UK soldier assaults Irish student
A regiment of British troops attacked 17-year-old Paul
Ogle as he set off for college in Newry November 25. After
insulting the youth, one of the soldiers snatched him and
head-butted him giving him a gash over his left eye that
sent him to the hospital for medical attention.
In another incident of harassment by British soldiers, Sinn Fein president Jerry Adams and fellow party member Gerry Kelly were detained at a security checkpoint 20 miles southwest of Belfast December 12. Cops were summoned and Adams's car was searched while he and Kelly were verbally abused by the authorities.
Strike halts airline in Germany
Flight and ground workers for Lufthansa airlines in
Germany waged a two-hour strike December 12 that canceled
or delayed 116 flights. The DAG union reported some 1,500
workers from Lufthansa flight crews and ground personnel
participated in the strike.
The workers have been without a contract since September. The strike started after negotiations broke off December 9 between the DAG and company officials over disagreement on contract length, vacation time and Christmas bonuses. The walkouts affect airports in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Duesseldorf, Hanover, and Munich.
Russian miners end strike, workers seize nuke plant
Officials of Russia's Coal Workers Union called off a
nationwide strike December 11, after the government agreed
to pay back wages owed to miners by the end of the year.
More than 400,000 workers in about 180 pits and open cast
mines across Russia participated in the strike. Union
officials say Moscow's debt to the miners totals about $400
million. The miners' strike began December 3 and was joined
by teachers and other workers in many regions.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen workers took over the control room at a St. Petersburg nuclear power plant on December 6. They threatened to cut off power to the city unless they received several months back pay. By dawn the next day, 400 of their co-workers joined the take over. Before noon on December 7, Moscow flew in over a billion rubles - $200 per worker - promising to send the rest in a week. Government officials acknowledged that workers throughout the country are owed almost $9 billion in back wages and the debt is soaring by nearly 20 percent a month.
Tel Aviv escalates provocations
The Israeli government decided December 13 to restore
benefits to settlers in the West Bank, which include
business grants equal to 20 percent of investments and
lower income taxes. A similar policy that provided
incentives was implemented from 1990 to 1992 prompting
thousands of Israelis to move to enclaves in the occupied
territories, increasing the population to 145,000 settlers.
The Palestinian Authority warned the Zionist regime of
escalating the crisis "to the edge of explosion."
At the same time, some 15,000 Palestinians participated in a rally December 13 in the Gaza Strip organized by Hamas, the militant Islamic group. Many Palestinians expressed anger over an Israeli planning commission's approval to build an Israeli housing complex for 132 homes in an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
Chilean hospital workers strike
More than 50,000 public hospital workers went on strike
during the first week of December demanding higher wages.
The hospital bosses refused for the first several days to
meet with workers until they renounced the strike and went
back to work. Workers refused this demand. "We cannot end
the strike if we do not have guarantees that they [the
company] will honor an agreement," said Humberto Cabrera,
president of the National Confederation of Health Workers.
The workers received a boost when doctors decided to join
their strike. "As doctors we cannot permit this situation
to continue in the hospitals," said Enrique Accorsi,
president of the Doctor's Association.
Mexico retaliates in trade duel
Mexican rulers raised import tariffs on eight U.S.
products, December 12, which they project will yield them
$1 million a year. The main items to be more heavily taxed
are alcoholic products including wine, wine coolers and
brandy, which will be increased to 20 percent. This move by
the Mexican government is seen as a retaliatory measure
after the Clinton administration increased a tariff on
Mexican brooms by 11 percent on November 28. This trade
duel marks the first tariff increase since the January 1994
signing of the so-called North American Free Trade
Agreement.
Campus workers walk out in New York
Several hundred technical, clerical workers, and some
students at New York University participated in a rally
December 11 to support a half-day walkout organized by
workers, over the right to have a union shop. Currently,
the university can hire non-union workers. Of the 1,550
workers covered by the union contract, 900 are union
members.
The university offered a 3.5 percent pay raise or $18.50 a week, whichever is higher, and a 3 percent increase the next two years. University officials are refusing the union demands to participate in the orientation of new workers when they start work, instead of months later, and the right to deal with union business during the workday.
Cops charged with frame up
Four cops and three prosecutors in Illinois were charged
on December 12 with conspiracy, perjury, and obstruction of
justice in the frame-up of two Latino youth, who were
convicted of the abduction, rape, and murder of a 10-year-
old girl. Sentenced to death, the two youth had spent years
on death row before being released last year.
Five of seven of those indicted were accused of giving false testimonies. One of the former prosecutors charged in the 47-count indictment is Robert Kilander, now a DuPage County judge. Since 1994, five men have been released from death row in Illinois because of lack of evidence or because of evidence of innocence.
- BRIAN TAYLOR