40,000 protest in Austria
About 40,000 people rallied in the streets of downtown
Vienna, Austria, March 14 protesting proposed cuts in education
spending. The protesters included university students, faculty,
and employees in the third rally of the week - the largest
demonstration in the country in years.
The Austrian government plans to eliminate free travel for students on public transportation, reduce scholarships, and cut back government subsidies paid to parents with children in school. Some 90,000 students would be affected by the public transportation measure, according to Agnes Berlakovich, chairperson of the Austrian Students Union.
Lebanon: gov't, labor face off
The Lebanese General Confederation of Workers (CGTL), which
numbers 400,000 members, called for a general strike February
29. The aim of the strike was to demand a 76 percent wage raise
to make up for inflation and an end to the government ban on
demonstrations. The labor federation was also protesting the
regime's most recent attempt to limit the number of television
and radio stations permitted to broadcast. The CGTL planned
marches in Beirut and other cities.
Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri declared the actions illegal and called on the 50,000-strong army to take control of the cities on the day of the walkout. Thousands of troops occupied strategic positions and set up roadblocks with machine guns, enforcing a general curfew declared from 3:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. February 29 to prevent assemblies of workers. According to the official National News Agency, 2,500 people were arrested for curfew violations.
In effect, most working people were forced to stay home that day. Lebanese journalist Imad Jamal Eddine said in a phone interview that the CGTL leadership called off the street mobilizations to avoid a direct confrontation with the army.
Ex-presidents on trial in Korea
Roh Tae Woo and Chun Doo Hwan, former presidents of South
Korea, went on trial March 11 for their role in leading the
military to slaughter at least 240 people in the 1980 Kwangju
massacre. The two men are also charged with accepting millions
of dollars in bribes from businessmen.
South Korean riot cops attacked 300 students who marched on March 8 to the U.S. cultural center in Kwangju, site of the bloody crackdown. The protest was also aimed at Washington after the U.S.-based Journal of Commerce revealed that the Carter administration knew the regime planned to use specially trained forces to crush protests in Kwangju and elsewhere.
Okinawa governor fights bases
Okinawa governor Masahide Ota, reflecting mass sentiment,
appeared before a court March 11 to oppose renewing the leases
of U.S. military bases on the island. Ota has asserted on
previous occasions that the military bases hamper development
and are a central reason Okinawa remains Japan's poorest
region.
About 75 percent of all land in Japan reserved exclusively for U.S. military operations is concentrated on Okinawa. Some of the leases for the military bases, which take up almost 20 percent of the island, expire at the end of March.
3,000 people rebel in Indonesia
Some 3,000 workers and peasants in the Indonesian province
of Irian Jaya shut down the Grasberg mine March 10-12,
demanding improvement of economic and social conditions for the
indigenous people, as well as repair of environmental damage.
The government sent 2,800 soldiers to quell the unrest.
"The riot was caused mainly by the suppressed anger and frustration among the Irianese people... which have accumulated for many years," declared a statement issued by WALHI, an environmental organization in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. The U.S.-based Freeport mining company owns Grasberg, one of the world's largest copper and gold producers. Freeport dominates the economy in the province and has production goals of mining 1.1 billion pounds of copper and 1.7 million ounces of gold for 1996.
Aborigines in Australia protest
Some 300 Aborigines and supporters marched in Sydney, March
9, to demand that the building where the first national
Aboriginal protest meeting to demand basic civil rights was
held on Jan. 26, 1938 - on the 150th anniversary of the arrival
of colonial settlers from the United Kingdom - be protected as
a historic site. The building is in danger of being sold to
developers who will likely demolish it.
Meanwhile, in Ipswich, near Brisbane, several hundred Aborigines and supporters rallied March 7 to condemn racist statements by new federal independent member of parliament Pauline Hanson. During the recent election campaign Hanson claimed the government gave Aborigines special privileges. Upon being elected, Hanson pledged she would represent only the "white community," not Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders.
Racist S. African officials fired
South African government officials announced March 13 they
would dissolve a school board trying to maintain apartheid at
Potgietersrus, a former whites-only school. "We will be
dissolving them , there is no question," declared Jake Mokobi,
a spokesperson for the Northern Province, which funds the
school.
The South African Supreme Court ruled in February that the school could not deny admittance to any child based on race or ethnicity. Parents began teaching 150 white students in a hostel in an attempt to bypass the court ruling.
Controllers strike in Honduras
Air traffic controllers in Honduras - numbering 45 in the
whole country - went on strike March 11 demanding a wage
increase, paralyzing most of the domestic and international
flights in the country. The controllers accused the government
of deceiving them after promising to respond to their demands
for a pay increase by March 8.
Vice minister of transportation Maritza Salinas said she had scheduled negotiations for March 12, but the controllers started their strike anyway. The controllers, who currently earn $230 a month, are demanding a wage raise up to $925.
Nuke waste factory opened
U.S. energy secretary Hazel O'Leary opened the $2.4 billion
Defense Waste Processing Facility in Aiken, South Carolina,
March 12, where liquid waste from nuclear weapons production
will be stored in radiation-absorbing glass logs. While touted
as a safe storage facility, some of the chemicals that
engineers want to use in processing the deadly poison have
produced unexpectedly large amounts of hydrogen, benzene, and
ammonium nitrate, which can explode or burn. Similar waste
exploded in the Ural Mountains in the late 1950s, making
thousands of acres of land uninhabitable for years.
The U.S. energy department says the glass melting machine used in the process is designed to last only three years and all operations will supposedly halt when it is worn out. Most working parts in the automated factory will be contaminated beyond what humans can tolerate within three weeks of the factory start-up.
- MAURICE WILLIAMS
Doug Cooper in Sydney, Australia; and Georges Mehrabian in Athens, Greece, contributed to this column.