5) Behind the Spy-Plane Incident by [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6) Cop Shooting Sparks Rebellion in Ohio by [EMAIL PROTECTED] 7) A Message from the Editor by [EMAIL PROTECTED] 8) Racial Profiling Sparks Mall Boycott by [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: torstai 12. huhtikuu 2001 13:03 Subject: [WW] Behind the Spy-Plane Incident ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 19, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS: WHAT THE SPY-PLANE INCIDENT SHOWED By Fred Goldstein The agreement whereby China has said it will release the 24 U.S. spies who caused the death of a Chinese pilot has left mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is deeply satisfying to see the imperialist bullies in the White House and the Pentagon having to back off their arrogant, blustering, unconditional demand for the immediate release of their spies and spy plane. Those who are used to giving orders and commanding obedience were forced to say they were "very sorry" to the Chinese government and people. On the other hand, there is anger that the Bush administration did not comply with China's entirely justified demands that it take full responsibility for this flagrant violation of China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and that the Pentagon has said nothing about ending its menacing and illegal spy flights. But whatever the next phase of this ongoing struggle, the Bush administration and all U.S. personnel in China are fully aware that the seething anger there against Washington will not be easily put aside by any settlement and that this anger played a major role in pushing Bush back. The New York Times put it bluntly on April 10 when it revealed that "President Bush's senior advisers have concluded that the most severe acts of retaliation they could threaten in the spy-plane stand off with China-selling advanced arms to Taiwan, restricting trade, derailing Beijing's bid for the Olympics-would not speed the release of the 24 American crew members and could harm longer-term interests in Asia." In the same edition an article from China reported, "Zhang Yin, an elderly newsstand owner, recalled a song from the Korean War to explain his feelings about the current crisis with the United States: 'When friends come, we have good wine to entertain them; but if jackals and wolves come, we'll use hunting rifles to shoot them,' he sang, adding, 'I have good feelings for the American people, but China should have shot the plane down!'" "The streets of Beijing," the article continued, "are filled with Mr. Zhangs," which explained why the negotiations with the Chinese to free the 24 crew members were "going so slowly." And it is not just the older generation that is aroused. "In one opinion poll on the Chinese Internet," wrote the Times, "13,000 of 15,000 net surfers said the collision was the result of a 'deliberate provocation.' " The U.S. government and the Pentagon have tried to pass off their spy mission as being in "international territory." But an article in the People's Daily of April 10 reprinted from the People's Liberation Army publication explained that the U.S. plane had been in China's "exclusive economic zone." It showed that an "exclusive economic zone" was defined in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as neither "territorial waters" nor "the high seas." It has its own legal status, which makes "freedom of overflight" conditional upon respecting the rights, laws and security of the coastal countries. The army daily pointed out that "as early as 1950, for its national defense security, the United States set up a so- called anti-aircraft identification zone outside its territorial airspace which extended several hundred nautical miles toward the Atlantic and Pacific oceans." Washington demanded that other countries, before sending their aircraft into the zones, "must inform the United States of the type and destination for purposes of identification, positioning and control. "As the Chinese saying goes, 'The magistrates are free to burn down houses, while the common people are forbidden even to light lamps at night.' That is the 'juridical logic' of the United States." Whatever the legality, the spy-plane incident is the result of a U.S. government provocation. The PRC has protested repeatedly about these incursions. According to Minxin Pei of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, speaking on PBS's "Newshour" on April 10, the U.S. flies over 200 such flights a year against China. BUSH'S ANTI-CHINA MANEUVERS This unexpected incident has caught Washington by surprise in the midst of preparing to execute a coordinated series of hostile maneuvers aimed at the PRC. The Bush administration is preparing to give Taiwan new generations of modern weapons, including Patriot missiles, anti-submarine aircraft and submarines. And it is threatening to also give Taiwan the Aegis radar and battle-command system. It is planning to sponsor an anti-China so-called "human rights" resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on April 18. It has also just permitted the Dalai Lama, the "god-king spiritual leader" of the former serf- owning clan aristocracy of Tibet, to travel to Taiwan to meet with the leaders of the Democratic Progressive Party. Their discussions would be about "independence" from China for Tibet and Taiwan. The Dalai Lama does not speak for the Tibetan masses. He and his entourage of feudal monks were ousted from Tibet by the People's Liberation Army in 1950. The meeting in Taiwan is part of Washington's threat to dismember China. PLAYING THE JAPAN CARD But most importantly, the Bush administration is moving to play the Japan card against China. Bush has let it be known, both during his presidential campaign and in office, that his administration is going to upgrade its relations with Japanese imperialism and downgrade its relations with China. To be sure, the Clinton administration began this shift in 1999 when it signed the so-called defense cooperation guidelines to include Japanese support for U.S. military operations in the region. As part of its strategic review of U.S. military policy and weaponry, the Bush administration has leaked plans to elevate its military relations with Japan, directed against China. For several years there has been a debate within the U.S. ruling class over relations with Japan. During the 1980s and 1990s Washington directed most of its efforts to forcing Japan to open its markets for U.S. investment, autos, agricultural products, financial services, and so on. This relentless economic struggle against the Japanese capitalist class worked against military cooperation. As China began to develop industrially, sections of the Pentagon became more and more critical, charging that Washington was subordinating its military preparations against China, and against any revolutionary development in Asia, to trade considerations. Bush has given signals that he intends to move in the direction of an imperialist military alliance with Japan. According to Business Week of April 16, "Bush's military planners believe that U.S. defense strategy should focus primarily on Asia rather than Europe as the next potential Battle Theater. That means the White House wants Japan to shoulder more responsibility for regional defense." This means lifting the ban on expanding the Japanese military, joint training exercises and sharing of facilities. Of course Washington will not go too far, for fear of strengthening Japanese imperialism too much. The Japanese monopolies have their own designs on Asia. The right-wing militarists in Japan are growing stronger. Japanese imperialism is the former colonizer of China. It committed unspeakable atrocities against the Chinese masses, as well as the rest of the countries of Asia, during the 1930s and up until 1945. In fact, the Chinese government recently denounced a decision by the Japanese government that approved a right-wing military version of history in junior high school textbooks. The textbooks made no mention of the infamous Nanking Massacre of 1937 in which 200,000 Chinese were killed. The books described the Japanese invasion of China as a form of liberation from Europe and the U.S. The fact that the Japanese government approved these textbooks is a measure of the political progress that the militarist and expansionist factions of the Japanese ruling class have made in the recent period. TWO VERY DIFFERENT APOLOGIES It was not lost on the Chinese government that after the incident in which Japanese nationals were drowned when a Japanese fishing vessel was sunk by the U.S. submarine Greeneville this February, the U.S. government and the U.S. military profusely apologized to their imperialist allies in Tokyo and to the families of the dead. This is in sharp contrast to Washington's stubborn refusal to apologize for the loss of the Chinese pilot and the destruction of a Chinese aircraft in the course of an illegal military intrusion. It is only natural to view the present provocations as continuous with the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. In fact, the destruction of the independent Yugoslav government and the takeover by imperialist- supported candidates can be regarded as the final stage in the counter-revolution in Europe, which now frees the U.S. imperialists to turn their attention fully to the East. The bombing of China's embassy can be viewed as the first shot fired across the bow by the Pentagon. Russia may have nuclear weapons, but it is wallowing in bourgeois corruption and decadence and in a state of decline. Its military is in a shambles. Its fleet is corroded. It has to take a millionaire on its space launch to earn a measly $20 million. It is in a state of financial dependency. While the Pentagon will certainly not ignore Russia, the counter-revolution there is already accomplished. It has become a semi-colony. The imperialist strategists see their fundamental task now as fostering counter-revolution and recolonization in China. ROLE OF ECONOMIC RELATIONS One immediate reason the Bush administration modified its aggressive posture towards the PRC after the spy plane incident is that many of the Fortune 500 corporations have contracts in China and are in the midst of expanding projects and sales there. This crisis comes at a moment of economic downturn in the capitalist world in general--a downturn being led by the U.S. It is a most inopportune moment for the corporations to interrupt their economic relations with China. Business Week of April 16, gives a good feel for these trepidations: " 'My one criticism of Bush so far is his inflexibility,' sighs one outside presidential adviser with strong business ties. 'Ultimately, the aim of policy is to let our stuff into China. Bush could apologize [for the death of the Chinese pilot], say this was no one's fault, and get on with it.' A no-fault exit from the crisis would obviously please U.S. multinationals." Furthermore, negotiations with China for entry into the World Trade Organization are supposed to wrap up by the end of this month. And the multinationals, including agribusiness, are waiting to sweep in as Chinese tariffs are lowered and regulations dismantled. But these negotiations are dragging on and on. China is resisting many of the excessive U.S. demands. An escalation of the crisis could have led to a great setback for the U.S. multinationals had the WTO agreement collapsed. But there is a much deeper reason for Bush to proceed with caution. Reaction in China to the Belgrade embassy bombing revealed the intense and widespread anti-imperialist sentiment that lies right under the surface among the masses. To be sure, they were encouraged to demonstrate by the government. But no government can produce the kind of anti-colonial rage that burst forth in 20 cities after the bombing. It was 150 years of foreign rule that gave the energy to those demonstrations. In the present crisis, this sentiment has resurfaced. The Chinese leadership has pursued normal relations with the U.S. government in order to secure trade and technology for the purposes of national development. They have every right to do so. However, it was thought that trade and economic "interdependence" would neutralize or stay Washington's hostilities. The present crisis and the anti-China military and political atmosphere surrounding it shows that no amount of trade, no economic ties can overcome the fundamental class antagonism between socialist China and the imperialist U.S. ruling class and its government. China's market reforms have severely eroded the socialist foundation, created unemployment and a high degree of inequality. There is a growing bourgeoisie and economic penetration by the multinationals. Nevertheless, the core of the socialist state, consisting of the Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army as well as significant state enterprises, remains in place. Furthermore, the Chinese revolution and its traditions are easily revived among the masses. In the present crisis there are reports of a popular yearning for a leader like Mao Zedong. The possibility is there for a regeneration of the anti-imperialist struggle and the revival of the revolutionary class struggle along with a thorough-going reassessment of relations with the U.S. imperialists and the market reforms. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: torstai 12. huhtikuu 2001 13:03 Subject: [WW] Cop Shooting Sparks Rebellion in Ohio ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 19, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- FOUR BLCK MEN KILLED IN FIVE MONTHS: COP SHOOTING SPARKS REBELLION IN OHIO Angry Crowds Defy Tear Gas, Stun Guns By Gery Armsby A rebellion against police brutality and murder has broken out in Cincinnati reminiscent of the anti-racist uprisings of the 1960s. Timothy Thomas, 19 years old and unarmed, was shot and killed early in the morning of April 7 by a white, off-duty Cincinnati police officer. This was the fourth time in only five months that local cops had killed an African American. It became the last straw. Cincinnati WLWT Channel 5 news reported that officer Steven Roach had been looking for Thomas because of outstanding warrants for his arrest. All were for misdemeanors or traffic violations. Roach pursued Thomas on foot and fired the fatal shot at the corner of 13th and Republic streets. Thomas died on the way to University Hospital. Outraged by the police killing of yet another Black youth, protesters began to gather in the streets on Monday morning, April 9, to put pressure on Cincinnati police to break a two- day silence over the shooting. Some demonstrators were members of the Cincinnati Black United Front, which had planned peaceful protests. The BUF had accused the police department of illegal harassment and profiling of Black people over a 30-year period in a lawsuit filed only last month. Later Monday, during a public city council meeting, angry local residents carrying signs and banners chanted and voiced their outrage. Eventually they were able to get Thomas' mother, Angela Leisure, to the podium to demand an explanation from city officials about her son's death. By the end of the day a multinational crowd of over 800 protesters, mainly youths, was in the streets in front of police headquarters. At midnight, riot police began to encircle the crowd that remained. They repeatedly fired beanbag stun guns and sprayed pepper gas in attempts to disperse the demonstration. Protesters fought back by lobbing bottles and bricks at the cops. Bricks were also aimed at city buildings. Police eventually charged the crowd and made at least 10 arrests. Dozens were injured in the clash with cops, mainly by police stun guns. Local hospitals reported admitting 25 people injured in the police riot. The next afternoon--Tuesday, April 10--protesters were back in the streets demanding justice for Timothy Thomas and an end to racial profiling. Hundreds of Black, Latino, Asian and white youths broke up into smaller groups that patrolled the streets with the message "stop racist killer cops" as they tried to evade arrest by police. Many people came out of their homes to signal support as they passed by. Police corralled a large group at Race and Green streets and launched a furious offensive of gas and plastic bullets. Numerous arrests followed. Most of the anti-racist demonstrators who were arrested face charges of criminal rioting and are being blamed for vandalism of city property. As Workers World goes to press, reports of angry protests and rebellion throughout the city continue to mount. Several schools were closed on Wednesday. The toll of arrests is up to 76, and dozens are reported injured. >From the local press to CNN and ABC, the commercial media have played up Thomas' arrest warrants to justify another police killing of a young Black man. Only lip service has been paid to the nationwide epidemic of racial profiling. In Cincinnati, police have been accused many times of using unnecessary force to pursue suspects. Of the four people killed in recent months, three were shot by police and a fourth was choked to death while in police custody. No white suspects have been killed by Cincinnati police during this period. Now the Cincinnati authorities are reaping the anger they have sowed. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: torstai 12. huhtikuu 2001 13:03 Subject: [WW] A Message from the Editor ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 19, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- A MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR Dear Reader: These are serious times. The Bush government is trying to dismantle what remains of social protection--just as economic crisis looms.. These are hopeful times. The struggle is growing against racism, sexism and gender oppression--the reactionary forces that attempt to divide the people's movement. There is widespread anger against a government that steals elections and takes its orders directly from big business. Workers World for over 40 years has analyzed, mobilized and educated on every issue of importance to progressive activists. Our writers go wherever there is news to report that you can't get anywhere else. What's happening in Cuba? Iraq? Yugoslavia? Korea? Palestine? We've given you first-hand accounts that tear a hole in the official lies and censorship. What's happening here in the struggle against racism? For Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier? For immigrant workers? On the labor front? For lesbian, gay, bi and trans rights? For a woman's right to choose? Every week, Workers World gives you the highlights of these movements. And we analyze how it all fits into the bigger picture--the historic struggle against capitalist domination of the world, the struggle for the socialist future. This is a plea for money. The green stuff without which there can be no office, no computers, no lights, no printing, no postage. We need money badly. So we've launched a special Spring Fund Drive. Rents and prices keep going up, but our class has been getting poorer. In the long run the economic downturn that hurts the bosses will build our movement. In the long run. But right now, we're in the same cash crunch as most workers. Do you want this paper to keep bringing the class truth to workers in this country? Then please, dig down deep and send us a contribution that will make a real difference. Thanks for helping fill the void created by the corporate media whiteout. Deirdre Griswold Editor, Workers World I want to help keep this newspaper alive and strong. Enclosed is $________ for the WW Spring Fund Drive, OR I'm pledging $________ to be paid over three months. Enclosed is my first monthly installment of $________. Name Address City State ___________ Zip _______________ ____Get in touch with me. I'd like someone from Workers World to come speak in my community. Phone:_____________ Email: _________________________________ Please send checks or money orders made out to WW Publishers to: Workers World, 55 W. 17th St., New York, NY 10011 - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: torstai 12. huhtikuu 2001 13:03 Subject: [WW] Racial Profiling Sparks Mall Boycott ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 19, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- RACIAL PROFILING SPARKS MALL BOYCOTT By Leslie Feinberg Cheektowaga, N.Y. A group of some 60 people--predominantly Black and ranging from very young to elders--stood on the soggy lawn at the Walden Avenue entrance to the Galleria Mall here on April 7. The messages on their hand-lettered signs varied, but they all arrived at the same point: Boycott! As drivers and passengers on the crowded highway passed the protest, many slowed to demonstrate which side they were on. They shouted in assent, waved, flashed victory signs, honked and clenched fists of solidarity. The crowd calling for a boycott of the mall waved back. Many in the group were encouraged by how many white drivers blared their car horns and waved in agreement with their cause. It was hard to hear the Rev. Darius Pridgen over the din of horns honking. Pridgen told Workers World that this struggle "will change the whole area. It will bring people together." CALL FOR PUBLIC HEARING He explained, "This protest is against blatant racism and discrimination at the mall and in the town of Cheektowaga by the police department and some of those sitting on the judicial bench. We are asking for very small things," he said. "Number one, we don't claim to be the voice for every citizen who has been harmed. So we are asking the town to hold a public hearing." That way, more accounts can be added to the record. On Feb. 26, Black area residents had packed a Cheektowaga Town Board meeting to demonstrate their anger at a pattern of Jim Crow racist incidents in this virtually apartheid suburb of Buffalo. Of the 100,000 residents here, only some 5 percent are people of color. The Town Board, town supervisor, both judges and the police chief are all white. So is the entire 133-member police department. The day of the Town Board meeting, the coalition set up two phone lines for residents to lodge complaints about racist abuse in Cheektowaga. By the next afternoon, more than 120 people had called with personal accounts--about half of which occurred at Walden Galleria mall. Hundreds more have called since. The coalition held an April 3 news conference to call on people of all nationalities to boycott every business in Cheektowaga in which racist mistreatment has taken place. At that media conference, Buffalo lawyer Roland Cercone told the media that the coalition had amassed enough data about racist discrimination and harassment to warrant a class- action suit against the town. THREE MORE DEMANDS The fact that the entire 133-member police department is white, Pridgen said, "allows the police department to operate with no checks or balances in regard to race relations." So the coalition is calling for adding Black police officers to the force. "We're not just concerned about the past, but about the future," he stressed. "So we're asking for the town to set up a Human Rights Division to investigate racism, discrimination and harassment." "The final thing," Pridgen explained, is that town officials "have to send out a clear message that racism or discrimination will not be tolerated in the town of Cheektowaga. They have not done that to this point. So now we wait for the meeting with the town. Then we begin to sit down at the table to bring about justice in this town." That meeting is set for April 18. "We'll be here again next Saturday," Pridgen concluded. Saturdays are the busiest shopping days at the mall. This Saturday morning a small group of about a dozen protesters had met in a church parking lot on the East Side of Buffalo in a cold downpour. Because of racist profiling of motorists by Cheektowaga police, everyone rode out together in a van. The group in the morning shift stood by the Walden entrance to the mall in the cold rain, holding signs aloft for passing motorists to read. The moment they appeared, honks of support began. By afternoon, when the location of the protest was broadcast on radio, 60 men, women and children filled the area waving to the many motorists--Black and white--who slowed down to demonstrate solidarity with the boycott. Mama B., an older Black woman, told Workers World she has been followed in the mall while she shops. "And it's a very hurtful thing. I love to shop, I love my plastic and I pay my bills on time." That's why she braved the cold vigil outside the mall to stand up for the boycott. "I am a flexible person. But I will not bend against my standard," she explained. She pointed toward the sprawling retail and entertainment complex. "It's not who built the mall that's the problem, it's who runs the mall. It's not about the workers in here. It's at the top. Hit the top." Al-Nisa Banks, editor and publisher of the weekly newspaper The Challenger, said this protest was "certainly long overdue. Ever since the tragic death of Cynthia Wiggins, this community has been waiting." In December 1995, Cynthia Wiggins--a young Black mother--was a passenger on a city bus coming from the African American community in Buffalo. It wasn't allowed to stop on mall property. She was killed trying to cross seven lanes of traffic on Walden Avenue to get to her job at the mall. Lawyers for her estate argued that the bus was barred from stopping at the mall to discourage inner-city residents from shopping there. Mall owner Pyramid Corp. settled the suit for $2.55 million in November 1999. Banks concluded, "We're going to have to take it to the next level of activism and organization. Some of us have to be willing to go to jail. To be truly effective, we have to go to those sixties' tactics that got us where we are today. " - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)