WW News Service Digest #346
1) Around the world U.S. dirty war is condemned
by WW
2) Vieques activists say 'Back to the streets'
by WW
3) Juan Bosch dies: A popular president toppled by U.S.
by WW
4) Behind Putin's move to close base in Cuba
by WW
5) South Korea keeps union leader in prison
by WW
6) Tips on getting out the truth
by WW
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Nov. 15, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
AROUND THE WORLD:
U.S. DIRTY WAR IS CONDEMNED
By John Catalinotto
As the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan ended its fourth week,
opposition to this slaughter of the Afghan people grew
worldwide. Not only Islamic forces, but working-class
parties and unions as well as renowned intellectuals, took
public stands against the bombing.
In addition, commentators in the media from Britain to India
broke ranks with the regimes in those countries and began to
criticize the U.S. intervention.
And as the governments in Germany and Italy prepared to send
troops and weapons against the people of Afghanistan, anti-
war forces in those countries stepped up their resistance. A
showdown between right and left is expected Nov. 10 in Rome.
In India on Oct. 27 in the town of Malegon, police fired on
a demonstration of Muslims protesting the war on
Afghanistan. They killed seven people. Many local police
tried to prevent a small group of Muslims from distributing
leaflets calling on people to boycott U.S.-made goods and
oppose the U.S. air strikes on Afghanistan, according to the
BBC.
There were also demonstrations in Indonesia and Bangladesh.
Earlier, on Oct. 25, the Colombian Communist Party (PCC) and
its youth organization organized a combative hour-long
demonstration in Santander Park in Bogot� against both U.S.
military aggression in Afghanistan and U.S. intervention in
Colombia.
According to a PCC release, the demonstration "joined young
students, union workers, ordinary citizens and activists and
leaders" of the two groups, "who carried the red banners of
their revolutionary organizations.
"We don't want to be a U.S. colony," they chanted, "we want
a free and sovereign Colombia." They burned the U.S. flag
while chanting, "Yankees out of Afghanistan and Colombia."
In Colombia's neighbor, Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez and
some of his cabinet members have spoken out decisively
against the U.S. bombing, arousing anger in Washington.
Chavez called for an end to "the killing of innocents" in
Afghanistan. He described the U.S. bombing as "responding to
terror with terror." Defense Minister Jose Rangel and Deputy
Foreign Minister General Arevalo Mendez both recently
condemned the U.S. bombing campaign, and Interior Minister
Luis Miquilena said he had yet to see evidence that al-Qaeda
was involved in the attacks.
In Lisbon on Oct. 29, the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP)
organized the first mass demonstration in Portugal against
the U.S. war. Held in the early evening hours after work,
the protest drew 5,000 people. PCP members said that was
more than had come out during the U.S./NATO aggression
against Yugoslavia in 1999.
PCP members told Workers World that though the media tried
to play down the importance of the protest, in Portugal--as
elsewhere--they must be realizing that opposition to the war
is much greater than they want to admit.
In Britain on Nov. 2, at least 20 anti-war protesters
barricaded themselves in a Royal Navy office at the
University of Sussex. Outside, 200 students threatened to
storm the campus building at Falmer, near Brighton.
No one was injured in the takeover, but police arrested 20
people on suspicion of false imprisonment--claiming they
prevented a naval officer from leaving--and criminal damage.
Criticism of the U.S. war and of Prime Minister Tony Blair's
up-front role in selling it worldwide has grown in
newspapers like the Mirror, the Independent and the
Guardian.
The government of right-wing media magnate Silvio Berlusconi
in Italy is pushing for a parliamentary vote Nov. 7 to send
2,000 troops, the aircraft carrier Garibaldi, other ships,
Tornado jet bombers and other resources to join the U.S. war
against Afghanistan. The parliamentary opposition known as
the "Olive" is split over how to vote. Politicians like
Massimo d'Alema, who led Italy's participation in the war on
Yugoslavia, are pushing to join the U.S. war.
With this challenge before them, the anti-globalization
movement, the Refoundation Communist Party and other anti-
war forces are joining for three days of action set for Nov.
8, 9 and 10 in Rome. This includes two days of public debate
on "War, Imperialism, Globalization and Terrorism" and a
national march through the capital, ending with a mass
concert. This may well turn out to be the largest single
protest yet against the new war.
On the same day the governing majority, together with the
"Olive" coalition, is holding a national public meeting in
Rome to support the United States.
In Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who led Germany's
participation in the war in the Balkans, has been actively
seeking to put German soldiers at risk in Afghanistan.
This pro-war position has begun to arouse opposition in the
labor unions. Most union leaders come from the Social
Democratic Party and are usually willing to go along with
the foreign policy of the party's political leaders. But on
Oct. 31, the large IG Metall union criticized Schroeder's
"blind servility to the USA" and called the new anti-terror
laws a threat to constitutional rights at home.
This challenge from the party's base so angered Schroeder
that he said the unionists should stick to bread-and-butter
issues and not mess in foreign policy. The union leaders
answered, "War and peace were and remain a central theme of
the workers' movement."
By Nov. 5, the German government made it clear it was
looking for a blank check from the Bundestag in a vote the
weekend of Nov. 10 to send German troops and planes into
battle. In the parliament, only the Party of Democratic
Socialism planned to vote against, but the anti-war movement
was mobilizing to protest in the streets.
INTELLECTUALS SPEAK OUT
More of the world's prestigious intellectuals, some of whom
had reacted with sympathy and understanding to the victims
of the Sept. 11 attacks, have now begun to criticize the
U.S. for its response.
The Communist Party of Greece released a statement by world-
renowned composer Mikis Theodorakis and by Manolis Glezos,
famous for tearing down the Nazi swastika from the Acropolis
in 1941, an action that signaled the start of the resistance
to German occupation.
The statement reads in part: "The whole of mankind is
experiencing the cruelty of the new war that NATO and the
USA let loose against Afghanistan's people, with the pretext
of a reply to terrorism, using as an excuse the terrorist
attack on New York and Washington. They hypocritically claim
that they are going after the Taliban but in reality they
are going after all the people in Afghanistan."
Arundhati Roy, the Indian author, activist and fighter for
women's rights who is currently in a struggle with the
Indian Supreme Court over the building of a dam, recently
published an article in Outlook India.com criticizing U.S.
policy. Not one U.S. journal will publish it.
Roy, author of the critically acclaimed novel "The God of
Small Things," wrote in part: "The September 11 attacks were
a monstrous calling card from a world gone horribly wrong.
The message may have been written by Osama bin Laden (who
knows?) and delivered by his couriers, but it could well
have been signed by the ghosts of the victims of America's
old wars.
"The millions killed in Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia, the
17,500 killed when Israel--backed by the U.S.--invaded
Lebanon in 1982, the 200,000 Iraqis killed in Operation
Desert Storm, the thousands of Palestinians who have died
fighting Israel's occupation of the West Bank. And the
millions who died, in Yugoslavia, Somalia, Haiti, Chile,
Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Panama, at
the hands of all the terrorists, dictators and genocidists
who the [U.S.] American government supported, trained,
bankrolled and supplied with arms."
- 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
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From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (WW)
Date: tiistai 13. marraskuu 2001 14:12
Subject: [WW] Vieques activists say 'Back to the streets'
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Nov. 15, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
NAVY POSTPONES REFERENDUM:
VIEQUES ACTIVISTS SAY "BACK TO THE STREETS"
By Berta Joubert-Ceci
In the tense political climate created by the Pentagon's war
on Afghanistan, the people of Vieques, Puerto Rico, are
continuing the struggle to liberate their island from the
grip of the U.S. Navy, which uses it for military exercises.
Sept. 11 brought the people of the United States to a
standstill, but not the Pentagon. In fact, the military
worked overtime. It went ahead with its scheduled September
bombings of Vieques. It had earlier announced that the
aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy would practice in
Vieques for 23 days, starting no later than Sept. 23.
This was a direct attack on the independence movement in
particular, since that date is the "Grito de Lares"
celebration of the most important day when freedom was
attained, though briefly, in 1868 from the Spanish empire
and the Republic of Puerto Rico was proclaimed. It holds the
promise of a future republic free from U.S. imperialism--the
cherished ideal of every independentista. Since Sept. 23 was
a Sunday, the Navy began the bombardments the next day, the
24th.
The Puerto Rican governor sent 250 police to Vieques to
"keep the peace," she said. Activists of the Committee for
the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CPRDV) declared a
moratorium on civil disobedience, afraid that under the
special "Delta alert" of the Navy base Camp Garc�a, military
personnel would with impunity shoot young activists who are
regarded as "terrorists" by the Navy--just because they cut
the fence that separates the restricted bombing area from
the civilian part so people could get inside the range.
In spite of this moratorium, soldiers kept close watch,
pointing their machine guns at the "Peace and Justice Camp"
headquarters of the CPRDV, trying to frighten the activists.
On Oct. 31 the CPRDV ended the three-week moratorium. In
those weeks it and the community groups involved in the
struggle had been meeting to coordinate and improve the anti-
Navy actions, planning new strategies for the next round of
military maneuvers in November.
The message that repression will escalate against anti-Navy
activists was very clear when, in the early morning hours of
Nov. 3, after Puerto Rican police secured the area
surrounding the house of veteran activist and fisher Carlos
Zen�n, 12 FBI agents went to arrest him and his 21-year-old
son Yabureibo for having entered the restricted area on Oct.
4. To arrest the two activists they brought five state
authority vehicles and two federal buses.
In a press release issued that day, the CPRDV stated that
"the arrest of the Zenons at this precise moment, when the
U.S. military has created a state of hysteria with its 'war
against terrorism,' is part of a plan to threaten and
frighten the Viequenses. What the Navy has not yet learned
is that this community cannot be bought and will not be
scared into giving up." The group denounced the conditions
of house arrest imposed on the two as a violation of the
right to freedom of movement.
NAVY POSTPONES REFERENDUM
After the U.S. postponed a referendum scheduled for Nov. 6,
the CPRDV issued a press advisory entitled "On the streets
of Vieques, with or without a referendum."
The activists had participated in referendums and lobbying
of politicians both in Puerto Rico and in the United States,
but the press advisory underscored their firm belief that
only the people struggling will make the U.S. Navy leave
their island.
"We were prepared to challenge the referendum that was
supposed to be held today," said the group. "We criticized
it because it did not include the alternative that
represented the will of 70 percent of the people of Vieques
stated in the July 29th local referendum, the immediate
cessation of the bombardments and the permanent leaving of
the Navy. But we decided to participate because we knew that
even in that 'land-mined' terrain we could overwhelmingly
defeat the U.S. Navy.
"This has been confirmed by the Navy's suspension of the
referendum."
Just a week before the scheduled federal referendum on the
Navy's presence in Vieques, which had been proposed by the
Clinton administration, Navy Secretary Gordon England had
sent a letter to Puerto Rico's governor, Sila Calder�n,
saying that "exercising the authority given by law" he would
"postpone the consult on the future of war exercises in
Vieques until Jan. 25, 2002." He added that "if it appears
to be more convenient, the referendum could be held
earlier."
Amid suits and counter-suits involving the legitimacy of
this federal referendum on the island, the Sept. 11 events
have given the defenders of the military a louder voice to
oppose ending war practices in Vieques. This, in turn, has
heightened the contradictions inherent in the colonial
status of Puerto Rico.
The governor, who ran and won her post based on her anti-
Navy posture prior to the election, is now vacillating and
adopting the "national defense" mantra, saying that the best
the people of Vieques can get is an assurance by the U.S.
government that the Navy will leave in the year 2003, as
President George W. Bush stated earlier this year.
The people of Vieques say that is too late. Cancer and other
major illnesses brought about by six decades of U.S. Navy
bombardments have decimated the population and have
diminished their overall quality of life. They cannot wait.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Nov. 15, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
JUAN BOSCH DIES IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:
A POPULAR PRESIDENT TOPPLED BY U.S.
By Oscar Ovalles
On Nov. 1, after a long period of medical complications and
at the age of 92, Juan Bosch died in Santo Domingo, capital
of the Dominican Republic. Bosch was a Dominican political
leader who during the 1940s and 1950s, with a group of men
and women in exile, organized an armed and ideological
struggle against the dictatorship of Rafael L. Trujillo.
Trujillo directed a bloody regime that oppressed the
Dominican people for over 30 years, from 1930 to1961. He had
taken power with the approval of the U.S. Army, which had
first occupied the Dominican Republic from 1916 to 1924
after an armed invasion.
Trujillo was killed in May 1961. A political convulsion
shook the country almost immediately. U.S. advisors were
omnipresent, trying hard to keep in power the remains of
Trujillism, while the people were demanding deep political
changes.
After endless internal conflict, the Dominican people
finally got what they wanted: the return from exile of
Professor Juan Bosch and the celebration of democratic
elections for the first time in almost half a century.
On Dec. 20, 1962, Bosch was elected president of the
republic by an overwhelming majority. He soon let the people
know that the struggle for freedom, democracy and all other
social conquests must be directed against the oligarchy,
which was emerging as a substitute for Trujillism.
Bosch defined the social classes in the Dominican Republic
according to their role in the relations of production. In
very simple language understood by the people, he called the
bourgeoisie "tutum potes," an irreverent word meaning big
and powerful. He called the workers "hijos de Machepa," sons
of Machepa, a popular term for "nobody."
During the next seven months, the new president initiated
strong social reforms in agriculture and industry. In the
eyes of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, it looked like a
repeat of the socialist government of Fidel Castro in Cuba.
However, the bourgeoisie had not been defeated in the
Dominican Republic as it was in Cuba.
U.S. BEHIND OVERTHROW OF BOSCH
By late September 1963, a series of anti-communist protests,
led by important business groups and with the support of
high Dominican military officers, began in the capital,
Santo Domingo. Finally, on the morning of Sept. 25, 1963,
the Bosch government was overthrown with the support and
assistance of the Pentagon and the U.S. government. The
excuse was "the danger of communism and corruption."
Fidel Castro said from Havana on Sept. 29 that "Professor
Juan Bosch was overthrown because he refused to be an
instrument for imperialism." Castro also suggested that "the
U.S. government was behind the deposing of Bosch" (El
Caribe, Sept. 29, 1963).
Adm. William E. Ferral, U.S. naval district commander, had
arrived in the Dominican Republic on Sept. 23, 1963, and
remained in the country until noon of Sept. 25. "Adm. Ferral
was with President Bosch at an official reception just six
hours before the coup," wrote Victor Grimaldi in the book
"El Misterio del Golpe de 1963" ("The Mystery of the 1963
Coup"). Bosch was then deported to Puerto Rico.
Two years later, on April 24, 1965, a civil war began,
headed by two progressive military leaders--Cols. Francisco
Alberto Caama�o and Rafael Fernandez Dominguez. With the
full support of the people, who they armed after occupying
the barracks, they demanded Bosch's return to power and a
constitutional government.
On April 28, as the rebels were winning, Washington sent
over 42,000 U.S. Mar ines to frustrate this new revolution.
After the military intervention, the Organization of
American States set up elections for a year later. On May
16, 1966, after a year of U.S. occupation, the president for
whose return all the people had fought was defeated by the
U.S. candidate, Joaquin Balaguer. It was later proven that
there had been massive election fraud.
After that, Bosch said he no longer believed in "democracy
American-style."
Juan Bosch spent his later years trying to regain the
presidency, proposing a national liberation government and
independence from U.S. policy. In the 1970s he proclaimed
himself a Marxist. Until his final days, Professor Bosch was
a friend of the revolutionary process around the world.
In the middle 1980s, during a conference in Cuba about
democracy in Latin America, Bosch, the author of "From
Christopher Columbus to Fidel Castro: the Caribbean,
Imperial Frontier," said he had learned that the struggle in
Latin America and the Caribbean is not between democracy and
dictatorship, it's between socialism and capitalism.
- 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
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RADAR WAS A DETERRENT TO U.S. AGGRESSION:
BEHIND PUTIN'S MOVE TO CLOSE BASE IN CUBA
By Gloria La Riva
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Oct. 16 that
Russia would abandon its electronic radar station in
Lourdes, Cuba, and its naval base in Camranh Bay, Vietnam.
His announcement was timed to present the news of the base
closures to U.S. President George W. Bush at the summit of
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Shanghai,
China, later in October.
The Lourdes radar station, located in Havana Province, has
never served an offensive purpose. Rather, it has had
immense strategic military importance for the defense of
Russia, Cuba and any country that faces being a target of
U.S. imperialism's expanding wars.
The Lourdes base was the principal intelligence-gathering
station for the former Soviet Union, as it has been for
Russia. The information gathered has enabled that country to
verify U.S. compliance with anti-ballistic missile treaties.
Today, the United States is trying to abrogate those
treaties and build a national "missile defense" system in
space.
When the base was established in 1964, it was part of a
military-defense alliance between two socialist countries.
The unexpected decision to close the base signifies a
serious capitulation to the U.S. government by Russia. It
also raises security risks for Cuba and the peoples of the
former Soviet republics.
This move, undoubtedly made after tremendous U.S. pressure,
must be seen in light of the massive U.S. war in Afghanistan
and the U.S. drive to occupy the military bases of the
former Soviet republics of central and south-central Asia.
While Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was concluding
his recent arm-twisting tour of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan,
meant to open the way for a U.S. takeover of former Soviet
military bases in the region, U.S. military officials were
stating their intent to also examine bases in Kyrgyzstan and
Kazakhstan.
The capitalist media are reporting that Putin's opposition
to changing the existing U.S.-Russia anti-ballistic missile
agreements, which for decades helped to stay the hand of
U.S. imperialism, has weakened.
CUBA: 'WE DO NOT AGREE WITH CLOSURE'
The Cuban government immediately protested Russia's decision
to close Lourdes. In a statement published in the daily
newspaper, Granma, on Oct. 18, it said it will not accept
such a move by Russia.
"At this very moment, the U.S. government's stance is more
aggressive and belligerent than ever, many countries are
threatened in light of the U.S. president's speech on Sept.
20, and military operations have already begun in
Afghanistan.
"Under such circumstances, the withdrawal of the station
would be a message and a concession to the government of the
United States, which would constitute a grave threat to
Cuba's security, and therefore we were not in agreement with
its closure. ... Consequently, the agreement on the Lourdes
Electronic Radar Station has not been cancelled, since Cuba
has not given its approval."
For months the Cuban and Russian governments had been
negotiating over the terms of the agreement, which has been
overdue for renewal since 1999. According to Cuba, only
small differences remained to be ironed out. In recent
months Russia had stopped the periodic payments required for
the base operations.
In Soviet times when Cuba and its former socialist ally had
close economic, political and military relations, Cuba
charged nothing for the base use. The Soviet Union in turn
provided Cuba with free military aid and other valuable
assistance. After the USSR collapsed, Russia and Cuba signed
agreements over Russia's continued operation of Lourdes,
through financial and logistical arrangements.
Putin admitted he was anxious to present the news to Bush at
the summit. Accompanying the decision was a series of self-
exculpatory excuses and lies in Russian media. Cuba in turn
responded in all its media with a detailed explanation of
the truth behind Russia's move.
Justifying the closure, Army Commander Anatoly Kvashnin,
chief of the general staff of the armed forces of the
Russian Federation, said Russia would redirect the $200
million in annual rent for the Lourdes base, and instead
purchase satellites. He claimed satellites could give more
reliable and up-to-date information about U.S. military
operations.
Cuba answered that "Kvashnin's optimistic plans for
gathering intelligence from outer space, as well as
supplying the Russian Armed Forces with new submarines and
planes, are simply that: optimism. Over a period of almost
10 years, not a single new satellite has been launched, nor
have the armed forces been equipped with any new submarines
or planes; in many regions, they even lack uniforms and
boots."
But Russia is willing to send tanks and uniforms for
thousands of Northern Alliance soldiers to collaborate with
the United States.
INHIBITED U.S. AGGRESSION
A number of important Russian military experts gave a grim
assessment of Putin's moves, saying that Russia is
endangering its security and surrendering its status as a
"world power" by abandoning bases that are geopolitically
strategic. They were quoted in Cuba's press.
In the Oct. 19 Granma, Igor Rodionov, Russian defense
minister until 1997, explained his shock at the base
closing.
"At first, I thought it was a Cuban initiative, that is,
withdrawing the base in return for the lifting of the
blockade. But it is in fact a continuation of the
concessions made by Russia.
"The monitoring center in Cuba covers the entire Western
Hemisphere; it can actually keep track of all telephone
conversations in the U.S. territory, except Alaska, along
with many other things.
"This was a colossal means of containment. The Americans
felt that they were constantly under surveillance and that
it was very difficult to do anything secretly."
The closure of the Lourdes base is not only a break by
Russia with Cuba vis-�-vis military and defense matters. It
is part and parcel of the Putin government's increasing
surrender to U.S. imperialism and a betrayal of the
monumental sacrifices that the peoples of the Soviet Union
undertook to battle the Nazi imperialist invasion during
World War II.
Now the United States is encroaching more and more on the
region of Central Asia for geopolitical control and its
immense oil and gas reserves, taking over the very republics
that were once protected from Wall Street's exploitation by
the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Cuba for its part remains firm in its determination to
defend its people and the socialist state against any U.S.
designs. Cuba's Oct. 17 statement said in part: "There is
something that should be clearly understood by everyone, and
on which no one should entertain false illusions: in Cuba
there is not and there never will be either panic or fear.
This is the perfect atmosphere for serenity, cool-headed
wisdom, integrity, dignity and unlimited courage."
- 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
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AS GM BUYS UP DAEWOO:
SOUTH KOREA KEEPS UNION LEADER IN PRISON
By Jeff Bigelow
The Korean Stock Exchange announced Nov. 5 that foreign
companies, led by the U.S. and Japan, own over 42 percent of
the top 30 "Korean" conglomerates. Many, like Samsung and
POSCO, are over 50 percent owned by foreign interests.
U.S. banks and financial institutions have swooped in like
vultures since South Korea's 1987 economic crisis.
At the same time, repression against the labor movement has
increased. As U.S. and IMF-inspired "restructuring" has
taken place, countless people have been laid off with little
means of survival. Rights that workers had won over the
years have been cut back. Union leaders have been arrested
and police have gone on rampages beating those who speak up.
Over 600 union leaders and activists are currently in jail.
Over 218 have been arrested so far this year.
To counter this, the most progressive union federation, the
KCTU, called for a general strike in June. It demanded an
end to layoffs, more rights for temporary workers and public
employees, the reduction of the workweek to five days, and
an end to the so-called National Security law that has been
used for years to throw all opponents of injustice and U.S.
occupation into jail.
Instead of responding to the issues raised by tens of
thousands in the streets across southern Korea, the
government acted to arrest even more union leaders. For 35
days, KCTU president Dan Byung-ho and others sat-in at a
church to thwart an arrest warrant. Finally, the union
leaders agreed to surrender to police on the basis that the
repression and further arrests would stop.
The Catholic Church participated in negotiating the
agreement with the government--one that was supposed to have
resulted in Dan's release from jail on Oct. 3.
But only hours before he was to be released, the government
issued new charges against him. As a result, Dan Byung-ho is
still in prison.
While President Dan languishes in prison, General Motors has
moved to take over Daewoo Motors. GM has signed an agreement
to take over four Daewoo plants--while closing the biggest
plant with the strongest union local. Over 7,000 jobs will
be lost directly, while another 50,000 jobs that depend on
that plant will be lost.
The only thing that stands in GM's way is the union
contract. For the plants to be sold, the union must agree.
So GM is demanding that the contract be changed. At the end
of October, GM declared that the current contract was
unacceptable and demanded an agreement with a no-strike
clause. That way GM could do anything it wants.
GM owns a plant in Pretoria, South Africa, under the Delta
Motors name, where a recent strong strike by South African
workers won a significant wage increase. Now GM/Delta has
laid off hundreds and unilaterally changed a sick leave
policy leading to the disciplining of nearly 400 workers in
one month. A new strike is expected there shortly.
GM doesn't want Korean workers, who make even less, to have
an effective voice or the right to strike. In July, the
minimum wage in southern Korea increased a whopping 12.6
percent--to $1.61 per hour. Is it any wonder that President
Dan is in jail?
President Dan's continued imprisonment may also be an act to
please the U.S. government, since the KCTU has organized
opposition to the U.S. war drive over the last month.
Unions and labor leaders across the world have responded by
calling for President Dan's release. Even the International
Labor Organization has sent its president to Seoul to call
for his release. Anyone wishing to write a letter or join
this effort can log on to http://kctu.org/ for more details.
Of even greater significance is the development of a new
international union federation called SIGTUR--the Southern
Initiative on Globalization and Trade Union Rights. It is
composed of the major progressive union federations in South
Africa, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines,
Thailand and Australia. Its purpose is not only to increase
real international solidarity, but also to counter ruling-
class power with the power of the workers in general, as a
step toward social emancipation.
The first meeting of SIGITUR is being held in Seoul from
Nov. 5-9. The final day of the conference will take up the
need to defend and get the release of President Dan, as well
as the need to stop the U.S. war against the people of
Afghanistan.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Nov. 15, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
TIPS ON GETTING OUT THE TRUTH
By Leslie Feinberg
If you live in Buffalo, N.Y., the newspaper you're reading
right now might be in your hands because Terry Hannon
dropped it off at a location in your neighborhood. Hannon
knows a lot of tricks of the trade about newspaper
distribution. He makes his living as a truck-driving
Teamster who delivers the Buffalo News.
How long has he been doing that job? He laughs wryly: "Too
long! I started on the job 27 years ago." When asked his
opinion about the Buffalo News, Hannon's answer in
unprintable, except for his addendum that it reflects the
interests of Corporate America.
But when he talks about Workers World newspaper, his voice
fills with warmth and pride.
"I started out taking the papers to two or three locations
in my neighborhood and I've just expanded it over the
years," Hannon recalls. "Now I'm doing 25 to 30 stops a
week. I can do even more than that during the summer time
because I have more flexibility about stops on my bicycle.
During the harsh Buffalo winters I have to rely on my car or
travel on foot or by public transportation."
How many newspapers does he distribute? He computes in his
head: "I get out about 225-240 a week."
He ticks off on his fingers, "I take them to the colleges
and universities--Buffalo State, the two campuses at the
State University of New York at Buffalo, Erie Country
Community College city campus--neighborhood delicatessens,
restaurants, laundromats, newsstands, coffee shops,
bookstores, the food co-op."
Hannon sees growing interest in Workers World newspaper on
campuses. "Two years ago I'd put five papers at the Buffalo
State Student Union each week and get two or three back. Now
I'm putting 15 a week and I'm not getting any back. And the
same is true at the four to five buildings at the north
campus and two to three at the south campus of UB. I can see
that the students are picking up the paper. Things like this
are very encouraging."
When it comes to community locations, he stresses, "Almost
completely I try to drop the papers off in neighborhoods of
working class and poor people. The locations where I put the
paper is where people would be most interested in building a
revolutionary movement in the United States."
Hannon is very systematic. "I keep a record of how many
papers I put in a particular location. This helps me to
gauge how many newspapers are being picked up and read and I
can know when to increase or decrease how many papers I put
in any location."
Hannon consults his weekly chart. "I put 10 papers at the
laundry last week and they were all gone. So I bumped it up
a bit to 15. These are little tricks I learned from being a
truck driver for the Buffalo News. You see what they do with
the corporate rag.
"I try to build up a readership by dropping off the papers
at the same locations every week. It gives the person who
picks up the paper an opportunity to return the following
week."
But Hannon also tries new locations. "Last week we held a
street meeting against the war and racism at the Broadway
Market--a completely multinational shopping center in a
working class, poor neighborhood. I put newspapers there for
the first time last week and I'll do it on a regular basis
and see how it goes."
Hannon is going to start slipping a subscription blank in
the newspapers he distributes to give readers a chance to
get Workers World mailed directly to their homes.
Hannon also distributes Workers World to a handful of his co-
workers every week. "I get good feedback from them," he
exclaims. "One guy is ecstatic over the paper--that's not an
exaggeration. He'll read this and get a big kick out of it."
Hannon says with conviction, "I'm compelled to get the paper
out. I think it's absolutely essential that this paper get
into the hands of working and progressive people because the
big business media--I hold it in such contempt. It's
disinformation. It's a distortion of the truth. It's
outright lies. It's a pillar of the corporate establishment.
I just got back from the laundromat where I left 15 papers.
The television there was tuned into Fox News and it was on
and on about Afghanistan and the war frenzy.
"A revolutionary, Marxist newspaper is so essential,
especially today. I'm very encouraged by the fact that many
people are picking up Workers World," he concludes. "It's
rewarding because I keep a record of this and I can see that
it's working. I can see that people are interested in it. It
makes me feel proud."
Are you ready to help get Workers World into more hands?
Order a weekly bundle by writing: Subscription Department,
Workers World, 55 West 17 St., New York, NY 10011. Or call
(212) 627-2994.
