Paris deports more workers
Stepping up its campaign of scapegoating immigrant workers for the country's economic woes, the government of France deported 43 people to Zaire July 19. France interior minister Jean-Luis Debré announced that three planeloads of workers have been deported in the past month, and that the government is planning weekly charter flights to expel people. Two are already set for Zaire and Algeria.
Human rights groups in France denounced the government's actions. An estimated 4 million immigrants, many from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, live there.
French bank gets bailout
The European Union July 26 approved a whopping $9.3
billion bailout plan for the French bank Credit Lyonnais.
It is the biggest bailout in EU history. The rescue
package is based on the condition that state-owned Credit
Lyonnais, Europe's largest bank, sell at least 35 percent
of its non-French assets by 1998.
European Union officials sought to reduce state subsidies for the bank without pushing it into bankruptcy. Credit Lyonnais lost more than $2 billion in 1994.
U.S. Gulf fleet to police Iran
The White House announced in mid-July the formation of a
permanent naval fleet to patrol the Persian Gulf, less
than 24 hours after Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani
made a goodwill gesture to Washington in an effort to ease
hostilities. The Fifth Fleet will include 2 nuclear-
powered submarines, 15 ships, an aircraft-carrier with 70
warplanes, and 10,000 troops. The military show of force
bolsters the Clinton administration's recently imposed
economic embargo on Iran.
Meanwhile, the Iranian military concluded an eight-day exercise in the northern Gulf at the beginning of July involving 58,000 troops to mark the seventh anniversary of the downing of an Iranian passenger plane by the USS Vincennes.
Chinese WWII victims press case against Tokyo
Chinese victims of Japanese atrocities in World War II
are planning a delegation to Tokyo Aug. 6-15 to press for
compensation. The delegation may file suit on behalf of
more than 800,000 people victimized by the Japanese
military.
The delegation includes two women forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops, as well as victims of Tokyo's biological experiments. Beijing states that 35 million Chinese were killed or wounded during the eight-year war against the Japanese occupation of China that broke out in 1937.
Seoul praises U.S. imperialists
South Korean president Kim Young Sam praised
Washington's role in the Korean War during an address to
the U.S. Congress July 26. The speech was given on the eve
of the 42nd anniversary of the end of the imperialist
slaughter, in which hundreds of thousands of Koreans were
killed along with some 54,000 U.S. soldiers.
Kim called for maintaining the U.S. military presence in South Korea, which still numbers some 40,000 troops, "to maintain stability in the Asia-Pacific region."
Peasants occupy Honduras farm
Some 300 peasants occupied the banana complex owned by
the Tela Railroad Co. in Tacamiche, Honduras, recently.
The peasants vowed "to be prepared to die" if evicted and
have been joined by the agricultural workers union. The
peasants were part of a group of 3,000 workers fired by
Tela last year in retaliation for a strike demanding
higher wages.
Meanwhile, more than 2,500 Indians began a hunger strike for better living conditions July 21 in front of the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa.
Teachers strike in Costa Rica
Some 50,000 teachers in Costa Rica went on strike July
17, closing about 4,000 public schools, as well as four
state universities. The teachers are demanding a
presidential veto of a recently approved pension law.
Another 10,000 state workers joined the teachers' strike July 19, protesting government plans to reduce the workforce. Meanwhile, the central labor union in Costa Rica has issued a call to prepare for a general strike.
Unfair conviction overturned
Earl Berryman walked out of the New Jersey State Prison
July 21, three weeks after a federal judge ordered that he
be released and given a new trial for a 1983 rape charge.
Noting that the only evidence against Berryman was his
identification by the victim, Judge Dickinson Debevoise
ruled that Berryman's attorney made "egregious errors"
that were "fatal to a fair trial."
"This should have never happened to me," said Berryman, who had served 10 years of a 50-year rape sentence and maintains his innocence. Berryman left the prison accompanied by an investigator for Centurion Ministries, a national organization that works for inmates who were wrongly convicted.
INS arrests 27 at poultry plant
Immigration officials arrested 27 undocumented Latino
workers July 18 at the Showell Farms poultry processing
plant in Maryland. According to the Washington Post, INS
agents set up road blocks outside the plant entrance and
stopped every "foreign-looking" worker who entered by car
or bus.
Company officials claiming that they did not know of any undocumented workers declared, "We don't want anyone here illegally." Showell Farms, a 400-employee facility, was bought by the Perdue company several months ago.
Grain reserves at 20-year low
The amount of U.S. wheat and corn in reserve before next
year's harvest is projected to be at the lowest since
1975. According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington has
been draining grain stocks for several years and is paying
farmers to idle 36 million acres of farmland for the next
10 years.
Trying to boost low prices for capitalist farmers, which resulted from a 1994 record corn harvest, the Agriculture Department required corn farmers enrolled in its price- support program to idle 7.5 percent of their eligible land. Grain analysts expect corn production to drop 23 percent from 1994 and prices to shoot up.
- MAURICE WILLIAMS