MAY 2, 1975 25 CENTS VOLUME 39/NUMBER 16

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE '

Socialist action program to win jobs for all. See page 3. Militant/Harry Ring Aworkers' paper that tells the truth Layoffs. Rising prices. is filled with firsthand march for jobs: buy an Racist assaults on Blacks. reports on how union­ introductory subscrip­ War threats in Southeast ists, the unemployed, stu­ tion, get this issue free. Asia and the Middle East. dents, Blacks, and women Secret-police spying. are fighting back. Enclosed------is The Militant tells the The Militant is cam­ ( ) $1 for two months truth about what's going paigning against Ford's ( ) $7.50 for one year on in this country. It attempts to send more stands on the side of millions in arms to the Name ______working people who are Saigon dictatorship and striving to defend their to drag G Is back into Address, ______rights and standard of Vietnam. living. .Don't miss a single City ______The Militant cuts issue-subscribe· today! A through the lies by the two-month introductory State _____ Zip, ___ government and big busi­ subscription is only a dol­ ness to expose the real lar. Clip and mail to: 14 Charles causes of the economic Special offer to partici­ Lane, New York, New York crisis. And every week it Militant/Baxter Smith pants in the April 26 10014. Spacial ollar--subscriba now· In Briel

ATTORNEY GENERAL ON STARSKY CASE: Mount­ A SNITCH IN TIME: "A cop is only as good as his ing public pressure around the disclosure of FBI attempts snitch." A snitch is a police informant, and the above quote THIS­ to get socialist professor Morris Starsky fired from his post is a common saying among officers of the law, according to at Arizona State University has forced a public response by an article by Nicholas Horrock in the New York Times. WEEK'S United States Attorney General Edward Levi. The state­ A large list of federal agencies employ informants, and ment came in reply to a letter from William Van Alstyne, although there are no public records on the number of stool president of the American Association of University pigeons on the government's payroll, it is assumed that MILITANT Professors, who had written Levi to protest FBI harassment there are two informants for every full-time agent. "This 3 How the unions can win jobs of Starsky and FBI Director Clarence Kelley's defense of would mean that between the Treasury and Justice for all those FBI actions. A story on Levi's response was carried, Departments alone there are something like 30,000 paid 5 N.Y. budget crisis: city unions along with large photos of both Starsky and Levi, in the informants," Horrock reported. Chronicle of Higher Education, a publication widely read in under attack academic circles. MARCHING FOR THE ERA IN TEXAS: More than 6 Camejo takes campaign to "What your letter fundamentally seeks, I presume, is some 1,300 supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment converged streets of N.Y. assurance that for the future it will not be the practice of the on the Texas state capitol in Austin April14 to express their Department of Justice to engage in practices of [this] sort," _7 Right-wing terrorists opposition to a resolution before the legislature to rescind Levi wrote to Van Alstyne. "I am happy to provide that the state's ratification of the ERA. Anti-ERA forces in strike again in L.A. assurance." Texas have been gearing up for some time to push through 8 May 17 countdown However, Joseph Duffey, the general secretary of the the resolution, and 2,000 anti-ERA demonstrators came out AAUP, said, "The answer is not very fulsome for people the same day. 9 Stalinist record on Black whose skepticism has risen" because of FBI "counterintelli­ Although there is some doubt about the legality of such struggle .gerice" activity such as the attempt to get Starsky fired. action, two states have already voted to rescind their 25 Washington state students, par­ Duffey added, "It would have been more useful 'to know if he ratification. had, in fact, sent a directive Lto the FBI] about activities ents: 'Save our schools!' The rally was called by Texans for the ERA, a coalition relating to surveillance of domestic and political activity that was formed after anti-ERA forces began mobilizing 26 Roosevelt's attack on WPA and what the directive was." last fall. Some members of the coalition who opposed rallies 28 People of Pnompenh cheer or marches recently changed their minds when the liberators REVOLT OF THE JURIES: Dismayed at its inability to Republican head of the committee holding hearings on the obtain convictions in so many of its attempts in recent ERA suggested that ERA supporters hold a rally. He said 29 Frame-up against Georgia years to frame up political activists, the Justice Department students fai Is ordered a study to try to find out why. The answer they got was not surprising. 32 No Gls to Vietnam! More and more juries are "at least partially composed of people willing to be convinced of government misconduct, or 2 In Brief willing to believe the exculpatory motives alleged by the defense," the report said. Furthermore, the government 10 In Our Opinion found, defense _attorneys for the victims of the political Letters frame-ups were "able to evoke ... the sense that the 23 Women In Revolt Government used the legal system to legitimize or enforce National Picket Line unpopular policies or decisions."

24 The Great Society GOVERNMENT MISCONDUCT?: If federal prosecutors Their Government are wondering why anybody could possibly think the American Way of Life government guilty of misconduct, they need only look at the 11-22 International Socialist news from Buffalo, New York. There a woman recently testified that she was paid by the FBI for fourteen months Review to spy on the legal defense team in the Attica cases. Attorneys for one former Attica inmate charged with Militant/Suzanne Welch murder during the 1971 rebellion have demanded· to see her Tallahassee, Florida Austin, Texas reports to the FBI. "I took the FBI job on, thinking it was honorable," Mary that the numerous protests and rallies being held by the Jo Cook told a court hearing. "During the course of it, I anti-ERA forces were having a big impact on the legislators. realized it was not honorable. I committed a political Among the buses coming from Houston was one organ­ crime." ized by the Coalition of Labor Union Women with Mter the recent rash of informers spilling· the beans, assistance from the Teamsters union. maybe the Justice Department will now commission a study on why they are losing so many spies. AND IN FLORIDA: "Equal rights, equal pay, ratify the ERA," chanted demonstrators as they marched, some 2,500 THE MILITANT Planning to move? Don't forget to take your Militant strong, in Tallahassee, Florida, on April 14. Buses from all subscription with you. Send us your old address label over Florida and contingents from several other states VOLUME 39/NUMBER 16 along with your new address at least two weeks before turned out for the march, which was called by the National MAY 2, 1975 you plan to move to ensure that you don't miss any Organization for Women and endorsed by a broad range of CLOSING NEWS DATE-APRIL 23 issues. groups. Governor Reubin Askew, actress Marlo Thomas, Betty Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS Friedan, and actor Alan Aida were among the speakers at Business Manager: ROSE OGDEN 'ZEBRA' TRIAL UNDERWAY: Four Black men charged the rally. "· Southwest Bureau: HARRY RING with being members of the "Death Angels," a group alleged Washington Bureau: CINDY JAQIJITH Supporters of Socialist Workers presidential and vice­ to be responsible for the so-called Zebra killings of whites in presidential c~ndidates Peter Camejo and Willie Mae Reid Published weekly by The Militant Publishing San Francisco last year, are now standing trial. The distributed 500 copies of the SWP's "Bill of Rights for Ass'n .• 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. defendants, all Muslims, were charged with the crimes after Working People" to a receptive crowd. Telephone: Editorial Office (212) 243-6392; Busi­ ness Office (212) 929-3486. Southwest Bureau: 710 Mayor Joseph Alioto, at the time a candidate for governor Meanwhile, the April 16 vote by the North Carolina S. Westlake Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90057. of California, dramatically announced that he had un­ legislature to reject the measure is expected to kill chances Telephone: (213) 483-2798. Washington Bureau: covered a national conspiracy responsible for seventy-three for final ratification in 1975. So far, thirty-four states have 1345 E. St. N.W., Fourth Floor, Washington, D.C. murders. This followed a massive stop-and-search opera­ 20004. Telephone: (202) 638-4081. passed the ERA. Thirty-eight are required to make it part of Co"esponde11ce concerning subscriptions or tion by police against hundreds of Black men who happened. the Constitution. changes of address should be addressed to The to be on the street. A federal judge ruled the searches Militant Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, New unconstitutional. YOUR TAX DOLLAR: Looking forward to a tax rebate? York, N.Y. 10014. Quentin White, one of the defense attorneys, charged that Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. Well, if you are on food stamps, don't get your hopes up too Subscriptions: domestic, $7.50 a year; foreign, the state's star witness, a police informer, is "insane" and high. According to a decision by the administrators of the $11.00. By first-class mail: domestic, Canada, and that his testimony is not reliable. Several inconsistencies food stamp program, the additional money you receive could Mexico, $32; all other countries, $53. By airmail: have already appeared between his current testimony and domestic, Canada, and Mexico, $42. By air printed make you ineligible for the stamps. matter: Central America and Caribbean, $40; what he told a grand jury last May. Meanwhile, the United States Civil Rights Commission, Mediterranean Africa, Europe, and South America, as well as a number of civil rights groups, has charged local $52; IJSSR, Asia, Pacific, and Africa, $62. WritP. for BILL KITT DIES: Bill Kitt, a veteran member of the fo(eign sealed air postage rates. governments with racism· in their use of "revenue-sharing" For subscriptions airmailed from New York and Socialist Workers party, died of a heart attack in San funds. then posted from London directly to Britain, Francisco on April 12. He was seventy-one years old. Kitt It has come to light that Jasper County, Mississippi, used Ireland. and Continental Europe: £1 for eight issues, had a long record of activity in the labor and socialist $5,220 it received to move and clean a statue erected in £2.50 for six months, £5 for one year. Send banker's draft or international postal order (payable to movements going back to the Industrial Workers of the honor of the slave owners of the Confederacy. "We thought Pathfinder Press) to Pathfinder Press, 47 The Cut, World (IWW). He became a member of the Trotskyist revenue-sharing was to help poor people, not move Confed­ London, SE1 8LL, England. Inquire for air rates movement in 1931. erate monuments," said one local Black man. "It seems like from London at the same address. A forthcoming issue of the Militant will carry an they are trying to perpetuate slavery." Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent the Militant's views. These are expressed appreciation of this outstanding revolutionary fighter. -Nelson Blackstock in editorials.

2 Socialist ·candidates ~ out How the unions can win jobs for all The following is a statement by lions for Saigon are in direct contradic­ Peter Camejo and Willie Mae Reid, tion to the needs of working people Socialist Workers party candidates today. for president and vice-president in We need funds for jobs, not for war! 1976, addressed to all participants The $100 billion earmarked for the in the April 26 national demon­ Pzntagon in this year's budget would stration for jobs. be more than enough to put all the unemployed back to work at union­ Brothers and Sisters, scale wages. That would certainly be a Today's march and rally for "Jobs better use for it than policing the world Now" mark a great step forward in the for U.S. corporate interests. struggle of working people to safe­ Ten years ago this month, the first guard our jobs and standard of living. national antiwar demonstration drew Tens of thousands of union mem­ 20,000 young people to Washington. bers, unemployed workers, and stu­ Over the years, the antiwar movement dents have assembled in Washington came to represent the majority. Tens of under union auspices to say, "We are thousands of union members joined in not responsible for creating this econ­ the mass demonstrations demanding omic crisis; we should not be the ones "U.S. Out Now!" to suffer from it." Today, many of our unions have The message of this historic demon­ gone on record against the Vietnam stration is that working people are not War. The antiwar sentiment among going to sit idly by and see our wages workers is deeper than ever. Why eroded by inflation, our jobs snatched should we sacrifice for Washington's away by massive layoffs, and our MilitanVCharles Ostrofsky imperialist wars? PETER CAMEJO WILLIE MAE REID families' lives blighted by the deterior­ Let our demonstration today serve as ation of housing, education, and pealth a warning to Ford and Congress: we're care. not going to stand by and see the war This impressive demonstration of It's not that people don't need more is scarcely a drop in the bucket. started up again. labor's power will inspire and encour­ useful goods. It's just that the private Is it really impossible to do more? If F6rd sends U.S. troops into a age all other struggles against war, owners of industry do not find it Ford says there is "no money" to renewed war, he will face an antiwar oppression, and injustice throughout profitable to produce more-=-so they provide unemployment compensation the country. slow down production, close entire at levels that people can live on, to factories, and throw millions- out of create public service jobs, or to meet Unionists demand action work. other urgent social needs. 4 ups& downs The union officials called this mobili­ 'l'he government "experts" now talk But in the same breath he demands zation because they know that union as though inflation has been whipped, still another billion dollars to try to to remember members are hurting, union members but supermarket prices are sky-high salvage the Saigon dictatorship, and According to official gov­ are angry, and union members are and still rising. In fact, inflation has authority to send Gls back into Viet­ demanding that their organizations chopped our real purchasing power nam under the guise of "evacuating ernment statistics, in the take action. down to the lowest point in more than Americans." past year: It is no wonder. Everywhere we turn a decade. In a country that is supposed to be • Consumer prices we find our rights and livelihoods And instead of being increased to governed by majority rule, this is an under fierce attack. keep pace with inflation, funds for outrage! The American people are have gone up 11 percent. President Ford, rejecting demands social welfare-veterans' benefits, overwhelmingly opposed to sending • Unemployment has that he take decisive action to create Medicare, aid to education, and so on­ more arms to Saigon or U.S. troops gone up from 5.1 percent jobs, claims that "the recession is are being cut back. In the richest back into Southeast Asia. to 8. 7 percent. receding." But in just the past six country in the world, there are reports months, factory production has fallen of old people literally starving to Stop Ford's war moves • Profits have gone up 12 percent, while unemployment has death. It was working people who bore all 14 percent. soared from 5.3 million to 8 million, by What are the Democrats and Repub­ the costs of this dirty war-not the • Real wages have official count. Government economists licans doing to turn this situation Nixons, not the Fords, not those who gone down 5 percent. fully expect unemployment to hit 10 around?. The $22.8 billion tax-cut bill profited from the killing. Billions of percent this summer, and there is no passed by Congress last month is little our tax dollars and the lives of 55,000 end in sight. more than a public relations gimmick. American Gls were squandered in The misery and social waste this We're all glad to get back $100 or Washington's attempt to prop up a upsurge that will dwarf the protests of depression represents is almost beyond $200 of our.money in the form of a tax corrupt regime hated by its own people the 1960s-because it will have the comprehension. The government calcu­ rebate, but it isn't going to make up for and kept in power only by U.S. arms. union movement in the front lines. lates that right now the country's lost wages for those who have been Those billions of dollars spent for the Today's protest has another impor­ factories are running at only about laid off. The rebate won't close the gap Vietnam War were also the main cause tant aspect. Every blow of the econom­ two-thirds of their capacity. That between our take-home pay and rising of the spiraling inflation that plagues ic crisis falls the hardest on those least means a gap of more than $600 billion prices. It won't "get the economy us today. able to cope with it: Blacks, Chicanos, a year between what could be produced rolling again." In a <;risis of the Ford's maneuvers to send Gls back and other oppressed minorities; wom­ and what is being produced. magnitude we face today, this measure into Vietnam and provide more mil- en; the unskilled and unorganized; the old and the very young. It is hardly surprising that Black and women unionists have been among the most eager to launch a SWP action program for jobs massive fight for jobs for all. Black unemployment stands at twice The Socialist Workers party projects by halting all U.S. military the rate for whites. The National candidates believe that every spending. Urban League has estimated that the worker has the right to a job. To • A shorter workweek with no reduc­ real unemployment for Blacks at the provide jobs for all, they propose: tion in weekly pay, to spread the end of last year was 21 percent. In the • A massive, emergency public available work to all who need jobs. areas where Blacks and women scored works program to provide millions of To prevent discriminatory fir­ a few gains in the 1960s in hiring and jobs. This program should not be ings: job upgrading, discriminatory layoffs degrading and pointless make-work, • Prohibit the bosses from using are fast wiping out even those meager but useful projects to meet society's layoffs to reduce the proportion of steps toward equality. needs; building low-cost housing, more women or oppressed minorities in any At the same time, there is a growing and better schools, child-care centers, workplace. assault aimed at rolling back the efficient public transportation, and To protect the incomes of work­ elementary rights won by the Black medical facilities, and cleaning up ing people from the ravages of civil rights struggles of the 1950s and polluted lands and waterways. inflation, the socialist candidates 1960s. The drive to halt school desegre­ • All jobs should be at union wages, propose: gation in. Boston and other cities is the not the below-subsistence dole paid on • Substantial catch-up wage in­ cutting edge of this offensive. present public employment projects. creases for all workers. There should be no illusions about • Top priority should be given to • Cost-of-living escalator clauses in the utterly racist and reactionary constructing needed facilities in the all union contracts, to keep wages fully character of the antibusing movement Black, Chicano, and Puerto Rican abreast of rising prices. in Boston. Its code words are "neigh- · communities, with all funds and pro­ • Attach an escalator clause to all borhood schools" and "forced busing," grams controlled by those communi­ social benefits: pensions, welfare, So­ but the lynch mobs that have stoned ties. cial Security, unemployment, and ve­ Black schoolchildren, screaming "Nig­ • Make funds available for these terans' payments. MilitanVMartha Harris gers go home," tell the real story. Continued on next page

THE MILITANT/MAY 2, 1975 3 ... issues in labor's fight for jobs for all Continued from preceding page service jobs at union wages, and Behind this movement stand the shorten the hours of work with no most virulently anti-Black, antiwom­ reduction in pay. an, and antilabor elements in society. They could, but they don't. In fact, These are the same reactionary forces the Congress has done little more than behind the conviction of Dr. Kenneth Ford to aid the unemployed. Even the Edelin, a Black physician, for perform­ most ambitious bills in Congress talk ing a legal abortion. Two weeks ago about providing at most one million their thugs broke up a meeting in jobs-when more than ten million Boston's Faneuil Hall that was sup­ people need work. And Congress seems porting the labor-backed Equal Rights in no hurry to adopt even these paltry Amendment for women. They have measures. assaulted Black union members trying Look at what the liberal Democratic to go to union meetings in South state and local officials-such as Gov. Boston. Hugh Carey and Mayor Abraham Beame in New York, Gov. Edmund Brown in California, and Mayor Cole­ March against racism. man Young in Detroit-are doing. The NAACP in Boston and national­ Elected with strong union backing, ly has called for a mass march against all have turned viciously on the un­ racism, to be held in Boston on May . ions, attacking the jobs and wages of 17. This civil rights protest, which has public employees, cutting welfare rolls, already won broad union endorsement, Philadelphia lnquirer/Auth and moving to slash social services deserves the active support and partici­ (while some, like Los Angeles Mayor pation of every unionist. victims, not the villains in this situa­ done about labor's demands-and done Tom Bradley, are getting their cops in The union movement must not tion." We agree. fast! training for "food riots"). retreat one inch in the fight against The strength of the union movement Further actions like April 26 can The fact is, both the Democratic and racism and segregation. lies in the unity and solidarity of all give the union movement a whole new Republican parties are controlled by What is really at stake in this workers. Any attempt to preserve the image among masses of Americans­ the rich. They are not responsible to resurgent racist 'offensive is nothing jobs qi- privileges of one group at the the image of a dynamic social move­ the workers or the unemployed. We other than an attempt to put the expense of those more oppressed-be it ment fighting for a better society for need our own political party-an burden of the economic crisis on the organized against unorganized, em­ all. independent labor party. most oppressed and downtrodden sec­ ployed against unemployed, white Victor Gotbaum, executive director Labor does have the power to win tors of the working class-an attempt against Black, male against female, or of District Council37, American Feder­ jobs for all, but it can only be done by to divide and weaken the entire labor citizen against "alien"-is not only ation of State, County and Municipal standing up for our own interests and movement to the greater profit of the unjust but self-defeating. Employees, reflecting what most of us relying on our own strength-in the employers. Unity of labor's forces can only be here today feel, put it this way: factories, shops, and offices; in the Segregation, inferior education, and achieved by championing the just "It was the kids who showed us the streets; and in the political arena-not job discrimination are meant to keep aspirations of the most oppressed way to fight for peace in Vietnam. It on two-faced "friends of labor" in the Blacks "in their place" as a permanent workers. By calling actions such as was the Blacks and other minority capitalist Democratic and Republican reserve of low-paid labor power. today's protest, the unions are taking a groups who showed us how to fight for parties. Politicians' demagogic attacks on stand for all unemployed workers, not civil rights. It's got to be labor that "welfare cheats" and "government just their own working members. shows the country the way to fight for Socialist campaign handouts" (meaning aid to the poor, In the same way, by proving itself to economic stability and economic jus­ We have tried to. explain here some not the multimillion dollar giveaways be an uncompromising fighter for the tice.... We have to march in the of the ideas the Socialist Workers party to corporations) are part of the same _interests of Blacks, women; and undoc­ streets." is campaigning for. racist maneuver. umented workers, the union movement We believe that working people have Whites are told to blame their will win the allegiance of those forces Independent political action a right to a job, an adequate income, problems-such as high taxes, rotten that will be the most militant fighters A demonstration such as this in and a secure retirement. We believe schools, or layoffs-on the efforts of for the union cause. Washington also highlights the fact that workers have the right to know Blacks to win jobs, higher pay, or What are the next steps to be taken that workers' problems require politi­ the truth about the economic and equal education, thus letting the real in the fight for jobs? We believe that cal solutions. They are beyond the political policies that affect our lives, culprits off the hook. independent labor actions like today's scope of traditional collective bargain­ and the right to decide economic and demonstration point the way forward. ing methods. political policy. 'Aliens' not to blame Just consider what an impressive Most union officials today claim that More and more people are coming to Exactly the same trick is involved in mobilization like April 26 accom­ we can build up our political power by recognize the bankruptcy of this an­ attempts to make foreign-born workers plishes. It gives union members a raising money and votes for "friends of archic and brutal capitalist system without immigration papers or work demonstration of their own numbers labor" in ·the Democratic party. that puts pr9fits before human beings. permits-the so-called illegal aliens­ and strength and inspires them with a Several of these Democratic politi­ It is this system that is responsible for the scapegoats for inflation. In re­ sense that the union really is their cians will be speaking today, and all inflation, unemployment, war, and sponse to this, Leon Davis, president of organization, fighting for their inter­ will no doubt proclaim to the skies that racial and sexual oppression. the National Union of Hospital and ests. unemployment is bad, they're- against Our party is fighting for the replace­ Health Care Employees, has said: Unlike behind-the-scenes "negotia­ it, and it's all the Republicans' fault. ment of this outmoded system by a "Let's place the blame for unemploy­ tions" with Democratic and Republi­ But what have the Democrats done? new society-a socialist society-with ment where it belongs. Most of these can politicians, mass actions in the They have an overwhelming majori­ a rationally planned economy, run by people have been imported to this street put the capitalist politicians in ty in Congress. If the Democrats the workers themselves and based on country by employers who wanted a Congress and the White House on wanted to, they could put a halt to war human needs. cheap labor force. The aliens are the notice that something had better be spending, provide millions of public Join us in this struggle. Working people's Bill of Rights: Jobs for All

As unemployment lines grow, mil­ emergency public works program to Name ______~------lions of Americans are asking, "What provide millions of useful jobs at union can we do?" wages? A shorter workweek with no Address ------­ The Socialist Workers party candi­ reduction in pay? City------dates for president and vice-president, Help distribute the Bill of Rights for State ______Zip ___ Peter Camejo and Willie Mae Reid, say Working People-discuss the proposals working people have a right to a job. where you work, study, and live-send Phone ______And they have a program for how to us your ideas. win jobs for all. They propose a "Bill nf Business Address------­ Rights for Working People" aimed .-at ------Occupation/School/Organization __ protecting us from the evils of this The Bill of Rights for Working system-from unemployment and in­ People: three cents each; two cents Clip and mail to: Socialist Workers 1976 flation, from wars, racism, and sexism. each for 1,000 or more. National Campaign Committee, 14 Charles You can help distribute this Bill of ( ) Please send me one copy free of Lane, New York, New York 10014. Rights at your workplace, at union charge ( ) in English; ( ) in Spanish. Officers of the Socialist Workers 1976 meetings, at community meetings, on Enclosed is $ for ( ) Bill of National Campaign Committee­ unemployment and picket lines, or at Rights booklets ( ) in English; ( ) in Chairpersons: Fred Halstead, Ed Heisler, your school. It should be read by all Spanish. Linda Jenness, Andrew Pulley-Treasurer: those looking for a way to fight back. ( ) I endorse the Camejo-Reid ticket as Andrea Morell. The socialist candidates and their a positive alternative to the Democrat­ supporters want to discuss the propo­ ic and Republican parties. A copy of our report is filed with the Federal sals in the new Bill of Rights with as Enclosed is . my contribution of Election Commission and is available for many people as possible. What do your $ to support the Camejo-Reid purchase from the Federal Election Com­ co-workers think about a massive campaign. mission, Washington, D.C.

4 'The great bank holduli N.Y. budget crisis: city unions under attack By Ray Markey benefits-and they won't rest until our NEW YORK-Mayor Abraham unions have been effectively destroyed. Beame has opened a new offensive in Now is the time for the unions to his war against the New York City make a stand-the longer V:e delay, the municipal ~mployees unions, and mil­ bolder the attacks will become and the lions of New Yorkers who depend on weaker we wi.ll be. city services are going to be counted among the casualties. March on Washington On April 22 Beame decreed a new The April 26 March on Washington, round of massive layoffs of city work­ which was largely initiated gy District ers and cutbacks in city services. Council 37, is a prime exampl~ of the • Forty-three public schools will be kind of action that is needed to stop closed; elementary and junior high the layoffs. The tremendous enthu­ school class sizes will be increased; siasm of AFSCME members for the hours of city university teachers will march proves that the union member­ be increased 9 percent. ship is ready and willing to fight. • Three or four city hospitals will be Responding to this pressure, union shut down. officials are doing more now to put the • Garbage collection and street blame for the budget crisis where it cleaning will be drastically reduced. belongs. Answering Beame's threats, • Four of the city's fifty-seven fire John DeLury, head of the sanitation battalions will be closed; fire-fighting workers union, bluntly said, "The rip­ offs of the city treasury by some of the Ray Markey is a member of commercial bankers will not be borne AFSCME Local 1930 and a delegate on the shoulders of sanitation work­ to the District Council 37 delegate ers." Victor Gotbaum, executive director assembly. of District Council 37, commented, "The people we represent are in pain, crews will be reduced in other areas. and we don't see any bankers jumping • Eight to ten libraries will be out of windows." closed; maintenance of parks and other District Council 37 has printed a recreational areas will be cut back; four-page leaflet documenting what it summer facilities such as beaches will calls "The Big Bank Holdup" and has probably open late. used its newspaper, Public Employee Beame aims to fire outright 3,975 Press, to expose the banks. city employees and, through attrition With a· massive educational cam­ and a continued hiring freeze, elimi­ Beame's plan calls for closing schools and hospitals, reducing garbage collection paign to take this information to the nate a total of nearly 23,000 city jobs. and street cleaning, and firing thousands of city employees. working people of New York, we could Hardest hit will be the health and win allies among others hurt by the education departments, each losing The only way to avert "fiscal disas­ in the right direction." cutbacks and rally public support almost 5,000 positions. ter," they said, would be through a Beame's new "austerity" program is behind demands for more services and These draconian measures are neces­ total freeze on labor costs, to be a direct challenge to the municipal more jobs. sary, Beame claims, to balance the brought about through "job attrition, employees unions, and especially to It's easy for Beame to say the federal city's budget for the coming fiscal deferment of wage increases, pay cuts, my union, District Council 37 of the government has to bail him out. We year, which is almost a billion dollars pay less furloughs and stretching out of American Federation of State, County call for more federal funds for the cities in the red. Even after the cuts, he says, contract time periods." and Muncipal Employees (AFSCME), too-that's one of our demands on the there will be a $641.5 million deficit The commission report suggested which represents about half the city April26 march-but there is no reason that must be filled by state and federal that "noncooperation by the unions work force. to let Beame off the hook. aid. . . . can be countered by layoffs." Actually, the first round in this fight When he says there is "no money," "It is most fortunate that the Mayor came last winter, when Beame threat­ we can reply: open the books of city Responsible to whom? possesses this trump card and has ened to lay off some 12,000 city government so we can see who is really Acknowledging that the cutbacks shown the ability to use it," the report employees. Most-not all-of the lay­ payinl,{ taxes and where the money will be "painful," Beame declared, said. "Once the threat of layoffs in lieu offs were averted when the unions goes. "None of these decisions comes easily, of any other type of labor cost control agreed to defer city payments into our When he says there is "no alterna­ but if we are to meet our responsibili­ becomes credible, it is most unlikely health plans, work longer hours, and tive" to layoffs, we can say: what ties they must be made." that this measure would have to be make certain other concessions. about the alternative of declaring a What "responsibilities" is he talking used." At the time it seemed to most union moratorium on the city's outrageous about? Obviously not responsibilities This is precisely the scenario Beame members to be a small enough price to interest payments? to the working people who live in New is following today. After announcing pay to keep ourselves and our fellow Beame will sputter that such things York, send their children to its schools, the layoffs, he promptly added that he workers on the job. But the city didn't are impossible and unheard-of. But depend on its hospitals, and find their was "always willing to sit down 'Yith stop at that, and if we offer more confronted with unions that have the few opportunities for recreation at its the unions" to extort other conces­ concessions now, those won't be the power to shut this city down, telling libraries, museums, and parks. Not sions, "as long as dollar value is the end either. The bankers and the city him in no uncertain terms that there responsibilities to the city employees same." government, which follows their or­ will be no layoffs and no cutbacks, who will be thrown onto the welfare The president of the Citizen's Budget ders, are on an all-out drive to slash Beame might quickly discover that all rolls or asked to take wage cuts and Commission called Beame's drastic wages, cut services, speed up the work, sorts of things he never dreamed of are work longer hours. cutbacks a "small but significant step and drive down pensions and possible. No, Beame's "responsibilities" are to a different group of people altogether: the New York bankers and financiers who own and collect interest on the Day-care workers march for decent contract city's bonds. By Marilyn Markus in the cost of living since our last For those wealthy enough to get into NEW YORK-Three thousand day­ contract three years ago. But the city the municipal bond racket (bonds are care workers and parents demonstrat­ has dictated a 4 to 5% wage increase. customarily issued in denominations ed at city hall on the morning of April We cannot live on that. Most of us of $10,000 or more, about a year's 17 to demand a decent contract. don't make much money to begin with. salary for the average city worker), it The demonstrators, most of them We must have a decent raise." is one of the best deals in town. Every Black or Puerto Rican, were members The day-care workers provide an penny of interest is completely tax-free. of the American Federation of State, invaluable service to tens of thousands For the next fiscal year the city has County and Municipal Employees, of parents who must have day care for budgeted more than $2 billion for District Council 1707, Local 205. their children so they can work. interest and repayment of principle on They have been 'working without a In an attempt to coerce the workers these bonds. This is called "debt contract since February. into accepting his offer of a 5 percent service," and it is one of the biggest In a leaflet appealing for public raise over the next two years, Beame single expenses in the entire New York support, the day-care workers stated: has threatened drastic cutbacks in day City budget-about one-sixth of the "We are out here today to let Mayor care. These cutbacks would force total. It is also twice the amount of the LAbrahamJ Beame know that we have thousands of working women out of budget deficit. to make a living, too. their jobs and onto the welfare rolls. Banks give the orders "Our union is now negotiating a new Rachel Evans, a member of the contract for us, but the city of New union negotiating committee, told the Beame's marching orders were York, which funds the day care pro­ Militant, "They are discriminating spelled out several weeks ago in an gram, has offered us much less than because the majority of us are Black, amazingly blunt report by the Citizen's what it has been giving to other Puerto Rican, and poor white. If Budget Commission, which is made up services and other unions. . . . anybody should take a cut it should be Militant/Martha Harris of top officers of the biggest banks and ''We have been hit by a 28'Pil increase the ones who are making the money." Demonstration by AFSCME Local 205 corporations in the city.

THE MILITANT/MAY 2, 1975 5 Backs 'Por los Ninos' slate Camejo takes campaign to streets of N.Y. By Debby Woodroofe "We have to tell the rich," Camejo turned people away, and being a NEW YORK-"Would I con­ concluded, "that their interests can't Socialist is to my advantage." sider voting socialist? Why not? The predominate over human need." Camejo went from the unemploy­ Democrats and Republicans certainly Nodding agreement as Camejo ment center to Columbia University, aren't doing anything to help me get a spoke, the questioner shook Camejo's where he addressed an outdoor rally. job." hand and said, "Beautiful. You've One hundred twenty-five students This was typical of the response answered my question." stood listening attentively to Camejo given Peter Camejo, Socialist Workers That evening, Camejo was a guest at and interrupted his remarks repeatedly party presidential candidate, as he a reception organized by a number of with applause. campaigned one recent Saturday on his supporters who are active in the At the rally were several Latino Lower Manhattan's Fourteenth Street, struggle for community control of the students who gave Camejo, the first speaking with afternoon shoppers. schools on Manhattan's Lower East presidential nominee of Latin Ameri­ Accompanying Camejo were a dozen Side. Earlier in the day, campaign can descent, an especially enthusiastic campaign supporters who circulated supporters distributed a statement response when he blasted those who through the crowd distributing the issued by Camejo urging a vote for the blame unemployment on undocument­ SWP's "Bill of Rights for Working Por los Niiios slate in the May 6 school ed workers. People" and selling the Militant and board elections. "I've got a fairly simple solution to the Young Socialist. On April 21, Camejo campaigned the deportation problem," Camejo said. Several passersby questioned Came­ outside a state unemployment center at "Let's have an exchange program. For jo about how he, as a socialist, would Ninetieth Street and Broadway. As job every Mexican they deport, let them . deal with the economic crisis. An seekers approached the center, Camejo deport one of the hundreds of thou­ unemployed Black worker, for exam­ asked them if they would favor cutting sands of Anglo-Saxon North Ameri­ ple, asked, "If you were mayor of this the war budget and using the funds to cans who work in Latin America. They city, what would you do to pick up New start a public works program to put can exchange jobs. The Exxon official York City from where it is?" people back to work. Virtually all those making $50,000 a year in. Venezuela Camejo cited the New York City questioned indicated their support for can exchange jobs with the grape budget deficit of almost $900 million, this proposal and took copies of the picker in California making two dol­ pointing out that about $2 billion of Bill of Rights for Working People. lars an hour. That way, no one loses a the budget goes to the wealthy in the Camejo was joined at the unemploy­ job." form of interest payments. "The first ment center by three people who had Earlier in the week, Camejo spoke to Peter Camejo, SWP presidential thing I would do," Camejo continued, read an article in that morning's New eighty students at Yale University in candidate, speaking at Columbia "is to put a moratorium on those York Times announcing his New York New Haven, Connecticut, at a meeting University rally. interest payments. That would give the tour and listing Camejo's appearances sponsored by the Yale chapter of the city a surplus of more than a billion. scheduled for that day. National Lawyers Guild, the Progress­ 8:00 p.m. at Eisner Lubin Auditorium, Then I wouldn't have to lay anyone The Times article quoted Camejo on ive party of the Yale Political Union, in New York University's South Lob­ off. I would then start building quality the response he has received. "I tell and the Yale Young Socialist Alliance. by. For more iqformation on the rally low-cost housing in the slums, and people I'm a Socialist right away. I Camejo's New York tour will culmi­ or Camejo's tour schedule, contact the institute a public ~rks program to put find a hostility to politicians­ nate Saturday, May 3, with a rally for Socialist Workers campaign committee everyone back to work. Democrats and Republicans-has all campaign supporters, scheduled for at (212) 982-8214. Texas Chicanos score gains in April elections By Louis Proyect a formation created to siphon votes eventually be able to win control of the within the county and to establish the HOUSTON-Raza Unida party away from the RUP. city council and the school board there. same type of sweeping changes al- candidates scored major gains in city In a telephone interview, Guadalupe According to Youngblood, the issues ready put into effect in Crystal City. council and school board elections in Youngblood, state chairperson of the the RUP candidates focused on were According to Gutierrez, the most Robstown and Crystal City, Texas, on RUP, who lives in Robstown, ex- police brutality, which has increased significant issue in the city council April 1 and 8. pressed confidence that the RUP will dramatically in the past eighteen elections was the fight emerging over In Robstown, a town of 11,000 near months, and utility rates, which have skyrocketing utility bills. Lo-Vaca Corpus Christi, in a predominantly been skyrocketing in Texas. Gathering Company, a subsidiary of agricultural area,' RUP candidates In Crystal City, RUP candidates Coastal States Utility Company, sup- Roberto Garza and Israel Trevino won won all the seats open in the city plies Crystal City with natural gas. two of the thre~ open seats on the five- council and school board elections. The company has raised its rates 400 person city council by a margin of 500 Previously the RUP held six out of percent in the past year. The rates are votes. Ricardo Bosquez and Adelberto seven school board seats; now it has set by the state railroad commission, a Ayarzagoitia were elected to both open all seven. The party also maintained government agency that is notoriously seats on the seven-member school its control of all five city council spots. biased in favor of the utility compan- board by a margin of more than 250 In a new development, the RUP won 1es. votes. three out of five seats open on the The city council has served notice RUP candidates were opposed by the Zavala County School Board. Isaac that it will only pay the rates in effect "Unity party," which is the Democrat- Juarez, Juan Hernandez, and Ernesto a year ago. Lo-Vaca, in return, has ic party slate. (Since Texas municipal Salazar, the first RUP candidates ever threatened to terminate its service elections are "nonpartisan," Demo- elected to the county board, won by a unless the current rate is paid. The city crats and Republicans frequently form 10-1 margin. council has expressed its determina- such temporary slates for the elections Jose Angel Gutierrez, a leader of tion to take over Lo-V aca properties in rather than run under their own party the RUP and Zavala County ludge, Crystal City if service is terminated. name.) The RUP was also opposed by MilitanVNelson Blackstock told the Militant that the main task of The issue is being reviewed by the Amigos Del Progresos, a nominally Guadalupe Youngblood, head of Texas the county school board will be to railroad commission and may wind up independent grouping, but in actuality Raza Unida party. consolidate the smaller school districts in the courts.

By Richard Hill At the final hearing, more than 200 the bill widely. Each Saturday has BALTIMORE-A proposed city cur­ people turned out to demand that the been designated "Anti-curfew Day," Blacks few ordinance against young people, proposed ordinance be killed. The city and activists have been covering which would fine parents of violators council, stung by the great majority of shopping areas, informing people of up · to $100 and/or require a jail opposing speakers, abruptly terminat­ the racist nature of the ordinance. protest sentence of up to ten days, has been ed the hearing long before its sched­ A speak-out against the ordinance,. met with strong protests from the . uled end, and fled out the back door. attended by 100 people, was held April Black community here. A "Stop the Curfew Coalition" has 14. A panel of high school students proposed The ordinance would make it illegal been formed to organize opposition to and parents explained why they op­ for people under the age of seventeen the ordinance. It includes representa­ posed the curfew. to be on the streets or in public places tives from a number of high schools "I don't want my freedom taken after 10:30 p.m. on weekdays and 12:00 and churches, the Young Socialist away," explained a Southern High Baltimore midnight on weekends. Alliance, Student Coalition Against School student. "Besides, it's not The proposed ordinance follows a Racism, Congress of African People, young people who are causing the well-orchestrated press campaign African Liberation Support Commit­ problems in this country." curfew bill against "youth crime" and ''juvenile tee, Black Workers Congress, Welfare The sentiment of the gathering was unrest." Blacks are the main targets of Rights Organization, October League, perhaps best summed up by a Black the campaign. and Young Workers Liberation parent who said, "I think we've got to The city council has held public League. tell the city council to give us some hearings on the proposed ordinance, With several weeks before the ordi­ jobs, swimming pools, and improved and opposition to it has built up at nance is scheduled to come up for vote, education, and not to sweep out young each successive one. the coalition is spreading word against people off the streets."

6 Tax rebate fund Why you should contribute to the SWP By Barry Sheppard compensate for increases in the cost of Most workers will be getting a tax living. rebate of between $100 and $200 Of course the capitalists say that during May and June, under the bill these and other demands can't be recently passed by Congress. While met, because they cut into profits. We these tax rebates won't do much in the should answer, that is too bad, because way of making up for lost pay for it's your system, under which you workers suffering from the layoffs or make profits from our labor, that is help to close the gap between soaring causing inflation and unemployment. prices and wages, there is a way to put We should not have to pay for the these rebates to work in the fight failings of your system. We are going against unemployment and inflation. to fight to protect ourselves and our The way to do that is to use our rebates families from the economic ravages to help build the Socialist Workers you have inflicted upon us, and we party. don't care if that means you pay a bit. The SWP has launched a special And if your system can't carry out rebate Party Building Fund. For the such reasonable proposals, then we past few weeks we have appealed to should replace it with a new one that Militant readers and supporters of the can. _ SWP to pledge all or part of their To bring socialist ideas to as many rebate to this fund. From the response as possible requires building a strong we have received so far, we can now Militant/Dennis Scarla socialist party, and that requires announce that the goal of the SWP The SWP has put forward a concrete and realistic program for fighting money. We appeal to you to fill out the Party Building Fund is $40,000. unemployment and inflation. coupon below and join in this import­ The SWP has put forward a concrete ant campaign. Just fine for the handful of very rich We call for an end to the war Barry Sheppard is the national families who control the economy, spending, which only serves to protect maybe, but not so good for the rest of the property and profits of the rich Clip------and mail to: SWP Party Building organization secretary of the us. No, working people are not the around the world, and doesn't help us Fund, 14 Charles Lane, New York, Socialist Workers party. cause of unemployment and one bit. New York 10014. inflation-we are the victims. The There should be an immediate crash ( ) I am going to send my full tax and realistic program for fighting cause is to be found in the workings of program of public works to build rebate of$ to help the fight unemployment and inflation. We start the capitalist system, which puts the needed schools, hospitals, child-care for socialism. from the truth that these two evils, private profits of a handful above the centers, and housing-as an immedi­ ( ) I can pledge $ from my which are severely hurting working needs of the great majority. ate step to relieve unemployment. rebate. people, are not the workers' doing. The The SWP says that the workers are We demand that when unemploy­ capitalist press likes to blame workers not to blame for the failings of the ment rises there be a cut in the Nanle ______for inflation and unemployment. They capitalist system. We're not concerned workweek, at no reduction in pay, to tell us that if we would accept wages with giving Ford or Congress some spread the available work. As prices Address that don't keep up with prices, worse kind of advice on how to make the rise, our union contracts, Social Securi­ working conditions, more speedup, system work better, but in raising ty benefits, pensions, and so forth City ______more pollution, and less energy, every­ programs that the workers can use to should have escalator clauses to auto­ thing would be just fine. defend themselves. matically raise our income to fully State ______Zip ___ Right.,;;wing terrorists strike again in L.A. By Harry Ring supporters of the October League, had LOS ANGELES-Right-wing terror­ been bombed previously on February 4, ists have struck again here. several hours after a lethal pipe bomb Two victims of previous attacks-the was exploded at the Central East Los Angeles Committee to Reopen the campaign headquarters of the Socialist . Rosenberg Case and the Unidos Workers party. It was only by accident bookstore-were the targets of new that no one was killed in the bombing bomb attacks. of the SWP hall. Both bombings came less than a In a phone call to a local news month after the Los Angeles Free agency, the National Socialist [Nazi] Press published an interview in which Liberation Front had taken credit for a local Nazi boasted of earlier bomb­ the bombing of the SWP and the tear­ ings by his group. The police stub­ gas disruption two nights previous of a bornly refused to act on this open rally of the Rosenberg committee. admission. Shortly after the current bombing of While refusing to act against the the Unidos bookstore, police said the Nazis, the police did arrest a member Associated Press received an anony­ of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), mous call crediting an anti-Castro charging him with the recent bombing Cuban exile group with the attack. of the Iraqi Airways office in Holly­ Earlier, Cuban counterrevolutionaries wood and the earlier bombing of a pro­ had taken credit for planting a bomb Truckload of Nazis at 1972 antiwar demonstration in Los Angeles. Despite Nazis' United Nations bookstore at the time in the studios of KCET-TV, a public public boasting about recent political bombings, L.A. cops have refused to move of the appearance of Yasir Arafat at broadcasting station, which had sche­ against them. the UN. duled a showing of the Cuban film On Sunday night, Aprill3, while the Lucia. company that had been reported plan­ The arrest of a JDLer and the shop was closed, the roof of the U nidos In an April 18 letter to Los Angeles ning to sell another of its ships to a apparently diligent investigation of bookstore in East Los Angeles was Mayor Tom Bradley, the Socialist buyer from Kuwait. the sinking of the Caribe Star suggests broken through and a canister contain­ Workers party charged that police After the Caribe Star sauk, a local that when property is involved­ ing an explosive dropped into the attic. refusal to act in the earlier bombings paper received a call saying the ship particularly property of influential It ripped a hole in the ceiling of the was responsible for the new attacks. had been sunk as "a warning against business forces-the cops can take bookstore. "Clearly," the letter stated, "these selling ships to Arabs." action. The store's electrical wiring,had to right-wing terrorists are encouraged by The Caribe Star has been refloated But the continuing refusal to act in be replaced and additional damage the official inaction of your adminis­ since the arrest of Goodman, and the other bombings suggests that Nazi was done. tration and the police department." authorities said it "probably" had been Joe Tommasi was not making an Earlier, on the night of April 2, a Phillip Goodman, the JDLer charged sunk by an explosive. empty boast when he told the Los bomb exploded on the roof of the with the April 5 bombing of the Iraqi Goodman was also accused of hav­ Angeles Free Press, "We know the cops building that, until several days previ­ Airways office and the bombing of the ing placed an explosive device that aren't interested if we bomb the Left." ous, had housed the office of the Los pro-UN bookstore last December 10, failed to go off April 5 at a local travel The administration of Mayor Brad­ Angeles Committee to Reopen the was described as an "explosives ex­ agency. ley will not be permitted to duck this Rosenberg Case. pert" who had worked for a copper­ No mention was made by police of issue. The SWP and others concerned Ten days earlier, police received a mining company in Arizona. the planting of a pipe bomb, which with basic liberties intend to conduct a warning that a bomb had been placed According to one press account, fortunately failed to explode, at the systematic campaign to put these there. A search at that time failed to police are also probing the possibility office of the Palestine Voice, a commu­ right-wing killers behind bars. Locally reveal one, but two days later, mainte­ that Goodman may have been respon­ nity paper. An anonymous caller had and nationally, Mayor Bradley will be nance workers looking for a leak found sible for the sinking of a $2.5 million told United Press International that confronted with the question: Does his an unexploded pipe bomb on the roof. cr1,1ise ship, the Caribe Star, in the area one had been planted as "a warning to administration intend to permit Nazi The Unidos bookstore, operated by April 10. The ship is owned by a all enemies of the Jewish people." bombers to run loose in Los Angeles?

THE MILITANT/MAY 2, 1975 7 MAY17 COUNTDOWN

. . . ·: ·•· ::. ~ Militant/Bruce Farnsworth

RALLY FOR JOBS: Members of the '75" and "Boston: Background to the window. Activists in Cleveland sold state board conference, Earl Trent, National Student Coalition Against Struggle for Equal Rights." 100 in five days on the campuses: The counsel for the North Philadelphia Racism (NSCAR) will be converging Speakers available through NSCAR button was also popular among protes­ NAACP, announced that a suit will be on Washington, D.C., to support the include Robert F. Williams, who was ters at President Ford's speech at the filed to desegregate the Philadelphia April 26 rally for jobs. A statement framed up for leading efforts on the bicentennial commemoration in Con­ schools. At a panel on school desegre­ they will distribute urging unionists to part of the Monroe, North Carolina, cord, Massachusetts. gation, held during the conference and support the NAACP-called May 17 Black community to defend itself from attended by more than 100 people, march on Boston for school desegrega­ racist attacks in the 1960s; Jonathan NEW NSCAR CHAPTER: A Black­ Tony Austin of Philadelphia SCAR tion says, in part, "If the gains of the Kozol, author of Death at an Early white dialogue group at Cleveland spoke on student support for May 17. civil rights movement are pushed back Age; Luis Fuentes, suspended Puerto Heights High School recently voted to in Boston it will embolden anti-Black, Rican superintendent of schools in become a chapter of NSCAR. This antiwoman, and antilabor forces. school District One in New York City; brings to thirteen the number of high PROTEST SCHOCKLEY: At Yale Through mass, peaceful, legal actions and Kathy Kelly, president of the schools in the Cleveland area where University in New Haven, Connecti­ such as the April 26 march for jobs, we National Student Association. supporters of NSCAR are active. cut, 250 students held a rally to protest have won gains for the labor and civil Also, Rev. Vernon Carter, longtime Activists in that city are holding a an invitation to William Shockley to rights movements in the past. civil rights leader in Boston; Rexford teach-in on April 25 at Cleveland State speak on campus. Shockley is a ·"You are needed to help sustain Weng, vice-president at-large of the University (CSU) to build support for preacher of pseudoscientific theories of those victories in Boston." Massachusetts State Labor Council, May 17. Speakers will include Robert Black inferiority. Sam Manuel and AFL-CIO; Joette Chancy, a Black high F. Williams; James Stallings, director Andrea Lubrano, both of New York DENVER DEMONSTRATION: On school student who is a coordinator of of the Greater Cleveland NAACP; SCAR, addressed the demonstration. April 19 in Denver, 200 people protest­ Ernest Fann, chief aide to U.S. Rep. ed racism in Bostori and Colorado at a Louis Stokes; Lois Jones, president of COLUMBUS TEACH-IN: Sixty peo­ demonstration organized by Denver the Cleveland Coalition of Black Trade ple attended a teach-in April 11 at SCAR. Chanting "Buses gotta roll, Unionists; Carol Banks, vice-president Ohio State University (OSU) in Colum-. segregation's gotta go"; "Bilingual, of the Cleveland National Organiza­ bus on "The Fight Against Racism in bicultural education now"; and "Sup­ tion for Women (NOW); Janet Thomp­ Columbus and Boston." Ray Sherbill, port the Boston children, end the racist son, president of the CSU Society for a coordinator of NSCAR, gave a drive," the protesters marched from Afro-American Unity; and Joyce Jef­ firsthand account of the situation in East High School in the Black commu­ ferson of the National Council of Boston. Charles Glatt, a professor of nity to the state capitol, where they Negro Women. education at OSU, who wrote the held a rally on the steps. school desegregation plan for Indiana­ The student goverment of the Uni­ FREEDOM FUND DINNER: At the polis, blasted the Columbus school versity of Northern Colorado in Gree­ NAACP's upcoming annual Freedom system for spending nearly $100,000 of ley organized a busload of students to Fund Dinner in Detroit, which 3,000 taxpayers' money to fight a desegrega­ attend the event. Contingents from people are expected to attend, everyone tion suit so they can continue "break­ Colorado State University at Fort will get the word on the May 17 march ing the law." -Wendy Lyons Collins and the UIJ.iversity of Colorado on Boston and be urged to sign up to at Boulder a1so marched. go. Rhonda Marshall of Denver SCAR Supporters of May 17 in Detroit have and Rev. John Morris of the Macedo­ Rev. Vernon Carter is one of group of recently arranged for a performance of Support the nia Baptist Church cochaired the rally. civil rights leaders available to speak on the play Tobacco Road from which the Speakers included Tom Foster of the Boston struggle. proceeds will be used to publicize May Park Hill NAACP; Betty Emerson of 17 and help purchase transportation to march on Black Educators United; Jesse Corona Boston. of Chicano Welfare Rights; and James NSCAR; and Maceo Dixon, also a Tripp, professor at the University of coordinator of NSCAR. LOS ANGELES ACTION: Henry Boston Northern Colorado. For more information contact Dotson, president of the Los Angeles Wear a May 17 button designed Also, Lonnie Williams of the Boulder NSCAR, 720 Beacon Street, Boston, NAACP, announced that a demonstra­ for the National Student Coalition Student Mobilization Committee Massachusetts 02215. Telephone: (617) tion will take place in Los Angeles on Against Racism by "Doonesbury" Against Racism; State Rep. Wellington 266-9665. May 17 in solidarity with the Boston creator Gary Trudeau. Price: $1.00 Webb; Ernesto Vigil of the Crusade for demonstration and to protest the each, 35 cents each for orders of ten Justice; Frank Dillon of the Colorado THEIR KIND OF TOWN?: Chicago reversal by the California Appeals or more. Also available from Warriors Society, a Native American SCAR activist Joe Sanders reports Court of a local school desegregation NSCAR are May 17 posters at $1.25 organization; and Ronnie Drew of the that antiracists there are organizing to order. per 100 and the Student Mobilizer Young Socialist Alliance. oppose an ominous growth of right­ The demonstration is supported by at $4.00 per 100. All orders must Two candidates for local school wing violence. The Nazis have recently the Watts, Oxnard, Barstow, and be prepaid. Send to NSCAR, 720 board also spoke-Everett Chavez, an taken "moral credit" for a series of Pasadena chapters of the NAACP. It is Beacon Street, Boston, Massachu­ independent Chicano candidate, and bombings of Black homes, while city also backed by L.A. SCAR and the setts 02115. Jack Marsh, the candidate -of the officials sit back and do nothing. In Committee Against Segregated Educa­ Socialist Workers party. Aurora, a suburb of Chicago, the Ku tion. Marchers will assemble at C.W. Enclosed is $ for: Klux Klan is on an open recruitment Lindsay park at Forty-first Street and __button(s) SPEAK-OUT: The Youth Affairs drive. Avalon at 1:00 p.m. They will march to __posters A teach-in will be held on April 28 at __Student Mobilizers Committee of the Boston NAACP and Exposition Park, where a rally will be Name ______Boston SCAR will cohost a speak-out Loop Junior College to protest these held at 2:00 p.m. events and help build support for the on "Racism in the Boston Schools" on Address ------May 17 march against racism in· CHISHOLM URGES SUPPORT: April 26 at the Elma Lewis School of City ______Fine Arts, in the Boston Black commu­ Boston. Scheduled speakers include The New York State Council of Black nity. A number of high school students Charlotte Walker of the Chicago chap­ Elected Officials has endorsed the May State ______Zip· ___ will talk about their experiences. In ter of the National Alliance Against 17 march for school desegregation in addition, Andre Jean-Louis, a Haitian Racist and Political Repression; Lillie Boston. U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D­ who was brutally beaten by a racist Briscoe, whose home was bombed; Ron N.Y.) urged the group to go on record mob in South Boston last fall, will Mayberry, vice-president of American in support of the action. speak. Leon Rock, youth adviser for Federation of State, County, and The New York chapter of the Coali­ the Boston NAACP, and Kim O'Brien, Municipal Employees (AFSCME) tion of Labor Union Women and the a school bus driver who was assaulted Local 2000; Andrew Pulley of Chicago executive board of New York NOW by white students, will also addr:ess the SCAR; and AI Raby, a longtime civil have also recently endorsed May 17. meeting. rights leader in Chicago. NAACP NEWS CONFERENCE: TRUTH ABOUT BOSTON: The MAY 17 BUTTONS: The May 17 The presidents of the Pennsylvania, National Student Coalition Against button advertised on this page is a big New Jersey, and Delaware NAACP Racism has organized a group of civil hit around the country. Chicago SCAR chapters recently held a news confer­ rights activists who are available to reports that· they ordered 500 and had ence in Philadelphia to announce speak around the country on such to reorder after one week. In Detroit a plans to bring residents of the tri-state topics as "The Fight for School De­ hospital worker sold 26 in one hour to area to Boston on May 17. segregation: Little Rock '57-Boston people standing in line at the payroll At a recent Pennsylvania NAACP

8 Answer to YWLL ~~inism' s record on Black struggle By Ginny Hildebrand is why the obligatory slogan is: 'Everything to win · .· · · (Third in a series) the war! Everything for victory over the Axis!'" In a recent series of articles in the Daily World, At Moscow's behest, the CP's new line was that Young Workers Liberation League leader Matty the working class and Blacks should give uncondi­ Berkelhammer falsifies the role of the Young tional support to the imperialist regimes in the Socialist Alliance in the Black liberation struggle. Allied camp. This, they were told, was the only way Berkelhammer's aim is to cast suspicion on the to defend the Soviet Union. The Trotskyists pointed YSA's efforts to help build the May 17 march on out that the best way to defend the Soviet Union Boston for school desegregatien. He tries to under- was to rely not upon the Allied imperialists but on mine the NAACP-called demonstration, which the the struggles of the working people of the world, YWLL and the Communist party are refusing to including the struggle of Blacks in this country. actively support. In doing this Berkelhammer is following in the No-strike pledge tradition of subordinating the needs and interests of the Black struggle to the Stalinists' narrow aims. In the trade unions, the CP fought for the no­ The new generation of fighters for Black libera­ strike pledge. Any worker who wanted to struggle to tion should be aware of their record of sabotage and defend his or her standard of living was branded an treachery. "agent of the Axis" or "pro-fascist." There were Under the guidance of Lenin's Bolsheviks, the constant appeals for "national unity" and the "war early American Communist party began to champi­ effort." Headlines in the Daily Worker read, "Let on the Black struggle. But after Lenin's death, a every machine operate 24 hours a day!" and conservative bureaucracy, with Stalin as its repres­ "Labor's shoulder to the wheel!" entative, rose to power and took hold of the Russian In the CP's war frenzy all regard for solidarity in Revolution, just as Meany and his ilk have taken the face of ruling-class attacks on fundamental civil hold of the trade-union movement in this country. liberties was thrown to the winds. When the leaders This Soviet bureaucracy feared revolutionary ' of the Socialist Workers party were jailed, under the struggles that would upset the status quo. Instead, notorious Smith Act, for their opposition to Wash­ it set out on the course of building "socialism in one ington's imperialist aims in the war, the CP hailed country," while abandoning the perspective of their imprisonment. world revolution. Browder boasted in the March 1944 issue of With the Stalinist bureaucracy in power, the Communist, "My party, the Communist Party, is Communist parties around the world were trans­ the only national political organization which has formed from revolutionary parties into instruments renounced all thought of partisan advantage and that would serve the interests of this privileged completely subordinated all other considerations to caste. CP members were taught to believe-and still the needs of the quickest and most complete victory do-that the interests of the world's working class in the war." must be subordinated to the needs of the Soviet And Browder wasn't kidding. bureaucracy. The CP preached to Black Americans that the war that had once held "no good for the Negro" was World War II period suddenly a war for their liberation. In the January A look at the Stalinists' policy toward the Black 1944 issue of Communist, Browder proclaimed, movement during World War II strikingly illus­ "The immediate achievement in this period, under trates the "good services" they were willing to the present American system of complete equality provide the Soviet bureaucrats at the expense of the for the Negroes, has been made possible by the war struggle for Black liberation. crisis, and by the character of this war as a people's Masses of Blacks wanted to push forward struggle for In August 1939, Stalin concluded a nonaggression war of national liberation." full equality during World War II. pact with Hitler. During this period the CP in this Blacks could gain full equality and an end to country loudly proclaimed its opposition to the racism in American capitalist society, the CP Washington movement held a rally of 25,000 at impending world war. They correctly explained that argued, if-and here's the catch-they subordinated Madison Square Garden on June 16, 1942. The rally the war was fundamentally an imperialist war that everything to the war effort. Any struggle for Black adopted militant resolutions against ·all forms of :/ was not in the interests of Blacks or the working rights had to be set aside. As Eugene Gordon, a discrimination and segregation and in favor of class as a whole. For example, in the Daily Worker staff writer for the Daily Worker, explained in 1942, independence for colonial peoples. Similar rallies of May 24, 1941, the CP explained that "this war "Hitler is the main enemy" and the "foes of Negro were held in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. holds no good for the Negro but will usher in rights in this country should be considered as The Militant hailed the New York meeting as it destruction of democratic rights and further denial secondary." had the earlier march plans, saying, "It was a powerful demonstration of the Negro people's of the meager civil liberties he enjoys already." Blacks disagreed Nothing could have been truer. But truth for the determination to fight for and win equality and CP is subject to change if the Soviet bureaucracy Millions of Blacks in this country did not share democracy at home." the Stalinists' view that the brutal racist oppression says so. And it did. Hitler attacked the Soviet Union CP attacks Black rally in June 1941, and the American Stalinists began a . they suffered was a secondary problem whose 180-degree turn that led them to become the most solution would take care of itself. They were The Stalinist press, on the other hand, called the flag-waving, prowar allies of American capitalism. determined to fight back. With the capitalist class rally organizers "appeasers" of the Axis. They also In 1942, CP chief Earl Browder wrote a pamphlet in need of increased labor- and soldier-power during attacked the action because the Socialist Workers entitled Victory Must Be Won, which explained the the war, Blacks saw an opportunity to press for party supported and helped publicize the event. sudden transformation of the imperialist war into their demands for an end to Jim Crow and for full The March on Washington movement expressed "an obligatory war of national liberation." equality. A powerful expression of this mass the widespread sentiment among Blacks that they "Our very existence is at stake," he wrote. "That sentiment was the March on Washington move­ did not want to put off their fight against racism, ment. even if they also supported the war. A. Philip Randolph called for a national march But the CP attacked this sentiment, insisting that on Washington in the spring of 1941 to demand an "the winning of the war is the primary issue before end to discrimination in the war industries and an the Negro people." (Daily Worker, June 14, 1942). end to segregation in the armed forces. The The Stalinists even organized a "win-the-war proposal caught on like wildfire, and it shook up the conference" in Harlem on June 28 to counteract the ruling class. The prospect of 100,000 Blacks march­ Madison Square Garden rally. ing down Pennsylvania Avenue demanding their And in case there was still any question about the rights forced President Roosevelt to issue an relative significance of the Black struggle, CP executive order that mildly advocated ending leader James Ford cleared it up in the pamphlet The discrimination! in industries holding defense con­ War and the Negro People, published in 1942. He tracts. But this order contained no provisions for wrote, "Four hundred years of Negro slavery. are enforcing an end· to discrimination. nothing besides Nazi persecution of Jewish peoples, Unfortunately, the leadership of the march peoples of the occupied countries, and 'races' of so­ accepted Roosevelt's sop and called off the demon­ called 'inferior' status." stration just a few days before it was to take place.· The Stalinists lashed out at any threat to the The march was in the works during the period of class harmony in the imperialist countries allied the Stalin-Hitler pact, so the CP gave some support with Moscow. This was the underlying principle of to it at first, while criticizing the Randolph their version of "defending" the Soviet Union. leadership for not making the movement clearly They attacked not only organized Black protest, antiwar. One year later the CP was to attack the but also the spontaneous uprisings against the March on Washington movement for not being brutality of white racist oppression. An example of explicitly prowar. this was their attitude toward the Harlem ghetto Communist party chief Earl Browder told Blacks to After Roosevelt's executive order had been shown uprising in the summer of 1943, which we will take forget struggle for their rights until after the war. to all to be a worthless scrap of paper, the March on up in our next article.

THE MILITANT/MAY 2, 1975 9 In Our Opinion Let ten

Definite vote they want." I enjoy the Militant very much, and Young Socialist Alliance members Outlaw death penalty if I receive any money from the streets, passed the Bill of Rights for Working I'm going to send you as much as I People brochures in Spanish among Two hundred fifty-three men and women, 60 percent of them can. That way I'll be able to pay for the crowd, who, as soon as they got Black, are waiting on death row in prisons across the country. my subscription and possibly enable them, immediately began to read them. On April 21 the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the another prisoner to receive your paper. Gallo has so far refused to recognize appeal of one of the 253, a Black man named Jesse Fowler, I'd like to say that if I were able to the UFW as the legitimate representative of the company's sentenced to die by a North Carolina court. The lives of all 253 vote, it would definitely be for Mr. Camejo. workers. Instead, the company has people hang in the balance of the Supreme Court's decision. A prisoner chosen to recognize the Teamsters In 1972 the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment, as California union by signing "sweetheart" it was being practiced, constituted "cruel and unusual punish­ contracts with them behind the ment," which is barred by the Constitution, because it had been workers' backs and without their applied in an arbitrary, discriminatory manner. Since then, consent. thirty-one states have moved to reinstate the death penalty by Unwanted The six-year contract with the UFW expired in the summer of 1973, and the making it mandatory for certain crimes or through other legal I heard a story that Militant readers, especially those in [New York City's workers have been on strike ever since. devices to make it appear unarbitrary. F.S. · But the proportion of Blacks on death row-all of them school] District One might like. This person wakes up in the morning San Jose, California sentenced since 1972 under the new state laws-shows just how and says to his mother, "I don't want discriminatory the death penalty has remained. to go to school today." The racist character of capital punishment was highlighted "You must go." Troublesome words? in a revealing exchange between Justice Thurgood Marshall, "I don't want to. They hate me. They Like many students (and others, of the only Black Supreme Court justice, and North Carolina laugh at me. They don't want me there." course); I have become disillusioned prosecutor Jean Benoy during the Supreme Court hearing. with American "democracy." Yet a few The April 22 New York Times reported that Marshall "asked "But you must go." "No, no, no." years back, socialism, Marxism, and how many of [North Carolina's] citizens were black. About 20 "But you really. must go." particularly communism were almost percent, Mr. Benoy :replied. How many blacks were on Death "Why?" dirty words. In order for socialism to Row? About 50 per cent, of the total number, came the reply." "Because you are the be integrated into American political "'That does not give you a problem?' the Justice asked. Mr. superintendent." thinking, it must become respectable. Benoy replied that it did not. . . ." Michael Smith In other words (for example), the New York, New York average "hard hat" has to see the Marshall asked how many "Negroes" were in the state's paradoxical nature of his right-wing criminal justice system, and Benoy said there was "a Negro "beliefs." woman-a Negress" who had been a judge. The Times reporter The connotations of socialism to said, "The justice appeared to bristle." Benoy could not recall One for many people are "un-American." The any Black prosecutors in North Carolina. I wish to renew my subscription to logic is there, but the support it would The campaign that has been whipped up across the country the Militant for a period of one year. seem to naturally gender is not. to reinstitute the death penalty is the work of thoroughly Congratulations for your continued Thus it would seem to me that such things as your title (the Militant reactionary and racist forces. Many of those involved are the fine coverage of the important events in the nation and the world. smacks of Black Panthers, or same forces who are campaigning-including the use of violent, revolution, or riots); headlines of hoodlum tactics-against busing to achieve school desegrega­ L.S. Pasadena, California troublesome words like terrorists, tion, against the women's Equal Rights Amendment, and rightists, repression, protest; your end­ against the right of women to abortion. of-the-world-size type on every The death penalty is a barbaric weapon of terror that has headline-these things might, rightly always been used against the oppressed minorities, poor people, One against or not, scare off Mr. Middle America. Otherwise, keep it up. and working people. The drive to reintroduce it must be After reading the Militant, I cannot, C. Pearson vigorously opposed. with any true justification, renew my subscription. Eugene, Oregon My views on many topics (i.e., abortion) are not represented. Your one-sided journalism is not serving to Dominican invasion inform the public but only spread Disappointed propaganda for the Socialist [Workers] I was very disappointed with the Ten years ago this week, just as he was beginning the party. massive escalation of the war in Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson article by Frank Lovell in the April 4 Thank you, but I can never subscribe issue concerning the sick condition of ordered 30,000 marines into the Dominican Republic. Johnson to a "newspaper" that tells me how to the country's railroads. Instead of a used the same pretext now being used by Ford to justify think and not what the thoughts of well-researched analysis of the building up an armada of warships of{ the coast of Vietnam: others are. Please do not bring around problem, we got a conspiracy theory­ American lives were said to be in danger. further solicitations for your "Yellow "They're really doing great business, The U.S. rulers threw away 55,000 American lives in Rag." I'll stick to the New York Times. but they're lying about it." Vietnam-not to mention the millions of Vietnamese lives they M. Diebolt Marxists shouldn't deny that some East Lansing, Michigan snuffed out-without batting an eyelash. They were no more capitalists are indeed ruined in times of economic downturn by other interested in saving American lives in the Dominican Republic capitalists. While not taking sides we than they were in Vietnam. must show how this competition is What Johnson was worried about was the mass uprising Gallo boycott wasteful and can lead to intensified against the right-wing dictatorship that began in Santo In spite of rain and cold winds, a ' exploitation of our class when the big Domingo on April 24, 1965. Although the leaders of the revolt very enthusiastic crowd of 1,000 United fish swallow the smaller ones. The were only trying to restore the legally elected government of Farm Workers members and article should've mentioned factors Juan Bosch and the constitution that had won popular sympathizers marched through the such as old and dangerous roadbeds approval two years· earlier, Washington feared a repetition of streets of San Jose, California, April 5, and tracks. Isn't one of the reasons for singing songs and chanting, "Viva la the collapse of the railroads in the the Cuban Revolution. huelga!"· · Northeast the flight of industry from Thus, U.S. marines occupied the Dominican Republic for the They were marching in support of that area over the last few decades? fourth time. The previous occupation, which lasted from 1916 to the U:FW effort to clear this city of If the Rock Island does fold, and 1924, was the occasion for Rafael Trujillo-then a procurer of Gallo wines from both the major and instead of being nationalized under the prostitutes for the marines-to make the contacts that enabled independent retailers of that area. control of its work force, it's split up by him to establish himself as dictator of the Dominican Republic The three-hour march began and other, more viable companies, we need for 31_ years. . ended with a rally at Guadalupe to see how we'll then be at the mercy of Church. The rally included speakers the big fish that emerge-especially The 1965 occupation also achieved its purpose. Joaquin from area UFW office directors, who the Union Pacific and Burlington Balaguer, one of Trujillo's lieutenants who had been forced out asserted that the growth of the boycott Northern. of office by mass strikes and demonstrations in 1961, was is hurting Gallo sales by more than 20 J. W. Billingsley reinstated after several thousand Dominicans were killed by the percent, not to mention the millions of Chicago, Illinois imperialist forces. dollars that the company is spending · Dominican activists in New York City, organized in the in their national advertisement campaign. Comite Unitario 24 de Abril, are carrying out a number of Not just land actions to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the April 24 "The boycott is growing stronger every day," said Despie Faush, a UFW The Militant is good for me. I only revolution. Their plans are welcome, both as a reminder of the organizer, "and we are gonna boycott object to the fact that there is not a crimes of the Balaguer regime and its imperialist backers, and the hell out of Gallo wines until the section that deals with Native also because Washington's actions in the Dominican Republic company agrees to let its workers have Americans on a regular basis, unless it serve as a warning of what it is threatening to do in Vietnam. a fair election to decide which union relates to an occupation or a state and

10 MONTHLY MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT TO THE MILITANT MAY 1975

Job Crisis: lew Challenge for Unions l Rodino Bill: Threat to Ill Workers 1 Telephone Operator Speaks Out (INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW/PAGE 2)

a mockery of its signature on the Paris rights or antiwar movements of the 1960s. accords." , The fact that it called for the April 26 rally in Both Moscow and Peking have demonstrat­ the national capital is a dramatic indication of !Ill ed throughout the Vietnam War that conces­ the turbulent pressures from rank-and-file sions from Washington, and factional con­ unionists demanding action. flicts between themselves, are more important Indeed the response to the call from union II to them than the fate of the Vietnamese ranks quickly overflowed the framework set revolution. In commenting on the situation in by the organizers. Reports from around the Vietnam, representatives of the Kremlin have country show that there were long waiting Last month saw the biggest victories for the studiously avoided attacking Washington for lists .of working people who wanted to go to colonial revolution in Asia since the Chinese its support to the Saigon regime and have Washington on the too few union buses and Revolution of 1949. stressed that the Provisional Revolutionary chartered planes. The Cambodian insurgent forces won the Government of South Vietnam aims to carry Many unionists will see from the success of unconditional surrender of the proimperialist out the provisions of the 1973 Paris accords April 26 the potential for building even more puppet government headed by Lon Nol. The calling for sharing power between the PRG, powerful mass protests if the unions throw Vietnamese rebels drove the puppet regime the Saigon regime, and "neutraiists." their full forces into them and make it there into a shrinking enclave around Saigon. There is another force, however, that will possible for all unionists and their allies to American military experts and the capitalist come into play in shaping the final outcome participate. April 26 is the opening of a new media were virtually unanimous in admitting of the new stage of the struggle in Indochina. stage of the class struggle, in which the that the insurgents were in a position easily to That is the masses of peasants and workers working class is beginning to seek indepen­ take Saigon if they wanted to. of Vietnam and Cambodia, whose hopes have dent forms of action in defense of its living The events in Indochina are a sharp been raised for fundamental improvements in standards. setback to the drive for world domination that their daily lives. They have been the back­ Washington has pursued since the Second bone of the decades-long, irrepressible Many participants in the April 26 demon­ World War, attempting to exert its domination struggle in Indochina. They want distribution stration will be urging protesters to come out over the former colonial empires of its impe­ of the land of the big landlords, democratic again into the streets for another mass action rialist rivals through the imposition of sub­ rights, an end to imperialist exploitation, and for social justice: the May 17 march on servient regimes backed by U,S, military a decent life for workers in the cities. Boston for school desegregation called by might. If the masses of Vietnamese and Cambodi­ the NAACP. These events are also a vindication of the ans come onto the stage in sufficient force, The NAACP march is further evidence of efforts of the U.S. antiwar movement and of they can make irrelevant the calculations of the mounting unrest in this country, especial­ the revolutionaries who helped build that those who are now trying to negotiate the ly among Black people. The NAACP-well movement. This movement brought into the future of these countries-Washington, Mos­ known in the Black community for its picture the mass pressure of the American cow, and Peking. Under the favorable rela­ leadership role in fighting racist oppression people, which made it politically impossible tionship of forces and the momentum of the through the courts-has not played a leading for Washington to continue to pay the price recent victories, the Stalinist and nationalist role in mass mobilizations since the 1963 required to crush the Vietnamese revolution. rebel leaderships in South Vietnam and March on Washington for civil rights. The But the outcome of the struggle in Indochi­ Cambodia may be unable to adhere to their impetus for its call for May 17 has come from na is still not definitely settled. As this is program of maintaining capitalism. the growing realization among Blac'k people written, behind-the-scenes negotiations are The demands of the American people in that the rise of racist lynch mobs in defense taking place. this critical situation must be: Stop U.S. aid to of segregation in Boston must not go Washington is desperately trying to salvage Saigon! Withdraw all U.S. "advisers" to the unanswered. Further impulsion came from any toehold it can for imperialist control. The Saigon regime! No Gls to Vietnam! Vietnam the initiative taken by the students organized U.S. rulers are pressing for a settlement that for the Vietnamese! in the National Student Coalition Against would at least freeze the present military lines Racism (NSCAR). and preserve an enclave around Saigon as an The factors holding back the U.S. rulers imperialist base. from more direct aggression in Indochina are The two actions, April 26 and May 17, are President Ford, with congressional back­ symbolized by the enthusiastic support and interlinked. For example, the NAACP in ing, is threatening a new U.S. military buildup for the April 26 Rally for Jobs Now in Newark, where there is one of the highest intervention on the pretext of evacuating Washington, D.C., sponsored by the AFL-CIO Black unemployment rates in the country, Americans from Saigon. With this threat, the Industrial Union Department. This mass readily gave its support to the April 26 rally. U.S. rulers are testing, step by step, to see action will be a forceful reminder to the U.S. And among the most militant protesters in how far they can go without provoking ruling class that the American people have Washington will be Black workers, who will renewed massive protest and counterpres­ other priorities than wasting more billions of also be interested in bringing the power of sure from the antiwar majority of the Ameri­ dollars to prop up corrupt dictatorships in their unions to bear against the racist, can people. Southeast Asia. reactionary antibusing campaign centered in At the same time, Ford and Kissinger have The April 26 demonstration signals a new Boston. sent out warnings to Moscow and Peking, level of combativity among American working The consecutive actions on April 26 and threatening that detente will be endangered if people. May 17 constitute a two-fisted spring offen­ they don't use their influence to put a brake The AFL-CIO, the largest organization of sive against the schemes of the racist, on a clean sweep by the Vietnamese. the American working class, is so conserva­ warmongering friends of big business in This was the meaning of Kissinger's threat tized that it has not called a single national Washington and local governments across on April 17: "We shall not forget who supplied mass action since the close of World War II. the country. the arms which North Vietnam used to make The national AFL-CIO took no part in the civil After April 26-on to Boston!

-A Telephone Operator Speaks Out 6 COITBITS The Need for a Revolutionary Party, Editor: Caroline Lund Job Crisis: Challenge by Fred Feldman 8 for the Unions, The International Socialist Review ap­ Books, Letters 11 pears in the Militant that comes out by Frank Lovell 3 during the first week of every month,

Rodino Bill: Threat The Case of Sergei Copyright ' 1975 Militant Publishing to All Workers, Paradzhanov, Association by Cindy Jaquith 5 by Antonin Liehm 12

12' (PAGE 3/INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW)

Job Crisis: lew Challenge for Unions Demonstrations demanding jobs have been held in federal government was forced to pass the 1964 Civil By Frank Lovell Sacramento and Los Angeles, California; in New York Rights Act. Title VII of that act bars employers of City; and in Chicago; as well as the largest one to date, fifteen or more people from discriminating on the basis the April 26 Rally for Jobs in Washington. of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, except The following article is based on a talk prepared by Working people are in a very different position today where sex is a "bona fide occupational qualification"­ Frank Lovell, labor columnist for the Militant, to be than in the early days of the depression of the 1930s. whatever that is. given at the Annual Spring Conference of the Union The union movement then was weak-only about two This law has never been fully enforced. But it was Leadership Academy of Western Pennsylvania. The million members. The mass of workers in basic indus­ endorsed by the union movement and has served to theme of the gathering, held at Pennsylvania State try were not organized. Developments today-based on strengthen the working class by making illegal the University in Pittsburgh, was "Issues Facing Union the strength of the modern unions, and drawing upon discriminatory hiring practices of the bosses. Members Today." Specific topics up for discussion the experience and lessons of the 1930s-can unfold were: "Layoffs; Seniority, men us. women; Public us. very rapidly. With the rise of the women's movement for equal Private Sector; and Labor Party." What are some of the issues confronting unionists rights near the end of the 1960s-encouraged certainly The Union Leadership Academy of Western Pennsyl­ today as they try to come to grips with the current job by the earlier Black civil rights movement-women vania is sponsored by Pennsylvania State University's crisis? also began to demand equal pay and equal opportuni­ Department of Labor Studies, which operates in In the fight for jobs, one of the main problems facing ties. conjunction with the AFL-CIO state labor councils of the unions is to forge unity among workers. With fewer A series of lawsuits forced such giant corporations Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New Jersey. jobs available, the employers are better able to foster as American Telephone and Telegraph to pay millions There are eleven million workers in this country divisions among the working class and use them to of dollars in back pay to women who had been without full-time employment, according to govern­ their own advantage. These divisions include those discriminated against in wage rates. ment figures. This estimate does not take into account between Blacks and other minorities, and whites; The steel industry was forced to pay Black workers those in the Black communities and barrios of the big between skilled and unskilled; between regions, such as wages they were cheated out of because of their cities who are classified as "hard core" unemployed, the North and the South; between employed and segregation into special departments of work. nor the young men and women who are just entering unemployed; between women and men; between organ­ These struggles forced the employers to revise their the labor market and have never had a chance to work. ized and unorganized; between citizen 'l.nd noncitizen. hiring practices, and in the past few years Blacks and Almost one-quarter of the 1.5 million members of the In general, the bosses today are taking a tougher other minority workers, and women, won entrance into United Auto Workers union are out of work. These attitude. If a worker is dissatisfied and complains some jobs where they had previously been excluded. ) unemployed auto workers were all on the job one year about new speedup rules, the employer might say, This was something new, and a gain for the unions. ago. Most of them had been employed from one to five "Why don't you quit; there are plenty of others looking However, one general result of the present mass years, with many others having ten to fifteen years' for work." If a local union votes to strike over local layoffs is that those Black and women workers who are seniority. grievances, the company representatives may say, "Go among the most recently hired because of the gains None of the approximately 300,000 jobless auto ahead; the home office has been thinking about closing made by the civil rights movement have been the first workers are paying dues to the UAW anymore, but this plant anyway." laid off. Some of these workers have filed court actions nearly all of them look to the union to do something for These are the general circumstances in which the to regain their jobs. them. announcements of layoffs seem to come almost daily. This situation has led to an important debate over The same is true for other unions that have been hit Just as in periods of expansion when new workers whether the fight against discriminatory hiring cuts hard by the layoffs- in the electrical industry, the are being hired, so in these times of mass layoffs, the across the gains made by the unions years ago in the teachers unions, the hospital workers unions, the employers find ways of hiring those they want-and form of seniority rights. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal discriminating against those they don't want, especial­ In the past, many unions fought for and won Employees (AFSCME), the Service Employees Interna­ ly Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, and women. seniority rights in order to protect their members, tional Union, and the building-trades unions, which With the rise of the Black struggle in the 1960s, the especially those who would not curry favor with the are hit hardest of all. boss. This prevented the employers from picking and What are these unions doing t~ help their unem­ choosing those to be fired or laid off in slack times. If ployed members, or former members? What can they the boss wanted to get rid of someone considered to be do? a "troublemaker"-most often a union leader in the About a year and a half ago a reporter for the shop-he had to find "just cause" or lay off others with Minneapolis Star conducted a very limited survey on less seniority first. this question. He went around to some union officials The employers always found ways of circumventing in that city and asked what they were doing about seniority rights, of course, but it usually worked to unemployment. The answer he got in every case was prevent individual victimization. It also served as a another question: "What can I do?" general guideline for temporary layoffs; vacation This reflected the general attitude of the union periods, pension benefits, and similar matters. It came movement at the time. Unions are not organized to to be recognized by unionists as "the most fair create jobs, it was thought. They are organized to way.... " protect the working conditions and raise the real wages But this doesn't apply very well when tens of of workers who have jobs.. thousands are being laid off. There is nothing "fair" This kind of complacent thinking has almost about these layoffs. Whole departments close down; disappeared during the past year as the unemploy­ plants employing thousands are shut. And those hit ment figures have risen. th~ worst are the Blacks, other oppressed minorities, The unions are beginning to do something about and women. layoffs. Not much as yet, but more than they have done In the case of Jersey Central Power & Light for the past quarter century. Not since the 1945-1946 Company, which laid off about 400 of its 3,850 workers, . strike wave has there been anything like the unrest a U.S. district court judge ordered the company to and demonstrations that are going on right now. reduce its work force in such a way that would not On February 5 the UAW held an unemployed disproportionately victimize the newly hired minorities conference of 10,000 in Washington. UAW President and women. Leonard Woodcock promised there that if nothing were In other words, two categories of workers would be done to create jobs "by spring," UAW workers would recognized-those hired as a result of recent court­ return to the capitol a quarter-million strong. Harry Ring ordered affirmative actions, and those previously hired

13 (INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW/PAGE 4)

under discriminatory company practices. If the total people. Just as in the 1930s, it will take massive a state legislator. They couldn't get anywhere in the work force were to be reduced by one-tenth, then one of independent action-marches, sit-ins, strikes-by the local Democratic party, so they ran as independents­ every ten workers in each group would be laid off in workers themselves and by the unemployed to fo~e the in one case as a write-in candidate-with the full line of group seniority. government to grant such demands. support of the Coal Miners Political Action Committee This ruling was overturned last January by an The April 26 demonstration in Washington is an (COMPAC). appeals court in Philadelphia, but it points the way to example of what is needed. The enthusiasm that built The United Mine Workers Journal says: possible solutions that would protect both the principle up among rank-and-file union members for this demon· "With Burleson helping to write laws in the legisla­ of seniority rights and the rights of the workers most ·stration was an indication of the new mood that is · ture and Ross helping to enforce them at the local level, discriminated against by the bosses. taking hold and a sign of the potential response for. the two men are part of a small but important step It is short-sighted as well as unjust for any union to future labor mass actions. forward for coal miners in the drive to 'take the law insist that the last hired be the first fired in the face of Such protests are effective in giving union members into our own hands.' " the present mass layoffs. There is no prospect of being a sense of their own power. They are effective in The employers have had the law in their hands for a rehired soon. These are not temporary layoffs. No projecting a new image of the union movement to very long time, and they have used it to abuse the vast worker's job is secure. Especially under these circum· society as a whole, as-the leading force fightingoack majority of people. It is about time that working people stances, seniority is a very thin reed to cling to. against the effects of the economic crisis on working organize to make and enforce some laws assuring Breaking through the barriers of discrimination at people and their families. It is not only union members healthful working conditions in this country. the employment desk was not easy, and those who who are wondering what can be done about the Charlie Ross, who is the new county constable in have managed to find jobs under the affirmative-action deteriorating quality of life today. By organizing mass Wyoming County, West Virginia, said one of the programs ought not to be the first victims of the actions, the labor movement can attract allies from biggest problems they had in their campaign was to many other sections of the population and become the leadership of still more powerful forces than its own membership. 'The best protection against Secondly, the current economic crisis is bringing 'The economic crisis is bringing layoffs is that which protects the greater and greater recognition that the major prob­ greater recognition that the lems plaguing the working class-unemployment and problems plaguing the working most vulnerable workers, such runaway prices, the declining standard of living, and as women and the oppressed the deteriorating quality of life-are problems requiring class require political minorities.' political solutions. They are problems that cannot be solutions.' resolved at the bargaining table between employers · and unions, but require government action. A prime example is the question of war and military convince union men and women-coal miners, teach· depression. The unions can find ways, as they have in spending. The $100 billion military budget, and the ers, railroad workers, and others-that they could win. the past, to protect thes'! gains. while fighting for new $400 billion spent by Washington on the hated "They've had it beat into them for so long that the ground. The vast majority of workers .will be able to Vietnam War, have nothing to do with the interests o:f companies have control," Ross says, "that they didn't understand that the best protection for all is that which working people in this country. In fact, the huge believe we could really do it. protects the most vulnerable-the original purpose of military budget was responsible for triggering the "But look, the coal operators don't have any votes. seniority _rights. inflation spiral at the end of the 1960s. All they have is money, and with some organization we Something of the same thing is involved in the There are certainly few unemployed workers who can overcome that." divisions that have existed between workers in the could feel much sympathy with President Ford's The same is true on a national scale. Those who public and private sectors. request for $1 billion for more bombs for Indochina profit from the capitalist system-which created this Most workers in the public sector have in the past while millions of families in this country have been hit crisis-are very few. The rest of us, who work for them, thought their jobs were secure because of Civil Service. by the economic catastrophe of unemployment. are the vast majority. The embryos for building a labor This is no longer true. Civil servants are threatened The unions need a new program to unite all' sections party already exist in the various political action units with layoffs. of the working class in combating the attempts of both of the union movement-such as the United Mine In New York State, 40,000 state employees demon­ the employers and the government to make workers Workers' COMPAC, the AFlrCIO's Committee on strated at the capitol in Albany on March 18, suffer from the problems of this capitalist system. A Political Education, the Teamsters' Drive, and the protesting the decline in their real wages and projected leadership that sits back and leaves the fate of the UAW's Community Action Program. layoffs by the state.- Sponsored by the 147,000-member workers and unemployed in the hands of the Democrat· Civil Service Employees Association, the action was a ic and Republican politicians cannot defend past gains Today .there is persistent talk by some older unionists sign of the new mood among public employees. of the unions, and will suffer defeats at tne hands of about the need for a labor party, harking back to the What is happening in New York is not unique. The the employers. 19:30s and 1940s, when UAW leaders, including same thing is happening in most other states, and will · · The workers and their unions need their own political Leonard Woodcock, and most of the big locals of the produce similar results. party-a labor party based on the union movement. UAW, favored the formation of a labor party. Government workers who are being fired, or will be More and more working people are fed up with both Then in the period after World War II, when the fired, may get jobs in some of the limited federal capitalist parties, but they see no alternative. The economy was expanding, Walter Reuther and his emergency jobs programs that are being devised. In unions are an organized power that could be the base supporters, who had previously endorsed the call for a fact, some may be put back to work doing about the for such an alternative political force. And there are labor party, began to argue that "now is not the time." same kind of job they were doing before. But with one signs that some unionists are beginning to realize this. It is necessary to try to reform the Democratic party, difference: they won't be working in the Civil Service In West Virginia last November two coal miners were they said, and if that fails, we can form our own party. program and won't have any of its benefits, including elected to local office, one a county constable, the other Some unionists have begun to say that now is the wage and salary classifications. Their wages, in many time. For example, a former leader (now retired) of the instances, will be as little as half of Civil Service pay. UAW in Detroit, John Anderson, has circulated an Workers in private industry face a similar perspec­ "open letter to UAW President Leonard Woodcock," in tive, if they are lucky enough to get one of the federal which he says, in part: jobs. Public and private industry workers find them· "As one of those who suffered through the depression selves in the same boat, and will benefit from united of the thirties I appeal to you in behalf of the action demanding jobs. unemployed in the auto industry today.... "It is a known fact that the loss of a job is next to losing their life in the minds of many workers. Some Prompted by the mass layoffs, the unions are take their lives because of despair resulting from being beginning, for the first time since the 1930s, to raise the unemployed. Unemployment causes the breaking up of demand "Jobs for all." Now, as in the 1930s, there homes; workers turn to drink or drugs to forget their seems to be no. prospect of either private industry or the problems. They become accident prone. They become government rehiring the millions who find themselves ill, emotionally and physically. Some turn to crime. We out of work. must do something to alleviate this great human So the unions must find ways to create jobs. This tragedy.... would be easily possible by reducing the hours of "I appeal to you to open our union for free political work-from forty per week to thirty-with no reduction discussion such as we had in the early years of our in take-home pay; in conjunction with a massive public Union. Instruct the Local Union officers to call works program employing millions at union wages to meetings to deal with the many problems of the rebuild this country. unemployed .... The AFlrCIO has proposed a six-point program "to "I know that you at one time like Emil Mazey and put America back to work." Addressed to Congress, it the late Walter Reuther gave support to the idea of a includes demands for "immediate, massive federal labor party. Walter repeatedly promised the UAW efforts to create jobs for the unemployed," and membership that he would lead a movement in support "immediate government assistance to the unemployed of a labor party. You have recently expressed your to minimize their hardships." In addition, the AFlrCIO disappointment with the Democrats in Congress. The has formally called for a thirty-five-hour workweek, majority of the American people have lost faith in the and some unions are asking for thirty-two hours. Republican and the Democratic Parties. At a demonstration for jobs at the California state "Why don't you establish yourself as a leader of capitol last month, John Henning, secretary-treasurer American labor by attempting to bring to fr:uition of the state AFL-CIO, said that the private sector of Walter Reuther's promises to the auto workers for an industry has proved incapable of producing for the American labor party? Only such a bold move on the needs of the people and that it is necessary for the part of the UAW leadership can give to the employed government to put the unemployed back to work and and unemployed hope for a solution to our political and provide services and produce for the needs of society. economic problems ...." These are good ideas and demands. The question is Sentiments sueh as these expressed by John Ander· . how to achieve them. son will be fed by the economic and political crisis and First_ of all, it is clear from the present crisis that by the failure of the Democratic party to respond to the workers cannot depend on the Democratic or Republi· elementary needs of the union movement. can politicians in Congress or the White House to bring about any major changes to the benefit of working

14 (PAGE 5/INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW) Rodino Bill: Threat to Ill Workers the rights of undocumented workers­ shut these workers out of the labor When Socialist Workers party presi­ By Cindy Jaquith the trade-union officials-have shame­ movement, but to treat attacks on them dential candidate Peter Camejo ad­ lessly parroted the most reactionary for what they are: attacks on the entire dressed a meeting of UFW members in As unemployment figures continue attacks on these workers. The AFL-CIO working class. San Juan, Texas, recently, he received their upward climb, there are growing officialdom, in particular, has cam­ The AFL-CIO bureaucrats' attacks on an ovation for his statements in defense attempts to blame scapegoats for the paigned for the Rodino bill for several "illegals" are a cover for their own of "illegal aliens." economic crisis, to divert the attention years. unwillingness to defend the jobs and "Socialists oppose the racist Roaino of working people from the real causes. Testifying before the House immigra­ standards· of living of their members. bill and any other laws that deny full Chief among the victims are the noncit­ tion subcommittee, AFL-CIO legislative Their railings against "foreigners" civil rights to immigrant workers," says izen workers without the proper papers. director Andrew Biemiller charged that have become all the more shrill as their Camejo. "The 'illegal alien' scare is a Ninety percent of the estimated six to "all too many illegal aliens ... end up own betrayal of working people's inter­ maneuver to keep American workers eight million immigrant workers in this on relief and become a burden on the ests becomes clearer. divided from their sister and brother country are Mexicans. Others come community in terms of medical care Unfortunately, these same reaction· workers in other countries at a .time from Latin America, Europe, Taiwan, and other social services." ary arguments have been voiced by when we need a united struggle to win Hong Kong, and the Philippines. "The net effect of the illegal's pres­ representatives of the United Farm jobs for all at decent pay. These workers come here hoping to ence in the job market," he said, "has Workers. Last summer UFW President "These workers have the right to jobs escape the misery of economic condi­ been to depress and maintain low wage Cesar Chavez began appealing to la at union wages, the right to send their tions in their own country. Here they levels and substandard living condi­ migra to deport all "illegal aliens," children to any school, and the right to are forced into the most menial, low­ tions ...." going so far as to offer the names and social services like welfare and hospital paying jobs. Bosses can get away with This is only true to the extent that the addresses of suspected "illegals." care. paying them substandard wages and unions have been unwilling to organize According to UFW Secretary­ "In a socialist society, we would do demanding long hours because the and fight for the rights of these work­ Treasurer Gilbert Padilla, the union away with border passes and artificial workers cannot fight back for fear of ers. Whenever the bosses are allowed to still stands by this position. The UFW boundaries, which only make it easier deportation. get away with stigmatizing a section of is not supporting the Rodino bill, for a tiny minority to make profits. The employers work hand in glove the working class as pariahs, as ex­ however, because it has "no teeth in it," Human beings would no longer be with the Immigration Service, turning pendable, as undeserving of equal he said. judged by whether they have a pass· on and off the flow of "illegals" as the rights-this does weaken the labor The UFW's official position on "ille­ port, or an accent, or by the color of job market ·fluctuates. If the employer movement as a whole and help depress gal aliens" has drawn strong criticism their skin." needs to round up scabs, or if Ulere is a wages. This is just as true regarding from some of the farm workers' firmest harvest coming up, the Border Patrol discrimination against Black people allies, especially in the Chicano commu· cops look the other way, allowing and women. The answer is not to try to nities. thousands of undocumented workers into the country. But when the boss wants to get rid of these workers-often The following article, headline, and illustration are reprinted from the without paying them what they have Apri/1975 issue of 1199 News, magazine of District 1199 of the National earned-a quick call to Immigration Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees. We are printing it as one guarantees a raid and the deportation of the all-too-few examples of unions standing up for the rights of of those without papers. undocumented workers, the most downtrodden section of the working Dragnet hunts by la migra, particu­ class. larly in Latino communities, have been used to further whip up anti-"illegal" Congress, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the press Blaming sentiment and to terrorize anyone with have joined in a massive campaign to place the blame for the current a brown skin or an accent. economic disaster on the shoulders of aliens, living and working illegally In Congress, the campaign against ·in the United States. undocumented workers is taking shape Sensational press stories in recent weeks have painted a scare picture of the in the form of several bills, particularly millions of illegal aliens flooding the country to take jobs away from one submitted by Rep. Peter Rodino (D­ American workers. Typical headlines have been those of the New York N.J.). In both 1972 and 1973 this bill Daily News dealing with the job picture in New York: "100,000 Illegal passed in the House but was killed in Aliens-Job and Tax Robbers," or that of the New York Times: the Senate. This year it will hit the floor "Unlawful Aliens Use Costly City Services." Victims in the context of a stepped-up racist The number of illegal aliens has been variously estimated at six to drive against the "illegals" that is seven million up to ten million. They are concentrated in large urban being echoed not only by the White communities, in Florida and in areas of Texas and Southern California House but by leaders of the major trade adjacent to the Mexican border. The overwhelming majority have fled unions as well. intolerable living conditions in the Caribbean and Central and South The main parts of the Rodino bill are America. It is estimated that 11/ 2 million live in New York. as follows: Living in fear of exposure and deportation, aliens can find only the • Employers who "knowingly" hire lowest paid work. They fill the vacuum at the bottom of the labor market, an "illegal alien" will first receive a working in dead-end jobs in textiles, shoes and tanning, small novelty citation; then a $500 fine for each manufacturing; sewing in garment factories; and working in restaurants, "illegal" on the second offense; and a hotels and laundries. A 1973 amendment to the Social Security law $1,000 fine per "illegal" or a maximum precludes nonresidents who are not authorized to work from getting of one year in jail for the third offense. Social Security cards. • Employees of the Department of Though taxes are withheld from their wages, they are ineligible for Health, Education and Welfare must unemployment insurance, Social Security benefits, welfare assistance, all turn over the names and addresses of of which entails a scrutiny they must shrink from. Playing on the alien's "illegals" receiving public assistance. need of a job and his or her fear of exposure, employer exploitation is • Any worker caught using false merciless. papers will be fined a maximum of While it is difficult to estimate the number of illegal aliens working in $2,000 and/or a maximum jail term of hospitals, a number of organized institutions are known to pursue a five years. policy of recruiting workers in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and other • The attorney general will issue Caribbean countries, and the Philippines. These workers encourage citizenship identification papers for friends and relatives back home to join them. Entering the country employers' use. illegally, these too are put on the payroll. The first point in Rodino's bill-the "Let's place the blame for unemployment where it-belongs," 1199 Pres. only point generally publicized-is a Leon J. Davis said recently. "Most of these people have been imported to sham. It is well-known that the cops this country by employers who wanted a cheap labor force. The aliens are assigned to issue these "citations" are the victims, not the villains in this situation. Responsibility for getting their pockets lined by the very joblessness rests with the Nixon-Ford Administrations. The only jobs same employers they are supposed to be foreign-born workers can get are under the counter deals. Let's not make investigating. The real intent of the bill them the scapegoats." is not to penalize employers but to Legislation to curb hiring Qf illegal aliens has been introduced in intensify the attacks on undocumented Congress by Rep. Peter W. Rodino, New Jersey Democrat. The measure, workers, and on the working class as a HR 982, would make employers criminally liable for knowingly hiring an whole. illegal alien. The bill, scored by civil rights groups as an "unenforceable If passed, the bill would be the hoax," has the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, whose legislative director, launching pad for new dragnet sweeps Andrew J. Biemiller, told a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing that in the barrios, for lopping off thousands employment of illegal aliens adds to the joblessness of citizens and pulls of families from welfare rolls, and for down wages for all workers in the community. requiring-for the first time in U.S. Roman Catholic leaders, opposing the Rodino bill, contend that history-an internal passport system. imposing sanctions against employers who hire illegal aliens would Those who should be championing promote discrimination against Hispanic people. Testifying at the 1199 News Judiciary subcommittee, Monsignor George C. Higgins, research secre­ Cindy Jaquith heads the Washing· tary of the United States Catholic Conference, urged legislation providing ton Bureau of the Militant. amnesty for all illegal aliens here.

15 (INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW/PAGE 6) 'To 11rself, so I'll. lever Forget ... ' I !elephone Operator Speaks Out

The January 24 is~;ue of the Militant the telephone company and to talk to sets for the photographs. a time from a bqard go to the ladies' carried an interview by Rachel Towne our parents. Many operators swallowed ten or room. At the end of each board, on top with Dennis Serrette, vice-president of On a list outside the door to our twelve aspirins every day. They took of it, was a box decorated for the season Communications Workers of America switchboard office the company posted prescription drugs for nerves too. We of the year. A long-stemmed plastic (CWA) LocalllOI in New York, on the each operator's position for the day. got sick headaches from the work and flower was next to it. One summer the conditions of labor for telephone work­ Our office had five switchboards with throbbing at the temples from the head­ company put up a drawing of a toilet on ers. He termed the Bell System's treat­ thirty positions on each side of them. sets. Lots of operators took tranquiliz­ the box for all visitors, repairmen, or ment of operators as "one of the most The positions were like little stalls, ers, suffered -from circulatory diseases, whoever to see as they entered our brutal examples of almost 11lave labor separated by transparent plastic parti­ and broke out in hives at the board. office. When an operator got excused, you could ever see anywhere." tions. We sat in long rows, about a foot Our office smelled like feet and sweat; she had to sign her name and the time A Militant reader in Cincinnati, Ohio, apart from each other. We had barely it made operators gag. Every four or on the sign-out sheet, put the plastic who is a former telephone operator, enough room to move our arms and to five months the company sprayed with flower in the box, then leave for three to wrote to the Militant: "I haven't seen write. disinfectant. Where the directories lay five minutes. When she returned, she many articles that tell people the dirty Service assistants-the company in the positions, skin oils, makeup, af\d took the flower down and signed in the truth about the way operators are called them SAs (pronounced like grime piled up in a thick layer. time on the way to her position. treated the way yours did. CWA needs essays)-sat at desks in the middle of A couple of times a year, if the calls To get signed out for an emergency, more Dennis Serrettes." the office to answer rings from the were coming slow, a supervisor handed an operator had to E)Xplain whether the The reader-who wishes to remain operators. Other SAs walked the floor, an operator the rag and a bottle of emergency was diarrhea, or waiting too anonymous from Ma Bell-worked for scrutinizing us. cleaner to go around and clean posi­ lon.g, or her period. One operator who the Cincinnati Bell telephone company Group chief operators, GCOs, stood tions till the calls picked up, maybe five asked to leave because of her period for more than four years, quitting in around looking over the office. Group or ten minutes. These were the only was asked, "Wasn't your period last 1973. A year ago she decided to write chief operators and the chief operator _ times the positions ever got cleaned. week, honey?" Another one's bra strap down what it was like to be an operator. had titles with the word "operator" in When. the boards slowed, SAs also broke and the GCO told her to wait till The following are major excerpts from them, but they never sat at the board. selected a couple of us to pick up the her description, accompanied by her The chief operator had little to do with snotty tissues and paper stuffed in the own drawings. us. If she summoned an operator, we all nooks of the positions. They didn't let The conditions she tells of still exist. wanted to know what kind of trouble us pick up the trash to do us any favors. Dennis Serrette told the Militant recent­ the operator was in. The calls had to keep coming at a ly that in New York three operators Our chairs twisted up and down, but certain speed, so when they got slowed, have died of sicknesses ouer the past they wore out and the company fixed one or two of us had to be removed to year-two on the job and one when she them so they stayed high and wouldn't keep the calls coming fast for the other got home from work-because they twist down. We sat for hours with our operators. • were prevented from going home when feet dangling. The company let us work The company put garbage cans in our they were ill. standing up for only five minutes at a office, but no );!lace for trash at the time. Nobody really got that long positions. SAs told operators who got because only one operator was allowed up to go to the trash can to get back in to stand at a time. We cheated on each their seats. Although the company To Dehhie, whose husband couldn't other to get to stand up. We stood up replaced the directorie!J every two weeks see why she couldn't talk straight, and when we knew others had been stand­ for changes, they became so smeared why she was always tired, when she ing only a minute, and the supervisors with makeup and mucus that we could just sat and talked on the phone all told whoever they saw first to sit down. see through the pages. day. We could leave our seats to get drinks Lights in black boxes on. the wall lit 'We had to sit on chairs stained with pee. To myself, so I never forget. and that was all. We had to ring for up for every call. An operator could The stains came from operators who got bladder infections from waiting hours to SAs to bring us pencils, paper, tissues, make the calls at her position stop if go to the ladies' room.' Most of the time the only job the and headache pills. If we got too many she unplugged her headset cord from telephone company had open for wom­ drinks, supervisors asked us what the the jack, and also if she flipped a switch en was operator. The company gave the problem was that we were out of our but stayed plugged into the jack. A women it was hiring three hours of seats so often. supervisor just had to look at the black her break, when she had just come back memory tests. Then it fingerprinted us We stuck folded tissues between our boxes to know if any operator in the from her break. Sometimes SAs and made a date to visit our homes. headsets and our heads to soften the office was unplugged or had her switch wouldn't sign an emergency if they When the supervisor got to an opera­ pressure of the headsets' metal wires. down. thought the operator asked too often. tor's home, her cab waited and she There was a one-ounce headset, but we From their desks, SAs and GCOs While an operator was taking her talked about the weather and cooking. still had to use the eight-ounce head­ could tell at any time how many calls she had to keep turning her head The employment office told us the sets. Two or three operators a year who seconds an operator spent on a call and to try to see operators putting the flower company had to visit our homes to see were photographed for company adver­ how many calls she took in an hour. in and out of the box to know when she if we would fit in with the other girls at tising got to wear the one-ounce head- Once a month, when the operator didn't could try to go out. know it, these machines totaled the If an operator started getting excused number of calls an operator took in an three times in one day she had to see a hour. SAs put the total in the operator's doctor. That was why some operators record. signed out under an alias or signed illegibly. They hoped the supervisors Our directory had smaller and closer­ wouldn't catch them at the time, or together print than did the customers' later when the company went over the directory. Every day the company gave sign-out sheet. They got caught right us a new numbers section, the addenda, away, most times. and when we didn't find numbers in the If an operator slouched in her seat, directory we looked in the addenda. walked around with her shoulders Looking in the addenda was easier slumped, or didn't smile, she could get because the addenda was short, but "bad attitude" on her job record. We all looking under several spellings took slouched and slumped at times because time. This searching ruined operators' we were always tired. Supervisors never eyesight. Eighteen-year-old operators selected an operator with "bad attitude" who had perfect vision when they were to pick up the trash. The company hired needed glasses after a few months brought more little things to the atten­ at the board. tion of an operator with "bad attitude." We had to sit on chairs stained with She had to explain things such as her pee. Some had more than one pee stain, clothes, her purse, her hair. one on top of another or two or more As we filed in the door at the separate pee stains. The stains came beginning of every tour and after break from all the operators who got bladder an_d lunch, a supervisor was there to infections from day after day of waiting check off our names. When an operator an hour, and many times more than was late-so much as one minute late two hours, to go to the ladies' room. The once a year-a supervisor reprimanded company never cleaned the chairs, so her. The GCO reprimanded her right we just had to keep sitting on them. then and there in front of everybody, When an operator got home, her clothes then again in private. If the operator smelled of pee from these chairs. We said she'd left home twenty minutes 'Lights in black boxes on the wall lit up for every call. A supervisor just had to look at the called them the pee chairs. early because of the rain, the GCO told black boxes to know if any operator was unplugged.' The company let only one operator at her _she must leave thirty minutes early

16 (PAGE 7/INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW)

when it rained. SAs observed each operator twice a According to their service, 20 percent month. One of the times, they observed of the operators were assigned basic while sitting behind the operator tours. An operator who had a basic tour plugged into her jack. The other time of 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. worked those they observed the operator without her hours every working day for a three- or knowledge from a desk. They listened to six- month schedule. She had the same ten or twenty-five calls and timed each two days off every week and the same call with a stopwatch. They listened for breaks and lunches every day. the operator's tone of service and for The company assigned the other 80 failures to follow the practice. Later percent of the operators supplemental they looked up all the numbers to find tours. Every week their days off were errors. different, and every day their hours The company expected us to spend no were different. Late on Wednesday the more than an average of thirty seconds company posted the schedule for the on a call. following week. None of these operators The calls came one upon another with could make any plans-not for even­ no pause between. The signal that ings, days, or weekends-for that week flashed up and down the board and lit more than three days ahead of time. up the position where it stopped was a Also the company scheduled divided penetrating "beep beep." Operators tours. Waitresses work them, and train couldn't get it out of their heads; they and bus workers work them. We called heard it in their sleep. them splits. Operators on splits came to If an operator sounded impatient or work in the morning, left, and came argumentative to the SA observing her, back to work later in the afternoon or she got a low rating for tone of service. night. A split was almost any combina­ For an operator's tone of service to tion of seven or eight hours' work, over remain the same when she was ob­ a span of eleven to thirteen hours. served unawares, she needed to speak An operator on splits never felt done in the same mechanical voice day after for the day, ready to relax and unwind day. Many of us didn't feel as if we were after the day's or nights' work. Splits ta~king to live people so much as we ate into an operator's time off more were just stopping the signal to hurry than straight tours did. No matter how on to the next signal, always thinking she spent the afternoon, she was still about how many seconds the call was burdened with getting to work and taking. showing up on time twice a day. It was Sometimes when we asked a customer hard to find time to wash your hair on to repeat a name they said, "Well, it's splits. Operators often said, when they Powers or Powell, you know, operator, were on splits, why didn't the company something like that." Customers who 'The company made home visits to see if we were really sick. It was awful to answer the just let them live there and be done with couldn't read well said, "That's it!" to door and find the company there on the doorstep.' it. whatever we spelled to them. After we It was difficult trying to live any kind checked several names and couldn't of life around these unplanned split-up think of any more in the seconds we minimum wage without CW A. Our dues yet, even if it was only 8:00 or 9:00 in workdays. It was hard to find a baby­ had, they called us vile names in their were reasonable, and our contract had the morning. sitter or eat regular meals with your frustration. escalator clauses. CWA worked hard to The union said the company was to family. get cost-of-living raises against the refrain from making home visits to see Customers who couldn't pronounce Whether we wanted them or not, the company's wishes. Other unions have if we were really sick until the eighth the name and couldn't spell it either company assigned all of us sixth days. had them and lost them. day. Time after time the company did it were naturally frustrated trying to talk We got overtime for them, but the CW A handled specific grievances anyway the second, third, or any day. to operators who . kept spelling and company put sixth days on our sche­ covered by our contract, and stewards Sick operators trying to rest had to asking for spellings. Unaware that the dules as if we were hired to work a six­ were always available, but getting rid answer the telephone when the com­ company made us do all that spelling day week regularly. We could never of our conditions should have been pany called them up, and had to call and verifying, they thought we spelled tum down sixth days because they were urgent union business a long time ago. the GCO two or three times a day to say to act smart. They told us we could help as firm as the rest of our schedule. Operators have one of the highest if they'd gotten a doctor, or if they were them and just wouldn't. Persevering We also worked "voluntary" overtime turnover rates for women in industry. coming in later. It was awful to answer ones called_ as many as ten times trying of an hour or two. A half hour, or many The conditions that resulted in a high the door and find the company there on to get the operator they had yesterday, times even five or ten minutes, before turnover also kept our union locals the doorstep. or an operator who knew what they the end of a tour or the first part of a weak. To the company, weak locals Because the company intimidated us split, supervisors came around saying wanted. must have been well worth the high and fired us for calling in sick, and the boards were busy and she needed turnover. because most of us got no sick pay, but Jt surprised many of us the first time Many customers got angry at us for had to pay a doctor bill for being off we heard customers answer our "direc· not finding their union's telephone only a few hours, a lot of sick people tory assistance" with "Thank God I got number when they didn't know the were packed together at the board. a white operator." Other customers name of the union. CW A was closer to Lots of operators came to work if they asked us why the company didn't hire us than these people's unions must could stand up long enough to get out girls who could "talk plain, not like have been to them. We alw~ys asked of the house and in the door. They came niggers." They made those remarks to the operators who went to meetings to work with fevers, with runny and Black and white operators alike, for what went on, and we talked to stew­ sneezing colds that came down in a they couldn't know the operator's race. ards about the rumors we heard when mist on their positions and on the Some customers began their calls the company was up to something. If operators next to them. Some held back with obscenities; others let an operator the union was going to discuss a strike, cough spasms until between calls; their search all over the directory for them we packed the meetings. noses dripped on their directories. They first. Then they sprang on her: "How CWA News came once a month in the stuffed wet tissues in the crevices of the big are your boobs, honey?" mail, but like the company magazines, positions, forgetting them so they were New operators and inexperienced it didn't mean much to operators. Some there for the next operator. operators broke down in tears at the months the president .of CW A was in Unions have begun to concentrate on board. No one likes to be told how three pictures on a page. It was hard to working conditions more than they stupid she is many times an hour, even appreciate the gains described in CWA have any time since the 1930s. The though the insults do come from strang­ News when CWA couldn't even see to it automobile factory workers, who make ers. The company should have allowed that an operator could go to the ladies' good pay by working people's stan­ us to disconnect abusive customers as room. dards when they're not laid off, want to 'Operators came to work with fevers, with soon as they started in. Operators supported CWA strikes change their inhuman conditions. The runny and sneezing colds. They stuffed Customers had operators hang up on almost 100 percent. Older operators United Farm Workers union is trying to wet tissues in the crevices of the posi­ them and be rude to them in spite of, said the only way CW A ever made any get its members outhouses in the fields, tions.' and sometimes because of, the compa­ progress for us was by striking. When freedom from pesticides that are ny's supervision over us. Right before we were on strike, the news quoted our dumped right on them, and steady quitting the job, almost every operator wage demands, but they only quoted work. girls for overtime. One operator, after told customers to go to hell. Since the very highest salaries. Only six Some companies don't allow workers she consented to work overtime, asked people were always quitting, that hap­ operators in our office had enough to go to the bathroom at all at work if she could quickly go to the ladies' pened a lot. One operator spent her service for a wage increase like those without letters from their doctors. Many room because she'd waited more than whole last hour answering her calls, the news told people about. We thought waitresses would be grateful to have two hours. The GCO said, "You'll have · "Yeh, sonny, what is it?" and "Hi, the news must have done that to other three days' notice of their hours, as we to wait your tum, honey." cutie," and there were others like her. striking workers, too, and made their had. In mines and factories the work is The company asked for overtime Before we got a closed shop, 98 . wages look decent when they weren't. deafening and it kills people by slow every day during the three months percent of operators joined the Commu­ When an operator called in sick, the sickness like cancer and by catas­ before the customers' directory was to nications Workers of America (CWA) supervisor was ready for her. The GCO trophe. A strong union can eliminate come out. The company knew when an voluntarily. We were second from the asked what was the matter with her,. wretched conditions like these and save operator was turning them down, and bottom of the company payroll, and we and couldn't she possibly come to work the lives of those who die and suffer the GCOs talked to her about her had more to gain from being in a union later on. Many times the GCO said, from them. attitude and threatened her job till she than did most other telephone workers. "Weren't you just sick, honey?" They consented whenever she was asked. We would have been lucky to get the always asked if we had called a doctor

17 (INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISTREVIEWIPAGE B) The lead for a BavolutionarJ PartJ BepiJ ~to Leaders of the lew American •ovement

world or under dictatorships, hut not in It is true that most housewives are about "socialist feminism,'' for in­ By Fred Feldman the United States today. part of the working class, but not for stance, it has been absent from the The article holds that it will be t~e reason NAM gives-that they struggle of women for the right to "decades•' before the American masses "perform essential labor" in the home. abortion and has taken no stand on the actually challenge the existence ·· of They are part of the working class only Equal Rights Amendment. Readiness to A group claiming to be socialist must capitalism, and therefore there is no if they hold down a wage-earning job or dub all housewives "workers" is a poor not only be able to demonstrate the need as yet to build a disciplined are economically dependent on a wage­ substitute for real participation in the superiority of socialism; it must have a organization able to lead such a earner. struggles of women. realistic perspective for how to accom­ struggle for power. The oppression of women predates 'l'his "redefinition" of working class plish this transformation, including Behind Boyte and Ackerman's rejec­ capitalism. Early class societies subju­ is in reality yet another version of the how to give direction to the growing tion of Leninist orgap.izational con­ gated women and consigned them to shopworn "New Left" view that the unrest against the capitalist status quo cepts, however, lies not only a miscon­ household labor, thus setting up a working class is not the revolutionary today. ception of what a Leninist party is, but distinct form of oppression. The class and that students, a "new work­ The New American Movement also disagreement with the program struggles of women challenge the capi­ ing class," or some other grouping will (NAM), a "socialist" organization and perspectives of Marxism. It is from talist order by defying this age-old replace it in the forefront of class founded in 1971 by veterans of the this revolutionary working-class pro­ oppression, but this does not transform struggle. Contradicted by the actual "New Left," is coming under increasing gram that the need for Leninist organi­ all housewives into a sector of the course of events-especially since the pressure to meet this challenge. A zational forms arises. working class. May 1968 upsurge in France, and report on its July 1974 convention in Despite disagreements on the nature Students belong to no economic class capped by the current workers' upsurge the September 1974 issue of NAM's of the revolutionary organization, for the period of their education. The in Portugal-this theory has a bleak monthly newspaper, New American Boyte and Ackerman claim wide agree­ relative freedom of students from the future. Movement, stated: "The most frequent­ ment with Lenin: "We identify with day-to-day pressures that workers con­ Another of Boyte and Ackerman's ly voiced criticism was disappointment Lenin's revolutionary spirit and deter­ front gives them an opportunity to differences with Lenin is theirdenial of in the lack of clear political discus­ mination; we agree with his critique of study social reality and to respond the existence of an "aristocracy of sion.... mechanistic determinism and econom­ quickly to the first signs of social crisis. labor" holding privileged positions in "But there was a more basic problem ism, his writings on the nature of the But the declassed position of students the working classes of the advanced underlying the call for more political state, his approach to creating a 'revo­ capitalist countries. The authors note discussion: the convention seemed odd­ brings an important weakness. They lutionary alliance of the oppressed,' and have no independent social power and, that this concept is part of Lenin's ly distant from the political realities of his treatment of nationalism and impe­ theory of imperialism, with which they contemporary U.S. or the practical unlike workers, can't present a decisive rialism." As the article proceeds, how­ challenge to the power of the capital­ claimed to be in agreement. problems of creating a national organi­ ever, these areas of "agreement" fade Because of the worldwide expansion zation. . . . The discussions on pro­ ists. They are easily discouraged and and finally disappear. frustrated, especially if powerful sup­ of capitalism, and the resulting super­ grams reflected the problems of an ,In Boyte and Ackerman's analysis of exploitation of the colonial world, the organization situated on the fringes of port from the workers is delayed. modern capitalism, part of the problem Placing the label "working class" on imperialists were able to grant import­ American political life struggling to is that they again mistake the views of ant concessions to . sections of the discover 'methods' by which it can students does not abolish this weakness Maoist groups such as the Revolution­ nor does recognizing their class posi­ working classes in the advanced coun­ enter national politics." ary Union for a Leninist perspective. tries. These workers tended to become A sign of this search for political tion have to lead to deriding the Most Maoist groupings mechanically struggles they participate in. chauvinist and more attached to the clarity was the debate sparked among reason that since the industrial work­ status quo, providing a base of support NAM supporters by the article "Revolu­ ing class will be decisive in an Ameri­ for the conservative labor bureaucracies tion and Democracy," by Harry Boyte can revolution, all political activity that developed in the working-class and Frank Ackerman, first published in must be centered on the factories. They While generously bestowing revolu­ movement. the July-August 1973 issue of the San conclude that struggles that have tionary potential on "everyone else," Do Boyte and Ackerman think it is Francisco bimonthly Socialist Revolu­ originated elsewhere-like those of "Revolution and Democracy" has spe­ mere coincidence that the most op­ tion. Blacks, women, or students-are "petty­ cial reservations about the revolution­ pressed workers-Blacks, Chicanos, Exchanges on the article have been bourgeois diversions" that disrupt ary potential of industrial workers. It youth, women-have undertaken more featured in subsequent issues of Social­ "working-class unity." criticizes Marxists for noting the "disci­ militant action and entertained more ist Revolution. "Revolution and Democ­ pline" of industrial workers as an radical social oonclusions than com­ racy" has recently been reprinted as a "Revolution and Democracy" claims indicator of their power. This discipline, paratively privileged layers? Blindness pamphlet by the New American Move­ to recognize the importance of partici­ it argues, is simply a sign of workers' to the political importance of this ment. pating in such struggles. But instead of enslavement to capitalist authoritarian­ stratification leads to disaster when The article is part of a wider debate simply rejecting the false logic of the ism. Boyte and Ackerman discuss the on political and organizational con­ Maoists and recognizing that struggles But in addition to the discipline struggles of oppressed nationalities. cepts involving NAM, various Maoist by nonworkers or struggles outside of imposed by capitalist speedup and "Revolution and Democracy" ex­ groups, and the People's party. the workplace can also be important, other forms of compulsion, there also presses support for "Lenin's approach "Revolution and Democracy" claims the article makes a sweeping redefini­ exists a discipline stemming from the to nationalism" as a "model." It claims to present an alternative to the Leninist tion of classes to be able to label all workers' pride in their own skills and to uphold "the right to separatism when strategy of building a revolutionary, those in struggle as workers. achievements. This discipline is not minorities feel it is necessary." internationalist, working-class party Capitalists, we are told, are those who reactionary, but has its foundations in Unfortunately, what the authors organized on democratic-centralist "own enough income-earning property a progressive development-the cooper­ grant with the left hand, the right takes lines. Its conception of Leninism, how­ to live without working"; the middle ative and social character of modern away. Because of the "geographical ever, is a caricature of the real thing, class owns "some income-earning prop­ production, which conflicts with the dispersion" of Blacks in the United reflecting the widespread misidentifica­ erty, but not enough to live on"; and anarchic workings of the capitalist States, they say, "secession seems tion of Leninism with Stalinism. "the working class is everyone else." system of ownership and distribution. hardly plausible" and "the demand for For example, the document lumps Students, housewives, and prisoners, by The progressive side of the discipline secession of a geographical unit is thus together all tendencies calling them­ this definition, are automatically part learned by workers in the factories normally replaced in this country with selves Leninist-from revolutionary uf the proletariat just like steelworkers, comes forward in any major social the demand for a separatism: for an Marxist to pro-Moscow and pro-Peking teachers, or railroad workers. conflict, in their organizational skill independent organizational, political, Stalinists-despite diametrically op­ It is true that capitalists own great and initiative, their impulse toward and cultural identity for a minority posed programs and organizational amounts of property while workers own mass action, and their tendency to group." principles. little or none. But property, in and of challenge the capitalists for control of Revolutionists hold that Blacks and Boyte and Ackerman see a Leninist itself, produces no income for the the means of production. other oppressed nationalities have the party as inherently undemocratic and capitalists. It is only the labor of The workers in the mass production, right to decide what is "plausible" or authoritarian. "The 'rank and file' working people that produces wealth, transportation, and communication "normal" for them. Whether they opt tends to adopt the leadership of the including the vast accumulations of the industries occupy and operate the heart for integration, setting up a new nation­ central bodies uncritically," says the capitalists. of the capitalist system. In an advanced state, or anything in between, the document, and "certain 'principles' What distinguishes the capitalist industrial country, it is impossible to choice must be theirs. A right to self­ become unquestionable.... " class, then, is its ability to command abolish capitalist ownership of the determination hemmed in by strictures The NAM leaders paternalistically the labor of others because of its means of production unless the workers as to what is "plausible" or "normal" is say that such a bureaucratic organiza­ monopoly over the means of production. who operate them throw their decisive no right of self-determination at all. tion may be necessary in the colonial Industrialists, bankers, stockholders, weight into the scales. "Revolution and Democracy" also and landlords all share in the surplus Because it denies that one sector of beats a retreat from support for "organ­ Fred Feldman is a coauthor (with value expropriated from the workers. the oppressed will have greater weight izational, political, and cultural identi­ George Novack and Dave Frankel) of Workers are those who, because of this than any other in making a revolution, ty,'' stating: "It is important to move The First Three Internationals (Path­ monopoly, must sell their labor power "Revolution and Democracy" is unable beyond the formulations of 'community finder Press, New York, 1974). His to the capitalists for a wage or salary. to formulate a revolutionary strategy control' of the 1960s, to find methods article "New American Movement: How From this fundamental division flows that corresponds to the social reality for demanding that power be shifted to to Make a Revolution In Your Spare the key task of a socialist revolution: to unfolding today. This is reflected in alliances representing diverse sectors of Time Without Really Trying" appeared abolish private ownership of the means NAM's inability to find its way to the working class." in the May 1972 International Socialist of production and establish a planned participation in social struggles. With this approach, how can the Review. economy that can eliminate wage labor. Although NAM talks a great deal authors give effective support to the

18 (PAGE 91 INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW) struggle of Puerto Rican, Black, and Chinese parents in New York City's School District One to control their schools? Should the parents offer to share control with the racist forces led by United Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker as a more "plausible" alternative? What explains NAM's silence on this nine-year struggle? Struggles for equal job opportunity are also viewed rather balefully: "Rath­ er than participating in struggles, for instance, in which ... white workers are asked to give up their jobs for blacks, socialists must argue for struggles that demand that reforms be paid for by the ruling class." This approach would lead to opposing demands for preferential hiring as a means of abolishing job discrimination. It means in effect upholding the special priviliege of white workers in the name of ''working-class unity," while consol­ ing the most oppressed workers with the promise of reforms in the sweet by­ and-by. Revolutionary socialists seek real working-class unity based on equality (not the "unity" of horse and rider) by giving unconditional support to the democracy, based on democratically elected soviets of workers and peasants.' struggles of the most oppressed, and by opposing the efforts of privileged work­ of the barricades on this issue, it is In order to fight for the basic needs of inevitable product of the capitalist ers to defend their positions at the hardly surprising that the editorial's the workers, unions must break their system, with a legal suit and political expense of others. The Boyte-Ackerman expressions of support to the Black ties to the Democratic party and create offensive exposing the government's policy of nonparticipation in struggles community remain purely platonic. As a party of their own to fight for a attacks on civil liberties. This cam­ that challenge the racist stratification of the April issue, not a word had workers government. paign has accelerated since Nixon of the working class places them on the appeared in New American Movement In contrast, "Revolution and Democ­ resigned, confirming the SWP's posi­ side of the most conservative forces in on the National Student Conference racy" proposes to isolate radicals in tion that the government's repressive the workers movement. Against Racism attended by more than "our own" (mythical) labor movement, activities were not merely the product of With such a position, how can NAM 2,000 youth in February, or on the call free from the danger of "conservative" one twisted mind in the Oval Office. participate wholeheartedly in the fight issued by the NAACP for a national contamination. As history has demon­ NAM, understandably disappointed for school desegregation in Boston? probusing march in Boston on May 17. strated, real workers' councils will come by the results of its brief burst of Apparently it's not easy. NAM restrict­ into being, not out of the heads and activity, sank back into dormancy. ed its endorsement of the December 14, mimeograph machines of NAM's "so­ Boyte and Ackerman's attitude to­ 1974, march against racism in Boston Skepticism about the capacities of cialist organizers," but out of the real ward concrete struggles is at best tp the columns of Moving On, a circular industrial workers leads Boyte and mass struggles of workers. The propo­ contradictory and at worst sectarian. aimed primarily at NAM members. Ackerman to contempt for the trade sals in "Revolution and Democracy They condemn the antiwar movement, NAM's somewhat more widely read unions, created through decades of would bar effective socialist participa­ for example, for failing to adopt a newspaper, New American Movement, struggle: "The position of unions, as tion in this process. radical program-thus attempting to never mentioned the demonstration, in defensive, non-revolutionary organiza­ "Revolution and Democracy" stresses justify NAM's abstentionist policy. which 12,000 people participated. tions, compels them to play a conserva­ the role of "false consciousness" and Yet they point with pride to Minnea­ New American Movement has thus tive role.... " "Revolution and Democ­ illusions in preserving the capitalist polis NAM's participation in a "coali­ far published three articles about the racy" concludes: "There is no direct or system. Yet the authors show no tion of left- and right-wing groups, struggle in Boston. One, written by the natural transition from the defensive, interest in combating an illusion so which defeated the joint efforts of the Middlesex, Massachusetts, chapter, 'responsible' posture of unions, even powerful that it is shared by most of the Democratic and Republl.can parties and opposes the racist demonstrations and unions with honest leaders, to the oppressed and quite a few who claim to the downtown businessmen to build a halfheartedly supports busing, but offensive against capitalism which be socialists as well-the belief that huge domed stadium. . .." takes an ambiguous attitude toward the workers' councils must take. We should gains can be won by supporting the Why was this coalition seen as a antibusing movement. create our own organizations, separate capitalist Democratic party. more fruitful field for "socialists" than Middlesex NAM reports "curiously from the necessarily bureaucratized NAM has an unbroken record of the antiwar coalitions that mobilized mixed feelings as we watched the and government-regulated structures of abstention from the struggle against hundreds of thousands in the streets militant confrontations between 'anti­ unions.... " this aspect of capitalist ideology. In · around the slogan "U.S. Out oflndochi­ busing' forces in South Boston and the Boyte and Ackerman forget that the 1972 NAM took a neutral stance in the na Now"? Boyte and Ackerman provide authority of the state: helmeted tactical industrial unions didn't begin as "con­ presidential election. It did not oppose no answer. police advancing with clubs against servative" formations, but as a power­ the two capitalist parties by endorsing The authors point to "the Socialist demonstrators. . . . All this reminded ful rebellion against oppression encom­ the Socialist Workers party ticket, but Workers Party's role in the anti-war those of us who had participated in the passing actions, like plant seizures, attempted to ignore the Democrats and movement in recent years" as a "class­ anti-war movement of our own demon­ that challenged capitalist property Republicans in favor of "local organiz­ ic" example of how not to function. strations and protest actions in an relations. Because the unions remain ing." This didn't prevent many. NAM They conjure up a sinister image, uncanny way. It was as if we were the strongest labor organizations, the members from endorsing George disturbingly reminiscent of red-baiting seeing the history of the late sixties radicalization of the workers will inevi­ McGovern and still more from pulling slanders against the antiwar move­ replayed again in a strange distorting tably be expressed in them, although the Democratic lever on election day. ment, of SWP members as "secret mirror." other forms will also develop in the NAM leaders derided the efforts of the cadre" ·worming their way into posi­ A socialist organization must be able course of struggle. SWP candidates, Linda Jenness and tions of responsibility "without reveal­ to make the distinction-sharply and The overturn of the corrupt Boyle Andrew Pulley, to use the elections to ing" their politics. They insist that without journalistic sentimentality­ machine in the United Mine Workers present a socialist alternative and socialists can accept leadership roles in between an antiwar demonstration and union was a harbinger of such a expose the capitalist politicians. mass organizations only when there is a racist lynch mob. Would NAM prefer radicalization. Many workers today are The same acceptance of the two-party "mass understanding and acceptance that police stand aside-as they often growing doubtful about the· class­ monopoly on U.S. politics permeated of our ideas." do in fact-and let the racists attack collaborationist strategy of the bureau-. NAM's response to Watergate. NAM This approach would effectively rule Black children? Isn't NAM making the crats, and are demanding mass action organized the Committee to Unelect the out the participation of socialists­ same mistake as the Maoist groups that in the streets to oppose unemploy~ent President, which, despite the bravado of except as sideline critics-in united allow the fact that many of the racists and inflation. The antiwar movement, its acronym (COUP), sought a mildly fronts like the antiwar movement. are workers to cloud the completely the Black and Chicano movements, and liberal goal: to persuade the capitalist United fronts are not based on reactionary and anti-working-class the women's movement have had a politicians in Congress to replace one "understanding and acceptance" of the character of their actions? profound impact on the thinking of the servant of big business with another by program of one or another group. The The same ambiguity poisons the lead working class-. impeachment. antiwar coalitions brought together editorial in the April issue. It describes Instead of accepting the conservative What did NAM's effort accomplish? organizations and individuals of many the antibusing movement as "purely and bureaucratized conditions of the The basic demand of COUP was points of view who agreed on one thing: racist," hut immediately qualifies this unions as ordained by God, the Social­ achieved: Nixon "unelected" himself. the need for mass action against the stand by adding that "bw;ing can ist Workers party proposes a class­ Ford carried on the antilabor and racist war. easily be portrayed as one more ruling struggle program of demands for the policies of his predecessor. New revela­ SWP members threw themselves into class attack on the cohesion of these unions. These include escalator clauses tions on crimes of the CIA, IRS, FBI, building the antiwar demonstrations communities." That NAM itsPif is mon· in all wages and contracts to combat and so forth-many long predating and accepted positions of responsibility than half taken in by this racist inflation, a shorter working day with Nixon's accession to the presidency­ in the coalitions on the basis of agree­ demagogy is indicated by the editors' no pay cut to assure jobs for all, have made Nixon's plumbers look like ment with this objective. Within the denunciation of tht! busing plan as opposition to antilabor laws,: the open­ pikers by comparison. coalitions, they distinguished them­ "divisive." ing of corporation books to see the truth The SWP, on the other hand, eom­ selves as firm advocates of mass action Given NAM's inability to take a clear about their profits, and workers' control bined a propaganda campaign showing in the streets and independence from political stand on one side or the other of production. how the Watergate scandal was an the capitalist parties as keys to building

19 (INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW/PAGE 10)

a successful movement against the that precede a full-scale cns1s also than an encounter group: "Revolutiona­ Lenin wrote in 1918 that "if the Vietnam War. require revolutionary leadership if they ries must learn to probe their fears and working people are dissatisfied with SWP members made no secret of their are to have maximum impact. Nor can doubts .... learning how to 'open up' their party they can elect other dele­ revolutionary views. On the contrary, the propagation of revolutionary ideas all forbidden and illicit realms." gates, hand power to another party and they energetically put them forward among the masses-including the need By emphasizing "trust" rather than change the government without any through socialist election campaigns, for a break with the capitalist parties­ political ideas as the basis for NAM, revolution at alL" Opposition parties public meetings, and circulation of the be left to the last minute. Boyte and Ackerman assure that their existed until they engaged in outright revolutionary press._ What they did not All these factors are part of an proposed structure will in fact be a insurrection against the revolutionary do was to demand acceptance of their integrated revolutionary process requir­ network of personal cliques. Instead of regime. revolutionary socialist program as a ing the existence of a revolutionary the use of political criteria in selecting Even in the midst of civil war, art precondition for working with others to party. NAM's inability to relate con­ leadership, for instance, these choices and literature flowered. Lenin and build the movement. structively to current struggles demon­ will be made in a kind of "warmth" and Trotsky fought those who sought to Through their leadership role in the strates that it will be no more able to "boldness" sweepstakes. impose so-called proletarian culture on antiwar struggle, the SWP and the make an eleventh-hour transition to As many discovered by bitter experi­ artists. Young Socialist Alliance convinced meet the needs of a revolutionary situa­ ence in the "New Left," those whose Stalin rose t6 power as a representa­ ma~y activists in practice that social­ tion. personal qualities aren't up to snuff in tive of an anti-Leninist bureaucratic ists are the best fighters against imperi­ the eyes of the insiders-those who caste opposed to socialist democracy. alist war and that their methods of Because its members adhere to a perhaps display a touch of coolness and This caste had to overcome stiff opposi­ struggle are the most effective. common revolutionary-Marxist pro­ caution rather than the required tion from those Bolsheviks led by The key to NAM's abstentionist gram, the SWP is able to practice real warmth and boldness-will find them­ Trotsky who had absorbed the Leninist politics, as well as to its false view of democratic centralism. Political deci­ selves out in the cold. tradition of workers' democracy. the role of a Leninist party, lies in the sions about its course of action and The "opening up" of all "illicit Although the Chinese Revolution has lack of a strategic framework that links leadership are decided democratically realms," which is to be a prime task of achieved vast social gains for the today's struggles to the socialist goal. and carried out by the whole member­ American radicals, is, however, barred Chinese masses, the Mao government is Contrary to Boyte and Ackerman's ship. by Boyte and Ackerman to the revolu­ modeled on the Stalinist regime and not view, there is no Chinese wall separat­ "Revolution and Democracy" pro­ tionists of the colonial world. For the that of Lenin. There are no democratic ing the strategy of revolutionists in the poses instead the creation of "collec­ denizens of these benighted lands, the organs of workers and peasants, and no United States today from the tasks they tives," or "networks of people who have authors defend the most rigid Stalinist­ avenues exist for them to play any role will confront in a revolutionary situa­ worked together and can trust each type centralism. They argue that an in policy making. All opposition to Mao tion. The Socialist Workers party advo­ other," which would have "complete "elitist" party may be inevitable in is suppressed. Tendencies and factions cates a transitional strategy, as op­ autonomy in the formation of sub­ such areas since "it made sense to think are banned in the Communist party. We posed to the reformist approach that groups." At the same time, the authors that specially trained cadre were hear of dissension in the ruling group tries to separate out "minimum de­ promise "strong elected leadership" to -needed to run an organization." "Party only through attacks on those who mands" that can be proposed today carry out the decisions of national discipline," they hold, is also needed in differ with Mao as "capitalist roaders" from the socialist revolution, which is gatherings. these countries to achieve the "ascetic and "feudalists." Their real views are consigned to the far-off future. This is a contradiction. Given the restructuring of intellectuals' personali­ never made known. Art and literature The Leninist approach of the SWP complete autonomy of local groups, a ties." are strangled by bureaucratic censor­ recognizes that the day-to-day struggles national convention of NAM will have The purpose of the Leninist party is ship. A Stalin-type cult of Mao is of the masses-for immediate economic no more authority than a Louis Harris not to restructure personalities into fostered. demands, for democratic rights, against poll. some preconceived mold (whether of the Boyte and Ackerman falsely claim the carnage of imperialist war, for "ascetic" or "warm and bold" varieties), that democratic centralism excludes protection from the hardships imposed "Revolution and Democracy" seeks but to unite people of many personali­ real democracy. In reality, democracy is by crises of the capitalist system-are an organization in which people with ties who want to replace capitalism a vital necessity for a centralized starting points for the struggle for sharply counterposed programs-social with socialism. revolutionary party. The history of the workers' power and socialism, since the democrats, Maoists, counterculturalists, Boyte and Ackerman's conception Bolsheviks demonstrates this. At the capitalist system cannot effectively syndicalists, anarchists, and so on­ combines condescension toward "primi­ time of the February 1917 revolution, meet these needs of the masses. can peacefully coexist. To that end, it tives" who need an "elite," with a many top leaders of the party gave The revolutionary party advances the proposes a structure. so loose as to totalitarian concern for "restructuring critical support to the capitalist provi­ anticapitalist dynamic of such move­ guarantee the one action these forces personalities," which is completely sional government that replaced the ments by joining those who are in can temporarily agree on-inaction. alien to Leninism, but has much in tsarist regime. Lenin led a minority struggle at whatever level, by fighting Although this approach may preserve common with the practices of Stalin that opposed any support to the capital­ for demands that correspond to the "unity" for a time, wars, revolutionary and Mao. ist government and counterposed fight­ objective needs of the masses, and by crises at home and abroad, and even And in fact, while the NAM leaders ing for the soviets to become the gov­ proposing methods of struggle that hotly contested elections demand that oppose Leninism, they express admira­ ernment. teach working people their own power the organization take stands. This will tion for the Maoist variant of Stalinism. In a debate that involved every party through promoting the independent bring hidden political differences to the "Revolution and Democracy" charges member, Lenin won an overwhelming organization of the masses. fore. Serious political activists will that, while the Bolsheviks under Lenin majority and the Bolsheviks adopted For Boyte and Ackerman, however, become dissatisfied with "doing their supposedly established ''a system of the course that led to the October the fact that revolutionists are chal­ own thing" in their locality and will regiiT'entation and military control ... Revolution. Jf the Bolshevik party had lenging the capitalist state power holds seek a national and international which led directly to much of the later not been both democratic in determin­ no implications for the kind of revolu­ orientation. Since the organization has authoritarianism of the Soviet govern­ ing its course and centralist in carrying tionary organization needed today. no common political foundation, it will ment," Mao created "a succesHful exam­ it out, the October Revolution would not They admit that a revolutionary party begin to disintegrate under the pressure ple of 'the revolutionary alliance of all have occurred. like Lenin's may be needed in a of the resulting conflicts. The history of the oppressed.'" The SWP models itself on the real revolutionary crisis, but hold that an Students for a Democratic Society is a Contrary to the assertions of Boyte Bolshevik party and not the figment of amorphous organization like NAM is model of this evolution. and Ackerman, the Bolsheviks under Boyte and Ackerman's imagination. suited to present conditions. A change­ Lacking a clear political basis for Lenin sought to establish genuine Based on a common, international over can supposely be made "when the their proposal, Boyte and Ackerman socialist democracy in Russia based on revolutionary program, discussions time comes." defend it by attributing likable psycho­ the democratically elected soviets (coun­ and debates occur over how best to The program capable of guiding a logical characteristics to it. It will have cils) of workers and peasants. Lenin carry out revolutionary tasks. This revolution is tested and developed, and "warmth," "boldness," "sensitivity," opposed the concept of a one-party state process culminates in a delegated the forces capable of giving leadership and "openness to interpersonal rela­ codified by Stalin and carried even convention where a democratic vote are gathered and educated, prior to the tionships." The organization begins to further by Mao in China's new constitu­ decides the issues. revolution itself. The mass struggles sound less like a political organization tion. The whole organization, regardless of differences of opi,nion that may remain, then unites to carry out that orienta­ tion, thus testing it in practice, until the next convention. It is this combination of democracy and unity in action based on a revolutionary-internationalist_ political program that makes it possible for the SWP to participate in mass movements and carry out socialist education in a way that is helping to open the road to a socialist revolution. The eclectic politics of Boyte and Ackerman-a collage of mutually con­ tradictory views borrowed from here, there, and everywhere-and the amor­ phous organizational form they advo­ cate, will produce bitter frustration for those who follow them. The Socialist Workers party and the Young Socialist Alliance offer a viable alternative to the shallow anti­ Leninism of "Revolution and Democra­ cy."

Boston, December 14. NAM newspaper has not reported call for May 17 NAACP march against Boston racists.

20 (PAGE 11/INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW)

political states were emerging." Rodney divides the era between the coming of Western J<~uropeans to Africa and the present time into precolonial and colonial periods. In doing so he skillfully points out how African aid to · BOOBS capitalist development was first based on trade and slavery, followed by direct subjugation for the extraction of natu­ ral resources. How Europe It was capitalist technology that Underdeveloped allowed Europe to open its trade with Africa, Asia, and the Americas on Africa terms Europe could dictate. For exam­ ple, cloth produced in England by By Walter Rodney. Published capitalist methods could simply drive simultaneously by: Bogle­ out of the market cloth produced under L'Ouverture Publications, London, feudal or communal systems in Africa 1972; and Tanzania Publishing or India. House, Dar es Salaam, 1972. 316 This type of competition destroyed pp. attempts to improve technology in what became the colonial world. It is sometimes argued that the major The subject of Walter Rodney's book­ reason for slavery was racial. This view is the forcible subjugation of Africa to is false. What made the slave trade go the needs of European capitalism. was its profitability, due to the need for How Europe Underdeveloped Africa labor in the Americas. demolishes the myth propagated by "When Europeans reached the Ameri­ some Pan·Africanist leaders, such as cas, they recognised its enormom; Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, potential in gold and silver and tropical that class conflicts and struggles are produce. But that potential could not be alien to African history and society. made a reality without adequate labour "The African continent," Rodney supplies," writes Rodney. writes, "rpveals very fully the workings Europe was unable to sustain the of the law of uneven development of drain of human resources necessary to societies. There are marked contrasts realize the potential wealth in this area. between the Ethiopian empire and the The native populations of the Americas hunting groups of pigmies in the Congo were either insufficient or unwilling to forest or between the empires of the submit to the organized toil of the Western Sudan and the Khoisan plantations and mines, having just Statue from Lower Congo depicts Europeans being carried on shoulders of Africans. hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari Des­ emerged from the hunting stage. ert. . . . The Ethiopian empire em­ Therefore the European capitalists braced literate feudal Amharic noble­ "turned to the nearest continent, Africa, men as well as simple Kaffa cultivators which incidentally had a population export-cotton, peanuts, cocoa, and exploitation went on in new forms_ and Galla pastoralists." accustomed to settled agriculture and other crops. In many areas the people Early in his study, Rodney makes an These were class divisions. Rodney disciplined labour in many spheres." were forced to stop cultivating food­ important distinction: The countries points out that this was a relative Apologists for the slave trade have stuffs. Starvation developed in rich where capitalism has been abolished advance over the primitive communal­ argued that after all it was African agricultural regions that had previously have not participated in the plunder of ism many Pan-Africanists glorify, be­ rulers who sold our brothers and sisters had an abundance of crops. Africa. As a Marxist, he speaks favora­ cause the development of classes reflect­ to the John Hawkinses. But it was the Rodney also covers the current situa­ bly of socialism, but does not concern ed a division of labor made possible by European's drive for profit-not any tion of Africa, that of "neocolonialism." himself with the next logical steps that higher productive technique. existing African practices-that He points out how from the 1980s on, flow from his analysis of the present Although no African society devel­ launched the slave trade. With it; white British and French colonialists encour­ situation in Africa. This is the major oped to the stage of capitalism before supremacy and racism were fostered to aged the development of an African shortcoming of the book. colonialism set in, there can be no prop up an economic system based on elite imbued with the ways and outlook Nevertheless. his analysis can help question that feudal-type systems were slavery. of the metropolitan ruling classes. the development of the leadership common in Africa. The Conference of Berlin in 1885 Formal independence did not bring required to overcome the heritage of This included the rise of states, which formally launched the period of direct power into the hands of the broad colonialism that Rodney outlines so are characterized by the use of coercion colonization of Africa. The continent masses of workers and peasants who well. That process will be the develop­ to keep one class down, together with was divided into French, English, provided the muscle behind the inde­ ment of revolutionary Marxist parties the elimination of communal relations. German, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese, pendence movements. Rather, the pow­ whose aim is to abolish capitalism in Rodney notes that "the areas of Africa and Italian spheres of influence. er shifted into the hands of intellectual, Africa by placing power in the hands of in which labour relations were breaking Imperialist trading companies, labor, and capitalist leaders who, Rod­ the African workers and peasants. Lut of communal restrictions corre- through armed force and taxation, ney points out, fully shared the outlook 1'1ponded to areas in which sophisticated made the Africans grow cash crops for of their colonial masters. Thus the old Omari Musa

concept of art along with it. And indeed In an article appearing in Critique, a democracy based on the existing prop­ its ability to effect these changes is magazine devoted to Eastern European erty relations. manifest in the fact that, as George studies from an anticapitalist standpoint, Peter Archer Novack observes in Existentialism Versus David Law takes up some recent revela­ New York, New York LBTTBIS Marxism, "it has modified the aesthetic tions of political corruption in the Soviet ·sensibility, behavior and outlook of an _Republic of Georgia. These include Editors: Just finished reading the April entire generation of educated cases of using public funds to build ISR supplement, and my doubts have Editors: I've received the first issue for youth ...." private houses, embezzlement of stock been completely allayed. Not only does it the· month of April with the new ·supple­ Marguerite Bonnet's piece was a timely and funds, and "major thefts involving look good; it has good stuff (however ment, International Socialist Review. I and insightful reaffirmation of C. Day several million rubles." tightly packed): thought the Review was very relevant Lewis's pronouncement that "if we are on Law's explanation for this corruption is C.F. and that it will serve not only to familiar­ the threshold of a new life, we may rest that the planned structure of the Soviet New York, New York ize the people with its aims and objec­ assured that the poet will have some­ economy makes it difficult to achieve tives, but to also give the Militant a more thing to say about it, for he has sharp private enrichment without resorting to formidable toehold in the mass media senses." illegal practices. This is correct, but it Editors: While I welcome the content of arena. Bruce Farnsworth seems to me that Coontz's method the new ISR, I feel compelled to com­ A prisoner Denver, Colorado provides a fuller explanation. ment on the layout. The abundance of New York An attempt by the lower-paid members small type overwhelms you and it Editors: In her article on corruption in of the bureaucracy to better themselves discourages someone from reading the Editors: Thank you for Marguerite Bon­ American politics ("Crooked politjcs: an materially can only take place through text for fear of eyestrain. With the ISR in net's splendid essay on Andre Breton American institution," in the February secret, corrupt means, since the bu­ the Militant, the layout should be more of and the surrealist movement [March International Socialist Review) Stephanie reaucracy attempts to avoid open con­ a popularized style than it was in the International Socialist Review]. Coontz advances the thesis that corrup­ flicts within its ranks at all costs. magazine form. In short, the layout needs much more life and energy to it. Andre Breton announced in an early tion is used by the ruling class as a Law correctly infers that this case in surrealist tract that "every true adept of method of settling disputes within its Georgia is probably indicative of a J.O. San Francisco, California the surrealist revolution is obliged to ranks without being forced to enact problem existing within the whole of believe that the surrealist movement is fundamental revisions in the structure of Soviet society. Its widespread nature is in not a movement in the abstract, but is its ruling order. large part explained by the freedom from really capable of changing something in Coontz confines the scope of her control that the bureaucracy has enjoyed This column is open to all viewpoints the minds of men." article to American political life; however, up to this point. on subjects of interest to our readers. Surrealism intended to initiate a new recently a number of articles have The only cure for corruption in the Please keep your letters brief. Where humanism. in which there were no artists appeared in the press indicating that workers states is for the workers to seize necessary they will be abridged. Please and nonartists, but a broad new con­ corrupt practices are extremely wide­ power from the despotic bureaucrats indicate if your name may be used or if sciousness that would sweep the old spread in the Soviet Union as welL who rule them and institute proletarian you prefer initials instead.

21 (INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW/PAGE 12) !be Case of Sergei Paradzhanov official delegates, and tourists gathered deal with universal concepts of good Surrounded by the popular art that he By Antonin Liehm in his little apartment in one of the. new and evil and not class or- Party· knew and loved, he made gifts. If he buildings in Kiev. One of his visitors mindedness. There is a flow of difficult sold some for reasons of his own, we It was a year ago that the greatest described it: films and now they grow 'more difficult don't know anything about it. But living genius of the Soviet cinema, "Two rooms and a kitchenette, all in and still more difficult."' (T. Ivanov in speculator? For whom do you take us? Sergei Paradzhanov, was condemned in all about thirty meters. The wall of the the Soviet film magazine Sovietsky His rooms were "crammed with Kiev to six years' imprisonment. Arrest· larger of the two rooms is covered with Ekran, No. 24, 1969.) . antiques, pictures, icons, pottery, tapes· ed in the train while returning from Hutsul icons, painted on glass. [The Again no work for Paradzhanov. try, carpets, bric·a·brac," wrote Herbert Moscow, where he had gone for the Hutsuls are a people living in the Until the eve of his arrest, when the Marshall. Paradzhanov told him, "Peo· funeral of his old friend the set-designer Carpathian Mountains in Western television accepted his proposal to pie come to my house and exclaim, my I.M. Rivos, he was tried and condemned Ukraine.] On another wall some Ukrai· bring to the small screen some tales of God, how many things you have got practically in camera (of all his asso· nian icons. An old portrait of Sobiesky, Hans Christian Andersen. Too stuffed in here. Yet it seems to me that I ciates and friends only his old camera· another of Casimir lagello [two Polish late.... haven't enough." man Yuri Ilyenko was authorized to kings]. In an enormous gilt frame, a One would have expected that the But above all, he was different from assist at the proceedings). miniscule portrait of Lenin. A saber, a arrest and conviction of the most others, and he didn't avoid provocation. In an article at the time of his arrest, kindjal [a Turkic dagger]. In the other important Soviet cineast of today would Where conformism reigns, this is an the Ukrainian journal Vecherny Kiev room, his personal pictures, among provoke a flood of protests throughout unpardonable crime. Herbert Marshall violently accused Paradzhanov of terri· them the portrait of his wife. On the the world. That a campaign would be comments: "More seriously, his natural hie crimes: speculation in art objects, shelves, some wooden sculptures, some organized for his immediate liberation. Armenian ebullience and enthusiasm speculation in foreign currency, spread· pieces of old money, some trinkets. I left That Soviet dissidents in the country have led some critical colleagues to say, ing venereal disease, homosexual acts, with a magnificent gift-a Hutsul col· and abroad would launch an appeal to 'He's crazy, of course,' or· 'He's kind of and coercion to a homosexual liaison. Jar." the conscience of the representatives of mad' -dangerous words in a state Moreover, the police had circulated a Not only foreigners came flocking world culture, to the cineasts of all where psychiatry seems to form an arm very outrageous story: the son of a high there. His compatriots were the most continents. That the Soviet authorities of oppression. An instance of his Ukrainian functionary-who belonged numerous among the visitors, cineasts would be pressed for public evidence to 'craziness' given me was that on one of to the circle of Paradzhanov's friends­ or not, young, old, Ukrainians, Rus· support their charges. his films when smoke was needed and had killed himself. Near his body they sians, Georgians, Armenians. Parad· But nothing happened. Or almost there were no smoke bombs available, found a letter accusing Paradzhanov zhanov had discovered a language, a nothing. After news of the arrest of Paradzhanov tore off a piece of trouser of having forced him .to have sexual source of inspiration. An enormous Paradzhanov there was a protest leg and set fire to it to provide the relations with him, having thereby force emanated from him; it inspired signed by the celebrated names of the effect." infected him with syphilis (naturally, others. European cinema, a few of whom later Homosexual! What horror! And what no one except the police had ever seen He worked prodigiously. Scenario tried to retract their signatures, pre· is more, what do we know about it? The the letter). after scenario left his work table. The tending to believe that it was truly only director Henry Gabay, Paradzhanov's If retained, such charges would have Confession-on the return of a man "of a matter of criminal law. After the friend for many years, since they both ' won for Paradzhanov at least a fifteen· a certain age" to the quarter of old conviction, not a word. Silence. attended classes with Savchenko, re­ year prison sentence. The court finally Tbilisi where he was born. The The other day I explained to a group counts: "At the beginning of the '50s he retained only a single charge, traffic in Intermezzo-after the Ukrainian classic of friends how the language of Shadows married a girl little suited for him, from art objects (it is difficult to know how of Kotsyubynsky (which had already of Forgotten Ancestors and of Sayat· a family of solid bureaucrats who had the verdict might have been influenced inspired him for Shadows of Forgotten Nova-the exaltation of the values of even served abroad. For him it was mad by the accusation of homosexual acts, Ancestors). The Demon-after Lermon· the national tradition of those ances· lpve. They were married in Tbilisi, at which constitute a criminal offense, tov; The Fountain of Bakhchisarai­ . tors, Ukrainian, Armenian, and Sergei's mother's home. A son was born according to Soviet law). That, ne· after Pushkin. And his great cherished others-was an intolerable challenge, to them, Syrenchik. But the parents of vertheless, was enough for a more-than· project, the ancient Russian epic The not only to the dismal conformism of an his wife never accepted him. After two severe sentence-six years in prison. Lay of Igor's Campaign. In all, ten of official art and cinema. years the marriage was shipwrecked. I There the official police horror story his scenarios were refused in the ten One of those present turned to me, have often seen Sergei sad, plunged in stops-an affair, one could say, of years that followed the triumph of ironically, "You aren't going to say that the memory of Svetlana and of the little criminal law. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. they sent him to prison for his aesthe· one who now lived in a large apartment Now let's try to look further. He shot his next and last film in tics?" where he wasn't admitted." I remember arriving in Moscow in the What is it then that we're looking at? summer of 1964. The first of the Soviet Not even Stalin had insisted on the sexual habits of S.M. Eisenstein. But cineasts I met, old Mark Donskoi, 'Paradzhanov isn't a political man, but he is a hurried up to me: "Anton Antonich, the students at VGIK (the Moscow thanks be to God, a genius is born in man. As such he refused to make the self­ Cinema Institute) pass this joke from the Soviet cinema." criticisms in which the most prtident always one generation to the other as one of the It was thus that I learned for the first excel. And he allied himself with the persecuted.' memories of a bygone epoch: "You time of the existence of the film Sha· know who is the offspring born of the dows of Forgotten Ancestors, by an liaison between Sergei Mikhailovich Armenian director, born in Georgia in [Eisenstein] and the late dear Professor Geinike [of the Soviet Film Institute]? 1924 and working in the Ukraine since Armenia, inspired by the life and work No, I don't assert that. No more than Sergei Guerassimov [a conservative his studies after the war with the late of a great poet of the past, Sayat-Nova, Pushkin was killed for his aesthetics. Soviet film director, most representative Igor Savchenko, student of the great entitled Color of Pomegranates. Shot in Or Lermontov. Or Mayakovsky.... of "socialist realism"]." Soviet film director Aleksandr Dov· 1969, the film waited three years for But then?* zhenko. release-without any publicity-in a The "nonaesthetic." problems of Ser· Where does all this lead us? An artist It didn't take long for the fame of limited number of theaters (at the gei Paradzhanov began several years of genius is in prison. They first Sergei Paradzhanov to spread beyond outset three prints in all were made). ago in Minsk. There he declared in a reduced him to silence and stopped him the frontiers of the Soviet Union. His This time, though, not only its author, public assembly that the Ukrainian from working. They slandered him. film made the tour of Europe, received but also the film no longer left Soviet leadership was composed of imbeciles They proved nothing. They arrested in triumph by the critics. territory. whom he had always known how to him, tried him, and condemned him in It won the prize for best production at Again the pilgrimages began-to the fool until then and that he hoped to secret. And the world is silent-his the Festival of Mar del Plata in 1965 author, of course, but especially to the succeed also in the future. colleagues, his admirers, even the and was shown at the 1965 San work. From that time the difficulties began, victims of the same police. Francisco Festival and in 1966 in Professor Herbert Marshall, a friend becoming more and more serious. At Why? Because the man wasn't like Montreal. It was widely released and and pupil of S.M. Eisenstein and the the same time the films of Paradzhan· others, because he was difficult to acclaimed in the United States. But no English translator of his theoretical ov, and with them their author, became classify, "naturally crazy." And at the one had ever met its author. He had work, gave this account: "In a visit last more and more the symbols of this new same time, the whole world-without constantly been refused permission to summer to the Soviet Union I dis· flowering of truly national art which demanding the slightest proof­ accompany his films abroad or to go covered an entirely new cinematic manifested itself in all the Soviet pretends to believe the slanders and abroad in response to the numerous genius who is being treated by the republics and not just in the cinema. assertions of this same police who for invitations which flocked in before authorities in exactly the same manner Paradzhanov isn't a political man, tens of years . . . What a victory! And long. as his now-famous predecessors. but he is a man. As such he refused to what shame! Then there began the pilgrimage to "His Color of Pomegranates has been make the self-criticisms in which the Is it really true that we are always Paradzhanov. Cineasts, writers, artists, shelved since 1969 but was shown last most prudent always excel. And he ready to say nothing with cowardly year in a third-circuit Moscow cinema alJied himself with the persecuted, even relief that they offer us some acceptable Antonin Liehm is an associate pro· after being re-edited against Parad· signing petitions in their favor. excuse? Or do we believe along with fessor of film and drama at Richmond zhanov's wishes .... In my view Pa· In ten years he had shot two films. Herbert Marshall that even "all that College of the City University of New radzhanov is, along with Andrei Tar· They had refused ten of his scenarios. which happens to the Soviet artists York and author of The Politics of kovsky, leading a second golden age of They didn't let him work. He lived concerns us-just as everything which Culture and Closely Watched Films. Soviet cinema which could match that thanks to the help of friends who happens to American artists and others Professor Liehm was a leading literary of Eisenstein and Dovzhenko-given offered him small acting roles, a colla· concerns the Soviets also. All that they figure in Czechoslovakia who supported the right conditions." boration on a script here and there. create belongs to us as well as to them. the movement for democratization in The only official response to Sayat· The genius belongs to humanity. And 1968. He was subsequently forced into Nova was some articles in the special· * Aleksandr Sergeevich Push kin and Mikhail art belongs to all those who inhabit the exile. This article is an appeal he made ized press warning against the wave of Yurievich Lermontov were poets who were earth." persecuted for their liberal views under at a meeting in defense of Soviet "difficult films." tsarism. Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakov· He is speaking of Sergei Paradzhan· political prisoners held March 18 at St. "They are films that are poetic sky was a futurist poet and Bolshevik who ov. It is high time that we begin to Marks Church in New York City. parables, generalized metaphors, and committed suicide in 1930. speak also. In a very loud voice.

22 Women In Revolt Linda Jenness···

federal charge from it. How about some articles on the communal and social ways of the The common enemy in Boston Native Americans? I don't believe the "If you're really for women's rights you have to be Boston are also antiwoman and that a united fight average American knows what our against forced busing," proclaimed a leader of ROAR must be carried out to stop them. struggle is all about. It's more than a (Restore Our Alienated Rights) after breaking up a The Coalition to Defend Abortion Rights (CDAR) in land issue, that is just the base of it. pro-Equal Rights Amendment rally in Boston on Boston has called for a week of activity, April26-May The culture and the right to heritage April 9. 3, around the -country to defend Dr. Edelin and and traditions are the main issues. The truth is the opposite: you cannot side with the abortion rights. A prisoner racists in their attack on the Black community's right In Boston the activities will include a conference on Kansas to desegregate the schools without attacking women's High School Women and Abortion as well as a rights at the same time. seminar on Black and Third World Women and The reactionary organizations, such as ROAR, have Abortion. The major event of the week in Boston will Name change a goal broader than maintaining segregated schools. be a march and rally on Saturday, May 3. Cfhe Their goal is to beat back the struggles of all those marchers will gather at Copley Square at 11:30 a.m. A Labor Department agency has announced that 3,500 jobs will be demanding equality. Their goal is to keep women and and march to the Boston Common for a rally at 12:30. renamed in order "to achieve some Blacks "in their place," robbing us of the gains we Speakers will include Edelin, Dr. Barbara Roberts, degree of neutrality and sexlessness." have made thus far and stopping us from gaining any State Rep. Elaine Noble, Thomas Atkins of the Busboys are now dining room more. NAACP, and Florence Luscomb. attendants; governesses are child In the same breath these racists whip up hysteria Because of the recent right-wing attack on the ERA monitors; bridal consultants are against busing and against abortion rights. Kenneth meeting, CDAR has received many letters expressing wedding consultants. Edelin, a Black physician in Boston, was convicted of concern that the same thing not happen to the May 3 If the name changes are followed up manslaughter for performing a legal abortion. His rally. with an effort to change the unequal indictment was engineered by the same forces who "We have sent a letter signed by our endorsers," said pay, hiring, and promotion practices oppose busing. Reba Williams of CDAR, "to the commissioner of between men and women, then it's all At a reception held recently in Chicago, Edelin told police requesting protection of our democratic right to to the good. the gathering that his main concern has been insuring hold a public rally. But we are not stopping there. We The agency neglected, however, to that women, especially poor Black women, receive are calling on all groups and endorsers of this rally to change its own name: the Manpower quality health care. When asked if he saw any mobilize to make the biggest demonstration possible. Administration. correlation between his case and the racist antibusing and we are requesting that every organization supply E.J. campaign, Edelin said, "The jurors spent a lot of time a specific number of marshals." New York, New York talking about busing while they were confined. I A large show of strength on May 3 in Boston, along understand that all but one of the jurors were violently with the activities being scheduled in cities around the opposed to busing." country, can make an impact on the reactionary drive Fiction? On April 9 the ROAR fanatics extended their in Boston. An article concerning the Middle campaign further. They brought 200 hooligans to The May 3 demonstration will be one blow. The Eastern crisis, appearing in the April break up a' meeting in support of the Equal Rights second blow will be the May 17 demonstration called 11 Militant, must be classified as Amendment sponsored by the Massachusetts Gover­ by the NAACP to stop the racist violence and fiction, as it states that Israel occupies nor's Commission on the Status of Women. As desegregate the schools. the land of various Arab governments. women's rights activists rose to speak, the racists Now is the time for every feminist and every Israel belongs to the Jewish People, drowned them out, chanting "Stop forced busing" and women's organization to join with the Black communi­ and it was on this ground that our . singing "Southie is My Home Town." ty in a united fight against a common enemy. All out Jewish Homeland was reestablished in It has become clear that the anti-Black forces in for May 3 and all out for May 17! 1948. Through subsequent wars, Israel regained the land which has always been rightfully hers by its very creator, who is our Creator. From a nonhistorical point of view, the West Bank of the River Jordan, the National Picket Line Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula no longer belong to the Arabs, but now belong to Israel Frank Lovell through military victory. It is interesting to note how few people doubt Colombia?s independence from Spain. It must be made clear, Challenge to construction unions however, that Israel has no natural The building-trades unions, which began negotia­ against any cost-of-living increases in the new right to remaining Arab territories; tions in April for more than 3,500 contracts nationally, contracts-unless, as they say, they can "eliminate all continued penetration would be have been hard hit by the twin evils of unemployment the costly work rules." unjustified. Israel is a special land and inflation. It is estimated that unemployment The officials of the building trades have been on the which can be replaced by no other. within the industry is as high·as 35 percent nationally. retreat for the past five years, and the union member­ Rebecca Subar On top of this, construction workers have steadily ship is paying the price. Blinded by their craft-union Rochester, New York lost ground through inflation. Construction workers mentality, and desperately clinging to their reaction­ don't have escalator clauses, and they are condemned ary perspective of maintaining their unions as white to see their wages constantly outdistanced by prices. job trusts, these officials have been easy prey for the Gift sub They have also been hamstrung by government wage Dunlop gang. I have subscribed to the Militant controls exercized through the Construction Industry Union officials have been retreating on most work since December of 1974, and I have Stabilization Committee, which was set up in 1971. rules, allowing contractors a free hand in work certainly enjoyed reading it in these The CISC, from 1971 to 1973 was headed by John methods, tools, and mechanization. All this has been past four months. Although I do not Dunlop, the Harvard economics professor who has traded away for "recognition," the right of the union always agree with your views, it is since been promoted to Secretary of Labor. to negotiate for the work force and collect dues. This nonetheless a pleasure reading such Now the bosses, with the help of Dunlop, are trying defensive posture has led these officials to participate refreshingly varied viewpoints, many to use the pressure of mass unemployment in the in all the government wage-cutting boards. They fear of which I do completely agree with. industry to drive down wages and even further chip that if they do not participate, the plans will go ahead I have enclosed one dollar with away at union control of job conditions. without them as antiunion projects. which to begin an introductory, two­ On April1, President Ford signed an executive order In some recent instances, under the lash of unem­ month subscription to the Militant for creating a construction industry labor-management ployment, wage standards have even been abandoned. my cousin, to whom I have lent several committee for "more effective collective bargaining in In Westchester County, New York, the building trades Militants. I hope that she will continue the industry." The new committee is headed by have agreed to "emergency employment" on county subscribing after this introductory Dunlop. projects at wages 40 or 50 percent below union scale. subscription. The real purpose of this latest presidential advisory Construction workers, some.of whom will be demon­ Lee Samore agency, put succinctly in a Labor Department news strating in Washington April 26, would be among the Pocatello, Idaho release, is "taking steps to increase construction first to benefit if the government could be forced to productivity under collective bargaining agreements." undertake a really massive public works program to Dunlop's new Collective Bargaining Committee is combat unemployment and at the same time meet the The letters column is an open out to intervene on behalf of the contractors to urgent need for new housing, schools, hospitals, and forum for all viewpoints on sub­ simplify and standardize job classifications, eliminate transportation. 1 jects of general interest to our craft jurisdictions, reduce work crews, establish These government projects ought to be planned and readers. Please keep your letters uniform regional wage scales at the lowest possible directed under workers' control, by those who know brief. Where necessary they will level, and impose open-shop methods of construction how to do the work, and at union wages. No private be abridged. Please indicate if that are already operative in more than 60 percent of contractors should be invited to enrich themselves at your name may be used or if you the industry. the public's expense. prefer that your initials be used The Contractors Mutual Association and the Con­ This is what the building-trades unions ought to be instead. struction Industry Management Board are dead set demanding of Washington.

THE MILITANT/MAY 2, 1975 23 The Great Society Harry Ring

Nothing's perfect-Some 5,000 than a converted racist," Evers said. "When times are bad," a representa­ gallons. of radioactive waste leaked "Wallace has done some tremendous tive explained, "peanut butter sales are from an underground storage tank at things since he was shot in the gut." 1itf fORP REBATE good. It's a cheap source of protein." the Hanford Atomic Reservation in He didn't say what. PLAN Washington State. It was the nine­ . . Give 'em a WIN button-Value teenth leak since 1958. An Atlantic . Adding-injury-to-insult dept.­ Today, a London magazine offering Richfield Hanford spokesman said According to the ASH (Action on tips on how to beat inflation, folded such leaks are undesirable but not Smoking and Health) newsletter, Presi- · after six issues. The editor said, "Costs really hazardous. More can be expect­ dent Ford ordered eighty cast alumi­ have gone up so much we were losing ed, he explained, because the tanks are num ashtrays for Air Force One and on every issue." getting old. its backup plane. Each tray costs fifty dollars. Spotless leopard-Charles Evers, Thrifty Dick-During the Nixon Black mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, years, about $91,000 was spent to told students at Sacramento City The cloud with the nutty lining­ ABANPON ft BILUON - I refurbish his White House bedroom, College in California that he may Boody's, an Oregon company produ­ IN ~PMENf AND GET fOtr! including $5,000 for an antique bed, support George Wallace for president. cing peanut butter since 1913, reports . f 500 MILLION I'~Jf# $450 for box springs, and $10,700 for "There is no person more dedicated sales are now going very well indeed. ., '5-...... curtains and bedcovers .

Their Government Cindy Jaquith Ford's public service jobs-for bosses WASHINGTON-We haven't heard too much The study was done by a subcommittee of the job placements through the PEIP program~ lately about those public service jobs that President House Permanent Select Committee on Small For example, Exxon executive Wiley Custer "just Ford promised on an "emergency" basis several Business. A more appropriate name might be the happened" to get placed in the Treasury Depart­ months ago. Instead, Ford and Congress are Select Committee on Corporate Price-Gougers. ment's international office, a strategic location for bickering over how many millions of dollars to The study notes that PEIP is aimed at "fostering oil policy. Shell Oil succeeded in getting one of its spend propping up a pro-American regime in a closer · relationship and better understanding agents hired by the Environmental Protection Vietnam. between industry and Government." That's putting Agency. And American Airlines wangeled their In the meantime, the jobless lines are growing it mildly. man onto a project in the Federal Aviation Admin­ longer and longer, particularly for Blacks, women, An example of this "better understanding is the istration. and young people. 330 percent increase in the price of propane in 1973. Of course these companies all paid their dues to For corporate executives, however, there is a How did the energy monopoly get away with this get into PEIP. According to a subcommittee memo public service job program, one that's not too well one? The government watchdog supposed to be obtained by columnist Jack Anderson, "Of the 29 publicized for obvi()us reasons. It's called the curbing such profiteering just happened to be one companies that participated in PEIP in 1973-1974 Presidential Executive Interchange Program Robert Bowen, a PEIP executive who used to work . . . 28 [employed individuals who] were contribu­ (PEIP). guess where? The Phillips Petroleum Company. tors to the 1972 Nixon campaign, and 24 contribut­ PEIP was started in 1969 by President Lyndon Bowen was "loaned" by Phillips to work in the ed $10,000 or more." · Johnson. The way it works is that bosses from the Office of the Energy Adviser in the Treasury All of this has led the congressional subcommit­ giant corporations are hired by the federal govern­ Department. In addition to rigging federal regula­ tee to draw the astounding conclusion that PEIP ment for a year or two at the expense of us tions to boost oil profits, he was full of other helpful may pose "a conflict of interest" in this great taxpayers. They are then returned to the companies hints, such as suggesting that the government relax government of ours. that "loaned" them. / environmental standards. Abolish PEIP? That couldn't possibly be done The rip-off involved here is more than just It turns out that Bowen's provident placement in without more hearings, says the subcommittee. executive-level salaries paid out, as a recent the Office of the Energy Adviser was not unusual. Besides, 1976 promises to be a good year for PEIP congressional study has proven. The subcommittee also learned of other convenient bids.

The American Way of Life Things are tough all over? General Motors announced this month that its the worst losses. Their share of · total income Clearly the situation at General Motors is not top executives took a 68.3 percent pay cut for 1974 dropped from 12.4 percent in 1968 to 11.9 percent in indicative of the fortunes of U.S. corporations as a because of a reported 60 percent decline in the 1973. whole-assuming we can trust GM's figures on its company's profits. The poor souls passed up their The greatest gains, on the other hand, went to the own profits, which is not a safe bet. bonuses-which in 1973 ranged upwards from upper 20 percent, those with incomes above $19,000. Now compare these steadily rising profits of the $500,000-to settle for their salaries alone. These Their share went from 40.5 percent in 1968 to 41.1 corporations with the situation of the average amounted to only $272,250 for Chairman Thomas percent of total income in 1973. worker in this country, who at the end of 1974 was Murphy, a mere $263,250 for President Elliott Estes, Other studies cited by the AFL-CIO research taking home $139 a week. According to Labor and $277,333 for retired chairman Richard department, reported in the March issue of the Department statistics, after taking account of Gerstenberg-a pittance! American Federationist, explode the myth that the inflation and taxes, this average family could buy The depression is bad news for everybody, they corporations in this country are owned by masses of ' no more than it could ten years ago. . would like to have us believe-rich and poor alike. people through widespread stock ownership, rather The real state of affairs, however, is something else. than by a small ruling class. A Commerce Depart­ Another revealing figure was made public by the The rich are getting richer and working people ment survey showed that the richest 1 percent of Labor Department on April 8. The government are getting poorer. That's the conclusion of several fa~ilies own 51 percent of the value of all stock. calculates that to maintain a '"moderate" standard recent studies that understandably haven't made In another study, James Smith of Pennsylvania of living, an urban family of four would require an the headlines. State University found that more than three-fourths income of $14,300. This was $1,733 more than what The AFL-CIO's research department has found of all Americans own no stock at all. And of the 23.5 they said was required the previous year, the that since 1968 the share of the national income percent who do own some, 5 percent own more than biggest jump since they started compiling the going to the top 40 percent has increased while the half the total value. statistic in 1966. share going to the lower 60 percent l;las decreased. What about profits? The AFL-CIO research The figures on what percentage of American The ·shift amounted to some $20 billion that went department reports that after-tax profits of all families actually were able to achieve this "moder­ out of the pockets of the lower three-fifth~ of American corporations went up by 17 percent in ate" standard of living are not out yet, but in 1973 American families into the pockets of the upper two­ 1971, 25 percent in 1972, and 26 percent in 1973. In the "modest but adequate" level set by the govern­ fifths. 1974, as the country plunged into the recession, ment turned out to be about $600 more than the Families making $6,000 to $10,000 a year~largely corporate profits still climbed by almost 18 percent, median family income of $12,051. workers in semiskilled and unskilled jobs-suffered according to the Federationist. · -Caroline Lund

24 Washington State: students, teachers, and parents unite in fight to ~save our schools' By Harold Schlechtweg heavy burden of taxation. OLYMPIA, Washington, April 17- There is another approach for fund­ "It was the largest public demonstra­ ing education that is winning increas­ tion, according to those who could ing support. That proposal is con­ recollect, since the 1933 hunger march tained in a statement by the. Socialist on Olympia." That was how Shelby Workers party candidates for Seattle Scates, Seattle Post-Intelligencer politi­ City Council and King County Coun­ cal writer, described a rally by more cil. The statement reads, in part: than 5,000 high school students on the "Regardless of how they voted on steps of Washington's state capitol April 8th [the day of the school-levy building. _ vote], working people in Seattle all The April 15 student rally came a agree that our kids need good educa­ week after the most widespread rejec­ tion and that there must be a better tion of school levies in the history of way to finance schools than the special Washington. School levies, which must property tax levies or other new taxes be approved by voters, are a special that we just can't afford. form of property tax that pays for a "Why is there no money for schools substantial share of the public schools' in the richest country in the world? basic operating costs. The answer isn't hard to find. In the The purpose of the rally was to last few years, while our living stand­ demand state funding to replace mon­ ards have been declining, big business ey !ost as a result of school-levy Militant/Toby Emmerich has been raking in record profits. failures. Most of the students came . Five thousand high school students rally on $teps of capitol in Olympia. Schools will Meanwhile, the federal government from Western Washington, where the be closed ~nd thousands of teachers in state will lose jobs if more money isn't found. takes nearly half our tax dollars for effect of the school-levy losses has been the war budget. This year over $100 devastating. In Seattle, Washington's billion will go for arms spending.... largest school district, 1,670 teachers show the legislature the need for full received "nonrenewal notices," signify­ "We must demand that the state and and administrators have received lay.. state funding of public schools. The ing that they will be fired at the end of federal government come up with the off notices. PTSA vote ignored an earlier recom­ the school year. money for education. And we must In the wake of the levy losses, the mendation by council leaders for Unless the fight against the layoffs make it clear that we won't stand for response by students, teachers, and the neutrality if teachers and other school is won, there will be a number of further taxes that put the burden on community has been swift and dramat­ employees struck because of the levy school closings in the Seattle area. The working people and the poor. Let them IC. failures. Seattle School Board, which was eliminate the war budget, close the The resolution of support was pro­ counting on the school levy for 42 corporate tax loopholes, and tax the 'Save our teachers' posed by Ardis Palmer, of Franklin percent of next year's operating costs, profits of big business-they can well • More than 1,200 students at Den­ High School. "I think we have to back has announced that it will close from afford it! ny Junior High School in west Seattle our teachers this time," Palmer said. twenty to twenty-four elementary "If the school crisis is to be solved walked out of classes April 11 and "It's a strike for all of us. The least we schools. we can't rely on the Republican and can do is say, 'The PTA is behind you. And, unless the state legislature can Democratic party politicians, the ones Go to it.'" be forced to replace those lost funds, who got us into it in the first place. We • The Lake Washington School Seattle's middle, junior, and senior must rely on ourselves-on the power Teachers take Board voted unanimously April 10 to high schools may lose their accredita­ of our numbers. Already a statewide close all district schools on April 17 so tion with the state. teachers strike is being discussed, the strike vote that students, teachers, and parents What this means was explained in a Black community is mobilizing and SEATTLE, April 21-The Seattle could march on Olympia to ask for brochure published by the Seattle high school students are taking action. Alliance of Educators voted over­ adequate school funding. The school School Board before the special levy Teachers, students and parents are whelmingly today to authorize a board meeting was attended by 1,000 election: "Without full accreditation, it marching on Olympia. strike. The vote was taken at a people. is more difficult to enter-or to survive "We fully support these actions. A meeting here of teachers, parapro­ Other school· districts where levies entry-in some colleges. More import­ statewide teachers strike combined fessionals, and clerical workers. The failed are also planning marches on ant, kids who attend fully-accredited with mass demonstrations can force meeting, called by the Seattle Olympia. schools have an edge over those who the legislature to find the money for Teachers Association, voted 3,530 to don't when it comes to competing for schools.... 6.72 in favor of strike authorization, Black community support jobs and just about everything else in "We urge the Seattle Teachers Asso­ but has set no deadline for a strike. The impetus for much of the protest life." ciation in collaboration with the Cen­ The SAE is an umbrella organiza­ activity has come from Seattle's Black Washington's Governor Daniel tral Area School Council to initiate tion initiated by the STA. community, particularly hard hit by Evans is expected to recommend to the and organize a massive statewide school-levy loss. James Ferguson, a legislature a 1.2 percent increase in the demonstration in Olympia that can leader of the April 15 student demon­ state sales tax to replace funds lost as win the support of the entire labor stration and a student at Garfield a result of the school-levy failures. movement, community, church and rallied in the street demanding, "Save High School, described the effect of the It is unlikely that this new tax civic organizations- a demonstration our teachers!" That same day, some levy failure on Garfield. scheme will win support among Wa,sh­ to show the strength and numbers of 200 students from predominantly "As far as teachers go, there are 62 ington's hard-pressed working people. all those who are concerned with Black and Asian Franklin High School teachers at Garfield now, and next The April 8 vote against the increase decent education. That's the way to marched several miles to Seattle's city year there will only be 32 . . . the total in property taxes wasn't a vote against win our demand for full funding! The hall chanting, "Save our schools!" now of all teachers, and staff employ­ schools. It was a vote against the money is there!" Sporadic walkouts and demonstrations ees and everything is 107. Next year it are continuing at schools throughout will be 44. Western Washington. "And I don't know how many people • Also on April 11, the Washington will be cut off the lunchroom, custodi­ Education Association called on its al, or security. But there will be fewer." locals around the state, whether or not Sentiment in favor of teachers is levies failed in their districts, to vote running high in Seattle's Black com- 1 for strike authorization as a weapon to munity. Many of those who spoke in force the legislature to provide more favor of supporting the possible teach­ school funds. The WEA has estimated ers' strike at the April 13 PTSA that 5,000 teachers throughout the meeting came from Seattle's predomi­ state will lose their jobs as a result of nantly Black Central Area. levy failures. Teachers at the Central Area's The WEA is the collective bargain­ Madrona Middle School received a ing organization for 36,000 teachers in note from the mother of one of their 227 locals throughout the state. students saying, "What I want you • The Seattle Teachl!rS Association, each to know is that our family will Seattle affiliate of the WEA, scheduled support whatever you deem necessary, a strike authorization vote for April 21. including a strike to close the schools. The STA represents 4,700 teachers, Such a. strike will create a hardship in secretaries, aides, and nurses. our family-but that's OK." William· Haroldson, STA president, said, "Our position is we will strike at Teachers laid off the appropriate time when the legisla­ Madrona Middle School, like other ture is sitting on its hands and not schools in the Central Area, will suffer taking effective action." heavily from the proposed cutbacks. • The Seattle Parent-Teacher­ There are now forty-seven teachers at Student Association (PTSA) Council Madrona. Forty-two of them have been voted April 13 at an emergency meet­ notified that they will not be rehired. Militant/Toby Emmerich ing to support a "work stoppage by all At predominantly Black Coleman Demonstrators take break beside Young Socialist Alliance literature table. Socialists Seattle Public School employees" to Elementary all of the teachers have demand elimination of war budget and taxing big business to pay for schools.

THE MILITANT/MAY 2, 1975 25

'I A chagter of labor histor~ Roosevelt's attack on workers who This week the Militant continues serializa­ demands: no reprisals against any strikers; recogni­ them that they must return to the job or they would tion of excerpts from three chapters of Team­ tion of the Building Trades Council's right to be summarily fired. ster Politics, a forthcoming new book by remain on strike and to picket for union wages; all Then, toward noon on Friday, July 14, the Farrell Dobbs on the labor Jllovement in the projects requiring skilled labor to remain closed. A Minneapolis police turned up at the establishment 1930s. In last week's selection, Dobbs de­ mass rally was then held at which the strikers in force. Besides the usual clubs and revolvers,. scribed the outbreak of a spontaneous nation­ voted to support those demands, which had been those on foot carried riot guns, and they were wide strike in July 1939 by workers on the refused by Glotzbach. backed up by six armored cars. Soon after the cops federal government's Works Progress Admin­ As Max Geldman recollected the reasoning arrived, a handful of strikebreakers headed for the istration (WPA) projects. The strike came in behind the Joint Action Committee's course: "FWS entrance to the building. At that point the forces of response to wage cuts and massive layoffs policy was that we didn't call a strike on the "law and order" launched a tear-gas attack on the ordered by Roosevelt. projects, but we were supporting the walkout pickets and escorted the finks inside. (Did you miss the first two parts of this officially voted by the building-trades unions. We series? For copies of the April 18 and April 25 felt that such a position would help to protect our Bloody police riot issues, send fifty cents to the Militant Busi­ members from the threat implied in Roosevelt's By the time of the 7:00 P.M. shift change, some ness Office, 14 Charles Lane, New York, New stand that 'You can't strike against the govern­ five thousand strikers had gathered at the scene, York 10014.) ment,' a dictate that the official labor movement along with about an equal number of sympathizers. was in a far better situation than us to openly defy. They had come to voice a massive protest against The line that was adopted gave the unskilled the noon attack, but the capitalist authorities were laborers a kind of umbrella under which to proceed not willing to accord them even that elementary By Farrell Dobbs with the necessary action, and at the same time our democratic right. Shortly before the scheduled (Third of a series) support of the building trades workers served to change in shifts, the armored cars were stationed at In Minneapolis ... a firm basis had been laid strengthen trade-union ties with the unemployed strategic points, on~ right in front of the project during previous struggles to press for coordinated movement." door. A few minutes later an assault was made on action by the trade unions and the unemployed the empty-handed protesters, just as the scabs were movement. It was no big problem to arrange Government threats being herded out of the building. Moving with the consultation between the local Building Trades Events were soon to show that there was good support of a tear-gas barrage, the cops advanced Council and [Teamster] Local 544's unemployed cause for the FWS leaders to try as best they could on the assembled demonstrators, firing at them unit [the Federal Workers Section]. As a result, to protect the membership from victimization. On from point-blank range. Even after the crowd broke agreement was quickly reached to combine in July 13 Attorney General Frank Murphy stated to and ran, the minions of the law continued their demanding restoration of the union wage scale for th~ press: "There must be no strike ·against the shooting and clubbing. skilled workers, increased pay for unskilled labor, government of the United States by anyone, A sixty-year-old jobless worker, Emil Bergstrom, RI!_d jobs for all in both categories. A Joint Action anywhere, at any time. . . . Those leaders who was shot dead. Many were wounded by the flying Committee was then established to lead the struggle have moved to exploit the protests of WP A workers lead and flailing clubs, including a little girl and a for those demands. in violation of the federal statutes will be prosecut­ little boy. Seventeen were injured seriously enough Locally, the Workers Alliance officials found it ed." to require hospitalization. impossible to follow their national line of delaying Murphy added that federal district attorneys had Within twenty-four hours of the police riot, an action until July 20. In view of the strikers' been instructed to keep a close watch on activities of emergency meeting of workers' representatives, militancy, they felt it expedient to formally endorse WPA strike leaders. He singled out Minneapolis, ·qualified to speak for the entire labor movement of the walkout. That, in tum, made it possible to draw especially, as a spot where "evidence of labor the city, adopted a resolution vigorously protesting them, none too willingly, into the Joint Action racketeering or criminal conspiracy against the the unprovoked assault on unarmed strikers. Committee initiated by the Building Trades Council nation's relief program" may "result in indict­ Shortly after the adoption of this angry protest, and the Federal Workers Section. ments." funeral services were held for Emil Bergstrom at the Picketing was then organized under the direction There were several reasons why Minneapolis was AFL's central headquarters. Thousands then escort­ of the Committee of Five Hundred, which had been getting such close attention from the Roosevelt ed his remains to the cemetery. Max Geldman gave formed by the FWS. Apart from a few minor administration. Through the initiative of the the memorial address. In the course of his remarks incidents, no difficulty was experienced in keeping Federal Workers Section, extensive unity had been to the strikers, who had come to pay last respects to the projects closed down. That enabled the strikers forged between the employed and unemployed their martyred class brother, he said: to spend considerable time distributing special workers of the city. Use of the resultant class power "Emil Bergstrom will take his place along Henry bulletins, printed by the Northwest Organizer, so had wrested substantial concessions from the Ness and John Belor [who were murdered by the that the workers generally would have their side of authorities in the WPA sphere and in the allocation Minneapolis cops during the 1934 Teamster the story. In addition, regular meetings were held to of city relief. Those achievements had come to strike].... keep everyone informed of developments and to serve, in tum, as beacon lights for the jobless "We must struggle not only to repeal the vicious help maintain a staunch fighting spirit. nationally. Labor in Minneapolis was now conduct' Woodrum relief bill. We must also build for a society Before long, Glotzbach, as state WPA director, ing the most effective strike in the country against where labor shall not have to ask for relief, where made a public request to the Minneapolis police for the WPA cuts. Small wonder, therefore, that a gang­ labor may enjoy those blessings which it now help to reopen the local projects. Immediately up against Local 544's auxiliary unit was instituted produces for others." thereafter the Joint Action Committee leading the at all levels of government. walkout met with him and presented the following The counterattack began with an attempt to reopen the federal sewing project, organized by the Stalinist strikebreaking This article is printed by permission of the Anchor FWS and located at 123 North Second Street. WPA At the July 15 meeting, where labor's collective Foundation, Inc. Copyright © 1975 by the Anchor officials telephoned the workers enrolled in the protest against the police attack was adopted, there Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. project, a great majority of them women, telling was one point on which those present were not unanimous. Delegates from the Workers Alliance objected to criticisms of the Roosevelt administra­ tion contained in the document. No one was taken by surprise, however. The Stalinists running the WA had been trying unsuccessfully to get motions passed at strike meetings calling for the reelection of Roosevelt in 1940. So their objections were simply overridden and the criticisms of the White House gang remained in the protest resolution. About the same time, WA President David Lasser paid a brief visit to the city and stated to the boss press that the strike should be called off. Working­ class disgust over his conduct was reflected in the July 20 Northwest Organizer, which referred to him as "the man who developed an 18-inch tongue by constantly licking the boots of the national admin­ istration." According to the July 16 St. Paul Pioneer Press, Lasser also said in a telegram to Roosevelt: "To further avoid shooting innocent people by power drunk reactionaries, and to give Congress opportu­ nity to deliberate relief law changes in atmosphere of calm and reason, we are polling national board Workers Alliance on question temporarily ending all WPA jobs stoppages in which we are concerned, including suspension one-day national WPA protest planned for July 20. Workers Alliance has never and would not strike against the government." Lasser was proposing that WA members in Minnesota and elsewhere break ranks in the strike

26 . dared ·strike against the government· - and workers who had scabbed dunng the stnke. Then, on August 18, the grand jury indicted 103 of the Minneapolis WPA strikers. U.S. Attorney Anderson refused, however, to divulge the names of those involved. Instead, he subpoenaed officers of the Federal Workers Section and the AFL Central Labor Union to appear before the jury, where they were grilled in an effort to trick them into some damaging admission. After that, further indict­ ments were announced, the process continuing until charges had been leveled against a total of 166 workers. , Most were accused of "conspiracy" to deprive the WPA of "workers' services" in violation of the Woodrum law. Several faced frame-up charges ;1rising out of incidents during the strike, and some, it was later found, were named in more than one indictment. Addressing itself to all trade unionists, the Northwest Organizer [declared] editorially: "The federal prosecution of the Minneapolis WPA stri­ kers is a sharp warning to the labor movement of · the nation that the national administration is deadly serious about its preparations for war and its campaign to hogtie organized labor. . . . It becomes clearer than ever that the national admin­ istration is seizing upon the WPA strike in Minnea­ polis as a pretext for crippling the powerful local labor movement in preparation for America's entry into the war [which had just broken out in Europe]." Imprisoned workers organize The arrested workers certainly didn't consider Scabs rush out of federal sewing project under police guard on July 14, 1939. Cops laid down tear-gas barrage themselves criminals. They organized within the and fired point-blank on strike pickets and supporters. Hennepin County jail, where the federal govern­ ment had put them, and elected Max Geldman as steward. Then they demanded and won the right to hold collective political discussions about the legal and capitulate to Roosevelt. That finky notion that there would be no reprisals against the attack on the Federal Workers Section. didn't sit well with WA rank-and-filers. A number strikers, and assurance was refused. Instead, the When the first indictments were announced, a left the organization locally and went over to the federal authorities claimed the "right" to require committee to raise bail funds was chosen. It Federal Workers Section. Since the FWS had also signed affidavits from the strikers attesting that ·consisted of representatives from the Central Labor been recruiting hundreds of unorganized WPA they "have not engaged in illegal activities." Union, Building Trades Council, Teamsters Joint workers during the heat of combat, it was continu­ It was an ominous sign. Council, and Federal Workers Section. Next, a joint ing to gain in strength while the Workers Alliance meeting of the executive boards of all AFL unions was growing weaker in Minnesota. The frame-up begins in the city was held. At that session a WPA defense As far as the federal authorities were concerned, committee was formed, one that could speak 'Rapidly approaching a revolution' nothing was settled in Minneapolis. Although the authoritatively for the AFL. unskilled laborers returned to their WPA jobs, they The ruling-class line in the aftermath of the July With that prestigious body speaking for the were still in a fighting mood. The building-trades 14 police assault was indicated by Mayor Leach. ~e defense, it didn't take long to win added support mechanics were standing firm in their refusal to rushed a wire to Washington claiming that the c1ty from workers' organizatiOns in the neighboring city _accept the pay cut. Both categories of workers had was "rapidly approaching a revolution" and de­ of St. Paul. Financial contributions to raise bail and been outstandingly militant in defying Roosevelt's manding that Roosevelt send in federal troops. hire lawyers came from local unions in both cities. ban on strikes against the government. Therefore, it Governor Stassen also tried to divert attention from In addition, volunteers took to the streets selling was soon learned, the president had decided to take tags for people to wear expressing solidarity with the the outrage that had been committed against the punitive action against them. His object was to strikers by making a vicious attack over the radio defendants. Two things were gained in that way: prevent further struggle against liquidation of the on the whole Minneapolis labor movement. individual protests against the frame-up were federal relief program, and to do that he first had to publicly registered and badly needed money was Elsewhere in the country, leadership defaults behead the Federal Workers Section. were taking their toll on the strike movement. In raised. Proceeding accordingly, U.S. Attorney General Among those arrested were about forty women, city after city the rebellious WPA workers were Frank Murphy launched a legal attack on the FWS. being forced back onto the projects and, as a mostly workers on the WPA sewing project. Many It opened right after the workers voted on July 20 to had children who in some cases had no one else to consequence, organized labor in Minneapolis was ratify the terms their Joint Action Committee had becoming dangerously isolated in the fight against depend on, and several were over fifty years of age. negotiated with the WPA administrators. Murphy Taken as a whole, the Northwest Organizer said: the federal government. In those circumstancfls it began with public speculation about a "conspiracy" was necessary for the unskilled workers locally to "The indicted make up a veritable cross-section of in the local walkout. On that premise he ordered a the city's population. There are young men and make a planned retreat. Toward that end, negotia­ grand jury investigation "into charges that WPA tions were arranged between the Joint Action women who have never known what it is to hold strikers had interfered with persons wishing to down a job in private industry. There are World Committee and the WPA authorities. Settlement work in Minneapolis and St. Paul." terms were argued out as follows: War [I] veterans. There are college graduates and Victor E. Anderson, the U.S. district attorney, there are workers who heve toiled from childhood. The government waived its ruling that workers followed up with an announcement that he was There are Negroes and Irishmen, there are Jews absent from their jobs five consecutive days would only waiting for a formal FBI report before and Catholics and Christian Scientists and Seventh be fired, agreeing that all who had been removed implementing Murphy's order. During the national Day Adventists. There are veteran union members from the rolls on that basis would be reinstated. An WP A strike, FBI agents had been sent into the and persons who for the first time in their lives understanding was reached that members of the principal areas of struggle to recruit scabs and participated in a strike and picket line. The one Building Trades Council would continue their gather evidence for prosecution. Their role as labor thing in common about all these people is that their refusal to work on WPA projects until the prevailing spies and agents provocateurs was clearly indicat­ economic situation was and is desperate." union wage was restored; also that they retained ed by an account in the Minneapolis Tribune of (Next week: the frame-up trials) the right to picket if attempts were made to use scab July 24, 1939. labor. Unskilled workers were not to be called upon to go through picket lines. Projects that couldn't be FBI labor spies operated without skilled mechanics were to remain "The Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, closed; and in such cases any unskilled laborers about 25 of them," said the capitalist daily, "were in Teamster history involved were to be transferred to other projects. a good position to learn what took place around the Those ·terms were submitted to the strikers for sewing project in a series of riots July 14, it was TEAMSTER REBELLION by Farrell Dobbs. History approval on July 20, 1939-fifteen days after the disclosed Sunday. Wearing overalls and other of the 1934 strikes. 192 pp. Paper $2.45, cloth $6.95. walkout began. They were ratified at separate articles of workmen's clothing, the agents, posing meetings of the Building Trades Council, the as pickets and onlookers, mingled with the crowd TEAMSTER POWER by Farrell Dobbs. Midwest Federal WorkersSection, and the Workers Alliance. surging around the project building.... When the organizing drive in 1S30s. 255 pp._ Paper $2.95, After that the unskilled laborers returned to the shooting and tear gas bombing started, the agents cloth $8.95. projects, still showing excellent morale. scattered with the rest of the crowd." But there was one troublesome catch in the During its proceedings the grand jury called in Monad Press books. Distributed by Pathfinder settlement. The Joint Action Committee had scores of witnesses, drawn from four broad catego­ Press, 410 West Street, New York, New York 10014, pressed for a commitment from the government ries: WPA officials, FBI agents, Minneapolis cops,

THE MILITANT/MAY 2, 1975 27 As Ford warns of 'bloodbath' People of Pnompenh cheer liberators By Peter Green From Intercontinental Press . The population of Pnompenh gave a tumultuous welcome to the victorious Khmer Rouge troops when they en­ ter~d the Cambodian capital on April 17. "Three hours after the surrender," said an April 18 Associated Press dispatch, "thousands of students pa­ raded along the main boulevards, waving banners to greet the Commu­ nist forces." Crowds lined the streets, and from windows and roofs people "cheered and waved white strips of cloth as the black-clad troops walked triumphantly through the streets in groups of three or four." After five years of agonizing · war, the only sounds of shooting came from the jubilant soldiers firing into the air. "Communist troops reportedly em­ braced Government soldiers and lifted them aboard personnel carriers for a victory parade along the waterfront. "AI Rockoff, a freelance American photographer, climbed on the hood of a jeep loaded with Communist-led sol­ diers, and the jeep drove up and down the streets." "The popular enthusiasm is evi­ Victorious Khmer Rouge troops received tumultuous welcome as they rode into Pnompenh. dent," said Le Monde correspondent Patrice_ de Beer in a dispatch from Pnompenh. "Groups form around the In the final weeks of the puppet ings" of the Thieu family as well as However, the April 20 Washington insurgents, who often carry American regime, the feelings of tlie populace some personal effects of Lon Nol. The Post reported that the broadcast was weapons. They are· young, happy, became more and more overt. airline declined after it discovered the not over the regular frequencies of surprised by their easy success. The First students and then teachers baggage included sixteen tons of gold, either the Khmer Rouge radio or republican soldiers quickly put up demonstrated in Pnompenh demand­ worth $73 million. Pnompenh radio. white flags. Processions form in the ing an end to U.S. aid. Leaflets calling As the end neared in Pnompenh, Lon street and the refugees are starting to for peace circulated. Nol concentrated on other personal In fact, soon after they set up go home." problems. New York Times correspond­ headquarters in Pnompenh, the Khmer Scattered fighting was reported in a The Last Days of Pnompenh ent Sydney Sch,anberg reported that Rouge invited all ministers and gener­ few enclaves held by the puppet forces, The morale of the puppet troops had two days before the liberation of als of the former regime "who have not but most of them rapidly came under never been high, but it sank lower and Pnompenh, "the National Bank of run away" to meet and help formulate the control of the Khmer Rouge forces. lower, until toward the end the soldiers Cambodia sent a cablegram to the measures to restore order. The Khmer In Poipet, on the border with Thailand, were resorting to cannibalism. The Irving Trust Company in New York, Rouge had previously listed "~even about 500 Khmer Rouge troops rode eating of slain Khmer Rouge soldiers asking the American bank, where it traitors" whom they advised to flee, into town on captured jeeps. Many of apparently became a common practice. presumably · has dollar credits, to but said they were willing to work with them were girls and young boys, the A dispatch by Jacques Leslie in the confirm that it was carrying out an anyone else-feudal elements, land­ April 20 Washington Post reported. April 6 Los Angeles Times reported earlier order to pay $1-million to lords, and comprador capitalists in­ "From the border, 300 yards away, that mutinous troops had killed and Marshal Lon Nol." The earlier order cluded. the reporters observed a Khmer Rouge eaten their paymaster after not getting had been sent on April 1. Le Monde correspondent Patrice de leader addressing a large crowd and paid for four months. The soldiers "Perhaps the marshal was worried Beer reported that he had seen .the heard loud applause." About twenty accused their officers of pocketing their that if Phnom Penh fell to the insur­ prisoners held by the Khmer Rouge at soldiers later approached the border pay. gents before the transaction was con­ their headquarters in the former Minis­ and shook hands with Thai civilians "Our commander had wine and pork firmed, he would never get the money," try of Information. across the barbed wire barriers. and chicken while we ate grasshop­ said Schanberg. "The atmosphere was relaxed," he The final collapse of the puppet pers," a soldier·said. "The commander said. "The prisoners-Lon Non [broth­ forces came just five days after Wash­ could use wine to wash his face. He Whose Bloodbath? er of Lon Nol], many generals, some ington grudgingly admitted defeat and had three or four girls with him. But if After five years of war in Cambodia, ministers-were laughing and chatting airlifted its remaining officials out of a soldier was sick and wanted to go to Sydney Schanberg reported in the with soldiers. There was one 'super Pnompenh. the hospital in Phnom Penh, he had to April 13 New York Times, there are "a traitor,' former Premier Long Boret, U.S. Ambassador John Gunther pay a 10,000 to 20,000 riels ($5 to $10) million Cambodians killed or wounded who had given himself up and had Dean had instructed his staff that he bribe to get a helicopter ride." (one seventh of the population), hun­ been well received." wanted the embassy "to go out in style, Right up to the final day the Pnom­ dreds of thousands of refugees living with dignity-not in panic like losers." penh regime tried to squeeze the last in shanties, a devastated countryside, Negotiation Attempts The exit was anything but dignified, dollar from the suffering of the people children dying of starvation and car­ Although Norodom Sihanouk and however. under its control. After the liberation penters turning out a steady stream of the Khmer Rouge leaders stated repeat­ The American officials had to scurry of Pnompenh, an official of the United coffins made from ammunition edly they would never negotiate with out by helicopter; their farewell com­ Nations Children's Fund revealed that crates." the Pnompenh regime, Joseph Kraft mittee consisted of a hundred or so the regime had compelled UN authori­ Having bequeathed this legacy to reported in the April 8 Washington staring children; Ambassador Dean ties to pay costly air-freight charges to the people of Cambodia, any talk from Post that a feeler for negotiations had left carrying the embassy flag in a fly powdered milk for starving children Washington about a "bloodbath" fol­ been rejected by Washington early in plastic bag; and as soon as the into the country aboard the lowing the rebel victory sounds like the summer of 1974. helicopters lifted off, Cambodian mili­ government-owned airline rather than Hitlerite propaganda. "According to the highest French tary police ransacked the embassy and permit the relief supplies to be flown in The actual liberation of Pnompenh officials... ,'' said Kraft, "at that homes of the Americans. free. One report said that UNICEF had itself belied such White House hand­ time the rebels were pressing hard on been chl}rged as much as $1,000 a ton. outs to the press. the capital, Phnom Penh. But they President Lon Nol skipped the But reports of the mass of the were experiencing supply difficulties country with his plunder April!. After population of Pnompenh cheering the which promoted internal bickering. a ten-day holiday in Indonesia, he Khmer Rouge as they entered the city The Chinese hinted to the French that arrived in Hawaii for "medical treat­ is very dangerous new~ for Washing­ something might be arranged, pro­ ment," and was met by Admiral Noel ton's propaganda machine, especially vided the Lon Nol government was Gayler, the American Pacific comman-. for its last-ditch maneuver to retain a ready to step down. der. The U.S. government is footing toehold in Saigon by raising an alarm "Paris conveyed the hint to Wash­ the bill for his stay in Hawaii. about a "bloodbath" of hundreds of ington. Washington, according to the However, Washington's puppet ran thousands of "loyal" supporters there French, turned a deaf ear," said Kraft .. into difficulties with some of his if the marines are not allowed to go in The reason Nixon and Kissinger baggage. Events were moving too to rescue them. rejected negotiations and banked rapidly in both Cambodia and South So after the early reports from everything on · a military victory, Vietnam, and he apparently overesti­ Pnompenh of the warm welcome given according to Kraft's French source, mated the stability of the fiefdom of the Khmer Rouge and the rapid restor­ was that "they did not understand that Conrad his crony in Saigon. In late March, ation of peace and order, the Western a soft, neutralist regime with a broad South Vietnam government seeks South Vietnamese officials asked a press began carrying stories about political base could both cover up an carrier for orphans to Switzerland.­ charter airline affiliated with Swissair executions and beheadings, allegedly American defeat and thwart a Com­ News item to ferry out "some personal belong- announced by the Khmer Rouge radio. munist victory." 28 Sub drive over the toP-! 7arget week' of sales campaign a big success By Pat Galligan Militant sales went over the 1,000 "No funds for war, no Gis to mark in Cleveland and San Francisco. Vietnam!" The day after Ford's April At the top of this week's scoreboard 10 speech, the Militant was on the is Milwaukee. Members of the newly streets with the demands of the over­ established branch of the Socialist whelming majority of the population. Workers party and the local of the Sales of the April 18 Militant during Young Socialist Alliance in that city the special target week of socialist sold 819 Militants-more than four campaigning in local areas totaled times their weekly goal. Their YS sales 15,1:l8 copies-1f>6 percent of our total of 470 led the countrY.. weekly national goal. Also, :3,520 Larry Thomas sold most of his copies of the April Young Socialist seventy-seven Militants and sixty­ were sold in the thirteen cities report­ eight YSs on the Milwaukee campus of ing on YS sales. the University of Wisconsin (UWM). Subscriptions sold during the target . Thomas, a student at UWM, was week brou!fht the Militant's subscrip­ first introduced to the Militant through tion drive over the top of its 9,000 goal, a subscription he bought from a Young to at least 9,01G. Returns from weekend Socialist team visiting the campus two sales are still coming in. The complete years ago. His weekly sales of thirty to subscription scoreboard will be printed fifty papers have helped establish the next week. Militant as the campus's most widely Single copy sales of 'Militant' hit 15,138 last week, 156 percent of/ our goal. Militant supporters from Brooklyn, read radical newspaper. Lower Manhattan, and Upper West Thomas was nudged out of top sales Side, New York, gathered to hear the honors last week by Ted Shakespeare, much sharper to people -here now results of the week's sales at a victory who used his job layoff to good because of what's happening in Mil­ party on Saturday evening. Combined advantage, selling 131 Militants and waukee," he said. Sales sales from the three areas reached thirty-eight YSs. The successful sales week in Milwau­ :J,5:l8 Militants and 1,0:l9 YSs. On Monday, Shakespeare sold at a kee was summed up by sales director scoreboard Upper West Side took the honors in public hearing on school desegrega­ Delpfine Welch: "Last week, this city the city-wide rivalry with total sales of tion. In all, thirty-seven Militants and was inunda'ted with the fact that the Sold 1,597 papers. Ike Nahem was the top fifty YSs were sold at the meeting. SWP and YSA are in Milwaukee." last Goal week % salesperson in New York and national­ Area Shakespeare notes: "People were The Sacramento YSA made its sales Milwaukee 200 819 410 ly with combined Militant and YS attracted by both papers' coverage of goal last week largely through the Upper West Side, N.Y. 425 1,315 309 sales of 190 papers. the Boston situation." efforts of Ben Herrera. He took the Cleveland 350 1,080 309 In addition to the New York areas, "The issues posed in Boston are local's bundle of thirty-five Militants Lower Manhattan, N.Y. 400 1,159 290 and a supply of YSs to a lecture on Brooklyn, N.Y. 400 1,064 266 · assassination conspiracies at that San Francisco 450 1,058 235 city's Consumnes Junior College. St. Louis 400 885 221 Reprints of the FBI Cointelpro docu­ L.A. (West Side) 375 667 178 ments boosted his sales for the evening Atlanta 475 759 160 to thirty-one Militants and fifteen YSs. Washington, D.C. 400 607 152 San Diego 275 416 151 Response across the country to the Sacramento, Calif. 25 35 140 Militant's strong stand against U.S. Oakland/Berkeley 600 817 136 war moves was an important factor in Baltimore 75 100 133 making last week the best sales week Denver 350 454 130 of the spring campaign. Houston 500 605 121 Antiwar sentiment among jobless Pittsburgh 375 449 120 workers in San Francisco, for example, Nashville, Tenn. 30 35 117 is one reason for successful Militant Logan, Utah 45 50 111 sales at the unemployment office. Seattle 275 297 108 Barbara Zdenok sells at least fifteen Tucson, Ariz. 50 50 100 San Antonio, Tex. 35 35 100 copies each time she sells there. Syracuse, N.Y. 5 5 100 "People see Washington's military budget and its aid to dictators around Detroit 600 554 92 Twin Cities 400 354 89 the world as the source of the economic Chicago 600 527 88 crisis in this country," she explains. State College, Pa. 15 13 87 Zdenok tells us that she often re­ LA (Central-East) 450 322 72 ceives donations as well. "People give Boston 400 265 66 me a dollar for one Militant and ask Portland, Ore. 325 177 54 Charles Steed me to give three copies away-it's the Philadelphia 400 165 41 Young Socialist Alliance literature table at Middle Tennessee State University in best response I've ever had selling the . Total 9,700 15,138 156 ·Murfreesboro is center of lively discussion. paper," she said. Frame-up fails against Georgia Black students By Joel Aber plained that the disruption at Colum­ to sell out what we believe in for half-a­ spond to the federal charges and to ATLANTA-A De Kalb County bia High was caused by teachers, million dollars or for $50 million." - reject federal funding. The motion they juvenile court judge dismissed charges administrators, and cops, not by the What Renfroe believes in is the most passed states, "The board will not, against eighty Black Columbia High eighty students, who had been attend­ blatant racial bias, a report from the under any circumstances, sacrifice the School students April 2. For the ing class. The disruption began when Office of Civil Rights reveals. The ·learning opportunities of children for students and their parents this was the teachers and school officials began OCR report cites the following evi­ external fiscal resources or an effort to second victory in two days against dragging Black students out of class dence: 58 of the 101 De Kalb schools implement political and social change racist De Kalb school officials. On and putting them in the cafeteria. have not one Black teacher; 47 percent if these changes are detrimental to the April 1, the federal Office of Civil Students trying to leave the cafeteria of the students labeled "EMR" (men­ environment." Rights informed the school system were then blocked by police. Yet school tally retarded) are Black, while the In other words, commented one that it would lose $516,000 in federal officials argued that the students were system is only 15 percent Black; since Black parent, "They're telling me it's aid unless it responded within twenty at fault because their presence prevent­ it was forced to end the Jim Crow detrimental to the environment to give days to federal charges of discrimina­ ed the normal service of lunch! system of separate Black schools, the my kids an equal education." tion. De Kalb is a suburban county county has reduced the number of adjacent to Atlanta. "They had to dismiss the charges Black head coaches; of 229 school The vote was too much for the school The eighty students were among a because there was a lot of pressure on buses owned by the system, not one is board vice-chairman, who resigned. hundred who had been hauled off to them," student leader Reginia Marble used to effect desegregation; Black Concerned Citizens, a group that is jail February 20 for attempting to go to told the Militant. Even Atlanta Consti­ students are suspended from school at fighting against racism in education, class after their arbitrary suspension tution editor Reginald Murphy, a nearly four times the rate for white is demanding that the board replace from majority-white Columbia High conservative representative of the students. him with a Black community. repres­ School following protests against ra­ Atlanta business establishment, had The federal report notes that Colum­ entative. cial discrimination. pleaded with school officials to drop bia High School in particular "is "De Kalb would rather be racist than Judge Dennis Jones never needed to the charges. They refused. administered in a fashion which re­ right," say banners made by Con­ hear the defense witnesses. He ruled School officials are also refusing to sults in racial discrimination." Of 353 cerned Citizens as they prepare for a favorably on a defense motion for be pressured by the federal govern­ classes at Columbia, it found, 200 are picket and boycott of the merchants in dismissal on the ground that the ment into taking even token steps easily identifiable as to racial composi­ South De Kalb Mall. Since all the prosecution had presented no evidence toward ending racial discrimination. tion. board members are white business­ that the students had caused any Regarding the threatened loss of feder­ On April 7, the lily-white De Kalb men, they feel that an economic disruption. al funds, assistant school superintend­ school board continued its racist offen­ boycott by the Black community could Defense attorney Roger Mills ex- ent Joe Renfroe said, "We aren't going sive, voting unanimously not to re- be persuasive.

THE MILITANT/MAY 2, 1975 29 OAKLAND/BERKELEY told a House committee April 21 that becomes clear that gestures toward WHY GEORGE JACKSON WAS KILLED: Speak­ the North Vietnamese and PRG forces negoti~ltion can lead to a braking of ers: Eric Mann. biographer of George Jackson; Paul Boutelle, SWP. Fri., May 2, 8 p.m. 1849 "have the capacity to overwhelm the ~evolutionary offensive, we can University Ave., Berkeley. Donation: $1. Ausp: South Vietnam if they want to." expect that there will perhaps be an Calendar Militant Forum. For more information call (415) 548- BOSTON "Most Western military analysts overabundance of politicians willing to ABORTION ACTION WEEK ACTIVITIES. Wed., 0354. believe that Communist strength play a part." April 30, 3:30 p.m.: A conference on high school around Saigon is now so overwhel­ women and abortion. Crittenton-Hastings Clinic, 10 PHILADELPHIA This policy of compromise is obvi­ Perthshire Rd., Brighton. 7:30 p.m.: Seminar on SECOND-CLASS EDUCATION IN PHILADEL­ ming that the capital could be taken in ously the one that the Kremlin ap­ Black and Third World women and abortion. PHIA: SPANISH-SPEAKING STUDENTS. Speaker: days or hours," Malcolm Browne proves of. Moscow's lack of enthu­ Andrew Erba. Committee for Legal Services; a play, Cultural presentation by National Black Feminist cabled from Saigon to the April 20 siasm for the rebel gains in Vietnam Organization, film. Dennison House, 25 Howard performed by Aspira Club, Edison High School. Fri., Ave. (off Dudley near Uphans Corner). Sat., May 3, May 2, 8 p m. 1004 Filbert.St. Donation: $1. Ausp: New York Times. was indicated by the fact that it was 11:30 a.m.: March and rally. Assemble at Copley Militant Forum. For more information call (215) The question now is whether the not until April 9-fully three weeks WAS-4316. Sc;uare, march to Boston Common across from PRG and Hanoi leaders will agree to a after the spectacular collapse of the statehouse. 12:30 p.m.: Rally. Speakers: Dr. Ken­ deal that heads off the complete defeat nf'th Edelin; Dr. Barbara Roberts; Thomas Atkins, PITTSBURGH Saigon forces began-that a Soviet Boston NAACP; State Rep. Elaine Noble; Florence MAY DAY 1975: U.S. LABOR ON THE MOVE. A of the Saigon regime. Twice before, in leader even commented directly on the Luscomb, Ausp: Coalition to Defend Abortion panel of speakers Thurs., May 1. 8 p.m. 3400 Fifth 1946 and 1954, the Vietnamese have Ave. (corner of Halket). Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant events in Vietnam. Rights,. Northeastern Univ. Women's Center, 5 Ell foregone the victory they won on the In an April 18 dispatch from Mos­ Bldg., Huntington Ave., Boston. Mass. 02115. For Forum. For more information call (412) 682-5019. more information call (617) 437-2130. battlefield to accept a political settle­ cow, New York Times correspondent ST. LOUIS ment that left an imperialist foothold Christopher Wren wrote: "Soviet diplo­ THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE FIRST AMERI­ THE MOVEMENT TO SA'lE HOMER G. PHIL­ in their country. In each case they mats analyzing the fighting in South CAN REVOLUTION. Speaker: Dianne Feeley, LIPS HOSPITAL. Speakers: Ernest Calloway, pro­ were eventually forced to resume their Vietnam have told well-placed sources women's studies teacher in. New York, coauthor of fessor of urban studies. St. Louis Univ.; Charles Feminism and Socialism. Fri., May 2, 8 p.m. 655 Bussey, chairperson, Committee to Save Homer G. long and costly struggle under less here that- they do not expect the Allantic Ave., Third Floor (opp. South Sta.). Phillips Hospital. Fri., May 2, 8 p.m. 4660 Maryland, advantageous conditions. Communist forces to try to capture Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more Suite 17. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For Saigon and win the war in the current information call (617) 482-8050. more information call (314) 367-2520. If the statements of the PRG and Hanoi are to be believed, they are offensive." DETROIT SAN FRANCISCO seeking such a deal once again. New Certainly the Kremlin bureaucrats _ FREE JOAN LITTLE! Speakers: Henry Fagin, CHILE: THE DAYS OF TERROR ARE NOT OVER. York Times correspondent Flora Lewis hope that this is the case; as far as Detroit Coalition to Free Joan Little; Marcia Davis. Speakers: Rodolfo Campos, Chilean imprisoned they are concerned, the stunning National Black Feminist Organization; Meg Hayes, and tortured by junta for a year and a half; Joe described April 17 how visitors meet­ YSA. Fri.. May 2. 8 p.m. 3737 Woodward Ave. Lombardo, USLA. Fri.. May 2, 8 p.m. 1519 Mission ing with North Vietnamese representa­ victories won by the liberation forces Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more St. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For tives "report that the Communists all in Vietnam are an embarrassment that information call (313) 831-6135. more information call (415) 864-9174. stress the desire to take up negotia­ stands in the way of better relations tions provided under the 1973 Paris with Washingt11n. agreements for a coalition council in Despite the Stalinist efforts to ar­ South Vietnam to be followed by range a new compromise in Vietnam, retirement. But despite Kissinger's talk elections. They also report an ex­ this may well prove impossible. The about self-determination, Thieu was pressed reluctance to press for a continuing breakdown of the Saigon ... Vietnam never in doubt about who gave the forceful and complete Communist take­ administration and army may reach Continued from back page orders. over of Saigon." the point where PRG and Hanoi forces Ford's "evacuation" gambit aimed at "Reliable sources disclosed that Public statements by the PRG con­ have no alternative but to march into forcing the opening of negotiations. Thieu's resignation came after U.S. tinually stress its desire to work within Saigon. In addition, independent ac­ The replacement of Thieu was a Ambassador Graham Martin visited the framework of the Paris accords, tions by the masses in Saigon them­ precondition set by Hanoi and the him in the presidential palace late which called for a three-part adminis­ selves may finally put an end to the PRG before they would engage in Saturday night and indicated that he tration composed of representatives puppet regime. negotiations. It was a move that many ought to step down," reported H.D.S. from the Saigon regime, the PRG, and In any case, the task of antiwar analysts in the capitalist press had Greenway and Philip McCombs in the an undefined bloc of "neutralists" forces inside the United States is clear. been clamoring for. But both Senate April 23 Washington Post. acceptable to both sides. Washington must not get the chance to Democratic party leader Mike Mans­ PRG representative Pham Van Ba In the May 1 issue of the New York begin the war anew in order to main­ field and Republican whip Hugh Scott reacted to Thieu's dismissal by de­ Review of Books Jean Lacouture, the tain its beachhead in Indochina. said that the resignation may have manding additional changes in the French scholar and biographer of Ho Not one more bomb, not one more come toq late. Saigon government. He said that the Chi Minh, described the conclusions he soldier, not one more dollar for war in Thieu's departure followed by only a new head of the Saigon regime "is not had drawn from his extensive contacts Indochina! few days Henry Kissinger's remarks to Nguyen Van Thieu but he is his with the PRG and Hanoi. "While it the House International Relations brother." would be rash to predict what the Calendar and classified rates: 75 cents Committee April 18. Kissinger testified Hanoi demanded that Washington victors will do with their victory," said per line of 56-character;,.wide typewrit­ that the Ford administration was withdraw the armada of warships Lacouture, "it is not, I think, naive to ten copy. Display ad rates: $10 per exploring the possibility of negotia­ assembling off the coast of Vietnam, believe they are capable of arranging a column inch ($7 .50 if camera-ready ad tions that could "preserve some ele­ remove its military advisers from the series of compromises, not only in the is enclosed). Payment must be included ments of self-determination" for South country, and "completely end its mili­ towns and villages of central South with ads. The Militant is published each Vietnam. He noted that Washington tary involvement and interference." Vietnam, but around and inside Sai­ week on Friday. Deadlines for ad copy: "supports the government of Viet­ There is general agreement among gcm itself.... Friday, one week preceding publication, nam," not any one individual-an military experts and observers in "All the talks I have had with for classified and display ads; Wednes­ obvious reference to Thieu. Saigon that victory in the thirty-year leading Vietnamese revolutionaries day noon, two days preceding publica­ After t{m years of loyal service to his struggle waged by the Vietnamese is turn on this policy of compromise.... tion, for calendar ads. Telephone: (212) masters in Washington, Thieu was within their grasp. Gen. Frederick "There is much talk now of a 243-6392. understandably bitter over his forced Weyand, the U.S. Army chief of staff, political 'void' in Saigon.... But if it Socialist Directory ARIZONA: Tucson: YSA, c/o Glennon. S.U.P.O. SWP and YSA, P.O. Box 846, Atlanta, Ga. 30301. Labor Bookstore, 25 University Ave. S.E., Mpls., PENNSYLVANIA: Edinboro: YSA, Edinboro State Box 20965, Tucson, Ariz. 85720. Tel: (404) 523-0610. Minn. 55414. Tel: (612) 332-7781. College, Edinboro, Pa. 16412. CALIFORNIA: Berkeley-Oakland: SWP and YSA, ILLINOIS: Champaign: YSA, Room 284 lllini Union, MISSOURI: St. Louis: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, Philadelphia: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Bookstore, 1849 University Ave., Berkeley, Calif. 94703. Tel: Urbana, Ill. 61801. 4660 Maryland, Suite 17, St. Louis, Mo. 63108. 1004 Filbert St (one block north of Market). (415) 548-0354. Chicago: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, 428 S. Tel: (314) 367-2520. Philadelphia, Pa. 19107. Tel: (215) WAS-4316. Los Angeles, Central-East: SWP, YSA, Militant Wabash, Filth Floor, Chicago, Ill. 60605. Tel: NEW JERSEY: New Brunswick: YSA, c/o· Richard Pittsburgh; SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Press, 3400 Fifth Bookstore, 710 S. Westlake Ave., Los Angeles, SWP-(312) 939-0737, YSA-(312) 427-0280, Ariza, 515 S. First Ave., Highland Park, N.J. Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213. Tel: (412) 682-5019. · Calif. 90057. Tel: SWP, Militant Bookstore-(213) Pathfinder Books-(312) 939-0756. 08904. Tel: (210) 828-4710. Shippensburg: YSA, c/o Mark Dressier, Box 214 483-1512, YSA-(213) 483-2581. INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, c/o Student Activities NEW YORK: Albany: YSA. c/o Spencer Livingston, Lackhove Hall, Shippensburg State College, Los Angeles, West Side: SWP and YSA, 230 Desk, Indiana University, B.loomington, Ind. 317 State St., Albany, N.Y. 12210. Shippensburg, Pa. 17257. Broadway, Santa Monica, Calif. 90401. Tel: (213) 47401. Brooklyn: SWP and YSA, 136 Lawrence St. (at State College: YSA, 333 Logan Ave. #401, State 394-9050. Indianapolis: YSA, c/o Carole McKee, 1309 E. Willoughby), Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201. Tel: (212) 596- College, Pa. 16801. Los Angeles: City-wide SWP and YSA, 710 S. West­ Vermont St, Indianapolis, Ind. 46202. Tel: (317) 2849. TENNESSEE: Nashville: YSA, P.O. Box 67, Station lake Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90057. Tel: (213) 637-1105. New York City: City-wide SWP and YSA, 706 B, Nashville, Tenn. 37235. Tel: (615) 383-2583. 483-0357. KANSAS: Lawrence: Y_$A. c/o Christopher Starr, Broadway (4th St.). Eighth Floor, New York, N.Y. TEXAS: Austin: YSA, c/o Arnold Rodriguez, 901 Riverside: YSA, c/o U. of Cal. Campus Activities. 3020 Iowa St., Apt C-14, Lawrence, Kans. 66044. 10003. Tel: (212) 982-4966. Morrow, Apt. 303, Austin, Tex. 78757. 234 Commons, Riverside, Calif. 92507. Tel: (913) 864-3975 or 842-8658. Lower Manhattan: SWP, YSA, and Merit Bookstore. Dallas: YSA, c/o Steve Charles, 3420 Hidalgo #201, Sacramento: YSA, P.O. Box 20669, Sacramento. KENTUCKY: Louisville: YSA, Box 8026, Louisville, 706 Broadway (4th St.), Eighth Floor, New York, Dallas. Tex. 75220. Tel: (214) 352-6031. Calif. 95824. Ky. 40208. N.Y. 10003. Tel: SWP, YSA-(212) 982-6051; Merit Houston: SWP, YSA, and Pathfinder Books, 3311 San Diego: SWP, YSA, and Militant Bookstore, 4635 MARYLAND: Ballimor,e: YSA, P.O. Box 4314, Books (212) 982-5940. Montrose, Houston, Tex. 77006. Tel: (713) 526- El Cajon Blvd., San Diego, Calif. 92115. Tel: (714) Baltimore, Md. 21223. Tel: (301) 247-8911. Upper West Side: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Bookstore, 1082. 280-1292. 2726 Broadway (104th St.), New York, N.Y. San Antonio: YSA, c/o Andy Gonzalez, 2203 W. San Francisco: SWP, YSA, Militant Labor Forum. MASSACHUSETTS: Boston: SWP and YSA, c/o 10025.Tel: (212) 663-3000. Houston, San Antonio, Tex. 78207. and Militant Books, 1519 Mission St., San Militant Labor Forum. 655 Atlantic Ave., Third Ossining: YSA, c/o Scott Cooper, 127-1 S. Highland UTAH: Logan: YSA, P.O. Box 1233, Utah State Francisco. Calif. 94103. Tel: SWP-(415) 431- Floor, Boston, Mass. 02111. Tel: SWP-(617) 482- Ave., Ossining, N.Y. 10562. University, Logan, Utah 84321. 8918; YSA;---(415) 863-2285; Militant Books-(415) 8050, Y.SA-(617) 482-8051; Issues and Activists NORTH CAROLINA: Greenville: YSA, P.O. Box WASHINGTON, D.C.: SWP, YSA, Militant Book­ 864-9174. Speakers' Bureau (IASB) and Regional 1693, Greenville, N.C. 27834. Tel: (919) 752-6439. store, 1345 E St. N.W., Fourth Floor, Wash., D.C. San Jose: YSA, 96 S. 17th St., San Jose, Calif. Committee-(617) 482-8052; Pathfinder Books­ OHIO: Bowling Green: YSA, P.O. Box 27, University . 20004. Tel: SWP-(202) 783-2391; YSA-(202) 95112. Tel: (408) 286-0615. (617) 338-8560. Hall, Bowling Green State University, Bowling 783-2363. -Santa Barbara: YSA, P.O. Box 14606, UCSB, Santa Worcester: YSA, Box 229, Greendale Station, Green, Ohio 45341. WASHINGTON: Bellingham: YSA and Young So­ Barbara, Calif. 93107. Worcester, Mass. 01606. Cincinnati: YSA, c/o C.R. Mitts, P.O. Box 32084, cialist Books, Am. 213, Viking Union, Western MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA. Room 4103, Mich. Cincinnati, Ohio 45232. Tel: (513) 242-9043. Washington State College, Bellingham, Wash. COLORADO: Denver: SWP, YSA, and Militant Union, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. Cleveland: SWP and YSA, 4420 Superior Ave., 98225. Tel: (206) 676-3460. Bookstore, 1203 California, Denver, ColO. 80204. 48104. Tel: (313) 663-8766. Cleveland, Ohio 44103. Tel: SWP-(216) 391- Seattle: SWP, YSA, and Militant Bookstore, 5623 Tel: SWP-(303) 623-2825, YSA-(303) 266-9431. Detroit: SWP, YSA, Eugene V. Debs Hall, 3737 5553. YSA-(216) 391-3278. University Way N.E., Seattle, Wash. 98105. Tel: Greeley: YSA, c/o Barbara Jaeger, .712 15th Ave. Woodward Ave., Detroit, Mich. 48201. Tel: (313) Columbus: YSA, c/o Margaret Van Epp, 670 (206) 522-7800. Court, Greeley, Colo. 80G31. TE1-613S. Cuyahoga Ct., Columbus, Ohio 43210. Tel: (614) WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, 801 E. Eagle Hts., FLORIDA: Tallahassee: YSA, P.O. Box U-6350, East Lansing: YSA, First Floor Student Offices, 268-7860. Madison, Wis. 53705. Tel: (608) 238-6224. Tallahassee, Fla. 32313. Union Bldg.. Michigan State University, East OREGON: Portland: SWP and YSA, 208 S.W. Stark, Milwaukee: SWP, YSA, 207 E. Michigan Ave., Am. GEORGIA: Atlanta: Militant Bookstore, 68 Peach­ Lansing, Mich. 48823. Tel: (517)'-353-0660. Fifth Floor, Portland, Ore. 97204. Tel: (503) 226- 25, Milwaukee, Wis. 53202. Tel: SWP-(414) 289- tree St., N.E., Third Floor, Atlanta, Ga. 30303. MINNESOTA: Minneapolis-St. Paul: SWP, YSA, 2715. 9340, YSA-(414) 289-9380.

30 NEW YORK CITY------... Socialist Campaign HOW THE UNIONS CAN Rally, featuring IGHT BACK Peter Camejo Socialist Workers 1976 presidential candidate AND WIN Willie Mae Reid Socialist Workers 1976 vice-presidential candidate

Also: CLIFTON DE BERRY, victim of FBI harassment in trade-union, civil rights, and socialist movements, and 1964 SWP presidential candidate; NORMAN OLIVER, SWP candidate for mayor of Boston; LINDA JENNESS, SWP 1972 presidential candidate; and GAUDENCIO THIAGO DE MELLO, Brazilian composer and jazz guitarist. Teamster Rebellion SATURDAY, MAY 3rd- 8pm by Farrell Dobbs. "Most readers will be fascinated with this Followed by a cabaret with live band and refreshments. At Eisner Lubin insider's vivid account of these strikes which captured the at­ Auditorium, New York University's South Lobby, W. Fourth St. & LaGuardia. Donation: $3 (high school students: $1.50). Ausp: Lower Manhattan Socialist tention of the nation and significantly influenced the course Workers Campaign Committee. Officers: Stephen Pite, president; Deborah of American working class history."- The Minneapolis Tribune. Woodroofe, vice-president; Barbara Peterson, secretary-treasurer. For A "clear explication of the method used to mobilize strikers more information call (212) 982-4966. and allies, the dynamics of the changing union tactics, and descriptions of the attitudes of the rank and file and their opponents at various junctures."- Labor History. 192 pp., $6.95, paper $2.45 Black Teamster Power Liberation Classified by Farrell Dobbs. "Dobbs' Trotskyist views pervade this book LATIN AMERICA. Books in Spanish from as they did his thinking in the 1930s, when he was widely Mexico, South America, and Puerto Rico respected as an expert union strategist and negotiator. His stocked in this country. Free catalog in and socialism capabilities are reflected in his writing, which is character­ Edited by Tony Thomas; $9, paper English. Armadillo Press, Box 8004, Dept. M, Austin, Texas 78712. $2.45 ized by a sensitivity to the dynamics of class conflict. Teamster Power is a vivid and persuasive book."- Labor History. Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. 256 pp., $8.95, paper $2.95 American Labor Struggles by Samuel Yellen. Recaptured here are ten major confronta· tions between laboring men and women and the owners Coming in the May 5 of America's mines, mills, railroads, and ships-from the rail­ road uprisings of 1877 to the 1934 San Francisco general Intercontinental Press strike. 416 pp., paper $3.95

• "On A.I. Solzhenitsyn's Letter." with a Trotskyist Portuguese soldier in Dissident Soviet historian Roy Medve­ Lisbon. Labor's Giant Step: dev's contribution to the debate over Put them both on your list for must Solzhenitsyn's letter to the Kremlin lead­ reading. ers. Twenty Years of the CIO For a copy send $. 75 to Intercontinen­ by Art Preis. A comprehensive history of working class mili­ • "How Committees Were Set Up in tal Press, P.O. Box 116, Village Station, tancy and the rise of industrial unionism in the United States. Portugal's Armed Forces." An interview New York, New York 10014. 538 pp., $14.00, paper $3.95

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THE MILITANT/MAY 2, 1975 31 THE MILITANT 'Evacuation'· a gretext • I By David Frankel jobs, schools are being closed, and '• April 24-As the Militant. goes to Congress is complaining of the lack of press, both the Senate and the House money for social welfare programs. of Representatives have passed bills Furthermore, once American combat authorizing the use of U.S. troops to forces are again introduced in Viet­ evacuate an unspecified ·number of nam, there is a serious possibility of South Vietnamese and Americans renewed escalation of the fighting and from Vietnam. Thousands of U.S. killing. Marines and an armada of warships "The Pentagon is seriously exploring are already poised off the coast of the use of direct air strikes and ground South Vietnam. military action if necessary to protect This evacuation is a pretext, a American evacuees," wrote Guy Hal­ hypocritical maneuver. The purpose is verson and Godfrey Sperling, Jr., in not to save lives; it is to try to force the the April23 Christian Science Monitor. Vietnamese to accept a settlement Specially equipped F-4 Phantom jets short of complete victory over Wash­ have already been rushed from Okina­ ington's puppet regime in Saigon. wa to Thailand for possible use The Democratic "doves," after against North Vietnamese and Provi­ swearing up and down that they would sional Revolutionary Government never vote another cent for war in (PRG) troops, and the U.S. military Vietnam or send another GI there, buildup off the Vietnamese coast is h&ve shown where they really stand. continuing. ~ "veto-proof' Congress obediently lined up for one last try at salvaging According to Halverson and Sperl­ an imperialist foothold in Vietnam. ing, "Some Pentagon officials ... are· The meaning of their vote was clear. troubled that a limited use of troops In a CBS television interview April 21, could in fact spark a larger 'military Ford himself insisted that if the Viet­ operation,' since the Marines would namese offered any resistance to the presumably be given authority to use Pentagon's plans, it would necessitate whatever force was necessary in their a !''sizable military involvement" of landing operations.... American troops "on a short-term "But given a collapse, and a trap­ basis."· ping of U.S. citizens in Saigon, that is · U.S. Marines in Hawaii preparing for Vietnam intervention The American people have repeated­ a risk that the Pentagon appears ly made clear their opposition to any prepared to take." further military adventures in Viet­ ·Ford would doubtless like to do However, Ford knows that the politi­ South Vietnam's political evolution nam. An outcry of protest is needed something along the lines of the recent cal consequences of such a move would exists, and can even claim some degree from the labor movement, the unem­ proposal by Walt Rostow-one of the be explosive in the United States. His of legitimacy, since all sides put their ployed, student~, and others, demand­ architects of the Vietnam War under hope is that some judicious threats will signatures to it in Paris.... ing loud and clear that Washington get Kennedy and Johnson. Rostow sug­ force the PRG and Hanoi to the "It gives what is left of non­ out of Vietnam and stay out! The gested that Washington "put ashore negotiating table. Communist Vietnam the last possible appropriation of huge sums whose real two marine divisions at some strategic Pointing to the 1973 Vietnam ac­ hope of avoiding a total political col­ purpose is to prolong the agony of the point in North Vietnam and with them cords, signed after the brutal Christ­ lapse." Vietnamese people is particularly ob­ hold a perimeter until the North mas bombing campaign by the United The Times, along with the bulk of scene at a time when government Vietnamese agree to honor the 1973 States, the New York Times claimed in the ruling class, has solidly backed workers are being laid off of their accords." its April 14 editorial: "A blueprint for Continued on page 31 Bicentennial protest: 'No more war!' By Maurice Baker notable exception. At the foot of the "Not one penny for Thieu or any months, though, the State Department CONCORD, Mass.-They stood, Old North Bridge, where all the dem­ other puppet government in Saigon! representatives refused to come any 25,000 strong, on the Concord side of onstrators had to pass to reach the "No U.S. troqps to Southeast Asia!" more. Their reasons for U.S. interven­ the Old North Bridge. Two hundred rally site, stood a large banner that Several thousand of the participants tion could not stand up; their defenses years earlier, on April 18, 1775, a read, "200 Years of Capitalism is in the People's Bicentennial stayed to for war were hollow." militia of American revolutionaries Enough!" make their voices heard when Presi­ Stepha-nie Coontz of the Socialist had battled and defeated British troops Under the banner was a literature dent Ford spoke later. His speech was Workers party, a longtime antiwar at the very same site. The great bulk of table staffed by campaign supporters often broken by chants of "No more activist at the University of Washing- the young crowd had walked several of the Socialist Workers party. The war!'~ It was fitting that Ford spoke . ton, stressed the need for ongoing miles (police had closed all access by socialist campaigners were selling from the Le:X:ington side of the Old actions against any further U.S. in­ car) to reach the rally· site of the revolutionary books and pamphlets, North Bridge.:...the side the British volvement in Indochina. "We have to People's Bicentennial. and the Militant and Young Socialist troops stood on 200 years ago. make sure that our rulers are afraid to "What do we want?" Anita Bond, of newspapers. Despite the pouring rain step outside this country," she said. the National Union of Hospital_ and they distributed thousands of copies of Do Van Du, a Vietnamese student, Health Care Employ~es, asked the the ·"Bill of Rights for Working Peo­ said, "The refugees flee the fighting demonstrators. "Jobs," the crowd ple." SEATTLE-More than 1,100 persons and the bombing, but now I hope my roared back. One piece of literature that the jammed into a ballroom and spilled family remained in Hue. They will be Bond denounced the willingness of socialists were handing out was a into the halls. at the University of better off." the government to spend billions on statement by Norman Oliver, Socialist Washington here at an April16 teach­ war while refusing to meet the needs of Workers party candidate for mayor of in against the war in Vietnam. For Concluding the panel of speakers the unemployed. Boston, on the situation in Southeast many it was their first exposure to this was Stan Neilson, a former Marine Other speakers at the rally included Asia. form of protest activity. They ap­ Corps helicopter pilot, who summed up Barry Commoner, Florence Luscomb Oliver warned that Ford "is now plauded the antiwar speakers fervent­ the feelings of all in attendance when of the Women's International League fishing for an excuse to send troops ly. he told the crowd: "I think we should for Peace and Freedom, and Jerry into Vietnam again. To prevent the Professor Giovanni Costigan told the get out of Vietnam right now. More Rifkin of the. People's Bicentennial ·maneuvers that are certain to be crowd that in early 1965, "representa­ people are going to die if we don't." Commission. coming from Washington, we must tives of the government were more Also speaking at the teach-in were Although very few participants in maintain our vigilance. Our independ­ than happy to present the State Professor Daniel Lev, and Merlin the spirited bicentennial protest car­ ent actions must continue to demand Department's side of the story at the Rainwater of the American Friends ried signs or banners, there was one clearly: rallies and teach-ins. After around six Service Committee.