Republican News · Thursday 24 July 2003

Iran admits journalist was beaten to death

The Iranian government has admited that a Canadian photojournalist was beaten to death after being arrested last month, reversing an earlier statement that she had suffered a fatal stroke.

Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian of Iranian descent, was arrested by Iranian authorities as she took photographs outside a Tehran prison. She died on Friday 11 July.

Iran's original assertion that Kazemi had died as the result of a stroke raised the suspicions of her family and friends, and it has now been confirmed that the Canadian woman died as a result of a brain haemorrhage after being beaten.

The revelation strengthens the argument that the conservative clerics who rule the country are flaunting the constitution and operating parallel security services. Canadian officials are furious over Kazemi's death and the incident has cast yet another spotlight on the Iranian government's continued human rights violations.

Iranian Vice President for legal affairs, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, said this past week, "The death of Zahra Kazemi... creates a very black picture of Iran in the world". He vowed that those responsible would be prosecuted.

But in spite of this, the Iranian government is still ignoring Canadian demands to release the body so it may be returned to Canada for burial.

"From our point of view, because she has Iranian citizenship, no foreign government has the right to make special comments about this issue," said Iranian spokesperson Abollah Ramazanzadeh.

The Canadian Alliance opposition party has demanded that Ottawa expel Iranian diplomats until Kazemi's body is returned.

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Searching For Sandino

BY JIM SLAVEN IN MANAGUA

This week marks the 24th anniversary of the Sandanistas taking control of Nicaragua. After many years of struggle, sacrifice and death, this week all those years ago the people of Nicaragua rejoiced as the Somoza regime crumbled and fled. The following years were scarred by the Frente's need to fight off the US-backed Contras and economic isolation. In 1990, the people of Nicaragua rejected the FSLN at the ballot box and replaced them with a government favoured by the United States.

I always had a soft spot for the Sandanistas. Perhaps it was because I did some work for the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign in the 1980s, perhaps it was because they resisted US pressure for so long. It might even have been down to a song the Alan Johnstone Band sang round the folk scene of Edinburgh many years ago (Viva Nicaragua, Fight the Fight Managua). So it was with great expectancy that I arrived in Managua. What was the Sandinista legacy I wondered?

The first thing that struck me about Managua is how unlike a city (never mind a capital city) it is. It has only one high-rise building, which was formerly a US bank and is now the offices of the country's politicians. There are few notable landmarks in a city spread over many miles of often empty and unkempt ground. This is, of course, the result not of revolution but the fate nature dealt Nicaragua.

The capital has been particularly badly hit, with the city centre destroyed (and never rebuilt) during an earthquake in 1972. Since then, it has suffered war and hurricanes, so what you see is many ruined buildings. A perfect example is the old Cathedral, which is "left open to the gods" and lies where the old city centre was on the banks of Lake Managua. The new Cathedral, which was opened in 1993, was built on the other side of town, a symbol of the new beginning the people were promised in 1990. Rather than a new city centre, the Cathedral sits uncomfortably next to one of the US-style shopping malls that have recently been built.

One of the political battlegrounds in Latin America over recent years has centred on currency. Recently, Venezuela¥s President Hugo Chavez suggested a single currency for the region similar to the euro. This is part of his plan to complete Simon Bolivar¥s dream of Latin American unity. Washington was quick to dismiss the suggestion. They already have plans for a single currency in the region; it¥s called the US dollar.

The process of dollarisation is gaining pace, with Panama, Equador and El Salvador already having officially adopted the US currency. Guatemala is next and Argentina and Mexico have held high level talks on the subject. Here in Nicaragua and in neighbouring Costa Rica, the dollar is the unofficial currency. Every where you go you not only see images of United States popular culture but you see the dollar.

Political opposition to this process in Nicaragua is not in a strong position. The Sandanistas lost last year's presidential elections. Many thought it would mark the end of their leader, Daniel Ortega's, political career. However, despite three failed presidential bids and his fair share of personal scandal, he was reelected leader late last year. Many of the people I spoke to had fought with the Frente and still supported the FSLN, although most argued the movement had changed dramatically after 13 years of often uneasy tactical alliances and political defeats.

In the mid-'80s Salman Rushdie wrote a good little book (no, he did) called The Jaguar Smiles, about his trip to Nicaragua. While not agreeing with Rushdie¥s analysis, it is still an insightful piece of writing, with many great pen portraits of leading figures in the FSLN government, which was a mixture of priests, poets and soldiers. He was, however, disparaging of the Sandanistas' habit of naming ordinary everyday places, like marketplaces and parks, after fallen comrades. I always disagreed with Rushdie and felt it was appropriate that these men and women should be remembered in living monuments made up of the people going about their everyday business.

The more places named after Bobby Sands or Carlos Fonseca the better, in my view. We have enough places named after royals or the rich and infamous. Alas, much to my disappointment, almost all the symbols of the FSLN's time in power are gone. The political murals have been replaced with Coca-Cola adverts and the like. Buildings once named after revolutionary leaders have now been given new names.

One symbol still there, however, is the huge image of Sandino that overlooks the city. The legendary Nicaraguan revolutionary who fought against the US marines early in the last century still stands guard over Managua - a reminder of a time of hope, not just for the people of Nicaragua but throughout the world.

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The power of the boycott

Little did Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott know that his ruthless oppression of his Irish tenants in the 19th century would lead to his name entering the English language. The English land agent in Ireland whose ruthlessness in evicting tenants from a Mayo estate led the Irish Land League to urge his tenants to refuse all cooperation with him and his family. Labourers would not work for him, local shops stopped serving him (food had to be brought in from elsewhere for him and his family), and he even had great trouble getting his letters delivered. In the end, his crops were harvested that autumn through the help of 50 volunteers from the north of the country, who worked under the protection of 900 soldiers. The effectiveness of the tactic made his name an instant byword and boycott remains a trusted means of effecting political change.

Tuesday 22 July marked the start of a new boycott against yet another multinational corporation. This time, it is the turn of the Coca-Cola company, which is currently being sued for allowing and encouraging paramilitary death squads to bully, torture and assassinate Colombian Coca Cola workers who attempted to organise trade unions. But there are many other boycotts taken place against very well know corporations that pledge to serve the public and support workers' rights while they abuse workers and resources in developing countries. Sometimes solidarity starts with not drinking, eating or wearing certain products.

Coca-Cola boycott

The Colombian trade union SINALTRAINAL is calling for a one-year boycott of all Coca-Cola products, in order to add to the pressure on Coca-Cola to change its practices in Colombia. In the last few years, paramilitaries have killed seven Coca-Cola trade union leaders - one of them, Isidro Gil, in the factory plant - and kidnapped and tortured dozens of union activists. Ninety percent of all union leaders reported killed worldwide die in Colombia. Last year, the union, which organises workers employed by Coke Colombia as well as by the Nestlé Corporation, along with United Steelworkers in the US, filed a case in US federal court accusing Coke of crimes against humanity for their involvement in the repression of workers by paramilitaries. On 31 March, a Florida judge determined that the court case against Coke could proceed. The union has called for a worldwide boycott campaign to take place in parallel with the legal action. For more information on Coca-Cola activities worldwide, check www.cokewatch.org and to join the campaign, www.caja.org/coke/

Boycott against Nestlé

The Nestlé company has interests in dozens of countries and is perhaps best known for its food products, breakfast cereals and coffee. Nestlé also has a majority interest in the L'Oréal cosmetics company. Nestlé holds about 50% of the world's breast milk substitute market and is being boycotted for continued breaches of the 1981 World Health Organisation Code regulating the marketing of breast milk substitutes.

Nestlé has encouraged bottle-feeding primarily by either giving away free samples of baby milk to hospitals or neglecting to collect payments. It has been criticised for misinforming mothers and health workers in promotional literature. Nestlé implies that malnourished mothers, and mothers of twins and premature babies, are unable to breastfeed, despite health organisations' claims that there is no evidence to support this.

Evidence of direct advertising to mothers has been found in over 20 countries, such as South Africa and Thailand. Instructions and health warnings on packaging are often either absent, not prominently displayed or in an inappropriate language. All of these actions directly contravene the Code regulating the marketing of baby milk formulas.

Even in Britain, bottle-fed babies are up to ten times more likely to develop gastrointestinal infections, but in the Third World, where clean water may be absent, mothers may be illiterate and independent health care and advice may be lacking, bottle feeding can be more dangerous. This can lead to a situation where babies are left vulnerable to dysentery, malnutrition and death, and Nestlé is able to retain its estimated $4 billion market share in the babymilk industry.

Nestlé does not come clear when it comes to workers' rights. In 1989, workers at a Nestlé chocolate plant in Cacapava, Brazil went on strike. The workers complained of poor working conditions, including discrimination against women, lack of protective clothing and inadequate safety condition. Within two months of the beginning of the strike, the company had sacked 40 of its workers, including most of the strike organisers. Their activities in Colombia are also being denounced by SINALTRAINAL, which points to their responsibility in the death of ten union members at the hands of right wing paramilitaries.

d what about animal rights? Nestlé owns nearly 50% of the cosmetics company L'Oreal, which was the subject of boycott calls from animal rights groups including PeTA because of its animal testing policy. Since then, L'Oreal has claimed that it no longer tests finished products on animals. This statement is obviously intended to mislead, since finished products do not require further testing and it implies that the ingredients are certainly still subject to tests. Some groups called off the boycott in response to L'Oreal's statement, but there are individuals and organisations who continue the boycott and L'Oreal continues to test on animals. Nestlé itself manufactures products containing meat and has been criticised by BUAV for testing its coffee's carcinogenicity on mice.

http://www.babymilkaction.org/pages/boycott.html

Boycott Nike

Despite its progressive image in the United States, Nike is a very different company in Vietnam and in other Asian manufacturing operations. Reports of physical abuse, sexual abuse, salary below minimum wage and debilitating quota systems have been confirmed by CBS News, the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, AP, Reuters as well as other non-profit and nongovernmental organisations.

In 1998, Nike boss Phil Knight promised to change the company's labour practices in Asia. There were a few improvements, but much of Knight's plan of action was nothing but empty promises. Nike continues to treat its labour problem as a public relations matter, staffing up its PR department to go on a charm-offensive to seduce the public, to create confusion among concerned people about the reality of Nike sweatshops and to sow doubts about anti-sweatshop activists.

Nike's factory wages are still the lowest among foreign-owned factories in Vietnam. Many studies have confirmed that Nike does not pay its Asian workers enough to live on. Nike factories continue to abuse workers and violate their labour rights.

Behind closed doors, Nike continues to sabotage any labour organisation that stands in its way. To derail cooperation between US labour groups and Vietnamese labour organisations, for example, Nike sent a "private" letter to a high-level Vietnam government official accusing US labour activists of harbouring a secret agenda to change the government in Vietnam.

The Nike boycott protest has the support of many organisations, which work together to persuade the Nike Corporation to treat its overseas workers fairly (Not all members of the Working Group on Nike advocate a boycott of Nike products). They also urge the public to refrain from buying Nike products until corrective actions are taken to improve these abhorrent working conditions, which have proven to be insulting to human dignity and neglectful of human conscience.

http://www.saigon.com/~nike/

Boycott Israeli goods

A campaign to disinvvest from Israel and to boycott Israeli products and leisure tourism has gathered momentum across the globe. Money talks. Many will abandon their support of Israel if their economic interests are threatened. These boycott campaigns will continue to grow until Israel withdraws from the occupied areas, respects human rights (including right of refugees to return to their homes and lands), and obeys International law.

In addition to their economic effects, activists can and have used boycotts and disinvestment campaigns as educational tools. Universities, business people, and consumers are educated about the support provided to Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people through purchases and investments. Reports from activists have been encouraging, say organisers, and are analogous to the early successes that snowballed into the pressure on South Africa that ended Apartheid. The boycott is directed to bring peace with justice to all people in the Middle East. As repeatedly quoted: "Think Globally and Act Locally."

www.boycottisraeligoods.org

ExxonMobil

Last December, the ExxonMobil Corporation, known as Esso in Europe, indicated that an activists' boycott is hurting its British sales at the pump. Green groups, led by Greenpeace, People and Planet, and Friends of the Earth, staged over 300 demonstrations in Britain on 1 December, at which time Esso's fuel retailing manager, Stuart Kelly, reported a drop in sales, though the impact was "low," he said. ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded oil company, has been accused of opposing the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions and refusing to invest in renewable fuels. Exxon senior vice president Rene Dahan countered these statements by saying that the company does aim to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases but "without giving up economic prosperity". Boycott organisers continue to ask drivers not to buy ExxonMobil or Esso gasoline.

http://www.stopesso.com/

Other corporations facing boycotts include Wal-Mart, Texaco, Shell, Monsanto, Mitsubishi, Du Pont, Dow Chemical, Domino's Pizza, products made in China, fashion companies who use fur, Burma's products and tourism industry, and FedEx.

What all these corporations share is that they are consumer oriented and will eventually respond to public pressure, if it is strong enough to affect their bottom line. The power of One is the starting point of the power for All. For information on different actions and boycotts against corporations, check http://www.coopamerica.org/boycotts/ and/or http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3199/list.html