THE Apartheid under ground: struggle of South Africa's miners Page9·

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 54/NO. 16 APRIL 20, 1990 $1.25

April 7 protesters say curtis appeals for 'U.S. hands off Cuba' new tnat in frame-up

BY PETER THIERJUNG DES MOINES, Iowa - Mark Curtis De­ fense Committee supporters announced at an April 12 news conference here that a decision is expected soon in Curtis' appeal of his 1988 frame-up conviction on rape and burglary charges. The decision from the Iowa Court of Appeals could be handed down within the next two months. "Mark's appeal is a powerful indictment of an unfair trial. One of the appeal's strongest foundations rests on the fundamental consti­ tutional right to confront and cross-examine one's accusers, a right denied Curtis," said John Studer, the defense committee coordi­ nator. "For this and other reasons, his con­ viction should be overturned." Studer was joined at the news conference by longtime Des Moines Black rights activist Edna Griffin; political activists Robert and Nellie Berry; defense committee treasurer Julia Terrell; Hector Marroquin, a unionist and fighter for immigrant rights; and Sandra Nelson, a leader of the defense committee. "It is crucial to mobilize public opinion now," said Griffin, "especially in the Black community." She, along with the others pres­ ent, reaffirmed her commitment to win justice Militant/Janet Post for Curtis. Marchers in New York on April 7 called for "U.S. hands off Cuba!" in the largest action in city in defense of Cuba since 1960s. Curtis, a Des Moines unionist and political activist, is currently incarcerated at the Iowa BY SELVA NEBBIA marched some 12 blocks for a second rally Cuesta. "The Cuban people have been able State Men's Reformatory in Anamosa. His NEW YORK- Demanding "U.S. hands in front of the offices of the Cuban mission to jam it and say, 'We will not be brought to frame-up conviction stems from his partici­ off Cuba!" and "Stop TV Marti!" 1,500 peo­ to the United Nations. our knees, but if we are it will be to take pation in defense efforts On behalf of 17 Mexican and Salvadoran coworkers who ple marched here on April 7 to protest "This is one of the largest demonstrations aim."' were arrested during a March l, 1988, raid we have ever had in defense of Cuba," said On March 27 Washington began test by Immigration and Naturalization Service Angel Cuesta, a member of Casa de las broadcasts of TV Marti, a U.S.-government See editorial on page 14. agents at the Swift meat-packing company Americas, one of the 60 sponsoring organi­ financed effort to transmit on one of Cuba's here. zations. The action was the largest one of its domestic TV channels. Within minutes Arrested by Des Moines police in the Cuban technicians successfully jammed the Washington's most recent provocations kind to take place here since the protests evening of March 4, 1988, Curtis had partic­ against President John Kennedy's blockade TV signal and have prevented every attempt against Cuba. ipated in a meeting a few hours earlier to The action, called by the U.S. Hands Off of Cuba during the October 1962 "missile to transmit since then. organize protests against the government's Cuba Coalition, assembled at Tunes Square crisis." Two blocks away from the "U.S. Hands victimization of the immigrant workers. in mid-Manhattan and, after a brief rally, "TV Marti has been a big failure," said Off Cuba" action, ultra-right Cuban exile "This frame-up on false charges was politi­ organizations held a counterdemonstration. cally motivated to intimidate myself and oth­ Organizers of this action had openly stated ers from political and union activities," Curtis they would prevent the march from taking said in a statement for the news conference May 3 labor rally set to place. sent from prison. In the days leading up to the action, mes­ Following his arrest, Curtis was severely sages from a broad range of individuals and beaten at the police station by officers who back New York strikers organizations were sent to Mayor David called him a "Mexican-lover, just like you Dinkins urging him to insure the democratic love those coloreds." He suffered a shattered BY SUSAN LaMONT of Greyhound strikers, Dornsey strikers, and rights of the "Hands Off Cuba" demonstra­ cheekbone and required 17 stitches. Curtis Machinists on strike at Eastern Airlines, the Daily News workers-is in the interests tors in the face of these threats. was found guilty in a September 1988 trial striking Greyhound workers, and other of all working people, whether they're union On the day of the event a cordon of police before the District Court of Polk County and unionists in New York are mapping plans for members or not." in riot gear stood between the two groups. was sentenced to 25 years in state prison. a citywide labor solidarity rally May 3. The Some 200 coalition security marshals made Lylea Critelli, one of Curtis' attorneys, 'Night of 100 Stars' rally will mobilize support for the Eastern Continued on Page 11 Continued on Page 4 and Greyhound strikers, for garment workers While plans for the May 3 rally were fighting for union recognition at Domsey getting off the ground, unionists in the enter­ Trading Co. in Brooklyn, and for workers at tainment industry helped Eastern strikers the Daily News, who face a tough fight score another victory. The Actors' Fund de­ Week two of British prison takeover against the News' drive to break the unions cided to cancel participation by Frank there. Lorenzo in its "Night of 100 Stars" benefit, BY BRIAN GROGAN 128 prisons, increasingly concentrated in the The May 3labor march and rally will begin set for May 5 at Radio City Music Hall in LONDON - Displaying a large banner 17-25 age group. According to Home Office at 4:30p.m. at 41st Street and Eighth Avenue New York. on the roof declaring themselves "Plebeius, statistics, nearly 14 percent of the prison in Manhattan, where Greyhound strikers in Each year a major benefit is held in New of the common people," prisoners at population in 1986 was from national minor­ the Amalgamated Transit Union maintain York to raise money for the Actors' Fund, a Manchester's Strangeways prison are into ities who constitute somewhat over 3 percent their picket lines at the huge Port Authority charity that provides financial assistance, job their second week of an occupation of the of the population. bus terminal. The march will proceed at 5:30 placement aid, nursing home care, and other facility. This is the longest prisoner uprising The annual report of Her Majesty's Chief p.m. to Rockefeller Center for a rally at services for actors, writers, and others in in modern British history. Inspector for Prisons admitted that in many Eastern's midtown ticket office at 49th Street show business. This year the "Night of 100 The actions of the Strangeways prisoners prisons, inmates were forced to exist "in and Fifth Avenue. Stars" gala is slated to raise funds for the have highlighted the barbaric conditions in conditions which offend against any reason­ "We've been able to sustain our fight for AIDS programs of the Actors' Fund. In the British prisons and touched off protests and able standards of decency." In response to 14 months and grow stronger because of the past the benefit has had the support of the occupations in at least 13 other establish­ the uprisings Robert Runcie, archbishop of support and solidarity of other unions," said entertainment industry unions. ments - notably at Dartmoor and Bristol Canterbury -the head of the Church of En­ Ernie Mailhot, an Eastern strike leader from When the benefit was announced last prisons in the south of England. gland, has denounced "the disgraceful con­ International Association of Machinists month, Lorenzo, chainnan of Eastern's par­ Britain has a larger number of prison in­ ditions in some of Britain's prisons." Local 1018 at New York's La Guardia Air­ ent company Texas Air Corp., was listed in mates per capita than any other European Strangeways was built in 1868 for 970 port. "The May 3 rally will give us a chance a full-page New York Times ad as a member country (although only half as many as in the prisoners but now houses some 1,600. As a to reach thousands more working people in Of the event's executive committee, along United States), and the rate of growth has result, in many instances three prisoners were New York with the message that our our strike with dozens of other corporate bigwigs and accelerated since the mid-1980s. being held in cells originally designed for is going strong and our struggle - and that Continued on Page 6 Currently, there are 46,500 prisoners in Continued on Page 11 Yakima area sales teams sign up farm workers

BY ROBBIE SCHERR drop to the interest in the periodicals ers marched on the growers, another were union supporters from cialist monthly. SEATILE - "Hey, remember is the increase in union activity re­ five workers bought subscriptions to throughout the Pacific Northwest. Another team to the Yakima Val­ me from last year's farm workers' cently in preparation for the opening Perspectiva Mundial and one signed Two farm workers bought Per­ ley will hit the road April 12-17 to convention?" someone called out in of the asparagus harvest this month. up for the Militant. spectiva Mundial subscriptions and get a jump start on the international Spanish to a member of a Militant Round one of the effort to con­ Following the demonstration a 28 others bought a copy of the so- target week that begins April 14. and Perspectiva Mundial sales team front the asparagus growers and team of three from Seattle; Portland, canvassing his neighborhood in other agribusinessmen in the Oregon; and Vancouver, British Co­ Yakima, Washington. Gregorio, a Yakima Valley was a UFWWS in- lumbia, stayed in the Yakima Valley for two days selling the Militant and

MIIITAIUT Perspectiva Mundial and building GETTING the UFFWS convention. [~.~ ..~~!~ .~!/ .·::~:~. ] THE One young worker on his way into the afternoon shift at Iowa Beef Cuba defends sovereignty as Washington gears up TV war M Il ITA NT Processors in Wallula, Washington, U.S. hands Castro readily bought a subscription to Per­ off Cuba! denounces spectiva Mundial. By the end of the Stop TV TV Marti as aggression! 'adventure' shift change 10 others had picked up :.; :-:..;:.-::.::·::=~::::: ...':' .~~~~ '!'"·. ~_-;:._;. ~~! ' AROUND single copies of the publications and a delivery truck driver signed up for member of the United Farm Workers tervention into Washington State the Militant. of Washington State (UFWWS) rec­ legislative hearings on child labor ognized the Spanish-language held in March. Sixty-five farm The next day the team staffed monthly Perspectiva Mundial as workers - both children and tables at Yakima Valley Community well as the salesperson. He then got adults - packed the hearings at College and Heritage College on the in his truck, took the team to his the state house in Olympia to fight Yakima Indian reservation. house and signed up for a subscrip­ for relief from the barbaric practice Along with some door-to-door tion. of child labor that is widespread in canvassing and sales at the farm Gregorioisoneof24 Yakima Val­ agriculture. workers health clinic in Toppenish, ley residents who have become new Three participants subscribed to Washington, a total of 10 Per­ readers of Perspectiva Mundial or the Perspectiva Mundial while mill­ spectiva Mundial and five Militant the Militant since the seven-week ing around the state house during the subscriptions were sold by the two­ Ellis international sales drive began hearings. day team. Union farm workers' convention in Sunnyside, Washington, April I. March 17. In addition, two UFWWS At a March 25 demonstration or­ On April1, some 250 participants Two workers there signed up to get Perspectiva Mundial, adding to executive committee members re­ ganized by the union in Sunnyside, attended the UFFWS convention in the 22 new readers of PM and the Militant won in the Yakima Valley newed their subscriptions. The back- Washington, where 450 farm work- Sunnyside. Among those present during the current subscription drive. Socialist candidate files petitions in W. Virginia

BY LINDA JOYCE to vote in the primary elections?" accepted for all three candidates. "But just in signatures each. CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Socialist Robert Wilkinson, attorney for the secre­ case there is any foot dragging, I am paying The Register-Herald in Beckley, West Vir­ Workers Party candidate for state attorney tary of state, replied that a signature on the the $504 filing fee for myself under protest, ginia, a coal-mining center, editorialized general Clay Dennison filed 716 pages of socialist's petitions constituted a "vote." fully expecting a favorable reply and the against the ballot restrictions on March 31. petitions here April 9 calling on Secretary of "You mean signing a petition on a street money returned." The state has said that the "The law clearly gives Democrats and Re­ State Ken Hechler to waive the filing fees for comer equals a vote?" said the reporter in more than 4,000 signatures collected, if ac­ publicans an extreme advantage over any the slate of socialist candidates in the 1990 disbelief. The state's representatives main­ cepted, would only be sufficient to place contenders. That isn't surprising, because the elections. Dennison is running with Dick tained that it did. McBride on the ballot and that the other two law is the product of those two parties," the McBride, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate, Dennison demanded that the petition be candidates would need an additional 3,650 paper said. and Maggie McCraw, SWP candidate for state treasurer. "What amounts to pocket change for the Democrats and Republicans," said Dennison, North Carolina socialists launch campaign a coal miner, "is a big chunk of money for people who work." West Virginia's un­ BY JANE ROLAND what they would do when the plant shuts Darryl Hunt, a young Black man from Win­ democratic election restrictions forced the GREENSBORO, N.C. - Rich Stuart, down. Recently Cone, Milliken, Guilford, ston-Salem who had been framed up on mur­ socialists to collect well over the 3,650 sig­ Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. and Dacotah textile companies have an­ der charges but was found innocent by an nature requirement or pay some $2,000 to Senate, announced his campaign here April nounced major plant closings in North and all-white jury at the end of March. place their names on the ballot. 5, standing in front of Bates Nightwear, a South Carolina and Georgia. garment shop scheduled to close in June. Stuart pointed to the gains made by Cuba's workers and farmers as an example for work­ A 45-minute debate followed as reporters "We're campaigning here," Stuart explained, Stuart, a rail worker, is a member of United ing people here. "I believe that the miserable questioned Hechler, his chief of staff, and "to point to the recent wave of mill and plant Transportation Union Local 783 and an ac­ conditions that millions of the world's people staff attorney on the right of third parties and closings and the turmoil these closings will tive supporter of the Machinists strike at live under, including here in North Carolina, independent candidates to be on the ballot. bring to thousands of workers and their fam­ Eastern Airlines. He is running for the senate prove that the current rulers of this system The secretary of state left after a short while ilies." seat currently held by Republican Jesse are unfit to rule," Stuart said. "We need a but the discussion continued. Helms. "Why is it if I sign a petition to allow Several Bates workers - who talked with new kind of society, a new international eco­ socialists on the ballot for the general elec­ Stuart when they came outside during their Stuart's first act as the SWP senatorial nomic order, that puts humanity before prof­ tion," asked one reporter, "that I lose my right lunch break - told him they had no idea candidate was to send a letter congratulating its." The Militant Closing news date: Aprilll, 1990 Need the facts ••• Get the Editor: DOUG JENNESS Circulation Director: RONI McCANN Nicaragua Bureau Director: LARRY SEIGLE Business Manager: JIM WHITE Editorial Staff: Susan Apstein (Nicaragua), Seth Galinsky MILITANT (Nicaragua), Yvonne Hayes, Arthur Hughes, Susan LaMont, Weekly news and analysis on the Roni McCann, Greg McCartan, Selva Nebbia, PeterThierjung. Published weekly except the last two weeks of December by struggles of working people worldwide the Militant (ISSN 0026-3885), 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: Editorial Office, (212) 243-6392; News coverage on Cuba • Reports from the picket Fax 727-0150; Telex, 497-4278; Business Office, (212) 929- lines of Eastern Airlines and Greyhound strikes • 3486. Nicaragua Bureau, Apartado 2222, Managua. Tele­ Eyewitness reports from South Africa phone 24845. Correspondence concerning subscriptions or changes INTRODUCTORY OFFER FOR of address should be addressed to The Militant Business Office, 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. NEW READERS Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at addi­ tional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Militant, 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. Sub­ scriptions: U.S., Latin America: for one-year subscription ~ 12 ISSUES $7 send $37, drawn on a U.S. bank, to above address. By first­ r------~ 1 class (airmail), send $70. Canada: send Canadian $50 for 0 $7 for 12 issues 0 $37 for a year 0 $70 for 2 years one-year subscription to Societe d'Editions AGPP, C.P. 340, Name ______succ. R, Montreal, Quebec H2S 3M2. Britain, Ireland, Af­ Address ______rica: £28 for one year by check or international money order made out to Militant Distribution, 47 The Cut, London, SEl City ------8LL, England. Continental Europe: £35 for one year by State Zip _____ check or international money order made out to Militant Dis­ Phone ______tribution at above address. Australia, Asia, Pacific: send Union/School/Organization ______Australian $60 to Pathfinder Press, P.O. Box 259, Glebe, Sydney, NSW 2037, Australia. Send to the Militant, 410 West St., New York, N.Y 10014. Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent ------~ the Militant' s views. These are expressed in editorials.

2 The Militant April 20, 1990 New York meeting discusses Panama Aftermath of U.S. invasion described BY LUIS MADRID Teresa Gutierrez, associate director, spoke NEW YORK- "The massacre of El on behalf of the commission at the event. Chorrillo, Colon, and San Miguelito is a "They would like for us to forget this crime against humanity. It is Grenada; it is barbaric act, but tonight showed that we will Vietnam," said Olga Mejia before an atten­ not allow that," Gutierrez said. She also de­ tive audience of 1,600. She was describing scribed the campaigns the commission has the first few hours of the U.S. invasion of carried out on behalf of Panamanian activists Panama last December. jailed since the invasion and the role played Mejia was one of the panelists at the Voices by the commission in getting out the truth From Panama rally in solidarity with the about the invasion and the current situation Panamanian people called by the Indepen­ facing Panamanians. dent Commission of Inquiry on the U.S. The invasion has meant "the reimposition Invasion of Panama at Town Hall theater on of apartheid in Panama," said Robert Knight, April 5. She is president of the Panamanian as he urged the audience for funds. Knight, National Commission on Human Rights. a steering committe member, had received In El Chorrillo, a community in Panama the George Polk Award the previous day for City of about 20,000 people, "five complete his radio coverage of the invasion on WBAI's blocks were bombarded," Mejia said, "com­ Undercu"ent. What they do not tell you, pletely leveled and turned into a natural holy Knight pointed out, is that Polk became Nebbia ground." She described the high-powered known for uncovering the U.S. and British Youth in front of Republica El Salvador school in El Chorrillo, Panama City, now weaponry and the behavior of the invading involvement in the Greek civil war. Knight housing residents left homeless after December U.S. invasion. "Five complete blocks forces. "Many of those who came out running added that he had challenged other reporters were bombarded," said panelist at April 5 meeting on Panama in New York. away from the fires and the bombings died, as to why they went along with the news machine-gunned down by the U.S. troops," blackout on the invasion and its aftermath. A message of support to the commission she recalled. By the end of the evening hundreds of yer for the war refugees from El Chorrillo; from Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, leader of "We need to see that it never happens dollars had been raised for the the commis­ and others. Mexico's Party of the Democratic Revolution again. We have to resolve it should never sion's work. During the evening, Gemma acknowl­ happen again: not in Panama, not in Nicara­ and its candidate in the last presidential elec­ edged the presence of Margarita Delgado, Amaldo Ramos, representative of the gua, not in Cuba, not in Haiti .. . nowhere," tions in that country, was also read. first secretary of the Cuban Mission to the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front said Ramsey Clark. UN; representatives of the South West Africa (FMLN), received an enthusiastic response Esmeralda Brown, Waldaba Stewart, and People's Organisation of Namibia; a delega­ Recounting his January trip to Panama, the when he spoke about the "progress" made in other commission members were on stage. tion of transit workers currently on strike former U.S. attorney general and a commis­ the most recent negotiations - mediated by There were also representatives of different against Greyhound; and several other prom­ sion steering committee member referred to a representative of UN Secretary-General Panamanian sroups -the Voices From Pan­ inent activists. the many victims whose whereabouts are still Javier Perez de Cuellar - between the ama, Hector Aleman from the public employ­ unknown. "The grave that I saw was 18 feet FMLN and the government of El Salvador ees federation FENASEP; Edilma lcaza, a Commission member Valerie Van Isler con­ wide- six paces .. . 120 feet long - 40 in Geneva, Switzerland. Kuna indigenous leader; GracielaDixon, law- tributed to this article. paces. It hadn't been filled in for 26 more paces and the unfilled part was five feet deep," he said. "Tragically, we need to have a body count. The families are entitled to know what has happened to their loved Cuban youth protest U.S. broadcasts ones." Early in the meeting Gavrielle Gemma, BY SETH GALINSKY ment is divided over continuing TV Marti. for an ID card or proof of age. This movie is commission project director and the event's HAVANA, Cuba-At a midnight rally on Millions of dollars have already been spent not off limits to minors. Everyone has an open chair, announced that the meeting was sold April 3, tens of thousands of young people on the project, but the Cubans have success­ ticket to defend their conquests. From the out and a sound system had been set up for here celebrated the 28th anniversary of the fully jammed every transmission since the child-care center to the senior citizens' home, the couple of hundred people outside who founding of the Union of Communist Youth station started up on March 27. from cradle to grave, we are Cubans." could not get in. (UJC) and protested attempts to start up TV Some circles in the United States believe The commission was formed in mid-Jan­ Marti, a U.S.-government financed station that TV Marti is a failure and that all it has 'Privilege of being communist' uary 1990 due to the scarce information avail­ designed to broadcast over Cuban domestic done is unite the Cuban people more than "We have the beautiful privilege of having able to the people in the United States television channels. ever, Robaina stated. been the first of the organizations in our regarding "the extent of the death and de­ "The Yankees think they are going to de­ country to use the adjective communist," struction and the reality of life in Panama in feat us with a little television screen," Roberto 'Let the tourists come' Robaina stated. Formerly the Association of the aftermath of the invasion." Robaina, UJC first secretary, stated to the "These gentlemen think that since Cuba Rebel Youth, the group changed its name at Made up of prominent human rights and laughter of the crowd, "something they have cannot be made to give in by force, the most its first congress in 1962 on the suggestion trade union activists, clergy, and others, the not been able to do with the blockade, threats, important thing is to establish relations, offer of Cuban President Fidel Castro, who said commission visited Panama and gathered and aggression. us the heavenly society, send us their tourists, communism was the "name of the future." statements and accounts from Panamanian "They would be better off flying kites in and introduce their propaganda, and then we Answering those in the world who believe victims of the invasion, including those who Florida," he added, referring to the ballon­ will fall down and surrender at their feet," Cuba should adopt capitalist methods, were jailed, had relatives killed, were made like aerostat used to beam TV Marti to the Robaina said. Robaina stated, "We will continue to be, above homeless, or suffered other human rights island from Florida. "If they think they are going to break us all and in the face of everything, more com­ abuses or indignities. According to Robaina, the U.S. govern- with tourists, let them come," he added. "It munistthan our own teachers, and ifnecessary just might backfire on them. Maybe the North more intransigent. Cuban youth will never get American tourists themselves might ask for down on their knees to anyone!" Denmark tour wins Curtis support asylum to be able to stay in Cuba." Robaina contrasted Cuba's limited re­ The youth leader asked the crowd if people sources with the wealth of more powerful BY PETER THIERJUNG heard Kaku. in the United States could walk down the nations and the millions spent on TV Marti. DES MOINES, Iowa - An appeal for Workers were flabbergasted by the work­ streets of big cities without fear of rape, He pointed to the invitation by the Cuban support of Mark Curtis' fight for justice was ing conditions of meat-packers in the United robbery, or murder; if parents could leave children's group, the Pioneers, to young vic­ brought to unionists, political activists, and States, Kaku said. At the Hadsten plant some their children alone without fear that some­ tims of the Chemobyl nuclear disaster in the supporters of democratic rights across Den­ 9,000 hogs are slaughtered each week, while one would give them drugs. Thousands re­ Soviet Union to spend their vacations on the mark. Kate Kaku, a leader of the Mark Curtis at a similar U.S. plant more than 6,000 hogs plied, "Nowhere in the United States." island. In addition, 139 Chernobyl victims Defense Committee, toured the country are slaughtered each day. The conditions in North American working people would be are here receiving medical care. March 21 through April 6. Danish slaughterhouses are better, line speed amazed to know the truth about Cuba, he "What a paradox between their abundance In a telephone interview from Iceland, is slower, and the pay is higher, Kakureported. said, where none of these disgraces exist. of resources and our limited means," Robaina Kaku - who is also Curtis' wife - said she "These better conditions are beginning to "We are just telling it like it is," Robaina said. "But what a great honor to share our visited 17 Danish cities and spoke before some change as employers in Denmark look to do added. Commenting on the days of festivities only piece of bread with a brother. What a 3,000 people. Tens of thousands more heard what the U.S. packinghouse bosses are in celebration of the UJC anniversary, he said, great honor to not be stingy and contemptible. her explain Curtis' frame-up conviction on doing," Kaku said. "Workers in Denmark are "They don't know what they've missed. They What an immense satisfaction is felt knowing rape and burglary charges by Des Moines city very interested in the struggles of working don't know what it's like to enjoy yourself we don't exploit anyone, we don't rob any­ authorities in more than 20 interviews with people in the United States, and in how Mark with little money but lots of enthusiasm." one, and we don't plunder any country." TV and radio stations and newspapers. Kaku was part of fighting to change those condi­ Robaina continued contrasting the condi­ Robaina invited President Castro to say a also explained Curtis' current campaign to tions." tions in the United States with those in Cuba. few words. His speech centered mainly reverse false charges of gambling and result­ Kaku was also able to discuss Curtis' case "In this underdeveloped country you can find around whether Cuba was correct to resist ing penalties against him brought by prison with various political parties and organiza­ better medical attention than in that great imperialism and defend socialism. At a press authorities at the Iowa State Men's Reforma­ tions. She spoke to a meeting of 200 trade country of abundance," he said. conference earlier that day, a reporter had tory in Anamosa, where he is incarcerated. unionists who are also members of the Com­ Cubans are extremely proud of the ad­ asked him if resistance would not lead to Kaku spoke at meetings of dockworkers in munist Party of Denmark and received a vances they have made in health care, which collective suicide. Esbjerg, where $250 was donated, and standing ovation. A collection made by the is completely free of charge. Infant mortality "I answered," Castro said, "that we would Arhus, where workers contributed $1 ,000 to group netted $250 for the defense campaign. is lower in Cuba than in many U.S. cities. prefer death to slavery." the defense effort. She also addressed more Some $4,000 in all was contributed to the Critics claim that Cuban youth are not as The Cuban people and youth do not want than 1,000 meat workers in two meetings. At Des Moines-based Mark Curtis Defense enthusiastic about the revolution as their par­ a return to selfishness, vices, and squalor of a lunch-break gathering Kaku told some 600 Committee. ents. They try to create divisions between the capitalism, the president said. slaughterhouse workers in Odense about Kaku's visit to Denmark was part of a older and younger generations, Robaina said. But resistance is not the same as suicide, Curtis' fight and the conditions faced by European tour that has taken her to Britain But they are making a mistake, he stated, Castro stated. "Only those who are brave, meat-packers in the United States. At a meet­ and now Iceland. She will also go to Sweden, "because to defend our homeland and the only those who fight, only those who resist ing in Hadsten 400 packinghouse workers Norway, and France. unity of the revolution, we don't ask anyone will triumph."

April 20, 1990 The Militant 3 Support activities will be key to raising $60,000

Mark Curtis is a unionist and cards and collection of $24.50," pledges toward a $20,000 fund that among themselves, if they are to two years. The March 26 Des political activist from Des Moines, wrote a supporter from Atlanta. helped get a delegation of supporters achieve any real improvement in Moines Register reported the un­ Iowa, who is serving a 25-year "These workers are part of a very to Geneva, Switzerland, to bring their lives. The harassment of Mark friendly greeting a Polish visitor to prison term in the state peniten­ low-wage industry ... we were Curtis' case before the Unired Na­ Curtis must stop." the city received from police. tiary in Anamosa on a frame-up taught a real lesson by the willing­ tions Human Rights Commission. Flounnory is the business repre­ Lorraine Rokitnicki, who arrived conviction of rape and burglary. ness of these workers to donate Contributions should be sent to sentative of the United Food and in February to visit relatives, The Mark Curtis Defense Com­ money tO the case." Castle, a Hol­ the Mark Curtis Defense Commit­ Commercial Workers Union Local stopped outside. a Sears store in a mittee is leading an international lywood director, produced The tee. Tax-deductible contributions 442 in Atlanta and is one ofhundreds mall to smell an evergreen. She was campaign to fight for justice for Frame-Up of Mark Curtis to help should be made out to the Political of trade unionists, political activists, waiting for her brother and sister-in­ Curtis. For more information publicize Curtis' fight for justice. Rights Defense Fund, Inc. religious figures, and civil liberties law, but then a Des Moines cop about the case or how you can These activities are examples of supporters who are demanding the grabbed her from behind, shook her help, write to the Mark Curtis how Curtis' supporters are stepping • gambling charges and penalties up, and forced her into a squad car. "I have been following the con­ against Curtis be dropped. Curtis is currently appealing to the Iowa De­ "She thought he was after her for tinued victimization of Mark Curtis pulling a berry off the evergreen," while he has been at Anamosa," partment of Corrections to get the DEFEND MARK CURTIS! the sister-in-law said. "When he wrote Johnny Flounnory in a letter frame-up reversed. You can help by sending ames­ turned on the ignition of the car, she Defense Committee, Box 1048, up their fund-raising efforts. In sev­ to Anamosa prison warden John thought she was going to be kid­ Thalacker. "Most recently, Mark has sage of protest to Paul Grossheim, Des Moines, Iowa 503ll; tele­ eral areas supporters have also or­ napped and all she could think of been charged with betting on the Director, Department of Correc­ phone (515) 246-1695. ganized phone calling of defense was her children and husband in If you have news or reports on committee endorsers, combining Super Bowl, found guilty based tions, Capitol Annex, 523 E. 12th St., Des Moines, Iowa 50309 USA; Poland. She didn't know how we activities in support of Mark Cur­ them with getting protests directed upon highly questionable evidence, would ever find her." tis from your city or country, at Iowa prison officials to demand and is suffering the consequences. and to John A. Thalacker, Warden, please send them to the Militant. that the frame-up gambling charges "To anyone familiar with Mark's Iowa State Men's Reformatory, An­ "Essentially it's all true," Des against Curtis be dropped. In Janu­ situation, it is clear that he is guilty amosa, Iowa 52205 USA. Copies Moines Police Chief Robert Moul­ "The enclosed checks are from a ary Curtis was falsely charged by only of standing up for his own and replies from prison officials der told the Register. "She was mis­ meeting in San Diego organized by prison authorities with gambling on rights and those of other prisoners. should be sent to the defense com­ taken for a shoplifter. The officer did supporters there. We brought mate­ the Super Bowl football game. The We know, for instance, that he has mittee. approach her from behind, and she rials from Los Angeles, 14 attended, penalties imposed on Curtis will af­ recently participated in a successful was detained." and more than $700 was contrib­ fect his fight for parole, if they are effort by many inmates to furnish • "We have apologized for the mis­ uted" said a note to the Mark Curtis not reversed. the prison library with relevant po­ A little more than two years ago take but apparently that's not Defense Committee with checks at­ As of April 9, $10,434 has been litical books and literature. on March 4, Mark Curtis was ar­ enough," Moulder said. "I don't tached. contributed toward the goal of "As a trade unionist, I strongly rested and beaten by Des Moines know what more you can do." "We showed the video by Nick $60,000 needed to finance the legal object to Mark's treatment by prison police, who shattered his cheek bone Castle to members of an Amalga­ and organizational work of the de­ authorities. Like other workers, pris­ and cut his face. Curtis has a civil Sandra Nelson, a leader of the Mark mated Clothing and Textile Workers fense committee. The defense com­ oners must have access to informa­ suit pending against the police for Curtis Defense Committee in Des Union local last night in Louisville, mittee has also projected rapidly tion which concerns them, and be their assault. Moines, Iowa, contributed to this Georgia. Enclosed are the endorser collecting the $5,000 in outstanding able to share such information It seems not much has changed in week's column. Political activist Mark Curtis appeals for new trial

Continued from front page ings against Curtis, the evidence was insuf­ argued his case before a three-judge panel of ficient for conviction. the Iowa Court of Appeals March 7. Chief Curtis' appeal contends that "the Sixth and

" . Appellate Judge Leo Oxberger presided at ,:: ..• •.. •· ·...... ·.• ·..·... ·• ·.·.·.. ·... · Fourteenth Amendments to the Federal Con­ the hearing. Also sitting were judges Dick ,~· '' stitution require the admission of relevant Schlegel and Rosemary Sackett. evidence," and these were violated by the judge's decision. Trial judge's rulings Curtis can appeal his case to the Iowa Curtis' appeal brief, filed in June 1989, Supreme Court and then to U.S. federal states that a series of rulings by the trial judge courts should his request for a new trial be violated Curtis' constitutional rights and pre­ turned down. Should the court rule in Curtis' vented him from getting a fair trial. The favor, the state can also appeal to higher rulings included withholding crucial evi­ courts to attempt to block a new trial. This is dence from the jury, especially regarding the an unusual step for the state to take, said testimony of the police. The prosecution's Ryan, but it can be done. case hinged on the word of Joseph Gonzalez, the arresting officer, who testified that he "We will step up our efforts to take Mark's caught Curtis with his pants down at the scene fight to the world," Studer said. "We will of the alleged rape. defend his rights to be politically active in Other than Gonzalez' testimony, the pros­ prison. We will publicize the justice of his ecution was unable to present evidence pin­ struggle for freedom. We can't be sure how ning Curtis to the alleged crime. No seminal long this fight will take. But Mark will walk fluid or pubic hairs belonging to Curtis were out of that prison an unbroken and confident found on the alleged victim. She testified that political activist. And the human rights of all her clothes were covered with dog hairs from Militant/Yvonne Hayes will be strengthened by our efforts." having been forced to the floor of her porch. Mark Curtis testifies during September 1988 trial. On March 7 Iowa Court of Appeals A popular local radio station prominently None were found on Curtis' clothes. Her heard Curtis' motion to overturn his conviction, which was a "powerful indictment of reported the news that Curtis' appeal had been description of her attacker did not match an unfair trial," said defense committee leader John Studer at April 12 news confer­ heard and publicized the defense committee's Curtis' features. At the time she insisted the ence. "It's crucial to mobilize public opinion now," said Black rights activist Edna news conference. attack took place, Curtis was in a bar with Griffin. dozens of coworkers from the Swift packing­ house. Gonzalez' suspension from the police Moines police officers; excluding evidence Pittston miners set "The credibility of arresting officers was force for lying in the previous arrest "was of surveillance of Curtis as a leader of the an important component of Mr. Curtis' trial particularly relevant," and the exclusion of Committee in Solidarity with the People of April 21-22 festivities based upon his defense that he was the victim this fact from the trial constitutes grounds for El Salvador and of his political party, the of false arrest and frame-up," Curtis' brief the appeals court to order a new trial, Curtis' Socialist Workers Party; and the failure of "Labor stood with us and the United Mine states. attorneys argued. county prosecutors to press criminal charges Workers of America intends to do all it can Trial judge Harry Perkins had refused to Curtis' appeal brief cites a precedent-set­ against the father of the alleged victim when, to stand with our brothers and sisters who allow Curtis' lawyer to question Gonzalez ting 1985 case in the Iowa Court of Appeals after telling two cops he was going to "kick need support," reads the March 16 issue of about the fact that he had been suspended that states "in instances where the witness' some ass," he attempted to attack Curtis at the Camo-Call, the UMWA newsletter pub­ from the police force earlier for brutality and credibility is so important and seriously chal­ the Pathfinder Bookstore and then did $2,000 lished during the 1989-90 strike against lying in a previous arrest. lenged, the jury should know all facts which worth of damage there. Pittston Coal Group. UMWA miners and may reflect on that credibility." Curtis' appeal also raised the following friends have announced two days of festivi­ issues as a basis for a new trial: ties for April21-22 in southwestern VIrginia. In our next issue ... State's position Strikers, unionists, and other supporters are Legal precedents cited in Curtis' appeal to • The judge failed to inform the jury that invited to attend. support this claim "really didn't apply in this the testimony of Brian Willey, a coworker of The event will be held at the Wise County Eastern Europe case," Iowa Assistant Attorney General Curtis', was grounds for acquittal. Willey Fairgrounds in Wise, VIrginia. Camp Solidar­ series to resume Roxann Ryan told the Militant. She argued gave undisputed testimony that Curtis was ity, where tens of thousands of Pittston strike before the appeals court against Curtis' re­ with him and others at Los Compadres, a supporters stayed during the 11-month battle, next week quest for a new trial and submitted the state's local bar when the alleged victim claimed will be open on a ftrst come-first serve basis. legal brief, which contended that no questions she was attacked. The weekend will include speakers, music, The "Crisis in Eastern Europe" se­ of rights violations were at stake. The state's • The judge ignored a series of irregular­ food, games, and fun. For more information ries will resume in next week's Militant brief claims that the "evidence presented by ities involving the jury, including the removal contact Peggy Johnson or Saundie Smith at with the second part. Peter Thierjung, the prosecution supports the guilty verdict." of a juror prior to deliberations solely because (703) 762-5537. who is writing the series, is on special The state also asserted that Curtis had failed he was familiar with places mentioned during assignment in Des Moines, Iowa, re­ to prove "institutional bias or a frame-up." the trial; evidence that the jury's verdict was porting on developments in the Mark This publication is available "It was the prosecution, however, that not unanimous; and information that a juror in microform from University Curtis defense campaign. The con­ moved the judge bar Curtis from submitting had been seen with the family of the alleged Microfilms International. quests of the October 1917 Russian evidence of institutional bias and a frame-up victim during a break in the trial. <:a U tuU-free 800-52 1-J044. Or mail inqui ry tu: ll n i v t~rs i l y Microfilms lnle rnct tiunal. ]00 North \.::oOik"~ revolution will be the focus of Part ll. at his 1988 trial," said Studer. "This included • Finally, the appeal argues that even with Zeeb RoH

4 The Militant April 20, 1990 Cuban economist on U.S. tour talks about Guevara and rectification

Militant/Charles Ostrofsky process today Carlos Thblada (left) autographs books at "Wclshington Peace Center during his visit to capital

BY JANICE LYNN Cuba? and, What do the Cuban people think through Aprill4. On April 7 more than 225 director Nick Castle will be held for Tablada. WASHINGTON, D.C.- Cuban econo­ of TV Martf? people attended a citywide meeting at the City Councilman Robert Farrell issued a mist Carlos Tablada spoke to 150 people at During the course of the tour, 55 copies of United Methodist Church there. proclamation to welcome the Cuban econo­ the Washington Peace Center here April 6. Tablada's book were sold and 150 people Other speaking engagements in Los An­ mist to the city. The meeting was the culmination of Tabla­ signed an l;lppeal to the U.S. State Department geles include the University of California at Other areas Tablada will visit include: da's visit to the U.S. capital and the second for the unrestricted right to travel to and from Riverside, California State at Los Angeles, Price (April 16) and Salt Lake City (April stop of his 12-city U.S. tour. Cuba and for lifting the U.S. government's and the University of Southern California. 17), Utah; San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area Tablada is the author of Che Guevara: blockade against Cuba. Tablada is scheduled for interviews with two (April 18-22); central North Carolina (April Economics and Politics in the Transition to After touring the Washington, D.C., area, Spanish-language radio shows and the main 24); Chicago (April 26); Boston (April 27- Socialism, published in English by Path­ Tablada headed to the West Coast. His first Spanish-language daily, La Opinion. An in­ May 1); western Massachusetts (May 2); and finder. stop was Los Angeles, where he will be formal gathering at the home of Hollywood New York (May 6-13). At the meeting the Cuban author was wel­ comed to Washington, D.C., by City Coun­ cilwoman Hilda Mason; Lisa Fithian, direc­ tor of the Washington Peace Center; Zeph Makgetla, African National Congress Mis­ Guevara's perspective for organizing sion to the United States; Joan Drake, of the international board of the Women's Interna­ tional League for Peace and Freedom; Jerry labor in the transition to socialism Oliveira, political director of the Virginia Machinists Union; and Sam Manuel, Path­ Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the promi­ ics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism finder Bookstore. the Transition to Socialism, by Carlos nent leaders of the revolutionary struggle does an excellent job of summarizing what Greetings were read from Angela Sanbra­ Tablada. New York: Pathfinder, 1989. against Batista, was in the center of figuring Guevara learned about politically organizing no, executive director of the Committee in 286 pp. $14.95 (until May 15). out how to lead the transition to socialism. the working class to take the first steps toward Solidarity with the People of El Salvador. In October 1959 he was designated head of socialism. He refers to writings that are cur­ The Washington, D.C., New Song Commit­ BY DOUG JENNESS the Industry Department of the National In­ rently available in English in Che Guevara tee performed songs dedicated to the Cuban Before 1959 the principal industrial, com­ stitute of Agrarian Reform and the following and the Cuban Revolution: Writings and people. mercial, and agricultural enterprises in Cuba month he became head of the state-owned Speeches ofErnesto Che Guevara, published Tablada noted the importance of meetings were privately owned by capitalists, the most National Bank. by Pathfinder in 1987, as well as to many like this for learning the truth about what is dominant ones from the United States. In February 1961, following the wave of works that are neither readily available in happening in Cuba. Economic decisions in Cuba at that time nationalizations in Cuba, Guevara became Spanish nor English. Central to Cuba today, Tablada said, is the were made according to what was profitable head of the new Ministry of Industry set up Tablada points out that Guevara had stud­ rectification process, in which Ernesto Che to big business and banking interests, and a to oversee the state-owned enterprises. ied closely the writings of Karl Marx and Carlos Tablada, in Guevara's contributions to the building of huge part of the wealth produced by Cuba's Che Guevara: Econom- Continued on Page 13 socialism are very relevant. working people was funnelled into U.S. bank accounts. Special offer 'A new human solidarity' Education, health care, housing, environ­ "Che believed that the construction of so­ mental protection, and economic develop­ cialism did not only mean increasing produc­ ment in Cuba were of no concern to these Books on Cuba from Pathfinder tion, investment, and consumer goods," exploiters of human labor, and few resources Tablada noted, "but the creation of new were allocated to advancing them. Capitalism human beings, a new society, and a new in Cuba meant that a handful got wealthier, Che Guevara: Economics and while the great majority lived in poverty. human solidarity." Politics in the Transition to In the last two years, by appealing to the Socialism • by Carlos Tablada. consciousness and solidarity of the Cuban A comprehensive look at the contri­ people, explained Tablada, 107 child-care IN REVIEW butions to building socialism by Che centers were completed using voluntary labor Guevara from 1959 to 1966, when and special construction brigades. Before the he played a central role in reorganiz­ rectification process was initiated, he said, it This all ended in the two years after the ing Cuba's industry and economy. had taken nine years to complete only 12 workers and peasants overthrew Fulgencio $16.95 Batista on Jan. 1, 1959. Working people day-care centers. Special offer until May 15: $14.95 Tablada's tour in Washington, D.C., also destroyed the old state bureaucracy, including included a reception at the Cuban Interests the police force and army, and forged their Section attended by 70 people and a talk at own instruments of power. Through a series Che Guevara and the Cuban the Institute for Policy Studies. Among those of mass mobilizations they expropriated Revolution • by Ernesto Che attending the latter meeting were IPS director nearly all capitalist holdings, both foreign and Guevara. Saul Landau, Isabel Letelier, and Alicia Tor­ Cuban, in the period August-October 1960. Features his speeches and writings on res, a lobbyist for the Cuban-American Com­ By implementing two agrarian reform economic development and creation mittee, which favors changes in U.S. policy laws (1959 .and 1963) capitalist agriculture of new social consciousness, and on to make it easier for Cubans living here to was eliminated and the rights of independent Cuba's commitment to freedom strug­ visit Cuba. working farmers and their families were gles in Asia, Mrica, and the Ameri­ cas. $13.95 Save over 20o/o The Cuban economist presented a lecture guaranteed. The Urban Reform Law adopted at American University before 70 students in October 1960 eliminated capitalist owner­ Three-book and faculty. He conducted a briefing on Cap­ ship of real estate, thus ending profit making In Defense of Socialism • by package from rents, mortgages, and speculation. itol Hill for the congressional staff of five Fidel Castro. $38.96 value members of the U.S. House of Representa­ Government control over foreign trade and Key to understanding the stakes in tives. The briefing was organized by Carlotta currency was established. Cuba's rectification process. Is eco­ Scott, executive assistant to U.S. Congress­ On April 16, 1961, at a rally to protest a nomic progress possible without the now only man Ronald Dellums. bombing attack on a Havana airport on the dog-eat-dog methods of capitalism? In addition, Tablada presented a guest lec­ eve of the U.S.-backed invasion at Playa $7.95 $29.95 ture at the School for Advanced International Giron, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro Studies at Johns Hopkins University on the declared for the first time that the Cuban Libros en Espaiiol Until May 15 invitation of Wayne Smith, former head of revolution was a "socialist revolution." the U.S. government Interests Section in El pensamiento economico de Cuba. He also gave several media interviews. Organizing transition to socialism Ernesto Che Guevara por With the end of capitalist political rule and Carlos Tablada. $11.95 Range of questions economic domination, the big question was Precio especial: $9.95 hasta el 15 de Available from Pathfinder book­ The Cuban economist was asked many how could working people use their newly mayo. stores listed on page 1 2, or by mail questions, including: How are AIDS patients won political power and nationalized prop­ from Pathfinder, 410 West St., New treated in Cuba? Can the Cuban revolution erty relations in basic industry, transportation, El socialismo y el hombre por York, N.Y. 10014. Pkase include survive given events in Eastern Europe? Are and commerce to organize a transition to Ernesto Che Guevara. $2.50 $1 per book postage and handling. there elections and opposition parties in socialism.

April 20, 1990 The Militant 5 Recalled flight attendants press Lorenzo on safety

Some 8,500 International Asso­ from former striking flight atten­ eral hundred flight attendants who The cops immediately grabbed him on some of the recent support the ciation of Machinists members dants who have been called back to had been on strike have been re­ and frisked him, but no gun was Eastern strike has won in New Zea­ struck Eastern Airlines March 4, work, but still support the Machin­ called. found. Eastern strikers urged every­ land, including a statement of soli­ 1989, in an effort to block the ists' fight. Some wear "No Lorenzo" Some of those recalled, the flight one to attend the Greyhound darity from the Canterbury District company's drive to break the buttons inside their uniform jackets attendant said, are doing their best workers' next rally. Council of the New Zealand Council union and impose massive conces­ and flash them to strikers as they to keep up the pressure on Lorenzo, of Trade Unions. sions on workers. walk inside. including complaining about ram­ • Brigid Rotherham from New As of the Militant's closing news One afternoon, while several Ma­ pant safety violations, which East­ Joyce Miller, vice-president of Zealand wrote recently to clarify date, ~dnesday, April 11, the chinists from Northwest Airlines em denies. the Amalgamated Clothing and Tex­ that the Canterbury District Council At one meeting, the TWU mem­ tile Workers Union, has launched a represents the labor movement in ber explained, managers asked the fund-raising campaign to back the Christchurch, that country's second­ SUPPORT flight attendants if they really Eastern strikers, the March 20 East­ largest city. At their recent meeting, thought Eastern would ask them to em strike bulletin reported. 50 council delegates met and ap­ EASTERN fly on an unsafe aircraft. "Yes," the In a memorandum to all ACTWU proved the resolution of support, flight attendants responded unani­ staff, vice-presidents, and managers, marking the first anniversary of the STRIKERS! mously. Miller said, "Many strike pantry op­ strike at Eastern on March 4. erations need help in Miami, At­ In addition, Canterbury secretary strike was in its 404th day. were walking through the airport in • lanta, New York, and other cities. John McKenzie wrote to the New The Eastern workers' fight has their"Don 't fly Eastern or Continen­ "Down with Lorenzo, up with the Funds are needed to purchase food Zealand Council of Trade Unions, won broad support from working tal" T-shirts, a flight attendant said union" was one of the most popular and baby supplies; Eastern strikers the main labor federation in the people in the United States, Puerto she would rather be wearing a strike chants at the Eastern strikers' ex­ need to know that their trade union country, to encourage them to sup­ Rico and the Caribbean, Canada, T-shirt than her Eastern uniform. panded line at Intercontinental Air­ brothers and sisters support them in port the strike. McKenzie also wrote Bermuda, Sweden, New Zealand, The recalled flight attendants are port in Houston April 1. their struggle. To help achieve this, to Continental Airlines regional France, and elsewhere in the members of the Transport Workers A majority of the 30 people there the ACTWU Social Services De­ manager in Auckland to inform him world. Readers - especially Union. When the lAM walked out were striking Greyhound workers partment will be collecting funds for of the CTU's support for the Ma­ Eastern strikers - are encour­ at Eastern in March 1989, the TWU who came in their uniforms to show the strike pantries. . .. Your contri­ chinists. Continental is one of the aged to send news of strike soli­ and Air Line Pilots Association hon­ their support for the Machinists butions will be most appreciated by major international carriers that flies darity activities to this column. ored the lAM's picket lines. Last fight. One Greyhound striker had the striking Machinists and their to New Zealand. November, ALPA and TWU offi­ been arrested earlier that morning families." At Atlanta's Hartsfield Interna­ cials ended the sympathy strikes, a while on picket duty at the bus sta­ Ellen Berman from Atlanta and tional Airport, Eastern strikers have move that angered many flight at­ tion. A scab fingered him to cops, • Mary Selvas from Houston con­ recently received encouragement tendants and pilots. Since then, sev- charging that he was carrying a gun. In the April6 column we reported tributed to this column. New York strikers plan solidarity rally on May 3

Continued from front page equal publicity to that given to Mr. Lorenzo's following their rejection last week of have justifiably lost all confidence in man­ performers and others in the entertainment participation, I have directed all IATSE locals Eastern's latest "reorganization" plan. The agement as well." business. Continental Airlines, Texas Air's not to participate in the event. I am also unsecured creditors, who are owed nearly $1 The creditors are also opposing - unless other carrier, was billed as the event's official notifying the AFL-CIO of my intentions and billion by Eastern, include jet engine manu­ a trustee is named -Eastern's request for an airline. I am certain it, like I, will consider Mr. facturer General Electric, plane manufactur­ additional $80 million from the escrow fund The appearance of Lorenzo's name was Lorenw's participation an affront to the labor ers Boeing and Airbus lndustrie, bondhold­ in which proceeds from the sale of the not the only one to stir anger among union movement." ers, Machinists union, Air Line Pilots airline's assets are held. Eastern is down to members in New Yorlc. Daily News publisher The Screen Actors Guild wrote a similar Association, and the Transport Workers $40 million in cash and will run out of money James Hoge, who is leading the paper's anti­ letter protesting Lorenzo's participation. On Union, representing flight attendants. soon without an additional infusion of cash. union drive, was also listed as an executive Lorenzo's latest reorganization plan for April 6 New York Newsday announced that On April 9 Eastern's preferred sharehold­ committee member. Eastern - his fifth since the airline filed for James Hoge had been dropped from the ers also gave Lorenzo a vote of no-confidence bankruptcy on March 9, 1989-was to pay Unionists in the entertainment industry benefit's executive committee. A few days by filing their own reorganization plan for the creditors 25 cents on the dollar for what were quick to come to the aid of the Eastern later, an Actors Guild representative con­ the company, which calls for the airline to be they are owed. lAM, TWU, and ALPA offi­ strikers. A few days after the ad appeared, firmed that Lorenzo had also been dropped. separated from Texas Air. Organized as an cials have long pressed for the bankruptcy Alfred Di Tolla, president of the International independent company under this plan, East­ Eastern strikers, and other unionists plan court to appoint a trustee to take over running Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and to leaflet the May gala, however, to protest em would be owned 50 percent by unsecured 5 the strike-bound airline. The airline's corpo­ Moving Picture Machine Operators, wrote a creditors, 45 percent by preferred sharehold­ the continued use of Continental as the rate creditors, however, have stuck with letter to Vmcent Vitelli, secretary and general ers, and 5 percent by the new, incoming event's airline - something that couldn't be Lorenzo until recently, hoping he could make manager of the Actors' Fund. management. changed, the Actors' Fund decided. his plans for a smaller, nonunion airline work. "It is with anger and sorrow that I write to Lorenzo's prospects grow dimmer "Eastern's management has shown little On April 4 Eastern asked the bankruptcy you to protest your thoughtless use of Frank ability to generate the required confidence of Meanwhile, Eastern Airlines' unsecured court for permission to break its contract with Lorenzo in this event," Di Tolla wrote. airline travelers and the business community the Air Line Pilots Association, hoping in this "Surely you are aware that he is one of the creditors and preferred shareholders are at large," the creditors' motion for a trustee speeding up moves aimed at salvaging what way to save $50 million a year. Although labor movement's notable enemies, having said. "It is also clear that, in light of Eastern's they can from Eastern by pressing for control ALPA officials have been more than willing caused widespread distress to so many trade record-breaking losses, its inability to gener­ of the airline to be taken out of Lorenzo's to take steep concessions, including a 25 unions and indeed, the labor movement in ate accurate forecasts and its constant rene­ percent cut in pay and a 70 percent cut in hands. general. gotiations of agreed-upon plans, creditors pensions, Lorenzo wants more. "Unless and until Frank Lorenzo's partic­ On April 10 the unsecured creditors asked ipation in the "Night of 100 Stars" is re­ the bankruptcy court overseeing Eastern's scinded and a public apology is given with affairs to appoint a trustee to run the airline, United board okays buyout

BY PATTI IIY AMA sions could be required if the company does Greyhound sues union NEW YORK - The board of directors of not do well. U AL Corporation, the parent company of Many Machinists hope the deal will fall United Airlines, decided April6 to approve through, as happened with the similar ALPA­ a $4.4 billion buyout plan by company em­ management plan that collapsed last October ployees. in the face of opposition by Machinists to the If the buyout goes through, the Interna­ deep concessions demanded to finance the tional Association of Machinists (lAM), As­ buyout. sociation of Flight Attendants (AFA), and Air The UAL board has given ALPA, the lAM, Line Pilots Association (ALPA) will pay and AFA four months to secure financing for UAL stockholders $201 a share for the sec­ the current deal - something which is far ond-largest U.S. air carrier. The deal is being from certain. The buyout would increase touted by the big-business media as creating United's debt by 500 percent, from $800 the world's largest "employee-owned" com­ million to more than $5 billion, and would

, pany. Members of the lAM would get 36 I..VliS ~u··· ·sw. .ASi L!; ,,,, add up to $500 million in extra annual interest • Ill<- . . \, percent of the stock; pilots, 38 percent; flight costs. United's net income last year totaled k..c.f> l q,Q \ ~- t ., attendants, 12 percent; and noncontract em­ only $325 million and is projected to decline ployees 14 percent. to $240 million in 1990. This does not leave SUPPORTS To help fund the buyout, the 6,600 pilots, much room for error, even with the consid­ 13,200 flight attendants, 25,600 Machinists, erable concessions granted by the unions. and 18,300 nonunion workers at United are lAM officials are pushing the proposed GRElHOUND • being pressed for concessions totaling $2 buyout and concession contract. It is the only billion over the next five years. As the April way to save the jobs of UAL employees and 8 New York Times put it, "The UAL Corpo­ control the sale ofthe airline's planes, routes, /iTRIKERS ration has found a way to win concessions and other assets, they argue. -- -~-----~~­ from its unions: Sell them the company." mmH"I.PVP. Marshall lAM members expect to vote on the pro­ Steelworkers marched to back Greyhound strikers in Pittsburgh on March 14. Proposed concessions from lAM members posed contract in the next few weeks. The On April 9 Greyhound filed a $30 million lawsuit against the Amalgamated include a five-year contract with a six-year national executive board of ALPA has already Transit Union, charging that the ATU is responsible for shootings of scab­ no-strike clause and a 3.7 percent wage de­ approved the contract. AFA members will be driven buses. The bus company has fired 60 strikers for alleged acts of vio­ crease in the first year for A-scale (top wage) voting by mail. lence, vandalism. The ATU represents 9,000 Greyhound workers on strike employees, which will "snap back" to current since March 2. rates in the remaining four years, resulting in Patti Iiyama, a member of/AM Local /322, no wage increase over the life of the contract. is a cleaner for United Airlines at Kennedy Union officials concede that more conces- International Airport in New York.

6 The Militant April 20, 1990 Thousands strike in Puerto Rico BY RON RICHARDS facilities down. At the Metropolitan Bus Au­ SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico-Thousands of thority not a single bus left the lot. Most taxis workers throughout this country stayed home also honored the strike. from work on March 28 and staged a massive • No ships arrived for the three major rally at the capitol. The 24-hour protest strike companies: Sealand, Navieras, and Trailer was called to denounce the proposed sale of Marine Transport. Three cruise ships called two government-owned telephone compa­ off their planned port visits to the island. nies. • All radio news stations canceled their In response to the call from the Labor regular programming. Listeners with strike­ Organizing Committee, more than 100,000 related news were urged to call in and give people interrupted their ordinary routine to live reports of the protest activities. participate in the rally. The action was the largest labor rally in the history of this Car­ • Only 4 percent of the students in San ibbean island. Utilities, transportation, Juan showed up for classes. The islandwide schools, and government offices were af­ figure was 60 percent. fected by the work stoppage. • Most of the 3,800 members of the In­ The strike was endorsed by more than 70 dependent Union of Telephone Company unions -both affiliates to the AR..-CIO and Workers did not report for work, nor did most independent unions - as well as by other of the workers of the Communications Au­ organizations. thority. Only 3,000 of the 11,000 employees , ...,.,...,.,., •.,v,. Richards On February 21 Gov. Rafael Hernandez of the Electric Power Authority reported for March 28 labor rally in San Juan, Puerto Rico, against proposed sale of government­ Colon proposed the sale of the telephone work. Utility officials estimate that 90 percent owned telephone companies was largest ever. companies in his State of the Commonwealth of the 4,000 members of the Aqueduct and address. The money from the sale-$2 bil­ Sewer Authority Workers Union stayed lion - he said, would be used to finance away, reported the March 29 San Juan Star. improvements in education and public works. Among the union contingents participat­ Formally called a commonwealth, Puerto ing in the march were the Electrical and Subscription Drive Rico is, in fact, a colony of the United States. Irrigation Industry Workers Union, Indepen­ The principal arguments against the sale dent Union of Communications Authority SCOREBOARD of the public utility are that it will result in Workers, Union of the Aqueducts and Sewer layoffs and telephone rate increases. While Authority Workers, Teamsters, Seafarer's In­ Perspectlva Lutte the governor promised that rates will be fixed ternational Union, Highway Authority Work­ DRIVE GOALS Total Militant New lnt'l Mundis/ ouvrlere for three years after the sale, and that nobody ers Union, Office and Professional would be laid off "as a direct result of the Employees International Union, United Food Goal Total % Goal Sold Goal Sold Goal Sold Goal Sold Areas Sold Sold sale," the unions argue that there are enough and Commercial Workers Union, Amalga­ UNinD STAT•s loopholes to allow for both increases and mated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, Austin, Minn. 75 38 51% 53 28 10 5 10 5 2 0 layoffs. If the sale goes through, workers and the Municipal Workers Union. Kansas City 105 42 40% 78 19 15 23 10 0 2 0 would also for the first time be covered by Thirty members of the International Asso­ Des Moines, Iowa 160 53 33% 123 43 15 9 20 1 2 0 the antilabor Taft-Hartley Act, adopted by the ciation of Machinists on strike at Eastern Philadelphia 160 45 28% 108 22 25 19 25 3 2 1 U.S. Congress in 1947. Airlines marched behind their banner. Miami 200 55 28% 110 38 40 13 30 20 3 When the strike began at 6:00 a.m. the Unionists from campuses of the University Hous1on 145 39 27% 98 20 20 15 25 4 2 0 usually busy streets of Old San Juan were of Puerto Rico were present. The Pro­ Newark, NJ 385 100 26% 210 36 95 40 65 17 15 7 empty. independence University Students Federa­ Boston 190 48 25% 125 33 25 2 30 11 10 2 tion (FUPI) formed a particularly spirited Omaha, Neb. 11 0 27 25% 80 22 15 1 13 4 2 0 • At work places like the docks and bus Los Angeles 400 92 23% 210 41 75 12 110 39 5 0 garages, picket lines were se~ up to shut the contingent.

Chicago 280 64 23% 185 28 45 29 45 5 5 2 Brooklyn 340 76 22% 200 46 60 18 60 10 20 2 Pittsburgh 140 31 22% 113 26 20 1 5 4 2 0 Seattle 140 30 21% 108 18 15 1 15 10 2 1 Sales target week to start Birmingham, Ala. 150 32 21% 123 28 20 4 5 0 2 0 Atlanta 165 33 20% 117 20 30 12 15 1 3 0 BY RONI McCANN workers in the area. Volunteers are needed New York 500 100 20% 280 46 95 25 110 25 15 4 Supporters of the Militant, Perspectiva and should call the Militant business office San Francisco 220 41 19% 150 23 30 9 35 8 5 1 Mundial, Lutte ouvriere, New International, at (212) 929-3486. Greensboro, NC 115 21 18% 90 18 15 1 8 2 2 0 and Nouvelle lnternationale are mapping out Cleveland 11 0 20 18% 78 18 20 2 10 2 0 0 plans worldwide to boost the international Salt Lake City 190 34 18% 138 23 30 9 20 2 2 0 circulation drive to win 7,500 new readers 'Militant' readers send Twin Cities, Minn. 210 37 18% 162 24 30 11 15 1 3 1 during an eight-day target week set to begin Washington, DC 145 23 16% 100 14 20 1 20 8 5 0 April 14. contributions to fund Baltimore 150 23 15% 112 19 25 10 3 3 0 Price, Utah 75 11 15% 53 7 10 10 2 2 1 With three weeks to go, the drive stands special reporting teams 20 percentage points behind schedule. The Oakland, Calif. 185 25 14% 120 19 25 5 35 1 5 0 aim is to double efforts to circulate the Phoenix 85 11 13% 53 8 10 0 20 2 "Reading the Militant every week is es­ 3 0 press during the target week and generate St. Louis 200 25 13% 162 19 25 5 10 1 3 0 sential to understanding world events," wrote enough momentum to get on schedule and Portland, Ore. 100 11 11% 75 11 13 0 10 0 2 0 two readers from Berkeley, California. "We Detroit 250 27 11% 200 25 15 carry the drive over the top by May 5. 30 0 2 5 0 particularly appreciate the reporting teams Corning out of the victorious April 7 "U.S. going to southern Africa and Central Amer­ Charleston, WV 115 9 8% 88 7 20 2 5 0 2 0 Hands Off Cuba" action, supporters in the Morgantown, WV 150 11 7% 113 10 30 5 0 2 0 ica. New York area plan to organize political work Cincinnati 7 0 0% 7 0 "And the reprints of statements and Las Vegas, Nev. 12 1 8% 12 1 for the next weeks around the drive to sell Louisville 10 0 0% 10 0 subscriptions. At the New York demonstration speeches by the Cuban leadership and edito­ supporters won 17 new subscribers and sold rials and comments by theMilitant have been Other U.S. 27 1 29 1 113 single copies oftheM ilitant and 20 copies very interesting and important," they con­ U.S. TOTAL 5,974 1,264 21% 4,044 787 953 278 821 174 156 25 of Perspectiva Mundial. cluded. Enclosed with the letter was a check AUSTRALIA 50 12 24% 25 12 8 0 15 0 2 0 for $300. BRn"AIN Sales at Cuba meetings Manches1er 74 25 34% 50 12 20 12 3 1 0 Another reader sent in a $100 contribution London 162 39 24% 105 29 30 9 25 2 0 Los Angeles supporters have cleared the from Kansas City, Missouri, and one for $25 Cardiff 59 14 24% 40 8 10 5 7 2 0 decks this week to focus on selling subscrip­ came from Des Moines, Iowa. Sheffield 107 17 16% 65 14 30 2 10 2 0 tions during the seven days that Cuban econ­ Over the last several weeks Militant read­ Other Britain 6 6 ers have had the opportunity to get a firsthand BRITAIN TOTAL 402 101 25% 260 69 90 28 45 4 7 0 omist and author Carlos Tablada is in that area. Seven new subscribers signed up at his report on the fight unfolding in South Africa CANADA from correspondents Greg McCartan, Rich Vancouver 115 47 41% 75 28 20 6 15 10 5 3 first meeting April 7, and three participants Montreal 170 62 36% 65 18 20 8 45 10 40 26 bought copies of the New International. Sev­ Palser, and photographer Margrethe Siem as Toronto 190 50 26% 120 32 30 9 30 8 10 1 eral meetings on campuses are slated for the well as eyewitness reports from El Salvador CANADATOTAL 475 159 33% 260 78 70 23 90 28 55 30 rest of the week. and Panama. The expense involved in putting and keeping these teams on the road goes FRANCE 40 21 53% 10 2 5 10 5 .2 20 7 Supporters in Morgantown, West Vir­ ICELAND 41 14 34% 35 10 3 2 2 Militant's budget and the 2 0 ginia, won 18 new subscribers in the last way beyond the NlfWDALAND contributions from readers, now totaling eight days and sold three copies of the New Wellington 70 35 50% 54 33 11 1 4 1 0 $1,035, are a great help. Please send a con­ International and 20 copies of the pam­ Christchurch 55 22 40% 45 21 6 1 3 0 0 tribution today! Auckland 100 28 28% 80 25 15 3 4 0 0 phlet An Action Program to Confront the Other N.Z. 14 2 14% 10 2 4 0 Coming Economic Crisis. Five people N.Z. TOTAL 239 87 36% 189 81 36 5 11 1 3 0 signed up through the work of a team in Enclosed is a check or money order for SWENN 76 19 25% 45 12 5 0 25 7 1 0 southern West Virginia led by socialist _ PUERTO RICO 20 6 30% 2 3 1 0 16 3 1 0 candidate for governor Dick McBride. $5 _$10 _$25 _ $100 _ Other lnt"l teams 155 0 0% 75 0 25 0 50 0 5 0 Morgantown supporters have set a goal of Name ______Other lnt'l 6 1 5 TOTAL 7,472 1,689 23% 4,945 1,055 1,196 346 1,080 226 251 62 winning 53 new readers from now until the end of the target week. Address ------DRIVE GOALS 7,500 4,950 1,200 1,100 250 The eight-day effort will get a big boost City ___State __ Zip ____ TO BE ON SCHEDULE 3,214 43% 2,121 514 471 107 from an Iowa-regional team set to hit the Mail to: The Militant, 410 West St., road April 14 targeting packinghouse New York, N.Y. 10014 -

April 20, 1990 The Militant 7 Labor-law dispute, strikes break out in Nicaragua during transition to new regime FSLN leaders press deputies not to pass law favoring labor

BY LARRY SEIGLE The existing labor law was adopted in AND SETH GALINSKY 1945, at a time when the Moscow-line Com­ MANAGUA, Nicaragua- As the lead­ munist Party, called the Nicaraguan Socialist ership of the Sandinista National Liberation Party, was in a wartime political alliance with Front (FSLN) concentrates on collaborating the dictator Anastasio Somoza. Since the with the government-elect of Violeta Cham­ revolution led by the FSLN triumphed in OTTO to ensure a "stable" transfer of govern­ 1979, there have been periodic calls by the ment authority, it is also working hard to win Sandinista Workers Federation (CST) for a as many of its own members and supporters new labor code, but no action was taken by as possible to fully backing these efforts. the legislature. Some of the pressures Sandinista Front In recent weeks, however, proposals for officials are facing have been reflected in a substantial revisions in the law have gained sharp dispute in the legislature over proposed momentum as a result of several strikes that amendments to the country's labor law. In an have broken out in Managua and the impend­ unusual display of discord in the traditionally ing transfer of government. Many workers tightly disciplined FSLN caucus in the Na­ feel that in the weeks remaining to it, the tional Assembly, some of its members have FSLN majority in the assembly should use publicly disagreed over the introduction of its power to enact laws protecting workers' changes in 61 articles of the law. rights. Militant/Susan "We must limit ourselves to the most ur­ Nathan Sevilla, a Sandinista Front deputy Striking employees at a Managua cooking-oil plant welcome a convoy of trucks driven gent and necessary questions" and discuss who backs the proposal for a broad reform, by workers in solidarity with the strike. \\Orkers at Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and La Victoria only two or three of the articles, said Rafael argued that the new regime "wants to imple­ bottling plants and sugar mill workers from around the country helped with material Solis, a leader of the FSLN in the assembly. ment a capitalist model and return to the aid to the strikers. The rest should be left to the incoming dep­ past." Stronger legal protection of union uties, he said. rights is needed now, he said. The new body, which will be dominated by the pro-Washington bloc that won the Transition negotiations February elections, is to be sworn in when Food and plastics workers test Chamorro takes office April25. In an interview, Jose Maria Ortiz, also a It would be a mistake to "destabilize" the Sandinista Front deputy, said he rejects the Chamorro government. Solis argued. Any position put forward by the FSLN leadership strength in two Managua strikes proposed changes in the labor code "should in the assembly that major changes in the be brought into harmony with the high-level labor code should be referred to the transition BY SUSAN APSTEIN idea of what life will be like under the new negotiations that are taking place" with negotiators. MANAGUA, Nicaragua- Two strikes government." Chamorro's representatives, he added. "The transition talks should deal with here are increasingly being looked to as a test Workers from other workplaces, mostly in Closed-door discussions between the questions of defense, of security, and the of the relationship of forces between the Managua, have begun to express their soli­ Sandinista Front leadership and the Cham­ handing over of ministries," Ortiz said. "We unions and bosses. darity with the two strikes. A delegation of OTTO forces have been going on since shortly do not see any reason to link the labor law Workers shut down the Polymer plastics sugar mill workers representing seven mills after the election defeat of the FSLN. reform with the transition conversations or and Corona cooking-oil factories March 27 throughout the country packed into trucks Other members of the Sandinista Front the installation of the new government." after the employers refused to discuss union and drove into Managua to the cooking-oil parliamentary group disagree, however, and Members of the Sandinista Front caucus demands. Both plants are owned by the big plant to bring money and statements of sup­ have pushed for an extensive rewriting of the who argued for extensive rewriting of the U.S.-based corporation United Brands (for­ port. labor code. labor code emphasize that the difference of merly United Fruit Co.). Groups of workers from dozens of Mana­ Deputy Dani1o Aguirre said the assembly opinion within their caucus is on a secondary "The company pushed us. They want to gua factories have also delivered sacks of rice must "leave the working class with enough issue. The disagreement is not "substantial," gauge how much resolve we have to defend and beans, cases of Pepsi, and other donations weapons to face the new situation." To do FSLN deputy Sevilla stressed. our rights," said union leader Gustavo Cen­ to the 24-hour picket line at the Polymer otherwise, he argued, would be "a betrayal Nonetheless, as the debate dragged on in teno from Polymer. plant. Money collected at the plants is pre­ of the working class." Aguirre is assistant the assembly, the FSLN leadership sought to Workers at the plastics plant went out when sented to the strikers. editor of El Nuevo Diario, a pro-FSLN daily. discredit proponents of the amendments by the company refused to negotiate a wage A week after the two walkouts began, linking their position to proposals put forward increase. "They decreed a 15 percent raise. Lucfo Jimenez, president of the Sandinista Series of major bills by sectarian opponents of the FSLN. It was a joke, a provocation," Centeno said. Workers Federation (CST), announced the The amendments to the labor code are one Some deputies resented this. Hazel Lau, a "They wouldn't even meet with us." The federation's support. The union at Polymer of a series of major bills the legislature has Sandinista Front representative from the factory employs 85 people. is a CST affiliate; at Corona, workers are taken up in the past several weeks, most of North Atlantic Coast, complained during one In both strikes the unions are demanding organized in an independent union. which have been enacted without serious debate, "Every time anyone has a disagree­ a 100 percent wage hike, which is closer to If the unions at Corona and Polymer "lose controversy. These include the granting of ment, they are labeled as radicals or support­ the rate of inflation. The 250 workers at this battle we all lose," Jimenez said. He sweeping immunity for crimes committed ers of the MAP." The MAP-ML (People's Corona are also pressing the company to reported that the CST will help organize a since 1979 for which charges have not yet Action Movement-Marxist Leninist) was rehire a union leader dismissed several solidarity fund. been filed, and a law giving occupants title founded in 1972 by student radicals who months ago. to government-owned dwellings. opposed the FSLN. As soon as the strikes began, management Unions press Ministry of Labor By far the most important measure adopted at both plants threatened to fire union leaders. The unions at Polymer and Corona are Reject 'confrontationist' positions was one allowing the unrestricted sale and pressing the Ministry of Labor to declare their mortgaging of land distributed to peasants As the assembly repeatedly deferred deci­ Series of walkouts strikes legal, because this would afford them under the agrarian reform. sion on the labor code, the discussion spilled The Polymer and Corona strikes are part some protection against firings. Under Nic­ Previously, peasants had titles guarantee­ over into how to respond to an appeal from araguan labor law, the Ministry of Labor ing them the right to work the land as long of a series of walkouts that began in the workers on strike at the Corona cooking-oil second half of March. In addition to stop­ regulates strikes and is supposed to aid in as they chose and to bequeath it to their heirs. factory. negotiations. To protect their right to the land, it could not pages at several factories, government em­ The strikers urged the deputies to adopt a A week after the Polymer strike began, be mortgaged or sold. ployees of the Institute of Culture - at resolution declaring their strike legal, reform libraries, museums, and other institutions - union leaders met with officials of the labor The new law, which will lead to bank the labor law, and enact a higher minimum went out. Most of the strikes were settled ministry. A CST representative participated foreclosures and increased landlessness of wage. Their appeal was read by a deputy of quickly, with an agreement to raise wages. as well. the poorest peasants, was adopted by the the MAP-ML. At Polymer and Corona, however, man­ In the session, ministry officials tried to FSLN-dominated assembly with little dis­ FSLN leader Carlos Nunez took the floor agement has refused to negotiate until work­ convince Gustavo Centeno and the other agreement and not much attention from the to respond. Nicaragua has only two options, ers end the stoppages. Polymer union leaders to end the strike. In news media. he said. "The first would be to go on a war Polymer workers say the company tight­ exchange, the officials said, the company In contrast to the reaction to most of these footing, paralyze the factories and the agri­ ened up plant rules and began harassing union would be willing to withdraw its threats to bills, the proposed rewriting of the labor code cultural centers, and take over the assembly." members right after the Sandinista National fire union leaders and its imposition of a has sparked heated exchanges in the assem­ But that "would be suicide, that would be Liberation Front (FSLN) was defeated in the 45-day work suspension on 20 strike activ­ bly. Final action was put off several times, the road of violence, and would end any February elections by a pro-U.S. opposition ists. and as of April6 the dispute had still not been possibility of peace," he continued. coalition backed by Washington. Most of the Once the strike was over, the company resolved. The other choice "is the option of peace." workers, they say, are known as FSLN sup­ would negotiate on wages, the ministry offi­ Bosses and workers alike should be urged to porters. cials promised, suggesting that a 30 percent Pathfinder carries a broad range of follow this alternative, he argued. The plastics company made no attempt to wage hike would be possible. books on revolutionary and socialist "We must persuade those who have radical try to prevent the walkout, according to work­ The deal was worth accepting, one of the history and theory. It publishes a confrontationist positions that this country ers. Plant director Raul Solorzano took off government officials explained to the union­ wide selection of titles on the Black, can only fmd a way out of the economic and for Costa Rica a few days before the strike, ists, because the company "wants your women's, labor Latin American, and social crisis with the participation ofall social calling the workers "a bunch of seditious heads." forces and all political parties. international struggles. The current bums." Moreover, the strike could not be declared catalog is available upon request "It is necessary to neutralize and combat Solorzano is a member of one of seven legal, the officials insisted, because "the tran­ from your local Pathfinder bookstore all those Nicaraguan citizens, whether they committees that form president-elect Violeta sition to the new government has already are bosses or workers, who try to sabotage begun." The ministry no longer "really has or write: Pathfinder, 410 West St., ChamoTTo 's "transition team," charged with and denigrate the efforts that are being made the authority to declare the strike legal." New York, N.Y. 10014. supervising the changeover to the new gov­ to fmalize and bring about real peace in ernment. According to union leader Gustavo Centeno was not moved by these argu­ Nicaragua," Nunez said. Centeno, Solorzano's attitude "gives you an Continued on page 13

8 The Militant April 20, 1990 Union miners fight for rights in apartheid S. Africa

BY RICH PALSER union branches at four other mines defying WELKOM, South Africa- Tens of thou­ company rules by bringing their wives into sands of mine workers are taking action the male-only compounds. "While we are against racism and aspects of apartheid in the fighting the whole hostel system, we de­ mining industry here. Defying rules that seg­ manded that there must be some kind of regate facilities and staging strikes, protest arrangement," Berlini recounted. "People rallies, and sit-downs, members of the non­ should be in a position to accommodate their racial National Union of Mineworkers wife. Since the beginning of the month, peo­ (NUM) are demanding equal rights with ple have marched with their women into the white miners. hostel. They go to the dining room, and then One such action took place at the President come out again." Brand gold mine here. Cheap labor force White miners who work at the Anglo­ American-owned mine live with their fam­ The foremost aim of the apartheid system ilies in the whites-only suburbs of Welkom. is to provide vast amounts of cheap labor for mining and other industries. Black workers, NUM organizer Franz Berlini explained, are housed in barrack-like Mining in South Africa is labor intensive. compounds called hostels. "In the hostels you There are 850,000 miners employed by giants will find, on average, 10 people to a room. like Anglo-American. At the President Brand In some mines you will get 30 to a room," mine alone there are 20,000. Black miners he said. "Women are not allowed in the account for 88 percent of the total mining hostels. And even if a mine worker gets a work force. visit from his wife, they have to stand outside Driving Blacks off the land and depriving the hostel and then go somewhere else." them of livelihoods in farming, the apartheid regime has forced them into remote "home­ Militant/Margrethe Siem Located within walking distance of each lands." These bantustans represent only 13 Miners at President Brand mine where 20,000 work near Welkom, South Africa. Mine of the five shafts at the President Brand mine percent of the land area in the country. union, which has grown to 79,000 in area, fights against apartheid on the job. is a hostel. The NUM calculates the average wage for African miners at 650 rand (US$245) per 'Police always around' mines are owned by the mining companies. follows aggravates work relations and pro­ month, where the average white miner's sal­ Between the neat rows of gardened houses motes violence," he said. At the gates of a hostel with 4,000 workers ary is R3,500 per month. and surrounded by a 15-foot wall, armed for white workers, African laborers tend man­ These actions byNUM members form part company security police search miners going With poor and overcrowded land in the icured lawns and flower beds around the of the union campaign for "justice, democ­ in and out. Visible inside the grounds is an bantustans and little industrial development, administration block and whites-only sports racy, and peace," Berlini said. ''There is no armored "hippo" personnel carrier. ''The se­ Africans are forced to seek work as migrant fields. Security police regularly patrol the justice in the mines. People are fired and curity police are always around," one worker laborers in the fields and mines of South area to ensure that there are no unwelcome ill-treated simply because they are union explained. "They search us whenever we go Africa. "If a mine has vacancies they will visitors. The hostels are located at the back members .... There is no democracy because in and out of the hostel." send a list saying what skills and experience of the "town," behind a large fence. there is no freedom of movement, no freedom are needed to the TEBA [The Employment After work March 21, miners began · to Despite the pleasant outward appearance, of assembly.... There is no peace because Bureau of South Africa, Ltd.]. These offices gather outside the hostel, singing freedom racial segregation runs as deep as the mines after the 1987 strike the owners reinforced are in the bantustans," Berlini explained. "It songs and dancing back and forth across the themselves. "There are change houses where the security police, who are assaulting people is not easy for a Black worker to come from you wash and change clothes," Berlini said. on a daily basis. The whole hostel system road. The rally was organized because "we the Transkei to Welkom and just look for are not allowed to sing in the hostel, not "Blacks have·theirown change houses, nor­ means there is no peace at all." work. You have to queue at the TEBA office allowed to dance," one of them said. "The mally with cold water. Whites have warm The NUM has grown in the last eight years in the Transkei." company has such a policy to stop us singing water, soap, everything. They don't buy any­ through militant campaigns like these. freedom songs. They see that as a political Berlini explained that the mine companies thing. The Blacks have to buy everything for "There are now 79,000 members in the Or­ meeting - and that is not allowed." also recruit massively from the neighboring themselves. ange Free State, out of a possible membership Mine workers here recently joined with countries of Mozambique, Swaziland, "We defied that last February by having of 155,000," Berlini said. "This is at 13 mines, Botswana, Lesotho, and Malawi. "We had to some comrades go in to use their facilities. the majority owned by Anglo-American. Our develop our own language to talk to each There were also some senior messes and bars target presently is to top 100,000 union mem­ other in the mines," he said. reserved for whites. At one mine they closed bers." The NUM national membership stands the bar because so many were defying and at 300,000. One-year individual contracts going to the bar." Berlini is typical of the leaders who have Like these workers, Africans from the ban­ emerged in these struggles. He is 31 years tustans are recruited on one-year contracts, Racist hoisting policy targeted old and worked in the mining industry for at the end of which they must return to their A recent target of union action has been eight years, "until I was dismissed for inciting "homeland." the mine companies' practice of giving white workers to participate in a so-called illegal "You can work for up to 12 months, and workers priority when hoisting them in and strike in 1988, when we were fighting the then you have to return home," a miner from out of the mine. Berlini explained that while Labour Relations Amendment Act." He was Lesotho explained. "Then you must wait white workers start going down into the mine then taken on as an organizer for the union. several months to return to work. You can't an hour after Black workers, they are the first just go and work in another industry." to be lifted out at the end of a shift. "At one Unions in anti-apartheid struggle In addition to denying Africans the right level you may get around 2,000 miners wait­ The NUM is the largest affiliate of the to own land to farm, the apartheid system ing to be hoisted out," he said. "White miners, million-member Congress of South African bars them from rights held by workers in even if they are late getting to the hoisting Trade Unions. In adopting the Freedom Char­ other capitalist countries. Once classified as station, will just go up and be hoisted out. ter, the principal programmatic document of a mine worker or farm worker, Blacks cannot Everyone else has to get in line. We demand the national, democratic movement, COS­ easily seek employment in a manufacturing that all workers, regardless of the color, must ATU unions resolved to involve themselves plant or other industries. Thus, they are not queue." in the broader democratic movement against allowed to freely sell their labor power to any It can take an hour to be lifted from a lower apartheid. In particular they sought to link up This issue of New International capitalist who is hiring workers. This helps level of the shaft. Black miners do not get with, and assist, the struggles waged by non­ focuses on the revolutionary struggle maintain the superexploitation of African paid overtime while waiting to be hoisted. racial organizations based in the Black town­ in South Africa, its impact throughout labor. The union has begun enforcing a nonracial ships. southern Africa and worldwide, and This system was dealt a blow when the hoisting policy. Some white miners re­ In Welkom the NUM has been playing an the tasks of opponents of apartheid in apartheid regime was forced to scrap the sponded by demanding that management en­ active role in the emerging township organi­ the labor movement internationally. hated pass laws in 1986. These laws required sure that they would not be forced to line up. zations. Union leaders like Berlini believe The feature article, The Coming Blacks to carry a pass book detailing where At Anglo's Western Holdings mine near that the unions played a vital role in enabling Revolution in South Africa by Jack they could work and live. here, management locked out workers claim­ the democratic movement to withstand the Barnes, discusses the national, Many workers in the townships and ban­ ing that "whites were threatened with vio­ sustained onslaught of repression unleashed democratic revolution to overthrow tustans can now go directly to an employer lence." Conservative Party members in the by the regime in 1986 with the state of the South African apartheid regime to seek work, especially in manufacturing whites-only parliament have claimed that emergency. and establish a nonracial democratic industries. whites were assaulted at the President Brand, Today, despite the growing importance of republic. President Steyn, and Harmony mines. manufacturing industries, mining still ac­ Also included: Antiunion migrant labor system "At one mine whites went underground counts for nearly a quarter of South African • The Freedom Charter But the migrant labor system is still exten­ with guns saying they wanted to defend them­ output and nearly two-thirds of all export • The Future Belongs to the sively used by the mine owners. It strengthens selves," Berlini said. earnings. Gold, diamonds, chrome, platinum, Majority, a message by African their hand against effective union organiza­ The management at Anglo-American iron ore, manganese, antimony, and vana­ National Congress President Oliver tion. For example, in 1982- the year in claims that their hoisting policy is not dium are all mined here. And coal is becom­ Tambo which the NUM was founded, 30,000 miners racist, but based on seniority. Anglo­ ing increasingly important, not only as a • Why Cuban Volunteers Are in who struck over low pay were fired and American spokesman Adrian du Plessis source of fuel in a country without oil, but Angola, three speeches by Cuban forcibly returned to the bantustans. Living in claimed that "the unconstitutional chang­ as an export earner. President Fidel Castro company-owned hostels and reliant on com­ ing of hoisting schedules in the mines" was Organized in a strong, fighting union like pany-owned facilities, miners are watched one of the reasons for "racial conflict." The the NUM, the mine workers are turning the Send $5 to New International, 410 West over by private company police. unilateral changes being made by Black apartheid dream - of a capitalism without Street, New York, N.Y. 10014 Near Libanon in the Transvaal, all mineral miners were "resulting in racial discrimi­ free workers - into a nightmare for South rights and surface rights surrounding the nation," he said. "The protest action that Africa's rulers.

April 20, 1990 The Militant 9 What Hormel meatpackers' strike gained

No Retreat, No Su"ender: Labor's War at -the rank and file's participation in activity Hormel by Dave Hage and Paul Klauda. and decision-making in every aspect of the New York: William Morrow & Co. 398 fight. P-9ers were not sheep being led to the pp., $22.95. slaughter. Just the opposite. BY GALE SHANGOLD Participants, not spectators AUSTIN, Minn.- Almost four years This long book spends too little space have passed since the 1985-86 meat-packers • describing how the P-9 members took their strike against Geo. A. Hormel & Co. was union back. After decades of being little more defeated. Several books have recently ap­ than a bureaucratic dues-collecting machine, peared on the important struggle waged by P-9 became a union where the members were United Food and Commercial Workers Local participants, not spectators. P-9 in this southern Minnesota town of During the strike, well-attended union 20,000. meetings were held daily. Mass rallies were One book is Packing It In! The author, organized and roving picket lines sent to other Michael Fahey, crossed P-9's picket line in Hormel plants. The local sent speakers to cities and towns around the country. Were mistakes made during the course of IN REVIEW the strike? Of course. How could it be oth­ erwise? The labor movement was sorely out February 1986 and worked in the plant two of shape when the Hormel strike started and years so he could write the book. Another continuity with labor struggles of the 1930s and •40s had been broken. book, On Strike at Hormel: The Struggle for Militant{fom Jaax a Democratic Labor Movement, has just April 12, 1986. More than 5,000 P-9 strikers and supporters from 40 states marched The authors seem to think the massive concessions the labor movement experienced come out. Its author is Hardy Green, a con­ through streets of Austin. Far from being a "tragedy," as authors of No Retreat, No in the 1980s were a good solution to sultant for Corporate Campaign, Inc. Su"ender suggest, the Hormel strike inspired working people around the country. Perhaps the most detailed and authoritative employers' problems. "As Harvard econo­ work so far is No Retreat, No Surrender: mist Richard Freeman pointed out," say Hage Labor's War at Hormel. The authors, Dave closings, and Chapter 11 bankruptcies - on the union's behalf. and Klauda, "P-9 was the exception not the Hage and Paul Klauda, are reporters for the opened, as meat-packers scrambled to shore Hcirmel's final contract offer included a rule, in labor relations during the 1980s. The Minneapolis Star Tribune. They covered the up declining profits. Workers were hit by $10 hourly wage and a weakened seniority nation's collective bargaining system re­ strike for the New York Times as well. layoffs and the deterioration of wages and system. It eliminated the guaranteed annual sponded with flexibility, not rigidity, to eco­ The authors did a lot of research. As a working conditions. wage and 52-week notice of layoffs. Its two­ nomic recession." result, No Retreat, No Surrender contains In Austin 1978 was a pivotal year. Under tier wage structure topped out at $9 an hour But ifP-9 was an exception, it was because some useful information, history, and insights the threat to build its new flagship plant for new employees. the local was one of the first unions in a long - and that's about it. Those unfamiliar with elsewhere, Hormel forced a major concession Another crucial issue was safety -one of time to say, "Enough is enough! What is good the struggle in Austin could get a confused, contract on Local P-9. The pact included a what the P-9ers called the "dignity" issues. for Hormel is not good for us." By resisting even false, picture of what the strike was all seven-year no-strike clause, agreement that In the last full year before the strike, there instead of knuckling under, the fighters at about. past practices in the old plant would not set were 202 injuries for every 100 workers in Hormel helped the labor movement break out There is plenty of background information a precedent in the new one, and that 20 the plant. of what had become a virtual rout in the face that establishes why the strike took place. percent higher production standards would On August 14 Local P-9 members voted of the capitalists • profit drive. Hormel workers had been organized by a be required. to reject the company's offer by 1,291 to 96. On Jan. 13, 1986, Hormel tried to open up strong union since 1933. By 1936 the union From 1982 to 1984, Hormel hired in 755 Three days later- for the first time in 52 the struck plant to scabs, though few got by had firm control over working conditions in new workers. "They learned the ropes from years - P-9 was on strike. The walkout was the strikers • picket lines and demonstrations. the plant-control won through struggle, the plant's embittered veterans, packers who reluctantly sanctioned by the UFCW Inter­ A week later, Minnesota's Democratic­ including occasional sit-down work stop­ had watched their employer slowly evolve national. Farmer-Labor Party governor, Rudy Perpich pages. from the paternalistic family firm of their No Retreat, No Surrender does an adequate sent the National Guard into Austin. By Jan­ Among workers, Hormel came to be parents • stories into a modem, aggressive, job of explaining what led to the strike. But uary 23 the Guard was herding scabs into the known as a good - in fact, very good - highly competitive corporation," write Hage when it comes to the strike itself and why plant for Hormel. In March UFCW Interna­ place to work. The book paints a picture of and Klauda. Hormel packinghouse workers in their ma­ tional officials lifted the strike sanction, hav­ post-World War IT prosperity in Austin, where The speed-up, increasing injury rate, new jority remained committed to it, the book is ing failed to convince P-9ers to accept a in 1951 , "three out of four Austin workers technology like presharpened knives and very weak. Militant readers will want to read federal mediator's proposed settlement. The owned their homes." colder room temperatures, loss of incentive Fred Halstead's pamphlet, The I985-86 International attacked the local's attempts to pay, harsher rules and discipline, and weak­ Hormel Meat-Packers' Strike, (New York: gain broader solidarity, which included ex­ Conditions change in industry ening of the seniority system made the new Pathfmder. $1.95) to learn more about the tending picket lines to other Hormel plants. By the late 1970s, though, conditions in Hormel plant seem a world apart from the old heart of the strike struggle and the solidarity In May they imposed a trusteeship on P-9. A the meat-packing industry had begun to one. it inspired. new contract was signed in September 1986; change, as the stagnation and decline of the In October 1984 wages were cut 23 per­ In No Retreat, No Surrender, P-9 President soon after the strike ended. U.S. capitalist economy as a whole deepened. cent, dropping from $10.69 an hour to $8.25. Jim Guyette, one of the strike leaders, is Although P-9's strike against Hormel was In 1983 Wilson Foods Corp. • the biggest Hormel justified the move on the grounds painted as "a demagogue who led his mem­ defeated, it was far from being the "tragedy" U.S. hog packer, declared bankruptcy and cut that its basic wage rate was higher than the bers over a cliff against their will." Hage and Klauda suggest. The P-9ers • battle wages at seven plants by 40 percent. Over­ rest of the industry. Throughout the book, insinuations are against concessions was waged under diffi­ night, workers •base pay dropped from $10.69 made about union meetings where people cult conditions, in which they faced not only an hour to $6.50 an hour. One plant was in Contract runs out were afraid to speak their minds, contract the company, National Guard, government, Albert Lea, 20 miles west of Austin. P-9 did not strike at that time because a proposals that were misrepresented to the and courts, but a hostile International union Wages at John Morrell and Swift Indepen­ strike was ruled illegal until the seven-year members by Guyette, and the P-9 majority leadership. Nevertheless, their fight inspired dent Packing were also slashed, after both no-strike clause of the 1978 agreement ran being violence-prone - although at the end working people around the country and companies threatened to close plants unless out in August 1985. of the book the authors admit this was not a helped build confidence that it was possible cuts were accepted. "Armour was sold to Both Hormel and Local P-9 began to pre­ violent strike. to stand up to the employers. In strikes that ConAgra, which shut down 13 plants on one pare for the contract's expiration. The local By criticizing Guyette, P-9's executive followed, in meat-packing and in other in­ Friday afternoon and reopened them the fol­ hired Ray Rogers' New York-based Corpo­ board, and the Corporate Campaign's role in dustries, unionists learned from and built on lowing week with nonunion workers earning rate Campaign, Inc., a group that researches the Hormel strike, Hage and Klauda do a big the experiences of the Hormel fighters. $6.00 an hour," Hage and Klauda write. and exposes the financial interests and ties of disservice to the P-9 membership. They miss A period of mergers, acquisitions, plant a targeted company - in this case, Hormel one of the strike's most important features Broad resistance The P-9 fight directly helped to open up a broad resistance among meat-packers that eventually involved thousands of workers in strikes and organizing struggles throughout Australia: activist faces second trial the Midwest, into 1987. The P-9leadership, however, remained too focused on the Austin BY BOB ANDREWS groups, had organized a protest outside the and evidence pointed to police involvement. situation after it became clear that the only hotel as part of a campaign for the release of SYDNEY, Australia- Supporters of Now, 12 years after the bombing, Ander­ way forward for their struggle and workers democratic rights have been campaigning a member of their group imprisoned in India. son has been framed a second time over the throughout the industry was to reach out to here to expose the frame-up of political ac­ India's prime minister was attending the incident. the other battles that were developing in tivist Tim Anderson. Commonwealth conference. The political activist was reindicted last meat-packing. Anderson, a teacher at Tranby Aboriginal Anderson and two other members of An­ May after a former cellmate of his began to In January 1988 Hormel closed its cut-and­ College, was committed for trial February 9 anda Marga were arrested and brought to trial allege that Anderson claimed responsibility kill department and later leased it out to a on charges of murder stemming from a 1978 on false charges of conspiring to murder a for the bombing and told him so during their new company, Quality Pork Processors. bombing outside the Hilton Hotel here. leader of the right-wing National Front. first conversation in prison II years ago. The When QPP opened its doors in June 1989, Along with being active in the fight against The three were convicted based on the prisoner faced new charges leveled against the starting wage was from $6.50 to $7.00 an apartheid in South Africa and solidarizing testimony of a police informer planted in the him recently of attempted escape and rob­ hour. The wages will eventually peak at about with the peoples in struggle in Latin America, group and on police claims of verbal confes­ bery. Another police witness has also ap­ $9.00 an hour. Anderson has campaigned for the rights of sions. The police stooge also alleged that the peared who "confessed" to the Hilton Many P-9ers work at QPP since Hormel the Aboriginal people and is a vocal critic of three were responsible for the bombing of the bombing, claiming Anderson was involved. has hired very few of them back, even though the police and prison system that victimizes hotel, but no charges were presented. In 1979 The case is scheduled to come to trial in them. Anderson and the two others were sentenced August or September. many of them remain on a recall list. Three people were killed 12 years ago to 16 years • imprisonment. The chain speed at QPP is faster than it Anderson has won wide support in Aus­ was at Hormel when they decided to go on when a bomb detonated in a garbage bin After a lengthy political campaign against tralia through the work of an active defense strike. For many of us who work at QPP, it outside the Hilton Hotel where a Common­ the frame-up, a government inquiry into the committee called the Campaign Exposing the is clear why P-9 went on strike. They surely wealth Heads of Government Meeting was case was opened. In 1985 the three activists Frame-up of Tim Anderson. For more infor­ saw the handwriting on the wall. being held. A massive police- and media-or­ were completely pardoned of the conspiracy mation on the cas.e or to send messages of chestrated smear campaign blamed the reli­ charges and in 1987 paid the equivalent of support and donations write CEFTA, P.O. Gale Shangold works at Quality Pork Pro­ gious group Ananda Marga for the bombing. US$75,000 compensation each. A full in­ Box A 737. Sydney South, NSW 2000, Aus­ cessors in Austin, Minnesota, and is in Ananda Marga, along with other political quiry into the hotel bombing was never held tralia. UFCW Loca/9.

10 The Militant April 20, 1990 1,500 protesters in New York demand: 'U.S. Hands off Cuba' Continued from front page read a transcript of remarks made by Nelson Washington, D.C. sure the demonstration took place without Mandela, leader of the African National Con­ Holding signs that read, "Africa called ... major incidents. gress of South Africa, at the celebration of Cuba answered. U.S. hands off Cuba!" 100 Many passersby stopped and read the plac­ Namibian independence last month. Mandela marched from Harlem and joined the demon­ ards and banners with interest. Workers from thanked the Cuban people "for what Cuba is stration at Times Square. The contingent had shops and restaurants along the way left their doing, especially in Africa." assembled earlier in front of Hotel Teresa on 125thStreet.Speakingatarallythere,Elombe work stations and came to look at what was 'Smash TV Marti' going on. Many took leaflets explaining the Brath of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition ex­ Dressed in cardboard boxes to resemble aims of the demonstration. plained how in 1960 Cuban leader Fidel Cas­ TV sets and wearing wire "antennas," a con­ tro had moved his delegation to the Teresa At one dress shop, a young clerk stepped tingent from the Nicaragua Solidarity Net­ from a downtown hotel and was greeted by into the window display and standing among work marched and danced to the beat of a thousands of Harlemites. the manikins jumped up and down holding a drum. "Smash TV Marti" were the words Brath pointed to the historic role Cuba has placard that read: "U.S. hands off Cuba." A painted on the screens. "Stop U.S. tele inva­ played in Africa and the strong bonds that few seconds later her boss showed up and sion of Cuba" read one of their banners. exist between the Black community in the made her step down. Also marching to the beat of music and United States and the Caribbean country. Many who marched learned about the wearing hats identifying them with their or­ demonstration through the more than 70,000 ganization, members of the Dominican The day's events concluded with the rally leaflets that were distributed around the city Workers Party chanted "Cuba sf, bloqueo at the Cuban mission to the UN, where par­ prior to the action. "I saw a leaflet on a lamp no!" (Cuba yes, blockade no!), referring to ticipants applauded enthusiastically in ap­ post on 48th Street," said a young participant, the U.S. government's embargo policy proval of a letter to be sent to Cuban President "And I came because I think what the United against Cuba. Fidel Castro in the name of the action. Don States is doing to Cuba is an injustice. The There were also contingents of the Bloque Rojas, one of the coalition organizers, read United States should respect the sovereignty Socialista, Committee in Solidarity with the the letter pledging continued actions to de­ of other countries and not treat them as pup­ Dominican People, Dominican Communist mand Washington's hands off Cuba and call­ ing for the normalization of relations between pets." Party, Coordinadora Latinoamericana, Anto­ Participant in April 7 action Cuba and the United States. A young South African student from Al­ nio Maceo Brigade, Venceremos Brigade, Vets for Peace Inc., Casa de las Americas, Other speakers at the rally included Mar­ bany, New York, came to the march because People's Revolutionary Party; Phillip Agee, he is "upset with the arrogance of U.S. im­ Young Socialist Alliance, Communist Party shall Garcia, vice-president Hospital Em­ USA, People's Antiwar Mobilization, Com­ ployees Local 1199; Don Mackie, Socialist former CIA operative; Viola Plummer, De­ perialism to other countries." cember 12 Coalition. Student groups came from several New mittee in Solidarity with the People of El Workers Party; Doris Pizarro, Puerto Rican The U.S. Hands Off Cuba Coalition will York-area campuses, including New York Salvador, and others. Socialist Party; Kenneth Jones, Venceremos hold its next meeting April 17 at 7:00 p.m. University and Bard College. Demonstrators came from several cities, Brigade; William Gerena, Communist Party including Albany; Philadelphia; Baltimore; USA; Deirdre Griswold, Workers World at Casa de las Americas, I 04 West 14th Street "I think this is an important mobilization," Birmingham, Alabama; Boston; Detroit; Party; Nomazizi Sokudela from the African in Manhattan. said Leslie Cagan, one of the coalition lead­ Miami; Hartford, Connecticut; Los Angeles; National Congress; K warne Toure, formerly ers, "especially now when it's clear the U.S. Minneapolis; San Francisco; as well as from Stokely Carmichael, leader of the All African government will focus everything it can to SEATTLE - To the strains of Cuban undermine the Cuban revolution. music and chants of "Cuba stand strong, hit the Yankee hard!" 45 people gathered at "We have to be especially vigilant," Cagan pointed out, "in fighting against the eco­ Seattle's Pike Place Market April7 to protest nomic, military, and propaganda war that Rightists hold counter action U.S. attacks on Cuba's sovereignty and to demand an end to TV Marti. Washington is launching against Cuba. Re­ BY YVONNE HAYES cent weeks, including a demonstration of The protest was called by the Seattle chap­ gardless of what people think of the Cuban NEW YORK -In an effort to counter the 3,000 on February 24. The April 7 rally was revolution, this is the time to activate the ter of the Venceremos Brigade and endorsed April 7 "U.S. Hands Off Cuba" demonstra­ called after the U.S. Hands Off Cuba Coali­ by 15 organizations and individuals, includ­ American people around the right of the tion, 1,000 opponents of the Cuban revolu­ tion publicized its intent to demonstrate in ing the African National Congress, Seattle Cuban people to self-determination. tion rallied here the same afternoon. "USA, defense of Cuban sovereignty. The right­ and Olympia chapters of the Committee in "Our job is to get the U.S. government out USA," "Cuba sf, Russia no!" and "We want wing rally and march was promoted daily in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, of Cuba," Cagan added. "The first step we TV Marti!" they chanted. a provocative tone by Noticias del Mundo, Committee in Defense of Immigrant Rights, must take is to form a broad coalition to fight A leaflet the same color and design as the the Spanish-language paper affiliated with the Seattle Coalition Against Apartheid, U.S. policies." U.S. Hands Off Cuba Coalition flyer de­ the Unification Church. Its headline of April Communist Party USA, Task Force on Cen­ Cagan spoke at the Times Square rally. manded, "USSR hands off Cuba!" and called 6, for example, read, "Castristas no pasar(m" tral America of the Church Council of Greater Among the other speakers were Esmeralda for enforcement of the U.S. trade and travel (The Castroists will not pass). Seattle, and the Socialist Workers Party. Brown from Women's Workshop on the ban. Among the sponsors listed were the Americas; William Kuntsler, civil-rights at­ Cuban Patriotic Council, National Anti­ torney; and Filiberto Ojeda Rios from the communist Liberation Army, Oliver North Puerto Rican organization Los Macheteros. Brigade No. 1, and Alpha 66- a paramili­ Week 2 of British prison takeover Journalist and activist Rosemari Mealy tary outfit that has been training in Florida's swamps for three decades. Continued from front page barbaric conditions in the prisons, the gov­ Most of the demonstrators were Cuban one. They have been locked up for all but 11 ernment is facing political difficulties in sanc­ Young socialists host emigres in their 50s and 60s. "I left in 1961," hours a week. Prisoners who have given up tioning demands for more hard-line mea­ said one man. "I was a political prisoner under the occupation also complained of physical sures. The prisoners are barricaded in and open house following Castro." He declined to give details on the and mental brutality, poor food, and the mis­ have shown that they are likely to defend Cuban government's charges against him. use of drugs in "controlling" prisoners. themselves against any assault. Having failed April 7 demonstration An older woman held a sign that read, Paul Taylor, a spokesperson for the pris­ to demoralize those maintaining the protest "Equal rights for Cuban women." When oners, addressed the media from the through their noise tactics or by spraying the NEW YORK- Full of enthusiasm and asked to explain, a young man next to her Strangeways prison roof through a makeshift prison rooftops with high pressure water energy after a day of protests, 200participants said, "Women in Cuba can't speak for them­ bullhorn to explain that it was the inhuman hoses, prison guards have taken to jeering the in the "Hands of Cuba" action ·gathered at selves. Cuba has been run by a male-domi­ conditions that led the prisoners to occupy protesters. the Pathfinder Bookstore in Manhattan at an nated clique for 30 years." The woman re­ the prison - although they had initially only Outside the prison gates, prisoners' fami­ open house sponsored by the Young Socialist mained silent during the interview. meant to hold a sit-in. Up until then, the lies have been mounting a vigil with banners Alliance and Socialist Workers Party. Numerous signs referred to the events in protesters had been presented in the media demanding an end to brutality and abuse of They came to meet Dick McBride and Don Eastern Europe: "Castro Stalin Ceau­ = = as mindless thugs through lurid reports of all prisoners. Ex-prisoners in support of the Mackie, Socialist Workers Party candidates sescu" and "Communism's dead; the party's deaths, mutilation, and torture of prisoners occupation told the Militant that those who for U.S. Senate in West Virginia and New over." "Noriega, Ortega, now it's Castro's convicted of sex offenses. have surrendered have been brutalized by Jersey, and to talk about the success of the tum," read another. "What we want is free warders. One had his fingers broken on the day's action with other activists. Josefina elections like Nicaragua," said an older man. One of the first banners they put up pro­ way to a different prison and another was Otero, a striker against Eastern Airlines from An 18-year-old explained he was there claimed, "No deaths." One person has since stripped, put in paper clothes, and locked in Philadelphia, and McBride addressed the because of his parents. ''I'm not Cuban. I'm died as a result of injuries sustained during solitary confinement with no food or water gathering. from New Jersey," he said. the initial occupation. But the press was for 24 hours. "I think working people here should be "I can't believe they are having that dem­ claiming there had been up to 12 killings. The prison protests are worsening other able to travel to Cuba," McBride insisted. onstration promoting communism in Cuba," Subsequent attempts by prisoners to talk to political problems facing the government­ Washington "should lift the travel ban and said a 34-year-old Black woman from Patter­ the media have been drowned out by what most notably anger against the poll tax. In an we should be able to see what working people son, New Jersey, who left Cuba in 1960. "In one newspaper called "Noriega noise tactics" editorial headed "Mob violence in Britain," are accomplishing in Cuba." my country there is no food, no freedom, no - a reference to the blaring of sirens and the Financial Times stated, "Britain has ac­ "They don't have capitalists in Cuba," medicine." blasting of pop music outside the Vatican quired an unenviable reputation for mob vi­ McBride said, "and it's the responsibility of "We're here to support self-determination embassy in Panama by the U.S. invading olence and thuggery in three areas- foot­ workers there to lead society. It's that respon­ for Cuba. We're not for U.S. intervention," force where Manuel Noriega had sought asy­ ball grounds, prisons, and now the pavements sibility that we here have to take on if we are another woman said. "The Cuban people lum. of central London itself." going to alter and change society." The so­ should determine their destiny. How can the It concluded, "Society is becoming di­ cialist candidate explained that his statements American left fail to see this?" Diet of cabbage vided between a majority of aspiring and on Cuba have been played on radio and "Most of those people aren't Cuban," a Many of the protesters are on remand, affluent citizens and a minority on the edge appeared in newspapers throughout southern man from Brooklyn said, referring to the awaiting trial. In an interview outside of an underclass." West Virginia. participants in the "U.S. Hands Off Cuba" Strangeways, a prisoner's mother told Mili­ On a similar note, the Economist, a weekly "We have a wonderful fight ahead of us, action. "They are Latin Americans who are tant reporters that her son had been eight magazine, editorialized on a "Violent Britain a chance for young people to put an end very confused." months awaiting trial. He had been refused -a nastier brand of politics faces a weak­ forever to capitalist rule. Join us," he urged, A few small groups of men, some draped newspapers for which she had paid and was ened government." It stated, "It has been a "Join the Young Socialist Alliance. Join us to in Alpha 66 flags, circulated outside the "U.S. effectively living on a diet of cabbage. The lousy week for British self-esteem and for fight to demand: 'Leave the Cuban people Hands Off Cuba" demonstration, trying to prisoners discovered in the course of their Mrs. Thatcher's struggling government." alone!"'. provoke a confrontation. occupation stores of meat that had been de­ Seven young people took up the challenge Similar actions have been held outside the nied them by the authorities. Mark Weinstein and Sarah Goff in Man­ and joined the YSA. -S.N. Cuban mission to the United Nations in re- Given the wide public knowledge of the chester contributed to this article.

April 20, 1990 The Militant 11 CALENDAR NEW YORK CITY FLORIDA MINNESOTA spectiva Mundial. For more information call Miami Austin (201) 643-3341. Report back Eastern Europe: The Crisis of Stalinism. The Coming Revolution in South Africa. Translation to Spanish. Sat., April 14, 7:30p.m. Speakers: Urule Igbavboa; representative of So­ NEW YORK from 137 NE 54th St. Donation: $2. Sponsor: Militant cialist Workers Party. Showing of video on the Brooklyn Labor Forum. For more information call (305) 1988 defeat of South African troops at Cuito Conversation with Cuban Artist Hector 756-1020. Cuanavale, Angola. Sun., April 22, 7 p.m. Cahi. Sat., April 14, 7:30p.m. 464 Bergen. Do­ South Africa Cuba Today. An eyewitness report by Rosa 407 V2 N Main St. Donation: $2.50. Sponsor: nation: $3. Sponsor: Militant Labor Forum/Foro Garmendia, Young Socialist Alliance. Transla­ Militant Labor Forum. For more information Perspectiva Mundial. For more information call tion to Spanish. Sat., April 21. Dinner, 5:30 call (507) 433-3461. (718) 398-6983. Greg McCartan p.m.; program, 7:30p.m. 137 NE 54th St. Dona­ St. Paul Manhattan tions: dinner $3.50; program $2. Sponsor: Mili­ Zionism, Racism, and Anti-Semitism. "Out of the Ashes." Exhibit of photographs of Margrethe Siem tant Labor Forum. For more information call Speaker: Will Reissner, Socialist Workers Party, Triangle Shirtwaist fire and political drawings of (305) 756-1020. member International Association of Machinists the time. Tuesdays through Fridays until June 8, Militant correspondent Local 1833. Sat., April 21, 7:30 p.m. 508 N II a.m.-4 p.m. Lower East Side Tenement Mu­ and photographer recently Snelling Ave. Donation: $2. Sponsor: Militant seum, 97 Orchard St. For more information call GEORGIA Labor Forum. For more information call (612) (2 12) 431-0233. returned from reporting Atlanta 644-6325. Tear Down the Korean Wall! U.S. Troops on the upheaval in South Haiti Today: Working People Struggle for The Struggle for Independence in the Soviet Out of South Korea! Speaker: Peter Thierjung, Freedom. Speaker: Pat Hunt, Socialist Workers Republics. Sat., April 28, 7:30 p.m. 508 N Militant staff writer; Rev. Kiyul Chung. Sat., Africa after the release of Party. Sat., April 14. Dinner, 6 p.m.; program, Snelling Ave. Donation: $2. Sponsor: Militant Apri114, 7:30p.m. 191 7th Ave. Donation: $3. Nelson Mandela. 7:30p.m. 132 Cone St. NW, 2nd floor. Dona­ Labor Forum. For more information call (612) Sponsor: Militant Labor Forum. For more infor­ tion: $5. Sponsor: Militant Labor Forum. For 644-6325. mation call (212) 675-6740. Sat., April28, 7:30p.m. more information call (404) 577-4065. Protecting Our Environment: A Marxist View. Speaker: Doug Jenness, editor of the Mil­ 191 Seventh Ave. MISSOURI itant. Sat., April 21 , 7:30 p.m. 191 7th Ave. (at West 21st St.) MARYLAND St. Louis Donation: $3. 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Donation: Action Program to Confront the Coming $3. Coordinated by Committee for Defence of Carlos Tablada Economic Crisis. Speaker: Tony Dutrow, So­ Sovereignty and Self-determination for the Peo­ cialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Con­ ples. Cuban economist and author of Che Guevara: Economics and gress, 3rd C.D. Sun., April 22, 5 p.m. 253 E Politics in the Transition to Socialism, currently on a U.S. Main. Sponsor: Militant Labor Forum. Dona­ tion: $2. For more information call (801) 637- FRANCE speaking tour. 6294. Lyons Seven Hours for Cuba. Speakers: Fernando Flores Ibarra, Cuban ambassador to France; CALIFORNIA NORTH CAROLINA WISCONSIN Solly Smity, representative of African National San Francisco Chapel Hill Lac de Flambeau Congress of South Africa in France; Edy Sat., April 21, 7:30p.m. ILWU Local 34, 4 Tues., April 24, 7 p.m. Toy Lounge, Dey Defend American Indian Treaty Rights! Pro­ Amkongo, representative of South West Africa Berry St. Donation: $5. For more information Hall, University of North Carolina. For more test racist attacks on Indian spearfishers. Sat., People's Organisation. Sat., April 21, 4- 11 p.m. call (415) 282-6255 or 420-1165. information call (919) 272-5996. Aprill4, midafternoon. Centre Culture! Oecumenique, 39 rue Georges Courteline, Zilleurbanne. Sponsor: France-Cuba Stanford UTAH • Association . Speaking with Jose Antonio Burciaga, Casa Salt Lake City Zapata; Sue Severin, longtime Witness for Tues., April 17. 12 noon, University of Utah BRITAIN NEW ZEALAND Peace delegate to Bluefields, Nicaragua. Fri., Challenge Lecture Series, Ballroom, Olpin Cardiff Christchurch April 20, 7:30 p.m. Casa Zapata, Stern Hall, Union; 7 p.m., The Little Theater, Olpin Behind the Prison Protests. Sat., April21, 7:30 Fund-Raising Event for Pathfinder Books. Stanford University. Donation requested. For Union, U of U. For more information call p.m. 9 Moira Terrace, Adamsdown. 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12 The Militant April 20, 1990 -THEGREATSOCIETY------Now wiD you bundle those pa· step!- Taking off from Wash­ TV appearance, a spokesperson for fares of Trump and Pan Am is Good grief- If you want to cel­ pers? -To advance its recycling ington to Boston, a scab Eastern one of the "English only" organiza­ $69.45. ebrate the 40th anniversary of Pea­ program, New York's sanitation de­ pilot ignored an indicator light tions declared that he doesn't want nuts properly, check out Cartier's partment will have an outreach and which signaled that the rear stair­ the movement mixed up with "rac­ Low-down pushers- Re­ solid-gold figurine of Snoopy. education staff of 26, plus 177 way wasn't locked. Meanwhile, he ism and bigamy." searchers Sl\id that cereals with high $5,000. dragged the stairs along the run­ sugar content are invariably found way until takeoff, telling the con­ Oh - Israeli army figures on the clustered on lower market shelves. The shoes were for kicking trol tower the problem would be number of Palestinians killed in the They said this is done because chil­ commies- Imelda Marcos' law­ checked when they got to Boston. uprising are always lower than those dren recognize name brands and yer, Gerry Spence, told the jury that When the tower advised the stairs compiled by journalist, human lean on their parents to buy them. the $220 million she and spouse were hanging down, the plane re­ rights organizations, and Palestin­ The champ, they said, is Ralston Ferdinand stashed abroad was so Harry turned for an emergency landing. ians. An April 4 New York Times Purina's Ghostbusters- 64 per­ that if they got run out, they Ring dispatch explains that this is so cent sugar. wouldn't find themselves "unable to Maybe Thatcher could use it - "largely because Palestinians often afford to mount a counterrevolution In Birmingham, England, an under­ take bodies away from hospitals be­ against communists." armed sanitation police. A city offi­ ground bomb shelter built in 1956 fore the army can record the death." Our expanding health services cial who takes a dim view of the to house key officials during a nu­ - In Miami, if Fido is poorly and Thought for the week - "IfM r. gun-toting cops argues that "people clear attack, is now up for sale. not up to a trip in the family jalopy, Marcos was engaged in a racket, will be alienated by this kind of Asking price, £250,000. A reasonable mark-up - Ac­ call Knowles Animal Hospital, then so was the CIA." - Attorney strategy." cording to an airlines expert cited in which will send a pet ambulance. Spence, arguing that the CIA was A real English speaker - A the Boston Globe, the profit on the One way, $20 to $50, depending on aware of every transaction the Flying Eastern? Watch your Cape Cod reader advises that in a $119 New York-to-Boston shuttle distance. Marcoses made. Guevara and the transition to socialism in Cuba Continued from Page 5 sponsible for the automatic, anarchic, and to the plan." Today a momentous effort is under way in Frederick Engels, the foremost leaders of the brutal way in which proportions and equilib­ As part of this approach, which Guevara Cuba to introduce political education and communist movement in the 19th century, rium are established in capitalist society," called the "budgetary finance system," he consciousness as the essential force in mobi­ and those of V.I. Lenin, the central leader of Tablada writes. promoted and helped organize voluntary lizing the working class to meet the economic the October 1917 Russian revolution. work, that is, work "done outside one's nor­ and political challenges the revolution faces. Political consciouness is key Marx dido 't live to see a socialist revolu­ mal working hours, without additional eco­ Addressing this process of "rectification," tion. But from his study of how capitalism It's when the capitalists are gone that pro­ nomic payment." Not only would this in­ as it is called in Cuba, Castro stated on March works, he assumed that one of the first chal­ ducers for the ftrst time have the opportunity crease production, he said, but more 15 in a TV interview in Sao Paulo, Brazil, lenges for a socialist government would be to make decisions about the economy by importantly it would begin the process of "The main errors that we had to correct were to determine how the social product - that conscious design and according to a plan. workers seeing their work as part of advanc­ those that stemmed from some things we is, the total goods and services produced by Tablada notes that Guevara believed "the ing the collective interest of society, and not copied from the socialist experience although working people - would be distributed. It development of consciousness must be the just in their own interest. our revolution was always notable for having couldn't simply be divided equally among all strategic objective of the first social system a great creative spirit. We did things in a the workers, he said. Part would have to be ever to be constructed in a conscious way." Che's ideas not implemented different way and interpreted revolutionary used for replacement of materials used up in By developing consciousness Guevara In a speech given on the 20th anniversary ideas in a different manner at certain times. production and to compensate for wear and meant increasing social and political under­ of Guevara's death and included in the Path­ There were some things we copied, espe­ tear of machinery. Another portion would standing and human solidarity; that is, com­ finder edition ofTablada 's book, Fidel Castro cially while building our economy. To better need to be invested in expansion of produc­ munist consciousness. He believed that the said, "At a given moment some ofChe's ideas understand this it would be necessary to get tion. Some would be needed for the costs of "effectiveness of the plan cannot be evaluated were incorrectly interpreted and, what's a book entitled, The Economic Thought of administration. Part would be used for social solely by whether it improves economic man­ more, incorrectly applied. Certainly no seri­ Che [a reference to the Spanish title of the needs of workers, including education, health agement and, therefore, augments the goals ous attempt was ever made to put them into book by Tablada] because Che was a prophet. care, and housing, as well as for unemploy­ available to society," Tablada states. "Nor can practice, and there came a time when ideas "Since the beginning of the revolution," ment, disability, and old-age compensation. it be evaluated by the earnings obtained in diametrically opposed to Che's economic Castro continued, "when he was appointed The remainder would be distributed to work­ the production process. thought began to take over." industry minister and was entrusted with or­ ers in the form of wages. "The real measure of the plan's effective­ ganizing industrial production and socialist ness lies in its potential t(l improv~ f;COnomic In the period after Guevara was murdered Under capitalism this distribution of the enterprises, he immediately understood that management in terms of advancing toward in Bolivia in 1967, Cuba went much more social product is determined blindly by the it would be an error to try to build socialism the central objective: communist society." fully over to a version of the planning models laws of the market and the profit needs of using capitalist models." One of the big challenges in beginning to widely used in Eastern Europe and the Soviet private owners. "Market operations are re- , develop communist consciousness is the leg­ Union. These, to one degree or another, A clear presentation of the political frame­ acy of habits carried over from capitalist counted on the mechanism of the plan itself work of the current rectification process and society, including personal ambition and self­ to keep production increasing. They applied its objectives can be found in four speeches Nicaraguan workers centeredness. Guevara recognized that while elements from capitalism, including profits, by Castro given on the 30th anniversary of there was much that socialists can learn from interest, widespread use of bonuses and other the Cuban revolution, which were published test strength in strikes capitalists about accounting, organization, material incentives, and market mechanisms. last year by Pathfinder in the book In Defense at plastics, food plants and implementation of controls in enterprises Political understanding and communist edu­ of Socialism. A thorough study of these and production, he opposed relying on those cation, as well as voluntary work, played little speeches is the best preparation for reading elements of capitalist society that would re­ or no role in this kind of setup, and in fact, Tablada's book on Che Guevara's ideas and Continued from Page 8 attitudes and practices from the capitalist seeing the significance of those ideas for ments. But the officials repeated their case inforce the old competitive dog-eat-dog ani­ tudes, making it impossible to move ahead world were reinforced. today. several times nonetheless. "Try to understand," one pleaded, "that toward communist society. we're heading into capitalism now. We've Among the categories that he thought should be restricted and then eliminated as had 10 years of a government for working quickly as possible were the market, interest, -10AND25 YEARSAGO-­ people, but now there's going to be an employers' government." direct material incentives, and profit. passes so they can travel back and forth Guevara "thought that socialism could not be TH£ MILITANT between the embassy and their homes. 'You don't know what it's like out there' built using the elements of capitalism without changing the real meaning of socialism," CST representative Marvin Largaespada April 18, 1980 told the government officials that "it's not Tablada notes. "Taking such a road would THE just the union officers, it's the workers" who produce a hybrid system that would require A vast new frame-up against the Cuban new concessions to capitalist economic le­ are making demands. "You don't know what revolution is under way. The U.S. govern­ vers and would therefore lead to a retreat." MILITANT it's like out there," he said. The economic ment and media are using the events at the Published in the lnteresh of the Wor~ing People To avoid this danger Guevara proposed conditions workers face are unbearable, Cen­ Peruvian embassy in Havana to smear Cuba April19, 1965 •·;~ "' teno added. and began to implement a number of steps. as one big island prison. Chiefly, he believed that state-run enterprises The officials responded by trying to appeal They claim that the reason thousands The following is an excerpt from a speech should not be treated like capitalist units to the union leaders' "sense of responsibility." have descended on the embassy is that the on the US war in Vietnam given by Fidel competing with each other for profits. Don't they understand that the economic Cuban government has reversed its alleged Castro on March 13, 1965, development of the country is necessary for "We view the entire economy as one big previous policy of refusing to let people Sandinismo to survive? they asked. There enterprise," Guevara wrote. "In the frame­ leave Cuba. Before the concrete case of a country at­ was no response. work of building socialism, our aim is to The fact is that the policy of the Cuban tacked by imperialism, like Vietnam, we Finally, the ministry representatives tried establish collaboration between all the par­ government, from the very beginning of the have one position. We don't act, as perhaps to persuade the union leaders they were being ticipants as members of one big enterprise, revolution, has been to allow anybody who some think, as perhaps above all the imperi­ naive. "Your ideas are beautiful, but roman­ instead of treating each other like wolves." wants to leave Cuba to do so. alists think, on the basis of "when you see tic," argued one. He said the Ministry of Each production unit, Guevara said, turns It is true that there are people in Cuba who your neighbor's house on fire, you throw Labor nonetheless appreciates that the union­ its revenues over to the national budget - want to get out and can't. The reason is that water on your own roof." The way we act is, ists are "sticking with the Sandinista Workers that is, it does not accumulate them to dis­ capitalist governments - in the ftrst place, when we see our neighbor's house on fire, Federation and with the FSLN." This is com­ tribute among the workers in a single plant the U.S. government - are not willing to we want to share this difficulty. mendable, he said, since a number of other or to invest according to its own decision. take them in, severely restricting the number We are not people to be frightened by CST unions are disaffiliating from the feder­ The enterprise withdraws funds from the state of visas they will grant. these events; rather we are kindled to action ation. bank in accordance with a financial plan. The New York Times noted, "The United by them. And we have one position. We are "Think it over carefully. Remember we Money becomes an accounting device like it States and Spain are virtually the only coun­ in favor of giving Vietnam all the aid that won't be here in a couple of weeks," one of is used between divisions of a large capitalist tries accepting immigrants from Cuba, which may be necessary; we are in favor of this aid the officials said as he stood to shake corporation, rather than a medium of com­ has granted far more exit permits than there being arms and men; we are in favor of the Centeno's hand. modity exchange. are opportunities to leave" (emphasis socialist camp running the risks that may be Centeno thanked the mediators, but said "As the plan is being drawn up and imple­ added). necessary for Vietnam. he thought the workers would decide to con­ mented," Tablada explains, "the mechanisms The Cuban government has told the peo­ We are quite aware of the fact that in case tinue the strike. of the party, the unions, and other organiza­ ple at the Peruvian embassy that they are free of any serious international complication we At an April 2 meeting, Polymer workers tions can serve as channels between the gov­ to go to any country that will accept them. It will be one of the first targets of imperialism, voted unanimously to stay out and not to ernment and the masses to communicate con­ has provided food, water, toilets, and medi­ but this does not worry us and has never accept anything less than their full demands. cerns, complaints, and suggested corrections cal care for them. It has offered safe-conduct worried us.

April 20, 1990 The Militant 13 - · EDITORIALS What happened to the Nicaraguan revolution April7 march: a new beginning BY DOUG JENNESS In her letter to the editor in this week's issue, Lois The "U.S. Hands Off Cuba" demonstration held in New Nor do working people here have·a stake in supporting Remple disagrees that the February 25 election outcome York City April 7 was a historic victory for all those who the broadcast war against Cuba escalated by Washington's "announced the defeat of the Nicaraguan revolution." oppose Washington's decades-long policy of aggression launching of TV Marti. This latest act of hostility openly To determine whether or not there has been a defeat, it against Cuba. The protest through the streets of midtown attacks Cuba's sovereignty by violating its telecommunica­ is necessary to look at what the main conquests of the Manhattan was the largest such action in the United States tions space. Even though Cuban engineers have been able revolution were. in more than 25 years. It took place at a time when Cuba to jam the transmissions so far, Washington has not given In July 1979 the workers and peasants of Nicaragua faces the most serious threats and attacks since the 1961 up its television aggression. mobilized to overthrow the hated Somoza tyranny. They Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962 "missile crisis," during On the other hand, unionists, farmers, students, Black completely smashed the armed power of the old regime and which Washington imposed a total naval blockade of Cuba rights and women's rights fighters, and other activists have established a new government headed by the Sandinista and threatened nuclear war. everything to gain from opening up communication and National Liberation Front (FSLN). They built a new army April 7 marks the beginning of a new protest movement travel with this Caribbean island just 90 miles off the Flor­ and a new police responsible to the revolutionary govern­ to demand the U.S. government leave Cuba alone. ida coast. Every blow to Washington's plan to further iso­ ment. The fact that supporters of Cuba's sovereignty confi­ late Cuba and to deny the Cuban people the democratic Nicaragua's working people were armed, trained, and dently took to the streets will inspire others around the right to determine their own destiny strengthens our fight organized on a massive scale to defend the revolutionary country and around the world who are opposed to here to retain and extend our own democratic rights. Washington's anti-Cuban belligerence. Washington's ban on travel to Cuba denies U.S. residents A political campaign was waged by march organizers - with precious few exceptions - the democratic right to LEARNING ABOUT and supporters before April7 to demand the New York City see for themselves what Cuba has accomplished since free­ administration guarantee the right of the demonstration to ing itself from the dictates of U.S. multinational corpora­ SOCIALISM take place without disruption. This campaign helped make tions 31 years ago. the "U.S. Hands Off Cuba" march an attractive action for By bringing to power a government that represents their those activists and fighters who were looking for an oppor­ interests and by abolishing capitalism, Cuban working peo­ power. They demonstrated their determination and capaci­ tunity to openly express their opposition to Washington's ple have been able to move forward in a way that stands as ties by defeating the U.S.-backed counterrevolutionary provocations. an example for toilers of the entire world. mercenary forces. The fact that the action took place as planned and that (Here, Remple is wrong. The contras were decisively participants stood up to threats and intimidation and did not Despite the stranglehold of a U.S. economic blockade, defeated militarily in the latter part of 1987. This does not let themselves be provoked by right-wing forces was also a the Cuban people have built a society where the curse of mean that contra forays and killings in Nicaragua did not big victory. massive unemployment has disappeared and where free continue to occur, but the full-scale mercenary war that had The success of this protest paves the way for more dem­ education and health care are rights enjoyed by all. taken such a costly toll was over.) onstrations like it. These can and will begin to attract more They have made huge strides in the fight to advance The FSLN-led government in the opening years of the and broader forces from the campuses, farmlands, and women's position in society and to overcome the centuries­ revolution responded to the massive mobilizations of work­ workplaces where interest in learning the truth about Cuba old legacy of racism. And they have provided an unequaled ers and peasants by carrying.out a series of expropriations is growing. example of internationalism, giving selflessly - whether and other measures against capitalist property. April7 will help spark the formation of"U.S. Hands Off it's doctors, soldiers, or teachers- whenever they've been Governmental clout was used to help launch and Cuba" coalitions throughout the United States and interna­ asked for help by others struggling against imperialism. strengthen unions and mass organizations of workers and tionally. Such coalitions can unite broad forces who, despite The U.S. ruling rich fear the example of the gains made of peasants. This went hand-in-hand with a stepped-up fight diverse views on the Cuban revolution, will be able to stand by the Cuban people and their revolution. They fear the by women for equal rights and by indigenous peoples and shoulder to shoulder to demand: No to Washington's inter­ ability of socialist Cuba to inspire millions - not only in peoples of African origin on the Atlantic Coast against vention in Cuba! , Latin America but in the United States as well- to follow national oppression. Working people in the United States have no stake in their lead by taking hold of our own destiny and building a The actions of the new FSLN-government, responding supporting Washington's hostility towards Cuba. We have society that serves human needs not profits. to the pressures of the workers and peasants and taking no interest in violation of Cuba's airspace, in shooting at Cuba is not a threat to working people in the United leadership initiatives in an anticapitalist as well as popular Cuban cargo ships, or in allowing counterrevolutionary States in any way. What is a threat is the real possibility of and anti-imperialist direction, determined its character as a Cuban exiles to carry out military training here. a U.S. invasion that hangs over Cuba today. workers' and farmers' government. We have nothing to gain from Washington's economic April 7 was just the beginning. The challenge now is to The formation of this government gave working people blockade against Cuba or in allowing the continued pres­ move forward and continue building a movement across the a powerful weapon to mobilize a fight against capitalist ence of U.S. military forces at the Guantinamo naval base country that will energetically demand: No to TV Marti. domination of the economy and significantly extend located on Cuban soil. U.S. hands off Cuba! workers' control of production and workers' democracy throughout the country. Such a course, which could only lead to expropriating the major capitalist holdings in industry and agriculture and the initiation of economic planning, was essential to de­ fending the democratic and anti-imperialist gains of the revolution. It was the only way out of imperialist domina­ Protest Cincinnati's censorship tion and economic superexploitation, which are ravaging working people throughout Latin America. The actions taken against the Contemporary Arts Cen­ last year," said one board member of the Cincinnati Arts But the FSLN did not lead a course along this line. Over ter in Cincinnati and its director, Dennis Barrie, by police, Center. time the FSLN government began basing itself on long­ city government officials, and other procensorship forces Mapplethorpe 's 175-photograph exhibit, which in­ term reliance on the workings of the capitalist market. This are an affront to the constitutional right of freedom of cludes photographs of nude children and homosexual and led away from deepening the inroads on the property and expression and should be halted immediately. sadomasochistic images, sparked national controversy prerogatives of the exploiting class. The gallery's exhibit of photographs by Robert and debate over government funding of the arts last sum­ As the economic crisis deepened in Nicaragua's capital­ Mapplethorpe, which opened April 7, was attended by mer when the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington ist economy, the burdens fell most heavily on workers and hundreds within the first hours. Police then moved in, canceled the exhibit of his photographs. It was eventually peasants. But the FSLN leadership resisted mobilizing ordered visitors to leave, closed the gallery for more than shown in that city by the Washington Project for the Arts. working people in city and country to extend workers' an hour, videotaped the exhibit, and presented Barrie and Barrie and the arts center were not the first targets of control over production and distribution and deepen the the art center with indictments handed down by a nine­ the Cincinnati city fathers' "antipornography" crusade. land reform. member grand jury. Barrie and the gallery face three The city's statutes also bar adult bookstores and X-rated Increasingly, the FSLN played by the rules of the capi­ misdemeanor charges - two of "pandering obscenity" movies. Movie theaters in the city, afraid of running afoul talists. This was most clearly seen by the framework of the and one of "illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented of the city's unconstitutional statures on obscenity, de­ recent elections. They pointed to the national election as a material." clined to show the film The Last Temptation of Christ. means in and of itself of strengthening the revolution, Protesting the police action, I ,000 demonstrators gath­ Any moves to curb free speech and expression are a miseducating an entire generation of fighters. ered outside the center chanting, "Gestapo go home!" and threat to all working people, unions, and other organiza­ The deepening ofdemocratic rights is progressive because "Simon Leis is the one who's warped- Keep your hands tions they're part of- from groups supporting abortion it opens space for the exploited to organize and engage in off Mapplethorpe!" They were referring to Hamilton rights to committees fighting to lift the U.S. blockade of politics. But such advances have a reality and are sustainable County Sheriff Leis who is spearheading the censorship Cuba. only if linked to the deepening of workers' struggles and the moves against the gallery. Earlier targets of Leis' "anti­ A precedent that allows an art exhibit deemed obscene extension of mass organizations that can strengthen the fight pornography" censorship drive have included the musical by Cincinnati's rulers to be shut down opens the door to to do away with capitalist exploitation. Bourgeois Hair and the play Equus. wider moves to impose censorship. Working people and parliamentarism, however, depoliticizes workers and pushes On April 8 a federal judge issued a restraining order all supporters of democratic rights should stand firmly on them away from being the makers of their own destiny, a barring local authorities from closing down the exhibit or the side of the Cincinnati art gallery and its director role they had begun to assume with the revolution. removing the works. "People are saying that this is the against the attempts by local authorities to close down the The foundations of the government that had represented stand that should have been taken in Washington, D.C., exhibit. and defended Nicaragua's workers and peasants had eroded away even before the February elections. Following the elections, there can be no doubt that the government rests on capitalist foundations as the FSLN administration as­ sumes the lead in helping to organize a smooth transition to Violeta Chamorro's administration. The loss of the workers' and peasants' government­ the principal conquest of the revolution - is a gigantic defeat and places working people in a much less favorable position than they were before. Not everything workers and peasants won has been taken away, but there will be an intensified fight needed to defend these gains. It will be out of this struggle and others that will be fought that a new movement will develop that can overturn capitalist political rule again, and if properly led, move toward expropriating the capitalists and head toward socialism.

14 The Militant April20, 1990 Are Mexican workers to blame for auto layoffs? BY ANDREA GONZALEZ $1.50 an hour. The working day is 10 hours long, with only in the Ford plant. Unfortunately, UAW officials said and ST. LOUIS - When Chrysler Corp. recently an­ two I 0-minute breaks. If a worker is absent three times or did nothing to support our brothers and sisters in Mexico. nounced plans to close one of its auto assembly plants in late three times within a year, he or she can be fired. Although In February our U AW local stepped up its support for nearby Fenton, a coworker at the Ford assembly plant here the work force in the maquiladoras is predominantly young the Machinists on strike at Eastern Airlines. Local mem­ came up to me on the line. He was livid. "Chrysler is - between 16 and 24 years old - and female, pregnancy bers helped build the rally to celebrate the Eastern strike's putting all those guys on the street because of you people," is a basis for dismissal. anniversary, which was held at our union hall on March 4. he said. Ventilation and safety equipment are virtually nonexis­ UAW members helped the striking Machinists with picket­ At first I was confused about why I was to blame for the tent. Although most workers speak only Spanish, the chem­ ing. plant closing. Then I realized that he was repeating charges icals used in some plants carry warnings printed only in Supporting the Eastern strike helped promote a spirit of English. unity and solidarity against Ford, which in tum made it These harsh working conditions lead to a high turnover. easier to discuss the issue of maquiladoras and the need for The average time spent in the maquiladoras is only five solidarity with all working people - no matter what coun­ UNION TALK years. try they happen to live in. The UAW officialdom has not proposed supporting Mex­ Those of us who disagree with the commonly held view made by United Auto Workers officials at the Chrysler plant ican workers' struggles against these conditions as a focus that plant shutdowns are the result of "importing cars and that "unfair competition" from Mexico had led to the plant of international solidarity for our union. Instead workers in exporting jobs" were able to get a better hearing. being shut. (He didn't realize I'm Puerto Rican, not Mexi­ Mexico have become the latest scapegoat for the auto We explained that any fight against layoffs and plant can.) companies' layoffs and plants closings. closings must focus on the companies who make these Some 4,000 workers will be laid off when Chrysler's No. decisions and not on other workers. We stressed the need 1 Plant in Fenton closes in September. This comes on top Soon after the announcement of the Fenton plant closing, a demonstration was organized by New Directions, an to fight to shorten the workweek to 30 hours, with no cut of the permanent shutdown by General Motors and Chrysler in pay, in order to create jobs-a demand the UAW is on of five other auto plants in the past two years. opposition caucus in the UAW. The central demand of the protest was "export cars, not jobs." record supporting. Some 16,500 auto workers have been thrown out of work. We also explained the importance of solidarity with the Although many coworkers liked the demonstration, at In addition, thousands more UAW members have been hit workers on strike at Ford in Mexico. The UAW had de­ least one I talked to thought it made the wrong point. The by short-term layoffs as auto sales-especially of cars faulted on its obligation to back these unionists, we said. action, he said, was demanding that "Chrysler lay some­ made in the United States-have sagged in recent months. While most coworkers agreed that the UAW should back body else off" - that is, Chrysler workers in Mexico. He It's no wonder that auto workers are more concerned than strikes against Ford by workers anywhere, they were not himself had been a victim of the auto industry's remgani­ usual about layoffs and whether a major downturn in the necessarily convinced that imports aren't a problem. "We zations in 1980-82, when scores of plants were closed and auto industry is looming. live in the United States and we have to take care ofourselves tens of thousands of workers were laid off. He had been Where does Mexico fit into this picture? In the last 20 first," was a common comment. years, the "Big Three" auto makers have built assembly idled from Ford for six years. Like other workers in this position, his standard of living dropped radically and he The discussion on imports died down as the local geared plants in Mexico. During the same period, dozens of U.S. up for the Eastern strike rally. companies including auto makers, have also built parts and had to move across the country to take the job at Ford in St. Louis. It came up again after the action. On the way back from subassembly plants, known as maquiladoras. In the the airport walk-through, one coworker commented; ''This In the I980-82 slump, some union members also called maquiladoras, raw materials and parts shipped in from the was a great day. You can see where the rally and the for "laying off someone else." This only divided the union United States are assembled- into instrument panels or walk-through really made a difference. But I don't see that and alienated other people, he recalled. "Everybody needs steering columns, for example - and then shipped back to the Chrysler action accomplished anything." a job," he said. "So why should you deserve one more than U.S. plants where they are used in final assembly. The I agreed. The rally against Eastern accomplished some­ the next guy?" maquiladoras, which are mostly located along the U.S.­ thing because it unified all of us against the real enemy - Mexico border, employ 400,000 workers. While the demonstration at Chrysler was going on, the bosses. The protest at Chrysler just pitched us against In January UAW Region 5 published a 16-page workers at the Ford assembly plant outside Mexico City ourselves. "Maquiladora Special Report." Articles in the report by were on strike, fighting for higher wages and other de­ UAW members who visited Mexico describe wages and mands. News of the strike was limited to small write-ups Andrea Gonzalez is a member ofUnited Auto Workers Local working conditions in the plants. Wages range from $.50 to in the Post-Dispatch and an announcement on TV monitors 325 at Ford's St. Louis assembly plant. -LEITERS Truth about Cuba serious ones; had lost touch with its information, please call (800) 427- · Thank you for the beautiful arti­ base; had made too many conces­ 2755. cles about Cuba you ran in the sions in its efforts to end U.S. ag­ William Wilder March 9 issue. Many people in this gression. Roslindale, Massachusetts country don't really know the truth But the people of Nicaragua were about my country's government, voting for survival. The United Palestine detention and those who do know the truth States was saying: If you elect UNO, We want to let your readers know don't talk about it. Our country and the embargo will be lifted; other­ about the arrest of well-known Pal­ government is dragged through the wise, the economic war will go on. estinian labor leader Hani Beydoun mud just for the sake of a pair of The .solidarity movement made on March 20. He was detained at an Levis. its share of mistakes: a reliance on Israeli army check point in Ram­ Believe me -Cuba is a beautiful legislative pressure and not focusing allah, in the West Bank, and his life island and the government of our more action on the embargo. is in danger. President Fidel Castro Ruz is the The FSLN and the people of Nic­ Beydoun recently completed a government we want. He has done aragua are analyzing the results of successful speaking tour in the a lot for us. the elections. We must do the same United States. Now the Israeli gov­ A prisoner thing and the Militant's analysis can ernment would like to silence him. Gatesville, Texas contribute. Meanwhile, the revolu­ In the past your telegrams have tion has been set back, but not de­ forced the Israeli government to stop Nicaragua analysis feated. torturing and to release Palestinian Lois Remple Don The Militant's coverage and anal­ fighters. Please participate in the in­ Pueblo, Colorado The launching of \\ashington's Radio Marti was captured by ysis of the Nicaraguan elections was ternational telegram campaign to the 1985 cartoon. Today U.S. aggression against Cuba continues with the good, and I agree with it - up to a prime minister of Israel calling for attempts to broadcast TV Marti on Cuban domestic frequencies. point. New England strike Beydoun 's release. Call Western I do not agree that the election On January 9 International Union Union at (800) 257-4900, operator announced the defeat of the Nicara­ of Electronic Workers (IUE) Local 9664. safety to be in jeopardy, they are he wasn't compensated for their guan revolution - a defeat for the 239, which represents workers at Palestine Solidarity Committee entitled to refuse to work. mess-up. five ADT Co. locations in New En­ Committee to Release revolution, perhaps; but the revolu­ In addition we were awarded sub­ Workers immediately raise the gland, went on strike after negotia­ Hani Beydoun tion is still alive. Its gains, badly stantial damages. question: If they can "lose" a sam­ tions broke down. P.O. Box 29340 eroded by the embargo and the con­ I trust this may be of some value ple, can't they " inadvertently" tra war, will be defended by the Chicago, Illinois 60629 It was obvious after five weeks of not only to my Detroit fellow work­ switch samples and put you out of Sandinista National Liberation picketing and the ADT refusal to ers but also any others facing similar work with a "drug-related" firing on Front (FSLN), still the strongest, meet on three separate occasions Safety on the docks problems. your record. best organized party in Nicaragua. that a union-busting tactic was being It was with more than usual inter­ Yours in solidarity. The FSLN had made mistakes, played out. The issues that led to the est that I read in the March 16 issue I was told that the Conrail "fam­ Jock Barnes ily" has a new policy for crews re­ strike were company proposals to "Detroit GM workers protest safety Auckland, New Zealand have overtime handed out at man­ hazards." turning to work, with a sign-up time and interview time so "Dad" can agement discretion, to lay off with­ In I94 7 Auckland waterside Correction Drug testing determine if you're fit and sober. out going through seniority, to hire workers were locked out. The ship In a March 30 article on the It was with personal interest that subcontractors without any limita­ was theMountpark; the issue, safety. These measures, combined with death of Ron Wolin, we re­ tions, and to have the workers pay I read the "Union Talk" column on the drive to outlaw a woman's right After some months the govern­ ported incorrectly that the court more for medical benefits. drug testing of rail workers in the to choose abortion, graphically dis­ ment decided that the case should decision he won, Wolin v. Port March 2 Militant. play the employers' determination Some people have gone back to be heard in Supreme Court. It took Authority, "was extended to I work as a tower operator for the to control our personal lives. It's virtually all transportation ter­ work for reasons ranging from fear II days. of losing one's job to economic Southeastern Transportation Au­ crucial that our unions do more to minals and shopping centers." As national president, I took the thority (SEPTA) in Philadelphia. At fight these undemocratic threats. stress. It's hard to feel bad or sorry The issue of exercising First case for the New Zealand Waterside the beginning of the year, SEPTA for people who have no concept of Craig McKissic Amendment rights in shopping Workers' Union. The government, instituted "random" drug testing. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania centers was dealt with later by what was established for the Eastern ship owners, and Waterfront Control the Supreme Court, which held strikers. Commission combined against us, Recently I was called to replace The letters column is an open that shopping centers are pri­ There is no prospect that there assisted by a battery of three barris­ a coworker who was pulled out of forum for all viewpoints on sub­ service for a minor infraction. There vate property, subject to state will be a settlement in the near fu­ ters. To their consternation and that jects of general interest to our was no accident or injury involved. laws and constitutional provi­ ture, which makes it even more im­ of a host of our critics, the chief readers. Please keep your letters He was taken for a drug test. sos. Consequently, the right to portant we all help as much as we justice found for my union. The es­ brief. Where necessary they will leaflet and carry out other such can. Your contributions can be sent sence of his lengthy judgment was: While the results normally come be abridged. Please indicate if activities in shopping centers to IUE Local239, c/o President Wil­ Even though experts declare a back in three days, he was out of you prefer that your initials varies from state to state. liam Wilder, 20 Brookdale St., method of work to be safe, if work­ work for a week because the clinic be used rather than your full Roslindale, Mass. 02I31. For more ers genuinely believe their lives or "lost" his sample. Needless to say, name.

April 20, 1990 The Militant 15 THE MILITANT Sweden auto workers mount fight Saab-Scania sues 982 unionists BY BIRGITTA ISACSSON employers' association and union not open AND ERIK DAHLROTH the renegotiation clause. STOCKHOLM, Sweden- The last Some 5,300 workers at the Scania truck few months in Sweden have been marked plant located in the town of SOdertii.lje just by a government crisis over how to cope south of here are organized by the 500,000- with growing economic difficulties and an strong Metal Workers Union. It is one of the upsurge in strikes as working people have largest workplaces in the country. responded to government-proposed mea­ The union local at the plant has been trying sures. to open negotiations on wage increases with Beginning in February a wave of strikes the company since the end of 1989. Some and protests by public service employees, bus 3,500 signed petitions in early February that drivers, bank employees, and hospital work­ were delivered to the Saab-Scania bosses ers swept the country in response to a gov­ demanding a 5.50 kronor an hour raise ernment-announced austerity package. (US$1=6.20 kronor). The company re­ The plan called for an end to wage in­ sponded with delays and eventually refused creases, a ban on strikes, increased fines to answer the workers' demands. against individuals for illegal strikes, and an Fifty Scania workers in the foundry staged automatic extension of all contract agree­ a one-hour sit-in February 16 after which the ments between unions and employers. To company proposed a 2.50 kronor increase. sweeten the proposal the government prom­ At a union meeting following the action the ised to freeze prices and rents. company's wage raise proposal was rejected The whole package, however, was met unanimously. with a torrent of protests. Meanwhile, union contracts were signed Social Democratic Prime Minister Ingvar at other Saab-Scania plants in Malmo and Carlsson and his cabinet resigned February Trollhlittan with workers there receiving a Intemationalen/Lars Kjellander 15 after the belt-tightening measures were more substantial wage hike. The union mem­ Auto workers at Saab-Scania plant (above) outside Stockholm are fighting for higher rejected by every other party in the Swedish bers at SOdertii.lje then demanded the local pay, despite government demands for ''austerity." Strikes, other protests by workers, parliament. union hold meetings around the truck factory and Sweden's mounting economic difficulties are causing a crisis for the Social Carlsson has now resurfaced heading a to discuss how to proceed. In light of the Democratic government. new Social Democratic government and is other contracts signed, the company's low proposal for Sooertii.lje angered workers and preparing another austerity package in an a local union in Sweden to strike are very how long and hard they have fought. The on February 23 workers in the transmission attempt to head off an impending economic limited. Permission must be obtained from workers decided to meet again in a week. shop downed their tools for three hours. · crisis signaled by rising interest rates, infla­ the national union body and the national Negotiations dragged on. At a March 13 The following day the company boosted tion heading toward 8 percent this year, and union federation, and workers can't strike if meeting, union official Bjorn Svallfors re­ its offer to 3.40 kronor. The job actions had a decline in economic growth and invest­ they already have a national pact. Individual ported the company had been shaken by the won an increase, which the workers consid­ ment. workers who strike can be taken to labor court actions and was considering a new proposal. ered a victory. But everyone knew the Scania and fmed. Part of the government's austerity Workers decided that it was crucial to keep truck division took in a profit of $580 million Saab-Scania plan was a proposed increase in the strike up a fighting spirit and called a demonstration in 1989. One of the industries hit was auto as union fines from $32 to $800. for March 17. members at the big Saab-Scania plant outside Marches begin The union meeting held March 7 was the One thousand people turned out for the Stockholm mounted a fight against the com­ largest in the local's history. More than 1,200 demonstration and the crowd marched pany that continues to escalate. Beginning February 27 workers in the workers attended, wanting to know where the through the city of Sooertii.lje carrying hand­ In Sweden 90 percent of industrial workers plant began to hold a series of marches negotiations stood. The national negotiator lettered placards. A worker from a nearby are members of trade unions, along with 80 throughout the facility and ending in front of Bernt StAhl informed the workers the com­ metal factory addressed the crowd solidariz­ percent of service and office workers. Rene­ the head office. pany had not given in and no contract was ing with their fight. gotiation clauses in existing union contracts The first march drew 300 workers and signed. are being opened due to the economic crisis grew along the way. The unionists chanted, At the meeting Scania workers received Company sues to demand wage raises in order to keep up "We want 5.50!" Outside the head office a greetings from unionists supporting their de­ Saab-Scania boss told the workers that he From the ftrst day of protests at the Scania with inflation. On March 30 government­ mands. Big backing came from workers in plant the company has threatened to take could not talk to everyone and suggested they appointed mediators proposed that the other Metal Workers Union locals whose workers to labor court. The week before the elect a delegation, which he then would invite bosses would not sign contracts until the demonstration the bosses announced 982 into his office. Scania negotiations were resolved. "We workers will be sued. The first court proceed­ "Don't try to split us!" workers responded, Hawaii hotel workers should be proud of what we accomplished," ings are slated for April25. Along with keep­ "all we want is 5.50!" said one Scania worker in the discussion. The ing up the fight in the plant for their demands, approve 5-year pact, In the following several days workers con­ worker referred to the fact that under pressure workers are enthusiastic about having a show end month-long strike tinued to march. the national union officials had refused to of force at the court proceedings and have On March 5, in the biggest march the plant sign the contract. When the government an­ lined up Volvo buses to travel to the hearings was all but shut down. nounced the austerity plan the national unions BY MARC VIGLIELMO in Stockholm. In Sweden when the local union refuses to backed it, but many were later forced to HONOLULU, Hawaii- Members of accept the company offer and no contract is withdraw their support. Birgitta /sacsson and Erik Dahlroth both Local 5 of the Hotel Employees and Restau­ signed, negotiations are then in the hands of Another mentioned the workers on strike work at the Scania plant in Sodertiilje and rant Employees returned to work after a ten­ the national union. The legal possibilities for at Eastern Airlines in North America, noting are members of the Metal Workers Union. tative agreement was reached with the Council of Hawaii Hotels on March 24. The month-long strike by 7,500 housekeepers, bellhops, clerks, and restaurant and bar work­ ers involved one-fourth of the hotel rooms in Pathfinder bookstore opens in Sweden Waikiki and one-seventh statewide. The five-year pact includes pay increases BY INGE HINNEMO The newest work on display is a Swedish Sweden helped prepare the ground for the of 7 percent in the first year and 6 percent STOCKHOLM, Sweden- Close to 90 translation of An Action Program to Confront launching of the Communist International in each year for four years for workers who people, hailing from 16 countries, crowded the Coming Economic Crisis, Pathfinder's 1919. receive no tips. Tipped workers will receive into the Pathfinder bookstore here March 31 second publication in that language. "A similar process is beginning in Sweden increases of 2 percent to 3 percent. These to celebrate its official opening. Bizo Mngqikana, who brought greetings today," said Riddell. "Pathfinder's friends increases fulfill the main goal of the union, Introducing the rally on behalf of the book­ from the African National Congress office in and supporters and all of you here tonight according to spokesman Roderick Rodri­ store, Barbro Davidsson pointed out that it Stockholm, warned of the campaigns of "dis­ will be caught up in a great international guez, bringing pay in line with that of hotel was not a commercial enterprise but a weapon information" directed against the Cuban and struggle for freedom, for socialism. The workers on the mainland. for the struggle of all working people. South African peoples. "Pathfinder is one of founding of the Pathfinder center here is a Workers held a series of rallies during the "Constructing the bookstore was a true the avenues that exist to get our message small but important step along this road." strike and won support from other unions, international effort," Davidsson continued. across to the world," he explained. The evening's final speaker was Maria including the Hawaii Government Employ­ "It lasted many months and involved volun­ For Dennys Guzman Perez, the ambassa­ Hamberg, a leader of the Communist League ees' Association, Service Employees Interna­ teers from more than half a dozen countries." dor of Cuba to Sweden, the meeting reaf­ of Sweden. "It is we- all of us here- who tional Union Local 368, United Food and Located in central Stockholm close to sub­ firmed that it was not only the Cubans who are the Pathfinder bookstore," she said. "We Commercial Workers Union Local 480, and way and train stations, the bookstore has an still believed in "the bright hope of social­ will use it - use the Pathfinder books, the the teachers' union. At a March 17 rally of attractive storefront and features rolling ism." Militant newspaper and Militant Labor Fo­ 400 workers in Honolulu's Kapiolani Park, bookracks that permit its transformation into "That is why it is so important that this rums - in order to understand and become representatives of these unions were joined a meeting hall. bookstore exists, one where you can find all part of the struggle." by other labor officials, including a represen­ Already, more than 300 titles are available these ideas-from Marx to Fidel Castro," A worker in the Saab-Scania auto factory tative of the Coalition of Labor Union on its shelves. Most are in English and Swe­ Guzman added. took up a collection on behalf of the I ,000 Women, and by representatives of the Rain­ dish, but many are in Spanish and other John Riddell, editor ofthe Pathfinder series workers there facing prosecution. bow Coalition and the Latin American and languages spoken by immigrant workers in The Communist International in Lenin's In addition, 3,000 kronor (US$500) was Caribbean Solidarity Association. ,Sweden. Time, recalled to the rally how workers in raised toward bookstore construction costs.

16 The Militant April 20, 1990