Dossier Class Struggle and Repression in Volta Redonda, Brazil
Police intervene against striking municipal workers in Volta Redonda, Brazil during nationwide general strike, 21 June 1996. Cops, Courts Out ofth11 Unions
An Internationalist Group pamphlet February 1997 $2 2
Volta Redonda, Brazil, November 1988: Army attacked striking steel workers. Three strikers were killed. Introduction
The battle waged in the city of Volta Redonda, Brazil over that swept through Brazil's industrial centers, ultimately lead the last year-to remove police from the municipal workers ing to the downfall of the military dictatorship that ruled the union, to fight racist discrimination and to defend class-struggle country from 1964 to 1985. (During the dictatorship Volta union militants from an onslaught oflegal repression-has im Redonda was a "national security zone" due to the importance portant lessons for the workers movement internationally. The of the steel plant.) When steel workers struck in I 988, the gov Internationalist Group is publishing this bulletin to bring to the ernment sent the army to occupy the city. The killing of three attention of the working-class and socialist public this impor strikers-William, Valmir and Barroso-by army troops became tant fight led by our fraternal comrades of the Liga Quarta a symbol ofanti-labor repression in the "new, democratic" Bra Internacionalista do Brasil (LQB-Fourth Internationalist League zil. It was as leaders and activists in these strikes that a largely of Brazil). black nucleus of militants came together in opposition to the This struggle takes place in Brazil's cidade do afo (steel steel union bureaucracy and capitalist politicians, forming the city), the site of the largest steel plant in Latin America. The Lu ta Metalurgica (LM-Metal Workers Struggle) group, the pre city of 220,000 inhabitants is located 60 miles from Rio de cursor of the LQB. Janeiro, and is part ofthe state ofthe same name. Volta Redonda The mass strikes of the early 1980s gave rise to the Work has always been a company town. It was created during World ers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores-PT) of Luis Inacio Lula War II when the huge Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN da Silva, closely linked to the CUT labor federation. Several National Steel Company) factory was built with U.S. aid under of the militants who formed Luta Metalurgica played lead the military-populist regime of Getulio Vargas. During the ing roles in PT branches in Volta Redonda and the neighbor 1980s, CSN employed some 30,000 workers. As a result of the ing city of Barra Mansa. As the rightward-moving refo1mist cutbacks in state-owned industries and privatization policies PT geared up for the 1989 elections, it formed a "popular instigated by the International Monetary Fund and carried out front," a class-collaborationist coalition with several petty by successive Brazilian governments, the work force has been bourgeois and minor bourgeois parties behind Lula's presi slashed to some 16,000 workers today. Yet even after the dras dential candidacy. The Luta Metalurgica comrades were tic layoffs, it remains one of the largest proletarian concentra purged by the PT leadership for opposing the formation of tions on the continent. the Frente Brasil Popular. The first targets of the wide-rang In the the early I 980s, Volta Redonda steel workers waged ing anti-red purge carried out by the PT during that period, mass, illegal strikes as part of the wave of working-class unrest continued on page 2 5 For further information, contact: The Internationalist Group, Box 3321, Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008, U.S.A. Tel. (212) 460-0983 Fax (212) 614-8711 E-mail [email protected] 3 Dossier Class.. Struggle and Repression 1n• Volta Redonda, Brazil
GESTAO ~ · ~ ... MUNICl!PaRIOS'~~~1 @ A"tTh~ f1 mmlPAA Pela lnde~~1s de c1ssse l'Jiffeti!/ IY tr/ fJkI V /!J ~ dos ltabalhadores
------28 Dl!JUHHO 081998 Mobiliza~io Jil!!! FRA~AO DE ARTUR, FRENTE POPULAR; PM E GUARDAS MUNICIPAIS TENTAM CASSAR GERALDO E DESTRUIR 0 SFPMVR • Diario do Vale Municipal union leader Geraldo Ribeiro addresses 4July1996 rally. Inset: union bulletin calls for "Mobilization Now!" against attempt by popular front, police and their puppet to oust Ribeiro and destroy the union. Cops, Courts Out of the Unions!
For over a year, anti-racist trade unionists and the Liga Quarta-Intemacionalista do Brasil (LQB-Fourth Trotskyist activists in Volta Redonda-Brazil's "steel Internationalist League of Brazil). city," in the state of Rio de Janeiro-have faced a repres A key element in this defense campaign has been sive vendetta from the city government, courts and po the support of unions and defenders of labor rights in lice. The Internationalist Group has published materials ternationally, from South Africa to El Salvador, who have on the defense campaign against this repression, in The spoken out for the Volta Redonda militants. Some of the Internationalist No. I (January-February 1997) and else protest statements received are reproduced later in this where. To supplement these, we have put together this bulletin. Mobilization of the workers in Volta Redonda, dossier in conjunction with our fraternal comrades of together with international solidarity, has produced some 4
offs of 2,800 municipal employ ees. Today the threat of mass lay offs is again being raised by tht'. city, in line with the austerity and privatization measures promoted by Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the Inter national Monetary Fund (IMF). In November 1995, SFPMVR activist Geraldo Ribeiro ran for president of the union at the head of the Municiparios em Luta (MEL Municipal Workers in Struggle) slate, whose program called for "proletarian opposition to the popular front," stating that "the ·struggle to build a revolutionary workers party is more than ever on the order of the day." The pro gram also stressed that all levels Luta Metalurgica of the am1ed forces and police, Luta Metalurgica and Municipal Workers Union initiated united-front protest including the military police and in Volta Redonda, August 1995, demanding freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal, municipal guardas, are "all of radical black journalist on death row in Pennsylvania. them, the armed fist of the bourgeoisie," and that any "alli important partial victories: charges have been dropped ance" with them is incompatible with class independence, or dismissed in several of the court cases against the "since they bring men armed and trained by the bour union activists. Meanwhile, municipal police (guardas), geois state into the unions." Running against a candi some of whom were affiliated to the Volta Redonda date backed by the city administration and the pro-com Municipal Workers Union (SFPMVR), were disaffili pany labor federation For9a Sindical, Ribeiro won the ated from the union by a membership vote as the result election with 62 percent of the votes. of a determined Class-struggle campaign. Working together with Luta Metalurgica (Metal This dossier tells the story of this important battle Workers Struggle, the predecessor of the LQB), Ribeiro for the class independence of the workers. As the Rus took a strong stand against what in the U.S. would be sian Bolshevik leader and founder of the Fourth Interna called business unionism. Calling for "Workers Mobili tional Leon Trotsky wrote in 1940, the primary slogan zations to Defeat the Hunger Plan of Cardoso and the ofrevolutionaries in the trade unions must be "complete IMF " a December 1995 MEL leaflet declared "The ' and unconditional independence of the trade unions in Popular Front Endangers the Workers," and stressed: "It relation to the capitalist state," and that together with is necessary to mobilize the working class (whites, the fight for trade-union democracy, this requires the blacks, mulattos, of all ethnic groups) in action against forging of a revolutionary leadership. the massacres of street children and the murder of activ The repression in Volta Redonda has targeted lead ists, for workers' self-defense, against the oppression of ing activists of the municipal workers union who have homosexuals and the massacre of Indians." When Luta been won to the revolutionary program of the LQB over Metalurgica brought the campaign to free black Ameri the past period. The SFPMVR, which is affiliated to the can death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal to Brazil, CUT labor federation, has waged seven strikes in recent Ribeiro was the union's speaker at an August 1995 Volta years. Going up against the city administration of the Redonda rally for Jamal co-sponsored by Luta Popular Front-a coalition of the reformist Workers Party Metalurgica and the SFPMVR. (PT) with the bourgeois-populist Brazilian Socialist Party During the union election campaign in late 1995, and others-these strikes put a stop to the planned lay- city officials sent the Military Police after Ribeiro and 5
Luta Metalurgica/LQB leader Cerezo and fined them for the Frente Brasil Popular in the 1994 presidential elections. painting campaign slogans on a wal I in the city center. The witchhunt was then taken up by Artur Fernandes, secre Diario do Vale ( 19 October 1995), the Volta Redonda tary of the SFPMVR, who received backing and advice_ daily newspaper and mouthpiece of the steel bosses, from the Liga Bolchevique Intemacionalista, a split-off from published a front-page photo and article on this incident. C.O., at the same time as he proclaimed that he was receiv After Ribeiro overwhelmingly won the union election, ing "orientation" from the police. Fernandes attempted to the Popular front city, administration joined with the carry out a coup against Ribeiro, acting as an instrument of outgoing union president in trying to block him from the city bosses in attempting to strangle class-struggle poli taking office. When he was finally able to take office in tics within the union. Fernandes' coup faction distributed a December, as a result of a determined struggle by the leaflet provocatively calling to "defend the guardas" at a ranks, Ribeiro undertook efforts to disaffiliate the munici March 13 union meeting. pal guardas from the SFPMVR. At the meeting, the pro-cop faction sought to provoke In late January 1996, a sinister slander campaign was a brawl by grabbing Ribeiro, whom the workers elected to launched against Ribeiro and Cerezo, who had been an chair the meeting. When the workers defended him, the advisor to Ribeiro's campaign. The smears were published pro-police faction immediately called the Military Police in the local press, which picked them up from Causa in to "restrain the radicals of Luta Metalurgica." Of the Operaria (C.0.-Workers Cause), a group which supported squad of Military Police who invaded the meeting, two Sindicalistas pichalll tapullle e silo lllUltados · · . · · ·Carlos Caldelra
i'ic:/1afiio: Geraldo (segund,o a, e~quer.da) e Cerezo (.regu11do ci ·Jireilu} p~ci1am tampume da p1:efcitura . Diario do Vale (19 October 1995) blares: "Unionists Fined for Painting Graffiti." 6
build support for disaffiliating the cops. OMERVEM A OPINIAQ DE GERALDO EM RELA«;AO A GUARDA MUNICIPAL E VIGIAS. A union buIJetin of May 6 reported on a 6 QUESTAO MILITAR a.m. meeting of garage workers: "The Rank and File Is Deciding: Po At Forfas N-115 olldaill ao IM~~ - • dMle ...... ,,.. de qMlqwr.J«ledsdc lice Out of the Union; Reaffirmation of e• lochM DI ptt._m q11e • -•tut. No~ -tc1ol plblllUe: h«nl lcckt:lto • ....n• . the Municiparios em Luta Program! ... A • c po1lcla rc.lmiU; e.t.lal IJ'ClllN """"'" [PARBCER DO TAL PROORAMA QUB meeting of the [municipal] garage work ers voted unanimously: The police should Geraldo quer claramcotc excluir oa Ouardu Municipais e vigias. do movimcnto Sindical, discriminando 01 DlellllOI como seodo BRA~OS not be part of, and should not interfere ARMADOS DOS PA. TR6ES, aJegando que e inoompatfvel a alian? dos Guardaa with, the SFPMVR or the workers move Municipais e Vigias com MUNICIPARIOS EM LtJTA deixa daro a int~o de deafiliar do Sindicato todos os Guard.as Municipaia e Vigjas.· Deixando-os scm ment in general. Because they are the instru Ulist&cia pollti~ Juri~ca e etc. (ou scja qualquer 8$8ist&lda do SinCticato). ment and armed fist of the bourgeoisie." 0 autoritirio Presidente sequc:t rcapeita ·o Diretor da. Excwtiva do The bulletin also emphasized the class DODO Sindicato, que e mcmbro desta clUIO. Dcsprezando tambem dois guardas struggle program "which defends workers'
Pdr olle motivo ~mpanheiros os Dirctorcs que de6nitivameote olo class independence; women, their rights and concordam com Cite AUfOitITAIUSMQ lindk:a1 CONVOCAM A TODOS gains; blacks; children; socialism and the PARA JUNTOS DEPl:NDERMOS A GUARDA EM NOSSA ASSEMBLtL\.. construction of a Revolutionary Workers DIA 13 • 0-rta-l'eira Party which fights to put an end to capi Attacking Ribeiro's program for stating cops are "armed fist of the talism; for proletarian opposition to the bourgeoisie," leaflet by Artur Fernandes provocatively calls to Popular Front and for workers mobilizations "defend the guardas" at 13 March 1996 union meeting. Called by to defeat the starvation plan, firings and Fernandes & Co., Military Police invaded meeting. misery of FHC [Brazilian president were brandishing shotguns. Later, three municipal guardas Fernando Henrique Cardoso] and the IMF!" also arrived, and a number of plainclothes police were also present at the assembly. Everything points to this provoca tion having been carefully prepared in advance in order to provoke a "confrontation with the police," something the class-struggle militants sought to avoid. Ribeiro succeeded , • , • • • SOllDARIEDADE in preventing a clash and nobody was hurt. Po I1c1a: e parte ou 1n1m11a 1•t11HAc1o•AL
In response to the police invasion of the March 13 do movimento opercirio"? MOVIMDRO=::=::: Clft'RAl10 union meeting, an international campaign was launched, demanding: Police Hands Off the SFPMVR. This cam paign, originally begun by the Partisan Defense Com mittee in the United States, gained support from unions from Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Canada to Europe, Australia, South Africa and Japan. Defenders of the oppressed such as Esteban Volkov (grandson of Leon Trotsky), Mumia Abu-Jamal and others also spoke out against the cop invasion. Ribeiro, together with other LQB supporters, answered the provocations and repression by intensifying the work of mobilizing and increasing the consciousness ofthe union ranks concerning the role of the police and the need to dis affiliate the guardas from the SFPMVR. This effort in cluded the publication of thousands of bulletins featuring Mumia Abu-Jamal's article on the campaign, titled "Po lice: Part of, or Enemies of, Labor?" The large print run of this bulletin (10,000 copies) was one of the pretexts later Union bulletin (11 April 1996) features Mumia Abu used by the courts for intervening in the union and sus Jamal's article, "Police: Part of, or Enemies of, pending Ribeiro from his elected post. Labor?"Volta Redonda court later used this bulletin The class-struggle union leaders steadily worked to as pretext to remove elected union president. 7
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Workers Vanguard Solidarity statements from around the world protest cop invasion of 13 March 1996 union meeting.
Calling to "do as the garage brothers did," a sched suspended Ribeiro from his elected post and installed ule was published for elections of workplace delegates Fernandes as front man for the court intervention. This to a union conference that would organize a vote on dis came on top of an earlier legal action against Ribeiro by affiliation of the police. Diorio do Vale ( 17 May 1996) the commander of the police, Lt. Freitas, who accused reported that in early June, "the union will hold a con him of slander and defamation. In yet another case, the ference where it will discuss the removal of the guardas city government has charged him with defamation over from its membership, Geraldo Ribeiro said yesterday." the union campaign against the racist firing of a black Meanwhile, desperate to deflect the growing support for woman worker, Regina Celia. Under the 1967 censor the campaign to remove police from the union, the sinis ship law inherited from the military dictatorship that ruled ter pro-cop faction leader Fernandes triggered several Brazil for over two decades (1964-1985), Ribeiro could days oflurid headlines and threats of police action against face up to four years in jail on this charge. Luta Metalurgica by trying to implicate LM in an imagi Meanwhile, the SFPMVR militants together with the nary "attack" on him, even claiming to have been grazed LQB/LM took the lead in carrying out strike actions in by a shot although no wound was ever shown. Volta Redonda as part of a nationwide general strike on The union conference was held on June 13, and a 21 June 1996. When union activist and LQB supporter motion was overwhelmingly passed calling for the ouster Marcello Carega led 150 workers in shutting down the of the guardas. On June 19 a general union assembly municipal garage, a Military Police officer fired his shot was called to discuss the SFPMVR's campaigns and carry gun in the air and ordered the arrest of Carega, who was out the disaffiliation of the cops. For the second time, charged with "disobedience" for refusing to move the the cops invaded the union meeting, which was attended van blocking the entrance. by some 200 workers. On orders from Volta Redonda's In fighting for the removal of the police from the mayor, 15 guardas sealed offthe entrances and proceeded municipal workers union, the class-struggle activists to enforce a court injunction shutting down the meeting linked this struggle to the fight against racial oppression as union president Ribeiro was reading the resolution and cop terror throughout Brazilian society. Union bul for disaffiliation of the guardas. Ringleaders of the pro letins recalled the military repression of the national oil cop grouping physically attacked Ribeiro and a woman workers strike in 1995, as well as massacres of landless executive board member, Maria do Carmo Paes. peasants in Eldorado and Rondonia. They particularly The judicial offensive now went into high gear. A highlighted the case of Ernane da Silva Lucio, a 12-year week after the June 19 meeting, a Volta Redonda judge old black child murdered in Volta Redonda by a munici- 8
El Diario/La Prensa Brazilian workers, peasants carry out general strike, 21 June 1996. LOB led strike in Volta Redonda, while opposing alliance of CUT labor federation and the left with representatives of capital. pal guarda in October 1995. As a result of this denuncia cop faction had formally desisted from the frame-up charges tion, the Rio de Janeiro newspaper 0 Dia published a they brought against Ribeiro. The courts have been delib full-page report on the murder of Ernane, as well as on erating on whether to drop the case, even though they have the brutal repression against street children. no juridical basis on which to continue it. In the case against In the face of the offensive by the city administra Marcello Carega on the charge of disobedience for his role tion, courts and cops seeking to break the union, Ribeiro in leading municipal workers during the 21 June 1996 gen and other class-struggle activists defied the court inter eral strike, the courts have decided that he would not face vention by calling a union assembly, through circulating jail time. A judge has issued a finding against the trumped a petition signed by close to 300 union members. The up charges brought against Ribeiro last spring by munici meeting was held on July 25, voting to reaffirm Ribeiro pal guarda commander Freitas (although the latter has not as union president and to disaffiliate the municipal told the court that he will desist from pursuing this case). guardas from the SFPMVR. The guardas have since then Yet despite the initial victories, the repression set up their own "association" with the backing of po launched by the Volta Redonda bosses has by no means lice commander Freitas. come to an end. The city's slander case against Ribeiro In response to the escalation of repression in June continues. Meanwhile, members of Fernandes' coterie and July 1996, the Internationalist Group and the LQB physically attacked Ribeiro and Carega at a recent union redoubled the campaign for solidarity with the Brazilian meeting, seeking to provoke new legal charges against anti-racist trade unionists. Unions from South Africa to them. The class-struggle militants demand that the Europe, El Salvador and the Un ited States sent state bosses' courts and cops get their hands off the Munici ments of solidarity and protest (see pages 22-23). pal Workers Union and the labor movement as a whole! The mobilizations of the union ranks together with the defense campaign and international solidarity have achieved At the end of this dossier we reprint a letter from some partial victories. On 3 December 1996, the legal pre Geraldo Ribeiro and Marcello Carega thanking text for the court intervention in the union was withdrawn those who came to their defense and reporting on when the city government gazette announced that the pro- developments in this fight. 9 A Class-Struggle Fight for Cops Out of the Unions
The struggle led by supporters ofthe Liga Quarta-Inter port any candidates of the Frente Brasil Popular led by nacionalista dp Brasil in the Volta Redonda Municipal Luis Inacio Lula da Silva's Workers Party (PT), warn Workers Union to remove police from the labor movement ing that this class-collaborationist coalition was a trap has lessons for all those who fight for the independence of for the workers. And while the bulk of the left turned a the working class from the capitalist state. To our knowl blind eye to the oppression of blacks and women, LM edge, this is the first time such a fight has been waged in insisted that the fight against this oppression is key to Latin America. Many self-proclaimed "socialist" groups class-struggle politics in Brazil. in fact support the presence of the cops inside the unions, pretending that these armed enforcers of bourgeois rule are PM prende ativista just "workers in uniform." This reformist policy can be I iterally suicidal, as Leon Trotsky pointed out over Ger many in the early 1930s, where the Social Democrats sindical durante banked on the Prussian police as a supposed bulwark against manifesta~ao no Aero Hitler's Nazis. Trotsky warned: Carlos Menandr .: ~· ·.·· .. · :=~ .. . . . "The fact that the police was originally recruited in large numbers from among Social Democratic workers is abso: lutely meaningless. Consciousness is determined by envi ronment even in this instance. The worker who becomes a policeman in the service of the capitalist state, is a bour geois cop, not a worker." The LQB cited this quotation from Trotsky in an article in its newspaper, Vanguarda Operaria (Workers Vanguard), on the struggle to oust the cops from the union. (A translation of this article is printed in The In ternationalist No. 1, January-February 1997.) In a leaf let on the police invasion of the 13 March 1996 munici pal workers union meeting, they wrote: "The job of the police is to break strikes and carry out racist attacks, which are the daily reality of capitalist 'law and order' in Brazil." They stressed: "The military police are noto rious for the racist murder of hundreds of street chil dren, most of them black, in the state of. Rio de Janeiro, the disappearance of black trade unionist Rufino and the murder of various other leftists. In the Volta Redonda area, from January to August 1991, at least 113 children were killed by military police (0 Globo, 13 September 1991 ), and municipal guardas are suspected of involve ment in those murders." The courageous defense of Marxist principles by the LQB/LM has earned it the bitter enmity of the bourgeoi sie. Luta Metalurgica was originally constituted by work ers in the giant Volta Redonda steel plant, the largest in Latin America, where they fought against pro-company Diario do Vale (22-23 June 1996) reports: "Military union misleaders, the privatization of this formerly state Police Seize Union Activist During Demonstration in owned plant, and the Popular Front city administration Aero" (area where municipal garage is located). In which has done the steel bosses' bidding. In the October photo, Marcello Carega shows handcuff marks from 1994 Brazilian national elections, LM refused to sup- arrest during general strike. 10
'Municiparios em Luta' which precludes municipal guardas being part of the union .... "Cerezo justified this by saying, 'The Municipal Guard defends the capitalist state, as do the Armed Forces'. " The article (shown on page 19 of this dossier) noted that police commander Freitas was one of the military Comandante DA officers who commanded the federal troops who invaded AS B~ES l?STAO GUARDABA FRA\AO DE ARTUR the National Steel Company plant in Volta Redonda dur ATAC.AM 0 SFPMVR: DECIDINDO: ing the bitter 1988 strike, in which soldiers killed three POLlCIA FORA DO SINDICATO; l'flm•tro IOI o dum1do qut a ~io de Artur ,... ,.... •• paBd.111 strikers. "The former military officer has undertaken a REAFIRMAC\O DO PROGRAMA ..i....,. • uoccnhtElt do dla H/IHI 96, • qut IOI c.... .i.ntdo ao rcdor do MUNICIPARIOS EM LUTAJ ...... ptnha fnlen!M:lonal court action against the union, which will be sued for q"" 8zemos • que todot os dlM rttt Scgunda fclra de homo1 10Hdatlrdtde. I Y .PREZ.WO I ~ lHLiVCO IH OE'irio llflI\lCJRiRIOS Elf LDTA 2 • DE CO/''i'fii'lliR.'1 1>£Sllll NOtt:1 f'(J.JJE. EM nEZEU· AA;.fJ.1.w~· JtR0/.1E /WJJ. ;\;fO,WRFUAMOS lhff J ~ OlUJ~tVlbl .S1L1Rltf.:. .!NS1~Vl'E SEQUJ;'R DOS COlfl'BO· MISSOS Qf./E A\'.5Wfl-tta5 EM NtJ~\ 1iJIVTS SO l'/((J(;/fA,-llA BJ l1J(s' NiO t RiCIL COl\S11'UIR lM SIM»· Ciro Oli l(!J;.1s_ h:NflfE'VEtlJIOS .R1(;7)t 0 MV11VS OMLiCULO..t,, M1J ESHMOS [)J COJl!SS..10 DE CU1/~'IN!l1 Dl?ltROTAAV(J O~ fNlM!C:l.1S IM t'.LU· SA!ARHl SE (Jl'l'Jl..WA, ilOll('.i SIM>ff.::,ll .. fflE~V Tlf l'f.JI'f.1AN. 0 PElRGt'ISUO R A 4 - QUESlt)ES Al'>.lf.l:VISTRA 17V1S Above: Brochure for 13 June 1996 union conference with delegates elected in work-site meetings. Under agenda point 7, the conference overwhelmingly voted for ouster of municipal guards from union. Below: June 17 union bulletin built for general assembly two days later, and reported: "The Campaign for 'Cops Hands Off the SFPMVR' Is Growing:' OFENSWA OIPITAIJSTA - EA CRISE l DE DIRE(:,10 :\ ~k~~ &:. ~gk>blif?.1\!~> "..td ~''""Jm?:i 1'fS Uri~ :t;t j.XSJ PiR)l'Ml < u-rM. :.?fa~fo~, Js:pcntlt k um tnll• janm.rl<-ref<_.,.m:in. ff. um r"l~ffs do Jlftptt!~~·• ~.R p:ir~ lirr ttt¥t:c ht~<; JJtt~~t.a: ttudXm: m~" a 1 ~ P'°'farm:it tm:l:~:t. thrt~ :t t.c.'~t~ p:•u -0- l',.it:£ int.~'~"J1~n:d. mOO ==~:!.;.:.::::.':"r.o::::.:=~""C" A ~ •aon tllo pode mai5 JlO!lllt de 11111- CC!lte~ quo aoontece!I mcsmo o ".ietndo"• ~:=:.-::..~..::.~"";~.;... m ______~-:.:..~~~~;i:..~ Artur m Qll8l a anm que "Motoninho"elta -----~-""---"~"" usando?1? Teri o memno calibre que 1 dll •111e11- dado"??? Artul' colocoll 11m1 am18 em CUM da ?'I'___ .... )· mmt. exicindo que Motoninlm tamWm lizene ~ ~=::::-:_. o mesmo dentro e font do Sindicltto. Pot que m =~~'··~""~c•. ~.,.~=====~====""""'~""...""'.::-===+mO~l!S1ll;;;:;;;;:vllll;,;;;;,e;:,;kls,,lnlllUdo;;m;:;;;;;;,;??'>;,,,. ===""""""'{;~:~ {~?~:$~;:=;: ·:~:~t;:~:;:~~~:~~f=?:~:wHtfnVi~:Jmmt~~~j~ HMVi~=~:;n;~ :;:far:n;;:;$./\}~:~~:~{:;:;:;:::·:;:• t~ Hth!~t~~tM:~::hK~M~~~~i~f:~;~f~:-ttHMtf:tlt;~:fa:;~B==~=lfm~~:~~~;~i~ J~i~UdffJt:~ 12 to shut down the meeting where "Geraldo read the resolution from the First Seminario, among the main points of which is: To disaffiliate the municipal Peta lndepend'11cia de classe dos trabalhadores guards from the SFPMVR, because they t~ OE JONHO OE 199$ are not part of the working class." Stress ing the repression by municipal guards Resolu~ao aprovada no against the June 21 nationwide general 12 Seminario dos scrvidores municipais de strike, it notes "for the 'blind people' who Volta Redonda, sobre a fra~ao de Artur do not want to see, this is one more les son: police (any kind of police) are not part A J"'lllkll cle ~!kl de dmo dft l:XFOSICAO llti MO'tlVUS: W:t~iM .,.,.,__,....,.,;""'"""l•--ds• rll!i(t1o11haliati~, f11t1t1n levadas a-~· FRlft ~ul~• ¢Dl!fll.01J e •""""'reu ~ Cll· of the workers movement." A subsequent Vn!kp11titn« I~. ""'~.,..i;del'f• 1nama~ dcpois \"l:• ~!'..L ::1.:..:~'>llf.»<..t«fi>L>f _,_p_~ lence in memory of Ernane da Silva Ll1cio, iii the meeting voted the "disaffiliation of the Entftt na um~~-~·~;·~~-;·;;; r :~=~:r;iA~~~-~~;=-~~ J municipal guardas from the SFPMVR," re ~:~==t~::~•ll:tlx~-f.u:hi:H~ ~T~ :"I m< been manipulated and withheld in order to pay the city's debt while the city stalls on paying municipal workers. In Sindicato dos Funcionm Publ'lcos do Mun~ipio de Volta Redonda dos poileres eucuttvo, leglslatlvo, admtnistra4jio dlre11, lndireta, fact, on November 14, 0 Globo reported that Cardoso is autarqulas, fUnda~6es e empma de economla mlsta. (S.F.P.M.V.R.) putting forward a decree blocking the payment of union CGC: ~U47.7l(ll)(l01-34 • 1•~ !0243) 'l.JJllO. fund&do.,,, 2' de dez•m~ro de 119' ists' wages to state employees and workers in the public services sector, broadening the blow he aimed against the WIT.41 pi: C'ONVOCA.C.lo oil workers in order to liquidate their strike in 1995. ili aMOCil!dos do Smdic11to d A~~.£..,71-'c:il,,,. ll4tlf.Li~A~ ,v.:.· v;.., .! !J .Z:.f.._...Jt'4-H,~· -"'f- 1•·1•.f!c. cl':!_ .?·c··JC) ( C va.R..1tL .ik:' ~.:.>£(../../(..). &k..!.."T-" c; DAo..e; .~.~~.r.li··c ... p11 ,-t;~g Btt:~e. .. -, A • • p'1 A•'1,j('<'isoot.i ,po ..t;,'N.Dlc.4n> N'I "F..10u· 1qNA1 , ..... ~o.. .l.:1~~24~.1co /.>Cl ~f.vN'e' c:. v("l( 7 I\ ··J< .. Uc.>A.lpA Ca,,..!~CAA''e l?eC,t.l~~i""!.5-:J..'rt;; ~""'1 ~!).~~it-.c:.: ~II.~~' eJl'X:, :,,.,, DN.f:.J!.Q, 'SJ\'zflJP fa~ I, .l., ?1 't, ~, (; <.' ./!ET i '3<' l" :7~ '~.j.~.).O :.ry · ~:."'•.n "\.(ifr.~-c> d~~ ..1 ••?/.)L.J..El.. ;clc::Jd er.fed' rlc f<')Cf<:, ·" Jl R.-e"TpR-i" m--~1. CPM ~· R ...... A~:.x:..11'.i•L./V:.S_J:x • c:s-~.l'-":.:.~ ·crarrx.·.i c Ple.;·r"B .5aM·'!'>riA'1 >oe EATiMA HAci»TI\ J.'-h·\'iG"\ r ..,, Minutes of 25 July 1996 union meeting state: "We proceeded to the motion to disaffiliate the municipal guards from the union. The proposal was accepted by a majority vote of those present:' 15 Bosses' ·Courts Target Class-Struggle Militants Pela independtJncia de classe dos tra.balhadores .21i m MAW ix 1i;"° Fundafilo Beatriz Gama demite IDSTORIADO MOVL.\IBNTO 111ull1er negra que suste11ta OPERA.RIO filhos por ter a ''C':l.RA SOBREA MUUIBR .. -t '":>.,"'('r.!ii!1'i>:·!.-r ('rim:j..n<-,~ 1/tm.Y~t. ~ .. AMARRADA'.· ·· ·· J.:~~~~:;.;:;:~#:;:;::::::::: :: ira >{'»! f.t.~du>fr>9': 1:; pN:haM~ ·ftw. lrdtc ~ :;1: l"(a '/l ',;"J»~,<.«H Y. ~ pr..: 111 f>~! )l,.'C '11 At(.$~ · -;-ii> ;~ f!.f~ ~1 .~~ M mml'sf:f" <'>1-m.~ 4nM ~l~ e.->M ( ~ t 'f.~>A. ;;a_, ~·:m»~'t:tdt: r~sissf;1 (tP~.t( Umt"C ,Y.fTA':t!i) tl11:5-;:Vt?,.:f;/,'irJ .fdA ms/1~ .r ,/,;.s mulb Union bulletin (28 May 1996) denounces "popular-front oppressors and exploiters" for racist firing of black woman worker, Regina Celia de Oliveira. Bulletin features text by Leon Trotsky on struggle against women's oppression. Along with blatant and repeated use of the police, At the end of May 1996, a second court action was the bosses' attempt to repress class-struggle politics in brought against Ribeiro, Case No. 155.389/96, this time Volta Redonda has involved an array of legal actions for supposedly "defaming" the city by denouncing the launched by the local authorities in league with the pro blatantly racist firing of Regina Celia de Oliveira, a black c.op faction within the Municipal Workers Union woman employee of the municipal welfare institution, (SFPMVR). In response to this barrage of repression, the Beatriz Gama Foundation, where she was paid some the revolutionary militants have looked not to the courts $150 a month for carrying sacks of feed for animals. A that is, the judicial apparatus of capitalist rule-but to the foundation administrator claimed Regina Celia had a power of the working class. "pinched face." This is a classic example of racist dis The first in this series of court cases was a suit by crimination in Brazil, where the job requirement of Municipal Guard commander Lt. Roberto Freitas, Case "good appearance" is a traditional and notorious code No. 11.526/96, brought before the Volta Redonda crimi word for the exclusion of blacks. nal court in April 1996 (see illustrations). Freitas ac The LQB supporters launched a union campaign in cused SFPMVR president Geraldo Ribeiro of slander defense of Regina Celia, which was widely reported in and defamation. "The attacks and provocations by Cerezo the local press. In a May 28 union bulletin, Ribeiro noted and Geraldo Ribeiro are not being well received by the that it showed once again that "the popular front is a guardas," said Freitas ominously, encouraging individual bourgeois government with a 'left' mask"; he called for members of the police force to also sue Ribeiro and the a campaign of "protest against these popular-front op union if they "felt offended" by the campaign for cops pressors and exploiters, demanding that Regina Celia out of the union (Diario do Vale, 17 May 1996). A local immediately get her job back." As part of a series in the judge has issued a fonnal opinion against the accusa union bulletins on the history of the workers movement, tions brought by Freitas, who has not responded. the front page of this issue printed a lengthy excerpt from 16 ~ ""''1.r~~"' * ~# .A,r,.Ly ' :' MINl~'TERIO Ptinuco DO ESTAllO no HIO m: .l,\~lo"IRO • - ~ ... -· c:. •. /.r.'1'"'! 1,6 COMAk~ DE VOJ;fA IU!DOl'fl>/\ ~=fl ~OICIAlllO • COMARCA 'HUA lllOONOA /-(tJ Em 31 de mato de I 996. .uizo Dl OlllllTO 1• VA"" CRJ"IMAL , ....,., •u• s•a -'"" td. ro11un A\wrrad Oo: Promotor de Jui111;o deSlgnadO na 20. v. Olm.• Centro1 o• MANDAOO DE HTlrltA~-D inqu'-"os Cle Volta hdonao. Ao: Ex.mo.Sr, Or. Del99ado dtl Potlclo do 9'30. DP~J ~Ji ,,,tv~· CJ /-" ~ c-==:::::-:u-:..-:": ... r.- µ• :::::)E·· ·-----) !); /I .. I '·''··""·' ~ ~~~; ,, Ex.mo. Sr. Or. Oeiegoc:to de l"Od ~ ·J· l!{J. ~ c-1 ·'l ( )( ) ];..,.,~,,.../~ . Por htermeclo dr.t•. o Promot&- de Jus1i.;.:i obOt....o ( suosc.itto. no uso de !IUCI$ ~i 1~gots. reQUISlfo. no: f«;>rm.:;. _~i.~"'Y ~t. I NoU."••"'-' ll'AULO "OltllTO--.--·· oc r•UTAI ""] 1 ...Uflaa.taa GClt~DO llHClllt "CVU parOgraro s.• ao Cf"f". a {J ._; f·1·.. I/11 ... I\ J INSJAUBACAo PE lttQllEBJJQ..eQUCI I : ~ ,../ ! • :..... para apuror pcssfvel pctiltca dos dellos prevlsfos no5 t~os • '·.: •' zz do lel 52$0/67, tendo em Vista ser necer.ono et1.1c:tdor-~e ou1c.. 1c/do delllo. ( J sobretuao ante o dlsposto no arti;o 37, 1, Clo rertlfldo d1pl Em vttude dllto, CletermhO: •DflFltAll o 11. CjtllAl.OD Rllnw1f""tttvtlf P••aldont.o do Jlndl• ••'• d•• runclonerlo• publi••• d• Hun clplo d• Vol\• Rocto"• da, par• proot.•r oet'llarffi.. nt;eo, •• :J1;1h:o, no proio do "' l ~ lnlfol.lf'Or;ao .. de IP. csutuancfo.se este e o ropre:;ent~ll.:i do penoo (111uu·onh o eU.o) llOl'H• oobn ntel• Y0,1J11l•ct• no 8o1oU• , JUrfdlea tm,wlOda; ' . HOU• •• an•••• a&ph · •• 1n1•1•1 • doaloia. 2- A OlllVo dO JOfl'iOIS'O Ftancllco Edson (''01611o do Vofe'·1. d\:l P.~ C611o d• Olvel'o • ao Preslc:Sent• Clo Shdlc::a10 den func:ton6rtos f'ul.AICOS d• VR, Geraldo Rlbeto Nwes: 3- ~ que se llmnlm necess01as. ( ... •.••• •• ...... ;u:-.;-;; ...... ct••••· J .l'ac. Q urgtnc:la. tendo em vt:to o pro.:c p1~~:.:."ld0f\OI do refetlCjO c11p10ma le9QI. a.co o pram oe !::5 dlos poro o eurnpf1lner1tc CJO: ~. AplOvelto a opcrtUr1c:lcOe pgra relterar a v. E>:.o. prore~tos d9 .sJmo • cor m::r..ay6o• .. ' ...... ,...... "-• .. :· ...... ~· d Q c ~~._-~ ... ~ ..AIY•Sdo Cosrom· 0 JUIZ 01! Ollll!ITO, DOUTOll Promotor de Justlqo "ARCtLll CASTflO All.CTDQ.U OA 11\..YA rUU"ll'A MMD.a mot.1 ..63 Official notification (23 April 1996) of court case District attorney orders police inquiry (31 May 1996) against union president Geraldo Ribeiro, charged in city's slander case over union's campaign against with "slander" and "defamation" by Municipal Guard racist firing of Regina Celia. Case is based on 1967 commander, Lt. Freitas. censorship law of the military dictatorship. Leon Trotsky on "Women and the Family," which stated Most of the left has echoed this myth. In recent years, in part: reflecting the political instability, economic crises and "Historical experience shows that even the proletariat, turbulent labor struggles leading to and following the already struggling with the oppressors, is far from prompt fall of the military dictatorship in the mid-80s, issues of in concentrating the necessary attention on the oppressed racism have become subjects of debate. position of woman as housewife, mother and wife. Such Our fraternal comrades of the Liga Quarta-In is the terrible force ofbeing accustomed to the family sla temacionalista do Brasil underline that the oppression very of woman!... To alter the position of woman at the of blacks and women has long been the "secret of Bra root is possible only if all the conditions of social, family and domestic existence are altered." zilian capitalism," expressed in one of the lowest mini "Child-care, eating and laundry facilities must be set up mum wages in the world, together with police terror, the so that by the advantages they provide they can deal a use of death squads against black street children and deathblow to the old closed-in, isolated family unit, com many-sided racial and sexual discrimination in industry pletely supported on the bent shoulders of the housewife and society at large. As noted in the letter from munici and mother." pal union activists Ribeiro and Carega: "In our activities The case against Ribeiro for defamation brought by the and our bulletins we have fought, in accordance with Beatriz Gama Foundation is stil1 pending. This charge our class-struggle program, against the oppression of can bring him up to four years in prison. women, blacks, homosexuals, children victimized by What this represents is a vicious attempt to gag those repression, and all the oppressed and exploited." who fight to mobilize the power of labor in the struggle In response to the mounting drive to remove the po against the oppression of women and black people. Ever lice from the SFPMVR, the pro-cop clique headed by since the military populist dictatorship ofGetulio Vargas Artur Fernandes and Sebastiao de Fatima Batista Passos beginning in the 1930s, it has been a tenet of Brazilian rushed to the bosses' courts to seek their intervention nationalism that the country is a "racial democracy." against the union. On June 19, the very day of the meet- 17 , __ dlt .... * ,,_ ... rC>OfR JUDICt.-iAIQ_ COMAACA de Tel .. le4ea.. •U JUizo O! O.All'ro .. la. V•ta UlHl lndef•: a.a lfl • t/at • H •••.,_ HIOCtM0 11°. 19 June 1996: Court orders ( 11.tU/H to "stop the holding of the ~loO, ..OUl,._...llrfO assembly" of the Municipal Ml,I .. Cautel•~ 1... taadi'c1e·,,...~1e Aat•clpa•• ., PTG•••e.• llll~· - Vllterla M ·~~~,.. bl MIMl'lu c .. P••H• a a. Workers Union and begin process for "suspension and removal of the Presi dent of the Union," Geraldo Ribeiro. Injunction specifi Pree••• • •~·Oflalal .. 3.. c1c:--:-•ita~l1 •• If• na ~·••• 4• ..u ".,_..... tut• l•1•l •• t•ne• •• •t o, ••Y8t'tl•cl••o •• ttu. cally authorizes "the aid of Dio eeatffta.... pu.. l•tal •• I"'• rlo .... ,...... 4•ln• •• tai.s •l•1•.. •• '-ii .... a ....., • a ,.alisacl• ••·•••-...t~l• police force, if necessary" 11 an Ja.9 • ••aYNaM, , ..... cufH• l'••••PH•• IMX•,.. to shut down the union ...... i., A•.P•11l• .. fniaila, ••. 14, ....., .. lU .. e.· .... lU•••l~h ... ,.... , ... .. ~i...... ; 0 JUll DE ·oumro. DOUTOR meeting . .., ••1. Jot I ...... I •ANDA ...... CUMOr"-"lo ~ ....-.i.. UINldo - Of'GCHMI. 1Cint11 r•r.tldo. pr .. Ct ta;io .,•••• not ltr'lll04 • - KCJJJ.," con: l(IJ ~I 1191,,,;t• trMl~lt•l•l em" foltMCll d••idemente •ut.ntlnd•t'~· Que llcl(mJ ,._. .,..,. • ~·-~· V.lh ...,,... d9 lt ..• lu. ITl11 .. 111..-a laylle,•_.ttlt•t* • ""' DI DlldlTO QA CoHCESsAO DA LMrfAB Estabelecldas e comprovadas de piano a StttUS.;ao tatica, se taz. necesserto o deferimento de LJMINAR no ing that was to vote on disaffiliating the police, sentido de su$lar a Assemblela designada para o dla 19 de Junho de Fernandes and Batista Passos asked for and im 1996, face e vlofayao da norma estBtut4na e, em sua concessso assegure o auKlllo de fon;a pollcial, se necessario for, em fie! mediately obtained a preliminary injunction from cu01prlmento a ordem expedlda. conterindo~se ainda, UMINAR de a VoJta Redonda court to "stop the hoJding of the assembly" and initiating the process for "suspen- ~IQA CAUTELAR OE CARATER PREP_ARA T¢RIO sion and removal of the president of the union," A medida ora interposta e de ca.-.t•r Geraldo Ribeiro. pfepar•t6rlo par• • lnataur•~lo de processo prlnclpal a ser •Jutzado no prazo do trtntldlo, observando·se o procedlmento This was blatant union-busting. The injunc ordin4rlo visando a suspensao e afastamenlo do Presldente do tion issued in Case No. 30.421/96 explicitly or Slndlcato Reu por nao cumprtr o Estatuto da Entidade e aos mouvos aqut constgnados. dered "the aid of pol ice force, ~f necessary" to shut down the union meeting. Later, the plaintiff, Batista Passos, demanded the annulment of Ribeiro's mandate One of the key pretexts used by Fernandes & Co. as the elected president of the union and in anticipation was that the union bulletin featuring Mumia Abu-Jamal's of that a fonnal ''jurisdictional receivership" by the courts article, "Police: Part of, or Enemies of, Labor?" had a over the union, with Fernandes acting as the puppet ad large press run ( 10,000 copies). Ribeiro responded in a ministrator (Case No. 30.545/96). In the service of the fonnal defense statement within the union: popular front government, these tools of the bosses "The 11 April 1996 tabloid newspaper, whose editorial sought to chain the union directly to the capitalist state. was an article by Mumia Abu-Jamal, the black journalist 18 ACAO DECL.ARAT6RIA DE PERDA DE MANDATO COM P§DIQO DE DJTELA JURISDICIONAL ANTECIPAQA U'l'AOO,....,...... , 00 lllO Ol JANttltO CllAICA ct (tciz }~·~ em race do JUfZO DE DIKEJTO . .1a ;'e: 44s ";.~ PRESIDEHTE Sfl. GERALDO BIQEIRO NEVES. br8$ilelro, casado, 11.,!L ,}:t~~wt'1;te\. e"'- ~ ....It ~ 1r'tp-r,.•,Y"/Z ('/ p ..v<:f..o ""4.. "',.-".-'~ ju-c..•"4.rit,,., ..,,,.£1 EX l'OSIT1B, MQUER A V.VC-: J\11.C ..•..• ---·-··- Or. an-r~,·>e.. Jtt..; -. MM. Sr. Julz, mediante as ViolaQOes ••. .. .:... ~·-- ;t .. ( Ht,i.J't4 ~11~'-"" Estatutcirias por parte dos Supllcados e COMtatadas as lrreguland~es a:iavts da farta prove documental, nao tem o Autor outra altematin VAi.Oii DA CAUSA u ... _.J.'akQ_ ___···- ·--··--· senao a de trafegar jUtlto ao Poder Judlcante com o eseopo de ter·se OECLARADO A PERDA DE MANDATO DOS SUPUCADOS petos motivos aqul constgnadOs concedencto-ee atnda a TUTELA JURISOICIONAL AHTECIPADA no sentido de MANTER A SUSPENsAO E AFASTAMEHTO DOS SUPUCADOS DOS .?:.. ... _, .( ~1.5i..~i.~:...... !.4. ..~~...J0:i~-!2!.l:!U.{(f.l.J.g/g_~.J;,~.~~_,_Ji,Jr4C.. CARGOS EXERCIOOS JUHfO AO SINDICATO DOS FUNCIONARIOS PUBUCOS DO MUNICIPIO DE VOLTA REDONDA, -"I"~~ .J!JJ.,,d:.:...._'1~~1.i.~&.-~--~.::£~-----.. --·- COM EFtCACIA ATE 0 JULGAMEHTO DEFINITIVO DA UDE, em virtuae do OESRESPEITO E NAO CUMPRIMENTO OAS ~..... ,._.: ... -·-·- .... ---····"·------·---..--...... --...····-·--- .... -- FORMAUDAOES LEGAIS, face 8 GRAVE VIOL.A~Ao AO AUTDA~AD ESTATUTO nos preclsos tennos do Arugo 34 tnefso 1 paragraros 1° e 7.0 Cle Artigo 5• lnctso X)Q(V da const1tui980 de RepObllca Federaliva . ''.""-~-...... ,_ .. .JtM.~------·· dt"'" -- • dO eras11 ae 1988 vez que, este comprovacto a matversa~o e .),:.;. . .:.!..:.~.... .t.--6'-...!.--- ,.,...., ..... '**'°' ,..;.I• """"""""" -·---·--· dllclolll- d11aptda~o do patrtmOnlo StnCllc:al, o supertaturamento e as v1019Q0es ...... ' ... , .(""' aos AtUgog 10 lrtc1so I, v peregraro 1•,ie etc Arttgo 21 lnciso IV eve, :'~I?~ •'-J,.i. em especial, no que tange ao pnmein> Suplfoado requer o Iv. - "r•· (---·------.:1.-:;..;. EtcllYI•... - •• AFASTAMENTO IMEDIATO por ton;a do lnciSO IV do Artiga 5• cuja . iJ . LJMJNAR se requer, ou seja designada AUOl~NCJA DE l-1.,; L------ftt.f -· .f._ II• dt ~ '-"""--·-- 11&. ·--·----· JUSTIFICAvAO. As city, pro-cop clique pursue vendetta against SFPMVR president Geraldo Ribeiro, court imposes "jurisdictional receivership" on union. who is on death row in the U.S.A., made Artur Bonizete asked if Geraldo wanted the courts to rule on the validity Fernandes extremely indignant, because it sparked inter of the July 25 union meeting, but this is against our prin national solidarity against the invasion of an SFPMVR ciples: we reject any interference of the bosses' 'justice' assembly by the police, who had been systematically called system in the workers movement in general and the by the Artur faction to intervene in the municipal work SFPMVR in particular. The union belongs to the work ers' assembly." ers, not the bosses!. .. The mobilization of the ranks will Against the anti-union actions by the state and its impose the democratic decision that the workers have re treacherous accomplices, LQB supporters pushed for peatedly expressed." ward the struggle for the class independence ofthe work The fight for the class independence of the prole ers, demanding: Courts, cops out of the unions! The 25 tariat from the state apparatus and political representa July 1996 union assembly which voted the disaffiliation tives of the capitalist class, the fight against the many of the guardas also upheld Geraldo as legitimate presi sided social oppression inherent in capitalism, must to dent of the SFPMVR. Four months later, as a result of gether be part of a broader struggle to sweep away capi the campaign of denunciation, mobilization and inter talist exploitation through workers revolution. For this, national solidarity, Fernandes' sidekick Batista Passos the indispensable instrument is a revolutionary workers withdrew from the case, thereby_canceling the judicial party, one which acts as "tribune of the people" in the pretext for the court ''tutelage" (receivership) of the union fight against all oppression, a party built on the program and its suspension/removal of the SFPMVR's elected of Lenin and Trotsky. Such a proletarian vanguard party president, Ribeiro. The courts have been deliberating on must be steeled through hard class struggles like the battle whether to drop the case. waged by the Brazilian comrades to carry out the prole As Ribeiro and Marcello Carega note in their letter tarian, internationalist and revolutionary principles of of 31 December 1996: Trotskyism, in the fight to reforge the Fourth Interna "When Artur withdrew from the legal case, the courts tional, world party of socialist revolution. • 19 Letter From Geraldo Ribeiro and Marcello Carega The following letter was sent by Volta Redonda ing to obstruct the organized will of the rank and file,. Municipal Workers Union (SFP MVR) and union activ who decided that the guardas are not part of the union, ist Marcello Carega on 31 December 1996 to "the trade because they are not part of the working class. The courts unions, organizations and individuals that have defended maintained their puppet Artur Fernandes, head of the us against repression, "informing them ofimportant par pro-police faction, in the union halJ. But even under those tial victories in the several defense cases and explain conditions, the mobilization of the ranks and the pres ing the significance oftheir struggle. sure and international extension of the campaign made the municipal guards begin to withdraw from the struc Volta Redonda Municipal Workers Union ture dominated by the puppet Artur Fernandes, and they (SFPMVR) created their own association in November. Volta Redonda, 31December1996 Our program has foreseen from the outset the exit Dear brothers and sisters, of the municipal guards from the union, since we de Thank you for your support to the campaign against clare that "police are not part of the working class." The the repression of anti-racist trade unionists in Volta police are the armed fist of the bosses. The union be Redonda. In the recent period, we have received impor longs to the working class! We reiterate that the work tant solidarity statements from unions, including the ing class must fight against racist repression. Salvadoran telephone workers, the miners and commer In response to the police intervention in the March cial workers in South Africa, longshoremen (dockers) 13 meeting, an international campaign repudiated this from the U.S., Britain and other countries, and sections repression. Then the commander of the guardas, Lt. of the SEIU [Service Employees International Union] Freitas, sought to increase the repression by suing from the West Coast of the U.S. Geraldo Ribeiro, president of the SFPMVR, and saying Some partial victories have already occurred as a that the guards were being pressured by Luta result of our class-struggle fight and the campaign for Metalurgica, which is now the Liga Quarta "Police Hands Off the Union." On December 3, the plain Internacionalista do Brasil (LQB). Lt. Freitas told the tiff withdrew from the case used as the original pretext for the "justice" system's intervention in the union, and at this time the court is deciding whether it will drop this case against us. Other legal cases are still in course as part of the repression against fighters for the. interests of the working class and against racism. The context: Despite intervention by the Military Police in the March 13 union meeting and dissolution of the June 19 union meeting by the police, the ranks continued to mobilize and the union meeting of July 25 vote9 to dis affiliate the municipal guardas [police] from the SFPMVR (Volta Redonda Mu nicipal Workers Union). Volta Redonda paper (17May1996) headlined, "Guards Say They Feel As vengeance against this class Pressured by Members of Luta Metalurgica." Article begins: struggle campaign, the bosses' "justice" "Commander says the group wants to exclude municipal guards from system intervened in the union, as in the Union of Municipal Workers." It reports that at upcoming conference years of the military dictatorship, seek- union would "discuss removal of the guardas from its membership." 20 Diario do Vale newspaper ( 17 May 1996) that "the group vention in the SFPMVR. Obviously, this does not mean wants to exclude municipal guards from the municipal that they will not intervene, since the bosses often break workers union," and also said that "I will recommend to their own laws in order to carry out their class objec my personnel that they leave the union and create an tives. But because of the struggle, at this time the ''jus association." The coverage continues by saying that "The tice" system is pulling back. Their puppet Artur commander of the Municipal Guarda, retired army lieu Fernandes is in a corner. But he withdrew from the case tenant Paulo R~berto Fre.itas, will call the troops together as a political tactic, and obviously not because of ideo this morning to find out if his subordinates are being logical conviction; in the future, if he sees the need, he subjected to pressure as a result of the statements by the could call the courts into the union again. leader ofLuta Metalurgica and vice president of the re As we have declared repeatedly, what decides is the gional CUT [union federation], Alexandre Cerezo. Luta organized will of the workers. This will was expressed Metalurgica made its support to the election campaign in the election of Geraldo in November 1995 with 62 of Geraldo Ribeiro's slate-which ended up winning the percent of the votes. It was reaffirmed in the July 25 election for the leadership of the Volta Redonda Mu union meeting, which affirmed that Geraldo is the le nicipal Workers Union-conditional on carrying out a pro. gitimate president of the SFPMVR. The mobilization of gram drawn up by the organization 'Municiparios em the ranks will impose the democratic decision that the Luta' [Municipal Workers in Struggle] which precludes workers have repeatedly expressed. municipal guardas being part of the union." The com Regarding the police/juridical case that the Popular mander urged guardas who felt offended to sue the union Front municipal government initiated against Marcello and Luta Metalurgica in the courts. Carega because of his participation in the 21 June 1996 The struggle against the ''justice" system's interven-. general strike: the campaign of denunciation made the tion in the union has begun to have results. This inter Volta Redonda city government pull back and request vention was "invited" by the legal case (No. 30545/96) the "tabling" of this case, No. 002/96 in the Volta that Artur Fernandes, head of the pro-cop faction, initi Redonda criminal court. ated against Geraldo Ribeiro. This was the continuation But these partial victories do not mean the end of the of what Artur did when he called the police to intervene repression against us. We have already mentioned the threats in the March 13 union meeting. But due to the interna and legal case against Geraldo by Lt. Freitas (case No. tional campaign and systematic mobilization and denun 11.526/96 in the Volta Redonda criminal court). In addi ciation, at the beginning ofthis month (December) Artur tion, the city government is prosecuting Geraldo Ribeiro requested the courts to withdraw him from the case on the charge ofdefaming the Municipal Government (case against Geraldo. No. 155.389/96), using a law from the military dictator In the meantime, Artur's slanders were disproven and ship (law No. 5250/67), which could bring 4 years in prison. swept away by the July 25 union meeting, which repudi This case is city hall's revenge against our campaign for ated the suspension ofGeraldo decreed by the courts. When the reinstatement of Regina Celia, a black woman and Artur withdrew from the legal case, the courts asked if mother of two children who was fired because of the city Geraldo wanted the courts to rule on the validity of the government's racism. In our activities and our bulletins we July 25 union meeting, but this is against our principles: have fought, in accordance with our class-struggle program, we reject any interference of the bosses' ''justice" system against the oppression ofwomen, blacks, homosexuals, chi I- in the workers move , dren victimized by re- ment in general and the .------.... pression, and all the SFPMVR in particular. • rr~.oooso.at,•• - ,.010• C.UTEL#lllt - •· oppressed and ex ·9••••tl6• 4• F'tl.. P••.. • fAd¥w The union belongs to l••t•t• ploited . .~tcsj''' llta•cli!fVJ! fg !'Jiii) - •· •tftdtcato .~ •• the workers, not the Juftc onartos co• a. UftjcJ~lo 4• U. •• We are also in bosses! , ''"Y• C:J fl&ff !WP"t'"9 C•rr••s· .. r# *+" U • volved in a campaign, - diiPidli~t• o •-tar • r4u ~ace • d••i•tfwt~i• Now, given these haeotoaMI• "aw .ut•• IOe~I,••• •l•d~ •r•ttNt•• together with the events, because of the eJt-.t.§lj.Jt~.ar ...... jJ.,..,,t. aa pr • ...,, •• #etto. Internationalist Group, ~Y•••• 09 di••; e •&J •cio i••llc•r'' •• limits ofjudicial regu cont..,••IKt• c .. • •••t•\lfts£a•. for solidarity with lations the courts are Maria Beatriz, the legally and constitu Volta Redonda city gazette (Oiario Oficial, 3 December 1996) mother of Emane da tionally barred from announces withdrawal of pro-cop mouthpiece from case against Silva Lucio, a 12-year continuing their inter- Ribeiro, removing legal pretext for court takeover of union. old black child mur- 21 dered by a municipal cop with our Salvadoran sister while he was working to Ana Maria Romero, of the help his mother. We have Textile Workers Union already received some let (STIT), and brother ters of solidarity from par Wilmer Erroa Argueta, of ents whose children were the Salvadoran Telephone , murdered by tpe police in Workers Association New York, and we hope (ASTTEL), who are being that this campaign will threatened by the ultra broaden throughout the rightist government of El world. Because of the pub Salvador, which is linked licity arising from this cam to the death squads. The paign, which is a continua Salvadoran telephone tion of the previous cam workers sent us their soli paign for "Police Hands darity against repression Off the Union," there has here in Volta Redonda. been a significant decrease We thank the brothers in racist killings ofchildren and sisters and salute them in Volta Redonda. together with the workers As noted in this let for the solidarity they ex ter, solidarity has been pressed at a time when the and continues to be of struggle required the unity immense importance for of the workers against the all these struggles and bourgeois state and its partial victories, ex agents. We say: "THE pressing the need for the STRUGGLE OF ONE IS unity of workers and THE STRUGGLE OF peasants in the fight Vanguarda Operaria ALL!" "WORKERS OF against imperialism and Luta Metalurgica sign at August 1995 rally in Volta THE WORLD, UNITE!" the bourgeoisie. Redonda for Mumia Abu-Jamal quotes Karl Marx: Greetings, We take this opportu "Labor cannot emancipate itself in the white skin Geraldo Ribeiro nity to call for solidarity where in the black it is branded:' Marcello Carega /VANGUARDA 0PERiUllA/ Mtilii15U·H!'iii:i·'Hff :F·•·jfi.IHI !i-l·B'WN.t . tp.f.11Wif . !1:11¥-BMHl.!d.1Mi · l1!H:f.t .t411ij9!H·l ~ +j• · •• Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil: quern somos e o que queremos Vanguarda ~~.; ...11 ______,,V,,..u...,.1U.,..una...... ,Op"""pll,.,...,.11 Operaria _,,, Polkia: tire as miios do sindicato dos municiparios de Volta Redonda! Z.~~ df::t ::!°1~~~~;:lr,~~ :~::', ':!u:=1::;:::::: Trot\kywbtirlholqtit ''lp&ncinp..!a· ~tnidonsdegstpcttcarnoorsn.: . vn-G:·Ol'dnh· 4o.qu.vta.lrltema:;«UJi\. C:..ttU10pedrt.a(njsur.1WT:'10Mtfto M R$4,00 por 4 numeros b1 Mf•tldn-.tr.b\lndk,i:i.1t; pJ~J.o'ft1;~C"Jtlt1U4'a•lJl l " •;,,,,Jq1r,.t;,.,1., 1«t11 ' 1'.cJ?ltdlrlotwl ..m r ~quc.tlo). 0. t.cpldort'l~Gui · do 1 JW/ln.i ro1t•'f~ -''"~ r4 • Jkmiot.on.•irip~ doP.nldt~ro p i'r.l~i 1 ..- . IJ..otlpi.&ahrutp.wslnnl • kn~ d.l lotfTia.lbJll(HUpli br.t.MtMt:ind:k..,,ttn«priK!lll!tdu nrf!,,Sio.&•·mr~am:ul'tlperidi1i1"._, Orgao informativo da Liga cnnft• t11Hwupk7rM•,enSo d.a Lonfuml911ClOll'lortncn:tJ.l. Tbr· ari11«n International solidarity has been crucial for 'the defense of union militants under attack for their anti-racist struggle in Volta Redonda, Brazil's "steel city." When shotgun wielding Military Police invaded an assembly of the Volta Solidarity with Redonda Municipal Workers Union (SFPMVR) on 13 March 1996, defenders of labor rights from around the world demanded "Police Hands Off Volta Redonda Union." After the government further escalated its repressive ven detta in June and July, statements of solidarity were re ceived from unions from South Africa to Europe, El Sal vador and the United States. The courts and cops focused their attack on Geraldo Ribeiro, who was elected president of the SFPMVR in No vember 1995, pursuing a repressive vendetta against the cam paign he led to remove police from the union. Another mu to:lOBllM 1 306 nicipal worker militant, Marcello Carega, was arrested during olisl~ N. 4\B. ' ~ a nationwide general strike on 21 June 1996 for leading work ers in blocking the municipal garage in Volta Redonda. As detailed in this dossier, a series of initial victories have been won against the attempts by the capitalist ''justice" system to silence the revolutionary militants and destroy the union. Class-struggle militants demand that the bosses' courts and cops keep their hands off the Municipal Workers Union and the labor movement as a whole! Together with them and 14 the Liga Quarta-Intemacionalista do Brasil, in August 1996 SEl'l'f;MDER 1996 the Internationalist Group launched an appeal for international NATIONAL labor solidarity against the repression in Volta Redonda. We UN®l·O~,'0 F ·.MINEWORKERS reproduce here a number of the solidarity statements received P.0.9o11J4Zlll JoPl..wn.. bur92DOO T•l:(OU)l.!IJ-70'211 in defense of Geraldo Ribeiro and Marcelo Carega. f0'1)tJl.JOSC/9 0 Fn:tott1t.H.ft11 From South Africa, the National Union of Mineworkers denounced the suspension of Ribeiro as "a violation of the very stature of any elected official who refuses to be the bosses' golden-boy." The South African Commercial Catering and l6S.....-19H ATI Cde.llON°""'" Allied Workers Union issued a solidarity statement recalling THI!. INTI:Rl'IA TJONAL CKOUP New YR, NY, USA how "the South African workers have been through hell" in f,. 09!12610711 the fight against apartheid racism. The SACCAWU statement FM : INTtRNATIONAI, DltSK adds: "Through bitter experiences, struggles and international solidarity, we have come to [the] realisation that no amount of repression, brutality and even exploitation will deter the de termined working class from the struggle of.the overall politi cal and economic emancipation/liberation." The Salvadoran telephone workers union (ASTTEL), which waged a 51-day strike in the teeth ofjunta repression in 1986, denounced the persecution of Geraldo and Marcello by the "Justice System," as well as the killings of street children and attacks on striking workers. In addition to a statement by striking Liverpool dockers, The fight against police repression was underscored by the International Dockers' Committee, meeting in Paris, stated: the U.S. West Coast longshoremen, whose resolution stated "We dockers know weJI the vicious role police play as guard that "an important labor and anti-racist.struggle is being waged ians of capitalist rule." In Britain, supporters of the Liverpool in the Brazilian industrial center of Volta Redonda," and that dockers publicized the defense of the Brazilian union mili "the municipal workers union (SFPMVR) in the state of Rio tants on "LabourNet." On January 20, dock workers in a num de Janeiro is under attack by the state for having disaffiliated ber of countries around the world carried out strikes, work police from their union." The resolution noted that the consti stoppages and other actions to demonstrate their solidarity with tution of ILWU Local 10 states that no police officer is per the Liverpool strikers. SFPMVR president Ribeiro has sent a mitted in the union "because of their strikebreaking role in the message of support for this fight, and is urging Brazilian port 1934 General Strike." unions to boycott ships coming from Liverpool, where em- 23 Anti-Racist Unionists in Brazil November 6, 1996 Volta Redonda Municipal Workers Union c/o LQB/UI Avenida l.ucu Evangelista No.414, Sala 306 aarrio Sterrado, CEP 27-295-320 Volta Redonda, RJ, Brazil I Dear l>rothers and Sisters, We suppot't the demand that all charges be dropped against Geraldo Ribait'O, President of the Municipal ~~~~~r=o~~~~n~n~r:.r~~!~~ ~~~~~f~,;. ·~:p:~~~~e~Y~~~n officers. They were active in union-authorized strike activities, MERSEYSIDE PORT SHOP STEWARDS. ~i~~~~~~:~MAN J. DAVIES :SECRETARY TRANSPORT HOUSE, ISUNGTON, -LIVERPOOL. L3 I EQ Telephone: 0151 207 JJBa Ftx: OISl 207 0696 September I 7, 1996 2 October 1996 Intnnet No. OCO\'NUC:Il!.CO>IPU!.Ilfl(.CO.UX Mr. Gnaldo Rlbloro, Voka Redonda M11nlclpal Worken Union Lttta Metolurgica/Sll'llfVR, cloLQB/LM <1-•: LllC25 Enugollsca No. 418, SALA ~. Av. Lucu Evqeli.. No. 4 U, 1ala 306 11.iwro Al DHr Brothtr Ribiero, Detlf Brothen and Sillert: I "rllo on behalf of SOOsttked Uotrpool dockworkors and their f1mllits. In Sept•mbtr !:~;.!~"; .::~ ::~~~~ nrmtng lo cross • plekd llne established by young dockers ~r Wlion ind it1 30,000 membenhlp lendi solidarity in your fi11ht to have 1 unlon that is iadependeni !torn the 1t11e. We have had our memben 1111cked by the poHce at peaceful prolesta and IO we know that 1"9 pollce are not neutrli in thete i11uu. Last month ,.. had • demo11Stnlffon oul51de Lh•rpool doclu. Rlot poHcr an<) dogt ,..,. us.d to •lololt •nd dlsprm dockers and their supporters, Many of our docket" and supportm oeeupled c•ntry ua11e1 and the roof of the molll (ompany bulldlllg. ::;:: join In your ~sale •pillat raclmi, ue union hu 1111perienced It fim hand here In Los almilar ~ ~= :~compotcd ofitmlisnnl worker. and mu11wage1 fisht ea.Wt ~~:.;:~:!:a·~~=.::.'::.!'!'~.:.:::. ~~:S and tbe (Uadam•ntal Victory to our Si.ten and Brotll•n of Brazil. I ltiU pe"' International longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union Local 10 400 NORTH POINT, SAN ~RANCISCO, c ... ur. 941Jl • 776-~100 ""'°'Ht. GEORGE ROMERO International Dockers ""'' ...... IHI. TONY WINSTEAD DALE KELLY UC'•fl/.,fY.llfA:,IJt.[~ Motion In Defense of Brazilian Workers . Whereas, an Important labor and anti-racist struggle is being waged in the Brazilian ln W11ere11s. 111$ municipal workers union (SFPMVR) in tho slate o1 Rio de Janeiro 1.5 November, 1996 Is under allack by tile stale for having disaffiliated police from their union, and . Whereas the police In Brazil have earned a notorious and unoQUalled Mr. Gecaldo Ribiero •eµui..uvn '"' ..;u11on1y klmng street cntklren and attacking slrlklng workers, ah ployers are using scab labor in their drive to break the union. bership experiences first hand. As a statement by SEIU Local In Los Angeles, Service Employees International Union 535 (Pasadena, California) stressed, "An injury to one is an Local 399 noted that its "Justice for Janitors" protests have injury to all." been attacked by the cops and "we know the police are not For further information, contact the Internationalist neutral in these issues." It added, "We also join in your struggle Group at Box 3321, Church Street Station, New York, NY against racism," something the union's largely immigrant mem- 10008, U.S.A. Tel. (212) 460-0983. Fax (212) 614-8711. 24 Steel Company Claimed Leukopenia a "Black Disease" Brazilian Metal Workers Struggle Against Racism Behind the mask of the "new, democratic Brazil" donned by the nation's rulers in 1985 after more than two decades of military dictatorship, the reality is one of brutal exploitation and many-sided racist oppression. Like the United States, Bra zilian capitalism was founded on slavery, which was not abol ished until 1888. Today, Brazil is notorious for having the most extreme disparity in income and wealth between a fabulously rich capitalist elite and a deeply impoverished, heavily black urban and rural poor population. Well over half the population of 160 million is black or mulatto, yet the bulk of the Brazilian left has routinely ignored black oppression. The reason is trans parent: a serious fight to mobilize the power of the working class in the fight against racism is incompatible with their popu lar-front politics ofan "alliance" with sectors of the ruling class. In sharp contrast, the Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil (formerly Luta Metalurgica) has sought a class-struggle road to black liberation as part of the fight for socialist revolution. Luta Metallirgica (LM-Metal Workers Struggle) played a crucial role in exposing the murderous effects of capitalist racism in the steel industry, where the companies use black workers for the most dangerous and dirty jobs. This is dramatically expressed in the heavy use of black workers around the coke ovens, where benzene gas produces a condition called leukopenia, which leads to a drastic reduction in white blood cells. (Benzene exposure ODia can also lead to leukemia.) In July 1993, an LM bulletin de Giant National Steel Company plant in Volta Redonda, nounced the National Steel Company (CSN) on leukopenia: Brazil's "steel city:' "Deepening racist practices, the company uses black work ers in the areas where they will be exposed to benzene (a by by the armed forces and landlord thugs, the systematic killing product of coking coal). When these workers soon fall vic of black street children, and other brutal realities exposing the tim to benzene syndrome and leukopenia, CSN's medical lie that Brazil is a "racial democracy." The document empha and legal departments use pseudo-science to describe and sized that in Brazil, racial oppression "serves above all to re deal with this occupational disease, calltng it a 'black dis produce a cheap and controlled work force for superexploita ease.' CSN has not hesitated to fire [leukopenia sufferers] tion" and that racial oppression can be rooted out only by de en masse. Bearing this stigma, some of them, who are seri stroying capitalism. It noted: "In this international task, blacks ously ill, are unable to find other work." will play a key role, learning from the experience of the failure The National Steel Company, whose sprawling plant dominates ofnationalism and Stalinism ('socialism in one country'). Only Volta Redonda, has continued to try to block even the most international, multiracial socialism will emancipate humanity!" minimal attempts to document and measure the benzene its LM activists were fired by the CSN for the active role workers are exposed to. In July 1996, the local and Rio de they played in plant safety committees fighting the company's Janeiro press featured stories on how the company obtained dangerous and blatantly racist practices. These efforts to find injunctions from the courts to block a study on benzene and a working-class strategy for a revolutionary fight against black leukopenia ordered by the Rio de Janefro state government's oppression were an important element in drawing LM towards own health and safety functionaries. the program of genuine Trotskyism, the Marxism of our times. In August of 1993, a document presented by Luta As the Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil/LM states in Metalurgica to a national CUT union conference on racism the first issue of its newspaper, Vanguarda Operaria (July linked the issue of leukopenia to other key aspects of racial September 1996), "the struggle against the oppression of blacks oppression. It called for a working-class fight against forced and women is a strategic question for the proletarian vanguard sterilization of black and poor women, the murder of peasants in Brazil, as part of the permanent revolution."• 25 continued from page ·2 cynically claimed to be fighting "trade-union opportunism," they were won to Causa Operana (C.0.-Workers Cause), an spewing out one slander after another which culminated in organization claiming to be Trotskyist opponents of the popular the smear that the LQB had had a "deal" with the cops. An front. Yet while C.O. called on paper for opposition to the popular ICL leader wrote derisively of the "so-called 'decisive' move front, it simultaneously called for voting for Lula, the candidate to disaffiliate the police at the 19 June union meeting," of the PT-led popular front. claiming that this issue "was only raised after the fact as a The LM comrades grew increasingly dissatisfied with red herring." On the contrary, as documented in this bulletin, Causa Operaria's centrist politics, including its refusal to take the fight over removing the cops was coming to a head at the up the fight against the oppression of blacks and women, and June 19 union meeting, which was banned by court order and C.O.'s denial thatthe destruction of the USSR was a defeat for dissolved by the police. The LQB was engaged in a broad the international working class. This came to a head in their ranging fight for class-struggle politics, and precisely because opposition to C.0. 's vote for the Frente Brasil Popular in the of this has been the object of relentless hatred and persecution 1994 presidential elections. Fighting for proletarian opposition by the capitalists and their apparatus of repression. to the popular front, they resigned from C.O. in July 1994 and For more information on these issues, we refer read pursued intensive discussions with the International Commu ers to our bulletin From a Drift Toward Abstention ism to nist League (ICL). These discussions led to the establishment Desertion/ram the Class Struggle (July 1996), as well as in September 1994, of fraternal relations between Lut~ the first issue of The Internationalist (January-February Metalurgica and the ICL. The "Declaration of Fraternal Rela 1997). In this dossier we provide a graphic account of tions" was translated and published in at least six languages the development of the class battle and repression in Volta and in the ICL's international journal Spartacist. Joint work, Redonda, showing how the fight for "cops out" meant discussion and debate continued with the aim of achieving a posing a broad range of burning political and social ques fusion between the two organizations. tions. The link between the capitalists' brutal austerity At the end of 1995, Volta Redonda municipal union ac.: and privatization drive to the destruction of the Soviet tivist Geraldo Ribeiro was elected union president on a class Union; the relation between anti-labor repression and the struggle program in a campaign prominently supported by oppression of blacks and women; the fight against the LM. The International Secretariat (1.S.) of the ICL correctly popular front; the centrality of the struggle to build a revo urged that municipal guardas (police) be removed from the lutionary workers party-all these issues are posed by this union. Facing a-barrage ofrepression from the popular-front fight. This powerfully illustrates what Leon Trotsky wrote local government, the police, courts, capitalist politicians and in "Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay" their agents in the labor movement, LM undertook this ardu (1940): "the independence of the trade unions in the class ous fight. Military Police invaded union meetings, the elected sense ... can, in the present conditions, be assured only by leadership was hit with one court case after another. As it a completely revolutionary leadership, that is, the lead tenaciously pursued this struggle for the independence of the ership of the Fourth International." • working class, LM changed its name to the Liga Quarta-Inter nacionalista do Brasil (LQB) as an expression of its perspec tive for building a Trotskyist party. A battle was joined for cops out ofthe union, bringing the question of the capitalist state into sharp focus. Rather than pushing this struggle forward as part of th~ fight to build a Trotskyist party in the class struggle, a restructured ICL leader ship took fright at the dangers and obstacles. Shortly after stat ing that the LQB's work in this union posed "unacceptable risks to the vanguard," the self-described "new l.S." broke relations with the LQB, one day before the 19 June 1996 union meeting that was to disaffiliate the guardas. In sharp contradiction to the program and traditions defended by the Spartacist tendency over three decades, the ICL leadership fled from this key class battle, which it had initially encouraged. The ICL's breaking of fraternal relations with the LQB was linked to an escalating purge of leading cadres of the ICL who were seen as an obstacle to the new leadership LQB spokesman Cerezo addresses Volta Redonda configuration's course. Expelled ten days before the ICL demonstration in August 1995 to save the life of U.S. broke relations with the LQB in June 1996, these cadres later death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. formed the Internationalist Group in August. The ICL lead Municipal Workers Union (SFPMVR) co-sponsored ership, to cover its flight at the height of the battle in Brazil, the rally. 26 Ernane da Silva LUcio Victim of Racist Cop Terror The fight against racist police te1rnr is an international case of Emane to the struggle, for wherever capital rules it uses its armed enforcers attention of the fami to suppress the workers and oppressed. This truth was driven lies of victims of rac home in Brazil during the struggle to remove municipal cops ist cop terror in the from the Volta Redonda Municipal Workers Union Bronx-based Parents (SFPMVR), a fight led by our fraternal comrades of the Liga Against Police Bru Quarta-lnternacionalista do Brasil (LQB) and their supporters tality. Lillian Flores in the union. A 4 July 1996 leaflet by SFPMVR president and David Muniz, the Geraldo Ribeiro stressed the racist murder committed in Oc parents of 15-year tober 1995 in the Volta Redonda neighborhood of Vila Ameri old Frankie Arzuaga, cana, "where a municipal guarda (policeman) murdered a 12- who was slain by a year-old black child who was working to help his parents." As cop in January 1996, a result of the union's fight, the case or Emane da Silva Lucio sent a statement of has focused attention in the region on police killing of children, solidarity to Emane's Ernane da Silva Lucio as reflected in coverage by the Rio de Janeiro daily 0 Dia (see mother, as did Milta below). Emane's mother Maria Beatriz issued a statement, re Calderon, mother of Anibal Carrasquillo, Jr., gunned down by a printed in a subsequent leaflet by Ribeiro, declaring her support Brooklyn cop in January 1995. Calderon said that "when we to the union's campaign, since the police "are not workers ... but march through these streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan and the instead a group of murderers, as was shown clearly by the case Bronx we will mention the case of your son," stressing the need of my son." to continue the struggle against police killings of minority youth. In New York City, the Internationalist Group brought the LQB militants read these statements at strike assemblies during a recent Volta Redonda teachers strike, as well as on a popular local radio show and at a showing of Pixote, an internationally acclaimed film on the life of street children in Brazil. SFPMVR president Ribeiro and other LQB supporters have stressed that the fight against cop terror directed at labor and the poor is intimately linked to the fight for the working class to forge a revolutionary workers party to lead proletarian revolution and build a socialist society of equality, eliminating forever the police terror and racial oppression that are part and parcel of the capitalist system. • 7~ i Internationalist A Journal of Revolutionary Marxism for the Reforging of the Fourth International Name~------~ Address~------______Apt.# __ Tel. (_)__ City State/Province ______Postal Code/Zip ___Country ______ Annual subscription US$10 for five issues. Make checks/ money orders payable to Mundial Publications and mail to: Mundial Publications Box 3321, Church Street Station New York, NY 10008 U.S.A. Case of Ernane da Silva Lucio symbolizes racist killings Write the Internationalist Group at above address, or contact: Tel by Brazilian police. The Rio de Janeiro daily 0 Dia (7 (212) 460-0983 Fax (212) 614-8711 E-mail: [email protected] July 1996) shows Ernane's mother holding his photo.