i aA REEEIE EN World The Yorkshire miners had no problem identifying with the plight of U.S. packing house worker Mark Curtis, who is serving a 25-year term in an Iowa prison for rape and burglary. “The National Union of Miners under- stands a frame- up,” said Kate Kaku of the Mark Curtis De- fence Campaign in a Tribune in- terview. “The British press and government did the same with (NUM president Arthur) — Scar- gill.” Kate Kaku Kaku, Curtis’ wife, said the gala event thrown in Durham for the campaign was just one example of the worldwide support trade unionists and human rights activists have given to Curtis, a trade union and civil rights activist, and socialist. Kaku, in Vancouver to address an audience June 2 on the effort to free the former employee of Swifts, said more than Curtis campaign on tour 8,000 signatures have been gathered on a petition to overturn Curtis’ conviction. Curtis, whose activities include sup- port work for liberation in El Salvador, civil rights protest against a racist and sexist police force in Des Moines, Iowa, and trade union organizing and defence work among Spanish speaking immigrant workers at the Swift/Montfort packing house, was convicted in a Des Moines courtroom Nov. 18, 1988. But the prosecution was unable to pro- vide physical evidence linking Curtis with the crime of raping a 15-year-old black youth. Evidence indicated Curtis was at a meeting with 17 immigrant workers at the time the rape was alleged to have oc- curred. And the 31-year-old member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union has no history of sexual crimes. About a month prior to his arrest, ac- companied by a beating by police officers, Curtis was involved in a protest on the lawn of police headquarters over brutality and racism. Because he speaks fluent Spanish, Curtis, a shop steward, had also been active defending fellow Swifts . workers against deportation threats and harassment by company officials. Iowaisa “right to work” state, meaning unions must sign up each new worker. The difficulty of the job is compounded by high turnover in the low-paid, accident- prone meat packing industry and the fact that local shop stewards have little auth- ority, Kaku related. Recently the Iowa Court of Appeals turned down the campaign’s attempt to overturn Curtis’ conviction, but the cam- paign plans to take the case to the state Supreme Court. Since being incarcerated, Curtis had been active working for prisoner’s rights as chair of the Anamosa Reformatory branch of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Or- ganization. He has since been transferred to another prison. Supporters can write to Mark Curtis, #805338-2, John Bennett Correctional Centre, Box 316, Fort Madisson, Iowa 52627. “Desperately” needed funds can be sent to the campaign at 102-1053 Kingsway, Vancouver, VSV 3C7, phone 872-8343. Antigua governing family linked to scandal over Uzi gun-running Anew scandal in the corruption-plagued 40-year-old administration of Prime Mini- ster Vere Bird has hit this northem Carib- bean island with hurricane-like force. This time it is the involvement of Papa Bird’s son, Vere Jr., in the passage through the harbour here of a shipment of Israeli-made small arms to a Colombian drug kingpin. But the legacy of opportunism from the anti-colonial period has ensured that a fiasco which would have toppled a political direc- torate in any country with a semblance of democracy will, at least in the immediate future, barely make a scratch on the ruling Antigua Labour Party’s grip on power. Soon after arriving in the ramshackle capital of this former British colony of 80,000 people, it’s not too difficult to sense that everything isn’t “a cool breeze” (as they say in the islands), in the way some of the “top boys” are lining their pockets. “Something wrong, somewhere, is really giving the country a bad name overseas,” commented the operator of a small refresh- ment shop as we waited at a bus stop. “Something wrong,” say the island’s two opposition parties, can be traced back to a pence Reais wergebyacpuesssintie ey eS was dumped from his post as Minister of National Security in an image-improving measure by the govern- ment. In 1987, he was fingered by both the United National Democratic Party (UNDP) and the Antigua Caribbean Liberation Movement (ACLM) of having skimmed US $11 million from an airport rehabilitation project financed by French banks. Now Bird, nicknamed “Runaway Bird” following the airport controversy, is accused of getting kickbacks for allowing dozens of Israeli-made Uzi machine guns and other armaments to get through to Colombia. The arms, according to the Colombian govern- ment, which is now engaged ina virtual civil war against the Medellin cartel drug barons, ended up on the ranch of Medellin kingpin Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, who was killed last December in a shoot-out with police. Stung by evidence obtained by opposi- tion from both the Israeli and Colombian Pacific Tribune, June 11, 1990 «6 Norman Faria governments, the ALP regime has been forced to call a commission of inquiry.. Both the Birds and another son, Lester, who is Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, deny any wrongdoing. But the UNDP and the ACLM feel at least Vere Jr.’s goose is cooked this time. “T’m convinced something will have to come out of this investigation despite its initial composition being far from repre- sentative of the community. The police, cus- toms, and other government departments were involved in the arms operation. Why should they be dominant on the probe?” the UNDP’s leader Dr. Ivor Heath asked in an interview with the Tribune. _ In an editorial in its widely-read paper, Outlet, the ACLM openly called Vere “Gun Runner” Bird Jr.’s involvement an “out- rage.” It demanded his immediate removal from Parliament and the resignation of the government. The paper produced a letter from the Colombian embassy in the Central Amer- ican Commonwealth country of Belize. That communication showed that Bogota pro- tested strongly to the Bird administration about the arms. The letter detailed how the Uzis and other guns were ostensibly consigned to the. An- tiguan armed forces. They were received in Antigua by an Israeli businessman and Vere Bird Jr. Dr. Heath, whose four-year-old party holds one of the 17 seats in the island’s Parliament, says that what makes the whole political situation so vexing is the ALP has no mandate to govern from the malgetty of the islanders. FROM THE CARIBBEAN “Let’s look at the facts. In the last general election in March last year, only 50 per cent, of the registered voters came out to vote. The ALP officially got 30 per cent of that even after what we considered to be a poll filled with irregularities. Clearly, there was a cer- tain reluctance on the part of a significant sector of Antiguan society to vote for further ALP rule. ” This disillusionment doesn’t necessarily translate into a pat prescription for the ALP’s downfall. Some analysts point to the way some politicians in the English-speaking Caribbean, including some in Antigua, have opportunistically used the trade unions as a stepping stone to affluence and intolerance for political opposition. In the case of the elderly Bird — he will be 80 this year — he led the still strong Antigua Trades and Labour Union for many years to get much-needed reforms from the British colonial authorities. His apparent popularity with older, working-class An-. tiguans, coupled with widespread patronage and favoritism to party supporters, may part- ly explain the absence of widespread, mass- based opposition. But Keithly Smith, head of the other main trade union organization on the island, the _UNDP-aligned Antigua Workers’ Union, told the Tribune this type of support for the old man is waning even among trade unionists in the pro-ALP ATLU. “We sense there is more and more under- standing by workers and citizens about problems on an economic and political level rather than on a personality basis and this bodes well for a democratic and prosperous Antigua in the future,” he said. World News Greyhound strikers back Jackson's team LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (PDW) — Striking Greyhound workers and their — families attended a mass rally here last week in support of the congressional campaign of Rainbow Coalition can- didate Paul Bather. Bather, a Louisville alderman, is up against incumbent Romano Mazzoli and another contender in the Democratic Par- ty primary. The Rev. Jesse Jackson had visited the strikers’ picket line earlier in the day urging them to support Bather. “Today the cards are stacked against working people,” Jackson said. “You can make a difference. If you want to stop scabs from taking your job — vote about it.” Jackson said he saw in the room “the face of the New South and its challenge.” The South has moved from “a history of racial battleground to economic common ground — and in the future, to higher ground.” Love Canal to be resettled NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has given the go-ahead to reset- tle the site which houses the United States’ most infamous toxic waste dump, the Love Canal. About 200 homes are up for sale at bargain prices. Occidental Chemical Corp. had dumped tons of toxins including the car- cinogen dioxin in the canal zone in the 1940-50s. It was later capped and homes and schools built over the canal. In 197g it was declared a disaster zone. Over 1,000 families in the area were relocated after studies showed an unusually high - incidence of birth defects and cancers. Resettlement is opposed by environ- mentalists, including the Citizens’ Clear- ing House for Hazardous Wastes, headed — by former Love Canal resident Lois Gibbs. Gibbs is seeking an injunction to block the sale of homes. Denmark hosts peace festival - BORNHOLM, Denmark — Thou- sands of people.are expected to converge on this town July 25-29 for the 9th An- nual Nordic Peace and Environmental Festival. The festival has a strong tradi- : tion of activism and fun in Northern Eur- ope. The theme continues to be for a Nordic Nuclear Free Zone but has broad- ened to take in environmental concerns. The five-day event includes seminars, dialogue, jazz, rock and roll, theatre, ex- hibitions, sports, children’s activities, and a women’s tent. Participants come from Canada, Norway, Sweden, the Bal- tic states, Russia, the GDR, FRG and Denmark. Prices are cheap, about $160 for five days plus airfare. For further information contact Elizabeth Poynter of the Can- adian Peace Congress in Toronto at: (416)383-9435.