Strikes and protests target ‘reforms’ in
Spain, EU
Workers march through the streets of Seville
during a general strike June 20, 2002. Photo courtesy Indymedia
UK
Compiled by Sachie Godwin
and Sean Marquis
June 26— Spain was rocked by two days of strikes and
a 150,000-strong demonstration in Seville last week, targeting
labor “reform” laws and the European Union (EU) respectively.
On June 19, trade unionists in northern Spain put down their
tools and began to strike, 24 hours before a one-day general
strike of Spanish workers on June 20.
Workers placed barricades, some of which were set ablaze, across
roads and railway lines. The strike was called by unions in
Spain’s northern Basque and Navarra regions on the eve of the
first nationwide general strike for eight years - one day ahead
of the rest of Spain to emphasize the region’s separate identity.
Many shops were closed, some newspapers stopped publishing,
and broadcasting on the public television channel was hampered.
Reports suggest the strike was very successful, with most businesses
and public services in the provinces of Bizkaia and Guipuzkoa
completely closed down, and with 60 per cent participation in
the province of Navarra.
General Strike
People marching in Barcelona, where on June
20, 2002 around 3000 people attempted to occupy Barcelona’s
stock exchange as part of Spain’s general strike.
Photo courtesy of Barcelona Indymedia
Nearly a million Spaniards took to the streets June 20 in
protest over labor “reforms” in the country’s first general
strike in eight years. Unionists and leftist parties, frustrated
by six years of rule by the conservative Prime Minister Jose
Maria Aznar, united against the premier after he imposed labor
law changes by decree last week.
Under the new law the unemployed will lose benefits if they
refuse a job offer deemed acceptable by the government, eliminate
salary payments made to Spanish workers who have been fired
and are appealing in court, and curtail payments to temporary
farm workers.
The workers are supported by migrants protesting new restrictive
laws against migrants and foreigners, and by students opposing
new university legislation.
In the normally bustling shopping streets around the Puerta
del Sol in Madrid, many stores were closed.
In other reports, union members on picket lines prevented employees
in cars from reaching work, or filled the locks of factories
with silicone to prevent other staff from opening up for business.
At least 63 strikers were arrested nationwide, the interior
ministry said.
In several cities police attacked strike posts, leaving many
people injured, some of them in serious condition. There were
reports of particularly heavy attacks in Madrid and Vigo. In
Madrid, where over 10,000 people protested, riot police attacked
a picket line in Avenida de America just in front of the UGT
union’s headquarters. Police broke into the building, beating
people at random, including UGT’s general secretary Candido
Mendez.
In Irunea-Pamplona, 5,000 people took part in a demonstration
called by youth and feminist associations.
National airline Iberia said 80% of its flights on Thursday
were canceled and all long-distance trains were canceled by
national rail company RENFE.
EU: “religion of the market”
As leaders from 15 EU nations met behind 10-foot high wire
fences and rings of riot police at Seville’s conference center
on June 22, protesters took control of many of the city’s historic
squares. Around 100 separate protest demonstrations ended June
22 with a peaceful march through the city by more than 150,000
people, according to the organizers. Activists also gathered
for a counter-summit to the meeting of the EU leaders.
Spanish police had tightened already stringent security arrangements
after the armed Basque separatist group ETA launched a two-day
bombing campaign to coincide with the summit, severely injuring
one British tourist on the Costa del Sol.
Armed police set up roadblocks on the main road into Seville
from the southern coastal town of Malaga, searching cars and
luggage and checking the identity of their drivers.
Earlier, Spanish police barred buses carrying around 500 Portuguese
leftists from entering the country to join the protest, turning
them back near the border.
Spain temporarily re-established its border controls with neighboring
France and Portugal on Friday as part of tight security measures
for the EU summit.
While some of their colleagues were on duty protecting the
summit, more than 2,000 police joined demonstrators and marched
in Seville, chanting: “We need another general strike.”
Local residents, watching from their balconies, applauded the
thousands of demonstrators and doused them with buckets of cold
water to refresh them in the heat.
The Social Forum of Seville met parallel to the meeting of
the European Council, which brought together the heads of state
and government of the 15 EU countries and the president of the
bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission. By the summit’s
end, the leaders agreed on measures to curb illegal immigration.
Red flags, placards and chants against “a Europe of capital’’
abounded in the march, which took place amidst a festive atmosphere
and a heavy police guard.
The Social Forum discussed a range of economic, social and
cultural problems that the activists saw as inextricably linked
to the neo-liberal globalization model.
The manifesto of the Social Forum called for total cancellation
of the external debt of poor countries, an economy at the service
of citizens, “genuine’’ social policies, and a Europe more committed
to the environment.
Consulta Europea, one of the participating groups, described
EU policy as “a religion of the market.’’
The European bloc does not seem to be aware that in its territory
“there are three million homeless citizens, or even that there
are poor,’’ including “25 percent of the adult population of
Portugal, nearly 20 percent of that of Britain, and over 15
percent of that of Spain,’’ the group added.
One of the seminars organized by the Social Forum was held
at the Pablo Olavide University of Seville, where hundreds of
mainly African immigrant farm workers are staging a sit-in,
demanding work and residency permits. The more than 400 illegal
immigrant farm workers, who have occupied buildings at a Seville
university for the last 11 days to demand residence rights,
began a 48-hour hunger strike Friday to draw attention to their
demands, a spokesperson said.
Commenting on the issue of illegal immigration, Rafael Lara,
head of the Human Rights Association of Andalucia, said, “The
most positive outcome for this summit would be if they reached
no agreement at all. These policies are inspired by the separation
of human beings, and that is called racism.”
During one part of the street demonstrations, around a dozen
people stripped off outside a Bank of Spain building in a symbolic
protest against what they said was the exploitation of developing
countries by the rich countries of the north.
“We’re naked because it’s a way of symbolizing what’s happening.
The forces between rich and poor countries are so out of balance
that we feel naked, impotent,” said one protester. The protesters
jumped up and down waving placards and splashed each other with
water from a nearby fountain as fully clothed and armed police
stood by bemused.
Sources: Ananova, BBC News, Indymedia, IPS, Reuters
Sheriff held accountable
in domestic violence homicide
June 20— In the first-ever monetary award by law enforcement
for their failure to protect a domestic violence victim leading
up to her homicide, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department agreed
to pay a million dollar settlement in the landmark civil rights
lawsuit — Maria Teresa Macias vs. Sonoma County Sheriff Mark
Ihde. Maria Teresa Macias, a 36-year-old immigrant from Mexico
was shot to death in Sonoma, CA by her estranged husband in
1996 before he turned the gun on himself.
The announcement came mid-trial at the close of dramatic testimony
by Sara Rubio Hernandez detailing more than 20 attempts by her
daughter to get help with her violent, estranged husband, Avelino.
Hernandez outlined her daughter’s repeated reports to the Sheriff’s
Department of Avelino’s multiple felony crimes, including his
sexual assaults on Teresa and her children, his constant obsessive
stalking, repeated threats to kill, and restraining order violations.
Although deputies told Macias to keep a written log of her interactions
with her husband and submit them to the sheriff as evidence,
when she did so, those documents were never translated into
English or read, according to Richard Seltzer, the plaintiffs’
lead lawyer. The Macias family contends that officers discouraged
Teresa Macias from calling the Sheriff’s Department and that
officers would fail to arrive on the scene. In one instance,
the responding officer could not find the house where Teresa
Macias was calling from and gave up looking for it, according
Seltzer. On another occasion, an officer allegedly told a witness
that Teresa Macias was overreacting to her husband’s behavior,
according to court documents.
The Sheriff’s Department never once arrested or cited Avelino.
In the last three months of her life, Macias called the department
at least 14 times. On Apr. 15, 1996, Avelino fatally shot Teresa,
then shot and seriously wounded her mother, Sara.
This landmark federal civil rights lawsuit, filed in October,
1996 claimed that Sonoma County Sheriffs Dept. violated Teresa’s
constitutional right to Equal Protection of the law. A July
2000 9th Circuit Appellate Court decision in the Macias case
established for the first time, and in the most unambiguous
language to date, woman’s right to sue law enforcement when
they fail to act.
With today’s testimony and the historic damages award, Sara
Hernandez said, “I have fulfilled my daughter’s wish.” Shortly
before her death, Teresa told her mother, “If I die I want you
to tell the world what happened to me. I don’t want other women
to suffer as I have suffered; I want them to be listened to.”
The settlement sends a resounding message to law enforcement
around the country that they can no longer ignore domestic violence
victims with impunity, and sends an equally forceful message
to women everywhere that they have a constitutional right to
hold law enforcement accountable when they refuse to act.
About 34 percent of Latinas and 25 percent of Filipinas in
California have experienced domestic violence, according to
the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights. As many
as 1 million to 3 million women in the United States are physically
abused by their husbands or male companions each year, according
to the US Justice Department.
Sources: Purple Berets , Women’s
ENews
New Office of Homeland Security to concentrate
power, increase secrecy
By Brendan Conley
June 26 (AGR)— In what would be the most significant
restructuring of the federal government since the 1947 creation
of the Department of Defense, President George W. Bush is seeking
to create a Department of Homeland Security that would bring
together foreign and domestic intelligence agencies and would
be exempt from laws requiring public disclosure and protecting
whistleblowers. Congress is considering the Homeland Security
Act on an accelerated schedule that could result in the creation
of the department by the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The department would combine 100 federal entities, including
the Secret Service, Coast Guard, and Border Patrol, with 170,000
employees and total annual budgets of $37 billion into one agency.
The FBI and CIA would be required to turn over intelligence
reports relating to potential attacks against the US to the
new department.
“If you like the idea of a government agency that is 100 percent
secret and 0 percent accountable, you’ll love the new Homeland
Security Department,” said Timothy Edgar, an American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) Legislative Counsel. “The Administration’s
plan exempts the new agency from a host of laws designed to
keep government open and accountable and to protect whistleblowers.”
In perhaps the most striking bid for secrecy, a provision
in the bill creating the new department would exempt its employees
from the Whistleblower Protection Act, the very law that helped
expose intelligence failures related to the Sept. 11 attacks.
FBI Agent Coleen Rowley blew the whistle on her bosses for mistakes
in the probe of Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been indicted on
six counts of conspiracy in last year’s attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon. Protections against retribution
for whistleblowers like Rowley would not exist in the new agency.
The new department would be exempt from the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA), the ACLU said, “essentially eliminating the agency’s
responsibility to answer public questions about how well it
is addressing these threats.”
The FBI and CIA would be required to share intelligence reports
with the Homeland Security Department, blurring the line dividing
foreign and domestic spying. This melding could endanger the
rights and freedoms of US citizens, according to civil liberties
advocates.
The creation of the new agency is expected to further propel
the military and law enforcement buildup since Sept. 11. The
Coast Guard, one of the agencies that would be folded into the
new department, announced plans to improve and expand its fleet.
A joint team of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman was awarded
an $11 billion, 20-year contract that will allow the Coast Guard
to buy 91 ships and 145 airplanes and helicopters, as well as
upgrade 49 cutters.
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