Court Ruling Deals Blow to Affirmative Action
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Israeli gov't orders TH£ step-up in shootings Page 6 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 53/NO. 4 FEBRUARY 3, 1989 $1.00 Castro Court ruling deals blow speaks to youth at to affirmative action BY FRED FELDMAN By a 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court Jan. 8 dealt a blow January 23 to affirmative ac tion programs, which counter .discrimina tion against Blacks, women, and others. "Today's decision," declared Thurgood rally Marshall in a dissenting opinion, "marks a deliberate and giant step backward in this BY RON POULSEN HAVANA, Cuba - "We are facing a See editorial on page 14 great historic challenge. Who will win ? Who will prevail? The selfish, chaotic, in Court's affirmative action jurisprudence." humane capitalist regime, or will rational The court threw out a Richmond, Vir socialism prevail as the most rational , com ginia, statute that channeled 30 percent of passionate, and humane system ." With public works funds to construction com these words, Cuban President Fidel Castro panies owned by people who are Black, emphasized the principal theme of his Hispanic, Asian , or Indian. speech to many thousands of school chil The measure was adopted in 1983 after a dren , other Cubans, and international finding that only two-thirds of 1 percent of guests present at Ciudad Libre in the Cuban the city's construction contracts had been capital on January 8. awarded to minority-owned businesses in Beneath a banner proclaiming, "Here we the previous five years. The population of are all shoulder to shoulder, parents and Richmond is about 50 percent Black. children", Castro spoke to a rally marking The ruling asserted that the program, the 30th anniversary of the Cuban revolu which is similar to others set up by 36 state tion. The event completed a re-enactment and 200 local governments, violated the by school children of the triumphal proces rights of white contractors to equal protec sion up the length of the island 30 years ago tion under the law. by Castro and the victorious July 26 Move Sandra Day O'Connor, speaking for the ment forces. That march occurred after the majority, demanded that the courts subject revolutionary struggle had culminated in a affirmative action programs to "strict popular insurrection and general strike to scrutiny" in order "to 'smoke out' illegiti topple the hated dictatorship of Fulgencio mate uses of race ." Batista on Jan. 1, 1959. Only when the existence of acts of More than 1, 000 students from other "identified discrimination" had been estab countries, representing 18 ,000 such stu Impact Visuals/Bill Biggart lished, she said, could there be a "compel dents studying on Cuba's Isle of Youth, Blacks in New Rochelle, New York, picketed construction site in 1987 to demand end ling state interest" in affirmative action. were present at the rally alongside the to job discrimination. Supreme Court ruling targeted affirmative action program in "In the extreme case," O'Connor con Continued on Page 13 construction industry. · ceded, "some form of narrowly tailored ra cial preference might be necessary to break down patterns of deliberate exclusion." The majority decision was joined by Miami cop indicted for killing Blacks Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Byron White, Anthony Kennedy , and John Ste BY PAT WRIGHT tests against the long history of racist The following night, more than 650 city vens. Antonin Scalia wrote a concurring AND TONY THOMAS police violence in this city. and county cops organized in caravans of decision arguing that the majority had not MIAMI - On January 23 Miami cop After protests over Lloyd and Blan six cars, loaded with five cops each, swept gone far enough. State and local govern William Lozano was charged with two chard's killings began, Overtown was sur through the Black community. By 10:30 ments could take action to remedy only counts of manslaughter with a firearm in rounded by roadblocks and attacked by p.m., 23 people had been arrested. present acts of discrimination, he insisted, the deaths of Clement Lloyd and Allan hundreds of cops. On January 17 the police Alexander Kelly, a retired Liberty City not the effects of past ones. Blanchard. Lozano killed the two young occupation was extended to Liberty City. resident,said he was stopped on January 20 In addition to Marshall, Harry Blackmun Black men as they were riding a motorcy While Miami cops claimed calm had re by cops who demanded proof he lived in and William Brennan dissented. cle during the evening one week earlier. turned to both areas by January 18, police Liberty City. When he refused, saying According to O'Connor, the fact that Each count is punishable by up to 15 years attacks and blockades continued for several "this is not South Africa," a cop shoved "the sorry history of both private and pub in prison. Lozano was released on $10,000 more days. Kelly and stepped on his feet trying to pro lic discrimination in this country has con bond; he has been suspended without pay More than 350 people were arrested dur voke him into a fight. tributed to a lack of opportunities for Black from the police department. ing the week , and 11 were wounded. Troy entrepreneurs" was not sufficient justifica The same night in Overtown, seven peo tion for instituting affirmative action. Nor The January 16 killings of Lloyd, 23, Robinson ,a 16-year-old Liberty City youth, ple, including a pregnant woman, were at and Blanchard, 24, sparked an angry out became the third fatality when he was should "past societal discrimination in edu tacked and beaten by cops. Homeless peo cation and economic opportunities" be burst in the Black communities of Over killed on the 17th, in an alleged dispute ple had guns stuck against their heads and town and Liberty City and widespread pro- over looted goods. taken into account, she said. were arrested. Affirmative action programs, she indi Most of those arrested had bail set at cated, should not be based on the goal of $250. About 150 people were unable to bringing representation of Blacks and Socialists enter Miami mayoral race post bail, and were forced to stay in jail for others in areas of the economy abre.ast of several days. By January 18 the Dade their percentages in the population. Only MIAMI - The Socialist Workers County Jail held 2,100 inmates - 762 the percentage of those currently regarded Party here has announced that Thabo more than its court-ordered limit. as "qualified" who are Black, Latino, or from other minorities should be taken into Ntweng will be the SWP's candidate for 'Self-defense' mayor in the November elections. consideration, she said. Ntweng, a 41-year-old unionist and Lozano claims he shot Lloyd, who was While overturning the Richmond pro Black rights fighter , is a member of being chased by another cop for allegedly gram, however, the majority reaffirmed a United Steelworkers of America Local speeding, in self-defense. When he was 1980 Supreme Court decision that upheld 6694 at Keller Industries, an aluminum shot, the motorcyle crashed into an oncom the federal government's program favoring products manufacturer. ing Buick, killing Lloyd instantly. Lloyd's minority construction contractors. O'Con "My campaign is beginning at a time passenger, Allan Blanchard, died the next nor asserted that the 14th amendment to the when there is mounting anger in Miami day . U.S. Constitution gave the federal govern at the decades of racist cop violence and Lozano's lawyer told the press on Janu ment wider latitude than local or state gov mistreatment against Blacks and Lati ary 18 that Lozano shot to "defend himself ernments in taking affirmative action mea nos," Ntweng said. "The indictment of against being run over" by Lloyd's motor sures. Miami cop William Lozano for the kill cyle. In his dissent, Marshall pointed out that ings of Clement Lloyd and Allan Blan Witnesses to the shooting tell a different the ruling would discourage many states chard is the first step in winning some story . Lozano and his partner, Dawn Camp and localities from setting up affirmative justice. We have to struggle for some bell , were talking to a man about a missing action plans to counter racial discrimina- · thing unprecedented- a conviction, not car registration sticker when Lloyd's tion. just a slap on the wrist or outright acquit motorcyle came by , chased by another cop Marshall denounced O'Connor's claim tal. All working people in Miami - in a patrol car. that Richmond officials had provided in MilitanUCharles Ostrofsky Black, Latino, and white - need to be "There was no warning, no nothing," adequate proof of past discrimination. "I Thabo Ntweng part of this fight." Fred Douglas Johnson, who drove the car find deep irony in second-guessing Continued on Page 5 Continued on Page 13 Canada farmers discuss worsening crisis BY LYNDA LITTLE Trade Agreement between Canada and the agreed to continue to be part of the Pro the rest of the population. REGINA, Saskatchewan - More than United States, which went into effect Janu Canada Network's campaign against the Audrey Brent, a lawyer who defends 300 people attended the 19th annual con ary 1. The farm organization's position is implementation of the trade deal . farmers in their legal fights against farm foreclosures , outlined some of the court vention of the National Farmers Union that the Mulroney-Reagan trade deal is a One of the highlights of the convention (NFU) held here January 9-13. battles that took place in the last year. She sellout of Canada and Canadian social, en was a panel discussion on how the farm fi also described the action of a group of The NFU, founded 20 years ago, is ana vironmental, cultural, and agricultural pro nancial crisis affects residents in rural farmers who successfully shouted down tional organization representing a broad grams.