WW News Service Digest #314
1) Bush can't stop D.C. protests, organizers say
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) USWA: Coca-Cola colludes with Colombia death squads
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) Polls show support for unions, distrust of bosses
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) Protest hits Boy Scouts for anti-gay bigotry
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
5) Milosevic challenges NATO's court
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: sunnuntai 9. syyskuu 2001 23:25
Subject: [WW] Bush can't stop D.C. protests, organizers say
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
CAMPUSES ARE ABUZZ:
BUSH CAN'T STOP D.C. PROTESTS, ORGANIZERS SAY
By Workers World
Washington, D.C., bureau
Organizing for fall protests against the right-wing Bush
program, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
has picked up momentum here in Washington since the
beginning of the school year.
District of Columbia colleges are currently facing a housing
shortage and so are offering college students free room and
board if they defer their admission for a year. Over 100,000
college students have come to Washington, D.C., in the last
week to attend school.
Workers World spoke to protest organizers who have spent the
last month getting the word out about the protests.
Organizers from the International Action Center have
attended several first-year college orientations and
leafleted during the first week of classes. They are
promoting a demonstration to "Beat Back the Bush Attack" on
Sept. 29, drawing a connection between globalization abroad
and at home.
"In the past two weeks, we've been to American University,
Howard University, George Washington University, University
of the District of Columbia, University of Maryland,
University of Virginia at Charlottesville and more. The
schools have been swamped with students. Just standing
outside of the bookstore entrance at one school, we were
able to pass out hundreds of flyers in less than an hour,"
said Sarah Sloan, youth coordinator for the IAC.
Mervyn Marcano, a Baruch High School student from New York
City who spent his summer organizing for the protests, found
a great response. "At each of the schools, we've met many
students who are interested in organizing for the
demonstrations. Our hope is to set up organizing centers on
all of these college campuses to bring more people to the
protests. Students are interested in handing out flyers,
hanging up posters, and holding organizing meetings on their
campuses."
Staff people from the IAC reported hundreds of calls from
interested people who have received leaflets, seen posters
in their neighborhoods or on their way to work, or have seen
press coverage of the event.
Kelly Morrison, a staff organizer from the national office
of the IAC in New York City, spoke of a similarly positive
response nationally. "Coordinating outreach nationally has
been extremely successful. We have helped set up almost 100
organizing centers, from Maine to Florida to Texas and
California. People are organizing buses, vans and car
caravans, and coming by plane and train to attend the
protests.
"Since the government's announcements of plans to restrict
the protests by building a huge exclusion zone, there has
been an increase in interest. When people around the country
find out that the DC police and the federal government want
to deprive tens of thousands of people of their First
Amendment right to protest, they become interested in all of
the protests taking place against the IMF, World Bank and
Bush program."
ORGANIZERS: 'THE PROTEST WILL CONTINUE'
IAC organizers released a statement addressing concerns
about police and government attempts to prevent
demonstrations. "The IAC believes that the fight for free
speech and the right to protest has become an added
dimension to the protests against the IMF, World Bank and
Bush administration," said the statement. "Those coming to
the protests from around the country should know that
activists in Washington, D.C., have formally initiated a
legal and political struggle against the D.C. police over
their attempts to deprive tens of thousands of protesters of
their First Amendment rights."
On Aug. 20, the Partnership for Civil Justice--on behalf of
the IAC, the Latin American Solidarity Conference, 50 Years
Is Enough Network, and the Kwame Ture Work Study Institute
and Library--filed a complaint for injunctive relief against
the Washington police and federal agencies.
The legal action is based on the authorities' intent to
refuse march permits to protest organizers and to declare a
"no-protest zone" in downtown Washington during the Sept. 29-
30 IMF and World Bank meetings. This zone includes areas for
which protesters already hold permits.
The statement continued, "We consider the exclusion zone to
be illegal and invalid. We intend to fight all police
attempts to restrict demonstrations in the courts and in the
streets.
"No matter what, there will be a mass assembly of tens of
thousands of demonstrators in Washington, D.C., on September 29.
"National and Washington, D.C.-based groups organizing for
the September 29-30 protests include the Latin American
Solidarity Conference, Anti-Capitalist Convergence,
Mobilization for Global Justice, AFL-CIO and the National
Coalition for the Dignity and Amnesty of Undocumented
Workers.
"Please stay in touch with the IAC for updates on the
logistics."
To reach the International Action Center, call (202) 543-
2777 or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] in Washington. There is
an email listserve that will include all logistical and
political updates; updates can also be found at
www.beatbackbush.org and www.iacenter.org.
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: sunnuntai 9. syyskuu 2001 23:26
Subject: [WW] USWA: Coca-Cola colludes with Colombia death squads
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
USWA FILES SUIT ON BEHALF OF MURDERED WORKERS:
CHARGES COCA-COLA COLLUDES WITH COLOMBIA DEATH SQUADS
By Teresa Gutierrez
Very little is known or understood about the role U.S.
multinational corporations play in Colombia. Despite the
fact that U.S.-Colombia relations are one of the most
important foreign questions of our times, the issues at
stake are obscured from the vast majority of the people in
the U.S. and throughout the world.
So a lawsuit filed by the United Steel Workers union and the
International Labor Rights Fund is a welcome development
that can only help to shed light on what is really going on.
On July 20, Colombian Independence Day, the USWA and ILRF
filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola and Panamerican Beverages,
the primary bottler of Coke products in Latin America. The
lawsuit accuses Coca-Cola Co., its Colombian subsidiary and
its affiliates of using paramilitary death squads to kidnap,
torture, intimidate and murder union leaders at Coca-Cola's
Colombian bottling plants.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the SINALTRAINAL union
that represents Coke workers, the estate of murdered labor
leader Isidro Segundo Gil, and five other unionists who
worked for Coca-Cola.
For years, SINALTRAINAL has maintained that Coke is among
the most notorious companies in Colombia and keeps open
relations with the brutal death squads in its drive to
intimidate union leaders.
Co-counsel for the plaintiffs Terry Collingsworth of the
Washington, D.C.-based International Labor Rights Fund
stated, "There is no question that Coke knew about, and
benefits from, the systematic repression of trade union
rights at its bottling plants in Colombia, and this case
will make the company accountable."
According to several human rights organizations, three out
of every five trade unionists killed in the world today are
Colombian. Almost 4,000 trade unionists have been murdered
in the past 15 years in Colombia. There is a virtual class
war raging, where any worker who attempts to fight for basic
union rights faces the threat of assassination.
After Israel and Egypt, Colombia is the third-largest
recipient of U.S. aid. Plan Colombia, a $1.3-billion aid
package passed under the Clinton administration and soon to
be raised to more than $2 billion under George W. Bush
demonstrates that Colombia is a high priority for the U.S.
government.
Every worker in the U.S. should ask, why is the U.S.
government making Colombia such a priority?
When George W. Bush went to the Summit of the Americas
meeting in Quebec this past spring, he told the Latin
American heads of state there that Plan Colombia was a plan
for all of Latin America, not just Colombia.
Last week, during a trip of a high-level U.S. delegation to
Colombia, U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman said,
"I have come to convey that Colombia matters very much."
Also on the delegation was none other than the commander of
U.S. military forces for the region, General Peter Pace.
Could Grossman possibly have meant that the lives of trade
unionists defending labor's interest at Coke bottling
companies "mattered" to the Bush administration? Not likely.
What "matters" to the U.S. government is making sure that
the political climate there is safe and secure for U.S.
corporate interests.
The USWA lawsuit points out that companies clearly benefit
when intimidation tactics succeed in squashing union
organizing efforts.
But the complaint claims that Coca-Cola does more than just
benefit from paramilitary violence.
The lawsuit claims that the company orchestrates it.
Ariosto Milan Mosquera is the plant manager at Bebidas y
Alimentos bottling facility in Carepa, Colombia. A North
American, Richard Kirby, owns the plant.
A few years ago, Milan Mosquera publicly stated that he had
given an order to the paramilitaries to carry out the task
of destroying the union. Union members describe Mosquera's
cozy relations with the death squad leaders, often providing
them with Coke products for their events.
Right after Mosquera's public statement, SINALTRAINAL
members began receiving death threats from the
paramilitaries.
Isidro Segundo Gil, whose estate is one of the plaintiffs of
the lawsuit, was murdered while working at the Coke bottling
plant in Carepa. Milan Mosquera specifically threatened to
kill the leaders of the union if they continued their union
activities. He then proceeded to order the murder of Segundo
Gil, who was assassinated in December 1996.
Spokespeople for Coca-Cola adamantly reject the accusations
made in the lawsuit. They said that the company and its
affiliates abide by Colombian laws.
Coca-Cola controls all aspects of business conducted by Coca-
Cola Colombia, its subsidiary. Panamerican Beverages--via
its Colombian subsidiary Panamco--as well as Bebidas y
Alimentos bottle and distribute coke products in Colombia.
Both are based in Florida and have bottling agreements that
require them to abide by Coca-Cola's "code of conduct."
Despite the denial by Coke officials of any wrongdoing, one
thing was made very clear by Daniel Kovalik, USWA co-counsel
in the lawsuit. Bottling agreements made with its
subsidiaries assure that the Coke logo, uniforms and so on
meet Coke standards, he pointed out at a recent New York
City forum on the lawsuit. Furthermore, if the soft drink
did not taste like Coke, "you can be sure that Coca-Cola
officials would surely make their voices heard."
The lives of Colombian trade unionists should be as worthy
of Coke officials' interest as Coke's taste.
But the bottom line is not the lives of 4,000 Colombians.
The bottom line is the huge profits that Coca-Cola reaps
from selling the sugary syrup that has no nutritional value
whatsoever. In fact, it is downright harmful.
During its second quarter this year, according to BBC, Coca-
Cola reported a 22 percent rise in net income over the $926
million earned during the same period last year. This year
it earned $1.1 billion, higher than expected, despite the
general economic downturn.
Coke's chief executive said, "Despite our growth, we are
still not satisfied that we are reaching our full potential
in some key markets, and we are determined to do so."
The U.S. government has spent billions in Colombia. It has
poured in military resources, has supplied dangerous
chemicals that eradicate crops--supposedly for the "drug
war," sent in countless mercenaries and strengthened both
the military apparatus as well as the death squads.
And all for what? To make sure that Coke, Occidental
Petroleum, Boeing and other capitalist corporations reap the
profits they feel they are entitled to.
But there is one thing holding back this bloody drive for
more and more profits. That is the people's movement in
Colombia. It is the revolutionary guerrillas in the FARC-EP
and the ELN; the militant trade union leaders; the peasants,
women's groups and all the Colombian people who are
determined to put an end to anti-people globalization
policies in their country.
The anti-war movement in this country, labor and all
progressives can help assure that the Colombian people
obtain the peace and justice they rightly deserve by
fighting to put an end to Plan Colombia.
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: sunnuntai 9. syyskuu 2001 23:27
Subject: [WW] Polls show support for unions, distrust of bosses
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
POLLS SHOW SUPPORT FOR UNIONS, DISTRUST OF BOSSES
Unions are growing more popular at the same time that trust
in employers is waning, according to recent polls.
A poll conducted by ICR of Media, Pa., for the Associated
Press and released by the AP on Aug. 29 says "the public
generally sides with the unions in disputes by a 2-to-1
margin." It cited recent strikes of nurses, pilots and
baggage handlers, workers at Verizon and the Seattle Times
as examples of conflicts where the public supported the
workers.
The current approval rating is 10 percentage points higher
than just two years ago. And approval for unions in general
is running 3-to-1, while two years ago it was less than 2-to-
1.
Of great significance for the future, "young adults were
more likely to side with the unions than people over 65."
Nevertheless, the percentage of people in unions declined to
13.5 percent in 2000, showing the great potential that is
out there for union organization.
Another survey taken by Hart Research and reported in the
Washington Post of Aug. 30 shows that workers, especially
African Americans, have less confidence in their bosses.
Nearly 80 percent of the Black workers interviewed said
"they have little or no trust that employers will treat
workers fairly."
Women, by 74 percent, said they still face a "glass ceiling"
at work.
The illusion, fostered by the ruling class, that progress
can be made without struggle is eroding. It is becoming
clearer to the millions that they need to be united and
organized to fight the bosses, especially as the downturn in
the capitalist economy takes it toll first and foremost on
workers' jobs, wages and benefits.
--Deirdre Griswold
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: sunnuntai 9. syyskuu 2001 23:28
Subject: [WW] Protest hits Boy Scouts for anti-gay bigotry
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
STRENGTH IN DIVERSITY:
PROTEST HITS BOY SCOUTS FOR ANTI-GAY BIGOTRY
By Frank Sarjanovic
Los Angeles
Demonstrators gathered Aug. 26 at the Boy Scouts of
America's Newport Beach Seabase in Orange County, Calif., to
protest the BSA's discriminatory policies toward gay youths.
The multimillion-dollar 400 feet of bay-front property,
according to the BSA, comes courtesy of the Orange County
Board of Supervisors. It is operated by the Orange County
Council of the scouts.
People living in Orange County have become outraged that
their tax dollars are used to fund an institution that
openly discriminates against people based upon sexual
orientation.
Whether they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or
straight, taxpayers' concern on this issue is spreading like
wildfire across the country. More and more people are
standing up to say that discrimination of any kind is
unacceptable, and that allowing an institution such as the
BSA, which promotes its program as instilling in young
people "solid values and good citizenship," is giving the
message that it is okay to discriminate. This in turn
promotes violence against lesbian, gay, bi and trans people.
Even the American Medical Association has stated: "The BSA's
discriminatory policies toward GLBT people are bad public
health. The feeling of being hated promotes severe emotional
damage." U.S. government statistics report that lesbian,
gay, bi and trans youths are three to seven times more
likely to commit suicide than heterosexual youths.
In addition to the intense internal pressure of being
closeted, lesbian, gay, bi and trans people who are open
about their sexuality face ridicule, humiliation and
violence such as being spit on, harassed at school, work and
in public, physically beaten and, in some cases, such as
Matthew Shepard's and others, murdered.
FBI statistics document 1,558 reported "hate crimes" toward
gay, lesbian, bi and trans people in 1999 alone. The BSA
openly promotes the idea that gay and lesbian people are "a
burden" to society, are "diseased and unworthy," adding to
the climate of anti-gay violence. Hate crimes against gay,
lesbian, bi and trans people have increased dramatically
over the past two years.
"It's important to be proud of who you are, gay or
straight," said Joe Delaplaine, organizer of the Stonewall
Initiative for Equal Rights, initiator of the Aug. 26 dem on
stration. "No matter how you try to suck up to people who
are oppressing you, they are still going to come down and
slap you down no matter what. So we have to band together
with other oppressed people to make permanent change for the
better."
Chants like "We're here, we're queer, we're equal, get used
to it!" roared out of the crowd.
Preston Wood from the International Action Center in Los
Angeles gave a motivational speech: "Gay, straight, bisexual
or transgendered, whatever we are, we're all together and
we're not going to allow them to wreak havoc and perpetuate
their hatred against us. So we've got to do like the older
generation did at the Stonewall Inn in New York City and
fight back!
"We've got to send a message to them that we are not going
to allow them to push us back, that we are going to fight to
the end, until we win our rights, and we are going to do
this by uniting with everyone who is fighting back.
"There's a change going on. You can feel it around the
world. In Seattle, in Genoa, Italy, the people want a world
of love, appreciation, inclusion, not a world of division,
violence, discrimination and segregation."
Many speakers at the demonstration also brought up the Bush
program. "Bush knows he is isolated by all the progressive
people. They can't function without dividing us, so it's
important that we stick together," said John Parker of the
IAC.
Other speakers also encouraged people to surround the White
House on Sept. 29.
The diversity of the people at the protest--gay, lesbian, bi
and trans, straight people, people of different cultures,
races, religions and genders--recognizing and uniting
struggles to fight back the Bush attack gave tremendous hope
that a world of true equality and social justice is
possible.
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: sunnuntai 9. syyskuu 2001 23:29
Subject: [WW] Milosevic challenges NATO's court
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 13, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
IN SECOND APPEARANCE AT THE HAGUE:
MILOSEVIC CHALLENGES NATO'S COURT
By John Catalinotto
Slobodan Milosevic turned his second court appearance on
Aug. 30 into a direct political and legal challenge to the
authority of the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The anti-imperialist movement
considers this tribunal NATO's court in The Hague.
The motions he presented not only raise a legal challenge to
the legitimacy of the ICTY but they expose the criminal
actions of NATO and also of the U.S. government in
destabilizing and then waging war on the peoples of
Yugoslavia, especially in the republic of Serbia.
In the short statement to the public that the judges
allowed, Milosevic exposed the unfavorable conditions the
tribunal has imposed on him. These include preventing
private consultations with attorneys who are advising him,
recording his conversations with his family, including his
two-year-old grandson, and keeping him isolated from the
media.
The court, as if to underline its own illegitimacy and its
bias against the accused, refused to allow President
Milosevic to read his challenge before the public. This made
it even easier for the pro-NATO media to continue to repeat
all the anti-Milosevic and anti-Serb lies that they had
spread over the past 10 years.
"Why am I isolated from the press?" he asked. "Each day,
they print lies about me, and I can't respond. If the
journalists want to know the truth, no one has any reason to
be afraid of the truth. You are not a tribunal, you are a
political tool."
Just as in early July at his first court appearance, the
presiding judge pushed a button that turned off Milosevic's
microphone at this point.
The ICTY was originally set up by U.S. initiative in May
1993 under the auspices of the United Nations Security
Council. Funds from NATO countries and from private sources
provide its financial underpinning. Its targets are solely
those who reside in the former Yugoslavia, the great
majority of them Serbs.
Under pressure from NATO during its 79-day bombing assault
on Yugoslavia, the ICTY brought the original charges against
President Milosevic. At that time--in May 1999--he was
leading the Yugoslav resistance to NATO's invasion of and
bombing of Yugoslavia.
In the court Aug. 30, the current chief prosecutor of the
ICTY, Carla del Ponte, asked for an additional two months to
prepare the case against Milosevic.
The Yugoslav leader noted ironically that "two and a half
years after having falsely accused me, you're still not
ready."
Belgian journalist and Balkans expert Michel Collon noted
that the public is completely separated from the judges by a
wall of glass. "The three judges in their red robes, the six
prosecutors in black and their clerks seem to float by as if
in an aquarium. It was toward the public that Milosevic most
often looked, wearing a dark suit, a blue, white and red tie-
-the colors of his country's flag--and with a firm
expression on his face that otherwise seemed fatigued by the
conditions of his detention: camera surveillance, no
privacy, lights on 24 hours a day in his small cell."
Reports from Belgrade agree that by standing up to NATO and
its court, Milosevic and his Socialist Party of Serbia are
steadily gaining stature with the Serbian population. This
is especially true as conditions of life deteriorate under
the pro-West regime.
MILOSEVIC'S DEFENSE
President Milosevic has announced that he will defend
himself, which seems to have aroused the anger of the court
as well as the barbs of the media. But he has the right, in
preparing his defense, to seek legal counsel, which has been
offered by many progressive attorneys from different
countries as well as from Yugoslavia.
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general and an expert in
international law, was the first attorney to win from the
ICTY the right to hold more than a fleeting meeting with the
former Yugoslav president.
In three successive days in July, Clark and Milosevic
discussed motions that could challenge the ICTY's
legitimacy. As a result of work arising from these
discussions, President Milosevic was able to prepare motions
to submit to the ICTY, which he did on Aug. 30.
It was these motions that the judge refused to allow
Milosevic to read to the court and the public. In the
concluding section of the 5,200-word document, published by
the Socialist Party of Serbia and distributed via the
Internet, Milosevic said:
"The United States engaged in a decade-long effort, aided by
several European countries, to break up and destroy the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, causing the secession
(remember the American Civil War) of German-oriented
Slovenia and Croatia with 500,000 Serbs purged from its
borders. Then Bosnia was pried away from the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia and segregated into an unnatural
three region religious apartheid, Muslim, Roman Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox Christian.
"Now Macedonia is in turmoil, nearing civil war from U.S.-
stimulated and supported terrorist organization KLA [Kosovo
Liberation Army] aggression. Thus Yugoslavia became former,
losing half of its population and wealth and leaving only
Serbia and Montenegro. Kosovo and Metohia, an historically
precious part of Serbia, remains occupied by NATO forces
after 79 days of aerial bombardment in 1999.
"U.S.-led aerial assaults inflicted billions in damages on
civilian facilities, killed thousands of civilians
throughout Serbia in the name of NATO. Thereafter the United
States and NATO watched as 330,000 Serbs were forced out of
Kosovo and Metohia and many hundreds were murdered. Violent
efforts to remove all Serbs from Kosovo and Metohia
continue. And the KLA has been empowered to attack
Macedonia.
"The ICTY was created at the insistence of the United
States, which had stimulated violence and secession in
republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Macedonia, and attempted division and conflict in the
Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohia and in three
municipalities in the south of Serbia and throughout the
former six Republics.
"The U.S. intends to persecute and demonize leaders who
together with the people by defending freedom and by
resisting aggression of NATO war machinery, had defied its
will, and at the same time make the people seem savage.
Madeleine Albright, while U.S. Ambassador to the UN, was the
driving force for creation of the ICTY.
"The U.S. Ambassador to the Tribunal, David Scheffer,
concedes the ICTY is 'supported, financed, staffed and
provided information' primarily by the United States."
Readers with Internet access can find the full document on
the International Action Center web site at
www.iacenter.org.
