· $3.00 · $2.50 · 2.00 EUROS · ICELAND KR200 · $3.00 · KR15 · UK £1.00 · U.S. $1.50 INSIDE In tour of Chile three decades ago, Fidel Castro warned of coming coup — PAGE 9 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 67/NO. 32 SEPTEMBER 22, 2003 ‘Each soldier a rifleman’: ‘We fight , its radical shift drive to war, depression’ in U.S. Army Young Socialists for Britton organize volunteers nationwide to campaign BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS “Every soldier is a rifl eman.” That’s a SWP candidate for California governor presents program to defend working class credo of the U.S. Marines. It’s now also BY MARTÍN KOPPEL becoming the motto of the U.S. Army—a LOS ANGELES—“I’ve seen your state- radical shift in how the Army trains all its ment. Just the other day I was talking about enlisted troops. your campaign with a few people I know,” Unlike the Marine Corps, the Army has said Carmen Ortiz, a department store too many soldiers who are specialized as worker who came up to Joel Britton, the clerks, cooks, or mechanics but get little Socialist Workers candidate for governor of training or experience in using weapons California, to wish him well. Britton and a or fi ghting, according to what Gen. Kevin Byrnes, the Army’s top training offi cer, told Continued on Page 3 Interview with Joel Britton —See pages 6-7

Tel Aviv tries group of his supporters were soapboxing on a street corner in the bustling garment to murder district here on a hot Saturday afternoon, September 6. Ortiz was referring to a campaign state- main founder ment that socialist canvassers have been distributing among working people, youth, and others to introduce them to Britton’s of Hamas action program to defend the toilers. A day earlier Britton had fl own up to BY MICHAEL ITALIE Militant/Frank Forrestal Israeli forces attempted unsuccessfully Sacramento to tape a half-hour interview for the California Channel, a statewide cable Joel Britton (left), Socialist Workers candidate for governor of California, speaks with to murder the central leader of the Palestin- meat packers at shift change outside Farmer John plant in Los Angeles September 8. ian organization Hamas, which Washington TV program. In the interview, he outlined and Tel Aviv have labeled “terrorist,” by proposals to defend the interests of working dropping a 550-lb bomb on the site where people in the middle of a worsening capital- the job-creating proposal of shortening Blacks, Latinos, and women. Sheik Ahmed Yassin was meeting with ist economic crisis. the workweek with no cut in pay, he ad- Yo ung Socialists for Britton and other other Palestinians September 6. The as- In face of increasing joblessness, the so- vocated “a massive public works program campaign supporters have been hitting the sassination attempt prompted vows of re- cialist campaign calls for organizing a fi ght to rebuild hospitals, schools, child-care streets in working-class areas, from Los An- taliation by Hamas leaders. Later that day, “to make jobs available to all, at union- centers, housing, and other necessities” geles to San Francisco. They have joined scale wages,” Britton said. In addition to Continued on Page 3 as well as defending affi rmative action for Continued on Page 7 George Bush: French kills 12,000 during U.S. gov’t heat wave, Paris blames ‘mother nature’ will stay the BY LAUREN HART action to address the crisis. As if to add Mattei was shown on television August 11 The French ruling class has seized on the insult to injury, the government has fl oated at his vacation home in southern France deaths of at least 12,000 people, most of the idea of eliminating one of the country’s dismissing reports of the catastrophic death course in Iraq them retirees, during a heat wave in August 11 national holidays, supposedly to pay for rates, alongside footage of overwhelmed BY PATRICK O’NEILL to cynically defl ect blame from itself and the improved care for the elderly. emergency rooms. According to doctors, Placing Iraq within Washington’s larger capitalist system, and present the death toll During the fi rst half of August, France about 30 people usually die each day in the “war on terrorism,” U.S. president George instead as a “natural disaster” exacerbated was hit by daily temperatures of up to 104 Paris area. With the heat wave the daily toll Bush stated in a nationally televised address by declining “family values.” Paris has also degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). jumped to about 180. September 7 that Washington will stay the used the occasion to push for deeper attacks Increasing numbers of people, especially It was only on August 14 that Mattei and course in maintaining and strengthening on the working class. elderly retirees, succumbed to dehydration French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin the occupation of the country. “Two years Government offi cials have accused the and hyperthermia. As medical personnel met and announced some steps to increase ago I told the Congress and the country that victims’ families of abandoning their elders, and undertakers pointed to the mounting hospital staffi ng and open more beds. the war on terror would be a lengthy war, in an attempt to direct the blame away from death toll, government offi cials took no The disaster came after several years of a different kind of war, fought on many the state’s responsibility for an understaffed emergency measures and denied what was cutbacks in health care and other services Continued on Page 3 health system and the lack of government happening. Health Minister Jean-Francois Continued on Page 10 U.S. prosecutors Sterling Laundry workers strike expand charges for union recognition in U.S. capital Also Inside: BY SAM MANUEL where they clean laundry for hospitals and against six AND LEA SHERMAN hotels. It is the hottest part of the facility, Israeli prime minister, WASHINGTON, D.C.—Chanting “Sí with temperatures often exceeding 100 de- Ariel Sharon, visits India 3 Cuban hijackers Se Puede!” (Yes, we can do it), workers at grees Fahrenheit. Pichado’s picture appeared the Sterling industrial laundry here went on prominently in the Washington Post along Cheam in Canada BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS strike for union recognition September 8. with an article in the big-business daily on fi ght for fi shing rights 4 U.S. prosecutors have expanded charges At the end of August a majority of the 110 a lunchtime rally the workers and their sup- against six Cubans who hijacked this spring workers in the plant signed cards to be rep- porters held outside the plant August 29. Victims of racist frame-up a DC-3 passenger plane scheduled to fl y resented by UNITE, the union of garment “When the boss saw my picture in the paper 5 from Nueva Gerona on Cuba’s Isle of Youth in Tulia, Texas, pardoned and textile workers. he gave me three days off. But we will stay to Havana. According to the Associated “We are striking for better pay,” said out as long as it takes,” said Pichado. Press, the prosecution has added two counts UAW pushes to include abortion Gleny Pichado, using a megaphone to lead Union organizers said that the company 5 to the charges that could carry possible life workers chanting on the picket line. Many has threatened retaliatory action including in health-care benefi ts sentences. The hijackers had already been workers are paid as low as $6 an hour. “We revoking its “sponsorship” of a number of indicted on “air piracy” charges. They now need health insurance, more holidays, sick immigrant workers. Some of the truck driv- In China talks, Beijing joins also face charges of interfering with a fl ight days, and benefi ts,” she said. ers for the company are on parole and must Washington in pushing crew and a related conspiracy count. Most of those on the picket line are immi- be employed as a condition of their release. N. Korea to end nuclear defense 11 The six armed men commandeered the grant workers from Latin America, largely The company has brought in 20–30 day Continued on Page 2 women. They work in the section of the plant Continued on Page 2 Sterling workers strike Continued from front page Being treated with respect by manage- UNITE union mem- laborers as scabs. “We have to deal with ment was also a central issue for the strikers. bers and their support- a number of things,” Kenneth Middleton, Several UNITE placards included hand- ers who have come in who operates industrial washers and dryers, written slogans reading, “For Respect and from around the region told Militant reporters. He has worked in Dignity,” in English and Spanish. to back the fi ght for a the plant for one year and now makes $6.15 “They don’t have any respect for us,” said union at Sterling par- per hour. “We have to handle hypodermic Sixta Reding, who makes $6.50 an hour. ticipated in the August needles. There is blood and feces in the “They treat us like stepchildren,” added 29 rally in front of the sheets. And we have never been told that Middleton. Reding felt that getting medi- plant. Other unionists the company must provide us with hepatitis cal coverage was an important goal of the from Virginia, Mary- vaccinations,” Middleton added. strike to win a union. land, and Pennsylvania “We have worked too hard, too long, for a A Washington Post article quoted the joined them. Among Militant/Sam Manuel little bit of money,” said another worker with owner comparing the workers to cows. This them were workers in UNITE backers rally outside Sterling Laundry, August 29. 10 years in the plant, who only identifi ed angered workers who said they are human other laundries, gar- herself as Evelyn. “If we didn’t go on strike, beings not animals. Workers said this was a ment and textile shops, machine parts plants, shop.” They shook noisemakers, banged the owner wouldn’t take us seriously.” She typical type of comment from the owner. and a clothing distribution center. drums, and chanted in English and Span- makes $8.50 an hour and pays $119 a week A substantial challenge facing strikers is Those on the August picket line broke ish. “What do we want?” a unionist with a for the family health-care plan. Evelyn works the hiring policy of the boss, which aims to into cheers as dozens of workers poured bullhorn bellowed. “Union!” a few dozen in the dry cleaning department and was sit- divide recent Latin American immigrants out of the plant for the action during their pickets yelled back. “When do we want it?” ting with one of her co-workers, Loraina, from African Americans. Many Blacks work lunch break. Many joined the picket line, he asked. “Now!” the workers replied. and Omar, who works in the washer room, in the dry cleaning section and did not join donning UNITE T-shirts, carrying pro-union These workers are fi ghting for a union both of whom speak Spanish. Pointing to the picket line. They are also paid somewhat signs, and chanting for the union. Others sat on the heels of the organizing victory by them she explained that while she speaks higher wages. A number of Black workers on the side grass, watching and listening. UNITE at Linens of the Week here, where very little Spanish, they all have fi gured out were on the line, however—some chanting The protesters marched behind a bed sheet laundry workers won union representation how to communicate with each other. in Spanish. painted to read, “Shame on Sterling Sweat- and a contract as part of a nationwide suc- cess. “The rent goes up, the bus goes up, the food goes up—why don’t our wages go up?” asked Enuce Taveras, 57, originally from the Dominican Republic, who folds clothes at Six Cuban hijackers face more charges Sterling for an hourly wage of $6.15 per Continued from front page “Why do these people leave?” Cuban of assassination attempts against Castro and hour. “We want at least $8 an hour.” Cubana Airlines jet mid-air March 19 and president Fidel Castro asked in a televised other Cuban leaders, and an economic war According to the Washington Post, com- ordered the pilots to fl y to Florida. The plane address March 19, the day of the DC-3 that continues to this day. pany owner Eugene Jacobsen claims he was running out of fuel, however, and had to hijacking. “Because they are absolutely Castro pointed out in his March 19 broad- can’t pay “unskilled workers” more than the land in Havana, where authorities allowed certain of their impunity. Why do these cast that the perpetrators of the fi rst four minimum wage, which is $6.15 an hour in it to refuel before taking off for Key West. people leave, in addition to the certainty of hijackings up until that point walked free in Washington, D.C. “I’ve got to compete with U.S. authorities arrested and charged the their impunity? Because they are welcomed the streets of Miami. The U.S. government companies in Maryland and Virginia,” the perpetrators after the aircraft landed on U.S. there as heroes and used as raw material holds that if a pilot not under coercion will- boss was quoted as telling the Post. soil, but they refused to return the plane or for anti-Cuban propaganda. They leave be- ingly fl ies a plane to the , then A giant infl atable rat, a symbol of re- extradite the hijackers, as the Cuban gov- cause there is a law, in effect for 37 years that act is not a hijacking and no criminal sistance to the bosses’ anti-union drive, ernment had demanded. On April 10, U.S. now, called the Cuban Adjustment Act, a charges are brought. was brought to the rally. “It represents a courts released the six on bail. murderous law—as we defi ne it—that has On April 11, after a speedy trial, Cuban rat employer,” Mario Rodríguez, a UNITE The revision of the charges followed an cost thousands of lives and created count- authorities convicted and executed three organizer, told the press. “You know, investigative trip to Cuba by fi ve defense less problems.” ringleaders of the hijacking of a passenger an employer who mistreats workers.” attorneys for the hijackers, prosecutors, and Approved by the U.S. Congress in 1966, ferry in Havana nine days earlier. Since that FBI agents. It was arranged on the request of the Cuban Adjustment Act encourages time, no successful hijackings have taken Nancy Boyasko and Janice Lynn contrib- the defense, and prosecutors joined in. The people to leave Cuba for the United States place. In July, Cuban authorities foiled two uted to this article. trial of the six was scheduled to start in Key by providing virtually automatic asylum to attempts, including one on a boat belong- West September 8. any Cuban who lands on Florida’s shores, ing to the Cuban company GeoCuba, which The DC-3 was carrying 31 people on regardless of crimes they may have commit- made it to international waters in the Baha- board. According to AP, some of the hijack- ted to get there, and offering them expedited mas. After persistent demands by Havana, In ‘New International’ no. 11 ers’ relatives who were on the fl ight have permanent residency status. It is one among the U.S. Coast Guard returned the hijackers U.S. Imperialism been allowed by Washington to stay in the a host of hostile policies Washington has of the boat to the Caribbean nation along Has Lost United States. directed at the Cuban people for more than with the three guards of the vessel who had the Cold War The incident was one of a string of seven four decades, since the triumph in 1959 been overpowered by the attackers. hijackings of Cuban planes and vessels be- of the Cuban Revolution. These measures In August, a Cuban court sentenced six by tween August 2002 and April of this year. have included bombings, sabotage, scores men convicted of hijacking the GeoCuba U.S. imperialism boat to jail terms of between 7 and 10 has lost the Cold years. War.... That’s what Washington and other imperialist pow- the Socialist Workers ers used the executions of the three ferry Party concluded hijackers in April to launch an international in the wake of the propaganda campaign against Cuba. In this collapse of regimes and parties across campaign they also used the earlier arrests Eastern Europe and in the USSR that by Cuban authorities of 75 opponents of the claimed to be Communist. Contrary to Cuban Revolution, who were convicted and imperialism’s hopes, the working class in U.S. imperialism has lost the Cold War jailed for taking money and collaborating those countries has not been crushed, with U.S. government representatives to aid but remains an intractable obstacle to Although Washington claims Washington in carrying out its economic reimposing and stabilizing capitalist victory in the Cold War, the war on Cuba, The fi rm stance of the Cu- relations. ban government in defending the country’s Also available in English, Spanish, collapse of the Stalinist regimes sovereignty, however, seems to be paying French, Swedish, Greek, Farsi. $14 in the former and off in turning the tide of hijackings and Order at www.pathfi nderpress.com or from Eastern Europe at the end of similar provocative incidents in the recent bookstores, including those listed on page 8. the 1980s and early 1990s was period. not a boon for imperialism. 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2 The Militant September 22, 2003 Israel attacks Hamas Continued from front page able obstacles to its forced dispossession the Israeli government ordered a full clo- of the Palestinian people. In the week after sure of the West Bank and Gaza and banned the Aqaba meeting, Tel Aviv carried out Palestinians from entering Israel. fi ve assassination attempts against Hamas The same day, Palestinian Authority leaders, killing more than 20 Palestinians prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, who as- and injuring 100. sumed his post last spring with the stamp of Abbas did no more than issue protests at approval of the White House, resigned. these assaults. At the same time, he did not This turn of events indicated that the try to disarm or arrest Palestinian militants, U.S-brokered “road map for peace” in the as Washington and Tel Aviv insisted he do Middle East is resulting in more violence to implement the Aqaba accord. “We are and further blows against the Palestinians. not going backward,” Abbas stated. “A civil Washington’s goals in pushing through war—never.” this accord included pressuring Tel Aviv On June 29 Abbas reached agreement to make minor concessions to Palestinians with Hamas and other Palestinian organi- and deflating the Palestinian liberation zations for a suspension of military actions struggle in exchange for a promise of a against Israeli forces. The cease-fi re did not Above, building destroyed by 550-pound Palestinian state in a patchwork of land in result in an end to Israeli attacks. Two weeks bomb used in September 7 Israeli assassi- the occupied territories with a leadership prior to the September 6 events a Palestin- nation attempt against Hamas leader Sheik that meets with the U.S. rulers’ approval. ian offi cial pointed to “the 22 Palestinians Ahmed Yassin, left, in wheelchair. Yassin was slightly wounded in the attack. Washington had portrayed Abbas as killed during the cease-fi re, the [Palestinian] someone it could work with in implement- homes and businesses demolished, and the ing the “peace plan” agreed to by Israeli number of settlement outposts remaining.” prime minister Ariel Sharon, U.S. president In the last three years nearly 800 Israelis Ahmed Yassin, a central leader of Hamas. George Bush, and Abbas at a June 4–5 sum- and 2,600 Palestinians have been killed. Yassin and an assistant, the BBC reports, mit in Aqaba, Jordan. In addition, Tel Aviv has continued the were “alerted by the sound of approach- Abbas announced his resignation at a construction of a 300-mile “security fence” ing aircraft…and left the house just mo- September 6 meeting of the Palestinian to seal off Palestinian areas from Jerusalem. ments before an F-16 warplane dropped Authority (PA). “The fundamental problem Some 70 miles of the enclosure have gone got more to the point, saying Washington a bomb on it.” Israeli offi cials said their was Israel’s unwillingness to implement its up so far, in some places as a cement wall, in “did everything we could to support” Abbas, attack on the “head of the snake” had not commitments in the road map,” he said. Al- others as an electrifi ed razor-wire fence. but that Arafat “did not give Mr. Abbas the achieved its objective because the air force luding to opposition to his policies among The White House blamed Arafat for resources he needed to go after Hamas.” had used a “relatively small bomb” in the the Palestinian people and disagreements Abbas’s resignation. National security ad- Israeli forces—continuing their long- residential neighborhood where the attack with PA president Yasir Arafat, Abbas also viser Condoleezza Rice told Fox News Sep- standing policy of assassinations against took place. complained of “lack of support” and “harsh tember 7 that Abbas had been “hamstrung Palestinian leaders—dropped a 550-pound Tel Aviv promised a “relentless war and dangerous domestic incitement against by internal bickering inside the Palestinian bomb the previous day on a building in the against Hamas” in which its leaders, in this government.” Abbas had sought full Authority.” Secretary of State Colin Powell Gaza Strip in a failed effort to kill Sheik Sharon’s words, are “marked for death.” control of Palestinian security forces, but was rebuffed by other PA leaders. Arafat nominated Ahmed Qurei, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament and a ‘Every soldier a rifleman now,’ says Army former banker, to replace Abbas. Continued from front page military’s volunteer character. This is hap- rifi ce, and self-reliance—that guides our Bush presented the “peace plan” to the reporters September 4. pening, as U.S. defense secretary Donald soldiers today and tomorrow.” Israeli government and Palestinian leaders “We’ve become too specialized,” said Rumsfeld put it in a Jan. 31, 2002, speech These initiatives include adding a six- May 1, the day after Arafat appointed Abbas Byrnes, the head of Training and Doctrine to the War College in Washington D.C., be- week leadership course to the officers’ as prime minister. The so-called road map Command (TRADOC) at Fort Monroe, cause “In the 21st century…we need rapidly training. The course would come before calls for the formation of a Palestinian state Virginia. “Ask a junior enlisted who they deployable, fully integrated joint forces ca- the offi cers’ 8- to 14-week training in their in the West Bank and Gaza by 2005, on the are, and they’ll tell you, ‘I’m a mechanic,’ pable of reaching distant theaters quickly specialties, such as intelligence, infantry, or condition that the PA put together a lead- not a soldier. We need to change that cultur- and working with our air and sea forces to logistics, and emphasize small-unit leader- ership acceptable to the White House and ally in the Army.” Beginning next year for strike adversaries swiftly, successfully, and ship skills, similar to those possessed by crack down on groups Washington deems soldiers, and in three years for offi cers, the with devastating effect.” Special Operations forces. “terrorist.” Sharon and Bush have refused Army plans to formally inculcate a “warrior In other words, the White House aims at “They are very agile, very adaptive,” By- to negotiate with Arafat, whom Tel Aviv ethos” throughout its ranks, he added. turning the U.S. military into an instrument rnes said of those elite soldiers. “They are has kept under virtual house arrest in his “I think the Marines do a good job on more like that of Israel’s armed forces, or intelligence collectors, they’re war fi ghters. compound in Ramallah for two years. their basic combat training, and we’re try- even those of Cuba’s—not politically, of How can we take some of that goodness and While the Israeli regime made some ing to pull the better aspects out and embed course, but in terms of rigorous training bring it into our regular force?” initial concessions before and after the them in our training,” Byrnes said. aimed at making it a more effective fi ght- Like Marine mechanics and supply clerks Aqaba summit—lifting the closure of the This is part of a broader transformation ing machine for imperialism. who pride themselves on their shooting occupied territories, releasing a fraction of the entire U.S. armed forces, which in- After praising the military’s performance skills and ability to defend themselves in of the nearly 6,000 Palestinian prisoners it cludes giving central role to Special Opera- in the assault and occupation of Afghani- battle, GIs will undergo similar instruction. holds, and shutting a few “illegal outposts” tions units, combining commands of various stan and Iraq, Byrnes said, “The initiatives “Thus, mechanics not only will be required of Zionist settlements in the West Bank—it branches of the military, outsourcing jobs TRADOC is leading now will ensure that to fi x engines but to repair them at night after did not miss a beat in its military onslaught like running military prisons and hospitals the lessons of war are well learned and that a long road march. And all Army personnel, against those it considers the most vulner- to non-military entities, and enhancing the every disciplined soldier thinks of himself not just front-line combat units, could be or herself as an infantryman fi rst. It is the required to qualify on marksmanship twice Warrior Ethos—the culture of disciplined a year instead of just once,” said an article Israeli premier visits India initiative, teamwork, determination, sac- in the September 8 Washington Post.

BY PAUL PEDERSON constraints whatsoever towards such sales Washington stays course on Iraq Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon on to the Indian regime. The two governments September 7 became the fi rst Israeli head are also sharing intelligence and increasing Continued from front page leaders, 42 are dead or in custody. We’re of state to visit India, 11 years after New military co-operation. Indian special forces fronts in many places,” Bush said. “Iraq sending a clear message: Anyone who Delhi established full diplomatic relations are receiving training in Israel. The two are is now the central front.” Emphasizing the seeks to harm our soldiers can know that with Israel. The Indian rulers—known for facilitating this collaboration through a open-ended character of the occupation, he our soldiers are hunting for them.” years for their public rhetoric in support of “counterterrorism working group.” drew a parallel with the U.S. occupation of The administration has mounted a re- Palestinian self-determination—have been “India might pretend this is simply about Japan and Germany following World War newed push for troops from France, Ger- cultivating an increasingly close relationship buying arms from Israel and nothing more,” II. “We committed years and resources to many, and other imperialist powers, along with Tel Aviv over the past decade. said Bharat Karnad, who played a central this cause,” he said. “America today accepts with major semicolonial countries like New Delhi, which was a prominent mem- role in drafting New Dehli’s nuclear doc- the challenge of helping Iraq in the same India and Turkey, to be deployed in Iraq. ber of the Nonaligned Movement—founded trine. “But the level of intelligence co-op- spirit, for their sake and our own.” “Our commanders have requested a third in 1961 as a forum for semicolonial nations eration on Pakistan is more extensive [with By his own account, some 130,000 U.S. multinational division to serve in Iraq,” many of which had achieved independence Israel] than with the United States. This is troops are stationed in the country, along Bush stated. “I have directed Secretary of through national liberation struggles—was a strategic relationship.” with 20,000 soldiers under the command State Colin Powell to introduce a new [UN] the fi rst non-Arab government to recognize Much of the intelligence sharing has to do of British and Polish offi cers. Security Council resolution, which would the Palestinian independence movement. It with Muslim groups deemed as “terrorist” The U.S. president addressed the argu- authorize the creation of a multinational was also the last major government to estab- by both regimes, a number of which have ments of liberal Democrats who say that force in Iraq, to be led by America.” lish full diplomatic relations with Israel. been operating out of Pakistan. the occupation threatens to become a quag- Paris and Berlin have reportedly rejected India now tops the list of customers Indian prime minister Atal Behari mire. Such critics point to the increasing Washington’s initial draft resolution. Ac- for Tel Aviv’s lucrative international arms Vajpayee and Sharon will be meeting on death toll among U.S. soldiers, 149 of cording to USA Today, these governments trade—putting an estimated $1.5–2 billion the anniversary of the bombing of the World whom have been killed since May 1, when said that it “did not cede enough authority annually into the accounts of Israeli arms Trade Center and Pentagon, which they plan Bush declared that “the United States and to the UN and an Iraqi government.” manufacturers. Israel, likewise, has dis- to use to paint their growing relationship as our allies have prevailed,” after U.S. forces Bush said that he would “soon submit placed Russia as New Delhi’s number one partners in Washington’s “war on terror.” toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. to Congress a request for $87 billion,” arms supplier, recently completing the sale “Terror is the major issue and challenge “The attacks you have heard and read 75 percent of which will cover “ongoing of a $1 billion Phalcon radar system to New for both countries,” said Yaron Mayer, a about in the last few weeks have occurred military and intelligence operations in Iraq, Delhi, with Washington’s approval. spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy to predominantly in the central region of Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.” After the Indian government carried India. “We understand each other and we between Baghdad and Tikrit,” Bush stated, Bush noted that Secretary of State out tests of its newly developed nuclear see each other in similar terms.” “Saddam Hussein’s former stronghold.” Colin Powell would convene a “funding bomb in 1998, Washington, London, and India’s national security adviser, Brajesh Conditions are “generally stable” in the conference for the reconstruction of Iraq,” other imperialist powers curbed technol- Mishra, suggested in a May speech to the north and south, he asserted. following a similar one for Afghanistan. ogy exports to the country—as well as American Jewish Committee in the U.S. “We are staying on the offensive, with a He added, “Europe, Japan and states in the to Pakistan, which had also exploded an capital that New Delhi, Tel Aviv, and Wash- series of enemy targets increasingly guided Middle East all will benefi t from the suc- atomic bomb. Tel Aviv, which has developed ington should unite to fi ght “the common by intelligence given to us by Iraqi citi- cess of freedom in the two countries, and its own clandestine nuclear arsenal, felt no threat of terrorism.” zens,” Bush added. “Of the 55 most wanted they should contribute to that success.” The Militant September 22, 2003 3 Calero meets New Zealand meat workers BY FELICITY COGGAN That evening, Calero addressed a meet- AND AGNES SULLIVAN ing of 26 people at the Pathfi nder Press AUCKLAND, New Zealand—“Have Bookshop in Auckland. Included in the you had a Maori welcome yet?” Doug audience was George Arulanantham, the Soloman, a meat worker at the Wilson president of the New Zealand Tamil Soci- Hellaby boning room, asked Róger Calero. ety, who has protested new “anti-terrorism” He then formally welcomed Calero with a laws that threaten the ability of Tamils in short speech in Maori and traditional hongi New Zealand to support their struggle for (rubbing noses). Some 20 workers from the self-determination in Sri Lanka. department, part of a large meatpacking site Fourteen supporters of the Róger Calero in South Auckland, came out in the course of defense campaign came to a meeting hosted a break August 29 to meet with Calero. by the Militant Labour Forum at the Workers A staff writer for the Militant newspaper Educational Association premises in Christ- and associate editor of Perspectiva Mundial, church August 30 to hear Calero draw the Calero was visiting New Zealand as part of lessons of his fi ght. Immigrant workers are an international “Fight to Win” tour follow- the fi rst targets in attacks on ing his successful campaign against U.S. im- the rights of working people migration authorities’ efforts to deport him. to due process, legal aid, ac- A permanent resident of the United States, cess to evidence, and civilized he was arrested Dec. 3, 2002, at Houston treatment, he explained. But Intercontinental Airport while returning the aim of the imperialist rul- home from reporting assignments in Cuba ing classes is broader; their Militant photos by Malcolm McAllister and Mexico. He was jailed by immigration target is all working people, Above, Róger Calero (left) on tour to explain victory in agents as the fi rst step in proceedings to de- and the torture and degrada- antideportation fi ght, gets traditional Maori hongi greet- port him to his native Nicaragua on the basis tion of detainees at the U.S. ing from Doug Soloman during August 29 break-time of a plea-bargain conviction 15 years earlier base at Guantánamo show meeting with workers at New Zealand meat plant. Left, for selling an ounce of marijuana to an un- what the rulers have in store some of the workers pose with Calero for a picture. dercover cop. After a public campaign won for the working class. The way widespread backing for his fi ght, the U.S. to respond is to fi ght back, turning to work- workers, Calero thanked those who backed where union members are being dismissed government decided to drop the case in May. ers currently in struggle, and drawing on his fi ght against deportation by the U.S. and their jobs given to private contractors. The government had waived this conviction the accumulated experience of the workers’ government and told some of the lessons Farsai talked about a tour in October in granting him permanent residence. movement, he said. of his successful struggle . of Aleida Guevara and Irma Fernández, Calero thanked them for signing a pe- A fund appeal raised $1,050 “My fi ght refl ects the possibility of turn- daughter of René González, one of fi ve tition calling for his release from jail. “I (NZ$=US$.58) nationally to help defray ing back the rulers attack against immigrant Cuban revolutionaries locked up in U.S. strongly believe that, if not for your and the costs involved in fi ghting Calero’s case, workers and all working people,” Calero told jails on conspiracy charges. The Cuban others’ signatures, I would still be in jail which were inititally met by the Political the participants of an August 24 meeting. Five were in the U.S. gathering information and would have been deported,” he said. Rights Defense Fund. This will also help “In Montreal a partial victory was also won on the activities of ultrarightist groups that Soloman commented on Calero’s descrip- ensure the fund is replenished and ready by Algerian refugees against attempts by the operate on U.S. territory with the complicity tion of the struggle for fi shing rights by the for the next fi ght. Canadian government to deport them back of Washington and have a record of carrying native Cheam in Canada, whom he had met to Algeria,” he continued, even though some out violent attacks on Cuba. during a recent visit there. “The same thing ❖ are still under threat of deportation. After the meeting Calero attended a is happening over there as over here. It’s not Joining Calero on the panel were Mike supper hosted by eight meat packers in a fi ght between races, but between Maori Barker, from the Hospital Employees Abbotsford, 70 kilometers outside of Van- people and the Crown [state],” he said. Calero visits Vancouver Union (HEU), Shahdin Farsai of the Free couver. They discussed the ruling-class “Are you going round the world telling the Cuban 5 Committee, and Joe Yates of offensive and the struggle against low people about your experiences, or just BY TONY DIFELICE the Communist League, the Canadian sister wages, increased line speeds, and high thanking them?” asked Gloria Mau. AND ANNETTE KOURI organization of Calero’s party, the Socialist injury rates on both sides of the border. “Both,” replied Calero. He explained, VA NCOUVER, British Columbia— Workers Party. Natalie Stake-Doucet chaired Calero pointed out that his fi ght joined with “every year, hundreds of thousands of im- Róger Calero visited here August 24, the the meeting on behalf of supporters of the others resisting the bosses’ attacks—coal migrant workers are deported. Every single fi nal stop of the Canadian leg of his interna- Róger Calero Defense Committee. miners, defenders of immigrant rights, and capitalist country is doing the same thing. tional “Fight to Win” tour. At a public meet- Barker spoke about the fi ght by HEU others—many of whom he has met on his It’s a way to divide us, to create a super-ex- ing and during a visit with packinghouse members against hospitals and health centers international tour. ploited layer they pay less, and by doing that to put pressure on the wages and benefi ts of everybody. My victory clearly came out of the political price they saw my fi ght was Immigrants in Canada demand sanctuary making them pay for trying to deport me. We want to speak about how we did it so BY RÓGER CALERO are sent back to their countries. mission to only 19 of them to remain here, others can do the same.” TORONTO—Several cases here and “It shows the extent to which people and some have decided to stay in the country “Good on you mate!” responded Mau. in other provinces across Canada of im- are willing to go,” to fi ght for their lives, in spite of rulings against them. Ian Clarke, the union delegate in the bon- migrant families fi ghting deportation have said Darryl Gray, minister of Union United Canadian immigration authorities have ing room, added that members of the Maori highlighted the stepped-up attacks against Church in Montreal, who has offered his deported many of them to the United rugby team from New Zealand had recently immigrant workers by Ottawa, as well as the church as a sanctuary to an Ethiopian family States, in the cases where that was their been refused entry to Canada to tour there resistance the Canadian rulers face. of four. There are some 20 other churches fi rst point of arrival. Once there, they are because of criminal convictions. “One had a Milton Daschevi, a construction worker ready to open their doors to other families, put in detention indefi nitely while they wait drunk driving conviction,” he said. Another here, and his family decided to go under- according to Gray. There have been about 30 for a resolution of their case, or ultimately “hadn’t even been up in court. They were ground rather than abiding by a deportation cases of individuals and families that have get deported. only playing sport, not staying there.” order by the immigration authorities. He was sought refuge in churches across Canada, A rally is planned for October 9 in Ottawa Calero also addressed a lunchtime meet- scheduled to be deported back to his native Gray added. The government has given per- to win support for the refugee families. ing of 17 students at the School of Visual Brazil August 12. Instead, a public fi ght has Arts at the Manukau Institute of Technology. opened up for their right to work and live Jonathan Field, a student who had helped in Canada that has drawn the support of his organize the meeting, chaired the session. union, the Carpenters, Drywall and Allied Cheam defend fishing rights He thanked Calero for coming to share his Workers Union, local clergy, and others. “amazing story—unprecedented in winning “We call them undocumented workers,” BY RÓGER CALERO of some 300,000 sport fi shermen licensed a case against the U.S. government.” said Carlos Pimentel, a spokesperson for AGISSEZ, British Columbia—“We are in the province. In the meantime, “charges One participant asked if anyone had fol- the Central Ontario Regional Council of exercising our aboriginal right to fish,” [for fi shing out of season] keep accumulat- lowed the steps Calero had taken and also Carpenters. “The stigma of being ‘illegal’ Sidney Douglas told this reporter during a ing against us,” he said. won. Calero described some of the many conjures up the image these people are out visit here August 25. Douglas was referring After hearing about the attacks by Wash- immigrants threatened with deportation there stealing, maiming, building bombs in to the fi ght by members of the indigenous ington and Ottawa on immigrant rights, and he had met in the course of his fi ght, and their basement, and planning to overthrow Cheam Nation to maintain its right to fi sh a brief explanation of this reporter’s fi ght noted some that have successfully followed the government. Nothing could be further salmon on the Fraser River. That right has against U.S. government deportation efforts, his example of waging a public fi ght. These from the truth.” come under attack by the Canadian Depart- Douglas noted that it was not until 1960 that victories show the limitations of the rulers, Universal Workers Local 138, the largest ment of Fisheries and Oceans, who claim the Cheam band obtained the right to have he said, and that they are not as invincible construction workers union in the Toronto that commercial fi shing done by the Cheam legal representation in cases against the gov- as they present themselves. area, has called for measures that would poses a threat to “conservation.” ernment. “In the last 40 years we have been Another student said he thought that if allow undocumented workers to apply for “We were the fi rst commercial fi shery in catching up for the rest of the time lost,” countries like New Zealand opened their temporary work permits with the possibility this province,” said Douglas. He explained he said. In the 1920 s the Canadian rulers borders to immigrants it could create other of becoming permanent residents. how the fi shing companies tried to make prohibited the Cheam people from gathering problems, and there would be too many Andy Manaham, a spokesperson for trappers out of them for fur. “But we never in groups of more than four people, forcing people and not enough resources or jobs. the union, which represents some 30,000 did that. We are fi shermen,” he said. “We them to carry out their spiritual rituals and Calero replied that the bosses don’t want to workers in the area, estimates that there are sell them. We eat them.” other meetings in hiding. get rid of immigrants; there are not massive at least 9,000 undocumented workers in the In British Columbia, the Cheam have The day of this interview the native fi sher- deportations or concentration camps today. Toronto area in the construction trades. been at the forefront of the fi ght by indig- men were active at the main fi shing camp Attacks on immigrants are done in a selec- The Toronto Star reported August 10 that enous people for their right to fi sh, against and boat launch preparing to go upstream to tive and arbitrary way that keeps the sword 50 members of Local 675 of the drywallers’ government encroachment of their territory, set and tend their gillnets for a catch. They of intimidation hanging over workers, so union, of which Daschevi is a member, and for the resolution of land claims. expected band members to come down from they can keep this layer divided from other turned up for a meeting organized by the The Cheam reserve occupies about 1,200 the mountainous area of Kelowna, after they working people and less combative. He said union on two days notice, to discuss how to acres along both sides of the Fraser River had been forced to leave their houses as the there were enough resources in countries help them secure immigration status. upstream of the Harrison River confl uence. result of forest fi res. like New Zealand to go around several Most recently, fi ve families, from Ethio- “But all of these lands are ours because we Members of the Tl’azt’en First Nation, up times, but the problem is how this distribu- pia, Bangladesh, Serbia, and Colombia, have never conceded them,” said Douglas. “We in Fort St. James, where the salmon showing tion is organized. The fi ght for the defense sought sanctuary in churches in an attempt have asked them to show us the receipt.” up there this year is too mushy to eat, have of immigrant rights has to go hand in hand to prevent their deportation. The families The native leader explained that the rights been allowed to come down to catch their with the fi ght for jobs, he added. fear political or religious persecution if they of the Cheam people are placed after those share off the Cheam reserve. 4 The Militant September 22, 2003 Thirty-five victims of racist frame-up pardoned in Texas BY BRIAN WILLIAMS mess-ups” in his efforts to secure convic- HOUSTON—In response to a four-year tions. He has now been indicted on perjury battle against the arrest and jailing of more charges. The following month a specially than a tenth of the Black population of the appointed state judge reviewing evidence western Texas town of Tulia, Governor Rich- in the Tulia cases found Coleman “simply ard Perry granted full pardons on August 22 not a credible witness under oath” and for 35 of the 38 men and women convicted recommended the dismissal of all 38 on frame-up drug charges. convictions. The Texas Court of Criminal “It really takes a lot off your mind,” said Appeals, the state’s highest court, is still Freddie Brookins Jr., 26, the son of a Tulia considering this recommendation. Thirteen The last of the 38 victims of racist frame-up in Tulia, Texas, are led to the Swisher meat packer who served three-and-a-half of the defendants who remained in prison County court house June 16 to be released after four years in prison. All were convict- years of a 20-year sentence. “What hurt the were released in June after a special act of ed on the fabricated testimony of an undercover cop, who now faces perjury charges. most was that the people in the courtroom the Texas legislature allowed them to be and on the jury knew me and knew I hadn’t freed on bail. done it. All of it had to do with race. It’s a In a news release announcing the par- apartments. This group “encouraged him to make stupid way to get people out of town.” dons, Governor Perry described his action Three of the defendants were not granted the largest number of cases using whatever “This is the day that we’ve been fi ghting as “appropriate and just,” adding, “Texans pardons because of legal technicalities— methods he chose. The more productive he for for the past four years,” stated Vanita demand a justice system that is tough but one is on deferred probation and two others appeared to be, the more funding money Gupta, an attorney with the NAACP Legal fair.” Kathy Walt, a spokesperson for the had convictions on their records on other they could get,” Blackburn added. Cole- Defense and Education Fund, one of the governor, made it clear that the pardons did charges. man was awarded Texas Lawman of the prominent national groups that had joined not include a determination of innocence. “The parties responsible for what hap- Ye ar for 1999. in pursuing the case. This fi ght for justice According to the Texas Board of Pardons pened to the people of Tulia have yet to be The pardons open the way for civil suits had attracted national and international and Paroles, a full pardon does not have the brought to the bar of justice,” stated Jeff by those charged in the cases. While many of media attention with lawyers taking it up legal effect of expunging a criminal record Blackburn, a lawyer in Amarillo who rep- the defendants have agreed to a settlement of pro bono to overturn the convictions. or of exoneration except in rare cases where resents many of those just pardoned. “The $250,000 in exchange for an agreement not Forty-six individuals—39 of them a person is also declared to be innocent. government agency that caused the Tulia to sue local offi cials, they remain free to sue Blacks—were arrested in Tulia on July 23, This means these Tulia residents will still fi asco was the [Texas Panhandle Regional the task force. “We’re planning on exhaust- 1999, in pre-dawn raids on their homes. have the convictions on their records, af- Narcotics Traffi cking] task force…. They ing every single remedy available to our They were accused by undercover cop Ron fecting their ability to get jobs and rent were the group that hired Coleman.” clients,” stated NAACP attorney Gupta. Coleman of selling him cocaine over an 18-month period. Coleman had been em- ployed by the state to conduct a sting for the federally funded Panhandle Regional Auto union demands insurance cover abortions Narcotics Task Force. No evidence was BY ELLEN BERMAN which is about one-quarter of the total active other unions, creating anxiety among abor- produced during any of the trials to cor- DETROIT—Registering the impor- UAW workforce. tion opponents. “It could be a dangerous roborate Coleman’s testimony. After the tance of the growing number of women “It’s a very signifi cant move that the UAW precedent,” said Monica Miller, director of fi rst several of those convicted were given in the industrial workforce, the United is taking up the issue and it refl ects think- Citizens for a Pro-Life Society who is plan- 60 to 90 year sentences, 27 other defen- Auto Workers union (UAW) is raising the ing that reproductive health care for women ning a picket outside of UAW headquarters dants accepted plea agreements for lesser demand in contract negotiations that abor- is not a luxury, it’s basic health care,” said in Detroit. time. A total of 800 years in prison and 100 tions be covered by employer health-care Kate Michelman, president of NARAL Pro- It is unclear how hard the UAW will push years on probation were handed down. plans. The current four-year contract cover- Choice America. on this issue or whether this demand will The frame-ups began to unravel in April ing 307,000 workers and 522,000 retirees, This demand comes at a time when most be part of the fi nal contract. According to 2002 when Tonya White, who was about to spouses, and dependents of General Motors, employers are seeking ways to cut back on Ann Wendt, a management professor at go on trial, provided bank records proving Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and two major parts health benefi ts for their employees. Detroit Wright State University, “Unions raise is- that she was 300 miles away in Oklahoma suppliers, expires on September 14. automakers complain that they paid $8.7 sues knowing they may take a few contract City cashing a check at the exact time Women comprise approximately 43 per- billion in 2002. General Motors wants to negotiations to get…Dental and eye cover- Coleman claimed she had delivered co- cent of union members in the United States, reduce the $3.62 billion it spent covering its age weren’t won the fi rst time.” caine to him. up from 37 percent in 1990. Almost two- 336,000 UAW workers and retirees. Current UAW health-care plans cover In a court hearing in March Coleman thirds of new union members are women. In The outcome of negotiations around abortions only under certain circum- admitted to using racist slurs and to “some the UAW, there are 169,000 women workers, this issue is expected to have an impact on stances, as when “medically necessary” or determined by a physician. The UAW has also raised the proposal that GM should join Ford and Chrysler in Party-Building Fund needs push to make goal covering prescription birth control costs. BY ANGEL LARISCY working-class resistance to the capital- Fund organizers Supporters of the Socialist Workers ist offensive against workers’ rights and are planning events t $80,000 Party-Building Fund in cities across conditions. like this in every $80,000 Party-Building Fund the country report they are stepping up ef- Becky Ellis from Twin Cities, Minnesota, city with leaders forts to get on schedule in making their goals reports that fund supporters in that city held of the SWP. For July 12–October 15: Week 8 of 13 by the October 15 deadline. Collections as of a successful event with Sam Manuel speak- information on September 6 remain almost $34,000 behind ing on “The U.S. Conquest of Iraq and the the Party-Building Goal Paid % schedule. Nearly two-thirds of the way into Trade Push into Africa.” “Twenty people Fund event in your NE Pennsylvania 2,000 750 38% the drive, $15,396 has been collected—19 attended,” said Ellis, “including a retired area see the direc- Twin Cities 4,300 1,595 37% percent of the goal. railroad worker who lives about 4 hours tory on page 8. With fi ve weeks left in the campaign, away—he’s been reading the Militant for Donations Miami 1,800 600 33% supporters of the fund need to focus on 34 years. He hasn’t been to an event in should be mailed Tampa 1,800 550 31% the detailed work of both collecting on many years and he loved it!” to the SWP, Newark 3,500 1,015 29% the pledges already made and winning Ellis added that “from the calling we 152 E. 36th St., Utah 1,000 275 28% new contributors to the fund. Central to did to build the meeting and the meeting Room 401, New this effort will be attractive public events itself we got about $1,600 more in pledges, York, N.Y. 10018. San Francisco 8,000 1,800 23% in which leaders of the communist move- bringing us to over $5,000 pledged, well Checks should be Detroit 2,500 550 22% ment address world politics today and over our goal of $4,300.” made out to SWP. Boston 2,800 575 21% Los Angeles 7,500 1,470 20% Birmingham 1,400 240 17% CALENDAR OF PARTY-BUILDING FUND EVENTS Houston 3,500 610 17% ILLINOIS Moncada Road! Speaker: Romina Speaker: . Sat. Sept. 21. New York 10,000 1,635 16% Green. Sat., Sept. 20. Chicago Pittsburgh Atlanta 5,200 660 13% The Reality of the World Capital- NEBRASKA The Working Class and the Fight Chicago 4,200 400 10% ist Crisis and Prospects for Revo- lutionary Struggle Today. Speaker Omaha for Women’s Rights. Speaker: Laura Des Moines 1,450 150 10% Joe Swanson. Sat., Sept. 20. Speakers: Ernie Mailhot and Rebecca Garza. Fri. Sept. 20 Pittsburgh 3,600 320 9% Williamson. Sat., Sept. 28. IOWA TEXAS Seattle 6,000 525 9% Des Moines NEW JERSEY Houston Washington, D.C. 2,700 215 8% Speakers: Ernie Mailhot and Rebecca Newark 50 Years After the Launch of the Cleveland 1,000 55 6% Latin America: A Smoldering Vol- Williamson. Sun., Sept. 14. Cuban Revolution at Moncada, 30 Omaha 1,300 75 6% cano, Washington Moves to Boost Years After the Coup in Chile— its Military Intervention. Speaker: MICHIGAN What Workers and Farmers Can Philadelphia 3,200 150 5% Martín Koppel. Sat., Sept. 14. Detroit Learn from These Events Today. Western Colorado 2,700 35 1% 50th Anniversary of Attack on the PENNSYLVANIA Speaker: James Harris. Fri. Sept. 13. Other 1,146 Moncada Garrison in Cuba, 30th Anniversary of U.S.-backed Coup Northeast Pennsylvania Total 81,450 15,396 19% The Working Class and the (For further information on all in Chile: One Way Forward for the events see directory on page 8) Goal/Should be 80,000 49,600 62% Victory of Humanity—Follow the Fight for Women’s Rights.

The Militant September 22, 2003 5 Interview with Joel Britton, SWP candidate f

Joel Britton, Socialist Workers can- signs we wanted to didate for governor of California in the have. October 7 recall election, granted the That was the sec- following interview September 3. Militant ond demonstration editor Argiris Malapanis and Perspectiva I had been on. The Mundial editor Martín Koppel conducted first was a dem- the interview in New York. The fi rst part onstration on the of the interview appears below. The sec- Northwestern Uni- ond part will be published next week. versity campus a little earlier, where Question. The leading candidates of members of the the big-business parties for governor of YSA joined other California, Democrat Cruz Bustamante students in protest- and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, ing the presence are both responding to recent criticisms on campus of a about things they are accused of having U.S. Army general done in their youth. They have replied by who was associated saying they committed “youthful follies” with the John Birch but now have changed. Society, Maj. Gen. I’d like to ask you some questions about Edwin Walker, who your record, and how it relates to what you was on a national are doing today and what your campaign speaking tour. As Militant/Linda Jenness (left) stands for. we were marching Visit by Young Socialist Alliance members to Cuba in 1969. Right, YSA delegation meets with Huynh Van Ba I understand you were a member of the through this quad, (left) and other representatives of Vietnamese National Liberation Front; Britton (partially obscured) is seated Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) in the early out of a dormitory at far right end of table. Left, Britton with hoe carries out volunteer labor in Havana’s “Green Belt.” 1960s, and in fact became a member of its window a student National Committee. Is that accurate? If so, supporting this general lowered a giant sold me a copy of the Young Socialist news- advocated voting for Lyndon B. Johnson, can you explain how you got involved in the swastika fl ag. paper. Shortly thereafter, Jack Barnes, a the Democratic president. YSA and how you view that today? At that time I was involved in classes or- YSA leader who was also a student at We went none of the way with LBJ, who ganized by the members of the YSA and the Northwestern, spoke on the agrarian reform was carrying out an escalation of U.S. mili- Answer. Yes, I joined the Young Socialist Socialist Workers Party, studying the threat in Cuba. I asked a question and he answered tary intervention in Vietnam on behalf of the Alliance in the spring of 1962, at the age of of fascism and how to fi ght it. Up to this it, but suggested that we talk further about it U.S. rulers. Instead, we campaigned through 20. It was a few weeks after participating point, I was becoming revolutionary-minded afterward, which we did. I was invited over election day for DeBerry and Shaw. in a large Easter Peace Walk that opposed but wasn’t sure there could be a revolution for dinner to continue the discussions. As early as 1962 we would get to- U.S. nuclear tests. I was among those who in the United States. We studied various From that night on, we had many political gether and watch Malcolm X on TV. He walked from Evanston, Illinois, where I historical experiences of the working-class discussions on the Cuban Revolution and would appear periodically on the Kup was a student at Northwestern University, movement—why you need a revolutionary how working people can make a revolution Show, a late-night talk show hosted by to downtown Chicago. party, how we can make a workers revolu- in this country. We discussed the campaign Irv Kupcinet. We were attracted to Mal- If there was a youthful folly I committed tion in this country. to defend Robert F. Williams and members colm and viewed him as a revolutionary. in that period, it was carrying out an ultra- of his movement in Monroe, North Carolina, left act during that march. I was marching How I joined the YSA where Black rights fi ghters had organized Q. I understand you went to Cuba in the with a friend, and some ultrarightists from The way I fi rst came in contact with the armed self-defense of their community to early years of the revolution there. There’s the John Birch Society were in a vehicle communist movement was at a series of repel attacks by the Ku Klux Klan. Wil- a picture in the Militant in 1969 (see above) alongside, fl ying a red fl ag with a hammer meetings in the fall of 1961, organized by liams had recently that shows you taking part in voluntary la- and sickle while using a bullhorn to bait the students at Northwest- left the country bor as part of a brigade of young people demonstration as “communist.” This made ern in collaboration “This trip to Cuba helped to avoid arrest on from the United States. Why did you go to me angry. I left the march for a few minutes, with the Fair Play for frame-up charges Cuba and what did you do there? walked up behind the vehicle, grabbed the Cuba Committee. solidify our commitment to by the FBI. There fl ag, and ran off with it for a few blocks to One of those was on building the kind of revolu- was a shoot-to- A. The Young Socialist Alliance was in- make sure I wasn’t caught. I made my way the Bay of Pigs inva- kill wanted poster vited to send a delegation to Cuba to join back to the demonstration and marched all sion—the U.S.-orga- tionary leadership neces- on him in post in the celebration of the 10th anniversary the way downtown. nized assault on Cuba offi ces around the of the victory of the revolution. We made By joining the YSA soon thereafter, I in April 1961—which sary in the United States to country. There was a banner that read “Norteamericanos con developed an understanding of the impor- featured a Cuban mov- emulate the example of the a big defense cam- Cuba”—Americans with Cuba—on a big tance of disciplined participation in protests ie on the invasion and paign that we were piece of cloth a hotel worker got for us, and like this one, rather than individual acts that how it was defeated by Cuban Revolution.” a leading part of. we held it up during the gigantic rally in could bring harm to the demonstration. the working people of In the series Plaza de la Revolución (Revolution Square) At that time we in the YSA were begin- Cuba organized in mi- of classes, an in Havana on January 2. During our trip we ning to raise the question of Washington’s litias and the Revolutionary Armed Forces. important turning point in my decision to also did voluntary work one afternoon. growing military intervention in Vietnam. A dozen or more Cuban exile counterrevo- join the YSA was studying the 1954 events We went to Santiago de Cuba. There we The media was reporting that U.S. military lutionaries disrupted this large meeting, but in Guatemala. This was an example of a visited the museum at the Moncada bar- “advisors” were in Vietnam. The liberal and were not able to break it up. potentially revolutionary struggle that was racks and deepened our understanding of pacifi st leaders of this peace walk had let At that meeting I talked to Betsey Stone, blocked by the Stalinist party in that country, the trajectory of the young revolutionaries, it be known that signs with slogans about who was staffi ng a Fair Play for Cuba Com- which collaborated with what it considered led by Fidel Castro, who had attacked that anything other than “peace” in the ab- mittee display on the stage, and bought a a “progressive” wing of the capitalist class garrison of the U.S.-backed Batista dictator- stract—such as demands that U.S. troops pamphlet on the Bay of Pigs invasion; she at the expense of the independent mobili- ship on July 26, 1953, and had gone on to get out of Vietnam—were not welcome. So was also a member of the Young Socialist zation of workers and farmers against the lead Cuban working people to power. we had to defend our right to carry whatever Alliance. I went outside and another YSAer CIA-organized overthrow of the government I remain proud of the fact that in the of Jacobo Arbenz. course of this trip we met representatives I was asked to teach a class that was part of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of of a series on the Communist Manifesto. Vietnam, which was leading the struggle in These took place right after the YSA meet- South Vietnam against U.S. intervention. ings, held at the University of Chicago, We had a substantial discussion and cel- The Changing Face of U.S. Politics which meant I had to come to the YSA ebration in Havana with Huynh Van Ba, the Further Reading From PathfinderWorking-Class Politics and the Trade Unions meetings and wait outside. So I went down head of the NLF diplomatic mission to Cuba by Jack Barnes from Northwestern to the University of Chi- on the occasion of the fi rst anniversary of A handbook for workers com- cago. I had to wait till the meeting was over the Tet offensive carried out by the liberation Malcolm X Talks to Young People because I wasn’t a member. So I decided that fi ghters against the U.S. forces, a turning by Malcolm X ing into the factories, mines, and if I could teach a class on the Communist point in the war against U.S. imperialism. Four talks and an interview given to young mills, as they react to the uncer- Manifesto, I could be in the Young Socialist That encounter included a visit to a Na- people in Ghana, the United Kingdom, tain life, ceaseless turmoil, and Alliance. So I signed up. tional Liberation Front display at a museum and the United Sates in the last months brutality of capitalism today. It We organized a socialist summer school in Havana. of Malcolm’s life. shows how millions of workers, that year. Young people came in from around Since all of us on this trip, about a dozen the Midwest. It was part of a process of This new edition as political resistance grows, YSA members, were active in the anti–Viet- will revolutionize themselves, young people being won to the communist nam War movement, it meant a great deal contains the entire movement, of renewing this proletarian to us to see how these fi ghters, in many December 1964 their unions, and all of society. $23.00 party, and helping to make a transition in cases with very rudimentary weapons, presentation by the party leadership over a period of years. were prevailing in the struggle against the Malcolm X at the The Politics of mightiest and most brutal imperialist power None of the way with LBJ Oxford Union in Chicano Liberation in the world. the United King- by Olga Rodríguez and others In 1964 I was a Student for DeBerry Our YSA delegation presented Van Ba and Shaw—Clifton DeBerry and Ed Shaw dom, in print for with a statement we had drafted there, Lessons from the rise of the were the Socialist Workers candidates for saluting the heroism and determination of the fi rst time. The collection concludes Chicano movement in the United president and vice president in 1964. I had the Vietnamese people in their struggle for with two memorial tributes by a young States in the 1960s and 1970s, been elected to the National Committee of national liberation. socialist leader to this great revolution- which dealt lasting blows against the YSA by the delegates at the 1963 YSA “As part of a new generation of revolu- ary. $15.00 the oppression of the Chicano convention, and in 1964 I went on a speak- tionary youth that is arising in the United people. Presents a fi ghting program for those deter- ing tour for DeBerry and Shaw around States, we pledge to redouble our efforts mined to combat divisions within the working class the Midwest. We did this in face of all the to end U.S. aggression in Vietnam and in pressure to, as the middle-class leftists said, other parts of the world. Your struggle is our based on language and national origin. $15.95 go “part of the way with LBJ,” which was example,” the statement read. ORDER ONLINE AT: the slogan of a wing of the leadership of At a reception for international guests WWW.PATHFINDERPRESS.COM the Students for a Democratic Society who with Fidel Castro and other leaders of

6 The Militant September 22, 2003 for California governor

the revolution, we met representatives of A. I fi rst developed an interest in the Chi- the government and armed forces of the cano liberation struggle in the mid-1960s Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. during the farm workers’ struggles in Cali- We congratulated them on their successful fornia. I was in Chicago at that time and I seizure of the USS Pueblo, a U.S. spy ship, took part in Militant Labor Forums on that a year earlier. movement, including a forum that featured speakers from the United Farm Workers. In Emulate example of Cuban Revolution 1967—I was 25 years old then—I moved to This trip helped solidify our commit- Los Angeles, where I began to learn more ment to building the kind of revolutionary about that. For example, members of the leadership necessary in the United States Socialist Workers Party and Young Social- to emulate the example of the Cuban work- ist Alliance helped organize coverage for the ing people in overthrowing capitalism and Militant of the land-grant movement in New establishing a workers and farmers govern- Mexico led by Reies López Tijerina. ment. In October 1968 I met with two Chicano In Cuba we visited schools, hospitals, community activists at the Socialist Work- and other sites. In our visits to factories ers Party headquarters in Los Angeles. We and farms, we met a great many working discussed how, in the context of all the high people who told us about their participation school walkouts—known as “blowouts”— in the revolution, including young working and other actions by Chicanos at that time, people who had lived in the United States we could build support for the young people in exile and had moved back. It was a very in Mexico who were demanding justice in inspiring trip. the aftermath of the Massacre of Tlatelolco, In Santiago we rode by truck into the in which police and army troops fi red on Militant/Argiris Malapanis Sierra Maestra mountains, to the scene student demonstrators in Mexico City and Joel Britton (left) being interviewed by Militant reporter Martín Koppel Sept. 3. of El Uvero, the fi rst victorious battle of killed hundreds of youth. the Rebel Army in 1957, where after the political action. The Socialist Workers Party for themselves. revolutionary victory that site had been MEChA and Plan de Aztlán and the Young Socialist Alliance supported The attacks on MEChA as a “racist” orga- turned into a boarding school. I was read- Members of the YSA and Socialist this development. nization are a reactionary slander. MEChA, ing what was then the edition available Workers Party took part in the Chicano I also attended a public session of the like other Chicano organizations, supports of Che Guevara’s Episodes of the Cuban youth conferences in Denver, organized 1972 Raza Unida Party national gathering demands aimed at combating the oppression Revolutionary War. by the Crusade for Justice that took place in El Paso, Texas. of the Chicano people. You can’t identify the I’m proud to say that out of those in 1969 and 1970. I was responsible for There were different currents within nationalism of the oppressed with the na- on that trip who are still alive, five our party’s collaboration with our members the Chicano movement. There were some tionalism of the oppressor. I was taught this remain active in the communist move- who participated elements that were when I joined the communist movement. At ment—Linda Jenness, Robin Maisel, in these confer- against revolutionary that time we studied the discussions with Dave Prince, Stu Singer, and myself. ences. Our com- , considering Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky rades took part in “The attacks on MEChA as Marxism to be a “Eu- that were later published by Pathfi nder as Q. You said you were active in the anti– the March 1969 a ‘racist’ organization are a ropean import.” But Leon Trotsky on Black Nationalism and Vietnam War movement. Could you say a National Chicano we were an active part Self-Determination. little more about that? Youth Confer- reactionary slander....You of this movement, and Our movement’s collaboration with ence in Denver, can’t identify the national- we were welcomed by Malcolm X, and our understanding of A. I was active in the Student Mobiliza- which adopted many of the militants in the revolutionary dynamic of Malcolm’s tion Committee to End the War in Vietnam, the Plan de Az- ism of the oppressed with the Chicano movement political evolution, prepared us for the the SMC. And I was the Socialist Workers tlán, considered the nationalism of the who were open to a nationalist awakening among the Chi- Party representative to the broader antiwar so outrageous by working-class political cano people and the development of a coalition in Chicago. the scandalmon- oppressor.” trajectory. fi ghting movement of Chicanos. It was As part of leading an orientation toward gers today. That MEChA is a Chica- led by young people who wanted not building the kind of antiwar movement document was no student organization to be ashamed of using Spanish and to that could appeal to and involve working a program for the mass mobilization of with chapters on campuses throughout the learn about the history and traditions of people, we reached out to men and women Chicanos for community control. Southwest and other parts of the country. In the Chicano people. These are issues that in uniform, at the military bases, bus depots, The Plan de Aztlán raised the concept that recent years, MEChA chapters in Southern the Plan de Aztlán, for example, centered etc. I was at many of the big marches on the liberation of the Chicano people would California helped organize speaking tours on. Young people today can fi nd out the Washington and San Francisco. ultimately require “a nation autonomously for Cubans to tell the truth about the Cuban truth about these struggles in books such free, culturally, socially, economically, and Revolution. These included Carlos Tablada, as The Politics of Chicano Liberation and Q. The big-business press has widely politically.” It projected the creation of an the author of Che Guevara: Economics and The Changing Face of U.S. Politics. reported accusations by some opponents independent Chicano political party because Politics in the Transition to Socialism, and of Bustamante, such as recall candidate “the two-party system is the same animal Cuban revolutionary youth leaders. This (In the second part of this interview, Britton with two heads that feeds past summer a number of the young people describes, among other things, his activity in from the same trough.” who took part in the Cuba-U.S. Youth the communist movement during the rise of Following the second Exchange trip to Cuba were members of the Black liberation struggle in the United Denver conference in MEChA who traveled there to see Cuba States in the 1960s and ’70s.) 1970, the Raza Unida Party in Colorado was launched. At our 1971 national California socialist campaign convention, the Socialist Workers Party adopted a Continued from front page Sarmiento told the Militant September 9. resolution on the Chicano activities such as recent farm worker–led YS member Arrin Hawkins is set to arrive liberation struggle, which demonstrations in Salinas and other cities in Los Angeles September 12. Abby Tilsner, is the main document in demanding the right of undocumented a garment worker from Newark currently on The Politics of Chicano workers to obtain driver’s licenses; a picket lay off, is fl ying to LA the day before. Liberation, published line at the Forever 21 garment plant in Los “We’re looking for youth who are repelled by Pathfinder Press. I Angeles by workers demanding back pay; by the imperialist wars, the racism, sexism, helped in the drafting of and a public meeting calling for the release and unremitting brutality of capitalism—all that resolution. of fi ve framed-up Cuban revolutionaries of which are made worse by the policies of In the late 1960s and locked up in U.S. prisons. They are also the Democrats and Republicans, the twin early 1970s I was part going onto college campuses that have just parties of the bosses,” Newton stated. “We’re Antonio Camejo started the fall session. seeking out those who are attracted to the Left to right, Mariana Hernandez, Tony Thomas, Paul of the efforts by our Olympia Newton, California state spokes- perspective of fi ghting imperialism and its McKnight, and Britton in Crystal City, Texas, late 1960s. movement’s leadership person of the Young Socialists for Britton, drive to war and economic depression and Chicanos won a struggle there to take over the previously to support and promote said, “We are welcoming young people building a revolutionary movement here. all-white local government. Popeye statue in middle sym- the development of from around the country to join our Britton “Young socialists everywhere are fi guring bolizes that city was “spinach capital of world.” During a independent working- Brigades over the next four weeks. Young out their plans on how to get time off work high-school blowout there, students painted Popeye brown. class political action that took the form of the socialists are coming in from Miami, New or school and fi nd a way—any way—to Raza Unida Party. That Yo rk, and elsewhere. We need reinforce- get to California for a few days, a week, or longer,” she added. “Campaigning has and State Senator Thomas McClintock and included a visit to Crystal City, Texas, ments—right now!—to take advantage of focused on Los Angeles and San Francisco, right-wing columnist Michelle Malkin, that where one of the families leading the every opportunity that has opened up for us and we’ll be fi elding teams to other cities while in college in the 1970s Bustamante struggle hosted us. with the October 7 recall election.” and rural areas across the state as additional was a member of MEChA, which they label Crystal City is a small town near the bor- Nicole Sarmiento and Jessica Baity, volunteers join us.” a radical, “violent,” and “racist” organiza- der with Mexico that is majority Chicano. students at the University of Miami, had Interviewed September 8 by TV Channel tion. They cite MEChA literature advocating But it had been dominated by an all-white tickets to fl y to Los Angeles September 10. the defense of “la Raza,” “the liberation of city government for decades. The struggle “We will arrive in LA tomorrow night,” Continued on page 10 Aztlán,” and the self-determination of the involved fi ghting against the brutality of Chicano people. They single out the Plan the local police and the Texas Rangers, a Espiritual de Aztlán (Spiritual Plan of notoriously racist special state police unit Aztlán), a document adopted by the 1969 that routinely acted as judge, jury, and ex- Campaign with Young Socialists for Britton National Chicano Youth Conference in ecutioner against working people, especially With less than four weeks left in the California governor’ s race, young socialists Denver that led to the founding of MEChA. Chicanos. McClintock even equated MEChA with the There was a struggle by Chicanos to take from all around the country are coming to California to join in campaigning for Ku Klux Klan. What was your association over the local government there, which they the socialist alternative there. If you would like to be one of these campaign vol- with the Chicano rights movement at that eventually did. It was one of the fi rst suc- unteers, contact Young Socialists for Britton at 4229 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles, time? cessful examples of independent Chicano CA 90011; Tel: (323) 233- 9372; or email: [email protected]

The Militant September 22, 2003 7 ‘U.S. imperialism is not all-powerful’ The following are excerpts from “The the first great document German imperialists, and the End of the War in Europe,” a speech that which proclaimed the com- Italian imperialists, and the appears in James P. Cannon’s The Strug- ing downfall of capitalism Japanese. They are only the in- gle for Socialism in the American Century, and the inevitable victory cidental victims. They will have one of Pathfi nder’s Books of the Month of the proletariat. Today, to sacrifi ce a great deal. They in September. Delivered in New York ninety-seven years later, it have to sacrifi ce some of their on May 1, 1945, to an audience of 500 remains our program and apparently all-powerful fascist people, this was the fi rst public address our banner. Nothing is politicians who have come to by the Socialist Workers Party national clearer in the world today such an ignominious end. But secretary following his release from a than this: that the failure fundamentally the vanquished jail term imposed on him and other of the workers to carry are the people of Europe and of SWP and trade union leaders for their out the historic mission Asia, and, although they don’t opposition to Washington’s entry into the imposed upon them by know it yet, the people of the inter-imperialist slaughter of World War the decline of capitalism United States of America… II. Copyright © 1977 by Pathfi nder Press, does not and cannot bring Since 1914, and ten times reprinted by permission. Square brackets any relief or prosperity for more since this present war, indicate excerpts in original. them but only a continu- American imperialism in ex- ation of enslavement and panding its power and its con- devastating wars which in trols over the whole earth, in the present period of the becoming the exploiter of the death agony of capitalism world, thereby extends its eco- BOOKS OF grow ever more monstrous nomic base away from the sure in devouring mankind. . . foundation of the forty-eight As the present war in Eu- states united on one continent. THE MONTH rope draws to its agonizing [. . .] And every weakness in the close and with the end of Militant/Laura Gray economy of world capitalism at the present war in the Ori- Cartoon printed on front page of Aug. 18, 1945, issue of Militant at end any point runs a tremor through- of World War II. “There is no Peace!” proclaimed the lead headline. BY JAMES P. CANNON ent not very far away, the out the foundations of American victors are meeting in San imperialism because its founda- As our esteemed chairman reminded Francisco to prepare the next war.1 Even as the master of the world, and it seems to tions are on that economy too. Every revo- you, we have been away for a while. It before they have been able to arrange the those who cannot see clearly that it is all- lutionary disturbance—and there have been seems, to me at least, like a long time since formal declaration of the fi nish of the fi ve- powerful. Some of the statesmen at Wash- many and will be ten and one hundred times I have made a speech, and naturally I am a and-a-half-year war that has cost tens of mil- ington and their representatives in Frisco, more, one after another in all parts of this little nervous in getting started. But I hope lions of human lives, they are meeting, and and their generals and admirals on the battle- agonizing world—will shake the stability of to overcome that as I go along because all I over the meeting of the victors is the shadow fi elds and the high seas, deceive themselves this deceptive Moloch of American capital- really intend to do is to continue what I was of the next war, which they don’t even any in the effulgence of these great victories that ism which appears on the surface to be so saying when I was so rudely interrupted. longer promise to avoid. They only express have been produced as a result of the terrifi c sure and so powerful. [. . .] In essence, it is what we have been say- hopes that it will not come too soon. The preponderance of the American economy. In addition to all that, the modern ing throughout our entire conscious lives; battlefi elds of Europe and the Orient, the ru- They deceive themselves. imperialist master of the world faces its and what our predecessors, the great ined cities, the devastations, the hunger, and I do not think that America is all-pow- proletarian nemesis at home. One would pioneers of socialism, have been saying the dead, counterposed to the opulent setting erful. Let us not make that mistake. The think sometimes that the capitalists would since 1848. of the conference in the San Francisco Opera modern Rome, the master of the world, curse Marx for this terrible thing called We are approaching the one-hundredth House seems to me to symbolize the whole whose light-minded statesmen dream and the contradictions of the capitalist sys- anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, present reality. [. . .] even talk of dominating and exploiting and tem. But Marx didn’t make it; he only Who are the victors in this terrible devas- policing the world for one hundred years, explained it. “ tating war? Who won freedom? The victors, has a cancer at its heart. But today they are September BOOKS you must understand and never fail to make the victors. it clear—the victors in the fi rst place are Now, who are the vanquished in the war 1. The founding conference of the United Nations OF THE MONTH the Wall Street money sharks. They are the as it stands today, up to the present mo- opened at the San Francisco Opera House on only ones who have won the war, they and April 25, 1945. It ended with the signing of the PATHFINDER ment? The war and its consequences are by their satellite imperialism in Great Britain, no means concluded. After the formal end- UN Charter on June 26. The UN was conceived READ ERS CLUB 25% which in the course of the war has yielded ing of the hostilities comes the aftermath, at the Teheran meetings in 1944 between Stalin, DISCOUNT three-fourths of its position to the Wall Churchill, and Roosevelt to replace the defunct SPE CIALS and the victors and the vanquished may League of Nations. Its form, initially a congress Street Moloch and the Stalinist satellites change places then. But the vanquished of the victors of World War II, excluded the de- America’s Revolutionary of Moscow. as of this moment are only incidentally feated Axis powers and most of the colonial and Heritage U.S. imperialism emerges from this war the rivals of American imperialism—the semicolonial nations. 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E-mail: [email protected] 8 The Militant September 22, 2003 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF U.S.-BACKED COUP IN CHILE ‘In revolution, price of defeat is very high’ Sept. 11, 2003, marks the 30th anni- imperialist invasion, arms in hand. del, Fidel!’) to express my opinion versary of the U.S.-backed military coup Castro was always careful to make on matters of concept, I say that in Chile led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. it clear that he did not think, as the assurance is based on the weakness The coup overthrew the elected govern- UP leaders did, that the electoral of this revolutionary process, on the ment of Socialist Party leader Salvador victory and reforms of the UP gov- weakness of the ideological battle, on Allende. Bringing history into the pres- ernment represented a “revolution.” the weakness of the mass struggle, on ent, the Militant reprints below excerpts Speaking to students at Concepcion, weaknesses displayed in the face of from Fidel Castro on Chile, an Educa- for example, he described what was the enemy. (Applause) The outside tion for Socialists bulletin published by taking place in Chile as “a revolu- enemy, which supports the inside Pathfi nder Press. The bulletin contains tionary process,” and then he went on enemy, is trying to take advantage speeches by Cuban president Fidel Cas- to say: “This must be clearly under- of the slightest crack, the slightest tro during his Nov. 10–Dec. 4, 1971, tour stood; a process is not yet a revolu- weakness. in Chile while Allende was president. tion. A process is a road; a process is “In fact, I could also say that your Last week we published the fi rst part a stage that is beginning.” efforts to consolidate your forces, to of the bulletin’s introduction, written by Later in the speech he said, “The unite them and to increase them, have Elizabeth Stone. This week’s installment experience we had [in Cuba] was been weak. consists of the second part of this intro- different from yours. I don’t believe “You’re going through a period duction. Copyright © 1982 by Pathfi nder there’s any easy road to revolution, which is very special, but not a new Press, reprinted by permission. but I know you Chileans will fi nd one, in the arena of class struggle. a solution to all these problems. Of “There are countless examples of O course, it is a political axiom that this. You’re going through that period (Second part) there can be no revolution without in the process in which the fascists— the total destruction of the old bour- to call them by their right name—are BY ELIZABETH STONE geois state.”... trying to beat you out of the middle The Cubans recognized that one of the Castro also explained his view of strata of the population.… reasons for Washington’s fury against Al- the election of Allende: “When Popu- “There are places where I found lende was his well-known support for the lar Unity won, there were many dan- the revolutionaries kind of hard-hit, Cuban revolution. Allende was a friend gers, many obstacles. The electoral and there are places where they even of Che and Fidel and he frequently spoke victory was like a door slightly ajar. looked demoralized. in support of Cuba in his speeches. More But it was, nevertheless, a breach, an “If I weren’t sincere, if I didn’t important, Chile’s extension of diplomatic opening, a little slit if you would.” Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro and Chilean president believe in the truth, I wouldn’t and trade relations to Cuba was the fi rst big He saw this “breach” as part of a Salvador Allende greet supporters during visit to Chile by dare say what I have just said. It breakthrough against Washington’s policy sharpening class struggle that would the Cuban leader in November 1971. might even sound as if I were say- of isolating Cuba in Latin America. A year end either in revolution or a terrible ing something that the enemy could later came the invitation to Castro to come defeat. This is the way he described use to his advantage, to gain ground. as an offi cial guest of the UP government. the situation at a news conference in San- tro had gotten a better fi rst-hand view of No! The only way in which the enemy can This was the fi rst time that Castro was able tiago: what was happening, he became more out- gain ground is by deceit, by confusion, by to visit another Latin American country in “A revolutionary process or a revolu- spoken about his warnings about the need ignorance, by the lack of awareness about eleven years. During this three-and-a-half tionary crisis is scientifi cally determined to mobilize the masses for a revolutionary problems! (Applause) week trip, Castro was greeted by hundreds at the moment when the struggle between struggle to defeat imperialism and the reac- “If you want my opinion, the success of thousands of Chileans. He spoke to large antagonistic interests becomes acute, when tionaries. His entire farewell speech, given or the failure of this unusual process will rallies of workers, peasants, and students. the privileged and the powerful feel that their at a mass rally in Santiago, was dedicated depend on the ideological battle and the The Cubans and Castro identified interests are threatened to such an extent to this theme: mass struggle. It will also depend on the themselves with the UP government and that they resort to every imaginable proce- “All obsolete social systems and societies revolutionaries’ ability to grow in numbers, its anti-imperialist measures. At the same dure and weapon in their effort to crush the have defended themselves when threatened to unite and to win over the middle strata of time, however, Castro’s political line for revolutionary movement. Undoubtedly, this with extinction. They have defended them- the population… Chile, and his projection of what the workers is the struggle that is being waged in this selves with tremendous violence throughout “The people are the makers of history. needed to do to carry the struggle forward, country now. It is obvious, and everybody history. No social system ever resigned itself The people write their own history. The was in opposition to the line of the UP lead- is aware of it. Now then, this is unequivo- to disappearing from the face of the earth of masses make history. No reactionary, no ership. This is shown clearly in the speeches cal proof of what you’re going through… its own free will… imperialist enemy can crush the people! he gave while he was in Chile. And I hope that all of you, especially all the “Because, as I have said on other occa- (Applause) Our country’s recent history Castro arrived in Chile about a year revolutionaries, are convinced of this fact. sions, the revolutionaries are not the inven- proves it! after Allende was elected, which was at a A revolutionary process is a revolutionary tors of violence… “How did we manage to resist and why? relatively early stage in the bourgeois chal- process. It’s a serious problem, a very hard “What do the exploiters do when their Because of the unity of our people. Because lenge to the UP government. Nevertheless, struggle. own institutions no longer guarantee their of the strength that such unity generates. the right-wing attacks were already under- “The price that has to be paid when a rule? How do they react when the mecha- “I said that it would take two hours for us way. The fi rst reactionary march of the upper revolutionary process is crushed is a very nisms they historically depend upon to to get together 10 times as many people as and middle-class women took place while high one. The price that nations have to pay maintain their rule fail? They simply go there are here now. And I also say that we Castro was there, and these actions were for defeat is a very high one, and so is the ahead and destroy them… can mobilize 600,000 men in arms within directed, in part, against him. price paid by the people’s movement. This “Every revolutionary process teaches 24 hours! (Applause) In expressing his opinion on these events, is because when these processes become the people in a few months things which, “A close unbreakable unity exists be- Castro had to take into consideration that acute and the privileged classes, driven by otherwise, would take them dozens of years tween the people and the armed forces of he was a visiting head of state and that hatred, are out to prevent changes in society, to learn. our country. This is why I say that we have right-wing forces were attacking the UP they resort to every procedure, even extreme “This involves a question: Who will a strong defense. by claiming that he was “intervening” in violence and the most horrible crimes. We learn more and sooner? Who will develop “There’s one thing that the experts in war Chilean politics. Despite this, he was able to fi nd proof of this in historic contemporary more awareness faster? The exploiters or and history and the professional soldiers fi nd ways to present his view that a revolu- events. Mankind has been accumulating ex- the exploited? Who will learn faster from know, and that is that man plays a decisive tion was needed, and was possible, in Chile. perience of this sort for almost 100 years. the lessons of this process? The people or role in battle, that moral factors play a de- To help explain this, he fi lled his speeches “Therefore in my opinion, this is a revo- the enemies of the people? (Exclamations cisive role in battle, that the morale of the with lessons from the Cuban revolution, de- lutionary process. And it’s imperative that of ‘The people!”) combatant plays a decisive role in battle. scribing how it was that the Cuban masses revolutionaries realize this. The reactionar- “Are you absolutely sure—you, the “Those familiar with history and great were able to defeat imperialism, how the ies are aware of it—and how! They have protagonists in this drama being written by military deeds know that when forces are Cubans were united precisely because they their strategy and plans, a whole series of your country—are you completely sure that united, inspired and deeply motivated, they were defending a system that had ended schemes instigated from the outside. One you have learned more than your exploiters can overcome any obstacle. They can assail class exploitation, how the Cubans were can see the CIA’s hand behind many of their have? (Exclamations of ‘yes!’) and take any position and make the most organized in mass organizations, and how actions. We are more than familiar with that “Then allow me to say that I don’t agree incredible sacrifi ces. they had defeated the Batista army and the hand, because it’s been pretty active around this time with the masses. (Applause)…. “What is it that gives our people this deep our country for many years.” “I was amazed when I heard the Presi- motivation in their unity against danger from Castro constantly sought to dent [Allende] say that a very important the outside? The fact that, when it comes educate those he spoke to on the newspaper in Washington or New York to defending our country, that country is From Pathfi nder rapacious and violent nature of had published statements by a high-rank- not divided between millionaires and pau- the ruling class and imperialism, ing government offi cial who said that ‘The pers, between wealthy landowners with all Fidel preparing them for what was to days of the people’s government in Chile are the privileges in the world and miserable come. This was in stark contrast numbered.’ (Boos) peasants without land or work, living a Castro to Allende and the UP, who sought “I would like to point out—not that life of poverty. The fact that our country to reassure people about the possi- government offi cial’s rudeness, intromis- is not divided between oppressors and the on Chile bility of a “peaceful road.” Several sion, his arrogance, his offensiveness, his oppressed, between the exploiters and the by Fidel Castro months after he was elected, for insolence—that it’s been many years since exploited, between ladies overloaded with example, Allende explained in an some crazy U.S. offi cial said that the days jewelry and girls forced to lead a life of Speeches and interview with Régis Debray that of the Cuban Revolution were numbered. prostitution. (Applause) Our country is interviews from he did not think Chile would see (Shouts and exclamations)…. not divided between the privileged and the Castro’s 25-day a serious economic attack from “We should ask what grounds they have dispossessed.” visit to Chile in the imperialists: “ I believe that for such optimism, for such assurance. What 1971. Castro they will not do anything of this is the assurance based on? And you are the nature; firstly because as I say, warns of impending only ones who can supply the answer. ORDER 2002 we have acted within the laws of “Or maybe you’d be interested in hearing BOUND VOLUME OF counterrevolution and stresses example of Chile, within the Constitution. It is the opinion of a visitor who is not a tour- Cuba, where workers and farmers mobilized for this reason, Régis, that I have ist? Do I have your permission to give it? PERSPECTIVA MUNDIAL to defeat imperialist intervention. $12.00 maintained that victory through (Exclamations of ‘Yes!’) $35 plus $5 shipping the polling booths was the way to “All those in favor, raise your hands. Send your order to: Order from www.pathfi nder.com or from preempt such a policy, because this (All hands go up) Perspectiva Mundial, 152 W. 36th St., bookstores, including those listed on page 8 way their hands are tied.” “Well, in view of the permission granted Room 401, New York, NY 10018 At the end of the tour, after Cas- me in this plebiscite (Shouts of ‘Fidel, Fi- The Militant September 22, 2003 9 EDITORIAL SWP campaign Continued from Page 7 7, a local ABC affi liate, at the socialist campaign headquar- U.S. troops out of Korea! ters, Britton responded to President Bush’s speech of the The Militant provides its editorial space this week to same period, students and working people in the south previous day. Bush had reasserted Washington’s determina- publish a letter by SWP national secretary Jack Barnes have fought bloody battles to win union rights; to defend tion to maintain its occupation of Iraq and strengthen its and Olympia Newton, spokesperson for the Young So- their ability to engage in politics and to hold, discuss, and domination of the Middle East and South Asia. cialists for Britton, sent to the Workers Party of the proclaim any views, including communist ones; and to “Our campaign demands the immediate and uncondi- Democratic People’s Republic of Korea September 8. mobilize massively in the fi ght to reunify Korea. tional withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, The U.S. government continues to step up harassment Korea, Africa, and elsewhere,” Britton said. The Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists join against the DPRK on economic, military, “special opera- The TV reporter and cameraman then accompanied Brit- the Korean people in celebrating the 55th anniversary of tions,” and diplomatic fronts. Having recently completed the ton to the city’s garment district, where they covered him the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea annual Ulji Focus Lens war maneuvers with south Korean and an entourage of campaign volunteers speaking with a (DPRK). We reaffi rm our solidarity with the struggle of forces, Washington—together with Tokyo, Sydney, Paris, number of workers and high school students. Koreans worldwide for national sovereignty and our com- and other governments —is beginning new naval exercises During his interview with California Channel in Sacra- mitment to join them in forcing U.S. military forces out in openly declared preparation to carry out piracy on the mento, Britton lent his support to the Immigrant Workers of Korea, including from Korea’s territorial waters and high seas against ships deemed to be carrying “weapons of Freedom Ride and other efforts to win equal legal protec- airspace, and reunifying the country. mass destruction.” U.S. offi cials repeatedly state that north tions for workers born abroad. The founding of the DPRK in 1948 was the fruit of Korea and Iran are primary targets of such trial runs. On his way back from Sacramento Britton made a stop in decades-long struggles by Korean workers and peasants At the same time, Washington used the fi ve-party talks San Francisco to join some young volunteers at a sign-mak- against Japanese colonialism, U.S. imperialism, and local in Beijing last month—without the U.S. government be- ing party to prepare for a busy weekend of campaigning. exploiters in the factories, mines, and on the land. Fewer ginning the dismantling of its worldwide offensive nuclear One of the volunteers, Vicente Ramírez, a freshman at Napa than two years later, Washington—which organized the armada, which hangs over the entire world like a sword of Community College, was painting signs that read “Jobs for partition of Korea at the close of World War II—carried terror—to demand that the DPRK unilaterally cease its all!” in English and Spanish and “Young Socialists for Brit- out a massive invasion and air assault aimed at destroying development of any nuclear defense or even nuclear power ton.” He had come up from the Napa Valley—an area with the DPRK and reestablishing imperialist domination over development. The U.S. rulers, who have used nuclear weap- many farm workers—to spend the weekend campaigning the entire peninsula. By their resistance between 1950 and ons against the Korean and Japanese people of Hiroshima in the Bay Area. A few months ago he had been drawn to 1953, the Korean people dealt U.S. imperialism its fi rst- and Nagasaki, issue the hypocritical call for “a nuclear-free a Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists literature ever military defeat, opening the way for the workers and peninsula” while arrogantly maintaining their half-century- table by a Fidel Castro pamphlet, he told Britton. peasants of Vietnam and Cuba to score such triumphs in long refusal to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK or to On Saturday, September 6, Ramírez and four other Young the decades to come. offer even a single guarantee against military aggression. Socialists for Britton joined fellow campaigners on Mission For more than half a century, the working people of At the same time, the imperialist government in Japan has Street in a working-class district in San Francisco. They Korea, arms in hand, have defended their sovereignty announced plans to build a U.S.-designed “missile-defense soapboxed, passed out fl yers, signed up people who want and pressed forward toward national reunifi cation. They shield” over the next several years—another step toward to help campaign, and sold 10 copies of the Militant and have held fi rm in the face of U.S. imperialism’s economic advancing the more and more openly discussed nuclear Perspectiva Mundial. embargo, nonstop slanders against the DPRK, and ongo- ambitions of Tokyo’s so-called “Self-Defense Forces.” That night campaigners attended a public slide show and ing military threats and provocative “exercises” involving Over the next several weeks, socialist workers and discussion on “Women and the Cuban Revolution” led by the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in the south. Over that youth in the United States have a special opportunity to Elizabeth Stone, editor of the Pathfi nder book with the same explain our opposition to the imperialist war drive and title. Emily Paul, a Young Socialist for Britton who attends expose Washington’s lies before a wider-than-usual au- San Francisco State, and Ryan Scott, northern California dience. Joel Britton, the Socialist Workers candidate for organizer of the Young Socialists for Britton, described in From Pathfi nder governor of California, an election that has become the the discussion what they had learned from their recent trip Capitalism’s World Disorder focus of worldwide interest, is telling the truth about the to Cuba as part of the Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange. The dis- Working-Class Politics at the Millennium so-called Korean nuclear crisis—a “crisis” concocted in cussion continued the next morning with a class by Stone by Jack Barnes Washington and Tokyo—and calling on the labor move- on “Communism and the Fight for Women’s Liberation.” Available In Spanish, French, English. ment, farmers organizations, and all popular movements Campaigning in workers districts $23.95 to extend unqualifi ed and unconditional solidarity to the Campaigning in the Los Angeles garment district, Brit- Notebook of an Korean people. As part of advocating an action program to defend toilers ton, a retired meat packer, exchanged views with a number Agitator of workers who stopped to hear the SWP candidate and by James P. Cannon in the U.S. in the face of the imperialist march to economic depression and more and bloodier wars, Young Socialists other socialist soapboxers. Obdulia Cruz, a sewing-machine $21.95 for Britton and other supporters of the Socialist Workers operator who was carrying home a bag of fabric, told Brit- Order from campaign are demanding: No to all imperialist military ton she worked 13 hours a day, seven days a week, plus www.pathfi nderpress.com or from provocations and threats! End the economic embargo! homework in order to supplement her piece-rate wages. bookstores, including those listed Normalize diplomatic relations with the DPRK! All U.S. She was interested in Britton’s proposals to unite working on page 8. troops, air, and naval forces out of Korea! people in a fi ght to raise the minimum wage, guarantee jobs for all, cancel the Third World debt, and other demands. Ulysses Edwards, a nonunion truck driver, engaged Brit- ton in a discussion about the need to build unions that can be effective vehicles for struggles against the employers. Several garment workers in this heavily Mexican district French capitalism kills 12,000 told the campaigners they were glad that the California state Continued from front page ample, Dominique Moisi, a senior adviser at the French legislature appeared to be close to implementing a new law such as retirement homes, by both the current conservative Institute for International Relations, stated that the death allowing undocumented workers to get a driver’s license government and the previous Socialist Party–led regime. toll “has provoked an unprecedented bout of national soul- without having to show a Social Security card. “It’s hard to Many small hospitals have been closed. Medical staffs searching.” Today, Moisi wrote, the elderly are “a burden get a job without a driver’s license,” one of them said. estimate that a 10 percent increase in personnel is needed and an obstacle to the cult of individual freedom that Britton’s supporters explained that whatever the fi nal text to provide proper care. dominates our lifestyle,” showing a loss of “the spiritual of the law, the very fact that capitalist politicians in Cali- CNN quoted Katia Guiermet, an emergency room nurse guidance of established religion and simple respect for fornia are discussing this question is not due to a stroke of at the Avicenne hospital near Paris, describing the lack of family life.” The author went on to brag that, by contrast, goodwill on their part but rather is the by-product of protests basic materials to care for those suffering from the heat. “I have had the privilege of caring for my parents in their and mobilizations by thousands of working people to de- “We really do feel quite desperate,” she said August 14. “We slow departure from life, well into their nineties.” mand an end to restrictions on obtaining driver’s licenses. don’t feel incompetent, but it’s really diffi cult for people Mattei and others quipped that about 400 bodies of Not everyone agreed. A woman who works at the Depart- suffering from heat stroke when you don’t have any ice” those who died in Paris that weren’t immediately claimed ment of Motor Vehicles told Britton she was adamantly op- or air conditioning. by relatives was evidence that the problem was poor posed to undocumented workers having driver’s licenses. “We’ve been saying for quite a while that there aren’t “family values.” By early September, however, all but Class questions, not ‘California’ issues enough workers in retirement homes,” said Luc Broussy, 57 bodies—less than half of 1 percent of the total—had a spokesperson for the Synerpa union, which organizes been claimed. French president Jacques Chirac attended a Commentators in the capitalist media and the big-busi- workers in these homes. funeral for these 57 people September 3. An aide cynically ness candidates running for governor often pose the politi- While patients were crammed into beds in hallways of said that the president wanted “to show the solidarity of cal questions in terms of “California issues.” In an August facilities without air conditioning, such as the Saint-Antoine the entire nation with the isolated people.” 27 interview on a Bakersfi eld, California, radio program, hospital in Paris, air-conditioned tents were set up to hold Britton responded, “There is no such thing as a single set the bodies of the dead as the morgues fi lled to capacity. Cut holiday for ‘solidarity’ of interests for the ‘state of California.’ California is part of Chirac’s brand of “solidarity” is revealed by the plans a class-divided society, made up fundamentally of workers ‘Abandoned old folks’? he has asked the government to prepare to supposedly im- and bosses. As the scope of the deaths began to emerge, big-business prove services for the elderly. What has been dubbed the “As someone who has worked on the kill fl oor of a big politicians and pundits blamed “families for abandoning “Aging and Solidarity” plan won’t be offi cially proposed slaughterhouse and in oil refi neries as a process operator, their old folks as they took off to beaches and campgrounds” until October. But on August 27 the government fl oated and who has been active in my unions, I’ve experienced for the long vacations, by U.S. standards, that many French the idea that a key component would be eliminating an fi rsthand the continuing speedup, increased injuries on the workers get in August. The media repeatedly stressed how as-yet-unspecifi ed national holiday. job, and chipping away at the benefi ts we as working people many retirees in France live alone and depend on younger Hamlaoui Mekachera, secretary of state for war vet- have won over decades,” Britton stated. He said that his relatives to help them out. But many of those who died erans, asserted that taxes on the extra day’s work would campaign pointed to the need to replace the bosses’ govern- were actually living in retirement homes. go to fi nance care for the elderly. But most important, he ment with a workers and farmers government. The mayor of the city of Amboise, Bernard Debre, said, was the symbolic importance of common “sacrifi ce” Britton spoke to supporters at the campaign headquarters blamed “young generations that don’t want to take care that this would register. “The gesture of solidarity is more here on the evening of September 6, just before a Militant of the elders.” important than the fi nancial gesture,” he stated. Labor Forum featuring Olympia Newton speaking on Health Minister Mattei put forward the same line, saying The secretary of state for the elderly, Hubert Falco, Washington’s threats and pressures against north Korea. the deaths were a “brutal revelation of a social fracture, of pointed to the precedent of a similar take-back of a holi- His remarks were covered by a San Francisco TV station on the solitude and isolation of the aged.” Mattei defended the day in Germany in 1995. “It would be, as is the case in channel 32. The same station also did a 30-minute interview government’s actions as adequate, saying, “I have nothing Germany, a holiday that would be worked to the advantage with Britton for a youth program called “The Purple Cow,” to hide,” and rejected suggestions that he should resign. of national solidarity,” he said. which has been profi ling recall candidates. Much of the commentary on the issue in the media in While union offi cials said they would not accept elimi- The socialist candidate began his remarks by expressing Europe and North America has revealed the reality and nating a holiday, Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, president of his unconditional support for north Korea in its decades- morality of big-business prejudice against the elderly as the bosses association MEDEF, called the proposal “fan- long fi ght against imperialist aggression. people who have lived “too long” and are a burden on the tastic.” He expressed his enthusiasm to Europe-1 radio, Britton commented on the controversy in the big-busi- employers’ class until they die. saying, “The idea that we can solve problems by working ness press about Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante’s Commenting in the Financial Times August 31, for ex- more is a big fi rst for our country.” Continued on Page 11 10 The Militant September 22, 2003 Beijing joins Washington in six-party talks to press N. Korea to drop nuclear defense BY PATRICK O’NEILL The DPRK also demanded that Washing- statements. At the same time, Beijing has 70 percent of North Korea’s energy and 40 During three days of talks with represen- ton cease obstructing regional “economic made clear its opposition to Pyongyang’s percent of its food.” tatives of the Democratic People’s Republic cooperation.” The U.S. government imposed nuclear development programs. “There will As the talks ended, Washington an- of Korea (DPRK), U.S. government offi cials an economic embargo on the north in 1950, be twists and turns in the negotiations,” said nounced that U.S. and Australian warships reinforced pressure on Pyongyang to halt its the year in which U.S. armed forces led a Deputy Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is will conduct exercises in mid-December to nuclear weapons program. The representa- massive imperialist invasion of the penin- leading Beijing’s team in the talks. However, train the two navies in the interdiction and tives of the governments of China, Russia, sula. After suffering its fi rst-ever military he added, “the differences between North boarding of ships allegedly carrying “weap- south Korea, and Japan also leaned on the defeat in the 1950–53 Korean War, U.S. Korea and China are comprehensive and ons of mass destruction.” workers state. imperialism embarked on a course to try involve lots of different areas.” Beijing is “Offi cials from the U.S. and other coun- Held August 27–29 in the Chinese capital to hold back the struggle for reunifi cation in a position to bring substantial economic tries... have acknowledged that the likeliest of Beijing, the six-party negotiations coin- and eventually overthrow the gains of the pressure to bear on north Korea. The July 4 targets would be North Korea or, possibly, cided with Washington’s preparations for Korean revolution. Some 37,000 U.S. troops Korea Times reported that China “supplies Iran,” said the August 29 Chicago Tribune. war games practicing the interception and are stationed in the south to this day. boarding of ships from north Korea or other While expressing its willingness to return countries alleged to be carrying “weapons for more talks, the DPRK government pro- of mass destruction.” tested Washington’s high-handed approach SWP campaign for governor “We need the complete, verifi able, and in the round just concluded. “The United Continued from Page 10 against Washington’s war in Indochina. An- irreversible elimination of North Korea States said that the next round of talks can membership in the Chicano student orga- other photo showed Britton together with nuclear weapons programs,” said White continue if we express our willingness to nization MEChA during his college days in other YSA members in Crystal City, Texas, House spokeswoman Claire Buchan Au- give up our nuclear plans at this time,” the the 1970s, and the Democratic candidate’s where they were hosted by leaders of the gust 28. She added, “We believe there’s KCNA noted. “The United States insists that efforts to downplay the issue by saying he Raza Unida Party, a Chicano party inde- been excellent cooperation…between the we take off our clothes until we get stark had committed “the follies of youth.” pendent of the Democrats and Republicans United States and China, Japan, South naked, while it refuses to move even one The charges by right-wing commenta- active in the 1970s. “I’m proud of having Korea, and Russia.” step,” said a later statement. tors that MEChA is “racist” and akin to the been part of these activities,” he said. Immediately after the talks ended, the “If our reasonable proposal is turned Ku Klux Klan are “slanders,” Britton said. Young Socialists for Britton Japanese Ministry of Defense proposed aside,” said the KCNA on August 29, “we “Racist outfi ts like the KKK represent the The socialist candidate then reiterated spending $1 billion annually through 2007 will judge that the U.S. does not intend to complete opposite of what MEChA stands his appeal to young people to join in cam- to build a U.S.-designed “missile-defense give up its attempt to stifl e the DPRK by for—opposition to racist discrimination that paigning with Young Socialists for Britton. shield.” “Given recent behavior, we cannot force at an appropriate time. Chicanos and Blacks face in this country.” Among those who may want to take up discount the possibility that North Korea’s “In this case,” it continued, “the DPRK He went on to say, “I don’t view my this invitation, he noted, are “a number of nuclear weapons program is already quite cannot dismantle its nuclear deterrent force youthful revolutionary activity as a folly of youth who recently returned from a visit to advanced,” said the ministry. but will have no option but to increase it.” youth.” Britton showed some photos por- Cuba. Besides learning about the example At the Beijing talks, Pyongyang advo- All parties had “reiterated that denuclear- traying his political activity as a member of of the Cuban Revolution, the question is cated a “package of solutions,” stated the ization of the Korean peninsula is the com- the Socialist Workers Party and, earlier, the posed—what about getting involved in the official north Korean news agency, the mon goal of all sides,” said the Chinese Young Socialist Alliance. He said some of fi ght to build a revolutionary movement that KCNA. They included a U.S.-DPRK non- foreign ministry on August 28. those photos would accompany an interview can lead working people to take power. aggression treaty and the establishment of The Chinese government has kept its dis- he recently gave to the Militant (see pages 6- “That’s what our campaign is about, and diplomatic relations, in return for a halt to tance from some of Washington’s stands, 7). One photo depicted his 1969 trip to Cuba joining with Young Socialists for Britton is nuclear weapons development by the DPRK including President Bush’s call for the UN as part of a YSA delegation, which met with the best way to get involved,” he said. entry for weapons inspectors, and “an end Security Council to condemn the DPRK, a representative of the Vietnamese National to testing and exporting missiles.” and usually takes a neutral position in public Liberation Front during its successful fi ght Elizabeth Stone contributed to this article. LETTERS Cuban fl utist denied visa sults a “setback” but announced the General Strike being called on count, his experiences were merely this death at the recommendation In another act of hostility by the their intention to continue the drive Aug. 14, 2003. It happened! Also a result of “serious tension” between of Dr. Wecht. U.S. government against Cuba, to organize Wal-Mart workers. Up the working people in Chile have Arabs and Jews. The Ninth Circuit In appalling contrast, the Oc- Cuban fl utist Niurka González was to now no Wal-Mart store has been been reorganizing themselves be- Court in San Francisco rejected that cupational Safety and Health denied an entry visa to attend the organized in Canada or the United fore Pinochet left in 1990. argument, noting that when many Adminstration (OSHA) found no National Flute Association (NFA) States. Wal-Mart operates 213 I thank the Militant for keep- members of a group are targeted evidence of criminal violations. Convention held August 7-10 in Las department stores in Canada and ing not only the working people for persecution, an individual such The Dick Corporation was able to Vegas, Nevada. plans to open some grocery retail here in the U.S. informed but as Baballah is required to prove “negotiate” with OSHA to have Ms. González is a professor at operations this fall. the workers of the world. The even less. two of the citations issued reclas- the Instituto Superior de Arte, and John Steele offi cial ruling class media is so In the Israeli daily Ha’aretz , an sifi ed as “other than serious” and a soloist at the Centro Nacional de Toronto, Ontario far saying very little of the recent Israeli Foreign Ministry spokes- one dropped completely, which Música de Concierto in Havana. events because they know Ameri- man noted that political asylum resulted in a reduction of fi nes to She had been scheduled to perform First Nations and labor can workers are taking notice of for an Israeli citizen is “a troubling a paltry $12,000. at the convention. A First Nations elder, a First Na- what our sisters and brothers are precedent.” Families of victims killed on the By denying Ms. González a visa, tions wing chief, and two members doing not only in Chile but all of Kathleen Denny job, whose tax dollars fund OSHA, the ruling class prevented a free ex- of Communications, Energy and Latin America. Oakland, California have no such access to “negotiate” change of ideas from taking place Paperworkers Union Local 298 sup- Tom Siblo with OSHA and no method of re- at the convention. port picket line were arrested and Saugerties, New York addressing negligence that indeed I am sure that Niurka González charged with obstructing a police Deaths on the job may be criminal. As my brother, would have contributed immensely offi cer today in a successful attempt Socialist Workers Party can- Gary Puleio, was killed in an to the convention had she been al- to stop the removal for auction of Baballah wins asylum didate for Allegheny County industrial accident, I have expe- lowed to attend. equipment key to the operation of On July 11, Ibrahim Baballah Executive Chris Remple is to be rienced this fi rsthand. OSHA pa- Sylvia Hansen an idled sawmill. Very strong ties won political asylum in the United commended for calling on District tronizingly dismisses the concerns are being created between the union States after suffering systematic Attorney Stephen Zappalla to in- of families as due to inexperience movement and the First Nations in persecution by Israeli naval forces vestigate the asphyxiation death of or emotional distress. Delays in Organizing Wal-Mart a usually redneck right-wing area in the Mediterranean town of Charles A. Dixon in an encounter obtaining information from OSHA In a report published in the of the province. Akko. Son of an Arab father and with police (“Socialist Workers prevents families from having August 25 Militant on a Chicago Jack McCamy a Jewish mother, a federal appeals candidates run in 9 US States” cases reinvestigated and having meeting of socialist meat pack- British Columbia, Canada court panel unanimously ruled September 8 Militant). Allegheny additional charges fi led, because ers, a participant from Canada that Baballah’s “life and liveli- County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht under the Occupational Safety reported that the United Food and hood were threatened because recommended that homicide and Health Act, all penalties must Commercial Workers (UFCW) in 1973 coup in Chile of his ethnicity and religion” in charges be fi led in this case and be issued within six months of Canada had succeeded in organiz- Ever since the 9/11 coup in Israel. Baballah, his wife, and denounced the police procedure the “alleged violations” as work- ing a Wal-Mart store in Thompson, Chile in 1973 I have worked with oldest son are the first Israeli that led to Mr. Dixon’s death. At ers’ deaths are euphemistically Manitoba. many of the exiles who fl ed Chile citizens to be granted political the recommendation of Dr. Wecht, phrased. Certainly Dr. Wecht’s The report on the UFCW suc- in order to save their lives and asylum. They now live in San District Attorney Zappalla needs to concerns cannot be written off cess was premature. An article in those of their families. Many of Jose, California. investigate this case and report his by OSHA in the condescending the August 20 Globe and Mail and these working people were very Trained as an accountant, then fi ndings to the community. manner that family members’ con- the UFCW Canada website report active in the MIR [Left Revolu- a lifeguard and diver, employers In this same spirit, candidate cerns are. Reporting the facts of that the unionizing drive was de- tionary Movement]. refused to hire Baballah, calling Remple should call upon the DA to this investigation, will be a step in feated by a close vote of 61-54 of Many times over I heard from him “goy,” which means “non- report to the community the results balancing the scales of justice for the store employees. Of the 144 the mouths of these working Jew.” Israeli naval crews also of the investigation into the death Paul Corsi, my brother Gary, and registered voters 117 voted and people that Salvador Allende was taunted him throughout the years of Paul Corsi at the convention the approximately 6,000 workers two ballots were spoiled. a good President but he failed to he worked as a fi sherman. They center truss collapse in February killed yearly on the job. The vote was held on June 27 mobilize the masses of working damaged his fi shing nets with their 2002. Almost a year has gone by Donna Puleio Spadaro after a lengthy door-to-door drive people within Chile to defend propellers, circled his boat at high since Allegheny County Coroner Franklin, Pennsylvania of UFCW Local 832. The local rep- the revolution. Even when all the speeds, sprayed the boat with water Cyril Wecht investigated this death resents about 15,000 workers, in- evidence was clear the CIA was cannons, and shot bullets over his and found “failures so blatant and The letters column is an open cluding those at Maple Leaf Foods, plotting with Pinochet. head. After one such occasion, overwhelming that a person could forum for all viewpoints on Safeway, and Westfair foods. The coup was handled like clock- they had his brother arrested and only conclude that the actions, sub jects of interest to working The ballots had been sealed until work. Very much like the Palmer imprisoned for over a year. In a errors and omissions more than peo ple. the August 19 count because of a raids in the U.S. with an additional purported rescue, a naval crew rise to a level of recklessness and Please keep your letters brief. dispute between Wal-Mart and the added feature of mass murder and destroyed the boat and wrecked grossly negligent conduct” and Where necessary they will be UFCW over who should be in- graves. his livelihood. recommended that the Dick Cor- abridged. Please indicate if you cluded in the bargaining unit. We all lost comrades in Chile An immigration judge ruled that, poration be held criminally liable. prefer that your initials be used UFCW offi cials called the re- and I recently heard to watch for while she believed Baballah’s ac- DA Zappalla was to investigate rath er than your full name. The Militant September 22, 2003 11 London steps up attack on immigrants BY JACKIE FORD tention center in Lanarkshire. The chief AND ROSE KNIGHT inspector of prisons, Anne Owers reported LONDON—Fifty police and immigra- August 15 that this immigration jail held tion agents raided the Cookie Man factory 18 children at the time of her inspection. in Esher, Surrey, August 11, arresting 101 They were locked into a 62-bed family unit of the 175 workers. Seventy-eight have al- with limited access to outdoor play areas ready been deported, while one has been and education. released from custody without charges. The jail is run on behalf of the Home The raid was one of a number of recent Offi ce by Premier Detention Services, a incidents and exposés illustrating stepped private company. A spokesperson com- up victimization by the government and plained that the media had portrayed the bosses against immigrant workers—part place as “some sort of Guantánamo Bay of their broader push against workers’ or concentration camp.” Aamer Anwar, the rights. Ay family’s lawyer, commented, “The gov- The directors of the cookie company, ernment has known for the last two years Beverly and Carl Scheib, protested that that they are in breach of international law. they had thoroughly screened job appli- Their treatment of children is barbaric.” cants. “We have carried out all the checks At present some 790 asylum seekers are we could do,” said Carl Scheib to the local locked up in the United Kingdom. Last Esher News and Mail. The raid was “an year 13,335 were forcibly removed from excellent example of the work the immigra- the country, the highest total on record. tion service does every day to tackle illegal Of the 85,865 asylum applications, only working, and demonstrates the government 10 percent were granted, while 66 percent commitment to dealing with the issue,” said were refused outright. The government has Home Offi ce minister Fiona MacTaggart. British cops haul workers to jail in August 11 raid at Cookie Man plant, in Surrey. announced plans for three new large-scale The immigration cops brought along news- jails for immigrants. They will be built in paper and BBC television reporters to cover applicants will be denied help if they do dealing with refugees. Offi cials said they rural areas and will hold 750 beds each. it. Shots of workers being taken away have not immediately fi le their claim for asylum. were powerless to help under the new Under a blueprint drawn up by European been repeatedly used on national television Although most do so within a few days law. A spokesperson for the government’s Union offi cials, failed asylum seekers in to illustrate immigration stories. of arrival, a signifi cant number hold off Home Offi ce told the local paper, “We be- Europe can be deported from the continent through ignorance of the procedures or lieve denying state support to asylum ap- by bus, train, plane, or unmarked police car. Attacks on rights of asylum seekers fear of the consequences of reporting to plicants who do not claim asylum as soon The “escort” proposal “refl ects an increas- At the same time, two immigrant work- immigration offi cials. as possible is a valuable part of a package ing determination among EU governments ers—convicted and sentenced to four years Since they cannot legally work while of measures which has already helped us to step up the pace of deportations,” re- in prison for their role in a rebellion at a their claim is being considered, these to reduce asylum applications.” ported the August 8 Guardian. The offi cials jail for immigrants awaiting deporta- immigrants are dependent on the meager also plan to set up an EU-wide annual quota tion—are appealing their convictions. government aid and face destitution if it Conditions in immigration jail for the number of successful applications Henry Momodou and Behar Limani are is refused. Benefi ts for the average recipi- A deportation in Scotland highlighted for asylum. two asylum seekers who were convicted ent, including the elderly and disabled, total another aspect of the law, which states that Meanwhile, Militant reporters who went of “violent disorder” for allegedly leading £36.54 a week (£1=US$1.58). Pregnant families with children can be imprisoned to the Cookie Man factory gate to talk to a rebellion last year at the Yarl’s Wood women get a maternity grant that is £200 indefi nitely. Kurdish immigrant Yurdugal workers about the August 11 raid encoun- detention center in Bedfordshire. They less than a UK resident. Ay and her four children were shipped tered interest in a September 7 meeting argue that their sentences should be ruled The impact of the new law’s restrictions to Germany after losing a four-year legal in London featuring Róger Calero, who invalid because two members of their trial was underlined August 8 when 28 refugees battle for asylum. The eldest child, Beri- recently defeated the U.S. immigration jury expressed hostility toward immigrants from Africa, who had been refused ben- wan, told reporters that she was terrifi ed authorities’ attempt to deport him from during the trial. efits, set up a makeshift refugee camp German offi cials would send them on to the United States (see report of the event Three national newspapers—the Ob- on the streets of Brixton, South London. Turkey where their father Salih had dis- on page 4). While we were there, factory di- server, Guardian, and Times—have ap- Charities and local residents offered them appeared after being deported last year. rector Carl Scheib came out and stated that plied for the lifting of a court order ban- food, water, blankets, and cash. Four were None of the children have lived in Turkey the raid a week earlier was “dead news.” ning the reporting of the incident, in which hospitalized with dehydration. The camp or speak Turkish. He didn’t say if he was claiming to speak a member of the jury informed the judge was erected outside the offices of the The fi ve had been incarcerated for more for the 100 workers who have suffered, or that fellow-jurors said that asylum-seekers Refugee Council, the main organization than a year at the notorious Dungavel de- face, deportation. come to this country to take state benefi ts and “our” jobs. The two defendants cite this jury bias in appealing their convictions. Momodou, Chilean bosses, government try to put brakes who has a wife in this country, arrived in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s. Im- migration offi cials seized him on his return on workers’ resistance after general strike from a funeral in his native Nigeria. The trial of the men exposed the abysmal BY ROMINA GREEN bosses to extend the work week beyond the strike some 700 buses were strategically treatment of immigrants held in the so- CLEVELAND—Following a national 48 hours allowed under current legislation placed on major roads of Santiago and the called detention centers. Agron Kastrioti, work stoppage in Chile on August 13— without paying overtime. This is happen- drivers, members of National Confedera- one of nine defendants acquitted in the called by the main trade union federation, ing at a time when unemployment is rising. tion and Union of Transportation Workers case, said that he had been in fi ve young the Central Workers Union (CUT), which CUT also called the strike to protest the (CONATRACH), walke d off in protest. offenders institutions since his arrival. As includes over 400 unions—the Chilean effects on working people of the erosion The police arrested more than 675 drivers he left the courtroom, immigration offi cers capitalist class is trying to put the brakes on of social benefits such as health care the next day and confi scated 663 buses. The pounced, putting him in a police cell for workers’ resistance to the bosses attacks. and pensions that were gutted during the workers were demanding a set wage instead fi ve days. From there he was sent to a high On the day of the general strike, the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Gen. Augusto of the current system in which the driver’s security prison in Milton Keynes. After be- Chilean bourgeoisie showed their fear Pinochet and in the aftermath of his rule, pay is based on the amount of passengers ing fi nally granted bail, Kastrioti said that when they sent the police to attack the which ended in 1990. transported per day. Bosses keep track of he would continue his legal fi ght to stay. contingents of workers gathered in front In response to the strike, the Chilean this by counting the number of tickets sold, of La Moneda, the presidential palace, and Congress announced it will not allow any which is randomly checked by government Potential witnesses are ‘lost’ the main headquarters of the CUT, which is protest marches on September 11. That inspectors. A number of potential witnesses were across the street in downtown Santiago. day marks the 30th anniversary of the 1973 On August 13, 2002, the House of Depu- deported or “lost” in the system during the “The cops tried to bring the city back coup, which overthrew the elected govern- ties voted to grant bus drivers a set wage. trial. One called by Limani’s defense team to normal, which wasn’t going to hap- ment of Socialist Party president Salvador The government, however, pressed was deported back to the Ukraine. Despite pen,” said David Tudela in an August 29 Allende. During the subsequent military charges against 38 drivers for violating the judge’s protests, he was denied entry telephone interview. “They were trying to dictatorship, thousands of revolutionaries the State of Security Law. The government back into Britain to take the stand. get transportation running and attacked and other working-class fi ghters were killed, is also considering fi ling charges against The Yarl’s Wood rebellion in February workers with tear gas, water cannons, and tortured, or “disappeared.” The government another 100 drivers accused of “disrupting of last year, three months after its open- clubs.” claims it banned the anniversary protests to public peace.” The drivers face sentences ing, highlighted the draconian immigration Tudela, a member of the Taxi Drivers avoid a repeat of the “violence” during the of 61 to 269 days. policies of the Labour Party government Union, was among the more than 200 work- August 13 stoppage. When asked whether Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, of of Prime Minister Anthony Blair. Built to ers arrested during the one-day stoppage. there will be marches and other events the Socialist Party, said in relation to the hold 900 refugees, it was the largest im- He said workers organized feeder marches commemorating the coup on September bus drivers’ strike, “As president of Chile, migration jail in Europe. Fire reduced half from different parts of the city and were 11, Tudela replied, “Yes, we are already I am in debt to the 15 million people [who the facility to ruin during the outbreak. A joined by supporters, including university distributing fl iers. We are presently organiz- weren’t able to use bus system] and I will Channel 4 news investigation reported that students. While the media reported that ing a main event in front of La Moneda… not accept the blackmail of a few.” the center had neither safety procedures nor about 3,000 gathered on Alameda Street which is sponsored by the CUT, Federation In a recent CUT congress, attended by working fi re protection. in front of the presidential palace, Tudela of Students, and other left groups.” 400 delegates from various unions, the The 2002 Nationality, Immigration and said he estimated that the crowd exceeded The government attempts to intimidate federation’s president Arturo Martínez said, Asylum Act provided the rulers with new 20,000. the labor movement continued as Judge “If there is no response to our demands, and legal weapons in the drive to criminalize The general strike was called to pro- María Magdalena Pavia opened the case if there is a fl exible labor law passed in the asylum seekers and other immigrants. For test government attempts to pass a more against 38 bus drivers for their participation parliament, you can be sure that there will example, a section of the law states that “fl exible” labor law, which would allow the in the Aug. 12–13, 2002, strike. During that be another national work stoppage.”

12 The Militant September 22, 2003