U.S. Overcapacity
- Original Message - From: Charles Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 8:22 PM Subject: [CrashList] U.S. Overcapacity Dec 04,2000 Despite New-Economy Tools, Overcapacity May Loom By Greg Ip, Robert L. Simison and Jacob M. Schlesinger Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal Vehicle factories from Detroit to Newark, Del., sit idle as the industry struggles with bloated inventories. On Friday the Big Three auto makers reported their weakest sales so far this year. A broader survey of purchasing managers released the same day shows that U.S. manufacturers ranging from textile makers to paper mills slowed their pace in November for the fourth consecutive month. Leather pants and jackets, meanwhile, are piling up on shelves of Gap Inc. stores around the country. And scores of fledgling telecommunications companies, faced with insufficient sales to cover their costs, are suddenly scaling back ambitious plans for new networks. As the nation's record-long economic expansion slows after five years of go-go exuberance, company after company is finding it has more capacity than it needs. That raises a fundamental question: Did corporate America overdo it with its capital spending binge of the 1990s? If so, that would argue for some sober rethinking of the New Economy's vaunted invulnerability -- and bode ill for the nation's prosperity in coming months. During past booms, business executives tended to get carried away, building too many new stores and factories even as demand for their goods softened. That worsened the blow when the bust finally came and they were forced to shutter their unused capacity. This time around was supposed to be different. Newly prominent capital markets were supposed to do a much better job than once-dominant bankers did at pulling the plug on financing before companies got too far. New technologies, such as sophisticated software programs that track sales, inventory and supply lines, were supposed to give companies better, more timely information about their markets. That was going to let them fine-tune production to demand, and thus smooth out -- or even eliminate -- the old boom-bust cycles. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, for one, has repeatedly espoused this theory. "Twentieth-century business decision-making had been hampered by pervasive uncertainty," he observed earlier this year. That ambiguity, he said, has been significantly reduced by "the remarkable surge in the availability of more timely information." And the economy does seem to be performing more smoothly along those lines. American industry as a whole isn't saddled with an unusual amount of unused capacity. Despite slowing demand, the Fed says that all manufacturers, mining companies and utilities combined are currently using about 82% of their total capacity, right in line with the average level of the past two decades. Capacity even remains tight in many important sectors of the economy. Airlines are flying with their planes near their fullest loads in more than two decades. Oil companies have been careful in expanding drilling and refining capacity, one factor keeping oil prices high lately. Yet, new pockets of overcapacity emerge each passing week, giving rise to concern that -- if consumer demand slows sharply -- excess inventories will become a nationwide problem. It sounds a bit hauntingly like Japan, where corporate titans confidently expanded through the 1980s, proclaiming a new era of higher growth. When financial and property markets collapsed and consumer demand plunged in the early 1990s, companies were stuck with far more capacity than needed, helping deepen an economic quagmire from which Tokyo has yet to emerge. "I don't think we're seeing an overcapacity problem," says Goldman, Sachs Co. economist William Dudley. "But you don't know until the bust -- Japan looked OK until it didn't look OK," he adds. The sectors now struggling with excess capacity show that information about future demand may not be perfect after all. Last week, for example, Altera Corp., a San Jose, Calif., maker of customizable semiconductor chips, warned that its revenue in the current quarter is likely be flat, rather than growing in double-digits as originally forecast. Vadim Zlotnikov, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein, says Altera's sales have slowed because many of its chip customers overordered in past periods in anticipation of new demand that didn't materialize, and are now stuck with excess inventories. Sometimes, the problem is simply that old-fashioned corporate decision-making hasn't caught up with new Information Age tools. "A lot of the industry looks at pricing, volume and incentive decisions in three totally different meetings" inside their companies, Van Bussman, corporate economist for DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group told an investor group recently. Indeed, better market information by itself can't always prevent excessive buildups,
Yugoslavia. Interview with Professor Mihailo Markovic
From: "ILC" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Interview with Professor Mihailo Markovic "Socialist roots will not be pulled out in Serbia" Philosopher and both member and left wing critic of SPS Belgrade, October 26th 2000 www.leninist-current.org/cgi-bin/ilc/news/viewnews.cgi?category=allid=97657 0100 = What were the reasons for the 5th of October? = What did you propose to Milosevic in order to change the directions of the events? = As the author of the still valid party programme of the SPS, you were advocating the equality of all forms of property. What do you mean by this and what does it mean for the future of Yugoslavia? = Regarding the coalition with the Radical Party a lot of criticism was raised against the SPS. Do you think that this coalition was necessary to preserve the unity of the country or do you regard it as an mistake? = You have been criticising openly the Dayton agreement. Now many people compare Dayton to Kumanovo. Do you believe that the national defence could have been carried on and the de-facto loss of Kosovo avoided? = How will the relation between Kostunica and Djindjic develop, as it is obvious that on one hand DOS could only win thanks to the nationalist rhetoric of Kostunica while the strongman in DOS is Djindjic who is also the agent of the West? = Do you think that the army, that has got a big reputation because it bravely defended the country, has passed completely to the enemy or there are still positions of patriotic and left forces inside the army? = Do you thing that Yugoslavia and the SPS will be transformed into ingredients of the New World Order, like other Eastern European countries and their formerly ruling parties, or will an antagonistic element remain? = Regarding the perspective of the left and anti-imperialist forces what is your advice to them after it was proved that the SPS could not be reshaped in this spirit? *** International Leninist Current (ILC) Corriente Leninista Internacional (CLI) PF 23, A-1040 Wien, Austria Tel Fax +43 1 504 00 10 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.leninist-current.org http://www.antiimperialista.com ___ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for geopolitics. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___
IKM: Protests against murder and in support of Death Fasters
December 11, 2000 "Grey Wolves" murder hunger striker in Rotterdam Today the prisoners are on Day 53 of the Death Fast. It is feared that the first deaths among them are only seven days away. While 203 prisoners from the DHKP-C, TKP(ML) and TKIP Trials are on Death Fast to stop the introduction of the isolation cells, on December 9 supporters of the "Grey Wolves" attacked hunger strikers at the tent near the city council building in Rotterdam and stabbed to death the hunger striker CAFER DERELI. The state in Turkey and its hirelings abroad are responsible for this murder. There is no difference between the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) deputies in Turkey's parliament who have said of the Death Fasters, "Let them kick the bucket," and those who carried out the Rotterdam murder. SO AS NOT TO BE REPROACHED FOR FURTHER DEATHS, THE TIME FOR SILENCE IS PAST. IT IS HIGH TIME TO ACT AND INTERVENE. SOLIDARITY HUNGER STRIKES BY MEMBERS OF PRISONERS' FAMILIES AND DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS The Death Fast resistance by four relatives of prisoners and members of the TAYAD prisoner support association, SUKRAN AGDAS, GULSUMAN ADA, SENAY HANOGLU and FATMA SENER is on its 28th day. The hunger strike by five other TAYAD members is in its 21st day. In several cities and towns in Turkey, like Bursa, Izmir, Adana, Ankara, Unye and so on, dozens of members of prisoners families' and supporters are on the Death Fast or on hunger strike. This weekend in Istanbul and Ankara, hundreds were arrested at demonstrations in which thousands participated. HUNGER STRIKE ACTIONS AND DEMONSTRATIONS IN GERMANY AND THE REST OF EUROPE The hunger strike actions in Cologne and Stuttgart are in their 38th day. Sukran Ogeyik, who is on the 38th day of an Indefinite Hunger Strike in Cologne, has been hard-hit as regards her health. As to the hunger strikes by the DHKC Information Bureaus in Brussels and London, the former is in its 37th day, the latter is in its 38th day. IKM's hunger strike in London is in its 28th day. In Athens, Thessalonika, Geneva, Vienna, Innsbruck, Rotterdam and Paris there are also solidarity hunger strikes with the Death Fast resisters, and in some places these are on their 18th day. Yesterday, to protest against the murder of CAFER DERELI and in solidarity with the Death Fast resisters, over 1,000 people demonstrated in Rotterdam. The same day over 1,000 people held a demonstration in Cologne and listened to a concert by Grup Yorum. Up to the present, about 50 prisoners have engaged in solidarity hunger strikes in the prisons of Germany, France and the Netherlands, ranging from one day to 20 days. AT PRESENT, THERE ARE THE FOLLOWING HUNGER STRIKES IN EUROPE'S PRISONS: Four revolutionary and five ordinary prisoners in Holland are on the 28th day of their hunger strike. Reiner Dittrich and Mehmet Karsli, who are in Lubeck Prison, have been on alternating hunger strikes for an indefinite period and are on the 47th day. Alisan Turan in Rottenburg Prison is on the 8th day of an Indefinite Hunger Strike. In France, the prisoner Sefik Sarikaya, who has already been on a 20-day hunger strike, started a new Indefinite Hunger Strike on November 30. Aydin Dogan, who is also in prison in France, has been on Indefinite Hunger Strike since November 13 and is today on the 29th day. CAFER DERELI IS IMMORTAL! LONG LIVE OUR DEATH FAST RESISTANCE! IKM (Committee For Struggle Against Torture Through Isolation) Kreuzweg 12 20099 HAMBURG, Germany Tel 0049 40 280 53625
THE EVOLUTION OF THE FARC: A Guerrilla Group's Long History
- Original Message -
From: Jessica Sundin [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2000 9:12 PM
Subject: [actioncolombia] THE EVOLUTION OF THE FARC: A Guerrilla Group's Long History
NACLA Report on the Americas, Sept/Oct 2000
THE EVOLUTION OF THE FARC: A Guerrilla Group's Long History
By Alfredo Molano
Colombia's largest rebel organization is deeply rooted in a legacy of
class conflict.
[Alfredo Molano is a book author, journalist and a weekly columnist for
the newspaper El Espectador. His writing on behalf of human rights,
peasants and marginalized Colombian communities earned him death threats
from the paramilitary United Self-Defense Units of Colombia (AUC) He is
currently in exile in Spain but continues to write his column.
Translated from Spanish by NACLA.]
Fierce battles, often characterized by extreme cruelty, marked the early
twentieth century in Colombia, as land hungry peasants and their
reformist allies faced off against the country's landowning oligarchy,
which was backed by the conservative hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
The land owners and Church leaders, along with peasants under their
control, were organized as the Conservative Party; other, reform-minded
peasants and their allies were known as Liberals. On the rich and
violent soil of those conflicts lie the origins of the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's most powerful present-day
guerrilla group.
From 1930 to 1946, a series of Liberal Party-run administrations,
referred to in Colombian history as the Liberal Republic, inaugurated
land reform that restricted ancestral privileges and unleashed furious
political opposition from the Conservatives. After the internally
divided Liberals fell in 1946, a new Conservative government used
political violence to regain the oligarchy's lands and remain in power.
Then Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, a charismatic Liberal and land-reform
movement leader, was gunned down in Bogota in 1948. In response, popular
insurrections broke out in the capital and in virtually every city where
the Liberals were strong. The assassination unleashed a decadelong
heightening of the old conflict. The new strife was known simply as La
Violencia. Between 1948 and 1958, La Violencia took the lives of more
than 300,000 Colombians.
To subdue the Liberal uprisings, the government gave weapons to
Conservative peasants throughout the country, as well as backing from
the National Police. At the same time, thousands of Liberal peasants
armed themselves against the Conservative government. On the eastern
plains, peasants backed by the Liberal Party, with assistance from
Communist Party activists, managed to form a 10,000-man army that
inspired the formation of small guerrilla groups throughout the country.
One peasant guerrilla who emerged from the Liberal uprising was Pedro
Antonio Marin Later he would come to be known as Manuel Marulanda Velez,
or "Tirofijo" ("Sure Shot"). Today he is chief commander of the FARC.
In 1953, an anti-Communist military strongman, General Gustavo Rojas
Pinilla, came to power by force, backed by elements within both
traditional parties and-significantly-by Washington. Once securely in
power, the General decreed an amnesty which was welcomed by the armed
peasants of the eastern plains and by many Liberals and Conservatives as
well.
In 1955, a military operation was launched against rural regions that
remained strongholds of agrarian guerrillas who had fought in the name
of Gaitan, and where Communist guerrillas were also concentrated. Backed
by Washington's National Security Doctrine and a $170 million U.S. loan,
Rojas Pinilla began bombing guerrilla and opposition peasant positions.
The guerrilla movement tried to dig in and hold out in the highlands,
but was ultimately forced to retreat to the jungles of the Andean
foothills. In those regions, Marulanda, joined by Jacobo Arenas, a
charismatic Marxist ideologue who described himself a "professional
revolutionary," organized a community based on economic self-management
and military self- defense. This was the first of the guerrilla bases
that later came to be known as "Independent Republics." When Rojas
Pinilla began flirting with the idea of prolonging his rule, however,
the Liberals, who had hoped to win the next elections, withdrew their
support. At that point anti-Rojas Pinilla demonstrations spread
throughout the country, and many were violently repressed as the
government accused the Communists of disturbing public order.
In 1958, the Conservative and Liberal elites brought La Violencia to an
official end with a National Front that allowed the two parties to share
public offices and alternate in the presidency. But the arrangement did
nothing to resolve the underlying land conflicts, and violence continued
in the countryside. In 1964, the army attacked the "Independent
Republics" of Marulanda and Arenas by land and by air with 16,000
soldiers, and captured the encampments. But
Kohls action in Michigan!
- Original Message - From: Claudia K. White, BS, CT [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2000 9:53 PM Subject: [mobilize-globally] [SOLE] Kohls action in Michigan! - Forwarded Message - DATE: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 14:22:16 From: Rachel Edelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] we had an energizing kohls action in novi, michigan yesterday, to support the Chentex struggle... we got kicked out of the store pretty quickly, but 30 of us spent a half-hour sweatshop-caroling, leafletting, and talking to shoppers.. here's more info ... -- Forwarded message -- Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 13:27:04 -0500 From: Adrian Esquivel [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Student Org for Labor Econ and Equality [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Kohl's Wrap-Up Yesterday we had a solid action at the Kohl's Department Store in Novi Michigan. We left East Quad at approximately 12 PM and headed for Novi. Once we arrived, the Christmas carolers, guerilla theatre people, and clothing stuffers went to their respective locations inside. The Christmas carolers starting singing, the stuffers starting stuffing, and Larry Montgomery (Scott T.) and Phil Knight (Joe) started chatting near the front of the store. Kohl's management was very quick to react and made the carolers leave along with everyone in the store. I quickly went around and made sure everyone was out of the store (except Matt, sorry!) since the police were on the way. Everyone went across the parking lot to the food/diet center and sang Christmas Carols while the cops arrived. Kevin and Rachel talked with the cops and they said that we could protest in front of the store, just not inside because he (the cop) didn't think that Kohl's owned the parking lot. Everyone then marched back to the store and we sang Christmas Carols, Scott T. talked over the bullhorn, and we passed out literature to interested shoppers. We had a good reaction up front with people listening and seeming interested in what we were doing. This lasted a little while until Kohl's called the police again, got the landlord to let the cops know that they did indeed own the parking lot. We then left. Overall, things went pretty well. It would have been nice to have had Daily coverage or any sort of coverage, but our presence was felt. I may have left some things out on accident, so respond with thoughts... Have a great day everyone, and thanks for your support! -Adrian :) - End Forwarded Message - Angelfire for your free web-based e-mail. http://www.angelfire.com -- eGroups Sponsor -~-~ eGroups eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/0/_/_/_/976540150/ -_- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
US oil and guns in the Middle East
- Original Message - From: Seth Sandronsky [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2000 3:25 PM Subject: [CrashList] US oil and guns in the Middle East Stan writes: "The scarcer oil gets, the faster this conjuncture approaches. It is strategic, and therefore the quest to begin controlling remaining reserves will be more and more militarized (as we are already seeing in interventions at Iraq, Kosovo, and Colombia)." Seth replies: I agree with you, Stan. The concealment of your geostrategic view of oil in the US news media reveals its importance for Pentagon war planners and their corporate paymasters. On a related note, here is a first-person essay by a friend that describes life and death in occupied Palestine. A Journey To A Denied Homeland By Elias A. Rashmawi Abstract: Although he was born in Gaza, Palestine, Elias Rashmawi was issued a permanent deportation order by the Israeli High Court because of his involvement in Palestinian organizing while a student in the United States. In November 2000, as the second Intifada raged on, Elias' father passed away, and he was granted a limited permit to his homeland to attend the funeral. "How many fathers must die before we are all allowed to return," he asks in this essay that reifies the brevity and pain of his truncated visit. It appeared before my eyes through the confining window of a plane, yet one more time, mangled and perverted, new and unknown, clumsy and foreign - so was the appearance of my own homeland to these native and longing eyes. I shifted from side to side, inspecting the once gorgeous topography, the once tremendous and uncontaminated simple landscape, the now ugly and towering buildings, and the now bare land - all while passionately attempting to guess or juxtapose just where some of the obliterated Palestinian villages and towns might be. Villages and towns that once nestled between the hills but were removed, all 450 of them, in 1948, to make room for the colonists, to make room for the vulgarity of Europe and its settlements. My desperate search for my homeland was perhaps a response in recognition of the intent of Theodore Herzl, the founder and architect of political Zionism, who stated: "If Zionist settlers were to move into a region where there are wild animals to which the Jews are not accustomed - big snakes, etc., -- I shall use the natives, prior to giving them employment in transient countries, for the extermination of these animals." Such racist and colonial intent was implemented in programs of terror and dispossession at the hands of Jewish underground terrorist groups such as Haganah, Irgun and Stern. These murderous gangs terrorized every home, destroyed villages and slaughtered entire families. Dozens of massacres were committed within a few months of the establishment of Israel: Al-Abbasiyya, Beit Daras, Bir Al-Saba', Al-Kabri, Haifa, Qisarya In the Zionist Plan Dalet, as was evident through my piercing eye from a plane window, 50 percent of the Palestinian villages were destroyed in 1948 and many cities were cleared from its Palestinian population: Aker, Bir Al-Saba', Bisan, Al-Lod, Al-Majdal, Nazareth, Haifa, Tiberias, Jaffa, West Jerusalem... At least 13,000 Palestinians were murdered, and 737,166 were ejected from their homes. The Palestinian populations in major towns such as Aker, Bir Al-Saba', Haifa, Jaffa, Lydda, Al-Majdal, Al Ramla, Safad, Tiberias, and West Jerusalem were almost entirely removed, thus making room for the new settlers. It is in this context that my visit had to come while dressed in the robes of a United States citizen. A visit that occurred only after I was granted a special permission so that I may participate in my father's funeral. Denied entry to Palestine in 1997, and later issued a deportation order by the Israeli High Court that permanently ejected me from the very place where I was born and raised, my return was particularly painful since it was secured only by the death of my father. How many fathers must die for us collectively to return? As I entered that sordid Ben Gurion Airport, which was built on confiscated land from the Palestinian town of Al-Lid (Lud), a Plan Dalet victim, the only sign of Palestine were the Palestinian Arab travelers who were confined to a room run by the airport police. Clearly, upon entry, the State of Israel assumes that all Palestinians are guilty until proven otherwise. And this assumption remains during the entire life-span of all Palestinians, and even when they die, their very dead bodies are constantly searched, just in case they are carrying a piece of Palestine to the end. Under the cover of "state security", Israel allows itself to practice extreme forms of racial discrimination and outright bigotry, including collective punishment and individual torture - all in clear contradiction to the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Co-Operatives Gain Recognition by Internet Community
UK Co-op Wins the Internet Name Game ICANN Approves .coop Domain Last night ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved Poptel's application to create '.coop' as one of only 7 new global Internet Domain names. Poptel, the UK's leading Co-operative Internet Service and Web Solutions Provider, beat competition from 44 companies including IBM and Nokia in the race to create the new domains. In fact Poptel was the only UK company to win approval in the first real change to the domain name system since the '80s. Poptel's Chair and founder Shaun Fensom said "It's an important victory for the 720 million people throughout the world who are members of co-operatives. This is really about a set of value principles forged in the industrial revolution being brought forward into the information age." "The .coop domain will become the trusted alternative to the dot com. Co-operatives worldwide already have a real economic relationship with their members, based on loyalty and mutual trust - something the dot coms can only dream of." "Our vision sees the success of the .coop domain signifying a new era for co-op development, extending the concepts of democracy, fair trade, and self help. It will help stimulate the creation of a new wave of co-operatives and provide a rallying point for promoting co-operation on the net." The .coop domain will be restricted, that is, only available to organisations who are bona fide co-ops. The US National Co-operative Business Association (NCBA) and The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), who were the sponsoring organisations for Poptel's bid for .coop, will oversee the verification of co-operative status, thus ensuring it remains a trusted part of the net. Poptel, NCBA and the ICA are committed to creating a Digital Divide Fund from a portion of the profits from operating the .coop domain. The fund will help co-operatives and their members in the developing world make better use of the Internet, and to engage in the growing Internet economy. For further information or to arrange interviews contact: Malcolm Corbett - Director, Corporate Affairs - 07770 896 534 Shaun Fensom - Chair and Founder of Poptel - 07770 602 850 Or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] NOTES TO EDITORS * ICA statistics indicate that there are 750,000 co-operatives globally with 720 million members. It is a substantial community of interest with shared values and principles. * Both .coop and .co-op are intended to be created simultaneously and be inter-operable. * The word 'Co-op' is globally recognised and understood in different languages and cultures. * Frederick Reichheld's recent article in The Harvard Business Review (July - Aug 2000) shows that in both B2C and B2B e-commerce arenas success depends on confidence and trust to generate e-loyalty. Co-operatives start with a loyalty advantage. That needs to be translated to e-loyalty, good business, and a new generation of committed members and supporters, using the Internet as a tool for participation. .coop will be the identifier. The challenge will be to make .co-op the trusted alternative to .com. * The .coop TLD proposal received more than 500 comments in support from letters and a petition. Together the comments and letters represented 750,000 co-ops worldwide and their 720 million members. Supporters included, but are not limited to, the International Cooperative Alliance, the Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives, the Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union and the Consumer Federation of America. Support for .coop was registered by individuals and organizations from many countries including Korea, Great Britain, the Philippines, Italy, Israel, Canada, Armenia, Malaysia and others. The supporters represented a vast cross-section of industry sectors, leading consumer groups, cooperative businesses, individuals and interested organizations. * PR for NCBA is being handled by Jeannine Kenney and Sandy Nelson: Jeannine Kenney National Cooperative Business Association 1401 New York Ave., NWSuite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005-2160 +1 202 383-5456 [EMAIL PROTECTED] and Sandy Nelson 001 202 486 7575 * Full details of the .coop application are at:http://www.icann.org/tlds/co-op1/ * Poptel is Britain's fastest Growing Co-op on the basis of a trebling of the headcount to 60 people in the past nine months with turnover following rapidly behind. =ENDS=
Pinochet camp jubilant
- Original Message - From: Francisco Javier Bernal [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Stop NATO! - No Pasarn [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 11, 2000 7:50 PM Subject: The Nazi B*d is free, as usual ... [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK Pinochet camp jubilant after murder charges dropped 6:28pm Monday, 11th December 2000 A Chilean appeals court has voted to drop murder and kidnapping charges against former dictator General Augusto Pinochet. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say they will appeal the 3-0 vote before the Supreme Court within 24 hours. "We won, we won," an exultant Pinochet lawyer, Sergio Castro, said as he raised three fingers from his hand to indicate the 3-0 vote by the Santiago Court of Appeals panel. Carmen Hertz, an-anti Pinochet lawyer and the widow of a dissident killed during the Pinochet regime, called the court's decision "a mere technicality." "The court has only ruled that the indictment of Pinochet was improper because he was not questioned by a judge before it was issued ," Ms Hertz said. "But the ruling does not involve the essence of the case against him." Arguments centred on the defence's claim that Judge Juan Guzman acted illegally by indicting Pinochet before questioning him. Pinochet faced 189 criminal complaints stemming from the human rights abuses during his 1973-90 dictatorship. He was accused of having responsibility for the Caravan of Death, a military operation that executed political prisoners shortly after the September 1973 coup in which Pinochet overthrew Marxist President Salvador Allende. Pinochet was charged with the murder of 55 victims whose bodies were recovered and the kidnapping of 18 who remain missing. (c) Copyright Ananova Ltd 2000, all rights reserved. __ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
wwnews Digest #202 1/2
WW News Service Digest #202 1) Gloria La Riva: Explain the causes of capitalist crisis by "WW" [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2) Tere Gutierrez: Victory to Colombian guerrillas by "WW" [EMAIL PROTECTED] 3) Monica Moorehead: Put fight against racism front and center by "WW" [EMAIL PROTECTED] 4) Fred Goldstein: Election morass shows need for Marxism by "WW" [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5) Imani Henry: Communist program fights all oppressions by "WW" [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6) Elijah Crane: Learning how to make a revolution by "WW" [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 14, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper - OUR TASK: EXPLAIN THE CAUSES OF CAPITALIST CRISIS [Excerpts from a talk by Gloria La Riva at the Workers World Party Conference Dec. 2-3] We live in the richest society that has ever existed. The wealth of the United States far surpasses that of any earlier empire. And inside this richest society in history, 25 percent of all children--50 percent of all African American children--live in poverty. Millions go to sleep without their most basic needs met. Here we are in the pinnacle of capitalism, and millions are hungry and homeless. Almost 50 million have no health care at all and an equal number have health coverage that's so bad that for all practical purposes they have none. And this is in the big boom, the most prolonged capitalist boom ever, as the financial experts never tire of boasting. Unemployment, they say, is 4 percent. Forget about the 2 million people in prison who aren't counted, not to mention others who aren't counted at all. Twenty-five percent of all the world's prisoners are in the United States, which has just 4 percent of the world's population. Leaving aside the brutal military interventions all over the world, from looking at the domestic scene in the best of times we can say with certainty that capitalism is a doomed system. The "best of times" has left 40 percent of the 11 million people in Los Angeles County living in poverty. The boom is looking more than a little frayed. A TV station in San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley, is running an ad for a news series. It shows a young man riding a city bus. The voice-over says, "A month ago you were a 28- year-old millionaire. Today you're just a 28-year-old. Inside the dot-com bust." In San Francisco, the landlords and developers are jacking up the rents sky-high. The lowest rent for a newly vacated apartment is $2,000 a month and rising. That's in the poor areas. A new study of the Bay Area shows that a person needs a $28-an-hour job to live comfortably there. The minimum wage in California is one-fifth of that. What will a downturn, even a relatively mild one, mean under these circumstances? How will workers understand and interpret what is happening? This is where the Party comes in. As Lenin explained, we don't control the tempo of economic development or of spontaneous mass movements. But we do have a critical role. And that is to explain the root causes of unemployment, war, racism, sexism, lesbian, gay, bi and trans oppression, and environmental destruction. We have to explain how to organize a mass movement, a revolutionary movement, that not only fights back and resists, but fights to overturn this system. There is a growing movement that is rightly denouncing these crimes of capitalism and even naming the illness: capitalist greed. But what they propose as a solution is a milder form of capitalism. It's not so much because they like capitalism, but because they don't believe capitalism can ever be eliminated. If you talk to many of these activists, they aren't against socialism. But to them it seems like a dream, an impossibility. The truth, which we proclaim here today as we have throughout our Party's existence, is this: Socialism is the only alternative for humanity. With all the laws against monopolies that were passed in the United States at the turn of the last century, during the rise of imperialism and industrial capital, was the furious pace of monopolization of oil, auto, steel, the military, the banks, slowed down at all? There are all kinds of laws against monopoly practices, but there are now 457 billionaires. We are so involved in the movement that we sometimes forget that the average person knows nothing about socialism because they've never been exposed to it except in the most minimal way in school. The average person doesn't know that any socialist parties exist in the United States. Most people don't even know the profound history of struggles of workers and oppressed peoples in the United States, or the potential and necessity of struggle today. The question is not whether workers are open to Marxism. Our biggest concern should be that they haven't been exposed to Marxist ideas. And yet they instinctively understand their relationship to the bosses, to the government. They view
Korean Central News Agency Dec 11
TODAY'S NEWS (December.11.2000 Juche 89) [CONTENTS] * Greetings to President of Burkina Faso * 53rd board meeting of DPRK-China Hydro-power Company held * Korean nation's pride * Health-promoting rhythmic exercise * Rally calling for vital rights held * Probe into mass killings in Rogun-ri called for * Great man who glorified century * Withdraw "theory of principal enemy" For Spanish-speaking people * un gran hombre del siglo 20 * periodicos conmemoran dia mundial de derecho humano * vocero de crpp demanda la retirada de teoria de "enemigo principal" Greetings to President of Burkina Faso Pyongyang, December 11 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, on December 7 sent a message of greetings to Blaise Compaore, President of Burkina Faso, on its National Day. He in the message extended warm congratulations to the President, government and people of Burkina Faso on the National Day. Expressing belief that the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries would further develop, he wished the President fresh success in his work for development and prosperity of the country. 53rd board meeting of DPRK-China Hydro-power Company held Pyongyang, December 11 (KCNA) -- The 53rd meeting of the board of directors of the DPRK-China Hydro-power Company was held in Pyongyang. Present at the meeting were chairmen and directors of the two sides to the board. A decision on the issues agreed upon at the meeting was signed today. Korean nation's pride Pyongyang, December 11 (KCNA) -- The Korean nation is a resourceful nation with stronger patriotism than any others' and excellent national culture and tradition as the ties of homogeneous nation have been carried forward throughout its history spanning 5,000 years, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. It goes on: It was the first nation in the east to build a country and has an ancient history as a homogeneous one. The excavation of the tomb of king Tangun proved that the Korean nation is a civilized nation who built a country over 5,000 years ago. Advantages of the Korean nation are evidenced by the development of metal workmanship, Koguryo mural tombs, the development of astronomy and the creation of Hunminjongum (Korean alphabet), metal type, rain gauge, a tortoise ship and others. All of them instill pride and self-confidence into the nation. It is the brilliant tradition of the Korean nation that the Korean people have defended the sovereignty of the country and the dignity of the nation generation after generation. Recalling that Korea remains divided into the north and the south since the middle of the 20th century, the article says: The 55 year-long history of national division teaches a bitter lesson to all the Koreans that the country should be reunified for the development of the country and the prosperity of the nation. Health-promoting rhythmic exercise Pyongyang, December 11 (KCNA) -- Mass rhythmic exercise is widely popular with Koreans of all ages. The 5-minute, 15-movement routine starts with simple movements and develops into highly rhythmic ones. It has a good effect on the muscular system as it imposes a stretch of the whole body such as the wrist, ankle, arms, legs, shoulders, neck, breast and waist. It also benefits the cardiovascular system through quicker, stronger heart-beats. The routine is gradually wider and more intensive in movement so that the pulse is at 140 to 150, ending up at 170 to 180. A repetition of this process is prone to increase the breathing capacity and oxygen intake, a favourable impact on the respiratory system. The exercise is effective for step-down care and ageing prevention. An all-round, brisk muscular movement in time with lively music is liable to decrease the fatty fiber. Its full benefit will only be felt when its width and intensity meet the norm. In the exact tempo, the movements must be rhythmic, light, flexible and elastic. For full effect, the public is requested to make the exercise habitual. Rally calling for vital rights held Pyongyang December 11 (KCNA) -- A mass rally of the year 2000 was held in Seoul on December 9 with the attendance of at least 3,500 workers and peasants to call for ensurance of their vital rights and abolition of the "Security Law," according to Seoul-based "Radio No. 1." At the rally, the organizing committee said that the authorities have violated people's right to existence by shifting the responsibility for the economic crisis on to workers and peasants. The committee demanded the withdrawal of the "neo-liberalist policy," the ensurance of people's vital rights, abolition of the "Security Law" and immediate revision of the unequal "status of forces agreement." The participants made a demonstration march after the rally. That day the police
China. People´s Daily Dec 12
Extracts. Tuesday, December 12, 2000, updated at 10:04(GMT+8) US, Britain Attempt to Split Iraq: FM Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Said Al-Sahaf has said the insistence of the United States and Britain on maintaining the two no-fly zones is aimed at dividing Iraq into three parts. The official daily Babil reported Monday that Al-Sahaf, addressing a gathering on Sunday at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, said the US and Britain interpreted the articles of the United Nations resolutions at their own will. They have been wantonly violating Iraq's sovereignty and independence through the two no-fly zones, Al-Sahaf said. The two no-fly zones, covering 10 of the total 18 provinces in Iraq, were set up in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War by the US and its allies. Iraq was warned that its planes over the two air-exclusion zones will be shot down. US and British warplanes have since been policing the two zones with almost daily patrol. Baghdad virtually lost grip of the 10 provinces, including three in the north and seven in the south, and only controls the central part of the country. According to Iraqi reports, over 300 people have been killed in the air raids by the US and British jets in the no-fly zones and nearly 1,000 injured since December 1998, when the US and Britain launched large-scale air strikes against Iraq. The US and Britain continue to use the two no-fly zones to militarily contain the Iraqi regime, in addition to keeping in place the decade-old sanctions, triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Monday, December 11, 2000, updated at 20:32(GMT+8) Senior CPC Official Meets Japanese Delegation Wei Jianxing, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met Monday, December 11, with a delegation from Japan's International Labor Foundation led by its President Teruhito Tokumoto. Wei, also a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), said that it is important to allow workers to enroll in trade unions at a maximum level, to safeguard their legal rights and interests, and to encourage them to make a contribution to the country in the 10th five-year plan period starting from 2001. He said that it is also essential to make progress in terms of establishing trade unions in new enterprises, safeguarding the legal rights and interests of workers who are facing economic difficulties, and setting up an effective mechanism for improving working relationships, while further improving legislation and policy-making related to the rights and interests of both workers and trade unions. Wei expressed the hope that Chinese trade unions and Japan's International Labor Foundation will further promote exchanges and friendship and learn from each other in related areas. Tokumoto said that China has made achievements in its reform and opening-up drive, and China has played an important role in overcoming the Asian financial crisis. He also expressed the hope that China will achieve even greater development. The Japanese guests are here at the invitation of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. Monday, December 11, 2000, updated at 22:34(GMT+8) Iraq Condemns US, Britain for Maintaining Sanctions Iraq on Monday
Vietnam News Dec 11
NA eighth session closes The eighth National Assembly session ended at 3:45pm on December 9, with the playing of the national anthem. The closing session was addressed by National Assembly Chairman Nong Duc Manh and attended by General Secretary of the Vietnam Communist Party Le Kha Phieu, advisor to the CPV Central Committee Do Muoi, President Tran Duc Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. Earlier, the assembly carried four resolutions: two dealing with education, a programme of legal work for 2001, and tasks for 2001. Resolutions for the renewal of the general education curriculum and measures make junior high school education universal sparked the stormiest debates. Twenty-seven deputies representing 20 provinces and cities put their views about them. The resolution dealing with the socio-economic tasks for 2001 says the economy should grow quickly, be sustainable and accord with socio-cultural development. It says greater efforts should be make to solve burning social issues such as employment generation, poverty alleviation and the reduction of social vices and traffic accidents. The efforts should include the development of education, accelerate the scientific-technological revolution and management restructuring. It calls for a focusing on the settling of voter petitions so as to ensure social order and political stability. The resolution says this will mean restructuring agriculture, strengthening co-operatives in accordance with the Co-operatives Law and removing obstacles to the working of State-owned enterprises. It says: "Experiences should be drawn from reviewing the process of equitisation, selling contracts and leasing part of the State-owned enterprises so as to do it better". The resolution also encourages the growth of various economic sectors, renovation in management and the more efficient use of investment as well as national financial sources, including banking reform in an effort to reduce deficits. It says: "Welfare policies towards ethnic minority people and highlanders should be well implemented in the interest of national defence and social stability." The resolution emphasises that administrative reform, crack-down on wasteful spending and corruption, and efforts to improve the quality of justice must be quickened if the State mechanism is to be perfected. The assembly passed an Insurance Business Law, the Law to Prevention and Fight Drugs and resolutions dealing with a draft state budget during its almost one month of sitting. Cultural Heritage and Fire Prevention and Five Fighting Bills were also discussed. (VNA) Military Zone 7 marks founding anniversary The Military Zone 7 held a meeting on December 10 to mark its 55th founding anniversary (December 10, 1945 - December 10, 2000). Established in the first days of the anti-French resistance war, under the leadership of the Party, the armed forces of the Military Zone have unceasingly developed, overcome many hardships and achieved glorious feats of arms, contributing to winning victory in the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign in 1975 and bring about the South's liberation and the country's reunification. In the current process of national renovation, the armed forces of the Military Zone have also pooled all their efforts to build a strong, regular, crack and modern unit, to be absolutely loyal to the leadership of the Party and successfully carry out the two strategic tasks of socialist construction and national defence. Prominent among those attending the meeting were advisors to the Party Central Committee (PCC), Le Duc Anh and Vo Van Kiet, PCC former advisor Vo Chi Cong, Generals Vo Nguyen Giap and Mai Chi Tho, and Nguyen Minh Triet, Politburo member and Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee secretary. President Tran Duc Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai sent flowers to congratulate the Military Zone. 'Asian Women for a Peaceful Culture' conference closes The Asian Women for a Peaceful Culture conference closed in Hanoi on December 9 after three working days, passing the Hanoi Declaration and the Asian Womens Action Plan for a Peaceful Culture and Sustainable Development. The Hanoi Declaration affirms the remarkable achievements made by Asian and the world women in the past century as well as their efforts for gender equality, development and peace. It warns that wars and conflicts still exist, affecting the lives of women and children, social welfare and development. The declaration stresses the tasks to address issues of violence, hunger and poverty, injustice and social discrimination for the goals of human security and peaceful culture. It makes clear that education plays an essential role in development and peace building, that mass media occupy a significant position in promoting gender equality and preventing wars and conflicts, strengthening the participation of women in building a peaceful culture. It emphasised the role of women in hunger elimination and poverty
