Workers in Ukraine demand pay
Thousands of coal miners in the former soviet republic of
Ukraine held protest actions beginning February 10 to demand
months of unpaid back wages. There are more than 406,000 mine
workers in Ukraine. Several dozen workers at the Barakova mine
in the Luhansk region ended their strike February 19 after
bosses promised to pay back $47,000 in wage arrears. They had
occupied the underground mine since January 30. In the western
region of Lviv, some 4,000 miners struck two coal mines
demanding back pay for 1998.
Meanwhile, workers from five nuclear power plants in the workers state began protests February 18, demanding back pay and safer working conditions. Actions included a picket by 200 workers, clad in hazardous material uniforms, at a government building in Kiev. Demonstrators said they would begin job actions if wages were not paid by March 6.
Cops assault miners in Romania and arrest union official
A month after forcing the Romanian government to back down
from closing some mines, 2,000 coal miners began another
caravan headed toward the capital, Bucharest, February 16.
They were protesting pit closures and also the government's
sentencing in absentia of union official Miron Cozma to 18
years in jail for participating in miners' protests in 1991.
Police intercepted the workers 90 miles outside Bucharest near
Stoenesti with barricades and 2,000 riot cops.
The ensuing battle left at least one miner dead and 100 injured. Miners fought and defended themselves against the police with axes, chains, knives, and sticks. Thirty-five cops were reportedly injured with head wounds and broken limbs. During the cop attack Cozma was captured along with several other unionists. More than 500 demonstrators were arrested and miners were hauled back to western Romania by train. Romanian president Emil Constantinescu praised the police for "defending a state where the law is respected."
U.S. Army organizes `anti-terror' drills inside U.S. borders
Many residents in Kingsville, and Port Aransas, Texas,
were shocked as eight unidentified low-flying black
helicopters swooped through their towns on February 8 and 12,
dropping armed, helmeted soldiers. The Army's Delta Force - a
"counter-terrorism" unit from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was
"practicing skills of getting in and out of urban areas and
special operations for the missions they're responsible for,"
declared Army Special Operations Command spokesman, Maj. Jeff
Fanto. In Kingsville troops exploded grenades in an abandoned
Exxon building. At least 50 residents there called the police
department complaining about the maneuvers. More such
"exercises" are expected.
Colombia: Cuba sends doctors...
A Cuban medical brigade departed February 20 to aid
residents in Armenia, Colombia - the area hardest hit by a
devastating earthquake in late January. The Cuban government
and volunteer health workers are responding to a request by
the Colombian government. In the name of combating thieves,
Bogotá initially responded to the January 25 quake by
deploying thousands of heavily armed troops and cops against
working people who, in the absence of adequate emergency aid,
took food and other necessities from local stores.
Cuba currently has more than 2,000 health professionals in 57 countries. Of those, more than 200 volunteers are providing services in Central American and Caribbean countries ravaged by Hurricane Mitch.
...while Washington backs the Colombian military's `drug war'
The Clinton administration is training, equipping, and
funding the Colombian police and military in their assault
against rural toilers and guerrilla forces. Washington claims
the $249 million being allocated for this project is aimed
primarily at fighting drug trafficking.
Under pressure to win preferential trade through "certification" from Washington for fighting drugs, Bogotá has stepped up the destruction of coca crops in recent years, without offering aid and credit to farmers to produce other crops. Such crop destructions set off large peasant protests in 1996, drawing the support of workers and students. The Colombian government in cahoots with paramilitary forces have responded with brutal killings of peasant activists.
Both the U.S. and Colombian governments also try to link the guerrilla groups National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to the drug trade. "The Americans badly want the FARC defeated, supposedly because it plays a big part in the drug trade," read an article in London's February 20 issue of the Economist. "So they pile up invective and military hardware against it, in the guise of antidrug support."
More U.S. workers are unionized
Union membership in the United States grew in 1998 by
101,000 to 16.2 million people, according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS). Health-care workers, public employees,
and service workers reportedly comprised the largest increase
in unionization.
The Service Employees International Union, for example, recruited 60,000 new members to its ranks last year - more than the previous five years combined. Among workers who are Black, 17.7 percent are unionized today, compared to with a general work force that is 11.6 percent Black. For Latinos the unionized rate - 12 percent -is also higher compared to 11 percent in the overall work force. The BLS report stated that the rate of industrial workers in unions in comparison to jobs available dropped from 14.1 percent to 13.9 percent. Kirk Adams, the AFL-CIO organizing director says the BLS report isn't totally accurate because it doesn't count more than 400,000 workers who joined unions, but were unable to negotiate and sign contracts with the various companies by December 31.
Cops finally drop frame-up case against Geronimo Pratt
After 29 years of struggle, onetime Black Panther Party
leader Geronimo Pratt is finally free of the "justice" system
in Washington and Los Angeles. In 1972, Pratt was convicted of
a 1968 killing that occurred in Los Angeles while he was in
Oakland, some 500 miles away, attending a state Panther
leadership meeting. He was jailed for two years before his
conviction and served eight of his 27 years behind bars in
solitary confinement. Pratt's attorney Stuart Hanlon made
numerous unsuccessful appeals over the years based on new
evidence. Finally in 1997 state judge Everett Dickey threw out
the conviction and ordered Pratt's release, declaring that key
evidence was withheld from the court.
The principle witness against Pratt, Julius Butler, was a cop informer who infiltrated the Black Panthers. District Attorney Gil Garcetti had appealed Dickey's decision twice and was twice rejected. On February 17 he announced he was dropping the case, though he could have appealed it again to the state supreme court.
- BRIAN TAYLOR
Harry Ring from Los Angeles contributed to this column.