>
>attacks on the machines. But the bosses were pushed back
>when the workers began to organize as a class to defend
>their interests. And capitalism took a really big hit when
>the workers' movements in Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam,
>Korea and other countries went on the offensive, defeated
>the repressive state of the bosses, and expropriated
>capitalist property.
>
>That's what we must go back to--but on a higher level.
>Armed with computers, fax machines and Web sites. More and
>more workers are being drawn into computer-driven
>technology, often at lower wages than before. We must look
>beyond the machines themselves to the class that uses them
>for its own profit.
>
>Let's zap not only the capitalists' Web sites, but their
>system, which allows a small group to put a stranglehold on
>technology that should belong to and serve the people.
>
> - 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)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <006001bf77b8$36b62de0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Canadian student strike
>Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 08:26:05 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 17, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>TWO REPORTS ON CANADIAN STUDENT STRIKE
>
>1) "CRUSHING DEBT BURDEN"
>
>By Josina Dunkel
>St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
>
>Over 1,500 students in St. John's in the Canadian province
>of Newfoundland walked out of classes Feb. 2 to protest
>federal cuts to public colleges and universities.
>
>The strikers braved heavy snow to bring their demands to
>the government. By the end of the day they had shouted down
>the provincial minister of education and occupied the
>provincial government building for about an hour.
>
>Called by the Canadian Federation of Students, the strike
>was a nationwide day of action extending from Ottawa to
>Labrador City, from Vancouver to Montreal. Braving single-
>digit temperatures and deep snow, about 20,000 students in
>over 50 communities across Canada walked out of classes.
>
>They sent a clear message that the budget surplus of $12
>billion should go back to social programs.
>
>Protests took many forms. On Prince Edward Island,
>students served Kraft macaroni and cheese to show that
>tuition bills left little money for food. In Alberta,
>University of Calgary students set up a soup kitchen.
>
>Students at York University in Ontario were supported by
>the Transit Commission, which refused to let its buses cross
>the student picket line.
>
>In Newfoundland 15 communities held strikes--every place
>there's a public college or university. In St. John's,
>students from Memorial University of Newfoundland were
>joined by strikers from College of the North Atlantic and a
>significant faction of high school students.
>
>The community support for the students' action was
>remarkable. Newfoundland's morning radio news shows were
>barraged with phone calls in support, and the commentators
>were more than sympathetic. Along the demonstration, drivers
>honked to show their support even though the strikers were
>blocking off a major road.
>
>The Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labor, the
>Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Newfoundland and
>Labrador Nurses Union, the United Steel Workers of America,
>the Canadian Auto Workers, and the Communications, Energy
>and Paperworkers Union, gave money, endorsements, and
>speakers for the strike.
>
>Support demonstrations for the Canadian student strike
>reached as far as Mexico City, where protestors picketed the
>Canadian Embassy.
>
>In less than a decade, over $7 billion has been cut from
>post-secondary education in Canada. Such deep cuts have sent
>tuition skyrocketing. It has more than doubled.
>
>With each increase these schools become less accessible
>for working and poor students.
>
>Student debt has tripled. This contributes to emigration
>from some provinces and even from Canada to the United
>States, where wages are higher and debts can be paid off
>more quickly.
>
>The student protesters' demands were clear and well-
>supported by the community. Students demanded a national
>system of scholarships, not loans, and that funds cut from
>social programs such as public education, health care and
>unemployment insurance be restored.
>
>Students also demanded that tuition fees be eliminated.
>They reminded the government of the 1976 United Nations
>Convenant, in which it agreed to make higher education free.
>Instead of fees being eliminated, tuition has consistently
>risen, save for a few temporary tuition freezes.
>
>In the past few weeks the Canadian government has publicly
>presented a number of plans for spending the $12 billion
>surplus. The first was to give Canadian hockey teams money
>to stay in Canada.
>
>Allison North, chairperson of the Newfoundland and
>Labrador Federation of Students, said: "Do you want to know
>where students stand on the federal government's priority
>list? ... We come right after the Ottawa Senators, the
>Montreal Canadiens, and the Toronto Maple Leafs."
>
>Yet another slap to the suffering public-education system
>came when the federal government decided to give banks $100
>million to compensate for students defaulting on their
>loans. Obviously, this does not address the reason for the
>widespread problem of students defaulting on loans--or why
>students are forced to take out loans in the first place.
>
>
>2) "EMBOLDENED BY BATTLE OF SEATTLE"
>By Marge Maloney
>Buffalo, N.Y.
>
>Strikes, protests and teach-ins hit colleges and
>universities across Canada on Feb. 2. The campaign, led by
>the Canadian Federation of Students, demonstrated students'
>alarm over rising tuition fees, heavy debt loads and
>government funding cuts.
>
>University and college students held actions in more than
>50 communities. The actions were endorsed by faculty
>associations, the labor movement and other social-action
>groups.
>
>In Ottawa, roughly 1,000 students chanted and stomped
>enthusiastically for more than an hour at Parliament Hill.
>
>At Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, student
>demonstrators were bolstered by members of the "flying
>squad" of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 707, whose
>business cards advertise support for strikes and picket
>lines.
>
>Students at Toronto's York University have erected a giant
>"debt wall" on which thousands of students have recorded
>what they owe. "The debt load is crushing," a statement by
>the Canadian Federation of Students said. "Students who have
>taken out loans now owe an average of $25,000 upon
>graduation."
>
>Adele Mugford, a graduate student at Carleton University,
>said that despite working two part-time jobs during the
>school year, and a third in the summer, she recently had to
>take out a student loan to deal with rising tuition and
>costs.
>
>"As soon as you get a part-time job," said nursing student
>Claudia Omoreanu, "your quality of education goes down."
>
>The Canadian Federation of Students issued a call for
>support and endorsements of the Access 2000 Campaign in an
>internationally distributed email from Elizabeth Carlyle,
>National Deputy Chairperson of the Federation. Included was
>a letter from Michael Conlon, national chairperson, in which
>he described the campaign:
>
>"Access 2000 is a campaign to pressure the Canadian
>federal government into restoring social programme funding,
>reducing tuition fees, and establishing a national system of
>grants. February 2, 2000, was designated as a cross-Canada
>day of strike and mass action for students and all those who
>want to send a clear message to the Canadian government
>about its budget priorities.
>
>"As in many other countries, years of devastating cutbacks
>to social spending have allowed the Canadian federal
>government to accumulate a multi-billion-dollar surplus.
>This slush fund was built on the backs of working people,
>students, and the poor by reducing public services, laying-
>off public sector workers, restricting access to employment
>insurance, privatizng programs, implementing user fees and
>reducing transfer payments to the provinces for social
>programs.
>
>"On the international front," the letter concluded, "the
>victory in shutting down the WTO meetings in Seattle has
>given students the confidence to wage a united,
>international fight back."
>
> - 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)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <006601bf77b8$4a00fdd0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Workers around the world: 2/17/2000
>Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 08:26:38 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 17, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD
>
>ECUADOR: THOUSANDS PROTEST GOV'T REPRESSION
>
>In a frantic bid to consolidate capitalist rule in
>Ecuador, the new government of Gustavo Noboa has arrested
>hundreds of people who took part in the overthrow of his
>predecessor, Jamil Mahuad. Mahuad was toppled on Jan. 21 by
>a mass movement of Indigenous peasants, workers and
>soldiers. The Ecuadorian military high command, with strong
>backing from Washington, ousted a popular three-person
>committee of "National Salvation" and installed Noboa.
>
>On Feb. 3, some 2,000 people gathered in Quito to protest
>the arrests of mid-level military officers who supported the
>January mass movement. At least 113 such officers have been
>arrested. Those arrested include Col. Lucio Gutierrez, who
>was briefly a member of the National Salvation Committee
>until he was ousted by the top brass.
>
>Leading the march were family members of the arrested
>soldiers. "Neither soldiers nor Indigenous people deserve
>repression," Col. Gutierrez's sister Janeth Gutierrez told the
>Pulsar news agency.
>
>"The detained are not seditious--they are patriots for
>fighting the corruption and injustice that prevail in
>Ecuador."
>
>Members of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities
>of Ecuador and of the Patriotic Front (FP), two of the mass
>organizations that led the January upsurge, also joined the
>demonstration. The FP is collecting signatures demanding
>that all those being held in jail because of the protest be
>released.
>
>Noboa's government offered no illusion that it would be
>swayed by the pleas. As demonstrators marched toward the
>National Congress, police opened fire on the crowd with tear
>gas.
>
>BOLIVIA: PEASANTS DEFEAT PRICE HIKES
>
>With the threat of the recent turmoil in Ecuador high on
>their minds, the Bolivian ruling class backed off efforts to
>impose a 20-percent increase in the price of water on the
>largely Indigenous peasantry. The Feb. 6 reversal came after
>days of street battles between peasants of Quechua descent
>and workers on the one hand and riot police on the other.
>
>Thousands of peasants marched on Cocha bamba, Bolivia's
>second biggest city, on Feb. 5. They were met by riot police
>and military troops who attacked the marchers. One teacher
>was reportedly killed when a tear gas canister exploded in
>his face.
>
>President and former dictator Hugo Banzer threatened to
>declare a state of siege in Cocha bamba. Unions and
>peasants' organizations responded by announcing strikes and
>blockades of regional highways.
>
>The French News Agency AFP called the confrontation "the
>worst civil unrest in the country's recent history." With
>the near-seizure of power by Indigenous peasants in nearby
>Ecuador, Banzer and his cronies were clearly nervous.
>
>On Feb. 6, his government announced a nine-point agreement
>granting a freeze on water prices, a revision of the
>contract for water in the region, dropping all charges
>against protesters, and withdrawing army units from the
>region.
>
>INDIA: STATE WORKERS STRIKE AGAINST PRIVATIZATION
>
>An estimated 1.5 million state-sector workers walked off
>the job in India on Feb. 2. Their union, the Center of
>Indian Trade Unions, is fighting government plans to
>privatize state-owned companies under pressure from the
>International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
>
>Workers are also protesting a law freezing wage levels for
>10 years. "Nowhere in the world do workers sign away their
>rights and agree to the same salary level for 10 years, not
>even in the private sector," CITU leader Madhukar Pandhe
>said.
>
>The one-day strike shut down banking, transport, and other
>areas of the economy in several states.
>
>"This is a warning to the government," Pandhe said. "If
>our demands are not met, we will go on an indefinite strike
>later."
>
>Unions affiliated with the bourgeois Congress Party and
>the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party did not join the
>strike.
>
>SOUTH AFRICA: COSATU LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT JOBS
>
>On Jan. 31, South Africa's biggest union federation, the
>Congress of South African Trade Unions, launched a mass
>campaign against job cuts and layoffs. The union federation
>is threatening to stage a general strike by May if its
>demands are not met.
>
>Black South Africans achieved a sweeping political
>revolution in 1994 that legally overturned apartheid when
>the African National Congress took over the government. But
>economic power remains largely in the hands of the old white
>ruling class and its imperialist allies.
>
>The ANC now finds itself with the contradictory task of
>defending the democratic gains of the Black majority while
>imposing economic policies dictated by the International
>Monetary Fund and other imperialist banks. Over 500,000
>South African workers have lost their jobs since 1994.
>
>COSATU is the ANC's ally in government, along with the
>South African Communist Party. But COSATU and the SACP feel
>the pressure of their working-class base intensely.
>
>"We have a duty to protect the jobs of our members,
>especially those that are supporting unemployed family
>members," COSATU spokesperson Muchoni Ratshitanga said. The
>campaign that began on Jan. 31 included lunchtime pickets and
>rallies.
>
>COSATU has about 1.8 million members, including workers in
>all of South Africa's key industries like mining.
>
>"Unless workers take up the fight against job losses,
>there is a very real danger that our democracy is
>increasingly going to be enjoyed by fewer and fewer people
>at the expense of the working class, whose sacrifices were
>essential in securing the democratic breakthrough" of 1994,
>SACP spokesperson Blade Nzimade told the Panafrican News
>Agency.
>
>Despite the threat, the ANC seems to be leaning toward the
>bosses in its economic program. On Feb. 4, President Thabo
>Mbeki announced that he was appointing a panel of 13
>corporate bigwigs, including world-hated financier George
>Soros, to encourage foreign investment in South Africa. He
>also announced a move to ease labor laws in favor of the
>bosses.
>
>INDONESIA: WORKERS DEMAND HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE
>
>Factory workers blocked a major highway in Jakarta,
>Indonesia's capital, on Feb. 3. They were demanding a higher
>minimum wage and better working conditions.
>
>The 600 workers from factories around Jakarta, including
>the local Reebok plant, converged on the Labor Ministry to
>meet with a representative. When they found the gate locked,
>they took to the streets, blocking traffic for three hours.
>
>They also demanded that the government break the bosses'
>"abusive collusion with the military" in dealing with
>workers' protests.
>
>HUNGARY.: RAIL STRIKE FOR HIGHER WAGES
>
>Fifty-six thousand rail workers across Hungary launched an
>open-ended strike on Feb. 1 to push for a nearly 11-percent
>pay raise. Their union staged job actions in December and
>January to win a 14-percent raise, to no avail. The workers
>have since dropped their wage demands to 10.78 percent.
>
>Inflation in Hungary has been running at 10 percent. That
>would make the bosses' offer of 8.5 percent a pay cut.
>
>The strike immediately brought all international rail
>traffic to a stop. Czech soldiers returning from Kosovo on
>Feb. 2 as part of the United Nations occupation force were
>held at the border. They were only able to proceed with a
>heavily armed police escort.
>
>Domestic rail traffic suffered massive disruption as well.
>Bosses managed to run only 806 trains for both passengers
>and postage throughout the country.
>
>SPAIN: WORKERS TO U.S. MILITARY: "NO HABLAMOS INGLES"
>
>Workers at a joint U.S.-Spanish military base near Cadiz
>have found a novel way to make their demands understood. A
>Jan. 31 BBC report quoted workers' spokesperson Jose Maria
>Sabido saying that U.S. personnel at the base spoke Spanish
>"very badly," and that most communication took place in
>English. So in order to make their demands for better
>working conditions felt, the 1,300 Spanish workers decided
>to stop speaking English for one week. U.S. personnel would
>be informed "very politely," Sabido reported.
>
>Workers' solidarity against the bosses might yet be a
>universal language.
>
>GERMANY: TURKISH PRISONERS WIN "DEATH FAST"
>
>Turkish revolutionary prisoners declared victory Feb. 2
>when the German government dropped harsh restrictions on
>Ilhan Yelkuvan, a political prisoner in Hamburg and member
>of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-
>C). His hunger strike sparked a mass protest by Turkish
>political prisoners in both Germany and Turkey that in the
>end forced the German imperialists to back down.
>
>Yelkuvan began his hunger strike Nov. 30 to protest new
>harsh restrictions on his political activity. He was
>transferred to an isolation cell and denied the right to
>have contact with other Turkish prisoners--on the grounds
>that he would "indoctrinate" other prisoners with
>revolutionary politics.
>
>His hunger strike galvanized wide support. The 14 other
>DHKP-C prisoners in Germany joined the indefinite hunger
>strike. Prisoners in Belgium and France joined as well. Over
>a thousand prisoners in Turkey joined the hunger strike
>under the slogan "an injury to one is an injury to all."
>
>Yelkuvan's case drew support outside prison walls as well.
>Thousands joined marches and pickets. Activists took over
>the offices of Amnesty International in England and
>buildings throughout Europe to dramatize the case.
>
>On Feb. 2, with the lives of Yelkuvan and several of his
>comrades in danger, the German government capitulated.
>According to the DHKP-C Information Center, the German
>jailers agreed to end Yelkuvan's isolation and move him to a
>different prison where he could share a cell with Turkish
>prisoners and live under the same regulations as other
>prisoners.
>
>The "death fast" has come to be a powerful and heroic tool
>of struggle for Turkish prisoners who are denied any other
>avenue of struggle. Twelve political prisoners died during a
>victorious 69-day 1996 hunger strike against brutal prison
>conditions in Turkey.
>
>JAPAN: UNIONS, COMMUNISTS PROTEST U.S. BASES
>
>Tens of thousands of workers rallied Jan. 30 in Kusu, in
>the Oita region of Japan, to protest U.S. live-ammunition
>military exercises at the Hajudai artillery range. Japan has
>acted as a forward base for the Pentagon since the
>capitalist class's defeat in World War II and subsequent
>resurrection by U.S. imperialism.
>
>"Let us workers express our intention to prevent the
>drills at Hajudai from happening and to raise people's
>awareness," said Koki Fujimoto, head of the Oita branch of
>the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo). Rengo
>brought out about 14,000 people at the rally.
>
>Nearby, the Japanese Communist Party organized a smaller
>rally against the exercises. One of the JCP's main goals is
>dismantling all U.S. military bases in Japan.
>
> - 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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