Toba Singer
San Francisco, California

Random drug testing Massive random drug testing came about as a result of a tragedy that occurred in 1987 when an engineer named Ricky Gates caused the deaths of several passengers on an Amtrak train. There is no doubt that drug use played a role in the disaster though the fatigue factor was lost in the ensuing hoopla.

What is in doubt is the motives of the bureaucrats, media moguls, televangelists and industrialists who used this terrible incident to their own ends. There was a Congressional investigation, television specials, Elmer Gantry sermonizing and gleeful promises of even more widespread drug testing in the wake of this incident.

In the end it was decided that random drug testing was to be the wave of the future, even though this program seemed a clear violation of the Constitutional Amendments regarding: A) unreasonable search and seizure B) self-incrimination, and C) unwarranted government intrusion-as well as a violation of the concepts of "reasonable suspicion" and presumed innocence.

The case went to the Supreme Court where it was ruled that "the public's right to safety overrides any claim to individual rights." If the High Court purports to "protect the rights of even the least of us" then workers in drug tested industries are therefore the "less than the least." This ruling hearkens back to similar decisions in favor of slavery, the Japanese internments, etc., and is not a good reflection on our current judiciary.

Jeff Grab

Lakeland, Minnesota

New Zealand protests
On May 3, up to 3,000 students and young people staged a protest rally at the University of Otago's Student Union. University and polytechnic students nationally owe the government NZ$900 million and this is expected to rise to $1 billion this year.

Surprising police and university officials, students successfully occupied the university registry instead of marching into the city center as planned. Once inside the building students presented the vice-chancellor with a list of demands opposing "user pays education" and made plans to occupy the building over the next few days. Sixty to 100 students took part in the occupation which lasted three days.

Meanwhile in Auckland, 2,000 students protesting against their fees joined protesters demonstrating against the Asian Development Bank Conference and its support of countries with poor human rights records. Fourteen people were arrested at the demonstration amid allegations of police harassment.

Protest actions were also held in Hamilton, Palmerston North and Wellington.

Education Minister Lockwood Smith, who previously pledged "to abolish fees or resign," stated that "the fees issue was a dead issue" and was unavailable to talk to student leaders.

Kyle Webster

Dunedin, New Zealand

Palestinian struggle
On May 20, Hanan Ashrawi, a spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization during the 1992 peace negotiations, addressed over 200 people at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston. Currently, she directs the Independent Commission for Citizens Rights, which monitors human rights abuses.

"Palestinians were never accepted on an equal footing and continue to be denied sovereignty," she said. This was clearly demonstrated in the recent move by the Israeli government to confiscate 130 acres of Arab-owned land in East Jerusalem.

"There is no way to reconcile the peace process with the settlement process," she stated. The U.S., which supplied itself as a mediator during the negotiations, has not played this role and in fact "has been a party to the conflict."

She pointed to the U.S. casting its first veto in the UN Security Council in five years on May 17, blocking a resolution that declared the land grab invalid. It is significant to note that the last U.S. veto of a UN resolution in 1990 blocked a resolution calling for a fact- finding mission to report on alleged abuses of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

During the discussion period Ashrawi was asked what brought the Israelis to the negotiating table. She explained that it was an accumulation of events including the end of the cold war, the isolation of Israel coming out of the Gulf war and the intifada. The intifada was the resistance movement of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories against subjugation and repression. She credited the intifada with "convincing many Israelis, not just in the government," that the occupation could not be sustained.

Ashrawi throughout the meeting called for an expansion of democratic forms of functioning in Palestine. For example Hamas, a group opposed to the peace accords, "are part of Palestinian public life" and that there needed to be space for open discussion and debate. The presentation ended with a "statement of hope. The worst thing would be to adopt the conclusion that there is no alternative to what is unfolding. And to have confidence in the will of the people."

Nancy Boyasko

John Harris

Boston, Massachusetts

The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of general interest to our readers. Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Please indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.  
 
 
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