> WW News Service Digest #42
>
> 1) Native Americans: "Elian Must be Returned"
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 2) McCain vs . Bush--A Marxist View
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 3) Africa's Gifts to Civilization
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 4) Repression Spurs Resistance for Mumia
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 5) Brits out of Ireland!
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 23:47:30 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>Content-transfer-encoding: Quoted-printable
>Subject: [WW] Native Americans: "Elian Must be Returned"
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 24, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>DENNIS BANKS & NATIVE DELEGATION FROM U.S. MEET
>WITH FAMILY IN CUBA, DECLARE: "ELIAN MUST BE
>RETURNED TO HIS FATHER"
>
>By Gloria La Riva
>Havana, Cuba
>
>The little Cuban boy who is being held in Florida against
>the will of his father and grandparents is on everyone's
>mind here. On Feb. 10, the Cuban family of six-year-old
>Eli=A0n Gonz=A0lez had an emotional meeting with a delegation of
>Native people from the U.S., who expressed their solidarity
>and called for the six-year-old boy's immediate return from
>the U.S. to Cuba.
>
>American Indian Movement founder Dennis Banks and the
>International Peace for Cuba Appeal had organized the Native
>delegation as a cultural exchange with Cuba. The delegation
>was made up of dancers and singers of various Indigenous
>nations, including Lakota, Din=82 (Navajo), Wailaki and Little
>Lake, Anishinabe, Chippewa, Northern Paiute and Omaha.
>
>For one week, the Native people, who were visiting the
>socialist island for the first time, shared their culture
>with Cuban students, workers and artists and learned about
>Cuban society and culture.
>
>The group arrived as the Cuban people were in the midst of
>a massive struggle to free Eli=A0n Gonz=A0lez from his captors
>in Miami and from the U.S. government. This gave the Native
>activists a unique opportunity to express their support for
>Eli=A0n's family and help share their emotional burden.
>
>As Eli=A0n's father, Juan Miguel Gonz=A0lez, and the child's
>grandparents stepped out of the car that had brought them to
>the meeting, a mass of Cuban and international journalists
>surrounded the group. Dennis Banks embraced each of Eli=A0n's
>relatives and walked side by side with them into the Cuban
>Institute of Friendship with the Peoples.
>
>It was clear when Eli=A0n's father and grandparents arrived
>at the meeting place that the family was distraught and
>suffering from the boy's absence. Tears flowed down their
>faces as they spoke of the child during the encounter.
>
>DENNIS BANKS EXPRESSES CONCERN
>
>In the patio, Banks and the family once again embraced and
>Banks spoke. "I'd like to express our concern and our
>prayers to Eli=A0n's father and grandparents and to all the
>people of Cuba for the sadness that you're going through
>right now," he said.
>
>"For many year we Native people have experienced the
>kidnapping of our children from their parents. I myself was
>taken away from my parents as a child. For 11 years I was
>not allowed to come home.
>
>"Eli=A0n must be returned to his father and his homeland
>where he rightfully belongs," concluded Banks.
>
>Cora Lee Simmons, an elder of Round Valley Indian Reser
>vation in northern California and a grandmother, addressed
>Raquel Rodr=A1guez and Mariela Quintana, Eli=A0n's grandmothers.
>
>"When I first saw you on television, tears came down my
>cheeks. Grandmas, you are the backbone. Stay strong and
>share that strength with your son and you will bring that
>baby back home."
>
>Later, Albert Hale, ex-president of the Navajo nation,
>offered a traditional Navajo prayer as he stood with Juan
>Miguel Gonz=A0lez. The three dancers--Gilbert Blacksmith,
>Lakota; Thomas Yellow Horse, Lakota and Klingit; and Tori
>Nakai, Ute and Din=82--danced next to Gonz=A0lez, offering
>healing songs. Hale and the dancers gave him a necklace and
>feathers.
>
>UNITE HONEST PEOPLE
>
>Gonz=A0lez said, "On behalf of my family and especially on
>behalf of Eli=A0n, I want to express my gratitude because of
>your gesture. It's events like this, more and more on a
>daily basis, that serve the purpose of uniting all honest
>people around the world."
>
>The meeting was given prominence in the Cuban media--a
>sign of the importance the Cubans give to support within the
>United States for Eli=A0n's return home.
>
>Two days later, the Native delegation met again with
>Eli=A0n's family at a private dinner hosted by ICAP. Also
>present were Sergio Corrieri, president of ICAP, and Ricardo
>Alarc=A2n, president of Cuba's National Assembly.
>
>Corrieri said, "Despite the frustration that we Cuban
>people feel of wanting to go there ourselves and bring Eli=A0n
>home, really the only thing we can do is to protest and ask
>our friends to protest, to expose the truth and demand that
>justice be served.
>
>"That's why we're organizing rallies, seminars,
>roundtables, actions every single day. We will not give up
>in our struggle until Eli=A0n is home."
>
>Banks responded, "We've come at a most important time for
>Cuba, and we're happy to be able to give our support. The
>prevailing thought in the U.S. is with Eli=A0n's father. What
>we must do is to rally now in Washington, D.C., and San
>Francisco Feb. 19 in a mass protest."
>
>Gonz=A0lez recounted his latest conversation with little
>Eli=A0n after his first meeting with the Peace for Cuba
>delegation. He said, "Eli=A0n was very happy when I told him I
>met Indian people. He knows of Indian people from
>television, and I told him of the feathers and necklace you
>gave him. He was so happy and asked me to save them for him.
>
>"Because you are a people of deep sentiment, I want to
>convey once again my deep gratitude for all this. Really,
>people who think and feel as you do, that Eli=A0n is not only
>my child but yours as well, I ask that you continue to ask
>for the rapid return of my son."
>
>SOCIALIST CUBA MOBILIZES
>
>Mass rallies and seminars are going on daily throughout
>Cuba, with a high level of spirit and mobilization.
>
>Eli=A0n's return is on everyone's mind. On Feb. 12, some
>200,000 people rallied in Sancti Spiritus. Every day
>thousands hold rallies, from the Cuban Workers' Federation
>to a special rally for middle-school students.
>
>Cubans have written hundreds of poems and songs for Eli=A0n.
>There is no greater display of unity or sense of outrage
>than what the Cuban people have been expressing in the past
>three months, and there will be no letup in their struggle
>until Eli=A0n comes home.
>
> - 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, 16 Feb 2000 23:53:36 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>Subject: [WW] McCain vs . Bush--A Marxist View
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 24, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>MCCAIN VS. BUSH--A MARXIST VIEW: FRANKENSTEIN MEETS
>WOLFMAN
>
>By Monica Moorehead
>
>When Sen. John McCain of Arizona won the Republican
>presidential primary in New Hampshire, it sent a shock wave
>through the George W. Bush campaign. Support for McCain from
>a large block of independent conservatives proved to be
>decisive.
>
>Bush received a wakeup call with this defeat, since he had
>assumed that his nomination was a done deal. After all, who
>can compete with my tens of millions of dollars, he had
>thought.
>
>As the 2000 elections begin to dominate the media more and
>more, many workers will look for hopeful signs that one or
>another of the capitalist establishment candidates will
>raise the issues they care about. Others will be turned off
>completely by the electoral process.
>
>Marxists and revolutionaries understand that the
>capitalist elections offer no opportunities for real
>fundamental social change or a higher standard of living, as
>far as the workers and the oppressed are concerned. There
>are no profound class differences between the Republican and
>Democratic parties. Both represent the interests first and
>foremost of the capitalist ruling class and its political
>and economic institutions.
>
>But many people have succumbed to the erroneous view that
>the Republicans are the party of the rich and affluent,
>while the Democrats are the party of the workers and the
>poor. This theory does not hold water.
>
>Consider the fact that both Bush and Democratic
>presidential hopeful Al Gore were born into ruling-class
>families. But even candidates who are not from the super-
>wealthy families that run the U.S. have learned how to serve
>the interests of that class.
>
>Take McCain, for instance. McCain was born not into a
>ruling class family but an elite military family, with roots
>in the old Confederate slavocracy.
>
>His great-great grandfather owned a Mississippi plantation
>with many slaves. He died in the Civil War, as an officer in
>the Mississippi cavalry, attempting to preserve slavery.
>
>Both McCain's father and grandfather were Navy admirals,
>the equivalent of generals in other branches of the armed
>services. At the age of 17, McCain enrolled in the U.S.
>Naval Academy, where he became an aircraft carrier pilot. In
>1967, he volunteered to go to Vietnam. He was about to carry
>out his 23rd bombing mission over Vietnam when he was shot
>down and captured by the Vietnamese.
>
>McCain was held captive for five years. During this
>period, his father, Adm. Jack McCain, was appointed supreme
>commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific.
>
>A WAR CRIMINAL
>
>McCain, in citing his credentials to be president, puts
>the main emphasis on being a "war hero and prisoner of war
>who endured the Hanoi Hilton." A more accurate description
>is that McCain was a war criminal who played a sordid role
>in killing and maiming untold numbers of innocent Vietnamese
>people, as well as helping to destroy the landscape and
>environment of that country. One can imagine how many tons
>of bombs and napalm he dropped in 22 missions.
>
>That cruel war was not about honor or defending the U.S.,
>or any of the noble phrases McCain has learned to say with a
>quiver in his voice and tears in his eyes. It was about
>expanding U.S. imperialism's domination in Asia. It was
>about the profits of the rubber, tin, oil, copper and other
>companies that take the riches out of so many countries in
>return for pennies in wages and royalties.
>
>McCain is an entrenched reactionary promoting the
>military-industrial complex. He wants tens of billions of
>dollars to be taken away from health care and Social
>Security and spent on building a new system that supposedly-
>-it hasn't worked very well--would defend this country
>against incoming missiles.
>
>Along with the rest of the Senate, he recently voted down
>a ban on nuclear testing. He supports the unilateral U.S.
>military command of foreign operations. McCain also
>advocates covert operations to overthrow the governments of
>north Korea, Iraq and other countries that have been targets
>of U.S. aggression--something the CIA already does, of
>course.
>
>THE ROCKEFELLER CONNECTION
>
>His most prominent advisers on U.S. foreign policy are
>former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former chief
>U.S. delegate to the United Nations Jeanne J. Kirkpatrick.
>That's a tipoff to McCain's links to the multi-billionaires,
>because Kissinger has long been known as the voice of the
>Rockefellers. Under the Nixon administration, Kissinger's
>role became synonymous with the escalation of U.S. military
>involvement in Vietnam.
>
>McCain has proclaimed Ronald Reagan to be his hero.
>
>On the domestic front, McCain is an opponent of abortion
>rights, opposes affirmative action except in "limited"
>cases, supports welfare-to-work rules that really mean slave
>wages, is for more cops on the streets to fight "crime" and
>so-called foreign drug trafficking, and voted for the North
>American Free Trade Agreement, which has impoverished
>workers in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada while boosting
>profits for the rich.
>
>During a campaign speech in Spartanburg, S.C., McCain
>launched a vicious attack on teachers' unions. He referred
>to their leaders as "self-serving union bosses." McCain used
>this occasion to support school vouchers and merit pay for
>teachers. School vouchers are an attack on the public school
>system; merit pay is an attempt to divide teachers.
>
>Looking for the support of the Christian right, he also
>stated that if elected president, he would nominate judges
>who promote school prayer and post the Ten Commandments in
>schools. As one columnist put it, this means every kid will
>be advised daily not to "covet thy neighbor's wife."
>
>McCain is a big supporter of local and states' rights and
>believes that no educational standards should be set for
>public schools by the federal government. If a predominantly
>white school district wants to resegregate the schools, in
>McCain's eyes, it has a "constitutional right" to do so.
>
>Like many politicians, McCain speaks out of both sides of
>his mouth. When the controversy over the flying of the
>racist, Confederate flag in South Carolina was first
>introduced into the campaign, McCain claimed he was against
>the flag. He later defended the Confederate flag, saying it
>symbolized Southern "honor and heritage."
>
>The big business press has characterized McCain as a
>moderate conservative. That's sidestepping who he really is.
>McCain is a racist, Bible-toting, anti-union, anti-poor
>candidate with deep ties to the military-industrial complex.
>But he is in the same ideological camp as George W. Bush,
>who is waging a vicious war against the poor and people of
>color by sanctioning state executions.
>
>They may disagree on some issues, just as Gore and Bill
>Bradley may have varying opinions, but the bottom line is
>that none of these four candidates will stand up and fight
>back against the ruling class. Each candidate in his own way
>is trying to show he is willing to administer all aspects of
>the capitalist state. Who comes out on top depends on the
>ruling class deciding which candidate will be more adept in
>carrying out its program of more cutbacks in social services
>and more private investments.
>
>[Monica Moorehead is Workers World Party's 2000
>presidential candidate.]
>
> - 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, 16 Feb 2000 23:53:44 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>Subject: [WW] Africa's Gifts to Civilization
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>BLACK HISTORY MONTH--PART ONE: AFRICA'S GIFTS TO
>CIVILIZATION
>
>By Pat Chin
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 24, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>The first Africans in the Western Hemisphere were not
>slaves. In fact, mounting scientific evidence strongly
>supports the view that Africans crossed the Atlantic Ocean
>more than 100 years before Christopher Columbus reached the
>Americas.
>
>Columbus' voyages, funded by the Spanish crown, sparked
>the trans-Atlantic slave trade that launched the African
>holocaust. Native peoples, whose ancestors were the true
>discoverers of America, were also victims of the genocidal
>slaughter unleashed by the Europeans in their lust for
>territory and profits.
>
>Racism was most likely invented to justify the enslavement
>of African people. An ideology deeply rooted in white
>supremacy, racism continues to affect the lives of millions
>some 500 years after Columbus first crossed the Atlantic,
>laying the basis for capitalist exploitation and colonial
>plunder.
>
>The myth that Europe introduced civilization to Africa
>complements the racist lie that Black people are half-
>animals and therefore inferior. The vast kingdom of the
>Congo, to cite just one example, had been in existence for
>hundreds of years before the Portuguese arrived in West
>Africa in the 15th century.
>
>"There can be no doubt," wrote African-American historian
>Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, "that the level of culture among the
>masses of Negroes in West Africa in the fifteenth century
>was higher than that of northern Europe, by any standard of
>measurement--homes, clothes, artistic creation and
>appreciation, political organization and religious
>consistency."
>
>It is widely accepted in scientific circles, however
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