[PEN-L:7952] Some Economic Policy Options for China
Some Policy Options for China By Henry C.K. Liu Much has been accomplished in the two decades since Chinas historic opening to foreign trade and investment, and its domestic reform toward a socialist market economy. Chinas economic reform began at a time when the world economy was undergoing two fundamental changes: 1) a shift from industrial to financial capitalism, and 2) a rapid process of globalization engineered by US neo-liberalism. These global changes are marked by the unregulated increase of a cross-border flow of funds and the spectacular growth of financial derivatives on currency exchange rates and arbitrage on interest rate parity. The underlying asset of these derivatives (notional value) rose from a negligible level in 1988 to US$37 trillion in 1998, almost 5 times the USs GDP, by unbundling financial risks in global markets for buyers who will pay the highest price for specific protection. These unregulated trades, independent of national borders and unregulated by national or international regulations, are handled by only a dozen or so Western private institutions, mostly American. Repeatedly, these manipulated transactions resulted in massive transfers of wealth from the emerging economies to the advanced economies. Emerging in 1978 from 3 decades of isolation, China has since pursued Mercantilist trade policies within the context of industrial capitalism to insure an export surplus to accumulate needed foreign exchange reserves to back its currency for trade purposes. Data suggest that this policy has fallen far short of its intended goal of letting China catch up economically with the developed economies. China's GDP grew from US$149 billion in 1976 to US$935 billion in 1997, a 6.3 times increase. Chinese GDP was 0.08% of US GDP (US$1,771 billion) in 1976, and in 1997, it was 0.12% of US GDP (US$7,746 billion). In 2 decades, the GDP gap between China and the US narrowed by only 0.04%. At this rate, China will catch up with the US in GDP in a little more than two centuries. Because Chinese population growth (1.1% of 1.23 billion) is higher than that of the U.S. (1% of 267 million), the per capita GDP gap is actually widening. Moreover, the technological gap between the two economies is also widening as a result of the uneven division of labor, China being left with low tech, labor intensive manufacturing while the US concentrates on high tech industries. For two decades, the U.S. has been leading the rest of the world in transforming its economy from industrial capitalism to financial capitalism, through deregulation, strategic mergers and acquisitions, innovation in structured finance and globalization of markets. Market access has taken on new critical importance in global financial capitalism. This is evidence in the astronomical rise in share value of new loss-making "internet companies" with strong future market potentials but no cash flow records. In addition to new markets created by technological breakthroughs, the US has been actively pushing for the opening of global markets, particularly in the financial services sectors. For capital-starved emerging economies, control of access to their domestic markets is the only defense against wholesale foreign takeover of their indigenous industries and their future competitiveness. Leaders of developing economies are beginning to reject the myth, promoted by US neo-liberalism, that external capital is indispensable for domestic development. Under this doctrine, developing economies have no option but to become victims of a new wave of economic and financial imperialism as a natural result of scientific theory rather than by Western design. In fact, this myth is false and the formula it subscribes is not necessary for the development of a large, self-sufficient economy such as Chinas. American globalization, based on the theory of market fundamentalism, favors players who process the existing attributes of the American economy. These attributes are: abundance of excess capital, a technologically skilled labor force, an advanced and sophisticated financial infrastructure and information technology and a saturated domestic market where grow can continue only through overseas expansion and technological breakthroughs. This American globalization regime puts all developing economies at a structural competitive disadvantage and locks them into an unfair international division of labor and mal-distribution of profits (surplus value), and reduces them permanently into semi-colonial status. Even if China manages to continue to expand its foreign trade, the export sector cannot realistically be expected to contribute more than 15% of its GDP. Thus 85% of the Chinese economy must depend on domestic development. Further global market penetration by low cost Chinese goods can increase only at a declining rate from here on. All the easy markets have been saturated. The policy of using foreign capital has very limited range. To
[PEN-L:7953] German Dress Rehearsal for Holocaust, etc.
Uncovering the Black German Holocaust Review by Delroy Constantine-Simms University of Essex --- Review of: "Hitler's Forgotten Victims" by David Okuefuna and Moise Shewa --- 1. At a time when the fight for justice for Jewish Holocaust victims continues to make front-page news, the horrific experiences of Black people in Nazi Germany are virtually ignored. These experiences are brought to light in a documentary film entitled Hitler's Forgotten Victims, directed by David Okuefuna and produced by Moise Shewa (Afro-Wisdom Productions). The film uses interviews with survivors and their families as well as archival material to document the Black German Holocaust experience; it also explores the history of German racism, suggests links between German colonialism and Nazi policy, and examines the treatment of Black prisoners-of-war. 2. Hitler's Forgotten Victims reveals that sterilisation programmes for Blacks had been instigated by Germany's most senior Nazi geneticist, Doctor Eugen Fischer, who developed his racial theories in German South-West Africa (now Namibia) long before the First World War. It was in this colonial context that Fischer identified what he considered genetic dangers arising from race-mixing between German colonists and African women. The documentary also provides disturbing photographic evidence of German genocidal tendencies in Africa, which began with the Heroro massacre. In 1904, the Heroro tribe of German South-West Africa revolted against their colonial masters in a quest to keep their land; the rebellion lasted four years, leading to the death of 60,000 Heroro tribespeople (80% of their population). The survivors were imprisoned in concentration camps or used as human guinea pigs for medical experiments, a policy that was a foretaste of things to come for German Blacks and the Jewish community. 3. This film shows that Nazi obsession with racial purity and eugenics was provoked and intensified in 1918, following Germany's defeat in the First World War. Under the terms of the peace treaty signed at Versailles, Germany was stripped of its African colonies and forced to submit to the occupation of the Rhineland. Hitler's Forgotten Victims emphasizes that the deliberate deployment of African troops from the French colonies to police the territory incensed many Germans, who saw it as a final humiliation. Germans complained bitterly in the Rostrum newspapers, and these complaints were reflected in propaganda films regarding soldiers from the French colonial army having relationships with German women. Indeed, the documentary suggests that the intense German anger on this score contributed to 92% of the German electorate casting its vote in support of the Nazi Party. 4. Hitler's Forgotten Victims shows that as soon as Hitler re-occupied the Rhineland in 1936, he retaliated against the African soldiers' occupation by targeting all Black people living in the Rhineland first. In particular, and in a departure from previous accounts of the Holocaust, this film claims that Germany's 24,000-member Black community was the number one focus for Hitler's sterilisation programme. At least 400 mixed-race children were forcibly sterilised in the Rhineland area alone by the end of 1937, while 400 others just disappeared into Hitler's concentration camps. 5. Hans Hauck, a Black Holocaust survivor and a victim of Hitler's sterilisation programme, reveals on the film that "We were lucky that we weren't victims of euthanasia--we were only sterilised. We had no anesthetic. Once I got my vasectomy certificate, we had to sign an agreement that we were not allowed to have sexual relations whatsoever with Germans." 6. While many Blacks may have considered themselves lucky to escape Nazi persecution, even via forced sterilisation, Hitler's Forgotten Victims recalls that early on, Hitler had announced plans for more complete eradication of unwanted populations. In a speech in Bresau in 1932, for instance, he had ordered all Africans, Jews, and other non-Aryans to leave Germany or go into concentration camps. According to this documentary, however, the majority of Blacks in Germany could not heed Hitler's warning as they were German citizens with German passports and had no where else to go. A fair number escaped to France, but many attempted to return to the former German colonies that had been taken over by the League of Nations in 1920. The British colonial authorities then administering the newly named South-West Africa, however, would not allow Black Germans refugee status on the grounds that they had fought for Germany in the First World War. 7. My only criticism of Hitler's Forgotten Victims is that it does not give enough insight into the lives of Black Germans who resisted Nazi Germany, such as Black activist Lari Gilges, who founded the
[PEN-L:7955] Kosova/o problems
From Scott Shuger's column in SLATE: The LA [TIMES] covers another unforeseen problem in-country: NATO forces haven't been able to fully contain the KLA. The paper reports that on the first day of NATO's presence, KLA forces seized part of Serbia's largest coal mine. over the weekend, someone asked me who I thought the next "Hitler du jour" would be (after Milosevic). I replied that it would probably be the leader of the Colombian guerillas, whoever he or she is. But maybe it'll be the leader of the KLA... BTW, I think that the Russian march into Kosovo/a to occupy that airport, blocking the Brit troops, may not have simply been a matter of Russia (correctly) interpreting the G-8 agreement as involving the UN more than NATO occupation and of Russia trying to win back its dignity. While it's possible that Yeltsin worked outside normal channels (surprising his own foreign ministry) to pull a minor coup de main against KFOR, it's also possible that it was the military's own initiative, especially by the commander of the Russian "peacekeepers" in Bosnia who commanded the detachment to move to Kosova/o. If so, it's a matter of the military taking more and more power in Russian politics (here endorsed by Yeltsin), what might be thought of as a creeping coup d'etat. Given the chaos of Russian political life, and that country's descent into the third world, it wouldn't surprise me if the military took charge there. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:7957] US-China Relations
South China Morning Post Monday, June 14, 1999 Beijing willing to mend Washington ties WILLY WO-LAP LAM Beijing has signalled its willingness to improve relations with the US despite the mainland's decision to deploy more resources to fight "hegemonism". Official newspapers yesterday quoted Vice-Premier Qian Qichen as saying Beijing would not pursue an adversarial policy towards the United States. On a visit to Uzbekistan, Mr Qian said: "China will not adopt a confrontational policy towards America. China and the US have normal diplomatic ties." The Politburo member said the fact that Premier Zhu Rongji had visited America even after Nato started bombing Yugoslavia showed "there is no change in Chinese diplomacy and that its reform and open-door policy also remains unchanged". Mr Qian said Beijing would continue to differ with the US over Kosovo. However, he highlighted the fact that in the United Nations Security Council, Beijing abstained from voting on the motion authorising peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. Analysts said Mr Qian's largely conciliatory statement signalled the leadership's willingness to patch up ties with Washington in the run-up to the Beijing visit by US envoy Thomas Pickering. In internal discussions, leaders including President Jiang Zemin had said that Beijing had not abandoned Deng Xiaoping's policy of "not seeking to confront the US". Mr Jiang quoted another Deng dictum at an internal meeting: "While relations with the US will not be extremely good, there are limits to how far they can deteriorate." The official media yesterday quoted former US secretary of state Dr Henry Kissinger, an architect of US-China rapprochement, as saying in Wuhan, Hubei province, that the latest crisis in bilateral ties "will be resolved very well after efforts by the two governments". A diplomatic source said Beijing was sending messages to Washington that it wanted to resume normal economic, trade and technological co-operation. He said progress in bilateral ties depended on whether, given the "anti-Chinese" sentiments of Congress and the American public, the administration of President Bill Clinton could make concessions to Beijing on issues such as the latter's accession to the World Trade Organisation. A Beijing source said both Mr Jiang and Premier Zhu were under pressure from hardliners who wanted to revise Deng's "pro-US policy". The source said while Mr Jiang was committed to repairing ties with the US, he felt it necessary to make hawkish statements on the need to boost national defence and to counter a Washington-led "anti-China containment policy".
[PEN-L:7960] Maquiladora Reader
This is an important new publication about the maquiladoras, published by the American Friends Service Committee, to which I made a small contribution. David Bacon * * * * PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT THE MAQUILADORA READER is an important new book on grassroots labor activism in the global economic arena. Subtitled "Cross-Border Organizing Since NAFTA," this compilation documents how workers and their allies are reaching across the border to search for new answers to the challenges of globalization. THE MAQUILADORA READER explores activism at the intersection of international labor organizing, women*s empowerment, environmental and occupational health, and cross-border solidarity. In the process, it reveals how the Mexico-U.S. border * the only border in the world where the advanced industrial North directly meets the "underdeveloped" South * functions as a unique "cutting edge" where new paradigms of activism are being forged. Published by the American Friends Service Committee, this book reflects AFSC*s involvement of more than 20 years in cross-border activism, which has centered on a partnership with the Comité Fronterizo de Obreras (Border Committee of Women Workers), a worker-controlled grassroots organization on the Mexican side. Information is included about numerous organizations and initiatives, offering a comprehensive portrait of labor activism at the border in the NAFTA era. Individual chapters delve into such areas as women at the border, health and environmental issues, differing strategies for cross-border activism, and how the border fits into the larger panorama of free trade agreements. Additional details, including ordering information, are available in our online brochure at http://www.afsc.org/maquiladora.htm. Please help us get the word out about this new resource by reposting this announcement as widely as possible. If you have a website, we hope you consider adding a link to our brochure at the URL noted above. If you need additional information about this book, please contact Luis Perez ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). --- david bacon - labornet emaildavid bacon internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1631 channing way phone: 510.549.0291berkeley, ca 94703 ---
[PEN-L:7961] Re: KLA trade union organizing
Now NATO can have its go at ethnic cleansing. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:[PEN-L:7958] KLA trade union organizing Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Toronto Star, June 14, 1999 KLA SEIZES KEY MINE BYLINE: Candice Hughes After Serb pullout, kidnap 3 workers ASSOCIATED PRESS DOBRO SELO, Yugoslavia - It didn't take the Kosovo Liberation Army long to move in after Serb forces withdrew.
[PEN-L:7962] RE: KLA trade union organizing
The Toronto Star, June 14, 1999 KLA SEIZES KEY MINE BYLINE: Candice Hughes After Serb pullout, kidnap 3 workers Works for me. Minus the kidnapping. [welcome back, LP. I know you missed me.] mbs
[PEN-L:7963] Fw: Yugoslav reconstruction?
-Original Message- From: J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: POST-KEYNESIAN THOUGHT [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Friday, June 11, 1999 5:42 PM Subject: Yugoslav reconstruction? Well, the thread on political economy now looks increasingly to be one about "reconstruction" or the lack thereof. Given what now appears to be the actual end of the war (yes!), although there is apparently still some skirmishing involving the UCK/KLA going on, several issues now come to the fore: 1) What kind of economic system will be imposed on Kosovo-Metohija by the UN/NATO interim government? Will this be like Bosnia-Herzegovina? The Rambouillet Accord specified a "free market economy" but there seems to be no such specification in these new agreements, other than general reconstruction and development. 2) In his "victory" speech, President Clinton indicated that Serbia would receive no aid as long as Milosevic remains in power, even for basic reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed by NATO bombs. This raises again the question I asked earlier, which nobody has answered, and which nobody on any list I have seen has even bothered to mention: what are the conditions for removal of the economic embargo against Serbia? These were put in place because of the earlier war, but somehow the signing and following of the Dayton Accords has been insufficient to have them removed. It now seems to be like those against Iraq, tied to the person of the ruler of the country. This seems deeply unfair to me. I fear that one of the reasons this recent war happened in the first place was due to the alienation from Europe and the world more broadly that the Yugoslav leadership has felt due to the ongoing embargo. I am no fan of Milosevic at all, and have "demonized" him at length on some other lists. But this kind of approach seems to be the exact antithesis of the kind of approach that the US used after WW II with the Marshall Plan. Barkley Rosser
[PEN-L:7966] Reformatted exchange between Yoshie and Kathe (Pollitt?)
Hi Katha: While I hate to question the voices of the women interviewed by Ms. Dominique Serrano, her report contains passages such as this: "In Berlenitz, women told of soldiers separating the men from the others. Soldiers wearing masks encircled the young boys and women. The young boys had their throats slit one at a time, but only after their ears and sometimes theirs noses had been cut off. The torturers sharpened their knives in front of the women and terrorized children. They then cut open the stomachs of many pregnant women and skewered the fetus on their blades." (emphasis mine) Are we to take the above without a grain of salt? I attach Ms. Serrano's report here, so that listers may examine it for themselves. In my view, the report is striking in its absence of any information (e.g. the number of the women interviewed, the number of the women raped, medical reports that corroborate the women's testimonies, etc.) other than Ms. Serrano's "synthesis" of tales of rape, abduction, torture, etc. While I do not doubt that rape and other forms of sexual abuse have been used against women during the times of war (as well as 'peace') throughout history, I think it is important for us to remember that tales of rape and sexual torture have been also stuff of war propaganda and racist or chauvinist sensationalism. Good examples include how "Indian captivity narratives" were used to disseminate the racist images of Indian "savagery" and how stories of black rapists were used to whip up lynch-mob hysteria. Throughout the wars in and against Yugoslavia, the mass media and human rights orgs have always concentrated on only one kind of story, as far as rape is concerned: "Serbs are using rape as a tool of ethnic cleansing" and variations thereof, mostly with little evidence. It's as though rape were _only_ committed by Serbian men against non-Serbian women! It's as though no Serbian women were ever raped! It's as though no man ever raped a woman of his own putative ethnic group! Don't feminist theory and activism militate against this 'ethnicization' of rape and erasure of sexism as the cause of rape? Rape has become a legally and internationally recognized _war crime_, only in the sense that _losers alone_ can be accused of it. This, however, doesn't look like a gain for women and feminism, though some feminists probably disagree with me for saying so. Yoshie Katha wrote: B.a.B.e is an excellent Croatian feminist organization -- not nationalist, not tied to church or govt. It was started by, among others my friend Vesna Kesic, who worked for years with bosnian refugee women. she is one of the "seven witches' of Croatia (may have number wrong) -- anti-tudjman feminists who were accused by the govt of fomenting anti-Croatian attitudes, opposing "family values" etc. Vesna sued for libel and won! Source: - Kosova Crisis Center (KCC) News Network: http://www.alb-net.com - Kosovapress http://www.kosovapress.com/ Kosova Information Center http://www.kosova.com/ - Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 16:21:12 -0400 (EDT) UN AGENCY REPORTS ON RAPE, ABDUCTION OF KOSOVO REFUGEES By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- Kosovar women refugees have told alarming accounts of rape and abduction, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). A report released May 26 by UNFPA said that "Gjakova, Pec, and Drenitza were often indicated as places where kidnapping and collective rapes took place. The women were individually raped by many men during a few hours but sometimes even for days. "It is primarily the young women who are rounded up in villages and small cities," the report said. "The soldiers take groups of 5 to 30 women to unknown places in trucks or they are locked up in houses where the soldiers live. Any resistance is met with threats of being burned alive." "Women who were released have lacerations on their chests, evidence of beating on their arms and legs," the report said. "Their backs also show signs of beatings and they were covered in dirt. Agonizing screams could be heard for many hours." The report, the first attempt by a UN organization to verify the accounts and nature of sexual violence among refugees, was prepared by Dominique Serrano, a psychologist who specializes in sexual violence and trauma counseling. She interviewed women refugees and health care workers in camps around Tirana and Kukes, Albania, during the first week of May 1999. The information comes from victims and direct witnesses. The women spoke on the condition of anonymity, came forward to talk with Serrano on their volition, and were not recommended or pre-selected by any humanitarian organization. While reports of sexual violence had been circulating for several
[PEN-L:7968] Apology splits St. Pete city hall (fwd)
forwarded by Michael Hoover Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 16:52:24 -0500 Subject: [fla-left] [news follow-up] Apology plaque splits City Hall "This city needs to make a statement to black people" --Omali Yeshitela, National people's Democratic Uhuru Movement Apology plaque splits City Hall St. Petersburg council members will debate how to apologize for a racist mural torn down in 1966. By KELLY RYAN =A9 St. Petersburg Times, published June 12, 1999 ST. PETERSBURG -- City Council Chairwoman Bea Griswold wants her colleagues to discuss the propriety, wording and placement of a plaque that would apologize for a racist mural that once hung in City Hall. Griswold has placed the topic on Thursday's meeting agenda. She said that when the council voted in September to "apologize," she doesn't think the council intended to apologize directly and permanently to activist Omali Yeshitela. Yeshitela went to prison in 1966 for tearing the mural off the wall and racing from City Hall. In recent days, Chief of Staff Don McRae has talked individually to council members about the wording of such a plaque, which is proposed for a space on the grand staircase leading to the council chambers. "There has been so much history in that building, we could put plaques all over the front steps," Griswold said. "Unless we're going to say City Hall is a history museum for plaques, why start?" In 1966, Yeshitela -- then known as Joe Waller -- marched into City Hall and tore down a mural depicting racially caricatured black people entertaining white picnickers at the beach. Yeshitela is now the chairman of the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement. The space where the mural hung has remained blank. Griswold is also asking council members to place a state flag next to a U.S. flag along that wall. Last fall, at the urging of an activist group, council members unanimously agreed to apologize. But they never said to whom and for what, setting the stage for the debate Griswold engaged Friday. Since the council vote, McRae has drafted wording for a plaque that would describe the event. The proposed language characterizes the mural removal as the beginning of the civil rights movement in St. Petersburg and apologizes to the community and Yeshitela. In the past week, McRae has contacted council members seeking their input. Griswold has a number of concerns about the plaque. She doesn't think one should be placed in such a prominent location, she doesn't like McRae talking to council members individually to get "consensus by survey" and she doesn't think the council meant for any apology to be in the form of a permanent marker. Yeshitela said Friday that he won't engage in "an ideological debate" with Griswold. He said he doesn't care whether the city apologizes directly to him -- he says a general apology for the mural's existence validates tearing it down. But he said some community members might see such a personal apology as an important, healing gesture to "right a wrong." "I think this city needs to make a statement to black people," Yeshitela said. "I truly think it is one of the most progressive gestures made by any city in this country." Council member Bill Foster said he doesn't recall the council deciding to apologize to Yeshitela, either. A copy of the resolution from City Clerk Jane Brown's office indicates that the council voted to apologize to the community. =46oster said the council never even decided on a plaque. Council member Rene Flowers was not on the council at the time, but she said the city should apologize to the community. She said she doesn't think today's city leaders need to apologize to Yeshitela because they are not the ones who hung the offensive mural. But council member Frank Peterman sees the issue differently. He said Griswold is "playing with semantics" and said he was voting to apologize for the mural and to Yeshitela. He said the plaque is an issue because some council members are uncomfortable with the "past confrontational situation we've had with him and the Uhuru group." "It should act as a cleansing effect," Peterman said.
[PEN-L:7969] Cop spy cameras (fwd)
forwarded by Michael Hoover Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 03:36:47 -0500 Subject: [fla-left] [civil liberties] Cop spy cameras ``If we keep going this way, we might have a camera perched above every street corner.'' --Brian Becker ``We've had inquiries from other cities about doing this.'' --Tampa Police Capt. John E. Garcia Police spy cameras have look of success By DAVID PEDREIRA of The Tampa Tribune 6/13/99 TAMPA - Police may expand a controversial closed-circuit camera system that watches residents. One man is fighting back with a petition. As the yuppies, deadheads and baby boomers flock to Ybor City's main strip on a steamy summer's evening, they are being watched. When the King of Gasparilla makes his triumphant return to Seventh Avenue, he is caught on tape. Visiting an Ybor coffee bar for a night of existential musings? They see you. Every Friday and Saturday evening, a phalanx of police surveillance cameras stare down on Tampa's hottest entertainment strip, watching for trouble with unblinking, mechanical eyes. ``I see it almost like being in a helicopter,'' said Officer John Simmons, who scans a bank of television monitors wired to the cameras. ``I can see problems before they even get started.'' Some say it's downright Orwellian, but Tampa Police Department officials argue the surveillance system has added a powerful enforcement tool for officers in Ybor. Police brass are so enamored with the program's first 18 months of duty, they may expand it. Discussions are under way to perch cameras along the route of the city's $23 million electric trolley, which will link downtown tourist attractions with Ybor City. And developers of the Centro Ybor project have offered to house a new police monitoring station - if the department agrees to keep an eye on cameras placed at the $40 million entertainment complex. ``I think this program has been a great success,'' said police Capt. John E. Garcia. ``We've had inquiries from other cities about doing this.'' The camera system, which cost $180,000 to install and about $15,000 each year to maintain, has not escaped technical difficulties. Four of the 12 cameras that line Seventh Avenue from 15th to 21st streets have been damaged by lightning strikes, said Cpl. Mike Morrow, who runs Ybor's mounted patrol and oversees the closed-circuit system. Two cameras are completely blinded, and another pair can't swivel to cover all parts of the street. The police have put out a bid to have the equipment fixed, Garcia said. Glitches aren't the only problem. The mere idea of police cameras observing a public street has created a stir among some residents who don't like the idea of government having eyes in the sky. ``What's next?'' asked Brian Becker, a Tampa resident circulating a petition to have the cameras shut down. ``If we keep going this way, we might have a camera perched above every street corner.'' Police say the system is more about public protection than government intrusion. Simmons and other officers in his squad split the duty of manning the cameras every Friday and Saturday evening. Sitting in front of an array of monitors in a nearby Tampa fire station, the officers continually run tape as throngs of people melt into Ybor's main drag. A joystick allows them to zoom, focus and turn the cameras in all directions. If people look as if they're about to cause trouble, the officer monitoring the screen can dispatch patrol officers. If someone steals a purse, the cameras can track the thief for six blocks. Perhaps most important, the unblinking eyes are like guardian angels for street patrols, Simmons said. If police get involved in a scuffle and are unable to call for help, Simmons can issue orders from his station. ``I can tell the officers on the ground what to be aware of when they arrive at the scene,'' Simmons said. ``I don't see it as an invasion. I see it more as protection.'' The cameras have aided in dozens of arrests since being installed in fall 1997, Morrow said. Detectives have reviewed surveillance tapes to gather information for a rape case and other criminal investigations, he said. With signs along Seventh Avenue warning people they are being watched, the system also has a calming effect on the crowd. ``You see people looking at it, and every once in awhile we'll move the cameras up and down to nod at them,'' Morrow said. ``It just keeps honest people honest.'' Police this month will give the Tampa City Council an update on the
[PEN-L:7971] Hyde/McCollum Juvenile Injustice Bill (fwd)
forwarded by Michael Hoover Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 08:17:17 -0500 Subject: [fla-left] FW: MCCOLLUM IS AT IT AGAIN! ~~ Hyde/McCollum Juvenile Injustice Bill, H.R. 2037, a danger to children Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) and Subcommittee on Crime Chairman Bill McCollum (R-FL) have introduced a new juvenile justice bill, H.R. 2037, which will be considered on the House floor next week. This new juvenile "injustice" bill presents dangers to children by: 1. Trying more children as adults H.R. 2037 allows federal prosecutors rather than judges the discretion to try children as adults, lowers the age to 13 in some cases at which children can be tried as adults in the federal system, and broadens the scope of federal crimes for which juveniles can be tried as adults. This provision would mean that more children would be placed in adult jails, and children could be placed in the same jail cells with adults. This places children at serious risk of abuse and assault, and flies in the face of current studies which indicate that trying children as adults increases rather than decreases youth crime. Placing children at risk of assault and abuse in adult jail H.R. 2037 allows children to come into contact with adults in adult jails in the federal system. Children as young as 13 years old would be allowed to be in the same jail cells with adults. Allowing contact between juveniles and adults in adult jails would place children at risk of assault and abuse, as children are eight times more likely to commit suicide, five times more likely to be sexually assaulted, and twice as likely to be assaulted by staff in adult jails than in juvenile facilities. 2. Imposing new mandatory minimums sentences for children H.R. 2037 imposes new mandatory minimum sentences for children who are convicted of certain offenses. These new draconian mandatory minimums would likely impose harsher penalties on youthful offenders than adult criminals guilty of the same offenses. For example, any juvenile who discharges a firearm in a school zone would get a minimum 10 year sentence. An adult charged with the same offense would not be subject to the same mandatory penalty. 3. Opening juvenile records H.R. 2037 requires juvenile records of juveniles who are convicted of felonies in the federal system to be maintained in the same manner as adult records. Also, H.R. 2037 requires that all juvenile records be available for background checks with no protections to assure that the records would not be made widely available. Under H.R. 2037, juveniles' records could be shared with law enforcement, courts, the FBI, and schools, including schools in which the child is seeking to enroll. Opening juvenile records and allowing for broad dissemination of these records would have devastating consequences for the future employment and education of many children.
[PEN-L:7973] The Bombings (May) End--Now What?
Activists in Columbus, Ohio will continue our anti-NATO actions, which include, among other things: * protest the occupation of Yugoslavia on the first and the third Tuesday. * hold a Saturday demonstration on June 26th, 1999 at the OSU location to coincide with national protests. * publicize the environmental destruction caused by the NATO bombings + seek to make better connections with local environmentalist orgs + hold a press conference entitled Ecocide Day. * raise funds for relief efforts for people in Yugoslavia. What are you guys planning to do in your town? Yoshie
[PEN-L:7975] (Fwd) It's the Russians, Stupid - STRATFOR Intelligence Upda
Though I had promised not to forward Sid's postings, this one seems of sufficient importance that I think it should be available to all on pen-l. (sorry Doug) Paul Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba --- Forwarded Message Follows --- Date sent: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 16:39:20 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Sid Shniad [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:"It's the Russians, Stupid" - STRATFOR Intelligence Update STRATFOR's Global Intelligence Update Weekly Analysis June 14, 1999 "It's the Russians, Stupid" Summary: NATO continued its policy of trying to turn a compromise into a victory. In order to do that, it has been necessary to treat Russia as if its role was peripheral. It was a policy bound to anger Russia. It was not a bad policy, if NATO were ready and able to slay the bear. But goading a wounded bear when you are not in a position to kill him is a dangerous game. On Saturday morning, the bear struck back. NATO still hasn't gotten him back in his cage. Analysis: President Bill Clinton had a sign taped to his desk at the beginning of his first term in office that read, "It's the Economy, Stupid." He should have taped one on his desk at the beginning of the Kosovo affair that said, "It's the Russians, Stupid." From the beginning to the end of this crisis, it has been the Russians, not the Serbs, who were the real issue facing NATO. The Kosovo crisis began in December 1998 in Iraq. When the United States decided to bomb Iraq for four days in December, in spite of Russian opposition and without consulting them, the Russians became furious. In their view, the United States completely ignored them and had now reduced them to a third-world power - discounting completely Russia's ability to respond. The senior military was particularly disgruntled. It was this Russian mood, carefully read by Slobodan Milosevic, which led him to conclude that it was the appropriate time to challenge the West in Kosovo. It was clear to Milosevic that the Russians would not permit themselves to be humiliated a second time. He was right. When the war broke out, the Russians were not only furious again, but provided open political support to Serbia. There was, in late April and early May, an urgent feeling inside of NATO that some sort of compromise was needed. The feeling was an outgrowth of the fact that the air war alone would not achieve the desired political goals, and that a ground war was not an option. At about the same time, it became clear that only the Russians had enough influence in Belgrade to bring them to a satisfactory compromise. The Russians, however, were extremely reluctant to begin mediation. The Russians made it clear that they would only engage in a mediation effort if there were a prior negotiation between NATO and Russia in which the basic outlines of a settlement were established. The resulting agreement was the G-8 accords. The two most important elements of the G-8 agreement were unwritten, but they were at the heart of the agreement. The first was that Russia was to be treated as a great power by NATO, and not as its messenger boy. The second was that any settlement that was reached had to be viewed as a compromise and not as a NATO victory. This was not only for Milosevic's sake, but it was also for Yeltsin's. Following his humiliation in Iraq, Yeltsin could not afford to be seen as simply giving in to NATO. If that were to happen, powerful anti-Western, anti-reform and anti-Yeltsin forces would be triggered. Yeltsin tried very hard to convey to NATO that far more than Kosovo was at stake. NATO didn't seem to listen. Thus, the entire point of the G-8 agreements was that there would be a compromise in which NATO achieved what it wanted while Yugoslavia retained what it wanted. A foreign presence would enter Kosovo, including NATO troops. Russian troops would also be present. These Russian troops would be used to guarantee the behavior of NATO troops in relation to Serbs, in regard to disarming the KLA, and in guaranteeing Serbia's long-term rights in Kosovo. The presence of Russian troops in Kosovo either under a joint UN command or as an independent force was the essential element of the G-8. Many long hours were spent in Bonn and elsewhere negotiating this agreement. Over the course of a month, the Russians pressured Milosevic to accept these agreements. Finally, in a meeting attended by the EU's Martti Ahtisaari and Moscow's Viktor Chernomyrdin, Milosevic accepted the compromise. Milosevic did not accept the agreements because of the bombing campaign. It hurt, but never crippled him. Milosevic accepted the agreements because the Russians wanted them and because they guaranteed that they would be present as independent observers to make certain that NATO did not overstep its bounds. This is the key: it was the Russians, not the bombing campaign that delivered the
[PEN-L:7977] (Fwd) NATO SHOULD DISARM KLA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE - A Soldier'
--- Forwarded Message Follows --- Date sent: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 14:08:19 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Sid Shniad [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:NATO SHOULD DISARM KLA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE - A Soldier's View THE VANCOUVER SUN JUNE 12, 1999 A Soldier's View NATO SHOULD DISARM KLA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE The commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army has shown bloodthirstiness against civilians in the past. By Lewis Mackenzie A funny thing happened between the 4th and 5th of June. A subtle but extremely significant change occurred in describing the Kosovo Liberation Army's obligations following any ceasefire. The Rambouillet accord, signed by the KLA-led Kosovo Albanian delegation in March clearly stated the KLA would be disarmed once there was a ceasefire. The precise term was often repeated and reinforced by all the key NATO leaders and their representatives during the first 70 days of the bombing campaign. During the June 5-6 weekend, members of the U.S. executive branch, starting with Defence Secretary William Cohen, started to the use the term "demilitarize" rather than "disarm" to describe the KLA's postwar future. This change in the language of the Rambouillet accord is highly significant, particularly to the international peacekeepers, including Canadians, entering Kosovo. Disarming means just that handing over all your weapons with the possible exception of sidearms, a concession the United Nations authorized when the UN forces were ordered to disarm the Serbs and Croats within the three UN-protected areas in occupied Croatia in 1992. Demilitarization merely requires the KLA to give up its military structure, take off uniforms and, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution of June 10, turn in their "heavy" weapons. For the most part, the KLA does not have big guns such as tanks, artillery and anti-aircraft missiles. Its weapons of choice due to the nature of its operations, are assault and sniper rifles and grenade launchers. It can now keep those. Its few heavy weapons would have been moved by now away from NATO's prying eyes, across the border into Albania, where the KLA has its training camps. The KLA has been conducting a war of secession against Yugoslav security forces for a number of years. Belgrade's heavy-handed response to the KLA's activities had the effect of increasing its following, and its sophistication. During NATO's bombing campaign, the KLA was in frequent contact with NATO headquarters, coordinating its efforts on the ground with NATO air strikes. This contact became even more reliable in the latter stages of the war as "liaison teams" from some allied countries married up with the KLA and assisted with the coordination. I must say I was more than a little disappointed to hear Jim Wright, the credible and persuasive spokesman for our foreign affairs department, state just a few days ago that, "We [NATO] have no contact with the KLA." Let's face it, this was not the case. Numerous western reporters were filmed standing with KLA members as they spoke directly with the NATO operations centre and, in one quite bizarre incident, with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright herself. I assume the decision to allow the KLA to keep its weapons is a payback for its help on the ground. Not a good idea. The KLA has stated publicly and repeatedly that its political objective is nothing short of independence for Kosovo and ul- timately a Greater Albania. The fact that it has softened its lan- guage over the past few days should convince no one that it has changed its mind. The group will continue to recruit, train and otherwise prepare for an independent Kosovo and it will maintain a number of camps in Albania. Its chief of staff, a retired officer from the Croatian army was the same officer who masterminded the 1993 Medak offensive in Croatia that saw Canadian soldiers using deadly force to stop horrendous atrocities against Serb civilians. This officer also ordered the overrunning of lightly armed UN outposts, in blatant contravention of international law. His influence within the KLA does not augur well for its trustwor- thiness during Kosovo's political evolution. A practical solution to the continuing threat posed by the KLA would be the sealing of the border between Kosovo and Albania. The best national contingent of peacekeepers to take on this task would be the one from Russia. Using the Russians to look after the small number of Serbs who will remain in Kosovo will only perpetuate the separation of the Albanian and Serb communities. Western peacekeepers can look after the Serbs. Let the Russians keep the KLA in line.
[PEN-L:7976] (Fwd) SECRET TALKS WITH MILOSEVIC SPLIT RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP -
--- Forwarded Message Follows --- Date sent: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 13:08:12 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Sid Shniad [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:SECRET TALKS WITH MILOSEVIC SPLIT RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP - Financial Times The National Post June 14, 1999 SECRET TALKS WITH MILOSEVIC CAUSE SPLIT IN RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP London Russian officials, in collaboration with key leaders in the European Union, opened a secret channel in May to Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president, which was instrumental in securing a peace deal in Kosovo, according to EU and Yugoslav officials. However, the machinations in the runup to acceptance of the deal have opened up huge fissures in Russian leadership which now threaten the peacekeeping effort in Kosovo, and even the stability of the Russian government itself. A source close to the leadership of the Serbian security services, who refused to be identified, said Peter Castenfelt, a Swedish-born financier acting as a secret envoy, had revealed to Mr. Milosevic, just days before Belgrade approved the Group of Eight peace plan on June 3, NATO's final terms for an agreement. The source said it became clear to Mr. Milosevic that the deal was better than that offered by leading NATO powers during the Rambouillet negotiations earlier this year especially since it gave the UN Security Council control of the operation in Kosovo. "This means that the UN mandate can be voted down by the Russians and the Chinese when we don't want them [NATO] in [Kosovo] any more," said the Yugoslav source. He said it was critically important to Yugoslavia to have Russian presence in the province, both to affirm Moscow's strategic interest in the region and to protect the Serbs. His testimony, and that of German officials and advisors, suggest the talks with Mr. Milosevic, both open and covert, were more of a negotiation than leaders of the NATO countries have admitted. One advisor said Mr. Castenfelt had been asked to stress in his ne- gotiations that Mr. Milosevic's indictment as a war criminal was "completely separate" from a peace agreement. "We could not change or soften the judgment, but we could say that it was a quite different matter," the advisor said. The Serb security official said the effect of the peace settlement would be to "completely change" the Russian political system, with the next president of Russia being committed to an anti-West stance. He said Mr. Milosevic had had bad relations with Boris Yeltsin, the Russian president, always supporting and regularly entertaining Mr. Yeltsin's opponents in Belgrade. Mr. Castenfelt, the undercover envoy used by the Russians and the EU, has a record of behind-the-scenes economic diplomacy on behalf of successive Russian governments for the past six years, particularly on deals with the International Monetary Fund. Senior Russian officials loyal to Mr. Yeltsin had become concerned the talks between Mr. Milosevic and Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Russian envoy to the Balkans who was appointed in April by Mr. Yeltsin, were producing no results. Mr. Chernomyrdin, the longest-serving prime minister under Mr. Yeltsin, was seen in Russia and the West as not up to the task of conveying either the West's or NATO's position to Mr. Milosevic. Mr. Castenfelt was briefed in Moscow by government officials, and in Bonn by Wolfgang Ischinger, state secretary at the German foreign ministry; Michael Steiner, foreign policy advisor to Gerhard Schroeder, the chancellor; and Karl Kaiser, head of the Research Institute of the German Society of Foreign Affairs and Mr. Schroeder's foreign affairs advisor during last year's election campaign. Mr. Castenfelt also met Martti Ahtisaari, the EU envoy to the Balkans and the Finnish president, and Arpo Rusi, his advisor. He then flew to Sofia, Bulgaria from where he was taken to the Yugoslav border under the protection of Russian special forces and passed over to Yugoslav security and taken to Belgrade. In a one-to-one meeting with Mr. Milosevic, in meetings with ministers and officials and in a six-page analysis of the situation composed in a bunker during a NATO bombing raid, Mr. Castenfelt succeeded in defining the terms which could be represented as a compromise, not a capitulation. The Serbian security source said that "he explained to us for the first time what the truth was. We had never heard it before." The Serb source said the points on which the NATO deal was significantly better than the terms offered during the Rambouillet accords were particularly critical for their eventual acceptance by Mr. Milosevic in talks with Mr. Ahtisaari and Mr. Chernomyrdin. These were, he said, that there would be no referendum in Kosovo after three years, as the Rambouillet accord specified: that there would be a UN presence, not
[PEN-L:7974] The Other War
South china Morning Post Monday, June 14, 1999 KASHMIR STRIKES India captures key peak after truce bid fails AGENCIES in Dras, Srinagar and Islamad Indian troops captured a key mountain peak overlooking India's northern highway yesterday after a ferocious all-night battle that began as India and Pakistan ended unsuccessful talks to halt the fighting. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, visiting the combat zone yesterday, told soldiers: "We want peace but [we should] keep ourselves prepared for war." Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke to Mr Vajpayee and urged that the two sides respect the border in Kashmir to defuse the crisis. His Foreign Minister, Sartaz Aziz, said Pakistan had the capacity to defend itself in case of war. Pakistan accused Indian forces of firing "chemical shells" into its territory. An Indian army spokesman called the claim baseless. Neither country is known to possess such weapons. Indian troops breached the summit of Tololing Peak at 6am after artillery pounded the mountain top for nearly 10 hours from 25 positions, raining about 12,000 high-explosive shells on Tololing and a neighbouring mountain, Peak 5140. The capture of the 4,590-metre-high Tololing and the expected fall of 5140 would secure the most vulnerable stretch of highway that has been under constant Pakistani bombardment. Accompanied by his Defence Minister and army chief, Mr Vajpayee met military commanders and local administrators in Kargil, the centre of Indian operations against the rebels, and addressed residents at the helipad from where he flew back to Srinagar. "Our territory has been captured, our land shelled and our people rendered homeless," Mr Vajpayee said. He said India would respond to this challenge but this would take time. Pakistani shelling forced the Prime Minister to abandon a visit to Dras. Indian President Kocheril Raman Narayanan described as "cowardly" the Pakistani shelling of Mr Vajpayee's speech venue. In Kargil, Mr Vajpayee heard complaints from residents about the shortage of medicine and food. He vowed that nearly 50,000 people who fled their villages because of shelling would be given free food, clothes and financial help, while damaged houses would be repaired. India says infiltrators from Pakistan seized the mountain range on the Indian side of the ceasefire line in May. It says the aim was to change the unofficial border and seize the strategic high ground commanding the road linking Srinagar and Leh on the Chinese border. Pakistan denies its army is involved. Mr Sharif told Mr Vajpayee that "mutually acceptable" approaches should be devised to preserve peace. Officials in Pakistani Kashmir said at least four civilians were killed as shells fired from across the border hit two villages in Bhimber district, far from Kargil. An Indian army spokesman said Pakistani shelling expanded beyond Kargil to eight new areas in southern parts of Kashmir.
[PEN-L:7972] embargo of Serbia
Hi folks, at least for awhile. Let me follow up on my forwarded message with a more detailed set of questions. These were put forth on pkt, but so far nobody has responded. I am also somewhat nonplussed that there has been no discussion of any of this in virtually any of the media that I have seen nor on either pen-l or lbo-talk, at least when I was on those lists. The questions have to do with the economic embargo against Serbia. Firstly I would note that this embargo must be seen as an underlying factor in the initiation of the war to begin with. Clearly it alienated and isolated Serbia and made it less amenable to pressures and ultimata from NATO and more open to an aggressive stance against the Albanian Kosovars, especially given the pathetic economic condition of Kosovo-Metohija. To continue it in the postwar period (if we have really gotten to that yet, which remains unclear) will certainly make it less likely that there will be peace in the region. So, if anybody can answer the following questions (to which I do not have the answers), I would be most grateful: 1) When was the embargo put in place? 2) Under what auspices, the UN? 3) How many countries are a part of it (extension of (2))? 4) What does it include, all trade, some trade, investment? 5) Does it cover all of Yugoslavia (including Montenegro) or just Serbia? 6) What was the official reason it was imposed? 7) What conditions must Yugoslavia or Serbia fulfill to have the embargo lifted, officially? 8) Does Clinton's Chicago speech mean that Kosovo-Metohija will now be exempt from it (and what about Montenegro)? 9) Is the real, de facto condition for removal of the embargo the removal of Milosevic from a position of power? 10) What happens if he is replaced by Seselj or somebody even more rabidly nationalistic? Barkley Rosser
[PEN-L:7967] FW: Self Determination of Indigenous Peoples
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, June 14, 1999 12:49 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Self Determination of Indigenous Peoples :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:Forwarded message:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Date: Sun, 06 Jun 1999 18:09:05 -0600 From: Long Standing Bear Chief [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Self Determination of Indigenous Peoples Right To Self Determination For Indigenous People In The U.S. On Monday June 28, 1999 there will be a meeting of the Blackfoot Confederacy to discuss a special paper done by The Mueller Law Firm of Dallas, Texas. This paper is entitled "Rights of Self Determination of Peoples and the Application Regarding Indigenous People In the USA" This topic has very important implications for it pursuance on behalf of our native people in the United Nations. You are invited to be at this meeting to discuss the content of this important document to freedom loving Indian people. This notice is also to inform you about another upcoming event in Blackfoot history and the pursuit of justice for all Indian people in Montana and the entire United States. As a companion matter, and follow up to this meeting, Long Standing Bear Chief of the Blackfoot Nation is to appear before the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council on Monday, July 1, 1999 to inform them of available evidence that proves Glacier and Pondera counties, and 16 others in Montana and within the boundaries of Indian nations, are illegal and must be dismantled and the land lost to non-Indians as the result of state laws creating the counties must be returned to its rightful owners, the Indian people You are invited to attend this meeting. Please respond to this invitation so provisions can be made to accommodate your attendance. Meeting space is limited. For further information regarding this matter please e-mail us or call 406-338-2882. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL : [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html SOVERNET-L is a news-only listserv concerned with indigenous sovereigntist struggles around the world. To subscribe, send "subscribe sovernet-l" in the body of an email message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more information on sovernet-l, contact S.I.S.I.S. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Comment: In Montana, Glacier, Pondera and 16 other counties comprising populations over 90% of which were Indigenous Peoples and lands, were summarily declared counties of the State of Montana. Indians were not even declared (without asking Indians how they feel about it) US citizens until 1924. Further, even the Marshall decisions such as Worcester v Georgia, 31 U.S. ( 6 Pet.) 515, 1832 make it clear that State laws and taxes do not extend to Indian Nations. So the State of Montana creates counties, and thus extending State laws and authority, over Tribal lands and populations not able to vote on the issue or are even US citizens. Even in bourgeois property terms, certainly in terms of Article VI Sec. 2 of the US Constitution and the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, this was clearly illegal. More and more Indian Nations are going to hit non-Indian agencies and entities with their own "sacreds" and laws and the contradictions within them and in their applications. Jim Craven
[PEN-L:7965] BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1999 RELEASED TODAY: The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods increased 0.2 percent in May, seasonally adjusted. This rise followed a 0.5 percent advance in April and a 0.2 percent increase in March. The index for finished goods other than foods and energy edged up 0.1 percent, the same as a month earlier. Prices received by producers of intermediate goods advanced 0.2 percent, after increasing 0.6 percent in the previous month. The crude goods index rose 5.5 percent, following a 1.3 percent rise in April. ... Disasters that killed hundreds of workers in the early part of the century led to changes that have lowered the death rate from job accidents by 90 percent since 1913, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta say. Work-related deaths have declined to 4 per 100,000 workers in 1997 from 61 per 100,000 in 1913, federal agencies said. An estimated 23,000 people died from work injuries in 1913, compared with 5,100 in 1997, according to data from the National Safety Council and BLS. In that period, the work force grew to about 130 million from 38 million. The decline has been particularly pronounced in high-risk industries like mining, where the average death rate was 25 per 100,000 in 1996-97 compared with 329 per 100,000 from 1911 to 1915, the agency said. ... Today, industries with the highest average rates for fatal accidents include mining, agriculture-forestry-fishing, and construction. The leading causes of workplace deaths involve motor vehicles, homicides, and machine-related injuries (AP story in New York Times, page A24). __Climbing petroleum prices pushed the cost of goods imported into the United States up in May for the third consecutive month. The import price index increased 0.7 percent in May, after jumping 1.0 percent in April, its largest gain in nearly 3 years. The 44.2 percent leap in petroleum prices from February to May accounted for most of the increase, according to the BLS report. Overall, import prices were down 1.0 percent during the past 12 months. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). __Prices for imported goods rose for the third straight month in May, the longest streak in nearly 3 years. The trend, spurred by higher prices both for oil and manufactured goods, is yet another inflation warning flag waving over the U.S. economy. Falling import prices, pushed down by the Asian crisis, had been a major reason why American prices have been so tame over the past 2 year, despite rapid growth and low unemployment. ... (Alejandro Bodipo-Memba in Wall Street Journal, page A2). Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed with state agencies rose by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 323,000 during the week ended June 5, the Employment and Training Administration announces. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-3)_Jobless claims rose last week to the highest level since early January, but economists shrugged it off as a temporary blip in a job market that remains exceptionally healthy. ... (Washington Post, page E4)_The number of first time applications for state unemployment benefits rose for the third consecutive week, jumping 14,000 in the Memorial Day holiday-shortened week. ... (New York Times, page C19). The Japanese economy, which had been mired in recession, grew an astonishing 1.9 percent in the first 3 months of this year, largely because of massive public works spending, the government announced. The quarter-on-quarter growth translated into an annualized rate of 7.9 percent, stunning economists and sending stock prices soaring in Japan. ... (Washington Post, page E1)_After nearly 2 years of recession, Japan's dormant economy leaped to life in the first 3 months of the year, according to official figures so strong that they were played down by some of the government's own economists. ... (New York Times, page C1). Women in the European Union on average receive 28 percent less in salary than men, in part because women hold fewer management level jobs, according to a report released by the European Commission's statistical agency, Eurostat. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-3). With a proposed increase in the minimum wage likely to return soon as a key issue before Congress, lawmakers are being urged to look at the issue from a new angle: how lessons learned from welfare reform can be applied to the way minimum wage rates are set. Researchers and business leaders discuss new approached during a symposium sponsored by the Employment Policies Institute. ... Instead of raising the federal minimum wage, it might be time to make the federal minimum wage a floor and allow the states to decide if and by how much to raise it, suggested the head of the EPI and the top executive of a major restaurant chain. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-13). The number of union elections, the union win rate, and the number of eligible voters in elections won by unions all continued to climb
[PEN-L:7964] Rape, War Crime, and Propaganda (was Re: [Fwd: [end-violence]UNFPA reports rape and abduction of Kosovo refugees])
Hi Katha: While I hate to question the voices of the women interviewed by Ms. Dominique Serrano, her report contains passages such as this: "fontfamilyparamTimes/parambiggerbiggerIn Berlenitz, women told of soldiers separating the men from the others. Soldiers wearing masks encircled the young boys and women. The young boys had their throats slit one at a time, but only after their ears and sometimes theirs noses had been cut off. The torturers sharpened their knives in front of the women and terrorized children. underlineThey then cut open the stomachs of many pregnant women and skewered the fetus on their blades/underline./bigger/bigger/fontfamily" (emphasis mine) Are we to take the above without a grain of salt? I attach Ms. Serrano's report here, so that listers may examine it for themselves. In my view, the report is striking in its absence of any information (e.g. the number of the women interviewed, the number of the women raped, medical reports that corroborate the women's testimonies, etc.) other than Ms. Serrano's "synthesis" of tales of rape, abduction, torture, etc. While I do not doubt that rape and other forms of sexual abuse have been used against women during the times of war (as well as 'peace') throughout history, I think it is important for us to remember that tales of rape and sexual torture have been also stuff of war propaganda and racist or chauvinist sensationalism. Good examples include how "Indian captivity narratives" were used to disseminate the racist images of Indian "savagery" and how stories of black rapists were used to whip up lynch-mob hysteria. Throughout the wars in and against Yugoslavia, the mass media and human rights orgs have always concentrated on only one kind of story, as far as rape is concerned: "Serbs are using rape as a tool of ethnic cleansing" and variations thereof, mostly with little evidence. It's as though rape were _only_ committed by Serbian men against non-Serbian women! It's as though no Serbian women were ever raped! It's as though no man ever raped a woman of his own putative ethnic group! Don't feminist theory and activism militate against this 'ethnicization' of rape and erasure of sexism as the cause of rape? Rape has become a legally and internationally recognized _war crime_, only in the sense that _losers alone_ can be accused of it. This, however, doesn't look like a gain for women and feminism, though some feminists probably disagree with me for saying so. Yoshie Katha wrote: B.a.B.e is an excellent Croatian feminist organization -- not nationalist, not tied to church or govt. It was started by, among others my friend Vesna Kesic, who worked for years with bosnian refugee women. she is one of the "seven witches' of Croatia (may have number wrong) -- anti-tudjman feminists who were accused by the govt of fomenting anti-Croatian attitudes, opposing "family values" etc. Vesna sued for libel and won! Return-Path: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Received: from edc-cit.org (shule.lightrealm.com [209.203.236.5]) Received: (from edccit@localhost) for a13350012; Wed, 9 Jun 1999 04:00:40 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "B.a.B.e." [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [end-violence] UNFPA reports rape and abduction of Kosovo refugees Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 11:14:06 +0200 Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] MIME-Version: 1.0 Source: - Kosova Crisis Center (KCC) News Network: http://www.alb-net.com - Kosovapress http://www.kosovapress.com/ Kosova Information Center http://www.kosova.com/ - Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 16:21:12 -0400 (EDT) UN AGENCY REPORTS ON RAPE, ABDUCTION OF KOSOVO REFUGEES By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- Kosovar women refugees have told alarming accounts of rape and abduction, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). A report released May 26 by UNFPA said that "Gjakova, Pec, and Drenitza were often indicated as places where kidnapping and collective rapes took place. The women were individually raped by many men during a few hours but sometimes even for days. "It is primarily the young women who are rounded up in villages and small cities," the report said. "The soldiers take groups of 5 to 30 women to unknown places in trucks or they are locked up in houses where the soldiers live. Any resistance is met with threats of being burned alive." "Women who were released have lacerations on their chests, evidence of beating on their arms and legs," the report said. "Their backs also show signs of beatings and they were covered in dirt. Agonizing screams could be heard for many hours." The report, the first attempt by a UN
[PEN-L:7959] Re: Comparing the Clinton regime to the Stalin regime
Brett Knowlton wrote: The Soviet Union was ruled by a priviledged elite. This statement can be misleading. Every government is ruled by a privileged elite. The telling characteristic is whether the rulers became rulers because they are of the privileged elite, or they are from the masses and their privileged elitism is merely part of trimming of their positions. In China, for example, the Minister of Finance does not come from Wall Street and does not go back to Wall Street after he leaves the ministry. His job depends on his ability to serve the interest of the masses, albeit he lives better and have enviable privileges that goes with his job. The fact that a country like China is forced to join the global capitalist market economy is not just because of revisionist slippage, but because that has come to be the only game in town. Socialists are obligated to devise and promote a socialist alternative in economic development and trade. Faith alone is not sufficient. A very important ideological struggle between orthodox socialist and revisionist has been going on in China for 4 decades, and the TINA (there is no alternative) syndrome is appearing more like common sense to more people everyday. If socialism does not provide an alternative, neo-liberalism, despite all its faults, will be the norm by default. It is not comforting that China and Cuba are only governments that openly declare themselves socialist. There is no socialist block left. If China goes, socialism will be dormant for at least 50 years. Henry C.K. Liu
[PEN-L:7958] KLA trade union organizing
The Toronto Star, June 14, 1999 KLA SEIZES KEY MINE BYLINE: Candice Hughes After Serb pullout, kidnap 3 workers ASSOCIATED PRESS DOBRO SELO, Yugoslavia - It didn't take the Kosovo Liberation Army long to move in after Serb forces withdrew. Within minutes, guerrillas were coming down from the hills. Within hours, they had seized control of one of Yugoslavia's biggest coal mines. The rebels moved in so fast Saturday morning that mining company manager Dragan Radakovic didn't understand what the shooting was at first. ''I thought maybe it was the army celebrating'' their pullout, he said. But the rattle of automatic weapons fire got louder - and closer. Standing on the rim of Pit No. 10 at the Belacevac mine, he peered through binoculars and saw the KLA on the horizon. The rebels moved into the 10-square-kilometre mine from the west. Radakovic pulled his people out to the east in 2 1/2 frantic hours, saving nearly 100. Rebels kidnapped three Serb miners But the rebels attacked a van bringing in workers for the afternoon shift. Three Serb miners and the driver - coming to work unaware - were kidnapped. As best Radakovic could tell, the rebel force numbered several hundred. They were gloating, using the dispatcher's two-way radio at the mine administration to taunt the Serbs and curse them. ''Go back to Serbia,'' the rebel voice would say. Meanwhile, Serb media reported four separate KLA attacks yesterday in nearby Pristina. NATO is supposed to demilitarize the KLA, but just how it will do that is unclear. When NATO arrived yesterday, Radakovic thought he might get his mine back. But the NATO force, four Canadian armoured vehicles, wasn't there to recapture anything from the KLA or take away their guns. Its job was reconnaissance. © 1999, LEXIS®-NEXIS®, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved. Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:7956] Re: Re: Re: Trickling Down works?
I wrote: ... Ignored is the way in which capitalism keeps on creating structural unemployment (by obsoleting worker skills, moving to new areas of the country world, etc.)... Given the way the US is currently the capstone of the world economic arch... Patrick writes: Jim, surely this is the point. It's absurd to think about "national" rates of unemployment if one is debating the character of contemporary capitalism. The global immiserization process has intensified markedly since the early 1980s, with several decades chopped from our standards of living at least here in Southern Africa (and so many other places too). The US as a national economic unit has done just fine from enhanced terms of trade, Third World debt repayments and profit repatriations--enough to keep unemployment low there, while virtually all of the South has witnessed steadily declining jobs/people ratios and increasing social crisis. In an age of globalisation, this capacity to move the crisis around is unquestionable, and for it not to get even a brief mention--much less be taken into account--in NYT think-pieces speaks volumes. I agree, but no-one has calculated world unemployment rates yet. This is too bad, since I'm sure that when the next recession hits, the US will export unemployment to Mexico and elsewhere. It sure seems that Penny Ciancanelli (sp?) is right that the advanced countries like the US have benefited from Minsky-type bail-outs while the "south," including the former tigers of East Asia, has suffered from a debt-deflation. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:7954] Re: Re: Trickling Down works?
From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] ... Ignored is the way in which capitalism keeps on creating structural unemployment (by obsoleting worker skills, moving to new areas of the country world, etc.)... Given the way the US is currently the capstone of the world economic arch... Jim, surely this is the point. It's absurd to think about "national" rates of unemployment if one is debating the character of contemporary capitalism. The global immiserization process has intensified markedly since the early 1980s, with several decades chopped from our standards of living at least here in Southern Africa (and so many other places too). The US as a national economic unit has done just fine from enhanced terms of trade, Third World debt repayments and profit repatriations--enough to keep unemployment low there, while virtually all of the South has witnessed steadily declining jobs/people ratios and increasing social crisis. In an age of globalisation, this capacity to move the crisis around is unquestionable, and for it not to get even a brief mention--much less be taken into account--in NYT think-pieces speaks volumes. Patrick Bond email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * phone: 2711-614-8088 home: 51 Somerset Road, Kensington 2094 South Africa work: University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Public and Development Management PO Box 601, Wits 2050, South Africa email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 2711-488-5917 * fax: 2711-484-2729
