------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 INSIDE New, expanded edition of 'Malcolm X Talks to Young People' THE -PAGES8-9 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 66/NO. 46 DECEMBER 9, 2002 UK firefighters strike as U.S., British planes starl gov't torpedoes pay deal daily raids Labour prime minister mobilizes troops as strikebreakers against Iraq BY CAROL BALL GLASGOW-More than 1,000 BY BRIAN WILLIAMS firefighters rallied in Glasgow's St. Enoch In the last half of November Washington Square November 23, demonstrating their and London have increased the pace of their determination to resist government attacks bombings of Iraq from weekly to almost and press home their case for a wage raise daily. The stepped-up attacks on defense and that would defend their living standards. communications facilities occur as foreign The unionists have pushed ahead with "weapons inspectors" have begun operations their campaign of rolling strikes, pickets, on Iraqi territory. The "inspections" are de­ and rallies in face of the government's mo­ signed to provide a justification, under United bilization of almost 19,000 troops. The sol­ Nations cover, for launching the invasion that diers operate as strikebreakers alongside po­ Washington has been marching toward. lice now using modem red fire engines as On November 22 U.S. and British aircraft well as the aging "Green Goddess" fire fired at a communications facility near AI trucks. Amarah, 165 miles southeast of Baghdad, The Glasgow rally came on day two of in the sixth day of bombardments in a week. an eight-day strike by more than 50,000 The attacks take place in the southern re­ firefighters across the United Kingdom, the gion of the country, where since the 1990- second stoppage in the current campaign of 91 Gulfwar, Washington-together with its industrial action by the Fire Brigades Union junior British partner-has declared its pre­ (FBU). The union plans two further eight­ rogative to control Iraqi airspace, barring day strikes in the weeks leading up to the flights by Iraqi military aircraft and bomb­ Christmas holiday. ing any defense facility it sees fit. Imperial­ Firefighters from all over Scotland-from ist forces have imposed a similar "no-fly" Highlands and Islands and Grampian in the Firefighters rally in Glasgow, Scotland, during second strike. The unionists oppose moves zone in the northern region of Iraq. north, to Dumfries and Galloway in the that would lead to cuts in jobs and firefighting services, and are demanding a raise. The Iraqi News Agency reported that the south-joined the rally. A number of work­ aircraft flew 59 sorties, dropping their ord­ ers brought banners. Throughout the day, from Pollock in Glasgow. "The more we're ment in stepping in at the last minute to nance on civilian and service facilities. As every fire station was simultaneously pick­ mucked about, the stronger we get," said scuttle a deal reached between union offi­ usual, the U.S. Central Command claimed eted by other members of the 6,839-strong David Bennett. The 18-year firefighter from cials and the Local GovemmentAssociation the assault was in self-defense, asserting it FBU in Scotland. the Crewe Toll station in Edinburgh was re­ (LOA) employers just a few hours before Continued on Page 2 "We're digging in," said a participant ferring to the action by the Labour govern- Continued on Page 11 In New England, revolutionary leader Bosses stiff speaks on truth about Cuba and Africa retirees as BY MAGGIE TROWE Dreke's honor, attended by two dozen pro­ from Casa Latina greeted the Cuban guests. pension fund BOSTON-More than 250 people came fessors and students. In welcoming Dreke, Prou explained that to hear Victor Dreke, a longtime leader of Prof. Robert Johnson, chair of the at the nearby John F. Kennedy Library, the and internationalist Africana Studies Department, welcomed the which holds the former president's papers, combatant, during a two-day visit to this audience and introduced fellow Africana "we hear voices from the U.S. point of view. losses mount area. Speaking on "Cuba and Africa: From Studies professor Marc Prou, who moder­ This time we have voices from Cuba." BY MAURICE WILLIAMS 1959 to Today," he addressed audiences at ated the event. Riche Zamor Jr., head of the Prou spoke about Dreke 's record of revo­ In recent months a number of state pen­ the University of Massachusetts in Boston Black Student Center, and Maria Moreno Continued on Page 6 sion funds and some of the largest U.S. cor­ and at Brown University in Providence, porations have reported underfunded pen­ Rhode Island, as well as several other gath­ sion programs and massive losses due to erings. Ana Morales, a doctor who has led falling stock prices. Like a slow-moving several Cuban medical missions in Africa, Police in Argentina storm occupied hurricane, the losses have demolished the joined him on the platforms. retirement savings ofhundreds of thousands The University of Massachusetts (UMB) garment plant, workers take it back of workers and large sections of the middle meeting was sponsored by a broad range of class over the past couple of years. faculty and students-the Africana Studies BY MARTIN KOPPEL Within an hour, hundreds of people from State governments and companies have Department, the College of Public and Com­ Early on Sunday, November 24, more around the city-other workers and mem­ speculated in the stock market with em­ munity Service, Students Arts and Events than 200 heavily armed cops stormed the bers of the unemployed organizations, popu­ ployees' pension funds, at a time when Council, Trotter Institute, Black Student Brukman sewing factory in Buenos Aires, lar assemblies, and radical political parties the markets have suffered their deepest Center, Casa Latina, and the Feminist Ma­ which has been occupied by some 50 work­ in the workers movement-had responded Continued on Page 5 jority, as well as the July 26 Coalition, a ers for the past 11 months. Arriving with a to an appeal for help and poured into the Cuba solidarity organization in Boston. court order to evict the occupants, they ar­ street in front of the plant, denouncing the Prior to the meeting, the Black Student rested six workers on guard duty and a nine­ cop action. Later that morning, the same Center hosted a lunch and reception in year-old girl, the daughter of a worker. judge who had issued the eviction notice Also Inside ordered the cops to withdraw. Chanting Students in Iran protest cop "Brukman belongs to the workers," the gar­ ment workers re-occupied the building and attacks; government weakens 3 At Havana meeting, youth discuss by the next day had resumed production. Brukman remains a focal point oflabor re­ U.S., French imperialists battle 's revolutionary ideas sistance in Argentina. In July this reporter in­ to pillage Ivory Coast cocoa 4 terviewed workers at the plant who described BY ROGER CALERO ing place here as part of an international how in December 2001 the sewers, mostly 'Homeland security' law HAVANA-A seminar to discuss the rel­ meeting to discuss opposition to the Free women, occupied the plant to oppose the Trade Area of the Americas (see accompa­ accelerates gov't spying on evance of the ideas of communist leader bosses'plans to close the facility and lay them private records of millions 4 Ernesto Che Guevara for youth today took nying article). The participants were wel­ off, and to demand payment of back wages. place here November 23. More than 70 comed by Juan Carlos Marsan, secretary for In face of the employers' bankruptcy Papua New Guinea students, international relations for the UJC. young Cuban leaders met along with inter­ claims, the workers are demanding the Ar­ workers protest cop brutality national guests from student and youth or­ The meeting was addressed by Aleida gentine government take over the factory to and attacks on land rights 10 ganizations in Australia, Costa Rica, Guevara, from the Center for the Study of guarantee their jobs and wages. They have Canada, El Salvador, and the United States. Che and daughter of the revolutionary been running the plant themselves, produc­ 1975 N.Y. 'budget crisis,' The Union ofYoung Communists (UJC) leader; Brig. Gen. Harry Villegas, a com­ ing high-quality men's suits. Large banners of Cuba sponsored the event, held at the batant of the Cuban Revolution who fought draped over the front of the six-story build­ like today's, was excuse to UJC's Julio Antonio Mella leadership alongside Guevara in Cuba's revolutionary ing declare, "Jobs for all: not one more un- attack pensions, services 13 school. It was one of several activities tak- Continued on Page 15 Continued on Page 5 U.S., UK planes now bomb Iraq almost daily Continued from front page immediate compliance" with this demand. was in response to Iraq's movement of mo­ They also approved a U.S. proposal to bile radar equipment into the "no-fly" zone. establish, over the next four years, a NATO Truckers in France block roads Over the preceding days, U.S. planes rapid reaction force with the ability to bombed eight different targets. Twelve swiftly intervene around the world. planes dropped 20 bombs on three separate The NATO representatives stopped short in fight for pay and pensions communications facilities used by the Iraqi of endorsing military action against Iraq Integrated Air Defense network. These in­ because of opposition expressed by Berlin. cluded targets near Ash Shuaybah, south­ While maintaining a general position that east of the capital city of Baghdad. its forces will not take part in military ac­ tion against Iraq, the German government­ 'Inspectors' begin provocations a coalition of the Social Democrats and The UN "inspection" operation has been Greens-has made clear it will intervene organized to provide a ready-made justifi­ under certain conditions, for example, if cation for launching a U.S.-led military at­ Iraqi forces undertake action against U.S. tack on Iraq in the name of carrying out a military bases in Kuwait, where German U.S.-crafted UN resolution. The "inspec­ troops are also stationed. Under current trea­ tors" have declared their intention of enter­ ties, Berlin will also allow Washington to ing any site at any time. On the list of tar­ use bases there for an assault on Iraq. gets are a wide variety of industrial plants, agricultural sites, medical laboratories, re­ Military buildup search centers, and government offices. One In addition to 10,000 U.S. soldiers in Ku­ way of targeting industrial plants as a source wait, there are another 2,000 to 3,000 in of"weapons of mass destruction" is by call­ Qatar-where the U.S. military command is ing them "dual-use" facilities. For example, based-and 2,000 in Oman, which is pro­ any fertilizer plant could be deemed a source viding use of a major air base. The Pentagon of "biological weapons." also maintains 4,000 troops in Saudi Arabia In a November 15 interview with the involved in the air raids in southern Iraq, as French daily Le Monde, chief inspector well as 2,500 to 3,000 in Bahrain, where the Hans Blix, a Swedish official, said that even U.S. Navy's regional headquarters is located. a delay of 30 minutes in granting the in­ "What you are talking about is basically Truck drivers blockade highway in southwestern France November 25 as part of spection agents access to any site would be a rolling start," said a Pentagon official in a wave of actions that tied up roads across the country. Truckers are demanding considered a "violation." describing Washington's plans to rapidly a shorter workweek, wage increases, bonus pay, and early retirement. Threaten­ The Iraqi government is supposed to sub­ boost U.S. troop strength to about 250,000 ing strikebreaking action, French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin stated mit by December 8 a list of all its weapons within 30 days after the president gives the that the drivers have "no right to mount a blockade." The truckers' struggle is sites and "dual-use installations" as defined order. A large amount ofU .S. military equip­ one of a number of strikes and other protests by rail workers, air traffic control­ by Washington and its imperialist allies. U.S. ment is already in place in the Arab-Persian lers, and other workers against the sell-off of state-run companies. and British officials have made it clear that Gulf, with more on the way. the contents of the report could be used as a Since September, Washington has been basis for a military attack on Iraq. "Should conducting military exercises, code-named it be found that that declaration was dishon­ Desert Spring, in Kuwait with 3,800 mem­ sault on the beaches of northern Djibouti. "Iran's nuclear weapons program has in re­ est, then that most certainly would be a bers of the Second Brigade of the Third In­ "We are getting heavy weapons ashore cent months begun to appear more worrisome material breach," stated British prime min­ fantry Division. Kuwait has virtually been and firing," stated Col. John Mills, com­ than Iraq's, according to U.S. intelligence .... ister Anthony Blair. divided into two regions: a civilian area near mander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary "With no fanfare, Mohamed E!Baradei, Speaking November 20 in Prague, the the coast, and an area covering 750 miles­ Unit. New York Times reporter Michael Gor­ director general of the UN's International Czech capital, before a NATO meeting, U.S. one quarter of the country-turned over to don described the scene. "Marine howitzers Atomic Energy Agency-now in Baghdad president George Bush stated, "Should he U.S. forces for military operations. lobbed shells six miles, Harrier jets dropped to begin the search for Saddam Hussein's [Iraqi president Saddam Hussein] choose Another brigade from the same division 500 pound bombs, and Super Cobra heli­ alleged nuclear weapons facilities-plans a not to disarm, the United States will lead a is practicing desert maneuvers at the Na­ copter gunships raked the ground with fire. trip soon to look at nuclear sites in Iran." coalition of the willing to disarm him." U.S. tional Training Center in California. M-1 tanks and other armored vehicles U.S. officials claim their concern is with officials have shifted their language from blasted their targets," he wrote. Iran's "fuel cycle program" as part of the demanding Iraq eliminate"weapons of mass U.S. military exercises in Djibouti In preparation for the U.S. war in the re­ country's nuclear power plant facility. destruction" to demanding it "disarm." Since mid-November some 1,500 ma­ gion, the government of Turkey is taking E!Baradei said Iranian officials "assured me Representatives of the 19 member gov­ rines, together with another 1,500 Navy sail­ steps to prevent Iraqi Kurds from crossing that whatever they are building there will be ernments of NATO, the imperialist military ors and pilots, have been conducting exer­ the border into their country. "Turkish offi­ declared" to his agency and placed under an alliance, endorsed Bush's call for the "veri­ cises in the Hom of Africa off the coast of cials are preparing to send troops up to 60 "inspection regime," Newsday reported. fiable" disarmament of Iraq and vowed to Djibouti. The exercises involve maneuvers miles into northern Iraq on what they say is a "Our program is for energy and peaceful take "effective action" to secure "full and from the Suez Canal to an amphibious as- mission to prevent an influx of refugees," aims only," said Morteza Ranandi, press at­ stated a Reuters report. The Turkish military tache at Iran's UN mission in New York in already maintains a large troop presence at a response to this development. military base inside northern Iraq as part of their ongoing attacks against Kurdish rebels SUBSCRIBE TO fighting for self-determination. THE Turkish officials said their plan would es­ PERSPECTIVA ' MILITANT tablish 18 camps-12 of them in Iraq-de­ MUNDIAL HMHtrl signed to hold about 275,000 refugees. Those A Spanish- " ...... ~---,..,~·"~ trying to enter Turkey before the first 12 camps language 'La revolucion New York transit workers say 'no' to cuts cubana es obra were filled would be turned back, they said. socialist magazine de millone~( Seeking to take advantage of their open­ Transit workers, teachers, and ended inspections operations in Iraq, the Special offer .....,.,....,. health-care workers have rallied U.S. rulers are also setting their sights on for new in New York to defend their Iran, another one of Washington's "axis of readers: unions and protest cuts in jobs, evil" targets. $6 for 4 In a November 20 Newsday article titled months benefits, and services. The "Worries About Iran; Officials: Nuclear 'Militant' backs the unionists' weapons program more advanced than Send order to Perspectiva Mundial, resistance and tells the truth Iraq's," Knut Royce and Earl Lane wrote, 410 West St., New York, NY 10014. about the rulers' fake 'budget crisis.' 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2 The Militant December 9, 2002 Students in Iran 10,000 attend funeral in Pakistan protest cop attacks, for man executed by U.S. gov't defend free speech BY CINDY JAQUITH mors that have been going around in recent PITTSBURGH-Widespread student years." demonstrations broke out in Iran following the announcement November 7 that univer­ Imperialist war drive sity professor Hashem Aghajari had been The upsurge of protest activity comes as sentenced to death for a speech he gave. Washington rapidly escalates war moves These were the largest demonstrations against neighboring Iraq. No wing of the Ira­ since 1999, when campus protests demand­ nian regime has resolutely condemned this ing greater freedom of speech were attacked imperialist aggression. In fact, coastal units by police and extralegal gangs, resulting in oflran's Revolutionary Guards, according to the death in Tehran of one youth, a soldier the New York Times, have facilitated U.S. and from a peasant family. Australian troops boarding foreign ships in As protests swelled in support of the Arab-Persian Gulfin the tightening ofthe Aghajari, the professor refused to appeal his imperialist blockade oflraq. sentence, putting the courts even more on Last January, U.S. government officials the spot. Subsequently, Iran's clerical head declared Iran part of an "axis of evil" to be of state, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a targeted together with Iraq and north Ko­ statement asking the judiciary to review the rea. The following month, millions of Ira­ verdict, implying that the death sentence nians demonstrated in cities across the coun­ should be rescinded. Students and other try to condemn the U.S. threats and show opponents of the death sentence saw this as their determination to defend the social and an initial gain brought about by the mass political gains of their revolution. Some 10,000 people packed a stadium November 19 in Quetta, Pakistan, for the demonstrations. The two main factions of the Iranian funeral of Mir Aimal Kasi, a Pakistani man executed in the state of Virginia for Aghajari is a supporter of Iran's 1979 government, however, have muted their allegedly killing two CIA agents in 1993. He had been seized by FBI agents in Pakistan in 1997. Kasi's November 14 execution sparked angry protests across revolution, which overthrew the U.S.­ criticism of the U.S.-led war drive against backed shah, Washington's firmest ally in Iraq, while intensifying their infighting. the country. Demonstrators called Washington "the biggest terrorist state." the Mideast. He fought in the 1980-88 Iran­ Khatami was first elected president in Iraq war, when workers, peasants, and youth 1997 on a platform that included promises in Iran mobilized to defend the gains of their of greater democratic rights. Many youth, problems, the supreme guide will, if he Taliban will also be ousted from Iran!" The revolution from military attack by the gov­ as well as the big majority of workers and deems it necessary, make popular force in­ capitalist press in the United States has re­ ernment oflraq with the tacit support ofU.S. peasants, supported his ticket. tervene," according to the Islamic Republic ported this hopefully, suggesting that it sig­ and other imperialist powers. Aghajari lost Those in the ruling class opposed to loos­ News Agency (IRNA). nifies a growing social base for imperial­ a leg in combat. ening restrictions on the press and speech Among those referred to as "popular ism in Iran. Other demonstrators have At a closed trial, Aghajari was convicted have sought to use the courts that they con­ forces" are the Basiji, which originated couched their slogans in anti-U.S. language, of blasphemy and sentenced to death by trol to ban liberal publications and imprison among working people and youth who vol­ such as "Tali ban Islam is American Islam." hanging for statements made in a speech that Khatami supporters. unteered in the 1980s for the war effort to The media has not reported slogans oppos­ questioned whether Iranians should auto­ Khatami declared that the verdict against resist the U.S-backed invasion by Iraq's ing imperialism or the U.S.-led drive toward matically follow the lead of politicians who Aghajari was "improper" and "never should government. The Basiji have most recently war at either the pro-Aghajari rallies or the are also clerics. He was also sentenced to have been issued at all." He urged students been involved in confrontations against counter-demonstrations. 74 lashes, 8 years' exile to three desert cit­ to subdue their protests. "Nothing should young people demanding more freedom of IRNA reported that Aghajari 's wife, ies in Iran, and a 10-year ban on teaching. be done that creates tension or problems," expression and assembly. Zahra Behnoudi, visited him in prison and he said. According to the Los Angeles Times, afterward said he asked the students to Protests around the country Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karrubi, in a however, some in the Basiji have joined the "make their demands in the framework of In addition to protests in Tehran, student speech broadcast live on state-run Tehran outcry against the death sentence for the law." actions spread to Hamedan, whereAghajari radio, said the sentence againstAghajari was Aghajari. A letter from Basiji to the judi­ "A group of people are seeking to inflame gave his speech; Kerman; Isfahan; Tabriz; "disgusting" and advocated his release. He ciary, posted up on theAmir Kabir campus, student movements. Thus, the students must and Orumieh, on the border of Azerbaijan called on the courts to overturn the sentence said, "This sentence is so unconventional follow up their demands in calm and with and Kurdistan. "before we pay a heavier price for it." that it has raised a lot of questions," reported awareness and not let their movements be Unlike the 1999 protests, Iranian police One hundred eighty-one members of the the Times. The letter urged that the sentence exploited," she quoted her husband as say­ have carried out few arrests this time. There 290-seat parliament signed a letter urging be overturned. ing. have been reports of plainclothes thugs as­ the lifting of the death sentence. Other Basiji have joined counter-demon­ Aghajari's sister Zohreh has called for saulting some student demonstrators. By Prior to asking the judiciary to review the strations. her brother's speech, his defense at the trial, November 19 almost all universities and Aghajari verdict, Ayatollah Khamenei had Some at demonstrations supporting as well as the indictment to be published in colleges in the country had joined in the declared, "The day when the three branches Aghajari have identified their opponents as newspapers so people can make up their protests. "The execution of Aghajari is the of government are unable to settle major "Taliban," raising slogans such as, "One day, own minds. execution of the university!" 5,000 demon­ strators chanted at Tehran University. "Po­ litical prisoners should be freed!" AtAmir Kabir University ofTechnology, Cause ofoil spill near Spain: shippers' profit drive Tehran's main technical school, thousands of students rallied, as they did at Sharif BY BRIAN WILLIAMS wider region. Miles-long slicks of the oil said Maria Jose Caballero from the group University, the major scientific institution. An overloaded, aging oil tanker carrying are being carried by currents eastward into Greenpeace. The fuel oil involved in this "We're not looking for another revolu­ 20 million gallons of toxic fuel oil split in the rich fishing areas off the coast of Galicia, spill is more toxic than crude oil and more tion," saidYashar Ghajar, a speaker from the two and sank off the coast of northwestern a region of Spain, and could reach further difficult to clean up, as it does not readily Islamic Students Association, at the Amir Spain November 19, destroying wildlife and south in Portugal. evaporate or break up. Kabir rally. "We're looking for freedom of devastating small fishermen in the region. The first wave of fuel from the sunken To avoid taking responsibility for disas­ expression-and freedom after expression." At least 2.5 million gallons have poured into tanker-a slick 70 miles long and five miles ters such as this, the oil companies and ship At Modaress Training University, which the waters, affecting more than 180 miles wide-reached shore November 21 on owners consciously mask their ownership trains teachers in Tehran, more than 1,000 of coastline, including 25 miles of beaches Spain's northwest coast. of these vessels. The Prestige, for example, students demonstrated, carrying portraits of and marshland. "You can dump something 80 miles off­ was registered in the Bahamas; owned by Aghajari and demanding the resignation of The Prestige, a 26-year-old single-hulled shore, but the currents always bring every­ Mare Shipping, a Liberian company; man­ Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the head of ship managed by a Greek company and thing back to this coast," commented Fran­ aged by Universe Maritime, a Greek com­ the Iranian court system. sailing under a Bahamian flag, leaked a trail cisco Gomez, an octopus hunter from Corm e. pany; and chartered by Crown Resources, a In a statement, protesters said, "The death of oil for six days after a 50-foot-wide crack "We are sure all the slicks will hit us." Swiss-based Russian commodities trader. sentence for Mr. Aghajari is punishing him opened in the ship's hull during a storm. The Galicia is the world's largest producer of World seaborne trade has increased 3 7 for his opinion, which is against the Consti­ ship was carrying nearly double the load of mussels, selling 3 million tons a year, and percent over the past 11 years-from 3.9 tution and human rights." Several Modaress crude oil as the Exxon Valdez, which devas­ one of the richest fishing regions in Europe. billion metric tons in 1990 to 5.4 billion last professors resigned to protest the sentence. tated hundreds of miles of Alaska's coast­ So far more than 4,000 fishermen have had year, and with it a drive by the ship owners Two members of parliament from Hamedan line in 1989. The Prestige had not been in­ their livelihoods destroyed by the ban on to cut comers on safety in order to maxi­ also resigned. spected by port authorities for three years. harvesting fish that now extends for more mize their profits. A counterdemonstration held at Tehran In their drive for profits, the shipping than 180 miles of coastline in Galicia. Most After the Exxon Valdez oil tanker disas­ University on November 19 attracted some magnates have continued to utilize the vul­ affected are small, family-operated boats in ter in 1989, U.S. authorities announced that 2,500 students from schools in the city. The nerable single-hull tankers filled beyond an area that has more fishing vessels than single-hulled ships would be banned from demonstration was held under the banner what they can safely carry rather than the the rest of the European Union. U.S. ports-but not until 26 years later, in of "Protesting the Power and Wealth Ma­ more secure-and more costly-double "There are 3,500 people in 0 Pindo," said 2015. After a 1999 spill of some 3 million fia." Its thrust was to support the Ayatollah hulled ones. The Prestige is one of about Joaquin Pineiro, 55, speaking about his vil­ gallons of oil off the coast of France by a Khamenei leadership against the liberal re­ 500 "Aframax" oil tankers, which measure lage on the Galician coast, "and 100 per­ similar single-hull tanker, the Erica, the Eu­ formers of President Mohammed Khatami 's 70,000 to 110,000 deadweight tonnes. This cent live off the sea." ropean Commission promised to put regime and against those getting rich class of ship makes up about one-third of "Nearly 20 species of birds have already similar rules into effect. through their connections to the state. It sig­ the world tanker fleet. been affected," said Simon Cripps, a spokes­ Starting next July, "25 percent of all ships naled continuing fissures in the ruling-class The Spanish government made matters man for the World Wildlife Fund. would be inspected before entering Euro­ factions. worse by deciding to tow the 791-foot-long About 80 percent of the 77,000 tons of pean Union ports, and ships flying flags of The declaration issued by the demonstra­ leaking tanker 100 miles further out to sea, diesel fuel originally on board the Prestige convenience would be singled out for in­ tors pointed to former president Hashemi instead of bringing it into port where it are now sitting 12,000 feet below the sur­ spection," reports the Washington Post, and Rafsanjani, who is associated with Ayatol­ would have been protected by calmer seas face on the ocean floor. The oil containers "all single-hull tankers deemed less safe lah Khamenei, and requested he come for­ and booms to contain a spill, and the oil not damaged by the fall may eventually cor­ than double-hull ships would be phased out ward to clarify the wealth his children have could have been removed. Instead, the im­ rode and burst apart at the rusty seams. It's by 2015 .... Other single-hull vessels would allegedly accumulated, in view of "the ru- pact of this spill has been spread over a much like "a time bomb at the bottom of the sea," still be allowed." December 9, 2002 The Militant 3 Imperialists vie for Ivory Coast cocoa wealth

BY MAURICE WILLIAMS we should argue to developing countries that Capitalists in Britain and the United they should be fully exposed to the vagar­ States, speculating on world cocoa produc­ ies of the market," said a European cocoa tion, have taken advantage of a civil war and executive in a rare moment of truthfulness. poor harvests in Ivory Coast to drive up the One example of the agricultural protec­ price of cocoa beans to 17-year highs, rak­ tionism the businessman was referring to is ing in huge profits in October. Ivory Coast the $190 billion in government subsidies is the world's largest cocoa producer, with that Washington gives to U.S. capitalist exports of more than 1 million tons a year, farmers and agricultural monopolies, en­ providing some 40 percent of the global abling them to undercut their competitors supply of cocoa. around the world. These imperialist agricul­ With cocoa comprising about 10 percent tural policies have a ruinous impact on of the cost of chocolate production, high semicolonial countries, where millions of cocoa prices and stagnant candy sales are workers and peasants depend on the export squeezing the profits of the giants of the $13 of raw materials and survive on less than $2 billion chocolate industry, such as Hershey a day. Foods Corp., Mars Inc., Nestle SA, and While billionaire traders and investors Kraft Foods. "We are working on tighter have raked in profits from the hike in cocoa margins than we used to," said David prices, cocoa farmers have gained little or Zimmer, secretary general of Caobisco, the nothing from the higher prices. The farm­ European candy makers' association. ers and farm workers toiling in the cocoa Washington is vying with its imperialist French army vehicle at airport in Yamoussoukro, capital oflvory Coast. Under guise fields will receive a paltry fraction of the $3 rivals in Paris for control of the natural re­ of rescuing U.S. and French citizens, Washington and Paris sent troops there after billion Ivorian cocoa fetches on the world sources of Ivory Coast, a former French antigovernment soldiers launched failed coup in September. Washington is contend­ market. colony. One week after antigovernment sol­ ing with its imperialist rival in Paris for control of Ivory Coast's natural resources. In an article headlined, "War inflates co­ diers launched a failed coup on September coa prices but leaves Africans poor," New 19, the two powers sent hundreds of troops York Times reporter Alan Cowell noted that to the West African country under the guise water, telecommunications, port services, sold for future delivery-also act as brokers speculative traders cashed in on high cocoa of evacuating their own citizens. Paris has and construction. In recent years, U.S. capi­ between cocoa farmers and large cocoa pro­ prices by shortchanging the farmers, "buy­ provided what it describes as "logistical talists have been trying to increase their foot­ cessing companies such as Hershey Foods. ing their beans cheaply and selling at big support" to the Ivory Coast government, hold in West Africa at the expense of Paris. One London trading company, Armajaro, profits." with more than 1,000 French soldiers sent World cocoa prices have almost doubled took delivery of 204,380 tons of cocoa at Salifou Kabore, an Ivory Coast farmer there ostensibly to "police" a truce in effect since early 2001 following two bad harvests the end of July-before the price began who moved there from Burkina Faso when since October 17. in Ivory Coast and a resulting shortage. The soaring-to cash in a $90 million profit he was five years old, said, "I've heard that Washington deployed some 200 U.S. latest price surge began when the rebels at­ bonanza. prices of commodities are going up." But troops, mostly Special Forces, to the capi­ tempted a coup and thousands of farm work­ instead of being able to gain from the high tal of Ivory Coast. They are now "on ers fled the fields from the ensuing conflict. Farmers exploited by unequal exchange prices, "we are forced to live like rats, hid­ standby" in neighboring Ghana. Anticipating the harvest shortage, within In 1999, under political pressure by the den away in our home," he said. Ivory Coast won its independence in 1960 one week speculative traders drove up the U.S. -dominated International Monetary Even before the war working people in from direct colonial rule. Since then, how­ futures price for December deliveries of Fund and the World Bank, the Ivory Coast the Ivory Coast, many of whom labor on ever, Paris has continued to exert its politi­ cocoa registered on the New York Board of government gave up its fixed price system the cocoa and coffee plantations, were be­ cal and economic domination of the re­ Trade by $37 to $2,157 per ton-the high­ for cocoa, allowing prices to be set on the ing devastated by the world economic cri­ source-rich country. According to the est level since 1986. According to BBC world market. The results were devastating sis. Falling cocoa prices and political tur­ French embassy in Abidjan, 60 percent of News, cocoa prices increased 12 percent for lvorian cocoa farmers. Their income moil exacerbated an economic downturn in the country's tax revenue comes from since the fighting began. dropped by at least 50 percent while cocoa 1999 and 2000. A slump in world cocoa French-owned companies. French capital­ Traders in New York and London, who prices crashed at that time. prices began in September 1998 and col­ ists still control key sectors of the Ivory speculate buying and selling in the futures "It is somewhat ironic that while Euro­ lapsed to a 27-year low of $714 per ton in Coast's infrastructure such as electricity, market-where commodities are bought or pean andAmerican agriculture is protected, November 2000. Life expectancy in the semicolonial coun­ try is less than 45 years and the illiteracy rate is more than 50 percent. Government 'Homeland security' legislation provides for debt to imperialist banks is $13.9 billion. With the second largest economy in the region and relatively higher living standards gov't spying on private records of millions than many of its neighbors, Ivory Coast has been a magnet for people from nearby coun­ BY MICHAEL ITALIE has a $200 million budget, by saying it of requests for new wiretaps and surveil­ tries who come to work in its vast cocoa One provision of the recently adopted would enable Washington to "successfully lance orders. fields. About 30 percent oflvory Coast's 16 Homeland Security Act that has drawn some pre-empt and defeat terrorist acts." In a related development, bosses at pri­ million people are immigrants. Three mil­ attention is a program designed to allow fed­ Office of Information Awareness head vate companies have been using a "watch lion of the 5 million immigrant workers are eral cop agencies to spy more freely on John Poindexter, a retired Navy admiral and list" of individuals provided by the FBI a from Burkina Faso many aspects of the private lives of U.S. former national security adviser, said the year ago, the Wall Street Journal reported Since it colonized West Africa, Paris has residents. Named the Total Information program is designed to give federal cops November 19. The FBI circulated the list to fostered religious and social divisions in Awareness (TIA) program, it aims to estab­ instant access to personal information with­ banks, travel reservation systems, firms that Ivory Coast between Christians and Mus­ lish what the Pentagon describes as one out a search warrant. To implement the mea­ collect consumer data, truckers, and others, lims as well as between the native-born and "centralized grand database," with informa­ sure, the government would first have to asking the companies to collaborate in track­ immigrants. The government and paramili­ tion gathered by government snooping on amend the Privacy Act of 1974, which sets ing down these individuals. The big-busi­ tary forces have been waging assaults on e-mail messages, travel and telephone legal limits on what government agencies ness daily reported that "some companies immigrants and on the primarily Muslim records, bank transactions, and credit card can do with private information. fed a version of the list into their own data­ population in the northern half of the coun­ purchases of millions of people. One of the sharpest critics of the Total bases and now use it to screen job appli­ try where the rebel soldiers have taken con­ The Senate and the House voted in mid­ Information Awareness program has been cants and customers." trol and many of them originate. November to create the cabinet-level De­ conservative columnist William Safire. In a partment of Homeland Security, which will November 14 opinion piece titled "You Are merge 22 federal agencies, including the Suspect," he condemned the "Orwellian" From Pathfinder Immigration and Naturalization Service, TIA for giving the government the "power Customs Service, Coast Guard, Secret Ser­ to snoop on every public and private act of every American." vice, and the new Transportation Security Washington•s 50-year Domestic Contra Administration. The move will centralize In a November 18 editorial, the New York and streamline many of the operations al­ Times criticized the TIA as "a snooper's Operation The second ready carried out by these federal agencies, dream." The liberal editors complained that by Larry Seigle assassination, of Maurice__ Bishop including domestic spying. The measure the program would be "unchecked by Con­ in New International No. 6 CUBA'S was first proposed last year by Democratic gress," and declared that "T.I.A. needs im­ Also includes: C11FICATION senator Joseph Lieberman. The Bush admin­ mediate oversight" to make sure it doesn't PROCESS.... _, • The Second Assassination of Maurice Bishop by Steve Clark Fift/C&m istration initially opposed the bill-drafted go beyond the stated goal of "enhancing Land,a.bor, Mel • Land, Labor, and the Canadian Revolution by Michel Dugre ...... largely by Democrats-but ended up back­ national security." loyMI

Reprinted below is the preface to the rica, Asia, and Latin America for the profit new, expanded second edition ofMalcolm and power of the U.S. and other imperial­ X Talks to Young People, which is just off ist regimes. the presses together with the first-ever "The black revolution is sweeping Asia, Spanish-language edition, Malcolm X is sweeping Africa, is rearing its head in habla a Ia juventud. Steve Clark is the Latin America," Malcolm said in a Novem­ editor of this collection as well as Febru­ ber 1963 talk to a predominantly Black ary 1965: The Final Speeches by Malcolm audience in Detroit. "The Cuban Revolu­ X. He is also the editor ofMaurice Bishop tion-that's a revolution," he continued. Speaks: The Grenada Revolution 1979- "They overturned the system. Revolution 83, and co-author, with Jack Barnes, of is in Asia, revolution is in Africa, and the "The Politics of Economics: Che white man is screaming because he sees Guevara and Marxist Continuity," an revolution in Latin America. How do you article appearing in issue no. 8 of New think he'll react to you when you learn what International magazine. Copyright © a real revolution is?" 1965, 1970, 1991, 2002 by Betty Shabazz and Pathfinder Press, reprinted by per­ Seeks 'militant action' mission. Subheadings are by the Militant. By 1962 it was becoming more and more noticeable that Malcolm was straining BY STEVE CLARK against the narrow perspectives of the Na­ Malcolm X seized every occasion to talk tion of Islam, a bourgeois nationalist orga­ with young people. All over the world, it is nization with a leadership bent on finding young people "who are actually involving a separate economic niche for itself within themselves in the struggle to eliminate op­ the U.S. capitalist system. He described pression and exploitation," he said in Janu­ these growing tensions in a New Year's Day ary 1965, responding to a question from a 1965 talk to a group of high-school-age young socialist leader in the United States. civil rights militants from McComb, Mis­ They "are the ones who most quickly sissippi, which is included in this book. The identify with the struggle and the neces­ Nation's hierarchy, Malcolm said, blocked sity to eliminate the evil conditions that any initiatives by him or others to carry out exist. And here in this country," he empha­ "militant action, uncompromising action." sized, "it has been my observation that In April 1962, for example, Elijah when you get into a conversation on rac­ Muhammad ordered Malcolm to call off ism and discrimination and segregation, street actions he was organizing in Los you will find young people more incensed Angeles to protest the killing of Nation over it-they feel more filled with an urge member Ronald Stokes and the wounding to eliminate it." of six other Muslims by city cops. This conviction about the receptivity of Malcolm X speaking at University of Ghana on May 13, 1964. "I'm not here to condemn America. I'm here to tell the truth about the situation of Black people in The conflicts that led to Malcolm being youth to a revolutionary message runs forced out of the Nation oflslam came to a throughout the four talks and the interview America," Malcolm told students. "And if the truth condemns America, then she stands condemned." The speech is in newly released Malcolm X Talks to Young People. head in 1963. In April Malcolm was called presented in this expanded second edition by Elijah Muhammad to his winter home of Malcolm X Talks to Young People. This in Phoenix, Arizona. There Malcolm new edition includes material by Malcolm and New York, where he got involved in to save me from being what I inevitably learned from the Nation leader himself the never before in print, a 1966 tribute to the petty crime. In 1946 he was arrested and would have been: a dead criminal in a truth of rumors then spreading in the orga­ revolutionary leader, as well as an expanded convicted on burglary charges, spending six grave, or, if still alive, a flint-hard, bitter, nization that Muhammad had engaged in display of photographs. It is being produced years in a Massachusetts state prison. It was thirty-seven-year-old convict in some peni­ sexual relations with a number of young together with a first-ever Spanish-language while behind bars that Malcolm began read­ tentiary, or insane asylum." women belonging to the Nation of Islam edition, entitled Malcolm X habla a Ia ing voraciously-world history, philoso­ After being paroled in 1952, Malcolm then working as staff members. Several of juventud, which is being released simulta­ phy, language, science, literature, whatever was soon appointed by Nation leader Elijah them had become pregnant, and neously by Pathfinder Press and by Casa he could find in the prison library. And it Muhammad as one of its ministers, taking Muhammad had taken advantage of his Editora Abril, the publishing house of the was there that he developed the attributes­ the name Malcolm X. He later served as authority in the Nation to have them sub­ Union of Young Communists in Cuba. confidence in his own self-worth, the dis­ editor of the Nation's newspaper, its na­ jected to humiliating internal trials and sus­ Malcolm X Talks to Young People was first cipline for hard work and concentrated tional spokesman, and head of its largest pended from membership for "fornication." published in 1965 as a Young Socialist pam­ study-that were the foundation stones of unit, New York City's Mosque no. 7 in Coming on top of Malcolm's growing phlet, and then enlarged into a book in his later transformation into a revolution­ Harlem. By the opening of the 1960s, political clashes with the Nation hierarchy, 1991. ary political leader. Malcolm was politically drawn more and the discovery of this corrupt and hypocriti­ Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on Malcolm's conversion to the Nation of more toward the rising struggles by Blacks cal behavior marked a turning point. "I felt May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. His Islam while in jail was not a political act, and other oppressed peoples in the United the movement was dragging its feet in many father, a Baptist minister, was a follower nor simply a religious one, in the way those States and around the world. He used his areas," Malcolm said in a January 1965 of Marcus Garvey's back-to-Africa move­ terms are normally understood. It was the platforms in Harlem and Black neighbor­ interview with the Young Socialist maga­ ment, the Universal Negro Improvement particular road along which he pulled his hoods across the country, as well as on doz­ zine, printed here. "It didn't involve itself Association. His mother was originally life back together, and became Malcolm ens of college campuses, to denounce the in the civil or civic or political struggles from the Caribbean nation of Grenada. X, after living for several years as a street policies of the U.S. government both at our people were confronted by. All it did When Malcolm was six, after his family hustler and small-time criminal. In his au­ home and abroad. He campaigned against was stress the importance of moral refor­ had moved to Lansing, Michigan, his fa­ tobiography, he recounts unflinchingly every manifestation of anti-Black racism mation-don't drink, don't smoke, don't ther was murdered by a racist gang. "how deeply the religion of Islam had and was outspoken in condemning the pil­ permit fornication and adultery. When I As a teenager Malcolm lived in Boston reached down into the mud to lift me up, lage and oppression of the peoples of Af- found that the hierarchy itself wasn't prac­ ticing what it preached, it was clear that this part of its program was bankrupt." Break with Nation of Islam In early March 1964, Malcolm an­ nounced his decision to break with the Nation of Islam. He and his collaborators initially organized themselves as the Mus­ lim Mosque, Inc. But as Malcolm explained to the youth from McComb, Mississippi, he soon recognized that "there was a prob­ lem confronting our people in this country that had nothing to do with religion and went above and beyond religion"-a prob­ lem that, because of its magnitude, "a reli­ gious organization couldn't attack." So in June he initiated the formation of "another NO MORE group that had nothing to do with religion whatsoever"-the Organization of Afro­ American Unity (OAAU), open to all BL~~OC ' Blacks committed to Malcolm's revolution­ ary social and political trajectory. During the final months of 1964 and ':/BLOO early 1965, Malcolm won an increasingly wide hearing, not just across the United States but also on several continents among youth and other militants of various races Left, Malcolm X participating in protest in Los Angeles against cop killing of Nation oflslam member Stokes, May 1 and beliefs. He made two extensive trips Right, protest in Cincinnati in April 2001 against police killing of Timothy Thomas, a 19-year-old Black youth. to Africa and the Middle East, several sh9rt

8 The Militant December 9, 2002 of revolution' Lg People'

trips to Europe, and had scheduled more. rights organizations or the One of the four talks in this collection was trade unions, as well as the given in Africa and two in the United King­ vast majority of those who dom. called themselves radicals, The U.S. government took notice of the Socialists, or Communists. increased standing Malcolm was winning Malcolm X stretched out worldwide among radicalizing youth and his hand to revolutionaries .vorkers. Previously classified government and freedom fighters in Af­ records released in the late 1970s confirm rica, the Middle East, Asia, that the FBI had carried out systematic sur­ and elsewhere. In Decem­ veillance of him starting in 1953, shortly ber 1964 Malcolm, who after he became a minister of the Nation of had demonstratively wel­ Islam. But this spying and harassment in­ comed Fidel Castro to tensified, both in the United States and Harlem four years earlier, during his trips abroad, after Malcolm's invited Cuban revolution­ break with the Nation and founding of the ary leader Ernesto Che OAAU. Moreover, declassified records of Guevara to speak before an the FBI's Counterintelligence Program OAAU meeting in Harlem. (Cointelpro) document how the FBI used At the last minute Guevara Militant/Flax Hermes agents provocateurs to exacerbate murder­ was unable to attend but San Francisco march against Vietnam War, April15, 1967. Banner reads: "The NLF 'VietCong' Never ous conflicts between groups involved in sent "the warm salutations Called Us Nigger." Malcolm backed Vietnamese people's struggle for national liberation. In 1965 Young the Black liberation movement. of the Cuban people" to the Socialist interview, contained in new book, he said U.S. defeat in Vietnam "is only a matter of time." meeting in a message that 'Victims of Americanism' Malcolm insisted on reading himself from dedicated to overturning the system of ex­ concluding portion had previously been During the last year of his life, Malcolm the platform. ploitation that exists on this earth by any available. X spoke out more and more directly about On February 21, 1965-ten days after means necessary. The May 1964 speech by Malcolm X at the capitalist roots of racism, of exploita­ the final talk in this collection, presented "So I had to do a lot of thinking and re­ the University of Ghana first appeared in tion, and of imperialist oppression. at the London School of Economics­ appraising of my definition of Black na­ the book Where To, Black Man? An Ameri­ Malcolm never gave an inch to U.S. pa­ Malcolm X was assassinated. He was shot tionalism," Malcolm said. "Can we sum up can Negro's African Diary by Ed Smith triotism, let alone imperialist nationalism. as he began speaking to an OAAU meeting the solution to the problems confronting our (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1967). Smith pro­ Blacks in the United States are "the vic­ at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. The people as Black nationalism? And if you vided additional information about the tims of Americanism," he said in his May following year three men, all members or notice, I haven't been using the expression Ghana trip, as did Alice Windom, who 1964 talk at the University of Ghana, supporters of the Nation of Islam, were for several months. But I still would be hard helped schedule Malcolm's activities dur­ convicted of the murder and each given a pressed to give a specific definition of the ing his week-long visit there. Among the twenty-year-to-life sentence. One of them, overall philosophy which I think is neces­ highlights were his meetings with the the gunman arrested at the scene, had said sary for the liberation of the Black people country's parliament and Ghanaian presi­ from the outset that the two men convicted in this country." dent Kwame Nkrumah, as well as a fare­ along with him were not guilty. In 1977 he Malcolm X Talks to Young People closes well dinner in Malcolm's honor hosted by signed affidavits stating that four other with a tribute to this revolutionary leader the Cuban embassy. Alice Windom sup­ Nation supporters were the ones involved by Jack Barnes, one of the young socialists plied photographs from the Ghana trip, as with him, but the case has never been re­ who conducted that interview. The tribute well. opened. was presented shortly after Malcolm's as­ sassination at a March 1965 memorial 'Change this miserable condition' meeting hosted by the Militant Labor Fo­ "One of the first things I think young As the interview and talks in these pages rum at its hall in Lower Manhattan. Barnes, people ... should learn how to do is see for show, Malcolm came to recognize that what who was then national chairman of the yourself and listen for yourself and think ties fighters against oppression and exploi­ Young Socialist Alliance, had met with for yourself," Malcolm told the McComb tation together is their shared revolution­ Malcolm a second time a few days after students at the opening of 1965. "Then you ary convictions, commitment, and deeds, the January 1965 interview, so Malcolm can come to an intelligent decision for your­ not the color of their skin. When he spoke could approve the final text. An article by self." in December 1964 at Oxford University in Barnes describing the interview and discus­ This book shows how hard Malcolm X the United Kingdom, Malcolm ended his sions, published in the Militant newspaper worked to do just that-to help young presentation, printed here, by saying: "The on the one-year anniversary of Malcolm's people step outside the bourgeois influ­ Militant/Priscilla March young generation of whites, Blacks, death, has been added to this new edition. ences that surround them and come to de­ Some 400,000 students in New York boy­ browns, whatever else there is, you're liv­ cisions for themselves. What's more, it cotted segregated school system, Feb. 3, 1964. ing at a time of extremism, a time of revo­ demonstrates how important an element lution, a time when there's got to be a Malcolm's December 1964 presentation working with young people was in change. People in power have misused it.... as part of a debate at Oxford University, Malcolm's own decision to commit his life printed here. And I for one will join in with anyone, I which was televised to an audience of mil­ to building an internationalist revolution­ Malcolm was an uncompromising oppo­ don't care what color you are, as long as lions by the British Broadcasting Corpora­ ary movement in the United States, one that nent of the Democratic and Republican you want to change this miserable condi­ tion, appears in full for the first time ever could join in the fight worldwide to wipe parties-the twin parties of racism and tion that exists on this earth." in this 2002 edition. We would like to thank racism, exploitation, and oppression off the capitalist exploitation. Malcolm urged the In the United States, Malcolm X spoke Jan Carew for supplying a recording of face of the earth. McComb, Mississippi, youth not to "run on three occasions-in April and May Malcolm's entire presentation; only the September 2002 around ... trying to make friends with some­ 1964, and again in January 1965-to large body who's depriving you of your rights. meetings of the Militant Labor Forum in They're not your friends. No, they're your New York City organized by supporters of enemies. Treat them like that and fight the revolutionary socialist newsweekly, The New, expanded edition is now available them, and you'll get your freedom. And Militant. This was a departure for Malcolm. after you get your freedom, your enemy will Even while still a spokesperson for the respect you." Nation of Islam, he had spoken on cam­ Malcolm X Talks to Young People In 1964 Malcolm refused to endorse or puses to audiences that were not predomi­ "All over the world, it is young people campaign for Democratic presidential can­ nantly Afro-American. Malcolm's decision who are actually involving themselves in didate Lyndon Baines Johnson against Re­ to accept the invitation to speak at the Mili­ publican Barry Goldwater. "The Demo­ tant Labor Forum, however, was the first the struggle to eliminate oppression and cratic Party is responsible for the racism time he had agreed to appear on the plat­ exploitation. They are the ones who most that exists in this country, along with the form of a meeting outside Harlem or the quickly identify with the struggle and the Republican Party," he said in the Young Black community in any city. necessity to eliminate the conditions that Socialist interview. "The leading racists in Malcolm told the Young Socialist Alli­ exist." -Malcolm X, January 1965 this country are Democrats. Goldwater isn't ance leaders who interviewed him a story the leading racist-he's a racist but not the about a conversation he had had with the This new, expanded edition includes four leading racist.... If you check, whenever any Algerian ambassador to Ghana during a trip talks given to young people in Ghana, the kind of legislation is suggested to mitigate to Africa in May. The Algerian, Malcolm United Kingdom, and the United States in the injustices that Negroes suffer in this said, was "a revolutionary in the true sense 1964 and 1965; an interview with the country, you will find that the people who of the word (and has his credentials as such Young Socialist magazine; and an enlarged line up against it are members of Lyndon for having carried on a successful revolu­ display of photographs. In the last months B. Johnson's party." It was also the Johnson tion against oppression in his country)." administration, Malcolm often pointed out, Malcolm said when he told the Algerian of his life, Malcolm X spoke out more and more directly directly about the that was presiding over the U.S. war against ambassador "that my political, social, and capitalist roots of racism, exploitation, and imperialist oppression. The collection the people of Vietnam and the slaughter of economic philosophy was Black national­ concludes with two memorial tributes to Malcolm X by a young socialist leader. liberation fighters and villagers in the ism, he asked me very frankly: Well, where The new English-language edition has been released together with the Spanish­ Congo. The revolutionary integrity under­ did that leave him? Because he was white. language edition, Malcolm X habla a Ia juventud. $15.00 for each book. lying this political intransigence in the 1964 He was an African, but he was Algerian, elections set Malcolm apart from, and and to all appearances, he was a white Both books can be ordered on-line at www.pathfinderpress.com. Also available from bookstores, helped earn him the enmity of, just about man .... So he showed me where I was alien­ including those listed on page 14. Please include $3 for shipping and handling of the first book and every other leader of prominent Black ating people who were true revolutionaries 50 cents for each additional book.

December 9, 2002 The Militant 9 Papua New Guinea students, working people protest cop brutality, attacks on land rights BYBOBAIKEN Highlands was closed down for a period AND RON POULSEN after power lines were sabotaged. PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea­ Student-initiated protests over the last "We gained popular support. The grassroots several years in opposition to imperialist were behind us at the time of the police demands have drawn support across the shootings," said Andrew, a third-year psy­ country, including from the small labor chology student from the University of movement. Papua New Guinea. He was referring to These actions have concretely posed events in June of last year, in which thou­ questions of national sovereignty and de­ sands of students and working people mo­ velopment. Capitalist investment in Papua bilized against government privatization New Guinea is geared to stripping the natu­ plans and threats to communal land tenure. ral resources of the country, particularly In response, the government mobilized riot gold, copper, lumber, oil and gas. Wealth cops who killed four demonstrators. produced by coffee and coconut small hold­ During our October 26-28 reporting trip ers is gouged by largely foreign trading to this South Pacific nation of 5 million companies. people, the workers, students, and others we The protests in June oflast year, directed met talked about that experience, and indi­ at the government of former prime minister cated that opposition to attempts to imple­ Mekere Morauta, marked a high point of ment such "reforms," aimed at benefiting the resistance to these plans. the interests of foreign capital, remains "The whole country was supporting the widespread. students," said John Mahuk, a dockworker World Bank and International Monetary and president of the Maritime Industrial Fund (IMF) officials are pressuring the gov­ Workers Union. "People from the shanty ernment in Port Moresby to sell off state­ towns and elsewhere brought food and wa­ owned enterprises in exchange for loans to ter to the protest camp" during the week­ bolster the government budget. This effort is long action. backed by the government in Australia, the "It was a totally peaceful protest until ig­ Above: Left, John Mahuk, the presi­ former colonial ruler of Papua New Guinea, nited by the cops," he said (see interview dent of the dockworkers union in which continues to dominate the country. with Mahuk on this page.) Papua New Guinea, with Militant Representing the interests of the major reporter Ron Poulsen (right) and imperialist powers, the IMF and the World Land proposal, sell-off of state property other dockworkers in Port Moresby. Bank, whose office for East Timor, Papua In an open letter published at the time, the Below: Memorial to protesters New Guinea, and the South Pacific is based protesters called on the government to "sus­ killed by police in government in Sydney, are pressing for the establishment pend the entire privatization scheme, scrap crackdown on June 2001 mass of a register of communally owned "cus­ the customary land registration scheme, [and] demonstrations. Dockworkers were tom" Iand-a first step toward opening up completely sever ties with the World Bank among the many working people clan lands to capitalist exploitation. Almost and IMF." If Morauta was unable to carry who mobilized alongside students in all land in Papua New Guinea is held by out these demands, they said, he should "re­ the protests. clans in traditional common ownership. sign or face more serious protest." Eighty per cent of the country's people live A particular target of popular anger was paternalistic advice. This is backed up by were killed during the election period. in the countryside as subsistence farmers, the Australian High Commission. Papua Canberra's substantial military forces used A number of students who were identified making the land question one of the most New Guinea was an Australian colony until to intervene from Afghanistan and Iraq, to with the popular mobilizations stood as in­ explosive issues in the country. independence in 1975, andAustralian com­ Bougainville, the Solomon Islands, and East dependents in the election, we were told. One example ofresistance we heard about panies continue to play a leading role in the Timor, as well as by Australia's economic Their campaigns were the most open attempt involved landholders in the Southern High­ country's economy, especially its lucrative predominance in the region. since the police shootings to resume public lands, who shut down the oil pipeline that mining industry. For its part, the Australian Faced with these growing protests and political activity around the issues. For the runs through their territory to demand prom­ government, as the former administering unsure of the reliability of the army's rank first time a Labor Party with links to the ised compensation payments. Earlier this power, continues to intervene in the and file soldiers, and even the Port Moresby country's trade unions also stood candidates. year the Porgera gold mine in the Southern country's politics, dispensing pressure and cops, the Morauta government flew in riot police from other parts of the country. Australian pressure for 'reforms' "For the first time, police came onto the Today, as tens of millions of dollars in campus," said Julienne Kaman, a lecturer loans from imperialist banks come due for Leader ofdockworker union tells of at the University of Papua New Guinea in repayment, Australia's rulers continue to Port Moresby. "They were riot police from take the lead in pressuring the Somare gov­ wage fight, support to student actions Mount Hagen [in Papua New Guinea's high­ ernment to carry out "reforms" aimed at lands] in camouflage, shooting with high­ protecting the interests of foreign capital. BY RON POULSEN The previous government of Mekere powered rifles. Canberra provides A$350 million in an­ PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea­ Morauta rejected this demand, he said. "Two students and two outsiders were nual grants to the Papua New Guinea gov­ If nothing comes out of current Department Morauta was defeated at the ballot box in shot," said Kaman. "They just went out [of ernment tied to specific infrastructure or of Labour hearings on dockworkers' de­ August in part because of popular memo­ the campus dormitory area where they had state projects. This is dubbed "boomerang mands for a wage increase, "union mem­ ries of the student-led demonstrations in fled] with their hands up and got shot." aid" by students in Papua New Guinea be­ bers will strike again," said John Mahuk in June 200 l, and of the police killings offour cause it is spent primarily to benefit Austra­ an interview with Militant reporters on Oc­ protesters. Mass protest lian big business (A$l=U.S. 56 cents). tober 28. Mahuk is the national president of The union leader spoke of the role played After the deaths students "went in all di­ Canberra also contributedA$153 million the Papua New Guinea Maritime Industrial by the MIWU in the 200 l events. "We felt rections to gather support," Kaman said. As to aA$500 million loan negotiated through Workers Union (MIWU), which organized the students were a part of us," he said. "We word of the killings spread, people marched the World Bank two years ago. The Somare a nationwide strike in June in support of a went on strike to show our sympathy." While towards the campus from different parts of government, facing a sharp financial crisis, 20 percent wage claim against the shipping the MIWU was "the only union to take prac­ town, including the squatter settlements, is asking that repayments on this loan be companies organized in the United Steve­ tical action," he said, "other unions morally defying police efforts to block them. She deferred. Papua New Guinea's debt to the dores Steamships. The strike lasted six days supported the students." described it as a "spontaneous people's imperialist powers has grown to some until the bosses obtained a court injunction Some dockers and other workers went to movement." Another participant estimated US$2.5 billion, more than 70 percent of the ordering the unionists back. the campus in support of the protesters and the mobilization to be l 0,000-strong. country's gross domestic product. More than Employed on the docks at Port Moresby, their fight to defend the country's sover­ In response, "Australian intelligence went a quarter of the government's annual bud­ the country's capital, Mahuk is also the eignty against proposals to open it up to to work," Kaman said. "Men who openly get goes to loan repayments. president of the Trades Union Congress deeper penetration by Australian and other identified themselves as employees ofASIO Australian Prime Minister John Howard (TUC). There are some 500 dockworkers imperialist companies. [the Australian Security Intelligence has declared that there will increasingly be in the capital and twice as many in Lae, the After the cop killings, the maritime union Organisation] questioned staff' living in a a "linking between aid and good gover­ main industrial city on the northeast coast. struck the wharves for two days, adding its housing development next to the campus, nance. You can't maintain or attract invest­ The MIWU is at the forefront of efforts voice to the broad popular anger. she said, asking questions about the torch­ ment if you don't have proper structures of to gain an income that ensures working The MIWU played an important role in ing of several cars in the aftermath of the law and order and good governance." people the minimal conditions of life, said setting up the new Labour Party, "a new thing police shootings. At annual ministerial talks between the the union leader. The base pay rate for for the labour force," he said. In the August Another activist told of reports that the Australian and Papua New Guinean govern­ dockworkers is K2.65 per hour with higher elections the party won a single seat in the Australian military is funding, arming and ments held in Port Moresby November 15, rates according to skill (1 Kina =US$0.24). western province. "Support is there but in training a rapid deployment force of Papua Australian foreign minister Alexander Casual workers get an additional! 0 percent PNG, money plays an important role," said New Guinea's special police. He also said Downer stated that increased aid would de­ to compensate for the fact that they receive Mahuk. "If the election had been conducted that the Australian military is guarding a new pend on carrying out "reforms," which for no pensions, and no holiday or sick pay. transparently, the Labour Party would have gas pipeline under construction from Papua the Australian rulers include cutting govern­ Mahuk discussed the conditions facing had quite a few candidates" in parliament. New Guinea to Australia. ment spending, beefing up the police, and other workers. While those who labor for The MIWU has opposed government Morauta "was a total puppet of the IMF, opening up the country more to foreign capi­ foreign companies in the gold and copper plans to sell off institutions like the PNG World Bank andAustralia;' Kaman said, add­ talist investment. mines can earn relatively high wages, work­ Harbours Board, the national airline, and the ing that this was the main reason his govern­ But this imperialist-dictated course is by ers in rural areas are paid much less­ country's telecommunications and electric­ ment was defeated in elections held this year. no means assured as the new government around Kl2-15 per week. Wage workers in ity enterprises. In the fight against In August a new government headed by faces continued popular pressures and re­ the coastal logging areas "are the most ex­ privatization of the harbors, the union has Michael Somare, who had served as the sistance. As Mahuk said, it was "the students ploited of all," he said. allied itself with the clans who hold tradi­ country's first prime minister after indepen­ and labour movement that helped expose the The TUC calls for an increase in the weekly tional common ownership of seafront land, dence, came to office after striking a more failures of the previous government, con­ minimum wage to K64. "Nobody can live" Mahuk said. nationalist stance in the campaign. The new tributing to its downfall." on the current level ofK24.67, Mahuk said, government has suspended the unpopular adding that the higher rate "would still not be Ron Poulsen is a member of the Maritime privatization program. Bob Aiken is a member of the Australasian enough, but would establish a new baseline, Union of Australia. Bob Aiken contributed Reflecting the deepening political and Meat Employees Union. Ron Poulsen is a· and help to cover the basic cost ofliving." to this article. social crisis unfolding here, some 30 people member ofthe Maritime Union ofAustralia. 10 The Militant December 9, 2002 Firefighters in UK strike despite use of troops against union Continued from front page wooden pallets as fuel for the bra­ the strike was due to start. zier and workers from a local bak­ "How the employers thought they could ery had delivered doughnuts and agree to this is completely beyond us," said a cakes. spokesman for Prime Minister Anthony Blair. Passing cars hooted in support "If people think the government can be held and pedestrians dropped money to ransom through strike action, that it can into their collection bucket. be bounced with uncosted, half-baked pro­ The government is frightened posals in the middle of the night, with little that "if our employer pays us the or no modernization to talk about...then increase, other public sector work­ they're not living in the real world," he added. ers will line up for the same," said One bosses' spokesman told the Finan­ Mark Longhurst, a picket at the cial Times of "sighs of relief [among em­ Southwark fire station in south ployers] all over the country that we are not London. "This government has let saddled" with the agreement. them down too. They promised The FBU-LGA deal had provided for an better health and public services immediate 4 percent wage raise and subse­ and now they've sold them to pri­ quent raises that together amounted to 16 vate companies. You only have to percent over 12 months, along with a pro­ look at the railways. You can't im­ cedure for negotiating changes in working prove services if the profits go into practices. a few individuals' pockets." The union had earlier rejected a proposal that made the 16 percent award conditional Much at stake for employers on the implementation of specific changes Much "will be lost if the battle demanded by employers. lines now drawn are not held," edi­ The FBU originally staked a claim for an torialized the London Times on hourly take-home pay of £8.50, a 40 per­ November 23. The big-business cent raise over current levels. (£1 = daily backed the government's in­ US$1.55). tervention against the "unconscio­ Blair's spokesman attacked the union for nable" November 22 agreement defending working practices that he claimed and attacked the FBU's "cavalier had been "set in formaldehyde for 25 years." decision to go ahead with a strike." "Until the FBU gets serious about modern­ Britain's fire services "operate ization," he said, "it is difficult to see how under a framework laid down in this is going to be resolved." 1936," claimed the editorial. "Ef­ forts to reform FBU restrictive 'Modernization' means cuts practices have been blocked by Picket in Leeds, northern England, displays banner aimed at Deputy Prime Minister John "It's not 'modernization,' it's cuts" said union obduracy." Prescott. "The government is trying to break the union," said one firefighter, "because they David Mackie, a firefighter for 10 years at In the eyes of the editors, "The want cuts and they know the union will fight it." Crewe Toll station at the Glasgow rally. The future of industrial relations is now government and employer proposals for on the line .... At stake now is not only disci­ what Britain needs," he said. Middle East as part of the coming invasion changes in working practices would mean pline in public sector pay, but the whole The Conservative Party leader, lain oflraq. slashing jobs and service, he said. thrust of Thatcher-era labour reforms. Duncan Smith, urged Blair to send troops According to the BBC, Boyce "insisted "The government is trying to break the "New Labour is at its best, Mr. Blair told across picket lines to commandeer fire sta­ he would not send troops to strike break by union," said a woman FBU member from his party in September, when it is boldest. tions and their equipment. The government crossing FBU picket lines but would expect Toll Cross, "because they want cuts and they He should not have had to walk through fire rejected such an escalation after it was op­ the police to carry out that sort of opera­ know the union will fight it." to prove it; but now that the FB U has put him posed by Michael Boyce, chief of the de­ tion." The general emphasized "the 'morale "We're not going to give in to blackmail," and the country to the test, he must do so." fense staff. "I am extremely concerned about and motivation problem' of sending soldiers Mackie added, referring to claims by gov­ Confederation of British Industry direc­ the military effectiveness of our armed straight from operations in areas like Bosnia ernment ministers that the strike is putting tor general Digby Jones struck a nationalist forces," he said at a November 20 press con­ and straight into firefighting duties." lives at risk. note in opposing the FBU campaign. "To ference. In London, the FBU issued an appeal for have a confrontational element for all of The British military is preparing tens of Jonathan Silberman in London contributed other trade unionists to visit the picket lines public services does not help in delivering thousands of troops for deployment in the to this article. at the capital's 114 fire stations. Pickets at the Kingsland fire station in Dalston said they were prepared for a long haul as they described the huge support they continued Pension fund losses devastate workers to receive. Construction workers from a nearby Continued from Page 5 dreds of companies start recognizing the many companies make their contributions building site had dropped off scaffolding and ings may push down stock prices, further losses in their earnings report," wrote Se­ in the form of their own shares instead of other materials for the construction of a depressing pension assets and reducing attle Times business reporter Alwynn Scott. cash. 1 weatherproof picket shed, they said, while profits. "The pain will begin to hit corpo­ Over the past 20 years, employers have When Enron went belly-up, the bosses truck drivers frequently stopped to offer rate bottom lines this year and next as hun- been shifting pension burdens onto the fired thousands of workers, leaving them backs of working people. In the 1950s and with worthless 401 (k) accounts and no 1960s workers in many workplaces had won health insurance. That financial debacle re­ FROM PATHFINDER pension plans that offered a fixed payout sulted in workers losing an estimated $5 upon retirement, often described as a de­ billion to $10 billion in pension funds. A fined benefit pension plan. This plan is gen­ similar disaster decimated the retirement erally based on a formula using the years a savings of employees ofWorldCom. Lessons from the labor BY FARRELL DOBBS worker has accumulated with a company, About 55 million employees in the United battles of the 1930s the worker's salary, and age at retirement. States are now covered by plans like 401 (k). Teamster Rebellion Some 44 million workers are enrolled in Delta Airlines, whose pensions are se­ Tells the story of the 1934 strikes that built an defined benefit pension plans, whose finan­ verely underfinanced, announced Novem­ industrial union and a fighting social move­ cial contributions are the sole responsibil­ ber 18 that all its U.S. employees hired af­ ment in Minneapolis. $16.95 ity of the employers. ter June 30, except pilots, would be enrolled in a "cash-balance plan" upon retirement Teamster Politics Alternative pension schemes instead of the company's defined-benefit How rank-and-file Teamsters led the fight against anti­ As profit margins narrowed over the past pension plan. union frame-ups and assaults by fascist goons; the two decades, corporations began promoting Retirees would receive a lump sum in­ battle for jobs for all; and efforts to advance indepen­ alternative pension schemes called defined stead of monthly payments. This latest dent labor political action. $18.95 contribution programs, which required round of"cost-cutting" comes on top of$1 workers to match company payments with billion in previous cuts, which included Teamster Bureaucracy contributions from their earnings to cover plans to eliminate up to 8,000 jobs. How the rank-and-file Teamsters leadership orga­ the costs of their living expenses at retire­ The pension crisis has already had disas­ nized to oppose World War II, racism, and govern­ ment. trous results for many working people. Gary ment efforts-backed by the international official­ These plans saved the bosses the cost of Gerdman, a machinist for 32 years whore­ managing pension funds and premiums for tired two years ago from Outboard Marine dom of the AFL, the CIO, and the Teamsters-to federal pension insurance. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, lost $5,700 per gag class-struggle-minded workers. $18.95 In 1982 bosses across the country began year in pension income when this company the so-called 401 (k) accounts, in which of 10,000 employees declared bankruptcy Teamster Povver workers set aside a portion of their pay in a eight months later. All retirees also lost their The growth and consolidation of the Teamsters tax-deferred investment account chosen by health insurance with the company, whose Available from bookstores, union in Minneapolis and its class-struggle leader­ the employers, but there is no guaranteed pension fund was declared to be ship, and the 11-state over-the-road organizing including those listed on benefit. The employers also found they underfunded by $73 million. page 14, or visit could boost profit margins further by trim­ "There was no warning," said Gerdman. campaign that brought union power for the first www.pathfinderpress.com time to many areas of the Midwest. $18.95 ming the amount they contributed. Now "Even our union said there was so much many corporations put up less than 50 cents money in [the company pension fund], we for every dollar set aside by workers, and would never have to worry." December 9, 2002 The Militant 11 Cubans framed in U.S. court demand new trial BY MICHAEL ITALIE fair trial for the five could not have been Pointing to newly discovered evidence, held in Miami, and that government pros­ two of the five Cuban revolutionaries framed ecutors knew it. The big-business media, UNITE pickets stand firm at up on conspiracy charges in a federal court with sensationalist articles about a "Cuban have joined in a motion for a new trial in spy network," convicted the five Cuban their case. revolutionaries before the trial even began. Point Blank plant near Miami In the motion, filed November 12 with The motion highlights an editorial by the the federal district court in southern Florida, Miami Herald, the main daily in south attorney Leonard Weinglass, representing Florida, that echoed Washington's charges Antonio Guerrero, cited "misrepresentations that the five were connected to the Cuban of fact and law made by the United States government's shootdown of planes flown by Attorney in opposing the defendants' mo­ pilots of the right-wing Brothers to the Res­ tion for change of venue" at the time of the cue group in 1996, in which four of the trial in November 2000. counterrevolutionaries died. Gerardo Hernandez, another of the As part of its campaign to inflame public framed-up Cubans, joined Guerrero in the opinion against the five, the Herald editori­ request for a new trial, Hernandez's lawyer, alized that for the pilots who were shot Paul McKenna, announced days later. down, "nothing could honor their memory Weinglass stated that he expected all five to more than to call to account their join the motion. murderers ... more than compensation, the Guerrero and Hernandez, together with families want the moral sting of a U.S. crimi­ Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labafiino, and nal prosecution in federal court." The mo­ Fernando Gonzalez, were convicted on tion for a new trial also pointed to other charges of conspiracy to act as an unregis­ media, such as Channel 23 and Radio Marti, tered agent of a foreign power, conspiracy which filmed jurors and their license plate to commit espionage, and conspiracy to numbers, as evidence of the campaign to commit murder. At the Miami news con­ create an atmosphere prejudicial to the de­ fendants. Jurors, especially Cuban-Ameri­ Militant/Connie Allen ference announcing the motion for a new Strikers in picket shacks November 23 outside Point Blank Body Armor in Oak­ cans, had reason to fear reprisals if they trial, Weinglass noted that the government land Park, Florida, north of Miami. Some 200 members of the Union of voted "not guilty." never charged any of the five with commit­ Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees walked off the job in August to In the trial Gerardo Hernandez was found ting any action, nor claimed that they at any demand wage hikes above the $6 per hour that most receive, and an end to abusive guilty of the unprecedented charge of"con­ time "had in their possession any classified conditions on the job, including lack of water and air conditioning. Point Blank spiracy to commit murder" for allegedly documents." U.S. district judge Joan Lenard, produces bullet-proof vests and riot gear for the U.S. military and police forces. who sentenced them to prison terms of be­ providing Cuban authorities with flight tween 15 years and a double life sentence, plans of the four Brothers to the Rescue pi­ will rule on the motion. lots whose planes were shot. A number of The five revolutionaries were in the defense witnesses offered ample evidence Miami is a big city with "great diversity" venue, claiming a fair trial for the attorney United States on a mission to defend their that these rightists had provocatively vio­ and therefore should be able to produce a general was "virtually impossible" because country's sovereignty and the Cuban Revo­ lated Cuban airspace and refused to heed fair jury in a case of defendants charged with of "prejudice" among Cubans in Miami. lution. They were gathering information on warnings to head back before they were conspiring to spy for Cuba. Weinglass stated that with "these two the activities of counterrevolutionary groups downed near Havana. Just one year later, however, the same U.S. contradictory positions ... the government that have a history of launching violent at­ The five Cuban revolutionaries had filed attorney, Guy Lewis, moved in Ramirez vs. misrepresented to the court both factually tacks on Cuba from U.S. soil with the knowl­ for a change of venue for their trial, from Ashcroft, in an employment-related discrimi­ and legally their position when they knew edge and complicity of the U.S. government. Miami to Broward County 25 miles to the nation suit against Attorney General John and had to know, as they knew one year later The motion for a new trial argues that a north, and the U.S. attorney countered that Ashcroft, that there should be a change of in the Ramirez vs. Ashcroft case, that a fair trial could not be held in the Miami district" under those circumstances. Jacqueline Becerra of the U.S. attorney's office said that Palestinian in Boston fights INS frame-up prosecutors "are comfortable" with the con­ victions, and a government response is ex­ BY TED LEONARD the John F. Kennedy Federal Building, place in front of the federal building cel­ pected in mid-December. BOSTON~Amer Jubran, a Palestinian where the bond hearing took place. ebrating his release. Supporters chanted, In a separate legal proceeding, an appeal political activist, was freed here on $1 ,500 Jubran was brought into the courtroom "Free, Free Palestine; Free Amer Jubran." of the convictions is pending in the Elev­ bail November 21. Twenty supporters and handcuffed and shackled by six armed Jubran was arrested in the early morn­ enth Circuit Court in Atlanta. friends filled the immigration hearing room guards. ing hours of November 4. FBI and Immi­ In addition to the arguments cited for the while another 60 waited in the hallway of After the bail was set, a picket line took gration and Naturalization Service (INS) new trial, the prosecution of the five Cu­ agents entered his home without produc­ bans represented violations of constitutional ing a search warrant or even asking per­ rights, including the Fourth Amendment mission. The cops attempted to interrogate protection against arbitrary search and sei­ -LETTERS Jubran about his activities in support of the zure. FBI agents broke into their homes, and by a mobilized membership is the best road Palestinian struggle for a homeland. When the prosecution's "evidence" included infor­ Inspiring meat packers' victory he insisted on a lawyer, INS agents arrested mation the FBI claimed to have collected in Your recent articles on the first contract to defend our rights against the meatpacking bosses' drive for profits. him. those raids. victories of meat packers like at Dakota Pre­ Jubran was informed only days before the Since their sentencing nearly one year ago, mium in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Swift in Tony DiFelice Toronto, Ontario bond hearing of the reason for his deten­ the five Cuban revolutionaries have been sub­ Nebraska in the midwest United States are tion: immigration authorities said one piece jected to conditions meant to break their will. inspiring. A number of us at the Quality of paperwork in his application for residency The U.S. government has dispersed the five Meat Packers plant in Toronto have been United Airlines 'war' clause had the year 1998 entered where it should to federal prisons in California, Wisconsin, following the organizing efforts to bring the A tentative agreement was reached No­ have been 1997. Jubran has been a perma­ Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Texas~three of United Food and Commercial Workers vember 20 between the International Asso­ nent U.S. resident for three years. them to maximum security prisons. Govern­ union, which is the union I belong to, into ciation of Machinists officials and United Attorney Nelson Brill, who represented ment officials have prevented visits by the their plants. What is most striking about Airlines. These amendments to our contract Jubran in the INS court, explained in a press wives of two of the men by denying them these two struggles is the solidarity and ac­ are to be voted on by the membership No­ conference after the hearing, "They combed visas to enter the United States. tive participation by the workers to build vember 27. The agreement is called a "re­ over his files for weeks to find some techni­ In a November 22 interview with the strong unions. covery plan," which United and the U.S. cality to charge him. They arrested him three Militant, Leonard Weinglass stated that With a union and a first contract, the government have pushed to allow $1.8 bil­ years after he received his green card and Ramon Gonzalez "was suddenly told on workers will now be in a stronger position lion in government-backed loans for the air­ two days after he participated in leading a November 14 to move from his prison in to deal with the line speed, harassment by line. demonstration of thousands against U.S. war Pennsylvania," and that federal authorities management, unsafe machinery and low The amendments to the contract include against Iraq in downtown Boston." had still not announced the location of the wages and benefits which have been im­ pay cuts and extending the current contract In 2001 Jubran was arrested on fabricated prison where he is being sent. posed on meat packers in both Canada and to 2008. Also in the agreement is a clause charges after a demonstration in Brookline, the United States over the past 20 years. that states, "In the event of a war in Iraq or Massachusetts, protesting a Zionist celebra­ Even with a union we still have to keep a sudden, unforeseen event that substantially tion of Israeli independence. After a five­ c; U:3/\ and the Coming disrupts air travel (e.g., act of God, act or fighting management's efforts to increase month defense campaign all the charges American Revolution their profits on our backs and weaken the threat of terrorism, etc.), the commitment were dropped. union. Here, where I work, the line speed in contained in the preceding paragraph will Supporters of Amer Jubran sent many Jack Barnes the cutting room has gone from 10 to over become null and void." The proceeding letters to the INS district director in Boston by 12 hogs per minute, with the same number paragraph is about United not using bank­ to demand freedom for Jubran. Boston City Cuba and the of workers. We are forced to work 9.5 hours ruptcy to tear up our union contract. Council member Chuck Turner, as well as Coming American a day by law and those few of us who then The lAM officials have recommended we Revolution is Jubran's landlord and supervisor at work, about the choose to leave are often harassed by some vote yes on these changes to "save the com­ were present in the court room as character of the foremen to stay longer. And because pany." Many of my co-workers and I hope struggles of witnesses. working people in four years ago we had a 40 percent wage cut, this agreement is voted down. These Bina Ahmad, a first-year law student at many co-workers are doing 60 hours a week. givebacks as well as the war clause would the imperialist Northeastern University, was one of the sup­ heartland, the There are also other forms of harassment. weaken the union and set a bad example for porters who waited in the hallway outside youth who are A little while ago I was called into the of­ the labor movement. the court room. She said, "Amer is a politi­ Rick Young attracted to them, fice by a foreman after returning from one cal prisoner. They are just trying to make and the example day off sick. He demanded a doctor's note, Chicago, Illinois something up on him. It is a violation of the set by the people even though it was not required, and refused civil liberties of all of us." of Cuba that revolution is not only my request to have a union steward with me The letters column is an open forum for The INS has said it will not appeal the necessary-it can be made. Preface by at the meeting. On the insistence of some of all viewpoints on subjects of interest to bail decision. A hearing on the charges Mary-Alice Waters. $13. my co-workers on the line and one of the working people. around his application for residency is In English, Spanish, and French. union stewards I put in a grievance against Please keep your letters brief. Where scheduled for February. this foreman. necessary they will be abridged. Please Available from bookstores, including those listed on page 14; But what the Nebraska and Minnesota indicate if you prefer that your initials Ted Leonard is a meatpacking worker in or visit www.pathfindcrpress.com. victories show is that the use of union power be used rather than your full name. the Boston area. 12 The Militant December 9, 2002 -GREAT SOCIE1Y------Maybe Guanhinamo prison practice ethics? The Los Angeles designed by Deborah Marr. De­ were recalled to stem the spread of Teamsters union, which holds base?-Josephson Institute of Eth­ Times account didn't say. scribed by the Los Angeles Times the disease listeria. Unknown doz­ shares in B ofA, squeaked through ics. It's headed by Michael Joseph­ as "one of a handful of computer ens were already taken ill. And at a severance pay policy limiting son. He says he has a staff of 40 No comment (!)-"Youngsters chip designers in a field that is 95 least seven are dead. bank executives from getting more see lying, cheating as formula for percent male." than double their wages and bo­ success"-Headline, Los Angeles Stiff blow at terrorism-Lon­ nuses in severance packages, with­ Times. Murder, Inc.-Several months don cops busted a girl, 12, who was out a special OK of the board. Carin ago, the Department ofAgriculture playing in the street with a legally Zelenko, the Teamsters's director of No comment (2)-"Mistate­ warned the Wampler food process­ purchased toy gun. She was bustled corporate affairs holds a seat on the ments may exceed 7 billion" ... ing plant in Pennsylvania. A list of off to a station house. Later in the bank board. She declared it's im­ "Unsupported adjustments that go violations included moldy pipes day, a judge ordered her released. portant that corporations "are re­ far beyond ... " "Federal examiners leaking on meat lines, roaches and Meanwhile she was photographed sponsive to shareholders." report suggests ... "-Sampling of more. Plant managers knew their and a DNA swab taken. news approach to WorldCom's $7 way around and the inspectors' Thought for the week-"Mil­ NOTE-Our English news clip­ lions feel the sting of hunger-A billion-plus swindle. warnings were ignored. October 11 per sent the preceding item three and a $4 million budget. The op­ Wampler was shut down along with new statewide study finds that 2.2 months ago and we tucked it in the million low- to middle-income eration is not for profit. It conducts Chip work too heavy for other subsidiaries ofPilgrims Pride, wrong folder. Our apologies. ethics training programs for corpo­ women?-Intel, the big computer along with the parent company it­ adults struggle to put enough food rations and for the U.S. armed chip company, announced a radical self. In the biggest recall in U.S. his­ Duked it out-In a confronta­ on the table"-Headline, Los An­ forces. When and where does it new chip that acts like two. It was tory, 27 million pounds of poultry tion with Bank ofAmerica tops, the geles Times. In 1975, like today, N.Y. 'budget crisis' was a scam BY JACK WILLEY union officials went along with the bosses' NEWYORK-With the administration of calls for concessions. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg warn­ More than 63,000 municipal employees ing about a deep "budget crisis" as it were fired. Some 15,000 teachers and 4,000 launches a broad attack on city services and hospital workers were shown the door be­ jobs, wages, and benefits of municipal work­ tween 1975 and 1976. Transit fares jumped ers, big-business commentators have made from 35 cents to 50 cents. comparisons with the 1975 city "financial At the City University of New York, free crisis." tuition, dating back 129 years, was elimi­ In a recent speech printed in the Novem­ nated. Open admissions, won as a by-prod­ ber 21 New York Review of Books, retired uct of the civil rights movement of the banker Felix Rohatyn, one of the key play­ 1960s, allowing anyone with a high school ers in the crisis 27 years ago, argues that diploma or equivalency to go to college, was Bloomberg and New York governor George gutted. The cutbacks reduced enrollment by Pataki are "going to look at the same set of tens of thousands, with the ax coming down painful choices as we did in 1975." He de­ hardest on Blacks, Latinos, and other op­ clares that "increased taxes and cutbacks in pressed nationalities. services and jobs are inevitable" and points In August 1976, Victor Gotbaum, head favorably to the major concessions made by of District Council37 of the American Fed­ the municipal unions at that time. eration of State, County and Municipal Em­ If anything, Rohatyn says, the economy ployees union, echoing the bosses' claim is in worse shape than in 1975, so accord­ that there was "no money" for both jobs and ing to him even more "sacrifice" is required salary increases, sold striking hospital work­ from city workers and residents. ers a deal that gave away cost-of-living in­ What really happened in New York City creases for the promise of no more layoffs­ November 13 meeting in New York of health-care workers fight­ in 1975? for four months. ing for a contract. These workers are among those who will be Like the so-called financial crisis today, The city administration also tried to se­ affected by cuts in city funding. the one then was a scam that enriched the cure federal loans. President Gerald Ford In 1975thepaymentsofinterestandprin- was more careful not to make such state- billionaires at the expense of working initially said no. "Ford to City: Drop Dead," cipal to the bondholders were almost $2 bil- ments. people. was the blaring headline of the New York lion out of a budget of $11 billion. Today the capitalist rulers continue to In late 1974 the billionaire families that Daily News on Oct. 30, 1975. Ford later The year before, the New York Times had reap billions from municipal bonds. Big rule New York proclaimed a "budget crisis." authorized $2.5 billion in federal loans, sad­ quoted an unnamed bond dealer at a major Mac remains in existence. In fact, the city The city government owed $4.3 billion on dling the city with more debt. New York bank. "We make a hell of a lot of New York is due to keep paying on $3.5 short-term debts to wealthy bondholders. of money off this city," he blurted out. billion in debt through MAC-which is- A fraud to squeeze workers Democratic mayor Abraham Beame claimed When the bankers announced the "budget sued bonds from 1975 to 1985-until the the debts could not be paid with the income As the Militant pointed out in its June 27, crisis" and launched the cutback campaign year 2008, when those bonds will have received from taxes and other revenue. 1975, issue, "The financial crisis of New a few months later, the big-business press matured. York is an elaborate fraud perpetrated to Big Mac defends bondholders enable the city to fire workers. What Big The banks-led by Citibank, Chase, and Mac's creation actually proves is that the Morgan-pretended they would not lend money was there all along-it was just a -25 AND 50 YEARS AGO any more money to such a "high risk" situ­ question of what conditions the banks de­ ation. So the New York state government manded to make the loans." stepped in with the Municipal Assistance From the standpoint of working people, TH£ MILITANT Corporation. Known as "Big Mac," it was city hall is supposed to administer the ser­ THE MILITANT PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE J\ E\\' YORK J\ Y FlVF (')) C:F.'JT." run by a nine-person board that included six vices of the city. "From the standpoint of A SO<:tALISf NfWSWfEkl.Y/,_.,IJUSHto IN TH£' !N1fi£SlS Of tME WOitJUNC I'(OPl£ top officials ofbanks, brokerage houses, and the banks, however, city hall is the source other businesses. of a vast income that is a vital artery of the December 9, 1977 December 8, 1952 The MAC issued $3 billion in long-term American financial system," the socialist It was the longest teachers' strike in New bonds at high interest to pay off $3 billion paper pointed out in the May 30, 1975, is­ York State history-forty-one days. Anti-Rhee guerrillas by the thousands are in short-term bonds at lower interest. The sue. The most disquieting feature of the strike still operating behind the battle-lines in additional interest owed to bondholders Like most governments, New York City [by the Lakeland Federation of Teachers] South Korea. jumped by $200 million in 1975 alone with is always in debt-it does not raise suffi­ was the ruthless and effective use of New Life discloses the surprising extent of the the MAC bonds. All of a sudden, the banks cient funds through taxes to pay all its ex­ York State's strikebreaking Taylor Law. The guerrilla warfare "about 150 miles to the rear that found New York too risky found no penses. A significant portion of these ex­ small ( 450-member) local was fined of the Korean battle-line ... in territory offi­ problem lending money for a higher return. penses are paid by issuing municipal bonds, $92,500. Eight teachers were arrested and cially held by U.N.-forces." It conservatively As a condition for these loans, Big Mac which are repaid at tax-free interest-one thrown into the county jail. Six union offic­ estimates that "perhaps 10,000" guerrilla demanded "sacrifice." The government of the most lucrative investments for billion­ ers were sentenced to thirty days each. fighters are pinning down several times that launched a campaign to slash city services aire businessmen. AFT [American Federation ofTeachers] number of South Korean police and armed and fire thousands of municipal employees The 1975 "budget crisis" took place dur­ president Albert Shanker was moved to guards "aided by U.S. arms and advisors." and to deal blows to their unions. The top ing the first worldwide recession since World comment on the Lakeland teachers' plight Margaret Bourke-White's photographs War II and the beginning of a decades-long and the Taylor Law in his union-paid col­ graphically present the ferocity of the Rhee period of stagnation and decline in profit umn in the October 30 New York Times. forces. Several photographs of young guer­ from Pathfinder rates for the capitalist class. With the rise in Teachers might expect their union president rilla prisoners awaiting trial-¥Icluding a unemployment and drop in corporate sales, to demand the immediate repeal of the Tay­ moving study of captured girl guerrillas­ in New International no. 10 tax revenues to the city and state govern­ lor Law. But no-S hanker explains that "as­ are included in Life. They are in striking • Imperialism's ment fell. The bankers decided to ensure pects of the law were a step forward for contrast with fat, cruel-looking provincial March toward that, no matter how far revenues dropped, public employees." The essence of the Tay­ police chief Jan Kyon Lok, shown celebrat­ Fascism and War they would keep getting paid-by cutting lor Law-its outlawing of public employee ing the "victory" of900 of his police against by Jack Barnes jobs, wages, and social gains of working strikes-goes unchallenged by Shanker. a hundred guerrillas at a party where he is people. In Shanker's eyes, the Taylor Law guar­ "regaling his men and 'Kisseng girls' (Ko­ • What the 1987 The city budget is geared, not to meet the antees union recognition. But union recog­ rean geishas)." Stock Market needs of the majority, but to ensure regular nition is not the gift oflaw or employer. It is A year ago, in Dec. 1961, the Rhee gov­ Crash Foretold payments to the coupon-clippers. In a No­ the unavoidable acknowledgement of the ernment announced a "final mopping-up, • Defending Cuba, vember 1974letterto the New York Times to real collective power of an active and orga­ extermination" campaign against a claimed Defending Cuba's reassure the bankers, Mayor Beame and City nized membership. 10,000 surviving guerrillas. Now we are in­ Socialist Revolution Controller Harrison Goldin pointed out "that As the economic crisis deepens and the formed that after "the hunters have killed by Mary-Alice the Constitution of the State of New York attacks on organized labor escalate, the re­ 13,000 in 13 months, captured thousands Waters makes our New York City bonds and notes sponse not only of Shanker but of the entire more, converted many to the Republic's • The Curve of Capitalist Development a first lien [claim] on all revenues-which top union officialdom is to tum more and side," the guerrillas are as numerous as ever by Leon Trotsky $14.00 include the real-estate tax, all other city more away from mobilizing the union ranks and "still a formidable foe." Evidently their Available from bookstores, including taxes, fees and permits, all state aid and all and toward relying on the courts and capi­ forces are being constantly replenished and those listed on page 14. Federal aid." talist party politicians. augmented by the people. December 9, 2002 The Militant 13 Leon Trotsky on what is fascism and how to fight it Printed below is an excerpt from Fascism: tionship among the three classes, we must What It Is and How to Fight It by Leon differentiate three historical stages: at the Trotsky, one of Pathfinder's Books of the dawn of capitalistic development, when the Month for December. Russian communist bourgeoisie required revolutionary methods 7 leader Leon Trotsky sought to lead an inter­ to solve its tasks; in the period ofbloom and national working-class fight to combat the maturity of the capitalist regime, when the rising fascist movements in Europe and in­ bourgeoisie endowed its domination with cipient fascist movements in the United States orderly, pacific, conservative, democratic and elsewhere. The Italian fascist movement forms; and finally, at the decline of capital­ led by Benito Mussolini took power in the ism, when the bourgeoisie is forced to re­ 1920s; the Nazi party took power in 1933 sort to methods of civil war against the pro­ with Adolf Hitler becoming chancellor. letariat to protect its right of exploitation. Trotsky examines the origin and nature The relationship between the bourgeoi­ sie and its basic social support, the petty bourgeoisie, does not at all rest upon recip­ rocal confidence and pacific collaboration. In its mass, the petty bourgeoisie is an ex­ BOOKS OF ploited and disfranchised class. It regards the bourgeoisie with envy and often with Nazi stormtroopers occupy union headquarters in Berlin, 1933. Leon Trotsky explained hatred. The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, that fascism aims "to smash the working class and destroy its organizations." THE MONTH while utilizing the support of the petty bour­ geoisie, distrusts the latter, for it very cor­ rectly fears its tendency to break down the But just as the summits of the liberal bour­ ety. The strikes and the political disturbances of fascism and advances a working-class barriers set up for it from above. geoisie in its time were unable, by their own aggravate the economic situation of the strategy to defeat it, overturn the capitalist force alone, to get rid of feudalism, monar­ country. The petty bourgeoisie could rec­ state, and establish the revolutionary power Parliamentary democracy chy and the church, so the magnates of fi­ oncile itself temporarily to the growing pri­ of the working class. Copyright © 1996 by For a whole series of stages, the bourgeoi­ nance capital are unable, by their force vations, if it arrived by experience at the con­ Pathfinder Press, reprinted by permission. sie entrenched its power under the form of alone, to cope with the proletariat. They viction that the proletariat is in a position to Subheadings are by the Militant. parliamentary democracy. Even then, not need the support of the petty bourgeoisie. lead it onto a new road. peacefully and not voluntarily. The bour­ For this purpose, it must be whipped up, put But if the revolutionary party, in spite of geoisie was mortally afraid of universal suf­ on its feet, mobilized, armed. a class struggle becoming incessantly more BY LEON TROTSKY frage. But in the last instance, it succeeded, accentuated, proves time and again to be in­ Any serious analysis of the political situ­ with the aid of a combination of violent mea­ Fascism and the petty bourgeoisie capable of uniting the working class about ation must take as its point of departure the sures and concessions, of privations andre­ In the epoch of the rise, the growth, and it, if it vacillates, becomes confused, con­ mutual relations among the three classes: forms, in subordinating within the frame­ the bloom of capitalism, the petty bour­ tradicts itself, then the petty bourgeoisie the bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie (in­ work of formal democracy not only the petty geoisie, despite acute outbreaks of discon­ loses patience and begins to look upon the cluding the peasantry), and the proletariat. bourgeoisie but in considerable measure also tent, generally marched obediently in the revolutionary workers as those responsible The economically powerful big bourgeoi­ the proletariat, by means of the new petty capitalist harness. Nor could it do anything for its own misery. All the bourgeois par­ sie, in itself, represents an infinitesimal mi­ bourgeoisie-the labor aristocracy. In Au­ else. But under the conditions of capitalist ties, including the social democracy, tum its nority of the nation. To enforce its domina­ gust 19141 the imperialist bourgeoisie was disintegration and of the impasse in the thoughts in this very direction. tion, it must ensure a definite mutual rela­ able, with the means of parliamentary de­ economic situation, the petty bourgeoisie When the social crisis takes on an intol­ tionship with the petty bourgeoisie and, mocracy, to lead millions of workers and strives, seeks, attempts to tear itself loose erable acuteness, a particular party appears through its mediation, with the proletariat. peasants into the war. from the fetters of the old masters and rul­ on the scene with the direct aim of agitating To understand the dialectic of the rela- But precisely with the war there begins ers of society. It is quite capable oflinking the petty bourgeoisie to a white heat and of the distinct decline of capitalism and, above up its fate with that of the proletariat. For directing its hatred and its despair against all, of its democratic form of domination. that, only one thing is needed: the petty the proletariat. In Germany, this historical av-e-tn'btrr BOOKS It is now no longer a matter of new reforms bourgeoisie must acquire faith in the abil­ function is fulfilled by National Socialism and alms, but of cutting down and abolish­ ity of the proletariat to lead society onto a (Nazism), a broad current whose ideology OFTHEMON1H ing the old ones. Therewith the bourgeoi­ new road. The proletariat can inspire this is composed of all the putrid vapors of dis­ sie comes into conflict not only with the faith only by its strength, by the firmness integrating bourgeois society. institutions of proletarian democracy (trade of its actions, by a skillful offensive against Pathfinder unions and political parties) but also with the enemy, by the success of its revolution­ 'On August 4, 1914, the German Social Demo­ Readers Club 25% parliamentary democracy, within the frame­ ary policy. DISCOUNT cratic Party representatives in the Reichstag (par­ SPECIALS work of which arose the labor organiza­ But, woe if the revolutionary party does liament) voted for the war budget of the imperi­ tions. Therefore, the campaign against not measure up to the height of the situa­ alist government; on the same day representa­ "Marxism" on the one hand and against tion! The daily struggle of the proletariat tives of the French Socialist Party did likewise Fascism: What It Is democratic parliamentarism on the other. sharpens the instability of bourgeois soci- in the Chamber of Deputies. and How to Fight It LEON TROTSKY The origins of fascism, and a working-class strat­ -IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP--- egy to defeat it. $4.00. Special price: $3.00. 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: I st Fir, 3/281-287 Beamish St., The Great Labor Uprising Mundial, New International, Nouvelle E-mail: [email protected] Campsie, NSW 2194. Mailing address: P.O. of 1877 Internationale, Nueva Internacional and MINNESOTA: St. Paul: 113 Bernard St., Box K879, Haymarket, NSW 1240. Tel: (02) Ny International. 9718 9698. PHILIPS. FONER West St. Paul. Zip: 55118. Tel: (651) 644- 6325. 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E-mail: 103426.3430 @compuserve.com WASHINGTON: Seattle: 5418 Rainier Stockholm: Domargriind 16, S-129 47, WWW. PATHFINDERPRESS.COM Avenue South. Zip: 98118-2439. Tel: (206) Hiigersten. Tel: (08) 31 69 33.E-mail: MICHIGAN: Detroit: 4208 W. Vernor St. 323-1755. E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] 14 The Militant December 9, 2002 -EDITORIALS------Youth discuss Che's ideas Support UK firefighters' strike Continued from front page war in the late 1950s as well as in international missions Working people should rally behind the more than the interests of the ruling rich and of no one else. When in the Congo in 1965 and Bolivia in 1966-67; Orlando 50,000 firefighters in the United Kingdom who are today they say that their "economy" can't take the load of such Borrego, also a Rebel Army combatant and a close col­ waging one of the most important labor battles in the UK wage raises, they're talking about their profits. When they laborator of Guevara in the Ministry of Industry during in years. These workers are mobilizing through the Fire speak of the need to "reform the public sector," they're the early 1960s when Che was the head of the ministry; Brigades Union (FBU) to defend their living standards; talking about carving off more of the social wage, the and Elena Diaz, dean of the Ernesto Che Guevara study resisting moves to cut jobs and service under the guise of conquest of decades of working class struggle. program at the University of Havana. "modernization"; and holding strong against the attack Opponents of the union make a broad appeal to "na­ In her presentation Aleida Guevara drew from a May on union control on the job that goes hand in hand with tional interests" against the "greedy workers." They try to 1964 talk presented by Che at a seminar organized by the rulers' offensive. make workers identify with the British ruling rich-their UJC members working at the Ministry of Industry. The The Labour Party government of Anthony Blair has exploiters and enemies-rather than workers and farmers speech appears in Pathfinder's Che Guevara Talks to Young taken the lead in the bosses' efforts to defeat the around the globe-their allies. They aim to pressure work­ People, a Cuban edition of which was published earlier firefighters. Not only have they mobilized troops and cops ers to back off attempts to fight around their interests and this year by the UJC publishing house Casa EditoraAbril. as strikebreakers, but they have threatened to use anti­ the broader concerns of working people as the rulers pre­ In that speech Che challenged the youth to "politicize union legislation, and spearheaded a propaganda campaign pare for war. the ministry" by striving to bring the broadest world and to undermine the support the firefighters have won from The same British government that has sent troops to break class perspectives into even the most routine tasks. other trade unionists and working people. the firefighters' strike also sent troops to participate in the Aleida Guevara highlighted the points made by the revo­ This effort has been joined by other bosses, capitalist imperialist war in Afghanistan, and maintains thousands of lutionary leader about the need for a revolutionary youth politicians, and the entire big-business media. These en­ troops occupying Northern Ireland. Today that government organization to approach the challenges faced by the Cu­ emies of labor are deeply concerned that other workers, is preparing to send tens of thousand of troops to fight a ban Revolution with creativity, spontaneity, and rejecting starting with those on government payrolls, will follow war against Iraq for control of its oil wealth. a dogmatic, bureaucratic approach. the firefighters' example and begin to use union power in The "war against terrorism" is also being used in an "It's more effective to lead by example than to try to opposition both to bosses' attacks, and to government attempt to blackmail the firefighters from taking action push somebody to do something they don't know how to proposals to offload the effects of the capitalist crisis onto by accusing them of endangering life. In fact, the best do," she said, referring to the example set by Che in lead­ our backs. guarantee of effective fire cover is a strong union that puts ing voluntary labor brigades in the opening years of the The propagandists for the capitalist rulers claim that workers' safety first. It is the capitalist government that revolution. lower-paid workers have no interest in the FBU's struggle. will have blood on its hands should any loss of life be The November 23 meeting also marked the 43rd anni­ Under cover of such arguments they are trying to drive connected with the strike. versary of the first national mobilization of voluntary la­ down all workers' wages. We should reject this divide­ The firefighters' actions objectively run counter to the bor in Cuba, organized in November 1959. On that date, and-rule tactic. The real division is not between firefighters rulers' course toward war at home and abroad. Their re­ 300 soldiers and officers of Cuba's revolutionary armed and other workers, low-paid, better-off, or laid off, but fusal to put off their fight has earned them the right to the forces-in their majority combatants who had fought in between all working people and the ruling rich whose in­ active solidarity of the labor movement, other working the Rebel Army column led by Che during the revolu­ terests the government represents. people, and all those seeking an effective road to fight tionary war-joined other workers and peasants in a Beneath their lofty phrases, these propagandists defend back. project to build a school complex for 20,000 children. Speaking at the closing session of the seminar, Villegas explained Che Guevara's political evolution as a revolu­ tionary leader. He described how Che, as a radicalizing Free 5 Cuban patriots in U.S. jails youth in the early 1950s, became conscious of the need for revolutionary change after witnessing firsthand the The five Cubans framed up by the U.S. government on edly broke into their homes, violating the Fourth Amend­ effects of imperialism's plunder ofLatinAmerican coun­ "conspiracy" charges are fighting for justice. Working ment protection against arbitrary search and seizure. These tries. He pointed to the conclusions drawn by Guevara people and other fighters against exploitation and oppres­ attacks will be used by the U.S. government to justify about how a revolution was needed for workers and peas­ sion have an important stake in demanding their release. broader powers by the political police to conduct wire­ ants to take power out of the hands of the capitalist and What is the "crime" that Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo tapping, spying, and harassment against others who op­ landowning classes in Latin America. Hernandez, Ramon Labafiino, Antonio Guerrero, and pose the employers or U.S. government. As a youth with medical training who had joined the Fernando Gonzalez have committed? Gathering informa­ The prosecution's "evidence" consisted of information revolutionary movement in Cuba, Villegas said, Che con­ tion on ultrarightist groups that, operating on U.S. terri­ the FBI claimed to have collected in these raids. No evi­ cluded that "to be a revolutionary doctor he first needed tory with Washington's knowledge and complicity, have dence of any military secrets being stolen from the United to make a revolution." a history of violent attacks against Cuba. States and turned over to Cuba was ever presented. In fact, In response to a question about his own experiences in The five are working-class heroes who have risked their the main charges against them are "conspiracy to commit Cuba's revolutionary war, Villegas said the deepgoing lives to defend their country and their revolution-which espionage" for the Cuban government and other "con­ social transformations carried out by the revolution was for more than four decades has been under attack by Wash­ spiracy" charges-not for any actions committed. what had won him to become a communist. ington because of its example for working people and fight­ The judge refused a defense motion to move the trial Referring to the reaction by the U.S. imperialist rulers ers for freedom worldwide. out of Miami, even after several potential jurors, includ­ to the measures taken by the revolutionary government in They themselves are a product of the Cuban Revolution. ing Cuban-Americans, disqualified themselves for fear of nationalizing Cuba's banking system and industry, as well Three of them, for example, fought in Angola in the late reprisals if they voted "not guilty." The effort today by as carrying out an agrarian reform, he explained how 1980s as volunteer combatants when Cuba helped that Af­ their attorneys to seek a new trial deserves support. Cuba's working people and their revolutionary leadership rican nation defeat invasions by the South African apart­ Since their conviction and dispersal to five different responded to every attack by Washington. heid regime's army. federal prisons, the rights of the five revolutionaries con­ "It was an exchange of punches, until they left the ring," The frame-ups are an attack not only on the Cuban tinue to be trampled on, including the denial of visitation he said. "Whenever they slapped us once, we slapped them Revolution but on the rights of working people here. They rights by family and friends. In spite of all its efforts, how­ twice." are aimed at intimidating anyone who opposes the bosses' ever, Washington has failed to break the spirit of these Villegas also spoke extensively about the reasons why assaults or U.S. government policies. Over the three years Cuban patriots. Cubans took part in internationalist missions to the Congo prior to the arrests of the five in 1998, FBI agents repeat- Free the five Cuban patriots now! and other African countries, as well as the guerrilla cam­ paign in Bolivia. Together with other forces, it was a battle against imperialism on multiple fronts, he said. Many of the international guests participating in the meeting will be traveling to Guadalajara, Mexico, to at­ tend the congress of the Continental Student Organiza­ Conference on FTAA opens in Havana tion ofLatinAmerica and the Caribbean. More than 1,000 youth from Latin America, the United States, and Canada BY ROGER CALERO The background to the debate on the FTAA is "the deep­ are expected to participate in the anti-imperialist congress HAVANA-More than 1,000 representatives of trade est and most horrendous economic, social, and political there. union, political, indigenous, environmental, religious, and crisis in Latin America, and the serious economic crisis in social organizations from 41 countries are meeting here the United States," said Osvaldo Martinez, director of the November 23-28 for an international conference to dis­ Havana-based Center for Research on the World Economy, cuss opposition to the U.S.-backed trade bloc known as who gave the opening presentation. the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The largest Martinez explained that through the FTAA and other delegations have come from Mexico and the United States. trade measures, Washington seeks to be able to plunder by V.I. Lenin Present at the opening session of the event were Cuban more freely Latin America's national resources and rein­ president Fidel Castro and other representatives ofthe revo­ force the existing unequal terms oftrade between imperi­ Imperialism: The alist and semicolonial countries. The FTAA, he noted, is lutionary government, as well as delegates from Cuba's Highest Stage trade union federation and other mass organizations. inseparable from the growing U.S. military intervention Cuba has led an international campaign to educate in Latin America. of Capitalism around and oppose the FTAA since it was first projected Conference delegates also heard presentations about the "I trust that this pamphlet will help the in 1994. If the imperialist powers realize their plans, the current stage of the negotiations for the trade agreement, reader to understand the fundamental U.S.-dominated trade bloc will eventually include Wash­ projected to go into effect in 2005, and on campaigns be­ economic question, that of the economic ington, Ottawa, and 32 countries in Latin America and ing organized to oppose the FTAA. essence of imperialism," Lenin wrote in the Caribbean. Evo Morales, the main leader of the coca farmers in 1917. "For unless this is studied, it will Bolivia and presidential candidate in that country's elec­ be impossible to understand and tions earlier this year, gave a feature presentation at the appraise modern war and modern end of the session. He said Washington's so-called war politics." $8.00 CORRECTIONS against drug trafficking is simply an excuse for increased The article "Nurses in California strike for pen­ U.S. military intervention in South America and "for the What Is To Be Done? sions, reduced workloads," in last week's issue in­ U.S. rulers to solidify their power in our countries." "The Social-Democrat's ideal should not be the trade-union correctly identified Corrine Comer as a striker. She Morales spoke about the fight by the indigenous move­ secretary, but the tribune of the people, who is able to react to is a staff organizer for the California Nurses Asso­ ment in Bolivia to take back the territory stolen from them every manifestation of tyranny and oppression ... " $6.00 ciation. by wealthy landlords. Also in last week's issue, the article "UK fire­ The indigenous leader also called on the organizations fighters resist gov't threats," inaccurately reported the present to wage an international effort to condemn mount­ Fire Brigades' wage demand. It should say "hourly ing threats by pro-imperialist forces in Venezuela to carry take-home pay" instead of "hourly wage rate." out a coup against the elected government of President Hugo Chavez. December 9, 2002 The Militant 15 THE MILITANT Protests in El Salvador block health cuts BYJANNEABULLARADE staple foods and medicines. Previous gov­ SEATTLE-Sustained protests by doc­ ernments have sold off the banks, telecom­ tors and working people in El Salvador, munications, and electricity, resulting in the Thousands of students in Peru which have been going on since mid-Sep­ layoff of thousands of public employees, tember, have pushed back government plans price increases for essential services, and the to shift public health care to private hands. weakening of the unions. oppose cuts in public education In the latest chapter ofthis fight, the leg­ Workers are facing increasingly harsh islative assembly, under pressure from six economic conditions as a result ofthe world­ days of marches and roadblocks by work­ wide capitalist crisis. The official poverty ers, peasants, and youth across the country, rate has increased from 45 percent ofhouse­ ratified a decree November 14 barring holds in 1999 to 51 percent in 2001, and moves to privatize the public health system real wages lost 30 percent of their value and suspending all existing contracts for the compared to 1988. "purchase" of health services as of the end The official unemployment figure is 7 of the year. percent, and underemployment is 32 per­ In the course of the two-month battle, tens cent. By the end of 2001, the total domes­ of thousands of doctors and health-care tic and foreign debt amounted to $4.6 bil­ workers, along with other trade unionists, lion, or 32.6 percent of the Gross Domestic students, peasants, and members of social Product. organizations have participated in numer­ In response to the mounting nationwide ous protest actions, including three major protests, President Francisco Flores on Oc­ demonstrations in San Salvador, the capi­ tober 31 backed off from his threat to veto tal. The protests began after STISSS, the the anti-privatization bill. He also declared union that organizes the health-care work­ that he would withdraw his "Democratiza­ ers of the Salvadoran Institute of Social Se­ tion of Preventive Health Care" proposal­ curity, went on strike September 18. a voucher plan that would pave the way for The walkout was in response to the fir­ privatizing health-care services. ing of 10 union members for actions they The day before Flores's announcement, allegedly took part in during a one-day strike workers at the public hospital system began on September 5 to protest privatization a solidarity strike. The three-day action was Thousands of students demonstrated November 5 in Lima, Peru, to oppose gov­ moves already under way. The union of the third in a series of progressively longer ernment attacks on public education that are part of austerity measures demanded doctors at the institute, SIMETRISSS, work stoppages. That same day, the main by the International Monetary Fund. They carried signs protesting cuts in teach­ joined the strike on September 27. Since roads in the country were successfully ers' wages and moves to make the public university system privately-financed. then, medical personnel have progressively blocked by protesters for almost three hours. President Alejandro Toledo tried to demobilize the protests by promising that shut down 10 of the largest hospitals of the The ISSS unions joined with other work­ public education would always be free under his administration, but student or­ institution's network across the country. ing people in marches and protests through­ ganizers pointed out that state funding has already been cut and that universities "The time has come for the people to re­ out the country, some of which were held in are now 45 percent "self-financed," much of which will be paid for in student fees gain their sovereignty and dictate policy to front ofhospitals supporting the strike. Doc­ and wage cuts. Earlier, high school students demonstrated inAyacucho province. a government that favors the interests ofbig tors and workers at the 10 largest hospitals business in this country," stated Guillermo in the public health system began a solidar­ Mata, president of the Salvadoran Medical ity strike November 5, while pledging to at­ the privatization of health care is being cel­ at the Hydroelectric Executive Commission Association. "The people ofthis country can tend to emergency cases. ebrated by strikers and their supporters. In of the Lempa River (CEL) went on strike no longer allow themselves to be trampled the midst of cheers and applause, Ricardo on November 11. The strikers demand the on." Doctors continue fight Monge, secretary general ofSTISSS, stated, reinstatement of 29 trade unionists, includ­ The strike received widespread support President Flores finally agreed to meet "Through struggle, the Salvadoran people ing their general secretary, fired without from trade unions, transport workers, shop­ with representatives of the Salvadoran have stopped the privatization of health explanation in October 2001, and an end to keepers, municipal workers, peasant groups, MedicalAssociation, SIMETRISSS, and the care." He and other strike leaders have said all such illegal firings and other union-bust­ and organizations such as the Citizen's Al­ public health-care system. After three days that the ISSS strike will continue until the ing activities. liance Against the Privatization of Public of negotiations, Flores, in a last-ditch effort decree is signed into law and published in Some 230 workers in the maintenance Services, a coalition of some 50 organiza­ to salvage the health-care privatization the official register, all the fired workers are section nationwide went on strike in sup­ tions. Employees at private clinics across the scheme, sent an amended bill back to the reinstated, the doctors and workers that sup­ port of the CEL employees and fired work­ country held a one-day general strike Octo­ legislative assembly November 8 to allow ported the strike receive back pay, and the ers whose 23-day hunger strike to press their ber 25 to protest the privatization plans. public institutions the "freedom to pur­ government guarantees no reprisals against demands had been ignored by government Explaining the widespread support for chase" medical services from private busi­ the striking workers. officials. the fight against privatization of health ness. In response, the doctors, with wide Leaders of the strike have declared that it care, Margarita Posada, a leader of the support from unions and other working Electrical workers strike will progressively be extended to other Citizen's Alliance, commented, "This is a people, vowed to continue the fight. In a related development, the Union of power plants if the government does not people who have awoken as a result of all The ratification of the decree outlawing Workers of the Electrical Sector (STSEL) respond to their demands. the privatization processes that have al­ ready occurred, which have been based on false promises that have only led to higher costs and the elimination of services. That is why we dread a privatized health-care Poland: miners, steelworkers, nurses system." Increased resistance of working people march against gov 't plans to slash jobs The fight against privatization of health care is part of the increasing resistance of BY PAUL PEDERSON approval rating drop from 50 percent at the Coal mining jobs have been slashed from working people against the policies of the Chanting "thieves," 10,000 coal miners, time of the elections to 34 percent this past 400,000 in 1990 to 140,000 today. The gov­ right-wing ARENA government. The gov­ steelworkers, and nurses marched through month as the details of the final negotiations ernment plans to close seven more mines, ernment of El Salvador, a Central Ameri­ the city of Katowice in the Silesia region of for Poland's entry into the EU have emerged. eliminating an additional 35,000 jobs. can country of 6.4 million people, has Poland November 19 to oppose the govern­ "Our patience is running out," Wojciech Warsaw's austerity package includes mea­ pegged its national currency to the U.S. dol­ ment's plans to slash jobs and to demand Gubik, a miner from Gliwice, told report­ sures that threaten 10,000 workers in the lar, and has introduced a 13 percent tax on more funding for health care. The demon- ers. "We have families, children to support. steel industry. strators carried torches, threw fire­ We will fight for our jobs." Meanwhile, between 1990 and 1997 pro­ crackers, and blocked traffic be­ Another miner, Janusz Rados, told Pol­ ductivity rose by 53 per1:ent. The amount From Pathfinder fore gathering outside the office ish radio, ''All we want are jobs that would of coal extracted from one longwall face of the provincial governor. allow us to earn money for our families. (coal seam) more than doubled from 863 The Changing Face A number of struggles by Those politicians in Warsaw don't seem to tons up to I ,889 tons over the same period. workers in Poland have erupted understand that." Declining working conditions have taken of U.S. Politics over the last several months in re­ Two protest actions were organized by a bloody toll on mine workers. In the first Working-Class Politics sponse to the government's "re­ miners, steelworkers, and others in Warsaw 10 months of this year 31 miners have been and the Trade Unions structuring" measures, which last month. killed, compared to 24 in 200 I. In the worst coal mine disaster in Poland since 1987, an Jack Barnes have included the sell-off of state Shipyard workers are locked in a struggle industries and steep job cuts. for pay and job protection against a ship­ explosion in a Silesia mine took the lives of A handbook for workers coming Warsaw's austerity measures ping company that was privatized in 1990s. lO workers in February. into the factories, mines, and come as the government negoti­ Meanwhile, the first privately owned coal The conditions that Brussels is demand­ mills, as they react to the uncer­ ates the conditions for Poland's mine was opened in the town ofZabrze early ing for Poland's entry into the EU will have tain life, turmoil, and brutality of entry into the European Union this year. devastating effects on the 2.6 million people capitalism. It shows how millions next month. The Silesia region, one of the main coal who work the land. of workers, as political resistance grows, will revolution­ According to polls, Leznek mining and industrial centers of the coun­ The current offer will provide farmers in ize themselves, their unions, and all of society. Also avail­ Miller, Poland's prime minister, try, has been hit particularly hard by the Poland with only 25 percent of the subsi­ elected last year as part of a coa­ government's measures. The official unem­ dies that farmers receive in existing EU able in Spanish and French. $23.00. lition government of the Demo­ ployment rate in that region is 30 percent, member states. Brussels is also demanding Available from bookstores, including those listed on page cratic LeftAlliance Party and Pol­ compared to the national rate of nearly 18 that Warsaw pay out 2.6 billion euros per 14, or visit www.pathfinderpress.com ish Peasants' Party, has seen his percent. year as a condition of membership.

16 The Militant December 9, 2002