MAY 30, 1980 50 CENTS VOLUME 44/NUMBER 20 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY /PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING .PEOPLE ' e want to be treated like human.beings' UPI At Miami hospital, resident condemns cops for refusing to let ambulance pick up his cousin, wounded in rebellion. Miami Blacks speak out-pages 4-6. By Harry Ring attack. Six cops were reportedly Two cops shot a man who ap­ market. MIAMI, May 21-About 3,600 Na­ wounded by gunfire, none critically. proached a National Guard checkpoint A fourteen-year-old Black was killed tional Guard troops and an equal One white was dragged from his car, on a bicycle and supposedly voiced his when a white-driven pickup sped by number of cops have occupied this beaten, and then reportedly run over. opinion of the occupiers. The cops and the driver put two bullets in his city's Black community for four days. People in the area told a Black approached him and, they say, he head. Some sixteen people, almost all reporter that the man's car was lunged at one with a knife. They A thirty-four-year-old man died when Black, have been killed. stopped after he and a passenger had pumped a half dozen pistol and ~fle another pickup went by a group of About 300 have been wounded, about fired at people. shells into his body. Witnesses insist Blacks and fired into the crowd. i,OOO have been arrested. Officials confirm thirteen deaths of they saw no knife. Two other Black men were seriously The news media have tried to por­ Blacks. They died at the hands of cops The Miami authorities ruled within wounded when four whites in a pickup tray the rebellion here as a racist and racist killers in civilian garb who twenty-four hours that the cops had raced by and fired at them. outbreak by Blacks intent on killing sped by the edges of Black areas. acted within department "deadly Many people in the community are whites. Cops killed two Black men as sus­ force" guidelines. They were returned convinced that these shootings have But so far the only confirmed death pected "looters." They gunned down a to the street. been by out-of-uniform cops. of a white in the area of the rebellion is Haitian man they asserted had tried to A private security guard killed a The savagery of the police occupiers a cop who dropped dead of a heart run over a cop. ., man allegedly trying to loot a food Continued on page 5 In Our Opinion VOLUME 44/NUMBER 20 MAY 30, 1980 CLOSING NEWS DATE-MAY 21 named to the junta May 19, the Senate finally joined in Hooker's cover-up. They continue to 'Fire next door' approved the House's version of the aid bill. stall, bickering over who is going to pay the In the last several months, much has been Now it must work its way through Congress bill. made in the big-business press of what the again as an appropriations bill! They want to keep the nightmare of Love New York Times calls "the fire next door." The bill as it stands is chock-full of outrage­ Canal as quiet as possible. It is, after all, only That means the growing popular struggles ous conditions that target Nicaragua's ties the first nationally prominent case. The Amer­ in Central America and the Caribbean to oust with revolutionary Cuba and its solidarity ican people will want to know where the 50,000 U.S.-supported tyrants who have hindered the with other struggles in the region. other hazardous waste sites are located. What region's development and murdered its people Sixty percent of the aid must go to the about moving and compensating those fami­ for far too long. private sector in Nicaragua, and all funds lies? The fear that Nicaragua will become must be used for the purchase of goods or But the people of Love Canal won't stay another Cuba, that El Salvador will become services of U.S. origin. silent. another Nicaragua, that Guatemala will be­ Perhaps most cynically, the bill requires Upon learning of the test results, angry and come another El Salvador has prompted some that $750,000 of the aid be spent on propa­ frustrated homeowners locked up two federal fancy footwork in Washington. ganda to let the people of Nicaragua know the Environmental Protection Agency officials for Efforts to contain the revolutionary fires "extent" of U.S. aid. five hours on May 19 to press their demands include first and foremost an escalation of Enough of this blackmail and sabotage! The for immediate evacuation. U.S. military presence in the region, reinforced U.S. government should immediately allocate As a forty-four-year-old forklift operator put by this month's naval maneuvers in the Carib­ the necessary funds-condition-free-to put it, after burning his mortgage papers in front bean. Nicaragua on the road to economic recovery. of the office, "We are sick of the lies they are U.S. political and military support continues The people of the Caribbean and Central telling us. We paid for our house all our lives, unabated to El Salvador's military regime, America should be left free from U.S. threats, and now we don't have anything." enabling it to slaughter workers and peasants military and economic, to decide their futures There is only one just course of action for the at will in response to the mass struggle there. for themselves. government to take: Reuters reports that 100 "left~wing guerrillas" • Immediate evacuation, total compensa­ were killed in a clash with soldiers on May 18 tion, and full medical coverage for life for the alone. Love Canal Love Canal residents and their descendants. Neighboring Nicaragua offers more compli­ Federal officials released a study May 16 • Indict and prosecute owners of the Hooker cations for Washington because the Sandi­ showing chromosome damage in 30 percent of Chemical Company. nista-led government there, with overwhelm­ a group of Love Canal residents tested earlier • Open the records of all chemical and ing backing from the Nicaraguan people, is this year. waste disposal companies to public inspection. moving toward an economy based on human These abnormalities signal probable cancer Let the American people know what poisons needs instead of private profits. and severe birth defects. They result from the are buried around them and what cold~blooded Despite pressure from Washington and local 21,800 tons of pesticides, cleaning solutions, actions have been taken to ensure company capitalists, this government is systematically and other highly toxic chemicals that were profits. preparing and mobilizing the working people wantonly dumped into the canal near Niagara • Nationalize the chemical industry. End to become the rulers of society. Falls, New York, from 1947 to 1952 by Hooker their production for profits, which will only Nicaragua was devastated during the civil Chemical Corporation. lead to more Love Canals. war that dethroned Washington's crony Som­ Homes and even a school were built over the oza. So the U.S. has tried starving the revolu­ contaminated landfill. tion by refusing to aid the reconstruction effort The Hooker company knew as early as 1958 in any way. that toxic chemicals were seeping into the area New editors named That is the meaning of the $75 million aid and poisoning the air but refused to inform · The publishers of the Militant have an­ bill for Nicaragua that has languished in residents because of the financial consequen­ nounced that Cindy Jaquith and Andy Rose Congress since last year. Congress has at­ ces. will serve as the paper's editors. Steve Clark, tached every string conceivable to this pit­ As a result, the residents have suffered who had been Militant editor since February ifully inadequate bill-and it's still not passed. cancer, miscarriages, kidney failures, infec­ 1979, has been selected as managing editor of The latest stall involved waiting for the tions, rashes, and birth defects. Some have Intercontinental Press/ lnprecor. governing junta in Nicaragua to replace its already died. Jaquith, who joined the Militant staff in two capitalist representatives, one of whom Although 239 families have been evacuated, 1972, and Rose, a staff writer since 1973, have resigned last month in protest of moves that more than 700 remain. They desperately want been associate editors during the past year. made the new Council of State more represen­ to leave but need money to start ne-w lives Jaquith, a member of the Socialist Workers tative of workers and peasants. elsewhere. Party Political Committee, is presently partici­ Mter two new business representatives were The state and federal governments have pating in the SWP Leadership School. Militant Highlights This Week The Militant Editors: CINDY JAQUITH ANDY ROSE Business Manager: PETER SEIDMAN 4 Eyewitness reports from Miami California Campaign '80 Editorial Staff: Nan Bailey, Nancy Cole .. Fred 7 So. Korean masses vs. dictatorship Feldman, Suzanne Haig, Osborne Hart, Gus Horowitz, Diane Jacobs, Harry Ring, Priscilla 8 Pulley takes jobs proposal to marchers Socialists gear up for petitioning Schenk, Stu Singer. 9 Marchers: 'U.S. out of Vleques' . Preparations are being completed for huge Published weekly by the Militant 10 Keep socialist campaign rolling! (ISSN 0026-3885), 14 Charles Lane, socialist campaign effort that includes signing up New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: 11 More join labor party discussion more than 100,000 Californians to put Socialist 14 Calif. SWP campaigner fired Editorial Office, (212) 243-6392; Busi­ Workers Party candidates on the ballot.