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. Page 11. ness Office, (212) 929-3486. 15 Mo. SWP Illes petitions Correspondence concerning sub­ 16 ERA marchers meet SWP candidates scriptions or changes of address 17 Success for leadership school fund should be addressed to The Militant 18 Steel contract sidesteps attacks Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, 19 Steel shutdowns, layoffs Unions discuss labor party New York, N.Y. 10014. Second-class postage paid at New 20 Can gov't 'fine tune' economy? Growing numbers of unionists in nation's most populous York, N.Y. Subscriptions: U.S. $20.00 state think that supporting Democratic and Republican 21 The Greet Society a year, outside U.S. $25.00. By first­ Women In Relfott politicians has led labor to a dead end. Page 11. class mail: U.S., Canada, and Mexico: What'a Going On? $50.00. Write for airmail rates to all, 22 Our Relfolutlonary Heritage other countries. Letters For subscriptions airfreighted to London and 23 Learning About Soc/a/Ism then posted to Britain and Ireland: £3.00 for ten If You Uke Thla Paper . . . issues, £6.00·for six months (twenty-four issues), £11.00 for one year (forty-eight issues). Posted Rohr Industries targets socialists from London to Continental Europe: £4.50 for ten issues. £10.00 for six months, £15.00 for one SWP charges illegal disruption in firing of San Diego year. Send checks or international money order campaign chairperson Jay Fisher by Rohr. And workers (payable to Intercontinental Press account) to are angered by company threats to fire SWP Intercontinental Press (The Militant), P.O. Box 50, London N1 2XP, England. congressional candidate Kathryn Crowder (left) if she Signed articles by contributors do not neces­ I continues to campaign. Page 14. sarily represent the Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials.

2 Cuba's fighting people de U.S. threats By Jose G. Perez tion of Cuba's first agrarian i'efol'm HAVANA-"Jimmy Carter, you rat, law exactly twenty-one years ago on remember the Bay of Pigs!" !'Cuba, si! May 17, 1959. Yankee, no!" "Fidel, the people are There was never a moment of silence with you!" during the eight-hour march. Among These were among the most popular the most popular chants were: "Fidel chants as well over 1 million people pitch, because Carter can't bat!" marched here in front of the U.S. "Down with the Guantanamo base!" Interests Section May 17 to protest the "Down with war games!" "Down with Carter administration's attacks on the spy flights!" "Fidel, for sure, hit the Cuban revolution. Yankees hard!" "Because we are right, Simultaneous demonstrations were we will be victorious as at Gir6n [the held in cities throughout Cuba. Radio Bay of Pigs]!" and "For whatever it reports here said some 5 million peo­ may be and wherever, the commander ple-out of a total population of 10 in chief's orders!" million-took part in this nationwide revolutionary mobilization, the Many marchers carried posters that "March of the Fighting People." had been used to build the demonstra­ This makes it the largest demonstra­ tion, such as ones with a picture of tion ever held in Latin America. Fidel and the quotation from his May Day speech: "We will never surrender!" Protest 'practice invasion' But the vast majority of posters were The demonstrations were initially hand-lettered. There were also effigies called to protest the planned U.S. of Carter and of counterrevolutionar­ military's practice invasion of Cuba, Ies. which was to have been carried out at Millions of marchers In Havana and across Cuba expressed support for Castro Guantanamo Naval Base, on Cuban government and called for end to U.S. blockade of the Island. Solidarity territory occupied by the U.S. govern­ Many signs expressed solidarity with the revolutions in Grenada and ment against the will of the Cuban U.S. diplomatic personnel here in Ha­ the Interests Section. Posters depicting Nicaragua. One said, "Stop the Yankee people. The practice invasion, as Presi­ vana staged a provocation. They in­ counterrevolutionaries with their dent Fidel Castro has labeled it, was to genocide in El Salvador." Another, vited to the U.S. Interests Section pockets stuffed with dollars were a "Like Cuba, Vietnam, and Nicara­ have been part of the "Solid Shield 80" hundreds of Cuban ex-prisoners, who common sight. U.S. naval maneuvers in the Carib­ gua-El Salvador will win." had been convicted of bombings, as­ One huge poster had a drawing of bean. sassination attempts, and other coun­ Spirited & combative Following protests by the Cuban Che Guevara and one word­ terrevolutionary actions. The march past the Interests Section government and people, and the sche­ "Presente!'' Washington had promised to admit lasted more than eight hours in blister­ duling of countermaneuvers by Cuba's Cuban radio said that solidarity these persons when they were released ing 95 degree heat. I have participated Revolutionary Armed Forces, the demonstrations were held in Laos, from prison in 1978-79, but it has in quite a few large demonstrations in Guantanamo aspect of "Solid Shield Vietnam, Grenada, Angola, Ethiopia, stalled on doing so. Falsely telling the the United States and other countries, 80" was cancelled. Mozambique, Peru, Mexico, Jamaica, Cubans that Castro was blocking their but never in one this spirited and com­ But President Castro told the 1.5 Panama, Colombia, India, France, the departure, ~he U.S. officials provoked bative. million Cubans who rallied here in them to begin a counterrevolutionary Soviet Union, Poland, and East Ger­ Havana on May Day that "The March demonstration. They clashed violently At the head of the march was a many. of the Fighting People will still take with Cubans who support the revolu­ contingent of several hundred farmers The March of the Fighting People place! Because the march was not tion. Several hundred of the ex­ carrying a huge banner that said "On was proof positive, if any more were simply against the maneuvers, but prisoners then broke into the Interests a day like today, we expropriated needed, that the overwhelming major­ also against the blockade, against the Section and remain holed up there. 1,209,015 hectares (1 hectare=2.47 ity of the Cuban people support the base at Guantanamo, and against the Many chants and banners at the acres) of land from Yankee imperial­ revolution and are willing to fight to SR-71 spy flights. . . ." Havana demonstration dealt with the ism." the death to defend it. Following the giant May Day rally, counterrevolutionary elements inside The reference was to the promulga- From Perspectlva Mundlal

Carter seeks to deport 7,000.Cubans By Harry Ring conference of twenty-two countries relatives from Mariel, Carter was com- "The Cuban government's open-door MIAMI-The Carter administration called by the U.S. pelled to "open his arms." policy and its bold action in opening is going beyond closing the doors to There, after much arm-wrenching, In a few weeks some 60,000 people the port of Mariel have exposed Car- Cuban emigres. It intends to get rid of some of the countries reluctantly arrived here. Washington determined ter's hypocrisy all around," the social­ many of those who have already ar- agreed to take a portion of those who to slam shut the door-except as an ist candidates said. rived here. had left Cuba for the U.S. The largest exit for those it can get rid of. "He incites Cubans to leave their On the heels of the administration single total will apparently be taken by Meanwhile, there are still a reported country, seeks to exploit them for anti- announcement of stiff penalties Peru. 1,000 boats at the port in Mariel. It Castro propaganda, and then bars the against those bringing emigres from The State Department insists it will remains to be seen how far Carter is door to them. First Washington hailed the Cuban port of Marie!, it was dis- make the refugee issue an "interna- ready to go in provoking protests from the emigres as 'fleeing to freedom'; closed that several countries had tional one," that the U.S. does 'not the Cuban community by carrying now it tries to whip up racist hatred of agreed to take 7,000 of the exiles. intend to keep on taking people simply through the threatened crackdown them as 'criminals,' 'diseased,' and These people had assumed they had because they want to come here. against those now arriving. 'retarded.' found a home in the United States. It That's the way Carter's "open heart Carter's attempt to stop the flow of "By exposing Carter's racist double will be, the State Department con- and open arms" declaration about emigres into the country and to deport standard, Cuba has also struck a blow ceded, the first time Washington has Cuban emigres went out the window. those already here was sharply pro- for the 13,000 Black Haitians who deported people after they have been Actually, that lying promise by Car- tested here by Socialist Workers presi- have fled to this country and who are accepted here as refugees. ter was made only under the strongest dential nominee Andrew Pulley and by denied asylum by Washington." An -official piously assured, "We pressure. When Cuba opened the port Rose Ogden, SWP candidate for U.S. Pulley and Ogden urge strong pro- have no plans to force people to go to of Mariel to all those who wanted to Senate from Florida. tests against any attempt to deport the other countries." leave for the U.S., Washington initially "Cuba," they said, "declared that its Cubans or any other refugees here. It was announced here May 19 that tried to discourage the flow. But as revolution is voluntary and that those They are demanding: the plan to deport Cubans had been Cubans in the U.S. ignored the threats who don't want to participate are free No deportations-open the doors! agreed to in early May at a Costa Rica and penalties and set out to bring to leave. End the boycott against Cuba!

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THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 3 Miami Blacks s~ak out 'We want to be treated like human beings' By Baxter Smith · · beat of police helicopters was heard MIAMI-"Nothing," Andrew Pulley above. mused to a campaign supporter, Many of the businesses that had "seems to work in the Black commun- been hit were the large operations, ity." those seen in the eyes of residents as The Socialist Workers Party presi- the big profiteers of the community. dential candidate had just tried to use One resident explained: "It was the a quarter pay phone whose slot would rich crackers who got hit, not the small not accept a twenty-five-cent piece. ones and not the Blacks." The feeling that nothing works is A white slumlord in the area had his common among Blacks around here. junkyard burned down. Residents It was felt by those who took to the spoke bitterly about other realtors in streets over the past few days because the area. a white jury wouldn't convict four killer cops. Attitudes of youth And it was experienced by the 1,000 Some of the most vocal in the streets Blacks who go~ beaten by police or during the day and the most active at arrested or otherwise twisted around night have been the teenagers and pre­ by a judicial process that's supposed to teens. make things work. · There is no fear among these youth, Wherever Pulley and a team of Mili­ and some speak openly of doing any­ tant reporters and Socialist Workers thing to remove the troubles they see candidates from other states cam- ists stop outside his place to ask direc­ band was shot in the face by a cop bn on the faces of their parents and fami­ paigned in the Black community we tions to the grove-the White Grove. the first night of the protest. lies. got the same reaction. "I don't blame the white people for One young woman, who identified It came from Maggie Glover and Not just McDuffie what's going on," she warned. "But if herself as Shorty, said of the acquitted ' from George Symonette. From Jackie It's not just the McDuffie case that they don't bring in a guilty verdict cops: Gross and James Smith. Those feel­ has set people into motion. Persons there's going to be more trouble." "If we'd have done what they did, ings of frustration and rage bred by interviewed cited instances of police they'd have put us in the electric unkept promises and broken dreams. brutality and economic and social Liberty City chair." Those feelings that translated them­ problems. Most of the protests, police shoot­ Lee Clark, a Liberty City resident, selves into front-page stories and tele­ "There were several things behind ings, and arrests occurred in a Black explained, "We just want to be treated vision news the world over. it," explained John McKinnon, a section of Miami called Liberty City. like human beings. We just want to World War II veteran. "The McDuffie The only liberty there is the liberty live and let live. Let us have what we Coconut Grove thing just lit the fuse." with which the vise of impoverishment earned." Symonette, a thirty-seven-year-old McKinnon, who retired from the holds nearly everyone. Michael Gantt, twenty-four, had the barber, tried ten years ago to get a army, was interviewed inside a Black It is deprivation in capital letters. A tires of his Buick bayonneted by Na­ Small Business Administration loan to American Legion post. He articulated Black community where diseases virtu­ tional Guardsmen. set up a barber shop in a Black section a point of view held by nearly every ally eliminated from the rest of the He and friends had been stopped on of Coconut Grove. SBA officials Black adult over thirty. United States turn up. Where a ninth­ their way to work early Monday morn­ wouldn't even let him fill out an appli­ "Our young people are not afraid of grade education is like a college degree. ing before the curfew was lifted. The cation. He feels it was because he is dying," he said. "They've listened to us A movie about an underdeveloped Ca­ cops, according to Gantt, made the Black. older negroes too long and they want ribbean country could be filmed in men lie on the ground on their stom­ Just last year, Symonette told Pul­ some action. I can understand them. Liberty City and one would need only achs. They took away Gantt's car keys and even bayonneted the spare in his ley, the federal government allocated "They showed it on the television add chickens and goats around some trunk. $1 million for improvement of the how they busted his [McDuffie's] skull of the peeling wood houses. "They ain't got no buses to take us to white section of Coconut Grove. An and all. So why did they free these Pulley and a team of Militant repor­ work and then they flatten your tires," adjoining Black area got only $50,000. officers?" ters visited Liberty City May 19. We Maggie Glover, who has lived in encountered burned-out buildings and Gantt protested. Coconut Grove, Symonette ex­ Miami for five years, asked: "Where cars, and cut and stitched-up protes­ He spoke about the dual system of plained, is one place the tourists don't did the money for CETA [jobs] go? ters. Many people were anxious to justice that allows South Miami whites want to miss. It is bohemian, with Now they're cutting back on food discuss political ideas and courses of to sit on their porches with guns, yet small elegant shops and a local color stamps." action. permits Blacks to be rousted. that one compares to New York's A nurse, Glover expressed a deep The National Guard and a score of James Smith became a police victim Greenwich Village. resentment against a system that other police agencies stood in groups at in another way. He was arrested for Often, according to Symonette, tour- '.'won't give us anything." Her hus- nearly every major intersection. The violating the curfew. Smith was minding his own busi­ ness when police stopped him at ten o'clock the day the curfew was begin­ ning and hauled him to jail. They put Socialist candidates demand: him in a tank with about two hundred others, gave him a bedsheet and a concrete slab to lie on. Smith observed a middle-aged man 'Justice for Arthur McDuffie! get arrested, punched in the face, and hustled into a cop car, also for nothing. He said the cops felt they could arrest anyone or do anything and not have to Cops out of Black community' be accountable to anyone. By John Hawkins by the cops during the rebellion and MIAMI-As the Black rebellion the dropping of all charges; Black leaders erupted in this city, supporters of the "• Arrest and conviction of cops Jackie Gross, a Coconut Grove resi­ Socialist Workers Party campaign ga­ responsible for brutalizing and killing dent, articulated a commonly held thered May 18 to hear Andrew Pulley, Blacks." belief when he told Pulley that many SWP candidate for president, and Rose "The police violence against the who are dubbed "leaders" by the white Ogden, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate, Black community is a threat to every media do not speak for the Black com­ denounce the acquittals of the cops worker and unemployed person in Mi­ munity. who killed Arthur McDuffie, ami," said Ogden. "The killer-cops who "Where were these leaders when "The outrageous verdicts handed murdered Arthur McDuffie, and who McDuffie was arrested, when the trial down in this case," said Ogden, "legal­ continue to harrass and brutalize the was moved to Tampa?" he asked. ize what cops in this city call 'street Black community, are the same cops "They only show up when things get justice'-the brutal beatings and even the government uses to try to break our hot-to cool things down. We're tired of summary executions of those they unions and attack picket lines. They're this kind of false Black leadership. We consider suspicious or guilty." Militant/Harry Ring the same uniformed killers used want for-real Black leaders." against any group of workers who Discussions about Black leadership, Pulley branded the McDuffie verdict, Rose Ogden, SWP candidate for U.S. "Jim Crow justice." Senate from Florida stand up and fight for our rights. courses of action, independent politics, "The attempt to crush the Black and other subjects have been an aspect "This is U.S. capitalism's welcome," community here is part of the rulers' of nearly every interview the Militant Pulley said, "to the Cubans who have said the two socialist candidates "in overall attempt to crush the aspira­ conducted. recently arrived here. They have been demanding: ' tions of Miami workers. "People are beginning to learn some led to believe that abundance and "• That police and national guard "That is why it is so critical for the things," Pulley explained to one man freedom ex1st for American workers. be withdrawn from Black neighbor­ labor movement to recognize its stake on the street. "We need to organize our Nothing could be further from the hoods and the racist curfew be lifted· in supporting the Black community's frustrations into a political expression truth. That's what the Cuban emigres "• Federal indictment, under civil demands. Through a united campaign that can win. Registering to vote for are fast learning." rights legislation, of all twelve cops by Black, Haitian, and Cuban com­ the Democrats and Republicans will In a statement issued to the media known to be present at the murder and munity organizations, labor unions, not do it. We need to change the May 20, Ogden and Pulley blasted the all other cops involved in the cover-up; and other supporters of civil liberties, system, this capitalist system that's occupation of the Black community " • The firing of State's Attorney justice can be won. responsible for our situation. And we and the murder of Blacks by cops and Janet Reno and public safety director "The Socialist Workers Party need leaders with the kind of fighting National Guardsmen. Bobby Jones; pledges our unconditional support to spirit that's been shown here in Mi­ "We join the Black community here," "• Amnesty for Blacks rounded up such a campaign." ami."

4 McDuffie killing-racist justice in Miami By Harry Ring before they pronounced the cops "not twenty-two year old Black man, was A medical officer agreed. He said the MIAMI-The exoneration of the cops guilty." shot in the back by an off-duty cop force used to crush McDuffie's skull who killed Arthur McDuffie was final For the Black community here it was working as a plant guard. was equivalent to falling four stories proof that there is no justice for Black the proverbial last straw. The killer-cop said that Heath had onto concrete. people in Miami. On January 24, 1979, there had been tried to burglarize the place and that A crime lab chief testified there was That's what triggered the rebellion an outburst of rock-throwing anger in he had shot him during a struggle. no evidence that McDuffie's motorcy­ here. "Liberty City," Miami's principal im­ Heath's sister, who was present, said cle had been in a moving accident. The McDuffie case was one in a poverished Black community. her brother had stopped to urinate and Three of the cops involved, who series of recent police murders and It was sparked when cops savagely had done nothing more. agreed to testify if they got immunity, brutalities that have been condoned by kicked and clubbed a man after he was Seven months later, the cop changed agreed. They said night!;lticks had been Dade County and Miami city authori­ handcuffed. One of the cops was Alex his story. An expert marksman, he used to smash up the cycle to make it ties. Marrero. said his gun had discharged "acciden­ look like it had crashed. Arthur McDuffie, a successful Black And Alex Marrero delivered the final tally." A grand jury had ruled it was a They testified that McDuffie could insurance sales executive, died in a death blows to Arthur McDuffie. "negligent," but not criminal act. not have tried to seize Marrero's gun, coma last December 21. He had been Then, on February 12, Nathaniel Meanwhile, Dade County School Su­ as the cop has asserted. McDuffie, they bludgeoned four days previous by a LaFleur, a Bla.ck schoolteacher, heard perintendent Johnny Jones, Miami's swore, was already handcuffed when pack of Dade County cops. a knock at his door. Opening it, he saw top Black officeholder, was charged Marrero brought down his ·flashlight · He was riding his motorcycle when a Dade County cop with a shotgun in with using school funds to buy plumb­ with sledgehammer force. cops set after him. McDuffie tried hand. ing for personal use. Dade County's head cop, Bobby unsuccessfully to out-distance them. LaFleur slammed the door shut. Here, the law moves swiftly. Jones Jones, responded to the "not guilty" • The cops caught him, threw him to Cops smashed it in. LaFleur suffered was tried in a matter of weeks. Like the verdict philosophically. "That's the the ground, cut off his crash helmet, two fractured ribs and skull lacera­ exonerated cops in the McDuffie case, American system," he observed. "And and clubbed him to death. tions. His son was beaten and the Jones was tried by an all-white jury. that's the way it is." They smashed up his motorcycle and house ransacked. They found him guilty. Even a Black patrolman, standing filed a report that he died in a crash Why? All of these things and more fueled nearby, was moved to respond. "Yeah, trying to escape. The cops said they had gone to the the Black anger here. I guess he's right. That's right. That's Responding to public anger, officials wrong house on a drug bust. The McDuffie decision had a particu­ the way the American system works." had five cops indicted for second­ Police review officials and State's larly deep impact because Florida is Dorothy McDuffie, sister of the vic­ degree murder and conspiracy. Attorney Janet Reno agreed that while one of the states where trials can be tim, said of the verdict: Four finally went to trial. But not in the cops had been "negligent," they televised. People heard the testimony "I feel like I'm nobody. I feel like my Miami. Officials permitted the case to had broken no law. on how McDuffie died. family's nobody. I feel like my people be transferred to Tampa. Then an eleven-year-old Black girl Officer Marrero testified that he had are nobody." There, after a forty-eight-day trial, was sexually molested by a white cop. brought his heavy-duty flashlight She added: "We despise the verdict. an all-white, all-male jury deliberated He got three years' probation. down on McDuffie's skull "as hard as I We hate it. And it hurts us to our only two hours and forty-four minutes In September, Randy Heath, a could." hearts."

... Miami Continued from front page was indicated Sunday night when city cops assigned to guard a shopping center in the Black community system­ atically vandalized fourteen cars parked there. They slashed tires and upholstery and smashed in wind­ shields. Then they spray painted "looter" and "thief' on the sides of the cars. The city promised that there would be an investigation and that the owners of the cars would be compen­ sated. The rebellion began Saturday after an all-white Tampa jury freed the cops who murdered Arthur McDuffie. The verdict came in at 2:36 p.m. Youth poured into the streets immediately. At eight o'clock that night, in re­ sponse to a call by the NAACP, some 7,000 people gathered at the County "Justice" Building for a protest demon­ stration. and out-of-uniform racists have killed at least thirteen Blacks during the rebellion The outraged crowd carried placards that declared "Justice in America is a Damn Lie" and "Where is Justice for run over by a squad car that witnesses city's image. things down. What they will then do the Black Man in America?" said came through "like a bat out of Officials-local, state, and federal­ about the killer-cops remains to be NAACP leaders had not planned hell." suddenly changed their tune about this seen. The same is true, of course, about through the hastily called rally. There People smashed in the plate glass city's quarter of a million Blacks, who the various pledges of new-found con­ was no public address system and window of the police building. suffer grinding poverty in the midst of cern for the problems of the Black speakers tried to address the throng Squads of SWAT cops appeared from the gaudiest opulence. community. with a small bullhorn. behind. They charged in with clubs, The governor went on TV to assert Major national figures of the civil There were no proposals for action. tear gas, and attack dogs. that he h ad marched during the civil rights movement also converged here. From the "Justice" Building people Miami's rebellion was on. rights demonstrations of the '60s. Former United Nations envoy Andrew marched to the nearby Dade County Fires raged through the sprawling Mayor Maurice Ferre suddenly dis­ Young was shouted down at a com­ Public Safety Building. It had been Black community for three nights. On covered there is a shortage of justice, munity rally when he started advising Dade County cops who murdered Sunday night alone, officials reported jobs, and housing in the Black c.om­ the victims of cop brutality that "vio­ McDuffie and many others. forty-two major fires. munity. He also. confiaed to reporters: lence is not productive." Police in the area seemed intent on Residents responded to police gun­ "We've got Vietnam veterans out there. U.S. Reps. Mickey Leland and John provoking the crowd. fire. Ten thousand guardsmen may not be Conyers c;;~me in yesterday. The Black Rose Ogden, Socialist Workers Party The fires were clearly aimed at enough." Congress members called for with­ candidate for U.S. Senate, says she white-owned businesses. Community At the Dade County Jail in nearby drawal of police and troops from the saw several squad cars deliberately businesspeople say that the only. Black Florida City, prisoners refused to work Black community and an end to the drive through the crowd. Later it was businesses that suffered were adjacent and staged a protest after officials curfew. reported that a Black girl had her foot to white-owned ones. tried to deny them the right to watch Southern Christian Leadership Con­ All of Miami was affected. At its TV coverage of the rebellion. One ference President JDseph Lowery also peak, the curfew area covered half the prisoner displayed. a placard that read, got at some of the root of the matter New York--- _, city of Miami. "Let us support our people outside and when he declared, "President Carter Bus service was suspended. improve our conditions inside." should come to Miami. I think the Eyewitness report on Schools were shut down for three Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti crisis is in America, not in Afghani­ days. flew to Miami from Washington on stan." Instead of worrying about Af­ Many businesses had to shut down Monday. He went on the air to assure, ghanistan and Iran and trying to MIAMI early so their Black ~mployees could "All serious allegations involving civil boycott the Olympics, he added, "we by Andrew Pulley, Socialist Workers get home before the curfew. rights and brutality will be investi­ should be boycotting the Klan, racism, presidential candidate Damage was estimated at more than gated." and unemployment." Sat., May 24. 8:00 p.m. $100 million. The tourist industry. re­ A federal grand jury was slated to When the rulers of this area decided P.S. 41, 116 W. 11th St. ported large-scale cancellation of hotel convene here today. It will, assertedly, to exonerate the killer cops, they ap­ Donation $2.00, Ausp. Militant Fo­ reservations. Yesterday morning consider indicting the killer-cops under parently thought they were going to rum. county officials demanded that armed the federal Civil Rights Act. Such a teach the Black community a hard For more information call (212) 533- National Guard troops be withdrawn process will take weeks, officials say. lesson. 2902. from the front of the "Justice" Build­ Meanwhile, they hope the promise of As of now, it's turning out the other ing. It was, they advised, bad for the a possible indictment will help cool way around.

THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 5 What's done to them is a crime' How Miami Cubans view Black rebellion By Jose G. Perez fifth one. I'd get out there and start went to a job agency, but it's not like in Was there police brutality in Cuba? MIAMI-Antonio Maceo Mini Park trouble. I'd go out to Miami Beach and Cuba. They wanted $200. I can't give "Not really, you know, because they on Southwest Eighth Street and Fif- bum their hotels." them that money. treat you with dignity there. The prob- teenth Avenue is the heart of Miami's "Last week I washed dishes. They lems over there are different." Little Havana. The park is named 'Americans asked for it' paid me a pittance. They said it would He explained why he decided to after Antonio Maceo, the Black hero The conversation spread to other be so much, but it turned out that was leave Cuba. He had just gotten a of Cuba's war for independence. tables and to the dozen or so onlookers. before taxes, Social Security, I don't divorce. He wanted to have a cassette There are a half dozen stone tables Only two defended the McDuffie ver- know what. They have a million player, nice clothes, a car, a Sony color and benches with big shade trees over diet and the police. For the rest, opin- things to take your salary. TV. them. Cuban men, unemployed or re- ions ranged from "the Blacks have a "Then I went to take an apartment. I asked if he had ever been politi- tired, come to spend time playing domi- justified grievance - but rioting is no The landlord was an old North Ameri- cally persecuted. He responded by ask- noes and discussing politics. way to express it," to wholehearted can lady. She told me she didn't want ing if I would put this in my paper. I I asked to play. I explained I was sympathy for the rebellion. any reds"-he used the Spanish word told him I wouldn't use his name. visiting from New York and asked "The Americans asked for it, that's cotorado-"but she didn't speak Span- "Actually, no. Everybody comes here what had been going with these riots. the only way they understand." ish and I don't speak English. I and says they were persecuted, but "It's those damn niches," said one, "If they treat Blacks outside the law, couldn't explain to her I wasn't a com- that is so we can stay. They tell us on then the Blacks are right to respond munist." the boats, when we get here, that if you , using the Cuban word closest to outside the law." "What word did she use?" , are a political refugee you can stay, if nigger. "They're animals. They don't know what they have here. They On the outskirts of the crowd, I "Co-lo-red," he said. "I imagine it not.... noticed one Black listening quietly. He means the same as colorado." "So everybody is a political refugee. should . ..." was dressed in new jogging sneakers, I told him it was another term for The most incredible stories. I laugh "If they're animals," another inter­ blue jeans, a T-shirt with "Florida" niche. when I see these interviews in the rupted, "these white police are ten written on it, a little hat, and a face newspaper. I saw one guy I used to times animals for what they did to that that said, How in hell did I wind up work with him, says he just got out of poor salesman." 'So much racism' here? He sat silently for awhile. prison. He made it up." What happened? I asked. He started to walk away and I fol- "There is much racism here, too I asked if he was sorry he came to "Six police shamelessly beat him lowed him. I invited him to have a cup much racism here. The Cubans them- the United States and he said no. until he was dead. Then they took the of coffee. selves look . down at you as if you Earlier, he had told me he . was police to Tampa for trial and just let He was just in from Mariel, Cuba, a weren't Cuban too." supposed to arrange to have his them off. Not even a fine. Not even couple of weeks ago. His relatives had He spoke quietly, his eyes darting mother picked up at Mariel. I asked 'I'm sorry, it was a mistake.'" gone down with a boat and picked him around. When the waiter came by he when he would do it. He said he didn't "The Blacks are making themselves up. was silent. know. be respected," said the fourth player, He is a skilled mechanic: "Cars, Then, leaning over: "You know this "She's old, not like me. I'm young, I silent until now. "What is done to them trucks, jeeps, motorcycles-if it rolls, I would never happen in Cuba. Never. If can learn English, I can take the is a crime. They're making themselves can fix it." But he had been unable to the government finds out someone did blows, I can fight back. But if she had be respected. McDuffie wasn't the first find a job here in his trade. something to you because you are to take what I have taken this last one. "They tell me I don't know American Black-denied you a job or anything- couple of weeks, she would die heart- "I'll tell you one thing. They do that cars, or I don't know how to deal with that person is going to jail. Just like broken thinking of what she left be- to us, I wouldn't wait for the fourth or customers in English, or just 'no.' I that." hind." White workers agree: the cops were guilty' B~l!~ryA~I~gd. f . t t had started the battle in the Black were guilty, those cops. There's no "d - th m Ica Ion~.t pom k 0 community. He noted that cops had doubt. They were guilty, and I don't Wlh e :ymtpha Yrt~~ongtsw. I ethwoBrl erks driven their cars through the initial blame the Blacks." ereb ll" LOr e pa ICipan In e ac protest d emonstratwn· d owntown. He A Blac· k wor k er Joine· d in:"y ou am· •t reMe wn. . th t th d" t . also pointed to the news accounts of seen nothing yet. This is going to any recogmze a e ver Ic m d . · · h 1 k d 11 h " th M D ff. t t f cops van a 1Izmg cars m t e B ac sprea a over t e country. . ef c u d I~h c~s~lwa: ah raves f 0 community. A sheet metal worker described the JUS. Ice an h a. ac. s ave a ong "The Miami cops are crazy," he said. situation in her shop. A number of the stnn~ of ~t e~ JUSt gnevances. . "If they get away with this," the Black workers had been absent. Two This sohdanty was expressed m a white worker added, "we'll be next." young women had been jailed during number of wa~s. . A print shop worker said there had the first days of the rebellion. Another . One. TV statwn reported th~t It had been much discussion on the job. The had an injured foot. mt~rviewe~ people. at a shoppmg cen- general sentiment was, "What did you The company was threatening to term~ white workmg-class area. They expect, letting those cops go free?" write them up for, "absenteeism." couldn t find one ?erson ~ho _thought One worker said, "It wasn't just the Three such letters and you can be fired. the ~cDuffie verdict was JUstified. McDuffie case, the Blacks here in Then the problem of compulsory This was confirmed when Andrew Miami have been at the boiling point overtime came up. Pulley ?-ppeared. on a ~wo-ho~r talk for years . . . the unemployment, Because the schools were closed and show With a mamly_white audience. crummy housing." bus service ended with the curfew, As people called m, the show host Another added "Remember this is many Blacks and Cuban workers polled them on w?at they thought of the South, peopl~ here are an~y." didn't want to work overtime. They, the McDuffie verdict. He referred to a Black co-worker and too, were threatened with warning let­ It was eighteen to two that the said "You know he used to have to sit ters. verdi~t was unfair. Of the two, one was at the back of th~ bus. They didn't end Several Cuban workers had gone a retued C?P· . discrimination here so long ago. People through the same hassle earlier when But sentiment among white workers don't forget so easily." they took time off to go to Marie} to get was perhaps best revealed by accounts An aerospace worker reported there relatives. The union had gone to bat of ~on_versations on the job reported by seemed to be "a new respect" for the for them. social~st worker~ . . . Black workers in the shop. Several of So when the issue came up of those A City bus dnver said one white co- the whites made a point of shaking who didn't want to work overtime, the worker told her he thought the cops hands with Black co-workers. stewards called an emergency lunch One man, about fifty-five was out- meeting. After discussion, it was rag~d by the verdict. "Those dirty agreed in order to block victimization Solidarity from bums," he said. "I couldn't sleep all of Black workers, everybody would night.... I'm behind the Blacks 100 refuse to work overtime. Seattle workers percent." With the exception of three proba- Workers on the second shift at Another older man agreed, "They tionary workers, everyone did. Boeing's plant No.2 in Seattle were so outraged by the cover-up of police brutality in Miami that they decided to do something about it. More than twenty workers fired off a telegram May 20 to Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre, denouncing the acquittal of the four cops who murdered Arthur McDuffie. It was "only the latest in a series of gross violations of human and civil rights of Black people in Flor­ ida," they said. The Boeing workers demanded "that the police and National Guard be removed from the Black community, that the curfew be lifted from the Black community, [and] that the killer cops be prose­ cuted to the fullest." MilitanVJerry Hunnicutt Miami burns. Socialists report 'new respect' for Blacks among many white workers.,

6 U.S.-backed generals launch crackdown South Korean masses challenge dictatorship By David Frankel Will the kind of popular revolution that toppled the shah of Iran and the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua also overtake the U.S.-backed generals in South Korea? "We're keeping our fingers crossed," one worried Western diplomat told Wall Street Journal correspondent Mike Tharp. "A lot of banks are watching Korea pretty carefully these days," says Chemical Bank Vice-president James Whitely. By taking to the streets in powerful mass demonstrations, South Korean students have dramatically revealed the underlying weakness and instabil­ ity of the Seoul regime. "The size and ferocity of the protests are reminiscent of the student riots that brought down President Syngman Rhee's government in 1960," Tharp reported May 15. Troops occupy campuses Hoping to avoid the fate of Rhee, the U.S.-appointed dictator who had him­ self named president for life in 1954, the regime cracked down on May 18. It closed all universities and sent mil­ itary units to occupy them; political gatherings and labor strikes were banned; rigid press censorship was imposed; and martial law was ex­ tended to the entire country. As police arrested opposition leaders, Riot cops assault young demonstrators with tear gas (above) and billy clubs (right) in South Korean capital of Seoul. the U.S.-backed dictatorship blamed alleged provocations from North Ko­ rea, and events in Afghanistan and Iran for creating the "grave crisis" that it faces. and call out the army to contain the situation to press their demands. The ing democratic reforms in South Ko­ The truth, of course, is that the protests. country has been hard hit by the world rea. That is the U.S. government's regime's· strong-arm measures are Divisions within the regime over economic crisis. Inflation and unem­ stance wherever it is helping to prop aimed at the workers, peasants, and how to meet the crisis led to Park's ployment are increasing sharply, and up dictators. Such an approach is students of South Korea-not at any assassination. An open power struggle resentment against government­ essential for public relations abroad alleged foreign threat. within the military hierarchy follow­ appointed union officials has been and for deceiving the American work­ Last October, workers and students ing Park's death further weakened the growing. ers at ~orne. took to the streets in antigovernment grip of the dictatorship and fanned During the first four months of 1980, But during the last struggle, there demonstrations in the industrial cities expectations of democratic reforms. there were nearly seven times as many has been a studied silence from the of Pusan and Masan. These actions labor actions as in all of 1979 .. The State Department, the White House, then spread to Seoul, Taegu, and Workers' struggles example of coal miners who took over and the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. Appar­ Chongju. Former dictator Park Chung Although strikes are illegal in South the city of Sabuk in April, noted Shim ently U.S. policymakers are afraid that Hee was forced to declare martial law Korea, workers took advantage of the Jae Hoon in the May 9 Far Eastern even the mildest claims of support to Economic Review, "now threatens to democratic rights might backfire and inspire similar troubles in the major encourage further mobilizations. Gen. industrial cities of Seoul, Pusan and John Wickham Jr., commander of the Masan." nearly 40,000 U.S. troops in South Inspired by the struggles of the Korea, was sent hurrying back to Seoul South African students workers, the students stepped up their from a trip to Washington. campaign for democratic rights. They took their demonstrations, which had Joint command hit by new repression been previously confined to the cam­ General Wickham not only com­ puses, onto the streets. mands the U.S. forces in South In an effort to crush a month-long Korea-he is also the head of the joint Province. The protests, however, also Reports in the media said that more student strike against the racist sys­ command, which includes Korea's involved students from the African than 50,000 marched in Seoul on May tem of segregated education, South and Indian populations, the other two armed forces. African police arrested more than 175 14 and 15. In addition, tens of thou­ The one thing that bothers Washing­ components of South Africa's Black sands demonstrated in other cities, Black students in Eastern Cape Pro­ majority. ton about Chon is not his attacks on including Taegu, Kwangju, Chonju, vince on May 16. In an effort to build stronger unity democratic rights. It is that when he Suwon, and Inchon. According to a United Press Interna­ among the three sectors of the Black moved his troops into Seoul to take tional dispatch, thirty-two Blacks, in­ population, Coloured student leaders Troops with automatic rifles and control of the government last De­ cluding twenty-nine students, were have appealed for greater African in­ armored personnel carriers sealed off cember, he "broke a long-standing arrested in a police dragnet following volvement in the boycott. At a rally of much of Seoul, and the downtown area agreement that U.S. authorization the death of Alfredo Soya in Port 5,000 students in a Coloured township was paralyzed by the protests. must be sought to move ;my substan­ Elizabeth. Soya was a member of a outside Johannesburg, one student Apparently fearful of provoking even tial number of South Korean troops." "peacemaker civil group" set up to stop leader said, "We should stand together wider opposition, the police did not (Washington Post, April 30.) the strike. and we therefore call upon you [Afri­ open fire on the demonstrations. How­ Government leaders have attempted The strike marked the end of a two­ cans] to support our liberation cause." ever, hundreds of students were se­ to defuse the opposition movement year lull in Black student protests in Another student declared, "We must riously injured due to savage beatings with promises that despite the new South Africa. tell the Government that we want to by riot police, and hundreds more were crackdown, there will be progress to­ The call for the nationwide student determine our own destiny. The Gov­ arrested. ward democratic rights. The only con­ strike was issued on April 19 by a ernment has done everything to humil­ dition that the rulers insist on is that meeting of student representatives iate us by giving us inferior educa­ Student demands the South Korean workers and pea­ from more than sixty Black schools in tion." Student demands include the lifting sants make no use of the promised the Cape Town area. Fearing that a sharp crackdown on of martial law; freedom of the press; rights to fight for improvements in By the time the call was issued, some the student protest might simply ag­ the elimination of the Yushin Constitu­ their social status. 25,000 students were already boycott­ gravate the ferment-possibly leading tion imposed by Park; free elections; As President Choi Kyu Hah ex­ ing classes. By April 22, the number to a repetition of the mass youth re­ dismissal of professors who had main­ pressed it May 18, "There can be no had reached more than 100,000, and volts of 1976 and 1977-the regime has tained ties with the Park government; political development without public the strike had spread from Cape Town ordered police to maintain a low pro­ and support for the demands of indus­ safety and social stability." to Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria, file. trial workers. But the aspiration for democratic Kimberley, Bloemfontein, and other However, police have on several The resignation of Lieut. Gen. Chon rights and social progress, and the cities. Most of the students were be­ occasions attacked student marches. Too Hwan, head of the Korean Central hatred of Park's dictatorial legacy, is tween thirteen and eighteen years old, On April 22, they fired tear gas into a Intelligence Agency and of the power­ too deep and too widespread to be so but some universities and teacher crowd of 8,000 demonstrators in Cape ful Defense Security Command, has easily sidetracked. Already, on the first training colleges· were also affected by Town and the following day used tear also been demanded by the protesters. day of the new crackdown, students in the boycotts. gas . and clubs to break up similar Chon is the dominant military figure Kwangju have defied the regime and The bulk of the protesters were Co­ marches in Johannesburg and . Dur­ in the regime. battled police and soldiers who tried to loureds (of mixed ancestry), who are ban. In the past, Washington has attemp­ break up their protests. concen~rated for the most part in Cape From Intercontinental Press/lnprec.or ted to give the appearance of support- From Intercontinental Press/lnprecor

THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 7 'UnemP-IQyment no natural disaster' Pulley takes SWP jobs proposals to marchers By Nan Bailey don't want our ideas heard." WASHINGTON-A young woman "What are your ideas?" the woman at the May 17 march for jobs was asked. curious when she saw a Black man "Working people should run this shaking the hands of other protesters country," said Pulley. "We think work­ at the rally site. She went up to him to ing people should organize our own get a handshake for herself and said, party based on the unions. We're say­ "How are you doing. What's your ing you can't represent the interests of name?" both the slaves and the slave masters "Pulley, Andrew Pulley," he an­ at the same time." swered. "I'm running for president." "Right now," Pulley continued, "my "You're kidding," she said. "How supporters are petitioning to get the come I never heard of you?" Socialist Workers presidential ticket on "That's because they lie when they the ballot. We're aiming to get on the only list Carter, Reagan, Bush, ballot in thirty states. But even the Kennedy, and Anderson," said Pulley. ballot requirements are steeper for us "They don't want people to know I'm than they are for the Democratic and running. They don't want people to Republican politicians." know that there's an alternative to the A protester wearing an "Anderson capitalist politicians." for President" button stepped forward Pulley and Matilde Zimmermann, to join the conversation. "The reason Socialist Workers presidential and Anderson has fewer requirements in a vice-presidential candidates, inter­ lot of states is that at least he has a rupted their national campaign tours chance of winning. You don't have a to join protesters in Washington, D.C., chance. That's why you've got to do that day. more to get on the ballot. Most people After the jobs march arrived at the don't want your socialist ideas." Capitol, Zimmermann and a group of Pulley answered him, "Most people campaign supporters joined another don't even know we're a choice." demonstration at the White House, 'We have a simple solution-reduce the workweek with no cut in pay,' said Andrew "They never heard of you," added a protesting the U.S. Navy's occupation Pulley (on left). young woman, looking at Pulley. of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. "They don't give y'all a chance to Pulley and six other SWP candidates ployment. We need more demonstra­ Said Pulley, "!-think one reason it's speak out." from around the country campaigned tions. It's the kind of thing that's hard to believe is that you'd never see among the job protesters. needed to put pressure on the govern­ the racist capitalist parties running a 42 sign up for YSPZ "Carter and Reagan, that's a dog," ment-but we also have to. do more. Black man for president." By the end of the day of campaign­ said one young man as he exchanged a Workers have to organize our own "Why is it that more people don't go ing, forty-two demonstrators had leaflet he was handing out to publicize political party-a labor party-in order for Kennedy?" another protester asked signed up as Young Socialists for a May 24 African Liberation Day . to effectively fight for jobs. Pulley. · Pulley and Zimmermann. Nearly 5,000 march for a copy of Pulley's campaign "Unemployment is no natural disas­ "Because Kennedy lies to them just pieces of campaign literature were brochure. ter," Pulley continued. "You know, in like the other capitalist politicians," passed out. About 240 copies of the "I agree," said Pulley. "The Demo­ Cuba, there is no unemployment. None Pulley answered. "Kennedy talks now Militant and Young Socialist news­ crats and Republicans are the very of the capitalist countries, even during about how we have to be sensitive to paper were sold. ones causing unemployment. Every an economic boom, can claim that." · our responsibilities to the poor and After the rally, fifty people attended one of Carter's policies is designed to "What're your chances of winning?" oppressed of other countries, but he a campaign rally where Glenn White, a increase unemployment. We have a Pulley was asked by a man from Balti­ was over in Iran kissing the hand of Metro transit worker in Washington simple solution: reduce the workweek more. the shah two years before the shah and a member of the Young Socialist with no cut in pay." "The majority of people don't even was overthrown." Alliance, announced his campaign for Pulley walked over to introduce him­ know we're running. The government "I didn't know about that," said the city council on the Socialist Workers self to three auto workers from the talks about democratic elections: No­ man. "But I can tell you Carter is a Party ticket. General Motors plant in Tarrytown, thing about this election is demo- mess." "Mr. Pulley," one of the marchers New York. cratic." had asked during the day, "would you "This is a waste of time, isn't it?" "We won't make it by November," TV .coverage mind if I ask you about your educa­ one auto worker asked Pulley. The Pulley said. "But our campaign is One woman asked why Pulley didn't tion?" crowd of 5,000-plus didn't meet up to building a movement to try to change get on television so that more people "No, not at all," said Pulley. "I was his expectations of what the size of the that in the end. I want you to support could know about his campaign. kicked out of high school when I protest would be. me and be part of that change." "We try," said Pulley, "and some­ helped to organize a protest against An older Black man walked up to times we are able to appear on televi­ the murder of Martin Luther King. More demonstrations Pulley and shook his hand. "Mr. Pul­ sion. But even though we fight to get That was the end of my formal educa­ "It's not a waste of time," said ley, I'm proud to meet you. I can't more coverage, we only get a fraction tion. The rest of my education came Pulley. "It will help get people to think believe a Black man is running for of the TV and other media coverage from my experience in the class strug­ about acting on the problem of unem- president." that the capitalist candidates get. They gle. In that I have a Ph.D."

Carter's efforts to "balance the budget" by cutting back on social ... jobs services and increasing military spend­ Continued from back page ing came under heavy fire by marchers PPG worker told the Militant. "I'm and speakers alike. glad I came." "Our federal treasury which just 130 About 100 elementary and high days ago was so broke it could not school students organized their own afford an extra million for social pro­ march to the rally from the southeast­ grams is now suddenly so rich with ern Washington Black community of untold billions for new warships and Anacostia. They got a friendly re­ new armored divisions," Gary Mayor sponse as they walked through the Richard Hatcher told the rally. residential sections, led by the Burney "What is at stake in the world is not Elementary School Band. our honor," Hatcher continued, "it is "We want our jobs" and "We want a not the superiority of our nuclear arse­ J-0-B so we can E-A-T," they chanted nal. If the sabers are· rattled and the to drumbeats as they entered the ca­ buttons are pushed, everybody will pitol grounds. lose. The presence of Soviet tanks in Seventeen students came from Afghanistan is no more frightening Fayetteville State University in North nor any greater threat to world peace Carolina after Jesse Jackson had than the fact that South Africa has a MilitanVNancy Cole spoken at their commencement activi­ nuclear bomb." Students from Fayetteville State University joined jobs march ties the week before, urging participa­ Tyrone Crider, president of the stu­ tion in the march. dent body at Moorehouse College in Three of the four I talked with were Atlanta, declared, "We're here this were varied. Jim Hall, president of the international solidarity struck with graduating seniors. When asked what afternoon, not because students hold Chicago Dr. King-Malcolm X Westside greetings to the rally by a Haitian they were going to do now, they Americans hostage in Iran, but be­ Coalition, told the Militant he thought refugee and a South African freedom laughed and held up their signs: "Jobs cause Carter and Congress have the government should "create jobs­ fighter. now" and "Stop inflation." chosen to hold students hostage in to fix up abandoned buildings, to get Jesse Jackson called for a $25 billion "We've put in a fot of applications, America. rid of the rats, to build new schools." federal economic stimulant program. but there are no jobs yet," answered "We're here not because of Soviet But several speakers, and many He urged a continuation of the. fight to Raymond Donnell. aggression against the people of Af­ signs in the UAW contingent, proposed win jobs, pledging that protesters The junior among them, Robert ghanistan, but because of Senate and restricting imports as the solution to would next be present at the Republi­ White, pointed o11t that there were no House aggression against the people of unemployment. This pitting of Ameri­ can convention in Detroit and the summer jobs available to earn money America." can workers against foreign workers Democratic convention in New York for his next semester. Proposed solutions to the jobs crisis was in contradiction to the note of City.

8 Protest demands: 'U.S. Navy out of Vieques!' By Roberto Flores bor movement is beginning to support WASHINGTON-"Vieques yes, the struggle of the Viequenses,"· he navy no-U.S. Navy has to go!" said, referring to several res-olutions This was the spirited chant of more recently passed by unions on Vieques. than 1,500 demonstrators who "The American people, the Blacks, and marched on the White House May 17. the workers are beginning to realize The action drew people from East that as long as human rights are being Coast cities, including Philadelphia, violated in Vieques, their own rights Boston, Hartford, New York, and Jer­ ·here aren't worth very much." sey City. It protested the brutal occupa­ Oscar Collazo, one of the recently tion of the Puerto Rican island of . freed Puerto Rican nationalists, drew Vieques by the U.S. government. The the greatest round of applause. Collazo use of the island for target practice by demanded not only that the navy pull the navy has endangered the lives and out and halt its campaign of terror livelihoods of its 8,000 residents, espe­ against the people of Vieques, but that cially the fishermen. the U.S. get out of Puerto Rico alto­ The combative resistance of the peo­ gether. ple of Vieques has generated a growing Collazo pointed to the march con­ international solidarity movement. tingents from Central American coun­ The march here was sponsored by a tries who are battling imperialism. broad coalition of Puerto Rican, La­ "First it was Cuba years ago," he said. tino, st'\).dent, political, labor, and civil "Then a few months ago it was the rights organizations. heroic Nicaragua. Today it is El Salva­ Larry Thomas of the Boston Support dor, and tomorrow we can be sure it Network Committee told the Militant will be Puerto Rico." that one of the objectives of the demon­ Collazo added that the goal for any stration was to "show the fishermen of country under the control of the United Vieques and the people of Puerto Rico States must be for economic as well as that people in the U.S. support their political independence. "As long as a cause." country is economically dependent on Thomas described the Boston com­ imperialism, it cannot be politically mittee's outreach program that built independent. This is why we advocate participation in the protest. Supporters genuine independence: Independence there showed slides and spoke before first. And secon(l, socialism that will student, church, and community 'Their cannons have not been able to stop our struggle,' said Orlando Cruz. truly make us free." groups. Orlando Cruz, a Viequense, vowed "We went to antinuclear groups and Brigade with a banner reading, "Cuba struggle of the people of Washington, that the people of Vieques would con­ talked about the nuclear weapons that and Puerto Rico united will win." D.C., for statehood to that of Puerto tinue their struggle. "Their cannons the navy stores there," he added. They have not been able to stop our strug­ A group from Local 1199 of the Ricans for independence. also showed slides on Vieques to work­ gle," he said. hospital workers union in New York Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was leading ers from the Quincy General Dynamic Cheers and chants greeted the an­ City joined the demonstration. a march for jobs and against war just Shipyards, where many Puerto Ricans a few blocks away, sent greetings to nouncement that hundreds of Puerto are employed. Josephine Butler of the D.C. State­ the Vieques rally. Ricans living in the United States The march here included Salvadoran hood Party welcomed the marchers to New York City Council member Gil­ would travel to Vieques within the and Nicaraguan contingents, as well the rally at Lafayette Park across from berto Gerena-Valentin pointed to a next few months to join a demonstra­ as one representing the Venceremos the White House. She compared the new solidarity development. "The Ia- tion there. Laurel strikers describe 'plantation' conditions By Rashaad Ali human dignity. along the line, the chickens are disas- support coming in from as far away as and Ron Repps Laurel is a city of 25,000; 45 percent sembled. One of the more difficult jobs California, and of the talk shows in the LAUREL, Miss.-"Try Miss Goldy Black. In 1964, a bond issue was is in the front where they "pull" the area that are now interviewing strik- Chickens, and try a little tenderness." passed that paid half the cost of build- chickens-cut out the neck and intes- ing workers. They hold weekly strike That's a little jingle that Sanderson ing and equipping Sanderson's plant. tines. meetings and were all very much in Farms uses to sell its chickens. It wasn't too much of a surprise that "You have a certain amount you are favor of the national May 17 march What they don't tell you is that 200 we found the plant located on Sander- supposed to pull in a minute," said one here in support of the strike. members of International Chemical son Drive. striker, "and then if you don't pull Their struggle has come to symbolize Workers Union Local882 have been on Sanderson Farms is one of the big- them in that amount of time, they take the fight of the entire Black commun- strike against the Sanderson Farms gest poultry firms in the South, where you to the office. If you drop a neck in ity in Laurel. chicken processing plant here since the poultry industry is big business. the water, and they see it in the drain, Strikers also urge their supporters to February 27, 1979. There are two other Sanderson poultry they talk to you about it. If you drop join the national boycott against Sand- After talking with some of the strik- processing plants besides the one in another neck, they send you home for erson's chickens-marketed under the ers on a Saturday in early May, we Laurel, which by itself puts out_ be- -three days or a week-for just one brand names of Miss Goldy and South- had a better idea of what Sanderson's tween 65,000-80,000 chickens a day. chicken neck!" em Beauty. idea of "tenderness" really is. The first striker we spoke to was The jobs are segregated, the women "We're going to keep on, not just for Owner Joe Sanderson, Jr., runs the Sarah Wright, a line captain. We explain. The hardest and most danger- ourselves, but for those who come after place like a plantation, strikers say, talked in a wooden hut built by the ous jobs at the front are done almost us," said Sarah Wright. and they were forced to walk off the strikers. "This is not a shack, this is entirely by Black workers. In the back, job more than a year ago to win simple our union house," said Wright. it is mostly white. "The reason we went out was for The plant is constantly covered with better working conditions, better treat- blood and chicken intestines, and strik­ .. .strike Continued from back page Help bring victory ment," she explained. "If you were five ers recall only one federal inspection. minutes late or you overslept, they "The one time the inspector came in tion ·of Black Trade Unionists; Joyce to Laurel strikers would call you into the office, and if here was the last time they really Miller, president, Coalition of Labor The Committee for Justice in Miss­ they felt like it, they'd send you back cleaned up," a woman said. Union Women; William Winpisinger, issippi suggests the following activ­ home for two or three days. If you were Other issues include wages (justover president, International Association of ities for supporters of International late three days, they'd fire you." minimum wage), company cheating Machinists; and Frank Drozak, presi­ Chemical Workers Union Local 882: Wright went into detail about the ("you have to keep good track of your dent, Seafarers International Union. • Invite a Laurel striker to speak degrading treatment Sanderson work- time"), sexual harassment, irregular The coalition is also supported by before your union or group. ers are subjected to. "Some of the hours, and irregular vacations ("if Benjamin Hooks, executive director, • Send strike support messages ladies would need to go to the bath- they're short of help, you don't get your NAACP; Eleanor Smeal, president, to the union with copies to Joe room before break time, but they vacation"). National Organization for Women; Sanderson, c/o Sanderson Farms, wouldn't let them go. And if they went Personal leaves from the plant for Coretta Scott King. Industrial Park, Laurel 39440 and to anyway, they just mark them ab- any amount of time are virtually prohi­ This coalition of unions and the Mayor W.L . Patrick, Jr., City Hall , sent for the whole day. If you wanted bited. "My grandbaby was sick with "natural allies of labor," as ICWU Laurel 39440. to go to the bathroom, you would have pneumonia," recalls Alice Musgrove. President Martino described it, was a • Organize plant-gate collections to tell them exactly what you wanted "My daughter called for me to come theme of the rally speeches. and benefit events to raise money to go to the restroom for!" take the baby to the hospital. They Chaired by Rev. C.T. Vivian, the for the strike fund. Most of the foremen and supervisors didn't tell me she had called until my rally heard from Howard Samuel, pres­ • Boycott Miss Goldy and South­ inside the plant are white males. Since break. When I said I wanted to leave, ident of the Industrial Union Depart­ ern Beauty chickens. the strike, a few Black men have been they said that since the baby wasn't ment of the AFL-CIO; Willie Rudd · given supervisory work. mine I couldn't go. from the striking furniture workers in For more information contact th'e "I know of some ladies that worked "Then I said that I was going to take Memphis; civil rights activist Anne Committee for Justice in Mississippi, in there twelve or thirteen years, and the baby to the hospital whether they Braden; Susan Holleran from the Na­ c/o International Chemical Workers they wanted a higher position. They let me or not because I lost a baby on a tional Organization for Women; and Union , 1655 West Market Street, would give it to someone they had to job similar to this when I was very others. Akron, Ohio 44313, telephone (216) train when those ladies were already young, and I never will forget that." Members of striking Local 882 led 867-2444 or Local 882, 226-D Ellis­ qualified," Wright said. The company has maintained pro- the crowd in singing "Solidarity ville Boulevard, Laurel, Mississippi The work on the line is dirty and duction by hiring scabs. Forever." Everyone seemed to leave 39440, telephone (601) 649-8836. dangerous. The birds are killed and Although they've been out a long the rally with a common thought ex­ hung on conveyer racks. And just as time, the strikers have managed to pressed by Reverend Vivian: "Union­ an automobile is assembled as it goes keep their spirits up. They spoke of ism is coming to the South."

THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 9 By Nan Bailey cratic politicians. Held hostage to the way hundreds of thousands of people who -With three weeks to go before the energy trusts, threatened with unemploy­ are fed up with the Democrats and Republi­ June 15 deadline, the 1980 campaign ment, and faced with the danger of U.S. cans will be introduced to a workers' cam­ military moves in Iran, El Salvador, the paign. By helping us get on the ballot in as fund drive aims to collect $50,000 to Caribbean, and elsewhere-working people many states as possible, the fund means keep the Socialist Workers Party are looking for an alternative. that these workers will have an alternative presidential campaign of Andrew The Pulley-Zimmermann campaign will to support in 1980." Pulley for president and Matilde be using the massive task of petitioning to But, Paltrineri explained, the fund drive Zimmermann for vice-president in get on the ballot to appeal to these senti­ faces a problem. "A big gap exists between high gear. ments. Hundreds of thousands of leaflets in the money that's been pledged to date and English and Spanish, summarizing the the amount that campaign committees and To date the fund has received SWP program, will soon be printed, sent free other supporters have actually sent in to contributions totalling $18,000. of charge to SWP campaign committees, the national campaign office. Money pledged but not yet re­ and distributed as part of the petitioning "The amount of pledges shows that we effort. For example, about 300,000 will be can meet and even surpass our goal. But we ceived totals $32,702. distributed in California, and 65,000 in must step up the collection of this money in The campaign now faces a big Pennsylvania. order to be able to use it for the ballot drive challenge. We need your help in Massive quantities of campaign literature and other needs. order to close that gap and meet the have already been distributed. About 40,000 "This is a challenge we face and one that $50,000 goal. brochures explaining the socialist campaign every local campaign committee must orga­ The pledges were made at Socialist Work­ have been handed out at the various na­ nize to meet immediately." ers campaign rallies over the course of the tional demonstrations held this winter and "This means organizing the collection fundraising drive. These events were high­ spring. and sending in these pledges now," Paltri­ lights of the campaign stops made by Pulley Thousands received socialist campaign neri concluded, "at the same time that we're and Zimmermann as they crisscrossed the literature at the February 2 rally against the getting out press releases on the campaign, country. Kl;m in Greensboro, N. Carolina; the anti­ organizing tours for the presidential or vice­ draft demonstration in Washington on presidential candidate, or organizing special The pledges signify an enthusiastic re­ March 22; the march in the nation's capital campaign activities for local Socialist Work- sponse from campaign supporters who want against nuclear power on April 26; and at ers candidates." · to see a working-class viewpoint put for­ the May 10 march for the Equal Rights If the response to tours by Pulley and ward in the 1980 presidential race. Amendment in Chicago. Zimmermann and to the drive to get hun­ Campaign rallies held in Chicago and in But all this costs money; printing and dreds of thousands of signatures on nomina­ the Piedmont area of North Carolina were other bills must be paid. ting petitions is any indication, the goals of typical. The rally in Chicago, Pulley's home Not only do the Democratic and Republi­ the campaign fund can and will be met. town, raised $3,500 in pledges, while suppor­ can politicians get automatic ballot status ters of the campaign in the Piedmont area without the petition requirements imposed pledged $1,200. on socialists; they also benefit from millions These contributions are absolutely vital to of dollars in government handouts. the Socialist Workers Party's efforts to get The federal government recently an­ Socialist Workers on the ballot in thirty states this year. The nounced it has already given more. than $22 costs of full-time petitioning teams, coordi­ million-filched from our tax dollars-to Campaign nation of the drive, and legal expenses Democratic and Republican presidential involved in fighting undemocratic attempts candidates in the "1980 race. The Socialist $50,000 Fund to keep socialists off the ballot are the Workers Party candidates don't get a cent of largest expenses the socialist campaign has this booty, nor do we get funds from the big­ Enclosed is my contribution of $ __ today. business interests that own and control the Name And these costs will be boosted even more two capitalist parties. Address by the biggest challenge yet: the drive to We depend on the working people who City State __ collect well over 100,000 signatures to put support the socialist alternative-people like Zip Phone Pulley and Zimmermann on the California you-to finance our campaign. Union/School! Org. ballot is about to begin. L. Paltrineri, coordinator of the fund The eagerness of a growing number of drive, states, "The 1980 campaign fund is Make checks payable to: working people to contribute to the socialist making it possible to keep touring our Socialist Workers Presidential Cam­ campaign shows mounting anger at the candidates, and printing more of their state­ paign Committee, 14 Charles Lane, antilabor policies of Republican and Demo- ments in both English and Spanish. In this New York, N.Y. 10014.

10 Huge drive wi bring socialist message to California workers By Larry Seigle The second goal of the huge under­ go to California and help with the during the drive. They will pitch in on SAN DIEGO-Leaders of the Young taking is to increase the visibility and ballot effort. the petitioning effort, appear at street Socialist Alliance and the Socialist, public face of the Socialist Workers Volunteers are now being signed up rallies and at plant gates, and meet Workers Party gathered here May 17 Party in California. Hundreds of so­ to join the migration west. They are with campaign activists and suppor­ for a day-long conference to work out cialist campaigners will be out on the planning to arrive for the kick-off ters. final plans for the drive to put the SWP streets, at political events, and in the rallies on the weekend of June 7-8. The statewide leadership meeting on the ballot in California. plants "talking socialism" and signing Special funds are being raised to cover here included · a separate report and The mobilization will be launched up supporters of socialists' right to be transportation costs for those who discussion on the new opportunities with rallies in the San Francisco Bay on the ballot. · need it. within the labor movement for getting Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego on In addition, there will be expanded A boost to the volunteer organizing a hearing for the key political proposal June 7 and 8, featuring Andrew Pulley, opportunities for news coverage. And is the offer of free trips to revolution­ of the SWP campaign: that labor SWP presidential candidate. an ambitious program of political ary Cuba to the two petitioners who should organize its own party. Plans The first day of petitioning will be events, classes, and recreational activi­ collect the most signatures. "We were made for participation of socialist Monday, June 9. ties is scheduled throughout the peti­ couldn't think of a more fitting way to workers in the series of upcoming Plans call for winding up the mas­ tion drive. acknowledge the individual efforts to meetings sponsored by labor organiza­ sive drive in time for celebrations on In all these ways, the party and its help win a ballot spot for our party, tions to discuss labor's political stra­ the July 4 weekend. campaign will be brought to the atten­ which is campaigning vigorously in tegy. Sara Gates, the SWP California cam­ tion of hundreds of thousands of work­ defense of the Cuban revolution," said paign coordinator, outlined three goals ing people throughout the state. senatorial candidate George Johnson. YSA in forefront of the month-long effort to the meeting The third objective of the drive will A major point on the agenda of the of YSA and SWP leaders from through­ be, of course, to collect well over the Statewide tours meeting here was a report by George out the state. 101,000 signatures required on each of A highlight of the month's activities Sayad, Bay Area district organizer of two petitions: one to place the presiden­ will be a nine-day tour of California by the Young Socialist Alliance, on the Young Socialist Alliance tial slate on the ballot, and the other to Pedro Camejo. He will speak on Nica­ opportunities for recruitment of young The first objective of the drive, she qualify George Johnson, SWP senator­ ragua, Cuba, and the advancing revo­ people to the YSA. said, is to sign up as many new ial candidate, for a ballot spot. lutionary struggle in the Caribbean "The entire California YSA is turn­ members to the Young Socialist Al­ and Central America. Camejo, the 1976 ing its attention to this drive," Sayad liance as possible. Young people will be Nationwide effort needed presidential candidate of the SWP, has said. "This campaign is the YSA's. attracted to an active, exciting, and The California drive will be by far just returned from an extended stay in campaign." spirited effort to put the socialist alter­ the biggest of the state efforts under­ Nicaragua, where he has been writing Sayad outlined a series of specific native on the ballot. taken by the YSA and the SWP to get about the progress of the Sandinista plans. These include: With careful attention to recruiting the socialist candidates on the ballot. revolution for the Militant and Per­ • sending full-time petition teams to these activists into the YSA, signifi­ The scope of the campaign, and the spectiva Mundial. work with YSA groups and supporters cant steps can be taken toward strength­ national importance attached to it, are Camejo will join Andrew Pulley, outside the major cities where the SWP ening the socialist youth organiza­ shown by plans to recruit fifty full-time Matilde Zimmermann, and George and YSA are already well established; tion in California. volunteers from around the country to Johnson, who will all tour the state Continued on next page

More unions join l~bor party discussion By Jeff Mackler OAKLAND, Calif.-On June 5 the California Federation of Labor will host a special statewide conference "for an intensive review of labor's existing political programs and ways to meet what has been labor's increas­ ing problem with two-party conserva­ tism." The meeting is scheduled for two days after the California primary. The 1.7 million-member federation represents the AFL-CIO unions in Cal­ ifornia. The conference, to be held in Los Angeles, follows by nine months the Labor Day address of federation Exec­ utive Secretary-Treasurer John Hen­ ning, in which he said "labor must consider the advantages of a separate political party." New problems On May 16 I interviewed Richard Groulx for the Militant. Groulx [pro­ nounced Grew] is secretary-treasurer of the 55,000-member Alameda Country Central Labor Council. Alameda County, which includes Oakland, is on MilitanVJudy Stranahon the east side of San Francisco Bay. California auto workers go to state capitol to protest plant shutdown. Government backing to employers' antilabor assault highlights need for unions to elect their own representatives to public office. Groulx made it clear that he is not in favor .of launching a labor party now but thinks it is important that it be there will definitely be an Alameda cratic Party, try and improve our rela­ candidate George Johnson, a forty­ discussed. He pointed to a number of County meeting in August to discuss tionship with it. This is not one that I four-year old auto worker at the Fre­ new problems the labor movement in the labor party proposal. That meeting feel is hopeful. Another is to form some mont General Motors plant, says he California is facing: "We really are not will be sponsored by the county Feder­ kind of coalition within the Democratic . welcomes the labor party discussion in making any progress on benefits for ation of Labor, the Building and Con­ Party which will produce candidates in the unions. In all his campaign talks, the labor movement.. . . We are not struction Trades Council, Teamsters primaries. he advocates formation of an inde­ completely better off under a Demo­ Local 70, and International Longshore­ "A third is to join with other coali­ pendent labor party. cratic administration than we were men's and Warehousemen's Local 6. tions in a third party movement. And "Now that the labor party idea is under Reagan .... I think a lot of our the last is to form a labor party, raised by top union officials in the fighting is just to protect what we 'Four viewpoints' probably inviting other people to come state, it takes on a much more realistic have." Groulx explained that at the August in. Any one of the latter three may be perspective. It seems more practical," In addition to the statewide meeting meeting, "We want to hear four view­ something we can do." Johnson says. June 5, Groulx told the Militant that points. One is to stay with the Demo- Socialist Workers Party senatorial Continued on next page

THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 ..11 ... ballot drive Continued from preceding page • signing up new supporters during the petitioning itself, using the Young Socialists for Pulley and Zimmermann volunteer cards; • making special efforts starting immediately to involve antidraft, anti­ nuclear, and Equal Rights Amend­ ment activists in the campaign; and • making sure that the YSA is a prominent part of all the petitioning events. "If we take the time to work closely with the young people who are at­ tracted to the socialist alternative, and convince them that our movement is their movement, we can finish this drive with a stronger and larger YSA in this state," he said. Leaflets inviting volunteers to help out will be widely distributed in the weeks remaining before June 9. Sev­ eral areas reported that young people, especially high school students, are already calling up and volunteering to participate in the campaign. Public face of SWP Party and youth leaders from throughout the state stressed the op­ portunity the petition drive presents to stren·gthen the range of public party activities that can attract new people Winning activist youth to Young Socialist Alliance will be top priority in California campaign. to the socialist movement. Emphasis was placed on the need to spruce up the SWP and YSA head­ belong to. We have to show people that phone calls are coming in from people "A couple of people have already quarters, making them visible, accessi­ is the case." who have heard about what we will be joined the YSA because of the excite- . ble, and attractive election campaign In line with these sentiments, an doing. More people are in our head­ ment this campaign is generating. And organizing centers. ambitious program of activities is quarters as our ballot drive machinery all of us feel even greater confidence in A quarter of a million copies of a planned for the three and a half weeks gets cranked up. More co-workers are ourselves and in the YSA and the special campaign leaflet, in English of the petition drive. In addition to the being involved in campaign activities. SWP." and Spanish, are being printed for visits by the candidates and by wide distribution by petitioners. Camejo, SWP leaders are preparing a The need for an appealing head­ series of popular classes on working­ quarters with well-stocked bookstores, class politics. regular forums, classes, and other pub­ Among the teachers will be: Fred lic activities was put forward most Halstead, 1968 SWP presidential ca·n- insistently by socialist workers in in­ . didate and the author of Out Now! and dustry. What Working People Should Know "Many people on the job are in About the Dangers of Nuclear Power; agreement with our ideas," explained Dick Roberts, author of the recently one member of the International Asso­ published American Railroads: The ciation of Machinists. "If we are going Case for Nationalization and Capital­ to convince some of them to join our ism in Crisis; Catarino Garza, editor of party or the YSA, they have to see our Puerto Ricans in the United States; movement as more than just a group­ and Roberta Scherr, candidate for Con­ ing of individuals in their plant. They gress in California's 25th Congres­ have to see us as an organization, part sional District. of a nationwide, and international, Classes will be available for petition­ movement. ers and others campaign volunteers several nights a week. There will also Classes be informal dinners and get-togethers. "We have to be able to bring them to Arlene Rubinstein, SWP Bay Area atilde Zimmermann, forums, to a class, to campaign events, District Organizer, summed up the to picnics and parties, to our book­ mood of the statewide meeting. "These SWP candidate for stores. The SWP and the YSA are plans are already paying off," she vice-president dynamic and exciting organizations to said. "Throughout the state, more California petitioning centers: We will be in C helping to bring thE East Bay: 2864 Telegraph Ave., to working · peoplt Oakland. Tel: (415) 763-3792 . state, and petitionir ... labor party discussion Los Angeles: 2211 N. Broadway. Tel: for the Socialist W', . Continued from preceding page called "Labor and Political Action in (213) 225-3126. To make this ca1 The chronology of important union the 1980s." Speakers . include Califor­ statements and meetings on the labor nia Federation of Teachers President San Diego: 1053 15th St., Tel: (714) we need your hel~ party in California since last summer Raoul Tielhet and other labor officials 234-4630. tion---for a few hou makes an impressive list: who speak for or against the labor or for the whole m1 July 1979-In a speech to the na­ party idea. San Francisco: 3284 23rd St., Tel: with us. If you can't tional convention of the American December 6~8-Meeting of CFL Federation of Teachers held in San Executive Council continues the labor (415) 824-1992. nia, please send a c Fransisco, Henning gives a damning party discussion and plans future San Jose: 201 N. 9th St., Tel: (408) pay the way for so indictment of the two capitalist par­ meetings. 998-4007. Every dollar will ties. February 19,1 1980-Rally at the August 30-Henning's Labor Day state capitol in Sacramento protests statement is issued, urging a discus­ the closing of the Pico Rivera Ford sion in the unions in the next year on plant in Los Angeles. George Manos, the labor party question. chairman of the stewards committee of September 6-The Executive Coun­ United Auto Workers Local 1364 at Mateo, and Orange, plus "numerous March 22-At a labor solidarity cil of the California Labor Federation General Motors Fremont, calls for la­ local unions." rally in San Francisco in support of unanimously approves a motion by bor to send its own representatives to March-Convention of the Califor­ the oil workers' strike, support for the Richard Groulx authorizing Henning, the legislature. nia State Council of Carpenters, rep­ labor party idea is voiced by Henning, "to call a conference . . . to reassess March 1-March and rally of 4,000 resenting 100,000 union carpenters, Teamsters Local 85 President Jack our political activity and to give se­ in Los Angeles harbor area supports passes a resolution "to cooperate with Weintraub, Department Store Em­ rious consideration to the feasibility of oil workers' strike. This significant other labor organizations in support of ployees Local llOO President Walter establishing a Labor Party." display of labor solidarity sets an the concept of a Labor Party that Johnson, OCAW Local 1-5 Secretary­ September 29-30-The state execu­ encouraging example for labor party would be in the interest of and benefi­ Treasurer Jake Jacobs, and others. tive board of the 10,000-member Social proponents. cial to the labor movement." Services Union Local 535 passes a March 21-California AFL-C/0 Around the same time, Anthony May 2-Interviewed by the Los An­ motion urging members to "become News reports that resolutions support­ Mazzocchi, health and safety director geles Times about the 1980 presidential involved in local labor councils regard­ ing "the idea of examining feasibility of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Work­ campaign, Henning says that workers ing the labor party is~ue." of setting up a Labor Party" have been ers union, speaks at a national AFL­ and their unions are "prisoners of a November 16-Local 535 sponsors passed by the Central Labor Councils CIO conference in San Francisco and two-party system that is now a uni­ a panel discussion in Los Angeles in the counties of Alameda, Marin, San urges the formation of a labor party. party that more and more reflects the

·12 _Nationalize oil, socialist candidate ur By Jim West cially in areas like southern California, people we should be ready to fight and LOS ANGELES-Roberta Scherr, where there is no decent mass transit, die overseas to protect their invest­ Socialist Workers Party congressional workers are at the total mercy of these ments and profits. candidate, is urging the labor move­ profit gougers. "Labor cannot sit by and allow this ment in California to "begin a fight for "Heating a home, let alone owning to continue. the nationalization of the oil compan­ one, has become a struggle for most of "We are losing jobs. ies." us. And the energy industry is moving "We are losing the fight against "The vise-grip these energy barons ahead with nuclear power plants, play­ inflation. hold on the lives of working people has ing Russian roulette with our lives and "We are losing our right to a safe become unbearable," the socialist can­ the lives of our children. and healthy environment. didate declared in a statement issued "And for what? To boost the profits "And we are going to lose our youth May 20. of Big Oil still further!" to another foreign war if the oil barons Scherr, a railroad worker and Scherr said working people are in­ have their way." member of the United Transportation censed at the recently reported first­ The only reasonable solution, Scherr · Union, is the SWP candidate in the quarter profit figures of the oil giants. said, "is for the government to take the 25th Congressional District of Califor- . Exxon smashed through all previous energy industry, so vital to our lives n1a. records with reported profits of $1.9 and welfare, out of the hands of the "I hope that the proposal for nation­ billion in just the first three months of profiteers and place it in the hands of alization of the energy industry will be the year. The Los Angeles-based Occi­ an elected board, operating totally in discussed in every local union, and dental Petroleum Corporation raked in the open, closely watched by union and that it gets serious consideration at the $227 million, an increase of 236 per­ consumer groups." upcoming labor meetings in California cent. Instead of campaigning for this called to discuss political strategy," "These profits come right out of our course, however, officials of the Cali­ she said. pockets," the socialist said. "Yet the oil fornia Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, are campaigning for a ballot proposition "There is no more compelling argu­ companies refuse to open their books to MilitanVMarc Lichtman ment for labor launching our own public inspection so that we can learn that would impose a 10 percent addi­ political party than the urgent need to the truth about their stockpiles, pro­ tional tax on the reported profits ·of oil get the oil barons' boots off our necks duction, and hidden profits. companies in California. This mea­ any increased transportation would and their greedy hands out of our "Instead, they thrive on secrecy. sure, known as Proposition 11, will result. First off, the money involved is appear on the California ballot June 3. pocketbooks. The labor movement Behind their wall of secrecy they tiny compared to the needs throughout can't do this as long as we subordinate create phony shortages, manipulate Proposition 11 the state. Second, the privately owned our needs to support for the Demo­ supplies, and conceal the world's real transportation companies like the cratic and Republican parties, the par­ energy reserves." "Television ads promote Proposition Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe ties of Big Oil." 11 as a way to 'stick it to big oil,' ;, said railroads will fight tooth and nail to Die for Exxon? Scherr. "Unfortunately, it isn't. It prevent the addition of passenger Soaring prices "And to top it all off, these robbers, offers no effective answer to this cru­ trains. "The soaring price of gasoline," with the full support of the Democratic cial problem. "Even when government funds are Scherr said, "makes it difficult for us and Republican parties, are pushing "First off, a 10 percent surtax on allocated, such as the commuter trains even to travel to work, let alone enjoy a through steps to restart the draft and California profits is a drop in the in the San Francisco Bay Area, or the social life or take a vacation. Espe- trying to convince American working bucket for giant oil companies. proposed additional service from San "But Proposition 11 provides for half Diego to Los Angeles, the railroads this surtax to be returned to the com­ have tried to shut down the service panies if they invest in California. So because passenger runs are not profita­ we're down to 5 percent. ble." "And even that will simply be passed along at the gas pump to consu­ 'Reasonable profits'? mers. So it won't cost the oil companies In a statement distributed to Califor­ a penny. Sure, the measure says that it nia voters, Governor Brown, Mayor will be illegal to pass along the tax, but Feinstein, and Proposition 11 director how can that be enforced? Their books, Press motivate a fight for the measure their profits, their real costs, will still with the slogan, "Reasonable profits, be top secret." yes. Greed, no." Among the major backers of the "But what are 'reasonable profits'?" Proposition 11 are Gov. Jerry Brown Scherr asked. "This fake measure and other Democratic Party liberals, doesn't put a dent in the billions these including San Francisco Mayor Di­ giants are raking in. What's reasona­ anne Feinstein. ble about letting them continue to hold The director of the campaign for us hostage to their ruthless scramble Proposition 11 is Bill Press, who was for profits? recently released from his post in the "Instead of campaigning for this Brown administration to conduct the proposition, the labor movement ought George Johnson, Pedro drive. to launch a campaign for nationaliza­ Scherr noted that the funds from the tion of big oil. Now. candidate for U.S. leader just returned surtax are supposed to go toward in­ "Such a campaign would get an Senate from Nicaragua creased public transportation. "As a enthusiastic response from the union railroad worker, I seriously doubt that ranks and from all working people." iifornia in June, ;ocialist program r------1 0 Yes, I want to petition in California. Send throughout the 1 me details. for a ballot spot 0 Yes, I can contribute $ to help of the dead. end the labor movement the membership," he replied. "I think I win a place on 'the ballot for the SWP. has reached in supporting the two the vast majority of our members, kers Party. I capitalist' parties. Democratic incum­ especially older members, just think in Jaign a success, 1 Name bent Alan Cranston is a sponsor of a terms of the Democratic Party-labor: bill in Congress to gut a federal law on minority coalition. But I think we will If you can peti­ I Address occupational safety and health. Cran­ have a strong sentiment among the ' for a few days, City _____ State ___ Zip __ ston's bill is opposed by the entire most active members for a labor party. I "In order to put a labor party to­ :th-get in touch I labor movement. But he was recently 1ake it to Califor­ Telephone ------­ endorsed once again by the CFL. gether it takes the top leadership of the I Clip and send to: international unions because they ltribution to help I asked Groulx about this. have the facilities, the people, the eone who can. I Socialist Workers Presidential Campaign "We have Cranston with an excel­ money to put it together. It would get a I Committee, 14 Charles Lane, New York, New lent voting record! Excellent! He voted very good response from the member­ ~lp. I York 10014. Tel. (212) 675-3820. for the deregulation of trucking, which ship." will knock hell out of the Teamsters. George Johnson termed the deepen­ He's an author of the bill on OSHA ing opposition to the policy of relying [Occupational Safety and Health Ad­ on the Democrats and Republicans ministration]. He can stand before you "one of the most important develop­ aspirations of the corporate structure few years. Every one has met fierce and just blatantly say, 'I know how to ments in the union movement in de­ of this country." resistance from the employers and a take care of you.' cades. The question of labor's entry united front of opposition from the two­ "That's the old liberal bull when into the political arena to fight for its Austerity fuels discussion party politicians. they know how to take care of the poor own interests is urgently on the The recession and antilabor actions "Every union on our executive board working people. We don't need that agenda." of both private employers and govern­ is under attack," Groulx explained. kind of politician anymore. But who The socialist candidate pledged that ment are pushing forward the labor "The private employers are trying to the hell are we going to vote for? Yorty "everywhere I go in California, every party discussion. "I think we're in for a cut down the benefits either by auto­ or Gann?" audience I speak to, I plan to promote longer and deeper recession than most mation or breaking down work rules. Dilemmas like this one are fueling this discussion and explain why an people think," Groulx told the Militant. The public employers, of course, they the labor party discussion. independent labor party is an imme­ "I assume that is going to change the don't want to spend any money." diately needed step for all working attitudes of the unions. I think we're Sentiment in ranks people-Black, white, and Latino; going to have to develop different No friend of labor I also asked Groulx how he thinks women and men; unemployed and approaches and a tougher stance." Socialist Workers candidate George union members view the labor party unorganized as well as union There have been a number of hard­ Johnson's opponent in the November idea. members-if we are to defend ourselves fought strikes in California in the past election for U.S. Senate is an example "I think there is sentiment among against the corporate onslaught."

THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 13. Attack on rights of all workers SWP campai ner fired by aer~ ...... , By Mark Friedman SAN DIEGO, Calif.-Rohr Indus­ tries, the second biggest employer in the San Diego area, has launched a broadside attack aimed at disrupting the Socialist Workers Party's presiden­ tial campaign. The attack threatens the right of every worker to express his· or her political views. Rohr employs more than 8,000 work­ ers in nearby Chula Vista. It produces airplane parts. On April 15 Rohr fired Jay Fisher, a machine operator who has worked there for two years. The grounds: "Pos­ session with intent to distribute" so­ cialist campaign leaflets and copies of the Militant. Fisher is chairperson of the Socialist Workers Party campaign committee in San Diego for the party's presidential ticket of Andrew Pulley and Matilde Zimmermann, and George Johnson for U.S. Senator from California. The committee is also organizing the campaign of Kathryn Crowder, a Rohr worker who is the SWP candidate for Congress from California's forty­ second district, which includes the Above, SWP vice-presidential candidate Matllde Zimmermann talks Rohr plant. with workers outside General Dynamics plant in San Diego. As part "Company officials came up to my of general antilabor crackdown, Rohr Industries fired SWP cam­ machine," Fisher told the Militant. paign chairperson Jay Fisher and is threatening candidate Kathryn "They took the campaign leaflets and Crowder (Inset photos). newspapers out of my toolbox­ materials which were not being distrib­ more than their personal copy of any brought two copies of Playboy maga­ face of undemocratic ballot require­ "uted on company time. And then they socialist newspaper or leaflet, they zine into the plant (the company ments, was a part of the fight for the proceeded to walk me out of the plant." would be fired immediately. claimed he must have been planning to right of all workers to participate in The firing of Fisher was followed by Bronson then repeated the threat in sell or give away one); politics. moves aimed at intimidating candi­ • the firing of a supporter of the A number of the workers at the date Crowder. front of company guards, stressing that it applied to any worker who Revolutionary Communist Party be­ meeting volunteered to help collect the cause he gave his copy of the RCP's more than 100,000 signatures needed Candidate threat~ned brought socialist campaign material into the plant. newspaper to a co-worker; to put the SWP on the California bal­ D.A. Bronson, a Rohr official, sent a • suspending a parts dispatcher for lot. letter to the SWP campaign committee On April 24 two people who were leaving his assigned area; and Encouraged by the support of co­ stating in part, "It is also our position leafletting for . the SWP campaign in • preventing workers from drinking workers for her rights, Crowder has that running for political office is front of the Rohr plant were threatened coffee or eating at their machines. not· bowed to company intimidation considered the same as seeking em­ with arrest. Police officers told them, Rohr's arbitrary firings and suspen­ and has continued to campaign ener­ ployment elsewhere." "Rohr called us to get this campaign sions, airned at putting union members getically. The company's barely veiled threat material out of here and get them off in their place, have made a lot of Since the firings and threats, she to fire Crowder unless she gave up her the property." people angry. has spoken on campuses, received ex­ campaign is also a warning to any The Chula Vista city attorney later All are new management restric­ tensive newspaper and radio coverage, other worker who might consider seek­ confirmed that anyone had the right to tions, challenging rights that Rohr and blanketed the plant with cam­ ing public office. leaflet there as the sidewalk was public workers have exercised for years. paign materials and newspapers. The next day Crowder was called in property. After the company's move to ban by Rohr officials. The company men Rohr upped the ante further by inter­ coffee drinking, Rohr workers decided What SWP stands for confiscated all her campaign mate­ vening to block Fisher from receiving to express their displeasure by refusing The San Diego edition of the Los rials. Bronson threatened that if she or unemployment compensation. overtime one weekend. Angeles Times carried a big spread any of her supporters were caught with Fisher was ruled "not eligible" by And Local 755 is pressing a grie­ May 6 on Crowder's campaign. In the State of California Employment vance demanding that Fisher be given addition to describing the harassment and Development Department because his job back. she and Fisher have received from "You were breaking a known company Rohr management, correspondent SWP leaders rule: having political material on the Company's double standard Mark Forster presented a summary of premises. . . . You were discharged for Sixteen Rohr workers came to a the SWP's election platform; it helps following a course of action detrimen­ meeting after work April 24 at which explain why the SWP campaign has hit campaign tal to your employers' interests." Fisher explained the facts about his become one of Rohr management's firing and the efforts of the union to prime targets: disruption Fisher told the Militant this is "a win his job back. Crowder spoke about "The program is to build a labor clear pattern of disruption aimed at the the violations of her civil liberties and party based on the trade unions. . . . The following message was Socialist Workers campaign. Rohr's sent to Rohr Industries in San the issues in the SWP campaign. "The SWP opposes resumption of the harassment violates federal laws Some workers were angry about the Diego May 21. draft and supports the Equal Rights against interference with election cam­ attempts to keep them from being able Amendment. It supports open borders. paigns." to see literature about Crowder's cam­ It opposes nuclear power and supports Your harassment of Kathryn Furthermore, he added, "The impli­ Crowder, Socialist Workers Party paign. One. worker pointed to Rohr's nationalization of oil and utility com­ cation that workers' political activities double standard. panies. candidate for Congress from the must conform to their 'employers' in­ 42nd District, and firing of Jay "Here Rohr is trying to prevent "The party urges full employment terests' is a good summary of the point Kathryn from campaigning for office," and cost-of-living adjustments in labor Fisher, SWP campaign chairperson Rohr is trying to establish. It's a in San Diego, violate fundamental he said, "but I can remember when contracts equal to inflation. It calls for violation of every constitutional right Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and slashing the military budget in favor constitutional rights. workers have as citizens." We demand that you cease your Jerry Brown campaigned in this plant. of social programs. They even held rallies inside and set "Crowder says her first act, if efforts to disrupt our campaign and Rohr workers under attack to intimidate Rohr workers who up literature tables." elected, would be to propose a national may want to support our candida­ The attack on the Socialist Workers These rallies were held on company strike fund for striking workers." cies or simply hear what we have campaign is not an isolated incident of time, that is, workers were paid for Rohr has issued a broad challenge to to say. harassment at Rohr. And the suppor­ listening to the Democratic and Repub­ the right of socialist workers to cam­ ters of the SWP ticket aren't the only We demand that you imme­ lican candidates. paign for office-and to the right of all targets. "No, they don't mind campaigning diately reinstate Jay Fisher and workers to be active in their unions, Management has launched a general in the plant, as long as it's for their end all harassment of Kathryn participate in elections, bring literature crackdown against the rights of the candidates," said Crowder. "But if a Crowder. of their choice to work, campaign for workforce. It intends to create an at­ candidate like me and the other SWP Your disagreement with our opin­ candidates they support, and read the mosphere of fear and intimidation in candidates is for the unions organizing ions does not give you the right to literature distributed by different polit­ preparation for a tough round of con­ a labor party to run against their tell Rohr employees what to read, ical campaigns. tract negotiations between the com­ what to think, or who to vote for. candidates, the Republicans and Dem­ The company is moving step by step, pany and International Association of Andrew Pulley, SWP candidate for ocrats-well, that's when they start trying to re-establish the kind of arbi­ Machinists Local 755. president making up rules to stop it. trary power over employees that used The crackdown has included: Matilde Zimmermann, SWP candi­ "It's their way of making sure that to exist before the unions. • an unprecedented ban on distri­ date for vice-president workers never hear about an alterna­ The fight to compel Rohr to reinstate buting material concerning union elec­ George Johnson, SWP candidate tive. It's their way of telling us how to Jay Fisher and stop harassment of tions or other union business inside the for U.S. Senate from California vote." Kathryn Crowder is a fight for the plant; She explained that the SWP's fight basic democratic rights of every work­ • the firing of a worker because he to get on the ballot in California, in the ing person. ca-ndidate backs school deseg~gation Mo.,SWP files petitions, demands ballot rights B~E~~~R~~~~~~. Mo.-Over 26,000 signatures Put Pulley and Zimmermann~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~ were filed at the state capitol here May 14 to place · h b Socialist Workers Party candidates on the Missouri ·-.. on I e 1980 a 11 0 1 ballot. The filing followed a three-week drive by ""•s,.,,;:;c;c,;:;-f"r-.:'c;;,r;_~~-··-··- SWP campaign supporters to collect well over the · \ ··-··-r··-··-··-··.,...... 1\ ~ I ·, . NORTH OAKOT A • • ...... 18,000 signatures required by the state. . ; . ! IMINNEsorA ...... _ • • In addition to the presidential ticket of Andrew o"rc;,;-·- · -·-·~ ) / i __ _ ,,~, \ P II d M .1d z· h M' . , ,o (.._ . ' . ._-:MICHIGAN- i ( , U ey an atJ e lmmermann, t e lSSOUn ( AHO\ fs0- ·-·-·-·-·-.j ,J WISCONS.IN\u·-. -- \ j ' SWP is running Martha Pettit, a laid-off auto , ; \ .. ,.'i-;.~"0.:;;;0- · -·--~ ur., DAKOTA •1 ~ ._===- '- .; .,_~~-- t' • I .. 't \.., ---- - wor k er fr om Kansas C1ty,. 10r~ U .S . S enate, and c•<"ofi.":'"·..,..·-·- . ! . . '· -_-_-_-_ ,o""- ~""""·-....,..~. · •. .• ,. -·- .J. I I 1-: -·-\ - - - - "EW -· • • Martin Anderson, a St. Louis steelworker, for gover- f"r~.o.; · -·-·~u·-, ·-~ ~;=;;.;;s,;;-·-·-..-._i~o'Wi.-~- · ....,_ ____ . ======- .. • t .i~S.c'A"; i"...'. I I. .,., - • I "\ •ILUNOI - ..,.,. -J .. - nor. ,· !----_-._:1 , J 0;:-,.AIOHIQ _-_-_ , .~- . I ~ p . 'd "W ~- -- ·- . \ , .IN I '----- ~ - A t a cap1to news con1erence, ett1t sa1 , e \ . -=----_-_-:.:."!"'cQl'6;;Ai:iQ-·.L·-·, L ) 1 ,. L---_-_-_-J\. ·;<::!·-,;0'". found the response to our petition drive overwhelm- \ f=-======-t=-=-=-=-======:..._. · ·.;;ss'Ouiii~ i ~====::_:=.-:7w ~~-,.~"1 ~· \ l~---_-_-_-_-'J'_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- · KANSAS-·-·-·-·"'i---_-_-_, I ------T ,.. . ing. Many who signed the petitions went on to sign \ ;..======t=====::::=.=-::=:=::::-::=:=::::=3 'F=====~=~ /_ .. /l'ik~~-,.... .i ,., .. campaign endorser cards and several came to \ ;;:~-:-.=-::::-r----_-_-_-_-_-_- . r----_-_-_-.:., 'K£,.ruc"' r_.~_r"' ~~...o- meetings and open houses organized during the '. ...;_~~ 2.'?."~·~.:.:::~.;;:-:-:,-;-~-;.-=;-::::-::::-=l ~~-=-=-:-::::-=-\.-.J...'-r...T...r-Jb;J;~. .•if'..&·-·r,.;'C~~~~~~-=-=- ' [- _____ -:::t'EwMEx 1 co"'i.~ · L·-·-·-·-·-·- · -·..,.---_-_-_-_...._- ..::-1.!1·"""' ~""- _ ------,tl'On dn've." '..:------~ct:+"'"t!"ih.,'·t~t+ ·-·-...,OKLAHOMA P·--·-·-,:.'f(NNESSEE _,.:..------Course Of the Peti 1------:-t.,."tl..!_?-~t TEXAS , 'ARKANSAS -, •- ....,...-.- ;- --- The news conference was attended by five televi- lt======~={+'tt~~~ l ) f.-·-r;c>s;:,-~"!{~"Oli"~. - sion stations, two radio stations, two newspapers, ··..,.:--::::-::::-:::-::::-::::-::::--Vt.~m~ ·....,·-·---.-·--! / l \ ·, Associated Press, and United Press International. ··..c~=~======sggm~ 'bulsiAi

THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 15 ERA marchers meet socialist candidates 'No choice between Democrats &Republicans' By Carol Ann Margiadano tons distributed by the Socialist Work­ CHICAGO-Andrew Pulley and Ma­ ers Party Presidential campaign. tilde Zimmermann, Socialist Workers About 2,800 people signed petitions Party candidates for president and to put Pulley and Zimmermann on the vice-president, were known and recog­ ballot in Illinois. nized by a good number of marchers And more than 1,000 copies of cam­ for the Equal Rights Amendment in paign newspapers-the Militant and Chicago on May 10. the Young Socialist-were sold. After the rally, more than 150 As the two candidates moved marchers, including Pulley and Zim­ through the swelling crowd while wait­ mermann, relaxed at a party at the ing for the Socialist Workers conting­ SWP campaign headquarters. Among ent to step off into the march, Cindy them was a young woman who was Burgess of San Francisco walked up to recently laid off from her job at U.S. shake Pulley's hand. Steel's Edgar Thomson works in Brad­ "I attended his presidential cam­ dock, Pa. paign speech at the First Unitarian Matilde Zimmermann had recently Church," she told the Militant after­ campaigned at the gates of her plant. wards, "and I was very impressed. I A member of United Steelworkers of felt I really belonged there. I've been a America Local 1219, she was basically worker. I worked my way through disgusted with the capitalist election college in an automobile factory and I circus. really feel alliance with the Socialist "They [the Democratic and Republi­ Workers." can candidates] all say the same How did she get interested in social­ things but in different ways. They all ism? "I guess mainly I just got frus­ sleep with business. They spend an trated, like everybody else is. And then· outrageous amount of money for an I began to read some Marxist writ­ election, and what for? For political ings." power. They get it all back and much A young woman from Cedar Falls, more in kickbacks, in giving jobs to Iowa, also made a point of shaking their buddies, in bribes, and so forth. Pulley's hand. You know, how they get government ._ contracts for different companies, and "Why did you want to meet Pulley," SWP presidential candidate Andrew Pulley, with daughter Aislinn in stroller, and I asked her. then let them get away with using a vice-presidential candidate Matilde Zimmermann (center, beside Pulley) led their cheaper grade of materials-anything "My father-in-law told me to be sure contingent on May 10. to shake his hand because he tells goes." people he's going to vote for Andrew In tune with mood Pulley. He doesn't like any of the other Charlene Czerak, a high school stu­ "How has the fact that Australia has Organizers of the march had invited candidates." dent from Chrysalis Learning Com­ a Labor Party helped the people of the Republican, Democratic, and Citi­ "Are there many socialists out there munity in Chicago, heard of the Social­ Australia?" Zimmermann asked him. zens Party candidates to participate as in Cedar Falls?" ist Workers alternative for the first "guests of honor" in the march and '"Yup, quite a few. We've got a new time at the march. What Labor Party meant rally. John Anderson turned up briefly. YSA chapter there. I'm not a member "Well," he explained, "the whole Edward Kennedy's campaign sent yet but I'm thinking about joining." Her attitude toward the elections was: "There's nobody I want.'' · transportation system and the tele­ Kathleen Kennedy; Eleanor Holmes Norton brought greetings from Carter; ' Just what we need ' What did she think of Anderson, phone company are nationalized. They who says he is '~independent"? are low-cost, and owned by the public, and Citizens Party vice-presidential As people gathered for the rally after not private companies. Medicine is candidate La Donna Harris spoke. marching down Columbus A venue "I hear he's for the neutron bomb," pretty well nationalized. When the Although Pulley and Zimmermann through Grant Park, Pulley and Zim­ she said, "so I can't support him either. Labor Party administration got in in were denied equal treatment with non­ mermann moved among the ERA sup­ And also I'm worried about what he 1972, it brought in a really good medi­ socialist candidates by the march or­ porters, introducing themselves and means when he says 'no draft at this cal plan. Visits to doctors were free, or ganizers, they felt that their socialist talking about the campaign. time.'" would cost only a dollar or so. And campaign was the most in tune with The discussions that resulted gave a Mick Wilson, 25, is a member of the they also increased the pensions. Pen­ the radical mood of the majority of the flavor of how quite a few demonstra­ Labor Party of Australia. He is in this sioners were having to live on practi­ marchers. tors viewed U.S. politics today. country visiting a friend, and came cally nothing. My parents are on pen­ As Pulley said in his greetings to Kate Rousmaniere from Oberlin Col­ from St. Paul, Minn., to attend the sion, and it was so bad my mother had those who came to the campaign head­ lege said she thought there would be demonstration. to work, and she's an old woman, sixty quarters following the march, "The no real choice between the Democratic He told Zimmermann it was ·hard for years old. fact that this demonstration took place and Republican nominees and that him to understand why "everybody "But many of these steps forward during an election year shows in and "someone like Matilde Zimmermann here votes for the Democrats and Re­ are being demolished by the Conserva­ of itself that the American people feel would be dynamite, just what we publicans even though there's not re­ tive government that's been in for the that the capitalist party candidates need." ally much difference between them." last five years," he told Zimmermann. can't be trusted to fight for their needs. Asked if there was much enthusiasm The socialist campaign reached They're right about that. It is going to at her school for any of the Democratic He agreed with Zimmermann that thousands of others at the demonstra­ take a militant, mass movement, based or Republican candidates, she replied, this country needs a labor party, based tion. Ten thousand campaign bro­ on the power of the labor movement, "The general reaction people would on the trade unions, that can fight for chures were distributed, and more than and that's what the Socialist Workers like to express is 'none of the above.'" the needs of working people. 750 people bought "ERA NOW" but- campaign is all about." Youth show fighting spirit at May 10 march By Carol Ann Margiadano the Young Socialist Alliance. would be better off under Andrew him everywhere. I read in Rius's CHICAGO-The fighting spirit The YSA had a contingent in the Pulley and Matilde Zimmermann. book [Marx for Beginners] that of the pro-ERA demonstrators here march and set up a literature table Carter is ruining this country and two-thirds of the world practices was indicated by the response to at the rally site. every other country he can get his Marxism while the other one-third I talked to three young women­ hands on." is arguing about it, so I started reading about it.'? ten to twelve years of age-who She said ERA "will give us the were carrying a YSA banner call­ opportunity for better jobs when we Mark Jacobson, 31, of the newly formed YSA chapter in Cedar ing for ratification of the ERA. grow up. It just means that you can be whatever you want to be, and Falls, Iowa, helped organize a con­ I asked them why ERA was you will get equal pay, equal tingent to come to the demonstra­ important to them. "It might raise hours." tion. He described how the chapter my mom's pay," said one. A youth, wearing a red bandana: "My mom and dad are divorced," was formed. "We started a Nicara­ around his forehead, came with gua solidarity coalition last fall explained another, "so she's all on two friends to look at the YSA after we saw Fred Halstead's slide her o.wn except for child support. literature table. He said he had show on Nicaragua in Iowa City. The ERA would make it easier for come to the march out of "curios­ · We got real involved in the anti­ her." ity" and because "I'm for the ERA, draft movement, and began read­ for equal rights for everybody.'' They all supported the Pulley­ ing Marx and Engels. Then five of Zimmermann ticket and were inter­ "I'm a Marxist," he told me. His us went to hear Andrew Pulley in ested in socialism. ' friends said they were Marxists Des Moines. After he spoke, we had Another young woman named too: a talk with him and decided to. Abra told me she supported Pulley "How did you get interested in form a chapter." and Zimmermann, too. "I don't Marxism?" I asked. If the spirit of the May 10 action believe what Carter is doing is "Well, I heard people talking was an indicator, there will be helping the country at all, and we about him They're talking about many more like them.

16 Big success for SWP leadership school fund · By Fred Feldman before us, and to see where we stand now in the logic of the working class struggle, its line of The drive to raise $50,000 to launch the Social­ movement of history." march toward the taking of power, the elimina­ ist Workers Party leadership school has been a The curriculum has centered around the politi­ tion of capitalism, and the building of socialism. complete success. cal writings of Marx and Engels, beginning with By representing the future of the movement in A total of $54,282 has been pledged to the fund, the Communist Manifesto and the 1848 revolu­ its present, to paraphrase Marx's words in the and $47,074 of this has been paid. Organizers of tions. Communist Manifesto, Marxism provides a vital the fund-raising project hope to collect the $7,208 The curriculum also includes some of Lenin's tool for all working people in determining the in outstanding pledges over the next few weeks. works: on imperialism and war, the roots of next steps to be taken in defending their rights fascism and the oppression of nationalities, and and advancing their interests. The big advance represented by the opening of the Bolshevik contributions on women's rights. the school, and its establishment as a basic By pausing for study and reflection, the stu­ The students are also learning Spanish. institution of the Socialist Workers Party, has dents are becoming more effective working-class They are getting a different perspective on been made possible by generous contributions fighters and leaders of the revolutionary workers Marxism and its significance. All too often, from hundreds of members and supporters. party. socialists fall into the habit of thinking of Marx­ As Betsey Stone explained, this is only the first As Betsey Stone, director of education for the ism as a set of correct ideas thought up by very group of students. "After a while, there will have SWP, explained at a February 23 fund-raising intelligent individuals-Marx, Engels, Lenin, been dozens and dozens who will have gone party in New York, the students are "party Trotsky. through the school. Think of the enormous im­ leaders who have assumed very big responsibili­ But Marxism is really the political and theoret­ pact this will have on the party." ties but who never had much of a chance up to ical expression of the interests of the most now to carry out a systematic study of the productive and progressive social class-the "The spirit and understanding engendered by fundamentals of Marxism." working class. Marxism arose out of the emer­ the school," she predicted, "will spread through The participants, she continued, "will be able gence, rise, and initial struggles of this class. the party, and give the whole party confidence to step back for a while, to look at the sweep of Marxism summarizes the lessons of the history that we can be successful in the big struggles history, to study what revolutionists have done and experiences of working people. It shows the ahead." How N.C. cops let KKK-Nazi gunmen kill five By Craig Stevens was assembling, making continual loads of armed right-wingers had just former play in planning the murderous GREENSBORO-Greensboro and reports on its location. The detective opened fire on at least fifty unarmed attack of November 3? North Carolina authorities are contin­ and other cops were aware of the demonstrators in the heart of the In 1961, racist thugs beat up freedom uing their efforts to pin the blame for caravan's destination from the mo­ Black community. riders in a Birmingham bus depot, the November 3 murder of five anti­ ment it set out. The official police version provides after arranging with the local police to Klan demonstrators by a Klan-Nazi hit Ten minutes passed between the enough information to expose complic­ be given fifteen minutes without police squad on the demonstrators them­ time the Klan and Nazis set out and ity with the murderers, but still it intervention. selves. the time the first shots were fired. leaves more questions. Was some similar arrangement They have indicted six anti-Klan When the officer commanding the tac­ The identity and role of the police made in Greensboro? demonstrators on felony charges while tical units heard that the caravan was informer among the Klan-Nazi at­ Despite the fact that the police in­ a number of racists who publicly admit only about six blocks from the assem­ tackers is still a secret. former in Greensboro did nothing to participating in the attack have not bly point, he radioed his men, who Police informers were actively in­ prevent the murders, Gov. James been indicted. were eating lunch, that they had four­ volved in the Birmingham, Alabama, Hunt's proposal for "preventing" sim­ But the facts are giving officials teen minutes to be in place. church bombing that killed four Black ilar attacks is increased use of police trouble. The cops also attempt to blame the children in 1963, and in the murder of informers. He suggested that not only The Greensboro Police Department's anti-Klan group for creating confusion civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo in the Klan and Nazi, but "communist" own report, issued three weeks after by having demonstrators at two loca­ Alabama in 1965. and antinuclear groups should be sub­ the murder, clearly points to their tions at the same time. This alleged What part did the Greensboro in- jected to such infiltration. responsibility for allowing the massa­ confusion was generally accepted in cre to occur. local press reports 'as the reason police The report, meant to whitewash the were not at the scene. role of the police, proves that the cops Again, the report itself gives the lie had more than adequate warning that to this excuse. Police cars were directed armed Klanners were preparing an to the wrong assembly site, but not Ben Chavis, Anne Braden attack. because of any confusion as to where The report says that police had an the shooting was going on. Instead, informer in the KKK group as it as­ the lieutenant in charge advised avail­ say ~Free anti-racists!' sembled early that morning. The in­ able cars not to go to the place of the Rev. Ben Chavis and Anne cials to blame the victims for the former reported to police that the group shooting! Braden, veteran activists in the crime that occurred in Greensboro was armed and intended to heckle the Here is the official version of his southern civil rights movement, last November 3 .." marchers. directions to the squad cars imme­ have denounced the indictment on Five of the six people indicted are The cops did not stop them as they diately after the Klan opened fire. "Lt. riot charges of six anti-Klan dem­ members of the Communist Work­ approached the demonstration despite Spoon further advised, 'Don't all come onstrators in Greensboro, North ers Party, which staged the anti· the fact that they were carrying con­ to the area, I'll advise further when I Carolina. · Klan rally. Five CWP members cealed weapons and intended to dis­ arrive on the scene.' Lt. Spoon indi­ were killed when Klan and Nazi rupt the march. The charges stem from the No­ cated he was fully aware the problem vember 3 anti-Klan rally that was gunmen opened fire. Only one policeman was on the was at Everitt and Carver Drive, but attacked by Klan-Nazi gunmen. Braden and Chavis said the at­ scene until almost a minute after the he directed the police units to the tack on the anti-Klan demonstra­ shooting began. The report attempts to Windsor Community Center area Chavis and Braden called the tors in Greensboro is "an attack on excuse this failure by pointing out that [eight blocks away] as he did not want charges "a disgrace to Greensboro, the entire people's movement in the Klan moved earlier than they an­ a large number of vehicles to respond to North Carolina, to the nation, this country-just at a moment ticipated. to Everitt and Carver Drive unless and to humanity." when the spirit that activated the But a police detective followed the they were needed." "We are outraged anew," they civil rights movement is having a racists' caravan to the location in the This was the police department's continued, "at the efforts of offi- revival all across our land." Black community where the march approach when they knew nine car-

VIRGINIA, Minn.-Supporters of breaking into the home of an Indian democratic rights on the Mesabi Iron family and beating up several people. Range are strongly protesting attacks The following day, SWP congres­ against the newly opened campaign sional candidate Ilona Gersh received headquarters of the Socialist Workers two telephone threats. "We know how Party here. to take care of nigger lovers like you," These attacks began the day after the first caller stated, "and you're easy Andrew Pulley, SWP presidential can­ to find because we know where you didate, ended a tour of northern Minne­ live, where you work, and where your sota. office is." A rock was thrown through the Ericson was arraigned May 19 and storefront windows of the headquar­ pleaded not guilty. SWP congressional candidate Ilona Gersh points to rock-damaged ters on May 16. A number of prominent individuals window of campaign office. At 4:30 the next morning, racist on the Iron Range issued a joint state­ epithets and threats were spray ment denouncing the attacks on the tinue to take a strong stand against without harassment is guaranteed." painted on the back door. SWP. those who carry out such acts." Signers included Vernon Bellecourt Neighbors saw the vandal and called The statement asked for "full prose­ of the American Indian Movement; police, who arrested Rodney Dale Eric­ "We do not want racist violence to cution for these acts of vandalism" Ann Wognum, editor of the Ely Echo, a son before he could leave the scene. spread to the Iron Range," the state-. and called on "the city authorities to daily newspaper published in the Ericson has been in jail many times. ment declared. "We feel certain that ensure that the Socialist Workers Par­ nearby town of Ely; and Louise The charges ranged from rape to the people of our community will con- ty's right to participate in the elections Grahms of the Virginia School Board.

THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 17 Discussion needed on how to fight back Steel contract sidesteps company attacks By Stu Singer · · · Steel companies and top United Steelworkers officials are overjoyed about the new three-year basic steel contract signed April 17. The Carter administration joined the celebration by immediately certifying it as within the federal wage guidelines. Local union presidents voted over­ whelmingly in favor, 333-42. What is this new contract like? How does it compare with previous basic steel pacts in 1977 and 1974? The basic steel contract has re­ mained about the same since 1974. Comparing the 1980 version with the earlier ones, there are a few pluses and minuses, but no substantial change. If the contract has not changed much, other things have. Steelworkers are facing 18 percent inflation so far in 1980 following 13 percent in 1979. Plant shutdowns and job eliminations have reduced the number of workers at the nine companies directly covered under the contract by as much as 100,000 in ten years. Tens of thou­ sands more are on layoff. At the moment this contract was approved, new layoff notices were be­ ing issued for steelworkers at the giant Bethlehem mill at Sparrows Point near Baltimore. Just in the month since the contract was signed there have been additional layoffs at the Gary Works and South Works of U.S. Steel and at Jones and Laughlin, Republic, and Armco mills. A stronger contract is needed for the problems of 1980. Steelworkers did not Youngstown steel mill. New contract does not deal with epidemic of layoffs and shutdowns. get it.

COLA and pensions needed improvement in the COLA members, who did not receive their among the iron ore miners in northern A good example is the cost-of-living formula. But this was not won. May 1 COLA raise of thirty-two cents. Minnesota, District 33. adjustment. Many steelworkers con­ Probably. the best contract improve­ Although the pension changes are This opposition came together sider this the best thing in the con­ ment since 1977 is an increase in some definitely an improvement for workers around the campaign of Ed Sadlowski tract. The COLA increases every three pensions, both for future retirees and already retired, the new pension for­ for president of the union in 1977. months keep bread on the table. the 140,000 already on pensions. mula is actually worse than the old one Sadlowski had been elected District 31 But union figures show real wages of But the money for the modest in­ for some workers who are ready to director in a hotly contested campaign steelworkers declined in the first nine crease does not come from the compan­ retire. Union activists in Cleveland in 1974. In the 1977 election, Sadlowski months of 1979. ·The union proposed a ies. It is paid by working union and Youngstown found in computing was defeated by Lloyd McBride, who the complicated formula that a few was supported by the incumbent "offi­ workers would get as much as sixty cial family," by a three-to-two margin. dollars a month more under the old But Sadlowski actually won a major­ formula than the new one. ity of the votes from the iron ore Other changes in the contract are miners and basic steel workers, indi­ $10,000 from each worker uneven. The only clear addition from cating support for the right to vote and Steelworkers are supposed to be But don't worry. The nine basic 1977 is cheap: two forty-dollar pay­ strike and for a more aggressive fight "responsible" in ·their demands. steel companies did not forget their ments for work shoes over the three­ by the union against the companies. The employers, the press, and the shareholders, who divide.d year life of the contract. There was speculation about the government say that it would be $424,595,000 of loot among them­ This does not compare well with the future of ENA before the 1980 contract terribly unfair, for instance, to ask selves. additional paid holiday won in the last was signed. Steel industry spokesmen the corporations to pay for modest Below is a list of the operating contract. There are no new holidays or suggested that the ENA guarantees increases in the pensions of reti­ profits for 1979 of the big nine steel sick days this time. too large wage hikes as the price of a rees. No, the workers have to companies. One thing to keep in The contract contains increases in no-strike pledge. Most union officials "share the burden." mind about these figures concerns insurance coverage, but this is bal­ want ENA to continue. No decision When you look at how the steel poor U.S. Steel. anced by increased deductible has yet been reached. barons are doing, you can under­ Poor U.S. Steel's operating prof­ amounts. In other words, more money Negotiations on the future of ENA stand why providing a few dollars its declined by $750,000,000 from will have to be paid by the worker for will take place prior to the 1983 con­ for the retirees would be more than 1978 to '79 because of shutting initial medical costs before the im­ tract. Most likely the companies want they could bear. down fifteen plants. But while fig­ proved insurance program comes into to see if there will be any local issues The 1979 salaries and bonuses of ures don't lie, management, ac­ effect. strikes this year. They want to use the some top steel industry executives countants and other liars still threat of taking away ENA to pressure were: know how to figure. No right to vote or strike union leaders to prevent local strikes. Armco, chief executive officer H. And after they figure out all the When the Experimental Negotiating Holiday, Jr.-$459,000, up $119,000 tax breaks they can get and equip­ Agreement governing the basic steel from 1978; chairman C. William ment they can cannibalize and contract was signed in 1973, it was met Local issues Verity, Jr.-$525,000, up $47,000. workers they can cheat out of pen­ with effusive praise by the steel com- · The ENA permits local strikes over Bethlehem, chairman Lewis sions and other benefits, we'll see panies and the big-business press. issues not covered in the basic con­ Foy-$460,000, up $86,000; vice­ how much poor U.S. Steel lost by Under ENA the union gives up its tract. Under this provision 15,500 iron chairman Frederick West, Jr.­ closing those plants. right to strike over basic contract ore miners struck for up to 138 days in $289,000, up $37,000. 1979 operating profits: issues in exchange for company guar­ 1977 over health, safety, and working Inland, chairman Frederick U.S. Steel-$129,500,000 antees of 3 percent minimum annual conditions and also to win incentive Jaicks-$448,000, up $31,000; vice­ Bethlehem Steel-$826,000,000 raises, a cost-of-living escalator, and a pay like the rest of the steelworkers chairman Raymond Carlen­ Jones and Laughlin (LTV)- $150 bribe to each steelworker paid under the basic contract. $252,000, up $10,000. $449,903,000 every three years when the contract is The companies claimed the strike U.S. Steel, chairman David Rod­ Armco-$530,022,000 signed. violated the ENA. · But they finally erick-$360,000, up $47,000; presi­ N ational-$408,636,000 caved in after four and a half months dent William Roesch-$285,000, up Republic-$281,771,000 The contract ratification procedure without their main supply of ore. $74,000. Inland-$341 ,431,000 excludes the membership. Steelworkers In the 1980 negotiations one of the Wheeling-Pittsburgh, chairman Allegheny Ludlum- cannot vote on their contract. The company goals was to prevent a repeat Dennis Carney-$355,000, up $143,027,000 basic contract is approved by the presi­ of the 1977 strike. They got agreement $95,000; vice-president George Wheeling-Pittsburgh­ dents of the locals. This weakens the that incentive pay is not a local issue. Esler-$178,000, up $37,000. $108,237,000 union's bargaining strength. But they agreed to equalize incentive Note that nearly every one of That comes to a total of $3.218 Opposition to ENA and support to rates in the mines and the steel mills. these "steelmen," as they like to billion, which equals a contribution membership ratification of contracts It is still possible there will be strikes call themselves, got a pay raise last of $10,000 from the labor of each are two central issues of the opposition by some locals. For example, Local year larger than the total yearly steelworker employed by these com­ forces in the steelworkers union. 2609 at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows pay of any steelworker. panies. The opposition has been strongest in Point mill voted overwhelmingly to the Chicago-Gary area, District 31, and authorize a strike if local issues there

18 cannot be resolved by the August 1 these negotiations plus the full cost of support this contract thought it was companies. deadline. Those issues include health, substantial pension improvements for the best that could be obtained. But it safety, and a number of women's already retired employees." was really the least that could be When the membership of the steel­ rights issues. The majority of steelworker local offered without sparking · a revolt workers has been able to flex its mus­ A ·local strike is also possible at the presidents seem to have been con­ within the union. cles big gains have been won. Look at largest basic steel local, 1010 at Inland vinced to worry about the profit con­ There is enough in the contract to the organizing victory at the Newport News shipyard, the 1977 iron miners' Steel in East Chicago, Indiana. One of cerns of management in formulating a buy the companies a little more time. strike, the affirmative-action victory in the key issues there is that the com­ "responsible" contract. In 1977, when the local presidents the Brian Weber case. pany clean up the coke ovens, which This approach is irresponsible to the were first presented with the contract, are ruining the health and shortening membership. It will never win a they voted it down. It took browbeat­ These victories did not start by de­ the lives of Inland workers. stronger contract. ing and threats from outgoing presi­ termining whether or not they would The basic contract does not take up The union has to look beyond the dent I.W. Abel to get it passed on ,a, hurt company profits. The union could coke oven safety at all. The only im­ "present economic conditions of the revote. not have been organized in the first provement on safety issues is its call companies." The starting point is the In 1980, with basically the same place with that approach. for a study of carbon monoxide needs of the membership. contract presented under much worse dangers. economic conditions, only forty-two With an average of four steelwork­ Reactions local presidents voted against it. ers killed by the companies every The most common reaction Militant Is the union becoming more conser­ month, a real fight is needed on job correspondents report from other steel­ vative? safety. workers around the country is relief No. But the logic of mistaken posi­ the contract is not worse. For example, tions in the past is starting to catch up Affirmative action there was fear the entire three-year with the union. For years steelworker The contract calls on the federal cost-of-living allowance would be given leaders subordinated the needs of the judge who supervises the Basic Steel up. members and workers in general to the Consent Decree to slightly weaken its Excluding the membership from de­ profit needs of the companies. But provisions. The consent decree, signed cision making contributes to cynicism these interests are incompatible. If the in 1974, provides for affirmative action about the union in general. The basic union helps company profits by fight­ in hiring and advancement for Black, union idea of steadily improving the ing competition from imports, then the Latino, and women workers. working conditions and standard of union is expected to help company The proposed change to limit job living of the members seems to have profits by supporting the closing of transfer rights sets a dangerous prece­ been abandoned. outdated plants. dent. This contract provision is being If the union allows a relatively small challenged by Local 65 at U.S. Steel number of its members to win wages South Works in Chicago. and benefits several times better than The contract does not address the other members of the same union-not problem that Inland Steel, one of the to mention members of weaker unions nine companies under the contract, is and the unorganized-the end result is Joseph Odorcich, USWA vice-president: not a party to the consent decree. that the weight of those on the bottom 'To have a union you have to have a For the other eight companies, the drags down those at the top. company, and that company has to consent decree remains in effect. But make bucks.' the layoffs and· plant closings are Discussif;m needed gutting its intent. The job gains of low The whole approach of the union seniority women and minorities are needs to be discussed and evaluated. The discussion in the union can start being lost as they are the first ones Union activists have to overcome the -from discussions the companies have pushed out· of work. helplessness many steelworkers feel already held. Their position is clear. In reporting back to their locals on under the attacks from the company They intend to push productivity to get the contract, some steelworker officials and initiate discussions on how the more work from fewer workers. They who are leaders of the right-to-ratify union can use its strength to fight hope to get union help based on the forces said they voted in favor of the back. contract provision for joint productiv­ contract. They explained their opinion Many of the biggest problems the ity committees. that voting it down would only mean it Militant/Andy Rose union faces go beyond contract negoti­ would go to arbitration, where they felt Alice Peurala, president of Local 65: 'I ations. They are political problems: Industry goals it would get worse. voted NO on the contract. I am for the safety and health, pension rights, affir­ The steel industry program was But USW A Vice-president for Ad­ raise for pensioners, but I believe it's the mative action, plant closings, the shor­ spelled out in the American Iron and ministration Joseph Odorcich, who led responsibility of the corporation to pay ter workweek with no cut in pay. These Steel Institute report last January the negotiations after President Lloyd for it. They can afford it. Steelworkers all require government action in addi­ called Steel at the Crossroads. McBride was hospitalized, was quoted suffering from the worst inflation in tion to contract language and the day­ They want better tax rates from the in the "We didn't Wall Street Journal:. years cannot.' to-day fights to enforce the contract. government. Lower company taxes push the companies all the way. If we To make any real progress in win­ mean higher taxes for steelworkers. had gone to arbitration, we probably ning and extending these demands They want government environmen­ would have done better." There is strong opposition among requires independent union political tal controls dropped. That represents According to the industry magazine steelworkers to the· no-strike pledge action: a labor party. more health risks for workers at the Iron Age, Odorcich said: "We didn't and the denial of membership ratifica­ The labor party fight is tied in to a plants and everyone who lives near push for what we thought we were tion. more aggressive fight for contract pro­ them. entitled to .... To have a union you These democratic goals are not ends visions. It is tied in to the fights local have to have a company. And that in themselves. The right to vote and unions will conduct against company And they want more import restric­ company has to make bucks." the right to strike can be powerful efforts at productivity drives and the tions in order to raise their own prices The contract summary given the weapons in the hands of the workers continuing battles for job safety. and push inflation higher. That means local presidents explains: "It was not against the companies. With these Supporting Democrats and Republi­ cutting our standard of living even possible to convince the Companies, in rights the union would be in a stronger cans, the political parties run by the more. their present economic condition, to position to win genuine improvements companies, is playing the same game The union needs discussions on how absorb the full cost of the substantial in pay and working conditions. as basing contract demands on the to fight against the companies, not gains for active employees achieved in The union leaders who voted to supposed "economic health" of those more campaigns to support them. For example, what can be done to stop plant closings? The union could demand to examine company books. If management does not want to run a Steel shutdowns, layoffs ... more to come plant, nationalize it. Union members in the mines and mills are highly The owners of the steel industry Prior to the closing, U.S. Steel got ent union, shut down completely, skilled people. They know they can do have a litany of villains to blame for one of its Youngstown mills to com­ and without warning March 28. their jobs with or without the presence the industry's problems-anybody, pete in a profitability contest, prom­ Paychecks bounced and pension of management. in fact, except themselves. ising to keep it open if it made a funds are in jeopardy. But there is one victim who al­ profit. It did. Then U.S. Steel closed Wheeling-Pittsburgh got a $100 mil­ What can be done to protect and ways pays a price: the steelworker. it anyway- pocketing the extra lion federal loan guarantee to build a extend safety rules? Over 20,000 have been thrown out profit. rail mill and announced a special $1 How can full pay for all workers hit of work in the last few months. U.S. U.S. Steel demanded that workers a share dividend for stockholders. It by layoffs and plant closings be guar­ Steel chairman David Roderick pre­ at three American Bridge plants called meetings of steelworkers to anteed? dicted in Birmingham that the work­ choose either an inferior contract or threaten to close its Allenport mill What about more pension raises and force would decline at least seven the shutdown of the plants. Two near Pittsburgh unless they agreed adding escalator clauses to them? percent more in the next period. agreed to the worse contract, the to a reduction in incentive pay rates. Is it possible to shorten the work­ other is scheduled for closing. The company got what it wanted, week with no cut in pay to create more Where they don't eliminate jobs and gave no promise to keep the mill jobs? outright, the industry forces workers Jones and Laughlin (owned by open. The conditions of work and every­ to accept cuts in real wages. Even LTV) announed closing of two By mid-May, blaming drastic re­ day life bring up these questions. The those under the basic steel contract former Youngstown Sheet and Tube ductions in automobile production, discussions around them now will lead face a productivity drive to combine plants in Youngstown. When it the steel companies cut production to the actions needed for their achieve­ crafts, use more outside contractors, bought them a few years earlier, further. The blast furnaces which ment. and squeeze more work from fewer J&L claimed it would be able to keep produce ·raw iron are being shut The words written on the pieces of workers. the plants operating. down around the country. For exam­ paper that make up the 1980 steel­ Below is a partial list of recent J&L is now talking about buying ple, U.S. Steel shut six of its twenty­ workers contract do not settle the steel industry cutbacks: Kaiser Steel in Fontana, Califor­ two furnaces; National, three of its question of wh at conditions steelwork­ U.S. Steel announced in late 1979 nia-again claiming this will save ten, running the others at reduced ers will face for the next three years. closing all or parts of fifteen plants, the mill. output; Republic has shut two of its The union, and workers in general, can eliminating 12,500 jobs. This m­ Wisconsin Steel (owned by Enviro­ eleven blast furnaces; and J&L shut get whatever we are big enough to cluded stopping operations m dyne), a Chicago steel mill whose one in ClevE:land. fight for. Youngstown, Ohio. 4,100 workers were in an independ- More shutdowns are planned. Steelworkers in particular are big enough to put up quite a fight.

THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 By William Gottlieb (fourth of a series) John Maynard Keynes and his followers argued that depressions in the capitalist business cycle Can government could be solved by increasing the total spending power in the economy. After all, the problem in a depression is that supply exceeds demand, with cutbacks in production and employment following each other in a downward spiral. 'fine tune' economy? The Keynesians therefore recommended that when economic depression threatened, th~· govern­ ment follow an expansionary fiscal policy and an easy monetary policy. ;{ Fiscal policy refers to the government's taxing -- -- ~- I , rr . f111 L. I~ , . ~ and spending. Monetary policy refers to the govern­ I '!:-,wJ,_\ ~- 42/ , ment's banking operations. Expansionary fiscal policy means deficit spend­ ing. That is, the government spends more than it takes in in taxes. In this way the government makes a net contribution to total demand. When the government runs a deficit it has to somehow raise the extra money not covered by tax receipts. Just like an individual who wants to spend more than his or her immediate income, the govern­ ment borrows the difference. It borrows by issuing bonds-pieces of paper with a promise to repay, at a given rate of interest, by a certain date. A small example is a U.S. Savings Bond. Much more of the government's debt is in large-denomination bonds that yield much higher rates of interst. These bonds are bought and sold by big investors, rich individu­ als as well as banks and corporations. This is where monetary policy comes in. Federal Reserve Board Monetary policy is carried out by the institution known as the central bank. In the United States the central bank is the Federal Reserve Bank. It repre­ sents a fusion between the privately owned commer­ cial banks (which own the Federal Reserve) and the 'Sorry, but I hope you'll try us again sometime when you don't need It quite so badly.' government (the president appoints the top offi­ cials, subject to approval by the senate). The basic function of the Federal Reserve Board, the purpose of government deficit spending. the unknown of social revolution. and central banks in other capitalist countries, is to If, however, the Federal Reserve increases the In the years after the end of the Great Depression, serve as banker for the commercial banks and the amount of funds available for lending, interest rates that's how most working people felt as well. government. will fall, Keynesians argued. So a combination of The years that followed the 1930s seemed to prove The large commercial banks keep a certain an easy monetary policy and government deficit the Keynesian case. The huge deficits and ex­ spending would increase demand, thus ending a tremely easy monetary policies needed to finance depression. World War II caused demand to soar past the Many of the more traditionalist economists and economy's ability to produce, leading to serious 1.9 .---,.....-i---~~...,. conservative politicians opposed the Keynesians on inflation while unemployment disappeared. 1.8 r--:~~-...... ~~- alism the grounds that deficit spending and easy money Serious inflation continued to 1948 since there 1.7 policies were inflationary. The Keynesians had was a great pent-up demand for goods unavailable 1 1.6 • • what seemed to be a logical response. · during the war. The Truman administration took 1.5 measures to curb demand in 1948 and inflation was During depressions, they argued, when supply ended. A recession followed, but the administration 1.4 CriSIS exceeds demand, it's absurd to worry about infla­ moved once again to increase demand and the tion. Prices tend to fall in a depression. As long as economy recovered. production is significantly below the physical ca­ The Korean War brought a renewed burst of pacity to produce, there could be little or no infla­ inflation, but measures to curb demand ended the amount of their funds on deposit in the Federal tion . .Only during periods of extreme boom-or inflation even before the war ended. Under Eisen­ Reserve. The U.S. Treasury does likewise. during wartime, when demand exceeds supi?lY by a hower the economy experienced a series ·of reces­ The Federal Reserve issues currency. Look at a significant margin-could serious inflation develop. sions. But even this admi~istration intervened dollar bill-it says "Federal Reserve Note." And the Their medicine might cause a slight rise in prices promptly to increase demand when recession hit. Federal Reserve tries to regulate the money supply, as demand increased. But the Keynesians said this Under Kennedy and Johnson the government which is made up largely of checking accounts was preferable to depression. And, they added, again pushed to increase demand. Production in­ rather than actual currency. gradual inflation would have the further advantage creased rapidly and unemployment fell. Since there It can do this in various ways. The most impor­ of eroding real wages. This is true because it always was much spare productive capacity and considera­ tant is known as "open market" operations. In open takes time for workers to realize they are losing ble unemployment left over from the Eisenhower market operations the Federal Reserve buys or sells purchasing power to inflation, and more time to win recessions, .the increase in demand did not exceed government bonds. When it buys a government higher wages to make up. (This latter argument the ability of the economy to produce and there was bond from a private capitalist, the amount of money was, of course, ignored by the defenders of Keyne­ little inflation. in the banking system is increased. When the sian methods within the labor movement.) Only during the Vietnam War did inflation begin Federal Res·erve sells a bond, the amount of money · to seriously rise. But this inflation was much less in the banking system is decreased. Historical experience severe than during and right after World War II or Another less important tool is called "discount­ The Keynesians also had historical experience to the Korean War, since the much larger U.S. econ­ ing." This means the Federal Reserve either buys point to. Prices always fell during depressions, and omy of the 1960s could cope more easily with the short-term commercial paper (IOUs issued by corpo­ quite sharply during the 1930s. Until recent times, it pressure of wartime demand. rations to raise cash) or makes loans to the banks. was only during booms that prices rose much. And The capitalists and their spokespeople were con­ These opera tions increase the amount of money in the really serious inflations were nearly always vinced the U.S. economy was now immune to the banking system until these short-term debts are associated with wars or their immediate aftermath. serious recessions. In celebration Time magazine repaid. The Keynesians proclaimed that governments put Keynes's picture on the front cover of one issue A third tool is changing the reserve requirements could regulate the economy and prevent serious in the mid-1960s. (Keynes died in 1946). of the banks. The Federal Reserve can change the economic crises. If depression threatened, the gov­ Today Keynesianism is in shambles. The U.S. amount of money that the commercial banks or ernment should simply run a deficit and the central economy has entered its third recession in ten other lenders have to keep on deposit with it. If the bank should follow an easy monetary policy. years. The slump of 1974-75 was quite severe and Federal Reserve wants to increase the amount of If inflation developed, the government should do the one we are now entering may be worse. Yet money available for loans, it can decrease the the opposite. That is, it should run budget surpluses inflation soars on. reserve requirements. If it wants to reduce the and the central bank should follow a tighter mone­ Far from following a Keynesian policy against amount of loans it can increase reserve require­ tary policy, reducing the amount of loanable funds depression, the Carter administration is doing the ments. and allowing interest rates to rise. This would reverse. It has sworn it will eliminate the budget reduce demand back to the limits of supply, ending deficit, and the Federal Reserve under Carter­ Easy money the inflation. The government and central bank appointee Paul Volcker has sworn to stick to a tight The Keynesians urged that deficit spending be would then reverse course-"reflate"-before se­ money policy. accompanied by central policies to increase the rious recession developed. Indeed, the administration moved to make money amount of money in the banking system available The Keynesians generally admitted that perfect even tightet in March, when the recession was for loans. That means a so-called easy monetary results could not be obtained. There were limits to already deepening and layoffs were escalating fast. policy. Otherwise, government borrowing would how much demand could be "fine tuned." Anyway, And this in an election year! Conservative Republi­ simply increase the demand for the existing supply the employers like an occasional recession to cool can Ronald Reagan is rubbing his hands at the of loanable funds. That would tend to push up wage demands by workers. Surely, they argued, it prospect of running against a reborn Herbert interest rates. And a rise in interest rates disc~ur­ was better to put up with slight inflation and Hoover. So what is wrong with Keynesian econom­ ages borrowing and spending, which would defeat occasional recession rather than take the leap into ics? Watch for our next article. 20 The Great Society Harry Ring

Pot calls kettle brown-The in coping with the oil shortage, top pay North Carolina Textile Manufacturers went to the chairman of Mobil. $3.6 Association ran ads asserting it was million. unfair to link brown lung disease with cotton dust. "Doctors know," they said, "that the majority of lung diseases are Stiff proposition-Entrepreneurs related to smoking." R.J. Reynolds who charge up to $60,000 to freeze Tobacco responded that the ads were corpses were criticized by California "erroneous and inflammatory." authorities. The freezing is said to be in case future scientists find cures for the particular ailment that killed peo­ Name of the game-Arthur Bums, ple. The criticism of the freezer com­ former chairman of the Federal Re­ panies was made py the state Ceme­ serve Board, says he's pleased to see tery Board. UAW president Doug Fraser on the Chrysler board of directors. He said Fraser will "learn something about the Socialized medicine, anyone?­ company's needs and problems and By 1990, the government estimates, especially its need for profits." there may be a surplus of 185,000 doctors. Does that mean more medical Things are tough all over-Last care? Of course not. The added doctors year only nine corporate executives . will be mainly specialists concentrated "earned" more than a million dollars, in major cities. "If things go as in the Shopping tip-If you have trouble $9,000. ·Better yet, Concord's Delirium as compared to thirteen the year pre­ past," a medical official explained, "we getting your glove on over that bulky IV. Four one-hundredths thick, vious. Apparently for his doggedness will continue to get more surgeons and watch, try the new Omega slimline. $15,000. more unnecessary surgery." Less than a sixteenth of an inch thick,

Women in Revolt 'Death of a Princess' Suzanne Haig

Mobil ran an ad in the New York Times denounc- It examines the inferior status assigned to women The film also asks the question, "who is responsi­ ing it. by the Saudi regime and depicts the tension be­ ble for maintaining such a backward regime?" and The State Department didn't want it aired. tween old and new in Saudi society. some of the characters suggest an answer-one that Some cities banned it. My favorite scene is one in which Rider visits a is not anti-Arab but anti-imperialist. You can see why "Death of a Princess," a film on modem women's college. A woman teacher tells Several Palestinians-who are treated sympathet­ the 1977 execution of Saudi Arabian Princess Misha him about the segregation of women. All the ically in the film-tell Rider that the very Arab and her student lover, was the most watched TV teachers are women. A visiting male teacher must rulers who controlled the princess's life also refuse program in the time segment in New York. It's quite lecture in one room while the female students watch to fight for the Palestinians. unusual for a public television program to be so over closed circuit TV in another. "They have They see the princess as a "kindred spirit" popular. phones at their desks to converse with him," she imprisoned "like we are in the camps, deprived of Some commentators dubbed it anti-Arab, and a says smiling. A political chaperon from the Minis­ our homeland." representative of the Saudi monarchy called it try of Information who is accompanying Rider A woman teacher is more explicit. "This regime is "offensive to the entire Islamic world." watches furtively from the back of the room and your responsibility," she says. "The West took over Are these really the reasons that the State Depart­ fingers his worry beads. after the Turks, and you always side with the ment and Mobil objected? I don't think so. One sees the incredible hypocrisy of this regime. enemies of progress, because you want to control us Since when has the U.S. government been con­ The princess is executed for committing adultery. as you do in Iran." (The action of•the film takes cerned about opposing racism toward the Arabs or But her grandfather, the powerful elder brother of place before the shah was ousted.) Islam? Our news media screams daily about the the king and the one who orders the execution of the These actions against women by the monarchy Iranians, called them crazed religious fanatics. And princess and her lover without a trial, is a notorious , are "deliberate colonial acts used to keep the people that's the way they portrayed the thousands who playboy. down," she explains, and the execution was meant challenged the Saudi monarchy .by seizing the The princesses are depicted as bored women kept as an example to intimidate anyone who tries to Mosque in Mecca and demonstrating in the oil in isolated splendor. They are enormously wealthy. defy it. fields last fall. Squads of ser,vants do everything for them in The executions were followed by two laws limit­ What is "Death of a Princess" really about? palatial mansions, while the princesses remain ing women's freedom to travel. and curtailing their The film, a dramatized documentary, takes the uneducated and are denied any rights to a life of right to work. form of a series of interviews by a journalist named their own. The greatest joy of one princess, Rider is But the film shows that people are questioning Christopher Rider who attempts to find out the told, is to drive at night to the Hotel Contlnental this repressive monarchy, and it is clear that it will truth about the executions. and sit in the back seat of her limousine, unseen, not be able to stem the struggle for freedom forever. It shows a backward, patriarchal society kept watching the people come and go. You can see why King Khalid and the State that way by the cruel dictatorship of an oil-rich, Their only outlets are complicated sexual liaisons Department are nervous. parasitic royal family-the Saud family, one of including cruising in their limousines for men in the The princess rebelled in her way. Washington's most loyal allies in the Middle East. desert. The masses will rebel in theirs. What's Going On

CALIFORNIA UNION VICTORY AT NEWPORT NEWS. OREGON NEW YORK Speaker: Eli Green, member of United Steelworkers SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK CITY Local 8888 in Newport News, Virginia, member of PORTLAND EL SALVADOR VIDEO: "This is the BPR," a one­ MIAMI: THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE. Eyewit­ Socialist Workers Party. Sun , June 8, 7 p.m. 216 E. PACIFIC NORTHWEST LABOR HISTORY. hour documentarv. Sun .. June 1, barbeque and ness report by Andrew Pulley, Socialist Workers 6th St. Donation $1.50. Ausp: SWP and Young Speaker· Jerry Lembcke, humanities corrdinator of chicken dinner 6 p.m .. program with speakers and Party candidate for president. Sat. , May 24, 8 p.m. Socialist Alliance. For more information call (9 19) Pac1f ic Northwest Labor College, vice-president of music 7:30 p.m. Donation: $5/ $2.50 program only. PS 41, 116 W. 11th St. (at 6th Ave.) Donation: $2 . 723-3419. Oregon Federation of Teachers. Sun., June 1, 7:30 362 Capp St. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information call p.m. 711 NW Everett St. Donation: $1 . Ausp: Militant (212) 533-2902. Forum. For more information call (503) 222-7225. KENTUCKY LOUISVILLE NORTH CAROLINA CUBA AND NICARAGUA-THE LATIN AMERI­ WINSTON-SALEM OHIO CAN REVOLUTION TODAY. Speakers: John Pow­ THE TRUTH ABOUT CUBA. Speakers: Steve TOLEDO UTAH ers, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S Craine, Socialist Workers Party. visited Cuba in CUBA: A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT. Speaker: Jon SALT LAKE CITY Senate from Ohio. with slide show on Nicaragua: 1970 and 1979: representative of Young Socialist Olmsted, Socialist Workers Party. recently visited THE TRUTH ABOUT CUBA. Speakers to be Russell Pelle, SWP. Sat.. May 31, 7 p.m. 131 W. Alliance. Slide Show. Sun., June 1, 7 p.m. 216 E. 6th Cuba. Fri., May 30, 7:30 p.m. 2120 Dorr St. Dona­ announced. Sun., June 1, 7 p.m. 677 S. 7th East. Main. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum. For St. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: YSA and SWP. For more tion: $1. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For more Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more more information call (502) 587-8418. information call (919) 723-3419 information call ( 419) 536-0383. information call (801) 355-1124.

THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 21 Our ·Revolutionary Heritage Letters

Church vs. ER-A Disservice to Iran? Malcolm x· I think you people who get A practical example of the Malcolm X, born May 19, 1925, was one the oppressor off their back is to unite and out and [demand] "Send back of the most slandered public figures of his realize that it is one problem-that our ability of a well-financed Equal Rights Amendment opponent the shah!" are doing a great day. He was denounced by the propa­ problems are inseparable. Our action will disservice to Iran. There is no ganda machine of the racist rulers in this be one of unity, and in the unity of to miseducate working people was displayed in the May 11 way the U.S. can legally send -country as a "racist," a "hate-monger," oppressed people is actually the strength, back the shah-s.o.b. that he and a "terrorist." and the best strength of the oppressed edition of the Salt Lake Tribune. was-even if he was in the U.S. He was none of those things. Malcolm X people." By yelling "Send back the was an honest and fearless leader of the In an earlier speech on May 29, 1964, The weekly Utah poll, which shah!" you people are fight for Black emancipation. He was given under the auspices of the Militant reflects attitudes in a Mormon endorsing the seizure of the unique among leaders of the oppressed in Labor Forum in New York, Malcolm de­ Church stronghold, found that embassy and the holding of his day because of his global outlook. clared: 65 percent of Utahns opposed hostages. Your actions only Malcolm X was gunned down on Febru­ "The people of China grew tired of their the ERA, when it was so give the Iranians the false ary 22, 1965. Newspapers like the New oppressors and the people rose up against identified. When the same impression that the longer they York Times all but openly hailed his their oppressors. It was easy to say that group of Utahns was asked if hold the hostages the better murder, presenting it as just retribution the odds were against them but eleven of they supported a phrase, which chance they have to get back for "preaching hatred." them started out and today those eleven was the TEXT of the ERA, 58 the sflah! control 800 million. They would have been percent expressed support. The evidence that has accumulated It is tragic that a whole told back then that the odds were against since then provides a better explanation Church spokespeople have nation is so bent on killing one them. As the oppressor always points out for Malcolm X's death. As in the case of been able to misstate what person that they are willing to to the oppressed, 'the odds are against Martin Luther King, the government sys­ effect ratification of a law commit suicide to do it. That's you.' tematically suppressed facts about Mal­ would have on the day-to-day what's happening. "When Castro was up in the mountains colm's murder-a murder in which the lives of their subjects. These Not only that, but the stupid of Cuba they told him the odds were CIA and FBI, which shadowed and ha­ spurious arguments center on actions of the Iranian against him. Today he's sitting in Ha­ rassed him continuously in his last imminent destruction of the "militants" is provoking a vana and all the power this country has months, may well have been implicated. family by ERA ratification. counterreaction in the U.S. can't remove him. Malcolm X was killed because he was The family is an institution that strengthens the forces of "They told the Algerians the same which, it appears to this an uncompromising fighter for the libera­ militarism and reaction in the thing-What do you have to fight tion of Black people. outsider, the church has done u.s. with?. . . Time is on the side of the an absolutely pregnant job of His speeches and interviews are a rich Actually I think Iran has a oppressed today. It's against the oppres­ promoting. But the church has mine of ideas about the Black struggle in good case against the U.S., but sor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed. not been able to counter the the United States. He understood the its current actions make it It's against the oppressor. You don't need effects of the women's power of the solidarity of the oppressed in impossible for Americans to anything else." ' movement on society as a the United States and around the world. hear them. The·TV films of Malcolm X explained why Blacks were whole, including the firmly He explained why nothing would be people marching in the streets attracted to the revolutionary struggles held support of average gained by supporting the U.S. govern­ screaming "Death to America" like those the Cuban, Chinese, Vietnam­ Mormons for female equality. ment's attacks on peoples in other coun­ doesn't exactly endear their ese, and Algerian peoples had waged. tries. The educational task of grievances to the average He explained that people were starting garnering support for the ERA American. And ,burning the In a January 28, 1965, interview, he to realize "that it's impossible for a in Utah is encumbent upon the flag doesn't help either. said this about Washington's intervention chicken to produce a duck egg-even feminist and labor You are no friends of the in Vietnam, at a time when few spoke out · though they both belong to the same movements. The results of this Iranian people-rather, you are publicly against it: family of fowl, a chicken just doesn't have poll, and the occurrence of the like the friends of the alcoholic "It's a problem anytime the United within its system to produce a duck egg. It largest women's rights action who are constantly giving him States can come up with so many alibis can't do it.... in Utah on a rainy Saturday, booze to laugh at his drunken not to get involved in Mississippi and to "The system in this country cannot May 10, illustrate the potential antics. get involved in the Congo and involved in produce freedom for an Afro-American. It for successfully driving I favor a new foreign and Asia· and in South Vietnam. Why that, is impossible for this system, this eco­ another nail into the coffin of military policy of right there, should show our people that nomic system,_this political system, this the Mormon Church. nonintervention in the affairs the government is incapable of taking the social system, this system, period. It's Sara Smith of other nations and a peaceful kind of action necessary to solve the impossible for this system as it stands to Salt Lake City, Utah foreign policy of trade and problem of Black people in this country. produce freedom right now for the Black But at the same time she has her nose man in this country. stuck into the problems of others every­ "And if ever a chicken did produce a where else. duck egg I'm certain you would say it was "We see where the problem of Vietnam certainly a revolutionary chicken." Brutal conditions of is. the problem of the oppressed and the oppressor. The problem in the Congo is The above _excerpts are taken from Two Illinois prison ·the problem of the oppressed and the Speeches by Malcolm X, available for $.75 In late April I accompan­ very little exercise rights. oppressor. The problem in Mississippi and from Pathfinder Press or the offices listed ied Illinois Socialist Workers Prisoners there told us that Alabama and New York is the problem of on the facing page. Party candidate for U.S. they were being forced to dig the oppressed and the oppressor. The The truth about Malcolm X's murder is Senate, Lee Artz, on a cam­ holes. examined in The Assassination of Mal­ oppressed people all over the world have paign tour around the state. When we went to the cells the same problems and it is only now that colm X, written by George Breitman and We went to Pontiac Prison to meet with some Militant they're becoming sufficiently sophisti­ others. It is available for $1.95 from the to meet with several prison­ readers, water had started to cated to see that all they have to do to get same sources. ers who are readers of the cover the floors in that area. Militant. It was so deep that we had to turn back and use an In 1920 a boys' reform office to talk. school housing 1,000 people We learned that the pri­ in single cells was turned soners in that area had into Pontiac Prison which turned the water on in their now has 1, 788 people with cells to protest the intolera­ two to a cell. ble heat. It was ninety-two Little opportunity exists degrees outside and more there for prisoners to learn than a hundred in the cell needed work skills. At the because the heat was still prison are college-level and on. Prison officials told us it GED courses although only couldn't be cut off until May 650 can attend at one time. 1 because it was steam heat. Eighty prisoners work in Some prisoners told of the sign shop making road beatings they and other pri­ signs for thirty-five ·to fifty­ soners received by three or five cents an hour. We were more guards while their told that workers will be laid hands were cuffed behind off after they finish the cur­ them. ;._,, ,_. : .,:- . : ·: : ,, --_.··· . .. .• . . ·,-, ...,.,, rent order. Some prisoners are cur­ SWP. 14 C...... a. ... Nft York. N.Y. On our tour of the prison rently involved in prison 10014. we visited the segregated reform groups and a law suit area were so-called hard to has been filed against the handle prisoners are put for prison. punishment. They have no David Tucker JOIN THE SWP school or work rights and Chicago, Illinois

22 Learning About Socialism Should workers buy steel mills? The steel corporations are shutting down almost all tlie "Cooperatives, especially cooperatives in the field of steel mills in Youngstown. production, constitute a hybrid form in the midst of capital- They are devastating a local economy that has revolved Ism. around steel since the turn of the century. "But in capitalist economy exchange dominates produc- Youngstown steelworkers, facing unemployment, have tion (that is, production depends to a large extent on market been getting a lot of advice from liberal lawyers, ministers, possibilities). As a result of competition, the complete and professors. domination of the process of production by the interests of The advice involves a scheme for steelworkers and other capital-that is, pitiless exploitation-becomes a condition citizens of Youngstown to become their own bosses. for the survival of each enterprise. The domination of The proposal is to buy one or more of the closed steel capital over the process of production expresses itself in the mills, modernize it, and produce steel. The mill would be run following ways. -Labor is intensified. The work day is by a "community-worker-investor" board. lengthened or shortened, according to the situation of the No matter what percentage of workers there are on the market. board, it would have to obey the rules of capitalism. The "And depending on requirements of the market, labor is same rules that victimized Youngstown in the first place. either employed or thrown back into the street. In other U.S. Steel opposes the worker-community plant on princi­ words use is made of all methods that enable an enterprise ple. They do not like competition. to stand up against its competitors in the market. The anti-company sentiments of Youngstown steel­ workers lead many to feel that if the company is against it, "The workers forming a cooperative in the field of produc­ it must be a good thing. The sentiment is healthy, but the tion are thus faced with the contradictory necessity of mutual cooperation. I want a attempt to become worker-capitalists is a dead end. governing themselves with the utmost absolutism. They are foreign (and domestic) policy in Would the community-owned mill maintain the wages obliged to take toward themselves the role of the capitalist the interests of the average and working conditions steelworkers have won over the entrepreneur-a contradiction that accounts for the failure American. People like you, the years? of productive cooperatives, which either become pure capi­ Revolutionary Communist How would "community" steel management view the talist enterprises, or, if the workers interests continue to Party, the Communist Workers extra costs of affirmative action and pollution control? predominate, end by dissolving." Party, and the other kooks are What will the "community" mill do during recessions? Steelworkers can put up a real fight to save their jobs and a roadblock to intelligent social Cut production and lay off workers? Or will they cut the preserve their living standards-if they insist on putting change with your silly tactics. their own needs above the dictates of the profit system. Kindly remove my name workweek with no cut in pay to preserve jobs? After all, the from your list at once. purpose of buying the mill is supposed to be to save jobs. Since the company says it can't keep the plants open, the Robert Hayes But could they compete in the capitalist market paying United Steelworkers and the entire labor movement should Martin, Tennessee forty hours wages for thirty hours work when other compan­ demand that this industry be nationalized and that the ies pay forty for forty and discard workers in downturns? plants be kept open under public ownership. Should all the unemployed buy factories and become their Just like oil, steel is a necessity for modern society. Its On apology to Iran own bosses? That is the old myth of capitalism. Anybody production is too important to be left in the hands of people In reply to your write up in can make it. Anybody can be a Rockefeller or Carnegie or making decisions based on profit. the May 9 Militant concerning Kennedy. Sure. And Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny will The result of steel production for profit is artificially high "Why don't we apologize [to pay your mortgage. prices, layoffs, plant shutdowns, and increasingly danger­ Iran]?" Carter could not or Some people in Youngstown argue, "Even if we make less ous working conditions. than union scale, at least we will be working." cannot apologize, for the Steelworkers can -fight for their right to control working That argument has always been used against unions. It is simple reason he knew that conditions, health, and safety on the job in the plants. used against strikes. "Work for what the bosses offer, or Iran will want a war, just by And they can fight for the creation of an elected public don't work." his admission of guilt board to manage the nationalized industry-with all its concerning the matter. The worker-community-investor capitalists in Youngs­ proceedings open to the public. I'd say you, and the people town cannot be better or more humane than the capitalists Since this approach puts the needs of working people with the power to do this, who are closing the mills. Not if they want to stay in ahead of profits, it will be opposed by the steel barons, and should have people write to business in capitalist America. by the Republican and Democratic parties. Iran and send "our" apologies! The proposal is not a new idea. Workers had to overcome resistance from the same forces Because all this is showing is a In the 1890s a German Socialist named Edward Bernstein to build their unions. They can do it again. destruction of the lives of won over part of the workers movement in Germany to this people because of just a few. approach. The discussion among union activists in Youngstown A prisoner Rosa Luxemburg, the Polish revolutionary, answered about running local president Ed Mann for congress Virginia Bernstein in the pamphlet Reform and Revolution written against the Republicans and Democrats is a sign that in 1898 and 1899. steelworkers want to fight back effectively. Bernstein saw producers cooperatives in industry-joint A genuinely independent effort by a respected Youngs­ Wouldn't miss an issue ownership of industry by the employees-as a means by town labor leader like Ed Mann would be a step forward, in Enclosed is my tenth which workers might share in the wealth of society. Luxem­ contrast to the trap of worker-capitalism. consecutive one-year burg replied: -Stu Singer subscription to the Militant. I don't always agree with your stands, but I wouldn't miss an issue for all the up-to-date information on what's really going on in the world. If You Like This Paper, Look Us Up Roland Rhoades Where to find the Socialist Workers Party, Young Socialist Alliance, and socialist books and pamphlets Rochester, New Hampshire ALABAMA: Birmingham: SWP, YSA, 1609 5th Ave. 203 E. Cashin, U. of Mass. Zip: 01003. Tel: (413) 5030. Oberlin: YSA , c/o Gale Connor, OCMR Box N. Tel: (205) 328-9403. Send mail to P.O. Box 546-5942. Boston: SWP, YSA, 510 Commonwealth 679. Zip: 44074. Tel: (216) 775-0084. Toledo: 3382-A. Zip: 35205. Ave., 4th Floor. Zip: 02215. Tel: (617) 262-4621. SWP, YSA, 2120 Dorr St. Zip 43607. Tel: (419) ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP, YSA , 1243 E. McDowell. MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA, 4120 Michigan Union, 536-0383 Zip: 85006. Tel: (602) 255-0450. U. of M. Zip: 48109. Detroit: SWP, YSA, 6404 OREGON: Portland: SWP, YSA, 711 NW Everett. CALIFORNIA: East Bay: SWP, YSA, 2864 Telegraph Woodward Ave. Zip: 48202. Tel: (313) 875-5322. Zip: 97209. Tel: (503) 222-7225. Ave., Oakland. Zip: 94609. Tel: (415) 763-3792. 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Box 438, Washington Bridge WASHINGTON: Olympia: YSA. Room 3208, The subjects of general interest to IOWA: Cedar Falls: YSA . c/ o Stephen Bloodworth. Sta. Zip: 10033. Tel: (212) 928-1676. New York: Evergreen State College. Zip: 98501 . Tel: (206) our readers. Please keep YO"\lr 2715 Hiawatha. Zip: 50613. City-wide SWP, YSA. 108 E. 16th St. 2nd Floor. 866-7332. Seattle: SWP, YSA. 4868 Rainier Ave. KENTUCKY: Louisville: SWP , YSA. 131 W. Main Zip: 10003. Tel: (212) 533-2902. South. Zip: 98118. Tel: (206) 723-5330. Tacoma: letters brief. Where necessary #102. Zip: 40202. Tel: (502) 587-8418. NORTH CAROLINA: Piedmont: SWP, YSA, 216 E. SWP, YSA, 1306 S. K St. Zip: 98405. Tel: (206) they will be abridged. Please LOUISIANA: New Orleans: SWP . YSA . 3319 S. 6th St .. Winston-Salem. Zip: 27101 Tel: (919) 723- 627-0432. indicate if you prefer that your Carrollton Ave. Zip: 70118. Tel: (504) 486-8048. 3419. WEST VIRGINIA: Morgantown: SWP, YSA , 957 S. initials be used rather than MARYLAND: Baltimore: SWP. YSA. 2913 Green­ OHIO: Cincinnati: SWP, YSA, 970 E. McMillan. Zip: University Ave. Zip: 26505. Tel: (304) 296-0055. mount Ave. Zip: 21218. Tel: (301) 235-0013. 45206. Tel: (513) 751-2636. Cleveland: SWP, YSA, WISCONSIN: Milwaukee: SWP, YSA, 3901 N. 27th your full name. MASSACHUSETTS: Amherst: YSA. c/o Rick Drozd. 13002 Kinsman Rd . Zip: 44120. Tel: (216) 991- St. Zip: 53216. Tel: (414) 445-2076.

THE MILITANT/MAY 30, 1980 23 THE MILITANT rna • ,, • • By Nancy Cole , WASHINGTON-More than 5,000 demQPstrators-the majority of them Black youth-marched past the White House to the Capitol May 17 chanting, "Jobs, not war!" The action was called by Rev. Jesse Jackson of Operation PUSH and en­ dorsed by a broad coalition of civil rights, labor and women's organiza­ tions. It was seen by many here as a step toward the united fight needed to win the demonstration's trilogy of demands: jobs, peace, and justice. With official unemployment now at 7 percent and the rate for Black youth 30 percent, the need for urgent action was all too apparent. Protesters also car­ ried signs and chanted against Car­ ter's proposal for draft registration, which is moving forward in Congress. "We must return to the streets," declared former Wilmington 10 defend­ ant Ben Chavis, representing the Na­ ·. Militant/Nancy Cole tional Anti-Klan Network. "We must Carter's efforts to 'balance the budget' at expense of Black youth came under heavy fire at May 17 protest march. We must keep on marching. We put too much faith in the White House as if it was a 'dark house.' Ain't no Smeal concluded, "I'm glad that the "We need jobs but the programs to Brook Park plant in Cleveland. Joyce president going to free us!" 1980s has started with people march­ get Black youth jobs are being cut." Hutson and Kathy Evans, with four Other speakers echoed the marching ing for human rights, for justice, for "We are the youth, and we make up and three years seniority respectively, theme. "We're going to have to come jobs, for eliminating racism and sex­ this nation!" a man defiantly re­ said they are laid off from the plant. back again and again and again- ism." sponded. "We're here not just because we don't 50,000, 100,000, 200,000, a half million, Demonstrators included PUSH con­ "We're here to tell President Carter have jobs, but to support all UAW a million mean Black folks," said U.S. tingents from Chicago, Baltimore, Jer­ that we're going to stand up for our­ members," said Hutson. Rep. Parren Mitchell. sey City, and other cities. There were selves!" declared a young woman. UA W Vice-president Marc Stepp "They're going to tell you it's too late several contingents, as well as speak­ The march was lively with almost spoke at the rally. to change the budget," he went on. ers, from Black college sororities. every demonstrator carrying a sign or Six workers from the PPG Industries "Well, they told us it was too late to Thirty-eight high school and college banner: plant in Lexington, North Carolina, stop the war in Vietnam, but the students came from Indianapolis on a "Fund human needs, not war." met at the Teamsters headquarters people stopped it!" bus organized by Indiana Black Expo "For jobs, not jail.'' National Organization for Women in conjunction with PUSH. They all here early in the morning and marched "Promote education, demote mcar­ over to the assembly point. Despite a President Eleanor Smeal explained wore green T-shirts. ceration." Teamster representation victory in that the same coalition of forces had Asked what the march's slogans The chants were spirited: marched in Chicago for the Equal meant to them, about ten students July 1978, PPG continues to stall in "One, two, three, four, five. We want contract negotiations. Rights Amendment the week before. simultaneously rattled off their ideas: jobs and that's no jive." "Established interests would like us to "Peace among ourselves when we're "We want jobs-not peanuts!" "I'm here because of our issue, but fight, to be divided, to be conquered. all treated equally." . "Hell no, we won't go for Texaco!" also because I had never been to any­ But those of us in the have-not cate­ "Justice for Black people." Two busloads came from United thing like this before," a young white gory must stand united." "Justice means equal rights." Auto Workers Local l250 at Ford's Continued on page 8

. . March backs Miss. strike for dignity By Rashaad Ali the gate of the struck Sanderson dent Frank Martino, and Rev. Joseph erson's got to . go," the marchers and Ron Repps Farms poultry processing plant for a Lowery and Rev. C.T. Vivian, leaders chanted. LAUREL, Miss.-Chanting, '~Fired brief rally, and then on to the fair­ of the Southern Christian Leadership "Even Little Joe has to go more than up, can't take it no more," nearly 2,000 grounds for the main rally. Conference. three times a week," mocked a sign, supporters of striking members of the It was led by strikers, ICWU Presi- "Freedom yes, slavery no. Joe Sand- referring to the restrictions on workers International Chemical Workers Un­ going to the bathroom while on the ion Local 882 marched here May 17. line. It was a march for dignity and jus­ Signs and T-shirts declared, "I'm tice. proud to be a union member." Marchers were overwhelmingly un­ Banners said, "A victory for Laurel ionists and about three-fourths were is a victory for all of us." Black. They came from Cincinnati, A Ku Klux Klan march rumored for the day before had failed to material­ INSIDE: ize. Helmeted riot-equipped police along Women at Laurel poultry plant des­ the march route did not deter some of cribe 'plantation· conditions that those standing by from joining the pro­ forced them out on strike. Page 9. union demonstration. The march here was called by the Louisville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Bir­ Committee for Justice in Mississippi, mingham, and places in Texas. formed by the International Chemical Strikers elsewhere in the South Workers Union. It is backed by an joined the demonstration-from the extremely broad list of organizations. United Furniture Workers in Memphis Prominent labor endorsers include: and the ICWU in Huntsville, Alabama, Douglas Fraser, president, United as well as textile workers from North Auto Workers; Fred Kroll, president, Carolina. Brotherhood of Railway and Airline The six-mile march assembled at a Clerks; William Lucy, president, Coali- church in Laurel, went from there to Contlnued on page 9