Farmers Build March in Atlanta to Press Fight

· AUSTRALIA $2.50 · BELGIUM BF60 · CANADA $2.50 · FRANCE FF1 0 · ICELAND Kr200 · NEW ZEALAND $2.50 · SWEDEN Kr12 · UK £1.00 · U.S. $1.50 THE A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 64 NO.2 JANUARY 17. 2000 Chechnya stakes rise Farmers build march for Moscow, in Atlanta to press fight BY MARY MARriN Washington WASHINGTON, D.C.--The Black Farm- . · ers andAgriculturalistsAssociation (BFAA) BYPATRICKO'NEILL has issued a call for farmers and supporters to "We have been fighting all over Chechnya, join their contingent in the January 17 Martin but Grozny,is the first place we have come Luther King Day march in Atlanta. across such intense resistance," said Russian The farmers are marching to protest wors army Lt. Konstantin Kukhlovets January l. ening conditions they face; refusal ofthe gov The Russian forces that invaded the territory ernment to implement a March 1999 consent ofChechnya in September are engaged in tough decree settlement that is supposed to award combat in the capital and in the south near the damages to farmers who have suffered racist Caucasus mountains. discrimination by the government; and con The day before, President Boris Yeltsin re tinuing harassment at the hands of.govern signed from the post he has held for over nine ment farm agency representatives. years. "I have signed a decree placing the du Melvin Bishop, a cattle farmer and presi ties of the president ofRussia on the head of dent of the Georgia chapter ofBFAA, said, government, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," . "Working people in the cities have a stake in saidYeltsin. "In three months presidential elec the fight ofthe Black farmers. Georgia BFAA tions will take place," he said, and "I don't is organizing to let working people know that doubt what choice you will make at the end of the lawsuit is not settled, that we haven't got March2000." the money in our hands." After being named prime minister lastAu The farmers and their supporters will be gust by Yeltsin, Putin publicly campaigned in leading off the annual King Day March in support ofthe war. At one point he employed a Atlanta. The day is a federal holiday, won barracks-room phrase to emphasize his posi through massive protests and the only one to Militant/Stu Singer tion, stating that he would wipe out Chechen honor anAfrican-American. The Atlanta pa Nearly 100 farmers and their supporters rallied in Lafayette Park hi Washington, D.C., rebels even if they were killed in their toilets. rade is a sizable event each year, and the farm December 13 to protest the U.S. Department ofAgriculture's discriminatory policies. In the December elections for the parliament, ers' struggle will add a political and fighting or Dumas, Putin gained ground when parties aspect to the celebrations as a whole. and rally at the King Center onAuburnAv enue," Bishop added. supporting him increased their vote by around Bishop said the farmers will form up their enue around 2:30p.m. The government signed the consent decree 30percent. contingent January 17 at 11:00 a.m. at "Prior to the march there will be a 9:00 and touted it as a victory for farmers against Following Yeltsin's resignation, Putin Peachtree and Ellis Streets in downtown At a.m. breakfast meeting at the First racist discriniination by the U.S. Department Continued on Page 12 lanta. The march will step offat 1:00 p1m. lconium Baptist Church on MorelandAv- ofAgriculture. Through their struggle the furm ers forced the government to admit extensive racist practices that crippled the ability of thousands offarmers who are Black to remain on the land. Under terms ofthe ruling the gov 'Anti-terrorist' raids target democratic rights ernment was to pay plaintiff farmers $50,000 each. Few farmers have in fact received any Algerian companion, Bouabide Chamchi, were BY JOANNE PRITCHARD later police here said they had dismantled a money to date. network of thieves whose crimes served to arrested in Vermont after entering the United MONTREAL--The police here have an In a phone interyiew, Gary Grant, presi finance Algerian terrorist activities. States from Canada. The press dropped all pre nounced that they are on a mobilization foot dent ofBFAA, said, "My understanding is we Police evacuated 400 people in the work tense ofpreswnption ofinnocence and reported ing against "Algerian terrorism" in the wake will be a lead contingent in the march. This ing-class neighborhood here after locating that "Garofalo led such a strange life that the ofthe arrest December 14 in Washington state call for action is for Black farmers to join in AhmedRessam's truck, claiming more bombs FBI, the CIA, the RCMP, and Montreal police of anAlgerian,Ahmed Ressam, as he was driv the King Day march and celebrations to help could be found. No explosives turned up how can't rule out that she is involved in terrorist ing his car across the border from Canada. bring forth to national attention the second activities." Authorities claim Ressam possessed materi ever. time the check has been mailed and returned The incident is being used by Ottawa to als that could be made into a bomb. Two days On December 19 Lucia Garofalo and her marked 'insufficient funds.' Too many gain acceptance for broader use of its secret Continued on Page 4 police, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and intrusions into the rights of working people. In the midst of a media barrage andY2K threats hype, the CSIS called for a law to crack down on so-called "terrorist Pathfinder fund-raising" by charitable organizations in Capitalism's World Disorder: Canada. CSIS director Ward Elcock said that Working-Class Politics at the Millennium 50 "terrorist" organizations have a presence volunteers· in Canada andthat 350 individuals are being Jack Barnes tracked. Leon Benoit, immigration spokesperson in InakeScan "The capitalist rulers offer us social Parliament for the opposition and rightist Re form Party, has called for tighter immigration disaster. They offer us depression. restrictions by the Canadian government. 2000goal They offer us death from curable dis Benoit called the current regulations "a sieve" that allows ''terrorists and others into the coun BY JERRY GARDNER ease. They offer us war. They offer us try." ANDWARRENSIMONS. Washington is also stepping up pressure on The Pathfinder Reprint project closed out fascism. They offer us an unending Ottawa. The chairman of the House Subcom 1999 with significant advances in all areas of mittee on Immigration, Lamar Smith, aRe its work. The biggest accomplishment is that list of horrors. But we offer ourselves publican from Texas, told the media that the Scan2000, the campaign to finish the first the ability to prevent those horrors arrests in the state ofWashington were "the stage of the international effort to prepare best wake-up call" about the "porous shared Pathfinder books for the presses, was com from becoming the final reality, the border'' between Canada and the United States. pleted on time. In addition, December was An aide said Smith "has made it clear that the volunteers' best month ever (or making confidence that we can transform he would like to work cooperatively with the books ready for print. that future." Canadians-but so far the response has not Eighteen months ago, supporters ofthe So been encouraging." cialist Workers Party undertook the project of REGULAR PRICE: $23.95 The U.S. Justice Department has raised converting all ofPathfinder's titles from film that Canada should start demanding visas from to CD-ROM' s so that they can be rapidly pre more people traveling from abroad pared for printing using new computer-to-plate Available from bookstores, including those listed on page 12, or write Pathfinder, 410 West A number of voices are speaking up to de technology. Now, the Reprint Project is avol St., New York, NY 10014. Tel: (212) 741-0690. Fax: (212) 727-0150. When ordering by mail, fend democratic rights and against the anti unteer effort of more than 100 volunteers in please include $3 to cover shipping and handling. immigrant attacks. A prominent article in La eight countries. They are working together to Continued on Page 11 Continued on Page 4 Activists in Miami protest deportations- page 4 . IN BRIEF--------------- Ivory Coast army cracks down panies paid out this year. In 1998, he said, General Robert Guei" who assumed power 147 companies were allowed to defer pay in the Ivory Coast after a military coup De Panama takes over the Canal ment, citing the monetary crisis. cember 24, announced a shakeup of the army command five days later. He vowed to "slash Scandal rocks German party throats of those we have put in custody," if A financial scandal involving Germany's supporters of deposed President Henri most prominent politician of the last two de Konan Bedie attempt to restore him to power. cades is rocking the Christian Democratic Opposition figure Alassane Ouattara, prime Union and embarrassing the country's capi minister of the country from 1990 to 1993, talist rulers. On December 29 prosecutors returned to the capital Abidjan from Paris in Frankfurt said they would begin a crimi five days after the coup. Ouattara served as nal investigation into funds managed by deputy managing director of the Interna Helmut Kohl, chancellor of the country from tional Monetary Fund in Washington until 1982 until his defeat in December of 1998 declaring his intention to represent the by the Social Democratic Party. Rally of the Republicans party in presiden The revelations of secret bank accounts tial elections next year. have already become a target of muckraking The former colonial rulers of the Ivory frenzy in the media.

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