At home and abroad

By Victor Perlo

More on the economy

Two figures dominated the economic news the last week in October: the gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 4.8 percent, an exceptionally high amount, and labor costs went up 3.1 percent over a year earlier, an unexpectedly low amount.

Despite the dubious methods used by the government to gather data, the results are consistent with other indicators, notably the substantial increase in the third-quarter profits reported by most leading corporations.

These factors, taken together, signify an intensification in the exploitation of labor, sparking a sharp rise in the stock market. In addition, the economic situation is very unstable. One indication is that the number of business failures rose from 8,000 in 1979 to 50,000 in 1989 and 83,000 in 1997.

The recovery in the price of oil and other basic materials, which will be confirmed when the countries of East Asia and Latin America overcome their financial crises, makes it likely that relatively soon, probably in the year 2000, prices will start upward at a rate faster than the 3 percent rise in wages into which auto and other workers are now locked.

A dollar increase in the minimum wage over two years, which may well be enacted during the next year, lags far behind actual requirements. More and more municipalities are enacting their own minimum wages, in the $7-$9 per hour range. The prospect for low-wage workers remains one of deepening poverty.

The bombings

Earlier this year the U.S. bombed two areas: one in Afghanistan and the other an important pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. Ostensibly, these acts were in retaliation for the bombings in the United States suppossedly carried out, by terrorists associated with Osama Bin Laden.

Washington, which has used human rights as an excuse for aggression in many countries, does nothing to stop the violations by the Taliban in Afghanistan, excesses that are more extreme than in any other part of the world: the unbelievable oppression and conditions of slavery imposed on women by the Taliban, graphically described in the Oct. 28 New York Times, are too appalling to accept calmly. Yet our government carries out quasi-diplomatic relations with the Taliban.

On the other hand, there is the bombing in Sudan. During the past week, The Times carried a full page, detailed report about the bombing of the pharmaceutical factory, which deprived millions of people of needed medicines. The official justification: the belief that the factory was producing nerve gas for Osama Bin Laden. However, no real evidence was presented to back up the charge or to justify destruction of the beneficial items admittedly produced in the factory.

The report included a shocking expose of the process by which the factory was selected as a target: Bill Clinton and his advisors decided that two locations had to be bombed - Afghanistan and one other.

Fifteen possible targets were considered, among them the pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. After much bickering among the White House foreign policy team, the Sudanese factory was chosen. A "game" of Russian roulette that ended with a disastrous crime!