Strike ends at Belgium airline
Workers at Sabena, the Belgian national airline, ended a
three-day strike February 8 after shutting down flights to
and from Brussels. The workers have waged a series of one-day
strikes since last year against company plans to freeze
wages, increase working hours, and change work rules. The
fight began when Sabena management dumped wage agreements,
trying to reverse slumping company profits.
Canberra steps up role in Asia
Australian prime minister Paul Keating has been taking
steps to strengthen Canberra's military and economic role in
Asia. In December, Keating signed a defense agreement with
the government of Indonesia, headed by President Suharto.
Suharto was the general in charge of the army during the
bloody 1965 crackdown against government opponents that
killed hundreds of thousands of Indonesians. This is the
first bilateral military pact with an Asian country for the
Australian government, which has been under Washington's
"security shield" since World War II.
Government officials in Australia and New Zealand are negotiating measures to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area. Both nations are excluded from the East-Asian Economic Caucus, an economic relationship among a group of Asian countries.
Strikes mark end for Swazi king
"Crippling strike action and the recent political turmoil
in Swaziland marks the beginning of the end" for the monarchy
of 28-year-old King Mswati III, wrote Adrian Hadland for The
Star, a major Johannesburg news daily. "The monarch and his
self-appointed cabinet face an increasingly confident and
militant pro-democracy movement," Hadland added.
The right-wing Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) in South Africa charged that the Swazi labor movement was infiltrated by African National Congress members from South Africa to destabilize Swaziland. Jabulani Nxumalo, the assistant secretary of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions, said the AWB wanted to protect the Swazi tribal system because it thrives on racism and tribal nepotism like the old apartheid system in South Africa. "The AWB so-called warning is an insult to the Swazi nation," he stated. "Who wants to be warned by rejects?"
Shell admits arming Nigeria cops
The multinational oil giant Shell recently admitted
sending weapons to Nigeria to help arm police. Activists
charge that the cops functioned as death squads that
slaughtered Ogoni people protesting against environmental
devastation of their lands. "Shell has purchased sidearms -
handguns - on behalf of the Nigerian police force who guard
Shell's facilities. But once imported, the arms remain the
property of the Nigerian police," said Shell spokesman Eric
Nickson.
Mobile cops killed 15 people in the village of Umechem in 1990, where peasants angered at the pollution were attacking Shell facilities. Shell pulled out of the Ogoni region in 1993.
Washington targets the Sudan
Clinton administration officials announced February 1 the
closing of the U.S. embassy in Sudan, claiming that the
Khartoum government refused to guarantee the safety of U.S.
government personnel from terrorist attacks. Washington
includes Sudan on its list of nations that supposedly sponsor
international terrorism.
The United Nations Security Council passed a U.S.-backed resolution January 31, demanding that Khartoum "com- ply...without further delay" with the extradition of three men accused of participating in the June 1995 assassination attempt on Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The Sudanese government was given 60 days to respond, after which Washington may seek to impose sanctions or other punitive actions.
Haitian gov't restores Cuba ties
Jean-Bertrand Aristide announced February 6 that the
Haitian government was reestablishing diplomatic relations
with Cuba. The move was Aristide's last official act as
president before swearing in the country's new president,
René García Préval, February 7. Cuban foreign minister
Roberto Robaina attended the inaugural ceremony.
The late Haitian dictator, Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier, broke relations with Havana more than 30 years ago in response to pressure from Washington. His son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, was overthrown Feb. 7, 1986, ending 30 years of a U.S.-backed family dictatorship.
Oil workers strike in Peru
Some 2,000 oil workers in the northern region of Peru are
waging a strike against the privatization of the state oil
enterprise, Petróleos del Perú, that is threatening to
extend across the country. The oil workers union began the
strike on February 1, when more than 20 union members were
arrested for blocking the entrance to the refinery in Talara.
According to government plans, the Talara refinery will be the first one to be privatized and 1,500 workers dismissed. "The protest action has paralyzed the operations of production in the northern region of the country," declared Miguel Freitas, the secretary general of the oil workers' union.
Mexican troops attack protesters
Some 1,000 Mexican soldiers and cops attacked a group of
500 Indian peasants and oil workers February 7, who occupied
an oil well in Nacajuca. For a week, thousands of angry
workers and peasants have occupied and blockaded oil wells of
the state-run Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in the Gulf Coast
state of Tabasco.
Pemex officials said the protesters took over 60 sites. At oil wells in one county, Chontal peasants burned tires at a barricade made of pipes, tree trunks and sand. The peasants are organizing sit-ins and roadblocks to protest Pemex job cuts and the sale of its petrochemical plants, as well as environmental damage and ruined crops caused by the oil company.
N.Y. cops force teens in lineups
New York cops ordered 15-year-old Shaka King, a Black
youth, into their unmarked car January 17 and drove him to
the 24th Precinct station house where he and his friend were
forced to participate as "fillers" in a police lineup. "I
told them I wasn't interested," King said February 2, "but
they wouldn't take no for an answer. I was afraid to run
because I thought they might shoot. So I went with them."
King's attorney, Joseph Fleming, announced he was filing a class action law suit against the police department. "This is unlawful imprisonment," he said. "Would they do the same thing to white youngsters? We think the answer is no."
Managers guilty in mine blast
David Steele, former general superintendent, and Russell
Faulk, former foreman of Pyro Mining Co., plead guilty
January 29 to federal mine safety charges that arose after a
1989 western Kentucky coal mine explosion that killed 10
miners. Both men were accused of lying about unsafe
conditions, including gas buildups, in order to enhance
company profits. U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley agreed
not to link the trial of the two managers with the deaths of
the 10 workers by banning any mention of the deaths at the
trial. Sentencing is set for May 13.
- MAURICE WILLIAMS