ACTIVIST NEWS

N-COPA's Philadelphia Story
More than 200 activists related accounts of police brutality and corruption nationwide and traded strategies for organizing against both at the National Coalition on Police Accountability's seventh annual meeting in Philadelphia Aug. 1-3.

The people gathered there represented a broad cross-section of the movement against police brutality, reflecting real geographic and ethnic diversity. Cosponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, the Philadelphia Police-Barrio Relations Project and the Criminal Justice Department of Temple University, the meeting was one of the largest in the history of the coalition, which formed after the 1992 Rodney King beating in Los Angeles. Attendees came from across the country and were nearly evenly divided among African-American, Latino, Asian and white communities.

Van Jones, founder of the Ella Baker Foundation for Human Rights in San Francisco, shared the dramatic experience of the Bay Area Cop Watch and its battle against brutal cop Mark Endaya. The Bay Area group successfully challenged the city's entire police structure; Jones cautioned the meeting against focusing on the actions of individual cops, noting, "It's more than a few rotten apples, but a tree system that is rotten from its root to its fruit."

The meeting's highlight was a panel discussion by U.S. Representative Maxine Waters and journalist Gary Webb on the connections between international police abuse, drug smuggling, and U.S. military interventions. Another significant discussion, on the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, was led by Maria Jimenez of the Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project.

WRL was represented at the meeting by myself and Ellen Klowden, of Eugene PeaceWorks in Oregon. Ellen discussed a recent case of police brutality against Eugene tree-sitters (NVA, July-Aug.) with a representative of Amnesty International who is compiling information on human rights abuses in the United States.

The event received favorable press in local media, which, we hope, will increase the pressure on Philadelphia's finest to change for the better.

-Chris Ney

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The World's Newest Army
The smallest nation in the Western Hemisphere re-instituted a standing army July 8, ending 16 years during which a part-time militia and a special police unit were responsible for "national security." The 65-person St. Kitts and Nevis Army, however, is unlikely to generate much fear in the hearts of its Eastern Caribbean neighbors.

Army proponents in the St. Kitts and Nevis House of Assembly made little mention of foreign invasions or any of the other usual justifications for military forces; the final decision was inspired by a combination of the reverberations of the U.S. "war on drugs" and local partisan politics. (St. Kitts has been identified for several years as a major drug transhipment point between South America and the United States, its isolated beaches and unprotected shoreline providing an excellent opportunity for traffickers to move their wares.)

Although implementation of the plan began in May, the government remained extremely tight-lipped about the whole affair. There was little public debate or concern except for vehement condemnation of the decision by the opposition Peoples Action Movement, whose statements challenging the need for an army and its cost to a poor country aroused little public support. There appears to be no history of pacifist sentiment in this island nation of 40,000. Popular response to split election results in 1993 contributed to the government's decision to hold early elections in 1995. At that time the current Labor Government achieved a lopsided victory that gave it the power to pass laws regardless of minority opposition.

Ironically, the Army is part of the St. Kitts and Nevis Defense Force established by the colonial British government in 1896 to suppress revolts of a black majority seeking relief from the oppression and poverty of sugar plantation life.

-Andy Mager

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Holiday Inn Pulls Out of Tibet
Holiday Inn has decided not to renew its management contract with a hotel in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. While the company gave no reason for their decision, Tibetan rights groups say the decision was influenced by an international boycott they launched in 1993.

The August announcement came only months after organizations in the United States, including Students for a Free Tibet, joined the boycott of both Holiday Inn and its parent company Bass plc. Protests have been held outside Holiday Inns in Britain and the United States and at international travel industry fairs. Boycotters met with corporate officials in London and Atlanta throughout the campaign.

"This is a great campaign victory for the Tibet movement internationally," said Alison Reynolds, Director of the London-based Free Tibet Campaign. "We will continue to do all we can to ensure that the Chinese do not profit financially from their illegal occupation of Tibet, and we congratulate Holiday Inn on their decision."

Holiday Inn said it will end its management role at the Chinese government-owned Holiday Inn Lhasa when its contract expires this fall. The company has managed the hotel for over a decade.

Opponents criticized Holiday Inn's presence in Lhasa as legitimizing Chinese oppression of the Tibetan people.Boycott organizers alleged that the hotel's economic benefits profited the Chinese occupiers rather than Tibetans and that Holiday Inn discriminated in its hiring practices, allowed the Chinese government to tap phones and faxes at the hotel, and distributed Beijing literature that misrepresented the nature of the occupation of Tibet.

"The hotel was key to the policy of only allowing tour groups into Tibet; high-spending visitors whose itineraries and contact with Tibetans could be strictly controlled," said a statement by the Free Tibet Campaign. "I think their withdrawal sets a precedent for other corporations that are considering going into Tibet," said Leda Nornang, boycott coordinator of Students for a Free Tibet.

-John M. Miller

September-October 1997: Indonesia Unraveling Disarmament: What's the Agenda? "When the T-Rex Ate the Guy" Severed Body Parts and Buckets of Blood Activist News Activist Review: Pushy Priests

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