Israeli copters blast S. Lebanon
Israeli helicopters fired rockets into Lebanon September 13 in an assault on the Hezbollah guerrillas who are opposing Tel Aviv's occupation of the southern portion of the country. Several hours before the attack, Israeli soldiers ambushed Hezbollah fighters who were in the Israeli-occupied zone, killing one guerrilla. Hezbollah has threatened to launch suicide bombers against Israeli forces if they mount a new offensive. A massive Israeli bombing campaign in April drove 400,000 people from their homes in Lebanon and left more than 100 dead, many of them refugees in a United Nations camp.

S. African miners win pay raises
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa, which has 350,000 members, reached an agreement with the mining bosses that includes 5 percent to 13 percent pay raises for gold and coal miners. Most of the workers will get between 8 percent and 10 percent wage increases. In addition to the raises, NUM won provisions that help combat vestiges of the apartheid system. Thomas Ketsise, an NUM official, said the mining companies will have to sponsor training, retirement, and death benefits for black workers.

France pilots strike over safety
Four pilots unions at Air France Europe walked off the job September 11, after one pilot was disciplined earlier that day for refusing to take off in a protest over security. The company claims that the airplane checks the pilot was asking for were unnecessary and that the pilot had refused to take off 35 times this year. The strike halted about 40 percent of the airline's domestic flights and grounded the flights across Europe. Air France threatened to take the unions to court for not giving five days' strike notice.

UK unions debate minimum pay
After much debate, delegates at the Trades Union Congress conference in Britain voted overwhelmingly in favor of proposing a 4.26 ($6.64) an hour national minimum wage within the first year of the anticipated incoming Labour government. Labour Party officials urged the trade unionists to wait until a successful election before discussing concrete numbers. John Edmonds, general secretary of the General, Municipal, Boilermakers, and Allied Trades Union, agreed, saying delegates should not be "parading" their divisions on the actual numbers, but instead celebrating their unity on the principles.

"It's time to name a rate," Rodney Bickerstaffe, general secretary of Unison, Britain's biggest union, said. "A decent minimum wage of 4.26 an hour is the defining issue of trade unionism." Labour Party head Anthony Blair said no figure will be set until after elections. David Willets, the British paymaster general, claims that anything above 4 an hour would mean the loss of up to a million jobs.

National Union of Mineworkers president Arthur Scargill, a leader of the recently formed Socialist Labour Party, won applause at the conference when he said he was "sick and tired of Labour Party leaders telling us not to rock the boat."

Sandinistas change anthem
The Sandinista general secretary and presidential candidate in Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, announced the changing of the party's current anthem from one that vows to "fight against the Yankee, enemy of humanity," to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." Ortega said the change, made official September 6, "corresponds to the stage that we are living in.... Conditions have been created so that the United States and Nicaragua, and in particular a new Sandinista government, can establish harmonious relations."

Women chain gangs in Phoenix
Self-proclaimed "equal opportunity incarcerator" sheriff Joseph Arpaio, of Phoenix, has set into motion the country's first female chain gang. Inmates, bound by thick leg irons, will work five days a week for 30 days, supervised by armed guards. "These women will be placed in the same areas where I place men, out in the streets of Phoenix where everyone can see it," Arpaio said. Thirty-four women, many of whom are confined to cramped disciplinary cells with four others, applied for a spot on the chain gang.

N.Y. cop gets five-year jail term
Blake Struller, a New York cop for seven years, was sentenced to five years in prison for dealing drugs, evading taxes, and breaking into property without a search warrant. He is one of 26 cops convicted so far in an investigation that revealed that a third of the patrol officers in Harlem's 30th Precinct were involved in numerous crimes, including keeping goods confiscated at crime scenes and extortion. Struller got the third stiffest sentence in the investigation so far. In addition to the time he has to serve in jail, he faces a $10,000 fine and must perform 300 hours of "community service" on his release.

Gov't okays abortion exclusion
The U.S. Senate upheld the current exclusion of abortion from medical treatments covered under the federal employees' health insurance plan. Congress has taken more than 50 votes on the abortion question over the last two years, with most of them calling for restrictions. With the exception of cases of rape, incest, or possible injury to the mother, there is no coverage for abortion for government workers.

Sen. Michael DeWine argued that not funding abortion is not about abortion rights but a "very, very narrow" question of taxpayers' money.

S. Koreans protest at U.S. base
One hundred Koreans protested in front of a U.S. military base in Seoul, South Korea September 14. They were responding to the slaying of a South Korean prostitute by a U.S. soldier September 7. Gen. John H. Tilleli Jr., a commander of the U.S. military in Korea, called the killing "tragic and senseless" and expressed his regret. But protesters said this was insufficient. They called for an apology from U.S. president William Clinton, the troops' commander-in-chief.

Washington has some 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea. In August, thousands of students confronted riot police for nine days demanding the reunification of Korea and the withdrawal of the U.S. forces.

U.S. wages likely to keep falling
Drawing from a report issued by the U.S. government's Competitiveness Policy Council, an article in the September 13 Financial Times of London stated that "the trend of declining real wages for most US workers is likely to continue during the next 15 years, while wage inequality in the US will continue to grow."

Average real wages are $1.20 below their peak level in 1973. The report concludes that while some workers might see marginal improvements in their wages, "almost all groups of workers" have had wage deterioration. "There is little likelihood for significant advances," the report found, "particularly for workers who suffered income setbacks in recent years."

Hawaians vote on referendum
More than 30,000 native Hawaiians voted three-to-one in favor of some form of sovereignty in a mail-in plebiscite September 13. Above, Sol Kahóohalahala, chairman of the Hawaiian sovereignty councils, announces results, which are supposed to lead to a constitutional convention, probably in 1998. The Hawaiian government of Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown by U.S. capitalists, backed by the Marines, in 1893. Native Hawaiians make up 13 percent of the Pacific islands' population of 1.2 million today.

-- Brian Taylor  
 
 
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