Unemployment rises
1991 1991-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 5 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 5
July 1 is Black Monday for workers in eastern Germany. On that day, a one-year work protection scheme expires. Up to one-half million people will lose their jobs.
Economists predict that unemployment in eastern Germany will reach 2.4 million this year, with another 2.2 million jobs supported by government support schemes.
Meanwhile, unemployment is soaring in the other countries of the former Eastern Bloc. The Czechoslovak jobless figure has tripled since January, rising 14 percent during the last month. According to the Labor Ministry, the amount of unemployed workers stands at over 250,000 (2 percent) and could reach a million in six months.
Hungary's unemployment rose 13 percent in April to 3.5 percent of the workforce. Its Economic Research Institute said that 400,000 were likely to be jobless by the end of the year.
Poland now has over 1.4 million unemployed, or about 7.5 percent of the workforce. It is predicted that December's figure will be over 2 million.
On May 15 and 27, closed-door military tribunals in Lod, Israel, sentenced four Palestinians to prison for terms of one-anda-half to over four years. Since then, Malik Shenwai, the fifth defendant, has been given a five-year sentence. The five defendants were accused of having organized a cell of Fatah, a member group of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Israeli authorities claim that defendant Munir Mansur, who was sentenced to 50 months, had confessed to being a member of the PLO. None of the defendants' attorneys or supporters believes that there is any basis to the "confession."
It appears that the real "crime" of Mansur, Shenwai, and the other three convicted Palestinians-Aref Abu Romhein, Nasser Mossa, and Ahmed Abed el Aziz was participation in the Prisoners' Friends Association. This association helps prisoners* families get permission to visit their jailed relatives, as well as sending food and clothing to prisoners. They seek politicalprisoner status for Palestinians imprisoned for their convictions and sympathies, a status denied by the Israeli government.
In an appeal to the Israeli Knesset, the world-renowned violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, joined in the call for a civilian trial, in which the evidence against the five could be made public. A campaign is underway to get the charges dropped, release the prisoners, and support a legal appeal for a civilian trial.
Letters of support and contributions can be sent to The Munir Mansur Defense Campaign, P.O. Box 90609, Santa Barbara, CA 03190.
----- pull-quotes -----
Free Palestinian political prisoners