AUSTRALIA $1.50 · CANADA $1.50 · FRANCE 1.00 EURO · NEW ZEALAND $1.50 · UK £.50 · U.S. $1.00 INSIDE Capitalism turns Ecuador quake into a social disaster — PAGE 8 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 80/NO. 18 MAY 9, 2016 Washington, Verizon strikers stand up ‘Workers, Moscow seek to attacks on their unions unions need to impose new Workers rally, answer bosses’ propaganda to control Mideast ‘order’ job safety’ BY MAGGIE TROWE BY JOHN STUDER Washington and Moscow are scram- “My job at Verizon has gotten more bling to hold together an agreement dangerous. I’ve been electrocuted to impose some stability and order in twice on the job, once while they Syria and the broader Mideast region. made me work by myself,” John Hop- But the competing interests of differ- ent ruling classes and factions, includ- Socialist Workers Party ing between the U.S. and Russian gov- ernments themselves, keep getting in candidates speak out the way. Millions of workers and farm- ers in the region pay a terrible price for per, a 25-year outside field technician the ongoing bloodshed. from Rockland County, New York, Talks on ending the five-year war told Socialist Workers Party presi- in Syria hit a stumbling block when dential candidate Alyson Kennedy forces opposing the regime of Presi- and campaign supporter Tony Lane as dent Bashar al-Assad declared a pause they joined a strike rally in Trenton, in their participation April 18. They New Jersey, April 25. “You put your accused the Syrian government of life on the line but the company is un- refusing to end hostilities or to allow CWA District 2-13 grateful.” Strikers and supporters picket Philadelphia Verizon store April 22. Verizon wants to contract humanitarian aid to reach 15 besieged out more work, raise health costs and assign workers to be out of town for extended periods. “The working class has to take towns. U.N. envoy Steffan de Mistura control over safety conditions on the has asked Moscow, Washington and BY JANET POST of Electrical Workers in nine states job,” Kennedy said. “I worked as a regional powers to help get the nego- TRENTON, N.J. — Two weeks and the District of Columbia struck coal miner, and our union waged big tiations going again. into their strike, Verizon workers April 13. Their contract expired Aug. battles in the 1960s and ’70s over More civilians were killed in Alep- across the Northeast have been hold- 1. The company wants to raise health safety. We were able to win the right po April 22 when Syrian and Russian ing rallies, pickets and following to refuse to work when things were warplanes bombed the opposition- strikebreakers around as they press VERIZON STRIKE IS FIGHT unsafe. The union safety committees held city to back up ground attacks by their fight against the telecommunica- controlled the situation in the mine. government troops and their Iranian tion giant’s concession demands. FOR ALL WORKERS! That’s eroded, and most mining is allies. Nearly 40,000 members of the — SWP campaign statement, p. 7 nonunion today.” Since the reduction of hostilities Communications Workers of Ameri- “Since the early 1970s, the boss- Continued on page 7 ca and the International Brotherhood care costs, outsource jobs and force es’ rate of profit has been declining. some unionists to work out of town They’ve stopped putting money into for up to two months at a time. production and new machinery be- The strikers work for Verizon’s cause they don’t get a big enough re- Join with SWP to back strikers, landline, Internet and television ser- turn,” Kennedy said. “Instead, they get on ballot, build conference! Continued on page 5 Continued on page 6 Chernobyl disaster points to need for workers power, not ‘No nukes’ BY JOHN STUDER of the carelessly flawed design of the Thirty years ago, on April 26, 1986, plant, the government’s decision not the worst nuclear disaster in history to construct any containment vessel took place in Soviet Ukraine when around it, and a series of disastrous the Chernobyl nuclear power plant decisions and delays by government exploded. The blast set off an uncon- bureaucrats attempting to hide the ex- trolled meltdown in the reactor core istence and severity of the meltdown. and a fire that burned for 10 days, Chernobyl released roughly 400 showering Ukraine, Belarus, Russia Continued on page 9 and parts of Europe with highly ra- dioactive material. Some opponents of nuclear power are using the anniversary to argue that Inside Chernobyl proves this energy source Protests of 1994 Clinton law should never be used. The facts, how- spur debate on crime, prisons 2 Militant/Jacquie Henderson ever, point to the need for workers to David Rosenfeld, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota, at St. Paul take political power and control over Workers discuss how to take on rally for $15 an hour and a union April 14. SWP candidates call for solidarity with union battles. safety. The cause of the disaster lies steel job cuts in UK and world 3 BY MAGGIE TROWE making progress in several states put- squarely on the extraordinary neglect Across the country — from Fort ting the party’s presidential ticket of of the Stalinist regime then in power ‘Teamster Politics’: Lessons of Morgan, Colorado; to Opelousas, Alyson Kennedy and Osborne Hart in Moscow and its contempt for work- 1930s battles for fighters today 4 Louisiana; to Rutherford, New Jersey on the ballot. ing people — a contempt also shown — communist workers are explaining SWP members and supporters have by the capitalists and their govern- NY action demands the Socialist Workers Party program, been walking East Coast picket lines ments around the world. freedom for Oscar López 9 engaging in political discussion and Continued on page 3 The social calamity was a result Protests of 1994 Clinton law State and Federal Prison Population, 1925-2014 spur debate on crime, prisons BY SETH GALINSKY cartels,” Hillary Clinton said in a 1996 A sharp debate broke out when Bill speech defending the 1994 law. “These Clinton was heckled April 7 by protest- are not just gangs of kids anymore. ers in Philadelphia, who shouted slogans They are often the kind of kids that are against an anti-crime bill and other anti- called ‘superpredators.’ No conscience, working-class laws signed by the former no empathy” and “we have to bring president and backed by presidential them to heel.” She now says that her candidate Hillary Clinton. choice of words was unfortunate. Ac- The hecklers, who have been part tually, her words express the contempt of Black Lives Matter protests against the wealthy ruling class has toward all working people. COMMENTARY Gangs emulate capitalists The gangs are often connected to police brutality, carried signs that said, the drug trade, but she misses the key the largest absolute numbers and per- tary confinement, the death penalty. “Clinton crime bill destroyed our com- point: the gangs emulate the capitalist centage of prisoners in the world. Through fighting against these mea- munities,” “Black youth are not super- class. The goal of the gang leaders is to The U.S. prison population tripled sures and joining other social struggles, predators” and “Welfare reform in- get rich. And they don’t care how many from 300,000 to 1 million from 1974 to working people will learn that “the pur- creased poverty.” people they step on to get there. They’re 1994 — before the law was passed. The pose of the cops is to keep workers in They were referring to the 1994 Vio- just like the propertied rulers, but with prison population peaked in 2007 and line, to make an example of you if you lent Crime Control and Law Enforce- higher risks. has declined slightly since then. come from the wrong class — and more ment Act, which increased penalties In Philadelphia Bill Clinton heatedly The jump was caused by increased so if you also happen to be the wrong for nonviolent drug offenses, included defended the law with arguments that arrests, more discretion for prosecutors color or the wrong nationality,” Jack “three strikes and you’re out” manda- still get resonance among working peo- in what charges they could bring, and Barnes, national secretary of the Social- tory sentencing for many federal crimes ple — regardless of nationality — be- mandatory state sentencing laws adopt- ist Workers Party, says in the book Cap- and funded 100,000 more street cops. cause they deal with the fallout of gang ed as capitalist politicians jumped on the italism’s World Disorder. That is true The law was backed by Republicans violence and other anti-social behavior bandwagon of the “fight against crime.” for the entire “justice system,” from the and Democrats alike, including two- in their daily lives. It’s no secret how it works. The prosecu- courts to the prisons, under the dictator- thirds of the Congressional Black Cau- “I don’t know how you would charac- tor says, “Agree to a plea bargain, or ship of the capitalist class — it can’t be cus, many Black churches and then Rep. terize the gang leaders who got 13-year- I’ll throw the book at you and you’ll do reformed. It must be replaced. Bernie Sanders, now Hillary Clinton’s old kids hopped up on crack and sent triple the time.” When working people in the millions main opponent in the race for the Dem- them out on the street to murder other In the early 1960s about one-third engage in struggle in the street and on ocratic Party nomination. Two years African-American children,” he said, of all criminal defendants insisted they the picket line, we begin to replace the later President Clinton signed the Anti- wagging a finger at the hecklers. “You were innocent and went to trial. Today me-first and look-out-for-number-one Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty are defending the people who kill the only one out of 20 do so. And when a mentality of capitalism — the moral val- Act, further undermining constitutional people whose lives you say matter.” He person is found guilty at trial, mandato- ues of the gangs and capitalist exploiters rights. That same year he signed the said the law drastically cut murder rates. ry sentencing requires judges to impose alike — with solidarity captured by the bipartisan Personal Responsibility and The 1994 law strengthened existing longer terms. union slogan: “an injury to one is an in- Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, trends that sent more working people of jury to all.” “ending welfare as we know it.” all nationalities to jail for longer terms, Crime drop at what cost? Those are the moral values that be- “We needed to take these gangs on. especially Blacks. It was just one piece The combination of more people in came common through the Cuban Rev- They are often connected to big drug of what led to the United States having prison for longer times and more po- olution, in the course of overthrowing lice on the street using more aggressive the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in measures, including stop and frisk, did 1959 and afterward. “When people talk help lower crime rates. But at what cost? about the achievements of the revolu- Wouldn’t a military dictatorship that tion,” Cuban revolutionary Gerardo suspends all constitutional rights and Hernández notes, “hardly anything is shoots people down in the street without ever mentioned about the tranquility of the pretense of a trial also “bring down our everyday life ... the fact that a child Cuban Revolution’s internationalism crime?” How about chopping off the can play until dawn on a street corner hands of alleged thieves? Or worse? near his home and nothing will happen The ‘Militant’ reports on Class-conscious workers oppose to him.” how Cuba’s international- mandatory sentences, three-strikes- That is the result of a society based on ist volunteers led the way in and-you’re-out laws, stop and frisk, soli- human solidarity. fighting Ebola in West Af-

rica, just as they did in de- Latin America, Caribbean: For one year feating the South African send $85 drawn on a U.S. bank to above The Militant address. Vol. 80/No. 18 apartheid regime’s 1975-88 Africa, Asia, and the Middle East: For invasions of Angola. Their Closing news date: April 27, 2016 one year send $85 drawn on a U.S. bank to example shows what a differ- Cuban Medical Brigade in Guinea-Conakry Editor: John Studer above address. Cuban medical volunteers with Ebola sur- Managing Editor: Naomi Craine Canada: For one year send Canadian $45 ence a revolution makes. vivors in Guinea during 2014-15 epidemic. to the Militant, 7107 St. Denis #204, Mon- Editorial volunteers: Róger Calero, Seth treal, Quebec H2S 2S5. Galinsky, Emma Johnson, Jacob Perasso, United Kingdom: Send £26 for one year Gerardo Sánchez, Maggie Trowe, Brian by check or international money order SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Williams, Rebecca Williamson. made out to CL London, 2nd Floor, 83 Published weekly except for one week in Kingsland High St., Dalston, London, E8 January, one week in June, one week in 2PB, England. July, one week in August and one week in Republic of Ireland and Continental NEW READERS NAME September. Europe: Send £85 for one year by check or international money order made out to CL Business manager: Lea Sherman London at above address. q.$5 for 12 issues ADDRESS The Militant (ISSN 0026-3885), 306 W. France: Send 120 euros for one year to 37th Street, 13th floor, New York, NY Diffusion du Militant, BP 10130, 75723 Paris Cedex 15. RENEWAL CITY STATE ZIP 10018. Telephone: (212) 244-4899 Fax: (212) 244-4947 New Zealand: Send NZ$55 for one year E-mail: [email protected] to P.O. Box 3025, Auckland 1140, New q.$10 for 12 weeks PHONE E-MAIL Website: www.themilitant.com Zealand. Australia: Send A$70 for one year to P.O. Box Correspondence concerning subscriptions 164 Campsie, NSW 2194, Australia. q.$20 for 6 months UNION/SCHOOL/ORGANIZATION or changes of address should be addressed Pacific Islands: Send NZ$55 for one year to to the Militant, 306 W. 37th Street, 13th P.O. Box 3025, Auckland 1140, New Zealand. floor, New York, NY 10018. CLIP AND MAIL TO THE MILITANT, Submissions to the Militant may be pub- q.$35 for 1 year 306 W. 37TH ST., 13TH FLOOR NEW YORK, NY 10018. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY. lished in the newspaper in print and digital format. By submitting, authors represent POSTMASTER: Send address changes to that their submissions are original and 12 weeks of the Militant outside the U.S.: Australia and the Pacific, A$10 • United the Militant, 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor, consent to publication in this manner. New York, NY 10018. Kingdom, £3 • Canada, Can$7 • Caribbean and Latin America, US$10 • Continental Signed articles by contributors do not Europe, £10 • France, 8 euros • New Zealand, NZ$7 • All other areas, US$16 (Send SUBSCRIPTIONS: United States: For necessarily represent the Militant’s views. payment to addresses listed in business information box) one year send $35 to above address. These are expressed in editorials.

2 The Militant May 9, 2016 Join with SWP in action Continued from front page and building solidarity for the 39,000 vivid example of why workers should workers on strike against Verizon. At make a revolution and build a society an April 25 rally of hundreds at the based on human solidarity, the opposite statehouse in Trenton, New Jersey, of the dog-eat-dog social relations that communist workers introduced Veri- prevail under capitalist rule. It helped zon strikers to the party and its paper, convince many people to subscribe. the Militant. Some 30 of them signed Presidential candidate Kennedy cam- to put the SWP on the New Jersey paigned in New Jersey and took part in ballot. the monthly 34 Women for Oscar López SWP teams have fanned out across protest in New York. She will speak on that state knocking on workers’ doors, behalf of the SWP supporting indepen- discussing the deepening crisis of capi- dence for Puerto Rico at the United Na- talism and the need to build a powerful tions Special Committee on Decoloni- movement of workers, who through zation hearings in June. struggle will become capable of ending West Coast SWP campaign orga- nizer Joel Britton traveled to Denver to Militant/Chris Hoeppner the dictatorship of the billionaire rulers. SWP presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy talks with retired pharmaceutical worker Henry In 10 days of campaigning, 800 people speak at a house meeting April 24 where Stellwag on his porch in Riverside, New Jersey, April 17 during drive to put SWP on ballot. have signed petitions toward the 1,500 $1,000 was raised to cover efforts to put goal, and several dozen have subscribed the party on the ballot in Colorado. Four tend the party’s conference in Oberlin, Workers Party and the Militant. At pris- to the Militant. people picked up copies of The Cuban Ohio, June 16-18. Participants in the ons across the U.S. more than 120 work- The Militant feature last week on Cu- Five Talk About Their Lives Within the international gathering will take part ers are subscribers, and their papers get ban internationalist medical volunteers US Working Class: “It’s the Poor Who in presentations, classes and discus- around. fighting Ebola in West Africa gave a Face the Savagery of the US ‘Justice’ sion on how to strengthen working- “I am a past subscriber,” writes a pris- System.” This and other books that help class struggles and build a revolution- oner in South Carolina. “I have moved explain the party’s program are on spe- ary party. to another prison and missed getting it. cial for Militant subscribers (see details “I’m motivated to go to the confer- Thank you for sending this great news- on page 8). ence by the clarity the party gives to so paper to prisoners and your support.” Ballot drives expand the party’s geo- many issues,” Rose Engstrom, a worker Joe Swanson and Chris Steffen in graphical reach and its contact with la- in Minneapolis, said in a phone inter- Lincoln, Nebraska, have won new read- bor and social struggles. “We learned view April 26. Engstrom got involved ers among young people who organized that Teamsters meatpackers in Fort in the fight against police brutality - af an April 9 abortion rights rally at the Morgan had voted down a contract of- ter cops killed 24-year-old Jamar Clark state Capitol. They convinced five long- fer from Cargill,” said Karen Ray from last November. “Some of the people time readers to renew and four of them Denver. “We went there and learned that demanding the police be prosecuted to get The Cuban Five Talk About Their Somali meatpacking workers are fight- came to hear Alyson Kennedy when she Lives Within the US Working Class. Five ing Cargill’s challenge to unemployment spoke here,” Engstrom said. subscribers contributed to the Militant benefits paid out after the company fired Kennedy presented the importance Fighting Fund, which helps keep the pa- 150 Muslim workers in December in of this fight in the context of what the per going. retaliation for their job action protesting working class needs to move forward. At the end of the third week of the six- the denial of prayer breaks.” “I got good feedback from several of the week subscription and fund drives, 773 When Osborne Hart joins supporters people who were there,” Engstrom said. subscriptions have been sent in toward Militant/Ellen Haywood April 29 to file the party’s application for “We announced the conference at the the quota of 1,550 and $28,760 toward Participant in April 14 Oakland, California, ballot status, he will visit Fort Morgan. meeting, and I’m following up. It would the fund quota of $110,000. Fight for $15 action signs up for Militant. be great if some of them could come.” To join the Socialist Workers Party in International conference June 16-18 Workers behind bars also value the its political campaigns, contact a party Spring subscription drive As socialists join labor and social political perspective of the Socialist branch listed on page 6. struggles and introduce workers and April 2 - May 17 (week 3) young people to the Socialist Workers Party, they are also inviting them to at- Workers discuss how to take on Country Quota Sold % UNITED STATES Militant Fighting Fund steel job cuts in UK and world Lincoln* 17 14 82% BY ÖGMUNDUR JÓNSSON — to make the capitalist industry prof- Oakland 110 67 61% April 2- May 17 (week 3) PORT TALBOT, Wales — “Our peo- itable again. At the Scunthorpe works Washington 115 64 56% ple make the difference,” is emblazoned in North Lincolnshire, where hundreds Country Quota Paid % on the huge Tata steelworks that domi- have already lost their jobs, workers vot- New York 220 118 54% UNITED STATES nate this town — words that ring hollow ed for a 3 percent pay cut and reductions Philadelphia 90 48 53% Lincoln* $240 $111 46% as thousands of steelworkers here and in pensions for the next year, a conces- Chicago 125 58 46% Oakland $14,500 $6,485 45% across the United Kingdom face layoffs sion recommended by union officials as Seattle 100 45 45% Atlanta $10,000 $4,085 41% or cuts in wages and pensions. part of a buyout of the Tata works there Complaining of high pension costs, by Greybull Capital. Twin Cities 80 35 44% Los Angeles $8,600 $2,995 35% “dumping” from China, the global Union leaders have backed steel boss- Miami 50 20 40% Chicago $11,500 $3,255 28% “oversupply” of steel and high energy es’ demands that the government cut Los Angeles 200 75 38% Miami $3,000 $720 24% prices and taxes in the U.K., steel bosses taxes on steel companies and use only Twin Cities $3,500 $770 22% Atlanta 100 29 29% have already laid off thousands over the British-made steel for construction proj- Washington $7,700 $1,600 21% past year. Claiming that its operations ects. Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of Total U.S. 1207 573 47% New York $21,000 $3,675 18% are losing £1 million a day ($1.45 mil- the steelworkers union Community, and UNITED KINGDOM Seattle $7,500 $260 3% lion), Tata, which owns the bulk of U.K. Karl Koehler, director of Tata’s Europe- steel production, announced it’s moving an operations, jointly led a contingent of Manchester 60 39 65% Philadelphia $3,200 $0 0% U.S. Total $90,740 $23,956 26% out of the country altogether, putting a hundreds of steelworkers from the U.K. London 75 43 57% further 15,000 steelworkers’ jobs in lim- at a “mass lobby” in Brussels Feb. 15, Total U.K. 135 82 61% CANADA bo, as many as 4,000 here. calling on the European Union to slap Montreal $4,000 $1,725 43% U.K. Business Secretary Sajid Javid tariffs on Chinese steel imports. CANADA Calgary $3,200 $1,054 33% announced April 21 that the government Ignored in all this is the fact that at Calgary 45 24 53% Canada Total $7,200 $2,779 39% would be ready to take a 25 percent least half a million Chinese steelworkers Montreal 55 28 51% stake in Tata’s U.K. operations as part of face layoffs, along with 1.3 million coal NEW ZEALAND $4,000 $1,046 26% any sale. No buyer is likely to take over Total Canada 100 52 52% miners. Tata’s £15 billion pension fund, which Communist workers from London AUSTRALIA $1,100 $650 59% AUSTRALIA 60 31 52% covers over 130,000 current and former and Manchester went door to door in UNITED KINGDOM workers, and claims a £485 million defi- Port Talbot to discuss a working-class NEW ZEALAND 50 23 46% Manchester $700 $329 47% cit. A government takeover of the fund response to this crisis. would mean workers losing from 10 Jean Cody, whose husband, Bernard, PRISONERS 15 12 80% London $2,000 $0 0% U.K. Total $2,700 $329 12% percent to 30 percent of their pensions, is a retired steelworker, spoke with Jona- Total 1567 773 50% according to the Financial Times. than Silberman, Communist League Total $105,740 $28,760 26% Should be 1550 775 50% Union officials have refused to orga- candidate for mayor of London. “It start- Should be $110,000 $55,000 50% nize a fight for jobs, subordinating work- ed with the mines. Now it’s steel,” she *Raised goal *Raised goal ers’ interests to calls to “Save Our Steel” Continued on page 6

The Militant May 9, 2016 3 ‘Teamster Politics’: lessons of 1930s battles for fighters today Teamster Politics, by Farrell Dobbs. capitalist depression had made workers’ 345 pages. Pathfinder Press, second conditions “so intolerable that rebel- edition 2015. lious moods were rapidly spreading,” Dobbs writes. “Fears of a revolutionary BY MARY MARTIN uprising gripped the capitalists so they As the 2016 U.S. elections unfold, allowed the incoming president wide the effects of capitalism’s crisis of pro- latitude in acting to stem the threat to duction and trade are pressing working their rule.” people to look for new political perspec- This is how the measures called the tives, and for ways to defend their jobs, New Deal came about. Dobbs explains wages and working conditions, and po- how, with the help of trade union bu- litical and social rights. reaucrats and other misleaders, Roo- I recommend reading Teamster Poli- sevelt and the propertied rulers he tics by Farrell Dobbs, a longtime central spoke for used these measures to try to leader of the Socialist Workers Party. A contain the labor upsurge and prevent new, expanded edition was published it from challenging their political rule. But depression conditions, with ups and downs, dragged on until the U.S. IN REVIEW rulers’ entry into the second world im- perialist war. last year, including 20 pages of photos To stifle the labor upsurge and op- that draw readers into the book. Top, three-mile cavalcade from Minneapolis to state Capitol in St. Paul, June 2, 1939, part of position to the rulers’ war moves, “the Through the living experience of nationwide protests against Roosevelt administration slashing a million workers from Works FBI openly began to assume the role of workers’ battles during the 1930s, it Progress Administration jobs. Bottom, members of Local 544 union defense guard that pushed political police,” says Dobbs, restricting back threat by fascist Silver Shirts to raid Minneapolis Teamster headquarters in August 1938. shows how we face a dictatorship of civil liberties and targeting the unions. capital — not just the bosses, but their women into the unions and political ac- faced frame-up trials and jail time. cops, courts, administrative apparatus The final book in the series,Teamster Bureaucracy, describes how the rank- tivity, showed that potential. Through the battles described in and political parties. This won’t end “The CIO movement had arisen with Teamster Politics, many participants until the working class takes political and-file Teamsters leadership organized to oppose World War II, racism, and unanticipated rapidity and power; and became transformed into different men power out of the hands of the boss class the revolutionary party had not been and women. Dobbs introduces some of once and for all. To fight to win, we need government efforts — backed by the in- ternational officialdom of the AFL, the able to recruit CIO militants at the rate the individuals, and tells how they be- to organize not only in trade unions, but and on the scale needed to gain effec- came capable of acting and leading oth- on the broadest political level. CIO and the Teamsters — to gag class- tive leadership influence among the ers in solidarity in ways neither they nor This is the third volume of a four-part struggle-minded workers. mass of industrial workers,” Dobbs the bosses had thought possible. series. Teamster Rebellion and Teamster A participant’s account writes. “The time had come to support This marked the beginnings of a po- Power describe the series of organiz- the development of a more elementary litically conscious, class-struggle union ing drives and strikes by Minneapolis Dobbs was a participant in this his- form of independent working-class leadership in Minnesota and the region. truck drivers in 1934 that forged a pow- tory. He was a young coal yard worker political action, namely formation of a But similar developments did not hap- erful fighting union there, and how the when he joined the 1934 Minneapolis labor party based on the trade unions.” pen nationwide. Minneapolis Teamsters, guided by a organizing drive and became a leader This remains a pressing question for the As Dobbs describes vividly, one of class-struggle leadership, built on those of the strike battles. He was later the working class today. the chief reasons was the counterrevo- victories to strengthen the labor move- central organizer of an 11-state union lutionary betrayals and thuggery of the ment throughout the Midwest over the organizing drive that drew tens of thou- The book features concrete examples following years. sands of over-the-road truckers into the of how the fight for independent work- Stalinized Communist Party, which was In Teamster Politics, Dobbs looks Teamsters. ing-class political action unfolded in substantially larger than the SWP. Dobbs joined and became a leader of Minnesota, where a reformist Farmer- at the broader political framework in Challenges working class faces today which these battles took place — part the revolutionary party that was at the Labor Party existed, independent of the of the upsurge that forged the industrial heart of these union battles, the Social- Democrats and Republicans. Because of the bosses’ moves to wrap unions and the CIO. President Franklin ist Workers Party. He left the Teamsters In the third section, titled “Ruling- the unions in red tape and legal restric- Roosevelt took office in 1933, when the organizing staff in 1940 to become the Class Offensive,” Dobbs takes up how tions, and the class-collaborationist out- party’s labor secretary, served as SWP the bosses and their government used look of the trade union bureaucrats and national secretary from 1953 to 1972, everything from lawsuits smearing the their subordination of the working class Read the 4-part and was the party’s presidential candi- unions for “corruption” to anti-labor to the bosses’ political parties, espe- date four times. legislation to try to tame the labor move- cially the Democrats, the power of the Teamster series! In the class battles unfolding on each ment as the Roosevelt administration labor movement has been eroded in the page we learn just as the workers them- geared up for war. decades since. Today just 7 percent of selves learned in the process about the One particularly interesting chapter industrial workers are in unions. true character of all institutions in capi- describes how workers pushed back But new winds are blowing — from talist society. a threat from a fascist outfit known as the movement for $15 an hour and The book is divided into four sec- the Silver Shirts, which in August 1938 unionization, to fights against two-tier tions. The first, titled “The Politics of talked of an armed raid on the Teamster wages and union busting, to mobiliza- the Trade-Union Movement,” describes headquarters. “Local 544, acting with tions against police brutality and abuse. how a class-struggle leadership built its customary decisiveness, answered Dobbs explains that the Teamsters’ the union while confronted with the the threat by organizing a union defense experiences showed that “unionism and narrow, self-serving perspectives of the guard,” Dobbs says. politics can’t be separated.” Teamsters bureaucrats and their devo- In the final section, called “Plight of As I read this I can name farmwork- tion to Roosevelt and other supposed the Jobless,” Dobbs explains the alliance ers, longshore workers, retail workers, Teamster Politics friends of labor. forged by the union with unemployed shellfish gatherers, and paperworkers “Unionism and politics cannot The second section, “Political Con- workers who were part of the govern- who I know are thinking about this be separated. Power generated flict in Minnesota,” takes up in depth ment Works Progress Administration question based on their own experiences at the trade-union level can be why workers need to organize political- make-work projects, many of whom with the brutality of capitalism and the shattered by government blows. ly independent of capitalist parties such joined the Federal Workers Section af- necessity for a union. They are looking Workers must enter the political as the Democrats and Republicans. filiated to Local 544. for a way forward. arena as an independent class As part of the labor movement, they Dobbs says, “Power generated at the force, with their own party.” Need for union-based labor party fought for increased unemployment trade-union level can be shattered by — Farrell Dobbs Dobbs explains why in 1938 the So- compensation and forced local and state government blows. Workers must en- Other books in series: cialist Workers Party decided to call officials to back down on humiliating ter the political arena as an indepen- Teamster Rebellion for a labor party based on the unions. means testing for jobless workers to get dent class force, with their own party.” The party knew the working class relief. Minneapolis was one of the stron- Teamster Politics is a powerful tool for Teamster Power might make a direct leap to revolution- gest centers in a nationwide strike by the new generations learning this les- Teamster Bureaucracy ary politics, as happened in Russia in WPA workers in 1939. son today. $19 each or all four for $65 1917, where the Bolshevik Party, led Readers will appreciate learning of by V.I. Lenin, led the toilers to power. the role of women fighters who fought Mary Martin is the Socialist Workers pathfinderpress.com The explosion of the labor movement in unflinchingly alongside men on picket Party candidate for governor of Wash- the 1930s, drawing millions of men and lines in this battle. Some were arrested, ington state.

4 The Militant May 9, 2016 Convicted NY cop gets no jail in death of Akai Gurley BY DEAN HAZLEWOOD hold in 2014 have never been charged. NEW YORK — Police officer Peter “It’s a bad set of circumstances, sad Liang was sentenced to five years pro- on both ends,” Thomas James, who bation and 800 hours of community is Black, told the Militant outside the service April 19. Liang was convicted courthouse, “but Gurley was not doing of manslaughter in February for the anything wrong.” shooting death of Akai Gurley in a “We are outraged that Peter Liang has stairwell at the Louis Pink Houses escaped accountability for killing Akai complex in Brooklyn, Nov. 20, 2014. Gurley,” said a joint statement initiated Liang’s conviction was the first of a by CAAAV Organizing Asian Com- cop here in a fatal shooting in over a munities and signed by other Asian and decade. It carried a potential sentence Chinese American organizations. “As of up to 15 years. But State Supreme grassroots organizations working with Court Judge Danny Chun reduced Asian/Chinese Americans, we continue the jury’s manslaughter verdict to to stand with the family of Akai Gur- criminally negligent homicide and ley and other innocent victims of police Militant/Jacob Perasso said “incarceration is not necessary.” killings to hold all police officers ac- Relatives of Akai Gurley and others killed by New York police rally at Brooklyn District Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth countable, regardless of race.” Attorney’s office April 15 demanding jail time for Peter Liang in death of Gurley in 2014. Thompson had recommended that Li- ang serve no jail time. Liang, with his gun drawn was on pa- trol with partner Shaun Landau, claims Verizon strikers stand up to attacks on unions that it went off accidently. The bullet ric- Continued from front page ter worker in Livingston, said. He and those with more than 30 years. ocheted, striking Gurley, who was with vice of copper wire and fiber optic co-workers help workers at call centers The union is organizing roving pick- his friend Melissa Butler a floor below, cable. in other parts of the world. “When a ets that follow strikebreakers to work in the heart. Neither cop rendered aid to At a rally of hundreds outside the New worker there needs help, they put a caller locations, then picket nearby. the dying man. Butler and a neighbor Jersey Statehouse April 25, many work- on hold and call us to talk it through.” A group of CWA Local 1000 mem- called for an ambulance. ers took issue with Verizon’s media ads Francois’s family worked on the land bers from the 411 information call cen- “Another Black man has been mur- claiming the average pay package for a in Haiti. “Everyone in the world needs ter in Manahawkin, spoke with the Mil- dered by the hands of the Police Depart- technician is $130,000 a year. jobs,” he said, “but companies go where itant. “They call us all ‘surplus’ workers, ment and the officer is not being held “If we had everything they’re claim- people are paid less. We need to create meaning they want to get rid of us,” said accountable,” Gurley’s aunt Hertencia ing, we wouldn’t be on strike!” said more work for everybody.” Jodi Grant, vice president of the local’s Petersen told a crowd outside the court Larry Fowler, a technician in Somerset. Some other unions joined in solidar- operator services. building after the sentencing. Fowler’s co-worker Isa Woods said ity, including Amalgamated Transit “We must average 22.7 seconds per Nearby about 100 people, mostly Verizon has not hired in more than a Union Local 824, Service Employees call or can be disciplined,” said opera- Chinese, carried signs saying Liang dozen years. “We are working six-day International Union Local 32BJ, and tor Mary Compton. The operators must was being scapegoated because he is weeks,” he said. “We are seeing a lot of International Federation of Professional follow a script, have their keystrokes Chinese American. “This was just very injuries. During every disaster, we are and Technical Engineers Local 194, rep- monitored, and cannot “oversearch” for bad luck,” said Alex Li. “He didn’t have out there seven days a week. And Veri- resenting New Jersey Turnpike workers. information. Supervisors listen in. “I enough experience for duty like this.” zon keeps on making big profits.” Henderson Fleming said Local 194 can easily come home with a headache Some other workers share this view. “In some fields, such as customer beat back efforts to privatize the high- every day,” she said. Many are glad that Liang was found service, operator and administrative way. “Working on the turnpike, like at “We are trying to help people,” guilty, but point out that Staten Island assistant where there’s high turnover, Verizon, can be rough,” he said. Compton said. “It’s a normal interaction cops killed Eric Garner with a choke- there’s some hiring,” New York techni- “When we picketed, the Verizon among human beings to talk with cour- cian Miguel Pimentel told the Militant workers joined us,” said Douglas Arm- tesy. It is not right that I could be disci- in a phone interview April 26. “For strong, a member of ATU Local 824 plined for responding ‘thank you’ twice MILITANT technicians, there’s very little. But the from the Freehold area. in a call or for going over 22.7 seconds.” company contracts out similar work to “When people say the strike is all At the call center only one worker at a LABOR nonunion contractors. For example, they about money, I tell them, no, it’s about time may go to the bathroom, and work- get contractors to install molding in a health care for retirees and active work- ers must hold up a flag to indicate they FORUMS building, and then we run cable through ers,” IBEW Local 827 Business Agent need a break, Compton and Grant said. it. We’re constantly fighting to take back Rich Spieler said. “It’s about how the “We’ve gotten more support than ever GEORGIA work Verizon contracts out.” company is sending jobs away.” in the past,” said Grant. “Shore Medical Atlanta “The most important issue is job se- Verizon wants to cap pensions at 30 Center nurses, who had their own con- What Road Forward for Toilers of Israel and Palestine in Face of Capitalist Crisis? curity,” Crasner Francois, 34, a call cen- years, and take away pension credits for tract fight, have joined us.” Speaker: Lisa Potash, Socialist Workers Par- ty. Fri., May 6, 7:30 p.m. 777 Cleveland Ave. SW, Suite 103. Tel.: (678) 528-7828. 25, 50, AND 75 YEARS AGO CANADA Montreal Why Censorship and Anti-Hate Laws Harm Working-Class Fight Against Jew Hatred. Speaker: John Steele, Communist League. Fri., May 6, 7:30 p.m. 7107 St. Denis, May 17, 1991 May 9, 1966 May 10, 1941 Suite 204. Tel.: (514) 272-5840. The devastation that is unfolding in WATTS, Calif. — Philip Bently LONDON — The Labour “Leaders” Bangladesh — where at least 125,000 Brooks, Negro father of four, was freed in the War Cabinet would like to believe UNITED KINGDOM have died and tens of thousands more April 26, after a jury declared him in- the working class is solidly behind the Manchester will — is being portrayed as a “natu- nocent in the shooting death of a deputy imperialist war and that they acquiesce EU Referendum: Is It in Workers’ In- ral” disaster that nothing much can be sheriff during the Watts uprising of last in the repressive measures. Figures in terests for the UK to Remain in the EU? the “Ministry of Labour Gazette,” com- For Independent Working-Class Political done about. This is false. The toilers of August. Action. Speaker: Tony Hunt, Communist this flood-stricken country are suffering Deputy Ronald Ludlow was killed paring industrial disputes in 1940 and League. Sat., May 7, 6:30 p.m. Donation: a social disaster produced by capitalist during the disorders when the shotgun 1939 tell a different tale. £2.50. Room 301, Hilton House, 26-28 Hilton relations on the land and exploitation of of his partner Deputy William Lauer Government legislation has declared St. Tel.: (016) 1478-2496. semicolonial countries by the imperial- discharged, striking him in the stomach. strikes illegal, and strikers can be ist banks and lending agencies. He was the only white person killed in charged with sabotage. In spite of this CALENDAR Millions of toilers in immediate dan- the Watts revolt. there were 914 strikes in 1940 involving ger of deadly diseases and the 10 mil- Brooks, Joseph Lavine Jr., and Harold 300,500 workers as compared with 940 CANADA lion made homeless are denied massive Potts were driving in Watts when ap- in 1939 involving 337,300 workers. Calgary aid needed from imperialist countries. proached by the deputies. After one As the trade union bureaucrats frown Justice for Colton Crowshoe Walk. Thurs., Vast numbers of the dead could have deputy shot the other, the three Negroes on all strikes in this “period of national May 5, 8 p.m. Crowshoe, 18, was killed and his body found on July 24, 2014. Three been saved if a fraction of the billions were dragged from their car, beaten, crisis,” the leadership of these strikes has weeks earlier, before he disappeared, he was spent by Washington and its allies on the carted to the jail section of the county devolved on the rank-and-file commit- beaten by the police. 4825 Mount Royal Gate slaughter of the Iraqi people had been hospital and charged with murder, al- tees and especially on the Shop Steward SW., Mount Royal University. Tel.: (587) 968- 5610. used to aid the victims. Yet Washington though none had a weapon or touched movement, which is coming to the fore has so far contributed only $125,000. the trigger that fired the fatal shot. as the leaders of militant struggle.

The Militant May 9, 2016 5 SWP candidate on job safety Continued from front page They made arrangements to meet again squeeze the workers, jack up produc- on the Verizon picket line later in the tivity and things get more unsafe.” week. “That’s for sure at Verizon,” said Hopper, a member of the International Elections rattle union officials Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The grinding depression conditions “There it’s all about profit.” facing working people as capital’s “The working class produces all the crisis of production and trade deep- wealth,” Kennedy said. “But the em- ens worldwide generate a thirst for a ploying class appropriates it for their new perspective for what can be done private profit. Whichever capitalist pol- to change things. It finds reflection in itician gets elected, their class controls growing interest in the SWP, as well as the government. in frictions and fissures in the Demo- “We’re a revolutionary party. We cratic and Republican parties. say workers need to fight for our own This is creating political difficulties government that can use the wealth we for the union officialdom, who seek produce to take on the problems work- to tie labor’s fate to capitalist “friends ing people face, here and worldwide,” of labor,” mostly through the Demo- she said. cratic Party machine. Today there’s “I kind of like some of the things widespread working-class interest in Militant/Tony Lane Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy, right, discussed need for Bernie Sanders says,” Hopper said. the “outsider” campaigns of Donald labor party based on unions with Verizon strikers at April 25 rally in Trenton, New Jersey. “And I like what you’re saying.” Trump and Sanders. And hysteria over He got a copy of the Militant. “I’m the Trump campaign will only grow af- back at all the different trade agree- of America, American Postal Workers going to take it to the union hall and get ter April 26, when he swept the prima- ments over the past 30 years. It’s always and International Longshore and Ware- the local to get a subscription,” he said. ries in Connecticut, Delaware, Mary- been to move jobs out of the country. ... house Union. “There are a number of politicians land, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. We don’t have good jobs left.” Many workers who back Sanders speaking at the rally here today,” “Donald Trump’s Working-Class Trump’s declaration he will “bring or Trump say they see similarities in Communications Workers of America Appeal Is Starting to Freak Out La- back American jobs” echoes the pro- the two candidates. Sanders told CBS’ member Dina Bazley told Kennedy. bor Unions,” ran a headline article in tectionist, American nationalism long “Face the Nation” that he is courting “I’m glad for the support, but they don’t Huffington Post online several weeks promoted by the labor tops. Trump supporters who are “working- ever seem to do anything.” ago. Union officials fear support for class people” with “legitimate” angers “We need our own political party, “We hear the same refrains all the Trump will undercut their relations and fears because of decreasing wages. a labor party, based on our unions,” time,” Karen Nussbaum, head of the with Democratic Party bosses. “I am Sanders, Trump and company all Kennedy said. “That way we can use AFL-CIO-affiliated Working Ameri- deeply concerned about what is stir- aim to convince workers that “we our own party to build solidarity with ca, told the Post. “That people are fed ring, even in our membership,” Mary Americans” have a common interest struggles like you’re in at Verizon. up and they’re hurting. That their fami- Kay Henry, president of the Service against other workers around the world “Pulling a lever for a Democratic lies have not recovered from the reces- Employees International Union, said in and that we should fight for “our” jobs or Republican politician who sounds sion. ... And then a guy comes on the January, “where our members are re- at their expense. But there is no “we.” better than the last one doesn’t get the stage and says, ‘I’m your guy who will sponding to Trump’s message.” The interests of the working class are working class anywhere,” the Social- blow the whole thing up.’” Sanders’ rhetoric about a “political diametrically opposed to those of the ist Workers Party candidate said. “The Jobs is one big factor. “My country is revolution” and complaints about the boss class, whose profits and privileges only way we win anything is through going to hell,” Brian Sepe, a Massachu- “1 percent” get a similar response. A are based on exploitation of workers, struggle. Your strike is an example of setts utility worker and member of the number of union locals and a few na- here and around the world. what we need more of. And a labor United Steelworkers, told International tional unions have backed Sanders, in- party built from these experiences can Business Times in March. “You look cluding the Communications Workers Tony Lane contributed to this article. help point the way toward fighting for political power.” Bazley works in Newark, New Jer- Workers discuss how to take on steel job cuts sey, near where Lane works at Walmart. Continued from page 3 ers in semicolonial nations and countries that when the sugar industry in Cuba said, referring to the obliteration of coal like the U.K. When companies speak of was cut back, the revolutionary govern- Join the Socialist Workers mining in the U.K., including in South too much steel, what they really mean is ment collaborated with sugar workers Party campaign in 2016! Wales, in the 1980s and ’90s. Silberman too much steel to sell at the profit they through thousands of meetings, guaran- responded that the steel industry is part require.” teed their wages and organized training To get involved, for information, of a worldwide crisis of production and “The labor movement should be lead- for other jobs. “This was the product of or to make a contribution, contact SWP units listed below or: trade. ing the fight for a crash program of gov- a revolution that put workers in power “It’s absurd to say that there’s too ernment-funded public works to provide and replaced the dog-eat-dog values of SWP 2016 Campaign much steel in the world today,” Silber- jobs, and build the homes, schools, hos- capitalism with human solidarity,” he 227 W. 29th St., 6th Floor man said. “Doesn’t Africa need roads, pitals and infrastructure projects work- said. “We should demand that the gov- New York, NY 10001 railways, bridges, dams and other ing people need,” he added. ernment guarantees wages of steelwork- (646) 922-8186 projects? Building such infrastructure [email protected] Cody replied that “I can’t see the gov- ers. That would involve a real fight by would help close the gap between work- ernment doing that.” Silberman said the unions.” IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP Where to find distributors of the NEBRASKA: Lincoln: Tel: (402) 217- CANADA Militant, New International, and a full 4906. Email: [email protected]. QUEBEC: Montreal: 7107 St. Denis display of Pathfinder books. #204 H2S 2S5. Tel: (514) 272-5840. Email: NEW YORK: New York: 227 W. 29th St., [email protected] ALBERTA: Calgary: Dragon 6th Floor. Zip: 10001. Tel: (646) 964-4793. UNITED STATES City Mall, 328 Centre St. SE, Suite 246. T2G 4X6 Email: [email protected] CALIFORNIA: Oakland: 675 Tel: (403) 457-9044. Email: [email protected] Hegenberger Road, Suite 250. Zip: 94621. PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia: 2824 Tel: (510) 686-1351. Email: swpoak Cottman Ave., Suite 20. Zip: 19149. Tel: (215) FRANCE @sbcglobal.net Los Angeles: 2826 S. 708-1270. Email: [email protected] Paris: BP 10130, 75723 Paris Cedex 15. Vermont. Suite 1. Zip: 90007. Tel: (323) Tel: 01 40-10-28-37. Email: milpath.paris@ 643-4968. Email: [email protected] WASHINGTON, D.C.: 143 laposte.net Kennedy St. NW, Suite 15. Zip: FLORIDA: Miami: 7911 Biscayne 20011. Tel: (202) 536-5080. Email: NEW ZEALAND Blvd., Suite 2. Zip: 33138. Tel: (305) 390- [email protected] Auckland: 188a Onehunga Mall, 8310. Email: [email protected] Onehunga. Postal address: P.O. Box 3025, WASHINGTON: Seattle: 5418 Rainier GEORGIA: Atlanta: 777 Cleveland Auckland 1140. Tel: (09) 636-3231. Email: Ave. South. Zip: 98118-2439. Tel: (206) [email protected] Ave. SW Suite 103. Zip: 30315. Tel: (678) 323-1755. Email: seattleswp@qwestoffice. 528-7828. Email: [email protected] net UNITED KINGDOM ILLINOIS: Chicago: 2018 S. Ashland ENGLAND: London: 2nd Floor, 83 Ave. Zip: 60608. Tel: (312) 455-0111. Email: AUSTRALIA Kings­land High St., Dalston. Postal code: [email protected] Sydney: 1st Flr, 3/281-287 Beamish E8 2PB. Tel: (020) 3583-3553. Email: St., Campsie, NSW 2194. Mailing [email protected] Manchester: Room MINNESOTA: Minneapolis: 416 E. address: P.O. Box 164, Campsie, NSW 2194. 301, 3rd floor, Hilton House, 26–28 Hilton Hennepin Ave., Suite 214. Zip: 55414. Tel: (612) Tel: (02) 9718 9698. Email: cl_australia@ St. Postal code: M1 2EH. Tel: (016) 1478- 729-1205. Email: [email protected] optusnet.com.au 2496. Email: [email protected]

6 The Militant May 9, 2016 SWP CAMPAIGN STATEMENT New Mideast ‘order’ Continued from front page Verizon strike is fight for all workers! brokered by Washington and Moscow began in late February, anti-Assad protesters have been coming The following statement was released April 27 job will gain strength if Verizon strikers, who face out for street demonstrations, an echo of the mass by Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candi- similar conditions, can push their bosses back. mobilizations demanding Assad’s ouster in 2011. date for U.S. president, and Osborne Hart for vice Fast-food and Walmart workers fighting for $15 Assad responded then with massive military force, president. an hour and a union also have a stake in this fight. initiating the war that has killed close to half a mil- Every blow the bosses deal to our fellow workers lion people and displaced millions. Workers on strike at Verizon need your support is a blow against us. Every victory by our broth- In this context, brutal anti-working-class Islamic and solidarity. In a multimillion dollar ad campaign ers and sisters puts us in a better position to move State forces have seized sections of Syria and Iraq, run daily since the strike began, Verizon bosses forward and would boost the fight to organize the increasing the misery of residents. That reaction- want you to turn your back on the workers. Verizon unorganized. ary group is a terrorist split from al-Qaeda and claims they get “outstanding compensation,” “ex- Other unionists face concession demands from backed by military commanders who previously ceptional retirement benefits” “very reasonable” their bosses, who seek to make us pay for the deep- served the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. health insurance and “numerous perks.” And that ening crisis of capitalist production and trade. President Barack Obama announced April 25 the company has “put a fair offer on the table.” Members of the Utility Workers Union of Amer- Washington will send 250 special forces to Syria, Don’t fall for it! ica Local 1-2 at Con Edison in New York just voted bringing the total to 300. This follows a deploy- Verizon bosses say they want a deal that “po- to authorize a strike in the face of that company’s sitions our wireline business for success in the attempts to push through further cutbacks. Their ment of additional troops to Iraq. These moves, he digital world” and that makes “changes to legacy contract expires June 25. said, aim to strengthen the fight against Islamic constraints in our contracts.” Translation: Verizon We call on our fellow workers: Join the Verizon State in both countries. wants to keep speeding up the work pace, disregard workers’ picket lines and demonstrations. Take up Divisions in Iraq job safety, reduce health care benefits, cut wages by collections for their strike funds. Invite strikers to using more contractors to increase their profit rates speak to your union meetings or to your neighbor- In Iraq, the Shia-led government of Prime Min- and fill the owners’ bank accounts. hood association and other community groups. ister Haider al-Abadi faces a political and econom- This is not just a fight for union workers at Ve- The Verizon strike shows both the power of ic crisis exacerbated by the drop of oil prices and rizon. The strikers are fighting for all of us. If Ve- working people in action and that our struggles friction among the country’s three ethnic popula- rizon gets away with this it will encourage other would be even more powerful if we had our own tions. Shia Arabs in the southeast have close ties bosses to do the same. Workers across the country party, a labor party based on our unions, instead with Iran. Some are organized into militias hostile have a vested interest in mobilizing the broadest of relying on bourgeois politicians who claim to be to Sunni Arabs in central Iraq, as well as to Kurds solidarity possible. “friends of labor.” in the autonomous region in the oil-rich north, who The fight by construction workers for job safety An injury to one is an injury to all! Solidarity are calling for independence. in the face of increasing numbers of deaths on the with the striking workers at Verizon! Fighting broke out between Shiite militias and Kurdish peshmerga troops in Tuz Khurmatu north of Baghdad April 24, but the next day leaders of both groups announced a truce. Many thousands responded to a call by powerful Shiite cleric Cargill fires workers, challenges jobless pay Muqtada al-Sadr — long an opponent of Washing- ton’s role in Iraq — for a “million-man march” in BY KAREN RAY A similar lawsuit is being pursued against JBS Baghdad April 25 to protest government corrup- FORT MORGAN, Colo. — “Cargill is challeng- USA, which operates a packinghouse in Greeley. It tion and demand Abadi appoint a new cabinet. ing the workers’ unemployment” claims, granted charges that “JBS engaged in wide-scale religious Washington is backing the Iraqi military and after mass firings by the giant meatpacker late last discrimination” when they fired more than 100 Kurdish forces in northern Iraq with airstrikes, part year, said Khadar Ducaale. Muslim workers in 2008 for not reporting to work of its effort to drive against Islamic State. The Iraqi Ducaale volunteers his time every weekend to after the company refused them a prayer break at government says it is preparing to take Mosul, the help other Somali workers negotiate with landlords sundown for Ramadan. largest city held by Islamic State. Top Pentagon of- and bill collectors and in other ways. He has been In another development, members of Teamsters ficials, concerned about the state of the government busy since Dec. 23 when Cargill Meat Solutions Local 455, which represents Cargill meatpackers in and its army, have visited Iraq recently to consult fired nearly 150 Muslim workers here. The firings Fort Morgan, rejected a company contract proposal on the offensive. were in retaliation for workers walking off the job April 15 by 98 percent. The union press release “Ensuring that a cohesive, well-equipped Iraqi after the company changed its long-standing prac- stated the company “not only offered the more than force advances into Mosul is at the core of the re- tice of allowing them to take breaks to pray. 1,700 workers inadequate wage increases, but dras- newed U.S. mission in Iraq,” the Washington Post Workers are now being called for telephone in- tically slashed healthcare benefits while increasing wrote April 21. U.S. military leaders are trying “to terviews by state unemployment officials, Ducaale the cost. Access to affordable, quality healthcare is make up for flaws exposed in the [Iraqi] army’s told the Militant April 24. These are “interroga- critical for those that work in an industry that the partial collapse in the same city in 2014.” tions, really,” he said, that “can take four or five Occupational Safety & Health Administration re- ports has an injury and illness rate 2.5 times higher hours with a translator, the company lawyer and Tehran protests U.S. sanctions a lawyer from CAIR,” the Council on American- than the national average.” Cargill and the union A key component of Washington’s course in the Islamic Relations, which is representing the work- are scheduled to reopen negotiations May 12, over- Mideast is to move toward better working relations ers. They are repeatedly asked the same or similar seen by a federal mediator. with the Iranian government to advance U.S. inter- questions regarding their firings and “are very wor- ests in the region. That was the aim of the “nuclear ried they will have to pay back the unemployment Correction deal” negotiated with Tehran last year. payments,” he said. The article “Verizon Strikers: Time to Say No Following an April 19 meeting at the U.N. with On March 7, lawyers representing about 130 to Concessions” in the May 2 issue said the 1989 Secretary of State John Kerry on implementation workers filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Em- NYNEX strike lasted four weeks. It was four of the deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad ployment Opportunity Commission charging Car- months. Javad Zarif told the New York Times that Wash- gill Meat Solutions with religious discrimination. ington needs to assure European countries they may do business in Iran without fear of being pe- LETTERS nalized. The agreement lifted some nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran, but the U.S. government ‘Cuba and Chernobyl’ Sanders is what we have followers are prime for this shift, maintains others prohibiting Iranian access to U.S. Cuba and Chernobyl, a video I know you don’t see the Sand- especially since the loss in NY on banks and limiting its use of the dollar. about Cuba’s medical aid program ers candidacy as representative of the heels of Clinton corruption and At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court, with to children affected by the Cher- your values. But I think a tran- voter suppression. Mobilizing the State Department backing, authorized the transfer nobyl nuclear disaster, was shown sition for his campaign to more disenfranchised to a further pro- of $2.65 billion in Iranian assets Washington had at the Ukrainian-American Citi- militancy is desperately needed. socialist, anti-capitalist shift is per- frozen to relatives of those killed in attacks attrib- zens Hall in Cohoes, New York, He is what we have now, and his fect for the current Sanders base. uted to groups linked to Tehran — the 1983 bomb- sponsored by Albany Cuba Soli- Vincent G. ing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and the Riverside, California darity. The audience of about 40 ‘Militant’ Prisoners’ Fund 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. included a few members of the The Prisoners’ Fund makes it pos- An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the local Ukrainian community. After sible to send prisoners reduced The letters column is an open ruling mocked international law and “amounts to the film, Mira Peck, who was born rate subscriptions. To donate, forum for all viewpoints on sub- the appropriation of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s and raised in Poland near the bor- send a check or money order pay- jects of interest to working peo- property.” der with Ukraine, talked about her able to the Militant and earmarked ple. Please keep your letters brief. As part of the nuclear accord and efforts to ad- recent visit to Cuba and what she “Prisoners’ Fund” to 306 W. 37th Where necessary they will be vance relations, the Obama administration an- learned during that trip. St., 13th Floor, New York, NY abridged. Please indicate if you nounced April 22 it had agreed to buy 32 tons of Mindy Brudno 10018. prefer that your initials be used heavy water — an essential component for produc- Albany, New York rather than your full name. ing nuclear weapons and power — from Iran. The Militant May 9, 2016 7 Capitalism turns Ecuador quake into a social disaster

BY BRIAN WILLIAMS declared a state of emergency and sent The earthquake that struck Ecuador 10,000 soldiers and 4,600 national po- April 16, with mounting deaths, inju- lice to the devastated areas. ries and devastation, is a social disaster To reconstruct the quake-damaged magnified by capitalist exploitation and areas, Correa proposes taxes that will hit imperialist plunder. working people the hardest. Sales taxes The 7.8 magnitude quake on the coun- would increase from 12 to 14 percent try’s northwest coast destroyed cities, for a year. Workers earning over $1,000 towns, fishing villages and resorts. As a month would have a day’s wages de- of April 23, nearly 650 people were con- ducted; those making $5,000 a month Above, Reuters/Guillermo Granja; inset, CubaSi firmed dead, 130 missing, and 12,500 would be docked five days’ pay. Individ- Above, workers clean up debris in Pedernales, Ecuador, injured. Nearly 10,000 buildings were uals with more than $1 million in assets after earthquake that left hundreds dead, thousands in- destroyed or damaged and more than would be charged a one-time tax of 0.9 jured. Inset, Cuban Health Minister Roberto Morales, 25,000 people are now staying in tem- left, sends off contingent of doctors April 17 to join hun- percent on their wealth. dreds of Cuban health workers already in Ecuador. porary shelters, according to the govern- Correa is considering selling off un- ment. Others are sleeping outside. specified state assets, according to the dor’s exports, has plummeted, cutting The country’s foreign debt has Large amounts of stagnant water in Associated Press. He said it will take deeply into income the government has doubled to $27 billion since 2009, and the affected areas pose increasing health billions of dollars over years to rebuild depended on to fund social programs. the interest rate on government bonds risks from mosquito-born diseases, such the devastated areas of the country. Other exports, including bananas, soared to as high as 14 percent over the as dengue fever and Zika. U.N. officials say $73 million is need- shrimp and flowers, have dropped. The last year. This acts to siphon the wealth A week after the quake workers and ed for immediate relief such as food, country’s gross domestic product had produced by the labor of workers and farmers in many areas have received lit- water, medicine and shelter. Washington already been predicted to contract 4.5 farmers in Ecuador into banks in the tle government-organized aid. Supplies has so far offered less than $1 million. percent this year. U.S. and other imperialist centers. that arrive are often held in distribution centers and dispatched slowly. Cuba sends more doctors In Manta, where soldiers erected The revolutionary government of fenced barricades, “some had waited in Cuba immediately stepped up efforts to Wash. showing of Cuban 5 prison line for 10 hours the day before, only to provide needed health care throughout come away empty handed,” reported the the country. A team of more than 700 paintings: ‘Fighting for the future’ Washington Post April 21. doctors and medical workers had been BY EDWIN FRUIT “The way they survived prison is by “I’ve lost my house and I’m living on stationed in Ecuador over the past two PUYALLUP, Wash. — “Unlike most drawing on their training as products the street. The same goes for these other years, providing working people with artists whose work graces the walls of of the Cuban Revolution,” Mary Mar- women,” Sandra Alvia 37, told the pa- free medical care. Three of these doctors museums around the world, Antonio tin told the college online news service. per. “We have no water, no power and died in the earthquake when a building Guerrero has not exactly been classi- “They were fighting not just for them- nothing to eat. We’ve lost everything.” collapsed in the town of Pedernales. cally trained as a painter,” said an article selves, but for the future.” In their drive for profit, construction The Cuban government sent an emer- on the Pierce College website promoting Kathy Swart, a teacher and librarian, companies with government complic- gency contingent of volunteer doctors the opening there of “I Will Die the Way brought the exhibit to the college and ity erected buildings with substandard experienced in disasters and epidem- I’ve Lived,” a series of his paintings. chaired the April 12 opening, which fea- materials prone to collapse in areas ics. On arrival April 18, they helped “With the help of his fellow prisoners, tured Marisela Fleitas-Lear, professor of well known for regular seismic activ- set up a makeshift hospital in Bahia de Guerrero managed to create works of art Hispanic Studies at Green River Col- ity. Ecuador is located along the “Ring Caraquez, replacing one that had col- that portray the struggles he faced dur- lege, and Martin of the Socialist Work- of Fire,” a string of volcanoes along the lapsed, and treated patients in the rural ing his incarceration.” ers Party. edges of the Pacific Ocean. On April 14- communities of Jama and Canoa, re- The watercolors depict the experience Fleitas-Lear told how Washing- 15 earthquakes in Japan, which is also ported Prensa Latina. of Guerrero and the rest of the Cuban ton made Cuba into a virtual colony part of this seismic zone, killed at least Correa was elected president in 2007 Five in the “hole” during their first 17 through military occupation and the 41 people, and injured more than 900. on a program of increased government months in prison after their arrest by Platt Amendment, signed by the Cuban While a few countries, including the spending for education, health care and the FBI in 1998 on frame-up charges, government essentially at gunpoint in U.S. and Japan, have some form of early subsidies for housing and fuel. He called including conspiracy to commit espio- 1903, which allowed the U.S. to inter- warning system for earthquakes, Ecua- such reforms through the capitalist state nage. The five revolutionaries had been vene in Cuban affairs, take over Guan- dor and most other semicolonial coun- “21st century socialism.” gathering information about paramili- tánamo Bay and set up a naval base in tries don’t, since they’re expensive to The worldwide economic crisis of the tary groups in Florida, to help prevent perpetuity. deploy and maintain. capitalist system has had a deep impact violent attacks on Cuba. The last of the The establishment of U.S.-Cuba dip- Responding to the disaster, the gov- in Ecuador. The price of oil, which ac- Five were released and returned to Cuba lomatic relations is a victory for the Cu- ernment of President Rafael Correa counts for nearly 60 percent of Ecua- in December 2014. ban Revolution, Martin said. She noted that three of the Five served in Angola as part of Cuba’s internationalist mis- sion that defeated repeated Washington- backed invasions by the white suprema- SPECIAL BOOK OFFERS FOR MILITANT SUBSCRIBERS cist apartheid regime in South Africa. A student asked, “Are the Cuban Five Malcolm X, Black Liberation, all alive and well today and what are The Cuban Five Talk About Their Lives and the Road to Workers Power they doing?” Martin said the Five are Within the US Working Class JACK BARNES still on the front lines defending their “It’s the poor who face the savagery of the US ‘justice’ system” $15 (regular $20) country, strengthening the revolution GERARDO HERNÁNDEZ, RAMÓN LABAÑINO, ANTONIO GUERRERO, Also in French, Spanish and speaking across Cuba. RENÉ GONZÁLEZ, FERNANDO GONZÁLEZ “These ‘conspiracy to commit a Five Cuban revolutionaries, framed up by the U.S. government, spent up crime’ charges when they have no evi- to 16 years as part of the U.S. working class behind bars. In this 2015 inter- dence, like the Cuban Five had, are get- NEW view they talk about U.S. capitalist society and its “justice” system, and ting more widespread,” Brenda Bresna- about the future of the Cuban Revolution. han told the Militant as people viewed $10 (regular $15) Also in Spanish the exhibit. Her son is serving eight years on a federal conspiracy conviction in the penitentiary in Florence, Colo- Is Socialist Revolution Women in Cuba: rado, where Guerrero spent many years. in the U.S. Possible? The Making of a Revolution “These paintings speak to the ex- MARY-ALICE WATERS Within the Revolution periences my son relates to me,” she $4 (regular $7) Also in French, Spanish VILMA ESPÍN, ASELA DE LOS SANTOS, YOLANDA FERRER 50 Years of Covert Operations said, “the nighttime flashlights, the $15 (regular $20) Also in Spanish in the US roaches and the serial number as- Cuba and the Coming Washington’s Political Police American Revolution Teamster Politics and the American Working Class signed to inmates. Like Guerrero ex- JACK BARNES FARRELL DOBBS LARRY SEIGLE, STEVE CLARK, FARRELL DOBBS plains, ‘they try to make you become $7 (regular $10) Also in French, Spanish $14 (regular $19) Also in Spanish $8 (regular $12) Also in Spanish a number and attempt to strip your identity from you.’” IF YOU SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW, THESE SPECIAL OFFERS ARE FOR YOU. CONTACT THE SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY OR COMMUNIST LEAGUE BRANCHES LISTED ON PAGE 6.

8 The Militant May 9, 2016 Chernobyl disaster NY action demands freedom for Oscar López Continued from front page sign goes up for a medical trip to Cuba, times more radiation than the atom everybody wants to go,” Sasha Sirota, bombs U.S. imperialism dropped on Lyubov’s son, told a Minnesota meeting Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Yet in 1996. for 36 hours, officials told the 50,000 The International Chernobyl Foun- residents of Pripyat, built a mile from dation in Kiev helped choose the sick- the reactor to house workers from the est children to send for treatment. “The power plant, not to worry. When they main Tarará miracle,” the group wrote finally ordered an evacuation, they last year, “is a genuine attitude for care, told workers they would only be gone separated from the greed for money.” for a several days and not to take more The Soviet Union came apart about than a few clothes. Scientists now the same time the Tarará program be- say no one should live in Pripyat for gan. Moscow slashed its trade and aid to 24,000 years. Cuba. Even under these difficult condi- The Stalinist regime ordered some tions, which Cubans call the Special Pe- 600,000 troops and volunteer miners, riod, the revolutionary government ex- firemen and others — known as “liqui- panded the program to treat Ukrainian dators” — to join plant workers to put youth. the fire out, try to cover the leaking re- The new pro-capitalist government actor and clean up the area. Few were in Ukraine sought ties with Washington Militant/Seth Galinsky provided with protective gear and all and the European Union. “At the United NEW YORK — This May will mark Oscar López’s 35th year in U.S. pris- were exposed to threatening levels of Nations, Ukraine joined the U.S. in vot- ons on frame-up charges of “seditious conspiracy” for his activities in sup- port of independence for Puerto Rico. The monthly protest here April 24 radiation. ing against us on our human rights re- by 34 Women for Oscar was bigger than usual, including the participation With radioactive dust still falling, cord,” Dr. Xenia Laurenti, deputy direc- of his daughter Clarisa López, center. Scores of passersby at Union Square Stalinist party leaders went ahead tor of the Cuban program, said in a 2007 took flyers for a June 20 protest at the United Nations that will be part of with massive May Day rallies in Kiev, film on Chernobyl by Sic-Tv in Ukraine. an international day of action demanding his freedom. Ukraine’s capital, some 80 miles from “Had this been a political project, we After chanting for 34 minutes — one for each year of his captivity — Chernobyl, and Minsk, the capital of would have broken off our relations.” participants stayed for a special presentation. Lourdes García, far right, one Belarus, instead of cautioning people to “But this is not political,” she said. of the organizers of 34 Women, introduced Socialist Workers Party leader stay inside. “It’s an example of international solidar- Mary-Alice Waters, left. Last year Waters won a raffle for a sculpture of Two workers died in the explosion ity.” López carved out of wood by artist Jesús Mangual, standing in back. and 28 plant workers, firemen and In 2012, under President Viktor Ya- “By passing on this beautiful bust to Oscar’s daughter, it can continue to others died of acute radiation within nukovych, the Ukrainian government be part of the fight for his freedom,” Waters said. weeks. United Nations officials esti- ended funding for transportation to She noted that Fernando González, one of five Cuban revolutionaries who mate that 4,000 more deaths have re- Cuba, forcing the suspension of the spent 16 years in prison in the U.S. for their defense of the Cuban Revolution, sulted since. Tens of thousands were Tarará program. had shared a cell with López for several years. “If there’s anything I would sickened, especially children who con- Yanukovych was overthrown by a call my best years in prison,” González told Waters in an interview after his tracted thyroid cancers and diseases mass popular movement known as the release, “it would be those years with Oscar.” That interview is published in from contamination by iodine-131 pro- Maidan the next year. In the absence of a The Cuban Five Talk About Their Lives Within the US Working Class. duced along with cesium-137 when the revolutionary working-class leadership, “A thousand thanks.” Clarisa López said, in accepting the sculpture. reactor exploded. his pro-Moscow regime was replaced “Fernando is one of the kindest, most intelligent people I know. We have a The government continued to cover by a government led by President Petro date pending to drink coffee in Havana when Oscar is free.” up the real extent of the social disaster Poroshenko, himself a multibillionaire. — SARA LOBMAN until it was blown open by angry work- An organization of medical person- ers and scientists three years later. nel and victims of Chernobyl and others In a powerful poem about the Stalin- was formed in 2015 to urge the Ukrai- Soviet Union in 1986 and the capitalist world, but an argument for organizing ist treachery, Lyubov Sirota, who had nian government to restart the treatment regime in power in Ukraine today cared the toilers to take power from the hands witnessed the explosion when she went program. There are hundreds of young nothing for the lives and conditions of of the capitalist exploiters,” Socialist outside to get some night air in Pripyat, people on a waiting list to go to Tarará the working class. Workers Party National Secretary Jack wrote: and the Cubans have pledged to help Groups such as Greenpeace and the Barnes wrote in “Our Politics Start with Thousands of “competent” function- them. Centre for Research on Globalization the World,” in New International no. 13. aries With the goal of increasing profits for argue the problem at Chernobyl was nu- Electrification opens the door to the count our “souls” in percentages, Ukrainian capitalists, and under pres- clear power itself. They claim massive extension of culture and deeper col- their own honesty, souls, long gone — sure to adopt further anti-working-class numbers of deaths were caused, some laboration of working people across the so we suffocate with despair. “reforms” by the International Mon- estimating as high as a million. They world. They wrote us off. etary Fund and Washington, the Poro- say the only way future Chernobyls can “The communist movement does not They keep trying to write off shenko government has slashed social be prevented is shutting them all down, have ‘a position on nuclear power,’ for or our ailing truths funds, including programs to aid vic- even if it means that millions in Africa, against,” Barnes said. “We have a prole- with their sanctimonious lies. tims of Chernobyl. Latin America and Asia will be unable tarian internationalist course to advance But nothing will silence us! In 2015 the government stopped a to gain access to electrification. the revolutionary struggle for national school lunch program that fed 350,000 liberation and socialism.” Cuba’s internationalism children, many in the 1,300 settlements Problem is what class rules The internationalist course of the When the scope of the social catastro- near Chernobyl, the only sure source of But nuclear power is neither good nor Cuban Revolution toward thousands phe became clear, revolutionary Cuba, food not affected by lingering radiation. bad in itself. As Chernobyl proves, the of Ukrainians in Tarará, embodied in consistent with its unbroken record of “I am ashamed to look people in the question is who controls it in the inter- the idea that Cuba doesn’t share what internationalist working-class solidarity, eye,” Valery Kashparov, head of the ests of what social classes. is “left over,” but all that it has, regard- offered to provide medical care free of Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Ra- “The dangers of nuclear power are not less of cost, shows that such a revolution charge. Beginning in 1990 and over the diology, told Associated Press April 22. an argument against its potential ben- can transform our class to make a world next 25 years, more than 25,000 people, Both the Stalinist government of the efits in advancing electrification of the worth living in. overwhelmingly children, traveled to a special medical facility in Tarará, Cuba, Watch ‘Cuba and Chernobyl’ video built by workers’ voluntary labor, for International Day treatment. Cuba and Chernobyl (Chernóbil of Solidar ity They received love and care from Cu- en nosotros), a 2006 Cuban TV ban doctors and volunteers alike. “This documentary, tells the story of Cuba’s Freedom for kind of social support comes from the revolutionary internationalist program people, from individuals,” Julio Medina, that provided medical care to more than Oscar López! director of the Tarará program, told the 25,000 victims, the majority of them Puerto Rican independence ghter Militant in a September 2014 interview. children, following the 1986 Chernobyl imprisoned in US nearly 35 years “Those values are the product of the rev- nuclear disaster in Ukraine. In Spanish olution and its policies, our way of life.” with English subtitles. It can be viewed Mon., June 20, 4-6 pm Many of those evacuated from Cher- on the Militant website — www. New York City nobyl were housed in special complexes themilitant.com — or ordered on DVD 1st Ave and East 47th St. in Kiev. “In my building, a ‘Chernobyl’ for $7 from the Militant, 306 W. 37th St., 13th Floor, New York, NY 10018, or For more info: building where 3,000 of us live, when a [email protected] email: [email protected].

The Militant May 9, 2016 9