The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.47           December 28, 1998 
 
 
In Brief  
 Moscow: 23,000 teachers strike
Teachers in eastern Siberia and northwestern Russia staged an indefinite walkout December 15 with a demand that has become common among toilers there: back pay now. In Vologda 12,000 teachers at 443 schools and day-care centers went on strike. About 100 of them held a picket on the railroad tracks, which local authorities responded to by sending riot cops to the area. They have reportedly not assaulted the strikers, however. In Buryatia, Siberia, 11,500 teachers walked out and classes were suspended at 245 schools. The Russian government has accumulated millions of dollars in wage arrears to state employees over the past decade.

S. Korea workers protest layoffs
"Scrap the swap deal," chanted more than 10,000 protesting workers December 14 at the Daewoo Electronics Co. headquarters in Seoul, south Korea. They were referring to that company's plan to swap, or merge, debt-ridden subsidiaries with Samsung Motors Inc. under a government-mediated restructuring plan. The same day in the southern city of Pusan, another 10,000 workers from Samsung rallied against the plan, which is projected to include up to 40,000 firings. The Samsung-Daewoo deal is a centerpiece in Seoul's plan to consolidate pieces of the country's top five conglomerates. Workers have been holding daily protests since the scheme was announced in early December.

Tokyo takes over another bank
The Japanese government announced plans to take over Nippon Credit Bank December 13. The bank had bad loans totaling more than $31.4 billion, far higher than was previously disclosed.

While Tokyo's aim was to boost investors' hopes that the government is acting to stabilize the banking sector, the move cast doubt on the accuracy of other banks' bad loans claims. "Japanese business conditions continued to deteriorate virtually across the board through December," read the lead sentence in a December 14 Wall Street Journal article. The Bank of Japan's tankan - a closely watched survey that asks 9,129 companies if the economy is doing better or worse, then subtracts one from the other -worsened to minus 56 from minus 51 in October.

N.Y.: secret cameras on the rise
According to a New York Civil Liberties Union study, some 380 hidden surveillance cameras belonging to government agencies are filming parks, public streets, and sidewalks of Manhattan with the full blessings of New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Another 2,000 cameras operated by private entities are also in place, the study reports. Such cameras have proven to be "incredibly effective," in cutting crime, asserted New York City police commissioner Howard Safir, who added, "You have no right to privacy in a public place."

Doctors protest abortion ban
A dozen doctors in Hartford, Connecticut, say they will boycott the Hartford Surgery Center until it overturns a ban on elective abortions. Several other doctors sent a letter they signed December 10 to protest the ban, imposed by the center's main owner, HealthSouth Corporation of Birmingham, Alabama.

In related news, New Jersey joined the list of states where courts have struck down antichoice laws. Federal Judge Anne E. Thompson ruled that a state law, ostensibly aimed at banning a particular type of late-term abortion, was unconstitutional because it would threaten the health of women by denying them access to the safest medical procedures. Thompson also noted that the law was so vaguely written it could be used to prevent abortions altogether. Similar laws have been overturned by Federal courts in at least 10 states.

BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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