500,000 teachers strike in Russia
More than half a million teachers in Russia went on a
nationwide strike September 26 to protest unpaid wages as
well as low pay. According to London's Financial Times, the
strike was "triggered by severe government underfunding of
social services."
Millions of people in Russia have been stung by Moscow's effort to impose an austere budget. Coal miners, who have not been paid for several months, are threatening to launch a national strike in the next few months.
Strike action at Air France
The cabin crews at Air France organized strike action
against the French national airline to oppose concessions on
work practices and lower pay for new employees. The
workforce is opposed to the reorganization measures demanded
by the company chairman, Christian Blanc. The airline has
lost more than $2 billion since 1993, when a militant strike
in 1993 forced the former Air France chairman to resign.
Italy's ex-prime minister on trial
Giulio Andreotti, former prime minister of Italy, went on
trial September 26 faced with charges that he was linked
with the Mafia and was an accessory to the murder of Mino
Pecorelli. As a journalist investigating Mafia connections
in politics, Pecorelli was allegedly blackmailing Andreotti.
Capitalist politicians in Italy have been wracked by scandals over the last several years. Andreotti's trial follows a series of corruption cases that have resulted in the jailing of scores of elected officials.
Thousands protest in S. Korea
Hundreds of thousands of students boycotted classes and
nearly 700 students rallied September 29 at Seoul's Sogang
University demanding punishment for former South Korean
presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, who they say were
responsible for the 1980 Kwangju massacre. Chun and Roh were
generals who headed the junta that sent troops to crush the
pro-democracy rebellion of hundreds of thousands of people
in Kwangju.
South Korea's 130,000 cops were put on alert. They attacked the students in several cities, culminating months of protests against the massacre of more than 200 civilians in the uprising 15 years ago. Hanchongryon, a nationwide student group, called for a two-day boycott of classes September 29 to pressure South Korea's National Assembly to invoke a special law to prosecute the two former presidents.
Beijing keeps Iran nuke deal
The Chinese government announced September 29 that it was
suspending the sale of two nuclear power reactors to Tehran
"for the time being," not canceling the deal as reported by
U.S. officials two days earlier. Reza Amrollahi, the head of
Iran's nuclear agency, stated in May that he had signed a
contract and made a down payment on the reactors in 1994.
The U.S. government has decried the deal since 1993, when the China News Agency reported an agreement to build nuclear power stations in the Iranian province of Khuzestan. Tensions between Beijing and Washington rose recently, after the U.S. government decided to change 16 years of official policy and allow the president of Taiwan to visit the United States. Beijing considers Taiwan one of its provinces.
Japanese women protest base
"American soldiers still think that they are occupying
part of Japan," said Yoko Sumiyoshi, a member of the New
Japan Women's Association who was one of 300 women at a
September 30 rally protesting the rape of a 12-year-old girl
by three U.S. GI's in Okinawa. On September 29, the three
soldiers were charged with rape and handed over to Japanese
authorities.
Anger over the case has spread and some landlords say they do not want to renew contracts with Washington for use of their land by the U.S. military. The contracts expire in 1996 or 1997. Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota said he would refuse to grant new land rights to the U.S. military despite the handover of the servicemen. "When you consider the family of the victim [the indictment] doesn't mean it's all over," he said.
Tokyo to revamp bank system
The advisory committee to Japan's ministry of finance
issued a report September 27 to shore up Japan's crisis-
ridden financial system. The committee recommended setting
up a new agency to dispose of bad debts. The report came a
day after Japan's banking system was jarred again by the
announcement that Daiwa Bank, a major commercial bank, took
a $1.1 billion loss from unauthorized bond trading.
The country's deposit insurance fund, similar to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the United States, was wiped out by the recent bankruptcies of two large credit unions and a bank. Japan's finance ministry reports that the financial institutions are carrying nearly $400 billion in bad loans.
Paris explodes second bomb, sends more cops to Tahiti