WW News Service Digest #281
1) Cincinnati: Solidairty Keeps Police at Bay
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) S. Carolina Jails Poor Black Women
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
3) AIDS and Capitalism: Need for Global Fightback
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the June 14, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
CINCINNATI MARCH FOR JUSTICE: BLACK-WHITE SOLIDARITY
KEEPS POLICE AT BAY
By Gery Armsby
Cincinnati
Defying two cloudbursts and weeks of police attempts at
intimidation, 2,500 people from this tense city and all
around the United States rallied and marched for justice and
against racism on June 2.
The event was an encouraging display of multinational unity
against racism, bringing out large contingents from both
Cincinnati's African American community and anti-racist
whites. It was also a step forward that the anti-
globalization movement gave priority to building solidarity
with the Black community against racism.
The demonstration was the latest in a series of actions
stemming from the police killing of Black youth Timothy
Thomas in early April. First, protests on April 9 and 10 and
then a rebellion of African American communities followed
that 15th fatal police shooting of a Black man since 1995.
Cincinnati officials declared a curfew and arrested more
than 700 African Americans during the rebellion. Some 62 are
facing felony charges and 50 are still in jail. Protests at
the jailhouse have continued weekly, with demands for
amnesty. Other actions, including a boycott of the "Taste of
Cincinnati" food festival initiated by the Cincinnati Black
United Front, were called to protest the city's history of
racism and demand it stop.
In a separate June 2 direct action after the larger march,
some 60 to 80 mostly young activists met in Eden Park under
heavy police surveillance. They marched into the more
affluent Mount Adams community, where 12 were arrested.
At the time of the rebellion in April, police had allowed
Mount Adams residents to violate a citywide curfew that was
being brutally enforced in Black neighborhoods like Over-the-
Rhine and the West End.
TIMOTHY THOMAS'S MOTHER SPEAKS
Among the speakers at the rally was Angela Leisure, Thomas's
mother. Leisure said, "This is a racial issue in a sense,
meaning
all races have to stand together. It's not a Black against
white thing. It's not Black against anything else. This is
the human race against injustice."
Derrick Blassingame, 14, sang from the rally stage: "They
call us violent. They call us illegal protesters--just
because we say what the people want." Later, marchers
repeated this song, which was also heard frequently during
the April uprising.
Robert Williams of the African American Cultural Commission
said, "Timothy Thomas had a right to run [from the police].
If you are a citizen of the city of Cincinnati and the
police continually pull you over and harass you and
physically assault you, you have a right to run. But they
don't have the right to take your life." Thomas had been
pulled over more than a dozen times in the last four years.
Jayson Robertson, a student activist, said, "Cincinnati is
the stage. Now is the time to stand up. We want to
revolutionize the system. I am a revolutionary--one for
complete change. Are you a revolutionary?" he asked the
crowd. They roared their affirmative response.
The Rev. Damon Lynch Jr., a well-known civil-rights figure
in Cincinnati, told the crowd: "They want people to think
Cincinnati is just a Reds or Bengals town," referring to the
local professional sports teams. "But people who live here
know it's also a town with deep racism, and at Christmastime
it's a Klan town. ... We want to make Cincinnati a town of
justice."
The rally was co-chaired by Jackie Shropshire of the CBUF
and Dan LaBotz of the Coalition for a Humane Economy.
The Bucket Boys, a local drum corps, led the front of the
march. Behind them a large banner read, "March for Justice,
Cincinnati, June 2, 2001." Along with dozens of "No justice,
no peace" signs was a banner reading "CRY for justice"
carried by a group of high-school students--Cincinnati
Radical Youth.
NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE, NO RACIST POLICE
As the marchers left Fountain Square downtown, their first
sight at Vine Street was a line of cops on foot and
horseback. Some held rifles on their hips. Police
helicopters whirred overhead. Aside from this show of force,
however, the police did not move against the main march.
The most popular chants were: "No justice, no peace--no
racist police." Also "Cincinnati, shut it down." And
"Justice for Timothy, jail killer cops, power to the
people."
Several marchers laid a wreath of flowers on the spot where
Timothy Thomas had been gunned down as community residents
looked on.
A contingent from the International Action Center
participated in the march. It was comprised of 80 people
from 10 different cities. Their banners read "To rebel
against racism is justified, drop all charges now" and "Free
Mumia and all political prisoners," referring to the
imprisoned Black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Imani Henry, an IAC organizer who spent several days in
Cincinnati before the march, observed that "I was impressed
to learn that many anti-globalization activists from this
city cancelled plans to travel to [anti-capitalist protests
in] Quebec last April in order to stay and show solidarity
with the Black community that was under attack.
"Instead, they took on the task of making the connection
between globalization and the living struggle against racism
that is raging right here and all over the U.S. It was the
right thing to do," he said.
The demand for amnesty for the Black youth arrested during
the rebellion, while not an official slogan of the March for
Justice, was raised throughout the march by the IAC and
Workers World Party, as well as by Anti-Racist Action,
Cincinnati Radical Action Group and others.
FREE THE PRISONERS
Following the arrest of 12 people at the direct action in
Mount Adams, members of CRAG and other prisoner supporters
camped outside the County Justice Center. They were
supporting not only the "Cincinnati 12" but also the 50
Black youth held in jail ever since the April rebellion.
The group set up a small encampment of tents and tarpaulins
in front of the jail where they ate, slept, sang and
chanted.
Prisoners could look down through long, narrow windows in
their cells and see supporters in the plaza below. They used
toilet paper to signal messages, which the protesters wrote
down to deliver to the prisoners' loved ones.
Through these notes, protesters learned that one of the
youths had been choked and injured by jail guards or cops.
They summoned medical personnel and sent them into the jail.
While police forced the encampment to dismantle on June 4
until permits were obtained, community activist Susan Knight
told Workers World the group would maintain a round-the-
clock vigil until all prisoners are released. By 6 p.m. June
5, all 12 arrested in Mount Adams had been released and the
vigil had grown in support of those in jail since mid-April.
A MOST IMPORTANT STRUGGLE
In a statement evaluating the March for Justice, Monica
Moorehead, speaking for the national committee of Workers
World Party, said, "We consider this march a significant
victory for the progressive movement. Our party has always
given priority to the struggle against racism. In this case,
we postponed a national conference we had set for June 2 so
as to support this march and help make it as strong as
possible.
"At the march we distributed 1,000 copies of our newspaper, which
raised
the demand for amnesty and the revolutionary slogan that to
rebel against racism is justified. We recognize also that
simply by mobilizing a significant number of white people to
stand in solidarity with the Black community in Cincinnati,
the organizers in Cincinnati have advanced the struggle
against racism in the United States."
- 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: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 7. kes�kuu 2001 10:58
Subject: [WW] S. Carolina Jails Poor Black Women
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the June 14, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
AFTER LECTURE ON "FETAL RIGHTS": S. CAROLINA JAILS
POOR BLACK WOMEN FOR "RISKY BEHAVIOR"
By Kathy Durkin
Regina McKnight, a 24-year-old African American, was
sentenced on May 16 to 12 years in prison. The South
Carolina jury that found her guilty of "homicide by child
abuse" had deliberated for only 15 minutes. Her crime was
that she had given birth to a stillborn child in 1999.
McKnight suffered from substance use. She also faced
homelessness, domestic abuse, and being developmentally
disabled, but no government agency had ever helped her. She
needed but was never offered counseling, job training and
drug treatment.
The only action government officials took was punitive.
McKnight is the first person in U.S. history to be convicted
of homicide for using drugs while pregnant. She faces the
longest term ever given a woman for "harming a fetus through
drug use."
During her trial, medical experts for the defense testified
they did not think that drug use was responsible for the
infant's death.
Yet McKnight was prosecuted under a South Carolina statute--
the only one in the country--that maintains that "a fetus is
a person" and mandates that pregnant women who show any
behavior that could pose a risk to a fetus be prosecuted for
child abuse.
POOR WOMEN VICTIMIZED BY 'FETAL RIGHTS' CAMPAIGN
This law is part of a "fetal rights" campaign being promoted
by right-wing forces nationwide to erode women's
reproductive rights. In South Carolina it has been used
primarily as a weapon against young, poor and African
American women, whom racist prosecutors see as easiest to
convict.
South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon is a fervent
anti-choice proponent and the Republican candidate for
governor. He designed "fetal rights" laws that would
criminalize pregnant women for their behavior.
"McKnight was sentenced because she is poor, African
American, and having children," states Wyndi Anderson,
director of the South Carolina Advocates for Pregnant Women.
Anderson says, "Today, South Carolina is the only state that
treats pregnant women with drug problems as child abusers,
and sends them to jail rather than to treatment. This
uniquely punitive state policy was first introduced and
applied to African American women who were taken out of
their hospital beds in chains and shackles.
"The policy's greatest advocate is Charlie Condon, South
Carolina's current Attorney General, who also staunchly
defends the state's policy of flying the Confederate flag.
We believe that it is no coincidence that the only state
that continues to fly the Confederate flag is also the only
state that jails African American women who continue their
pregnancies despite drug problems."
The state's vindictive, racist policy goes back several
years.
BEGAN A DECADE AGO
In the early 1990s, prosecutors began to zealously arrest
African American women who went to public hospitals for
health care after the state gave new meanings to the "child
neglect" laws, mandating that it was now a criminal offense
for a woman to fail "to provide proper medical care for her
unborn child."
In 1992, Cornelia Whitner, a young pregnant African American
woman, was arrested and charged with child abuse and
neglect. She was never offered counseling or treatment
instead of prison for substance abuse. At that time there
were no residential drug treatment programs in the state for
pregnant women.
Although Whitner requested such medical treatment from the
court, it was denied. The judge said, "I think I'll just let
her go to jail," and sentenced her to eight years in prison.
Whitner's son was born healthy, but she was jailed
nevertheless. She is still incarcerated.
In 1997, South Carolina officials used Whitner's case to
codify existing "fetal rights" policies. The State Supreme
Court decided in Whitner v. South Carolina that a viable
fetus is a "person" under the Children's Code and that child
neglect laws could reach women whose behavior might endanger
the fetus.
These laws signaled an escalation of the state's war on
poor, pregnant women.
IMPRISONED FOR 'RISKY BEHAVIOR'
South Carolina became the first and only state where
pregnant women could be imprisoned for any behavior deemed
as risky to the fetus. This could encompass smoking,
drinking, diet and more; it was left open to interpretation.
When this ruling became law, Melissa Crawley, an African
American woman who was drug-free and rearing three children
at home, was re-imprisoned on a five-year sentence.
Although 17 states have passed laws enabling the state to
remove children of pregnant women who test positive for
drugs, South Carolina is the only state to extend criminal
child-abuse laws to cover fetuses, mandating that drug-using
pregnant women can be prosecuted and sent to jail for as
long as 10 years.
Many women, mainly poor and nearly all African American,
have been arrested, with no drug treatment. The law actually
dissuades pregnant women from seeking prenatal care or drug
treatment because they are afraid of being arrested and
jailed. Those who seek help to curtail substance use are
turned over to the criminal justice system.
For years, pregnant women were not admitted to drug
treatment programs. Today, South Carolina spends very little
money on drug treatment for women; there is always a
shortage of facilities for those who are pregnant. Budget
and healthcare funding cutbacks have resulted in fewer
facilities; often pregnant women are excluded or are
required to give up custody of their children to be treated.
Those suffering from domestic abuse find many battered
women's shelters don't accept women with drug problems.
Often, they can't obtain prenatal care for fear of losing
custody of their children.
The welfare reform act signed into law by President Bill
Clinton is now pushing poor women over the edge.
DRAGGED IN CHAINS FROM THEIR HOSPITAL BEDS
In October 1989, the Medical University Hospital in South
Carolina (MUSC), the only hospital in Charleston to treat
low-income, Medicaid and mostly African-American patients,
began to subject pregnant women to nonconsensual drug tests
in collusion with police and prosecutors. Racist staff
turned women over to the police and held them against their
will.
All but one of the 30 women arrested under this five-year
policy were African American; many were taken to jail in
chains and shackles straight from hospital beds, some still
pregnant, others having just given birth.
National pressure and threats of a federal investigation
stopped this policy, but then-Solicitor General Charlie
Condon and the hospital defended their methods in the
federal courts against a lawsuit brought by 10 women
arrested at MUSC. In Ferguson vs. the City of Charleston, 70
medical, public health and civil rights organizations filed
amicus briefs in their behalf to the U.S. Supreme Court. In
March of this year the women won their lawsuit.
The state of South Carolina spent millions of dollars
defending this racist and inhumane policy instead of funding
needed drug treatment programs.
Blaming poor women also lets the government off the hook for
the lack of social programs. Officials say nothing about
poverty or cutbacks in health care or services being harmful
to pregnant women and their children.
South Carolina ranks among the worst states in infant
mortality, low birth-weight babies, prenatal care, funds for
education and number of children in poverty.
Letters to demand Regina McKnight be freed and all charges
against her be dropped can be sent to Gov. Jim Hodges, P.O.
Box 11829, Columbia, SC 29211 or at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[Thanks to the South Carolina Advocates for Pregnant Women
for much of the information in this article.]
- 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: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 7. kes�kuu 2001 10:58
Subject: [WW] AIDS and Capitalism: Need for Global Fightback
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the June 14, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
AIDS & CAPITLISM: THE NEED FOR GLOBAL FIGHTBACK
By Preston Wood
The AIDS epidemic reveals the inner workings of the profit
system known as capitalism.
In June 1981, a bulletin from the Centers for Disease
Control in Washington reported the mysterious deaths of five
gay men in Los Angeles from pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.
That was the first official report of the disease that would
come to be known as AIDS.
Today more than 22 million people worldwide have died from
the disease and tens of millions more are infected.
When the epidemic first burgeoned it was labeled "gay
cancer" by some and G.R.I.D--Gay-Related Immune Disease--by
others. This public health crisis earned only scorn from
then-President Ronald Reagan, who choked on even mentioning
the crisis by name for years, and wrath from his rich
country club friends around the country.
While the crisis provided the opportunity for right-wing
bigots to re-energize their campaign against gay and lesbian
rights, the virus obviously did not discriminate.
Revelations that AIDS could be spread through blood products
and heterosexual intercourse signaled the impending epidemic
that would eventually span the globe, leaving millions
infected and dying.
Seeing their community devastated by the epidemic, gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgendered activists and their
allies in the progressive movement took to the streets by
the thousands with cries of "Act up! Fight back! Money for
AIDS, not for war!"
In the face of growing public concern and anger the
government, silent for years, was forced to begin dealing
with the crisis by allocating some funds for research and
care.
'THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE'
Over the years, especially the first 10 years, the AIDS
crisis exposed many things about the U.S. and its rulers:
The underlying bigotry against gay and bisexual men as well
as racism left the system paralyzed to deal with the crisis.
The total dependence on healthcare-for-profits sent AIDS
research spiraling downward. Instead, competing
pharmaceuticals frantically searched for a vaccine or cure,
hoping to strike gold. The anarchy of producing for the
market rather than to meet human needs meant the
pharmaceuticals worked in secrecy, even attempting to
sabotage the efforts of their competitors.
And in an act of genocide, profit-hungry U.S.
pharmaceuticals turned their backs on the masses of people
in Africa and Asia, where the epidemic was spinning out of
control. Anti-viral treatments developed in the 1990s were
strictly "pay as you go." That resulted in no help for the
suffering people of Africa and the poor and oppressed here
in this country.
AIDS was first detected in the United States. Responsibility
for the ensuing global epidemic lies at the feet of U.S.
imperialism and its profit system.
Socialist Cuba, on the other hand, managed to avert disaster
by moving quickly to contain the epidemic. AIDS was not
labeled a "gay disease" in Cuba. The disease first struck a
significant number of Cubans who had been exposed to the
virus while volunteering their country's help in Africa.
All health care is provided free of cost for the entire
Cuban population. Not containing the epidemic could have
overwhelmed and seriously undermined the great successes of
the Cuban Revolution.
Since Cuba is an island it was possible to quarantine those
suffering from the virus. This quarantine was not punitive
in the way right-wing elements in this country threatened to
"round up gays." Those quarantined got the best health-care
facilities available. And it enabled the workers' state,
economically hard hit by the illegal U.S. economic blockade,
to provide humane, concentrated care for HIV-positive women
and men with AIDS. It saved the lives of countless people.
And the Cuban government initiated universal testing and a
broad education program that helped contain the epidemic.
THE NEED FOR GLOBAL FIGHTBACK
Today the AIDS crisis is far from over. New studies suggest
a resurgence of infection among gay men in the U.S.,
especially gay Black men.
CDC official Dr. Linda Valleroy notes that among Black gay
men the numbers of new exposures are especially alarming:
14.7 percent, compared to 3.5 percent among Latino gay men
and 2.5 percent among white gay men.
"This is a strong and troubling indicator that the HIV
epidemic will continue to expand," Valleroy said. "These are
explosive HIV incidence rates that underscore the need to
reach each generation of at-risk gay men early."
And the AIDS crisis continues to be a disaster for all of
humanity. As long as capitalism is the predominant mode of
production in the world, any hope of a centralized plan to
deal with the crisis is elusive at best. In fact, the AIDS
crisis has contributed to throwing the U.S. profit-based
healthcare system into near collapse, draining the resources
of cities all across the country to the tune of billions of
dollars.
AIDS is a globalized disease. Millions of Africans are
suffering from the epidemic.
Oppressed nations from Brazil to India--in massive debt to
the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other
imperialist entities--are helpless to provide treatments or
care to their people.
It is very probable that today the U.S. corporate and
banking rulers would like to put the epidemic behind them.
It has cost too much and contributed too much instability to
their vast empire.
But their very system, with its inherent bigotry and thirst
for greater profits, prevents them from addressing the
terrible epidemic known as AIDS in a scientific and humane
way.
Only the revival of a strong, independent and militant
movement can force them to deal effectively with the crisis.
- 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)
