The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.35           October 7, 1996 
 
 
In Brief  

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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