The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.20           May 20, 1996 
 
 
In Brief  
Big May Day march in Mexico
Despite cancellation of the official union rally, up to 200,000 people demonstrated in Mexico City in a May Day parade. Fidel Velázquez, the 96-year-old head of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), tried to call off the demonstration by 40 unions and threatened to expel CTM affiliates for participating. This was the second year in a row the official union federation has attempted to cancel the traditional May Day parade. Last year only three CTM-affiliated unions participated, but this year 10 joined the march, including the large telephone workers union.

"Times have changed. We're here to demonstrate our opposition to government policies," said one worker at the march, José Abel Evangelista. "Now we don't feel so obligated to render obedience to... the government." Since December 1994, when the Mexican peso devaluation devastated wages and threw 1 million people out of work, there has been growing social unrest. The May Day protesters demanded wage increases, job security and an end to the privatization. While they marched, Velázquez joined Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo at an offical ceremony, attended by a carefully picked audience that numbered in the hundreds.

Cops in Turkey kill two marchers
Thousands turned out for a union-organized May Day demonstration in Istanbul, Turkey, protesting high inflation and the eroding standard of living. Before the demonstration began, police began searching participants. When some workers refused and protested, the police reacted killing two and injuring four others.

Berlin march protests cuts
Twenty thousand workers turned out for the union-organized May Day demonstration in Berlin, protesting a proposed reduction in sick pay and cuts in disability and jobless benefits. Dieter Schulte, head of the German Federation of Trade Unions, declared, "Whoever takes away workers' sick pay is playing with fire. Under the cover of alleged social abuses, the government is fighting the workers, not unemployment." German chancellor Helmut Kohl recently claimed that abuse of sick pay is one of the greatest burdens to employers.

Another 10,000 people demonstrated the same day in the eastern Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg. Police attacked the demonstrators with water cannon and tear gas, arresting 60. Some 300 neo-Nazis held a counterprotest calling for "German jobs for German workers."

7,000 miners strike in Chile
At the world's largest copper mine, nearly 7,000 workers went on strike May 2, halting production. Located 1,000 miles north of Santiago, the capital of Chile, the Chuquicamata mine opened with a handful of scabs and supervisors. Workers at the Chuquicamata mine rejected the company's 3 percent wage increase and one-time signing bonus of $2,715. The miners are demanding a 4 percent raise and a $4,700 bonus. Workers at the Chuquicamata mine walked out for one week in 1991.

Oil workers strike in Norway
Some 700 workers struck at several Norwegian oil fields May 4. The walkout was called by the Norwegian Federation of Oil Workers in solidarity with more than 400 scaffolding, paintwork, and insulation workers at oil service companies. The maintenance workers have been out on strike for three weeks to demand inclusion in a general wage agreement.

Six off-shore oil platforms have been affected by the strike, which has cut Norway's production of 3 million barrels per day by one-third and is costing the government $20 million a day. Natural gas output may also be affected if the strike continues. Norway is the largest oil exporter outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

U.S. intervenes in Liberia
Asserting the need to protect the U.S. embassy, Washington sent three warships with 2,000 marines toward Liberian shores May 5. On April 30, U.S. troops killed three Liberians and wounded one, alleging they had fired toward the embassy during heavy fighting in the streets of Monrovia, the capital. For six years two rival factions have fought a civil war, which has killed 150,000 people.

Charles Taylor, leader of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, which is currently in power, warned Washington to stay out of the internal affairs of the West African country. His forces have been fighting those loyal to Roosevelt Johnson, a member of the former national army under the late president Samuel Doe. U.S. troops flew Johnson to safety in Nigeria May 3.

Asian-Americans in New York protest racist comments
Minutes after 2,000 Asian-Americans rallied outside Queens City Hall May 2, councilwoman Julia Harrison was forced to read an apology for racist comments she made in an interview in the March 31 New York Times. In the interview, commenting on the growing presence of Asians in Queens, Harrison spoke of them as criminal smugglers, rude merchants and aliens who depressed the wages of U.S.-born workers.

The crowd marched from Columbus Park to City Hall in Queens. Garment and restaurant workers from around the city came to the protest, which was called by the Asian American Alliance, formed by more than 40 Asian-American groups after Harrison's comments. "I couldn't bear not to come," said Ying Chan, a garment worker from Brooklyn who came with about a dozen co-workers.

Caterpillar refuses safety checks
In April, Caterpillar Inc. twice defied a federal warrant seeking to allow a safety inspection by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The company was held in civil contempt May 3 and assessed fines of $10,000 a day.

U.S. district court judge James McClure Jr. affirmed the earlier warrant authorizing an inspection of the company's York, Pennsylvania, plant, and rejected Caterpillar's attempt to vacate the authorization. In a statement, Caterpillar vice president Duane Livingston said the company was "disappointed" by the order. He also said NIOSH's inquiry "was spurred" by a request from the United Auto Workers union, which represents 1,450 workers at the York plant. In 1994-95 the UAW struck Caterpillar for 17 months. One issue in the strike was safety.

Debate on gas prices
Gasoline and diesel fuel prices in the United States shot up 10-15 percent in the past three months. Republican presidential candidate and Senate majority leader Robert Dole blamed federal gas taxes, particularly a 4.3 cent tax increase implemented by the Clinton administration in 1993, and proposed repealing the levy. Republican senator Philip Gramm supported this proposal, saying, "When I get a chance to cut taxes on working people, I take it." House majority leader Richard Armey joined in, suggesting education funds be cut in return for repealing the gas tax.

Democratic congresspeople and others who defend the tax argue that it protects the environment by reducing fuel use, and that the revenues are needed to cut the federal budget deficit. At the end of April President William Clinton announced the sale of 12 million barrels of oil from the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, saying this would bring down fuel prices.

- Megan Arney  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home