Ecuador: workers occupy plants
Electrical workers have occupied seven power plants in
Ecuador. On January 18 they threatened to leave the
country's hydroelectric stations unattended if the
government tries to intervene with troops. The workers
took over the plants January 17 to protest a proposal to
privatize energy production that could threaten their
jobs.
Ecuadoran president Sixto Duran-Ballen declared a state of emergency, which authorizes the government to send troops into the occupied installations and limits the right of assembly. The workers are occupying one plant that supplies 75 percent of the country's electricity.
Burundi gov't: no UN troops
Representatives from imperialist countries in the United
Nations Security Council debated sending an occupying
force to Burundi, but have met resistance from Burundi
government officials. "We want to keep United Nations
troops away from our country," said Nsanze Terence,
Burundi's representative to the United Nations.
Last year, a guerrilla group calling itself the Front for the Defense of Democracy launched raids into Burundi from Zaire. At least 10,000 people were massacred. The government of Burundi said the guerrillas were armed and backed by elements from the old Rwandan army. More than 100,000 people have been killed in three years of violence in Burundi, where bourgeois politicians are exploiting ethnic divisions to advance their competing interests.
Hard times ahead in Europe
"Not only will growth not be enough to reduce
unemployment, it will be so low that unemployment will
continue to go up." That's what Armin Sorg, senior
director for economic policy at Seimens A.G. in Munich,
Germany, told the New York Times. Sorg was commenting on
the creeping recession hitting Europe, which already has
an average unemployment rate of 10.6 percent - 17.5
million people.
The limp economies throughout Europe are threatening to derail the capitalists' economic plans, including the Maastricht Treaty, which calls for countries in the European Union to adopt a common currency and a central bank. "Maastricht is obsolete. Maastricht is dead," declared Jacques Calvet, chairman of the French car company Peugeot.
Shackles for pregnant inmates
Public outrage forced the British prison service to drop
its policy of shackling pregnant women in the final hours
before they give birth. The policy change came when the
prisons minister, Anne Widdecombe, apologized to members
of Parliament for erroneously claiming that Whittington
hospital officials in London had not protested the
barbaric practice. Hospital authorities had protested the
policy on Aug. 31, 1995.
Another policy change could include instructing prison officials to maintain a guard outside the maternity ward once a woman goes into labor, instead of having the guard remain behind a screen, which is the current practice.
British miners win court battle
British coal miners won an important case when a judge
in the High Court ruled January 15 that British Coal was
negligent in dealing with a disease called Vibration White
Finger. The disease also known as "dead hand," is caused
by prolonged use of vibrating machinery and can cause
permanent damage to nerves, muscles and bones in the
finger.
Arthur Scargill, president of the National Union of Mineworkers said the decision could result in miners receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The Manchester Guardian reported that the ruling is likely to lead to more than 100,000 claims by miners.
U.S. sanctions on Iraq cruel
United Nations officials said January 16 that the Iraqi
government is prepared to discuss the imperialist-crafted
plan that would allow the regime to sell $2 billion in
controlled oil sales for six months. Baghdad had earlier
rejected the conditions as a violation of its sovereignty.
Clinton administration officials have said any negotiations over the plan are out of the question. U N agencies have issued reports for more than a year stating that Iraqi civilians, especially children, are suffering from malnutrition and the effects of a medicine shortage due to the oil embargo imposed on the regime months before Washington's Persian Gulf slaughter of at least 150,000 Iraqis.
Cleric gets life in frame-up trial
Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the 57-year-old blind Muslim
cleric, was sentenced January 17 to life in prison for
allegedly plotting to wage a "war of urban terrorism" that
included plans to blow up the United Nations Building, the
Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, the George Washington Bridge,
and the main federal office building in Manhattan. Judge
Michael Mukasey of the Federal District Court in Manhattan
also gave prison terms to nine codefendants in the trial,
ranging from 25 years to life.
"The judge said to the jury that no one is going to be tried here because of his beliefs, but the whole world came to know that I am being tried because of my beliefs and because I follow Islam," Rahman said at the trial. Rahman's lawyers maintain that he was framed by government informer Emad Salem, who was paid $1 million by the FBI and was the key witness in the case. Salem had admitted lying under oath in a previous trial.
Proof that Rahman "even knew about" any bombing plot "is scant," the Wall Street Journal reported in September, adding that federal conspiracy laws meant the jury could still convict him of "leading the supposed jihad or Islamic holy war."
In spite of the complete lack of evidence, Mukasey told the Egyptian cleric, "You were convicted of directing others to perform acts which, if accomplished would have resulted in the murder of hundreds if not thousands of people."
Prosecutors also tried to link the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center to Rahman's trial. Neither the cleric, however, nor other defendants in this trial were charged in that explosion, which killed six people. Prosecutors called the four men who were railroaded for the Trade Center bombing coconspirators with Rahman and his nine codefendants.
Teen put on death row
An Arkansas jury sentenced 17-year-old Damond Sanford to
the death chamber January 9, making him the youngest
person on death row in that state. The judge set February
12 as the date for the state-sanctioned murder.
A psychologist who testified at the trial said that the youth, who was convicted of rape and murder, had borderline intelligence. Sanford argued at his trial that an accomplice fired the shots that killed the woman he was accused of murdering. The prosecutor in the case, Joe Wray, piously claimed that Sanford's age "concerned me" as he pushed for the death penalty.
Attacks on affirmative action
On his fourth day in office, Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster
signed an executive order January 11 that would end
affirmative action programs in the state government.
Foster, whose main campaign issue was opposition to
affirmative action, admitted that the executive order
could not halt federally funded affirmative action
programs nor those protected by state law. "To tell you
the truth, I'm not sure what impact it will have right
now," Foster said.
In a cynical move, Foster proclaimed January 15 as a state holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. The governor said he believed King would have opposed affirmative action programs. "King sort of believed like I do on that," he said. "I can't find anywhere in his writings that he wanted reverse discrimination."
- MAURICE WILLIAMS