This issue speaks to attacks on political justice in the form of resurgent racism at home, as well as genocide and patterns of "ethnic cleansing" internationally. With the realignment of power in the U.S. over the last two decades, the Democratic Party effectively abandoned the historic demand for civil rights. This demand had once been an integral element of its electoral base, including labor and people of color, but the collapse of the New Deal Coalition and liberal-inspired state redistributive policies created space for a mean-spirited assault on the gains made by movements supporting labor and civil rights. Unfortunately, the post-Cold War reality has left the social movements without moorings and, lacking strategic coherence, oppositional tactics inherited from the 1930s and 1960s are not up to the task of holding the line. Contributors to this issue do an excellent job of analyzing the political initiatives that challenge any notion of equality as a fundamental norm in the U.S., but also take halting steps toward elaborating a vision of socially just institutions fitting to the new global reality.

Affirmative Action in the U.S.

In "No Easy Road to Freedom: Remapping the Struggle for Racial Equality," Anthony M. Platt offers an overview of the struggle for racial equality within a global context. A useful survey of the trajectory and social context of the struggle for racial equality since World War II, the article traces the detour forced upon movements for social justice by McCarthyism, the initial optimism of the 1960s, the stalling of its inertia in the 1970s, and the damaging reversals of the 1980s. With the 1990s, when even the ideal of racial justice has been repudiated in the nation's capital, conservatives have announced that the battle for equality has been won, except for their need to undo the "reverse discrimination" they claim is embedded in affirmative action initiatives. This agenda has been coupled with state and national anti-immigration measures, aimed primarily at Central and Latin Americans, Caribbeans, and Southeast Asians, after the success of California's Proposition 187. In California, there will also soon be a ballot measure calling for the abolition of affirmative action.

At the global level today, Platt argues, there are no anti-racist models to draw upon for inspiration (except, ironically, for South Africa perhaps) and there is an abundance of mutually destructive ethnic strife. Despite the great power generated by the Civil Rights Movement, Platt's brief statistical review of the U.S. devastates the argument that racial equality has been achieved. Indeed, the polarization of wealth has only been exacerbated. In the author's view, "affirmative action" (a term first used for government action against anti-labor discrimination in the 1930s) stands for the recognition by government that racism is an ongoing, systemic, institutionalized problem (i.e., it is neither an "attitudinal" problem nor a "legacy of the past") that requires serious, long-term policy initiatives. The article examines the current impasse in the struggle for racial equality by looking at the crisis of denial about racism in the United States, the multiple crises facing liberalism and the nation-state, the crisis of the global, racial divide, and the crisis of identity in the anti-racist movement.

"Affirmative Action and the Persistence of Racism," by Nancy Stein, frames the attack on affirmative action -- most recently the politically motivated vote by the University of California regents that eliminates affirmative action programs in admissions, hiring, and contracts -- as the latest in a series of efforts to roll back the rights of people of color. Such efforts have been manifested in the passage of California's anti-immigrant initiative, in the various three-strikes measures approved around the country, and in "welfare reform proposals." The headlong rush by conservatives to obliterate entitlement programs that benefit the poor, she argues, taps into the racism that has become increasingly legitimate since the Reagan administration and the fear engendered by the growing scarcity of jobs and economic opportunity.

The article outlines the history of affirmative action legislation since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (specifically Title VII, which is the statutory basis of affirmative action in private employment) and examines the ideological assumptions behind the attack on the policy. The legislation banning all discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin was open to different interpretations, based on two underlying principles of justice: compensatory and distributive. The former conception (promoted by the Reagan and Bush administrations) construes affirmative action as a policy that allows specific individuals who have been discriminated against to seek compensation and sanctions for specific claims of discrimination, while the latter seeks to distribute opportunities more fairly among the population to remedy the effects of discrimination. Those who benefit from this broader policy may not have been discriminated against specifically, but they nonetheless suffer the historical and current effects of racist policies that have systematically excluded people of color from employment and educational opportunities. As a redistributive measure, affirmative action can potentially reduce inequality, though not eliminate its roots, while enhancing the standard of living and quality of life of women and people of color. Although progressive Black activists and scholars have been critical of affirmative action both because it has not gone far enough in addressing racial inequality and relies too heavily on the legal system to address the endemic nature of racism, most recognize the importance of defending the principles of affirmative action despite these limitations. The right-wing attack on affirmative action is an attack on the fundamental concept of an egalitarian society and implies an acceptance of living in a racialized society where people are assigned their place according to race. The author lays bare the ideological biases of right-wing detractors of affirmative action and attempts to explain why certain high-profile Black conservative scholars and politicians have adopted stances consistent with the opinions of white conservative policymakers on this issue. In this sense, the struggle highlights what is at stake in terms of the kind of society Americans envision for the coming millennium. Adjoining this article is an educational document prepared by CrossRoads entitled "Questions and Answers About Affirmative Action," which is useful for organizing purposes.

The monograph by the Campus Coalitions for Human Rights and Social Justice entitled "California at a Crossroads: Social Strife or Social Unity?" also speaks to choices that must be made between opportunities and social peace for all, or deepening struggle between competing groups and continued, growing violence. Like the articles before it, it points to mistaken public policy and ballot choices made recently in California with regard to illegal immigration, expanded imprisonment, and affirmative action. If California (and by implication, the nation as a whole) is to maintain its status as a competitor in the global economy, significant increases in social expenditures and public services will be needed, specifically for higher education, skills training, and vocational retraining, a rational and compassionate immigration policy, and an opening up of the kinds of opportunities that might prevent criminality rather than break the budget with new prison construction costs. Proponents of efforts seeking to dismantle all affirmative action programs in state-funded institutions argue that a single generation of affirmative action has been more than enough and that any prolongation of such programs amounts to unfair "reverse discrimination" against white males. Ignored are the effects of centuries of racism and sexism, the persistence of the structural effects of past discrimination. For instance, Federal Housing Authority lending guidelines of 1939, based on the avowed goal of segregation, made it nearly impossible for African Americans to obtain the low-rate loans granted to whites. Consequently, in Northern California the greatest financial difference between African Americans and whites today is in their net worth, overwhelmingly a result of the disparity in value of their equity in housing stock. The lasting effect of this racist government policy was that in 1991, the median net worth of white households was more than 10 times that of African-American households. Affirmative action seeks to redress precisely this sort of injustice.

Elizabeth Martínez' contribution identifies women as key to combating the right-wing assault on equality of opportunity. To date, an estimated six million women have benefited from affirmative action policies on the job. Some five million "minorities" have benefited, a figure that includes women. Although women of color have experienced more meager gains relative to white women, not surprisingly, 65% of "nonwhite" women surveyed wished to keep affirmative action: they are the single largest group in favor. According to the author, when women of color have doubts, it is often due to the perception that affirmative action has benefited white women at the expense of men of color. The article includes a "Resource" section that informs the reader of other available information geared to women and affirmative action.

Democracy and Justice Abroad

"Globalization and the Casual Labor Problem: History and Prospects," by Dave Broad, analyzes the structural transformation of the world labor market, including the growing prominence of part-time or temporary work, cost cutting through massive layoffs, subcontracting in the informal economy, and outsourcing from the developed centers to the Third World. Broad argues that full-time work does not always advance the accumulation interests of the owners of capital. Since most casualized work is non-union, low-wage work, casual workers, including women, form a reservoir of labor that corporations can use to reduce workers' household earnings and the clout of workers' organizations. To regain control over labor power, capital has undertaken a number of initiatives, including globalization of production, technological changes, degradation of labor, (re)casualization of labor, feminization of labor, informalization of production, and promotion of neoliberal state policies designed to weaken the labor movement. According to the author, an antidote to this trend for labor would be to increase social movement unionism, through which labor combines with other social movements, locally, nationally, and globally, in a general struggle for social justice. This struggle brings workers together with feminists, environmentalists, peace activists, indigenous people, and others to achieve a more rational and humane world order. In the near term, though, a "share economy," including profit sharing, gain sharing, performance bargaining, leaner job ladders, retraining, and redeployment, could be a more humane way to increase human resource flexibility. Broad notes that although it is easy to target capitalism as the problem and to say what socialism is opposed to, it is more difficult to articulate a socialist alternative.

Nowhere has this been more true than in post-Cold War Cuba, which has been compelled to impose the most austere living standards in the Revolution's 36-year history. In the early 1990s, Cuba's halting recovery from this economic crisis initially plunged the government into total chaos at the ideological level and led to the introduction of significant elements of capitalism. "The Socialist Transition in Cuba: Continuity and Change in the 1990s," by Juan Valdés Paz, outlines efforts at developing a new socialist paradigm that is capable of allowing underdeveloped and dependent nations to achieve economic and social development, establish their independence, and build societies free of exploitation. The article critiques several negative tendencies, including the adoption of the East European model, which compromised the Cuban social system's integrity because of its subordination to the political system. The author concludes that the Cuban political system has demonstrated its ability to transform Cuban society, adapt to the adverse conditions of its environment, and reproduce its relations and values. The system's primary strength and its weakness have resided in the concentration and unity of its political power. Despite the interrupted democratization of the political system, its reproduction under the new conditions, with the eventual liberalization of the economic system, will depend on its capacity for radical democratization. However, if the United States continues to threaten Cuba's survival, it is likely that the political system will retain its exclusionary character and the system's democratic development may also be impeded.

The subject matter of the next article is also partly derivative from the breakdown of the former socialist states in Eastern Europe. "From Nuremberg to Bosnia: War Crimes Trials in the Modern Era," by Jeremy Colwill, discusses the Hague International Tribunal that was established by the U.N. in 1993 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in the former Yugoslavia. To date, investigations have resulted in the leveling of charges against 22 ethnic Serbs. According to the author, the Hague tribunal is important not only for its capacity to bring about a peaceful resolution of events in the former Yugoslavia, but also in terms of a growing perception that its success or failure will determine the fate of the still unrealized project of establishing a permanent international criminal court. Expectations also run high for the Hague tribunal since it could put an end to unenviable record of non-enforcement of the convention prohibiting genocide. Successful prosecution now could act as a significant deterrent to future atrocities. The growing determination to punish atrocities of war as in some sense illegal or criminal requires a rule-based institutional foundation, one that could not be construed as simple revenge on the part of the victors.

For that reason, the author reviews the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals to establish some central criteria of legitimacy in terms of war crimes trials and to help assure that future trials will be perceived not as a political device, but as a considered legal proceeding in which due process principles and the ideals of justice predominate. Neither the Nuremberg nor the Tokyo tribunal had any basis in the then-applicable framework of international law. One international judge at Tokyo has suggested that the tribunal might have been perceived as an act of revenge for the national humiliation inflicted by the attack on Pearl Harbor or even as the means by which Japanese savagery and barbarity could be publicly demonstrated, thus fulfilling the need to justify use of atomic weapons at by the U.S. at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. International treaties are the source of international law and the only means of securing binding force for decisions relating to war crimes and procedures for dealing with violations of humanitarian law. Neither the Nuremberg, Tokyo, nor Hague tribunals take that route, which would have guaranteed optimum legitimacy. With the latter, the U.N. General Secretary instead attempted to expedite the process by establishing it as part of the Security Council's powers to take measures necessary to restore international peace and security. Learning the lessons of Nuremberg and Tokyo, even 50 years after the event, now urgently requires a huge act of political will if war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are at last to be seriously addressed in the post-Cold War period.

The next three articles highlight events on the African continent, but avoidance of the tragic descent into ethnic strife as in the former Yugoslavia is central to the first analysis. Human rights activists around the world have been monitoring the worst repression Nigeria has known since independence from Britain in 1960, including massive arrests, secret tribunals, and the possibility of executing opponents of the military government. Calls have gone out for the release of political prisoners and the respect of human rights. Capital punishment has been extensively employed against persons convicted of violent crimes such as armed robbery, in the context of the recent deterioration of economic and political life in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. "Between Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia: The Abacha Coup and Democracy in Nigeria," by Nahzeem Oluwafemi Mimiko, provides crucial background information on these events. It concerns the political-economic crisis provoked in Nigeria's federal system by the annulment of the generally acclaimed free, fair, and peaceful election of June 12, 1993, which was won convincingly by Moshood Abiola, the Social Democratic Party candidate. The prevention of Abiola, a Yoruba from the southwest, from exercising his mandate by General Ibrahim Babangida's government, which is strongly supported by the northern oligarchy, is generally perceived by southerners as evidence of the former's determination to retain power at all cost.

This article argues that given the depth of mutual ethno-national distrust prevalent across the country, another presidential election cannot be held under existing structural arrangements without plunging the country into total chaos, anarchy, and violent disintegration. It also notes that such a catastrophic development can only be avoided if a truly democratic and independent National Conference is called to negotiate the basis of Nigeria's unity or peaceful break-up. The study concludes that given the inversion of the National Conference idea and the manipulation of its processes and outcomes by the Abacha military junta, which assumed power from the Babangida-installed interim national government in 1993, a situation of breakdown of peace and security in the near future or a violent, armed intervention in the political process cannot be ruled out. Under these circumstances, the prospects for democracy in Nigeria are rather dim.

Next, anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes elaborates on her research concerning "everyday violence" in the Chris Hani squatter camp, which is based on exploratory fieldwork on the political transition in Franschhoek, a conservative South African farm community. This provocative article also delves into the stoning to death of Fulbright scholar Amy Biehl by angry youth and analyzes media images decrying a "lost generation" of purportedly destructive, deranged, and demonized African youth. The author became personally involved when the ANC Women's League called for "white" and "coloured" women to join a spontaneous march to "take back the Guguletu township" from the young "criminal elements" that held people hostage to chaotic violence and to make the community safe for people of all colors. Slogans deploring "senseless violence" raised troubling questions: were police attacks and raids on Black townships "sensible"? Was "senseless violence" a racist code for irrational Black violence as opposed to rational, sensible white violence? The author examines the costs of the war of liberation on township youth, who were denied schooling, manipulated by political slogans, arrested and tortured by police, as well as pursued by local death squads. For Scheper-Hughes, they are children who have been violated, whose childhood was not so much "lost" as taken from them. In short, the violent eruptions of township life reflect the routinized and strategic violence of the apartheid state against which the youth were and remain mobilized. The article shows how local justice is argued and contested in one small squatter camp that is desperately trying to establish order, harmony, and dignity among its 650 Black inhabitants. In contrast to politicians' ideological references to necklacing and uncontrolled "black-on-black" violence, the author argues that the victims of apartheid have shown "undue restraint" rather than "senseless violence." However, the temptation is great even among ANC officials and leaders to dismiss the alternative systems of policing and popular justice that govern everyday life in South Africa's townships and squatter camps and to view them as anachronisms and obstacles to the building of a democratic civil society. Nevertheless, civil society in the new South Africa must depend on already existing local democratic structures, including the popular tribunals, civic associations, and security and discipline committees that have been struggling with questions of law and order, justice and fairness, discipline and punishment over the past 20 years.

"The Emergence of Oromo Nationalism and Ethiopian Reaction," by Asafe Jalata, forwards our understanding of the very complicated situation in the Horn of Africa. It describes the Oromo national movement's independence struggle within the historic, multi-ethnic Ethiopian nation-state that was constituted along colonial lines in the middle of the 20th century. That empire came under challenge by the Oromo, the Tigrayans, and the Eritreans. Though constituting the numerical majority, the Oromo were subordinated as the political minority within Ethiopia. The removal of the monarchy in the early 1970s and later its army in the 1990s destroyed the ruling Amhara political base. With the demise of the Ethiopian military regime in 1991 and the emergence of the new Tigrayan government, the Oromo Liberation Front became a coalition partner and opposition force for almost a year. In the process, the Amhara lost both their freedom and Eritrea, which gained independence in 1991, after 30 years of war against a Soviet-backed Ethiopian army. (The transitional government has now set up a tribunal -- ostensibly under the Nuremberg Convention -- to try members of the country's former Marxist military regime, including former President Mengistu Haile Mariam, on genocide and murder charges. Defendants face the death penalty if convicted.) The article details the emergence of the Oromo national movement, the collective grievances of the Oromo people, and the social forces involved in the Ethiopian empire. It describes the intellectuals who came to the fore as the leaders and proponents of Oromo nationalism, the strata who had collaborated with former Ethiopian ethnonational elites, the role of farmers and peasants in inculcating the Oromo's democratic tradition, and the intricate process involved in the construction of peoplehood.

Finally, "Refugees, Expelled Communities, and the Edge of War: A Chiapas Journal," by activist-author Ann Bar-Din, offers information concerning the fate of the civilian, uninvolved population in the wake of the Zapatista uprising that is little known inside Mexico, given the area's relative inaccessibility and the government-controlled television system. The observations and analysis are based on the author's five visits to Chiapas between February 1994 and July 1995. Background on the history of rebellion over unequal land distribution and indigenous rights is provided on the Mayas, the ethnic and linguistic group inhabiting Guatemala and the impoverished Mexican state of Chiapas. These areas were once part of the same country, but are now artificially divided by a political frontier. Also explained is the role of religious institutions in the structure of power, particularly the Protestant-Roman Catholic rift that has developed and led to "religious" expulsions in Chiapas. Over the past 28 years, there have been at least 132 mass expulsions of indigenous populations, supposedly on religious grounds, but the real reason was to seize their properties. The latest uprising aggravated the number of refugees. The author argues, however, that they were not fleeing from a war of extermination as is the case in Guatemala or from ethnic rivalries leading to extermination as is the case in the former Yugoslavia. The "voluntary refugees" fled mistakenly, from an imagined danger. In any event, expelled Protestants have settled in shanty towns encircling the main urban centers in Chiapas and they are beginning to wage internal wars for space and resources, making the situation unmanageable. The instability of this region severely complicates the central government's efforts to overcome the country's severe economic crisis, creating space for a negotiated settlement on the key demands of the Zapatista army.

-- G.S.