DECEMBER 16, 1977 50 CENTS VOLUME41/NUMBER 47

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

Coal miners are on strike, and the outcome of their battle will affect all working people. The coal industry openly provoked this strike­ threatening to destroy . the United Mine Workers unless An editorial

the union accepts the mine owners' demands for a "sta­ ble" work force. Among the biggest owners of the U.S. coal industry are the utilities and the oil and steel corporations. These are some of the richest corpora­ tions in the world, all justly Continued on page 3

Students back ' lorsorlng Razalaadar protests VS.IOP against 'miara'coo 'Bakke' Gutierrez debates -Pages 16-17

Nude I Castillo on deportations National Student Coalition Against Racism actively -PAGE 7 participated in fall actions called by National Coalition to Overturn the Bakke Decision. In Brief

THIS EARL BUTZ AWARD: "I am against mixed marriages. It - Grigorenko told an airport news conference that he would goes against my nature," Alaska Lieut. Gov. Lowell Tho­ not discuss politics during his visit so there could be no ·mas, Jr., told the Alaska Black Caucus November 23. The reason to deny him the right to return home. WEEK'S Black Caucus and the Alaska Federation of Natives have The Kremlin rulers have made a common practice of called for Thomas's resignation. allowing dissidents to travel abroad and then revoking their MILITANT Gov. Jay Hammond, though, has a different idea. He Soviet citizenship. declared, "I'll not try to climb to reelection on ladder rungs A Leninist and lifelong communist, Grigorenko began to 5 Cleve. teachers: 'No comprised of Lowell's bones or those of any other who publicly criticize the Stalinist regime in the early 1960s. The pay, no work' makes an honest but politically foolish error." Soviet bureaucrats responded by stripping of his rank of Ironically, Thomas had been invited to address the Black major-general, kicking him out of the Communist Party, 6 Costa Rican Caucus to clarify earlier remarks he made criticizing the and twice imprisoning him in mental hospitals for "refor­ activists released Carter administration's support of an arms embargo on mist ideas." South Africa. Thomas had said he believed Carter could be 7 Gutierrez debates "working more quietly to accomplish things in South Castillo on deportations Africa." 'NO EVIDENCE' TO PROVE BURCHETT SMEAR: A 8 Women of State Department spokesperson· said November 23 that the oppressed nationalities government had "no evidence" that Guardian correspond­ ent Wilfred Burchett had ever tortured or "brainwashed" 15 Nuke foes win Five arrested in Chile The Chilean police announced November 29 the arrest of American prisoners of war in Vietnam or Korea. Burchett, free speech fight five persons, alleging that they are members of the Trotsky­ an Australian national, is currently on a speaking tour in 20 Is Angola on ist group Liga Comunista (Communist League). the United States. He has been the target of a smear road to socialism? According to a report in the December 4 issue of the campaign by the New York Post, the Hearst press, and the Santiago daily El Mercurio, those arrested were identified John Birch Society. They have also accused him of being a 28 Free the P.R. as Carlos Arturo Altamirano Corder (23), Hector Victor Soviet secret police agent. Nationalists Gomez Orellana (27), Jose Gabriel Cea Munoz (24), Mario The State Department noted that Burchett had won a libel Roberto Godoy Jara (26), and Rosa Ester Fuentes Polanco 29 Nazis arrested in suit against an Australian publication that accused him of (27). Minneapolis attack being an agent of the Soviet secret police. According to El Mercurio, they are being charged with holding "regular meetings of a subversive character," in U.S. REPS SEEK WILMINGTON TEN PARDON: Six vi.olation of the "State Internal Security Act." The police congressmen have asked North Carolina Gov. James Hunt also claim to have found a large quantity of political to pardon the Wilmington Ten. The nine Black men and one literature in the possession of the five detainees. white woman, all civil rights activists, were sentenced to Further charges may be in the offing, for El Mercurio, long prison terms in 1972 for an arson attack they didn't In Brief 2 summarizing the police report, added that the Liga Comu­ commit. The nine Blacks are still in jail. The phony nature 10 In Our Opinion nista is a "powerful organization that appears to be receiv­ of the charges against them were exposed at a hearing last Letters ing a financial subsidy from abroad." spring, but the North Carolina courts have refused to act. It is urgent that letters and telegrams of protest be sent 11 National Picket Line immediately to the Chilean government, demanding the Capitalism in Crisis release of the five. These may be addressed to Gen. Augusto FBI FINGERED JEWS FOR NAZIS: Up to at least 1940, Pinochet, Government House, Santiago, Chile. 12 The Great Society the FBI identified fugitive U.S. citizens who were Jews to Capitalism Fouls Things Up the Nazi police agency Interpol. (Interpol was founded as a PICKET ISRAELI CONSULATE: The Palestine Human American Way of Life private agency and was taken over by the Nazis in 1938.) Rights Campaign will picket the Israeli consulate in New FBI documents released under the Freedom of Informa­ 14 As I See It York City December 15 at 5:30p.m. to demand freedom for tion Act described suspects as "Jews," "Jewish type," and Taysir al-Aruri. Al-Aruri is a Palestinian political prisoner 18 Steel Notes "Jewish race." No other religions were mentioned. in Israel. He has been in prison since April 23, 1974. The U.S. government affiliated with Interpol at about the 22 In Review Some time in December, the Israeli government is sche­ same time the Nazis took it over. FBI Director J. Edgar duled to decide whether to free him or imprison him for Hoover remained in contact with the agency until only a WORLD OUTLOOK another six months. few days before Pearl Harbor. 23 Argentine workers win The Israeli consulate is at 800 Second Avenue, between big wage increase Forty-second and Forty-third streets. 'THANKSGIVING FOR LIFE': Militant correspondent For more information,' contact Sheila Ryan at (212) 850- 25 World News Notes Kathleen Denny reports from Milwaukee that more than 5296. forty people braved a blizzard November 25 to picket an 26 Bermuda regime anti-abortion youth conference called "Thanksgiving for calls in troops GRIGORENKO ARRIVES IN U.S.: Leading Soviet Life." The featured speaker at the weekend conference was 27 Books banned dissident Pyotr Grigorenko arrived in New York November Rep. Henry Hyde, author of a congressional measure in German witch-hunt 30. The former Soviet general, seventy years old, is here for cutting off federal funds for poor women. seeking abortions. an operation. Because of his advanced years, he said, he In an attempt to cover up its antiwoman program, the wanted to have the operation near his son, who lives in New conference held workshops on such subjects as. world York. The Soviet government granted Grigorenko a six­ poverty, military aggression, and genocide. month visa. -Arnold Weissberg

THE MILITANT I VOLUME 41/NUMBER 47 DECEMBER 16, 1977 CLOSING NEWS DATE-DEC. 7 A holiday gift idea for you. •• Editor MARY-ALICE WATERS Remember your friends this year with a subscription to the 'Militant.' Send Managmg Edrtor STEVE CLARK Busmess Manager HARVEY McARTHUR the coupon below and we will rush them a card right away informing them Southwest Bure~u HARRY RING of your gift Published weekly by the Mrlrtant. 14 Charles Lane. ------.- New York. N.Y. 10014. Telephone Edrtorral Offrce

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2 West Virginia UMWA-produced coal ... United Mine Workers on strike Continued from front page During all the haggling in Washing­ fund would still have faced difficulties prices will increase because of miners' hated for their profit-gouging and ton over the energy plan, not one because of increasing health care costs wages. inhumanity. Democratic or Republican voice has and miscalculations in the fund's But most of all, they try to divide The coal miners are targets in the warned of the dangers that the drive budget. miners themselves with a drive to same big-business offensive that has for higher coal production will present The other fundamental issue is the convince the UMW A ranks they have hit millions of other workers with for miners. Not one has declared right to strike. A cumbersome griev­ a weak union incapable of fighting the layoffs, strikebreaking, speedup, and support for the just demands of the ance procedure that the coal operators industry. soaring prices. The owners of industry miners or for their right to strike. have used to trample on the union Stockpiles are high, they say. Per­ in this country are determined to contract has moved the right-to-strike centage of UMW A-produced coal is far increase their profits at the expense of Government ready issue to the fore during the life of the from what it used to be, they say. With the wages, jobs, and rights of Ameri­ The two capitalist parties stand 100 1974 contract. no strike benefits, miners will be can workers. percent on the side of the coal profit­ With nothing to lose and everything unable to weather a long strike, they So far, this union-busting assault eers. Carter has declined to issue a to gain, the coal companies have say . has singled out relatively weaker or Taft-Hartley injunction against the shunted thousands of grievances­ . A strike by miners cannot hurt the isolated unions, such as public em­ strike only because he judges it "not from the smallest complaint to the coal industry, they say. ployees and the craft-divided printing necessary" . . . yet. But the govern­ gravest safety violation-into a time­ It is the coal operators who need to trades, building trades and rail unions. ment is standing in the wings, ready to consuming, dead-end arbitration proce­ be taught a lesson. And it will require In lashing out at the UMW A, the aid the mine owners more openly at dure. These grievances are stalled for the teaching skills of the miners, as corporations have escalated their the first call for help. months, while the companies violate well as other unionists, students, and offensive-taking head-on a powerful, The second reason the UMW A has the contract with impunity. the Black, Chicano, and women's long-established industrial union. been targeted is the big-business This is why tens of thousands of movements. By "teaching a lesson" to the mili- hatred for union democracy. The UMW A members believe that a new Big business must be shown that not industry claims that the democratic contract must specifically grant min­ only are miners united, but all working gains of the Miners for Democracy ers the right to strike to enforce their people are of one mind when it comes On December 6, 130,000 miners movement weakened· the union and contract. to defense of the United Mine Workers went on strike when their contract brought it to the brink of "chaos." It The coal operators demand a no­ of America. with the Bituminous Coal Operators was the moves toward democratic strike clause, bolstered with provisions Association expired. About 50,000 union elections and rank-and-file penalizing miners who engage in wild­ other members of the United Mine contract ratification that led to the cats. Rail and steel unions Workers with separate contracts "unstable" and "unruly" work force, At the heart of this resistance by Unionists in the rail and steel also walked off the job. the coal operators declare. coal companies and all industries to industries have a special responsibility the right to strike is what they cherish to answer the attempts to pit them Negotiations between the union But in fact, the gains of the refprm movement strengthened the union. as their divine right-to run the plants against coal miners. No, we do not and the BCOA are reportedly still Participation by the ranks of the union and mines for the highest profit, blame the coal miners for layoffs of our stalled. The key issues the BCOA in making decisions reinforced the regardless of the health and safety of members, these unionists can say, we has refused to discuss are a local union's power and the membership's workers. blame the coal operators and the steel right-to-strike clause and confidence in that power. Despite Coal miners are well schooled in corporations and the rail industry, and restoration of the miners' health weaknesses of the reform leadership corporate greed. In Stearns, Kentucky, we stand 100 percent behind the benefits. The industry is insisting on and its program, basic gains still 160 miners have been fighting the UMWA. a contract provision to force wildcat stand-especially contract ratification profit-hungry Blue Diamond Coal Resolutions of support passed by strikers to pay penalties. and the belief by miners that they can Company for sixteen months. They unions across the country can show FURTHER COVERAGE: Stearns and should run their own union. And learned from the tragedy at Scotia.:_ the striking miners they do not stand strike, page 4; Harlan County, page those are gains the owners of industry another Blue Diamond-owned mine­ alone. Contributions can aid the finan­ 5; Romanian coal miners, page 23. hope to wipe out, lest they set an where twenty-six men died because the cially pressed strikers. example for the ranks of other unions. company couldn't be bothered with Meetings similar to the one for safety measures. Stearns miners don't Stearns strikers in Morgantown, West tant ranks of the UMW A, the corporate Issues in strike want another Scotia. They want a Virginia, (see page 4) can be organized architects of this attack hope to weak­ Two issues have emerged as central UMWA contract-and they'll have to on campuses, in community centers, en the labor movement and intimidate in the contract negotiations. fight to enforce it after they get it. and in union halls so that the truth all workers from standing up for their Tlie first was manufactured by the can be told about the miners' strike. rights. coal operators as a warning to miners. Divide and rule Getting out the miners' side of the It is in the interest of the entire Up until July of this year each miner The coal industry is counting on a story will be critical to the success of working class to lend active support to and his or her family had a medical divide-and-rule strategy for this battle the UMWA battle. this critical struggle by coal miners. card entitling them to full health care. with the UMW A ranks. The Militant pledges to do its part, The UMW A has been singled out for Last summer the Bituminous Coal The coal operators try to pit retired with consistent, truthful, hard-hitting attack for several reasons. First is the Operators Association (BCOA) slashed UMW A member against working min­ coverage of this cruci;il battle. We urge importance of coal in Carter's energy those benefits, charging wildcat strikes er, threatening a pension reduction our supporters to help us with distribu­ program. Having wrapped his energy had "robbed" the health fund, which is because of the strike. tion of the paper in the coalfields and plan in the stars and stripes, Carter, financed by royalties on tonnage and They try to set rail workers and at factories, campuses, communities, along with other Democratic and hours worked. steelworkers against miners, charging and political gatherings across. the Republican politicians, will accuse Even the Wall Street Journal can no that layoffs in those industries will be country. Our aim is to reach as many miners of jeopardizing "national secur­ longer pass that off as truth. The caused by the strike. strikers and potential strike supporters ity" with their demands for job rights Journal admitted December 1 that They try to turn consumer against as possible. and safe working conditions. without any wildcats whatsoever, the UMWA member, claiming energy Support the striking coal miners!

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 3 *Our strike is over safety.:, Stearns miners win support in Morgantown By Dick Roberts MORGANTOWN, W.Va.-On the eve of the national coal miners' strike, an inspiring rally was held on the West Virginia University campus De­ cember 1 to organize support for striking miners in Stearns, Kentucky. More than 150 people crammed into the student union room to attend the rally. Sponsored by the WVU Stearns Mine Workers Support Committee, the rally was addressed by Stearns miners and members of the Justus Mine Women's Club. A third of the people in the audience were also miners. The question-and­ answer period was devoted largely to discussion among the miners who kicked back and forth ideas on the problems they face and particularly the problems of the miners in Stearns. Harry Patrick, secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America, had planned to come to the rally. But Militant/Howard Petrick at. the last minute, Patrick had to From left to right: Cleadus Coffey, Juanita Coffey, Rosemary Taylor, William Taylor. Dozens of miners turned out for support attend an emergency meeting of the meeting to discuss issues of safety. UMW International Executive Board to discuss national strike strategy. fall. It was reported a month before he concerning their demands for safety. leaflet posted at a bar in Point Marion, "With deep regret I must advise you was killed, and the company didn't do "That's what we do, and they're over Pennsylvania,· a ways north of Mor­ that I am unable to attend," Patrick anything about it until after he was in a half hour." gantown. Point Marion is near mines. said in a telegram to the rally. killed." Federal men are the inspectors from "More concretely," Williams said, "I do hope that I will have the The company-Blue Diamond the Mining Enforcement and Safety "was the widespread endorsement we opportunity to attend another fund­ Coal-owns the Justus mine in Administration (MESA), the U.S. gov­ got for initiating a campus strike­ raising activity in the very near future Stearns, site of the sixteen-month-old ernment agency that is supposed to support committee." at West Virginia University in support strike. Blue diamond also owns the oversee mine safety. The first step had been to talk to of the UMW A Stearns miners. notorious Scotia mine in eastern Ken­ William Taylor answered: "They're campus organizations about the "I would like to express my thanks to tucky, where twenty-six men were bought out. That's the way it is." Stearns strike and the importance of the West Virginia University Stearns killed in a· gas explosion in March "What happens," Taylor then added, student support. "Students can help to Mine Workers Support Committee for 1976. "is that the operator finds out what build pressure on the Kentucky govern­ what you are doing in supporting the "The Stearns mine has about as section the inspector is going to visit, ment which sent in the police to break finest miners and their families in the much gas as the Scotia mine," Taylor and they clean out that section, fix it the strike. They can help raise funds UMWA." said. "We were afraid that a similar up, before the inspector gets there." for the striking miners which are Safety blowup would happen at Stearns." "Thank you brother," the questioner desperately needed." said, acknowledging the problem. In all, five groups agreed to sponsor Stearns miner William Taylor told Police attack When there are dangerous mine . a planning meeting that would initiate the rally: "What we are striking for is The Stearns miners showed two safety infractions, and the mine opera­ the strike support committee and begin safety." videotapes which reveal many details tors and government conspire to con­ planning for the first Stearns rally: the "We came to Morgantown to gain about their struggle and have a com­ ceal these, the miners have no other Young Socialist Alliance; the WVU more support for our strike," Taylor pelling impact on any audience which recourse but to strike. This is why the National Organization for Women; the said. The other three people who had sees them. One of the videotapes shows right to strike is so vital to the miners. campus unit of the -Socialist Party, driven the eight-hour, 400-mile drive up a demonstration by the Justus Mine Another miner stood up, angry, just U.S.A.; the Student Administration; from Stearns to Morgantown, were Women's Club at the Blue Diamond to show scars on his arms from the and the Student Public Interest Re­ Rosemarie Taylor and Cleadus and headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee, hazardous conditions in the mines. search Group. Juanita Coffey. Cleadus Coffey has last April. There was discussion about Judge "Some twenty-five to thirty students been a water pump operator in the The other videotape shows the brutal J.B. Johnson, the federal circuit court attended the planning meeting of the Stearns mine for six years; William state trooper attack on the Stearns judge, who sent Stearns miners to jail committee," said Williams, a member Taylor, a shuttle car driver for six-and­ miners and their supporters October following the October 17 attack: of the YSA. "That meeting set the date a-half-years. 17. A total of 117 people were arrested "When we demand that Johnson for last night's rally and set up an "They don't have any air in the after the cops savagely beat many release our men and get the state open steering committee-open to working places, and you usually have demonstrators. The videotape shows troops out, he says he can't do any­ anyone who wants to help the Stearns to crawl over rock piles to get to your this attack and also the protests that thing about it. He's following Governor strikers-to oversee the work." working place," Taylor said in describ­ followed, as the miners' wives attempt­ Carroll's orders. Carroll blames it on Williams told me that at the De­ ing the hazardous working conditions ed to find out what hospitals their , Johnson." cember 1 rally itself, fifty people in the mine. husbands had been taken to and even "The judge is absolutely bought out. including students and miners, signed "If you report to your foreman any whether they were alive or dead. A company judge." up as interested in participating in the defects irl the equipment, they don't do "Ten strikers are still in jail serving "They both probably own stock in Stearns strike support committee. "We anything about it," Taylor said. "A six-month sentences," Taylor said. Blue Diamond." go from here toward building a really year before we went out on strike Estill "This includes Mahan Vanover, the big rally. The national strike will Baird was killed in the mine by a roof picket captain." probably be on, and there will be all When pressed to explain why women Building support the more interest in the Stearns strike got involved in the October 17 battle, I talked to Brian Williams of the and in the problems of coal miners Juanita Coffey declared, "You can WVU Stearns Mine Workers Support generally." imagine how us women felt knowing Committee about how the university the police were going to move in and students had built their committee and beat our husbands up." the rally itself. The rally unanimously voted to send "First of all," he said, "you have to NYC benefit a telegram to Kentucky Governor realize the tremendous response there NEW YORK-Several hundred Julian Carroll demanding that he was when we started to build the people attended "Voices from the withdraw the state troopers from committee and this meeting. Students Mountains-an evening in support Stearns, where they are helping scabs wanted to help. They sat at literature of the striking Stearns coal min­ go into the Justus mine. It also tables daily, distributing information ers" here December 2. demanded the release of jailed strikers. on the Stearns strike and getting, The benefit featured the film A second telegram, addressed to the people to sign petitions to Governor Harlan County, USA and was strikers in Stearns, reported the rally's Carroll on behalf of the miners. They emceed by its producer and director success. About $100 was raised to help went to the mines. They also distribut­ Barbara Kopple. defray costs of the meeting and the ed leaflets in mining communities." Mike Clark from the Highlander Stearns people's travel. This I could vouch for. You could Research and Education Center in A commitment by the school's forum hardly pass a telephone pole in Mor­ New Market, Tennessee, showed a committee to gj.ve the strikers $200 was gantown that didn't have a strike videotape of the October 17 state later withdrawn. The Stearns support rally leaflet on it. police attack on strikers and their committee has pledged to fight to Bronson Rozier, one of four members supporters. retrieve the speakers' fee. of the University of Kentucky Stearns Scheduled speakers were Lee Support Committee, told me that when Potter, United Mine Workers orga­ they were passing out leaflets in nizer in Stearns; William Worthing­ 'Bought out' Morgantown they had met one miner ton, president, Black Lung Associa­ who already knew all about the rally "I don't know why you just can't call tion; and Antoich College Prof. up the federal man, and get him to and took a stack of leaflets to distrib­ Paul Nyden. A number of Appa­ ute at his mine. come over to check out the problem," lachian musicians performed. Miner shows scars working in one miner asked the Stearns strikers, I myself noticed a Stearns rally unsafe mine. 4 Harlan County, USA: miners win again By Nancy Cole ducing what it claimed to be the one in the spotlight. "It means a lot also pointed to the upcoming UMWA The sequel to Harlan County, signatures of 30 percent of the min­ to us. Brookside was a symbol," said strike as a good reason to join the USA was played out in Brookside, ers there. Jim Baily, vice-president of the SLU. Kentucky, recently. It wasn't the In the election held last month, the UMWA local in Lynch, Kentucky. The UMW A argued that the SLU violent confrontation portrayed in SLU received a total of five votes to In a _nine-to-zero vote, the UMWA does not stand up to the company on the Academy Award-winning film. the UMWA's 135. also won out over the SLU in a safety grievances and ·that wages But it was a heady victory for the "We just gave the SLU the beating representation election at the Hyde and benefits are better with the Brookside coal. miners. of its life," declared Micky Messer, Trucking Company, which hauls UMWA. president of the Brookside UMW coal for the Eastover Mining Com­ Several years ago the UMW Jour­ For thirteen months in 1973 and local, "and I hope they won't bother pany, owner of the Brookside mine. nal revealed that SLU top Ted Wil­ 1974, miners in Brookside struck for us any more." The week before, the UMW A won son is a coal operator himself, own~ recogil.ition of the United Mine The SLU has been around for an NLRB election at Eastover's ing interests in two strip mines in Workers. It was a heated battle, more than twenty years. It's now up nearby Jawbone mine. There the Kentucky. The UMWA also has evi­ ending only after a young striker to a national membership· of 3,000. UMWA received 148 to the SLU's 23. dence of at least thirteen cases w:as shot down by a company fore­ The UMW A represents more than where the coal companies were man. 170,000 working miners. To try to sell itself to the Brookside found illegally supporting the SLU. Before the strike, the miners were Earlier this fall, the SLU an­ miners, the SLU relied heavily on its It's no coincidence the SLU "represented" by a company­ nounced · its plans to challenge the record of compatibility with the coal stepped up its antiunion efforts at oriented outfit, the Southern Labor UMW A at six mines in Virginia and companies. Miners with the SLU the same time the mineowners were Union. Despite its whopping defeat Kentucky. One of these is the mine don't miss days of work, it argued, readying their attack on the UMW A. at Brookside, the SLU recently came in Stearns, Kentucky, where workers because there are no wildcats or any But in this case, the vultures were back for more. It petitioned the have been on strike for a UMW A other kind of trouble with the com­ consumed by their intended victims. National Labor Relations Board for contract since July 1976. pany. UMWA members know what it a representation election, after pro- The election at Brookside was the The company union's publicity means to have a union. Cleveland teachers say-'No pay, no work' By Alyson Kennedy ·· ·>., , ··-·~·-·WJ. CLEVELAND-Vowing "no pay, no \ , ' -~. work," teachers here have refused to -- .•..•.•. ·.·' ; report to work, all but closing down the public school system. The teachers have not been paid since November 11. On December 1, the first full day of the action, 72 of Cleveland's 176 schools were closed. Virtually no teaching took place in those schools that formally remained open. Over the objections of union offi­ cials, the delegate assembly of the Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) had unanimously passed a no-pay, no-work resolution. It was upheld in a member­ ship referundum November 29 by a three-to-two majority. A rally of 2,000 CTU members December 5 reaffirmed their determination not to work with­ out pay. Teachers insist the action is not a strike. The board of education has broken the union's contract by holding up paychecks. Te~;~.chers are therefore urged to stay home and collect unem­ ployment benefits. open. School board officials responded white.... " pay crisis, it voted December 2 to grant Students are supporting the by announcing that school employees The other major source of the finan­ additional tax abatements to big teachers' action with protests of their would go without payin order to hold cial crisis is the erosion of Cleveland's business-$4.5 million in tax gifts over own. Five hundred students in two aside funds for repaying the bank tax base through tax giveaways to the ' the next twenty years to Gateway schools walked out. One student in a loans. superrich. Hyatt Hotel and an office buiding­ school without heat wore a sign: "No The latest shot in this legal ping­ National City Bank, one of the two hanger complex at Burke-Lakefront pay, no heat, no peoples-no school!" pong was a ruling December 2 by the Cleveland banks demanding imme­ Airport. At a demonstration of students U.S. Court of Appeals upholding Bat­ diate repayment of the $15.4 million Pat Wright, Socialist Workers Party outside the board of education De­ tisti's jurisdiction in the case but school loan, was granted a twenty-five­ candidate for governor of Ohio in the cember 2, Bryan Jones, a student from directing him to hold new hearings year tax, abatement to expand and 1978 elections, released a statement of East High School, explained: "Our that would include the banks. If the renovate properties it owns in down­ support for the teachers. parents pay taxes, and we have a right banks are dissatisfied with the results town Cleveland. "This crisis," said Wright, "makes to- know where the money has gone. of these hearings they can appeal This tax gift to National City clear the real priorities and loyalties of Why should we suffer from the school again. amounted to. $14 million. In addition, these Democratic and Republican poli­ board's mistakes? We are in full In the meantime, the order setting the bank is entirely exempt from ticians. They believe it is more impor­ support of the teachers' no-pay, no­ aside school operating funds to repay paying city income tax. tant to pay off banks and provide tax work resolution." the banks continues in effect until The Cleveland City Council further gifts for big business than to educate None of Cleveland's 10,000 school Battisti conducts new hearings and infuriated teachers and parents when, the students of Cleveland and meet the employees, .who have already gone four makes further rulings. in the midst of the school employee paychecks of working people." weeks without pay, have any assu­ One Cleveland bank celebrated the rance of being paid before next year .victory with an ad in the Cleveland ... if then. Plain Dealer suggesting that public This latest financial crisis was school employees "come in and see us provoked by a November 16 ruling of about a ninety-day personal ... and in Toledo the Ohio · Supreme Court that two loan . . . to assure a happy holiday By Tony Dutrow gency tax levy November 8 to fi­ Cleveland banks would suffer "irrepar­ season for you and your family." TOLEDO-On December 5, nance the schools through the end of able harm" if a $15.4 million school Behind the legal mumbo. jumbo, the 1, 7 0 0 teachers met here and voted this year. The school board tried to loan was not immediately repaid. With real reasons for the school financial to stay out of school until they are borrow money on the basis of this the court ruling that the banks have crisis are millions squandered by the guaranteed pay for ~heir work. levy. But a Cleveland bond counsel· "absolute priority" access to the money school board to maintain segregated The meeting was called by the ing firm refused to issue an approv­ being used to operate schools, officials schools and the mammoth tax givea­ Toledo Federation of Teachers in ing opinion of the loan on the techni­ moved to close the schools down. ways by Democratic and Republican response to the latest school-funding cal grounds that the ballot language The court apparently did not consid­ politicians to Cleveland's major corpo­ crisis. The TFT represents 2,000 af of the levy was "incomplete." er the harm to Cleveland students rations and banks. the school system's 2,500 teachers. The school board is asking "irreparable." The commitment to In his original ruling ordering school Just three days earlier, four local teachers to work without pay hi the uphold bank profits was considered a to remain open Judge Battisti observed banks won a court order preventing hope that the state legislature Will higher obligation than the commit­ that state and local school boards had the Toledo Board of Education from pass a bill resolving the problem. ment to maintain public education. "expended millions upon millions of spending any money for wages or But TFT President Dal Lawrence, Two days later, hovever, Federal dollars to perpetuate this dual [that is, other school expenses. The board reflecting the feelings of the District Judge Frank Battisti, who is segregated] system-well over $100 must first repay $9 million in bank teachers, said that "unless we get presiding over a federal desegregation million for the last year. These dollars loans due this month. assurances that we'll be paid, we order directed at the Cleveland school were spent in a costly effort to keep Toledo voters had passed an emer- won't go back." system, ruled the schools must stay Black schools Black and white schools

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 5 Garza to head up ~Perspectiva Mundial' sales By Nelson Blackstock step forward in the growth of Perspec­ the desire for a Spanish-language ence on "Puerto Rican Liberation and Catarina ·Garza is the new circula­ tiva. As circulation director, he will be publication with a socialist outlook." Socialism" in New York City is being tion director of Perspectiva Mundial, in a position to work with supporters The next step after the subscription cosponsored by Perspectiva (see page the biweekly socialist newsmagazine. around the country in expanding the drive is to move forward to boost the 31). A featured speaker will be Garza. Garza, who recently wrapped up a readership. circulation in other ways. Two avenues Garza brings to his new assignment campaign as the Socialist Workers Not yet a year old, Perspectiva Garza will be exploring are newsstand a background of activism in the Puerto Party candidate for mayor of New Mundial began publication in January and single-copy street sales. Rican movement. As a bilingual York City, told the Militant that he 1977. "We recently heard a very encourag­ teacher and trade unionist, he knows views his new duties as an exciting Perspectiva is written, edited, and ing report from Houston," Garza said, firsthand the problems facing Puerto challenge. published in New York City. It has "where socialists sold more than thirty Ricans. "In a sense I see my work with correspondents in several countries in Perspectivas in a matter of a few Garza has been involved in socialist Perspectiva as a continuation of my Latin America. minutes to an audience letting out of politics for many years. A native of race for mayor," Garza said. "I'll be The magazine is aimed at a very a Spanish-language theater. That's New York City, he joined the SWP doing one of the most important things special audience-the growing only a little indication of our poten­ when he was seventeen years old. I did in that campaign, that is, to bring Spanish-speaking population in the tial." A veteran trade unionist, Garza has the socialist viewpoint to the Spanish­ United States. They come from Puerto Garza pointed to another example of also been active in the National speaking population in this country." Rico and Mexico, as well as other the role Perspectiva can play in the Maritime Union and the United Auto Perspectiva Mundial has just con­ countries of Central and South Ameri­ community. A December 9-10 confer- Workers. cluded a successful nationwide sub­ ca. scription drive. It was conducted in "It's interesting to note the recent connection with the Militant fall circu­ studies reported in the press· that say lation campaign. Perspectiva wound that these new immigrants are de­ up with 1,112 new subscribers. That manding the right to keep their lan­ figure greatly overshot the goal of 500. guage," Garza said. "That fact alone Garza's assignment marks a new underscores the need for lJ Spanish­ language socialist press." Perspectiva specializes in coverage of interest to Spanish-speaking people. Two such issues this fall have been deportations and the Panama Canal treaty. Both issues are widely covered A biweekly magazine that brings a revolutionary socialist perspective on the in local Chicano and Puerto Rican news to Spanish-language readers. newspapers. Perspectiva's coverage differs in that it features more in-depth 0 $10 for a one-year subscription reporting and a socialist analysis of 0 $5 for a six-month subscription the fundamental questions at stake. In the course of the subscription Name ______drive-the first-ever for Perspectiva­ supporters found a ready audience for Address ______the magazine. CitY-----.,.------State ______"I think it's accurate to say that on the whole we found that Perspectiva Zip ______Country ______subscriptions sold quicker than Mil­ itant subscriptions," Garza said. "That Send to Perspectiva Mundial, P.O. Box 314 Village Station, New York, N.Y. Militant/Mary Jo Hendrickson shows the level of consciousness in the 10014. CATARINO GARZA Spanish-speaking communities, and Protests demand: free Costa Rican activists From Intercontinental Press Limoncito. (The CGT, Central General SAN JOSE, Costa Rica-All charges de Trabajadores, is controlled by the against Costa Rican Black leader Partido Vanguardia Popular, the Cos­ Marvin Wright Lindo were dropped by ta Rican Communist Party.) a court in Limon on December 5. The government's attitude was Wright had been charged, along with spelled out clearly in statements by six activists from the Limoncito com­ presidential aide Fernando Volio Ji­ munity and two leaders of the Organi­ menez on November 23. He said in a zacion Socialista de los Trabajadores radio interview that the Trotskyist (OST), with "instigating a riot" in leaders of the demonstration in Limon­ Limoncito on November 23. The OST cito were simply trying to cause (Socialist Workers Organization) is a trouble, and that the government sympathizing organization of the would act with maximum force to Fourth International. Wright was not prevent this. "Costa Rica has too present at the Limoncito events, how­ many tensions as a developing country ever, and was able to produce a for us to permit extremists to create number of witnesses to verify that fact. obstacles," Volio said. While Wright has been released, OST The OST answered V olio in a leaflet presidential candidate Carlos Corona­ issued November 25: do Vargas has been arrested for the CARLOS CORONADO: OST The government has launched a cam­ second time in eleven days. He was jail. presidential candidate rearrested. paign to portray the struggle of the resi­ picked up on undisclosed new charges dents of the Limoncito barrio as "violent" while collecting funds for himself and and "extremist," in order to justify its the other Limoncito defendants in a known leaders of the labor movement When Coronado and Calderon were repressive actions. public park in Limon on December 4. in Costa Rica, and the main leader of released on bail December 1, a crowd of The government wants to obscure the Coronado and Alejandra Calderon the country's oppressed Black popula­ about 200 was on hand to greet them. truth about the conflict in Limoncito. Fournier, OST chairperson and candi­ tion. Everyone then marched through down­ During twelve years of inhuman exist­ date for the national assembly, had The residents of the Limoncito com­ town Limon, and the two OST leaders ence in this barrio, without light, without been released on bail December 1 after munity, mostly Black, have been spoke to a crowd of about 400 at a busy water, without sanitation, the residents eight days in jail with the six Limonci­ struggling for twelve years for sach street corner. Later that evening a have tried to solve their problems, exhaust­ ing all the administrative channels. to activists. All eight had participated basic necessities as clean drinking public meeting of 250 at the Limoncito In face of the criminal inaction on the in a demonstration of 500 Limoncito water, electric power, and sewage lines. Community Center heard Calderon part of the government, the residents found residents on November 23 that was On November 23, many of them, and a number of community leaders. I themselves obliged to carry out action to brutally attacked by the police. They mostly women and children, gathered Similar demonstrations demanding call their problems to the attention of the all remain charged with "instigating a in a spontaneous· demonstration to freedom for the imprisoned activists entire country. riot." press these demands. have taken place on an almost daily Marvin Wright Lindo was sought by The police attacked the crowd with· basis in Limon. On November 25, more The OST organized a picket line to police for eight days after the No­ clubs late in the day, kicking and than 1,000 persons held a march that greet visiting U.S. Sen. George McGov­ vember 23 protest. He had gone into beating many persons, including preg­ ended in front of the jail. ern when he spoke at the National hiding after learning that the authori­ nant women. They arrested six leaders Theatre in San Jose on December 2~ The picket signs said: "To fight in the ties had ordered him shot on sight. of the Limoncito community, along Committees to defend the prisoners Wright turned himself in on De­ with Coronado and Calderon, who have been organized both in Limoncito streets for water and electricity is not a crime!" and "McGovern: What do you cember 1, accompanied by Trejos and were there to express the OST's sup­ and San Jose. They have been publiciz­ think about the case of Marvin three witnesses ready to testify that port for the Limoncito struggle. ing the Limoncito struggle and raising Wright?" Wright had been in San Jose on No­ The formal charges against these funds to cover bail for all the prisoners. vember 23. eight are the following: "riot, aggravat­ Messages of solidarity have come McGovern took questions from the Wright is the central leader of the ed assault, instigation of a riot, and from many mass organizations, trade audience after his speech, and Marta Partido Autentico Limonense (PAL­ intimidating others to participate in a unions, and student groups. All the Trejos, secretary of the OST, was able Limon Authentic Party), which is riot." If convicted, they could be unions in Limon-except . for those to speak for twelve minutes on the based among the Black workers of sentenced to five to eight years in affiliated with the CGT-have ex- Limoncito struggle and the cases of Limon province. He is one of the best- prison. . pressed support for the struggle in Continued on page 30

6 Hits crackdown on 'aliens' Gutierrez debates Castillo on By Jose G. Perez away. "Right now, people are staking out bargain­ Texas Raza Unida Party leader Jose Angel ing positions," he said. Gutierrez confronted Immigration Commis~ioner The TV show began with four brief statements, Leonel Castillo recently in a televised debate on all previously recorded, three of them at the President Carter's proposed crackdown on immi­ National Chicano/Latino Conference on immigra­ grants without visas, the people the government tion held in San Antonio October 28-30. and big-business-controlled news media brand The statements were by Gutierrez; Castillo; Pedro "illegal aliens." Camejo, national field organizer of the Socialist The debate was taped November 11 as part ofthe Workers Party in 'the southwest region; and Ruben Texas Politics series put together by Channel 13, Bonilla, Texas state director of the League of the Dallas Public Broadcasting Service affiliate. United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Carter's package calls for doubling the border In addition, two other persons took part in the patrol and refusing employment to undocumented studio debate: U.S. Rep. Sam Hall (D-Tex.) and Dan immigrants. It would create a special "temporary Galvan, director of the Dallas-area district of resident" category under which immigrants who LULAC. could prove they arrived before January 1, 1977, In his opening presentation, Gutierrez said the would be aliowed to stay and work for five years but Carter proposals are "built on faulty logic." Refer­ would be denied social services and civil rights. ring to the massive deportations carried out during "It's interesting to note that the Carter plan has the 1930s and under "Operation Wetback" in the been out since August 4," said Gutierrez in one early 1950s, he explained: sharp exchange. "And not one single Chicano "I think that it's a proposal that's risen out of a organization or individual, nor Latin organization phobia,. of a scare. . . . We've had two examples to nationwide, is in favor of this plan except one man, realize that this third effort by Carter comes from Mr. Castillo, and he gets paid for that." that same racism, saying that there's too many Castillo seemed momentarily at a los~ for words Mexicans and too many Latinos here in the United go "to promote rural development in Mexico." then conceded the point by trying to explain it States." "Even if Mr. Castillo got all the border patrolmen Castillo tried to defend the Carter plan by and all the computers he needed ... the ultimate covering up its most blatantly repressive aspects. solution is still going to be an economic one rooted "There's no great force at the border," Castillo in Mexico and those countries that are so depressed claimed. "There's no great equipment buildup. And and exploited by us to begin with," Gutierrez said. the plan doesn't contemplate a tremendous in­ Gutierrez's comments counterposed to the Carter­ crease. It does call for an increase but ... [it is] Castillo proposals the idea of immediate, uncondi­ long overdue, just given normal population tional amnesty for all immigrants. "We can't treat growth." this as a police problem," he repeatedly emphasized. (In fact, the Carter plan calls for doubling the border patrol, already increased more than 20 Castillo defended his boss's anti-immigrant percent over the past three years.) package as "practical" and "a compromise." Representative Hall, obviously unfamiliar with As for unconditional amnesty, he said, "That's the Carter plan, took Castillo's word for good coin simply not going to have any chance of passing in and shot back: "I think that's one of the fallacies of the United States Congress.... That simply won't the Carter plan, that they do not have an increase sell." in personnel to watch the borders and prevent the Castillo . is an expert on selling to Carter and illegals from coming into this country." Congress. While he was still the $14,800-a-year Having outsmarted himself, Castillo retreated: controller of Houston, he used to say no Chicano "With what we have projected we could cut the would ever turn in undocumented people to the number of persons that enter in half." · immigration cops. "It's a gut feeling you can't help Gutierrez ripped the calls for more border cops. having, that somehow they're m,y kin, somehow "You're just going to continue picking on Mexicans. they're my people." "I would suggest, as other people have done, that Now that he's the $50,000 commissioner of this is an economic problem." He said the money immigration he sings a different tune: "Deport JOSE ANGEL GUTIERREZ that would be used to hire immigration cops should them," and "I enforce the law." Gov't stalls on Marroquin release date By Arnold Weissberg promise to show up for hearings. has so far remained silent on the re­ Marroquin's case has won wide sup­ Will the U.S. government release Marroquin meets all the standards lease. port. His request for political asylum, jailed Mexican activist Hector Marro­ for release. Meanwhile, Marroquin's supporters circulated by the U.S. Committee for quin December 15 when his ninety-day But INS San Antonio District Direc­ have begun a campaign to win his Justice to Latin American Political sentence for "attempted illegal entry" tor Joe Staley has refused to tell Mar­ release when his sentence is up. Prisoners (USLA), has been endorsed into the country is up? roquin's attorney, Margaret Winter, At a December 5 press conference, by hundreds of people around the coun­ Marroquin fled Mexico in 1974 when whether he will free Marroquin De­ Father Jack McGinnis, a respected try. the Mexican government falsely ac- cember 15. figure in the Houston Chicano com­ For more information, or to make an "Staley claims Marroquin isn't in munity, called on the INS to reveal the urgently needed contribution to the USLA reports that Marroquin INS custody and that he hasn't made a conditions of Marroquin's release. defense campaign, contact USLA at would like to hear from his decision," Winter told the Militant. McGinnis has offered to act as Marro­ 853 Broadway, Suite 414, New York, "But that's simply not true. There's an quin's ·sponsor. New York 10014, or call (212) 254-6062. supporters. Send letters to him at INS hold order on him." Maverick County jail, Eagle Pass, A decision by Staley to keep Marro­ Texas 78852. quin in jail can be appealed within the INS and in the courts. But appeals can cused him of murder. Despite the fact Arizona Chicano activist take months. Winter wants to start that he has lived in the United States any necessary appeals immediately. continuously since then, the Mexican gets 5-8 year sentence INS Commissioner Leonel Castillo regime has tried to pin several other By Joe Callahan During the presentence hearing shootings on him. PHOENIX-On November 23, the local executive director of the Marroquin is seeking political asy­ Chicano leader Jesus "Jess" Lopez ACLU, Nancy Hicks, testified on lum in this country. He faces imprison­ was sentenced to five-to-eight years behalf of Lopez. Newspaper reporters ment and torture if he ·is forced to in state prison on frame-up charges. Pat Esser and Maria Arellano testi­ return to Mexico-if he is lucky enough Lopez, a founder and leader of the fied to the Chicano activist's wide­ to avoid being "kidnapped" by the United Barrio Union, has led many spread respect in the Glendale bar­ police or army. community struggles in Glendale, rio. In response, Deputy County The U.S. government has not yet Arizona. Most recently he was .in­ Attorney Warren Smoot, charged acted on Marroquin's asylum request. strumental in initiating a successful that Lopez was a "Jekyll and Hyde," In fact, the government says it will try class-action suit against the same who only seemed to be nonviolent. to deport him. ·He was arrested in state prison system to which he has Lopez is planning to appeal the September as he returned to the United now been sentenced. conviction. States after attempting to meet with a Supporters of Lopez picketed the Mexican attorney. Lopez was sentenced by Judge courthouse before the sentencing. U.S. law permits the Immigration Sandra O'Connor on charges of con­ An all-night vigil was held on the and Naturalization Service (INS) to spiracy, arson, and placing an explo­ eve of the sentencing in front of the keep. refugees in jail until their asylum sive in a public building. Following courthouse. Lopez had given the and deportation cases are decided. the sentencing, Lopez was imme­ judge more than 2,000 signatures However, it is routine INS practice to Militant/Margaret Wmter diately hauled off to the county jail. demanding his freedom. release refugees on bail or on their own HECTOR MARROQUIN

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 7 Overcoming Lessons froiD Houston Celebrating myths new unity By Diane Wang By Shelley Kramer Only a few years ago Black publica­ When the victory of the "Minority tions such as Ebony magazine were WOmen of Women" resolution set off a spirited calling "women's lib" (as they labeled demonstration at the Houston confer­ it) "a frivolous bid for attention by the ence, I grabbed a floor pass to join in most privileged and coddled women in the celebrations and hear what people the world who don't know when they had to say. are well off." oppressed First I visited the Georgia delegation And just nine months ago a Boston where a group of Black women were Black paper, the Bay State Banner, talking excitedly. In front of them sat was warning, "If black women decide three right-wing delegates who had to move away from the black civil voted against the resolution and were rights movement in favor of women's nationalities visibly shaken by their overwhelming liberation, they will alienate them­ defeat. selves from black men and will ulti­ "I'm very pleased with the resolu­ mately be left in the lurch by white tion, but I'm even more impressed with women." the reception it received from the majority of the women here," Rosa The National Women's Conference Stanbuck, coordinator of the state in Houston should put these myths International Women's Year commis­ and fears to rest. The active role sion, told me. played by Black, Hispanic, Asian­ This resolution demonstrated best Pacific, and American Indian women the conference theme, "women on the at the conference demonstrated that move," Stanbuck observed. the women's movement is not a "white, Stanbuck and her companions were middle-class" complaint. particularly excited about the pros­ Among the almost 1,500 delegates at pects for future work in the conferen­ the conference, 17 percent were Black, ce's Black caucus. "The emergence of 8 percent Hispanic, 3 percent Asian­ the Black caucus has been so impor­ Pacific, and 3 percent American Indi­ tant. We won't lose contact in the an. Conference organizers did not tally future. After this conference women statistics for the more than 10,000 will realize the need to continue and women who came to Houston as become more aggressive." observers. But these also included "I've never been active in the many women of oppressed nationali­ women's movement per se, although I ties. am a member of Delta Sigma Theta, a Why did these women come to Hous­ Black sorority," Stanbuck answered ton? when I asked if she belonged to any In part they. came because the women's organization. After a pause conference had a mandate to involve she added, "But after this conference I women of oppressed nationalities. Arizona delegation at National Women's Conference may become a member of NOW [Na­ But what really stirred women to go tional Organization for Women]." to Houston were the recent attacks on Next I spotted a circle of Native women's rights. The cutoff of Medicaid and bilingual services. State was the first speaker to explain American delegates embracing and payment for abortion, the attempt in The amended resolution explains the need for the lesbian rights resolu­ congratulating one another. the Bakke lawsuit to declare this double discrimination in more tion. "The unity here with minority affirmative-action quotas illegal, cut­ detail. It includes some specific de- The resolutions passed help answer women, with all women-well it was backs in child care and denial of • mands, such as American Indian the charge that feminists are simply just beautiful!" Sandra LeBeau of the pregnancy benefits-all these attacks tribal sovereignty, an end to deporta­ out to attack men. Like all the resolu­ Cheyenne River, South Dakota, reser­ hit women of the oppressed nationali­ tion of mextcana women with tions passed, the "Minority Women" vation exclaimed. ties first and hardest. American-born children, and full en­ plank is aimed at the real enemy of LeBeau was particularly inspired by At the conference these women were forcement of special-admissions pro­ women's rights-government policies. her experience in the Native American not just window dressing to make the grams in education. As the amended "Minority Women" caucus. "This conference gave me hope proceedings appear more representa­ Women of oppressed nationalities resolution was passed, women began that for all the years to come our tive. Rather, the women actively cam­ not only took the lead in presenting to sing "We Shall Overcome." That people will be one people." paigned for specific needs and played a that resolution, they also helped was not just a symbol of the unity LeBeau explained, "It's always been leading role. amend the welfare resolution, rejecting forged between the civil rights and said we can't work together-between Women organized into their own Cart~r's phony welfare "reform". More­ women's movements. It was a state­ tribes or nations. But we can do it. We caucuses as Black, Chicana, Puerto over, a Chicana from Washington ment of fact. did it. And it was beautiful." Rican, Asian-Pacific, and Native "Further actions as a caucus will be American women. necessary. This was only the begin­ Working together, these caucuses ·ning," caucus member Helen Magpali decided to amend the National Plan of answered when asked how the resolu­ Action being voted on by the confer­ tion can actually be implemented. ence. Leadets of a general "pro-plan Puerto Rican protest This emphasis on the need for caucus" at the conference had discour­ The Puerto Rican delegation to the The Puerto Rican delegation want­ continued action was repeated by aged any amendment or strengthening National Women's Conference held ed to amend the National Plan of members of the Asian-Pacific caucus I of the plan, in the name of unity a press conference in Houston pro­ Action that was before the women's met. Valerie Lee Hess and Elizabeth against right-wing opposition. testing the conference's failure to conference to include a demand that Lee were standing on the sidelines Even within the caucuses of op­ consider an appeal for Lolita Le­ President Carter "act favorably on watching the victory celebration. "I'm pressed minority women, leaders, who bron, the imprisoned Puerto Rican the request of the people of Puerto pleased with the minority resolution, were experienced Democratic· Party Nationalist. Rico by granting an unconditional but I'm looking at it as a beginning, spokeswomen, discouraged a full de­ Lebron and four other Puerto release to Lolita Lebron." not as an end in itself. It's the bate. In some caucuses delegates were Rican Nationalists were jailed in the A delegate explained at the press beginning of a national network for given voice, while observers were not. United States in the early 1950s for conference that there is unanimous each caucus and for a united caucus of Debates were cut short because, acts carried out in support of Puerto sentiment in Puerto Rico for release minority women," Hess remarked. women explained, the pro-plan caucus Rican independence. One prisoner, of the Nationalist prisoners. The Lee admitted some skepticism about heads had set a quick deadline for Andres Figueroa Cordero, was Puerto Rican Senate and House of the government-sponsored Houston submitting the amendment. released last October, dying of Representatives, the island's past conference. But she added, "The mi­ Some conference organizers no doubt cancer. four governors, labor organizations, nority resolution moved me despite my hoped the caucuses would contain and and the leading bodies of the Cath­ misgivings. Seeing women cooperate channel women's energies and com­ olic, Episcopalian, and Baptist in this way, especially minority wom­ plaints. The Chicana caucus, for exam­ churches in Puerto Rico have voiced en, moved me." ple, attended a reception the first night support for immediate release of the Me too. at the home of Leonel Castillo, com­ prisoners. missioner of immigration and naturali­ "We believe that charity begins at zation. Despite that, however, several home," explained the Puerto Rican Chicanas from the caucus took part in delegate. "Support for human rights Affirmative a picket line the next day against begins at home." Carter's stepped-up moves to deport The Puerto Rican delegation, she undocumented workers. explained, felt the demand for Le­ Action vs. And the women of oppressed nation­ bron's release would have won a alities did force pro-plan caucus lead­ good response at the conference. "We ers to accept a lengthy amendment of understand the importance of get­ Seniority the plan's section entitled. "Minority ting the National Plan of Action Women." approved," she said. "But we lament by Linda Jenness, Herbert Hill, The plan originally had only three and regret that we were not allowed Willie Mae Reid, Frank Lovell, and paragraphs explaining in a general Wang to present our resolution. Sue Em Davenport. 30 pp., 50 cents way that women of oppressed national­ Puerto Rican delegate appeals for "We believe twenty-three years in Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 ities face double discrimination and release of Lolita Lebron. prison is enough." -D. W. West Street, New York. N.Y. 10014_ require affirmative-action programs

8 The following are excerpts from of us. sp4~ech by Cathy Sedwick given They tell us we want too much. That at a forum held we should hate brothers and sisters November 19 in from Mexico who come to harvest farm Houston during produce. That we should each suspect the National the other of stealing jobs. That we Fighting for have no other choice but to cut back. Women's Confer­ ence there. Sed­ wick is National Self-reliance Chairperson of Today Rep. Barbara Jordan said we the Young So­ have to band together and insulate cialist Alliance. ourselves because the country is mov­ women's ing to the right. She wants us to This morning believe the government is our ally when I attended the opening session of against a growing right-wing majority. the National Women's Conference I But that is not true. The majority of realized this is a wonderful, historical people support our rights; recent polls experience we are taking part in. rights show that. I saw Bella Abzug receive the gavel It is the government and the Demo­ Susan B. Anthony used to convene the cratic Party Jordan represents that is Women's Suffrage Convention in ·implementing what is in fact a right­ Washington, D.C. in 1888. It was a wing program-restricting abortion, vivid symbol that our movement for stalling the ERA, cutting needed equality and full human and civil In the spirit of Seneca Falls funds. And it is the majority of rights has roots. people-working people, Blacks, Chica­ NBC, ABC, CBS, reporters from nos, Puerto Ricans, women-that we Germany and Japan, and many home­ should rely on and organize in defense town newspapers were all present, of our rights. broadcasting the meeting. Why? Be­ Jordan said we should buckle down cause our movement has gained legiti­ at this conference and then something macy. will happen. But we can't depend on someone else to make it happen. And we certainly can't depend on the White Our conference is not taking place House. with the majority of people ridiculing Carter won't give birth to our move­ us and laughing, thinking we're ment. Despite his loudly proclaimed strange, but at a time when the major­ moral objection to abortion, you can be ity of people realize that women are sure he'd abort the women's movement discriminated against and should be if he could. Women can only put our given equal rights. human rights proposals into action by The women who met for the first depending on our own power and or­ Women's Rights Convention at Seneca ganizing our own movement. Falls, New York, in 1848 had to have a man convene their conference. Woman Carrying the torch knew nothing of parliamentary proce­ This morning four young women dure, because the backward customs of runners completed a fifty-one-day relay the day kept women from participating bringing a torch from Seneca Falls to and therefore learning how to conduct Houston. To me that was a symbol of meetings. what an important role young women Today we can convene our own have in the women's movement. It is meetings. We can climb telephone young women especially who must poles, go into the mines, fly airplanes. carry the torch, and the movement, Above all, we have the power to organ­ forward. ize a movement that can win our full for abortion, denying 300,000 women a mourned this morning. We young women have grown up rights. year the right to decide when or if they The National Women's Conference is with the second wave of feminism. We We can take pride in these accom­ will bear a child. Thousands of Black, taking place at a time when ·the expect a great deal. It's clear that, like plishments. Because of this conference, Puerto Rican, Chicana, and young women's movement is facing serious all other women, we will have to fight many women who don't know about women can't afford an abortion and attacks: the failure to ratify the Equal for our rights. the history of women's struggle for need those Medicaid funds. Rights Amendment, the cutoff of abor­ Young women are poorly represented equality will learn of Seneca Falls, Rosalyn Carter was here this morn­ tion and child-care funds, the threat to at the conference. But in society we are Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, ing, representing the president. She affirmative action in the Bakke suit, not a small percentage. We have been and many others. brought his greetings and said some forced sterilization, denial of preg­ carrying on struggles on campuses, for These are the good feelings I felt as a words about human rights. But she nancy benefits. abortion rights, for the ERA, against young, Black feminist, watching this forgot to mention what Carter said last Women are not alone in having our forced sterilization. historical event. summer about the poor women denied rights attacked. Many people are expe­ We must continue these struggles, abortion rights. That's life, and life is riencing similar threats. Blacks face win victories, and show the way for­ Mixed emotions unfair. unemployment. Chicanos face deporta­ ward. But I also had mixed emotions. When Lady Bird Johnson came this tions. Young people face cuts in educa­ And I urge young women with When the gavel was handed to Bella morning there was loud applause for tion. Miners, textile workers, and other ·energy, foresight, dedication-women Abzug I wondered how our foremoth­ the "first lady" from Texas. But there unionists face union-busting attempts. fighting for· the women's movement­ ers would have felt to know that the is another first woman from Texas­ We are all paying for a crisis we have to become members of the Young So­ head of our conference is a woman who the Chicana who was the first to die no control over. A wealthy few sell cialist Alliance. Be part of a movement voted for a welfare budget that in­ from a butcher abortion as a result of things for profit. Now that their . to build a society where oppression cluded the Hyde amendment. That the abortion fund cutoff. That first greedy, chaotic priorities have created based on sex, race, and class is elimi­ amendment eliminated Medicaid funds woman was neither honored nor a crisis, they try to put the blame on all nated.

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 9 In Our Opinion Lett en

South Africa Wants to join SWP proabortion groups and the Militant Within the space of three days, events in S"outh Africa have I want to join the Socialist Workers that I feel is an issue. That is, the s};lown again the need to organize a massive display of opposi­ Party. I am familiar with the SWP and tragedy of the unwanted child whose tion to the policies of the apartheid regime and to U.S. govern­ its ideas, and I fully support its mother chose it rather than a back­ ment and corporate complicity. programs. alley abortionist. The media is full of accounts of children maimed or killed • On December 2, a Johannesburg judge exonerated the I am a construction laborer. I have through parental abuse or abandoned police torturers and murderers of Black Consciousness move­ been a member of the union for eleven years and have watched it steadily get to institutions to dissipate. I have no ment leader Steve Biko. The verdict followed an internationally weaker. I would like to gain some statistics on how many of these publicized inquest into his death. instruction on how to fight the take­ children were originally unwanted, but • Then, three days later, the Vorster regime took another step over of the union by its leaders and logic would have it that if a child is toward making South Africa's Black majority aliens in their how to put the rank and file back into unwanted from the start, the degree of own country by creating the so-called independent homeland of the leadership role. parental patience could easily be ·BophuthaTswana. C. F. limited. Tacoma, Washington Do members of Congress and the The U.S. State Department's protest of the Biko verdict pales "right to lifers" propose to take in all beside Washington's October veto of United Nations economic these children and give them the love sanctions against South Africa. It is a cover for the real plans and care they need? Hardly! of U.S. business and the government-to step up investment in Barbara Jacobs South Africa with the backing of Washington's diplomatic and New subscriber <;an eels Teaneck, New Jersey military might. I would like you to cancel my The Biko verdict and the establishment of BophuthaTswana subscription to the Militant immediately. When I subscribed I had have drawn renewed criticism from many quarters.· Liberal no idea of its Trotskyite propaganda, Wants to know about SWP columnists and even the editors of the New York Times have and now that I know, I wish to have no I have had the opportunity to read decried these mockeries of justice. affiliation with your paper. the Militant interview with Willie Mae At the same time, supporters of the South African freedom I'm not asking for a refund, I merely Reid (see November 25 issue). I feel she struggle-Black organizations, religious and pacifist groups, want my subscription ceased is a very dedicated woman, and I agree and radical newspapers such as the Guardian and Daily immediately. with her views. I would like to know World-have called for protest actions. J.D. more about the Socialist Workers Easton, Pennsylvania Party. I am a prisoner without funds, What is needed is to unite these forces in a campaign of mass and I would be grateful if I could protest to demand: obtain literature from you. Thank you Lift the bannings! Free South African political prisoners! for your time. End U.S. economic and military aid! A prisoner End U.S. corporate investments! Protest neutron bomb Kentucky Black majority rule, now! This "enhanced radiation" warhead, better known as the neutron bomb, has me more concerned than the atomic bomb or "H" bomb. This bomb is made Send me the Militant to order for local use to destroy enemies of capitalism. I am writing you this letter because I Farmers' strike For President Jimmy Carter, who really do like to read your paper. I American farmers have been placed in a desperate situation. don't have any money, so I would like Prices for wheat, corn, and soybeans have fallen to less than has talked so much about cuts in nuclear weapons systems, it looks like to know if you could send me the paper half their 1974 level. Prices for wheat and corn, in fact, are ~ow a double cross for the peace-loving until I get some money. The Militant below the cost of production. people. tells me about the world we live in, In October 3,000 angry farmers drove their tractors through Another thing it shows is that and I really like to read it. President Carter's home town of Plains, Georgia, in protest. capitalism is more interested in A prisoner Pennsylvania Similar demonstrations have taken place in other parts of the buildings than in people, especially if country. The protesting farmers have announced they will they are their buildings. Of course, strike Pecember 14, and refuse to plant corn or buy nonessential every Marxist has known this. Every rank-and-file worker in this The 'Militant's' special prisoner goods. country must protest this neutron fund makes it possible to send Few things highlight the irrationality of the profit system as bomb. Carter is the president, and he reduced-rate subscriptions to prisoners who can't pay for them. vividly as the plight of the working farmer today. can approve this ~omb. We must let Beginning in 1972, American agriculture went through the him know we are against it. The way it To help out, send your contribution to: Militant Prisoner greatest boom in its history. With famine stalking India, looks now, Congress is in favor of the bomb. Subscription Fund, 14 Charles Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and the countries of sub-Saharan Mrica, Lane, New York, New York, American farmers began increasing production as fast as they During the wars, there was a big 10014. protest against the use of poison gas. I could. Huge sums of money were borrowed from the banks by don't see any difference between farmers buying additional land and equipment. poison gas and the neutron bomb. Now, after two years of record harvests, there is what Grady W. Vandiver financial writers call "a staggering glut of low-priced grain." Morongo Valley California Most truthful publication The "glut," of course, has not brought retail prices in super­ Enclosed is a check for fifteen markets down. The huge food monopolies have seen to that. dollars for a one-year subscription Nor has it made any difference for the millions around the to the Militant. This is a new 'Migra' raid in Arizona sub. world who continue to go hungry. The Militant has added another But for the farmers who stand to lose their land to the banks In my October 28 Militant article literary dimension, and hopefully the it is a disaster. entitled, "La Migra deports strikers at most truthful publication to date. Carter's "solution" is a program to force farmers to plant 10 Goldwater ranch," I reported that P. J. Legal Aid workers were helping in the Columbus, Georgia percent less corn, barley, and sorghum over the coming year. strike. This is not correct. Legal Aid is This decreased production will create future shortages, thus not allowed to be involved in labor driving up prices and beginning the whole irrational cycle over disputes, and Legal Aid was in no way again. involved in the farm workers' strike at There should be no limitations on crops as long as people Arrowhead Ranch. 'Indian and proud of it' suffer from hunger anywhere in the world. At the same time, Joe Callahan At Thanksgiving, I, a Native the government has a responsibility to guarantee working Phoenix, Arizona American, raise my voice to explain to farmers a decent livelihood. The Militant fully supports the the so-called white majority why I, as actions of farmers demanding increased government subsidies. many of my Native brothers and Moreover, there should be a moratorium on the repayment of sisters, am not celebrating this holiday. Why should we? loans taken out by working farmers who are now in distress. Defense for abortion rights Since the "persecuted pilgrims" The ruling class has always replied to such demands by I am a firm supporter of any arrived and decided our shores were attempting to pit workers against farmers. The capitalists claim woman's right to an abortion, and I their lands, we, the true Americans, that high farm prices mean high food prices for consumers. am opposed to Congress's attempt to have been indoctrinated, have been But the fact is that only a tiny fraction of the money spent by deny that right-ultimately, I feel-to decimated-there are but less than 1 consumers in supermarkets ever finds its way back to the every woman. Not only is it an attack million of us left within the confines of working farmer. The lion's share goes to the same corporate on women's right to self-determination, the United States-have been lied to, but it smacks of a hypocritical have been fenced within arid · giants that exploit workers in every area of the American moralizing on the part of a none-too­ territories called reservations, have economy. moral collection of men, on women's been denied equal rights, have seen our It is in the interest of the labor movement as a whole to sexual freedom. women sterilized against their and our support the demands of working farmers and to forge an However, there has been a will, and have been pushed to the outer alliance with them against the capitalist rulers. disappointing omission by the edge of society.

10 Natio_nal Picket Line- Frank Lovell

Our lands were stolen, our wildlife was slaughtered, our waterways were How to sweeten up the boss diverted, our treaties-which we signed More than 7,000 sugar plantation workers in Hawaii demand a public investigation of the growers' bloated in good faith with the white man­ struck the Big Five growers there on November 2. The bank accounts. Nor did it demand a referendum for the were dishonored, and our race, as well strike may be a long one, partly because the growers nationalization of the "bankrupt" plantations. as the remains of our ancestors, were are getting financial relief from the federal govern­ placed under glass showcases within The union's "realistic attitude" dictated, in~tead, a ment. the white man's museums to be looked thirty-day extension of the old contract when it The irony of this is that the International Long­ at but not to be taken seriously. Where expired last February. This meant no increase in are we now? shoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, which repre­ wages for the sugar workers. We are few, but we are strong. We sents the strikers, was instrumental in winning a $65 "On March 1, with the price situation unchanged, are few, but we will prevail. million federal subsidy for the "distressed" U.S. sugar our members in Local 142 did the only reasonable We've had it. This land is ours. This industry. thing," says Herman. "They agreed to a holding land is mine. I am an Indian. I am an ILWU President Jim Herman, elected when Harry action-continuation of the existing contract until Indian-and proud of it. Bridges retired earlier this year, reported recently to November 1, 1977, with retention of atta<:hment 22" (a G.B. the union membership how the Hawaiian plantation pledge by the growers not to "liquidate" any planta­ Los Angeles, California workers fell victim to the successful legislative efforts tion). of the union to solve the financial problems of the During the summer the ILWU did what then seemed plantation owners. most reasonable, what any other union leadership Herman's report was published in the November 18 seeking class collaboration in the interest of better issue of the ILWU paper, The Dispatcher. He tells how union-management relations habitually does. They Vague, opinionated the union "demonstrated a realistic attitude toward organized a "massive lobbying effort" together with . Approximately one month ago, I the industry's problems." sugar industry representatives, other union officials, and capitalist politicians. Signed up for ten weeks of the Militant. Prior to 1974 the U.S. market was regulated by the According to Herman, "What we got out of Congress After reading several issues I find Sugar Act, which protected domestic producers and and the administration was a program of support myself questioning the validity of fixed a price floor, but no ceiling. This guaranteed payments to domestic producers to bring prices up to some of your conclusions. They appear profits to the U.S. sugar industry and freed it to gouge as vague, unsubstantiated, 13 1/ 2 ¢ per pound." consumers for as much as the market would bear. opinionated generalities. So, rather Herman says the growers, having picked up a cool In 1974 the price of sugar soared to sixty cents a than waste the paper by throwing it $65 million, "now -seem to have decided to take the pound, and Congress allowed the Sugar Act to lapse. away unread, I would like to terminate money .:md run. Sugar speculators then bought cheap sugar on the my subscription. "Although the ILWU played a major role in helping world market and dumped it on the American market, P. B. the Big Five get these taxpayer-financed subsidies," he stealing millions. It was a bonanza for the growers Olympia, Washington says, "the companies are using them as a strike fund and all their capitalist friends in this country. But to take on the union." _ under the system of commodity production it couldn't What does Herman think about this? "Well, we had last forever. In early 1977 sugar prices had fallen below ten cents our eyes open," he thinks. "But our work in Washing­ Salutes women films review a pound. The growers claimed they were losing money ton was a necessary first step, one way to help keep the industry afloat." Stacey Seigle has revieved One on every bag they sold. Sings, the Other Doesn't and Julia (see Those plantation workers who are on strike must "Two films about women," November When the slump hit, the ILWU made no demand for think differently. They surely believe that their union 25 Militant) with the respect and love an accounting of what had happened to the superprof­ should protect them . . . and stop- helping their she salutes as the art of One Sings its from artificial price inflation. The union did not enemies. director Agnes V arda. I duplicated her· review for my mother and assorted best friends, as I cannot think of anything better to describe the beauty that can be Capitalism in Crisis woman-as-we-find-her. Also due for warm thanks are David Frankel for his magnificent tribute to the Bolshevik revolution, and Miguel Andy Rose Pendas for the sensitively written article on the government's war against the Chicano movement. S. T. International gloom Washington, D.C. Economic slowdown. The West German economy stalled in the second Rising unemployment. quarter, showing real growth of only 0.5%." Growing dangers of protectionism, trade wars, and a These simultaneous slowdowns reinforce each other. new depression. The capitalists in each country find it much harder to 'PM' and 'Militant' get around That was the bleak outlook foreseen by last month's make up for weak markets at home through higher The article by Miguel Pendas on the meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation exports. World trade has been slowing down. Far from government's attacks on the Chicano and Development. The OECD is made up of govern- giving a hand to the weakest economies (especially in movement (see October 28 Militant and ment officials from twenty-four major capitalist coun- the semicolonial countries), the big capitalist powers October 24 Perspectiva Mundial) was tries. are moving to restrict imports of shoes, textiles, steel, quoted and used in Mexico. El Norte, a New York Times reporter Paul Lewis wrote from the electronics, and other manufactured goods from these Monterrey, Mexico, newspaper, Paris meeting, "The United States and its principal countries. probably the biggest in the North, industrial allies acknowledged ... that their plans for At the OECD meeting, U.S. officials put the blame featured a front-page article on heading off a further worldwide economic slowdown on West Germany and Japan for not adopting more Saturday, October 29, based on were now failing." expansionary policies. Washington has urged the Pendas's article. El Norte gave credit At the economic summit meeting in London last German and Japanese governments to increase public to the Militant for the information. May, the OECD countries supposedly agreed to aim spending and cut taxes in order to stimulate economic Articles based on Pendas's article for an overall average growth rate of 5 percent a year. growth. were also run in newspapers in the The strongest countries-the United States, West Both countries have, in fact, announced expansion- interior of Mexico-El-Sol de San Luis Germany, and Japan-were to take the biggest steps ary measures in the past few months, but on a very Potosi and D.F. (Mexico City) papers. to expand their economies. small scale. And at the OECD meeting, the German Arturo Ramirez Yanez But, according to the OECD secretariat, it now looks and Japanese delegates made it clear they would go no Houston, Texas like the average growth rate will fall to only about 3 further. More economic stimulus, they said, would run percent. That means unemployment-iliready at the risk of increasing inflation. record levels in several European countries-is certain The irony is that the Carter administration-despite to continue rising. all the ballyhoo about impending tax cuts-is follow- In the United States, the official unemployment rate ing essentially the same policy. The administration is has remained at about 7 percent for nearly a year- currently pushing through huge tax increases in while Black unemployment has gone up. Meanwhile, legislation on Social Security and energy. For most the growth rate of the Gross National Product has workers, the net effect will be higher taxes, not lower. fallen steadily. U.S. officials-just like their German and Japanese The letters column is an open But, as the Wall Street Journal noted in a recent counterparts-say they must give "top priority to forum for all viewpoints on sub­ editorial, "where the U.S. finds disappointment, balancing the budget, reducing government spending jects of general interest to our Europe finds despair. None of the European economies as a percentage of national income, and thereby trying readers. Please keep your letters enjoyed our rapid first-half spurt. Where American to curb inflation. brief. Where necessary they will steel companies face shrunken profits, British and Thus the governments of all the major capitalist be abridged. Please indicate if German steel companies face huge losses. . . . The countries seem unwilling or unable to adopt policies your name may be used or if you British economy seems likely to finish the year they themselves .say are urgently needed to ward off prefer that your initials be used without growth.... Italy's industrial production is the economic dangers they all see approaching. Why instead. now falling. Production is also falling in Sweden. . . . this is the case will be the subject of a future column.

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 11 The Great Society Harry Ring

Santa Barbara and Gomorrah­ Spiritual struggle-A publisher of of energy production. But, the report National Science Foundation re­ religious music has filed a copyright assures, it won't get as worse under searchers are trying to determine the BERRY'S WORLD infringment suit against U.S. Catholic Carter's energy plan ·as it would other­ environmental factors behind their bishops, charging nonpaid reproduc­ Wise. finding that up to 14 percent of the tion of their copyright tunes l;>y local gulls on California's Santa Barbara parishes. In a marvelous display of Shopping tip-The new Stutz d'Ita­ Island are lesbians, many of them theological brass, the Pope's represen­ lia convertible, featuring a hand-built maintaining stable relationships. tatives responded with a countersuit body and 24-karat gold-plate interior Probably, they don't read their bible or charging violation of antitrust laws. trim, is available for $129,000. Mink­ drink their OJ. covered flooring extra. A matter of priorities-The gov­ ernment is currently spending $6 million a year to advise the public on On the alienation front-"Take the danger of smoking and on related Thought for the week-"It is not the Job and Shove It," the new research. It is also spending $78 possible· to legislate social equity country-western record by Johnny million a yea,r on subsidies to tobacco without destroying the capitalistic Paycheck, sold 100,000 copies the first growers. system."-Robert Faberberg, a U.S. eighteen days out. He says it's current­ irrigation official testifying against ly the most requested number on local 'Smoking or nonsmoking?' Thanks, chief-A government re­ enforcement of a regulation limiting C&W radio, with callers requesting port says air pollution will get worse individual landholdings serviced by dedications to particular bosses. during the next twenty years because federal irrigation to 160 acres.

Capitalism Fouls Things Up Arnold Weissberg Breeder reactor veto Despite President Carter's veto, the Clinch River The breeder's unique ability to churn out more ment cooperated in covering up the Israeli theft of breeder reactor project is alive and well. And Carter plutonium than it uses is highly prized, because nuclear materials for bombs. knows it. · world uranium stocks probably won't last more This in part is what lies behind Carter's cam­ The breeder reactor has been one of the big issues than thirty years. After thirty years, countries that paign against the spread of breeder reactors, a of the Carter administration. Early in his term the want to operate nuclear power plants will have to campaign that would look hypocritical if he had president declared his opposition to full-scale rely on fuel from breeders. approved the Clinch River bill. development of the experimental breeder reactor at That's the argument made in favor of the breeder. Carter also wants to maintain the U.S. near­ Clinch River in Tennessee. On the other side, plutonium is the most danger­ monopoly on nuclear fuel, a highly profitable Initial cost of the project was set at $2.2 billion. ous substance known. A millionth of a gram, enterprise. Carter announced he wanted to cut this year's inhaled, will cause lung cancer. Thousands of The U.S. controls half the world's supply of allotment to $33 million, the cost of phasing out the pounds of plutonium already exist. It remains uranium. Another big chunk is in ·south Mrica. project. His proposal bounced around in Congress radioactive for nearly 500,000 years. Australia has about a fourth, but there is a powerful for months and finally emerged last month as an movement there against uranium mining. So the $80 million appropriation. The breeder's unique talents also create unique U.S. could end up holding all the chips in the Amid much fanfare, the president vetoed the bill, dangers. If the liquid sodium used to cool the world's nuclear card game. winning approval from some environmentalists and radioactive fuel core leaks, the fuel can melt itself But look again, because the Carter veto is building his reputation as an opponent of nuclear into a compact mass and explode-an atomic meaningless. The same $80 million he turned down power and a defender of the environment. explosion. This nearly happened in a breeder only will come back to him tacked onto another appropri­ Applause, however, is premature, as we shall see. forty miles from Detroit in 1966. ations .bill-one that will be a lot harder to veto. The breeder is a special kind of nuclear power These dangers should be enough to stop the And he knows it. plant, because it produces more plutonium (a breeqer. But Carter's main concerns lie elsewhere. -nuclear fuel) than it uses up. The breeder also The U.S. has been selling nuclear equipment and Carter is firmly committed to a nuclear economy. generates electricity, but all the breeder reactors technology all over the world. Carter wants to be He wants at least 300 nuclear power plants built so far are relatively small, with about one­ able to control which countries do-or don't-have operating in the next twenty-five years. fourth the capacity of "conventional" nuclear power the ability to construct nuclear weapons. There is And there will eventually be only one source for plants. strong evidence, for instance, that the U.S. govern- fuel for all those nukes-breeder reactors. The American Way of Life Carter's cage A chain link cage topped with barbed wire. That's barbed wire on top for anyone considering jumping In almost every civilized country people in the Carter plan for undocumented immigrants as over. custody are entitled to sit down. But, again, until practiced by the Immigration and Naturalization Facilities are minimal, even by INS standards. recently there weren't even any chairs. Now there Service in Los Angeles. (It's only a "temporary" shelter until they finish the are a total of eighty. If the rest of the people get While Carter and INS Commissioner Leonel bigger jail, they explain, so they don't want to tired, they can relax on the cement floor. Castillo talk about phony amnesty plans, nearly waste money.) Several INS workers have quit because they half the undocumented people scooped up every There's no heating for the winter, no cooling for couldn't stand the inhumanity they were involved week by the Los Angeles INS are spending time in a the summer. The light is dim, ·and the ventilation in. standing-room-only wire cage. bad. But INS Assistant Director Phil Smith takes a Often, more than 200 people are packed in at one positive view of the situation. The,.INS has a regular jail-type facility where it time. There are only three toilets and two urinals, "Most of these [undocumented immigrants] are holds those it apprehends until it throws them all out in the open. (That, an official explains, is to hearty people," he says. "We've found that the across the border. But with the stepped-up sweeps, protect the "aliens" from themselves and each aliens themselves don't mind it a bit." that facility is jammed beyond its limit. other.) After they get the new, bigger jail built, they The INS solution? A specially built wire cage People arrested for entering the United States really should preserve that wire cage. It's a inside an unused warehouse. "illegally" are supposed to be entitled to a phone wonderful symbol of President Carter's immigra­ No better than a cattle pen, the enclosure is made call. But it was just recently that the INS installed a tion policy-as well as his policy on human rights. of chain link wrapped around wooden posts with single pay phone in its detention center. -Joanie Quinn

12 Marxist Economics:

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THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 Why women are angry about sterilization Picture this: you've just delivered a baby. You're in some pain, a little groggy from anesthe­ sia. Some one brings you official-looking forms. It's a hospital, where there are always papers to sign, so you dutifully put down your name. Days-or perhaps years-later you find that the papers gave a doctor permission to sterilize you. Or imagine that you are getting welfare assist­ ance. Maybe you've recently had a baby. Or perhaps a caseworker visited and didn't like your lifestyle. "You better have your tubes tied," the doctor or caseworker threatens, "or you won't get any more welfare." This has happened to thousands of women in this country. And in recent years it has happened more and more often. In 1974 it is estimated there were three times as many sterilizations per· formed as in 1970. The government pays for about 100,000 sterili­ zations each year. In contrast, it pays for hardly any abortions, now that the Hyde amendment has cut off medicaid funds for that service. Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Then there's the case of Norma Jean Serena. For women the issue is clear: the decision to Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and She is the American Indian suing the social bear a child or not belongs to the woman. Neither Seattle. workers and doctors who had her sterilized. A the government nor the hospitals have any right Those hearings should be interesting. What medical form described Serena's sterilization as to force either motherhood or sterilization upon will Black women have to say about their expe­ "medically necessary~> to treat a "socio­ us. riences with forced sterilization? Someone may economic" ailment. Faced with protests and lawsuits against point out a pertinent 1970 government study. It Thousands of other American Indian women showed that while 5.6 percent of the college­ could speak as expert witnesses' on this topic. educated white women polled had been sterilized, According to the Government Accounting Office; 9.7 percent of the Black women had been steril­ between 1973 and 1976 at least 3,406 American ized. Indian women were sterilized. In fact, some If Puerto Rican women testify they can report doctors estimate that one-fourth of all women that 35 percent of all women of child-bearing age treated at Indian Health Service hospitals were forced sterilization, the Department of Health, in Puerto Rico have been sterilized. Someone sterilized. Education and Welfare (HEW) recently an­ may use the apt word "genocide" to describe the These women may also have some harsh words nounced new guidelines. Supposedly these guide­ policy of government coercion. about how meaningful official guidelines are. lines will prevent social workers, hospitals, and In New York, women may cite studies showing According to the government report, thirty-six of prison officials from using HEW money to force that Hispanic women in that city are six times as the American Indian women who were sterilized women into being sterilized, likely as white women and three times as likely were less than twenty-one years old. The opera­ HEW has tentatively scheduled a hearing on as Black women to be sterilized tions on them were done despite a court-ordered the new sterilization guidelines for January 17 in Maybe HEW will hear from the Chicanas in moratorium on sterilization of young women. Washington, D.C. Regional HEW offices will Los Angeles who are suing a hospital for steriliz­ If you want to attend local hearings or testify, hold local hearings on the guidelines between i~g them against their will or without their contact the HEW office in one of the ten cities January 17 and the end of February in Atlanta, knowledge. mentioned. -Diane Wang

Va. drive for ERA sparked by union women. By Nancy Cole Corbin knows from the history of her ever been involved in anything like a WASHINGTON-"When I think of own trade the discrimination women mass demonstration. "I was always equal rights I think of everybody-men have faced and still face. looking at things from a distance until and women. If they have the ability "During World War I there were I realized you have to get involved. and the capacity, let them do it, head meat cutters who were women. "The ERA needs people to come out whether they're a woman or a Spanish­ That showed women were capable of and rally to let the legislative bodies speaking man." doing the job. Now there are no women know we want it passed," Corbin says. This is the fiercely defended view of head meat cutters." "On January 22, people should come to Lizzie Corbin, a Black meat cutter here She adds, "Women have to support Richmond to be heard and seen." for seventeen years. Corbin's commit­ their families, just like men." ment to equal rights recently led her in Before the early 1960s, the majority a new direction: leading a fight for of workers in any given meat depart­ ratification of the Equal Rights ment were women. Then automation Merits labor's Amendment. set in, "and the women were gradually Corbin is co-coordinator of Labor for replaced." The remaining jobs, you see, 'all-out Equal Rights Now (LERN), the coali­ were too "strenuous" for women. tion born at an October 30 conference Corbin never found it too strenuous. support' of 225 unionists in Richmond, Virgi­ She likes her job-weighing, wrapping, "The ERA, which would give nia. Twenty-three unions throughout and displaying meat. women a legal weapon in their Virginia endorsed a proposal approved About two or three years ago, women struggle against discriminatory bar­ by that meeting calling for a three­ started breaking into meat cutting riers, warrants the labor movement's month campaign in support of the jobs. Local 593 is now about 40 percent all-out support," explains the action ERA. The drive is to culminate in a women. proposal approved by the October 30 demonstration in Richmond on Janu­ The new women have faced a lot of union-sponsored conference on the ary 22. harassment, but Corbin thinks it's Meat cutter Lizzie Corbin. 'On January Equal Rights Amendment in Rich­ The day before I interviewed Corbin getting better. As for herself, she is mond, Virginia. near her workplace, a Safeway super­ 22, people should come to Richmond to still subject to "petty harassment" be seen and heard.' The proposal urged unions to market in northwest Washington, she from her bosses, mainly because of her establish "Pass ERA" committees to was elected third vice-president of union activity. generate discussion and education Amalgamated Meat Cutters and weakened. With the ERA, they won't ''For instance, when the store man­ on the ERA among union members. Butcher Workmen Local 593. Her local be able to go around it anymore." ager found out my union was sending The conference also designated of 4,800 workers covers Metropolitan The idea of a labor campaign to win me to the International Women's Year January 16-22 "Pass ERA in Virgi­ Washington, including areas in Mary­ the ERA began in Local593's women's conference in Houston, he tried to give nia Week" to be marked with "ral­ land and Virginia. committee. The committee is barely a me a hard time about when my day off lies, meetings, demonstrations, and She "got into" working on the ERA year old, begun in late 1976 by Corbin would be that week. 'I am the store other activities of a visible nature." drive, Corbin explains, "knowing how and three other women. Their goal was manager,' he informed me, 'the union This will lead up to the rally and the economy is." to teach other women in the union does not run the store.' " demonstration in Richmond on Jan­ "Labor should be organized to help organizational skills and to familiarize Corbin believes her local union is uary 22. everyone. The economic conditions the whole union with women's issues what a union should be, and the ERA For more information, contact force us out her to work, so we should and problems. campaign is an example of that. Labor for Equal Rights Now fight for the best we can get." "There is so much misconception "Unions should open up more, involve (LERN), 1022 Wilson Boulevard, In Corbin's mind, the ERA is an about the ERA. We thought we should the whole membership." Suite 2310, Arlington, Virginia important part of that fight. "Title VII do something for our women by educat­ Although she's been a union activist 22209. Telephone: (703) 522-0880. [of the Civil Rights Act] has been so ing around the ERA," she says. for years, this is the first time she has t4 Nuclear foes win Atlanta free speech fight By Don Davis It was not the first instance in ties Union, Clergy and Laity Con­ From then on, the university denied ATLANTA-The first teach-in here Atlanta of efforts to squelch protests cerned, the Socialist Workers Party, that there had been pressure. against nuclear power attracted atten­ against neclear power. and others. Hundreds of students and faculty tion beyond the 150 who attended the Recent newspaper reports have docu­ As for the second charge, the YSA members, meanwhile, signed petitions November 11-12 event at Georgia State mented the Georgia Power Company's noted that nowhere in school ·regula­ protesting the school's action. Letters, University. secret police force, which has spied on tions does it say the person signing a telephone calls, and telegrams of Unknown persons outside the uni­ activists who opposed rate hikes and room reservation form must attend the protest poured in from numerous versity, who apparently did not like nuclear power. event. groups, including Critical Mass Jour­ seeing the antinuke argument present­ In this case, the university claimed The real reason for the school action nal, Atlanta Clergy and Laity Con­ ed, pressured the Georgia State ad­ the YSA had violated school rules emerged .in a meeting between Assist­ cerned, Georgia State Women's minstration into taking disciplinary because non-campus groups took part ant Dean of Students Alice Young and Coalition, Georgia Public Interest action against the Young Socialist in the meeting and because the YSA YSA chairperson Joanne Kuniansky. Research Group, Georgians for Clean Alliance for its role in the event. member who signed the room reserva­ Energy, Southerners Mobilizing for The YSA, which cosponsored the tion form did not attend part of the Young said that forces outside the Survival, and others. teach-in and reserved campus space for event. university had complained about the Reports on the controversy appeared it, was banned from using university The administration backed off from teach-in to her bosses."And I mean the in the newspapers and on television. facilities for the remainder of the fall the first allegation when the YSA president [of the university] and the quarter. pointed out that the administration Board of Regents," Kuniansky quoted As a television crew waited outside, That turned out not to be the last had, one week prior to the Teach-in for Young as saying. Dean of Students William Baggett met word, however. After a week-long Survival, given approval to post the But when Kuniansky tried again to November 22 with the YSA and its protest campaign by students, faculty, program, which listed all twenty-two see the dean, she was told that Young supporters. The following day. he lifted and community groups, the adminis­ cosponsoring organizations including could not speak further with the YSA the ban after Kuniansky signed a tration backed down and restored the the Southern Christian Leadership except in the presence of other school statement attesting a member of the YSA's rights. Conference, the American Civil Liber- officials. YSA had attended the event. 123 arrested at Oregon antinuclear protest By Taffy Harris brook, New Hampshire. and Paul Freeman Last August 6, 1,000 people rallied PORTLAND, Ore.-One hundred against nuclear power at Trojan, and twenty-three people were arrested No­ 82 sat in and were arrested. Their trial vember 25 as they attempted to sit in opens December 12. The TDA plans to at the Trojan nuclear power plant in use that mass trial to educate the. Rainier, Oregon. The protesters were public about the dangers of nuclear arrested two hours after they blocked power. gates to the plant The 123 reached the site in a steady On November 23, the TDA held a rain. Bart Withers, plant superintend­ rally of 150 people at Portland State ent, ordered them to leave, but they University~ Speakers described the vowed to stay until police removed costs and dangers of nuclear power, them and making a strong case for stopping Shortly afterward, forty state troop­ construction of nuclear power plants ers arrested the unresisting demonstra­ and shutting down plants that are tors for trespassing, dragging some of already operating. them through puddles and dunking Sandy Richards, a state representa­ them tive, explained that PGE spent $1 Twenty people were released on a billion on the project and had hiked its total of $2,000 bail. The rest were set electric rates 95 percent since 1970. free on their own recognizance. ~· Some 200 people picketed the Port­ Richards and other speakers pointed land headquarters of Portland Gen­ to the dangers from the thirty-one tons eral Electric (PGE) the next day, call­ of radioactive waste generated by Tro­ ing on the company, which owns Tro­ jan every year, including 600 pounds of jan, to shut the plant. plutonium. No one has come up with a The actions were organized by the safe method of disposing of radioactive Trojan Decommissioning Alliance, an by-products. They are simply dumped Oregon-based anti-nuclear power in a pool of water beside the reactor. Will Neuman, a teacher at Portland PGE, Neuman said, is liable for only group. The TDA was organized in June Barbara Willard, a spokeswoman for Community College, told the rally that .01 percent of the possible property after the occupation of the construction TDA, discussed the activities of the insurance companies refused to pro­ damage from a major accident at Tro­ site of a nuclear power plant in Sea- group. vide coverage for nuclear accidents. jan.

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 1S· Student activists say: , No to racism at home and c a correct move. And everybody who students quit the program. stands for equal rights and against Nelson Thema, one of the eight, told racial discrimination has a duty to the rally, "When we found out the help make the April 15 demonstration implications of this program, we de­ as large as possible. cided to make our stand very clear Howard University hosts "There can be no business as usual. both to CMU and the world. So we We're in for a battle. We have to went on television and radio to explain prepare for the battle and do it now. that we were not going to be part of a spirited pro-rights rally Blacks, women, Chicanos, Asian­ program designed to create people who By Ornari Musa the rally, who announced in her open­ Americans, Puerto Ricans, and trade would be a stumbling block to the WASHINGTON-For many genera­ ing remarks to the rally that just that unionists are all affected by the Bakke people's revolution. We were not going tions Howard University has played afternoon SCAR activists at Howard decision," said Harris. "It is time to to be trained to become Western an important role in the Black move­ University had received a letter from unite." puppets. ment here and across the country. Not the campus administration recogniz­ Yoshinori Himel of the Asian and "We also found out that this pro­ only has it been a center of Black ing the student group as an official Pacific Americans Federal Employees gram was timed to coincide with the scholarship, but it has also been an organization. Council supported Harris's call for British and U.S. efforts to achieve a so­ important organizing center in the unity to defend affirmative action. called peaceful transition to a Black ongoing struggle for Black emancipa­ Reverse 'Bakke' "Working alone," Himel said, "no majority government in Zimbabwe." tion in the United States. Banners hung at either side of the group can defend affirmative action The CMU administration responded Thus, it was only fitting that How­ speakers platform, singling out some for racial equality against the Bakke by giving the students two choices: ard University open its doors to the of the key struggles against racist decision and other attacks. It will take continue in the program and shut up, nearly 250 antiracist fighters who at­ oppression SCAR chapters have been many different groups working to­ or be sent back to Rhodesia. tended a spirited rally here December involved in: "Stop the deportations," gether in a unified cause. By working "If we go back, the Smith regime will 2. The rally was the kickoff for the "Black majority rule [in southern together, we can defeat Bakke. take us from the airport to jail," National Student Antiracist Strategy Africa] now," "Defend affirmative ac­ Thema said. "In fact, one of the deans Meeting called by the National Stu­ tion, reverse Bakke." Zimbabweans ask support had a package of tickets ready to give dent Coalition Against Racism James Harris, NSCAR national staff _ One of the highlights of the rally anyone who refused to stay with the (NSCAR). coordinator, pointed to the urgency of was the participation of four Zimbab­ program." The broad range of speakers at the the fight to overturn the Bakke deci­ wean students. The students are being Thema called on those at the rally to rally reflected NSCAR's involvement sion. victimized by Carnegie Mellon Univer­ help publicize the Zimbabwean stu­ in the struggle against racist discrimi­ "If Bakke wins this case on the sity in Pittsburgh. dents' case and aid their fight to re­ nation on many fronts. logically absurd grounds of "reverse They are part of a group of twenty­ main in the United States and attend Through its participation in such discrimination," then no affirmative­ five students who came to the United the schools of their choice. struggles-from defense of victims of action program in this country is safe. States to get a university education. racist frame-ups to the fight against All will be called into question. They were told before leaving Zim­ Deportations deportation of undocumented "One of the most significant things babwe that the program was not politi­ Je'sy Chancy'Manigat from the Na­ immigrants-NSCAR has expanded happening today," Harris said, "is the cal. tional Council of Churches Office of its influence and authority as a call by the National Committee to But in reality, the students were to Haitian Concerns spoke of Haitian staunch champion of the rights of Overturn the Bakke Decision for a be trained to take high posts in a refugees' fight against deportation. oppressed minorities. national march on Washington April future neocolonial government in Zim­ "Today there are over 2,000 refugees Testimony to this fact came from 15. babwe. in Miami-200 of them are in jails," Deborah Haugabook, cochairperson of "It is a bold and decisive move. It is Upon learning this, eight of the said Chancy'Manigat. "Before 1972

NSCAR backs call for anti-'Bakke' protests The following resolution was NSCAR chapters plan to carry out adopted unanimously by the Na­ the following steps to build the tional Student Antiracist Stra­ spring actions: tegy Meeting sponsored by 1. Seek endorsements for the na­ NSCAR December 3 in Washing­ tional demonstrations and educa­ ton, D.C. tional week from Black, Chicano, At a Berkeley, California, press Puerto Rican, Asian-American, la­ conference on November 26, 1977, bor, and women's organizations and the National Committee to Overturn individuals. (Copies of endorsements the Bakke Decision (NCOBD) an­ should be sent to: NCOBD National nounced plans for a national demon­ Office, P.O. Box 3026, South Berke­ stration in Washington, D.C., on ley Station, Berkeley, California April 15, 1978. This demonstration 94703. (415) 549-3297; and NSCAR will protest the Bakke "reverse National Office, 160 Fifth Avenue, discrimination" decision presently #615, New York, New York 10010.) being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme 2. Produce educational material Court. In addition, the NCOBD on Bakke, in support of affirmative plans a national week of education action and quotas. Although support and action against the Bakke deci­ for quotas need not be the focus of sion and racism on February 19-25, broader city-wide coalitions, NSCAR MilitanVDavid Nudel and local demonstrations on April 8. views quotas as essential to enforce NSCAR helped organize October 3 and 8 anti-'Bakke' protests called by NCOBD The National Student Coalition affirmative-action programs and and Black American Law Students Association. Against Racism (NSCAR) endorses plans to educate students and the this call by the National Committee population at large on the impor­ to Overturn the Bakke Decision. tance of supporting quotas. Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, We· urge student groups, labor Where chapters of the NCOBD 3. Step up the educational cam­ Asian-Americans, Native Ameri­ unions, women's organizations, and exist, NSCAR chapters will work paign to overturn Bakke and defend cans, women, and students. Bakke civil rights groups of the Black, with the NCOBD in building student affirmative action through regional and the scores of other anti­ Chicano,. Puerto Rican, Asian­ support for the Washington, D.C., conferences, debates, forums, rallies, affirmative-action cases now before American, and Native American demonstration. Where chapters of, and speaking engagements. These the courts point to the need to build communities to actively support and the NCOBD do not exist, NSCAR activities will be an important way a new civil and human rights build the spring anti-Bakke activi­ chapters will build campus support to build the spring actions, in mo.vement. The February 19-25 edu­ ties called by the National Commit­ activities for the NCOBD demon­ particular the April 15 national cational activities, April 8 local tee to Overturn the Bakke Decision. strations and help to initiate broad- demonstration in D.C. actions, and the April 15 national DEFEND AFFIRMATIVE AC­ -based campus and city-wide anti­ NSCAR views the Bakke decision anti-Bakke demonstration in Wash­ TION! Bakke coalitions to build the spring as a concerted racist attack by the ington, D.C., are all steps in the REVERSE BAKKE! activities. U.S. government on the rights of right direction. ALL OUT APRIL 15!

16 ~broad Haitians did not have problems get­ ting into the U.S. But since then the Duvalier regime has gone on a big. public relations campaign to convince the world that people in Haiti are no longer tortured and murdered. "The U.S. is helping the regime with ~\ its campaign," she said. "To grant ·~ CLIFTON GRAVES political asylum to Haitian refugees would put the lie to the propaganda flowing from Duvalier." But the threat of deportation is rooted in other factors as well, Chancy­ 'Manigat said. "The U.S. government is using Mexi­ cans, Chicanos, and Haitians as scape­ goats. It is trying to blame us for unemployment here. "But in the southern part of the U.S. Haitians have been coming 'illegally' to cut sugar cane and in the North to pick apples. Whenever the U.S. needs Caribbean workers for cheap, hard jobs, there is no problem." Chancy'Manigat concluded her re­ marks by thanking NSCAR for putting the Haitian people's struggle on its l agenda and helping in the campaign to win political asylum for Haitian refugees. She urged rally participants I to continue their work in the fight against deportations. This same theme was expressed by more people in the fight for their Wilmington Ten out of jail, appealed to lar and Pan-Africanist C.L.R. James; Frank Shaffer-Corona, a member of democratic rights. the rally to continue the fight to free Clifton Graves of the Black American the D.C. School Board. Corona pre­ "If we decide to struggle with the other nine civil rights activists. Law Students Association; D.C. City dicted that the question of deportations NSCAR," he said, "we should do it Elizabeth Young, who, along with Council member Hilda Mason; Ron "is going to be the human rights issue with the idea of changing things. The Kenneth Chin, was arrested on frame­ Walters of the African Heritage Stu­ of the 1980s." idea here is to understand and bring up charges by the U.S. Secret Service, dies Association; D.C. SCAR activist Howard University Prof. James Gar­ about change. And by change I mean called for support to their case and Miesa Patterson; Jon Hillson, author rett also addressed the rally. Noting the transformation of the social struc­ those of other Asian-American frame­ of the Battle of Boston; and Bert Baker the rally's success, Garrett said, "I'm ture of this country." up victims. from the Howard University Carib­ glad to see the growing participation of Anne Shepard, the only one of the Other speakers included noted scho- bean Students Association.

ties to defending victims of racist repression." Most prominent of the defense cases NSCAR has been active in was that of Broad antiracist drive Joanne Little. However, since NSCAR NSCAR's founding, its chapters have been active in defense of such frame-up set at nat'l strategy meet victims as the Wilmington Ten, Gary elects By John Hawkins At a meeting of its national coordi­ Tyler, Dennis Banks, the Dawson Five, WASHINGTON-More than 150 nating committee over the November and the four Puerto Rican National­ students and others active in antiracist 26 weekend, the NCOBD issued a call ists. Harris struggles across the country ~et here ·for local and regional anti-Bakke Harris pointed to NSCAR's activities· WASHINGTON-"The Carter December 3 at the Howard University protests February 19-25 and April 8, in defense of the freedom struggles in administration's promises have School of Social Work. They decided to and for a national march on Washing­ southern Africa, including the tours proven to be worth less than mount a nationwide education and ton April 15. NSCAR organized last spring for nothing to Blacks, Chicanos, Puer­ action campaign to overturn the Tsietsi Mashinini and Khotso Seatlho­ to Ricans, and Asian-Americans," Bakke decision and defend affirmative­ NSCAR's role lo, two leaders of the June 16, 1976, said James Harris, as the National action programs in hiring and educa­ In his report on the state of the Soweto, South Africa, rebellion. Student Antiracist Strategy Meet­ tion. antiracist movement, Harris outlined ing drew to a close. "And the The Bakke decision, currently before NSCAR's role in antiracist struggles Against deportations growing awareness of that fact is the .U.S. Supreme Court, charges the since its founding. "Besides our efforts around busing, bound to spark a wave of struggles University of California Board of "We began around the school deseg­ struggles in southern Africa, and against the continuing assault on Regents with "reverse discrimination" regation issue in Boston," he said, numerous defense cases," Harris con­ the rights and standard. of living of for operating a minority-admissions "an issue we saw would have national tinued, "NSCAR has now begun work oppressed minorities." Harris,. twenty-nine, is the newly prog~:am. at its Davis medical school. implications. · against the racist campaign being The National Student Antiracist "We expanded our antiracist activi- whipped up by the U.S. government elected coordinator of the National Strategy Meeting was sponsored by and reactionaries to deport undocu­ Student Coalition Against Racism. the National Student Coalition mented immigrants living in this coun­ A native of Cleveland, Harris Against Racism. Participants in the try. has been involved in the antiracist meeting came from more than a dozen "For example, NSCAR played a movement for more than a decade. cities-from as nearby as Philadel­ major role in building the recent He was a founding member of the phia; Baltimore; and Raleigh, North National Chicano/Latino Conference Black Student Union at Cleveland Carolina; and from as far away. as in San Antonio-the broadest ever in State University and a leading New Orleans, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and the Chicano movement, including .all organizer of Black opposition to the Chicago. the major Chicano and Latino organi­ Vietnam War. The meeting greeted with" enthusi­ zations." In .Atlanta, where Harris lived asm a proposal made by NSCAR As part of its involvement in helping before joining the NSCAR staff in National Coordinator Tony Austin and organize participation in the confer­ New York earlier this year, he National Staff Coordinator James ence, Harris said, NSCAR sent one of helped lead the struggle of that Harris. its leading activists, Miguel Zarate, to city's Black community and its The proposal called on NSCAR San Antonio to work on the conference supporters in 1975 against a series chapters and student activists to go all staff. With its active support to the of police killings. He was also a out to help organize the winter and conference, NSCAR has .become more founding member and leading acti­ spring anti-Bakke protests called by involved in the Chicano and Latino vist in Atlanta SCAR. the National Committee to Overturn movements and has taken on the fight the Bakke Decision. NSCAR leader Miguel Zarate Continued on page 30

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 17 Steel notes ... Pullman strikers picket PITTSBURGH POLLUTION VOTE: A referendum on the November Wall St. demand talks ballot in Pittsburgh read: "Should county and municipal elected officials fight to change the federal environmental laws in order to preserve By Andrew Pulley ' ., J[SSlt CHICAGO-Striking steelworkers •·· ·· . J Aft1·E S existing jobs in the steel industry?" from four states traveled to New York .•. USED A The wording of the referendum and the procompany media blitz by area politicians were designed to get one message across-you have no choice. ~ity Dt:cembefrP2 t11o prot~stt thde adntiun- ~.··.. ·.·.•.·... · GU MptA.N Give up clean air and water, or your job may be taken away. It was a lO~:ucr ~~~tZd S~e::~~k~r~:f ~~erica .· ·~ ru ll s" crude attempt to force working people-the victims of both pollution and locals with a total of 6,500 members US layoffs-to endorse further attacks on their own standard of living. have been on strike against Pullman, a II Y Top officials of the United S_teelworkers-who have in the past backed manufacturer of railroad cars, since industry demands for delays or exemptions from pollution standards­ October 1. admitted there was no evidence that environmental controls cause The company has refused to nego­ layoffs. But instead of forthrightly condemning the referendum blackmail tiate and is using foremen and other and campaigning for a "no" vote, the USW A leaders called for workers to scabs to continue work on cars inside "ignore" the ballot question. The Group Against Smog and Pollution its plants. (GASP) took a similar position. Both groups evidently believed a big On December 2 Wall Street was "yes" vote was inevitable and feared a head-on fight with the companies. honoring the one hundredth anniver­ Howard Beck, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of sary of Pullman's listing on the New Pittsburgh, argued, "Steelworkers suffer most from the toxic pollutants York Stock Exchange. In fact, Wall produced at the workplace. These are realities we cannot afford to ignore. Andrew Pulley, a member of USWA We must make a stand and come down for a 'no' vote." Local 1834; is on strike against Many commentators were surprised when more than 36 percent of Pullman-Standard. Pittsburgh voters r~jected the referendum. More voters registered their Street itself was temporarily renamed opinion on this question than any other ballot issue. The vote confirmed Daily World Beck's assertion that a strong, united effort of labor and environmental "Pullman Street." While stockbrokers and investors Pullman-Standard strikers picket groups could have convinced working people to repudiate the steel celebrated, eighty strikers came by car outside New York Stock Exchange companies' deadly swindle. and bus from Bessemer, Alabama; December 2. Butler, Pennsylvania; Hammond, Indi­ STRIKE AT CERRO COPPER: About 700 steelworkers, members of ana; and Chicago to picket outside the USWA Local 4294, struck the Cerro Copper plant in Sauget, Illinois, stock exchange. The action was offi­ settling grievances through arbitration November 6, after voting overwhelmingly to turn down the company cially sponsored by the international is a hoax. Only a tiny fraction of contract offer. The main issue is pension benefits-some 40 percent of the union and the striking locals. grievances are ever settled to the , workers at Cerro have worked there for twenty-five to thirty years. The Some of our slogans were "100 years workers' satisfaction. company offered increases in pension benefits that would apply only to is too damn long," "No contract, no The right to strike is the only muscle future years of service. Thus the workers closest to retirement would have work," and "Stop the scabbing." We we have to bring the company to benefited least. also protested aid to Pullman's strike­ terms. Far from being an example to Strikers maintain that ·cerro was counting on younger workers to vote breaking by New York subway offi­ follow, the no-strike agreement in basic for the proposal, which included wage increases totaling $1.30 an hour cials, who have sent inspectors into the steel has weakened the union. over three years. Local 4294 President Charles Pettus said that the struck plants to OK cars being built by McDivitt says in a strike hundreds of company's divide-and-conquer strategy "backfired on them. It just served scabs. workers may go without pay to settle to unite us." Instead of negotiating, Pullman has disputes affecting only a few. Nothing launched a letter-writing propaganda could more clearly expose his ull,ion­ campaign to all employees aimed at busting intentions. Solidarity-using starting a back-to-work movement. our united strength for our fellow RACIST FILTH: This vile, racist poster is In these letters Pullman President workers-is the essence' of unionism. displayed by officials of USW A Local 2603. "General" James McDivitt, the former That's what Pullman wants to destroy. Its crude message gets across the essence of astronaut, tries to justify the com­ McDivitt further claims that strikes the anti-import hysteria peddled by the pany's main demand-elimination of cause Pullman to lose business to McBride leadership of the USW A: that the right' to strike over local grievances foreign companies. Unfortunately foreign workers-not the U.S. steel involving incentive-pay rates. some of our union leaders have gotten profiteers-are the enemy of American McDivitt says binding arbitration behind Pullman in a "Buy American" steelworkers. It so happens that the biggest would be a "neutral," "orderly," and campaign. increase in steel imports this year has come . "peaceful" way to settle grievances. He But it is the company's drive for from Europe, not Japan. But the racist argues that since the union gave up profits-not our wages-that is respon­ "yellow peril" image is best suited to the right to strike in basic steel with sible for the high price of Pullman McBride's gutter-level appeal to backward, the experimental Negotiating Agree­ cars. Pullman's "patriotism" is just a xenophobic, anti-working-class prejudices. ment, so should we! cover for profiteering and strikebreak­ It ought to stand as a warning to all union But workers in basic steel know that ing. activists about the logic of the anti-import drive.

SAN FRANCISCO FORUM HITS IMPORT SCARE: The anti-import California steelworker 'shot'­ scare being pushed by the steel industry and the union officialdom was condemned by speakers at a Militant Forum in San Francisco November incentive system to blame? 18. By Frank Mikula shells certified as inert to begin with. Carl Finamore from USWA Local 1304 pointed to monopoly pricing and NEWARK, Calif.-In many ways Luckily, Tomasko was not seriously the profit drive as the real causes of the current steel crisis. "The steel the working conditions for members of injured. In response to the anger bosses don't want to spend money expanding production because foreign United Steelworkers of America Local expressed by the workers about the competition is cutting into their profits," he said. "They would rather 5649 here at Cerro Metal Products are incident, Cerro has not used any shells produce less and charge higher prices. A key part of this anti-working­ like those of other steelworkers. since then. class strategy is to reestablish the U.S. steel companies' monopoly by The plant is old and looks more like Discussion with other furnace ten- reducing imports." Finamore said union support for this policy won't save a museum than a mill. ders about the incident called attention jobs-it will only lead to more layoffs as the companies press for higher Cerro insists on squeezing the last to another dilemma facing workers productivity and profits. bit of production out of the old, poorly throughout the industry-the incentive Percy Edmund, a union activist for thirty-two years and recording maintained machinery. As a result, system, under which workers are paid secretary of USWA Local 50, called "for the labor movement to revive the burns, cuts, broken fingers, and even at a low base rate plus a "bonus" o0n spirit of solidarity and unity in action to fight the attacks of the loss of limbs are not uncommon. their productivity. employers." Local 50 has been on strike against Federated Metals in San Recently Tom Tomasko, a furnace The logic of the incentive system Francisco since October 1. tender, was "shot" in the chest when a forces workers to work so fast in order Speaking from his experience in the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers bullet exploded in his furnace. The to make a living wage that injuries union, which merged with the USWA in 1968, Edmund condemned red­ live round was among spent bullet and often result. baiting as an antiunion tactic. "Every contract time you could count on artillery shell casings that are melted After the explosion in Tomasko's our leadership being subpoenaed to appear in Washington amidst in the furnace along with other scrap furnace, there was a lot of discussion metal. among union members about demand- charges that we were all communists," he said. "This played right into At the time of the accident Cerro had ing that Cerro stop the use of bullet the plans of the company, who took advantage of any divisions in our not been checking for live shells, even casings alt"gether. ranks caused by prejudices against the right of radicals to function in the though other furnace tenders have The response o.f some furnace ten- union." been "shot" in similar incidents. ders, however, reflected the economic Nat Weinstein of the Socialist Workers Party also spoke, urging a After an investigation of the acci- pressures felt by working people today. shorter workweek with no reduction in pay and expanded steel production dent, the California Occupational Safe- The bullet casings melt faster than to meet social needs. "It is impossible," he said, "for working people to ty and Health Administration (OSHA) most other scrap metal, so their use move forward by supporting procompany proposals such as seeking a is now requiring that shells be in- allows furnace tenders to earn more of ban on imports. Production should be organized to meet the needs of spected and certified as inert before the desperately needed incentive pay. society; to do that we must wrest political control away from the small being used. The incentive system forces workers minority that presently runs things." It is unclear how effective this will to choose either a decent income or -Andy Rose be as a safety measure, however, since safer working conditions. In my opi- Cerro was supposed to be using only nion, we have a right to both.

18 Strike still on, despite return of two locals By Stu Singer the pressure on their dwindling ore Union negotiators say the com­ But District 33 Director Linus DULUTH, Minn., Dec. 7-The iron supplies. pany agreed to progress on impor­ Wampler and the presidents of the range strike is not over, but two The locals voted together by secret tant health and safety issues and to eight locals still on strike have made more locals have gone back to work. ballot December 5 with about 75 incentive-pay coverage for up to 92 it clear that no more locals will On December 6 the United Steel­ percent of their 2,400 members vot­ percent of the work force. return to work without a signed con­ workers locals at Reserve Mining ing. The members voted by a six-to­ But a USWA international official, tract. Company-Local 4757 in Babbitt one margin to return to work. who was instrumental in pushing and Local5296 in Silver Bay-began The contract the Reserve strikers the settlement· through, said that the As Willard Anderson, president of • returning to work. voted on has one serious weakness: only accurate figure is a minimum of Local 2660, told a solidarity meeting . the company negotiators never 75 percent coverage. In the absence in Minneapolis last night (see Ore ships immediately began load­ signed it. of a signed contract it is obviously story on back page), "Even with a ing taconite (iron ore) pellets off the The proposal to the membership impossible to tell what the final signed contract the companies have docks in Silver Bay. was based on a widely publicized terms will be. been known to break !t. But their The ships that carry ore to "handshake" with the company and The return to work at Reserve puts refusal to sign with Babbitt-Silver Chicago-area and other steel mills a statement signed only by the un­ more pressure on the other locals to Bay indicates that the final signed can operate on the Great Lakes only ion negotiators as to the verbal go back, probably for less than the contract they get really depends on until about the end of December, and agreement they had reached with 100 percent incentive coverage they what the locals still on strike can the companies are anxious to ease the company. are demanding. get."

Mesabi Iron Range: notes from a strike By Stu Singer EVELETH, Minn.-In unionized plants throughout the country, com­ pany officials show their contempt for workers by daring them to "file a grievance" whenever they have a complaint. The grievance procedure is notoriously ineffective in defending working conditions. Here on the Mesabi Iron Range, steelworker pickets stop and check the identification cards of all foremen and other management personnel entering or leaving the struck plants. When the bosses complain about waiting in line to be checked out by the union, they are told to "file a grie­ vance." * * * Eveleth Taconite's Thunderbird mine is located in Eveleth, a small town near Virginia, Minnesota. The mine is jointly owned by Oglebay­ Norton Company and Ford Motor local union negotiators who pushed for child. They are living on thirty dollars "He said, 'Don't work for them sons Company. rejecting the contract offer. But he won a week in strike benefits, plus five of bitches.' On Friday, November 25, the steel­ the majority over to that stand. dollars for picket duty. "But I did. And it ended up me and workers in that local voted by a two-to­ "This strike is setting an example for Steve is from a union family. His my brothers are both union members one margin against a back-to-work miners and all other unions," he told uncle is an AFL-CIO organizer in at U.S. Steel, and my older brother is proposal brought in by a majority on the Militant. "The companies are Arkansas, and he can remember see­ in management. He crosses our picket their negotiating committee. acting like they are trying to destroy ing his uncle's car shot up by right­ line every day. The vote came as a big surprise to the unions." wingers because of a unionization "I always tell them, it doesn't pay to the company, which had maintenance Gene, who is thirty-four years old, drive. hate the company and not fight them. foremen preparing the equipment to has worked at Eveleth Taconite for "The strike might go until spring," You're better off- within the ranks start up. These foremen were doing thirteen years. Before that he attended Steve said, "but we haven't stayed out trying to get someplace, trying to work union members do when the college in Wyoming for a few years on this long to go back without getting change things. Because somebody is plant is operating. a football scholarship. something." going to work for them. You're better On the Monday after the' vote, forty He grew up on a farm near an off working for them and fighting to fifty pickets showed up and refused Indian reservation and made a strong * * * them. Running away doesn't do any to let maintenance foremen into the point about his sympathy for Native good.'' plant anymore. Americans and the plight of oppressed The largest local on the range is at The 1916 strike on the range was led minorities in general. U.S. Steel's Minntac facility in Moun­ by the revolutionary socialists and * * * Gene said his wife is reading a book tain Iron, a couple of miles outside syndicalists of the International Gene Skraba was elected vice- about socialist leader Eugene V. Debs. Virginia. Local 1938's office in Carpen­ Workers of the World. , president of USW A Local 6860 at He praised the Militant for its accurate ters Hall in downtown Virginia is the The strikers stuck with their radical Eveleth Taconite just .a few weeks ago. coverage of the strike. "It is important closest thing to a central office for the IWW leaders despite a refusal by the There was a special election because that the story be known all over," he striking locals. Minnesota AFL to provide strike the local president took a job as a staff said. "The general public is being Local 1938 President Joe Samargia support while the IWW was involved. representative for the international misled by the bigger news media." is one of the main leaders of the strike. But the deepgoing radicalism of that union, and the former vice-president Thirty-five years old, he is a fifteen­ time was crushed and partly forgotten moved up. * * * year veteran of the mines and a third­ after the 1916 strike was defeated. Gene was the only one out of five The plant with the youngest work generation miner. Although there was a struggle by the force on the iron range seems to be the Samargia's feelings about U.S. Steel miners in 1926, unionism didn't win on one outside Virginia owned by Inland involve his entire life and family. His the range until 1942. Steel. The Minorca plant is a brand grandfather came here around the turn Joe's knowledge of labor history ·new facility. It was in full operation of the century from what is now helped shape his attitude toward red­ only from April to August of this year, Yugoslavia. He worked in an under­ baiting within the union movement. before the strike closed it down. ground mine for U.S. Steel and took "Every time there was a union revolt USWA Local 6115 at Minorca was part in the 1916 strike. of a kind like in 1916," he said,"that's organized late in 1976 and was not In an interview with the Militant, what they used against people. What allowed to vote in last February's Joe talked about his background, the hell-they used it against Sadlow­ election for district director and inter­ ~imilar to that of many strikers here. ski. national officers. "In 1932 U.S. Steel fired my grand­ "In those days the company used it According to Steve House, a twenty­ father because he had a Roosevelt against the people, and now the union three-year-old assistant picket captain, sticker on his car. They didn't let him uses it against the people. The interna­ when the local was being organized work there again until 1942, when they tional union is using it against the the international promised the had a shortage of workers because of rank and file, that 'there are commu­ members could vote. But the union the war. nists within our ranks, and they are brass changed their minds when they "My father and my uncles would trying to defeat us' and all this kind of realized this local would just add more never work for U.S. Steel because they garbage. votes to the big iron range majority for hated them so bad. I worked for "What [steel baron Andrew] Carne­ insurgent Ed. Sadlowski and the Reserve Mining Company for seven gie and them thought up as an idea to Steelworkers Fight Back slate. years, and I was tired of driving so far defeat the unions, now the unions are GENE SKRABA: This strike is setting an Steve is from Arkansas. He and his to work. I said to my father, 'U.S. Steel using to oppress people, to keep them example for all unions. wife live in a trailer with their young is hiring.' under their thumb."

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 19 seat, the two-stage theoreticians say, The workers and peasants had to the country can move forward econom­ fight independently of and against all ically and politically and lay the basis sections of the Russian capitalists. The for the fight for socialism in the future. workers and peasants themselves had Is Angola on They argue that today the workers to take power to accomplish the and peasants are still too weak to win bourgeois-democratic revolution. national independence and other dem­ ocratic demands without the bourgeoi­ Trotsky's position Sie. Trotsky developed the theory of per­ the road to But there is a problem. manent revolution as a result of the In order to have such a bloc with the experience of the 1905 revolution in "progressive" bourgeoisie, the workers Russia. and peasants must limit their demands He agreed with Lenin that the Rus­ to what the capitalists will go along sian bourgeoisie was incapable of revo­ socialism? with. lutionary leadership. He also agreed Stripped of all "anti-imperialist" rhe­ the only way the immediate tasks of toric, this means the subordination of the Russian revolution could be carried the workers and peasants to the pro­ out was by· the workers and peasants In reply to gram of their capitalist exploiters and taking power. opposition to a socialist revolution. Trotsky took these positions a step further. Roots of the debate First, while agreeing with Lenin that History has shown time and again 'Guardian'-Part IT the Russian workers could not make that the two-stage theory is wrong. In the revolution without an alliance with fact, this theory was argued out before the poor peasants, Trotsky maintained and during the Russian revolution that this crucial alliance would have to sixty years ago. be forged under the leadership of the There were three positions in the urban working class. Only this class debate. had the social power and cohesion The Mensheviks-like the Guardian needed to lead that struggle and the today-held that the workers and political program to pull Russia out of peasants movement should put the its economic backwardness. "progressive" bourgeoisie in power. Trotsky believed that once the The capitalists would sweep away all workers, in alliance with the peasants, Tsarist semifeudal rubbish, organize a took power, they would be forced to capitalist parliamentary government, take measures against capitalist prop­ grant democratic rights, and give the erty to fulfill their demands. He argued peasants land. Socialists, in the Menshevik view, that in order to achieve these tasks, the would become the loyal opposition. revolution could not stop at some arbi­ They would pressure the capitalists to trary "bourgeois-democratic stage," make reforms. After the bourgeoisie but would have to grow over almost developed Russian capitalism fully, immediately into a socialist revolution. socialism could then be put on the This is exactly what happened when agenda. the Russian revolution broke out in The logic of their position led the February 1917. And Lenin supported Mensheviks to bloc with "their" capi­ Trotsky's position in practice. When he talists against the unfolding revolu­ returned from exile to Russia in April tion. 1917, Lenin had to wage a bitter fight For the Mensheviks, the Russian against Stalin and other Bolshevik revolution was the "stage" during leaders to win the party to the perspec­ which the bourgeoisie should be tive that a socialist revolution, not a hoisted into power. bourgeois-democratic revolution, was on the agenda. Lenin's view Trotsky was a close ally of Lenin in Lenin, the central leader of the Bol­ that fight. shevik Party, initially accepted the With the Stalinist degeneration of idea that Russia would first have to go the Soviet Union in the mid and late through a bourgeois-democratic stage. 1920s, the old Menshevik theories But he disagreed with the Mensheviks were dusted off to justify support for in one key aspect. He rejected their capitalist forces abroad. It is this resur­ support for the liberal bourgeoise, ad­ rected Menshevism that the Guardian vocating instead a revolutionary al­ today defends. liance of the workers and peasants against the capitalists and their par­ Cuban revolution ties. Cuba provides a more recent exam­ Gulf oil installation off Angolan coast. Under MPLA government most major Lenin argued that the Russian capi­ ple of why there can be no separate imperialist holdings have not been nationalized. talists were incapable of accomplish- . "bourgeois-democratic stage" in colon­ ing even the immediate bourgeois­ ial and semicolonial countries. democratic tasks, such as land reform. The leaders of the Cuban revolution By Omari Musa between the workers, peasants, and However deep their differences with were not working-class socialists, but The December 9 issue of the Militant capitalists. Tsarism and the landed nobility, their petty-bourgeois nationalists. Their pro­ explained why the Guardian news­ Proponents of this view start by fear of the growing young Russian gram called for the end of the dictator­ weekly's political support to the cur­ pointing to some basic truths about proletariat overshadowed these consid­ ship of Fulgencio Batista and imple­ rent government in Angola is against colonial and semicolonial countries. erations, making them shrink from the mentation of the 1940 constitution. the interests of Angolan workers and They observe that many economic very tasks necessary for the further Castro's July 26 Movement orga­ peasants. and social features of precapitalist capitalist development of Russia. nized a popular revolt against Batista. The Guardian's error is not an iso­ societies predominate in the colonial So there was no point in subordinat­ They crushed the army and the police lated misjudgment. It flows from the world. As a result of imperialist domi­ ing the workers and peasants to an forces. But the first government was paper's strategy for revolution in colon­ nation, these countries have not gone allegedly "progressive" wing of the dominated by "progressive" Cuban ial and semicolonial countries, a stra­ through the type of capitalist indus­ bourgeoisie. bourgeois forces. tegy that reflects its Maoist political trial development that occurred in orientation. Europe or the United States. That The Guardian claims that revolu­ being the case, it is necessary in these tions in these countries must be limited countries to carry out many of the UNITA and SWAPO to "the stage of national independence same tasks-such as national indepen­ Last week's article pointed out (SWAPO) in neighboring Namibia. won by joining different strata of the dence and land reform-that bourgeois­ that during the civil war between the SWAPO is fighting for Namibia's population to defeat imperialism." (By democratic revolutions did in Europe three major Angolan liberation independence from South African "different strata" the Guardian means and America in the eighteenth and groups, two of them-the Angolan rule. different social classes, including the nineteenth centuries. National Liberation Front (FNLA) After its defeat in the civil war, the capitalists.) Democratic tasks remain to be and the National Union for the UNITA turned against SW APO. Only at some later stage does it solved in the advanced capitalist coun­ Total Independence of Angola According to Washington Post cor­ become appropriate for the masses to tries as well. The most important are (UNITA)-collaborated with Wash­ respondent Leon Dash, UNITA struggle to rid themselves of capitalist ending national oppression and estab­ ington and with a South African President Jonas Savimbi told him exploitation and oppression. lishing women's equality.) expeditionary force that invaded this summer that ''we will never let This is the two-stage theory of revo­ From . these correct observations, Angola. them [SW APO] operate against the lution. The practitioners of this however, the proponents of the two­ Such collaboration "put the Ango­ South Africans again. Never! Not "theory;'-from Joseph Stalin to Mao stage theory draw a false and danger­ lan independence struggle in serious unless we are defeated." Tsetung-have palmed it off under ous conclusion: that the oppressed danger," the article said, pointing Any attempt by the UNITA to different names at different times: masses need a political bloc with the out that the Militant had condemned obstruct SWAPO's efforts to free people's front, bloc of four classes, and "progressive" bourgeoisie-that is, UNITA and FNLA for this action. Namibia would be a stab in the back united front against facism. with democratic capitalists interested to the independence movement and The Guardian calls its version the in national economic development. Prior to the civil war, the UNITA a blow against the Black freedom "united front against imperialism." Once the workers and peasants have had been allied with the South struggle throughout southern Africa. The essence of the two-stage theory thrown out the imperialists and put West Africa People's Organization -O.M. is the call for a programmatic bloc "their own" capitalists in the driver's

20 The current government of the Popu­ lar Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) is not following the Cuban example. It is not expropriating the major imperialist and local capital­ ist holdings. It is not mobilizing the Students workers and peasants to go forward. On the contrary, the MPLA leader­ ship is fighting to hold the masses in check, using arrests, repression, and debate strikebreaking tactics. This gives the young and weak Angola bourgeoisie an opportunity to grow stronger. Panama UnfoJ1;unately, the Cuban govern­ ment, which collaborates closely with the Angolan regime, is today defend­ Canal ing measures that are quite different from those they themselves follcwed seventeen years·ago in toppling capi­ talism and· achieving true national treaty independence. By Doug Clark RALEIGH, N.C.-One hundred peo­ ---· The way forward for Angola ple listened to a panel of "experts" Headline of January 1, 1959, Cuban newspaper reads: 'Batista flees.' Sabotage by The road to victory for the Angolan debate how best to protect the interests foreign and domestic bourgeois forces soon convinced Cuban revolutionary leaders workers and peasants can only be of U.S. imperialism in Panama at a that capitalism had to be overturned to win genuine national independence and land traveled by doing what the Cubans panel discussion here November 17 on reform.. actually did in their own revolution. the University of North Carolina cam­ The Angolan masses can only break pus. out of the imperialist stranglehold by Four of the panelists favored the According to the supporters of the the SP and CP, which held many of rejecting the strategy of defeat pro­ Panama Canal treaty, while panelist two-stage theory, this bourgeoisie the top governmental posts, including posed by the Guardian. James Lucier, who is Sen. Jesse should have completed the bourgeois­ the presidency. The MPLA leadership is anti­ Helm's chief legislative assistant, democratic revolution-that is, turned The masses of Chilean workers and working class, It fears the independent expressed opposition. But none ques­ the land over to the peasants and freed peasants were tricked by their CP and mobilization of Angolan workers and tioned the right of the U.S. to be in Cuba from the fetters of U.S. economic SP misleaders into believing that the peasants against imperialism and lo- Panama in the first place. domination. Popular Unity government was their cal capitalists. · The event seemed more like a care­ But something else happened. government, rather than the govern­ What is needed is a new leadership: fully orchestrated public relations ploy The Cuban capitalists resisted ment of their bosses and landlords. a leadership organized in a revolution­ by the State Department than an open sweeping land reform. Thus, the workers were not organized ary socialist party whose perspective and democratic debate on the issues The resisted the nationalizations of to fight to take power in their own and program are anticapitalist. Such a related to the Panama treaty. This imperialist property. name and establish a real workers leadership would orient toward nation­ impression was reinforced by the They opposed government control of government. alizing Gulf Oil, Diamang, and other distribution at the door of a Depart­ foreign trade. As a result, the capitalists and their imperialist holdings ;md putting them ment of State brochure containing a The Cuban capitalists showed their generals bought the time they needed. under workers' control. · The same statement on the treaties by Secretary true colors by joining with Washington In September 1973 they drowned the would hold for the property of Angolan of State Cyrus Vance. to organize counterrevolutionary ter­ growing mass struggles in blood. capitalists. At the same time, members of the rorist groups to overturn the revolu­ Allende's Popular Unity government Revolutionary socialists would lead UNC Young Socialist Alliance and the tion. was a bo~rgeois government. It in­ agricultural workers and poor pea­ Raleigh Socialist Workers Party dis­ The· Castro leadership was faced cluded capitalist politicians and sec­ sants in establishing representative tributed leaflets containing the joint with two choices: Either capitulate to tions of the officer caste. Programati­ committees to exprop.riate the huge declaration of the SWP and the Revolu­ the blows of U.S. imperialism and local cally it did not go beyond capitalism. private estates and set up agricultural tionary Socialist League (LSR), the capitalists, or deepen the revolution by The Guardian gave political support cooperatives. Trotskyist group in Panama, condemn­ taking more radical measures. to that bourgeois government, albeit Revolutionary socialists would fight ing the treaty.. The declaration ex­ They chose the latter course. with "criticisms." It looked to the for freely elected worker and peasant plains how the treaty legitimitizes the They pushed the Cuban capitalists Popular Unity to lead Chile to social-· committees to install a workers and U.S. military and economic presence out of·the government. They mobilized ism. peasants government. there, as a violation of the just aspira­ and armed the Cuban workers and The Guardian never demanded that This government would establish tions of the Panamanian people. peasants to crush the counterrevolu­ the SP and CP break with the hour- control over foreign trade and-under The organizers of the panel con­ tionary groups, nationalized all major . geois forces in the Popular Unity gov­ the direction of the worker and peasant sciously excluded from the event industry both domestic and imperialist ernment. Nor did it outline a course of . committees-establish a planned econ­ anyone who would favor full and owned, instituted a government mo­ struggle against CP and SP's class omy. immediate sovereignty for the Pana­ nopoly of foreign trade, and began to collaboration. A revolutionary government would manian people. . implement a planned economy. In 'this sense, the Guardian's posi­ seek to cut across animosities among Panelist Riordan Roett, who is presi­ By October 1960 capitalism had been tion was just as bankrupt as that of the differeat nationalities by support­ dent of the Latin American Studies overturned and a workers state estab­ the CP and SP. ing their right to self-determination, Association, stated: "We are not giving lished in Cuba. The two-stage theory of revolution including secession. It would propose a away our national security interests. supported by the Guardian, other Stali­ voluntary union of the different na­ We are gaining control over our nation­ Once again it was proven that local nists, and middle-class nationalists tional groups based on equal rights. al security interests. These treaties capitalists in the colonial and semico­ has proved itself to be a strategy for no Revolutionary socialists would fight protect those interests." lonial countries are incapable of com­ revolution at all. It is a strategy for for full equality for women in all Just in case the message hadn't pleting the bourgeois-democratic revo­ defeat. sections of the goveriiment, trade gotten across, Prof. Samuel William­ lution. That task had to be unions, and the worker and peasant son emphasized that U.S. troops and accomplished by the workers and pea­ Africa committees. ships would have unrestricted access sants. For the past thirty years, Africa has A workers government in Angola to the canal for at least the next Cuba took the path of permanent been seething with revolt. In Algeria, would seek to extend the revolution by twenty-three years. revolution. It proved that socialist Egypt, Zanzibar, Guinea, Kenya, and giving material and political support The first questioner from the au­ revolution was possible in colonial Ghana, mass revolts played a big role to the struggle against the white settler dience, speaking for the Young Social­ countries. in winning formal independence. regimes in Zimbabwe, Namibia, and ist Alliance, denounced the treaty as a Yet in none of these countries did the South Africa. violation of the Panamanians' right to Popular Unity in Chile petty-bourgeois nationalist leaderships It would arm the Angolan workers self-determination, and explained the Since World War II there have been of the liberation struggles prove capa­ and peasants to defend their interests undemocratic nature of the treaty many opportunities for socialist revolu­ ble of breaking with capitalism. Mter against imperialist intervention and plebiscite in Panama; which took place tions in colonial and semicolonial winning formal independence, these attempted capitalist restoration. in an atmosphere of repression, with countries. leaderships used their governmental This is the path of the permanent prominent opposition leaders exiled, Chile during President Salvador Al­ positions to foster the development of a revolution. The fight for socialist revo­ and without adequate time for full lende's Popular Unity government of domestic capitalist ruling class. lution is the only way to win real public discussion. 1970-73 is a case in point. Instead of embarking on the road of independence, self-determination, and About half the questioners from the The Chilean working class and pea­ completing the bourgeois-democratic social justice for Angola. floor, ~hether for or against the treaty, · santrY were straining to break the revolution, these new governments seemed to favor the idea that the shackles of imperialism and local capi­ imposed repression and bloody dicta­ Panamanians have the right to control talists. But they were betrayed by the torships on the workers and peasants. their own affairs. "We had no right to leaderships of the Communist and Today these capitalist regimes are be there in the first place!" one woman Socialist parties, which had no inten­ still closely tied to imperialism. Their FURTHER READING stated, although she mistakenly be­ tion of fighting for socialism. These economies exist solely for plunder by lieved the treaty to hi! a step forward parties sought to maintain at all costs imperialist corporations. Local capital­ for the Panamanians.UNC Prof. Jo­ their governmental bloc with the "pro­ ists rake off enough to ensure them- The Third International After Lenin seph Tulchin, editor of Latin American­ gressive" Chilean capitalists and selves a life of ease. · by Leon Trotsky. 348 pages, $3.45; Research Review, revealed the true "democratic" Chilean generals. The workers and peasants continue cloth, $10.00 essence of the treaties for the Pana­ The price demanded by the capital­ to eke out an existence and have very Angola: The Hidden History of manian people: "Personally, I find the ists, not surprisingly, was the main­ few, if any, democratic rights. Washington's War by Ernest Harsch difference to be totally illusory, though tainance of capitalism. The lesson the Cuban revolution and Tony Thomas. 160 pages, $2.45; in a technical sense, there may be a Through their struggles, the .Chilean holds for the Angolan masses is this: cloth, $9.00 difference for Latin American diplo­ masses won many gains during the· in order to kick out imperialism and mats and politicians. In terms of period of the Popular Unity govern­ institute thorough agrarian reform, the Marxism vs. Maoism: A Reply to the realpolitik, when push comes to shove, ment. They were unable, however, to workers must take the lead in making 'Guardian' by Tony Thomas. $.60 the U.S. will defend its interests no develop an alternative leadership to a socialist revolution. matter what."

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 21 In Review / '

'Cadence: serious about jazz & blues Cadence. The American Review of Jazz & Blues. Route 1, Box 345, Redwood, New York 13679. Sample copy one dollar. Twelve issues, eight dollars. Outside USA, ten dollars.

Cadence is a forty-eight-page "unslick" jazz and blues magazine. It is put. out on a four-figure shoestring budget by Bob and Kathy Rusch. The magazine was started nearly three years ago on "$1,000, a wing, and a prayer," Bob Rusch, a former Downbeat staff writer, told me. Now Cadence is simply the best magazine in the field. It features interviews, oral histories, news, and complete coverage of the entire record scene. Rusch says, "We respect all serious areas out of the Black musical heritage." Rusch discussed his background: "I've been inter­ ested in jazz all my life. When I was a teen-ager, I Rusch wrote for Jazz Digest and Jazz Journal as Many of these independent labels are owned by used to hang out around Birdland, Cafe Bohemia, well as Downbeat. He says that in the sixties, a lot the artists themselves. They have been messed over of valid music was not covered by the press. creatively-and financially-by the big companies. He wrote reviews on this new music, but Down­ . Rusch pays special attention to them, writing _Periodicals beat wouldn't print them. about them in a Cadence column called "Speaking In one review Rusch wrote that a date by saxo­ My Piece." phonist Sonny Stitt sounded as if it were made Cadence also gives a lot of space to European and and the whole bit. I was a 'gofer.' I used to go to solely for the money. Stitt earlier admitted to Japanese imports. "Some of the best music is on recording sessions, and I'd just tag onto any musi­ having sometimes made money dates in the past. these labels, and the public can learn about their cian. It's a fact of life in the music business. But Down­ existence in few places," Rusch says. Many record "I was always interested in jazz. I began collect­ beat frowned on Rusch's honesty and refused to stores are now stocking this material, and much of ing jazz literature and amassed-which is the best print his review. So Rusch quit. it is distributed through the New Music Distribution word for it, I guess-and indexed the largest collec­ Downbeat wants to do favors for big label adver­ Service and Record People in New York City. tion of English jazz literature in the world. tisers who are spending $3,000 on full-page ads, he Rusch comments that, paradoxically, it is possi­ "I did that for many years and ran a jazz was later told by Dan Morganstern, a central ble that the next big innovation in jazz might be bibliographical service. All that meant was if people Downbeat and jazz world figure, who also quit the made by a white European. , · wanted research on something, I could go to my magazine. Cadence is chock full. It recently printed inter­ indexed files and whip out a card on Sidney Bechet Rusch says that at Cadence, record producers views with Ray Charles, Ray Coniff, and Ella or Lee Wiley or something and give you all the don't have to "grease· any palms to get a good Fitzgerald, to name a few better-known jazz person­ articles, discography, chapters, and books, or any­ review.... We call them the way we see them.... ages. A good book or two could be made if a thing else on them in any English magazine or That kind of corruption is not useful to anyone, publisher reprinted the rich and fascinating oral book from 1919 to 1973." especially the artist, who depends on feedback for histories Cadence has carried. The fine Schomberg Library in Harlem acquired growth and development." "You'll find things about the Jazz and Blues Rusch's collection of 6,000 indexed magazines. Rusch believes that most serious work, from scene in Cadence you won't find in any. other Lincoln Center and the Smithsonian said they too Eubie Blake to Andrew White, from ragtime to magazine in the world," a promotional flier claims. were interested in his collection, but it was the hard­ avant-guarde, is coming out on independent labels, "If you are serious about Jazz and Blues interest we pressed Schomberg that was willing to pay Rusch not on those of the big record companies-and think you'll like Cadence.'' what the magazines had cost-not counting the two therefore is ignored by mass-circulation jazz maga­ I agree. years of labor it had tak~n him to index them. zines such as Downbeat. Check it out for yourself. -Michael Smith

'Experience of a Soviet' psychiat~ist' · .. Labour Focus on Eastern Europe. A Socialist nc treatment m the US~R. . Pohsh a.u~horities rel~a~ed. the_ last remaimng Defence Bulletin on Eastern Europe and the' • The Klymchuk Affair. Helen Jamieson reports workers Jailed for participatiOn m the successful USSR Bottom Flat 116 Cazenove Road Lon- on the case of Andy Klymchuk who, as a British strikes and demonstrations against price rises in don f.J 16, England: Nine issues per ye'ar for tourist in the Ukra~ne in ~ugust 1977: was arr.ested June 1976. The au~h?rities simultaneous!~ released rn . d II s for allegedly carrymg wntten matenals hostile to members and activists of the Workers Defence 1 een ° ar · the Soviet government. Committee . . . who had been arrested after the A Labour Focus editorial denounces the antiso- death of the Krakow student activist, Stanislaw The September-October 1977 issue (number four) cialist and antidemocratic nature of a government Pyjas in May." of this useful magazine includes such features as: which considers it a state offense simply to possess Peter Green describes how this victory reveals the • "Experiences of a Soviet Psychiatrist" by Dr. critical literature. It warns that the Kremlin may crisis confronting the bureaucratic rulers in Poland. Marina V oikhanskaya. try to use the Klymchuk case to raise the specter of The militancy of the workers, students, and Voikhanskaya spent thirteen years working in "foreign agents" as a pretext to launch a new intellectuals~and the support they have from the various Leningrad psychiatric hospitals. In 1973, crackdown on dissent in the Ukraine. workers and students movements in Europe-have she states, "I discovered . that in section 8 of my • Czechoslovakia. Document Number 12 of the so far made it impossible for the bureaucrats to hospital, the section for the most seriously dis­ Charter 77 group is reprinted, describing the impose their austerity plans. turbed, there w~s a man who was quite sane-an impoverishment of literary work in Czechoslovakia Labour Focus also features a document by a artist who had been put there by the KGB. I visited due to the bureaucratic tightening since 1969. Silesian miner in Poland on the pervasive viola- him almost everyday over a period of several For example, the Union of Czech Writers, estab- tioris by officials of safety and health regulations in months and l can say confidently that he was in no lished in June 1968, had nearly 400 members. It was the Polish coal mines as the bureaucracy tries to need whatsoever of hospitalization.'' banned after the Soviet invasion in August 1968 enforce speedup in coal production. Because of her protests against such practices and replaced by an approved writers union, which and her refusal to collaborate with them, Voikhans­ had 40-50 members at first and now has 164. Thus, • Yugoslavia. The "Praxis Group" of dissident kaya herself became the target of KGB investiga­ only 164 Czech writers have permission to be Marxist philosophers in Zagreb has issued a tions. She was ostracized and finally demoted. She published and function as writers in the entire document, "The Meaning of the Struggle for Civil now lives in England where she continues to country! and Human Rights," the text of which is printed in campaign against political repression in the USSR. In the late 1960s, there were numerous literary Labour Focus. Supporters of this school of philo­ Labour Focus contains the text of Voikhans­ ·journals (seventeen are named in the document). sophy, which has existed since the 1960s, have been kaya's speech to the 1977 World Psychiatric These have all been abolished and replaced by one under persistent attack by the Tito government. Association Congress in Honolulu. She played an literary monthly. · However, because they have broad support in instrumental role in persuading delegates there to • Poland. "On 24 July, after a widespread Yugoslavia and abroad, they have not been arrest­ pass a resolution condemning the abuse of psychiat- campaign of protests inside Poland and abroad, the ed. -Marilyn Vogt

22 World Outlook

Workers' UQ.surge in Romania Regime uses troops against coal miners By David Frankel more and better food, clothing. A new Recently, reports on the biggest pension law was published quickly working class protest in Romania even though it was never formally since the establishment of the Stalinist approved. But within two weeks, that regime there at the end of World War II was all over. Then the troops came." have begun to filter out of the country. By September 1, at least 2,000 Although the biggest action was a - soldiers had moved into the Jiu Valley. strike by mine workers in the Jiu The entire area was declared a "prohi­ Valley in August, other protests were bited area," and communications with reported in September in textile mills other parts of the country were cut off. at Brasov and in the huge "August 23 When Andelman went to the Jiu Heavy Machine Factory" in Buchar­ Valley in November, it was still being est. patrolled by troops. However, things The protests began August 1 in the had calmed down enough for Ceauses­ coal mining town of Lupeni. According cu to visit the area earlier that month. to a November 21 dispatch from During that visit, he had himself Lupeni by New York Times corres- named an honorary miner. . pondent David A. Andelman: Additional information on the events "Although only about 580 miners in Romania appeared in the November regularly go into the pit at Lupeni and 28 issue of the French Trotskyist daily, 5,000 work above ground, by the end of Rouge. An interview with Paul Goma, the strike's first day, more than 35,000 a leading Romanian dissident, ap­ workers from dozens of surrounding peared in that issue. mines and towns had poured into the The last part of that interview, in village, spilling across the town which Goma comments on the workers square, down the side streets and up movement in Romania, follows. toward the hills." According to an earlier report by Anca Mihailescu in the October 27 * * * Goma; What's really bad in Romania issue of the British Trotskyist weekly an ons Socialist Challenge, the strike was is to see how the government has open widespread opposition among Romanian workers. touched off by a government an­ contempt for the working class, per­ nouncement in July that miners' haps even more than in Poland or pensions would, be reduced by 30 . Czechoslovakia. The most cynical tractor and truck plants, there were most militant strikers. And yet, among percent beginning in January 1978. , measure they took was last year, when uprisings in which the workers ·de­ the Western workers' parties, particu­ Other demands of the strikers in­ Ceausescu named the same person stroyed machines and wrote, "Dowp larly the Italian, Spanish, and French cluded better working conditions, free minister of labor and president of the with Ceausescu," "We want workers' CPs, or the trade unions, we did not see unions. It's unbelievable. That's not movement of workers, improved food rights," "We are trade unionil!~ts. where the slightest statement of support supplies, a six-hour working day, even cynicism, it's foolishness. is the trade union?" and so on. That parallel to those made by the French retirement at age fifty, and ab()lition of The workers don't have even a token was in 1976. But even this year, after General Confederation of Labor, for unpaid compulsory labor. means of defense. They are entirely at . our movement was crushed, and after example, after the Ursus and Radom When initial efforts to disperse the the mercy of the state plan and the the repression of the miners, signs of events in Poland. This silence was not way it is carried out. Sometimes miners by force failed, the authorities discontent were shown. At the August surprising~ given the special relations sent two members of the Central workers do not get paid for four or five 23 steel mills, the largest ones in between the Bucharest regime and the Committee of the Romanian Commu­ months, even if the setback in the plan Bucharest, at the port of Constantsa, so-called "Eurocommunist" CPs. What nist Party to the strike area. However, is not their fault but results from an and at the Galatz steel combine, party is your view of this? the miners detained them and demand­ earlier stage of production. officials were jeered and even jostled. With respect to the unions, Roman­ ed to meet with President Nicolae The most well-known of those roughed A. It's true that in Romania, unlike Ceause86U in exchange for their re- ians are beginning to say that they are up was General Dinca, the mayor of what is happening in other Eastern lease. · experiencing more and more of the Bucharest, who was slapped and spat European countries, the influence of When Ceausescu arrived on August drawbacks of the capitalist system and upon by the workers at the August 23 Eurocommunism on the dissidents is fewer and fewer of the advantages of a 3, Mihailescu reports, the strikers plant. practically nil. socialist system. During the "Stali­ shouted, "Down with the proletarian We do not know the content of the nist" period, vacations at the seashore bourgeoisie." Nevertheless, the presi­ Q. But the best-organized movement discussions that took place a little or in the mountains were free for dent promised that some of the de­ was the miners' strike in August 1977? more than .a month ago between workers mands of the strikers would be met, and their families, as were Verdrets and the French CP delegation A. They revived a form of organiza­ and the miners agreed to return to health care and medicine. This in no that went to Bucharest.. That would work. longer the case. There is a charge for tion almost a century old, the "council of elders." Of the thirteen members of have been interesting, because Ver­ "For two weeks, things did improve," everything, except in cases of syphilis drets was the one in charge of repress­ this council, elected by the strikers, a one miner told Andelman. "There was or tuberculosis. ing the miners. It's interesting to see how our move­ majority were party members. The If I were malicious, I would say that ment, which strike was very sober and disciplined. wasn't as organized as in the French CP could have put this Poland or Czechoslovakia, has snow­ They didn't let themselves get carried away by anger. This sector of the meeting to good use to prove to the balled, and how workers have become entire world · that it is prepared to a large part of it. working class has some of the strong­ est traditions in Romania, going back honor its election promises. For us Romanians, it's a disgrace Q. How do you explain this? to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The that the Romanian CP sent as a great strike of 1929 was led by one of A. Their courage can be explained these "councils of elders." representative someone who was up to his ears in the repression against the by the fact that they have less to lose When Ceausescu arrived, three days than the intellectuals. In case of later, the workers asked him how much miners. But the French CP should not repression, the disruption in their he made-the official wage scale in have ignored the role that Verdrets lives-unless they are imprisoned­ Romania is from one to five. "Even if played. Was there a Communique in would be less than for someone who you make five times as much as we do, rHumanite [French CP daily], some was president of the Writers' Union we want to know how Mrs. Elena statement on the miners' strike? and who finds himself out of a job. Ceausescu can have so many furs, When the .repression started, the which she wore ·walking through the Q. No, nothing. workers were the ones who were ruins of the earthquake. A. Well, then, if there was nothing, treated the worst. Paraschive, a worker "After the earthquake, you see, the it was complicity. If the Eurocommu­ who has fought for ye.ars to restore Ceausescus were shown on television nists want to take their distance from democracy in the CP, was tortured. several times a day in one or another repression in Eastern Europe, the They poured wood alcohol down the part of the city, giving orders for the French CP should have taken "its throat of Mihail, another worker. rebuilding work, and each time the TV distance from the Romanian CP. showed that Elena Ceausescu was Knowing the Romania government's Q. Have there been movements in wearing a diff(ilrent fur. sensitivity about its reputation, we see Romania demanding that the unions , what importance such statements act like unions, demanding greater Q. Four thousand miners' families, could have, especially since they would democracy in the party, and so on? about 16,000 persons, were expelled not be coming from sectors that the GOMA: 'The government has open A. Prior to 1977, there were already fr.om the Jiu valley after the strike. We Romanian government could classify contempt for the working class.'. signs of discontent. In Brashov, in the have no information on the fate of the as e~emies of the working class.

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 23 World Outlook

been trying to channel the unrest of the rank and file by issuing demands · for wage increases. However, the strike was called and maintained by going around and against the union leadership. From the very beginning, the bureaucracy tried Workers win big wage increases to call off militant actions. But the activity of the ranks themselves out­ side the union structures brought the unions to life and enabled the workers Argentine junta. backs down to utilize these instruments­ unquestionably the only ones that yet exist-to coordinate and carry through the struggle. -in face of spreading strikes Assemblies of rank-and-file workers and workers delegates were held, By D. Marcelo , · where the bureaucracy was voted down From Perspectiva Mundial time and time again. This is whflt BUENOS AIRES-Beginning . in made it possible for the conflict to mid-October, important sectors of the continue to spread rapidly and on the working class began to enter into initiative of the workers themselves. struggle, despite a plethora of antila­ Caught between two fires, the bureau­ bor laws and fierce repression. cracy, which was openly trying to stop These mobilizations were preceded the strike, was often forced by the rank by several months of multiplying and file to help them in their struggle. conflicts, which were of varying scope This contradiction in the role of the but were always limited in their extent. bureaucracy had to be resolved quickly They remained isolated and were because the stakes were high and prevented from making -any broader because signs were already appearing impact by the censorship and self­ that the walkouts were developing into censorship of the entire press. Many of a general strike. (The workers in these ·little wars, however, resulted in private mass-transit companies began some victories for the workers, at least to carry out isolated strikes, and other as regards one aspect of their unions of state workers began to struggle-the fight for higher wages. demand wage increases.) Moreover, during the nineteen months of military rule the true face of Junta's dilemma the dictatorship's economic program However, the government was in a has been revealed. In the last quarter, dilemma. If it cut off the "dialogue," the phony arguments used by the throwing all its repressive force regime in its attempts to conceal the against the workers, as the minister of continuing acceleration of an already finance suggested, that would mean high rate of inflation were exploded by abandoning any attempt to reconsti­ economic reality. By the end of Sep­ tute an effective union bureaucracy. tember, according to the government's On the other hand, if it agreed to a own statistics, real wages had fallen to sizable wage hike, that would mean not show up for work Monday [October 60% of their March 1976 level. During Ferroviaria (Railway Workers Union), giving up the attempt to balance the 17] would be automatically fired, the month of October, the official index which organizes yard workers and is budget, letting inflation run rampant, without the right to compensation of of the price of an average worker's under military trusteeship; and the opening the door to big increases in ·any kind. This was to be done on the "market basket" rose by 14%. Fraternidad (Brotherhood), which or­ wage levels in all sectors, and, in a basis of Law 21.400, also known as the Discontent began to be expressed ganizes conductors and. guards. The nutshell, altering its entire economic "Industrial Security Act," under which openly in the unions, especially among strike spread to the five other lines and policy, which could not be done with­ workers can be dismissed and given public-sector and civil-service workers. did not remain confined to the capital out bringing on a political crisis. sentences of up to nine years in prison At the same time, various sectors of but extended to the country's other The government split over which for the simple act of joining together to the bourgeoisie itself began an uncon­ main rail centers. road to take, giving the strikers some cealed campaign against the excessive make a demand on a boss or backing Two days later, the five subway lines breathing space. The bureaucracy greed of the financial interests, whose up such a demand by a show of in Suenos Aires joined the strike. proved powerless to control the rank strength. major representative in the country, Other unions of workers employed by and file, and this rang an alarm bell in Martinez de Hoz, runs the Ministry of Although the workers were forced to the government joined in the struggle, the minds of the bourgeois ideologues. call off their strike, it lasted for four Finance. · including the ground crews of the The ultraconservative daily of the days and broke through the curtain of airlines and 350 pilots, who threatened English-speaking community, the Bue­ silence in the national press. Renault strike to resign en masse. nos Aires Herald, which uncondition­ In mid-October, the IKA-Renault Furthermore, the IKA-Renault In Rosario, in addition to the railway ally backed the minister of finance, workers in Cordoba demanded a 50% workers won a wage increase bigger workers, the workers in the National described the situation in stark terms wage increase. The bosses countered than that initially offered by the Grain Board operations, the water and in its October 30 issue: with an offer of 15%. The workers company, and many of those who had electrical utilities, and on the docks rejected this and began a sit-down been fired were reinstated. The man­ went out on strike, along with The railway union leaders, such as heads strike. The next day the army came agement in a number of auto plants in members of the Association of Govern­ of the Railway Workers Union, the Brother­ hood, and the Switchmen's Association, into the factory and forced them back Greater Buenos Aires tried to head off ment Workers. similar mobilizations by granting were not behind this strike, and to hear to work at bayonet point. In the face of this widespread explo­ them tell it, they do not support it. This may In one section of the plant, in an raises of up to 40%. sion, the government was paralyzed. be a tribute to these labor leaders' sense or' obvious provocation, an officer lec­ However, the main thing was that in Its internal contradictions came out "responsibility," but it is not necessarily a · tured the workers, telling them that the Cordoba conflict, the workers had into the open, and the. press reported -good sign. If even the most respected union they ought to obey their superiors and managed to force their way back onto clashes between the ministers of labor leaders, backed up by the massive weight of not demand wage increases, just as the streets and had raised the perspec­ and finance. the military government with its arbitrary. soldiers do not go on strike for higher tive of strikes in defense of wages for On October 30, in its regular Sunday antistrike legislation, cannot keep the wages. the entire country. commentary, the army general staff workers on the job, then things have taken The reaction was immediate. All Confronted with worker ui:uest and said: "Let us think carefully. Natural a bad turn.... The long delay in carrying out a reform of the trade-union movement is sorts of projectiles began to rain on the demands by the trade-union bureau­ and foreseeable differences of opinion dangerous. officer, and a pitched· battle broke out. crats, the National Telephone Com­ . . . must not lead us into head-on The military, needless to say, did not pany granted an increase in real confrontations, from which it will be After four days out on strike, the hesitate to open fire. The tragic result wages (by means of various bonuses) difficult to pull back." railway workers went back to work was that four workers were killed. of 100%. In other words, the military was because the bosses promised to grant Although news of this event was In the rail industry, workers' base trying to make a deal with the union their demands. The subway workers, totally blacked out by the press, even pay was 2.6 million pesos a month, or bureaucracy by offering wage in­ however, voted in an assembly to in the city of Cordoba itself, the US$52 at the prevailing rate of ex­ creases of 20% to 25%. But in this continue their strike as long as neces­ 'workers responded with a massive change. In the context of the other widening strike, the bureaucracy had sary to win their demands. walkout. The next day, October 14, struggles starting up, a railway strike little chance of being able to exercise Meanwhile, of course, the repression they came to work, punched in, and broke out. The main demand was for a any control. was at work. There were arrests, immediately left the plant. Without minimum wage of 10 million pesos. Of course, the Coordinating Commit­ kidnappings, and murders. But the any legal organization and facing tee of Public Employee Unions, set up step to be expected in such a situation, ruthless repression, 6,000 workers Spontaneous walkout a few months ago by the bureaucracy the drafting of the workers into the mobilized en masse and in a united A spontaneous work stoppage by the to fill the void left when the Confedera­ army, was not taken. way. smallest union in the industry, the cwn General del Trabajo (CGT­ Moreover, the repressive measures The next day, the bosses, backed up switchmen, on just one line in the General Confederation of Labor) was · that were resorted to proved to be by the minister of labor, announced in national capital, spread immediately put under military trusteeship, could counterproductive. A worker urging his the daily papers that anyone who did to the other two unions-the Union not entirely fail to play a role. It has fellow workers on the General Roca

24 World news. notes line to continue to struggle was mur­ Unexpected wage concessions by the dered. The result was that the line did government were combined with selec­ not accept the government's offer of a tive but bloody repression. Coercion Rhodesian torturers in action 40% raise and resumed the strike. was brought to bear by means of Law Torture is just part of a day's work for Rhodesian troops fighting to maintain After staying out on an all-out strike 21.400. Finally, the concessions gave white-minority rule. Further proof of the methods used to try to' terrorize the for five days, the subway workers had the bureaucracy a basis for regaining Black majority has been produced by Associated Press photographer J. Ross agreed to return to work, just to comply control over the workers. Baughman. with the formal requirement that the At the outset, the militancy of the Baugham, who convinced the commander of a Rhodesian cavalry unit to take ·increase not be . granted under the workers swept over the obstacles him_ along on a patrol, says he saw the troops loot, bum down the huts of pressure of labor action. Then, when placed in their way by the bureaucra­ African villagers, beat a Black politician, and torture his wife and daughter. they heard about the arrest of some of cy. The momentum of this upsurge Although much of Baughman's film was either confiscated or spoiled by their comrades, they immediately went made it possible for the workers to Rhodesian authorities, he managed to smuggle some photographs out of the out again en masse. Nor did the utilize the unions in their mobilization. country. One shows a youth with a noose around his neck. The other end was kidnapping of a leader of the light and But the absence of independent organi­ tied to a soldier's saddle. The captive was forced to run behind the horse or be· power workers intimidate the 2,400 zation and a revolutionary political dragged. members of this union who had called leadership gave the dictatorship and a seventy-two-hour strike in Rosario. the bureaucracy the advantage they On Wednesday, November 2, the needed to regain control. struggle had been going on for eight Despite all the shortcomings, there is days, and railway workers all over the not a shadow of a doubt that the country had gone back on strike after outcome of this struggle was a re­ rejecting the government's offer. It was sounding Victory for the strikers and at this time that the minister of the for the working class as a whole. interior-for the first time in njneteen The dictatorship had summarily months-clamped down prior censor­ rejected wage increases for state ship on the entire press. This was to workers. It ended up having to grant prevent publication of the rumor going increases that in many cases, counting around in leading circles that the increments in family allowances, went r~signation of Martinez de Hoz had as high as 60%, with the promise of been called for. additional increases within two months. Big gains for workers Such a settlement represents a mor­ The minister of finance did not tal blow to the dictatorship's economic resign. But the price he paid to keep plan. Most important, however, is the his position was to abandon his own political result of the battle. economic plan. It had become impossi­ ble to hold the line any longer. Capitalists unhappy _The state oil workers, private oil In fighting for a decent wage, the workers, retail and warehouse clerks, workers had to confront the dictator­ Marcos orders new show trial and post-office employees were all ship, to challenge all its laws and Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos has ordered a new trial for his beginning to plan actions. Two private question the authority of the military principal bourgeois opponent, former Sen. Benigno Aquino, Jr. Aquino's case mass-transit lines essential for bring­ government. And they did this so drew international attention when he was sentenced to death by a military· ing workers into the capital city had massively and with such power that court November 25 on trumped-up charges of subversion, murder, and illegal been shut down. they took even . the most farseeing · possession of firearms. Municipal workers walked off the bourgeois leaders by surprise. The frame-up was particularly embarrassing to the U.S. government, which is job, raising demands that must have "This development should open up a in the middle of negotiations with Marcos for a new agreement on American struck fear into the government and new period of reflection about the military bases. Clark Air Force Base and the Subic Bay Naval Base-the two the bosses. They called for a minimum course of the Process of National largest U.S. military bases in the world outside of the fifty states-are both in wage of 10 million pesos, restitution of Reorganization," La Naci6n said. the Philippines. social services, legal recognition of "It was the workers who won this shop stewards assemblies, and rehir­ test of strength," the Buenos Aires New 'homeland' set up in S. Africa ing of laid-off workers as well as Herald lamented. On December 6 the South African regime declared the independence of defense of jobs. "A new element will have to be taken BophuthaTswana, the second Black "homeland" established by the racist The government, which had already into account in drawing the picture of government in Pretoria. announced a 100% increase in family Under its apartheid scheme, the Process of National Reorganiza­ 0 allowances, granted wage raises of 38% tion," said Clarin. the South Mrican government to 43% to all the striking unions. It "An irreversible process has begun," plans to set aside 13 percent of promised another big raise within La Opinion said. "The collective­ the poorest land in the country sixty days and no reprisals. At the for the 80 percent of the bargaining mechanism has started population that is Black. As same time, it began to enforce Law functioning again to determine wage 21.400, as it had been threatening to "independence" for the var­ adjustments." ious Black enclaves is de­ from the very beginning but had not This is only the beginning for the clared, the African· population yet dared do. workers. The dictatorship is still on the will be deprived of even formal Pockets of resistance remained. The offensive, and will continue to press its citizenship in the white areas railway-yard workers in Rosario tried advantage. But the first political result of South Africa. to keep up the struggle. But most of this battle is going to be that the Thus, 1.5 million people of workers went back to their jobs. Left government will move more quickly to the Xhosa nation living in isolated, the Rosario workers called off conclude agreements with the union white areas can be deported at their strike, following a tumultuous bureaucracy and to "reorganize" the whim to the Transkei "home­ mass meeting. The walkout had lasted workers movement. land," set up more than a year ago. twenty-four hours. New and growing possibilities are More than half the Tswanas in South Mrica-a total of 1.27 million persons­ going to open up for the working class The limits of spontaneous action by have been put in a similar position. Although they live and work in white areas· the rank-and-file workers had been to reorganize its forces independently and many have never even seen their supposed "homeland," they now have reached. A whole series of moves by and to fight the dictatorship every inch citizenship only in the six ·separate pieces of land that make up BophuthaTswa- the government and the union bureau­ of the way for its democratic rights. na. cracy combined to bring the struggle to Along with this, there will be greater a halt before it could develop into a opportunities to build the revolution­ Three million demonstrate in Spain general sttjke. ary party of the working class. More that· 3 million people demonstrated across Spain for home rule in various regions December 4, according to a UPI dispatch from Madrid. One person was killed and dozens injured in the southern city of Malaga when police attacked the protesters. The police attack ocurred after some of the more than 200,000 ma,rchers in that city took down government flags from buildings. The huge size of the demonstrations was particularly significant since they were centered in Andalusia in the South and Galicia in the Northwest, rather than in the more politically turbulent Basque country and Catalonia Galicia in particular has long been viewed as a conservative stronghold. The Spanish regime has already been forced to grant limited autonomy for Catalonia, an oppressed nation with a population of 7 million. Negotiations on home rule for the Basque country, another oppressed nation, began two months ago. Yugoslav regime frees some dissidents The Yugoslav government has declared an amnesty that will result in release or reduced sentences for 218 political prisoners. Mihajlo Mihajlov, the best­ known Yugoslav dissident, was released November 26 as a result of the

. .~"' .~ . ~-··f'\\:-L~ amnesty. He had been serving a seven-year prison sentence for publishing ng auto workers in Buenos Aires in January 1976. Recent strike wave was first articles abroad that were critical of Yugoslavia's dictatorial regime. since dictatorship came to power in March 1976. "I do not intend to be quiet," he told reporters upon his releruie.

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 25 World Outlook

Mexico: trade unionist explains crisis facing working people By Alberto Rodriguez This crisis . has affected Mexico percentage by which the buying power From Perspectiva Mundial through the devaluation [of the peso in of a worker's salary is cut. In addition, [The following interview with Alonso 1976] and the flight from our country this devaluation takes place together Bassanetti was /obtained at the Na­ of $4 billion. And also because of a with a policy of freezing wages, while tional Chicano/Latino Conference on mistaken economic policy of give­ prices are free to rise since the govern­ Immigration and Public Policy held in aways to transnational enterprises, of ment has no effective control over San Antonio October 28-30. giveaways to imperialism. prices. [Bassanetti is work secretary of the This has meant such a sharpening of Under these conditions it is easy to national executive committee of the the economic crisis that each day it see that twenty pesos used to buy a Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores del becomes more difficult for Mexicans to given quantity of milk, sugar, etc., but Instituto Nacional de Energia Nuclear subsist. Each day there is a larger now you are going to be able to buy (Union of Workers of the National work force but fewer jobs. Each day less than half as much with those Nuclear Energy Institute), an affiliate the gap between what workers demand same twenty pesos. And, despite this, of the Tendencia Democratica del and what is offered widens. salaries remain the same, so not only Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores Elec­ At present in our country, taking as do you have to do without new clothes, tricistas de la Republica Mexicana (TD an example the situation in Mexico without secondary necessities, but also Me;~an ng del SUTERM-Democratic Tendency City, there has been since the devalua­ the capacity to obtain food, of subsist­ Inflation has hit poor hardest of the Union of Electrical Workers of tion an unemployment rate of 40 ing, is reduced. the Republic of Mexico). percent. That is, nearly half the These cases are very dramatic. what is being done is to issue dema­ [Bassanetti attended the conference population of Mexico that could be Health indicators such as the index of gogic declarations that undoubtedly do as a representative of the Frente working is unemployed. digestive illnesses, of anemia, etc., not contribute to solving the problem. Nacional de Acci6n Popular (FNAP­ have risen, which is truly alarming. In many cases, these are merely National Front for People's Action), Q. Could you give us an example of I want to emphasize that what I'm official declarations that look to shore one of the most important opposition­ the conditions facing the Mexican talking about here are unionized up Mexico's position in relation to ist groupings in Mexico. people today? workers, workers who have an instru­ possible aggressions from the United [Bassanetti has not had an oppor­ ment they can use to defend them­ A. Well, you can see truly grave and States against Mexico over certain tunity to check his comments.] selves. dramatic phenomena. In the streets, advantageous contracts. Now imagine the conditions of those you find not only children but also For example, a discussion on the workers who aren't organized-the grown-ups cleaning the windshields of export of natural gas from Mexico to great majority of farm workers and the Question. What is the reason for cars, or offering t'o do any kind of favor the United States and the building of a your participation in this conference? to earn a few pesos [One peso equals great majority of urban workers. The reason for the emigration of pipeline to do this is on the agenda. 4.4 U.S. cents]. The number of robber­ Of course, the Mexican government Answer. The organizations that ies and crimes is growing as a result of workers from Mexico is that right now belong to the Frente Nacional de the country is unable to guarantee is looking out for its interests, is the''conditions present in the country. looking to get the best agreement Acci6n Popular were invited to partici­ And, on the other hand, far from them subsistence. pate and to support this conference. It possible for the gas pipeline and the offering any solution to these prob­ financing of the project. was decided to participate and I was lems, the government responds only Q. Could you tell us what is being sent as a representative. done in Mexico to oppose the Carter That is, all these declarations, all the with demagogy, which-~ven if it government does and says about the Basically we are trying to give our sounds very radical-is totally incapa­ plan on immigration? point of view about the problem of the immigrants have political motives. ble of solving these economic problems A. In reality, what is being done is undocumented Mexican workers here These are different from the motives that become social and political prob­ very little since the independent that one should really have when and at the same time to establish much lems. more stable ties of solidarity than workers movement ~nd the indepen­ dealing with this problem. dent mass movement are just begin­ Nevertheless, we believe the problem those which presently exist. Q. I'd like you to say some more on ning to learn about the problem. -is one affecting workers. And from this question since it deserves much Contact between people on both sides that point of view, what's needed is Q. Why are Mexican workers forced consideration. Could you go deeper of the border is indispensable, since solidarity and collaboration on both to emigrate to this country? into the situation the Mexican people this is a problem that is common to sides of the border. It is necessary to are living through, showing us one A. This fact is characteristic of both sides. And this contact is just establish a common front of struggle, concrete case. Mexico. It results from the economic beginning to happen through this since only this can guarantee a real crisis that affects the Western world­ A. Well, the problem of the devalua­ conference. and permanent solution to the prob­ a crisis that affects most critically the tion is the fundamental one, and it As to the official movement, which lem. Without such a common front, Third World countries, the underdeve­ means the following: The percentage we really shouldn't call movement but we'll always remain in the same situa­ loped countries. by which our money is devalued is the rather state control of the movement, tion.

said he had shot the former colonial governor and the governor's aide in ~P-ression in Bermuda 1973 as a protest against the "evilness and wickedness" of colonial rule. Browne-Evans, who served as Tack­ lyn's lawyer, condemned the rule of the Colonial regime calls in troops white minority, saying: "Repeatedly, in one form or another, the voice of the By David Frankel one of the condemned men, had filed was intensified by the double standard Bermudan people has fallen on deaf Bermuda's colonial regime was notice of her intent to appeal the of justice for Blacks and whites in the ears, and, in the Bermudan way, we forced to call on British troops De­ verdict to the Privy Council in London. colony. A campaign against capital have swept a backlog of sociological, cember 3 after two days of angry Anger among Blacks, who compose punishment led by the largely Black economic, and political inequities protests against the executions of two two-thirds of Bermuda's population, Progressive Labor Party in the week under a manicured facade to fester." Black men. Within twenty-four hours, prior to the executions included a Prime Minister David Gibbons, a the first of 260 battle-clad soldiers were petition with 13,128 signatures against wealthy white merchant and land­ flown into Bermuda, landing at a U.S. the death penalty. This amounts to owner, answered the charges made by Naval air station. nearly 24 percent of Bermuda's 55,000 Browne-Evans by referring in a De­ The executions-the first in Bermu­ people. cember 5 statement to the "high da in more than thirty years-were Nevertheless, the colonial govern-· standard of living" on the island. Even carried out at dawn on December 2 in ment went ahead with the hangings, more serious than the estimated $5 the British colony's 150-year-old Case­ described by opposition leader Lois million in property damage that oc­ mates prison. The job was done by a Browne-Evans as "barbaric" and "a curred during the protests, Gibbons hangman brought in specially from primitive act." said, "are the attempts to damage Britain. Both Tacklyn and Erskine Burrows, national unity and harmony.... " Bermudan authorities refused to the other convicted man, have been Meanwhile, hotels scheduled special issue a stay of execution despite the political activists. Although Tacklyn "rum swizzle" parties to take their fact that the lawyer for Larry Tacklyn, Chnst1an Science Monitor maintained his innocence, Burrows guests' minds off the events outside.

26 Books banned in witch-hunt Ger~~ny: ~two-fisted democracy' in action By Duncan Williams censorship as generously as possible, FRANKFURT, West Germany-At in the spirit of guaranteed freedom of its official opening, the Frankfurt Book opinion and information." To be cen­ Fair was announced as "a forum of sored are various "writings from East­ free thought." This year, it came only ern and Western publishers with na­ one month after the Moscow Book Fair tional socialist, socialist, and held in September. communist ideas." Participants in the Moscow fair were "Problematic" literature will be kept barred from bringing some books into in the storeroom, "somewhat removed the USSR. Other books were confiscat­ from the reach of the uncritical." ed at the fair itself. These events, of Books in this category can still be course, were widely publicized in the ordered from the catalog, but anyone capitalist press. attempting to do so should be asked in No books were seized at Frankfurt, for a discussion with the head librar­ but it can only be called the height of Ian. hypocrisy to talk about "a forum of Other uses of the law, as documented free thought" in West Germany today. by Hermann, include the armed seizure Under the slogan "No freedom for the of a book dn the Haymarket martyrs enemies of freedom!" the West German and the predawn arrest of the co-owner government is attacking the most and three employees of a Ttibingen fundamental democratic rights. bookshop, on the charge of "support­ ing a criminal conspiracy,'' because Police patrol exhibition the shop sold a book called Revolution­ At the official opening of the Frank­ ary Anger. furt Book Fair on October 12, Dr. The Berlin Buchladen-Kollektiv re­ German government is fostering police-state atmosphere Bernhard Vogel, minister president of ceives regular visits from the police, the Federal Republic of Germany, told who take with them any new titles that assembled publishers and authors, might be grounds for criminal prosecu­ "You can observe in these days and while on his way back from the fair. book distributor or bookseller must be tion. weeks how we take pains to fight They were all charged with· "support­ aware of the contents of every book The self-censorship forced on the terrorism with the means that our ing a terrorist conspiracy,'' because handled and must make a judgment as commercial and library distribution of liberal-democratic constitutional state, they printed INFOBUG (Information to whether each book violates some books has inexorably begun to reach to which considers itself a 'two-fisted of Berlin's Undogmatic Groups). section of the criminal code. book publishing as well. "The editors democracy,' has at its disposal." The situation is even worse for at Luchterhand Verlag deleted a pas­ Within days, book fair participants Watch what you print. .. libraries. Hermann quotes a secret sage of dialogue from their translation had the opportunity to sample the The government was not able to find memo circulated to employees of the of Regis Debray's autobiographical government's version of democracy. A the editors or authors of INFOB UG, so American Memorial Library in Berlin, novel The Individualist," writes Her­ brutal crackdown on leftist groups and they arrested the printers, claiming which has a collection of about 1 mann. individuals and a general dragnet that printers identify with the content million volumes. "It should be borne in At the fair, sixty-seven publishers throughout the country followed the of whatever they print. Yet according mind," the memo says, "that the from ten countries signed a protest hijacking of a Lufthansa airliner and to an appeal for support from thirteen Library as an institution cannot break declaration against "the severe restric­ the killing of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, bookshops and publishers in Berlin, the law, only individual librarians." In tion on the freedom. of thought and the West German businessman who the Agit collective has also printed case of a suspected incitement to expression brought about by legal had been kidnapped in September. material for the Lutheran church, the anticonstitutional activity, "the issu­ measures and by many less formal All facts suggest the government postal union, and other organizations ing librarian ... will be subject to pressures which inevitably arise from also arranged the "suicide" of Red for which they do not take responsibili­ criminal prosecution." these legal measures, creating a cli­ Army Faction members Andreas Baad­ ty. mate of fear and intolerance." er, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl In, Berlin, as in many places in the Raspe in Stammheim prison. world, there are hundreds of printers Forbidden books An international coordinating group But the government's operations who produce political, religious, or After examining the new criminal of the signers has been formed to also struck closer to home. For the first other material that they do not neces­ laws, the library administrators found gather information. For information time in the twenty-nine-year history of sarily even read, much less identify seven categories of books currently on the group and its activities, contact the book fair, armed police patrolled with. "legally forbidden" in West Germany. Jules Geller, Monthly Review Press, 62 the exhibition halls. They traveled in So the charge raises a bigger ques­ Accordingly, in the secret memo to West Fourteenth Street, New York, teams of two, one with a machine tion. Can a printer be held responsible employees they propose "to operate New York. pistol and the other with a device for for the content of what he or she detecting bombs. This was just the prints? The answer, in the Federal latest indication of the steadily mount­ Republic of Germany, is yes. ing repression in West Germany dur­ Paragraph 88a of the criminal code ing the past two years. makes anyone who "disseminates, German witch-hunt hits lawyer One of the first casualties of· the publicly exhibits, displays, performs, By Susan Wald the defense of his clients." goverment's "two fisted" struggle or otherwise makes accessible or pro­ From Intercontinental Press Neither the French nor West against "terrorism" has been freedom duces, procures, supplies, stocks, offers, Klaus Croissant, a West German German government has produced of the press, especially in book publish­ advertises, [or] praises ..." any mate­ lawyer well known for his defense of the slightest shred of evidence link­ ing. Two events during the fair illus­ rial deemed to promote "anticonstitu­ the democratic rights of members of ing Croissant to terrorist actions trate this fact: tional support for criminal actions" the Red Army Faction, was extradit­ carried out by the Baader-Meinhof On October 14 a house near Bonn, liable to prosecution. ed by French authorities at midnight group. the residence of several employees of This law has been in effect since on November 16. the pdw Verlag [progress dritte welt January 1976, when it passed the West Croissant was taken to Stam­ Croissant was arrested in Paris on Verlag-third world progress publish­ German parliament unanimously. In mheim prison to await trial on September 29 on the basis of a ers] was raided by the police, presuma­ its short life, it has already created an charges of "setting up and running a September 10 West German arrest bly in a search for "terrorists." unofficial self-censorship in the pub­ system of. communications among warrant accusing him of, among According to a press release from lishing and distribution of books. prisoners belonging to a criminal other things, being an accessory to pdw, a helicopter landed on a grassy An article by Kai Hermann in the organization." If convicted, he faces murder and genocide, including clearing next to the house while October 6 issue of the liberal weekly six months to five years in prison­ conspiracy to set off a nuclear explo­ approximately eighty policemen with magazine Stern details the situation: provided, of course, that he escapes siOn. machine pistols, helmets, and bullet­ Shipments of books have been becoming a "suicide" victim like The public prosecutor's office tacit­ proof vests cordoned off the street; the seized, and the drivers of the vans Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, ly admitted the phoniness of the10e door was then broken down and the have been held on charges of anticon­ Jan-Carl Raspe, and Ingrid Schu­ charges by basing its recommenda­ house searched. stitutional activity. Among the books bert. tion that Croissant be extradited on On the same day, pdw was cospon­ considered to constitute an incitement A storm of protest greeted the the lighter charge contained in an soring a forum at the book fair on anti­ to violence and an "armed breach of French government's decision to earlier warrant-that of aiding the Zionist literature in the Federal Repub­ the peace" are Charles Bettelheim's hand Croissant over to West Ger­ exchange of information among lic of Germany. The publishers charge Class Struggles in the USSR 1917- man authorities. On the evening of prisoners belonging to the Red Army that the raid on their employees' home 1923; a book on the independence November 18, 20,000 persons Faction. was because of their publication of struggle in Tanzania; and Franz Mehr­ marched in Paris. A November 18 editorial in Le books on the Palestinian struggle. ing's historical classics on eighteenth­ A representative of the Union of Monde said that the judges had and nineteenth-century German histo­ French Lawyers said that the court's based their decision on "a weighty On the last day of the fair, October ry. decision meant that "a lawyer has record, but one in which assump­ 17, thirteen members of Agit, a Berlin The vague wording of paragraph been handed over for having seen to tions replaced facts." printing collective, were arrested, one 88a, notes Hermann, means that any

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 27 Free the P.R. Nationalists/ Prisoner!ls dau hter tours U.S. cities By Jose G. Perez .During her talk, Collazo recounted More than 1,200 people attended the history of PUerto Rico's colonial meetings to hear Zoraida Collazo oppression, first under Spanish rule, during a speaking tour of northeastern then under North American domina­ U.S. cities in mid-November. tion. Collazo, daughter of one of the She explained the repressive cam­ imprisoned Puerto Rican Nationalists, paign that led to the 1950 proindepend­ spoke out for the release of her father ence rebellion and the armed. protests and his comrades. Her tour was in the United States for which the five organized by the U.S Committee to Nationalists were imprisoned. Free the Five Puerto Rican National­ She also appealed for support to the ists. U.S. Committee to Free the Five Puerto The five-Irving Flores, Lolita Le­ Rican Nationalists in its activities. br6n, Andres Figueroa Cordero, Oscar That committee, together with the Collazo, and Rafael Cancel Miranda­ Puerto Rican National Committee to were imprisoned in the early 1950s for Free the Nationalist Prisoners, is actions carried out in support of Puerto organizing a delegation to present Rican independence. President Carter with petitions de­ Earlier this fall, President Carter manding release of the remaining freed Andres Figueroa Cordero in the prisoners by Christmas. midst of mounting protests spurred by The delegation, which will be com­ reports that the prisoner had but weeks posed of prominent U.S. and Puerto to live. Figueroa Cordero suffers from Rican religious leaders from· varied incurable cancer. - denominations, will urge Carter to .. - grant the Nationalists a Christmas The four remaining in jail are the Militant/Benito Martinez, Jr. longest-held political prisoners in the ZORAJDA COLLAZO pardon. Western Hemisphere. Oscar Collazo, The delegation has asked. to meet who was imprisoned first, is now the with Carter around December 20. A longest-held prisoner of the federal Brunswick, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Rican protest singer Roy Brown. In vigil will be h~d outside the White government incarcerated on any and New York City. addition to Collazo, speakers were: House in support of the delegation charge. One high point of the tour was a Martin Sostre, a former political pri­ when it goes in to meet with Carter. rally held at Columbia University in soner; Annette Rubenstein, longtime For more information on the cam­ Zoraida Collazo's tour took her to New York on November 19. Some 225 civil libertarian; and Ruth Reynolds, a paign to free the Nationalists contact Storrs and New Haven, Connecticut; people attended, most of them Puerto pacifist who was imprisoned in Puerto the U.S. Committee at 80 Fifth Boston, Amherst, and -Northampton, Ricans or other Latinos. Rico for three years in the early 1950s Avenue, Room 1204, New York, New Massachusetts; Newark and New The meeting was led off by Puerto for her support to· independence. York 10011.

White j.M[¥ acce~ts insaniiY...P-Iea N.Y. cop gets away with murder of Black youth By Jose G. Perez After Evans's death there had been guilty plea on the basis of self-defense. bantering with Torsney's defense at­ New York cop Robert Torsney has protests, but these died down quickly. He said Evans had pulled a gun. No torney that at one point the judge told gotten away with murder. "Thank God you are alive, you are one else saw the gun. No gun was jurors to ignore the antics of "the On November 30, an all-white jury free," Brannon told the meeting. found. Sunshine Boys." declared Torsney not guilty, by reason "We've got to pull together if we're ever Then Torsney found himself a psy­ The prosecution had its own shrink of insanity, of killing a fifteen-year-old going to beat this system." chiatrist willing to testify on his who also said Torsney was mentally Black, Randolph Evans, in front of the The racist whitewash was so trans­ behalf. Still it took Dr. Daniel ill, but that his illness didn't quite fit housing project where Evans lived parent even the New. York Times Schwartz almost a year to come up the law on insanity defense. with his family in the East New York published an editorial saying they with a plausible diagnosis. section of Brooklyn. were "jolted" by it. The doctor said Torsney suffered Most cynical· of all involved ap­ "I wasn't surprised by the justice These are the facts of the case: from a rare form of epilepsy, "automa­ peared to be Dr. Schwartz, who the that was done," said May Jones, a Torsney and his partner answered a tism of Penfield," which he said makes New York Times described as having a cousin of Evans. "It's a racist system report of an armed man at the housing people do things they aren't aware of. reputation "as a kind of psychiatric and society, and this trial was a project where Evans lived. Finding Torsney has no history of epilepsy. hired gun, willing to provide expert subterfuge from beginning to end." nothing, they were leaving the build­ Tests of his brain activity don't reveal testimony for either side." By coincidence a memorial service ing when Evans and five others ap­ epilepsy. Schwartz admitted the diag­ "An insanity plea does not depend on the first anmversary of Evans's proached. nosis was uncertain because he's never on psychiatric testimony as much as it funeral took place the night the verdict Evans asked Torsney a question. seen Torsney in a seizure. The sole does on the likeability of the defendant was handed down. Some 200 communi­ Torsney put a bullet through Evans's basis for the conclusion is Torsney's and on whether the jury thinks he is a ty residents angrily discussed the head at point-blank range. Torsney claim that he thought Evans had a danger to the community," Schwartz verdict and how they could have calmly walked back to his patrol car, gun. Schwartz reasons that since told the Times. prevented it. ejected the spent cartridge and re­ Evans didn't have a · gun, Torsney Torsney will now go to a mental Annie Brannon, Evans's mother, was loaded. couldn't have known what he was hospital until he can prove he is no one of those who spoke. ''Where were When he heard Evans was dying, doing when he fired. longer a "danger to himself or the you when it was a lily-white court? Torsney cracked, "Those square-nosed The prosecutor played along with the community." That's expected to take You talk about pigs. You should have bullets will do it every time." game. He let the defense select an all­ sixty days, the minimum period he picketed the precinct." . At first Torsney was preparing a not- white jury, and spent so much time must be hospitalized. S.C. rally backs J.P. Stevens organizing drive By Linda Millwood ganizing committees of eleven plants Spartanburg and the rest of the South floor indicated sentiment for concen- SPARTANBURG, S.C.-Workers in Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, North will not be the same after this meeting trated organizing in all the Stevens from forty J. }>. Stevens textile plants Carolina, and Connecticut. today." plants at the same time. gathered here November 20 for a rally Harold Mciver from the Industrial It was evident, however, that· ACT- Another resolution encouraged lob- to support union organizing efforts at Union Department of the AFlrCIO, WU officials are still relying mainly on hying and letter-writing in favor of the Stevens. who chaired the rally, told the crowd the consumer boycott of Stevens pro- labor-law reform legislation. Union There were more than 1,000 partici- that a majority of workers had now ducts and on Democratic politicians to officials expect such legislation to curb pants in the rally, including Stevens signed union cards in eighteen Stevens win this battle. Steven's illegal practices such as firing workers, other members of the Amal- plants-those eleven and seven in ACTWU Vice-president Sol Stetin prounion workers. gamated Clothing and Textile Workers Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. emphasized in his remarks the passage A third resolution expressed thanks Union (ACTWU), union officials, and a of a labor-law reform bill by the House to the AFL-CIO and other unions. large number of supporters. The union won a representation of Representatives, the fact that Carter On the fourth resolution, an amend- election at the Roanoke Rapids plants has "agreed to 'sign" the bill if it is also ment was made from the floor to One banner behind the platform in 1974 but Stevens has refused to sign passed by the Senate, and the need to change the wording from "calling on" said, "Organize the Unorganized­ a contract. elect more "friendly" politicians. Stevens and its chairman, James Activate the Organized." That theme ACTWU Secretary-treasurer Jacob Finley, to allow employees to organize was what brought the Stevens workers Sheinkman told the rally, "Today in The first of four resolutions passed and negotiate contracts to "demand- to the rally, which they seemed to view Spartanburg we are declaring the at the rally by delegates from the ing" that they do so. The amended as a new stage in the organizing drive. independence of J. P. Stevens workers plants was a statement of intent to version passed by unanimous voice Charters were presented to the or- from the tyranny of J. P. Stevens; keep organizing. Remarks from the vote. 28 Defeat for· Nazis arrested in Mpls. attack Calif. antilabor By Gillian Furst the Nazis had used physical intimida­ only Blacks, Chicanos, and socialists; MINNEAPOLIS-Four members of tion against socialists and members of they are against women and unions as the American Nazi Party attacked and the oppressed nationalities in Minnea­ well. All these groups should unite initiative beat up a young man at the University polis. But, he pointed out, "for the first against them." By Harry Ring of Minnesota on December 2. The four time, the Nazis were caught in the The Minnesota Daily, the University LOS ANGELES-California an­ men were arrested and charged for act." Carson called on the Minneapolis of Minnesota campus paper, ran an tilabor forces have suffered a de­ misdemeanor assault by the university city authorities to prosecute the offend­ editorial denouncing the Nazi assault. feat in their efforts to put a union­ police. ers to the full extent of the law. busting initiative on the state A group of five or six Nazis were Norm Overby, who works with the ballot. picketing a rally for the Militant spon­ Minneapolis Urban League, noted that The measure would have totally sored by the Young Socialist Alliance the Nazis' victim was white. "This outlawed strikes by public em­ inside Coffman Memorial Union. incident demonstrates that if you are ployees and banned the union shop white and your ideas conflict with [the in state agencies. The main speaker at the meeting Nazis'], your color is not going to Backers of the initiative had was Pedro Vasquez, a Chicano social­ protect you. If you have any attitudes tried to gather the 500,000 signa­ ist and a leader in the antideportation against assault and violence; racism, tures needed to qualify the measure movement. The Nazis carried signs or sexism, you automatically, whether for the June 1978 ballot. saying ~'White power," and "Close the you choose to or not, make yourself an On the eve of the December 1 borders." adversary to this party."· deadline they announced they were The victim, Richard Hillman, a Guzman called the attack "an indi­ at least 20,000 short of the neces­ twenty-seven-year-old University Hos­ rect affront to Pedro [Vasquez]'s right sary minimum. The gap would pital worker, was attacked by the four to free speech." have been much wider after invalid men as he was entering Coffman Deportation, he said, "is a Chicano signatures were eliminated. Union at a:OO p.m. He had nothing to issue. Deportation is one of the main Those circulating the petitions do with the meeting that was going on problems that has been affecting our obviously ran into significant pub­ inside but was attacked because he people for some time. I call upon all lic resistance. They spent a min­ made it clear that he did not like what Chicanos in the Twin Cities area to imum of $250,000 on the effort and · the Nazis stood for. He was taken to voice their opinions and viewpoints in employed professional petitioners University Hospital for treatment of regards to this incident and to support as well as volunteer right-wingers. facial cuts and bruises. any and all individuals who wish to The effort enjoyed the support of The day after the assault a news denounce this type of activity." the chamber of commerce, the Cali­ briefing was held to protest the Nazi vasquez explained his position on fornia Manufacturer's Association, attack. Norm Overby, a Black civil Carter's deportation plan. He said the Ronald Reagan, and others. rights activist; Pedro Vasquez; Man­ plan is in effect a "racist attack on John Henning, executive secre­ nuel Guzman from the Minneapolis Brown people, Blacks, and any one tary of the California AFL-CIO, Chicano community; and Jim Carson, who looks at all 'alien.' Undocumented said, "It's a credit to the good sense Socialist Workers Party candidate in workers aren't committing any crime, of the people of California that this the recent mayoral election here, uni­ they are just looking for jobs to feed antiworker petition was rejected.'' ted to denounce the terrorist tactics of their families." In announcing the failure of the the Nazis. Vasquez encouraged Chicanos, drive, Dan McGurk, cochairperson Carson pointed out that "this is an Blacks, and all supporters of civil Militant/Nelson Blackstock of the sponsoring "Committee for attack on freedom of speech and free­ rights to unite against incidents of Pedro Vasquez, whose meeting was Citizens' Rights," said, "We're tired dom of association." violence in the Twin Cities. "The Nazis. target of Nazi attack, urged united and discouraged." He said this was not the first time and the Ku Klux Klan are against not response to right-wing violence. Militant readers give generously...

Militant rea,ders are responding Since one of our readers has remain indifferent to your appeal. I generously to· the special fund appeal promised to match dollar for dollar want to help the Militant continue its we made to all our subscribers just every contribution received during the work of struggling for that pure ideal before Thanksgiving. So far, nearly final month of the four-month drive, of socialism." forty readers have sent in a total of this response has pushed us $1,500 A college reader from St. John's $760, for an average contribution of closer to our $50,000 goal. This is an University in Minnesota wrote, "I don't $20. Amounts ranged from $1 up to important boost toward making that necessarily agree with everything the $100. goal by our December 15 target. Militant believes in and advocates, but As of December 6 we had collected at least you don't sell out to the $41,892, or 83 percent of the goal. highest bidder, as so many The largest single chunk has come newspapers and magazines do to­ from rallies for the Militant held day." throughout the country. Pledges We are proud in knowing that our totaling $4,800 · have yet to be readers can be sure of that, sure that collected from those rallies, and there the Militant tells them the truth. But to are several more rallies to come. do that we must rely on our readers In addition, many Militant readers for support, rather than on the com­ sent in contributions earlier in the mercial advertising that keeps the big­ drive. Responding to our ·recent business-controlled media afloat. appeal, one subscriber wrote, "Here Help us by sending in a con­ is a second contribution. I hope the tribution during the last week of our Militant will continue to grow!" drive. 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111~ This response shows that our I want to contribute: : readers value the news and socialist D $500 D $250 D $100 : analysis the Militant brings them each D $50 D$25 D$10 : week. That's why they are eager to ------Other : help us meet the challenge of rising Name -: costs. Address -: "I live with a small pension and :City- State Zip :- many expenses that just don't stop : Make checks payable to: The Militant : coming," one reader wrote us. "But :Fund, 14 Charles Lane, New York, New: :York 10014. : despite all. my difficulties, I couldn't l:1 I I I I I I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I U . . .as fund drive enters final week

THE MILITANT/DECEMBER 16, 1977 29 YSA; June Nelson, Black and Latin Women's Group, CCNY; Sharon Grant, SWP; others. Fri., Dec. 16, 8 p.m. 220-222 Utica Ave. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information call Calendar (212) 773-0250 . WHAT IS SOCIALISM? Classes every Thursday suits in the courts today. The only way ALBANY, N.Y. m December, 7:30 p.m. 220-222 Utica Ave., ... NSCAR to meet this attack is to bring masses THE CASE AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER. Fri. Brooklyn. Ausp: SWP. For more information call (212) 773-0250. Continued from page 17 of people into action." Dec. 16. 8 p.m. 103 Central Ave. Donation: $1.50. against deportations as a permanent Ausp Mil1tant Forum. For more information call NEW YORK: CHELSEA How NSCAR plans to help organize (518) 463-0072 WILL THE EGYPT-ISRAELI TALKS BRING campaign. the winter-spring actions in defense of "And now," Harris said, "we are PEACE TO THE MIDDLE EAST? Speakers: Peter affirmative action was outlined in the BERKELEY Se1dman. staff writer for the Militant; Sheila Ryan, deeply involved in the fight to overturn proposal submitted to the meeting by WHAT HAPPENED AT THE IWY CONFERENCE? Palestine Solidarity Committee; representative of the Bakke decision-a fight that in Speakers; Carol DeBerry, president. East Bay PLO Fri .. Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m. 200'/, W. 24th St. Harris and Tony Austin. CLUW: others. Fri., Dec. 16, 8 p.m. 3264 Adeline St. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more many ways is one of the most imp~r­ During discussion ·under Harris's Donat1on $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information call (212) 989-2731. tant." report SCAR activists and supporters Information call (415) 845-3111. Harris explained that prospects for from different cities discussed antira­ . NEW YORK: QUEENS mounting successful campaigns CAMBRIDGE, MASS cist activities in their areas. CLASSES ON SOCIALISM. Thursday, 7:30 p.m. THE FIGHT AGAINST THE 'BAKKE' DECISION. around all the issues confronting Maura Rodriguez, a former NSCAR Dec. 15: Makmg a revolution. 2 Central Square, 2nd Fri. Dec. 16, 8 p.m. 90-43 149th St., Jamaica. antiracist forces today are as good, if fl. Ausp: SWP. For more information call (617) 547- Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more staff member, reported on NSCAR's 4395. information call (212) 658-7718, not better, than ever. ·role in building the Chicana/Latino conference and its activities in the CHICAGO: SOUTH SIDE NEW YORK: UPPER WEST SIDE Disillusion with Carter THE 'BAKKE' DECISION: THREAT TO CIVIL NUCLEAR POWER: BETTER ACTIVE TODAY fight against deportations. Saladin El­ He pointed to recent polls indicating RIGHTS. Speakers: Richard Wright, Black THAN RADIOACTIVE TOMORROW. Speakers: Tabuk of Chicago SCAR discussed the American Law Students Association; Paul Sigman, Robert Dresher. Friends of the Earth; Robert a growing disillusionment with the fight there to desegregate' the schools. National Lawyers' Guild & National Committee to Hedges. Committee Against the Columbia Reactor; Carter administration's commitment Overturn the Bakke Decision; Cecil Lampkin, SWP . Arnold Weissberg, staff writer for the Militant. Fri., . Robb Wright, a Boston Teachers Fn. Dec. 16, 7 30 p.m. 2251 E. 71st St. Donation: Dec. 16. 8 p.m. 786 Amsterdam Ave. (98th St.) to solving the pressing problems of Union activist, described the interest oppressed minorities and of the popula­ $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more in the Bakke decision in his local and call (312) 643-5520. in~ormation call (212) 663-3000. tion in general. the nationwide revolt within the Amer­ DETROIT: WEST SIDE The Carter administration has PORTLAND, ORE. ican Federation of Teachers against DANGERS OF NUCLEAR ENERGY. Speakers: shown where it really stands on such PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL-THE REAL Dave Petzel, Safe Energy Coalition; Irene Brown, the pro-Bakke position foisted on the RECORD. Speaker: Vernon Cope, SWP candidate issues as jobs, deportations, school Consumers for Pure Food; Dean Denno, SWP. Sun., union by AFT President Albert for Portland City Council. Fri, Dec. 16, 8 p.m. 3928 Dec. 11, 7 p.m. 18415 Wyoming. Donation: $1. desegregation, affirmative-action pro­ N. Williams Ave. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Shanker. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information call grams, women's rights, and South Bookstore Forum. For more information call (503) William Boone, a student at Medgar (313) 341-6436. 288-7860. Africa by continuing without basic Evers College in New York City and a change the policies of the Nixon and CHINA AFTER MAO. Speaker: Robin Maisel, member of the City University of New ST. PAUL SWP. Sun., Dec. 18, 7 p.m. 18415 Wyoming. Ford administrations. CRISIS IN SOUTH AFRICA. Speakers: Phil Knut­ York Student Senate, reported on plans Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more son. resident of South Africa for 17 years; others. by CUNY students to help build the information call (313) 341-6436. In this context, Harris pointed out, Fn .. Dec. 16, 8 p.m. 176 Western Ave. North. winter-spring anti-Bakke protests. Donation: $1 Ausp: Militant Forum. For more HOUSTON things for oppressed minorities are Information call (612) 222C8929. At workshops and panel discussions MEETING TO SUPPORT MESABI IRON RANGE getting worse. And the need for a on southern Africa, deportations, and STRIKERS. Speaker: Joe Samargia, president, SAN ANTONIO, TX. nationwide counteroffensive against USWA Local 1938. Thurs., Dec. 15, 8 p.m. IBEW affirmative action and the Bakke 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RUSSIAN Local 716 Hall, 2501 Crawford. Ausp: Ad Hoc the attacks on their rights and living REVOLUTION. Speaker: John Cannon, SWP. Fri, decision, SCAR activists exchanged Committee to Support the Mesabi Iron Range standards is increasingly urgent. Dec 16, 8 p.m. 1317 Castroville Rd. Donation: $1. experiences and mapped further plans Strikers. For more information call (713) 473-8351, Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information call NSCAR outlined this perspective, he 926-5263, or 236-8813. for ongoing activities. (512) 432-7625. said, in its Full Equality Now state­ The meeting also heard and ap­ KANSAS CITY ment issued last spring. TOLEDO, OH. proved a report by Maura Rodriguez on REPORTS FROM NATIONAL WOMEN'S CON­ CLASSES ON SOCIALISM AT THE MILITANT The call by the NCOBD for a FERENCE: Speakers: Linda Pinsker, NOW; Zenobia organizing NSCAR chapters across BOOKSTORE. What a socialist America would look national march on Washington April Ell1s. Federally Employed Women; Ruth Summer, the country. like. Tues .. Dec. 13. noon to 1 p.m. or 7 to 8 p.m. UMKC Women's Union; representative, SWP. Sun., 15, Harris said, offers an opportunity 2507 Collingwood Blvd. Ausp: Militant Bookstore, Harris, who along with Austin Dec. 11, 7:30pm. 4715-A Troost. Ausp: Militant SWP f'or more information call (419) 242-9743. to make this perspective a reality. submitted the major action proposal to Forum. For more information call (816) 753-0404. "The NCOBD and the Black Ameri­ the meeting, was elected NSCAR's can Law Students Association," Harris VIEWPOINT: THE SOCIALIST WORKERS national coordinator. PARTY DISCUSSES WHAT ROAD TO PEACE IN WASHINGTON, D.C.: ADAMS-MORGAN explained, "were responsible for bring­ CRACKDOWN IN SOUTH AFRICA. Speakers: . In explaining his decision to step THE MIDDLE EAST. Speaker: Scott Cooper, SWP. ing thousands out into the streets on down as coordinator, Austin said that Fn. Dec. 16, 730 p.m. 4715-A Troost. Ausp: SWP. Jimmy Garrett, prof. at Harvard and member of October 3 and 8. These demonstrations For more Information call (816) 753-0404. June 16 Coalition: Ted Lockwood, Washington he planned to remain active in the Office on Africa; Sarah Smith, SWP. Fri., Dec. 16, 8 were made up of many people who had antiracist struggle in Newark where he p.m. 2416 18th St. NW. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant never before participated in demon­ now lives. Forum. For more information call (202) 797-7706. strations or political activity. LOS ANGELES: SOUTHEAST "The demonstrations were militant THE CRISIS IN STEEL. Speakers: Lalo Sanchez, recordmg secretary, USWA Local 5504; Jack Shep­ in their tone and attitude and em­ pard. veteran steel unionist; other steelworkers. Fri., ployed the method of direct action. Dec. 16. 8 p.m. 2554 Saturn, Huntington Park . And one recurring theme at all of them Donat1on $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more infor­ Forums on was the need to reorganize the protest mation call (213) 582-1975. movement of the sixties, to build a new ... Wright MIAMI movement like the civil rights Continued from page 6 ISLAND PRISON: HAITI & THE DOMINICAN miners strike REPUBLIC. Speakers: representatives of Human BALTIMORE movement-a concept we've been push­ Wright and the others who face jail R1ghts for Haitian Refugees and Partido STRUGGLE IN THE COAL FIELDS. ing since our inception." terms. Revolucionario Dominicano; a former Haitian Speaker: . Dick Roberts. staff writer for the International solidarity can help in pol1t1cal prisoner. Fri., Dec. 16, 8 p.m. Place to be M1l1tant. Fri. Dec. 16, 8 p.m. 2117 N. Charles 'Bakke' a major issue winning the release of Carlos Corona­ announced. Donation: $1.25. Ausp: Militant Forum. St Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For For more information call (305) 260-4381. more information call (301) 547-0668. "We believe that affirmative action, do and the other victims of the Costa symbolized in the Bakke case, has Rican government's repression. Tele­ MILWAUKEE LOS ANGELES: CRENSHAW become a major political issue in the grams and letters demapding the WHY AN ENERGY SHORTAGE? Speakers: THE ATTACK ON THE STEARNS, KY., Richard Booth, SWP; others. Fri. Dec. 16, 8 p.m. MINERS. Two videotapes: Push Comes to country today, and that it is the dropping of charges against the eight 3901 N. 27th St. Donation: $1. Ausp: the Militant. Shove. and October 17; speaker. Fri.. Dec. 16, forefront of the racist offensive by the activists, and an end to police harass­ For more information call ( 414) 445-2076. 8 p m 2167 W. Washington Blvd. (near government, big business, and reac­ ment of the OST, should be sent to Western). Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information call (213) 732-8196. tionaries against Blacks, Chicanos, Costa Rican embassies or consulates, NEW YORK: THE BRONX Asian-Americans, and Puerto Ricans. or to President Daniel Oduber Quiros, BEHIND SADAT'S DIPLOMATIC MOVES. LOUISVILLE, KY. It is also being used as one of the San Jose, Costa Rica. Send copies of Speaker: David Frankel, staff writer for the Militant. UNITED MINE WORKERS ON STRIKE. Fn . Dec. 16, 8 p.m. 2271 Morris Ave. Donation: What's at stake in the national UMWA strike. A battering rams against women's rights such messages along with statements S1 50. Ausp Militant Forum. For more information panel discussion. Speakers to be announced. and to deepen race and sex divisions in of solidarity to the Comite de Defensa call (212) 365-6652 Fn, Dec. 16, 8 p.m. 1505 W. Broadway. the labor movement. de los · Presos de Limon, c/o Marta Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more 1nformation call (502) 587-8418. "Besides Bakke, there are more than Trejos, P.O. Box 949, San Jose, Costa NEW YORK: BROOKLYN 2,000 so-called reverse-discrimination Rica. BLACK FEMINISM: Speakers: Cathy Sedwick,

(Make checks payable to the Argen­ tine Solidarity Fund, c/o USLA.) Help spread the truth about politi­ Intercontinental Press cal persecution in Argentina by Africa Asia Europe Oceania rhe Americas The U.S. Committee for Justice to holding meetings and circulating Latin American Political Prisoners materials on your campus, in your Do you read French, Spanish,- He­ write for a free sample copy of Intercon­ has established a special Argentine trade union, or in other organiza­ brew, Turkish, Russian, German, and tinental Press, a weekly newsmagazine Solidarity Fund. Contributions will tions. Contact USLA for speakers some forty other languages? of international politics. aid the families of political prisoners and literature. Do you have time to follow the world A unique source of news, analysis, and other victims of the military left press and the major dailies from and hard-to-find documents of interest Paris, London, New York, and other dictatorship. They will also finance For more information, or to send to the socialist movement. world capitals? the campaign in the United States to contributions, write: USLA, 853 If not-but you wish to follow inter­ Write to Intercontinental Press, P.O. defend human rights in Argentina. Broadway, Suite 414 .. New York, national political developments on a Box 116, Village Station, New York, Please send a contribution today. New York 10003. week-by-week basis-we suggest you New York 10014.

30 NEW FROM PATHFINDER_ NEW YORK CITY------. The An Evening for Lesser the 'Militant• Hear Mary-Alice Waters, editor of EVIl? the 'Militant' Peter Camejo Michael Harrington George Breitman vs. Carl Haessler Speak on: Jack Barnes Stanley Aronowitz 'Carter's First Year: A Socialist What is the Democratic Party-the 'party of the people' or a dead end? View' Should feminists, Black people, union militants, socialists, and others support the Democratic Party? Or should they run their own candidatE!S in opposition? Also speaking: The Lesser Evil? contains three debates that examine the alternatives in light of the cold war witch-hunt, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam Judy White, editor, 'Perspectiva Mundial' War, women's liberation, the New York City budget crisis~and in the broader context of the socialist perspective. John Linder, editor, 'Young Socialist' 128 pages, paper $1.75, cloth $7. Sunday, Dec. 11, 7 p.m. Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, New York Fifth Ave. Hotel (9th St. & Fifth Ave.) 10014. PUERTO RICAN LIBERATION AND SOCIALISM An educational weekend December 9-10, New York University ·EVELYN REED· Authoroll'obman'sE>Oiurlon Special presentation: 'Puerto Rico: Struggle Against Colonialism' DEW ••• BY EUELYD REED by Juan Robles, Liga lnternacionalista de los Trabajadores (Internationalist Workers League) of Puerto Rico This book exposes the antiwoman., pseudoscientific bias that permeates biology, Tishman Auditorium, New York Univ. Law School • sociology, anthropology, and primatology to­ day. It is a companion volume to Reed's major Saturday panels and talks include: work, Woman's Evolution, which documents the • Defending Puerto Rican movement against government attacks preeminent role of women in the earliest and • Puerto Rican women and feminism JC longest period of human history-prehistoric • Crisis in education matriarchal society. $5 for weekend/$3 for 'Militant' rally only 192 pages, paper $3.45, cloth $12. Ausp: SWP, YSA, 'Perspectiva Mundial,' 'Militant' Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, New York 10014. For more information: (212) 982-8214, 982-4966 Socialist Directory ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore, INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, c/o Student Activities NEW MEXICO: Albuquerque: SWP, YSA, P 0. Box Pl:liladelphia: City-wide SWP, YSA, 218 S. 45th St., 314 E. Taylor, Phoenix, Ariz. 85004. Tel: (602) Desk, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. 4088, Albuquerque, N.M. 87106. Tel: (505) 256- Philadelphia, Pa. 19104. Tel: (215) EV7-2451. 255-0450. 47401. 1796. Pittsburgh: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore, 5504 Tucson: YSA, SUPO 20965, Tucson, Ariz. 85720. Indianapolis: SWP, 4163 College Ave, Indianapolis, NEW YORK: Albany: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore, Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15206. Tel: (412) 441- Tel: (602) 795-2053. Ind. 46205. Tel: (3)7) 925-2616. 103 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12206. 1419. CALIFORNIA: Berkeley: SWP, YSA, Granma KENTUCKY: Lexington: YSA, P.O. Box 952 Uni­ Tel: (518) 463-0072. State College: YSA, c/o Bob Hill, 733 W. College Bookstore, 3264 Adeline St., Berkeley, Calif. versity Station. Lexington, Ky. 40506. Tel: (606) Binghamton: YSA, c/o Andy Towbin, Box 7120, Ave. #2, State College, Pa. 16801. 94703..Tel: (415) 653-7156. 233-1270. SUNY-Binghamton, Binghamton, N.Y. 13901. RHODE ISLAND: Kingston: YSA, c/o Box 400, East Los Angeles: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Bookstore, Louisville: SWP, Militant Bookstore, 1505 W. Ithaca: YSA, Willard Straight Hall, Rm. 41A, Cornell K1ngston, R.I. 02881. Tel: (401) 783-8864. 1237 S. Atlantic Blvd., East Los Angeles, Calif. Broadway, Louisville, Ky. 40203. Tel: (502) 587- University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853. TENNESSEE: Knoxville: YSA, P.O. Box 8344 Univ. 90022. Tel: (213) 265-1347. 8418. New York, Bronx: SWP, Militant Bookstore, Libreria Station, Knoxville, Tenn. 37916. Tel: (615) 525- Los Angeles, Crenshaw District: SWP, YSA, LOUISIANA: New Orleans: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Militante, 2271 Morris Ave., Bronx, N.Y. 10453. 0820. Pathfinder Books, 2167 W. Washington Blvd., Los Bookstore, 3812 Magazine St., New Orleans, La. Tel: (212) 365-6652. Angeles, Calif. 90018. Tel: (213) 732-8196. 70115. Tel: (504) 891-5324. New York, Brooklyn: SWP, Militant Bookstore, 220- TEXAS: Austin: YSA, c/o Mike Rose, 7409 Berkman Los Angeles: City-wide SWP, YSA, 1250 Wilshire MARYLAND: Baltimore: SWP, YSA, 2117 N. Charles 222 Utica Ave .. Brooklyn, N.Y. 11213. Tel: (212) Dr., Austin, Tex. 78752. Blvd., Room 404, Los Angeles, Calif. 90017. Tel: St., Baltimore, Md. 21218. Tel: (301) 547-0668. 773-0250. Dallas: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, 2215 Cedar (213) 482-1820. College Park: YSA, c/o Student Union, University of New York, Chelsea: SWP, Militant Bookstore, Crest, Dallas, Tex. 75203. Tel: (214) 943-6684. Los Angeles, Southeasi: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Maryland, College Park, Md. 20742. Tel: (301) Libreria Militante, 200 1/ 2 W. 24th St. (off 7th Ave.), Houston, Northeast: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, Bookstore, 2554 Saturn Ave., Huntington Park, 454-4758. New York, N.Y. 10011. Tel: (212) 989-2731 2835 Laura Koppe, Houston, Tex. 77093. Tel: Calif. 90255. Tel. (213) 582-1975. MASSACHUSETTS: Amherst: YSA. c/o Rees, 4 New York, Lower East Side: SWP, YSA, Militant (713) 697-5543 Oakland: SWP, YSA, 1467 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland, Adams St, Easthampton, Mass. 01027. Bookstore. Libreria Militante, 7 Clinton St., New Houston, East End: SWP, 4987 South Park Blvd Calif. 94601. Tel (415) 261-1210. Boston: City-wide SWP, YSA, 510 Commonwealth York, NY 10002. Tel: (212) 260-6400. (South Park Plaza), Houston. Tex. 77023. Tel: San Diego: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore. 1053 Ave, Boston. Mass. 02215. Tel: (617) 262-4621. New York, Queens: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore, (713) 643-0005 15th St. San Diego, Calif. 92101. Tel: (714) 234- Cambridge: SWP, 2 Central Square, Cambridge, 90-43 149 St. (corner Jamaica Ave.), Jamaica, Houston: City-wide SWP, YSA, 3311 Montrose, 4630. Mass. 02139. Tel: (617) 547-4395 N.Y. 11435. Tel: (212) 658-7718. Houston, Tex. 77006. Tel: (713) 526-1082. San Francisco, Mission District: SWP, Socialist Fenway-South End: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, New York, Upper West Side: SWP, YSA, Militant San Antonio: SWP, 1317 Castroville Rd., San An­ Bookstore .. Libreria Socialista, 3284 23rd St, San 510 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass. 02215. Bookstore, 786 Amsterdam, New York, N.Y. tonio. Tex. 78237. Tel: (512) 432-7625 or (512) Francisco, Calif. 94110. Tel: (415) 824-1992. Tel (617) 262-4620 10025. Tel (212) 663-3000. 432-3022. YSA, P 0 Box 12110, Laurel Heights San Francisco, Western Addition: SWP, 973 Page Roxbury: SWP, 612 Blue Hill Ave., Roxbury, Mass. New York: City-wide SWP, YSA, 853 Broadway, Sta., San Antonio, Tex. 78212. St., San Francisco, Calif. 94117. Tel: (415) 626- 02121. Tel: (617) 288-0753 .. Room 412, New York, N.Y. 10003. Tel: (212) 982- 6814. MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA, Room 4103, Michigan 8214. San Jose: SWP, YSA, 942 E. Santa Clara St., San Union, U of M, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48109. Tel: (313) UTAH: Logan: YSA, P 0. Box 1233, Utah State Jose, Calif. 95112. Tel (408) 295-8342. 663-8306. NORTH CAROLINA: Raleigh: SWP, YSA, P.O. Box University, Logan, Utah 84322. COLORADO: Denver: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, Detroit, East Side: SWP, 12920 Mack Ave, Detroit, 5714 State Univ. Station, Raleigh, N.C. 27607. Salt Lake City: SWP, YSA, P.O. Box 461, Salt Lake 916 Broadway, Denver, Colo. 80203. Tel: (303) Mich. 48215. Tel: (313) 824-1160. OHIO: Athens: YSA, c/o Balar Center, Ohio Uni­ C1ty, Utah 84110. . 837-1018. Detroit, West Side: SWP, Militant Bookstore, 18415 versity, Athens. Ohio 45701. Tel: (614) 594-7497. WASHINGTON, D.C.: Adams-Morgan: SWP, 2416 FLORIDA: Miami: SWP, YSA, Box 431096, South Wyoming, Detroit, Mich. 48221. Tel: (313) 341- Cincinnati: SWP, YSA, 970 E. McMillan, Cincinnati, 18th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20009. Tel: (202) Miami, Fla. 33143 Tel: (305) 266-4381. 6436. Ohio 45206. Tel: (513) 751-2636. 797-7706. Tallahassee: YSA, c/o Linda Thalman, 1303 Ocala Detroit: C1ty-wide SWP, YSA, 1310 Broadway, Cleveland: SWP, YSA, 2300 Payne, Cleveland, Ohio Washington, D.C.: Georgia Avenue: SWP, 700% Rd. #140, Tallahassee, Fla. 32304. Tel (904) 576- Detroit, Mich. 48226. Tel: (313) 961-5675. 44114. Tel (216) 861-4166 Barry Pl. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. Tel: (202) 5737. Grand Rapids: YSA, P.O. Box 6301, Grand Rapids, Columbus: YSA, Box 106 Ohio Union (Rm. 308), 265-7708. GEORGIA: East Atlanta: SWP, 471A Flat Shoals M1ch. 49506. ,., Ohio State Univ .. 1739 N. High St, Columbus, Washington, D.C.: City-wide SWP, YSA, 1424 16th Ave. SE. P 0 Box 5596, Atlanta, Ga. 30307. Tel: MI. Pleasant: YSA, Box 51 Warriner Hall, Central Ohio 43210. Tel: (614 291-8985. St. NW, Suite 701 B, Washington, D.C. 20036. Tel: ( 404) 688-6739. Mich. Univ , Mt. Pleasant, Mich. 48859. .,_ Kent: YSA. Student Center Box 41, Kent State (202) 797)7699. West Atlanta: SWP, Militant Bookstore, 137 Ashby, MINNESOTA: Minneapolis: SWP, YSA, Militant University, Kent, Ohio 44242. Tel (216) 678-2489. P.O. Box 92040, Atlanta, Ga. 30314. Tel: (404) Bookstore, 23 E. Lake St., Mpls., Minn. 55408. Tel: Toledo: SWP, 2507 Collingwood Blvd., Toledo, 755-2940. (612) 825-6663. Ohio 43612. Tel (419) 242-9743 ILLINOIS: Champaign-Urbana: YSA, 284 lllin1 St. Paul: SWP, Labor Bookstore, 176 Western Ave., WASHINGTON: Seattle, Central Area: SWP, YSA, Union, Urbana, Ill. 61801. North, St. Paul, Minn. 55102. Tel: (612) 222-8929 Militant Bookstore. 2200 E. Union, Seattle, Wash. Chicago: City-wide SWP, YSA, 407 S. Dearborn OREGON: Portland: SWP. YSA, Militant Bookstore, 98122. Tel (206) 329-7404. #1145, Chicago, Ill. 60605. Tel: SWP-(312) 939- 3928 N. Williams, Portland, Ore. 97227. Tel: (503) Spokane: SWP, P.O. Box 672. Spokane, Wash. 0737; YSA-(312) 427-0280. MISSOURI: Kansas City: SWP, YSA, 4715A Troost, 288-7860. 99201. Tel (509) 326-2468. Chicago, North Side: SWP, Pathfinder Books, 1870 Kansas G1ty, Mo. 64110. Tel: (816) 753-0404. PENNSYLVANIA: Edinboro: YSA, Edinboro State Tacoma: SWP, Mil1tant Bookstore, 1022 S. J St .. N. Halsted, Chicago, Ill. 60614. Tel: (312) 642- St. Louis: City-wide SWP, YSA, 6223 Delmar Blvd., College, Edinboro, Pa. 16412. Tacoma, Wash. 98405. Tel: (206) 627-0432. 4811. St. LOUIS, Mo 63130. Tel: (314) 725-1570. Philadelphia, Germantown: SWP, Militant WEST VIRGINIA: Morgantown: SWP, P.O. Box Chicago, South Side: SWP, Militant Bookstore, 2251 NEBRASKA: Omaha: YSA, c/o Hugh Wilcox, 521 Bookstore, 5950 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, 1484, Morgantown, W. Virginia 26505. E. 71st St., Chicago, Ill. 60649. Tel: (312) 643- 4th St., Council Bluffs, Iowa. 51501. Pa. 19144. Tel: (215) Vl4-2874. WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, P.O. Box 1442, 5520. NEW JERSEY: New·ark: SWP, Militant Bookstore, Philadelphia, West Philadelphia: SWP, Militant Madison, Wis. 53701. Tel: (608) 251-1591. Chicago, West Side: SWP, Pathfinder Books, 10 N. 11-A Central Ave., Newark, N.J. 07102. Tel: (201) Bookstore, 218 S 45th St., Philadelphia, Pa. Milwaukee: SWP. YSA, 3901 N. 27th St., Milwaukee, C1cero, Chicago, Ill. 60644. Tel: (312) 261-8370. 482-3367. 19104. Tel: (215) EV7-2451. WIS. 53216. Tel: (414) 445-2076.

THE MILITANT/DECEMBEH 16, 1977 31 THE MILITANT ist justice 1n• • ICa Steve Biko's wife Nontsikelelo and laywer leave court after judge found police not guilty in death of Black leader By David Frankel findings of one set of doctors and concealed his official statement deploring the verdict. Even before the inquest into the death of Steve condition from another." "It seems inconceivable on the basis of evidence Biko was over, South African Justice Minister Prins ignored all the contradictions that surfaced presented that the inquiry could render a judgment James Kruger announced his confidence that the during the police testimony at the inquest. Biko's that no one was responsible," a State Department police would be absolved of any blame in the death torturers claimed that he had died of head injuries official said. of the young Black leader. Biko, one of the foremost resulting from a scuffle in which Biko "accidental­ "Even if individual responsibility was not estab­ figures in the Black Consciousness movement, died ly" bumped his head against a wall. But police lished, Mr. Biko's death clearly resulted from a in police custody September 12. witnesses gave contradictory accounts of the system that permits gross mistreatment in violation On December 2, Magistrate Marthinus Prins, a "scuffle" and retracted portions of their testimony. of the most basic human rights." paid civil set:vant ultimately accountable to Kruger, A brain specialist testified that Biko's injuries However, the official explained, the Carter admin­ took care not to disappoint his boss. Prins returned resulted from at lelist three separate blows, but the istration is not planning to take any action against a terse ruling of less than 120 words upholding the police only tried to account for one. the South African regime. police version of how Biko died. Police witnesses admitted that Biko had been In South Africa itself, Blacks showed what they But if there was ever a clear case of murder, this kept naked in a c~ll for nineteen days and had been thought of the verdict by gathering outside the was it. And not only the police, but Kruger himself subjected to more than fifty hours of grueling courtroom and singing, "They have kiJ.led Steve was implicated. questioning. At one point Biko, who was not even Biko." The chants were punctuated by clenched-fist When Biko's death was announced September 13, charged with any crime, was shackled h~nd and salutes. Kruger issued an unusually detailed statement foot for four days on a urine-soaked mat. Before Prins's verdict, a lawyer for the Biko claiming that Biko had died after a one-week "Every country has its neurotics and sadists in its family pointed out that an exoneration of the police hunger strike. As New York Times columnist prison service," commented U.S. Ambassador to the would encourage them to continue "to abuse Anthony Lewis noted December 5: United Nations Andrew Young shortly before the helpless people with impunity." "The statement was a farrago of rubbish. There inquest began. As if to confirm this prediction, at least thirteen was no hunger strike. Stephen Biko died of brain But Young's attempt to absolve the South African persons were detained in police raids in Soweto on damage suffered while he was a prisoner of the regime of responsibility for Biko's death fell flat. the morning of the verdict, among them Biko's security police. He died after the police ignored the The State Department was compelled to issue an brother, Kaya, and his cousin, Solomon Biko. Iron range strikers appeal for support, tell Minneapolis rally, 'We can win' By Stu Singer The Teamsters and United Auto Agreement in basic steel. MINNEAPOLIS-An appeal for sup­ Workers have also pledged to send "One of the ·most important things port from striking steelworkers on the busloads of union members to the you can have in a strike is support," Strike leader Mesabi Iron Range got a warm re­ rally. Samargia said. "We have support from sponse from students and unionists at Willard Anderson, a thirty-year un­ people all over the country. to speak a meeting here December 6. ion veteran, told the campus meeting A crowd of 125 turned out at the about the life-and-death issues of the "Our biggest problem is with the University of Minnesota to hear Wil­ strike. international union. Our international in Houston lard Anderson, president of United "We've had people who lived six or wants us to accept this package [voted HOUSTON-A leader of the iron seven months after retirement, then down by the local union negotiators]. ore miners will address a meeting died from lung failure," he said. "We As long as our membership supports in Houston on Thursday, December us, and as long as people like you For news and background on the put safety and health first." 15, organized in solidarity with the support us, we can win." strikers. Mesabi Iron Range strike, see page Silicosis, a debilitating lung disease, "I'm just a rank-and-filer," said Ed Joe Samargia, president of Uni­ 19; is an occupational hazard for workers Walberg. "I can't politick like some of ted Steelworkers Local 1938, will in the dusty iron ore mines and pro­ these others. I want to speak from my speak at 8:00 p.m. at the Interna­ cessing plants. "Some areas of our heart, and I hope you'll listen with tional Brotherhood of Electrical Steelworkers Local 2660; Joe Samar­ plant have no dust collectors," Ander­ your hearts. Workers Local 716 hall, 2501 Craw­ gia, president of USWA Local 1938; son said. Meanwhile, "the company "We're having this rally in Hibbing ford. and Ed Walberg, a picket captain from officials work in air-conditioned offi­ on December 17. We need money, The meeting is sponsored by the Local 1938. ces." canned goods, and most of all people to Ad Hoc Committee to Support the Walberg and Donald LaVigne, ride those buses." Mesabi Iron Range Strikers, which another rank-and-file activist from the Pointing to the coal miners' strike as A collection of $229 was raised to has the endorsement of more than big U~S. Steel local, are in Minneapolis an example, Joe Samargia declared support the strikers. seventy-five union and community to help organize participation in a that "an attack on labor is underway." Dick Wilke, student body president activists. strike solidarity rally called for De­ He said the big corporations "want at the university, spoke from the au­ ,For more information call (713) cember 17 in Hibbing. That rally is ENAs all over," a reference to the no­ dience, pledging the support of the 473-8351, 926-5263, or 236-8813. sponsored by the Minnesota AFLCIO. strike Experimental Negotiation student government.