Thousands strike in S. Korea
Thousands of workers have been striking in south Korea
against layoffs and threats of plant closings, flowing from
the increased sell off and "restructuring" of Korean
industries. Korean docks were idle as shipyard workers walked
off the job April 20 to protest Daewoo Heavy Industry bosses'
moves to auction off its shipbuilding division to eliminate
half its $49-billion debt and meet the terms of a $58-billion
loan being issued them by the International Monetary Fund.
Some 11,000 subway workers in Seoul, the capital, struck April 19 against plans to cut the workforce there by 20 percent. Five days later, about half of them remained camped in the Seoul National University. The government issued strikers an ultimatum April 23 to return to work by 4:00 a.m. on April 26, or face automatic firing. The next day 10,000 workers and students marched in the capital in solidarity with strikers and against the government ultimatum, including phone workers who were threatening to strike. Union officials called off the strike April 26.
Tel Aviv closes Palestinian office
Signaling Tel Aviv's intent to cut Jerusalem off from any
future Palestinian state, the Israeli government on April 22
moved to shut down Orient House - a Palestinian Liberation
Organization office in east Jerusalem allegedly being used by
the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israeli officials claimed
they were provoked because the PA - which is supposed to be a
sovereign legislative body - was conducting meetings with
foreign officials at Orient House. Palestinian official
Faisal al Husseini warned that the move would spark protests
throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Venezuela president given power to rule by decree on economy
The Venezuela Congress passed legislation April 22 granting President Hugo Chávez power to rule by decree on most policy matters regarding the economy. Two days later in a nationwide referendum for a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution, some 88 percent of those ballots counted voted in favor. Only 40 percent of those eligible voted, however. In weeks leading up to the vote Chávez threatened to declare an economic state of emergency and suspend the constitution if the legislature failed to submit to his demands.
Chávez is a Bonapartist politician who enjoys popular support for what he claims is a "social revolution" aimed at combating well-known government corruption and solving the economic crisis there. In mid-April, for example, hundreds of people protested in the Venezuelan capitol chanting "Dissolve Congress!" Opposition politicians decried the president's call for a public referendum. Despite his radical claims, "so far Chávez' policies have been relatively market friendly, putting to rest the worst fears of investors," wrote Steven Gutkin of the Associated Press. Among other things Chávez will use his powers to implement austerity measures from job cuts and tax increases to further loan deals with the International Monetary Fund.
Tax hike protested in Jamaica
Jamaican prime minister Percival Patterson agreed April 22
to reconsider a 30 percent gasoline tax hike that sparked
widespread protests. Street protests exploded in the capital
city of Kingston April 16 when the tax hike was imposed.
Thousands of demonstrators erected street barricades of
flaming tires. Bus and taxi drivers stopped work. Within
three days the protests spread across the island nation,
crippling business, transit, and schools. "We want the gas
tax to be removed," Keith Campbell, 21, told reporters.
Kingston imposed curfews - ostensibly to combat looting - and
deployed cops, who as of April 23 had killed at least seven
people and arrested more than 150. Opposition politicians in
the Labor Party sought to take advantage of the unrest to
call for Patterson's ouster.
Living conditions for working people in Jamaica are worsening. According to government estimates, a single balanced meal for a Jamaican family of five costs $43 - more than double the weekly minimum wage and equal to a few day's average salary. The government austerity measures are aimed at making interest payments to the rich rulers in that country and abroad. Some 63 percent of the national budget goes the country's national debt.
Farmers strike in Argentina
Farmers in Argentina went on a three-day strike April 19
by withholding their produce from the market to demand
minimum commodity prices to be set and guaranteed by the
state and a temporary moratorium on tax payments. The strike,
which includes organizations of large- and middle-size farm
industrialists, is being led by working farmers in the
Argentine Agrarian Federation. Working farmers are hardest
hit by low commodity prices, competition, and mounting debt,
which has resulted in the worst agricultural crisis in the
1990s. Agricultural products make up 60 percent of
Argentina's exports.
Many farmers want a minimum price for products, regulated by the government. Large landowners complain of new income taxes and increased interest rates. The average price for a ton of grain was $300 in 1996. By 1998 it plunged to $150 and fell again to $120 this year. The Argentine government sought to buy off the farmers by rescheduling back taxes, reducing interest rates on state-issued loans, and lowering fuel prices; with no concrete date for implementation. Farmers rejected the offer and went ahead with their protest strike.
Mexico students reject fee hike
Barricades are up, buildings are occupied, and school is
out at 27 of 36 colleges and faculties that make up the
National Autonomous University of Mexico. Tens of thousands
of students are taking part in actions to reverse steep climb
in tuition fees - from the equivalent of 2 cents to $145.
Most of the university's 275,000 students oppose the fee
hike. This is the third attempt by university administration
to raise the cost of college education since 1985.
INS triples deportations in the name of expelling `criminals'
Two years ago Washington stepped up deportations,
ostensibly as part of a campaign to reduce crime. The aim of
the deportations was supposedly those convicted of felonies.
Between 1994 and 1998, the yearly number of deportations from
the United States has more than tripled. The percentage of
those deported who were convicted of some crime, however,
stands at its lowest level in the 1990s. Two-thirds of the
171,816 people deported last year had never been convicted of
a crime. Many of the convictions that laid the basis for
criminal deportation are for minor offenses committed long
before the law was passed. Some 54 percent of the 451,712
undocumented workers deported in that period are Mexican.
- BRIAN TAYLOR