Frequent questions on women's liberation - special feature on pages 8-9

Israel facing financial problems p. 4 SMC calls national conference p. 5 Response to Chicago right-wingers p. 6 Report on New Mobe meeting p. 10 National Chicano parley called p. 16 The drive to destroy the Panthers symbol of American "iustice" - stories, pages 3, 11

A work by John Heartfleld exhibited at London Institute of Contemporary Arts/Black Dwarf. Page 2 THE MILITANT Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 THE H.S. SMC barred from Xmas Carnival MILITANT Editor: HARRY RING Managing Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS Business Manager: BEVERLY SCOTT 400 followed by over 200 people going Published weekly by The Militant Publishing Accused of not having by bus and train and car toW ashington Ass'n., 873 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10003. on Nov. 15. Our December actions look Phone 533-6414. Second-class postage paid 'proper Christmas spirit' equally promising. at New York, N.Y. Subscription: domestic, It is encouraging to note that if this $4 a year; foreign, $5.50. By first class mail: San Francisco, Calif. domestic and Canada $13.50, all other coun­ can happen here in Astoria it can hap­ tries, $20.00. Air printed matter: domestic and Mission High School Student Mobi­ pen anywhere. The climate has changed Canada, $20.00; Latin America and Eu­ lization Committee, an established radically and rapidly and the sentiment rope, $40.00; Africa, Australia, Asia (including school group, was denied the right to against the war is growing by leaps USSR), $50.00. Write for sealed air postage set up a booth at the Christmas Car­ rates. Signed articles by contributors do not and bounds. necessarily represent The Militant's views. These nival that will take place Friday eve­ E.P. are expressed in editorials. ning, Dec. 12. All high school clubs ~ ... were invited to set up booths except Volume 33 '~ Number 51 SMC. According to Principal Scoarkus's Friday, December 26, 1969 interpretation, Mission High SMC does Cotton Mather and his not have the proper "Christmas Spirit." Puritan Punitives Mr. Scoarkus is trying to use the Closing news dote- Dec. 19 Carnival and the "peace on earth" theme to make people forget about the war Brooklyn, N.Y. in Vietnam. We feel that this holiday Bravo! You said everything one could season should be used to bring peace wish regarding Pete Hamill's obscene law saying that the husband makes article. The malevolence it contained right, explicitly said the workers' seizure to the world, and not to ignore the of power would put an end to the state­ killing that continues in Vietnam. Mr. all decisions relating to the household was both frightening and all too typical. and children. Now women aresupposed You rightly identify its bigotry, divisive­ not just the bourgeois state, not just the Scoarkus called us "zealots" and bureaucratic state, but any and every "pseudo-intellectual snobs" for trying to to have a say too. ness, and hypocrisy. In England, I noticed there was a And didn't you just love the humane kind of state. Coming from one who maintain a proper balance between fun stands in the Marxist intellectual tradi­ and games and facing the unpleasant struggle recently over the right of a bit about facing "the consequences" of high school girl who becomes pregnant pleasure? Make way for Cotton Mather tion, this can only mean that immediate­ reality that, in fact, for many there will ly after the triumph of the revolution­ be no peace this Christmas. to stay in school. The most exciting and his Puritan Punitives! thing in the past couple weeks has been Elizabeth Sawyer and not just in the future of a firmly Because of Mr. Scoarkus' uncompro­ established classless society -there will mising attitude we were forced to call the demonstrations of hundreds-even thousands - of peasant women in be no need for an organized, social a boycott of the Carnival. An infor­ instrument of coercion to serve the in­ mational picket line will be held in France. It's the first time that's Gl reports Militant happened since 1830. Thirty-forty thou­ terests of the working class. Needless front of Mission. to say, this notion also has a deep Laura Dertz sand farmers in France had a demon­ is getting around stration 1-2 weeks ago and gave away affinity with the anarchist tradition. Mission High School SMC -Robert Langston.] free cheese and milk to protest the low Fort Meade, Md. prices they get. The Militants that you send are go­ c. L. Impressed Report from Europe ing very well. Several men in my unit read them and paste them up. Also, Corvallis, Oregon on women's lib guys in other units are reading them. I have read several copies of your Good antiwar response In fact, you can count among your publication and am impressed. I would Brussels, Belgium readers two staff sergeants who both like to order a one year's subscription. Women's lib actions have occurred re­ in conservative stronghold enjoy the paper. c.s. cently in England and Germany and The paper has improved a great deal. in some other countries women are gain­ Queens, N.Y. The many analytical articles which are A correction ing a few new legal rights. In Italy, I thought your readers would be in­ now being carried are of great help. for example, a law is now being passed terested in the results of our petition Both of the sergeants have commented The Dec. 19 Militant incorrectly re­ that permits divorce- after 5 years of campaign against the war in Vietnam. on them. ports that "In Detroit, the American separation. Before, the only way to get The petition simply states that President Keep up the good work. Federation of Teachers officially en­ unhitched was to get an annullment Nixon must: 1) Stop the massacres in Pvt. Keith Jones dorsed Nov. 15 by a vote of the mem­ from the church. The Swiss are coming Vietnam; 2) End the war; and 3) Bring bership." along- a couple more cantons granted the boys home NOW! No whereases, Support for the antiwar actions Nov. 14 and Nov. 15 was given by the exec­ women the right to vote. But in a large ifs, ands, or buts, as most petitions are Says position majority of the cantons they still can't usually worded. utive board of the Detroit Federation. vote. For the past two Saturdays, we set of Andre Gorz distorted There has not been a vote on the war In France recently they changed a up a table in the Steinway shopping question put before the membership as area of Astoria, a hinterland of Queens a whole. JtAtL STREET }OUlU/A/,; Bronx, N.Y. and a conservative stronghold. There­ The account in the Dec. 12 Militant War opponents in the union, however, sponse we got was beyond our wildest of remarks by Andre Gorz at the So­ feel that the executive board's decision expectations. cialist Scholars Conference is rather un­ reflects deep antiwar sentiment within While the "silent majority" passed us fortunately misleading. Because the re­ the union. In addition, the administrative board by, many of the others-young and port is ambiguous, it cannot be old alike -lined up to register their described as simply inaccurate. of the Michigan Federation of Teachers dissent, and we collected over 300 sig­ Perhaps Gorz's ultimate goal could be voted to support the fall offensive and natures in a few hours. described as literally "anarchist" ( or"an­ sought to involve teachers' union locals Except for a few hecklers and crack­ archic") as would be a classless so­ across the state in the moratorium ac­ pots, we met with no real opposition ciety. But attributing to him "an al­ tivity. in this center of reaction. It is highly most pure anarchist perspective: no par­ James lias doubtful that even six months ago we ty and no state", just like that, is a one­ Member, Detroit Federation of could have gotten half these results. sided distortion of what he said. It sug­ Teachers This activity gives us an opportunity gests that his "perspective" is completely to discuss the war with people who are timeless and unhistorical. In fact, Gorz neutral or in favor of the government's emphasized what he considered a crucial policies as well as to recruit new ad­ question of timing in the development herents to our cause. of a revolutionary party and in attempts CHEROKEE Our committee was on the verge of to assume state control. disbanding before the Oct. 15 Mora­ It is to be hoped that his talk will EXAMINER torium, when we had an enthusiastic soon be published, for it raised, in an FOURTH ISSUE NOW ''Miss Pettifog, take a crank leiter.~ candlelight meeting and march of 300- undogmatic manner, some important AVAILABLE and relatively neglected issues that re­ An independent hard hitting quire further investigation and discus- sion. NATIVE AMERICAN John Moran PERIODICAL written by [Hopefully, Gorz' paper will soon be HOSTILE AMERICAN INDIANS published, because it does indeed raise History Problems of today questions of great importance to the Potential solutions. IF YOU SUPPORT THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT, THE BLACK LIBERA­ American left. "We Will have jt,~stice for our people!" TION STRUGGLE, THE WOMEN'S LIBERATION MOVEMENT, THE [The strategy Gorz envisages does FIGHT FOR SOCIALIST DEMOCRACY IN EASTERN EUROPE, A SO­ not entail the conscious, systematic CHEROKEE EXAMINER building of a revolutionary workers' P.O. Box 687 CIALIST AMERICA, YOU BELONG IN THE YSA ... party around a definite political pro­ South Pasadena, Calif. 91030 gram. Rather, he anticipates a coales­ cence of shop committees, each one or­ Please enter my subscription for ------clipandmail ------ganized around the struggle for various 1 2 consecutive issues at $5.00, Young Socialist Alliance, 471 Cooper Station, New York, N.Y. 10003. or 6 consecutive issues at $3.00. Box aspects of workers' power over produc­ Subscription prices reduced in tion. This coalescence of shop commit­ support of the Christmas pur­ 0 I would like more information 0 I wont to join the YSA tees is supposed to be the agency of chasing boycott. Enclosed is check, cash or money order for: the workers' final assault on the cap­ $. ______Nome .. italist state. Whatever the merits of this conception, it doesn't have much in Address . common with the Marxist-including the pre-Leninist Marxist-concept of the Zip__ _ party, while it has considerable affinity City . . Stole . .. Zip . M with some traditional anarchist notions. [As to the state, Gorz, if I heard him Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 3 YS convention agenda lists key politico I issues

By NELSON BLACKSTOCK olution in the chief stronghold of world "Young Socialists in the United States imperialism." face the beginning of the 1970s with Thus begins The Deepening Radical­ confidence in our ability to successfully ization: Revolutionary Perspectives for organize the masses of the American the 1970s, the draft political resolution people in the fight against the ruling for the upcoming Young Socialist Na­ class and its policies. We are confident tional Convention. Along with the anti­ that we are preparing the ground for war movement and the Third World the final elimination of capitalism on struggles it will be among the main a world scale through the socialist rev- subjects on the agenda of the conven­ tion, which will be held at the student center on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis on Dec. 27-30. Rally at City Hall A special feature of the convention will be an address by Farrell Dobbs, national secretary of the Socialist Work­ rips L.A. cops on ers Party and a leader of the 1934 Teamsters strikes in Minneapolis. Dobbs will relate the lessons of the 1934 strikes Black Panthers to the developing radicalization of to­ day. By BAXTER SMITH On the final day of the convention LOS ANGELES-As a result of the plans have been made for a march Dec. 8 raid on the Black Panther head­ to the city market area, the scene of quarters here (See The Militant, Dec. a famous battle between workers and 19), nearly 5,000 demonstrators, the cops during the 1934 strikes. Signs vast majority of whom were black, will call for support of the GE strikers, turned out Dec. 11 to protest the wan­ immediate withdrawal of troops from ton police attack. The rally was called Vietnam, and black control of the black at a community meeting held the same community, and red flags will be abun­ evening as the attack. The meeting rep­ dant. resented a broad coalition of groups In addition to the plenary sessions in the black community. an important part of the convention The central issue was the police raid activities will be a series of panels and on the Panthers- one large swell in workshops on such topics as women's the current wave of police attacks on liberation, high school organizing, so­ the black community as a whole. The cialist electoral action, and the inter­ rally was supported by various moder­ national revolutionary youth move­ ate civil rights groups as well as more ment. Representatives from revolution­ militant political organizations includ­ ary youth groups in France, England, ing the YSA and SWP. Denmark, Belgium, New Zealand, and Those speaking at the rally included Australia, will be present. Elaine Brown, communications secre­ A large number of ex-SDSers will tary for the Los Angeles Black Pan­ also be present at the convention. The ther Party, UCLA assistant professor recent disintegration of SDS has left YSA Southeast travelers the YSA as the nation's largest and Angela Davis, State Senator Mervyn fastest growing radical youth organi­ Dymally, and Assemblyman Bill Green. zation. In the past few weeks alone, The rally chairman, Rev. H. H. Brook­ help establish new locals new YSA locals have been established ins, summed it up quite aptly by say­ at Athens, Columbus, and Oxford, Ohio; By JOEL ABER week to go to the YSA convention after ing the black community is the target, the San Joaquin Valley, California; ATLANTA, Dec. 15-The once solid­ meeting with the regional travelers. the Panthers are the bull's-eye for the Mansfield, Pennsylvania; Lexington, ly conservative South will soon have Most of the students at East Tennessee police attack. Kentucky; Worchester, Massachusetts; two new YSA locals, in Knoxville and State University in Johnson City come After the rally, thousands of militant Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Portland, Ore­ Johnson City, Tennessee. from towns in the surrounding moun­ blacks, students and workers, began gon; and Mount Vernon, New York. Two Young Socialist regional travel­ tains and hills along the Tennessee­ marching toward the Justice Hall chant­ For information on housing and ers have begun visiting campuses Carolina border, in the heart of the ing, "Power to the people." Briefly a transportation contact the Young So­ throughout the Southeast and have Great Smokies. The area is deservedly throng went inside and occupied the cialists in your area or write the YSA found interest in the YSA and in revo­ reputed to be one of the most conser­ lobby and hallway but dispersed at national office, Box 4 71, Cooper Sta­ lutionary ideas and activities every­ vative in the country, and the univer­ the urging of the rally monitors. tion, New York, N. Y. 10003. where. About 10 students decided this sity administration is easily one of the most repressive in the South. Women are forbidden to walk across campus smoking cigarettes or wearing slacks. Seattle students Two deans rushed over to the student union to personally shut down the YSA unite in defense literature table, although it had been I see no connection whatever between the cleared through the appropriate intri­ incident at Mylai and the death of Fred cate channels. Distribution and writing Hampton. of Black Panthers of "agitational'' literature are grounds for expulsion from school. By RICK CONGRESS This was the Medieval atmosphere SEATTLE-A defense rally for the in which the regional travelers met with Black Panther Party called in response six to eight revolutionary-minded stu­ to the Chicago police murder of Pan­ dents, many of whom were anxious ther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark to join the YSA. All are activists in the Clark was held on the University of ETS U Student Mobilization Committee, Washington campus Dec. 10. Aaron which distributes an anonymous bi­ Dixon, captain of defense of the Seattle weekly newsletter- anonymous so as Panthers, spoke at the meeting of some to prevent persecution of individuals 250 students. violating the agitational literature rule. The meeting was sponsored by a The University of Tennessee in Knox­ broad coalition of campus organiza­ ville promises to have a good-sized tions including YSA, RYM II, Radical YSA local by next semester. There is Organizing Committee ( SDS ), Filipino also interest in the YSA at the Univer­ Students Association, Grape Boycott sity of South Carolina, the University Committee, Young Democrats, News­ of Alabama and Brevard College in reel, Student Mobilization Committee, North Carolina. And four high school SDS and the Asian Coalition. students in Greenville, South Carolina, On Dec. 12, another defense rally have also asked how they can join was held at the Militant Labor Forum the YSA. where an overflow crowd heard Seattle Panther leaders Aaron Dixon and An­ thony Ware. Tom Leonard of the So­ cialist Workers Party also spoke. The speakers stressed the need for a united As we reported in the last defense bringing all people together who issue, The Militant will not oppose the systematic attempt of the police to physically exterminate the be published for the coming Black Panther Party. two weeks. The next issue A "Defend the Panther Party" leaflet will be off the press Jan. 9 was distributed on Dec. 14 by the Young and dated Jan. 16. Happy Socialist campaign committee at a mass march of approximately 3,000 people holidays from the staff. for jobs for black construction work­ ers. Page 4 THE MILITANT Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 Israel threatened • • by financial CriSIS By ROBERT LANGSTON for it must be imported. Thus, a sig­ Israel is on the verge of what may nificant portion of the "industrial im­ be the most severe economic crisis ports" item in fact pertains to military in the history of the Zionist state. The spending. intensified class conflict this could en­ As a consequence of this increased gender, together with the growing ef­ military spending and the relative ex­ fectiveness of the Palestinian revolu­ port lag, Israel will, according to James tionary movement, could make some Feron in the Dec. 7 New York Times important inroads on the hold of Zion­ show a deficit in its trade balance of ist ideology over the Israeli Jewish some $900 million. There is no pos­ masses and open the possibility of sibility that loans, donations, income new gains for the Israeli revolutionary from abroad, and investments will movement. cover this deficit. The government will Throughout its history, Israel's im­ have to draw on its monetary reserves. ports have exceeded its exports, usual­ But those reserves are already down ly by several hundred million dollars from a 1967 high point of some $700 a year. In addition to the normal meth­ million to $4 78 million, and Israeli ods of recourse to the international financial authorities generally regard capital market -loans and grants from $500 million as the danger point. other governments, private loans and Under these circumstances, the Is­ direct private investment- this trade raeli rulers must undertake two kinds deficit has been covered by loans and of measures. On the one hand, they Israeli tank- military spending creates big deficit. donations from Jewish communities must go hat in hand to international throughout the world-especially in the fmancial institutions, central banks, and nificantly greater representation ( 6 ment is beginning an intensified as­ United States-and from reparations governments for new funds or refi­ cabinet posts now, as against 2 pre­ sault on the workers of Israel, the paid by West Germany to Israeli citi­ nancing of old loans. During her re­ viously) of the Gahal, itself a fusion growing effectiveness of the Palestin­ zens and the Zionist state for Nazi cent visit to the United States, Golda of the quasi-fascist Herut and the big­ ian fedayeen-who can no longer be crimes against the Jewish people. Meir did precisely that. At the very business National Liberals-is now for­ dismissed as "bandits" by Zionist These subsidies, together with the least, she begged Nixon to renegotiate mulating its "austerity" program. Ac­ propaganda within Israel- and the in­ high initial skill level of the Israeli the payment schedule on the $300 cording to James Feron in the Dec. 7 creasingly widespread participation of working class, have made possible a million worth of Phantom jets delivered New York Times, "the new government Israeli Arabs in the resistance, is mak­ mass standard of living incomparably by the U.S. to Israel this year. is expected to introduce a five percent ing clear to the Israeli masses that the higher than anywhere else in the re­ But such a transaction has, of course, payroll tax and to augment sales taxes very historical foundation of "their" gion together with a rapid accumu­ a political price. It is reasonable to to levels up to 20 percent. Increased state-the expropriation and expulsion lation of capital and correspondingly suppose that Golda Meir's warm let­ controls on the use of foreign cur­ of the Palestinian Arabs-has conse­ high productivity. Despite these advan­ ter of appreciation to Nixon on his rency and a tighter wage policy also quences that can not be evaded. tages over its Arab neighbors, Israel Nov. 3 speech defending the U.S. ag­ will probably be imposed." At the same time- as is evident from is not able to compete effectively on gression in Vietnam was not wholly For more than six months, the work­ Zionist leaders' increasing efforts to the world market against the immense­ unconnected with her plea to renego­ ers at the Port of Ashdod have been offer reassurance that this state is ly productive capitalist economies of tiate the Phantom deal. All efforts carrying out a series of militant dem­ moving towards economic and military Western Europe, North America and along this line to solve the financial onstrations and work actions directed independance-there is growing pub­ Japan. The result has been an inability problems of the Zionist state only in­ against the bosses of the state-owned lic concern about the country's finan­ to close the trade gap. crease its dependence on the imperi­ docks and their "own" Histadrut trade­ cial and military dependence on Now, however, the German pay­ alist powers. union bureaucrats in an attempt to United States imperialism. Memories ments have ended. And while Zionist win some modest, but desperately of the capitalist democracies' total in­ fundraising and bond sales were able Secondly, though, ·the Israeli ruling needed, wage increases and a mea­ difference-if not worse- to the Nazi to contribute some half billion dollars class must try to make the Israeli sure of control over the pace of work. persecution and genocide of the Jews to Israel's foreign reserves in 1967, masses pay the economic price for They have been subjected to a vicious are sufficiently vivid to counter illu­ only half that much was raised in 1968 the war economy. They must seek to red-baiting campaign; they have been sions that America's rulers act out of and 1969. cut real wages in order to curtail im­ accused of profiteering and sabotaging any tender concern for the interests At the same time, military spending ports of consumer goods and enhance national defense; they have been of the Jewish people. has greatly increased. The item on Israel's competitive position on the called traitors and Arab lovers (The Israel's international accounts which world market by cutting labor costs­ majority of the port workers are Se­ The intensification of the Arab re­ includes armaments expenditures without, of course, cutting profit rates. phardic Jews, dark-skinned immigrants sistance has been used by the Israeli abroad increased from $159 million Even before the recent election, from the Arab countries.) Despite this rulers to strengthen the hold of chau­ in 1966 to $324 million in 1967, and David Horowitz, governor of the Bank campaign, they have remained firm vinism and reaction on the Jewish peo­ during the first six months of this year, of Israel, issued a statement to the in their demands. The Ashdod long­ ple. But in the long run, taken together it amounted to $226 million. effect that "austerity" measures would shoremen know whose life is supposed with the growing concern about de­ In addition, there has been a rapid be necessary because consumption to become more "austere" under the pendence on U. S. imperialism and the expansion of the domestic munitions had been rising too fast. Golda Meir' s government's economic scheme. intensified class struggle, it can lead industry, and much of the equipment new government-which includes sig- Just at the moment that the govern- to the spread of ideas critical of cap­ italist and Zionist ideology and, even­ tually, to the emergence of a mass POR demand: Free Bolivian prisoners~ anti-Zionist, socialist movement.

[After seiZmg power September 26, [Many members of the most militant looper Amendment,* the real anti-im­ the Bolivian military junta headed by anti-imperialist organizations are still perialist fighters are imprisoned and Three soldiers General Ovando Candia made a se­ in prison or forced into hiding. The being hunted while the counterrevolu­ ries of anti-imperialist gestures, going principal victims of the repression tionary lackeys are free to engage in so far as to nationalize Gulf Oil, one have been the Ejercito de Liberacion their intrigues. victimized by of the greediest and most heavy-hand­ Nacional (ELN-Army of National The POR demands the immediate ed imperialist monopolies operating Liberation), initiated by Che Guevara; release of all the prisoners tried as in the country. and the Partido Obrero Revolucio­ guerrillas. Carry out the amnesty im­ French gov't [However, the anti-imperialist decla­ nario (POR- Revolutionary Workers plied in the repeal of the State Securi­ French military authorities have im­ rations of the Ovando government are party), the Bolivian section of the ty Law! prisoned three sympathizers ofthe Ligue contradicted by the fact that it has Fourth International. Freedom for the Trotskyists Jose Communiste, the French section of the Fourth International, and charged them not ended the repression instituted by [The General Secretary of the PO R. Moreno V., Felipe Vasquez, Victor A. with "inciting to disobediance in the Cordova, and Tomas Chambi! the previous governments that sold Hugo Gonzillez Moscoso is being hunt­ armed forces." The three, Devaux, the country out to imperialism. ed by the police and his family has Freedom for the ELN leader En­ Trouilleux, and Alain Herve, are serv­ been subjected to harassment. rique Ortega! ing in tQ.e army as draftees. [The Bolivian Trotskyists are try­ Freedom for Jurgens Schut, Gonza­ The trumped-up charges are based ing to expose the demagogic nature lo Oroza, Dr. Walter Pareja, and all on articles written by the three, in which of the Ovando regime and at the same the imprisoned patriots! they explain the role of the military in time compel it to grant more conces­ Freedom for Loyola Guzman, Ter­ capitalist society. sions to the people. The following is tu Tuliikki, and Geraldine de Corona­ Arrested on Oct. 20, Devaux and our translation of a printed leaflet do. Trouilleux are still being held practical­ now being distributed by the POR.] Stop the manhunt. Civil rights for ly incommunicado in a Rennes jail. the General Secretary of the POR Hugo The authorities have refused to inform * * * Herve's family or friends of his where­ An Unconditional General Amnesty Gonzalez Moscoso. Bolivia, November 1969. abouts. and Freedom for the Revolutionists If convicted, the three could receive Partido Obrero Revolucionario Accused of Being Guerrillas. prison sentences of up to two years, Despite the repeal of the State Se­ Freedom for Debray and Bustos! and it may be a long time before their curity Law imposed by the imperial­ cases are tried by a court-martial. ist counterrevolution, the freedom of The Ligue Communiste is undertak­ more than thirty Bolivian patriots ac­ * The Hickenlooper Amendment requires ing a vigorous defense effort. Funds cused of being guerrillas is being de­ the U. S. government to cut off aid to are needed. Contributions, messages of any country nationalizing the property nied and impeded. of American citizens if "just compensa­ solidarity, and inquiries should be sent Paradoxically, now when imperial­ tion" has not been made within six to Devaux's wife, Micheline Letourneur, Regis Debray ism is threatening us with the Hicken- months.- IP. 29 rue de Verdun, 44-Nantes, France. Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 5 SMC calls national antiwar conference WASHINGTON, D. C.- The Student ington and San Francisco. They have Mobilization Committee to End the War led the way in rejecting red-baiting and in Vietnam announced plans Dec. 9 anticommunist attacks on the antiwar for a massive national student antiwar movement by the administration and conference to be held Feb. 12, 13, 14. have led the way in building the move­ The conference was called by the steer­ ment independent of the government ing committee of SMC which met here and its institutions. the first weekend in December. Carol "What the student antiwar movement Lipman, national secretary of the SMC, does next will certainly be an impor­ predicted the February meeting will be tant factor in building the kind of move­ the largest and most representative ment capable of forcing the United gathering of antiwar students in the State to totally withdraw from Vietnam. history of the anti-Vietnam-war move­ "The national conference will be dis­ ment. cussing and planning a nation-wide "What Next For the Antiwar Move­ program for building mass actions ment?" will be the focus of discussion against campus complicity with the war, for high school and college students expanding contact and work with anti­ from the entire country. Building the war Gis, organizing high school stu­ conference will be a major antiwar proj­ dents against the war and winning a ect between now and mid-February. Out bill of rights for high schools. Also of the discussion and deliberation at to be discussed will be SMC's perspec­ the conference itself the SMC anticipates tive for working with the adult anti­ Photo by Robert Langston there will emerge a united program war movement in united mass action for student antiwar actions in the against the war. Our conference will ENTHUSIASTIC SOLIDARITY. Some 250 predominantly young Spring. be completely democratic and open to demonstrators responded to call by Student Mobilization Committee Carol Lipman told the press, "The participation of any young person op­ to picket General Electric headquarters in New York City Dec. 11 student antiwar movement is a very posed to the war." in solidarity with striking G E workers. important part of the broader antiwar movement. Students have led the way in building mass, peaceful actions like the Nov. 15 mobilizations in Wash- Protests against war, General Electric International tour

We Don't." They were ready to march members and on strike. for SMC leader to the plant gates to join the picketers. Students have joined workers on the Allen Myers, editor of the G I Oakland, Calif. However, they abided by the request 6:30 a.m. picket lines, and SMC will Press Service, a publication ser­ of the strikers present to join them dur­ try to have students there every morn­ vicing more than 50 G I anti­ By DAVE WARREN ing the week instead, as the Oakland ing for the duration of the strike. war newspapers, will be mak­ BERKELEY -A small but spirited police were looking for any excuse to University and high school SMCers ing an international tour to rally of 250 people was held in Oak­ create a confrontation that would justify will picket shopping centers in support campaign against the war. His land on Dec. 13 to protest the Vietnam a general attack on the picket line and of the GE products boycott. Representa­ tour will focus on Southeast war, the victimization of the Black Pan­ allow them to get trucks through. Pro­ tives of SM C will ask store owners to take GE products off the shelves for the Asia, Australia and New thers and to back the GE strikers. The ceeds from a collection went to the rally was held just blocks from the gates strikers. duration of the strike. Zealand, the Student Mo bili­ of one of the main plants shut down The SMC, Young Peoples' Socialist zation Committee announced as a result of the walkout of 14 7,000 League and the Young Socialist Al­ Dec. 9 GE workers nation-wide. Binghamton, N.Y. liance have also planned a march to tty will be traveling to Asia Speakers at the rally represented var­ the Evening Press building protesting at the same time Vice President ious antiwar groups and trade unions, By GARY WURTZEL the newspaper's anti-union editorial pol­ Agnew is there. Agnew will be including BA YPAC (Bay-Area Peace Ac­ BINGHAMTON, N. Y.-The Bing­ icy and refusal to give fair news cover­ drumming up support for U. S. tion Council) which was the main build­ hamton Student Mobilization Commit­ age to the strike. government war policies in er of the rally, United Electrical Work­ tee has embarked on a campaign to Vietnam, while I will be tak­ ers, United Steel Workers, UAW, Long­ aid the UE strikers at the Binghamton ing the antiwar message to shoremen, American Federation of General Electric plant. Teachers and the Black Panther Party, On Dec. 8, two representatives of the Boston, Mass. thousands of people!" Myers SM C and other groups. Almost all UE local addressed about 200 mem­ said. speakers related the issue of the war to bers of the SM C. The students heard By MIKE KELLY n The American antiwar the struggle of the GE strikers and about the national strike, "Boulwarism," BOSTON- Two major department movement is as aware as the blasted the nation-wide murderous at­ and GE's role as the second largest stores here, Filene's and Jordan Marsh, government in this country of tack on the Black Panther Party. holder of war contracts in the nation. were picketed Dec. 6 by antiwar stu­ the importance of having in­ Dave Kotz of UE Local 1493 ex­ Special problems of the Binghamton dents representing the Boston Univer­ ternational support on our side. plained the main thrust of the GE at­ plant were discussed. Anti-union harass­ sity Action Committee, the Student Mo­ And we have it. The interna­ tack against the strikers. The attack ment by supervisors (including confisca­ bilization Committee, and the Young is to bust the union into local bar­ tion of union literature and closed cir­ Socialist Alliance in support of the boy­ tional antiwar movement is gaining units by denying them a na­ cuit TV surveillance), the lack of union cott of GE products. growing. And we want to help tional contract. As it is, GE pays only consciousness on the part of many One leaflet distributed by SMC says it grow. I will be speaking to $3.00 an hour average on the assem­ women workers who view themselves the G E strike is a struggle between the dozens of groups around the bly line, only two days sick leave after as mere subordinate adjuncts to their workers who refuse to pay for the Viet­ world, as well as talking to five years service, and the pensions are breadwinning husbands, and Bingham­ nam war by taking a pay cut, and American Gis stationed around only $29 a week. ton's history as an anti-union town, the government-backed GE corporation the globe. I may even go to The crowd of young people had pos­ have combined to seriously hamper la­ which hopes to drive down wages in Vietnam." ters that read, "GE Makes a Killing bor organization in this plant. Only order to make workers pay for the war in Vietnam" and "GE Needs This War, about 85 out of 2,000 workers are UE and thus retain its swollen war-profits.

Antiwar movement should support strike against GE The national office of the Student Mobilization Committee in "We urge SMCs to work with local unions organizing support Washington, D. C., has called for support of the strike against committees for the G E strikers and help out in whatever way G E. Carol Lipman, SMC national secretary, outlined the anti­ possible in the national boycott and picket lines against GE war group's position in a press conference Dec. 9. products. A statement, sketching GE's large production ofwarmachinery, "The national Student Mobilization Committee will begin a pointed out that "the strike against GE is not only a strike for national educational campaign to inform the student commu­ high wages but an indication that the American people are not nity of the joint interests between the workers and the student interested in financing the war in Vietnam. It is a strike which antiwar movement should be supported actively by all antiwar forces. "Workers in this country suffer as much, if not more, than •• There are many actions in which the Student Mobilization anyone else because of the war. Committee urges support in helping this fight "We are strongly opposed to any attempt to cut the living "We urge SMCs to expose the factthatGE is the second largest standards of the American people in order to finance and con­ war contractor for the U. S. government tinue a war nobody wants. "We urge SMCs to initiate a campaign to stop all university "American employers, General Electric included, who have contracts with General Electric. been enriching themselves on war profits, can easily afford de­ "We urge SMCs to organize debates with strikebreaking re­ cent wages and working conditions. cruiters and demand the universities not allow recruiters on "SUPPORT THE GE WORKERS' STRIKE AND BOYCOTT." campus. Page 6 THE MILITANT Friday, Dec. 26, 1969

Chicago defense movement develops

Mobilize opposition to right-wing thugs

By LEE SMITH offices in Chicago Nov. 13 with the CHICAGO, Dec. 18-As the facts probable purpose of pr'ovoking some about the Legion of Justice and its at­ action which would serve as the basis tacks on socialists and others in north­ of such charges. Instead, he was po­ ern Illinois have become known (see litely asked to leave in the presence The Militant, Dec. 19 ), the initial steps of at least four witnesses. have been taken toward the formation Sidney Lens, veteran Chicago union­ of a broad Committee for Defense ist and a cochairman of the New Mo­ Against Terrorist Attacks. The Legion bilization Committee, is actively help­ of Justice is a fascist-like group whose ing in the formation of the Committee spokesman is Thomas Sutton, a right­ for Defense Against Terrorist Attacks. wing Chicago attorney. Lens says that the indifference of the The committee is being formed in De­ police to these attacks throws into sharp Kalb, the site of Northern Illinois Uni­ relief the different standards applied by versity where six students were gassed the police in cases involving left-wing, and beaten by Legion of Justice thugs antiwar or black liberation organiza­ in the apartment of three Young So­ tions and cases involving fascist and cialists Dec. 6. The committee will seek right-wing groups. Photo by DeKalb Northern Star the convening of a grand-jury inves­ A striking example of what Lens re­ LEADS ULTRA-REACTIONARY GANG. Attomey S. Thomas Sutton tigation into the Legion of Justice on the fers to is a case that was heard in the (Older man foreground) leads "march for America" at Northern basis of initial evidence gathered by Chicago courts last week. Illinois University campus. Long associated with white supremacist YSAers and others connecting the Le­ On Dec. 10, Sam Oleinick, alias Cicero groups, Sutton is now spokesman for "Legion of Justice," a gang gion and Sutton to the Dec. 6 attack. Sam Novack, and another character, of ultraright thugs. Laura Miller, DeKalb YSAer and sec­ Jerry Gasior, both identified as mem­ retary of the committee, says she ex­ bers of the Minutemen by the Dec. 11 pects the YSA convention in Minneapo­ Chicago Sun-Times, pled guilty to the many a small nation to shame." Hill's apartment Dec. 10, although on lis this month to get behind the effort unlawful use of a lethal weapon for Operation Crescent, referred to in the the Northern Illinois University cam­ nationally and help build the same kind shooting three hunting arrows into the editorial, is an organization Sutton pus in DeKalb on Dec. 11 a fire was of broad support that already exists basement of a Lutheran church that is helped to organize a few years ago to set at the Black Students Center and a in DeKalb, where groups ranging from used as a coffee house. Oleinick, report­ fight housing marches led by Martin rash of Nazi "white power" stickers ap­ the New University Conference to the edly a Legion of Justice member, was Luther King. peared on campus buildings. Young Americans for Freedom have fined, and both were placed on proba­ Richard Criley, of the Committee to These incidents, and the formation of gone on record in favor of the tion for one year. In the face ofthe mur­ Defend the Bill of Rights, has also taken the new committee, present the move­ campaign. derous repression of the Black Panther an active interest in the formation of ment with the necessary opportunity to Party, many others, 'including some of the new committee and, like Sidney successfully repulse an attack and to Chicago attorney Irving Birnbaum a conservative bent, have begun to take Lens, is one of its first sponsors. serve notice on the ultraright and the has agreed to represent the committee, note of what Lens is talking about. Antiwar leader and 1968 SWP Presi­ police that now and in the future such and he is presently working with the For example, the Lerner newspapers, dential candidate Fred Halstead has attacks will not be passively accepted. victims of a Nov. 1 attack on the YSA­ a chain of neighborhood papers drawn up an open letter describing the The Committee for Defense Against SWP headquarters in Chicago to see published in Chicago, ran an editorial Legion of Justice's attacks and related Terrorist Attacks is still in the process that a warrant is issued for the arrest in its papers for the week of Dec. 16 events, which is being circulated widely of formation and does not yet have a of Thomas Stewart. Tom Dengler, one which said in part, "We do not charac­ within the antiwar movement and permanent address. Those interested in of the victims of the attack, has said terize the Black Panthers as angels, and among other radical and working-class more information can write to Laura he can positively identify Stewart as we would oppose the Panther policy of organizations. There have been no fur­ Miller, cjo Student Activities Center, one of the Legion group making the amassing firearms even if the weapons ther incidents since a written death Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, attack. were registered legally, which they threat was placed on the door of Richard Illinois. Birnbaum will also probably defend weren't. But it strikes us as rather in­ Richard Hill and Carl Finamore, orga­ consistent for the state's attorney to go nizers of the Chicago SWP and YSA, to so much trouble to get black leaders who go to trial Jan. 6 on blatantly for illegal gun possession while white false charges of assault and battery groups-such as members of the Min­ Florida black students fight and illegal restraint. The charges have utemen, the crime syndicate, and Opera­ been filed by Greg Schulz, also appar­ tion Crescent, who reside in Cook Coun­ ently associated with the Legion of Jus­ ty-reportedly have access to stockpiles tice. Schulz visited the YSA and SWP of illegal weapons on a scale to put on school academic status

By LINDA FINE Circuit Judge Connell issued delin­ GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Ninety-five quency warrants against 48 striking U. of N. Carolina strike percent of the 1,250 students at all­ students and their parents. On the day black Lincoln High School here struck slated for hearings on the warrents, for two weeks to protest the school however, the Judge, noticeably per­ board's decision to turn their commu­ turbed by the number of strike sup­ ends in significant victory nity school into a vocational school. porters present in his courtroom, post­ The strike ended, temporarily at least, poned the hearing. By LARRY L. SLUDER We will not be leaving Chapel Hill after the school board and the students The agreement which ended the strike CHAPEL HILL, Dec. 11 - The or North Carolina as long as there are reached agreement. includes dropping of charges against month-old cafeteria workers' strike at black and poor white workers strug­ The board made the decision to con­ the students, submission by the board the University of North Carolina, which gling." Other union leaders indicated vert the school despite frequent, strong of a plan to keep Lincoln an academic forced the closing of the campus' six that a major drive to organize porters expression by black parents of the de­ school, appointment of a black prin­ dining halls, ended Dec. 8 hours be­ and maids, and then hospital workers, sire to keep the school academically cipal at at least one new high school, fore a sheduled show of force by black would begin immediately. oriented. and appointment of at least one mem­ students here and from surrounding Local strike supporters were even The students, outraged by the board's ber of the black community to each colleges. Branded "Black Monday," the more adamant in demanding continua­ arbitrariness and by the decision itself, standing committee of the county's edu­ planned activity turned into a victory tion of the struggle. James Lee, training walked out on Nov. 25. On Dec. 1, cational system. celebration after the settlement was an­ director for the Durham based Founda­ they presented a series of demands, nounced. The food workers, who ap­ tion for Community Development, was which included retention of Lincoln as proved the contract provisions unani­ greeted with cheers and black power an academic school, blacks on the mously, returned to their jobs Tuesday. salutes when he told students and work­ school board, and black administrators Terms of the contract include 10 paid ers that "Today is a victory for black and teachers. CALENDAR holidays, 10 days sick leave, a provi­ unity." Each day during the strike, the stu­ sion for job classification and seniority, dents marched from the school to the unemployment compensation, a union On this "Black Monday" in Carolina, University of Florida campus and from NEW YORK bulletin board, and an end to split it was clear to the workers and their there to the school-board building to Fri., Jan. 2. REPRESSION AND REVOLUTION IN shifts. Strike leaders noted that these supporters that the most important demand a meeting with the superinten­ BRAZIL. Speaker: Timothy F. Harding, Prof. of latin gains, while important, were only a achievement of the past month was not dent of schools. Young Socialists joined American History; lived and studied in Brazil. 8:30 beginning. the shorter hours and additional money each day's march, after a rally held p.m. 873 Broadway (near 18th Street). Contrib. 51, Speaking to over 1,000 students and that the strike settlement would provide, on the university campus. The Student h.s. students 50c. Ausp. Militant labor Forum. workers at the victory rally, .Jesse Epps, though that was naturally welcomed, Mobilization Committee built rallies and a special assistant to American Federa­ but that several hundred workers had distributed leaflets in support of the high Fri., Jan. 9. PALESTINE: FROM RESISTANCE TO REVO­ tion of State, County and Municipal stood together, had formed a union, school students. LUTION. Speaker: Maan Ziyada, Member of the Demo­ Employees Union President Jerry Wurf, and had won. Nothing quite like this Parents from the black community cratic Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine issued a challenge to university officials, had happened before in Chapel Hill, demonstrated their support in mass (DPF). 8:30 p.m. 873 Broadway (near 18th Street). stating that "we have just begun to fight. North Carolina. meetings. Contrib.$1, h.s. students50c. Ausp. Militant labor Forum. Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 7 Four antiwar Gls fight attempted victimizations

Two Gls at Ft. Hood, Texas, and Oleo Strut, 101 East Ave. D, Killeen, one at Ft. Jackson, S. C., face court­ Texas 76541. martials because of their antiwar ac­ In New York City, a major fund­ tivities. A bronze-star sergeant- a Viet­ raising event for the United Service­ nam vet - now stationed at Ft. Mc­ men's Fund and the Richard Chase Clellan, Alabama, is threatened with Defense Fund has been announced for an undesirable discharge because of Dec. 26 at 8:30 and 11:30 p.m., Man­ his antiwar views. hattan Center, 311 W. 34th St. Enter­ tainment will feature Pete Seeger, Jim­ Pfc. Robert H. Bower is a 20-year­ my Collier, the Pageant Players, the old Vietnam veteran, now stationed at Burning City Theater, Viveca Lindfors THE FORT JACKSON EIGHT Ft. Hood. He is charged with having and Barbara Dane. (Left to right) Pvt. Andrew Pulley, 18, of Cleveland; Pvt. Jose Rudder, 20, been AWOL for three hours, partici­ of W:lshington, D. C.; Pvt. Delmar Thomas, 22, of Cleveland; Pvt. Edilberto pating in a public demonstration while At Ft. McClellan, Alabama, the brass Chaparro, 17, of New York City; Pvt. Tommie W:lodfin, 20, of Brooklyn; in uniform, and being off post while are attempting to give Sgt. Lewis A. Pvt. Dominick Duddie, 17, of New York City; Pvt. Joseph Cole, 24, of in work uniform (fatigues). The charges Delano an undesirable discharge. He Atlanta; Pfc. Curtis E. Mays, 23, of Kansas City. stem from the Oct. 15 Moratorium rally has described his case in a letter to The at the Capitol in Austin where Bower Militant dated Dec. 11: was a speaker. "Following months of harassment and The charge of participating in a pub­ discrimination on account of my political lic demonstration while in uniform car­ activity, the brass has initiated discharge ries a possible penalty of two years action against me. My elimination 'is BOOK REVIEW at hard labor and a dishonorable dis­ recommended because of unsuitability charge. due to apathy, defective attitudes, and Bower's defense effort is being sup­ inability to expend effort constructive­ ported by the Student Mobilization Com­ ly.' In this illegal move, they neglected mittee, 2200 Guadalupe, Room 23, Au­ to mention that I am a member of The story of Gls United stin, Texas 78705. His Army counsel the editorial staff of Left Face (the G I­ is Capt. Michael Guarisco, and his ci­ WAC antiwar newspaper at Ft. Mc­ vilian lawyer is Ben G. Levy of Hous­ Clellan) and also active in Ft. McClel­ ton. lan's Gls-WACs United Against the ANTIWAR Gis SPEAK OUT: INTER­ explain how Gls United, which was at War in Vietnam. . . . VIEWS WITH FT. JACKSON Gis first almost exclusively composed of Pvt. Richard W. Chase has been in "Exercising my right of free speech, Afro-Americans discovering their black the Ft. Hood stockade since mid-Oc­ UNITED AGAINST THE WAR. By I have spoken out against American identity and the potential power of it, tober because of his refusal to take part Fred Halstead. Merit Publishers. 873 involvement in Vietnam. After serving consciously and deliberately advanced in "Operation Gardenplot"- the federal Broadway, N. Y., N. Y. 1 0003. 1969. a 12-month tour of cotnbat duty, my step by step to involve white G Is on government's national "riot control" 47 pp. 50c. moral obligation to the Vietnamese peo­ the basis of a common opposition to training program- at Ft. Hood. On March 20 of this year, the brass ple is to speak the truth of their strug­ the war in Vietnam without making the Chase has been active in the G I an­ at Ft. Jackson, S.C., threw nine sol­ gle for liberation.... slightest concession to any racist at­ tiwar movement and has written for diers in the stockade and hit them with "Unsuitablity? My record: for 29 titudes or lessening their particular con­ Fatigue Press, the Ft. Hood under­ enough trumped-up charges to keep months, conduct/efficiency ratings were cern as blacks. ground paper. each one of them in prison for several all excellent; for 32 months received The pamphlet is in no sense a for­ His defense is being organized by years. (One of them was an Army in­ no convictions under the Uniform Code malistic "organizing manual." It is a the Richard Chase Defense Committee, former-provocateur who was quickly of Military Justice; attained the rank released.) The military authorities want­ vivid account of a living experience. of Sergeant (E-5); awarded the Nation­ ed to get the other eight because they Some of the finest passages are those al Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Ser­ were leaders of one of the most effective that capture the mood and atmosphere Gls, civilians vice Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, antiwar servicemen's groups that has of an Army unit coming to political Army Commendation Medal and the yet emerged. consciousness. "It was a flip-flop in the Bronze Star 'for meritorious service.' The Ft. Jackson Eight had acted with whole mood of that whole company," Obviously the Army is attempting to great intelligence in their organizing Joe Miles said of Company B, 14th demonstrate punish me for my antiwar actions. efforts. They had refused the tempta­ Battalion, 4th Brigade at Ft. Jackson. "This attempt to prohibit any kind tion to try and work "underground," "Politics were introduced and everybody of political activity among G Is-WACs was talking politics. They'd discuss it in Fayetteville of Ft. McClellan is illegal. To fight so the fact that an informer had on their own, in their own little discus­ my discharge action is of crucial im­ wormed his way into their company By ANDREW PULLEY didn't make any real difference. They sions, asking themselves even tactical portance as a legal precedent in the FAYETTEVILLE - Over 400 peo­ had paid no attention to the informer­ questions. The thing was swelling, fight for GI-WAC rights. With the aid ple demonstrated against the war in provocateur's efforts to lure them in­ spreading, it was for real. It was a real of the G I Civil Liberties Defense Com­ Vietnam in Fayetteville, N. C., Dec. 13. movement. It wasn't artificial. The whole mittee, I am demanding consideration to various adventurist acts. They had More than half the demonstrators were Gls United was an outgrowth of the of my case before a board of officers. formed strong links with the civilian Gls. nationalist consciousness and antiwar "Letters of protest should be sent to: antiwar movement. Because of all this, This was the second GI demonstra­ feeling among the black G Is and other Commanding Officer, Ft. McClellan, and thanks to a massive defense ef­ tion organized by Gis United at Ft. Gis." Ala. 36201 with corresponding copies fort on their behalf by the GI Civil Bragg in the last three months. The Liberties Defense Committee, the Army He went on, "And that's why it's going demonstration got a lot of support from to Left Face, P. 0. Box 1595, Anniston, Ala. 36201, and GI CLDC, Box 355, was finally forced to drop all charges to continue to grow and continue to local student groups. function no matter what they do to us, Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y. against the Ft. Jackson Eight. Speakers at the rally included David because they'll never stop the way guys 10011." In May, just after their release from Schulman, a leader of Ft. Bragg G Is the stockade, Fred Halstead interviewed feel. They can't give an idea an Article United, and Andrew Pulley of the Ft. four of the Ft. Jackson Eight-Andrew 15. They can't put thoughts in jail." Jackson Eight. Pvt. Charles C. Carson of Ft. Jack­ Pulley, Jose Rudder, Joe Cole and Tom­ -ROBERT LANGSTON The demonstration was a sign of the son, S.C., has been sentenced to 70 mie Woodfin. A week later, he inter­ continuing strength of Gls United additional days in the Ft. Jackson stock­ viewed Joe Miles, who at that time was which was formed at Ft. Bragg over ade, even though theArmybackeddown stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C., but had a year ago. Never before in the history on three of the five charges pending been an initial leader of the Ft. Jack­ YSAerwins fight of the U.S. Army have so many Gls against him. son Gls United. Halstead is a skillful actively opposed a war while that war Carson has been imprisoned since interviewer; the men are articulate, is being waged. on discharge Oct. 19, some of this time in the "box," thoughtful and committed revolution­ a 5 x 8 foot reconverted refrigerator ists. The result is an absorbing human Larry Friedburg, 19, a mem­ for solitary confinement (see The and political document. ber of the Young Socialist Al­ Militant, Dec. 19 ). The pamphlet could serve as a text­ liance since last June, received The 18-year-old black GI has been book on GI organizing. The Ft. Jack­ an honorable discharge from victimized for his role in opposing the son antiwar leaders explain how to use the U. S. Air Force on Dec. racism of the Army and the war in constitutionally guaranteed rights to 19. Friedburg, who was sta­ Vietnam. He helped to collect the 1,365 beat off the brass' efforts at repression. tioned at Wright-Patterson Air signatures of active-duty G Is for im­ They forcefully argue the case for work­ Force Base, received the un­ mediate withdrawal which was present­ ing openly and for avoiding any kind expected Christmas present di­ ed as a full-page ad in the New York of adventurist action that would open Times, Nov. 9. the organization to victimization. rectly from the Department of Two of the charges on which Carson They illustrate by the example of the Defense in Washington. was acquitted- breaking restriction and G Is United the necessity and effective­ He had been threatened with breaking arrest-were the two charges ness of the utmost democracy. Policies a general discharge, on alleg­ on which the military had illegally con­ and actions decided on after the most edly psychiatric grounds­ fined him for the 60 days prior to the thorough and open discussion are gen­ "for his own good" and "to court martial. uinely understood by those carrying keep him out of trouble." The In an Atlanta press conference Dec. them out. And completely inexperienced, G I Civil Liberties Defense Com­ 11, held by the GI Civil Liberties De­ previously nonpolitical people will make mittee helped provide legal aid fense Committee, representatives of correct decisions in the most complicated RYM-AWARE at the UniversityofSouth tactical questions if there is adequate to defend Friedburg's consti­ Carolina, the Student Mobilization Com­ discussion and if there are a few peo­ tutional right to speak out mittee, and students from Georgia State ple present who possess political expe­ against the war and to discuss University and Emory University in rience and understanding. his political beliefs. Andrew Pulley Atlanta, spoke in Carson's defense. Even more important, perhaps, they Page 8 THE MILITANT Friday, Dec. 26, 1969

The most frequently asked questions WHY WOMEN'S LIBERATION?

By CAROL HANISCH and Of course not. Women will never be capitalist system, women must also fight ELIZABETH SUTHERLAND free in this country as it now exists men for recognition of their humanity. MARTINEZ because nobody can be. So you have to The following "conversation" was put fight to change the whole thing. But It sounds like you hate men! together from various comments made we could change the economic system by women and men on the subject of and women could still be victims When a man says that, it's a self­ women's liberation. Written in the spring of male supremacy, just as black peo­ defense tactic-trying to put feminists of 1968, it was one of the early pieces ple could still be victims of racism. in a hate bag, the way whites do to of literature to come out of the cur­ To assure that this doesn't happen, black militants. When a woman says rent upsurge of the struggle for women's women have to organize themselves to it, it's usually because she doesn't see liberation. It was first printed in the fight male supremacy. her own oppression. She doesn't see June 1968 issue of Notes, published that she lives in a world of male su­ by the New York Radical Women, a You make a lot of analogies to the premacy, not limited to the USA or women's liberation group that has since black movement. How do you see your to the capitalist system. From the be­ disbanded. relationship to black women? ginning of history, women have usually been seen by men- and therefore by * * * At the moment, our group is largely themselves- as the lesser of the sexes. white. Occasionally a black woman will In periods of economic necessity, wom­ come to meetings and that's great. Our en have been allowed out of the home meetings are open to all women. How­ but quickly put back when that need Women's liberation doesn't have the ever, there is a reluctance on the part ended ... and told that's where they immediate importance of black libera­ of white women to assume that black always belonged. The ideas are so old tion or ending the war in Vietnam­ women want to be part ofan"integrated" that its no surprise women cannot see the revolution. group. We figure black women may what has happened to them. want to get together themselves first. That statement shows you have no Furthermore, we're all sisters but some Are you trying to be like men, then? concept of the oppression of women. of our problems are different. Many It's true that women are not being killed militant black women see their struggle Our demand is not for equality. Who off as a group in the great numbers as a fight alongside their men for sur­ wants to be like men! We are trying that black people and Vietnamese are, vival; some say that only middle-class as women to define ourselves. We not or in such obvious ways. But 10,000 white women can afford to worry about only reject the definitions that men have women die each year from abortions their freedom as women. Some non­ given us, but reject becoming like men. because the men who run this country white women are beginning to organize have decided that a woman may not on the women issue, however, so ap­ Your ideas may be all right for you control her own body. Women are de­ parently there isn't complete rejection personally, but why must you impose humanized and put into service roles of the idea. Hopefully, all women will a particular life style on other women? like black people. More of us can "make eventually be able to get together and Some women really want to serve a it" economically, if we are willing to fight for certain programs. This should man in the traditional way, they just prostitute ourselves as wives of upper­ result in lessening of white supremacist naturally want to be housewives. or middle-class men. But basically we attitudes too, as white women get to­ Hey, I know a lot of men who wash are economically exploited, psycho­ gether with non-white women around That sounds like the "happy slave" dishes. Haven't you ever met a hen­ logically oppressed and socially kept similar needs. We wJ,U fight such racist argument for the South-a great ra­ pecked husband? Or just a nice guy in "our place" by men and by a capital­ practices as using maids to do the per­ tionalization for continuing oppression. who believes in helping? ist system that has institutionalized male sonal dirty work that men should share There are at least two things wrong supremacy-in a more subtle way than equally with us. with your point. First, no woman in Man, that dish-washing argument has the caveman but just as destructively. a modern Western society has grown moth-holes by now. The point is that But women don't have it so bad. up in the absence of lifelong pressure such actions, no matter how much bet­ But other people are more oppressed There are women doctors, lawyers, ar­ to seek submissiveness, to want to be ter than the man who won't do any­ than you. chitects. Women are in almost all the a housewife, to define herself in the thing in the house, don't alter the as­ fields open to men. terms of the dominant male society. So signment of roles. Housework remains That may or may not be. It seems no one can say for sure that such at­ the woman's job, and then the man rather futile to argue about who is Almost is a big word. Besides, the titudes and goals are innate in women, "helps." If men started staffing nursery most or more oppressed. If you're be­ number of women in creative and well­ that they come "naturally." Women schools, that might reflect a real change ing stepped on, you don't stop to argue paying jobs is very limited. There are never had a chance to find out what in attitudes and roles. But the same about whether the foot on your neck black legislators, lawyers, doctors and they really want; no one knows what man who will wash dishes wouldn't is heavier than the one on the neck even a black man on the U. S. Supreme a woman would choose if she were be caught dead in a job taking care of somebody else. You try to free your­ Court, too, but that doesn't make the free psychologically and technically. of very young children-unless he self. And where it's the same foot, you masses of black people less oppressed. ln the second place, it doesn't seem could dress it up as some kind of so­ work together. There may be several Also, women get lower pay for the same really probable that anyone would want ciological experiment. Listen, children things holding you down at once. If jobs and they have to work harder to be no more than a housewife if all should have alternatives also-to be you're a woman, it's men and the cap­ to rise in those jobs-just as black peo­ other avenues were open. Housework cared for by men or women, or both. italist system. If you're a black woman, ple do. it's also racism. is uncreative, no matter what the mass media say about it in their relentless If giving women all possible alter­ Don't you know that women control drive to sell a new cake mix or floor natives includes the choice never to have Are you saying that women shouldn't most of the wealth in this country? fight in other struggles? wax. Anyone who has ever done that children, what happens to the human They also control individual men, not kind of work for an extended period race? overtly but indirectly. Women have the knows it is endless, repetitious drudgery real power, baby. with -worst of all-no relevance to the Society cannot lay the responsibility larger human community. It provides for continuing the race solely on wom­ First of all, we don't want to wield a pathetic sense of being needed, of en. If there is any responsibility here, power as it is wielded under the present identity, to many women. But anyone it's the responsibility of society to offer system-to oppress, to destroy people's who thinks she feels good as she sur­ women all possible choices by devel­ humanity. But even if we did, we don't veys her kitchen after washing the 146,- oping new technology for continuing have anything like real power. Much 789th batch of sparkling dishes isn't the species in other ways -so that the of that wealth is held by women nom­ being "natural"; she's literally lost her task need not be unilaterally imposed inally, for tax purposes. They don't mind. on women. make decisions about it. They aren't on the corporation boards of directors. They don't run industry, the military But what about the women who say machine, the governmental structures. that giving birth was the most extra­ It may be true that women exert forms ordinary experience of their lives­ of indirect control over individual men, PIONEERS Of WOMEN'S LIBERATION would you deny them that? and it's an ugly phenomenon. Women manipulate "behind the scenes" and use By Joyce Cowley 25f It's true that some women say that. the "feminine wiles" because most of Others find childbirth exciting but no them have been denied the chance even more so than various other experiences. to think of themselves wielding power PROBLEMS Of WOMEN'S LIBERATION Some women begin to enjoy children openly. Look how managers go only when the kids attain a more devel­ through all sorts of changes with male oped humanness. It seems possible that workers if they put a woman in a posi­ by Evelyn Reed 95f those who find childbirth their most tion of authority. "Feminine wiles" is outstanding experience haven't yet had a product of women's struggle for sur­ access to other experiences. Again, what vival-it's a plastic sword, a paper REVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS we want is a society in which women tiger, phoney, nothing. It's devoid of Of who want to try it can do so and those self-respect. who don't can not try it without being WOMEN'S LIBERATION made to feel guilty, inadequate, "un­ But men are exploited too. They do fulfilled." mostly unrewarding work. They arenot by George Novadr 3~ allowed to be full hum.an beings either. Are you also advocating an end to merry x-mas Merit Publishers families- putting all kids in nurseries? True. But men still oppress women. 873 Broadway New York. N.Y. 10003 Kids need mother love or they'll grow So in addition to fighting to change the up neurotic. Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 9

example. There's something special about the relationship which doesn't exist between two people of the same sex unless they're homosexual. Women's lib teach-in That's still the undercurrent of pos­ sible conquest. Of course there are dif­ ferences between men and women. But when men bring them up, it's usually held at S.F. State with some form of inferiority in the back of their minds. By DEBBIE WOODROOFE band was murdered by the police; Joan The movement for women's libera­ Jordan, who documented the economics Ho hum. Well, what's your program? tion surfaced at San Francisco State of women's oppression; and Marjorie College last week. Over 500 students Uren who exposed the docile role wom­ If there is anything we can learn and staff members attended an ali-day en are assigned to play in children's from the black liberation movement, teach-in on the oppression of women. books. it is that the primary job is conscious­ The teach-in was organized by stu­ After the speakers, four demands were ness-raising. Malcolm X said it about dents in the class on "Woman as a black people in 1964, and it's equally Minority." Many of them had noticed true for us: that whenever a leaflet went up on cam­ "You can't give people a program pus announcing a women's liberation until they realize they need one, and meeting, men tore it down and many until they realize that all existing pro- women would say "I don't feel op­ grams aren't ... goingtoproduce .. . pressed." results. What we would like to do .. . The teach-in was intended to educate is to go into our problem and just the campus on what the movement for analyze ... and question things that women's liberation is, to expose the you don't understand so we can ... ways that women are oppressed. get a better picture of what faces us. Many professors cancelled their class­ If you give people a thorough under­ es so their students could go to the standing of what it is that confronts teach-in. About 100 men came, and them, and the basic causes that pro­ there was no heckling. duce it, they'll create their own pro­ The day began with films -"Salt of gram." the Earth," "The Jeanette Rankin It is amazing how quickly we have Brigade," and a multi-media protrayal been able to affect the consciousness of women's image in advertising. These of some women already. They see them­ were the only films the teach-in orga­ selves as members of a group for the nizers could find that were relevant to first time instead of believing their prob­ women's liberation, and several film lems to be individual. Then they say, makers in the audience volunteered to "Hey, I like women!" And that's a real breakthrough. work on producing more films for this new movement. The films were followed by nine wom­ Well, I still think most women want en speakers, each an authority on some things the way they are. They may de­ aspect of women's oppression. Anyone who thinks the women's mand equal pay or less drudgery, but Brenda Brush, of National Organi­ liberation movement exaggerates they still want to have the same kinds zation for Women, spoke on the social about the degree to which the of personal relationships with men that conditioning of women. "No matter what mass media degrades women and people have had for centuries. It's in a woman does with her life, she ends portrays them as sexual objects nature. up by apologizing," Mrs. Brush said. needs only study this current cover "We condition a woman to believe her of one of the major women's A lot of women who say they just "Love" is a word screaming for re­ primary role is that of housewife. Then magazines. want to play the traditional roles are we give her no status, no pay, and definition. In sexual relationships, it simply fearful- or unable to imagine often means dependency; it's a weapon make her apologize for doing what presented that will be the basis for the other ways of being. Old roles can every influence has led her to do." formation of a broad-based women's for control, it's someone making an seem to offer a certain security. Free­ Diane Feeley, of the Socialist Workers liberation group on campus. The ac­ object out of someone else in order to dom can seem frightening- if one has Party, was cheered when she announced tion proposals included 1) a childcare satisfy ego and security needs. People learned how to achieve a certain de­ she would be running for Senator center on the campus financed by the become a kind of very elaborate, ex­ gree of power inside the prison. We pensive furniture in each other's lives. don't seek to impose anything on wom­ against tap-dancer George Murphy in state but controlled by the community; "Mother love" can usually be translated en but merely to open up all possible the 1970 election. Miss Feeley pointed 2) a women's studies department that as a woman finding her identity through alternatives; we do seek choice, as one out some of the parallels between the will end chauvinistic course content and another person. That's a terrible bur­ of the functions which makes people hu­ struggles of women and blacks and write women back into history; 3) birth den on the child, with each generation man beings. We want to be free peo­ urged the women's liberation move­ control devices and abortion counseling transferring the burden on to the next. ple, crippled neither by law or custom ment to speak out against the recent to be made available at the campus It's also a paralysis of the woman's or our own chained minds. If there is repression of the Black Panther Party. health center; and 4) an end to job human development. no room for that in nature, then nature "Women are an oppressed sector of the discrimination by sex on the campus. We believe that there is such a thing must be changed. population too, and it is necessary for This was followed by workshops on as humanistic love; that everyone needs us to express our solidarity with other women workers, education, mother­ to experience it; that you cannot love Well, all I can say is you must be a sections of the movement that are under hood, and the death of the bunny if you have not had the experience of bunch of lesbians. attack." image. In the workshops, students and being loved. But there is little social Among the other speakers were faculty members worked on drawing history to prove that the conventional, That's the one people always pull Lillian House, a black woman from up strategy for ending second-class nuclear family produces such love­ out last. It's the kind of tactic the ruling the United Electrical Workers who ex­ status of women on the campus. that it produces the happiest people. It class uses when it fells threatened by plained the way in which GE discrim­ The first meeting of the new group usually turns out lonely runners in a anyone who challenges it. Queer-baiting inates against women; Charmeig Bas­ that was launched by the teach-in, In­ rat-race rather than members of a hu­ is no different from red-baiting. Let's kett, a welfare mother and member of dependent Campus Women, was an­ man community. Its essence is like that deal with the issues. Progressive Labor Party whose hus- nounced. of capitalism; it projects children as possessions and as the responsibility of individuals. But children are as much the possession and responsibility of the community as the land, the waters, the air and all resources available to man through nature. Just what new forms should replace today's nuclear family- a combination of social and private child care, totally socialized care, the extended family or whatever- is not for us to determine. Men too have a responsibility for work­ ing that out. More important, we reject the idea that women must come up with a perfect formula for the human race before their demands for libera­ tion are met. We want to get The Man off our backs; don't expect us to guarantee him a comfy chair to sit in afterward.

Well, even if that's all true, don't you think life would be duller without the spark of sexual difference? Don't you secretly dig the kinds of little ten­ sion between men and women?

Yeah, yeah-flirting is fun. A man opens a door for me, I thank him, he smiles - and electricity ripples through us both. A year later, I'm flushing out a diaper and he's opening other doors. You can be an even better mother, wife, cook and hostess No, I don't mean only lovers-just men and women working together, for The media's image of "the perfect woman" Page 10 THE MILITANT Friday, Dec. 26, 1969

Retreat from mass antiwar action Move to derail Mobe into multi-issue morass

By HARRY RING war coalitions as those in Atlanta, Bos­ The steering committee of the New ton, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Mobilization Committee to End the War Philadelphia, San Francisco and St. in Vietnam, which brought out a mil­ Louis. lion people in Washington and San Opportunism and ultraleftism Francisco Nov. 15, held its first meet­ Lenin taught that ultraleftism and op­ ing since that event the weekend of Dec. portunism were two sides of the same 13-14 in Cleveland. The decisions of coin, and history has frequently dem­ the meeting constituted a serious retreat onstrated how quickly ultraleftism can from organizing mass struggles against become opportunism. This meeting the war. showed how the two seemingly oppo­ A program was rammed through the site tendencies can work in tandem. meeting which counterposes activity The three-point program adopted was around a multitude of diverse social as follows: and political issues to united mobiliza­ "1. Repression (January and February tions against the war. This was carried emphasis). a) Development of Mobe po­ through by an organized (but public­ sition paper on relation of the war and ly unannounced) "radical caucus." repression. b) Mobe support for Pan­ Among the adherents were "confron­ ther demand that UN investigate geno­ tationists" grouped around Dave Del­ cide. c) Mobe support Conspiracy linger and Rennie Davis; ultraleft grad­ through organizing People's Juries. d) uate SDSers concerned with reformist­ Mobe support for Gls on trial and type community organizing; pacifist ad­ civilians who assist them (deserters, etc.) vocates of non-violent civil disobedience; "2. Who Pays for the War and Who and liberal "peace politics" types like Profits from the War? Educational ef­ Arthur Waskow of the Institute for Pol­ forts cresting on or around April 15 icy Studies. with strikes, anti-inflation picketing and The meeting-smaller than usual, and boycotts at groceries, etc.; group tax far less representative of the broad co­ protests or refusals, visits to IRS of­ alition compnsmg the Mobe-was fices, tax payments to the poor, etc; carefully packed by the "radicalcaucus." support for strikers resisting efforts of There were a number of people pres­ business and government to put the ent and voting who were not added burden of the war on the workers; dem­ Photo by Ron Payne by any previous meeting of that body onstrations, sitdowns, etc., at offices and or by the conference which established SAN FRANCISCO, NOV. 15. A million people marched against stockholders meetings of major war cor­ the war in S. F. and D. C., giving dramatic new power to antiwar the committee. porations; savings bonds returns (Gis); Proxy votes demonstrations, etc." protesting perpet­ struggle. Yet question of the meaning of Nov. 15 was not even on Some dozen or more people were there uation of poverty, low level of welfare agenda of first meeting of New Mobe steering committee after action. reportedly as proxies for elected mem­ and medical payments, etc., caused by Instead there was a flight from antiwar struggle to diffuse activities bers of the committee, although in a the war. number of cases the proxy votes were around a grab bag of issues in name of greater "radicalism." "3. Gis, Pre-Inductees, the Draft, War cast in favor of political stands that and War Crimes. Actions on Good Fri­ are the diametric opposite of those held day (March 27) especially on war by the members of the committee pur­ While such a project may be feasible control of the apparatus of the old crimes, morality, etc., and on Memorial portedly being represented. Many in­ at the Institute for Policy Studies and National Mobe decided there would be Day with demonstrations at a number dividuals also cast proxy votes in ad­ a few other places around the country, no more mass actions and no more of bases-arranged with Gimovement." dition to their own, a practice not pre­ the notion of "mass walkouts" against movement conferences to decide wheth­ Just prior to adoption of this hodge­ viously seen at New Mobe meetings. the war in any significant sector of er or not there should be such actions. podge, Dave Dellinger took cognizance The decisive vote came on an amend­ American industry in the next few But the efforts to convert the National of the criticism that there was no men­ ment to the proposed program of ac­ months almost seems like a put-on. Mobe into a multi-issue instrument sim­ tion of immediate withdrawal from Viet­ tivity. The amendment (which had pre­ Opposition to the kind of mass ac­ ply resulted in its demise and replace­ nam in the three-point program and viously been blocked from the floor as tion that can be organized against the ment by the New Mobe and Nov. 15, hastily offered an amendment that the a substitute motion) provided that the war this spring, was expressed in a the biggest demonstration in U.S. his­ program be related to the demand for various activities agreed on build "task force" report to the conference by tory. toward and culminate in mass demon­ withdrawal. The amendment was duly John McAuliff of the Committee of Re­ Mere minimal demand? included, but not a word was said as strations for immediate withdrawal from turned Volunteers. He asserts:" ... for The multi-issue proponents sneer at to how the multi-issue program would Vietnam in several hundred cities on the moment mass national protest ac­ such mass mobilizations for immediate actually be related to the fight for with­ a date in the spring to be selected. tions are a dead end." withdrawal as "lowest common denom­ drawal. Clearly, the intent of the amend­ This motion was defeated 29-25. Al­ "Real action" inator" politics to be replaced by a ment was simply to ward off criticisms so defeated, by a greater majority, was What the million who marched Nov. more "radical," undefined "anti-imperi­ of the "radical" grouping for its failure a related motion to convene a broadly 15 want, McAuliff and his fellow "radi­ alist" movement. to even address itself to this crucial de­ cal caucus" members seem to divine, An imperialist nation is today wag­ representative conference of the entire mand. antiwar movement to finalize and is "real actions in their own communi­ ing a war of aggression against a rev­ launch an action and establish thestruc­ Some worthy issues ties where they can fight the war and olutionary people. A massive move­ ture to carry it through. A number of the particular issues in those responsible instead of just pro­ ment develops within that imperialist Speaking against the motion for mass the three-point program are supported testing.... " nation demanding a halt to the war. antiwar mobilizations, Dellinger and by all opponents of the war and the An educational picket line at a local Regardless of the ideological level of others argued that such actions would system responsible for it. But isolated business office, according to McAuliff, those involved, such a movement strikes tend to dominate and detract from the from any central focus-such as mass is more "radical" than mass mobiliza­ lethal blows against imperialism in the multi-issue program which they regard action against the war-the prospects tions against the war and, apparently concrete. The attempts of the liberal as their principal concern. for getting any action related to them by the simple device of escalated rhe­ capitalist politicians to coopt the move­ Opposing the motion for a movement off the ground are, at best, slight. toric, constitues "fighting" rather than ment, and those of the Nixon admin­ conference, some "radical caucus" This is apparently quite agreeable to mere "protesting." istration to meet it head on, bear tes­ spokesmen candidly stated that such a such political dilettantes as Arthur Was­ The "radical" character of the "radi­ timony to that. conference might overturn the steering kow, who was regarded by the group cal caucus" was rather fittingly ex­ And the Vietnamese, with a body of committee decisions. as its principal ideological spokesman pressed by the fact that at the meeting experience in the concrete struggle Perhaps symbolic of the atmosphere at the meeting. it won the support of the thoroughly against imperialism, have made pub­ was the sight of Irving Beinin of the At the May 1967 Washington confer­ reformist Communist Party. lic again and again their profound ap­ Guardian staff, with both arms aloft ence that launched the Pentagon demon­ It would be a serious mistake for preciation of the worth of such mass against a motion favoring mass anti­ stration, Waskow sought to counterpose the antiwar movement to concentrate actions in the liberation fight. war action, his own voting card in support of capitalist "peace" politicians solely on mass demonstrations. Never­ The struggle to get the troops out of one hand, a "proxy" vote in the other. to mass action. Then he turned up at theless, such demonstrations are the in­ Vietnam continues. Nixon's "phased It was quite remarkable to see 29 the 1968 New Politics fiasco in Chicago dispensable key to mobilizing antiwar withdrawal" is intended solely to dupe people, a number of whom represent with the thesis that the hippies had forces for meaningful actions on the the American people into relaxing their no one but themselves, declaring on be­ proven that you don't have to work campuses and in the communities-in­ pressure for an end to the war. To re­ half of the million who marched Nov. and that not working is the way to cluding the "workplaces." treat at this point from the withdrawal 15 that such mass actions are worth­ bring down the system. The past five years has shown that fight in the name of a higher "radical­ less and then even opposing a demo­ Apparently elaborating this thesis, community activity has developed in ism" is, objectively, to throw in the cratic movement conference because it Waskow offered the Cleveland meeting a meaningful way only to the extent towel. might possibly challenge that view. the thought that the way to oppose the that such activity has been related to Fortunately, recognition of the com­ This was particularly striking since war this spring is to organize monthly the major mass actions which have pelling need to continue the fight for the mass-action motion was supported workplace teach-ins and demonstra­ in fact built the antiwar movement. withdrawal is strong enough within the by Prof. Sidney Peck, New Mobe co­ tions, building, by late spring presum­ And the converse has also been antiwar movement that those who would chairman who was co-director of the ably, into a general strike against the proven. After the Pentagon action, Del­ derail it into a multi-issue morass are Washington action; and by such anti- war. linger and those associated with him in not likely to succeed in their efforts. Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 11 Mexican political prisoners Action urged against announce hunger strike Panther-killing cops The great majority of the 120 politi­ Many of the prisoners were arrested cal prisoners in Lecumberri jail in Mex­ in connection with the mass student ico City have announced their inten­ protests in Mexico City last year. These tion to begin on Dec. 10 an unlimited student struggles got world-wide publi­ hunger strike. This decision was reached city after the Oct. 2, 1968, massacre, after they learned that the initial phase when police shot into a huge crowd of of their trials had been closed without protesters, killing scores and wounding adequate evidence being presented or over 100 others. the required legal procedures being ob­ In the Mexican court system, the first served. phase of a trial is devoted to gathering evidence. In the second phase, another court hears arguments based on this evidence and then rules on the case. Chicano activist In the cases of the federal-law po­ litical prisoners, the investigating judge, Ferrer MacGregor, declared the first fights frame-up phase of the trial closed on Nov. 22, without holding the required hearings, without allowing the prisoners or their in Oakland attorneys to see the formal accusations presented by the government or the On Oct. 23, Ysidor Ramon Macias, evidence introduced to support them, a 25-year-old Chicano teacher in the and without the defense attorneys be­ Latin and Mexican-American studies de­ ing able to examine prosecution wit­ partment of Merritt college in Oakland, nesses, or question evidence. Calif., was sentenced by an Oakland The pressure on the government to judge to nine months in jail and three release the prisoners is becoming pow­ years probation on a frame-up "felo­ erful in Mexico. However, the press nious assault" charge for having alleg­ has not carried any news of the ille­ edly kicked a cop during the Third gality of the so-called trial. All that was World strike at the University of Cali­ printed was a laconic note announcing fornia's Berkeley campus last winter. that the proceedings had been closed. The sentence is the heaviest given It is essential that the hunger strikers any campus activist in recent Berkeley receive the greatest international sup­ history. Macias was in fact convicted port. December is traditionally a dead because of his political beliefs and af­ month in Mexican political life, a fact filiations. He was active in the forma­ that makes the circumstances of the tion of the Mexican American Student prisoners even more difficult. Messages Confederation and of the Movimiento of support can be sent to Lie. Gustavo CAUGHT IN LIE. One of photos released to press by lllinois State's Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan. Diaz Ordaz, Presidente de Mexico, Pa­ The prosecutor argued for conviction Attorney Hanrahan to .. conclusively prove" the Panthers began gun lacio Nacional, Mexico 1, D. F.; or Lie. battle with police by firing at them. The caption on the photo ex­ and a heavy sentence on the grounds Luis Echeverria, Secretario de Gober­ that "Ysidor Macias should be made an nacion, Av. Bucareli y Calle General plained the circled spots indicate bullet holes, but when newsmen example of." And Judge Harold B. Prim, Mexico 1, D. F. inspected the apartment they found the spots were only nail heads. Hove clearly revealed his bias when Newsmen checked apartment against captions on the other three he justified his refusal to lower the released photos and found equally glaring contradictions. Despite charge to a misdemeanor- with a felony 'Corky' Gonzalez the lying captions accompanying them, the photos actually helped conviction, Macias will be prohibited confirm the Panther version of what happened and to disprove the from teaching- with the rhetorical ques­ wins court victory tion, "Is he [Macias] the type of indi­ police fabrications. vidual we want teaching in an Amer­ Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, leader of ican institution?" the Crusade for Justice in Denver, won By ELIZABETH BARNES the shooting was done by the cops. Although Hove refused to grant Ma­ a victory in court Dec. 4 when he was Evidence that Chicago Panther lead­ Such revelations as these have moved cias release on bail pending the appeal acquitted of charges of assault and bat­ ers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark many public figures and groupings to of his conviction, the First Appellate tery against a police officer during a were murdered in cold blood by the express concern and to support ini­ Court overruled Hove, and Macias is student demonstration last March 20. Chicago police is now so overwhelming tiatives for one or another kind of an now free on $3,750 bail. During a four-day trial, Gonzales' that mass pressure has intensified for investigation. The United Defense Committee has lawyers, Eugene Deikman and Harry a full-scale investigation to bring the For example, the Cook County Bar been formed to publicize this case and Nier, proved that the violence that did criminals to justice and to halt the na­ Association, representing black lawyers finance the legal defense. The chairman take place at the demonstration was tional "search and destroy" campaign in Chicago, branded the police raid of the UDC is Rodolfo "Corky" Gon­ caused by the cops who began push­ against the Panthers. as "illegal in concept and in its execu­ zales, the treasurer is Prof. Oswaldo ing high school students who were pro­ The most sensational revelation came tion." The search warrant, the Bar As­ Asturias, and the secretary is Berta testing against racist remarks made by when photos released by Illinois State's sociation declared, "was merely a sub­ Ramona! Thayer. a teacher. Attorney Hanrahan, purportedly show­ terfuge . . . the mission of the police Funds are urgently needed. Contri­ Photos and a IS-minute film com­ ing it was really a shootout, actually was to murder and maim." butions should be sent to the United piled from TV news films were shown confirmed that the Panthers' charges Apparently hoping to cool mounting Defense Committee, P. 0. Box 4116, by the defense to illustrate their testi­ are true- that the police were not res­ anger in the black community, Roy Berkeley, California 94 704. mony. ponding to Panther gunfire and that Wilkins of the NAACP, former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and other similarly conservative-minded figures announced plans for some kind of a public inquiry. While federal and state officials con­ Veteran los Angeles socialist dies tinue to deny there is a systematic na­ IOn Dec. 9, members of the Socialist deeply loyal, sympathetic friend and activity, for her social life, for her po­I tional campaign to destroy the Pan­ Workers Party and Young Socialist Al­ comrade that we knew, it is important litical understanding and intellectual thers, the Justice Department acknowl­ liance gathered along with relatives and to trace a little of her story. growth, and she found a role to play edged it has been bugging and wire­ personal friends to pay memorial trib­ Babe had four small children during as builder of the party, salesmal1 of tapping the Panthers and passing on ute to Emily Thornton, a long-time mem­ the years of the depression. She told The Militant, fund raiser, and anything to local police the information collect­ ber of the Socialist Workers Party who me once that she worked as a waitress else that the organization needed. ed. died Nov. 29. The following are ex­ so that she could manage somehow During the repressive period of the Such revelations, coupled with the ir­ cerpts from a memorial speech by Ty­ to bring home food to feed her chil­ war years, she worked for a time in refutable character of the entire pattern bie Martin of the SWP who had known dren. San Pedro, for a time in New York; of nationwide attacks against the Pan­ Emily, or Babe as she was known In 1938 and '39, she found work in then in the garment industry in Seattle. thers- a campaign in which 28 have to all, from the days they worked to­ the garment industry, and during the After the war, she worked again in a been murdered, scores wounded and gether in the same shop. organizing drive of the ILGWU, she Los Angeles garment factory, talking many more railroaded to prison on * * * she was the one worker who respond­ to the workers, acting as shop steward trumped-up charges-underscores the ed to a call for a meeting to organize and representative, fighting the bosses need for a full-scale probe that is to­ Our comrade and friend, Emily Thorn­ the shop, a call by one of the young and the union bureaucrats. tally independent of the government and ton, died Nov. 29. She was 69 years organizers, a Trotskyist activist in the That's when I first knew Babe, around those tied in with it. old. She was a workingwomanwhohad union. 1948 and '49, in the sweatshops of Los A genuine public commission of in­ to raise four children by herself. What Babe quickly became part of the or­ Angeles. She always saw to it that The quiry, composed of individuals repre­ distinguished her from other mothers ganizing drive of the union, but far Militant got into the hands of her most senting a cross section of the black com­ and working women was the fact that more important and significant, she be­ class-conscious fellow workers. She was munity, can be of tremendous aid in she was a socialist and that she was came a student of socialism, a socialist usually on the bargaining committee massing public support nationally and Babe, the ever youthful Babe. and-what followed naturally-she be­ or the shop grievance committee, and internationally to halt the campaign Babe did not teach classes in Marx­ came a member of the Socialist Work­ although by this time, the Stalinists against the Panthers. But there must ism, but she learned it and understood ers Party about 1940. had pretty much had their own way be no Warren Commission type inves­ it, and she practiced what she learned, This made a marvelous difference in in the union bureaucracy, Babe let them tigations which serve only to bury the as a trade-union organizer, activist and her life, for Babe had found the answers know that she was around. real issues under the rug. The full truth rank-and-file party worker. to many of the social and political Through the many difficult years of about the campaign of extermination Babe did not talk about her personal problems that were part of the times the 1950s, Babe never lost her perspec­ against the Black Panthers must be life and problems. But in order to un­ in which she lived. tive, her intransigence or her never-sway­ brought to the entire world and that derstand her and what made her the She found a milieu for significant ing loyalty to the Party. campaign must be stopped in its tracks. Page 12 THE MILITANT Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 Is U.S. inflation out of Nixon's control? By DICK ROBERTS At the same time the monopolists raise "We are entering an interlude where capital from banks and other sources all things will seem to be going the of credit, and this drives up interest wrong way." This remark by the chair­ rates. Higher interest rates, in turn, af­ man of Nixon's Council of Economic fect prices throughout the economy: At Advisers, Paul McCracken, was quoted each stage of production and distrib­ in last week's Militant. ution, money is borrowed, and higher It reflects the growing uncertainty interest rates pyramid the cost of the among capitalist politicians and their final product. advisers about the future of the U. S. Food prices are particularly vulner­ economy. The administration is press­ able because of the fact that farmers ing a fiscal and monetary course bent must borrow heavily to buy their land on inducing a recession and ultimate­ and machinery. Housing is cut back ly undercutting the fast pace of infla­ because most houses are financed by tion. the purchase of interest-sensitive mort­ But unemployment has already be­ gages. t gun to take hold and prices continue The more the government spends on to rise as fast as ever. war, the more monopolists scramble If the capitalist press is becoming for war profits, the more banks drive more and more vociferous about the up interest rates -the higher the cost possible consequences of Nixon's eco­ of all consumer goods, the less houses. nomic policies, it has little to say about If, in addition, the government is "de­ their causes. What causes the inflation? ficit spending'' to finance war produc­ Why does it seem to be out of con­ tion, the impact on interest rates and trol of the government? inflation is all the greater. Deficit spend­ There are basically two interrelated ing means that the government itself causes of the inflation: war spending is borrowing money, to make up for and monopoly pricing. the deficit between the amount it takes The manufacture of war products, it in through taxes and the amount it should be kept in mind, is highly prof­ spends. The more the government goes itable because the contracts are under­ into debt (it now owes about $380 written by the capitalist government. billion), the higher the interest rates With an escalation of war spending, banks charge it-after all, business there is a scramble for war profits and is business. And all other interest rates inevitable inflation. spiral upwards from this level which In order to raise capital for war in­ the government pays in its borrowing vestments, the corporate rulers are quite from banks. willing to sacrifice investment in less But high prices and high interest rates profitable areas of consumer-goods pro­ in this country have been churned to duction. their historic highs in the last few years The monopolists impose an artificial by yet another factor: intensified inter­ About 250 Americans-the first contingent of the Venceremos Bri­ scarcity of consumer products, in or­ national competition between the mo­ gade-have arrived in Cuba to find out about that revolutionary der to jack up their prices and to pump nopolies. And it is this last factor that country and help harvest the 10 million tons of sugar cane the Cubans the additional profits into the war in­ the capitalist press is most silent about, hope to bring in this year. Camped near Havana, they are begin­ dustry. because it most ciearly illustrates the ning to learn the arduous task of cutting and stacking cane, a job General Electric, for example, which anarchic toll of monopoly profit-seek­ is the third largest producer of war ing. that is crucial to Cuba's economy. The cartoon was prepared spe­ machinery in the country, reveals in its The capitalists as a class agree on cially by a Cuban artist for Liberation News Service. 1968 Annual Report that in 1964, be­ the course their government is taking. fore the escalation of the war, 29 per­ War-primed inflation has steadily driv­ have found it more and more difficult very urgency of the need for new, more cent of its products were consumer en up the price of U. S. products and to enter foreign markets. The result is automated plant and equipment allows goods and 17 percent war goods. In eroded the competitive position of U. S. clearly illustrated by the sharp drop the manufacturers of machinery and 1968, G E had cut consumer goods back monopolies in world trade. in the balance of trade: In 1964, there the construction industry to jack up to 25 percent of its products and raised More and more foreign products have was a surplus of almost $8 billion prices. war goods to 20 percent. flooded into this country; U. S. products more goods exported from this coun­ And it adds a further need for capital try than imported to it. Today it has to finance expansion, a further demand fallen to a surplus of zero- and if you for bank loans, which exerts added • don't count the export of war goods, upward pressure on interest rates. GE offers: an exerc1se there is an actual trade deficit. In time, the administration policy of The idea of Nixon's recessionary pol­ limiting the money supply, all the more icies is to increase the pool of unem­ forcing up interest rates, must make in corporate rrprinciples'' ployed workers in order to help the money so expensive that the inflation­ monopolies to drive down real wages ary expansion will slow down. But it By FRANK LOVELL rejected by the company on the eve of and improve their competitive position is evident that the combination of war The Federal Mediation and Concili­ the strike, last Oct. 26. in world trade. So far, no disagree­ spending and international competition ation Service arranged for separate In the long history of union-manage­ ments. adds many unpredictable and explosive negotiations on Dec. 15 between the ment relations, arbitration of disputes Where the plan falls apart is when factors to the economic mix- because, General Electric Co. and the United has most often served the interest of it gets down to the question of the in the last analysis, these factors come Electrical Workers which is the second the employers. But GE, which likes to individual capitalist corporation. On this down to the individual decisions of each largest of the 13-union coalition. Al­ be considered the ideological leader of level the thinking goes like this: "Al­ competing trust. though there have been earlier bargain­ industry in labor-management relations, right. You cut back on production and It is this anarchy of competition for ing sessions between UE and G E, this considers it to be a violation of an­ lay off your workers. We can't do that war profits and dominance in world is the first time they have been joined other of its "principles" to submit any right now because we have to build a markets that has so far proved such by federal mediators. question to arbitration. This position new automated plant to keep up with a mighty stumbling block to the eco­ nomic policies of the capitalist govern­ Despite pledges by the Nixon admin­ was re-stated most recently on Dec. 11 our foreign competitors." istration, and Secretary of Labor Shultz by GE's man-in-charge-of-negotiations, In other words, the plan to salvage ment. in particular, to maintain a "hands off' John R. Baldwin, who asserted that the the competitive position of U. S. mo­ policy in the strike, federal mediators company cannot and will not surrender nopoly founders precisely on the rock Works by Ernest Mandel have kept in close touch with all devel­ to a third party "crucial decisions" af­ of world monopoly competition! Listen opments in negotiations. Wherever pos­ fecting long-term operations that are to the September Fortune magazine de­ Marxist Theory of the State sible they intervene to keep up the ap­ "properly our responsibility." scription of a plant that is being built (paper) 50c pearance of meaningful talks. by General Motors in southern Ohio: Marxist Economic Theory (2 volumes, cloth) $15.00 In these sessions with UE the federal "In the fall of 1968 the company He further asserted that the unions' 50 Years of World Revolution: mediators are satisfying one of GE's announced plans to build a new car, failure to acceed to GE-dictated wages An International Symposium, "principles" which is to deal separately and working conditions (violation of the XP887, that would compete in price and performance with the most popular edited with Introduction and with each of the unions involved. In another GE "principle") brings on a article by Ernest Mandel.(cloth) $7.95 imports . . . In order to keep the costs this way G E has in the past success­ "bleak Christmas" for striking em­ Key Problems of the Transition of the compact to a minimum, GM fully pitted the unions against each ployees. This paternalistic concern for from Capitalism to Socialism wanted a new plant so that it could other. the welfare of GE employees, regard­ (with George Novack) (paper) 75c Throughout the present strike, which less of the feelings, desires, and demands introduce the most sophisticated assem" On the Revolutionary Potential is nearly two months old, the 13-union of these employees, is yet another GE bly techniques." of the Working Class (with coalition has held firm to the position "principle,'' one of the most basic. So GM is pouring $75 million into George Novack) (paper) 65c of national contracts in the industry A GE spokesman (possibly Baldwin) the new plant and paying whatever The Revolutionary Student and a unified set of demands. is quoted in the Dec. 13 Business Week: materials and labor costs are neces­ Movement: Theory and Negotiations with the International "It's like the Paris peace talks. You sary. And this process is being repeat­ Practice (paper) 65c Union of Electrical Workers (AFL­ can't win by negotiating." This says ed from one trust to the next, across CIO), the largest of the unions involved something about the GE position on the the country. Capital expenditures are and the leader of the coalition, broke war against the Vietnamese and the war slated to rise in 1970 no matter how down Dec. 11 when the company re­ against the GE workers: unconditional much in agreement the capitalists are erit fused "impartial arbitration." surrender. Involved in this position is about their desire for a recession in s73..,B.... roa-dw.o..a-y --ublishers This offer to arbitrate the issues in­ the most basic and the only genuine GE 1970. NewYork,N. Y 10003 Telephone 673.4900 volved was made by the unions and principle- profits. And this is inflationary because the Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 13

Life in an auto plant

Enforcing speedup

By TOM CAGLE (This is the third of several articles on life in an auto plant. The author is a veteran union activist who has worked for many years at the Gen­ eral Motors plant in Fremont, Calif)

There are several ways to enforce speedup in a modern factory. General Motors uses primarily two. First comes harassment of the workers, and second the other part of the pressure system which consists of cajoling union repre­ 1936-37 UAW sit down at Chevrolet plant in Flint sentatives who are expected to calm worker restiveness. at our plant gates by the Black Panther "That's what we were going to strike Chaos The International representatives enter our local negotiations as a "five-day caucus. "What happened to the strike?" against. Management is whipped into a frenzy "How come more than 20 guys were by its self-induced chaotic breakdown letter" is sent to management notifying This key question is followed by the in production. Small-time foremen stum­ them of our intention to strike the plant brief statement that "some strange things disciplined Monday night? ble over each other in their guilt-ridden in accordance with provisions of our have been going on, the grievances are ''We were going to strike against that search for the culprit to fix the blame national contract. settled but our union hasn't bothered too. on. They descend on the overloaded Enthusiasm runs high among the to tell us what the terms of the settle­ "And how come six guys from pas­ worker with a vengeance. "You are go­ workers as the strike date is set and the ment are. senger soft trim were suspended on day ing to do all your work or else," they showdown with management approach­ "This raises some questions about the shift Tuesday? threaten. es. whole way negotiations were carried "This settlement means a lot to all Job preservation is a rather strong Strangely the International negotia­ out. of us- it will determine whether work­ drive in most workers, especially work­ tors from Detroit approach our prob­ "Why have negotiations been kept se­ ing conditions are fairly decent or ers with families. And regardless of their lems as "detached" impartial arbitrators, cret? What was the bargaining com­ whether they will steadily worsen be­ past suspicion and criticism of the union lacking emotional involvement or iden­ mittee asking for in the' first place? Why tween now and contract time. they are always forced to turn to the tification with the workers who have didn't they tell us? "The union is our representative. It union once again for protection. been fired and who help to pay the "What did they settle for? has an obligation to clearly explain When foremen turn the speedup high wages and fat expense accounts "Committeemen were kept under vir­ things to us from first to last. screws, calls for union committeemen of the International representatives. tual house arrest throughout the final "It shouldn't act in secret, but should skyrocket. Committeemen are running "They??" (the management and our days of negotiations: they were ordered consult with the rank and file on our seven days behind schedule in answer­ International representatives) decide to by management to remain in the bar­ opinions on negotiations. ing these calls. Often case loads of "lock up" our shop committee and nego­ gaining room for 24-25 hours at a "Let's get it together and make sure grievances double in two or three weeks. tiate in isolated secrecy until this crisis time without sleep and were not permit­ that's the way our representatives are In a few days as many as 500 "para­ is resolved. ted to go out on the floor to confer with functioning. graph 78" grievances are filed. (Griev­ Our membership is to have no voice the rank and file. "Come to the union meeting Sunday ances protesting too much work, these in any of the decisions. Everything will "Management wouldn't allow alternate 10 a.m. and let's take a long close "78s" are strikeable issues under terms be decided by higher authorities who committeemen to function in their place. look at the settlement." of the UAW contract.) In addition, there know what is best for us. "Why did management pull that kind Decisions are hundreds of suspensions and protest Speculation and criticism runs ram­ of crap? These questions were in the minds of grievances charging harassment, pant during the next'\veek or so. Will "What the hell happened Monday most members and it seemed as if the threats and intimidation. we strike this time? Or will our Inter­ night? union meeting to discuss and vote on Strike back national reps bring in another of their "How come the foreman told us about the settlement would be well attended This generates pressure upon the compromise settlements? the settlement first? and could result in serious action union. Union officials issue leaflets de­ "Strategy" ''Why weren't the committeemen against GM. nouncing management's practice. They In the plant, workers question the around to explain the settlement? In another article I want to tell how call meetings to discuss these problems. effectiveness of a strike versus a slow­ "Have we really won? GM moved against the Black Panther Angry sentiment is strong for a strike down. Some talk about a sitdown as "How come the line was speeded up caucus and what the final outcome of vote. the "direct action" answer to speedup. as soon as the settlement was an­ the union-management negotiations This escalation of class resistance by They know that a strike can force nounced? was. the workers is matched by an escala­ a settlement of additional manpower on­ tion on management's part of discipline ly to have management crank up the over the workers in a display of naked lin speed and take away our victory power. Much of this is directed against the following day. Workers at Flint Chevrolet the most militant workers, of course, They reason that we must have a day­ so that management can make an ex­ to-day strategy to effectively counter­ ample of them. act management's mobility. I do not hit by overproduction By now the union committeemen have want to minimize the understanding or become emotionally involved in this consciousness of the workers as it now By FRANK LOVELL "The president of Local 598 and tht: struggle, and they demand a strike vote. exists. Most workers are willing to try When 2,300 UAW members in Flint, bargaining committee report that man­ As weeks of fruitless effort to negotiate the "union method" of threatening man­ Mich., walked out of General Motors' agement sets ridiculously high produc­ drag on, management turns on the shop agement with a strike in order to force Fisher No. 2 plant on Sept. 24, clos­ tion quotas. When union representatives committee and arrogantly suspends the a few concessions. But they realize, ba­ ing the near-by Chevrolet assembly indicate a willingness to accept manage­ most outspoken of the union represen­ sically, the futility of this, and reluctant­ plant and forcing another 1,600 UAW ment's proposals as the basis for re­ tatives. Usually this disciplinary action ly go along with the union's strike pro­ members off their jobs, it seemed then suming production, management then includes the chairman of the shop com­ cedure knowing that it offers no solu­ to union officials as if GM manage­ raises the standards even higher in or­ mittee. Then a strike vote date is set tion to the problems as they now exist. ment were simply repeating its annual der to forestall agreement. and a large turnout of the membership Good questions speedup drive which begins with the This report from the Flint picket lines shows an overwhelming 97 percent of The last five days before strike dead­ introduction of each new model. was confirmed by a report of the Fed­ eral Reserve Board, Dec. 15, whichsays the workers favoring strike. line! The many questions asked are The overload this year was unusual­ Now comes the UAW International. best summarized by a leaflet distributed ly heavy, and UAW Local 598 mem­ industrial production declined in No­ bers called the strike to force manage­ vember for the fourth C()[lsecutive month. ment to negotiate the new production Since July, according to the New York Works by and about Malcolm X standards, a recognized procedure un­ Times' account of Dec. 16, industrial der the UAW contract. production has fallen two percent, the By Malcolm X cloth paper Union negotiators found management greatest decline being in the month of The Autobiography of Malcolm X 7.50 1.25 unyielding on every point and charged November. Malcolm X Speaks 5.95 .95 early in the strike that GM was using Auto production was far below pro­ the decline in car sales in order to jected norms, with a cut-back of six Malcolm X On Afro-American History .75 speedup production in some plants while percent from October to November. Malcolm X Talks to Young People .35 preparing to close others. Further reductions have been announced Two Speeches by Malcolm X .40 This charge was countered by a GM for December . By George Breitman spokesman who scoffed, "You just don't The Wall Street Journal reported Dec. let two plants and all this investment 9 that overtime in the auto industry The Assassination of Malcolm X .50 stand idle." has also fallen sharply in the last year The Last Year of Malcolm X 4.50 1.95 Now, after nearly three months of forcing many workers to scrimp on Malcolm X, The Man and His Ideas the strike with "two plants and all this necessities, postpone purchases, borrow .35 investment" idle, GM has announced money and look for extra work either Myths About Malcolm X .50 the closing of 11 of its 23 U.S. auto for themselves or their wives. It is al­ By Dudley Randell and Margaret G. Burroughs assembly plants for the entire two weeks so breeding a rank-and-file frustration For Malcolm X: Poems On The Life And The Death of Christmas and New Year's. that could bode ill for labor peace in A UAW member in Flint reports that the auto industry, where contracts come of Malcolm X 2.95 "GM makes the same bodies in Ohio up for renegotiation next year." Order from: and California as they make here, and For the workers themselves it means Merit Publishers, 873 Broadway, New York City 10003 they are shipping those bodies in to the demand must be raised for an es­ fill the gap that strikers leave. calator clause for hours of work. When­ Write for our complete listing of material on the Afro-American ''With car sales off, GM would rather ever unemployment threatens, hours of struggle leave the strikers outside than to bring work should automatically decrease with them back. no loss in take-home pay. Page 14 THE MILITANT Friday, Dec. 26, 1969

Afro students at Harvard Over 1,700 attend YSA act on job discrimination educational meetings

By DICK OSBORNE and seeking construction jobs and training. MATT SPENCE tJCCW has the perspective of training CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-A day of mili­ some 3,000 black construction workers tant actions against Harvard Univer­ in the next 10 years. sity's racist employment policies ended Afro also demanded that Harvard em­ at 5 p.m., Dec. 11, when about 100 ploy a significant number of black sub­ students of the Harvard-Radcliffe Or­ contractors on all university construc­ ganization for Black Unity (OB U) left tion. University Hall, Harvard's administra­ When the university failed to respond tion building, chanting "Black, black satisfactorily to the demands, the black power to the African people." The black students banded together in the OBU, students left after the university admin­ which aimed at uniting black faculty, istration had "temporarily suspended" graduate students, and university work­ them and served them with a court re­ ers as well as black undergraduates. straining order against the demonstra­ On Dec. 5, the newly founded orga­ tion. nization occupied the administration Earlier in the day, they had occupied building for the first time. They evacu­ a Harvard construction site in support ated it after the administration signed of their demand that 20 percent of the an agreement promising not to conclude workers on all university construction any new contracts until the contested be black and third-world, as well as issues had been resolved. the university Faculty Club, to protest But at a Dec. 8 meeting, the university Photo by Angela Vinther the faculty's ambivalence toward the flatly rejected the OB U demands. After administration's hiring practices. further fruitless attempts to persuade the The occupations were the latest devel­ university authorities to discuss in good opment in what is now a month-long faith, the 0 B U decided to initiate the struggle initiated by the Harvard-Rad-­ more militant Dec. 11 actions. cliffe Association for Afro-American Stu­ dents (Afro). On that date, Afro sent a letter to the Harvard administration 5,000 protesters declaring that a year and a half after the existence of racist employment pol­ icies had been brought to the attention converge on base of the administration, Harvard still "al­ lowed racism in its rankest and most in California insidious forms to systematically and ruthlessly prevent black workers from OCEANSIDE, Calif. - On Dec. 14, working in its employ." Afro set a Dec. 4,000-5,000 antiwar demonstrators 2 deadline for compliance with its de­ flooded this small seaside town near mands. Los Angeles, dominated by the Camp In addition to demanding a 20 per­ Pendleton Marine base, for one of the cent black and third-world share of all largest actions to take place during the construction jobs, Afro also called on December Moratorium. The action was the university to abolish the "painters' called by the Movement for a Demo­ helper" job category. The category had cratic Military, a group of antiwar Ma­ purportedly been created by the uni­ rines and sailors based at Camp Pendle­ versity to enable blacks to receive the ton and at naval bases in San Diego. Photo by Angela Vinther training necessary to become journey­ The group received broad civilian sup­ NEW YORK. Participants in Women's liberation panel at Young men painters. port, from the Peace Action Council Socialist educational conference were (left to right): Susan Myer­ But in the year-and-a-half history of of Los Angeles, the Citizens Mobiliza­ burg, RYM; Ruthann Miller, YSA; Cindy Cisler, NOW, Flax Hermes, the program, no effort had been made tion Committee of San Diego, the YSA; Irene Pestlikas, Red Stockings; Kathy Sarachild, Red Stock­ to train the helpers, and there had been Orange County Peace and Human ings. Among participants in Third World panel were Miguel Padilla, no promotions. Many of the "painters' Rights Council, and the Student Mo­ helpers" were in fact black journeymen bilization Committee. at mike, Norman Oliver, left, and Andrew Pulley. painters who had been told there were The 500 Marines and other military no job openings for journeymen and personnel at the rally provided evidence By ELIZABETH BARNES of people signed up to work actively then put to work doing full journey­ of the scope of opposition to the war Approximately 1, 700 people attended on the campaign. men jobs-but at the lower helpers' and the willingness to listen to antiwar one or another of 10 regional socialist A regional conference held in St. Louis wage. In short, the program has been views which exists in the huge com­ educational conferences sponsored by drew 160 people from towns and cities largely a way of supplying the uni­ plex of military bases in the Los An­ the Young Socialist Alliance in various in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin versity with cheap, skilled black labor, geles, Oceanside and San Diego area. parts of the country during the past and Arkansas. while appearing to offer blacks greater The large number of third world en­ month. The conferences discussed a wide People came from as far east as Pitts­ employment opportunities. listed men present was also striking. range of topics including women's lib­ burgh and as far south..,as Lexington, The Afro demanded that all painters' A small group of hecklers tried to eration, Third World liberation, pers­ Ky., to take part in the Ohio conference helpers be promoted to journeymen with disrupt the rally but the demonstrators pectives for the antiwar movement, strat­ in Cleveland. Syd Stapleton, recent SWP full journeyman pay and that a genuine behaved in a disciplined fashion at the egy for revolutionary change, the eco­ candidate for mayor in Cleveland, re­ apprenticeship program be instituted. request of Jack Anderson, a black Ma­ mics of imperialism, the Palestinian lib­ ported on the campaign and discussed Afro has been working with the United rine from Camp Pendleton who chaired eration movement, the Cuban revolu­ plans for a broader Ohio socialist cam­ Community Construction Workers the rally and requested that the safety tion and the radical student movement. paign in 1970. ( UCCW), an organization of black con­ of the participating military personnel One of the largest conferences was Youth from five cities in Texas met struction workers in the Boston area be respected. held in Washington, D. C., on the George for a two-day conference in Austin. A The two major speakers at the rally Washington University campus. Some campaign rally during the conference were Dr. Howard Levy, former Army 300 attended one or another of the ses­ featured speeches by SWP candidates Community backs captain who was court-martialed for sions, which opened with a speech by running in the 1970 Texas election. refusing to train Vietnam-bound Green Socialist Workers Party leader Peter Nineteen new people signed ·up to en­ Berets, and Angela Davis, professor at Cam.~jo. A panel discussion on the Pa­ dorse the campaign, including four members of the Mexican-American Harvard blacks UCLA who was threatened with dismis­ lest~nian liberation struggle was led by sal because of her membership in the Anif Kassim, president of the George Youth Organization and two Gls from CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -At an all-black Communist Party. Levy stressed the Washington University Organization of Ft. Hood. rally in Memorial Church on the Har­ potential of the G I antiwar movement Arab Students and Jon Rothschild ofthe vard campus here Dec. 14, some BOO by recounting the story of Joe Miles, New York YSA. The Southern California conference people from the Boston-area black com­ founder of G Is United at Fort Jackson. The educational conference in New held in Los Angeles brought together munity demonstrated their solidarity Angela Davis urged that the antiwar York city also drew about 300. One about 100 socialists from San Diego, with the struggle of the Harvard-Rad­ movement show solidarity with the of the most stimulating sessions was Phoenix, Tucson and Los Angeles. One cliffe Organization for Black Unity. Black Panther Party against the wave a panel on "Which Road for Women's of the high points of the conference Speakers included Floyd McKissick of attacks mounted against it by the Liberation" lead by representatives from was a panel on the Chicano and black of CORE, Haywood Henry Jr. of the "conspiracy headed by Nixon, Mitchell, the National Organization for Women, liberation struggles which featured a Harvard faculty, Rev. Virgil Wood of Reagan and Yorty." Other speakers in­ Red Stockings, RYM and YSA. discussion of the accomplishments of the Southern Christian Leadership Con­ cluded Donald Duncan, Susan Schnall, The educational conference in the Bay the Chicano studies department at Mer­ ference, and Leo Fletcher of the United and a sailor from San Diego who called Area was sponsored by four YSA locals ritt College. Community Construction Workers. on people to fight for the right to dis­ along with two branches of the Socialist Some 150 youth attended the educa­ Hayward Henry pressed the militant tribute antiwar literature and discuss Workers Party. Some 200 people parti­ tional weekend for eastern Pennsylvania mood of the rally when he said: "It the war on military bases. cipated, including students from 24 col­ held in Philadelphia. At a regional YSA is truly revolution when blacks at Har­ leges and four high schools, 30 trade meeting following the conference, a three­ vard are saying that it is more im­ unionists, 25 from Chicano organiza­ week tour of the state by regional tra v­ portant to be black than to be at Har­ HAVE YOU MOVED? If so tions, 23 from various women's lib­ elers was projected which has already vard. Don't let Harvard get away with please notify our business of­ eration groups and several from black resulted in the formation of a new YSA the suspensions; if they suspend 60, fice of your new address. Plea8e student unions. The main thrust of the local at Mansfield State College. make them suspend 600. And if nec­ include zip code number and conference was to kick off the 1970 A conference of 300 held in Boston essary, let us all go, not just students your old address. California Socialist Workers Party elec­ at the beginning of November was re­ but faculty too." tion campaign, and a good number ported in an earlier issue of The Militant. Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 15

BOOK REVIEW The Great Society The Vatican emp1re• No Xmas spirit?- Mrs. Fred J. Tooze, tion in the tar content of most cigarettes. battling head of the Women's Christian Meanwhile, the addictive nicotine con­ Temperance Union who holds that tent has gone up. A survey also showed THE VATICAN EMPIRE. By Nino As might be expected from LoBello's booze is a greater menace than commu­ that those brands with the lowest tar Lo Bello. Trident Press. New York. background, he does not draw the revo­ nism, wants to get the whiskey out of content were also lowest on the sales 1968. $4. 95. Paperback: Pocket Books. lutionary or radical conclusions im­ Christmas. "A happy holiday can only list and those with the highest tar con­ 1969. 95 cents. plicit in his investigation of the Vatican be achieved by a sober one," she de­ tent led the pack. During the middle ages, the Roman empire. clared. Catholic Church was the largest single That is the job for revolutionaries. Our ever alert producers- It's not landholder in Europe, and it influenced -PAUL BOUTELLE For the office grab bag party- From only the brushmakers who are cashing political, economic and social life in Tiffany's, a spray pin of marquise and in on long hair. A recent product, Thick­ decisive ways for centuries. The church has nothing like the weight in the mod­ pear-shaped diamonds, $89,000. Gift et, makes thin hair look dense. The wrap probably extra. ern capitalist world it had under feudal­ hair, that is. ism, but it probably remains the wealth­ Last-minute suggestion- For that rel­ If you can't reach 'em, grab 'em­ iest single corporate institution in the ative you overlooked, phone Hamma­ "Nixon and Agnew Discouraged By In­ world, with a powerful vested interest cher Shlemmer in New York to deliver ability to Reach Youth."- Headline in in preserving the capitalist system. their Roastisserie. Big enough to roast the Long Island Press. In this well documented work, Lo a small pig, with glass sides and flood­ Bello marshals considerable evidence lights for food voyeurs. $995, with a A brainy, articulate critic-"We have for the view that the Vatican is the cart thrown in for another $125. the most inarticulate generation of col­ world's largest corporation. His find­ lege students in history and this may ings, as he freely admits, are far from Easy come, easy go-New York state well account for the mass outbreak of complete, because the Vatican keeps its crime probers were advised that over physical violence. They have no more financial operation carefully hidden. a million dollars worth of negotiable intelligent way to express themselves." Lo Bello starts with the Lateran securities were stolen from the Wall -Karl Shapiro, University of Califor­ Treaty of 1929 between Mussolini and Street firm of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, nia English professor. the Vatican, which laid the foundations Fenner and Smith and that the company for the church's capitalist prosperity, didn't even know they were gone. Good for the constitution- Observers and he shows how it gained the im­ expect that the recently opened Illinois mense wealth it possesses today. Salvation- Last week we reported constitutional convention will be a pro­ About a third of Rome's real estate that the high command of the Salvation tracted affair. Which is readily under­ is owned by the Holy See, and it has Army was adapting to the demands of standable. Delegates are paid $625 a important investments in utilities, elec­ the new generation by offering such month living and travel expenses, plus tronics, plastics, airlines, chemicals and / concessions as removing the stiff collar $75 a day. They hope to complete their construction. It is heavily involved in Italian bank­ from the Army uniform while maintain­ work within eight months. Pope Paul VI ing the bonnet along with restrictions ing, and owns one of the world's oldest on "worldly pleasures." We're now as·· Inside dope-Although we generally banks, the Banco di Santo Spirito sured that the Army is sticking by basic refrain from rumor-mongering, we do (Bank of the Holy Ghost), which was principles. Last week the secretary gen­ have it from the highest sour<:es that founded by Pope Paul V in 1605. The eral of the French Salvation Army after consulting the Great Silent Major­ Vatican's financial managers maintain Black student body head leaped onto the stage of a production ity, Nixon's next nominee for the Su­ huge deposits in foreign banks, some of Hair to vent his outrage at a nude preme Court will be Judge Julius Hoff­ in America, but mostly in numbered discusses community control scene in the musical. man. accounts in Switzerland, which they pre­ fer because they can use them to gain What sick society?-A Long Island Peace, mother- Daytime soap opera anonymous control of foreign corpora­ at Philadelphia forum tions. Lo Bello establishes that the Vati­ printer is offering a reproduction of is getting in on the act. On Jan. 5, By FRED FELDMAN President Kennedy's official death cer­ ABC will launch an afternoon series can is one of the world's largest share­ holders, with a portfolio valued in the The developing struggle of black stu­ tifiicate. $2. entitled, "All My Children." The heroine dents, parents, and community groups will be a peace activist married into billions. The Vatican owns construction com­ for control of West Philadelphia High For the habituals- To brighten the a wealthy conservative family. Maybe School was the subject of a Militant holiday of our coffin-nail-prone friends, the new peace symbol will be the eter­ panies that build and own luxury ho­ tels, office buildings, and shopping cen­ Labor Forum here Dec. 5. we're happy to report the finding that nal triangle. Robert Williams, president of the West there has been a recent modest reduc- -HARRY RING ters in Italy, Canada, South America and the United States. The 47-story Philadelphia High School student body, Montreal Stock Exchange Tower, for described the history of the struggle example, is owned by the Societa Gene­ which began with efforts to remove rale Immobiliare, a Vatican holding George Fishman, a history teacher who company, which also has a major in­ avoided black history in his classes. Meet Socialists in Your Area Commenting on the board of educa­ terest in the Cavalieri Hilton in Rome. Watergate Improvements of Washing­ tion's refusal to transfer the teacher, ARIZONA: Phoenix: YSA, cjo Steve Strnad, P. 0. Box 2nd fl., Mpls. 55413. Tel: (612)332-7781. ton, D. C., is controlled by SGI, and Williams said, "We told them they had 750, Tempe, Arizona 85281. MISSOURI: Kansas City: YSA, c/o Paul Schmidtlein, through it the Vatican has a major their chance to transfer the teacher and CALIFORNIA: Berkeley: SWP and YSA, 2519-A Tele­ 5437 Charlotte, K. C., Mo. 64110. Tel: (816)523-5468. interest in a large office-apartment com­ get it over with. Now its not going to graph Avenue, Berkeley, Calif. 94704. Tel: (415)848- St. Louis: YSA, c/o Larry Swingle, 5817 Waterman, plex now nearing completion on the be over until we control everything." 9334. St. Louis, Mo. 63112. banks of the Potomac. He said the students submitted a "high Hayward: YSA, Gerald Clark, c/o Student Union NEW JERSEY: Newark: YSA, c/o Allan Pump, 158 Lo Bello also details, though far less school students bill of rights" to their Building, California State College at Hayward, 25800 Hamilton St., E. Orange, N.J. 07017. Tel: (201) 678- satisfactorily, the political influence of principal and they are preparing a city­ Hillary St., Hayward, Calif. 94544. Tel. (415)537-3656 6005. the church in Italy, which is exercised wide student-community campaign for or (415)537-3657. NEW YORK: Albany: YSA, c/o Bill O'Kain, 313 State primarily through the Christian Demo­ their demands when school reconvenes los Angeles: SWP and YSA, 1702 E. 4th St., Los St., Albany, N.Y. 12210. cratic Party. in January. Williams vividly portrayed Angeles, Calif. 90033. Tel: (213)269-4953. Binghamton: YSA, c/o Peter Gellert, Box 1389, Hor­ LoBello is a financial journalist who the efforts of board of education officials San Francisco: SWP, YSA, Militant Labor Forum, and pur College, Binghamton, N.Y. 13901. served for three years as a Rome and teachers' union bureaucrats to in­ Pioneer Books, 2338 Market St., San Francisco, Calif. New York City: SWP and YSA and bookstore, 873 correspondent for Business Week and timidate the student fighters. 94114. Tel: (415)626-9958. Broadway, N.Y., N.Y. 10003. Tel: (212)982-6051. the McGraw Hill World News. He later Chaz Wallace, who chaired the meet­ San Diego: Alan Stancliff, 4143 Georgia, San Diego, NORTH CAROLINA: Chapel Hill-Durham: YSA, c/o joined the New York Journal of Com­ ing, read a statement from the SWP Calif. 92103. Bob Friedman, P.O. Box 10, Carrboro, N.C. 27510. merce as chief of its Rome bureau, and and YSA demanding that the murderers COLORADO: Boulder: YSA, c/o Lyle Fulks, 2233 Tel: (919)942-3024. he wrote on European economic affairs of Black Panther leaders Fred Hamp­ Pine, Boulder, Col. 80302. OHIO: Athens: YSA, P. 0. Box 899, Athens, Ohio for the New York Herald Tribune for ton and Mark Clark be brought to FLORIDA: Gainesville: YSA, Box 13157, University 45701. eight years. Sta., Gainesville, Fla. 32601. Cleveland: SWP and YSA, 13900 Euclid Ave., East justice. GEORGIA: Atlanta: Militant Bookstore, 1176 1/2 Cleveland, Ohio 44112. Tel: (216)249-8250. West Peachtree St., SWP and YSA, P. 0. Box 7817, Columbus: YSA, P. 0. Box 3006, Columbus, Ohio :..______clipandmail --·------Atlanta, Ga., 30309. Tel: (404)876-2230. 43210. Tel: (614)294-2047. ILLINOIS: Carbondale: YSA, c/o Bill Moffett, P.O. Box Kent: YSA, P. 0. Box 116, Kent, Ohio 44240. 166, Carbondale, 11162901. Tel: (618)549-6214. Yellow Springs: YSA, c/o Duncan Williams, Antioch Champaign-Urbana: YSA, P. 0. Box 2099, Sta. A, Union, Yellow Springs, Oh. 45387. Champaign, Ill. 61820. Tel: (217)359-1333. OREGON: Portland: YSA, c/o Tonie Porter, 6770 S. Special to New Readers Chicago: SWP, YSA and bookstore, 302 S. Canal St., W. Taylors Ferry Rd., Portland, Ore. 97223. Tel: (503) Rm. 204, Chicago, Ill. 60606. Tel: (312) 939-2667. 246-9245. If you would like to get better acquainted with THE MILITANT, you DeKalb: YSA, c/o Laura Miller, 217 N. First St., PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia: SWP and YSA, 686 may obtain a special, introductory three-month subscription for $]. (If DeKalb, Ill. 60115. Tel: (815)756-4119. N. Brood St., Philadelphia, Penna. 19130. Tel: (215) INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, c/o Marilyn Vogt, Uni­ CE 6-6998. you're already sold on the paper, you can help out by sending a reg­ versity Apt. 3-E, Bloomington, Ind. 47401. RHODE ISLAND: Providence: YSA, c/o Jeff Powers, u lor one-year subscription for $4.) KANSAS: Lawrence: YSA, c/o Bob Mears, 1510 Ken­ 134 Benefit St., Providence, R. I. 02902. tucky, Apt. G. Tel: (913)843-2073. TEXAS: Austin: Socialist Workers Party, P. 0. Box 0 Enclosed is $1 for a 3 month introductory subscription. MASSACHUSETTS: Baston: SWP and YSA, c/o Militant 5586, West Austin Station, Austin, Texas 78703. 0 Enclosed is $4 for a 1 year regular subscription. Labor Forum, 295 Huntington Ave., Rm 307, Boston, Houston: YSA, Campus Activities, University Center, 0 For Gls- $1 for a 6-month introductory subscription. Mass. 02115. Tel: (617)491-8893, 547-8557. University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77004. MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA, P.O. Box 408, Ann UTAH: Logan: YSA, c/o Sterne McMullen, 763 E. 9th Arbor, Mich. 48104. North, Logon, Utah 84321. Detroit: SWP and YSA, Eugene V. Debs Hall, 3737 WASHINGTON, D.C.: YSA, 1319 F. St., Rm 1010 NAME. Woodward Ave., Detroit, Mich. 48201. Tel: (313) TE1- Wash., D. C. Tel: (202)638-0610 or 965-0253. 6135. WASHINGTON: Seattle: Militant Bookstore,5257 Uni­ STREET East Lansing: YSA, c/o Alec Harshey, 914 Lilac •7, versity Way N. E., Seattle, Wash. 98105. Hrs. 11 o.m.- East Lansing, Mi. 48823. 8 p.m., Mon.-Sot. Tel: (206) 523-2555. Ypsilanti: YSA, c/o Dave Davis, 417 Olive St., Ypsi­ WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, 202 W. Gilman, Modi­ CITY ...... STATE ...... ZIP. lanti, Mich. 48197. Tel: (313)482-7348. son, Wise. 53703. Tel: (608) 256-0857. MINNESOTA: Minneapolis-St. Paul: SWP, YSA and Milwaukee: YSA, c/o Heald, 929 N. Water St., Mil­ Labor Bookstore, 1 University N. E. (at E. Hennepin) waukee, Wise. 53202.679-1428 or 342-3215. Send to: The Militant, 873 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10003 Page 16 THE MILITANT Friday, Dec. 26, 1969 Nat'l Chicano conference Texas SWP launches is planned for next March election campaign

By ORRIN BROWN One of the issues to be taken up by DENVER-Rodolfo "Corky" Gonza­ the Congress will be to decide whether lez, head of the Denver Crusade for Chicano youth should fight in the cur­ Justice, announced plans this week for rent war being waged by the govern­ a Chicano gathering in Denver to begin ment in Washington. the last week in March. According to At a talk to Chicano students at Colo­ Gonzalez, the gathering will be a "Chi­ rado College where plans were first cano Congress" which will take up plans announced, Gonzalez projected the per­ "to form our own political party and spective of retaking a large area of the make plans for convening our own na­ Southwest and renaming it Aztlan, "the tion of Aztlan." name originally given to this land by Gonzalez says he expects delegates the Indians." representing Chicano organizations Gonzalez says that the Chicano move­ throughout the country to attend the ment today is the beginnings of the gathering. Invitations will also be sent fourth revolution. The first three have to Puerto Rican organizations in the already taken place in Mexico. East. The gathering is the outcome of ac­ Representatives from more than 20 tivities which began at the first Chicano Chicano organizations attended a Chi­ youth conference held here last March cano conference in Albuquerque, New when the Plan Espiritual De Aztlan, Mexico, Nov. 29-30. a program for liberation of the Chi­ According to an article in the Dec. 6 cano people, was drawn up. The plan issue of El Grito Del Norte, the pur­ Photo by Joel Britton outlines basic principles underlying the pose of the conference was to improve Chicano movement including Chicano communications between Raza groups. SOCIALIST TICKET. The Socialist Workers slate at Austin press control of the Chicano community, com­ The final speaker at the conference conference (left to right): Travis Burgeson for Congress; Marianne munity self-defense and independent po­ was Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzalez of the Hernandez for U. S. Senate; Howard Scoggins for governor. litical action. Crusade for Justice in Denver. He told The planned Congress will work to­ the gathering, ''We have to start think­ By TOM KINCAID in the United States, are demanding ward implementing these principles. A ing of ourselves as a nation." Em­ AUSTIN, Texas - The Socialist their long-denied right to self-determina­ Chicano Congress is necessary, Gon­ phasizing the need for community con­ Workers Party kicked off its statewide tion. More than 46 percent of all Chi­ zalez said, because "we are not repre­ trol, he said, "This is a colonized state. election campaign in Austin Dec. 6 with canos live in overcrowded or dilapi­ sented in the one in Washington. The Texans come here and take out the tim­ a spirited campaign rally. The rally dated housing, she observed, and brown two parties are the same animal with ber. Our sweat is paying for all these featured speeches by the three candidates people certainly have not chosen to live two heads that feeds from the same businesses-we must take our share. as well as a supporting plug from Linda in those conditions. "Black and brown trough." And if we are not allowed to take our Jenness, SWP mayoralty candidate in people must take control of their own Gonzalez described the Congress as a share, then we must become a nation Atlanta during the past year. communities and unify their own or­ gathering where decisions could be within a nation. We need to take over The SWP candidates in Texas are ganizations of struggle," she said. made which affect the Chicano people. our communities, de-annexate them." Marianne Hernandez for U.S. Senator, Gubernatorial candidate. Howard Howard Scoggins for governor, and Scoggins, a veteran leader in the Texas Travis Burgeson for U. S. House of antiwar movement and a member of Representatives. the national steering committee of the Native Americans hold fast Burgeson, a leading Student Mobili­ New Mobilization Committee, leveled zation Committee activist and member a searing attack on the Texas political • of the Austin Young Socialist Alliance, establishment. He pointed out that Tex­ directed his remarks to the problems of as spent less per capita in 1968 than in occupation of Alcatraz the disenchanted and disenfranchized 1938 on education, public health and youth of Texas. The youth of today other forms of public assistance. By HERMAN FAGG jugation of the Native American." As are seeking to change fundamentally The SWP campaign had been an­ Socialist Workers Party candidate for an example of this subjugation, Chavers a political system which allows people nounced at a press conference held the California governor points to the fact that on the "reserva­ no control over the institutions which previous day in the press room of the SAN FRANCISCO-Thesupportand tions" there is a 60 percent high school shape their lives, Burgeson said. capitol building and the story was car­ determination of the Native Americans "push-out rate" and unemployment is Marianne Hernandez, candidate for ried on both AP and UPI wires. Al­ on Alcatraz to expose the anglicization 40 percent or more. U. S. Senate, pointed out that Chicanos, ready support has come in from dif­ of Native American culture is grow­ Alcatraz was recently reclaimed by the second largest national minority ferent sections of the state. ing. Presently there are over a hundred Native Americans as a place for the permanent residents on the "rock." development and study of Indian cul­ Dean Chavers, Alcatraz coordinator ture and identity. and a leader of the Alcatraz reclama­ True to form, the city fathers of San tion said in an interview Dec. 12 that Francisco tried to sidetrack the strug­ the thrust of the current movement is gle. They offered the former federal to demand an end to the "educational, Mint building in San Francisco to the cultural, political and economic sub- brothers. This ploy would have avoided a conflict with the so-called "developers" who have plans for making money off Alcatraz. Asked if the struggle of Native Amer­ SWP candidate icans for self-determination was related to that of other oppressed nationalities, backs Indians Chavers answered "definitely yes. In­ deed the barrios, ghettoes and reser­ The following statement on vations are the same." He also pointed the Alcatraz reclamation was out that the way in which the Native released by Herman Fagg, American people were destroyed is much SWP candidate for governor the same as the genocidal policy the of California. United States government is following in Vietnam. For example, compare the * * * massacre of Native Americans at Native Americans have a Broken Knee, South Dakota, with that moral and democratic right to of the Vietnamese in Songmy. claim Alcatraz Island. Support for the action taken by Bay Throughout the last 400 Area Native Americans has come from years Native Americans have as far away as Maine. Numerous or­ been subjected to planned ex­ ganizations of Chicanos and blacks have also endorsed the action. termination, religious persecu­ Plans are now being made to hold tion, and forced relocation. The a meeting in late December of repre­ very least the federal govern­ sentatives from all tribes in the United ment, the state of California States to create a united front around and the city of San Francisco the Alcatraz action. Chavers felt this could do would be to grant could begin to build a mechanism ca­ this specific demand for unused pable of coordinating the various struggles of Native Americans and bring federal land, and to agree to some unity to their fight. fund the building of a cultural For further information or contribu­ center on the island for the tions-which are needed-readers may study of Native American cul­ contact: The American Indian Center, Photo from El Grlto del Norte tures. 3189 16th St., San Francisco. Tel: (415) 626-7955. Alcatraz prison sign altered with red paint.