>
>that a measure so bigoted and hateful could even be granted
>ballot status.
>
>And it calls into question: Who will be the next target of
>the right wing?
>
>How did these reactionaries win these two divisive ballot
>measures? By spending millions of dollars in slick ad
>campaigns designed to manipulate and confuse the public.
>They spent a reported $16 million just getting Proposition
>22 passed.
>
>They reinforced racist and anti-gay stereotypes. And they
>mobilized the most conservative sectors of voters.
>
>Those who voted represent a small percentage of the
>population in this state. Disenfranchisement alone excluded
>prisoners, millions of immigrants and others.
>
>Of the 46 percent of registered voters who cast their
>ballots, the heaviest voter turnout was in conservative
>areas of the state where the California Reaganite
>Republican Party still has a strong base.
>
>Fundamentalist Christian religious leaders and the Roman
>Catholic Church hierarchy actively mobilized their members.
>
>The statewide voting results were almost identical for
>both propositions: approximately 60 percent voted for and
>40 percent voted against. Voting patterns among different
>demographic groups were pretty much the same for both
>measures.
>
>The results of this voting were disheartening and even
>shocking to many. But they reconfirm the basic lesson that
>progressive change doesn't come from the ballot box. The
>anger and alarm of progressives and the consciousness of
>those prodded to take a position on these measures can
>strengthen the movement for lesbian/gay/bi/trans rights and
>against the racist prison-industrial complex.
>
>After the voting results were in, militant demonstrations
>took place in San Francisco and in Latino neighborhoods in
>Los Angeles against Proposition 21.
>
>And lesbian/gay/bi and trans activists have vowed to
>intensify their struggle for equality and take that
>struggle into the streets.
>
> - 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: <007601bf9139$8f409140$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Yugoslavia: Media expose last year's lies, repeat this year's
>Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 19:24:58 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Mar. 23, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>YUGOSLAVIA AGAIN:
>
>MEDIA EXPOSE LAST YEAR'S LIES, REPEAT THIS YEAR'S
>
>By John Catalinotto
>
>As the anniversary of the start of last year's 78-day
>U.S./NATO bombing assault on Yugoslavia approaches, stories
>are breaking in the British media that U.S. operatives had
>conspired with right-wing Kosovo Albanians to provoke the
>war.
>
>The reports lift any remaining doubts that the so-called
>Kosovo Liberation Army worked hand-in-hand with Western
>intelligence services.
>
>These revelations have done nothing to stop U.S. and NATO
>commanders from threatening new attacks on Yugoslavia. The
>situation is tense regarding both Montenegro and southeast
>Serbia, where KLA mercenaries have provoked battles.
>
>The media reported that State Department spokesperson
>James Rubin "scolded" the KLA in remarks he made in
>Pristina March 12 about the terrorists' latest cross-border
>attacks. But the harshest he could say was, "We're deeply
>disappointed by the failure of leaders of all aspects of
>Kosovo Albanian life ... to use their leadership."
>
>NATO Commander Gen. Wesley Clark was more clearly
>threatening toward Belgrade. Speaking in the Bulgarian
>capital of Sofia, the general said NATO was "watching very
>closely what's happening in Montenegro." He warned that,
>"NATO's actions are incalculable. In other words, because
>there has been no rhetoric about this ... I would draw no
>conclusions about this."
>
>The KFOR occupying armies claim they are unable to stop
>right-wing ethnic Albanians from starting gunfights across
>the Kosovo border in southwestern Serbia. "UCPMB [the
>reconstituted KLA] has no right to be there, but we can do
>nothing, we have no right to penetrate in this zone," U.S.
>KFOR spokesperson Ian Fitzgerald said. (Agence France
>Presse, March 10)
>
>But AFP also reported that an elderly villager of Albanian
>ethnicity said he had seen U.S. soldiers "talking with
>soldiers" of the UCPMB in Dobrosin itself. "There are
>relations between them, they get along well," Qazim Zahiri
>said.
>
>BBC EXPOSES LAST YEAR'S LIES
>
>It's no wonder they "get along well." BBC2 broadcast a
>show the night of March 12 called "Moral Combat." In it,
>U.S. intelligence agents admit they helped to train the
>Kosovo Liberation Army before the bombing attacks began
>last year.
>
>CIA agents had disguised themselves as cease-fire monitors
>in the months before the bombing started. But they made
>contacts with KLA units, giving them U.S. military training
>manuals.
>
>Then these agents, who were nominally with the
>Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
>serving under U.S. "diplomat" William Walker, even gave
>advice to the KLA on fighting the Yugoslav army and Serbian
>police.
>
>When interviewed, Walker said: "Over night we went from
>having a handful of people to 130 or more. Could the agency
>have put them in at that point? Sure they could. It's their
>job. But nobody told me."
>
>The CIA sources were more direct: "It was a CIA front,
>gathering intelligence on the KLA's arms and leadership,"
>said one.
>
>Walker played a key role in provoking the war. In January
>1999, he blamed the phony "Racak massacre" on the Yugoslav
>government to whip up the war drive. The incident was
>really a military victory of Serb police over the KLA that
>Walker and the KLA turned into a public-relations coup with
>the full cooperation of the imperialist media.
>
>As the OSCE left Kosovo to open the way for NATO air
>strikes, the CIA agents turned over many of the
>organization's satellite telephones and global positioning
>systems to the KLA. Several KLA leaders had NATO commander
>Gen. Wesley Clark's mobile phone number, for direct
>consultations.
>
>In a Jan. 29, 1999, Workers World article on the Racak
>events, reporter Gary Wilson reminded readers that Walker
>had run guns to Nicaraguan contras while he was Col. Oliver
>North's aide, and was U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador from
>1988 to 1992 while the military death squads reigned there.
>
>If "nobody told" Walker what the CIA was doing in Kosovo,
>it could only be because the agency figured he already
>knew.
>
>AUSTRALIAN EX-PREMIER CHARGES NATO WITH CRIMES
>
>Last July 31, at the first of dozens of tribunal hearings
>throughout the U.S. and Europe, former U.S. attorney
>general and International Action Center founder Ramsey
>Clark read a list of 19 charges against U.S./NATO
>government and military leaders for war crimes, crimes
>against peace and crimes against humanity.
>
>Now the truth of these charges is starting to take hold in
>unexpected places. Former Australian prime minister Malcolm
>Fraser has called NATO an organization of liars, comparing
>its role in Yugoslavia to the Spanish Inquisition, reports
>the March 9 Melbourne Herald Sun. Fraser said the war was
>illegal and immoral. He likened NATO's actions to those of
>the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusaders, who killed
>millions in the name of Christianity.
>
>In an editorial March 12, the London Spectator took the
>U.S. and British political leaders to task over the same
>issue:
>
>"But deliberately to destroy civilian targets with the
>intention of rendering the daily life of a population
>impossible is a clear breach of the very international law
>which Mr. [Bill] Clinton and Mr. [Tony] Blair claimed to
>uphold, and by which they allegedly set such store.
>According to their own lights, therefore, Messrs. Clinton
>and Blair are war criminals; and, if Mr. [Robin] Cook truly
>believed in his ethical foreign policy, he would at once
>extradite himself to Belgrade."
>
>International Action Center co-coordinator Brian Becker
>told Workers World that the IAC would hold a concluding
>hearing of the International War Crimes Tribunal on June 10
>in New York. "But our immediate task is to demonstrate and
>hold meetings and teach-ins on and around March 24 to
>oppose the new threats against Yugoslavia, and to demand an
>end to sanctions and to the NATO occupation of Kosovo."
>
>Becker said actions were planned in New York, San
>Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities as well as campuses
>in the U.S. and in European NATO capitals.
>
> - 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: <007c01bf9139$ac1cdf80$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Interview in Kosovo: 'Every day KLA terrorists kill a Serb'
>Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 19:25:46 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Mar. 23, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>INTERVIEW IN KOSOVO:
>
>`EVERY DAY KLA TERRORISTS KILL A SERB'
>
>[Following are excerpts from an interview with Zoran
>Andjelkovic, head of the Center for Peace and Tolerance in
>Kosovo. Michel Collon, correspondent of Solidaire, the weekly
>newspaper of the Workers Party of Belgium, conducted the
>interview in Yugoslavia on Feb. 20. It was translated from the
>French by Paddy Colligan.]
>
>
>
>MC: Was your Center for Peace and Tolerance created to defend
>the Serbs?
>
>ZA: No, it was set up earlier than that--during the summer
>of 1998--to promote harmony among the various nationalities.
>Its first action, in September 1998, was to bring humanitarian
>aid to Albanians fleeing from the region of Decani because of
>confrontations between the separatist KLA and the police. We
>helped them go back to their homes.
>
>MC: And since NATO occupied Kosovo?
>
>ZA: The Serbs no longer had anyone to help them, not the
>government, nor the army, nor the police. They could only turn
>to KFOR. But when they called and asked for help, the Albanian
>interpreters immediately hung up the telephone.
>
>MC: Are there still Serbs in Kosovo?
>
>ZA: That varies by region. In the major cities of the south-
>-Pec, Prizren, Decani--none. They have all been kicked out.
>
>There are still a few villages that are completely isolated
>and encircled. And Orahovac, a big enclave, or let's call it a
>ghetto, where 2,000 Serbs are shut in and cut off from
>everything. Yesterday I learned that they burned down two
>houses, right inside the enclave.
>
>The KLA wants to eliminate them completely; the Serb
>population has been cut in half in recent months. Near
>Gnjilane in the American sector, there are still a few hundred
>Serbs in the villages. Yesterday two were killed. They were
>shot in the back trying to go to a gas station.
>
>Forty thousand Serbs were living in Pristina, the capital.
>Now there are scarcely 400, and they are forced to stay in
>their apartments because there have been a lot of murders.
>
>Kosovska Mitrovica is now the only multi-ethnic city. It is
>the only region [about one-sixth of Kosovo] where the Serbs
>have managed to stay on. But the KLA wants to chase them out
>in order to complete "cleansing" the province.
>
>MC: Also because this region has the rich mines of Trepca?
>
>ZA: Of course. The mines are in the southern sector
>[Albanian] of Mitrovica. But the processing plants, which are
>essential, are in the north. The KLA wants to control
>everything.
>
>MC: NATO declared that it wants to establish a multi-ethnic
>Kosovo.
>
>ZA: I think it would take a major effort to move towards a
>multi-ethnic Kosovo. But they are not talking about a multi-
>ethnic Kosovo anymore.
>
>[Interruption. He receives a call on his portable phone.]
>There it is! KFOR just took over the Serbian University of
>Mitrovica. They broke doors and windows, destroyed documents.
>A big demonstration by the KLA has been announced. I fear for
>the worst.
>
>You know, there are people who were killed after I persuaded
>them to stay. That is terrible to live with.
>
>MC: Doesn't KFOR protect the Serbs?
>
>ZA: I took [British] General [Michael] Jackson to Serb
>gatherings many times. He listened to their grievances. But he
>has not taken care of one of their demands. KFOR would have
>been able to keep a lot of Serbs in Pristina just by
>protecting a hundred buildings. I asked him to. Jackson
>answered me: "I don't have enough soldiers to put in every
>building."
>
>In reality, the decisions aren't made here, they are made in
>Washington.
>
>MC: In sum, NATO hardly seems to be a "force for peace."
>
>ZA: Today, no one is still talking about a political
>solution. But today the most basic rights of the Serbs are
>trampled on. Every day a Serb is killed by the KLA terrorists.
>Some 800 people have been kidnapped. How many of them has KFOR
>found? Not one.
>
>MC: Is this because KFOR hasn't been able to control the KLA?
>
>ZA: KFOR doesn't want to control the KLA. When the KLA was
>unable to kick the Serb workers out of the factories, it was
>KFOR itself that took care of it. It took control of the
>business "because of problems with the rules."
>
>MC: Are the rivalries between the major Western powers being
>brought out as they try to corner the riches of Kosovo?
>
>ZA: [Yes], the British, for example, have chosen to focus on
>the electric generating industry. Now they say that it would
>be too costly to invest there and they would rather
>appropriate the Mitrovica mines [in the French sector].
>
>MC: What do you see for Kosovo's future?
>
>ZA: [After a deep sigh] No one can answer that.
>
> - 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: <008201bf9139$de4e73b0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Title IX funding: A concession to strength of women
>Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 19:27:10 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Mar. 23, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>TITLE IX FUNDING
>
>A CONCESSION TO PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL STRENGTH OF WOMEN
>
>Special to Workers World
>Buffalo, N.Y.
>
>In 1972, a near miracle occurred: "Tricky Dick" Nixon,
>Viet Nam war criminal and soon-to-be-disgraced former
>president, signed a piece of progressive legislation. It
>was called Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act and
>it stated that "No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis
>of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the
>benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any
>educational program or activity receiving federal financial
>assistance."
>
>Those familiar with Nixon's reactionary legacy know that
>he was no friend to the women's movement, by any means. The
>credit for passing this key bit of legislation must be
>
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