ILC International Newsletter No. 131
A dossier of weekly information published by the International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
May 10, 2005
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples 87, rue du
Faubourg Saint Denis 75010 Paris, France.
Presentation
The Arab-language Algerian daily El Chourouq (May 5) published
the full text of an interview first made public by the Egyptian daily
El Ouboue. In it are details of a secret meeting between Donald
Rumsfeld and deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during Rumsfeld's
recent visit to Baghdad.
The French-language Algerian daily, Liberté (May 7), published
excerpts, the Indy News Media internet site posted a summary. We
have translated the text from the complete Arabic version.
In Switzerland, the monthly Journal reports on the mobilization
of the population at the initiative of trade unions, to refuse
"dismantling of the welfare state" and privatization of the
Geneva public transportation system.
In Great Britain, Tony Blair's so-called "economic miracle" is
nothing of the sort; the facts speak for themselves, as the analysis of
our correspondent shows.
The deputies of the Algerian parliament debated the agreement of
association with the European Union. Representatives of the Workers
Party believe that the agreement undermines the degree of control the
country enjoys over its own sector of production. "This agreement
places our country into the state of a protectorate, in all areas"
; "No, nothing forces us to ratify this agreement"; "We
need to open a serious debate and if an agreement is necessary than
let's discuss all the appropriate guarantees. Nothing forces us to take
a decision on this question at the present time", they write.
Chinese workers are experiencing dire conditions of exploitation,
aggravated by the elimination of textile quotas, but this has not
stopped them from relentlessly fighting back. Excerpts from the China
Inquiry Newsletter describe these struggles.
The Movement of Workers and Peasants (Mouvman a Travayè é Péyisan) of
Guadeloupe has sent us their bulletin, which describes their struggle
for self-determination of the Guadeloupe people and their call for a
National Constituent and Sovereign Assembly. It shows they are refusing
to fall into the trap of provocation meant to pit them against Haitian
immigrants, presented as their enemies and responsible for the
disastrous situation of their country.
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Table of Contents:
p. 1 : Presentation
p. 2-3- Iraq: Donald Rumsfeld asks Saddam Hussein to put an end to the
resistance struggle in exchange for his being freed. Egyptian and
Algerian newspapers publish the minutes of the meeting.
p. 4 - Switzerland: "The mandate is Clear", by Michel Cindrat,
excerpt from Journal.
Geneva public transportation, victory of a trade union fightback.
p. 5 - Great Britain: Blair, Miracle, Myths and Realities
p. 6 - Algeria: The Association Agreement with the European Union.
Intervention of Deputies to the Parliament. Excerpts of the newspaper
Fraternity.
p.7-8 - Guadeloupe: The Right of the Haitian People to their
Sovereignty! The Right of the Guadeloupan People to Self-Determination!
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Iraq
The Arab language Algerian daily El Chourouq on May 5 ran the
full text of an article first published by the Egyptian daily El
Ouboue. It involves a secret meeting earlier this year between U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deposed Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein. The French-language Algerian daily Liberté (May 7)
published excerpts, the Indy News Media internet site posted a
summary. We have translated these texts for the ILC International
Newsletter from the complete Arabic versions.
----
Secret Meeting Between U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam
Hussein in a Prison Near the Baghdad Airport:
Washington Offers Freedom to Saddam in Exchange for His Appearance on
TV Calling for a Halt to the Resistance
Report by Mustafa Bekri for the Egyptian newspaper El Ousboue
Well-informed political sources have made public the details of a
secret meeting between U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during Rumsfeld's last visit to Baghdad.
The meeting took place following a series of resistance-organized
suicide attacks organized against U.S. occupying forces, their allies
and agents in Iraq. According to these sources during the last three
months American troops have endured more than 1,600 casualties, deaths
or wounded, only a small proportion of which have been made public.
The sources claim that President George Bush held a meeting with his
administration's general staff to discuss all possible ways of stopping
the violence from the Iraqi resistance to save the lives of American
soldiers and prevent the collapse of the coalition between the U.S. and
countries having sent troops, which is starting to unravel. Those
attending the meeting worked out a proposal that would free president
Saddam Hussein and give him exile out of Iraq in exchange for his making
a televised appeal to the Iraqi resistance to put an end to the violence
and organize a political party to take part in the political operation
underway in Iraq.
Bush sent his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on an urgent mission to
Iraq under the pretext of helping to quickly form an Iraqi government,
thus to meet Iraqi leaders elected from the recent elections. Sources
say that Rumsfeld met Saddam Hussein in the prison near the Baghdad
international airport to the West of the capital, where he is
incarcerated.
The meeting lasted about an hour, in the presence of the American chief
of armed forces in Iraq. At the end of the visit, Rumsfeld sent a report
to President Bush with minutes of the meeting with Saddam Hussein, which
laid out a blueprint for dealing with the future Iraqi situation,
insisting on the need to open up political dialogue with the resistance
and with president Saddam Hussein.
Rumsfeld emphasised in his report that the situation in Iraq is
deteriorating dangerously, that the Arab resistance is apparently an
organized and trained army, well-prepared and disposing of significant
material means and arms reserves.
Rumsfeld says that the number of resistance fighters has reached 400,000
men, supported by 5 million sympathizers. He explained that what
happened at Fallouja had a negative backlash in security terms, for the
resistance was able to capitalize upon the effects of the war against
terrorism to its own advantage, one indication being that the Iraqi
youth are falling over themselves in their quest to join the resistance.
Rumsfeld said that the various names of organizations claiming to make
up the resistance are nothing but covers for the Ba'ath party led today
by Issat Ibrahim, assistant to (fallen) president Saddam Hussein.
Rumsfeld foresees an aggravation of the situation in the near future,
because the rhythm of armed attacks has surpassed 200 a day, resulting
in dozens of victims among coalition forces, the national guard and the
Iraqi police.
Rumsfeld says that he consulted several American and Iraqi reports which
attest to this state of degradation of the state of security in Iraq and
that the American forces are losing an average of 30 armored vehicles a
month, which marks a continuos hemorrhaging of allied forces.
Rumsfeld asserted that, during the last period, the resistance has been
able to take over reserves of sophisticated American stocks of canons,
rocket launchers, land-to-air missiles and other precision arms.
American officials fear that these arms could lead to an escalation in
violence and resistance operations.
At the end of his report, Rumsfeld emphasized the need to pursue
dialogue with Saddam Hussein and his partisans in order to work out a
plan which includes a momentary truce to study all the conditions set
out by the two parties.
These minutes of the exchange between Saddam Hussine and Rumsfled were
obtained from dependable American sources, and the content is thus
presented here as follows.
----------
At the start of the discussions, Saddam Hussein appeared very calm;
perhaps he was surprised to discover that his host was Donald Rumsfeld,
but he did not reveal any nervous tension.
Rumsfeld opened the discussion, saying, "I have come to meet you to
negotiate with you concerning the situation in Iraq. We have established
contact with certain of your supporters inside and outside of Iraq. They
have advised us to listen to you.]
Saddam Hussein: And what do you want? Your forces have occupied
the land of proud Iraq, and you have brought down the regime by
completely illegitimate means. You have attacked the sovereignty of a
free and independent country. You have committed crimes that history
will register as proof of your bloody civilization. After all that, what
do you want?
Donald Rumsfeld, trying to hide his anger: There is no point in
returning to the past. I have come specifically to make you a clear and
precise offer. And I require from you a clear and precise reply.
SH: I imagine that you have come to present your excuses and to
return power to the Iraqis.
DR: We have nothing to apologize for. You represented a danger to
your neighbors. You made plans to develop weapons of mass destruction
and you exercised a dictatorship against your people. It was therefore
normal that we should lend a hand to the Iraqi people to save them from
the dangers that thay had faced during three decades.
SH: I know that you are ignorant concerning matters of history,
and I know that your president is just as ignorant. But it seems that
you have lied so much that you start to believe your own lies. If,
concerning my neighbors you refer to the Zionist entity, then we did, in
fact, represent a danger for them, and we prepared the liberation of our
lands stolen in Palestine. That is the wish of every Arab human being,
and not just the Iraqis because it is an Arab land, its people are Arab.
The Zionists came to occupy the lands. They came from all corners of the
world with your support, and that of the old colonialists. But if you
are talking of Kuwait, I would like to ask you a question: Have you left
Kuwait?
DR: These are questions concerning security. Further, we have
agreements with the Gulf countries, agreements on security. We came to
these countries because they asked us to, to protect them from your
threats.
SH: Is it not rather strange for the shepherd to hand over the
protection of his flock to the wolf? The people of Kuwait are Arab. The
land of Kuwait is Iraqi. This is why I ask you to read the history, even
though I am sure that you will be unable to understand it.
DR: Enough of this rubbish. Me, I propose that you ....
SH (interrupting): Before showing me your rotten goods, me, I
would ask you the question: Have you found any weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq?
DR (unsettled): We haven't found them for the moment, but we will
certainly find them one day. Can you deny that you had the intention to
build a nuclear bomb?
SH: We have no weapons of mass destruction since 1991. We were
sincere in our discussions with the International Inspections
Commission. We were sincere in our letters to Koffi Annan. You were
aware of this realty, but you were looking for any false pretext to
occupy Iraq and bring down its legitimate leadership.
DR: The Iraqis welcomed us with immense happiness. They welcomed
us because of the methods of your bloody regime during the many years of
your government in Iraq.
SH: Please, Mr Rumsfeld, stop lying. It is you who have unleased
cascades of blood on Iraqi soil. You plotted against us, you have
brought back a few traitors who have usurped power from the grand land
of Iraq.
DR: Those who you describe as traitors have been chosen by the
Iraqi people to be their leaders in a democratic way, in honest
elections, which were never held during the time that you led the
country.
SH: I know that you have brought back a chorus of traitors, led
by Talabani (ironic laugh). The great Irqk led by a Talabani and a
Diaafari. Doesn't it make you laugh? Is it possible to have free
elections, as you say,while you occupy the country? Mr Rumsfeld, history
has shown us that the occupier brings only his supporters and servants.
And you want to convince me, with that, that the Iraqi people rejoice in
liberty and democracy. Really, you are raving mad!
DR (contains his anger, with force): You are isolated and you
don't know the reality of what is happening outside. The Iraqi people
have been freed from your yoke, and if they ever met you, or any one of
your men, they would cut you to pieces. ...
SH: And me, I defy you to make public the place where you are
staying in Iraq, or if the Iraqi resistance managed to locate you, and
to leave this country alive. I have some advice to give to your
president, the "idiot," and to pass on to him: He should save
what is left of his soldiers, because they are pressed on all sides by
death, and history will not forgive him.
DR: I have come to speak to you of the terrorist operations
encouraged and undertaken by your men. Your men have recently committed
an odious operation targeting the prison of Abu Greib, where they killed
or wounded more than 50 Americans, in addition to a certain number of
detainees held for various accusations. Your men are aided by terrorists
from groups around the world, and they threaten the democratic
experience in Iraq.
SH: What do you expect of me exactly?
DR: I have just one offer to make to you. You will be liberated.
You will chose freely yourself a country of exile (the one you want) on
condition that you appear on the TV screen to condemn terrorism and to
ask your men to stop these practices.
SH: But have you obtained the agreement of your president
concerning this offer?
DR: Yes, there was agreement on this offer duing the framework of
a session involving the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, and the intelligence chief. I have been made
responsible to transmit this offer.
SH: The price is derisory.
DR (feverishly): We will give you a very respectable financial
aid, ensure your safety and that of your family in the country you
chose. ....
SH: Do you want to hear my conditions ?
DR: Willingly.
SH (in a haughty tone): First, I want you to plan a schedule for
your retreat from Iraq, which your government must agree to before the
whole world and that you start the retreat straight away.
Second, I demand the immediate release of all Iraqi and Arab prisoners
who are in the prisons which you have installed or those where you have
deprived tens of thousands of noble Iraqis of their liberty.
Third, I demand that you promise to pay complete compensation concerning
the material destruction caused to the Iraqi people following the
aggression against our country, from the mother of all battles in 1991
to the present day. And personally, I accept to be aided by an
international and Arab commission to evaluate the losses.
Fourth, I demand that you return that which your men have pillaged from
the coffers and Iraqi petrol, notably the criminal Bremer and his
associates, the traitors.
Fifth, I demand the return of objects forming part of the national
heritage, which you have stolen and given to the mafia, because these
are treasures of inestimable value carrying the history of Iraq and its
civilization.
Certainly, you have neither history nor civilization, and your country
has existed for only a few hundred years, but this cannot justify your
thefts and your hate for the civilization and the wealth of Iraq.
Sixth, I demand that you return to me the arms of mass destruction if
you manage to find them, and that you resuscitate all of the martyrs
killed, and that you return to the glorious Iraqis the honour which you
stole from them.
DR: Is this some kind of a joke?
SH: No, it is the bitter truth which you know... . Mr Rumsfeld,
you have committed the greatest crime in history against a pacifist Arab
country. We have met before in the 1980s. Do you remember your offers ?
DR (replies): Leave the past behind. We are currently
re-evaluating our positions with regard to yourself and to the many
forces who have expressed animosity to us in the past. We have decided
to open talks with moderate Islamists and we have no objection that they
come to power via the ballot box. More important, we have decided to
open channels of communication with terrorist organizations such as
Hamas, Djihad and Hisb Allah linked to Iran. And it is the same for
other fundamentalists around the world Further we have a project of
contact with the Talibans in Afganistan to study their sharing of power
in exchange for the laying down of arms.
SH: So, you are starting to review your erroneous methods.
DR: This is the normal evolution of things. We are trying to
spread democracy to all countries of the world and to movements that
suffer from oppression.
SH: If you are sincere, this will work. But I know your real
motives. If you were really sincere, you would start immediately, you
and your allies, to withdraw your troops from Iraq and you would also
revise your situation of support for Israel And me, I know that your
president is stubborn and that he is not sincere.
DR: He is a democratically elected president. He is not a bloody
leader like you.
SH: Terrorism is your creation, and lies are your style.
DR: This offer is an historic chance for you. We will consult you
concerning all aspects of power in Iraq. If you refuse this offer, this
chance will not be repeated.
SH: But I am not looking for a chance; I am not looking for a way
to save my neck from the guillotine which you have erected for the whole
of Iraq. If I had wanted this, I would have accepted the Russian offer,
and I would have saved my two sons and grandson from martyrdom. I do not
even know the fate of my family, of my daughters, of my grand-children.
But be sure, I am more concerned for the fate of every Iraqi citizen and
for the future of the great Iraq than for myself or for my family.
You have already in the past, via your representatives, made me an
offer, to declare that the weapons of mass destruction were transferred
to Syria, and you said that I could have my freedom in return. I
refused, and this time also I refuse.
DR: But I do not want your refusal. I ask you to think about it.
We are currently re-evaluating our positions. We want to stop the flow
of blood on both sides. This is why our offer comes from a position of
strength and not from a position of weakness.
We have asked J. Talabani to make a declaration in which he denies any
intention to execute you, as a measure of our good intentions, and we
are ready to totally revise our position with regard to the political
operation in Iraq, in its entirety, and to dialogue with yourself and
with your men on this subject.
SH: Are you ready to withdraw, yes or know ?
DR: We can study a redeployment of troops. Our troops have
prepared bases to be able to stay for a long period. We can withdraw
from the streets, from the towns, but we will stay in our bases for some
time.
SH: So, you are looking for a new agent to add to your list of
agents. No, Mr Rumsfeld ... . Don't forget that you are speaking with
Saddam Hussein, President of the State of Iraq.
DR: But you are no longer in power.
SH: I only have my honor, and honor is not for sale and cannot be
bought.
DR: But life has an inestimable value.
SH: Life has no value without dignity. But you have confiscated
the dignity of Iraq, by staining its ground, and we will regain our
dignity whether S. Hussein lives or becomes a martyr.
DR: Those of your supporters to whom we have spoken say that you
must have the first and the final word. Have they guessed your reaction?
SH: Certainly. They know that S. Hussein cannot retreat to the
detriment of his country and of his dignity.
DR: History will make you responsible for the flow of blood in
Iraq.
SH: No, history will rather judge you for your crimes. I have
warned you in the past. I told you that you would commit suicide against
the walls of Baghdad, and now you are paying the price. I ask you to go
to London and to read the registers of the British Ministry for Foreign
Affairs to learn certain aspects of the struggle of the Iraqi people
against your British friends, of which you are currently repeating the
same errors.
The people of Iraq are a stubborn race. They are not afraid of death,
and the resistance is stronger than you imagined. And I can promise you
more.
[At this moment, Rumsfeld decided to leave the room, angry and murmuring
certain words. It is as if he wanted to say: If it were up to me, I
would execute him immediately. But what can be done, and how can we stop
this theater of executions which the resistance presents in every
street, in every village and in every town of Iraq against the American
army, its allies and its agents?]
-- Published by the Algerian newspaper El Chourouq, May 5, 2005
in Arabic. The translation into English is by ILC International
Newsletter.)
********************
Switzerland
"A majority of the population, supported by the trade unions and
the Swiss Socialist Party (PSS), clearly manifests its aspiration to
stop the dismantling of the welfare state"
"The mandate of the working people is clear", by Michel Cindra
Excerpt of Journal, weekly of the Union of Circles for Workers'
Policies
(N° 277 30 April 2005)
On April 10 in Neuchâtel, the bourgeois parties lost a majority in
the Neuchâtel canton elections. This defeat is written into an election
trend underway since the 2003 federal elections, when the Socialist
Party won two seats on the Council of States, also expressed in the 2004
communal elections, when the Socialist Party (PSS) won 20 or so seats in
the General Councils of the various communes.
Two weeks later, on April 24 in Geneva, the State Council plans voted by
the bourgeois parties alone were swept away during referendums. The
majority of the population sent out a loud and clear "no" to
policies making working people, retirees, unemployed paying for public
deficits, "no" for a part of financing of the Canton
Retirement Fund being passed off to local communes.
In the same way, the law which expanded sub-contracting of the public
transportation sector, the TPG, was voted down. A few days before the
April 21 vote, the trade unions submitted a petition co-signed by 15,000
employees of the public service against the draft law of the bourgeois
parties aimed at dismantling the employment status of public workers, to
replace the CCT collective agreements and only retain the minimum
guarantees of the Code of obligations and would eliminate the common
wage scale.
The workers have mobilized in defense of their employment status or
their CCT, as is currently the case for construction workers. Against
this general onslaught threatening their living and working conditions,
the population is attempting to resist the dismantling of the public
services and system of social welfare. Through referendums and
elections, a majority of the population has turned to their trade unions
and the PSS to clearly uphold their aspiration to put a halt to the
dismantling of the welfare state.
Last September, the Swiss people were called upon to vote on the
extension of the agreement of free circulation of individuals in the
European Union. In fact, what is referred to as "free
circulation" has resulted in Europe in a wholesale rush to the
bottom of wages. And this experience has led to an increasing number of
French people coming out against the European Constitution, which will
be voted upon at the end of May.
In Switzeland, there is no doubt about the fact that the "no
vote" to extending free circulation agreements can win if the PSS
and the USS trade union confederation call to vote "no." For
the moment, they have taken a stand in favor of the "yes"
vote.
But labor leaders are increasingly having to face the rejection of the
rank-and-file and the evidence that these agreements, despite the social
clauses which accompany them, have resulted in an offensive against the
CCT and drastic wage losses.
This is why resistance is growing in the rank-and-file of unions to call
for the leadership to change its position. Labor and PSS activists have
launched an appeal for the USS and the PSS to call for the "no
vote" in September's upcoming elections.
The Journal will report-back upon this campaign and the united
fightback for the no.
********************
GENEVA PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM:
The Victory of a Labor Struggle
Against rightwing policies, the people have refused in allow increased
outsourcing as decreed in the law of Geneva public transportation (TPG).
We asked our comrade Vincent Leggiero, president of the technical
workers SEV-TPG union, to answer our questions.
What has been the reaction to this victory?
There is no doubt as to the importance of this victory for citizens
of the city because the referendum was supported by 66.30% of voters. It
is also a victory for the colleagues of the SEV-TPG. For of the 14,000
signatures gathered for the referendum, 7,000 were the fruit of the TPG
labor mobilization.
It's also a victory for the people, once again, as for the vote on the
initiative "Postal Service for All", the people expressed
their attachment to the public services.
But it's also a victory for the left and when some say that the election
was a slap in the face for the government they are trying to cloud the
real issue because the State Council on this issue didn't support the
right's policy proposal. It's no accident if only a dozen bourgeois
communes voted "yes" to the rampant privatization plan of the
TPGs.
How do you think things will develop at this point?
We have noticed that to divide public opinion, the right has tried,
albeit unsuccessively, to pass off rate increases onto the public
workers. But the reality is this. The personnel has given more than
their share in recent years: two-tiered wages for new hires then hiring
freezes. For example, in my sector, technical maintenance and
installations, the number of staff has been frozen for almost 10 years
even though services to the population have been expanded (more
vehicles, more kilometers per vehicle, more lines of rail, etc.).
In these conditions, if the objective of increasing supply (service
contracts) of TPG transports can be attained, its first and foremost due
to the efforts made by the TPG personnel.
This is where the pressures of the WTO via the European Union concerning
the operning up of public procurement markets are clearly shown, even if
Switzerland is not a member of the European Union.
This is why we are quite concerned about the policies of liberalization
and social regression that are being promoted. And so, just lik the
canton-level public services, what is in the works is attacking our
employment status and imposing collective agreements that will decrease
our compensation package and dismantle our pay scales and our gains.
One last word on the election results?
The results are very mportant for they contradict the current trend
towards rampant liberalization. In all areas, including tghat of the
vote of emigrant workers, the results shwo that people have had enough
of liberalization measures. The people have had enough of transferring
public expenditures off onto the local communes, enough of social
regression. The upcoming elections will be a privileged moment for
changing the parliamentary majority and the government. Obviously, the
trade unions will strongly and actively suport any political initiative
helping to make headway in this direction.
********************
Great Britain
Blair: miracle, myths and realities
The British elections were a privileged platform for political pundits
to expound upon Britains "economic miracle" which has
allegedly occurrred thanks to the "Blair method".
Glenda Jackson, Hampstead's Labour Party Deputy, who opposed Blair on
the Iraq war, summarized her views in an interview given to the daily
Mail on Sunday. For her, the Prime Minister said that he had
listened to the British people during the campaign and heard what they
wanted. We, who had been campaigning, heard the real call from the
British people.
The message came across loud and clear: "They don't want New Labour".
Who could blame them?
Le Monde (France, May 2) is literally fascinated: "The
Third Way works..." Blair had been accused of being
"pro-business". But what characterizes Blair's success is his
demonstration that "being pro-business is the condition for
carrying out social policies." Let's take a closer look at
Blairism to see how it "works" and "why".
An economic forecast bulletin written for employers explains how "The
English economy since Mrs. Thatcher and under her stewardship has
carried out a remarkable structural evolution: privatization of every
sector that can be, drastic reduction of corporate taxes for social
benefits (10% of payroll tax and 10% paid by employers. This, as we
know, is in reality nothing but differred workers wages - editor's
note), lowering of tax brackets making the highest to 40%, total
flexibility on the job market: it's all of these factors which saved the
English economy and Thatcher's successors, including Tony Blair, did not
fundamentlly alter this course."
What the experts call "saving the British economy" was due to
policies of destructive disindustrialization: there are fewer that 5,000
miners still working, while there were 200,000 twenty years ago; there
are only about 50,000 still working in the steel industry, while there
were 250,000. The automobile industry is also dismantled: liquidation of
Rover being the last episide in this drama. In recent years, a million
industrial jobs were destroyed. The "growth figures" we hear
of are in the services, in particular in the financial services.
As for employment, there are officially 8,000,000 unemployed looking for
work, while there are 2,700,000 people considered as "inept"
for work: the figure is three times higher than twenty years ago. These
figures show "hidden unemployement" but also tragiquely
illustrate the deterioiration of the quality of health of the
population, result of the programmed collapse of the health care sector.
The officially unemployed -- in particular the youth -- are treated like
delinquents. The feeble benefits they receive (80 euros a week) are
conditioned by their regular visit to a jobs center which forces them to
accept any kind of job, activity or internshp. They are obliged to
accept these proposals if they do not want to lose their unemployment
insurance payments. Thousands of part-time workers are employed in
monthly contracts of six hours, sixteen hours, thirty hoursŠ. 1.6
million people work two jobs.
What does this mean, in real life? One example among thousands: "David
makes cement. A lung infection obliged him to leave his job and go on
unemployment at the age of 39. After six months of unemployment, David
had no more choice: he had to accept an internship or be removed from
the lists of the Job Center, losing all benefits . He was asked
to learn to cook in a pub in Halifax. Every morning he drove 15
kilometers. The Job Center payed for his gas and insurance. The
employer is very satisfied. David doesn't cost him a penny. In six
months, he'll get another intern."
Great Britain has come to the end of the "miracle". Imminent
events will show this.
Next week we will give a more in depth
analysis of the British elections
********************
Algeria
The newspaper Fraternité, organ of the Algerian Workers Party,
has published a dossier on the association accord between Algeria and
the European Union.
We reproduce below the presentation of this dossier and the speech made
on this issue by Louisa Hanoune, Workers Party deputy to the Parliament
PRESENTATION
We have decided to publish in this issue of Fraternité a
supplement dealing with the association accord with the European Union
and the new law on hydrocarbons.
More specifically, we would like to report back upon the interventions
made by Workers Party deputies, on their fightback waged around these
two issues.
Why?
In order to allow the activists, members and sympathizers of the Workers
Party and more generally workers and youth to judge the activity of the
Party's representatives in parliament and the electoral mandate they
confided in Workers Party deputies regarding these crucial issues.
In this supplement we want to provide information helping to clarify the
real meaning of these two texts which, in our opinion, mark a turn of
unprecedented seriousness in the history of independent Algeria. If they
were to implemented as such, their consequences would take on
incalculable proportions.
As for us, we remain convinced that nothing is irreversible and that, to
the contrary, it is possible to prevent their being carried out and to
restore the nation, its rights of sovereignty and national wealth and
reestablish the economic and legislative missions of the state, the
social services which guarantee the unity and continuity of the
republic.
We found this believe on our appreciation of the history of our country,
on the glorious struggle for national independence, on the reception of
the campaign around the February 24 Sermon which expresses the
Algerians' aspiration to find the ways and means of struggle, in defense
of their rights and gains.
But also, this belief is rooted in the struggle of workers and youth
developing on all continents, in defense of their survival against the
ruthless offensive of financial, political and economic international
institutions whose objective is to reduce peoples to a state of slavery,
and for that to liquidate the nations and states which have existed as
the framework which has institutionalized the struggles and victories of
workers and peoples.
And we are reinforced in this conviction by the victories won by workers
in Venezuela, Uruguay and Zimbabwe in the name of the peoples, of all
workers and peasantsŠ because these victories show that another way is
possible.
Finally, in all circumstances, it is the instinct of survival always
prevails whatever be the nature of the danger we face. Relentlessly, we
will fight alongside the workers, the youth, the peasants and all the
oppressed in our country, for the Algerian nation to be free,
independent and sovereign.
The newspaper Fraternity
We are being asked to debate the global economic, commercial,
financial and security agreement without being able to amend it.
Does this agreement place contracting parties on an equal footing and
so respecting the sovereign Algerian nation and the country's interests?
It's an accord between one state and 25 states, an entire continentŠ
fraught with socio-economic problems and contradictions due to the
economic orientations leading to desertification/disindustrialization
and deregulationŠ In other words, policies of social regression,
aggravated unemployment that are characteristic even in giants like
Germany. The agreement places our country in the state of a
protectorate, in all areas. It allows for foreign intervention
and the Algerian state to become virtual because in the service of
multinationalsŠ This accord was initiated in Barcelona in an
unfavorable balance of powers for our country due to the state of
insecurity which prevails. This is what led the negotiators to make
enormous concesssions. Things have changed since. The situation in our
country has improved and the state budget has a healthy surplus.
And yet, the association accord claims to be able to guarantee the
arrival of foreign direct investement.
Do we need money?
Our country enjoys a current balance of $43 billion dollars in
reserves, 675 billion DA in regulation funds and $10 billion of
liquidities in banks. We are being asked to make this money available to
foreign pseudo-investors and for that to introduce a reform privatizing
banks.
But foreign direct investement is a hoax because it means reconverting
debt paments into corporate shares of our state enterprises and loans in
Algerain banks.
So the privatization of public enterprises, of health services and
educationŠ and the orientation of the Finance law of 2005 already
derives from this law which has yet to be enforced.
Will agricultural land survive these reforms? Because rampant
privatization pervades the entire text. In these conditions, even the
social pact and the preservation of law 87bis which liquidates the SNMG
derive from the same accord, the same conditions of the foreign
pseudo-investors which require deregulationŠ
Can representatives of the people condone this direct onslaught? It is
not too late to stop it.
They tell us that we will be able to export our products. This is false,
the system of quotas prohibits it. As for our agricultural products,
they are already at insufficent levels for exportŠ
They say there will be job creation.
The European experts published a report in which they announced the
immediate suppression of 58,000 jobs in textile, agri-business,
mechanics and services, and the loss of 58 billion DA, a period of
deflation, regression and consumption.
This accord is designed to totally open up the market for products made
elsewhere, for example from the SEZ (Special Economic Zones - export
processessing zones, editor's note) in China.
This means the programmed death of our national production because
foreign firms are exonerated from taxes.
In export processessing zones, the world over, jobs are created
through delocalization and are thereby exempt from work regulations,
national social legislation or trade union rights.
It is unbridled exploitation due to increasingly downward pressure upon
production costs.
And the state will be powerless to change things, even the example of
Europe shows how the same businessmen use the standard of profit margins
to close factories here in order to open them up there for greater
return on production.
What's more, the consequences of dismantling customs' tarifs weigh
heavily upon public financers.
It represents an immediate loss of 20 million DA, then 147 billion DA
lost per year. So this agreement is in contraduction with article 121 of
the Constitution which prohibits any law diminishing public receipts.
And these losses will therefore be replaced by taxes on large consumer
productsŠ
No, nothing forces us to ratify this agreement. We shouldn't jump to
conclusions.
We need to open a serious debate and if an agreement is necessary than
let's discuss all appropriate guarantees. Nothing forces us to take a
decision on this question at the present time.
Do not take such a responsibility.
**********
China
"Where do major corporations and multinationals go to manufacture
their goods, if not where production costs are the lowest?"
Excerpts from the Newsletter, April 1 and 15, 2005
Published by the China Inquiry Commission
"Everyone is afraid of China"
This is how the very serious daily newspaper Le Monde
(France), advertized its April 25 edition at bookstores and newsstands.
Not a day goes by without the media putting China in the limelight. Why
this sudden burst of interest? The low production costs in China are
threateneing to devastate entire sectors of the textile and clothing
industries in countries everywhere.
Chinese firms exported, for example, five times more sweaters to Europe
and four times more pants during the first quarter of 2005 than
previously. Why? Because there were no more export quotas, no more
important quotas since January 1, 2005, which means that trade is now
free of rules and contraints. Who decided this? The World Trade
Organiazation (WTO), ten years ago. So the European Union, which is a
member is today hypocritically raising an uproar as to the consequences
which were already forseeable and even forecast. So where will major
corporations and multinations go to manufacture their goods, if not
where the labor and production costs are the cheapest?
The result is the destruction of millions of jobs and increased
deregulation
International textile, clothing and leather workers' international
published in a communiqué (April 13) some facts and figures about the
situation existing since January 1, 2005. In Losotho, 7,000 workers were
laid off due to the closures of 6 clothing factories. 58,000 layoffs are
forecast in coming months. In Cambodia, 20 factories closed and 26,000
workers were laid off, representing 10% of workers in this sector. In
Sri Landa, 46 factories have closed and 26,000 workers have been laid
off. In Guatemala, 19 factories closed. In the Philippines, in Dominican
Republic, in Kenya, and elsewhere, it's the same story.
What's most telling is the way that employers and governments have
seized upon this opportunity to refuse to increase wages in the face of
inflation in the Dominican Republic, to refuse to pay overtime at higher
rates; in Cambodia, in order to obtain the elmination of any minimum
wage guarantees in the textile sector; in the Philippines, to legalize
the 72-hour workweek; in Bangladesh, in this sector, to ban unions in
the special economic zones. But in China, they are talking about
increasing the quota of overtime hours and reducing employer-paid social
taxes for exporting firms.
The role of the Chinese government
The WTO and the international financial institutions have
consistently promoted the need to introduce job market flexibility
through the dismantling of labor codes and social protection systems.
Thus China has be planning for more than twenty years to liquidate its
state enterprises and its social protection system. The Chinese state,
local and national authorities committed themselves a long time ago to
privatizing the economy, but workers' resistance opposing the plan has
slowed it down.
Today, the disappearance of quotas in textile-clothing will therefore
place into direct competition private firms or privatizing firms with
the remaining public enterprises in China. On the one hand, child labor,
segregation upon hire (under 25 years old), forced overtime hours, slave
wages and inexistent health care coverage or retirement benefits, on the
other, in principle wages and working conditions which respect the law
and social protection.
One example is that of women textile workers in Xianyang last autumn who
refused the privatization and its new conditions introduced by a
government holding company: they refused the cancellation of job
contracts, the uncertain rehiring at lower wage levels, the end of
health insurance and retirement benefits. And they elected their own
delegates with whom they had fought and went on strike for seven weeks.
By loyally carrying out all of the orders of the international
institutions, the Chinese government is a prime vehicule for decreasing
labor costs and introducing deregulation, notably by allowing local
authorities the freedom to adapt threatening measures, especially
prohibit workers from defending themselves. All of this largely
contributes to the daily superexploitation and tragedies within China,
but also to the destruction of jobs in other countries.
Finally shattering the "iron rice bowl"
M. Li Rongrong, president of the Administration and Control
Commission of State Patrimony, announced on November 30, 2004 that he
was reaching the heart of the state enterprises, the 49 of which make up
the backbone of the 186 great state enterprises under direct government
authority (petrol, energy, steel, telecommunications, etc.).
And of course, M. Li intends to pursue the orientation which has
transformed 2,514 large and mid-sized state enterprises (out of 4,223
estimated in 2003) into public stock-owned corporations, some of which
are quoted on the stockmarket.
The aim is to shatter, once and for all, and bit by bit, the "iron
rice bowl", he said, which means that state enterprises must be
amputated of everything won since the 1949 revolution: virtually free,
government-funded medical care, schools, housing. This amputation costs
money today, but will be profitable tomorrow. For example, the plan to
remove the heavy cost of schooling from 796 schools and 94,000 workers
they administer will allow these enterprises to save 4 billion yuans
(400 million euros).
Are these state enterprises poor? Certainly not! Between 1998 and the
end of 2003, the government liquidated approximately 90,000, but the
real value of the remaining 150,000 state enterprises increased by 60%.
Are total sales figures of state enterprises decreasing? No. They
increased by about 30% in 2004. And profits? In October 2004, they rose
by 53% a year to 418 yuans (41 billion euros).
The Huankantou Riot
This village, which depends upon the city of Huaxi caused for a time
a situation in which local authorities could no longer control the
village while, according to one witness, 38 buses and limousines which
were transporting local officials and dozens of police cars and vans
were immobilized, overturned or burnt. Lands were being requisitioned in
order to set up very polluting chemical factories. The villagers
demanded: "Give us back our lands! We haven't been paid for
them. We want our vegetables to grow and our water to be clean."
In one of the rare articles published in the French press (Charlie
Hebdo, April 20): "Anarchy reigns. For several days, Huaxi
has been living in a state of anarchy. Its inhabitants have chased out
the local governement and battered the anti-riot policy who came to
remove them. Situated in the rich agricultural provide of Zhejiang, near
Shanghai, this farm town had been living in peace until 2001. The local
party chief, looking for a quick buck, then sold the rich lands of the
peasants without asking their opinion, to a chemical group to build
factories. This is commonplace in China today, it only takes some money
under the table and some police pressure.
But this time the mayor ran into trouble. The peasants were already
furious for having lost their lands, they became enraged when after two
years, their vegetables stopped growing, the rivers, the rivers and the
tap water had become the color of soya sauce and the children started to
be born with birth defects. A representative of the local inhabitants
launched a petition, but the mayor intercepted and blocked it. Then the
local retirees association took up the fight and mobilized the town. The
inhabitants build roadblocks along the road to the factory and
demonstrated in front of the town hall. Three thousand policmen rushed
in to restore order but were met with 10,000 people armed with bats and
rocks. The cars were overturned, some policemen were even undressed
before managing to escape. Thirty five of them and some party cadrés
were hospitalized and are in serious condition.
Since, the inhabitants have organized a privisional self-management
council and have become the heroes of the entire region. More than one
hundred thousand inhabitants of neighboring cities have come to see them
over the past week. The trophees taken from the forces of order are
proudly exposed. According to latest reports the provincial government
has sent a delegation to discuss with them. But the elder of the
retirees association, who has collected several engraved anti-riot
police helmets, has said: "We won't give an inch until they
have removed the factories".
**********
Guadeloupe
The Right of the Haitian People to their Sovereignty!
The Right of the Guadeloupan People to Self-Determination!
The Right of the Haitian People to their Sovereignty!
The Right of the Guadeloupan People to Self-Determination!
For months, a question seems to be of great concern in Guadeloupe:
illegal immigration. There is a people, a community which is being
accused: the Haitians. Some are saying that this community is the cause
of all our society's ills: unemployment, rising taxes, insecurity.
The aim is therefore clear: to instigate hate, zenopobia and conflict
between Guadeloupians and Haitians. A barely hidden slogan is heard:
"Haïtiens Dèwô", (Kick the Haitians Out) and
Guadeloupe would then supposedly be cured of all their ills.
At the request of elected officials, the state has sent its Minister of
Colonies to Guadeloupe and reinforced its measures of repression and its
refusal of right of exile.
How Did Things Reach such Extremes?
Guadeloupe, the "French department of the Americas", the
"Ultra-peripheral region of Europe" is a destination for many
Haitian immigrants fleeing the war, hardship and poverty which has been
ravaing their country for decades.
Uprooted populations have always been used by capitalists as a means of
satisfying their thirst for profits by using this cheap labor force
willing to do anything to survive.
And Haitian labor is no exception. In sugar cane and banana fields,
thousands of Haitian workers have come to the islands to work for the
big industrial farms, with the complicty of government officials. Their
primary aim is to break the strike of the sugar cane worker and in the
end lower labor costs.
This hardship and this poverty are directly orchestrated and maintained
by imperialism in France and the United States which has been occupying
Haiti since the beginning of the 20th century.
Authorized, organized and maintained immigration of Haitians satisfies
an objective: bleeding Haiti and emptying it of its youth; creating a
state without a population and in the long run, stealing Haiti from the
hands of the Haitian people. A genocide by perfect substitution,
meticulously concevied and orchestrated.
A second aim directly concerns the Guadeloupan people due to French and
European immigration: threatening the will of collective construction of
the Guadeloupan people by setting up various communities of different
cultural, social and historical origins than our own, making it
difficult or even impossible to bring about the unity of the Guadeloupan
people within a process of political emancipation.
France is also attempting to organize a confrontation of nèg kont nèg,
pitting brothers against each other, because we are all brothers, coming
from the same continent, in the same conditions and having landed here
and there in response to the same slave-driving needs of capitalism, the
same powers which are still colonializing our countries and are still
running our economies.
Their goal is to hide this reality from the Guadeloupe workers and
peoples
This is, once more, a consciously calculated political strategy
which marginalizes people from the social and political reality of the
péyl Gwadloup:
* Guadeloupe is a French colony submitted to the authority of the
"motherland".
* Guadeloupan society is structured according to racially discriminatory
principles: white Frenchmen and Europeans run the country and occupy the
most qualified positions in the workforce.
* Guadeloupe is a member of the European Union and, in this capacity, is
part of Schengen Europe which organizes the free circulation of people,
capital and goods throughout the territory of the European Union.
And so it is totally legal for thousands of French and European people
to run over Guadeloupan soil and settle without any fanfare, in this way
participating in the programmed disappearance of the Guadeloupan people
which is currently being orchestrated.
The right ot the Guadeloupan people to self-determination and to
decide its own destiny is today, more than every before, on the agenda
More than ever before, the Guadeloupan people must be masters of
their own desitny, and this at all levels, be they agriculutre, health
care, taxation, education but also masters of their own territory.
The Guadeloupan people must be able to decide who enters, for how long
and to do what. Today, exercizing such prerogatives is impossible. Only
a sovereign people can enjoy such prerogatives. This can only be
understood in lyannaj, along side the workers and peoples of the
Caribbean, in particular that of history's first Black Republic.
This is why we are fighting for the NATIONAL SOVEREIGN CONSTITUENT
ASSEMBLY, responsible before the Guadeloupan people and the Guadeloupan
people alone.
This is why we are fighting for the unity of workers and peoples of the
Caribbean, for the federation of Caribbean workers and peoples.
Because we can count on the defenders of the capitalist system to drive
mankind to ruin, to barbarism. This is the situation it has created in
Haïti, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, IraqŠ
We can not count on the very same today, to do any differently as they
occupy Haïti.
Blocking the road which leads towards racism and xenophobia means:
* Fighting social injustice and exploitation of all workers and in
particular the most vulnerable;
* Expanding research on the history of the Black people, especially the
Hatïtian people;
* Defending the right of Haïtians to live and work in Haïti.
For this we must:
* Demand reparations for crimes against humanity for the slave trade of
all Black peoples in the Caribbean, in particular those of Haïti and
Guadeloupe;
* Demand the withdrawal of all occupying forces from Haïti.
French, American, Canadian troops Out of Haïti!
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