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Workers World Weekly Newspaper 55 W. 17th St. #5C, NY, NY 10011 212.627.2994
Anti-Tea-party protesters gather in Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo; placard from Boston protest.
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WORKERS WORLD
In the U.S.
anti-racist protests confront tea Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Community anger grows over Imams assassination . . . . . . . . . 2 Mumia abu-Jamal: at the Crossroads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Clothing workers fight to save their jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Richie Richardson an editor & anti-war hero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 anti-union Massey mine explosion kills 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 On the picket line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Striking nurses battle temple hospitals union busting . . . . . . 5 Students, cafeteria workers join to fight Sodexo. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Gas explosion deepens opposition to hydraulic fracturing. . . 6 diverse communities unite to protest Baptist bigots . . . . . . . . 6 Students protest repression at Berkeley campus . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 activists gear up for united mass outreach on May day. . . . . . 7 auto plants closed, sold off and destroyed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 lesbians fight for hS prom rights opens national struggle. . . 8
Editorials
Earth day, nukes, and dirty wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Noticias En Espaol
Vdeo del Pentgono . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 llamado a amnista. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
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Buffalo, N.Y. 367 delaware ave. Buffalo, NY 14202 Workers World Party 716-883-2534 (WWP) fights on all buffalo@workers.org issues that face the Chicago working class and Atlanta 27 N. Wacker dr. #138 P.O. Box 5565 oppressed peoples Chicago, Il 60606 atlanta, Ga 30307 Black and white, 773-381-5839 404-627-0185 latino/a, asian, arab atlanta@workers.org chicago@workers.org and Native peoples, women and men, young Cleveland Baltimore and old, lesbian, gay, bi, P.O. Box 5963 c/o Solidarity Center straight, trans, disabled, 2011 N. Charles St., Bsm. Cleveland, Oh 44101 working, unemployed 216-531-4004 Baltimore, Md 21218 and students. cleveland@workers.org 443-909-8964 If you would like to baltimore@workers.org Denver know more about denver@workers.org Boston WWP, or to join us in Detroit 284 amory St. these struggles, 5920 Second ave. Boston, Ma 02130 contact the branch detroit, MI 48202 617-522-6626 nearest you. 313-459-0777 Fax 617-983-3836 detroit@workers.org boston@workers.org National Office 55 W. 17 St. New York, NY 10011 212-627-2994 wwp@workers.org
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Workers World 55 West 17 Street New York, N.Y. 10011 Phone: (212) 627-2994 Fax: (212) 675-7869 E-mail: ww@workers.org Web: www.workers.org Vol. 52, No. 15 April 22, 2010 Closing date: April 13, 2010 Editor: Deirdre Griswold Technical Editor: Lal Roohk Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell, Leslie Feinberg, Kris Hamel, Monica Moorehead, Gary Wilson West Coast Editor: John Parker Contributing Editors: Abayomi Azikiwe, Greg Butterfield, Jaimeson Champion, G. Dunkel, Fred Goldstein, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Hales, David Hoskins, Berta Joubert-Ceci, Cheryl LaBash, Milt Neidenberg, Bryan G. Pfeifer, Betsey Piette, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Gloria Rubac Technical Staff: Sue Davis, Shelley Ettinger, Bob McCubbin, Maggie Vascassenno Mundo Obrero: Carl Glenn, Teresa Gutierrez, Berta Joubert-Ceci, Donna Lazarus, Michael Martnez, Carlos Vargas Supporter Program: Sue Davis, coordinator Copyright 2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of articles is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. Workers World (ISSN-1070-4205) is published weekly except the first week of January by WW Publishers, 55 W. 17 St., N.Y., N.Y. 10011. Phone: (212) 627-2994. Subscriptions: One year: $25; institutions: $35. Letters to the editor may be condensed and edited. Articles can be freely reprinted, with credit to Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., New York, NY 10011. Back issues and individual articles are available on microfilm and/or photocopy from University Microfilms International, 300 Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. A searchable archive is available on the Web at www.workers.org. A headline digest is available via e-mail subscription. Subscription information is at www.workers.org/email. php. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., 5th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10011.
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were motivated by love for the people, said Mumia, referring to Ches statement that true revolutionaries are guided by great feelings of love. The machinery of oppression continues today, explained Mumia, referring to the new Jim Crow justice system. He encouraged young people to use their energy and abilities to organize and said that they dont need to wait and ask for permission to do so. Suzanne Ross of the Free Mumia AbuJamal Coalition (NYC) stated that Mu-
mias death is not acceptable, and she called on everyone to go to Washington, D.C., on April 26 to demand a federal civil rights investigation of Mumias case. The evening closed with loud chants of Free, free, free Mumia and all political prisoners! For transportation and logistical information, see www.freemumia.com/ april26.html. Every Thursday call the Justice Department hotline: 202-3531555, or switchboard: 202-514-2000, to demand a civil rights investigation.
RichieRichardsonaneditor&anti-warhero
F.O. Richardson, who everyone called Richie, was still in his teens when he jumped into France on the night of June 5, 1944, the eve of the allied landing at Normandy. He survived, luckier than the many young men whose parachutes and bodies were shredded by German machine-gun fire. Jump ahead 21 years. He was in many ways the ideal keynote speaker at a mass rally in Union Square in February 1965 organized by Youth Against War and Fascism to protest President Lyndon Johnsons sending of combat troops to Vietnam. In those days groups like the John Birch Society the spiritual ancestors of todays Tea Party organizers would hold counter-demonstrations. They liked to call anti-war forces cowards. Richie was right in their face, which got them even madder. They attacked the demonstration but found to their surprise that the protesters held the line. Richie was a Workers World Party member through the 1960s and the early 1970s. In January 1968 he took on an assignment that became a vital contribution to the class and anti-imperialist struggle. He assumed responsibility for editing The Bond, which over the next few years became the best-read newspaper of protest for the rapidly growing resistance movement of soldiers, sailors, marines, air troops and GIs of all types during the Vietnam War. The Bond became the monthly newspaper of the American Servicemens Union. Under Richardsons editorship, tens of thousands of copies each month were passed hand-to-hand by GIs all over the world, bringing an anti-war and anti-racist message and mobilizing them against the dictatorial chain of command. The Vietnamese finally liberated the south of their country in 1975. With his editorial and artistic skills, Richie had made a concrete contribution any working-class activist could be proud of. He was one of those many heroes who helped defeat U.S. imperialism in Southeast Asia. Richie died this March. There will be a gathering in his honor on April 17 at 2 p.m. at the Ethical Culture Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., at Prospect Park West between 4th and 5th Streets. Surviving family members and friends will pay their respects to this class fighter.
Mumia Abu-Jamals book, Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners defending prisoners v. the u.S.A. is available at leftbooks.com.
John Catalinotto
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NYCbuildingworkers settostrike
More than 30,000 doorpeople, janitors, porters, handypeople and superintendents who keep thousands of New York Citys elite residential buildings humming are set to strike at 12:01 a.m. on April 21 if the Realty Advisory Board doesnt stop demanding what Service Employees Local 32BJ called unfair and unacceptable cuts to health care, overtime and sick days in a March 17 statement. When negotiations stalled in early April, Local 32BJ members voted unanimously to strike. The union has scheduled a rally for April 13 to tell New Yorks $584 billion real-estate industry, which has been flush with cash during this recession, that they will not bow down to unreasonable demands to further line the already-stuffed pockets of greedy landlords.
Hotelworkersactions acrossU.S.
The 850 workers at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square hotel walked out April 7-10 as part of UNITE HERE Local 2s ongoing struggle for a decent contract. The billion-dollar hotel industry wants the workers to pay more for health care, but the low-paid workers say they cant afford what the bosses propose. The union has held rolling strikes since the contract expired in August 2009. With negotiations stalled since December and none scheduled, Local 2 plans other strikes targeting the top 60 high-priced hotels. In the meantime its called a boycott of six hotels: the Hilton Union Square and Hilton Fishermans Wharf, Westin St. Francis, W Hotel, Grand Hyatt and Le Meridien Hotel. Employees of Columbia Sussex Corp., the fourth-biggest hotel owner in the U.S. with 67 hotels, called a boycott of seven hotels the week of March 22. Members of UNITE HERE say the layoffs, pay freezes, benefit reductions and healthcare cuts have got to stop. The company is trying to bleed the workers as it scrambles to pay off more than $1 billion it borrowed to buy 14 hotels in 2005. The union calls for a boycott of seven hotels, three unionized and four unorganized, to support a union organizing drive. The union hotels are the Baltimore Sheraton City Center, Hilton Crystal City outside D.C. and the Anchorage Hilton. The nonunion hotels are the Westin Washington, D.C., City Center, Westin Emerald Plaza San Diego, Wyndham Chicago and Westin Chicago Northwest.
DOLworkersreadytomarch
During a March 31 union town hall meeting, workers at the Department of Labor, represented by Government Employees Local 12, accused Labor Secretary Hilda Solis of acting like her Bush predecessor. Contract negotiations, including such issues as paid family leave, flexible work schedules, teleworking and ending management nepotism, have dragged on for more than a year. Workers intend to picket the DOL with an inflatable rat. (Union City!, online newsletter of Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO, April 1)
S.F.Labordemandsjobsforall
As part of a four-year review by the United Nations Human Rights Council designed to ensure that the U.S. complies with a number of U.N. treaties mandating full employment, the right to a job and union rights, the San Francisco Labor Council passed a resolution March 15 requesting that it collaborate with other labor organizations in writing a report to be delivered to the UNHRC. Among other provisions the report will call on the U.S. to enforce the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978, remove all obstacles to organizing workers and encourage Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, and post all U.N. treaties that mandate workers rights in every workplace in the U.S.
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Desi Burnette, with the Media Mobilizing Project, reminded people how PASNAP worked with the community in March 2009 to try to keep open Northeastern Hospital when Temple University decided to close the facility, which had been providing care to the surrounding community for 100 years. Ronald Blount, president of the 1,200 member Unified Taxi Workers Alliance, joined the nurses picket line. Blount was clear that if Temple succeeded in breaking a union like PASNAP, which represents some of the higher paid unionized workers in the city, every sector of the work force will lose. Support from rank-and-file workers for the striking nurses has been evident all along, from flashed victory signs to the loud honks from passing cars, ambulances, buses, trucks and taxis every time the nurses hold a rally. But for PASNAP to defeat managements union busting campaign, leaders of other unions have to call on their membership to come out in organized mass public demonstrations of support, with the clear understanding that an injury to one is an injury to all.
on Emorys campus to pressure the administration into implementing a Labor Code of Conduct to enforce the rights of subcontracted workers to organize if they so choose. E-mail blasts and phone calls are being sent continuously to the university president, provost and head of campus life demanding that they implement the code. Over 60 students, workers and community members entered the administration building to demand that the code be implemented. They filled the hallway outside the presidents office. Students later marched through the university cafeteria to show support for the workers. The workers, mostly Black women,
smiled broadly, waved and clapped as the students with their pro-worker, prounion signs weaved their way through the food line. As a result of this action, a meeting with the university president has been set to discuss the issue. Campuses will be escalating campaigns leading up to the end of the school year. The week of April 12 will be a nationally coordinated week of action including anything from leafleting to sit-ins and barricades. Roger Sikes, a graduate student in Public Health at Emory, is a leading member of the effort to support the Sodexo workers union drive.
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Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers-WV. There were also activists from LGBTQ, pro-choice and environmental groups. The crowd chanted, Bigots Out of Charleston, We Demand Rights as One! Queer, Straight, Black and White, Same Struggle, Same Fight! and Pro-Life, Thats a Lie, You Exploit When Miners Die! The bigots did not stay as long as they had planned. They were surrounded and silenced by a united crowd of working and oppressed people. The next day, WBC bigots picketed a Catholic high school and a funeral for some of the miners in Raleigh County, an hour south of Charleston. This time they had more police protection and counterprotesters could not get as close to them as they had before, but the stronger police presence did not stop the energy and militancy of the counterprotesters. On April 10, the WBC spewed antiSemitic hate outside of two synagogues, holding signs saying Jews Killed Jesus as well as God Hates West Virginia. The bigots were challenged by a sizeable number of LGBTQ youth and students, and members of the synagogues. Finally, on April 11, the WBC bigots picketed a Catholic church and were confronted by both silent and vocal protesters. While the church leadership encouraged people to hold a silent vigil, many people were too enraged to be silent. The WBC bigots were confronted everywhere they went. Working and oppressed people of different national and religious backgrounds united around a common, material cause and let the fascists know they were not welcome in their town! Jeremy Radabaugh is a labor activist in West Virginia.
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Constance McMillen
Available at leftbooks.com
sex date. The Court finds this expression and communication of her viewpoint is the type of speech that falls squarely within the purview of the First Amendment. McMillen was happy about this victory. She stated, It feels really good that the court realized that the school was violating my rights and discriminating against me by canceling the prom. All I ever wanted was for my school to treat me and my girlfriend like any other couple that wants to go to prom. (aclu.org, March 23) But the court didnt order the school to put the prom back on the calendar. It seemed to take as good coin the school districts assurances that an alternative and private prom being planned by parents would be open to all students. That April 5 event turned out to be a separate and totally unequal prom that was anything but nondiscriminatory. Only seven students attended, including McMillen, who accompanied another female student but not her girlfriend, who was facing a lot of harassment. The real prom was taking place at a private country club. McMillen was not invited. It was not the prom I imagined, said McMillen. It really hurts my feelings. These are still people who Ive gone through school with, even teachers who loved me before this all started. Ive never
Greece, FrAnce
By g. Dunkel
The French economy is the second largest in Europe, after Germanys, and Greeces economy has been on the verge of default for some months. Capitalists in both France and Greece are trying to solve their economic problems by laying off workers, cutting their salaries and retirement benefits, raising taxes and slashing social services. The bosses in France have taken a piecemeal approach for example, projecting over 7,600 layoffs in the national railroad system in the next two years and trying to outsource some auto parts plants to India or Brazil. The financial crisis has severely impacted Greeces tourism and shipping, two main sectors of its economy. The Greek government had also bet big on cheap, easy credit to stimulate its economy.
Workers
When credit became scarce, the economy went into a tailspin and the government could just barely borrow enough to cover the debts that were coming due. The European Central Bank and the German and French governments have told the Greek government to raise funds by imposing austerity on the workers. But workers in both countries have opened a counteroffensive, in Greece holding four one-day general strikes since February and planning to expand those actions. The first Greek general strike in February demanded that the rich pay for the crisis since they were the ones who really benefited from the government spending. There were three general strikes in March, as the government attempted to squeeze the workers harder. The austerity measures are harsh, cutting public service workers salaries by Continued on the next page
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Osprey crashes
crumble and thousands needlessly die each year due to inadequate medical care, billions of dollars are being thrown at the military-industrial-financial complex to continue imperialist plunder overseas. Politicians cry about the huge expense of health care for poor people here. Meanwhile, they eagerly approve pouring taxpayer dollars into building newer and more efficient technology to kill innocents and topple governments. Financial corporations exert enormous influence over Congress and the White House, as there
is a virtual revolving door between Pentagon positions and corporate boards. The authorities manipulate youth here into becoming their murderous agents, who are sent overseas to kill and occupy countries. Many end up with their lives shattered if they survive. All of this is happening to increase corporate control worldwide. Lives by the millions and dollars by the trillions are simply part of the cost in the view of the capitalist establishment, a horrendous but inevitable fact of life under the capitalist system.
auto parts factory in a rust belt northeast of Paris, where management announced a closing on April 10. The workers wanted a severance bonus of 21,000 euros, while management was offering 3,200. When the 92 affected workers, who were unhappy with managements offer, held an April 1 demonstration, cops fired tear gas to disperse them. Workers then seized the plant, wired a gas tank so they could blow the plant up and started burning six-foot-high piles of pallets and tires with gas canisters at night so the cops would know they were serious. (Le Monde, April 4.) This spectacle of workers inside a plant protecting
themselves with a burning barricade was all over French television. After the right-wing mayor of Crpyen-Valois, with tears in his eyes, begged management to stop dillydallying and bargain, management increased its offer to 13,000 euros. Negotiations should resume April 12. One worker pointed out that the company has spent in each month since April 2009 the total of what the workers are demanding, They would rather lose money than give us some. Another worker added that they are obviously planning on closing more plants and dont want to set a precedent. (LHumanit, April 9)
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WORKERS WORLD
editorial
Another major item on the agenda during the meeting between Obama and Jonathan was the question of the so-called U.S. war on terrorism. Nigeria has been targeted recently because of an incident involving a 23-year-old passenger aboard an airline flight traveling from Amsterdam to Detroit on Dec. 25. In response to the Dec. 25 incident, Nigeria and numerous other states around the world were targeted by the U.S. for special scrutiny at airports inside the country and flights bound for it. Nigerians have objected strongly to their countrys listing as a possible security threat to the U.S. The Nuclear Security Summit meeting held by the Obama administration and representatives of 47 nations is taking place in the aftermath of the signing of a new agreement with Russia. During the signing, Obama made special mention of both Iran and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, threatening both countries by calling them states posing possible threats to international security resulting from their nuclear programs. Iran has maintained that its nuclear programs are strictly for civilian purposes. The DPRK, which has been living under U.S. threats ever since the U.S. war devastated the country from 1950 to1953, is reported to have developed a limited nuclear Low-Wage Capitalism by Fred Goldstein is a most timely work, weapons capability, and has also tested as the working class prepares for a fightback during the greatest crisis missiles that have drawn protest from the of capitalism since the Great Depression. United States and the United Nations SeClarence Thomas, ILWU Local 10 and Co-chair, Million Worker March Movement curity Council. The state of Israel, however, which has From the point of view of Filipino workers in the U.S., the largest exploited been reported to possess nuclear weapand abused Filipino workforce outside the Philippines ... we are pleased with ons capability, has not been questioned or pressured by the U.S. and other imperialthe expos of imperialist globalization as the main culprit ist states about its military intentions. Isof global forced migration. raeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Berna Ellorin, Chair, BAYAN USA announced that he would not attend the Nuclear Security Summit due to the intentions of Egypt and Turkey to question the A Marxist analysis of the changing Zionist state over its reported possession character of the working class What the new globalized high-tech of a nuclear arsenal. twenty years ago Sam Marcy wrote that the scientificThe summit represents another effort imperialism means for the technological revolution is accelerating a shift to on the part of the United States to dictate class struggle in the U.S. lower-paying jobs and to more women, Black and the terms of nuclear weapons capability. latino/a workers. an easy-to-read analysis of the roots of the current global Those states that are allied with the U.S., Using Marxism as a living tool he analyzes the trends economic crisis, its implications for workers and oppressed such as Pakistan and India, are allowed to and offers strategies for labor including possess nuclear weapons, whereas nations peoples, and the strategy needed for future struggle. the occupation of plants. that take a political line independent of a new introduction by Fred Goldstein, explains the Paperback, 336 pages. Includes graphs, charts, imperialism are threatened with sanctions roots of the current economic crisis, with its disasbibliography, endnotes and index. and military actions for even developing trous unemployment, that has heightened the need for a working-class resurgence. nuclear power. Both books available at Leftbooks.com or in bookstores around the country
he U.S. presides over the Nuclear Security Summit held April 12-13 in Washington. U.S. spokespeople keep repeating that its purpose is to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. But U.S. imperialism is the one that has wielded its nuclear arsenal as a terror threat, both against the Soviet Union in the days it existed and against all sorts of states that had no nuclear weapons. U.S. imperialism is the only power to actually use nuclear weapons against the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in the last days of World War II. And the Pentagon is still improving its nuclear weapons. Then the U.S. invited Israel to this summit. Israel possesses nuclear weapons yet refuses to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Washington excludes Iran, which has no nuclear weapons and has signed the treaty. Besides trying to get sanctions against Iran, Washington is using the summit to attack the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. As the country under unrelenting attack from the Pentagon for the past 60 years, the DPRK has the strongest right to arm itself with whatever weapons it can. April 22 is Earth Day. Following the disgraceful, imperialist-led negotiations in Copenhagen last December, it is a breath of fresh air in all senses of that term that President Evo Morales of Bolivia has called together another kind of summit for April 20-22 in Cochabamba. Even its name is inspiring: The Global Conference of Peoples on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. An April 11 release says President Morales will call for forming a multilateral Organization of Original Nations and Workers. There is much to say about protecting the environment from profit-driven industries and climate change. Well report on the results of this conference in Bolivia, which will surely raise the questions in a more effective manner than
the worlds exploiters did in Denmark. Meanwhile, those who want to stop terror, especially the most destructive terror state terror and those who want to stop the most drastic assault on the environment can turn their attention to stopping two dirty wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is hard to imagine anything more wasteful and destructive of the environment than high-tech Pentagon wars against masses of people, nor anything so destructive of peace and human rights. Recent media exposures have shown once again the disgusting criminal acts that occur when an oppressor state wages an unjust war of occupation against what were once sovereign countries. In Iraq a video leaked by some courageous soldier or Defense Department worker has shown what day-to-day murder was like in Baghdad in 2007. To the troops in the helicopter, any Iraqi was an enemy, any cylinder was a weapon, and slaughter was not only justified it was orders. In a complete misunderstanding of history, the helicopter soldier on the radio referred to his unit as Crazy Horse. The original Crazy Horse was a leader of the resistance, who fought against the U.S. military. Look it up. In Afghanistan the U.S. troops near Kandahar, where they are supposedly preparing a major offensive to win hearts and minds, recently strafed an ordinary bus with machine gun fire. At least five people were killed and 18 wounded. In the following days thousands of Afghans poured into the streets to protest the U.S. occupation. Those protesting Afghans had the right idea. They should be joined by millions in the United States who also pour into the streets and take the first step to save the environment and stop terror as they demand that all U.S. military forces official and mercenary get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Low-Wage Capitalism
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huge increase left some people having to spend 80 percent of their income on heat and light. When Kyrgyzia was part of the Soviet Union, it received fuel oil and other essentials at a subsidized price from the central government. In effect, it and other southern republics benefited from an affirmative action program meant to bring up their economic development closer to the national level. Once the USSR was broken up into small competing countries and capitalism was restored, the standard of living for the working people in these areas plummeted. The privileged, however, were now free to become entrepreneurs, which usually meant attaching themselves in some way to the rapacious interests of imperialist corporations, which bribed officials to open their doors to the unbridled exploitation of an area rich in natural resources. This is the main source of the corruption now endemic in the governments of these small countries. The people of Kyrgyzstan could take
it no longer. On April 7 they surrounded government buildings in the capital, Bishkek, and refused to disperse. On the orders of President Bakiyev, troops fired into the crowds, killing at least 75 people and wounding hundreds more. However, the people did not retreat and ended up taking over the government buildings as the army and police broke ranks. The uprising spread throughout most of the country, overthrowing officials of the old regime. An interim government has been formed headed by Roza Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister. Bakiyev has fled to southern Kyrgyzstan and refuses to step down. The new government sent a delegation to Moscow seeking economic assistance from Russia. It says that its first priority is dealing with the economic hardships the people face and that it has no immediate plans to cancel the contract that leases Manas Air Base to the Pentagon. But the peoples mandate is very clear and Washington is very worried.
BAngLADeSh.
PhotoS: SSt-BANGlADESh
national language. This drew the ire of the Bengali people who were a nationally oppressed group with its own culture, traditions and language. Students from the University of Dhaka organized protests, even though the government had outlawed assemblies, meetings and protests to counter mass sentiment. The activists also visited a tea field where they were able to talk to some of the workers. They are trying to organize those who toil under oppressive conditions, working up to 12 hours a day, stooped over and forced to pick tea leaves rapidly in the blinding hot sun. The international participants agreed to deepen their relationships as part of the international struggle to demand and win education as a right for all. Representing Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) at the SSF events, Hales played a leading role in mobilizing students and youth for the March 4 education protests across the U.S.
P r o l e ta r i o s y o p r i m i d o s d e t o d o s l o s p a s e s un o s !
Berkeley, California.