The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.31           September 9, 1996 
 
 
Great Society  

BY HARRY RING
Maybe it was immaculate conception - A federal judge upheld the firing of an unmarried, pregnant teacher. He ruled that Harding Academy in Memphis, Tennessee, fired her not because she was pregnant but because she violated the school's ban on sex outside of marriage.

The civilizers - The Spanish government was forced to postpone the July 28 deportation of 16 African asylum seekers when passengers on the Iberia flight protested the deportees being bound and gagged and guarded by a dozen rent-a-cops hired by Iberia. Earlier it was disclosed that sedatives had been secretly used to facilitate the departure of 103 refugees.

Essence of management -Workers at a TV assembly plant in Zhuhai, China, have coped with tight work rules imposed by the South Korean owners. But anger welled when the boss saw a few workers nod off during a break and forced 100 to kneel down before her. "It was the best way to make them understand they had done wrong," she said. "I didn't mean to demean them .... It was just a management strategy I had to resort to."

Seemed clear enough to the jury -A Liverpool jury cleared four women who broke into a British Aerospace hangar with a hammer and damaged a jet, one of 24 being shipped to the government of Indonesia. The women explained the jets were being used to bomb the people of East Timor, to break the independence movement there. An irate government official found the jury's decision "difficult to understand."

Brass-knuckles seminar -What with increasing social and economic woes, conditions for union organizing are the best in 20 years, warns Executive Enterprise, sponsor of a seminar on union-busting. Fee, $1,195. Learn how to "identify and blunt the early warning signs of union activity." Recording devices and unionists barred.

Next they'll want them to be sober - Texas has legalized concealed handguns, but still bars them in schools, churches and amusement parks. The Dallas area Six Flags park then said it would not admit armed off-duty cops. A cops' lobby bleated that Six Flags "apparently hates law enforcement officers."

Check with Ticketmasters - It's now open. The top-secret 1950s bunker built under the superplush Greenbrier resort in West Virginia as a nuke shelter for members of Congress. So many people lined up to see the site that the Greenbrier is restricting tours to resort guests - at $25 a ticket. Public tours may resume in the fall.

There's a limit to suffering -International Paper exec David Oskin went to New Zealand to head up the IP subsidiary, Carter Holt Harvey. At $1.5 million a year (about $1 million U.S.), he topped the country's corporate salary list. But, for a U.S. biggie, the money was apparently too piddling. So he's back wielding the whip at the main office.

Terrorists? - To ensure a quality refurbishing of its 26- year-old Boeing 747-100 jet, the French line, Corsair, hired top-rated British Airways. When it was ready, Corsair officials were on hand to take the plane home. But, sadly, as it was being towed from the hangar, the landing gear buckled and the plane flipped back on its tail.  
 
 
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