Strikes spread across Zimbabwe
Strikes, protests, and slow downs occurred throughout Zimbabwe in early July, as workers demanded increased wages and benefits. Trying to stem the actions, the government agreed to raises of more than 30 percent for construction, railroad, clothing, and communications workers. Now private sector unionists are demanding the same. Catering workers struck the hotels, rejecting an offered 34 percent raise as insufficient. Railroad, clothing and construction workers also continued to strike as of July 15. Real wages in that African country have fallen 40 percent in the past year, and inflation stands at 25 percent. Estimated official unemployment hovers at 35 percent. Meanwhile the government has been promising the IMF that it is committed to pushing austerity measures to lower the budget deficit.

Chinese workers fight layoffs
Tens of thousands of workers have reportedly taken part in actions in southwestern China demanding payments of unemployment benefits and protesting layoffs and factory closings. Protests began in Mianyang, Sichuan province, in late June when 100,000 unemployed textile workers rallied calling for government assistance. On July 10, cops attacked protesters there, injuring 100 people and arresting more than 80, according to a report by the U.S.-based Human Rights in China group. The Far Eastern Economic Review reported that in March, workers in a silk factory in Nanchong, also in Sichuan, took a manager hostage and occupied City Hall for 30 hours demanding six months back wages.

More devaluations in S.E. Asia
Several other governments in southeast Asia were forced to devalue their currencies following the plunge of the bhat in Thailand at the start of July. The ringgit, Malaysia's national currency, dropped 1.8 percent against the U.S. dollar July 14. This followed the devaluation of the Philippine peso a week earlier. The Singapore dollar also slid 0.6 percent against the U.S. dollar July 17, to its lowest level since February 1995, and the Indonesian rupiah wavered July 14.

Interest rates shot up in Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines as a result of the currency crisis. Meanwhile the Thai government, whose currency has dropped 20 percent, has reportedly appealed to Tokyo for a bail out, along the lines of the package of loans and guarantees that Washington used to hold up the Mexican peso in 1994, at a profit bonanza.

India: No to caste discrimination
On July 11, in Bombay, India, an unidentified person hung shoes around the statue of a popular anticolonial fighter among the Dalits, the lowest caste in the Hindu system, known as the "untouchables." This vandalism sparked protests by hundreds of people. Cops attacked the action, killing 10. Demonstrators fought back hurling stones at the cops. Thousands of working people poured into the streets of Bombay and surrounding areas the next day, outraged at the killings. Police arrested 2,111 people and killed two more protesters. Actions then sprung up in the neighboring state of Gujarat, including a general strike of that states lower- caste workers. On July 17 cops shot and killed a young protester there.

Maharastra chief minister Manohar Joshi defended the unprovoked lethal force used by the cops saying, "thousands more would have been injured if the police did not resort to firing." Meanwhile, the parliament elected K.R. Narayanan president. He is the first Dalit to hold this office.

Nuke workers march on Moscow
In early July, workers at the state-owned nuclear power plant in Smolensk, Russia, mounted a two-week, 360-kilometer march into Moscow demanding payment of back wages. Wearing their white protective gear, they were joined by workers from four other reactors and others. The protesters scored a victory July 17 when they forced deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov to agree to an immediate payment of $4.4 million in back wages, and a promise to pay workers on time to the year's end.

Floods devastate Europe
Thousands people from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany face massive devastation from flooding of the Oder River. Nearly 100 people were killed in the first two weeks of the deluge. Some 140,000 people have evacuated the more than 650,000 acres of land currently under water in Poland alone. Polish officials say 36 more villages may still be flooded. With a possible second flood on the way, tens of thousands of people are also prepared to evacuate their homes in the Czech Republic and eastern Germany.

Peru protests reject gov't spying
Protests are mounting in Peru over widespread government wiretapping and other attacks on democratic rights. On July 17 thousands marched through downtown Lima, the capital, protesting government spying and Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori's stripping away the citizenship of Baruch Ivcher, owner of a television station that criticized the regime. Cops with water cannons, and dogs were unable to quell the protests. At least five Peruvian cabinet members have resigned under the pressure of the protests - the largest since Fujimori came to power in 1990 - while the president's popularity has waned.

In late June, in face of an ongoing fight against the jailing of political activists and subhuman prison conditions, Fujimori was forced to release 116 inmates due to insufficient evidence, and ease some conditions. Families of prisoners will now have weekly instead of monthly visitation rights. Meanwhile, Washington on July 6 sent trainers, personnel, arms, and other equipment to Peru, in the name of providing assistance in the so-called "war on drugs."

Georgia prisoners tell of abuse
Special-trained, black-suited cops are carrying out violent prison raids in Georgia while conducting "contraband searches," inmates have charged. Overseen by State Corrections Commissioner Wayne Garner, cops handcuff, hog tie, and beat inmates, and destroy their property. In one case in January 1996, prison guards at Wayne prison picked up inmate Frank Snyder "many times and dropped him face down in the pavement." They punched him in the groin with riot batons and "stepped on his penis," a fellow inmate of Snyder told his grandmother. Prisoners also say they are refused medical attention. Garner denies the allegations, though dozens of inmates and at least eight guards and other prison staff said they witnessed the acts. Garner has eliminated educational and substance abuse programs, fired more than 300 teachers and counselors, and moved to dismantle recreation and rehabilitation programs. Prisoners have filed lawsuits over the abuse and called the media to protest, and the NAACP has called for Garner's resignation.

- BRIAN TAYLOR

Bob Braxton of Atlanta contributed to this column.  
 
 
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