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Vote Socialist Workers in 2004! 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.
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