F
WW News Service Digest #265
1) Detroit labor meeting cheers Charleston 5
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Women march in D.C. for reproductive freedom
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) New York hospital workers' struggle
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) From Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row: Cincinnati
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
5) Free Mario Bango: Roma under attack in Slovakia
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
6) Workers around the world: 05/03/2001
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
DETROIT LABOR MEETING CHEERS CHARLESTON 5
The case of the Charleston 5 dock workers got wide exposure
in Detroit April 20-21 with the visit of Longshore Local
1422 President Ken Riley.
The Charleston 5 face felony charges stemming from a police
attack against union dock workers at the South Carolina port
in January 2000. Riley is among 27 other workers and three
unions being sued for $1.5 million by the company that
provided scabs to unload ships at the time of the police
riot.
The Auto Workers union magazine Solidarity and the Michigan
Citizen newspaper both interviewed Riley. He met with Metro-
Detroit AFL-CIO President Don Boggs and other labor leaders.
Riley spoke to 800 labor activists at the national Labor
Notes Conference and at the Auto Workers Local 22 union
hall, where workers announced they were forming the Michigan
Committee to Free the Charleston 5. About $4,000 in
donations were collected for the Dockworkers Defense Fund
and presented to Riley.
The Charleston 5 case was briefly presented to the 1,200
guests at the Michigan statewide Democratic Party annual
dinner, where Riley was introduced by the event's
chairperson. Hundreds of signatures were collected on a
petition urging South Carolina to drop the charges.
--Workers World Detroit bureau
-
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WOMEN ON THE MOVE:
THOUSANDS IN D.C. DEMAND REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
Thousands of young women and men from more than 160 campuses
joined with representatives of more than 150 organizations
to rally and march for reproductive rights in Washington,
D.C., April 22. The demonstration was called by the National
Organization for Women to kick off a four-year campaign to
counter the anti-choice politics of the Bush administration.
Speakers recounted the horrors that women seeking abortions
encountered before the procedure was legalized in 1973. They
described the many current attacks on women's reproductive
rights, including threats to health-care providers.
A case in point is the attempt to legally destroy Dr. James
Pendergraft, an African American obstetrician-gynecologist
who operates five full-service women's health-care
facilities in Florida. In February, Pendergraft was
convicted of federal extortion charges stemming from his
attempt to set up a clinic in Marion County. On May 24 he
could be sentenced to 30 years in prison and fined up to
$750,000.
A high point of the rally came when Njoki Njoroge Njehu,
director of the U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice,
linked the demand for women's right to choose with the
overall demand for economic and social justice. To
overwhelming applause, she said the struggle for women's
reproductive freedom was an integral part of the struggle
being waged against the imperialists at the Summit of the
Americas in Quebec.
After a rally in a park adjacent to the Capitol, the
demonstrators--estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000--marched
up Constitution Avenue past the Supreme Court to the site of
a reproductive health fair.
--by Sue Davis
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WHATEVER IT TAKES, AS LONG AS IT TAKES
By Derrick Duncan & Anne Pruden
1199 Service Employee delegates
New York
Some 2,000 health-care workers chanted, "Ain't no stopping
us now!" as they marched and protested in Bronxville, N.Y.,
on April 20.
Called by Lawrence Hospital workers and the 1199 Service
Employees union from New York, the protest was an angry
response to hospital management. Not only has it recently
taken some sick time away, but many workers are paid only $7
an hour.
As a result, most of the more oppressed workers had recently
signed up to join the union. Suddenly the Lawrence bosses
brought a Kentucky-based union-busting firm on the scene.
Workers were coerced, intimidated, lied to and threatened to
stop them from voting in the union. Anti-union thugs
interrupted workers on the job and at their homes.
As a result, the vote on March 29 was 129 to 119 against
union representation. The April 20 protesters wore lab coats
with "JUSTICE" written on the back. They carried placards
reading "Whatever It Takes, As Long As It Takes."
These workers don't forget their union's history. In 1965, a
55-day strike by mostly Black and Latino hospital workers
sought union recognition for Local ll99. Famous labor and
civil-rights leaders like A. Phillip Randolph led thousands
of demonstrators in that struggle.
Actor-activist Ossie Davis was arrested on a charge of civil
disobedience. The 1965 struggle in Bronxville helped push
the law recognizing the right of workers in all nonprofit
hospitals to join unions.
The Lawrence Hospital workers' committee, with union
officials and Ossie Davis, led the spirited march April 20
in Bronxville. Speakers included Jay Adams. A hospital
phlebotomist for 17 years, Adams insisted, "We have
unfinished business, because our basic rights were denied in
our work place."
State union leaders spoke in solidarity. They said the labor
movement would not tolerate what happened at Lawrence
Hospital. The National Labor Relations Board is to consider
a new election.
There was a loud response when 1199 Service Employees
President Dennis Rivera said this organizing drive was not
only a labor struggle but also a civil-rights struggle.
Rivera also quoted the famous Jamaican political
singer/activist Bob Marley: "You can fool some of the people
some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the
time. ...Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!"
The rally ended with a militant cry by the health-care
workers: "We'll be back!"
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FROM MUMIA ABU-JAMAL ON DEATH ROW: CINCINNATI
['The government is only as lasting as your understanding of
administration. The Army is nothing without people, the Air
Force is grounded without your endorsement, the ships of the
Navy could never have sailed if your leaders didn't have you
sail 'em, and the brutal depravity of police would be non-
existent if you didn't wear the uniform.'
--John Africa
"On the Move," 1975]
Black youthful rage explodes in Cincinnati, Ohio, and
several nights of fire, rebellion and pain reminds us that
the much-maligned and heralded '60s were really not so very
long ago.
For like the riots that rocked the nation in the 1960s, the
precipitating event was an act of brutality and violence by
police against Black folks. Police violence against Blacks
has sparked rampages of rebellion from coast to coast,
costing hundreds of millions of dollars in destroyed
property and hundreds of lost lives.
Over 30 years have passed, and in the intervening years we
have seen the emergence of the Black political class and the
entrenchment of the Black poor in inner cities, projects,
and ghettoes more desolate, more isolated and more hopeless
than the 1960s. We have seen the explosion of the prison-
industrial complex at rates that would've been unthinkable
in the 1970s, with upwards of 2 million men, women and
juveniles in American jails. The U.S., with only 5 percent
of the world's population, has 25 percent of the world's
prison population!
And for Black young men and women, the horror of prison has
become a perverse rite of passage, marking one's transition
from youth to adulthood.
So while things have gotten better for some African
Americans since the 1960s, things have gotten demonstrably
worse for millions of other, poorer Blacks. Public schools,
never quite outstanding in the first place, have gone into
decline. City services have declined. Industries have fled
cities for the South and the suburbs, leaving cities with
less employment, and with remaining jobs paying less money
while costs have gone up.
Cincinnati, sparked by the police shooting of a Black man,
could have happened anywhere in America. The social
ingredients are all there, in every major city in America.
In every major city is economic and social despair, mixed
with a militaristic police force that targets Black life and
liberty. In every such city are Black politicians who
function in the role of keeping the restless natives in
check; keep them suffering in silence.
Cincinnati represented the eruption of youth who see their
position in grim, hopeless situations. Cincinnati is a
harbinger of things to come. Cincinnati is the fire next
time.
copyright 2001 Mumia Abu-Jamal
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FREE MARIO BANGO: ROMA UNDER ATTACK IN SLOVAKIA
By Bill Dorr
Mario Bango, an 18-year-old Roma organizer in Slovakia,
faces 12 years in prison for defending his family against a
racist attack. Local politicians and the media--much of them
owned by U.S. companies--are using Bango's case to intensify
bigotry against Roma people. Activists in that East European
country have formed a defense committee and are appealing
for international solidarity.
On March 10 Mario Bango and his twin brother Edo were riding
a bus in Bratislava, Slovakia's capital, when Edo was jumped
by a young racist named Branislav Slamka. This was not
unusual. Roma people in Slovakia today are frequent targets
of violence and beatings by neo-Nazi "skinhead" gangs. In
his early teens Edo was hospitalized after such a beating.
This time the outcome was different. Mario came to his
brother's aid and, in the course of the struggle, Slamka was
stabbed. The Bangos called the police and waited while
Slamka was taken to a hospital. At the police station, Mario
Bango was arrested while cops subjected his family to racist
anti-Roma slurs.
Slamka died several days later. Mario was charged with
"causing serious injury leading to death." The Bangos are
poor and have difficulty affording a lawyer.
Though Slamka was a known racist with reported Nazi
affiliations, the media and right-wing parliament members
have portrayed him as the "innocent victim" of Roma who were
trying to steal his wallet. Using racist stereotypes they
are whipping up a lynch-mob atmosphere against Mario, the
Bango family and all Roma people.
Roma people, also called "Gypsies," compose 9 percent of
Slovakia's population. They are the largest national
minority. Since the overthrow of the Czechoslovak Socialist
Republic in 1989 and its division into the Czech and Slovak
republics, Roma have lived under a reign of terror.
Right-wing political movements have tried to scapegoat Roma
for the suffering caused by the restoration of capitalist
ownership and the economic dictates of the International
Monetary Fund.
In reality the Roma have suffered the worst from capitalism.
The shutdown of Slovakia's formerly state-owned heavy
industries has hit particularly hard at the Roma, many of
whom were industrial workers.
They are the poorest people in a poor country. They make up
40 percent of the prison population.
Edo and Mario have been fighters against this injustice
since their early teens. Believing in working-class unity,
they joined the Young Communist Lea gue and supported
strikes and labor protests.
They organized an anti-fascist youth march in Bratislava.
They helped poor tenants in a Bratislava suburb resist a
wealthy speculator who was trying to evict them from their
homes.
They also developed a passionate identification with the
African American and Native struggles in the United States.
This reporter met the Bango brothers last September in
Prague, where they had come to join massive protests at a
meeting of the IMF.
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY URGED
"Mario's life in the service of the oppressed has now been
interrupted by the attack of a misguided racist," said a
statement issued by the Mario Bango Defense Committee in
Bratislava.
"After one experience of a direct racist attack, after years
of fear of skinhead attack, after years of nonstop stress
while simply walking in the streets, after being forced to
stay at home every night to avoid violence and after
escaping several attempted attacks, a moment came which was
perhaps inevitable.
"Mario has been fighting for others for years. It is time
now to express to him our thanks. Therefore we ask you to
join us in demanding that the Slovak government drop all
charges against Mario Bango."
The statement asks that protest messages be sent to: Urad
Vlady, Office of the Government, Namestie Slobody 1, 813 70
Bratislava, Slovak Republic, phone 011 421 7 5729 5111, fax
011 421 7 5249 7595, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; or to
Kancelaria Prezidenta, Stefanikova 14, 814 38 Bratislava,
Slovak Republic, phone 011 421 7 5441 6624. To send email
from the Slovak president's Web site at www.prezident.sk,
click on "VIRTUALNA POSTA," then click on "NOVY PRISPEVOK"
("new message").
Readers can send letters of soli darity to the Mario Bango
Defense Com mittee, PO Box 178, 850 00 Bratislava 5, Slovak
Republic, or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Donations for his
defense may be sent to the Friends of Mario Bango, c/o
International Action Center, 39 West 14th Street, New York,
NY 10011. Make checks payable to the IAC and write "Free
Mario Bango" on the memo line. The funds will be forwarded
to the defense committee in Slovakia.
- END -
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 3, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD
BOSNIA: LESSONS OF A HOSTAGE DRAMA
A relatively unpublicized but politically revealing hostage
drama occurred in Bosnia the second week of April. It began
April 6, when masked police backed by NATO occupation forces
known as SFOR seized control of a bank--the Hercegovacka
Banka--allegedly used by Bosnian Croat nationalists.
Wolfgang Petritsch, an Austrian politician and current head
of the Bosnia occupation force, ordered the seizure.
Petritsch was infamous for his role in handing the
unacceptable Rambouillet ultimatum to Belgrade in March 1999
and setting the stage for NATO78-day bombing campaign. He
also was part of the Austrian government that joined with
Germany to encourage Croatian right-wing nationalists to
break away from Yugoslavia in 1991.
In response to Petritsch's seizure of the bank, Bosnian
Croat nationalists stoned international officials, beating
up SFOR and UN employees and wrecking a local office of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
according to occupation authorities. Several staff people
who work for Petritsch were beaten, they said, and others
were captured.
A Bosnian Croat party, the HDZ, denounced SFOR's takeover of
the bank. HDZ had announced plans in March to break away
from the Muslim-Croat Federation and establish a separate
Croat state in southwestern Bosnia. According to reports
they have succeeded in convincing thousands of Croat-origin
soldiers to desert the federation army. Currently Bosnia is
split into the Muslim-Croat Federation and a Bosnian Serb
Republic.
Later in the week, Petritsch said that "gunmen took several
federation and international personnel hostage in the bank"
and one was even threatened with execution. They were
finally rescued by Spanish troops that were part of the
occupation force. NATO troops also had to raid some barracks
to remove heavy weapons that may have been seized by the
Croat forces. Both U.S. and German troops were involved.
There are already some interesting lessons from these
developments.
Germany, Austria and the U.S. fostered extreme Croatian--and
Bosnian and Albanian--nationalism as a weapon to break up
Yugoslavia and defeat the more anti-imperialist forces in
Serbia. Now it is an obstacle to NATO's occupation of the
region.
A few years ago if Serb forces had done anything like what
the Croat nationalists are accused of, it would have been
splashed across the front pages of U.S. newspapers and the
broadcast media. Then-Yugoslav President Milosevic would
have been blamed for any harm that befell the international
officials. So far the Croats have received relatively little
public blame.
The U.S. and NATO claimed they were going into the Balkans
to bring stability and development. So far they have only
brought economic disintegration and chaos, with the threat
of further wars in Macedonia and now again in Bosnia.
YUGOSLAVIA: TURNING SERBIA INTO A CONCENTRATION CAMP
According to a statement from the Socialist Party of Serbia,
on April 14 some 25,000 people held the second demonstration
in front of the Government of Serbia building to support SPS
President Slobodan Milosevic.
The new pro-West government charges the former Yugoslav
president, who led the country during the 78-day resistance
against U.S.-NATO bombing, with "corruption and abuse of
power."
The demonstrators demanded that Milosevic should continue
medical treatment in Military Medical Academy. Milosevic had
reported heart pains. But after the regime brought political
pressure on physicians, he was returned April 13 from that
hospital to Central County Jail in Belgrade.
Speakers charged that the new regime is transforming Serbia
into a concentration camp, but that the people of Serbia
demand freedom and dignity.
The next demonstration took place in Novi Sad, the capital
of Vojvodinja, on April 21. There 6,000 Milosevic supporters
rallied, jostled with some hecklers, but made it clear they
would continue to support the jailed ex-president and party
leader. SPS members accuse the government of risking
Milosevic's life by refusing him proper medical care. They
demand he be released so he can fight the legal trial from
his home.
The next demonstration is scheduled for April 28 in
Kragujevac.
ITALY: SYLVIA BARALDINI GOES HOME
Finally the Italian courts have allowed imprisoned activist
Sylvia Baraldini to leave her prison cell and return to her
home in Rome. The reason given was her medical condition, as
she has been suffering from cancer.
An Italian citizen, Baraldini had spent 17 years in U.S.
jails, convicted of kidnapping prison guards to help in the
escape of Black Panther leader Assata Shakur, now in exile
in Cuba, and for aiding in other direct actions against U.S.
imperialism. She was supposed to spend nine more years in
Italian jails.
A movement, especially strong in Italy, had developed
demanding her release. Baraldini considers the current
situation, which is a house arrest that allows her to spend
from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day away from her home, "a step
forward." But she is looking forward to winning complete
release.
--John Catalinotto
CANADA: TRANSIT IN VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA ON STRIKE
According to the April 10 Vancouver Sun, the current impasse
between Coast Mountain and the Canadian Auto Workers lies in
the company insisting that it have the right to hire part-
time workers to handle rush hour. Coast Mountain is the
section of TransitLink that runs the bus system, and the CAW
represents the workers in the transit buses.
The CAW said it would not bargain on this issue, formally
suspended talks and is settling in for a long strike.
A mediator appointed by the provincial government is trying
to get the CAW and B.C. Transit in Victoria back to the
bargaining table.
At the same time, workers in the Office and Professional
Employees International Union have set up picket lines at
automatic ticket machines in SkyTrain, Vancouver's light
rail system. These workers handle security and ticket sales
and maintain the machines.
The picket line keeps the machines from being emptied,
because unionized workers at the maintenance company won't
cross a picket line.
So SkyTrain was essentially free, according to the Sun. The
machines are so full in general that they can't accept any
more money, and they have run out of paper to produce
tickets.
The OPEIU has also filed three complaints with the Labor
Relations Board. These complaints charge that both
TransitLink and Coast Mountain were using replacement
workers, which is illegal in British Columbia.
Coast Mountain managers immediately issued an apology. They
also said they would stop using the private security company
they had hired to guard their SeaBus terminal. SeaBus is the
mass transit ferry system.
OPEIU also charged that management was illegally updating
Web pages and maintaining the ticket system, all of which is
union work. The LRB has yet to rule on these two charges,
which management contests.
The transit bosses refuse to bargain with OPEIU. They
instead charge the union with encouraging passengers to
avoid paying.
The union has suggested letting drivers near retirement work
reduced hours. This would create the opportunity for a part-
time peak-hour service staffed by senior drivers. But
management refuses to even consider this proposal.
The Coast Mountain management wants to run the system
without worker input, even though it's the workers who know
the system inside out.
--G. Dunkel
