People Before Profit blog

Germans on the march against reforms

Fri, 27 Aug 2004 05:04:00 +0000

BERLIN — People are suddenly on the march again. The government’s “reform package” known as “Agenda 2010,” but especially its cruelest item, the jobless reform law, has shaken German working people and especially the jobless out of apathetic attitudes of “Wait and see!” or “You can’t change things anyway.” Tens of thousands have been marching.

The government coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens first passed a law “reforming” medical care, introducing fees for medical and dental visits, increasing costs for dentures and other medical aids and sharply increasing prices for medicines. That caused plenty of grumbling.

Pensions were cut, while taxes on pensions increased. Factories, which won the 35-hour workweek after a big strike 20 years ago, had to return to 40 hours under threat of moving to worse paid areas to the east. Some went up to a 42-hour week. Christmas and vacation pay were cut. Then came the decision to push the “longtime jobless” from the present compensation level (about 54 percent of former pay) down to welfare payment levels, about 350-375 euro a month (less in eastern than in western Germany). With almost 20 percent jobless in eastern Germany (well over that in some areas), with whole towns and regions stripped of the former GDR industrial network, this would mean cutting perhaps 1.5 million people to subsistence level on Jan. 1.

But even the welfare payments will be conditioned on financial status. What made the pot boil over, especially in the east, was the 16-page questionnaire now being mailed, which demands an incredible amount of personal financial information.

Anything above the permissible level would be subtracted from the measly payments. Countless people wondered whether their little flower and vegetable gardens would have to be sacrificed, whether they would be forced to move to more cramped flats and whether the savings for their kids’ college were endangered. Finally, these many fears turned to anger. Starting earlier this month in Magdeburg and Dessau, the demonstrations spread and grew, involving tens of thousands around eastern Germany and some in western Germany as well.

Worrying government leaders most is that on Sept. 19 state elections are scheduled in Saxony and Brandenburg, the most important East German states. In Saxony the Christian Democrats rule alone — but in the opposition, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) already outnumbers the Social Democrats. In Brandenburg, where the Social Democrats now rule with the Christian Democrats, both stand to lose strength. After the PDS lost severely on the national level in 2002, keeping only two Bundestag delegates, established politicians and the media consigned it to the garbage heap. Now it is a real presence, with about 25 percent of east German votes and about 7 percent in all Germany, enough to get forty or more delegates into the Bundestag in 2006.

There was another worry. Many Social Democrats, among union members who were always the backbone of the party, are disgusted with the Schroeder cabinet. Some are circulating a petition to remove Schroeder, others are discussing the creation of a new party left of the SPD but based mostly in west Germany.

The PDS has been active in some of the marches and demonstrations. This makes problems in Berlin and the northern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where it shares in coalition governments with the Social Democrats. But the current increase in action seems to be getting the PDS up on its feet as a fighting party.

Lurking in the shadows is the real menace. The neo-nazis, hitherto split in different parties, are beginning to consolidate their policies of “Germany for the Germans.” They also oppose the government “reforms” and are growing in strength, tolerated or encouraged by many in power and ready to feast on the misery possibly around the corner in the truly downtrodden eastern provinces.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

International Notes

Sat, 21 Aug 2004 08:16:00 +0000

Greece: Rally honors workers who died Hundreds gathered in downtown Athens Aug. 10 for an open-air memorial service honoring 13 workers killed during the frantic scramble to finish facilities for the Olympic Games. The ceremony was the latest protest against the widespread violations of labor rights and safety provisions. Amnesty International has predicted that as many as 40 Olympic construction workers may have been killed on the job. Greek Construction Workers Union leader Andreas Zazopoulos said, “All the money spent on the games means our children and grandchildren will have fewer benefits and will be worse off.” Union leaders had earlier told of workers being forced to work shifts up to 14 hours a day, day after day, in extreme temperatures, lacking even basic gear such as hard hats and safety boots, and under constant pressure to finish the Olympic facilities in time. Besides protesting the death toll, the Communist Party of Greece has called attention to the repression, violations of democratic rights, and environmental damage resulting from the way the 2004 Olympic Games are being managed.

Nigeria: Hope grows to wipe out polio The spread of polio could be curbed this year worldwide, and the disease could be eradicated by 2005, thanks to removal of a significant obstacle to the worldwide anti-polio campaign, according to David Heymann, World Health Organization special representative on polio eradication. As reported by Inter Press News Service, Heymann said polio immunizations had resumed last week in the northern Nigerian state of Kano, where they were suspended a year ago because of rumors claiming the vaccines were unsafe. During the interruption, polio cases shot up, with Nigeria accounting for 430 of the 538 cases worldwide so far this year. Heymann said resumption of the campaign in Kano would allow the state to prepare for synchronized immunizations in 22 countries in West and Central Africa from September to November. India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt “have the lowest ever reported numbers of polio cases” this year, Heymann said. But, he added even if transmission is interrupted successfully this year, eradication of the disease can’t be confirmed until 2005.

Argentina: IMF admits mistake The International Monetary Fund’s audit unit, the Independent Evaluation Office, released a report July 29 saying the IMF’s own decisions contributed to Argentina’s devastating financial crisis in late 2001. The report criticized the IMF for ignoring Argentina’s rapidly growing debt during the 1990s, when the country was publicized as the “poster child” for neoliberal economics. It said the size of the debt became the IMF’s main focus only in late 1999 or early 2000, when it was nearing half the gross domestic product (GDP). The IMF then aggravated the problem by making new loans the country could not possibly repay. However, the report failed to criticize the IMF’s insistence on sweeping austerity policies. Argentina’s gross domestic product declined 11 percent in 2002, real wages fell 35 percent, and about 60 percent of the population ended up living below the poverty line.

S. Korea: U.S. builds up Patriot missiles As part of its proposal to reposition forces, the U.S. will assign 500 more troops to a Patriot missile unit in South Korea, the JoongAng Ilbo reported last week. The newspaper quoted a U.S. “senior official” as saying the 35th Air Defense Brigade would move from Texas to Osan, South Korea. Two more Patriot batteries are to be added to the current six, the official said. Each battery is equipped with six to eight launch pads, and each launcher can hold four PAC-2 missiles or 16 PAC-3 missiles. The repositioning also involves withdrawal of about one-third of the present 37,000 forces stationed in South Korea. However, units responsible for transportation and wartime reinforcement processing will not leave the peninsula.

Haiti: Small merchants protest taxes Merchants from Port-au-Prince’s informal sector last week threatened to shut down the capital’s public markets unless taxes imposed through the nation’s customs offices and ports are lowered, the Haitian news agency AHP said. The merchants said the increase in their tax burden is the direct consequence of the interim government’s preferential treatment of big businesses. “The interim authorities make us pay the taxes that the large businesses would normally have to pay to clear their goods through customs,” the informal sector merchants said. They said they were getting together with other informal merchants’ associations to work out strategies to win their demands. They added that if big business is crushing them now, it is because they refused to join the campaign to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, driven from office by a U.S.-led coup last February. International Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel (mbechtel@pww.org). Julia Lutsky contributed to this week’s notes.

Battle for democracy reaches new stage in Iran

Sat, 21 Aug 2004 08:12:00 +0000

The strategy and tactics of Iran’s “reformists” allied with President Mohammad Khatami suffered a crushing defeat during the parliamentary elections last February, in part because thousands of their candidates were disqualified by the country’s ultra-conservative Guardian Council and kept off the ballot. But the reformists’ defeat was partly their own fault. For seven years they have disregarded the people’s demands for real change, and have tried to appease the ruling, reactionary forces instead. As a result, they have been badly discredited. However, the popular movement for democracy continues, even in the face of growing repression. An example is the recent three-week hunger strike staged by a number of political prisoners to commemorate the brutal attack against the massive student demonstrations of July 1999. Among the hunger strikers were the renowned prisoners Naser Zarafshan, a lawyer imprisoned in 2000 for defending the persecuted students, and Ahmad Batebi, jailed since 1999. Batebi’s “crime” was to hold up a bloodied shirt in the view of media to symbolise the brutal attack on fellow demonstrators. The regime was unable to keep the lid on the recent hunger strike, which was immediately supported and publicized by all political groups opposing the despotic regime. In response, the authorities placed other inmates, common criminals, in prison cells holding the political detainees. These criminals viciously attacked the protesting political detainees. Shirin Ebadi, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and other well-respected political activists such as Fariborz Raiesdana, immediately exposed and condemned the authorities for endangering the lives of the political prisoners. Along the same lines, once again a number of independent reformist newspapers and publications have been shut down by the ruling authorities. The recent closures of Vageye Etefaghye, Jomhoriait and Aftab have been challenged by a well-publicized campaign by the opponents of the regime, including an open letter signed by 285 political activists within Iran protesting the measures imposed by the ruling dictatorship. The struggle for democracy in Iran has moved to a new stage, and has surpassed the reactive efforts of the reformist leadership. Furthermore, the people’s move-ment for democracy, while fighting the ruling dictatorship, is also aware of the external dangers arising from the policies of the Bush administration. The imperialist agenda pursued by the current U.S. administration effectively plays into the hands of the reactionary leaders of Iran, providing a pretext for more repression in the name of protecting Islam. Nima Kamran is a correspondent from the Tudeh Party of Iran and can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Why Puerto Ricans were celebrating

Sat, 21 Aug 2004 08:11:00 +0000

The defeat of the U.S. Olympic basketball team by the Puerto Rican team was cause for great jubilation in Puerto Rico. The loss by a lopsided score of 92-73 was declared “historic” by the press because the U.S. has lost only three times in all the Olympic Games and this was its first loss since adding professional players in 1992. Why such a celebration? It doesn’t necessarily mean a medal for Puerto Rico. In reality, it means much more. Despite being a colony of the U.S., the victory said, “We are a nation.” It became a source of national pride, even for those who do not aspire to independence for Puerto Rico, which the U.S. took over from Spain as a prize during the Spanish-American War of 1898. In Puerto Rico the right-wing leaders who want this island nation to be annexed as a state by the U.S. define Puerto Ricans as an ethnic group within the American nation. An overwhelming majority of Puerto Ricans has rejected this position. The annexationists work to destroy anything that smacks of a separate nation, from changing the school menus from Puerto Rican cuisine to American, to changing the official names of municipalities into English. Behaving as a nation in sports is no different. In Puerto Rico “sports independence” doesn’t only mean not having either the government or the political establishment of your own country interfering with athletics, it also means having one’s own national sporting life free and separate from the colonizing country — the United States. Puerto Rico organized its own Olympic Committee in 1948, but it wasn’t fully recognized by the International Olympic Committee until 1958. The Olympic Committee of Puerto Rico (COPR) has demonstrated a strong sense of independence from U.S. pressures and control. The COPR participated in the 1980 games held in Moscow, despite a U.S. boycott of the games. Recently a legislative committee in Puerto Rico proposed that the University of Puerto Rico’s sports programs disaffiliate from the National Collegiate Athletic Association because of rule changes that would prohibit Puerto Rican college students from playing in Puerto Rican sports leagues. For Puerto Ricans, participating in international athletic events is an affirmation of their own nationality, as much as when the Puerto Rican sports authorities (or literary, educational, and economic agencies) protest U.S. State Department denials of visas to Cubans to prevent them from taking part in Puerto Rican activities. The author can be reached at j.a.cruz@comcast.net.

The strange twists of U.S. refugee policy

Sat, 21 Aug 2004 08:10:00 +0000

Citing terrorist dangers, Federal immigration authorities announced a crackdown at U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico Aug. 11. Refugees who are detained will no longer have access to U.S. courts for rulings as to whether they stay in the country or face deportation. Border agents themselves will be making the decision. The policy applies to citizens of all nations except Canada and Mexico. Cuba, however, is a different story. Washington claims, without a shred of evidence, that the island is a “haven for terrorists.” But any Cuban who arrives on U.S. soil can count on the red-carpet treatment. Right away they receive Medicaid, a work permit, housing guarantees, a Social Security number, and welfare benefits. And after a one-year stay, they gain permanent residency status. This largesse flows from the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, a law that for years has wrought murder at sea and caused generalized mayhem. For that law to work as intended, U.S. authorities have had to renege on carrying out agreements with the Cuban government. They were supposed to have issued 20,000 visas every year that allow for legal entry, but for years the State Department has averaged less than 1,000. Cubans heading for the United States have taken measures into their own hands, crossing either on rafts, or in tiny boats sent over by Florida profiteers. Right-wing Miami Cubans, enamored of the Cuban Adjustment Act, apparently accept the reality that their compatriots will either die at sea or join them in Florida. The news stories are of martyrs, or of heroes, depending on the seas and sharks. Recently, however, Attorney General John Ashcroft commented on the case of 20-year-old David Joseph, a Haitian incarcerated for two years in the U.S. after fleeing persecution in his homeland. According to Bob Herbert of the New York Times, Ashcroft spilled a few beans: “Sometimes it’s important to make a statement about groups of people that come,” Ashcroft said. History and myth have it that a beneficent republic honors individual freedoms and new opportunities. It welcomes the oppressed, one by one. But apparently, for Ashcroft, some people may be of more use than others. Cubans have earned their colors as propaganda tools, thanks to the Cuban Adjustment Act. They have value. The deaths of Cuban rafters recall Secretary of State Albright’s famous words about Iraqi children dying under the sanctions against Iraq: their deaths are “worth it.” So much for pious incantations about respect for individual human rights! A boat left the Dominican Republic on July 29 headed for Puerto Rico with 80 people aboard. Fifty of them are missing, presumed dead. According to the Times, “More than 7,000 Dominican migrants have been detained trying to reach wealthier Puerto Rico since Oct. 1, double the number for the previous 12 months.” Puerto Ricans must be relieved to learn that their financial ratings are up. Noteworthy, too, is that it takes a disaster to bring thousands of Dominican boat people into the news. Cubans make the grade with a lot less, a handful of people here, a small boat there. Their script, however, has to do with opting out of a revolution, even though for them, no less than for refugees from all over, the appeal is money and the lure of material goods. The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Iraq's communists urge political solutions

Sat, 21 Aug 2004 07:58:00 +0000

The military confrontation in Najaf needs to be resolved politically, through dialogue, Iraqi Communist Party spokesperson Salam Ali told the World in an Aug. 14 interview. That position was echoed two days later by 1,300 delegates at Iraq’s national conference in Baghdad. They voted to send a delegation to Najaf to negotiate an end to the fighting. The conference delegates represented a cross-section of ethnic, regional, political and religious groups, women’s groups, trade unions, tribes and notables. National guidelines specified that women were to make up 25 percent of the delegates. Most were elected at conferences in Iraq’s 18 provinces. Indicative of the developing political culture, Ali noted, a progressive woman was among 13 delegates elected by the more than 100 overwhelmingly male, Islamic participants in one meeting in Baghdad’s impoverished Al-Thawra (Revolution City — U.S. media call it Sadr City) district. “This is a unique experience for us. This is the first time [in decades] we are campaigning,” said Ali, a member of the ICP central committee, speaking by phone from London. The security problems and lack of democratic political experience contribute to fear of participation, especially for women. The ICP is working to overcome this. The party held campaign training sessions for its members, Ali said. “We told them, ‘Sit with other people, not just among yourselves. Talk to people, talk about your family.’” The ICP now has 90 public offices throughout the country, an “amazing” expansion of the party in the past year, after decades of repression, Ali said. In fact, the party is resisting efforts to open additional offices, he said, because it wants party members to focus on being involved in mass activity among the people. Ali underscored the importance of the national conference as a step toward real sovereignty. In order to end the U.S. occupation, he said, “We have to have a legitimate Iraqi government in place.” The deteriorating security has raised concerns about possible postponement of national elections set for January. “That would serve the narrow political agenda of some forces to obstruct, and thereby to perpetuate the status quo and the occupation,” he said. “There is deep concern about the fighting in Najaf. It is being used to sabotage the political process, to effectively paralyze life in some parts of Iraq.” The U.S. government is now operating “more deviously, behind the scenes,” to maintain control over Iraq’s security forces and its economy, Ali said. One U.S. tactic, he suggested, is to “fragment the Islamic camp, weaken Islamic groups, and strengthen the hand of groups close to the U.S.” The recent hard-line approach of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shows the hand of the U.S., Ali noted. He said Allawi has reverted to “old ways” in which a highly centralized tiny group is calling the shots — his National Security Council, consisting of the defense and interior secretaries and a national security adviser, closely associated with the CIA. Moqtada al-Sadr has definitely drawn support among the marginalized, Ali said. But Sadr’s “Mahdi army” is a sectarian, extremist Islamic movement without any clear program, Ali said. Sadr’s slogans and demands change constantly, he noted. By engaging in violence Sadr has “alienated large sections of people who would otherwise sympathize with any movement that stands up to the occupation,” Ali said. Most Iraqi people feel violence is futile and is paralyzing the country, he said. “People are waiting, hoping the fighting will subside.” The ICP opposes resorting to violence to end the U.S. occupation, and aims to resolve Iraq’s problems through the political process, Ali said. The national conference which opened Aug. 15 is part of the process approved by the UN Security Council that includes a census and voter registration this fall, elections in January for a transitional government, drafting of a constitution, and election of a new government by the end of next year. Conference delegates were to elect a 100-member interim national council that will exercise a degree of oversight over the current interim government headed by Allawi. The interim government has only “one main job — preparing for the elections,” Ali said. The council will have authority to review government decrees, annul them by a two-thirds majority, and approve the national budget for next year. More importantly, however, the conference and the council it elects, with all their limitations, will “provide a platform for political dialogue,” Ali said. This is important for the development of the political process in a country that lacks a recent democratic tradition, he said. The author can be reached at suewebb@pww.org.

Hugo Chavez wins in landslide

Sat, 21 Aug 2004 07:52:00 +0000

The people of Venezuela went to the polls in record-breaking numbers Aug. 15 and voted by a 58 percent majority against the recall of their president, Hugo Chávez. With several hundred thousand votes yet to be counted, Chávez had already garnered 8.5 million votes of the nation’s 14 million registered voters. Prensa Latina, the Havana-based news service, reported that voters swamped the nation’s polling places, waiting as long as nine hours to cast their ballots. “From the early hours of Sunday morning, Venezuelans began to line up outside the 8,469 polling stations set up throughout the country,” Prensa Latina reported — a turnout so vast that polling places were kept open past midnight Monday morning to accommodate the voters. “The Venezuelan people have spoken and the people’s voice is the voice of God,” Chávez said in a victory speech from the porch of the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas. In a conciliatory gesture to the opposition he added, “This is a victory for the opposition. They defeated violence, coup-mongering and fascism. I hope they accept this as a victory and not a defeat.” The results stunned the opposition because pre-election polls had forecast a close election and they had predicted victory in their drive to oust Chávez. But as returns from the nation’s electronic voting machines poured in, the so-called “quick count” made Chávez’ victory clear. The five member Electoral Council, known by its Spanish initials CNE, then announced his victory with the two opposition members of the council dissenting. The results were also certified by the Carter Center, the Organization of American States, and European parliamentarians who monitored the elections. Also present were observers from Brazil and Argentina to help prevent the stealing of the election. “All Venezuelans should accept the results of the CNE unless there is tangible proof that the reports are incorrect,” said former President Jimmy Carter, who had led the team from the Atlanta-based center named for him. Carter told reporters that the two opposition members of the CNE were “extremely irate” at the results. “Their faces were white and they were very condemnatory of our lack of objectivity and fairness,” Carter said. Leaders of the Christian Democrat and Democratic Action parties immediately denounced the results as a “gigantic fraud.” Yet the vote was an enormous, historic victory for democracy in Latin America and an equally huge rebuff to Venezuela’s wealthy elite and their Bush administration backers who have waged an open and covert war to overthrow Chávez’s Bolivarian Revolution. The wealthy elite failed in their clumsy CIA-backed coup in April 2002 when the working-class masses rose up to demand the return of Chávez, Venezuela’s democratically elected chief of state. Chávez survived an attempt by a Colombian paramilitary death squad to assassinate him in May of this year. The opposition, led by the lighter-skinned captains of industry and commerce of European ancestry, are widely referred to as “the oligarchs.” They staged phony “strikes” to shut down the nation’s oil industry. The corporate media unleashed a campaign of slander aimed at destabilizing the country reminiscent of El Mercurio, the fascist newspaper that fomented the coup that murdered President Salvador Allende of Chile in 1973. Foiled in all these attempts to remove Chávez, the opposition counted on the recall referendum as their latest ploy. But it, too, backfired. Ironically, the price of crude oil dropped after Chávez’ victory. Chávez vows to continue his drive to lift the standard of living of the impoverished masses of Venezuela through land reform and the allocation of a sharply increased share of oil revenues for health care, public education, and housing. Oil prices that have surged in recent months, enabled Chávez and the Congress to pour $1.7 billion more into these programs. Greg Palast, correspondent in Caracas for the Guardian and BBC, hailed the August 15 vote as a victory for Venezuela’s majority “negro e indio” (Black and Indian). “Chávez sits atop a reserve of crude that rival’s Iraq’s,” Palast writes, pointing out that the president pushed through a new “Law of Hydrocarbons” doubling the share of oil revenues returned to Venezuela from 15 percent to 30 percent with “Big Oil” receiving “only” 70 percent. “So began the Bush-Cheney campaign to ‘Floridate’ the will of the Venezuela electorate,” Palast continues. “But today the landless and homeless voted their hopes…against the armed axis of oligarchs and Dick Cheney.” The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com.

International notes

Fri, 13 Aug 2004 04:39:00 +0000

Canada: Wal-Mart workers win union

Workers at a Wal-Mart store in Jonquiere, Quebec, have won the right to a union, after the Quebec Labour Relations Board ruled Aug. 2 to grant them union certification with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Canada. The union said this is the first unionized Wal-Mart in North America.

Accreditation was won after a majority of the store workers signed UFCW Canada membership cards. An Aug. 20 hearing will finalize the definition of which employees will have the right to union representation.

“The Quebec certification shows that when workers’ rights are protected, Wal-Mart workers will exercise those rights for a voice at work,” said UFCW International President Joseph Hansen. “Our challenge is to make sure that governments protect workers’ rights across Canada, the U.S. and around the world,” he added.

The UFCW (Canada) has applications pending for several other Wal-Mart stores.

Colombia: Unionists murdered, protests urged

Three new killings of union leaders by the Colombian Army were reported Aug. 6 by Colombia’s ANNCOL news agency. Hector Alirio Martinez, head of the National Peasants Association, Leonel Goyeneche, a leader in the United Confederation of Colombian Workers (CUT) in Arauca, and Jorge Prieto, a leader in the National Association of Hospital Workers, were under the protective measures program of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission when they were murdered by members of the Reveis Pizarro Battalion of the Colombian Army.

The human rights organization Humanidad Vigente said two other leading unionists — Samuel Morales, president of the CUT in Arauca, and Raquel Castro, a member of the Arauca Teachers Association, were detained in the same operation.

Human rights organizations are calling for urgent protests to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (auribe@presidencia.gov.co), denouncing the murders and demanding release of the two detained unionists.

Japan: Sit-in reaches 100-day mark

Protesters sitting in at Henoko port, on the island of Okinawa, passed the 100-day mark July 27 in their protest against construction of a new offshore U.S. military base, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported. The protest began in April, when the government requested preliminary boring of the seabed to prepare for the new offshore airbase to replace the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station. To build it, a coral reef off Nago city’s Henoko district has to be destroyed.

So far over 8,000 people have taken part in the protest, some from as far away as South Korea and the U.S. Elderly protesters have been especially prominent. “We tell our grannies and grandpas to take it easy, but they won’t listen,” said 42-year-old Natsume Tairi. “They say, ‘what if the work begins while we’re away?’”

The Henoko site was chosen seven years ago to replace Futenma. Protesters have since battled the Japanese government to a stalemate.

Sudan: UN, gov’t agree on Darfur refugee plan

The senior UN envoy to Sudan and that country’s foreign minister have signed a pact committing the government to take “detailed steps” in the next 30 days to disarm the Janjawid militias, the UN’s IRIN news service said Aug. 6. The militias have mounted devastating attacks on civilians in the western Darfur region, driving over a million Sudanese from their homes, including over 180,000 who have fled across the border into Chad.

Details of the agreement weren’t released, but the pact was reported to include measures to improve security and relieve the humanitarian crisis faced by the refugees.

It is estimated that 30,000 people have died during the conflict. The government is said to have armed the militias so they would aid in its fight against two area rebel groups. However, the militias have attacked unarmed civilians.

Haiti: More demonstrations

Several thousand supporters of Fanmi Lavalas, the party of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, demonstrated in Port-au-Prince July 28 — the anniversary of the first U.S. occupation of Haiti in 1959. They demanded an end to ongoing persecution by the interim government and the release of illegally detained party supporters, the Haitian news agency AHP said.

New mass demonstrations demanding Aristide’s immediate return were slated for Cap-Haitien on Aug. 12 and 13, Fanmi Lavalas leaders announced.

AHP also reported the formation of a new human rights organization — Group for the Defense of the Rights of Political Prisoners (GDP) — made up of families of former Fanmi Lavalas government officials now in prison. GDP leaders said they would defend the interests of political prisoners throughout Haiti and inform the public about the interim government’s human rights violations.

GDP spokesperson Wilfrid Lavaud denounced the agreement last spring between the interim government and a so-called human rights organization, the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR), that the government could arrest anyone designated by the NCHR.

International Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel (mbechtel@pww.org).

International notes

Sun, 01 Aug 2004 05:00:00 +0000

Greece: Olympic construction takes big toll

George Theodorou, head of the Greek Construction Workers’ Union, told the BBC last week that he has details of 14 workers who have died while building facilities for next month’s Olympic Games. He said the total may be closer to 40 when deaths on the supporting infrastructure are counted.

“Men are being forced to work long shifts, up to 14 hours a day, every day, in very hot temperatures and under constant pressure to complete construction work in time for the Olympics,” he said. “Most have no hard hats or safety boots and if they complain, they’re sacked.”

In a July 23 statement, the Communist Party of Greece cited “the dozens of dead and injured workers” along with violations of people’s labor and democratic rights, environmental damage and repression in the name of “security.” The CPG pointed out that under the control of transnational corporate giants, the Games lack “any measures … to develop and support mass popular athletics for all.” The statement demanded the new facilities be given to the people when the Games are over, and called for development of mass popular sport.

Colombia: Communist farm co-op leader killed

Benedicto Caballero, a leader in the agricultural cooperative movement, is the latest victim in the wave of assassinations of trade union, popular movement and Communist activists in Colombia, the Communist Party of Colombia said last week.

Caballero, killed the night of July 21, was vice president of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives and director of the Agricultural Cooperative of Tequendama.

“This new assassination is part of the systematic persecution against popular leaders and activists of the Communist Party of Colombia and gives the lie to the official demagoguery about guarantees for the opposition,” the CPC said.

Under the Uribe administration, forced displacements, threats, arbitrary detentions and assassinations of CPC activists have increased, the party said.

Over 3,000 Communist activists have been assassinated in the last 15 years, in the context of the political genocide against the Patriotic Union, whose victims number over 5,000, the CPC said.

South Africa: Metalworkers warn of strike

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has warned employers in the fuel and motor retail industries that any further resistance to the union’s demands for a wage hike will spark a countrywide strike. COSATU Weekly, published by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, said hundreds of unionists, mostly gas station attendants, presented the employers’ association with a memorandum stating that its “no wage increase” stance would seriously contribute to workers’ misery and grinding poverty. Said union President Mtutuzeli Tom, “It is amazing that workers in the industry are still paid apartheid wages based on the area where they are working, not on the work they are performing.”

Other demands include a 20 percent increase in the night shift allowance and 10 percent for the afternoon shift. The union is also demanding that employers provide free transportation for all workers whose shift ends after 8 p.m.

Ukraine: Mourning mine disaster

Three days of mourning were declared in the Ukraine last week after at least 31 miners died after a July 20 methane gas explosion, the worst mine disaster in recent years, the BBC reported. At the time, 48 miners were in the area of the Krasnolymans’ka coal mine in the Donetsk region. Twelve miners escaped. Bodies of 31 miners were recovered, while the search continued for five more who were missing.

Since the Ukraine became independent following the collapse of the USSR, the country’s mines have been wracked by severe underfunding and poor safety. In that time some 3,700 miners have been killed. Though Krasnolymans’ka is one of the most profitable mines, producing over 10,000 tons of coal per day, it is also regarded as one of the most dangerous.

International Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel (mbechtel @ pww.org). Julia Lutsky contributed to this week’s notes.

Chvez foe calls for violence, dictatorship

Sun, 01 Aug 2004 04:56:00 +0000

CARACAS – Venezuelan opposition leader and two-time president Carlos Andres Perez has made a series of statements calling for violence to remove President Hugo Chávez from office, and hinting that the Venezuelan opposition may have to impose a dictatorial period to make his removal permanent.

“I am working to remove Chávez [from power],” Perez said in an interview published July 25 in El Nacional, one of the country’s main daily newspapers. “Violence will allow us to remove him. That’s the only way we have.”

Perez, who was speaking from Miami, denied being involved in a plot to assassinate the Venezuelan president, but said Chávez “must die like a dog, because he deserves it.”

Chávez is facing an Aug. 15 recall referendum on his mandate. Most polls show him as the likely winner.

In 1992, while he was a military officer, Chávez led an unsuccessful coup against Perez, who was very unpopular for having implemented economic policies mandated by the International Monetary Fund. Perez was later impeached on corruption charges, while Chávez remained in prison.

Shortly after his release, Chávez was elected president in 1998 and then re-elected to a six-year term in 2000. He has introduced numerous programs benefiting the country’s working population and the poor, and presided over the adoption of a new constitution widely hailed as profoundly democratic.

During the interview, Perez hinted at a possible dictatorial period to be imposed in the event that Chávez is removed from office. “We can’t just get rid of Chávez and immediately have a democracy … we will need a transition period of two or three years to lay the foundations for a state where the rule of law prevails ... a collegiate body (junta) must govern during that transition and lay the democratic foundations for the future,” Perez said.

“When Chávez falls, we must shut down the National Assembly (Congress) and also the Supreme Court. All the Chavista institutions must disappear,” the opposition leader added.

When questioned on the Venezuelan people’s desire to not go back to the past when corruption and bad government policies – including his own – led to a significant decrease in living standards, the ex-president agreed that the past cannot return, but added, “I am not the past, I am the future [of Venezuela].” Perez’s political plans are unknown, but he denied seeking a third term.

President Chávez reacted to Perez’s comments by making an appeal to the rest of the opposition to distance themselves from the ex-president. “We need an opposition that’s loyal to the country, so we can work in the building of our nation in spite of our differences,” Chávez said.

Chávez said he hoped the “more rational opposition” would not welcome “that new call for violence from the most radical sectors of Venezuela’s oligarchy.”

Chávez said the opposition is desperately looking for another way to remove him from power, as polls – even those associated with the opposition – show he will survive the upcoming recall referendum.

On July 23, Venezuelan Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel asked opposition leaders to sign an accord in which both sides promise to respect the results of the recall, and not resort to violence. Chávez has repeatedly said he will abide by the results of the recall, but so far no opposition leader has made a similar promise.

Meanwhile, President George W. Bush demanded July 19 that the recall referendum in Venezuela “be conducted in an honest and open way” and demanded the presence of international observers.

Ironically, Bush’s comments came just days after the U.S. Congress approved an amendment barring any U.S. funds from being used by the United Nations to monitor U.S. elections. The amendment was issued in response to a petition by several U.S. lawmakers for the UN to send observers to monitor the U.S. election in order to avoid another “Florida coup d’état,” in the words of Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.).

President Chávez rejected Bush’s remarks, saying the U.S. president lacks the moral authority to lecture Venezuela with regard to elections. “They said they will continue to pressure to guarantee that the recall process be transparent. Can you tell me which transparent process allowed Mr. Bush to win the U.S. presidential elections? ... With what moral authority is he trying to lecture us?” Chávez asked.

– Reprinted with permission from Venezuelanalysis.com.

Russian communists hit by dirty tricks

Sun, 01 Aug 2004 04:54:00 +0000

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation, with 560,000 members and roughly 10 million voters, is one of the world’s largest non-governing communist parties. It is also the only opposition party represented in the Russian State Duma.

The CPRF held its 10th congress in Moscow July 3. During the congress an attack took place aimed at disrupting the proceedings and breaking up the party. It took the form of the convening of an “alternative” congress, spuriously validated by an “alternative” plenary meeting of a handful of central committee members, which obediently dismissed the party leadership – including its chairman, Gennady Zyuganov – and installed a new team.

The “alternative” CPRF chairman is Vladimir Tikhonov, governor of the Ivanovo region in European Russia and rarely thought of as a party heavyweight. Behind him stands Gennady Semigin, a multimillionaire who was recently expelled from the CPRF over allegations that he was trying to subvert it into a social democratic “loyal opposition.” And behind Semigin lurks Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Revealingly, the “alternative” congress was held at an undisclosed location, presumably in order to avoid embarrassment over how few delegates were in attendance – but it was still graced with the presence of “observers” from Putin’s Ministry of Justice. According to the CPRF, the “alternative” congress could have drawn no more than a fifth of the party’s duly elected delegates and therefore lacked any authority.

It is alleged that Semigin and others spent up to 60 million rubles ($2 million) a day on anti-Zyuganov publicity in the run-up to the congress.

There have been repeated suggestions that the Kremlin would like to promote the formation of a “patriotic-minded” social democratic party which could edge the CPRF out and play the role of a tame parliamentary opposition. The other interpretation is that Putin’s aim is to simply to destroy the CPRF. This seems more plausible.

This most recent stunt has been denounced by a string of high-profile CPRF members and supporters, including Nikolai Kharitonov, the 2004 presidential candidate, the editors of main opposition newspapers Sovietskaya Rossiya and Zavtra, Valentin Kuptsov, the party’s former deputy chairman, and veterans of the left-wing CPSU opposition in the Gorbachev era, including Starodubtsev, Lukianov and Ligachev.

The “alternativshchiks,” as the Semigin forces are now called, are petitioning the Ministry of Justice to decertify the real CPRF in favor of their “alternative.” Given that they have better friends in higher places than Zyuganov, it is quite possible that they will succeed. But this will be no more than a purely bureaucratic and legalistic victory. A series of regional CPRF conferences has overwhelmingly rejected this maneuver, with fewer than 10 per cent of party organizations backing calls for a change of leadership.

The real importance of this episode is in what it reveals about the modern Russian state. It’s clear that this is part of an elaborate, state-sponsored attack on the only real opposition party in the country.

The “alternative” congress was backed up with a wave of minor acts of sabotage directed against the CPRF. There was a mysterious power outage in the meeting hall during the congress, requiring Zyuganov to deliver his political report by flashlight in a hall with no functioning air conditioning. The CPRF and other left-wing web sites have been repeatedly attacked by hackers.

But the longer-term consequences for Russia’s communist left will, quite possibly, be positive. Zyuganov, correctly, is making no attempt to paper over the cracks or whine about “restoring party unity.” Tikhonov and Potapov have been quickly expelled from the party and others are likely to follow. The belief in the mainstream of the Russian left that there can be no reconciliation with the existing political system will probably be strengthened rather than weakened.

Zyuganov, addressing the CPRF congress, accused Semigin and his cronies of wanting to “deprive the party of its social-class character – in essence, to liquidate it as the representative of the oppressed masses and of the progressive tendencies of social development.”

The struggle for the future of the Russian communist movement is far from over.

– Excerpted from the Morning Star