Kurdish leader faces execution
A Turkish court sentenced Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
leader Abdullah Ocalan to death June 29. Ocalan's arrest in
February sparked angry outpourings by Kurds around the world.
He had been forced out of exile in Syria last October after
Ankara threatened the Damascus regime with military action for harboring him there.
For decades the Kurdish people have resisted attempts by the governments in Turkey and other countries to suppress their language and culture. The Turkish government denies Kurds the right to read, write, or be educated in their own language. The PKK has been waging an armed struggle against the government in southeastern Turkey since 1984. Kurds comprise 12 percent of Turkey's population of 65 million people. Some 20-30 million Kurds are divided between southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and southern Armenia.
Indian jets bomb Kashmir rebels
In a fourth night of air strikes, Indian warplanes pounded
Kashmiri guerrillas based in the Himalayan mountains July 1.
Washington, London, and other imperialist powers have lent
tacit support for these assaults by New Delhi, which claims the
fighters are Pakistani troops and Afghan mercenaries.
The Muslim majority in the region has waged a decades-long struggle for self-determination. More than 20,000 people have been killed in the region since 1989.
Ever since India and Pakistan won their independence from London in 1947, the governments of the two countries - formed as a result of British colonialism's divide-and-rule tactics - have clashed over control of Kashmir. India, which controls two-thirds of the region, shares a 2,000-mile border with Pakistan. The governments in Pakistan and India have fought three wars since 1947, and in 1990 teetered on the edge of a nuclear confrontation following increasing protests in Kashmir.
Industrial output sinks in Japan
Japan's industrial production dropped to the lowest level in
five years in May and shrank about 1.2 percent in the country's
first fiscal quarter, which ended June 30. Japanese capitalism
has been in a deflationary crisis throughout the 1990s. The
Tokyo stock market, the Nikkei, collapsed from 40,000 at the
end of 1989 to below 14,000 in August and September 1998. As of
June 25, the Nikkei was reported at 17,437. In 1989 Japanese
shares in dollar terms accounted for 45 percent of total world
stock prices; by mid-1998 the figure had slumped to about 10
percent.
Also in May, the number of unemployed workers soared by 410,000 bringing the overall jobless total to 3.34 million people, a post-World War II record. "Japan will begin 2000 at least 5% poorer than it ended 1996," said an article in the Economist. "For ordinary people of Japan, the pain can only get more acute."
Mozambique workers end strike
Striking workers at a cement factory in Matola, Mozambique,
went back to work June 28 after winning a 30 percent wage
increase. Workers walked off the job June 18 after demanding a
50 percent pay hike, better working conditions, and the
dismissal of a racist manager. Bosses at the Cementos de
Mocambque company said the strike caused them a loss estimated
at $1.72 million.
Currency drops in Colombia
Facing its worst economic recession in decades, the
Colombian government devalued the country's currency June 28 by
about 12 percent relative to the U.S. dollar. This was the
second devaluation of the peso by the regime of President
Andrés Pastrana. Imperialist investors have been pressing the
Colombian government and capitalists to pay up on the country's
foreign debt and sell off two electric utilities, ISA and
Isagen. The sale would bring in more than $1 billion into the
Colombian government's coffers.
U.S troops leave Panama base
U.S. military forces handed over control of Fort Sherman,
its last base on Panama's Caribbean coast, to the Panamanian
government June 30. Washington has imposed its military
domination on the Panamanian people since 1903, when U.S.
marines landed in Colón in order to build the Panama Canal
under U.S. control. A U.S. colonial enclave was established in
the Canal Zone that controlled the political and economic life
of Panama for decades.
Under pressures from working-class struggles in Panama and international solidarity, U.S. President James Carter was forced to sign historic treaties with Panamanian leader Gen. Omar Torrijos in 1977, promising to relinquish Washington's control of the Panama Canal by the year 2000. Other U.S. military bases scheduled to return to Panama's control this year are Fort Kobbe, the Clayton Base, and Howard Air Force Base. The Panamanian government is pressing Washington to clear out its military waste, including large amounts of unexploded military shells from several firing ranges.
Boeing, Airbus: price war looms
Highlighting their competition, The Boeing Company announced
a deal to purchase 17 of its rival Airbus Industrie's wide-body
jets from Singapore Airlines in order to sell Boeing 777s to
the airline. John Leahy, senior vice president and commercial
director of Airbus, warned of a possible price war and
declared, "We're preparing our counterattack at the present
time."
Boeing and Airbus, the world's two largest aircraft producers, have battled each other for decades to win market share. The competition for orders has driven down commercial aircraft prices 20 percent in the past two years, squeezing the companies' profit margins. Last year Airbus won a major order from British Airways for the first time, prompting bitter complaints from its chief competitor. In 1997 Boeing bosses took a loss for the first time in 50 years as Airbus grabbed 42 percent of the commercial aircraft market. Meanwhile, McDonnell Douglas was taken over by Boeing.
Farmers face glut crisis
While farmers in the United States could harvest a record 3
billion bushels of soybeans this fall, they also may receive
the lowest prices since the 1970s. A grain glut is estimated
for soybeans, corn, and wheat. In the first quarter of 1999 the
price index for farm commodities fell 5 percent from last year.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, net farm
income dropped by an estimated 14 percent between 1996 and
1998.
Bill restricts young women's access to abortion
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill June 30
that would make it a federal crime to travel with a woman under
18 to another state to get an abortion in order to circumvent a
parental-notification law in her home state. More than 20
states have laws requiring youths under age 18 to tell their
parents before having an abortion. On June 7 Texas Gov. George
Bush signed a parental-notification bill into law and New
Jersey Gov. Christine Whitman took similar action three weeks
later.
- MAURICE WILLIAMS