>Teresa Gutierrez, a national organizer for the Committee,
>told the rally that the committee would not stop its work
>until Eli=A0n sets foot on Cuban soil.
>
>Rep. Dan Burton, who was in Miami the same day, and other
>right-wing politicians are moving ahead with plans to make
>Eli=A0n a U.S. citizen. According to news reports, however,
>this has little support. Even Republican elected officials
>have said they would not support a citizenship process.
>
>Federal Judge William M. Hoeveler will hear an appeal by
>Eli=A0n's Miami relatives on Feb. 14 in U.S. District Court in
>Florida. The hearing is to determine whether the Immigration
>and Naturalization Service ruling that granted Eli=A0n's
>father in Cuba custody will prevail over any state court.
>
>POLL
>
>A front-page headline in The Jersey Journal of Jan. 31
>reads: "Hudson to Eli=A0n: Go Home to Your Father and
>Motherland--Poll also shows desire to normalize relations
>with Cuba."
>
>What gives this headline special significance is that it
>refers to Hudson County, N.J., which has the second-
>largest concentration of Cubans in the United States,
>after south Florida.
>
>The article reports on a poll taken in the county by New
>Jersey City University. It shows that over half the
>county's residents were for sending Elian home. And almost
>half were also for normalizing relations with Cuba.
>
>Hudson County has been the political base of two of the
>most rabidly anti-Cuban politicians in Congress--Robert
>Torricelli and Robert Menendez. Torricelli was the sponsor
>of a law tightening the blockade against Cuba.
>
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 22:25:58 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>Subject: [WW] Free Leonard Peltier--Now!
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 10, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>25 YEARS OF INJUSTICE: FREE LEONARD PELTIER--NOW!
>
>By Moonanum James
>
>Feb. 6 is the 25th anniversary of the arrest and unjust
>imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. Leonard Peltier is an
>American Indian Movement warrior who was wrongfully
>convicted in 1976 of shooting two FBI agents at Pine Ridge
>Reservation in South Dakota the previous June.
>
>Peltier's trial was filled with manufactured evidence,
>intimidated witnesses and outright lies. It has been proven
>that the FBI and federal prosecutors intentionally withheld
>evidence that would have proven Peltier's innocence.
>
>Even the prosecutor of the case now admits that the
>government has no idea who committed the crime for which
>Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences. Yet the
>courts have refused to grant Leonard Peltier a new trial,
>and the U.S. government has consistently denied Peltier
>parole.
>
>Peltier has had an executive clemency petition pending
>before President Bill Clinton since 1993. During a recent
>visit to Pine Ridge Clinton was confronted by Peltier
>supporters carrying banners and signs demanding freedom for
>Peltier.
>
>Clinton is reported to have asked, "Who is Leonard
>Peltier?" How dare he ask such a question after millions
>from across the United States and around the world have
>written him demanding Peltier's freedom.
>
>The Canadian government recently issued a report on the
>circumstances surrounding Peltier's arrest and extradition.
>At that time, the U.S. government did not have enough
>evidence to warrant extraditing him.
>
>A Native woman has admitted that the FBI and U.S.
>prosecutors coerced her into signing affidavits claiming she
>was Peltier's girlfriend and witnessed him murder the
>agents. When she later confessed to not knowing Peltier and
>not being at Pine Ridge on the day the agents were shot, her
>confession was suppressed by the FBI and never entered into
>evidence at Peltier's trial.
>
>Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, along with other
>attorneys, has filed a habeas corpus petition challenging
>the Parole Commission's refusal to recognize Peltier's
>procedural parole rights.
>
>The Parole Commission has repeatedly refused to grant
>parole, saying that Peltier has "not yet taken criminal
>responsibility for the deaths of the two agents."
>
>During the latest hearing, held in December of 1995, the
>commission went on the record as "... recognizing that the
>prosecution has conceded having no direct evidence that
>Peltier participated in the killing of the two FBI agents."
>
>The commission still refused to grant parole because of
>Peltier's "... evident decision not to accept criminal
>responsibility."
>
>How can he accept responsibility for something he did not
>do? If this is unsuccessful, Leonard's next scheduled parole
>hearing will take place in 2008!
>
>The struggle to free Leonard Peltier perhaps best
>illustrates all areas of our fight for justice. His trial,
>conviction, and continued imprisonment are an encapsulated
>history of the treatment of Native people since the invasion
>by Columbus.
>
>Leonard Peltier, like countless millions of his sisters
>and brothers before, is the victim of a system that places
>greed and making more profits ahead of the needs of the
>people.
>
>Leonard Peltier wants and demands justice. Until he gets
>justice there will be no peace. Tear down the walls! The
>prisons are the crime! Free Leonard Peltier and all
>political prisoners!
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 22:27:44 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>Subject: [WW] Albany, N.Y.: "Justice for Diallo!"
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 10, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>"JUSTICE FOR DIALLO": HUNDREDS RALLY IN ALBANY AS
>JURY SELECTION BEGINS
>
>Special to Workers World
>Albany, N.Y.
>
>Hundreds of people rallied in a snowy park across from the
>county courthouse here Jan. 31 on the first day of jury
>selection in the trial of four members of the New York
>Police Department charged with the shooting death of Amadou
>Diallo.
>
>Diallo was killed after being hit by 19 of 41 bullets
>fired at him by police in the Bronx last Feb. 4. The
>unprovoked attack on the young, unarmed West African
>immigrant has shone an international spotlight on racism and
>police brutality in the United States.
>
>The Jan. 31 rally, organized by the Capital Region Justice
>for Diallo Committee, was one of many protests scheduled for
>Albany after the trial of the four cops was moved here from
>the Bronx. The trial venue changed after the courts upheld
>the claim by defense lawyers for the four white police
>officers that their clients couldn't get a fair trial in the
>Bronx.
>
>"White supremacy is the issue in this case," said Vickie
>Smith, co-chair of the committee. "The change of venue, from
>a district with a significant people of color jury pool and
>a Black woman judge, to a district with an overwhelmingly
>white jury pool and all white judges, was a signal to people
>of color that if you play by the rules and gain some
>representation, the system will change the rules.
>
>"A change of venue is almost never done for anyone," she
>pointed out. "This kind of unfairness, creating a police
>force above the law and beyond accountability, endangers not
>only people of color communities but all communities."
>
>Inside the courthouse, the cops' lawyers used their
>peremptory challenges to block three prospective Black
>jurors. The prosecution excused seven white men.
>
>In a red herring to cover their own actions, the defense
>lawyers claimed that the challenges to the seven white men
>showed that the prosecution was using race to exclude white
>jurors. But the defense pointed out that many of their
>peremptory challenges would be white male jurors since that
>is who predominates in the jury pool.
>
>"This is not the Bronx," lead prosecutor Eric Warner
>noted. He countered that the dismissal of the three Black
>jurors was "blatantly discriminatory on race."
>
>In response, Judge Joseph Teresi agreed to seat two of the
>excluded African American jurors--both women.
>
>Outside the court, a wide range of groups and individuals
>have united to demonstrate their outrage over the killing of
>Diallo and the racist change of venue.
>
>Organizations repesented on the committee include: the
>African Center, Inc., the Albany and Saratoga NAACP,
>Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Campus Action, Prison
>Families of New York, Empire State Pride Agenda, Feminist
>Action Network, Free Mumia Committee of Albany,
>International Action Center/Millions for Mumia, A Fund for
>Women, Dismantling Racism Project, the Albany County and
>Capital District Greens, Alliance for Democracy, Holding Our
>Own, In Our Own Voices, Social Justice Center and the
>Women's Building.
>
>The committee also works in partnership with People's
>Justice 2000 in New York, and other groups protesting police
>violence and racism.
>
>Despite an overnight sleet storm, activists traveled to
>Albany from New York, from cities in New Jersey and
>Connecticut, and from nearby cities and campuses in upstate
>New York. They stood for several hours in Academy Park, in
>eight inches of fresh snowfall, to hear a wide range of
>rally speakers call for unity in the struggle against racism
>and police brutality.
>
>Speakers included Diallo's parents Saikou Diallo and
>Kadiatou Diallo; the Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action
>Network; Barbara Smith, a Black lesbian feminist author,
>activist and leader in the committee; Colia Clark, long-time
>civil-rights activist and organizer from the Albany Free
>Mumia Committee; Terry Melvin of the Coalition of Black
>Trade Unionists; Norman Siegel, executive director of the
>New York Civil Liberties Union; Richie Perez of People's
>Justice 2000; and Leslie Feinberg, transgender lesbian
>activist and co-founder of Rainbow Flags for Mumia.
>
>The next Albany protest is scheduled for Feb. 4. For more
>information, readers can contact the Capital District
>Committee at (800) 583-3388.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 22:40:18 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>Content-transfer-encoding: Quoted-printable
>Subject: [WW] Vieques: P.R. Movement Says "No Deal"
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 10, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>AS ROSSELLO CAVES TO CLINTON: P.R. GROUPS VOW TO
>KEEP UP
>STRUGGLE IN VIEQUES
>
>By Monica Somocurcio
>
>Puerto Rico's governor, Pedro Rossello, announced Feb. 1
>that he had come to an agreement with the Clinton
>administration to allow the U.S. Navy to resume bombing of
>the island municipality of Vieques.
>
>Representatives of the movement to oust the Navy from
>Vieques have rejected the agreement and say the struggle
>goes on.
>
>The terms of the agreement would allow the Navy to
>immediately resume bombing Vieques with inert bombs. The
>Puerto Rican government would receive $40 million and a
>referendum would be carried out by May 2001 to determine if
>the Navy should stay permanently or leave by 2003.
>
>The agreement specifies that an additional $50 million
>would be given to Vieques if the Navy is allowed to stay
>indefinitely and resume bombing Vieques with live
>ammunition.
>
>If the referendum does not allow the Navy to stay, the
>territories to the east of Vieques would be handed over to
>the Department of the Interior, not to the people of
>Vieques. In addition, the Navy would continue its exercises
>until 2003 using inert bombs.
>
>A Navy study in June of 1999 found inert bombs to be more
>dangerous than live bombing, due to inaccuracy.
>
>The response of the Vieques movement to this deal was
>immediate.
>
>`NOT ONE MORE BOMB!'
>
>"The people of Vieques have already made a decision: U.S.
>Navy out and not one more bomb, of any kind," said Carlos
>Zenon, longtime leader in the struggle to free Vieques. "We
>were right in not trusting Rossell=A2, Morey and their allies'
>maneuvers. If we had trusted them, we would have been
>accomplices in what they have done and the Navy would have
>attempted to come back to Vieques months ago."
>
>The agreement was the end result of many meetings and
>negotiations between Puerto Rican government representative
>Angel Morey and White House negotiators.
>
>As part of the agreement, the Puerto Rican government
>would join federal forces in arresting protesters camping on
>the restricted Navy zones.
>
>Since the killing of a civilian, David Sanes, by a stray
>bomb on April 19, 1999, the people of Vieques have been
>staging a takeover of the lands used by the Navy for bombing
>practice.
>
>Ismael Guadalupe, spokesperson for the Committee for the
>Rescue and Development of Vieques, told WW that the camps in
>the Navy zones are in the process of being made permanent.
>"We are installing a cistern for water, we have solar energy
>and we have set up permanent structures."
>
>Jorge Farinacci, leader of the Socialist Front, told WW
>that "the charge that the governor was conspiring behind the
>backs of the people has become a reality. This is a shameful
>act and we will support the people of Vieques to the very
>end. We will be with all those continuing the resistance."
>
>PEOPLE READY FOR SHOWDOWN
>
>With the expected return of a warship in the beginning of
>March and the Rossell=A2/ Clinton agreement, the people of
>Vieques are getting ready for a showdown. "This time they
>will encounter a whole community with permanent houses and
>even animals," said Guadalupe.
>
>Last December the Puerto Rican government as well as the
>vast majority of people rejected a proposal similar to the
>present one. That Rossell=A2 could now accept what are
>basically the same terms demonstrates the true lackey nature
>of the colonial Puerto Rican government.
>
>But what counts will be the response of the masses of
>people in Puerto Rico. Robert Rabin, head of the
>Coordinating Committee for Peace and Justice in Vieques,
>said that activists would "resist and mobilize massive
>numbers of people the moment the Navy resumes bombing."
>
>Guadalupe, along with other Vieques activists, will be in
>Washington, D.C., on Feb. 16 to protest the accord and to
>demand a response to a letter they wrote to Clinton. The
>White House has refused to meet with community leaders in
>Vieques.
>
>Guadalupe called on all governments in Latin America to
>stop using the Vieques ranges for exercises with the U.S.
>military. "Vieques is a typical case of colonialism, which
>is what the U.S. does against Latin American countries," he
>said.
>
>The occupation and destruction of Vieques is a "political
>problem that began in 1898 with the U.S. invasion of Puerto
>Rico," Guadalupe charged.
>
>"It is the left and those seeking independence from U.S.
>colonialism that have been on our side from the beginning--
>the Socialist Front, the Nationalist Party, the Hostos
>National Congress, the Puerto Rican Independence Party, the
>New Movement for Independence and others. They have been at
>the forefront of the fight against the Navy." The struggle
>is sorting out those who stand with Vieques and self-
>determination from those who follow the colonizers'
>directives.
>
>"If there were something positive to take out of this
>announcement, it is that no one can justify their inaction
>and silence by claiming to give the governor space, and
>continuing to trust blindly that he could reach an agreement
>acceptable to the people of Vieques," said Zenon in a press
>release on Jan. 31.
>
>He added, "Today no one can doubt that civil disobedience
>is our most powerful tool to make our rights count and to
>stop permanently all bombing of Vieques."
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
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