Lebed elected Siberia governor
With his eyes on the presidential elections in 2000, rightist politician Aleksandr Lebed, a former commander in the Russian army, was elected governor of Krasnoyarsk May 17 with nearly 60 percent of the vote. Using populist demagogy, he promised to end corruption and restore "order," appealing to workers in the mineral-rich Siberian region where many have gone unpaid for months and public services are in shambles.

A former head of Russia's National Security Council, Lebed placed third in the first round of the 1996 presidential elections. An opponent of the gains of the Russian workers state, the procapitalist politician said, "The worst thing that has ever happened to Russia is that for 70 years the sense of private property was beaten out of our people."

UN to cut food aid to Korea
Catherine Bertini, director of the United Nations World Food Program, announced that food aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will be reduced, claiming that the government reneged on its promise to let the agency's personnel inspect the whole country. The DPRK has been requesting international assistance in the face of severe food shortages due to natural disasters, including two years of flooding followed by a drought. This has devastated the agriculture in the north. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said in early March that DPRK's food reserves are almost exhausted, and international aid would be needed until this fall's harvest.

Tel Aviv bombs Lebanon
Tel Aviv launched a midnight bombing assault in Lebanon May 13 on a camp of the Palestinian group Fatah Uprising near the Syrian border, killing up to 10 people and wounding 22. It was one of the deadliest bombings in Lebanon since the 16-day aerial and ground blitz by Israeli troops that killed 175 people in 1996. Beirut radio reported that Israeli troops used cluster bombs, which explode above target and spray shrapnel for maximum casualties. Israeli troops have occupied southern Lebanon since 1978.

Postal workers strike in Zimbabwe
The postal workers union in Zimbabwe called a nationwide strike after 600 Post and Telecommunications Corporation workers were locked out May 15 in the capital city of Harare. "When the workers asked why they had been locked out... [the company] told them to apply for their vacant posts," said Gift Chimanikire, the postal workers union secretary general. Telephone technicians have been demanding a wage increase, and said they would only return on the condition that the bosses ceased victimizing employees and propose an immediate offer of genuine salary increases

S. African unionists demand equal education for blacks
Members of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU) joined other affiliates of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in a May 12 action in Cape Town demanding equal education for blacks. SADTU threatened to call for Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu's resignation if he did not allocated funds for black working-class schools. COSATU's Western Cape secretary Tony Ehrenreich wrote in a memorandum that the National Party-led government in that province lacked a "satisfactory programme to transform the inequalities which exist in this province." The message also demanded that the provincial government accept federal funding earmarked for bridging the wide gap between schools. Ehrenreich noted that the teacher-student ratio in predominately white schools is 1 to 25, with up to 60 students to one teacher in the mostly black classrooms. COSATU said that if their demands were not met by May 31, further mass action could be expected.

U.S. `aid' package aimed against Cuban revolution
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms and 21 other legislators introduced a bill May 14 touted as providing $25 million in annual "aid" to the Cuban people. The measure, which is explicitly portrayed as a political move against the revolutionary government in Havana, would offer food, medical equipment, and cash to the Catholic church and other "nongovernment organizations" in Cuba. One provision in the bill would require an increase in U.S. government backing to opponents of the revolution in Cuba, dubbed "democratic opposition groups." Another would provide aid for Radio and TV Martí, which broadcast Washington's propaganda, to transmit from the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay. The base occupies a piece of Cuban territory that Washington refuses to return to the Cuban people. Helms asserted that if Havana rejects this supposed assistance "then 11 million Cubans will know exactly who is responsible for their daily suffering."

Speaking to a meeting of the Swiss-Cuban Friendship Association in Geneva May 16, Cuban president Fidel Castro denounced the proposal, saying, "They want to ignore the government, to distribute [aid] in a humiliating and absolutely unacceptable way."

Honduran unionist killed
Honduran banana workers leader Medardo Varela was shot to death May 10 by two unidentified attackers. Local cops claim they had no further details. Varela was a leader in a fight against the U.S. companies Chiquita Brands and Standard Fruit, demanding compensation for 5,000 Honduran peasants who were blinded, sterilized, or developed cancer from the toxic DBCP pesticide used on Honduras plantations between 1968 and 1980. As a result of the struggle, seven U.S. companies agreed to pay $41.5 million to 14,000 plantation workers in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa. Of this, 3,000 Honduran workers received just $100 each.

Jury rules to execute insane man
A jury in Marin County, California, voted 9 to 3 May 14 that inmate Horace Kelly, a 38-year-old Black man, was mentally fit to be executed for murder. It is supposedly unlawful to execute the insane, so before a prisoner is put to death psychiatrists examine them. If their sanity is in question, the state convenes a hearing to decide. Six of the seven behavioral scientists who testified during Kelly's hearing agreed that he is "schizophrenic," talks in gibberish, and in general has no concept of his surroundings. Very few people have ever been taken off death row for insanity. Kelly's execution date is set for this summer.

- BRIAN TAYLOR AND MEGAN ARNEY  
 
 
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