AUSTRALIA $1.50 · CANADA $1.50 · FRANCE 2.00 EUROS · ICELAND KR150 · NEW ZEALAND $2.00 · SWEDEN KR10 · UK £.50 · U.S. $1.00 INSIDE Why capitalism creates a housing crisis — PAGE 9 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 68/NO. 31 AUGUST 31, 2004 lt’s not who you’re against, but what you are for! Vote Socialist Workers in 2004! Join us in campaigning for socialism Support the only working-class alternative in November Thousands of young people, unionists, and others will be taking to the streets of New York before and during the Republi- can National Convention to say “Defeat Utah miners Bush!” We wholeheartedly agree and join with them. And we say, “Defeat Kerry too!” The in trench war Republicans and Democrats are twin par- ties of imperialist war, economic depression, with bosses EDITORIAL to win UMWA and racist oppression. We urge you to support the only work- representation ing-class alternative to these two parties of capitalism: the Socialist Workers Party BY ANNE CARROLL ticket of Róger Calero for president and AND PAT MILLER Arrin Hawkins for vice president. HUNTINGTON, Utah—A trench war Why hold your SWP candidates Róger Calero for president, left, Arrin Hawkins for vice president. between the bosses and coal miners organiz- nose to vote for ing to win representation by the United Mine the rotten “choice” “against Bush”? Why vote for Kerry, who can stand up and say he is as good as Bush, Workers of America (UMWA) is going on at Pathfi nder of the Democratic recently confi rmed he would have voted to or even better, as the “commander in chief ” the Co-Op mine here, workers report. Party nominee, back President George Bush in invading Iraq of their imperialist military. The miners, who returned to the job July supersaver John Kerry, who even if he had known there were no “weap- Why vote for Kerry, who was quick 12 after a nine-and-a-half month strike, say sale pp. 6-7 is so unappealing ons of mass destruction” there? The liberal to side with Bush’s endorsement of Ariel they are making progress in winning sup- that many prefer to capitalists told Kerry to say this clearly, so Sharon’s “settlement plan” and who backs port among other production workers for say they are voting that the generals who have endorsed him Continued on Page 10 Continued on Page 4 Socialists prepare to campaign in N.Y. protests around Washington Republican convention as they wind up ballot drives threatens Iran, BY PATTIE THOMPSON Convention. Socialist Workers Party campaigners demanding AND BILL SCHMITT “During those 12 days we will take here were celebrating the success in col- lecting 3,650 signatures to put the socialist MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin—At an Au- part in a full street-campaigning effort,” Hawkins said. “Every day we will be join- presidential ticket on the ballot in this state. it halt nuclear gust 7 public celebration here, Socialist This is well above the required number of Workers Party vice-presidential candidate ing the issues in debates and discussions and presenting an independent working- 2,000. The Socialist Workers campaign is energy program Arrin Hawkins urged those present to build fi ling to put its candidates—Róger Calero on the party’s successful spring subscrip- class revolutionary perspective that no one BY SAM MANUEL else has—with newspapers and books, pub- for president and his running mate Arrin tion campaign and summer ballot drives Hawkins—on the ballot in 15 states and WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. offi cials by joining other socialist campaigners in lic programs, classes, and other activities that give clear answers to the big questions the District of Columbia. have made it clear once again they will use the streets of New York City for the labor Many people who signed the peti- the International Atomic Energy Agency and protest actions during the week leading in world politics and point a road forward for working people.” tions did so because of its working-class (IAEA) as a cover to intensify the imperi- up to and through the Republican National platform, said Alex Alvarado, one of the alist campaign against Iran, waged under campaigners. “It struck a chord with their the banner of “nuclear non-proliferation.” experience.” For example, he noted, in Wis- Their statements indicate that Washington Venezuela: mass rally says consin as in other Midwestern states they is laying the groundwork for possible mili- met meat packers and other workers who tary strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities have been through union battles. if Tehran does not halt its nuclear energy “We need strong unions,” a member Continued on Page 3 ‘no’ to pro-imperialist recall of the Brewery Workers Union told Ved BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS taken place since June, when the National Dookhun after he pointed to one of the Hundreds of thousands turned out for a Electoral Council (CNE) set the date for the central demands of the socialist platform: march and rally in downtown Caracas Au- recall ballot. for workers’ right to organize unions and gust 8 to support the call for a “no” vote in In a sign of the faltering momentum to defend themselves from the bosses’ of- Also Inside: of the opposition campaign, international fensive. She urged the campaigners to visit the referendum on whether Venezuelan pres- UK bus drivers win strike, ident Hugo Chávez should be recalled. capital in the oil industry has become more her union’s informational picket lines at the “We won’t let them turn us back,” said and more favorable to the stability they Miller Brewing Co. plant, where members push back concessions 2 José Landines, a truck driver from the Janu- hope would come from a strong win by of the Brewery Workers were engaged in a ary 23 neighborhood of Caracas, referring the Chávez administration, an article in the contract fi ght. Bankruptcy judge throws out to the pro-imperialist opposition coalition, August 9 Financial Times reported. Responding enthusiastically to the cam- UMWA contracts at Horizon 10 Coordinadora Democrática, which has There have been improvements in the paign’s demand for creating jobs through spearheaded the referendum scheduled economy during the fi rst half of this year, massive public works projects, a man in Fahrenheit 9/11: a proimperialist for August 15. Speaking to the Militant by largely fueled by higher oil prices on the his early 20s told campaigner Jenny John- screed aimed at electing Kerry 10 phone the day of the action, Landines said world market. State revenues have been son-Blanchard, as he added his signature he and thousands of his neighbors took part boosted. Unemployment has fallen and food to the petition, about his ongoing struggle Cleveland event celebrates prices have stabilized. Advances in govern- to fi nd work. A temp agency had sent him in the demonstration to defend the elected life of Almeda Kirsch, government. He and others interviewed ment-sponsored social programs—from to the Miller brewery, where he discovered by the Militant said this was the largest literacy campaigns to public works—are the union pickets and refused to cross the socialist cadre for 58 years 11 of a number of similar protests that have Continued on Page 3 Continued on Page 10 The Militant xxx xx, 2004 1 UK bus workers win strike, Rise in homelessness push back company concession demands in N.Y. is fueled by 5-year welfare cutoff This is the second of two articles. The ill, physically or mentally. Instead of being fi rst appeared in the August 17 Militant provided with medical care, which they with the headline: “Housing crisis in N.Y. cannot afford, they are thrown onto the adds to grind on workers; rents eat up streets. Hassled by the police, some have wages, number in shelters up 60% in 3 been pushed out of central Manhattan and years.” are reappearing in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. A few months ago, for example, BY MARTÍN KOPPEL cops in the Bronx shut down an encampment NEW YORK—Mayor Michael Bloom- of homeless workers living under a bridge berg recently announced a policy by his not far from my apartment complex. administration that he said is intended to reduce the number of people who are Rise of homelessness in late ’70s homeless in this city by two-thirds within Homelessness became a mass phenom- fi ve years. Couched in terms of concern enon in cities across the country in the late for the “truly needy,” a key aspect of this 1970s, with the onset of the economic policy is a more stringent use of eligibility crisis resulting from the long-term decline requirements for those applying for shelter. in profi t rates that marked the end of the One method, already used by city housing post–World War II expansion. In New York John Smith offi cials, is to disqualify people more sys- City the number of working people—mostly Bus workers in South Yorkshire in the United Kingdom on the picket line tematically on the grounds that they have the men— sleeping in parks, on sidewalks, and August 9 during their nearly three-week strike against First bus company. “option” of doubling up with relatives. in subway stations, as well as in shelters, The unionists, members of the Transport and General Workers union, re- More than 38,000 workers are living grew sharply in the early 1980s. turned to work the next day after the company backed down from its demand in shelters throughout the fi ve boroughs, The number of homeless here peaked that workers’ fi rst day’s sick pay would be deducted. The bosses also accepted according to the New York Department around 1987, and declined sharply in sub- the union demand for schedules of no more than eight and a half hours per of Homeless Services—a 60 percent jump sequent years, as the city administration day, and at least one break every four and a half hours. since 2001. This increase coincides with the of Edward Koch built new housing and fi ve-year cutoff period for workers receiving moved in thousands of previously home- federal welfare payments. less people, reported Shelly Nortz of the The main increase in recent years has Coalition for the Homeless in an August 4 Of the nearly 122,000 families in New Unit repeatedly before they are assigned been in the number of families, mostly phone interview. York City that were cut off over the course something more permanent,” reported single women with children. Some 9,000 As the economic crisis deepened, how- of 2002, tens of thousands either have Stephanie Carberry in a January 1 article families with 16,000 children are now ever, homelessness again began to rise in found no jobs or earn poverty-level wages. in the Gotham Gazette. They must continue staying in city shelters. Many of these are the late 1990s. The year 2002 marked the largest one-year to trek back to the Bronx even if they are workers who end up in a shelter on a short- The sharp rise in the number of workers jump in homelessness in the city in nearly staying at a distant site and their children are term basis. Some are evicted from their who are homeless since 2001 coincides with two decades. forced to miss school. All family members apartments after losing their jobs, or after the fi ve-year cutoff for people receiving fed- must be present at the interviews or the ap- a family health crisis or a case of domestic eral welfare benefi ts. In 1996 President Wil- Abuse and degrading conditions plication is rejected. violence, and manage to get back into an liam Clinton signed the Personal Responsi- At the 200-plus shelters around the city, For years, families waiting to be placed apartment after a few months. bility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation workers face degrading conditions and a in shelters routinely had to spend the night In addition, several thousand working Act, which eliminated Aid to Families with callous bureaucracy that treats them like sleeping on the fl oors of the EAU, a practice people are living on the streets. Although Dependent Children. criminals. Many are kicked out for break- that was fi nally declared illegal and halted city offi cials report nearly 2,700 people in The “welfare reform” law stipulated a ing the long list of rules. last year. City authorities have now said this situation, the Coalition for the Homeless fi ve-year lifetime limit on receipt of federal Meanwhile, workers living on the streets they will shut down the notorious facility challenges that fi gure as a substantial under- welfare payments. That period was suppos- are harassed and arrested by the cops. The and replace it. count, without offering its own estimate. In edly to allow people to make a transition New York Police Department’s “Homeless “It’s like a prison,” Kevin Woods, in his 1990 the U.S. Census Bureau reported some from welfare to a job. When it ended, how- Outreach Unit” arrests people for “crimes” early 20s, told the Militant in an August 3 10,000 people sleeping in public spaces in ever, thousands would go off the “fi ve-year such as sleeping in the park. interview outside the EAU. “The condi- New York City, but that number is consid- cliff,” as the late Democratic senator Daniel Those applying for shelter must produce tions are horrifi c.” Woods said he moved to ered an undercount as well. A signifi cant Moynihan had warned at the time the law documents to prove they are homeless, New York from California to live with his number of workers living on the streets are was passed. such as eviction papers or letters from the brother and sister-in-law. But his brother landlord who threw them out. Families must got divorced and Woods was kicked out of prove they are really a family, presenting the apartment, he said. Because of a knee birth certifi cates, custody papers, or certifi - injury that has required several operations, cation as domestic partners. About half the he’s been out of work and now without a families applying for shelter are rejected roof over his head. for not answering to the satisfaction of “I have three kids, and the one-year-old their interrogators. One of the most hated has asthma,” said José Rodríguez. “They are institutions is the Emergency Assistance Continued on page 8 Unit (EAU) in the Bronx, the only remain- ...presents facts on capitalism’s social crisis ing site in New York City where families can apply for shelter. Working people applying Publishing schedule Working people face falling real for shelter complain of abusive treatment wages, rising fuel prices, a hous- by guards and caseworkers. They report that This is a two-week issue of ing squeeze, and job speed-up. food in the cafeteria is often spoiled and has the ‘Militant.’ The next issue, made many people sick. no. 32, dated September 7, The ‘Militant’ reports how work- “The city places many families in tem- ers and farmers resist these condi- porary housing night after night, requiring will be mailed to readers on tions. It explains how our class that they return to the Emergency Assistance August 26. has fought in the past and can fi ght today to get rid of this system of wage slavery and replace it with address. By fi rst-class (airmail), send $80. Africa, Asia, and the Middle East: Send $65 socialism. Don’t miss an issue! Line up at February New York jobs fair The Militant drawn on a U.S. bank to above address. Vol. 68/No. 31 Canada: Send Canadian $50 for one-year Closing news date: August 11, 2004 sub scrip tion to Militant, 6955 Boul. St. Michel, suite 202 Montreal, QC, H2A 2Z3. 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2 The Militant August 31, 2004 Venezuela referendum Continued from front page PFC Energy, saying, “The companies are a also a factor in the loss of steam for the lot more sanguine about the political situa- pro-imperialist opposition. tion and they have become convinced that As the vote approached, larger sections of Mr. Chávez is a man they can do business the middle classes and some groups until re- with.” cently allied with the opposition appeared to “Two months ago, following a protracted be joining the vote “no” campaign. The day campaign,” the article said, “opposition before the march, offi cials of Venezuela’s groups forced Mr. Chávez to hold a recall Evangelical church, which claims a few mil- referendum. With the economy recovering lion members, called for a “no” vote in the strongly, however, the president expects referendum. “This is new,” said Wikénferd to see off the challenge and avoid calling Oliver, director of international relations of elections before those scheduled for 2006…. the Youth of the Fifth Republic Movement, International companies have also begun to the governing party, in an August 9 phone realize that in spite of his hostility towards interview. “Until now, no major religious Venezuela’s traditional business elites, Mr. group had done that.” Chávez is anxious to maintain good rela- “I saw many more professionals at the tions with international companies, particu- Sunday rally than previous demonstrations,” larly in the oil sector.” said Ebesis García, a saleswoman for a food Even an article in the August 6 Wall Street distribution company, referring to the Au- Journal by Mary Anastasia O’Grady, notori- gust 8 mobilization. Her observation was ous for her columns that rant against Cuba confi rmed in other interviews and press and Venezuela, had to acknowledge these accounts of the action. facts. “In recent weeks, the chattering class- AP /Leslie Mazoch The same day, a few thousand people es have begun to suggest that [Chávez] can Hundreds of thousands rallied in Caracas, Venezuela, August 8, for a ‘no’ vote in the ref- turned out for a car caravan and an all-day win fair and square,” she said. “The Chávez erendum. The recall vote is spearheaded by weighty sections of the country’s capitalists rock concert in Chacao, a wealthy neigh- government is a leading proponent of this who have Washington’s backing, with the aim of toppling the elected government. borhood of Venezuela’s capital, according line and is now claiming that all polls show to the Miami Herald and interviews by it has a clear advantage of 15 to 25 points. him about hundreds of new jobs at the ping at the private food stores,” Casadiego the Militant. Coordinadora Democrática, More impartial parties also opine now that Deltana natural gas project in the eastern said. His observations were confi rmed in which is led by fi gures in Fedecámaras, the he could win, albeit in a tight race.” state of Anzoátegui, where ChevronTexaco many other interviews with workers, farm- country’s main business association, had Most of those interviewed by the Mili- recently began drilling on two concessions ers, and students in Valencia, San Carlos, organized the musical event to promote its tant said an all-out effort by the “vote no” it negotiated with the government. “It’s a and Barcelona. campaign to unseat the government. campaign over the last six weeks has made a little far from home,” he said, “but it’s the The prices at these stores are about half Weighty sections of Venezuela’s capi- difference. Wikénferd Oliver said that more fi rst chance for stability, to have security that of what food costs on average in the private talist class with U.S. government backing than 1.2 million volunteers have been or- I can feed the family.” markets. “I just bought two kilos [4.5 lbs] of organized the recall vote in an increasingly ganized around the country, most of them Car sales in the country were double in chicken for 4,000 bolivars [$2] at the Mercal desperate attempt to oust the elected govern- young, to visit registered voters house-to- July compared to a year ago, according to around the corner,” said Ebesis García. “It ment. Two previous tries did not succeed, house and convince them to vote against the a news item posted by just-auto.com on costs 8,000 at most of the private stores.” and have in fact led to the weakening of the recall. The volunteers are organized in teams August 9. García and others said that although the opposition. of 10 people, each of whom is responsible The country’s gross domestic product offi cial infl ation rate remains high, about The fi rst, a U.S.-backed military coup in for visiting and getting to know 10 other grew nearly 30 percent the fi rst quarter of 13 percent annually, the greatly reduced April 2002, failed within three days in face people. The teams belong to Electoral Battle this year, Venezuela’s Central Bank reported, food prices at the Mercals, which the ma- of massive street mobilizations by working Units (UBE) that have been created in most after dropping by a similar fi gure the fi rst jority of the population now has access to, people throughout the country that divided neighborhoods across the country. quarter of 2003. is making a difference in working peoples’ the military. At the same time, recent improvements Public works, including new projects to ability to survive. The second, a bosses’ “strike” in De- in the economy and steady advances in a repair roads, bridges, and other parts of the Literacy campaigns that have involved cember 2002 and January 2003, crippled number of social programs the government country’s infrastructure, have added new some 4 million people over the last year, production for more than two months in the has launched have worked against the op- jobs, Aguillón and other workers said. organized with the help and volunteer train- oil industry, the country’s main economic position campaign, Oliver and others said. In May the government raised the mini- ers from Cuba, have further undermined the resource. But as millions of workers defi ed mum wage to 300,000 bolivars (about $150) pro-imperialist opposition campaign. Many the employers’ sabotage of the economy, Economic improvements per month, a 50 percent increase, Aguillón of the volunteers for the house-to-house taking over refi neries and other plants and “Unemployment is now down to about 12 noted. visits of the “vote no” campaign have been restarting production, the lockout crumbled. percent, according to the government,” said Luis Casadiego said another positive organized out of the literacy classes, Wikén- One of the fruits of the workers’ victory in Antonio Aguillón, a unionist in Caracas, in development for working people is “the ferd Oliver said. His group, the Youth of the that class confrontation was a completely an August 9 phone interview. The offi cial spreading and vast improvement of the Fifth Republic Movement, is coordinating new management for PDVSA, the state- jobless rate hovered between 18 and 20 Mercals,” the government supermarkets. this effort nationally, he said. owned oil company. percent last year. Casadiego, who organizes a community Improved health care for many working Leading up to the lockout, the Chávez In a number of interviews, a range center housing a neighborhood clinic oper- people is also weighing against the opposi- administration had angered most of Ven- of workers gave examples of new jobs ated by Cuban doctors in the Montepiedad tion. “For the fi rst time, a growing number ezuela’s wealthy ruling families and their they’ve been able to get since this spring. section of the January 23 neighborhood in of young Venezuelan doctors have joined the allies in Washington by doubling the royal- Ebesis García said she found her job at a Caracas, said the Mercals are now open more than 10,000 volunteer doctors from ties that investors have to pay for oil explo- privately owned food distribution company three hours more per day, until 9:00 p.m., Cuba in the Barrio Adentro program,” said ration contracts and taking other measures two months ago. “and you can fi nd almost everything you Karen Freites, a medical student at the Uni- to strengthen state control of the country’s Carlos Enrique Rángel was a truck driver need for cooking on their shelves.” versity of Carabobo in Valencia, the coun- natural resources. in Caracas who worked until 2002 for Indus- Until early this year, the stock of the Mer- try’s third-largest city. “There are now 1,200 Other measures passed by the govern- trial de Perfumes, a cosmetics company the cals was scant, and people could buy only Venezuelan doctors enrolled in the program, ment in the fall of 2001 that drew the ire bosses shut down. He had been unemployed up to a certain quantity of food per month. with 130 here in Valencia alone.” of the majority of Venezuela’s bourgeoisie for more than a year, surviving on seasonal “Now rationing exists in very few items, and Barrio Adentro, which translates roughly included an agrarian reform law, a bill pro- work in construction, when a relative told more and more people are abandoning shop- Continued on Page 8 tecting small fi shermen from overfi shing by large commercial companies, and the allo- cation of state funds for affordable housing and other social programs. Washington to Iran: halt nuclear program The government’s normalization of trade and diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the Continued from front page ity and to spur economic development. to enrich uranium. In exchange, the three work in Venezuela of some 16,000 doctors, program. Israeli offi cials have also indicated The government estimates that it needs to European governments gave Tehran assur- literacy teachers, and other volunteers that Tel Aviv might launch a strike against generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity from ances that they would not allow U.S. allega- from Cuba over the last two years, have Iran if the U.S. government does not. nuclear power plants by 2022 to meet the tions of Iranian violations of the UN Nuclear also stoked the fury of many Venezuelan On August 8, U.S. national security advi- growing energy demands of a country of Non-Proliferation Treaty to be referred to the capitalists and landlords and their backers sor Condoleezza Rice said on the NBC TV 65 million. Washington is seeking to block Security Council. They also promised to ease in the United States. program “Meet the Press” that Washington this program, claiming that it is a cover for Tehran’s access to nuclear technology. “cannot allow the Iranians to develop a Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Government offi cials in Israel have made Opposition campaign losing steam nuclear weapon” and that it would press the Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s UN statements indicating that they make carry One of the many indications that the pro- IAEA to make “a very strong statement” at ambassador, said that if the IAEA took out an “Osirak solution,” that is, launch a imperialist opposition has been running out its upcoming meeting in September.A few Tehran to the Security Council, then the strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, if of steam was the August 9 Financial Times days earlier, U.S. secretary of state Colin Iranian government could not be expected Washington does not. In 1981 Tel Aviv article. Titled “Oil industry seeks decisive Powell said that it was “more and more to “cooperate unilaterally” with the agency, launched a missile strike that destroyed Chávez poll win,” the article begun: “A likely” that Washington would press the the Financial Times reported. Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, claiming it was decisive victory for Venezuela’s President IAEA to refer Iran’s nuclear program to the Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi acting in self-defense against the threat of Hugo Chávez in next Sunday’s recall UN Security Council as a possible prelude to said his government had not resumed uranium Iraq developing nuclear weapons. referendum on his leadership could help imposing some combination of sanctions. enrichment. “We still continue suspension on Iran is the “biggest danger to the exis- pave the way for billions of dollars of fresh These statements followed a meeting in uranium enrichment,” Kharrazi said. “But tence of Israel,” said Israeli prime minister international investment in the country’s oil late July, where British, French, and German we are not committed to another agreement Ariel Sharon. “Israel will not allow Iran to and gas sector.” offi cials demanded that Tehran take steps to with them [London, Paris, and Berlin] on not be equipped with a nuclear weapon.” Venezuela is the fi fth-largest oil producer back away from its development of nuclear building centrifuges.” Centrifuges are used Reuters news agency reported August 11, in the world and PDVSA provides some 80 power. In response, the Iranian government to make uranium hexafl uoride, which can be “Amid media speculation that Israel may try percent of the country’s export revenue. announced July 30 that it would resume con- enriched to low levels for power generation, to halt Iran’s nuclear program by carrying More than 50 percent of its oil exports go struction of parts for centrifuges used in the or to high levels for nuclear weapons. out air strikes on some atomic facilities in to the United States and Canada. production of nuclear energy, the Associated Last October, under heavy pressure Iran, Iranian offi cials have been quick to “Industry analysts say that international Press reported. Tehran said it was doing this from the British, French, and German stress that Tehran would retaliate promptly companies, short of opportunities elsewhere, because the three European governments governments, Tehran agreed to allow unan- and strongly to any such attack.” would welcome an end to the extreme politi- had not fulfi lled promises to get the agree- nounced inspections of the country’s nuclear Iranian defense minister Ali Shamkhani cal instability that has plagued the last two ment of the IAEA to close its investigation facilities. These governments pressed for the said August 4 that it had carried out a fi eld years in particular of the radical leader’s six into Iran’s nuclear energy program. concessions from Tehran as an alternative to test of the latest version of its Shihab-3 me- years in offi ce,” said the London daily. Tehran says it needs to develop nuclear more aggressive moves by Washington. dium-range ballistic missile, saying this was The article quoted Fareed Mohamedi, power-generating technology to help meet As show of “good faith” Iran announced in response to Tel Aviv’s moves to boost its chief economist of the Washington-based the country’s growing demand for electric- that it would temporarily suspend programs antimissile capability. The Militant August 31, 2004 3 Trench war at Co-Op Colorado protest against jailing of parolees Continued from front page would get six pairs of gloves a year and a the UMWA and challenging the legitimacy bigger clothing allowance. of the company “union,” the so-called In- “These company representatives wanted ternational Association of United Workers us to talk about the little things, complain Union (IAUWU). about this or that problem,” said Jesús Sala- Miners say they are also documenting zar, “but we kept pressing on: ‘Where are the and standing up to selective enforcement pay raises, insurance, and other benefi ts?’” of safety rules, a series of verbal and written The Co-Op bosses maintain a compli- warnings against supporters of the UMWA, cated system of pay grades, supplemental and fl agrant violations of the recent settle- wages, and bonuses to keep pay low and ment the National Labor Relations Board workers in line. The job classification (NLRB) negotiated between the UMWA “faceman,” for instance, is a level 9 posi- and Co-Op owners, the Kingstons. tion with a minimum wage of $7 an hour To broaden solidarity with their struggle, and a maximum of $11, according to the miners say they are also responding to new IAUWU “contract.” invitations to speak in front of labor bodies. This job is one of the most demanding on Labor solidarity, they note, was crucial in the production section, miners say. A face- forcing the company to make an uncondi- man is required to scoop the entry ways tional offer to return to all the strikers, after after the continuous mining machine cuts the NLRB ruled in June that the 75 miners the coal, rock dust the entry by hand, put had been fi red illegally last September. up curtain for ventilation, hand shovel the ribs of all coal spillage, keep the roof bolter Phony ‘union’ meeting supplied with bolting supplies, move sump In order to give a facelift to the company pumps to water holes, and carry out many outfi t, offi cers of the IAUWU organized a other jobs to maintain the section. “union” meeting on August 6. A fl yer was In spite of the IAUWU “contract” lan- posted at the mine, workers said, urging guage, many miners report they are not Amy Hatten/Craig Daily Press miners to attend. The meeting turned into even being paid for the level of work they Protesters picket August 4 at Moffat County Courthouse in Craig, Colorado, more than the bosses had bargained for are performing, and it is almost unheard of demanding release of Andy Seltzer. Parole offi cer Shane Fuchs put him behind because the Co-Op miners who support to reach the maximum level of pay. One bars for allegedly violating probation. Nathan Seltzer (above), 17, told the Craig the UMWA decided to go. “When the fi rst UMWA supporter who has worked in the Daily Press that his father had been granted permission to travel to Grand UMWA miners walked into that room you mine for three years and is currently doing County to work and later was charged for going fi shing there. More protests are could have heard a pin drop,” said Alyson a faceman job said he is getting paid only planned in Grand Junction and at Seltzer’s August 24 parole hearing in Craig. Kennedy, one of those active in the UMWA $6.50 an hour. organizing effort. A mechanic in the surface shop, who is When they arrived, about a dozen people originally from Mexico, said he had been a bathhouse is designated “Ladies Only” and is a plaque with a picture and description were in the room, miners reported. These mechanic for 19 years and has been talking Kennedy can use the facility. One day a the company puts up in a glass display at included Chris Grundvig, Dana Jenkins, to the bosses about a pay raise without get- boss deliberately used the bathroom just the bathhouse. and Warren Pratt, who are “offi cers” of ting anywhere. before the shift started, forcing Kennedy to UMWA backers said they were recently the IAUWU—president, vice-president, The pro-UMWA miners at the IAUWU wait and be late for her job. Kennedy’s boss joking with the latest miner to receive this and secretary treasurer, respectively. Nevin meeting said they used the gathering to ex- then reprimanded her verbally for not being prize, one of the workers who did not sup- Pratt, IAUWU international vice-president pose the pro-company nature of this outfi t. on time. Kennedy also said that her direct port the strike. “What does this mean?” they was also there. All four are either bosses “Why do you have bosses as your offi cers?” supervisor told her that bosses have fi led asked him. “Are you getting a raise?” or directly connected to the Kingston fam- one miner asked. two written complaints against her, based This worker then turned to the boss who ily, according to miners who attended the “Why are there so many members of the on the fact she was using the bathhouse fi ve had presented the award and asked if that’s meeting. These “offi cers” admit that there is Kingston family now working at the mine?” minutes before her designated time. what the “prize” meant. The boss just started only one local in this so-called international another miner said. Kennedy said she challenged this dis- laughing. union—the one at Co-Op. The IAUWU representatives tried to criminatory treatment and said she would Many miners report the bosses are fl oat- Seven Mexican-born miners who work deny that many members of the Kingston not accept such reprimands. “I haven’t been ing rumors that there may be a pay hike on the surface in the outside shop were also family—a wealthy clan with a business given either of these bogus complaints yet,” coming, hoping to blunt support for the at the meeting, having arrived early. These empire of $150 million across six western she said. UMWA in the upcoming elections. But miners were not part of the strike. states—work at the mine, workers said. Other miners also report that the bosses there has been no evidence so far that the More miners came to the meeting as “What we were told by the ‘union’ of- continue to selectively threaten and harass Kingstons plan to make any concessions to they were getting off work. Nine who had fi cers was always—before the strike, and pro-UMWA workers at the mine as the the miners. Empty honors, poverty plead- taken part in the strike attended in all. One now—in defense of the company,” said company tries to ramp up production and ing, threats, and intimidation continue to be of these miners said he raised his hand and Ricardo Chávez, a miner who attended the undercut support for the union. All miners the weapons of choice of the Co-Op bosses asked about the “new” contract Grundvig meeting. “Nevin Pratt would respond as if are working 12-and-a-half hour shifts, four in their war to prevent the workers from kept referring to, and whether it included he were speaking directly for the company, days a week. The production crews regularly winning representation by the UMWA, the an increase in pay. responding to miners complaints by saying, stay underground 13 hours, producing coal miners report. The current “contract” between the ‘We’ll see what we can do.’” right up to the last minute. According to a number of miners, Nevin IAUWU and the mine bosses expired Au- At one point during the meeting, miners Alejandro Ramírez, a union backer who Pratt told several workers after the company gust 10. A new contract cannot be signed said, the Kingston representatives announced was given two disciplinary points for miss- “union” meeting that not only was the com- until the union election ordered by the that workers would not be getting paid to at- ing work, was told that six points the com- pany too poor to give the miners a raise, but NLRB takes place. The labor board held tend the “union” gathering. At that point, the pany had slapped on him before the strike that the UMWA was jeopardizing their jobs a hearing in Price July 20-21 to determine seven surface workers who had come to the would be brought forward, giving him by insisting on back pay for the nearly 10 who will be eligible to vote in the election. meeting early became visibly upset, miners eight points. This is the level at which the months the miners were illegally fi red. In a The NLRB mandated the vote after the reported. It had been customary, they said, company can fi re a worker. Ramírez argued thinly veiled threat, miners said, Pratt told a strikers signed a petition for representation while the strike was going on, for Co-Op to with the bosses, miners reported, refusing group of miners that since Mexican workers by the UMWA. According to Co-Op min- give those who went to the company union to accept the earlier six points, and so far may not have all their documents in order ers, the UMWA fi led a follow-up brief on meeting two extra hours’ pay. the company has said it will take no action they would not be eligible for back pay and August 4 laying out its arguments on who “We were able to challenge these offi cials against him. could jeopardize themselves by insisting on should be able to vote. UMWA organizers and stand up to them, showing to those miners The miners who returned to work follow- back wages. say they expect the labor board will rule on who did not join the strike that this ‘union’ is ing the strike, and even those who crossed the matter before the end of August. the same as the company,” said Jesús Salazar. the picket line, regularly take on the bosses. Stepping up labor solidarity The NLRB had recognized the IAUWU “That was worthwhile. You could see some of “Workers just don’t take whatever the King- While continuing to fi ght for their rights in 1979. Miners report that before the strike these workers nodding in agreement with us stons are dishing out anymore,” said Bill on the job leading up to a union election, the that began on Sept. 22, 2003, the IAUWU when we spoke during the meeting.” Estrada, one of the leaders of the strike, Co-Op miners are also stepping up outreach never had meetings or any real presence who has been singled out for harassment a to the labor movement and other supporters in the mine. The offi cers of this outfi t did Write-ups, warnings, harassment number of times since he returned to work of their struggle to explain the issues in their nothing to represent the workers and were Alyson Kennedy reported that her crew, July 12. “We stand up for ourselves and fi ght and expand the solidarity that has been supervisors at the mine. The “union” con- which includes several members of the whenever possible we do it together.” crucial so far in pushing back the bosses. tract and other “union” material were hard Kingston family, was called into the offi ce Recently a bearing in the tailpiece roller At a meeting of Co-Op miners on August to get, and when available they were always on July 28 by Cyril Jackson, a maintenance of the conveyor belt wore out, Estrada said. 8, the workers decided to assign two of their printed in English, even though most of the foreman at the mine. She said Jackson in- It had to be replaced, causing downtime in members to travel to Seattle, Washington, miners only speak Spanish. structed the miners that they were not al- production. The bosses claimed Estrada on August 18 to speak before the King Miners said they pointed out that the lowed to say anything about a union, pro or was responsible, the miner reported, alleg- County Central Labor Council meeting. average wage for underground miners is con, on mine property. This is in direct viola- ing he failed to do proper maintenance on Longshoremen and other unionists in the between $15 and $20 an hour, and asked tion of the NLRB agreement signed by the the equipment. Cyril Jackson told Estrada Pacifi c Northwest region have been strong why most Co-Op miners were paid between UMWA and C.W. Mining. The settlement he would have to sign a form accepting backers of the Co-Op fi ght. Through the $5.50 and $7 an hour. clearly states the company cannot interfere responsibility. Estrada said he told the boss labor council meeting, UMWA supporters The IAUWU offi cers kept insisting that with conversations workers are having he would not sign such a paper. are looking to expand solidarity. Co-Op “doesn’t make much money,” aping about the union. As long as conversations In the past, workers would routinely do The Co-Op miners said they are also the company line for why workers are paid by workers don’t disrupt production they can what the bosses said, miners report, but planning for another barbecue/rally in such miserable wages, said the unionists. talk about whatever they want, according management is seeing that things have not Huntington over the August 21-22 week- Miners said they countered that they to this settlement. If workers can talk about returned to business as usual at the mine. end to bring together co-workers, family didn’t buy this claim, because the price of baseball, then it is also within their rights Jackson has yet to give Estrada the “pa- members, and supporters from throughout coal on the market now is quite high, and to start a discussion with a co-worker about per” he is supposed to sign. the state and elsewhere in the region. Such coal companies are making lots of money, joining the union, miners said. events update everyone on the latest devel- as is Co-Op. Kennedy also reported that she has faced ‘Employee of the Month’ award opments in the struggle and help the miners The IAUWU offi cers reportedly respond- stepped-up harassment by the bosses. Be- Trying to combine the carrot with the talk out future plans. ed that there may be an increase in pay for cause the company does not provide a sepa- stick, the company is continuing to promote Co-Op miners said they continue to urge workers in the higher classifi cations, but rate women’s bathhouse facility, Kennedy an “Employee of the Month” award, which supporters to send messages of solidarity they had nothing to back up their claim. The is forced to use the foremen’s bathhouse to it started during the strike. Of the eight with their ongoing struggle for union repre- miners said that Nevin Pratt kept repeating, change her clothes at the beginning and end awards given so far, fi ve have been handed sentation. These can be sent to the UMWA at “There are big improvements,” but the only of the workday. For 15 minutes before her to foremen, all Kingston family members, 525 East 100 South, Price, Utah 84501. Tel: concrete thing he would say is that workers shift and 30 minutes afterward the bosses’ miners reported. The extent of the “award” (435) 637-2037, Fax: 435-637-9456. 4 The Militant August 31, 2004 Support the Socialist Workers campaign in 2004!

Róger Calero for President Arrin Hawkins for Vice President

Militant/John Brinks Militant/Norton Sandler Calero, second from left, on picket line with Maytag workers in Newton, Iowa, June 27. Hawkins, right, talks with striking truck drivers at the Port of Miami July 2.

Róger Calero, 35, is the associate editor of the United Mine Workers of America strike by Arrin Hawkins, 29, is a garment worker in the Spanish-language magazine Perspectiva 75 coal miners fi ghting for union recognition New York. She was the Socialist Workers Party Mundial and a staff writer for the Militant. He and safe working conditions at the Co-Op mine candidate for lieutenant governor of New York lives in Newark, New Jersey. Calero has lived in Huntington, Utah. in 2002. in the United States since 1985, when his fam- In December 2002, immigration cops arrested Hawkins joined the Young Socialists in 2000 ily moved from Nicaragua to Los Angeles. He Calero upon his return to the United States from in the Twin Cities. She has also worked as an joined the socialist movement there in 1993 and reporting assignments at a conference held in airline baggage handler and as a meat packer. is a member of the Socialist Workers Party’s Na- Havana, Cuba, protesting the Free Trade Area In 2000 and 2001 she worked on the cut fl oor at tional Committee, serving on the SWP’s national of the Americas—a pact Washington is trying the American Meat Packing Corporation plant in trade union work leadership committee. to impose on the region to extend its imperial- Chicago where she was involved in a union fi ght In Los Angeles Calero helped mobilize sup- ist domination—and a congress in Guadalajara, to win severance pay for hundreds of workers port in October 1994 against Proposition 187, Mexico, of the Continental Organization of after the plant was shut down and the workers a California ballot measure intended to deny Latin American and Caribbean Students. laid off without having received prior notice undocumented workers and their children ac- Winning broad support from defenders of of the shutdown. The workers there mobilized cess to public education, health care, and other immigrant and workers rights and freedom of to win broad labor and community support in social services. the press, and with the backing of the Socialist their fi ght for back pay, health-care coverage, Working as a meat packer in the Midwest a few Workers Party, Calero waged a public campaign and severance pay. years later, Calero participated in a groundbreak- that prevented his deportation to Nicaragua and Hawkins has been a part of international ing union-organizing drive at Dakota Premium successfully defended his right to live and work delegations to Cuba for the Cuba-U.S. Youth Foods in South St. Paul, Minnesota. Immigrant in this country. The victorious struggle set an Exchange in 2001 and 2003. She participated and native-born workers came together to bring example of how to fi ght to win and inspired oth- in the conference of the Organization of Latin United Food and Commercial Workers Local ers in similar situations to resist and beat back American and Caribbean Students held in Ha- 789 into that plant. More recently Calero has government attempts to exclude them from the vana in 2000. She represented the Young Social- joined the efforts to expand labor solidarity with United States. ists at the World Festival of Youth and Students held in Algiers, Algeria, in 2001, and afterward visited the camps of the Polisario independence fi ghters in Tindouf, Algeria. What the SWP stands and fights for Hawkins helped build the April 25, 2004, March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., •Support workers’ right to organize unions and to defend themselves from the bosses’ where hundreds of thousands marched in de- fense of a woman’s right to choose abortion. assaults. Defend the labor movement from the continuing offensive by the employers and their twin parties of capitalism—the Democrats and Republicans. For the formation of a labor party, based on the trade unions, that fi ghts in the interests of working people. •Support the efforts of the power-poor semicolonial countries to acquire and develop the energy sources necessary to expand electrifi cation, a prerequisite for economic and For more information social advances. Expose the drive by Washington and its allies to prevent the nations SOCIALIST WORKERS NAT’L 2004 CAMPAIGN oppressed by imperialism from developing the sources of energy they need, including nuclear power, to bring much of humanity out of darkness. PO Box 380846, Miami, FL 33138 e-mail: [email protected] •The immediate, unconditional withdrawal •Defend and extend affi rmative action in of U.S. and other imperialist troops from Iraq, employment, education, and housing. phone: (305) 756-4436 Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Korea, Haiti, Colom- •Fight cop brutality, abolish the death penalty. bia, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Or visit the New York SWP campaign center •Defend a woman’s right to choose abortion! •For a massive federally funded public 306 W. 37th St., 10th fl oor works program to put millions to work at •End Washington’s economic war against union scale. Cuba! U.S. hands off Venezuela! New York, NY 10018 •For the extension of social security to •Stop farm foreclosures! Government funded e-mail: [email protected] cover universal, federally funded, lifetime cheap credit for working farmers and price sup- phone: (212) 736-2540 health care for all. ports to cover production costs.

The Militant August 31, 2004 5 Questions posed in the 20

The Lesser Evil? by Jack Barnes Lessons for the struggles Why the “tactic” of backing candidates of any capitalist party will neither stop the right-wing nor advance the interests of working people. “Let’s stop talking about independent political action Pathfinder Su and start talking about in- dependent working-class po- litical action.” —Jack Barnes, All pamphlets $1 to $3 1965, from one of the three debates collected in this book. $13.95 $5 Capitalism’s World Disorde Working-class Politics at the Millennium by Jack Barnes The social devastation and fi nancial the coarsening of politics, th The Working Class and the brutality and acts of impe Transformation of Learning aggression accelerating a us—all are the product, n The Fraud of Education Reform something gone wrong with under Capitalism talism, but of its lawful wor by Jack Barnes Yet the future can be chang “Until society is reorganized so that the united struggle of worke education is a human activity from the farmers conscious of their p time we are very young until the time we to transform the world. In die, there will be no education worthy lish, Spanish, and French. $ of working, creating humanity.”—Jack Barnes. In English, Spanish, French, Swedish, and Icelandic. $3 $1 Three Classics of Socialism IN THE WORDS O The Communist Manifesto By Any Means N by Karl Marx, Abortion Is a Habla Malcolm X Frederick Engels Woman’s Right Malcolm X Talks Founding docu- by Pat Grogan Two books and a ment of the Why the right to choose pamphlet contain- modern working- We Are the abortion is central to ing speeches and class movement, Heirs of the struggle for the full interviews by one published in the World’s emancipation of women, of the outstanding 1848. Why com- and why the labor move- Revolutions revolutionary leaders munism is derived ment has a vital stake in by Thomas of the 20th century. not from precon- this fi ght. In English and Sankara Malcolm X explains ceived principles Spanish. $4.50 The leader of the his uncompromising but from facts and $2 1983–87 revolu- opposition to both from proletarian tion in Burkina the Democratic and movements springing from the actual class Problems of Faso explains how Republican parties. struggle. In English and Spanish. $3.95 Women’s Liberation by Evelyn Reed the peasants and “They’re not your workers of this West African country friends. No, they’re $2 Six articles explore the social established a popular revolutionary your enemies. Treat and economic roots of women’s government and began to fi ght hunger, them, and you’ll get y oppression from prehistory to Socialism: Utopian and illiteracy, and economic backwardness modern capitalism and point the road forward to eman- •By Any Means Necess Scientifi c imposed by imperialist domination. cipation. $12.95 •Habla Malcolm X $17 by Frederick An example to workers and small $5 farmers throughout the world. In •Malcolm X Talks to Y Engels (In Spanish) ¿Sexo contra sexo o clase “The task of sci- English, Spanish, and French.$7 entifi c socialism,” contra clase? $18.95 $3 wrote Frederick $10 Engels in 1877, is “to impart to the oppressed proletarian class a full knowledge Teamster Rebellion of the momen- by Farrell Dobbs tous revolution it The story of the 1934 organiz- Trade Unions in the is called upon to ing drive and strikes by Team- Epoch of Imperialist accomplish.” $4 sters Local 574 in Minneapolis Decay $2 that paved the way for the by Leon Trotsky, with articles by rise of the industrial union Karl Marx and Farrell Dobbs Imperialism, the Highest movement. How rank-and-fi le Food for thought—and action— Stage of Capitalism workers defeated the truck- from leaders of three genera- by V.I. Lenin ing bosses and strikebreaking tions of the working-class move- “I trust that this efforts of the city, state, and ment. Invaluable to the practical pamphlet will federal governments. In Eng- education of militant workers relearning today what help the reader lish and Spanish. $19 a strike is, how it can be fought and won, and why a to understand $10 revolutionary workers party must be forged. $15 the fundamental economic ques- $5 tion, that of the economic essence of impe- rialism,” Lenin wrote in 1917. “For unless this is stud- ied, it will be impossible to understand ORDER ONLINE AT: WWW.PAT and appraise modern war and modern $3 politics.” In English and Spanish. $10 Also available in bookstores, including those listed o

6 The Militant August 31, 2004 004 elections aren’t new The Changing Face of s of today and tomorrow U.S. Politics Working-class Politics and the Trade Unions by Jack Barnes Building the kind of party working people need to prepare for com- upersaver Sale ing class battles through which they will revolutionize them- selves, their unions, and all soci- ety. A handbook for those who are 3; All books $5 or $10 seeking the road toward effective action to overturn the capitalist system of exploitation and join in reconstructing the world on new, socialist foundations. In er English, Spanish, and French.$23 $10 panic, he cop rialist Aspects of Socialist What Is round Election Policy American not of Articles and reports Fascism? on the Progressive capi- by James P. Party’s 1948 Henry rkings. Cannon, Joseph ged by Wallace campaign Hansen rs and for president, the power 1968 Peace and Discussing examples n Eng- Freedom Party from the first six $23.95 Cuba and the campaign, and why decades of the 20th Coming American Revolution such “independent” century—Father Charles Coughlin, Jersey $10 by Jack Barnes parties don’t City mayor Frank Hague, and Sen. Joseph McCarthy—this collection looks at some “There will be a victorious revolution in the United represent a break with capitalist of the features that have marked fas- States before there will be a victorious counterrev- politics. How to advance the fight for cist movements and demagogues in the olution in Cuba.” That statement by Fidel Castro independent working-class political United States—and why. $8 remains as accurate today as when it was spoken action, including a labor party. $10 in 1961. This is a book about the class struggle in $3 the United States and the example demonstrated $3 by the people of Cuba that revolution is not only OF MALCOLM X: necessary—it can be made. In English, Spanish, Necessary and French. $13 X NEW INTERNATIONAL, s to Young People $5 A MAGAZINE OF MARXIST POLITICS AND THEORY

‘US Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War’ by Jack Barnes—from New International no. 11 U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War ...That’s what the Socialist Notebook of an Agitator Workers Party concluded more than a decade ago, in the wake of the by James P. Cannon collapse of regimes and parties across Eastern Europe and in the USSR Articles by a found- that claimed to be communist. Contrary to imperialism’s hopes, the ing leader of the working class in those countries remains an obstacle to re-imposing Socialist Workers and stabilizing capitalist relations, and will have to be confronted by Party spanning the exploiters in class battles. In English, Spanish, and French. $14 four decades of working-class $10 battles—defending ‘Imperialism’s March Toward Fascism and War’ labor frame-up vic- by Jack Barnes—from New International no. 10 tims in the 1920s; them like that and fi ght 1934 Minneapolis “There will be new Hitlers, new Mussolinis. That is inevitable. your freedom.” Teamsters strikes; What is not inevitable is that they will triumph. The working-class sary $15.95 battles on the San Francisco waterfront; vanguard will organize our class to fi ght back against the devastat- $5 ing toll we are made to pay for the capitalist crisis. The future of 7.95 labor’s fi ght against American fascism $5 and the McCarthyite witch-hunt; the humanity will be decided in the contest between these contending Young People $4 $2 Korean War, and much more. $21.95 class forces.” —Jack Barnes. In English, Spanish, and French. $14 $10 $10

‘Washington’s 50-year Domestic Contra Operation’ by Larry Seigle —from New International no. 6 The Second Declaration As the U.S. rulers prepared to smash working-class resistance and of Havana join the interimperialist slaughter of World War II, the federal In 1962 the workers and farmers who political police apparatus as it exists today was born. This article carried out a socialist revolution in describes the consequences for the unions and for the Black, anti- Cuba refused to back down in face war, and other social movements. It explains how communists have of the rapidly escalating military, fought over the past fi fty years to defend workers’ rights against economic, and political attack by the government and employer attacks. $15 U.S. government. Read by Fidel Castro $10 at a rally of a million people in Ha- (in Spanish) 50 años de guerra encubierta vana, the Second Declaration remains a (pamphlet) $7 manifesto of revolutionary struggle for $3 working people everywhere. In English, Spanish, and French. $4.50 ‘The Fight for a Workers and Farmers $2 Government in the United States’ by Jack Barnes ‘The Crisis Facing Working Farmers’ by Doug Jenness— from New International no. 4 The shared exploitation of workers and working farmers by banking, industrial, and commercial capital lays the basis for their alliance in a revolutionary fi ght for a government of the producers, for a THFINDERPRESS.COM workers and farmers government. $12 n page 8. Offer good until Nov. 7, 2004. $10 The Militant August 31, 2004 7 New York homeless Continued from Page 2 van, 21, and her eight-month-old daughter. constantly getting sick. They don’t get to The EAU rejected her, saying she had the sleep. And sickness spreads around.” “option” of living with her father—who had “They say we’re not eligible because we recently kicked her out of the house. can go back to Puerto Rico and live with “Those who are ineligible for shelter my grandmother,” said Sharon Cepeda. cannot continuously clog the system and “That would be 12 people in a house in divert scarce resources that should go to San Juan.” those truly in need,” said Bloomberg in “They call us ‘clients,’ but we feel like announcing the new plan. inmates,” Woods said of the EAU. The rulers of New York applauded the mayor’s proposal. A June 27 editorial in Bloomberg plan the Daily News declared that the problem On June 23 the Bloomberg administra- is all the single mothers who “just decided tion announced a plan whose stated aim is to move out with the kids because they to cut the number of homeless people by couldn’t get along with grandma.” two-thirds by the year 2009. This is not a bill A second component of the Bloomberg before the city council but new guidelines plan is to fi nance 12,000 new units of “sup- the administration is already using. portive housing” for the homeless. These One aspect of the plan announced by are subsidized apartments combined with Bloomberg is to more aggressively en- a building with social workers and a staff force existing eligibility requirements. of psychiatrists and doctors. If a homeless person has relatives in the The promise of new housing construc- Militant/Paul Pederson city, a caseworker may deem that they tion for the homeless may seem attractive Families in need of shelter, like those above that the Militant interviewed August 3, go to have “other housing options” and try to and, if implemented, might even reduce notorious Emergency Assistance Unit in the Bronx, New York, to apply for housing. disqualify them from being sheltered, a the number of those in shelters or on the method that is already commonly used. streets for a few years. Bloomberg’s speech Those who are rejected may challenge the announcing the plan was “interrupted 10 to mention the housing budget cuts, which Working people seeking a place to live ruling and eventually gain shelter, but the times by applause from homeless advocates will only lead to more workers pushed out have to deal with a huge government bu- effect of the policy is to discourage a larger and business leaders,” the Daily News re- onto the street. reaucracy, including the Department of number from doing so, said Nortz from the ported. In addition, to stay in the “supportive Homeless Services, welfare, and public Coalition for the Homeless. But the mayor’s plan does nothing to housing,” workers must submit to demean- housing authorities, as well as an associ- The June 27 issue of the New York Daily address the decline in real income and the ing “mandatory monitoring” and a host of ated army of social workers, therapists, and News reported on the case of Jackie Vanleu- general shortage of affordable housing, not rules supervised by social workers. poverty pimps. There are at least 250 agen- cies in New York that “help” the homeless. Many of them, relying on government or private grants, have a stake in perpetuating Venezuela rally says no to recall of Chávez this bureaucratic and demeaning setup.The only “solution” offered by the capitalist Continued from Page 3 In the fi rst half of this year, the number them turn back the clock of history.” rulers and their apologists, including the as “Into the heart of the neighborhood,” of peasant families that has received land Amagalys Heredia, another peasant who “caring” reformers, is to police workers is the name of a government-sponsored titles, taking advantage of the 2001 agrar- farms land as part of the Los Cañizos farm who are homeless and to shift them from program that has brought Cuban doctors ian reform law, has surpassed 115,000, he cooperative in the state of Yaracuy, agreed one place to another. operating free, competent neighborhood said—40,000 more than since the end of with Sarmiento’s assessment, but pointed To gain acceptance for this disregard for clinics in working-class neighborhoods 2003. In the San Carlos area, Sarmiento to the class contradictions that will remain human needs, they portray those lacking a and rural areas across the country where said, nearly 2,000 peasants obtained new intact even if the government wins the refer- home as elements to be viewed with suspi- workers and farmers have had little or no land titles and credits on 15,000 acres of endum. “We need to win the August 15 vote cion and scorn. They promote the ongoing access to medical care. land the last three months. to gain more time for the real battle.” divisions between workers who have jobs “I don’t think they would win in Caracas The biggest challenge workers and farm- Class confrontation and the unemployed, most pauperized sec- either,” he said. To succeed the opposition ers face, she said, are the capitalists within tions of the working class. While the main fi gures in Coordinadora must receive a majority in the election, and the “pro-Chávez” camp. “Many of these From the capitalist standpoint, af- Democrática insist they have a good chance garner more than the 3.76 million votes cast businessmen speak pretty words, but they fordable housing for all and eliminating of winning the August 15 vote, frustration for Chávez in the last elections among the are doing everything to prevent us from homelessness are not “realistic,” that is, and even plans for resorting to violent country’s 14 million registered voters. “We implementing the agrarian reform law and not profi table. means to try to topple the government all know that a victory for them at the ballot are turning a blind eye when the private The working-class movement, however, are not uncommon among sections of the box or in any other way would be a return goons of big landlords murder militant has a different approach. That is the subject opposition. to the dark days, the days of unabashed peasants taking over land, like they did of the article on page 9. A large quantity of C-4 explosives murder of peasants, blatant exploitation, two weeks ago in the state of Zulia. We was recently stolen from a military base and loss of hope for the poor. We won’t let will deal with them.” Paul Pederson contributed to this article. in Carabobo, said Freites and others. Miguel Salazar, a journalist in Valencia, has recently publicized claims by some unnamed admirals and other high military offi cers in that state who say they would IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP stage a coup if the opposition is declared Where to find distrib u tors of the E-mail: [email protected] 9698. E-mail: [email protected] the loser on August 15. A large arms cache Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and MINNESOTA: St. Paul: 113 Bernard St., CANADA recently seized by the police in Brazil was New International, and a full display of West St. Paul. Zip: 55118. Tel: (651) 644- likely destined for counter-revolutionary Pathfi nder books. 6325. E-mail: [email protected] QUEBEC: Montreal: 6955 boul St- Michel, Suite 202. Postal code: H2A groups in Venezuela, said an August 7 UNITED STATES NEBRASKA: Omaha: P.O. Box 7005. Zip: 2Z3. Tel: (514) 284-7369. E-mail: lc_ article by the pro-government news web 68107. E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] site Venezuelanalysis.com. ALABAMA: Birmingham: 3029A NEW JERSEY: Newark: 168 Bloomfi eld Carlos Andrés Pérez, a wealthy busi- Bessemer Road. Zip: 35208. Tel: (205) 780- ONTARIO: Toronto: 2238 Dundas St. Avenue, 2nd Floor. Zip: 07104. Tel: (973) West, Suite 201, M6r 3A9 Tel: (416) 535- nessman who was previously the presi- 0021. E-mail: [email protected] 481-0077. E-mail: [email protected] dent of Venezuela and leader of Acción 9140. E-mail: [email protected] CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles: 4229 NEW YORK: Manhattan: 306 W. 37th Democrática—now one of the two main S. Central Ave. Zip: 90011. Tel: (323) FRANCE opposition parties—recently stated from Street, 10th floor. Zip: 10018. Tel: (212) 233-9372. E-mail: [email protected] 629-6649. E-mail: [email protected] Paris: P.O. 175, 23 rue Lecourbe. his luxurious quarters in south Florida, San Fran cisco: 3926 Mission St. Zip: Postal code: 75015. Tel: (01) 40-10-28-37. “Violence will allow us to remove him,” 94112. Tel: (415) 584-2135. E-mail:swpsf OHIO: Cleveland: 11018 Lorain Ave. E-mail: [email protected] referring to Chávez. “That’s the only way @sbcglobal.net Zip: 44111. Tel: (216) 688-1190. E-mail: [email protected] we have.” Pérez said Venezuela’s president COLORADO: Craig: 11 West Victory ICELAND “must die like a dog, because he deserves Way, Suite 205. Zip: 81625. Mailing address: PENNSYLVANIA: Hazleton: 69 North Reykjavík: Skolavordustig 6B. Mailing it.” P.O. Box 1539. Zip: 81626. Tel: (970) 824- Wyoming St. Zip: 18201. Tel: (570) 454- address: P. Box 0233, IS 121 Reykjavík. Tel: In response, the Venezuelan government 6380.E-mail: [email protected] 8320. Email: [email protected] 552 5502. E-mail: [email protected] has organized tighter security for polling Philadelphia: 5237 N. 5th St. Zip: 19120. stations, oil installations, and other pro- FLORIDA: Miami: 8365 NE 2nd Ave. Tel: (215) 324-7020. E-mail: Philadelphia NEW ZEALAND duction facilities around the referendum. #206 Zip: 33138. Tel: (305) 756-4436. E- [email protected] Pittsburgh: 5907 Penn mail: [email protected]; Tampa: 1441 Auckland: Suite 3, 7 Mason Ave., On August 1, a court ordered the arrest of Ave. Suite 225. Zip. 15206. Tel: (412) 365- Otahuhu. Postal address:P.O. Box 3025. Tel: E. Fletcher, Suite 421. Zip: 33612. Tel: (813) 1090. E-mail: [email protected] 59 former military offi cers on charges of 910-8507. E-mail: [email protected] (9) 276-8885.E-mail: milpath.auckland@ac conspiracy to overthrow the elected gov- TEXAS: Houston: 619 West 8th St. trix.gen.nz ernment and instigating insurrection. The GEORGIA: Atlanta: 2791 Lakewood Zip: 77007. Tel: (713) 869-6550. E-mail: Christchurch: Gloucester Arcade, offi cers had taken over a square in Caracas Ave. Zip: 30315. Mailing address: P.O. Box [email protected] in October 2002 as a platform for resis- 162515. Zip 30321. Tel: (404) 768-1709. 129 Gloucester St. Postal address: P.O. E-mail: [email protected] UTAH: Price: 11 W. Main St. Rm. 200. Box 13-969. Tel: (3) 365-6055. E-mail: tance to government authority, and some Zip: 84501. Mailing address: 1179 E. Main pathfi [email protected] had been involved in the failed military ILLINOIS: Chicago: 2901 W. 59th Street. St., PMB 316. Zip: 84501. Tel: (435) 613- coup six months earlier. Zip: 60629. Tel: (773) 737-1190. E-mail: 1091. [email protected] SWEDEN In mid-May, the government arrested ChicagoPathfi [email protected] WASHINGTON, D.C.: 3717 B Stockholm: Bocker, Bjulevagen 33, kv, S- more than 100 Colombian rightist troops, IOWA: Des Moines: 3720 6th Ave. 122 41 Enskede. Tel: (08) 31 69 33. E-mail: disguises as “paramilitaries,” and three Georgia Ave. NW, Ground floor. Zip: Zip: 50313. Tel: (515) 288-2970. E-mail: 20010. Tel: (202) 722-1315. E-mail: [email protected] Venezuelan military offi cers. They were all [email protected] accused of a plot to bring down the Chávez [email protected] UNITED KINGDOM MASSACHUSETTS: Boston: 12 WASHINGTON: Seattle: 5418 Rainier administration organized by sections of the Bennington St., 2nd Floor, East Boston. ENGLAND: London: 47 The Cut. Postal U.S.-backed opposition. Avenue South. Zip: 98118-2439. Tel: (206) code: SE1 8LF. Tel: 020-7928-7993. E-mail: Mailing address: P.O. Box 261. Zip: 323-1755. E-mail: [email protected] “There is no way the opposition could 02128. Tel: (617) 569-9169. E-mail: [email protected] win the vote in the countryside,” said Angel [email protected] AUSTRALIA Sarmiento, a peasant in San Carlos, Co- SCOTLAND: Edinburgh: First Floor, jedes state. He pointed to further advances MICHIGAN: Detroit: 4208 W. Vernor Sydney: 1st Flr, 3/281-287 Beamish St., 3 Grosvenor St., Haymarket. Postal Code: EH12 5ED. Tel: 0131-226-2756. E-mail: by peasants in their struggles for land. St. Mailing address: P.O. Box 44739. Campsie, NSW 2194. Mailing ad dress: P.O. Zip: 48244-0739. Tel: (313) 554-0504. Box 164, Campsie, NSW 2194. Tel: (02) 9718 [email protected] 8 The Militant August 31, 2004 Why capitalism creates a housing crisis BY MARTÍN KOPPEL is the sale of his labor power to the capitalist NEW YORK—Working people living in and the use which the capitalist makes of the Phipps Plaza West apartment complex this transaction,” Engels explains. Workers on Manhattan’s East Side are waging an produce far more value for the bosses than uphill battle to prevent huge rent hikes or they are paid in wages, which, on average, eviction. The landlord has pulled the 900- equal the cost of maintaining their ability unit building out of a government housing to work and reproduce themselves, that is, program and raised previously controlled of their labor power. rents to “market rate.” Rent for a studio, “It is this transaction between capitalist for example, has jumped from about $600 and worker which produces all the surplus to $1,700 a month. value, afterwards divided in the form of The owners have taken the building ground rent, commercial profi t, interest out of the Mitchell-Lama program, a state on capital, taxes, etc., among the diverse plan instituted in the 1950s that gave land- varieties of capitalists and their servitors,” lords tax breaks and low-interest loans in Engels says. exchange for constructing apartments that In that sense, the housing shortage is limited rent increases for at least 20 years. not the main question working people Having milked this state subsidy for 28 confront, but one of the “secondary evils years, the landlord decided to “opt out” which result from the present-day capitalist of the program in order to jack up rents, mode of production,” he notes. The root of drive out the largely working-class and the problem, which needs to be attacked, is retired residents, and renovate the housing “the exploitation of the worker as a worker into luxury high-rises for well-paid profes- by the capitalists.” Co-Op City, a cooperative housing complex in the Bronx, New York. Whether as tenants sionals. The whole neighborhood is being or homeowners, workers spend a substantial amount of their wages on housing, while transformed in a similar way. What is rent? conditions deteriorate. The housing squeeze is a permanent feature of capitalism. This process, commonly known as Land rent arises from the private owner- “gentrifi cation,” is one aspect of the sharp ship of the land. It contains an element of remodeled and replaced with luxury apart- Secondly, homeownership offers capi- housing crisis that working people face in monopoly price—many people want to live ments or commercial buildings. talists another way to exploit workers— cities across the country. This squeeze is in cities but the amount of available land In the 1960s and 1970s there was wide- through mortgage payments and property part of the mounting economic grind felt by is limited. On the island of Manhattan, for spread abandonment in the poorest New taxes that fall heaviest on working-class workers and farmers today, from declining example, the demand for a fi nite amount of York neighborhoods, including waves of ar- home owners. Instead of paying the land- real wages to price increases for fuel and land leads to very high rents. son in which landlords torched buildings to lord, workers pay the bank. other necessities. The urban ground rent adds to the house collect the insurance money. Rubble-strewn Thirdly, capitalists encourage homeown- Two articles in the Militant, last week and rent, which derives from the fact that an vacant lots dotted working-class areas like ership to convince workers who “own” their on page 2 of this issue, have described the apartment building or a house is a durable the South Bronx. The city government was homes that they are “property owners” shar- housing crisis in New York, which is similar commodity built on a piece of land whose forced to take over thousands of buildings ing common interests with the capitalists to what working people face throughout the use can be sold a little bit at a time. The and empty lots and to launch a substantial against other sections of the working class, United States. This problem is not a new costs of repairs and utilities are added to the housing program, resulting in the improve- especially those who are unemployed. one. Tenements, slums, overcrowding, rent rent. The landlord also demands additional ment of many city-owned buildings. Over Engels noted that housing cooperatives decontrol, and gentrifi cation are terms de- compensation for the fact that his capital time, the city has sold off many of these are simply a version of this trap for work- scribing aspects of the housing question is tied up in the building for an extended properties to private developers. ers. Proudhon promoted the utopian and that have marked the history of big cities period. Meanwhile, gentrifi cation has continued, reactionary view that such cooperatives like New York. The housing crisis is a per- “The expansion of the big modern cities from Manhattan’s Lower East Side to Wil- could serve as a refuge from the condi- manent feature of capitalism, both in the gives the land in certain sections of them, liamsburg in Brooklyn. Working people tions of exploitation and uncertainty under United States and worldwide. particularly in those which are centrally who can move are pushed to the northern capitalism. More than a century ago, Frederick En- situated, an artifi cial and often enormously part of Manhattan and to other boroughs in There is no solution to the housing cri- gels, who along with Karl Marx was one increasing value,” Engels explains. As the search of more affordable rents. sis under capitalism, Engels explained. As of the founders of the modern communist buildings deteriorate over time, they lower The vermin-infested housing and run- along as it exists, it will keep reproducing movement, addressed this question. He the value of the land, so “they are pulled down neighborhoods simply reappear the social relations of class exploitation wrote a series of articles that appeared in down and replaced by others. This takes somewhere else. As Engels explained, “The and all its related evils, from unemploy- the German socialist newspaper Volksstaat place above all with centrally located breeding places of disease, the infamous ment to economic depression, war, racist in 1872. They were reprinted in 1887 as a workers’ houses, whose rents, even with holes and cellars in which the capitalist discrimination, and housing shortages. booklet titled The Housing Question. The the greatest overcrowding, can never, or mode of production confi nes our workers And the capitalist government, through its pamphlet, which also appears in the second only very slowly, increase above a certain night after night, are not abolished; they parties, will always defend the interests of volume of the Selected Works of Marx and maximum. They are pulled down and in are merely shifted elsewhere! The same the class of billionaire families who rule Engels (both by Progress Publishers), can their stead shops, warehouses and public economic necessity which produced them this country. be ordered from Pathfi nder. buildings are erected.” in the fi rst place produces them in the next The only way to end these conditions The basic explanation Engels gives about The result, he writes, “is that the workers place also.” is for workers, allied with small farm- housing in capitalist society reads as if he are forced out of the center of the towns to- Instead of building decent housing for ers—who are exploited by the capitalist had written it today. wards the outskirts; that workers’ dwellings, working people in the urban centers, the system of rents and mortgages—to overturn Engels wrote his fi rst articles in response and small dwellings in general, become rare construction industry builds high-priced the rule of the factory owners, bankers, and to several pieces by Arthur Mülberger, a and expensive and often altogether unob- real estate. landlords, and to take political power into German follower of Pierre Joseph Proud- tainable, for under these circumstances their own hands. hon, a French middle-class socialist re- the building industry, which is offered a Is worker ‘ownership’ the solution? Engels suggested that as an immediate former. He also polemicized against Emil much better fi eld for speculation by more Engels argued against the “solutions” to step, a government of working people Sax, a liberal bourgeois economist. expensive dwelling houses, builds workers’ the housing crisis offered by Mülberger and could expropriate the surplus houses of the Engels explains that the housing short- dwellings only by way of exception.” Sax. The two middle-class social reformers capitalists and make them available to the age is rooted in the capitalist system, in the This explanation by Engels gives a pretty echoed the views of Proudhon, who advo- worst-off sections of the population. confl ict between labor and capital. accurate description of the long cycle in cated that workers be the owners of their A workers and farmers government urban real estate values in New York and own homes and set up co-operatives as a would nationalize the land so that it is no Root of the problem: capitalism other big cities over decades. way to a secure future. Is that the answer? longer a commodity, and instead its use “Whence the housing shortage then?” Engels said no. First of all, under capi- could be guaranteed to working people he asks. As a “necessary product of the Cycle of urban real estate values talism workers need maximum mobility to without fear of eviction. This would be bourgeois social order; that it cannot fail The most exploited layers of the working put themselves in the strongest position in part of the solution that Engels explained to be present in a society in which the great class, who are the worst-paid and suffer the relationship to the capitalists in the unend- was necessary: “The abolition of the laboring masses are exclusively dependent highest levels of unemployment, are forced ing struggle for livable wages and job and capitalist mode of production and the ap- upon wages, that is to say, upon the quan- to live in the most dilapidated neighbor- living conditions. “It is precisely modern propriation of all the means of subsistence tity of means of subsistence necessary for hoods. The ground rents and land values large-scale industry which has turned the and instruments of labor by the working their existence and for the propagation of there are at their lowest. Eventually the worker, formerly chained to the land, into class itself.” their kind; in which improvements of the capitalists tear down these buildings and a completely propertyless proletarian, machinery, etc., continually throw masses often replace them with luxury apartments liberated from all traditional fetters, a free of workers out of employment; in which or commercial buildings. The land values outlaw,” Engels said. violent and regularly recurring industrial soar and so do their profi ts. In fact, capitalist factory owners prefer The Housing Question fl uctuations determine on the one hand the Over time, the housing deteriorates and that workers “own” their homes and small by Frederick Engels existence of a large reserve army of unem- the land values drop. Lower-paid workers plots of land. They want working people ployed workers, and on the other hand drive move in as better-off residents fl ee to other tied down in a certain locality, forced to ac- “As long as the capitalist mode of the mass of the workers from time to time neighborhoods. cept whatever conditions the bosses impose production continues to exist it is on to the streets unemployed; in which the The capitalists often unload urban real and unable to pick up and move elsewhere folly to hope for an isolated settle- workers are crowded together in masses in estate when its value is at its peak, for exam- to fi nd a better job. ment of the housing the big towns, at a quicker rate than dwell- ple, in a neighborhood with well-built but “For our workers in the big cities,” Engels question or any ings come into existence for them under the somewhat aging apartment buildings. The wrote, “freedom of movement is the prime other social ques- prevailing conditions.” real estate sharks then use their positions in condition of existence, and land ownership tion affecting the Given the overcrowding in the cities, the banking system to help drive land values can only be a fetter to them. Give them their lot of the workers. Engels says, “there must always be tenants sharply lower.In the 1970s numerous cases own homes, chain them once again to the The solution lies in even for the most infamous pigsties.” of redlining—where banks would not grant soil and you break their power of resistance the abolition of the The landlord, faced with competition, is mortgages to renovate or build new apart- to the wage cutting of the factory owners. capitalist mode driven to “ruthlessly making as much out ments, especially in Black or Puerto Rican The individual worker might be able to sell of production and of his property in house rent as he possibly neighborhoods—were challenged and some his house on occasion, but during a big the appropriation can. In such a society the housing shortage lending terms were improved. While many strike or a general industrial crisis all the of all the means is no accident; it is a necessary institution of the most blatant practices were ended, houses belonging to the workers affected of subsistence and can be abolished…only if the whole banks and insurance companies continue would have to be put up for sale and would and instruments social order from which it springs is fun- to use discriminatory methods. therefore fi nd no purchasers or be sold off of labor by the working class damentally refashioned.” When the urban ground rents and land far below their cost price.” That is why, En- itself.” Rent is only part of the profi ts that capi- values reach their lowest point, the real gels pointed, out, some capitalists set up $5.00 talists extract from workers. “The pivot on estate interests can buy the land back at a company town and provide housing for which the exploitation of the worker turns bargain rates. The housing is torn down or workers—to make them more dependent. WWW.PATHFINDERPRESS.COM The Militant August 31, 2004 9 EDITORIAL ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’: a Vote Socialist Workers 2004 pro-imperialist screed Continued from front page resident, was born in Nicaragua; Arrin Hawkins is murderous policies of Tel Aviv against the Pales- 29 years old. aimed at electing Kerry tinian people? Why vote for Kerry, who supports But Calero and Hawkins are far more representa- Washington’s economic war on Cuba and calls for tive of the majority of the U.S. population today than BY MARTÍN KOPPEL even more aggressive measures than the sitting a couple of older millionaire hucksters. And with Liberals and radicals have touted Fahrenheit 9/11, the latest fi lm by president against Venezuela? the rapidly growing numbers of residents who are Michael Moore, as an effective exposé of the “truth” about the Bush Why vote for Kerry, who is following the foot- foreign-born, there are more voices today calling administration, from the outcome of the 2000 elections to its role in the steps of his predecessor William “end welfare as we for expanding the right to vote and hold offi ce. This U.S.-led war against Iraq. On his web site, michaelmoore.com, the fi lm- know it” Clinton and says abortion should be legal changing reality of U.S. politics is highlighted by maker makes the modest claim that it is “perhaps the most thoroughly but rare? Abortion is a woman’s right to choose! the prominence of numerous foreign-born political researched and vetted documentary of our time.” With either the Republicans or the Democrats fi gures today, such as the governor of California, Telling the truth, however, is not what guided Moore. The so-called working people go to the wall. Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger, or former documentary is simply a propaganda piece aimed at getting out the vote Instead, campaign for the socialist candidates. secretary of state Madeleine Albright. Just as the to “dump Bush” and to push the Democrats into the White House. It is Something you can be for. That is what counts—not Constitution was amended under the Nixon admin- not “antiwar” but a chauvinist, pro-American imperialist screed. who you’re against, but what you’re for! istration to lower the voting age to 18, sooner or later Moore has been fervently hustling votes for the Democrats in the 2004 At the heart of the Socialist Workers campaign some offi ces will be opened to those born abroad race, and his fi lm is part of that campaign. Asked by USA Today whether is support for workers’ right to organize unions and and the age limit for holding offi ce will be lowered. his anti-Bush movie is aimed at galvanizing the “choir” of faithful Demo- to defend ourselves against the bosses’ assaults on The socialists support such changes because they crats, Moore replied, “The choir needs a wake-up call. A large part of the our jobs, wages, benefi ts, working conditions, and serve the interests of the working class. choir isn’t energized by John Kerry and is not voting.” dignity. Another common question is: Well, I agree Kerry On the opening night of the Democratic Party national convention, Working people not only need to defend our- is a dismal option. But since only Democrats or Moore spoke at a Boston forum with ex-presidential contender Howard selves on the economic level—we need to organize Republicans will win the elections anyway, won’t independently of the employers in the political arena voting for the socialists be a lost vote? as well (see “What the SWP Stands and Fights For” No, voting for a candidate you’re actually on page 5). Socialists call for the launching of a against—that’s truly a lost vote. Instead, vote for FILM REVIEW labor party, based on the unions, to fi ght in the what you support: vote socialist! interests of workers and farmers. We invite you to join with other socialist cam- Unable to inspire enthusiasm for their candidate, paigners in distributing the campaign newspapers Dean. Proclaiming himself a “patriot” and the Republicans as “hatriots,” supporters of the Democrats sometimes argue we of Calero and Hawkins—the Militant and the Span- he promised that “Kerry will not invade a country like George W. Bush should vote for Kerry as a “lesser evil” to Bush and ish-language socialist magazine Perspectiva Mun- did.” Why did the senator vote for the war on Iraq? “John Kerry did what the Republicans. But this argument is false. dial—as widely as possible, together with books 70-80 percent of our fellow Americans did. He believed” the White House’s The cause of the worsening economic and social that give working-class explanations to the main arguments for going to war, but “now” he knows they were lies, Moore crisis—from exploitation by the bosses to wars of problems facing humanity and point a way forward unabashedly asserted. Kerry just demolished this argument, saying he plunder abroad—is not an individual politician or to resolve them in the interests of working people.As would have voted for the invasion anyway. The fi lmmaker also denounced a particular party holding offi ce, but the capitalist thousands of protesters fi ll the streets during the Ralph Nader for running, saying that “the Republicans do love Ralph.” system and the tiny handful of billionaire families 12 days leading up to and during the Republican The main argument in Fahrenheit 9/11 is that the Bush White House that perpetuate their rule at the expense of the vast convention, Socialist Workers campaigners, from has been incompetent in using the FBI and other cop agencies to “fi ght majority. New York and around the country, will be joining terrorism,” failing to prevent the attacks on the World Trade Center and This capitalist class has two parties, the Demo- the daily debates and discussions. Pentagon. It claims the administration diverted attention to a war against crats and the Republicans. Their two-party system As part of this street campaigning, we are kicking Iraq instead of going after the real danger to “America”: Osama bin Laden is a trap designed to hoodwink working people into off a 10-week drive—from August 28 through the and al-Qaeda. This is also the main theme of the Kerry campaign. thinking that we have a choice—alternating between weekend after the November 2 elections—to win The movie’s “documentation” relies heavily on statements made by one gang of predators and another—and to keep us 2,500 new subscribers to the Militant and 550 to former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, the architect of the Clinton from attacking the real problem, capitalism. Perspectiva Mundial. This is also a perfect time for administration’s 1998 bombing attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan. Nor are the “independent” campaigns of Ralph those who have already subscribed to renew. In the fi lm, narrator Moore complains that prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, Nader or the Green Party an alternative for working Socialists are also campaigning with a well- attacks, “Bush cut antiterrorist funding for the FBI.” He interviews a state people. These are pro-capitalist third parties that are selected array of books and pamphlets that are trooper in Oregon who says that, because of federal budget cuts, he is the not independent from the ruling class. They serve featured in a four-page centerspread in this issue. only one protecting the coast of that state against any terrorist threat. as pressure groups on the Democrats, reinforcing The questions posed in this year’s elections—“Is Moore reaches rock bottom in scenes on ‘Coalition of the Willing’ the two-party con game. Kerry a ‘lesser evil’?” or “What’s the cause of the The fi lm reaches rock bottom with its mocking portrayal of several The Socialist Workers Party is fi ling for ballot sta- imperialist assault on Iraq?” among others—and nations whose governments were part of the “Coalition of the Willing” tus in 14 states and the District of Columbia—from the answers that communists and other currents in in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Apart from falsifying by omission—it New York to Washington State and Florida. It is the workers movement give to them are not new. leaves out three imperialist powers in the coalition: the British, Italian, the only socialist campaign with ballot status on a They have been tested in the class struggle over and Australian governments—the fi lm makes fun of Costa Rica and Palau national scale. many decades. The socialist campaigners will be (people in “quaint” costumes), Rumania (portrayed as Dracula), Iceland Some say the socialist campaign offers a per- getting these books, pamphlets, and newspaper into (depicted as Vikings) and the Netherlands (smokers in a hashish den). As spective in the interests of working people—but it’s the hands of as many people as possible to provide Morocco is mentioned, the fi lm fl ashes a shot of running monkeys, as the not realistic today. One frequent question is: Why working-class answers to these questions. narrator says that the Moroccan government offered 2,000 monkeys for campaign for candidates who cannot legally take Regardless of whether you vote in November, detonating land mines. The viewers are supposed to howl with laughter offi ce? To be president and vice president, the U.S. we urge you to join in campaigning for the work- at this pro-American chauvinist “humor.” While some do, I noticed that Constitution requires that you be U.S.-born and at ing-class alternative—through November 2 and not everyone in the theater I was in found it funny. least 35 years old. Róger Calero, a permanent U.S. beyond. Equally grotesque is Moore’s anti-Saudi chauvinism. In arguing that Bush decided to invade Iraq to defl ect attention from a “Saudi connection” in 9/11, he quotes “experts” alleging that wealthy Saudi businessmen “own As we go to press... Bankruptcy judge 7 percent of America.” The fi lm indignantly “reveals” that U.S. offi cials throws out UMWA contracts at Horizon mines supposedly allowed 142 Saudi citizens to leave the United States after Sept. 11, 2001, while airports were shut down, and quotes a retired FBI agent BY BRIAN TAYLOR tractive to prospective buyers. insisting that the political police should have thoroughly interrogated Saudi PITTSBURGH—Federal bankruptcy judge “They go and hide under the shield of America’s immigrants. According to Moore, all members of the Bin Laden family William Howard ruled August 9 that mine bosses bankruptcy laws and screw the workers,” said Phil should have been regarded as “terrorist suspects.” In fact, the fi lm has not at Horizon Natural Resources don’t have to honor Hepp, president of UMWA Local 9055 in Illinois. a word of criticism of the U.S. government’s post-9/11 dragnets against contracts between the United Mine Workers of “Are we angry about that? Damn right we are. Most immigrants from the Middle East, South Asia, and elsewhere—only of America and the company at six union mines in of us are in our late ’50s. Where are we going to the FBI spying on a middle-class pacifi st group in California. Illinois, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The union- turn for health care?” Fahrenheit 9/11 is a pro-war fi lm. It approves of the U.S. invasion of busting decision eliminates medical coverage for “Workers at the Starfi re mine,” Darrell Keyes, Afghanistan, and boosts the arguments of those calling for aggressive 1,000 working miners and 2,300 retirees. Howard UMWA Local 5890 president in Kentucky, told the U.S. measures against Saudi Arabia. The last section focuses on the plight sided with the bosses, agreeing with their claim Militant, “can’t understand how one person can make a of U.S. soldiers sent to Iraq—but not to oppose sending U.S. troops into that contract obligations made their property unat- decision like this affecting so many peoples’ lives.” imperialist wars: just this one. Moore says, “Don’t send them into harm’s way unless it’s absolutely necessary”—the position of all Democratic and Republican politicians, whose disagreements are simply tactical ones about which wars are necessary and how they should be conducted to protect Socialists campaign in Wisconsin and advance the interests of U.S. imperialism. Continued from front page Others who were approached said, “This is not To bolster the case for replacing Bush with a Democrat, Moore re- line. “Unions are really important right now,” he the time—this year the election is too important,” sorts to various conspiracy theories, that is, to the view that certain major said. and declined to sign, Mailhot said. Some referred events in U.S. politics were determined not by the normal functioning At the Third Ward Jazz Festival, a University of negatively to Ralph Nader supporters petitioning at of bourgeois politics but by secret plots by a few individuals or groups. Wisconsin-Milwaukee student working at a food the Summerfest and State Fairgrounds because they One is the fraudulent argument that Bush “stole” the elections. The fi lm booth timed her lunch with the team’s break in order said Nader’s “independent” campaign might split makes the absurd claim that decisive factors in the outcome were that 1) to discuss with them what it will take to unify work- the vote of those who would vote for Democratic on election night, Bush’s cousin John Ellis was in charge of the decision ing people in the fi ght against the employer class candidate John Kerry to defeat George Bush. desk at Fox News, the fi rst network that called Florida for Bush, and 2) and its two parties. “I need to hear this,” she said. To this, Hawkins explained at the rally, “Many his brother Jeb Bush was the governor of Florida. “My boss keeps trying to wear me down. I thought say they respect what we say but that in November Fahrenheit 9/11 also peddles the crank view that U.S. imperialism’s I was the only one who had these ideas.” they don’t want to ‘waste’ their vote. We say: ‘Come foreign policy in the Middle East has been determined by a special busi- A young man of Vietnamese background trans- November, don’t waste your vote on Kerry. Vote ness relationship between the Bush family and a “foreign power,” in this lated socialist campaigner Bill Schmitt’s words into for what you want, what you need—vote Socialist case the Saudi royal family. The fi lm draws heavily on a book by Craig Vietnamese for his fi ve friends. “You say your party Workers.’” Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between is for the workers?” one of them asked, skeptical A woman at the rally who had just met the social- the World’s Two Most Powerful Dynasties. The title of that book, like the at fi rst. When Schmitt said yes, they responded ists said she liked the clarity of the slogan of the movie, conveniently elevates the role of the wealthy Bush family above the favorably to the Socialist Workers internationalist Socialist Workers campaign: “It’s not who you’re other dynasties that make up the U.S. ruling class, such as the Rockefeller, perspective to unite working people worldwide against, but what you’re for.” Dupont, Forbes, and Heinz families. around our common interests. “That really caught my eye from the fi rst minute I Moore’s movie also relies on low-level personalized attacks on Bush, Campaigning at a busy street corner in Milwau- saw it,” she said, adding that she intends to use that including the false assertion that Bush is “stupid.” His crude tone is of a kee’s Black community, many signed the socialist argument in the political discussions she has with piece with the coarsening discourse of bourgeois politics, which was seen ballot petition right away, reported Ernie Mailhot. friends and family. most recently around the edges of the Democratic convention. 10 The Militant August 31, 2004 Event celebrates life of Almeda Kirsch Socialist Workers Party cadre for 58 years BY ILONA GERSH tion, and the early stage of the Vietnam CLEVELAND—A meeting was held war. An art student at Oberlin College, he here August 8 to celebrate the life of traveled to Cleveland frequently to attend Almeda Kirsch and her contributions to political meetings and other events. building a proletarian party for nearly six “This was important to my recruitment,” decades. Kirsch, who died July 19 at the said Prince. “I saw a well maintained hall, age of 83, was a member of the Cleveland with books and the Militant newspaper, branch of the Socialist Workers Party since as part of a national organization. These she joined the SWP in 1946. The 50 par- things are only possible with disciplined ticipants came from Pittsburgh, Detroit, activity and attention to organization and Chicago, the Twin Cities, New York, and Militant/Osborne Hart fi nances. Almeda helped set the tone that From left, Romina Green, Dave Prince, Ryan Scott, Helen Meyers, and Norton Sandler elsewhere. Twenty messages were received was necessary. When she took an assign- at August 8 meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, to celebrate the life of Almeda Kirsch. from individuals who had worked with ment, you could count on it being carried Kirsch over the years. out to the end and on time.” Norton Sandler spoke on behalf of the James Harris, now a garment worker in experience in building the party convinced party’s National Committee and chaired Debs Hall raid Atlanta who was the SWP presidential can- her that the party was right,” Sandler noted. the event. Kirsch, he explained, was born Prince told the story of how a November didate in 1996 and 2000, described what “She knew in her bones that this was the in the farming area of Ruggles Township 1965 benefi t for the Militant attended by drew him to the party and Young Socialist correct course, and never looked back. It’s in Central Ohio. She attended Ohio State more than 75 people at Debs Hall, the SWP Alliane (YSA) in 1968. “I was a student at easy to underestimate a person like Alm- University in Columbus for more than center, was raided by the liquor police and Cleveland State University and president of eda because she didn’t speak often. But four years, studying music. Kirsch was a the Cleveland cops. “The hall that night the Black Student Union there,” Harris said. she would speak up when something didn’t violinist and pianist. Herman Kirsch, also was packed with Black community activ- “I became interested in the fi ght against the seem right or needed clarifi cation.” a music student at Ohio State, introduced ists, workers, and youth who had worked war in Vietnam and was attracted to the Defense of abortion clinics, avid reader her to socialist ideas. Herman had joined together,” he said. “Participants had been Cuban Revolution. This brought me around the SWP in 1939. The two were married in involved in a range of activities in de- the SWP and YSA. There were many other Sandler described how Kirsch, already 1943. After living briefl y in New York City, fense of Black rights, including the just groups at the time, all contesting for youth well into her 70s, was part of the daily the couple returned to Ohio. completed campaign by Carl Stokes, who of our generation. I was attracted by the mobilizations that chased the right-wing Almeda joined the SWP in the midst ran as an independent Black candidate for seriousness of the party Almeda committed anti-abortion group Operation Rescue out of the post-World War II strike wave that Mayor. The attendance that night refl ected her life to building.” of Cleveland after their failed campaign in spread quickly across the country. She how the party was right in the middle of Harris described how the 1965 cam- July 1993 to shut down abortion clinics in worked offi ce jobs for the rest of her life. things.” paign of Carl Stokes as an independent the Cleveland area. Herman was a member of the United Auto Plainclothes cops burst into the hall and candidate for mayor of Cleveland grew “From 1993 until she moved to Judson Workers at the Pesco division of Borg-War- pushed their way into the event. A cop fi red out of the struggles of the Black com- Manor Home she came to most of our ner company for 30 years. The couple had shots into the ceiling and some participants munity. When Stokes ran for reelection in monthly counter-protest gatherings on three children. were beaten. Thirty were thrown in jail 1969 as a Democratic Party candidate, the Shaker Boulevard,” wrote Marilyn and Sandler noted that Almeda Kirsch lived and charged with “disorderly assembly,” SWP ran Syd Stapleton for mayor. Harris Mike LaQuatra of the Cleveland Pro- through the anticommunist witch-hunt in including Almeda. A broad defense cam- ran for East Cleveland Board of Educa- Choice Action League (CPAL), in another the 1950s. The Cleveland branch of the paign was waged and seven months later, tion. “Syd was 24 years old. I had been message. “We all knew she had attended SWP at the time threw itself into activity in July 1966, the charges were dropped. a YSA member for six months,” Harris more protests than any of us would ever in defense of Black rights. In late 1955, Almeda and Herman were convicted of said. “The Communist Party criticized us achieve so we listened to her opinions and the Black community in Montgomery, Ala- violating the state liquor laws, however, for opposing Stokes. But we put forward experiences.” bama, organized a boycott of city buses and had to pay a fi ne. a revolutionary perspective against that of Helen Meyers, chairperson of the Cleve- after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat The next month, National Guard troops the Democratic and Republican parties. We land SWP, spoke about the last two years of on the segregated Jim Crow bus system. and cops went into the Black community ran a bold campaign. Only the intertwining Almeda’s life. “She always took her mem- Kirsch was assigned by the SWP to help of Cleveland to attack large-scale protests of generations made this possible.” bership in the SWP very seriously,” said raise funds to buy station wagons to be used against a racist killing. Warrants were In a message to the celebration Syd Meyers. “After she had a stroke in 2003 during the Montgomery bus boycott. issued to re-arrest 29 of the defendants Stapleton wrote, “Almeda was always in that left her blind in one eye and caused The party campaigned in defense of in the Debs Hall case, many of whom the center of these events. She had a lot of other health problems, she decided to retire the Cuban Revolution, which triumphed were activists in the Black community. A responsibilities, between work and main- from weekly activity in the party. This was in 1959. Party branches were involved in three-year fi ght led by the Committee to taining a household, and being a mother a diffi cult decision for Almeda because she the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which Aid the Debs Hall Defendants, Congress and an active member of the branch. But took her vote in weekly branch meetings spread the facts about the revolution and of Racial Equality (CORE), the NAACP, she was always ready to take an assign- seriously. She didn’t want to raise her hand opposed Washington’s military moves and the ACLU led to a court ruling which ment, and never lost her cool. Almeda in favor of a decision that she was not in a against the revolutionary government in declared the disorderly assembly ordinance opened her home at the drop of a hat, never position to carry out. But she never changed Havana. unconstitutional and reversed the convic- missed a branch meeting or executive com- her political conviction of the need for so- “The party was deeply involved in the tions. mittee meeting, and was always ready for cialism and for a revolutionary party.” Black struggle of the 1960s,” said Sandler. “One of my favorite haunts, as was the a Militant sale or petition drive.” “Almeda loved to read,” Meyers contin- In Cleveland one of the main fi ghts for case for most of the Cleveland branch, was ued. “While in college she got tuberculosis Movement against U.S. war on Vietnam Black rights centered on community con- Almeda and Herman’s home in Shaker and spent 9 months in a sanitarium. She trol of the schools. Malcolm X spoke on a Heights,” Prince told the crowd. “Whether In the late 1960s and early ’70s, Cleve- read the whole time there. Rules forbid symposium at the Cory Methodist Church we showed up on short notice, or no notice, land was a center of the movement against patients from reading after dark, but Alm- in Cleveland in April of 1964 on “The we were always welcome. I was an aspir- the war in Vietnam. Several conferences eda used her heat lamp under the blanket Negro Revolt—What Comes Next?” The ing artist. I hoped to use art to change the that drew thousands of youth and other to read the Militant. She followed the trial speech is widely known as “The Ballot or world. I met several cultured workers and activists were held here, where strategy of 18 SWP leaders and trade unionists in the Bullet.” accomplished artists in the SWP.” Prince and tactics for opposing the war were de- Minneapolis who were convicted for con- Dave Prince, now living in New York, referred to both Herman and Almeda, and bated and an action course to oppose the spiracy against the government for oppos- explained how he was recruited to the YSA also to Duncan Ferguson, a nationally imperialist war was charted. ing World War II.” She read until the end of under the impact of the tumultuous events known sculptor who was also a member Almeda’s son, Fred Kirsch, who attended her life, including Pathfi nder’s recent book of the Black struggle, the Cuban Revolu- of the branch at the time. the meeting with his wife Sylvia and their Aldabonazo, Inside the Cuban Revolution- two daughters, was among those shot at ary Underground, 1952–58, which she by Ohio National Guard troops when they took time to discuss with Meyers. opened fi re on a student demonstration Schooled in classical music, “Almeda at Kent State and killed four students on also loved reggae and jazz,” wrote Omari MILITANT LABOR FORUMS May 4, 1970. The Militant ran a front-page Musa, now in Miami, who worked with her article authored by Fred, who then went on in the early 1980s. “We saw Miles Davis, Pe- ALABAMA NEW YORK a speaking tour to explain the truth about ter Tosh, Yellow Man, Grover Washington, Birmingham Manhattan what became known as the “Kent State and several others at concerts.” 2 Billion People in the World Have No Venezuela: Majority Says ‘No’ to Pro- massacre.” “I didn’t know Almeda Kirsch,” said Electricity: The Stakes for Building imperialist Recall. Fri. Aug. 20. Dinner “In 1977–78 the party decided to orga- Ryan Scott of the Young Socialists, who a Fighting Alliance of Workers and at 7 p.m., program at 8 p.m. nize its members to work in basic industry was the fi nal speaker. “But from what I’ve Farmers Speaker: Clay Dennison, So- It’s Not Who You’re Against, It’s What and carry out political work in the trade heard about her today, she led the kind of cialist Workers candidate for Congress, You’re For. Meet the Socialist Candi- unions,” said Sandler. “We made this life I’d like to emulate.” 7th C.D. Fri., Aug. 27, 7:30 p.m. 3029A dates. Róger Calero for president, Arrin decision following the defeat of the U.S. Scott has been part of the national effort Bessemer Rd. Tel: (205) 780-0021. Hawkins for vice president. Friday Aug. government in Vietnam, and the 1974–75 to win ballot status for the SWP candidates 27. Dinner at 7 p.m., program at 8 p.m. worldwide recession that intensifi ed inter- in recent weeks (see front-page coverage). Both events at 307 W. 36th St. 10th Floor. Tel: 212-629-6649. national capitalist competition and drove The meeting was the grand fi nale for eight CALIFORNIA the employers to make fresh assaults on other young socialists from around the Los Angeles the trade unions.” country who have been on the national Why Working People Should Oppose CANADA “Some members split from the SWP campaign team. Scott ended by inviting Intervention in Africa. What’s Behind Toronto over this perspective,” the SWP leader all young socialists and other campaign the Confl ict in Sudan? Speaker: Don Celebrate the Opening of the New Path- said. The course the party charted at this supporters to go to New York City to cam- Hammond, Socialist Workers Party. Fri., fi nder Books and Militant Labor Forum time is detailed in the book The Changing paign for socialism at the protests leading Aug. 20. Dinner at 6 p.m.; program at Hall Sat., Sept. 4 (time to be announced). Face of U.S. Politics, by SWP national sec- up to and during the Republican national 7 p.m. Program will be accompanied by a dinner to retary Jack Barnes (see centerspread ad). convention, beginning August 20. The Economic Grind: Housing, Health raise funds for the Can$1,800 campaign to Among those who left, Sandler said, were Participants contributed $1,000 to Care and Unemployment. Fri., Aug. 27. pay for the costs of the move. 2238 Dundas some party members of Almeda’s genera- an Almeda Kirsch Pathfinder fund an- Dinner at 6 p.m., program at 7 p.m. Both Street West, Suite 201 (fi ve minutes walk tion with whom she had collaborated for nounced at the meeting. Anyone wishing events at 4229 S Central Ave. Tel: (323) south of Dundas West subway station). Sug- 233-9372. gested donation: $10. (416) 535-9140. decades. to contribute to this effort can send a check “Her grounding in revolutionary theory, to Pathfi nder at 306 W. 37th St., 10th Floor, internalized for decades, and her practical New York, NY 10018. The Militant August 31, 2004 11 Over 460 die in Paraguay store fire Workers outraged at owners who ordered doors locked to ‘prevent theft’ BY MILLIE SÁNCHEZ According to the Bloomberg News At about 11:00 a.m. on August 1, a fi re service, Manuel Sarquis, director of the broke out in a branch of the Ycuá Bolaños government’s national emergency commit- supermarket chain located in Trinidad, a tee in Asunción, said August 3 that a gas suburb of Asunción, Paraguay’s capital. leak in the food court is the most probable The death toll from the blaze that engulfed cause of the fi re. the three-story shopping center had risen Most editorials in Paraguay’s press de- to 464 as of August 3, with another 409 scribe this as an “accident” and “the worst people still hospitalized with serious inju- disaster in the country’s history.” But all ries. Many succumbed after inhaling carbon the evidence so far points to criminal neg- monoxide. ligence, deliberate actions, and contempt for When the initial explosion that sparked working people whom the owners saw as the inferno took place, it is estimated that potential robbers at a time of danger—not 1,000 people were inside the supermarket. human beings whose lives needed to be The store is owned by Juan Pío Paiva. saved—as many survivors pointed to in their His son, Víctor Daniel Paiva, and Humberto stories. All this to safeguard the profi ts of the Fernando Casaccia, are co-owners. bosses, which seems to be the reason for the Ismael Sánchez, a security guard at the extent of the catastrophe. store, said that as soon as the owners got The shopping center was frequented not wind that something had gone awry they only by residents of Trinidad but thousands ordered the cashiers to stay put and the se- of working people and others in a number curity guards to lock all doors and shut down of the neighborhoods of Asunción and its other possible exits to prevent theft. suburbs. As a result, hundreds of families Such testimony, and the public anger in many areas of the capital are now mourn- it unleashed among working people, led Reuters ing more than one relative who died in the government prosecutors to file charges Smoke rises from Ycuá Bolaños supermarket on outskirts of Paraguay’s capital, Asun- blaze. I watched testimony on TV by one of involuntary manslaughter against Pío ción, where 464 people died August 1 as owner locked doors after fi re broke out. worker, for example, who lost three sons Paiva and fi ve others, including some se- and a nephew in the disaster. curity guards. Paraguay’s TV Channel 13 for his groceries, said he saw smoke coming highly fl ammable, causing the fi re to spread Wave of public fury reported that a judge has ordered the stor- out of the ceiling in the northern and south- rapidly. As this issue goes to press, authori- The catastrophe unleashed a wave of eowner imprisoned while the investigation ern sections of the store. He said he ran to ties have not provided an offi cial explanation public fury, which is what forced the au- is taking place. the door and confronted security guards who of the cause of the disaster. thorities to take action. Prosecutors are Angry survivors have already described were preventing people from exiting. The fi rst reports in the media had fl oated now reportedly demanding 25-year-prison to government prosecutors what transpired The bosses had given such strict orders the unsubstantiated story that a car bomb sentences if the owners are found guilty, as a result of the criminal action by the boss- to the guards to keep the doors locked that caused the explosion. The apparent intent along with freezing all their assets, and es. Julio Daniel Silvolierro, for example, is when Juan Carlos Valiente, a volunteer fi re- was to minimize the culpability of the su- have also fi led charges against some of the a packer at the supermarket who said he fi ghter who was among the fi rst to arrive on permarket owners for the catastrophe. Soon security guards. happened to be next to cash register no. 5 the scene, tried to break down one of the afterwards, however, technicians looking The bosses, of course, are denying any when he heard an explosion coming from entrances, a security guard attacked him to for evidence on the scene dismissed this responsibility. Javier González, attorney the store’s food court. Immediately, custom- the point of fi ring his pistol twice into the “theory.” Investigators said that a spark for Ycuá Bolaños president Juan Pío Paiva, ers started running toward the doors, he said, air as a warning, the Paraguayan daily ABC coming into contact with highly fl ammable said the owner “wasn’t present when the only to fi nd they were trapped inside because Color reported. material inside the store caused the explo- fi re started and at no time ordered the doors the exits had been shut. The same newspaper reported that the sion that started the blaze. Inquiries continue locked,” according to Bloomberg News. Néstor González, who was in line to pay material below the roof of the store was to this day. The owners are also trying to shift blame for orders to guards to lock the exits onto the store’s manager, Víctor Ruíz, who perished Australia printers strike, resist permanent-seasonal tier in the blaze. Volunteer rescue workers who rushed to BY ALASDAIR MACDONALD employees have been rehired several times A$4,000 payment (A$1 = US$0.71). The the scene told the press that a great number SYDNEY, Australia—About 110 and have more than 10 years in the plant. unionists said they rejected this proposal of the victims were found dead pressed workers have been on strike here against “We’re out here to protect what they have,” unanimously. “The company has been against the store’s exits, which reinforces the McPhersons Printing since July 3 to de- Aubry said, referring to the gains in wages preparing this for two years,” Aubry said. explanation now accepted by most people fend their contract and fight company and conditions of the seasonal workers. He noted that the bosses had brought in a that the doors had been locked. Horrifi c attacks on their jobs and conditions. The “We’re all union members,” he added. team of lawyers hoping to use them to deal scenes were televised later, including ones company is attempting to win concessions Militant reporters were also told that blows to the union through the courts. showing entire families found holding loved from members of the printing division of the company had offered every worker So far, the company has not attempted ones in each other’s arms, but completely the Australian Manufacturing Workers who agreed to the new EBA a one-time to bring in scabs, workers said. incinerated. Union (AMWU) by pitting permanent Of the 464 dead, reportedly only 325 have workers against those who are seasonally been identifi ed. The other 139 deceased are employed. Seasonal workers make up half Swedish rulers try to paint as ‘terrorist’ impossible to recognize because of the ex- the workforce. tent of the burns and decomposition of the Pickets said they decided to strike when man released from Guantánamo prison bodies. A more lengthy process based on the company sought to scrap the Enterprise examination of DNA and dental records is Bargaining Agreement (EBA), or contract, BY BJÖRN TIRSÉN with any group related to the former Tal- now under way to determine the identities putting in jeopardy the gains the union had STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Mehdi-Mu- iban regime in Afghanistan or al-Qaeda. of these victims. won over the past 10 years. Since the walk- hammed Ghezali, 25, was released to his Ghezali also described some of the abuse Public hospitals, which often lack basic out began, the unionists have stopped all home country, Sweden, July 8 from the U.S. he suffered at the hands of his captors. This supplies, have been overwhelmed by the production, they said. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He included turning off the heat in his cell for disaster and have not been able to offer Workers at the picket line said that they had been one of the nearly 600 prisoners hours at a time, turning on loud music or adequate care to those in need. operate three giant printing presses and the Washington is holding there indefi nitely noise in his cell for long periods, and put- The Cuban government was among the binding equipment used to produce the tele- and without charges since its invasion and ting him in chains that cut into his wrists. first in the world to provide assistance. phone directories for half of Australia. occupation of Afghanistan. Ghezali had The big-business press in Sweden has Fifteen Cuban doctors arrived in Asunción The walkout began over company de- been imprisoned since January 2002. attempted to discredit Ghezali. An article August 5 to help treat the injured, and said mands to cut the pay of seasonal workers In an interview with the Swedish daily appeared July 17 in both major dailies they would stay in Paraguay as long as they by as much as 20 percent, terminate 30 out Dagens Nyheter, Ghezali described his here—Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dag- were needed. of the current 50 seasonal workers, and re- time in “Camp X-ray.” The interrogations bladet—titled “Gaps in Ghezali’s story,” “We have to act with caution to avoid duce the workforce all around by initiating began immediately after his arrival there, which tried to paint him as a “suspected problems in the future,” said Miguel Car- a plant-wide speed-up of production. Ghezali said. He was pressured to repeat terrorist.” rizosa, the president of Paraguay’s Congress, In an interview with Militant report- his life story over and over again. “There are question marks regarding referring to the slowness in the identifi cation ers, chief site union delegate Mark Aubry After six months of harassment—in- his possible connection to terrorism,” the process. Carrizosa made no mention of the said that the company moves represented cluding interrogations observed by a article said. “Starting with Ghezali’s own criminal acts by the owners of the shopping a “divide and conquer strategy.”He noted Swedish police offi cer who acted as part of account, you cannot tell what he was do- center that caused the disaster in the fi rst that most of the permanent workers are a Swedish government delegation—Ghe- ing in Afghanistan during this dramatic place, or the need for the government to Australian-born, while the majority of zali decided to remain silent, he said. The time. The incidents Ghezali describes act swiftly to ease the pain of hundreds of the seasonal workers are immigrants U.S. military police responded by refus- hint that he could have had connections people still searching for their loved ones from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian ing to turn over to him any letters from with al-Qaeda.” The article promoted the among the rubble, and to ensure the best countries. his family. idea that Washington had been justifi ed in possible care for the injured. The universal support for the walkout The Swedish government sent envoys to jailing him. The capitalist politicians of Paraguay and the composition of those walking the help the U.S. guards to force him to talk. The Guantánamo Group, an association always act with “caution” before taking picket lines, however, show the solidarity As a condition for his release, he said, he formed to win Ghezali’s release, is current- any measure that may even slightly benefi t between the permanent and seasonal work- had to sign a statement crafted by Swedish ly organizing his housing and his defense working people. This is another example ers who are taking action to overcome these and U.S. offi cials pledging that he would against possible victimization by Swedish that makes it clear that the ruling class acts divisions in struggle. Many of the seasonal neither threaten Washington nor associate authorities. only to defend its property interests.

12 The Militant August 31, 2004