WW News Service Digest #264
1) Camp Free Mumia gains momentum
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) U.S. Navy threatens new bombing of Vieques
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) Brown U. student protest racist ad on reparations
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FROM QUEBEC TO PHILADELPHIA:
CAMP FREE MUMIA GAINS MOMENTUM
By Monica Moorehead
Organizing for the Camp Free Mumia Now activity set for the
weekend of May 11-13 in Philadelphia received a tremendous
boost at the Free Trade Area of the Americas protests in
Quebec City April 20-22.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators including youths,
students, trade unionists, environmentalists and many more
poured into the streets to express their opposition to the
expansion of NAFTA-type policies throughout North and South
America.
These policies are anti-poor and anti-worker. They lead to a
general lowering of wages, a deepening erosion of safety
standards concerning working conditions and the environment,
and destruction of local economies by the profit-hungry
giant monopoly corporations.
The International Action Center brought an important message
to these protests: Political repression against the workers
and the most oppressed is an inherent outgrowth of economic
inequality.
The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the most well-known political
prisoner on death row worldwide, symbolizes one of the most
barbaric forms of repression inside the United States and
elsewhere: racism.
His case has evolved for almost two decades until it is now
the pinnacle of the struggle against racist police
brutality, the death penalty and the prison-industrial
complex in the United States. Throughout his tortuous daily
life on death row, Abu-Jamal has remained a staunch
revolutionary who stands in opposition against all
manifestations of global capitalist slavery.
In his statement to the protestors in Quebec, Abu-Jamal
called for global resistance units.
Gery Armsby, a young transgender leader of the IAC,
commented from the front lines when asked about the IAC's
main political objectives during the Quebec City protests:
"Our main thrust was to raise the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
We had hundreds of bright orange flags that read 'Free
Mumia' in Spanish, French and English.
"Those with us carried a big banner that read 'Build global
resistance to the capitalist death machine.' We marched with
these banners in the labor march for an hour, then went over
to where there were confrontations at the perimeter.
"People would see the banner and start chanting, 'Brick by
brick, wall by wall, we're going to free Mumia Abu-Jamal.' "
IAC activists from New York, Boston and elsewhere were able
to hand out thousands of leaflets to demonstrators about the
encampment demanding the freedom of Abu-Jamal. Many of those
who took a leaflet made a commitment to participate in the
encampment.
Some said they want to come early to help mobilize others to
come to Philadelphia--the city where Abu-Jamal was falsely
convicted on July 3, 1982, after a sham of a trial for the
murder of a white Philadelphia police officer.
The encampment will coincide with the May 12 international
day of solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal. Revolutionaries and
activists around the world will be holding demonstrations to
bring attention to his case.
The motivation for the encampment is very simple: to let the
powers that be and the repressive forces that protect their
private property know that the movement is not going to rely
on the bourgeois courts to free Abu-Jamal--that only the
power of the people's movement can liberate Mumia Abu-Jamal
and all political prisoners.
The ruling class will receive a clear message that the two-
day encampment is just a dress rehearsal for continuing
organized mass resistance to their attempts to silence Abu-
Jamal though a legal lynching.
Activists from all over the country are being encouraged to
bring their sleeping bags, tents, food and water to camp out
at City Hall in Philadelphia. The encampment will begin at 5
p.m. on May 11. A hip-hop concert in support of Abu-Jamal
will begin some time that evening.
Organizing meetings for the encampment are taking place on
Wednesday evenings in Philadelphia. The International
Concerned Family and Friends for Mumia Abu-Jamal and the
National People's Campaign are sponsoring these meetings.
Betsey Piette, a leading member of the NPC, told Workers
World: "There seems to be a high level of enthusiasm for the
encampment. This past Wednesday's meeting was very well
attended, including members of a hip-hop group who will be
performing on May 11. They belong to a group called AWOL, an
anti-military group that is involved in anti-Junior-ROTC
work in area high schools.
"These multinational youth are organizing an activity for
May 10 to help build the encampment. Calling it 'guerrilla
artists in action', they want to go around the communities
in Philadelphia with a small truck and a small group of hip-
hop artists and others to do outreach for the encampment,
particularly targeting high schools."
A welcoming committee for the May 11-13 encampment is also
being organized out of these meetings to help organize
logistics, including portable toilets, food, housing
alternatives, medical and legal teams and much more. Readers
can call 215-476-5416 or 215-724-1618 for more information
about joining this committee or attending the meetings.
Besides the hip-hop concert, there are two other important
activities being organized in Philadelphia for that weekend.
On May 12, there will be a march and rally to build support
for Abu-Jamal. And on the final day of the encampment, there
will be a program in tribute to those 11 children, women and
men who were slaughtered by the Philadelphia authorities
during the infamous MOVE bombing on May 13, 1985.
Readers can go to www.mumia2000.org or www.iacenter.org to
download the May 11-13 leaflet.
- 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: maanantai 30. huhtikuu 2001 06:46
Subject: [WW] U.S. Navy threatens new bombing of Vieques
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
ANNIVERSARY OF SANES' DEATH:
U.S NAVY THREATENS NEW BOMBING OF VIEQUES
By Berta Joubert-Ceci
It has been two years since the U.S. Navy's F-18 dropped the
bombs that killed civilian guard David Sanes in Vieques,
Puerto Rico. This tragic event has been the catalyst for a
nationalist, anti-U.S. movement unprecedented in that
country's history.
Several activities were planned to commemorate this event
but also to celebrate the increase in political
consciousness that has led to the "consenso"--Spanish for
consensus. In Puerto Rico, "el consenso" is the great unity
that has prevailed for the last two years in the opposition
to the U.S. Navy's presence in Vieques.
Taking account of the feelings of Dona Epifania Rodr�guez
Rosa, Sanes' mother, many of the activities were held in a
more somber mood. Sanes was killed on April 19, 1999.
Outrage and anger against the Navy, however, have been the
prevailing sentiments these days in Vieques. On April 11,
the Navy announced that the bombing practices would resume
anytime after April 26. This challenge struck a special
chord since the Navy had cancelled the last scheduled
exercises last month, pending the outcome of a health study
by the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Health and
Human Services Dept.
The study deals with the impact of the bombing practices on
the health of the Viequenses. Though the federal
government's results are not yet available, the Navy decided
to resume the bombing anyway.
Since April 19, 1999, Vieques has been the axis of Puerto
Rican political life. Election outcomes are decided
according to the candidate's stand on the issue of the U.S.
Navy. The new governor of Puerto Rico, Sila Calderon, the
first woman in that position, won the election based on her
pro-Vieques, anti-Navy position. Part of her political
platform was the removal of the Puerto Rican police from the
Navy's gate in Vieques and the stopping of the bombing
practices.
Calderon did remove the riot police who had kept 24-hour
duty since the massive arrests of hundreds of anti-Navy
activists on May 4, 2000, by federal forces. But to appease
the U.S. colonial masters of the island, she replaced them
with regular police.
Vieques activists have been protesting the increased number
of police since then.
Calderon contracted Richard Copaken, a U.S.-based lawyer, to
file a lawsuit against the Navy demanding the bombings stop
because of their impact on health and the environment.
Copaken is well known for his research on illnesses caused
by bombing noise.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, under Health and Human
Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, is supposed to review a
study by the Ponce School of Medicine and contract an
independent source as a third party to also review the
tests.
The comparative study, performed under strict scientific
guidelines on 53 fishers from Vieques and 42 fishers from
Ponce, found that 79 percent of the Viequenses had thickened
pericardium, the membrane that covers the heart. Some 75
percent had a widening of the aortic valve. These are both
indicators of future heart ailments.
In order to get around this study's results, the Navy paid
John Hopkins University Hospital $46,000 to evaluate not
this study by the Ponce school, but data provided by the US
Navy itself. As a consequence, John Hopkins stated that
there is no health danger from the bombings.
The U.S. Navy is now using this John Hopkins statement to
justify resuming bombing practice.
The other federal agency involved in this matter is the
Agency for the Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Last
month the ATSDR issued a statement on the "lack of
contamination" of the drinking water in Vieques.
While they were addressing the media at a news conference in
Vieques, activists with placards carrying white crosses and
a black coffin representing the deaths due to contamination
interrupted the conference. They accused the ATSDR of basing
its conclusion on incomplete data, only six samples,
provided by the Navy from water samples of 1978.
Viequenses are paying a great deal of attention to their
health now. They found in another study that until 1974 the
risk of cancer in Vieques was 33 percent lower than in the
rest of Puerto Rico. Between 1985 and 1989 Vieques' children
between the ages of 0 and 9 had a cancer risk 117 percent
greater than the rest of Puerto Rico.
These are children born after 1970, when the Navy increased
the bombing practices.
There have been other reports of environmental damage
covered up by the Pentagon. Damaged and contaminated coral
reefs have also contaminated the fish that feed from them.
Unexploded ordinance and cylinders with unknown substances
have been found on the bottom of the sea. These can explode
when inert bombs hit them, releasing whatever toxic
chemicals they contain.
The governor has even introduced a bill in the Puerto Rican
legislature aimed at stopping the announced Navy bombing.
The law would make loud noises illegal on Puerto Rican
coastal waters.
But on the three previous occasions when the governor or
other Puerto Rican entities tried to use legal proceedings
to stop the Navy, the ruling has always been in favor of the
Pentagon, based on "national security." This is the
imperialist truth.
And Vieques activists know this truth very well. They
welcome Calderon's efforts, but they say that they do not
trust politicians. They have continued to organize, locally
and internationally.
The case of Vieques is now quite well known around the
world. Delegations have gone to Japan, Korea, Spain, the
U.S., Cuba and many other places. International delegations
have also visited Vieques and pledged solidarity. These
efforts have been conducted at every level, from lobbying in
Washington to grassroots union solidarity.
Recently New York Gov. George Pataki, in an effort to win
Puerto Rican votes in his state, visited Vieques, denouncing
the U.S. Navy. As a "side benefit," he held a $1,000-per-
plate fundraising lunch for his campaign in San Juan.
How many phone bills of the Committee for the Rescue and
Development of Vieques that fundraiser could have paid if
Pataki's solidarity had been sincere!
Just a few days later the Navy announced its intent to bomb.
Vieques activists know that only the people organized on the
streets will win the battle. They have been preparing for
that with community meetings, caravans, and the weekly
Saturday night vigils, among other activities.
And they are planning massive actions for this round of
military practice. For more information readers can contact
the CPRDV at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
U.S. Navy out of Vieques now! U.S. imperialism out of Puerto
Rico!
- 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: maanantai 30. huhtikuu 2001 06:48
Subject: [WW] Brown U. student protest racist ad on reparations
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BROWN UNIVERSITY:
STUDENTS PROTEST RACIST ADVERTISEMENT ON REPARATIONS
By Michael Shaw
Providence, R.I.
An April 7 forum on "Campus Racism and the Providence
Community" at the Congdon Street Baptist Church near the
Brown University campus brought together anti-racism
fighters from both the prestigious college and the
Providence, R.I., community.
The forum was called in response to the Brown Daily Herald
running a racist broadside--disguised as an "ad" that
attacked the movement seeking reparations to African
Americans for slavery.
The inflammatory diatribe understandably enraged Brown
students of color as well as their allies. Once it ran in
mid-March an ad hoc organization of Brown students mobilized
to confront the all-white BDH editorial board.
Sixty students showed up with petitions signed by 200
students. They demanded that the BDH donate ad space to
rebut the racist propaganda, or else donate the more than
$500 received for running the piece to the Third World
Center or an African American group.
The meeting with the editors lasted 30 minutes. The board
stonewalled. The coalition members told the editors that if
at least one of the two demands were not met, the issue of
the Herald would be removed. The next day, March 16, members
of the coalition appropriated 4,000 issues of that day's
paper. (Providence Phoenix, April 6)
After the anti-African American broadside was printed, there
was an immediate explosion of racism against students and
faculty of color. Izetta Autumn Mobley, a sophomore from
Washington, D.C., returned from spring break to discover a
letter from Connecticut in her mailbox containing a picture
of a mutilated Black child.
Professor Lewis Gordon, director of the Afro-American
Studies Program, has received up to 90 hateful emails and
voice mails daily since the bigotry display began.
(Providence Phoenix, March 30)
The big-business media have reported factual details about
the atmosphere of intensified racist terror unleashed since
the ad appeared. But at the same time the media have heaped
laurels on the heads of BDH's editorial board as "defenders
of freedom of speech."
An editorial in the BDH's March 23 issue was headlined "Free
speech at Brown: Student editors deserve praise for standing
up to the censorious mob." The editorial stated, "The
Providence Journal, the Boston Globe, and the Boston Herald
have all editorialized against this assault-by-mob on the
BDH's First Amendment rights." The editorial also referred
to the paper's editors as "heroes."
The Brown administration has not uttered one word of
condemnation toward those who printed the racist broadside.
It has also failed to take responsibility for the
consequences.
Speak out against racism
The CCS has not taken this white supremacy or its defense
lying down. The coalition is seeking allies for its
righteous struggle.
This is why the April 7 forum was called. Sympathetic
students, faculty, alumni, and activists of many
nationalities attended from Providence and Boston, including
representatives of the group DARE--Direct Action for Rights
and Equality.
Barbara Bernier, a law professor at Roger Williams
University who is one of three faculty members of color at
that school, opened and moderated the forum. She said it is
ridiculous to defend printing the racist broadside by hiding
behind the First Amendment. The freedom of speech that the
constitution protects is only relevant in relationship to
federal government censorship.
Forum panelists--all students of color--gave their
perspective on what has happened at Brown over the past few
weeks.
Melissa Rodriguez said the Herald has a history of
exercising racially biased editorial discretion. And she
said that the newspaper and Brown itself have created a safe
space for racist, hateful views under the guise of promoting
free speech. By taking several hundred dollars to run this
hateful "ad," she said, the BDH profited from a racist
attack on the community.
Student Kate Lesle said the appearance of the broadside was
timed to coincide with the forthcoming United Nations Summit
on Racism in Durban, South Africa. All nations that profited
from colonialism and slavery, particularly the United
States, are dreading this conference because the issue of
reparations is high on the agenda. Therefore reactionaries
are trying to short-circuit discussion of the issue.
Several students of color described the rise in fear and
anger on campus that the whole episode has subjected them
to.
Bill Bateman of the International Action Center spoke on the
importance of self-determination for oppressed communities
in crises such as this. He encouraged those present not to
be stifled by racists who attempt to bully while hiding
themselves under the mantle of "free speech."
Michael Shaw expressed Workers World Party's unqualified
support and solidarity with the students and everyone else
battling racism locally.
Coalition member and Brown senior Karen Wheeler outlined
plans to continue fighting back. She talked about plans to
organize teach-ins about the reparations movement, set up an
alternative newspaper, move for stricter hate-speech rules
at Brown and implement changes at the Herald.
On April 16, over 150 Brown students and community members
turned out to hear a lecture by Sam Anderson on the struggle
of African Americans for reparations. Anderson, a
mathematician, professor and writer, is a founder of the
Black Panther Party in Harlem, a member of the Black Radical
Congress and author of "Black Holocaust for Beginners."
Anderson applauded the students who fought back against the
recent outbreak of racism on Brown's campus, saying, "These
young people have done a great service for Black
liberation."
Anderson delved into the history of the reparations
movement, which originated in this country during the 1860s
in the Reconstruction when angry Black people sought
compensation for slavery.
The reparations movement still terrifies the ruling class,
he said. He explained that the terms of reparations, still
being debated by the Black community, might include not
paying state or federal taxes, receiving free education and
health care, and demanding freedom for political prisoners.
Anderson emphasized the importance of progressive whites
educating other white people about racism and how to destroy
it.
His message was overwhelmingly well received by the
multinational gathering.
- END -
