THE MILITANT Published in the Interests of the Working People
Vol. 32- No. 22 Friday, May 31, 1968 Price 10c
TAKE-OVER AT RENAULT. Some of the 40,000 workers, who seized the huge auto sive plant, which straddles the Seine River. Occupations of factories have spread all over works in suburban Paris, at union meeting May 17. Meeting is being held inside the mas- France, in greatest general strike the world has ever seen.
By Joseph Hansen de Gaulle's speech will have on the various danger were the ministers of the interior, of fascists, "the German Jew." (He was born MAY 24- Before de Gaulle spoke today, classes in France. But there appeared to be education, and of information." in France of German-Jewish refugee parents it had been indicated by circles close to the precious little in it to arouse any enthusiasm The head of the minister of information but took out German citizenship when they Elysee Palace that the general had deliber among the workers or to inspire them to was slated to roll, according to Morgan, went back home.) ately deferred his appearance as long as give up the plants they have taken over, to because he was responsible for issuing the This reached ridiculous proportions when possible despite the enormous pressure on retire from the streets and once again con statement- ascribed to de Gaulle upon his the French government, apparently on direct him to do something about what is already duct themselves like sheep. return from Rumania: "La reforme, oui, Ia orders from de Gaulle himself, barred him being described in the press as a "social De Gaulle announced a referendum to be chienlit, non." ("Chienlit" is a foul barracks from re-entering the country May 24 after revolution." held sometime in June that would give him word for someone who soils his bed; in this he went to Brussels and then Amsterdam to De Gaulle's strategy, according to these the power to reconstruct the social structure context it could mean "dirty mess.") speak at student gatherings. (In Brussels the sources, was to "play it cool" in the expec of France, which he acknowledged must un This was picked up by the workers. They police barred him from speaking.) The entire tation that time was on his side, that the dergo "mutation." Included in the "mutation" responded with placards: "Le chienlit, c' est border guard was alerted to watch out for the enormous strike wave would lose its momen would be provisions for the "extensive par lui." (He's the chienlit.) red-headed student. And he was arrested when, tum as people grew tired of the paralysis ticipation" of workers and students at "the The search for scapegoats ranged farther at the head of 1,000 students, he sought to and fearful of what might come next. Thus, decision level," presumably in the factories than that. From the beginning, Premier return to France. choosing the psychological moment, he could and universities. Pompidou blamed it all on "provocateurs" The incident provided a gauge of how in appear on the television screens once more He also condescended to say that he would and "a handful of madmen." The attractive secure de Gaulle now feels. He mobilized the as the "savior of France" and thus retrieve open "talks" with the union leaders concern revolutionary-minded Daniel Cohn-Bendit entire French border guard to protect capi the situation. ing the demands being voiced by the rank was especially singled out, the Communist talist France from an invasion by "Danny The general left several items out of his and file workers throughout the country. Party calling him "the German," and the the Red"! calculations. First of all, instead of subsiding, What de Gaulle was actually seeking in the strike wave deepened and spread. Some his highly advertised speech was merely to 10,000,000 workers out of a labor force of gain time and to do so without making any concrete promises. If he can get the striking workers and rebellious students to leave ev Paris on the barricades: erything up to him, and to confine themselves to nothing more than getting out the vote for his projected plebiscite, which actually an on-the-spot report amounts to nothing more than a vote of con fidence, then he will have gained a temporary By Gisela Mandel victory which he may then be able to extend. [The current wave of Frenchstudentprotest excerpt from a long article which appeared just under 15,000,000 are now on strike, The formula he is following is to try to began Feb. 21, when university and high in the May 27 Intercontinental Press. Copies more than 2,000 factories being occupied. get the political conflict out of the streets and school students held a mass demonstration of this issue may be obtained for 50 cents On top of this, the farmers moved into into parliament where it can then be dissipated and renamed the Latin Quarter the Heroic each from Intercontinental Press, P. 0. Box action on the very day he appeared on the in "reform" legislation at the cost of some Vietnam Quarter. Several leaders of the 635, Madison Sq. Station, New York, N.Y. television screens. In a 24-hour demonstra concessions. Co mite Vietnam National ( N a tiona! Vietnam 10010.] tion, they began blocking highways with The Communist Party, which is followed Committee) were arrested during this action. PARIS- That same evening (May 9), barricades. by millions of workers in France, is playing [On March 22 a mass demonstration pro the JCR (Jeunesse Communiste Revolution Next, the general's delay gave time to the along with de Gaulle in this game. Instead testing these arrests was held at the Univer naire- Revolutionary Communist Youth) revolutionary opposition- the insurgent stu of pressing for establishment of a workers sity in Nanterre, a Paris suburb. The students held a mass meeting of 6,000 students in dents and workers-to organize a new dem government committed to the program of occupied university buildings and took over the Mutualite, to which Comrades Semmler onstration in Paris the day he chose to speak. socialism, such as the workers in France the radio station. The rector closed the school and Rabehl from the Berlin SDS They did this despite pleas from the police have clearly indicated they want by taking for two days, and there were several clashes ( Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund for a one-day "armistice" in demonstrations. over the plants and running up the red flag, with fascist groups. German Socialist Student League) had been Thus, as the general's taped seven-minute the CP bureaucrats are merely calling for the [On May 2 and 3, DaysofStruggleAgainst invited. When the news came that they had speech was broadcast, the radio reported that resignation of de Gaulle and the formation Imperialism had been called for N anterre. been turned back at the Paris airport, a workers and students had assembled at six of a "popular front" and a "coalition gov On May 2 the rector again closed the univer real storm broke out among the students. different areas to converge in a new massive ernment" that would leave the capitalist eco sity, and on May 3 students of the Sorbo nne On May 10 at 6:30 p.m., 35,000 univer rally in Paris around the slogan, "De Gaulle nomic structure in France completely intact. and a number of high schools demonstrated sity and high-school students gathered at the resign!" The Communist Party is bidding, in fact, in the Latin Quarter in solidarity with the Place Denfert-Rochereau. The high-school stu The roar of the crowd carried much better to displace de Gaulle as the savior of capi students of Nanterre. dents, who had struck that day, showed up than the demagogy of the aging bonapartist talist France. [This demonstration was attacked by the two hours earlier and had a good time, ruler. The de Gaulle regime itself is racked with police, and the first street battles were fought singing songs of the French revolution and Finally, de Gaulle overlooked the absur a deep internal crisis. This is shown by the On May 6, the Sorbonne was closed and the Paris Commune along with the "Inter dity of his posture. This is not 1958 when search for scapegoats on whom to blame the surrounded by police and armored cars. The nationale." At 6:00p.m. the students formed France faced the assault of the fascist-minded colossal events. Carlyle Morgan, Paris cor following day another demonstration, num up in front of their different institute and generals and colonialists defeated in Algeria. respondent of the Christian Science Monitor, bering 20,000 students, took place. The Latin university buildings and marched with ban Just who was he saving France from in reported May 24 that it was "widely ex Quarter has been the scene of almost contin ners from all directions toward the assembly 1968-de Gaulle? pected . . . that several Cabinet ministers uous demonstrations since. point. It of course remains to be seen what effect would lose their posts. Among those seen in [The following eyewitness account is an (Continued on page 4) Page 2 THE MILITANT Friday, May 31, 1968
THE MILITANT 'My brother is a Gl in Vietnam' Editor: BARRY SHEPPARD Business Manager: BEVERLY SCOTT Jewish community, and because Facing court-martial the Jews were separated from those Published weekly by The Militant Publishing Ass'n., 873 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10003. Phone 533-6414. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. who could have been their allies, Subscription: domestic, $3 a year; Canada and Latin America, $3.50; other for refusing com bat the Nazis nearly achieved their foreign, $4.50. By first class mail: domestic and Canada $9.00; all other coun tries, $14.00. Air printed matter: domestic and Canada,$12.50; Latin America, "final solution to the Jewish prob $23.00; Europe, $27.00; Africa, Australia, Asia (including USSR), $32.00. lem." Write for sealed air postage rates. Signed articles by contributors do not nec San Francisco, Calif. essarily represent The Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials. I am sending a copy of an open The Warsaw Ghetto uprising has letter that I wrote to the Army lessons for us today: Blacks who Vol. 32-No. 22 .128 Friday, May 31, 1968 officer who has been assigned to are now prime targets of the Amer defend my brother. My brother ican racists will be herded into is a soldier in Vietnam who is re ghettos where their uprisings will fusing to do combat. be destroyed. They must learn • that not all blacks will be their This column is an open forum 1n * * * for all viewpoints on subjects of Red flag flies France To Capt. Smith, U.S. Army: allies, that not all whites are their general interest to our readers. I am writing with regards to the enemies, and they must learn to Please keep your letters brief. Where case of Pfc. Lony J. Hanna. I am resist now. necessary they will be abridged. The takeover of the factories by the French workers indicates his brother. I have been informed The Warsaw Ghetto uprising on Writers' initials will be used, names the depth and power of the massive, spontaneous revolutionary that you have been assigned to April 19, 1943, marked the first being withheld unless authorization upsurge now gripping France. defend Lony.... effort of a civilian population to is given for use. By occupying the factories the workers have raised the ques Lony has been in contact with fight the Nazis and brought honor me by letters since he went into to a humiliated people threatened tion of who the plants belong to- the capitalist bosses or the with annihilation. workers? Whose interests does the economy serve- the handful the Army. When he was called to the Army, he was confident that N.H. Brutal police attack of capitalist exploiters or the working masses, the vast, over the U. S. policy of war with Viet whelming majority? nam was correct. He was inspired on marchers in Miss. These questions immediately raise another: what about the to do his part like many young Antimarihuana laws government? Will the capitalists use their government with its Americans at his age without se Brookhaven, Miss. police and armies to re-establish their authority in the factories rious considerations aboutthewar. The enclosed clipping is from the and maintain the system of exploitation the workers are re He was proud to be in the Army San Francisco, Calif. Jackson Daily News regarding the and tried very hard to qualify for inhuman treatment of the Missis volting against? Or will the workers, basing themsevles upon The Socialist Workers Party the 101st Airborne. His success should call for the repeal of the sippi Highway Patrol against mem the foothold they have gained in the occupation of the factories, in becoming a part of the 101st marihuana laws. A Gallup Poll bers of the Poor Men's March on move forward to kick out the whole gang of capitalist poli Airborne made him very happy. in the November 1967 Readers Washington at Marks, Miss. The ticians and the capitalist government, replacing it with a work After he arrived in Vietnam he Digest said 6 percent of the college big money interests want to keep ers government, which could open the way for the building of told me about his training in jungle students use it. Gallup, in the May the poor down so that they can socialism? school and his letters reflected anti 1967 San Francisco Chronicle, continue to exploit them both econ The workers are demonstrating in action what they want: cipation of confronting the NLF said 61 percent of the students omically and socially for their own a complete takeover. That is indicated by the occupations in battle. When he was sent into oppose expulsion from college of gain, and the Mississippi High any students caught using it. way Patrol is using neo-Nazi po themselves. It is also indicated by the red flags the workers combat, his unit scored some suc cessful ambushes. Hetoldmeabout The antimarihuana laws violate lice state tactics to carry this out. have raised on the plants they are occupying-in their minds the many killings his unit made. the Ninth Amendment: "The enu Mississippi has long used fascist the red flag stands for socialism or communism. And, the work But something new was added; he meration in this Constitution of tactics clothed in the guise of ers have demonstrated for all to see, they have the power and was very emotionally concerned certain rights is not meant to "States' Rights." Regardless of how the fighting capacity to do the job. about the casualties in his unit. denigrate or deny others retained brutal a member of the MHP is, The chief obstacle on the road to victory for the French He stated many times, "There is by the people." he is never discharged. Washington and ,Jefferson both workers is the bureaucratized and Stalinized Communist Party, nothing pretty about a dead G I." Reader Concern for his own life was grew it (knowing it as hemp). I which has demonstrated its capacity to save the capitalist struc do not think they smoked it. ture in moments of extreme crisis down through the years. secondary to his concern for his buddies. He also revealed that he Probably they grew it for the fibers $500,000 Suit Its first such performance on a major scale was in 1936 when no longer believes the N LF is the in the stalks. But the point is that France witnessed a working-class upsurge comparable to the enemy. He arrived at the conclu they possessed it. Filed In Delta one now taking place. They did it again in the 1944-4 7 up sion that the U.S. involvement in The government no longer claims CLARKSDALE, Miss. (AP} - surge. And they are now the great hope for the French capital Vietnam was not worth the deaths marihuana is dangerous. The I<'ive teen-aged Negro girls filed ists once again. of his buddies or his own sacrifice. President's Commission on Law a half-miliion dollar lawsuit in Enforcement and the Administra federal court here Monday, The New York Times, expressing this hope, shared by capi He tried to solve his problem by tion of Justice wrote in its report, charging that p<~!ice in Marks, talists on this side of the Atlantic, too, pointed out on May 19: refusing to do com bat. Taking into Miss., used unnecessary force consideration the circumstances, he "The Challenge of Crime to a Free in breaking up a sit-in demon "If the Communist Party has managed to take over the move is guiltless of any actions he takes Society,""... the Commission be stration on the Quitman County ment, then ironically, the institutions are safe and the political to avoid combat. ... lieves that enough information ex jail lawn last week. Miss Brown, Miss McAdory contest is likely to move back into the National Assembly with Officials of the U.S. government ists to warrant careful study of our present marijuana laws and the and Miss Henderson said they votes of confidence and votes of censure and traditional question the legality of this war. had been struck with rifle butts propositions on which they are speeches-and sooner or later a new election." People of the U.S. and the world swung by highway patrolmen. based." (p. 22 5) The Communist Party bureaucrats sought to assert leader recognize that the U. S. is using Miss Heags said she was preg Thousands, nay, tens of thou nant, and had been kicked in every war crime in the book to ship over the spontaneous movement by going along with it sands are arrested yearly as vio the stomach by a highway pa after having failed at an earlier stage to block it. Thus they exterminate the Vietnamese. trolman. Miss Jamison said she latots of these antimarihuana laws. was kicked in the side by Pride. put the trade unions they control [the General Confederation There is an increasing amount of military personnel who cannot Leonard Brenner Glaser of Labor] in the forefront of such demonstrations as the one justify their participation in this on May 13. At the same time they shouted about the danger war on Vietnam. There are very of "provocations." What they meant by this was shown by few people left who are willing to the dispatch from Paris May 20: "To reduce the risk of vio stand behind the present adminis lence, it [the General Confederation of Labor] banned parades tration in the war effort .... It is YSA and Labor Bookstore, 704 Hennepin and demonstrations outside the plants, and in nearly all cases clear that the U. S. is trying to deny (If you ore interested in the ideos of independence and self-determina socialism. you con meet socialists in your Ave., Hall 240, Mpls. 55403. (612) it obtained the release of plant managers sequestered by en city at the following addresses.) FE 2-7781. thusiastic workers." tion to Vietnam. This war was created by the actions of the U.S. MISSOURI: St. Louis: Phone EV 9·2895, The CP aim is transparent. It is to get the workers out of government without the will of its CAUFORNIA: Berkeley-Oakland: Socia list ask far Dick Clarke. the plants and out of the streets, and convert the struggle in people and beyond the control of Workers Party (SWP) and Young Socialist NEW JERSEY: N-arlc Newark Labor which power is really at stake, into the shadow play of par Lony .... Alliance (YSA), 2519A Telegraph Ave., Forum, Box 361, Newark 0710 I. liamentary politics. Hence the CP demand that de Gaulle Lony may receive a court-mar Berkeley 94704. (415) 849·1032. NEW YORK: Albany: YSA, Carol French, "resign." (They have the power to remove him with a flick tial and serve prison time. . . . He Los Angeles: SWP and YSA, 1702 East 272 Lark St., Albany 12210. of the finger.) Hence the CP appeal for a new Popular Front. does not deserve this. He should Fourth St., L.A. 90033. (213) AN 9-4953. New York City: Militant Labar Forum, By "Popular Front" they mean unity with the" progressive" be rewarded for his efforts. This San Diego: San Diego Labor Forum, 873 Broadway (near 18th St.). N.Y. 10003. situation is not his fault but the (2 12) 982-6051. or "democratic" sector of the capitalist class, on the basis of P. 0. Box 2221, San Diego 92112. fault of U. S. aggression on Viet San Francisco: Militant Labor Forum and OHIO: Cleveland: Eugene V. Debs Hall, maintaining capitalism. A workers government, and the per nam. The only just and moral Pioneer Books, 2338MarketSt., S. F. 94114. 2nd floor west, 980 I Euclid Ave., Cleveland spective of socialism, is "postponed" for the immediate future answer to this case is to discharge (415) 522-1632. 44106. (216) 791-1669. (see article, page 5). This policy, as it did in the thirties and him honorably and bring him Santa Rosa: Young Socialist Alliance, Kent. YSA, Roy S. lnglee, 123 Water St. forties, would guarantee the dissipation of the revolutionary home immediately. Stefan Bosworth, 808 Spencer. N., Kent 44240. 673-7032. upsurge and the preservation of the rule of the monopolists. Thomas A. Hanna DElAWARE: Lloyd Summers, Box 559, Yellow Springs: Antioch YSA, Rick Whatever concessions won by the workers could then be taken Dover, Del. (302) 674-9842. Wadsworth, Antioch College Union, Yellow GEORGIA: YSA, P. 0. Box 6262, Atlanta, Springs 45387. (513) 767-7862. away at a later date. Warsaw Ghetto Will the CP succeed once again in imposing its disastrous Ga. 30308. (404) 872-1612. PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia: SWP and ILUNOIS: Carbondale: YSA, Bill Moffet, 406 YSA, 686 N.BroadSt.,Phila.l9130.(215) policy on the workers? This remains to be seen. Los Angeles, Calif. S. Washington. CE 6-6998. The truth is that the CP has been cut off to a considerable When the April 27 march of the Chicago: SWP, YSA and bookstore, 302 TEXAS: Austin: YSA, James E. Gardner, Los Angeles Peace Action Council degree from the younger generation, who set up the barricades 607W. 31-1/2 St. (512) 454-6143. came to its rallying point, the S. Canal St., Rm. 204, Chicago 60606. in the Latin Quarter and touched off the entire current upsurge. Houston: YSA, Dov id Shroyer, I 116 marchers were met by a group of (312) 939-5044. This generation now has an excellent chance to outflank the Columbus St., Houston 78703. (713) JA 9- American Nazis who wore swas Champaig,..Urbana: YSA, Michael Han· CP bureaucrats from the left. This possibility itself constitutes 2236. tika armbands, carried racist nagan, 56 Townsend. (217) 332-4285. a source of pressure on the CP that did not exist in 1936 or posters, shouted racist slogans, and INDIANA: Bl-mingtan: YSA, Russel Block, UTAH: Salt Lake City: Shem Richards, 957 194 7 and which could compel these bureaucrats to go even attempted to provoke a riot. These 207 East 2nd St., Bloomington 47401. 339· E. First Ave., Salt Lake 84103. (80 I) 355- further than they themselves dream or would desire. racist provocateurs were driven off 4640. 3537. The role of the Trotskyists, and particularly the Jeunesse by the blacks they attacked. MARYlAND: Baltimore: YSA, Toby Rice, WASHINGTON, D.C.: YSA, lana Hicken, Communiste Revolutionnaire, has been mentioned repeatedly Such resistance to the fascists' 4300 Springdale Ave. 15 7th St. N. E., 20002. (202) 546-2092. WASHINGTON: Cheney: YSA, Ann in the press for what they accomplished in the first stages to attack recalls the uprising in the MASSACHUSETTS: Baston: Militant Labor Forum, 295 Huntington Ave., Rm. 307. Montague, 5223 Dryden Hall. Cheney set the class struggle in motion. There is great ferment and Warsaw Ghetto which occurred 25 years before. (617) 876-5930. 90004. discussion going on among the students and workers on the Because there was not unity be MICHIGAN: Detroit. Eugene V. Debs Hall, SeoHie: SWP and YSA, 5257 University role of the CP, the nature of the "popular front" and related tween all oppressed and progres 3737 Woodward Ave., Detroit 4820 I. (313) Way N.E., Seattle 98105 (206) 523-2555. issues. This all augurs well for the revolutionary period now sive forces, because there were mis TE 1-6135. WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, 202 Marion opening up in France. leaders inside and outside the MINNESOTA: Minneapolis-St. Paul: SWP, St. (608) 256-0857. Friday, May 31, 1968 THE MILITANT Page 3 Political exclusion in Student Mobilization By Harry Ring and Lew Jones berger, SMC staff members Irwin Gladstone, MAY 23- A political and organizational Brent Garren and Jane Baum, Fred Halstead In a letter to members of the crisis has erupted in the Student Mobilization and Harry Ring of the SWP, Lew Jones of Student Mobilization Committee, Committee to End the War in Vietnam. A the YSA and Kipp Dawson and Syd Stapleton. Kipp Dawson and Syd Stapleton grouping within the SMC has taken the first Tactical Switch have urged student antiwar ac steps to impose a policy of political exclusion At this meeting Linda Morse stated that tivists and groups to take the on it and to divert it from its present course it was their intention to withdraw the in as an organizer of mass student actions following action in protest against defensible exclusionary motion but said they the undemocratic moves taken in against the Vietnam war and the related would not reverse the practical result of that issues of the draft, racism, and campus com motion, the staff firings. the working committee of the Stu plicity with the war effort. In discussion, it was insisted that the firings dent Mobilization Committee: Through a series of bureaucratic moves were not intended to bar all YSAers from 1) Protest to the SMC national carried through in the New York national serving on staff, but only Dawson and office, 17 East 17th St., New York, office of the organization, Kipp Dawson and Stapleton who, they asserted, were "insensi N. Y. 10003, the attemptto impose Syd Stapleton, two leading builders of SMC, tive" to the thinking of "independents" and a policy of political exclusion on were fired from the staff of the organization hewed rigidly to the YSA line. the organization and the attempt because of their membership in the Young While in no way whatsoever accepting the to scuttle the decisions of the na Socialist Alliance. validity of this claim, the SWP and YSA The exclusionary action came within days tional conference. participants in the meetings proposed that, 2) Demand that, in accordance after the SM C -led student strike- the most since the issue was posed on an individual successful of its kind so far- of which the basis rather than on that of excluding a with the decision of the last con two Young Socialists were the principal na political tendency, the working committee ference, a full national conference tional organizers. Kipp Dawson is a national could clearly demonstrate its adherence to be held in the midwest the weekend coordinator of SMC and Stapleton was editor APRIL 15, 1967. Kipp Dawson speaking nonexclusion by reinstating the fired staff of June 29. of the SMC Mobilizer. to crowd of 7 5, 000 in San Francisco. She members. It would be rather meaningless, They have asked that copies of The move to oust them for their political was West Coast executive director of it was explained, to rescind the wording of such communications be sent to beliefs was sparked by a bloc that appears demonstration, and is now a national co the exclusionary motion, while leaving the Kipp Dawson, 316 East 11th St., to have been established between a grouping ordinator of Student Mobilization Com practical results of the motion- the firings generally described as radical pacifists and Apt. 4A, New York, N.Y. 10003. mittee. untouched. the Communist Party and DuBois Clubs. If this was done, it was proposed, Dawson The term radical pacifist embraces a group What they are heading for, some very and Stapleton were willing to withdraw from For those who genuinely favor mass action, ing of advocates of nonviolence who regard consciously and some unconsciously, is the the staff. In their place, it was proposed that the international student strike could not be Liberation editor Dave Dellinger as their conversion of the SMC into some kind of a nebulous multi-issue organization whose Lew Jones be added to the staff since it was considered anything but a spectacular success principal spokesman. Linda Morse, executive that went beyond anyone's hopes or ex secretary of the SMC, is associated with this main focus will not be the struggle against generally agreed that he was a particularly the Vietnam war. And in attempting to do so, easy and "sensitive" person to work with. pectations. grouping. Nearly a million U.S. students were in The first move to oust the YSAers came at they are trampling on the policy of non At first the exclusionists balked at this idea. Brent Garren blurted out that it was no help volved, with a significant response on many a May 8 meeting of the SMC working com exclusion that has contributed so much to campuses where previously only scattered mittee, a largely accidental grouping, ap building the antiwar movement and to com to get rid of Dawson and Stapleton and get individuals had joined in actions. In addition, pointed in part by Linda Morse, and not bating McCarthyism. Jones. This he asserted, would only deepen Immediately following the meeting where the SMC's "image" as a "Trotskyite front." the world response to the SMC call made it genuinely representative of SMC thinking on this exclusionary motion was shoved through, (This, too, was later described as an un the first real international student strike a national basis. fortunate formulation that had no relation organized yet. Exclusionary Motion the makers of the motion were told by their more experienced advisers that the form of In the face of this accomplishment, to which At this meeting a motion was rammed to the firings. ) everyone agrees Dawson and Stapleton made through that flatly violated SMC's policy of their action- that is, a blatantly exclusionary However, after recessing for a caucus meet motion- was politically indefensible. a decisive contribution, Steve Cagan, an political nonexclusion. The motion, supported ing, the group said they would accept the officer of the DuBois Clubs, offered a motion by the CP and the pacifists, stated: "The Trick Move proposal provided Lew Jones would take staff shall be composed entirely of indepen So, at the next working committee meeting, an official leave from his post as national (later withdrawn) that the two Young dents in order to relieve some major tensions May 16, the motion was rescinded and one chairman of the YSA. This was agreed to. Socialists be fired for "obstructing" the work in the office." was adopted piously reaffirming the abstract It was also generally agreed that when he of the SMC! To implement this motion, it was conceded, principle of nonexclusion. Then, with the became available at a later date, Howard To this Mike Zagarell of the Communist it would be necessary for a screening com formalities attended to, a motion was passed Petrick, the YSAer discharged from the Army Party added that he favored firing the YSAers mittee to process all applicants for staff po firing the two Young Socialists, this time for his political views, would also join the because by their work they had succeeded sitions to ensure they were not members of without any reason at all included in the staff. only in "narrowing" the coalition. How this any proscribed organization. Shades of the motion! (To maintain the fiction that the However, the group did not live up to the assertion squared with the breadth of the attorney general's subversive list! action was not aimed exclusively at the YSA, agreement they had entered into. That night, strike and the growth of SMC as a campus The practical effect of this motion was to Phyllis Kalb's "resignation" was accepted.) at a second meeting of the SMC, they led the force, he did not say. eliminate Kipp Dawson and Syd Stapleton Further trampling on conference decisions, fight to continue the exclusion of the YSA. While they all demagogically insisted that from the staff. It also meant the elimination the CP-pacifist bloc are insisting on an SMC For a variety of differing, contradictory they favored mass action, working committee of Phyllis Kalb of the Communist Party, but continuations committee meeting in New York reasons, they insisted that Jones, like Dawson member Leslie Cagan explained that "stu she indicated this two-for-one deal was quite June 29. This flouts another decision made and Stapleton, was unfit to work on SMC dents don't like mass mobilizations." agreeable to her, and the Communist Party by the national conference of the organization staff. The action of this grouping is a blow at and DuBois Clubs vigorously supported the last January, namely that another national Demagogic Move the movement against the Vietnam war. A motion. conference be held in six months to set In a demagogic effort to cover their tracks, major factor in organizing opposition to the In discussing the motion, it was made per policies, chart activity and select officers. The the bloc then adopted a motion purporting war in the past three years has been the fact fectly plain that the entire intent was to get attempt to substitute a continuations com to "reaffirm" their belief in the principle of that the movement has decisively repudiated rid of Stapleton and Dawson. The claimed mittee meeting, which can be more easily nonexclusion and offered a staff position to the witch-hunting policy of political exclusion motivation was the baseless charge that in packed, is intended to avoid a membership Petrick who they knew was not presently that had been practiced by some of the old organizing the student strike (no one argued decision on the crucial issues now dividing available. (He is on a national speaking movements. The second major factor in build they had not played the key role in or the SMC. tour, raising support to fight his case against ing the opposition to the war has been the ganizing the action), they had carried out The decision to hold the meeting in New the Army.) successful welding of a coalition capable of not SMC policy but YSA policy. It was York (where, conveniently, the Communist This action, coupled with their efforts to organizing such national actions as the Stu argued, equally without basis in fact, that Party will be gathering for a convention the block the national conference mandated by dent Strike, the April27 protest, such previous YSA policy on the strike was in conflict with following weekend) also ignores the wishes the past one, makes it clear that they are huge actions as the mass confrontation at SMC policy. of the membership. The decision of the last out to grab bureaucratic control of the SMC the Pentagon last October and the previous It is a matter of record that YSAers were conference also specifically stated that the in order to convert it from an antiwar move April 15 mobilization of a half million, and among the principal initiators of SMC pol next one be held "in a relatively central part ment into one more multi-issue organization. sparking the growing international actions icy, as formally agreed on in conference, and of the country." From the outset, the CP-DuBois Clubs wing against the war. that the YSA has given consistent political A variety of reasons, all specious, have of the movement has resisted building a LBJ's Game support to this policy. been offered for not carrying out conference broad coalition movement capable of or Today the Johnson administration is trying In reality, this exclusionist bloc is accusing mandates. But the real reasons are political. ganizing mass actions against the war. To to disarm the antiwar forces with its crooked the YSA of the very thing the bloc is guilty This became clear when an attempt was each proposal for such national actions they negotiations game. By dragging out the of- that is, of trying to bureaucratically made to mediate the dispute. Two meetings have falsely counterposed local "community" "peace talks" while continuing and even overturn SMC policies behind the backs of were held. Participants included Dave or campus organizing, apparently unwilling escalating the war, it hopes to gull both the the members. Dellinger, Linda Morse, pacifist Eric Wein- or unable to grasp the fact that periodic Vietnamese freedom fighters and American national mass actions, far from being anti peace proponents into believing that it is thetical to local organizing, have proven the genuinely seeking an end to the conflict. very best stimulus for developing continuing Because of this, even more intensified efforts Black Liberation Notes local campus organization and action. by the conscious antiwar forces are now Further they have taken such issues as the needed. Anyone who strikes at the very things draft and racism and attempted to twist them that have built the antiwar movement is Several hundred black students at Penn Hostility to the Institute is growing in the so that they are not issues related to the committing a terrible disservice to the sylvania State University in University Park, black community where the slum dwellings struggle against the war but somehow sepa American and Vietnamese people. Pa., marched to the dean's office and forced in which black people are forced to live rate activities. In every struggle within the movement him to retract a racist statement. He had said: contrast sharply to the campus buildings Their efforts in this direction have appar there are charges and countercharges and it "We at Pennsylvania State University can't enjoyed by the predominantly white student ently appealed to the pacifists who have is often difficult for those not directly involved have a student demonstration as bad as that body. found the mass actions undertaken by the to determine all the facts. In this dispute there at Columbia University because we are not Instead of walling off the campus from the movement increasingly running counter to is a particular question that is worth special contaminated by Harlem." community, the black students are demanding the individual forms of resistance which they probing to determine the root of dispute. Along with the apology, the students de that the school open up its facilities to the favor. For them and the CP, individual The CP-pacifist bloc charge that Kipp manded that 2,000 additional black under community and begin a crash program in resistance to the draft, for example, is more. Dawson and Syd Stapleton built the student graduates be added to the student body by neighborhood high schools to recruit more strike on the basis of the YSA line, not the 1970. important than organizing mass resistance black students to the liT student body. to it. SMC line. True, Dawson and Stapleton poured For the CP there is the additional factor their energies into building the strike on the The Black Student •Association at Illinois • Over a thousand students boycotted schools of the advent of the 1968 presidential elections basis of the YSA line of making it the most Institute of Technology in Chicago is pro in Newark, N.J., recently in protest against and their desire to get the movement off the massive student antiwar action ever and the testing plans by the school administration to an attack made by white racist students on streets and into some form of reformist poli first national student strike since the 1930's. build a fence that would wall the institute In doing so, they knew they were also some black students. tics, "inside and outside" the Democratic off from the surrounding black community. Boycotts have also taken place at Crane carrying out the line of the SMC as decided Party, as they like to put it. In addition they are demanding an end to High School in Chicago, and at five high at the conference that initiated the action. police harassment of black people crossing schools in Yonkers, N.Y., where black and Political lt.oots The fact that those who fired them cite the campus. While white students are seldom Puerto Rican students are demanding more It is political issues such as these, and not their role in building the strike as the reason asked to show proof that they have business classes about Afro-American and Puerto alleged "personality" problems, that explain makes it plain that, no matter what they on campus, black students are constantly Rican history and culture. the move to oust the two YSAers right after say, what they t.re really opposed to is that asked to show their ID cards. - Elizabeth Barnes the student strike. kind of mass antiwar activity. Page 4 THE MILITANT Friday, May 31, 1968 F ... Paris on the barricades At that point, a broad, open discussion on The police tactics were obvious. They drove political victory. where the march should go was held. Rep the demonstrators into the Boulevard St. From the Establishment's point of view, resentatives of the most diverse tendencies Michel, the Rue Soufflot, the Rue Gay-Lussac, however, this was only the beginning of the were invited to climb up on the monument, the Rue Royer-Collard, the Gare du Luxem red night of the Latin Quarter. And now it a lion, and voice their opinions. After a half bourg, the Rue Monsieur le Prince, and the was also a question of time. The traffic hour's discussion, two opposing proposals Place Edmond Rostand, and encircled them. would start at 6:00 a.m.; the streets blocked were put to a vote: that they march into the Then they drove back all approaching by the CRS and the students lay in the heart working-class district of Paris to discuss in spectators with clubs, clearing a space of of Paris. The police had four hours left to groups with the workers; that they demon roughly 700 square feet, and waited. clear the streets. strate in front of the Ministry of Education The police calculated that about midnight At 2:30, the CRS troops were ordered to and demand the minister of education's res the tired and demoralized students would remove the barricades but "to avoid" con tact with the demonstrators "as much as ignation. The majority voted to go to the ask to be let through the cordon to go home Ministry of Education. However, they decided in small groups. They would let them shiver possible." An eery stillness spread over the to take a route through the working-class and stew a little and then let them pass to Latin Quarter. The barricades stood. And district. the accompaniment of a few club blows and they were, as the radio so nicely put it, While discussion was still going on among loud laughter. "no laughable barricades." On them stood individual leaders, the march started quite The CRS erred in betting that it would hundreds of young demonstrators, some suddenly and began moving along the Bou soon get too cold for these "mama's boys," armed with Molotov cocktails. Between the levard Arago in the direction of the Sante "privileged on~s," and "nice boys." The barricades were tight rows of university and prison, in which several of the students' action began when the students began writing high-school students, a third of them girls. arrested comrades were imprisoned. The dis "Against Police Violence- Street Violence," All stood silently. They were waiting for cussion was over; suddenly they were all and "Long Live the Paris Commune!" on orders from the marshals. united. Quickly long lines of marshals formed the walls of buildings lining the blockaded The police attack beganat2:40atthecorner to the right and left of the march, shielding streets. of Gay-Lussac and Royer-Collard streets on the demonstrators from both sides. At 11:00 p.m. the JCR opened the first the Boulevard St.-Michel. Tear gas and smoke The police were nowhere to be seen. Since headquarters in the besieged district. A family bombs were fired over the roofs onto the neither the route of the march nor its des made its apartment available. Loudspeakers street directly into the mass of demonstrators tination had been disclosed, the police de were set up on the windows and a radio between the barricades. ployed their forces around the university apparatus was installed to follow the news The people of the district, who had already and closed off the bridges over the Seine. on the negotiations which had begun between helped with hundreds of cups of coffee, water Already that day still more companies of three representatives of the UNEF( Union and sandwiches, now showered sheets, rags, militarily armed and trained CRS (Com National des Etudiants Francais- National and plastic sacks out of their windows for pagnies Republicains de Securite- Repub French Student Association) and the rector those demonstrators without goggles. Rags lican Security Companies) and the so-called of the university. soaked in sugar were distributed. Those most of the students could withdraw behind u Gendarmerie Mobile (Mobile Gendarmes, or At 11:00 p.m. the building of barricades directly hit by bombs were taken into the the next one. They launched their first counter paramilitary police) were concentrated began. The negotiations with the rector of buildings. And the students held their ground. attack. In tight ranks, with helmets, goggles, 0 around the Latin Quarter. The Sorbonne the Sorbonne had run their course without Students and some doctors called on the had been heavily ringed by police since its and with rags over their mouths and noses, b producing any results. people through megaphones to dump water closing. The demonstration was followed by d out of their windows in order to neutralize armed with paving stones, they waited for helicopters moving very high above the dem By 11:30 50 barricades were going up. p the gas which was standing in dense clouds the police. The CRS advanced slowly because onstrators, like insects. With the help of a megaphone and a city tl in the narrow streets surrounded by high of the burning cars and opaque smoke. After roughly a quarter of a mile, the stu map, the students divided up the mass of buildings. And warm water promptly rained The population made a renewed effort to r' dents reached the prison. There they chanted demonstrators into companies of a few thou out of the windows. clear away the toxic gas behind the second their solidarity with the prisoners as victims sand each. The cobblestones were loosened il After 20 minutes it was clear that the tear barricade as quickly as possible by throwing of the bourgeois state and demanded the in professional style with picks, grubbing h gas and smoke bombs would not drive the hundreds of buckets of water out of their immediate release of their imprisoned com hoes, and shovels provided by people living students out. The barricade front was manned windows. However, even before the police in the area. At every barricade four to six s rades. Then they moved on, to the left, onto by 200 students, who were continuously breakthrough many younger comrades had the Avenue des Gobelins and the Rue Monge. lines, each including about 50 people, passed rotated. been overcome and had to be taken into the a On the Boulevard Arago, the people looked cobblestones from the work sites and up onto Now a new action began. The police frred buildings. s. askance at the demonstrators. But once they the barricades. chlorine gas over the roofs into the front When a doctor noted the frrst signs of s entered the working-class district around the This work was carried on to the singing ranks behind the first barricade. Within sec chlorine poisoning in the unconscious stu Mutualite, spontaneous demonstrations of of the "Internationale. '' Street signs were onds a yellowish-brown smoke merging into dents, and hundreds of others complained applause broke out from the onlookers. The used to reinforce the barricades and as guide blue-green made it difficult to breathe. The of burning mouths, throats and lungs, a students responded with jubilation and calls posts. Eight-foot paving stones formed the students on the first barricade and directly newsman asked a company of police whether to join them on the street. foundation of every barricade. On top of these they were using chlorine. He was knocked were piled cars, gasoline-soaked wood, behind it had to retreat. Now, the shout, "Join us in the street!"was They did not do so, however, until they unconscious and had to be immediately answered spontaneously from the windows branches of trees to block the CRS troops' view had set fire to the barricade in order to pre hospitalized. and sidewalks with the cry "We're with you into the street, and as much wire as could be vent the police from directly attacking the mass The prefect of police still denies that chlorine in the street." The students and bystanders found. of students, who could only slowly retreat was used. Unluckily for him, the hospitals sang the "Internationale" together. The Now in all parts of theoccupiedareachants behind the second barricade. They had to where the wounded were taken revealed that v march was slowing down, drawing near the went up calling for support from the workers. gain time. they were unquestionably suffering from tl first dense police cordons in the Latin Quarter. In the meantime the rumor had spread that c Some smoke and tear gas bombs exploded chlorine poisoning. Furthermore, an unex From the Rue Monge it turned left onto the hundreds of workers had gathered in front 1 against the venetian blinds of a cafe on the ploded chlorine gas shell was dismantled Boulevard St.- Germain and then left again of the CP headquarters to demand that the by the comrades. It turned out to have been tl party leadership extend solidarity to the corner of Gay-Lussac and Royer-Collard to take the Boulevard St.- Michel and move made in the USA. e students. streets, setting them on fire. This gave the over the Seine to the Champs-Elysees. There After the police moved into the student t: the demonstrators were blocked for the first Earlier -in the evening, the CP leadership, students more time to make a partial retreat occupied district, they found themselves be time. which had harshly condemned the student behind the second barricade and block the coming involved in a two-front struggle. s The Boulevard St.- Michel was closed off movement from the outset, was still describing space between the first and second barricades Facing them were the students defending s in the direction of the Seine by hundreds it as a "small minority of adventurers, with automobiles- they had carefully themselves and around them was a hostile v of heavily armed CRS with shields. Behind anarchists, and Trotskyists." The university avoided damaging them up to now-that population. Here and there people threw t the police cordon were three rows of armored rector topped this off, calling it "une dizaine were parked along the street. They placed stones at the police from their windows, but cars deployed across the street. Thus, the d'enrages" (a handful of madmen). these cars across the street. march was forced to the left on the Boulevard Some 30,000 young revolutionists were An hour later, a little after 3:00 a.m., the mostly they denounced them in the strongest il St.- Michel and had no alternative but to now calling for the support of the workers. police took the first barricade. The space terms. u retreat into the Latin Quarter. Once the between the first two barricades was now With the help of the notorious concierges Shortly after 2:00 a.m., the first announce a marchers had passed, the CRS followed on ment came over the loudspeaker that the CP saturated with chlorine and tear gas. De (building superintendents who cooperate with tl their heels and closed off the side streets, had just declared its solidarity with the stu spite the water continually rained from the the police), who were upset by the proceedings, t: pushing the 35,000 to 40,000 students deeper dents. This news was received with great windows and sugar-soaked rags which the by about 5:00 a.m. the police were able to s into the heart of the Latin Quarter. jubilation. It was late in coming, but it came! people kept throwing out, it was no longer occupy a few roofs and from there shoot d At 10:00 p.m., after a deafening clamor Through their actions, the students had now possible to breathe. The students withdrew tear gas, smoke bombs, and chlorine gas from the horns of motorists, the bridges were won the support of the workers. Not long in close order behind the second barricade. directly in the crowds below. again opened to traffic, and the police re after the CP call for solidarity with the stu Meanwhile the police had split up and But the comrades did not panic for an treated into the Latin Quarter. For 23 hours, dents, the trade unions, headed up by the redeployed their forces. Besides the frontal instant. They continued to follow the instruc the demonstrators and the population of an CGT (Confederation Generate des Travail attack along the Boulevard St.-Michel and tions of the marshals, who kept an eye on entire district of Paris were so tightly block leurs- General Confederation of Labor), the Rue Gay-Lussac, they attacked through all the barricades. The sidewalks were kept aded by thousands of police that no private which is backed by the majority of the the much narrower side streets, which had clear for the messengers' motorbikes, which motorist or individual pedestrian was able workers in France today, called a general also been blocked off with barricades by were marked with red rags. to get in or out. strike for May 13. The students had won a the students. The news spread like wildfire. At 5:30, the second barricade on the Rue .. By means of a megaphone and a little delivery Gay-Lussac fell. One hundred and f:d'ty were ' truck the marshals ordered the students to wounded in the battle. Some were severely regroup their forces. wounded, but only a few of these could be It had become clear by this time that the directly taken to hospitals (directly meant Red Cross was unable to break through the only within a half to three-quarters of an police cordon from the outside and that hour). For the others, appeals were made to there were too few medical personnel in the people in the area for help, which they willing occupied area. A number of medical stu ly gave. Wounded policemen, of course, were dents were then supplied with Red Cross immediately hauled away by the Red Cross armbands and assigned to basic first-aid and given professional treatment. work. Red crosses were painted or stuck In the meantime, the front barricades in on a few cars which were prepared for other places had been taken by the police. I transporting the wounded. The population After companies of police had occupied part supplied blankets and paint. of the overlooking roofs, squads of students Meanwhile a pitched battle had developed were likewise sent onto the roofs. They at around the second barricade in the Rue tacked the police from above with rocks and Gay- Lussac. Police in gas masks had pene bricks. This caused the first serious injuries trated into the area between the two first among the CRS troops. barricades, which had been cleared with The police were now given the order to chlorine and tear gas, and had advanced to stage an "all-out assault," using all means the second barricade. Now they fired smoke except guns. All of the student-occupied streets bombs and chlorine and tear gas directly were hit from the surrounding roofs with a into the mass of students. rain of various gas grenades. It became MORNING AFTER. Cops stand waiting on other side of barricade built by students, on But the demonstrators were determined to impossible to breathe. The students tried to morning of May 11, after all-night struggle in Latin Quarter. defend this barricade no matter what until break out on all sides and everywhere came Friday, May 31, 1968 THE MILITANT Page 5 ~bserver reports role How popular frontism led ~na.ry youth grou,p,'.·. tg over "It is the Jeunes$e CQmmunis~.~~lu,\lb~ t1ess to naire (.JCg), tbeFr~.brli\$1i9filie~t)d. ::;;·.. to betrayals and defeats I'he de Trotskyist mov..ement, under the. unified . .,·, dencies secretariat. ·of .the Fourth .Intern;~,tionlll .. Jt· By Dick Roberts When a fascist gang staged a show of one class to another, cannot be developed ts and can claim, tO .~:-tave provided the chief inspi~ "The world political situation as a whole," strength against parliament and clashed with solely under slogans of partial economic de tte and ration .and Politicahl:i~tion ot. the inS~-. Leon Trotsky wrote in 1938, "is chiefly the workers Feb. 6, 1934-with no attempt mands... " g. The tion ot th11 pas( two weeks, wl:-tlch m~ Justly · characterized by a historical crisis of the by the government to stop them- the French The workers' committees, he explained, be de$crtbed as th~ .greatestsuecess. ~ . ' leadership of the proletariat." This indict workers responded with a gigantic general needed only to be solidified and linked to aneous Trotskyists lia)l:e evet lt&ieved in ~ope., ·. ment of the role of the Communist, social strike on Feb. 12. Between this initial out gether on a city, departmental, and national known "In France tbey are' esliJ;o;ate
The trade union bureaucrats (it would be a misnomer to call them leaders) are having more and more difficulty these days keeping their members in check and maintaining their own status as "labor statesmen." There is increasing evidence of the angry mood of the workers as they see wage gains eaten up by increased costs of living, sometimes even before the increases are won. In New Jersey the telephone workers or The real wage ganized into the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, on strike since April 6, Dr. Arthur Burnes, former economic ad have just rejected a proposed contract nego viser to the White House, has this to say tiated for them between the IBEW and the about what is really happening to the pur MILLION WORKERS MARCH. Massive throng of workers and students that marched Jersey Bell System. Although the terms of chasing power of American workers: in Paris May 13 against de Gaulle regime. the proposed contract were not made public, " ... the average nonfarm worker has en it was learned that the new contract would joyed no increase in real income. provide wage increases from $4.50to$12.50 "In 1966," he added, "his weekly wages, per week, retroactive to March 31. Additional after allowing for price increases and high wage and fringe benefits increases were to Million march in Paris: er social security taxes and income taxes, have been added at 12- and 24-month were slightly lower than the year before • intervals. and last year they were a trifle lower again." Another group of IBEWtelephone workers (New York Times, May 1) an eyewitness account in Illinois is still on strike. Meanwhile Joseph Beirne, president of the By Pierre Frank their chiefs that they must not do anything Communications Workers of America, whose (The following eyewitness account from against the "leftists," even if they were in 200,000 telephone and Western Electric in St. Petersburg boycott called Paris is excerpted from the May 27 issue sulted by them. stallers membership had gone on strike on of Intercontinental Press. Written May 16, It was noted that they had to restrain On May 19 Marvin Davies, state field April 8, announced that the Western Electric it describes the massive march of a million themselves many times during the demonstra installers units, numbering 23,000, had ac director of the NAACP, called for a boycott workers and students May 13, and the events tion. But it would be a mistake to conclude of downtown St. Petersburg, Fla., business, cepted the national contract in a referendum immediately preceding the demonstration. that the Stalinists will be inclined to respect in support of a strike of 211 unorganized vote. The WE installers had refused to abide The section below begins on the evening of workers' democracy from here on out They garbage collectors who were fired when they May 11, just after the end of the brutal by the previous "acceptance" of a contract on staged this demonstration against their will, struck because a promised 20 cents an hour May 6, claiming "irregularities," a charge police attack on student-held barricades [see and one can be almost certain that they will wage increase was not forthcoming. All but which Beirne admitted to in allowing a new story, page 1]. Pierre Frank is a leader seek revenge at an opportune moment. one of the workers is black. referendum vote among the installers. of the Fourth International, the world party It is impossible to describe the demonstra Yet the city manager, Lynn Andrews, says of socialist revolution founded by Leon tion in a few words. We can only indicate The referendum showed 8, 719 for and the issue at stake is not racial, purely one 6,34 7 against, not exactly a landslide for Trotsky in 1938.) a few features. Most of the workers who of labor relations. PARIS- In the evening of May 11 about marched with the unions were certainly not Beirne. He has refused to allow his community Further trouble for Beirne and his board 9 o'clock, Premier Pompidou made a state up to the political level and militancy of the relations director, Alex Hawkins, who is also ment on TV and radio. Pale, his features groups assembled around the students and comes from Philadelphia where Joseph Ratti, black, to intervene; nor has he allowed the drawn, with a nervousness quite different teachers, where the slogans were predominant president of Local 2590, says his union is city's Community Relations Commission to from his usual manner, he offered some gen ly anticapitalist, revolutionary, against the so incensed by the size of the wage increases become involved. The Rev. Robert Shirer, eralities and then in substance indicated that bourgeois state, for the socialist revolution, and the lack of a wage reopening clause in a commission member, said the situation the government was capitulating on the three for workers' power, for internationalism the new agreement that they are urging that was in the area of race relations and" ... it the local pull out of the CWA. Ratti said: conditions laid down by the striking students ("Rome, Berlin, Warsaw, Paris!"). is certainly potentially explosive." "It's to the point now where the majority and teachers. All the demonstrators were to But the level of the workers was consider Even the city's Mayor Don Jones agrees be released, the police were to be withdrawn, ably higher than in the past. No longer were of my union are demanding that I make a and blames Andrews for "sowing the seeds the Sorbonne would be reopened Mmday. there unworthy slogans like "des sous, Char move... We've been stepped on for20years of the present crisis." He agreed that the men But things had already gone too far. The lot" ("some pennies, Charley"). with inadequate contracts. The increases do had been promised higher wages they did not even cover the cost of living. . . " declaration had other consequences than The main feature of the demonstration was not get. its anti-Gaullism. Inasmuch as the demon Meanwhile, even though the CWA and The strikers are asking for 20centsanhour avoiding new confrontations in the streets. The CGT (Confederation Generale de Tra stration took place exactly 10 years to the several of the independent unions have settled over the present range of from $1.87 to vail- General Confederation of Labor- the day since the military coup in Algiers that with various Bell Systems, mostoftheworkers $2.27 an hour. communist-controlled union) and CFDT brought de Gaulle to power, a slogan heard are not back at work but are honoring the The NAACP representative, in calling for (French Democratic Confederation of Labor) everywhere was "10 years, that's too much." picket lines of those who are still on strike. a boycott, said: "Downtown is where the had already decided to stage a general strike The leaders of the political parties (the power structure is. When we hurt them eco and a big demonstration in Paris on Monday. Federation of the Democratic and Socialist nomically, they'll do something about this." They held to these decisions. Left, and the French Communist Party), And when asked about the racial issue, Noting what the government had conceded who were excluded from the front ranks Davies countered: or promised, the UNEF (French National upon the insistence of the UNEF and SNES, "Of course it's racial. Can you imagine Student Federation) and SNES (University marched in the ranks of the crowd. They the manager firing 211 white men from any Teachers Union) stressed that this proved were hardly applauded. city job? Some of these men have worked that the government bore all the responsi For the revolutionary militants it was a NEW YORK for the city from 18 to20years.... together bility for what had happened in the previous day that aroused great hopes. Their groups FRANCE ON THE BRINK OF REVOLUTION. Speaker: they have 314 childrenanddebtsofmorethan days. They decided to continue the struggle swelled in size as the demonstration pro Les Evans, staff writer for The Militant and contributor $1 million on homes, cars, and things of until the promises were actually carried out. gressed through the city. They did not even to Intercontinental Press. Friday, May 31, 8:30 p.m. this sort. " Sunday was taken up in preparing for the have to suffer the tricolor in the demonstra 873 Broadway, near 18th St. Contrib. $]. Ausp. Militant An assistant field director for the American general strike and demonstration on Monday. tion. Even more- a demonstrator climbed labor Forum. Federation of State, County and Municipal In the evening it was announced that the stu up the annex of the Prefecture of the Police Workers is in St. Petersburg to help the dents and teachers were to assemble at the to pull down a flag floating from the windows. • strikers. Two yeP.rs ago City Manager Gare de !'Est, that a parade would go from Likewise at the Palais de Justice, a dem TWIN CITIES Andrews refused to allow the union, to which there to the Place de la Republique where onstrator tore down the tricolor and replaced BENEFIT PERFORMANCE: THE ANYPLACE THEATRE some of the workers belonged, to represent the workers' unions would assemble, that it with the black flag of the anarchists. The AND TANA (rock group). At The Middle Earth, 1209 them because "strikes by public employes the unions belonging to Force Ouvriere in effigy of a member of the CRS (Republican S. E. Fourth St., Minneapolis. Friday, May 31, 8:30 is illegal under Florida law." the Paris region would, for the first time, Security Companies- semimilitary security p.m. Ausp. Young Socialists for Halstead and Boutelle. It would seem Andrews didn't learn a participate with the others. police) suspended from a rope was carried thing from Memphis. The discussions among the organizations by the Surrealists. - Marvel Scholl had lasted for many long hours. We can re There were only revolutionary slogans and veal some inside information about this. spectacular actions. At the Place Denfert ·------clip and mail ------The Stalinist leaders of the CGT wanted Rochereau, the CGT leaders called through the demonstration to leave from the Place the loudspeaker for the crowd to disperse. St.-Michel and go to the Bourse du Travail The vanguard groups (March22 Movement, on the Place de Ia Republique. What they JCR [Revolutionary Communist Youth], etc.) wanted was to avoid the Latin Quarter and decided to continue the demonstration. Some Special to New Readers end up at the address of the bureaucrats. groups under the leadership of sectors like The spokesmen of the UNEF and the the anarchists went toward the Elysee- some SNES said that they could not accept this thing that was both utopian and adventuristic. If you would like to get better acquainted with THE MILITANT, you proposal and that, if the unions refused to But most went to the Champ de Mars where change on this, they would organize an in a meeting of some 20,000 to 25,000 persons may obtain a special, introductory four-month subscription for $]. (If dependent demonstration of their own from was held. you're already sold on the paper, you can help out by sending a reg the Place de Ia Republique to Denfert This meeting was by far the most important u lor one-year subscription for $3.) Rochereau. happening of May 13, 1968. The heads of the CGT had to assent, just When the groups, some of a dozen persons, as the evening before, the government had others of several hundreds or even some to assent. On top of this they likewise had thousands, went from Denfert-Rochereau to 0 Enclosed is $1 for a 4 month introductory subscription. to accept the leader of the "March 22 Move the Champ de Mars, packing the sidewalks 0 Enclosed is $3 for a 1 year regular subscription. ment," Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who only on for several kilometers, bystanders thought May 3 had been called "the German" by that another uprising was under way. l'Humanite (newspaper of the French Com The truth was that most of the participants NAME. munist Party). The marshals had to be made knew that this was not the time for new battles, up of one-half workers from the unions and but the time to draw the lessons of the events STREET. one-half students from the student organi and to decide what to do the next day. For zations. more than two hours there was a democratic It should be added that on that Sunday tossing about of ideas, of proposals, pre CITY .. STATE ZIP the heads of the Stalinist organizations, par figuring a kind of soviet (council) assembly ticularly the marshals- who up until then had functioning democratically. never been used against the police (these or Finally it was decided to continue the stu Send to: The Militant, 873 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10003 ganizations habitually bow to police orders) dent strike and to occupy the Sorbonne the but against the "leftists"- were warned by same evening, which was done. Friday, May 31, 1968 THE MILITANT Page 7 Close Dela. college after black protest
By Joel Aber manded that they have the right to name sledgehammers, submachine guns and riot !ration and not by the governor; 11) Removal DOVER, Del., May 18-What began as their own school buildings. They wanted guns. Guardsmen were armed with bayonets, of all police from the campus. a demonstration for more control of their to call a new dormitory the Medgar Evers ammunition and tear gas cannisters." On Thursday evening, students at the nearly school by students at overwhelmingly black building, and the administration's pettiness To avoid bloodshed, the students agreed all white University of Delaware, 30 miles Delaware State College here ended with the was expressed in its refusal to give an un to leave the administration building, but not north of Dover, staged a sleep-in in solidarity administration fearfully shutting down the equivocal answer to this request. the Student Center, on the condition that the with the Delaware State students. Atone point, school after a 95 percent effective boycott Worse still was the administration's hy police would draw back from the buildings the sleep-in had 300 participants. of classes and occupation of the Student pocrisy in first agreeing to dedicate the Stu and the trustees would hear their demands The Delaware State trustees agreed after Center. dent Center to Dr. Martin Luther King and in the Student Center. When their demands their confrontation with 900 students to allow On Friday, May 10, the administration then inviting Governor Charles Terry, one of were presented, 95 percent of the 900 stu a faculty-adminstration-student committee to staged an elaborate ceremony to dedicate Delaware's most vociferous spokesmen for dents were in the Student Center. Their de investigate the students' demands. The stu the new Student Center. Students had de- racism, to speak at the dedication ceremony. mands include: dents are outnumbered on the committee The students saw Terry's appearance as a 1) Reinstatement of Leroy Tate as a stu eight to six. direct affront to the memory of Dr. King, and dent and as student government president; On Friday, the administration closed the Black student group they loudly made their feelings known with 2) General amnesty for all demonstrators; school and announced that it would not a demonstration during the ceremony. Gover 3) Immediate resignation of President Mishoe; reopen for the remainder of the semester. nor Terry left in a display of indignation, 4) Student examination and evaluation of Apparently the administrators are calculat presents demands escorted off the campus by state troopers, instructors; 5) Teaching of black history and ing that an extended "cooling-off" period and the college's President Mishoe canceled culture; 6) Improvement of library facilities; will break the militancy and unity of the stu to Washington the remainder of the ceremony. 7) Increased black representation on the dent body. U. On Tuesday, May 14, the Delaware State board of trustees from four to eight; 8) An During a Wilmington demonstration a few administration suspended Leroy Tate, pres apology from Governor Terry for his slan weeks ago by welfare recipients, Governor By Jay La Vassar ident of the student government, in reprisal derous remarks; 9) Funds and teacher Terry smugly said that he was giving the SEATTLE, Wash.- The Black Student for the demonstration. salaries equal to those of the predominantly welfare demonstrators "a taste of the State Union (BSU) of the University of Washing As if this action were not provocative white University of Delaware; 10) Control Police." Now Terry has received a taste of ton has presented a group of demands to enough, the next morning students awoke to of the campus by the students and adminis- black power and student unity. the university administration. Included are find their campus ringed with state troopers, those for consultation with the BS U in all who would not let anyone past their cordon matters affecting black students and for the without student identification. The excuse for recruitment of 300 Afro-Americans, 200 this intimidation was "to prevent outside American Indians and 100 Mexican-Amer agitation" at Delaware State. icans by September 1968. Currently, the By Wednesday evening, the students had Letters from Prison University of Washington has only 150 organized a sleep-in at the new Student Center. black students out of an enrollment of 30,000. Thursday the main administration and class On May 17, more than 600 black and room building was also occupied. A boycott Letters from Prison is a recently white students demonstrated at a campus of classes was organized and grew in effective published book by James P. Cannon, Military Day ceremony and presented the ness as the day wore on. By afternoon, national chairman of the Socialist BSU's demands to Governor Daniel Evans. only the few white students were in class, Workers Party. It is a collection of The university's president, Charles Odega and they were politely told to leave if they his correspondence during 1944, ard, has agreed "in principle" to the demands, did not support the student demands. when he was a prisoner in the fed but has refused to allocate funds for the As the demonstrations in the buildings era I penitentiary at Sandstone, Minn. programs. The administration is evidently grew, 100 National Guardsmen and 125 Along with 17 other leaders of the hoping to extend negotiations until the sum police were ordered onto the campus. The SWP and of Minneapolis Teamsters mer vacation makes any militant student Wilmington Evening Journal (May 1 7) re Local 544, Cannon was sentenced to action impossible. ported, "With them the police had bolt-cutters, prison under the Smith "gag" Act for opposing the imperialist war. The letters contain a sustained treatment of questions pertaining to the organization, education and lead ership of a revolutionary party, as well as a variety of personal and politico I reflections. Principled Crusader- The May 19 New bombed their city last month. "How can York Times reported that while campaigning you hate Americans?" asked a street ven The following is an excerpt from in Florida Eugene McCarthy "did not men dor of black market American cigarettes the letter of Dec. 24, 1944. tion the word Negro once," but spoke elo and candy. "Their pockets are filled with James P. Cannon quently in tribute to Martin Luther King money." I received the quotation Usick sent when he was back in Washington. from Wolfe about pity as the by the slick word "courtesy"- is very Ultimate Sacrifice-A WNEW-TV ad an "learned" emotion, the emotion often only a thin veneer ot the most Silly Questions- Led by a Philadelphia nounced the station was canceling "three which is fed by an accumulation of "educated," book-learned people. lawyer, an international symposium on space hours of prime programming" to present experience in memory. I thinkprison Here at Sandstone I have seen the law posed some legal-ethical questions, in a documentary on the racial crisis. above all is the place where one can real article, pure and simple and cluding two surprisingly easy ones: "If an learn such things, learn and feel sincere. In all my life I have never American crop surveillance satellite finds that In Our Day It Was $2-According to them. We are only partly here, and seen anything more beautiful than Communist China faces impending famine, Drew Pearson, Robert Kennedy's advance for a short time. We are still bound the compassion of lost men for each is the United States morally orlegally obliged men soften his way onto a campus by sprin in memory to the norma I life outside, other. to warn the Chinese?" and "Should the gov kling $20 bills among "student leaders." and we anticipate the future. Besides We will soon be leaving here. But ernment ·notify the farmer or an oil company that, thanks to our education and our I believe that hereafter I will always if a satellite prospecting for resources dis Practical Thinkers- In response to com covers oil on the farmer's land?'' philosophy, we have only to remain, to a certain extent, a pris plaints that Bobby Kennedy was using the open the pages of a book as simply oner, a comrade of prisoners. I will family fortune to buy the presidential nomi Capacity for Intercourse with Public? as one turns the key in a lock in never be able to see or hear about nation, his mother replied that that's what We haven't read it yet, but we understand order to leave this barren place, to a prison without thinking of the men money's for, to spend. Somehow it reminded an Esquire article suggests you can .get to walk beside the heroes who have inside its walls. Everytime I read a us of the old Hoff cartoon of the irate parents shown how to storm heaven, and reference to a prison in my historical be President if you have the right psycho late at night hollering at their homecoming to listen to the philosophers who studies I feel a stab of pity for the sexual makeup. daugher, with the daugher responding frost have tried to understand both earth men who suffered there. I shall not ily, "That's what streets are for, to walk on." As Long As They Love Freedom-" If and heaven. forget what I have seen and learned mr military aid to our allies were deter Lesser Sin Theory-And somehow, bothof But, nevertheless, here in prison here. Someday, I hope, I will write mined by the kind of government they main the above items reminded us that Jack New one must see every day the lost about it; some words with blood in tain at the moment, then NATO would dis field of the Village Voice says that Kennedy men, the men who never had a them in behalf of all men in prison. integrate."- Defense Secretary Clifford ex and McCarthy are both whores working in chance; men who have been in and We will leave friends behind us plaining why the U.S. has to arm the cur the Democratic whorehouse, but he's for Ken out of prison nearly all their lives; here, and many who crossed paths rent Greek dictatorship. nedy. Newfield didn't indicate his view of men who have never learnad to with us here will be our friends, Rapid Development-When Americans pimping. read and thereby to project them and friends of what we stand for, for joined in on the sociological expeditions selves into another world; men who the rest of their lives. A man left swarming over Kenya to collect unwritten Thought for the Week-"1 am happy to know nothing and, God help them, here not long ago who had been in tribal history, some of the "natives" caught report that every chapter is increasing its will never know anything but prison. one prison after another most of his wise and have gone onto space rates. "Some membership at a greater rate than was anti There is something to knock the smart life. He said to me the morning he of them are demanding a shilling a word!" cipated."- Alfred Lawrence, vice commander a leckness out of a man and teach was leaving: "I just wanted to tell howled an irate Britisher. of the California Military Order of the him humility and compassion. There you that I'll never forget how good Purple Heart, whose membership is limited is pity. you treated me here. You certainly Real Free-World Ally- Not all residents to wounded war veterans. Yes, pity is the "learned" emotion, meet some good people in prison. of Saigon were embittered when U. S. jets -Harry Ring but ol")e does not learn it from books. If they were all like you Trotskyites Life is the instructor here, more spe it wouldn't be so hard to do time." In the May-June cifically that part of life which inflicts I never did anything for him ex pain and sorrow. I see proofs of this cept to joke with him in a friendly every day in the tender sympathy way and "trust" him with an occa RADICAL AMERICA and concern which bind the prison sional package of cigarettes until he broken old convicts together as in could bum enough matches to pay Gorz' Strategy for Labor and its Marxian roots • Over an unspoken brotherhood. Polite rne back at the rate of a penny a ness, respect for the wishes and feel box. But a convict is gratefu I if you view/analysis of New left development, 1960- ings of others- everything that goes simply respect him as a man. 65 e STAUGHTON LYND on the radicals' use of his tory • Reminiscence of '50s student left • Review of 354 pp. (cloth} $5.95 Revolutionary Poetry: An Anthology. 50c or $3/yr (6 issues). Merit Publishers • 873 Broadway 1237 Spaight St. Madison,Wis. 53703 New York, N.Y. 10003 Page 8 TH£ MILITANT Friday, May 31, 1968 3,000 at New York benefit for Calif. Black Panthers By Elizabeth Barnes NEW YORK- The defense effort for Eldridge Cleaver and other victimized mem bers of the Oakland Black Panther Party got off to a successful start here May 2 0 with a benefit which attracted some 3.000 people. The meeting featured a combination of black theater productions and speeches by Panther Party leaders who came from the coast to take part. James Forman, interna tional affairs officer of SNCC, was chairman. Herman Ferguson of the "Queens 15" and playwright LeRoi Jones also spoke in defense of the Panthers. Kathleen Cleaver, Black Panther leader and wife of Eldridge Cleaver, presented a brief history of the many attacks on the Black Panther Party carried out by the Oakland cops. She described the April 6 attack on her husband and eight other Panthers, in which 17-year-old Panther Bobby Hutton was killed, as the most "well-coordinated, calculated" attack on the Panthers yet. Panther Party Chairman Bobby Seale gave a talk in which he made clear his belief that a revolution is needed in this country, and that "black people are in the vanguard." Seale pointed out that some people have the false idea that the Panther Party is a "purely militaristic group." He then went on to describe the 1(}.point program oftheparty, one point of which calls for an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people. The benefit, sponsored by the Radical Rep ertory Theater, began with an inspiring film directed and organized by LeRoi Jones. reporting the benefit: "I must stop saying produced by playwrights LeRoi Jones and Most of the skits and plays were oriented 'Negro': if the evening taught me anything, Ed Bullins. The theme of the film was the around black nationalist themes: self-deter it is that the word is 'black.'" awakening black consciousness in the black mination, black consciousness, black unity. The skit most favored by the audience community, and it ended with a repetition of The audience, which was about 5(}.60 per seemed to be an anti-cop comedy by a Puerto the words, "Know who you are, and you cent white, responded throughout with ap Rican theater group, the "Gut Theater" of will know what to do." plause and cheers, although there were a few East Harlem. It featured a policeman named The film was followed with a series of whites who were obviously hostile. Uncle Sam (who looked like he was right out powerful and entertaining theatrical produc It is interesting that the meeting even affect of a Muhammad Speaks cartoon) who gets tions by such groups as the Spirit House ed the thinking of the reporter sent by the into trouble when he tries to solicit help from Movers and Players of Newark, which is New York Times. He wrote in his article Puerto Ricans while chasing after a black man. Socialists win recruits from McCarthy
By Caroline Lund A new, improved version of the for McCarthy agreed that he would be voting Young Socialists for Halstead and Boutelle "McCarthy Truth Kit" has been pre for Halstead in November. in Seattle were recently planning to debate pared by the Socialist Workers Cam A member of YSHB in Madison wrote to the chairman of Students for McCarthy on paign Committee. The kit, a 16-page the campaign committee: "Our success was the University of Washington campus. How pamphlet, documents McCarthy's re so great that on CHOICE 68 voting day this ever, after the chairman heard Paul Boutelle, cord and shows just where he really incident occurred: A student who had just the Socialist Workers vice-presidential can stands. voted for Halstead for President was told didate, speak at the University of Washington, Order from the SWP Campaign by his girl friend, 'But you have to make he became a Halstead-Boutelle endorser and Committee, 873 Broadway, New McCarthy your second choice. After all, you dropped out of the McCarthy effort. York, N.Y. 10003. Cost: 25 cents worked for him.'" Incidents like this have been occurring for a single copy and 15 cents for 5 The campaign office recently received a across the country. They indicate that many or more. letter from Stephen Weiner who goes to Sims young supporters of McCarthy are primarily bury High School in Simsbury, Conn., which opponents of the Vietnam war, tricked into versity Board of Governors, debated the sums up the response that SWP campaigners believing McCarthy's campaign is a vehicle Wayne coordinator of Students for McCarthy have found from young McCarthy support for struggle against the war. in a meeting under the auspices of CHOICE ers. He wrote: "A few months ago I wrote Dan Styron, SWP candidate for Senator 68, the nationalcollegepresidentialpreference to you for some information on Halstead from Illinois, made this comment after making poll taken April24. and Boutelle. Subsequently I was tricked a speaking tour of Illinois and Indiana The debate turned into an analysis of the by Eugene McCarthy liberalism. Now I am campuses: "McCarthy has many supporters dynamics of revolution, and, after being enclosing an endorsement card for the SWP on the campuses. Usually they are surprised harangued by students, the McCarthy de campaign." bater finally admitted at the end that it is to find that McCarthy doesn't support with NEW YORK-A large crowd came to hear drawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam. We the system that has to be changed and Mc Carthy represents the system. After the presidential hopeful Eugene McCarthy speak found many McCarthy supporters considered at a Madison Square Garden rally on May the SWP campaign as complementary to their meeting, when Evelyn Kirsch commented to the McCarthy debater that he had done 19. They were met by supporters of the own, and said they would throw their support Socialist Workers ticket of Halstead and to Halstead if McCarthy didn't get the Demo a good job defending his position, he re plied, "How can you say such a bold-faced Boutelle, selling "McCarthy Truth Kits." cratic nomination. At several of the campuses The "Kits" document McCarthy's actual rec we visited I noticed that people who were lie?" At Antioch College in Ohio, SWP support ord, and have been prepared by the Socialist building McCarthy's campaign had Socialist Workers Campaign Committee. War opponents Workers Party election campaign posters on ers have been less successful in engaging their walls. " McCarthy supporters in public political de given sanctuary Everyplace where Halstead-Boutelle sup bate. However, the Antioch Volunteers for By Barbara Mutnick porters have engaged McCarthy supporters McCarthy accepted a challenge from Young BOSTON, May 21- The Arlington Street in friendly discussions, pointing out what Socialists for Halstead and Boutelle to play Church granted sanctuary May 20 to an McCarthy's real record is, they have received a softball game. The YSHB had just re antiwar GI and a draft resister. SP-4 William a sympathetic response. When Dan Styron cruited some husky high-schoolers, and won Chase, who served in Vietnam, isabsentwith recently debated Sanford Gottlieb, national 14 to 10. out leave from Fort Lewis, Wash. Robert director of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear In Madison, Wis., Eugene McCarthy was Talmanson has been sentenced to three years Policy and a leading McCarthy supporter, forced to show his true colors when he was for not reporting for draft induction. the majority of students present at the debate asked to support a Madison referendum on With them are 10 members of The Re were sympathetic to the Halstead-Boutelle the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. Bob sistance who pledged "to place themselves ticket and Styron's candidacy. Wilkinson, chairman of the Madison Com between the law and these two." In Detroit Evelyn Kirsch, Socialist Workers mittee to End the War in Vietnam and SWP Chase told this reporter that he had dis Party candidate for the Wayne State Uni- candidate for governor, wrote McCarthy a tributed antiwar literature to his fellow G Is letter asking his endorsement of the referen while in Vietnam. dum. Despite the repeated pleas for support He said most had considered his views Notice to subscribers from his own organization, McCarthy re with an open mind and were "very dis plied that he had his own proposals to make, trustful" of the war. He said this distru~>t Changing your address for the and "cannot support your referendum." had deepened tremendously after the events summer? Send us your new address, In March, Halstead supporters in Madison surrounding the capture of the U. S. spy including zip code, right away. defeated McCarthy supporters so completely ship, Pueblo, in North Korean waters. in a debate that theYoung Democrat speaking