May 15 , 2000 Collateral Damage BY JOHN PILGER Ten years of sanctions in Iraq Under Siege BY ANTHONY ARNOVE Hans von Sponeck steps down The IMF: Kill It or Fix It? BY G. PASCAL ZACHARY How to Fix the IMF BY DAVID MOBERG First, do no harm Water Fallout BY JIM SHULTZ Bolivians battle globalization ICANN: Secret government of the Internet? BY STEVEN HILL The fight over who will control the Web The Big Payback BY SALIM MUWAKKIL African-Americans renew the call for reparations News & Views Editorial BY JASON VEST Capital crimes Appall-O-Meter BY DAVID FUTRELLE A Terry Laban Cartoon No Justice for Janitors BY DAVID BACON L.A. workers take the first step toward a nationwide strike Wal-Martyrs BY KARI LYDERSEN Unionizing means job cuts at the world's largest retailer Fishy Business BY JEFF SHAW Washington State is failing to protect endangered salmon Wasted BY JEFF ST. CLAIR Russia moves ahead with shady nuclear scheme Profile BY DAVID MOBERG Luis Alfonso Velasquez: Wanted man Culture The Culture Vultures BY LAURA BRAHM BOOKS: Art as instrument of foreign policy Left in the Dust BY TED KLEINE BOOKS: A HIstory of the Small & the Invisible Queer Godfather BY DOUG IRELAND BOOKS: Martin Duberman, intellectual No Jacket Required BY JOSHUA ROTHKOPF FILM: American Psycho Rememberance of Things Trashed BY CALEB MASON

No Justice for Janitors By David Bacon Los Angeles This is the year janitors have been waiting for - the year they plan to get their wages back. Los Angeles janitors are demanding a living wage. Credit: David Bacon Five years ago, Service Employees locals from San Diego to Seattle began lining up their contracts, demanding agreements that all expire this spring. In Oakland and Silicon Valley, workers even went on strike to get the 2000 expiration date. Big building service companies, who clean offices around the country, have fought this campaign. They knew what the union had in mind: coordinated action around the country. And starting in Los Angeles, their fears were realized. Janitors voted to strike on April 4. That night, they walked out of the city's gleaming glass office towers. The 18 affected contractors were ready. Confrontations escalated in the parking garages below the skyscrapers, as police attempted to escort strikebreakers through the picket lines. In many cases, large groups of striking janitors held the police off and kept the scabs out. When contractors tried to get an injunction to stop the picketing, Judge Dzintra Janavs turned them down. Meanwhile, Teamster UPS drivers and garbage collectors refused to cross the line. As the week wore on, marches of thousands of janitors and supporters swept west from downtown to Century City, led by Jesse Jackson and California State Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (a prospective Los Angeles mayoral candidate), demanding that the contractors negotiate.   TOP HOME SUBSCRIBE MAIL   In These Times © 2000 Vol. 24, No. 12