German unions threaten strikes
Klaus Zwickel, president of the IG Metall, the metal workers union, warned of widespread strikes after October 23 unless the employers drop their plans to cut sick pay entitlements. "The consequence is that we will then have more confrontation," Zwickel said. The dispute over sick pay was ignited by a new law passed by the German parliament that slashed the minimum statutory sick pay to 80 percent of wages. Several companies, including Daimler-Benz - Germany's largest company - attempted to take advantage of the new law, but backed down after unionists waged warning strikes.

After a four-hour meeting with union officials in Frankfurt October 10, Werner Stumpfe, president of the employers federation Gesamtmetall, stated, "There is no occasion for optimism.... The views are wide apart." Stumpfe said the meeting was about whether the wages of 3 million workers at 8,000 companies in the industry "will be compatible with the world market." German gov't starts deportations
A 29-year-old Bosnian refugee was sent on a plane to Sarajevo October 9, as Bavaria became the first German state to begin deportations of refugees from Yugoslavia. Officials of the 16 states met with the interior ministry in August to prepare a three-phase program to deport the 320,000 refugees residing in Germany. Bavaria plans to deport 20,000 people by next summer, including immigrants between 18 and 55 years old who are receiving welfare benefits.

Attempting to deflect condemnation of the expulsions, Bavarian interior minister Gunther Beckstein stated, "Anyone who suggests we are giving these people the heave-ho or planning mass deportations is misleading the public." In order to win public support, the Bavarian government plans to include among the first deportees refugees convicted of criminal charges. U.S. pushes African `peace' force
U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher, while touring the African continent in early October, proposed a 10,000-strong military force of troops from African countries to respond to "man-made and natural disasters." Washington offered to pay half the $25-$40 million cost to finance the imperialist-inspired force, while counting on its allies in Europe and the United Nations to pick up the rest of the tab.

London's Financial Times reported that "Jacques Godfrain, Francés cooperation minister, has poured scorn on the sudden American interest in the continent." Paris was one of the main imperialist powers to colonize Africa and maintains troops in a number of African countries today. Jordan: war looms in Mideast
Fearing that Palestinian tensions could boil over into Jordan, King Hussein of Jordan told a London-based Saudi newspaper, Ashraq al-Awsat, that the Israeli government was adopting a "siege mentality" that threatened to unleash a "fury bordering on despair" among the Arab masses. In the interview published early October, Hussein asserted "everything imaginable can happen, including a revival of 1991 when [Benjamin] Netanyahu [now the Israeli prime minister] wore his gas mask on television." Meanwhile, a broad coalition of 21 Jordanian organizations met October 9 and called for a freeze on diplomatic and commercial ties with Tel Aviv. Turkish premiere is in hot water
Opponents of Turkish prime minister Necmettin Erbakan called for his resignation and threatened to call a no-confidence vote in parliament following his visit to Libya, Egypt, and Nigeria. Erbakan came under particular fire for comments made by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi at a joint press conference near Tripoli October 5. "Turkey has lost its will.... Turkey's future lies not in NATO, U.S. bases and repressing the Kurds, but in its nobility and its past," Qaddafi lectured a stunned Erbakan. "Kurdistan should be established. I'm talking about the Kurdish nation." Some 21,000 people have been killed in Ankara's 12-year war against Kurdish guerrillas fighting for independence.

"Erbakan should return to Turkey without wasting any time," said Turkey's former prime minister Mesut Yilmaz, "and submit his resignation." Beijing, Tokyo dispute islands
The Chinese government warned Tokyo October 9 it was provoking a "confrontation" over disputed islands in the East China Sea. Beijing and the regime in Taiwan united to oppose actions by members of the right-wing Japan Youth Federation, who built a lighthouse on one of the islands. Protesters in Hong Kong broke into the Japanese consulate there demanding the return of the islands from Tokyo to China.

According to the New York Times, Chinese nationalist groups have demanded Beijing and Taipei use military force to seize the islands from Tokyo. Tensions escalated during the first week of October when protesters from Hong Kong and Taiwan broke through a cordon of Japanese coast guard vessels and planted Taiwanese and Chinese flags. The islands are a suspected source of petroleum. S. Korean protesters face charges
Prosecutors in south Korea demanded prison terms of up to three years for 62 students charged with organizing demonstrations on August 15. The 7,000-strong action called for the reunification of Korea and an end to the massive U.S. military presence in the south. More than 1,000 police and students were injured in the fighting that followed a police assault on demonstrators at Yonsei University in Seoul August 15. Nearly 6,000 students were arrested during the 12-day standoff. A total of 444 youth face charges in connection with the protests. 10,000 Blacks rally in Honduras
Some 10,000 people from Black communities throughout Honduras rallied October 10 in Tegucigalpa to demand their democratic rights, which have been violated for the past 200 years. They traveled to the Honduran capital in a caravan of buses and cars from the Caribbean town of La Ceiba and met up with a contingent of Garífuna people coming from the states of Cortés and Yoro. They delivered a document presenting their basic needs and demanding immediate attention from the government of Honduran president Carlos Roberto Reina. The protesters called for immediate title to lands they use in five of the country's 18 states, as well as the construction of schools, health centers, roads, and electrification. High school students walk out over `pro-family' resolution
Some 200 students in the middle and high schools of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, walked out of classes October 8 to protest a "pro-family" school board resolution. Those who refused to return were suspended for three days. About 35 of the suspended youth protested outside the school again the next day, under threat of having the suspension extended to five days. Citing the "traditional family" as being "under relentless attack," the Elizabethtown Area School Board adopted a resolution that "affirms that pro-homosexual concepts on sex and family as promoted by the National Education Association will never be tolerated or accepted in this school." Several students told the Harrisburg Patriot-News they interpreted the resolution to mean that students of divorced parents or students who are homosexual would no longer be welcome at school.

- MAURICE WILLIAMS  
 
 
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