WW News Service Digest #253
1) Shaka Sankofa's son convicted
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Right-wing to plaster Reagan's name on everything
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) New York rally for Palestinian rights
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) Sit-in at Mexican Consulate
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
5) The right of return
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SHAKA SANKOFA'S SON CONVICTED:
"I WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT"
By Gloria Rubac
Houston
Hours after being sentenced to life in prison, Gary Hawkins
sent a message to his supporters: "I want to say thank you
everybody who has supported me and my family throughout this
recent bout of injustice. This sort of wrongdoing by the
state must not be accepted quietly. I am innocent and I will
continue to fight. I believe that one day in the not-so-
distant future, justice will finally be served in both my
case and in my father's. Regardless of the latest outcome, I
encourage you all not to give up. Stay motivated and stay
proud. Justice will be ours!"
Hawkins is the son of executed Texas prison activist Shaka
Sankofa. Hawkins was convicted of capital murder March 27 in
a Houston courtroom packed with supporters and family
members. Since the state did not seek the death penalty,
Hawkins was automatically sentenced to life in prison.
Hawkins and his supporters were stunned as the verdict was
read. There was absolutely no physical evidence or motive
linking him to the murder of his good friend, Melvin Pope.
"They've already taken my daddy away from me and now they
want my brother," cried his sister, Deidra Hawkins.
"This is another case of injustice and what will we do?
We'll fight and we'll continue to struggle, that's what!"
stated Njeri Shakur, an activist with the Texas Death
Penalty Abolition Movement and a friend of both Sankofa and
Hawkins.
The only person who put Hawkins at the scene of the robbery
and murder, Stanley White, admitted robbing Pope but was
offered a deferred 10-year probated sentence in exchange for
fingering Hawkins as the killer.
"I can't see how they could have believed his lies," Hawkins
told this reporter. "I never thought they'd come back with a
guilty verdict--because I am innocent. But I felt something
was wrong when the jury came back in with their heads
hanging down. Two of them were crying when the judge polled
each juror. How could those who thought I was innocent not
be strong enough to hold their position?"
In telephone conversations from the Harris County jail after
his conviction, Hawkins reminisced with this reporter about
the big demonstrations for his father back in 1993 that he
participated in as a 14-year-old.
"I remember being outside the death house with my
grandfather back then protesting the execution of a Mexican
man and there were lots and lots of people there in
Huntsville. I didn't think it would happen to my father. But
I also remember when Ricardo Aldape Guerra was finally freed
from death row--that was so great! That's what I wanted for
my dad," Hawkins said.
Activists from the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement,
the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, the National Black United
Front, the Nation of Islam and the Huntsville 8 Support
Committee, as well as family members, filled the courtroom
every day of the weeklong trial. The Abolition Movement had
held fundraisers to help pay attorney fees and collected
cash donations during the trial to deposit in Hawkins' jail
account for his 22nd birthday on the second day of trial.
Street meetings and flyers generated support from many who
had stood with his father up until his execution last June
22.
What became apparent during the trial was that the Houston
police did not even investigate the murder of a young Black
male they found on the side of a street. Melvin Pope's cell
phone was on the ground beside his body and his beeper was
actually going off, yet not one phone number was recorded by
the cops. Not a fingerprint was taken off anything, no blood
was tested--until they found out the victim had been with
Hawkins earlier in the day.
Then they pushed full steam ahead to pin the murder on
Hawkins, the son of the most widely known person executed in
Texas in recent history.
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
DEDICATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION:
RIGHT-WING TO PLASTER REAGAN'S NAME ON EVERYTHING
By Pam Parker
Washington, D.C.
The right wing champions the virtues of states' rights as it
consistently tramples on the wishes of the masses in a given
electorate. It forces its will on the people, not with the
subtlety of the Democrats, but in the brazen "let them eat
cake" kinda way that only the far right can pull off.
The Republican Party got less than 5 percent of the vote in
Washington, D.C., during the last presidential election.
There is an ongoing contentious relationship between the
citizenry and the congressionally appointed "Control Board"
that was installed to govern the city.
Most cars here are adorned with "Taxation without
Representation" vanity plates. There is clearly no love lost
between District of Columbia residents--who are mostly
people of color and progressive whites--and the "Gipperites"
who still uphold former President Ronald Reagan as their
knight of reaction.
But this does not deter these reactionaries from erecting
monuments to Ronald Reagan and plastering his name on
everything that they can.
The force behind this movement is the Legacy Project. The
group consists of Attorney General John Ashcroft, Newt
Gingrich, Sen. Jesse Helms, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy
Noonan, anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly and Virginia Gov. Jim
Gilmore. Rep. Bob Barr, Republican of Georgia, heads the
committee.
They have dedicated themselves to naming "something big" for
Reagan in every state and in every one of the 3,067 counties
in the United States.
In a recent move Barr, a twice-divorced "family values"
zealot, threatened to withhold any future funding to Metro--
D.C.'s subway system--if it refused to rename the National
Airport stop "Ronald Reagan/ National Airport station."
Barr demanded that the subway station be renamed to match
the airport that was named Reagan National Airport under an
act of Congress several years ago.
Metro, which would reportedly have to change its maps, signs
and all documents at an estimated cost of $400,000, has so
far resisted this move. But Barr vows to fight on.
People in Barr's home district of Smyrna, Ga., earn less
than half of what people earn in Fairfax County where the
Metro station in question is located. Wouldn't this
congressional politician's time and his constituents' money
be better spent working on the issues that affect the
residents of Smyrna?
Isn't there a law that strictly prohibits building memorials
to people until they've been dead for at least 25 years?
When Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt died their supporters
had to wait 50 years for monuments. Hello? Mr. Barr? The
Gipper is still alive!
The project has so far put Reagan's name on an aircraft
carrier, a Florida turnpike, a freeway, a federal courthouse
in California, more than a dozen schools, an emergency room
in a hospital in D.C., and a district government building.
Why not fund Alzheimer's research in his name, instead? That
is something that would help millions of people who suffer
with this debilitating disease or who love someone who has
suffered with it.
The 1980s may have been great for a wealthy few, but for the
vast majority of people they were a time of slashes in
student aid, soaring college costs and housing prices,
national debt and no jobs. This love-fest with the Gipper is
an outrage. Enough is enough!
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
APRIL 7 IN NEW YORK: RALLY FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS
By Leslie Feinberg
On April 7, thousands of Palestinians and those who stand
shoulder to shoulder with them will march and rally to
demand the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to
their land and their homes from which they were expelled.
Marches and rallies are scheduled for New York and cities in
Palestine, Spain, Canada and Australia.
It is especially important for all in the United States who
support Palestinian self-determination to bolster the New
York demonstration.
The Zionist settler occupation of Palestine could not
survive for a week without a massive $10-million-a-day
infusion of U.S. military and economic aid. Israel has been
a bastion of the U.S. oil monopolies and a bulwark against
Arab revolution. And the region has great military and
strategic importance for U.S. imperialism.
No demand is more central to winning true justice for
Palestinians than the right of over 5 million refugees to
return home. And so these events will focus on ending five
decades of exile and expropriation.
The protests also coincide with the 53rd anniversary of the
massacre of Palestinian civilians in the village of Deir
Yassin by Zionist death squads. These lynchings helped
create a wave of terror designed to drive Palestinians from
their land.
In a news release, Al-Awda, the group that called the April
7 events, wrote: "Organizers intend to draw the public's
attention to the human rights abuses and suffering inflicted
on the Palestinian people. They also plan to send a strong
signal of support of Palestinians in territories occupied
since 1948 and 1967."
The release stressed that more than 350 Palestinian
civilians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces in
recent months. More than 11,000 have been injured. Many of
those maimed and killed were children.
Confirmed speakers at the April 7 rally in New York include
Dr. Souheil Natour, Dr. Mazin Al-Najjar, Muna Hamze, Dr.
Sami el-Aryan, Puerto Rican Nationalist Rafael Cancel
Miranda, Rafiq Jaber, Richard Becker and Sara Flounders of
the International Action Center, and Abbas Hamidah, a son of
Deir Yassin massacre survivors. The rally will also include
a statement by George Habash, former secretary general of
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Internationally renowned musicians Marcel Khalife and Simon
Shaheen have been invited to take part.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SIT-IN AT MEXICAN CONSULATE
While Mexican President Vicente Fox was in Los Angeles March
22 pledging to a corporate audience that he would "open
Mexico to greater flows of investment," 15 solidarity
activists were sitting in at the Mexican Consulate in San
Francisco. They demanded that the San Andreas Peace Accords
be implemented and the full Mexican Congress meet with the
leadership of the Zapatista movement, which has been
fighting for the rights of the Indigenous people of the
state of Chiapas.
When the historic 16-day Zapatista caravan arrived in Mexico
City on March 11, it requested to meet with the Mexican
Congress and present its demands for justice for the
Indigenous peoples of Chiapas and all of Mexico. It was only
after many demonstrations around the world, including the
one in San Francisco, that the Congress narrowly voted to
hear a delegation from the movement.
The four-hour takeover of the Mexican Consulate ended only
after the activists were satisfied that the consul general
had faxed their demands directly to Fox. Representatives
from La Raza Centro Legal, Latino Caucus of Service
Employees Local 790, Mission Agenda, Labor Council for Latin
American Advancement, San Francisco Zapatista Committee,
Just Act, International Action Center and others
participated in the takeover.
--by Bill Hackwell
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the April 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
EDITORIAL: RIGHT OF RETURN
When Israel was first formed in 1948, the Zionist movement
tried to attract Jewish settlers from around the world with
a blatantly racist slogan: "A land without people, a people
without land."
It was a big lie. Many people were living in the territory
claimed by Israel--the Palestinians. Now, over 50 years
later, the state of Israel, which denied the very existence
of the people it tried to displace, has kindled hatred all
over the Middle East by exiling millions and refusing
Palestinians the right to return to their homeland.
Israel is in a constant state of war with the Palestinians
and the countries around it because its leaders have always
been totally lined up with the same imperialist powers that
carved up the Middle East in the colonial period. The ruling
classes in Britain and France, and later the U.S., promoted
Zionism not out of concern for Jewish people but as a way to
drive a wedge in a part of the world that provides fabulous
profits for a few billionaire companies.
The current Israeli government is headed by an acknowledged
war criminal, Ariel Sharon, who was in command of Israeli
occupation forces in southern Lebanon in 1982 when they
allowed Lebanese fascists to enter the Sabra and Shatila
refugee camps and massacre 2,000 Palestinian civilians.
Descriptions of that scene of butchery are among the most
hair-raising in modern annals.
The Palestinian youths who today risk their lives throwing
stones at heavily armed Israeli soldiers are motivated by
the same burning desire for justice and liberation that sent
Algerians into the streets against French rule; that
sustained the liberation fighters of Vietnam against both
the French and the U.S. imperialist armies; that inspired
the Czech Partisans and the heroes of the Warsaw ghetto in
their desperate struggle against Nazism.
Too often overlooked in this long struggle, however, is the
role of U.S. imperialism. It pretends to have no bias, to be
a disinterested observer striving to move forward a "peace
process" that will allow both Palestinians and Israelis to
devise an equitable formula for sharing the territory. We
have seen a long succession of U.S. presidents patting both
sides on the back, joining their hands, getting them to make
some kind of agreement.
And then, the next day, the U.S. government sends millions
more in aid and weaponry to Israel, fueling the next stage
of the struggle. This has been the pattern, whether
Republicans or Democrats are in the White House. The Israeli
state is a militarized creation of Western imperialism and
is sustained by huge subsidies.
On April 7, Palestinians and their supporters will be
converging on New York City to demonstrate against the
current offensive by the Israeli government and to demand
the right of all Palestinians to return to their homeland.
(See article on page 7.)
Those who believe in justice should be there, for all the
same reasons that we marched against the war in Vietnam,
that we supported the people of El Salvador and Nicaragua
who were resisting U.S.-supported death squads, that we
demonstrated to end apartheid, and that we condemn racism
and oppression inside this country.
The Palestinians have a just cause and the whole world knows
it. The U.S. stands virtually alone in the UN when it blocks
any condemnation of Israel's assaults on the Palestinians.
What people everywhere want to know is, will people in the
U.S. break with Washington and raise their voices on behalf
of the oppressed Palestinians in the Middle East?
- END -
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