Strikes loom in France
Major trade unions in France are threatening to organize
more joint actions in response to government-proposed cuts
on the social security system. According to the Financial
Times, Prime Minister Alain Juppé has pledged to cut
spending for social security and increase patients'
payments for hospital care.
Louis Viannet, general secretary of the CGT union, said he was contacting other unions to organize joint protest actions in November. A similar statement was made by Marc Blondel, head of Force Ouvriere. "If the government makes proposals completely opposite to ours we will have no hesitation in fighting them," said an official of the CFDT union. A national walkout of 3.5 million workers on October 10 was the first combined action of the national trade unions in France since 1986.
Thousands of workers protest in Ukraine Thousands of unionists picketed the Ukrainian government
cabinet building October 19 demanding higher wages and
lower prices. The miners union also threatened to strike
unless the government pays back wages. The workers' actions
are the most visible protests so far against the so-called
"market reform program" imposed by the government in 1994.
Meanwhile Leonid Kuchma, president of Ukraine, dismissed
Petro Kupin as governor of the industrialized region of
Luhansk on October 19, in a dispute over the reform
program.
Hussein remains president
Zambia leader fights deportation Authorities ordered Kaunda to report to police
headquarters in Lusaka to discuss his citizenship on
October 18. They have told members of Kaunda's political
party that he could either be handed to a United Nations
refugee agency as a stateless person or deported to Malawi
as an illegal immigrant. Kaunda became president of the
country when it won independence from the United Kingdom in
1964. He was defeated in elections in 1991 by Chiluba.
Kaunda's popularity has risen recently as next year's
general elections approaches and Chilubás government has
failed to stem the economic crisis in the country.
Libya wants to deport 1 million Libya also continues to expel Palestinians in an attempt
to discredit the recent accord between Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization, despite Libyan leader
Moammar Qaddafi's announcement that the action would stop.
Some 650 Palestinians, half of them children, were stranded
on a ferry off Cyprus October 18 after leaving Libya.
Cyprus allowed the ferry to take on food and fuel, but
refuse to let any passengers leave the boat.
Lebanon president stays in office
Uprisings at U.S. prisons Administration officials stated that the confrontations
were partly a response to the House of Representatives vote
to maintain a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity for possession
of crack cocaine and cocaine powder. Blacks face most of
the charges for possession of crack. Justice department
studies show that nearly two-thirds of the inmates in
federal prisons are serving sentences for drug crimes, with
Blacks on average serving longer sentences than whites.
Acquittal in Alabama school fire Johnson's father was a leader of the fight to remove the
principal after Humphries threatened to cancel a dance
unless the students agreed to adhere to a ban on
interracial dating. When a student whose mother is Black
and father is white asked who she should go to the dance
with, Humphries explained that she was the kind of
"mistake" he was trying to prevent with the ban.
Cuts to ruin some dairy farmers "I'm just barely getting by," said Donald Everitt, who
has run a small dairy farm in Pennsylvania for 23 years.
"They say we're supposed to be better managers, but there
comes a point where we can't be any better," he added.
- DEREK BRACEY AND
MAURICE WILLIAMS
Saddam Hussein remained head of state of Iraq after a
referendum on his presidency in mid-October. The
overwhelming "yes" vote for Hussein reported by the
government is widely seen as a reflection of Iraqis' anger
at UN-imposed sanctions on their country. "We have 11,000
children dying of malnutrition here every year. Nothing can
justify this genocide," a pharmacist told the New York
Times. At least 150,000 Iraqis were killed during the U.S.-
led slaughter in 1990-90.
Former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda asked a court to
stop the government from trying to deport him as an illegal
alien October 20. The government of Frederick Chiluba says
that Kaunda failed to formally seek Zambian citizenship
while he was president of the nation in 1970, when he
renounced his Malawian nationality.
Libya asked the UN Security Council for permission to
begin flying more than 1 million African workers out of the
country. The council, which maintains an international air
embargo against the country, rejected the request. The
United Nations imposed sanctions on Tripoli in 1992 after
the government refused to turn over two men accused of the
1988 bombing of an airliner over Scotland. Libya's economy
has been under growing pressure as a result of the
sanctions and the government is seeking ways to reduce the
number of workers in the country.
The Lebanese parliament passed a constitutional
amendment October 18 to extend the term of President Elias
Hrawi by three years. Widely supported by capitalist forces
in the country, the change ended plans for presidential
elections this year. "An extension for Hrawi is an
extension of the stability of the [Lebanese] pound," one
Beirut banker told the press. Hrawi has been president
since 1989. He enjoys the support of Syrian president Hafez
al Assad, who indicated his government's backing for the
amendment.
Federal authorities confined thousands of inmates to
their cells at 70 U.S. prisons after uprisings at four
institutions between October 19 and October 22. In the most
extensive inmate uprisings in years in the federal penal
system, prisoners set fires, broke windows, and clashed
with guards at jails in Talledega, Alabama; Greenville,
Illinois; Memphis, Tennessee; and Allenwood, Pennsylvania.
After the prosecution presented no physical evidence,
Christopher Lynn Johnson was acquitted of charges of
burning the Randolph County High School in a jury trial
October 20. The school in Wedowee, Alabama, burned down in
August 1994, amidst a battle to fire its principal, Hulond
Humphries, for racist remarks. Johnson faced up to 20 years
in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The agriculture committees are the U.S. Congress are
developing budget bills that would lower the price that
farmers are guaranteed for their milk, or eliminate
entirely federal rules that dictate minimum prices that
companies must pay farmers. Companies would instead be
allowed to buy milk from whatever farmer sold the cheapest,
driving many small dairy producers off the market.