>
>free Abu-Jamal.
>
>In recognition of his contribution to the alternative
>media, this year's Project Censored Awards Dinner will
>include a special tribute to Key Martin.
>
>Working with PVN and the International Action Center,
>Martin was always in the thick of militant actions. He
>covered the Seattle demonstrations against the World Trade
>Organization, where he was teargassed and shot with plastic
>bullets. Though he suffered from asthma and other
>complications, he refused to slow down. Martin was a
>familiar figure at protests and rallies, with his video
>equipment and his signature red suspenders.
>
>Key is survived by his spouse Estela Vazquez; their
>children Tamara Martin, Alejandro Vazquez and Evelyn
>Vazquez; and three grandchildren.
>
>Key Martin was a revolutionary Marxist who gave 100
>percent of his unflagging energy to the struggle of the
>workers and oppressed for a socialist society free of
>capitalist exploitation and injustice.
>
>Workers World Party will hold a public memorial to
>celebrate his life. The date and place will be announced
>soon in Workers World newspaper, the International Action
>Center web site, www.iacenter.org, and the Peoples Video Network
>web site, www.peoplesvideo.org.
>
> - 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: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 00:00:06 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>Content-transfer-encoding: Quoted-printable
>Subject: [WW] Yugoslavia, 1 Year Later
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Mar. 30, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>YUGOSLAVIA 1 YEAR LATER: PROTESTS SET, KOSOVO A
>POWDER KEG
>
>By Pat Chin
>
>With worldwide protests set to mark the anniversary of the
>imperialist bombing of Yugoslavia, Kosovo remains a
>volatile powder keg. The southern Yugoslav province has
>spiraled into abysmal and bloody chaos, with Serbs and
>others being attacked by right-wing Albanians under the
>United States-led NATO occupation.
>
>Anti-NATO actions started in Greece on March 18 when
>activists protested at a port in Thessaloniki. The next
>day, crowds of angry demonstrators blocked U.S. Marines
>headed for NATO war games in Kosovo. Police intervened but
>were pelted with rocks.
>
>Aleka Papariga, a leader of the Greek Communist Party,
>which organized the mobilizations, said, "This invasion by
>American marines is a provocation for the Greek people."
>(Associated Press, March 18)
>
>Some of the biggest demonstrations against the bombing of
>Yugoslavia took place in Greece last year. The actions were
>so militant that President Bill Clinton was forced to first
>postpone and then shorten his trip there after the air war
>ended.
>
>More protests are planned for Athens and other Greek
>cities to mark the anniversary of the start of the NATO
>aggression against Yugoslavia.
>
>NATO's Kosovo forces--called KFOR in military parlance--
>entered Kosovo on June 12, 1999, after the 78-day
>blitzkrieg against Yugoslavia that brazenly targeted
>civilians and infrastructure. Members of the so-called
>Kosovo Liberation Army, who had launched a terrorist war
>against Serbs in Kosovo in their bid for independence and a
>"Greater Albania," also re-entered the province under NATO
>protection.
>
>Because of fascist terror, Serbs and others have been
>forced to organize and defend themselves in the northern
>town of Kosovska Mitrovica and elsewhere.
>
>NATO says it's for a multi-ethnic Kosovo and has close to
>42,000 troops and 8,000 support personnel stationed there.
>But since the occupation, over 250,000 Serbs, Roma people,
>progressive Albanians and others have been driven from
>Kosovo by the KLA. Almost 1,000 people have been killed in
>the KLA's bid to rid the province of all non-Albanians.
>
>Progressive Albanians who support a multi-ethnic state
>have also been targeted. One such group recently sent a
>letter of support to the federal government in Belgrade.
>According to Radio Yugoslavia, the Albanians stressed that
>they will not allow the West, whose goal is clearly an
>independent Kosovo, to control them.
>
>Then on March 13, Sokol Chuse openly criticized NATO
>exercises planned for Kosovo. A leader of the Democratic
>Reform Party of Albanians, Chuse also denounced the U.S.-
>backed move to legitimize the separatist KLA by recycling
>its members into the "Kosovo Protection Corps."
>
>The myth of mass graves containing Albanian victims of
>"Serb atrocities" has long been dispelled. Moreover, the
>British Broadcasting Corporation recently exposed how the
>U.S. CIA and the KLA conspired to start the war in
>Yugoslavia.
>
>Citing the BBC report, Radio Yugsolavia noted in its March
>13 broadcast: "A representative of Kosmet Albanians
>admitted that Western diplomats advised them to push the
>civilian population to the front lines in clashes with
>police. Western diplomats said that this was the only way
>to win the approval of the international public. .
>
>"Hashim Thaci had followed the advice. Directly led by
>Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the West got closer
>to the terrorist KLA and placed NATO in the function of
>Albanian separatists. . The first and crucial step in this
>process was made by U.S. Ambassador to the UN and former
>envoy for the Balkans, Richard Holbrooke."
>
>The London Observer also revealed in mid-March that the
>Kosovo Protection Corps and the Kosovo police had been
>charged in a secret report to the United Nations with being
>responsible for many crimes. The crimes include murder,
>torture, abductions, forced prostitution and money
>extortion.
>
>These expos=82s by the British media reflect a split within
>NATO. Infighting seems to have erupted among the
>imperialist gang of thieves over who should pay for the
>occupation and repression needed to maximize the looting of
>Kosovo.
>
>But the expos=82s haven't stopped U.S. and NATO commanders
>from blaming the Yugoslav government for instability in the
>region.
>
>It hasn't stopped them from threatening new attacks on
>Yugoslavia, which must now also defend itself against
>cross-border incursions into southwestern Serbia by a new
>KLA separatist force. Italy, for example, refused to send
>troops to Kosovo for NATO maneuvers but joined its allies
>in the European Union to tighten sanctions against
>Belgrade.
>
>That the province is far from stable reflects a total
>failure of NATO's stated goals. Each day brings new
>terrorist attacks against resisting Serbs and others who
>are being systematically pushed from the province.
>
>Albright's "warning" to right-wing Albanians about cross-
>border incursions into Serbia and the recent raid on a KLA
>arms depot are deceitful attempts by the Clinton White
>House to appear evenhanded. This is particularly important
>in an election year when the whole world was assured that,
>with the United States at its helm, NATO would bring
>stability to a multi-ethnic Kosovo.
>
>Actions to mark the first anniversary of the start of the
>NATO war against Yugoslavia are planned for New York, San
>Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities, as well as on
>campuses in the United States and in European NATO
>capitals. For further information readers can call the
>International Action Center at (212) 633-6646 or visit the
>IAC's Web site at www.iacenter.org.
>
> - 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: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 00:01:31 -0500
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>Subject: [WW] Washington's Taiwan Threat
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Mar. 30, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>EDITORIAL: WASHINGTON'S TAIWAN THREAT
>
>Before and after the election held in Taiwan on March 19,
>the U.S. government has continued a century of intervention
>and interference in China's internal affairs on the most
>sensitive of issues: the unity of the world's most populous
>country.
>
>The most immediate issue in the Taiwan election centered
>on the position of the "Democratic Progressive Party" which
>has advocated full independence for Taiwan. Its candidate,
>Chen Shui-bian, was the leading vote-getter with 39
>percent.
>
>The position of the People's Republic of China, the
>government on the mainland where 97 percent of China's
>population lives, has always been that there is one China,
>including the small island of Taiwan. The PRC has
>emphatically stated that it would resist, by force of arms
>if necessary, any attempts to divide the country. The PRC
>refuses to have diplomatic relations with any country that
>does not accept this "One China Policy."
>
>Officially the U.S. recognizes the PRC government and
>accepts the One China Policy. "Officially" because at the
>same time it is only U.S. support--economic, diplomatic and
>above all military--that has made it possible for Taiwan to
>maintain its separate existence for the past 50 years.
>
>The thoroughly corrupt, reactionary and pro-U.S. Chiang
>Kai-Shek and his followers fled to Taiwan after being
>defeated by the People's Liberation Army in 1949. The days
>of Chiang's Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) rule would have
>been very short, except that the Pentagon incorporated the
>island into the U.S. "defense perimeter" in Asia. For the
>U.S. military strategists, Taiwan is seen not as a small
>island, but as a giant and unsinkable aircraft carrier.
>
>For more than two decades, China's seat at the United
>Nations and as a permanent member of the Security Council
>was occupied by the rotten Chiang Kai-Shek clique. At U.S.
>insistence, the PRC--the real government of the world's
>largest country--was kept out the UN. When, due to massive
>world pressure and for its own strategic reasons the U.S.
>dropped its opposition and the real China entered the UN,
>Washington continued to be Taiwan's lifeline.
>
>The U.S. has granted and sold vast quantities of weaponry,
>including high-tech weapons, to Taiwan. As a result,
>Taiwan's military is considered to be better equipped with
>high-tech weaponry than the People's Liberation Army is.
>From the early 1950s up to the present time U.S. military
>forces have been deployed whenever the crisis atmosphere
>has sharpened.
>
>Under these conditions of U.S. military occupation and
>intervention, to speak of Taiwan's "right to self-
>determination" is a contradiction in terms. Without massive
>U.S. interference, Taiwan would have liberated from
>landlord, capitalist and imperialist rule a half-century
>ago along with the rest of China.
>
>The extreme arrogance of the real, as opposed to the
>official, U.S. position came out in the days leading up to
>the March 19 election. The PRC government had repeatedly
>warned that if the election resulted in a government that
>declared independence they would take military action if
>necessary to stop the secession.
>
>On March 17, Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering
>called in Chinese Ambassador Li Zhaoxing to "discuss the
>importance of prudence and patience before and after the
>Taiwan election," in the words of State Department
>spokesperson James Rubin. One can only imagine the reaction
>of Washington officials to a similar "caution" from a
>foreign government about an election inside the U.S.
>
>The day before, Secretary of Defense William Cohen
>visiting Tokyo stated that "the threat of the use of force
>is counterproductive." This from the top civilian military
>official of a country which less than a year ago destroyed
>the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia during the 78-day
>U.S./NATO bombing campaign against that country.
>
>But it was Admiral Dennis Blair, commander of U.S. forces
>in Asia and the Pacific who let the cat out of the bag.
>Blair told the Washington Times that "The United States is
>legally bound to provide Taiwan `a sufficient means for
>defense' against any Chinese attempt to force
>reunification." Blair also threatened to sell new high-tech
>weapons to Taiwan, diplomatically saying, "no decision has
>yet been made."
>
>While hypocritically talking against the "use of force,"
>it is clear that the U.S. is continuing to build up its
>military for a possible new war, half way around the world.
>U.S. imperialism has always considered China to be
>rightfully a part of its global empire, and that is as true
>in 2000 as it was a hundred years ago.
>
> - 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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