NEWS & LETTERS Theory/Practice 'Human Power is its own end'—Marx Vol. 39 - No. 2 MARCH 1994 250 UPS strike Chiapas: a new form of struggle? helps all by Carlos Varela Editor's note: As we go to press, the Mexican workers government has announced a tentative peace agreement with the Zapatista rebels. The gov­ by John Marcotte ernment's effort to contain the Chiapas revolt gives new urgency to grasping the revolt's un­ UPS (United Parcel Service) drivers and loaders derlying meaning. walked out all over the nation on Monday, Feb. 7. They showed UPS can't mess around with them. They walked On Jan. 1, 1994, the North American Free because UPS, without any consultation with the Team­ Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed by the gov­ sters union, raised the maximum weight drivers would ernments of Mexico, Canada and the U.S., went have to handle from 70 pounds to 150 pounds. A new into effect. That same day, an army of about contract was signed just months ago, and this never 2,000 indigenous people of the state of Chiapas, came up in the negotiations. Mexico, under the name of the Zapatista Na­ tional Liberation Army (EZLN), declared war A driver said, "The company didn't even have the de­ on the Mexican state, shocking the post-Cold cency to tell us^ We were the last to know. I'm making War world. This peasant uprising is a clear re­ pick-ups and suddenly this customer says to me, 'So next sponse to the exploitation and genocide that the week you guys are picking up 150 pounds, right?' That indigenous people have been suffering through was the first I heard of it. The customers were told a the centuries. NAFTA and the neo-liberal poli­ month ago." cies imposed by the Salinas government, which UPS DRIVERS UNDER PRESSURE deepen the inhuman conditions of not only the UPS drivers make over 100 stops a day. They have to peasants but also all Mexican workers, were the trigger for the uprising. go up stairs. They are under constant pressure to work s fast. On a January day of snow and freezing rain, a UPS THE NEO-LD3ERAL 'MDXACLE' $$&•'.' '*.>.>; . ''K'4fit:' '° driver told me, "They'll have me in the office tomorrow The social conditions in Mexico were aggra­ morning to know why I was running late today. They vated in the last 12 years by these neo-liberal Indian in Chiapas shows papers demanding land. know there's ice all over, and traffic's not moving. The policies, the new form in which capitalism is presented. other month, the wheel fell off a package truck. The plete privatization of state companies, a strong reduction In Latin America, the results of these policies are evi­ in the work force, a reduction of tariffs, the elimination driver could have been killed. But the first thing the su­ dent not only in the 1989 uprisings in Caracas and Bue­ pervisor asks is, 'Is there any second day air on the nos Aires, but also in the revolts in Santiago del Estero, of all social programs, the implementation of an export truck?' They don't care if you die out there." Argentina, this past December (see N&L, January-Feb­ economy and the reduction of subsidies for agriculture. On the picket line, UPS workers said they would stay ruary, 1994), and in the current Indian, worker, and stu­ All this in order to attract foreign capital investment out as long as it took. UPS settled that afternoon. They dent strikes and revolts all over Ecuador. These neo-lib­ through maintaining a cheap labor force. said no worker would have to handle a package over 70 eral policies mean "economic growth" through the com- (continued on page 5) pounds without help. Teamsters president Ron Carey, who used to head the New York UPS local union, defied a court injunction in (continued on page 3) | Editorial | U.S., Russia in Bosnia cockpit The shooting down of four Serbian bombers over Bos­ so that the U.S. could "disengage" from the thorny issue nia on Feb. 27 by U.S. warplanes operating under the of Bosnia altogether. Black World guise of NATO has brought a new reality to the crisis af­ All this changed by early February, when the Bosnian flicting Bosnia-Herzegovina. Together with Clinton's army began recording important advances against Serb threat to attack Serbian positions following the bombing and Croat forces. The U.S. felt compelled to involve itself of the Sarajevo marketplace on Feb. 5 and the subse­ more actively on the Bosnian issue, especially following Farrakhan's quent Serb decision to withdraw their heavy weaponry the Feb. 5 Serb mortar attack on the Sarajevo market­ around Sarajevo under the rubric of a Russian "peace place which killed 68 civilians. The worldwide outcry plan," the major powers have thrust themselves into one against this murderous assault brought into sharp focus 'frenzy of of the bloodiest conflicts of the post-Cold War world. the inhumanity of the Western powers, which had re­ The Clinton administration's use of direct military fused to lift a finger against the genocidal war being might to enforce a "no fly zone" over Bosnia coincides waged against the Bosnian people. self-conceit' with intense diplomatic moves to impose a settlement on Concerned with this image of Western inaction, Clin­ the warring parties. Yet it would be sheer illusion to con­ ton got France and other European powers to support clude that the Clinton administration is acting out of the idea of using NATO to launch air strikes against Ser­ deference to the interests of the Bosnians. by Lou Turner bian artillery installations surrounding Sarajevo in ex­ This is especially seen in how, despite recent Bosnian change for U.S. agreement to press the Bosnians into ac­ Back in 1982 I spoke at a week-long conference on military advances against Serbian and Croatian forces, cepting concessions at the negotiating table. Malcolm X organized by a group of Black students at the major powers have said nothing about lifting the Yet it is not only the situation in Bosnia per se, as UCLA. The highlight of the conference was slated to be a UN-imposed arms embargo so that Bosnia could defend much as broader geopolitical considerations, which ap­ long-awaited speech by Khalid Abdul Muhammad, na­ itself from outright genocide. That is indeed the rub. pears to have motivated the U.S. turn to direct engage­ tional spokesman for Louis Farrakhan and the NOI (Na­ The major powers are intervening in order to ensure ment in Bosnia. Clinton argued that the threat of air tion of Islam). Clearly, the Black students believed that that they, and not the Bosnian people, determine the strikes was needed because "We have an interest in Khalid Muhammad represented a historic continuity shape of things to come in this war-torn land. showing that NATO, history's greatest military alliance, with the legacy of Malcolm X that they expected to hear In fact, as a result of the recent developments the U.S. remains a credible force for peace in post-Cold War Eu­ articulated as the highpoint of their conference. To their and Russia appear poised to pressure Bosnia into accept­ rope." One U.S. diplomat in Europe put it more bluntly: shock and dismay, Khalid Muhammad spewed forth a ing a partition of their country—precisely the goal the "The NATO ultimatum is not about Bosnia. It is about scurrilous attack on Malcolm X as a "Judas" betraying Serbs have fought to attain in their genocidal war to de­ the appearance of NATO credibility." (Quoted in "U.S. his "benefactor, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad." stroy Bosnia's multiethnic heritage. Shifts Course on Bosnia, Backing Europe's Partition Like his own "benefactor" Louis Farrakhan, whose As one commentator put it, Western and Russian Plan," by Robert Marquard in The Christian Science ascendancy in the NOI also began with his doing the bid­ "policy remains committed to the idea that the govern­ Monitor, Feb. 17,1994.) ding of Elijah Muhammad in carrying out the character ment of Bosnia must agree not only to partition but to THE RUSSIAN FACTOR assassination of Malcolm X as prelude to the latter's ac­ an unfair partition that leaves the Serbian side substan­ tual assassination, Khalid Muhammad demonstrated his tial areas that were predominantly Muslim. [They] differ The question then is, why would the U.S. suddenly be­ zeal to re-assassinate Malcolm's character before an en­ only on the degree of unfairness they think the Muslims come so concerned about the credibility of NATO when tirely new generation of young Black activists. Which is should accept." If further intervention occurs, "it will be for the last several years NATO has increasingly been why Farrakhan's ghoulish display of one of Malcolm's an intervention aimed not at undoing the partition of viewed as a relic of the Cold War and "a carcass of dead assassins as a hero at two recent rallies is no accident. Bosnia but of stabilizing it." (Martin Woollacott, The policies"? The answer lies not so much in the situation It's his attempt to drive the ghost of Malcolm X back Guardian [London], Feb. 10, 1994.) in Bosnia as in the recent events in Russia. into the night. This new situation raises so many questions for those Russia's move away from "free market" shock therapy Far from any of this being merely anecdotal, it actual­ striving to work out genuine grassroots solidarity with and toward a more assertive foreign policy based on its ly goes to the heart of the current phenomenon of Black the Bosnian struggle for freedom and self-determination (continued on page 9) anti-Semitism associated with Farrakhan, and which has that we need to review the path which led to today's con­ also taken up residency in Black academia.