INTERNATIONAL NEWS IN BRIEF
FRANCE
Strike, mass march against
privatization of utilities
On Oct. 3 gas and electric workers struck for 24 hours all
over France to protect their salaries and retirement--both to
keep public the services they provide and to oppose
privatization. They piled into buses and special trains their
unions had rented for the day and went to Paris, where they
joined contingents from Air France, French Telecom telephone
company, railroad workers, post office employees and consumer
groups.
The unions said that 80,000 people marched in Paris and
pointed out that these unions had brought France's economy to a
standstill in 1995, bringing down the right-wing government
running the country at that time.
Electric workers added drama by bringing flares and drums to
the demonstrations. Large contingents of young workers, men and
women, supported the right of outside workers, who have spent
20 years climbing pylons to work on high-power lines in all
kinds of weather, to retire at age 50 with full benefits.
They also took the stand that public service is best
provided by publicly owned companies.
--G. Dunkel
SOUTH AFRICA
Hundreds of thousands strike
against privatization
On Oct. 1 and 2 some hundreds of thousands of South African
workers heeded the call of COSATU and walked out against the
government's plans to privatize. COSATU is the largest labor
confederation in the country.
The strike was of special importance because it represented
a sharp difference between, on the one hand, COSATU and the
South African Communist Party, and on the other hand the
government of the African National Congress. COSATU and the
SACP both supported the ANC throughout the struggle against
apartheid and still back the government against its right-wing
opponents.
The workers marched through the major cities of the country,
bringing traffic to a stop. In Johannesburg early on the
morning of Oct. 1 ranks of unionists and communists wearing
bright red tee shirts marched into the center city from the
outlying townships and gathered for a powerful march. They
carried red flags and large banners denouncing privatization
.
The march's target was the central offices of two state
corporations that have already been partially privatized. Eskom
and Spoornet are the electricity utility and the railroads,
respectively. Tens of thousands of residents of the townships
have already been cut off from electricity because they could
not pay the rates, according to Zwelinzima Vavi, general
secretary of COSATU.
In Pretoria, 5,000 strikers stopped autos from driving
through the main thoroughfares. In Capetown, Durban and Port
Elizabeth, the largest ports of South Africa, communist leaders
marched with the unionists at the head of massive
demonstrations. The dock workers left the ships unloaded and
joined in the marches of the industrial workers.
In COSATU's documents explaining the reasons for the strike,
the group wrote: "COSATU resorted to strike action to protest
against privatization, job losses, rising cost of living
including high interest rates and high prices of basic
foodstuffs. We call on government and business to respond
positively to our demands." COSATU writes of its concern that
low-income households won't be able to purchase basic goods,
that development of the economy will need state control of
assets, and that privatization will lead to even more
joblessness.
NETHERLANDS
Support grows for Philippine
revolutionary
Jose Maria Sison, a leading Philippine revolutionary who is
a political refugee in the Netherlands, has been cut off from
the little funds he gets from that government. Upon a demand
from Washington, the Netherlands regime put Sison on a list of
alleged terrorists. This is part of the U.S. strategy to place
all organizations that struggle for national liberation--and
individuals who support them--on a terrorist list.
In the last week of September, supporters of Sison
demonstrated from Los Angeles to New York to Brussels and
Amsterdam to demand that the Netherlands government restore his
meager allowance of 545 Euros (about $535) per month, which he
survives on while his appeal for asylum is decided.
To help Sison survive, the Workers Party of Belgium has
asked 109 people to pledge 5 Euros a month each and deposit
them in an account so that Sison can survive. "We will not
permit Joma Sison to find himself without the means to exist,"
said WPB General Secretary Nadine Rosa-Rosso.
Sison is the founder of the Philippines Communist Party and
was forced into exile. He has been living in Amsterdam, where
he has been writing of the struggle to liberate the
Philippines. For more information, look on the web site of the
WPB at www.wpb.be.
THE HAGUE
Milosevic's health endangered as
trial reopens
On Sept. 26 the second phase of the NATO-led trial against
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic began, with
charges he committed war crimes involving Bosnia and Croatia.
In the first phase, lasting from mid-February to mid-September,
the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
did so poorly in presenting evidence against the former
Yugoslav leader that the imperialist press stopped giving the
trial significant publicity. Milosevic's defense--he
represented himself--turned into an anti-NATO offense and the
"show trial" was turned into a bad show for the U.S.-led
alliance.
For the last three months of the Kosovo phase, the trial
period was limited to the mornings. Milosevic has had serious
health problems, notably malignant hypertension and heart
damage. The half-day hearings were supposed to give him time to
recuperate from the stress of running his own defense.
Now, however, the ICTY has reinstated full-day hearings,
placing what Milosevic's supporters say is intolerable stress
on President Milosevic. They demand too that Milosevic be
allowed to see medical specialists for his health, which the
court so far has denied.
The Freedom Association in Serbia calls on national
committees of the International Committee to Defend Milosevic
"to mobilize medical doctors and lawyers to react to this
criminal practice at The Hague." They ask that people address
protests to the United Nations and their own governments, and
send a copy to the ICTY. This address is ICTY, Churchillplein
1, 2517 JW The Hague, P.O. Box 13888 EW The Hague, The
Netherlands; fax number 31-70-512-8637.
--John Catalinotto
Reprinted from the Oct. 17, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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