The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.44           December 7, 1998 
 
 
In Brief  
Moscow economic crisis deepens
Moscow's three-month moratorium on making interest payments on a $10 billion debt to foreign capitalist bankers and bondholders has expired, and Russian banks are scrambling to negotiate restructuring deals on their debts. Some imperialist creditors like Deutsche Bank have filed suit against the Russian financial institutions. Bank officials in Russia project more than half the country's 1,500 banks may fold as a result of lifting the debt-payment freeze.

German chancellor Gerhard Schroder, in a recent trip to Moscow, said Bonn would not issue further loans to Moscow. During his visit, in addition to talking with Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Schroder met with a range of opposition political figures. The International Monetary Fund is demanding an austerity plan before making further loans. The plan would include stiff tax collections from working people and opening up more Russian markets for capitalist investment.

Meanwhile, the government announced November 16 it would bar five of six major Russian oil companies from exporting crude if they failed to supply to Russian people. The same day, a bill was drafted to give the state powers to nationalize any company sold off at prices below market value, as well as those considered vital for protecting national interests.

Nuke workers in Russia: `pay us'
Three thousand nuclear workers, living in the Ural Mountains city of Snezhinsk, Russia, held a one-day strike November 19 to demand at least three months of unpaid wages and a 200 percent pay increase to offset rising inflation. About 100 striking workers picketed Snezhinsk local government headquarters. Pickets sought signatures on a petition to Russian nuclear energy minister Yevgeny Adamov that in part read, "Constant undernourishment, insufficient medical service, inability to buy clothing and footwear for children or to pay for their education...is the cause of our protests." In September nuclear workers in several Russian cities held a three-day strike with similar demands.

Official unemployment in Russia is 1.75 million, but the real figure, including those not registered for state aid and therefore not counted, could be more than 8 million - or 11.5 percent - of the country's 70 million-person workforce.

Romania: workers demand pay
Some 3,000 machinists and other workers marched through Bucharest, Romania, November 19 to protest unpaid wages, layoffs, and other antilabor features of bosses' "restructuring" plans. Many of the machinists are in the Machine Workers Trade Union. Machine tool workers' wages are below the national average wage of $120 a month.

Meanwhile, 150 copper miners in western Romania barricaded themselves in the Gura Barza mine November 18 until they are paid all their wage arrears. Miners have only been paid 60 percent of their wages from October.

Train workers strike in Italy
Train workers in Italy staged a one-day strike November 17, demanding issues surrounding their union contract be resolved. Unionists say 80 percent of Italy's trains were halted. This 12,000-worker-strong action was the latest in a series of strikes across Italy in the last two weeks.

Nat'l strike rattles Zimbabwe
Workers in major cities across Zimbabwe waged their second one-day strike November 18, paralyzing the country. The strike was called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions to protest President Robert Mugabe's refusal to subsidize skyrocketing fuel prices. Shops and factories in major towns were closed, trains were halted, and the business district in the capital city of Harare, was barely working. Mugabe has deployed soldiers to patrol townships throughout the country. Fuel prices have increased 67 percent, contributing to an increase in transportation costs of up to a 100 percent and a 33 percent increase in the cost of food and other essential goods.

Managua accepts Cuban doctors
After initially refusing the initiative that came from Cuban volunteers and the government, the Nicaraguan Health Ministry asked Cuban internationalist doctors for help November 18. Two days later Nicaraguan officials announced a health emergency. Six medical teams from Cuba, consisting of a doctor, a nurse, and an epidemiologist (disease control specialist), are set to arrive in Nicaragua November 21.

Soon after Hurricane Mitch decimated Central America, killing thousands, Cuba offered medical aid to the hardest-hit regions, including Nicaragua. Havana also canceled Nicaragua's debt. Managua accepted the aid, but refused Cuban doctors, claiming they couldn't be transported to areas affected by the storm. Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan government accepted doctors from other countries. An Associated Press article reported "sharp criticism by Nicaraguans" to the government's rejection of this internationalist solidarity. The massive flooding from Hurricane Mitch has left the Central American country with at least 17,000 cases of acute diarrhea, 39,000 respiratory infections, 554 of cases of dengue fever, 459 of malaria, and 68 suspected cases of swamp fever, or leptospirosis.

`Megan's Law' hits Queens, N.Y.
Community School Board District 24, in Queens, New York, ordered that photographs of people released from prison after sex crime convictions be posted in school hallways and cafeterias. The District 24 board also ordered detailed descriptions and photos of the alleged offenders be mailed to the parents of the district's 36,000 students.

The board was encouraged by an undemocratic law passed in New Jersey in 1994 emotively dubbed "Megan's Law" after a child who was raped and murdered, allegedly by a convicted sex offender. Immediately following the passing of the law, police precincts all over New York began informing school administrators of people paroled for sex crimes.

One man in New Jersey paroled after a sex crime conviction, was constantly harassed and eventually shot at by a vigilante this past June, nine days after his photograph was circulated. The assailant recently pled guilty to the attack and is now serving time in prison. The man who became a vigilante's target, in part due to Megan's Law, said, "I'm out of prison, but it's like I'm in a big prison now."

- BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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