Indonesian gov't faces unrelenting protests
More than 4,000 students in Indonesia assembled at the
parliament building in the capital city of Jakarta December 17,
demanding former president Suharto be tried on corruption charges
and an end to the military's hand in government. Riot cops
guarding the government building attacked protesters with tear
gas, rubber-coated bullets, and batons. Over 110 demonstrators
were injured and 14 cops were wounded. The following day 1,200
students staged antigovernment rallies.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people in East Timor took to the streets of Dili demanding independence from Indonesia December 18.
Israeli parliament forces early elections
A landslide 81-30 vote in the Israeli parliament December 21
set in motion early elections for prime minister. Current prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the call. Elections are
projected for early 1999. Underlying tensions between rightist
forces demanding an end to withdrawals from occupied Palestinian
territory and those who back the pullouts, as well as the growing
depression conditions there, have exhausted the attempts by
Netanyahu to pull together a coalition of "national unity" that
could carry him through his full term, which ends in 2000.
Netanyahu is likely to have to run against Labor Party candidate Ehud Barak and former chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, Lt. Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Cabinet voted the day before to suspend the U.S. government-mediated Wye accords between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by Yasser Arafat. Tel Aviv said the agreement is on ice until the PA agrees to a new set of demands laid down by Netanyahu, which according to a December 21 Washington Post article, include renouncing intentions to declare an independent state, halting "all violence and incitement of violence," dropping the demand that Israel release Palestinian political prisoners, and seizure of all "illegal" weapons in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Tel Aviv shells south Lebanon
The Israeli government, in yet another incursion of Lebanese
soil, sent helicopter gunships to attack the southern region of
that country in the early morning of December 19. The air strike
had the usual stated aim of attacking "suspected bases" of
Hezbollah. Hezbollah is an organization in Lebanon fighting to
drive 1,500 Israeli troops and 2,500 militia members from the
strip of Lebanese land they have forcefully occupied since 1985.
The targeted "bases" are actually villages, partially abandoned
due to constant shelling by Tel Aviv's forces. "More than 1,000
of my [olive] trees got burned last month when the Israelis
shelled the area," said Hassan Rachid Towrany from Yatar village.
"It was a real tragedy because any trees we plant now won't bear
olives for another 10 years." For many, olive growing is their
livelihood.
"These fires caused by Israeli shelling are a day-in, day-out problem," said Lebanese Gen. Yehya Raad. Their have been 107 Israeli air raids against Lebanon in 1998 and countless surface- to-surface attacks from the southern occupational troops. "In some places as much as 40 percent of trees and crops have been destroyed by fires or shelling," said regional agriculture minister in southern Lebanon, Abbas Jamaa.
Japan companies project firings
The Japanese company NKK, one of the world's largest
steelmakers, will eliminate 1,300 jobs over the next year in
addition to 2,000 terminations planned earlier. Steel prices, in
the face of a worldwide crisis of steel overproduction, are
dropping, causing many companies to downsize and "restructure"
their operations.
Nissan, Japan's second-largest automaker, faces a similar situation. Thousands of jobs could be axed and some plants are likely to be shut down. The auto industry in Japan "is racked by overcapacity following a 12.3 percent drop in domestic vehicle sales this year to the lowest level since 1986," read an article in the December 19 Financial Times of London.
More cops arrested in case of tortured Haitian in New York
Two New York cops, Francisco Rosario and Rolando Alemán,
were arrested December 16 on federal charges of conspiring to
make and making false statements concerning the brutal police
torture of Abner Louima in 1997.
Both officers, who were released on bail the same day, have been suspended without pay. If convicted they could face up to five years behind bars.
Abner Louima is an immigrant from Haiti who was arrested when police arrived at the scene of an altercation outside a nightclub in Brooklyn. He was reportedly hauled into the 70th Precinct cop station, forced into a bathroom there, and sodomized with a plunger. Louima suffered substantial damage to internal organs. It was only after tens of thousands of people demonstrated in the streets of New York, protesting the act of police brutality, that the federal government was forced to act.
U.S. bosses plan job cuts
The number of job cuts planned by U.S. industrial bosses
internationally has reached 575,000 - the highest figure since
the worldwide recession of the early 1990s - according to
Challenger Gray & Christmas, an "outplacement" firm in Chicago.
The reason behind the mountain of planned layoffs is capitalism's crisis of overproduction - the bosses' inability to sell for a profit that which they have mass produced. The result is a scramble to cut costs to make up for falling profit rates.
Johnson & Johnson said it will shut down 36 of its 158 plants worldwide after a year of reduced profits. When oil giant Exxon stated it would buy Mobil, immediate layoffs of 9,000 were projected, with thousands more likely to take place through plant shut downs and consolidations. Lear, one of the largest U.S. suppliers of vehicle interiors, is axing 2,800 jobs and closing 18 plants. At Boeing, deflationary pressures are moving that company in the direction of firing union workers and outsourcing to low-cost, generally nonunion suppliers.
- BRIAN TAYLOR