MUNDO OBRERO Griswold: Otro aspecto del libro ‘Capitalismo de Bajos Salarios’ 12

Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Dec. 11, 2008 Vol. 50, No. 49 50¢ Bailout denied for workers’ homes, jobs as Gov’t sinks more billions into failing capitalism By Jaimeson Champion The government that claims to be of, world, for the first time, the real story of by and for the people will spend whatever how the foundation of our new currency Editorial on Mumbai Another day, another multi-billion- it takes of the workers’ tax money to pre- system was written. ...” (Current Opinion, dollar bailout. The federal government serve the class system that exploits their December 1916) recently announced that it would give labor. One of the most prominent bankers at away $326 billion to Citigroup. The gov- the meeting, besides J.P. Morgan, was Poverty is ernment will now be backing approxi- How the Fed was born in stealth Frank A. Vanderlip. Vanderlip was presi- mately one-sixth of Citigroup’s $2 trillion In late November of 1910, a group of dent of National City Bank of New York, in total assets. the most powerful bankers and financiers, which eventually grew into the modern- violence Despite this massive pledge of financial along with Secretary of the Treasury A.P. day Citigroup. he Bush administration has rushed aid, Citigroup shares led the way down in Andrews and members of the U.S. Senate, By the dawn of the 20th century, the highest-ranking officer in the a 680-point market plunge on Dec 1. The met in secret at the Jekyll Island Club— National City was already the largest U.S. Pentagon—Joint Chiefs of Staff price of Citi’s stock fell 20 percent on the an all-white, segregated, elitist country bank. Controlled by the Rockefeller fam- T head Adm. Michael Mullen—and Secre­ day. It seems $326 billion just doesn’t buy club off the coast of Georgia. That secret ily, it had expanded rapidly during the tary of State Condoleezza Rice to South what it used to. meeting laid the framework for the U.S. 1890s. Profits from U.S. imperial con- Asia. The cover story is that they’re going Secretary of the Treasury Henry Federal Reserve System, which was offi- quest in the Philippines, Puerto Rico and to “defuse tensions” between India and Paulson has attempted to paint the bail- cially established in 1913. Cuba, following the Spanish-American Pakistan. out of Citigroup as a regrettable but ulti- Bertie Charles Forbes, the founder War of 1898, were funneled into National What’s their real agenda? To use the mately necessary use of taxpayer mon- of Forbes magazine, later described the City’s coffers. Vanderlip, then Assistant crisis over the terrorist attacks in Mumbai ey. Citigroup, like all the other bailout meeting: “Picture a party of the nation’s Secretary of the Treasury, had negoti- as a lever to bring Pakistan more fully into recipients, is “too big to fail,” according greatest bankers stealing out of New York ated a $200 million loan from the bank the U.S.-led war against Afghanistan. to Paulson. on a private railroad car under cover of to the government to finance the war. He We have only the interpretation of But while Paulson tries to spin the darkness, stealthily riding hundred of was later rewarded with the post of bank Indian and U.S. intelligence agencies criminal giveaways to the banks as emer- miles South … sneaking onto an island president. about who organized the attacks. They gency measures born out of unprecedent- deserted by all but a few servants … under The bank was a pioneering force in the are blaming a Muslim group supposedly ed circumstances, the reality is that the such rigid secrecy that the names of not creation of securities and derivatives—the based in Pakistan for the three-day siege Federal Reserve System and the modern- one of them was once mentioned, lest the late 19th-century predecessors of today’s of two elite five-star hotels in Mumbai. day Treasury Department were designed servants learn the identity and disclose to collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). Also attacked was a fashionable cafe, a to help the capitalist class in the U.S. the world this strangest, most secret expe- The Jekyll Island meeting was orga- Zionist-affiliated Jewish community cen- maintain its grip on power during times dition in the history of American finance. nized in the wake of the Panic of 1907. ter, two government buildings that house of economic crisis. I am not romancing; I am giving to the Continued on page 6 the legislative assembly, one of India’s busiest train stations and a hospital. The official death toll as of Dec. 2 has risen Save, then AS AX FALLS CRISIS IN AUTO to 173, with hundreds more wounded. Students, teachers, riders hit Which way forward? 6 Twenty-two of the dead are foreigners, Free MUMIA! New York budget cuts 7 Continued on page 10 Before it’s too late 3 Indigenous peoples honored on Day of Mourning

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By Gloria Rubac to not only be read so we can learn about H In the U.S. current events but we discuss the politics Gov’t sinks more billions into failing capitalism . . . . 1 I was asked to talk about the behind those articles as well. These 10 WWP Fund Drive, which liter- papers are shared by two of these classes WW Fund Drive: Be creative! ...... 2 ally keeps our party headquar- that we hold daily. Community fights racist frame-up of city councilor . . . 3 ters and our wonderful news- “Then at the end of the week on Friday Before it’s too late, stop the murder of Mumia! . . . . 3 paper going. nights, I take them to Tyleem Services. Black LGBT groups hit Prop 8 ...... 3 I’m asking you to join in They are technically like church services, making this fund drive a suc- but for the Muslim community. Many Help stop eviction of disabled woman ...... 4 cess. Yes, times are hard for us. Blacks and Latinos go to these Tyleem ILWU locals honor May Day organizer ...... 4 Just like others in our class, we services because we discuss things that Charge police bias in arrest of reporter ...... 4 face difficult times, but because can change and shape our community. On the picket line ...... 5 of this we need our party and This group gets to keep the papers. But our paper more than ever. We before these services, I sometimes use Day of Mourning: ‘It’s time for justice!’ ...... 5 need the new book “Low-Wage the papers with something called the Judge orders release of Woodfox ...... 5 Capitalism.” We need our pro- PEER Health classes. Then on Sunday I WW Photo: gArY WiLSon 20,000 demand ‘Close torture school’ ...... 5 gram to fight foreclosures. have my own study group with brothers Rubac at Workers World Party conference. The Big Three crisis: which way forward? ...... 6 I want to share with you how here to discuss political ideas that many important our newspaper is to a group of workers who are not aware of but want to learn about. How banks have sucked mass transit dry ...... 7 pass it around until the pages wear thin: prisoners. We “So, you asked what I do with the papers. There it is.” CUNY students, teachers resist budget cuts . . . . . 7 send subscriptions to hundreds of prisoners for free. The last thing Nanon told me in his letter was this: “If Women’s fight for justice and equality ...... 8 I want to read from a letter I got last week from a pris- the paper is too expensive to send to us, let me know. Women, economic crisis and fightback ...... 8 oner in Texas named Nanon Williams. Once a month I can collect stamps to send to the Party as Nanon was arrested at age 17 in Houston and framed a donation if that would help.” Video workshop at WWP conference ...... 8 up by the lying creeps working for the Houston Police The prisoners all work but get not one penny for their Department Crime Lab, who regularly manufactured labor. But most do have stamps. Even the indigent pris- H Around the world evidence for the DAs to use so they could put people oners are allowed a few stamps. Colombia’s key role in Latin America ...... 9 away, innocent or guilty. The ballistic expert in Nanon’s For many people, Workers World is a voice for the Deep roots of WWP’s internationalism ...... 9 case said that a man was killed by a bullet from Nanon’s voiceless. It speaks for the most oppressed of our class, gun. He was sure of it. So the jury sent this young man whether in the Gaza Strip or in Huntsville, Texas. It Messages to WWP conference ...... 9 to death row. brings the world to all of us with a revolutionary perspec- Puppet government near collapse in Somalia . . . . 11 Several years later, when Nanon found an attorney tive and analysis. Ode to Miriam Makeba, beloved Mama Africa . . . . 11 who agreed to take his case, a real ballistic expert proved The struggle takes a lot. It takes money. We have to that the bullet was NOT from Nanon’s gun. The Houston pay the rent, the printer and so on. It takes our two fund H Editorials police expert said, “Sorry, I made a mistake. It wasn’t his drives each year as well as the Workers World Supporter gun after all.” Program to make all this possible. Mumbai and the violence of poverty ...... 1 But no nice ending yet—17 years later, Nanon is still If you live in a city without a branch of the Party or if, H Noticias En Español locked up for a crime he didn’t commit. He was 17 when for whatever reason, you cannot be physically active in a arrested and now is 34. One half his life for something branch, then consider being a Workers World Supporter. Otro aspecto del libro ‘Capitalismo de Bajos Salarios’ . . 12 he didn’t do. You can contribute money monthly or make a yearly Workers World newspaper is important to this prisoner donation. Either way, you will become a vital part of Workers World and those locked up with him. Nanon receives a bundle of the Party, a supporter who financially contributes to the 55 West 17 Street 10 papers every week. The last time I visited him, I asked newspaper in a concrete way. New York, N.Y. 10011 if he was still receiving the paper and how he was using it. It is now Fall Fund Drive time. We need each and Phone: (212) 627-2994 I got a letter this week. This is what he says: every one to contribute what we can. If Texas prisoners Fax: (212) 675-7869 “I receive 10 copies of the paper every week and I use can donate their precious stamps in order to have the E-mail: [email protected] them in what we call ‘Incognitive Intervention Classes.’ paper, can’t we donate our hard-earned money to make Web: www.workers.org These classes are designed to make people think about the drive a success? Vol. 50, No. 49 • Dec. 11, 2008 their actions, the choices they make and what impact they We need to think outside the box to raise this money. Closing date: Dec. 2, 2008 have on society, as well as changing belief windows that Be creative. It is our responsibility. It is on our back to do have a negative impact on people’s thoughts and actions. this. Can we raise $60,000? Editor: Deirdre Griswold Every day we select three articles from Workers World Si se puede! n Technical Editor: Lal Roohk Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell, Support the paper that supports the workers Leslie Feinberg, Monica Moorehead, Gary Wilson West Coast Editor: John Parker the boss can't tell us what to print. in Workers World you Choose a Supporter Program option: Contributing Editors: Abayomi Azikiwe, get to read the true story behind the struggle. Workers World $75 from a WW supporter. Greg Butterfield, Jaimeson Champion, G. Dunkel, publishes pro-worker, anti-war, anti-racist news because we $100 from a WW sponsor. Fred Goldstein, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Hales, are truly independent. You can’t get anything like it in any $300 enclosed to become a WW sustainer. Kris Hamel, David Hoskins, Berta Joubert-Ceci, of the big business controlled media. We have no corporate One time donation of $ _____. backers or advertisers. We rely completely on your donations. 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Fax (617) 983-3836 313-831-0750 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.workers.org Dec. 11, 2008 Page 3 Community fights racist frame-up of city councilor By Frank Neisser Chuck!” He immediately spoke Ma­ssachusetts Michael Sullivan, who is Boston out to the throng of media, pro- prosecuting Turner as well as State Sen. claiming his innocence and con- Dianne Wilkerson (see Workers World, Boston’s African-American commu- demning the FBI abuse as well Nov. 13), is a notorious right-wing nity of Roxbury and a broad coalition of as the attack on his constitu- Republican whose specialty is politi- supporters are standing strong with City ents’ right to the representative cally motivated false prosecutions. He Councilor Chuck Turner, who has come out of their choice. prosecuted the Plymouth 25—Native fighting ever since his Nov. 21 arrest. The Horrific attacks on Turner activists and allies who were the vic- attack on Turner, who has been charged from the Bos­ton media and all tims of a police riot against their peace- with extorting $1,000 and lying to the FBI, corners of the capitalist establish- ful demonstration on the National Day is viewed as part of a frame-up scheme to ment have thrown the concept of of Mourning (“Thanksgiving” Day) in undermine the African-American commu- “innocent until proven guilty” out 1997. nity’s right to strong political representa- the window. In an unprecedent- Turner’s case is part of a national ed action, City Council President campaign of racist, politically motivated tion. Turner won in the last election with WW photo: Liz Green more than 80 percent of the vote. Maureen Feeney stripped him of Hundreds support Chuck Turner at City Hall rally, Nov. 24. prosecutions. These include the cases of: At 6 a.m. on Nov. 21, seven armed FBI all his committee chair positions African-American Milwaukee Alderman agents had gone to Turner’s front door, and called for a special session of the City Dec. 9. Turner’s next court appearance Michael McGee, who was convicted in terrorizing his household. He was arrest- Council to consider removing him. is at 3 p.m. on Dec. 10 at the Moakley October based on similar FBI entrapment ed an hour later at City Hall, where he was On Nov. 24 Turner, along with 500 Federal Court House in Boston. Visit and trial by media; Rep. William Jefferson already beginning his work day, and tak- supporters, held a rally and news confer- SupportChuckTurner.com for details. of Louisiana, who was subjected to an en in handcuffs to Worcester, 45 minutes ence on the steps of City Hall to demand Turner’s massive support is based unprecedented FBI raid of his congressio- from Boston. that Feeney call off the City Council hear- on four decades of grassroots activism nal office and was forced out of his com- At the first word of the arrest, activ- ing and restore him to his committee posi- and community organizing. He fought mittee positions by Speaker Nancy Pelosi ists and allies went into high gear. Rank- tions. Feeney had to cancel the session. for jobs through the Third World Jobs even before being indicted; and Rep. and-file union leaders from United Steel About 70 community and grassroots Clearinghouse and United Community Cynthia McKinney, who was lambasted Workers Local 8751—the Boston School supporters, including a delegation of more Construction Workers. He was a founder for defending herself from racist guards at Bus Drivers—along with organizers than 35 rank-and-file members of Local of the Boston Workers Alliance, the only the Capitol in Washington, D.C. from the International Action Center, 8751, participated in another news con- organization of unemployed workers in These are but the most recent chapters Women’s Fightback Network, Restore ference and rally at Turner’s district office the state, which also fights for formerly in a long history of racist political frame- Our Heat & Lights Campaign, the Boston in Roxbury on Nov. 26. Turner said: “The incarcerated workers’ right to a job. ups and abuse by the FBI that goes back Workers Alliance, the youth group FIST media has not produced one story on the Turner has fought on every community to the attacks on Dr. Martin Luther King (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together) and fact that I am the only Boston city council- and progressive issue, from immigrant Jr., Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, Adam other community groups came forward or who in the modern era has maintained rights to foreclosure and eviction blockades Clayton Powell and Shirley Chisholm. to mobilize solidarity, defend the Turner an office in the community. There has not and against war. Recently he spearheaded Robert Traynham of the International household and offer whatever assistance been one story around the fact that my a campaign to restore heat and lights to Action Center said: “Sullivan should was necessary. campaign owes Terri [Turner’s spouse] those whose utilities have been shut off. be fired for politically motivated, racist People’s lawyers Barry Wilson and John and I $140,000 because of our investment The attack on Turner seeks to cut off frame-up prosecutions and abuse of the Pavlos were secured and political support- of our own resources in the maintenance the grassroots leadership necessary to FBI. The FBI should cease and desist from ers gathered in Worcester. Turner left the of the district office.” bring about the change people are looking its longstanding pattern of frame-ups and court surrounded by 40 supporters hold- A mass meeting is scheduled for and hoping for. harassment of oppressed community ing up signs and chanting, “Chuck, Chuck, Dec. 2, and a Solidarity Day rally for U.S. Attorney for the District of leaders.” n Solidarity events planned Before it’s too late, stop the murder of Mumia! By Betsey Piette The Baltimore All Peoples Congress In Cleveland people from many org­ The San Diego Free Mumia Coalition Philadelphia will host a solidarity event on Dec. 5 at the anizations­ will come together at the Uni­ will host a forum on Dec. 7 from 3 to 5 p.m. Cork Factory Gallery, fourth floor, 302 E. ta­rian Universalist Society on Dec. 6 to at the Malcolm X Library, 5150 Market Dec. 6 will be a day of international Federal Building. A documentary film on protest injustice and present revolution- St. at Euclid. Speakers at the solidar- solidarity to free Mumia Abu-Jamal. It the case will be followed by signing people ary art. Speakers will address Abu-Jamal’s ity program include Sabrina Green from is sorely needed. Lynne Abraham, the up to attend the rally in Philadelphia the case along with messages of solidarity the Baltimore Free the MOVE 9; John Philadelphia district attorney known as next day. read by family members, from pris- Parker, Los Angeles International “the deadliest D.A. in the U.S.,” is calling on In Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 6, the oners unjustly convicted in con- Action Center; David Welsh of the the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Abu- newly released documentary “In Prison nection with the 1993 Lucasville Haiti Action Committee; and Paul Jamal’s death sentence despite mounds of My Whole Life” will be shown. It tells prison uprising. LouLou Chery, General Secretary, evidence showing his innocence. Abu-Jamal’s story from the perspective Talks will also address other Federation of Haitian Workers. If Abraham’s filing is granted, it will of William Francome, who was born in prisoners who currently face Sponsors also include African mean execution for Abu-Jamal without London on Dec. 9, 1981, the day Abu- execution or harsh sentences, American Writers and Artists, any new hearing or trial. Jamal was arrested in Philadelphia and including Puerto Rican activists Langston Hughes Poetry Circle and the Abu-Jamal is a journalist and former charged with the murder of a police offi- in U.S. jails. Artists from the Hip Hop Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. Black Panther railroaded into prison. cer. Never-seen-before footage and brand- Workshop will present music, poetry and A statement from Abu-Jamal will be read His case is supported the world over. He new evidence create a case for reasonable dance. The event starts at 7 p.m. at 2728 at the annual international labor confer­ence continues a weekly broadcast Live from doubt while exploring the socio-political Lancashire Rd., Cleveland Heights. held Dec. 5-7 in Tijuana, Mexico, along Death Row at www.PrisonRadio.org, climate in the U.S., past and present. On Dec. 3 in Raleigh, N.C., youth from with a presentation on his case and the case and his commentaries can also be read in Sponsored by the Charlotte Free Mumia Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) of the Cuban Five. This important con­ Workers World. Coalition and Students for a Democratic will host a film “Power to the People” about ference provides an opportunity for work­ This month marks the 27th year of Society-UNCC, the screening will take Abu-Jamal’s case. The program starts at 6 ers from different countries to learn from Abu-Jamal’s frame-up and unjust impris- place at 7 p.m. at Charlotte Energy p.m. in the Ballroom at Shaw University’s each other’s struggles. Some family mem- onment on Pennsylvania’s death row. Solutions, 337 Baldwin Ave. Garrey Hall. bers of the Cuban Five will be present. Activities are planned in many U.S. cities and in Mexico: In Philadelphia a Dec. 6 rally will start at noon at District Attorney Abraham’s Black LGBT groups hit Prop 8 Black lesbian/gay/bi/trans organizations sponsored a Nov. 23 office, located at 2 South Penn Square on rally in Leimert Park, considered the Black cultural center of South the east side of City Hall. It will be followed Central Los Angeles, to protest the recently passed Proposition 8. by a march to the Federal Court building They pointed out how it amounts to an assault on the civil and at Fifth and Market. For more informa- human rights of same-sex couples and aggravates the economic tion on this event, contact International crisis already burdening working people by denying them health Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia care and financial benefits afforded only in marriage. Abu-Jamal at 215-476-8812. Chants like “We’re your mother, your father, your sister and your On Dec. 9, a program with a film show- brother—Now is the time to love one another” stressed unity. As the ing and food will help educate people on marchers walked through a main shopping and public transportation Abu-Jamal’s case. The event, co-spon- area, people on foot and driving showed their support. sored by ICFFMAJ and the Philadelphia At right, Monique Blassingame, Nichole Mounsey and Ashley International Action Center, will start at Carroll march proudly to overturn Prop. 8. Attendees included members of the International Action Center, SEIU Local 721’s 7 p.m. at Calvary Church, 48th St. and Latino Caucus, Love @ Work and the Jordan/Rustin Coalition. Baltimore Ave. —John Parker WW photo: Cheryl LaBash Page 4 Dec. 11, 2008 www.workers.org Help stop eviction of disabled woman By Kris Hamel to them. She continued making what she office. Although Fluker was unable to from her physicians—the bank and their Detroit believed were the mortgage payments. represent her, since Sturgis is so far from attorneys don’t care. Voice your support Recently, after being served with evic- Detroit, she immediately contacted the for Mrs. Vida Brown of Sturgis, Mich. Vida Brown has lived in her home in tion papers, Brown learned she had been Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Demand that Deutsche Bank stop the evic- Sturgis, Mich., since 1992. Sturgis is in scammed and the house was in foreclo- Foreclosures and Evictions. She also tion. It’s time to force the banks that are south-central Michigan, near the Indiana sure. She discovered she had lost her helped Brown obtain legal counsel from being bailed out every day with billions of border, about 160 miles southwest of property rights and was only a tenant in attorney Richard Black in Holland, Mich. our tax dollars to respect the human rights Detroit. The 2000 census recorded the her own home. She filed complaints with The coalition put out a statewide email of the victims of the current crisis.” town’s population at 11,285, with only the FBI, police and the State Office of blast on Nov. 24 to thousands of people Because of the pressure applied to 1.23 percent African-American residents. Financial Services. asking them to support Brown. National Deutsche Bank, Brown and her attorney Brown is a disabled African-American Despite these facts, District Court emails were also sent, and people were able to win a stay of eviction in U.S. woman in her 50s. A chemical exposure Judge William Welty, Deutsche Bank responded from cities as far away as New District Court in Grand Rapids, Mich. at work left her with feeding tubes and and its eviction attorneys at Trott & Trott, York and Baltimore. Brown’s supporters The struggle to save Brown’s home is severe medical challenges. She became P.C. have refused to even hear or review flooded the Deutsche Bank headquarters not over. Supporters are urged to con- a victim of mortgage fraud when she this information. Instead they have on Wall Street with calls demanding they tact Deutsche Bank at 212-250-7125, the attempted to save her home after she forged ahead to throw Brown out into the stop the illegal foreclosure and eviction. bank’s media communications represen- fell behind on payments due to medical street. The coalition’s email blast noted: “In tative Mayura Hooper at 212-250-5536, expenses. Brown contacted people’s attorney light of the fact there has been fraud, and and Trott & Trott law firm at 248-642- A bogus mortgage company, which Vanessa Fluker in Detroit seeking assis- despite the fact that the eviction of Mrs. 2515 to demand justice for Vida Brown subsequently had its license revoked, tance in her eviction case after she had Brown could cause severe medical dam- and to stop the illegal foreclosure and tricked Brown into signing her house over been denied help by a local Legal Aid age and possible death, pursuant to letters eviction. n Charge police bias in arrest of reporter By Bryan G. Pfeifer of the most progressive weekly commu- deleted the photos, handcuffed Bukowski munity organizations, including the Detroit nity newspapers in the U.S., with hard- and had other officers put her in a squad Moratorium NOW! Coalition, Michigan hitting reporting on a range of political, car. She was released that night, but a Welfare Rights, Call ’Em Out, Detroit Community outrage and support are social and economic issues affecting poor warrant was issued three days later. Coalition Against Police Brutality, Latinos building over the arrest of people’s jour- and working people, especially people Bukowski was originally charged with Unidos, Detroit Green Party, MECAWI, nalist Diane Bukowski. Many view this as of color. The newspaper also publishes a single misdemeanor count of obstruc­ the Coalition to Save DPS and others. The a political attack on the entire progressive well-respected cultural content that pro- ting an investigation. But Wayne County ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild are movement in metro Detroit. motes and reports on numerous events Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged Bukowski closely monitoring the case. “Everybody’s support raised me. It and activities happening in the Black with five felony counts that carry in total a United Auto Workers Local 2334 fired me up,” Bukowski told supporters community. possible sentence of 20 years in prison. President David Sole wrote to Wayne as she emerged from her arraignment at Bukowski turned herself in to 36th County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on Nov. 36th District Court in Detroit on Nov. 20. Background to Bukowski’s arrest District Court as ordered on Nov. 18 for 18 on his union’s letterhead: “These charg- A rousing ovation greeted the journal- The following details are from reports a 1 p.m. arraignment, which the court es are unbelievable and the accusations ist from dozens of activists who had just by Bukowski and Kelly in the Nov. 16-22 canceled at the last minute. Numerous incredible. In view of the fact that Diane is packed the courtroom to support her. and Nov. 23-29 editions of The Michigan Bukowski supporters had shown up for well known for her reporting of police bru- Bukowski is a freelance reporter for Citizen newspaper: that hearing. Detroit police claim the tality and misconduct, one can only con- the progressive weekly newspaper The On Nov. 4, while covering a fatal police delay was needed to fingerprint her, but clude that she was targeted by the police Michigan Citizen, as well as a long-time chase in which a motorcyclist and a pedes- her lawyer said the police had her prints in this case for retribution. In addition, the anti-racist fighter and community advo- trian died, Bukowski—with her press cre- and photos. She was released into the cus- prosecution of Ms. Bukowski is clearly an cate. She has been charged with five fel- dentials in full view—was arrested while tody of her attorney. attack on the freedom of the press.” ony counts of assaulting, resisting and attempting to take photographs of the At her arraignment two days later, Sole is joining with other labor and obstructing a police officer. grisly scene. The motorcyclist was James Bukowski was released on a $5,000 per- community activists and organizations to Bukowski is well-known and respected Willingham, 42, a father of 10 children. sonal recognizance bond. assist with the needs of Bukowski’s legal for her work exposing police brutality and Jeffrey Frazier, 32, an autistic man, was defense, including raising funds, outreach, Hands off Bukowski— police murders in Detroit. Her reporting the pedestrian victim. media and more. A defense committee is drop all charges now! has also examined a wide range of other According to Bukowski, who has in the process of being formed. community concerns, such as the foreclo- reported on several police chases, she A groundswell of support continues Supporters are encouraged to contact sure epidemic, utility shutoffs and corrup- wasn’t aware she had crossed any yellow building for Bukowski. Supporters plan Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy tion in the public school system. police tape. A state trooper yelled at her to pack the courtroom again on Dec. 16 and demand all charges against Bukowski Teresa Kelly, publisher of The Michigan from across the street, “Who the f—- do for a preliminary examination in 36th be dropped immediately. Write to Worthy Citizen, told Workers World after the you think you are?” District Court. at 1200 Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, arraignment that the newspaper is fully Bukowski presented her credentials to Support notices and email campaigns 1441 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 48226; call backing Bukowski. The publication is one the trooper, who then took her camera and are being issued from numerous com- 313-224-5777; or fax 313-224-0974. n ILWU locals honor May Day organizer Special to Workers World the first time in the U.S. The topics included the history of ILWU Vancouver, British Columbia that workers had withheld international solidarity as well as the par- their labor to oppose U.S. ticulars of the coastwide mobilization for The eight-hour shutdown of West Coast imperialism. The action the May Day action. ports last May Day continues to resonate took place despite the The program began with Thomas pre- internationally. On Nov. 10 in Vancouver, fact that the union leader- senting Million Worker March T-shirts to Longshore Workers Union Local 400 ship withdrew its request Tom Dufresne, the Canadian president Maritime Division and Longshore Local to waterfront employers of the ILWU Longshore Division; Gordie 500 sponsored a dinner for Clarence that they accommodate Westrand, president of ILWU Local 500; Thomas, ILWU Local 10 Executive Board closing the ports on May Frank Scigliano, president of ILWU Ship member. Thomas is co-chair, along with 1, 2008. and Dock Foremen Local 514; and Terry Jack Heyman, of the Portworkers May Day Photo: Mike Eisenger The May Day action Engler. Organizing Committee. The dinner, held ILWU leaders Frank Scigliano, Terry Engler, Clarence was a rank-and-file-led Local 500 presented Brother Thomas Thomas, Gordie Westrand and Tom Dufresne. at the Maritime Labor Centre auditorium, mobilization in the same with Bluesprint, a comprehensive col- was attended by officers, rank-and-file would benefit from Clarence’s experience, tradition as the Million Worker March at lection of literature and spoken word members, pensioners and their families. knowledge regarding rank-and-file soli- the Lincoln Memorial on Oct. 17, 2004. of Blacks in British Columbia. He also Terry Engler, president of Vancouver’s darity and the actions of the ILWU.” This past May 26-27, Thomas was a received the video “Betrayed” from Local Local 400, said this about May Day: “It During his talk at the dinner Thomas keynote speaker at May Day Eye Witness 400. This documentary captures the his- is unfortunate that there was virtually no explained in detail the May Day “No Forum sponsored by the Canadian Peace tory of the Canadian Seaman’s Union, reporting of the May Day shutdown in our Peace, No War” mobilization. This his- Alliance and held at the 2008 Canadian which brought the eight-hour day, sick media, and therefore many of our mem- toric action, initiated by ILWU Local 10 in Labour Congress in Toronto. Present at leave and pay increases to an industry bers have no knowledge of this important San Francisco and led by rank-and-filers, that labor and peace-activist gathering known for low wages and brutal working action, but our members will have the called for an immediate end to the war and were several ILWU Longshore officers. conditions. opportunity to hear from Clarence Thomas occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and The officers of Locals 400 and 500 Brother Thomas was invited to return at the dinner event. I believe that all union the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the invited Thomas to speak on the issues he to speak to labor organizations in members, especially ILWU members, Middle East. Thomas stated that this was addressed during his speech in Toronto. Vancouver in April 2009. n www.workers.org dec. 11, 2008 Page 5 On the Picket line day oF MoUrNING: by Sue Davis

SAG inches toward strike ‘It’s time for justice!’ The Screen Actors Guild and By Frank Neisser ing, clinics, put books in schools the Alliance of Motion Picture and Plymouth, Mass. and food in people’s bellies, and Television Producers met for contract to honor the treaties with Native talks Nov. 20-21 for the first time in four Hundreds of people participated in Nations. He also called on Obama months. But even the intervention of a the 39th National Day of Mourning here, to serve justice and free Leonard federal mediator couldn’t forge an agree- organized by the United American Indians Peltier. ment acceptable to SAG. The union says of New England, on Nov. 27. The event is Next the rally was addressed by the producers “insist on terms we can- held on every U.S. “Thanksgiving” Day to Juan Gonzalez, speaking for the not possibly accept.” (New York Times, tell the truth about that myth and uncov- Council of Maya Elders. He spoke Nov. 23) er the real experience of Native peoples in of the history of all Native peoples’ The actors are insisting on payment this area since 1492. struggles to keep their way of life for work used in Internet videos and After an opening spiritual ceremony, alive. He said it was good to have a other new media—terms which the Moonanum James, co-leader of UAINE, Black brother in the White House, Writers Guild won after a three-month related the history of the National Day of but that his peoples’ struggle was strike earlier this year. SAG is now in the Mourning. Moonanum James is the son not over, and would not be over process of educating its 120,000 mem- of Wamsutta Frank James, who founded until no one was called “illegal,” bers, who have been working without UAINE and initiated the first National until racism, sexism, homophobia a contract since June 30, on why they Day of Mourning in 1970. and war had come to an end, until should vote for a strike. Before one can An Aquinnah Wampanoag elder, this government recognized sov- be called, a strike must be approved by Wamsutta had been invited to present a ereign Native Nations, and until 75 percent of the members. Stay tuned. speech at a state banquet on the occasion Leonard Peltier was free. WW Photo: Liz green of the 350th anniversary of the landing of Native political prisoner UAINe co-leader Mahtowin Munro (lakota) listens Midwest flight the Pilgrims. He wrote a speech that spoke Leonard Peltier sent a message to as Bert Waters reads leonard Peltier's message. attendants protest the truth about the experience of Native the 39th National Day of Mourning that area, the Palestinians, was the same as people after the arrival of the Pilgrims. was read by Bert Waters (Wampanoag). that of Native people here. On the busiest travel day of the When the banquet organizers rejected Peltier is now 64 years old and in his 33rd The gathering then proceeded to march year, the Sunday after “Thanksgiving,” Wamsutta’s speech and tried to substi- year of incarceration, even though under through Plymouth. Marchers stopped Midwest Airlines’ flight attendants held tute one of their own, Wamsutta refused. federal law he should have been paroled at Plymouth Rock, where Moonanum an information picket at Milwaukee’s He and hundreds of other Native people after 30 years. Peltier called for renewed described an attack on the National airport. Members of the Association and their supporters declared a National organizing for his defense. He indicated Day of Mourning by police in 1997. He of Flight Attendants, a unit of the Day of Mourning for Native Americans in that he saw in Obama’s election perhaps explained that the same Michael Sullivan, Communications Workers, protested Plymouth on “Thanksgiving” Day. his last chance for freedom. Plymouth district attorney who pros- layoffs of their members as jobs were In his opening talk, Moonanum point- The rally was concluded by Elena Ortiz ecuted the 25 people arrested in 1997, is outsourced to nonunion workers. The ed out that the conditions of terrible rac- of Ohkay Owingeh in Northern New now a U.S. attorney and responsible for AFA-CWA members also protested the ism and poverty afflicting Native people Mexico. Elena described how a con- the FBI entrapment and harassment of company’s demand for wage cuts. still persist. He noted that the election of tinuum of peoples’ struggles, from Rosa elected leaders of color, including Boston an African-American president would not Parks to the occupations of Alcatraz and City Councilor Chuck Turner. Moonanum Labor Department be enough to eliminate racism, and that Wounded Knee, had contributed to the called on everyone to come out in support lies exposed substandard housing, choosing between election of an African American as presi- of Turner. heating and eating, dying from treatable dent, but that now it is time to show him The march also stopped at Post Office A Government Accountability Office diseases, lack of educational opportuni- what we need and want. She said this is Square where, for 20 years, the Pilgrim report released Nov. 24 found that the ties, Bureau of Indian Affairs corruption, not the time to trust in Washington but settlers displayed the head of Metacomet, Bush Labor Department gave Congress and government refusal to restore power rather to stay in the streets to see that leader of the King Phillip war, on a spike. false numbers on the supposed cost sav- to Native Nations all still afflict Native Obama does what’s necessary, that this is A plaque commemorating and explain- ings of hiring outside contractors, in an peoples today. not the end of the road but the first step. ing that history is now at the site, part attempt to prove that outsourcing jobs Moonanum appealed to President- Ortiz also gave a moving account of her of a settlement reached by UAINE in the to private companies was more efficient elect Barack Obama to stop giving tax- visit to the Palestine 48 conference in Plymouth 25 case. than keeping government employees on payers’ money to brokers and bankers East Jerusalem this past spring, and how The march was followed by a pot-luck the federal payroll. This is yet another and instead use the money to build hous- the struggle of the people native to the social. n example of how the Bush administration has tried to use its muscle to further an anti-worker agenda. (blog.aflcio.org) Union support 20,000 demand for Cuban Five Just months before the Cuba- ‘CLOSE Venezuela-Mexico-North America Labor Conference on Dec. 5-7, the Service Employees Union, representing more TORTURE than 2 million workers in the U.S. and Canada, called on the Bush admin- istration to grant entry visas to Olga SCHOOL’ Salanueva and Adriana Pérez, as well as other family members of the Cuban Five. SEIU is the first national U.S. union to support the five Cubans, who have been unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. on bogus charges for 10 years, despite the fact that their mission was to prevent terrorism against the Cuban people. In a related development, the largest union in Britain and Ireland has organized a campaign to demand freedom for the Cuban Five. (Workers World, Oct. 31) n Judge orders Photo: SoA WAtCh release of Woodfox The annual protest at the gates of Ft. leges traveled from across the country to Albert Woodfox may finally be released. on bail. Two months earlier, Brady had Benning in columbus, Ga., drew an esti- join torture survivors from latin America, One of the Angola 3, Woodfox has spent overturned Woodfox’s conviction in the mated 20,000 demonstrators this year trade unionists, nuns and clergy, veterans, most of his life—37 years—in the hellhole 1972 killing of a prison guard. But the on Nov. 21-23. Through music, speeches, civil rights leaders and others to declare, of Angola Penitentiary in Louisiana. The vengeful authorities refused to release banners, marches, chants and acts of civil “Yes, we can close the School of Assassins.” prison authorities have been ordered to him and appealed the ruling. The judge disobedience, the activists demanded Six people were arrested for trespassing carry out a Nov. 25 ruling by U.S. District says Woodfox has no conviction for any- the closing of the infamous School of the onto the military base. For more informa- Judge James Brady and release Woodfox thing and can’t be held any longer. Americas, used for training in torture. tion, visit www.soaw.org. —Deirdre Griswold Young people from high schools and col- —Dianne Mathiowetz Page 6 Dec. 11, 2008 www.workers.org

Bailout, bankruptcy or workers’ control The Big Three crisis: which way forward? By David Sole bosses also have a healthy respect for the unions decided to resist, not only to pro- ers, their unions and the communities in Detroit power that the autoworkers and their tect their own members but to fight back which these factories are situated must union possess–even if the union hasn’t on behalf of all poor and working people, assert their right to run the plants and The crisis surrounding the future of unleashed that power in recent times. they could become a powerful force. replace the bloated, short-sighted execu- the Big Three U.S. auto manufacturers The rest of the ruling class clearly want This apparatus could be turned against tives and the big shareholders who kept has focused on a single question–federal to force the Big Three corporations into the bailout for the banks. And it could them at the helm. bailout loans or bankruptcy? The recent bankruptcy proceedings where they hope demand national health care, a real Worker-community control of the Big spectacle of the top General Motors, Ford the court will allow the UAW contracts to jobs program, a moratorium on foreclo- Three is the only solution. Under worker- and Chrysler executives–with the United be gutted. Wages could be slashed, per- sures, and funding for education and the community control, the demand for gov- Auto Workers’ national leadership in haps to levels like those at American Axle, environment. ernment funds to rebuild and retool the tow–being grilled and all but humiliated a GM spin-off that successfully cut wages This is what worries the Wall Street bil- plants to make energy-efficient cars and at Capitol Hill hearings revolved solely on by 50 percent, even after a strike lasting lionaire ruling class. And it is what is driv- mass transit equipment could rally wide this question. months last winter. ing them to move now to eliminate that support. It appears that Washington politicians, The bankruptcy threat is also being used possibility. Instead of a shrinking workforce in with the backing of Wall Street, are cur- to ensure that any federal bailout includes This doesn’t mean that autoworkers, auto, the industry could be reborn and rently opposed to any sharing of the bank similar attacks on UAW retirees. That way their union or the wider working class expand–attracting a new generation of bailout money with the Big Three through pension funds could be looted and pen- should support the $25 billion loan/bail- autoworkers to good-paying jobs. A work- loans or otherwise. Why? To listen to the sions unloaded on an already-strained fed- out of the Big Three as currently proposed. er-community-controlled auto industry politicians and the regimented media eral pension “guarantee” program–which Handing more money to the same auto would maintain it and hire the engineers chorus line, they are opposed to the big covers only a percentage of a worker’s pen- bosses who got us into this mess won’t solve and experts needed to retool the industry bonuses of the CEOs and other top bosses sion and no medical benefits. the problems the auto industry faces. for the 21st century. of the auto companies. Plenty of attention The media hammer every day about These CEOs and their henchmen are The unions and the workers of the Big has been given to this factor. The other how overpaid the autoworkers are com- overpaid and anti-union. They will contin- Three must also protect the pension funds. issue appears to be “letting the market pared to most other workers. These same ue to try to eliminate jobs and cut wages These funds must not be allowed to be take its course.” mouthpieces for the ruling class, however, and benefits. Their only concern is maxi- part of any bankruptcy that might occur. None of this can be taken for good coin. have never supported raising the wages of mizing profits, which is what led them to Workers and retirees must be prepared to These are the very same politicians who non-union and underpaid workers. The concentrate on making SUVs and trucks intervene in the bailout and/or bankrupt- only weeks ago willingly opened the Trea­ ruling class is already preparing, in case domestically, while shipping production cy proceedings directly and militantly. If sury vaults to the most overpaid, corrupt, the UAW tries to fight back, to divide the of fuel-efficient cars overseas. necessary, the workers and retirees might crooked bankers, mortgage firms and working class–pitting low-wage workers It was disgraceful and embarrassing to have to take possession of the assets and insurance companies. They gave unlimited against higher-paid workers. see UAW President Ron Gettelfinger tag- holdings of the Big Three–similar to the funds to the very same banking executives Why is the ruling class so bent on ging behind the auto bosses, begging the great sit-down strikes of the 1930s–in who precipitated the current economic col- destroying the UAW and other unions? government to give his masters the huge order to protect their interests. lapse. You can be sure that these big shots The bosses are already “having their way” funding they were seeking. The first task is to bring the UAW rank aren’t going to accept minimum wage or a with non-unionized workers. Unions in The UAW rank and file must put for- and file–and especially the retirees–into cut to their million-dollar bonuses. the private sector represent only about 7 ward its own program and intervene inde- a mighty struggle, with demonstrations So why attack this single group of busi- to 8 percent of the workforce. pendently in the current crisis. A workers’ across the country and in Washington and ness leaders now? The reason is that Wall Their problem is that the UAW and the program must start with recognizing that on Wall Street. Ultimately, it is this strug- Street and a significant section of the U.S. other unions could become–if they had a job is a worker’s property right. It is the gle that will pose the question of which ruling class want to destroy the UAW. the will and determination as well as an workers who built the plants, maintained class is really qualified to rule. The Big Three executives have no love anti-capitalist program–a pole of attrac- the factories and machinery, and did all Sole worked at GM’s Detroit Fleet­ for the union. They have been ruthless tion and a center for resistance for the the work, generating enormous wealth wood plant from 1971 until the plant since the late 1970s, wresting ever-greater broad masses of workers, the poor and over generations. closed in 1987. He was a leader of the concessions from the UAW workers. Wage even the shrinking middle class. Local 15 Stop Plant Closing Committee cuts, job cuts, plant closings, increased The big unions have buildings, networks Worker-community control? and the national Job Is a Right Cam­ productivity and benefit cuts have been of communications, newspapers and mag- Yes, we can! paign. Sole is currently president of relentlessly pushed on these hardworking azines, trained speakers, press depart- Since the auto bosses have brought the UAW Local 2334 in Detroit. He is vested union members. However, the Big Three ments and paid staffs. If the UAW or other companies to the brink of ruin, the work- in the GM pension plan. Gov’t sinks billions into failing capitalism Continued from page 1 market crash of 1929 were not the result season, products are piling up in ware- and declaring bankruptcy, putting fur- The stock market had crashed, losing 37 of perfect storms in the financial markets. houses and factories as companies’ inven- ther strain on the shell-shocked financial percent of its value in a matter of weeks. The current global economic meltdown tories continue to swell. system. Large-scale bank runs leveled a number was not unforeseeable, nor was it caused When markets become glutted, it puts of prominent financial institutions. The by lax regulation in the financial markets. downward pressure on the prices the Déjà vu: chaos of overproduction credit markets froze, leaving businesses Rather, they are emblematic of the fact capitalists are able to charge for their Crises of overproduction, such as the one and cities unable to finance their day-to- that crisis is written into the very DNA of commodities and services. Once they are the world is currently suffering through, day operations. capitalism. Economic crises occur under forced to lower their prices en masse, the are inherent to the capitalist mode of pro- The bankers, plus representatives from capitalism because of an economic law chain of payment obligations intercon- duction. Frederick Engels’ description of the Treasury Department and U.S. Senate, that Karl Marx and Frederick Engels first nected throughout the economy is bro- crises of overproduction in “Socialism: who assembled on Jekyll Island in 1910 diagnosed, back in the mid-19th century: ken in a million places. This is why crises Utopian and Scientific,” written in 1880, were seeking to create a more efficient overproduction. of overproduction ripple so forcefully reads like a play-by-play description of way for the government to funnel liquid- The capitalists are compelled to con- through the financial system. These exact the processes that have unfolded in the ity to the banks during times of economic stantly accumulate and expand their capi- processes are evident in the economy economy over the last two years. crisis. tal or face extinction at the hands of other today. Engels wrote: “Commerce is at a stand- Vanderlip, Morgan and the rest of capitalists as they compete for market After a construction boom from 2000- still, the markets are glutted, products the ruling-class representatives at the share. 2006 that featured record-breaking pro- accumulate, as multitudinous as they are conclave created the framework for the This drive to constantly accumulate and duction of residential and commercial unsaleable, hard cash disappears, credit Federal Reserve System in the hope that expand leads them to increase production buildings, their prices have been in free- vanishes, factories are closed, the mass of a government bank would enable them to regardless of the limits of the market— fall for two years. The sustained fall in the the workers are in want of the means of survive future crises. that is, of demand backed by the ability price of homes has broken the complex subsistence, because they have produced to pay. chain of payment obligations that stretch- too much of the means of subsistence; Capitalism and crisis Crises of overproduction occur at the es from subprime mortgage loans to bankruptcy follows upon bankruptcy …” The Panic of 1907 has sometimes been point during the business cycle when the CDOs—debt obligations—on Citigroup’s A recent edition of Forbes magazine bore referred to as a “perfect storm,” suggest- workers can no longer afford to buy back balance sheet. the headline “How Capitalism Will Save ing that it took an unlikely combination the multitude of goods and services the Products ranging from electronics and Us.” With layoffs surging, homelessness ris- of events for the crisis to occur. The same capitalists have ordered them to produce, toys, to automobiles and semi-conduc- ing and nearly a billion people around the term has been used for the stock mar- and markets become glutted on an econo- tors, continue to pile up on warehouse world going hungry, the question for work- ket crash of 1929 and subsequent Great my-wide level. floors around the globe. Companies are ers and poor people is: How are we going Depression. The ruling-class politicians These exact processes are evident in the cutting their prices by record amounts, to save ourselves from capitalism? Engels and pundits are once again bringing out global economy today. Housing markets leading capitalist economists to fret about and Karl Marx, who diagnosed capitalism the “perfect storm” analogy in the current around the globe have become glutted the possibility of a deflationary death spi- so long ago, got it right. The answer lies in global economic meltdown. with millions of unsold homes. During ral. Relatively large companies such as the struggle for socialism and a world run But the Panic of 1907 and the stock what is usually a busy holiday shopping Circuit City are defaulting on their debts by workers, not bankers. n www.workers.org Dec. 11, 2008 Page 7 CUNY students, teachers resist budget cuts

By Heather Cottin students joined in an effort to press their CUNY/LaGuardia New York union, the Professional Staff Congress, students at to negotiate for job security and wage Nov. 24 rally. equity. The union vowed to work on this. Students and teachers at the City WW photo: University of New York have been orga- But CUNY employees had been work- Heather Cottin nizing rallies at their college campuses ing without a contract for three years. So and at the offices of the CUNY Board of when the CUNY Board of Trustees offered Trustees, protesting threatened cuts to a contract, the Delegate Assembly voted their education. for one that did not include the contin- budget cuts that Furious over a proposed $600 tuition gent teachers’ demands. drew about 300 stu- increase—a result of Gov. David Paterson’s CUNY Contingents United (CCU) was dents at LaGuardia deep cuts in education, health care and formed in late summer to address this Community College. other social services in New York state— inequity. Made up of graduate student The PSC urged peo- CUNY students will hold three city-wide teachers and part-timers, the group began ple to sign postcards protests and rallies against the plan in organizing on various campuses. to “Save CUNY.” December. The financial meltdown has hit New The union will send The announced budget cuts amount York, as it has most other states. Four buses to Albany, the to $51 million for CUNY and more than days after Paterson announced the cut in state capital, to rally $200 million for the State University of education funds, CCU and students from against the cuts and New York system. Hunter College and several other cam- tuition hikes. CUNY is the biggest city university in puses held an emergency protest. Some Members of a the United States. Established for New 200 students and faculty came out to new student group, York’s working class in 1847, its tuition oppose the cutbacks and tuition hikes. LaGuardia Students was free until the 1970s. Then the Board In 1975 the big banks that hold city United, spoke against of Trustees, responding to pressure from bonds—especially JP Morgan, Chase and the draconian mea- militant community movements, allowed Citibank—threatened to bankrupt the sures. “We don’t open enrollment. This brought in many city. Subway fares were raised, tuition want adjuncts cut,” said Jason Chester, a and the state’s miserly attitude toward students of color for the first time. But, was imposed, programs were cut, and the LaSU officer. “Some of my best teachers education. “No to wars and occupation, also for the first time, the students had to working class footed the bill to keep New are adjuncts.” we want schools and education,” has been pay tuition. York afloat. Another student said: “The MTA is a recurring chant at all the protests. CUNY is now home to a multinational Now, when Wall Street has been guar- threatening a fare hike, so my commute The CCU vows to “unite with the orga- student body of more than 450,000 in six anteed more than $7 trillion by the federal will be $100 a month. It’s impossible. I nized workers’ movement and all working community colleges and 11 four-year and government to continue business as usual, have taken on extra hours at work to pay people, immigrants and minorities who graduate schools. almost half a million of this city’s students for my tuition now.” together make up the vast majority in this New York has gotten its educated work- and workers have been asked to shoulder “They have hundreds of billions for the city.” ing class on the cheap. Salaries at CUNY the burden of the latest meltdown—again bankers, not the people!” said another. An CUNY cuts are already causing class are low. At some of the community college with tuition rises, layoffs and fare hikes. international student said she is already cancellations and layoffs. Militant CUNY campuses, where the students are largely The people are not buying it. paying twice what New York residents pay students and workers are organizing for a people of color, facilities are decrepit. At a meeting at Hunter, students rep- and can’t afford to double that. protracted struggle against the state and Some 57 percent of CUNY teachers resenting many of the CUNY campuses “I have to work two jobs now for my the rich capitalists, like New York Mayor with doctorates and master degrees are called for a student strike and expressed tuition,” said Mayra Gonzales, a LaSU offi- Michael Bloomberg, who command it. adjuncts or part-timers. These educators solidarity for transit workers whose jobs cer. “I don’t always have enough money for On Dec. 16, when the next cuts will be have no job security and few benefits. are also threatened. food.” announced, CCU will hold a mass rally at They earn less than $25,000 a year. The next week, the PSC organized a The students clearly see the connection 4:30 p.m. at the governor’s office on Third protest against tuition increases and between the enormous military budget Last spring, part-timers and graduate Avenue at 41st Street. n How banks have sucked mass transit dry

By Tony Murphy Bank has investors demanding that the cities’ transit authorities are playing the from Belgium-based KBC Bank, which New York MTA pay hundreds of millions of dollars role of collection agencies for the banks. was demanding $43 million. (Washington extra–based on risky, complex borrowing This is why transit agency heads now Post, Oct. 30) Fare hikes, layoffs and massive service schemes the MTA made in cahoots with find their systems being raided by inves- At a Nov. 18 press conference called cuts planned by New York’s bus and sub- these bankers. tors for hundreds of millions of dollars, by the American Public Transportation way system–its “doomsday budget”—have Now the MTA’s non-elected board adding up to amounts that dwarf their Association, the D.C. transit manager said been reported as a done deal by the city’s wants its mistakes to be paid for by riders officially stated deficits. that deal was only one of 14 his agency had big business media. and transit workers. made. With him were transit execs from But some New York riders and transit In 2007 the MTA was already project- ‘Kickback scheme’ exposed New York, Houston, Los Angeles, St. workers have met this doomsday atti- ing a 2009 budget deficit of $1.4 billion. Starting in the early nineties, these Louis, Chicago and five other cities. They tude with a fighting spirit of protest and At the time, the Straphangers Campaign transit agency heads collaborated with were begging the government to take over resistance. stated that “this is the deficit after state AIG to arrange a “leaseback scheme.” It the role of AIG and other previous guar- Holding signs reading, “The banks and city subsidies. The reason that the involved selling transportation equip- antors. “This would prevent any predatory should bail out the MTA,” members of the deficit is so big is because the interest is ment to investors, often banks, and then actions by banks against transit systems Bail Out the People Movement and transit coming due on the $32 billion the MTA leasing it back. and the public,” said Atlanta transit CEO workers held a press conference on Nov. has borrowed over the last 25 years. By Call it a “kickback scheme.” The invest- Beverly Scott. (APTA press release) 20 outside a public hearing where the 2010 about 20 percent of the MTA budget ment was a tax shelter for banks, which What is evident to all is that the gov- Metropolitan Transportation Authority will be debt service.” used the equipment’s depreciation to ernment has no interest in hampering the announced the cuts. The Straphangers “Debt service” means “interest owed to reduce the profits they had to report to banks and their profits in any way. It’s Campaign carried giant petitions signed investors.” Some of this is interest paid the IRS. Transit agencies got big upfront busy transferring as much of the public by subway riders. One protester disrupt- on loans whose principal was paid off payments–which won juicy bonuses for treasury as possible to the banks—$7.8 ed the hearing. years ago. But the banks keep raking in transit agency big shots. And AIG got big trillion worth at last count. The media are attempting to address the money. fees for acting as the deals’ guarantor. If the looting of public transportation this public outrage by claiming that the The MTA now says it is short $1.2 bil- Each deal had a contract item stating is going to be stopped, it’s going to be by hikes and cuts are necessary–that the lion. The New York Times reported Nov. that if the guarantor lost its Triple-A sta- the people, not the government. The media financial crisis has drastically reduced the 21 that the MTA’s debt service is $1.5 bil- tus, the transit agencies would be in “tech- want us to think the MTA plan is inevitable. revenues state and city governments get lion. This means that all the cuts, layoffs nical default” and owe back all the money But just two years ago, French youth and from corporate taxes. But the MTA’s offi- and hikes will go to pay interest to banks immediately. AIG did lose its Triple-A unions engaged in massive demonstrations cially stated deficit has nothing to do with that invested in the MTA–banks that are status–a failure that won it $150 billion in and resistance that scrapped an anti-labor, state and city budgets. The MTA really now being given trillions of dollars in bail- bailout money from the government–and anti-youth law that then-President Jacques owes all that money to the banks—most out money. now each transit agency owes hundreds of Chirac had already signed into law. of it for interest payments. “If the budget is approved as is,” reported millions on multiple AIG-arranged deals. It’s possible to push back fare hikes and The financial crisis isn’t compelling the Times, “subway riders next year would How much is owed? The New York layoffs. Key to doing so is rejecting any the MTA to make drastic cuts and fare pay 83 percent of the cost of operating MTA won’t say. But the Washington, D.C., notion of having to “share the burden” hikes. The failure of insurance giant the system, up from 69 percent this year.” transit agency was in federal court on Oct. with the banks and their lackeys in the AIG and of firms like Ireland’s DEPFA (Nov. 21) That means the MTA and other 29 on this very issue, asking for protection MTA. It’s their crisis. Let them solve it. n Page 8 Dec. 11, 2008 www.workers.org

The articles on pages 2, 8 and 9 are based on talks to the Nov. 15-16 Workers World Party National Conference. Women’s fight for justice and equality By Kris Hamel undergo DNA testing, and fulfill other turn the Hyde Amendment that denies Kris Hamel For working-class and strict requirements in order to prove they Medicaid funding to millions of poor wom- ww Photo: G. Dunkel oppressed women—especially were “worthy” of being granted an abor- en for abortions–we need to think again. immigrant women, unem- tion. Fifty-five percent of voters said no to Only 42 percent of all House members ployed, low-paid and low- The overt racism this abortion ban. in the new Congress are abortion rights income women, lesbians and of Hillary Clinton did In California, voters for the third time in supporters. The U.S. Senate now has only trans women—the struggle not win in the end. four years rejected–by 52 percent–anoth- 38 members, an increase of three, commit- for reproductive rights, justice Nor were women er law aimed at young women, requiring ted to reproductive rights. Women, espe- and equality is an important fooled into believing them to notify their parents when seek- cially working-class women, are a distinct part of the overall working- that a racist, right- ing an abortion, no matter if these girls minority in both houses of Congress. class struggle against capitalist wing, arch-reaction- are neglected, abused or victimized by The anti-woman, right-wing agenda exploitation and oppression. ary like Sarah Palin incest. Many states already have parental to turn back the clock for women’s rights Women cannot participate was deserving of sup- notification or parental consent laws that and women’s health is not going to abate, fully in society or in that strug- port just because she’s make choosing and getting an abortion an whether it’s on a state-by-state basis or gle without the fundamen- a woman. option filled with many difficult obstacles nationally. There will be many battles tal right to control their own bodies and On Nov. 4, voters in three states defeated for young women to overcome. ahead. reproductive capacities. anti-woman, anti-choice ballot initiatives. Obama has already pledged to use his As revolutionaries we need to give our Without the full participation and lead- In Colorado, the grossly-misnamed executive authority to rescind the global full solidarity to every struggle to restore ership of women, the working class will “equal rights” amendment would have “gag rule” that prohibits aid funding to and expand reproductive rights and jus- never be able to win the historic battle conferred full legal and constitutional hundreds of health clinics around the tice for all women, especially poor women against the capitalist class. The liberation rights on fertilized eggs and thus outlaw world if abortion is even mentioned as an and women of color, along with demand- of women and all the oppressed, no mat- all abortions and many types of birth con- option for women. This policy, which Bush ing free universal health care for all. ter what gains we may achieve, will only trol, as well as give women second-class implemented, has had severe detrimental We need to continue to fight for hous- be assured when the socialist revolution status in relation to their fertilized eggs. effects, such as unsafe abortion being the ing, education, health care, jobs at living triumphs and a new society begins to be This law was defeated 73 percent to 27 main cause of death for 55 percent of the wages, childcare, transportation, nutri- built. percent. women who die in Ethiopia. tious affordable food, and everything else Working-class women factored hugely In South Dakota, voters revisited a Many hope that Obama will appoint jus- that’s a prerequisite for a decent, quality in the electoral victory of Barack Obama law already rejected in 2006. This time tices to the U.S. Supreme Court who will life. for president. The election was in essence a the abortion ban supposedly had excep- affirm Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision– The capitalist meltdown will increas- referendum against racism, a vote to bring tions for pregnancies resulting from rape after years of militant struggle–that legal- ingly propel working-class and oppressed jobs to millions of workers in the failing or incest, or which endanger a woman’s ized women’s right to choose abortion. women into these struggles. The great economy, as well as a repudiation of years health. But these were onerous exceptions If women rely on the Democratic hopes and expectations of working-class of reaction that have impacted women in that would have required women to sub- Congress, however, to initiate pro-repro- women will be realized in the epic battles devastating ways. mit to all kinds of humiliating procedures, ductive rights legislation–such as to over- against capitalism. n Women, economic crisis and fightback

effort to bring him down and threaten en, disabled women, and lesbian, bi and or was particularly young or old.” other Black politicians. Immigration and trans women. For many poor and working With winter coming, one demand is Customs Enforcement tried to deport women, life is a constant struggle to pro- that the governor order the utility com- Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, who had vide the most basic necessities for them- panies to immediately stop all shutoffs of been living in South Boston since 2002. selves and their children. Some 15 million heat and electricity and restore services to She was forced to move out of state. women in the U.S. live in poverty. One out all who have been shut off, along with the Then the FBI entrapped and arrested of three single mothers is officially poor demand for debt cancellation. African-American State Sen. Dianne and one out of five female seniors is poor. The largest electric company in Wilkerson on alleged corruption charges. Black and Latina women are twice as like- Massachusetts issued more than 100,000 She was never indicted nor did a grand ly as white women to be poor. Thirteen shutoff notices this past May. Four thou-

. D u nke l . jury convene. Wilkerson has represented percent of children in the U.S. live below sand people entered the winter last year G the African-American community in the the poverty line. with their utilities shut off. How many State Senate for 15 years and is very popu- Women earn less than men, are more will die from using unsafe space heaters, Photo: Photo: likely to work part-time, less likely to have ww lar due to her progressive stances, includ- candles and stoves to keep warm? After a ing supporting same-sex marriage rights. health insurance, and are less likely to be recent press conference we received many By Phebe Eckfeldt Our party defended both women. eligible for unemployment insurance. calls from people who had had their heat Less than a week before the historic Women are suffering the brunt of the Since [Bill] Clinton eliminated welfare or electricity shut off. The majority were election of Barack Obama, racist, right- crisis, especially women of color, single in 1996, the number of single mothers from women, mothers with very young wing forces were continuing in their mothers, older women, immigrant wom- who are unemployed and who receive children—children who were sick or dis- no welfare assistance has doubled. Many abled, women caring for elders. One wom- are homeless and live in extreme poverty. an could not pay her electric bill because Many women have their children taken paying for medications was her priority. away by the state, are forced to stay in We like to call our campaign Power Video workshop abusive relationships, go to prison for acts to the People because, as women lead- of survival, or turn to substance abuse. ers, what we have foremost in our minds There is a newly built women’s prison is how to help empower women to fight at WWP conference in Massa­chusetts where 40 percent of the back; to lead the struggles that affect them women have mental health issues and 85 Special to Workers World “Poison Dust,” a full-length, nationally most; to go against the grain of capitalism distributed documentary about depleted percent have substance abuse issues. In which isolates women from each other, In an effort to meet the increasing need uranium. the wake of severe budget cuts, instead of sows distrust, shames, demoralizes and for organization in this time of increas- She mentioned the more recent appear- providing social services like drug treat- blames us. ing class-consciousness and struggle, ance of PVN on YouTube/peoplesvideo, ment programs, mental health programs, How can we engage women who are Peoples Video Network held a break- workers.tv and peoplesvideo.tv. Stressing jobs, childcare, etc., the state is throwing struggling just to survive? How can we fast workshop at the recent Workers the wider reach of on-line broadcasting, women in jail. win more activists to the party and the World Conference. The conference drew she reported that some of the videos The Women’s Fightback Network in WFN who can reach out more broadly? interested participants from all over the presented on YouTube reached tens of Boston is demanding that the governor The working class today is thoroughly country. Reflecting that, the early morn- thousands—particularly prison inter- declare an economic state of emergency. multinational and more than one-half ing workshop had activists from Boston, views with Mumia Abu-Jamal as well as WFN brings to the forefront how women women. This lays the basis for the politi- San Diego, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, videos about the immigration struggle have been disproportionately victimized by cal leadership of our class to be taken up Philadelphia and the greater New York and Palestine. foreclosures, evictions, job loss and budget by the more oppressed. No revolution can area. The goal was to coordinate report- Harris said, “We need to seize the cuts. Anita Hill wrote an article last year be successful without the participation of ing news of the struggle as an alternative means of production from the corporate stating that women were particular tar- women. to the corporate media. media and tell our own story.” gets of subprime predatory lenders, espe- As Hugo Chávez said, “Capitalism is Sue Harris, New York co-director of Joel Stephen, an emerging profession- cially elderly women and Black and Latina sexist; socialism can’t be sexist. … Only PVN, described the 15-year history of al videographer, spoke briefly about his women. One loan officer talked about how women have the commitment, passion the network, highlighting its 10 years in work in corporate media. The corporate she would add many additional costs to and love needed to make a revolution; to public-access television, with 50 weekly media approach to news-gathering obfus- the mortgage loan if the client “appeared be the motor, the cutting edge and the fire shows nationwide, and the production of Continued on page 10 uneducated, inarticulate, was a minority of the revolution.” n www.workers.org Dec. 11, 2008 Page 9 Colombia’s key role in Latin America

By Berta Joubert-Ceci Americas. In Colombia, for example, Last September, have to get their own trans- which has the second-largest population when attempts to portation and tools for har- Compañero Sam Marcy, the founder of Afro descendants in Latin America after negotiate with the vesting sugarcane. of Workers World Party/Mundo Obrero, Brazil, there were car caravans, honking bosses failed, 12,500 There are 10,000 CTAs in wrote an article during the first presiden- and dancing, just like in my neighborhood sugarcane cutters different industries through- tial campaign of Jesse Jackson in 1983-84 in Philadelphia. went on strike in out the country. Ending about the right of self-determination and Nowhere in Latin America and the the southwest of the these so-called cooperatives the class struggle. Caribbean have the masses been strug- country. They work has been one of the demands “In Marx’s time,” he wrote, “the slogan, gling more fiercely and steadfastly than in in eight refineries of the corteros. They also as stated in the Communist Manifesto, Colombia. Women, youth, human rights that produce both demanded Sunday and holi- was: ‘Workers of the world unite.’ To advocates and trade unionists defy the sugar and ethanol day pay, a direct work con- this slogan Lenin added the oppressed criminal and repressive forces of the fas- for the benefit of tract, labor stability, health peoples. So now it reads: ‘Workers and cist regime of President Alvaro Uribe—its the Colombian oli- care, education and housing. oppressed peoples of the world unite!’ It police, its army and its paramilitaries. garchy and the U.S. At this time, after 56 days ww photo: g. Dunkel introduced a substantial difference in the Colombia is now a center for U.S. impe- companies Cargill Berta Joubert-Ceci on strike, after intimidation approach to the oppressed peoples abroad rialism in the region, the Israel of Latin and ExxonMobil. by paramilitaries at the ser- and, no less important, the super-exploit- America. Colombia is the hope of the The vast majority of sugarcane cutters— vice of the companies, after the use of ed and oppressed people at home in the Pentagon and the ruling class to under- known as “corteros”—are of African police to clear the mills of striking work- internal colonies. While many decades mine the progressive governments of descent. Their existence in this highly ers, after the arrest of several leaders and have passed since Lenin’s formulation of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. It is the subsidized industry is, as one worker said, after even the aid of a progressive senator the question, it now more than ever needs U.S. corporations’ hope to continue reap- “like slavery, only that we no longer have who supported the strike, the workers in a proper application since the assault of ing huge profits and natural resources chains.” seven of the eight refineries have settled. monopoly capitalism becomes ever more from the Colombian people, particularly The workers cut sugarcane for 12 to Not all their demands were met, but onerous and threatening day by day.” through the Free Trade Agreement. 16 backbreaking hours a day in order to as Adolfo Tigreros, an advisor to one of Twenty-five years later, neoliberal glo- But two recent and still ongoing strug- receive a monthly pay of $150 to $300. Of the unions, said: “The most important balization has made this formulation even gles, in the face of a severe financial cri- the 12,500 workers, only 485 are direct achievement was to put the CTAs in the more relevant and urgent. And though it sis in that country, have made it very employees. Some 9,500 are subcontract- public eye, so that [people] realize that applies to working and oppressed peo- difficult for both the Uribe paramilitary ed through the infamous Cooperatives they are a model for undermining labor ples of the entire planet, I would like to government and several of the U.S. cor- of Associated Labor (CTA). CTAs are rights and unions in Colombia.” address its significance to the peoples porations to conduct business as usual. nothing but an effort to undermine and Throughout the strike and mobiliza- and the struggles in Latin America and And what is most crucial is that these replace unions and exploit even further tion, the corteros received great solidar- the Caribbean. [Joubert-Ceci spoke of the struggles are being fought by the two sec- the Colombian workers. ity from unions, from social organizations many struggles in the region, then focused tors of Colombian society that have been Under a CTA the worker is a “partner” and from the Indigenous people who were on Colombia.] the most excluded, the most exploited: of the company, not a worker, has to pay conducting a “minga,” a peaceful gather- Obama’s victory was celebrated the Afro-Colombians and the Indigenous for his or her health care, and has no ben- ing and protest. On Oct. 12, the Indigenous efits, no vacation time, nothing. They even throughout the world and also in the people. Continued on page 10 Deep roots of WWP’s internationalism

By John Catalinotto Besides those we pub- the state and the transna- at a meeting in Kolkata, West Bengal, last lish in English and tional corporations, and December. In January, this group will be Workers World Party’s history of inter- Spanish, some are the tribunal on Israeli War part of a larger forum in Beirut that should national solidarity has its roots in a time translated to Arabic, Crimes in Lebanon. We represent the interests of the resistance when, though we were the strongest French, Portuguese, help organize the Tijuana movements of the Middle East and anti- defenders of the Soviet Union against Spanish and Russian, labor conference that takes imperialist forces elsewhere. imperialism, we were isolated from the a n d s o m e t i m e s place each December. We could not expect a new internation- world communist movement centered in Chinese, posted on Some of the recent inter- al to exist without a new revolutionary Moscow. We were happy on the occasions websites and read by national conferences we’ve upsurge. Yet these organizations can cre- our work was recognized, as when North communists and class- had delegations at are ate a framework for solidarity in struggle. Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh in conscious workers. mainly for discussion and The transnational corporations have 1963 recognized the role of Youth Against We also actively fight exchange of ideas—this organized production internationally. War and Fascism [WWP’s youth organi- against Washington’s year in Mexico City at the The imperialist ruling class has the IMF zation] in initiating demonstrations to get war drive. Our record Workers Party meeting, in and NATO to oversee its interests. The the U.S. out of Vietnam. of consistent anti- ww Photo: G. Dunkel Havana for the Marxism workers and oppressed deserve their own Our party chairperson Sam Marcy and imperialist positions John Catalinotto discussion, the recent gath- international coordination. the other leaders not only insisted that the in the entire post-Soviet period has estab- ering of Artists and Intellectuals in Defense The party can only earn its revolution- party youth put international solidarity in lished us as a reliable ally of all anti-impe- of Humanity in Caracas, among others. ary reputation by fighting the class and action, they set the example by disrupt- rialist and national liberation struggles To promote joint actions, we have national struggle here at home, but it will ing the United Nations in solidarity with worldwide. recently participated in the meeting of the do it with organizers who have trained Lumumba’s Congo in 1960. We marched We participate in solidarity trips to Cuba International League of Peoples Struggle their brain and muscle, by habit and by in Times Square to say “Hands off Cuba” to break the blockade, such as the FIST in Hong Kong, and also of an allied move- understanding, with an internationalism in 1962, held a public meeting to defend trip last year or the Venceremos Brigade ment of migrant workers, and we helped that makes no move without considering the Indonesian communists who were or the Pastors for Peace campaigns. We set up the International Anti-Imperialist the interests of the most oppressed of the being slaughtered in 1965, and were the take part in tribunals in Colombia against Peoples Struggle Coordinating Committee world. n only ones to picket at the U.N. to protest the June 1967 U.S.-Israeli war. Whether these actions won recognition or temporarily isolated us, we learned this Messages to WWP conference was what we had to do if we wanted to think of ourselves as revolutionaries. By John Catalinotto Marcia Campos of the Women’s Inter­ that this electoral victory is historical and Today, there is no single international New York national Democratic Federation wrote very symbolic, but one has to ask what center to the movement. The workers’ that the crisis “aided greatly in electing the working class could expect from the movement is only beginning to recover In this third and final report on some the Democrat Barack Obama president of first Black president? Is Obama capable from the disappearance of the USSR. But 25 messages of solidarity to the Nov. the USA, vehemently defeating President of making any significant changes toward the world economic crisis forces it to recov- 15-16 Workers World Party National Bush and all he represents. For the first the national liberation of oppressed er. Our party has both the responsibility Conference, the focus is on the U.S. elec- time, a Black person was elected presi- nations in the U.S. and elsewhere? Is he and the opportunity to play an important tions and the need for a deeper level of dent of the USA. The participation of the going to concentrate on fixing the capital- role, simply because we are located in the international cooperation. people of the U.S. in the elections will ist crisis or to help get rid of the system center of world imperialism. What we do The Workers’ General Confederation- remain an historic event for the USA.” itself, knowing that it is the cause of the here is magnified 100 times. Brazil wrote that the Brazilian workers The Communist Party of Brazil wrote crisis?” Proletarian internationalism is in our showed “our joy for the impressive victory that “the people of the world hope that Remarking on the same event, the hearts. Only now our actions go over the that the American people conquered with President-elect Barack Obama keeps his Party of Liberation in Argentina wrote: Internet to the world. How we wish we the victory of Barack Obama in the elec- promise of withdrawing U.S. troops from “It is obvious that [WWP] will have to could have done that with Comrade Sam tions of Nov. 4. The multitude that came Iraq and that he removes with urgency make a wise and very concrete analysis Marcy’s writings. out to the streets expressing its hope in the criminal blockade of Cuba.” of the future Obama government, which This past year, for example, our WW the changes shows that a new moment The Union of African Workers-Senegal in our humble judgment will also be an articles have been sent all over the world. can begin.” raised important questions: “It’s certain Continued on page 10 Page 10 dec. 11, 2008 www.workers.org Colombia’s key role oN MUMbaI in latin america Joubert­Ceci– continued from page 9 great solidarity with the corteros and have Poverty is violence included the corteros’ demands in their people of Colombia started a brave walk own. They call this a “minga” of social and Continued from page 1 highest unemployment and the worst throughout the same regions where the community resistance. including six from the U.S. and eight jobs. One third of villages in India with cutters were striking—the southwest. Uribe’s government is being exposed by from Israel. a majority Muslim population have no They walked hundreds of kilometers to the people in Colombia and by the inter- The Pakistani government denies schools at all. try to meet and confront President Uribe national community as having close links any relationship to the attacks. It has Media reports describe the attackers with their demands: no to the FTA with to the paramilitary, to drug trafficking, to been under tremendous pressure from as offering to negotiate for the release of the U.S., agrarian reform, and the end of the many massacres and assassinations of Washington to allow U.S. air and ground Islamic prisoners and as denouncing the state terrorism against Indigenous people, Indigenous, Afro-Colombians, peasants, forces to pursue Muslim militants inside state violence in Kashmir. labor and social leaders. The agenda is not labor and social leaders. Pakistan anywhere, at any time. In fact, Mumbai is considered the commercial only for the Indigenous, it is a people’s A recent report from Amnesty there have been gun battles in recent capital of India. It is the center of finance agenda. International says that under Uribe in months between Pakistani soldiers and the film industry. The population has Three times they tried “walking the the year 2007, some 1,400 civilians were and U.S. Special Forces who violated doubled in the past 25 years to 18 mil- word” (caminando la palabra), long walks killed and 305,000 displaced, more than Pakistani territory and sovereignty. lion, but more than half the people live in through the southwestern region. The in 2006. So far this year, 45 union leaders The U.S. military interventions in vast slums. first time, the police killed three people have been assassinated. Last year 39 were Afghanistan and Pakistan are impacting The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and injured dozens in a confrontation. murdered. all of South Asia. Since the Indian ruling Hotel, one of the two hotels attacked, is a When the walkers—more than 30,000 The struggle of the people in Colombia class and its major political parties joined landmark building similar to the Empire Indigenous people and their supporters— is our struggle. In these times of global- U.S. imperialism’s “war on terror,” they State Building or the World Trade Center reached Cali to meet with Uribe, they ization, more than ever, the slogan “The have stepped up repression of the large in New York. It is owned by the Tata waited three hours. After that, most left. workers’ struggle has no borders” holds Muslim population in India. Group, a hated corporate giant. Uribe finally arrived, but by then there true. In fact, attacks against Muslims in The U.S. media is making many com- were only a couple hundred people. Uribe Let us say, as they say in Puerto Rico, India in recent years have led to greater parisons to the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on called them terrorists. “Que la crisis la paguen los ricos.” Let loss of life than just occurred in Mumbai, the World Trade Center. More ominous The walkers tried again to meet with the rich, the capitalists, pay for the crisis. but they received little coverage com- are the calls for a 9/11 response—code him in La María. Uribe made empty That is what the workers and oppressed in pared to this one, aimed at the foreign words for creating a huge security appa- promises, no land returns, nothing. Now Colombia are doing. and domestic elite. ratus, authorizing mass arrests, restrict- the Indigenous are walking again, this Let us here, in the heart of imperial- In 2002 in the state of Gujarat, just ing civil liberties and possibly opening a time to Bogotá. They expect to get there ism, absorb the lessons of struggle of north of Mumbai, extreme right-wing war with Pakistan. on Nov. 21. our brothers and sisters south of the Rio Hindu chauvinist organizations mas- The right-wing BJP Party, which was These have been not only long walks, Grande. Let us unite and together fight sacred up to 2,000 Muslims and drove in power during the pogroms against they have been efforts to organize and join this oppressive regime of exploitation. 200,000 out of their homes. This led to Muslims in Gujarat, has called on the with the different social movements. The Workers and oppressed of the world, the radicalization of many Muslim youth current government to follow the exam- Indigenous people have demonstrated let’s unite! n because the government was unable or ple of the U.S. after 9/11. The talk of war unwilling to protect them. is now on the agenda, with the far greater Severe repression by the Indian gov- violence that would bring. ernment against the Muslim majority in There is no solution under the capital- Messages to WWP conference the disputed state of Kashmir has also ist system to the growing gulf between Continued from page 9 said: “The collapse of capitalism is not aroused deep anger. The Indian state the fabulously wealthy and the des- imperialist government. WWP will know going to happen either immediately, nor brutally attacked demonstrations of perately poor in South Asia. The only how to resolve this contradiction.” can it happen spontaneously. We lack hundreds of thousands in Kashmir this recourse of U.S. imperialism as well as On the common struggle an organized and conscious struggle on summer. the Indian and Pakistani ruling classes The Socialist Front of Puerto Rico a world scale. We need a transitional India has been seen as a rapidly mod- is to try to divert the population with wrote: “We know that as revolutionaries program from an organization that can ernizing country. But the wealth associ- intensified communal, class and caste in the belly of the beast you have a firm extend and consolidate to the movement ated with capitalist globalization and antagonisms, while relying increasingly commitment to the struggle that will liber- and that can contribute in a practical way glossy high-tech industries enriches only on greater repression and an ever-larger . ate our people of Puerto Rico, as well as to to solidarity with all workers and peoples a tiny fraction of the people. High-tech military machine. the Cuban Revolution and the developing in struggle.” industries employ just 0.2 percent of Marxists know that violence against Bolivarian Revolution in our America.” The Anti-Imperialist Camp wrote: “We India’s 1 billion people. For the major- wealthy individuals and their politicians Leila Ghanem, an organizer of an inter- believe that we will see increased wars ity of the population, poverty has grown does not end the system of exploitation national forum to take place in Beirut on driven by the U.S. and NATO not only in MiriaM Makeba, enormously. Almost half of all Indians and oppression. They also understand de to eloved ama frica Jan. 16-18, wrote: “We salute your politi- the Middle East but also in Eastern Europe B that, when there seem to be no alterna- A live below the international poverty line of O M cal stand and your solidarity with the and other parts of the world. In this sense $1.25 a day. The World Bank reports that tives, such actions are bound to arise people of the Middle East, who are in the we look forward to a strong cooperation, half of Indian children—the highest rate from the violence of the system and the first line of opposition to imperialism and while working toward the unification of in the world—are so malnourished that misery and desperation that millions predatory capitalism and colonialism in the global anti-imperialist forces as well their bodies fail to achieve normal size. experience. Iraq, in Lebanon and in Palestine. Your as the construction of new anti-capitalist This is the real violence and the source Building unity and resistance among solidarity goes beyond compassion with nuclei also in the West.” of widening instability. the oppressed workers and peasants now the suffering that our people experience These parties, along with the Portuguese The Muslims in India number 150 mil- divided into competing nationalities, reli- but it is a real class solidarity, which con- Communist Party and the Bolivarian lion—13 percent of the population—and gions and castes is the only effective way fronts imperialism on its own territory Continental Coordinating Committee, are the poorest segment in a very poor to combat the far greater violence caused and within its machinery.” sent their greetings to the comrades here country. They have the lowest literacy, by capitalist and imperialist exploitation The Energy Workers Front in Mexico and wishes for our success. n lowest income, highest infant mortality, and war. n

Low-Wage Capitalism Video workshop at WWP conference Continued from page 8 munity. He was eager to coordinate work timely new book by Fred goldstein describes in sweeping detail the drastic effecton the cates and hides the truth, he said, and with PVN. Summerville talked about the working class of new technology and the restruc turing of global capitalism in the post-Soviet makes it impossible to get one’s hands on need to keep topics in the public con- era. it uses karl Marx’s law of wages and other findings to show that these developments are equipment or training. He compared that sciousness, unlike the corporate media not only continuing to drive down wages but are creating the that focuses on topics and then drops material basis for future social upheaval. the analysis rests on to his experience with PVN, where he got three basic developments in the last three decades: hands-on training and experience in situ- them. The repetition of news of the same struggles from all over the country can • the world’s workforce available to exploitation by ations where it really counts. transnational capitalist corporations doubled in the wake of Robert Summerville, a veteran public produce a powerful momentum in peo- the collapse of the USSr and eastern europe. access producer, gave a brief history of ple’s consciousness. • the technological revolutions of the digital age, in his Long Island network and how it has Nana Soul of Blackwaxx emphasized both production and communica tions, have allowed influenced local government and com- the power of collective planning at this transnational corporations to destroy high-wage jobs time. and simultaneously expand the global workforce to Berta Joubert-Ceci, PVN co-director generate a worldwide wage competition. if you would like to help make sure that this from Philadelphia, said that joining forc- book is widely distributed: call 212-463-7146 or • the decline in the economic condition of the workers, es, trading information and coordinating email [email protected], online: driven by the laws of capitalism and the capitalist class, the work improved chances for funding www.workers.org. You can help promote the is leading to the end of working-class compromise and and learning. The workshop was a step book or organize a book signing party. retreat and must end up in a profound revival of the in the process of organizing to meet the struggle against capital. order online at www.Leftbooks.com needs of the coming period. n www.workers.org dec. 11, 2008 Page 11 Puppet government near collapse in Somalia

By Abayomi Azikiwe In a further sign of disarray, Yusuf “It is a standoff war in which the This Nov. 20 the U.N. Security Council Editor, Pan-African News Wire accused Prime Minister Nur Hassan Pentagon lobs million-dollar cruise mis- passed a unanimous resolution to impose Hussein of the political problems within siles into a famine-haunted African waste- sanctions against so-called “pirates, arms The Ethiopian government on Nov. 25 the regime. The government has failed to land the size of Texas, hoping to kill lone smugglers and perpetrators of instability announced it was withdrawing its military appoint a new cabinet since the previous terror suspects who might be dozing in in Somalia.” (AP, Nov. 21) forces from neighboring Somalia. This one was dissolved months ago. candlelit huts. The raids’ success or fail- The council’s “quick approval of the represents a defeat for the foreign policy ure is almost impossible to verify,” writes British-sponsored resolution was followed aims of Washington, which encouraged Resistance forces advance Salopek. by an open meeting on the deteriorating the government of Meles Zenawi to invade As the TFG bickered over cabinet seats “It is a covert war in which the CIA has situation in Somalia—both on land and Somalia in December 2006. within an ineffective regime, reports from recruited gangs of unsavory warlords to at sea off its nearly 3,900-km coastline, The Ethiopian military force is now the ground in Somalia indicated that the hunt down and kidnap Islamic militants which includes some of the world’s most down to some 2,000 troops from an ini- al-Shabaab resistance movement had and ... secretly imprison them offshore, important shipping routes.” tial 12,000. The Ethiopians are supposed taken control of the port town of Barawe, aboard U.S. warships.” Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. to be replaced by 8,000 African Union located approximately 110 miles from Salopek states that U.S. efforts in this Rosemary DiCarlo appealed for immedi- “peacekeeping” forces. the capital. During the week of Nov. 10, Horn of Africa nation are bound to result ate measures to address the situation in However, only 2,600 AU troops, sup- the movement seized the town of Merka, in another defeat: “It is a policy time the Horn of Africa, which is threatening an plied by the U.S.-backed countries of where a strategic airstrip is located. bomb that will be inherited by the incom- Oct. 26 ceasefire agreement between some Uganda and Burundi, have been deployed In Mogadishu, where the TFG claims it ing Obama administration: a little-known Islamic groups and the TFG. The more mil- in the capital of Mogadishu. Other nations still maintains control, al-Shabaab fighters front in the global war on terrorism that itant resistance forces such as al-Shabaab such as Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and operate openly, carrying out recruitment Washington appears to be losing, if it are not party to the Oct. 26 agreement. Kenya, which had pledged to send troops, drives and training exercises. The organi- hasn’t already been lost.” DiCarlo called for strengthening the have not deployed any. zation is already presenting itself as a par- The article quotes Ken Menkhaus, 3,450 African Union troops in Mogadishu, In a candid statement, President Abdul- allel government to the U.S.-backed TFG. a leading Somalia scholar at Davidson supposedly so much-needed food aid can lahi Yusuf of the U.S.-backed Transitional The resistance forces also consist of College in North Carolina: “Somalia is be delivered to the population—the same Federal Government in Somalia, which groups within the Union of Islamic Courts one of the great unrecognized U.S. policy excuse given for the U.S. intervention in is bolstered militarily by the Ethiopian that are negotiating agreements with the failures since 9/11. By any rational metric, 1992. army, said the regime is “on the verge TFG in Djibouti. This faction, led by Sheik what we’ve ended up with there today is DiCarlo said that if 6,000 AU forces of collapse.” (Reuters, Nov. 16) Fighters Hassan Dahir Aweys, has been described the opposite of what we wanted.” from various countries cannot be mobi- from the al-Shabaab organization have as more “moderate” than al-Shabaab, lized, then the U.N. should intervene Will policy change under Obama? not only taken control of vast areas of the which was the youth wing of the UIC dur- directly in Somalia. country, but are openly challenging the ing its burgeoning period of influence It is not yet clear whether the incoming A greater U.N., U.S. or E.U. military puppet forces inside Mogadishu. prior to the Ethiopian invasion. U.S. administration will make any signifi- involvement in the Horn of Africa will “Most of the country is in the hands of Another prominent Islamic leader, cant changes in its military policy toward prove disastrous for these entities. The Islamists and we are only in Mogadishu Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, who was also the Horn of Africa. However, President- Somali people have a proven history of and Baidoa, where there is daily war,” said a part of the UIC, has rejected talks with elect Barack Obama’s selection of several successful resistance against imperialist Yusuf, speaking before an assembly of 100 the TFG until the Ethiopians withdraw. top-level Clinton administration figures intervention. Somali legislators in Kenya. The U.S. government has accused Aweys indicates a continuing reliance on military The peoples of the U.S. and the E.U. Yusuf spoke about the fragility of the of supporting “terrorism” and has actively force in the region. have no desire to see their governments TFG government, saying: “We, our- discouraged the TFG from reaching any Bill Clinton inherited the invasion of drawn into a protracted struggle in this selves, are behind the problems and we agreement with his forces. Somalia initiated by the George H.W. region. The anti-war forces in these are accountable in this world and in the An article in the Nov. 24 Chicago Bush administration in December 1992. countries must oppose military interven- hereafter. Islamists have been capturing Tribune by correspondent Paul Salopek The situation grew tense during 1993, tion and uphold the right of self-deter- all towns and now control Elasha. It is points out the central role of the U.S. leading to coordinated resistance by the mination and sovereignty for the Somali every man for himself if the government government in the current situation in Somali masses that forced the U.S. to people and other nations throughout the collapses.” Somalia. withdraw from the country in 1994. Horn of Africa. n

‘ S ing L o ud A frica ’ . de to MiriaM Makeba, eloved ama frica “King Kong,” about a boxer. primeB minister and described apartheid Makeba’s voiceA was soaring and pow- OBy Larry Hales M She was introduced to the international as “a policy of good neighborliness.” erful and could evoke feelings of joy and “I picked up the soil from this unknown stage through Lionel Rogosin’s film “Come Umkhonto we Sizwe was the armed celebration, such as “Pata Pata,” and grave/ and blew it up to the wind as if Back Africa,” a dramatic documentary that wing of the African National Congress. pride, anger or sorrow. Whether she to make reference one day/ and I said/ displayed the racist apartheid system. Vuyisile Mini, an Umkhonto activist and was singing in English or Xhosa, singing mayibuye Africa/ sing loud Africa/ Makeba’s passport was revoked while singer who was murdered by a hang- “Soweto Blues,” about the massacre of sing loud/ sing to the people.” she traveled with this film and presented man’s noose, would write a song taunting students protesting classroom instruc- –From “When You Come Back” it to an international audience. Verwoerd titled, “Pasopa nansi ’ndon- tion in Afrikaans, or “Khawuleza,” a song by Vusi Mahlasela In a Skylark song called “Miriam’s demnyama we Verwoerd” (Look out, about what children shout to their moth- Vusi Mahlasela, a great singer who Good bye to Africa,” a speaker intones, Verwoerd, here are the Black people). It ers when the authorities are coming, she himself was banned from his homeland, “Today we say goodbye to Africa’s queen would become a popular liberation song could communicate the conditions and wrote this song for the many exiles and of soul, Miriam Makeba. Good luck throughout the struggle to free South the emotions of the oppressed. imprisoned South African freedom fight- Miriam and please do come back to us Africa from apartheid and white rule. Makeba would miss her mother’s ers and artists. soon.” Makeba replies, “Goodbye mother/ Makeba later recorded a version of it. funeral and those of her uncles killed in Miriam Makeba, who died on Nov. 10, goodbye father/ and to you my little baby/ Nelson Mandela said in his autobiog- the Sharpeville massacre in 1960. Her was one of the many. She was banned goodbye/ until we meet again/ farewell raphy, alluding to himself, that a person daughter died at eight years old, after for 30 years, from 1960 to 1990. The dear friends/ I am leaving/ may the good is known by her or his response to condi- being reunited with Makeba and not able name “Mama Africa” was bestowed upon lord be with you all/ though I’m leaving/ tions. Miriam Makeba, then, is known as to return home. She would face scrutiny Makeba because she was the first person my heart remains with you.” a voice for freedom. and surveillance and exile in another land to make African music heard and known The song, meant as a tribute, has Each breath she took, like the terse while married to Kwame Ture, yet her internationally. become a haunting lament. exhalations in the song “Amampondo”— resolve did not temper or wane. This is an ode to Miriam Makeba and Neither Makeba nor the members of her about Mpondo warriors, part of the Makeba continued to be a voice for her still resounding voice. Though her group could know that she would be gone Xhosa-speaking people, preparing for bat- the South African people and renowned physical form is gone forever, her visage for 30 years, that she would never again tle—was inspiration to the South African worldwide. Her spirit will exist in song will remain, not only in the hearts and see her mother or be able to attend her people, as theirs were to her. and deed and her voice shall become a minds of those closest to her, but also in funeral, and never see Sophiatown as she While Makeba could not be in her home- voice for new generations and new strug- the minds of the millions who have heard remembered it, for it would be bulldozed land, she could sing the words of struggle gles for a better world. her voice, those who have yet to do so and to the ground and replaced by a suburb for for audiences who may not have otherwise the millions for whom she sang. whites only. been able to glean the conditions imposed Long Live Mama Africa! Makeba was born in Johannesburg in Many events would pass which no one upon the masses of Black people in South Hales saw and heard Miriam Makeba 1939 and began singing professionally in could foresee. But the conditions in South Africa by a European colonizer. in Cuba in December 2006, when she the early 1950s. She sang with a number Africa were dictated by a racist system Sifiso Ntuli, an exiled activist, says in the came out of retirement to perform in of groups—such as the Cuban Brothers, that was formally instituted in 1948 by film “Amandla”: “Song can communicate celebrations organized for the 80th the Manhattans, the all-female Skylarks, then-Minister of Native Affairs Hendrik to people who otherwise would not have birthday of Cuban President Fidel and with Hugh Masekela in the musical Frensch Verwoerd—who later became understood where we are coming from.” Castro. Page 12 Dec. 11, 2008 www.workers.org Mhndo Obrero ¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los países, uníos! Comprendiendo la situación mundial Otro aspecto del ‘Capitalismo de Bajos Salarios’ Por Deirdre Griswold otras organizaciones multiétnicas bloque soviético cuando fueron recor- de la clase trabajadora no se hubi- tados muchos de los beneficies sociales Hemos discutido en esta conferencia eran movilizado para atraer a l@s que l@s trabajador@s en el Oeste habían dos libros que elaboran nuestra posición votantes. ganado. La caída de la Unión Soviética sobre cómo los cambios que se han dado El “Capitalismo de Salarios Bajos” también influyó en la decisión de China en el capitalismo han impactado en la clase pone al día la tesis de Marcy al dedi- de depender más en el mercado para con- obrera: “Alta Tecnología, Bajos Salarios” car mucha atención a la división struir su economía. Esto significó abrir por Sam Marcy y el libro más reciente “El internacional del trabajo que existe el país a mucha inversión extranjera y Capitalismo de Salarios Bajos” por Fred actualmente con la rápida extensión a la producción de mercancías para la Goldstein. de la globalización. También señala exportación. El libro de Marcy, escrito en 1985, cómo los cambios de la manera en Estos dos acontecimientos – el des­ describió cómo la revolución científico- que el capitalismo funciona hoy en mantelamiento de la Unión Soviética y tecnológica estaba cambiando los medios día comprueban una vez más las sus aliados en Europa del Este, y la aper- de producción y la clase obrera en sí. Un enseñanzas más básicas del marx- tura a gran escala de China a la inver- gran cambio se estaba gestando en la ismo y el leninismo. sión extranjera — duplicó el número de economía con menos empleos en la indus- Sin embargo, quiero mencionar trabajador@s en el mundo disponible tria de manufactura y más en la industria MO foto: Gary Wilson otro aspecto del libro de Goldstein, para la explotación imperialista. de servicios. La nueva tecnología cam- Deirdre Griswold uno que posiblemente es todavía difí- El Partido WW/Mundo Obrero desde bió la necesidad de las destrezas para los pero que continúa aún más fuerte—es la cil de discutir en este país por la con- sus comienzos, ha comprendido las empleos en esta nueva fase. Los patronos base material para la solidaridad entre stante presencia del anticomunismo de la grandes contradicciones en la Unión buscaban trabajador@s l@s cuales, por l@s trabajador@s negr@s, latin@s y clase dominante desde el comienzo de la Soviética entre el modo socializado de su opresión, se veían forzad@s a aceptar blanc@s que irrumpió en estas elecciones Revolución Rusa y especialmente durante producción y la burocracia privilegiada trabajos con salarios bajos. Más mujeres y cambió el escenario político en Estados el período de la Guerra Fría. que fue resultado de su aislamiento, de su y gente de color comenzaron a emplearse Unidos con la elección del primer presi- Tan importante como su análisis de la subdesarrollo económico y de la falta de en Estados Unidos. Marcy predijo que dente negro. globalización imperialista y la forma en mano de obra calificada en los primeros esto llevaría a socavar el poder social de No se pretende minimizar las extraor- que esta ha forzado el declive de los sala- días de la revolución. l@s trabajador@s más privilegiad@s, que dinarias destrezas de Barack Obama como rios de l@s trabajador@s en los EEUU, es Todo eso se complicó haciendo la situ- generalmente eran hombres blancos. figura política. Pero ha habido muchos lo que este libro dice sobre la destrucción ación inmensamente más difícil, por los Lenin describió por primera vez el otros líderes negros con grandes destr- de la Unión Soviética y los países socialis- ataques combinados de los imperialistas. desarrollo de una aristocracia obrera ezas a través de los años, y que no tuvi- tas del Este de Europa. Catorce países imperialistas invadieron privilegiada en los países opresores en su eron ninguna posibilidad de éxito. Incluso Debemos recordar que el libro de Marcy al nuevo estado de l@s trabajador@s en libro “Imperialismo.” Marcy mostró cómo Jesse Jackson, a quien le respaldaba todo que predijo un incremento en la militancia 1919. Los fascistas alemanes destruyeron esto se comenzaba a resquebrajar bajo un movimiento, no pudo lograr la nomi- de l@s trabajador@s, fue escrito en 1985, enormes zonas de la Unión Soviética la contrapresión de la nueva tendencia. nación del Partido Demócrata, mucho hace 23 años. ¿Por qué ha tomado tanto y mataron a decenas de millones en la Él predijo que se daría un cambio en la menos ganar las elecciones generales. tiempo para que el impacto político de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. conciencia de la clase obrera, donde l@s Hemos hablado sobre las razones por revolución científica-tecnológica se sienta Los imperialistas estadounidenses trabajador@s oprimid@s jugarían un las cuales un fuerte grupo en la clase aquí? ¿Cómo fue posible que los capital- amenazaron a la Unión Soviética con una papel de liderazgo en las nuevas luchas y dominante le gustaría que Obama les istas pudieran postergar hasta ahora la guerra nuclear y la forzó a participar en donde habría una posibilidad más grande representara en este difícil momento crisis de sobreproducción que fue clara- una carrera armamentista altamente cos- para la solidaridad entre tod@s l@s para el imperialismo estadounidense. mente visible en la caída precipitada de la tosa. Todo eso desgastó a muchos líderes obrer@s. Esto ciertamente le facilitó a Obama el bolsa de valores del 1987, cuando la bolsa del Partido Comunista así que cuando El compañero Larry Holmes en su recibir un tratamiento decente en los perdió un 25 por ciento de su valor en un llegó la contrarrevolución, fueron líderes presentación de apertura explicó cómo medios de comunicación, recaudar fon- solo día? ¿Qué fue lo que les dio a ellos y del partido como Mikhail Gorbachev el libro sobre el capitalismo de salarios dos y comunicarse con millones de per- a su sistema la oportunidad de empezar que inició las llamadas reformas, y bajos escrito por el compañero Fred se sonas. Sin embargo nada de eso hubiera una nueva vida, una nueva confianza l@s trabajador@s estaban totalmente desarrolla sobre esta importante tesis. Y ocurrido si el intrínseco racismo rep- para poder seguir su ofensiva despiadada confundid@s. que este fenómeno—la nivelación de l@s resentado por McCain y Palin hubiera contra l@s trabajador@s y hacerlo con Aunque nosotr@s nunca cerramos trabajador@s con mejores salarios, la resonado en un sector más grande entre impunidad? los ojos ante los problemas en la Unión cual precedió la actual crisis económica l@s trabajador@s, o si los sindicatos y Lo que les ayudó, como explica Soviética, también comprendimos que la Goldstein, fue el colapso final del sistema URRS permanecía como un bastión de de estados obreros en Europa que habían fuerza en contra de los codiciosos impe- permanecido como un sistema social rival rialistas. La Unión Soviética ayudó a por más de 70 años. Esto tuvo un efecto innumerables movimientos de liberación catastrófico para l@s trabajador@s allí. nacional. Ayudó a la Revolución Cubana Todos los índices sociales –esperanza sobrevivir el sabotaje, la invasión y el blo- de vida, mortandad infantil, incremento queo imperialista. de enfermedades contagiosas y hambre, Su mera existencia forzó a los impe- opresión sexual de las mujeres, incremen- rialistas conceder mejores condiciones Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar, Rene González Sehwerert, to de antagonismos entre las distintas a l@s trabajador@s, especialmente en Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and Fernando González Llort. nacionalidades– demostró que el retorno Europa de Oeste. Impidió a los explota- al capitalismo fue un gigantesco paso en dores robar a una sexta parte de la super- retroceso. ficie de la tierra sus valiosos minerales, su L@s trabajador@s en la Europa del madera y su petróleo. Oeste capitalista, donde la socialdemoc- Todo eso cambió cuando fue desman- racia había sido sólida prometiendo cosas telada la Unión Soviética. maravillosas si solo los malos comuni- Es necesario que comprendamos no stas pudieran ser derrocados en el Este, solamente los Estados Unidos sino el también quedaron en la defensiva. No mundo entero para poder hacer el camino pasó mucho tiempo luego del colapso del hacia la victoria de la clase trabajadora. n Subscribete a Mundo Obrero n $2 por 8 semanas de prueba n $25 por un año

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