again become a focus
of national attention.
The Black Caucus's action also served to demonstrate the
bankruptcy of the Democratic Party, whose leadership is just
as tied to big business as the Republicans.
Not a single white Democrat showed any solidarity with the
Black Caucus's challenge to the Florida electoral votes--
including Al Gore, who presided over the session.
Ever since Bush stole the election, the president-select and
his advisors have worked overtime to portray him as a
"compassionate conservative."
First of all, there is no such animal.
Second, this bogus image has been further exposed by what
happened in Florida, by Bush's right-wing cabinet
nominations, by his pro-death-penalty stance, by his close
ties with the Pentagon and Big Oil, and much more.
All these factors have not only angered large sectors of the
people, but will help motivate many of them to take to the
streets.
The capitalist class knows this all too well. It wants to
take every precaution to avoid any kind of political
embarrassment for Bush during his Jan. 20 inauguration.
BUSH'S WORST NIGHTMARE
The authorities in Washington are taking extraordinary,
illegal and repressive measures to try to scare away
demonstrators and the general public or make it impossible
for them to protest against the inauguration parade.
The ruling class is taking special aim at Washington's 80-
percent African American population. Three-fourths of
African American youths who live in the district are in the
criminal-justice system's clutches.
Imagine seeing thousands of Washington's Black youths
together with other protesters of all nationalities holding
placards and banners--lining the parade route to raise Abu-
Jamal's case, oppose the racist death penalty and the
Florida vote theft, defend women's right to choose, protect
the environment and much more.
It's the Bush administration's worst nightmare.
This would be another kind of rebellion--this time by the
masses as they brave thousands of federal and local police
agencies and the Secret Service, who plan to set up
checkpoints and other obstacles to keep the people from
unifying against their common enemies: Bush and his
reactionary cabinet.
But these repressive measures can't silence the struggle.
This was demonstrated by the birth of a dynamic new youth
movement against corporate globalization and injustice.
As racist repression and exploitation deepens, so will the
resistance to it.
As hard as it tries, the ruling class is incapable of
keeping a lid on the boiling pot of racism. Some day it will
explode in a giant rebellion against the whole rotten
capitalist system.
Bush's blatantly racist, anti-poor and anti-worker policies
will become a lightning rod for winning more soldiers to the
people's struggle, regardless of ideology or social
background, to free our brother Mumia Abu-Jamal, end the
death penalty and abolish all forms of racist repression.
