Russia, Belarus sign accord for closer economic, political ties
Moscow and Minsk agreed in mid-December to facilitate closer
economic and political ties. The governments of Russia and
Belarus signed a declaration calling for a union treaty to be
drawn up by the middle of 1999. The agreement could lead to a
common currency; a joint defense, security, and foreign policy;
a common budget; and unified civil and tax legislation. There
is already a customs union between Moscow and the former Soviet
republic of Belarus.
Spokespeople for the capitalist rulers of the United States and other imperialist powers oppose this step. A December 30 editorial in the New York Times opined, "If the merger does move ahead, it would burden an already depleted Russian economy with the severe economic problems facing Belarus.... Moscow would make it that much harder to pay off its own back wages and loans and to reestablish credibility with the International Monetary Fund and other financial institutions." The editors fretted that it would also "extend the reach of Russia's armed forces back to Poland's borders." The Polish government is in the process of joining the U.S.-led NATO military alliance, which will bring NATO forces to the border of the former Soviet Union.
Thailand: 1 million laid off
More than 1 million workers in Thailand have been officially
laid off since the country's currency collapse in July 1997,
according to the Financial Times of London. Among the hardest
hit have been auto parts workers. Vehicle sales in the first 11
months of 1998 were down 64 percent. Additionally, the
minuscule safety net that does exist for unemployed workers is
insufficient. One auto parts worker, Kalaya Suwanmalee, said
"I feel like I've fallen onto the dark side of life. I have no
land in the countryside to save me. No cousins to help me
either." Only 2.5 percent of the country's 10 million
industrial workers are union members.
Australia law cuts abortion access
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Legislative Assembly
passed a law tightening access to abortion November 26. The
original bill included a requirement for parental consent for
women under 18 and imposed restrictions on which doctors could
perform the procedure. The law would have forced the closure of
the Reproductive Health Care Services clinic in Canberra. Those
provisions were removed after considerable debate. The final
bill requires a woman seeking an abortion to read an officially
sanctioned information booklet, view pictures of fetuses, and
wait three days after reading the booklet before the procedure
can be performed.
While abortion is technically illegal in most Australian states and territories under the various criminal codes, substantial access has been won in practice over the last 30 years. Family Planning ACT executive director Sandra Mackenzie called the result "a foot in the door" for opponents of women's right to choose. Right to Life Australia head, Margaret Tighe, described it as "one small step for mankind."
Australia: native title claim loses
In a December 18 judgment delivered in less than a minute,
Federal Court judge Howard Olney rejected a native title claim
over 2,000 square kilometers of land and water on the
Victoria-New South Wales border. Olney said by 1881 the
ancestors of the Yorta Yorta people making the claim no longer
possessed their tribal lands and no longer lived according to
traditional laws. "Notwithstanding the genuine efforts of the
members of the claimant group to revive the lost culture of
their ancestors, native title rights and interests once lost
are not capable of revival," he ruled.
Yorta Yorta spokesperson Monica Morgan said an appeal would be considered. "We've been in this country for thousands and thousands of years. It will take longer than a few seconds from a judge to wipe away who we are," she said.
Cuba: sugar harvest falls short, GDP grew 1.2 percent in 1998
Cuba's economy minister José Luis Rodríguez announced to
the National Assembly December 21 the country's economy grew
1.2 percent in 1998. This was below the government's
originally projected Gross Domestic Product growth target of
2.5-3.5 percent. The lower percentage is due to the record low
sugar harvest, which was devastated by Hurricane Georges; low
food crops; reduced sugar and nickel export prices; a
contraction in foreign credits caused by the worldwide
capitalist crisis; and the continuing U.S. economic war against
Cuba. Rodríguez said Cuba's economic recovery is still on
track, citing growth in the tourist sector, as well as advances
in nickel output, oil and gas production, food and consumer
goods manufacturing, and fisheries. Cuba Council of State vice
president, Carlos Lage, added that had it not been for the low
sugar crop, the economy would have grown by 4 percent last
year.
Mexico: gov't ends price controls
Under the pretext of "severe budgetary pressure," the
Mexican government scrapped its last remaining control on food
prices January 1, cutting the nationwide subsidy on tortillas,
the country's corn staple. The price of tortillas jumped 33
percent, from 3 pesos to 4 pesos (about 40 cents) per kilogram.
The price of gasoline and diesel fuel has already risen. The
Mexican trade ministry claimed the elimination of the subsidy
would benefit 40,000 tortilla-producing companies supposedly on
the brink of bankruptcy due to the price controls.
U.S. gov't suspends deportations to Nicaragua and Honduras
Washington suspended deportations December 30 of immigrants
considered "temporary refugees" from Honduras and Nicaragua for
18 months, while those from Guatemala and El Salvador get only
a two-month extension. The U.S. government asserted that this
unequal treatment was because there was greater damage from
Hurricane Mitch in Honduras and Nicaragua. The move affects
approximately 150,000 people from those two countries and
500,000 from Guatemala and El Salvador. In order to receive the
temporary delay, immigrants facing deportation must report to
the Immigration and Naturalization Service, identify
themselves, and pay $175 in fees.
"This is pure discrimination," Arnoldo Ramos, a Salvadoran who is the director of the Council of Latino Agencies, told the Washington Post. "Perhaps El Salvador and Guatemala weren't hit as hard by the hurricane, but they were hit very, very hard by U.S. policy in the past." Under new immigration laws, a record high of nearly 300,000 immigrants have been deported from the United States over the last two years, double the number in the previous two-year period.
- MEGAN ARNEY
Doug Cooper in Sydney, Australia, contributed to this column.