WW News Service Digest #267
1) 'Mumia News' tells it like it is
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Immigrant workers strike, shut down R.I. plant
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) In response to racist murders: Penn State students occupy building
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) Wilkerson of Angola 3
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
5) Free Jaggi Singh: After Quebec, movement spreads the word
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
6) Canadian unions support protesters
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 10, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
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"MUMIA NEWS" TELLS IT LIKE IT IS
Special to Workers World
Philadelphia
A four-page newspaper is being distributed throughout
Philadelphia to tell people about the May 12th demonstration
and Camp Free Mumia. Published by Millions for Mumia, its
headline, "Bush stole the election--Stop him from killing
Mumia Abu-Jamal," grabs attention.
Thirty-five thousand copies have been printed. The
publication has articles in English and Spanish.
"We've been dropping off bundles of these papers in beauty
parlors, barber shops, laundromats and stores," said Steve
Millies, a railroad worker and Workers World Party member.
"We want to reach the working class about Mumia Abu-Jamal
being framed and facing execution. That's why we go to the
neighborhoods where workers live and shop."
Volunteers report they've been getting a great response.
People ask for additional copies to give to friends.
According to Millies, distributions will be carried out in
Camden, N.J., as well. This depressed Black city--across the
Delaware River from Philadelphia--has been thrown into even
greater poverty by plant closings at RCA, Campbell Soup and
other factories.
Among the articles in this "Mumia newspaper" is one about
Philadelphia having the second-highest electric rates in the
country. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge brags that the state is
number one in deregulating the electric industry.
Deregulation, the article points out, leads to utility shut-
offs. Just as Ridge wants to sign Mumia Abu-Jamal's death
warrant, he is already doing so for poor neighborhoods.
Deadly fires are rampant in areas where people must use
dangerous kerosene heaters to keep from freezing.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 10, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
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IMMIGRANT WORKERS STRIKE, SHUT DOWN R.I. PLANT
By Michael Shaw
Pawtucket, R.I.
More than 100 workers at Union Wadding Co. took to the
picket lines April 16 after their four-year contract had
expired. Members of UNITE Local 808T voted 72-43 to strike
due to dissatisfaction with a rise in health care costs and
a measly wage increase in the company's new contract offer.
On the same date in 1987, the union had staged a two-day
strike and shut down the factory.
"The health benefits are the only things they give us here,"
striking worker Maria Alves told the Pawtucket Times. "They
don't give us nothing else, except B.S."
Glenn George, president of Local 808T and a receiver at the
company for 11 years, told the Times that company proposals
include: a Blue Cross plan change with a $500 annual
deductible per family member for hospital stays, with no
such charge in the expired contract; doubling emergency room
co-pays from $25 to $50; adding $5 to the co-pays for
prescriptions; and a 30-cent hourly wage increase.
Because of the new hospital deductible, "one trip to the
hospital and we lose the whole raise," said nine-year
employee Jaime Guerra.
When Union Wadding Co. Senior VP Louise Bucko was asked
about the labor dispute and its impact on company
operations, typical boss-speak was offered: "We feel we
offered the union a fair package, including a fully paid
health care plan." The company called in the cops once the
strike began, and now cops and company security guards
constantly eyeball the picketers.
George says that the strike has indeed shut the 165-year-old
company down, with no trucks crossing a picket line set up
with support from unions throughout the region. About 20 non-
union management personnel continue to report to work.
Of the 140-member local, about 80 percent are immigrants
from Cape Verde, and over half have worked at the company
over 15 years.
Both sides agreed to federal mediation, which was to begin
April 23. As of the end of April no results had been
announced. The strike rolls on around the clock.
"We want respect," affirmed striker Alves. "It's about time
we show them we're not afraid anymore."
Union Wadding Co. makes air filter materials, Christmas tree
skirts, casket linings and other batting products.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 10, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
IN RESPONSE TO RACIST MURDERS: PENN STATE STUDENTS OCCUPY BUILDING
By Andy McInerney
In a firm show of solidarity against racist death threats,
thousands of students at Penn State University have
organized to demand a safe environment. The courageous show
of unity comes in the face of two murders of Black men and
death threats against Black student leaders.
On April 24, hundreds of Penn State students and their
supporters occupied the student union building. They formed
the "PSU Village" to support the demands of the African and
African American students at Penn State for a safe climate
for Black students.
As of May 1, the PSU Village occupation was going strong.
Penn State is a university with over 40,000 students in
overwhelmingly white central Pennsylvania. Less than 4
percent of the students are African American.
In November 1999, 68 Black students received racist email
messages. One year later, a number of prominent student and
university leaders, including the president of the student
Black Caucus, received threats by mail.
A series of actions on the part of African American students
demanding safety and an improved climate was ignored by the
university administration.
The tense situation escalated on April 20 when Black Caucus
leader Lakeisha Wolf received a death threat claiming that a
young Black man's body could be found in the woods near Penn
State. That letter provoked an April 21 protest in which
some 40 students rushed a football game. Twenty-six were
arrested by campus police and are facing legal and
university disciplinary penalties.
A week after the threatening letter, the body of a Black man
was found in the woods in Penn State's Centre County.
The students at the PSU Village have accused the university
administration of refusing to take their complaints
seriously. Their demands for increased exposure of racism at
Penn State and the country have fallen on deaf ears.
"We are here until this is over," Black Caucus member
Nichelle Evans said on April 30 from the occupied student
union.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 10, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WILKERSON OF ANGOLA 3:
SURVIVOR OF HELL TOURS COUNTRY TO FREE COMRADES
By Brenda Sandburg
San Francisco
Few people make it out of Louisiana's Angola State Prison
alive.
Robert King Wilkerson is one of the survivors. After 31
years--29 in solitary confinement--Wilkerson was set free in
February. But his long battle for justice is not over. He is
fighting to free the other members of the Angola 3.
"When I was released I made a commitment that with whatever
time I had left I would try to free my two comrades,"
Wilkerson said at a public meeting in San Francisco April
25. "We're still the Angola 3."
Wilkerson, along with Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace,
fought to end the rape and torture of prisoners and
establish solidarity between Black and white prisoners at
Louisiana's Angola state penitentiary.
Woodfox and Wallace founded a prison chapter of the Black
Panther Party in 1971, which Wilkerson joined the following
year. In retaliation for their political views, prison
officials framed Woodfox and Wallace in 1972 for murdering a
prison guard and in 1973 charged Wilkerson with the killing
of a fellow prisoner.
In a quiet voice, Wilkerson recounted the harrowing details
of his case. The audience barely moved, overcome by what
Wilkerson endured and by his indomitable spirit.
Soon after he entered solitary confinement, a prisoner on
his tier was killed in a knife fight. Prison officials
initially issued a blanket indictment against all the men on
that tier. A few days later, however, they coerced two other
prisoners to implicate Wilkerson and another man in the
killing. During their trial, the two were shackled,
handcuffed, and their mouths covered with adhesive tape.
"We couldn't open any defense and as a result we were both
found guilty," Wilkerson said.
'THE RIPPLE SPREAD'
The state Supreme Court subsequently overturned this
conviction, saying Wilkerson should not have been gagged
since there was no indication he would disrupt the trial. He
was retried. Based on one prisoner's testimony, he was found
guilty and given a life sentence again.
A turning point came in 1987 when the two prisoners who had
testified against him recanted. One of the men said guards
had threatened to pin the killing on him if he didn't
testify against Wilkerson.
Despite clear evidence of Wilkerson's innocence, the courts
would not set him free. In 1991 a three-judge panel offered
him a new trial--not based on his innocence but because no
woman had been on the grand jury that indicted him. The full
appeals court overturned that decision, however.
As a result of a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, his case
went before the appeals court again in 2000 and a two-judge
panel found that his constitutional rights had been
violated. That ultimately led to his release.
But Wilkerson said it was the support of people who packed
the courtroom during his last trial that won his freedom. As
a result of this pressure the court looked at evidence that
it had previously rejected, Wilkerson explained.
In particular, Wilkerson cited the work of the International
Action Center on his behalf. "Without the IAC this couldn't
have happened," Wilkerson said. "They threw the first pebble
into the pond and the ripple spread."
Richard Becker, co-director of the IAC's West Coast office,
said the Angola 3 are real heroes. "I don't know how many
people could have endured what they did for three decades
and held to their beliefs," Becker stressed. "They were
persecuted barbarically by the prison system for fighting
against the most corrupt and inhumane conditions."
Others at the San Francisco meeting cited the horrific
conditions within Angola, an 18,000-acre complex of former
slave plantations purchased by Louisiana around the turn of
the 20th century.
"Eighty-five percent of those who go into Angola die there,"
noted Marina Drummer, an organizer of the Angola 3 Defense
Committee.
Luis Talamantez, an organizer with the IAC and California
Prison Focus, read a moving poem about the Angola 3 and the
prison "where slavery never died."
Corey Weinglass of California Prison Focus said prison
conditions have become worse over the past 30 years. In
California the number of prisoners has grown from 19,000 to
164,000, he said.
Wilkerson is devoting his life to ending this slavery. "I am
committed to the struggle against the prison-industrial
complex and the exposure of it," Wilkerson concluded.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 10, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FREE JAGGI SINGH: AFTER QUEBEC, MOVEMENT SPREADS THE WORD
By Gery Armsby
The street battles that shook Quebec City during April 20-22
protests against the Summit of the Americas are over for
now. But now that the tear gas has cleared, thousands of
protesters are carrying on the momentum of their struggle
against globalization.
Numerous meetings and discussions have been held throughout
the U.S. in order to spread the word about what happened in
Quebec City. Those who missed it were not able to get an
accurate account from the big-business media.
In New York City on April 24, a meeting and party at the
International Action Center to celebrate the 47th birthday
of Black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row in
Pennsylvania, also doubled as an impromptu teach-in on the
lessons of Quebec City.
People shared photos and stories about the IAC's "Mumia
brigades" that joined the Quebec protest in part to urge
freedom for Abu-Jamal and other political prisoners and to
call on people to participate in the upcoming "Free Mumia"
encampment in Philadelphia on May 11-13.
The New York City Coalition to Stop the FTAA is helping to
organize a protest May 3 at the Canadian Consulate on Sixth
Avenue and 50th Street. Similar protests will be held in
Montreal and Quebec City.
They are demanding the release of Jaggi Singh.
Singh, 28, is a militant anti-capitalist organizer from
Montreal. He was attacked and arrested on April 20 in Quebec
City during the protests.
"I was shocked at the tactics used. It was a covert
operation of plainclothes officers," said Julia Macrae, who
witnessed Singh's arrest at St. Jean and St. Claire streets.
Statements issued by the Convergence des Luttes Anti-
Capitalistes/Anti-Capitalist Convergence, of which Singh is
a member, characterize his arrest as "an abduction."
He is being charged with rioting, breach of a prior bail
agreement and possession of a dangerous weapon. The "weapon"
in question was a large, roughshod catapult that was wheeled
to the demonstration by many protesters on April 20.
According to a statement by the group that built the
catapult, DIST--Deconstructionist Institute for Surreal
Topology--Singh "is being charged with something that was
not of his doing or that he even had direct knowledge of."
The catapult, which was also seized by the police, has been
sensationalized in major Quebec newspapers, which have
published photos of forensic analysts studying it.
After a sham hearing on April 26, Singh's bail was denied.
Judge Yvon Mercier ruled that Singh would remain jailed
until his trial. According to Quebec Legal collective staff,
this could take months.
Singh is a person of South Asian heritage. As a person of
color, his case represents the double-edged sword of racism
and political repression.
Singh's case is one of over 400 politically motivated
arrests in Quebec and thousands of others since Seattle. It
is fast becoming a symbol for the militant and growing anti-
capitalist movement.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 10, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
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CANADIAN UNIONS SUPPORT PROTESTERS
Several of the Canadian trade unions that participated in
the demonstrations against the Free Trade Area of the
Americas in Quebec City issued statements condemning police
violence and called for the dropping of all charges against
demonstrators.
The Canadian Auto Workers went further and expressed regret
that the union had not played a more forceful role in the
confrontations.
Judy Darcy of the Canadian Union of Public Employees said
that "The treatment of those arrested has been deplorable.
There have been reports that many protesters were stripped,
searched, and hosed down with cold water. This occurred in
very public spaces. Many were also held on a bus for more
than eight hours without access to a washroom or food."
The union's Web site said that "CUPE has given financial
assistance to the Quebec legal team and will continue to
support the protesters' demands that all charges be dropped
and all protesters be released immediately."
Darcy added, "Why did the federal government sanction the
use of what felt like the nation's supply of tear gas? How
can the Prime Minister justify the violation of our rights
to freedom of assembly and free speech?
"Our only offence was to speak out against the FTAA and the
attack that NAFTA's Chapter 11 makes on our public services.
We have the right to free assembly in this country and no
fence will ever limit the right of Canadians to express
their opinion," she added.
The Canadian Auto Workers union sent over 1,500 members to
the protest. "With flags sparkling in the sunshine and the
Quebec City air saturated with acrid clouds of tear gas from
the constant police bombardment of the city, the CAW/TCA
delegation, young and old, many with their families, showed
solidarity with those fighting the FTAA," says the union's
Web site.
"While some expressed disappointment that the march
organizers did not have the route pass closer to the hated
barricade, the mere presence of this many trade unionists,
in spite of the violent police intimidation, showed how
determined the opposition is to the trade deal.
"But the agenda of free trade and its many negative effects
is still going ahead. 'This was an important signal to the
government that we are going to continue to fight. In the
next demonstrations our members are demanding a far more
militant response than the peaceful march away from the
fence,' said Carol Phillips, CAW International Director. 'We
will be looking at the direct action, non-violent methods of
the youth movement and offering training to our members.' "
