Workers Around the World: 10/30/97 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the October 30, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD: OCTOBER 30, 1997 LATIN AMERICA: `BILL CLINTON: YANKEE IMPERIALIST' U.S. President Bill Clinton's handlers tried their best to make his visit to Latin America a public-relations success. Thousands of people did their best to thwart those plans. There were protest demonstrations at every stop of his six- day tour. Clinton made the trip, his first official tour in Latin America, to pressure both Latin American governments and the U.S. Congress to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement. He is proposing a "Free Trade Area of the Americas." On Oct. 14 Clinton got a taste of mass sentiment in Brasilia, Brazil's capital. Protesters pelted his limousine with manure. Demonstrators held banners calling Clinton a "Yankee imperialist" and an "exploiter of the Third World." Protesters burned effigies of Uncle Sam and waved Cuban flags. During his Oct. 17 stop in Argentina, thousands filled the streets of Buenos Aires. "We see Clinton as the representative of the big monopolies who support the economic model of [Argentinian President Carlos] Menem, which is hurting the majority of Argentinians in terms of education and health," said Communist Party Deputy Floreal Gorini, a march organizer. Battles broke out when riot police blocked the demonstrators' march route and arrested over 200. Clinton felt the heat from other sectors as well. Brazilian officials, representing South America's largest economy, were reportedly cool to the U.S. free-trade proposals. Brazil is the major force in Mercosur, a free- trade zone of four South American countries that has tried to jockey between U.S., Japanese and European imperialism. `COLUMBUS DAY' PROTESTS Columbus Day originated as a celebration of European chauvinism marking the opening of the conquest of the Americas in 1492. But across Latin America, Indigenous workers and farmers now mark the day with protests against continued oppression. In Honduras on Oct. 13, hundreds of activists smashed a statue of the Italian explorer in Columbus Plaza in Tegucigalpa. Organizer Salvador Zuiga Columbus said Columbus is responsible for "the deaths of 70 million Indigenous people and the most disgraceful plundering of Indigenous communities." Thousands of people turned out across Mexico on Oct. 13. Demonstrators in Mexico City and several towns in Chiapas demanded the government respect agreements negotiated with Zapatista rebels. They also called for the army to withdraw from the area. In Ecuador, some 30,000 Indigenous peasants converged on the capital city of Quito on Oct. 13 to demand constitutional reforms. Millions blockaded the interior of the country earlier this year to force out President Abdala Bucaram; peasants are now fighting to win a People's Constituent Assembly to enact social reforms. Peasants from the Loja region near the Peru border wore black saraguros, a traditional sign of mourning dating from the murder of King Atahualpa by the Spanish conquistadores. Unions also supported the mass demonstration. SOUTH AFRICA: GENERAL STRIKE SET The Congress of South African Trade Unions has called a two-day national strike for Oct. 27-28 to press for labor reforms. The strike will coincide with public hearings on the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill, which will set down workers' rights as law for the first time. The proposed law would set the work week at 45 hours, allow three months' maternity leave and set the minimum work age at 15. The 1.9-million-member union federation says the bill is too weighted toward big business. COSATU is calling for a 40-hour work week, six months' maternity leave including four paid months, and a minimum work age of 16. COSATU staged a one-day general strike in June and a series of "rolling strikes" in August. Millions of workers have taken part in these actions. The union is part of the Tripartite Coalition that leads the government, along with the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party. COSATU has followed a strategy of working with its allies in government to improve the legislation while exerting pressure on business interests in the streets. Deliberations on the bill are scheduled to begin during the first week of November. "The outcome of the parliamentary deliberations will determine whether we have a progressive bill ... or whether forces opposed to workers' rights will triumph," COSATU General Secretary Mbhazima Shilowa said in an Oct. 14 statement. MANDELA: U.S. ARROGANT, RACIST Facing criticism by the U.S. State Department over his proposed trip to Libya, South African President Nelson Mandela blasted United States arrogance in an Oct. 19 speech. "How can [Washington] have the arrogance to dictate to us where we should go or who our friends should be?" he asked at a Johannesburg forum in honor of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. "Notwithstanding the changes in the world, the [U.S. government's] contempt for Blacks is still deep-seated," Mandela said. "Libya was one of those countries that supported us during our struggle when others were working with the apartheid regime. Now [Washington] has the arrogance to dictate to us where we should go." YEMEN: FARMERS PROTEST PRICE HIKES A government decision to raise diesel prices by two-thirds has provoked farmers to barricade roads across Yemen. "The farmers will not unblock the roads until the government cancels its decision," one protest leader told the French Press Agency on Oct. 20. The protests are based in the Maareb region. Hundreds of farmers, many reportedly armed, pulled down trees to block roads to the capital Sanaa. The price hikes are part of a package of "structural reforms" imposed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in 1995. BRITAIN: BARCLAYS WORKERS WALK OUT Workers at Barclays, Britain's third-biggest bank, walked off the job Oct. 17 to protest a wage freeze for 25,000 workers. The banking giant faced "severe disruptions," according to the two striking unions. Leaders of the Banking Insurance and Finance Union and the Barclays staff union UNiFI--together representing 40,000 of the company's 60,000 workers--said most of their members honored the picket lines. JAPAN: LESBIANS MARCH Over 300 lesbians, joined by some men in drag, marched in Tokyo Oct. 10. They carried banners reading "Nothing wrong with loving girls" and "Life is fun even if not ordinary." Organizers said they hoped to increase lesbian pride and visibility in Japan. Independent journalist Rex Wockner reports the marchers "could not resist the humor in turning the national Sports Day--taiku no hi--into `Dyke Day,' or daiku no hi. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytlab-10.22.97-23:17:28-10140