FEBRUARY 9, 1979 50 CENTS VOLUME 43/NUMBER 5

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE

Khomeini's return: revolution enters new stage

TEHRAN, Jan. 27-0ne million march to protest massacre and demand right of Khomeini to return.

By Cindy Jaquith to form barricades that could protect TEHRAN, Jan. 29-Determined to the hundreds fleeing from the bullets block the arrival of the exiled Ayatol­ that filled the air. lah Ruhollah Khomeini and the revolu­ No one knows how many hundreds tionary explosion his arrival could are dead. The hospitals are filled to bring, Prime Minister Shahpur Bakh­ overflowing. tiar has launched a bloody crackdown To get out the truth about the Iranian against the movement here. The renewed repression began the revolution and counter the lies of the big· Yesterday the sickening crackle of night of January 25, after Khomeini business press, the 'Militant' is making an machine-gun fire echoed throughout announced he was flying to Tehran extraordinary effort. We have sent staff writer the next day. Iran Air employees had Cindy Jaquith to Iran, where she is reporting the city all afternoon, along with the firsthand on the freedom struggle of the declared they would end their strike for workers and peasants. one day to fly Khomeini here on a For a paper not supported by the capital­ special "revolution flight." The army ists, this is a budget-wrenching expense. On the scene then surrounded the airport with tanks Round-trip air fare to Tehran is $1,400. Other and closed it down. trip expenses have surpassed $1 ,500. Just to phone in one of the pages of eyewitness in Tehran Angry students demonstrated the coverage in this issue costs more than $100. next day at Tehran University. They We think It's worth it-and we think you'll were met with army machine guns agree. We urgently need your financial help. screams of the wounded, as the army Please send in a special contribution today. opened fire mercilessly on demonstra­ that killed more than 100. I want to contribute $ ______tors in Esfan Square near Tehran Uni­ Meanwhile, martial law authorities ------began a roundup of newspaper repor­ Name --~------versity. Address _____ City The government claims people had ters, professors, and other activists. State Zip ___ Seized at midnight, January 26, were attacked a cop station. This is untrue. Clip and mail to: Militant Business Office, 14 The assault by the army was unpro­ five officers of the Writers Syndicate. Charles Lane, New York, New York 10014. voked. [They were released January 30.] As the army opened fire, the drivers In the morning of January 27, 160 of ambulances and buses tried in vain Continued on page 5 An urgent fund appeal In Our Opinion VOLUME 43/NUMBER 5 FEB. 9, 1979 CLOSING NEWS DATE-JAN. 31

Sears 'class action' The charge of government "overregulation" Grant CP exemption! was heard again late last month. The FBI complains that it is being "op­ Patty Hearst Sears, Roebuck & Company, the nation's pressed" by the Communist Party. On January 29, President Carter commuted largest retailer, filed an unprecedented "class Has the CP-a central target of FBI crimes Patty Hearst's jail term, making her eligible action;, lawsuit against ten federal agencies. for more than fifty years-suddenly begun for immediate release from ·prison. She had Sears says it is sick of complying-or facing breaking into FBI offices? Tapping FBI been serving a seven-year term for bank the penalties for not complying-with antidis­ phones? Calling up landlords, employers, and robbery. crimination laws and regulations. The lawsuit friends of FBI agents in order to disrupt their According to the White House, Hearst seeks exemption from the "confusing," "arbi­ lives? "needs no further rehabilitation" and "is no trary," and "capricious" rules until the federal No, not even the FBI claims that. risk to the community." government gets its act together. The FBI's complaint is that it is "unreasona­ That may or may not be true. But if that's Since 1965, 1,500 federal charges and com­ ble and oppressive" for the CP to demand all it takes to get your prison sentence ended plaints have been brought against Sears. In evidence on crimes the FBI committed against by Jimmy Carter, then consider these cases: April 1977 the Equal Employment Opportun­ the party. • The Wilmington Ten, North Carolina ity Commission found that Sears discrimi­ FBI officials admit that their Washington civil rights activists sentenced to 282 years in nates against women, Blacks, and Latino headquarters alone has 26.5 million pages of prison for allegedly fire bombing a grocery workers·. No settlement has been reached. dossiers on the CP. Another 9.6 million pages store in 1971. A 1977 hearing showed that the The EEOC says Sears's "class action" suit is are mouldering in the FBI's New York files. evidence against them was invented by the just the company's effort to escape the charges Who knows how many crimes are recorded district attorney. The Carter administration pending against it. in these millions of pages of secret documents? has turned a deaf ear to numerous appeals. It is also part of a bigger "class action"-the In any case, the FBI says it will allow no The Charlotte Three in North Carolina are drive by the employing class in this country to "fishing expedition." Besides, it says, to col­ in prison on a similar frame-up. take back affirmative-action gains that Blacks lect, copy, and "sanitize" the files would cost • Gary Tyler, Black, sentenced to life in a and women won in the past. $36 million and "could virtually paralyze Louisiana prison at age sixteen for a murder Sears's suit goes hand in hand with the so­ existing FB.I functions." he didn't commit. No witnesses saw Tyler fire called reverse discrimination Weber case now The case, which is now in a federal court, the gun that killed a white student during anti­ pending before the Supreme Court (see page 3). began when the Federal Election Commission Black demonstrations outside his school. Car­ Sears makes use of the age-old divide-and­ demanded a list of financial contributors to ter has yet to utter a word about Gary Tyler. rule strategy with a new twist. The work force the CP's 1976 presidential campaign. • Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and John it had to choose its 400,000 employees from, The CP replied, quite reasonably, that such Artis. Carter, a champion prize-fighter and the company claims, was molded by govern­ a roster would be a ready-made "enemies list" outspoken advocate of Black rights, and Artis, ment action and beyond Sears's control. The for the government. Since the names would be an acquaintance of his, were framed on government, Sears charges, failed to enforce available to the public, disclosure could also murder charges in New Jersey and sentenced civil rights laws, gave men special advantages provide a hit list for right-wingers. to life. Nothing from the president. through the veterans benefits, discouraged The CP pointed out that the U.S. Supreme • Hector Marroquin, a socialist forced to women through tax and Social Security laws, Court has ruled that smaller parties could win flee to the United States from Mexico when and extended the minimum retirement age. exemption from the disclosure requirements by falsely accused of terrorist activities. If he is Until the government figures out just which showing "reasonable probability" that com­ forced to go back, he faces imprisonment, group of workers are to get the spoils, Sears pliance could lead to "threats, harassment or torture, and possibly even death at the hands argues, how can employers be held responsible reprisals" against the contributors. of the Mexican government. The Carter ad­ for discrimination? "Threats, harassment or reprisals" -that's ministration is trying to deport him. These arguments are a deliberate distortion an apt description of the U.S. government's Carter's sudden concern for the unjustly of the fight for civil rights and affirmative operations against the CP and its members. imprisoned doesn't extend to any of these action. The struggle to win equal job rights for And if anybody doesn't believe that, the proof people. Or to the thousands of political prison­ Blacks and women is a struggle to unify the is in the 36 million pages of documents the ers in U.S. jails admitted to by UN Ambassa­ work force. Divisions between whites and FBI is keeping under wraps. dor Andrew Young. Blacks, women and men, older and younger After a five-year battle with the government, Patty Hearst's father is a multimillionaire workers are encouraged by the bosses because the Socialist Workers Party recently won ex­ newspaper publisher. Forty-eight members of they weaken the unions and lower wages for emption from the federal disclosure law. All Congress .wanted her release. Even the FBI all workers. Simply put, affirmative action supporters of civil liberties should demand agent who led the search for her said Carter's cuts across profits. that this important precedent be maintained action was "a proper move." It is this that is behind Sears's challenge to and extended-in this case, by supporting the The massage from the White House is sim­ federal regulation. There is nothing "confus­ Communist Party's demand for an exemption ple: you can get all the human rights that ing" or "arbitrary" about it. from the campaign disclosure law. money can buy.

The Militant Militant Highlights This Week Ed1tor MARY-ALICE WATERS Managing Ed1tor. STEVE CLARK Busmess Manager ANDREA BARON 3 Weber case The Teng Hsiao-p'ing visit 8 Marroquin case Editorial staff: Peter Archer. Nancy Cole. Fred What's behind the Washington-Peking talks? Are Teng's Feldman. David Frankel, Osborne Hart, Cindy 9 S. Africa divestment overtures to Carter a 'betrayal' of Mao's policies? Page 7. Jaquith. Shelley Kramer. Ivan Licho. Omari Musa, 10 'Militant" sales Harry Ring, Dick Roberts. Andy Rose, Priscilla Schenk. Arnold Weissberg. Matilde Zimmermann. 12 Abortion rights actions Publ1shed weekly by the Mil1tant. 14 Charles Lane. 13 'Rignt to work' New York. NY 10014. Telephone Ed1tor~al Off1ce 15 Chicago snow job (212) 243-6392. Busmess Off1ce (212) 929-3486 32 Newport News strike Correspondence concerning subscriptions or 2 In Our Opinion changes of address should be addressed to The Revolutionary soldier and scientist Militant Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, New 14 National Picket Line York, N.Y. 10014. 27 Nuestra America At a New York meeting in tribute to the late Joseph Hansen Second-class postage paid at New York. N.Y By Any Means Necessary (left), SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes assessed Hansen's Subscr~pt10ns US $15.00 a year. outs1de U.S Capitalism Fouls Things Up $20.50. By flfst-class mall U.S. Canada. and Mex­ contributions to the Marxist movement. Page 18. ICO $42.50. Wnte for surface and alfmall rates to all 28 In Brief other countr~es What's Going On For subscr~pt1ons alffre1ghted to London then 29 The Great Society posted to Bnta1n and Ireland: £2.50 for ten 1ssues. Women in Revolt £5 50 for SIX months (twenty-four ISSues): £10 for 30 Our Revolutionary Heritage one year (forty-e1ght 1ssues) Posted from· London Letters to Continental Europe £4 for ten 1ssues. £8 for SIX months (twenty-four ISsues): £13 for one year 31 Learning About Socialism (forty-e1ght 1ssues1 Send checks or 1nternat1onal If You Like This Paper ... A movement that won money orders (payable to lnrerconrmenral Press Today's activists can draw rich lessons from the account) to. Intercontinental Press (The Militant). WORLD OUTLOOK movement that helped force U.S. imperialism to withdraw P 0 Box 50. London N 1 2XP. England 23 Iran socialists' program S1gned art1cles by contributors do not necessarily from Vietnam. Fred Halstead's 'Out Now!' tells the story. represent the M1litant's v1ews These are expressed 26 Iran oil workers Page 16. '" ed1tor1als 2 From GarY. to San Dieg.Q Weber protests pick up steam By Nancy Cole paign, including a labor/community Unions and women's and Black speakout on the Weber case. groups across the country are begin- A letter from the union is going out ning to alert their members to the to unions and community, Black, Chi- threat posed by Brian Weber's "reverse cano, and women's groups in the city discrimination" lawsuit. inviting them to become part of the In the Chicago-Gary area, a meeting task force, which will hold its first is planned for sometime during the meeting February 24. week of March 14, sponsored by United The Oakland, California, City Coun- Steelworkers District 31 Director cil voted unanimously January 23 to James Balanoff and Gary Mayor Ri- ask the Supreme Court to reject Web- chard Hatcher. er's challenge to affirmative action. According to Balanoff, the meeting The action by the council was promp- in Gary will "explain our affirmative- ted by a request from Lorenza Carlisle action plan and the issues involved in of the anti-discrimination committee at the Weber case." the Caterpillar Tractor plant. Weber's lawsuit, now before the Su- . :r~e Ca_terpillar co~mittee is ~lso preme Court, jeopardizes affirmative- JOining w1th the Natwnal Co.~mltt~e action plans affecting millions of to Overturn the Bakke Dec1s10n m workers. Oakland for a February 10 meeting on the Weber case. The white lab technician at the The deadline for filing court briefs Gramercy, Louisiana, Kaiser Alumi­ Militant/Lou Howort with the Supreme Court on the Weber num plant charges that the United Auto Workers is among unions that filed briefs with Supreme Court against case was January 25. Unions that affirmative-action plan there nego­ Brian Weber's 'reverse discrimination' suit. went on record against Weber included tiated by the USWA "discriminates" the United Auto Workers; United Mine against him. The plan provides that Workers; United Farm Workers; Oil, half the trainees for skilled jobs be The list of other rally speakers so far dation of Black Social Workers, Uni­ Chemical and Atomic Workers; United Black or women workers. includes representatives from the state ted Teachers of New Orleans, and Electrical Workers; International The New Orleans Committee to National Organization for Women, Hotel and Motel Employees. Union of Electrical Workers; National Overturn the Weber Decision and De­ New Orleans NAACP, state American In San Diego, the 1,500-member Lo­ Education Association; American Fed­ fend Affirmative Action reports that Civil Liberties Union, Louisiana Bu­ cal 685 of the International Associa­ eration of State, County and Municipal the USWA's international civil rights reau for Women, New Orleans Urban tion of Machinists has announced the Employees; National Union of Hospi­ office will provide a keynote speaker League, state Southern Christian formation of an affirmative-action task tal Employees; and the International for the committee's March 4 rally. Leadership Conference, National Asso- force to organize an educational cam- Woodworkers.

AT&T decree expires The consent decree that a federal civil rights act on the books. judge dubbed the "largest and most Now we are told to believe that­ impressive civil rights settlement in left on its own with no goals, timeta­ the history of the nation" quietly bles, or supervision-the phone com­ expired last month. pany will end discrimination on its The January 18, 1973, agreement own. between the American Telephone Unfortunately, the unions repre­ and Telegraph Company and the senting AT&T workers opposed the federal government gave many consent decree from its inception Black and women telephone workers and actually filed a lawsuit to over­ a chance at better jobs they never turn it, charging violations of bar­ would have had otherwise. gaining and seniority rights. HELP GET OUT THE TRUTH Yet AT&T never reached the goals It was true that because the The Weber Case: New Threat to Affirmative Action by Militant staff set out in the six-year decree. unions-primarily the Communica­ writer Andy Rose presents the real story behind Weber's assault on job Nevertheless, government attor­ tions Workers of America and the rights. It takes up key issues posed by the case: so-called reverse neys concluded in January that International Brotherhood of Electri­ discrimination against white males, seniority, and how the labor AT&T has "substantially complied" cal Workers-were not party to the movement can win jpbs and better conditions for all. Join the effort to with the antidiscrimination provi­ decree, enforcing it was much more get out the facts to working people. sions of the decree. They argued difficult. It was nonetheless a vic­ against extending it. tory for Black and women workers Please send me: It "didn't solve all of the equal and viewed as such by them. 0 5 copies for $3.30 0 10 copies for $6.60 employment opportunity problems When the Supreme Court decided 0 25 copies for $12 0 50 copies for $24 with the Bell system operating com­ to uphold Allan Bakke's charges of 0 100 copies for $45 panies," the federal report gener­ "reverse discrimination" last year, 0 Other (75 cents each; 5 or more, 25% discount; 25 or ously admitted, but any continuing AT&T took heart. Any post-consent­ more, 40% discount. Add 50 cents for postage.) problems "wouldn't constitute a vio­ decree affirmative-action plan, the lation of the decree." company said, would be "modified" Name The federal Equal Employment in light of the high-court ruling. Opportunities Commission was pres­ Now the corporate giant must be Address ------sured to sue AT&T back in 1970 watching the Weber case. A defeat because ofMa Bell's blatant discrim­ for the racist Weber would without City/State ------Lip ------inatory practices. The government question shape AT&T future affir­ charged AT&T with violating every mative action. -N.C. Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014 Free to new readers ... 0 Here's $2 for ten weeks, mailed to my address each week. 6 issues of the 'Militant•! 0 Better yet, here's $15 for an entire year. 0 Or, $8.50 for six months. Name That's right. When you subscribe to the Militant at our Even though there's a good chance you'll find the special trial subscription rate-ten weeks for $2-you person who sold you this issue at your factory gate or Address ------­ get ten issues of the paper for what you would pay for in your neighborhood each week of our spring sales City ------four issues at our single-copy price. drive, why take chances? Clip the coupon at right, and State ______Zip ______And besides saving money, there's another advan­ send it in today. tage. You won't miss an issue. Mail to: THE MILITANT, 14 Charles Lane, New York, New York 10014

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 3 Iranian Trotskyists launch party Call for constituent assembly By Cindy Jaquith throne. Sadeeg is the author of Nation­ TEHRAN-An historic news confer­ ality and Revolution in Iran. ence took place here January 22, an­ Sadeeg said that the recent toppling nouncing the formation of a Trotskyist of the shah is a major victory for the party in Iran, the Socialist Workers Iranian people. He compared it to the Party. overthrow of the tsar in Russia, of Reporters from virtually all major Chiang Kai-shek in China, and Batista Iranian and foreign media packed into in Cuba. the Intercontinental Hotel to hear the In each of these revolutions, Sadeeg proposals of the Iranian socialists for continued, the masses learned it was ending U.S. domination of their coun­ not enough to overthrow a dictatorial try and for the immediate election of a regime. It was necessary to continue constituent assembly. the struggle until power was wrested Under the shah's tyranny of the past from the ruling class and a workers three decades, such a news conference and peasants government established. would have been impossible. Anyone This will also be true in Iran, he said. publicly declaring the formation of a A socialist revolution is necessary. socialist party would have been jailed or possibly executed. Women's rights Prof. Zeyott Obrohimi of Tehran Parvin Najafi, a frequent writer for University opened the news confer­ Intercontinental Press/ Inprecor, spoke ence, which was conducted in the Farsi on the SWP's program for the libera­ and English languages. He introduced tion of women of Iran. The SWP calls poet Reza Baraheni, who was impri­ for the abolition of all laws that pre­ soned and tortured by the shah and vent women from equal participation forced into exile in the United States. in social, economic, and political life. Baraheni said the panel of speakers In a constituent assembly, Najafi represented longtime fighters in the said, women could fight for their de­ struggle against the shah. mands, such as equal pay and repeal Babak Zahraie, editor of the socialist of laws that give husbands and fathers opposition weekly Payam Daneshjoo, control over women's lives. was the first speaker. Reporters had Another exiled revolutionist, Hoos­ been given copies of the new constitu­ hang Sepehri, gave a moving tribute to tion proposed by the SWP. the martyrs of the struggle for freedom in Iran. Four of his brothers died Socialist program fighting against the shah. Zahraie explained the socialist pro­ To win the demands for which past gram. "The historical problems of the revolutionists have given their lives, Iranian people will be solved through Sepehri said, the Iranian people need a the struggle for democracy and social­ revolutionary socialist party. He urged ism," he said. everyone to join the SWP to further "No government imposed from that goal. above will bring freedom for the people Speakers at Tehran news conference included (clockwise from top left): Javad A powerful weapon against the of Iran. Only by the participation of Sadeeg, Parvin Najafi, Babak Zahraie, and Reza Baraheni. shah's repression in recent years has the Iranian people in decision-making been the U.S.-based Committee for through the democratic election of a Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in constituent assembly can we begin to placing them under workers control. languages and complete control of Iran (CAIFI). The former executive solve the problems we face. "We demand full equality for women their own affairs. Continued on page 6 "We demand U.S. imperialist hands in Iran," Zahraie said. "The land should belong to whoever off the Iranian revolution. We are for "Iran's oppressed nationalities-the works it. There should be easy credit nationalizing all foreign holdings, Azerbaijanis, Kurds, and Baluchis­ for the peasants. basic industry, and the banks and should have the right to their own "We are for full rights for the sol­ Long live diers. "We are for opening the books of the 'Mobarez'! big corporations and the government The following message of 'An historic & inspiring event' and ending the huge expenditures for greeting was sent by the 'Mili­ arms, turning that money over to tant' January 29 to 'Mobarez' cal judgment by boldly stepping The following message to the social benefits for the people." (the Militant), the newly estab­ Iranian Hezeb Karegaran Socia­ forward and announcing at a public lished newspaper of the Social­ liste (Socialist Workers Party) news conference the formation of the ist Workers Party of Iran. was sent January 29 in the name Hezeb Karegaran Socialiste and is­ Workers & peasants gov't of the political commi'ttee of the suing your call for a constituent "Finally," Zahraie said, "we believe We hail the appearance of our U.S. Socialist Workers Party by assembly and a workers and pea­ sister publication Mobarez! SWP National Secretary Jack sants bill of rights. that to solve the problems faced by the Iranian people, we need a workers and We know that Mobarez will act Barnes. By fighting for a democratically as a tribune of the people. It will elected constituent assembly, as op­ peasants government." Reporters had many questions. What expose injustice and oppression Dear comrades, the formation of posed to the illegitimate government would be your relationship to the Uni­ wherever it occurs. It will speak in the Hezeb Karegaran Socialiste-the of Shahpur Bakhtiar, you have ted States if you were in the govern­ the interests of the working class, first Trotskyist party on Iranian made clear your commitment to an ment? How many members does your the poor peasants, women, the op­ soil-is an historic and inspiring Iran whose future will be freely party have? When will you hold your pressed nationalities, and all those event. determined by the people them­ first convention? What is your view of who are downtrodden and exploit­ It was an event prepared during selves. other parties in Iran, such as the ed. long years of exile-through patient And by explaining the need for a Tudeh Party [Communist Party]? We know that Mobarez will be a propaganda work to explain the workers and peasants government to Zahraie emphasized that the first source of truth for the Iranian truth about the shah's bloody regime advance the struggle for a socialist demand of Iranian Trotskyists on the people. It will be an educator, lay­ and to try to save the lives of his Iran, you have put forward the only U.S. government is to get out of Iran. ing bare the lies of the capitalists political prisoners, and through the program that can meet the needs of "At the same time," he explained, "we and their hirelings, pointing the painstaking tasks of trying to main­ the oppressed and exploited masses. support the oppressed of the United way toward a better society, draw­ tain contacts inside Iran and to Finally, with the formation of the States. The Blacks, the women, the ing the lessons of previous strug­ distribute literature under the dicta­ Hezeb Karegaran Socialiste, you working class." gles, and explaining the next steps torship. have taken a major step in building As for other currents in the Iranian needed to move forward. You were part of the movement a mass revolutionary party based on opposition, Zahraie urged democratic And we know that Mobarez will against the shah's dictatorship the principles of Lenin and Trotsky. rights for all parties and groups. He be an organizer and agitator. It when many thought that his down­ Only such a party can lead the fight called on other currents to join in the will help rouse the masses to ac­ fall was merely a utopian dream. for a socialist Iran to a successful· discussion on how to advance the revo­ tion, help build the independent Now, thanks to the heroism of the conclusion. lution. organizations of the oppressed, and Iranian masses, new possibilities We in the U.S. Socialist Workers He also explained that the Iranian help advance their struggles. have opened up for the future of Party, and our sister parties in the SWP is in solidarity with "the revolu­ Certainly tht> Iranian people, Iran. The Iranian people have Fourth International, pledge to do tionaries gathered in the Fourth Inter­ whose heroic battle against U.S. served notice that they want no everything in our power to explain national, the world Trotskyist move­ imperialism and '"the American more injustice, no more economic the truth about the struggle for ment." As a Trotskyist party, the SWP shah" has inspired freedom fight­ exploitation, and no more imperial­ democracy and social justice in Iran opposes the bureaucratic regimes in ers all over the world, deserve such ist domination-they want demo­ to the people of the world. the Soviet Union and China, he said. a voice. And they will find it in cracy and social equality. Long live the Iranian revolution! Zahraie then introduced J avad Sa­ Mob a rez. In this situation, you have once Long live the Hezeb Karegaran deeg, who went into exile twenty-five Long live Mobarez! again shown the value of your politi- Socialiste! years ago after the 1953 CIA-inspired Long live the Iranian revolution! coup that put the shah back on the 4 .. .Iranian masses drive for power Continued from page 1 workers in particular-whose strike is get-tough moves now being used by the "agents and enemies," "irresponsible airmen were executed at J amshidieh at the heart of the struggle here-have government. elements," who might harm Khomeini. garrison here for anti-shah activities. rejected all appeals to return to work. "I do not know when the clenched By this Bakhtiar does not mean his Some of the airmen had held demon­ Every day there are also new reports fists of our people will turn into guns," own generals, who openly threatened strations against the shah, others had of anti-shah activities by soldiers and N oori said. several days ago to shoot down Kho­ reportedly gone on strike. airmen, not only in Tehran but meini's plane. Bakhtiar's reference is a In Isfahan, a hunger strike has been throughout the country. Signal to masses slanderous attempt to portray groups going on by air force pilots who re­ The chief of the Supreme Command­ This is why Bakhtiar has refused on the left as opponents of Khomeini's fused orders to bomb Iran's major ers Staff, Gen. Abbas Qarabaghi, has until now to allow Khomeini to return. democratic right to return. cities the day the shah was forced to announced a "state of emergency" His arrival would signal to the masses The left here-such as the Tudeh leave the country. The planned bomb­ within the armed forces. "Punishments that the time was right to overthrow (Communist) Party and the Hezeb ings were to initiate an attempt at a will be more severe" against rebellious the current regime and the Pahlavi Karegaran Socialiste (Socialist military coup. soldiers, he threatened. dynasty. Workers Party)-has supported this Bakhtiar has been using the threat In this situation the masses feel the This would pose the question of what right. Bakhtiar's threats are aimed at of such a coup to tty to intimidate the confidence to take power and abolish government would best serve the dividing the movement against the masses. But growing divisions within the monarchy. Many are convinced workers and peasants-and would dictatorship and setting up such the armed forces and the masses' uni­ that they should wait for Khomeini's raise the question of a democratically groups for arrest or worse. Khomeini versal hatred for his regime have fore­ return to do so, however. But frustra­ elected constituent assembly. himself has stated that the only people stalled any coup up to now. tion is growing as Khomeini delays his The pro-shah forces and their threatening him are the shah's officer A resounding answer to the threat of return. backers in the White House want to corps. a coup took place January 27, when 1 Religious leader Ayatollah Y ahya prevent events from ever reaching this The Iranian masses have charted a million people marched here to con­ Noori, according to the January 29 stage. Bakhtiar claims he is for open­ course. To win their freedom, they are demn the murder of the Tehran Uni­ Tehran Journal, "warned last night a ing negotiations with Khomeini. He determined to brave all the bullets the versity students and to demand that time may soon come -when people says he doesn't oppose the opposition government can fire. They are an Khomeini be allowed to enter the coun­ might ignore the appeals from reli­ leader's return, but must first "pre­ inspiration to the workers and pea­ try. gious leaders to be calm and resist the pare" the situation because there are sants around the world. Outrage at the slaughter of the stu­ dents the day before was so great that Bakhtiar was forced to declare the march legal. The army was not pres­ ent, and the demonstration proceeded peacefully. One million march against· Bakhtiar This demonstration dwarfed at­ By Cindy Jaquith meini be allowed to return. realizing we are journalists. They tempts in recent days by the right­ TEHRAN, Jan. 27-The blood of Hundreds of thousands-perhaps are anxious for the truth to reach the wing, pro-shah forces to carry out their slain students was still on the streets a million-people have come into rest of the world. own actions. when 1 million people poured out Tehran from other cities to greet A young boy shows me color pho­ On January 23, the Immortal here today to vent their anger at the Khomeini. Many of them are on the tos of the dead and wounded from Guards, an elite military corps, carried Bakhtiar regime. demonstration. Black Friday, September 8. Another out an exhibition in which they More than 100 young people had Also marching is a contingent of shows us caricatures of the shah. shouted, "Long live the shah!" Even died in machine-gun fire the day Azerbaijanis, chanting in Turkish, within this regiment, however, there before at Tehran University. "Koran is our aim; our capital is our An engineer tells us he believes have been shoot-outs between pro- and As I join the march, demonstra­ integrity; Shahpur Bakhtiar is more the CIA has masterminded the kill­ ings here. He denounces Ardeshir anti-shah elements. tors are chanting, "My brother, you dishonest than the shah." Zahedi, Iran's ambassador to the On January 25, a pro-shah are gone, but we will continue." Islamic members of the guerrilla United States, as a CIA agent. demonstration-thinly disguised as a Along with other journalists I am group Mujaheed Khalg, which is pro-Bakhtiar, pro-constitution march­ swept along in a sea of humanity now split into Muslim and Marxist­ Many demonstrators say that took place. Thirty to forty thousand down the street where the students oriented wings, are here. Their slo­ armed resistance by the masses participated, including many cops and died. gans hail the workers, peasants, and must come soon. "We cannot go in soldiers ordered to attend and carefully To our left is a contingent of 1,000 Palestinians. front of the tanks barehanded," ex­ instructed on slogans they should women, all in black veils, with We stop to rest at Esfan Square. plains one student, who narrowly chant. raised fists. Women are nearly half There used to be a statue here of the escaped death the day before. Organizers of the action insisted the demonstration. These sisters shah's father. That has been pulled Others have a message for Carter: that no one mention the shah by name, chant: "It is good the students and down and replaced with pictures of ",Jimmy boy, Jimmy boy, run run but the purpose was clearly to create workers are getting together." Khomeini. run; the people of Iran are picking the impression that large numbers Behind them are signs denouncing People start to gather around us; up their guns." want the hated despot to return. Jimmy Carter and Shahpur Bakh­ tiar. "Death to Carter, the shah, and Polarization Shahpur" is a popular slogan. It is in the context of this deepening "If Khomeini comes late, we will polarization that the shah's loyal fol­ kill you Bakhtiar," is another. lowers fear a return by Khomeini will Word passes quickly through the irreversibly tip the balance. · crowd that 160 airmen were executed The entire country is at an intense this morning for mutiny. "Oh you revolutionary pitch. airmen; you are the light of our In the North, peasants have carried eyes," the demonstrators shout. out massive land seizures. This demonstration has been orga­ The oppressed nationalities-the nized overnight by supporters of Azerbaijanis in the Tabriz area and Khomeini. It coincides with the tra­ the Kurds-are mobilizing both ditionally observed anniversary of against the shah and for their national the death of the prophet Mohammed. rights. Many of the slogans combine reli­ Appeals to striking workers by gious and political messages. The Bakhtiar, and in some cases by the focus is on the massacre of the strike coordinating committees set up students, the call for an Islamic by Khomeini, for an end to walkouts republic, and the demand that Kho- Tehran, January 26. Massacre by Bakhtiar's troops provoked huge protest. have not been successful. The oil Exiled revolutionists return to cheers, flowers By Cindy Jaquith tionist was recognized at the airport stead of checking suitcases, they pres­ slogans cover almost every inch of the TEHRAN, Jan. 22-It is 12:30 p.m. desk, he or she would be whisked off by ent flowers to the exiles. walls, houses, and shops. Banners The pilot has announced Mehrabad the shah's secret police, known as We hear cheers and applause as each span the streets. The slogans range Airport in ten minutes. SAV AK, and probably never be heard of the oppositionists finally reaches from "Down with the shah" to "Yan­ Smiles and looks of disbelief are on from again. the crowd outside. There they are em­ kee go home," and "We don't want the the faces of my companions as we braced by relatives and friends they Today it is different. Although one of American king." fasten our seatbelts for the landing. have not seen for years. the revolutionists, Babak Zahraie, is Martial law is still in effect, however. This is no ordinary plane trip. On detained for a few minutes, he and Everyone wants to talk, but we are We pass by two truckloads of soldiers board are more than a dozen Iranian everyone else finally pass through. The late for a news conference at the Inter­ with machine guns. revolutionists who are returning to passport officials are well aware that continental Hotel. There the revolu­ But neither repression nor promises their homeland after years-and in outside there are more than 100 people tionists will announce the formation of of reforms have slowed the revolution some cases, decades-of exile. pressing against the gates waiting to the Socialist Workers Party of Iran. here. On Friday, January 19, 4 million people demonstrated in Tehran. I am As we enter the airport, it looks give a heroes' welcome to the exiles. But in order to get there, taxi drivers have offered free rides to all the exiles. told they stretched for twenty kilome­ barren. The police have chosen to be In the crowd are the families of the ters, nearly all the way out to the scarce for the occasion. exiles, other oppositionists, and news­ The family of one oppositionist airport. We line up to have our passports paper reporters. offers to take me to the hotel. As we As one participant in the march told checked. This used to be a terrifying The customs workers decide not to ride toward the city, I get my first real me: "Every inch of the city was filled experience for Iranians. If an opposi- conduct business as usual today. In- view of the revolution here. Political with demonstrators that day."

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 5 'Unconscious' editing.J.. How big-business media twist Iran news By David Frankel by Thomas Griffith in its January 29 issue to "We have been unable to find a single example of answer the charges made by Dorman and Omeed. a news or feature story in the mainstream Ameri- - - Griffith begins by trying to discredit the article. can press that uses the label 'dictator' to describe He red-baits Dorman as "a radical-left California the shah." -~·'.· journalism professor," and quotes Sandy Socolow, '";_}'· executive producer of the CBS "Evening News," That was one of the findings of William Dorman ~\ who dismissed the article as "a kind of diatribe." and Ehsan Omeed after an eleven-month study of the big-business media's coverage of Iran. While admitting that perhaps some "journalists were unconsciously guided by a sense of the [U.S.] "Reporting Iran the Shah's Way," the article by national interest" in their reports on Iran, Griffith Dorman and Omeed, appeared in the January/Feb­ never entertains the idea that editors consciously ruary issue of the Columbia Journalism Review. It backed Washington's man in Tehran. gives a devastating summary of the way the capi­ Griffith further argues that shortcomings in the talist press has consistently lied about events in coverage of Iran in the mass media were due to lack Iran. of resources! He complains that there just weren't For eample, Dorman and Omeed point out that any full-time American reporters in Tehran to find while the mass media continually referred to the out what was really going on. participants in the Hungarian revolution of 1956 as Now, however, Griffith assures his readers that "freedom fighters," they dismissed the Iranian the reporters are in place, and "in good position, masses as "religious extremists" and "fanatics." free of the onus of sponsorship, to report whatever One lead sentence they quote, from the November happens next." 6 Christian Science Monitor, declared: "Tehran is But there has been only one change in the burning, a city of anarchy set ablaze by rampaging capitalist media's reportage on Iran. As the revolu­ mobs." tion there unfolds and the radicalization of the Dictator? What dictator? masses deepens, the hatred and fear felt by the Among other examples of the slanted coverage American ruling class and its hirelings for the cited in the article are: Iranian people become more and more open. • Continual references to "black-robed mullahs." Ten million peasants were left with no land, or R.W. Apple, Jr., describing one group of demon­ "Would it occur to American reporters covering not enough to survive on. strators in a dispatch in the January 28 New York the Vatican, for example, consistently to refer to • Frequent assertions that behind the opposition Times, wrote about "their eyes growing wilder by priests in their everyday garb as 'black-robed'? ... to the shah was religious opposition to equal rights the minute as their rhythmic cries seemed to pro­ For that matter, would it occur to a North-American for women. duce a kind of intoxication." reporter to refer to Latin American worker-priests But who is really "intoxicated"? as religious extremists or fanatics?" Of course, the shah's claim to be an emancipator of women was a lie in the first place. Moreover, as What can one say about a man who, ignoring the • Repeated references to the shah's so-called land Dorman and Omeed point out: "Not even the most symbolism of the Christian cross so prevalent in reform as an example of modernization and as one conservative religious tracts or pamphlets cite lift­ American society, disparages Iran as "a society of the reasons for the Shi'ite opposition to the shah. ing of the veil, giving women the vote, or granting morbidly fascinated by martyrdom"? "Under what the shah calls land reform, large women the right to attend universities as reasons Such sentiments attest not only to Apple's own private holdings were reduced by 9 percent and for opposition" to the shah. racism and chauvinism, but also to the class hatred state-owned holdings by 1 percent ... and religious "Reporting Iran the Shah's Way" drew blood. of his employers for the Iranian revolution and holdings remained virtually unchanged." Newsweek magazine, for example, devoted a page everything associated with it.

Why crowds line up at Tehran newsstands TEHRAN-Few workers here used "a classless society, a socialist so­ ... Iranian Trots to read the daily newspapers. The ciety" free from "U.S. imperialism Continued from page 4 truth was carefully edited out by the and world capitalism." The strikers secretary of CAIFI, Nemat Jazayeri, shah's censors, so there was little expressed their solidarity with all spoke of the accomplishments of this point. workers in Iran, declaring that the group in winning freedom for political But today on the streets of Tehran, struggle here is for the unity and prisoners and alerting the American long lines form. every afternoon at betterment of the toiling masses. people to the brutality of the Carter­ newsstands to pick up one of the Another article covers a women's backed regime in Iran. three dailies. Since censorship has liberation demonstration at Tehran Most recently, Jazayeri reported, been lifted, the papers are filled with University. The students were de­ CAIFI has mobilized support from the reports of demonstrations, state­ manding a government that will American labor movement for striking ments by groups of striking workers, grant equality for women. workers in Iran. The Oil, Chemical and articles about political prisoners, There is a report that a Turkish­ Atomic Workers union, for example, and more. language newspaper has appeared released a statement in support of oil I was in the lobby of the Intercon­ in Tabriz. Such non-Persian publica­ workers here in Iran. tinental Hotel one day when Ette­ tions were illegal under the shah. la'at came in. Copies were quickly And in the opinion columns, there is Abolish SAVAK! passed around among all the hotel a debate over Kurdish nationalism. One of CAIFI's most prominent employees. Two workers sat down cases was that of Reza Baraheni. After with their copies. One read each * * * CAIFI helped win his release, Ba­ article out loud to his friends, who The strike of shop owners, which raheni came to the United States and could not read. began months ago, continues. Just became honorary chairperson of The waiters in the tea room about the only stores open here are CAIFI. stopped serving customers to read bookstores, newsstands, and those In his statement to the news confer­ the paper, and the cashier perused selling food. ence, Baraheni demanded that the his copy, hidden behind the cash It is common for book dealers to Bakhtiar government dissolve register. cover the sidewalk with pamphlets, SAV AK, the hated secret police; bring A sampling of the articles in the and crowds gather round to look at to trial all SAV AK agents and spies; press here gives a feel for the depth previously banned literature. open all SAV AK secret files, including NEMAT JAZAYERI of the revolutionary process going I visited a bookstore one evening. those on its relationship with the FBI, on. Prominently displayed at the front CIA, and Israeli political police; and One article reports on a demon­ of the store were Lenin's selected recognize the right of all political par­ attendance were the London Daily stration of striking gas workers. It works, his What Is To Be Done?, and ties to function openly in Iran. Mail, Swedish Broadcasting, CBS, the reprints a resolution the strikers Marx's Capital-all in Persian. The press conference received promi­ Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, the Brit­ passed out during their protest. The There were also several books on nent coverage in all three Tehran ish Daily Telegraph, and several other resolution is revealing in light of Vietnam, one on Cuba, and the dailies. Among the foreign press in European dailies. attempts by Western bourgeois com­ works of Maxim Gorky, which were mentators to portray protesters here illegal here for years. as right-wing religious fanatics. At another bookstore, across the The strikers' leaflet calls for an street from Tehran University, Trot­ Islamic republic and then explains sky's Transitional Program was for that such a republic should establish sale. -C.J.

6 Talks aim to expand trade Teng covers for Carter's arms buildu By Dan Dickeson Teng's anti-Soviet diatribes to cyni­ Vice-premier Teng Hsiao-p'ing ar­ cally pose before the press as a "moder­ rived in Washington January 28 for ate" on the question of military spend­ the first U.S. visit by a Chinese leader ing. since the 1949 revolution. At the welcoming ceremony for The delegation headed by Teng met Teng, Carter had the gall to remark, with a series of American government "For too long, the Chinese and the officials and corporate leaders. A ma­ American peoples have not been able jor aim on both sides is to open ex­ to see each other for themselves. We panded trade. The Chinese govern­ are glad that time is past." ment wants U.S. equipment and As if it were all some unfortunate technology. mistake? As if Carter and the wealthy American businessmen, for their handful he represents were not respon­ part, are eager to sign export contracts sible for the thirty-year campaign to with China, especially since they know isolate China? As if the rulers of Amer­ a recession in this country is on the ica did not militarily encircle China in way. hopes of rolling back the Chinese revo­ One reason U.S. rulers speeded up lution? normalization with China in December The significance of Teng's visit was was that Japanese and European capi­ perhaps best symbolized by the invita­ talists had already taken the lead in tion to Richard Nixon to attend the making trade deals. January 29 state dinner at the White Carter has more reasons than this to House. This should serve as a reminder be pleased with Teng's visit. Just last that above all, Teng's trip marked week the White House announced a another stage in a rotten deal worked tight-fisted austerity budget, while out between Mao and Nixon while U.S. Teng and Carter at White ouse. Collaboration between Stalinists and U.S. pushing up war spending to a record bombers pulverized Vietnam. imperialists was inaugurated six years ago by Nixon and Mao (inset). $1:35 billion. So Teng' s call for an even bigger U.S. military buildup against the Soviet Union is music to Carter's ears. In an interview for the February 5 Visit sends Maoists into frenzy issue of Time magazine, Teng claimed By David Frankel China into a "fascist" country, the Chinese liaison office in Washing­ that "the true hotbed of war is the One byproduct of Teng Hsiao­ RCP claims. ton, D.C. Five RCP members broke Soviet Union, not the U.S." p'ing's visit to the United States has To protest Teng's visit as a be­ windows at the office on January 24 The truth is that the American capi­ been nationwide media coverage of trayal of Mao's heritage, however, and threw white paint on its walls. talists and their government are en· the Maoist Revolutionary Commu· flies in the face of historical fact. RCP Chairman Bob Avakian told tirely to blame for the escalating arms nist Party. It was Mao himself, after all, who reporters: "The kind of thing that race. But Teng is glad to help Carter Two RCP members on the press welcomed Richard Nixon to Peking happened at the embassy yesterday cover up that fact. platform shouted out slogans in February 1972, even as U.S. is an example of a 'fitting wel­ The strategy of the Chinese bureau­ against Teng during the welcoming bombs were raining down on the come'. . . . A warning has been crats is one of seeking to cooperate ceremonies on the White House people of Vietnam. In flights over issued, and a call has been made." with capitalist governments around lawn. Police dragged them· off and Hanoi and other North Vietnamese Such actions are virtually indistin­ the world. Teng's trip is the culmina· brutally beat them. cities, U.S. warplanes dropped, guishable from those carried out by tion of a process that began with Later that day, forty other RCP along with their bombs, thousands racist and ultraright forces. The Nixon's 1972 visit with Mao Tsetung. members were arrested during a of photos of Mao and Nixon shaking United States, we should remember, protest outside the White House. The hands. has a long and sordid history as an This policy by the Chinese Stalinists police violence against these demon­ The RCP hailed Mao when he imperialist exploiter of China, as an parallels that of the Kremlin bureau­ strators should be condemned by all stabbed the Vietnamese revolution aggressor on Chinese territory, and crats, who also hosted Nixon in 1972. socialists and supporters of civil lib­ in the back. Despite the RCP's out­ as a center of anti-Chinese racism. Both of these Stalinized regimes have erties. raged protests today, Teng's foreign Political opposition to the Chinese eagerly betrayed revolutionary fighters The RCP, formerly abject support­ policy truly follows the lead of the regime is one thing. Physical attacks around the world in return for favors ers of the Peking regime, decided late Great Helmsman. or threats by citizens of an imperial­ from Washington. after Mao's death to cast their lot In its frenzy against the post-Mao ist power against representatives of Carter comes out the winner in the with the deposed "Gang of Four." regime in Peking, the RCP went so an historically oppressed country dispute between the Moscow and Pek­ Teng's ascent to power transformed far as to carry out an attack on the are something else. ing bureaucrats. He has even exploited Nelson Rockefeller: butcher of Attica By Matilde Zimmermann mandates life imprisonment for possession or sale Nelson Rockefeller's grandfather wanted his offi­ of one ounce of any narcotic. cial biographer to identify him simply as "John D. But the contribution on which Rockefeller's eulo­ Rockefeller Sr., capitalist." After all, he commanded gists have concentrated was his patronage of the a personal fortune of $1 billion at a time when the arts. entire gross national product of the United States When it came to art, Rockefeller knew what he was only $50 billion. His oil company at one time liked-or at least what he didn't like. He had a controlled 95 percent of the world's refining capac­ mural by the great Mexican artist Diego Rivera ity. chopped off the walls of Rockefeller Center and Hi.s grandson would probably have preferred to be destroyed, for example. He didn't want a picture of described as "Nelson Rockefeller, public servant." Lenin staring him in the face every time he checked But only because he was less forthright. in there. Among the eulogies that filled the newspapers In his last years, Rockefeller went into the retail after Rockefeller's death January 26, there was even art business. When art critics complained that the one that described him as a "worker." New York copies Rockefeller was peddling were of shoddy Times columnist James Reston made much of the quality and grossly overpriced, he reminded them of fact that Rockefeller reportedly died at his desk, and the service he was performing by making great art called him "a worker, a yearner, and a builder to the (or facsimiles thereof) available to the general pub­ end." lic. But the only kind of "work" Nelson Rockefeller After all, the public could hardly enjoy the would ever have dreamed of was exactly the type originals-which were livening up the walls of one Daily News obit attributed to his grandfather: various Rockefeller mansions. "Six days a week he labored at his ledgers, keeping makers. In 1914 John D. sent troops to gun down But it would not be fair to say that Rockefeller hid track until the day he died of his net worth down to striking miners and their wives and children in away some of the world's great masterpieces solely the penny." Ludlow, Colorado. Almost sixty years later, it was for the pleasure of his family and friends. In fact, Nelson Rockefeller was spared even the Attica Prison and Nelson Rockefeller's troops, but His art was also a good investment. In fact, a labor of counting his money. He simply hired people the massacre was just as bloody. January 28 New York Times article on Rockefeller's to manage the wealth that flowed in from his global Attica wasn't Nelson Rockefeller's only accomp­ personal fortune points out that "while stocks and empire. lishment, of course. bonds proved difficult areas for many money man­ This freed him to spend his time playing a direct There is the monstrous Albany mall-a monu­ agers, particularly in the last decade, art and real personal role in U.S. politics, instead of calling the ment to himself on which Rockefeller spent $1.7 estate have been notably lucrative for many inves­ shots from off-stage like the more modest members billion of New York workers' money. tors." of his class. Rockefeller was particularly proud of the draco­ Old John D. may not have known-or cared­ Rockefeller's grandfather taught him a few things nian drug law he shepherded through thP New York very much about art. But he probably would have about using his government to deal with trouble- state legislature. The harshest in the nation, it understood his grandson's collection perfectly well.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 7 Unionists back asylum for Marroquin By Jane Roland tors plant in Linden, New Jersey. On Supporters of Hector Marroquin's January 23 they distributed a special right to political asylum are finding leaflet reprinting the article on Marro- growing support for his appeal in the quin's case that appeared last October trade-union movement. in Solidarity, the United Auto Workers Marroquin, a student leader in Mex- magazine. ico, was forced to flee to this country Mary Sears, one of the committee after being framed up for his political members in New York, described their activities. He faces imprisonment and reception. possible death if deported to Mexico. "We passed out 900 leaflets in about In New York and northern New an hour," she said. "Everyone took Jersey, the Marroquin Defense Com- one-Black, white, and latina workers, mittee has targeted several auto young and old. As soon as they saw plants, including the big General Mo- the Solidarity masthead, they grabbed it." A number of workers stopped to AS WE GO TO PRESS request more information about the The Immigration and Naturaliza­ case. tion Service (INS) has set April 3 as The national defense committee has the date for Hector Marroquin's issued a new brochure, "Why trade unionists support political asylum for deportation hearing. The hearing Hector Marroquin." will take place in Houston and is The brochure explains the case and expected to last four days. the need for labor support. It includes a The INS denied Marroquin's peti­ list of prominent union endorsers, the tion for asylum last December and Solidarity reprint, and the letter sent is now moving to deport him. At the by the National Education Association Campaigning for Marroquin at New Jersey auto plant April 3 hearing Marroquin will be to Vice-president Mondale urging polit­ able to present witnesses and re­ ical asylum for Marroquin. raise his request for asylum before Among the latest labor endorsers of an immigration judge. Marroquin's case are Victor Reuther, The Hector Marroquin Defense longtime leader of the United Auto Committee is on an emergency Workers, and Mike Rinaldi, president campaign to publicize the case and of UAW Local 600 at Ford's River Piedra to speak in NYC Rouge complex. win new support in the weeks lead­ Rosario Ibarra de Piedra will visit College, 304 Barnard Hall, 117th ing up to the hearing. Supporters The United Farm Workers in Hous­ the United States in early February. and Broadway, at 7:30. are asked to send letters and tele­ ton voted January 16 to support Marro­ She and Hector Marroquin will be Rosario Ibarra de Piedra is the quin's case, UFW organizer Chip Jef­ grams to Leone/ Castillo, Director of the featured speakers at a rally in internationally known leader of the feries told a recent Houston Marroquin New York City on the eve of Presi­ Mexican Committee to Defend Politi­ Immigration, Washington, D.C. Defense Committee meeting. 20536, protesting the INS ruling dent Carter's trip to Mexico. cal Prisoners, the Politically Perse­ The Houston committee is setting cuted, "Disappeared" and Exiled. against Marroquin and urging asy­ special plans to publicize the upcoming The meeting will demand political Her son Jesus, a student activist, lum. deportation hearing for Marroquin, asylum for Marroquin and protest was grabbed by the police three Send copies and contributions to which will take place there. Some fifty repression in Mexico. It is scheduled years ago, tortured, and "disap­ the defense committee at P. 0. Box people attended the meeting to plan for Friday, February 9, at Barnard peared." 843, Cooper Station, New York, New outreach and media work and to set York 10003. fund-raising goals. Protest cop inaction in Louisville bombing By Cris Mann has been assigned to investigate, and including by the board of aldermen. In gation of the case because of possible LOUISVILLE, Ky.-The Socialist he has several other cases at the same response to pressure, the U.S. attor- violations of the civil rights of a candi- Workers Party has gained new support time. ney's office has undertaken an investi- date for public office. in its efforts to stop violent right-wing Admitting they have a suspect in the attacks in Louisville. attack on the SWP, the cops have On January 25 the Louisville refused to arrest the person for identifi- Courier-Journal, the state's major cation by witnesses. Instead, they in- CIJt (J!!'ouritr•l.onrttal daily paper, editorially condemned the sist the witnesses must go find the Louisville Police Department's failure suspect at his place of work and iden- to seriously investigate a November 4 tify him there-a procedure lawyers Tear-gas attacks aren't pranks gas-grenade attack on the SWP's cam- say could jeopardize the entire case. IT'S REASSURING that Louisville ar­ the failure of the police to make an arresf paign headquarters (see box). Elizabeth Jayko, SWP candidate for son investigators have made a prompt ar­ was due to antipathy to the party's ideolo­ In contrast to the police stalling on governor of Kentucky, said that the rest in connection with the tear-gas attack gy. However they were intended, the at­ on a Catholic bingo party last Sunday. tacks on both the Socialist Workers head.­ the November 4 incident, a second quick arrest in the Holy Family case What's less reassuring is the slow progress quarters and the bingo .party were not tear-gas attack quickly resulted in an "shows that the police inaction is or possible lack of interest by the police harmless pranks. Tear gas in an enclosed arrest. On January 21, a tear-gas gre- politically motivated. They haven't in a similar but apparently unrelated inci­ space can cause serious injury or illness. dent at a Socialist Workers Party gather­ Even if the gas itself should cause no nade was tossed into a bingo game at acted because they don't like what we ing in Louisville last November. permanent injury, people can be hurt in the Holy Family Elementary School. stand for. But we're going to continue Members of the Socialist Workers Party the panic that inevitably follows. Approximately 300 people were pres- our public campaign to circulate the are bitter and frustrated at what they con­ One needn't be a cynic to think that a ent, and many required emergency facts of the case and force the city sider to be the Police Department's cava­ tear-gas attack on a Fraternal Order of lier attitude toward the attack on their Police social would be investigated vigor­ medical treatment. government to take steps to put an end headquarters. No arrests have been made ously. Frustration would be rampant if 11 The next day, ten cops were assigned to the series of violent right-wing at- in the case, though at least one witness weeks went by without a solution. The to the Holy Family case. Two days tacks that have plagued Louisville." reportedly can identify the person who Socialist Workers Party case has taken threw the gas grenade. that long and seems to be gathering dust later, an arrest was made. The SWP's demand for police action It would be discouraging to think that rather than steam. In the SWP case, only one detective on the case has been widely supported, Socialist confronts Bell on Adams murder By Dave Hurst Interference in a campaign for fed­ getting Socialist Workers Party on January 17. They also took pictures SALT LAKE CITY-When U.S. At­ eral office is a federal offense. Al­ members to consent to fingerprint sam­ of activists selling the Militant and torney General Griffin Bell spoke to though a complaint was filed with the ples and lie detector tests, and repeat­ Younf.{ Socialist. the Utah State Bar Association Janu­ Justice Department in December, no­ edly asked for membership and mail­ As Burchett stressed, "Despite police ary 19, he hardly expected to meet thing has yet been heard from them. ing lists." denials, there is plenty of evidence that Despite repeated assurances by Po­ representatives of the Socialist "We are concerned with apparent the Socialist Workers Party and its lice Chief Bud Willoughby that there is Workers Party. However, Pam Bur­ police reluctance to pursue the investi­ members have been subject to police no surveillance of political activists or chett, SWP candidate for mayor of Salt gation," Burchett said. harassment and victimization nation­ Lake City, was there. files on them, Burchett pointed out ally and locally." She described the unsuccessful police that "two undercover officers recently Burchett demanded that Bell imme­ entrapment of Adams, which took visited the [SWP] headquarters and After Burchett gave Bell a copy of diately begin an investigation into the place last summer a few days after he bookstore posing as people 'interested her statement and asked him about the murder of Tony Adams, chairperson of was a featured speaker at a gay rights in' our ideas." Adams investigation, Bell said he the SWP's 1978 congressional cam­ rally here. The same two undercover cops tried would "look into it." What is needed is paign in Utah. Adams was killed on "On occasions when we have met to pose as reporters at a news confer­ public pressure to see that he does, the weekend of November 3, just days with police investigators," Burchett ence held by the Iranian Students indeed, "look into it" with a thorough before the election. noted, "they seemed more interested in Association at the University of Utah federal investigation.

8 Activists begin organizing NECLSA meeting discusses April actions By John Hawkins pants followed Dressen and other "But it became pretty clear that At its January 12-14 board of direc­ NEW HAVEN, Conn.-Nearly 100 meeting organizers to a new meeting those who were pushing these motions tors meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee, anti-apartheid activists gathered at place behind a barricaded door. were splitting and narrowing the coali­ the USSA voted to endorse the April 4- Yale University here January 27 for a In an attempt to preserve the unity tion." 11 action call. Since then the group has meeting of the North East Coalition of the NECLSA and block a split, Miah pointed to the role of those been urging its student government for the Liberation of Southern Mrica those who were excluded followed to groups at the November conference as affiliates nationwide to help build the (NECLSA) steering committee. the new meeting place and demanded an example of this. At the conference a actions. to be let in. debate took place over so-called princi­ It was the first steering committee When it became clear that the split­ ples of unity of NECLSA. Cathy Sedwick, national chairperson meeting since the conference on divest­ ters seemed bent on their exclusionary When the Workers Viewpoint Orga­ of the YSA, told the Militant that "the ment and southern Africa solidarity course, those who were blocked from nization and others failed to win a move to condemn the YSA and SWP work held at New York University entering reconvened and held a sepa­ majority to their position, they dis­ for our role in helping organize the November 17-19. rate meeting. rupted the conference and began the NovembPr 17-19 conference and our The conference, sponsored by Among those excluded who attended talk of excluding other groups. participation in it hurts the whole NECLSA, was attended by close to the meeting were representatives from Miah pointed out that it is a victory movement since such actions inhibit 1,400 actiVIsts. Conference partici­ groups at Yale University, University for the Africa solidarity movement freedom of expression on the part of pants adopted a call for a week of anti­ of Massachusetts (Boston), University that these attempts to split the coali­ all. apartheid actions on the nation's cam­ of Delaware, Vassar College, Temple tion have been unsuccessful. puses April 4-11. University, Morgan State University, "We do not accept that so-called The sizeable turnout at the steering and Howard University, and represen­ 'Outrage' censure as valid, and we're convinced committee meeting-despite the semes­ tatives of the United States Student In a telephone interview with the that any objective observer will see it ter break-reflected the desire of cam­ Association, YSA, SWP, Young Militant, USSA President Frank Jac­ for what it is-a slander and a lie. pus anti-apartheid activists to begin Workers Liberation League, and J.P. calone called the walkout from the "Despite that action," Sedwick conti­ orgamzmg and coordinating their Stevens Boycott Committee. steering committee meeting an "out­ nued, "we're going to r.emain a part of spring actions. Led by USSA President Frank J ac­ rage." Unfortunately, the meeting was calone, the more than forty activists "This led to a far less productive NECLSA, and we're going to build the April 4- I 1 actions. marred by a move-spearheaded by spent four hours discussing how to weekend than could have happened," the Workers Viewpoint Organization, build the spring actions on their cam­ he said. "We're also going to continue to Revolutionary Student Brigade, the puses. In addition, they adopted a "We're going full steam ahead to build the kind of broad-based, powerful Communist Youth Organization, and strongly worded appeal for nonexclu­ support the actions, and we're not movement that can force an end to others-to split the coalition. sion in the Africa solidarity movement. going to allow disruption by any par­ university and U.S. government com­ Liz Dressen of Boston, the meeting ticular group of people to affect our plicity with the white minority regimes chairperson, opened the gathering Exclusion meeting work." in southern Africa." with a frenzied attack on many of Meanwhile, those who had followed those who had come to participate. She Dressen voted to restrict voting at falsely charged the Young Socialist NECLSA steering committee meetings Alliance and Socialist Workers Party to campus divestment committees, to Conference endorses actions with "packing" the meeting. exclude participation of other groups By Osborne Hart tablished a southeast coordinating such as the U.S. Student Association KNOXVILLE, Tenn.-More than body. 'Suspicious' groups? as voting members, to establish a body 100 anti-apartheid activists from Participants came from twelve As proof, she pointed to new campus to screen campus committees that wish five southeastern states attended a college campuses and from the Uni­ committees at the meeting and the to participate in NECLSA, and to "Conference on Southern Mrica and ted States Students Association, presence of groups such as thl' "censure" the YSA and SWP. Apartheid" January 26-28 at the Washington Office on Africa, Afri­ National Lawyers Guild, the J.P. Stev­ A motion proposed by the Workers University of Tennessee campus. can National Congress, Zimbabwe ens Boycott Committee, United States Viewpoint Organization to expel the African National Congress, and Student Association, and a representa­ YSA and SWP from NECLSA was The conference was sponsored by other groups. tive of Hospital Workers Local 1199- voted down overwhelmingly. The cen­ the Afro-American Student Libera­ Four members of the AASLF and implying that these were "suspicious" sure motion passed by a slim margin tion Force (AASLF) and the Com­ CAUSA were arrested last October organizations because their representa­ of thirteen to eight with several absten­ mittee Against University Support for "disorderly conduct" as they tives might agree with the positions of tions and with many established com­ of Apartheid (CAUSA). tried to present their divestment the SWP. mittees not allowed to vote. proposals to the University of Ten­ Dressen announced that the meeting "A number of activists were going The conference unanimously en­ nessee Board of Trustees. The con­ was being moved to a new location and along at first with this exclusionary dorsed the April 4-11 week of campus ference voted to continue support for that the YSA and SWP and other process and red~baiting," said Rohima activities against apartheid and es- those arrested. groups not meeting their approval Miah of the NYU Coalition Against would be excluded. Half of the partici- Apartheid. Imperialists tighten blockade against Vietnam By Fred Murphy efforts to damage and ultimately re­ The response of the imperialist pow­ verse the Vietnamese revolution. This ers to the overthrow of Pol Pot's regime reflects their rage at the overthrow of in Cambodia by Vietnamese troops capitalism in Vietnam and their disap­ and Cambodian rebels was not long in pointment at the overthrow of Pol Pot, coming. As happened after the fall of whose regime they were beginning to the puppet regimes in Indochina in view as a buffer against the spread of 1975, they are taking revenge on the socialist revolution to Thailand and Vietnamese people by tightening their other Southeast Asian semicolonies. economic blockade of Vietnam. The imperialists are ultimately re­ The January 9 Financial Times re­ sponsible· for the war in Cambodia ported that the Japanese government today. Their support to the brutal Lon is taking "a critical look" at its aid to Nol regime and their massive bombing Vietnam. "The chances are that the of the countryside created the vast aid will be cut." social ruin that Pol Pot's tyranny On January 20 Swedish Prime Min­ inherited. And they have chortled en­ ister Ola Ullsten warned that unless couragement to the Peking bureaucrats Vietnam withdraws its military forces Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital, destroyed during Vietnam War. Swedish prime minister in their campaign against the Vietna­ from Cambodia, it risks "reconsidera­ threatens to cut aid because of Cambodia war. mese revolution, a campaign aimed tion" of the aid that Stockholm and primarily at currying favor with the other Scandinavian governments have imperialists. been providing. Hanoi's refugee policy," the January Japan had agreed to provide about Working people around the world "I think foreign aid should be given 25 Christian Science Monitor reported. $20 million in aid and $50 million in should reject the imperialists' hue and to suffering people," said this ineffable The economic assistance being given loans to Vietnam. In exchange the cry against Vietnam for what it is-a cynic. "That need has decreased be­ Vietnam by imperialist powers hardly Vietnamese had to agree to accept counterrevolutionary assault against cause of this war." begins to repair the damage done to responsibility for loans made to the the anticapitalist revolution that estab­ Ullsten made his announcement in that country during the U.S. war South Vietnamese puppet regime be­ lished the Vietnamese workers state. an interview at the conclusion of his against the Vietnamese revolution. fore 1975. In the face of this brazenly hypocriti­ visit to the United States. The warning Sweden provides $100 million a year, cal propaganda campaign, working Even the loss of these miserly came a few days after a meeting with and the other Scandinavian countries people should step up demands that amounts will be a hard blow to the provide a similar amount between President Carter. Vietnamese people, who face food shor­ Washington and the other imperialist Other imperialist governments have them. tages following floods and droughts powers recognize all the Indochinese picked up the signals from Washing­ According to the Monitor, "Austra­ and who urgently need to break out of regimes, dismantle military bases in ton. "The Australian Government has lia's aid to Vietnam has mostly been in their region, and provide massive as­ the economic isolation imposed on suspended all its aid programs and the form of livestock and dairy projects sistance to reconstruct all the countries them. cultural exchanges with Vietnam in in Vietnam. Australians working on of Indochina-with no strings at­ protest against Vietnam's military in­ pilot farm projects in Vietnam are Using the war in Cambodia as a tached. volvement in Cambodia and against being recalled to Australia." pretext, the imperialists are escalating From Intercontinental Press/lnprecor

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 9 WANTED: 100,000new readers for the Militant & Perspectiva Mundial By Peter Seidman cist South Africa will take place all and one-year subscriptions sold to co­ know salespeople personally." The Socialist Workers Party and over the United States. So will protests workers on the job. Sales to co-workers on the job took a Young Socialist Alliance are launching against nuclear power. One step toward this will be the big step forward during last fall's a drive to sell 100,000 copies of the The big-business news media will nationwide subscription blitz week in Militant and Perspectiua Mundial cir­ Militant and Perspectiva Mundial this continue to distort, disparage, and just February. culation drive. winter and spring. plain lie about all these struggles. A second goal is to increase single­ One area that did particularly well The drive will open February 23 with But the Militant and Perspectiua copy sales of the Militant and Perspec­ in this aspect of sales was Detroit. Tom a national subscription blitz week. Mundial will tell the truth about them tiva Mundial to industrial workers, Smith, a member of UAW Local 140, It will continue with a ten-week week after week. both at plant gates and to co-workers organizes sales of the Militant there. single-issue sales campaign beginning This is why members of the SWP, on the job. March 9. the YSA, and other readers of the Houston is one area that had partic­ On-the-job sales The next several months will be an Militant will make this circulation ularly good plant gate sales during the Smith reports that during last fall's exciting-and politically important­ drive one of their top priorities during last drive. sales drive, Detroit sold an average of time to sell the Militant and Perspec· the next four months. Rick Berman, the SWP organizer forty-nine Militants a week to co­ tiva Mundial: there, tells how they did it: workers on the job, mostly in the auto • The workers and peasants of Iran An ambitious goal "We picked a small number of pla­ plants. will be carrying forward their revolu­ The socialists' plan to sell 100,000 ces, only four plants. But we made sure Most areas could enjoy similar suc­ tion against tyranny and exploitation. papers is ambitious. we sold there every week. We found cess, Smith believes. "It's a question of • Millions of American workers will Last fall, Militant and Perspectiua that our sales went up as we started having confidence in people's interest face contract expirations and potential Mundial supporters set the same goal. selling regularly. in the Militant. This interest is real. strikes, including those covered by the That effort was a big success. Alto­ "At the Hughes Tool plant," Berman People are interested in ideas. crucial Teamsters' Master Freight gether, we sold 123,544 papers (see says, "we sold at two or three shifts. "It's only natural to get into discus­ Agreement. final scoreboard on facing page). This meant we could hit more people in sions with people that relate to articles • Shipyard workers in Newport But this time, we will be trying to the plant. It also meant that workers in the Militant, since the Militant News, Virginia, will be striking for make our goal in a shorter period of who might have been in too much of a writes about the big events of the day recognition of the Steelworkers time-ten weeks instead of twelve. hurry going in, could stop and talk to and the big questions on people's union-a battle to inspire workers What's more, as part of this drive, our salespeople as they were leaving." minds," Smith points out. "Those dis­ across the nonunion South and the socialists are setting some additional Berman advises that "it's a big help cussions can easily lead to sales." entire country. ambitious sales goals. to have two or three people at a plant Of course, "you have to be careful • Demonstrations demanding div­ First of all, to increase the number of gate sale. That makes it easier to talk about company rules and avoid victim­ estment of university holdings in ra- subscriptions, especially six-month to more of the people rushing in and ization," Smith warns. "But none of out. the Militant's supporters among De­ "Sometimes it's impossible to talk troit auto workers have been victim­ with people when they're driving on ized for getting the paper around on busy plant access roads," Berman the job," Smith says. "It's a matter of 'Fantastic' response says. ''But with a little digging, we using discretion and ingenuity." were able to find some good sales in Ne rt News places anyway. Stop lights a bit Perspectiva Mundial farther down the road. Or a transit Los Angeles set the pace on sales of transfer platform. Or a nearby coffee Perspectiua Mundial, the Spanish­ spot." language socialist biweekly, last fall. Berman also thinks that "it's good to Andrea Lubrano, who organizes have the same people go back each sales there, explains how. time. That way workers can get to "From the very beginning," she Subscription blitz week One important feature of the up­ could be combined with building coming Militant and Perspectiua support for upcoming anti-apartheid Mundial circulation drive is the na­ demonstrations); tional subscription blitz week. • individual subscription sales to The week will begin with sales of the thousands of activists our read­ issue number eight-which arrives ers work with on the job and in in local areas beginning February women's, Black, and Chicano libera­ 23. tion organizations. Militant/Shelley Kramer During last fall's circulation drive, Ten-week introductory subscrip­ our supporters sold 2,627 subscrip­ tions to the Militant cost $2. Six­ By Andrea Baron The Raleigh team sold seventy-six tions. This was without any nation­ month subs are $8.50; one-year subs, "Fantastic." That's how sales papers in a few hours on Saturday, ally coordinated effort. $15. teams described the response of January 20. That was good. We want to sell The key to success will be careful Newport News, Virginia, shipyard The Baltimore team arrived the subscriptions whenever the occasion organization of the blitz week in workers to the Militant. next Tuesday. Workers who had arises-before, during, and after our advance. The workers in USW A Local 8888 already seen the Militant around the circulation drives. The New York branches of the there were about to go on strike. yard approached them with money But during the sub blitz week, we Socialist Workers Party, for exam­ They bought 155 copies of the Janu­ in hand to get their own copies. want to begin signing up an even ple, are holding a city-wide meeting ary 26 issue of the Militant with In nearby Williamsburg, Virginia, larger number of regular readers. one week before the blitz. There they feature coverage of their struggle. students at William and Mary Col­ This can be done through: will discuss how to coordinate sub­ Sales teams from Baltimore and lege held a meeting to discuss what • door-to-door sales in working­ scription sales. Raleigh, North Carolina, sold at the students could do to support the class neighborhoods; Of course, all subs sold during the docks during shift changes and at strike. Afterwards, they bought • canvassing at college entire drive will be counted toward street-corner rallies held by union twenty-one copies of the Militant dormitories-both in town and those areas' cumulative goal on the score­ organizers to discuss the strike. and one subscription. that might require a special trip (this board.

10 says, "we. decided that we could not extra-large goals for this first issue of say we had made our overall weekly the campaign. goal of500 papers if we had not made Last fall, many· areas doubled their our Perspectiua Mundial goal of 100 as goals during two such national target well. sales weeks. "This meant we had to discuss where SWP campaign committees com­ we were going to sell the Spanish­ bined stepped-up Militant sales with language paper every week. Then we big efforts to get out socialist election organized special Perspectiua Mundial literature. sales teams to go to these community In New York City, for example, sales spots, political meetings, and socialists distributed 20,000 pieces of plant gates." literature at street rallies in addition to Perspectiua Mundial salespeople selling more than 1,800 papers during don't have to be bilingual to succeed, one target week. Lubrano explains. Cleveland socialists used last fall's "Many such people became con­ target weeks as an occasion to send vinced last fall that they could sell special teams down to the big U.S. Perspectiua Mundial anyway," she Steel and Ford plants in Lorain, intro­ says. "This happened when we sold ducing scores of new readers there to more than 220 at the annual Sep­ the Militant. tember 16 parade in the Chicano com­ We are urging our supporters to munity. think through how they can take on "Discussing what was in each issue big goals like this again. was a big help to non-bilingual sales­ The drive will then continue for nine people," Lubrano recalls. more weeks. "We also experimented with some We'll wrap it up with another big new places to sell. We found, for exam­ target week beginning May 11. ple, that we were able to sell quite well We'll report the progress of the circu­ at the office of the Immigration and lation campaign every week. We hope Naturalization Service-where Militant/Joanna Misnik SWP mayoral candidate Thabo Ntweng (left) sells the 'Militant' to explain socialist areas will send us reports that we can hundreds of people are forced to wait, pass on. often for hours at a time." view of Cleveland's financial crisis to workers at Republic Steel. Spring circulation drive will publicize socialist campaigns from coast to coast. This spring, the Carter administra­ "You've got to take your goal for the tion's attacks on working people will Militant and Perspectiua Mundial deepen. seriously-and campaign to make it nists, who organizes sales in Salt Lake Mter the subscription blitz week, our Trade unionists, Blacks, Chicanos, every single week, not just overall," City. supporters will have one week to get women and students will be looking for says Stuart Schwab, a member of the "That's because sales are more than ready for the start of the single-copy political solutions to the problems the International Association of Machi- selling. They're the regular presence of sales campaign. capitalist offensive is creating. the Socialist Workers Party. Our cam­ This will open on March 9, when Socialists have those solutions. And paigns. Our activities. What we have areas begin to receive issue number ten our campaign to sell the Militant and ...... ·...... • ..· .. ·.· ...... to say to other working people." of the Militant. Perspectiua Mundial will put them in Salt Lake City is one of two areas We want to start this drive off with a the hands of more than 100,000 more Competition! that made their goals every week dur- bang. We're urging supporters to take people. The Militant would like to give ing last fall's drive. . special recognition to outstanding Saturday is a big sales day for the participants in the spring sales Militant and Perspectiua Mundial in campaign. Salt Lake City. Help us spread the word A January-June 1979 bound vo­ "But if bad weather or some other lume of the Militant will be problems come along," Schwab ex­ We urge all our readers to join the 'Militant' and 'Perspectiva Mundial' awarded to: plains, "we might have to organize circulation campaign. Help spread the ideas of socialism to an • the branch of the Socialist harder at the end of the week to make Workers Party with the highest the goal. Salespeople are glad to go out increasingly receptive audience among the industrial working class cumulative sales; on special teams Thursday and Friday and its allies. • the branch with the highest if that's what we need to do to sell out Yes. I'd like to help. Please send me: per capita participation; and our bundle." D Subscription blanks and sample copies so I can join in the national • all branches that make their Morgantown is the other area that weekly goal every week of the . made its goal every week. blitz week. drive. Eric Oleson is the sales director D A weekly bundle of __ Militants. The ten people with the highest there. D A biweekly bundle of __ Perspectiva Mundials. (We'll bill you 35¢ single-copy sales during the drive "Regular sales are essential at mine per copy for bundles of five or more of either publication.) will win the paperback of their portals and plant gates," Oleson says. Name choice from Pathfinder Press. Since these sales were 25 percent of Think that you or your branch Morgantown's total, "we were forced to Address might be in the running? Let the plan them carefully." circulation office know, so we can City ______State ______Zip highlight this competition from On to 1 00,000 Clip and mail to: The Militant. 14 Charles Lane, New York, New York time to time in the pages of the How will socialists sell 100,000 Mili­ Militant. tants and Perspectiua Mundials in the 10014. next several months? 50th anniversary• drive went way over the top 123,544! That's the grand total on the score- Other highlights of the drive included: • More than 80 percent of the areas listed board below-which gives the final results of the • Two national sales target weeks. During the made or exceeded their cumulative goals. 'Militant's Fiftieth Anniversary circulation cam- first, our supporters sold 14,568 papers. During • Nearly 9 percent of our weekly sales were paign. the second, 12,670. at plant gates or on the job. Of course, many more papers got Into the hands of Industrial The twelve-week drive to sell 100,000 copies • 2,627 new subscribers to the 'Militant' (In- workers at political events, strike picket lines, of the 'Militant' and 'Perspectiva Mundial' ended troductory ten-week subs are credited for ten demonstrations, and community, campus, and December 15. points each on the scoreboard). door-to-door sales.

CITY MILITANTS PMs SUB GOAL TOTAL PERCENT SOLD SOLD POINTS Baltimore 1724 1 290 1800 2015 111.9 Albuquerque 2165 382 860 1900 3407 179.3 Minneapolis 1585 1 870 2200 2456 111.6 Kansas City, Mo. 1700 76 580 1500 2356 157.1 St. Louis 2082 6 360 2200 2448 111.3 Portland 1402 0 650 1450 2052 141.5 Los Angeles 5353 1475 1080 7200 7908 109.8 Miami 1516 485 460 1800 2461 136.7 St. Paul 909 19 660 1450 1588 109.5 San Antonio 1341 370 270 1450 1981 136.6 San Francisco 3125 579 640 4000 4344 108.6 Dallas 1981 390 320 2000 2691 134.6 San Jose 1396 316 210 1800 1922 106.8 Iron Range, Mn. 539 0 430 720 969 134.6 New Orleans 1632 60 650 2200 2342 106.5 Salt Lake City 2218 47 340 1950 2605 133.6 Toledo 1476 17 260 1650 1753 106.2 Louisville 1308 3 590 1450 1901 131.1 Denver 1293 142 650 2000 2085 104.3 Cleveland 1773 62 360 1700 2195 129.1 Philadelphia 2791 199 710 3600 3700 102.8 Morgantown 2061 0 780 2200 2841 129.1 Washington, D.C. 2876 499 930 4250 4305 101.3 San Diego 1576 226 490 1800 2292 127.3 Boston 2239 175 1220 3600 3634 100.9 Pittsburgh 2149 25 600 2200 2774 126.1 Newark 2052 148 560 2200 2760 125.5 Raleigh 1312 0 440 1800 1752 97.3 Seattle 2246 31 450 2200 2727 124.0 Atlanta 2226 15 540 2900 2781 95.9 Milwaukee 1698 60 440 1800 2198 122.1 Indianapolis 1434 0 280 1900 1714 90.2 Phoenix 1407 325 430 1800 2162 120.1 Detroit 2588 3 600 3600 3191 88.6 Tucson 304 9 190 430 503 117.0 Gary, Ind. 608 0 30 720 638 88.6 Berkeley 2010 32 460 2200 2502 113.7 Albany 1147 12 420 1800 1579 87.7 Tacoma -1623 0 420 1800 2043 113.5 Chicago 3833 403 1440 6500 5676 87.3 Cincinnati 1310 3 330 1450 1643 113.3 Houston 2425 352 520 5050 3297 65.3 New York 8858 1050 2500 11000 12408 112.8 Miscellaneous 130 130 Oakland 1805 180 830 2500 2815 112.6 TOTALS 89,096 8,178 26,270 111,720 123,544 110.6

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 11 Actions mark '73 abortion rights victory Activities across the country commemorated the January 22, 1973, Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. The February 2 'Militant' carried reports on' a teach-in of 500 in New York City and a march and rally in Trenton, New Jersey, attended by nearly 500 demonstrators. Eleanor Smeal, president of the National Organiza­ tion for Women, held a news conference in Washing­ ton, D.C., on January 22. A commentary on Smeal's statement appears in the 'Women in Revolt' column on page 29. Below are reports on abortion rights activities in other cities.

New Mexico Right to Choose, the Reli­ New Mexico gious Coalition for Abortion Rights, By Barry David and the National Organization for SANTA FE, N. Mex.-Nearly 100 Women. supporters of abortion rights picketed the state capitol here January 22 to protest proposals that would further Vermont restrict a woman's right to choose By Valerie Eckart abortion. MONTPELIER, Vt.-A spirited The marchers chanted, "What do we march and rally for abortion rights want? The right to choose! When do we was held here January 20. As the 200 want it? Now!" as a smaller group of­ participants reached Taplin Audito­ counterdemonstrators from the Right rium they marched past a smaller to Life Committee looked on. group of silent abortion rights oppo­ New Mexico abortion rights supporters picket state capitol Sylvia Mares spoke for the Santa Fe nents. Coalition for Abortion Choice. She Speakers at the two-hour rally in­ explained that the pickets were protest­ cluded Bonnie Escott, state coordinator Montpelier and Burlington newspa­ Mary Tucker, executive director for ing a bill before the state legislature for NOW; Marty Levin, Vermont Fed­ pers covered the abortion activities. the Right to Choose, condemned an that calls for a federal amendment eration of Teachers; and Mary Mitchell attempt earlier in the day to prevent outlawing abortion. Miller, Catholics for Free Choice. an abortion at the Planned Parenthood Mares emphasized the need to fight The rally participants responded Minnesota clinic. A small "right to life" group for abortion funding for poor women. enthusiastically to Millie Bliss, who By Stacey Seigle entered the clinic, chained themselves After the Hyde amendment gave state spoke on the problems facing poor MINNEAPOLIS-A rally of 300 ga­ to tables, and attempted to block the governments the option to deny Medi­ women in the fight for abortion rights. thered January 22 at the Capitol Ro­ hallways. caid funds for abortion, the New Mex­ "The best thing for the Vermont tunda in St. Paul to support women's Tucker aptly termed this a "callous ico legislature became one of the first women's movement to do," she said, right to abortion. disregard for the health and life of the states to deny the right to choose to "is struggle in every arena until there Despite heckling from a large crowd pregnant woman who chooses abor­ poor women. is the right to a legal abortion and of anti-abortion pickets gathered out­ tion. This same disregard for pregnant The picket was sponsored by the state and federal funding for it." side, the rally proceeded without dis­ women caused the death of Jimenez." ruption. The memorial rally was sponsored The American Civil Liberties Union by the Central Arizona Coalition for announced the same day that they the Right to Choose, Arizona State March 31 actions in U.S. have filed a suit against state restric­ University Women's Affairs Board, Abortion-rights activists m a has urged abortion-rights supporters tions on federal funding for abortion. and Feminists United for Action. number of U.S. cities have an­ around the country to set up coali­ The suit is filed on behalf of a Black nounced plans for demonstrations tions or committees to build March woman with sickle-cell anemia, an on March 31, in response to a world­ 31 actions. inherited disease. She is being denied Texas A planning meeting in New York funds for an abortion. By Lea Sherman wide call issued by the International DALLAS-Seventy people turned City January 24 was attended by Campaign for Abortion Rights. out here on a cold, windy day January An international conference in twenty-five to thirty women who 21 in support of abortion rights. formed the March 31 Coalition for Brussels last September called for Arizona The action, called by the Dallas the International Day of Action in Reproductive Rights. They came By Jill Fein County chapter of NOW, began with a support of a woman's right to abor­ from the New York chapter of the PHOENIX, Ariz.-A noon rally here picket at the Catholic Diocese. Partici­ tion and contraception and against National Organization for Women, in defense of abortion rights drew more pants then marched to the federal CARASA, the Socialist Workers forced sterilization. than 100 students at Arizona State building for another picket. The Northeast Coalition for Repro­ Party, the Columbia Women's Cen­ University January 22. Charlotte Taft, president of the local ter, New York Working Women, In­ ductive Rights, recently formed by The rally celebrated the historic Su­ NOW chapter, explained the sites were ternational Socialists, and NOW's activists in the Committee for Abor­ preme Court decisipn legalizing abor­ chosen to focus the protest against the tion Rights and Against Steriliza­ Minority Women's Task Force. tion and commemorated the tragic intervention by the church and state to All interested persons have been tion Abuse (CARASA) and the Com­ death of Rosaura Jimenez. The twenty­ deny women abortion rights. mittee to End Sterilization Abuse invited to attend the next meeting of seven-year-old Chicana was a victim of Gretchen Jarvis, Socialist Workers (CESA), has announced that actions the New York coalition, which will the restricted Medicaid funds for abor­ Party candidate for mayor of Dallas, are already being planned in New take place February 7 at 7:30 p.m., at tions. Jimenez died October 3, 1977, participated in the picket and issued a York, Boston, and Hartford. NCRR 100 Barnard Hall, Barnard College. after suffering medical complications statement in support of women's right from a back-alley abortion. to choose abortion. Victim of forced sterilization loses in racist trial By Kathy Rettig a hysterectomy due to complications she was upset by the fact that Serena while federal funding for abortions, PITTSBURGH-Five defendants from the sterilization. She had given had Black friends. birth-control clinics, social services, charged with conspiracy to involuntar­ her signed "consent" to the steriliza­ The Council of Three Rivers Ameri­ jobs, and child care are all being axed. ily sterilize a Native American woman tion while still heavily sedated one day can Indian Center and the Patients were acquitted here January 18 in U.S. after the difficult delivery of her Rights Program of the Pittsburgh Free District Court. youngest child. Clinic, two groups involved in the An all-white jury of four men and During the trial Serena testified that Norma Jean Serena Support Commit­ two women found the doctors and the doctors and caseworkers never tee, plan to seek the aid of women's welfare officials not guilty of conspir­ explained the permanence of steriliza­ rights organizations in appealing the ing to sterilize Norma Jean Serena, a tion or alternative birth-control me­ case. forty-one-year-old Creek-Shawnee, in thods. "We are infuriated by the verdict," 1970. A former foster parent of one of said Joannie Eisenberg of Patients The jury did find the two welfare Serena's children revealed that several Rights. Serena's case shows the impor­ officials guilty of conspiring to remove months prior to the sterilization de­ tance of enforcing the new federal three of Serena's children under false fendant Jean Burgess, one of the wel­ sterilization guidelines that take effect pretenses and illegally placing them in fare officials, told her that "any child February 6, she added. The guidelines foster homes for three years. Mrs. Serena had would be retarded, so require a thirty-day waiting period In awarding Serena' and her children she should be sterilized." Serena would between the patient's consent and ste­ punitive damages of $17,000, the jury sign the consent forms, Burgess added, rilization. declared that the welfare officials had because "she's too stupid to know what Carol Rogers of Women Against acted out of racial prejudice. they say." Sterilization Abuse in Philadelphia Serena did not discover she had been Other witnesses reported that Bur­ said she was not surprised by the sterilized until two years after the gess referred to Serena as a "squaw," trial's outcome. Sterilization is pushed operation when she was forced to have "call girl," and "retarded," and that as a "solution" to poverty, Rogers said,

12 New Mex. senate OKs 'right to work for less*, By Barry David In the period leading up to the No- As the election approached, King candidate Carole Newcomb and con- ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.-The state vember 1978 elections, the New Mexico began to waffle more and more. Just gressional candidate Floyd Fowler ex- senate voted twenty-two to nineteen Citizens for RTW poured thousands of prior to the election, he told the Albu- plained, "Every gain working people January 23 to outlaw the union shop in dollars into a newspaper, radio, and querque Journal that the decision of have ever won has been through our New Mexico. A coalition of Republican TV advertising campaign. Thousands whether to veto or sign a RTW bill own struggles: the eight-hour day, and Democratic legislators rammed more went into the pockets of the most "depends on what the people of New unemployment benefits, child labor the misnam·ed "right to work" bill outspoken anti-union candidates in Mexico want and what facts are and civil rights laws, not to mention through with almost no debate. both the Democratic and Republican brought up as the bill is worked the simple right to organize. Defeating Most observers expect that the state parties. through the legislature. . . . I have the 'right to work' forces will be no house of representatives will also pass Working people throughout New never said on any bill that I will sign exception. the bill, signaling employers through­ Mexico are beginning to realize what is or veto it ... I haven't taken any "The politicians of the Democratic out the state to declare open season on at stake. It is the hottest issue on the position." and Republican parties cannot be re- the labor movement. shop floor. The Socialist Workers Party candi- lied on to stop RTW," the socialists In last November's elections, the Unionized workers appear almost dates in the 1978 elections laid out a continued. "Labor must fight its own workers and farmers of Missouri deli­ unanimous in their opposition to RTW. serious strategy to fight back. In a battles, and once and for all stop vered a resounding defeat to anti-union Bumper stickers have appeared, declar- campaign position paper, senatorial supporting the 'lesser evil' tricksters." forces by rejecting a "right to work" ing: "RTW Means Slave Labor" and referendum. Now the union-busters "Right-to-Work is a Ripoff." seem to be concentrating on states such as New Mexico, where the union Missouri example movement is weak and the working In Missouri, the November defeat for rotest anti-union bill class appears more vulnerable. RTW forces showed the potential for a Only 12 percent of the New Mexico campaign by labor and its allies­ work force are unionized, and only 4 Black and women's groups, students, percent are in union shops. The state environmentalists, and farmers. ranks forty-third in per capita income. Initially Missouri labor officials con­ Unemployment is consistently higher centrated their efforts on voter regis­ than the national average. tration and on legal action to remove New Mexico Citizens for Right-to­ the anti-union initiative from the bal­ Work, the local RTW affiliate, plays on lot. the economic insecurity of workers But with only weeks left and the here to whip up support for its anti­ polls favoring RTW, the labor move­ union drive. The right-to-work forces ment went on a publicity and educa­ compare low wage levels and scarce tional drive. In the days before the job opportunities in New Mexico to the election, thousands of unionists in St. relatively higher wages and lower un­ Louis and Kansas City went door to employment in neighboring Texas and door to explain the issues involved. Arizona, both RTW states. Farmers organizations, on which the They dishonestly omit the fact that, antilabor forces had relied heavily for on the average, wages in RTW states support, spoke out against RTW. run significantly lower than in states where union shops set the pace. For The National Organization for example, thirteen of the twenty RTW Women held a news conference and SANTA FE, N. Mex.-One day af­ an indoor educational rally at the states, including Texas and Arizona, cosponsored a rally against the "right ter the state senate approved "right College of Santa Fe. are among the bottom twenty states in to work" law. to work" legislation, nearly 500 peo­ Although many local union offi­ average wages. Black groups distributed literature ple rallied here against the anti­ cials and some union locals endorsed showing the anti-union movement to union bill. the protest, the AFL-CIO did not, Thirty-year history be anti-Black as well. The January 24 action in the claiming that public actions are Ever since 1947, when passage of the Campus activists set up "right to state's capital was sponsored by the inappropriate at this time. federal Taft-Hartley Act gave state truth" committees, named after similar Citizens Clearinghouse Against The NAACP and PADRES, an governments the legal go-ahead to try formations established by local unions. Right-To-Work. organization of progressive priests, to impose the open shop, the employers This is what brought down the In his most recent statements, backed the day's activities. in New Mexico have been campaign­ "right to work" legislation throughout Democratic Gov. Bruce King has Speakers at the rally included ing for "right to work" laws. Missouri with a three-to-two vote. said he will veto the RTW bill if leaders of the National Education In 1948 New Mexico voters over­ The same forces need to be involved passed-and then put it on the ballot Association, Retail Clerks Union, whelmingly rejected a RTW referen­ in a drive in New Mexico to defeat the for a referendum vote. NAACP, and American Federation dum. From then until 1972, open-shop union-busters. The action here was originally of State, County and Municipal Em­ laws were introduced and defeated in Unfortunately, the state AFL-CIO planned as a march and rally at the ployees. every full legislative session. concentrated almost all its efforts this capitol building. Later, organizers Tom Shirley, originally from the In 1976 the national anti-union com­ past fall in trying to elect "friends" in changed its character to an "educa­ Navajo coal mining region around mittee began focusing attention on the Democratic Party. In particular, tional day," featuring a "legislative Kayenta, Arizona, spoke as an inter­ New Mexico. In March 1977 the pro­ union officials have been counting on update" in the house and senate national representative for the Uni­ RTW law came close to passing in the newly elected Gov. Bruce King, a mil­ chambers. The event culminated in ted Mine Workers. -B.D. legislature. lionaire rancher, to veto RTW. Portland students hear strikin rworker By Joel Shapiro cratic rights, Frost explained, is to pick PORTLAND, Ore.-Striking pulp all union officers from the ranks of the and paper workers brought their cause p union. Association officers are paid no to students at Lewis and Clark College more than workers in the mill. here January 25. "If you take a job as officer, it is not for the money but for what you believe Fifty people attended the meeting to in and what you want to do for your hear Don Frost, a member of the fellow workers," Frost said. bargaining board of Local 13, Associa­ He talked of how hard the strike has tion of Western Pulp and Paper been for the people in Toledo, a town of Workers. Three other members of Local 3,000. Local 13 has opened all its union 13 also drove the 130 miles from meetings to the families of union Toledo, Oregon, to be at the meeting. members to involve them in organizing Frost emphasized that the main the strike. issues are the rights the companies are The paper workers believe the out­ trying to take away from the union. come of their strike will affect all These include the right to honor a future labor relations in this area of picket line. the country. Support from many Up until mid-January, the compan­ unions, however, has been lukewarm. ies had all but suspended negotiations. Some have ordered their members At that time several companies re­ across the A WPPW's picket lines. sumed talks. The International Longshoremen's Strikers at Boise Cascade's news­ and Warehousemen's Union has aided Militant/George Chalmers print mill in West Tacoma, Washing­ Local 13 members Chuck Ritz and Ray Mosier. One way AWPPW guards democratic the strikers, and the Oregon Federa­ ton, voted down a contract proposal rights is by paying its officers no more than mill workers. tion of Teachers recently passed a January 24. This mill has been out resolution in support. since July 7, longer than any other in An encouraging sign for future solid­ the West Coast strike. But the workers was formed in 1964 when workers on lack of local autonomy and lack of arity was a meeting held several days are determined to hold out until the the West Coast left the International union democracy. before Frost spoke here between the company improves pensions and gua­ Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite, and The motto of the A WPPW is, "Guard AWPPW and district representatives of rantees amnesty for strikers. Paper Mill Workers and the United well the democratic rights ·of your the ILWU, Teamsters, International Frost also told students about the Papermakers and Paperworkers. The members." Woodworkers, and Lumber and Saw A WPPW's history. The Association major issues that led to the split were One of the ways they guard demo- Mill Workers Union.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 13 Enroute to Washington Southern farmers rally support in Atlanta By Linda Millwood ment. They have kept us apart, but we ATLANTA-On January 25, nearly know those who are against the 400 tractors rolled into Atlanta. farmers are against poor folks in the Farmers from seven southern states city, too." rallied here on "their way to Washing- Tommy Kersey, Georgia president of ton, D.C. They are part of the national AAM, said, "Our problem lies on Capi- tractorcade sponsored by the American tol Hill. We are not going knocking on Agriculture Movement (AAM). doors begging and crying-we're going The farmers are expected in the demanding." capital around February 5 for a na- Georgia State Sen. Roscoe Dean tional demonstration. spoke for the Georgia Consumer Co-op, The AAM is demanding that the which sponsored the Atlanta rally. government enforce farm legislation "Who is our enemy?" he asked. "Giant that would help farmers protect their corporations control the food industry. living standard. They are going to force the farmers Alvin Jenkins, a national AAM coor- into bankruptcy and force higher pri- dinator from Colorado, reported to the ces on consumers." rally that there were 652 tractors in Dean also stated that out of the Illinois, 900 in Minnesota, and others 32,000 food manufacturers, 50 control in Kentucky-all headed for Washing- 61 percent of the profits. ton for the protest. Other speakers included Herb The overwhelmingly white audience Mabry, state president of the AFL- cheered Joseph Lowery, national presi- CIO, and representatives of the Retail dent of the Southern Christian Leader- Clerks and the Amalgamated Meat ship Conference, as he said, "The Cutters, which are organizing a boy- causes and needs that bind us together cott of Winn Dixie Food stores. are far more important than those that Mayor Maynard Jackson proclaimed tend to divide us. . . . January 25 Consumer-Farmer Day in KANSAS CITY-More than 150 tractors head toward national rally. One sign on this "This is a beginning of a new move- Atlanta. tractorcade read: 'What the hell does Shah Carter know about human rights?'

Midwest farm workers kick off national boycott National picket line By Jeff Stephenson referring to the peak harvest time. N.J. chemical workers win safety demands TOLEDO, Ohio-"We want the pub­ He explained that this year Camp­ Chemical workers at the American Cyanamid plant in Bound Brook, lic to know th_at Campbells-a house­ bells and Libbys are only contracting hold word-is forcing whole families to with farmers who use mechanical New Jersey, voted to end their fifty-two-day strike January 25. The work, including children, in semifeudal pickers. workers, who suffer high rates of cancer and lung abnormalities, had conditions," declared Badlemar Velas­ "If we went away, they would return demanded job safety and information on hazards in the plant. quez at a news conference here Janu­ to hand harvest, because the machines Cyanamid reportedly agreed to begin informing workers of "significant ary 25 kicking off an international are nowhere as effective as they should new health problems," the results of environmental tests, the generic boycott of Campbell and Libby pro­ be," he added. names of all chemicals used in production processes along with the safety ducts. Tom Nowell, assistant regional di­ and health requirements of each and the written results of medical Velasquez is president of the Farm rector of Ohio Council 8 of the Ameri­ examinations. Labor Organizing Committee, which can Federation of State, County and The wage settlement, which the company insisted be within Carter's 7 organized the strike by 2,000 farm Municipal Employees, spoke at the percent guidelines, was said to be 54 cents the first year and 42 cents the workers last summer in northwest news conference. The 35,000-member second. Pay had ranged from $4.96 to $7.35. Ohio's tomato fields. state AFSCME "stands right next to FLOC," he said. He added that FLOC has initiated the boycott be­ St. Louis judge drops order against teachers AFSCME would seek national AFL­ cause Campbells and Libbys, major At the request of the St. Louis School Board, a judge dissolved a CIO endorsement of the strike and canners in the area, refuse to meet boycott. restraining order against picketing by striking teachers January 29. He with the migrant farm workers about On January 28, 200 supporters also dismissed the board's suit seeking a back-to-work order. their demands for wage increases, joined 60 farm workers in a public Members of the American Federation of Teachers Local 420 struck medical insurance, and travel costs rally to announce the boycott. Speak­ January 16 over wages, class size, and preparatory time. Teachers have between here and their winter homes held firm despite the immediate restraining order and the arrest of in Texas and Florida. ers included Charles Hendrix, regional director of AFSCME Ohio Council 8; several pickets. The tomato growers in the area Paul Sidello, U.S. Catholic Conference; The school board's newest angle in its effort to get teachers back to contract with the canneries during the Tom Jones, National Association of work without meeting any of their demands is to call for a "public audit winter. FLOC is demanding that Lib­ Farm Workers Organization; and Bert to prove there is no money." bys and Campbells see to it that the Corona, National Brotherhood of Mexi­ Strikers' morale remains high, reports Helen Savio, a member of Local growers improve the wages and work­ can American Workers. 420's executive board. On Tuesdays and Sundays the union holds mass ing conditions of the farm workers. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, January rallies, and on Thursdays special strike events are scheduled. "We hope to use the boycott tool 25, more than fifty pickets marched in Despite the bitter cold a torch-light parade of 800 strikers marched to twelve months a year and the strike front of a Kroger's food store in sup­ the school board offices January 25. one month a year," said Velasquez, port of the FLOC boycott. Scotia widows win a round For the first time, the widows of coal miners killed in the 1976 Scotia disaster have won a victory. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals recently overruled a lower court decision that dismissed the UFW strikes lettuce growers widows' $60 million damage suit against the Blue Diamond Coal Com­ By Jesus Santos growers insist they have to abide by pany. EL CENTRO, Calif.-A strike by Carter's 7 percent guideline. Twenty-three miners and three federal inspectors were killed in two members of the United Farm On January 2:1, a judge declared blasts at the southeastern Kentucky mine in March 1976. Workers grew to include more than the strike illegal at two of the com- More than two years after the tragedy, the federal inspection agency 3,000 workers on January 27. The panies, which said their contracts finally levied fines totaling $267,897 against the coal company for sixty farm workers began walking off the had no-strike clauses. Two days violations of federal mine and safety laws. The company protested, but job January 19 after lettuce growers later, sixty-four strikers were placed the matter has yet to be resolved because the U.S. attorney's office in rejected their demands for better under "citizen's arrest" by their em­ Kentucky is conducting its own investigation. Now, three years since the wages. ployers for disobeying the court murder of the twenty-six, this investigation is still "in the preliminary order. California's Imperial Valley pro- stages." duces 95 percent of the nation's One campesino told the Militant The court of appeals sent the widows' case back to Judge H. David that the farm workers are no longer winter iceberg lettuce crop. The rna- Hermansdorfer for trial later this year. The widows, unable to sue the willing to take "crumbs and charity" jor lettuce growers here are presently Scotia company for more than the meager workers' compensation for their labor. Another said, "As for under contract with the UFW, pro- us, we can tell this strike is solid, allotment, charged the parent firm, Blue Diamond, was responsible. viding the union with its major base Hermansdorfer, whose bias is pegged with the few thousand dollars he in California agriculture. So far the and we have decided to fight." strike has halted harvesting by eight The growers called in federal me- receives each year for coal mined on his land, dismissed the widows' case diators, but the UFW refused to meet in September 1977. of the twenty-eight growers. with them. "It is none of their busi- At the beginning of the court session the judge granted Blue Diamond's The farm workers are demanding ness, and we are not abiding by request to bar release af a report on the disaster by the federal Mining a 40 percent wage hike, which would President Carter's recommenda­ Enforcement and Safety Administration. The MESA study, which report­ boost their current minimum wage tions," said UFW President Cesar edly faults Blue Diamond for the explosions, has yet to be released to the of $3.70 to a modest $5.25. The Chavez. public. -Nancy Cole

14 The city that works? Pulley blasts Democratic snow job in Chicago By Bobbie Bagel might as well have left too," Pulley tions and banks, which make enor- communities, and not cost working CHICAGO-"If the Democrats and said. mous profits from tax loopholes, tax- people a dime. Republicans can't even get rid of the The mayor's message was, "If every- free bonds, and inflated prices." "The Socialist Workers Party puts snow, how are they going to get rid of one will shovel their walk and pray for Pulley said his plan would get rid of human needs before corporate profits," unemployment?" asked Andrew Pul­ no more snow, we will be okay." the snow, put the unemployed to work, Pulley said. "And that is what Chicago ley, Socialist Workers Party candidate Bilandic probably knew what he was involve people in running their own needs today." for mayor of Chicago, in the wake of doing in appealing for divine interven­ the twenty-one-inch blizzard that tion, because the city's useless plan for crippled the city last month. snow removal had been drawn up by "The city that works," as its busi­ one of the mayor's political cronies at a ness boosters like to call it, didn't work cost to the taxpayers of $90,000. at all for days. Former Deputy Mayor Kenneth Sain Residential streets were buried. declared his plan to be "cost effective." Train and bus service ground to a halt, The only effect the cost had was on stranding thousands of working peo­ Sain's bank balance. ple. Businesses shut down. Many peo­ The city government's racism didn't ple were trapped in their homes, un­ abate during the storm, either. The able to get to food stores or doctors. administration made its minimal ef­ How did elected officials respond? forts at snow removal only in white Republican Gov. Thompson caught a neighborhoods, leaving the Black and plane to Florida. latina South and West sides unplowed 'If they can't get rid of snow, how will they get rid of unemployment?' Democratic Mayor Bilandic_ stayed for up to five days. in town, but "for all the good he did, he "There wasn't enough equipment, there wasn't the right kind of equip­ ment, there weren't enough people to operate the equipment, and there was Socialist files for ballot spot no plan," Pulley commented. "We pay CHICAGO-Andrew Pulley, So­ outspoken opposition to the Vietnam higher and higher taxes for services cialist Workers Party candidate for War. A national civil liberties cam­ and in return we get five-foot snow­ mayor, filed 27,500 signatures with paign forced the army to drop all drifts." the Board of Election Commission­ charges against them. While no one can stop snow, Pulley ers January 25 for a place on the In 1972 Pulley was the Socialist said, every snowfall doesn't have to April 3 ballot. Workers Party candidate for U.S. turn into a disaster. Pulley, a twenty-seven-year-old vice-president. "We have the technology to effec­ steelworker, is so far the only Black "The people of Chicago are sup­ tively remove snow," he declared. "We and only independent candidate to posed to go to the polls and elect a have the people. We could put thou­ file for mayor. new mayor," Pulley told reporters at sands of the city's unemployed to work Urging the board to put Pulley on a news conference after the filing. learning how to use snow removal the ballot without delay were Quen­ "But there is no real choice between equipment. That would certainly make tin Young, director of Cook County the Democrats and Republicans. Mi­ more sense than Bilandic's scheme of medical services; Leon DesPres, chael Bilandic, the leading Demo­ paying fifty-seven dollars an hour for former alderman; and other civil crat, is part of the racist machine experts from Buffalo. libertarians. that's been running this city for fifty "The best, most modern snow­ Pulley is a member of United years. removal equipment should be placed in Steelworkers Local1066 at U.S. Steel "The likely Republican nominee is each city neighborhood," Pulley went Gary Works. He has been an activist a millionaire business executive, on. "Residents should organize and and leader for ten years in the an­ who couldn't care less about unem­ direct snow removal operations, be­ tiwar, Black rights, and socialist ployment, segregation, and police cause local people know best what movements. brutality. local priorities are. As a GI at Fort Jackson, South "My campaign is the only alterna­ "The big question is where the mo­ Carolina, Pulley was one of eight tive for Chicago's working and poor ney will come from. We say that the soldiers victimized in 1968 for their people." -B.B. ANDREW PULLEY bill should be paid by the big corpora- Railroad seeks to victimize SWP candidate By Doug Hord Barrera with absence and tardiness CHICAGO-Manuel Barrera, Social­ during Chicago's recent blizzard, ist Workers Party candidate for treas­ which virtually shut the city down. urer of Chicago, is under threat of Shop Superintendent Bowen had as­ losing his job as a result of his union sured union representatives that no and political activity. disciplinary action would be taken Barrera, a machinist, works at the against anyone who missed work or California Avenue Coach Yard facility who was late during the blizzard. of the Chicago and North Western Bowen also told one of Barrera's co­ Railroad. He is an activist in the workers that he was "going to get" International Association of Machi­ people who were "demoralizing" other nists Local 4 78. workers by talking about politics on The Chicago and North Western is the job. charging Barrera with excessive ab­ senteeism. But the facts of the case The C&NW is saying, in effect, that show that the real issue is whether it has veto power over the political Barrera has the right to be active in opinions and union activities of its his union, to advocate his views op­ employees. enly, and to run for political office Barrera explained his case at the without fear of reprisals from the last meeting of lAM Local 478. He C&NW. reports that there was general agree­ C&NW management first began ha­ ment that it was political harassment. rassing Barrera for his participation in The union will represent him in the the September 5 one-day strike that company's disciplinary hearing sche­ shut down the C&NW system. Militant/David McDonald duled for February 8. At issue in that strike was whether • Socialist Barrera (left) Is charged with being absent from work during nationwide Andrew Pulley, Socialist Workers unionists on the C&NW had the right railroad strike In support of clerks. Party candidate for mayor of Chicago to honor the picket lines set up by and a member of Local 1066 of the members of the Brotherhood of Rail­ United Steelworkers, has denounced way and Airline Clerks on strike work-rule violation. In the presence of strep throat, despite the fact that he this harassment campaign by the against the Norfolk and Western Rail­ a union representative, Shop Superin­ presented a doctor's note upon return­ C&NW. way. The one-day strike ended in vic­ tendent James Bowen told Barrera he ing to work. It is company policy, "If the C&NW can fire Manuel Bar­ tory with C&NW agreeing to drop was going to "keep after" him. contained in a memorandum signed by rera," Pulley said, "this puts a ques­ threatened disciplinary action. Now Barrera is being charged with the same officer who signed the tion mark on the right of working But Barrera, who had refused to absenteeism on September 5 and again charges against Barrera, that illness people to participate in politics." cross BRAC's picket lines, was sus­ on September 26 and 27, the days of cannot be used as grounds for disci­ SWP campaign supporters are gath­ pended for fifteen days for a minor the national railroad strike in solidar­ pline. ering signatures of trade unionists and ity with BRAC. On top of that, the The C&NW also holds Barrera re­ others who support Barrera's right to C&NW wants to discipline Barrera for sponsible for a three-day absence when run for office without harassment. Doug Hord is a member of Interna­ the fifteen days he was suspended! he was sent home for illness by the They are demanding that the charges tional Association of Machinists Barrera is also charged with missing company's own doctor. be dropped before the February 8 hear­ Local 764. work when he was off due to a severe Finally, the C&NW has charged ing.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 15 By Matilde Zimmerman The first major national demonstration against the Vietnam War took place April 17, 1965. Exactly ten years later, the troops of the U.S.-backed Thieu regime were scattering in panic, as the victorious liberation forces prepared to enter Saigon. Fred Halstead's Out Now! tells the dramatic story of that decade and of the movement that helped force U.S. troops out of Indochina. In large part because of that movement, the United States was a different place in April 1975 than it had been in 1965. There were new limits on Washington's ability to intervene militarily to block revolutionary develop­ Story of the antiwar d~ ments in other countries. The legacy of the antiwar movement has been a big factor in Carter's decision that he could not risk throwing everything the Pentagon had to offer behind the shah of Iran. Americans in 1975 looked at the government with a new skepticism-and the higher the office the more likely to be mistrusted. Marches, rallies, . pickets, and teach-ins had become a normal way to express opposition to the oppressive policies of the U.S. government. Powerful new segments of society became politi­ cally active during the decade of the antiwar movement. Looking to the earlier civil rights move-

Out Now! A Participant's Account of the American Movement Against the Vietnam War. By Fred Halstead. New York: Pathfinder Press. 1978. 759 pp. $8.95. ment for inspiration, university and high school students moved into action. They were soon joined by dissident Gis, an explosive women's movement, and sections of the trade unions. The Vietnam War swept away many of the remnants of the McCarthyism of the 1950s. Red­ baiting became less and less effective Fred Halstead is singularly well-equipped to tell the history of the struggle against the Vietnam War. He makes that struggle come alive. Despite Out Now!'s 700-plus pages, it is easy and exciting h . reading from cover to cover. Fred Halstead addresses San Francisco rally of 30,000 on April 27, A longtime trade unionist and Socialist Workers Party leader, Halstead was a central figure in the antiwar movement. He helped organize some of the understanding of the masses of people in the United chord among people not previously influenced by largest demonstrations ever held in the United States. any of the groups in the coalition. States. Out Now! is full of lessons for today's activists At antiwar meetings and conferences Halstead and for the big class battles ahead: for anyone who had a knack for cutting through secondary ques­ The all-important marches wants to do away with nuclear power plants and The coalition's reason for existence was its ability tions. He would get right down to the real social and nuclear weapons; for a Black student trying to build to call periodic marches and rallies that drew larger political forces at work. a mass campaign against U.S. investment in South crowds than any one of the participating groups Would a particular proposal advance or set back Africa; for a member of the National Organization the struggle of the Vietnamese for self­ could possibly muster on its own. for Women looking for the most effective strategy to As these demonstrations grew in size, they pro­ determination? win the ERA. Would it tie the hands of the warmakers, or give vided the most irrefutable proof that the American people did not support their government's war them a little room to maneuver? Would it help or hinder bringing Gis into the Unity in action against Vietnam. The administration's attempts to counter them with prowar rallies, or dismiss them movement? Out Now! is the story of what it took to bring Would it make any sense to someone who came together in common action individuals and groups as the work of a noisy fringe, were dismal failures. home from work and turned on the evening news? with very different points of view and sometimes Especially powerful were the large national ac­ Halstead brings the same perspective to Out long-standing hostilities toward each other. . tions, with their diverse contingents and speakers. Now! The book always begins with the war itself­ Halstead explains that this difficult unity could They are all described in Out Now!: April 15, 1967, when Martin Luther King addressed a crowd of with what was going on in Vietnam, in Washing­ only be maintained by sticking to certain hard­ 400,000 outside the United Nations; the two big ton, in Moscow or Peking. It starts with what had to learned principles. be done next to aid the Vietnamese struggle and • The movement had to keep its eyes on the goal mobilizations in the fall of 1969-0ctober 15 and November 15; the angry outpouring of May 9, 1970, how that related to the sentiments and level of of organizing the largest possible demonstrations to get U.S. troops out of Vietnam. when more than 100,000 people came to Washing­ • It could not be under the thumb of either the ton on less than one week's notice to protest Nixon's Democratic or Republican parties. invasion of Cambodia. What they're saying • And it had to be nonexclusionary, welcoming Halstead describes the largest action of them all: everyone who opposed the war. April 24, 1971. Halstead represented one current in the antiwar "It was the biggest demonstration in American about 'Out Now!' movement-the Trotskyists of the Young Socialist history! Without any intention, the sheer bulk of the "A vivid and valuable account of a mass Alliance and Socialist Workers Party. The SWP and masses of people pouring in blocked the city's popular movement that had a remarkable impact YSA played an important political role in consist­ traffic. on modern history. Extensive efforts are being ently pressing for the kind of mass demonstrations "Buses bringing demonstrators that morning made to reconstruct recent history to conform to that kept the movement from being derailed and were backed up for twenty miles-all the way to the needs and interests of dominant groups in made it into a powerful political force. the industrial democracies. It is important in this Greenbelt, Maryland. Uncountable numbers of cars But-as Out Now! makes very clear-the SWP and buses filled with demonstrators didn't get to context to keep the truth alive, and Halstead and YSA were only one component of a genuine Washington until after the march and rally were makes an important contribution to this end." coalition of forces. Prof. Noam Chomsky over.... Radical pacifists such as A.J. Muste and the War "After the first contingents reached the capitol, I "Out Now! brings back vividly the whole story Resisters League played an important role, particu­ ascended its steps and turned to gaze upon the of the struggle to end the Vietnam war. It is told larly in the early stages. Radicalizing students spectacle of Pennsylvania Avenue jammed with by one of the key organizers who knew made up the bulk of the movement's activists. Then marchers as far as the eye could see. It stayed that personally all the others, and he pulls no there were the organized political tendencies, in­ way for hour upon hour, long after the grounds of punches.... " cluding the Communist Party. the capitol were packed with people. The continuous Dr. Benjamin Spock Halstead explains why a united effort was so overflow took over every available patch of space in crucial. None of the organizations or individuals the general area." . It will be difficult for anyone to produce a prepared to fight against the war had the size, April 24 was not just big. It also represented a more informative, evocative, and conscientious resources, or political authority needed to mobilize, real cross-section of American society: chronicle of one of the most significant on its own, forces that could actually have an "Present were older veterans of earlier wars movements in American history." impact on the warmakers. This could be achieved along with Vietnam vets and Gis. There was an all: Library Journal only if different tendencies pooled their efforts and Black contingent and a Third World section em­ came up with activities that struck a responsive bracing Blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, Iran-

16 students and members of organized political groups. antiwar movement, which was generally one of But its orientation was always to bigger forces. trying to make its activity more acceptable to Halstead shows how the independent campus liberal Democrats. committees-the Committees to End the War in But Halstead shows that one wing of the Vietnam and later the Student Mobilization movement-including but not limited to the SWP Committees-played the role of a mass-action left and YSA-was always determined to organize the wing of the movement. Occasionally it was the kind of independent actions that could draw in national student coalition, under less pressure from everyone who opposed the war, whatever their the government and from the Democratic Party, opinions on other political questions. that issued the initial call for a demonstration As Halstead tells the story, there was a speech he Nonexclusion • gave over and over again at antiwar meetings and The first march on Washington against the conferences. He said the movement should do Vietnam War, in April 1965, was publicly attacked :a everything possible to reach two forces who actu­ by the right-wing Social Democrats of the old peace de movement because it did not exclude communists. ally had the power to end the war-labor and Gls. During peak periods of antiwar activity many But the student activists who built that march had thousands of working people, including trade unio­ grasped a vital concept: you cannot fight a war nists, demonstrated against the government's war being waged under the banner of anticommunism policy.This in spite of the fact that AFL-CIO Presi­ while waving the same banner, yourself. dent George Meany was, as Halstead puts it, "if The struggle for nonexclusion did not end there, anything, more of a hawk than Johnson himf\elf." however. Out Now! describes how the same battle Meany did not waver in this prowar stance as the was fought again and again throughout the history conflict wore on. of the movement. But after April 1965, it became But millions of working people did. almost impossible to stand up at an antiwar gather­ Under the impact of growing opposition to the ing and propose that people be expelled from the war, and workers' refusal to believe that the war movement simply because they were socialists or was in their interests, trade-union officials slowly communists. began to take antiwar positions. This was particu­ The red-baiting that occurred came in a different larly true of unions with largely Black and Latino form. It was used by people who opposed a certain memberships. proposal or perspective but for one reason or Antiwar sentiment was always deeper in the another preferred not to debate the issue openly. Black community than in the population as a After a successful demonstration, for example, it whole. As early as 1964, Malcolm X struck a was sometimes difficult for opponents of mass responsive chord when he denounced U.S. interven­ action to come up with convincing arguments tion in Vietnam. When Martin Luther King spoke at against calling another march. Opponents of such a the April 15, 1967, demonstration, opposition to the proposal would sometimes try to intimidate its war was already a majority sentiment among supporters by labeling it an SWP proposal. Blacks. This kind of red-baiting was least successful In the early days of the antiwar movement, few before a large number of people and when there was outside the SWP and YSA regarded Gls as potential an opportunity to discuss the merits of the proposal. allies. Many students considered soldiers murder­ That was one reason the SWP and YSA always ers, or thought Gls had some stake in the war. pushed for broad, democratic conferences open to By 1969, however, antiwar Gis were among the the whole movement, rather than small, behind-the­ heroes of the movement and were often singled out scenes conclaves of self-appointed leaders. to lead peace marches. The nature of the war and its obvious unpopular­ Socialists & antiwar movement Militant/David Warren ity at home began to have an impact on many more Out Now! is not only the story of the antiwar Gis than those who actually attended demonstra­ movement. It is also a proud chapter in the history tions. Including Gls in Vietnam. of the SWP and YSA. ians, and Palestinians, each bearing their own One of the most powerful chapters in Out Now! is Halstead does not romanticize the role of social­ banners. There was also a group of left-Zionists. In entitled "The Crumbling of U.S. Military Morale." ists in the antiwar movement. But he explains the the procession in addition were a delegation of It shows how the disintegration of the fighting indispensable contribution they made in holding to Native Americans; religious groupings; students army became a decisive factor in forcing Washing­ the political line of mass action, nonexclusion, and from scores of colleges; political parties and organi­ ton to pull out of the war. political independence. zations; hundreds of local and regional antiwar And-because Out Now! is also the story of some committees and coalitions; pacifists; gays; lesbians; Political independence of the people who made up the antiwar coalitions­ Women Strike for Peace; Another Mother for Peace; The unity of the antiwar coalition was continu­ he gives a picture of the talents many individual Women's International League for Peace and Free­ ally threatened by attempts to drag it into electoral socialists brought to the movement. dom; the National Welfare Rights Organization; politics. The SWP and YSA threw everything they had Busin~ss Executives Move for Peace; professional Sometimes this came in the form of subordinating into building the antiwar movement and defending bodies of doctors, teachers, lawyers, and law and the antiwar movement to campaigning for Demo­ the Vietnamese revolution. Every single member medical students; multitudes of government cratic Party politicians. The preside~tial campaigns was involved in this campaign and almost without workers; a contingent of reservists and national of Eugene McCarthy in 1968 and George McGovern exception was an active member of an antiwar guardsmen; high school students; handicapped in 1972 were consciously designed to draw antiwar group or coalition. The Militant and the Young people and others. . . . Tens of thousands of trade youth off the streets and into "responsible" politics. Socialist were the movement's best and most con­ unionists marched, their affiliations identified by Insofar as they were successful, they weakened the sistent publicizers. placards and banners, in many cases defying top antiwar movement and prolonged the war. Because the YSA and SWP put the fight against union officials." There were also many independent radicals who the war at the center of all their work, they at­ The centrality of the big national demonstrations had no political party of their own and wanted the tracted a good number of the student antiwar was not obvious to everyone in the antiwar coali­ antiwar movement itself to become a party, or at activists who were beginning to look for socialist tion. Many pages of Out Now! are devoted to the least to adopt a general program for dealing with a alternatives to injustice and war. debates that took place over whether another dem­ variety of social evils. As a result, the socialist movement-like Ameri­ onstration should be called, and if so what its Then there was the Communist Party. Halstead can society as a whole-was a different thing in character should be. pulls no punches when he describes their role in the 1975 than it had been in 1965. Some people argued-especially leading up to an election-that the movement should concentrate on putting Democratic and Republican "doves" in of­ fice. Others thought something more flamboyant than Halstead tour cities "just another march and rally" was needed to to US. New York and the Militant Forum. A reception to capture the administration's attention. The ultimate By Bob Schwarz putdown by some who thought this way was that Fred Halstead will speak in twenty cities this celebrate publication of Out Now! will be hosted spring on the history and lessons of the anti­ demonstrations were "boring." by James and Dorothy McClellan, longtime But they weren't boring at all. Some of the actions Vietnam War movement and the new movement activists and leaders in the Albany-area radical described in Out Now! illustrate the tremendous against nuclear power and weapons. movement. versatility and imagination of the movement: the The Militant Forum in New York City will Halstead's tour is being coordinated by View­ sponsor a panel February 2 at the Marc Ballroom point Speakers Bureau, 410 West Street, New March Against Death before the November 15, 1969, demonstration, when for two days and two on "How to Stop Nuclear Power and Nuclear York, New York 10014 (212) 242-7654. Weapons." Speaking with Halstead will be David nights 45,000 demonstrators filed silently past the White House, each carrying the name of a GI killed McReynolds, a leader of the War Resisters League. or a village destroyed; marathon all-night teach-ins against the war; the veterans' encampment at the On February 3, Halstead will speak at a rally Capitol before April 24, 1971, and the drama of 600 launching the campaign of Andrew Pulley for angry veterans ripping off their bravery medals. mayor of Chicago on the Socialist Workers Party ticket. Halstead will attend the Midwest The not-so-silent majority No-Nukes Conference in Gary, Indiana, the There was nothing dull about the explosion of following weekend. antiwar activity in the high schools either. Halstead will be in Albany, New York, Febru­ In the beginning-and during lulls in activity­ ary 15-17, speaking at the State University of the movement sometimes seemed to consist only of

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 17 Joe Hansen: a soldier and More than 550 people attended a meeting in New York January 28 to pay tribute to Joseph Hansen. Hansen, a longtime leader of the Socialist Workers Party and Fourth International, died January 18 at age sixty-eight. He was editor of 'Intercontinental Press/lnprecor' and a former editor of the 'Militant.' From 1937 to 1940 he served in Mexico as a secretary to Leon Trotsky. The New York meeting launched a special $20,000 fund to begin publication of Hansen's most important political and theoretical writings. Comrades, friends, and co-workers of Hansen traveled to the meeting from throughout the eastern United States-Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Morgantown, Baltimore, Washington, and Boston. The Revolutionary Workers League/Ligue Ouvriere Revolutionnaire sent a delegation from Toronto and Montreal. Mary-Alice Waters, a member of the SWP Political Committee, chaired the meeting. Speaking were: • Art Sharon, a member of the American Trotskyist movement since 1933. Sharon collaborated with Hansen for many years in %: Militant/Lou Howort Militant/Lou Howort the leadership of the SWP and the Fourth International. ART SHARON: 'Joe first took up the CRISTINA RIVAS: 'Joe was a true inter­ • Cristina Rivas, a member of the political bureau of the tasks and challenges of the revolution­ nationalist who had deep respect for our Mexican Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT-Partido Revolucio­ ary movement forty-five years ago. I traditions. He always taught us that we nario de los Trabajadores). Rivas worked with Hansen in the can't think of any other country where have to build parties able to stand on leadership of the world Trotskyist movement, and for nearly two revolutionists span such a long period their own feet. years as a staff member and translator for 'Intercontinental of history-not just Joe, but a whole 'Joe was the main educator for many Press' and 'Perspectiva Mundial.' generation of leaders. Latin American Trotskyists. Now we 'And as a result of the very conscious • Michael Baumann, managing editor of 'Intercontinental have a responsibility to make his writ­ work done by Joe and others over the ings from which we learned so much Press/lnprecor.' Baumann and Hansen shared editorial responsi­ past two decades, a new generation has available to the hundreds of new com­ bility for the international socialist weekly since 1974. now stepped in to take over those tasks rades who are joining the Fourth Inter­ • Manuel Aguilar Mora, speaking on behalf of the United and those challenges.' national in Latin America and Spain.' Secretariat of the Fourth International. Aguilar is national secretary of the Mexican PRT. The final talk, excerpted below, was given by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes. By Jack Barnes shift the scene to southern Utah and The Joe Hansen I knew was above Nevada. all an internationalist. Joe, the Norwegian-American, the Some of you will recall a speech Joe southern Utah boy, carried out in life gave at a party educational conference his advice to the Iranian Trotskyists. three summers ago entitled "James P. In their message that we heard to this Cannon, the Internationalist." It was meeting, the comrades of the Socialist not only about Cannon. It was also a Workers Party of Iran said that Joe way of telling us everything Joe had always urged them: "Above all, be thought about internationalism. The Iranian Trotskyists." talk opened with this sentence: Above all, Joe was an American "In considering James P. Cannon as Trotskyist. That's one of the reasons an internationalist, it may prove useful he was such a complete international­ to begin by eliminating some possible ist. misunderstandings.'' To understand Joe, you have to go That would be useful with Joe too. back to 1910, when he was born. Joe's father wrote a little autobiography The first misunderstanding Joe elim­ Militant/Lou Howort Militant/Lou Howort inated was that an internationalist is that tells us a lot about the Hansen MICHAEL BAUMANN: 'Joe believed MANUEL AGUILAR MORA: 'Joe's deci­ someone who is interested in foreign clan. that journalism, revolutionary journal­ sive contribution to the formation of the causes. Many people are interested in Joe was the oldest of fifteen children. ism, was an essential skill. He believed present-day Fourth International in foreign causes, Joe said, and for pro­ He spent his early life in southern that skill had to be mastered by the Latin America was fundamental in a gressive reasons. But that does not Utah and parts of Nevada-rural leadership team of a revolutionary party. long and hard debate on revolutionary qualify one as an internationalist. areas, mining areas-and later in Salt 'Joe insisted that every staff member ·perspectives, which took place in our There is a second misunderstanding: Lake City. meet the highest standards of accuracy ranks from 1969 to 1976. On the basic that an internationalist is someone You get some insight into Joe if you and attention to detail" in their writing, issues, his evaluation proved to be the who is an expert on another country, know a little bit of what was happen­ editing, and translating. In his view, any correct one. or on many countries. Joe called this ing in Utah around the time he was job that needed to be done needed to be 'Joe was a living link between revolu­ the "quantitative theory of internation­ growing up. In the little autobio­ done right.' tionary Marxists in North America and alism." He didn't think that had any­ graphy, Joe's father-who is not him­ those south of the Rio Bravo.' thing to do with internationalism self a political person-tells a story either. about an incident that moved him It's what you do that is key, not deeply. Joe was only four years old, some of the personal characteristics best ice cream in all of Salt Lake. And what you're interested in, Joe said. The and the family was living in Nevada. that people talk about: Joe the laconic after sampling alternatives in Italy very first duty of an internationalist is "In sympathy with a strike at person; Joe, the taciturn person-under and France forty years later, he still to master the affairs of your own Bingham, Utah," Joe's father writes, some conditions; Joe, the stoic; Joe, the claimed it was the finest in the world. country, to be part of a team in your "a strike was called by [some Nevada] western humorist. The brutal depression, the struggles party, a proletarian party rooted in the workers. The smelting company hired of the workers and farmers, these are class struggle of your country. a gang of strikebreakers, and they Inspired by Bolsheviks the things that marked Joe as a young killed two of the strikers. Nothing was You have another duty, too. To Joe told us a little about himself in man. These are the things that pre­ done to the company, not even a court squelch any presumptions by anyone the introduction he wrote to Trotsky's pared him to be won to Trotskyism, to session. Instead, the governor of Nev­ who claims to be an internationalist My Life. It was reading about the a world view that was the least provin­ ada ordered the state militia out to that they're going to write programs or Bolsheviks on the front pages of the cial, least narrowly American of any protect the company's interests." prescribe medicines for revolutionists newspapers that first got Joe inter­ possible world view. in other countries. Those were the kind of things that The internationalist perspective morally repelled Joe's father. Those ested in the broader world and gave Joe lived up to these standards him his first political sympathies. He stuck with him to the end. To Joe, the were the sort of events that surrounded pretty well, as you've heard testimony began digging around in libraries, Socialist Workers Party and the to in the speeches and messages here. Joe and were part of his earliest memo­ Fourth International were basically nes. listening, arguing. He began devouring He never tried to dictate programs or books. He quickly became known as one and the same. To join one, you also tactics for other countries. Regardless There's another interesting thing in joined the other. Every revolutionist is the autobiography-more personal. the socialist and the Bolshevik. And of of his wide knowledge and insight course, in those days, everyone. a party member in their own country, about countries in Latin America and Joe's father is talking about the diffi­ fights to make the revolution there cult problems of making a living and thought Bolsheviks were just wild-eyed elsewhere, he was not and never consi­ bomb throwers. first and foremost, and in doing so is raising a large family. "We had a dered himself a specialist in the affairs Joe soon became known as the athe­ an integral and invaluable part of the of any country except one-the United problem with the oldest boy" -that's world party of socialist revolution. Joe-the father writes. "The oldest boy ist, too, which was probably considered States. even worse. was hard to keep at home, and we had Joe always said that during his to tie him to the porch. He would go He wandered around. He knew and years in Mexico as Trotsky's secretary, Utah origins he loved the outdoors. He became a clear to the end of the rope and then he learned some of the deepest interna­ All the things Joe said about Jim cry and holler as loud as he could." great marksman-he claims he could tionalist lessoris and got the greatest Cannon-how. he began in Rosedale, But no rope and no porch could ever often nail a jackrabbit with a pistol. programmatic grasp of politics from Kansas, and moved from the Great hold the oldest boy-that was for sure. He learned tools. He learned all about discussions with the Old Man on Plains to a world-historic view-that cars. He learned a lot about plants. American questions-something Trot­ was true of Joe, too. You just have to It was in Utah that Joe picked up He thought that Snelgrove's had the sky took a special interest in.

18 scientist for the revolution When he was sixteen, Joe met Reba Hooper. From then on, he and Reba were connected in their lives and in their adventures. Joe and Reba were both dropouts. Like millions of other young people during the depression, Reba made it through about one year of high school and then went to work. ,Joe's mother was determined that every one of her fifteen children would go to college, but Joe was the only one to make it. He made it for a couple of years, was recruited to the Trotskyist movement, and then headed west to help build the movement in the San Francisco Bay Area. You had to be resourceful in those hard times. Joe and Reba told me that our headquarters in Salt Lake for awhile was the Joseph William Taylor Funeral Home, owned by a sympa­ thizer of the movement. Joe took a job in the office. He and Reba lived there and used it as a party headquarters. You take advantage of what you've got and move ahead. Joe and Reba were often referred to More than 550 people attended New York meeting to launch Joseph Hansen Publishing Fund Milil.mt!Lou Howort as a team, because they worked to­ gether so closely for so many years. But I think that view of them is partly that of Farrell [Dobbs] and Joe. Defend the revolution. And in doing proach to politics we learned from false. It misses the more important He was among those who stood fast, that, exert every effort to help its Trotsky. point that they were two individuals carried a heavy load, and kept the leaders extend it. As the Cuban revolution unfolded, who were part of a much bigger team­ party from faltering under the tough Fight for and explain the need for a Joe reviewed and enriched the most the cadres of the Socialist Workers circumstances of the witch-hunt pe­ Leninist party in Cuba and on a world fundamental conquests of Marxism: Party and the Fourth International. riod. scale, and the need for socialist demo­ our understanding of the state and the That was the team in which they The third period began with the cracy. government; the role of our class in worked throughout their entire adult victory of the Cuban revolution and From the beginning, Joe explained this revolutionary epoch; and the role lives. the end of a long dry spell in young the quality of the political leadership of the revolutionary party. recruits to our movement. That's when team around Fidel Castro-their revo­ The Cuban revolution was a great Three periods I knew Joe. lutionary character, their contradic­ pleasure to Joe the scientist. It pro­ I think you can divide Joe's political The Cuban revolution didn't give Joe tions, and the particular abilities of vided a real-life experiment to study, to life into three periods. a new lease on life; he never needed Castro himself. Joe was not one of dissect; to understand. The first encompasses his recruit­ that. But it had a very deep impact on 6ose who considered the Cuban lead­ It shed new light on what had hap­ ment at the University of Utah; the him and changed him in important ership primarily a Guevarist one. He pened in China a decade earlier. Dur­ period of his experiences working with ways. correctly assessed Castro's greater pol­ ing the fifties, Joe had made important Jim Cannon on the West Coast; his itical strengths and understood that contributions toward a Marxist analy­ years in Mexico learning politics and Revolutionary openings the leadership team of the Cuban sis of the social overturns in Eastern discipline alongside Trotsky-the sin­ This historic event proved to Joe revolution was built around Fidel. Europe, Yugoslavia, and China. But gle thing that most transformed Joe's that a new period of the world revolu­ Joe believed that revolutionists had China was the toughest, posing a life and marked him from that time tion had opened. This unanticipated one practical obligation here in this variety of questions-questions about forward. revolution, only ninety miles from the country, in Cuba, and throughout the the state and government, the role of The second period began after Trot­ shores of American imperialism, led world: to make a bloc with the Castro­ guerrilla warfare, the role of the pea­ sky's death. Joe returned to the states against and over the heads of the ists against the Stalinists. This was of santry in that massive revolution. Joe and came to New York City. During Cuban Stalinists, opened up new politi­ historic importance. The outcome of thought it presented enough of a chal­ the forties and fifties, Jim Cannon and cal opportunities for our movement in that struggle-which Joe believed was lenge to call it a headbuster. And he his generation were still very active in an entirely unexpected way. going to be a fight to the death-would didn't think either he or anyone else the leadership of the party. Just as Trotsky's third exile was the deeply influence the world revolution dealt with it in a totally satisfactory Joe, with all his talents, went time of his deepest, richest, and most and deeply influence the American way. through a further apprenticeship in the mature written contributions; the pe­ revolution. In addition to what he wrote on working-class movement, taking a var­ riod beginning with the Cuban victory In this struggle, Joe always insisted Cuba itself, that revolution also gave iety of assignments and contributing was Joe's. that we had two basic contributions to Joe a chance to go back, look at, and · as a party journalist. He went through The SWP's approach to Cuba was make: the Leninist strategy of party understand the process that had oc­ the sometimes difficult transition in simple, and Joe wrote more about it building; and the method of the Transi­ curred in China from a whole new leadership from Jim's generation to than anyone else. tional Program, the .fundamental ap- Continued on next page $8,000 raised in NY for publishing fund

More than $8,000 was raised for workers and farmers government, In addition to the New York gath­ Boyle Heights. For more informa­ the Joseph Hansen Publishing Fund and many other topics. ering, Joseph Hansen Publishing tion, call (213) 482-1820. at theN ew York meeting. The aim of The fund was initiated following Fund meetings will be held in: San Francisco Bay Area. Febru­ the fund is to collect $20,000 by Hansen's death by Reba Hansen Los Angeles. February 4, 2:00 ary 11, 3:00 p.m. at the Unitarian March 31 to publish some of the and by the contributing editors of p.m. at the Community Service Or­ Church, corner of Franklin and most important writings by Joseph Intercontinental Press! lnprecor­ ganization Hall, 2130 East First Geary streets in San Francisco. Call Hansen. George Novack, Ernest Mandel, Street (at First and Chicago) in (415) 824-1992. "Many comrades have been in­ Pierre Frank, and Livio Maitan. Detroit. February 17, 7 p.m. at spired and impressed since last Au­ The project has won wide interna­ 6404 Woodward. For more informa­ gust by the publication of the first tional support. Among the most tion call (:113)' 875-.5322. such collection of Joe's works on the recent sponsors are Robert Alex­ Future issues of the Militant will Cuban revolution, which was one of ander, a scholar of Latin American report on these and other publishing Joe's finest contributions to Marx­ affairs; Irish revolutionist Ber­ fund meetings. ism," chairperson Mary-Alice Wa· nadette Devlin McAliskey; Marguer­ To contribute, fill out the coupon ters told the New York meeting. ite Bonnet, Trotsky's literary execu­ below and send it to: "Today that book is serving to tor; Dave Holmes of the Australian Joseph Hansen Publishing reeducate an entire generation of Socialist Workers Party; Francois Fund, 14 Charles Lane, New revolutionists on the understanding Moreau and Joyce Meissenheimer of York, N.Y. 10014. and appreciation of how to approach the Revolutionary Workers League/ and analyze the great events of the Ligue Ouvriere Revolutionnaire in r------, class struggle as they are unfold­ Canada; Marxist anthropologist and I I want to contribute $ . 1 ing." feminist Evelyn Reed; Young Social­ Waters said that plans are under ist Alliance leader Cathy Sedwick; I Name I way to publish the book in French, Ross Dawson of the Forward news­ I I German, and Spanish. paper in Canada; and Bohdan Kraw­ I Address I The success of the publishing chenko, an associate editor of Cri· fund, Waters explained, will ensure tique magazine. M1l1\ant Lou HO.\Orl I City I the quickest possible publication of Twenty initial sponsors of the MARY-ALICE WATERS: 'Joe's works books by Hansen on revolutionary fund were listed in last week's Mili· on Cuba are helping to educate an I s tate z·1p ____ I strategy m Latin America, the tant. entire generation of revolutionists. L______J

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 19 Joe was closely involved in the fight He explainPd these in his speech on Joe was an expert on everything in the 19.50s that led to a split in the Jim Cannon three years ago. But Joe connected with IP. Joe thought it was ... Hansen Fourth International. The stakes in was simply repeating what ,Jim irresponsible for the editor of a publica­ Continued from preceding page that fight were very high-both politi­ learned from Lenin and Trotsky. tion not to be intimately knowledge­ angle. I stress this, because along with cally and organizationally-for the I want to summarize what Joe wrote: able about all aspects of its production. Joe's writings on Cuba and Latin world movement. First, international leaders can And also about the problems and America, his writings on China in the But Joe was convinced, along with never act on the basis of ulterior mo· needs of tlw print shop that had to put 1960s and 1970s are among his finest most other SWP leaders of that time, tives. They must act objectively and it out. contributions to our understanding of that the split was not necessary. Here, fairly toward all the different trends of the state and Stalinism. the political police of U.S. imperi­ thought in any given party and coun­ Objectivity and kindness Finally, Joe thought that the Cuban alism-the FBI and CIA-intervened try. Contrary to some people's opinion of revolution opened up a new revolution­ directly into the fight. They did it by Second, they listen carefully to every Joe, he has strong emotions and was ary period in this century. The stran­ their control over the border and over side in any dispute when appeals are as excitable as the next person. But glehold of Stalinism was broken. The international travel. made to their judgment. They never he knew how to keep his emotions long detour was coming to an end. As abuse their reputation and authority. under control. soon as Cuba hit and Joe absorbed its At the climax of the fight, the SWP They never try to settle old scores or This was because Joe was convinced full meaning, he knew we were a lot leadership believed that if a central defend any mistakes. that objectivity, kindness, and encour­ closer to the time when a radicaliza­ party leader could get over to Europe to Third, leaders always let a political agement in your relationship with tion was going to be manifested in the talk to comrades there, they could fight follow its course. They view this every revolutionist you work with are American working class. convince many people, slow down the as a natural process through which a the mark of a revolutionary leader. I He knew it would mean tremendous drive toward a split, and probably young party develops a leadership that don't think you can find anyone whom opportunities for the revolutionary prevent it. can stand on its own feet and lead the Joe worked with over the past fifteen movement in this country. But neither Joe, nor any other cen­ party, including in internal political years who would deny that those are tral leader of the party, was able to get struggles. When the time comes to fair words to describe Joe. Strategy for Latin America a passport. Joe always kept the money express any opinion, leaders express it Joe always said, "Whatever you do The second political chapter in this in politics, you have to do as a scient­ last period of Joe's life was helping to ist." He would look at me and say, "If lead the fight within the Fourth Inter­ you were dissecting a frog in a labora­ national for a correct revolutionary tory, would you allow yourself to get strategy in Latin America. mad at the frog?" That's a scientific Beginning in late 1967, the leaders of job, he said. If you got mad, you could the SWP realized that a growing sec­ cut off a leg or puncture a liver. tion of the leadership of the Fourth "You have no more right to operate International was moving toward ele­ from anger in the revolutionary move­ vating guerrilla warfare from a tactic ment," Joe would say. He didn't live up to a strategy. Under the impact of to this perfectly, but he did pretty well. rising struggles in Latin America and Joe was a student of Freud. He a misreading of the lessons of the understood a lot about himself, about Cuban revolution, they were coming us, about our conscious thought, and under the influence of Guevarist and about our unconscious processes. I Debrayist ideas. think Freud shaped his life more than We were convinced that if a decisive anyone except Trotsky. turn was not taken away from this But Joe was not an advocate of guerrillaist orientation, the entire psychoanalytic methods or explana­ Fourth International would be in grave tions in politics. What counts is what danger. A continuation and deepening people do politically-how they mar­ of this wrong strategic orientation, Joe shal and use their drives, their ener­ argued, would lead to other errors. We gies, and their capacities. They have to would begin to misread Stalinism, by be judged as political people. elevating military tactics above politi­ He despised Stalinism partly be­ cal program. We would start to lose cause of its reactionary falsification some of the continuity of our program. Ice cream and good cigars were among Joe and rejection of scientists such as We would become susceptible to alien Freud, obscurantist attitudes toward class pressures, as we tried to explain scientific theories and advances in order rejected by the State Department carefully and with thorough explana­ complex events and fit them into a understanding the complex human when they refused to give him his tion. false framework that didn't fit what we animal. passport. They refused for openly polit­ Fourth, real leaders are completely had expected. The world movement Joe was happy about many of the ical reasons. open to argument and ready to change would be open to terrible disappoint­ changes in attitudes that have taken That's one reason why Joe and Far­ their mind if the arguments are persua­ ments and confusion when forces that place over the past twenty years. He rell, who had a few run-ins with the sive. Joe Hansen was always capable we shouldn't have counted on didn't do thought that the world was more and political police in the thirties and for­ of changing his mind in a discussion. I what we hoped they would. more outgrowing reactionary prejudi­ saw it many times. ties as well, got special enjoyment out ces. The more free workers are from the Joe considered helping lead the fight of being plaintiffs against the FBI and Fifth, leaders never use organiza­ to reverse this erroneous course the prejudices fostered by class society and Justice Department in the SWP's land­ tional crackdowns to deal with politi­ most important single political obliga­ repeated by the petty-bourgeois mis­ mark lawsuit. cal questions. They rely on advice and tion of his life. He believed that the leaders of the labor movement, Joe Joe was absolutely determined that discussion. work he did and the articles he wrote believed, the better equipped we are to the party's first obligation was to put Finally, they always remember that explaining our positions in that strug­ understand ourselves and to organize the International back together again. the international leadership is the sum gle were his greatest single contribu­ ourselves in the fight for a better The entire SWP leadership thought total of experienced leaderships of the tion to our world movement. world. reunification was possible and that it national sections, collaborating and Those writings were as close as Joe Joe was encouraged by the changes would prepare an entire new genera­ acting as an international team. could come to emulating what he had in the status of women and their tion to lead the Fourth International learned when Trotsky was writing the Those are the simple rules. Joe struggles. He was encouraged by the forward. polemics collected in In Defense of thought these were the soundest, quick­ changes in the status of oppressed This goal of reunifying the big ma­ Marxism. est, and easiest way to build the Inter­ nationalities and their struggles. He jority of the cadres of the Fourth Joe was a revolutionary intellectual national. pointed out that this meant an enrich­ International was accomplished in of the finest caliber, but he had no Then he would always add, "Of ing advance in our enjoyment and 1963. And Joe played a decisive role in interest in impressing or seeking ap­ course, it's also the only way." understanding of life, in addition to a it. proval from the "experts" of academia. The only way, if you want an inter­ major strengthening of the workers And so, with this more recent fight He sought clarity to help advance the national made up of revolutionary movement's ability to successfully over strategy in Latin America, Joe workers movement. He knew that you parties led by national leaderships carry out the socialist revolution. considered the greatest victory not that didn't become a theoretician by decid­ that can do the job in their countries. our basic views were proven correct, ing to become a theoretician, but by This was the lesson from Lenin and A fun-loving person but that this vital political dispute was taking any political responsibility, any Trotsky that sunk into Jim Cannon's Contrary to what some people carried out and largely settled without political opening, and understanding head. This was the lesson Jim passed thought about Joe from a distance, he a split in the basic cadre in the Inter­ it, explaining it to others, and acting . on to all SWP leaders. was not really a taciturn person. Of national. We proved that we could course, Joe was no glad-bander. He on it. have the deepest-going, most impor­ If you sit down and read Dynamics 'Intercontinental Press' was discreet and trustworthy like a tant, highest-stakes debate imaginable of the Cuban Revolution, for example, During this past fifteen years of leader should be, yes. in ·an international movement, and do you'll be amazed at how well these Joe's life, Intercontinental Press­ But when Joe relaxed, he would talk it without a split. timely Marxist articles and polemics founded following the reunification of for hours about things that interested hold up twenty years after they were We conducted the discussion in such the Fourth International in 1963- him. At such times, he seemed to those written. a way that thousands and thousands played an invaluable political role. around him like the most fun-loving Joe had firm opinions about political of new members were prepared to move Joe's task in editing IP was not a person imaginable. faction fights in the revolutionary forward. simple one. During many of these Before he got diabetes, he was wil­ movement. He did not consider them Joe also always considered the job of years, Joe was part of a minority in the ling and able to drink a few drops with aberrations, something to be ashamed reunification unfinished. He was espe­ Fourth International. He was editing the younger comrades on these occa­ of-unless they were abused and led in cially happy when the Organizing an international journal here in New sions, too. a wrong and harmful way. Nor were Committee for the Reconstruction of York, far from the International's cen­ Joe enjoyed a good cigar. But in the they narrow, "internal," or sectarian the Fourth International began to seek ter in Europe. last years, he was a smoker of a problems of small groups. out discussions with the United Secret­ It was a difficult task to come out certain kind. He was like Red Auer­ Such disputes, Joe wrote in 1977, ariat in recent years. Joe was con­ each week, to be timely, to analyze new bach the former coach of the Boston "which sometimes break into hot fac­ vinced that a reunification with those events, and-at the same time-to use Celtics, who would light up when he tional contests, reflect the acute politi­ forces could be accomplished at the the magazine objectively to explain the was sure victory was guaranteed. It cal problems faced by the masses in new world congress of the Fourth views of the entire International. In was a good sign when, after a meeting, the twilight of capitalism. That is why International, or shortly afterwards. order to give IP readers a chance to Joe would accept a big cigar and light they are instructive and even absorb­ Joe held strong views on the ques­ understand all points of view. But he up. ing." tion of leadership in the International. accomplished this. I remember being in Italy with Joe Messages from Dobbs, Scholl, Iranian SWP Scores of messages paying brate the life of Comrade Joseph tribute to Joseph Hansen have Hansen will describe his many tal­ poured into New York from all ents and the selfless dedication with over the world by mail, tele­ which he brought these to bear in graph, and phone. A sampling the service of the movement. Yet it will appear in next week's 'Mili­ will not be mere repetition for us to tant.' mention some of his most outstand­ Below are two of the messages ing qualities as we came to know read at the New York meeting him during long years of close asso­ by chairperson Mary-Alice Wa­ ciation with him. ters. Waters opened the meeting Joe was a capable intellectual with a message "from the very who-following the initial example front lines of the world revolu­ set by Marx and Engels-identified tion, from the newly formed So­ himself with the working class and cialist Workers Party of Iran." cooperated fully with the workers in The second message is from the party leadership in striving to veteran Socialist Workers Party build the revolutionary movement. leaders Farrell Dobbs and Mar­ As part of the leadership team, he vel Scholl: played an especially strong role in helping to keep Marxist theory * * * abreast of the latest objective trends, doing so in connection with both Joseph Hansen's contributions to class-struggle developments in this Marxist theory are an important country and revolutionary events part of our revolutionary heritage. abroad. He wrote prolifically on His collaboration with Trotsky sym­ these and other subjects in a precise, bolizes the continuity of our move­ lucid manner that helped others ment from the days of the Bolshev­ gain deeper insight into complex iks. His defense of the Transitional situations. Being an accomplished Program, his single-minded devotion journalist, he did much at the same to the strategy of party building, time to promote high editorial stand­ exemplified by his struggle to build ards generally for the party press. the SWP and the Fourth Interna­ tional, places Hansen among the Comparable qualities of revolu­ most outstanding Leninists of our ew ran Hansen for U.S. Senate and tionary devotion were manifested by time. As such, he has educated a Farrell Dobbs for governor. 'Joe was a soldier for the duration,' said Dobbs and Joe on the organizational side. He whole generation of young Trotsky­ Marvel Scholl in message to New York meeting. functioned consistently as a loyal ist fighters and party builders. and disciplined comrade, accepting Comrade Hansen played a central in good spirit whatever assignments role in educating our leadership and Trotsky, and his lifetime experience mistakes, learn from them and build he received and putting the party's developing our party. During our in the revolutionary movement. He our own leadership. He educated us needs above personal considera­ years in exile, we came to know him was always concrete and precise. in the Bolshevik tradition of interna­ tions. His time and energy were and learn from him. Despite the Comrade Hansen taught us to tionalism. completely at the disposal of the major tasks he shouldered, he al­ concentrate on the problems of our Now in the midst of the third party, as were his tireless efforts to ways found time for us whenever we own country, to be Iranian Trotsky­ Iranian revolution, we are strug­ aid the party in getting the maxi­ needed to have a discussion with ists. He taught us to have revolution­ gling to build the proletarian party. mum results out of limited financial him. Our discussions would range ary patience. Yet, never once did he We will redouble our efforts in this means. In every respect he was a from theoretical questions to the give us advice on the tactical ques­ direction. This is the best tribute good soldier who had enlisted for the questions of day-to-day party build­ tions of our movement, never did he that Comrade Hansen would have duration in the revolutionary strug­ ing tasks. With his usual thought­ try to use his tremendous moral wanted us to pay to his memory. gle for humanity's socialist future. out and concise questions and com­ authority with us to intervene in our Joe was a beloved, respected, and ments, he imparted to us the result internal situation. We learned that * * * treasured comrade in arms. We shall of his years of collaboration with we had the right to make our own Speakers at the gathering to cele- miss him greatly.

and Reba in the summer of 1965. We achieved by the people who walk When Joe sat down, though, he had pieces of stone that fly all over the were there for a meeting of the Interna­ around in these funny bodies. made a political point that could not room. tional Executive Committee. We Joe could be stoical, but he was not a have been made in a better-or more cheated and took a day off in Florence stoic. His aim was not to suffer the devastating-way. Just human effort on the way back. They took me to problems of the world but to eliminate Joe always said that the biggest Joe would have objected to some of Michelangelo's statue of David and them. Transformation, not endurance, mistake revolutionists can make is to the things that are said to honor him began talking to me about it-its form was his goal. put on an act, pretend you're some­ as comradely exaggerations. He would and structure, materials, ideas behind Joe was always trying to figure out thing different than you are. I think Continued on next page it, and controversies over it. how things worked. He was a tinkerer. that was the best piece of advice he Some years later, when I had learned He loved to build radios, fix zippers, ever gave me. Joe told me: a little bit about art, I realized how make the most difficult cactus or or­ "Can you imagine Lenin getting up much they knew and how much joy chid bloom. That was one way he in the morning, looking in the mirror, they got out of it. Several times follow­ relaxed. But hobbies never became a and saying, 'Now what would Lenin do ing a meal Joe would point to a paint­ substitute for his vocation as profes­ today?'" ing on the wall and start analyzing it. sional revolutionist. To understand. To No, just get up and get to work. Dynamics of the Cuban He would analyze it so you would change. To change and understand. To The problem with being a permanent Revolution: The Trotskyist laugh at it. He would analyze it so you understand more as you change. actor is that the mask can become the View. could understand it. Then so that you That's what Joe loved doing. face. And that's fatal. 393 pp. cloth $18; paper $5.45. could laugh at yourself. Joe was prim­ Joe was also a poker player. As a arily a scientist, not an artist. But he Disliked pomposity good westerner, he prided himself on The Abern Clique. put a lot of stock in a revolutionary Those of us who worked with Joe this. But he pointed out that there's 32 pp. $.50. politician's "ability to see." thought that he was one of the funni­ only one way to play poker in a politi­ Class, Party, and State and the He recommended the great Renais­ est stand-up comedians we've ever cal debate-with all your cards face up. Eastern European Revolution. sance writers and the writers of the heard. Sometimes he would respond in You want your colleagues to know 62 pp., $1.25. French Enlightenment. He would re­ the only way possible to some prepos­ clearly what you're thinking, what commend Diderot, Rabelais, Cer­ terous proposal. you're proposing, what's being dis­ The Fight Against Fascism in the vantes, and Shakespeare. He identified One incident sticks in my mind in cussed. It's the only way to be objective USA. with their thirst for new horizons, for particular. It was several years ago at and fair, to resolve any question. With James P. Cannon and others. 56 pp. $1.35. human freedom, for the good life for all a steering committee meeting of the In a factional debate, whenever com­ humanity. Their humor, their satire, Leninist-Trotskyist Faction in the In­ rades began to be suspicious of Joe, What is American Fascism? their humanism, their expression of ternational. During that meeting, when they began looking for the trick With James P. Cannon. 48 pp. $1.25. the social, political, scientific, and someone took the floor to propose that up his sleeve, when they began wond­ Healy's Big Lie. philosophical preoccupations of their Joe be designated general secretary of ering, "What's he really after?"-they times. He enjoyed their attacks on the faction. With George Novack and others. 128 would always wind up getting them­ pp. $2. prejudice and cant. Joe got up and ambled slowly down selves in trouble. Because Joe meant Joe liked eomic characters. He to the front. "I am deeply honored by just what he said. The Workers and Farmers Govern­ thought we were all comic characters. this proposal," Joe said. "I hope you ment. Another of Joe's favorite examples of He didn't cotton to pompous people. He will now begin addressing me as, Your 64 pp $1 thought they were fools, not comic Excellency." how to approach politics scientifically characters. And he disdained the hy­ He then went on in that vein for was to compare it to diamond cutting. The 'Population Explosion': How pocrisy of the prude. about ten minutes. He said he found it A diamond cutter studies the dia­ Socialists View lt. We're all comic. All of us are disappointing that the title of king or mond, locates the fault lines, places the 47 pp. s 65 wrapped up in these funny bodies that emperor had not been considered, too. chisel on just the right spot and taps it have bowels as well as brains. Only by He described the uniform and hat he gently-and the diamond falls apart 0 rder from Pathf1 ndor Press. 410 recognizing this, by laughing at it, can thought should be prepared for the into four or five beautiful pieces. West Strt.:et. New York, New York we see the glorious possibilities and general secretary of the Leninist­ If you just grab a hammer and hit 10014. Enclose $50 for postag•:. the happiness that derive from what is Trotskyist Faction. the diamond, it shatters into worthless

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 21 ~,;;" 1 everyone was working to get out a working:1;lass' radicalization in the have to do it with. We in thi!{country publication on time. He liked the disci­ United States. He saw great opportuni­ have a gigantic responsibility, as we ... Hansen pline of a production schedule and ties in this country, leading toward the understand full well. A responsibility Continued from preceding page thought that the most efficient way to struggles that can resolve the fate of of decisive importance to the world object to descriptions such as "socialist work. all humanity. The need to act on this revolution. man" or "genius." So he proposed that he continue on in a timely way dominated all his work · Joe, like Jim and like Trotsky, in­ Joe didn't believe that any of us are IP, while turning over more and more and his advice. sisted that nothing will ever be finally socialist men or women. He said that editorial responsibility to Mike Bau­ settled until the American proletariat socialist humanity will build a statue mann, the managing editor, and that The American revolution takes power in this country. to us. They will honor us for how well he take on some special projects. At the end of his speech on Jim But there's another reason why we we did in knocking over this old order But Joe told me he wanted to con­ Cannon, Joe said this: in the United States have a special with all its crap, despite our many tinue to work on assignment. He "The question might be asked, how responsibility. And that is that we've limitations inherited from the epoch wanted to know from the party leader­ well did Cannon succeed in this [lead­ had a unique advantage. Because of a we live in. ship what needed to be done. Joe-the ership], particularly on the interna­ peculiar combination of historical He thought it was a joke to start most prestigious and most capable tional level?" factors-no wars on this continent, talking about ourselves as socialist individual in the leadership bodies of I'll transpose "Joe" for "Jim" in the longevity, good health, right livin' and men and women. Our job is to make the Fourth International-insisted next few sentences: good thinkin'-we've had a large the revolution that will create the that we continue to decide what would "I think the question is somewhat number of older leaders who worked conditions for such human beings to be most useful. As Marvel and Farrell misleading. The Fourth International with us and taught us everything they emerge. so accurately said, Joe was a good consists of the sum of its national learned over decades. That gives us a Joe wasn't a genius. The last genius soldier who had enlisted for the dura­ leaderships, and the primary test they greater responsibility than those who in the revolutionary movement was tion. face is their capacity to build combat were not fortunate enough to have that Trotsky. Joe considered that simply a Joe worked to the end. The last year parties in their own countries. How continuity of revolutionary experience. fact. or so he used every effort to protect his well they meet the test will be seen in We can't exactly continue Joe's He thought that those who allowed strength. He even had to avoid visits the period now opening up. work. Joe's work is done. He did it. We cultism to grow up around them were with many old friends. "They'll under­ "As for Joe, he left some speeches have to continue ours. And Joe laid out descending into a form of religion. stand," he said. "My affection for them and some writings on the subject. He what that is in the last thing he ever Joe especially objected to the idea hasn't changed at all. I just have to left his example, and not without im­ wrote, his greetings to the Young So­ that he put out a superhuman effort for conserve my energy." portance, he left some cadres, able to cialist Alliance convention at the turn the movement. Joe said no, he never What were the last things he worked start on a higher level than was avail­ of this year. put out a superhuman effort. Just a on? able to him when he first began." So we can give the last word to Joe. human effort. He enjoyed it. One was the draft world political Responsibility is a relative concept, "For the Young Socialist Alliance. Joe was the first to insist that what­ resolution for the next congress of the of course, How well you· do depends not "For the Socialist Workers Party. ever he contributed was not some Fourth International. He wrote most of only on what you do but on what you "For the Fourth International." individual accomplishment but the the section on the growing opportuni­ product of a team effort by the entire ties in the industrial working class and central leadership of the party. What­ the need to proletarianize the entire ever your assignment, it's just labor Fourth International. Working on that power, the sum total of which turns the made him especially happy. Ever since wheels of a homogeneous political ma­ the Cuban revolution he had known chine. these new openings and new chal­ Joe had his weaknesses, of course, lenges were coming. and he would have been disappointed He worked very hard, and took a if at least one or two of them weren't little extra time, on the introduction to gently mentioned. the Cuba book [Dynamics of the Cu­ Joe followed the rule, "Never ask ban Revolution]. That introduction anyone to do what you would not do summarizes clearly his view of the yourself." That's a prime rule for any Cuban revolution. revolutionist, any leader. He collaborated with the comrades But Joe didn't always follow the who drafted the Latin American reso­ corollary: "Never ask anyone to do lution for the next world congress of more than they are capable of." He the Fourth International, which will sometimes did demand too much­ chart a new course for Latin American usually by example, by moral pressure. Trotskyists in a united world move­ He would invoke Red Army staff disci­ ment. Militant/Lou Howort pline, lessons of the civil war, and hope Jack Barnes, pointing to banner behind podium: 'We can give Joe the last word. It's- He wrote a couple of short articles the last thing he ever wrote.' that you wouldn't say, "But the civil and book reviews on important and war isn't on right now, Joe." complex political questions. If you pointed out to Joe what he On the day before he went into the Austin leaked word that the city's was doing, though, with a little firm­ hospital, Joe attended, as a guest, a ness, he would immediately say, "OK." long meeting of the SWP Political special "SWAT teams" were ready for Since Joe understood psychology, he ... strike action. It was reported that Tenneco Committee. He shared his ideas on Continued from back page was training a special forty-man secur­ understood the problems between gen­ Iran, on Cambodia, on changes and also rounded up boats to picket the erations and the problems of resent­ opportunities in the working class­ waterfront. ity guard at a private camp nearby. ment of strength that are common to cogent, clear, to-the-point ideas. The As the 11 p.m. shift approached-the On the day of the strike a police human relations in class society. He same Joe as always. first to be picketed-excitement in the helicopter hovered overhead. An ar­ also understood that young people in headquarters reached fever pitch. mored van was spotted downtown. particular like to discover ideas, like to A running disagreement Wives of shipyard workers were part And pQlice dogs were in ready supply. discover ways of doing things, inde­ Joe and I had one running disagree­ of it. "I'm not standing behind my "This is a setup as sure as I've ever pendently from their elders. ment. He was always hard on old husband in this strike," Pat Calautti seen one," a picketing designer told So Joe would sometimes maneuver people in the party. I was always hard said. "I'm standing right beside him." me. "Tenneco had a plan of attack, you, try to get you to propose the on young people. Then, at 9:30 p.m., the first picket and now it's carrying it out. They want trouble." course of action he favored. Then he Joe insisted that the older comrades contingents proudly marched down to "Tenneco's the lawbreaker, yet we would agree, grab the idea, salute you collaborate with, but never try to domi­ the gate. All along the shipyard for get penalized," said Calautti, who for proposing it, and help you drive the nate the younger comrades. Help, but more than twenty blocks, Washington heads the Thirty-seventh Street whole thing forward. don't try to buffalo. Take assignments Avenue became what one striker called pickets. "The government's not fair to But once you got to know Joe well, from, not give assignments to those "Steelworkers City." us, just like it wasn't to the miners." you always knew exactly what he was who have to learn and who have the Union hats, buttons, jackets, and up to-and he knew you did. It was responsibility. picket signs were everywhere. Cars The strikers know their battle will sometimes a hilarious experience to He got mad at people who didn't live honked greetings, and passengers shake the entire nonunion South. watch him do it. by those rules. raised fists and flashed victory salutes. " 'Right to work' laws will go down I had the opposite point of view. I By 11 p.m. more than 100 pickets the drain after we win," predicted Dick Joe's illness Hall. thought that younger le~ders who blocked the main Thirty-seventh Street In early 1972 Joe discovered he had Outside Gus's, a member of the Boi­ don't work with, collaborate with, and gate. serious diabetes. From then on, the lermakers at the Norfolk Navy Yard know how to learn from and draw on Despite provocative antics of the disease simply began burning out his asked where he could get "Go Steel­ the abilities of the older comrades riot-equipped state and city cops, the resistance and the natural capacity of workers" stickers and buttons. "I want weren't really complete as leaders. strikers maintained their holiday his body to fight off even two-bit to show my support. At my next local Why should you go easy on them? mood. Songs were improvised: "We're infections. Diabetes meant the end of meeting I'm going to propose that we So we compromised. We agreed that fighting for our union, we cannot be Joe's ice cream, which was the only do everything we can for the Steel­ we were approaching the· same thing moved." thing he really missed as far as sweets workers," he said. from different angles. "Free at last, free at last," the go. "Unions should be everything the He had to · change his pattern of Of course, like every human being, pickets shouted as their brothers and Joe was unique, and he's irreplaceable. sisters on the afternoon shift poured name implies," says Calautti. "Joining functioning, to drop a certain amount together hand in hand. You know that of work, to protect his resources and I would be less than honest to say that out. you don't feel it when you lose someone "We're making history here tonight," old saying, 'United we stand, divided energies. But this didn't have a big we fall'? Well, we're going to prove that impact until 1975. If Joe was stronger you fought in combat with and who a Black striker said to no one in in this strike." and produced more in earlier years gave unstintingly of friendship and particular. "We're beautiful," added than he did between 1969 and 1975- love. another. and people who knew him say he did­ You can't be totally prepared for it, Out of some 1,000 third-shift then I would hate to have seen it. either. But, -as Joe would say, facts are workers, only 70 went in the gate. You can help Because in those years he was some­ stubborn things. And his death is a By January 30, the local newspapers Send messages of support and thing to behold. fact. reached new crescendos in sensational­ financial contributions to: United But by late 1975 Joe was much Joe was convinced-from analysis, istic coverage of the upcoming strike. Steelworkers Local 8888, Bank of weaker, and he and Reba discussed not from hope-that we are in a new Downtown merchants were busy Newport News Building, Third how best to proceed. period of world revolution opened up boarding up their store windows. Floor, 3301 Washington Avenue, Joe had always functioned with by Cuba, verified by the events of 1968, Armed state troopers were on parade. Newport News, Virginia 23607. deadlines, at a desk in an office where and proven by the stirrings of a Newport News Police Chief George

22 World Outlook News, analysis, and discussion of international political events Bill of rights for workers & peasants Iranian Socialist Workers Party program

I Anti-shah demonstrators gather in Tehran.

As reported elsewhere in this The foundation stone of these rights tion. Of the freedom and voluntary the land they till. issue, the Iranian Socialist was the recognition of the right of the cooperation of the nationalities of Iran, • The right to establish a govern­ Workers Party is calling for the people to take control of their own no trace remains. This entire heritage ment of workers and peasants instead immediate election of a constitu­ destiny. of the revolution must be revived. of a government of the property­ ent assembly so that the masses of In opposition to the oppression of the owning classes. workers and peasants can demo­ Qajars, the people wanted the follow­ For the revival and extension • The right to nationalize the oil cratically discuss and decide the ing rights: of the heritage of the second industry and take it away from the future course of the Iranian revo­ • Freedom of expression, freedom of revolution imperialists. lution. the press, freedom of association, and The second revolution in Iran, which Today the broad masses of Iran are The Iranian Trotskyists have freedom of religion. followed the end of the rule of Reza demanding a new set of rights beyond distributed thousands of copies of • The right to due process instead of Shah at the conClusion of the Second those sought in the second revolution. a four-page tabloid outlining their the arbitrary penalties and ·rulings World War, revived the heritage of the On the basis of the great heritage of program for Iran. Below are major meted out under the control of the constitutional revolution in various the previous revolutions and the press­ excerpts from that program, in­ monarchy. forms. During the rule of Reza Shah ing needs of Iran at the present time, cluding an important section on • The right of the people to vote and every nationality in Iran was subjected the Socialist Workers Party proposes the constituent assembly and the to elect the representatives of their to national and linguistic oppression. the following bill of rights for the workers and peasants govern­ choice. The second revolution began with the workers and toilers. ment. • The right to form committees of rebellion of the nationalities. In the factories, the countryside, the people's representatives that would be In Azerbaijan, women won the right universities, everywhere that the For the revival and extension responsible to the people themselves to vote. A workers and peasants gov­ workers and toilers are waging their of the heritage of the constitu­ and not to the monarchy. ernment came into existence in Azer­ struggles, we want to achieve these tional revolution • The right to arm the people and baijan in less than a year. After the rights. It is urgent and vital, in opposi­ More than seventy years ago, the organize a people's militia. suppression of this uprising on the 21 tion to the present regime, to create a people of Iran rose up to win deliver­ • The right of the mass organiza­ of Azar [December 12], an Iran-wide constituent assembly on the basis des­ ance from the yoke of the autocratic tions of the people to administer all the movement developed. In the course of cribed below. Only in this way will the Qajar monarchy and the piratical affairs of the towns and provinces. this movement, the workers organized people be able to discuss the issues agents of the British and tsarist Rus­ • The right to liberation and volun­ in labor unions of their own. The oil facing the country and decide how to sian states. tary cooperation of all the peoples and industry was nationalized. Moreover, solve them. The essential objectives of the consti­ nationalities living in Iran. in Azerbaijan and later in other places In order to achieve and consolidate tutional revolution were to put an end • The right of Iran to political and in Iran as well, the peasants seized the these rights, it is necessary to establish to the absolutist rule of the monarchy economic independence from imperial­ big estates. The coup d'etat of the 28 of a new social order in Iran, one free and of the foreign colonizers, and to ism. Mordad [August 19, 1953] put an end to from imperialist influence and domina­ build a democratic system that would With the defeat of the constitutional this second phase of the revolution. tion. The government of the property­ reflect the aspirations and demands of revolution, none of these rights could Coming after the twenty-year-long owning classes-the capitalists and the people of Iran. be solidified and guaranteed. After the period of stifling repression under Reza the big landowners-must be replaced Faced with the unrelenting mobiliza­ defeat of the constitutional revolution, Shah, the second revolution sought to by a government of the workers and tion of the masses striving to achieve the imperialist states, the remnants of achieve a new set of rights: peasants. Society must be reoriented their political freedoms, the monarchy the Qajar monarchy, and the property­ • The right to vote for women and away from serving the interests of the was finally forced to issue an edict for owning classes collaborated to bury participation of women in all the af­ ruling classes to serving those of the drawing up a constitution and setting the traditions of the revolution. The fairs of the society. masses of workers and toilers. up a parliament. In the eyes of the compilation of the basic laws made • The right of the oppressed nation­ people, the constitution represented a after the defeat of the revolution pre­ alities to use their own languages. A constituent assembly must rein on the monarchy and its agents. serves the record of all that the mo­ • The right of self-determination for be set up as soon as possible For the first time in the history of narchy and ruling classes destroyed. the oppressed nationalities. No government established from Iran, the constitutional revolution Nothing remains of the anjomans • The right of the workers to orga­ above will bring freedom to Iran. The struck at the autocratic rule of the [councils] and Mujahedeen [people's nize in labor unions. task of the people is not to support court by extending rights to the people. militias] that gave life to the constitu- • The right of the peasants to own Continued on next page

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 23 World Outlook

Continued from preceding page cooperatives or collective farms. The books and accounts of the secret tran­ handpicked governments set up from program for nationalizing agriculture sactions of these rich must be opened, on high. The basic task of the people is and putting it on a cooperative basis so that their robberies will be known to to establish a government that will should be designed so as to remove any everyone. The action by the central support their interests and their strug­ possibility of the small peasants being bank employees provides a clear exam­ gles. The goal of setting up a new expropriated and forced to join cooper­ ple of the importance of this. government is to achieve all the de­ atives. Until they recognize the possi­ mands that are being raised by the bility and need for taking another 8. Oppose the flight of capital oppressed and exploited in society. But path, the small peasants will continue from the country, oppose the the people cannot and must not wait to hold their own plots of land. capitalists' wrecking and sabo­ for any government to achieve their The workers and toilers should give tage of production: demands. Passivity will result only in consideration to how to solve the fol­ All the property of the capitalists the perpetuation of the old despotism. lowing questions regarding the no­ and wealthy people who have stolen The workers, peasants, and toilers; madic tribes that have always been billions of tumans [7 tumans equal women, the oppressed nationalities, put under pressure by government US$1] from the poor people and taken and students; and finally the soldiers programs. Special attention to improv­ this wealth outside the country must must all organize to win their de­ ing the economic life of the tribes. be confiscated and nationalized in the mands. A single assembly made up of Against forced settlement of the tribes. form of people's property. And not a representatives of all the political and Control by the tribes themselves over cent should be paid in compensation. religious fbrces of the people must be the areas in which they live. set up without delay. Those forces that 9. Workers and toilers control oppose a constituent assembly, while 4. Political and civil rights over the banks, industry, com­ claiming to defend the interests of the Release of all the political prisoners, merce, and social services: people, are in fact opposed to allowing return of all the exiles, complete aboli­ The capitalist parasites have grown the genuine expression of the will of tion of censorship, freedom to demon­ fat from exploiting the workers. The the masses. Therefore, the workers, strate and assemble, freedom of workers must have the right to know soldiers, and peasants, the masses of thought and expression, freedom for the "secrets" of the banks, factories, the people, will not wait for the conven­ all political parties, freedom and equal and all parts of basic industry, trans­ ing of the constituent assembly, but rights for all religions, the right to bear port, and the economy as a whole. The through their own organizations, by arms, freedom for labor unions, full bosses' control of the factories must be adopting the call for a constituent and equal political and civil rights for replaced by workers control. In this assembly as the central slogan in their Afghani, Pakistani, and other immi­ way, control of the workers and toilers fight for democracy, will advance the grant workers. All these rights must be must be established over the banks, conditions for achieving all their civil, instituted and guaranteed. basic industry and trade in general. economic, political and social de­ The offices, institutions, and big mands. 5. Freedom for the oppressed state companies that exploit millions The constituent assembly is faced nationalities: of Iranian toilers (workers, teachers, with the following questions, which Oil fields. Wealth of Iran should belong The most basic violations of the functionaries, and so on) in the inter­ are of fundamental importance for the to the Iranian people, not foreign capi­ rights of the non-Persian nationalities ests of the capitalists must be brought country: talists. are the suppression of their mother under the control of workers commit­ • The modern history of Iran is the tongues and the denial of their right to tees, cooperating with committees and history of unrelieved despotism and self-determination. These violations of unions of state employees, to form a monopolized all the wealth, so as to backwardness. This reality indicates their rights have also been the founda­ real system of social services for the that the road to solving the basic avert the economic catastrophe these toilers. capitalists intend to provoke. tion stones of the rule of the Pahlavi historic questions in Iran is fighting monarchy, the capitalists, and the for democracy and socialism. imperialists in Iran. These nationali­ 10. Against inflation and un- · The rule of the monarchy and the 2. Break the yoke of imperial­ ties must be given the freedom to use employment: capitalists in Iran is the source of all ism: their languages. The oppressed nation­ The workers cannot and must not the social evils that exist in the coun­ World imperialism holds Iran in alities of Iran must have the right to have to bear the burden of the savage try. The hunger, poverty, and unem­ bondage through its economic and self-determination, to exercise as they exploitation of the capitalists and the ployment that exist in the cities and in military pacts. All such pacts that choose. economic disasters they cause. Faced the countryside arise from the penetra­ American imperialism has imposed on Permitting oppression on the basis with the constantly rising prices of tion of imperialism and the rule of its us must be abrogated, and all Ameri­ of language culture, and nationality consumer goods, workers should get local partners. can advisers must be immediately must be clearly declared illegal. Spe­ full cost-of-living adjustments. The • Even after the end of the rule of expelled from Iran. The CENTO mil­ cial programs for building schools, rate of inflation must be measured by the shah, the crisis of the disintegrat­ itary pact and all military pacts and universities, and other public works in committees of workers, honest special­ ing state apparatus threatens the coun­ agreements with imperialist countries the districts inhabited by the op­ ists, and statisticians loyal to the try with a catastrophe or the return of and states under their control must be pressed nationalities must be under­ workers. Every worker must get a military rule. immediately ended. Not one drop of oil taken by the central state on an urgent wage sufficient to assure at least a • The problems creating the danger should be exported to Israel or South basis. decent standard of living. of catastrophe cannot be solved with­ Africa. Only in this way can the Persian Everyone who wants to work must out revolutionary methods. The deci­ Relations with those governments working people make restitution for be guaranteed a job. The workweek sive majority of the workers and toilers must be replaced by solidarity with the the oppression to which their Azerbai­ must not exceed forty hours. In order of Iran demand the adoption of various Palestinian masses and the Blacks of jani, Kurd, Baluchi, and Arab brothers to increase the number of jobs, the revolutionary measures. South Africa. All foreign companies and sisters have been subjected by the government must create public works The new Iran must build up a new and property must be confiscated and central state. In this way, they can projects such as the construction of governmental structure based on the nationalized without one cent in com­ replace the division created by the housing, cities, schools, universities, following social and economic organs. pensation. Not one cent should be paid central state with a lasting unity of all child-care centers, parks, roads, and so Once it is set up, the constituent as­ in interest or principal on the billions the working people of all the nationali­ on. There must be an end to the sembly should consider establishing of dollars in loans that the banks and ties of Iran. appropriation of huge sums for the the following bases of a new govern­ imperialist companies have extended army, police, and rural guards; this ment: in order to suck the blood of the people 6. Full rights and equality for money must be used instead to build of Iran. women, liberation of women: useful public works. Women, this great mass of human­ Similarly, a direct progressive tax 1. The government: system must be established, rising Local governments must be made up ity, have been oppressed and deprived 3. Unity of workers and pea­ sharply at each higher level of income. of representatives democratically for centuries. In the modern age, sants and a program of land Workers and toilers should be exempt elected by the organizations of the women workers have been subjected to reform: from taxes. Indirect taxes on such workers, peasants, white-collar double exploitation. The liberation of For the small and landless peasants, items as sugar, foodstuffs, and necessi­ workers, soldiers, university students, women is one of the fundamental tasks the following demands are urgent: ties of life for the broad masses must and high school students. of the revolution. Full political and Land to the peasants, land to the be abolished. The all-Iran government must be social rights and equality for women. tiller-take the land away from the big Moreover, in order to safeguard the made up of representatives of these Equal pay for equal work. landowners and absentee landlords standard of living of the workers and organizations chosen on an all-Iran In order to assure the economic without paying compensation. Grant raise it, insurance and social welfare basis with the voluntary collaboration independence of women, free child-care long-term credits and loans on easy programs must be instituted, especially of representatives of the oppressed na­ terms to the peasants. Total abroga­ centers must be set up and run at state expense. Women's right to control their unemployment insurance. Workers and tionalities. tion of the debts owed by peasants to lower-ranking civil servants must get All the officials of this government, the state for installments on the land own bodies and decide whether they want to bear children. This right in­ annual paid vacations of at least one at every level, must be subject to recall given them by the shah's land reform. month, as well as retirement benefits at any time. Open the ledgers and account books of cludes the use of abortion and contra­ ceptive methods. that will enable them to lead a decent The salaries of officials in this gov­ the Agricultural Bank and related in­ life after the age of fifty. The wages of ernment cannot exceed those of the stitutions. women, youth, and immigrant workers average worker. Wages for agricultural workers must 7. Abolition of business se­ must be equal to those of other Such a government can direct the be set at full parity with those of crets: workers. economy of the country and solve all industrial workers. The lands and Capitalists, property owners, land­ questions in the life of the country in property of the big landowners and the lords, the bosses of the big companies accordance with the interests of the model farms must be confiscated with­ and the intermediaries for foreign capi­ 11. Nationalize the banks, in­ majority of the people and not those of out payment of any compensation and tal, the chief bureaucrats in the army surance companies, basic in­ the exploiters. The interests of the distributed among the poor peasants, and civil service, and the court circles dustries, and transportation: working people must be placed above or else be placed under the control of have maintained total secrecy to hide Without regulating the activities of the greed of the capitalists, who have the agricultural workers in the form of their plundering of the country. All the the banks, it is impossibie to control 24 and regulate production and distribu­ the people. The people will mete out tion of goods for human needs. And justice themselves. For a constituent without total control over this, it is In order to defend the revolutionary impossible to make any fundamental unity of the workers and peasants advances in improving the wretched against the attacks of the capitalists assembly! living conditions of the masses. and imperialists, in order to defend the Through the banks, the capitalists life of the workers and peasants repub­ carry out their various schemes to lic, everyone must be armed. The orga­ For ·a workers and plunder the poor workers. All the nization of the Mojahedeen militia at banks must be nationalized and com­ the time of the Tabriz Anjoman in the bined in one state bank. All insurance constitutional revolution is a perfect peasants gov't! companies must be nationalized. example of how to organize a people's The following has been ex­ break the chains of oppression and The banks and basic industry and militia. This is also exemplified by the cerpted from a four-page pro­ exploitation that bind them. the most important branches of com­ defense. forces in Amol and other cities. gram now being distributed in At the present time, when the merce must be nationalized and Other examples are the workers and Iran by the Trotskyists of the broad masses of people have been brought under a state monopoly if any factory self-defense guards in the Socialist Workers Party (for­ able to achieve an important victory serious attempt is to be made to regu­ plants and the oil fields. As such merly Sattar League), sympa­ against the despotic and disintegrat­ late the economic activity of society in defense organizations spread more and thizing organization of the ing system in Iran, the U.S. impe­ accordance with human needs. Such more in the cities, in the working-class Fourth International in Iran. rialists, the Iranian generals, and all nationalizations are of a fundamen­ centers, and in the villages, the sold­ The translation is by 'Interconti­ the big landowners and capitalists tally different type than those carried iers, who are the sons of the toilers, nental Press/lnprecor.' have focused their plan around two out by the monarchy. The monarchy's will be reminded of their class roots basic axes. Deliberately and con­ "nationalized" oil, gas, petrochemical, and be won over to the side of the No government appointed from stantly, they have been sabotaging and steel companies were all created to workers and toilers. above can bring freedom to Iran. the production and distribution pro­ further the exploitation and plunder The achievement of democracy, cess so as to create an unprecedented carried on by the capitalists, the mo­ 14. International solidarity: the elimination of imperialist domi­ breakdown. In this way, they are narchy, and the imperialists. When the workers are in control of nation, and the winning of real seeking to engender a situation in The bankers and capitalists must society, the basis for advancing toward independence is possible only which the workers, peasants, and not get compensation for even the a society of abundance will have been through the struggle of the broad student organizations would be smallest part of their loot. The expro­ laid. But such progress is only conceiv­ masses. threatened with losing · the gains priation of the major means of produc­ able with the solidarity of the workers Therefore, it is necessary to dis­ they made in their struggles. At the tion and distribution is an entirely and toilers in other countries. Isolated solve both houses of the parliament same time, in order to halt the ad­ of the Rastakhiz* period imme­ vancing revolution, some of the gen­ diately. It is necessary to convene erals are planning a coup. Of course, without delay a constituent assem­ it remains to be seen if these plans bly made up of delegates elected by by U.S imperialism and its local universal and direct vote by secret supporters will succeed. ballot. No matter what regime is at In conditions of deepening present in power in Iran, it is urgent workers' struggles and growing so­ and vital for the broad masses, who lidarity between the people and the have paid a high price in blood for ranks of the armed forces, it would the gains they have made, to be able be very difficult to set the stage for to discuss freely the issues facing the such an economic breakdown or to country today. Only an assembly carry out a coup. However, not a made up of genuine representatives moment must be lost in advancing of the people can discuss all such the organization of the whole mass issues and make decisions about of workers, soldiers, and toilers. . . . them. All parties and political forces The call for a constituent assem­ in Iran must have the right to partic­ bly is the central slogan of all ipate freely in this democratic de­ democrats and socialists. The suc­ bate. cessful establishment of a constitu­ High school students and all other ent assembly and a democratic sections of the society, literate or decision-making process will be as­ illiterate, must have the right to take sured only when every section of the part in the constituent assembly workers, peasants, toilers, and soldi­ elections. All political groups ers have formed their own fighting banned under the shah's regime organizations. Through mass partic­ must have the right to participate in ipation in deciding the future of these elections. This right must be Iran, the people can end the era of extended as well to the soldiers. despotism and eliminate the capital­ Supervision of these elections is ist exploiters. . . . the task of the people themselves. It is only through their own inde­ Soldier and demonstrator embrace during recent demonstration in Only in this way will it be possible pendent struggles that the workers ists call for full political rights for soldiers. to keep the government from inter­ and toilers of Iran can achieve the fering in this democratic decision­ rights to which they are entitled. It making process. Committees of is the strikes, demonstrations, and different thing from taking the prop­ and besieged in a world of exploitation workers, soldiers, women, and marches that have shaken the op­ erty of the peasants, individual small and poverty, a workers and peasants peasants-both those committees pressive and corrupt government. It traders, and professionals. republic would not be able to take that already exist and others that is not logical, then, to strike and many steps forward. must be formed-could discuss the demonstrate in order to achieve 12. For a monopoly of foreign The great revolution of the disinher­ various issues and supervise the rights and freedoms and at the same trade: ited people of Iran has already had an elections to the constituent assem­ time place your confidence in the All foreign trade must come under a impact on every neighboring country. bly. political forces that benefit from the state monopoly, so that it can be put How could it be otherwise? The peo­ Delegates to the constituent as­ present system and have been under the control of all the people for ples of Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghan­ sembly should be elected by propor­ chosen to represent the decaying the benefit of society. istan are watching the revolution in tional representation on a nation­ system in Iran. Iran. They are being inspired by it and wide basis. Only in this way will all Only through building a mass 13. Dissolve SAV AK, the po­ gaining self-confidence from it. The cry political groups, even those with a socialist party can the power of the lice, and the rural guards; pol­ of freedom will doubtless have rever­ relatively small percentage of the Iranian workers and toilers be itical rights for the soldiers; berations in the Soviet Union as well. vote nationwide, be able to make brought to bear to destroy the go­ arm the people: After being isolated for years, the their voices heard. This is necessary vernmental apparatus of the capital­ All repressive bodies must be abol­ Palestinian revolutionists have heard for real democracy in discussion and ists, landowners, and their foreign ished. SAV AK must be abolished. The the powerful voice of solidarity raised decision making. imperialist partners. Only through police and the rural guards must be by millions of Iranians. The South The aim- in establishing the con­ this can this regime be replaced with abolished. The task of maintaining African Blacks are finding allies in stituent assembly is not to limit the a government that would express the order in the cities and the countryside Iran. The Iranian revolution has debate on issues facing the country will and interests of the working must be carried out by armed groups of opened a period of blood and iron in to this assembly. To the contrary, people. The party that is needed is the people, the workers, and the pea­ the entire region; that is, the age of discussion of all issues must take not one that would only talk and sants. revolt of the oppressed against the place in the barracks among the issue declarations. What is needed is Repression in the army must be oppressing classes. Thus by establish­ soldiers, among the peasants, in the a combat party that takes part in the ended. The military hierarchy must be ing a workers and peasants govern­ various neighborhoods, and in the people's struggles and helps extend dismantled. The army must be demo­ ment the workers and toilers of Iran high schools and universities. Only them. Such a party is essential to cratized, and the soldiers must enjoy will lay the cornerstone of the "Social­ in this way, can the broad masses assure the establishment of a full political and civil rights. Army ist United States of the Middle East." play a real role in the decision­ workers and peasants republic in the commanders must be elected by soldi­ The Socialist Workers Party's prop­ making process, consolidate the favorable conditions that exist. ers' committees. osal for the constitution, the "Bill of gains of their struggle, and extend It is the aim of the Socialist All military and special courts must Rights for the Iranian Workers and the revolution until they completely Workers Party to become such a be dismantled. Judges in all trials Toilers," will be presented to the party party. We are trying to explain the must be elected and all trials must take congress for discussion and ratifica­ *The single party established by the need for it and we are fighting to place before juries chosen from among tion. shah in 1975. achieve it. THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 25 ·World Outlook

Account by Iranian strike leader How oil workers ral shah's One of the most powerful weapons unloosed in the battle to oust the shah was the strike by Iran's oil workers. The strike, which began in late September, demonstrated the strength of the organized working class, virtually shut­ ting down the country's key industry. The following are portions of an account of the strike by one of the founders of the Asso­ ciation of Oil Industry Staff Employees, a union in Ahwaz formed in the heat of the struggle. The entire account appeared in the January 29 'Intercontinental Press/lnpre­ cor,' which translated it from the December 29 'Payam Daneshjoo,' a revolutionary social­ ist Persian-language magazine.

The way the strike started was that the very broad movement that developed in our country made us realize that we staff employees in the oil industry were part of this nation too, and so we also had to participate in this movement. We knew from the start that if we walked out our strike could play a very important role in this movement. From the beginning, we felt the need to organize a committee that could give systematic direction to the strike. So, we decided to elect one representative for every fifty persons. The first duty of these represen­ tatives was to organize the professional and office workers association. So, we called this body the Organizing Committee of Oil Industry Staff Em­ ployees. 'The authorities finally realized that we were. the But from the very first days of the strike, we cluster of oil fields where Ahwaz is located. realized that there were more important questions facing us. The strike itself had to be organized. We had to define our aims. We had to clarify for our co­ Three or four days later the oil workers in Ahwaz company official "that we were not going to make workers what our overall aims were. This was not sent a delegation to us, pledging their support to our any distinction between our economic and noneco­ clear to many of them. We had to specify our strike. They said that they would collaborate with nomic demands. We told him that we had only one demands. us provided we went all the way and stuck with set of demands, from number one to twelve." them to the last. We told the Ahwaz workers that [Government and company officials also failed in Domestic production that was our intention, and they joined with us. their attempts to pit oil workers in one area against One question over which there was a lot of After the production workers joined us, news of those in other regions. discussion was whether we should extend the strike the strike reached practically all the oil fields. As a [These tactics having failed, the government through the entire oil industry, or whether some result, oil production dropped sharply. The average brought in strikebreakers. But the sophisticated facilities such as hospitals and some teams that do daily oil production in Iran is, or was, 6.5 million technology of the industry made it impossible for emergency repairs on the oil pipelines should be barrels. In the following days, production dropped these newcomers to operate the oil installations.] kept in operation. In particular, there is always a to about 500,000 barrels a day. Government turns to force danger of explosions in oil pipelines, and if such We had presented a list of twelve demands. Three accidents occur people may be killed. So, we said ["The authorities finally realized that we were the of these were not economic, and had been raised only people who can operate the oil industry in that we would designate a group of workers to make separately. They were as follows: end martial law, emergency repairs. Iran," the account explains. So the government sent full solidarity and cooperation with the striking armed troops into the oil workers' homes to force There was also a lot of discussion about maintain­ teachers, and unconditional release of all political ing production for domestic consumption. We de­ them back on the job.] prisoners. Despite all our tactics, many of our mates had cided finally to assure the supply for domestic Our economic demands included Iranianization of needs. The cold weather was on its way, and so we been forced back to work and production had gone the oil industry, all communications to be in the up considerably. At this point, we decided to go knew that consumption was going to be high. Persian language, and for all foreign employees to But later on, we found ourselves facing another back to work along with other workers and prepare leave the country. for a new strike. We did not consider ourselves problem. We were in fact producing the amount of In regard to the expulsion of the foreign staff oil required for domestic needs. But we discovered defeated, since it was obvious that there was a employees, we said that this should be done gradu­ continuing movement of the entire Iranian people. that the RAY refinery had gone on strike. In other ally and according to a plan. Some of these em­ words, they would not refine the crude that we were What was happening was that one group would ployees were simply superfluous. They were draw­ retreat one day, and the next day would resume the producing and pumping to them. The same thing ing salaries and doing nothing. Such people could happened with the Abadan refinery. struggle in a different form and propel it forward. leave Iran very quickly, or else we would expel This is why we decided to go back to work and them. As for the others, there should be a plan to prepare everyone to strike again. This gave us a Refinery workers start replacing them. We began discussing with the refinery workers chance to draw a balance sheet of our strengths and The second economic demand was for an end to and urging them to refine the crude we were weaknesses and to get ready for the next battle. At discrimination against women staff employees and producing and pumping to their plants. We rea­ the same time, we decided to build up the structure workers. soned with them, explaining that the government of the Association of Oil Industry Staff Employees. The third demand called for implementation of a would exploit this situation. So as not to allow the Our first strike lasted thirty-three days. The first law recently passed by both houses of parliament government to misrepresent our action, to set one day we went back to work, we held an assembly. dealing with the housing of oil workers and staff section of the people against another, to open up a The agenda dealt with setting up the association. employees. propaganda campaign against us, we thought that We elected a committee of fifteen persons. Their Another demand was for revision of the regula­ it was better for them to go ahead and refine the primary task was to contact other organizations tions governing retirement of staff employees. crude that we were producing to cover domestic and individuals to solicit help and coordinate our Our final demand was for support to the demands needs. If they did that, we argued, the government ... work. We called this body the Coordinating Com­ of the production workers. The production workers would not be able to divert people's attention from mittee. It was also given the task of drawing up a had raised a demand not included in the list the central issues involved in the strike by playing constitution for the association. A preliminary draft presented by the oil industry staff employees. It was up the long lines in front of the gas stations and was prepared and distributed among the employees. for dissolution of SAV AK. The other demands petroleum distributors. I think by this time, the constitution must have raised by the production workers coincided entirely The workers at the refineries accepted our argu­ been approved by a general assembly of the mem­ with ours. ments and decided to go ahead and produce. But the bership. next day, they reported to us that the government [At this point, the account describes the attempts [Despite this temporary return to work, the oil was taking all the fuel being refined and using it for by the government and Iranian Oil Company field strike reignited in December and January, military purposes. officials to maneuver the strikers and get them back after the period covered in this account. The strike We reaffirmed that the essential aim was to meet to work. At first, management said it was willing to played a decisive role in putting the shah to flight the needs of domesti~ consumption. But if, for any negotiate on the economic demands but that the last month, and it remains one of the powerful reason, they thought ·that they were not achieving political demands were government questions over engines in the struggle to bring down the current this objective they should act accordingly. Their which it had no control. Bakhtiar regime hand-picked by the shah before his decision was to go back on strike. [According to the account, the strikers told the fall.] 26 '·_ ( Nuestra Amirica Hictor Marroquin Their America ... and ours With this issue we begin publication of a There is the America of the Rockefellers, of the humiliation. Its opposite is the America being born new column, 'Nuestra America,' taken from CIA, the Carters, and the marines; of the Somozas, from the struggle of its working people, the revolu­ the pages of 'Perspectiva Mundial,' the the Torrijos, the Turbay Ayalas, the Lopez Portillos, tionary struggle that has as its example and inspi­ Spanish-language socialist magazine. Hector and the Pinochets. In the name of the "free world" ration Cuba, the first free territory of the Americas. Marroquin is a leader of the Socialist Workers they defend their America against ours, which There is the cruel America, and the America that Party and Young Socialist Alliance who is continues its struggle for real national sovereignty. is not willing to put up with any more. As the fighting Washington's attempt to deport him They defend it against the America that is fighting Second Declaration of Havana put it: "The very to Mexico (see story on page 8). This column today to end the exploitation of the great majority depths of a continent are profoundly moved, a was translated for the 'Militant' by Anne of workers by the capitalist minority. continent that has witnessed four centuries of slave, Teesdale. In English, the American imperialists have made semislave, and feudal exploitation beginning with the word "America" synonymous with "United its aboriginal inhabitants and the slaves brought Why "Our America"? To express our basic stance States." And they try to convince all North Ameri­ from Africa, up to the nuclei of nationalities that of taking sides in the struggles of the workers and cans that their interests are the same as those of the emerged later: white, Black, mulatto, mestizo, and the oppressed throughout the American continent, capitalists. Indian, who today are made brothers by the scorn, from Alaska to Patagonia. But as James P. Cannon, the founder of the humiliation, and the Yankee yoke, and are brothers Because there are two Americas: the America of Socialist Workers Party, pointed out: in their hope for a better tomorrow." the oppressors and the America of the oppressed; "There are two Americas-and millions of people one of the capitalists and another of the exploited. already distinguish between them. That is our America-of Boliva;r, Marti and Ch~, There is the America of the Rockefellers and their "One is the America of the imperialists-of the of Eugene Debs, Malcolm X, Zapata and Sandino, junior partners. The other one, our America, is the little clique of capitalists, landlords, and militarists the America that the revolutionists throughout the America of workers and peasants of the entire who are threatening and terrifying the world. This hemisphere are trying to create. hemisphere, who have nothing in common with the is the America the people of the world hate and fear. Our America is the America that fights for capitalists. "There is the other America-the America of the national liberation, for freedom and democracy, for Our America was born from revolutions against workers and farmers and the '.little people'. . . . an end to racism and the oppression of women-in tyranny, slavery, and foreign domination. But this "This is the America which must and will solve sum, against capitalist oppression and exploitation. America that fought to free itself from the yoke of the world crisis-by taking power out of the hands This column is dedicated to that struggle, which European domination has fallen under new oppres­ of the little clique of exploiters and parasites.... " knows no borders. It seeks to serve as a·contribution sors. There is the decadent America of profit and to the final liberation of our hemisphere. By Any Means Necessary OmariMusa Carter budget & the crisis for Black America "1979 promises to be a year of crisis for America's Congress to be responsive to the needs of America's fat in order to give concessions to Blacks or other Black people. poor and Black people. We are calling on the working people. To the contrary, profiteers are on a "The state of Black America today verges on the government and the private sector to make training campaign to take back as many previously won brink of disaster." and employment a top priority in 1979." gains as they can. So spoke National Urban League Executive Direc­ A few days later Jordan got his answer in the This drive to force down the living standards of tor Vernon Jordan at a recent news conference Carter administration budget. working people, including those of the most op- releasing the NUL's annual State of Black America Carter announced cutbacks in federally funded pressed and exploited workers, is meeting growing report. Conditions in the Black community have jobs programs. He also put the ax to the already resistance. grown steadily worse during the Carter administra­ miserably low funding for health care and educa- One powerful expression of this resistance was tion, the report graphically explains. tion while increasing the military budget to a the defeat of a ruling-class-backed union-busting Topping the list is depression-level unemploy­ whopping $135.5 billion! referendum on the Missouri ballot last November. ment. According to- the NUL Hidden Unemploy­ Jordan and other misleaders of the Black com- This "right to work" referendum was defeated by a ment Index, one of every four Black workers is munity have pleaded with the ruling rich to drop sixty-to-forty margin overall. The Black community unemployed, underemployed, or has given up look- them a few crumbs to work with in their efforts to voted it down by a whopping ninety-three to seven, in g. sidetrack the growing mood of rebelliousness according to the Urban League report. The report estimates that more than 50 percent of among Blacks. They have warned that this mood is This victory was accomplished through an al- Black youth are unemployed. For those of us who becoming hotter and harder to "contain." Hance of the trade unions, Blacks, women, and have jobs, inflation continues to drive down our It must seem to Jordan and other well-heeled students-and no thanks to the Democratic and standard of living. house servants as if their advice is no longer valued Republican parties. Jordan concluded his statement by calling on the by the ruling class. This kind of alliance-fighting independently of rich and their political representatives-that is, The problem is that the capitalists have changed the capitalist parties, demanding jobs and defend- those responsible for the situation-to solve it. the rules. ing affirmative-action programs-could go a long "Today we call on the administration and the They are not in a position to trim a little of their way to resolve the crisis facing Black America. Capitalism Fouls Things Up Arnold Weissberg Carter budget: a bomb for workers Carter's 1980 budget is an all-around attack on Meanwhile, 100,000 workers die each year from is encouraging expansion of nukes. the environment, from job safety to nuclear power. job-related injuries or disease-many of them from If there was ever any doubt that Jimmy Carter The Occupational Safety and Health Administra­ cancer. favored nuclear power, his plan to spend $564 tion (OSHA), a major target of the employers, has But Carter's more interested in a $35 billion MX million on breeder reactor research should dispel it. been allotted a skimpy $179 million. That's about a missile program. The breeder produces more nuclear fuel than it 4 percent increase over 1979, less than the rate of Government-sponsored research on nuclear power consumes. It's the most deadly nuclear plant on the inflation. So OSHA's budget is actually cut. will eat up $988 million of our tax dollars. This is a drawing boards. And it's a must for a country that's Nearly 5,000 workers were killed on the job in giveaway to the nuclear industry, which reaps planning to rely on nuclear power, because the 1977. Lives could be saved if an expanded OSHA profits from the research without spending a dime world has a limited uranium supply. cracked down on employers who speed up produc­ of its own money. Although Carter has opposed building a breeder tion and ignore safety. But Carter's more interested Over the years, the federal government has spent at Clinch River in Tennessee, he's in favor of a in multi-billion-dollar Trident submarines and mis- about $10 billion on nuclear power research. With­ bigger and "better" one somewhere else. siles. out that subsidy, the nuclear industry could not Carter proposed giving the Environmental Protec­ exist. And we wouldn't have seventy-two deadly Carter proclaimed his 1980 budget "lean and tion Agency $70 million for controlling cancer­ nuclear power plants operating in the United austere." It's lean and austere, all right, if you're causing chemicals and other poisons. Experts esti­ States. concerned about job health and safety, cancer, or mate there are about 2,000 industrial substances Carter also set aside $655 million for "nuclear nuclear power. that cause cancer. The EPA currently regulates 17. waste management." There is no way to dispose of But it's fat and flamboyant if you're interested in Doing a proper job could run to $1 billion. nuclear waste safely. By pretending there is, Carter making big profits at the expense of workers' lives.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 27 In Brief

flation guideline." saw Barrow's murder and that and will have to serve three WHAT'S THE RUSH? Carter refused to criticize oil Imani had no part in it. years probation. New Jersey State officials Quote unquote profits at his January 26 news J ett also said, according to Sentences have been delayed have decided that the 286 tons conference. Instead, the presi­ the Birmingham Post-Herald, pending appeals. of mercury dumped on an dent mumbled that he would that prison officials killed "Love is by far the abandoned factory site near "like to see a good balance Black prisoner George "Chan­ FISHERMEN PROTEST the Hackensack Meadowlands most powerful force in between prices and profits." gina" Dobbins during the pro­ NAVY BOMBARDMENT the world." The fishermen of Vieques, a pose no threat to human health Since he has announced test. No one was ever indicted and have rejected taking any -Nelson Rockefeller, the plans to soon lift all remaining for the murder of Dobbins. small island off Puerto Rico, butcher of Attica. are trying to prevent the U.S. quick action to clean the mer­ limits on oil prices, Carter pre­ cury up. sumably meant that he'd like FREE THE Navy from holding maneuvers in the middle of their best Samples taken two years ago WHATEVER HAPPENED to see prices rise still further­ WHITE HOUSE 11 in nearby waterways found TO SEVEN PERCENT? the same as profits have risen. A rally to support eleven fishing grounds. The navy owns 27,000 acres mercury residues up to 245 The fourth quarter 1978 fig­ antinuclear activists arrested parts per million. Orw part per ures are in, and the oil compan­ on the White House lawn will at both ends of Vieques. The island's 9,500 residents live on million is considered danger­ ies did it again-racking up be held in New York City Feb­ ous contamination. profit increases ranging from ALABAMA FRAME-UP ruary 11 at 1 p.m. at the Wash­ 6,000 acres between. The navy uses "its" land for target prac­ Federal, state, and local offi­ 30 percent (Marathon Oil) to STARTS TO CRACK ington Square Methodist cials have known about the 134 percent (Standard of Ohio). An eyewitness account of a Church, 135 West Fourth tice. The people of Vieques have mercury problem since 1970, Exxon posted a 48 percent prison guard's death has shed Street. but have done nothing. boost, Texaco 72 percent, and new light on the frame-up of The eleven were recently con­ been trying to get rid of the navy for years. The govern­ Tlie state says it is hoping to Gulf 45 percent. Imani (Johnny Harris), a victed and will be sentenced win a lawsuit against the Exxon alone made more than Black Alabama prisoner sent­ February 12 in Washington, ment of Puerto Rico has asked a federal court to order the former factory owners that will a billion dollars in profits in enced to death for his alleged D.C. A rally is set there, also. force them to pay the $6 mil­ the last three months of 1978. role in killing the guard during For more information call (212) navy to stop damaging the island's coral reefs and man­ lion cleanup costs. The case But none of this wealth will a 197 4 prison protest. 228-0450. has not yet gone to trial and make its way into the hands of Imani and three other prison­ In Seattle, 176 people were grove swamps. The navy admits it never could remain unresolved for the people who produced it. ers, all Black, were convicted of sentenced January 2 for their years. With government cooperation, killing guard Luell Barrow, part in protesting the Trident filed "environmental . impact statements" on its bombing, as Mercury attacks the nervous the oil companies managed to even though there was not a nuclear submarine and missile system and can cause loss of kt ep wage boosts for members single witness who could point system. Five defendants must required by law. The Vieque1;1 fishermen have muscle control, speech prob­ of the Oil, Chemical and an accusing finger at them. serve forty-five days in jail. lems, and emotional disorders. At Jmic Workers union to 7 Now white prisoner Jesse The remainder had their forty­ beep conducting a "fish-in" in pe1 ':!ent-Jimmy Carter's "in- David Jett has said that he five-day jail terms suspended the waters the navy is trying to use for maneuvers, and have succeeded in forcing cancella­ CITY COUNCIL tion of some military exercises. HITS NAZI VIOLENCE They have vowed to continue The St. Paul, Minnesota, despite a federal court injunc­ City Council adopted a resolu­ Some 600 activists from tion against them. tion January 11 condemning a around Texas converged on recent series of Nazi attacks. the state capitol in Austin HOW A LIBERAL The resolution deplored "such January 21 to demand a ban RUNS FOR PRESIDENT acts of violence" and pledged on transportation and stor­ Sen. Edward Kennedy an­ "to insure the protection of the age of nuclear wastes. nounced January 28 he would democratic rights and constitu­ Protesters also celebrated seek to· bring a federal death tional liberties of St. Paul's a January 20 decision by penalty bill before the Senate­ citizens." Austin voters to take the although he said he personally Testifying in support of the city out of the South Texas opposes capital punishment. resolution were representatives Nuclear Project. Kennedy said he was push­ of the St. Paul NAACP and Speakers at the rally, ing the bill in return for sup­ Socialist Workers Party. which was sponsored by the port on his "Son of S-1'· revi­ The most recent incidents of Lone Star Alliance, included sion of the U.S. criminal code. Nazi activity were vandal at­ Judge Jose Angel Gutierrez, That pet project of Kennedy's tacks December 26 against the a founding leader of the would impose new curbs on the St. Paul Urban League and the Raza Unida Party; Annie Judge Jose Angel Gutierrez speaking at Austin rally right to demonstrate, strike, St. Paul and Minneapolis SWP Fitzpatrick, treasurer of and other civil liberties. offices. The offices were plas­ Austin Citizens for Econom­ Two days later Kennedy de­ tered with Nazi stickers and ical Electricity; State Rep. UCS spokesperson Dr. justify continued plant li­ nounced the Carter budget for posters. The Mt. Zion Temple Ron Waters; and writer/acti­ Henry Kendall said that censing and operation." giving the Law Enforcement was similarly defaced several vist Grace Paley. since the NRC had repu­ Two days later, a truck Assistance Administration weeks earlier. Meanwhile, the Union of diated its own reactor safety carrying radioactive wastes "the lowest priority in the Ad­ A cross was burned at the Concerned Scientists called study, which had claimed overturned in Tennessee, ministration's budget for law family home of the University on the Nuclear Regulatory that the chances of serious spilling forty-six drums of enforcement.'' of Minnesota's first Black Commission January 26 to accident were minimal, cobalt 60 and cesium 137. The senator announced he homecoming queen in No­ shut down sixteen nuclear there was "no technical ba­ The truck was on its way to would seek to add $30 million vember; and Black workers in power plants with particu­ sis for concluding that the the nuclear waste dump at to the LEAA's budget. The several area plants have found larly acute safety problems. actual risk is low enough to Barnwell, South Carolina. money would be used to beef up Nazi hate materials at their local police forces. machines. What's Going On

NIZES CHINA. Speakers: Carl Peterson. p.m. 1306 S. K St. Ausp: Militant Forum. Party National Committee. just returned MASSACHUSETTS Socialist Workers Party; others. Sun .• TEXAS For more information call (206) 627-0432. from southern Africa. Tues .• Feb. 13, BOSTON Feb. 11, 7 p.m. 6223 Delmar. Donation: DALLAS noon. Pacific Lutheran Univ .• Regency 'EUROCOMMUNISM': IS IT THE PATH $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more infor­ 1979 SOCIALIST WORKERS CAM­ REPORT FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA. Room. Univ. Center Building. For more TO REVOLUTION? Speakers: Mike Pearl­ mation call (314) 725-1570. PAIGN KICKOFF RALLY. Speakers: Olga Speaker: Maceo Dixon. Socialist Workers information call (206) 627-0432. man. Socialist Workers Party; others. Fri., Rodriguez. SWP National Committee; Feb. 9, 8 p.m. 510 Commonwealth Ave .• MALCOLM X: HIS LIFE, IDEAS & AS­ Gretchen Jarvis. SWP candidate for 4th fl. (Kenmore Sq.) Donation: $1.50. SASSINATION. Speakers: KA Aziz. Na­ mayor of Dallas; Bob Cantrick. SWP Ausp: Militant Forum. For more informa­ tion of Islam; representative of Socialist candidate for city council; Melvin Chap­ tion call (617) 262-4621. Workers Party. Sun .. Feb. 18, 7 p.m. 6223 pel. SWP candidate for city council. Sat, Delmar. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Fo­ Feb. 10. open house 7 p.m .• rally 8 p.m. Iran forums rum. For more information call (314) 725- 5442 East Grand. Donation: $1. Ausp: WHAT'S BEHIND THE VIETNAMESE LOS ANGELES Sub Room 250 C&D Donation: INVASION OF CAMBODIA? Speaker: 1570. Socialist Workers Campaign. For more $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum series & Matilde Zimmermann. staff writer for the information call (214) 826-4711. U.S. HANDS OFF IRAN! A panel discussion.' Speakers: Herbert Ap­ Young Socialist Alliance. For more 'Militant." Socialist Workers Party Na­ information call (505) 255-6869. tional Committee member. Fri., Feb. 16, 8 theker. director of American Insti­ NEW YORK tute of Marxist Studies; Vernon Bel­ p.m. 510 Commonwealth Ave.. 4th fl. SALT LAKE CITY (Kenmore Sq.) Donation: $1.50. Ausp: BROOKLYN lecourt. American Indian Movement; Robert Farrell, LA City Council; THE REVOLUTION IN IRAN: ITS Militant Forum. For more information call PROFITS VERSUS LIVES: THE FIGHT IMPORTANCE FOR THE AMERI­ (617) 262-4621. FOR JOB SAFETY. Speaker: Jack Quar­ Jose Medina. president, ILGWU Lo­ WASHINGTON cal 301; Frank Wilkinson. National CAN WORKING CLASS. Speaker: rier. writer on job safety. Fri.. Feb. 9, 8 Glen Swanson, member, Moulders p.m. 841 Classon Ave. Donation: $1.50. SEATTLE Committee Against Repressive Leg­ MINNESOTA REPORT FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA. islation; others. Fri.. Feb. 9, 7:30 & Allied Workers Local 231, Social­ Ausp: Militant Forum. For more informa­ ist Workers Party. Sun., Feb. 11, 7 tion call (212) 783-2135. Speakers: Maceo Dixon. Socialist p.m. 1st Unitarian Church of LA. ST. PAUL p.m. 677 S. 7th East Donation: $1. THE HILL BROTHERS: CELEBRATE Workers Party National Committee. just 2936 W 8th St. Donation: $2. Ausp: returned from southern Africa; Judy Committee for Artistic and Intellec­ Ausp: Militant Bookstore. For more THEIR RELEASE; DEMAND THEIR information call (801) 355-11_24. NAMES BE CLEARED. Speaker: Stanley Hightower. American Friends Service tual Freedom in Iran. For more Committee. Tues.. Feb. 13, 7:30 p.m. information call (213) 482-1820. Hill. Sun .• Feb. 11, 7:30p.m. 373 Univer­ SEATTLE sity. Donation: $1.25. Ausp: Militant Fo­ Kanen Hall. Am. 220. Univ. of Washing­ PENNSYLVANIA THE REVOLUTION IN IRAN. rum. For more information call (612) 222- ton. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more ALBUQUERQUE, N. MEX. Speaker: Kate Daher, Socialist 8929. PITTSBURGH information call (206) 723-5330. WINE AND CHEESE PARTY TO AID REVOLUTION IN IRAN. Speakers: Workers Party. Fri., Feb 9, 8 p.m. HECTOR MARROQUIN DEFENSE. Sun .• TACOMA representative of University of New 4868 Rainier Ave., South Seattle. MISSOURI Feb. 11, 3-5 p.m. 6653 Wilkins Ave. Dona­ REPORT FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA. Mexico Iranian Students Associa­ Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. ST. LOUIS tion: $5. Ausp: Pittsburgh Hector Marro­ Speaker: Maceo Dixon, Socialist Workers tion; Jim Miller, Socialist Workers For more information call (206) 723- CHINA AFTER MAO: AFTER 30 quin Defense Committee. For more infor­ Party National Committee. just returned _Party. Thurs. Feb. 8. 7:30p.m. UNM 5330. YEARS, THE UNITED STATES RECOG- mation call (412) 665-9308. from southern Africa. Sun .. Feb. 11. 7:30 28 The Great Society Compiled by Arnold Weissberg Harry Ring

Arson won't stop Black weekly A fire gutted the offices of efforts were being made to the Carolina Times, the old­ put out the fire. Sounds appropriate-A sympathetic wear those Ricky Ricardo babalu shirts est Black weekly in North Vivian Edwards, editor judge granted permission to Rep. Daniel and Nehru tunics," he confides. "But now Carolina, December 31. The and publisher of the Carol­ Flood to hurry over to the Hill during a I'm one of those who believes we're fire was apparently set de­ ina Times, said Durham's lunch break to be sworn in for his six­ headed for a return to elegance." liberately. It destroyed the "redevelopment" commis­ teenth term as a member of the House. entire production facilities of sion had been trying to force The opening session of Congress coin­ the paper. the Black businesses out for cided with the opening of Flood's bribery Positive view-What with the demand Two other Black-owned years. trial. outpacing the supply, a good second-hand businesses were also burned The Carolina Times is still Rolls is now bringing more in England out. publishing. "Bombs and fire than a price-fixed new one. So the com­ The owner of one of the can't still the voice of the Second-class citizens-The coffin­ pany has asked the queen's price board to businesses charged that a Black press," said Ernie nail industry surely has a persuasive case hoist the retail. Commented the Rolls fireman said "these build­ Pitt, co-director of the North when it argues that it's the victim of managing director: "I still think there's ings have got to go'' when Carolina Black Publishers goverment persecution. Like, for instance, hope for this country." asked why only minimal Association. the eight-cent federal tax on a pack of cigarettes. Despite numerous bills to change it, Congress has kept it frozen at Just one of the comrades-The that amount since 1951. former Christina Onassis is doing nicely as the spouse of a minor Soviet bureau­ Social trends-What with the shortage crat, reports Associated Press. She's of domestic help, many New York social­ learned to "live simply" and is content ites are doing their entertaining in plush with the two adjacent apartments com­ supper clubs, reports the New York Times. bined into a seven-and-a-half room suite One such is Jonathan Farkas, a self­ for the happy couple. She did buy a described ex-member of the "Woodstock Mercedes to get to the "special store where generation" and now vice-president of a foreigners buy produce that is not gener­ prosperous family business. "I used to ally available to Soviet citizens." Women in Revolt

LAWYERS REPORT ON DISCRIMINATION'S TOLL ISRAELI OCCUPATION ON HISPANICS Matilde Zimmermann The National Lawyers Guild Puerto Rican families had an has issued a report detailing average income of $7,972 in human rights violations by 1977, compared to the national Israel in the occupied territo­ average of $16,000, according ries of the West Bank and Gaza to a recent Labor Department Strip. study. Chicano families aver­ In July 1977, · ten Guild aged $11,742 and Cubans members visited the Middle $14,000. Black families aver­ Dialogue with ~right to life'? East to investigate charges aged $9,56:3. As the sixth anniversary of the legaliza- focusing on abortion rather than on the that the Zionist regime had Chicanos suffered a 10.1 per­ tion of abortion approached, the anti- "comprehensive reproductive health pro- systematically denied basic cent unemployment rate in abortionists' campaign to drive us back to gram" they actually want. rights to the Palestinians. 1977, the study found, com­ the days of the coat hanger seemed to be But legal abortion is what is under The 159-page report summar­ pared to the national average picking up momentum in a frightening attack today. The only way to turn back izes the charges against the of 7 percent. way. that attack is through more emphasis on Israeli regime, documents the Hispanic workers are "se­ Concerned women in a number of cities abortion, not less. official Israeli answers, and verely underrepresented in the were trying to respond to the escalating The concentration on abortion is also presents the facts as found by nation's professional and tech­ attacks on abortion rights by organizing forcing the antis into more extreme posi- the delegation. Since the report nical ranks," the study found. rallies, teach-ins, and pickets. tions, suggested Smeal, with the result also draws on other studies of And we waited to hear what Eleanor that "the campaign against abortion is human rights violations by the Smeal, president of the National Organi- becoming a campaign against contracep- Israeli regime, it is perhaps the zation for Women, would say in the major tion." best general reference work on CORRECTION policy statemer:t she was to make at a But most anti-abortionists have always this aspect of the occupation. Our January 19 issue gave January 22 news conference. As head of been opposed to contraception! The report is available for the wrong phone number for the largest feminist organization in the They are also opposed to the Equal $4.50 ($3.50 for ten or more the upcoming midwest regional country, she could give the campaign to Rights Amendment, affirmative action, copies) from the National Law­ no-nukes conference in Gary, defend abortion a real national thrust. and child care. They are opposed to the yers Guild Report, P.O. Box Indiana. The correct number is 14023, Washington, D.C. 20044. (219) 9:3H-3427. We were disappointed. very existence of the women's movement. Smeal announced-not the countermo- The same people who are organizing the bilization that was needed-but exactly campaign to do away with legal abortion the opposite. She proposed that the abor- are also against unions, against strikes, tion controversy be quieted down for a against school desegregation, against gay Gov't OK's more smog while, to give "the leadership on both rights. The Environmental Pro­ sion was based solely on sides of the issue" time to "meet and begin While many in the women's movement tection Agency said January new scientific evidence and a dialogue." call for taking money from the war budget 26 it would raise acceptable had nothing to do with the Smeal disclosed that NOW was sending to fund needed social programs, these limits of ozone, a major com­ Carter administration's telegrams to "major organizations on women haters call for a bigger war chest. ponent of smog, by 50 per­ stated goal of loosening en­ both sides of the abortion issue, inviting What exactly are the "common goals" cent. vironmental regulations to leaders to meet to discuss the formation of that feminists are supposed to sit down save industry billions of dol­ a comprehensive reproductive health pro- and discuss with the Right to Life Cru- The EPA insisted its deci- lars. gram." She said it was time for both sides sade, the National Right to Life Commit- "to seek ways to lessen the need for tee, the National Catholic Conference of abortion, to reduce the incidence of un- Bishops, and Americans for a Constitu- wanted and troubled pregnancies, and to tional Convention? (These are four of the end the increasing polarization and vio- nineteen anti-abortion groups Smeal in- lence." vited to the February 15 dialogue.) The summit meeting is supposed to take It is true that battle lines have been place February 15 in Washington, D.C. drawn around the issue of abortion. The But it seems unlikely ever to occur. polarization and violence are caused ex­ The response of the anti-abortionists clusively by those who want to criminal­ was rapid and predictable. "Prolife people ize abortion again. will not negotiate with baby killers," said Nellie Gray, organizer of the 60,000- This confrontation can be resolved in person "March for Life" that was taking only two ways: either through guarantee­ place as Smeal spoke. ing the right to legal abortion or through The underlying theme of Smeal's state­ abolishing it. There is no middle ground. ment was a dangerous one for the It is possible for this confrontation to be women's movement. She suggested that resolved in our favor. But women will win an overemphasis on abortion was respon­ only by standing up and fighting for sible for the current crisis. abortion, not by sitting down with our Prochoice forces, according to Smeal, enemies to dialogue our way toward some are being "driven to the extreme" of nonexistent common ground.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 29 Our Revolutionary Heritage Letters

'We do it all for us' absolutely not compromise Trotsky on 1905 When members of United with the Shah. He offered the Auto Workers Local 451 people, under the guise of On January 9, 1905, Russian troops arrived at their jobs at the Islamic principles, a rallying opened fire on a demonstration of Baker Material Handling point for their mounting workers in St. Petersburg who were Corporation plant in Cleveland discontent, and they in turn trying to petition the tsar. This mas­ one recent Monday morning, gladly lent themselves to his sacre, known as "Bloody Sunday," we were greeted by exhortations for revolt, strikes and work slowdowns." touched off the Russian revolution of temperatures so low that icicles 1905. Although the 1905 revolution had begun to form inside the A basic of political analysis failed to overthrow the tsarist auto­ plant. is to look beyond the surface. cracy, it weakened it and provided The Milita.nt is to be rich lessons for the· Russian working As workers met in groups all congratulated for doing so. morning deciding what to do class. In Lenin's words, 1905 was After all, if the revolution in about the situation, the "the dress rehearsal" for the revolu­ Iran is nothing but a Moslem company kept insisting that tion twelve years later that finally revival, how would one heat would be restored. Finally, did away with the Romanov dynasty describe the early Black civil after five hours of no heat, and opened the way to the establish­ rights movement? Its major approximately seventy out of , ment of a workers state in Russia. leaders were connected to eighty workers in two The following excerpts are from religion, such as Martin Luther departments decided to walk two articles by Leon Trotsky, the King, Jr., and including out. most prominent leader of the 1905 Malcolm X. Perhaps the civil revolution. The first is from 'The Before the second shift began rights movement was nothing Proletariat and the Revolution,' an that afternoon, the company but an unholy alliance of article written at the end of 1904- installed giant space heaters Baptists and Moslems? just before the events of Bloody Sun­ which brought the temperature Jim Brinning day. of the two departments up to New York, New York The second excerpt is from 'The normal. Events in Petersburg,' written on Upon arriving the following January 20, 1905. TSAR NICHOLAS II AND TSARINA: Prede­ morning and seeing the There are striking similarities be­ cessors of shah and shahbanou. heaters, those of us who had Excellent work Your newspaper, the tween many of the questions posed walked out knew we had won a Militant, is the most decent during the 1905 revolution and those small but important victory. and thought provoking posed by the revolution currently banner of a constituent assembly. This is not the end of the story, publication I have read in a unfolding in Iran. We ought to carry on the most intensive however. long time. propaganda in the army in order that on Baker Material Handling Keep up the excellent work. A tremendous amount of revolutionary the day of the strike each soldier, sent to Corporation, which is owned Bert Nichols energy has been accumulated. It should curb the "rebels," should know that he is by Linde of West Germany, not vanish with no avail, it should not be facing the people who are demanding a manufactures forklift trucks. Willow Grove, Pennsylvania dissipated in scattered engagements and national constituent assembly. Undoubtedly the owners of clashes, with no coherence and no definite Linde felt that the Baker plant Only through socialism plan. * * * in Cleveland was a good We have got to summon all revolution­ investment, since wages and I wish to thank you ary forces to simultaneous action. How Victory demands not a romantic me­ benefits are low here, relative personally for sending me the can we do it? thod based on an illusory plan, but revolu­ to those received by German Militant. I've had so many The starting point ought to be the tionary tactics. A simultaneous action of workers. requests from other inmates to factories and plants. That means that the proletariat of all Russia. must be Workers at Baker always felt read the paper, I'm in the street manifestations of a serious charac­ prepared. This is the first condition. No that the owners regarded us as process of making up a list so ter, fraught with decisive events, ought to local demonstration has a serious political a cheap investment. We didn't everyone will have the begin with political strikes of the masses. significance any longer. realize just how cheap, though, privilege of reading one of the A political strike, however, not a local, After the Petersburg uprising, only an until after the walkout. most important papers on the American scene. but a general political strike all over all-Russian uprising should take place. The company, no doubt after Russia,-ought to have a general political Scattered outbursts would only consume The struggle in America is consulting with top specialists not Black and white anymore. slogan. This slogan is: to stop the war and the precious revolutionary energy with no in labor-mangement relations, call. a national constituent assembly. results. Wherever spontaneous outbursts Discrimination surely decided to reward every worker continues, but the main We ought to use all possible occasions to occur, as a late echo of the Petersburg who didn't participate in the struggle is one of class. make the idea of a national constituent uprising, walkout, including those whose they must be made use of to In this capitalistic society, assembly popular among the people. Proc­ departments were warm from revolutionize and solidify the masses, to the line is drawn between the lamations and speeches, educational cir­ the beginning, with a one­ popularize amo7Jg them the idea of an all­ "haves" and the "have nots." cles and mass meetings ought to carry, dollar McDonald's gift Russian uprising as a task of the ap­ Many minorities are becoming broadcast, to propound and to explain the certificate. proaching months, perhaps only weeks. more assimilated into the demand of a constituent assembly. There Apparently the Baker This is not the place to discuss the present power structure. In this ought not to be one man in a city who management has taken to technique of a popular uprising. The ques­ way they are climbing the should not know that his demand is: a heart the McDonald's slogan, tions of revolutionary technique can be fence to the "other side." national constituent assembly. "We do it all for you." But with solved only in a practical way, under the In order to convert them, the The peasants ought to be called to one addition ... "and us." live pressure of struggle and under con­ idea of socialism must be assemble on the day of the political strike Jeff Powers and to pass resolutions demanding the stant communication with the active manifested in their everyday and Glen Arnodo actions. They and others must calling of a constituent assembly. The members of the party. There is no doubt, Cleveland, Ohio suburban peasants ought to be called into however, that the technical problems of learn that the destiny of man the cities to participate in the street move­ organizing a popular uprising assume at can only be accomplished ments of the masses gathered under the present tremendous importance. through socialism. In solidarity. Islamic Billy Grahams? A prisoner If one were to rely totally New York upon the mass media and the sectarian left press such as Workers Vanguard, one would Two national anthems? get the impression that the During the Christmas events in Iran have resulted holidays I spent a few days in from the tirades of Islamic Puerto Rico. While I was there, Billy Grahams. an interesting development Now that the shah has left once again revealed the Iran, however, reality slipped precarious colonial status of into an article by R. W. Apple, the island. Jr., that appeared in the It all centered around January 17 New York Times. It whether the Pan American confirmed the excellent games, scheduled to take place analysis that has consistently in Puerto Rico, should play two appeared in the Militant. national hymns-that is, Noted Apple: Puerto Rico's and the United "The spreading influence of States's-and if both flags Ayatollah Khomeini was a should be present during the result not so much of his ceremonies. religious appeal to the The last I heard, the masses-although that appeal president of the Pan American is considerable-as of their games had resigned in protest symbolic attachment to his against Gov. Romero Barcelo, rejection of the Shah's rule. To an ardent supporter of the people he is the only leader statehood, who insists that the who proclaimed that he would U.S. hymn and flag be 30 L,arning About Socialism included in the ceremonies. Cannon on the labor party Everybody in Puerto Rico seemed to be caught up in this This week we reprint a selection from 'Notebook of upsurge in the ranks of the trade unionists. The more the debate. To many it just seemed An Agitator' by James P. Cannon, founding leader of officialdom resists the great change, the stronger will grow like a comedy of tragedy. the Socialist Workers Party. 'Implications of the the sentiment for a different leadership. Even if the present As one person commented, Labor Party' first appeared in the April 26, 1954, leaders sponsor the labor party at the start, they will be "Considering the political 'Militant.' It was part of a series of articles Cannon under strong criticism for their tardiness. The real move­ ineptness of the governor, and wrote on the threat of an American fascist movement ment for a labor party, which will come from below, will his desire to get in good with during the period of McCarthyism. begin tothrow up an alternative leadership in the course of the rulers in the U.S., I Despite the different political climate, Cannon's its development. wouldn't be surprised if he comments on the union officialdom's relationship to· The demand for a labor party implies the demand for a recommended to the Yankees an independent labor party ring just as true today. more adequate leadership; and the actual formation of a that the shah be given asylum 'Notebook of An Agitator,' a collection of articles labor party, under the auspices of the present official here in Puerto Rico." Cannon wrote between 1926 and 1956, can be or­ leadership, would only accelerate the struggle under more P.T. dered from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New favorable conditions. As revolutionists, we advocate the Bronx, New York York, New York 10014. Please include $4.95 plus 50 formation of a labor party with this perspective also in cents for handling. mind. It is true that the simple fact of the formation of a labor Feels deprived party, by itself, would have profound influence in speeding I've just returned from The formal launching of an Independent Labor Party, the up radical and even revolutionary developments. But those Europe, where I was staying in indicated next step in the preliminary mobilization of the who are satisfied with that might as well retire from the Paris. The pewspapers there American working class against a rising fascist movement, were (some of them, of course) will hit this country like a bomb exploding in all directions. field and let the automatic process take care of everything. very good. Unfortunately, It will not only blow up the traditional two-party system in The automatic process will not take care of anything except living in South Bend, Indiana, this country and bring about a basic realigl).ment in the to guarantee defeats. The conscious revolutionists, however as I do, I feel deprived of anti­ general field of American politics. It will also mark the few their numbers may be in the beginning, are a part of the imperialist information. beginning of a great shake-up in the labor movement itself. process. Their part is to help the process along by telling the Today, at the University of The second result will be no less important than the first, whole truth. The fight for a labor party is bound up with the Notre Dame-where I go to and it should be counted on. fight to cleanse the labor movement of a crooked and treacherous leadership, and cannot be separated from it. read-I read the Militant. I like Under the present system the political stage is occupied it and would like to try it for a by two rival capitalist parties, which in reality represent Those radicals and ex-radicals who are willing to settle for a labor party, leaving the question of program and leadership while. Let me subscribe for ten two different factions of the ruling class. The workers play weeks and see what I think. unmentioned, are simply inventing a formula for their own merely the part of a chorus in the wings and have no Jonathan Daly betrayal. speaking part on the stage. The formation of a labor party South Bend, Indiana It is not permissible for revolutionists to pass themselves will change all that at one stroke. The struggle of capitalist off as mere advocates of a labor party, pure and simple, like factions for control of the government will be subordinated any labor faker who devotes Sunday sermons to this idea. A to the struggle of classes, represented by class parties. That Hansen, Querio deaths labor party headed by the present official labor skates, is the real meaning of politics anyway. Learning of the deaths of without a program of class struggle, would be a sitting duck Joseph Hansen and Ruth The political realignment, brought about by the appear­ for American fascism. That's the truth of the matter, and Querio in the January 26 issue ance of a labor party on the scene, cannot fail to have advocacy of a labor party isn't worth much if it leaves this of the Militant saddened me. profound repercussions inside the labor movement. There truth unsaid. Large numbers of trade-union militants know I had the great opportunity will be a great change there too. The break of the trade­ this as well as we do. They know that the present official to meet Ruth in the fall of 1973 union movement with capitalist politics will coincide with leaders are no good for a real fight on any front, and that when I participated in a the rise of the big opposition to the present official leader­ they have to be thrown out before there can be any serious national Militant sales team ship. This rank-and-file opposition movement will most thought of a show down with American fascism. that worked with the newly likely take shape in the struggle for a labor party, and be Those militants who know the score on this ought to formed Pittsburgh branch in identified with it. organize themselves in order to conduct their struggle more extending socialist ideas in western Pennsylvania. Ruth's To imagine that the present official leaders can make the effectively. This organization of the class conscious workers example was an inspiration to great shift from the Democratic Party to independent labor can only take the form of a revolutionary party. There is no all those new members in politics, and maintain their leadership smoothly in an substitute for that. And since the SWP is the only revolu­ Pittsburgh and to me. entirely new and different situation, requires one to overlook tionary party in the field, there is no substitute for the SWP. I first met Joe Hansen the basic causes which will force them to make this shift. Those workers who today already recognize the necessity of through the discussions in the That is, the radicalization of the rank and file and their a labor party ought to take the next step and unite with the Socialist Workers Party on revolt against the old policy. No matter how it is formally SWP in its effort to direct the struggle toward a revolution­ Latin America. The insight I brought about, a labor party will be the product of a radical ary goal. gained through his very reasoned and complete arguments shall not be forgotten by me. I also was lucky enough to meet Joe when I spent a year If You Like This Paper, Look Us Up working with Pathfinder Press Where to find the Socialist Workers Party, Young Socialist Alliance, and socialist books and pamphlets in New York. Pathfinder shared adjacent space with ALABAMA: Birmingham: SWP. Box 3382-A. Zip: St. Zip: 21218 Tel: (301) 547-0668. College Park: SWP. YSA, 970 E. McMrllan. Zip: 45206. Tel: (513) Intercontinental Press, of 35205. YSA. c/o Student Union, Unrversity of Maryland. 751-2636. Cleveland: SWP. YSA, 13002 Kinsman which Joe was the editor. ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP. YSA. 314 E. Taylor. Zip: Zip 20742. Tel: (301) 454-4758. Rd. Zip: 44120. Tel: (216) 991-5030. Columbus: 85004. Tel: (602) 255-0450. Tucson: YSA, SUPO MASSACHUSETTS: Amherst: YSA, c/o Rees. 4 YSA, Box 106 Ohio Union. Rm. 308, Ohio State I remember the meeting held 20965. Zip 85720. Tel (602) 795-2053. Adams St.. Easthampton 01027. Boston: SWP, Unrv., 1739 N. High St. Zip: 43210. Tel: (614) 291- in New York for the tenth CALIFORNIA: Berkeley: SWP. YSA. 3264 Adeline YSA. 510 Commonwealth Ave .. 4th Floor. Zip: 8985. Kent: YSA, Student Center Box 41, Kent anniversary of the founding of St. Zip 94703. Tel: (415) 653-7156. Los Angeles, 02215. Tel: (617) 262-4621. State Unrversity. Zip: 44242. Tel: (216) 678-5974. IP. At that meeting it was told Eastside: SWP, YSA. 2554 Saturn Ave, Hunting­ MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA. Room 4321, Michigan Toledo: SWP:2507 Collingwood Blvd. Zip: 43610. ton Park. Zip: 90255. Tel: (213) 582-1975. Los Union. U of M. Zip 48109. Detroit: SWP, 6404 Tel: (419) 242-9743. how World Outlook (the Angeles, Westside: 2167 W. Washington Blvd. Tel Woodward Ave. Zip: 48202. Tel: (313) 875-5322. OREGON: Portland: SWP. YSA, 711 NW Everett. original name of IP) was (213) 732-8196. Zip: 90018. Oakland: SWP, YSA, MI. Pleasant: YSA, Box 51 Warriner Hall. Central Zip 97209. tel: (503) 222-7225. launched as a simple 1467 Frurtvale Ave. Zip: 94601. Tel: (415) 261- Mich. Univ. Zip: 48859 PENNSYLVANIA: Bethlehem: SWP, Box 1096. Zip: 1210. San Diego: SWP. YSA. 1053 15th St. Zrp MINNESOTA: Mesabi Iron Range: SWP. P.O. Box mimeographed sheet, 18016. Edinboro: ~A. Edinboro State College. 92101 Tel: (714) 234-4630. San Francisco: SWP. 1287, Virgrnra. Minn. Zip: 55792. Tel: (218) 749- Zip 16412. Philadelphia, SWP, YSA, 5811 N. originating in Paris, I believe. YSA. 3284 23rd St. Zrp 94110. Tel: (415) 824- 6327. Minneapolis: SWP, YSA. 23 E. Lake St. Zip: Broad St. Zip 19138 Tel (215) 927-4747 or 927- Now it is the Time magazine of 1992. San Jose: SWP, YSA. 942 E. Santa Clara St. 55408. Tel: (612) 825-6663. St. Paul: SWP, 373 4748. Pittsburgh: SWP, YSA, 5504 Penn Ave. Zip revolutionary socialism, Zrp 95112. Tel (408) 295-8342 Unrversrty Ave. Zip: 55103. Tel: (612) 222-8929. 15206. Tel (412) 441-1419. State College: YSA. COLORADO: Denver: SWP. YSA. 126 W 12th Ave MISSOURI: Kansas City: SWP. YSA. 4715A Troost. c/o Jack Craypo, 132 Keller St. Zip 16801. thanks in large part to Joe. Zip 80204. Tel: (303) 534-8954 Zip: 64110. Tel: (816) 753-0404. St. Louis: SWP, RHODE ISLAND: Kingston: YSA, P.O. Box 400. Zrp These two socialist fighters DELAWARE: Newark: YSA. cio Stephen Krevisky. YSA. 6223 Delmar Blvd. Zrp 63130 Tel: (314) 02881. Tel (.401) 783-8864 638 Lehrgh Rd. M4. Zip 19711. Tel: (302) 368- 725-1570. epitomize the dedication of TEXAS: Austin: YSA. c/o Mrke Rose, 7409 Berkman 1394. NEBRASKA: Omaha: YSA. c/o Hugh Wilcox, 521 Or. Zrp 78752. Dallas: SWP. YSA, 5442 E. Grand those in the leadership and FLORIDA: Miami: SWP, YSA. 8171 NE 2nd Ave. Zrp 4th St. Councrl Bluffs. Iowa. 51501 Zrp 75223 Tel (214) 826-4711 Houston: SWP. 33138. NEW JERSEY: Newark: SWP. 11-A Central Ave Zip those at the roots needed to YSA. 6412-C N. Main St. Zip 77009. Tel (713) GEORGIA: Atlanta: SWP, YSA. 509 Peachtree St. 07102. Tel: (201) 643-3341. make socialism a reality here 861-9960. San Antonio: SWP, YSA. 112 Frede­ NE Zrp 30308. Tel: (404) 872-7229. NEW MEXICO: Albuquerque: SWP. 108 Mornrng­ rrcksburg Rd. Zip 78201 Tel (512) 735-3141. in the United States. ILLINOIS: Champaign-Urbana: YSA. 284 lllrnr srde Or NE. Zrp 87108. Tel: (505) 255-6869 G.B. Unron. Urbana. Zrp 61801 Chicago: Crty-wrde NEW YORK: Binghamton: YSA. c/o Larry Paradis. UTAH: Logan: YSA, P 0 Box 1233. Utah State Toledo, Ohio SWP, YSA. 407 S. Dearborn #1145. Zip. 60605 Box 7261. SUNY-Brnghamton. Zip 13901. Capital Unrversrty. Zrp 84322. Salt Lake City: SWP, YSA. Tel SWP-(312) 939-0737: YSA-(312) 427-0280 District (Albany): SWP, YSA. 103 Central Ave. 677 S 7th East. 2nd Floor Zip 84102 Tel (801) Chicago, South Side: SWP. YSA. 2251 E. 71st St. Zrp 12206. Tel: (518) 463-0072. Ithaca: YSA. 355-1124 Zip 60649. Tel: (312) 643-5520. Chicago, West Wrllard Strarght Hall. Rm 41A. Cornell Unrversrty WASHINGTON, D.C.: SWP. YSA. 3106 MI. Pleasant The letters column is an Side: SWP. 3942 W. Chrcago. Zrp 60651. Tel Zrp 14853 New York, Brooklyn: SWP. 841 Clas­ St NW Zrp 20010 Tel (202) 797-7699 open forum for all view­ (312) 384-0606 son Ave. Zip 11238. Tel: (212) 783-2135. New WASHINGTON: Olympia: YSA. The Evergreen INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA. c/o Student Actrvrtres York, Lower Manhattan: SWP, YSA. 7 Clrnton St State College Lrbrary. Rm 3208 Zrp 98505 Tel points on subjects of gen­ Desk, lndrana Unrversrty. Zrp 47401 Indianapolis: Zrp 10002. Tel: (212) 260-6400. New York, Upper (206) 943-3089 Seattle: SWP. YSA. 4868 Rarnrer eral interest to our readers. SWP. 4163 College Ave Zip 46205 Tel: (317) West Side: SWP. YSA. 786 Amsterdam. Zrp Ave. South Seattle Zrp 98118 Tel (206) 723- Please keep your letters 925-2616. Gary: SWP. P 0 Box M218. Zrp 46401 10025. Tel: (212) 663-3000. New York: Crty-wrde 5330 Tacoma: SWP. 1306 S K St Zrp 98405. Tel KENTUCKY: Lexington: YSA. P 0 Box 952 Unrver­ SWP. YSA. 853 Broadway, Room 412 Zrp 10003 (206) 627-0432 brief. Where necessary they srty Statron. Zrp 40506. Tel: (606) 269-6262. Tel. (212) 982-8214. WEST VIRGINIA: Morgantown: SWP. 957 S Unrver­ will be abridged. Please in­ Louisville: SWP. 1505 W. Broadway. P 0 Box NORTH CAROLINA: Raleigh: SWP. Odd Fellows srty Ave Zrp 26505 Tel (304) 296-0055 dicate if you prefer that 3593. Zrp 40201 Tel: (502) 587·8418 iuildrng. Rm. 209. 19 West Hargett St. Zip 27601 WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA. P 0 Box 1442 Zrp LOUISIANA: New Orleans: SWP. YSA. 3319 S Tel: (919) 833-9440 53701 Tel (608) 255-4733 Milwaukee: SWP. your initials be used rather Carrollton Ave. Zrp 70118. Tel: (504) 486-8048 OHIO: Athens: YSA, c/o Balar Center. Ohro Unrver­ YSA. 3901 N 27th St. Zrp 53216 Tel (414) 445- than your full name. MARYLAND: Baltimore: SWP, YSA. 2117 N. Charles srty. Zrp 45701 Tel: (614) 594-7497. Cincinnati: 2076

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 9, 1979 31 TH£· MILITANT ort ort ews

rs! Steel Labor Shipyard strike challenges open-shop South

The strike by members of the United Steelworkers at the Newport Some shipyard workers did go and maintenance workers. News, Virginia, shipyard is shaping up as the biggest U.S. labor battle through the gate, but not very many. It But the shipyard's owner, the giant since last year's courageous strike by coal miners. Andrew Pulley, looked like nowhere near the 6,000 the Tenneco oil conglomerate, would not Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Chicago, issued a state­ shipyard owners had said would be recognize or bargain with Local 8888. ment February 1 in support of the strike. Pulley is a member of USW A necessary to keep production going. The company forced members of sister Local 1066 at U.S. Steel. Company-arranged carpools brought Local 8417-1,200 of the yard's marine "The Newport News strikers deserve the all-out support of the entire some. Shipyard buses, normally designers-into what will soon be a labor movement," Pulley said. "Last winter, unions, Black and women's packed, dropped off a handful. two-year strike to win their first union groups, students, and community organizations rallied to the coal min­ But the Steelworkers have clearly contract. ers' cause. Those same forces are needed today behind the Newport won the first round in what all predict Now, finally, the time had come for News Steelworkers. will be a protracted struggle for their the Steelworkers of Newport News to "Resolutions of support, plant-gate fund collections, and a general union rights. fight back. drive to get out the facts on the strike will aid the striking workers in A few blocks down Washington "I'm not letting the company walk their fight for union recognition. We must put Tenneco and the Demo­ A venue, at Thirty-third Street, is Local over me anymore,"' Dominick Calautti cratic and Republican politicians in Virginia on notice that the labor 8888's strike headquarters. On the eve told the Militant as he stood before a movement will not tolerate strikebreaking with cops, the National of the strike the mood there was exub­ room-sized map of the shipyard's oper­ Guard, or court orders." erant. ations. The union plans to picket forty One year ago to the day, the Steel­ different yard locations with up to 100 workers won a representation election pickets at each spot, he said. They've By Shelley Kramer here at 5:30 this morning as 300 strik­ among the yard's 17,500 production Continued on page 22 NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Jan. 31- ing members of United Steelworkers "What time is it?" locals 8888 and 8417 picketed the "Steelworkers time!" Thirty-seventh Street gate of Newport "What time is it?" News Shipyard. "Strike time!" Across the street in front of Gus's What strikers are fighting for "What time is it?" Restaurant stood about the same NEWPORT NEWS, Va.-At strike only takes a man two years." "Freedom time!" number of workers-watching, wait­ headquarters and on. the picket lines, • Peggy Carpenter, Local 8888 This was the most popular chant ing, deciding whether to walk through members of Local 8888 told the financial secretary. "The union will the strike lines. Militant why they chose to take their give women a voice in the yard. For "Come on, brothers, join us. We're stand with the United Steelworkers. me, it means justice and freedom." fighting for you, too," a striker called • William Flippen. "I'm from • Dick Hall, volunteer organizer, West Virginia, where they know NEWS BULLETIN out across Washington Avenue. fifty-five years old. "After ten years United Steelworkers Local 8888 "Protect your job, stand up for your what strikes are all about. Slavery at the yard, I'm making $6.61 an ended in Abraham Lincoln's time. President Wayne Crosby was ar­ rights," yelled another, holding out the hour. A janitor hires in at more than rested February 1 for 'violating Vir­ union's red-and-white picket sign. We want some self-respect on the job that at unionized yards." today." ginia's right-to-work law.' A condi­ A few workers broke ranks and • Ann Warren, the first woman • Dominick Calautti. "Workers tion of his release is that he not crossed over to the picket line. Bear hugs and cheers greeted them. to work on a ship here. "As a signed up for the union because they appear at strike headquarters or The picket line grew as the 7 a.m. woman, it took me three years to get wanted to elect the people who re­ 'assemble with strikers.' State cops shift· change approached. So did the into the trades. The company kept present them, right on up to interna­ arrested Crosby as he defied their crowd in front of Gus's. wanting me to take a clerical job, tional officers. And they wanted a prohibition against picketing an But the onlookers chose to stay off even though I can't type. Then it say on what's in their union con­ area where scabs were entering in the job. Many admitted they didn't took me four and a half years to tract. Democracy-that's it in a nut­ cars. Three other strikers were also expect the strike to be so successful make first-class mechanic, when it shell." -S.K. arrested. and added that they were impressed.

By Norton Sandler but hospital officials say that some of one years at Bethlehem I've never seen BALTIMORE-An explosion caught the workers may suffer from amnesia, slaughter like what is going on today." nausea, and severe headaches. Earl Barley's attention shortly after he As steelworkers grapple with a solu­ arrived at Sparrows Point January 27 tion to this problem they're getting no for the daylight turn. Barley, fifty-three, was the seventh comfort from state safety officials. Slaughter Barley walked from the millwright steelworker killed at Sparrows Point in O'Neill Banks of the Maryland Occu­ shed toward blast furnace "D", which the past ten months. John Smith, a pational Safety and Health Office told had been closed since last October. welder, fell to his death through an the media it would not be necessary to at Within minutes Barley was dead from unsafe floor plate in the open-hearth close the blast furnace. inhaling deadly carbon monoxide gas. furnace only a month earlier. During the next two hours at least News of Barley's death spread ra­ The only way state officials will thirteen other Bethlehem steelworkers pidly through the Sparrows Point force Bethlehem to uphold safety Sparrows plant, sparking discussions that have standards is when the muscle of the were overcome by the gas. Fortunately, no one else was killed become an all too frequent occurrence 17,000 increasingly angry steelworkers by the gas leaking from a broken seal, as Bethlehem's disregard for safety organized in USW A Locals 2609 and Point constantly places our lives in jeopardy. 2610 is brought to bear. Leroy Garvin, a safety representa­ A joint union meeting to map out an Norton Sandler is a member of tive from United Steelworkers Local action campaign to win a safe work­ United Steelworkers Local 2609. 2609, told the Militant, "In my thirty- placr· is urgently needed.