· AUSTRALIA $3.00 · CANADA $2.50 · FRANCE 1.60 EUROS · ICELAND KR200 · NEW ZEALAND $3.00 · SWEDEN KR15 · UK £1.00 · U.S. $1.50 INSIDEINSIDEINSIDE Palestinian fighter speaks out from INS jail in New Jersey — PAGE 9

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 67/NO. 2 JANUARY 20, 2003 Venezuelan N.Y. protesters: ‘No to INS workers resist boss ‘strike’ registration and arrests’ to overthrow Immigration cops question, track U.S. residents from 20 nations BY OLGA RODRÍGUEZ government AND NAOMI CRAINE NEW YORK—“INS, FBI! No more Acquittal of two U.S. soldiers sparks BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS kidnappings, No more lies,” chanted dem- MIAMI—More than one month into a onstrators on December 27 outside the Fed- demonstrations across south Korea bosses’ strike in Venezuela aimed at over- eral Building where the regional offices of throwing President Hugo Chávez, produc- the Immigration and Naturalization Service tion and exports of oil, the country’s most (INS) are located. The action, one of sev- important natural resource, remain crippled. eral weekly protests here, was part of dem- Long lines at gas stations have become a onstrations that have been taking place in daily occurrence throughout the country. New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and The effects of food and medicine shortages elsewhere. are also being felt. The protest of several dozen people was Supporters of the Chávez government, called to oppose new regulations instituted however, now appear to be gaining ground by the Justice Department requiring men over over the proimperialist opposition that is the age of 16 who are U.S. temporary resi- trying to oust him. Workers at refineries have dents hailing from 20 countries—mostly in been stepping up their efforts to increase oil the Middle East and South Asia, as well as production despite the bosses’ sabotage. north Korea—to register with the INS. Pro- “The oil tankers are now moving every tests took place in Los Angeles and elsewhere day at the lake [Maracaibo],” said unionist after several hundred people were arrested Yhonny García in a December 31 telephone when they went to the INS offices in that city interview. “Production in Zulia is now at 25 to comply with a December 16 registration percent of pre-strike levels, a jump over mid- deadline for people born in certain countries. December.” García is a member of the The next INS registration deadlines for Bolivarian Workers Force, a pro-Chávez those from the other countries on the list union federation, in Maracaibo, capital of are January 10 and February 21. A January the western state of Zulia, where much of 10 demonstration was called for New York. the country’s oil drilling and production is The December 27 demonstration here concentrated. His comments were con- was organized by a coalition of more than firmed in other interviews and press reports. 30 local organizations, including several “Oil shipments by the world’s no. 5 crude Arab-American and Asian-American com- As Washington stepped up its actions and threats against north Korea, students exporter rose in the past week but were held munity groups, that came together in re- joined a December 29 rally outside the U.S. embassy in Seoul, south Korea, to to less than 20 percent of November levels sponse to the roundups, jailing, and depor- condemn the acquittal of two U.S. soldiers whose vehicle crushed two schoolgirls to by a four-week strike led by foes of Ven- tation of hundreds of U.S. residents origi- death in June. The incident has fueled opposition to the presence of U.S. troops, ezuelan President Hugo Chavez,” a De- nally from the Middle East and Asia that and support for Korean reunification. See articles pp. 3, 14. cember 29 Reuters dispatch reported. “Gov- Continued on Page 10 ernment efforts to break the strike helped boost oil exports to about 520,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the week ending Dec. 29, according to data from state oil firm Calero Midwest tour builds antideportation fight Continued on Page 5 BY BECKY ELLIS was called by the Twin Cities Committee to Spanish-language newsmagazine published SAINT PAUL, Minnesota—“Brothers Stop the Deportation of Róger Calero. in New York, was returning home to the and sisters, let us join together to help Róger “If we are able to stop Róger from being United States on December 3 from a report- by any means necessary to be able to stop deported, it will be a victory for everyone. ing assignment in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Machinists in his deportation. At the same time, let us To this end, we need to maintain unity and Havana, Cuba, when he was arrested by the promote a national mobilization, with dif- move forward,” Olvera added. Immigration and Naturalization Service ferent groups and organizations across the The meeting was part of the first stop in a (INS) at Houston Intercontinental Airport. Ontario strike length and breadth of the country, to build a national speaking tour organized by the Calero was told he was being denied entry powerful movement and thereby stop all the Róger Calero Defense Committee, which is to the United States and carted off to an INS abuses that have come down so frequently spearheading a broad, nonpartisan campaign jail in Houston. to defend since the events of Sept. 11, 2001.” to stop his deportation. After Minnesota, Calero was paroled December 13 after the Miguel Olvera, a meat packer at Dakota Calero spoke before audiences in Des INS district director in Houston was flooded Premium in South St. Paul and a leader of a Moines, Iowa, and then in Chicago, where with protest messages. The INS has now set union rights successful union-organizing fight there, was 111 people, mostly workers, attended a pub- a March 25 hearing for Calero to institute addressing a meeting of 50 people held in lic meeting. “removal proceedings” against him. BY PATRICIA O’BEIRNE Minneapolis December 27. The public event, Róger Calero, a Militant staff writer and Calero has been a permanent resident of FORT ERIE, Ontario—Some 350 Ma- held at the Resource Center of the Americas, associate editor of Perspectiva Mundial, a Continued on Page 8 chinists are on strike here against Fleet In- dustries to defend themselves against the company’s attack on seniority rights as they face the threat of layoffs. Fleet, owned by Washington, London ready tens of Magellan Aerospace, produces components Also Inside: for fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. thousands more troops for Mideast “This strike is not about a money issue at BY PATRICK O’NEILL The aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lin- U.S. Congress ends jobless all,” said Ray Troupe, who has worked at benefits for 800,000 workers the plant for 23 years. “Fleet wants to be As the new year began, Washington coln, Constellation, and Harry S. Truman 3 able to lay off guys with 23 years seniority poured troops into the Arab-Persian Gulf are already in the Gulf or within a few days and hire new people with one to three years region in preparation for an invasion of Iraq. of arriving there. The battle group for the Detroit resident freed as seniority.” The British government is readying tens of carrier Theodore Roosevelt is heading for government ‘antiterror’ The strikers include 300 production thousands of its troops for deployment as exercises scheduled to begin January 13 on frame-up collapses 4 workers, members of International Associa- well. the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. After tion of Machinists (IAM) Local 171, and By January 7, U.S. troop strength in the the 29-day exercise, the Roosevelt will be- United Airlines bosses 50 office workers belonging to IAM Local region or on the way stood at around come the Atlantic Fleet’s “surge carrier,” press deep pay cuts 7 939. They have been walking the picket line 120,000—double the number in the final reported the Associated Press, meaning it since October 1. weeks of 2002. Total forces are projected to would “be ready to deploy early to bolster forces in the Middle East” in the event of Socialist workers host In a near unanimous strike vote in Sep- rise to 200,000 by the end of February, U.S. conference in New Zealand 11 tember, workers rejected the company de- officials reported. an “emergency.” (See article page 5.) mands to gut seniority rights and replace the Among the ships and planes now en route U.S. forces in Kuwait conducted a desert plant-wide seniority system with seniority are a 1,000-bed hospital naval vessel, the training exercise a few miles from the bor- Maine dairy farmers by job classification. The company de- USS Comfort—headed for the British colo- der with Iraq in the first week of January. It protest low prices they receive 15 manded “complete and unfettered discre- nial enclave of Diego Garcia in the Indian was the “largest ever held in the Gulf re- Continued on Page 9 Ocean—and five U.S.-based combat wings. Continued on Page 2 Imperialists ready thousands more troops for Mideast Continued from front page through which major producers such as gion,” according to a reporter for the U.S.- Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Russia agree financed Voice of America radio station. on the levels of oil production as a way of Campaigning to rally patriotic sentiment buttressing the commodity’s world market in support of an assault on Iraq, U.S. presi- price. dent Bush appeared before thousands of According to U.S.-drafted plans for an troops at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas occupation, the invading forces would rule on January 3. He declared, “We are ready. Iraq directly for at least 18 months. “Gov- We’re prepared,” and added, “If force be- ernment elements closely identified with comes necessary, America will act deliber- Saddam’s regime...will be eliminated,” read ately, America will act decisively, and the plan. “Much of the rest of the govern- America will prevail.” ment will be reformed and kept.” At the same time, the British government Among the precedents being examined is preparing to send 20,000 regular troops are the occupations of Germany and Japan Troops from the Third Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Georgia, prepare for de- and 7,000 reservists to the Gulf, London’s following World War II, as well as the U.S. ployment to the Arab-Persian Gulf region in early January. Daily Telegraph reported in early January. colonial “administration” of the Philippines after the 1898 Spanish-American war. The he added that “it is not clear what can be In a December 31 op-ed column, Rangel UN prepares for 900,000 refugees plan does not mention that hundreds of thou- accepted.” noted that he had “voted against the Con- The London Times reported December 23 sands of working people in that Southeast Nevertheless, Yakis made it clear that his gressional resolution giving the president that the war planners anticipate the scope Asian country were slaughtered by the U.S. government, which is under considerable authority to carry out this war.” However, of the destruction will be huge. The paper occupiers as they rebelled against the new U.S. pressure, supports U.S. troop deploy- he wrote, “as a combat veteran of the Ko- said that United Nations officials are mak- colonial master. ments in the Middle East. Washington is rean conflict, I believe that if we are going ing “secret contingency plans for a war that The documents state that the military “doing the right thing by narrowing the to send our children to war, the governing would halt all Iraqi oil production, ‘seriously force would “preserve Iraq as a unitary state, circle around [Iraq] and showing that there principle must be that of shared sacrifice. degrade’ the country’s electricity system, with its territorial integrity intact”—making is no place to escape,” he said. “Going to war against Iraq will severely provoke civil unrest and create 900,000 refu- it clear that Washington will not be sympa- On December 25 the Turkish government strain military resources already burdened gees.” thetic to the national aspirations by the approved a six-month extension of the U.S. by a growing number of obligations,” stated Correspondent James Bone reported that Kurdish people in the north, who have a long forces’ authorization to use the country’s the liberal congressman. “The Pentagon has UN secretary general Kofi Annan “is trying history of struggle for an independent Incirlik airbase in its patrols and bombing said that up to 250,000 troops may be mo- to keep the preparation secret for fear of sig- Kurdistan on territory that covers parts of runs in the “no-fly zone” imposed on the bilized for the invasion of Iraq,” along with naling to Iraq that weapons inspections are several countries, including Turkey. northern region of Iraq. Speaking before the a roughly equal number of troops from the futile and a U.S.-led attack is inevitable.” parliament, Yakis said, “In this environment, National Guard and Reserve. Rangel listed The contingency plans were drafted after the Turkey’s position when tension and instability prevail in north- U.S. forces now stationed abroad, includ- UN Security Council unanimously approved When the U.S.-led invasion is launched, ern Iraq, continuing the operation is re- ing 116,000 in Europe and 90,000 in the a U.S.-British resolution to resume aggres- the Turkish government is preparing to send garded as appropriate and convenient.” Pacific, along with others in Afghanistan, sive “weapons inspections.” up to 75,000 troops into northern Iraq to try Some 9,000 U.S. military reservists and Bosnia, and Kosova. The troops also include After more than a decade of draconian to block any upsurge in the Kurdish struggle. other troops rotate through Incirlik each “trainers” in the Philippines, Colombia, economic sanctions imposed by the UN Ankara has still not responded publicly to year. “The pilots will land on a Tuesday and Yemen, and elsewhere. Security Council and administered under the U.S. requests for its territory to be used as by Thursday they are flying over Iraq,” said “Oil for Food” program, Bone reported that the staging point for a military push into Iraq a U.S. officer. “the UN estimates that 16 million Iraqis, or over its southeastern border. On January 3 “We’ve been doing this for a while,” said FROM PATHFINDER 60 percent of the population, are highly de- the Turkish foreign minister said he was one pilot. “The more we come over here the pendent on the monthly food basket pro- “wary” about “hosting a large number of easier it gets every time. We get real world Malcolm X Talks to Young People vided under the program.” foreign troops,” the Associated Press re- experience.” Hinting at U.S. aims of stepping up Iraqi ported. “Such a decision should be taken in Meanwhile, the government of Saudi This new, expanded edition includes four oil production under military guard, an the broadest consensus with public, parlia- Arabia has let U.S. officers know that it will talks given to anonymous official told the New York Times ment, and non-government organizations,” “give us all the cooperation we need” in a young people in that Washington “fully expects” to be ac- said Yasar Yakis. Noting the widespread op- war with Iraq, said Gen. John Jumper, the Ghana, the United cused of undermining OPEC, the cartel position in Turkey to a U.S. invasion of Iraq, Air Force chief of staff, at the end of De- Kingdom, and the cember. He and other U.S. commanders have spoken of Saudi officials’ “private as- United States in surances” that they can use Saudi airspace 1964 and 1965; and bases. an interview with On December 30 the Saudi deputy de- the Young fense minister Prince Abdul-Rahman bin Socialist Abdul-Aziz denied giving Washington the magazine; and an official go-ahead. “The kingdom’s stance enlarged display has been clear from the start,” he told the of photographs. Venezuelan workers resist boss ‘strike’ Okaz daily. “We have no commitments on any matters toward Iraq.” Hundreds of thousands of The new English-language edition has Rangel calls for conscription been released together with the Spanish- workers and farmers continue language edition Malcolm X habla a la to oppose attempts by the U.S.- As the preparations for an imperialist in- vasion unfold, Democratic congressman juventud. $15 backed opposition to overthrow Charles Rangel announced that he would the government of Venezuela. present legislation in Congress to reintro- Online at www.pathfinderpress.com Also available from bookstores, including Read the ‘Militant’ for coverage duce military conscription. The proposal was couched as one based on “equality” those listed on page 12. of the working-class resistance between the poor and “the most privileged.” to the bosses’ ‘strike’ and destabilization moves. Asia: Send $80 drawn on a U.S. bank to The Militant above address. Canada: Send Canadian $75 for one-year Vol. 67/No. 2 subscription to Militant, 1237 Jean-Talon est, Closing news date: January 7, 2003 Montréal, QC. Postal Code: H2R 1W1. SUBSCRIBE TODODODAAAY!Y!Y! United Kingdom: £50 for one year by check Editor: MARTÍN KOPPEL or international money order made out to Mili- Business Manager: PAUL PEDERSON tant Distribution, 47 The Cut, London, SE1 8LF, NEW READERS Editorial Staff: Róger Calero, Michael Italie, England. Paul Pederson, and Maurice Williams. Southern Ireland and Continental Europe: £70 for one year by check or international ❏.$10 for 12 issues NAME Published weekly except for one week in June, money order made out to Militant Distribution August, and December. at above address. France: Send 115 euros for The Militant (ISSN 0026-3885), 410 West St., one-year subscription to Militant, Paris: P.O. RENEWAL ADDRESS New York, NY 10014. Telephone: (212) 243- 175, 23 rue Lecourbe, 75015 Paris. 6392; Fax (212) 924-6040. 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2 The Militant January 20, 2003 U.S. actions, threats against N. Korea increase BY PATRICK O’NEILL In the face of the Bush administration’s to assist in the construction of nuclear power tors before referring the matter to the impe- “The U.S. should opt for a dialogue with refusal to talk, withholding of agreed-on reactors. In exchange, Pyongyang agreed to rialist-dominated UN Security Council. the DPRK, not for war,” stated the KCNA food and fuel shipments, and stepped-up freeze its nuclear weapons programs. U.S. officials claim the Yongbyon unit can news agency of north Korea on January 7. hostile propaganda, Pyongyang reiterated its reprocess enough plutonium to manufacture The statement condemned Washington’s readiness to defend its territory. Washing- Seizure of north Korean ship one nuclear weapon a year. The inflated fig- “hostile policy towards the DPRK,” the ton “will have to pay a very high price” for The dispute escalated further in early ure of 50 weapons that U.S. government Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. any “reckless acts,” it emphasized. December after the Spanish and German spokespeople have bandied about would Behind the Bush administration’s self- The U.S. military command maintains navies intercepted a north Korean merchant only be credible if two unfinished reactors proclaimed strategy of “tailored contain- 37,000 troops in south Korea, along with ship in the Indian Ocean and handed it over at the same site were brought online. ment” toward north Korea, the agency said, 40,000 in Japan. The Japanese port of to U.S. officers—an incident Pyongyang is a push to “total economic sanctions aimed Yokosuka houses the base of the nuclear- described as an act of “piracy” in the Janu- U.S. wields food weapon at isolating and stifling the DPRK.” armed Seventh Fleet. ary 7 statement. The vessel was released at Washington has also continued to exploit Four days earlier Washington had re- Washington stepped up its actions and the insistence of Yemen, which had legally the north’s chronic food shortages, with- peated its refusal to enter into negotiations threats against the workers state after U.S. contracted to buy the cargo of missiles. holding approval of grain shipments that with north Korea, a government it has officials announced in mid-October that Lacking oil to help meet its power needs, have been requested by relief agencies. branded as a member of an “axis of evil”— north Korea had carried out a program to the north Korean government announced in “We’re very concerned,” said a UN World along with Iran and Iraq—to justify its long- extract enriched uranium as part of longer- December that it would restart a small reac- Food Program official. “This is a popula- standing policy of aggression. term nuclear weapons research. In the en- tor at the Yongbyon nuclear power facility. tion that is suffering.” Rebutting the claims The head of the International Atomic suing controversy, the U.S. government Just before Christmas, north Korean officials of U.S. authorities, another food program Energy Agency (IAEA) carried out its part halted shipments of oil to north Korea, an removed monitoring equipment installed by official said, “We have relatively good con- of the U.S.-dictated script by threatening to action followed by the governments of Ja- the IAEA and expelled two of its “inspec- fidence that the food is reaching the people report north Korea to the UN Security Coun- pan and south Korea. The shipments were tors.” On January 7, Mohamed ElBaradei, who need it.” The UN has appealed for cil after two of its “inspectors” were finally part of the 1994 Agreed Framework, under the agency’s director general, gave the north 512,000 tons of food—80,000 of it on an expelled from the Yongbyon nuclear site. which the three governments also promised “one more chance” to readmit the inspec- emergency basis. Until this winter, Washington had sup- plied 20 percent to 30 percent of the food shipped under the program. Tokyo cut off South Korea: acquittal of U.S. GIs fuels outrage food aid last year, while the south Korean regime has also reduced its supplies. BY PATRICK O’NEILL South Korean president Kim Dae Jung— Brewing anger among working people whose government knows it would find it- and youth in south Korea over the contin- self extremely vulnerable in any military con- ued presence of U.S. troops, their brutality, flict between Washington and north Korea— and their immunity from Korean law boiled has publicly differed with the U.S. diplomatic over in late November. The acquittal by a freeze and “tailored containment” policy. U.S. military court of two soldiers—charged “Pressure and isolation have never been suc- with negligent homicide when their vehicle cessful,” he said December 30. “We will fatally crushed two schoolgirls—has firmly oppose north Korea’s nuclear arms sparked protest rallies, marches, and other program, but no matter what, we will pursue widespread expressions of outrage. a peaceful solution,” he added. “We cannot The anger at the U.S. government has re- go to war with north Korea.” inforced the already deep popular sentiment In posturing as a critic of the Bush in favor of reunification of Korea, whose administration’s focus on waging war partition for the past half century has been against Iraq, Democratic politician Warren imposed by the tens of thousands of U.S. Christopher, who served as secretary of state troops stationed on the Korean peninsula. under the Clinton administration, argued for Politicians in Seoul, reminded daily of the an even more aggressive stance against north unpopularity of the U.S. presence and the Korea. In a December 31 column in the New widespread opposition to threats of U.S. mili- York Times he wrote, “Not only is North tary intervention, have publicly taken some Korea much further along than Iraq in build- distance from the Bush administration’s December 19 protest in Seoul demanding revision of State of Forces Agreement. Under ing nuclear weapons but, by virtue of its policy of “tailored containment” toward the the accord, U.S. troops have immunity from prosecution by Korean authorities. longer-range missiles, it has a greater de- workers state in north Korea. livery capability.... We must recognize that The two girls were killed June 13 by a 50- rea has stockpiled nuclear weapons. “If they jurisdiction over cases involving murder and the effort of removing [Saddam Hussein] ton mine-clearing vehicle involved in mili- do,” he said, “I don’t think north Korea is rape charges against U.S. military person- right now may well distract us from dealing tary exercises near the De-Militarized Zone going to aim them at south Korea. The north nel. The increased powers do not extend, with graver threats.” that divides north from south. The great ma- probably built them to protect itself from however, to soldiers on official duties. Supporting the White House’s course, con- jority of the 37,000 U.S. soldiers in south the United States.” Opposing candidates in the recent presi- servative columnist Charles Krauthammer, Korea are stationed near the zone. Rapes, Choi Hee-byong, one of the organizers of dential elections in the south called for the wrote in a January 3 column that “unlike Iraq, murders, and other crimes against Koreans the Seoul protest, told the Korea Times that agreement’s revision, including the repre- [north Korea] has a serious army, a million perpetrated by U.S. troops have been the fo- participants were demanding “a direct apol- sentative of the Grand National Party, which strong and possessing thousands of artillery cus of past protests. Demonstrations, both at ogy from the United States and a revision of presented itself as closer to Washington in tubes...that can reach —and reduce— the time of the killings and now, have called the legal code governing U.S. troops here.” the campaign. It was Roh Moo Hyun, how- Seoul.... So the administration has chosen a for the scrapping of the State of Forces Agree- On the eve of the December 31 protest ever—the candidate of Kim Dae Jung’s strategy of economic and diplomatic isola- ment (SOFA), which places the U.S. troops the south Korean government and the U.S. Millennium Democratic Party—who ben- tion. The idea is to squeeze the North Ko- beyond the reach of Korean authorities. command scrambled to cosmetically amend efited electorally from the changed situa- rean regime to the point where it can no While some demonstrations were orga- the code, giving south Korean authorities tion. Roh picked up support both through longer function.” nized at the time of the deaths, the soldiers’ an increased role in investigating abuses. his declarations of sympathy for the protests North Korea’s ambassador to China said exoneration sparked much wider protests in When it was first imposed in 1966, the and his pledges to continue Kim’s policy of on January 3, “The Bush administration is the capital city of Seoul as well as Pusan, SOFA gave U.S. soldiers virtually complete negotiations with the government in the now talking about dialogue, that they have Kwangju and other south Korean cities. The immunity from prosecution by Korean au- north. At the same time, he called for “self- no intention of attacking the DPRK—but outrage has found many different forms, thorities. Two years ago Seoul was given restraint” on the part of the protesters. who can believe these words?” from restaurant owners in Seoul who posted signs barring soldiers from their tables, to students who broke into an army camp on the outskirts of the city. Congress ends jobless benefits for 800,000 The government of President Kim Dae Jung was unprepared for the groundswell. BY MAURICE WILLIAMS tion, called the Temporary Emergency Un- ployment is at a 10-year high, one in five The day before the announcement of the Hundreds of thousands of working people employment Compensation (TEUC) pro- jobless workers has been out work for six verdict a presidential security secretary dis- begin the new year with a rocky start, with gram, expired December 28. months or more, and the number of people missed demonstrators as “a small group of their federal unemployment benefits having Democrats and Republicans in the House dependent on the extended benefits program radical people.” ended three days after Christmas. Members of Representatives and Senate had drafted is rising sharply as more and more people of Congress left town in late November to different versions of an extension of benefits. reach their cutoff date,” reported Paul ‘Wellspring of resentment’ enjoy the holiday season after refusing to But after failing to come to an agreement they Solman, business correspondent for PBS Even the U.S. capitalist media, which extend temporary federal jobless compensa- simply adjourned in late November and went TV’s Online Newshour. often dismisses south Korean protesters as tion that expired in December, causing more home leaving $24 billion unspent that had Part of the reason more workers have been wild-eyed extremists, has reported a little than 800,000 workers to lose their benefits. been allocated for benefits. As a result, work- running out of jobless benefits more rap- bit of the real sentiments of millions, many “It couldn’t have come at a worse time,” ers whose benefits have run out will not re- idly than in the past is that the TEUC pro- of whom increasingly see Washington, not said William Woods, who was laid off in ceive any unemployment checks until after gram approved by Congress last year was north Korea, as their biggest threat. New York October from his job at a candy factory in Congress reconvenes January 7 and then con- much shorter—only 13 weeks in most Times correspondent Howard French re- Harvey, Illinois, after 25 years. “It puts a lot siders approving an extension. states—than the congressional program cre- ported December 23 that “the protests have of people that I was talking with earlier un- According to a report by the Center on ated during the previous recession. revealed a deep wellspring of resentment of der the gun,” he told reporters interviewing Budget and Policy Priorities, some 820,000 The official U.S. unemployment rate the large United States military presence people at the unemployment office in the workers stopped receiving federal unem- reached 6 percent in November—about 8.5 here and of what many South Koreans feel largely Black working-class suburb of Chi- ployment checks December 28. They joined million jobless workers, the highest num- is their relegation to the role of barely lis- cago. another 1.4 million jobless workers who ber since mid-1994. tened-to junior partner. Laid-off workers are normally entitled to have been cut off from federal unemploy- According to the Bureau of Labor Statis- “At the same time,” he acknowledged, “feel- 26 weeks of unemployment benefits from ment benefits since September. After De- tics, 2 million factory jobs have been elimi- ings toward North Korea have softened.” state governments. During economic down- cember 28, some 95,000 more workers will nated over the past two years; manufactur- Thousands of people rallied in downtown turns the federal government has routinely run out of regular state benefits each suc- ing employment, now at 16.5 million, is at Seoul on New Year’s Eve, where more than extended benefits to those who remain job- ceeding week. By March 2003 an estimated the lowest level in 40 years. 10,000 cops blocked the marchers’ planned less beyond that period. Last March Con- 3.1 million workers will have exhausted In November alone, more than 2,000 route to the U.S. embassy. Min Keong-min, gress passed legislation providing a maxi- their jobless benefits unless Congress ex- mass layoffs took place, according to the joining the rally with his two daughters, told mum of 13 weeks of federally funded ben- tends its expired legislation. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); mass lay- a Reuters reporter that he was skeptical efits to workers who exhausted their state- “The [Congressional] debate over benefit offs are defined as actions involving at least about Washington’s claims that north Ko- funded jobless compensation. The legisla- extensions comes...when long-term unem- 50 workers from a single establishment. January 20, 2003 The Militant 3 Detroit resident freed Pakistan: thousands protest U.S. war moves as gov’t ‘antiterror’ frame-up unravels

BY PETER THIERJUNG cops Alajji had attended a “conference” DETROIT—Mohamed Alajji, a local prior to Sept. 11, 2001, at an “unknown” resident, was freed here December 27 after location and brought back audio tapes titled being jailed by federal authorities for more “Jihad against America.” According to court than a week on trumped-up charges. Fol- documents, the snitch told government in- lowing a “probable cause” hearing, U.S. vestigators that Alajji considered Christians Magistrate Steven Pepe ruled that federal and Jews “despicable unbelievers.” prosecutors did not have sufficient grounds After a cop raid of Alajji’s house, a gov- to continue to hold Alajji or to pursue ernment spokesman said federal agents had charges of Social Security fraud against him. found “numerous documents” and “literally The government used the fraud charges to thousands of audio tapes, which appear to keep him in jail while fishing for a way to be in Arabic, of discussions which concern prosecute him on charges related to “terror- topics mainly discussed and supported by ism”—a tactic it has used to jail hundreds those who are adherents to more extremist of people over the past year. sects of Islam.” Alajji, a truck driver, was arrested Decem- In an affidavit presented to the court, the ber 19. Federal cops said they had received government asserted that “Alajji and four “tips” from an estranged brother-in-law and other Yemeni males would gather on Satur- unnamed informers that Alajji was plan- days to listen to the tapes and discuss their ning a terrorist attack in Michigan. The hatred of America. Their complaints focused Some 12,000 people rallied in cities across Pakistan January 3 protesting U.S. brother-in-law later “recanted” his claims, around the presence of American troops in war moves against Iraq and Washington’s military incursions in their country. authorities said. Saudi Arabia.” The protests were sparked by a December 29 U.S. air strike that dropped a 500- While the government jailed him saying FBI agents interrogated Alajji on Oct. 4, pound bomb near the border with Afghanistan, killing two Pakistani citizens. they were investigating his alleged ties to 2001, but neither arrested him nor charged “terrorism,” prosecutors presented no evi- him with any crime. A few weeks after Sept. dence for such charges. They then attempted 11, 2001, Alajji had quit a job of three years in acts of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab big- Center attack near his workstation. Alajji to pin Social Security fraud charges on at an auto-parts factory near Ann Arbor, otry, it was not uncommon for immigrants denied making the drawing. Alajji by saying the Yemen-born man ap- Michigan, and was alleged to have told co- there to consider returning to their country During the hearing, the courtroom was plied for two Social Security cards in 1995 workers, “I need to go to my country.” In of origin. filled with family members and supporters and a duplicate card in 1999, using slightly face of intense government harassment of Another claim used by the cops to paint of Alajji. He was supported by Michigan’s different spellings of his last name. the large Arab community here in Detroit Alajji as a dangerous individual was the re- American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Com- At the preliminary hearing, federal pros- and neighboring Dearborn following the port that after he quit, a coworker told po- mittee and represented by the committee’s ecutors attempted to paint the defendant as World Trade Center attacks, as well as a rise lice she found a drawing of the World Trade counsel, Nabih Ayad. a scheming criminal intent on defrauding the government by obtaining benefits he was not eligible for or by selling one of the cards on the black market. No evidence of fraud ‘Money laundering’ raids target Arab immigrants or intent to commit fraud was presented, however, even though the standard of proof BY PETER THIERJUNG sational media reports and statements by it is going to fund terrorism,” Hoglund as- commonly used in preliminary hearings of DETROIT—The highly publicized arrest government officials insinuate vague con- serted. “It’s not by accident that we’re look- this kind is very low. U.S. officials were and attempted prosecution of Mohamed nections between the money and “terrorist” ing at Yemen.” Workers of Yemeni origin, surprised the judge threw out the case be- Alajji (see accompanying article) occurred activity. “We don’t know if some of the who started settling in this area a century cause federal judges usually rule in favor of simultaneously with multiple raids and ar- money transferred, all or any of the money ago, are concentrated in a working-class prosecutors in such preliminary exams. rests of six residents of Detroit and nearby was used to fund terrorism. We don’t know district around Ford Motor Co.’s huge River In his ruling, Judge Pepe said it would be Dearborn by U.S. customs agents here. and that’s the problem,” said Richard Rouge auto manufacturing complex, where impossible to expect even a lifelong U.S. The raids were part of a national police Hoglund, a special agent for the Customs’ many of them have found employment at citizen to navigate the complex Social Se- sting operation named “Operation Green Office of Investigations. different times. The district straddles Detroit curity law. He ruled that no grounds ex- Quest” that has targeted the Detroit area A restaurant, gas station, dollar store, and and the neighboring suburb of Dearborn, isted to bring charges against Alajji and or- and Toledo, Ohio, among other cities. Po- a delivery agency were among the busi- which has a large Arab-American popula- dered his immediate release. lice say that since October 2001 they have nesses raided, as well as some residences. tion. Like workers born in other countries Government officials and the big-busi- made 61 arrests, brought 43 indictments, The December 19 Detroit News printed a such as Mexico, immigrants from Yemen ness media branded Alajji as holding “anti- and seized more than $8 million, in addi- map showing the locations and addresses regularly send remittances to families in American” and “radical Islamic” views. tion to $22 million in “monetary instru- of the raids. The names of those arrested Yemen who depend on the financial sup- “Even assuming he [Alajji] adheres to the ments” such as checks. were highlighted and accompanied photos port. most radical beliefs, it seems to me in this One of the ways the U.S. government has of the raids. Many workers of Yemeni origin here nation that citizens or aliens are able to speak rounded up individuals it has associated with The USA Patriot Act, passed in October sharply criticized the police raids over the their beliefs freely unless those beliefs could “terrorism” has been through accusations of 2001 after Washington sharply stepped up money transfers. “That this has anything to incite some action of significant harm,” Pepe money laundering, using provisions in the its war drive, requires money transfer agen- do with terrorism is a complete lie,” said a ruled. 2001 USA Patriot Act that give police wider cies to register with the U.S. Treasury De- young worker at a meatpacking plant here. Prosecutors are now reportedly consid- powers to make arrests on such a basis. partment. In that context, U.S. Customs of- “We take care of our families—the money ering convening a grand jury to bring in- Some 60 cops, including from the Joint ficials have argued that hawala, a centuries- is for them to be able to make it. Yemen is a dictments against Alajji. Terrorism Task Force, have carried out the old practice based on trust that is used very poor country.” raids here, confiscating records, computers, among individuals in many Middle Eastern “What is the connection of Yemeni im- Frame-up methods and cell phones, as well as $200,000 from countries to exchange money, is suspect. migrants working at the Ford Motor Co., the The Alajji case exposed some of the meth- five bank accounts. Government officials say they are justified Rouge plant, to al-Qaeda?” attorney Ali ods the FBI and other federal police have Federal prosecutors claim those arrested in carrying out their “money laundering” Dagher told the Detroit News, challenging used in “terrorism” frame-up campaigns. had illegally transferred money to Yemen, raids because no banking documentation is the assertions of ties to “terrorism.” He criti- The December 24 Detroit News reported that stopping short of charging that the transfers created and no money crosses international cized “the government’s scorched-earth a “confidential informant” had told federal were connected with “terrorism.” But sen- borders in hawala arrangements. policy to harass people in abject poverty “Without records, we can’t know if the who are trying to send a few dollars home money is going to legitimate purposes or if to their families.” FFFurururthethether rrr eadingeadingeading Unionists strike against concessions Opening Guns of World War III at Domino Sugar plant in Baltimore Washington’s Assault on Iraq BY KEN MORGAN Jack Barnes gate in Baltimore. The U.S. government’s murderous assault on Iraq heralded increas- BALTIMORE—Some 330 workers be- Workers overwhelmingly rejected com- ingly sharp conflicts among imperialist powers, the rise of rightist longing to United Food and Commercial pany proposals to shift employees’ retire- and fascist forces, growing instability of international capitalism, Workers Union (UFCW) Local 392 have ment funds to an unknown company-run been on strike against Domino Sugar since pension, according to a December 9 union and more wars. In New International no. 7. $12.00 December 8. American Sugar Refining Co., press release. They also turned down com- which owns Domino, is the largest dealer pany demands for an increase in the cost of of refined sugar in the United States. family health insurance along with a drop Workers’ Rights Versus Strikers and their supporters are walking in the quality of insurance; a cut in holidays, the picket line, slowing down trucks rolling including Veteran’s Day; and a reduction in the Secret Police in and out of the main gate. Despite three wages and benefits for all new hires. Larry Seigle company-hired camera operators continu- A number of workers at Domino are near How, since the inception of the modern revolutionary workers ously recording the pickets and a city cop retirement, and others are concerned about movement in 1848, the ruling classes have responded with stationed at the plant gate to keep traffic their future, too. “We won’t let Domino de- police spies, agents provocateurs, and political frame-ups. $5.00 flowing, “They cannot intimidate us,” union- stroy our retirement plans like Enron and ist Joe Collins stated. WorldCom. Workers deserve a secure pen- Order now from www.pathfinderpress.com. Please include $3 for shipping and “They figured we wouldn’t go on strike. sion, not an insecure future,” said Alex handling. Also available from bookstores, including those listed on page 12. But they are taking away too much,” said Hamilton, a 32-year sugar worker and presi- Bob Swiger, who was walking the picket dent of UFCW Local 392, quoted in the line December 20 in front of the main plant union press release. 4 The Militant January 20, 2003 Venezuelan workers oppose bosses’ strike

Continued from front page two oil tankers that had been grounded by Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and inde- their crews in Lake Maracaibo in support pendent shippers. In the previous week, the of the strike. One of the tankers was full of government dispatched 260,000 bpd of gasoline. crude.” The officers of those ships were arrested Fedecámaras, Venezuela’s main business and trials began; a court later threw out the association, launched the general strike charges against Atilio Bermudez, the cap- December 2. It is backed by the officialdom tain of the Yavire, one of the vessels. of the Confederation of Venezuelan Work- “By the end of December, 10 of 12 tank- ers (CTV) and political parties grouped in ers grounded by the strike were back in op- the opposition coalition Democratic Coor- eration with new crews and officers,” said dinator. Yhonny García. “Many new employees The opposition is demanding Chávez’s come from ferry and other merchant ma- resignation and early elections. U.S. offi- rine ships.” García said some 70 percent of cials initially joined the call for early elec- the tanker crews joined the opposition stop- tions, but, after Chávez made clear he would page. “Skilled crew members on these tank- not accept that demand, have since taken a ers used to make $3,000 per month and of- public position of promoting negotiations ficers double that—huge salaries for Ven- between the two sides toward an electoral ezuela,” he noted. solution to the conflict. On December 12 Chávez fired four dis- Chávez, a former military officer, was sident executives from the oil company’s elected in 1998 with mass popular support board who are leaders of the employers’ at a time when the two traditional capitalist strike. The government later dismissed an- parties that ruled Venezuela for four decades other 90 top managers for participation in had become discredited among working the strike. On December 19 the country’s people and other layers of society devastated Supreme Court ordered an end to the oil by the economic crisis. The dominant sec- strike, backing government efforts to largely Workers at the Puerto La Cruz refinery in Venezuela, who are maintaining 70 percent tions of the Venezuelan capitalist class, wor- militarize production and distribution of oil of oil production in face of bosses’ strike aimed at toppling President Hugo Chávez. ried about the increased expectations of through the duration of the stoppage. workers and farmers generated by Chávez’s National Guard troops have been work- election and some of the measures taken by ing alongside production workers to restart tion to a standstill. But we have brought flour and other foodstuffs from other coun- his government, have sought to overthrow refineries. Soldiers guard gas stations now things under control to a degree. Oil work- tries. it. The encrusted trade union bureaucracy and have impounded most gasoline trans- ers and troops have put El Palito back in Joel Pantoja reported that imports of flour of the CTV, tied to the traditional capitalist portation trucks of striking firms, which are operation. Last week production was up to and other foodstuffs were necessary. “Right establishment, has joined in the bosses’ driven by replacement drivers in some cases. 25 percent of normal levels. If we continue in the middle of the holidays, soft drinks, campaign. Two days before Christmas, National Guard like this across the country, the opposition beer, and flour for arepas [a popular pita- The drive to oust the president acceler- troops dispersed a protest in support of the will suffer a big defeat in a few weeks.” like bread] have become scarce,” he said. ated after the government passed measures reactionary stoppage by a few dozen people There are other examples where workers “This is because the Grupo Mendoza, which in the fall of 2001 that cut into the preroga- over the bridge on Lake Maracaibo, the only have taken action to restore production. owns Empresas Polar, the second largest tives of big capital. These included a new land connection between refineries on the While most basic industry was operating capitalist family in the country, is solid for agrarian reform law, protection for work- east and west sides of the lake. in December, Venezuela’s state-owned steel the strike. They have shut down Pepsi Cola ing fishermen from overfishing by large According to telephone interviews, some company had to cut down production early plants, Polar beer breweries, and cooking commercial companies, and use of some 80 percent of PDVSA’s 30,000 production on. “Venezuelan steelmaker Siderúrgica del oil factories, which they own.” state funds for cheap housing and other so- workers remain on the job. The majority of Orinoco CA, or Sidor, announced [Decem- According to Pantoja and others inter- cial programs. Last April the employers or- the 10,000 administrative personnel, skilled ber 12] it is cutting back production because viewed the government has countered by chestrated a military coup that overthrew technicians, and managers are on strike. This gas supplies needed for operations are down aiding small firms producing soft drinks and Chávez, but within two days a contrasts with reports in the big-business 60% as a result of a nationwide strike,” the flour to boost production and is working countermobilization by hundreds of thou- media claiming that the large majority of Dow Jones Business News reported that day. with small farmers to increase wheat ship- sands of working people restored the presi- the oil workers are striking. A week later, “Steelworkers in three buses ments. dent and dealt a political blow to the oppo- “I visited El Palito twice in the last two went to an area where sabotage was sus- Such measures have increased the sition. Nonetheless, these bourgeois forces weeks, along with other students,” said Joel pected,” said Yhonny García. “They found president’s popularity among many work- have continued their attempts to destabilize Pantoja, a student at the University of natural gas pipelines damaged and valves ing people, especially in the rural areas. the government. Carabobo in Valencia, in a December 31 shut off. They repaired them, with the help “Yes, we don’t have gasoline, or at least you In its first week the latest bosses’ strike, phone interview. El Palito is one of of technicians. Now production at Sidor is have to wait all night to get some, but I blame which began December 2, was largely a fail- Venezuela’s largest refineries. “We saw that back up to nearly 100 percent.” that on the reactionaries organizing another ure, with 80 percent of businesses operat- the managers had taken computers and dam- coup against Chávez,” said María Pérez, ing. Fedecámaras seized on a December 6 aged computerized controls at the refinery Importing food whose husband farms in the town of San shooting at a small pro-employer rally, dur- when they left,” he said. “This kind of sabo- In addition to these measures, the gov- Carlos, Cojedes state. “The president is for ing which three people were killed, to unite tage and the strike by tanker crews and truck ernment has begun to import gasoline from the poor and we’ll fight to the death those opposition forces and ratchet up street pro- firms distributing gasoline brought produc- Brazil and Trinidad, as well as importing who are trying to bring him down.” tests. It was then that the oil stoppage spread. During a December 7 march by 400,000 in Caracas opposing the coup plotters, the president vowed to heed demands to take U.S. Navy to launch new exercises in Vieques firm measures against the pro-imperialist opposition. BY MICHAEL ITALIE east of Puerto Rico’s main island, for Navy sovereignty, and economic development. U.S. officials have announced that the training exercises since World War II. Puerto Rican proindependence leader Workers, army restart oil production Navy will carry out another round of mili- Vieques has been used to prepare U.S. mili- Rafael Cancel Miranda, quoted by the Span- “This time the government is making tary exercises on the Puerto Rican island of tary interventions from Grenada and Nica- ish news agency EFE, also stated that the fight good on its promises,” said Enrique Ramos, Vieques in January, a few months before it is ragua to Yugoslavia and now Iraq. The re- against the U.S. military must rely on a popu- a leader of Fifth Republic Revolutionary supposed to end its operations there. The war peated bombings, as well as the storage of lar struggle, not promises by the colonial au- Youth (JVR) in Valencia. He spoke to the games, which reportedly include the battle hazardous materials on the island, have had thorities. Noting that the U.S. government is Militant by phone while in Caracas on New group USS Theodore Roosevelt, are sched- a devastating effect on the residents’ liveli- prone to making promises “in order to trick Year’s eve. uled to begin January 13 and last 29 days. hoods and health. Fishermen and other lo- us, to put us to sleep,” he called for contin- On December 11 Venezuela’s navy seized Washington has used Vieques, located cal citizens have spearheaded a movement ued struggle against the U.S. military in demanding the U.S. military leave Vieques. Vieques, highlighting the fact that these war Protests mushroomed after a U.S. war- games take place at a time when Washington From Pathfinder plane dropped “inert” bombs that killed a is moving toward an invasion of Iraq. civilian guard in Vieques in 1999. In face of Anti-Navy protests have already begun. The Leninist Strategy of Party Building sustained protests, U.S. and Puerto Rican On New Year’s Eve, unidentified opponents colonial officials signed an agreement in of the U.S. military broke down 500 feet of The Debate on Guerrilla Warfare in Latin America 2000 that the Navy would leave by 2003. fencing at three points around Camp García, by Joseph Hansen The Bush administration has given a verbal the U.S. military base on the island. In the 1960s and ‘70s, revolutionists in the Americas and throughout pledge that U.S. forces will leave by May Demonstrations have been called in U.S. the world debated how to apply the lessons of the Cuban Revolu- but has refused pleas from Puerto Rican of- cities, including one in New York on Janu- tion to struggles elsewhere. A living analysis by a participant in that ficials to put it in writing. ary 13 at 4:30 p.m. at Times Square. debate. $26.95 “We are not waiting for the Navy to end Puerto Rican governor Sila Calderón, feel- its military maneuvers on its own,” said ing on the spot because of the U.S. The Second Declaration of Havana Ismael Guadalupe, a leader of the Commit- government’s refusal to confirm its promise with the First Declaration of Havana tee for the Rescue and Development of to leave Vieques, sent a letter to U.S. presi- Vieques, in a phone interview. He reported dent George Bush December 27 complain- Two declarations by the Cuban people to the oppressed and that there will be protests both on Vieques ing about the military exercises in January exploited throughout the Americas—each of them approved by and the main island, starting January 11, de- and their timing. Expressing concern that acclamation at rallies of more than a million during the opening manding the Navy cease its military moves Washington has made no visible move to years of the revolution. The First Declaration of Havana, issued there and pull out of Vieques for good. transfer its operations from the island, she in September 1960, proclaims “the right of the peasants to the Guadalupe stated, “We understand that the noted that “the Navy has not fulfilled its re- land; the right of the workers to the fruit of their labor; and the Navy keeps saying they will leave, but so far sponsibility to certify alternate locations for right of nations to nationalize the imperialist monopolies.” The they have never fulfilled their promises.” military exercises” as a substitute for Vieques. Guadalupe reiterated his committee’s In a slap in the face of the colonial gov- second declaration, from February 1962, is a call for continent- demands, known as the “four Ds”—demili- ernment, the White House continued its wide revolutionary struggle. “What does the Cuban Revolution tarization, decontamination, devolution [of policy of refusing to reply directly to the teach?” it asks. “That revolution is possible.” Booklet, $4.50. the lands], and sustainable development. Puerto Rican governor on the subject of “We need to continue the struggle against Vieques. White House spokesperson Mercy Available from bookstores, including those listed on page 12; or visit www.pathfinderpress.com. the military maneuvers,” he said, “as part Viana said, “The letter has been referred to Please include $3 for shipping and handling. of a broader social struggle” for the land, the Department of the Navy.”

January 20, 2003 The Militant 5 65th anniversary of founding of the SWP The first week of January marks the 65th northeastern Africa. The mineral wealth and anniversary of the founding of the Socialist strategical importance of Spain are the ob- Workers Party. The party held its founding ject of a duel between Italy-Germany and convention in Chicago from Dec. 31, 1937, England-France, the accompanying shadow to Jan. 3, 1938. of the civil war on the peninsula. The inva- The founding of the SWP built on 20 sion of China by Japan only heralds the war years of experience in constructing a party in which not only these two countries, but in the United States that could emulate the also the Soviet Union, the British empire, communist course of the Bolsheviks under and the United States will be inescapably the leadership of V.I. Lenin, the party that and directly involved as active belligerents. led millions of workers and farmers to take power in the October 1917 Russian Revo- Position of the SWP lution. If the working class is unable to prevent The new organization was led by sea- the outbreak of war, and the United States soned communists who had been part of enters directly into it, the SWP stands organizing the Communist Party in the pledged to the traditional position of revo- United States and who opposed the grow- lutionary Marxism. It will utilize the crisis ing Stalinization of the party leadership and of capitalist rule engendered by the war to supported the fight led by Russian revolu- prosecute the class struggle with the utmost tionary Leon Trotsky to continue Lenin’s intransigence, to strengthen the independent communist course. The Socialist Workers labor and revolutionary movements, and to Party incorporated layers of workers and bring the war to a close by the revolution- youth newly radicalized by the labor battles ary overturn of capitalism and the establish- of the 1930s. ment of proletarian rule in the form of the Coming out of the convention the Social- workers’ state. Combating the chauvinistic ist Workers Party deepened its orientation wave, it will not only reject any and every to the industrial working class and unions form of class collaboration, support of the in order to meet the challenges and revolu- war and of the capitalist government, but tionary opportunities in the class struggle Socialist Appeal will work toward the defeat of the Ameri- Rally of 1,000 at second convention of Socialist Workers Party, held in New York on June at home and abroad. Its cadres joined in can capitalist class and its war regime by 30, 1939. From left to right on the platform: Vincent Ray Dunne, a leader of the 1934 union battles against the employers, the ris- the proletarian revolution. Teamster strikes in Minneapolis; James P. Cannon, national secretary of the SWP; ing Black rights movement, struggles The SWP will advocate the continuance Reuben Plaskett (standing), delegate from New Jersey; and Genora Johnson, a leader of against colonial rule in Puerto Rico and of the class struggle during the war regard- the Women’s Auxiliary during the 1937 sit-down auto strike in Flint, Michigan. around the world, the fight against fascism less of the consequences to the military front both in Europe and in its incipient forms at of American capitalism; and will try to pre- home, and the campaign against the impe- ing leader of the Socialist Workers Party and way for the socialist economy of abundance pare the masses to utilize the war crisis for rialist rulers’ drive toward war, which had its first national secretary. and equality. the overthrow of U.S. capitalism and the been developing over the previous several v Even more menacing than the crisis and victory of socialism. years. The SWP defended the Soviet work- the anti-labor drive is the growing threat of ers state in face of imperialist attack. And it The Chicago convention of the revolu- war. The crisis condemns millions to hun- Party must be rooted in the unions played a key role in the establishment of the tionary socialists has established the Ameri- ger and slow starvation. The imperialist war We cannot ignore the fact that the past Fourth International, the world party of so- can section of the Fourth International. condemns them to speedy death in muddy, development of the Fourth Internationalist cialist revolution founded by Trotsky and In forming the Socialist Workers Party of blood-soaked trenches—victims of the im- movement in this country has prepared it to other veteran communists, although the the United States, the convention shaped the perialist lust for expansion and profit. meet the great tasks that now face it chiefly party was barred from formal membership indispensable weapon of the working class v in one sense, namely, in that it has provided by reactionary U.S. legislation. in its struggle against a powerful and mer- the party with its thought-out and proven Just a few years after the party’s found- ciless class enemy, the exploiter of labor and principled foundations. At the same time, it ing, on Dec. 8, 1941, 18 SWP and Team- oppressor of the people. With only the trade The capitalist world crisis must be recognized that the intensely po- sters union leaders were sentenced to prison unions at its disposal, the working class is The political and economic situation in litical and polemical life of the movement on frame-up charges because of their active but half-armed. With a revolutionary party the United States is developing in the midst in the past, its enforced isolation from the opposition within the labor movement to at its head, it is invincible. of a convulsive evolution of a world capi- mainstream of the working-class movement, Washington’s intervention in the imperial- talist society in a state of crisis and decay— has produced not only certain sectarian ten- ist slaughter of World War II. They were The anti-labor drive a world crisis with which the United States dencies (Oehler, etc.), but also a tendency jailed in Sandstone federal penitentiary in The Socialist Workers Party could not is inextricably connected and from whose towards an exclusively internal existence Minnesota in 1944-45. have been founded at a more crucial mo- effects it cannot exempt itself by a policy of unconnected with the living movement of Reprinted below are excerpts from the ment. The American working class is face either economic or political “isolation.” the working class. It is imperative that this Socialist Appeal, the name of the Militant to face with a heavy employers’ onslaught The world bourgeoisie has been able to tendency be overcome and that the party at that time, and the Pathfinder book The upon its standard of living, already badly surmount the violent crisis that shook its turn its full energies towards rooting itself Founding of the Socialist Workers Party: undermined by years of crisis and depres- whole economic structure beginning with in the labor movement. Minutes and Resolutions 1938–39. sion. The only solution that the wisest of the stock market crash in the United States The SWP proceeds in its tactics and ac- The first selection is from a front-page the capitalist statesmen, [President Franklin in 1929. In countries such as Germany, a tivities not merely from the standpoint of article published in the Jan. 15, 1938, issue Delano] Roosevelt, has been able to offer purely conjunctural improvement has been what it ought to be and must become, but of Socialist Appeal, under the headlines, to the problem of hunger is to cut down the achieved by a sharp reduction of the stan- primarily from the realistic consideration of “Hail the Socialist Workers Party!” and “Join production of food. Now, with a new de- dard of living of the masses and by a tre- what it is at the present time, what forces the Struggle for Socialism!” The second pression leading towards an even sharper mendous increase of operations in the ar- are at its disposal, and what tasks it can rea- excerpt is from a resolution adopted by the crisis, the capitalists, whose rule Roosevelt maments and related industries, resulting in sonably accomplish in the coming period. party’s founding convention on “The politi- has been bent on preserving, are proceed- a partial consolidation of the fascist regime. We are not yet a mass party and therefore cal situation and the tasks of the party,” from ing to throw new hundreds of thousands out In France, the People’s Front movement1 has cannot assume all the responsibilities incum- The Founding of the Socialist Workers Party. of work and to cut the wages of those whom been able to survive and to perpetuate its bent upon such a movement. It is only in Copyright © 1982 by Pathfinder, reprinted they continue to employ. The most power- democratic illusions on the basis of a tem- certain localities—and they are not numer- by permission. ful capitalist nation of the earth has proved porary prosperity, or more accurately, of a ous—that our party has firm contacts with To read about the preceding decade in incapable of feeding, clothing and housing slowing down of the more violent pace of the organized labor movement. For the most building a proletarian party in the United the masses of the population. The existing economic decline which harassed the coun- part, however, the party still operates as a States, see Pathfinder’s The History of social system is bankrupt and awaits only try a few years ago. England too has been large propaganda organization. It is neces- American Trotskyism, 1928–38: Report of the revolutionary action of the working class able to arrest a more catastrophic economic sary to take deliberate measures to pass be- a Participant, by James P. Cannon, a found- to be flung into the discard so as to make fall by virtue of the unprecedented arma- yond these confines. The main task of the ments program inaugurated by the govern- party in the coming period is not the impos- ment. sible one of becoming the leader of the FROM PATHFINDER None of the big powers, however, can American working class; that would be a FROM PATHFINDER achieve that level of economic stability vain illusion, and would bring both disap- which was attained, for example, by France pointment and disorientation into our midst. The Founding of the Socialist Workers Party after the World War, except by resolving, at Our main task is to entrench ourselves in Minutes and Resolutions, 1938–39 least on a capitalist basis, the conflict be- the labor movement, above all in the trade tween its productive forces and the national unions, to gain important bases in the labor James P. Cannon and others At two conventions and surround- boundaries and the limitations imposed by movement, to consolidate them, and to pro- ing leadership meetings in 1938–39, revolutionists in the United States its share of the world market. This is espe- ceed from them to our next tasks. codified some 20 years of experience in building a communist party. cially true of those powers, like Germany, The accomplishment of this simple, pro- Taking the name of the Socialist Workers Party, they reaffirmed the Italy, Japan, and Poland, whose need of eco- saic, but indispensable task means a radical Marxist approach in the fight against the upcoming imperialist war, nomic expansion comes into the sharpest improvement of the composition of our the spread of fascism across Europe, and attacks by the bosses at and most immediate conflict with the party. We will not succeed in rooting the home. $24.95 present divisions of the world market. The party in the working class, much less to de- present period may be characterized as one fend the revolutionary proletarian principles The History of American in which all the imperialist powers are jock- of the party from being undermined, unless eying for best position, from the standpoint Continued on Page 7 Trotskyism, 1928-38 of the advancement of their economic and Report of a Participant military (armaments) strength, in prepara- 1 James P. Cannon “Trotskyism is not a new movement, a new tion for the inevitable struggle for the revi- The People’s Front was a class-collabora- sion of the world among the big imperialist tionist course promoted by the Stalinists inter- doctrine,” Cannon says, “but the restoration, the revival of genu- nationally of forming coalition governments of ine Marxism as it was expounded and practiced in the Russian Revo- bandits, i.e., for the second world war. In this sense, the second world war has the Communist and Socialist parties together lution and the early days of the Communist International.” In this with capitalist parties. People’s Front govern- series of 12 talks given in 1942, Cannnon recounts an important already begun. More exactly, the big pre- ments came to power in France and Spain in chapter in the efforts to build a proletarian party in the United States. liminary skirmishes have already taken 1936. place. The conquest of Ethiopia by Italian 2 The Italian imperialists invaded Ethiopia in $22.00 2 Order online at www.pathfinderpress.com. imperialism strengthened the latter’s posi- 1935 and still remained in control of the country Please include $3 for shipping and handling. tion along the lifeline of British imperial- when World War II began in 1939. The Italian ism, in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and troops were driven out in 1941. 6 The Militant January 20, 2003 United Airlines drives to squeeze more pay cuts from workers BY MICHAEL ITALIE the International Association of Machinists United Airlines has announced demands have announced plans to file a suit in oppo- for “temporary” wage reductions of 13 per- sition to the motion. cent from 37,000 mechanics, and ramp and United employees have only just come customer service workers organized by the out of a previous round of concession de- International Association of Machinists and mands. In late 2002 the company won agree- Aerospace Workers (IAM), as it continues ment from pilots, flight attendants, and ramp its drive to slash labor costs and restore prof- and customer service workers to accept cuts itability. ranging from 7 percent to 18 percent on the Officials of the 22,000-member flight at- grounds that it needed $5.2 billion in con- tendants union have already agreed to place cessions over five years in order to receive proposals for new pay cuts before their federal loan guarantees. membership. Pilots began voting December Union officials, along with representa- 30 on a revised contract that includes a tives of the pilot’s organization, repeated the whopping 29 percent salary cut. bosses’ arguments that the profitability of Commercial jetliners mothballed at the Mojave Airport in California. United and al- The crisis-ridden carrier, which filed for the company was of overriding concern and most every other major U.S. airline plan to cut capacity in 2003, with more than 1,300 Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 9, says should take precedence over union con- planes from airlines around the world grounded. According to media reports, jets are that if it can’t gain agreement for new con- tracts. flying the skies half empty as aircraft values plummet. United and US Airways have cessions from its 83,000 employees, it will In a surprise for the company, on Novem- filed for bankruptcy, and airline bosses are demanding steep concessions on wages and ask the bankruptcy court to throw out exist- ber 27 the 13,000 mechanics and cleaners benefits, to solve their crisis of overcapacity on the backs of workers and their unions. ing union contracts. The company cites its in the International Association of Machin- deal with Bank One, J.P. Morgan Chase, and ists (IAM) voted down United’s proposal. more than $12 billion—in cuts over the der discussion, he said. other banks for a $1.5 billion loan, granted Days later the government-appointed Air same period of time—more than twice the On January 3 United announced that it on the proviso that it slash its monthly ex- Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB) original figure. United’s chief financial of- would lay off nearly 1,500 management and penses by February 15. denied the company request for $1.8 billion ficer Jack Brace stated December 30 that salaried employees by mid-month. Since The bankruptcy court judge said that he in secured loans. The application for Chap- this round of cuts is “only a piece of the September 2001 the carrier has struck more will rule by January 10 on whether to per- ter 11 protection quickly followed. overall package of changes we are looking than 20,000 workers from its payroll, a fifth mit United to void its contracts. Officials of The airline’s bosses are now demanding for.” Other “cost-saving measures” are un- of the workforce. Meanwhile, union officials at US Air- ways, which has also sought the shelter of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, have signed on for U.S. routinely torturing captured prisoners $200 million in concessions in addition to the $840 million already agreed to last sum- BY MAURICE WILLIAMS mer. Additional concessions and work rule U.S officials routinely practice physical changes have been voted up by pilots. They and mental torture of prisoners held at the are now subject to approval by mechanics, Bagram air base in U.S.-occupied Afghani- baggage handlers, and flight attendants. stan, the Washington Post reported last month. Based on interviews with former intelligence authorities and 10 national se- curity officials, the article shed light on the SWP 65th treatment of the human beings captured in Washington’s “war on terrorism.” Although no officials allowed their names anniversary to be used in the article, they all defended the brutality inflicted on inmates as “just and Continued from Page 6 necessary.” One of them who supervised the the party is an overwhelmingly proletarian capture and transfer of prisoners declared, party, composed in its decisive majority of “If you don’t violate someone’s human workers in the factories, mines, and mills. rights some of the time, you probably aren’t We cannot blind ourselves to the fact that doing your job.” this is not the case at the present time. The According to the Post, after prisoners are party must therefore steer a deliberate course captured, “take-down teams”—a mix of towards recruiting above all from the fac- special forces, FBI agents, CIA case offic- tory proletariat, especially those engaged in ers and local collaborators—escort them to heavy industry. It is a perilous weakness of their place of imprisonment, aiming to dis- our party that it has a very small represen- orient and intimidate them on the way. The tation in the mining industry, in steel, in captives are then “softened up” by military U.S. soldiers take Afghan man with sack over his head to detention center. Washington’s automobile, etc. Our attention must there- police and special forces troops, who “beat prisoners in Afghanistan are often “softened up” by military police and Special Forces fore be turned to the most patient and sys- them up and confine them in tiny rooms.” before they are taken to CIA interrogation centers where they are subjected to torture. tematic agitational activity in the industries, Inmates who are accused of membership in the shops themselves. The winning of a in al Qaeda or the Taliban are held in metal level” captives, inmates are transferred into boasted, “We send them to other countries thousand factory proletarians to the ranks shipping containers at the airbase. Those the custody of the “foreign intelligence ser- so they can kick the [shit] out of them.” of the party would be a triumph which would considered uncooperative are subjected to vices” of other governments known for us- Some regimes are reported to have used change the whole complexion of the move- “stress and duress techniques,” explained ing brutal means to extract information. The sodium pentathol and other mind-altering ment and both the nature and effectiveness intelligence specialists familiar with CIA interrogators are presented with a CIA-com- drugs on prisoners. of its work in the class struggle. What is said interrogation methods. The methods include piled list of questions to get answers to. The “Extraordinary renditions” were used by about the social composition of the party forcing them to stand or kneel for hours with article named Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt. the administration of William Clinton after applies with at least equal force to the orga- black hoods over their heads or spray- The Moroccan regime, for one—which has the bombings of the U.S. embassies in nization of the youth, which, precisely be- painted goggles covering their eyes; hold- a “documented history of torture as well as Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. For several cause of the decline of youth in industry, ing them in awkward, painful positions; and long-standing ties to the CIA”—has sharply years his government provided funding for has a far too small proportion of proletarian depriving them of medical care or sleep with increased its cooperation with Washington the Egyptian government’s intelligence ser- elements in its composition. a “24-hour bombardment of lights.” in the interrogation of these prisoners, the vice, which is notorious for its torture of No effective work can be done in the trade Two Afghan prisoners died in U.S. cus- Post reported. prisoners. unions—and consequently no effective tody at the Bagram airbase in December. These “extraordinary renditions”—the The article confirms reports published last work in the class struggle—unless the party Initial autopsies concluded that one died of name given such transfers—are done “with- March in the British Guardian revealing that is directly connected with these elementary a heart attack and the other of a blocked ar- out recourse to legal process,” noted the big- Washington was secretly sending prisoners organizations of the working class. This tery in the lungs. business paper. In spite of Washington’s of- suspected of al Qaeda connections “to coun- means that the party must not only demand In other cases, usually involving “lower- ficial denials of such practices, one official tries where torture during interrogation is a minimum of activity of all its members, legal.” Waving the banner of the “global but that it demands of every worker in its fight against terrorism,” an unnamed U.S. ranks immediate adherence to his corre- Capitalism’s World Disorder: diplomat declared, “After September 11, sponding trade union, and activity inside of Working-Class Politics at the Millennium these sort of movements have been occur- it if he is already a member. The most cor- ring all the time. It allows us to get infor- rect trade union policy in the world has little BY JACK BARNES mation from terrorists in a way we can’t do or no significance if the party is not in a “The capitalist rulers offer us social disaster. They offer us on U.S. soil.” position to apply it where it is meant to be depression. They offer us death from curable disease. They Aside from Afghanistan, Washington has applied. offer us war. They offer us fascism. They offer us an unending overseas interrogation facilities—off limits These elementary measures, which are list of horrors. But we offer ourselves the ability to prevent to lawyers, news reporters, the Red Cross, indispensable for the transition from a pro- those horrors from becoming the final reality, the confidence and others—on the island of Diego Garcia paganda group to a mass party in the Ameri- that we can transform that future.” in the Indian Ocean, and elsewhere. U.S. can working class and its struggle, will, if officials have stated that almost 3,000 al- carried out in an organized, systematic form, Also available in Spanish and French. $23.95 leged al Qaeda members and their support- enable the party to ward off the danger of ers have been arrested worldwide since Sept. being sapped by triflers and dilettantes, by from Pathfinder 11, 2001. About 625 are incarcerated at the purely literary radicalism, and to become a Order online at www.pathfinderpress.com. Also available from bookstores, including those U.S. prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, serious and significant factor in the great listed on page 12. Please include $3 for shipping and handling. Cuba, and thousands are imprisoned in other struggles and decisive tests that lie ahead countries. on the road to the proletarian revolution. January 20, 2003 The Militant 7 Midwest tour builds antideportation fight

Continued from front page his right to live and work in this country. the United States for the past 12 years. To One of the first to send a protest message to try to deport him to his native Nicaragua, the INS was Bill Pearson, president of the INS is using a 1988 conviction—when UFCW Local 789. Dozens of unionists in he was a high school student in Los Ange- the plant immediately signed petitions de- les—on a charge of selling an ounce of manding his release from the marijuana to an undercover cop. Faced with INS jail and an end to the exclu- a possible jail term, Calero copped a plea sion proceedings against him. and received a suspended 60-day sentence, This made the Twin Cities a three years’ probation, and a $50 fine. good place for Calero to kick off When Calero applied for permanent resi- his speaking tour. dence in 1989, he explicitly included infor- One of the speakers address- Militant/Sandi Sherman mation about his conviction. In granting him ing the December 27 meeting Above, speakers at December 27 event in Minneapolis, from left to resident status, the INS waived the convic- here was Jorge Flores, director of right: Róger Calero (standing), Omar Jamal, and Jorge Flores. tion. In 2000 the INS renewed his green the Immigrant Workers Center, a Left, Miguel Olvera, one of the leaders of the union-organizing card. Today Calero, who is married to a U.S. project of the Resource Center of drive at Dakota Premium meatpacking plant in South St. Paul. citizen, lives in Newark, New Jersey. the Americas. He explained that Prior to starting his job as an editor and Calero is like millions who are dency, the INS found tion Monday. He received the letter Tuesday. staff writer for the New York-based publi- in this country seeking to im- he had been in jail for His troubles were then compounded because cations, Calero worked as a meat packer in prove their lives and that of their three days when he he was late for his deportation proceedings. Des Moines, Iowa, and then at the Dakota families. Flores said he receives was young—he had He has had to pay thousands of dollars in Premium plant in South St. Paul, where he calls every day from immigrants been a passenger in a INS penalties and lawyers’ fees and is still took part in a ground-breaking fight that suc- who face problems in their work- car that was reported under threat of deportation. ceeded in organizing Local 789 of the places or have to deal with vari- stolen. The charges United Food and Commercial Workers ous immigration questions. had been dropped when the full story Fight to defend Somalis (UFCW) union there. Flores told the story of a worker who has showed that the car was reported stolen dur- Omar Jamal, executive director of the It is not surprising that many of Calero’s been married to a U.S. citizen for 17 years ing a domestic dispute. Somali Justice Center, an organization that fellow unionists and former co-workers and has three children who are citizens. The INS, however, sent the worker a letter defends the rights of Somali immigrants liv- immediately joined the campaign to defend When he applied for his permanent resi- on a Friday telling him to report for deporta- ing here, told the audience that he had al- ready been writing letters on behalf of Calero before he knew who he was. He had received information about the defense cam- Calero meets workers, farmers in Iowa paign from an Internet message to an am- nesty group he is a member of. Jamal said BY EDWIN FRUIT subjected to exclusion or deportation based his exclusion and publicizing the case to win that thousands of residents of Somalia, es- DES MOINES, Iowa—The second stop on provisions of the 1996 Illegal Immigra- wider backing, he and his supporters were pecially those living today in refugee camps, in Róger Calero’s speaking tour throughout tion Reform and Immigrant Responsibility also trying to show what can be done to op- are dependent on remittances from their the Midwest was Iowa, where he spoke to Act and other reactionary measures. pose the INS’s broader attacks on the rights relatives in the United States. He pointed packinghouse workers and others to win During the discussion, Larry Ginter, a of immigrant workers around the country. out that the government of Somalia col- broader support for the campaign to stop his farmer activist, said the INS attack on The city’s daily newspaper, the Des lapsed in 1991, and with it the banking sys- deportation by the Immigration and Natu- Calero’s rights was part of the attacks being Moines Register, published an article on the tem. In late 2001, federal agents, accusing ralization Service (INS). waged on civil liberties by the U.S. govern- meeting in its December 30 issue. In re- Somali-run businesses in several U.S. cities On the evening of December 29, support- ment, and that “an injury to one was an in- sponse to the prominent newspaper and TV of “financing Al Qaeda,” raided and shut ers of the Róger Calero Defense Commit- jury to all.” coverage of the case, a right-wing talk show down the businesses in the Twin Cities and tee sponsored a public meeting at the Holy Channel 13 TV featured the meeting on host on WHO-AM radio focused on elsewhere that wired money to the camps. Family School in Des Moines. The event its 10:00 p.m. news program that evening as Calero’s case the next morning, calling for Jamal reported that as a result of these was built on a few days’ notice through e- well as the following morning. Calero said his exclusion by the INS. Listeners called raids, 40 Somalis remain in prison in Min- mail, phone calling, and leaflet distribution on the television broadcast that in fighting Continued on page 15 Continued on page 14 at a local Latino food store. More than a dozen people came to hear Calero, among them workers originally from Sudan, includ- ing one who works at the Swift meatpacking plant in Marshalltown, Iowa. Defense committee holds meeting at new offices Calero, a Militant staff member and Perspectiva Mundial associate editor, de- BY NAOMI CRAINE der way. The defense committee is looking seem like a big challenge,” Studer noted. scribed how, on his return from a reporting NEW YORK—The Róger Calero De- for volunteers to translate these and other “The key thing is for supporters of the case assignment abroad, he was arrested Decem- fense Committee is up and running, with materials into French, Arabic, Urdu, Creole, in each area to sit down together, draw up ber 3 by the INS at the Houston airport and office space, a phone number, and ambitious Chinese, and other languages. The endorser lists of those who may be interested in the jailed for 10 days. He explained that sup- plans to press ahead in the fight to halt the cards can be used to register formal support case and able to contribute financially, and porters of his right to live and work in the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s from individuals and organizations, and in- start working at it systematically” United States, including those in Iowa, had attempt to exclude Calero from the United cludes an invitation to contribute funds. Some of those attending the January 5 sent faxes and letters of protest to the INS States, where he has been a permanent resi- In addition to winning endorsers and meeting here volunteered to come up with district director in Houston, who paroled dent for the past 12 years. Thirty people sending letters and petitions demanding the lists and make fund-raising calls. Others him December 13. Calero, a 12-year per- from New York and northern New Jersey INS drop its deportation effort, the Róger discussed outreach to supporters of civil lib- manent resident, continues to face exclusion packed into the defense committee offices Calero Defense Committee has launched an erties, defenders of immigrant rights, union- by the INS, which has scheduled a hearing for an initial meeting January 5 to discuss effort to raise $50,000 by the end of Janu- ists, journalists, and others. A special focus on his case for March 25. the next steps in the fight. ary. This money is needed to cover legal of the work in this area is building a tour for Calero emphasized to the audience that The meeting was chaired by Pamela costs, producing materials, and other ex- Calero the last week in January, which will his case was not an exception, but that tens Vossenas on behalf of the Róger Defense penses. So far about $13,000 has been con- culminate with a February 1 public meet- of thousands of U.S. residents were being Committee. Vossenas is a national board tributed. “Raising this kind of money can ing at St. Mary’s Church in Harlem. member of the National Writers Union. John Studer, coordinator of the defense committee, reported Róger Calero Defense Campaign Tour Support the Róger Calero that Calero is scheduled for a Defense Committee “hearing in removal proceedings” The Róger Calero Defense Committee has launched a speaking tour of Calero in on March 25 at the immigration cities around the country to broaden the fight to stop his deportation by the INS. • Send messages to INS District Director court in Houston. Between now Below is the schedule for the first stops of the tour. Requests for additional tour Hipolito Acosta demanding the exclusion moves and then, supporters of the defense dates can be made to the committee. against Calero be dropped. Messages can be effort have a big job to widen the faxed to (281) 774-5989; or mailed to him at support for the fight and keep up Twin Cities Jan. 9–11 fense Committee; Box 761, Church St. the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 126 the pressure on the government to Station, New York, NY 10007; tel/fax: drop the case. Jan. 11: 6:00 p.m. Fund-raiser event at Northpoint Drive, Houston, TX 77060. Copies the UFCW Local 789 hall; 266 Hardeman (212) 563-0585; e-mail: “We don’t have any illusion that should be sent to the Róger Calero Defense Ave., South St. Paul, Minnesota. [email protected] Committee, c/o PRDF, Box 761, Church St. Sta- this fight will be fast or easy,” tion, New York, NY 10007; fax (212) 563-0585. Studer said. But the immense in- Los Angeles Jan. 12–15 terest and response to Calero’s • Sign and distribute petitions demanding the tour in the Midwest shows what’s San Francisco Jan. 16–18 INS drop the exclusion of Calero. A fact sheet possible. In Chicago, he reported, and petition are available from the defense 111 people, many of them work- Miami Jan. 20–22 committee (e-mail: calerodefenseyahoo.com). ers who heard about the case on • Funds are urgently needed to meet rapidly the news, turned out for a meet- Tampa Jan. 20–21 mounting legal and other expenses. Defense ing at a church in the mostly campaign backers in every city need to raise Latino community of Pilsen. Miami Jan. 22–23 New tools are available to get thousands of dollars for the committee. Orga- Houston Jan. 24–27 nize phone calling for donations, seek hono- out the word about the case—an raria for speaking engagements, and take col- updated brochure, petition, and en- N.Y./New Jersey Jan. 28–Feb. 2 dorser cards. The brochure and pe- lections at public meetings. The goal is to raise tition are now available in English, For more information or to send a con- over $50,000 by the end of January. Contribu- and the translation to Spanish is un- tribution, contact the Róger Calero De- tions are tax-deductible.

8 The Militant January 20, 2003 Palestinian activist speaks out from INS jail

BY RÓGER CALERO The INS says it is hold- The incident happened last July, when the AND MARTÍN KOPPEL ing him on the basis of a INS was transferring Abdel-Muhti to the NEW YORK—“This is a struggle not 1995 deportation order. Camden County jail. “An INS cop knocked only for me, but for many others who face Although they had not on the window of the car where I was sit- the same situation,” said Farouk Abdel- acted for the past seven ting, handcuffed, waiting to be transferred. Muhti, a Palestinian activist who faces de- years, the cops knocked He pointed a gun at my face, as he laughed portation and has been locked up in an im- on his door in April of this and kept the finger on the trigger,” Abdel- migration jail with no criminal charges for year. Muhti said. more than eight months. Abdel-Muhti has been To further harass him, on the way to the In a December 23 phone interview from involved in many different Passaic County jail the cops took him to prison, Abdel-Muhti said the U.S. political activities in the the INS offices at the Newark airport, where government’s threat to deport him is part of New York area. He is ac- he was held for several hours. They later a nationwide wave of arrests and govern- tive in the Palestine Edu- claimed they had mistaken him for some- ment harassment of immigrants from the cation Committee and the body else. Middle East and South Asia. In his case, Palestine Aid Society, and In another incident in October, Abdel- government officials have explicitly targeted has spoken at events in Muhti and several other prisoners were his political activities as an opponent of defense of the Cuban taken around to several consulates in Man- Washington’s policies and a defender of the Revolution. hattan to try to get them travel documents Palestinian struggle for a homeland. Earlier this year he had to facilitate their deportation. They took him The interview was conducted in Spanish, been hosting a regular to the Honduran consulate, trying to see if which the Palestinian activist speaks flu- program on WBAI radio they could get him deported to Honduras— ently. in New York on the where he had lived at one time—but the Abdel-Muhti’s supporters are waging a struggle of Palestinians in consulate refused to accept him and he was campaign to stop his deportation and to de- the occupied territories. taken back to the jail. fend his right to stay in this country, where About three weeks before he has lived since the 1970s. He is currently his arrest, while he was ‘Our voices must be heard’ incarcerated at the Passaic County Jail in speaking on the radio, a At the end of the interview, the Palestin- Paterson, New Jersey, one of the prisons group of INS agents burst ian militant put several other inmates briefly used by the Immigration and Naturalization into his apartment in Co- on the phone. The jail is a veritable United rona, Queens. Bernie Nations, with inmates from many countries Service (INS) because of the overflowing El Diario La Prensa/Osvaldo Perez of its own jails. McFall, his roommate, in the Mideast, Latin America, the Carib- reports the cops threat- Farouk Abdel-Muhti, who has been locked up for more than bean, Asia, and Europe. Militant reporters Immigration cops have more than once eight months in INS jails in New Jersey. threatened to deport Abdel-Muhti and turn ened to throw him out the were introduced to three men—immigrants him over to Israeli police if he does not give window of the 14th-floor from Lebanon, Pakistan, and Cuba—who them information about other individuals in apartment if he tried to block their search Middlesex, Camden, and Passaic county had been arrested several months ago. “My the United States and in Palestine. of computer files and phone directories. jails in New Jersey. His supporters say he brother from Pakistan is under a gag order,” In mid-December an undisclosed num- Early in the morning of April 26, INS has been moved because the protests orga- Abdel-Muhti said as he turned over the ber of Palestinians jailed by the INS were agents and New York city cops showed up nized outside prison walls on his behalf and phone to him. “He can’t tell you his name, deported to Egypt and taken by land to Is- again at the apartment, demanding to ques- his advocacy both of his cause and that of but he can tell his story. Once you hear his raeli-occupied Gaza, U.S. Justice Depart- tion him about September 11. Claiming they fellow inmates inside the jails are a head- story, you will realize it is an injustice for ment officials stated. The officials said they believed there were weapons and explosives ache to the authorities. him to be here.” had arranged the deportations with the Is- in the apartment, they threatened to break “The conditions are horrible in the INS “Our voices must be heard amidst the na- raeli and Egyptian governments, and ex- down the door. Once inside—without a war- prisons,” said Abdel-Muhti in the interview. tionalist flag-waving,” Abdel-Muhti said. He pected to secure similar arrangements to rant—they arrested him and carted him off “When they take prisoners to see the immi- expressed his opposition to the U.S. moves deport Palestinians to the occupied West to jail. As they left, one of the cops turned gration judge, they keep you handcuffed and toward war against the people of Iraq, and Bank through Jordan. The implicit threat to his roommate, McFall, and said, “We’ll shackled the whole time until they take you emphasized, “We are with the people of the that these Palestinians—especially those get you next.” back to the jail,” he said. “You can spend United States in their fight against the in- who, like Abdel-Muhti, are politically out- Detained at the INS offices at 26 Federal 10–12 hours waiting like that.” justices committed by the U.S. government spoken—will be subject to imprisonment or Plaza in Manhattan, Abdel-Muhti was in- In addition to constant interrogations, in this country.” torture at the hands of Israeli officials is none terrogated and threatened with being de- prison authorities have sometimes denied Abdel-Muhti said he had been following too subtle. ported and turned over to the Israeli secret proper medical care to Abdel-Muhti, who the campaign to prevent the deportation of “They are trying to silence the fight for police if he did not give them a list of indi- suffers from high blood pressure and has Militant staff writer and Perspectiva justice and freedom of the Palestinian viduals in the U.S. Arab community and in had chest pains because of the cold tempera- Mundial associate editor Róger Calero, people,” said Abdel-Muhti in explaining Palestine. tures inside the jail. whose release on parole 10 days earlier— these U.S. moves. “You are playing with my dignity and my When Militant reporters spoke with the after a flurry of protest messages to the When the U.S. government accelerated principles,” he replied in refusing the de- Palestinian activist on December 23, he had INS—he called “a victory for all of us.” its war drive in the fall of 2001, it initially mand. He was then beaten. just been interviewed by a special agent of The Palestinian liberation fighter said that rounded up some 1,200 people as “terror- the Justice Department’s Office of the In- the support his own fight for freedom has ism” suspects, mostly U.S. residents born Conditions in INS jails spector General, investigating an incident gained is important. His fight has become in Middle Eastern or South Asian countries. Since his arrest, Abdel-Muhti, 55, has his attorneys had reported in which INS cops intertwined with that of others facing a simi- Because U.S. officials refuse to release been moved to three different prisons—the had threatened Abdel-Muhti with a gun. Continued on Page 14 names and figures, the number of people of Arab or South Asian origin who remain locked up in INS jails today is not known. Unable to pin any serious charge on them, Ontario Machinists strike to defend union rights the INS has kept many locked up on minor Continued from front page charges such as not having their immigra- tion” in deciding which workers will be laid tion papers in order. off, rather than basing layoffs on seniority. Some of those facing deportation are be- The “final offer” that workers rejected ing held indefinitely because they have not called for seniority to be calculated as been able to provide all the documents the “length of continuous service since date of INS claims it needs to complete the depor- last hiring by the company”, in other words, tation process. They are denied release on a worker with 35 years seniority would lose parole even though they have lived and all seniority if he or she was laid off and worked in the United States for a long time then rehired a few months later. and are in no way a “flight risk.” Nine years ago the union gave back 10 Palestinians are among those caught in percent in wages, 20 percent in health ben- the immigration cops’ catch-22. Denied na- efits, a week’s vacation, and a holiday, with tional rights by the Israeli regime and inter- a company promise to restore the concessions nationally, Palestinians often travel with a a year later. The vacation was returned a year passport from another country or a United later, and 10 percent of the health benefits Nations refugee passport. Abdel-Muhti has and the statutory holiday during the 1996 ne- neither. He was born in Ramallah, on the gotiations, but the 10 percent wage cut was West Bank, which at the time was under the never restored. “One manager told us, ‘We British Mandate. He has no passport or ID lied to you, get over it,’” said Troupe. from Israel or from Jordan—or from the Cost of living adjustments (COLA) have Militant/Patricia O’Beirne Palestinian Authority, since he has been liv- been the only real wage increase seen by Two Machinists on the picket line outside Fleet industries in Ontario. Some 350 union ing in the United States for more than 25 workers at Fleet over the past ten years. “Now members went on strike October 1 to defend seniority rights in face of layoff threats. years. As a result, Abdel-Muhti says, he is Fleet wants us to give up our COLA for 18 legally a stateless person and cannot be de- months and they promise they’ll give it back tirement or a layoff to avoid a strike six There have been several strike support ported to Israel or Jordan. to us, but we don’t believe them,” said Troupe. months before he is eligible to retire. “I said events, including a Niagara region strike Negotiations have restarted with the of- to him, ‘Are you trying to kick me out the caravan on November 29, which visited the Locked up more than eight months fice workers, but the production workers door after 37 years? Take your paper and picket lines of members of the Industrial, The Palestinian activist has now been haven’t yet been offered anything new. At a shove it you-know-where,’” Fiske said. Wood and Allied Workers of Canada on locked up for more than eight months with- meeting in early December, Fleet laid out Bob Weaver, with 23 years service, said, strike against Anagram in St. Catherines and out a hearing. His lawyers have filed a com- its plans to further reduce the workforce in “All of us have been through numerous Niagara-on-the-Lake, a Steelworkers picket plaint and a habeas corpus petition—a mo- the plant to 150–250 workers by 2005. Some strikes and this time I think the workers are line at Washington Mills in Niagara Falls, tion for his release—in U.S. district court production is going on in the plant using really going to hold out.” Workers at this the 39 members of the Canadian Auto Work- in Newark, New Jersey. The motion argues supervisory and administrative personnel. plant have long experience in standing up ers Union locked out at Ronal Canada in that, under a 2001 Supreme Court ruling Stan Fiske, 64, who has worked there for to Fleet. One unionist explained that they Stevensville, and the Fleet picket line. barring indefinite detention, INS must ei- 36 years, described how a few days before “keep putting up the same picket shacks” ther deport or release individuals after hold- the strike began, a boss called him into the because there has been a strike every six Patricia O’Beirne is a member of UNITE in ing them for six months. office and encouraged him to take early re- years or so. The last strike was in 1996. Toronto.

January 20, 2003 The Militant 9 N.Y. protesters say: ‘No to registrations and arrests by INS’ Continued from front page that the problem with the mass arrests of stepped up since the fall of 2001. those turning up to register is that they are Among the organizers were the Desis “counterproductive” to the government’s Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), which aims. An editorial in the December 29 defends immigrants from South Asia; the Washington Post, for example, argued, Coney Island Avenue Project, based in the “Nothing is wrong, in principle,” with fin- large Pakistani community in Brooklyn; the gerprinting and tracking those “who hail Asian-American Legal Defense and Educa- from countries with a history of sponsor- tion Fund; the Korean-American commu- ing terrorism or exporting terrorists.” But nity group Nodutdol; the Committee for the arresting large numbers of people who Human Rights of Immigrants; and the Com- show up to comply with the regulations will mittee for the Release of Farouk Abdel- discourage people from registering, it Muhti, a Palestinian activist currently locked stated. up in an INS jail (see article on page 9). One of thousands who protested in Los Angeles December 19 against arrest of hun- Earlier in the week, the Coney Island South Asians harrassed in New York dreds who had gone to INS offices to comply with federal order to register. Demon- Avenue Project initiated a press conference Speakers at both New York actions put strations against arrests and registration are taking place weekly in New York City. in Brooklyn that became a rally, with about the latest INS requirements in the frame- 100 supporters gathered holding signs de- work of the stepped-up harassment of im- claring, “Say no to special registration,” migrants over the last year and a half. The immigrants who thought that, by comply- in overcrowded quarters such as the base- “What’s next, concentration camps?” and Coney Island Avenue Project, established ing with U.S. laws and regulations as they ment of the INS offices. “1000s of Muslims detained, tortured, and after Sept. 11, 2001, to provide legal help worked toward becoming permanent resi- John Choe of Nodutdol said, “Koreans deported.” The press conference included and support to Pakistani and other immi- dents and citizens, they would finally gain suffer discrimination and hardships here and speakers from more than a dozen immigrant grants facing harassment, explains in its bro- some protection and security. militarization by the United States abroad. rights groups, churches, and the Pakistani chure, “In just the ten-block neighborhood The registration is a slap in the face of Ko- community, among others. at the heart of the community on Coney Is- ‘An insult’ reans in the United States, who helped to The registration requirement, put in place land Avenue, it is estimated that 60 to 80 Some even viewed themselves as support- build this country. Now Korea has been de- by Attorney General John Ashcroft in No- men have been taken from their homes and ers of the U.S. government. Dr. Faheem clared an ‘axis of evil’ by the U.S. govern- vember with little publicity, made national placed in detention centers in New York and Butt, of the New York chapter of the Paki- ment. We say: ‘End the registrations, end headlines in mid-December when thousands New Jersey. Very often their names are not stani physicians organization EPPNA, de- racism, deportations, and profiling. End the of people took to the streets in Los Angeles released, their access to lawyers is uncer- nounced the Bush administration at the militarization of Korea.’” to protest the arrests of hundreds of Iranian- tain, and their families are left without ac- Brooklyn press conference, saying that the Several speakers referred to the forcible Americans and others who showed up to cess to information, to services or to the in- registration requirement for Pakistanis “is internment of Japanese-Americans that fol- meet the INS deadline. December 16 was come that the detained person provided.” directed against staunch supporters of the lowed a similar registration requirement af- the deadline for a certain category of Bobby Khan of the Coney Island Avenue USA. Pakistan fought in Afghanistan for the ter Washington declared war on Japan in people—men older than 16 from Iran, Iraq, Project noted, “Muslim and South Asian men USA and what did we get? Instability, drugs, 1941. Some also expressed their opposition Sudan, Syria, and Libya who have tempo- have been picked up in droves, yet despite and the war against terrorism. Why us?” to the developing U.S. war against Iraq. rary residence status—to show up at INS long and harsh detentions and subsequent “It’s a big insult! It’s against democracy,” A member of the Committee for the Re- offices to be photographed, fingerprinted, deportations, none have ever been linked to said Mona, an Iranian woman who stopped lease of Farouk Abdel-Muhti appealed for and interrogated. Many of those arrested terrorism. Hardworking people...are being to show her support for the aims of the picket support for the Palestinian activist, who is were in the process of applying for their denied basic due process rights, thrown into line at the Federal Building. “We came here being held in an INS jail in New Jersey and green card. jails with no recourse to courts, and then, af- for a little bit of democracy, but it doesn’t faces deportation to Egypt or Israel, where Immigrants from 13 other countries— ter it is discovered that they have nothing to matter how long you have been here, you his life could be in danger. Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, do with violence and terror, are deported any- are still treated like a foreigner. This is just Deep, a 17-year old Indian-American, ex- Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, way.” prejudice, not equality. Since 9/11, we are plained why he and his young friends had Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Organizers of the press conference cel- treated like second-class citizens.” come to picket the Federal Building. “We north Korea—face a registration deadline of ebrated the release that day of Faisal Ulvie, Speaking at the December 27 picket at are asking people to organize to protest these January 10. a Pakistani-born man who had received a the Federal Building Monami Maulik, or- registrations. We’re here to show we’re Pakistani and Saudi nationals are sup- deportation order after he missed a hearing ganizer of DRUM, pointed out that many against the registrations, and to let others posed to register by February 21.Citizens on his asylum application. Ulvie was already of those registering have been questioned know they’re going on. They are detaining of the targeted countries entering the United seated on a plane bound for Pakistan when about their religious practices, and that the people over anything now. Most people States are also being registered upon entry a judge ordered his release on bond. men arrested in Los Angeles were “shack- don’t know they have to register, and that if and are required to report regularly to the The registration process, and the humili- led, strip-searched, and some were hosed they don’t they could be arrested and de- INS during their stay. ation it entails, has struck a nerve among down with cold water” before being jailed ported.” Groups file suit over detentions The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Alliance of Iranian Treasury Dept. threatens 3 in Seattle over Cuba trip Americans, and the Council on American Islamic Relations have filed a class-action BY ERNEST MAILHOT Cuba Sister Cities Association Conference cific license to you to engage in travel-re- lawsuit against Attorney General Ashcroft SEATTLE—A broadly attended press held in Cuba last February 17–24. Rob lated transactions in Cuba in connection and the INS, taking issue with the special conference was held here to protest the U.S. Nichols, a Treasury Department spokesper- with the conference.” registration procedures and the arrests. An government’s recent threats against a Cuba son, told a reporter for the Seattle Post- Neil Fox from the National Lawyers ADC press release reports that the suit, filed solidarity activist, a King County council Intelligencer that the department has not Guild chaired the press conference and December 24 in a Los Angeles federal court, member, and a local church official in rela- yet decided whether to fine Warner. He said called for everyone to demand that the Trea- seeks “an injunction ordering the govern- tion to a trip to Cuba. the fine could be up to $55,000. Warner’s sury Department stop its harassment. He ment not to arrest any additional persons in Tom Warner, secretary of the Seattle/ crime? Announcing on the Internet the Sis- also called for an end to “the Bush the ‘special registration’ process without Cuba Friendship Committee, received a ter Cities conference. administration’s assault on our civil liber- appropriate warrants from federal judges” letter from the U.S. Department of the Trea- In addition to Warner, threatening letters ties—an assault so far characterized by thou- and “an order preventing the deportation of sury in October threatening “civil penal- were sent to King County council member sands of incommunicado detentions and detainees without due process.” ties” and demanding all the information Dwight Pelz and to Alice Woldt, head of the expanded domestic spying.” Some liberal voices have complained and records he has concerning the U.S.- Church Council of Greater Seattle. Both Tom Warner stated, “What I have been Pelz and Woldt attended the February con- accused of is using the Internet and the web ference in Cuba and were licensed to travel site of the Seattle/Cuba Friendship Commit- and the Coming American there at the time. At the press conference tee to ‘organize and promote’ a trip to Cuba Pelz and Woldt denounced the Treasury without a license.... I am concerned that this CUBACUBA Revolution by Jack Barnes Department’s harassment and explained that assault on the freedom of speech and ex- they had attended the Sister Cities confer- pression—especially through the Internet— ence with the view of helping to establish a be stanched before it chills people’s free “There will be a victorious revolution in the United States before a sister relationship between King County and expression and their ability to respond to victorious counterrevolution in Cuba.” Cuba’s eastern Granma province. objectionable behavior by the government The letter to Warner from the Treasury or other powers in authority.” — Fidel Castro, March 1961 Department states: “The Office of Foreign Lynne Wilson, Warner’s attorney, also Assets Control (OFAC) administers a com- spoke at the press conference as did Cindy Cuba and the Coming American prehensive trade embargo against Cuba.... Domingo representing the National Net- Revolution is about the struggles of The regulations prohibit all unauthorized work on Cuba, Adam Gravley from the working people in the imperialist travel-related transactions with respect to American Civil Liberties Union, Christine heartland, the youth who are attracted Cuba by persons subject to the jurisdiction Rousseau from the King County/Granma to them, and the example set by the of the United States.” Province Sister Association, Ernest Mailhot Referring to the Sister Cities conference, from the Socialist Workers Party, a repre- people of Cuba that revolution is not the letter says, “Based upon the enclosed sentative of the Fellowship of Reconcilia- only necessary—it can be made. Preface Internet article, it appears that you were in- tion, and others. by Mary-Alice Waters. In English, Spanish, volved with the promotion and or possible Several of the speakers tied the threats and French. $13.00 organization of this conference. OFAC did against those involved in the Sister Cities not issue a specific license to you to orga- group here to the broader attacks on immi- Order now from www.pathfinderpress.com. Please nize, arrange, promote, or otherwise facili- grant workers who are being detained and include $3 for shipping and handling. Also available tate the attendance of persons at the confer- deported without being allowed their legal from bookstores, including those listed on page 12. ence in Cuba, nor did OFAC issue a spe- rights to due process.

10 The Militant January 20, 2003 New Zealand: Communist League hosts meeting

BY TRUDY GREEN said. The government in Wellington “is part AND LYNN HARTLEY of the weapons inspections that are a ploy AUCKLAND, New Zealand—Noting the for preparing the assault. It is part of the interested participation in a December 14– imperialist naval forces raiding vessels on 15 socialist educational conference here that the high seas in the region. And it is prepar- drew workers and youth from around New ing to send troops—except it calls these Zealand and several other countries, Com- medical and logistical support units, to im- munist League leader Michael Tucker re- ply they have some ‘humanitarian’ pur- marked, “This is the sort of exchange and pose.” collaboration that working-class fighters in “The New Zealand rulers will march to all countries more and more need and want, war not because they are subservient to Wash- and which will increase in the months and ington or London, or because they are look- years ahead.” ing for trade deals as a payoff,” Tucker said. Forty-three people attended the weekend “They will march to war in order to advance conference hosted by the Communist their own imperialist interests as a class.” League and Young Socialists (YS). They He noted that “Wellington, alongside the came from five countries in the Pacific, in- Australian government in Canberra, is also cluding several cities in New Zealand. They preparing for military interventions and included a number of young people, includ- wars in neighboring countries. Already we ing six high school students interested in the see them using their forces in Bougainville, Young Socialists; four of them came after in the Solomon Islands, and in East Timor, meeting socialists selling revolutionary lit- which was their biggest military deployment erature at an antiwar protest in Auckland since the Korean War 50 years ago.” during the first day of the conference. Tucker pointed to the New Zealand nation- Welcoming the participants on behalf of alism that shapes the perspectives advanced by liberal, pacifist, and centrist forces call- the organizers, Felicity Coggan introduced Militant/Felicity Coggan (above), Baskaran Appu(inset) a number of special guests: Simon Koumac, ing antiwar actions today, noting that this Above: Maori march through Kaikohe, New representing the Kanak Liberation Party often takes the form of anti-Americanism or Zealand, in July 2002 to protest proposed (Palika) and Evette Huitema, the Oceania identifying with the rulers’ “war on terror- prison at nearby Ngawha. Speakers at Com- Democratic Assembly (RDO), both from ism.” This “reinforces the patriotic war pro- munist League conference pointed to expand- New Caledonia; Christopher Embil, a rep- paganda,” he said, “not class political clarity ing openings in the fight against imperialist resentative of the Tertiary Socialist Students and proletarian internationalism.” Commu- war, trade union struggles, and the fight from Papua New Guinea (PNG); Grant nists need to take on these reactionary views against racism directed against Maori and Hawke, a leader of Ngati Whatua, the main and explain the need to build a movement of Pacific Islanders. Inset: Annalucia Vermunt, Maori tribe in Auckland; members of the working people against the capitalist govern- member of the Communist League National Communist League and Young Socialists in ment in Wellington, including for its defeat Committee, speaks at a panel session. Australia, and representatives of the Social- in wartime. “We are for a revolution of the ist Workers Party (SWP) and Young Social- workers and farmers to overthrow the impe- rialist rulers,” Tucker pect of losing their land. Huitema explained that her organization said. Ron Poulsen, also from the Communist is based among Polynesian immigrants from The first question League in Australia, described a growing the islands of Wallis and Futuna, who make following Tucker’s pre- number of protests against Australian im- up 10 percent of the population of New sentation kicked off a perialism taking place throughout Asia and Caledonia. Wallis and Futuna are also ruled lively discussion. One the Pacific, from the Philippines, to East by Paris. She described how in the past im- participant, a high Timor, to Indonesia. Fueling many of these migrants from these islands were largely school student, asked protests were recent statements by Austra- aligned with the RPCR against the Kanak whether “we” have a lian prime minister John Howard asserting struggle, but this began to break down in responsibility to help that his government had the right to take the early 1990s. East Timor, which was “preemptive action” against “terrorism,” a We are “fighting for a society that is more previously occupied by pretext for the Australian rulers’ increased egalitarian.” That is why “we support the the Indonesian military. probes toward military intervention in the Kanak people’s demand for restitution of “Understanding who region. their sovereignty,” Huitema explained. “We ‘we’ are and who The final speaker on the panel was Ernie advocate a state that is independent, demo- ‘they’ are is the starting Mailhot, a National Committee member of cratic, and multiethnic.” point of all wisdom,” the Socialist Workers Party in the United The conference ended with a panel on Tucker responded. “As States. Mailhot pointed to the “important “Building a worldwide movement against the imperialists go to victory won today with the freeing of Róger imperialism.” war, this becomes vi- Calero” on parole. Many of the participants Annalucia Vermunt, a National Commit- tal—to see that we as at the conference had been campaigning tee member of the Communist League in working people have over the previous week to organize letters New Zealand, pointed to the resistance un- Militant /Baskaran Appu no interests in common and petitions to demand the INS release folding among working people today and the Pathfinder book table at socialist educational conference in with them, the bosses Calero and drop its moves to deport him. “expanding openings to work with others in New Zealand. Participants bought NZ$250 worth of books. and their government, Mailhot outlined the next challenges in the fight against imperialism and its wars.” but are part of a work- the fight, noting that the threat of deporta- She outlined some of the practical activity ists in the United States. ing class that is international and has com- tion facing Calero, despite having perma- that young socialists and communist work- Tucker, a member of the League’s Na- mon class interests.” The New Zealand rul- nent resident status in the United States, is ers will be engaged in as 2003 gets under- tional Committee and a garment worker, ers do not act on behalf of working people a situation affecting tens of thousands of way. This includes joining workers’ picket presented a feature talk on “Campaigning or to aid the toilers anywhere, he said. working people there. lines and protests for Maori rights; working for Communism; against imperialism, de- A second feature talk, “The Cuban Revo- The next day Simon Koumac and Evette with others to tour speakers on the Cuban pression and war.” Conference participants lution; an example for working people,” was Huitema spoke on the independence Revolution and other revolutionary struggles; applauded enthusiastically when Tucker presented by National Committee member struggle in New Caledonia. In introducing campaigning with the Militant and Pathfinder began by announcing that Róger Calero, Janet Roth, a meat-packing worker. “The them, Roth explained that the Young Social- books in working-class districts, at factory associate editor of Perspectiva Mundial and Cuban revolution demonstrates the tremen- ists and Palika had collaborated to build gates, and at antiwar actions; and organizing a staff writer for the Militant, had just been dous capacities of working people,” she said, participation in the 2001 world youth festi- study classes on Marxist writings. freed from custody by the Immigration and and is “an answer to the tendency of work- val held in Algiers. In September a team of Christopher Embil, a 22-year-old univer- Naturalization Service (INS) in Houston af- ing people to underestimate ourselves and three Young Socialists representatives from sity student in Port Moresby, Papua New ter a campaign of protest messages from what we can accomplish.” New Zealand, Canada, and the United States Guinea, spoke about resistance to imperial- around the world. Coming out of the con- The Cuban Revolution is an example for had visited New Caledonia to meet fellow ist domination in that country today. While ference, his supporters continued to win women fighting against second-class status fighters and participate in a seminar on the Continued on page 14 broader support for the ongoing fight to stop reinforced by capitalism, she added. “Fun- fight against imperialism hosted by Palika. the INS from deporting Calero. damental advances for women, such as those “Communists, and all revolutionary and won in Cuba over the decades since the 1959 Struggles in New Caledonia, PNG From Pathfinder working-class fighters,” Tucker said, “need revolution, can only occur as working “Since the 1853 seizure of New to act on the understanding that the world people in their majority act to break the Caledonia by France the Kanak people have NEW INTERNATIONAL NO. 11 we live in is marked by an unfolding eco- stranglehold of the propertied classes, who been resisting,” said Koumac. During the nomic depression and the march towards a are the beneficiaries of the second-class sta- 1980s the independence struggle against U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the series of imperialist wars, beginning with tus of women.” Roth pointed to the forth- French colonial rule faced fierce repression Cold War the impending assault on Iraq.” This brings coming Pathfinder title, Marianas in Com- and many Kanaks were killed. In 1988 and “disastrous new economic conditions” for bat: Teté Puebla and the Mariana Grajales 1998, the Kanak Socialist National Libera- by Jack Barnes working people and “fuels a sharper nation- Women’s Platoon in Cuba’s Revolutionary tion Front (FLNKS), a federation of the pro- The Communist alism that reinforces every reactionary War, 1956–58, an interview with the high- independence parties, signed agreements Strategy of Party prejudice and trend that capitalism upholds.” est-ranking woman in Cuba’s revolutionary with the French government and the main Building Today by “In New Zealand right now the capitalist armed forces today, Teté Puebla. French colonial-settler party in New Mary-Alice Waters business cycle has been going through its Caledonia, Rally for Caledonia within the Socialism: A strongest upturn in 20 years. But you have Resistance by working people Republic (RPCR). These accords outline a Viable Option by to look beyond the business cycle and see On Saturday evening a Militant Labor process of increasing autonomy leading to José Ramón Balaguer the overall trends,” Tucker said, pointing to Forum on working-class resistance featured a referendum on independence between Young the long-term economic stagnation and de- communist and young socialist leaders from 2014 and 2018. Socialists cline that marks capitalism today. Australia and the United States. Adrian But the National Assembly is dominated Manifesto $14.00 MacGregor, a member of the Young Social- by the RPCR, Koumac said, and it is “not New Zealand imperialism ists and Communist League in Australia, respecting the spirit of the accords.” In fact Order online at www.pathfinderpress.com. Also Tucker noted that as Washington and spoke about a recent rally he attended by it is trying to exclude the FLNKS from bod- available from bookstores including those listed London have accelerated preparations for 3,000 sugar cane farmers in Townsville, ies set up under the agreements. This is what on page 12. Include $3 for shipping and handling. war on Iraq, the New Zealand government Australia, protesting the decline in sugar underlies a growing political crisis in New promotes the image that it is keeping its dis- prices and government plans to deregulate Caledonia today and sets the framework in tance. “But it is already part of the war,” he the industry. Many farmers face the pros- which the struggles of Kanaks unfold. January 20, 2003 The Militant 11 1961: Che exposes U.S. ‘Alliance for Progress’ Reprinted below is an excerpt from Che August 1961, was the preparation for this Guevara Speaks, one of Pathfinder’s Books isolation. It aimed to demonstrate clearly of the Month for January. It is taken from that Cuba need not be reckoned with, that it Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto Che had come only to boycott the conference Guevara’s balance sheet of an August 1961 and, acting “on orders from Moscow,” to conference of the Organization of Ameri- prevent the North Americans from granting can States (OAS) held in Punta del Este, “generous” loans to the Latin Americans.... Uruguay. Guevara headed the Cuban del- The third noteworthy speech was that of egation to the conference. The piece was [U.S. delegation head] Dillon, who was as- originally published in English in the Feb- signed to announce what was going to be ruary 1962 issue of World Marxist Review. done. His speech was very vague, without a The Kennedy administration sought to single paragraph of substance. use the conference to repair U.S. prestige “If we look forward and examine the ex- ternal sources of capital—the international credit institutions, European countries, Japan, and the U.S.A., and take into account the like- lihood of private and public investments— BOOKS OF and if Latin America takes the necessary in- ternal measures, these countries can expect THE MONTH an influx of capital of at least $20 billion in the next ten years. Most of these investments will come from government sources.” damaged by the failure of Washington’s As one can see, there’s the condition ex- April 1961 mercenary invasion of Cuba at pressed in the sentence, “if Latin America the Bay of Pigs, and to stem the spread of takes the necessary internal measures.” The Workers rally May 29 in Córdoba, Argentina. Guevara explained the different ways revolution to the rest of Latin America. In characteristics of this condition were not that U.S. imperialism maintained its system of exploitation in Latin America. the hope of accomplishing these goals, the clearly explained, so its interpretation rests U.S. State Department was presenting its with the Yankee whim. sheep’s clothing. all Latin American countries. Moreover, the proposed Alliance for Progress to the con- It is important to point this out, because tendency is for the discrepancy between in- ference for official ratification. Though U.S. Alliance for Progress: imperialist policy the Punta del Este conference has given rise vestments and exports of profits to grow. diplomacy was striving to ostracize Cuba, Dillon’s speech expressed, to a certain to greater hopes than previous gatherings, From here on in, whenever a country it would be another six months before it extent, a new tendency in U.S. policy, one of and we might believe that this is something needs help from international finance orga- would be able to bring about that country’s modifying the system by which the Latin new, or the result of a new U.S. policy.... nizations for its shattered economy, the In- expulsion from the OAS. Guevara headed American peoples are exploited, and of shift- What conclusions can we draw for the fu- ternational Monetary Fund will step in, give the Cuban delegation at the conference. ing its relations away from feudalist forces ture from this conference? We should state its “wise and considered” opinion, and Copyright © 1967, 2000 by Pathfinder and toward different sections of the parasitic that even in the remote event of the $20 bil- tighten even more its control over the Press, reprinted by permission. Subheadings bourgeoisie. The aim is to lessen internal dis- lion promise being kept, the “Alliance for economy of the country. Domestic credits are by the Militant. content in each Latin American country by Progress” would use this amount to finance will be curtailed, and the economy will be making minor concessions to the people and a number of imperialist enterprises so they brought in line with the interests of the mo- to sacrifice the most backward sections of can develop their activities throughout Latin nopolies. This will happen sooner or later BY ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA society in the interests of the national bour- America, whether acting directly as foreign in every country of Latin America.... Unable to strangle the revolution, the geoisie, on condition that these countries sur- enterprises or as joint ventures, in this way The working people of each Latin Ameri- United States set out to isolate Cuba in or- render their interests completely and re- continuing to take in fabulous profits. can country subjected to this system will day der to make short shrift of it later. The In- nounce their own development. This ten- In all probability the prices of raw mate- by day increase their desire to free them- ter-American Economic and Social Confer- dency found expression in the so-called rial of which the United States is the princi- selves from oppression. From afar, they will ence, held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in Kennedy Plan, which the president himself pal buyer will also keep falling. This pre- see the example of Cuba as well as other has given the pompous title of “Alliance for diction can be safely made since the supply examples, more distant perhaps, even more BOBOOKOKSS Progress.” It was presented as the latest word on the world market of raw materials pro- compelling—the great examples of the so- January BOBOBOOKOKOKSSS in U.S. policy, although in reality it does not duced in Latin America (coffee, cotton, tin, cialist countries and especially the Soviet represent any change whatsoever in the tra- etc.) exceeds the demand. Plus the tendency Union, which took the first step toward the OFOFOF TTTHEHEHE MONTHMONTHMONTH ditional imperialist essence of this policy. is to develop new areas (for instance, cof- liberation of mankind. Quietly and full of It cannot be said, however, that this ten- fee plantations in Africa). wrath, the working people will go forward dency has prevailed completely in U.S. Latin Pathfinder The U.S. monopolies’ profits signify an until some day, some place, the spark will American policy. The U.S. monopolies con- export of dollars abroad. On top of this, the ignite and a new revolutionary flame will Readers Club 25% sider the old method of exploitation the most lowering of the prices of raw materials sig- be lit in the Americas. Forging ahead fate- DISCOUNT SPECIALS reliable one. They know it well and don’t nifies fewer dollars coming in. Therefore fully with the rapid steps of history during find it easy to try “innovations” that pursue there will be a greater or lesser deteriora- this convulsive moment for humanity, that the same ends but seek to dress them up in tion in the balance of payments for nearly day is approaching for all Latin America. Leon Trotsky on China Records the fight to reverse Stalin’s disastrous course of subordinating the Communist Party to an alliance with the capitalist Chinese IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP Nationalist Party during the Chinese revolution of 1925–27. $34.95. Special price: $26.95 Where to find Pathfinder books and Mailing address: P.O. Box 44739. AUSTRALIA distributors of the Militant, Perspectiva Zip: 48244-0739. Tel: (313) 554-0504. Sydney: 1st Flr, 3/281-287 Beamish St., Che Guevara Mundial, New International, Nouvelle E-mail: [email protected] Campsie, NSW 2194. Mailing address: P.O. Speaks Internationale, Nueva Internacional and MINNESOTA: St. Paul: 113 Bernard St., Box K879, Haymarket, NSW 1240. Tel: (02) Ny International. 9718 9698. A collection West St. Paul. Zip: 55118. Tel: (651) 644- 6325. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] of speeches and UNITED STATES writings, including NEBRASKA: Omaha: P.O. Box 7005. 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E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] 12 The Militant January 20, 2003 GREAT SOCIETY Step by step—“A little-noticed Labour Party gov’t can’t stop rooms, master suite with limestone ing and selling primary votes has els of lead in their chocolates. provision in a new federal educa- cops?—“Police more likely to stop floors, etc. For $7.5 million, it in- long been considered both in the This violates a law requiring tion law is requiring high schools and search blacks and Asians”— cludes a circular staircase inside and Likud and its chief opponent, the companies to disclose if their prod- to hand over to military recruiters Headline, the Times, London. a circular drive outside. Labor Party, though political ex- ucts contain ingredients that can perts say it has never been so cause cancer. No comment—“40 new jails Mideast ‘civilizers’—“Israeli open.”—The New York Times, De- needed as courts get tougher.”— army probes slaying of Palestinian cember 19, 2002. Fasten your seat belt, shut your Headline, the Times. London. grandmother”, “Israeli troops kill eyes—“Pilots who take off and land Harry boy, 11, in West Bank,” “9-year-old Fraud of capitalist education— at the Provo, Utah, airport say it’s American Dream?—Phil Gaza girl is latest Mideast vic- At the various football bowl games, busy enough to merit a control Ring McGraw—“Dr. Phil” to his radio tim”—News headlines, December coaches did nicely. The season’s tower. Every day, an average of 402 audience—found himself trans- 29, 30, 2002. salaries were at or near the $1 mil- flights take off and land there. On ferred from Dallas to the Los An- lion mark, with some double that peak days that can be as busy as 60 some key information about its jun- geles area. For starters, he rented a Isn’t stealing cheaper?—“[Is- amount. per hour.”—News item. iors and seniors: name, address and Beverly Hills home for $20,000 a raeli Likud party] central commit- phone number.... School systems month. tee members demanded thousands That’s what makes it addic- Thought for the week—“The that fail to comply could lose fed- But now he and his spouse can of dollars to deliver votes during the tive?—Hershey, Archer-Daniels- problem is that the good Lord didn’t eral money. The measure also ap- unpack. They have an ample home primary at the Sheraton City Tower Midland, and other companies have see it to put oil and gas reserves plies to private schools receiving of their own in Beverly Hills. Hotel, near Tel Aviv, which some been taken to court by environmen- where there are democratic govern- federal funding.”—Ken Maguire, Walled and gated, it includes the Israeli news reports say was flooded talists on the charge that they ex- ments.”—Vice President Richard Associated Press. customary amenities—many bed- with ‘escorts’ [prostitutes].... Buy- pose customers to dangerous lev- Cheney in 1996. Florida garment strikers demand workers’ jobs back BY ERIC SIMPSON But [the boss] said it was for security. One MIAMI—Workers are well into their fifth by one we went out. We did not punch out. month of picket duty as the National Labor They told us to leave fast,” one striker told Relations Board (NLRB) conducts hearings the court. to rule on a charge that the Point Blank Body A few minutes later Isma Sadius was fired Armor company violated the rights of work- and arrested for “breach of the peace.” ers by unfairly interfering in a union orga- Weeks later union supporter Carlos Briceño nizing drive. Workers on strike against Point was fired from his job on the cutting floor. Blank have testified before the administra- tive law judge about company maneuvers ‘They touch one, they touch all’ against the union in the weeks that preceded “At the [August 7] union meeting we dis- their August 9 walkout, which began after cussed the rumor that Point Blank would three union supporters were fired. lay off 50 employees. We decided that we In September the NLRB filed an unfair would not permit them to fire one more labor practices complaint charging that the worker; we would go on strike. We said that company firings were part of a range of acts if they touch one, they touch all,” said of illegal interference against union support- Migdalia Ameneiro when she took the stand. ers, including threats to close the plant and “On the morning of August 9, when we re- denial of overtime to pro-union workers. It alized that they had fired Midho Cadet, we is asking the court to reinstate the three fired went on strike. We are on strike for better unionists. The workers at the clothing plant conditions, better treatment, to demand re- of some 350, located north of Miami in spect and more consideration.” Militant/Eric Simpson Oakland Park, are members of the Union of Company lawyers have attempted to so- Strikers at Point Blank Body Armor in Oakland Park, Florida, rally December 21. Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Em- licit information from workers about the ployees (UNITE). Point Blank is a subsid- August 7 union meeting, such as the names iary of DHB Industries, Inc. of those present. A delegation of strikers also participated which are up 26 percent compared to a year The three victimized unionists testified “Who called the strike?” company law- in a recent Miami march to demand free- ago. Thanks to intensified U.S. war prepa- at the hearings, which began December 2. yer Joan Canny asked Ameneiro. “How dom for 200 Haitian immigrants imprisoned rations, expanding police departments, and The first to be fired was Isma Sadius, whom many people were at the meeting?” The at Krome Detention Center. the largest prison population in the world, workers had chosen to lead a large delega- company tried to subpoena 150 striking Meanwhile, DHB Industries is suffering the market for armored clothing has been tion to present a union petition to the bosses workers to testify. The summonses were a slump in its stock prices, from $8.30 last growing in the United States. Point Blank on July 18. Workers described how he led a revoked by the judge. February, to its current level of about $1.35. manufactures bulletproof vests and police spirited, orderly group to talk to the factory One worker described in detail how man- This despite an increase in gross revenues, riot gear. manager during morning break. agers had tried to enlist her against the union Testifying for the company, Rosa Valdes, by flattery, badgering, and closed-door executive secretary to DHB chief operating meetings. officer Sandra Hatfield, labeled the work- Ameneiro described how her supervisor 25 AND 50 YEARS AGO ers’ delegation as a “riot.” She said she quizzed her on her attitude toward the union. a rebellion in the province of Shaba. And in locked her office door and contacted the When she informed her that she had indeed July Paris announced that it had provided police. She called 911 again for paramed- signed a union card, the supervisor told her “logistical support” to the regime in Chad ics and then called the rent-a-cop agency she was crazy and that “if the union came in its war against Toubou rebels in the north- Vanguard Security. Police and security in the company would close. [She asked ern part of that country. guards arrived wearing bulletproof vests me,] ‘Did I know what the union was all January 20, 1978 after workers had already returned to their about?’ I said I didn’t know, but that in my In scenes reminiscent of their role in pre- jobs . The bosses then “evacuated” the work- country I had worked with the union and it vious colonial struggles, French jet fighters ers. “I saw the police. We were all startled. was good.” Despite the fact that the com- are swooping over the deserts of northern They were very aggressive,” production pany has hired scabs and claims to be oper- Africa in bombing raids against guerrillas coordinator Maria Duque testified. ating at full production, strikers have stood fighting for their country’s independence. “There were policemen at every door and firm. They have reached out for support, ap- On at least two occasions in December, January 19, 1953 at the front of the room. They told us to leave pealing for food and for cash donations for French planes rained napalm and phospho- rapidly. [Union leader] Virginia Salazar pro- their strike fund. A holiday picket line and rous bombs on guerrilla units of the Polisario NEWARK—No court action has been tested that they were violating our rights. celebration took place December 21. Front, a group that is fighting for the inde- taken so far by either side in the Newark pendence of Western Sahara. According to fight over the federal housing “loyalty” oath. Polisario sources, scores of persons have Newark is the first city whose officials have from Pathfinder been killed in the French attacks. actually begun to enforce the new witchhunt Although the French government now measure instituted by a congressional The Changing Face admits that its planes participated in two amendment adopted last July. clashes with Polisario, it denies that it used Originally, the Newark Housing Author- of U.S. Politics napalm or phosphorous bombs. ity gave tenants at the local federal projects Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions However, Polisario was able to present a three-day deadline ending Dec. 26, by several Mauritanian prisoners who survived which they were supposed to sign a state- Jack Barnes the December 14–15 attack to French re- ment certifying that no one in their families A handbook for workers coming into the factories, mines, and belonged to any of the 203 organizations mills, as they react to the uncertain life, turmoil, and brutality of porters. “The planes dived toward us very quickly, dropped their missiles, and arbitrarily included on the so-called “sub- capitalism in the closing years of the twentieth century. It shows versive” list issued by the Attorney General. how millions of workers, as political resistance grows, will revolu- reascended,” one of them explained. “What tionize themselves, their unions, and all of society. kind of missiles? Sometimes a plane re- Apparently the results were not as favor- Also available in Spanish and French. $23.00 leased a liquid, oil I think. Another followed able as the NHA officials expected. On Jan. and fired at the liquid, which burst into 7 they reported that 328 out of the 3,008 flames immediately. Other planes dropped families had failed to comply. Labor’s Giant Step bombs. They exploded on the ground and The American Civil Liberties Union, burned. I think they were napalm.” which will represent some of the non-com- The First Twenty Years of the CIO: 1936–55 Two of the Mauritanian survivors carried plying tenants in a challenge to the oath is Art Preis visible evidence of the kind of bombs used apparently waiting for the housing officials The story of the explosive labor struggles and political battles in by the French: Their arms and backs were to make the first court move. the 1930s that built the industrial unions. And how those unions burned. Among those represented by the ACLU became the vanguard of a mass social movement that began trans- Besides the French bombing raids against will be James Kutcher, legless veteran and forming U.S. society. $26.95 the Saharans, there were two similar cases one of the first victims of the federal “loy- of direct French military intervention in alty” purge in 1948. Kutcher’s father wants Order online at www.pathfinderpress.com. Also available from Africa in 1977. In April, [French president to sign the housing oath but cannot do so bookstores, including those listed on page 12. Please include Valery] Giscard provided pilots and planes because his son is a member of the Social- $3 for shipping and handling. to airlift 1,500 Moroccan troops to Zaire, to ist Workers Party, one of the groups on the help the Mobutu Sese Seko regime put down Attorney General’s list. January 20, 2003 The Militant 13 EDITORIALS New Zealand: Stop INS registrations, arrests! Communist The U.S. government’s “registration” of immigrants from well as attacks on social entitlements. On a political level a list of targeted countries—mostly from the Mideast and the bosses’ government seeks to hamper workers’ ability League hosts South Asia—is not only part of the U.S. rulers’ war prepa- to organize to resist—and they know working-class resis- rations in the Gulf region. Above all, it is part of their of- tance will grow in response to the economic catastrophe. fensive against fundamental rights at home—not simply Many of those denouncing the registration and recent conference against the rights of those most immediately in the mass arrests in Los Angeles correctly draw a parallel to the government’s crosshairs, but of all workers and farmers. more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans, mostly U.S. citi- Continued from Page 11 U.S. residents who are males over the age of 16 and zens, who were hauled off to concentration camps after Australian colonial rule formally ended in 1975, he said, who hail from 20 countries—including Lebanon, Sudan, Washington declared war on Japan in 1941. That brutality “what kind of independence did we get?” He pointed out Iran, Pakistan, and north Korea—have been given dead- went hand-in-hand with the Roosevelt administration’s drive that PNG is very rich in resources and yet the people are lines to be photographed, fingerprinted, and interrogated for “no-strike” pledges in the unions, efforts to hamstring very poor. “We are still controlled by Canberra and its by immigration cops. U.S. officials say, however, that they the emerging Black rights movement, and the jailing of imperialist friends in the International Monetary Fund intend to widen the registration requirement to “track” all union militants and socialists who opposed the imperialist (IMF) and the World Bank,” Embil said, describing how 35 million people living here with temporary resident sta- war. protests in 2001 by thousands of students had been vio- tus from all countries. But why would they stop there? The U.S. concentration camps for Japanese-Americans lently suppressed, with four students shot dead. Setting up this kind of national tracking system coincides were the policy not of a fascist regime but of a “demo- The final speaker on the panel was Diana Newberry, a with moves to establish a national identity card for all cratic” imperialist government. Likewise, the probes member of the SWP National Committee and of the Young U.S. residents. Probes toward such an ID card have be- against workers’ rights today are not those of a rightist Socialists in the United States. Resistance by working gun with requirements by some states that driver’s licenses government, much less a police state, but rather a biparti- people in response to the brutal conditions generated by include a person’s Social Security number. san offensive that has been unfolding for years and that capitalism—from dock workers to coal miners to work- Such moves go hand in hand with other attempts to curb will escalate as the capitalist order declines. ing farmers—is at the heart of the growing opportunities the rights of working people—from indefinitely jailing U.S. The protests that have already taken place against the to build the communist movement worldwide, she said. citizens without charges by labeling them “enemy combat- INS’s actions, from Los Angeles to New York, are an in- Pointing to the importance of the lessons and revolution- ants,” to deporting U.S. permanent residents for having a dication that working people will not be willing to subor- ary continuity contained in the books published by Path- minor conviction on their record from decades ago. dinate their interests to the employers’ calls for sacrifice finder, she said these are “real tools for revolutionists and These attacks are part of the broader war by the capi- of rights and living standards for the “war effort.” By join- fighters everywhere.” talist rulers against working people at home. As their profit ing the ongoing protests against the INS roundups and rates fall and their economy sinks into depression, the rul- deportations, both defenders of the rights of immigrants Socialist summer school ing billionaire families try to take it out on our backs— and other working-class militants will strengthen the cause Rebecca Broad from the Young Socialists in demanding pay cuts, longer work hours, and speedup, as of all working people. Christchurch, who co-chaired the panel, reported that nine YS-age participants attended a meeting earlier that day which discussed the campaigns of the communist move- ment that young socialists could be active in. For example, Oppose threats against north Korea she and another youth will be taking part in socialist sum- mer school classes, while getting a summer job in indus- To justify their policy of aggression, U.S. officials claim stepped-up U.S. actions and threats against north Korea try and participating in political activities together with the government of north Korea poses a nuclear threat. This are real. They include the seizure of a merchant ship in socialist workers. turns reality on its head. It’s true there is a danger of “wea- the Indian Ocean in early December, the withholding of A number of classes were held over the two mornings pons of mass destruction” on the Korean peninsula—but oil to strangle the economy, the criminal use of food as a of the conference. Topics included, “The Jewish Ques- that threat comes from the imperialist government in Wash- weapon, and efforts at diplomatic isolation. tion: why anti-Semitism arises out of the decay of capi- ington, not from north Korea. Millions of people in both In south Korea the acquittal of two U.S. soldiers who ran talism”; “The reactionary history of New Zealand impe- south and north sense that reality. over and killed two girls has sparked a renewed wave of rialism”; “Karl Marx’s Value, Price and Profit: the struggle Through its murderous war in 1950–53, Washington par- outrage at Washington’s trampling on national sovereignty. between capital and labour”; and “Chomsky and the an- titioned the country. For years it propped up dictatorships In the years following World War II the Korean people archist perceptive: an obstacle for the workers’ move- in south Korea. Five decades later, the U.S. rulers enforce dealt big blows to imperialist domination. Capitalist rule ment.” the division of that nation despite the Korean people’s deep was overthrown in the north. In the Korean War, Washing- Attractive large displays prepared by supporters of the aspirations for reunification. Some 37,000 U.S. troops oc- ton was dealt its first major military defeat. The resistance Communist League illustrated the work they carry out as cupy Korean soil in the southern half of the peninsula. Their of the Korean people to U.S. imperialism and their irre- part of an international effort to help produce the books nuclear and “conventional” weapons are aimed at working pressible fight for reunification have strengthened the and pamphlets published by Pathfinder and their efforts people on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone. struggles of working people and the oppressed worldwide. to promote these titles to bookstores and libraries. Today the U.S. rulers are preparing a war of plunder in Working people in the United States have a particular A Pathfinder literature table was a focal point of many the Mideast by targeting Iraq—another country branded obligation to join with the Korean people in demanding an informal discussions over the two days. Altogether as part of an “axis of evil” by the Bush administration. end to U.S. threats and economic sanctions against north NZ$250 worth of books were sold, including a number The imperialist powers’ moves there reinforce their threats Korea, normalization of diplomatic and trade relations be- of copies of Lenin’s Imperialism, several titles in French, against other peoples and countries around the world. tween Washington and Pyongyang, and the withdrawal of and many titles at sale prices picked up by first-time par- While the immediate target of war today is Iraq, the all U.S. troops from the Korean peninsula. ticipants (NZ$1.00=US$0.50). To help finance the work of the communist movement, a six-week fund appeal was launched at the Militant La- bor Forum, where more than NZ$2000 was raised. Midwest tour of Róger Calero Palestinian Continued from Page 8 number of deportable offenses was significantly expanded. nesota, and 20 are jailed in Louisiana. He said they were “A good number of people have been deported for minor about to be deported back to Somalia when a judge in offenses committed many years earlier—cases similar to speaks out Seattle ruled that their deportation was illegal. mine. Many working people in this country have a friend, Jamal announced his organization was starting a “Na- a family member, or a co-worker who has been arrested tional Tour Against Hate.” He plans to go to Seattle, one and who faces deportation by the INS.” of the cities where the Somali community has been under In this context, he said, “the campaign against my de- from INS jail attack by the U.S. government. He will also go to Maine, portation can reinforce other fights. We are seeking to Continued from Page 9 where the mayor in the town of Lewiston wrote an open mobilize the broadest possible forces to stop this deporta- lar situation. Recently, fellow prisoners there have issued letter demanding that Somalis discourage friends and rela- tion. Many organizations and individuals will understand statements in both Arabic and in Urdu denouncing the tives from moving there. A rightist outfit, the World Church that they have a stake in the outcome of this fight and conditions they face. of the Creator, is calling a “national” march of its white other fights against deportations: unions, organizations of Picket lines demanding Abdel-Muhti’s release have supremacist supporters in Lewiston demanding the ex- journalists and writers, Black and Latino rights organiza- been held every Friday at noon at the New York City Fed- pulsion of Somalis from that city. tions, civil liberties groups, student organizations, anti- eral Building at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan (Broad- Calero explained, “I am on tour to join together with war groups, and many more.” way at Worth St.). Those who want to support the defense others who are itching for a fight” against attacks on basic A representative of the Twin Cities Committee to Stop campaign can contact the Committee for the Release of rights such as the cases cited by all the other speakers on the Deportation of Róger Calero urged all those present Farouk Abdel-Muhti, P.O. Box 20587, Tompkins Square the platform. He said he was able to be present that evening to inform others about the defense campaign, to seek more Station, New York, NY 10009; tel: (212) 674-9499; e- thanks to the immediate response from people across the messages to the INS in support of Calero, and to raise mail: [email protected]. The committee is asking country and internationally who had sent messages to the funds to help cover the legal and other costs of the de- defenders of Abdel-Muhti to contact the INS district di- INS in Houston demanding he be released from the immi- fense effort. At the meeting itself, a fund collection brought rector in New Jersey, Andrea Quarantillo, to demand his gration jail there. His case has received broad support be- in almost $600. release: tel: (973) 645-4421, fax: (973) 297-4848. cause “my case is just like so many others,” he noted. In addition to those speaking, the meeting received Letters can be sent to him at: Farouk Abdel-Muhti, Calero pointed to the INS registration of “special many endorsements. These included Mark Nowak, chair #91544, 4G4, Passaic County Jail, 11 Marshall St., Pater- aliens”—immigrants from certain countries targeted by of the Political Action Committee of the National Writers son, NJ 07501. Washington—that led to hundreds of people being arrested Union; August Nimtz of the Minnesota Cuba Committee; in Los Angeles and other cities. In face of an angry pro- Pablo Tapia, a community leader and immigrant rights test by thousands of people against the arrests of those activist; David Riehle, chairperson of United Transporta- who had gone to the INS offices to comply with the law, tion Union Local 650; Gladys McKenzie, business agent U.S. authorities released some of those detained. of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Order revolutionary books “We need to sound the alarm to protest these attacks,” Employees District 6; and Gary Poferl, national business on the Internet! Calero said. He noted that immigrants are not the only agent of the American Postal Workers Union. ones whose rights are under attack today. He pointed out During his tour in this city, Calero met with officials that the U.S. government has already “indefinitely” im- of UFCW Local 789 and visited with some of his former prisoned two U.S. citizens without charges—denying their co-workers at Dakota Premium Foods. He was interviewed pathfinderpress.com constitutional right to due process—by labeling them “un- by two radio stations. lawful combatants.” Local 789 is sponsoring a fund-raiser for Calero’s de- Calero pointed out that under the 1996 Illegal Immi- fense campaign, to be held January 11 at the union hall, gration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the at 266 Hardman in South St. Paul. 14 The Militant January 20, 2003 Dairy farmers in Maine dump milk to protest low prices BY TED LEONARD today there are 249. Thirty years ago there FARMINGTON, Maine—“They work were more than 4,000 dairy farmers in Ver- their whole lives, they go to retire, and they mont, while today there are less than 1,400. are still in debt,” said Konrad Bailey, de- The Dosties, who still owe $1 million on scribing the price and debt squeeze facing the farm they bought five years ago, told his fellow dairy farmers. reporters at the protest they cannot just add On November 9 Bailey led a milk dump more cows to the 270 they milk. “That protest near this town in central Maine. Two should not be the solution. You can only dozen farmers and an equal number of sup- support so many cows with a certain land porters gathered at the farm of Egide and base,” said Egide Dostie. Carrie Dostie while 10,000 pounds of milk Bailey, who also participated in protests were poured into a manure pit. The farmers in 1998 against retailers of milk, said he were protesting the low price they are get- made a leaflet for the November 9 action ting for their product. and passed it out to neighbors and custom- Bailey said he received $12.10 for a hun- ers. Milk truck drivers took some leaflets Dairy farmers in Maine pour milk into manure pit in protest demanding higher prices dredweight (100 pounds) of milk. On aver- when they picked up bulk milk at his farm for their product. Prices paid to farmers have fallen to the lowest levels in 25 years. age a dairy farmer needs to receive about and implement dealers passed them out too. $17 a hundredweight to cover costs. But for At the milk dump Bailey asked rhetori- milk processing giants, Suiza Foods and they get for their bulk milk. a dairy farmer like Bailey, who milks about cally, “Do you want to get paid for your pro- Dean Foods. Dexter Randall, a Vermont dairy farmer, 50 cows, it takes between $23 and $24 a fession or go out slowly one by one? Do we In New England Dean controls 75 per- said in a phone interview that he receives a hundredweight to break even. want to stand up and tell the world we are cent of the milk processed and H.P. Hood little less money from the current program Bailey, 40, an eighth-generation farmer, going broke and processors are getting filthy controls 15 percent. At the end of last year than he did under the Compact. The new has a 450-acre farm. His ancestors were given rich off of us?” Hood and National Dairy Holdings an- farm bill, he explained, “lines the pockets the land on Bailey Hill as payment for fight- nounced they were merging. of agribusiness and gives a little money to ing in the American Revolutionary War. Milk processing monopolies On New England supermarket shelves,the the farmers.” Maine’s top agricultural products are po- A few companies control milk process- price of milk has remained at $2.99 a gal- Randall pointed out that detractors of the tatoes and dairy products, followed by eggs, ing in the United States. The main one is lon while the price farmers receive for their Northeast Compact argued that “it raised the fish, and shellfish farming. Maine ranks sec- Dallas-based Dean Foods, which processes milk has fallen by 50 cents over the last year price the consumer paid for milk, but since ond in New England for milk and livestock 30 percent of the country’s milk. National to $1.15 a gallon. the Compact has expired the price of milk production. Dairy Holdings, also based in Dallas, is the Subsidies from the 2002 Farm Bill, which in the stores has not come down.” Following the protest Bailey made a deci- second-largest milk processor, accounting replaced the expired Northeast Dairy Com- sion to sell half his herd. “For me producing for 7 percent. National Dairy Holdings was pact, a regional subsidy program, provides Ted Leonard works in a meatpacking plant bulk milk is a loss,” he said. Half the milk he founded in 2001 with spinoffs ordered by small dairy owners with 45 percent of the in the Boston area. Maggie Trowe, a gar- now produces is processed on the farm into regulators from the merger that year of the difference between their costs and the price ment worker, contributed to this article. butter and milk and sold to neighbors and others through his small home-delivery dairy. The other half is sold as bulk milk. Bailey grows hay and corn, and also sells Calero meets workers and farmers in Iowa wood from his land to make ends meet. Continued from Page 8 States or abroad. any danger. Calero explained that by fight- Earlier in 2002 Bailey sold six acres of in, some attacking and some supporting One worker asked if the INS had arrested ing back workers have a chance of winning land to buy a used tractor rather than add to Calero’s right to remain in this country. Calero because of his trip to Cuba and the and that a victory in his case would the $120,000 in debt he carries. Calero also went to Perry, Iowa, where fact that he writes for Perspectiva Mundial, strengthen the fight to defend the rights of Other farmers in the area are doing the he visited with Jim Oleson, president of a socialist magazine. Calero replied that he all. All those present at the meeting signed same. Donald and Jill Gage, who have been United Food and Commercial Workers was flagged by the INS like many other the petition, and agreed to help publicize on a farm in New Sharon, Maine, that has (UFCW) Local 1149. Calero had been a immigrants returning from trips abroad, and the case and give money to the defense ef- been in their family since the 1950s, sold member of this local when he worked at the that it was not until later that the INS found fort. two tractors the week before the milk dump IBP plant in Perry a couple of years ago. out who he was. On New Year’s eve, Calero went to a because they could not afford to keep them. Oleson warmly welcomed him and gave ex- The fact that the INS is seeking to ex- Kwanzaa celebration in Des Moines. There Bailey explained that in his town there amples of how workers there were being clude Calero—a permanent resident—on he met with activists in the Black commu- were about 40 farmers in the 1970s, while harassed by both the company and the gov- the basis of a 1988 conviction of selling an nity who indicated they wanted to spread today there are only 10. Statewide there are ernment. He said the union defends work- ounce of marijuana to an undercover cop the word about the defense campaign fewer than 500 dairy farmers, down from ers regardless of their immigration status. while he was in high school, is similar to through their e-mail lists and to send letters 5,100 in 1945. Farmers today produce more That evening, Calero met at the Perry what thousands of others are facing in this of protest to the INS. than three times as much milk, with one public library with seven workers from the country today, he pointed out. While locked At a New Year’s party in Des Moines, tenth the number of farms. IBP plant. The meeting had been publicized up he began interviewing other prisoners in supporters of Calero from Omaha, Ne- Neighboring Massachusetts and Vermont by supporters leafleting workers at the plant the INS jail—many of whom had stories braska, reported that they were winning are no different. A decade ago there were and through two articles on the case pub- similar to his—and filing the articles with broader support for the case there and were about 400 dairy farmers in Massachusetts; lished in the local Spanish-language weekly Perspectiva Mundial and the Militant. building a public meeting in that city sched- El Enfoque. Another worker at the meeting asked how uled for January 8. Calero spoke in English and Spanish, supporting the case would help other immi- highlighting the importance of his case for grants, and whether signing the petition Edwin Fruit is a member of UFCW Lo- MILITANT working people, whether born in the United opposing his deportation would put them in cal 1149. LABOR FORUMS LETTERS NEW JERSEY Protest in Koreatown ran in the December 30 Book of the Month lice and the courts, has been picked up by Chanting “Justice Now!” in Korean, sev- columns? Anyone wanting to read the en- at least 15 other town councils, and other Newark eral dozen demonstrators gathered in Los tire article would have quite a difficult time such “affirmations” are pending in 40 mu- Oppose the U.S. War Drive in the Middle East. Angeles’ Koreatown on New Year’s Eve to locating it in the book, which is a collection nicipalities in 24 states. Speaker: Patrick O’Neill, Socialist Workers Party. of scores of Trotsky’s letters, articles, and A photo accompanies the article. In it, a Fri., Jan. 10. Program, 7:30 p.m.; dinner, 6:30 “Protest U.S. Army Killing of Two Korean p.m. 168 Bloomfield Ave., 2nd floor. Donation: Schoolgirls!” The action was held in soli- interviews from 1936-37. banner is displayed with the slogan “Dis- program $5, dinner $5. Tel: (973) 481-0077. darity with actions in several other cities and Jim Altenberg sent is Patriotic.” Patriotic to what manner a demonstration of 100,000 in Seoul (South Oakland, California of class rule? That is a question Hentoff’s NEW YORK Korea’s capital) a week earlier. The protest article deliberately sidesteps. Spokesmen for focused on the “insincere and indirect apol- [Editor’s note: The article, titled “On the class collaboration such as Hentoff promote Garment District ogy by President Bush” and the late Novem- Threshold of a New World War,” appears a dangerous lie. They suggest that the The Growing Movement in Korea for Reuni- ber acquittal of the two GIs who had run on pages 438-457 of Writings of Leon broadside attack on civil liberties (and fication. Behind the U.S. Policy of Aggression over two teenage Korean schoolgirls, fatally Trotsky, 1936–37.] what’s left out: workers’ rights) intended by Against North Korea. Speaker: Dan Fein, So- the USA Patriot Act can be fought using the cialist Workers Party. Fri., Jan. 10. Program, 7:30 crushing them with their armored vehicle. p.m.; dinner, 6:30 p.m. 545 8th Ave., 14th floor. The incident occurred on June 13 as the U.S. On ‘patriotic dissent’ cops, courts, and agencies pledged to de- Donation: program $5, dinner $5. Tel: (212) 695- military was participating in massive mili- Thank you for the response by Maurice fend capitalist rule, wrapped in the 7358. tary exercises on civilian roads. Rally pub- Williams to the letter by Chuck Cairns in bloodsoaked flag of U.S. imperialism. They licity materials demanded “immediate with- the December 16, 2002, Militant. It reintro- would have us re-learn the lessons that drawal of the 37,000 U.S. troops occupy- duces history to politics as a way of avoid- should have been more than adequately ing the Korean Peninsula.” Almost all speak- ing costly errors. drawn from events leading up to the forma- CALENDAR ers urged participation in protests against A concrete illustration of the point Will- tion of the Weimar Republic. NEW YORK the U.S. war drive against Iraq scheduled to iams makes comes in the form of a column Toba Singer take place in Los Angeles on January 11 and by Nat Hentoff in the Nov. 29, 2002, Vil- San Francisco, California Manhattan in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., on lage Voice. In his column, headlined, “The Urgent Call to Action: January 13 Protest January 18. New American Freedom Fighters: Organiz- The letters column is an open forum for Navy Bombing Practice in Vieques! All out Barry Schier ing Against General Ashcroft,” Hentoff all viewpoints on subjects of interest to January 13 at 4:30 p.m., Times Square to protest the U.S. Navy’s announced resumption of bomb- Los Angeles, California lauds the development of the Northampton working people. ing practices in Vieques, Puerto Rico. For more [Massachusetts] Bill of Rights Committee. Please keep your letters brief. Where information contact the Vieques Support Cam- Useful article by Trotsky The committee’s ACLU-inspired popular necessary they will be abridged. Please paign at (212) 677-0619 or (212) 601-4751 or Could you please print the name of the initiative to affirm the Bill of Rights, backed indicate if you prefer that your initials by e-mail at [email protected]. very useful article by Leon Trotsky that you up by “law enforcement,” including the po- be used rather than your full name. January 20, 2003 The Militant 15 Cop brutality sparks revolt in E. Timor BY BOB AIKEN donesian government agreed to hand over SYDNEY—An incident of police bru- East Timor to a UN administration follow- tality against students and teachers at a ing the 1999 referendum. This imperial- high school in Dili, the capital of East ist intervention was supported almost uni- Timor, sparked a social explosion in that versally by the different political forces city December 3–4. The government re- in the independence movement. Portu- lied on hundreds of Portuguese, Japanese, guese imperialism, one of the occupying Australian, and other foreign troops, sta- forces, had long posed as a defender of tioned in East Timor under the United the East Timorese struggle against Indo- Nations banner since that nation gained nesian rule with the aim of reestablishing independence from Indonesia in 1999, to its influence there. try to suppress the rebellion. The eruption Throughout 1999 the Indonesian mili- of protests drew attention to the critical tary carried out a brutal assault on the in- social conditions facing workers and farm- dependence struggle in East Timor in the ers there. hope of blocking a pro-independence vote, Protests began December 3 immedi- while the independence movement in- ately after cops from the hated Special creasingly demobilized in favor of UN in- Police Unit went into a school and seized tervention, including acceptance of the im- a student whom they accused of being in- perialist demand for “cantonment” of its volved in a stabbing incident. The cops guerrilla fighters. cuffed him by one hand then, over the pro- The repression by the Indonesian mili- tests of his teacher and other students, tary culminated in a “scorched earth” ram- threw the chain over a bar and hoisted him page following the August 1999 referen- painfully off the ground. The teacher and dum. According to UN estimates, more several students were also beaten. Angry than 1,000 people were killed, 70 percent students hit the streets in protest. of the country’s infrastructure was de- “The police were uncontrolled,” said Australian troops in Dili, East Timor, harass East Timorese during alleged search for weap- stroyed, and around 250,000 of the popu- Jose Agustino, the deputy director of the ons in October 1999. Brutality by hated cop force sparked revolt in Dili in December 2002. lation of 800,000 were corralled into refu- Student Solidarity Council. “We reject that Government relied on imperialist-led occupation forces to try to suppress the rebellion. gee camps in Indonesian West Timor. kind of attitude.” An Australian-led intervention force The following morning about 500 high in particular for its rapid response, which Gusmao, a central leader of East Timor’s landed in East Timor in September 1999 as school and university students as well as he lauded for “saving the situation” Decem- national liberation struggle since the early the Indonesian military withdrew, and im- others gathered outside the national parlia- ber 4. An overnight curfew was imposed, 1980s, won over 80 percent of the vote. posed the UN occupation. Among the mea- ment in Dili, and then marched on the po- and high schools and the university campus The December 3–5 struggles are the sures adopted during this occupation, with lice headquarters two blocks away, to de- shut for two days, as the imperialist-led sharpest expressions of social tension to date the support of the East Timorese leaders in- mand the arrested youth’s release. East troops threw up roadblocks and guarded key as the East Timorese people confront the corporated into its leading councils, were Timorese police fired on the crowd, which buildings. Around 80 people were reported tasks of building a new nation saddled with the adoption of the U.S. dollar as the na- had swelled to 1,000, hitting 18 people. arrested, mainly on charges of “looting,” imperialist domination and a legacy of co- tional currency and the adoption of Portu- Honorio Ximenes, 14, was killed instantly. with 10 held beyond the legal 72-hour Manuel da Silva, 18, died in hospital the period for awaiting court appearances. A following day. small student protest was reportedly dis- Numerous buildings, including the na- persed on December 5. tional parliament, were reported attacked in the ensuing upsurge of protests. A number Imperialist occupation force of Australian-owned businesses such as the An Australian-led military interven- ANZ Bank, the Hello Mister supermarket, tion began in East Timor under the UN and Chubb security were gutted. New flag in 1999. Today a foreign force of Zealand-owned businesses were also at- 4,500 troops, 750 police and 460 advi- tacked. sors and staff remains deployed there. Three houses owned by the family of East The imperialist government of Australia Timor’s Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, were provides the largest contingent, with burned, including the Prime Minister’s resi- 1,100 soldiers along with 55 federal and dence, as well as a house leased to an ANZ state cops. Bank manager. A Dili mosque was also at- The UN administration imposed by the tacked that day, with eight houses in its com- 1999 intervention handed government pound burned. authority over to the Alkatiri administra- Hundreds of foreign troops and police tion at independence celebrations on May lonial pillage. guese, spoken by only 5 percent of the popu- stationed in East Timor under the auspices 20. Fretilin (Revolutionary Front of Inde- East Timor, a semicolonial nation of lation, as the national language along with of the United Nations Mission in Support pendent East Timor), led by Alkatiri, had 800,000 inhabitants located east of Indone- Tetum, East Timor’s lingua franca. Indone- of East Timor were deployed to quell the won 57 percent of the vote in August 2001 sia, is one of the most impoverished coun- sian and English are recognized as “work- rebellion. Foreign Minister Jose Ramos elections to a Constituent Assembly. In tries in the world. The big majority of the ing languages.” Hundreds of millions of Horta thanked the Portuguese government presidential elections held last April, Xanana population lives in the countryside as sub- dollars pledged in “aid” to the new country sistence farmers. Paid employment is ex- is being held in trust funds by the World tremely scarce, with estimates of unemploy- Bank and International Monetary Fund. ment ranging from 65 percent to 90 percent. Steelworkers outlast AK Steel in Ohio Portugal was the colonial power in East Cops from colonial regime Timor for several centuries, until a new, One of the sharpest controversies in East as bosses end three-year lockout popular, government led by Fretilin declared Timor has been the incorporation into the independence in 1975. At the end of that new police force of a number of cops from BY MIKE FITZSIMMONS According to the Middletown Journal in year, with the backing of the U.S. and Aus- the time of the Indonesian occupation re- MANSFIELD, Ohio—Members and sup- Middletown, Ohio, site of company head- tralian governments, Indonesia’s Suharto gime, including current police chief Paulo porters of United Steelworkers of America quarters, the employer agreed to end the dictatorship invaded East Timor and im- Martins. While former pro-independence Local 169 are celebrating their success in lockout when the United Steelworkers of posed an occupation regime, but was un- guerrilla fighters were also selected for the outlasting the bosses at AK Steel Corp., who America (USWA) officials informed the able to break Timorese resistance to its bru- new police and armed forces established by on December 10 announced the end of their company that they had agreed to “certain tal rule. the UN administration, many demobilized 39-month lockout and the recall of workers items that were in dispute.” Details of a new After Suharto was forced to resign in resistance fighters remain unemployed and at the company’s Mansfield Works. A few contract between the union and the company 1998 in face of massive protests by Indone- face abysmal living conditions. days after the announcement, the unionists are still being negotiated. sian students, workers and peasants against Organizations of these veterans have gathered to congratulate each other for their No USWA member crossed the picket the U.S.-backed regime, an upsurge in the staged several large protests in recent resistance as they exchanged gifts, dona- lines during the three-year lockout, and the Timorese independence struggle forced the months, including a November 28 action of tions, and messages of solidarity. plant has been run by scabs recruited by a Indonesian government to concede a refer- 3,000 in Dili—a city of 100,000—and a No- Tim Risinger, one of the 29 union mem- union-busting company hired by AK Steel endum in that colony. In the referendum, vember 26 demonstration in Baucau, east bers fired during the lockout, said, “This prior to the lockout. The replacement work- held in August 1999 under UN sponsorship, of Dili, where cops killed one protester. shows we were right. AK wanted to get rid ers will be terminated as union members are almost 80 percent of the Timorese voted to “We have had reports of [police] violence of the union, and it failed.” called back and trained in what is now “a reject autonomy within Indonesia, instead against the prisoners” arrested in Dili, Jose Mike Ernsberger, coordinator of the different plant,” according to AK spokes- favoring independence. Luis Oliveira, of the East Timor-based As- union’s food bank, pointed to the donations man Alan McCoy, “one owned by a com- The Australian and other imperialist pow- sociation for Law, Human Rights, and Jus- that made possible the distribution of 700 pany with its own safety mindset and unique ers feared that the deepening East Timorese tice, told the Melbourne Age. He explained tons of food to families of locked-out steel- productivity and quality regimens.” mobilizations for self-determination in 1998 that the police had refused to allow a repre- workers in the course of the fight. Michele Ray Delarwelle, one of the fired union- would further destabilize Indonesia. They sentative of the association to visit the pris- Laghetto, who chaired the meeting, intro- ists, said, “I expect all of us terminated union decided to reverse their policy of backing oners. duced the several members of the organiza- members to eventually return to work. We Indonesian rule over the territory in favor of “Our police are ignorant on human rights tion Women of Steel from the town of have mixed feelings about the possible attempting to place their own stamp on East and are repeating what the Indonesians did,” Mansfield and throughout the region who agreement. While on the one hand we can’t Timor’s development, while maintaining Oliveira said, adding that the association had actively organized solidarity in their trust the company, on the other hand we’re good relations with the Indonesian rulers. sees the United Nations as having final re- respective union locals and districts. definitely stronger going back together.” Under pressure from Washington, the In- sponsibility. “It was they who trained them.”

16 The Militant January 20, 2003