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A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE vol. 75/no. 4 january 31, 2011 Gov’t in Workers, youth force Drive opens Australia tyrant to flee to sign up compounds Protests continue under new regime long-term flood toll readers By Ron Poulsen BY ANGEL LARISCY SYDNEY, Australia—Widespread At the end of week one of the Mili- floods over the past month have cut tant renewal drive, supporters of the a devastating swathe through towns paper are just beginning to turn to the and cities, farmlands, and open-cut opportunities to win long-term read- coal mines across much of the east- ers to the paper. ern part of this country. The flood has Over the next week each area will be become a massive social disaster not relooking at their quotas and plans to only because of the quantities of rain, organize discussions with every sub- but as a consequence of government scriber. The goal is to get a high num- mismanagement and capitalists seek- ber of those whose subscriptions to the ing profits by building housing on socialist press have expired, or will flood plains. expire in the coming weeks, to sign up The death toll reached 20 by Janu- and continue receiving the paper. ary 17, with 12 more missing. Most of Quotas adopted in different areas those unaccounted for are from the now total 290. These figures fall far Lockyer Valley and the nearby city of short of the real opportunities posed Toowoomba, where a sudden down- AFP/Getty Images/Fred Dufour by this campaign. Forty-seven renew- Demonstration in Tunis, capital of Tunisia, January 18 opposes government cobbled to- als have already been recorded. A ma- pour January 10 caused flash floods gether following overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. New government is head- likened to an inland tsunami. Some ed by members of his party. Unemployment and rising food prices have fueled protests. jority of these were mailed directly to 30,000 buildings were flooded in the Militant. Brisbane, the country’s third largest BY seth galinsky thorities refused to accept it. He died Many of the quotas adopted by local city, with a population of 2 million. A mass uprising of working people January 4. areas were decided quickly and don’t As a result of new riverside housing and youth forced Zine El Abidine Demonstrations spread across the reflect a serious review of subscrip- developments promoted by capitalist Ben Ali, the ruler of Tunisia, to flee country, unleashing fury at high un- tion lists, and making concrete plans developers, the damage bill will run to Saudi Arabia January 14. His over- employment, rising food prices, and to meet with as many subscribers as into the millions. throw, after 23 years in power, took Ben Ali’s dictatorial regime. possible to win them to renewing. Open-cut coal mines across central Paris and Washington, as well as the “It’s not just about unemployment Every area has a gold mine of indi- Queensland have been flooded and Tunisian government, by surprise. Continued on page 4 Continued on page 4 road, rail, and electrical infrastructure The first protests erupted in Sidi damaged. Coal miners face weeks, if Bouzid when an unemployed univer- not months, without work. sity graduate turned street vendor, ‘No capitalist party is talking A farming region larger than Texas Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on has been inundated in Queensland, fire December 17 after police con- with floods wiping out millions of fiscated fruits and vegetables he was about working-class issues’ acres of crops valued at $2 billion. selling without a permit and slapped Sugarcane farmers on the Queensland him in front of a passersby. Bouazizi, Continued on page 4 26, tried to lodge a complaint, but au- Ex-dictator of returns amid spiraling social crisis BY Deborah Liatos to 1986, succeeding his father, Fran- and Dean HAZLEWOOD cois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, whose rein Miami—With no public announce- of terror began in 1957. ment, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duva- The Duvaliers tortured and mas- lier, one of the most infamous despots sacred ten of thousands, ruling in an of the 20th century, returned to Haiti atmosphere of fear and repression Militant/Betsy Farley John Hawkins, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Chicago, campaigns among from exile in France January 16. Two backed by the Tonton Macoutes, the workers January 8 outside Saint-Gobain Containers glass factory in Dolton, south of Chicago. days later, he was charged with “cor- dictatorship’s militia force. In 1986 a ruption.” popular uprising overthrew Duvalier. BY BETSY FARLEY National police and UN troops with Duvalier told reporters, “I came to Chicago—“How can we fight tanks moved in to escort Duvalier put myself at the service of my coun- for jobs, defend our unions, and win Also Inside: when he landed. The police used pep- try.” His sudden arrival takes place in legalization for immigrant workers per spray and pointed their weapons the context of a spiraling social crisis. who don’t have papers? How can we Anti-immigrant bill at journalists to keep them away from An earthquake last year resulted in stop the murderous U.S. wars in Af- debated in Florida town 2 the terminal. They established a de- more than 300,000 dead, according to ghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan? These tail to guard the dictator outside the press reports. Some 1 million remain are the real questions facing working New U.S. rules maintain Karibe Hotel where he is staying. homeless. The failure of the Haitian people in Chicago, and throughout the harsh embargo on 3 Small demonstrations against and and imperialist governments to orga- world,” said John Hawkins, Socialist in support of the dictator at the airport nize immediate relief culminated in Workers Party candidate for mayor. Abortion rights forces and in the streets over the following a cholera epidemic, which since late “Not a single one of my capitalist op- win victory in Iowa 5 days were reported in the press. October has reportedly killed some ponents in this race is taking up these Detested by the great mass of Hai- 3,800 people. issues.” Civil War and forging tian people, Jean-Claude Duvalier The outcome of elections last year Twenty candidates initially filed of U.S. working class 6 ruled Haiti with an iron fist from 1971 Continued on page 4 Continued on page 3 Anti-immigrant bill is debated in Florida town by Naomi Craine Among those who spoke out were PALM CITY, Florida—About 300 Gaby Pacheco and Felipe Matos, un- people packed the public library here documented students who took part January 7 for a town hall meeting on in a 1,500-mile walk from Miami to a proposed anti-immigrant law. The Washington, D.C., last year to support event was called by State Representa- the “Dream Act.” That law, which was tive William Snyder to get “public in- recently defeated in the U.S. Senate, put” on a bill he plans to introduce in would have made it possible for some the Florida state legislature. The ma- undocumented young people who are jority of the more than 40 people who in college or enlist in the armed forces spoke opposed the bill. to apply for legal residence papers. The law Snyder has drafted is mod- Among those who supported Snyder’s eled on Arizona law SB 1070, which bill was Carol Caso, who declared, “My was adopted last year. Snyder’s law property value is ruined” by Latino im- would require state and local police to migrants moving into the neighborhood. check the immigration status of some- She complained about day laborers who Militant/Naomi Craine one during a “lawful stop” if they have wait for work at the local gas station, Ana Rodriguez testifies against proposed anti-immigrant bill at town hall meeting in Palm City, Florida, January 7. Bill is similar to measure adopted in Arizona. “reasonable suspicion” that person is and about “roosters at 5:00 a.m.” undocumented. It would increase pen- Jack Oliver, with Floridians for Im- ment is killing people in Arizona.” panded use of E-Verify to make it harder alties in criminal cases for defendants migration Enforcement, argued that the On January 10 State Senator Mike for undocumented workers to get jobs. who are undocumented. The measure proposed bill isn’t racist. “The law is bro- Bennett, who has introduced a similar Newly elected governor Richard Scott would also require all employers in ken every day an illegal goes to work,” bill, acknowledged the political pressure signed an executive order right after his the state to use the E-Verify system to he said. More deportations would mean against the sections that would require inauguration requiring agencies under check the immigration status of job ap- “more jobs for Floridians.” local police to enforce immigration law. his control to use the federal system. plicants, prohibit undocumented work- “Just because something is the law “There probably will not be an Ari- Immigrant rights activists from ers from seeking day labor, and penal- doesn’t make it right,” Ana Rodriguez zona-immigration style bill that passes throughout southern and central Flor- ize those who employ them. responded. “The people being deport- the Florida Senate,” he told reporters. ida held a press conference before the “There’s already racial profiling” ed are mostly hard workers, not crimi- “I might not even vote for it myself.” At Palm City forum in front of a banner by police, said one of the first speak- nals.” She added that “border enforce- the same time he is advocating the ex- reading, “No human being is illegal.” ers to condemn the anti-immigrant law at the meeting. She described how her husband, who is Latino, was detained by police because he appeared “suspi- CIA-trained Posada Carriles on trial in Texas cious.” Several participants gave other BY brian williams naturalization fraud. people aboard, many of them teenage examples of police harassment, and CIA-trained Cuban counterrevolu- Federal prosecutors say that Posa- members of the Cuban fencing team. said that the proposed law would not tionary Luis Posada Carriles went on da lied to an immigration judge about Posada, who at the time was working be carried out in a “race neutral” way. trial in federal court in El Paso, Tex- how he entered the in as chief of operations for the Venezu- “The biggest problems we face are as, January 12. Despite a long record March 2005 and his role in a series of elan secret police, was among those the economy, domestic violence, and of violent acts carried out against the bombings that took place in Havana implicated in this crime. A Venezuelan home foreclosures,” said Angelica Cuban Revolution, the charges he in 1997. military court acquitted him of charges Perez. “How is this bill going to help?” faces are 11 counts of perjury and In a 1998 New York Times inter- in the airline bombing, but the decision view, Posada bragged about his in- was later thrown out. He was allowed volvement in these bombings, includ- to escape from prison in 1985 before a ing one that killed an Italian tourist, civilian trial was completed. Fabio Di Celmo, at the Hotel Copa- He was also implicated in a Novem- cabana. “The CIA taught us every- ber 2000 failed assassination attempt thing—everything,” he told the pa- in Panama against Fidel Castro. After per. “They taught us explosives, how being incarcerated for four years and Prisoners’ rights and police frame-ups to kill, bomb, trained us in acts of then pardoned by Panama’s president, sabotage.” he made his way to the United States, From prison strikes in A mercenary in the failed 1961 U.S.- where he has been living for nearly over inhumane organized invasion of Cuba at the Bay six years. conditions and violations of of Pigs, Posada worked for the CIA Washington has refused repeated rights, to fights against police from the early 1960s to June 1976. requests by the Cuban and Venezu- In October 1976, CIA-trained coun- elan governments to extradite Posada frame-ups and brutality, the terrevolutionaries blew up a Cuban to stand trial for the 1976 airliner ‘Militant’ carries coverage airliner over Barbados, killing all 73 bombing. of working-class struggles in face of brutal conditions im- Latin America, : For one year posed by the bosses and gov- Cornelius Dupree, Jr. celebrates January send $85, drawn on a U.S. bank, to above 4 his exoneration on rape and robbery The Militant address. ernment under capitalism. 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2 The Militant January 31, 2011 New U.S. gov’t measures New York cemetery workers protest layoffs designed to subvert Cuba BY seth galinsky officials of the Cuban government or President Barack Obama announced “senior members” of the Communist January 14 he is relaxing restrictions Party, “to support private economic on travel to Cuba by academic, educa- activity, among other purposes.” tional, cultural, and religious groups. The adjustment in remittances He also said he would allow more comes as the Cuban government airports to provide charter flights to has adopted measures to increase Cuba and permit U.S. citizens to send the productivity of labor, reduce de- money to non-family members on the pendence on imports, and cut waste island. and inefficiency. Changes include a A statement issued by Cuba’s Min- substantial reduction of government istry of Foreign Affairs January 16 employees, greater emphasis on ag- on the changes noted “their reach is ricultural production, and relaxed very limited and they do not modify rules on starting up private small the anti-Cuba policies.” The state- businesses. NEW YORK—Landscapers rallied outside the gates of Woodlawn Cemetery ment pointed out that “the measures The White House hopes to find a January 17 to protest a plan to lay off 23 of 38 workers after the union rejected only benefit certain categories of U.S. way to advance the “Track II” course a 35 percent wage cut. Teamsters Local 808 represents the workers. citizens and do not reinstitute the by taking advantage of Cuba’s eco- —cindy jaquith right to travel to Cuba for all U.S. citi- nomic challenges. zens, who will continue to be the only people in the world who cannot freely visit our country.” Far from being a step toward weak- Chicago socialist addresses workers’ issues ening Washington’s economic and Continued from front page funded, public works program to em- ing people statewide need. All the six trade embargo against Cuba, the for ballot status in the Chicago may- ploy millions at union-scale wages, Democrats running for mayor offer the statement notes, the White House an- oral election. Only six remain, all building affordable housing, hospitals, same ‘solution’ for Chicago’s ‘budget nouncement “is basically limited to Democrats. Hawkins is forced to run schools, and infrastructure,” Hawkins crisis.’” reestablishing the regulations which a write-in campaign because of exclu- said. Rehire laid-off teachers were in place in the 1990s during sionary petitioning requirements to get “What’s needed is a fight against President Clinton’s administration on the ballot. race discrimination. Segregation guar- The SWP campaign calls for a and were eliminated by George W. The race to determine who will antees that African Americans con- steeply graduated income tax on the Bush in 2003.” replace Mayor Richard Daley has at- stitute a disproportionate part of the wealthy and corporations, with no Since the early 1960s, every U.S. tracted international attention since reserve army of labor—the last hired taxes for workers or exploited farmers. president, Democrat and Republican Daley announced he would not seek a and first fired. It demands the return to city workers alike, has maintained the embargo on seventh term as mayor. Rahm Emanu- “And instead of cuts in funds for of the furlough days they have been Cuba. They seek both to punish the el, former White House chief of staff, schools and hikes in college tuition, forced to agree to, the rehiring of laid- Cuban people for making a revolution and Carolyn Moseley Braun, a former we need a government that will make off teachers with back pay, an end to that overthrew the U.S.-backed dic- member of the U.S. Senate, lead the education, from cradle to grave, truly cuts in education and city services, and tatorship of Fulgencio Batista and to polls. free, universal, and a right for all. an immediate end to interest and prin- cripple the economy in hopes of cre- Illinois state senator James Meeks “Workers need our own party—a cipal payments to the wealthy bond- ating conditions that could lead to a and U.S. Congressman Daniel Davis, labor party—to fight to take political holders. return to capitalism on the island. also Democrats, recently withdrew power out of the hands of the billionaire “Quinn’s rush to sign the tax hike Washington has combined violent from the mayoral race at the urging factory owners and bankers and put bill stands in stark contrast to his foot- armed actions against Cuba with fos- of Jesse Jackson, director of the Rain- the working class in power,” Hawkins dragging on another bill recently ap- tering internal opposition to under- bow/PUSH Coalition, in order to have explained. “Every gain for workers has proved by the state legislature to end mine the revolution, a policy U.S. im- a “unified Black candidate.” Both sup- come as a result of our struggle, not by the death penalty. This bill is a victory perialist rulers call “Track II.” port Braun. relying on Democratic or Republican for all those who have fought without The purpose of the new regulations, In addition to Braun there are three politicians. The twin parties of capital- compromise for decades to expose the the White House statement says, is to other candidates in the race for mayor ism are in the forefront of the assault anti-working-class and racist brutality “increase people-to-people contact” who are Black: Patricia Van Pelt Wat- on working people.” of this state’s criminal ‘justice’ sys- and help promote the Cuban people’s kins, William Walls, and Hawkins. The Democratic Party–dominated tem,” said Hawkins. “independence from Cuban authori- The socialist campaign is the only one Illinois state legislature has just passed “We demand the immediate sign- ties.” that speaks for the interests of Black a 67 percent increase in state income ing of the bill abolishing Illinois’ death As part of the changes in remittance working people and the working class taxes. Democratic governor Patrick penalty into law. We will continue and rules, anyone in the United States can as a whole. Quinn immediately signed it into law. step up the fight for release of all the send up to $500 per quarter to any- “The Socialist Workers Party has no “Working people can expect more at- wrongfully convicted, including the 23 one in Cuba, except to high-ranking intention of withdrawing my candida- tacks on our standard of living in order men imprisoned as a result of confes- cy in this election,” declared Hawkins, to pay off the bondholders,” Hawkins sions extracted through police torture who is a factory worker. “We will use stated, “including cuts in state work- at the hands of former Chicago Police our campaign to help working people ers’ wages, pensions, and benefits, Department lieutenant Jon Burge,” the militant organize and fight to defend our class along with cuts in services that work- socialist candidate said. interests, to strengthen our class unity labor through fighting race and sex discrim- ination, and to protect our class from New International no. 12 New International no. 13 forums the consequences of the capitalist eco- nomic crisis.” “Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun” “Our Politics Start with the World” new zealand Campaigning in workers districts by Jack Barnes by Jack Barnes Auckland and at plant gates, the socialist candi- Today’s accelerating The huge economic and Report from World Festival of Youth date has discussed with other workers global capitalist slump cultural inequalities between and Students in South Africa. Speaker: the worsening conditions they face. accompanies a continua- imperialist and semicolo- Annalucia Vermunt, Communist League. tion of the most far-reach- nial countries, and among Fri., Jan. 28, 7 p.m. Donation: $5 waged, Unemployment in Chicago stood at ing shift in Washington’s classes within almost every $2 unwaged. 4/125 Grafton Rd. Tel.: (09) 10.1 percent in November. Unemploy- military policy and orga- country, are produced and 369-1223. ment for African Americans of all ages nization since the U.S. accentuated by the workings buildup toward World War of capitalism. For vanguard stood officially at 17.1 percent state- II. Class-struggle-minded workers to build parties able wide at the end of 2009. working people must face to lead a successful revolu- calendar The Chicago metropolitan area this historic turning point tionary struggle for power in ranks fifth in the country in terms of for imperialism, and chart our own countries, our activ- Washington, D.C. a revolutionary course to ity must be guided by a strat- 12 Years of Injustice: Free the Cuban housing segregation for African Amer- $16 confront it. $14 egy to close this gap. 5! Speakers: Leonard Weinglass, one of icans. The high school dropout rate for attorneys for Cuban 5; Kathryn Striffo- Blacks is above 50 percent. Also includes: Also includes: lino, Amnesty International; representa- v Their Transformation and Ours v Farming, Science and the Working Classes tive, D.C. Committee to Free the Cuban 5. Federal public works program Socialist Workers Party Draft Resolution by Steve Clark Tues., Feb. 8, 6 p.m. Sponsor: D.C. Com- v Crisis, Boom, and Revolution v Capitalism, Labor, and Nature: An Exchange mittee to Free the Cuban 5. Founders Li- “To end unemployment we must 1921 Reports by V.I. Lenin & Leon Trotsky by Richard Levin, Steve Clark brary, Howard University, 500 Howard Place. Tel.: (202) 986-5839. fight for a shorter workweek with no cut in pay and a massive, federally www.PathfinderPress.com

The Militant January 31, 2011 3 Dictator returns to Haiti Continued from front page his Lavalas Party be allowed to run is still undecided amid the social and in elections. The party was ruled off political instability that pervades the the ballot in the 2010 vote. Aristide country. was overthrown in a coup in 2004 In 2007 Haitian president René and then forced into exile under U.S. Préval said that Duvalier could return pressure. to Haiti but would face justice for the Jean Marceline, an unemployed deaths of thousands of people and the construction worker, told the Militant, theft of millions of dollars in state re- “Duvalier should be jailed because he sources. did too many bad things to our coun- On January 17 Duvalier’s opponents try. He killed both my uncle and aun- began calling Haitian radio stations, tie for nothing in 1979.” recounting the brutality that resulted After his four-hour arraignment in him being deposed. January 18 on corruption and em- That same day a news conference bezzlement charges, Duvalier was responding to Duvalier’s return was released while the judge purportedly held at the headquarters of Veye Yo, considers whether there is sufficient Haitians demonstrate on anniversary of January 2010 earthquake against eviction of a Haiti solidarity organization in Mi- evidence for a trial. people still living in tent camps. Some 1 million remain homeless. ami. It was moderated by Tony Jean- thenor, the group’s coordinator. Marleine Bastien, executive direc- tor of Haitian Women of Miami, said, Drive opens for new long-term readers “We ask for free inclusive democratic Continued from front page nation with a subscription. plan a table there and other follow-up elections in Haiti. What we are asking viduals who signed up for the paper in Many of these were sold by socialist work next week to get renewals.” Cam- is that Duvalier be held accountable the fall, when more than 2,000 people workers in factories. “A few nights ago paigning for John Hawkins, Socialist for the killings during the dictator- bought subscriptions after political as I drove my forklift around the plant Workers Party candidate for mayor of ship. I lost about 19 members of my discussions about the working-class on night shift, I stopped to talk to one Chicago, will open up more opportu- family during the 30-year dictatorial struggles covered in the paper. Sup- subscriber about renewing who said, nities to win long-term readers of the reign.” porters of the Militant also sold close ‘I can budget that,’” writes Maggie paper there. Several speakers demanded the to 1,800 copies of Malcolm X, Black Trowe of Des Moines. “When I passed These are just a few examples of the safe return of former Haitian presi- Liberation, and the Road to Workers him again he pulled out a $20 bill for interest there is to tap into if supporters dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide and that Power by Jack Barnes, most in combi- a six-month renewal. Later as we lined of the socialist newsweekly reach out up to clock out another coworker called and grab it. As socialists sign up long- me over and did the same.” term readers they will also continue to Tunisian tyrant flees The Militant is especially valued get out to union struggles, protest ac- Continued from front page out!’ and “Ben Ali, assassin!” One by workers involved infights against tions, factories, and campuses to win the bosses’ speedup and unsafe condi- introductory subscriptions. anymore,” a Sidi Bouzid resident told marcher’s sign said “We won’t forget” tions. Join the campaign! Sign up your Reuters. “It’s about freedom of ex- in reference to the dozens of protes- The Militant recently carried cover- coworkers, friends, and those you are pression, freedom of assembly, all the tors killed by police over the previous age of the mine disaster in New Zea- involved in political activity with to freedoms.” weeks. land. Socialists there made visits to the renew their subscriptions or sign up The day before he fled, Ben Ali area to get the paper out. One miner for new a subscription of six months went on television and promised not to Backed by imperialists in the town of Greymouth decided to or longer. Both kinds of subscriptions run for reelection in 2014; he slashed Essentially a French colony begin- renew for six months after discussions will count toward the campaign to in- prices on sugar, bread, and milk. Ben ning in 1881, Tunisia won its indepen- on the recent events. Several workers crease the long-term readership. You Ali dissolved the government, prom- dence in 1956 with Habib Bourguiba made statements to the Militant about can contact a distributor in your area, ised new elections within six months, as its first prime minister. In 1975 the mine disaster to be used in future listed on page 8, to help. and said he would end Internet cen- he proclaimed himself “president for coverage. Reviewing our plans in each area and sorship and allow more freedom of life.” Ben Ali overthrew Bourguiba In Chicago socialists kicked off the allowing more time to carry them out the press. Ben Ali said he had ordered on Nov. 6, 1987, after being appointed renewal campaign by making calls to will make it possible to regularly get police to stop using live ammunition prime minister a month earlier. set up appointments to visit people and the Militant into the hands of hundreds against demonstrators. At first Ben Ali—an army gener- talk politics. As a result they secured of workers, farmers, and students. Too little, too late. The next day al who had studied at the Saint-Cyr three subscriptions right away. Many are looking for honest reporting some of the largest demonstrations military academy in France and at the Alyson Kennedy writes, “We got about the struggles of working people took place. Many shouted “Ben Ali, U.S. Army Intelligence School at Fort Holabird, Maryland— took measures more than 15 subscriptions at Malcolm and an analysis of the news from the to project himself as a democratic and X College during the last drive. We point of view of the working class. The First and Second progressive leader in the Maghreb, as Declarations of the five North Africa countries of Tu- nisia, , Mauritania, Algeria, Floods devastate Australia and are known. He pardoned Havana Continued from front page tied one-third of the dam’s capacity in 3,000 prisoners, mostly political and coast face the loss of up to 60 percent an “urgent release,” according to the Islamist opponents, and allowed six of their annual income over the next Australian newspaper. This resulted opposition parties to operate. three years. Almost half the state’s in “more than 80 percent of the flood But the moves didn’t last long. In 1.5 million ton grain crop, especially 1989 in the first election after Bour- in the Brisbane River at its peak.” winter wheat and sorghum, has been guiba’s overthrow, Ben Ali ran as Meanwhile, floods and mudslides the sole candidate, backed by all the ruined. in claimed more than 600 lives. so-called opposition parties, winning Almost a third of domestic fruit and Angry workers and peasants charged 99.3 percent of the vote. He main- vegetable production is in Queensland. the government could have prevented tained Bourguiba’s secret police ap- Tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, and pota- much of the disaster if it had provided paratus. toes have doubled in price as growers an early warning system to rural com- Under Ben Ali’s iron hand, the Tu- try to harvest and get remaining crops munities around . $10 nisian government promoted “busi- to markets. The government was aware that ness-friendly” policies, well liked by Queensland Labor premier Anna heavy rains were forecast but took “What does the Cuban European and U.S. capitalists. The Bligh admitted January 14 that the gi- no steps to warn residents of the ru- Revolution teach? That economy is based on oil, phosphate ant Wivenhoe Dam built on the Bris- ral communities, the New York Times revolution is possible” mining, textiles, other light industry, bane River came perilously close to reported. tourism, and agricultural exports. being breached. On January 11 the ris- Residents complained afterward Nowhere are the questions of Pfizer pharmaceutical, Ericsson ing dam level came within three feet that while many working people were revolutionary strategy that to- electronics, and Siemens health prod- of breaching spillway “fuse plugs,” trying to dig for survivors with their day confront men and women ucts all set up operations in the coun- a special emergency water release bare hands, the government was pro- on the front lines of struggles try. Arizona-based Paradigm Preci- mechanism. This would have sent an viding few rescue teams. in the Americas addressed with sion Holdings has an aircraft parts additional flood surge down the swol- Fernando Pfister said four of his greater truthfulness and clarity. plant outside Tunis, paying machine len river. children perished. “Do the politicians operators just $280 a month. Rather than beginning to release have children?” he asked. “What French capitalists are the biggest the rising water levels earlier and in would they do if this happened to PathfinderPress.com Continued on page 9 a measured way, management emp- their families?”

4 The Militant January 31, 2011 on the picket line Heinz workers picket UK plant payment into basic pay. The workers demanding wage raise are currently voting on this offer. Wigan, England—More than —Pete Clifford and Dag Tirsén 100 workers picketed outside the gi- ant Heinz plant here January 11. The Locked-out workers in Iowa 1,200 Unite union members were on and New York pledge solidarity their fourth day of strike action, de- Brooklyn, New York—Build- manding a wage raise that matches ing workers locked out at the Flatbush inflation. Gardens apartment complex here wel- The day before, the company upped comed a visit to their picket line by its offer to 3.5 percent for this year a fellow unionist, Buddy Howard, a and 3.4 percent for 2012. The UK locked-out grain miller at Roquette government’s inflation figure was America in Keokuk, Iowa. He joined 3.3 percent in November. Since then the pickets in front of the complex’s further price rises have hit working business offices January 16. people hard, including a 2.5 percent Howard is one of about 240 mem- increase in the value added tax. bers of Local 48G of the Bakery, “Heinz is making record profits,” Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and said union steward Jimmy McCar- Grain Millers International Union rick. “Everything is up for them, (BCTGM), locked out for more than and they want to peg us down.” A three months by the corn-processing woman striker chimed in, “They get company. The 70 building workers the cream and we get the sour milk.” are members of Service Employees Militant/Mike Fitzsimmons International Union Local 32BJ. They Picket line of locked-out building workers at Flatbush Gardens in Brooklyn, New York. She recounted how this was their first Buddy Howard (second from left) of Local 48G of grain millers’ union in Keokuk, Iowa, plant-wide union action since 1978. have been locked out since November visited picket line January 16. Local 48G is locked out by Roquette America, Inc. Ian Wright, a strike leader and dep- 29 after refusing to accept a 30 per- uty Unite union convener, described cent pay cut. New hires would make unfair labor practices charges against At a union meeting held at the lo- how students from nearby Salford even less. Renaissance Equity Holding LLC, cal school January 14, union officials University had joined the picket lines One of the 32BJ pickets told How- owned by landlord David Bistricer. announced plans to leaflet four other at the end of 2010. They had been oc- ard, “I used to work five days a week; Bistricer is already on a list of the city’s housing complexes in cupying their university to protest tu- now I picket seven days,” echoing worst landlords. The Tenants Associa- owned by Bistricer. ition raises. Some 200 agency (tempo- the opinion expressed by many of tion is supporting the locked out work- —Dan Fein and Mike Fitzsimmons rary) workers are respecting the picket the workers that they will do what it ers in their fight for a decent union lines too. McCarrick pointed out that takes to withstand the property own- contract. Some of the locked out work- the union here has ensured they re- ers’ effort to break them. Howard ers live in the 59-building complex. ceive the same pay rate as company brought greetings from Local 48G. Desmond Pennant, the shop stew- Trade workers. “Stay strong and keep in touch,” the ard, said, “We are working people Unions The day following the strike Heinz building workers told Howard as they who feel we got a raw deal. We won’t upped its offer to 3.9 percent with parted at the end of the day. accept a bad contract forced down our in the consolidation of a supplementary On January 11 union lawyers filed throat. This is 2011, not 1911.” Epoch of Imperialist Decay Abortion rights forces win victory in Iowa $16 BY REBECCA WILLIAMSON announced in November that he plans Council Bluffs is about five miles by Leon Trotsky DES MOINES, Iowa—In a victory to expand access at three more clin- east of Omaha. Some elected officials for working people, the Iowa Board of ics: Council Bluffs, Iowa; Indianapo- in Iowa have announced plans to in- Features: “Trade Unions: Medicine announced January 11 that lis; and the Washington, D.C., area. A troduce legislation this year similar to Their Past, Present, and it will take no action against Planned new law in Nebraska went into effect the Nebraska law, specifically against Future” by Karl Marx Parenthood of the Heartland’s tele- in mid-October that further restricts Dr. Carhart’s efforts to maintain ac- medicine program, which extends ac- access to abortion, making it illegal cess for women who seek abortions. Introduction by cess to abortion pills to rural areas. after the 20th week of pregnancy. The Rep. Matt Windschitl, a board mem- Farrell Dobbs The case began in 2009 when Op- standard is 22 weeks since abortion ber of Iowa Right to Life, said, “I’m eration Rescue, a longtime opponent was legalized in 1973 by the U.S. Su- taking on the fight . . . to keep him out of a woman’s right to choose abor- preme Court. of my state.” PathfinderPress.com tion, based in Wichita, Kansas, filed a complaint with the Iowa medical board. The outfit claimed the program 25, 50, and 75 years ago was illegal because it “denies women access to physical examinations by li- censed physicians.” The telemedicine program, launched in 2008, has been accessed by more than 2,000 women across the January 31, 1986 January 30, 1961 February 1, 1936 state to receive the abortion pill over AUSTIN, Minn., Jan. 22—United Supporters of imprisoned Congolese The fourth Scottsboro trial ended the past two years. Planned Parent- Food and Commercial Workers Local P- Premier Patrice Lumumba received with the conviction of Haywood Pat- hood called it “a needed service, and 9 President Jim Guyette today called on a strong boost when the United Arab terson. Judge and prosecutor worked one that our clients demanded.” unions across the country to protest the Republic, Morocco and Indonesia an- hand in glove. No Negroes were on the The program is the first of its kind presence of the National Guard here. nounced that they were withdrawing jury; the state went through the farce of in the country. A nurse examines a He also urged union members, their troops from the UN’s Congo mili- putting Negroes on the panel, but none woman who wants the abortion pill. peace organizations, and others con- tary force. The action of the three coun- served on the jury. They were either Afterward, the woman has a consul- cerned with social justice to come tries struck a heavy blow at the use of challenged by the prosecution or evaded tation via the Internet with a doctor to Austin to find out for themselves the UN by the Western powers to sal- service through fear of reprisals. in Des Moines who determines if she about Hormel Co.’s union-busting. vage imperialist rule in the Congo. Patterson was given a 75-year prison meets the requirements to take the Guyette’s appeal followed a stepped- The decision to withdraw was made sentence. The attitude of Attorney S. S. pill. If so, she is provided with it im- up attack by Hormel against Local P-9 in protest against using the “neutral” UN Leibowitz, enemy of the mass defense mediately. She finishes the rest of the strikers. This included Hormel’s suc- force to aid pro-Western Congolese poli- movement, is that he has won a victory. medication later and returns for a fol- cess in getting Democratic Farmer-La- ticians who dissolved the legally consti- Patterson himself is not deceived. He low-up visit with a nurse at the clinic. bor Party Gov. Rudy Perpich to mobi- tuted parliament and jailed Lumumba. announced on hearing the verdict that Operation Rescue staff member lize the National Guard on January 21, The growing difficulties of the Bel- he would rather die than spend another Cheryl Sullenger filed the complaint helping to herd scabs into the plant. gian colonialists were further indicated day in jail for something he did not do. against Dr. Susan Haskell of Planned In response to Hormel’s escalation by press reports that pro-Lumumba forc- All other trials have been indefinite- Parenthood. The medical board held of its strike-busting effort, Local P-9 es now control nearly half the country. ly postponed because of material wit- hearings on the complaint. sent roving pickets to Hormel distri- Meanwhile, the UN is becoming more ness’ sickness. The boys were returned The Iowa-Nebraska-Kansas re- bution centers and to the Hormel plant and more discredited in the Congo. The to Birmingham jail. Patterson [will] gion has been a battleground around in Ottumwa, Iowa. More than 95 per- three countries that have already de- appeal his case on the grounds that he the right to choose abortion. Omaha cent of the Ottumwa workers honored cided to pull out contributed some 5,000 was denied a change of venue and thus abortion provider Dr. LeRoy Carhart the picket line. troops of the 20,000-man UN army. did not get a fair trial.

The Militant January 31, 2011 5 Civil War and forging of U.S. working class

This year marks the 150th anniver- southern strongholds and even to obtain sary of the beginning of the U.S. Civil constitutional warrant for its perpetua- War. It resulted in the Second American tion. The opponents of slavery could do Revolution, changing the relationship no more than restrict its scope by pro- of class forces in the United States and viding for the abolition of the foreign propelling growth of both the industrial slave trade at the end of twenty years, bourgeoisie and the working class. The for emancipation in certain northern piece below from America’s Revolu- states where slavery was of slight eco- tionary Heritage by George Novack nomic importance, and for its prohibi- examines the roots of the social conflict tion within the unsettled northwestern resulting in the Civil War. Copyright © territories. . . . 1976 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by The struggle for supremacy between First South Carolina Volunteers, Union Army Black combat regiment, listen to reading of Emancipation Proclamation, Jan. 1, 1863. It freed all slaves in Confederate states and wel- permission. the proslavery forces centered in the comed their enlistment. During Civil War some 200,000 Blacks served in Union Army. South and the free labor forces headed by george novack by the northern bourgeoisie was the de- a result of the Revolution and the ensu- national life. Their despotism became The Civil War had deep historical cisive factor in the political life of the ing economic progress were distributed, increasingly intolerable. Not only the roots. It was the inevitable product of United States in the period bounded by under pressure from the people, in the Negro chattels but the entire American two interlacing processes. One was the the two revolutions. From 1800 on, the shape of numerous small, gradual, dem- people were being made the victims of degeneration of the First American Rev- big bourgeoisie kept ceding political ocratic reforms. This part of the planter- the arrogant, unrestrainable slaveown- olution, which unfolded by slow stages ground to the planters. Supreme politi- bourgeois regime was a comparatively ers. To check this growing reaction and until it culminated in open counterrevo- cal power inevitably gravitated into the pacific period in domestic politics. The to assure continued progress in the na- lution. The other was the rise of capital- hands of the economically predominant chief disputes which arose among the tion, it was imperative to break the grip ist industrialism with its contradictory cotton nobility. The capitalists could governing classes (including those is- of the slave power. effects upon American social develop- not regain their lost leadership until the sues directly pertaining to slavery) were The victory of the Republican Party ment. . . . economic development of the country settled by compromise. in the presidential elections of 1860 and The social structure of the United had produced a new combination of so- Around 1850 a radical reversal of the ensuing departure of the slave states States at the end of the eighteenth cen- cial forces strong enough to outweigh these processes set in. The rise of large- brought to a head the struggle between tury was a composite of slave and free the slavocracy and its allies and then to scale industry in the North and the ex- the southern planters and northern bour- labor, of precapitalist and capitalist overthrow it. pansion of small farming in the North- geoisie, the proslavery and antislavery forms of production. To complete the re- Thanks to the achievements of the west upset the economic equilibrium camps, the counterrevolution and the construction of society along bourgeois Revolution and to exceptionally favor- upon which the planters’ power had revolution. The secessionist coup d’etat lines, it would have been necessary to able international economic circum- rested and led to a new correlation of revived all the problems of the bour- break up the soil in which slavery was stances, the United States took tremen- social forces. Goaded by the prospect of geois-democratic revolution, including rooted. This proved impossible under dous steps forward during the first half losing supreme power and by the eco- those which had presumably been for- the prevailing conditions. The slave of the nineteenth century. The produc- nomic decline and social disintegration ever settled. interests were sufficiently powerful at tive forces of the nation, agricultural and of the slave system, the planting inter- At this critical point three main per- the time of the Revolution to prevent industrial, slave and free, grew by leaps ests absolutely opposed themselves to spectives opened before the American any tampering with the institution in its and bounds. The gains accumulated as progressive tendencies in all fields of people. A victory for the Confederacy could have effaced the remnants of the Revolution and fastened the hated dic- tatorial rule of the slaveholders over all Marx’s 1864 letter to Lincoln on his reelection America. Another ineffectual compro- Below is a November 1864 letter by maintained “slavery to be a beneficent choose his own master, they were un- mise between the contending camps Karl Marx, a founder of the modern institution,” indeed, the only solution of able to attain the true freedom of labor, would have permitted the struggle to communist movement, to Abraham Lin- the great problem of “the relation of cap- or to support their European brethren in drag along and exhaust the people. A coln congratulating him on being re- ital to labor,” and cynically proclaimed their struggle for emancipation; but this victory for the revolutionary forces elected president of the United States. property in man “the corner-stone of the barrier to progress has been swept off by would clear the way for a full and final new edifice,”—then the working classes the red sea of civil war. disposal of the unfinished business of Sir,—We congratulate the American of Europe understood at once, even be- The working men of Europe feel sure the bourgeois-democratic revolution. people upon your reelection by a large fore the fanatic partisanship of the up- that, as the American War of Indepen- The developments of the Civil War soon majority. If resistance to the Slave Power per classes for the Confederate gentry dence initiated a new era of ascendancy excluded any middle course or ground was the reserved watchword of your first had given its dismal warning, that the for the middle classes, so the American for compromise, leaving open only the election, the triumphant war-cry of your slaveholders’ rebellion was to sound Anti-Slavery War will do for the work- two extreme variants. reelection is Death to Slavery. the tocsin for a general holy crusade of ing classes. They consider it an earnest The favorable alternative triumphed. From the commencement of the Ti- property against labor, and that for the of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot The bourgeois Republicans, who had tanic American strife the working men men of labor, with the hopes for the fu- of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded taken power on a program of restricting of Europe felt instinctively that the star- ture, even their past conquests were at son of the working class, to lead his the slave power, found that they could spangled banner carried the destiny of stake in that tremendous conflict on the country through the matchless struggle hold it against the assaults of the Con- their class. The contest for the territories other side of the Atlantic. Everywhere for the rescue of an enchained race and federacy only by resorting to increas- which opened the dire epopee, was it they bore therefore patiently the hard- the reconstruction of a social world. ingly revolutionary measures leading to not to decide whether the virgin soil of ships imposed upon them by the cotton Karl Marx Continued on page 9 immense tracts should be wedded to the crisis,2 opposed enthusiastically the pro- labor of the emigrant or prostituted by slavery intervention—importunities of the tramp of the slave-driver? their betters and, from most parts of Eu- When an oligarchy of 300,000 slave- rope, contributed their quota of blood to Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and holders dared to inscribe for the first the good cause. the Road to Workers Power time in the annals of the world “slavery” While the working men, the true po- on the banner of Armed Revolt, when litical powers of the North, allowed slav- by Jack Barnes on the very spots where hardly a centu- ery to defile their own republic, while ry ago the idea of one great Democratic before the Negro, mastered and sold “This is a book about the dictatorship of capital Republic had first sprung up, whence without his concurrence, they boasted and the road to the dictatorship of the proletariat. the first Declaration of the Rights of it the highest prerogative of the white- A book about the last century and a half of Man1 was issued, and the first impulse skinned laborer to sell himself and class struggle in the United States—from the given to the European revolution of the Civil War and Radical Reconstruction to to- eighteenth century; when on those very day—and the unimpeachable evidence it offers spots counter-revolution, with system- 2. The cotton crisis was caused by the stop- that workers who are Black will comprise a dis- $20 atic thoroughness, gloried in rescinding page of cotton deliveries from America “the ideas entertained at the time of the due to the blockade of the Southern proportionately weighty part of the ranks and formation of the old constitution,” and slave states by the Federal fleet. Most leadership of the mass social movement that will of the European cotton industry was make a proletarian revolution. . . .” paralyzed, and this worsened the con- 1. The Declaration of Independence dition of the workers. See distributors on page 8 or order from: www.pathfinderpress.com 6 The Militant January 31, 2011 ‘What kind of socialism for 21st century?’ New York meeting discusses world politics, openings for communist movement by cindy jaquith der to undermine the state NEW YORK—More than 370 peo- property established by ple turned out here for a public meet- the revolution and promote ing sponsored by the Socialist Workers a “democratic” counter- Party January 15 titled “What Kind of revolution. Socialism for the 21st Century?—The Soldier of the Cuban Long, Hard Battles Ahead.” Participants Revolution offers a real came from across the United States, as picture of the roots of the well as Canada, Australia, New Zea- proletarian morality and land, United Kingdom, Greece, and discipline conquered by France. the young people who The meeting was cochaired by Paul mobilized in the 1950s to Mailhot, editor of the Militant and a get rid of the Batista dic- member of the SWP National Commit- tatorship, Waters said. She tee, and Annalucia Vermunt, a member quoted Zayas’s firsthand of the executive committee of the Com- description of the march munist League in New Zealand and the by 140 men in Che Gue- league’s 2010 candidate for mayor of vara’s famous Column 8 Auckland. from the Sierra Maestra to The newly printed Pathfinder book the Escambray mountains Soldier of the Cuban Revolution: From Militant/Eric Simpson of central Cuba in Sep- Crowd at January 15 meeting and featured speakers Jack Barnes, top, and Mary-Alice Waters, bottom. the Cane Fields of Oriente to General tember and early October of the Revolutionary Armed Forces 1958—an operation expected to take 48 recently returned from Pretoria, South in the factories and trade unions. by Cuban general Luis Alfonso Zayas hours that instead lasted 47 days. Africa, where they participated with was available at the meeting. The first “If we had covered those three hun- thousands of other young people in the U.S. military strategy toward China speaker was the book’s editor, Mary- dred seventy miles in forty-eight hours,” World Festival of Youth and Students. Jack Barnes, the author of Malcolm Alice Waters, who is also editor of the observed Zayas, “perhaps we wouldn’t Describing the Young Socialists’s ac- X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Marxist magazine New International have weeded out the quitters, those who tivity on campus, D’Agostino said, “We Workers Power who is the national sec- and a member of the SWP National didn’t have the willpower to continue. went from one to two young socialists retary of the SWP, was the final speak- Committee. Perhaps we would never have been able in the fall. “Now with more confidence er. He opened his remarks pointing to Waters announced that three titles by to measure the capacities of those who we can go further.” the significance of U.S. defense secre- Pathfinder will be launched at the Ha- did.” Steve Clark, managing editor of New tary Robert Gates’s trip to Asia. Dur- vana Book Fair this February: Soldier The socialist, revolutionary course of International and a member of the ing his trip Gates told reporters that the of the Cuban Revolution; the Spanish Cuba since working people there con- SWP National Committee, elaborated Chinese government has and continues edition of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, quered power some 50 years ago also on this point. “The Militant gives work- to develop long-range intercontinental and the Road to Workers Power; and comes through in two recently pub- ers a picture of the activities of the com- ballistic missiles as well as other missile the Spanish edition of Cosmetics, Fash- lished books by Cuban leader Fidel Cas- munist movement and responds to what technology that is designed to destroy ions, and the Exploitation of Women, tro, Por todos los caminos de la Sierra: is happening in the class struggle,” he U.S. aircraft carriers and aircraft.” which is being published by Ciencias La victoria estratégica (On every road said. At the festival in South Africa These advances are part of Beijing’s Sociales in Cuba. through the Sierra: Strategic Victory) young people purchased 1,700 books by efforts to assert some control over Pa- Waters noted that Washington had and Fidel Castro: My Life, an interview Pathfinder. A weakness was not getting cific waters near China, which have just announced an adjustment to its em- with Ignacio Ramonet. These books into their hands subscriptions to the been dominated by Washington since bargo of Cuba that includes permitting were highlighted in Waters’s talk. Militant as well, Clark said. World War II. any individual in the United States to The Militant was launched in 1928 The threat of a powerful adversary in W send $500 a quarter to anyone in Cuba orld Festival of Youth and Students after members of the U.S. Communist China has a great deal to do with the “to support private economic activity, Harry D’Agostino, organizer of the Party who supported Leon Trotsky and wars Washington is currently fighting among other purposes.” There is also Young Socialists at the State University others seeking to uphold the proletar- in Afghanistan and on the border with a U.S. program called Cuban Medical of New York at New Paltz and candi- ian international course of V.I. Lenin in Pakistan, Barnes said. Washington is Professional Parole, which encourages date for lieutenant governor of New were expelled by the party un- trying to strengthen its alliance with the Cuban doctors on medical missions in York endorsed by the SWP last year, der the influence of a conservative bu- governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan, foreign countries to contact any U.S. spoke about building a Young Social- reaucracy in Russia headed by Joseph and as a counterweight to Beijing. embassy to request immediate entrance ists club among his fellow students. He Stalin. Those expelled saw publishing Gen. David Petraeus is “the command- into the United States as a “refugee.” related how the Militant is helping to a workers newspaper as their very first er of the Western front with China,” Both of these moves, explained Wa- win young people to a working-class task. The effort was financed by work- Barnes said. Concern over Osama bin ters, are carefully crafted to capitalize outlook. Like Vermunt he was one of ers in the party, such as the coal yard Laden is not Washington’s motivation. on Cuba’s economic difficulties in or- some 15 people at the meeting who had workers in Minneapolis who pooled There are much bigger questions at their resources to send in $5 or $10 a stake. week out of their meager wages. Washington needs to get the Paki- Clark also spoke about the political stani and Indian governments to pull Soldier of the Cuban Revolution their troops away from each other’s openings for working people in . From the Cane Fields of Oriente to General of the Revolutionary Armed Forces borders and look toward China. Barnes Over the last 10 years, 65,000 Pathfind- noted Washington’s success in getting er titles translated into Farsi, the official Luis Alfonso Zayas, today a better relations with the Indian govern- language of Iran, have been sold there. New! general in the Cubana Revolu- ment, which had been a Soviet ally until A display at the meeting graphically tionary Armed Forces, recounts Continued on page 9 his experiences over five de- captured the increasing interest in com- cades in the Cuban Revolution. munist literature among Iranians. From From a teenage combatant in March 2009 to March 2010, 1,834 Path- the clandestine struggle and finder titles by the Iranian publisher 1956–58 war that brought down Talaye Porsoo were sold. From March a U.S.-backed dictatorship, to 2010 to January 2011, 2,394 have been serving three times as a leader sold. On display were copies of the Teh- ran daily Donya-e-Eqtesad (The World of the Cuban volunteer forces of Economics), which serialized the that helped Angola defeat re- Farsi edition of Teamster Rebellion. peated invasions by the army of A dozen other displays highlighted white-supremacist South Africa, themes of the meeting, such as one ti- Zayas tells how he and millions tled “Washington’s ‘long war’ at home of ordinary men and women in and abroad” and another illustrating Cuba changed the course of his- the steps the capitalists are taking to in- tory and, in the process, trans- Militant/Natalie Morrison crease their rate of profit by increasing Participants at New York gathering study formed themselves as well. the rate of exploitation of labor. Panels more than a dozen displays on political Special: $14 also showed the activities of socialists themes that were discussed. through April 15, cover price: $18 PathfinderPress.com The Militant January 31, 2011 7 Malcolm X on U.S. bombings in Congo in 1960s Below is an excerpt from Malcolm X: murdered the prime minister, the right- The Last Speeches, one of Pathfinder’s ful prime minister, [Patrice] Lumumba. Books of the Month for January. In this He murdered him. [Applause] Now talk—presented in Rochester, New York, here’s a man who’s an international mur- on Feb. 16, 1965, five days before his as- derer, selected by the State Department sassination—Malcolm discusses Wash- and placed over the Congo and propped ington’s role in attacking the liberation into position by your tax dollars. He’s struggle in the Congo. The country had a killer. He’s hired by our government. won its independence from Belgium in He’s a hired killer. And to show the type June 1960 led by Patrice Lumumba, of hired killer he is, as soon as he’s in who became the country’s first prime office, he hires more killers in South minister. Intervention by Washington, Africa to shoot down his own people. Brussels, and UN troops resulted in And you wonder why your American Lumumba’s assassination half a year image abroad is so bankrupt. . . . later. His supporters continued the fight Remember how they referred to the against imposing an imperialist-backed hostages as “white hostages.” Not “hos- government there. Copyright © 1989 by tages.” They said these “cannibals” in Betty Shabazz, Bruce Perry, and Path- the Congo had “white hostages.” Oh, finder Press. Reprinted by permission. Malcolm X speaking at Corn Hill Methodist Church in Rochester, New York, Feb. 16, 1965. and this got you all shook up. White nuns, white priests, white missionaries. village has no defense against the bombs. dren and babies being destroyed by What’s the difference between a white Books of And an African village is not sufficient their bombs. But because they’re called hostage and a Black hostage? What’s threat that it has to be bombed! But “mercenaries,” given a glorified name, the difference between a white life and planes were dropping bombs on African it doesn’t excite you. Because they a Black life? You must think there’s a the month villages. When these bombs strike, they are referred to as “American-trained” difference, because your press speci- don’t distinguish between enemy and pilots, because they are American- fies whiteness. “Nineteen white hostag- by malcolm x friend. They don’t distinguish between trained, that makes them okay. “Anti- es” cause you to grieve in your heart. [T]he press is used to make the vic- male and female. When these bombs are Castro Cubans,” that makes them okay. [Laughter and applause] tim look like the criminal and make the dropped on African villages in the Con- Castro’s a monster, so anybody who’s During the months when bombs criminal look like the victim. . . . This go, they are dropped on Black women, against Castro is all right with us, and were being dropped on Black people is imagery. And just as this imagery Black children, Black babies. These hu- anything they can do from there, that’s by the hundreds and the thousands, is practiced at the local level, you can man beings were blown to bits. I heard all right with us. . . . They put your mind you said nothing. And you did noth- understand it better by an international no outcry, no voice of compassion for right in a bag and take it wherever they ing. But as soon as a few—a handful example. The best recent example at these thousands of Black people who want, as well. [Applause] of white people who didn’t have any the international level to bear witness to were slaughtered by planes. [Applause] But it’s something that you have to business getting caught up in that thing what I’m saying is what happened in the Why was there no outcry? Why was look at and answer for. Because they in the first place—[Laughter and ap- Congo. Look at what happened. We had there no concern? Because, again, the are American planes, American bombs, plause]—as soon as their lives became a situation where a plane was dropping press very skillfully made the victims escorted by American paratroopers, involved, you got concerned. bombs on African villages. An African look like they were the criminals, and armed with machine guns. But, you I was in Africa during the sum- the criminals look like they were the know, they say they’re not soldiers, mer when they—when the mercenar- victims. [Applause] they’re just there as escorts, like they ies and the pilots were shooting down Books They refer to the villages as “rebel started out with some advisers in South Black people in the Congo like flies. January held,” you know. As if to say, because Vietnam. Twenty thousand of them— It wouldn’t even get mentioned in the of the Month they are rebel-held villages, you can de- just advisers. These are just “escorts.” Western press. It wasn’t mentioned. If stroy the population, and it’s okay. They They’re able to do all of this mass mur- it was mentioned, it was mentioned in PATHFINDER also refer to the merchants of death as der and get away with it by labeling it the classified section of the newspaper. READERS CLUB 25% “American-trained, anti-Castro Cuban “humanitarian,” an act of humanitari- discount Someplace where you’d need a micro- SPECIALS pilots.” This made it okay. Because anism. Or “in the name of freedom,” scope to find it. Malcolm X: The Last Speeches these pilots, these mercenaries—you “in the name of liberty.” All kinds of And at that time the African broth- by Malcolm X know what a mercenary is, he’s not a high-sounding slogans, but it’s cold- ers, at first they weren’t taking hos- Sheds light on Malcolm X’s political patriot. A mercenary is not someone blooded murder, mass murder. And it’s tages. They only began to take hostages evolution during the last months who goes to war out of patriotism for done so skillfully, so you and I, who call when they found that these pilots were of his life and his place among the his country. A mercenary is a hired ourselves sophisticated in this twentieth bombing their villages. And then they outstanding revolutionary leaders of killer. A person who kills, who draws century, are able to watch it, and put the 20th century. took hostages, moved them into the vil- $17. Special price: $12.75 blood for money, anybody’s blood. You the stamp of approval upon it. Simply lage, and warned the pilots that if you kill a human being as easily as you kill because it’s being done to people with drop bombs on the village, you’ll hit Humanism and Socialism a cat or a dog or a chicken. black skin, by people with white skin. your own people. It was a war maneu- by George Novack So these mercenaries, dropping They take a man who is a cold-blood- $15. Special price: $11.25 ver. They were at war. They only held a bombs on African villages, caring ed murderer, named [Moise] Tshombe. hostage in a village to keep the merce- Women’s Liberation and the nothing as to whether or not there are You’ve heard of him, Uncle Tom naries from murdering on a mass scale African Freedom Struggle innocent, defenseless women and chil- Tshombe. [Laughter and applause] He the people of those villages. by Thomas Sankara $8. 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Tel: 020-7613- [email protected] 1755. E-mail: [email protected] 2466. E-mail: [email protected] 8 The Militant January 31, 2011 Editorial New York meeting Continued from page 7 the collapse of the Soviet Union at the beginning of End U.S. embargo of Cuba! the 1990s. In a January 14 statement cynically titled “Reach- out of the hands of the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Meanwhile, at home, the Barack Obama admin- ing Out to the Cuban People,” the White House an- Fulgencio Batista in 1959, the revolutionary leader- istration is stepping up restrictions on freedom of nounced that President Barack Obama is lifting some ship implemented popular measures, from land re- speech and workers rights. It’s adopting a harder and restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba. form and nationalization of industry under workers harder line against Cuba, seeking to take advantage Malcolm X once said, “You don’t stick a knife in a control, to banning racial discrimination, and offer- of the difficult economic situation the revolutionary man’s back nine inches and then pull it out six inches ing solidarity to working class-struggles around the government faces there. and claim you are making progress.” world. Under the pressures of the capitalist world eco- The White House measures do nothing to end Washington soon realized it would not be so easy nomic crisis, the Cuban leadership is working to Washington’s economic, commercial, and financial to overthrow the new revolutionary government by preserve the continuity of the revolution, while embargo of Cuba, nor does it “reinstitute the right armed force. The U.S. rulers began a parallel poli- making necessary retreats, including opening up the to travel to Cuba for all U.S. citizens,” as the Cuban cy, sometimes known as Track II, seeking to foster economy to more private economic activity, Barnes Ministry of Foreign Affairs points out. internal opposition to the revolution. They hope to explained in response to a question during the dis- The measures make it easier to send money from advance those aims today amid Cuba’s economic cussion. the United States to Cuba for “private economic ac- difficulties. Barnes commented on the debate over whether tivity.” Washington hopes to stimulate petty capi- Defending Cuba’s socialist revolution is in the in- “vitriolic rhetoric” by Republicans and tea party talist commodity production as a counterweight to terests of working people the world over. We need supporters was partly to blame for the shooting spree Cuba’s state property, a conquest of the Cuban Rev- to demand: End the U.S. embargo of Cuba! End the by a mentally deranged man that killed six people olution. After working people in Cuba took power travel ban! in Arizona January 8. Democrats were forced to back down as their attempt to blame Sarah Palin for the shooting fell flat. In his speech at the memorial service for victims, Obama acknowledged that “a simple lack of civility” did not cause the shootings, noted Barnes. Civil War and forging working class Liberal Democrats and commentators frequently Continued from page 6 with their own class aims and interests. slander conservatives as “stupid,” “crazy,” or “para- the overthrow and abolition of the slave power. In or- This Second American Revolution not only noid,” because they are unable to answer Republi- der to conserve the conquests of the First American installed a new governing class in office but, by cans’ arguments. It’s also how they view workers Revolution, it was found necessary to extend them abolishing chattel slavery, scrapped the principal or farmers who support one or another plank of the through another. A supplementary upheaval of social- form of property and labor in the South. The great Republican platform. economic relations was required to support the politi- political and social problem which had agitated the Barnes pointed out that supporters of the Militant cal overturn in 1860. United States ever since the birth of the republic— failed to organize sales to the hundreds of thousands In the course of this Second Revolution, the most how to dispose of the slave power and its “peculiar who turned out for the “Restoring Honor” rally or- radical representatives of industrial capital and institution”—was definitively settled. ganized by Glenn Beck and others in Washington their plebeian allies completed the tasks initiated by The Second Revolution also concluded the pro- August 28. “We would have had no problems selling their predecessors in the first. Placing themselves gressive political role of the American bourgeoisie. at that event and no Black person would have had a at the head of the antislavery forces, the Radicals After it helped annihilate the slave power and slav- problem attending,” Barnes said. took complete control of the federal government ery, its political usefulness was utterly exhausted. A lower percentage of those at the event would and concentrated its apparatus in their hands. They Like the plantation aristocracy before it, the new have been interested in buying the paper than at an defeated the armies of the Confederacy on the ruling capitalist oligarchy rapidly transformed itself AFL-CIO labor event like the October 2 march for battlefields of the Civil War; shattered the political into a thoroughly reactionary force, until it came to jobs, Barnes noted, but there were many workers at and economic power of the slave oligarchy; consol- constitute the main obstacle to social progress not the August 28 rally who would have given the so- idated the bourgeois dictatorship set up during the only within the United States but throughout the cialists a hearing, debated the issues, and shown in- war; and remodeled the Republic into conformity world. terest in the Militant. They were, after all, driven to come to Washington by the effects of the economic and social crisis that is unfolding and ruining their lives, just as those who marched October 2 were. Tunisia tyrant forced to flee country In the United States “the working class is stunned” Continued from page 4 the ruling political party, but ransacked luxurious by the severity of the attacks coming down, he said. winners in scooping up profits, with some 1,200 villas and businesses linked to Ben Ali. “It has no class consciousness yet,” giving the ex- companies, representing 41 percent of foreign in- Hoping to put an end to the protests, Tunisian of- ample of support among some workers for sharply vestment. Italian, German, Belgian, British, and ficials announced January 17 they were forming a reducing wages and benefits for public employees. Spanish firms jockeyed to make sure they got their national unity including three “opposition” parties But “pockets of struggle do exist,” Barnes went share of the pie. to take the fallen dictator’s place. The new govern- on, “and they are important.” He noted that the A 2010 guide published by the U.S. Department ment is headed by longtime Ben Ali ally Mohamed workers at Jimmy John’s sandwich shops in Minne- of Commerce said that “Tunisia is a small and po- Ghannouchi as prime minister. apolis “came out stronger” by fighting to organize a litically stable country on the North African Coast. For many in Tunisia, that is not enough. That union, even though they narrowly lost the vote. Now It has the most diversified economy in the region.” same day demonstrations took place against Ben they’re preparing for a second vote. Noting that its competitors in France, , and Ali’s Constitutional Democratic Rally party (RCD) It’s through these kinds of struggles that workers Germany were ahead, the report said that the U.S. in several towns. In Sidi Bouzid, demonstrators can acquire class consciousness and begin to see Embassy in Tunis would actively work so that U.S. chanted “Bread and water and no RCD.” that it’s not a question of winning a better contract or firms “are able to successfully compete against bet- Arab regimes in the region are worried about the better labor legislation, but a revolutionary overturn ter-established European companies.” example of the Tunisian uprising. The Syrian gov- of capitalism that’s needed, Barnes said. Although direct U.S. economic interests were ernment reversed course and increased subsidies for small, Ben Ali’s regime was a valued U.S. ally in heating oil for public workers by 72 percent Janu- Financial support for party Washington’s war on terror, cracking down on Is- ary 16. The Jordanian government announced $125 Dave Prince, director of the Capital Fund, which lamists in Tunisia and closely cooperating with the million in fuel and food subsidies following protests accepts donations for the long-term political proj- CIA and FBI. last week. ects of the party, announced at the beginning of the The Tunisian economy grew 5 percent a year be- Soon after the Tunisian dictator flew to Saudi meeting that this year’s fund stood at $105,000 so tween 2004 and 2008. The country boasts of a 74 Arabia, a small group held a demonstration in Cai- far. One of these was $3,500 from a hospital worker percent literacy rate, one of the highest in North Af- ro, , chanting, “Ben Ali tell Mubarak a plane at a facility where the health-care teams have been rica and the Middle East, and has seven airports and is waiting for him too.” Egyptian president Hosni reduced by layoffs. The worker wrote that the boss eight commercial ports. Mubarak has been in power for nearly 30 years; like should have appended a note: “Thanks for working Ben Ali he has stifled opposition parties and news- at a killing pace.” Youth unemployment at 52 percent papers. By the end of the meeting the Capital Fund had While business was good for Ben Ali, his cohorts, Washington is also nervous. At a conference in grown to $215,000. and foreign capitalists, working people and the mid- Qatar January 13, U.S. secretary of State Hillary Carole Caron, part of the leadership of the Sup- dle classes were being battered by the worldwide Clinton called for “reform” and warned Arab rulers porters Monthly Appeal, announced that the appeal capitalist economic crisis. Unemployment is offi- that “people have grown tired of corrupt institutions had surpassed its goal of raising $55,000 by January cially at 14 percent, but among youth is 52 percent. and a stagnant political order. . . . It is time to see 15. Contributors to this fund make a regular finan- More than 700,000 Tunisians live in France. civil society not as a threat, but as a partner.” cial contribution to the party’s political activity each Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi are espe- A few days later, Egyptian foreign minister month. cially hated. They muscled in on virtually every lo- Ahmed Aul Gheit said, “Western and European A one-off appeal for donations by Angel Lariscy, cal business, from cell phones and car dealerships nations” should not interfere in Arab affairs. “The Militant business manager and organizer of the New to toothpaste and supermarkets, and flaunted their talk about the spread of what happened in Tunisia to York Headquarters branch of the SWP, raised more wealth. Protestors not only set fire to the offices of other countries is nonsense,” he added. than $24,000 for the party at the meeting.

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