5) Civil-rights movement sweeps Mexico
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
6) 40 years ago: Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
7) Women and science: New research explodes old bias
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SPARKED BY ZAPATISTAS:
CIVIL-RIGHTS MOVEMENT SWEEPS MEXICO
By Teresa Gutierrez
Mexico City
Cati went to enormous lengths on March 23 to try and see the
Zapatistas. A 14-year-old Mestizo girl, she lives deep in
the poor neighborhoods on the outskirts of Mexico City--the
colonias.
Her neighborhood is far from any Metro stop. That can be
quite a hardship when you live in a sprawling city of 20
million people.
Cati has to walk several blocks just to catch a bus to the
Metro. She is poor and has no money to travel into the city.
But nothing could stop her from taking part in the historic
mass movement that is currently gripping all of Mexico.
Defying her family and friends, who thought she was crazy,
she found her way to the Mexican Congress where she believed
the Zapatistas would be that day.
She stood in the hot sun for three hours waiting for a rally
or a glimpse of anyone from the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation (EZLN).
Sadly, it so happened that a mass rally of several thousands
to support the EZLN had taken place there the day before.
But she was undaunted.
When she met two North Americans who were also looking for a
Zapatista rally, she attached herself to them like glue. She
showed them her wrinkled and worn notebook that held dozens
of clippings of Subcommander Marcos, pictures carefully cut
out of newspapers and magazines, in all shapes and sizes.
She stuck with the North Americans all day and late into the
evening as they made their way to the Autonomous University
of Mexico (UNAM), the place where the Zapatistas were
camping out during their stay in Mexico.
Her perseverance paid off.
A MASS CIVIL-RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Cati is but one small example of the mass awakening now
sweeping Mexico.
Over seven years ago, the EZLN burst onto the political
arena in the southern state of Chiapas. The upsurge of
primarily Indigenous people inspired not only Mexicans and
hundreds of other Indigenous nations in the country but the
entire world.
Despite the presence of 20,000 troops in the southern part
of the country, the EZLN remains a progressive and
revolutionary force in Mexico. It has not claim ed to be a
guerrilla movement organizing for armed struggle, but has
survived heavy government repression to become a significant
and historical mass movement for civil rights in a crucial
Latin American country.
Such a movement is considered a threat by U.S. imperialism,
especially since it is right next door. This is another
reason why progressives in the United States should
thoroughly support this mass movement.
The Zapatistas' long march from Chiapas into Mexico City in
March showed once again that the Indigenous people are a
force to be reckoned with. Despite brutal repression and
harsh economic conditions, the Indigenous of Mexico, along
with millions of campesinos or farmers, have not been
silenced. They remain united and strong.
They, along with other broad sectors of Mexican society
inspired by the EZLN, proved to the new governments in both
Mexico City and Washington that a stunning mass movement has
arisen.
For this reason, the government was forced to concede to the
demand that the EZLN be allowed to address the Mexican
Congress.
Try to imagine the Congress of the United States allowing
representatives of the American Indian Movement or
supporters of Leonard Peltier to come before them. That
would be a glorious moment for Indian people in this country
as well as for the whole progressive movement.
It would be a reflection of revolutionary times in the
United States, a moment that cannot come soon enough.
On March 22 the Mexican Congress voted on whether to let the
Zapatistas address them. The vote was 220 in favor, 210
against. The Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI),
formerly the government party until voted out last summer
for the first time in 70 years, voted with the social-
democratic Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) to defeat
the incumbent National Action Party (PAN).
The EZLN is expected to address the Congress on March 28.
One main issue they will take up is the 1996 San Andreas
accords, which agree on important rights for the Indigenous
peoples of Mexico.
OTHER INDIGENOUS PEOPLES UNITE WITH EZLN
Workers World spoke to some of the Indigenous people
participating in the historic caravan who had been camping
out at UNAM.
Roberto and Joaquina are leaders in the Alliance of the
Mazahua Otomi Indigenous People. They live not far from
Mexico City in a town called San Antonio de la Laguna.
Roberto said they had been active for Indigenous rights in
their area for a very long time. Then in 1994 they heard in
the media about the uprising in Chiapas.
It sounded so much like what they were struggling for in the
alliance, he said. They felt the EZLN struggle coincided
with theirs. So they approached the Zapatistas and asked for
more information.
They have since joined with the EZLN so "we could unite our
voices, reclaim our history, our constitution, and so we can
have self-determination."
These leaders said they felt immense joy along the route
from Chiapas to Mexico City. Since 1994, they said, they no
longer feel alone.
Roberto and Joaquina look forward to seeing their rights
defended in the Mexican Constitution--one of the main
demands of the current movement. Roberto said it would be a
"big event." He said that only then can they know there is
respect for their forms of organization, their culture,
language and territory. Their biggest problem is that the
government has never taken them into account.
When asked to give a message to the people of the United
States, Roberto said: "We send the people of the U.S.
greetings. Our support is for you, too. The people there
unite with the same voices as ours to demand freedom for the
political prisoners in your country who are unjustly jailed
just for raising their voices.
"Continue struggling, continue organizing," he said,
"because it is through organizing that we change things.
Don't get discouraged, give it your all."
When the most oppressed of a society echo such words, you
know the seeds of revolutionary struggle have been planted
in fertile ground.
- END -
(Copyright 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)
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: tiistai 3. huhtikuu 2001 10:11
Subject: [WW] 40 years ago: Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FORTY YEARS AGO: BAY OF PIGS ATTACK ON CUBA
from Workers World newspaper April 28, 1961
WHOLE WORLD CALLS U.S. AGGRESSOR: KENNEDY GETS SET TO DO IT AGAIN
The whole world, including even the capitalist allies of the
United States, was appalled at the open attack on tiny Cuba
which U.S. officials engineered on April 17. And yet Kennedy
had the nerve to make his "blood and iron" speech after the
fiasco, in which he spoke of the danger to U.S. "security"
and of the "tyranny" in Cuba.
The Manchester Guardian of England summed up much of foreign
Big Business sentiment when it said:
"Everyone knows that the sort of invasion by proxy with
which the U.S. has now been charged is morally
indistinguishable from open aggression."
Of course the reason for such "moral" indignation is to be
found in the great working class demonstrations that were
held throughout the world, particularly in Latin America.
Over 25,000 marched in Mexico City alone.
But Kennedy, representing the arrogant and still unchastened
American capitalist class, made his war-mongering speech on
the very morrow of the invasion's failure, and furiously
warned the oppressed Latin American countries as follows:
"If the nations of this hemisphere should fail to meet their
commitments against outside penetration, ... this government
will not hesitate in meeting its primary obligation."
By this, Kennedy meant that if he could not get enough
stooges among the Latin Americans to attack Cuba, he would
see that the United States did so, this time with sufficient
planes and bombs--and Marines.
The truth is--that Cuba does indeed pose a threat to the
United States. Not to the vast majority of the people of the
United States, and not to the military security of the
United States. But by its example to Latin America, it poses
a threat to the Wall Street domination and exploitation of
230 million people in the hemisphere outside of the United
States.
Most of the 180 million people in the United States itself
do not even know that this super-exploitation exists. And
many imagine that the 6 million Cubans are going to start
attacking the United States with "Russian weapons."
But the Latin Americans are very well aware of the nature
and identity of their oppressor. Their revolution against
that oppressor will not be defeated nor even postponed, by
Kennedy's coming adventure in Cuba.
*****
GIVE ARMS TO OUR PEOPLE!
-SAYS AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADER
[During the U.S.-sponsored invasion of Cuba, Rob Williams,
editor of the Afro-American paper, the Crusader, sent the
following telegram which Dr. Raul Roa of Cuba read aloud at
the United Nations:]
To Be Conveyed to Adlai Stevenson--
Now that the United States has proclaimed military support
for people willing to rebel against oppression, oppressed
Afro-Americans in the South urgently request tanks,
artillery, bombs, money, use of American airfields and white
mercenaries to crush the racist tyrants who have betrayed
the American Revolution and Civil War.
--We also request prayer for this noble undertaking!
--Robert F. Williams
*****
CIA'S CHEERING SECTION
[The Workers World of April 28, 1961, reprinted the following
information from the New York Post of April 19:]
"American business men, hoping to regain some of the billion
dollars of properties lost to Fidel Castro's government,
today watched the fighting in Cuba with intense interest.
" 'We're just sitting and waiting ...' an officer of the
American and Foreign Power Co. said. Property of the firm
valued at $300,000,000 was nationalized by the Castro
regime.
"A spokesman for W. R.
Grace and Co., which lost a $1,500,000 paper converting mill
on the outskirts of Havana, said, 'We're playing it by ear.'
"In Boston, a vice president of the United Fruit Co. said a
$70,000,000 claim would be filed with any new government
that might depose Castro.
" 'If a new and democratic government succeeds,' he said,
United Fruit 'would hope to play a part in the economy.'"
- END -
(Copyright 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)
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: tiistai 3. huhtikuu 2001 10:12
Subject: [WW] Women and science: New research explodes old bias
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WOMEN AND SCIENCE: NEW RESEARCH EXPLODES OLD BIAS
By Joyce Chediac
Do wild horses really have "harems" of mares, which they
guard from other stallions?
What is fertilization? Is it really a competitive race among
sperm cells, with the fastest and fittest penetrating the
helpless, passive egg?
Women scientists today, influenced by the women's liberation
movement of the 1970s, are asking these and other questions.
The answers are surprising many, and even embarrassing some.
Scientists claim to be "objective," with their findings
somehow "above society." But scientific inquiry takes place
within a political, economic and cultural context. Science
is not above the bias of capitalist property relations and
the spoken and unspoken assumptions concerning class, gender
and nationality.
For example, a century ago Sigmund Freud searched for the
cause of so-called hysteria in women. In his "Aetiology of
Hysteria," published in 1896, he thought he found the
answer: "At the bottom of every case of hysteria there are
one or more occurrences of premature sexual experience,
occurrences which belong to the earliest years of
childhood." Today, "premature sexual experience" is
generally called sexual abuse of children. But within a
year, Freud had repudiated this traumatic theory on the
origins of hysteria.
Why? This condition was very common among women. If Freud's
women patients were telling the truth, and if his theory was
right, then sexual abuse of children was endemic among the
respectable bourgeois families of Vienna, where Freud
practiced. The difference between Freud's findings and what
society was willing to accept was so extreme that Freud
chose to not believe his patients and even to disregard his
own findings.
"Out of the ruins of the traumatic theory of hysteria, Freud
created psychoanalysis. The dominant psychological theory of
the next century was founded in the denial of women's
reality. ... Freud has concluded that his hysterical
patients' accounts of childhood sexual abuse were untrue,"
explains Judith Herman, author of "Trauma and Recovery."
Instead, women suffering from this condition were told it
was all in their heads.
"Not until the women's liberation movement of the 1970s was
it recognized that the most common post-traumatic disorders
are those not of men in war but of women in civilian life.
The real conditions of women's lives were hidden in the
sphere of the personal, in private life," writes Herman.
No idea, no matter how great, can have a meaning unless some
part of humanity is ready to accept it. Like the air we
breathe, the social context in which we live is often not
noticed. At times of mass movements, however, the prejudices
of an era can be exposed and challenged.
The women's movement of the 1970s laid bare much of the
prevailing patriarchal, capitalist and class bias in society
concerning women. Many women who grew up during this
movement, and were strengthened and influenced by it, are
now making contributions to science that are tearing off the
veil of patriarchal assumptions.
OF STALLIONS AND MARES
Patricia Adair Gowaty, a biologist of the University of
Georgia, explains: "The women's movement of the 1960s and
1970s had a huge effect on me. ... Ideas I was exposed to I
have since erected as testable, scientific hypotheses. ...
I'm not doing the science any differently, but I'm asking a
question that has not been asked before."
"Science is not value-neutral," adds Londa Schiebinger,
Pennsylvania State University historian and author of "Has
Feminism Changed Science?"
"Getting the right answers--turning the crank--may be gender-
free. But it is often in setting priorities about what will
and what will not be known that gender has an impact."
For example, recently biologists were in the Western plains
of the United States studying herds of mustangs, where the
reigning stallion was believed to have the sole right to
procreate. Then one researcher got the idea to run DNA tests
on the horses. The tests showed that only one-third of the
foals in the herd were sired by the resident stallion. The
mares, it seems, had gone to other herds to mate.
"Blinded by the 'harem' metaphor of mustang social
structure, researchers had not even looked for such female
behavior," Newsweek magazine reported on June 14, 1999.
Researchers also showed bias in attributing motivation to
the resident stallion--that for some reason he guarded "his"
mares, and cared whom they mated with.
GENDER AMONG BABOONS
According to primatologist Linda Fedigan of the University
of Alberta, from the 1950s to the 1970s primatologists
studied savanna baboons, a species that is more aggressive,
male-dominated and competitive than any other nonhuman
primate.
"Most of the scientists were men," says Fedigan. The species
they chose, she says, reinforced the notion that male
dominance and aggression are the norms of primate behavior,
including our own, and that it is the males who bring social
cohesion to the group.
When women entered the field in the 1970s, they questioned
whether male aggression and alliances are the most powerful
shapers of primate society. A closer study showed that
elderly female baboons determine where the group will search
for food each day. And a male's reproductive success is much
more dependent on his relationship with the group's females
than on his place in the chain of male dominance.
Newsweek reported: "When women began studying primates other
than baboons, they found that females actively pursue males
and have loads of extramarital affairs--apparently to get
more males to provide and care for the babies. Females are
no longer considered peripheral to primate evolution."
DOES THE EGG CHOOSE THE SPERM?
Then there is the story of the sperm and the egg.
Conception has traditionally been described as a competitive
race by sperm cells to be the one to penetrate the passive
egg. New research reveals the female side is far from
passive.
The new version is that the egg plays an active role in
conception by sending out fingerlike microvilli to reel in
the sperm, and secretions that kill off some sperm, thereby
selecting sperm out. ("Hidden Choices of Females," Natural
History, November 2000)
These contributions to human knowledge, and others, came
from seriously studying the female side. But it took a
women's movement and women researchers to make this happen.
Just think what other fascinating truths will be added to
human knowledge when class relations are overturned and
national oppression ended. Then all oppressed people can
come to science as equals, bringing with them their own
unique insights and perspective.
- END -
(Copyright 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)
