World News the International Red Cross.
sexually frigid as a result of their ordeal,
The main reasons for the American and almost one third have either aggression against Iraq were physical problems (infection, sterility) or control of oil and the defense of the mental troubles (fear of marriage, of imperialist order in the area. But the sexual intercourse, or of giving birth).
world's "greatest democracy," also
All versions of this practice, often used the war to test new arms, euphemistically called female without consideration for the consequences on the civilian circumcision, aim at removing sexual population or even their own desire, and the most extreme forms of soldiers. A wise commercial move, it mutilation make pre-marital sexual seems. After seeing the Iraqi tanks intercourse physically impossible. FGM so efficiently disabled, weapons is also widespread in Sudan, Ethiopia, manufacturers in other countries are and among some Moslem and Animist now anxious to make their own DU weapons. Last fall, the US granted a national groups in sub-Saharan Africa.
British firm a license to export
*
158,758 kilograms of DU - enough
Most West European and North to make thousands of rounds.
American countries continue to reject
Where profit is at stake, there are claims of asylum by women who say really no principles. * deportation would expose their
Sources: Arkin, William M., "The desert glows - daughters to FGM.. * with propaganda," The Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, May, 1993; Bernstein, Dennis, and
Thea Kelley, "The Gulf War Comes Home, The
Iraq: US used radioactive
Progressive, March, 1995; Brown, Paul, "US
Reports
Uranium Imported for British Shells," Guardian, 24 bullets in "Desert Storm"
Dec. 1993. and Laffitte, Roland and Naima Lefkir-
Laffitte. "Armes radioactives contre l'ennemie ira-
Alongside the thousands of victims of the kien, Le Monde Diplomatique, Apr., 1995.
US-imposed embargo, Iraqi hospitals
Copyright Haiti Information Bureau are filling up with victims of "Desert
Fever" and "Gulf War Syndrome." Many of the symptoms resemble illnesses caused by radiation or by exposure to
Palestine/Israel heavy metals - loss of hair, leukaemia, fatigue, birth defects and lung or kidney
The Palestinian Authority in the damage. In the USA, 13 out of 15 babies
Gaza strip and Jericho is detaining fathered by veterans in one National at least one hundred political
Guard unit have birth defects. And 1,000
32
International Viewpoint #267 June 1995 prisoners, according to Al Wasat newspaper. Thirty are supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the movement led by George Habash. The others are militants of the Islamic Jihad and the fundamentalist movement Hamas. * Czech Republic Demonstrations in support of a squatted alternative cultural centre have brought Prague's long dormant autonomous youth movement out into the open. Several hundred high school students and young workers marched through the capital on 25 February under banners saying "Too many Hotels" "Housing is a right" and "Our dreams are your nightmares". Over 1,700 passers-by signed a petition protesting the town hall's plan to evict the occupants of the Ladronka alternative cultural centre so that a private company can build a hotel on the site. Earlier that day, the Police antiextremist division had visited the squat and made physical threats against key activists. Illegal occupation of a dwelling carries a penalty of up to 2 years imprisonment under §249 of the Czech Penal Code For more information contact the Anarchist Magazine Autonomie, PO Box 223. 112 10 Prague 1, Czech Republic, or visit the Landronka squat: Tomanova 1, 160 00 Prague 6. * Britain According to research by The Independent on Sunday, big business is increasingly willing to finance the anti-left activities of Labour Party leader Tony Blair. Donations are chanelled through the shadowy Industrial Research Trust. Since Blair has at least 23 full time staff, some earning six figure annual salaries, his expenses must be in excess of half a million pounds each year. The right wing members of parliament employ at least 300 researchers, agents and secretaries. In other words, Blair and his supporters have a paid staff more than ten times larger than the Party as such. Add this to the Industry Forum - Labour's sounding board in the City and the industrialist-dominated Forum for Wealth Creation, which advises Blair on issues like the minimum wage, and you see a Labour leadership more cut off from the base of the party, and better organised, than ever before. Labour's previous leaders have all had "presidential' longings. But Blair has gone further, building up an unprecedented political machine, accountable to him alone, and already involved manipulating debate in the party and the affiliated trade unions. The "Blair project" is based on assuring the party leader presidential powers over the party — and sooner or later the entire
China Who benefits most from the reforms ? (%) private entrepreneurs 50 Self-employed 41 Cadres 34 Professionals 22 State sector managers 18 Peasants 8 Workers 4 Based on a sample of 20,000 people in 27 big and medium cities in 10 provinces. Research carried out in late 1994 by the China Social Sciences Academy and the State Statistical Bureau. Source: Sing Tao Daily, February 24, 1995 Urban unemployment Year Millions 1991 0.10 1992 0.34 1993 1.03 1994 1.87 1995* 3.74 *Estimate. Source: Sing Tao Daily, Feb. 13, 1995. • Up to 30m. urban workers and 120 m. rural workers, or one in four of the workforce in both sectors, are effectively redundant. • The labour force grew by 9.5 m. in 1994, but only 7 m. urban jobs were created • 90 m. rural labourers are expected to migrate to the cities during 1995 • The richest 3% of the population has 28% of total savings (290 billion yuan). There are over 1 million yuan millionaires • Per capita 'GDP' in Zhuhai District, Guangdong (Canton) is 86 times higher than in Qinglong County, Guizhou. In 1995 the per capita 'GDP' of Guangdong Province as a whole will be 50 times higher than that of the Ningxia Autonomous Region. The ratio in 1994 was 'only' 1:37.5 In comparison, per capita GDP in the richest region of former Yugoslavia was only 7.8 times higher than in the poorest region when that country began to disintegrate. • The economies of Fujian, Zhejiang, Hainan and Guangdong provinces are expected to grow 20-27% in 1995. Compiled from reports by Zhang Kai, first published in October Review.
Labour government. This is the only way the right can re-shape the party. And it is the only way a Labour government will be able to force through the neo-Thatcherite reforms the leadership is planning. * Italy The centre-left coalition won regional elections in nine of the country's 15 regions on April 23, including Rome and Latium. But as Franco Turigliato reports, the right carried the most populous regions of the south and the most industrial parts of the North (Lombardy, Piedmont). The rightwing block won just over 40% of the vote. The 'centre-left' (PDS, Greens, Socialists, and splinters of the Christian Democrats and Republicans) also won about 40%. The Northern League fell from 9% to 6.5%, but remains a force to be reckoned with on the ground The right had hoped that these elections would end their internal divisions. In fact, the instability has been prolonged Having said this, 40% of the population has been won to the right. This block is homogenous enough to hit hard. And in places like Milan where the centre-left might take power, it is hard to see how the PDS could form a bloc with Rifondazione and the Northern League given their serious differences. Rifondazione Comunista did well - we won 8.3% of the vote, compared to 6.8% in the 1994 parliamentary elections. Fiat auto plant worker Rocco Papandrea, one of the Bandiera Rossa comrades, was even elected to the Piedmont regional council. The main axis of our campaign were defence of pensions, the 35 hour working