Sports page – No!
To the writer from Los Angeles who asked about the possibility of sports pages in PWW I would like to say that s/he should bear in mind that there are sports pages in all the newspapers. Some are better than others, no doubt, but there is no lack of them.
On the other hand, it is the job of PWW to cover important news about working people and their struggles throughout the world – news that is studiously avoided by the corporate press. I would therefore suggest that said reader might consider it better to look elsewhere for his/her sports news – but to stick with PWW if s/he wants the real story behind the headlines.
Julia Lutsky!Woodside NY
Questions on the Middle East!
In light of the recent bus bombings in Jerusalem, this is shaping up as public safety by repression vs. human rights debate which plays into the ultra-right agenda, using hysteria, similar to a lynch mob “justice.”
In the AP story I read online, they finally ran the fact that the death toll is way out of proportion: Three times more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli Defense Forces, 1,700, than Israelis by suicide bombings, 570, in the last 20 months.
What they do not get into, despite the fact that reporters are on site, is the “burn the village to save it” mentality. Blasting people’s homes, workplaces, schools and houses of worship does not exactly instill a sense of a future.
Monica Weiss!Pittsburgh PA
Sports page – Yes! !
I would like to support the reader from Los Angeles who believes that the PWW would be improved by a sports page. I hope you can find the resources.
Greg LaMotta!Annandale VA
Colombian Oil Workers leader assasinated!
The National Executive Committee of the Colombian Oil Workers Union (USO) sent out the following statement, June 18, abridged here:
During a day of democratic voting to elect a new USO National Executive Comittee comrade Cesar Blanco Moreno, leader of the Bucaramanga branch of USO, was assassinated as he made his way to his home.
The cowardly assassination of Cesar is testimony to the growing wave of violence against the USO, yet one more crime by the enemies of trade union activities and another irrefutable example of the permissive attitude of the State, because our comrade had received death threats before and the authorities were fully aware of this. In addition there has been the repeated declaration by the paramilitaries for more than a month threatening to assassinate trade union and popular leaders in Bucaramanga.
We oil workers refuse to bury our dead submissively. We will maintain our fierce resistance to barbarity and in response to this crime against Cesar we have called a national production strike of 48 hours.
We ask the Colombian people and the international community to express their strongest condemnation of this repressive and complicit Pastrana government.
To the relatives of comrade Cesar Blanco we send our deepest sympathy and offer our heartfelt solidarity.
Hernando Hernandez, President!
Juan Ramon Rios, Secretary General
BARRANCABERMEJA Colombia !
Editor’s note: Protest messages were requested to be sent to the Colombian ambassador in the United States, Luis Alberto Moreno (as@colombiaemb.org). Copies should be sent to USO at usocol@coll.telecom.co and the Colombia Solidarity Campaign at colombia_sc
@hotmail.com.
The U.S. sends millions of tax dollars for military aid to Colombia, so protests to your Congressional delegation is key. For more information on U.S. involvement in Colombia go to School of the Americas Watch (www.soaw.org).
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) said in a survey published June 18 that Colombia was the most dangerous country in the world for trade union activity. ICFTU said that most of the killings were carried out by paramilitary groups “which enjoy the tacit complicity of the security forces,” not from the civil war as the Colombian government claims.
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