• EUA/OTAN AMENAZA RUSIA • PUERTO RICO Y PROMESA 12 Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Vol. 58, No. 27 July 14, 2016 $1 Stop Trump! 5 Puerto Rico’s new phase WW PHOTO: JEREMY BAUMANN People resist financial junta By Berta Joubert-Ceci On June 30 when President Barack Obama signed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act — PROMESA (meaning promise in Span- ish) — it triggered a new phase of struggle in the island/ archipelago. The law, passed by the U.S. Senate a day earlier and described by most corporate media as a “help” to Puerto Rico, has, on the contrary, the intention to establish a collection agency through a Financial Control Board for the benefit of bondholders at the expense of the Puerto Rican people. The rush for approval was due to the July 1 expira- See page 4. tion date for the payment of nearly $2 billion in interest and principal of the more than $70 billion in public debt that the island has accumulated over the years. On the island, Gov. Alejandro García Padilla had already sub- Baltimore mitted to the Puerto Rican Legislature a bill declaring a moratorium on debt repayment. He announced that the WWP candidates government did not have sufficient funds available to make payments on the debt and provide basic services wage petition and essentials for the people at the same time. blitz In fact, on July 1, the much-discussed default arrived, adding to the more than $400 million that was unpaid in May. Hours earlier on the same day, as a prelude to the announcement of default, the auditing firm KPMG re- leased its voluminous report — as demanded many times by creditors and the U.S. Congress — on the Puer- to Rican government’s financial status for 2014. Accord- ing to KPMG, the government by then had already accu- mulated a deficit of $50 billion. KPMG questioned the government’s ability to continue operating. (elnuevodia. com, July 1) Whoever reads García Padilla’s statements on the de- fault, and the necessity to put the needs of the people first, might think that he is governing on behalf of the WW PHOTO: SHARON BLACK people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both Baltimore Workers World Bureau candidates Andre Powell for mayor and Sharon Black for García Padilla and earlier governments, whether the city council president. Hundreds of copies of Workers “populares” of the PPD (the ruling Democratic Popular Baltimore volunteer petitioners are joined by Workers World newspapers were distributed, along with copies of Party) or the “estadistas” of the PNP, (pro-statehood World Party Presidential Candidate Monica Moorehead a proposed local “Freddie Gray Justice Bill,” which would New Progressive Party), have by and large taken person- and WWP First Secretary Larry Holmes. The group pic- empower communities to disband racist police. Local ac- al advantage of their positions of authority, enriching tured, along with others, were at the weekend Afr ican tivists declared the weekend a resounding success. themselves and filling their administrations with cor- American Festival called AFRAM. They were there to sign See Campaign statement defending Sacramento ruption while ruling in the interests of U.S. imperialism. up Baltimore voters to gain ballot access for local WWP ­anti-fascist­fighters­on­page­5. As a result, what is happening in Puerto Rico is that the majority of the people have become enormously dissatisfied with their government and with their unde- fined colonial status. BREXIT PLUS Bad things happen — all together • 65 million people forced to migrate 6 To better understand this new phase of the struggle 7 in Puerto Rico, we need to see the context in which it • Build worldwide worker solidarity occurs. The fiscal crisis has had serious consequences in 2 many areas of the country. The measures the govern- Cops killed man in wheelchair ment has implemented — with the advice of U.S. com- Continued on page 10 DNC protesters: ‘We have right to rise up!’ 4 Subscribe to Workers World Move 9; Leonard Peltier 3 4 weeks trial $4 1 year subscription $30 Okinawa says no Sign me up for the WWP Supporter Program: workers.org/articles/donate/supporters_/ to U.S. military 9 Name Email ______________________________Phone __________ Editorial Mexican teachers on strike 10 Street _________________City / State / Zip_________ Workers World 212.627.2994 147 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl, NY, NY 10011 workers.org • France 6 • Battle of Somme 11 Page 2 July 14, 2016 workers.org Cops kill man in wheelchair, no charges By Edward Yudelovich In the U.S. Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn has refused to Cops kill man in wheelchair, no charges ....................2 charge four Wilmington police officers in the shooting death of Jeremy “Bam” McDole, a 28-year-old African An urgent appeal from one of the MOVE 9................3 American. Dole was killed last September while sitting Peltier on 41st anniversary of ‘Incident at Oglala’..........3 in his wheelchair. Roll back the rent!........................................3 Black community leaders and residents were outraged ‘Shut down Trump and the RNC’..........................4 by this result of an eight-month investigation by the Del- ‘DNC protests to go on with or without permits’ ..........4 aware Department of Justice. The department report cit- W. Va./Ohio Valley protests Trump and coal bosses .......5 ed Senior Cpl. Joseph Dellose for “extraordinarily poor PHOTO: DAMIAN GILLETO police work” during the incident. Prosecutors initially Jeremy McDole, killed by cops in Wilmington, Del. A global crisis: Nearly one in 100 forced to migrate........6 considered filing a felony assault charge against Dellose. But this is not reflected in the report. The Brexit vote: (delawareonline.com) “Jeremy was paralyzed and he could not run or hide. ... The need for global working-class consciousness.........7 The report found Dellose fired at McDole with a shot- The tactical response reflected deliberate indifference to Black hockey players .....................................8 gun about two seconds after ordering him to put his the life of Jeremy.” In their statement the family said they Out of the headlines, Flint’s water still unsafe . 8 hands up and said Dellose “should not be employed by the will continue to pursue a federal wrongful death suit. Al-Quds rallies protest apartheid Israel ..................11 city police in any role where he would carry a firearm in On Dec. 3, 2015, to mark the International Day for public.” It noted that the city’s “use of force policy” needed Persons with Disabilities, the People’s Power Assembly Around the world updating, and that officers get little training for response (PPA) organized a protest in New York’s Penn Station to Puerto Rico’s new phase: People resist financial junta ......1 to similar situations among people who are psychologi- say “Disabled Black lives matter!” and to highlight the ter- French unions will stay in the streets .....................6 cally, mentally, emotionally or physically disabled. minal’s infamous lack of access for disabled commuters, Okinawans resist U.S. military bases ......................9 The report released a 911 transcript in which a resident especially wheelchair users. Dedicated to the memory of reported a man in a wheelchair had shot himself. When McDole, the protest rocked Penn Station with chants of A century of wars since ‘the great slaughter’ .............11 the dispatcher says, “They’re going to take him out,” the “Jeremy McDole! Say his name!” and “Disabled people Editorial caller is heard responding, “Don’t kill him!” In a later in- need decent jobs, quality health care, not police terror!” Mexico: Working-class warriors in the battle of ideas........10 terview with investigators, the caller said she never saw a The PPA is an organization in support of the Black gun. No gun was ever found. Lives Matter movement to combat the rising epidemic of WWP Presidential Campaign police murders, particularly of youth of color. Baltimore WWP candidates wage successful petition blitz 1 Fighting back for Black and disabled people On July 10, the PPA will again protest police murders WWP petitioning for ballot status in Wisconsin . .5 The Rev. Donald Morton, executive director of the of disabled people of color at the second annual New York Solidarity with anti-fascists in Sacramento ...................5 Complexities of Color Coalition, said: “Now that ... we City Disability Pride Parade, marking the anniversary of have come to this conclusion, I don’t know that I can tell the Americans with Disabilities Act. The parade, gath- Noticias en Español our communities to remain calm. There is only so much ering in Union Square Park at 11 a.m., will march and Nueva fase de lucha en Puerto Rico......................12 a community of people can take.” roll up Broadway to Madison Square Park for a disability Cumbre OTAN en Varsovia amenaza guerra a Rusia ......12 Mahkeib Booker, who launched the Delaware chapter rights festival from noon until 4 p.m. of Black Lives Matter, said the lack of charges tells the Af- The Disability Pride Parade was inspired by the civil rican-American community that their lives don’t matter. rights movements of people with disabilities, people of McDole’s family commented: “Our family disagrees color and women — as well as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, with the conclusions of the report ... which seems to re- trans and queer people who just held the largest LGBTQ flect the historic fact that, we believe, no police officer in parade in New York City’s history, which this reporter Delaware has ever been charged with a crime for the fatal was proud to march in. use of force on a civilian. Blacks suffer three times the Yudelovich­is­a­World­World­Party­activist­with­emo- Workers World death rate of whites at the hands of police nationwide.