• AUSTRALIA $2.00 • BELGIUM BF60 • CANADA $2.00 • FRANCE FF1 0 • ICELAND Kr150 • NEW ZEALAND $2.50 • SWEDEN Kr12 • UK £1.00 • U.S. $1.50 INSIDE Support the Socialist Workers candidates THE -PAGE 10 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 60/NO. 39 NOVEMBER 4, 1996 Yeltsin ousts Millions across France Lebed as strike for social wage tension grows BY NAT LONDON in Moscow AND RAFIK ZAIGOUCHE MAURICE WILLIAMS PARIS -Nearly two million public A fight for political supremacy in workers struck and some 200,000 demon­ Moscow's ruling caste deepened as ailing strated throughout France against govern­ Russian president Boris Yeltsin dismissed ment austerity measures on October 17. national security adviser Alexander Lebed Some 35 percent of the nearly 5.5 million on October 17, following accusations that civil servants and public service workers Lebed was plotting a coup. Appearing weak struck that day, according to government and ill a month before scheduled heart by­ figures. pass surgery, Yeltsin said on national tele­ Thousands of schools were closed across vision that he "could not tolerate" Lebed, the country as 45 percent of workers in the who "is splitting the team apart." national education system walked out. Yeltsin also fired the deputy commander Between 40 and 45 percent of rail work­ of airborne forces on October 17 and dis­ ers were on strike and only one third of the missed Gen. Mikhail Kolesnikov, the armed trains functioned that day. Many workers forces chief of staff, the next day. The moves at Air France and Air France Europe (for­ were widely viewed as "an attempt to purge merly Air Inter) struck, as did the air traffic the Defense Ministry of any senior person­ controllers, canceling 85 percent of domes­ nel loyal to Mr. Lebed," according to the tic flights. The day before the action, news­ New York Times. Seeking to forestall a pos­ papers did not appear as journalists struck sible armed mutiny, Russian troops were put against a government tax reform measure on alert in Moscow and other major cities. aimed at them. Three hours after being forced out of the Demonstrations were held in cities Kremlin, Lebed told a news conference, throughout France and drew large contin­ "I'm going to set up a political structure to Continued on Page 3 prepare for the coming elections." He called on "comrades in arms, my allies and people I probably do not know- do not do any­ thing abrupt." Lebed was appointed national Socialist: 'reject CIA conspiracy theory' security adviser after he placed a strong third in the first round of the presidential elec­ BY GALE SHANGOLD Central for cocaine sales to fund the U.S. men, a distribution network, and a market." tions. LOS ANGELES - "Working people dirty war against the Nicaraguan people and Tbe-l].So government also organized That same day, Lebed's bodyguards should totally reject the barrage of con­ their government.' We also said the CIA­ funding for the contras from contributions clashed openly with armed plainclothes in­ spiracy theories that are running rampant contra operation 'opened the floodgates to · from wealthy U.S. capitalists, from the royal terior ministry agents who were carrying now," said Thabo Ntweng, Socialist Work­ crack addiction, ruining lives of tens of thou­ family in Saudi Arabia, and from arm sales surveillance equipment. The agents were ers candidate for Congress in the 35th Con­ sands of Blacks, many of them young.' to Iran, later known as "Contragate." detained, disarmed, and released after Lebed gressional District. In a recent interview, "Rather than a conspiracy or a racist plot," "My campaign attended two public meet­ gave them a lecture. Ntweng responded to the articles in the San explained Ntweng, "drugs were sold where ings called after the San Jose M ercuryNews Lebed bumped heads frequently with Jose Mercury News alleging that a Nicara­ money could be made quickly, easily, prof­ articles appeared, each of which attracted Continued on Page 3 guan drug network with ties to the CIA itably -where there were already middle- Continued on Page 6 opened the first crack cocaine pipeline to the Los Angeles Black community. The newspaper articles by staff writer GMworkers Gary Webb rehash news about Nicaraguan Venezuela cops incinerate inmates "contra" operations to profit from the sell­ ing of drugs after the U.S. government had BY MEGAN ARNEY jail, including Capt. Osmen Martinez, the end strike in officially cut off aid to these counterrevo­ A fire killed 25 inmates after prison guards detachment's leader, fired the devices into lutionary forces in the 1980s. launched incendiary devices into a crowded two cells. "My campaign," said Ntweng, "was for jail cell in Caracas, Venezuela, October 22. According to the Associated Press, Canada a period of time dead wrong on this issue. Venezuela's national prisons director, Anto­ Marval said the fire began after a riot by Our initial campaign statement said, 'Vis­ nio Marval, admitted October 23 that three prisoners. But Jose Alberto Mejias, one of BY JOANNE W ALLADOR ible united action is key to expose who guards were responsible for the deaths of the five inmates who managed to flee, said the STE-THERESE, Quebec-Members of okayed the racist decision to 'target' South prisoners. He said three guards at La Planta guards locked them in the cell after the 6:00 the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) ap­ a.m. roll call and fired tear gas canisters at proved a contract with General Motors Oc­ them. Mejias explained how sparks from the tober 23, ending a 20-day strike by 26,000 TRe. Soc.ia~ist CW'o!lk2e.J!S PaJtt~ a~~.d ~ou~~.g Soc.ia~ists i11.0'ite. ~ou to canisters started the blaze and "everything workers. caught on fire." The agreement, which had already been Regional Socialist ]He denied initial reports from prison of­ approved by the CAW Bargaining Commit­ ficials that inmates had rioted and guards tee, gives GM the go-ahead to sell two parts Educational Conferences fired tear gas to restore order. "Everybody plants in Windsor and Oshawa, Ontario. As was calm. Nobody had done anything part of the agreement, workers who go with November 29 - December I wrong," Mejias said. Later, Marval said the the new owner will receive their current guards apparently acted out of"wickedness" wages for the next three years, and current Atlanta •:• Peoria •:• San Francisco •:• Washington, D.C. and "repression." pensions and benefits for the next nine years. Like most prisons, Venezuela jails are According to the contract, GM is not sup­ + What the 1996 elections revealed severely overcrowded- some 1,700 people posed to outsource to contractors hundreds + Resisting the bipartisan assault on are housed in a facility made for 1,000- of jobs as they had planned. But GM offi­ social security and democratic rights, and living conditions for inmates are hor­ cials said the agreement allows the and imperialism's drive toward rendous, many do not even have beds. automaker to reduce the number of workers fascism and war After the fire, the 12-foot-by-12-foot con­ it employs because of changes in technol­ crete jail cell was as black as a coal mine. ogy, productivity gains, a market share de­ + Defending the Cuban revolution Several hundred inmates demonstrated at the cline, or if a certain product line is discon­ + Building the communist jail entrance for several hours to prevent au­ tinued. movement today thorities from entering to transport the bod­ Under the agreement, workers will get an ies. The inmates demanded that reporters annual wage increase of 2 percent in addi­ Classes • Book sale • Socials and lawyers from the attorney general's of­ tion to regular cost -of-living increases. They fice enter the burned cell block ahead of the will also receive a $350 signing bonus. National Guard so they could give their side Same-sex partners of CAW members will of the story. be eligible to receive health and other non­ This is the worst incident in a Venezu­ pension benefits. Mandatory overtime atthe eh.m penitentiary since 1994, when a blaze remaining Oshawa facilities will be elimi­ at Sabaneta Prison in Maracaibo killed 108 nated, although the company retains the right inmates. Continued on Page 8 How Washington blew up Cuban airliner in 1976 - page 7 , IN BRIEf--------------------------~---- Turkish forces kill Greek ments" would be needed to put Poland in Cypriot EUtrim. "This requires nothing less than a trans­ Turkish military forces occupying the formation of the economic and administra­ northern third of the island of Cyprus shot tive landscape of the country - from the and killed a Greek Cypriot October 13. The acceleration of privatization to the reform man was shot dead in a buffer zone occu­ of public administration," van den Broek pied by United Kingdom military bases that explained. divides the island. Four people have been killed in the buffer area since tensions be­ Israeli settlers grab Arab land gan to mount in August. The Athens-backed Cypriot government Israeli soldiers restrained angry Palestin­ called the killing "blatant cold-blooded ians October 17 as they watched Zionist set­ murder." Costas Smitis, Greece's prime min­ tlers unwrap and place barbed wire around ister, has pledged military support for the a stretch of land they claimed Palestinians regime in Cyprus, using the tensions between were illegally using. The Palestinian owner Athens and Ankara to advance a massive of the plot, Salem Jaber, together with 30 of militarization program to the tune of $12 his relatives, furiously watched the fence go billion in arms spending.