UNITED STATES: DOJ drops subpoena on ISP worker
On September 1, the US Department of Justice abandoned an attempt to subpoena Nicholas Merrill, a worker at Calyx Internet Access, the internet service provider for New York City's Indymedia website, to provide testimony on who posted the names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and New York City hotel locations of Republican Party national convention delegates on the New York City Indymedia open newswire. In an September 2 interview with Wired News website reporter Ann Harrison, Merrill said that he believed that the subpoena was an attempt "to intimidate or squelch a voice of dissent".
SOUTH AFRICA: Unionists protest pay rise
Thousands of South African public sector unionists marched on September 2 to provincial administration offices protesting the unilateral imposition of the government's meagre 5.5% wage increase to its million workers. The unions' had sought a 7% pay increase. According to the Congress of South African Union's website (<http://www.cosatu.org.za>), 15,000 public sector workers marched in Cape Town; 30,000 marched in Johannesburg; 20,000 marched in Eastern Cape; 20,000 marched in Limpopo and 25,000 marched in KwaZulu-Natal.
ZIMBABWE: Democracy coalition hold embassy protest
On September 2, 400 members and supporters of the National Constitutional Assembly — a coalition of churches, labour unions, opposition political parties, and human rights groups — rallied outside the South African embassy in Harare to call on Pretoria to help end Zimbabwe's crisis, according to the South Africa-based Zim Online website (<http://www.zimonline.co.za>). The previous day, Zimbabwean police, armed with guns and batons, had dispersed a similar size NCA-called rally outside the South African rally, arresting 44 protesters in the process. The law prohibits Zimbabweans from holding political meetings or demonstrations without prior approval of the police. The NCA's protests were not approved by the police.
BRITAIN: 'Anti-terror' laws used to victimise Muslims
On September 2, the British Institute of Race Relations published a catalogue that details how hundreds of Muslims have been arrested under "anti-terror" laws before being released without charge, how the special powers granted by parliament to tackle terrorism are being used in routine criminal investigations or in the policing of immigration, and how the mass media have become "embedded" in a process that leads to the stigmatisation of Muslims as "terrorists". Harmit Atwal, author of the study, said: "There are two criminal justice systems in Britain today... The first system applies to white Britons. The second system applies to foreign nationals and, increasingly, British Muslims too." The study is available at <http://www.irr.org.uk>.
ARGENTINA: Kissinger gave nod of approval to mass murder
Newly declassified documents obtained by the National Security Archive on August 27 revealed that four months after the installment of the brutal Argentina military junta in 1976, then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger urged the dictatorship to crush its opposition, saying: "If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly." Kissinger's nod of approval was given at a meeting with Argentine foreign minister Admiral Cesar Augusto Guzzetti, on June 10 of that year. Kissinger said, "We wish the new government well. We wish it will succeed." This statement was made only two weeks after the US embassy expressed concern over the kidnapping and torture of three US women, and the wave of repression unleashed against political prisoners in the south of Argentina.
PALESTINE: Hunger strike called off
Eighteen days after they began a hunger strike demanding improved humanitarian conditions, some 4000 Palestinian political prisoners in most Israeli jails resumed eating on September 2. The Palestinian Authority claimed the prisoners had won 90% of their demands, which included the right to pay phones in their wards, an end to daily strip searches and more frequent family visits. Nelson Mandela's lawyer, Buthaina Duqmaq, told reporters outside the Ha Darim Prison that inmates Houssam Khader and Samir Qanttar had affirmed that the Israeli authorities had agreed to the prisoners' demands regarding improvement in their conditions. However, the hunger strike will continue at in Beer Shiva's Jalama prison because the prisoners' representative, Tawfic Abu-Naim, and the prison administration had failed to reach agreement.
BOTSWANA: Two non-striking miners die
As the strike of Botswana's miners entered its 12th day, two of the miners who chose not to strike dropped dead of fatigue, and two more were hospitalised after workplace accidents caused by increased pressure on the remaining workers, Agence France Presse reported on September 2. The miners are demanding a 16% wage rise, and a 25% annual bonus. The strike has been declared illegal, and Debswana, a joint venture between the Botswanian government and De Beers that runs all the country's diamond mines, has sacked 444 of the strikers, evicting several from their company-owned homes. The workers have been particularly outraged by the huge bonuses recently handed out to management.
From Green Left Weekly, September 8, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.