May 8, 2003 Vol. 45, No. 18 50¢ By Fred Goldstein On April 30, at about the same moment that a taped message from U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was telling the people that “Iraq belongs to you,” U.S. troops were opening fire on unarmed demonstrators in the Iraqi city of Fallujah for the second time in 48 hours. They killed two and wounded 14, according to the mayor, himself a former exile. The shootings by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division were intended to suppress a demonstration of about 1,000 people marching downtown in front of a battalion headquarters. And why were they there, risking their lives? To protest a massacre of unarmed demonstrators in the same town two days earlier, when up to 15 Iraqis were killed and 75 wounded by the U.S. forces. When they came out the second time in even greater num- bers, they were fired on again. On April 28, a unit of the 82nd Airborne had opened fire on a crowd estimated between 100 and 200. It had poured out of the mosques after services, about 9 p.m., demanding that U.S. troops get out of the al-Qaed school they had been occupying, so that the school could be opened for the local students. Contrary to the unanimous accounts of residents and the physical evidence, Lt. Col. Eric Nantz of the 82nd Airborne, 1st Battalion, told reporters that the troops were fired on from the ground and rooftops. Nantz claimed his troops had recovered eight weapons and spent shell casings from AK-47s. “They declined to show the weapons or the shell casings,” noted the Los Angeles Times of April 29. Nantz told a Times reporter that soldiers returned fire, aim- ing only at those who had weapons. Speaking in the language of his boss, Donald Rumsfeld, Nantz said, “The engagement was sharp, precise, then it was complete.” Eyewitnesses contradict U.S. forces However, eyewitnesses told the Times a different story. The article reported that “When the Americans rolled into town three VENEZUELA Reporte desde Caracas 12 Continued on page 6 Subscribe to Workers World Trial: $2 for 8 weeks. One year: $25 NAME PHONE NUMBER ADDRESS CITY/STATE/ZIP WORKERS WORLD NEWSPAPER 55 W.17 St.NY, NY 10011 (212) 627-2994 www.workers.org WW PHOTOS: ANNE PRUDEN AND PAT HILLIARD days ago, they angered the community when they set up camp in a school, making it impossible for the children to resume classes. Residents became even more upset when the soldiers took school desks and piled them in the street as roadblocks. “The school is right across the street from a row of houses,” continued the Times. “A 9-year-old boy, Baha Mohammed, was in his front yard and was shot in the shoulder. On Tuesday, he rested on a cot in Fallujah Hospital, passing in and out of con- sciousness while his father fanned him with a towel. “‘The Americans did this, and for what reason?’ said the boy’s father, Mohammed Rabee, 34. “The Salah family lived across the street too. According to wit- ness accounts, when the bullets started to fly, panicked protest- ers tried to get into the Salahs’ courtyard. Muthana Salah, 41, went to open the gate. A bullet hit him in the foot, and he col- lapsed. “His brother Walid, 40, rushed out to help and he slumped over, dead. “His other brother, Osama, 36, tried to push a car into the road to block Muthana so he could pull him away–and Osama went down, shot in the stomach. “His wife, Abtisam, 38, ran out to drag her husband to safety, and she went down too. When it was all over, Muthana lost his right foot. Walid was dead. Osama was in critical condition in intensive care. Abtisam was treated and released.” ‘No warning at all’ Ahmed Hatim, 21, told how after the last day of prayer, a group of people gathered outside the mosque “and began to talk about the indignities the soldiers were heaping on their com- munity,” continued the Times. “He said the crowd marched through town and at one point the soldiers fired over their heads but they would not be stopped. He said when they reached the school, there was no warning at all… ‘When we reached the school, they opened fire in an indiscriminate way...’” Hatim was shot in the thigh and was interviewed in his hos- Public service workers under attack SEE PAGE 5 Two murderous attacks in 48 hours U.S. troops kill more unarmed protesters Rumsfeld visit to Iraq delivers repression, not ‘liberation’ AFSCME DC 37 march in New York on April 29 draws thousands. UNEMPLOYMENT What the statistics don't show: Millions have given up looking 3 TAILSPIN Airlines need worker control 4 SANCTIONS SWITCHEROO Why does Washington suddenly want to drop them? 7 CUBA VS. COUNTER-REVOLUTION Progressives urge solidarity Guantanamo and U.S. hypocrisy 8 ARGENTINE CRISIS- WHAT WAY OUT? Workers seize 150 factories 9 April 27 rally at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
Transcript
May 8, 2003 Vol. 45, No. 18
50¢
By Fred Goldstein
On April 30, at about the same moment that a taped messagefrom U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was telling thepeople that “Iraq belongs to you,” U.S. troops were opening fireon unarmed demonstrators in the Iraqi city of Fallujah for thesecond time in 48 hours. They killed two and wounded 14,according to the mayor, himself a former exile.
The shootings by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division wereintended to suppress a demonstration of about 1,000 peoplemarching downtown in front of a battalion headquarters. Andwhy were they there, risking their lives? To protest a massacreof unarmed demonstrators in the same town two days earlier,when up to 15 Iraqis were killed and 75 wounded by the U.S.forces.
When they came out the second time in even greater num-bers, they were fired on again.
On April 28, a unit of the 82nd Airborne had opened fire ona crowd estimated between 100 and 200. It had poured out ofthe mosques after services, about 9 p.m., demanding that U.S.troops get out of the al-Qaed school they had been occupying, sothat the school could be opened for the local students.
Contrary to the unanimous accounts of residents and thephysical evidence, Lt. Col. Eric Nantz of the 82nd Airborne, 1stBattalion, told reporters that the troops were fired on from theground and rooftops. Nantz claimed his troops had recoveredeight weapons and spent shell casings from AK-47s. “Theydeclined to show the weapons or the shell casings,” noted theLos Angeles Times of April 29.
Nantz told a Times reporter that soldiers returned fire, aim-ing only at those who had weapons. Speaking in the language ofhis boss, Donald Rumsfeld, Nantz said, “The engagement wassharp, precise, then it was complete.”
Eyewitnesses contradict U.S. forces
However, eyewitnesses told the Times a different story. Thearticle reported that “When the Americans rolled into town three
VENEZUELAReporte desde Caracas 12
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days ago, they angered the community when they set up campin a school, making it impossible for the children to resumeclasses. Residents became even more upset when the soldierstook school desks and piled them in the street as roadblocks.
“The school is right across the street from a row of houses,”continued the Times. “A 9-year-old boy, Baha Mohammed, wasin his front yard and was shot in the shoulder. On Tuesday, herested on a cot in Fallujah Hospital, passing in and out of con-sciousness while his father fanned him with a towel.
“‘The Americans did this, and for what reason?’ said the boy’sfather, Mohammed Rabee, 34.
“The Salah family lived across the street too. According to wit-ness accounts, when the bullets started to fly, panicked protest-ers tried to get into the Salahs’ courtyard. Muthana Salah, 41,went to open the gate. A bullet hit him in the foot, and he col-lapsed.
“His brother Walid, 40, rushed out to help and he slumpedover, dead.
“His other brother, Osama, 36, tried to push a car into the roadto block Muthana so he could pull him away–and Osama wentdown, shot in the stomach.
“His wife, Abtisam, 38, ran out to drag her husband to safety,and she went down too. When it was all over, Muthana lost hisright foot. Walid was dead. Osama was in critical condition inintensive care. Abtisam was treated and released.”
‘No warning at all’
Ahmed Hatim, 21, told how after the last day of prayer, agroup of people gathered outside the mosque “and began to talkabout the indignities the soldiers were heaping on their com-munity,” continued the Times. “He said the crowd marchedthrough town and at one point the soldiers fired over their headsbut they would not be stopped. He said when they reached theschool, there was no warning at all… ‘When we reached theschool, they opened fire in an indiscriminate way...’”
Hatim was shot in the thigh and was interviewed in his hos-
Public service workers under attackSEE PAGE 5
Two murderous attacks in 48 hours
U.S. troops kill moreunarmed protestersRumsfeld visit to Iraq delivers repression, not ‘liberation’
AFSCME DC 37 march inNew York on April 29draws thousands.
UNEMPLOYMENTWhat the statistics don't show: Millions have given up looking 3
TAILSPINAirlines need workercontrol 4
SANCTIONSSWITCHEROOWhy does Washington suddenly want to drop them? 7
CUBA VS.COUNTER-REVOLUTION�Progressives urge solidarity
�Guantanamo and U.S. hypocrisy 8
ARGENTINE CRISIS-WHAT WAY OUT?Workers seize 150 factories 9
April 27 rally atBrooklynBorough Hall.
Page 2 May 8, 2003 www.workers.org
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Workers World55 West 17 StreetNew York, N.Y. 10011Phone: (212) 627-2994 • Fax: (212) 675-7869E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.workers.orgVol. 45, No. 18 • May 8, 2003Closing date: April 30, 2003
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AA TTRRIIBBUUTTEE TTOO NNIINNAA SSIIMMOONNEE
Powerful vvoice for BBlack lliberationBByy MMoonniiccaa MMoooorreehheeaadd
The whole world is mourning the tragic lossof African American vocalist and pianist NinaSimone, who died April 21 at the age of 70 at herhome in southern France. Progressive radio sta-tions, especially those that are jazz-oriented, areplaying her recordings without commercialinterruption, including live concerts.
Simone’s unique artistry of singing whileplaying the piano influenced future women per-formers such as Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklinand Laura Nyro. Like other African Americanperformers, past and present, Simone’s musi-cal talent was influenced first and foremost bythe powerful gospel music coming out of theBlack church. Born Eunice Waymon, she couldplay the hymns without sheet music beginningat age 2. She became the regular pianist at herparents’ church by the age of 6 in her hometownof Tryon, N.C.
She developed a love for classical music andwon a scholarship to the prestigious JulliardSchool of Music in New York, where her pianotechnique was developed. Although her stylewould always be compared to other jazz musi-cians, Simone considered her music to be acombination of folk, blues, classical and jazz.
While living in Harlem, she recorded her firstand only top-20 hit, “I Loves You Porgy,” which broughther national and international recognition. She devel-oped relationships with other well-known political artistssuch as Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka(then Leroi Jones), Dick Gregory and many more.
Africa and civil rights transformed her
In December 1961, Simone traveled to Lagos, Nigeria,her first trip to Africa. It proved to be a life-changingexperience. Once she returned to the United States, shebecame more aware and interested in the struggle forcivil rights in the South, which was intensifying duringthat period.
Simone credits the great Black playwright LorraineHansberry as the person who “allowed me to see the big-ger picture.” Hansberry, she said, “saw civil rights as onlyone part of the wider racial and class struggle.” Simonestated in her autobiography, “I Put a Spell on You,” thatshe and Hansberry, author of the first major Black broad-way play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” would talk about Marx,Lenin and revolution.
When the playwright died of cancer at the age of 34,Simone wrote and recorded a song in her honor. Its title,“To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” was the name of theplay Hansberry was writing at the time of her death. The
song went on to become known as the anthem of the civil-rights movement.
After the murders of NAACP leader Medgar Evers andthen the four schoolgirls in the Birmingham, Ala., bomb-ing of 1963, Simone wrote one of her signature songs,“Mississippi Goddamn.” She was asked to perform dur-ing many civil-rights events, most notably a rally duringthe Selma to Montgomery march in 1965.
Simone was influenced by other currents in the strug-gle for Black liberation, especially the Black Panthers,Malcolm X and Kwame Toure, a leader of the StudentNon-violent Coordinating Committee who was thenknown as Stokely Carmichael. She wrote and performedother important socially conscious songs such as “I WishThat I Knew How It Felt to Be Free,” “Four Women” and“Why? The King of Love Is Dead,” a moving tribute to themartyred Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Simone eventually left the United States following thegovernment’s racist repression of the Black liberationmovement. She was the victim of greedy record compa-nies, unscrupulous agents and the Internal RevenueService. This writer, as a teenager, was fortunate to seeher perform and, like millions of others, will alwaysadmire her dignity and unwillingness to compromise hermusic and principles. ��
Where is Bush going? What’s next for our movement?
NATIONAL CONFERENCE MAY 17-18 IN NYCAgainst war, colonial occupation & imperialismTHE A.N.S.W.E.R. COALITION Act Now to Stop War and End Racismwww.InternationalANSWER.org www.VoteNoWar.org email: [email protected]. 212-633-6646 D.C. 202-544-3389 L.A. 213-487-2368 S.F. 415-821-6545
www.workers.org May 8, 2003 Page 3
By Monica Moorehead
As greedy corporate bosses likethose at Halliburton and Bechtel sali-vate over government contractsworth billions of dollars to “rebuild”Iraq, growing numbers of joblessworkers in the United States—in themillions—have given up any hope offinding a decent-paying job.
They are not even counted asunemployed once their benefits areexhausted.
When President George W. Bushwanted $80 billion in additionalfunds to carry out a racist, genocidalwar against Iraq, he demanded anemergency session of Congress toaccomplish this. Congress obligedwithout a whimper.
Where are the emergency sessionsof Congress to address the catastro-phe facing those who are unemployedand can’t find jobs?
More than 74.5 million adults weredeemed “outside of the labor force” inMarch—up more than 4 million sinceMarch 2001, according to theDepartment of Labor. “They are peo-ple who fall outside the government’sdefinitions of either employed orunemployed: they do not hold jobs,but they also have not gone out seek-ing work within the past month,”reported the April 27 New YorkTimes.
This figure includes retired work-ers and parents who have been hometaking care of children for years, theTimes noted, “but the surge ofdropouts suggests that the joblessrate—which was 5.8 percent lastmonth, roughly where it has been forthe past year—offers an artificially
sanguine picture of the labor market,many economists say.”
The proportion of those consideredto be in the labor force who are eitherworking or actively looking for a jobhas dropped 0.9 percent over the lasttwo years to 66.2 percent—thebiggest decrease in almost 40 years.
Those who have become so dis-couraged and demoralized by lookingfor a job are not just the chronicallypoorest, unskilled workers. Thesenumbers now include more and morehighly skilled, highly educated work-ers who once made six-figure salariesworking in recently downsized com-puterized, high-tech industries. Eveninvestment bankers are receivingpink slips.
But low-paid and oppressed work-ers feel the brunt of the pain of job-lessness.
For the first time since the 1960s,the proportion of women in the paidlabor force has dropped over anextended period. In March, 60.6 per-cent of women 20 and older had jobs,down from 61 percent in March 2001.
Teenagers, pulled into the job mar-ket in large numbers in the late 1990s,have also given up looking for workrecently at a rapid rate.
The biggest group dropping out ofthe labor force is men, the LaborDepartment says. The number ofBlack men not looking for work hasincreased particularly sharply.
The sharp rise in the number ofBlack men in prison and the attackson affirmative action programsunderscore the lack of job opportuni-ties for oppressed workers.
In addition to growing numbers ofjobless workers, those who do have
Have given up looking for jobs
4 million more ‘outside the labor force’
PHILADELPHIA.
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
jobs face a crisis of falling wages. Companies such as Microsoft,
AT&T, Starwoods Hotel, AmericanAirlines, Boeing and many others tryto salvage profits by laying off work-ers, freezing salaries or cutting wagesof their remaining work force. Manyworkers who once had decent-payingjobs feel the pressure to take wagecuts and a decrease in benefits inorder to avoid layoff.
Capitalist economic analysts go outof their way to say that the onlyimpact the war on Iraq has had on theU.S. population is anxiety in con-sumer spending. But the effects gomuch deeper.
Along with the $80 billionCongress allotted for the war, there isalso the gargantuan military budgetwhich will reach almost $400 billionin 2004. The threat to U.S. “nationalsecurity” is not Iran, Syria, Cuba orNorth Korea. It’s the growing unem-ployment, poverty, lack of healthcare, homelessness, hunger, budgetcuts and illiteracy.
Orienting toward electingDemocrats in the 2004 capitalistelections is not the solution that willturn around this social disaster.Workers of all nationalities need toorganize a united, independentfight-back movement to put pres-sure on the government to declare amoratorium on layoffs, foreclo-sures, hospital and clinic closings,utility shutoffs, repossessions, wagecuts and freezes.
The money is there to meet thisgrowing emergency that tens of mil-lions are facing—just look at the mili-tary budget. The crisis is rooted in cap-italist greed and imperialist war. ��
Mumia Awareness Day washeld in Philadelphia onApril 24, the 49th birthdayof political prisonerMumia Abu-Jamal.Activists from around theregion tabled for eighthours to educate andupdate the public on thecurrent legal and politicalsituation for the deathrow journalist.
A protest was also heldat the Philadelphia officeof Gov. Ed Rendell, whohas been campaigning forMumia’s execution eversince he was convicted ofmurdering a police officerin 1981. Mumia’s lawyersare trying to present evi-dence in the federalappeals courts to provehis innocence.
—M.M.
PHOTO: INDYMEDIA
By MumiaAbu-Jamal.from death row.
Mumia on the empire
There are doubtless many Americans, perhaps mil-lions, who wonder to themselves, “How did we get intothis?”
They look at Americans waging what they firmlybelieve is an unnecessary, and perhaps illegal war, andwonder how this came to be, and perhaps equally asimportant, what will be the repercussions of this dan-gerous and precipitous action?
Perhaps they grit their teeth at the sight of the “BoyKing” as he lumbers about on the world’s stage, andblame him for this present state of affairs, and longfor days past, when things seemed simpler, or, at thevery least, safer. It is hard to resist such a temptation,but resist it we must.
Why? Because this tragic national fit of distemperdid not begin with Bush. It will not end with him. Whatails the American body politic is not personal, but insti-tutional. One need only take a deep look at Americanhistory—not that taught in our high schools, or whichthickens our almanacs, but the history beneath thosesafe sources, which reflects over 200 years of Americanconflicts—to find the roots of our imperial appetites.Over 150 years ago, in an otherwise nondescript casebefore the nation’s Supreme Court, a man was chal-lenging the constitutionality of the law which prohib-ited the selling of lotteries in Washington, D.C. Again,it was not the case that was especially important, butthe words used in that case, by a chief justice of theUnited States, which are indeed memorable.
In Cohens v. Virginia (1821), Chief Justice JohnMarshall described the powers of the states in an inter-esting way:
“That the United States form, for many, and formost important purposes, a single nation, has not yetbeen denied. In war, we are one people. In makingpeace we are one people, in all commercial respects,we are one and the same people. ... The people havedeclared, that in the exercise of all powers given forthese objects it is supreme... . The constitution andthe laws of a state, so far as they are repugnant to theconstitution and laws of the United States, areabsolutely void. The states are constituent parts of theUnited States. They are members of one greatempire—for some purposes sovereign, for some pur-poses subordinate.” (p. 414]
The words are unmistakable—“one great empire”—the United States.
It is well to remember here the name of the firstfederal gathering of the American colonies in 1776: the“Continental Congress.” Why not “National Congress”?Or “American Congress”?
To those who began to organize the state, theirintentions were to dominate the entire continent. Itwas not for naught that the Americans fought wars withEngland for Canadian territories, and Mexico for whatis now about one-third of the American national terri-tory. Before the Mexican-American War of 1846-48,Arizona, California and New Mexico were part ofMexico. Before the war, Texas was part of Mexico, butTexans had set up their own country, the Republic ofTexas.
Americans wanted all of these lands, from the frigidforests of northern Canada to the tropics of southernMexico. Again, “empire.”
This does not mean that Marshall was speaking foreverybody when he said what he said; he was speak-ing for the wealthy, white elites of which he was a part.Millions of other people would have violently disagreedwith his “one people” argument. For millions of Blacks,millions of women, for millions of Indians, Chinese inthe mines of California, Mexicans in the Southwest,they knew they were not included or counted amongthe “one people” that Marshall claimed to speak for.
It’s been over 175 years since Marshall’s imperialdreams, and still he does not speak for everyone.There are millions of people who are just as opposedto that idea. Many of them stage demonstrationsagainst the war. Some of them stage protests againstthis deeply held notion of “empire.” They may feelcomfortable as part of a nation, but have no wishes tolord it over people in other parts of the world. Theywant to be neighbors, not masters.
They see themselves as people who want to helpheal the nation’s ills, before tackling the troubles ofthe wide and threatening world. They know that theirjobs aren’t safe; that their schools aren’t working; thattheir streets aren’t safe; and that their neighborhoodcops are out of control.
They know that the nation is in deep trouble. Theyhave no time for empire. ��
MUMIA SPEAKS An interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal from death rowColumns by the Black journalist on prisons, capitalism, politics, revolution and solidarity. Additional essays on the prison-industrial complex by Monica Moorehead, Larry Holmes and Teresa Gutierrez.Order from International Action Center, 39 West 14 St., #206 New York, NY 10011 $3
Page 4 May 8, 2003 www.workers.org
Need workers’ control
Airlines in tailspin
By Bill HackwellSunnyvale, Calif.
Hundreds of protesters from all over the Bay Area con-verged on the sprawling Lockheed Martin plant hereApril 22, blocking the three main gates for most of themorning.
Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest weapons pro-ducer. At the Sunnyvale facility, the company makesnuclear-tipped missiles for Trident submarines. LockheedMartin has played no small role in the death and destruc-tion carried out by the Pentagon against Iraq.
Lockheed Martin is incestuously connected to the Bushadministration. Eight of the current top policy makers inWashington used to be on Lockheed Martin’s payroll.They include Vice President Dick Cheney. Lynne Cheney,who was an official in the Reagan and first Bush adminis-trations and is married to the vice president, served onLockheed Martin’s board of directors from 1994 to 2001.
In the past two years alone this manufacturer ofweapons of mass destruction has received prime Penta-gon contracts totaling $30 billion, to, among other things,produce weapons systems using depleted uranium.
By Milt Neidenberg
One robber baron is down—but the sys-tem he represents goes on.
Donald J. Carty, chief executive officerof American Airlines—the biggest airlinecarrier in the world—has reluctantlyresigned. He and other top executives inthe industry were caught sticking theirgrubby, greedy hands into AA assets.
Gerard J. Arpey, a board of directors’favorite, is now CEO. He is a beneficiaryof the same freebies that Carty and theothers secretly grabbed.
Meanwhile, AA union members havesuffered mass layoffs and drastic cuts inwages and benefits. Work loads haveincreased immeasurably. Worker safetyhas been endangered.
In an airline crisis of unprecedentedproportions, AA workers had voted togive up $1.62 billion annually to save thecompany.
In stark contrast, Carty and seven topexecutives tried to take “retention”bonuses for the next two years worth upto twice their base salaries. Carty’s bonuswould have been more than $1.6 million,based on his salary of $811,000.
Infuriated by these obscene financialarrangements, the unions forced Cartyand others to forgo their bonuses. But thebosses refused to give up a trust fund theycontrol, which protects their pensionsregardless of what happens to AA—including bankruptcy.
Carty admitted that this trust fund wasbuilt up with a $41 million payment lastOctober—at a time when AA was losingmoney by the minute. When the leaders ofthe Allied Pilots Union, the TransportWorkers Union and the Association ofProfessional Flight Attendants found out,they withdrew their “yes” votes on therecent $1.62 billion in concessions.
Unfortunately, a few days later, thesesame union leaders called on a handful ofDemocrats to broker a settlement. Underthe threat of bankruptcy, the unionsagreed to reverse their decision and accept
the cuts with some minor sweeteners—although the flight attendants held out tothe bitter end.
Underneath the rock of greedand corruption
For a moment, rank-and-file angeragainst corrupt corporate leaders shookup a powerful corporation. It’s a lesson forother airline workers.
Similar disclosures have revealed thatDelta Air Lines and United Airlinespoured millions of dollars into specialpension trust funds and “retention”bonuses for management. Meanwhile,workers’ 401k and other pension funds areseriously under-funded, some nearlybankrupt. Regulatory filings will showthat all too many companies have set upprivately funded payouts for upper man-agement.
Recently, AA filed its annual proxystatement with the Securities andExchange Commission. Retention bonus-es were still there, along with the pensiontrusts. (New York Times, April 25)
This high-powered government regula-tory agency is supposed to provide over-sight against Wall Street swindles—including the widespread practice of cook-ing the books. But the truth is, they’re allemployed by the same ruling class, whichcovers up corrupt practices that exploitworkers and oppressed nationalities.
It is not only AA executives’ greedinvolved in doling out exorbitant pensionbenefits to themselves. Corruption is builtinto the system of capitalist exploitation.
Interlocking relationships among cor-porate heads and bankers allow them tomilk the corporations dry. Last year, J.P.Morgan Chase conspired with Enron toobtain hundreds of millions of dollars inillegal tax deductions that gave Enron’sexecutives enormous financial benefits.The bank was rewarded as well.
Recently, the SEC, in consultation withNew York Attorney General ElliottSpitzer, tapped the wrists of some of thebiggest investment companies with a $1.4
billion penalty. Some analysts say thesefines are chicken feed compared to the bil-lions investors lost because of conflict ofinterest violations. It’s comparable toprofits accrued in a few minutes by thegiant Wall Street firms.
SEC Chair William Donaldson revealedthe real reason: “to restore investors’ faithin the objectivity of research,” which iscode for luring small investors back to thestock market.
It’s too late. Millions of workers andmiddle-class people have lost their sav-ings, pensions, retirement funds, healthbenefits and other insurance plans in thestock market decline. Mass layoffs, plantclosings and bankruptcies have exacer-bated the crisis. The banks will continueto do business as usual and profit from themisery caused by corporate malfeasance.
If American Airlines goes into Chapter11 bankruptcy, Citicorp—a global bank-ing empire—will be the major under-writer to finance the bankruptcy. Thebank is now the beneficiary of the fre-quent flier miles program and a valuablecredit card business.
Edward A. Brennan, former chair ofSears Roebuck, is the new chair of the AAboard of directors. He also sits on theboards of McDonald’s, 3M, Excelon and,most important, Morgan Stanley—finan-cial advisor to AMR Corporation, which isthe parent of American Airlines. Philip J.Purcell, CEO of Morgan Stanley, sits onthe AMR board. Michael Miles, chair ofthe AA compensation board, whichapproved the handouts, sat with CEOCarty on the boards of Dell Computer andSears Roebuck.
The interlocking relationship amongboards of directors, CEOs and bankers isinherent in the system of monopoly cap-italism. They, together with the ownersof privately held companies, constitute aruling class, which oversees the capital-ist government and the current Bushadministration.
The U.S. global war plan is calculated tostrengthen this empire of high finance.
Many billions of dollars are pouring in tothe Pentagon occupation of Iraq and future mil-itary conquests, while tens of thousands ofairline workers are being laid off.
A job is a right!
The airlines, in the throes of collapse,show the same symptoms that led tocrashes in the steel, telecommunicationsand dot-com industries, and that nowthreaten the auto industry.
Overproduction in the boom years,reckless spending of billions of dollars toexpand, and too much debt have led to thecurrent debacle.
More than 1,300 airplanes stand idleand rusting in the Arizona desert. Fear offlying since Sept. 11, 2001, the invasion ofIraq and the emergence of Severe AcuteRespiratory Syndrome have exacerbatedthe crisis.
AA has now reported a first-quarter lossof $1.04 billion. Bankruptcy looms despiteworker concessions. If it happens, AA—the biggest airline in the world—will joinUnited Airlines, the second-biggest, inChapter 11 bankruptcy. Together with USAirways, this would place three out of sixof the major airlines in bankruptcy court.
United Airlines filed for bankruptcy inDecember 2002, while holding around$23 billion in assets. In bankruptcy, UALis no longer the owner of the property orthe assets. Legally, its status is that of adebtor—it owes about $22 billion—whichhas been granted possession to run theairline at the discretion of the bankruptcyjudge and an appointed trustee. UALexecutives are unable to sign a check, paya bill, or receive their salaries without thecourt’s signature.
The court approved the retentionbonuses and pension trust for the bosses.
The banks are brought in to lend thecompany—the debtor in possession—money to pay bills and reorganize theoperations. UAL lawyers point out that thelist of other creditors who want theirmoney fills 32,000 typed pages. (Wall
In the early morning hours, demonstrators lockedthemselves down at the Third Street gate. They also satin at the First Street and H Street entrances. Policearrested over 50 people.
At one point Sunnyvale police on horses charged the pro-testers at Third Street to separate them from those lockedtogether at the gate.
The protest was organized by several anti-war groups inthe South San Francisco Bay Area, including the South BayMobilization to Stop the War. This group, along withInternational ANSWER, has called for big protests whenPresident George W. Bush comes to Santa Clara on May 2to pat the arms merchants on the back. ��
Protest weapons of mass destruction
50 arrested at Lockheed Martin
WW PHOTO: BILL HACKWELL
Continued on page 10
www.workers.org May 8, 2003 Page 5
By Mike GimbelNew YorkExecutive Board Chair, Chapter 8,Local 375, AFSCME
Privatization of public services andattacks on public worker unions are part of a world-wide attack on publicownership.
Public worker unions at the federal,state and city level are now the largest sec-tor of organized labor in the United States.That is one reason why these unions arecoming under such huge attack.Whenever capitalism undergoes a seriouseconomic crisis, the ruling class views it asan opportunity to take back worker gains.
During an economic crisis when jobsare scarce, the ruling class uses the threatof unemployment to terrorize unions intomaking huge concessions. As an exampleof the current mentality of the U.S. rulingclass, the bosses at United Airlines stuckthe knife in a little deeper, after the unionsagreed to huge concessions, by votingthemselves huge bonuses.
While U.S. imperialism destroyed theinfrastructure of Yugoslavia and Iraq withbombs, it is destroying the infrastructurehere at home with massive cutbacks.Military aggression against our classabroad is being coupled with economicaggression against our class here at home.The wars against Yugoslavia and Iraq, andthe worldwide attack on public ownership,have come at a time of the greatest dis-parity in the distribution of wealthbetween rich and poor in U.S. history.
The capitalist economic crisis is drivingthe attack on workers here at home.Billionaire New York Mayor MichaelBloomberg demands sacrifices from thoseleast able to do without these public ser-vices and public jobs, while refusing toraise taxes on the wealthy, the corpora-tions and the banks that have gottenwealthy by exploiting the city’s workers.This attack flows directly from thenational economic policies of recentdecades of the “trickle-down theory,”which has only one purpose: shiftingwealth from the poor to the rich with noth-ing ever actually trickling down.
While huge tax cuts are given to the richand billions are siphoned off from thepublic infrastructure for military re-colo-nization of the world, the same big busi-ness politicians who voted away thesepublic funds claim there is no money forpublic schools, hospitals, zoos, libraries,public housing, daycare, etc. This attackon public services is taking place in virtu-ally every state and every city in the U.S.
What is the difference, in the finalanalysis, between bombing schools, hos-pitals and libraries in Iraq and closingschools, hospitals and libraries here? Ineither case, working people have lost pub-lic services that they cannot pay for out oftheir pocket as the rich can. As such, work-ers and working class communities arejustified in viewing these public assets asentitlements negotiated as part of a “class-wide contract,” just as if these entitle-ments were added benefits in individualunion contracts.
Workers’ pensions used to bail out city
In fact, there is even some legal basisunder capitalism to make this claim. InNew York City, the 1975 financial crisisresulted in massive cutbacks and the lossof 65,000 city worker jobs. The city wasactually broke. It could not pay either its
long-term or short-term obligations to thebanks. The banks, through the issuance ofthese bonds, were legally able to claim cityproperty as collateral. The 1975 crisis wasso serious, however, that the banksrefused to loan the city any more moneybecause they viewed these loans as beingtoo risky.
When the banks refused to loan the cityany money in 1975, the state and theunions created the Municipal AssistanceCorporation (Big MAC), backed by workerpension funds. They went back to thebanks and asked them to buy these MACbonds paying a higher rate of interest, butwith extended dates for payments. TheseMAC bonds are still being paid off today.
Since state funds and union pensionfunds were used to bail out the city, it cre-ates the possibility of using this as a com-munity/union legal claim to public prop-erty as collateral. Of course, the capitalistcourts will only view this community/union claim seriously if workers asserttheir claim by occupying the public prop-erty that is being closed.
Bloomberg is a multi-billionaire mediamogul. As head of a huge corporation, heis comfortable with giving orders and hav-ing them obeyed, not negotiating com-promises with trade union leaders.Bloomberg is a Wall Street “blue blood”determined to protect the corporate bot-tom line in the interest of the banks.
Bloomberg views public services in thesame way he would a private business: cutmoney-losing services so as to guaranteepayments to the bond holders. Workers,however, should not view these public ser-vices being cut as the foreclosed propertyof the banks, even though, under capital-ism, the banks have legal rights to theproperty.
In order to fight these cutbacks, work-ers ought to view this public property astheir personal property that is being fore-closed. We built and maintained thesepublic assets and invested our very work-ing lives in them as teachers, nurses, engi-neers, laborers, clerical workers, librari-ans, bus drivers and so on. Working peo-ple and working class communities are themain beneficiaries of these public assets.The banks only view public services as“cash cows,” looting tax money and masstransit fares for their own profit.
Who has the greater need for these pub-lic assets: the workers or the Wall Streetbanks? Do the rich send their kids to pub-lic school? Do the rich, when they get sick,depend on public hospitals? Do the richlive in public housing projects?
The Emergency Financial ControlBoard was created in 1975 along with “BigMAC.” The legislation that created theEFCB requires the city to have a balancedbudget. Today the city, unlike in 1975, hasoperating cash, but this provision forcesMayor Bloomberg to balance the city bud-get.
Bloomberg has decided to balance thebudget on workers’ backs and has put thecity unions in a “no win” position.Bloomberg threatens the unions thateither they agree to massive concessionsor he will lay off thousands of city work-ers. Concessions you lose, layoffs you lose.Bloomberg demands: choose one. But headds one proviso: that even if the unionsagree to huge concessions, he may stillhave to resort to layoffs anyway.
Mayor Bloomberg can be so arrogantbecause he has an ace up his sleeve. It iscalled the Taylor Law.
The existence of the Taylor Law illus-
trates the difference between private-sec-tor and public-sector bargaining. Public-sector unions bargain with the most pow-erful boss of all, the state, which has at itsbeck and call all the organs of state repres-sion: the police, the courts, the prisonsand even the state’s National Guardarmed forces. When the TransportWorkers Union raised going on strike, itwas threatened under the Taylor Law withmassive fines, not only on the union andits leadership, but on each individualunion member as well. If that threat does-n’t work, the state has the power to jailunion leaders, activists and individualmembers. In extreme cases, the NationalGuard can be called in to break the strike.
Public workers fight for community services
In the run-up to a public workers’strike, the ruling class tries to put theblame on the workers. But we should allbe aware that it is these very public work-ers that are the front-line of defense for thepublic services provided to the commu-nity. Public workers fighting to protecttheir jobs are fighting to protect this pub-lic property. The two go hand in hand.
This public property ought to be viewedas the personal property of every worker,public or private, unionized or non-union-ized, employed or unemployed, and as theproperty of the community, even if capi-talist law says it belongs to the banks.
Therefore, we ought to view the TaylorLaw as an attack on all workers and on thecommunity, because the only use of thislaw is to deny our class, and the commu-nity we represent, the ability to defend
Some 600 determined protesters marched on April 26 from Oakland’s Jack LondonSquare to City Hall to say no to police brutality. The demonstration was called by theInternational Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Alameda County Central LaborCouncil.
Many other unions and community groups also came out to demand that there be afull, independent investigation into the events of April 7, when members of theOakland Police Department opened fire with plastic bullets, wooden dowels and beanbags on a peaceful anti-war protest at the Oakland docks. Scores were wounded,many in the back, including nine members of ILWU Local 10 who were waiting to go towork. Many of those injured participated in the march, still showing deep bruises andbroken bones. ��
The attack on public workers' unions
Labor protests Oaklandpolice attack
WW PHOTO; BILL HACKWELL
these public assets through a job action. Itis this very Taylor Law that hamstringslabor from defending decades of hard-won gains for our community. Publicworkers are the indispensable soldiers indefending public schools, hospitals, day-care, libraries, zoos, parks, housing and soon.
This huge attack on public workers, allacross the country, is beginning to force arealization on both activist union mem-bers and union leaders of the need to shiftto the left. This became apparent in therun-up to the Iraq war. Just three monthsafter AFSCME District Council 37, whereI am a delegate in the delegate assembly,overwhelmingly tabled a motion againstthe war, these same delegates over-whelmingly and enthusiastically endorsedthe very same anti-war resolution.
Thus, a great opportunity for class-con-scious activist workers has arisen. Even atthe height of the Vietnam War it was veryhard to get even the mildest resolutionagainst the war passed. Today, everythinghas changed. In my lifetime I have neverseen such an incredible shift to the left. Itis truly breath-taking. If ever you wantedto plunge into work in the labor move-ment, now is the time. With the economiccrisis continuing to deepen, this shift inworker consciousness should continue todeepen.
I don’t see a tunnel, let alone a “light atthe end of the tunnel” of this economic cri-sis, and that portends a potential futurepolitical explosion on the part of labor.
Adapted from a speech to a WorkersWorld meeting in New York April 25. ��
Page 6 May 8, 2003 www.workers.org
Panic or deliberateorders?
Some reports attribute theshooting to panic by the U.S.troops, who are not used tobeing an occupying force andfeared they were under attack.But the fact is that the unit inquestion, according to the Post,had been “trained extensivelyin crowd control. About half thecompany involved at the schoolserved in Kosovo,” according to2nd Lt. Devin Woods.
The Los Angeles Timesreporter said a soldier told himthat “when he climbed up on the roof tohelp, he could not find a position becauseso many soldiers were lined up along theroughly 200-foot edge.”
It is important to note that this mas-sacre took place on the day that the newviceroy of Iraq, retired Gen. JayGarner—a war contractor, friend of theAriel Sharon regime in Israel, and closebuddy of Donald Rumsfeld—was meet-ing with a hundred or so would-be pup-pets and quislings in Baghdad. He wastrying to patch together some kind offigleaf transitional regime to cover forthe U.S. takeover of Iraq.
It is highly unlikely that any comman-der in the field would, on his own, permitor take responsibility for creating such amassacre, which could be viewed as amajor potential political embarrassment,at the very moment that Garner was try-ing to convince the public that the U.S. wasthere to help the Iraqis.
And it is even more unlikely that themilitary command in Fallujah wouldshoot at unarmed demonstrators twice in48 hours just when Rumsfeld was makinghis grand entry into Baghdad—unlessorders had been given.
If anything, the repression was timedfor Rumsfeld’s visit.
Two major capitalist newspapers haverevealed, for all who care to read, that theinitial massacre was a veritable ambush.Furious fire was unleashed indiscrimi-
U.S. troops fire on protesters
nately on the people with absolutely nowarning whatsoever, at close range. Thisact must show that similar demonstra-tions and acts of hostility and resistanceare occurring throughout the country, butare going unreported.
The massacre at Fallujah was a bloodymessage from Rumsfeld, Gen. TommyFranks and company that they will beruthless in trying to crush the resistance.
In other words, there is no embarrass-ment at the Pentagon or in Garner’s head-quarters in Baghdad. This was not bum-bling. This was not panic. This was aplanned massacre, just like the one inMosul. The U.S. high command soughtthis massacre. This is a continuation of thewar against the Iraqi people. It is pure mil-itary terrorism. As such, it is a symbol ofthe occupation.
Sign of political bankruptcy
But the massacre is also a symbol ofpolitical bankruptcy. The U.S. occupationcan only rule by force. But force alone willbe insufficient in the long run to hold backthe struggle. The masses of people areopposed to the occupation. They havefought in the past against British colonialoccupation. They will inevitably fightagainst the U.S. occupation. The anti-colonial hatred is burning underneath andwill result in resistance.
The U.S. military has destroyed the
independent state of Iraq. Ever since the1958 revolution that overthrew themonarchy and ousted imperialism, allsuccessive regimes–regardless of theirreactionary policies, and there weremany—have survived only because theyfought to keep the country from fallingback into the hands of imperialism andtried to develop Iraq into a modern soci-ety, raising the living standards and socialconditions of the masses far above whatthey had experienced under colonial rule.
Now U.S. imperialism has destroyedthat independent state. Robert Fisk,reporter from the London-basedIndependent, pointed out in an April 22interview on Amy Goodman’s Pacificaprogram, “Democracy Now!,” that 158Iraqi government buildings weredestroyed in the recent assault. These gov-ernment buildings and all the technicaland intellectual property in them were theproduct of decades of modernization andenlightenment necessary to build a devel-oped society.
George W. Bush, Rumsfeld, VicePresident Dick Cheney, Deputy DefenseSecretary Paul Wolfowitz and the entireright-wing cabal have shown that, con-trary to all the propaganda, they want aweakened, dependent Iraq, bereft of itsculture and history, and without anymeans to function as a state independentof imperialism. They want to reverse thehistorical process of the past 45 years atthe expense of 24 million people. But theyhave to first construct a colonial appara-tus and seize control of the oil and otherresources of Iraq.
Their prospects are dim. Reporter PhilReeves wrote from Fallujah in the LondonIndependent of April 30, “The language ofthe American forces is beginning to soundgrimly familiar. They complain of havingto shoot stone-throwers because the Iraqiyouths might–and did on one occasion inRamadi three days ago, they allege—throw grenades as well as stones.
“They describe people firing at themfrom within crowds of civilian demon-strators. They live in dread of car bombsand suicide attackers. They say that themajority of Iraqis like them but add thatthere is a small element lodged in the fab-ric of Iraqi society that is determined tomake trouble.
“This has all been said before, by theirallies, the Israelis, several hundred milesto the west. And no one has yet found asolution. Leaving the scene of this may-hem yesterday, one person’s words wereunforgettable. They came, not from a pro-tester or a gunman, but from the head-master of the school where this bloodshedhappened. Many of his students wereamong the protesters.
“When he heard of the shootings, herushed to the hospital to give blood. He isa quietly spoken man, but cloudy-eyedwith anger and grief. Now, he said calmly,he is willing to die as a ‘martyr’ to take hisrevenge against the Americans.” ��
pital bed. When asked why the crowd con-tinued to march after the warning shots,he said “It was a provocation. We couldnot stand idle. We have dignity andhonor.”
The Washington Post reported on April29 that “Iraqis interviewed at the hospitalinsisted it was a peaceful demonstrationand that no one was armed or throwingrocks. One wounded 18-year-old man,Aqil Khaleil, said U.S. soldiers opened firewithout warning.
“ ‘They waited until we came very close,and then they started shooting,’ he said.”
Edtesam Shamsudein said, “We weresitting in our house. When the shootingstarted, my husband tried to close the doorto keep the children in, and he was shot.”Her brother was killed. “Americans arecriminals,” she said.
Dr. Ahmed Ghanim al-Ali, director ofFallujah General Hospital, said therewere 13 dead, including three boys noolder than 10. “He said medical crewswere shot at when they went to retrievethe injured, which numbered 75 people,”reported the Post.
Numerous sources, including the LosAngeles Times, International TelevisionNews, the London Guardian and theIndependent, reported that while bulletholes riddled the walls of the row housesacross the street from the school, therewere no bullet holes at all in the schoolitself, which the U.S. claimed was underattack. The exception was the New YorkTimes, whose reporter was the only oneable to report bullet holes in his dispatchof April 29.
The Los Angeles Times observed that“the school’s walls did not appear tohave any bullet marks. … Across thestreet, the houses were pockmarked bygunfire. Huge holes were blown into theconcrete.”
This massacre is similar to the one thattook place in Mosul a week earlier, whenU.S. Marines killed 12 Iraqis demonstrat-ing against the occupation.
Law students honorarrested attorneyBy Leslie Feinberg
Commencement time has tradition-ally been the occasion for college anduniversity administrators to wax elo-quent about students blazing their ownintellectual trails in the world. But man-agement at the City University of NewYork Law School have revealed just howpatronizing and insincere that messagecan be.
Law students presented their dean witha petition, signed by more than half the2003 graduating class, nominating attor-ney Lynne Stewart for the “Public InterestLawyer of the Year” award. The honoreeof the award, which is bestowed at gradu-ation ceremonies, has traditionally beenthe students’ choice.
But Law School Dean Kristin Booth Glenrefused to accept the students’ decision.
Who is Lynne Stewart? She’s a pro-gressive attorney in New York who isknown for representing people who havea hard time getting a lawyer. Among herlegal clients was Sheik Omar AbdelRahman. Last April the governmentcharged Stewart with having passed mes-sages from the blind cleric, who was con-victed of leading the conspiracy behind
the 1993 bombing of the World TradeCenter, to his followers. This was sup-posed to have happened five years agowhile he was in prison.
Attorney General John Ashcroft flew toNew York to hail this great victory in hisbattle against terrorism.
On arraignment, Stewart pleaded“emphatically not guilty.” Her trial isscheduled for October.
By nominating Stewart for the award,the students demonstrated that they rec-ognize the repression behind the Bush-Ashcroft “war on terror.” They aren’t theonly ones. When the charges wereannounced last spring, many publiclychallenged why the government would siton purported “evidence” for four years.
Progressive lawyers and other support-ers packed the courtroom for Stewart’sappearance.
To charge a U.S. lawyer with providingmaterial support to a terrorist organizationin the course of legal representation is apolitical first. It sends an ominous messageto every lawyer considering whether or notto take a political case that’s unpopularwith the government—the heat could comedown on them, as well.
Several lawyers who specialize in civil
liberties criticized CUNY management’sdecision to revoke the student-selectedaward to Stewart.
Lynne Stewart’s comment on this strug-gle was: “I am obviously sincerely touchedand very honored by the students’ choos-ing me under the circumstances. The stu-dents seem to carry on a long tradition ofreminding institutions of their responsi-bilities. They are willing to take the risk,but Dean Glen apparently is not.”
The bravest of CUNY’s graduating classof young lawyers are not cowed by thepolitical police. The students say thecharges against Stewart are groundless—part of the trampling of civil libertiesunder the guise of an amorphous “war onterror.”
These students weren’t daunted by thedean’s veto, either. They announced plansto go ahead and award Stewart themselvesin the school’s auditorium, said KrisKraus, vice president of the students’criminal law society.
And some vow to wear tape over theirmouths at commencement to symbolizeattempts to silence them.
Free speech and independent thought?Maybe the administration didn’t realize somany students take the ideals to heart. ��
Continued from page 1
What courage! Unarmed Iraqis confront U.S. troops in Fallujah on April 30 aftertwo separate attacks on similar demonstrations had left 17 dead.
www.workers.org May 8, 2003 Page 7
By Sara Flounders
The U.S. government has demandedthe complete and immediate lifting of UNSecurity Council sanctions on Iraq.
For 13 years, a world movement againstthe sanctions had met total resistance bythe U.S. government, under bothRepublican and Democratic administra-tions. Why has Washington now reverseditself on this question? And how shouldthe world movement against sanctionsrespond to Washington’s new strategy?
First, it is important to understand theBush administration’s motives.
The UN Security Council now has con-trol over at least $30 billion, held in its Oilfor Food accounts, that was accumulatedby the sale of Iraqi oil during the sanctionsregime.
Since it militarily destroyed the gov-ernment, the U.S. has appointed itself theoverseer of Iraq and the force that willhand-pick a new government. But thesanctions keep the money from going toIraq. So the U.S. wants an end to sanctionsso that these billions of dollars can beturned over to a U.S.-administered gov-ernment in Iraq. It regards the money asplunder owed it for its criminal invasionand destruction of Iraq’s sovereignty.
In addition, billions of dollars of Iraqimoney have been frozen since August1990 in accounts around the world. Anend to sanctions could be a first step inmaking this money available to a U.S.-controlled “Iraqi government,” whichwould then turn it over to greedy U.S. cor-porations that have been awarded con-tracts for the “reconstruction” of Iraq.
The sanctions caused the deaths ofmore than a million and a half Iraqis,according to UN estimates. Should thegovernment that caused these deaths andlaid waste to Iraqi cities in a brutal war ofconquest now be trusted to administer thefunds it has so long withheld from theIraqi people?
It is essential to recognize that the U.S.or Britain have no right to any of theresources in Iraq. There is no justificationfor the tens of thousands of imperialisttroops occupying the country. It is crimi-nal, lawless aggression. Now the U.S. cam-paign to end the sanctions and turn thebillions in withheld Iraqi funds over toitself, the occupiers, is piracy in its mostblatant form.
Billions at stake
This issue of lifting the sanctions onIraq is shaping up as the next big con-frontation in the UN Security Council.
France, Russia and China allhave veto power over whether toend the sanctions. A number ofcountries on the Security Councilhave reminded Washington thatsanctions cannot be lifted until UNweapons inspectors confirm thatIraq has no weapons of massdestruction. This diplomaticallythrows in Washington’s face thesame fraudulent excuse that theU.S. government used for 13 yearsto continue the sanctions.
France has further enraged theBush administration by proposingthat civilian sanctions could be“suspended” for humanitarianreasons. By stating that it was notfor “lifting” sanctions, it wasreminding Washington that theweb of sanctions the U.S. had spungives the UN Security Council con-
trol over all of Iraq’s future oil revenues.This is also Russia’s position.
White House spokesperson AriFleischer rejected these views by statingcategorically, “The sanctions should belifted, not merely suspended. ... With theregime gone, the U.S. position is economicsanctions are no longer necessary.”
As long as sanctions officially remain inplace, the revenue from all Iraqi oil soldwill continue to be deposited into UNaccounts. Billions of dollars are at stake infuture contracts. The countries on theSecurity Council that had joined the U.S.in imposing sanctions are not so anxiousto turn these accumulated funds, the bid-ding on all reconstruction contracts, andthe future oil revenues over to the con-querors.
Of course, France may be all too willingto strike a quiet deal with U.S. imperial-ism for a share of these expropriated fundsand future contracts. France, it should beremembered, is also an imperialist powerwith global financial interests based onlooting the resources of developing coun-tries that were formerly part of its colonialempire. France has troops in a number ofAfrican countries.
This is part of the reason whyWashington does not want the UnitedNations involved in any way in Iraq. TheBush administration does not want anyother financial claims on its unilateraltheft.
Syria, a rotating member of the SecurityCouncil, stated that lifting sanctionswould “legalize the U.S. and British inva-sion.” It would give the U.S. “the right to
control Iraq’s oil and install a governmentit prefers.”
Meanwhile, the Bush administration isrushing to install just such a government.It reportedly plans by early May to putday-to-day control of the oil industry inthe hands of Iraqis appointed by the Bushadministration. They in turn will be underthe “civil” administration of retired U.S.Gen. Jay Garner. A former CEO of Shelloil company, Philip J. Carroll, will head anadvisory committee for the Iraqi oil indus-try. This committee is clearly where thereal decisions will be made.
Until it is clear who has legal title toIraq’s oil, it will be difficult for the U.S. tosell the oil on the world market. Before the1991 war, Iraqi oil revenue was more than$20 billion a year.
History of UN sanctions
It is worth reviewing the history ofU.S./UN sanctions imposed on Iraq, theirimpact and what is at stake today in thisnew and old debate.
In August of 1990, using its over-whelming power, Washington crafted andrammed through the UN Security Councilthe economic sanctions that have stran-gled Iraq over the past 13 years. The sanc-tions were defined as a measure to forceIraq to withdraw from Kuwait.
It should be remembered that on July25, before the invasion of Kuwait, U.S.
Ambassador April Glaspie had met withIraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Heinformed her that Iraq would take mea-sures against Kuwait if negotiationsfailed. The rich sheikdom had beenkeeping oil prices low and stealing Iraqioil by slant drilling under its land. Iraqwas in dire financial shape because of itswar with Iran.
Glaspie replied that Washington had“no opinion” on Iraq’s conflict withKuwait.
When Iraq did move into Kuwait, how-ever, the U.S. demanded and got from theUN the most extreme form of collectivepunishment ever imposed on an entirepeople.
Iraq could not sell its oil or any goods atall. It could not import anything. All itsfunds held in banks outside of Iraq—bil-lions of dollars from the sale of oil—werefrozen. With its funds frozen, without anytrade, credits or loans, the entire economyshut down. Inflation spiraled wildly out ofcontrol.
When the Pentagon started bombingin January 1991, its targets were chosento sharpen the deadly impact of thesanctions. The U.S. consciouslydestroyed the water, sanitation, sewageand pumping facilities, along with food-processing plants, pharmaceuticalplants and medical facilities. Epidemics
Behind Washington's demand to lift sanctions
Continued on page 10
These photos were taken during an Iraq Sanctions Challenge organized by the International Action Center.
WW PHOTOS: SARA FLOUNDERS
U.S./UN sanctions killed over amillion Iraqis, including manychildren.
ANSWER solidarity statement
‘Stop Bush’s new aggression against Cuba’
Page 8 May 8, 2003 www.workers.org
A case study in U.S. hypocrisy
Cuba, human rights and Guantanamo
today from U.S. aggression. This is espe-cially the case for Cuba, part of whosenational territory remains under U.S.military occupation. U.S. diplomatshave warned Cuba, along with Iran,Syria and North Korea, to “learn thelessons of Iraq.”
Over the past 43 years Cuba has suf-fered the loss of 3,478 of its citizens fromnumerous acts of terrorism, invasions,assassinations, assassination attempts,biological warfare and blockade. Thegovernment of one country has perpe-trated these illegal acts against Cuba: thegovernment of the United States.
The United States government hasimposed an economic and politicalblockade on the island nation for morethan 40 years, causing $70 billion dam-age to Cuba’s economy, and inflictingunnecessary suffering on the most vul-nerable in Cuban society. The U.S. mili-tary has continued to maintain andexpand its naval base at GuantanamoBay, a legacy of colonialism. Today, hun-dreds of people—including childrenunder the age of 16 years—are beingimprisoned and interrogated by the U.S.at Guantanamo with no recourse what-soever to due process.
Recently, a coordinated campaign ofaggressions and foreign subversionagainst Cuba has been revealed, indicat-ing the U.S. may be setting the stage fora renewed confrontation with Cuba.
The trial of the 75 Cuban individualsarrested in March uncovered the direct-ing role of the U.S. Interests Section inguiding, financing and organizing sub-versive actions against the Cuban gov-ernment. The U.S. Agency forInternational Development (USAID)has funneled some $20 million in sup-port to anti-government organizationsin Cuba as a part of this counter-revolu-tionary campaign. After the popular rev-
olution that overthrew the U.S.-backeddictatorship of Batista in 1959, the U.S.government has resorted to invasion,nuclear threats, biological and chemicalattacks, assassination attempts andmurders, CIA financed and organized“opposition,” and economic destabiliza-tion. For 40 years the overthrow of theCuban government has been a priorityfor U.S. policy makers. The Bush admin-istration’s goal is to carry out regimechange and replace the Cuban govern-ment with a puppet regime. It is a testa-ment to the popular support of theCuban government and its ability tostand up and confront U.S. aggressionthat the people of Cuba have successfullyrepelled overt and covert attempts torecolonize their country.
Over the past seven months, a seriesof seven armed airplane and boathijackings have occurred in Cuba—anexceptionally high number in such ashort time. The hijackings havetogether endangered the lives of hun-dreds of people. Thus far, the JusticeDepartment has failed to prosecute anyof the hijackers who arrived in the U.S.Despite having committed the terroristcrime of air piracy, several have beenreleased on bail.
At the same time, the U.S. InterestsSection has virtually stopped grantingvisas to Cubans applying for admissionto the United States. Under the 1995U.S.-Cuba Migratory Agreement, theU.S. agreed to grant 20,000 entry visasto the U.S. annually. The purpose of the1995 agreement was to assure a safe,legal and orderly immigration process.
However, from October 2002 toFebruary 2003, the first five months ofthe accord’s calendar year, only 505visas were granted to Cubans wishingto enter the U.S. This fact must beunderstood in conjunction with the
Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) of 1966,a law which uniquely accords Cubanimmigrants the right to U.S. residencyand financial assistance if they set footon U.S. soil. Cutting off legal channelsfor immigration, while the CAAremains in effect, serves as open invita-tion to Cubans to immigrate illegally tothe U.S. Non-prosecution of even thoseindividuals who hijack planes to get tothe U.S. means that the U.S. govern-ment is openly encouraging the mostdangerous forms of terrorism againstCuba.
As a fact of international law, whichrecognizes the rights of states todefend their sovereignty, Cuba is exer-cising its legal right and responsibilityto defend and protect its people againstforeign government subversion, terror-ism and other forms of U.S. aggression.
In light of these developments, andunderstanding the real dangers thatCuba faces from the U.S. government:
1. We demand that the Bush adminis-tration cease and desist from thecurrent campaign of attacks on theCuban people and government.
2. We call on the U.S. government toend its blockade against Cuba, to liftrestrictions on travel, and to end itsongoing multi-faceted war againstthe Cuban government.
3. We further call upon the Bushadministration to free the fiveCubans who are imprisoned in theU.S. for trying to stop Miami-basedterrorism against their people.
To become a signer of the above statement, write to InternationalANSWER at 39 West 14th St., NewYork, NY 10011, or go to the web sitewww.internationalanswer.org. ��
In response to intensified threats andslanders against Cuba by the Bushadministration, the InternationalANSWER coalition is circulating thestatement below, which has alreadyreceived thousands of signers.
We, the undersigned individuals andorganizations, view with great concernthe intensifying campaign of subversionand aggression against Cuba, directed bythe U.S. government.
We in the U.S. progressive and anti-war movement recognize our obliga-tion to expose and organize against theBush administration’s plans to over-throw the government of Cuba. Underthe rubric of the “war against terrorism”the Bush administration has aggres-sively embarked on a campaign to carryout the overturn of governments thatseek to maintain independent controlover their own land and resources. Atstake in Cuba are the considerablesocial and economic gains of the peo-ple made in spite of overwhelmingopposition from the government rep-resenting the most powerful country inthe world.
On April 7, James Cason, chief of theU.S. Interests Section in Havana and thetop U.S. diplomat in Cuba, declared, “Allof our allies agree that their policy goalin Cuba is, ultimately, the same as ours:the rapid and peaceful transition to ademocratic government characterizedby strong support for human rights andan open market economy.” He stated onthe same day, “The Administration’s toppriority is to promote a rapid, peacefultransition.”
Coming from a U.S. government rep-resentative, the meaning is clear: “tran-sition” translates to overthrow.
In the wake of the war on Iraq, thereis no corner of the world that is safe
By Leslie Feinberg
It is cruelly ironic that the warlords inWashington are cranking up chargesagainst Cuba about conditions for prison-ers. Because on one small chunk of theisland, illegally and imperiously occupiedby the Pentagon against the will of theCuban people since 1903, the UnitedStates operates a hell hole for its captives.
An estimated 664 people from 42 coun-tries, including Afghanistan and Pales-tine, have been hooded, manacled andtransported to Guantanamo since theUnited States started its war againstAfghanistan.
Some of those prisoners are as youngas 13.
Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. BarryJohnson refused to give the boys’ names,nationalities or ages. But take his word forit that conditions are top-notch: apart-ments, video games, math lessons andpsychotherapy. “I’m not sure where else inthe world—given their status as enemycombatants—they would get this type ofsetup, an environment designed to facili-tate their development.” (CharlotteObserver, April 27)
But the reality of conditions trickles out.
A U.S. military spokesperson recentlystated that the interned children are beinginterrogated because they “have potentialto provide important information.” (coun-terpunch.org, April 24)
On April 22, ABC quoted the comman-der of Camp Delta confirming that childprisoners are interrogated. JournalistMatt Biven writes: “What kind of interro-gations? That’s secret. But sleep depriva-tion and beatings are two common ‘tor-ture lite’ methods used at the camp.” (TheMoscowTimes.com, April 28)
Last September, Canadian PrimeMinister Jean Chretien announced he wastrying to obtain consular access to a 15-year-old Canadian-born youth reportedlycaptured on July 27, 2002, after beingseriously wounded. But U.S. officials havebarred any access by Canadian officials tothe boy, now 16, according to the April 28Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Amnesty International points out thatthe U.S. government is breaching theUnited Nations Convention on the Rightsof the Child: “Every child deprived of hisor her liberty shall have the right toprompt access to legal and other appro-priate assistance.” The internationallyaccepted definition of a child is anyone
under the age of 18.The United States has never ratified
that treaty.
Children are not children?
Utilizing Orwellian logic, DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld admits chil-dren are imprisoned at Guantanamo butdeems them “very, very dangerous” andtherefore “not children.”
That’s the official position: “Teenagersyounger than 16 being held at Guan-tanamo Bay are ‘not children’ and pose alethal threat that justifies detention, U.S.military chiefs insisted yesterday.” (TheGuardian, April 26)
This verbal sleight of hand is designedto distract from the fact that not one sin-gle person of any age being held in captiv-ity at Guantanamo has been charged withany crime whatsoever. They are all offi-cially “suspects.”
Camp Delta is a legal limbo enclosedby 17.4 miles of barbed wire fence fourlayers deep with 16 watchtowers. Anestimated $42 million of U.S. taxpayers’dollars have already been sunk into con-structing this concentration camp, andit’s not finished yet.
Captors do not call their captives pris-
oners of war. In a linguistic somersault,the Pentagon says they are “unlawfulenemy combatants” and therefore can’tseek the shelter of Geneva Conventions orother international humanitarian law.
They can’t petition international courtsfor relief from illegal captivity. U.S. courtshave ruled they have no jurisdiction.Detainees are not allowed to see familiesor lawyers. They are being held indefi-nitely. Journalists are not allowed nearthem.
Prisoners are caged in cells about six bysix feet, enclosed in heavy-gauge wiremesh, with a sleep shelf and a hole in theground for a toilet. They get only twoshowers and two 15-minute exercise peri-ods a week.
As many as 25 suicide attempts havebeen officially reported—more than half inthe last four months, according to theApril 17 Guardian Unlimited. For a pre-dominately Muslim population, this isstaggeringly high and confirms fearsabout torture techniques.
But Lt. Col. Johnson, in language takenstraight out of a Nazi propaganda hand-book, says these abysmal conditions aredesigned to “facilitate the development” ofthe children under his control. ��
www.workers.org May 8, 2003 Page 9
the new development, a huge sign at theentrance of the Zanón factory reads “ThisFactory Produces Under Workers’Control.”
In March, the police tried to gain con-trol of Zanón. They had to retreat in theface of workers’ resistance and over-whelming solidarity from the community.The workers at this plant have launched acampaign to gather 50,000 signatures ona petition asking the state to expropriatethe plant and make it state-owned underworkers’ administration.
Since the workers began to administerthe company, they have created 40 newjobs for those previously unemployed.They have purchased raw materials andthey have paid taxes, including for water,electricity and gas.
As presidential elections drew near, twojudges left over from the days of the mili-tary dictatorship of 1976 issued illegalorders for the military to occupy theBrukman factory. On April 18, under anew threat of eviction, five workers pre-pared to spend the night at the factory.
Heavily armed police attacked andevicted them.
Thousands of unemployed workers(piqueteros) and members of neighbor-hood assemblies responded, gatheringoutside the factory. They, too, sufferedrepression at the hands of federal police.
Pablo Kilberg is a supporter and orga-nizer with the Madres de Plaza de Mayo,the organization of courageous motherswho kept up a weekly demonstration fordecades after their children were “disap-
peared” during the military dictatorship ofthe 1970s. Kilberg says that the police hadno compassion for these women, now intheir 80s and 90s. They were surroundedby tear gas clouds and had to be rescuedby media vehicles.
Kilberg added that police used bothrubber bullets and live ammunition, andthat it was a miracle nobody died. Twentyblocks away from the factory, the policewent on a hunting mission. As a result, 120people were arrested and many werewounded.
The solidarity shown by other sectors ofthe population was immense. A few dayslater, in a demonstration against policebrutality and repression, more than30,000 people accompanied the Brukmanworkers. Among their supporters weremembers of parliament, political parties,the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Madres dePlaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora, Abuelas(Grandmothers) de Plaza de Mayo,human-rights organizations, more than25 popular assemblies, students and sev-eral organizations of piqueteros.
The workers at Brukman are commit-ted to continue the struggle until theyregain control of the factories. They havepromised to fight until the end.
The workers in Argentina who haveseized control of their work places havedemonstrated that they are capable ofadministering the factories, purchasingraw material, manufacturing their prod-ucts, paying themselves decent salariesand creating new jobs. The capitalists’main concern is that sooner or later theworking class will seize political powerand control its own destiny. ��
ARGENTINAARGENTINA..
Workers seize control of 150 plantsBy Alicia Jrapko
With 57 percent of the Argentinian pop-ulation now in poverty and with an officialunemployment rate of 30 percent, anunprecedented development has takenplace in this South American country.Workers have seized control over factoriesabandoned by their owners due to bank-ruptcy, “lack of profit” or instability.
Since 1998, workers have seized morethan 150 factories—in industries includ-ing food, metallurgy, car parts, printing,ceramic and textiles.
Fifty years ago, Argentina was consid-ered one of the most developed and indus-trialized economies in the Third World.Some 50 percent of its gross nationalproduct came from industry.
However, the neoliberal policies dic-tated by Washington, and implementedby the International Monetary Fund andother financial institutions for almostthree decades, have brought nothing butmisery to the Argentinean people.
The circumstances surrounding thetakeovers vary from factory to factory.
In some instances, workers haverequested the previous owners’ permis-sion to run the plant, paying rent in com-pensation as well as purchasing all meansof production.
In others, workers have formed coop-eratives and established a system of equalpay, with a democratic power structure ofdirect vote by general assemblies thatgather to discuss their problems and findsolutions.
Among the factories taken over byworkers, two companies have become asymbol of this new movement: the Zanónceramic factory in Neuquén and theBrukman textile factory in Buenos Aires,where most of the workers are women.
Brukman: ‘This factory underworkers’ control’
When the workers first took control ofBrukman, they wanted to negotiate withthe previous owners, but the owners neverresponded to their calls. As a testimony to
By John CatalinottoBerlin
Representatives from anti-war groupsin 22 countries met here April 25 to dis-cuss how to continue the movement thatarose over the past year to challengeWashington’s endless war on the people ofthe world.
It was the first meeting of the EuropeanCoordination since the U.S. militaryblasted its way into Baghdad and beganthe imperialist occupation of Iraq.
The Coordination is the part of theEuropean Social Forum that called forFeb. 15 demonstrations. Those protestsbrought more than 10 million people intothe streets of 600 cities worldwide to tryto stop the U.S.-British war of aggressionagainst Iraq.
The group consists of different politicaltendencies in diverse countries that cametogether to stop the war before it began.Its success stemmed from worldwiderevulsion against the Bush administra-tion’s open aggression.
The Coordination followed up with
more limited calls for internationalprotests on March 15, March 22 and April12 to protest the ongoing war and then theoccupation of Iraq.
At the Berlin meeting, almost all of thenearly 100 participants—representinggroups from most of Western Europe,Iran, Turkey, Philippines, the UnitedStates, Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt andLebanon—called for continuing the fightagainst the occupation of Iraq.
Larry Holmes of the InternationalANSWER coalition opened the Berlinmeeting. He set the tone—the need forcontinued struggle—in his report on theApril 12 demonstration in the UnitedStates.
Holmes stressed the need for solidar-ity with Iraqis resisting imperialist occu-pation.
He appealed to the rest of the world,and especially to the European move-ment, to continue their struggle—whichhe described as vitally important to thedevelopment of the movement within theUnited States.
A number of groups from oppressed
countries noted that the existence of astrong anti-war movement in Europeand the United States made a positiveimpression on the masses of people intheir countries. It helped the populationdifferentiate between the governmentsof the imperialist countries and the peo-ple, they said.
While all groups pledged to continuethe struggle, the next concrete act waslimited to a June 1 mobilization againstthe G-8 summit meeting at Evian,France. There the Coordination will holda meeting to protest the occupation ofIraq and continue the discussion aboutwhat to do next.
Other suggestions included a call by theGreek delegation for a future internationalday of struggle on Sept. 27, to coincidewith the date the Intifada started inPalestine. A Turkish delegation stated itwas ready to organize a Peoples’ Tribunalto try U.S. and British leaders for warcrimes. And there was also a call to boy-cott U.S.-made goods.
The fact that no further specific actionscould be agreed upon during the Berlinmeeting may have reflected that notenough time had passed after the U.S. mil-itary conquest for people to assess theimpact of the changed situation on theirmovements. ��
Anti-war groups meet in Berlin
War in Colombia/Made in U.S.A.Authors include: � Fidel Castro � Ramsey Clark � Rep. CynthiaMcKinney � Mumia Abu-Jamal � Manuel Marulanda � Stan Goff Teresa Gutierrez � James Petras � Roy Bourgeois � Gloria Gaitán Senator Paul Wellstone � Javier Correa Suarez � RebecaToledo
Int’l Action Center 39 W. 14th St., St. 206, New York, N.Y. 10011 2489 Mission St., Rm. 24, San Francisco, CA 94110www.iacenter.org $19.95
Workers took over the Brukmanceramics factory and created 40 newjobs. Then the police moved in.
PHOTOS: C. ESTUD. ESC. ARTE
Page 10 May 8, 2003 www.workers.org
Airlines in tailspin
t’s almost unimaginable that anyonewould manipulate the tragic deathof Laci Peterson to promote a reac-
tionary agenda. But the White House andmembers of Congress are trying to dojust that.
Peterson, nee Rocha, was eightmonths pregnant when she disappearedlast December. Police found her body inearly April in the San Francisco Bay. Herfetus was located a mile away—stillattached to the umbilical cord. The dis-covery evoked horror and rage in thehearts of women and all who stand upstrong against misogynist violence in anyform. Police arrested her husband as asuspect in her apparent murder.
Now the Bush administration and foesof abortion on Capitol Hill are trying toredirect the anger and revulsion at LaciPeterson’s tragic death into support for abill that would make a fetus a separateperson from the woman carrying it toterm. California state prosecutors haveannounced their intention to chargeScott Peterson with double homicide oftwo people and seek the death penalty.
In an April 25 White House mediaconference, spokesperson Ari Fleischerpressed Congress to pass the “UnbornVictims of Violence Act,” which estab-lishes penalties for harming a fetus in thecourse of a federal crime.
The bill, already introduced in theSenate, is soon to come before theHouse.
This bill, and the charge of doublehomicide, are attempts to define a fetusas a person protected under the 14th
Amendment, which bans any state fromdepriving “any person of life, liberty orproperty without due process of law.”
This lays the basis for outlawing abor-tions and criminalizing as murderersthose who perform them or receive them.
Women’s groups are outraged. EvenRep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., warns thatthis congressional move “has nothing todo with domestic violence or the severityof the crime. What they want to do underthe guise of domestic violence is lay thegroundwork for abolishing abortionrights. That is violence against women.”
From their own bourgeois vantagepoint, if the White House or Capitol Hillhad real compassion about LaciPeterson’s life, they would beef up lawsagainst harming pregnant women.
But real support for women’s lives,and remedies for violence againstwomen, take a grass-roots struggle.Violence against women is endemic in acapitalist society that promotes ideologi-cal justification for the inequality ofwomen. Real support for women wouldbegin with funding for battered women’sshelters and couples counseling, accessto decent jobs and education, affordabledaycare, and drug and alcohol programs.
And first and foremost, each womanneeds control of her own body—to havethe most profound and basic right todecide when and if to have children.
Using the terrible death of LaciPeterson to lay the basis for the abolitionand criminalizing of abortion is an addi-tional act of violence—an egregiouscrime against women. ��
S U B S C R I B ETO WORKERS WORLDSPECIAL TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION____ $2 for eight weeks (new subscription) ____ $25 for one year
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Street Journal, Dec. 10)These vendors and investors are unse-
cured creditors who will lose much of theirequity.
The powerful banks led by J.P. MorganChase and Citibank—the secured credi-tors—will lay claim to the UAL property ifthe loans are not paid.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy makes it moredifficult for airline workers to overcomethe collusion between UAL—a bankruptairline—and the banks that are protectedby the bankruptcy court.
But it also opens up the opportunity tochallenge them and the bankruptcycourt’s decisions that threaten the work-ers’ jobs and benefits.
Clearly, the hundreds of thousands ofUAL union members should lay claim toownership. They are the principal credi-tors. They built the company with theirexperience, skills and sacrifices. What
they gave up in lost wages, pensions, sev-erance and other benefits is deferredincome.
It amounts to loans to the company—atotal of $12 billion over the next five years,or $2.4 billion annually. The workers havethe right to run the company. It won’t hap-pen without a struggle against the ruling-class conspiracy.
United Airline workers, particularlyflight attendants, have made a tirelesseffort to educate their members about thesefacts. They have formed Airline WorkersUnite ([email protected]).
Their most recent communicationdeclared that the members have the rightto run the airlines and proclaims that “ajob is a property right.”
Holding assets during bankruptcy is acommon practice of the banks. It’s timefor airline workers to recognize that theassets belong to them—and to take a cuefrom their 1930s forerunners by fightingfor workers’ control. ��
of cholera, typhoid and measles erupted.Within months, tens of thousands ofIraqi children were dead from polluted,untreated water.
At the end of the massive U.S. 40-daybombing campaign, Iraq withdrew fromKuwait. This should have ended the rea-son for the UN sanctions. But as a condi-tion of the cease-fire, the U.S. demandedthat sanctions remain until the UNSecurity Council had confirmed that Iraqhad destroyed any unconventionalweapons it may have obtained.
This became the excuse for a protractedstruggle to demand the right to send thou-sands of inspectors into Iraq to confirmthat Iraq had no such weapons. Wholeindustries necessary for any modernindustrialized country to function wereblown up, including chemical plants andplants making fertilizers and pesticides.Despite over 9,000 inspections, the con-tinuing threat of U.S. veto has kept thesestarvation sanctions in place for 13 years.
The campaign against sanctions
From its very inception in 1991, theInternational Action Center waged a cam-paign to end the sanctions on Iraq. FormerU.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, thefounder of the IAC, in an effort to bring
world attention to the impact of sanctions,made the difficult trip to Iraq every yearwith fact-finding delegations. He wrote anInternational Appeal to End Sanctions onIraq that was signed by a number of worldleaders, along with international humanrights groups and peace organizations.
The appeal characterized sanctions as aweapon of genocide and a “crime againsthumanity,” as defined by the NurembergPrinciples. The appeal was translated intomany languages and became the basis ofa series of international peace conferencesin London, Rome, Athens, Madrid, Tokyo,New York and San Francisco.
By 1995 a UN Food and AgricultureOrganization report confirmed that567,000 children under the age of five haddied as a direct result of the continued UNsanctions. A growing global mobilizationdemanding that sanctions be lifted cre-ated a radical shift in world public opin-ion.
As world outrage mounted, the U.S.shifted its public relations approach. In anattempt to give a humanitarian cover to itsbrutal policy, it pushed through the Oil forFood Program. This program allowed Iraqto sell a limited amount of its oil and buyfood and medicine from the revenue. TheUN Security Council, under a special com-mittee called the 661 Committee, wouldcontrol all the revenue and review every
Continued from page 7
Continued from page 4
Washington’s demandto lift Iraq sanctions
I
The bomb stops here
Every commentary coming fromthe U.S. establishment aboutNorth Korea’s nuclear program,
whether it be from government officialsor the moneyed media, assumes that thesafety of the world depends on thePentagon keeping, as much as it can, amonopoly on nuclear power. Only theprudent generals, their sagacious politi-cal handlers, and the military’s self-effac-ing servants in the world of business canbe trusted to be the caretakers of thisawesome technology.
After what these gentlemen just did toIraq with “conventional” weapons, cananyone still view the military-industrial-political establishment in this imperialistcountry as exercising either restraint orany semblance of humane judgment?
The “preemptive” aggressors inWashington wanted to show the worldthat they had a vast array of weaponsthat could bring down the government ofany but the most technologicallyadvanced countries in the world. Theywent about it methodically, stepping upthe carnage as the Iraqi people showedtheir will to resist conquest. They usedlaser-guided missiles, squads of attackplanes, the largest conventional bombsever built, death-dealing helicopters andtanks, and coordinated it all from satel-lites and remote command posts.
What message did this send to coun-tries around the world that refuse toknuckle under and become colonial sub-jects to the world’s lone “superpower”?
That they had better be prepared todefend themselves. If they don’t want
war, they need a good defense.In all the years, more than half a cen-
tury, that the Pentagon has built up itsnuclear arsenal—at a cost of nearly $6TRILLION for a total of over 70,000nuclear warheads, according to theBrookings Institution—it always claimedthis was needed to defend the people ofthe United States and DETER WAR. Ifthe U.S., separated by vast oceans fromany possible adversary, and possessingthe most advanced military in the worldby far, needs nuclear weapons to be safe,then don’t the smaller, poorer countriesit has targeted as its “enemies” needthem a thousand times more?
If the idea is that having nuclearweapons will deter others from attackingyou, then aren’t there dozens of countriesin the world right now that desperatelyneed them to feel safe, especially sincethe Bush administration has spelled outits doctrine giving it the right to attackanyone at any time?
Nuclear weapons are a horror. Theworld will not be safe until all of themare gone. But getting rid of them has tostart with the power that brought theminto the world, has amassed the costliestand most deadly arsenal, and uses thethreat of them to advance the imperialagenda of the greedy transnational cor-porations and banks.
That’s a job for the people of theUnited States. If we want a peacefulworld, we have to start right here—andnot blame the Koreans for trying todefend themselves. ��
E
A ploy against women
www.workers.org May 8, 2003 Page 11
By John BeachamLos Angeles
A threatened general strike in SouthKorea has forced the government toabandon its plans to privatize the rail-roads there. How did the workers ofSouth Korea achieve the great strength,militancy and unity needed to win such aprofound victory?
On April 17, Dr. Chun Soonok, the sis-ter of South Korea’s most famous labormartyr, spoke here in Los Angeles aboutthe long history of workers’ struggle in hercountry.
Her brother, Chun Tae-il, set himself onfire on Nov. 13, 1970, during a garmentworkers’ demonstration in a crowded cen-tral Seoul wholesale market. Chun firstburned a copy of the South Korean gov-ernment’s Labor Standards Law. He
yelled, “Obey the labor laws!”He then lit his gasoline-soaked clothes
on fire, shouting, “We are not machines!”He died a short while later.
Chun, a garment worker who had triedfor years to get the government to abideby its own labor laws, immolated himselfto protest the illegal working conditions inSouth Korea’s sweatshops. In 1970, tens ofthousands of garment workers, mostlyteenagers, worked 14 to 20 hours a day inpoorly lit and inadequately ventilated fac-tories. If they were fortunate, they weregiven two days off a month.
According to Dr. Chun Soonok, who hasdedicated her life to the Korean workers’struggle, the garment workers’ daily wageequaled the price of a cup of coffee.
Chun Tae-il’s sacrifice fueled andinspired one of the most militant and per-sistent labor movements of the post-World-War-II era. His death is commem-orated with massive demonstrations everyyear, second only to May Day in theirimportance to workers in Korea.
The 500,000-strong KoreanConfederation of Trade Unions acknowl-edges Chun’s act as the crucial impetus fora national labor movement that has per-severed and grown strong under a succes-sion of pro-corporation and U.S.-backedgovernments.
A sister fights on
Dr. Chun Soonok spoke at the officeshere of the Korean Immigrant WorkersAdvocate. She has been touring the UnitedStates to promote the recent English edi-tion of “A Single Spark: The Biography ofChun Tae-il,” a work she translated.
A former garment worker herself, shehas a doctorate in Industrial Relationsfrom the University of Warwick inEngland. Instead of working in academia,in 2001 Dr. Chun went back to work in thegarment industry in South Korea in orderto investigate current conditions.
She said: “The conditions have notchanged much. Many middle-agedwomen who have been working all their
lives in the garment industry have noth-ing to show for it. They still work 12- to 14-hour days.”
The only thing that has changed in theSouth Korean garment industry is theworkers’ demographic. As in many otherplaces in the world, the garment workersare now mainly immigrants. Many areolder workers. The factories, instead ofbeing located in a central market, are hid-den throughout the country.
Recently, Dr. Chun has set up a centerfor women workers in Seoul. But she seesthe workers’ struggle there as somethingthat has implications far beyond Korea.One of her main reasons for translatingher brother’s biography is so that theworking class in the West will take hopefrom both her brother’s story and the vig-orous movement that he inspired. ChunTae-il sparked a labor movement that hasbecome one of the most feared progressivemovements in the world.
The struggle continues
The struggle is not over. As Dr. Chunpointed out, policies of the InternationalMonetary Fund and the World TradeOrganization in Asia and the rest of theworld since the crisis of 1997 have forcedbig corporations in South Korea torestructure their labor market, squeezingthe workers and their unions. Temporary
Sister of martyred garment worker
S. Korean tells of fierce labor struggles
employment is replacing secure employ-ment. Temporary employees, as workersin the United States know quite well, getfew if any benefits and can be hired andfired at whim. Currently, 57 percent of theSouth Korean labor force is made up oftemporary workers.
Yet the workers of South Korea con-tinue to mount fierce resistance to theinternational and national bosses. OnApril 20, a threatened general strikehalted the government’s attempt to pri-vatize the country’s railway system. TheDaegu City Bus Workers Union hadalready gone on strike, paralyzing thecountry’s third-biggest city. Massivehunger strikes, demonstrations andstrikes are the order of the day in SouthKorea.
Thus far, the workers of South Koreahave staved off much of the attacks uponlabor that IMF policies engendered.
Dr. Chun put it to her audience simplyand eloquently: “Workers in Americahave the same problem: we are all work-ers and we are all exploited by world cap-ital. The reason I wanted to share mybrother’s life and the Korean workers’struggle with the workers of England andAmerica is that we need inspiration andinternational solidarity to overcome allthe workers’ problems and to fightexploitation.” ��
contract for supplies that Iraq wouldreceive.
Out of these severely restricted oilsales, Iraq would also have to pay repara-tions to Kuwait and a host of other claimsarising from the U.S. destruction andbombing in the 1991 war. From January1997, when this program began, to the endof 2001, Iraq was able to sell approxi-mately $50 billion worth of oil. All thismoney was deposited into a UN-con-trolled account. Iraq received less than 25percent of this amount for the purchase offood and medicine, amounting to lessthan 22 cents per day per person.
Some 34 percent of the Iraqi Oil forFood revenue went to the Kuwaiti monar-chy and other “victims” of the 1991 war.ExxonMobil received $200 million in“war reparations” from the Oil For Foodfunds, which were supposed to feed starv-ing Iraqi children. Billions of dollars alsowent to the UN to administer this pro-gram. A multi-billion-dollar bureaucracywas created that guaranteed lucrativecontracts to many countries.
For the past six years the U.S. andBritish representatives on the 661Committee have denied, delayed orobstructed most of the contracts submit-ted by Iraq. Under U.S. pressure the com-mittee denied over 90 percent of Iraq’scontracts for the repair of water/sewagetreatment and irrigation projects.
Because of this continual obstruction,billions of dollars from oil sales werenever released for Iraq’s desperate needsbut continued to be held in UN accounts.These funds, along with future oil rev-enue, is what U.S. corporate power wantsundisputed control over.
The world movement to end the sanc-tions on Iraq is in essence a movement tostruggle for the right of the Iraqi people tocontrol their own resources. The sanc-tions have been a crime against humanityand an assault on the national sovereigntyof every developing country. They must belifted.
But the U.S. occupiers of Iraq todaymust not be allowed to continue theirimperialist plunder in another form. Theanti-war and anti-sanctions movementmust demand that U.S. troops get out,along with their hand-picked stooges. Itmust defend the right of the Iraqi peopleto control their own resources. Not onepenny from Iraq’s oil should go to thecriminal U.S.-occupation regime.
Sara Flounders is coordinator of the IraqSanctions Challenge and a co-director ofthe International Action Center. ��
Dr. Chun Soonok tells L.A. meeting of the struggle and sacrifice that have builtSouth Korean unions. PHOTO: MINJOK-TONGSHIN
¿CUAL ES EL PRÓXIMO PASO PARA
EL MOVIMIENTO EN CONTRA DE LA GUERRA?
Participe en una discusión con líderes comunitarios y con líderes del movimientoen contra de la guerra para comenzar a:
�Entendiendo Irak y los EE.UU de una perspectiva histórica
�Conectar el movimiento en contra de la guerra de Irak con la solidaridad con Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela y toda América Latina.
�Hablar sobre el imperialismo norteamericano: donde será el próximo ataque: ¿Siria, Corea, las Filipinas o América Latina?
�Conectar la lucha del movimiento en contra de la guerra con la lucha por trabajos y servicios sociales.
SABADO1100deMAY03:30P.M.
2005 AMSTERDAM AVE• NYCEntre las calles 159 y 160Tome el tren #1 o el 9
a calle 157Sponsored by/ Iniciado por:Dominican Workers Party, Fuerza de la Revolución;Partido de los Trabajadores DominicanosInternational Action Center, Centro de AcciónInternacional (IAC); New York A.N.S.W.E.R. ;Unidad del Pueblo y San Romero of the AmericasChurch, Iglesia San Romero de las AmericasFor more information call / Para más información o para endosar llame al: 212.633.6646
PRESENTACIÓN ESPECIAL DEL VIDEO:Voces de Latinoamérica en contra de la agresión de Estados Unidos en Irak.Mensajes de solidaridad al pueblo deIrak de prominentes líderes y activistasLatinoamericanos. �Hebe de Bonaffinide Argentina, �Evo Morales de Bolivia,�Daniel Ortega de Nicaragua, �lideressindicales de Colombia, así tambiéncomo del �Presidente de VenezuelaHugo Chávez y muchos mas!
SATURDAY
MAY103:30 P.M.
2005 AMSTERDAM AVE• NYCBetween 159th & 160th Sts.
Take the 1or the 9to 157 St.
What is next forthe ANTI-WARMOVEMENT?
Come to a special Washington Heights meeting with featured speakers:
RAMSEY CLARK former U.S. Attorney General
REV. LUIS BARRIOS John Jay College & San Romero Churchand other invited speakers
Join community leaders and anti-war activists in a discussion about:�Understanding U.S. and Iraq
from a historical perspective.�Connecting the anti-war movement on Iraq
with solidarity with Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela and all of Latin America.
�U.S. imperialism: Where will it attack next— Syria, Korea, the Philippines or Latin America?
�Connecting the fight for jobs and social services with the anti-war movement.
Por Teresa GutiérrezCaracas, Venezuela
Un cambio revolucionario está cubri-endo a este país, a un año luego de que ungolpe de estado apoyado por los EstadosUnidos capturara al Presidente HugoChávez Frías y pusiera una junta empre-sarial en su lugar, junta que fue derrocadapor el pueblo y sus militares, reinsti-tuyendo a Chávez en 48 horas.
Delegados internacionales tuvieron laoportunidad de sentir el pulso de estecambio social durante los días del 10 al13 de abril en el Encuentro Mundial deSolidaridad con la Revolución Bolivar-iana, celebrado aquí en la ciudad capital.
Más de 5000 personas asistieron a esteexcitante foro. Entre ellos se encontrabancientos de delegados internacionales detoda la América Latina, como también deInglaterra, Alemania, Canadá, España ylos Estados Unidos.
Cuba envió más de 150 personas a laconferencia, incluyendo a parientes de loscinco prisioneros políticos cubanosdetenidos en las cárceles de los EstadosUnidos. En más de una ocasión, la con-ferencia estalló con la consigna de “¡Cuba si, Yanqui no!”. Los organizadoresdel evento sostuvieron varios talleres para discutir no solo los acontecimientosen Venezuela sino también eventosmundiales.
Los venezolanos y los participantes delexterior denunciaron la brutal agresión delos Estados Unidos contra Irak y expre-saron una profunda solidaridad con elpueblo iraquí. Los organizadoresincluyeron en la ocupada agenda de tresdías una manifestación como parte de loseventos contra la guerra el 12 de abril. Unaconsigna muy popular fue, “Irak, aguanta,el mundo se levanta”.
Caracas ha sido por mucho tiempo unaciudad a la vez de gran riqueza pero tam-bién de gran pobreza. Un sentimientoexpresado repetidamente por muchosvenezolanos en el foro fue que por primeravez, venezolanos pobres, obreros y de tezobscura pueden entrar al Teatro TeresaCarreño, donde tomaron lugar la mayoríade los eventos. Este era concurrido solopor la oligarquía.
El teatro representó, aunque solo deuna pequeña manera, lo que está pasandoen Venezuela hoy.
Chávez elegido por el pueblo
En 1997, antes de que Chávez fueraelegido, el 67% de los venezolanos gana-ban menos de $2.00 al día. El treinta y seispor ciento ganaba menos de $1.00 al día.
A pesar de vivir en una nación rica enpetróleo, la gran mayoría del pueblo—el80%—vivía en la pobreza. Más del 60% delas tierras fértiles pertenecía al 1% de lapoblación.
Por lo tanto no fue sorprendente quecuando Hugo Chávez llevó a cabo unacampaña presidencial en 1998 y de nuevoen el 2000, prometiendo grandes cambiospolíticos y económicos, su candidatura fue
muy bien recibida por elpueblo de Venezuela.
Venezuela, una nación de24 millones de habitantes,está actualmente pasandopor una profunda transfor-mación de gran significadohistórico. Es una transfor-mación que está íntima-mente conectada a un extra-ordinario movimiento de lasmasas populares.
Este es un desarrollo que se ha ganadola ira de Washington pero el apoyo de mil-lones de personas en toda América Latinay de otras partes del mundo.
Este año, el 11 de abril, mientras elpueblo y el gobierno conmemoraban elatentado de golpe del 2002, el TeatroTeresa Carreño perteneció al pueblo. Fueun símbolo del Movimiento Bolivarianorevolucionario que se esta gestando encada una de las ciudades y poblados deVenezuela.
Por primera vez en la historia deVenezuela, un gobierno y un movimientoestán en el poder defendiendo la sober-anía de Venezuela contra las garras de losbancos y de la dominación esta-dounidense. Un movimiento y un gob-ierno que dan prioridad a las necesidadesdel pueblo por encima de las prioridadesde la pequeña élite.
Muchos de los oradores en la conferen-cia dieron detalles de los eventos de abrildel 2002. Un video mostró cómo losderechistas pro Estados Unidos, pensaronque habían dado marcha atrás a la histo-ria cuando llevaron a cabo el golpe paraderrocar al Presidente Chávez.
El Alcalde de Caracas, Freddy Bernaldescribió el drama vivido por el pueblo, elgobierno y los “golpistas”. El video mostróal Presidente Chávez diciéndole a lasfuerzas armadas venezolanas que él nohabía renunciado a su presidencia y quenunca lo haría. El video también mostrócómo la mayoría de las fuerzas armadasfueron completamente influenciadas porel pensamiento progresista de Chávez yconcluyeron en la organización de un plande rescate para reinstaurarlo a la presi-dencia.
También se pudo ver la congregacióndel pueblo frente al Palacio PresidencialMiraflores, exigiendo el regreso de supresidente popularmente elegido. En dosdías, el golpe fue derrotado.
Después de la película, Chavéz, enbroma, dijo a los participantes en la con-ferencia, “Pensé que iba a tener por lomenos un fin de semana para leer un libroo ver un video”.
El alcalde Bernal describió cómo en esedía fatídico, mientras él y sus compañerosestaban calculando qué hacer, decidieronen un momento dado aceptar el encarce-lamiento en vez de entregarse al gobiernogolpista.
Bernal había dicho, “Yo sé que la gentenos va a rescatar de la cárcel algún día.Puede tomar uno o dos años, pero ven-drán por nosotros”.
No había manera de saber ni el alcaldeni el Presidente Chávez, que el pueblo deVenezuela iba a tomar el destino en suspropias manos.
En menos de 48 horas, el pueblo rescatósu gobierno popularmente elegido, de lasgarras de los contrarrevolucionarios ypara siempre tomó su merecido lugar enla historia.
Las masas convergieron en Mirafloresdesde todos los rincones de Caracas y detodas las regiones del país. Vinieron entaxi, autobús, carro –pero mayormente apie. No esperaron que ninguna organi-zación, partido o persona les dijera quéhacer. Instintivamente, dominaron a losderechistas y para siempre cambiaron elcurso de la historia.
El 13 de abril, los golpistas y sus auspi-ciadores en Washington quedaron enridículo.
A los imperialistas una vez más les fuerecordada una lección valiosa: cuando elpueblo está inspirado, cuando la concien-cia de clase ha sido despertada, cuandosienten el sabor de la liberación, no haymanera de forzarlos a retroceder.
Esto es lo que está pasando actualmenteen Venezuela. Después de la dulce victo-ria de retomar a su presidente, y despuésde superar una huelga patronal, el pueblovenezolano sabe lo que significa flexionarsus músculos.
Y esos músculos se están volviendo másfuertes.
A través del país, los más pobres–incluso los que no saben leer ni escribir,estudiantes, mujeres, los venezolanos de herencia africana, trabajadores– están todos participando en cambiar aVenezuela.
Las organizaciones populares conoci-das como los Círculos Bolivarianos seestán apoderando de escuelas, limpiandoy reparándolas, y encontrando maestrosvoluntarios para subir el nivel educativode todos.
Los estudiantes al igual que sus padresestán tomando clases de videografía parasubir su nivel tecnológico. Estas leccionesde video están bien utilizadas, por ejem-plo para documentar los muchos proble-mas de las comunidades, como las inun-daciones. Los videos después son entre-gados a la agencia gubernamental perti-nente para que se hagan las debidas cor-recciones.
Estaciones de televisión y de radioestán siendo desarrolladas para las comu-nidades populares. Esto es de sumaimportancia puesto que muchos de los
Reporte desde el Foro de Solidaridad de Caracas
Un cambio social está corriendo por Venezuela
medios informativos todavía pertenecen alas fuerzas partidarias a los ricos y a losanti-Chavistas, las cuales lanzan un alu-vión constante de propaganda antiguber-namental. Están haciendo el intento dedespertar pánico y miedo entre las masas.Hora tras hora, difunden propagandaanticubana. Los derechistas están inten-tando amedrentar al pueblo venezolanopara que no construyan una sociedad sim-ilar a la cubana. La sola idea de educacióny servicios de salud gratuitos para todo elmundo es una gran amenaza para losespeculadores apoyados por los EEUU.
A través del país, los venezolanos estánparticipando en debates y diálogosmasivos sobre su sociedad así como sobreeventos mundiales.
Al caminar por las calles de Caracas seoye a todo el mundo condenando la agre-sión de los EEUU. contra Irak.
Parece que todo el mundo en el paísha memorizado la nueva Constitución dela República Bolivariana de Venezuela,una legislación ampliamente discutida yvotada por el pueblo. Es muy progresistay mucho más democrática que la de losEEUU. Garantiza los derechos humanosy civiles del pueblo indígena, de mujeres,de lesbianas y gays, y de todos los sec-tores anteriormente privados del dere-cho al voto.
Durante la conferencia, cuando losoradores se dirigían a la cuestión de laConstitución, los venezolanos mostrabansu librito azul dejando ver que un granporcentaje del pueblo siempre la llevaconsigo.
La conferencia terminó con un actopolítico masivo al aire libre en una de lasavenidas principales de la ciudad. Miles depersonas salieron para escuchar alPresidente Chávez que habló por variashoras.
Nadie puede predecir como los sucesosse van a desarrollar en Venezuela. Laadministración de Bush no ha parado suretórica hostil contra Chávez. Venezuelaes una nación con grandes riquezas petrol-eras y su gobierno y su pueblo saben bienque esto significa que el imperialismosiempre va a mirar sus valiosas reservasnaturales con ojos codiciosos.
Los delegados internacionales dejaronbien claro, sin embargo, que los movi-mientos antibélicos y de solidaridadapoyan entusiasmados a la RevoluciónBolivariana.
Todos saben bien que si el pueblo vene-zolano y su liderato logran construir exi-tosamente una nueva sociedad popular,sería un gran avance para el mundoentero.
Sería una victoria para todos los pueb-los que luchan contra el yugo del imperi-alismo estadounidense. Sería también untremendo apoyo para la RevoluciónCubana.
Desde Irak hasta las Filipinas, desdeSeúl hasta Nueva York, el triunfo de laRevolución Bolivariana será un triunfopara los trabajadores y los oprimidosalrededor del mundo. ��
