News
William Hinton honored
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) paid tribute to William Hinton as a great proletarian internationalist. Hinton passed away on May 15.
Hinton became known for his steadfast participation in the Chinese people's revolutionary struggle and for documenting their victories in building socialism. Based on his years of living among the people in a Chinese village in the 1940s, he wrote Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village. In 1971, he wrote Shenfan: The Continuing Revolution in a Chinese Village.
Hinton firmly opposed the restoration of capitalism in China under Deng Xiaoping's regime. In 1990, he wrote The Great Reversal: The Privatization of China, 1978-1989, which illustrated how the victories of the great cultural revolution in China were reversed, and how the many victories of socialism were eradicated under Deng's leadership.
Hinton was one of the Filipino people's foreign friends who joined the Anti-APEC Conference and related antiimperialist mass actions in the Philippines in 1997.
"Bridge Program" withdrawn
STRONG opposition from the League of Filipino Students (LFS)-High School, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), parents and other sectors compelled the Department of Education (Dep-ED) to withdraw on June 8 the implementation of the "bridge program" scheduled for the opening of classes. The "bridge program" requires some 700,000 students or half of the country�s 1.4 million elementary graduates to undergo a yearlong "remedial" course in English, Science and Mathematics.
The protesters said that the extra year of schooling is an added financial burden on parents. Neither does the �bridge program� resolve the fundamental problem of the rottenness of the educational system due to the reactionary government's erroneous priorities. For instance, the national budget for 2004 allocates 31% for debt service and a mere 12% for education. Consequently, over 90% of elementary graduates are not ready for high school.
Extension of Israeli "security wall" stopped
THE Israeli government was forced on June 16 to temporarily halt the construction of an extended "security wall" within Palestinian territory as a result of protests by the Palestinian people and their supporters.
Since June 6, Palestinians together with activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and supporters from Israel itself, have been holding daily rallies to stop the construction of fences that would go deeper into Palestinian territory inside the West Bank. Israeli soldiers tried daily to break the rallyists' ranks and force the protesters to withdraw, using teargas, bulldozers, guns and even cannons. According to the Palestine Media Center, at least 70 people were injured in the clashes. Israeli soldiers also shot four Palestinian demonstrators, including a 13-year-old child.
Only the construction of the wall's extension has been stopped, however, and Israel remains adamant in setting up the entire "security wall" according to its original plan. This, despite widespread condemnation from the people and various organizations and institutions in Palestine, Arab countries and the world. A large part of the "security wall" takes away from Palestine almost half of its territory in the West Bank and other parts of Palestine, and also slices away many productive farm lands and Palestinian commercial centers. Israel plans to set up Israeli communities in these areas. The residents would include Israelis relocating from the Gaza Strip, also within Palestine.
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