Iraq rejects `new' sanctions plan
Baghdad rejected June 18 a proposal sponsored by British and Dutch government officials to accept a "new inspection agency" with a new group of UN "arms inspectors" in exchange for a partial lifting of the U.S.-led embargo imposed on Iraq in 1990.

Abdulghani Abdughafur, an Iraqi government official, said the deal would only "prolong the unfair embargo on Iraq." The pact would require UN Security Council approval every four months and could be scuttled any time the Clinton administration decides to crank up its punishment of the Iraqi people. In January of this year, White House officials were forced to admit U.S. spies worked under cover on teams of UN "arms inspectors."

Meanwhile, U.S. warplanes bombed an Iraqi radar installation near the city of Mosul June 18. The jets were enforcing Washington's "no-fly zone" imposed on northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War slaughter, supposedly to protect Kurds in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south. The "no-fly zones" cover more than 60 percent of Iraq.

Asian crisis expected to worsen
Officials of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the economic crisis hammering workers and peasants in the region "is likely to worsen," London's Financial Times reported June 21. The ADB study said the crisis, which erupted in mid-1997, has provoked rising unemployment, plunging incomes, more hunger, and deteriorating health care. In Indonesia, the world's fourth-largest country, the poverty level jumped from 11.3 percent of the population in 1997 to up to 20 percent in 1998.

Imperialist banks foisted short-term loans on governments and corporations in Asia at an accelerating rate in the 1990s, precipitating the crisis. By the end of 1997, the foreign debts had ballooned to $140 billion in Indonesia, $150 billion in south Korea, and $95 billion in Thailand.

Russia, Chechnya border clashes
Chechen fighters opened fire at Russian outposts and barracks June 18, killing seven policemen and Interior Ministry troops. The day before, the Chechens fired mortars at the Russians and killed three Interior Ministry guards. Chechen residents in a village near the border said 17 homes were hit by Russian helicopter rockets and mortar.

Attempting to crush the Chechen independence movement, the regime of Boris Yeltsin launched an invasion in December 1994 by 30,000 Russian soldiers. This was a deeply unpopular war among working people in Russia.

During the first year and a half of relentless Russian army bombing and shelling, an estimated 35,000 people were killed and the capital city of Grozny and dozens of Chechen villages were devastated. The Chechen fighters defeated Moscow in 1996 and forced the Russian army out of their territory. The Kremlin, however, does not recognize Chechnya as an independent state.

Oil workers protest in Venezuela
Laid-off oil field workers in Venezuela have been protesting the construction of an oil refinery using contract workers. The workers have also demanded safe working conditions and compensation for the families of employees who have been killed or maimed by accidents on the job. Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez sent in 250 military police June 16 to protect the construction site, a joint venture between the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and the U.S.-based oil company Conoco.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's 40,000 oil workers won pay hikes of 3-6 percent after threatening to strike against a decision by PDVSA to freeze their wages in 1999.

Mexican workers strike for raises
Workers at the Han Young truck parts plant in Tijuana, Mexico, have been on strike since May 3. They are demanding a 35 percent wage increase, government-mandated profit-sharing, and a wage scale linked to seniority. The city government's Special Forces police detachment and state cops tore down strike flags posted at the facility and escorted 70 scabs into the plant. The strikebreakers, however, did not know how to operate the plant's welding equipment and were forced to leave.

The Han Young workers, who organized the independent October 6 Union for Industry and Commerce in 1997 to replace the government-affiliated union, earlier struck the company in May 1998.

Mexican bank goes belly-up
Mexico's Bank Savings Protection Institute announced June 17 it would take over Grupo Financiero Serfin S.A., the country's third-largest bank, which had declared bankruptcy. Serfin's shares had dropped 41 percent since the beginning of June and are now worth about five cents each. The agency said it would inject at least $1.3 billion to make the bank available for sale.

Mexico's banks held thousands of bad loans when the peso was devalued in 1994. Under new legislation, several Mexican banks were for the first time taken over by imperialist banks, including Wall Street's Citibank. The new law ratified a government "bailout" of the Mexican banking system of some $60 billion - 16 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Serfin unloaded $6 billion in bad debt on the Mexican government in that "rescue" deal.

GM bosses campaign for job cuts
As contract negotiations approach between the Big Three auto barons and the United Auto Workers (UAW), the bosses are preparing their campaign to squeeze more out of GM auto workers.

"GM's labor costs per vehicle were nearly double Toyota's and 31% higher than archrival Ford Motor Co.'s," asserted a June 18 article in the Wall Street Journal. The article said GM bosses need to dump 40,041 workers to match the productivity of Toyota's North American plants and almost 30,000 to equal Ford's. Last year UAW members at two GM plants in Flint, Michigan, walked off the job for several weeks, shutting down much of the auto giant's assembly and parts operations in North America. The strike began when workers walked out over health and safety issues, outsourcing, subcontracting, and demands for production "efficiency" through speedup.

- MAURICE WILLIAMS  
 
 
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