>
> WW News Service Digest #117
>
> 1) Help iacenter.org web site
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 2) Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans: Much to be PROUD of
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 3) Hypocrisy over Central Park Attacks
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 4) "Not One More Execution!"
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 5) FARC-EP Back On-Line
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 6) National Protests for Graham/Sankofa
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>Help.
>
>In the last few days, as the struggle to save Shaka Sankofa (Gary
>Graham) has intensified, our web site http://www.iacenter.org
>has gotten over 500,000 hits. www.iacenter.org is now listed in the
>www.websmostlinked.com as being in the top 1% of the
>most popular web sites.
>
>Due to all of this traffic, we have to upgrade the services at our
>service provider. The additional costs are not just temporary.
>Because so many people are looking for a militant and progressive
>voice on the web, and because so many people are finding the IAC
>web site we must permanently upgrade.
>
>We need your help to cover these additional costs. Please make a
>tax deductible donation to the People's Rights Fund/National
>Anti-Death Penalty Education Project to help cover this
>extra financial obligation at http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org
>PRF is dedicated to helping to educate the public on many
>different issues and helps the IAC on the death penalty issue.
>
>Any donation from $10 to $1000 will help us continue to provide the
>independent militant and uncompromising web site so many people
>depend on worldwide.
>
>International Action Center
>39 West 14th Street, Room 206
>New York, NY 10011
>email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>web: www.iacenter.org
>CHECK OUT THE NEW SITE www.mumia2000.org
>phone: 212 633-6646
>fax: 212 633-2889
>
>
>
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 22:56:54 -0400
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>Subject: [WW] Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans: Much to be PROUD of
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 29, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>LESBIAN, GAY, BI, TRANS: MUCH TO BE PROUD OF
>
>By Elijah Crane
>
>It's Pride Month in the year 2000. Many are taking the
>opportunity to review and analyze the state of the lesbian,
>gay, bi and trans movement.
>
>With good reason. Much is going on. The movement has
>achieved significant triumphs, and they are worth
>celebrating. But at the same time it's important to
>acknowledge the attacks, challenges and state-sanctioned
>violations these communities still face.
>
>While there have been some victories in the struggle
>against the "don't ask, don't tell" military discharges,
>Pentagon bashing of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans
>servicepeople continues. It was less than a year ago, in
>July 1999, that Pvt. Barry Winchell, whose lover was a
>trans woman, was brutally murdered as he slept in his bunk
>at Fort Campbell, Ky.
>
>The June 17 Washington Post revealed that Washington-area
>gay bars are being infiltrated by undercover Navy
>investigators under the guise of a drug-busting scheme.
>
>The article quotes a naval officer's description of the
>tactic that these agents employ: "The informant will try to
>strike up a conversation and try to elicit the information
>that that individual is a military member, and then you
>take that information, run their plates and try to confirm
>that information."
>
>The Pentagon has never prosecuted anyone found visiting a
>"heterosexual" establishment. This shows how "don't ask,
>don't tell" policy is a fig leaf for the thoroughly anti-
>gay, anti-trans Pentagon establishment.
>
>Perhaps the biggest gain of the year for the lesbian, gay,
>bi and trans movement came in May when the Vermont
>legislature passed a law allowing same-sex couples to enter
>a partnership that is recognized by the state. It grants
>many of the same rights and benefits to lesbian, gay, bi
>and trans couples as are afforded heterosexual marriages,
>though it falls short of the right to actual marriage.
>
>Many huge corporations have recently adopted non-
>discrimination policies and extended benefits to employees'
>domestic partners. GM, DaimlerChrysler and Ford--the Big 3
>auto makers--are counted among these companies.
>
>This victory was won thanks to the hard-fought struggle of
>lesbian, gay, bi and trans workers and organizing efforts
>by groups like Pride at Work--the AFL-CIO's official
>lesbian, gay, bi, trans constituency group.
>
>Less inspiring is the news that ExxonMobil bosses promptly
>revoked Mobil Corp.'s non-discrimination policy after the
>recent merger of Exxon and Mobil. Before the merger, Mobil
>banned firings and other work-place harassment based on
>sexual orientation. It also extended some benefits to
>employees in same-sex relationships.
>
>Not a single state in the United States allows same-sex
>marriage. Bosses can discriminate against lesbian and gay
>workers in 39 states. In 18 states same-sex relations are a
>crime.
>
>According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 1999
>was just the second year that more bills in support of
>lesbian, gay, bi and trans rights were introduced than
>bills aimed against the communities--288 to 178.
>
>Women and trans people have been a strong source of
>grassroots organizers within this movement. Lesbian marches
>have continued full steam in recent years.
>
>The first recorded one took place in 1993 before the march
>on Washington. The Lesbian Avengers, the ACT UP Women's
>Committee and other Washington-area activists worked to
>pull it together. An astounding 20,000 women marched at
>that historic event.
>
>Since then, annual Dyke Marches have taken place all over
>the United States--and in Ireland, Canada, Japan and other
>countries.
>
>`THEY SAY GET BACK, WE SAY FIGHT BACK!'
>
>Bashings and murders of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people
>have practically doubled since 1992, according to the FBI's
>own statistics.
>
>Anti-gay initiatives like Proposition 9 in Oregon and
>Amendment 2 in Colorado also became pervasive in this
>period. In the days after Amendment 2 was voted on,
>bashings rose by 200 percent.
>
>But this rise in anti-gay lynchings did not push the
>movement back into the closet. After gay college student
>Matthew Shepard was killed in Wyoming in October 1998, tens
>of thousands of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people and their
>heterosexual allies marched and rallied together in large
>cities, small towns and campuses across the United States.
>
>And this year when Paramount Television executives
>announced that they were going to air a national show
>featuring "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger, powerful protests
>sprang up across the country. "Dr. Laura" is a pop-
>psychology talk-show host who uses her radio microphone to
>spew anti-gay rhetoric.
>
>The demonstrations to keep her off the television airwaves
>are growing--giving television executives and advertisers
>alike pause in their decision to back her.
>
>Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion in
>New York's Greenwich Village. Black, Latino and white
>lesbian and gay people--led by trans youths--fought back
>against police repression.
>
>This year the struggle against state violence--especially
>police brutality and the racist use of the death penalty--
>has been a significant current in the lesbian, gay, bi and
>trans movement. The group Rainbow Flags for Mumia was
>formed last year to help save the life of political
>prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
>
>It has since built into a broad anti-racist coalition from
>the most activist sectors of the lesbian, gay, bi and trans
>movement. Lesbian, gay, bi and trans people also came out
>to protest the New York Police Department killing of Amadou
>Diallo, and have been active in the struggle to stop the
>execution of Shaka Sankofa/Gary Graham.
>
>These struggles capture the spirit of the chant that can
>be heard at many picket lines and rallies: "Gay, straight,
>Black, white, all unite to fight the right."
>
> - 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, 21 Jun 2000 22:56:54 -0400
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>Subject: [WW] Hypocrisy over Central Park Attacks
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 29, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>HYPOCRISY OVER CENTRAL PARK ATTACKS: SINCE WHEN DO
>THE NYPD & GIULIANI CARE ABOUT WOMEN?
>
>By Rebeca Toledo
>New York
>
>The alarming June 11 attacks on over 45 women by groups of
>young men in New York's Central Park have become a win-win
>situation for the New York Police Department, Mayor Rudolph
>Giuliani's administration and the whole racist and sexist
>system.
>
>First, they whipped up a racist backlash against the
>historic National Puerto Rican Day Parade that took place
>earlier the same day. And then, they got to pretend that
>they care about violence against women.
>
>Since when does the NYPD care about women? On June 11,
>women reported that the police stood by and watched as they
>were being attacked. And can Mayor Rudolph Giuliani claim
>to care about violence against women? Isn't throwing women
>and children off welfare and into the dire poverty called
>"workfare" violence against women?
>
>So why did the cops and the mayor and the media play such
>a role in bringing the June 11 attacks to public attention?
>They used what happened in an attempt to discredit and
>undermine the political significance of this year's Puerto
>Rican Day Parade, which took place before the attacks on
>the women.
>
>This year's parade was dedicated to Vieques and Don Pedro
>Albizu Campos, leader of the modern independence movement
>in Puerto Rico. It was an overwhelming show of support for
>the struggle in Vieques.
>
>The 2-million-strong parade did indeed become the largest
>demonstration to date against the U.S. Navy's continued use
>of the small island for target practice.
>
>The crowd cheered wildly at a huge statue of Don Pedro.
>They chanted non-stop, "Vieques si, Marina, no." Signs
>calling for "Peace for Vieques" and "U.S. Navy out" lined
>the parade route.
>
>During the Puerto Rican Day Parade and afterward, the cops
>and the system showed their true colors. There were 4,000
>cops out to patrol the parade. That's 10 percent of the
>entire city force.
>
>The day before, the route along Fifth Avenue was literally
>boarded up. Crowd control during the parade was so tight,
>as in other years, that spectators could hardly move.
>
>Parade-goers were herded into a 45-block area along Fifth
>Avenue. People were forcibly kept from moving east or west
>of the avenue.
>
>This year, the parade was cut short because of lobbying
>against loud music by affluent Fifth Avenue residents.
>
>The parade's anti-U.S.-imperialism spirit is of great
>concern to the ruling class here.
>
>So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the city
>government was given a green light to discredit the parade.
>
>Although the cops did nothing to stop the attacks on women
>while they were happening, afterward they launched a
>massive dragnet to round up young Latino and African
>American men--regardless of whether the men were involved.
>
>WHAT IS NEEDED
>
>The anti-women attitudes instilled in all boys by the
>ruling class and its media must be combated.
>
>Nationally, one out of every four women will be the victim
>of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. And when one of
>these women's cases makes it to court, a slap on the wrist
>is often all the court gives the offenders.
>
>Take the gruesome 1989 case of white male athletes from a
>high school in Glen Ridge, N.J., who gang raped and
>tortured a female classmate who was mildly retarded. They
>penetrated her with a broomstick and a baseball bat.
>
>There were no immediate front-page mug shots of the
>athletes with $12,000 rewards offered by the police. There
>were no outcries from town officials calling for their
>arrest.
>
>No. It was months before anything was even done in this
>affluent suburb. And the result was that the ringleaders
>were convicted of first-degree sexual assault, but the
>judge gave them less than two years in jail.
>
>This is the true nature of the cops and the bourgeois
>state. They are not here to protect women or parade-goers.
>In fact, it's the exact opposite. The cops are here to
>repress and oppress women, people of color and workers.
>They are here to protect the ruling class's private
>property and keep things status quo.
>
>So it's unfortunate to hear some community leaders calling
>for cooperation with the NYPD in rounding up young Latino
>and African American men. Women's groups are rightfully
>outraged by police inaction during the attacks. But to call
>on the police to take violence against women seriously by
>taking more action in the communities is not the answer.
>
>Abner Louima didn't need any more police action. Amadou
>Diallo certainly couldn't have cooperated more. Patrick
>Dorismond was trying to be law-abiding. Yet they all
>suffered death or torture at the hands of the NYPD.
>
>What is needed in this situation is community control.
>Oppressed communities should chart their own destinies.
>
>These young brothers did violate women and show total
>disrespect for them. Puerto Rican and Latina women should
>be the ones to set them straight. Latina women should hold
>hearings to let it be known that violence against women
>will not be tolerated.
>
>That's how they do it in socialist Cuba. The people's
>tribunals, based in the communities, are an integral part
>of Cuba's justice system. They hold hearings to rule on
>offenses and penalties. Whether the punishment is re-
>education or something else, it is the people themselves
>who decide.
>
>This is what is needed. Latinas have to let it be known
>that we don't want or need the cops and the courts to
>interfere and that women in general cannot rely on the
>capitalist cops and courts for justice.
>
> - 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, 21 Jun 2000 22:56:54 -0400
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>Subject: [WW] "Not One More Execution!"
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 29, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>NATIONWIDE PROTESTS CONFRONT GOV. BUSH: "NOT ONE
>MORE EXECUTION!"
>
>By Workers World Houston bureau
>
>As the June 22 execution date looms near, the life-and-
>death struggle to save Gary Graham/Shaka Sankofa is
>reaching a feverish pitch.
>
>Militant protests are being held here in Texas and
>throughout the United States to stop the state from
>lynching an African American prisoner whose supporters,
>bolstered by new evidence, maintain is innocent.
>
>Police in riot gear attacked 200 Sankofa supporters
>outside the State Capitol in Austin June 19 after a march
>from the governor's mansion. Fifteen people were arrested
>and charged with "obstructing a passageway," punishable by
>up to three months in jail and a $2,000 fine.
>
>The same day two death-penalty opponents disrupted a
>fundraiser for Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican
>presidential candidate, in Palo Alto, Calif., as 200
>rallied outside.
>
>Protesters again shouted down Bush at a fundraiser in Los
>Angeles June 20. They chanted, "Don't execute an innocent
>man!"
>
>And in New York June 19, at least 1,000 protesters held a
>noisy rush-hour march through midtown Manhattan. Six
>activists occupied the New York Republican Party offices
>and were arrested.
>
>Activists plan to stage more protests if Bush does not
>issue a stay of execution before June 22. Shaka Sankofa has
>called for 10,000 people to protest in Huntsville, home of
>the Texas death chamber, that day.
>
>Sankofa's lawyers have asked the Texas Board of Pardons
>and Paroles to recommend a 120-day stay of execution so
>that new evidence--including the testimony of six
>eyewitnesses who say he was not the shooter--can be heard.
>Bush could approve a stay if the board recommends it.
>
>The June 20 Dallas Morning News reported that the board
>would not make its recommendation to Bush until noon on
>June 22--just six hours before Sankofa is scheduled to die.
>
>That prompted State Senator Rodney Ellis to ask the 18-
>member board to hold a public hearing to consider the stay.
>(Associated Press, June 21) The secretive group of Bush
>appointees rarely meets and usually votes by fax.
>
>CNN reported June 20 that Bush "remains convinced of his
>[Sankofa's] guilt" and "would not bow to pressure." But
>Bush did bow to massive public outrage over the death
>penalty on June 1, when he granted a 30-day stay of
>execution to Ricky McGinn.
>
>Vice President Al Gore, Bush's Democratic opponent in the
>presidential race, also supports the death penalty. Gore
>has refused to criticize Bush's killing spree--which
>reached 134 with the execution of Paul Nuncio June 16.
>
>Executions are used exclusively against poor and working -
>class people, especially people of color.
>
>"I am going to fight like hell against anyone trying to
>murder me on an execution gurney," Sankofa vowed during a
>June 18 interview. "It's never too late to stop the
>execution of an innocent man."
>
>JUROR: `HE DIDN'T GET JUSTICE'
>
>While the protests were taking place, three jurors in
>Sankofa's 1981 capital murder trial came forward to say
>that after reviewing new evidence presented by his lawyers,
>they now believe he was wrongfully convicted of killing
>Bobby Lambert.
>
>Two of the jurors--Bobby Pryor and Dennis Graham--appeared
>on ABC's "Nightline" June 19 and asked Bush to stop the
>execution.
>
>Sankofa was just 17 when he was charged with killing
>Lambert outside a Houston grocery store. He was convicted
>
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