Workers and farmers protest austerity in Brazil
Up to 90,000 workers and farmers demonstrated in the
Brazilian capital of Brasilia August 26. Organized by unions
and opposition parties, participants chanted, "FHC out, IMF
out!," targeting President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the
International Monetary Fund. In November last year the IMF
loaned $41.5 million to Cardoso's government, which has
undertaken a severe austerity drive.
Student strike in Mexico
Student protests have kept Mexico's largest university
closed for more than four months. On April 20 students at the
National Autonomous University, which has an enrollment of
270,000, began their strike against the university admini
stration's plans to charge tuition of $150 a year. After
seven weeks the administration backed down, saying the fees
would not be obligatory. The students decided to continue
their action, explaining that they are striking in support of
education as a social right for all.
Strikers guard barricades blocking the university entrances. They organize themselves at nighttime assemblies, and have held frequent rallies and marches. Counterdemon strations, involving some students and faculty and administration members, have also been mounted, reflecting a wider polarization. Members of the largest union of blue collar workers on campus have worked without pay to assist the strikers.
White House probes vs. Iraq
A new White House report lays the basis for stepped-up
bullying of Iraq. Sent to Congress August 23, it states that
U.S. spies are monitoring Iraqi sites for signs of alleged
production of "weapons of mass destruction." The report also
claims concern about Baghdad's purchase of "dual use"
materials, with both civilian and weapons applications.
Washington calls for resuming weapons inspections under the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) and supports a Dutch- British proposal for an aggressive inspection regime. UNSCOM inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq last December, after four months of Iraqi protests about their intrusive investigations. The same day Washington and London launched a sustained bombing campaign named Operation Desert Fox. Since then, U.S. and British warplanes have carried out almost daily bombing raids on Iraq, as they patrol the "no fly zones" imposed on the country after the 1991 Gulf War.
1,000 workers rally in Jakarta
Dressed in their blue-and-white uniforms, more than 1,000
supermarket workers rallied in the Indonesian capital of
Jakarta September 1. Employed by the Hero supermarket chain,
they gathered outside the company's head office to demand a
wage increase of 50 percent. Fourteen of Hero's Jakarta city
stores were represented.
The owners and managers finally agreed to meet 11 workers' representatives, but turned down the demand for an immediate raise. "There [were] no concrete results for us," said one of the workers' spokespeople. The protesters made plans to call on Hero workers in the neighboring cities of Bekasi, Tangerang, and Bogor - part of the greater Jakarta area in which the firm has 40 supermarkets - to join a stoppage and rally. This "massive strike will make the owner suffer large losses, and he will think twice about his attitude to our requirements," one of the workers commented.
Calls to cancel debt in Africa
Finance ministers and central bank governors from 17
countries in Africa met in Nairobi, Kenya, at the end of
August, where many argued for the cancellation of their
foreign debt. Festus G. Mogae, the president of Botswana, said
collapsing commodity prices are exacerbating the debt crisis.
African nations owe unpayable sums to imperialist banks and governments. Of the 41 "Heavily Indebted Poor Countries" listed by the World Bank, 33 are in Africa. To cite one example, Ethiopia's debt of $10 billion stands at 13 times its 1996 export income, nearly half of which went to debt payments. The social costs of this burden are illustrated by the fact that in the continent, only South Africa spends more on health care than on debt service.
Malaria on the rise
Malaria is making a deadly comeback. According to the World
Health Organization the tropical disease infects 300 to 500
million people each year. It kills up to 2.7 million people
annually, most of them children in semi-colonial countries.
This toll is being used to drum up support for the
rehabilitation of DDT, an insecticide with proven harmful
effects to wildlife, and possibly to human beings. The
chemical has been banned or restricted in the U.S. and many
other countries. Scientists campaigning for its use against
mosquitoes that carry the parasite say that treatments and
alternative preventive measures are too expensive.
Snooping powers for FBI boosted
Standards adopted by the Federal Communications Commission
August 27 for cellular phones give increased powers to
government snoops. Information required of phone companies
will facilitate the police tapping of conference calls,
including after the stated target of an inquiry has left the
conversation. Federal and local spy agencies will also be able
to pinpoint the location of a cell phone user, and to
determine whether features like call waiting and call
forwarding are being used. Text messages sent over cellular
connections can also be monitored.
Communication intercepts approved by courts have nearly doubled over the past decade, among them taps on cell phones. U.S. attorney general Janet Reno said the ruling will assist "law enforcement." Jim Dempsey of the Center for Democracy and Technology said that "the commission ruled against privacy and in favor of expanded FBI surveillance."
Ballot on affirmative action
A ballot initiative announced in August targets affirmative
action programs in Florida. The initiative's backers hope to
end measures that have helped boost the proportion of students
and employees who are Black, of other oppressed nationalities,
and women in colleges and in public employment. They propose
to place this on the ballot in the presidential elections in
2000. One of the prime movers of the proposal, businessman
Ward Connerly, helped promote similar measures passed in
California and Washington State in 1996 and 1998.
Connerly has formed a group named the American Civil Rights Institute. Supporters of the initiative claim it defends equality for all, presenting it as a civil rights measure. Affirmative action programs were largely a product of massive civil rights struggle in the decades after World War II. They were forged to address the deep inequalities that pervade U.S. society.
- FRANK EVANS