Tel Aviv expands settlements
In mid-September, Israeli authorities approved plans to
build nearly 4,000 homes in Zionist settlements in the West
Bank, expanding existing settlements. According to
Palestinians, the land allotted for the new buildings was
confiscated from the neighboring Arab villages of Naalin and
Deir Qadis. On August 11, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
who took office June 18, had announced a decision to lift a
four-year freeze on Israeli settlements on occupied Arab land.
Other Israeli settlements, announced August 27 by the Zionist
regime, would bring 15,000 new settlers to the Kiryat Seifer
colony in the West Bank. There are 145,000 settlers living in
the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza now, among 2
million Palestinians. Dennis Ross, the Clinton administration's
envoy in the talks between Netanyahu and Palestinian leader
Yasir Arafat, said in Gaza September 18 that settlement
building was a problem. "We continue to see it as the kind of
activity that complicates the negotiation process," he told
reporters.
16,000 workers strike in Russia
More than 16,000 power plant workers in the far-eastern part
of Russia went on strike September 16. Unionists walked out
over back wages owed to them since April. Other state
employees, including workers at a nuclear submarine repair
factory, bus drivers, doctors, and teachers have threatened to
join the strike. Yevgeny Nazdratenko, governor of the Primorsky
region where the power plant is located, and government
officials in Moscow are blaming each other for the economic
woes in the area. According to London's Financial Times, the
strikers have called on the Kremlin to dismiss Nazdratenko, who
was elected by a large margin in 1995. A referendum on
Nazdratenko's administration is planned for late September.
German bosses may cut sick pay
Engineering bosses in Germany threatened September 18 to cut
sick pay entitlements after parliament approved an austerity
program. On September 13, the Bundestag (lower house of
parliament) approved a new law that would reduce workers' sick
pay from 100 percent of wages to 80 percent, raise the
retirement age for women, and make it easier for small
businesses to lay off workers. The vote in the Bundestag was
well above the 337 needed to reverse the defeat of the
austerity package by the Bundesrat (upper house), the second
chamber representing the states. Several unions said they
would strike in defense of the present sick pay rules. Ursula
Engelen-Kefer, vice-president of the Germany Trade Union
Federation, threatened court action if employers break existing
contracts. Sick pay rules in Germany are among the best in the
world. The working class won these entitlements as a result of
industrial battles by the union movement in the late 1950s.
Seoul claims `infiltration'
Thousands of South Korean troops were combing rugged
hillsides for a fourth day September 21 looking for North
Korean soldiers who allegedly infiltrated the south after
abandoning a submarine September 18. According to the New York
Times, South Korean soldiers killed 7 of the North Korean
troops, found 11 others dead, and captured one. The prisoner
has been "uncooperative" in continuous interrogations, South
Korean authorities said, who claim another 7 soldiers from the
north remain at large.
South Korean officials claim the "infiltrators" were disguised in South Korean military uniforms and carried the same kind of American M-16 submachine guns that are used by South Korean troops. Washington currently has 100,000 U.S. troops stationed in Asia, with about one-third of them stationed in South Korea. U.S. secretary of defense William Perry admitted last year to planning military strikes against North Korea in 1994.
Rebels in Mexico gain popularity
According to an article in the September 20 New York Times,
the new rebel organization Popular Revolutionary Army has
carried out a successful recruiting drive in the southern part
of Mexico. In interviews with officials, priests,
schoolteachers, health workers, and others - recruitment seems
possible in other areas as well. "Revolutionary ideas sprout
like seeds in fertile ground," Rev. Wilfredo Mairén told the
Times. Government statistics show that 22 million of Mexico's
94 million people live in extreme poverty. During the 19-month
economic depression that has engulfed Mexico since the plunge
of the peso, 2 million workers have been laid off and wages
have been cut nearly in half. Four out of ten Mexicans still
live in the countryside, but agriculture produces only 10
percent of the country's wealth. "On the peasant side, we're
seeing a brutal impoverishment," said Hubert Cartón de
Grammont, a sociologist. Anti-government attitudes are
prevalent in the southern and central part of Mexico, according
to a recent poll.
Cease-fire in Guatemala
The Guatemalan government and rebel groups signed a peace
accord in Mexico City September 19, that calls for a cease fire
and a reduction in the size of the army and its budget. The
country's military has conducted a 35-year war against the
rebels, in which more than 100,000 people have been killed. As
many as two-thirds of the Guatemalan population is of Mayan
Indian descent and have historically supported the guerrilla
movement. The armed forces want an amnesty for past crimes, but
the rebels reiterated they will not accept such demands. The
conflict has its roots in a 1954 military coup, sponsored by
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which overthrew the
elected government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. Arbenz had been
elected in 1950 and was trying to carry out a land
redistribution program. Dwight Eisenhower, U.S. president at
the time, and the United Fruit Company with huge investments in
Guatemala, vehemently opposed the land reform.
Ottawa to fund Cuban airport
The government of Canada has agreed to finance construction
of a third terminal at Havana's international airport. Cuba's
Civil Aviation Institute awarded the $25.5 million project to
the Ontario-based Intelcan Technosystems. The deal is a slap in
the face of Washington's economic embargo against Cuba. The
U.S. sanctions, tightened this summer by the so-called Cuban
Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996, or Helms-Burton
law, impose penalties on foreign companies that invest in Cuban
property confiscated by working people from U.S. companies
after the 1959 revolution. Meanwhile, the Canadian
government tabled legislation in mid-September that would clear
the way for Canadian companies to act against U.S. court claims
under the Helms-Burton law.
VMI forced to go co-ed
The Virginia Military Institute decided September 21 to
admit women beginning in the fall of 1997 - ending the
college's 157-year-old male-only tradition. In June, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that VMI must allow female students to
attend if the school is to continue receiving funds from the
state. The Board of Visitors, VMI's governing body, heard
arguments from the college's alumni to make the school private
rather than comply with the court's ruling. The final vote was
9-8 for complying with the Supreme Court ruling. VMI would have
had to raise not only the funds to purchase the campus -owned
by the state - but also the $10 million in annual operating
funds needed to replace state funding. About 80 women have
requested information on entering VMI since the Supreme Court
decision. The Citadel in South Carolina, which had been the
only other all-male military school in the country, accepted
female students this fall after the high court ruled against
VMI.
- MEGAN ARNEY
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