Toronto tenants demand rent freeze

Toronto, Canada, August 3— Members of one of this city’s largest tenants’ associations and its supporters took to the streets tonight in their kickoff of a fight for a “rent freeze.” This rally by the Greater Toronto Tenants’ Association had a spontaneous feeling and a lot of raw energy.

Waving signs and banners, the tenants took over key lanes of highway and motorists responded with honks of support and also of fury over the disruption of traffic near the Bloor-Danforth Bridge. Most of the time, vigorously chanting residents, fed up with skyrocketing Toronto rents and terrible living conditions drowned out the traffic itself.

Tenants want to stop rent increases in private sector rental housing — the vast majority of rental housing. And they want others to endorse a rent freeze. The rent freeze campaign is for a 0% provincial guideline increase for 2001.

Earlier in St. James Town a number of speakers addressed the crowd. Rosario Marchese said landlords have done well. They have the money and they should really stop whining. He noted that 3.5 million Ontario residents, or one third of the people, are tenants. And nearly all of them are victims of rents increasing far above the inflation rate. Provincial law allows landlords to wage a war on tenants. They can raise rents and they don’t have to show where that money is being spent. With no new affordable housing being built, the situation is getting worse by the day.

Overall rents have been increasing well above the guidelines. In 1999, Toronto landlords received a windfall of extra rent totaling $232,278,616. In that same year, 55,000 tenant households received applications for increases above the guidelines. More than 700 buildings were hit with above guideline increases in 1999-2000 in the Toronto area.

As rents soar, many tenants have already become homeless and 300,000 tenants now pay so much of their income on rent that they may also become homeless.

Other speakers from GTTA noted that even in increases due to maintenance, landlords profit. They do things like add new windows that decrease heating costs, yet pass only costs, and not savings, on to tenants. Then, in areas where there are no profits, there are no repairs.

At the outset of the march, Wendy Forrest, a council candidate for Ward 28 in the upcoming Megacity election, told of her experiences. People in the neighborhood can’t get into affordable housing, as the waiting lists are endless. They end up with high rents, get into arrears by a thousand or two and can’t get back out. Disabled tenants and those with psychiatric problems simply don’t have a chance. Wendy’s supporters at the march said that her rival in the council race, Pam McConnell, was frightened by the idea of tenants taking to the streets and has not supported the rent freeze concept.

On the issue of support for the freeze itself, Paul York of the GTTA told the crowd that all of the political parties must respond. He also said that the rent freeze idea is not all that radical. Back in the 1930s, tenant leaders used to call for rent reductions.

Will other tenant organizations and support groups endorse the rent freeze idea? York said that tenant groups and politicians are being put to the test. If they don’t support a freeze, we’ll know that they are not friends of tenants at all.

Contact the Greater Toronto Tenants’ Association (GTTA) at 416-256-0060.

US admits aiding counterinsurgency war

While the US Congress discussed President Bill Clinton’s $1.3 billion military-aid package to Colombia, solemn assurances were made that the attack helicopters and elite battalions were destined only for the “war on drugs.” The United States was not going to be involved in the war against the FARC-EP and the ELN.

Just two weeks after Clinton signed the aid bill, that lie has been publicly abandoned. Blackhawk helicopters were employed to repel a July 30 FARC-EP offensive in the town of Arboleda.

“The US-supplied aircraft are generally permitted to conduct such rescue [sic] flights and search and rescue missions in addition to their normal anti-narcotics responsibilities,” explained US State Department spokesperson Philip Reeker.

Arboleda is a town in coffee-producing western Colombia, where neither coca nor poppy is grown.

The State Department was on the defensive as the most extreme US congressional advocates for counter- revolutionary war in Colombia complained about the nominal restrictions on the military aid.

Days earlier, on July 25, US House International Relations Committee Chair Ben Gilman (R-NY) ranted about a July 14 attack in Roncesvalle, a town in northern Colombia. “Since the US Embassy maintains the absurd fiction that US aid could only be used for counter-narcotics purposes, the Blackhawks were not called in,” he complained.

Gilman openly pushed for dropping the sham of the “war on drugs.” The warmonger whined: “If, on the other hand, the guerrillas are not engaged in any narcotics activities and they don’t fire first, the security forces can’t fire on them. Isn’t that bizarre?”

The FARC-EP launched a massive nationwide offensive in July. Leaflets found amid the rubble of destroyed police stations link the offensive to the recently signed US military-aid package.

Source: Workers World: www.workers.org

Japanese villagers protest US bases

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

Naha, Japan, Aug. 2 (IPS)— The villagers of Henoko, a tiny fishing paradise surrounded by clear blue coral reefs and beside the US Camp Schwab, are now at the forefront of Okinawa’s long, bitter battle against the American military.

The 1,400 residents of Henoko in northern Okinawa were propelled into action three years ago, when the Japanese and US governments agreed to build a heliport as a US base off-shore.

The heliport, which will be the world’s first such offshore project, is supposed to replace the Futenma Air Station of the US Marine Corps, which residents want moved out of central Okinawa.

The transfer plan was decided by Tokyo and Washington to appease Okinawans. But the anti-base feeling is such that nobody elsewhere in Okinawa is keen on hosting any new military facilities. Many in Henoko say they do not want the heliport developed in their area.

Thus, anti-base proponents have built a hut on the sandy beach of Henoko to protest the planned relocation of the US facility.

Villagers and activists take turns in the hut to keep watch over the planned construction of the heliport, and vow not to end their vigil until the government gives up its plans. Sue Nakama, 82, is a very willing supporter and says she is proud to take her turn in sitting in the hut.

Takuma Higashionna, 37, says he quit his job at a construction company two years ago after his boss asked him to support the heliport scheme.

This action by Henoko’s residents show the depth of distrust against the bases, especially in recent years when crimes by US servicemen have been reported.

More than 80,000 Okinawans, or more than three-quarters of the prefecture’s population, joined protest rallies against the US bases after the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by 3 US marines.

Despite calls for patience and the promise of more money by politicians in Tokyo, protests against the US bases since the end of the Cold War have grown louder, analysts say.

The calls are especially loud in Okinawa, which alone hosts 27,000 of the 48,000 American troops based in Japan.

“The US bases in Okinawa were considered important for the security of Japan during the Cold War. But now, with the situation different, many people are questioning the reason of why the bases have to stay,’’ says professor Masaharu Ikemiya of the University of the Ryukyus.

US President Bill Clinton calls the bases in Okinawa “the keystone of military strategy,”, and says they have played a strategic role as launching pads for American troops fighting in Asia — the Korean War, later the Vietnam War, and more recently, the 1990 Gulf War.

But the bases have never been welcome in Okinawa.

Despite its dependence on the US presence, which contributes 1.4 billion US dollars in direct spending, the consensus among Okinawans is that the facilities should go. Surveys show that more than 70 percent of residents want them out.

Amid public anger over crimes committed by US marines, the Special Action Committee on Okinawa agreed in November 1996 to reduce the burden on the prefecture. Seventy-five percent of land in Japan allocated for US bases is found in Okinawa, home to 39 US military facilities.

More recently, environmentalists have also joined the Henoko opposition movement because the planned relocation of the base and heliport construction bring up conservation concerns, such as the destruction of the habitat of the dugong, a marine animal native to Okinawa.

The dugong, banned from being hunted in Japan, feed on a special sea grass, that thrive 32 square miles to the north and south of Henoko, activists say.

The estimated population of the dugong is some 100,000, with 80,000 of them in Australia.

The heliport will wipe out the marine animals because its operations will pollute the water and kill the sea grass, points out Taro Hosokawa of the Dugong Network Okinawa.

Likewise, Hosokawa adds, the constant roar of construction will frighten the timid dugong away.

“Even if we are poor, we will be healthy if we protect this village from the destruction that will be caused by the heliport,’’ said Masahiro Tsuchida of the same group. Kinjo, of the Council to Block the Heliport Construction says the anti-base movement stems from residents’ desire for peace. He points to Okinawa’s proud history, which explains the deep sense of loss that affects most people given the relocation plans.

Okinawa was a separate and affluent kingdom trading with China and Japan until it was annexed by the Meiji government in Japan officially 200 years ago.

Joining the mainland only brought war and misery, according to Kinjo. Indeed, Okinawa’s peace memorial on the southern end of the island is a remembrance of the war with US marines at the end of World War II. The battles left 100,000 locals, or one-third of the population, dead.

Okinawans also feel the mainland does not appreciate their plight. Okinawans won independence from the US only in 1972, almost 30 years after the rest of Japan.

The dirty war in Chiapas

Statement of Las Abejas

We are reminding you of the urgent communiqué of July 21, in which we reported on our situation, and we are once again explaining the reason to you. We, as “Las Abejas” Civil Society, have been living displaced from our lands for three years because of the dirty war in Chiapas. Many of you have visited us and know of our suffering. We have presented our demands to the state government in order to see what their resolution of the displacement is. A negotiating table was set up, where there was discussion for several weeks, but the entire problem was not solved. It only dealt with those points which are not important.

The points which are most important for us are justice and indemnification for the loss of our belongings, because what has taken place is the government’s responsibility, because they do not do their work well. What the government most wants is a return, so they can say there is no longer a problem in Chiapas, but we cannot return, because the paramilitaries are still at large. Because of this, we can see that the government does not have the will to resolve the problem of the displaced chiapanecos, and they are waiting for us to not be able to withstand the suffering any longer and we will have to return unconditionally.

We want to mobilize in order to denounce the actions of this bad government and to demand an immediate solution to the problems of the displaced. Since we do not have any resources, we are requesting your help, so that we can mobilize and let everyone know what the government wants to conceal. That is why we are in urgent need of help, because Las Abejas will soon be coming out to denounce how the Chiapas government is behaving. We are deeply appreciative of each and every one of you, and to those who wish to be in solidarity with us, your cooperation, no matter the amount. Could you please send it by the most rapid and secure means, or deposit it in our account in the name of:

Mariano Pérez Vázquez
Account # 5001303-9
Bancomer Branch 437
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico

We would ask you to let us know in case you send your cooperation, in order for us to keep track and to send you a receipt. Our email address is: Las_abejas@yahoo.com

We will stay in communication with you so that we may, all of us together, demand justice, so that we may continue to peacefully advance in the search for true peace.

--Representatives of “Las Abejas” Civil Society,
Agustín Vázquez Ruiz and Lorenzo Pérez

Village in Chiapas attacked by armed civilians

Yajalon, Mexico, Aug. 4-- Dozens of paramilitaries attacked a small community in the southern state of Chiapas, burning 40 houses and forcing scared residents to flee their homes, Zapatista rebels said.

The village of Yajalon was attacked twice Thursday, according to a statement issued by the Zapatista rebel group.

The chief of police for the village, Marciano Caballero, said officials knew of an incident in a small community outside of Yajalon, but could not confirm details.

Police sent officials into the disputed community of 100 families on Friday, but were not able to receive information.

The Zapatista rebels rose up against the government on January 1, 1994, demanding political autonomy and rights for the indigenous poor. The conflict has been halted by a cease-fire since mid-January 1994, but the Mexican government has escalated a campaign of low-intensity warfare against communities sympathetic to the Zapatistas.

In addition, these areas have been targeted for attacks by paramilitary groups.

Source: Associated Press

Iraq sanctions and weapons breakthrough

By Dave Muller

Former UN arms inspector Scott Ritter is back in Baghdad, this time on the invitation of the Iraqi leadership. He visited four suspected UNSCOM weapons sites in the Iraqi capital on Saturday, on the first day of his assignment to achieve a breakthrough towards a lifting of decade-old sanctions linked to disarmament.

But Ritter is now calling on the UN Security Council to “redefine Iraq’s disarmament obligation along more meaningful -- and politically and technically viable -- qualitative standards.”

Ritter blames UNSCOM’s failure on a misinformed interpretation of disarmament obligation set forth in Resolution 687, where there was no latitude for qualitative judgments. UNSCOM’s inability to verify that every aspect was fully accounted for was based on “that anything less than 100 percent quantitative finding of compliance disarmament precluded closure on disarmament.”

Ritter said the inability to satisfy the technical (quantitative) test for disarmament resulted in an unreasonable continuation of the sanctions.

Source: Leftlink: owner-leftlink@lists.vicnet.net.au

Police crackdown on protesters in Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast, Aug. 1— Security forces firing tear gas and lashing out with whips dispersed a group of demonstrators, most of them supporters of the country’s main opposition politician, witnesses said.

Hundreds of demonstrators marched toward the French Embassy on Monday to leave a petition in support of comments last week by French Cooperation Minister Charles Josselin, when they were met by soldiers and gendarmes firing tear gas.

Witnesses said some demonstrators were forced to the ground and beaten with whips. About 50 demonstrators were arrested and several injured, according to Patrice Guehi, one of the organizers of Monday’s march.

Source: Associated Press