.....;.,""'..,.... _··...',,~.L....',. ~..··,,_."',··.'-'·.. 6 25¢ WfJ/iNI/iS ',1"'0,111'"~~X'523 No. 423 6 March 1987 a er a e- ea an a e The American ruling class has con­ cluded that Ronald Reagan may contin­ ue to reign as president, but he can no longer rule. The Tower Commission, Imperial Presidency in Crisis originally appointed to "investigate" the operations of a runaway National Security Council, came back with a damning report that in diplomatic language indicted the entire administra­ tion. "Chaos" had descended on the White House, the president "didn't understand" what was going on in the Iran/contra affair, the "legal underpin­ ning" for the arms shipments to Teheran via Israel was "at best highly question­ able," and,the whole "private" contra supply operation run out of the NSC was an elaborate attempt to get around a Congressional prohibition. Above all, the Reaganauts' schemes, each more bizarre than the next, failed miserably. The Commission ludicrously called the whole business an "aberration." But all wings of the bourgeoisie agree that drastic measures have to be taken to clean up the mess. The United States, which proclaims itself leader of the "Free World," has been made a laughingstock, and ever since the scandal broke, paralysis has set Actualidad Espanola in. European imperialist allies refer to Tricky Dick run out of town. the "black hole in Washington." Under Now it's bedtime for Bonzo. the headline "Wanted: a Leader," the Los Angeles Times (13 February) "appalled by the absence of the kind of itself, and there are other programs to mobs in Howard Beach, Queens and editorialized on behalf of the American alertness and vigilance to his job and to "solve" the crisis. General Haig has Forsyth County, Georgia to night­ bourgeois establishment:, "Someone these policies that one expects of a declared his candidacy for president, riding firebombers in Marquette Park, needs to seize control of the White president." Muskie's devastating con­ saying if he is elected, "nobody, but Chicago. But there have also been House, and there isjust one person who clusion: "We do not regard him as a nobody, will ever ask you who is in substantial countermobilizations to can do it: Ronald Reagan." But Reagan mental case, but we regard him as a charge" in the White House (Philadel­ KKK terror, including in such unlikely evidently can't, and that puts U.S. rulers person who didn't do his job." phia Inquirer, I March)! And while places as Louisville, Kentucky and in a dilemma. On CBS' Face the Nation There is an acute political crisis at the Reagan's contras are still spreading Maryland's Eastern Shore. With the news program, former Democratic pinnacle of U.S. capitalism, which could death and destruction around the globe, government in turmoil, now is the time Senator Edmund Muskie spoke for all quickly spread-through the imperialist the racist terrorists carry out their for the working class and oppressed to • three panel members, saying they, were alliance. Yet capitalism will not fall by bloody terror at 'home-from lynch . continued on page 4 On the night of February 18,Tampa police strangled the life out of 23-year­ old Melvin Hair, making him the latest black victim of the wave of racist Black Outrage Over Klan/cop terror sweeping Reagan's America. A day later, black East Tampa exploded, outraged over the choke-hold murder and a city report released that same day whitewashing the Tampa cops' brutal beating of New Tampa Choke-Hold Cops York Mets star pitcher and hometown hero Dwight Gooden. Hundreds of black youth fought a running battle with police, hurling rocks and bottles. 'filled with gasoline as numerous fires were set. Cops in riot gear sealed off a .. five-block area of East Tampa and police helicopters circled overhead. The next night, black Tampa was still burning. Fourteen blacks were arrest­ ed on charges ranging from looting to assault. Melvin, Hair's mother had called police to take her son to the crisis center of Hillsborough County, be­ cause her son required medication. Police' arrived and dragged him down Ledford/51. Petersburg Times' the steps of his apartment building. East Tampa burns with black anger against killer cops' murder of black youth, Betty Johnson, a friend of the family assault on NY Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden (right). continued on page 10 revolution in America's "backyard." Most recently raids by immigration Full Citizenshil! Rights for Foreign-Born Workers! cops on the homes of Tamil refugees in Toronto have driven home the link between the racism and anti­ communism which is the heart of the Canada Slams Door on Salvadorans "illegal aliens" scare. After their apart­ ments were ransacked Tamils were TORONTO-On February 20, hun­ would not deport refugees seeking asy­ detention centers. All refugees will be warned by immigration officers, "As dreds of desperate Latin Americans, lum in Canada, but American INS deported if immigration officials con­ refugees you should not read com­ refugees from death squad terror in EI Commissioner Alan Nelson declared sider that they "may have had an munist books"(Canadian Tribune, 2 Salvador and Guatemala who are now that individuals "found to be deport­ opportunity" for asylum in another March). fleeing the U.S. government's racist able" would be processed accordingly. country or even if they "had safe refuge Scandalously, last summer it was crackdown on "illegal-aliens," found the At the same time Bouchard has de- in a refugee camp in some Third World Ed Broadbent, leader of the social­ Canadian border closed by the decree of country" ([Toronto] Globe andMail, 21 democratic New Democratic Party, Reagan's junior partners in Ottawa. February). who demanded a "tougher look at all Following approval by the U.S. Con­ Some critics have sought to portray our immigration procedures" to prevent gress last October of the Simpson­ Canada's new immigration decrees as a "abuse" by "quick buck artists." And the Mazzoli immigration "reform" act, departure from its "humanitarian past." Tory government's racist crackdown aimed at deporting several million On the contrary, up until the I960s against Latin American refugees is not undocumented foreign-born workers, Canada had a virtual whites-only going down very well with the public. thousands have looked to Canada as immigration'policy. During World War Demonstrations were held at the Fort their last resort. Facing impossible U.S. II they sealed the borders to Jews Erie "Peace Bridge" border and Mon­ requirements for documents, fired by .desperately trying to flee Hitler's con­ treal churches have provided shelter and slave-labor employers who have been centration camps. But after the war the advice to refugees in defiance of the legal threatened with stiff fines for hiring doors were opened to thousands of Nazi .consequences. There has even been talk "illegals" and looking at the death· executioners.' Last summer, 155 Tamil of extending the U.S. sanctuary move­ sentence of being shipped back home, . refugees, fleeing the terror of Sri Lanka ment's "underground railway" network they have been heading to the Canadian and virtual concentration camp coridi­ north to Canada. El Norte. Since the beginning of the year tions in West Germany, risked their lives At the height of the anti-Tamil hys­ over 6,000 people have applied for in a three-week nightmare voyage to get teria last August, the.Trotskyist League refugee status in Canada, close to half of asylum in Ganada. Reaching Canadian of Canada distributed thousands of them from Central America. In re­ shores after being rescued from over­ special supplements of Spartacist Cana­ sponse the Conservative government in crowded lifeboats by Newfoundland da, headlined "Stop the Racist Back­ Ottawa rushed through legislation fishermen, they were met with a racist lash! Political Asylum for All Tamil denying entry. backlash whipped up by the bourgeois Refugees!" at plant gates, in minority Under the new measures all refugee WV Photo media and politicians. neighborhoods and to unionists at claimants coming from the U:S. will be Spartacists in Los Angeles demon­ A reporter from Ottawa commented: Labor Day marches. Fighting the racist strate against racist deportations. sent back until an immigration hearing "There is a suspicion that the [Canadi­ immigration policies of the imperialists is scheduled in Canada. That could take manded documentary proof that all an] government's swift reaction tq the means building a proletarian interna­ months, if not years, and meanwhile refugees are "genuine"-i.e., that they refugee problem, now that it involves tionalist party of world socialist revolu­ hundreds of these "bus people" are will be killed if deported.: Central Americans, reflects an effort tion to free working people and the backed up in U.S. border towns' such as In March, the government plans to to please the Reagan administration" oppressed, from EI Salvador to Sri Plattsburgh, NY. The Tory Employ­ introduce a bill that will limit the stay of (WBAI News, 23 February). The cam­ Lanka to North America. It is to this ment and Immigration Minister Benoit refugee claimants in Canadato 72hours paign against Latin American im­ task that the international Spartacist Bouchard claimed that Washington duting which time they willbe held in migration is closely linked to the fear of tendency is dedicated.• _____Letter Celebrate International Women's Day! How ILA Backed Down Jim Crow Seventy years ago, on International Oakland, CA After we were denied service, we Women's Day, 8 March 1917, the women 1/6/87 organized several hundred demonstra­ textile workers of Petrograd led a dem­ Dear comrades, tors and picketed the restaurant daily. onstration of90,000 that signaled the end And each day a larger mob of racists of 300 years of tsarist autocracy ani WV's recent article on the Inter­ surrounded us, spitting, shoving and the beginning of the Russian Revolution.