WW News Service Digest #235
1) Texas trying to kill Sankofa's son
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Support for Charleston 5 longshore unionists grows
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) Black Gay Network hits gov't neglect
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) Korean workers battle for their jobs
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 1, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
TEXAS TRYING TO KILL SANKOFA'S SON:
GARY HAWKINS CASE DRAWS GROWING SUPPORT
By Gloria Rubac
Houston
Gary Hawkins, the son of executed Texas prisoner and
political activist Shaka Sankofa, has been held without bail
in the Harris County Jail in Houston since last April 2. He
will go on trial for capital murder on March 19.
Hawkins, who is only 20 years old, told Workers World: "Like
my father, I am an innocent man. I did not kill anyone. In
fact, the man they say I killed was actually a long-time
friend of mine."
Members of Hawkins' family as well as the family of his
father, the Grahams, are working with activists in the Texas
Death Penalty Abolition Movement to build support for
Hawkins at his trial. Supporters will sell Mexican food at
the SHAPE Center on Feb. 24 and March 10 to raise needed
legal fees.
Sankofa, formerly known as Gary Graham, was executed last
June under Gov. George W. Bush's watch in Texas. A broad
movement across the country had protested to stop his
execution.
Sankofa's conviction and execution were based on one
eyewitness account from someone in poor position to see the
shooting he was charged with.
Anti-death-penalty activist Njeri Shakur said of Hawkins:
"This young man and his sister have had to grow up without
their father. Gary Graham was only 17 years old and innocent
when he was taken to death row and his son Gary Junior was
just a baby.
"The father has been lynched by the racist state of Texas
and now they want his son. We will not allow this injustice
to happen."
The death-penalty Abolition Movement is urging all of Shaka
Sankofa's supporters to stand with Gary Hawkins and be in
Judge Godwin's court on the 19th floor at 1201 Franklin
Street at 9 a.m. on March 19.
When Hawkins was arrested last April, District Attorney
Johnny Holmes prematurely told reporters that this could be
the first father-son duo on death row in Texas. The current
district attorney, however, clearly knows he has no evidence
against Hawkins.
At a pre-trial hearing on Feb. 2, the state offered Hawkins
40 years if he would plead guilty to aggravated robbery.
Hawkins said: "No! I didn't do nothing and I'm not going to
plead to something I didn't do.
"My father has been executed and laid to rest. My daughter
has been born. I was there for neither of these events.
"I have been in jail since last April and almost daily I am
ridiculed about my father by these guards. I am called
'Graham' and taunted that I will die in prison just like my
father did," Hawkins said.
"I ask for your support so that I will not end up in prison
praying for some appeal to come through. This judicial
system must see that I am not just another innocent young
Black man that they can easily prey upon and convict and
that no one will care about."
As a young teen, Hawkins worked with his fathers'
supporters, marching in Houston and Austin, attending
rallies and public events to try to stop his father's
execution. He knows first-hand about the racism and lack of
justice inherent in the criminal-justice system in Texas.
His sister, Deidre Hawkins, their mother Jennise Hawkins
Lee, and their paternal grandmother, Elnora Graham, are all
fighting for him. The Abolition Movement plans to pack the
courtroom on March 19 and rally supporters.
An important organizing meeting will be held during the
Abolition Movement's regular March 6 meeting at SHAPE
Center, 3903 Almeda Street in Houston. Those interested can
phone 713-653-7020 for more information or email
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Letters of support can be sent to: Gary Lee Hawkins
#01648027, 5 - D - 5 Harris County Jail, 1301 Franklin
Street, Houston, TX 77002.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 1, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SUPPORT FOR CHARLESTON 5 LONGSHORE UNIONISTS GROWS
By Tony Murphy
On Feb. 9, two New York activist groups issued a statement
about a fierce anti-racist union struggle raging in South
Carolina: the case of the Charleston 5.
The statement begins: "The International Action Center,
founded in 1992 by former United States Attorney General
Ramsey Clark, and Workfairness, an organization fighting New
York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's slave-labor, union-busting
'workfare' program, call for the immediate dropping of
charges against the Charleston 5."
The Charleston 5 are members of the International Longshore
Association Local 1422, whose members are mostly African
American. The five workers face charges of "felony rioting."
These phony charges were filed against them by the state of
South Carolina after police attacked their anti-scab picket
on Jan. 20 last year.
Started as a center for the anti-war movement that opposed
the 1991 U.S. bombing of Iraq, the IAC is a base for many
progressive movements. This year IAC activists organized the
counter-inaugural demonstration that took place Jan. 20 in
Washington. Thousands came out against racism and the right-
wing program of President George W. Bush.
The IAC is also home to groups that fight for jobs, higher
wages, and workers' rights, like Workfairness. After
President Bill Clinton signed the law slashing federal
public assistance in 1996, New York welfare recipients being
forced into sub-minimum-wage workfare assignments formed
Workfairness to demand union rights and living wages.
"The AFL-CIO has officially launched a campaign to defend
the Charleston 5," said Larry Holmes, a co-founder of
Workfairness and signer of the statement. "Now the labor
movement is being joined by community groups and activists
of other struggles, and on a national basis. This class-wide
unity is exactly what is feared by racist regimes like the
state of South Carolina--and the only thing that can get the
charges dropped."
The police attack on Local 1422's picket line took place at
the peak of the struggle the African American community was
waging to remove the confederate flag from the South
Carolina Capitol. Some 47,000 people, mostly African
American, marched against the racist relic.
The union had succeeded in forging strong ties to the
community. This fact, the IAC statement points out, is why
there is a frame-up campaign against the union members.
"The only riot that occurred on the Charleston docks on Jan.
20 last year was a police riot," the statement reads.
"Members of the International Longshoreman's Association and
their supporters were exercising their constitutional right
to picket a scab ship. The predominantly African American
gathering was attacked by police on horses, in armored cars
and helicopters.
"Among those brutally clubbed was Local 1422 President Ken
Riley. South Carolina Attorney General Charles Condon now
wants to send Brother Riley and four other victims of this
police violence to jail on so-called 'riot' charges."
Attached to the IAC statement, which was released to the
media and hundreds of progressive activists, is a historical
outline of the struggle against racism in South Carolina and
how the defense of the Charleston 5 is part of that.
An excerpt from this history reads: "African American
workers in Charleston have long been seen as a threat by the
likes of [Sen.] Strom Thurmond, Bob Jones III and the
confederate flag-waving members of the state legislature.
These factory, hotel and plantation owners know how in 1822,
Denmark Vesey, a former sailor, organized thousands of
slaves who came close to taking over the city of Charleston.
"The wealthy and powerful remember how in 1968-69, hospital
workers waged a long struggle to win wage increases and
recognition of their union, Local 1199B. At the time, the
racist bosses offered them instead Robert E. Lee's birthday
as an additional holiday. Hundreds were jailed, and the
living quarters of union organizer Henry Nicholas (now
leader of the Philadelphia hospital workers' local) was
firebombed. Where was the legal action to prosecute this
attempted assassination of a labor leader?"
The signers of the letter are veterans of campaigns to
organize the unorganized. Johnnie Stevens works with UNITE
Local 169, organizing low-wage greengrocery workers. IAC
activist Henri Nereaux is a retired vice president of
Masters, Mates and Pilots, an affiliate of the East Coast
longshore union.
Their statement ended by stressing the crucial role that
organizing the unorganized can play in fighting racism in
the South.
"Although South Carolina is a 'right-to-work' state that has
viciously repressed labor organizing, it is false to claim
that workers there do not want unions. For example, while
Michelin has 9,000 employees in the state--4,000 in
Greenville alone--at non-union plants, the future can be
seen at the Mack Truck plant in Winnsboro, where 92 percent
of the workers belong to United Auto Workers Local 5841.
"The biggest task of the labor movement in this country is
to organize the South. State Attorney General Condon wants
to jail the Charleston 5 in order to intimidate unorganized
workers in South Carolina from joining unions, and to
silence union activists who have strengthened labor's cause
by linking it to the fight against racism. Condon will not
be able to stop this tide."
This statement is available on-line on the first page of the
IAC's website, at www.iacenter.org.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 1, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
IN WAKE OF NEW STUDY:
BLACK GAY NETWORK HITS GOV'T NEGLECT
By Imani Henry
New York
On Feb. 15, some 50 outraged protesters picketed in front of
the Federal building here to demand more federal funding for
services and programming for Black gay men.
Called by the New York State Black Gay Network, the
demonstration responded to the recent Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention study that found that Black gay men
in their 20s had the highest HIV infection rate of any group
in that age category. The study was conducted from 1998
through 2000 in six cities, including Baltimore, Dallas, Los
Angeles, Miami, New York and Seattle.
The NYS Black Gay Network demanded accountability from
federal, state and local agencies for the governmental
neglect and lack of targeted resources in the fight against
HIV, resulting in the ongoing devastation experienced by
Black gay men's communities and communities of color.
Michael Robeson, Director of Services, of People of Color in
Crisis, a Black gay agency for HIV prevention based in
Brooklyn, N.Y., told WW,"This is about racism and
homophobia. We are not invisible. Black Gay men are
everywhere. But there is always a lack of monies for
communities of color, especially for the gay community of
color."
Immediately following the demonstration, activists held a
meeting with the New York State Health Commissioner. Further
community response is being planned for the coming weeks.
Groups represented at the picket included the Audre Lorde
Project, Gay Men of African Descent, Gay Men's Health
Crisis, Harlem Director's Group, Men of Color Health
Awareness, Minority Task Force on AIDS, NYC Gay & Lesbian
Anti-Violence Project, People of Color in Crisis, Unity
Fellowship Church, Harlem United, ACT-UP NY, the AIDS
Housing Network and the International Action Center.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 1, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
DAE WOO MOTOR:
KOREAN WORKERS BATTLE FOR THEIR JOBS
By Scott Scheffer
Hundreds of workers facing layoffs from their jobs at Dae
Woo Motors held off the police during a three-day occupation
inside the gates of the auto manufacturer's main plant at
Pupyon, south Korea this week.
The electrifying action responded to the layoff of 1,750
workers at the behest of General Motors, whose management
wants to buy Dae Woo. GM demands that one-third of the auto
workers be fired before they sign the deal.
Three hundred workers began the occupation the night of Feb.
16. The next morning, when police refused to let other Dae
Woo workers join their comrades, the occupiers fought back
with steel pipes and threw metal barricades and stones. They
held the riot-gear-clad police at bay so that 10 more
workers were able to join their fight.
Fifty workers from other plants also sneaked inside Feb. 17
to help. Later, still more workers fought the police outside
the gates with pipes and firebombs in a clash that lasted an
hour and a half.
On Feb. 18, the police obtained arrest warrants for 30 union
leaders who the government says organized the strike. South
Korea's anti-labor legal system outlaws strikes. One leader
was arrested but the police were reluctant to storm the
plant that day with only the 1,800 police they had
available.
After bolstering their forces to 4,000, the cops moved in on
Feb. 19 and arrested hundreds. But not without another long
hard battle. As workers fought back heroically again with
steel pipes, rocks, and by spraying the police with fire
extinguishers, shouts of "Guarantee our right to survive"
could be heard.
Police sprayed the workers with fire hoses. The strikers
replied with industrial-size water hoses from inside the
gates. Finally, the police dislodged them and arrested
around 100, but many others escaped by climbing over the
walls surrounding the plant.
Dae Woo collapsed when the capitalist crisis of
overproduction hit Asia in 1997. When the International
Monetary Fund extended loans to the south Korean government
to "bail them out," the IMF demanded massive restructuring
of banking and of industry. The restructuring has meant the
loss of thousands of jobs.
In a statement about the Dae Woo struggle, the Korean
Confederation of Trades Unions demanded to know what the
government is doing "to avoid the death sentence-like
layoffs." It called for the sale to GM to be scrapped, and
vowed to continue the fight.
"We will mobilize all our forces and engage in the struggle
along with Dae Woo Motor's union," the KCTU statement read.
