Farmers protest EU austerity
Some 4,000 farmers protested March 24 in Berlin during the
European Union summit meeting. The farmers from different
parts of Germany came on hundreds of tractors from all
directions. They rolled up Unter den Linden boulevard and
through the Brandenburg Gate to a concert of horn-honking.
One of the main subjects of discussion at the summit is
Bonn's slashing farm price supports. One banner read,
"Ecology and Relief Taxes are Killing Farmers." After taking
office last fall, the ruling Social Democratic and Green
parties quickly passed taxes, demagogically labeled "ecology
taxes," which shift even more of the tax burden onto working
people and farmers as well as further cut corporate taxes. In
what was called the largest police mobilization since World
War II, 4,000 police were mobilized for the summit,
sharpshooters posted on nearby rooftops, and water cannons
brought up.
Protests in Romania denounce high cost of living
Tens of thousands of workers in Romania took to the streets
March 24 in an action called by the unions to demand better
living conditions. In the capital, Bucharest, some 15,000
workers filled the main streets. Honks from hundreds of cars
in the procession melded with whistles and chants as
protesters made their way to the government headquarters. The
demonstrators demanded lower taxes, food stamps, and cuts in
electricity, water, gas, transportation, and telephone
service rates - all of which rose steeply this month.
Meanwhile, Bucharest is under the pressure of servicing $2.8
billion worth of foreign debt. Based on an deal with the
World Bank to accelerate the sell-off of state companies and
banks, Romanian prime minister Radu Vasile secured a loan for
$300 million March 23.
London moves toward extraditing brutal ex-dictator of Chile
London's top court ruled March 24 that former Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet could be extradited to Spain to
face some, but not all, of the charges of human rights
violations brought against him by a court there. In a
flagrant abuse of national sovereignty, Pinochet was arrested
in London last October at the request of two judges in Spain,
who issued the warrant for him for the killing of Spanish and
British citizens under his 1973-90 regime. Pinochet came to
power in a U.S.-backed military coup against social
democratic president Salvador Allende, and was responsible
for the deaths of thousands. According to the ruling by the
House of Lords, Pinochet will not be extradited on charges
against him of torture and other brutality that occurred
before so-called international human rights laws were
established in 1988, but London says there are still ample
charges for extradition.
Tokyo seeks to up military might
Officials of the ruling Liberal Democratic and Liberal
parties in Tokyo are clamoring for a more aggressive military
apparatus The pretext is a March 23 incident where Japanese
naval forces fired more than 1,200 warning shots and dropped
more than 10 bombs near two unidentified ships.
Tokyo claims the vessels, which did not stop and left Japanese waters, were probably from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and were "disguised" as fishing boats. Some ruling party officials are now pushing for permission to make the first strike against a perceived threat. Currently, Japanese military forces can only fire if attacked first. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi responded that the government would consider strengthening its ability to respond to such "attacks."
Chinese scientists deny spy claim
Li Deyuan, organizer of a 1986 conference of the Institute
for Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, denied
Washington's claims that Wen Ho Lee, a computer scientist at
Los Alamos National Laboratory, leaked nuclear secrets at
that meeting. Li said the conference "was simply and totally
a meeting about basic scientific matters," the Wall Street
Journal reported March 22. Lee, a Taiwan-born researcher, was
fired from his job at Los Alamos, New Mexico, after the U.S.
big business and capitalist politicians launched a propaganda
blitz accusing Beijing of espionage. Continuing the anti-
China barrage, U.S. president William Clinton announced March
18 that his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board would conduct
a "review" of security at U.S. nuclear labs. The announcement
came on the same day the U.S. House of Representatives voted
317-105 to approve a bill for building a nationwide "shield"
against ballistic missiles.
Oil plant in California blows up
The Chevron gasoline and jet fuel plant in Richmond,
California, near San Francisco, had a major explosion March
25, spewing thick black smoke over the surrounding area. Some
600 people rushed into three hospitals in the Richmond area
complaining of nausea, a metallic taste in their mouths, and
burning sensations in their throats. Chevron spokeswoman
Terry Swartz claimed, "If the question is, is there a health
hazard to our employees or the community, I don't believe
there is." Just a month earlier, four workers were killed and
one seriously injured in a fire at the Tosco Avon refinery,
also in the Bay Area, due to the company's shirking of safety
policies.
- BRIAN TAYLOR
Robert Dees contributed to this column.