Auto workers discuss,GM-Toyota deal 10 TH£ Did truckers' shutdown aid bosses? . . . . • 12 Who killed Karen Silkwood? • • • • • 13

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 47/NO. 8 MARCH 11, 1983 7SCENTS

Trial of Stop U.S. move to send socialists more Gls to Salvador! opensm• The Reagan administration's plan to dis­ patch more Gls and millions more in mili­ tary aid to El Salvador marks a major esca­ Los Angeles lation of Washington's war against the Sal­ vadoran people. It must be met with the loudest possible BY DAVID FRANKEL outcry from all opponents of a new Viet­ LOS ANGELES - A trial of the nam - from the unions to antiw?rr groups Socialist Workers Party opened in U.S. to Black and Latino organizations. District Court here on March 2. The opeiJ­ On February 28 a "senior presidential ing witness for the prosecution was Alan Gelfand, an attorney for the Los Angeles County government, who was expelled from the SWP in 1979. He is demanding EDITORIAL that the federal court reinstate him in the aide" - who insisted on remaining SWP. anonymous - told reporters Reagan is In their final pretrial brief submitted considering scrapping the present informal February 25, Gelfand and his lawyers sim­ limit of 55 U.S. military advisers in El Sal­ ply dismissed the constitutional right to vador. freedom of political association, stating The aide also disclosed that the U.S. that the SWP is trying "to hide behind the government had told the Salvadoran re­ belated assertion of their alleged First gime it was considering an end to the pre­ Amendment rights." sent "noncombat" status of the advisers But unionists, leaders in the struggle for who are supposedly there only to train Black rights, representatives of numerous troops. In fact, several advisers have al­ political tendencies within the workers ready been photographed in combat and at movement, defenders of the Bill of Rights least one wounded on a combat mission. from a broad spectrum- all have rallied to U.S. helicopters fly over borderland into El Salvador. Continued on Page 18 the defense of the SWP. It is clear that the attack the SWP is currently fighting is a threat to the democratic rights of all work­ ing people. Gelfand's brief argues that he does "not CIA plot to overthrow Grenadian gov't ask the court to enter upon anything ap­ proaching constitutionally proscribed ter­ BY HARRY RING government. Their concerns seemed to neighbors." ritory. . . . No ideological position nor It has been publicly exposed that the focus solely on the "practicality" of the From the viewpoint of the big-business political dispute need be resolved." Reagan administration had plans under plan. And they apparently decided that try­ interests he so fervently represents, Reagan Yet on the very next page, he asks the way in 1981 to overthrow the government ing to topple the revolutionary government has a point about the Grenadian "virus." court to ''weigh the defendants' conduct in of Grenada. A key role in the plan was as­ in Nicaragua was a higher priority. What he fears is not that Grenada will try light of the principles, traditions, and his­ signed to the CIA. "Six months after the Senate Intelligence to subvert neighboring governments - toric necessities of the movement they pur­ A Caribbean island with a Black, En­ Committee nixed the CIA's Grenada that's a U.S. specialty. But the example of port to represent." In other words, a federal glish-speaking population of 110,000, plan," the Post reported, "the members what the Grenadian revolution is ac­ court, representing the interests of the Grenada was the scene of a victorious supported a covert campaign agajnst the complishing is certainly inspiring to Gre­ capitalist class, is being asked to decide popular revolution in 1979. The. dictator­ Cuba-Nicaragua arms supply line to the nada's impoverished neighbors, who re- whether the conduct of the Marxist leader­ ship of Eric Gairy was ended and a govern­ ·Salvadoran insurgents." . main under the imperialist domination of ship of the SWP is in keeping with the ment established representing the interests That covert plan against Nicaragua is the United States, France, and Great Bri- "principles, traditions, and historic neces­ of Grenada's workers and farmers. now in full swing. Stopping an alleged tain. -- sities" of the working class! Since the revolution, unemployment has flow of arms to El Salvador is simply a Nor is it only the Reagan administration Gelfand was expelled from the SWP in been reduced from a staggering 49 percent cover story. CIA-organized Nicaraguan that is out to do in the Grenadian govern­ 1979 for fding a court brief against the to 14.2 percent. Housing has been im­ exiles are conducting murderous raids into ment. As the Post now confirms, covert party in an attempt to disrupt the SWP's proved, and the island's economy signific­ Nicaragua across the border from neigh­ operations against Grenada were first dis­ 10-year offensive to expose the U.S. gov­ antly developed. boring Honduras. cussed by the Carter administration. ernment's secret police. Despite heavy economic pressure At the same time there have been omin­ Even the superliars in charge of U.S. Gelfand argues that his expulsion was coupled with political and military threats, ous threats to Cuba. In the fall of 1981 , propaganda against people reshaping their the work of government agents who took the Grenadian government, headed by Fidel Castro warned of the danger of U.S. 'OWn destinies find it difficult to paint up a over the leadership of the SWP several dec­ Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, has re­ aggression, and the people of Cuba were 130-square-mile island as a military threat ades ago. fused to remain under the U.S. thumb. It organized into a mighty, popular militia. to the United States. So the ploy is that He admits he has no evidence - only a has pursued its own independent course Now the Washington Post confirms that Cuba and the Soviet Union are preparing to circumstantial case from which his conclu­ and has not hesitated to accept the in November 1981 the National Security Continued on Page 2 Continued on Page 5 friendship and aid of Cuba. Council (NSC) authorized possible mili­ It is for these "crimes" that Washington tary action against Cuba. The paper quotes wants to bring down the Bishop govern­ NSC minutes as stating that the CIA, possi­ ment and force Grenada to return to the bly using U.S. personnel, might take "un­ Chicago socialist candidate rejects U.S. "backyard." , ilateral paramilitary action against special The Washington Post reported February Cuban targets." big-business bribe to drop from race 27 on the plans to "destabilize" the Grena­ Meanwhile, the drive against Grenada dian government. continued. BY JON IDLLSON percent, including almost two-thirds of the The paper reported, "The details of the In 1981 , while the CIA was busy plot­ CHICAGO- This city's February 22 votes from Latinos. Daley got 29.8 per­ operation are not known beyond a general ting overthrow, a bullying military threat mayoral Democratic primary made na­ cent. description from knowledgeable sources was directed against the tiny island. · tional headlines with Black Congressman On February 27, Warren's campaign that the CIA developed plans in the sum­ That fall, U.S. military forces conducted Harold Washington's upset triumph over committee alerted working people in mer of 1981 to cause economic difficulty a full:scale mock invasion of the Puerto incumbent Mayor Jane Byrne, and Cook Chicago to a move to change the names for Grenada in hopes of undermining the Rican island of Vieques, under the code County State's Attorney Richard Daley, Jr. that will appear on the ballot, a story that political control of Prime Minister Maurice name "Amber." Amber was code for Gre­ When Chicagoans go to the polls on got wide play in the major media. Bishop." nada. April 12, three mayoral candidates will be On February 24, four men approached For reasons of its own, the Senate Intel­ Additionally, strong economic pressure on the ballot: Democrat Harold Washing­ the socialists' campaign committee, offer­ ligence Committee opposed the CIA plan. has been put on the island. At least twice ton, Republican Bernard Epton, and ing money and city government posts in re­ "Sources said the aborted 1981 CIA Washington has used its clout to block in­ Socialist Workers Party candidate Ed War­ turn for the socialists' ballot spot. The men · covert plan in Grenada included actions to ternational financial agencies from making ren. said they were representing the North West destabilize Bishop's government politi­ much needed loans to Grenada. A massive voter registration drive in the Entertainment Association, "a loose coali­ cally .... Last summer during his vacation in Bar­ Black community before the primary net­ tion of businessmen." They said their "CIA officials presented the covert ac­ bados, Grenada's neighbor, Reagan ted 100,000 new Black voters. Washington names .were Steve Lombardo, Phil Farley, tion plan to the Senate Intelligence Com­ launched into a vitriolic attack against Gre­ won 83 percent of the votes of Blacks, who Bob Marscolli, and Dan Nolan. The ftrst mittee in July 1981. Because of what were nada. comprise 40 percent of the city's popula­ three said they were businessmen and the perceived as unusual and unspecified com­ "El Salvador isn't the only country that's tion. Washington received 10 percent of last an attorney. ponents, it met strong opposition." being threatened with Marxism," Reagan · the votes of Latinos and 8 percent of the The nien told the SWP they were in­ The committee members were not con­ declared. Grenada, he asserted, "bears the ballots cast by white voters, for a total of terested in "making you a lucrative propos­ cerned about whether the U.S. government Soviet and Cuban trademark, which means 36.3 percent of the vote. ition whereby you would step down and we had the right to plot to overthrow another it will attempt to spread the virus among its Byrne's share of the total vote was 33.5 , Continued on Page 17 Quebec teachers battle gov't union-busting

BY WILL REISSNER ment on the spot because Levesque had members donate $5 per paycheck to the example, had to know English to hold a The battle by Quebec's 80,000 teachers claimed he could not negotiate while teachers' strike fund. job. against the provincial government's union­ teachers were off the job. The government The Parti Quebecois government's war Levesque himself claimed to have a busting drive has temporarily moved from has now been forced to the bargaining on the unions could have a lasting impact special feeling for Quebec's workers, and the picketlines to the negotiating table. table, although it still d~mands that the on political developments in Quebec. Pub­ describes himself as a social democrat. The The teachers - locked in one of the teachers accept its antiunion measures. li~; service workers, including the teachers, PQ has even applied for membership in the were among the strongest supporters of the Socialist International. most important union struggles in recent The return to work has not meant an end decades in North America - had been on PQ in its rise to power. In an attempt to combat sympathy for the to the resistance to the government's strike since January 27. Under Quebec public sector strike, the PQ government onslaught .. In approving the three-week The overwhelming majority of Quebec's law , public employee strikes are banned has tried to turn Quebec's 475,000 un­ strike suspension, Montreal teachers voted 6.3 million inhabitants speak French as employed against the government workers. untill985. to use their classes to explain the issues in their native language. But Quebec society The teachers voted to suspend their Describing the government workers as the strike. Mathematics classes, for exam­ has been dominated by English Canada. walkout for three weeks beginning Feb­ "privileged," Levesque accuses them of re­ ple, will practice calculating how much French-speakers suffer severe discrimina­ ruary 21 to try to force the provincial gov­ fusing to make the sacrifices needed to public-sector wages will decline if the law tion in employment. Their standard of liv­ ernment to come to the bargaining table. allow Quebec's limited resources to be is not challenged. ing, medical care, and educational levels used to create jobs. Unless a settlement is reached, the Que­ lag far behind those of English Canada and bec Teachers Federation (CEQ) is sched­ The CEQ is also building meetings of ' One PQ cabinet member compared the parents and teachers throughout Quebec on of English-speaking residents of Quebec it­ uled to resume its strike on March 14. teachers union to the CIA-inspired truck March 9 to protest the government's at­ self. owners who shutdown the transportation Some 1.2 million students throughout the In the 1960s, a powerful nationalist province have been affected by the walk­ tempts to gut public education. system in Chile in the early 1970s to de­ movement arose, whose aim was to reas­ stabilize Salvador Allende's government. out. Quebec's main labor federations - the sert the right of the French-speaking major­ The confrontation between Quebec National Trade Union Federation (CSN) Despite its rhetoric, the PQ leadership ity to control the destiny of Quebec. Many never had any intention of challenging Prime Minister Rene Levesque's Parti and the Quebec Federation of Labor (FTQ) favored total independence from Canada. Quebecois (PQ) government and its em­ - have called on their affiliates to stage · foreign capitalist domination of Quebec's ployees began in late December when the support activities if the teachers resume The PQ came to power in 1976, riding economy. Today Levesque is implement­ government passed a special law gutting their s~e on March 14. Among the sug­ the twin waves of the growth of the ing the austerity programs demanded by existing public sector union contracts until gestions are work stoppages, collections nationalist movement in the 1960s and the the big bankers in Toronto and New York. 1985. for the CEQ strike fund, and rallies and ~xplosion of trade union strength in the The foreign banks have lowered Que­ The law took away government employ­ demonstrations. early 1970s. The PQ's promise to make the bec's credit rating and insist on higher in­ ees' right to strike for three years. It ripped In an important show of solidarity from Quebecois "masters in our own house" was terest for loans. They have warned that no up the existing contracts and imposed wage the labor movement in English Canada, the especially appealing to w9rkers, who bore more loans will be made unless the pro­ cuts of up to 20 percent Work rules were Canadian Union of Postal Workers the weight of the domination of Quebec's vince's budget deficit is cut sharply. changed arbitrarily, and about 11,000 (CUPW) is conducting a membership re­ economy by foreign-owned capital. Any savings in public-sector wages will teaching positions would be eliminated. ferendum on a proposal that all CUPW Many French-speaking workers, for Continued on Page 8 Union federations representing more than 200,000 provincial workers set up a Common Front to resist this union-busting law. A public sector general strike· began January 26. At its high point, January 31, CIA plot to overthrow Grenada gov't more than 150,000 workers were out. Some 40,000 trade unionists participated Continued from front page along so nicely with the brutal Gairy dic­ more to do with the fact that we are · very in a Common Front demonstration against use Grenada as a military base that will al­ tatorship, that takes brass. determined to pursue an independent and the law on January 29 in Quebec City, the legedly threaten this country. In fact, the revolution is bringing the nonaligned path and to build our own pro­ provincial capital. The pretext for this scare charge is that people of Grenada a greater degree of free­ cess in this part of the world: a part of the The government moved to break the Cuba is helping Grenada build a modern dom and democracy than they have ever world that U.S. administrations keep re­ strike by imposing fines of $25 to $100 per airport that can handle large, wide-body experienced. garding as their own backyard, which we day for each individual, $1,000 to $10,000 planes. Unionization has been encouraged, and do not accept." per day against union officials, and $5,000 Tourism has always been an important the unions have an increasing voice on to $50,000 per c,lay for each union. part of Grenada's economy and its present work-related issues. By February 8, only the teachers re­ tiny airport cannot accon1modate direct Newly established women's organiza­ mained on the picketlines. To force them flights from abroad. Tourists headed for tions are changing the status of Grenadian back to work, on February 17 the Levesque Grenada must go to Barbados and wait women, who were long and bitterly op­ New! government passed an even harsher law there for small planes to shuttle them to pressed. against strikers. Daily fines were doubled. Grenada. Because of this problem, an esti­ Through community-wide meetings the Forward Ever! Strikers face the loss of three years' senior­ mated 20 percent of Grenada-bound people are being involved in the country's Three years of the ity for every day they remain off the job. tourists don't get there. decision-making process. Unions lose their dues check-off for six Prime Minister Bishop recently com­ Grenadian Revolution With Cuban financial and technical aid, months for every day the strike continues. mented that Washington's professed con­ Grenada plans to have the new airport And teachers can be fired permanently at cern about human rights in Grenada is Speeches by Prime ready by March 13, 1984, when it cele­ the stroke of a pen. "highly hypocritical." Minister Maurice Bishop brates the fifth anniversary of its revolu­ To enforce thes-e measures against the "It's no problem," Bishop observed, tion. 80,000 teachers, the February 17 law also "when it's South Africa or Chile or South 287 pp. $6. 95. Order from suspended the Quebec Charter of Rights Korea or Haiti ... . Human rights Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, and Liberties. All strikers are now pre­ "It's very clear to us that human rights is sumed to be guilty unless they can con­ Washington .asserts that its hostility to­ just really being used as a red herring to try New York. N.Y. 10014. Please cretely prove their innocence. ward Grenada also stems from Grenada's to hide the reasons for hostility to Gre­ include $. 75 for postage and By suspending their strike for three alleged lack of concern for human rights. nada." handling. weeks, teachers hope to put the govern- Coming from a government that got That hostility, Bishop said, "has much Read the truth every week The Militant Closing news date: March 2, 1983 Editors: CINDY JAQUITH Subscribe to the Militant DOUG JENNESS Business Manager: That way you'll get facts about Washington's bipartisan LEE MARTINDALE wars against working people at home and abroad: from El Editorial Staff: Connie Allen, Nelson Salvador to Lebanon; from unemployment to racism. Read Gonzalez, William Gottlieb, Arthur our proposals for how to stop U.S. intervention in Central Hughes, Margaret Jayko, George Johnson, Frank Lovell, Malik Miah, America and how to fight back against the employers here Harry Ring, Larry Seigle, Mary-Alice and how to replace their system of exploitation and oppres­ Waters. sion with a system that's in the interests of working people. Published weekly except two weeks in At the plant gate, unemployment lines, and picket lines, August, the last week of December, and the flrst week of January by the Militant the Militant is there, reporting the news and participating in (ISSN 0026-3885), 14 Charles Lane, the struggle. Subscribe today. New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: Editorial Offlce, (212) 243-6392; Busi­ ness Offlce, (212) 929-3486. 0 Enclosed is $3 for 12 weeks 0 Enclosed is $15 for 6 months Correspondence concerning sub­ 0 Enclosed is $24 for 1 year 0 Enclosed is a contribution scriptions or changes of address should be addressed to The Militant Business Name ______Office, 14 Charles Lane, New York, Address ______N.Y. 10014. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send ad­ City/State/Zip------­ dress changes to The Militant, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Subscrip­ Telephone------­ tions: U.S. $24.00 a year, outside U.S. $30.00. By flrst-class mail: U.S., Union/Organization ------~------'------Canada, and Mexico: $60.00. Write for airmail rates to all other countries. Send to Militant, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014 Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent the Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials.

2 The Militant March 11, 1983 Bill of Rights rally in L.A. hits trial

Militant/Gary of Socialist Workers SWP leader Larry Seigle . Pentagon Papers defendant Anthony Russo.

BY DICK ROBERTS mitted on record several times that Gelfand views that are not always popular has to be lance since he joined Students for a Demo­ LOS ANGELES - A spirited rally was and his lawyers have produced no evidence able to control its membership character," cratic Society when he was 17. An FBI re­ held here February 25, the first of dozens whatsoever to substantiate any of their alle­ Downer said. "It's a practical necessity. If port on his SDS membership, passed to like it that will be organized around the gations. But she has also rewatedly re­ we in the women's movement couldn't do employers at Hughes Aircraft, recently lost country in coming weeks. The purpose of fused to throw out the case. this, very shortly we'd cease to exist as a him a prospective job. the meeting was to mobilize opposition to As a longtime member of the Los women's health center." V anotti attacked the dissemination of a dangerous abuse of the political rights of Angeles Police Commission, Pfaelzer ap­ Sandra Morgan,. statewide president of lies by government police agencies to em­ the Socialist Workers Party by the. federal proved massive spying, infiltration and the Service Employees International ployers and the effects of this on the lives court in Los Angeles. disruption operations by the Los Angeles Union, said, "What frightens me most of of thousands of workers. He filed suit in A suit brought against the SWP goes to Police Department's Public Disorder Intel­ all is the threats to my freedom, my First 1981 against Hughes and the FBI. trial here the first week of March. At issue ligence Division (PDID), including against Amendment rights -the right to have who Also speaking was Virginia Garza, SWP is a basic constitutional question. Can a the SWP itself. we want in our union." candidate for Los Angeles City Council U.S. court dictate membership policies and Following recent new disclosures of the Jaime Bismarc, a Central Committee from District 4. Garza attacked the long interfere in the political aCtivities of organi­ extent and nature of PDID operations, the member of Casa Nicaragua, expressed the history of the use of police spies and pro­ zations opposed to the U.S. government public outcry has been so strong that the solidarity of his organization with the SWP vocateurs against working people in Los and its policies? That was the question ad­ Board of Police Commissioners has been in this fight. Angeles, as well as the notorious racist dressed by all the speakers and in a number forced to order the political police unit dis­ Larry Seigle, a defendant in the suit and brutality of Los Angeles cops. of the messages of support that were also banded. At the same time they announced a member of the SWP Political Committee, "The Los Angeles Police Department is read at the meeting. that its personnel and programs would be was the featured speaker. Focusing on the infamous in its brutal racist manner, its The rally, attended by close to 100 transferred to other departments. democratic right of freedom of association, treatment of the Black and Latino com­ people, was sponsored by the Political The obvious character of the Gelfand Seigle explained: "Gelfand is going to munities," Garza said. She pledged to use Rights Defense Fund. More than $6,000 suit as an attempt to smear and disrupt the court to try to get the decision of the SWP her campaign to expose and mobilize op­ was raised to help pay for court costs. SWP, and the prominent role of Pfaelzer in expelling him overturned and trying to get position to "the entire police department The pending trial stems from an action PDID activities in recent years, all came the court to readmit him as a member. The and its racist choke-hold practice." brought by a Los Angeles county govern­ together for the participants in the rally membership of the SWP does not want ment lawyer, Alan Gelfand. A former here. Gelfand to be a member of the party. Founded on lies "What's posed here is whether we have member of the SWP, Gelfand was expelled Tony Russo of the U.S.-Vietnam in 1979 fot attempting to obstruct the cam­ All on PDID's list the right to organize as a party. An organi­ zation like the SWP is based on agreement: Friendship Association noted how impor­ paign being waged by the SWP to expose "I want to join everyone in saying that tant it is to fight the kind of government decades of FBI and CIA secret police oper­ this case is really bizarre, but it is also real that is, membership is open to those who agree to carry out a certain program, to de­ harassment the SWP is now being sub­ ations against the party and other progres- and shocking to anyone who is trying to jected to. sive political groups. _ bring about needed social change," stated fend certain ideas, imd to organize in a cer­ tain way to advance those goals. "This is the way the government oper­ Gelfand's suit alleges that the SWP is Carol Downer, one of the speakers and a "You have to have the right to exclude ates," Russo said, "the only way it stays in not a legitimate.political party. He charges leader of the Feminist Women's Health those who don't agree. It doesn't mean power." that it was taken over by U.S. government Center. they don't have the right to organize their Russo, along with Daniel Ellsberg, was agents some 40 years ago, and that he was In fighting to "control our own bodies own party, but they don't have the right to responsible for bringing the Pentagon pa­ through abortion rights," Downer said, expelled because he sought to expose the be a member of your party." pers to public attention during the Vietnam agents dominating the leadership of the · "we are also very much on the PDID's list. War. "This government is founded on party. He demands that the court reinstate We want to support all the efforts of the The right to exist lies," Russo said. "And this suit is more of him in the party and remove the SWP lead­ SWP in exposing police spying and to these same lies. ers responsible for his expulsion. make it possible for political groups to If the court has the right to do all the "We in the U.S.-Vietnam Friendship The suit is before U.S. District Court exist in this country. things Gelfand is asking it tp do, Seigle Association support this effort completely. Judge Mariana Pfaelzer. Pfaelzer has ad- "A political organization that holds continued, "if our membership, leadership, The SWP is effective. We hope it will go and program can be decided by the courts, on being more and more so." then what we really face is that the Socialist Workers Party has no right to Political disruption Bond, Dellunts join the fight exist as a legal party in this country." What's at stake, of course, is not just the Larry Seigle also addressed those as­ pects of the current suit against the SWP Georgia State Sen. Julian Bond and U.S. with its program or goals," he added. rights of the SWP. "This is an attack on the right of the working-class movement in this that are so obviously an attempt to smear Rep. Ronald Dellums have joined the '"These must be the sole right of the mem­ the SWP as cops and disrupt its function­ growing number of figures speaking out bership. The intervention of the courts is an country to organize, to fight for our in­ terests," Seigle emphasized. ing. against the trial of the Socialist Workers infringement of First Amendment rights, . Gelfand's suit is not an isolated action, Party. not just of the Socialist Workers Party, but "The right of working people to organize unions and keep the bosses out of the or that of an individual. It is being fmanced "The trial is a violation of the most fun­ of the rights of all Americans." to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dol­ damental right of American people: the unions; the right of Blacks to organize civil Dellums said the trial "raises serious lars by an organization that masquerades as right to band together in voluntary organi­ rights organizations and keep people wear­ questions regarding First Amendment· ing white sheets out of their organizations part of the workers ·movement- the U.S.­ zations like labor unions, organizations based Workers League (WL) and its Lon­ fighting discrimination, or working to ad­ Rights. - this fundamental right is embodied in the First Amendment to the constitution. It don-based sister group, the Workers Revo­ vance the cause of the oppressed and ex­ "Judicial interference in the internal af­ lutionary Party (WRP). This outfit has for ploited anywhere in the world," said Bond. fairs of a voluntary organization jeopard­ was one of the great victories of the first American revolution. And working people several years been publishing volumes of "The U.S. courts have no right to dictate izes the right of free speech and assembly. materials containing the same slanderous to any voluntary organization who its The right of free people to organize politi­ have fought many battles to preserve that right since then. accusations against the SWP, repeated members are, who its leadership should be, cally independent of government intrusion over and over. or whether its activities are in conformity is a basic right which must be preserved." "If you think about it, this right to or­ "A couple of points give you some idea ganize a group to work to achieve a par­ about this group," Seigle said. "Among the ticular, agreed upon goal is what distin­ things they believe is that cops are work­ guishes a supposedly democratic country ers, and militant cops are militant workers from a totalitarian dictatorship. Do indi­ who should be supported. viduals, ordinary people, have the right to "They think that Malcolm X was an arch get together and set up an organization reactionary and posed a serious threat to without having a government representa­ the fight for Black rights. tive present at every meeting? Without the "They were and are opponents of the government approving its aims, dictating Cuban revolution." its structure? That's what the First Amend­ ment is all about, and that's why this case Today the advancing revolutions in Cen­ is !>O important." tral America and the Caribbean are having Many speakers also addressed them­ a big impact around the world. Twenty selves to the fight to expose the political years ago the victory of the Cuban revolu­ disruption, counterintelligence operations, tion was having a similar effect. and smear campaigns that are standard The groups that became the WL and operating procedure for the government WRP were not inspired by the advances of and its political police agencies. the Cuban workers and farmers. In fact, Paul Vanotti, one of the evening's. they were repelled by them .."They distin- Ronald DeUums Julian Bond speakers, has been under police surveil- Continued on Page 4

March 11, 1983 The Militant 3 Fighters for civil rights join emergency defense campaign

Encouraging support is building for the tional Organization for Women; a repre­ Other slated rallies are listed on this nationwide series of public protest meet­ sentative of the Farm Labor Organizing page. ings slated by the Political Rights Defense Committee (FLOC); Shamus Metress of In addition to a discussion of the rights Fund (PRDF) to protest the Bill of Rights Clan na Gael; and Mike Spychalla, former issues involved in the trial, these meetings violations in the Los Angeles trial of the president of the Toledo Professional Air will be important in the effort by PRDF Traffic Controllers Organization (PA TCO). Socialist Workers Party. to raise a $75,000 emergency fund to help Two of the meetings already scheduled defray the heavy cost involved in the case. indicate the scope of this support. These The Toledo rally will also hear Andrew Pulley. The meeting will be held Saturday Militant readers can help by clipping the are in Detroit and Toledo. coupon below and mailing it to PRDF. In Detroit, the speakers list includes: evening, March 12. There will be a recep­ Joe Madison, director of Voter Educa­ tion at 6:30p.m., with the program at 7:30. And, of course, everyone is urged to at­ tion for the Detroit area NAACP; Attorney It will be held at the OCAW Union Hall, tend these important rallies and to bring James Lafferty, chair of the Oakland 2910 Consaul, East Toledo. coworkers, friends, and relatives. Robert F. Williams County American Civil Liberties Union; Robert F. Williams, veteran Black rights fighter; Russ Bellant, editor of the Wayne State University campus paper, South End; Bill of Rights rally in Los Angeles and Dean Kinmith, editor of the Lansing Star. Continued from Page 3 fact been a socialist revolution in Cuba. by the Russian capitalists to discredit the Andrew Pulley, 1980 SWP presidential guished themselves from other critics by That shows the SWP members have been · revolution. candtdate, will speak for the party. developing the theory that there had not duped into abandoning Marxism!" "Stalin accused his political opponents, The meeting will be held Friday, March been a socialist revolution in Cuba, that including Leon Trotsky and other leaders 11, 8 p.m., at the Central Methodist Absurd though the charge of a govern­ capitalism still existed in Cuba, that Fidel ment takeover may be, Seigle said, we Church, comer of East Adams and Wood­ of the Russian revolution, of being Nazi was another Batista," said Seigle. have to recognize its seriousness. agents. ward. While noting the absurdity of such a This kind of frame-up is not new. It is "a "And in our own generation, as the secc The Toledo PRDF rally will hear Larry constant policy of the class enemy and ret Cointelpro documents have been pried Boyd, cochair of the Bowling Green Na­ view - which is hardly shared by the Cuban capitalists who left Cuba or U.S. especially of the political police. There is a tional Black Independent Political Party; out of the files of the FBI over the last dec­ imperialism, which is trying to smash the long history of accusing revolutionists of ade, we've learned the lessons of history Johey Crawford, president of Toledo Na- Cuban revolution - Seigle underlined its being police agents," Seigle noted. anew. The policy of accusing activists of relevance to the Gelfand suit. · "When they decided in the middle of the being police agents was a standard policy "One of the main proofs Gelfand and his McCarthy era they wanted to get some of every FBI disruption operation from the collaborators put forward in support of communists and Jews, they framed the Communist Party, to the antiwar move­ PRDF RALLIES their accusation that the SWP is dominated Rosenbergs as agents of the Soviet Union ment, to the Black Panther Party. by U.S. government agents, and has been and sent them to the electric chair. "The pernicious and destructive charac­ for decades, is the incontrovertible evi­ "Lenin was accused of being a paid ter of these kinds of smear attacks must be DETROIT-Friday, March 11, 8 dence that the SWP believes there has in agent of the German Kaiser, a story spread understood and repudiated." p.m. Central Methodist Church. Comer East Adams and Wood­ ward.

NEW YORK - Friday, March 'A grave violation of the First All1endment' 11, 8 p.m. Marc Ballroom, 27 Union Sq. West. The following are excerpts from greet­ John McTernan of the Socialist Workers Party for the re­ ings sent to the Los Angeles Political attorney moval of Judge Mariana Pfaelzer from the SALT LAKE CITY - Friday, Rights Defense Fund rally. current lawsuit brought by a dissident March 11; reception, 6:30 p.m.; This lawsuit represents a misuse of the former member of the SWP. program, 7:30. Central City Mul­ Bishop H. Hartford Brookins judical process in seeking to involve the It is obvious that the entire left is jeo­ tipurpose Center, 615 S. 3()0th and Rev. Cecil Murray courts in determining internal affairs of pardized by the willingness of the court, East. political organizations. through Judge Pfaelzer, to perform investi­ African Methodist Episcopal Church, This, of necessity, causes intrusion into gations that are now forbidden to the FBI. Los Angeles TUCSON - Friday, March 11, the functioning of a political organization 7:30 p.m. El Rio Neighborhood This lawsuit poses a serious threat to the and places intolerable financial burdens Center, 1390 W. Speedway. right of all political and social .activist or­ upon it. As a result, this action constitutes Marc Cooper ganizations to function free from govern­ a serious impediment to the exercise of News Director, KPFK-FM ALBANY- Saturday, March 12, ment harassment, interference, and regula­ First Amendment liberties by political or­ 7:30 p.m. Channing Hall, 405 tion. ganizations and their supporters. Federal courts have no business sticking Washington Ave. (Cosponsor: So­ This [court] intervention must be pro­ their noses into the internal operations of cial Responsibility Council of First tested as strongly and vigorously as we progressive political organizations. Unitarian Society of Albany.) protested in the past against spying and dis­ Linda Ferguson The courts, like the other institutions of ruptions by the FBI, the CIA, and the Los member, National Conference of Black this society, are not neutral. Anyone who ATLANTA - Saturday, March Angeles Police Department's Public Disor­ Lawyers thinks such institutions can be relied upon der Intelligence Division. to secure justice for the oppressed is either 12, 8 p.m. Wheat Street Baptist I join in supporting those who oppose Church, 18 Yonge St. This attempt by the courts to dictate to a a fool or a knave. Knowing the character of any further erosion of our rights to freely the Workers Revolutionary Party and the voluntary political organization who its associate without government spying, in­ membership should be and what its policy Workers League, the political inspirers of PHOENIX - Saturday, March filtration, or participation on any level, should be is a grave violation of the First Alan Gelfand, it is clear we are dealing 12; reception, 6:30p.m.; program whether it be through the legislature, law 7:30. Covenant Presbyterian Amendment rights of.all Americans. with knaves. enforcement, or the judical branches of our Pacifica [Radio] will be happy to assist Church, 1210 E. Virginia. We strongly urge all supporters of the local and national government. First Amendment to stand with the you in publicizing the issues in this impor­ Socialist Workers Party in this case. tant struggle. An injury to one is an injury PRICE, Utah - Saturday, March to all. And· a victory for the Socialist 12; reception, 6:30p.m.; program, · Socialist Party, Los Angeles local Workers Party will be a victory for all of 7:30. 23 S. Carbon Ave., Rm. 19. Dorothy Healey. The Socialist Party supports the demand us. ST. LOUIS - Saturday, March National vice-chair, 12, 7:30 p.m. First Unitarian Democratic Socialists of America Church, 5007 Waterman. Can a federal judge determine who shall TOLEDO-Saturday, March 12, be a member and who shall be an officer of ltm$75. ,000 Emergency 8 p.m. OCAW Hall, 2910 Consaul. any voluntary political organization? Can a federal judge take away from the membership of a political organization llllDefense Fund PORTLAND - Sunday, March 13; reception, 6:30p.m.; program, their right to determine for themselves 7:30. Northwest Service Center, what rules, procedures, and policies shall .The Political Rights Defense The basic constitutional right to 1819 NW Everett. govern th~ internal operations of their or­ Fund is seeking to raise that function free of government ganization? amount of money by May 1, most interference is at stake in this trial WASIHNGTON, D.C.- Friday, I share your concern and your opposition of it before the end of March. The and defending that right in the March 18, 7 p.m. Ethical Society to the ominous possibility that these ques­ money is urgently needed to help courts is extremely expensive. 7750 16th St., NW. (Note new lo­ tions may be answered "yes" in a federal defray the huge cost of the trial of Please do your part. Send as cation and time.) courtroom here in Los Angeles in the com­ the Socialist Workers Party. large a contribution as you can. ing weeks. BOSTON ...... :. Saturday, March 19; Members of the Socialist Workers Party reception, 6 p.m.; rally, 7 p.m. in the frrst place and all of us on the left ------Church of the Covenant, 67 New­ have a great stake in the outcome of this Enclosed is my contribution of$ ------case. If the courts can do this to the SWP, bury St. Name ______~------· who will be next? Let me add that this action reveals the PITTSBURGH Saturday, Address ____ March 19; reception, 7 p.m.; pro­ utter political bankruptcy of the Workers ~------gram, 8 p.m. Soldiers and Sailors League and the Workers Revolutionary City ------State ------Zip ------Hall, Fifth Ave. and Bigelow, Oak­ Party, for even considering the use of the land. capitalist courts to determine who should Send contributions to PROF, P.O. Box 649 Cooper Station, New York, N.Y. be a member and officer of a revolutionary 10003. organization.

4 The Militant March 11, 1983 Texas cops beat up anti-Klan demonstrators

BYJOHNSARGE Party, Young Socialist Alliance, and John people along the way with racist and anti­ AUSTIN, Tex. -A series of militant Brown Anti-Klan Committee. gay slogans. This helped swell the number demonstrations against racism and the Ku After the march the Black Citizens Task of anti-Klan demonstrators to over 2,000. · Klux Klan occurred here on February 19. Force urged everyone to attend a Freedom The Klan's planned rally was completely The focus of the protests was an attempt by Day Rally at Rosewood Park in East Au­ drowned out by the chanting of antiracist the Klan to march on the Texas state stin, the major Black community in the fighters. capitol. city. The cops began attacking people as the The day's activities began with 1,000 That afternoon, 54 Klanners, some dres­ Klanners were dispersing from their as­ people marching to the state capitol chant­ sed in sheets and hoods, others in fatigues sembly area. A group of about 200 people ing, "Fired up can't take it anymore," or black Uniforms and crash helmets, got separated from the main body of antira­ "People united will never be defeated," and gathered. Protected by over 400 helmeted cist demonstrators, and the cops attacked "Reagan and the Klan go hand in hand." cops who were overseen by the Texas them, brutally beating anyone who·got in This march was planned by the Austin Rangers, they began their march to the their way. Black Citizens Task Force and the Brown state capitol. Paul Hernandez, an Austin Chicano Berets, a Chicano community group. Or­ Between 400 and 500 young people op­ community activist, was one of the vic­ ganizations participating in the march in­ posed to the Klan gathered at the KKK as­ tims. A local TV crew fllmed him on the cluded All Peoples Congress, Committee sembly point. As soon as the first racist ground, handcuffed, and being beaten by in Solidarity With the People of El Sal­ showed his hood a chant of "Klan out of seven cops. vador, Democratic Socialists of America, Austin" started. As the Klan marchers pro­ In all, seven people were treated in local 400 cops came out to ''protect" Klan Nov. 27 Coalition, Socialist Workers ceeded toward the capitol, they taunted hospitals and 13 people were arrested. Trial of Socialist Workers opens in Los Angeles

Continued from front page The following summer, Gelfand was of $115,000, according to Gelfand. He ad­ the party line as best they can so that they sions must be inferred. However, he argues back in England. As he explained in his mitted he had already received $40,000 can elevate themselves to positions of the court can identify these "agents" by first deposition, "While I was in England in from North to help meet these expenses. · leadership." examining the record of the SWP leaders 1978, I called the newspaper of the Work­ On top of all this, Gelfand admitted that Gelfand notwithstanding, however, in responsible for expelling Gelfand and rul­ ers Revolutionary Party." North and two other WL members had 1969 Heisler's intelligence reports helped ing on whether they have deviated from Gelfand said that "eventually arrange­ been working full-time on his suit as "in­ set up members of the SWP for an attack by Marxist principles. And he asks that the ments were made" for him to meet with vestigators." ultraright thugs in the Chicago-based courts determine who can be a leader of the somebody from the WRP, who he eventu~ Clearly, Gelfand's suit against the SWP Legion of Justice. He also repeatedly urged SWP by removing from leadership in the ally identified as Alex Mitchell, a central is a WRP-WL operation, from start to inexperienced members to violate the party the "agents" that it thus identifies! leader of the group. finish. This is also reflected in the witnes­ SWP's policy against use of illegal drugs, Clearly, this kind of trumped-up charge . Upon his return from England, Gelfand ses Gelfand has indicated he will call. thereby putting them and the party in a pos~ can be used against any union, any Black said, "It's my recollection that I telephoned These include North; Jean Brust, who is ition to be victimized by the police. [WL National Secretary] David North another WL member; and Cliff Slaughter, orLatino organization, any group organiz­ The fact that Heisler's attempts at dis­ sometime in the late summer or early fall of a long-time central leader of the WRP. . ing against the government or its policies, ruption and provocation had so little suc­ 1978." thus giving the federal courts a handle to cess was due not to his intentions, but to intervene in and disrupt them. Gelfand estimated that he had as many Cops testify for Gelfand the political strengths of the party he was as six substantial discussions with North trying to destroy. between his return from England and his Prominent among the witnesses Gel­ Innocent concern While professing great concern over the expulsion from the SWP in January 1979. fand is calling are cops. These include inflltration of government agents in the Gelfand's story is that he was a loyal Thus, while still pretending to be a loyal Rickey Gibby and Vincent Perizzi, two SWP, Gelfand iS relying on the testimony party member who happened in August member of the SWP, Gelfand was conduct­ Los Angeles cops who inflltrated the SWP 1977 to stumble across evidence that in the 1970s to spy on and disrupt it. The of real, proven cops as his authorities on ing a systematic operation designed to dis­ the SWP! Joseph Hansen - a veteran leader of the rupt the party. Further, it seems clear now trial brief submitted by Gelfand's lawyers Another of Gelfand's activities as a loyal SWP for 40 years- was really an agent of that the intention all along was to tum to . relies on Gibby's reports on SWP meetings member came to light recently when he both the FBI and of the Soviet secret the courts as a weapon against the SWP. to back up its claims that Gelfand was submitted into evidence tape recordings of police, who used to be known as the GPU. As the prosecution's trial brief being silenced by agents in the SWP lead­ meetings between himself and SWP lead­ Gelfarid innocently requested informa­ explained, "Mr. Gelfand, a lawyer, not ership. ers in Los Angeles. These meetings, which tion and an investigation of his suspicions, only understood the full implications of the Gibby, apparently an expert on First took place while Gelfand was still pretend­ so the story goes. His innocent "questions" evidence implicating Mr. Hansen, he re­ Amendment rights, said he had "never seen ing to be an innocent, concerned member about the integrity of Hansen brought an searched and grasped the Party's democrat­ anything like it" - referring to the fact that of the SWP, were taped secretly - an ille­ inexplicably hostile response from the ic procedures . . . . Moreover, he knew Gelfand was ruled out of order at a meeting gal action in California. Gelfand has re­ leadership of the SWP, he claims. His at­ how to make a record operating within of the Los Angeles _SWP branch when he fused to say how the -recordings were tempts to raise his suspicions at internal those procedures." attempted to raise his "suspicions" that the made. meetings were ruled out of order (by mem­ It is this carefully constructed fictitious SWP was led by cops. bership vote, of course, which he neglects "record" that Gelfand has utilized to de­ Another Gelfand witness will be former The real objective of Gelfand and his to mention). The refusal to discuss his mand court intervention, a gross violation collaborators in the WRP-WL is recorded questions about Hansen, he asserts, was so FBI informer Edward Heisler, who has.. of the rights of the SWP. proven quite cooperative in Gelfand's en­ in the last section of their trial brief. It pres­ universal that he became suspicious other SWP leaders were engineering a cover-up. deavor. Heisler has provided Gelfand with ents an extensive legal argument on why Finances too thousands of pages of SWP documents. the government, through its courts, should Eventually he came to the conclusion that Defending the admitted fink in his Oc­ indeed be able to intrude on the internal life they too must be agents, helped to their Return trips to England to meet with tober 1980 deposition, Gelfand stated: and functioning of political organizations. places of leadership in the party by the Mitchell and other WRP leaders were made "What we are talking about are highly Thus, while Gelfand pretends to be defend­ nefarious Hansen . . by Gelfand in the summers of 1980 and trained intelligence agents not agent pro­ ing the workers movement against govern­ A somewhat different picture emerges 1981 . Gelfand and one of his lawyers also ment agents, in reality he is defending and from the statements made by Gelfand met "more than 15" times with WL repre­ vocateurs. Ed Heisler, contrary to what [SWP leader Larry] Seigle said, was not an promoting government disruption of the under oath in pretrial depositions taken by sentatives in the U.S., Gelfand estimated. agent provocateur. Their job is to carry out working-class movement. lawyers for the SWP. Not only were the WRP and WL inti­ Gelfand's initial legal intervention in the mately involved in helping Gelfand work SWP's fight against the FBI and CIA took out the strategy for his campaign against place in December 1978, when he was still the SWP. They also helped finance it. a member of the SWP. That move, he ad­ In Gelfand's original deposition, taken Press conference assails trial mits, followed secret consultations be­ in October 1980, the following exchange LOS ANGELES - A courthouse news to pursue their political ends, there's no­ tween him and leaders of both the Workers was recorded: conference was held here March 2 as the thing that can stop. them from doing the Revolutionary Party (WRP) in England, "Q. Mr. Gelfand, is anybody helping trial of the Socialist Workers Party got un­ same thing to the labor movement," she and the Workers League (WL) in the you to bear the expenses of this litigation?" der way. This trial "threatens the essential pointed out. United States. "A. No." freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of During the question period, Wilkinson The WL is an outfit whose central activ- "Q. So all the expenses of this litigation Rights," charged Holbrook Mahn, national explained the role of the LQs Angeles. po­ ' ity since 1975 has been to slander the SWP are being borne by yourself?" coordinator of the Political Rights Defense lice in spying on the American Friends Ser­ as an organization dominated by FBI "A. That's right." Fund (PROF). Frank Wilkinson, of the Na­ vice Committee, American Civil Liberties agents. Although the group puts out a 20- At that time, Gelfand's suit against the tional Committee Against Repressive Leg­ Union, Unitarian Church, and on his own page, twice-weekly, multicolored news­ SWP was already more than a year old. He islation, joined Mahn in protesting the trial organization. The judge in the SWP case paper, the paper is not circulated in the had put up thousands of dollars in court of the SWP. "I'm here today to express authorized such political surveillance working-class movement. The WL main­ fees, travel expenses, transcript costs, and moral support for the Socialist Workers against the SWP as well when she was tains only one public headquarters in the · other outlays. Although he declined to say Party in the problem they are facing in this president of the L.A. Police Commission. U.S. It participates in no coalitions work­ how much his attorneys had been paid, he trial," Wilkinson said. "I think any connection (of the judge) ing in solidarity with the revolutions in admitted in a later deposition that he paid Notingthat "I myself, and my organiza­ with the LAPD and its ongoing spying and Central America, in no Black rights organi­ $30,000 just in lawyers' fees in 1980. Gel­ tion, have been under surveillance for 40 surveillance is extremely important," Wil­ zations, in no political activity within the fand's salary from the Los Angeles county years," Wilkinson. declared: "I'm not here kinson said. labor movement. government in 1979 was approximately just as a disinterested supporter of the First The Workers League is little more than $28,000. Amendment. First, the government be­ Taking up a question from a reporter on a U.S. branch offlce of the British WRP. The second deposition of Gelfand took comes involved in inflltrating and spying whether PROF was controlled by the SWP According to Gelfand's testimony he place in March 1982. According to Gel­ on our organizations, then they get in­ and only defended SWP cases, Wilkinson traveled to England in July 1977 on what fand's testimony at that time, he began re­ volved in determining who should or noted that he himself was a sponsor of he says was a vacation. ceiving money from David North of the should not be a member. I think this is an PROF. He explained that although· it was When he returned at the beginning of WL "to help with some of the costs of this outrageous thing." originally set up to organize support and to August he voiced his "suspicions" about case" immediately after his October 1980 . Also speaking at the news conference raise funds for the SWP's suit against the Joe Hansen to participants at an SWP con­ deposition, when he had claimed that he was Jan Bribendach, field representative of FBI· and CIA, a big task in-and-of-itself, vention. A few weeks later he tried to dis­ was paying all expenses himself. the Service Employees International Union Wilkinson noted, it had also helped in the rupt a meeting of the Los Angeles branch Legal fees alone in 1980, 1981 , and the Local 535. "If the government feels free to fight against police spying and disruption .of the SWP with the same "questions." first three months 'of 1982 cost him a total spy on and interfere with groups organized by the Los Angeles cops.

March 11, 1983 The Militant 5 -SELLING OUR PRESS AT THE PLANT GATE------

BY MALIK MIAH tioning of political organizations tions mainly centered around the Militant and Perspectiva Mun­ opposed to government policies. fact that the government is attack­ dial salespeople in Cleveland are "What we're trying to do as we ing all the unions. The interesting circulating the following Political go on sales and to political meet­ thing is that people's reaction Rights Defense Fund (PROF) ings," Cleveland socialist Greg wasn't, 'Well, this is just the statement as they sell to workers Jackson explained, '~is to get Socialist Workers Party. ' They entering or leaving plant gates: people to sign the PROF statement wanted to talk about how it's an at­ "The lawsuit brought against and get involved in this important tack on everybody's rights, and the Socialist Workers Party, now defense case." especially the unions." being heard by United States Dis" Jackson had just returned from his team's regular sales at the Gen­ Socialists in Atlanta report trict Court Judge Mariana they've also been using the Mili­ Pfaelzer, and scheduled to go to eral Electric plant in Cleveland. He said over the last ·five weeks tant to win support for the SWP trial March 1 , 1983, represents a case. Chris Hoeppner, a worker grave threat to political freedom. they've sold one or two papers each time; with the recent issue re­ fired from the Lockheed Corp. for "This attack on the constitution­ his union activity and socialist porting on the trial of the SWP ally guaranteed right to free politi­ ideas, told us, "At plant gate sales. they sold seven copies. cal association is an attack on the we explain how the case of work­ rights of all. We asked Jackson what the dis­ ers fired from Lockheed-Georgia, "I demand that this suit be cussions were like on the Los the Pfaelzer case, the Eddie Selling in New York's garment district thrown out of court and that this Angeles trial. Carthan case, and others all illus­ attack by the government against One worker told him, "They're trate what the government is up to. the Socialist Workers Party be im­ workers. court and how that courtroom bat­ attacking everybody- so it don't This has been very effective." Other cities are thinking out and tle is a reflection of the life-and­ mediately halted because the U.S. surprise me." government has no right to inter­ In Phoenix Militant salespeople trying varied ways to use plant­ death struggles of the oppressed Jackson replied, "You should are using the Militant to get en­ gate sales to discuss this unpre­ and exploited everywhere in the fere in the internal functioning of read this article, because what this dorsements for the SWP' s fight cedented case with workers. world. any political association, group, or does is point to a way to fight back party that opposes its policies." and encouraging supporters to As the Cleveland experience This trial, in fact, offers sales­ . . . what we're trying to do is get subscribe to follow the trial. shows, plant-gate sales will be a people an opportunity to firmly es­ Judge Pfaelzer has taken upon support for this case because it's In Los Angeles salespeople central way to discuss with work­ tablish the Militant and Perspec­ herself through this trial to rule on an attack on everybody." who the leaders and members of passed out the new PROF ers the government's use of the tiva Mundial, our Spanish lan­ the SWP may be, and to intervene "He bought the paper and said brochures on the case at the gate of courts to attack the First Amend­ guage biweekly, with a permanent in the party's internal political life. he would read it," Jackson said. an ARCO oil refinery where regu­ ment and other democratic rights. presence at hun

BY OLLIE BIVINS activist framed up by the Los Angeles Po­ women can never be free if they don't exer­ jua Codjoe, Los Angeles NBIPP chapter LOS ANGELES - Fifty people at­ lice Department after he observed a police cise control over their own bodies. In its cochair; Bob Duren; and Ram6n Diaz, di­ tended the Far West regional conference of arrest and beating near his home. charter NBIPP takes a firm position in sup­ rector of Casa Nicaragua in Los Angeles . the National Black Independent Political . Zinzun places his case in the context of port of abortion rights. In his comments Diaz said that like Party (NBIPP) held here February 12 and the continuing capitalist economic crisis The panelists at the workshop in support Black people in the United States, Nicara­ 13. The themes of the conference were and the accompanying repression. The ma­ of liberation struggles in southern Africa gua is striving to chart an independent pol­ "Organizing independent Black political jor focus of the Michael Zinzun Defense and Central America were Halisi, a repre­ itical course. action," "Stop police terror," and "Jobs not Committee will be reaching out to the gen- . sentative of the Patrice Lumumba Coali­ At the Sunday plenary the conference war." eral community about the case and spon­ tion, and Porfirio Acevedo, a member of ratified a number of proposals. These in­ The serious tone of the meeting was set soring a conference in the spring on politi- NBIPP. cluded recommendations to the next in the opening session by Jonina Abron, an cal repression. ., Halisi surveyed the history of the free­ NBIPP Central Committee meeting that the NBIPP Far West regional representative. At the workshop "Black Women's Lib­ dom struggle in South Africa and endorsed party join the World Front in Solidarity In her comments Abron stressed the need eration: It's Role in NBIPP," a lively floor the campaign underway to get American With the People of El Salvador and that for NBIPP to become immersed in strug­ discussion ensued on the issue of abortion entertainers to boycott the apartheid re­ chapters sponsor activities in celebration of gles in the Black community around such rights. Some men in the audience argued gime. the fourth anniversary of the Grenadian issues as police violence, school desegre­ that abortion rights were not important to Acevedo stressed the importance for the revolution; support the cultural boycott of gation, and housing. Unless this happens, Black women and that Black women Black community of the struggle in El Sal­ South Africa; sponsor activities around In­ she said, the party will continue to decline should have as many babies as possible so vador, and the seriousness of U.S. threats ternational Women's Day; endorse the Mi­ in membership. that they can be trained as fighters for against Nicaragua. chael Zinzun defense effort; and circulate Four workshops took place at the confer­ Black liberation. On the night of February 12 an NBIPP more widely NBIPP's position on abortion ence. The first workshop held was on Many women vehemently argued community rally was held. Speakers in­ . rights. The idea of publishing a regional "Electoral Politics." The panelists were against this perspective saying that Black cluded Jonina Abron; Michael Zinzun; Ad- newsletter was also approved. Bob Duren, Los Angeles NBIPP chapter cochair, and Sam Manuel, NBIPP member from Seaside, California who spoke for re­ gional representative Mel Mason. Mason was unable to attend the conference. Louisville frame-up victim wins wide support Duren and Manuel stressed the need for NBIPP chapters, where possible, to imme­ BY CHUCK PETRIN against Horsley be dropped. lowship of Reconciliation circulated peti­ diately begin running candidates in the LOUISVILLE- Support is growing for At the Philip Morris cigarette plant here, tions among their membership and signed 1983 elections. In a position paper on the the campaign in defense of AI Horsley. union members signed up 16 coworkers on up 30 people. subject distributed to conference partici­ Horsley is a 41-year-old Black union and defense committee petitions. One young At a defense committee meeting Feb­ pants, Mason stated, "Running NBIPP can­ political activist who was arrested last Black worker grasped immediately the ra­ ruary 3, Bell highlighted the important didates can be an effective vehicle for month by city police onframe-up charges cist character of the frame-up; his own example that is being set in this case. A reaching many more people with the goals of kidnapping and robbery. On February 8 brother had spent four years in prison for broad coalition of individuals and organi­ and program of the party. This can help re­ a state circuit court jury returned a formal armed robbery, only to be cleared of the zations, he explained, has come together to cruit to the party and extend its influence. indictment. If convicted, Horsley could be charge later when another man confessed. prevent the authorities from railroading Running candidates can also help project sentenced to 40 years in prison. Another 20 people registered their sup­ Horsley to prison. If successful, he said, NBIPP as a serious political party, which port for Horsley at an educational confer­ this campaign will inspire other victims of The AI Horsley Defense Committee was 'aims to attain power to radically transform ence here on apartheid in South Africa, racist and political persecution. It will give formed to fight for his freedom. Civil the present socio-economic order . . . ' as which was sponsored by the Kentucky Al­ them courage to know they are not alone in rights leaders, community activists, union the [NBIPP] charter states. liance Against Racist and Political Repres­ their fight. members, and socialists have joined to­ "Running candidates is also an effective sion and other groups. Leaders of the Fel- Horsley was released from jail February gether in demanding that the charges way to present a real alternative to the De­ 9. The defense committee succeeded in mocrats and Republicans and help explain against Horsley be dropped. The commit­ raising a $20,000 property bond needed to tee aims to publicize the case, mobilize the need for Black people and others to end his month-long imprisonment. Plans stop supporting these twin parties of our support, and raise money for legal defense. are now being discussed for stepped-up enemies." Rev. William Bell, pastor of the Calvary publicity and fundraising activities. The paper called for NBIPP to consider Baptist Church, is cochair of the defense The committee is asking that letters or endorsing candidates independent of the committee along with Arlene Rubinstein, a telegrams demanding that the charges Democrats and Republicans, and taking leader of the Louisville Socialist Workers against Horsley be dropped be sent to: stands on local referenda and initiatives. Party. Rev. James Eliot, pastor of the New David Armstrong, Commonwealth Attor­ Chapters were urged to organize educa­ Jerusalem Baptist Church, is the commit­ ney, Hall of Justice, 600 W. Jefferson, tionals on issues, host candidate panel dis­ tee treasurer. Louisville, Ky. 40202. Send copies to the cussions, and issue position statements in Among the prominent endorsers of the defense committee. line with the party charter. · defense committee are civil rights leader The committee is also urging that finan­ In discussion from the floor, conference Anne Braden; Kentucky chapter of the cial contributions be made to cover legal participants eagerly supported the idea of Southern Christian Leadership Conference; expenses and pay for materials publicizing running candidates as a key component of and Maury Granger, president of the the case. Make checks payable to AI building the party. The position paper was NAACP branch at the University of Louis­ Horsley Defense Committee. adopted by consenus. ville. For copies of fact sheets, petitions, and The featured speaker at the "Repression Several hundred people have already other information contact: AI Horsley De­ in the Black Community" workshop was signed petitions circulated by the commit­ fense Committee, P.O. Box 748, Louis­ Michael Zinzun, a longtime community tee demanding that the frame-up charges AI Horsley ville, Ky. 40201.

6 The Militant March 11, 1983 Why NOW campaign against Quintin Dailey harms fight for Black and women's rights

BY MARGARET JAYKO the most prevalent myths used historically that a Black union leader has just raped a ciety ensure that violence against women AND JEAN PETERS to justify lynchings, executions, and long woman? Will NOW aid cop man-hunts or will flourish as long as capitalism does. A campaign against Chicago Bulls bas­ prison terms for Blacks. The campaign help find men who ·:took like" rapists? The only way to 1JUt an end to the vio­ ketball player Quintin Dailey has been against Dailey gives credence to this racist Campaigns like this and the anti-Dailey lence and degradation of women is to get launched by a variety of antirape organiza­ myth and thereby aids government campaign have nothing to do with the fight rid of this system and build a new, socialist tions and other women's rights groups. repression of Black people. for justice and equality for women - for society, where each human being is free to Dailey, who is Black, was charged in De­ Not all the anti-Dailey literature is so abortion rights, the Equal Rights Amend­ live in dignity, equality, and respect. In cember 1981 with three counts of sexual . blatant, but the effect is the same. ment, daycare, affirmative action, an end Cuba, a country that overthrew capitalism assault and one count of aggravated assault to U.S. intervention abroad, and an end to 23 years ago, where the workers and farm­ against a female nursing student at the Uni­ Divisive violence against women. ers are leading the way in constructing a versity of San Francisco. He pleaded guilty The worst result of the misdirected cam­ These campaigns point women's rights new society, violent crimes against women to aggravated assault and was sentenced to paign against Dailey is that it gives foes of fighters away from an uncompromising have decreased dramatically, as the status three years' probation. women's rights the perfect opportunity to struggle against the employers and their of women has improved on all fronts. The nursing student subsequently filed a advance their efforts to drive a wedge be­ government - the real source of violence against women both in this country and The struggle for women's equality has a civil suit against Dailey, suing him for tween the fight for women's rights and the pivotal role to play in the process here of $300,000 in damages. On January 19, an .Black struggle by bolstering the claim that around the world - and toward a futile battle against individual men. replacing this system with a new one. out-of-court settlement of the civil suit was women's equality is only important for Part of the job of the women's rights announced, which included a cash pay­ In the case of Rochester NOW, it puts middle-class, white women. movement is to explain to working people ment by Dailey to the nursing student and women's rights fighters in a direct alliance The facts are all to the contrary. While the nature of the problems women face, the a letter of apology. with the cops and the government against all women are oppressed in this society, role of the government and corporations in Last December, 100 women from the Black community and the working working-class women ~ and Blacks and perpetuating those problems, and the need Women Against Rajle (WAR) and the Na­ class. Campaigns like these are the kiss of Latinas in particular - suffer the most to mobilize against them. The women's tional Organization for Women (NOW) death for the fight for women's rights. from every aspect of women's oppression rights movement has already had a big im­ picketed outside the arena in Milwaukee - from illegal abortion, unequal pay, lack pact - on men as well as women - in where the Bulls were scheduled to play the Source of antiwoman violence of legal equality, to violence against explaining that rape is a violent crime Milwaukee Bucks. They were protesting women. The wellspring of violence against against women, which women are the vic­ Dailey's presence in Milwaukee and have These sisters can and will play a leader­ women is the capitalist system. Rape and tims, not the cause, of. vowed to picket the Bulls every time they ship role in the massive movement for other forms of violence against women are The campaign against Quintin Dailey apwar in Milwaukee. women's equality that will emerge as the horrendous crimes that affect not only the and any other activity that miseducates The picketing women's groups felt that ruling-class attacks against women propel millions of victims each year, but all women as to who are our allies and who are · the three years' probation was inadequate more and more of us to fight back. But women who must live with the fear of our enemies is an obstacle to ending vio­ punishment and called on the government these women will never be attracted to physical assault and rape. The sexual re­ lence against women and winning equality, to restrict Dailey to the state of Illinois and campaigns that echo racist ideas. pression, alienation, violence, and oppres­ and should be rejected by all women's rights suspend his National Basketball Associa­ sion of women that are endemic to this so- fighters. tion contract as well as making other de­ 'Anticrime' is antiwoman mands. Illinois State NOW organized a protest The demand for "more punishment" for at the Chicago Bulls' ticket office in down­ Dailey plays into the hands of the current rV town Chicago last October. The official na­ "anticrime" campaign of the capitalist tional newspaper of NOW, the National politicians and reactionaries of every NOW Times, printed a large photo of the stripe. This "anticrime" propaganda is picket and a story about it. especially designed to divide working Illinois NOW submitted a resolution to people along race lines by portraying the the national NOW conference last October, entire Black nationality as a class of crimi­ which proposed that NOW nationally go on nals. a big media and action campaign against The National NOW Times (NNT) re­ Dailey. The resolution never reached the cently.provided another example of where floor, but it was discussed in some work­ anticrime campaigns can lead. shops. The few Black women who were The January-February issue ran a story present at the NOW conference vehe­ about the NOW chapter in Greater Roches­ mently argued against NOW passing such ter, New York. The chapter has started a a resolution. reward fund to help find and arrest sus­ pected rapists. Abcording to the NNT, "Re­ Controversy in Milwaukee wards would be offered for information leading to the arrest . and conviction of The picketline in Milwaukee created rapists through a plan worked out with the quite a controversy among women's rights police department and based on informa­ groups and in the Black community. tion received by the department." The Community Journal, one of Mil­ waukee's two Black papers, ran a three­ Does this mean Rochester NOW will be part series on Black women and the fight in the position of endorsing every rape con­ for women's rights. The articles concluded viction made by the racist, sexist, anti­ National NOW Times/Dorothe~ Jacobson­ that the existing women's rights organiza­ working-class "justice" system? What if Illinois National Organization for Women picket line at Chicago ticket office of Bulls, tions don't address issues of concern to police say they've "received information" Quintin Dailey's team. Black women, and pointed to the Dailey picket as proof of the wrong priorities of some women's rights groups. The Journal also ran articles quoting Antiabortion kidnappers convicted Black women who explained why they re­ fused to support the picket, which was end to abortions in this country." He ar­ viewed as racist by many Blacks. BY SHEILA OSTROW eight days, given only a large bucket for a ST. LOUIS- Don Benny Anderson, For women's rights organizations and toilet. gued that they kidnapped the Zev!llloses as the head of a terrorist antiabortion group The three kidnappers told the Zevalloses a way to "win public sentiment to end abor­ activists to be part of the anti-Dailey cam­ called the Army of God, was sentenced to paign in any way is a serious error that that their intent was to hold them until tion.'' 30 years in prison on February 10 for the Reagan declared an end to legalized abor­ damages the struggle for women's equal­ That didn't go over too well with the kidnapping of Dr. Hector Zevallos and his ity. tion. They forced Dr. Zevallos, under jury. According to the jury foreman, the wife Rosalie Jean last August. Anderson's threat of execution, to make a tape record­ jurors had very little disagreement in fmd­ Wrong target .two cohorts - Matthew Moore and his ing calling on Reagan to end abortion. This ing Anderson guilty of attempting and con­ brother Wayne - pleaded guilty to the tape and a 44-page ransom letter - called spiring to obstruct interstate commerce A leaflet advertising the Milwaukee pick­ same charges. the "Epistle" - were left in St. Louis. through threats or violence. Government etline put out by WAR illustrates the In addition, both Anderson and Matthew The "Epistle" said that their crusade had prosecutors said those charges had been problems. Moore have been charged with setting fires been inspired by God and they would fight filed because Anderson had tried to force One headline says "Superjock is never at two abortion clinics in Florida in May to the death to end abortion. Reagan re­ · Dr. Zevallos to close the Granite· City having to say you're sorry," and it calls 1982. The Army of God has also admitted fused to make any public statements con­ clinic. Dailey a "dumb-ass jock" and a "grossly to the pipe-bombing of a clinic in Falls demning the kidnapping, despite the fact Federal kidnapping charges could not be overpaid jock." Church, Virginia. that the terrorists were appealing to him. filed . because the couple was not taken Are professional male athletes now natu­ Dr. Zevallos owns the Hope Clinic for One of the kidnappers told the Zeval­ across state lines. ral enemies of women? Women in Granite City, Illinois, which is loses that they might be spared if Dr. By organizing a campaign focused on Zevallos would stop performing abortions The federal judge sentenced Anderson to just across the river from St. Louis. Abor­ 30 years, saying the factor he considered in Dailey, the individual, these women's tions are performed at this clinic. On Au­ at his clinic. Dr. Zevallos said he would, rights activists ended up echoing crude, ra­ and the couple was finally released on Au­ deciding the sentence was "the brutal, gust 12, three men-abducted Dr. Zevallos traumatic experience that you subjected cist propaganda. The WAR leaflet says, and his wife. · gust 20 along a road near their home. "Say NO to this bull" with a picture of After their release, however, the clinic your victims to.'' Dailey. It shows picket signs demanding In a federal courtroom in Alton, Illinois, continued to function as before, including While this sentence is a victory for sup­ "Neuter this bull.'.' An article from The the Zevalloses testified that they spent their providing abortions. porters of the right of women to choose Feminist Connection, reprinted on the leaf­ eight days in captivity believing they The main line of the defense was to por­ abortion, attacks continue. let, calls for castrating Dailey - and by would never be freed, expecting to be tray the men as harmless, honest people Acting on what he said was a message implication, all men convicted of sexual killed at any moment by their abductors. who are simply fighting for something they from God, a man with a sledgehammer violence against women. The defense attorney tried ·to convince believe in. For example, the defense attor­ smashed the windows of an abortion clinic This type of literature feeds the racist the jury that the kidnappers had treated the ney said they kidnapped the Zevalloses owned by Dr. Zevallos in Shreveport, stereotype of Black men being "oversexed" couple "kindly and with compassion." "because they had a sincere, honest belief Louisiana, on February 25. He was ar­ animals who are out to rape white women. The Zevalloses testified to the contrary. that abortion was wrong and that by their rested and is being held in a mental hospi­ The notion of Black men as rapists is one of They were blindfolded and handcuffed for actions they felt they could help bring an tal.

March 11, 1983 The Militant 7 Farm workers, copper miners hear Salvadoran

BY ANDY ENGLISH achieving democracy, freedom, and inde­ AND SHERRY TURNER pendence. Our struggle is against the 14 PHOENIX - Hundreds of union mem­ families of large landowners. Democracy bers heard eyewitness reports on the strug­ has never existed in our country." Molina Lara went on to explain that the .. ·. . ,...... · ·• ·· ··· ~--··· · gle in El Salvador from Salvadoran labor leader Alejandro Molina Lara during his Salvadoran working people were forced to February 14-18 speaking tour in Arizona. take up arms against the violence of the Molina Lara was the organizational sec­ dictatorship. "We had no other choice but retary of the National Federation of Sal­ to tum to the use of violence to attain de­ vadoran Workers (FENASTRAS), which mocracy and freedom. consists of 22 unions and has 80,000 mem­ "How can it be explained that for three bers. Molina Lara is a member of the Ex­ years now we have been able to stand the terior Commission of FENASTRAS, tremendous militiU)' power being brought formed to help organize support from U.S. against us? There are 30,000 men in the trade unions. Salvadoran army; many U.S. Green Beret Molina Lara's Arizona tour was or­ advisers; a Pacific fleet of 20 ships; planes; ganized by the Phoenix Molina Lara Tour and helicopters. Committee. Sponsors of the tour included "The only answer as to why this power John Blake, secretary-treasurer, Teamsters has not been able to destroy us is that we Local274; Ron England, president, United are not just a group of subversives, but Steelworkers of America (USW A) Local rather an entire people." 586; and Chris Smith, vice-president, U.S. military officials, Molina Lara Arizona Federation of Teachers. Also sup­ added, are now admitting that the Salvado­ porting the tour was the Coalition Against ran revolutionaries cannot be defeated U.S. Intervention in Central America without U.S. military _intervention. (CAUSA). Molina Lara then explained that U.S. Molina Lara spoke to 40 copper miners imperialism is planning to use the pope's Militant at the USW A Local 586 union hall in visit to Central America to undermine the Salvador labor leader Alejandro Molina Lara appealing to meeting in Phoenix for Miami, Arizona, an hour before the regu­ revolutionary movements. He outlined support to imprisoned unionists. larly scheduled union meeting. Many of how the phony elections sponsored by the Chicano miners nodded their heads in Washington in El Salvador last March have agreement as the Salvadoran unionist failed to restore credibility to its puppet re­ spoke. Afterwards, miners shook his hand gime in San Salvador. The U.S. govern­ and expressed their solidarity. ment now hopes that the pope's visit will Nicaraguans celebrate victory In El Mirage, a western suburb of improve the image of the Salvadoran dic­ Phoenix, Molina Lara spoke to 120 farm tatorship. workers at a meeting organized by the "But," he said, "the people will go out of record coffee harvest Arizona Farm Workers (AFW). The AFW into the streets and ask the pope to come up BY JANE HARRIS $740 million. has been a firm supporter of the Central with a solution to a conflict that the people MATAGALPA - "Whose victory is Wheelock described at length the America solidarity movement here for can no longer bear. They are going to ask this?" asked Commander Jaime Wheelock, camaraderie that developed in the coffee many years. The farm workers- mostly that this pastoral visit be used to ask the minister of agrarian reform. He was speak­ fields over the course of the two months. immigrants from Mexico - gave Molina government to agree to a dialogue" with ing to a celebration of 11 ,000 people from He said that one 87-year-old canecutter, Lara a standing ovation and donated $60 to the revolutionary forces. all over the country. They had just been de­ who had lost a son in the war, had gone FENASTRAS . Molina Lara went on to criticize the mobilized after two months of volunteer with the Sandinista Youth Organization to On February 15, Molina Lara spoke to pope for not speaking out against the re­ work on the coffee harvest. pick coffee and felt "reborn" in Matagalpa 20 members of USW A Local 3937, which pression as the late Archbishop Oscar Ar­ The victory that Wheelock was referring because of the gratitude that was shown organizes the Reynolds Aluminum plant in nulfo Romero did. Romero was assassi­ to was that this year's coffee crop had not him by the volunteers from all over the Phoenix. nated by the dictatorship. He then expres­ only been saved, but had been the largest country. Later that evening Molina Lara ad­ sed his hope that the pope would make a ever - more than 7 million tons. In mid­ The old man was among those who re­ dressed 25 members of Teamsters Local statement in favor of a dialogue and a polit­ December it became clear that if all forces ceived vanguard awards. Inspired by the 274. All the unionists there signed the tour ical solution to the war. were not mobilized immediately to pick experience, he told Intercontinental Press, committee's mailing list. "The working cl~~ ~-~ al~o f:?eep a~le to coffee, a large part of Nicaragua's largest "I'm going home nowiJ;mti'mready to do One of the union officials·asked how the · get "organized· 'and has achieved the unicy Of cash crop would be lost. anything the Sandinista leadership asks me unions in El Salvador had been able to sur­ all the different trade-union confedera­ "The victory is that the coffee has been to do." vive. Molina Lara responded that the union tions. We are headed toward the organiza­ harvested. But whose victory is it?" The conditions volunteers experienced movement in El Salvador is now a clandes­ tion of a general strike," Molina Lara re­ Wheelock continued. on the fincas were a far cry from what they tine, underground movement. The Team­ ported. "It is a victory for the people," he were used to in the cities where most carne ster leader said he .could see the same thing "We have been able to gather together answered, "but this victory is going to from. They slept on the floor and ate rice happening here, referring to the attacks over half a million workers in this trade mean the well-being of the people and itis and beans three times a day for 60 days. being made on the unions in the United union unity committee." He explained that going to mean the accomplishment of a After New Year's Day, on some fincas the States. even those unions that previously sup­ revolutionary responsibility; at the same large number of volunteers stretched thin A public meeting was held at the Inter­ ported the regime - those affiliated to the time, the happiness that goes with that ac­ the distribution of beans. They had to make national Brotherhood of Electrical Workers AFL-CIO- have not escaped the repres­ complishment." do with rice alone. (IBEW) Local 769 union hall. Teamsters sion of the military and have therefore Furthermore, he explained, it was a vic­ Referring to the conditions in the coun­ Local 274 helped build the meeting by formed a common front with the other con­ tory because the counterrevolutionaries, tryside that the volunteers had coped with, printing 5,000 leaflets. More than 60 federations. "So, soon the people of this who had attacked the coffee pickers con­ Wheelock predicted that they would hate people attended, including. members and country will become aware of a tremend­ tinuously, kidnapping dozens and killing Somozaism and imperialism even more; officials of the IBEW, USWA, and Amer­ ous strike wave in El Salvador." eight workers, had been defeated in their that they would be better defenders of the ican Federatioq of State, County, and Molina Lara ended his talk by appealing efforts to sabotage the harvest. revolution for what they had experienced. Municipal Employees. to the American people to protest U.S. mil­ At the celebration in early February, But most important of all, he concluded, Bill Thompson from the Unitarian Uni­ itary intervention in El Salvador. "We vanguard brigades and individual coffee it was demonstrated that "the revolution versalist Service Committee and Francis know that the people will support the fight pickers were singled out for special has the capacity to mobilize the population Cavazos, a leader of the AFW both spoke. for independence and democracy not only awards. Among them was Mario Barreda, for defense, for production, and for other CAUSA activist Ada El-Khahi chaired the in our country but throughout the world." whose parents were kidnapped during the revolutionary tasks - all at the same rally. Originally the tour was to have begun harvest. A single mother with five children time." Molina Lara was the final · speaker. He with a meeting in Tucson sponsored by In­ was also honored and cited as an example From Intercontinental Press explained, "Our struggle is aimed at ternational Association of Machinists of the revolutionary Nicaraguan woman. Lodge 933. However, due to the blizzard · Wheelock used his address to explain the in New York, where Molina Lara had just completed a speaking tour, the start of the world economic picture to the 11,000 vol­ Quebec teachers battle union-busting unteers. After contributing two months of tour was delayed by one day. A local Sal­ hard work to the reconstruction of vadoran and former leader of the Bank Continued from Page 2 strength - the democratic participation of Workers Union was able to substitute for Nicaragua's economy, they listened atten­ go to pay off these foreign bankers, not to the mass of union members in deciding tively to the 70-minute speech. Molina Lara, enabling the meeting to take create jobs. how their struggle should be waged. place as planned. Wheelock described the ·sharp drop in The disillusionment felt among Que­ The Quebec teachers have waged an production in the imperialist countries, the Molina Lara received extensive media bec's workers over the PQ government's exemplary fight based on a mobilized coverage in Arizona. He was interviewed high level of unemployment, the billions of confrontation with the labor movement membership, mass pickets, regular mass dollars of foreign debt owed by Latin by four radio stations; the Phoenix Gazette, runs especially deep among teachers, who meetings to decide policy, demonstrations, one of the two main newspapers; and the American countries, and the dramatically are the government's special target. Many strike bulletins, and daily ads explaining lower prices received for crops grown in New Times Weekly, a widely circulated teachers have turned in their PQ member­ their struggle to the rest of the population. news and arts tabloid. Latin America. ship cards and some have resigned from At stake in this struggle, the CEQ has "To give you an example, if we could party posts. Several locals have expelled sell today's coffee harvest at 1979 prices, members who were elected to the provin­ pointed out, is the future of public educa­ tion in Quebec. Until 1964 Quebec did not Barricada we would get $280 million. However, sel­ cial parliament on the PQ ticket. lnternacional ling the harvest at today's prices we are even have a ministry of education. All The outcome of the battle between Que­ schools were church-run. barely going to get $150 million; that is to Barricada lntemaciona/, the weekly say, only about half the price." bec's teachers and the PQ government is The tremendous growth in public educa­ not yet decided. As in any war, there are tion since the 1960s has begun to reduce official voice of the Sandinista National On the brighter side, Wheelock de­ advances and retreats as first one side, then the huge gap in educational standards be­ Liberation Front, is now available in scribed the tremendous growth in produc­ the other, takes the offensive or falls back. tween French-speaking and English-speak­ Spanish and English. The price is 6 tion of basic foodstuffs needed for internal The 80,000 teachers face a very power­ ing residents. But the gap remains large. months for $12. consumption, as well as the growth of ex­ ful enemy- a government that is deter­ As Montreal Teachers Alliance presi­ Send check or money order to: port crops. However, he pointed out that mined to cut their living standards and that dent Rodrigue Dube emphasized, no one Barricada lntemacional for all its exports this year, Nicaragua has the power to write whatever laws it elected the PQ to destroy the gains Quebec Apdo. No. 576 would only take in $460 million, whereas needs to break their struggle. workers have won through two decades of Managua, Nicaragua. in 1979 prices, the figure would have been But they also have a major· source of struggles. ·

8 The Militant March 11, 1983 U.S. health workers find torture, disease in El Salvador Salvador refugee camp, where thousands live in intolerable conditions due to regime's war on people.

BY MARK SCHNEIDER ''The truth," said Hargreaves, "is that the eases - malaria, diptheria, tuberculosis, American food aid to the refugees. Upon BOSTON-"Since the system of health torturing simply goes on somewhere else. whooping cough, etc." the group's return, Stanbury testified care delivery is in collapse, political terror Now they take over a home, use it as a tor­ Eisenberg said that private medical against recertification before a Senate com­ is unabated, and the institutions·of repres­ ture center for a while, then abandon it and academies are being established as diploma mittee. sion, torture, and assassination remain un­ move on. Believe it or not, Ambassador mills, charging 10 times the tuition of the Maine surgeon David Halperin changed, we believe that recertification Hinton told us that the increase in the National University, which has been ran­ explained, "there's only one Green Cross [of human rights progress in El Salvador] number of political prisoners is a good sacked by the Salvadoran army. worker at Santa Tecla to distribute any aid, should be denied." sign, because while they're in prison, "A few courageous faculty members and if anyone else organized to do that, the This is the conclusion of an eight-page they're safe! The State Department does continue to teach, but they have no military would kill them. Money sent to the report by a public-health delegation of in­ not deny there is an increase in political laboratories or dissecting rooms. That·ma­ government for medical aid won't get to quiry that visited El Salvador from January prisoners. But they see it as a step for­ terial, along with books, was looted by the the people." 15 to 19. ward." army and police and can be bought near the Halperin angrily reported that the State The medical professionals reported "a university." Department's El Salvador desk disputed virtually complete breakdown in the health the medical delegation's findings. A system," repression of medical workers, Four doctors per 100,000 people Conditions of refugee camps British journalist told him the State Depart­ nonexistent sanitary conditions for re­ The delegates also stUdied the health ment claimed the torture victims were fugees, and devastating physical and At the Santa Tecla refugee camp near lying. "Everybody knows better than that," situation in El Salvador as a whole. San Salvador, Hargreaves said, disease psychological effects upon children. Dr. Carola Eisenberg, dean for Student Halperin said. "Corpses are found muti­ In addition, the delegates "witnessed the runs rampant. "We found every single lated by the side of the road almost daily! Affairs at Harvard Medical School and a child at Santa Tecla had some sort of skin physical and psychological effects of the psychiatrist, said, "In the United States, "The other claim the State Department torture of political prisoners." condition- fungus, scabies, etc. There's there are 17 5 physicians for every 100,000 no mosquito control so malaria will devel­ made is that physicians are fleeing because The trip was organized by the New York people. In El Salvador, there are 4 per op." there is a civil war, and the guerrillas are to based Committee for Health Rights in El 100,000, and of those, some are going into blame for that. Not true! The physicians we Salvador and was sponsored by the Amer­ exile. Because of the closing of the Na­ There is no possibility of organizing re­ met in exile fled because they received ican Public Health Association; American tional University, no doctors have been lief through the Salvadoran dictatorship. death threats from rightist terrorists." Orthopsychiatric Association; National As­ graduated since 1979. They're going to run Dr. John Stanbury, an internationally Copies of the delegation's report are av­ sociation of Social Workers; American out of physicians soon; especially in the known nutritionist, said that the Santa ailable from the Committee for Health Medical Students Association; Committee countryside. At the same time, there is an Tecla cainp is just a few miles from the Rights in El Salvador, 66 W. 87th St. , of Interns and Residents; District Council increase of all kinds of communicable dis- U.S. embassy and there is no sign of any New York, N.Y. 10024. 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Massachusetts Nurses' Association; and the Physicians Forum. U.S. hopes Nonaligned wHlll1ove _to right According to Ann Hargreaves, a nurse small piece of land, but also all those we and the executive director of Nursing Ser­ BY DAVID FRANKEL Movement and the pressures that the par­ can influence, toward socialism." ticipating government'! are under from vices and Nursing Education at Boston's New Delhi, India, will host the Seventh Rodriguez gave the example of how working people in their own countries. City Hospital, "we visited two prisons Summit Meeting of Nonaligned Countries Castro filled in the vague idea of a new in­ Since the 1979 meeting of the where political prisoners are held, a re­ on March 7-11. The New Delhi gathering ternational economic order with specific nonaligned countries, the imperialists have fugee camp and several hospitals. We met will mark the end of Fidel Castro's three­ anti-imperialist content. Another example scored one big victory through Israel's in­ with numerous health officials, including and-a-half-year presidency of the of how the Cubans have advanced the vasion of Lebanon, although at tremendous doctors in exile in Mexico City and religi­ Nonaligned Movement - a fact that is al­ struggle against imperialism through the political cost. But the socialist revolution is ous leaders including Acting Archbishop ready producing sighs of relief in Washing­ Nonaligned Movement was their attempt to continuing its advance in Central America. Rivera y Damas. We also met the chief of ton and other imperialist capitals. rally support for Argentina when it came The peoples of Indochina have made im­ the National.Police, U.S. Ambassador A front-pa~e article in the February 6 under attack by British imperialism last portant gains in their struggle against im­ Deane Hinton, and some people at the New York Times expressed the hopes of April. Most recently, there was the special perialist aggression. In southern Africa, State Department in Washington when we U.S. policymakers with the headline: Zimbabwe has been established as an inde­ returned." "3d-World Group Appears to Ease Radical. session of nonaligned ministers held in Stance." The article, by Bernard Nossiter, Managua, Nicaragua, January 1~15. That pendent country. And the people of the en­ meeting approved an explicit denunciation tire world have lived through three years of 'Every prisoner tortured' argued that the main document that has been drafted for the New Delhi meeting re­ of U.S. intervention in Central America. the deepest economic and social crisis ''There are 600 male political prisoners flects "a move from radical to more moder­ With the approach of the New Delhi since the 1930s. in Mariona prison and 80 women political ate leadership" because it "implicitly meeting, Washington and its allies are hop­ We can expect to see a proliferation of prisoners in Ilopango," she said. "None of blames the Soviet Union as well as the ing to push back some of the gains that propaganda pieces such as Nossiter's as the these prisoners has had a trial or confronted United States for most of the world's ten­ have been made as a result of Cuba's New Delhi summit gets underway. But it their accuser. This is legal under the mar­ sions." leadership. Nossiter, in the New York will take mont than propaganda to change tial law decree, which allows prisoners to When the Cubans assumed the presi­ Times article quoted earlier, approvingly the objective situation that the imperialists be held for a certain period of time. But dency of the Nonaligned Movement at its cites "passages critical of both superpow­ face. As a system of world domination, im­ they hold prisoners indefinitely. Sixth Summit Meeting, held in Havana in ers" in the document that has been drafted perialism is weaker than at any time in its "Every one of the prisoners, male and September 1979, there was no dramatic for the upcoming summit. For instance, the history, and a larger percentage of human­ female, had been tortured. They had been change in the formal positions of the move­ Indian draft attacks "the inflexible posi­ ity than ever before understands that this subjected to beatings, electrical shocks, ment. Support for national liberation tions adopted by the most powerful nuclear system of class and national oppression can and mock executions. The doctors in our movements such as the ones in southern weapons states," and calls for a bilateral and must be fought. Until that reality is group examined these people. I myself saw Africa, and for the rights of the Palestinian nuclear freeze. changed, the Nonaligned Movement will a man with deep bums that were clearly people, were already part of the move­ ,continue to be a thorn in Washington's Because of the character of the made with acid. There were people with ment's program. side. Nonaligned Movement as an organization fingernails extracted. There were children, From Intercontinental Press But under Cuban leadership these posi­ of nations oppressed by imperialism, including girls of 13, 14, and 15. tions were advanced in a new way. To evenhanded criticism of "the two super­ "The women and children had been sex­ begin with, the anti-imperialist positions of powers" has always been the way the right ually abused. Some were tied up and the Nonaligned Movement were no longer wing of the movement has attempted to blindfolded for weeks and endured halluci­ blunted by condemnations - implicit or push its line. nations probably because of sensory depri­ explicit - of the Soviet Union. Im­ CUBA: vation. One woman, a psychiatric social perialism was the enemy. By focusing on this aspect of the Indian worker, was imprisoned for organizing a As Cuban Vice-president Carlos Rafael draft, Nossiter is also attempting to drive a Dictatorship meeting to improve health care. She had all Rodriguez explained in a January 1982 in­ wedge between the Indian government and her teeth knocked out and had been raped." terview (see following article), Cuba's the wing of the movement led by Cuba. Hargreaves said her experience in El nonalignment "is not a 'neutral' nonalign­ The Indian government has, in fact, pro­ or Democracy? Salvador reminded her of the concentra­ ment. . . . We do not at all believe in tested publicly against Washington's at­ tion-camp survivors she treated at the end neutralism." tempts to split the Nonaligned Movement. How People's Power Works of World War 11. "We are nonaligned in Cuba," Rod­ However, whatever kind of initial draft By Marta Hamecker The Salvadoran prison warden told the riguez explained, "because we have no mil­ the Indian government presents to the New 240 pages, paperback. $8.95 (please delegates that torture did not occur in his itary . pact, because we are fighting to Delhi meeting, the character of the docu­ include $. 75 postage). prison. Statements like this are used by the liquidate the blocs. But in the historic con­ ment that finally emerges from the gather­ Available from Pathfinder Press, 410 U.S. State Department to show "human tradictions between capitalism and ing will be determined by the overall re­ West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014. rights progress." socialism, we try to orient not only our lationship of forces in the Nonaligned

March 11, 1983 The Militant 9 Immigrant auto workers in France spark strike wave. heal hack bosses and gov't BY·DUANE STILWELL ful of President Francrois Mitterrand' s re­ to a trickle. They also began putting forth 1983 were to be limited to 7 percent, wit The French .automobile industry has gime from the beginning. The immigrant their own demands. an additional 1.5 percent tied to productir been bit by the most important labor battles workers know the history of previous so­ On January 27 the management of Re­ quotas and worker efficiency. in 15 years. Strikes and shop occupations cial-democratic governments as staunch nault reached an agreement with all but one The wage agreement won at Flins it paralyzed production at the two huge fac­ defenders · of colonial domination in their of the unions that organize workers at its eludes a wage increase of 8.25 percent fc tories of the nationalized Renault Co. in countries of origin. And they know that Flins plant, and two days later the spray all workers and a clause to protect the pm Flins and Billancourt early in January. The they get the worst jobs, are subjected to painters voted to return to work. chasing power of that wage increase. If ir Flins strike lasted three weeks. Now a discriminatory layoffs, and that they can­ The gains registered by this agreement flation rises by more than 8 percent, th wave of strikes and other job actions have not rely on the government to defend them. are significant. The immigrant workers at company must negotiate a further incre~ swept throughout the industry as other auto , Because of their struggles, the immi­ the Renault plants not only wrested im­ in September. The Renault workers als workers follow the example of the Renault grant workers have been fiercely attacked by mediate gains from the company, but also got rid of the clause tying wages to work( workers. the press, which has accused them of caus­ hampered the efforts of the Mitterrand gov­ productivity. The 76,000 lowest pai A relatively small number of workers, ing unemployment, of being greedy, and of ernment to impose a strict austerity prog­ workers at Renault received an increase c the majority of them immigrants from not caring about the welfare of French soci­ ram on all French workers. Previous offers 11 percent. North Africa and the Middle East, took the ety in general. They are also accused of by the bosses of the nationalized industries The Mitterrand government wants i lead in scoring important victories in the blackmail and of "undermining the anti-in­ were directly inspired by the government. keep French industry profitable in tli form of higher wages and improved work­ flationary policies" of the government. In the case of Renault, wage increases for midst of the current world economic crisi: ing conditions. The gains they made will But by waging a determined fight- and ultimately benefit all of the more than by winning a wage increase that shattered 100,000 hourly workers at Renault, as well Mitterrand' s austerity program - they not as all 400,000 workers in the French auto only cut through this racist campaign, but industry. they have also showed what the unions can GM-Toyota deal provokes anger Throughout the strike the immigrant accomplish when their power is set in mo­ workers stood firm against a virulently ra­ tion. BY RAUL GONZALEZ The' layoffs have struck hard at the live cist media campaign that the government· On January 6, some 200 spray painters FREMONT, Calif. - Auto workers of Fremont workers and their families. , and the bosses used to try to isolate them out of a paint shop of I ,000 went out on here feel they're getting the shaft. In March Peruvian worker with I9 years at GM ex from the other French workers. strike at Flins. They shut down production 1982, the General Motors assembly plant plained how he was unable to find anothe The combativity of the immigrant work­ almost completely at the huge Renault fac­ was shut down, making the total of GM job because he had ruined his back whil ers was the most important factor behind tory that employs a total of 18,000 work­ workers on indefinite layoff more than working for GM. the unity of the different unions that or­ ers. Of these workers 7,000 are immigrants 6,000. His wife works. Between her incom ganize auto workers. In France, where of 26 different nationalities. On February 14 Toyota Motor Co. and and his SUB (SUpplemental Unemplo} workers at a single plant can be organized These spray painters, almost all of them GM officials announced that the Fremont ment Benefits) and unemployment, the. by many different unions, united action by from North Africa, did not limit their de­ plant would reopen, hiring up to 3,000 and their four children have been able t• the unions is essential for any effective mands to the issue of discriminatory job workers for the production of subcompact just scrape by. Before the shutdown thei fight. classifications that affect them directly, but cars. The two international auto giants de­ food bills averaged $I80 a week. They'r The two major unions involved in the also demanded a wage increase of 300 dared that the plant would reopen under $115 now...... Renault strikes are the General Confedera­ francs a month for all of the workers in the this joint ownership as a "new" third com­ Should the SUB or unemployment be cu tion of Labor (CGT), led by the French plant. By the following Monday, four days pany. off, as they have been for thousands of Gl\ Communist Party (CP), and the French later, more than 10,000 workers were put The "new" company would not be bound workers, they'd be eligible for $485 Democratic Confederation of Labor on layoff. This action was denounced by by the old GM-United Auto Workers month in welfare and food stamps - les (CFDT), which is under the influence of the CGT and the CFDT as a "scandalous (UAW) contracts, and thus would not be than what they get now. the French Socialist Party (SP). The SP antistrike lockout," and as an "unaccepta­ obliged to rehire any of the 6,000 GM This situation is not atypical. Many Pre currently heads the French government. ble use of force by the bosses." workers on layoff, they said. mont workers haven't been able to find de And it was the immigrant workers who The day after the lockout was imposed, The joint announcement that the laid-off cent jobs anywhere else. . moved the unions into ;tction, despite the the Renault plant in Billancourt, ·which em­ workers would not be rehired brought a On February 22 and 23, Fremon progovernment SP and CP leaders. ploys 5,000 workers, was also paralyzed quick and angry ·tesponse from · U AW workers: with.inore dian 10 years-' seiiiorit: "The conflict at Flins and Billancourt by a strike. After a union representative members and officials. Two days later GM were called in for a meeting with GM offi has shown," wrote Michel Noblecourt in held a meeting to explain the demands of was claiming the statement about not rehir­ cials at the plant. No information was giv the January 27 Le Monde, "that the unions the Flins spray painters and to ask for sol­ ing the Fremont workers had been mis­ en about the reopening, but the worker are not the masters of the game." idarity, dozens of spray painters and other translated from the Japanese. were offered a "deal.'' These indomitable workers, continues paint shop workers at the Billancourt plant But on February 23 Toyota officials GM said it needs 400 workers at its as· Noblecourt, "have imposed their own walked out calling for the same wage in­ spoke up again to "clarify" things. The Fre­ sembly plant in Oklahoma City. Fremon mont plant will reopen under the "new" will." Speaking patronizingly of what he creases. workers with more than I 0 years' seniorit) calls "the excesses of a rather maximalist By January 20 the Flins strike, which ownership of a "new" company. The pre­ were given the chance to relocate. vious GM contracts would not be honored, rank and file," Noblecourt says "the continued to bottleneck production, was For now, they were told, it is voluntary unions" - he means their bureaucratic beginning to have an effect on the rest of and they are under no obligation to rehire But if GM doesn't get 400 voluntarily, i leadership - "have the formidable task of the auto industry. Workers from different GM workers. could become mandatory. finding a solution without severing them­ shops at other Renault plants, and at Cit­ Fremont workers were outspoken to Mil­ A worker who relocates will have to pa) selves irremediably from the strikers." roen, Chausson and Fiat plants, were going itant reporters at the UAW Local 1364 the moving expenses out of his owr In an article in Le Monde on Jaimary 20, hall. pocket, save the receipts, and hand therr out on strike and slowing production down Most workers' comments on the GM­ Jean Benoit explained how meetings were over to GM in Oklahoma City. Ninety day! Toyota deal were focused on Toyota's role being conducted every two hour;s by union later they're supposed to be reimbursed. in it. The Bay Area big-business news me­ delegates to keep workers informed of any Once it becomes mandatory to move, the dia have portrayed Toyota as the hard-liner developments in the negotiations: "On a Inn answen Fremont workers were told, refusal would on the rehiring issue, with statements by microphone of the CFDT, a CGT represen­ make them ineligible for SUB and unem­ French gov't GM officials sounding more conciliatory. ployment benefits. It would be the equival­ tative harangues the strikers in French. His One worker told the Militant, "We have CFDT companion translates into Arabic. ent of refusing to come back to work if on auto strikes labor laws here [in the United States]. They Placed almost side by side, the flags of the called, GM claims. They would lose every­ can't just come in and take over." two organizations illustrate this unity in ac­ thing -pension, seniority, etc. Many Muslim immigrant workers Other workers thought GM was no less tion that is so seldom seen at Flins." Also threatened are workers with high who led the auto strikes in France responsible than Toyota, and that the two Another crucial aspect of this struggle by seniority covered under the "Guaranteed identify with the Iranian revolution. auto giants were playing "hard-cop, soft­ immigrant workers to defend their standard Income Stream" (GIS), a plan under the In an attack on them and on the revo­ cop." of living from the ravages of inflation is I982 contract highly touted by the UAW lution, French Prime Minister Pierre "They're just testing the waters. They their resolute fight against the racist cam­ International leadership as a major step to­ Mauroy charged that the Iranian gov­ want to see how strong the union is," one paign by the government and the employ­ ward job security. ernment had instigated the strikes worker told us . Newton Kamakani, financial secretar} ers. and "stirred up the workers." "We really don't know anything more Heading up this campaign against what The February 3 Jomhuri-e Eslami, [about GM and Toyota's intentions] than he called the "uncontrollable" immigrant newspaper of Iran's ruling Islamic what we've read in the papers." workers was Prime Minister Pierre Republican Party, reported that at a In I963 the GM truck plant in Oakland Mauroy, who charged that immigrant Friday prayer service in Tehran, moved its operations south to Fremont. At workers are being manipulated from the Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaker of the that time Fremont had a population of bare­ outside by "foreign interests." This parliament, denied that Iranian ly 20,000. dovetails with the government's racist agents were responsible for the Massive tax breaks and cheap land and campaign against the Iranian revolution, strikes. water de.als were engineered by Alameda which includes propaganda against Mus­ However, he pointed out, it is in­ County and state officials to invite GM to lims, and Shi'ite Muslims in particular. evitable that workers in France will Fremont. With GM's move, the unionized The French government, which has been in be affected by the Iranian revolution work force from Oakland came as well. the forefront of the imperialist campaign to and its methods of struggle. That, he Due to the struggle of Black workers, strengthen NATO's nuclear forces in said, is the real expression of the ex­ the work force, which in the I950s was Europe, has also sold more than $4.I bill­ portation of the revolution. overwhelmingly white, changed. Doors ion in arms over the past two years to aid Two days later an editorial in opened, and Black and Latino workers be­ the Iraqi war of aggression against Iran. Jomhuri-e Eslami also discussed the came a large proportion of the work force. The French CP and SP argue that it is strikes in France. It declared that In the I970s, women fought to get in. wrong to elect the workers parties to head they were the symptom "of a system Fremont's population has grown to more the government and to then go out on strike . that views these workers only as pro­ than IOO,OOO. Until it closed last year, the against that government. But the immi­ ducers and not as human beings". GM plant was for 20 years the biggest em­ Fremont auto worker: angry at threats grant workers in France have been distrust- ployer here. against United Auto Workers union.

10 The Militant March 11, 1983 .::.t;·~ -F\_\ NS i \.

Immigrant workers led auto unionists in most important French labor battles in 15 years

That is why - besides holding wage in­ working people to buy French-made mer­ all French workers. These recent strikes have gotten from the company in lO creases down to 7 percent; well below the chandise for a higher price than similar have been the most important in the French years," adding that it represents "an au­ rate of inflation - it has also launched a merchandise available on the world mar­ auto industry since 1968, when lO million thentic social victory." big "buy French" campaign. ket. The result is a lower standard of living workers went out on a general strike. This campaign to "recapture the internal for all French working people. Henri Krasucki, the general secretary of Now that the pace has been set by the inarket" is designed to protect the profits of So these strikes and shop ~cupations the CGT, was quoted in the Paris daily Le Renault workers, others are following in French industrialists. Through tariffs and unleashed by immigrant auto workers at Monde of January 30-31 as saying that the their footsteps. Workers at the Chausson • import quotas, the government forces Renault were seen as an important test by agreement with Renault is "the best we plant in Gennevilliers and at the CitrOen plants ·in Saint-Ouen and Levallois went out on strike demanding a wage increase of 300 francs a month, the original demand of :discussion among United Auto Workers members the Renault spray painters. French auto workers affected by lockouts are still fight­ of the local, told the Militant GM is send­ "I'd take my vacation time to go to Cali­ At a recent informational meeting for ing for back pay for the days of work they ing official notices to members of the trans­ fornia and help them make. sure that the employees, GM made clear that a top have lost, as well as against having to work ; fer "offers." plant stays union." priority for the company is cutting costs. on Saturdays to make up for lost produc­ "I have no choice," Earl, who has been "Maybe we should just wait until '84 to "I was very depressed," said a worker tion. The government and the bosses are ! with GM 25 years, said. "I have to go to go on strike. We'll have a better idea 'of from the paint department. "My priority is now attempting to stop any further strikes Oklahoma. In a few more years I'll be elig­ what's happening." making a decent living. How can we have with court orders and to get rid of the im­ . ible for retirement. I can't afford to lose There are many discussions at Fairfax, common goals?" migrant union militants who led the first that." and many points of view are expressed, but strikes. But the French auto workers are When the plant was in operation, Earl most workers agree that if GM gets away Adding insult to injury, last week GM now in a better position to defend them­ had bought three acres of land and a couple with their plans for Fremont, it will be a moved ahead with plans to increase the line selves and their union after these successful of horses. The Bay Area is his home. He green light to attack working conditions speed at Fairfax from 50 cars an hour to 60. strikes. explained that just recently he and his fami­ and the union at all UA W plants. While they announced plans to hire more ly had gotten back together after a five-year workers, the company also tried to enlist Rouge, the weekly newspaper of the separation. Here at the Fairfax assembly plant, the QWL representatives in a campaign to con­ Revolutionary Communist League, French Moving to Oklahoma would break them_ news about Fremont has helped to tear the vince paint department workers to do the section of the Fourth International, had up again. Stuck between a rock and a hard mask of "concerned communications and same number of operations when the line regular coverage of the strikes since they place, he figures the only way he can pro­ common interest" off the face of the Quali­ speed increases. began in January. A front page editorial in vide for his family and keep his three acres ty-of-Worklife (QWL) program. QWL is the issue dated February II blasted the at­ is to go, leaving them here. an attempt by GM to weaken the union by As a result, according to the Smooth Sur­ tempts to fire the immigrant union mili­ "There's not even a guarantee we won't cutting across its role as the only legitimate face News, QWL meetings in paint on first tants. "All workers," said the editorial, be laid off in Oklahoma. But I've got no representative of the workers. shift have been suspended at the request of "must react in solidarity with the immig­ ,,,choice." While some workers have been willing the union. ·rant workers, now being repressed because ,,...,.,, . ,. .. ·'~ c Other workers felt that the Oklahoma· of­ " .to give it a chance, GM's real plans·forthe they were the first to fight against the wage "fer was a way for GM to get some prounion QWL program have been increasingly ex­ Diane Shur is a member of UAW Local freeze and the decline in the purchasing workers out of Fremont, so that when the posed. 31. power of hourly workers." plant reopens it'll be with a less union-con­ 'scious ~ork force, one without strong union traditions. A retired Black worker told the Militant Fremont worker: GM, ·Toyota both mean to hust union that workers here had been through a lot. "But they can only be pushed so far, before BY GEORGE JOHNSON Something was "lost in translation" from And the plant has a long history of local they fight," he added. Like thousands of others who worked at Japanese to English, GM Chairman Roger strikes, many during the I970s, as workers Fremont workers are waiting, as they've the General Motors assembly plant in Fre­ Smith assured us, when the chairman of fought GM for a little dignity, or against waited a year or more, to go back to work. mont, California, prior to the plant's being Toyota said the "new company" will not be speedup. The plant is scheduled to reopen in March shut down indefinitely in March I982, I bound by the old contracts with the UA W. One such strike, which lasted a week, 1984, under the "new" management. Its read with great interest that GM was going But the Toyota president, Schoichiro came about because the plant manager as­ opening has been timed to coincide with to reopen the plant to build cars in a joint Toyoda, repeated the next day that the joint saulted, then ftred, the chairman of the the expiration of the current GM-UA W venture with Toyota. venture will be a new company free to hire shop committee. contracts. Times have been hard for auto workers whomever it wants. We got him back, and we won a few At issue then for workers will be keeping in the Fremont area. The Peterbilt and The union's top leaders, meanwhile, are other things over the years, like being their union and preventing a wage scale Mack truck plants shut down shortly before assuring us that the plant will reopen under called back by seniority regardless of the less than that of other GM plants. GM did, and the Ford plant in Milpitas is to a UAW contract. And UAW President length of layoff. That, along with local Many Fremont workers know this and a go down too. Douglas Fraser sent a letter to Toyota work rules, is for sure one of the things GM determination is commonly expressed that Thousands of us have had to look for Chairman Eiji Toyoda that said, "We are and Toyota mean to change. if the "new" company tries to reopen with­ scarce, and lower-paying, jobs. But state certain we can establish a constructive and The kind of cooperation Toyota is prom­ out the "old" workers, there will be a fight. records show that only 800 of us have harmonious relationship." ising is no different from GM's. found new jobs, and those have been at Toyoda is also seeking cooperation: In the I950s Toyota and other Japanese half what we got at GM. "Whether we can establish a spirit of coop­ companies broke the unions representing BY DIANE SHUR Home foreclosures in Alameda County, eration is the most important question," he their workers. Since then, they have dealt KANSAS CITY - "UAW [United Au­ where two-thirds of the ex-GM workers said. And GM, of course, wants coopera­ with much tamer ones. to Workers] Local 3I held one of its best live, have about tripled since I981. tion too. Smith says so. A former Toyota worker described the John Scrempos, vice-president of Local present union: ·~shop union committee union meetings in years last Saturday at the With all this cooperation being offered, 1364 of the United Auto Workers (UAW) members are generally foremen, team union hall as over 200 rank-and-file why should auto workers in Fremont and members crowded the hall to voice their says he's "talking to people every day leaders and sub-leaders. The position of who're losing their homes. They've lost everywhere else be so dubious about this shop steward is rotated among plant mana­ opinions and find out what stand the union deal? executive officers would take on the GM/ ' furniture, cars. They spend time sleeping gers .... If someone tries to run for Toyota deal. After the preliminaries were in cars in the union parking lot. A lot of GM's record in labor relations doesn't election, the management pressures him out of the way, it was decided to stand be­ them are very frightened." offer much ground for optimism among not to do it. . . . The positions of the hind the Fremont Local 1364 'I ,000 per­ And at least four of them have commit­ workers. GM only recognized the UA Win three top-ranking officials and most of the cent' in their quest to be the representative ted suicide: Ronald Bergman, Steve Gon­ the I930s after a series of hard-fought sit­ executive committee in Toyota's union are body for the labor force at the presently zalez, Robert Luna, and Hugh Dewitt Self. down strikes. Prior to that it employed a filled by plant managers and . . . section closed auto assembly plant." To this grisly toll, caused by the crisis of private force of Pinkertons, company stool managers." This was the opening paragraph of a capitalism, must also be added six deaths pigeons, and thugs to keep the union out. Management serves as the election com­ front-page story which ran in the Smooth from cirrhosis of the liver, and 23 heart at­ GM has bitterly resisted the UA W a mittee for union elections. Surface News, an in-plant newsletter at tacks. number of times, forcing long strikes on That's the kind of cooperation GM and GM's Fairfax, Kansas, plant. The recent No money. No job, or prospects of one. the union's members. Toyota have in mind. And they must think announcement by GM and Toyota of their The permanent uncertainty of everything The Fremont plant has been no different. our union is now weak enough for them to plans to ignore the present UA W contract about your life. impose their will. But Fremont auto work­ when they reopen the Fremont, California, And even with the news of the plant's In the I950s, while the plant was still in ers will have the fmal word. assembly plant has created tremendous reopening, there's a grim underside. Oakland, a fight had to be waged for concern among Kansas City auto workers Many, probably most, of us won't get Blacks to work for GM. George Johnson was laid offfrom the Fre­ over the future of all UA W locals, not only called back. In the I970s, women went through the mont assembly plant in 1981, with Locali364. And hanging over all this is a cat-and­ same struggle to get in the plant. GM was thousands of other UAWLoca/1364 mem­ "If they open that plant with nonunion mouse game by GM and Toyota, a threat to forced to pay for sexist discrimination in a bers. He worked in the cab and body shops workers we should have a national strike." destroy the union. suit brought by the uniOn. and wet-deck department.

March 11, 1983 The Militant 11 Did truck shutdown aid the·employers? Reply to 'People's World,' 'Guardian'

BY GEORGE JOHNSON "While some independents are throwing The independent truckers who organized bricks and shooting at union truck drivers, a shutdown last month to protest tax hikes the employers are applauding from the faced some tough opposition. sidelines," the People's World claimed. Federal and state governments charged The People's World also accused inde- · .them with responsibility for violence, and pendents of stealing Teamsters' jobs: "hun­ the news media echoed and expanded on dreds of smaller union cartage companies this slander. have been forced out of business" as a re­ President Reagan called them murderers sult of "the cutthroat competition of the in­ at his news conference February 4 and an­ dependents." nounced he was calling out the FBI against (The Daily World, sister paper of the the strikers. People's World, took a different stance, re­ The employers and their media tried to porting favorably on the truckers' shut­ pit other workers -especially members of down in the few news items it carried.) Cleveland cop tells striking truck drivers they'll be arrested if they try to block trucks the International Brotherhood of Teamsters The February 9 Guardian, which de­ from entering Jones & Laughlin steel plant. (mn- against the independent truckers. scribes itself as an "independent radical Speaking out of both sides of its mouth, weekly," carried a major article headlined nickel-a-gallon increase for fuel and higher persecute the strikers through their media, the federal government told consumers the "Truckers' action isn't very progressive." The article quoted extensively from excise taxes on trucks and truck parts. their government, and their FBI? truckers weren't paying their fair share for The fact is the rulers of this country saw highway upkeep. At the same time it told leaders of Teamsters for a Democratic This means many independents will lose their trucks, and thus their livelihood. Un­ it as a threat when a group of workers stood the truckers they shouldn't strike because Union (TDU), a dissident power caucus in up and said no to their offensive and tried they could simply pass on newly imposed the ffiT. like the big trucking bosses, they cannot "pass along" tax increases to the consumer. to mobilize the labor movement behind taxes to the consumer! TDU figure Pete Camarata was quoted This is one reason the trucking industry en­ them. Like the air traffic controllers' strike And while the media warned that the as saying, "We'll support anybody trying courages the independent sector, so these and the rail engineers' strike last fall, the shutdown would cause grave shortages of to get a decent wage, but I have some criti­ workers will absorb high overhead costs, bosses saw the truckers' shutdown as a food and other goods, it simultaneously cism of the way they are going about it~ especially

March 11, 1983 The Militant 13 Ind. farmers organize against credit vultures

BY DAVE YOUNG of land and fall in grain prices to nearly half NOBLESVILLE, Ind.- On February their previous levels, the PCA began cal­ 16, about 40 fellow farmers and supporters ling in their loans. In the Campbells' case of Ed and Ruth Campbell gathered at the the PCA began by first selling their 1,000 Trappers Rendezvous in Metamora, Iti­ beef cattle at a price far below what their diana, for coffee, biscuits, and gravy. They production costs had been up to that point. awaited word from the judge in Brookville, At about 11:00 a.m. word arrived that the county seat, on whether or not the the sheriff's sale would go ahead as sched­ sheriffs auction of the Campbell's farm uled. Friends and supporters of ·the_ would go ahead as scheduled. The Campbells were notified of the impending Campbell's daughter Katrina and her sale. As the crowd grew, the farmers dis­ friends spent most of the morning making cussed the tactics they might use to stop the protest posters in the event that the sale sale. would take place. At about 1:00 p.m. about 20 cars lined The supporters gathered there included up with red bandanas on their antennas. Jim and Barbara Adams, founders of In­ The caravan proceeded to the sheriffs of­ diana COACT (Citizens Organization Act­ fice in Brookville, eight miles away, where ing Together). The day before nearly all the court-ordered sale would take place. the Adams' farm machinery was reposses­ One van carried a coffin on top to represent sed at their farm in Noblesville. The the death of the family farmer. Some car­ machinery repossession had been ordered ried signs reading, "Sell Family Farms. to pay their debt to the Production Credit Buy Your Groceries From The Lenders!" Association (PCA), a supposedly "farmer and "Corporations Take Over And Food owned" cooperative founded 50 years ago. Prices Rise." Also in attendance were Indiana A crowd of about 300 farmers and sup­ COACT leader Phillip Bright, and other porters of the Campbells were gathered Ed and Ruth Campbell, after auction of their farm, vowed to continue fight against COACT members from Indiana and Ohio. outside the sheriffs office. The sheriff told Production Credit Association. Farmers from an Ohio chapter of the Fam­ the crowd, "I'm just an old country ily Farm Movement (FFM) were there. sheriff." He then proceeded to read the Dan Griffith of Noblesville, whose farm court order and announce the start of the will be put on the auction block on March bidding. 3, was there to show his support for the For more than three minutes the crowd Campbells. 'shouted "No Sale! No Sale!" and then the TV's '60 Minutes' red-baits Ruth Campbell explained how only a sheriff announced he heard a bid of few years earlier the PCA had actively en­ $110,000 from the PCA, to whom the couraged farmers to build feed lots, storage Campbells owed about $1.2 million. The National Council of Churches bins and otherwise expand their opera­ bid covered the Campbell's home and 340 BY HARRY RING Again, Safer made no attempt to defend acres of farm land. tions. When farmers asked about a clause The red-baiting a~ck leveled against the antiaborigine policy of the Australian in the contract giving the PCA the right to A second parcel of land belonging to the the National Council and the World Coun- government. He simply said the problem call in their loan and demand full payment Campbells was auctioned off to a man who . cil of Churches tells you something about was "a terribly complicated historical situ­ they were usually told that it was unimpor­ had sold them the property on contract. He what's going on in this country. It relates to ation." tant and nothing to worry about. retook possession of the land at an enor­ the mounting opposition to U.S. aggres­ Example: While the National Council of However, after the sudden devaluation mous profit. sion in Central America as well as to the Churches does not endorse CISPES [Com­ After the court-ordered sale, the farmers brutal attacks on the rights of working peo­ mittee in Solidarity With the People of El ple at home. Salvador), various member denominations Correction held their own auction to sell the local PCA office. The highest bid was for one and a The big-business rulers of this country helped to get it started. In the article by Chester Nelson on are determined to do everything they can to Here too, Safer offered no reason why "Farmer's struggle: who are its allies?" half pennies. "We have lost the battle but not the stifle that opposition. To accomplish this the church forces should not give aid to (February 25 Militant) the word "labor" they are, among other things, using the groupings trying to prevent a new Vietnam was erroneously dropped when referring to war," said Ruth Campbell. "We will be back." commercial media - which they control in El Salvador. the idea of an independent labor party. The Example: A National Council affiliate She went on to say, "If what we have - and political groupings that support second to last paragraph in the article was among the organizations, in addition done today helps just one young farmer their reactionary goals. should have read ~ That's why the National Council and to journalists, who helped make available a Workers will struggle to transform their from going to those buzzards, then it was worth it." · World Council of Churches were the target "Dissent Paper on El Salvador and Central unions into fighting instruments. This will America," written anonymously by an ob­ Ed Campbell told the crowd, "Every­ of an anticommunist hatchet job on TV's open up the possibility of establishing and "60 Minutes" in January and a parallel at­ viously well-informed Carter administra­ building an independent labor party based body who has dealt with an honest, true tion member during the last months of that farmer knows he will do everything he can tack in that month's Reader' sDigest. on the organized labor movement in al­ The attack against the church groups is administration. liance with the mass protest organizations to pay his debts. Any farmer will pay you The document bluntly warned that U .S. if he's given a decent chance." also being pushed by an outfit that calls it­ of farmers. An independent labor party of self the Instiiute on Religion and Democra­ policy was driving toward a Vietnam-type work~rs and farmers that can help lead the Ruth Campbell concluded, "Let me tell cy. This group is being bankrolled by a intervention in El Salvador. day-to-day struggles for immediate relief you folks, when someone wants to take number of the same labor-hating mil­ Did Safer try to establish this was a false and connect them to charting a course to your farm and home away, that's vio­ lionaires who are behind the American En­ assessment? political power is the road forward - not lence!" The Campbells then invited the terprise Institute, a right-wing "think No, he couldn't really do that, so in­ the NDPC's demagogic schemes nor its crowd to join their friends and family for a tank." stead, he took an FBI smear and pushed it one step further. proposed alliance with big business. pig roast back at the TraJ>pers Rendezvous. Particularly despicable in this regard is The FBI had tried to discredit the dissent the key role played in the Institute on Reli­ paper by suggesting that it was also distrib­ gion and Democracy by Penn Kemble and uted by the Soviet KGB. David Jessup of Social Democrats USA, a Did truckers' strike aid bosses? group that calls itself socialist but identifies Safer parlayed this into the suggestion that the National Council of Churches affil­ pealed to the unions for support and held with the most conservative, anticommunist Continued from Page 12 iate had helped circulate a KGB "forgery." in struggles to improve their take-home wing of the AFL-CIO bureaucracy. numerous meetings to debate out precisely This list of offenses is echoed by the In­ pay." the big political questions on the agenda for The "60 Minutes" attack on the National stitute on Religion and Democracy, which What was the result? "In the major strug- · Council and World Council of Churches the entire labor movement. Why can't we tacks on another even more heinous gles of that period against the trucking em­ get any help from the Democratic or Re­ was a classic McCarthy-style political "crime." frame-up. The segment was done by Mor­ ployers generally, the union's owner­ publican politicians? Who are our real al­ The National Council of Churches, it operator members served loyally. They lies? What kind of government is needed to ley Safer who opined that while the two re­ seems, allocated funds to help carry both volunteered their trucks to transport protect the interests of working people? lated church groups "would seem not to through the Nicaragua Literacy Campaign! pickets and shared in the picketing. A sig­ One answer to these questions came exactly belong to the Marxist system . . . The campaign to teach Nicaraguans to nificant number of our casualties in battles from a meeting of the American Agricul­ critics feel that [they] lean toward Karl read and write, these asserted partisans of with the cops were from among this cate­ ture Movement in Colorado. After an ad­ Marx when it comes to giving certain fi- democracy declared, is a front for radical gory of workers. After the union had been dress by a striking trucker, the meeting put nailcial support." · political education. consolidated, they continued to play a con­ out a statement saying: "We are the pro­ Example: The Presbyterian Hunger If this gang feels the Nicaraguan govern­ structive role. Like other members of the ductive people in this society. . . . We Program funded publication of a book, Ag­ ment is eliminating illiteracy in their coun­ organization, they looked upon those of need a government composed of farmers, ribusiness in the Americas, a study by try in order to indoctrinate the people with their own kind who took an antilabor workers, and independent truckers. To­ NACLA (North American Congress on their point of view, they really should ex­ stance as finks and dealt with them accord­ gether we could solve our problems in Latin America) of some of the causes of plain why the late dictator Somoza didn't ingly." short order." hunger in Latin America. try a similar political venture. This approach was then extended That resolution points in exactly the Needless to say, the attempt to discredit No, each of the "crimes" cited in the in­ throughout the Midwest. By backing the right direction. the church group for helping to make this dictment of the National Council of struggles of independent drivers, the The labor movement ought to take the study available did not include any rebut­ Churches and associated groups are worthy Teamsters were able to win many of them lead in fighting for such a government of tal of the book's finding, namely that big causes in the best sense of the word. to the union and consolidate Teamster workers and farmers. To begin with, it agribusiness interests have been a key part The right-wingers 'parading as religious power in the region. The process was c~t should stand with the truckers in their of the problem of hunger south of the bor­ partisans of democracy and media smear short by the government's arrest of class­ fight. It should break from the Democratic der. artists from "60 Minutes" and Reader's struggle fighters in the union, including and Republican parties and form an inde­ Example: A World Council task force Digest, cannot discredit these causes in any Dobbs, on the eve of World War II. pendent labor party that would champion visited Australia where the aborigines are rational way. They can only hope to fright­ The issues remain fundamentally the the struggles of independent truckers, being driven from homelands rich in natu­ en away supporters with the label "commu­ same today. And the prospects for building workers, farmers, Blacks, women, and ral resources. A task force spokesperson nist." an alliance between labor and the indepen­ others. Such a party would be a major step spoke sharply of the consequences of the Fortunately, the Vietnam experience dents are greater. This was shown during forward for organizing the kind of alliance racist policies of the Australian govern­ helped teach a lot of people what a reac­ the shutdown, ·when independents ap- needed of all the victims of capitalism. ment toward the aborigines. tionary hoax this is.

14 The Militant March 11, 1983 Vietnam today: still Washington's target

BY DON GUREWITZ be able to point to postwar developments as CAMBRIDGE - A decade after the justification for U.S. policy. withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam, U.S. bombing of Kampuchea (then events in Indochina were the subject of called Cambodia), for example, was so de­ teach-ins here at Harvard University and at vastating that a U.S. study done after the the University of Southern California. 1975 withdrawal predicted that 1 million At the day-long Harvard teach-in on people would starve to death and at least February 5, speakers retraced the history of two years of "slave labor conditions" Washington's attempts to stop the Viet­ would be needed to rebuild. The systematic namese revolution and the ongoing U.S. destruction of Kampuchea was conscious policy of trying to bleed Vietnam. They U.S. policy, he added. also analyzed the effort now underway to Acknowledging that "Pol Pot was.one of rewrite the history of the Vietnam War and the most murderous characters in world the antiwar movement in an attempt to jus­ history," Chomsky argued that Washing­ tify U.S. involvement. ton is largely responsible for what had hap­ '•---•'r'-- Gurewitz Gurewitz Written greetings were read from Viet­ pened to Kampuchea after 1975. Ngo Vinh Long (left) and·Noam Chomsky spoke at Harvard University teach-in. nam's ambassador to the United Nations, In an interview with the "Militant after who was prevented by the State Depart­ the teach-in, Chomsky stated that he con­ ment from travelling to Cambridge. A rep­ curs with the evidence that Kampuchean time, ''pending some possibility of rela­ He added that it is "an-outright scandal resentative of the Vietnamese UN mission society has now begun to recover from the tively independent expression of choice" that we don't give massive reparations to was also denied permission to travel to Los devastation of the U.S. war and the Pol Pot by the people of that country. Vietnam." Angeles for that conference. regime. Pol Pot was overthrown in 1979 by The Harvard teach-in was also addressed "The United States should end its by Mustaffa Randolph of the Black Vete­ At Harvard, Ngo VinhLong, a Vietnam­ Vietnamese troops and Kampuchean re- policies of bleeding Vietnam, including its rans for Social Justice, who stated that his ese social historian living in the United bels. . support to Pol Pot and other insurgents organization "will not Jet Mr. Reagan States, outlined current efforts by figures In Chomsky's view, the current Heng operating on Kampuchea's border" with spend billions on Trident submarines while such as Henry Kissinger to resurrect the Sarnrin government in Kampuchea is Thailand, Chomsky stated. fiction that the Pentagon could have won in "probably the best government they have telling our kids to eat ketchup instead of a Vietnam if Washington had been "more de­ had in living memory." The U.S. campaign against Vietnam, vegetable." cisive." United Nations recognition of Pol Pot Chomsky says, "has had an enormous re­ ·~our enemies are not in EJ Salvador, The unity and heroism of the Vietnam­ should be ended immediately, he argued. tarding effect on their efforts at recovery. It Namibia, or Nicaragua. They are in the ese people, forged in the struggle against Chomsky's personal view is that Kam­ is not the only factor, but is certainly a White House and the USA," Randolph de­ French colonialism, Long declared, made puchea's UN seat should be left open for a major one." clared. jt impossible for U.S. imperialism to win in Vietnam, even though successive adminis­ trations never "held back" from waging the war to their utmost capabilities. NBIPP holds panel on civil rights tnovetnent The Pentagon, Long noted, dropped on Vietnam seven times the total tonna_ge of BY EVELYN NEWMAN Patterson, who identified corporate must work toward truth and look at what is explosives used by all sides in World War ATLANTA - A panel discussion ad­ America as the enemy of Blacks and op­ best for all people, regardless of their II. dressing the question of what the civil pressed people all over the world, pointed color. Professor Noam Chomsky, a noted lin­ rights movement should be doing today out the interrelatedness of economics and Thomas proposed taking the fight for guist and political activist, added that the was sponsored by the local organizing politics and the need to deal with both. civil rights and economic advancement campaign to rewrite the history of U.S. in­ committee of the National Black Indepen­ Williams called racism a facade for the into the corporate board rooms. volvement in Vietnam is an attempt tore­ dent Political Party (NBIPP) on January economic problem in the nation and said Speaking for the NBIPP, Milton gave a verse the American people's opposition to 22. Blacks cannot afford to back the Demo­ historical perspective on civil rights gains the use of U.S. troops against national lib­ In the aftermath of an ice and snow crats or Republicans. However, in a later made by Blacks, pointing out that the eration struggles. storm that engulfed much of th~ southeast­ comment he indicated that he would run for Democratic and Republican parties have This "Vietnam syndrome," Chomsky em United States that weekend, about 40 a future office on the Democratic ticket to been perceived by Blacks as both friend stated, is simply the masses of people see­ people attended the meeting, which began make winning easier. and foe during different periods in Amer­ ing a bit of the truth about the real aims with a film showing of I Have a Dream, Williams also pledged support and re­ ican history. She also pointed out that both and methods of U.S. foreign policy. featuring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sources to NBIPP and said an independent parties have enslaved Blacks. The rulers of this country, he added, had party could be good leverage in fighting the hoped that the knowledge gained in the The panel was comprised of Rev. Hosea NBIPP recognizes that a break froni. system. He suggested also that the civil these parties is essential if Blacks are to ac­ Vietnam War would fade with time. But Williams, former Southern Christian rights movement today, as in the 1960s, they have run into massive public opposi- Leadership Conference (SCLC) executive quire the kind of political power necessary "cannot separate direct action from to change the present socioeconomic sys­ tion as they have prepared for direct mili- director, and labor organizer James economic boycotting." tem that perpetuates and maintains the op­ tary intervention in Central America, he Orange, who both worked closely with Dr. stated. King; Rev. Fred Taylor, current director of Orange said the civil rights movement pression of Blacks and other workers. Chomsky focused much of his attention chapters and affiliates for SCLC; Roy Pat- on the role of liberal academics and politi- terson, local television talk show host and cians in planning and justifying U.S. mili- former activist with the Student Nonviolent King holiday defeated in Virginia tary adventures abroad, especially in In- Coordinating Committee; Georgianne dochina. Thomas, reporter of Third World News for BY JOHN WESLEY on. The jury is still out on Martin Luther A number of these liberals, he pointed Clark College radio; and Jennifer Milton, NEWPORT NEWS, Va. '-- On Feb­ King" said George Burris to laughter and out, now argue that even ifthe U.S. war ef- NBIPP's representative. ruary 16 the Virginia House General Laws jeers from the audience. fort in Vietnam was wrong, it was carried Taylor, in comments that paralleled the Committee voted 13-7 against making Dr. Mary Lou Curtis stated "King said, out for "good motives." They cover up the prevailing views of the most visible Blacks Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a paid 'shoot whitey, kill whitey. ' He committed factthat U.S. involvement always had the in leadership positions today, said that state holiday. King's birthday is January treason. He praised Ho Chi Minh and aim of denying the peopl~ of Indochina Blacks must gain economic security and 15. called for resistance to the draft. The U.S. their right to self-determination in order to "support candidates [for public office] who Some 200 people, mostly Black, lis­ did not win that war and I am ashamed. To insure U.S. dominance over all of South- -are sympathetic to the Black agenda." He tened to a litany of racist slanders against honor Martin Luther King would be to dis­ east Asia. also said Blacks "must use direct action King. "I think Black people should be honor the dead and missing from Viet­ Today, Chomsky notes, many liberal wherever necessary and possible." cautious about who they call their champi- nam." Curtis told Blacks that if they politicians are again helping to pave the wanted a hero, they should look to "Jesus way for new colonial wars in Central Christ." America and the Middle East. Richmond Senator L. Douglas Wilder, New York University history professor IUE strike ends in San Antonio the first Black state senator since Recon­ Marilyn Young also refuted the argument BY MARK CHALKLEY rijuana possession charges, planting a bag struction, was the sponsor of the bill. that the Pentagon lost in Vietnam because . SAN ANTONIO - Members of inter­ of pot seeds in his car. Five of the Democrats on the committee it held back from waging the war fully. national Union of Electrical Workers Local But the members of IUE 1127 stood firm and all of the Republicans voted against the Even u~e of nuclear weapons was actively 1127 returned to work here on February 7, in the face of all these attacks. bill. There was no public pressure or en­ considered, she explained. ending a 14 week strike against the Stain­ The new contract contains . much dorsement from Democratic Gov. Charles Michael Useem, of Boston University, less Ice-Tainer Company (SITCO). stronger language with regard to seniority Robb, elected in 1981 as a "friend" of pointed out that President Nixon concretely Workers had voted at a membership meet­ than the previous one. The complex system Blacks. threatened North Vietnam with the use of ing the previous Saturday to approve a new of job grades, which the company had The vote killing this bill before it even nuclear weapons. The tremendous antiwar three-year contract by a vote of 80 to 9. created in order to foster divisions among got to the House of Delegates is a con­ sentiment at home and abroad, Useem The strike began November 1 when the workers, has been eliminated and re­ scious slap in the face to Blacks who have stated, was a major factor convincing management refused to budge from prop­ placed by a-much simpler classification of made clear their sentiments in favor of a Nixon to pull back from his threats. osals that would have gutted seniority jobs. King holiday. Along with a demonstration The danger of nuclear war is not rights and threatened the job security of The strike also changed the company's of 100,000 in Washington, D.C., on Janu­ abstract, Useem reminded the audience. It SITCO workers. Union members recog­ tune on many givebacks they had de­ ary 15, 1981 , demanding that King's birth­ flows directly from U.S. interventions in nized these company attacks for what they manded. For example, SITCO dropped its day be made a national holiday, large num­ Vietnam, El Salvador, the Middle East, were and voted almost unanimously to insistence on the right to lay off workers bers of petitions have been turned in to the and southern Africa. strike. who did not "qualify" after bidding into a state capital of Richmond demanding a Chomsky made a similar point, stating It was clear from the beginning that SIT­ higher job grade. state holiday. Local actions are also held that people who oppose nuclear weapons CO management hoped to break the union Workers did lose in some areas. Sick yearly in Virginia. must focus their attention on stopping in the course of the strike. Dozens of scabs leave with pay was given up in exchange King led the civil rights movement until U.S.-Israeli aggression in the Middle East. were hired to maintain production, and for a verbal agreement on profit-sharing. his assassination in 1968. During that The new nuclear weapons systems, he elaborate measures were taken to protect Absentee procedures will be harsher. period Blacks defeated Jim Crow segrega- - said, are aimed at preventing "the Russians them. Extra security guards were hired. By resisting and defeating SITCO's tion, making the greatest steps forward from responding to our interventions in the The company repeatedly charged the union union-busting efforts, the strikers won an since the defeat of slavery in the Civil War. Middle East." with violence and sought to have unfair la­ important victory. Labor's enemies in San It is this history of struggle that the racist Chomsky also focused on U.S. policy bor practices charges filed by the IUE Antonio have been dealt a setback. forces in Richmond and Washington, both toward Indochina since the withdrawal of thrown out of court on that basis. Democrats and Republicans, are trying to U.S. troops. Its aim, he said, was to make City police harassed pickets and attemp­ Mark Chalkley is a member of /UE Local silence by denying a national ·holiday to recovery as difficult as possible in order to ted to frame up one strike supporter on rna· 1/27. commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.

March 11, 1983 The Militant 15 -THE GREAT SOCIETY------'-----'---- It's only our money - The tings will run between $50 and ing procedures in ways that per­ senator. But, suggests People don't mean to be morbid, but Reagans will entertain the queen $100 per table. petuate discrimination so long as magazine, they have to deal with we've been wondering about those of England and 250 old buddies at the change doesn't worsen the dis­ the same problems as ordinary special bread lines that distribute.· a gourmet dinner in San Fran- Silver lining - The western crimination. folk - making the bed, cooking food for hungry pets. If you eat farm region is in its worse shape breakfast, etc. some of the pet food yourself, can since the Depression, reports the Deep Dish - Some reports in­ you be prosecuted as a welfare New York Times, with but one sist that the confetti at Anne Gor­ May require more polish - cheat? bright spot - farm auctioneering such's wedding came from the We were thinking of one of those is doing well. The Western Col­ EPA shredding machine. But our Ferazano blazers of mink, beaver, The march of science - A pa­ Harry lege of Auctioneering in Montana sources found it was only packing and cashmere, but were put off by tent has been issued to a Depart­ is booked solid and expanding "to from Nancy Reagan's latest set of the $8,500 price tag. However, ment of Commerce speech' writer Ring handle the growing number of stu­ dishes. the identical jacket is available for for a Twidd. It's a cylindrical dents who see their future in sel­ $3,500 with brass buttons instead piece of wood, with concentric ling off other people's pasts." Plus balancing the checkbook of gold. But we assume the match: holes at opposite ends to twiddle cisco. The menu includes pheasant - Elizabeth and Robert Dole lead ing $2,000 cashmere slacks do your thumbs with. A more sophis­ soup, lobster, loin of veal, etc. Moderate approach - The a busy life. · She's. a cabinet feature a gold zipper. ticated version includes an electric Cost of the meal to taxpayers was Supreme Court ruled that state and member at $80,000 per annum and · counter that flashes the number of not indicated, but the floral set- local governments can change vot- he's knocking down $60,000 as a Gallows humor dep't- We twiddles.

-CALENDAR------~------OHIO Socialists and the Fight for Women's Rights. CALIFORNIA MISSOURI Speaker: Betsy Farley. Sat., March 5, 7:30 San Francisco Kansas City Cincinnati p.m. 141 S Highland Ave., E Liberty. Dona­ Grenada Celebrates Four Years of Revolu­ International Women's Day 1983. Speakers: Rally to ~upport Workers' Rights in El Sal­ tion: $2. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum and tion. Speaker: Pedro Noguera, just returned Teresa Rodriguez, Guatemalan activist; Marty vador. Speakers: Alejandro Molina Lara, orga­ Young Socialist Alliance. For more information from living and working in Grenada. Transla­ Pettit, member, Socialist Workers Party, just nizational secretary of National Federation of call (412) 362-6767. tion to Spanish. Fri., March 11, 8 p.m. 3284 returned from Nicaragua. Sun. , March 6, 8 Salvadoran Workers (FENASTRAS); Jim 23rd St. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Forum. p.m. 4715-A Troost. Donation: $2. Ausp: Mil­ Wolfe, research and education director, Interna­ tional Molders and Allied·Workers Union; Rev. International Women: Celebrate the Strug­ For more information call (415) 824-1992. itant Labor Forum. For more information call gle of Women Taking Conh;ol of Their Lives. (816) 753-0404. Fred Shuttlesworth, Southern Christian Leader­ Speakers: Leonor Arqiiello de Hiiper, Nicara­ ship Conference. Sun., March 6, 7 p.m. 745 guan Consul; Cheryl Craig, Women for Racial International Women's Day 1983: Working Derby Ave. Donation: $2. Ausp: Central Amer­ and Economic Equality; Carol Edelson, New Women Fight For Equality and Freedom. ican Task Force. For more information call NEW JERSEY Jewish Agenda; Rahab Effawi , General Union Panel discussion on affirmative action, women (513) 541-2344. in unions, abortion rights, the fight against cut­ Newark of Palestinian Students; Molly Rush, Plow­ backs and war, and the role of women in the Ni­ The Fight Against Goyernment Harassment shares Eight; film: South Africa Belongs To Us, caraguan and Salvadoran revolutions. Transla­ and La Migra. Speaker: Hector Marroquin, Cleveland about Black women's lives and work under tion to Spanish. Sat., March 5, 7 p.m. Retail leader of Young Socialist Alliance and Socialist International Women's Day: Where Does the apartheid. Fri., March 11 , 7:30p.m. YWCA, Clerks Local 1100, 1345 Mission St. Donation: Workers Party who is fighting deportation. Struggle for Women's Rights Stand? Speak­ 4th and Wood Sts. Donation: $2. Ausp: Central $2. Ausp: Militant Forum and Young Socialist Translation to Spanish. Fri ., March 4, 7:30 ers to be announced. Sat., March 12, 7:30p.m. America Mobilization Coalition, General Alliance. For more information call (415) 824- p.m. 11-A Central Ave. Donation: $2. Ausp: 2230 Superior Ave. Donation: $2. Ausp: Mil­ Union of Palestinian Students, New Jewish 1992. Militant Labor Forum. For more information itant Labor Forum. For more information call Agenda, Thomas Merton Center, Women for call (201) 643-3341. (216) 579-9369. Racial and Economic Equality.

Toledo What Socialists Stand For: Working-Class GEORGIA GM-Toyota Venture: What it Means for Au­ Solution to the Capitalist Crisis. Peter Thier­ to Workers. Speaker: Elizabeth Ziers, jung, national leader of the Young Socialist Al­ Atlanta NEW MEXICO Albuquerque member, Socialist Workers Party, United Auto liance. Sat., March 12, 7:30p.m. 141 S High­ Nicaragua: Revolution and the Liberation of Workers Local 600. Sun., Mar. 20, 7:30p.m. land Ave ., E Liberty . Donation: $2. Ausp: Women. Slide show and presentation. Speak­ Abortion Rights Under Attack. A panel dis­ 2120 Dorr. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Labor Young Socialist Alliance. For more information ers: Sonja Franeta and Julie Smith, members of cussion. Speakers: Nancy Ellefson, state coor­ Forum. For more information call (419) 536- call (412) 362-6767. Socialist Workers Party recently returned from dinator, New Mexico Right to Choose and - 0383. . Nicaragua. Sat., March 5, 7:30p.m.; reception member of National Organization for Women; · to follow . 504 Flat Shoals Ave. SE. Donation: Sandy Giles, representative of Religious Coali­ $2. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum, Young Social­ tion for Abortion Rights . Sat. , March 5, 8 p.m. ist Alliance. For more information call (404) 1417 Central Ave. NE. Donation: $2. Ausp: TEXAS 577-4065. Militant Forum. For more information call OREGON Houston (505) 842-0954. Portland What Socialists Stand For: Working Class Portraits of Revolutionary Women: From Solution to the Capitalist Crisis. Speaker: International Women's Day Dinner. Slide the Paris Commune to the Cuban Revolu­ Mark Weddleton, editor of Young Socialist, na­ show: "Basta Ya" about women in Central tion. Speaker: beborah Higdon, Socialist tional leader of Young Socialist Alliance. INDIANA America; Teatro Claridad. Sun., March 6, 5-9 Workers Party. Sun., March 6, 7:30p.m. 711 Translation to Spanish. Fri., March 4, 7:30 Indianapolis p.m. YWCA Downtown. Donation: $3.50. NW Everett. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant p.m. 4806 Almeda St. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Ausp: Las Compaiieras. For more information Bookstore Forum. For more information call Militant Labor Forum. For more information Working Women and the Fight for Equal (503) 222-7225. call (713) 522-8054. Rights. Speakers: Sue Wagner, National Or­ call (505) 266-5009. ganization for Women; Helen McCaliment, rep­ resentative of local abortion clinic; representa­ tive of Socialist Workers Party. Sun. , March PENNSYLVANIA WASHINGTON, D.C. 13, 7 p.m. 4850 N College Ave. Donation: NEW YORK Pittsburgh The Civil Rights Movement: Lessons for all $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more infor­ Brooklyn Working People. Speakers to be announced. mation call (317) 283-6149. Women in Today's Economy. Speakers: Ro­ The Freedom Struggle in El Salvador. Film: semary Trump, president, Social Service Em­ Fri., March 4, 8 p.m. 3106 Mt. Pleasant St. Decision to Win with presentation. Translation ployees Union, Local 585; Janet Ford, member, NW. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Labor Fo­ to Spanish. Fri., March 4, dinner, 6:30p.m.; Bakery and Confectionery Union, Nabisco rum. For more information call (202) 797-7021 . film, 8 p.m.; party to follow. 335 Atlantic Ave. worker; Flo Walters, member Mon Valley Un­ MASSACHUSETTS Donation: $3. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For employed Women's Committee; Patricia Brady Boston more information call (212) 852-7922. and Jane Chabalka, members, California Area Defend Affirmative Action. Speakers: Mark Education Association; Carolyn Clark, United WISCONSIN Brodin, law professor and civil rights lawyer Manhattan Steelworkers of America Local 1557, Clairton; Milwaukee speaking on firefighters-police case against af­ In Solidarity With the Peoples" of Central Dale Newman, chair, Pennsylvania National Women and the Nic;traguan Revolution. firmative action; speaker on recent affirmative America and the Caribbean. Benefit Dance. Organization for Women Labor Task Force; Speakers: Representative of Socialist Workers action case won against General Electric in Band: "E1 Chinito." Native food. Sat., March Norma Statler, activist in United Electrical Party, and Patricia Larson, Young Socialist Al­ Lynn. Sun., March 6, 7:30p.m. 510 Common­ 19, 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Casa Nicaragua, 19 W 21 Workers Local 506; "Why Aren't You Smil­ liance, both recently returned from tour of Nica­ wealth Ave. (Kenmore T stop). Donation: $2. St. Donation: $4. Ausp: CasaNicaragua, Anto­ ing?" slide show by 9 to 5, National Association ragua. Sat., March 12, 7 p.m. 4707 W Lisbon. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information nio Maceo Brigade. For more information call of Working Women. Fri., March 4, 7:30 p.m. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. call (617) 262-4621. · (212) 243-2678. YWCA, 4th and Wood Sts. Donation: $2. For more information call (414) 445-2076. Just off the press! Steel bosses impose big wage cuts Continued from back page Bartee had told him by phone he would Steelworkers Under Attack: Where does the union stand now that this vote to reject the pact. How to fight back and defend jobs agreement has been pushed through? This Shop steward Marian Wilson said, "I'm will be the subject of much discussion over not for giving up anything. We fought too by Geoff Mirelowitz, $.95, 40 pp. the next weeks and months. A few things long and too hard." seem clear. Thomas Payne added, "We may have to The bosses and their government are The employers did not get everything make some concessions, but not so the pushing the line that only big conces­ they wanted. The two previous votes by the stockholders can get larger dividend sions from steelworkers can "save" BSIC - under pressure from angry rank­ checks." the ailing steel industry- and work­ and-file workers opposed to concessions Recording Secretary Ed Gorman said, "I ers' jobs. In this pamphlet, Mirel­ - in July and November 1982 did have an owitz, a laid-off steelworker, answers impact. But at the end of this third round it think the announced contract is pie in the sky. I think there will be more severe cuts. the employers' attempts to blame is definitely steelworkers who got the short If we can give up $60 a week and get 5,000 workers for the economic crisis. He end of the stick. people back to work, fine. But I don't think outlines a fight-back course for the A regular meeting of USWA Local that will happen." steelworkers' union and the entire 2609, representing workers at Bethlehem labor movement. Steel's Sparrows Point plant near Balti­ Despite the setback, this discussion will more, was held the night before the BSIC continue. In the mills and on the unemploy­ Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West St., vote. Reaction to the news of the tentative ment lines steelworkers will be talking New York, N.Y. 10014. Please include $.75 agreement was overwhelmingly negative. about how we can defend ourselves from for postage. The meeting applauded when treasurer Bill this profit drive and rearm our union for a Nugent reported that local President Eddie continuing fight.

16 The Militant March 11, 1983 Socialist rejects bribe to drop from race

working people to fight for jobs, against ra­ decided if they are going to let Washington Turning to Washington's election cam­ cism and imperialist war ventures, and for win this one. Formally, Byrne and Daley paign, Warren said, "Despite making an a government run and controlled by the have thrown their support to Washington. appeal as a 'people's' candidate, Washing­ workers and farmers of this country. However, there's been a sudden influx of ton openly tried to convince the superrich "There are thousands of working people $500,000 from around the country into the of Chicago that he would serve them better in Chicago - including many who voted Republican campaign. Backing for Epton than his two rivals. He attacked Byrne for for Washington, Byrne, and Daley- who has come from formerly chilly Republican destroying big business's confidence in are disgusted with the two-party system, bigwigs and racist pro-Byrne and Daley Chicago, and he campaigned on promises but haven't yet figured out that the alterna­ Democrats. to establish a close partnership with busi­ tive is to strike out on their own. What the ruling class fears is the masses ness." "My proposal for breaking with the of Black people who have high expecta­ Warren countered, ·~You can't serve two · Democrats and Republicans and forming a tions that he will deliver once in office. masters. You can't be a partner with bosses labor party has already met with a good re­ Across the country, papers are filled who are laying off and ripping off workers, sponse from unionists and in the com­ with the lessons Blacks can learn from who are ripping up contracts and demand­ munities. This crisis is shaking up people's Washington's victory. As Washington tells ing concessions, and defend the rights of way of thinking, and I want our indepen­ it, "We were slow to move from the protest workers. dent working-class solutions to be part of movement into politics. We were lulled to "You can't be a partner with bankers the big discussions going on among work­ sleep thinking that passing a few laws was who are foreclosing mortgages on peoples' ers in this city," declared Warren. enough. But we've got to be involved in homes, and also side with the people losing Corruption is nothing new in Chicago the mainstream political activity. That's their homes. You can't represent the needs and interests of Black people, and have an politics. Rather, this city is infamous for its what's happening here in Chicago. And blatant ballot-stuffing and other "ir­ that's the lesson that's going out across the alliance with the racist ruling class whose profits depend on keeping Black people regularities." -country." What is new is for the first time a Black Socialist candidate Ed Warren held a down." Police brutally is rampant in Chicago, person has won the Democratic Party news conference on February 24 to explain nomination for mayor. how he views the elections. yet Harold Washington gave Blacks a cam­ Warren said, "I don't believe that the paign "promise" (Warren calls it a threat) What led to Washington's victory? fact that Washington won the Democratic that he would wage a war on crime by hir­ Chicago, the most segregated major city Party nomination is a step forward for ing 1,000 new cops. in the nation, has been hit hard by the re- Black people or any other working people Warren blasted this proposal "Is this cession. in Chicago." what Blacks and other working people Ed Warren, SWP candidate for Chicago Slashes in locally funded social services The 30-year-old South Side garment need? More cops to bust our heads and break mayor. have come on top of cuts in federal and worker said, "You have to remember that our strikes?" · state-funded programs. Official unemploy­ Byrne was an antimachine candidate too. Warren pointed to the fact that the pow­ ment stands at 13 percent, with huge But nobody claims things have gotten any erful union movement of Chicago did get Continued from front page layoffs in the hard-hit steel industry - better with her as mayor-except her. The involved in the Democratic primary elec­ would field a suitable candidate who could 28,000 steelworkers out of work-the rail fact that Washington is Black is not tions. Thousands of campaign volunteers win the general election." yards, and the farm equipment plants. enough, just like the fact that Byrne is a from local unions were drawn in. The men stated they were offering "big There are long lines of unemployed work­ woman didn't mean that women gained ·- "Imagine if all the resources and power money," mentioning figures ranging from ers at soup kitchens. anything when she was mayor." of the unions and Black community had in­ $50,000 to $1 million. They also suggested For every problem faced by the entire Warren referred to Washington's state­ stead been turned into a fighting indepen­ positions in city government for the working class, Blacks and Latinos have it ment to the New York Times, "I have no dent political movement in the streets, socialists, such as head of the Chicago qualitatively worse. Chicago's cops are quarrel with the Democratic Party," to il­ shops, and communities. A movement that Housing Authority or a position in the notorious for terrorizing the Black commu­ lustrate what the problem is. used the elections to advance the needs of labor department. nity. Every city administration for decades Warren explained, "He should have labor, the Black and Latino communities, Warren issued a statement categorically has refused to desegregate the schools or some quarrel with the Democratic Party. women, and youth," ·warren said. · rejecting their offer. "My party is not for housing. All the evils we face that are commonly "Such an effort could have taken on the sale - at any price. Last year 35,000 Hundreds of thousands of workers who summed up as 'Reaganism' are the result two-party system," he continued, "by working people in Chicago signed petitions have come here from Mexico and othe.r of bipartisan policies. The cutbacks in so­ forming a labor party based on a fighting in order to put the SWP on the ballot in countries live in constant fear of deporta­ cial services, attacks on unions, blows trade union movement. Then it would be a April. We didn't do this for money or posts tion. against abortion rights and affirmative ac­ whole new ballgame in Chicago. We'd in city government." Richard Daley's machine, which ruled tion, the gigantic military buildup, and the have a permanent gain to show for our ef­ Warren blasted this crude bribe as a ra­ the city with an iron fist for years, made unrelenting escalation of the war in Central forts. A labor party could organize our cist maneuver- not just against Washing­ sure Blacks never got their share of politi­ America are all carried out together by the struggles and take on the bosses where we ton - but also against himself as the other cal representation. Democrats and Republicans." are currently powerless - in the political Black candidate in this election. The fight over the Democratic Party Warren said that "the problem is the arena. Warren explained why he's staying in nomination was marked by the open racism two-party system, which keeps political "A labor party would have a program in this race - to the end. "The money and that is typical of this city's political estab­ protest inside the safe boundaries of the harmony with the needs of working people, jobs that we are interested in are the money lishment, with Byrne and Daley supporters twin parties of big business. When you're including Blacks, Latinos, women, family and jobs needed for the nearly one-quarter attempting to woo white voters by threaten­ sick of the Republicans, they offer you a farmers, and all the victims of the capitalist million unemployed in the Chicago area. ing them with the prospect of a Black Democrat. When anger builds against the system. A labor party would have workers That will take a united fight by the unions, mayor. 'machine,' they offer you an 'antimachine' and farmers as candidates, lots of whom the Black and Latino _communities, Washington ran as an "antimachine" candidate. When white capitalist politi­ would be Black, Latino, and female. And women, and youth. To fight for jobs we candidate who appealed to Blacks with the cians are in charge of driving through big they'd have a program that was not just need a labor party based on the trade slogan, "It's our turn." business's austerity program, you get to against .the machine, but against the sys­ unions, that can go up against the two par­ In previous elections, the Democrat was. vote for a Black capitalist politician. tem. ties of big business - the Democrats and considered a shoo-in for mayor in a city "My Republican opponent, Bernard "It would fight for a government of work­ Republicans. where the Democratic Party has ruled the Epton, is a millionaire. He hasn't offered ers and farmers, so that society would be "I'm talking about a new kind of party roost since 1931. But the ruling rich in any program whatsoever to meet the needs run in the interests of the majority, not the and politics. A massive struggle waged by . Chicago - and nationally - have not yet of working people." tiny minority of ruling rich." -· IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP------

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March 11, 1983 The Militant 17 -EDITORIALS-----__;,______Were wo01en always the No Gls to El Salvador! oppressed sex? Continued·from front page crats and Republicans in Congress have struck a critical BY BRENDA BRDAR One State Department official, Nestor Sanchez, tried to posture about funding the military intervention for such a quiet the fears of those who see "the specter of Vietnam" blood-soaked regime. But each time they have ended up We have to talk about what the position of women was before and after the revolutionary victory, and what the in El Salvador. But in the same bre~th he noted that Viet­ supporting administration demands. position of women will be in the beautiful future we are nam is 10,000 miles away, while El Salvador "is right at Officials say military policy in El Salvador is being re­ our doorstep." viewed "in light of the Soviet threat" in the region. going to build. We must also- however briefly- talk This theme was expanded upon by Sen. Henry Jackson about women in the context of the historical development The move to increase the number of Gls in El Salvador of humanity. and to openly involve them in the fighting was accom­ of Washington. A Democratic supporter of administra­ panied by a demand that Congress sink another $60 mil­ tion policy in El Salvador, he asserted that it's "the region -Tomas Borge, Nicaragua's .Minister lion into military aid for the badly battered Salvador re­ we have to be concerned about. . . . The real danger is of the Interior and founder of the Sandinista gime . . the destabilization of Mexico." National Liberation Front, Sept. 29, 1982. The $60 million would boost this year's Salvadoran Why? aid to $86 million. Last year it was $80 million. And $85 "There are severe problems in Mexico that could be The Nicaraguan revolution is committed to the fight for women's emancipation. Tomas Borge, in the speech million has already been requested for fiscal 1984. utilized in an effort to destabilize it," Jackson explained. These millions are being used to prop up a hated dic­ "Serious unemployment. Unrest. Corruption. The finan­ quoted above, presented a Marxist analysis of women's tatorship at a time when -I 2 million people are out of work cial problems. It's allthere." in this country. At a time when homes are being lost and The argument was amplified by Shultz. He said the farm mortgages foreclosed. A time when bread lines are Salvador issue is "connected right up to Mexico, with growing and when Democrats and Republicans stub­ which we have a long border." LEARNING ABOUT bornly refuse to take any meaningful action. He added, "And so the emergence of another country, What is the "subversion" in El Salvador U.S. troops added to Cuba, Grenada, Nicaragua, and perhaps others, SOCIALISM are supposed to fight? Consider the reports describing the to Soviet and Cuban influence is bad news for this coun­ try." grim massacre of 18 peasants by Salvadoran troops Feb­ oppression- its origins, history, and how only the ad­ ruary 22. Cuba, Nicaragua, Grenada. vance of the socialist revolution, with the full participa­ These peasants, including members of a farm coopera­ Fidel Castro has referred to these small countries as the tion of women, can eradicate it. three giants of the region. tive, were bound and then shot in the head. In describing the origins of women's oppression, The Salvadoran colonel who commands the govern­ Shultz, and the capitalist class he represents, under­ Borge mentioned, in passing, the period of the matriar­ ment troops in the provi~ce said the victims were on a stand exactly what Fidel meant. That's why the CIA has chy. list of "subversives." been plotting to overthrow the government of Grenada What he was referring to was the epoch before women and arming terrorists to attack Nicaragua. Area residents said there were two reasons why the became oppressed as a sex. This period of prehistory cirmy was rooting out "subversion." (human society before the development of written lan­ One was that local landlords wanted to destroy the The capitalist concern about Cuba, Grenada, and guage), was called "primitive communism" by the foun­ 200-acre cooperative so they could reclaim the land. Njcaragua is not based on the lying claim that they are puppets introducing a "Soviet threat" in the region. ders of anthropology because of its egalitarian, collec­ The second was that the cooperative had dared to defy tivist character. a landlord demand to build a road through their property! That's simply a smoke screen. They fear these three giants as a threat to the future of the imperialist system of super­ For over a century, Marxists have pointed to this stage Should American working people fight and die to end profits. in the development of society as evidence that the oppres­ that kind of "subversion"? These three countries succeeded in breaking out from sion of women is a social, not a natural phenomenon. It The plan for escalating intervention in El Salvador is under the boot of imperialist domination and establishing did not always exist. accompanied by a continuing refusal to consider the governments that rule in the interests of workers and Women were not second-class members of a primitive growing demand in this country to enter into negotiations farmers. society ruled by men. In fact, they were central to the with the Salvadoran liberation forces. That process - the advance of the socialist revolution progress made by society. Women were largely responsi­ , Meanwhile, the rebels reiterated their willingness to -is what terrifies the U.S. imperialists, especially the ble for the development of agriculture, animal domestica­ join in such a dialogue. specter of it reaching the U.S. border itself. tion, the development of language, social cooperation, At a February 28 Mexico City news conference, this A free life and a better life for the people of Central and other aspects of culture. offer was renewed by leaders of the Revolutionary Dem­ America ~d tpe Caribbean is surely a threat to the in­ The matriarchy was not only egalitarian in relations ocratic Front (FDR) and the Farabundo Marti National terests of Wall Street profiteers. But it is no threat what­ between the sexes, but it was also not divided into social Liberation Front (FMLN). ever to working people of this country. It can only help classes. There was no exploiting class. There was no Guillermo Ungo of the FDR and Ana Guadelupe Mar­ us in our own fight against the very same profiteers here. exploited, oppressed class. tinez, a commander in the FMLN, announced the rebels The basic social unit of society was the clan, a sort of would engage in a cease-fire the day of the pope's visit to In January three major union officials called on Con­ extended family based on the mother's line of descent. El Salvador. They declared that despite their military ad­ gress to halt all aid to the Salvadoran regime. They were Lewis Morgan, a founder of the science of anthropology, vances of the past months they remained ready to begin Douglas Fraser of the United Auto Workers, William explained in his 1877 book, Ancient Society, that the clan "a dialogue without conditions." Winpisinger of the International Association of was a genuine collective in which every individual was The same day, in Senate testimony, Secretary of State Machinists, and Jack Sheinkman of the Amalgamated provided for and protected by the entire community, George Shultz again flatly rejected any idea of negotia­ Clothing and Textile Workers. from the cradle to the grave. Of course, it was also a so­ tions, demagogically declaring that the rebel forces are That demand should be renewed and expanded: End ciety based on great scarcity and backwardness. Not one trying to "shoot their way" into power. the military aid! Get the Glsout! Let the people ofEl Sal­ we'd like to return to. Lashing out at U.S. proponents of negotiations, Shultz vador determine their own destiny! No more Vietnams! The matriarchy and primitive communism went hand­ levelled a red-baiting attack on forces in the Catholic There are important opportunities in the labor move­ in-hand, both in their existence and demise. The matriar­ church favorable to negotiations. ment to voice these demands. Alejandro Molina Lara, a chy was violently overthrown, over a period of thousands He assailed "churchmen who want to see Soviet influ­ Salvadoran labor leader, is currently touring this country of years, and replaced by the class-divided patriarchal ence in El Salvador improved." to get out the truth about the repressive, antilabor regime (father-dominated) system. This occurred with the rise of Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii told Shultz that most Washington is backing in his country. Bringing the private property and the development of the state, an in­ senators "have been deluged with meetings, especially largest possible number of unionists and other opponents strument of repression wielded by the propertied classes with religious leaders," almost none of whom "favors our of war to his meetings can help spread the word. against the oppressed and exploited. Women became the support for El Salvador." And on March 24, the anniversary of the murder of oppressed sex. While some members of Congress are. clearly edgy Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, ac­ This analysis of the evolution of society has been re­ about mounting antiwar sentiment, it would be a mistake tivities are being organized in many parts of the country. jected by most modern anthropologists. They deny to rely on them to block Reagan's planned escalation. With the plan to send more Gls and aid to El Salvador, women's leading role in primitive society. Since Washington became involved in· the civil war, the opportunities are great to involve labor in making Evelyn Reed, the late Marxist and feminist an­ first under Carter and now under Reagan, some Demo- these protests as powerful as possible. thropologist, was one of the foremost defenders of the previous existence of a classless society, organized along matriarchal lines. Reed explained, "The knowledge that female inferior­ ity today is not biologically determined, that it has not been a permanent fixture throughout history, and that our sex was once the organizer and leader of social life, should heighten the self-confidence of women who are The Black Panther settlement today aspiring for liberation." On February 28, a federal judge officially approved a weapons. In a predawn attack, Chicago cops pumped Reed, the author of Woman's Evolution: from mat­ settlement reached last fall in a suit stemming from the . bullets into the front and back doors of a Panther apart­ riarchal clan to patriarchal family (1974), Sexism and police murder of two Chicago Black Panthers. The ment. Science (1978), and Problems of Women's Liberation money will go to the families of slain Fred Hampton and Hampton, 20, was assassinated in his bed. Clark, 17, (1969), was a long-time leader of the Socialist Workers Mark Clark, and to survivors of the 1969 police raid. was also killed. Four others were wounded. Party. The federal government, Cook County, and the city of The police assault was carried out with the use of a Her books were translated into several languages and Chicago will each pay a third of the damages in a clear floor plan of the apartment. used for women's studies courses. She also presented admission of their guilt in this cold-blooded murder. The floor plan was provided to the police by the FBI. lectures throughout the United States and Canada, U.S. police agencies insist that their informers pene­ The FBI got it from William O'Neal, an informer it had Europe, Australia, and Japan. trate political organizations simply to collect information assigned to penetrate the Panthers. He had become With the development of an international movement so as to thwart possible illegal activity. But that's just a Hampton's bodyguard and chief of security for the Panth­ for women's liberation in the last 15 years and the ad­ cover story. ers. vance of the fight for socialism, especially in Cuba, The real function of informers is to help set up targeted The families and survivors filed suit in 1970. During Nicaragua, and Grenada, a new generation of women and groups for illegal dirty tricks, frame-up, and, when the protracted litigation damning evidence emerged. The working people are reconquering the Marxist view on the deemed necessary, officially perpetrated murder. federal and local cops decided to settle after an appeals question of women's oppression. Nothing illustrates this better than what was done to court found an official "conspiracy . . . designed to sub~ The truth about women's role in the development of the Chicago Panthers. vert and eliminate the Black Panther Party and its mem­ human society, and the roots of female oppression, are From their inception, the Panthers nationally were bers." not academic questions. As Tomas Borge emphasized in high on the hit list of federal and local cops determined Those who waged this long court fight deserve public his speech, understanding what caused the oppression of to destroy them by any means necessary. · thanks for their service. They helped put the spotlight on women and the importance of struggling against every In Chicago, the federal and local cops targeted the the murderous character of undercover political police aspect of it are key to advancing toward a socialist society Panthers for a police raid on the pretext of seizing illegal activity. where equality and dignity will be the order of the day.

18 The Militant March 11, 1983 WIFE activists: 'Farm women must stand up!'

The foUowing is a guest column by Val Libby. fanners too. We're trying to involve more of the young women. Some of the older women have the idea they just Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE) is ana­ keep house. You know, cook the meals, wash the dishes, tional oganization of farm women that was formed seven can the fruits and vegetables, and raise the children. years ago. Many WIFE members are also members of the Young women, and even the young men, have a different American Agriculture Movement (AAM). attitude." Two members of WIFE, Ruth Starra and Essie Mae We discussed why more women were getting in­ Kemp of Lyons, Georgia, attended the national AAM volved. Starra explained, "Women have to take more re­ convention in Nashville in January. I talked with them sponsibility on ·the farm today. Even five years ago, farmers were having trouble making a living. A lot of the men had to take outside jobs, and that increased women's responsibility for running the farm. It made clear that women are half the support." · WOMEN Kemp added, "And we think things won't get better for farm women unless ~e stand up." IN REVOLT "Has WIFE tried to work with other women's rights organizations?" I asked. Starra said that even though they Margaret Jayko haven't done that in Georgia, "it's a good idea. Some­ times women can work together and get more accomp­ lished. The AAM here has been talking about getting to­ gether with the independent truckers. We should look in­ there about the growing involvement of farm women Essie Mae Kemp (left) and Ruth Starra to getting together with other women's groups." around issues of concern to family farmers. She was referring to the fact that the AAM convention I asked them what kind of activities WIFE is involved voted to back the shutdown of the independent truckers, in. Starra replied that "all states work on different pro­ been organized to try to get some relief from the govern­ who were protesting the tax hikes recently passed by ment for debt-burdened family farmers. jects." She said activities include "selling vegetables and Congress. quilts to raise money for lobbying. But we work on edu­ Kemp said that a lot of women in WIFE went "as indi­ cational projects, also. We've prepared literature on viduals or as members of the AAM with their husbands." Starra told me why she thinks women should join where food comes from for school children." Starra said that WIFE "has the same goals as the WIFE: "Women farmers have won the respect of the Kemp commented that WIFE has a "strong voice in AAM. Some chapters work together with different farm men. But being in WIFE, and working together with oth­ Washington." organizations on projects. In Georgia, we're working er women, builds our confidence to stand up as a farm I asked if WIFE had participated in the AAM's 1979 hard to get women involved in farm problems." wife. Things for the farmers are bad, and it's going to National Tractorcade in Washington, D.C., which had This effort was bearing some fruit, Starra said. "We're take both men and women to solve them." Klaus Barbie: Nazi war criminal and U.S. agent

BY PAUL SIEGEL $1,700 a month on order from his superiors. German scientists brought to the United States after the In connection with the 50th anniversary of Hitler's Barbie, states a Reuters news story, was "just one of a war was Walter Schreiber, who was declared guilty by a coming to power, American TV was full of "mini-epics" number of former Nazis protected by United States agen­ Polish tribunal of having engaged in torturous medical and pseudo-documentaries about World War II. These cies in exchange for their knowledge of Soviet activities experiments at Auschwitz. The U.S. authorities, accord­ portrayed the leaders of the Allied governments as the or other expertise." ing to a secret memorandum obtained by Allen, thenar­ "good guys" fighting for democracy and human decency Charles Allen wrote in his 1963 book Nazi War Crim­ ranged for Schreiber to settle in Argentina. - and against fascism. inals Among Us that Gustav Hilger, Hitler's deputy Barbie lived for 32 years in Bolivia. Most of that time But at about the same time, it was disclosed by the foreign minister, was brought to the United States and he had close connections with the military government, French Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld that Klaus Barbie, paid by the CIA and the State Department. This has been which used him as a "national security" adviser and re­ confirmed by George F. Kennan, former U.S. ambas­ fused to extradite him. The CIA got him his cover job and sador to the Soviet Union and author of the "containment undoubtedly made full use of his "expertise." policy" against the Soviet Union under Truman. It was only after a mass upsurge overthrew the Boli­ AS I SEE IT "We were very glad [Hilger] was here," said Kennan, vian military dictatorship that Barbie was extradited. "because he had a tremendous knowledge about the the former Gestapo chief in Lyons, France, was granted Soviet Union." The Bolivian dictatorship was just one of the Latin and immunity by the U.S. government after the war and Central American dictatorships propped up by the U.S. aided in settling in Bolivia. Kennan added that Hilger, who is now dead, was "a government. With equal justification as in his certifying Barbie was recently extradited from Bolivia to France, very decent man." No doubt Kennan was observing the that the Salvadoran government has been making prog­ where he was responsible for 4,000 murders, 7,500 de­ ancient maxim, "Speak no evil of the dead." ress in human rights, Ronald Reagan could certify that. portations, and 15,000 arrests during World War II. He However, Allen has written that Hilger was "the Barbie has made such progress. After all, Bolivia did not was known as "The Butcher of Lyons." Many of the liaison between [Foreign Minister] Ribbentrop's office furnish him as much scope for his "expertise" as Nazi Jewish deportees died at Auschwitz and other camps. and the SS Einsatzgruppen, or 'Special Task Forces,' Germany did. One of these was Klarsfeld's father. which murdered some 1.4 million Soviet Jews on the It seems that Nazism was not so completely defeated Erhard Dabringhaus, a former U.S. military intelli­ Eastern Front." in World War II as the TV shows claimed. Its spirit lives gence officer, has stated that in 1948 he paid Barbie Allen also stated that, among the 1, 500 Austrian and on, protected by the U.S. government. -LETTERS------'Petty-bourgeois' If Bill Scheffer and his ITA dying. rate and are based on deceit, fabri­ an equal sign between the Soviet truckers members really want to prevent Lee Kamentsky cation, and misrepresentation. Union and the United States, the "destruction of trucking," the I must tell you that, in my opin­ Brighton, Massachusetts I am by no means a supporter of while the United States is solely to best place for them to start is by ion, your uncritical support for the Pol Pot and I agree with the correct blame for the arms race. True, but wor.king cooperatively with the petty-bourgeois Independent Kampuchea II position in support of the Heng the hard fact is ·that the Soviet Truckers Association during their Teamsters and other elements of Samrin government [in Kam­ Union vigorously supports the nu­ organized labor. I wouldn't advise Although I have been a reader short-lived strike was, at best, puchea] and the Vietnamese inter­ clear freeze proposal, since its holding your breath while waiting of your paper for a number of vention [there]. adoption would halt (or at least misguided. years and have found it to be an Talk to a Teamster and you'll for this antiunion bunch to make Don Hanrahan curtail) the nuclear arms race and such a move, however! accurate and reputable source. of Champaign, Illinois lift an onerous burden from their most likely be told that the "inde­ information for revolutionary pendent" truckers are, in reality, Dave Wyllie backs. Bakersfield, California socialists, there is a particular in­ [In reply- The Militant's policy Most people see the freeze independent scabs who refuse to accuracy which repeatedly ap­ recognize union picket lines, who has been to use the figures re­ proposal as a fair and balanced one [In reply - An article taking up pears in the Militant and which make their profits by undercutting ported by the new Kampuchean that would end the life-threatening many of the questions you raise continues to irk me. government regarding the massive nuclear arms race, while rejecting union rates, and who are an im­ I refer to the numerous and oft­ portant weapon in the bosses' concerning independent truckers deaths that occurred under Pol Reagan's phony argument that the appears on page 12 - Editor.] repeated statements describing Pot. We believe this to be a reli­ United States is behind the Soviet union-busting schemes. Any Pol Pot as the "butcher of Kam­ union member who has ever able source. They estimate that as Union militarily. puchea" who is supposedly "re­ many as three million died - It is true that many Democratic walked a picket line knows that sponsible for the deaths of several Teamster drivers never cross sanc­ through outright mass murder and freeze proponents don't oppose Kampuchea I million Kampucheans." starvation and disease - under U.S. imperialist policies in El Sal­ tioned (and, in most cases, even Writers and editors of the Mili­ I am writing you about your ar­ Pol Pot's regime. vador and Nicaragua and support unsanctioned) lines, but the inde­ tant would do well to study the pendents almost always do, and in ticles on Kampuchea. I have to Among opponents of U.S. in­ conventional arms buildup. But admit that your articles, along voluminous evidence which con­ tervention in Indochina, there are why not oppose them within the fact are used by the bosses for that clusively demonstrates that starva­ purpose. with Noam Chomsky's and Ed­ disagreements on this figure. "freeze" movement rather than ward Herman's book After the tion and disease, not wholesale However, our readers will find in­ abandoning the movement to their There is no question that inde­ Cataclysm, have got me confused. genocide, were responsible for the teresting an article in this issue on domination? pendents are, like other small bus­ overwhelming majority of the Your articies on Kampuchea page 15, where Noam Chomsky A reader ine&smen, having financial deaths that the bourgeois press and dramatically conflict with states his current view that, what­ New York, New York troubles under the capitalist sys­ Chomsky's and Herman's chapter the Militant commonly attribute to ever the figure, "Pol Pot was one tem they so whole-heartedly sup­ Pol Pot. on Cambodia. of the most murderous characters port. There's no question that the In particular I would urge them in world history." - Editor] The letters column is an open 5¢-a-gallon gas tax hurts them Their estimates of the number to read volume 2 of Noam foruin for all viewpoints on sub­ (just as it does all working peo­ dead due to Khmer Rouge at­ Chomsky's Political Economy of jects of general interest to our ple). But it is also true that their rocities (which they do not deny) Human Rights. While Chomsky Disagrees on freeze readers. Please keep your letters own antiunion tactics over the is "thousands" to an absolute does not deny that atrocities did in I believe the Militant' s opposi­ brief. Where necessary they will years have, in large measure, worst of 100,000. They point out fact occur, he demonstrates that tion to the bilateral nuclear freeze be abridged. Please indicate if caused the crisis they are facing this is far from insignificant, but the sensationalist figures of "sev­ proposal is wrong. you prefer that your .initials be today. far less than the reports of millions eral million" are grossly inaccu- You argue that the "freeze" puts used rather than your full name.

March 11, 1983 The Militant 19 THE MILITANT Steel bosses impose big wage cuts

BY GEOFF MIRELOWITZ basic steel do not have the right to vote on Day - will be eliminated. BALTIMORE- After months of try­ the contract, it will take effect im­ It is estimated by some analysts of the ing, the nation's biggest steel corporations mediately. The old contract was not sched­ steel industry the companies will save $2 have fmally succeeded in imposing a con­ uled to expire until August 1. billion a year. A steelworker making cession contract on the United Steelwork­ The new contract includes a $1.25 an . $25,000 a year would give up an estimated ers of America (USWA). hour pay cut, which is scheduled to be re­ $12,000 over the life of the contract. On March 1local union presidents, who stored over the 41 months of the contract. The only crumb the companies throw to make up the union's Basic Steel Industry . This is not as bad as the $2.25 an hour cut the union is an increased payment into the Conference {BSIC), voted 169 to 63 to ac­ the industry demanded in November. Supplemental Unemployment Benefits cept a takeback agreement negotiated be­ The Cost-Of-Living-Adjustments (CO­ (SUB) fund - from 17.5 cents per hour hind tightly closed doors by top industry LA) will be eliminated completely worked to 67.5 cents. In Feb. 1986 this and union officials. It marked the first time until August 1984. Between Aug. 1, 1984, will be reduced to 42.5 cents. in the four-decade existence of the USWA and July 31, 1985, COLA payments will Although this is an improvement over that concessions had been granted on a na­ be resumed only if the Consumer Price the November contract proposal, which U&wtl LOf.;fiL 1010 tional level. Index (CPI) rises 4 percentage points. Then called for an additional 75 cent wage cut by Twice last year the employers demanded COLA will be under the formula that workers to refinance the SUB funds, what concession contracts, and twice they were existed under the old contract, one cent for this new arrangement will mean for the rejected by the BSIC. But the companies each three-tenths point quarterly rise in the tens of thousands of laid-off workers who kept up a steady barrage of propaganda CPl. have received no SUB money for months is blaming steelworkers' wages and "low The following takebacks are also part of unknown. productivity" for the depression-like condi­ the new deal: Other so-called concessions by the com­ tions in the industry. On the heels of each • Every worker will lose one vacation panies that were reported by the press in­ contract rejection they announced massive week in 1983. clude "guarantees" of reinvestment in steel new layoffs and plant closings. Finally, • The entire system of 13 week ex­ plants rather than other businesses; '"im­ under this relentless pressure, the local tended vacations every five years for work­ provements" in the grievance procedure; presidents gave in. ers with 20 years' seniority will be elimi­ and joint company and union "responsibil­ While the new agreement appears to be nated. ity" for job training for workers affected by not as bad as the November proposal, • Sunday overtime pay will be cut from mill shutdowns. Such promises cost the nevertheless it will severely slash wages time-and-a-half to time-and-a-quarter until employers nothing and are not worth the and benefits, and it represents a major set­ May 1986. paper they are printed on. back for the union. Because workers in • One paid holiday - United Nations Continued on Page 16 West Virginia miners' strike hits job combination

BY BILL BOYD were responsible for many important tasks pany conducted a phony time-study pro­ order to move a longwall. In fact many saw MORGANTOWN, W . Va.-Minersin involved in underground coal mining. gram, which "proved" that scoops were run it as a strike-breaking tactic aimed at con­ Local 2095, United Mine Workers of Scoop operators were also responsible for for only two hours each shift. They also fusing the membership and weakening the America (UMWA), have concluded a two­ making sure that ventilation is maintained claimed "economic reasons" forced them union's ability to fight around the issue of day strike at the Kitt No. 1 mine in Phillipi, when coal is mined and for spreading rock to realign these jobs. the scoop operator jobs. West Virginia. The strike was aimed at dust, which is one of the main methods One day after the strike the company Presently the scoop operator jobs are go­ management's total disregard for safety used to prevent fire and explosions. idled the mine and put the majority of the ing through the grievance procedure. and.union rights. Any miner who has ever run a scoop work force on a two-week temporary Kitt miners are being continually threa­ knows it is a fulltime job that is crucial to layoff. They again cited economic reasons Kitt management provoked this action tened with layoffs. With 35 percent of UM­ the safe mining of coal. But, according to for this and claimed they couldn't work the by informing the miners that as of February W A miners out of work, the companies management at the Kitt mine, which is mine and move the longwall at the same 7 all classified scoop operator jobs were have increasingly used the widespread owned by Standard Oil of Ohio, this work time. (Longwall mining refers to a tech­ eliminated. (The scoop is a machine that is layoffs as a club against miners. For in­ can be added on to the work already being nique that is being used more by coal cofn­ used to carry supplies, transport materials, stance, "poor labor relations" was the ex­ performed by other miners! In a steel mill panies because it vastly increases coal cuse that Eastern Associated Coal Co. used and clean up potentially explosive coal and or an auto plant this would be called job production.) coal dust that accumulates during the min­ to lay off over 100 miners at its Federal No. combination and speed up. It often results The timing of the lay off was not lost to ing operation.) 2 mine near Morgantown earlier this year. in layoffs. .many rank-and-file miners who had never At Kitt and throughout the country union Previously miners performing these jobs In order to eliminate these jobs, the com- heard of a mine shutting down before in rights are being constantly violated and UMWA members harassed and threatened with firings for exercising their rights. Each time miners respond to these at­ UMWA local on strike for higher wages tacks it becomes clearer that they not only have to take on the companies, but also ar­ BY BILL KALMAN . UMWA Local 2350, representing 70 pro­ contract was the first to expire under the bitrators, courts, and government. AND AL DUNCAN duction workers. new Trumka administration, a lot of people Arbitrators have interpreted contract dis­ PITTSBURGH - "I'm not used to los­ The Dowty Corp. is part of the Dowty in the coal industry are watching the re­ putes in the companies' favor on major ing, and the United Mine Workers isn't Group, a huge British conglomerate with sponse of the union. issues, including a decision against the right used to losing. Our union has a fighting subsidiaries and divisions operating in over Local 2350, like mo~t locals in the to strike. In addition to this the companies tradition, and we're not about to lose 20 countries, including China, South Af­ UMWA, voted heavily for Trumka in the are refusing to settle many disputes at the here." rica, and Australia. Dowty produces hy­ November election. So, when it was an­ mine site. This not only drains the union of That was the message that Richard draulic and electronic systems for the min­ nounced that Trumka had approached the funds but forces union officials to spend Trumka, recently elected president of the ing, aeronautics, and war industries. The district officers about visiting the Dowty more time in hearings and meetings and United Mine Workers of America Dowty operation here assembles and re­ plant, workers were understandably ex­ less time with the rank and flle. (UMWA), brought to the workers at the pairs roof supports and conveyor systems cited. The courts have played the same role. Dowty Corp.'s Warrendale, Pennsylvania, for longwalls used in underground mines. On February 17, Trumka and other For instance, Consolidation Coal Co. got plant on the eve of our contract expiration. The contract between Dowty and the union officials toured the plant. The fact the courts to fine individual miners at the The company refused us a decent new con­ UMWA expired February 18, the day after that all the bosses were on the shop floor Blacksville No. 2 mine in northern West tract, so we went on strike. Trumka's visit. did not prevent workers from walking Virginia $25 per shift for time lost during a The Dowty plant, located about 30 miles Since last fall, the local has been trying away from their jobs to talk to Trumka. In recent strike. north of Pittsburgh, is organized by to get the company to agree to a new con­ fact, for the two hours that Trumka was The state and federal governments have tract. The major demands are economic. there, the mood in the shop was one of fes­ jumped into this union-busting campaign For example, the average wage at Dowty is tive solidarity. with both feet. To add to their arsenal of only $5.58 per hour, lowest in the UMWA. After completing the tour, Trumka ad­ laws like Taft-Hartley, they continue to Like its counterparts at Chyrsler, the dressed the day-shift workers over their push for new antilabor legislation. Dowty management claims it doesn't have lunch break. Ninety percent of the West Virginia le­ the money to meet the demands of the Workers on the afternoon shift brought gislature recently voted for the Mandolidis union and has sought to exploit the tempo­ in TV sets to watch the event on the 6 p.m. BilL This law in effect forbids workers to rary downturn in the coal industry as an ex­ news. After the story ended, we cheered sue employers for injuries resulting from cuse for paying depressed wages. and talked about it for the rest of the shift. company neglect of safety. The federal For this reason, the company has made The strike at the Dowty plant may be a government, with the approval of both De­ no serious attempt to negotiate with the long one, but the visit of Trumka was a mocrats and Republicans, continues to cut union. huge shot in the arm for this local. As the back budget money for mine safety and In fact, the company waited until six UMWA president explained, his adminis­ black lung benefits. The recent strike at the hours before the old contract expired to put tration "is interested in every unit whether Kitt mine showed that the rank and flle are forward a proposal. And their proposal was it has lOor lO,OOOmembers." willing to fight for the union. basically extension of the old contract. Mine Workers President Richard It was against this background that the Bill Kalman and AI Duncan are members Bill Boyd is a member of UMWA Local Trumka. Trumka visit took place. Since the Dowty ofUMWA Loca/2350. 2095.

20 The Militant March 11, 1983