WW News Service Digest #358
1) Mumia is All of Us
by wwnews
2) Students Defend Philly Schools
by wwnews
3) Anthrax: A Tale of Two Classes
by wwnews
4) Enron Collapse Stuns Wall Street
by wwnews
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
MUMIA IS ALL OF US
By Leslie Feinberg
"Mumia is all of us!" You can hear that shout of
determination from street protests to cyberspace.
Abu-Jamal's supporters don't mean to imply that they endure
the same racist repression as this world-renowned political
prisoner, locked down on Pennsylvania's death row. They are
resolutely articulating their understanding that all the movements
for justice--social and economic--are inextricably linked to the
battle
to save Mumia Abu-Jamal's life.
After all, the threat of legal lynching delivers a message
similar to the terror of all lynch-mob violence: Endure your
oppression silently. Don't dare fight back.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, known as the "voice of the voiceless," is
locked behind bars on death row. This award-winning Black
journalist used his pen nib like a sword to slash away at
systematic police repression. He is a revolutionary whose
writings from his tiny cell tilt at those who rule from the
summits of imperial power in the United States.
So when the state threatens to execute Abu-Jamal, it is
sending a warning to all who cannot rest until freedom's
won: "Give up the good fight. Surrender."
And that is why the answer must resonate like thunder from
every front line of the struggle: "We will not let you take
Mumia from us!"
Victory in the fight to save Abu-Jamal's life is critical to
the fight against the reactionary political climate facing
all who struggle for progressive change right now. For that
reason, the battle against the state's attempts to execute
Abu-Jamal must be part and parcel of all efforts to build a
larger resistance movement.
As the Pentagon rains death, destruction and dislocation on
the population of Afghanistan, and rattles its sabers at any
country in the Middle East that stands up to the rapacious
greed of Wall Street bankers and oil magnates, consciousness
in this country about the predatory nature of "Operation
Enduring Warfare" will broaden and deepen.
Banners demanding Mumia Abu-Jamal's freedom must be
everywhere throughout this young, growing anti-war movement.
Because Abu-Jamal has stood up for the youths who have fought
the anti-capitalist globalization movement--from Seattle to
Genoa. And this war is a violent byproduct of imperialism's
intrinsic need to expand its profit margins or die.
The struggle to free Abu-Jamal is tied with a thousand
threads to the war here on the "home front," as well.
Ashcroft and his cabal are "disappearing" hundreds of Arabs
and Muslims in mass detentions, and threatening to bring
them before secret military tribunals that are empowered to
execute powerless prisoners.
This is racist profiling raised to a coordinated, official
national campaign. It's police and court tyranny. It's the
racist weapon of the death penalty handed over to the
generals and admirals, unhindered by any semblance of
bourgeois democracy.
Linking Abu-Jamal's case to those who are being rounded up
and held behind bars without charge--not because of what
they've done but because of who they are--illuminates the
depth and breadth of the struggle that must be waged against
state repression.
Who commands the reactionary Office of Homeland Security?
Tom Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania who twice
penned the orders to execute Abu-Jamal.
JUSTICE THUNDERS CONDEMNATION
The death penalty has always been the ultimate weapon with
which to bludgeon any movement in the interests of the vast
laboring class that threatens the rule of a tiny exploiting
class.
When the enslaved peoples of Rome rose up to break their
chains, those who were enriched by that economic system
ordered the Appian Way to be lined with the crucified bodies
of those who rebelled. When peasant uprisings shook
feudalism root and branch, the feudal landlords carried out
widespread burnings at the stake.
But all this state terror did not stop the exploited,
downtrodden and disenfranchised from sweeping slavery and
feudalism from the stage of history.
Throughout the last century in the United States the death
penalty has been brandished at labor leaders,
revolutionaries and oppressed and impoverished peoples
caught in the web of state violence.
Wherever the state has been able to carry out executions of
political prisoners--from Sacco and Vanzetti to Joe Hill to
the Rosenbergs--it has ushered in or deepened a period of
profound political reaction in which all progressive
movements are set back.
But despite the fact that the state of Alabama was hell-bent
on executing the Scottsboro Brothers--nine young Black men
framed up on phony rape charges--a mass movement arose in
the 1930s that helped stay the hand of the state and won
many important demands for the workers and poor of this
country.
The current U.S.-led war for economic and strategic
domination of the Middle East and Central Asia and the
strengthening of racist police repression in this country
will give direction and impetus to those who have worked so
hard to build front-line struggles against capitalist
globalization and all forms of oppression. As that movement
broadens and its ranks swell, it must be able to tell the
state it faces off: "Mumia is all of us!"
- 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]> (wwnews)
Date: torstai 6. joulukuu 2001 07:05
Subject: [WW] Students Defend Philly Schools
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
HUNDREDS FORM HUMAN CHAIN: STUDENTS PROTEST
PRIVATIZATION OF PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS
By Betsey Piette
Philadelphia
On Nov. 29 hundreds of students walked out of Philadelphia
high schools and took to the streets to protest a looming
state takeover of the city's school district. The action was
organized by the Philadelphia Student Union and Youth United
for Change.
The students later formed a human chain around the school
administration building to protest plans to allow Edison
Schools, Inc., to privatize some of the city's schools.
"We're fighting for our rights," one high school senior told
reporters. "We're fighting for our future."
Angry students extended their protest by camping overnight
outside Mayor John Street's office. They refused to leave
City Hall until they had won a demand for a meeting with the
mayor, where they laid out their own ideas about how to run
the schools.
Late the next day, just hours before a midnight deadline
that would have triggered a hostile state takeover and
privatization of the city's public schools, Mayor Street and
Pennsylvania Acting Gov. Mark Schweiker announced a three-
week extension of negotiations over the future of the
210,000-student district.
Two weeks earlier both Street and Schweiker had claimed
victory when the latter backed down on plans to appoint
Edison Schools, Inc., to manage the district's central
office. But the public wasn't fooled. Schweiker's plans
still included a state takeover of the school board and the
privatization of 60 of the city's schools, 45 under Edison's
control.
Community groups, students and unions that had been
demonstrating against Edison in Philadelphia and Harrisburg
responded to this "victory" by intensifying their efforts.
One day before the student walkout, over 2,000 people
blocked traffic in an anti-privatization rally and disrupted
the city's official Christmas tree-lighting ceremony at City
Hall. The protest by union members, community leaders,
parents and students, led by the Coalition to Keep Our
Public Schools Public, jammed Center City streets at the
height of rush hour and nearly drowned out the mayor as he
took to the stage to light the tree.
ANTI-WORKER LAW IS CONTESTED
To stop the takeover the coalition filed a lawsuit
challenging the constitutionality of Pennsylvania Act 46,
which makes city schools subject to state rule. Another
lawsuit will be filed, this one claiming that parents,
teachers and other opponents of the state takeover have been
locked out of negotiations. Street had previously blocked
passage of a City Council resolution recommending a public
referendum on the privatization issue.
Pennsylvania Act 46 was passed in 1998 primarily to break
the teachers' union. In a secret, late-night session in
October, it was amended by state legislators to lay the
grounds for Schweiker to abolish the Philadelphia Board of
Education and replace it with a five-member State Reform
Commission.
The state claims that the Philadelphia school district's
$215 million deficit can only be resolved with a state
takeover. In August the state paid Edison Schools $2.7
million to conduct a study and make proposals on how to deal
with the district's financial problems. Edison is the
nation's biggest for-profit manager of public schools.
Opponents of the state takeover argue that the district's
budget deficit developed because Pennsylvania has one of the
country's most inequitable educational funding systems, one
that particularly hurts rural communities and cities such as
Philadelphia. Compared to their immediate suburban
counterparts, Philadelphia classrooms are under-funded
annually by well over $60,000 per classroom, a gap that
widens each year.
More than 80 percent of Philadelphia's students are children
of color; 78 percent are from low-income households. A
racial discrimination lawsuit against the state of
Pennsylvania aimed at rectifying the funding disparity on
federal civil-rights grounds was decided in the city's
favor, but shelved by Street as a concession to the state.
Equal funding was high on the students' list of proposals.
They are also proposing a technology plan for each school,
one counselor for every 250 students, after-school homework
help rooms, and a ban on private companies managing public
schools.
At the student protest, one ninth-grader complained that
there were only 12 books in a class of 30 students. A tenth-
grader said her school needed a new heating system. "I'm
tired of being cold," she said.
State and city officials claim that the stumbling block in
negotiations over the state takeover is also a disagreement
over funding. However, the three-week delay conveniently
postpones any decision until Dec. 21. That date is the start
of an 11-day break for students and teachers, who have been
the backbone of protests against Edison.
Schweiker also appears eager to reach a compromise with
Street in order to avoid the appearance that the state's
takeover is hostile, which would leave it open to legal
challenges that could overturn Act 46.
The current plan would be the biggest experiment in a for-
profit company running public schools in U.S. history,
setting a dangerous precedent for other large, urban
districts to follow.
Opponents of the state's plans have pledged to keep the heat
on. They announced an escalating series of events to show
that the public, parents, students and workers oppose both a
state takeover of the schools and privatization.
- 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]> (wwnews)
Date: torstai 6. joulukuu 2001 07:05
Subject: [WW] Anthrax: A Tale of Two Classes
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SENATORS, POSTAL WORKERS AND ANTHRAX: A TALE OF
TWO CLASSES
By G. Dunkel
What's the difference between a post office worker and a
senator? The anthrax threat is illuminating how differently
their lives are valued in a capitalist system.
When anthrax was discovered in the offices of Sen. Tom
Daschle in late September, the building was closed and
sealed. It may be late December before the building is back
in business, according to the Associated Press. The
Environmental Protection Agency assigned a special team to
fumigate it that included at least 12 Ph.D. microbiologists
and other experts.
The team introduced chlorine dioxide gas into the building
during the weekend of Dec. 1, while a special detail of cops
surrounded the Hart Senate Office Building and two $1
million monitoring buses were stationed outside. EPA
scientists feel the chlorine dioxide is the easiest way to
remove anthrax spores. Then sodium bisulfate was introduced
overnight to dissipate the chlorine.
The EPA collected as many as 3,000 test strips from inside
the Daschle suite--about one per every square foot. By Dec.
2, reports from the bus monitoring equipment revealed that
the chlorine was gone. In the coming weeks, teams will
fumigate the air ducts in the Hart Building and conduct
further tests before reopening the building.
No senators are reported to have contracted anthrax. Yet no
expense is being spared to ensure their safety.
WHY POST OFFICE WORKERS ARE ANGRY
By contrast, no post office facility has been cleaned as
thoroughly as the Senate building, despite the fact that two
post office workers have already died as a result of anthrax
and others have been infected but recovered.
Anthrax spores have so far been detected in a number of post
offices in the eastern part of the country. Some were not
even closed for decontamination. When anthrax spores were
found on five pieces of equipment at the Morgan Station in
Manhattan in October, management refused to close the
facility.
The bosses just covered contaminated machines in plastic
wrap, gave the workers on that floor masks and gloves, and
told them to get back to work--in some cases just a few feet
from machinery with anthrax spores.
The Postal Service has failed to comply with a federal
judge's order to fully clean the Morgan Processing and
Distribution Center, which processes 12 million pieces of
mail a day.
"There's a crisis that we're still facing," stated William
Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union. He
stressed that the Postal Service has consistently downplayed
the threat faced by the 10,000 workers represented by his
union.
Smith charged that management is withholding information
from postal workers in order to keep them working during the
busy holiday season.
The union has called for a demonstration on Dec. 7 at 4 p.m.
in front of the Farley General Post Office on 8th Avenue
between 33rd and 31st streets.
Bill Burrus, president of the 360,000-member American Postal
Workers Union, warned his membership that negative tests did
not assure that facilities were anthrax free. The results at
a post office in Wallingford, Conn., prove that this advice
is sound.
The death of an elderly woman in Connecticut is now believed
to be the result of "cross-contamination" from a post
office. Cross-contamination may occur when a letter filled
with anthrax leaves spores on equipment that other mail will
pass through.
The Wallingford post office near the woman's home was tested
four times. The first three tests were reportedly negative.
The fourth was positive for anthrax.
- 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]> (wwnews)
Date: torstai 6. joulukuu 2001 07:05
Subject: [WW] Enron Collapse Stuns Wall Street
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WILL IT SET OFF RIPPLES OR A TIDAL WAVE? ENRON
COLLAPSE STUNS WALL STREET
By Richard Becker
The collapse of Enron--just a month ago the seventh-ranked
corporation on the Fortune 500 list--was as quick as it was
complete. While many of the consequences of the Enron
debacle are as yet unseen, its effects are already
reverberating through the world's stock markets and banks.
>From more than $30 per share in late October, Enron's stock
fell to 26 cents on Dec. 2. A year ago, it was trading at
more than $80 a share. The total value of the company's
stock has fallen from over $80 billion to around $300
million in the same period.
Last year, Enron's revenue was over $101 billion. It won the
Financial Times's "energy company of the year" award. Until
last month, a banner on the corporate headquarters read,
"The World's Leading Company."
But on Dec. 3, Enron became the largest U.S. corporation in
total assets ever to file for bankruptcy, after Dynegy,
another energy trading company, renounced its planned $9
billion takeover of Enron. Dynegy cited irregularities in
Enron's financial reports. Announcing the cancellation of
the merger deal, a Dynegy spokesperson said, "Enron had
burned through $1.5 billion [advanced by Dynegy] in less
than three weeks. Importantly, neither the treasurer nor the
chief financial officer could explain where it went."
Certainly Enron executives have engaged in an enormous
amount of the kind of cheating and falsifying that is
endemic to capitalism.
Just as certainly, however, deception was not the main cause
of Enron's implosion. Underlying the transnational
corporation's collapse is the world crisis of over-
production, a crisis that has driven down energy prices
around the globe. As the recession has spread from Japan and
Latin America to Europe and the U.S., demand for energy has
fallen and so, too, have prices.
While much media attention has focused on the threat that
Enron's demise poses for banks and other investors, those
most devastated are the company's workers.
ENRON WORKERS LOSE PENSIONS, JOBS
As it announced its bankruptcy filing, Enron simultaneously
fired 4,000 of 7,500 employees at its Houston, Texas,
headquarters, and told the rest to stay home until they were
called back. Thousands more of Enron's 21,000-strong
workforce have been fired in England and elsewhere.
Beside the thousands who have been abruptly fired, virtually
the entire workforce have lost their pensions. The company's
401(k) pension plan appears to have consisted entirely of
Enron stock. Workers were forbidden to sell any of this
stock until they reached a minimum age of 54.
Enron workers have agonizingly watched the total destruction
of their pensions as the stock price first gradually
dropped, losing 60 percent of its value over 10 months, then
plummeted. Pension plans lost more than 99 percent of their
value.
No such disaster confronted the Enron top executives, due to
the simple fact that they could dump the stock of the
company they were running into the ground while it was still
worth something. Kenneth Lay, for example, sold 400,000
shares over the last year, at times when the price ranged
from $42 to $80.
GLORIFIED PIRATES AND BUSH ADVISERS
Enron was labeled Houston's "leading corporation" in recent
years. The company paid $100 million to have the baseball
stadium where the major league Astros play named "Enron
Field."
Enron was glorified by business magazines and politicians
alike. And not just any politicians--although the company
spread the campaign contributions around to those in a
position to help its oil, gas and electricity trading.
Enron was one of the major donors to the campaign of George
W. Bush. So weighty was Enron's influence that Bush made
Kenneth Lay, then CEO of Enron, his chief energy adviser
after winning the 2000 presidential election.
In the winter of 2000-2001, Enron, along with Dynegy, Duke
Power, Reliant and other energy traders took advantage of
recent electricity deregulation in California. By
manipulating the deregulated market, the energy traders were
able to push prices up by more than 1,000 percent. Even
California's emphatically pro-business Gov. Gray Davis
called Enron a "pirate" company for its role in the state's
energy crisis.
Enron's investment in the Bush campaign paid off big-time.
In February 2001, President Bush, advised by Enron's Lay,
refused to place any cap whatsoever on California's
electricity prices.
But even the California windfall, amounting to hundreds of
millions in super-profits, couldn't save Enron.
ENRON, OVER-PRODUCTION AND THE BANKS
Enron's holdings had spread worldwide since its founding 15
years ago. Today it owns 25,000 miles of natural gas
pipeline in the U.S. and 8,000 miles more in South America,
water treatment plants in Britain, power plants in Italy,
Poland, Turkey, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and the
Philippines, among others.
Enron has a 65-percent stake in the giant new Dabhol power
plant in Maharashtra, India, and much, much more.
Enron's rapid expansion was premised on an ever-growing
market for power. But the market has severely contracted in
the past year. Oil prices have dropped from $38 to $18 per
barrel, as demand fell.
To finance its expansion, Enron borrowed billions. Now many
big banks from England to Japan to the U.S. are holding
loans that may be unrepayable, or repayable at only a
fraction of their original value.
Citigroup and J.P. Morgan reportedly have combined
"exposure" of $1.7 billion, half of it unsecured. Four
Japanese financial groups are expected to lose upwards of $8
billion.
But the biggest threat may be to several banks in India,
which are said to be owed several billion dollars for the
Dobhal project. India's finance minister, Yashwant Sinha,
was quoted as saying that the Enron crisis "has created
uncertainties."
The scope of the Enron fallout is not yet fully known, and
government, banking and stock market spokespersons are
playing it down. But one Wall Street analyst, Marjin Smit,
said on Dec. 3, "It makes you wonder if this is just the tip
of the iceberg. Sentiment is really taking a blow based on
this one situation."
The BBC quoted another market analyst, who spoke only on
condition of anonymity: "Everyone wants to make it look as
if they weren't fooled by Enron. But underneath the calm
exterior, a lot more companies are panicking than it may
seem."
