Meanwhile, Japan's industrial output has dropped 8.5 percent this year, leading to reductions in wages and overtime, which in turn undermines retail sales. Average pay declined 4.8 percent in August - the largest decline since January 1971 - while overtime hours in manufacturing fell by 16.5 percent. Japanese auto sales fell 8.2 percent in September. It was the 18th consecutive month of decline.

"Profit forecasts are being revised down, capital expenditures are getting slashed, price declines in land are accelerating," said Andrew Shipley, an economist with Schroders Japan Ltd. "The financial markets are going to start inflicting more and more pain on Japan."

Indonesia students demand end to military role in parliament
Hundreds of students protested in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta October 5, demanding an end to the military's presence in government positions. Dozens of police and troops blocked the street action. The demonstration was against the so-called dual function policy that grants the armed forces a role in legislative politics. Currently, the military has 75 seats allotted to it in the 500-member national parliament.

The protest was part of a series of antigovernment actions that have taken place in the last two months, fueled by the capitalist economic crisis gripping the nation. In a move to shore up the ravaged banking system, the Indonesian government announced October 2 that it would merge four state banks in the next two years and inject $148 million into the banking system, taking bad loans out of the four banks and consolidating them in a special institution. Minister of State Enterprises Tanri Abeng said the merged bank may be sold to private capitalists.

Turkey: base workers win strike
Members of the Union of Defense Industry and Allied Workers won a two-month strike at U.S.-run air bases in Turkey September 28, just three days before a planned NATO military maneuver to be held in Turkey, Greece, and Italy. The Incirlik Air Base, where 1,800 workers had walked off the job, is the hub of operations for U.S. and British military planes enforcing the "no-fly zone" in northern Iraq that Washington imposed on that nation after the 1990-91 Gulf War. The workers won a 50 percent wage increase and additional raises to compensate for inflation, which stands at about 70 percent a year. The strikes shut down the commissary, gas station, dining halls, and other Incirlik facilities.

Protests continue in Palestine
Since September 20 the Israeli government has imposed a complete closure on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, alleging threats from the Palestinian organization Hamas. The closure prevents tens of thousands of Palestinian workers from getting to their jobs and costs the Palestinian economy millions in lost wages and trade. In response, since September 30 there have been daily protests by Palestinians, which have been attacked by the Zionist regime's armed forces. In the West Bank city of Hebron, 100 Palestinians protested at an Israeli military checkpoint October 4, some throwing bottles and rocks. Troops responded with rubber bullets and tear gas, wounding two protesters. The same day, 100 Palestinians marched to protest illegal land confiscation by Zionist settlers.

Meanwhile, U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright traveled to Tel Aviv for "peace talks." Instead of condemning Tel Aviv's collective punishment of Palestinians, she called on Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat to crack down on "terrorists."

Teachers strike in Kenya
Some 260,000 teachers throughout Kenya went on strike over wages and working conditions October 5 after government- promised raises failed to materialize. In Nairobi the riot police used tear gas to break up a demonstration by a few hundred teachers chanting, "People united will never be defeated." In the western town of Rongo, police clubbed a group of teachers discussing the strike and arrested three representatives of the Kenya National Union of Teachers. The unionists fought back with stones.

Teachers in this East African country are paid anywhere from $45 to $490 per month and schools are underfunded. Teachers were protesting against the government of President Daniel arap Moi for reneging on a deal signed after a 12-day strike last December, in which Moi was forced to concede raises of up to 200 percent over five years.

Strike wave in South Africa
A wave of wage strikes has rattled bosses in South Africa. Job actions "have ended a relatively calm period in the country's troubled history of labour relations," the Financial Times reported October 1. Some 50,000 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa have struck in various sectors of the auto industry for the past month.

Members of the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa who work at Impala Platinum's refinery were locked out September 30 after workers called a strike. Unresolved wage disputes also include strikes by the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union against Edgars, a retail company, and by 1,000 construction workers, mostly South African contract employees, who have stopped work on the $1.3 billion Mozal aluminum smelter in Mozambique.

U.S. capitalists fear deflation
Prices for manufactured goods in the United States fell at their fastest rate in nearly 50 years, according to the latest survey by the National Association of Purchasing Management. The employer group, which produces a much-reviewed report of all sectors of the economy, announced its price index dropped from 38.4 percent in August to 34.4 percent in September. Prices have now dropped for nine straight months. "Deflationary pressures are intensifying," said Deutsche Bank Securities in an October 1 statement. "Prices are falling at their fastest pace since the 1940s."

MEGAN ARNEY AND BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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