Moscow skips debt payment
The Russian government balked at paying $908 million in
interest payments that were due June 2 to the London Club, a
group of commercial creditors. The credit rating agency Fitch
IBCA said the Kremlin, which has already defaulted on $22.4
billion of the principal on the London Club debt, will
probably default on the interest payments. Last year the
Yeltsin government defaulted on $40 billion in domestic debt.
The London Club investors are trying to squeeze interest payments on some $26 billion in debt imposed on Russia that was accumulated by the regime of the former Soviet Union. "[Russia's] 1999 budget makes no allowance on Soviet-era external debt," said a Fitch IBCA official. Meanwhile, capitalist investors in the rival Paris Club are demanding that the London Club not negotiate a payment plan with Moscow until they are consulted. Foreign direct investment in Russia dropped sharply in 1998, from $6.2 billion in 1997 to $2.2 billion, according to recent figures from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Brazilian state defaults on debt
Brazil's central bank declared the northeastern state of
Pernambuco to be in default after its government said it
would not honor bonds held by Banco Bradesco, the country's
largest private bank. The Pernambuco government refused
payments on its $148.6 million debt in state bonds, marking
the third time this year that a Brazilian state halted its
debt payments. In January the states of Rio Grande do Sul and
Minas Gerais suspended payments to the federal government and
imperialist creditors, sparking a crisis that forced the
national government to devalue its currency nearly 40
percent. The drop in prices for Brazil's commodities, a
result of the currency devaluation, has provoked frictions
among its Mercosur trading bloc partners in Argentina,
Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Palestinians protest Zionist land grabs in `days of ragé
Thousands of Palestinians marched against Zionist
settlement expansions in the West Bank and Gaza in three
"days of rage"
protests June 3-5. In Jerusalem Palestinian merchants held a
general strike; in Gaza, Palestinians blocked the main road
near a junction with an Israeli settlement. In the village of
Deir Qaddis, West Bank, a crowd of protesters marched to a
hilltop chanting, "We are the sons of this land and we will
resist."
There is smoldering outrage against the rightist settlers, who have been grabbing as much territory as possible before new "peace accords" are adopted. "The settlers in Hebron are now taking over whatever land they want," said Saeb Erekat, a central Palestinian negotiator. "There will be an explosion. Palestinians cannot keep silent as their land is being stolen."
Telefonica of Spain to cut 10,000
Telefonica SA in Spain is planning to get rid of 10,000
employees - 20 percent of its workforce. The telephone bosses
seek to buy out workers with lump sums and early retirement
plans, and plan to pile the extra work on those who remain.
For example, they will try to increase the ratio of lines per
employee from 320 to 425 by December 2000. Company officials
describe the plan as "supporting the workers," but unionists
there don't think so. "It doesn't answer our demands," said
Alejandro de Llano, spokesman for the General Workers Union.
Workers are demanding better working conditions and a say in
who is laid off. The government has given the company and
union officials 30 days to come up with a plan for the job
cuts.
U.S., EU open battle on wheat...
The European Commission spoke harshly against Washington's
scaling back of EU wheat gluten imports. The U.S. government
announced it is cutting its annual quota by more than 5,000
tons - a 20 percent reduction. EU farm commissioner Franz
Fischler said the move was "precipitate and unnecessary."
Washington claims the cut was made to offset an overshoot of
wheat gluten the previous year.
... clash on poultry, pork, beef
Washington banned imports of pork and poultry products from
countries in the European Union after the government of
Belgium announced it was investigating whether pigs, cattle,
and chickens were being given feed contaminated by the
carcinogenic chemical dioxin. The European Commission ordered
governments in Europe to track down and destroy all Belgian
poultry products that may contain the chemical.
The U.S. and Canadian government won approval June 3 from the World Trade Organization to impose trade sanctions of $253 million on EU exports. Washington and Ottawa pushed for the measures in the name of compensating for claims of lost trade because of the EU ban on hormone-treated beef products from North America. "They haven't suffered that amount," argued European Trade Commissioner Leon Brittan, who called the figure "grossly excessive." U.S. envoy Rita Hayes asserted the tariffs "represents the amount of damages we are looking for."
El Salvador bus drivers strike
Public busses in El Salvador sat idle June 3 as drivers
went on a one-day strike to protest the government's demand
that they pay a total of $28 million in traffic fines. The
strike crippled transportation. Army trucks were deployed as
scabs to offer free rides. The fines were accumulated by at
least 7,000 drivers who have been ticketed for alleged
violations over the past seven years.
Tokyo pushes for wiretap law
The lower house of parliament in Japan approved bills June
1 that would give cop agencies powers to conduct wiretaps,
ostensibly for investigations involving organized crime. The
law drew dissent from opposition parties, supporters of civil
liberties, and others in Japan. Police engaged in four broad
categories of investigation - narcotics, guns, gang-related
killings, and smuggling of undocumented workers into
Japan - will have authorization to carry out the electronic
snooping.
Cops kill on New Jersey highway
Two New Jersey state troopers and two local cops fired a
barrage of 27 bullets June 2 after chasing Stanton Crew on a
highway for 15 miles. Crew, an unarmed 31-year-old Black man,
was killed as the hail of gunfire hit his stopped car. The
next day some 100 people, including friends and relatives,
gathered outside Crew's home in Morristown, New Jersey, where
he lived with his mother. "We just want justice for my son,"
declared Lillian Crew.
Meanwhile, a grand jury has indicted James Kenna and John Hogan, two state patrol cops who fired 11 shots into a van they had stopped on the New Jersey turnpike last year. They are accused of reporting the race of Blacks they pulled over on the highway as white on their logbooks in an attempt cover up targeting Blacks and Latinos to stop and search. On May 26 a New Jersey Superior Court judge threw out the convictions of 24 people who had been arrested by Kenna and Hogan on the New Jersey highways.