$3.00 i INSIDE • HAITI'S SEASON OF TERROR • ERITREA, DAWN • PALESTINE BESIEGED • BURMA: CONTESTED GROUND • GLOBAL TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN •HAWA" SPRING 1994 BREAKTHROUGH VOL.18, NO.1 Breakthrough, the political journal 1 EDITORIAL: of Prairie Fire Organizing Com- DEFEND DEMOCRACY IN CUBA, RESTORE DEMOCRACY TO HAITI mittee (PFOC), is published by the John Brown Education Fund, 3 ERITREA, DAWN 22o-9th Street, #443, San Francisco, by Les Gottesman and Frank Duhl CA 94103, ©1994 JBEF. Editorial Collective: 10 RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT: THE GLOBAL TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN Barbara Barnett, Scott Braley, by Judith Mirkinson Camomile, Jimmy Emerman, Terry Forman, Les Gottesman, Judith 16 PALESTINE: REFLECTIONS ON A BESIEGED HOMELAND Mirkinson, and Sally Thomas. by Elias A. Rashmawi Volume xvni, no. i, whole no. 25. Press date: April 25, 1994. 23 IT'S HARD TO FORGET... THE PAIN OF APARTHEID STILL LINGERS ON, AND I CAN'T STOP CRYING You can write to PFOC c/o: by Simon Nkoli Atlanta: PO Box 2434 Decatur, GA 30031-2434 25 CONTESTED GROUND: THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY IN BURMA Chicago: Box 253 by Alan Senauke 2520 N. Lincoln Chicago, IL 60614 32 WAITING OUT THE STORM: HAITI'S SEASON OF TERROR San Francisco: PO Box 14422, interview with Pierre Labossiere San Francisco, CA 94114 and commentary by Timothy Pershing, Nancy Laleau and Max Blanchet Our address on the information superhighway is [email protected]. 41 CRY TILL DAY: AFRICAN WOMEN CONFRONT VIOLENCE by Elsa Gebreyesus Subscriptions are available from the SF address. $10 individual/$i5 47 STOLEN ISLANDS: HAWAII DEMANDS SOVEREIGNTY institutions and overseas (surface by Kekuni Blaisdell mail)/four issues. 50 GATT: THE GREAT GLOBAL RIP-OFF Front cover: excerpts from The Uruguay Round and Third World Sovereignty Untitled work by Franceska Schifrin. by Martin Khor Ms. Schifrin has been traveling throughout Haiti and painting images 56 MESSAGE FROM CHIAPAS reflecting the social and political documents from the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) situation there since 1987. Her recent work deals with the effects of war on the people of Sarajevo. In 1991, she was 60 AIDS IN THE WORLD: A GLOBAL REPORT awarded the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund book review by David Gilbert Fellowship for the Visual Arts. Her work is represented by Galerie LaKaye 64 WRITE THROUGH THE WALLS in Los Angeles and Trojanowska Gallery in San Francisco. Back cover: "Goodbye Blue Sky, Goodbye." Lithograph by Valerie Jacobs, ©1994. Formerly from Chicago, the artist is now living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also a fine printer of words and images at Helios Press, 1411 Oakdale Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94124. VJfO Prinltd on recycled paper laSSSiJfen,,, 0 R I A Defend Democracy in Cuba, Restore Democracy to Haiti as ISSUE OF BREAKTHROUGH FOCUSES ON ing in record time. As state and business elites Titernational affairs—with some rare excep- attempt to market sleek visions of a hi-tech "new tions, not a big upper. Clearly, we're not living in world order" dependent on U.S. power, the ines- one of earth's greatest periods. capable truth is that polarization and misery are The collapse of the Soviet Union, the contain- multiplying on the ground. Whether you're un- ment of many national liberation movements, employed in Mexico City, Kinshasa, or New York and the obscene rush by transnational capital to City, restructuring of the global market is a very impose its predatory "new order" across the planet violent, ugly process. has had a profound and disorienting impact. As economic contention between the capitalist Wars based on right-wing nationalism are prolif- centers of Europe, Japan, and the U.S. accelerates, erating. Whether in Bosnia, Algeria, or Rwanda, the logic of competition is driving all these soci- the carnage is increasing with no real response eties to the right. In contrast to a mass culture from the international community. At least 37 extolling democracy, it is stratification, racism, wars exist world-wide. The number is only sure to the discarding of excess workers, immigrant-bash- increase as nations and power groups try to gain ing, and attacks on women that are the true control over diminishing resources. Terms like marching orders of the day. Despite obvious dif- "ethnic cleansing" will become more common- ferences in the make-up of European countries place as will the pictures of slaughter and death and the U.S., what is most striking is the similar- that grace our newspapers, magazines, and televi- ity of their official outlooks on race, immigration, sions every day. and the rise of far-right movements. It is no longer What wishful hopes were held that Bush's elec- rhetorical to say that fascism is on the rise. Not toral defeat might produce a more humane regime only are conditions within these nations deterio- in Washington and a "peace dividend" are collaps- rating, but the fierce struggle over global zones of IN MEMORIAM <M-Kt*e;yrfafcMv'tnyfi ' :. fKf!:mVii~Clffi;Wi-ti!K;(lim':Sf (1914 19M)andGri$eli0Torre$o!aatta<:ke<iBIa!rH0u ;><;.'ii.t :!i'tfi i'fes fyy'4 -''994), aim It) With 1.^1(6 Lii'slll'l, /B/d'S 'f-k-L---iV'.: LOl'dmi, (JIK SlaineS C^Sijji M!i:::Kh, s!:(>t!;i;.ij ii'.'i' US. < 'i, >9:>4, toWOK, wxl'j attentionm tbeMfXsitm tfCommstw&Ab saitessfl Puetft ffcs i ad tsfxviest y-syoft fifAs ftsstG "lusn W§»fe« sgaggfe flie ftg ftfefow&s s&ved is Prisoners of War, Rising to i:, i$$eij$$i8&^^ ' / On April 5,1994, Marlon Riggs died of AIDS in his home in OaMaad, CAHKeminiiu^n'^Uadtg^fne^ylitoify, fon^ws lM&3.JbMihW(iii<tir?nhh]M.<f(f,\fa^^^ Sifflfe«p®$wte|««teffW^^aw»j^^ -;-;>syear. TedeMatthew- orgsalzer, poet, p«t#{^ ffurfftferi -ctif:'.:ofAl-K(fi; July :::':;. •'.' ••':•. "i&k'-. •',v:--:k!-s:psdbi''i^diverse •yc>y *; >,•>}(! ;;;;;V«yii;i:> iotfiilMi, iWikulinly fs'om Hie LciiJnc mid (jay caiiiirmi'inifs, ;'.fe w«iWi';«;.-.;k; y':;y; a;r.;p?/3,r>5 ':o Wa will'>>;!!.:. //,(•: •::x:;-r;yi'...-:'^;/j.fr SPRING 1994 influence means that the gulf between conditions routinely dumped on the streets. Women are sys- of daily life in the privileged North and the tematically raped to terrorize the population. exploited South is only going to get worse. Is it any After a long period of compromise and fruitless wonder that people are depressed when capitalism negotiations, it appears that President Aristide has seems ever triumphant? had enough. Appearing in San Francisco in mid- But this is also an historic moment when the clash April, he denounced the U.S. refugee policy as of old and new can produce political realities that racist and called for concerted action to end the were unthinkable a short time ago. An ANC-led slaughter in Haiti. "Every day people are mur- government signalling the end of white political dered, and pigs are eating their corpses," he pro- domination in South Africa is not only possible but claimed. "How many murders does it take to create expected. And who on the U.S. left could have a holocaust?" predicted that on the very day that NAFTA was to As opposition rises to Clinton's Haiti policy, a go into effect, a Mayan uprising led by the Zapatista window of opportunity has opened. Activists need National Liberation Army would set off a chain to join together in sustained campaigns of action, reaction shattering the fantasy of "the new Mexico" ? education, and civil disobedience. The refugee policy Or that the militant mass protests of French students must be reversed, the embargo strengthened, and could force the conservative government to retreat President Aristide returned to Haiti. from its law legalizing the payment of sub-mini- mum wages to new workers? Or that almost one year after liberation from Ethiopia, the government in RONICALLY, OR PERHAPS TYPICALLY, AS THE Eritrea is still strong and resisting a capitalist take- I Coast Guard turns back Haitian refugees, the U.S. over. It is these examples of hope and determination continues to welcome Cuban refugees with open that we must look to at this moment as we analyze arms. A mass propaganda campaign continues to the Clinton foreign policy. foretell Cuba's collapse and Castro's demise. The Even in the post—cold war period Clinton is embargo, strengthened by the Clinton-supported proving himself to be as much the Warrior as his Toricelli bill and rendered more deadly by the predecessors. No big surprise that Richard Nixon, of collapse of the Socialist Bloc, has left the Cuban all people, became one of Clinton's mentors! economy reeling. In three years it has dropped from a ranking of 5 to number 25 on the scale of economic development within Latin America. Rationing is OWHERE DO THE BANKRUPTCY AND DECEIT OF needed for basic foodstuffs and gasoline. A black N the current administration become more ap- market has begun to flourish. Under these condi- parent that in its stance toward Haiti and Cuba. tions, many governments would tighten up. But the During his presidential campaign Clinton repeat- "Cuban experiment" continues. Mass debates are edly stated his disagreement with the Bush taking place on subjects ranging from the relation- administration's policy of turning back Haitian ship of the Communist party to democracy, to the refugees. He vowed to change this policy and restore role of women, and a reevaluation of its AIDS democracy in Haiti. policy. Child care, health care and education are still Clinton has broken every promise. Haitians flee- considered rights not privileges for all Cubans—an ing the "killing fields" in their country are turned interesting fact when people examine the education back by the Coast Guard and routinely interrogated, and health policies of the U.S.