5) Argentina after IMF 'reform'
by WW
6) AIDS and poverty
by WW
7) Low-wage immigrants win back pay
by WW
8) Anti-war message resonates in community meetings
by WW
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
ARGENTINA AFTER IMF "REFORM":
BANKS CLOSE DOORS AS ECONOMY NEARS COLLAPSE
By Andy McInerney
The image splashed across business pages around the world on
Dec. 1 was enough to send a shiver down the backs of big
business financiers. Thousands of Argentineans were lined up
at banks across that South American country to withdraw
their savings.
It was a classic run on the banks--a sign of desperate
weakness in Argentina's financial sector.
One retired textile worker, 67-year-old Ramona Ruiz,
expressed the sentiments of those trying to withdraw their
funds. "That is my money inside that bank, mine! I was being
patriotic by not removing my savings earlier," she told the
Washington Post, as reported in a Dec. 2 article.
While politicians pleaded for calm, the actions they took
showed their alarm. Finance Minister Domingo Cavallo
announced limits on withdrawals, after financial analysts
warned of a complete financial collapse within 10 days.
He also offered to convert bank accounts from the peso, the
Argentinean national currency, to the U.S. dollar. Banks
would no longer be able to make loans in pesos, but only in
dollars based on the banks' supply of the U.S. currency.
These moves together led many to accuse Cavallo of an
attempt to "dollarize" the economy--making the U.S. dollar
the national currency of Argentina, thus giving up all
financial controls to the U.S. treasury.
These desperate signs came the very weekend that officials
from the International Monetary Fund were in Argentina to
discuss a new loan bailout. The IMF has demanded severe
austerity measures from the government of President Fernando
de la R�a, which the president has been unable to fulfill so
far because of resistance from political opponents and from
the working class.
The financial crisis in Argentina has riveted the attention
of Wall Street sharks thousands of miles away for several
reasons. First, in the words of the Dec. 2 Washington Post,
Argentina's financial system is "dominated by local
subsidiaries" of U.S., French and Spanish banks. So the
crisis in Argentina is not really an "Argentinean" crisis at
all--but rather a crisis for the imperialist banks.
Second, these same U.S. and European banks are the ones
holding the IOUs for Argentina's $130 billion in foreign
debt. Should Argentina's government default, it would send a
tremor through the financial accounts of Citibank, Chase and
their European counterparts.
A CRISIS OF PRODUCTION
Third, "emerging market" stock speculators have additional
billions riding on the fate of Argentina's debt. This is
reflected in the extreme sensitivity of U.S. stock markets
to the events thousands of miles away in Buenos Aires.
Beneath the bank crisis is a far deeper crisis in Argentina--
the fundamental problem, in fact, facing the capitalist
class of bankers and bosses in both Argentina and the United
States. The bank crisis is a reflection of a crisis in
production, both in Argentina and across Latin America.
Argentina's economy has been in a depression for the past
four years. Unemployment is officially running at 18
percent, although unions charge that half the population is
either unemployed or underemployed.
This is a symptom of the economic crisis that is raging
across Latin America. Brazil suffered a financial meltdown
in 1999, and is verging on another. Colombia has been in a
depression for the past two years.
All these countries, acting under the whip of the IMF, have
responded in the same way: cut the public sector, throwing
millions out of work, and imposing austerity measures that
cut any benefits to the very sectors hardest hit by the job
cuts.
In Brazil, Argentina and Colombia--South America's three
largest economies--this has also led to a pauperization of
significant sectors of the middle classes.
PROTESTS CONTINUE
The crisis in Argentina has generated passionate protests.
On Nov. 20, for instance, thousands of trade unionists
marched on government offices demanding an end to the
austerity measures. The unions charged that "deficit
reduction was being carried out on the back of struggling
Argentineans," according to an AP report.
"They want to take away the little that Argentineans, that
the people still have," said union leader Hugo Moyano. "We
are not going to accept this."
Moyano threatened that the unions would wage a civil
disobedience campaign to roll back the reforms.
Another new focus of struggle has been the piqueteros,
organized groups of unemployed workers who have been staging
militant road blockades. On Nov. 19, on the eve of the union
protests, thousands of piqueteros blocked major highways
across Argentina.
On Nov. 25, police broke up a protest of families of
disabled people in Buenos Aires, according to Inter Press
Services.
IPS reports that 8,500 people risk losing their pension
benefits if de la Rua's reforms are passed.
Unions have also called a series of strikes for the week
following Finance Minister Cavallo's announcements on bank
withdrawals.
The task of channeling the rising tide of protests into a
mighty torrent that can challenge the imperialist bankers
and their lackeys is becoming more vital as millions of
workers face losing their jobs, their benefits, and their
social gains in what is already the most severe capitalist
crisis in Latin America since the Great Depression of the
1930s.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
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From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (WW)
Date: keskiviikko 12. joulukuu 2001 04:21
Subject: [WW] AIDS and poverty
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
EDITORIAL: AIDS AND POVERTY
More than two decades into the AIDS pandemic, with more than
20 million lives having been lost worldwide and the disease
spreading most rapidly wherever there is deep poverty and
social instability, the countries hit hardest are in Africa.
Why then did some of the U.S. media choose the occasion of
World AIDS Day to focus in on the government of South Africa
as the villain in the epidemic and accuse the people of that
country of being promiscuous, irresponsible, sexually
predatory and uninformed? That was the message of feature
articles in many prominent U.S. newspapers.
This is a classic case of shifting the burden of guilt from
those who are ultimately responsible for the toll that AIDS
is taking in South Africa onto the backs of its victims.
The pharmaceutical giants bear direct blame for pricing AIDS
drugs out of the reach of most African workers and poor. In
fact, United Nations figures show that anti-retroviral
therapy alone would cost countries like Bangladesh, Nigeria,
Uganda and Zambia roughly 30 percent of their respective
gross national products.
But the drug companies have not acted alone. The government
in Washington has been their closest ally. When the South
African government tried to make cheaper generic AIDS drugs
in an attempt to save many lives, the drug companies dragged
its officials into court. And let no one forget that it was
Democrat Al Gore--chair of the United States/South Africa
Binational Commission--who acted as point person for these
greedy imperialist goliaths.
Only after a worldwide outcry did the U.S. government and
the pharmaceuticals relent somewhat and "allow" South Africa
to import cheaper generic drugs from India.
These pharmaceuticals are a part of the class-riven economic
system that has ravaged the African continent and helped lay
the basis for a public health crisis that hits people with
AIDS the hardest.
Essential for the health of all individuals--especially
people with AIDS--is access to clean water and good
nutrition. Yet 50 percent of the people in sub-Saharan
Africa do not have clean water and 32 percent of children
under five years old are malnourished. How can they afford
AIDS medications, or even condoms?
This poverty is not universal. Even though apartheid has
ended and the African National Congress presides over the
government, privileged whites still own 87 percent of the
land in South Africa. The same bankers, mine owners and
industrialists still control the reins of the economy.
For decades, South African miners have been forced to live
in hostels far from their families, while they dig out the
precious gold and diamonds. These are then ostentatiously
displayed in ads in the same magazines and newspapers here
that accuse the men of that country of not displaying
appropriate "family values."
Colonialism, apartheid and now economic subjugation to U.S.
imperialism have resulted in a system of low wages and
intense exploitation. These combined conditions make it very
difficult for the South African government to meet the needs
of the masses of workers and poor.
Put the burden of guilt back where it belongs: on the
poverty resulting from more than a century of oppression.
Racist articles like those in the U.S. press add vicious
insult to injury. The banks and corporations that have grown
rich off African labor and resources owe a massive debt of
reparations to South Africa and its sister countries.
Imagine how much easier it would be to deal with a public
health crisis if that obligation were paid in full.
That's not likely to happen without revolutionary changes
here and in Africa. But that would be subversive of Bush's
New World Order, wouldn't it?
- 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: keskiviikko 12. joulukuu 2001 04:21
Subject: [WW] Low-wage immigrants win back pay
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
IT CAN BE DONE:
LOW-WAGE IMMIGRANTS WIN BACK PAY
By Milt Neidenberg
New York
How sweet it is. A group of immigrant, undocumented workers
in this city has won a substantial settlement following a
bitter, protracted struggle.
Thirty-one poor and oppressed workers, mostly Mexicans, have
won a settlement of $315,000 from a powerful group of
merchants and business leaders who dominate the produce
market in this city. Their victory is particularly
significant in light of a deepening recession and a war
climate in which President George W. Bush and company are
bashing immigrant workers, whether they come from Mexico,
the Middle East or Central Asia.
To defend their unfair labor practices, the greengrocers had
formed the Korean Produce Association, which represents 820
merchants. Contrary to the myth that these merchants came
from South Korea as oppressed workers, most were financially
well off before they arrived here. In their fight against
union organization, they falsely charged this very diverse
union with racism and an anti-Korean bias.
The first breakthrough in this hard-fought struggle came a
year ago. Two merchants agreed to pay 10 workers over
$100,000 in back pay and damages. New York State Attorney
General Elliot Spitzer, who released the information and
brokered both settlements, said other agreements are in the
works.
Local 169 of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial & Textile
Workers has been waging a valiant fight for over two years
to organize these oppressed workers. Local 169 Staff
Representative Mike Donovan told reporters after this second
victory: "In the green-grocery industry alone, there are
some 2,000 stores employing about 14,000 people, most of
them Mexicans.
"In 100 percent of the 100 stores our union looked at, we
found [federal] Fair Labor Standards abuses. Workers were
paid as little as $2.50 an hour and worked as many as 72
hours a week, with no overtime. They're often threatened
with deportation if they complain."
Criticizing the government for lack of oversight or
accountability, Donovan added, "With union contracts, the
workers would have protection against exploitation." (New
York Daily News, Nov. 25)
Organizing these young workers, whose extreme poverty and
undocumented status have isolated them from many of the
workers around them, demands great sacrifices and stamina.
UNITE Local 169, including Mexican workers who were added to
the union staff, spent years picketing some of the stores.
They worked closely, befriending the workers who felt
isolated under the slave-labor conditions imposed by the
bosses.
The union reached out to the communities around the
greengrocers, which responded time and again by boycotting
the stores. Local 169 also coordinated the organizing
campaign with anti-sweatshop and living-wage coalitions.
Youths and students joined the union, its allies and other
constituencies at rallies and marches. These struggles,
which included facing up to cops and arrest, were
indispensable to the victories that followed.
International Action Center members volunteered and worked
full-time for the union during the course of this hard-
fought campaign. Recently, Local 169 agreed to turn over the
campaign to organize the greengrocers to the United Food and
Commercial Workers.
This kind of networking is essential to the strategy to
organize the lowest-paid workers, who are subject to
immigrant bashing, racism and ethnic profiling. Anti-worker
attacks emanate not only from bosses such as the greengrocer
merchants, but from giant corporations, agribusiness and all
those employers that dominate the service-oriented
industries.
President Bush is a major player. He encourages and cheers
on the powerful multinational corporations and the bankers.
He is aiding them with anti-immigrant, repressive executive
orders violating civil liberties and constitutional rights
while pushing for more racist and punitive laws that would
be immediately implemented by the Justice Department, FBI,
and Immigration and Naturalization Service.
His efforts to get fast-track legislation to speed up a so-
called Free Trade Area of the Americas, encompassing all of
Central and Latin America, are meant to further increase the
flow of oppressed workers who leave their impoverished
homelands to seek jobs here and abroad.
The struggle with the greengrocer merchants has shown how to
respond effectively to the all-out assault against the
workers, the oppressed and the labor movement. In spite of a
widening U.S. war in Central Asia and a deepening global
recession, workers can fight back to get a measure of
economic justice.
As Local 169 Staff Representative Donovan told Workers
World: "The victory of these victimized, low-paid,
multinational workers is a victory for all labor. But we
need many more strong campaigns and many more such
victories."
- 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:
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From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (WW)
Date: keskiviikko 12. joulukuu 2001 04:22
Subject: [WW] Anti-war message resonates in community meetings
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
HOLMES SPEAKS IN L.A.:
ANTI-WAR MESSAGE RESONATES IN COMMUNITY MEETINGS
By Jimmie Cho
Los Angeles
Larry Holmes, a co-coordinator of the International Action
Center and member of the ANSWER coalition, gave rousing,
inspiring calls to protest the war in Afghanistan and the
resulting analogous war at home to two meetings here
recently.
On Nov. 30 at the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates in
Koreatown, and on Dec. 1 at the KRST Unity Center of African
Spirituality in South Central Los Angeles, Holmes got a
strong response from many in the audience. As International
Action Center volunteer Jennifer Kang said, "We were all hit
by a wave of motivation from the front of the room."
Roughly 70 people attended the talks on Friday and Saturday.
Although Holmes tailored his speeches toward the different
audiences on both days, the core message he gave was
resoundingly unified and clear: "The war is an attack on
everyone, whether abroad or here at home."
The hosts of both venues, Elizabeth Sunwoo at the Korean
Immigrant Workers Advocates and the Rev. Richard (Meri Ka
Ra) Byrd at the KRST Unity Center of African Spirituality,
echoed Holmes's commitment to ending the war. Reverend Byrd
said, "We share in your commitment to peace and justice and
righteousness."
Holmes quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in saying that
"the United States is the greatest purveyor of violence in
the world." He outlined the sequence of events that led the
Bush administration to use the tragedy of Sept. 11 as an
excuse for war and military buildup abroad and the
repression of dissent here at home.
He reminded us of what we had all thought of George W. Bush
before Sept. 11--as someone who stole the election and who
executed Black and Latino prisoners as governor of Texas.
At KIWA, Holmes stated that the Bush administration was
attacking the right of immigrants to be involved politically
and that "it is in our best interest to fight for our
political rights." At the KRST Center, Holmes urged everyone
to remember COINTELPRO, the government's war against
activists during the heyday of 1960s political activism, and
said, "The pronouncement that is right now against
immigrants may be against religious and political leaders
tomorrow." He called the war "a war with many fronts."
- 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:
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