• AUSTRALIA$2.00 • BELGIUM BF60 • CANADA$2.00 • FRANCE FF10 • ICELAND Kr150 • NEW ZEALAND $2.50 • SWEDEN Kr10 • UK £1 .00 • U.S. $1.50 INSIDE Fighter against cop brutality framed up in Canada THE -PAGE4 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 56/NO. 24 JUNE 19, 1992 SWPfights for ballot Stop U.S. moves to war access in 25 in Haiti and Yugoslavia states BY FRANK FORREST AL BY FRANK FORREST AL "My campaign is completely opposed to From now until the November elections, Washington's plans to use its military might supporters of the L992 Socialist Workers in Haiti under the guise of an international Party presidential ticket of James Warren peacekeeping force," said Socialist Workers ..,. •l presidential candidate James Warren in an ! and Estelle DeBates will be campaigning .~ across the country to present the socialist interview in New York. 'The announcement alternative to the increasingly reactionary June 5 by administration officials that they course of the twin parties of big business are planning such action should be a warn the Democrats and the Republicans. The ing signal to step up our efforts to organize ticket is also campaigning against the so meetings, pickets, and demonstrations to called "independent" billionaire H. Ross demand: No to U.S. Intervention! Open the Perot. Borders to Haitian Refugees!" The SWP campaign is the only socialist Warren said Haiti's president in exile. voice in the 1992 elections and the only Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was over election campaign giving working-class an thrown in a bloody military coup in Septem swers to the real questions underl ying cap ber 1991, should be allowed to return to his italist politics today. country. Aristide was elected in 1990, re Collecting enough signatures to place the ceiving 67 percent of the vote. GUARD socialist candidates on the ballot is a central "We stand shoulder to shoulder with our part of the political work and activity of the Haitian brothers and sisters in their fight to ' G r campaign. Unlike the candidates of the rid themselves of the bloody military re ( . r Democratic and Republican parties, the so gime," said Warren. "In recent weeks dem cialists are denied equal access to the ballot. onstrations, strikes, and other forms of re They must submit to a maze of rules, regu sistance by students and working people are lations, and procedures - all designed by making their stamp on political life in Haiti. the ruling parties to block challenges, These developments are new and should be followed closely by working people." mostly from the working class, to their un Teun Voeten/Impact Visuals contested predominance. Turning to Yugoslavia. the socialist can U.S. Coast Guard ship at Port-au-Prince, Haiti. US. government has forcibly returned The SWP campaign is petitioning to get on didate said the United States, after orches 37,000 Haitian refugees since October the ballot in 25 states. The party is currently trating United Nations sanctions against Serbia, is now threatening to intervene mil petitioning in Ohio, Michigan, and Ulinois. itarily in Yugoslavia. As with Haiti, he Belgrade on May 31, the largest antiwar sponsible for the slaughter of thousands of Soon the party will be campaigning to get on noted, the planned intervention is under UN protest since the disintegration of Yugosla working people," said Warren. "The huge the ballot in New York and Massachusetts. cover. via, "is a major world event pointing the size of the march in Belgrade is an indica The heart of petitioning is organized by "Other imperialist interventions -last way forward," said Warren. "There also, we tion that there is deep opposition on all sides local supporters of the campaign. The party year's U.S.-Ied war against Iraq, and earlier stand with working people fighting to end by working people to the war." is also fielding a national petitioning team the Korean War- were also organized with the war. Warren demanded that Washington send made up mostly of foot-loose young people. UN cover," warned the socialist. ''Workers and farmers in Yugoslavia will emergency aid to the people of Sarajevo. An eight-person full -time team of volun "Working people everywhere should op keep pressing their way into politics. The According to recent news accounts, Serb teers is helping to lead the petitioning effort pose the Washington-led sanctions and steps biggest obstacle in their path is the craven ian military forces continue to attack the in Illinois. Petitioners have collected more towards military intervention in Yugoslavia. and reactionary bureaucratic layers who city. Thirty people were reported killed on than 12,000 signatures toward their goal of The dangers of imperialist wars in this part have fanned the flames of ancient ethnic June 7. At least 6,000 people have been 30,000. They plan to finish by June 20. of the world will grow, not recede, in the divisions and have cut them off from poli killed already in the conflict in Bosnia. Socialist campaigners in Michigan coming months and years," added Warren. tics. These corrupt layers - whether they "The senseless killing should be opposed launched their petitioning effort in early The march of 50,000 working people in are Serb, Croatian, or Muslim - are re- Continued on Page 9 June. Like the socialist campaign in Illinois, their goal is to sign up 30,000 by the filing deadline of mid-July. Party presidential candidates have not Japan moves to allow troop use abroad been on the ballot in Illinois or Michigan since the 1984 election. BY DEREK BRACEY and put the bill on the floor of the house. In Florida SWP campaign supporters The Japanese government has taken a Representatives from the Socialist Party, successfully wrapped up their petitioning decisive step toward being able to use mil which is the largest opposition party and drive June 6. During this six-week effort itary force beyond the nation's borders. opposes the bill charged toward Shimojo 's Continued on Page 8 The parliament is debating a bill that desk to try to prevent him from closing the would allow Japanese troops to participate debate. They were blocked by uniformed in "peacekeeping" operations with the sergeants and the bill passed the committee. United Nations. Opposition parties ac The Liberal Democrats have been press BRITAIN cepted the bill promoted by the ruling Lib ing for more than a year to lift the constitu You are invited to the eral Democratic Party (LOP) with a tional ban on Japanese troop deployments proviso that would place restrictions on the abroad. Their efforts to do this were quick Communist League government's ability to send troops abroad ened by the U.S.-led war against Iraq. Jap in the immediate future. anese rulers proposed sending forces to Jmq, and The parliamentary agreement calls for a but widespread opposition from the Japan Young Socialists freeze on deploying armed troops into war ese people made them hesitate. zones for an unspecified period. To rescind The most they managed was to send a fusion convention the freeze would require a further act of squadron of minesweepers to the gulf fol parliament. lowing the war's end. One example of Tokyo's attempts to ex The LOP attempt to modify the constitu Sheffield pand its influence around the world is re tion imposed on Tokyo by Washington after (location to be announced) flected by the fact that the head of the United World War II, has been a major debate for Nations operation in Cambodia is from many months. Saturday, June 27 Japan. The parliamentary deal, however, es Hiroshi Mitsuzuka, a leader in the LOP, Sunday, June 28 sentially guarantees that Japanese troops acknowledged that strong popular opposi will not be part of that mission. tion was the major challenge before the LOP in making the changes. "The Cold War is For more information: 742-73-8887 The bill has passed the lower house and the Liberal Democrats are now pressing for a vote over, and we need to begin to think about Japanese parachute brigade on training Direct flights from North America to in the upper house, where they are a minority. playing a different role in the future," he maneuvers. Japanese government is mov Manchester (close to Sheffield) are A scuffle broke out June 5 in a key parliamen said. "But we have to do it in a way that ing toward being able to send troops available. tary committee as the panel chairman, allows Japanese public opinion to mature." abroad for the first time since \\\>rid W..r Shinichiro Shimojo, moved to end the debate Continued on Page 3 D.
How Israel developed its nuclear weapons-Page 11 INBRIEf ______
Students march in South Korea in Gaza exceeds 30 percent. The order was About 50,000 students converged on issued after an Israeli teenager was stabbed Seoul, South Korea's capital, the last week to death in a Tel Aviv suburb May 24, end of May to commemorate the sixth an allegedly by a young Palestinian. Israeli niversary of the dissident student movement mobs took to the streets smashing cars with Chondaehop. The movement was born out Arab license plates and shouting "Death to of a wave of student protests in 1986 that the Arabs!" following the killing. challenged the U.S.-backed dictatorial re gime of Chun Doo Hwan. 0 & Y bankrupt in Britain Nearly 30,000 students from 180 South Olympia & York, the world's largest real Korean universities marched from an eastern estate development company, was forced by Seoul campus to the center of the city May its creditors to file for bankruptcy in London 31, breaking through police cordons in the May 27, putting its $7-billion lavish but largest antigovernment demonstration this unfinished Canary Wharf office tower com year. The students chanted "Prevent the ruling plex under court administration. Following party seizing power again!" and "Oust the the announcement, American Express, a Americans from our country. Repeal the Na prospective tenant, said it was reconsider tional Security Law." Many waved the blue ing its plan to move l ,500 London employ and white flag, symbol ofunification ofNorth ees to Canary Wharf. Olympia & Yorlc had and South Korea. Riot police blocked road~ ftled for bankruptcy protection in Toronto and blanketed the business district with chok and New York in mid-May. ing clouds of pepper gas. Several students were bloodied by stone-throwing cops. The Danes reject EC unity treaty students stood their ground for two hours. A slim majority in a June 2 referendum 979 missing from Thai protests in Denmark voted down ratification of the The English-language Bangkok Post re European Community's (EC) Maastricht ported May 31 that 979 people are missing treaty, which calls for closer political and economic cooperation among the 12 EC after the army and police cracked down on Students clash with police after a rally at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul May 26. protests that forced Thailand's military ruler states. Technically the vote, which is bind Suchinda to resign. The paper published a ing on the government, had the effect of list with the names of the missing. The ister Kiichi Miyazawadiscuss the"shameful" on fire, including the courthouse and the vetoing the treaty, since it cannot go into interior ministry, which controls the police, issue with de Klerk. treasury, as the police surrendered their effect as planned on Jan. l, 1993, unless all said the number of missing is about 500. weapons to the crowd. 12 members ratify it. The Danish govern Government reports put the number of dead Rocket bits plane of Afghan chief Residents had been warned to vacate their ment, a ll major newspapers, and most at 48 and wounded at 600 during the anti A plane carrying the new president of homes built on property owned by Astan employers' associations and trade unions Suchinda actions. Afghanistan Sibgatullah Mojadedi and Qods, Iran's most powerful religious estab had backed the treaty, signed in the Danish about 70 of Ills associates was hit by a rocket lishment. Later government authorities city of Maastricht. Recession persists in Japan May 29 as it arrived in Kabul. Mojadedi, rounded up hundreds of people and sealed off EC foreign ministers held an emergency Officials of the Ministry of International who escaped the attack, accused Gulbuddin affected areas of the city. session to discuss ramjfications of the vote Trade and Industry said the recession in Hekmatyar, leader of an opposing guerrilla A week earlier in Arak, a city about ISO June 4. Opponents of the treaty were jubi Japan is expected to last at least until the faction, and forces loyal to deposed former miles southwest of Teheran, military forces lant. Norman Tebbit, a former British cabi middle of next year due to weak demand president NajibuHah of conspiring to kill had clashed with thousands of demonstra net minister, told the BBC that the vote and high inventories. Industrial and mining him. The two rival rightist guerrilla factions tors who were protesting the killing of a "created a wonderfuJ opportunity to rene output for the first quarter of 1992 fell 3.1 that overthrew the previous government, 12-year-old boy in a confrontation with au gotiate.'' Maastricht, he asserted, "is dead." percent from the prior quarter and 4.7 per headed by Hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah thorities over similar house demolitions. cent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, Japan's Masood, had signed a cease fire May 25. A The events in Meshed, along with previous Antiabortion laws turned down giant commercial banks announced that spokesman for Hekmatyar's faction denied protests in Teheran, Khorramabad, Shiraz, their unconsolidated pretax profits fell by an Mojadedi's allegations. "If we had done it, and Arak constitute the most serious urban A California law requiring unmarried average of 14 percent for the fiscal year that we would have used at least 20 missiles and disturbances in Iran since the popular revo women under age 18 to get permission of a ended March 31. The banks, afflicted by left no chance for survival," he said. lution that overthrew the shah in 1979. parent or a judge before having an abortion billions of dollars in bad loans, have begun was ruled unconstitutional May 27. The law to hold back on investments abroad. lndj Iranian workers protest evictions Israeli elections near had been adopted in 1987 but never en vidual bankruptcies in Japan rose to 23,491 On May 30 as many as 4,000 angry Ir Opinion polls in Israel show YitzhakRabin, forced. The same day, a judge in Ohio in 1991. double that of the previous year. anians protested the demolition of several canilidate of the Labor Party and former army declared unconstitutional a state law that shacks workers had built without govern chiefof staff during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, would have required women seeking an Japanese, "honorary whites?" ment permits, in Meshed, one of Iran's big as the most popular candidate for prime min abortion to be told about fetal development South African president F. W. de Klerk, gest cities with 2.5 million people. Resident~ ister in elections set for June 23. Rabin boasts and abortion alternatives and get counseling faced calls during his visit in Tokyo June 4 to ofTolab, a Meshed working-class neighbor of his role in the 1967 war and says he would from a doctor. The U.S. Supreme Court is formally scrap the "honorary white" status hood, stormed and torched police stations to slow down settlement in the West Bank and now considering a Pennsylvania law similar granted to Japanese in the 1960s. Human protest the demolition of their homes. Dem Gaza Strip and reach an agreement for interim to Ohio's. - ARGIRIS MALAPANIS rights groups have demanded that Prime Min- onstrators set cars and municipal buildings Palestinian self-rule in the occupied territories within six months. His opponent, prime minister Yitzhak ~Militant' biweelcv Sharnir, excluded Rabin from the list of summer schedule speakers during the Israeli celebration of the The next issue of the Militant, Subscribe 1967 annexation of East Jerusalem held on dated June 26, will be the first in our June I. Housing minister Ariel Sharon biweekly summer schedule. Clos pledged that day that he would settle Jews ing news date for that issue. witrbe now! in every Arab district of the city. His minis June 15. The remaining biweekly try announced that the government will issues will be dated July 1o , July 24, begin erecting 10,000 housing units in the and August 7, with weekly publica The Militant reports on: occupied territories in 1992. tion resuming with the issue dated On May 30 the government extended the August 21 (closing news date, Au • the fight against order barring Palestinians living in the Gaza gust 10). cop brutality Strip from entering Israel. Unemployment • Washington's drive to war mail), send $80. Asia: send $80 drawn on a The Militant U.S. bank to 410 West St., New York, NY Closing news date: June 8, 1992 10014. Canada: send Canadian $75 for one • labor battles worldwide year subscription to Soci~t~ d' Editions AGPP, Editor: GREG McCARTAN C.P. 340, succ. R, Montreal, Qu~bec H2S • the socialist Managing Editor: GEORGE BUCHANAN . 3M2. Britain, Ireland, Africa: £35 for one Business Manager: Brian Williams year by check or international money order alternative to war, Editorial Staff: Derek Bracey, Estelle De made out to Militant Distribution, 47 The Cut, racism, and depression Bates, Frank Forrestal, Seth Galinsky, Martfn London, SE I 8LL, England. Continental Eu Koppel, Paul Mailhot, Argiris Malapanis, rope: £50 for one year by check. or interna Brian Williams. tional money order made out to Militant Published weekly except for next to last week Distribution at above address. Belgium: BF in December and biweekly from mid-June to 3,000 for one year on account no. 000- ~ ------mid-August by the Militant (ISSN 0026- 1543112-36 of JMei Fonds/Fonds du 1 mai, D Special introductory offer: $10 for 12 weeks 3885), 410 West St., New York, NY 10014. 2140 Antwerp. Iceland: Send 4,000 Icelandic Telephone: (212) 243-6392; Fax (212) 727- kronur for one-year subscription to Militant, 0 $15 for 12 week renewal 0 $27 for 6 months 0 $45 for 1 year 0150; Telex, 497-4278. P.O. Box 233, 121 Reykjavik. Sweden, Fin Pacific edition printed in Wanganui, New land, Norway, Denmark: 400 Swedish kro Name Zealand, by Wanganui Newspapers, Limited. ner for one year. Pay to Militant Sweilish giro Correspondence concerning subscrip no. 451-32-09-9. New Zealand: Send New Address ------tions or changes of address should be ad Zealand $90 to P.O. Box 3025, Auckland, City------Zip dressed to The Militant Business Office, New Zealand. 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2 The Militant June 19, 1992 U.S. threatens to use force in Yugoslavia United Nations sanctions against Serbia only worsen plight of workers
BY SETH GALINSKY has continued un U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Commit abated. Belgrade tee chainnan Clairborne Pell stated June 4 backed Serbian forces that "the United States acting in the Security almost constantly shell Council should consider immediate military the city with mortars, action" in Yugoslavia. tank fire, and rockets. The following day U.S. deputy secretary Hospitals, overflowing of state Lawrence Eagleburger urged NATO with wounded, are run foreign ministers to authorize the use of ning out of medicines troops to accompany UN relief convoys and and have themselves to reopen the Sarajevo airport. been shelled. "In the case of the former Yugoslavia, Debate on military NATO should stand ready to support imple intervention mentation of UN Security Council Resolu tion 757 as appropriate, and in coordination Continuing to press with other international organizations," for direct intervention, Eagleburger said, referring to the UN sanc Britain sent a force of tions resolution. 250 soldiers as part of Meanwhile, opposition to the war contin a medical unit to join ues to mount in Yugoslavia. A leader of the UN "peace-keepers" in opposition in Serbia said that more rallies Croatia. would be called within the next two weeks The push for mili to demand a negotiated end to the war with tary intervention has Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and the sparked a debate in resignation of the government of Serbian Washington and Lon president Slobodan Milosevic. don ruling circles. On May 31, the largest antiwar protest Washington Post columnist Charles since the start of the war took place in Protesters holding mile-long banner for victims of the war at May 31 antiwar march in Belgrade. Belgrade. Workers and youth throughout the Krauthammer, in a June 5 column titled country from Sarajevo to Belgrade and itary option being considered by Washington and the international unity was not all it Zagreb - Serbs, Croats, Muslim Slavs, Al "Too Soon for Intervention" admits that the debate has nothing to do with concern over is taking the Sarajevo airport, he says this seemed to be," it notes. France feels "touchy banians, and others - have opposed the would be "a monumental folly." about German support for Croatia," the war between rival bureaucracies seeking to the lives of Yugoslav working people. 'The only real question for us," he states, Krauthammer is not the only one worried magazine states, while Russia has links to grab land and resources. More than 1.2 mil Serbia." lion people have been made refugees, 6,000 "is whether our vital interests are at stake." about a Beirut-style disaster and an unend ing quagmire. Writing in the Manchester killed, and 22,000 injured since the war Krauthammer worries that the situation is In fact, Washington and London's push Guardian Weekly, David Fairhall says that began. "a chilling echo of pre-World War I Balkan to intervene in Yugoslavia is motivated in "in a fragmented Yugoslavia the setting for large part by their desire to undercut Ger Among soldiers in the Yugoslav Army, alliances, [with) Germany lined up with military intervention could hardly be more opposition to the war is also prevalent. Al Croatia and Slovenia, while France was de man dominance in Europe. different or more difficult" than the war eksandar Milicevic, wounded in the Yug~ cidedly more pro-Serbian." Krauthammer, speaking what is on the against the Iraqi people. slav Army barracks in Sarajevo, under siege Although the Post columnist thinks inter mind of many in U.S. ruling circles, says by Bosnian forces, told a reporter, "I don't vention is "premature," he argues that if car "In straight military terms," he says "in events in Yugoslavia are proof of"Europe's understand the reason for the war." ried out, "it must not be passive (Beirut-style) tervention presents a nightmare scenario - impotence." The UN sanctions and plans "We are just a grain of sand in the middle or incremental (Vietnam-style). It must be confused, risky, open-ended.'' for intervention, he says, reinforce ''the car of a desert," the 22-year-old soldier said. "I decisive, gulfwar -style. That means using air The British Economist notes another dif dinal rule of the new world order that noth want to live. I want to go back to Belgrade power rather than slugging it outon the ground ficulty facing Washington and its junior ing of importance gets done unless America and see my family." against guerrilla forces." Noting that one mil- partner in London. "Yugoslavia is not Iraq, does it." Sanctions make situation worse United Nations sanctions against Serbia, which were pushed by Washington and Lon Washington suspends Nicaragua aid don to pave the way for direct military intervention, have only served to make the situation worse. BY SETH GALINSKY an opposition party," Miguel d' Escoto, for as many soldiers discharged from the army mer foreign minister in the FSLN govern have joined with former contras to demand The price of fuel in Serbia has doubled. U.S. aid to Nicaragua was "temporarily" suspended in early June. The suspension ment told a recent Washington, D.C., aid and land to farm. Some 60,000 soldiers Cooking oil, sugar, and flour are scarce. deepens an existing governmental crisis in press conference. "We are now the critical have been demobilized in the last two Tilose hardest hit by the sanctions are that county. base of support for the Chamorro govern years. workers and farmers. The bureaucratic rul According to the New York 7imes, Wash ment." Rearmed groups of soldiers and former ers have oil and weapons to continue the ington and Managua are in "consultations" While Chamorro moved to a closer alli contras, sometimes operating together, have war. At the same time, interimperialist rival over $150 million that had been promised ance with the FSLN, her coalition was split temporarily taken over towns, highways, ries have kept the sanctions from being fully to the government of President Violeta ting. and farms to push their demands. enforced. According to Associated Press, An early defection was Alfredo Cesar, The Nicaraguan government has relied Greece, for example, has been permitting oil Chamorro. The U.S. government backed Chamorro's successful 1990 electoral bid who was elected to the presidency of the heavily on the FSLN, which is still the party trucks to continue deliveries to the Serbian against the Sandinista National Liberation National Assembly with the votes of both with the most influence among workers and government. Front (FSLN). Chamorro supporters and FSLN deputies peasants, to try to stabilize the situation. 1be war in Bosnia has accelerated, with The decision by the Bush administration and over the objection of rightist members Former president Daniel Ortega visited the atrocities committed by supporters of each to suspend aid - made at the request of of the National Opposition Union (UNO), town of Ocotal in early March to convince of the rival bureaucracies. Senator Jesse Helms, a Republican, and which backed Chamorro's successful presi rearmed war veterans occupying the town Muslim, Slav, and Croatian gunmen exe Representative David Obey, a Democrat - dential bid. to leave. cuted Serbian men in six villages and looted was meant as a warning to Chamorro to Last year Cesar broke with Chamorro by and burned their homes, reported the New reverse her collaboration with the FSLN, backing legislation that called for a more FSLN publicly divided York Times June 3. which has deepened in recent months. rapid return of land and property that had The FSLN itself, in crisis since its elec The siege ofSarajevo , the capital ofBosnia , Ever since Chamorro was elected, some been confiscated during the revolution to its toral defeat, is divided into public factions. forces in the U.S. government have pushed former owners. In recent months members of the FSLN's Japan moves toward for her to take more decisive and rapid In early April a key figure in the Cham nine-member National Directorate have pub action to overturn the gains of the 1979 OTTO government, interior minister Carlos licly and heatedly criticized each other over troop use abroad revolution, which overthrew the Somoza Hurtado, was forced out. Hurtado was re disputes ranging from control of Barricada, dictatorship and brought the FSLN to portedly a Cesar ally. formerly the official organ of the FSLN, to Continued from Page 1 power. Congressmen who requested the In a direct attack on the Chamorro gov relations with the U.S. government. That, he said, will take several years. aid cutoff have demanded compensation ernment in May, Cesar told Jeane Kirkpat A small current within the FSLN, accord The compromise was made in order to get for U.S. citizens whose property was ex rick, former U.S. ambassador to the United ing to the pro-Sandinista daily £/ Nuevo support from two smaller parties, the propriated and the removal of Sandinista Nations and now a syndicated columnist, Diario, seeks what it calls "capitalism with Komeito and the Democratic Socialists. The leaders who still head the army and the that "U.S. aid is financing Sandinista orga a human face.'' Several factions openly de LOP had already lost two votes on the bill. police. nizations in an increasing manner." Cesar fend the idea of a coalition government A third defeat could have led to the collapse They have become more outspoken as charged that Chamorro is in a "cogovern between the FSLN and Chamorro. of the government and new elections. Prime Chamorro and the FSLN strengthened their ment" with the FSLN. The rank-and-file membership of the Minister Kiichi Miyazawa has declared pas alliance. One act that incensed FSLN op~ FSLN, the newspaper article states, basi Worst economic crisis ever sage of the bill one of his top priorities. nents was the participation of Daniel Ortega, cally favors a "socialist orientation" but has an FSLN leader and former Nicaraguan Amid rumors of an impending cutoff of no leaders that fight for this perspective. Many LOP leaders saw their inability to president, in an official government delega U.S. aid, Cesar's comments, which were Virtuall y paralyzed by the c risis, the Na send troops to participate in the war against tion to Washington to ask the International widely publicized in Nicaragua, sent the tional Directorate has "collapsed" as have Iraq as a blow to Japan's position as a major Monetary Fund for more aid for the crisis government into a panic. most of the party committees. the paper world power. The government was obliged wracked country. Nicaragua is in the midst of perhaps its reports. to instead make financial contributions to A March 31 editorial in the pro worst economic crisis ever. The Gross Na In the midst of the disintegration of the the war effort, paying the United States $ 12 Sandinista Barricada reported that the tional Product in 1991 was only $1.6 billion FSLN. the rupture in the Chamorro forces. billion. FSLN was moving toward "a profound with most of this-some $1.2 billion and the worsening economic crisis, the U.S. Governments of several countries in Asia. agreement with the government" on an ec~ coming from foreign aid and loans. More attempt to meddle more openly and place including China and Singapore, have ex nomic austerity program. than half the population is unemployed. conditions on aid will only increase the pressed reservations over the bill, recalling Nicaragua's foreign debt is a staggering $9 instability of the Managua regime. It will the Japanese invasions of China, Korea, and FSLN is ' critical base' for Chamorro billion. also create greater suffering for Nicaraguan elsewhere in the 1930s and 40s. "It is less and less appropriate to call us Strife in the countryside has increased working people.
June 19, 1992 The Militant 3 Protests helped convict cop who killed 2 in Miami
BY JACKIE FLOYD How was Lozano convicted, given how the odds were Our coalition repeatedly picketed the Lozano trial with William Lozano is a Miami cop who was convicted of stacked against the victims? our demands. We printed leaflets with pictures of Lloyd and manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison for Protests that focused on the slogan "Lozano is a criminal! Blanc hard to build the picket line. We involved the families killing Clement Uoyd and Alan Blanchard in 1989. The two He should go to jail!'' helped to force the system that protects of the victims of the cop. We organized a rally in a park. We young Blacks had just left a Martin Luther King Day parade the cops to convict Lozano. gave stacks ofleaflets to small store owners and posted them when they became involved in a high-speed chase with the A coalition called People United for Justice (PUJ) led this all over town. We welcomed the involvement of everyone police. fight. Although the core of activists never reached more than who supported our demands. Lozano, who was on the sidewalk on other police matters, a dozen people, the coalition carried out an effective political As the verdict in the trial neared, we had won our demands stepped into the street, aimed, and shot Lloyd in the head as campaign that mobilized broader forces. on the conduct of the trial. It was held in Miami, Blacks he raced by. Blanchard was killed when the driverless Almost all of the members of PUJ were veterans of a were on the jury, and the jury foreman was a Black union motorcycle ran head-on into a Buick. 1980 rebeUion against the acquittal of the cops who killed steward. But every institution in Miami was cranked up to another Black man, Arthur McDuffie. Among the PUJ push the discussions onto "Will there be a riot?" and away members were a city building inspector, hospital workers, from the real issue-sending Lozano to prison. We contin AS I SEE IT frre fighters, a secretary, a machinist, university students, ued to picket and demand a conviction. and other workers. The group included members of the By keeping the political focus on the key question we Haitian group Veye Yo, the Socialist Workers Party, and had an important impact. On the day of the verdict During three days of rebellion, the Black working-class the International African Movement. One was a young December 7, 1989 the courtroom and the corridors were communities in Overtown and other areas protested the activist minister, another a shop steward in the government packed with cop supporters and the press. When the guilty killings. Both Lloyd and Blanchard lived blocks from the employees union. verdict was read moans and groans rose from the procop scene of the shooting. People United for Justice was committed to using open, crowd. But PUJ members present shouted, "Justice!" Res Lozano claimed he shot to save his life because Lloyd legal, and ongoing political struggle to win the conviction idents of Overtown cheered the verdict and some marched was going to run him down. Dozens of witnesses on this of Lozano. There were always a million excuses not to do through the streets to celebrate. crowded street said he shot as Lloyd passed and was not in this, from "They're going to let him off anyway, why The fight for justice still goes on. Lozano was granted a fear for his life. bother?" to ''If they let him off we'll riot," or "Why beg a new trial by an appeals court last year, which also ruled he The prosecutor in the case, State Attorney Jane Reno, had system that you're against to do something for you." We could not get a fair hearing in Miami. A new trial is now set a proven record of being incapable of convicting cops for were hated by the official Black leadership as irresponsible for Tallahassee, Aorida. crimes against ordinary citizens. Dozens of cops have gotten elements fanning the flames of riots. off for shootings and killings. None of this deterred us from fighting for our demands: Jackie Floyd. a former cochair ofPeopl e United for Justice, This is because of the working relationship between any Lozano should go to jail; hold the trial in Miami; put Blacks is a member of the International Association of Machinists prosecutor's office and the police. To demand that a cop be on the jury; no turning the victims into the criminals; no and Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Congress in sent to jail is to demand that they punish one of their own. justice, no peace. Houston, Texas. Canada police push frame-up of antiracist fighter
BY ROBERT SI MMS Metro Toronto police, and the U.S. border Laws' word that he is being framed. Law TORONTO - The second session of a patrol more than $400,000. yers for Laws and Motley state that the two preliminary hearing for Dudley Laws, May Laws and an associate, Larry Motley are victims of police "entrapment and abuse 12-13, has disclosed a large-scale police from Michigan, were charged with several of process." frame-up operation aimed against anti-po counts of conspiracy to violate the immigra Despite months of wiretaps and 24-hour lice-brutality activists in Toronto. Laws, tion laws of Canada and the United States, police surveillance, the prosecutor at the who faces charges of conspiracy to smuggle possession of proceeds of crime, and fraud hearing has presented no evide nce of any undocumented workers between Canada ulent concealment. illegal activities by Laws except for the and the United States, is the best-known For many years, Laws has run a consult testimony of four undercover cops, who say fighter against police violence in Canada. ing business called Confidential Immigra they posed as "illegal immigrants." Laws was arrested Oct. 15, 1991 follow tion Services that advises immigrants and Laws and Motley were arrested while ing a four-and-a-half month police investi refugees on citizenship and immigration Motley was in the process of transporting gation. Police testified at the hearing that the matters. one of the undercover cops across the U.S. investigation involved more than 30 full As the preliminary hearing proceeds, it Canada border to Laws' Toronto office. Po time officers and staff and cost the Royal has become clear that the case against Laws lice also allege that they found several hun- Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). the comes down to the word of four cops against . dred dollars on Laws' person and in his home that he had allegedly been paid to arrange the operation. Laws is one of the founders of the Black Atlanta picket line demands federal Action Defence Committee (BADC) and its leading spokesperson. 1n the past four years indictments of cops who beat King the committee has initiated numerous ac tions against racist police brutality and vio BY SUSAN LAMONT up for curfew violations and on other lence. ATLANTA - Chants of "Bush, Bush, charges." Toronto police are on an obvious vendetta don't delay - indict the guilty cops today!'' Unionists who built the picket line on the against Laws. In the early part of 1991 , the and "Justice, justice, justice!" rang out in job at several factories in the Atlanta area Metro Toronto Police Association launched front of the federal building in downtown received an encouraging response from a libel suit against him, because he publicly Atlanta as several dozen protesters held a many coworkers- Black, white, and stated that Toronto cops are the "most mur spirited noontime picket line May 29. Latino - who were glad some action was derous in North America." The action. heavily monitored by local being taken to bring the injustice of the King The police tipped off .the media to be pol ice and assorted other government verdict back into the spot1ight. present for and to broadcast their arrest of agents, was sponsored by the Justice for "Everyone's looking at the riot now and Laws last October. Militant/Helen Nelson Rodney King Ad Hoc Committee. "No one not at what really started it all, said one Although immigration offenses in Can Dudley Laws is a leader of the Black Ac seemed to be doing anything anymore about Steelworker at the Snapper factory in Mc ada are the responsibility of the RCMP, the tion Defence Committee, which has led the issue of justice for Rodney King," said Donough, Georgia. United Steelworkers of investigation of Laws was actually initiated actions against police brutality. committee activist Jonathan Tyson. "They America Local 3944, which represents the by the Metro Toronto police. RCMP ser were focusing on everything else but that. more than 900 workers at Snapper, agreed geant Andrew Rayne testified that he was ple wanting to be smuggled, he was forced This picket line is an effort toward justice, at their May union meeting to send a protest called to a meeting at Metro Toronto police to admit the police experience "did not especially on the issue of police brutality. to President George Bush and the U.S. Jus headquarters June II, 1991, with U.S. bor agree with the information we had re Two weeks after the Rodney King verdict, tice Department demanding indictment of der patrol police also present, which was ceived." they're trying to get everything back to the cops who beat King under federal civil organized by Metro Toronto staff superin And despite all the technical resources at normal. That's why I decided to get in rights laws. tendent Julian Fantino. their command, including video cameras volved. We can do something on this issue." "I feel good, even though we dido 't fill Metro Toronto police told the assembled and wiretaps, undercover police have testi A number of the protesters wore "Re the whole plaza," Delphine Tyson told the cops that Laws' business card and his phone fied that they made a decision not to wear member Rodney King" T-shirts, produced demonstrators at the closing gathering. number were allegedly found on a couple of "bodypacks" to tape what were supposed to by Tyson and his wife, Delphine, another "What we're doing is important, because "illegal aliens" arrested with three others in be incriminating conversations with Laws activist in the committee. These shirts have we're affected by this issue of police brutal Swanton, Vermont. A police informer was and Motley while the undercover cops were been selling at a rapid clip, Tyson said. ity in all our communities. It's important to also allegedly claiming that Laws was run setting up "smuggling" themselves and "The Rodney King verdict was like a show that we can protest in a peaceful fash ning 15 to 20 "illegal aliens" per month being transported. ion. This won't be the end. We're going to match that lit up for the whole world to see across the border and making thousands of Despite the police frame-up of Laws and what the criminal justice system is really continue the fight, for Rodney King and for dollars doing so. Motley, the Black Action Defence Commit like in this country," said Delphine Tyson. the Rodney Kings around the world." The RCMP set up 24-hour surveillance tee has continued to organize. Two demon She added that it is important to stress the Cleto Montelongo from the Native Amer toward the end of June and sent an under strations, each with up to 1,000 people, double standard that's being applied in the ican Center and several others also spoke at cover cop to try to entrap Laws. When that protested the acquittal of two Toronto-area criminal justice system in Los Angeles - the open mike. yielded no results, they set up wiretaps of at cops who had shot and killed Wade Lawson, one for the cops who beat King and another Employees coming out of the federal least four phones and sent more undercover the acquittal of the Los Angeles cops who for the four Black men arrested for the building during their lunch hour and other cops in mid-August. beat Rodney King, and the latest Toronto beating of a white truck driver during the downtown workers watched the picket line The police claim they witnessed three or police killing of a Black man, Raymond anticop riot that followed the King verdict. with interest. "We agree with you all," four incidents of "civilians" being trans Lawrence, just two days after the acquittal "The public needs to know the real issues said one. Many passers-by took leaflets ported to the border by Laws or Motley. in Los Angeles. in this situation," she added. "And that is and one family walking by grabbed signs They are named in the various counts of the to indict the guilty cops- all of them. and joined the line. Drivers honked their indictment. But under cross-examination Letters of protest demanding that the Those who beat Rodney King to a pulp, horns and waved in support as the chanting RCMP corporal Fred Bowen said they had charges against Laws and Motley be those who stood around and did nothing, pickets circled around the plaza. not even interviewed those involved, even dropped should be sent to Howard Hamp those who falsified the police records in the though their addresses are still known, be ton, Attorney-General of Ontario, 720 Bay case, and all the others who tried to cover Susan LaMont is a member ofUnited Steel cause they would be "hostile." St., Toronto, Ontario M5G 2K 1. Send copies up what happened. We also need to free the workers of America Local 3944 at Snapper When Bowen was asked why months of to the BADC, 393 Vaughan Rd., Toronto, nearly 17,000 people who have been picked Power Equipment in McDonough, Georgia. wiretaps did not intercept calls from peo- Ontario M6C 2N8.
4 The Militant June 19, 1992 INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO WIN NEW READERS------'The Militant is the only source of news I trust'
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS OK if I want to read the comics, but when Socialist campaigners are reaching tens of I'm looking for real news about real events thousands of working people and youth with and real people I tum to the Militant. It's the ideas of the Socialist Workers election now the only source of news I trust. It's like campaign as part ofpetitioning efforts to gain a friend who has all the answers." ballot status in 25 states. These stepped-up A team of four salespeople from the St. efforts this spring and summer present big Paul, Minnesota, and Montreal faxed in the opportunities for winning new readers to the following report after spending two days in campaign newspaper. the Militant. Pictou County, Nova Scotia, where 26 Many of those signing petitions or cam miners perished May 9 in an explosion at paign endorser cards to place the socialists the Westray coal mine: on ttte balJot are eager to read further about 'To date we've sold 72 copies of the the SWP candidates' answers to the capital Militant and 3 introductory subscriptions. ist drive toward more wars and deepening Six Westray coal miners have bought copies anacks on working people. Systematically so far. organizing to contact these people for fur ther discussions about the political perspec "Everywhere we go, a majority of people th'e presented in the Militant can result in give us the same message: condemnation of many new subscribers. the Curragh Resources company that owns From Morgantown, West Virginia, Westray and the provincial government that Kenneth Knudsen reports: "Militant sup has backed Curragh from the beginning. porters sold seven subscriptions during the 'Three workers at the Trenton works told course of a two-day visit to the coalfields of us they are sure that a cover-up is underway, southern West Virginia at the end of May. that the company and the government will Three subscriptions were sold in the coal try to use the upcoming inquiry into the mining town of Smithers. disaster to hide the truth and shirk any blame "A campaign meeting held in Charleston for running an unsafe mine. featuring Chris Rayson, SWP candidate for "On seeing the Militant coverage of re Congress, attracted several young people cent events in Los Angeles, several workers including two high school students who are pointed to parallels. For instance, the impor active in the fight to defend abortion rights." tance of getting the inquiry to take place Carole Lesnick, a member of United Auto here in Pictou, not 150 miles away in Hali Workers Local 148 at McDonnell Douglas fax as the government originally proposed. in Long Beach, California, writes: "In the "One new subscriber, Johanna, a single week or so following the 'not guilty' verdict mother and part-time worker who is Black, of the cops who beat Rodney King, workers explained how pleased she was to come at this UAW-organized plant of 14,000 across the Militant. 'I'm really glad to find bought 7 Militant subscriptions and 61 sin a paper that talks about the workers, instead gle copies. Here are a few impressions by of that crap we get in the daily papers.' " Militant/Jay Ressler some recent subscribers. Gina Butler: 'The Distributing ' Militant' outside grand opening of new Pathfinder Bookstore in Boston articles were eye-openers to the current From Belgium where supporters have events around me. ln short, the Militant tells raised both their Militant and Perspectiva the truth. ' Mundial goals this week, Eric Wils reports "Thurman Tillman: 'I'm very pleased to on sales from literature tables set up on the see a paper put together by, about, and for streets of Brussels: "A man born in Ghana Sales Drive Scoreboard working-class people of the world. Today bought a Militant subscription together with when I want to know what's going on in the the Pathfmder book Thomas Sankara Perspectlva L'lnter- New world I don't tum to the TV. Instead I tum Speaks. A bus driver and coworker of one The Militan t Mundlal natlonaliste International Total to the Militant. The Los Angeles Times is salesperson got out of his bus to buy a copy Areas Goel Goal of Nouvelle lnternationale on the war SOld % SOld SOld Goal Sold Goal Sold Goal Sold against Iraq. Ten Militants, 8 copies of I- L' internationaliste, and I Perspectiva UNfTED STATES Mundial were sold, as well as several books Des Moines, lA 130 93 72% 25 15 2 1 40 11 197 120 by Malcolm X." Los Angeles 180. 122 68% 100 64 4 1 110 57 394 244 Selling the Seattle 120 78 65% 35 20 3 3 25 11 183 112 Salt Lake City 130 84 65% 20 8 2 0 30 9 182 101 socialist pres~ Mass picket stops scabs Birmingham, AL 80 51 64% 5 1 2 0 40 2 127 54 Pittsburgh ' ~ 55 61% 5 4 2 0 30 3 127 62 in Tasmania, A ustralia Washington, D.C. 130 78 60% 20 22 10 0 55 25 215 125 to unionists Philadelphia 85 48 56% 20 22 3 0 30 12 138 82 BY BOB AIKEN St. Louis 100 56 56"/o 5 1 2 0 25 1 132 58 SYDNEY, Australia- Picket line con Chicago 150 84 56% 35 15 5 0 70 14 260 113 MHitant• New lnt'l frontations took place June 4 at the Asso Houston 80 44 55% 20 13 2 0 20 6 122 63 Morgantown, WV 80 43 3 2 7 115 Union %Sold (Goal) Sold (Goal) Sold ciated Pulp and Paper Mills (APPM) plant 5.4% 3 0 30 53 Twin Cities, MN 140 75 54% 20 11 2 30 192 UNITED STATES in Burnie on the island of Tasmania. About 0 6 92 ACTWU 42 55 23 25 5 Greensboro, NC 80 42 53% 8 6 2 1 15 0 105 49 lAM 48 110 53 19 6 30 cops attempting to break through the San Francisco 150 n 51% 50 9 8 0 70 38 278 124 ILGWU 59 46 27 5 6 line were pushed back by pickets. Later in Portland tO 5 50% 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 OCAW 85 39 33 15 1 the day 80 cops forced their way through 5 UAW 73 75 55 15 3 New Haven, CT 10 5 50% 2 1 0 0 3 0 15 6 UFCW 56 90 50 30 8 the strikers to escort 18 scabs into the Atlanta 90 43 48% 8 6 2 1 30 14 130 64 USWA 73 85 62 20 0 uTu·· 90 60 54 20 13 plant. One picketer was hospitalized and Boston 135 62 46% 40 29 15 2 50 2.2 240 115 Detroit TOTAL 64 560 357 149 42 41 arrested. 14,0 64 46% 10 3 2 0 30 17 182 84 121 SHOULD BE 81 454 The following day, in the face of 300 still Baltimore 110 49 45% 12 6 3 2 30 5 155 62 AUSTRAUA determined strikers supported by 400 sym Newark, NJ 160 70 44% 50 9 15 4 70 22 295 105 MTFU 80 5 4 2 0 Miami 110 37 34% 30 19 15 15 45 21 200 92 SHOULD BE 81 4 2 pathetic "onlookers" from the town, the New York 250 84 -34% 100 10 20 1 110 20 480 115 BRrrAIN company suspended its attempt to bring on Cleveland AEEU 0 10 0 5 0 90 29 32% 10 1 2 1 20 8 122 39 20 10 2 0 0 the scabs. Cincinnati* NUMI 13 14 1 39 11 28"1.. 3 0 0 0 5 2 47 13 RMT 76 17 Ft. Madison, lA TGWU 47 15 7 5 0 Workers have effe-ctively halted produc 5 1 20% 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 Wilmington, DE 10 1 10o/o 0 0 0 0 0 10 TOTAL 42 52 22 24 1 tion with a 24-hour picket line since the 0 SHOULD BE 81 42 19 U.S. TOTAL 2,884 1,491 52% 636 298 125 32 1,013 333 4,658 2,154 strike began May I 2. The Australian Coun CANADA AUSTRALIA 45 25 56% 14 7 1 0 10 9 70 41 ACTWU 100 8 8 3 4 cil of Trade Unions is organizing a $5 mil BELGIUM* 6 3 ~ 2 1 12 1 8 3 16 8 CAW 33 15 5 2 2 lion fund to back the strike. lAM 80 5 4 2 1 BRITAIN USWA 25 16 4 8 4 APPM unilaterally cancelled a series of Sheffield 50 32 64% 3 1 2 0 25 8 80 41 TOTAL 48 44 21 15 11 local agreements on wages and conditions Manchester 50 25 50% 2 0 1 0 30 14 83 39 SHOULD BE 81 36 12 London 80 39 49% 6 1 2 0 40 13 128 53 SWEDEN March 3 without consulting the unions and BRITAIN TOTAL 180 96 .5$% 11 2 5 0 95 35 291 133 FOOD WORKERS 50 4 2 3 3 began employing security guards to enforce CANADA METAL WORKERS 100 7 7 3 2 company rules in the plant. The 850 workers TOTAL 82 11 9 6 5 Vancouver 90 68 76% 15 7 5 2 30 13 140 90 SHOULD BE 81 9 5 at the plant struck after the company called Montreal' 75 39 52% 20 16 30 12 60 30 185 97 in the cops to arrest five workers who had Toronto 90 45 50% 20 13 5 2 45 8 160 68 ACTWU - Amolgomoted Clothing ond Textile refused to comply with a company directive. CANADA TOTAL 255 152 ~ 55 36 40 16 135 51 485 255 Workers Union; AEEU- Amolgomoted Engineer· These workers have been charged with tres FRANCE 5 1 2()0.4 2 1 15 5 5 5 27 12 ing ond Electrical Union; CAW - Conodion Auto passing. ICELAND 20 14 70% 1 0 1 0 5 1 27 15 Workers; lAM - lnternotionol Association of f.h:l · MEXICO 1 1 100% 5 4 0 0 0 0 6 5 chinists; ILGWU - lnternotionol ladies' Garment APPM is a subsidiary of North Broken NEWDALAND Workers' Union; MFTU - Metol Trades Federation Hill-Peko, one of the major mining com Wellington' 50 42 84% 1 0 0 10 4 62 46 of Unions; NUM - Notional Union of Mineworkers; panies in Australia. The miners' union has Auckland 55 43 78% 5 1 0 13 3 74 47 OCAW- Oil, Chemical ond Atomic Workers; announced that a 24-hour protest strike in Christchurch 40 27 68% 1 0 1 0 10 1 52 28 RMT- Roil, f.h:Jritime & Transport Workers' Union; support of the Burnie workers will take OtherN.Z. 4 4 100% 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 TGWU - Transport ond General Workers' Union; place during the coming week. N.Z. TOTAL 149 116 78% 7 1 3 0 33 8 192 125 UAW - United Auto Workers; UFCW- United Militant distributors from Sydney are PUERTO RICO 1 0 00.4 5 4 0 0 2 0 8 4 Food ond Commercial Workers; USWA- United SWEDEN* 70 61 87% 30 21 3 0 15 13 118 95 organizing a special sales team to travel Steelworkers of America. TOTAL 3,616 1,960 56% 768 375 205 54 1,321 458 5,898 2,847 the 600 miles to Tasmania to circulate the SHOULD BE 2835 81% 608 162 1,013 4,617 • Also indudes subscriptions to Perspectiva Mund· paper among the strikers and at surround DRIVE GOALS 3,500 750 200 1,250 5,700 ial. ing campuses and working-class commu •raised goal ** Raised gool nities. June 19, 1992 The Militant 5 New Alliance Party's left-wing rhetoric hides rightist, anti-working-class politics
BY MARTIN KOPPEL What is less known is the origins of this During their membership in the La dorsed Fulani 's campaign for New York The 1992 presidential campaign has group. The group's founder and chief is Fred Rouche group, Berlet explains, the New governor in 1990 at a public NAP rally. drawn attention to a group called the New Newman, described in its literature as a manites were part of NCLC's well-docu Sharpton and NAP have intervened to Alliance Party (NAP), whose candidate is "Marxist activist and theoretician who has mented collaboration with U.S. intelligence gether in numerous protests against police Lenora Fulani. Newspapers from the Los for the past two decades led the building of agencies, finking on political activists to the and racist violence in the New York area, Angeles Times to New York Newsday have the new left political tendency of which FBI. such as the fight for justice for Yusuf Haw written about NAP, noting that Fulani's NAP is the electoral wing." According to After leaving NCLC in August 1974, kins, a Black youth killed by a racist gang campaign has raised $2.2 million, nearly NAP newspaper National Alliance, "New Newman formed the International Workers in 1989. Appealing to nationalist sentiments half of that in federal matching funds. As of man and a handful of mostly Jewish follow Party but continued for a time to debate among fighters who are Black, they seek to February, her campaign had received more ers began organizing in the Black commu LaRouche over questions of shared political channel these actions away from mass pro federal money than Jerry Brown, Paul nity 20 years ago." ideology. In I 979 he and his followers pub tests by working people against the govern Tsongas, and Patrick Buchanan. The outfit's real history is described in a licly announced the New Alliance Party. ment, toward relying on them as the indi Most media accounts describe NAP as a 1987 report by journalist Chip Berlet, who NAP leaders claim to have tens of thou vidual "leaders" who will supposedly re "left-wing party." The group presents itself works for a research group that disseminates sands of committed members, although the solve the problems on behalf of the op as a "Black-led, women-led, pro-gay, pro information on right-wing organizations. He group's newspaper admits that its national pressed. socialist independent organization." It NAP also shares the race-baiting and claims to be "America's fourth largest anti-Semitism used by these forces. Inde party." pendent Black Leadership in America car NAP recently put out a slick, attractive ries anti-Semitic statements by an NAP booklet detailing its election campaign plat leader and Farrakhan, who also goes on to form. It calls for reforms in health care, edu denounce gays. cation, and housing to "rebuild America." In speeches and interviews, Newman has Other points include support to the rights of characterized Jews as "the stormtroopers of Blacks,Latinos,NativeAmericans,prisoners, decadent capitalism." women, gays,and workers; animal rights; and NAP also supports the vigilante group a foreign policy based on "commitment to Guardian Angels. Lisa Sliwa, a leader of the democracy." A cover letter concludes with an procop group, was a featured speaker at a appeal for a federally matched "generous recent NAP forum that ended with chants donation for democracy." of "Join the Guardians! Vote NAP!'' Recently NAP has made the headlines for ~h.'lS lllta ~k In a further example of the outfit's reac its legal moves to knock other candidates w6ll lt'li!W~v;h.tlrettl ,;.lnll'cy. the AIMH
6 The Militant J une 19, 1992 Cover-up of Chernobyl disaster exposed
BY JON HILLSON three functioning reactors, the Politburo Newly published secret documents of the gave a green light to resettlement of several leadership of the Soviet Communist Party thousand plant workers to nearby Slavutich. detail its central role in covering up the while knowing the town was contaminated scope of the 1986 Chemobyl nuclear disas by radioactive Cesium-137. ter. They unmask the criminal conduct that These criminal decisions were made by put the lives of millions of people in the the Stalinist bureaucrats to avoid, Izvestia former Soviet Union in jeopardy. stated, "lost production ... The revelations, contained in minutes of the Communist Party's ruling Politburo, Those who participated in the Politburo were published in the April 24 issue of the meetings "knew all the truth about Chemo Russian daily Izvestia and reported on in byl, but chose to misinform and deceive the several U.S. newspapers. country and the world," Alia Yaroshinskaya The meltdown of nuclear fuel in wrote in her analysis of the once-secret Chemobyl's number 4 reactor, and the sub documents. sequent explosion and fire, released 10 "They invented different categories of times the radioactivity of the U.S. bombing truth," she stated, "one for the East, another of Hiroshima. for the West, yet another for the Interna The site is in Ukraine near Belarus, both tional Atomic Energy Agency, and quite former Kremlin-dominated republics which another for us who in their view were not declared independence in 1991 . entitled to know anything at all." In the wake of the nuclear catastrophe, Last October, a massive fire broke out in then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev the generator room of Chernobyl's number claimed only 32 had died. He won praise at 2 reactor, destroying 1,500 square feet of the time for his supposedly candid approach roof. to the crisis. Ecology, antinuclear, and other activists Earlier this year, a Ukrainian parliamen in Ukraine and Belarus, along with a grow tary commission blasted Gorbachev and ing number of scientists worldwide, have leaders of the now defunct Soviet CP for long disputed the casualty figures and pro "criminal disinformation which led to radi Child watches as meter registers unhealthy level of radiation near Chernobyl. Children ation exposure of hundreds of thousands of jected up to a quarter of a million deaths in in Ukraine and Belarus were particularly afflicted by effects of 1986 catastrophe. the future. people in Ukraine." The most recent official Ukrainian gov The report termed Gorbachev's highly ernment announcement, made on the sixth those receiving treatment, continuously de Under pre-Chemobyl measures, 1.5 million touted policy of alleged "openness" anniversary of the meltdown, put the num ceiving Soviet citizens about the range and people would have been resettled from such glasnost- "an ideology of state lying." ber of fatalities between 6,000 and 8,000. toll of the disaster. contaminated areas. With the new officially The nightmarish human cost for Chemo Unprecedented cases of leukemia, other • Two weeks after the Chemobyl explo approved criteria, only 166,000 people were byl has yet to be paid. cancers, thyroid diseases, immune deficien sion, the Politburo approved a I ,000 percent moved. cies, and fertility dysfunctions have been increase in the amount of radiation exposure • The Politburo likewise authorized re An additional 15 nuclear plants with reported in Ukraine and Belarus, along with considered "safe'' for human beings. This duced standards for measuring radioactivity Chemobyl-style reactors continue to oper increased mental health disorders. Children dramatically slashed the number of people in food for human consumption. This per ate across the former USSR. One, outside have been particularly afflicted. officially required to be examined, receive mitted the mixing of 47,500 tons of "dirty" St. Petersburg, leaked radioactive gas in The horrors documented in the Politburo treatment, or be hospitalized. meat and 2 million tons of milk into the March. Russian officials said the emission minutes indicate these calamities were a The majority of these people, numbering national food supply between 1986 and posed no danger. 1989. direct result of policy. untold hundreds of thousands, have not yet Chemobyl's burned-out, contaminated • As thousands of victims of radiation gotten full medical care. No studies have been made on the effect reactor hulk contains 30 tons of deadly, were being hospitalized, the Stalinist lead • A similar, drastically lowered standard of ingesting these irradiated materials. highly radioactive dust. The powder could ership issued grossly deflated figures of was used to determine safe habitation. • To maintain operations at Chemobyl's be released through gaps in the building by any significant motion from the wreckage. Scientists working there have issued re Texas workers raise funds to defend Curtis peated calls for emergency work on the menacing edifice and its lethal contents. to no avail. BY WILLIE M. REID that document Curtis's frame-up. The goal was raised among coworkers at three other AND PATSY BUTLER was to organize to reach coworkers, students, plants. Campus workers and students also ln May. according to the Moscow-based HOUSTON -Supporters of the Mark teachers, other activists, and friends to publi purchased $20 in tickets. ITAR-Tass news agency, brush fires caused Curtis Defense Committee here celebrated cize the lawsuit victory and to raise money A total of $632 was sent to the defense by hot, dry weather have started in the the May Day weekend at a back yard social. for the Mark Curtis Parole Now! Fund. committee in Des Moines after raffie ex Chernobyl area, a thorough decontaminat About 30 people, mostly members of the The design and reproduction costs of penses. ing clean-up of which was never completed. Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union, the the raffle tickets and the English and Span At the social supporters watched the pow The blazes are stirring up dust deposited International Association of Machinists, and ish versions of the brochure Who Is Mark erful video on the frame-up of Mark Curtis, from the 1986 meltdown, the news agency the United Transportation Union, had a Curtis were donated by supporters. The which helped to drive home the reality of stated, with breezes carrying flying ash chance to meet other supporters and friends, raffle campaign paralleled a mailing sent the injustice and brutality working people "over significant distances. poisoning set along with family and neighbors of Patsy out by local supporters of Curtis to Texas face from the cops and courts. tlements and fields." Butler, an activist in the fight for justice for and Louisiana endorsers and friends, Curtis. Curtis is serving a 25-yearjail sentence which raised $800. and a March 28 campus on frame-up rape and burglary charges. meeting where everyone present contrib Mark Curtis: 'Free Cardiff Three, The event capped a successful fund-rais uted to the fund. ing raffle, which was launched following the All activities were publicized from cam favorable decision in Curtis's civil suit pus and community tables, through meet victims of police frame-up in Wales' against the Des Moines, Iowa, cops who ings set up with past and potential endorsers brutally beat him after he was arrested in of Curtis's fight for justice, and in discus The message below was sent by Mark the cops beat Rodney King; in London, they March 1988. sions with coworkers on the job. Curtis to the Cardiff Three Campaign in beat Tony and Arnold Dean. In both cases The three raffie prizes were a VCR; a gift This was the first raffle fund-raiser by Wales. The Cardiff Three - Yusef Abdul the cops are set free by the courts. But Yusef certificate for two at a favorite Galveston, Curtis supporters here. Oil workers in one lahi, Tony Paris, and Steven Miller - were Abdullahi, Tony Paris, and Steven Miller go Texas, hotel; and two videos and materials plant raised more than $500. Almost $280 convicted in November 1990 for the Febru to jail for a crime they did not commit. ary 1988 murder of Lynette White. I know this injustice firsthand. Four In a leaflet explaining the case, the Car years ago I was framed up on charges of diff Three Campaign states that "these men rape and burglary, beaten badly by the cops, are innocent." The group is organizing sup and railroaded into prison with a 25-year DEFEND MARK CURTIS! port for an appeal of the convictions and sentence. But my supporters and I have not Materials available from Mark Curtis Defense Committee: fighting for their release. accepted this. We have fought and this year The Stakes in the Worldwide Political The committee points out that the prose we won a big victory when a judge found Campaign to Defend Mark Curtis by John cution ignored evidence that showed that . two cops guilty of breaking my cheekbone Gaige. A pamphlet that explains the political none of the 145 sets of fingerprints and palm with excessive force. I was awarded background to Curtis' case, the frame-up, and prints on the body belong to any of the three. $ 12,000 and attorneys fees. unfair trial. 25 pp. $1 .00 ''Thirty to fifty witnesses," the committee The lesson is that we cannot wait for The Frame-Up of Mark Curtis, a VHS video reports, all saw Tony Paris at work the night justice, we must fight for it. People around produced by Hollywood director Nick Castle. This of the murder. His supervisor verified that the world refused to accept the frame-ups of effective 49-minute documentary has clips from he stayed there with other staff after work. the Birmingham Six, the Guilford Four. and 1V news broadcasts on Curtis' fight for justice, Coworkers of Yusef Abdullahi also stated the Tonenham Three. By joining our hands scenes from the trial, and interviews with Curtis, that he was at work on the ship. the Coral across the oceans, we can educate and orga his wife Kate Kaku, and others. This video is Sea, that evening. A friend of Steve Miller nize others to refuse to accept the frame-up available for the cost of reproduction and said that he was with Miller all night. in Cardiff. There is a growing fight against shipping. $10.00 "Why did the police suppress evidence police brutality in the USA and the timing is good to take some ground in the struggle Justice for Mark Curtis: 'An injury to one is until four months after the trial?" the de fense committee asks. to free the Cardiff Three. I pledge to help an injury to all.' Buttons. $1.00 these three brothers in any way I can. ,....- State of Iowa v. Mark Stanton Curtis. * * * FREE THE CARDIFF THREE NOW! Transcript of September 1988 jury trial STOP POLICE BRUTALITY! proceedings that found Curtis guilty of rape and Statement by Mark Curtis INDICT THE COPS WHO BEAT burglary. 446 pp. $30.00. It seems that people in the United States RODNEY KING! FREE THE 17,000 Order these and other materials from: Mark Curtis Defense Committee, P.O. and Britain are getting clubbed by the same JAILED IN LOS ANGELES! Box 1048, Des Moines, Iowa 50311. Phone (515) 246-1695. system of injustice. The innocent go to jail JUSTICE FOR ALL FRAME-UP and the guilty are let free. In Los Angeles. VlCTIMS!
June 19, 1992 The Militant 7 SWP fights for ballot access in 25 states
Continued from front page for ballot status has the effect of automati voters, which is more than 70,000 people, The signature requirement for any state campaigners collected 8,500 signatures to cally knocking many independent candi and pay a filing fee of five cents for each wide candidate, such as for Senate or Pres place on the ballot Laura Garza, SWP dates off the ballot. In Florida, Maryland, signature. ident, is 60,000 for each candidate. Jf the candidate for Congress in the 18th district. North Carolina. and Texas, candidates are SWP wanted to petition for a full slate of The campaign set up tables and collected required to submit more than 50,000 signa Florida's prohibitive requirements candidates in Aorida it would need to col signatures in front of a number of grocery tures. In California 134,781 signatures are In Aorida third parties are required to lect close to 700,000 signatures, or some stores and inside a major shopping mall. required. sign up 3 percent of the state 's registered thing like 1 million to guarantee that enough Signs calling for justice for Rodney King Although the election laws are designed voters for each candidate. A separate pe valid signatures were collected. In addition, and for opening the borders to Haitian ref to keep working class parties off the ballot, tition must be circulated for each office, the party would have to pay $100,000 in ugees attracted the most attention and dis capitalist third parties face similar obstacles. and a filing fee of 10 cents per name must filing fees. cussion during the past few weeks. In 1980 the campaign of John Anderson, be paid in order to have the signatures The party would also have to post a who ran for president as an independent, checked. $10,000 bond with the state and a $5,000 Decisions made by minority managed to get on the ballot in 50 states, bond with each county that has jurisdiction The socialists take advantage of the elec though he had to file seven legal challenges over that particular office. tions, including the undemocratic ballot re to get there. The SWP will challenge these require quirements, to help advance class con In this year's elections, the Perot candi ments in a lawsuit along with the Florida sciousness by explaining revolutionary dacy has put a spotlight on what the so Green Party. Randall Berg, American Civil ideas. One of the things they point out is that cialists have faced in every election. The Liberties Union attorney, has agreed to file genuine social change will not be brought New York Times editors wrote, "The the challenge. Supporters are planning a about through elections. chances are Mr. Perot can avoid the sort special ballot rights fund to raise the hun Socialists explain how under capitalism, of petition problems that nearly knocked dreds of dollars needed to cover court and despite the forms of freedom and equality, Paul Tsongas off the Democratic primary filing costs. all social, economic, and political questions ballot in New York. But the fact that he Twenty years ago, in the case of Jenness are decided by a tiny minority, with total even bas to worry about qualifying speaks v. Miller the party successfully challenged contempt and disregard for the rights and volumes about the state's insane ballot the 10 cent rule, which was struck down as needs of the great majority. access rules." unconstitutional. The SWP has petitioned to get its pres The Times continues, "Under present However, according to the Ballot Access idential candidate on the ballot since 1948. law, he'll need 20,000 valid petition sig News, it is unclear whether the above deci Over the past four decades the party has natures, including a minimum of 100 sig sion still holds today. "It will be interesting been in the forefront of fighting un natures from a least half of the state's 34 to see how the state [Aorida] handles the democratic election laws. One of its elec Congressional districts. That's a harder SWP petition when it is submitted in Jul y,'' tion planks in 1948 said, "Liberalize the task than first appears. The most trivial reports the News. election laws. Lower the voting age to 18. petition errors provide grist for endless Give minority parties equal time on TV legal challenges that can result in disqual West Virginia ballot fight and radio and in the columns of the public ification." The editorial also explains that For more than a decade SWP election press." "voters who participated in the Democratic campaigns have challenged the extremely In dozens of court cases, the party has primary or signed President Bush's nomi undemocratic election laws in West Vir challenged undemocratic election laws in nating petitions are barred from signing · ginia. The party has fought to end the re cluding exorbitant signature requirements, for Mr. Perot." quirement that signatures be gathered twice candidate filing fees, age and payment per The Times has described New York ballot to get on the ballot. This is stipulated if the signature requirements. and restrictions on laws as the "most arcane and difficult in the candidate cannot afford a filing fee. Peti write-in voting. In some cases the party has nation." Militant/Dan Fein tioners are also required to tell signers that successfully struck down restrictions, thus In North Carolina a candidate is required Petitioning in Miami for socialist presi they lose their right to vote in primary strengthening the First and Fourteenth to sign up 2 percent of the state's registered dential candidates in 1992 contest. Continued on Page 9 amendments. Earlier this year, the SWP filed a brief in support of a suit filed by Alan Burdick, a resident of Hawaii, to end that state's ban on write-in voting. Edward Copeland. U.S. socialist talks to youth in Britain counsel for the SWP who filed the brief wrote, ''The Socialist Workers Party has BY MARK MITHERING Cox, a member of the Socialist Workers not be answered by the traditional social from its inception been opposed to restric LONDON -"It is wrong to blame Party of the United States. democratic. liberal or conservative parties, tions on the franchise. It has both engaged things on white versus Black. It's about the Sponsored by the Young Socialist Group as they themselves have promoted similarly in litigation and broader political action haves and the have-nots, the oppressed (YSG) of London, Cox opened the meeting reactionary policies,'' said Cox. ''They op along with others to expand voting rights of against the oppressors. That's the cause of with a short talk. He said that a BBC local erate within exactly the same framework - all individuals in our society and to make the violence." radio program in Manchester had asked him defending the so-called interests of 'the meaningful the right to vote." This comment was made by Kim, one of if the attack on King and the unjust verdict nation' and attempting to resolve the crisis Because of restrictions on access to the 14 students from Southwark College in Lon exonerating the cops could be considered an of the capitalist system, demanding further ballot, many SWP candidates run as write-in don who attended a meeting at the Path "isolated incident." sacrifices from working people, and telling candidates. Between 1988 and 1990, ap finder Bookshop here May 14 to discuss the "Acts of police racism and brutality are us that immigrant workers are our enemy." proximately 210 party candidates ran for acquittal of the cops who beat Rodney King by no means isolated, nor is it inconsistent "In this sense as well, there is nothing office as write-ins. and the social explosion in Los Angeles. The with the U.S. criminal justice system that isolated about the events in L.A.," Cox said, The sheer volume of signatures required meeting was part of a speaking tour of John four cops would be acquitted for brutalizing adding that it was the "shameful default of a Black worker," said Cox. ''The Los Ange the union officialdom and civil rights lead les Police Department merely provides a ership" and their refusal to help organize Join the socialist alternative in 1992 particularly graphic example of the institu broad protests to force a serious prosecution tionalized racism and violence that can be of the cops that allowed the acqui ttal. found in any police department in the United Help put the socialist / Contribute to the States." How to fight injustice Cox pointed out that state-sanctioned bru In the discussion that followed Cox's talk, candidates on the ballot $75,000 campaign fund tality is not unique to the United States, nor an instructor from Southwark proposed that is the existence of a court system hostile to the four cops who were acquitted be Come to the international youth and socialist campaign the interests of working people. "In the last "dragged out of their houses and killed" in conference at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, August 5-9 week, we have seen three examples of Brit order to rectify the unjust verdict. This pro ish 'law and order': the release of Judith voked a debate on the merits of using this Volunteers are needed to help put the Socialist Ward, wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years type of violence as a way of fighting racism Workers presidential campaign on the ballot in on bombing charges and accused of being and injustice. nearly 25 states. Contribute to the $75,000 fund an 'IRA terrorist.'; the police attacks against One student, a young Black woman, re to expand press coverage of the campaign, con youth in Coventry; and the violent rampage plied that "it's the system that needs to be tinue travel for the candidates, and produce of the British paratroopers in Coalisland, fought, not the four policemen as individu national campaign literature. Join a petitioning Northern Ireland, where 25 British para als. Even if they were out of the way, there team of volunteers to sign up youth and work troopers, armed with batons, attacked civil-· would still be people oppressed." ing people at campuses, working-class commu ians in two bars May I 2. Two students commented that, "violence nities, plant gates, and street corners. "More importantly, we should see that is always wrong." Julia, a member of the racist attacks and attacks against the rights YSG, referred to Malcolm X's position in Michigan: June 1-July 14 New Yorlc July 7- Aug. 1 of working people are not isolated in a defense of the right of oppressed peoples to Washington, D.C.: July 4-Aug. 4 Alabama: July 11-Au.g. 1 broader sense; they fit into a more general self-defense. New England: June 6-July 18 pattern in world politics today," Cox ex "Dealing with these cops in the manner Petitioning volunteers are also needed in Iowa, Minnesota, N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Oregon, plained. suggested would not only do nothing to ad Washington State, Delaware, Utah, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana. vance a real struggle against police brutality Rightist parties emerge and racism,'' Cox added, "it would hand the ~ ------The economic depression that is gripping cops and their government an easy pretext for 0 I want to join a petitioning team in ____ the imperialist countries of North America more repression." He pointed to the potential 0 Enclosed is my contribution of$__ . and Europe is accelerating a rightward trend to unify workers and young people around 0 I want to attend the international youth and socialist campaign conference. in the policies and direction of the capitalist political demands, which was demonstrated 0 l want to join the Socialist Workers Party. political parties, said Cox. An aspect of this in the first few months after the beating of Na~------has been the emergence of extreme right Rodney King, when a number of demonstra Address. ______City ____ State __ Zip ___ _ wing and overtly fascist parties, including tions and picket lines were held. Telephone _____~Age . ___ the British National Front, the National During his tour Cox also addressed meet Front in France, and the German People's Clip and mail to: Socialist Workers 1992 National Campaign, 191 7th Ave, New York, NY lOOll. ings at Sheffield Polytechnic, the School of Tel: (212) 675-6740. Or contact campaign supporters in your area. (See page 12). Union and the Republicans in Germany. Oriental and African Studies in London, and Paid for by the Socialist Workers 1992 National Campaign Committee ''The harsh nationalism and anti-immi meetings at Pathfinder Bookshops in Man grant, anti-Black racism of these parties can- chester and in Sheffield.
8 The Militant June 19, 1992 Communist League in Britain plans special congress to strengthen party
BY ANDY BUCHANAN spective advanced by communists - a LONDON - A special congress of the working class perspective toward taking Communist League is to take place in Shef state power out of the hands of the capitalist field June 27-28. The congress will discuss warmakers and opening the door to building a proposal to fuse together the forces of the a new society - offers the only way for Communist League and groups of young ward for humanity." socialists in London, Sheffield and Man Hunt added, "This is a new factor in chester. world politics. It is happening all around the Communist League leader Tony Hunt ex world - from South Africa, to Thailand, to Militant/Joyce Fairchild plained: "The purpose of this fusion is to the republics of the former Soviet Union. March against cop brutality and frame-up of Tony and Arnold Deane in Britain. enable communists to respond more effec We see it here in Britain in the fights of Communist League and young socialist groups have participated ~ fights such as this. tively and rapidly to events in world politics. students in defense of their living standards Over the past months it has become clear and in the involvement of young people in that more and more young people are react demonstrations against police brutality and ers more open to the ideas of communism. working class," explained Hunt. ing to the reality of depression, war, racism, racism. We can register that by looking at the growth and reaction. They are repelled by the face "We shouldn't exaggerate," Hunt said. of the young socialist groups, at sales of the Youth attracted over past months "We're not yet seeing a broad political of capitalism and they are looking for an Militant newspaper and Pathfinder books, Young socialist and Communist League movement of young people. But the resis swers. Today, many of these young people and at the growing numbers of young people leader Helen Warnock added, "We set up tance that does exist is making young fight- are open to being convinced that the per- attending meetings to discuss political is young socialist groups in three cities earlier sues from the events in Los Angeles, to the this year. We did this to help reach out to fight for abortion rights, to the ideas of the resistance we saw developing among Malcolm X. young people as they began to confront the Stop U.S. drive toward war "By fighting to win these young rebels to dead-end future capitalism holds in store for a communist perspective today, we can take all working people. ln a few short months some big steps in helping to prepare the kind we have proved that it is possible to attract Warren said he looks forward to cam· Continued from front page of communist party working people will young people to revolutionary ideas right paigning with supporters of the Garza cam by working people everywhere," said War need for the major class battles shaping up here and now. All three groups have grown. paign when he arrives in Miami in early ren. "The people of Sarajevo have been in the coming years. They've drawn in young union fighters, June. without the basic necessities of life "The Communist League is a small work Black youth, young women, and people food, water, electricity, and medicine "I want very much to be a part of the ing-class party. Its members are miners, en from Ireland and Africa. But as we grew we for more than two months." protests and discussion in the city," said the gineers, rail and car workers. Th~y seek to began to reali7..e that we were hitting up The candidate also called for the United socialist. "We call for opening the borders carry out political activity amongst their against a problem: how would we win these States and the governments of Europe to and we mean it. The idea that there isn't workmates and in the industrial trade unions young people to a communist perspective open their borders to the 1.3 million ref enough room or money in the United States which organize them. Over the last few and understanding of the world. We realized ugees seeking shelter from the brutal war, is false. years these communist workers have carved that to do this effectively, the whole of the criticizing their "callously inadequate re "The rulers want us to fight over crumbs out the first genuinely communist organiza Communist League had to be turned to sponse to the refugees seeking shelter." and to tight each other. They want us to tion to exist in this country. at least since the wards this task." blame Haitians, who are our fellow workers, early 1920s. We don't see ourselves nar The proposed fusion of the young social Open U.S., European borders instead of capitalism and its representa rowly as part of the ' British left,' but as a ist groups with the Communist League, Warren said that demanding the opening tives," he concluded. part of the front ranks of the international Warnock says, is "designed to do just that. of borders is an elementary duty of working It will allow us to build upon the proven people in the United States and Europe. and complementary strengths of different During the U.S.-Ied war against the people Alabama antiracists to demonstrate of Iraq, for example, socialist candidates organizations. It will allow us to bring young fighters into membership in the called not only for "All foreign troops out BY JOHN HAWKINS posite city hall here, as part of their "Op League, and into its leadership at every of iraq!" but also "Open the U.S. borders!" eration Wolfpack" - ostensibly a summer BIRMiNGHAM, Alabama - Support is level. It will enable us to participate more -to the Kurdish people and to all iraqi, drive to recruit area youth to the group. growing here for a mass demonstration to effectively in the battles that lie ahead and Kuwaiti, and other refugees fleeing the But if reports of other skinhead attacks take place June 13 in opposition to a so it will bring us more quickly to the point Baghdad regime and the ai-Sabah monarchy on Black homeless men, which continue to called "celebration of Aryan unity," sched where we can launch an organizationally in Kuwait. surface since Rembert's murder, are any uled for earlier the same day by neo-Nazi independent, communist-led youth group as ''The recent developments in Yugoslavia indication ''Operation Wolfpack" has a skinheads. the class struggle intensifies. and Haiti are yet another confirmation of the The demonstration is being organized by much more sinister aim than simple recruit "The new fused organization will place growing world disorder," said Warren. "The the Coalition Against Hate Crimes (CAHC), ment. a premium on the political education of its growing and unresolvable crisis of the world a local group that came together to organize Organizers of the anti-skinhead demon membership. This will enable the young capitalist economies and of the entire impe a protest against the April 17 murder of stration had originally planned the march rebels to get a grounding in the ideas of rialist system will keep driving the U.S. Black homeless worker Benny Rembert, and rally to take place at the same time and Marxism. And it will give older members rulers and their allies to war." killed by members of the same fascist place as the skinhead ceremony. However, of the League an opportunity to pass the Warren said Washington is now greatly minded outfit that is calling the "Aryan city officials refused to grant a permit to the tremendous wealth of political knowledge concerned that "the resistance to the bloody unity" rally. group, citing the possibility of a clash be military regime in Haiti will spread to the tween participants in the two demonstra and experience which they carry, on to a The Aryan National Front, the name by borders of the United States. The Cedras tions. new generation. Communist parties are a which local skinheads go, has called their military regime is beginning to come apart. ln fact the city's real position was ex unique kind of organization in capitalist June 13 wreath laying ceremony at a Con Soldiers are revolting against their officers pressed by several officials who pleaded society. They can and must be composed of federate war memorial in Linn Park, op- and students and workers are pressing their with the Coalition Against Hate Crimes to different generations of fighters working way into the streets, fighting for freedom. refrain from demonstrating altogether. alongside each other as equals. They grow This is significant," said the candidate. SWP seeks ballot access The permit finally granted for the march stronger by braiding together the different Warren denounced President George is for after the skinhead "celebration." generations," stated Warnock. Bush's executive order blocking thousands Continued from Page 8 To date the June 13 counterdemonstration Tony Hunt emphasized that the perspec of Haitians who are fleeing repression from elections for other parties if they sign the has received the endorsement of more than tive of fusing communist parties with groups entering the United States. "Bush claims petition. Thus those who sign automatically thirty community, religious, political, and of young fighters is a genuinely international that there isn't any repression inside Haiti," disenfranchise themselves from the pri trade union organizations. Among the e n one. "Small communist parties, from the So said Warren. "But every day there is evi maries. dorsers are the Birmingham chapter of the . cialist Workers Party in the United States to dence - in the papers, on TV, and from ln the process offighting these reactionary Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Communist Leagues around the world are Haitians living in this country - that there laws, the SWP has won support from thou Alabama NOW, National Conference of faced today with very similar challenges and are more killings, beatings, and torture sands of working people, the West Virginia Christians and Jews, Greater Birmingham opportunities. We have all suffered from the going on. ACLU, and other supporters of democratic Ministries, Socialist Workers Party, Central grinding effects ofthe blows dealt to working "For months Washington has tried to rights. Although most of the restrictive laws Alabama Coalition of Black Trade Union people throughout the 1980s. But we have all cover up the ongoing brutalization of the remain, the party has chipped away at some ists, Bricklayers Local I, and United Steel been able to strengthen ourselves politically Haitian people by the U.S.-backed Cedras of the more restrictive provisions and has workers of America Local 9226. and to function as communist fighters within regime. Washington has forcibly returned forced the issue out into the open. The march will assemble at 4:00 p.m. at the front ranks of our class. Now we can all 37,000 Haitians since October, and more Through its efforts to get on the ballot, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church - one of reach out to this new generation - a gener than 12,500 in May alone," said the social the party received extensive and often fa the chief organizing centers for the massive ation not weighed down by past defeats. A ist. vorable media coverage. ''The Socialist demonstrations that took place here during generation that was repelled by the slaughter "It's outrageous what Washington is Workers Party is challenging provisions of the Civil Rights Movement, and also the of the iraqi people. We are working this out doing. Socialist Workers candidate Laura the law, and perhaps it's time to take a hard target of a 1963 racist bomb attack that left together. There will be significant delegations Garza, in Miami, who has been campaign look at those restrictions," wrote the Regis four Black girls dead. Marchers will then from our sister organizations around the ing to open U.S. borders to the Haitian ter-Herald, a daily from Beckley, West Vir proceed to Linn Park for a rally. world attending ourcongress. And then we're refugees, correctly said that what Washing ginia, in 1990. The June 13 action is the second demon planning to take as many people as possible ton is doing amounts to piracy on the seas. "The law clearly gives Democrats and stration called by the CAHC. The first, on from Britain to the international socialist ed After forcibly returning Haitians to the mur Republicans an extreme advantage over any May 4, which protested the murder of ucation and campaign conference being held derous military regime, the U.S. Coast contenders," continued the Register-Herald Rembert and the Simi Valley acquittal of in Oberlin, Ohio, in thefirstweekofAugust." Guard routinely bums and sinks their editorial. "That isn't surprising, because the four Los Angeles cops who beat Rodney (See advertisement on the front page for boats," he said. Jaw is the product of those two parties .. . " King, drew 700 participants. conference details.) June 19, 1992 The Militant 9 What's behind attacks on women's rights?
BY SELVA NEBBIA Diane Joyce, who fought her way into a Backlash: The Undeclared War Against construction job in order to get better pay American V\bmen by Susan Faludi. 552 to support herself and her children. pp., Crown, 1991. $24 hardcover. Faludi details the many obstacles put in Joyce's way by the company, the foreman, The fight for women's rights recently and her male coworkers, including her hav scored a big victory in Buffalo, New York. ing to sue to get a promotion. She also tells Hundreds of young fighters from cities the story of a group of women bench work across the United States waged a well ers in an AT&T electronics plant in Dlinois organized and disciplined struggle in de who fought for their right to better paying fense of abortion rights. jobs as testers, a job held only by men. Young women and men mapped out and Having gained the better jobs, and fearing layoffs, the women had to fight for their plant seniority to count in their new classi fication. The union did not back their fight, BOOK REVIEW and after suing the company, they lost their case. carried out a head-on battle against the an These accounts portray an important as tiabortion forces of Operation Rescue that pect of the uphill fight waged by women for had pledged to close down abortion clinics jobs that were previously the sole domain throughout the city. of men. However, they do not tell the whole story of the important gains made from Over the course of two weeks, the pro affirmative action and how the integration choice forces prevented any of the clinics of women into jobs previously barred to from being closed by Operation Rescue, them has deeply affected not only the way who left town with their tails between their women workers felt about themselves but legs. the way male workers viewed them as well. The battle of Buffalo drew strength from Militant/Brian WiUiams Faludi fails to note that, while women the countless defense actions in front of who gained access to jobs previously held abortion clinics that have been organized Clinic defenders in Buffalo, New York. Victory against Operation Rescue there was a lesson on bow to fight for all those defending abortion rights. only by men have disproportionately suf in cities throughout the country over a long fered layoffs throughout this period, period of time. as well as from the recent women's numbers in the work. force as a fight in Ireland that won a 14-year-old the In her book, Faludi, a Pulitzer Prize-win referred to as the "second wave of femi whole have continued to increase. As a right to travel to Britain to get an abortion. ner and former journalist for the Wall Street nism" carne into being as part of the general result it is harder today for the employing It was reinforced by the half-million strong Journal, describes a decade-long "powerful upsurge for the rights of oppressed people class to perpetuate division along sex lines April 5 demonstration for women's rights counterassault on women's rights, a back that was taking place internationally. among working people. held in Washington, D.C. It also drew lash, an attempt to retract the handful of The civil rights movement 10 the United lessons from what had happened last fall small and hard-won victories that the femi States and the international movement ' The Invasion of Women's Bodies' in Wichita, Kansas. where an effective nist movement did manage to win for against the Vietnam War contributed to the In the short chapter "Reproductive fight was blocked by those who relied on women. This counterassault is largely insid rise of the movement against women's op Rights Under the Backlash: The Invasion of the cops and the courts to stop the rightists. ious: a kind of pop-culture version of the pression here and around the world. Women's Bodies," Faludi takes up the at Big Lie. it stands the truth boldly on its head Shortly after women won the right to tack on abortion rights. Her main contention As thousands of those favoring a and proclaims that the very steps that have abortion in 1973, the world saw the 1974-75 is that the attack on abortion rights is pro woman's right to choose abortion were map elevated women's position have actually led recession, followed by intensifying capital moted by men in the antiabortion move ping out their plan of action, a new book on to their downfall." ist competition and a new reactionary ideo ment frightened by " the speed with which women topped the best-sellers list: Back Faludi notes that since the 1970s, when big logical offensive. Both picked up steam with women embraced sexual and reproductive lash: The Undeclared War Against Ameri gains were made for women's rights, there the 1980-82 recession. The many-sided freedom." can Women, by Susan Faludi. has been an ongoing offensive to "halt or even character of this offensive is amply illus "Unlike the rise of the gender voting Reviews of the book, winner of the Na reverse, women's quest" for equality and to trated by Faludi. gap or the increasing number of women tional Book Critics Circle Award, have ap blame feminists for the conditions faced by at work, this revolution in female behavior peared in major newspapers. Backlash is women today. The author cites the many Changing composition of work force had invaded their most intimate domain," being read and discussed by young women studies and articles in the media that seek to Backlash also gives an account of the Faludi explains. " Men ... couldn't halt in cities across the country. undermine women's confidence in them growth and changing composition of the the pace of women's bedroom liberation Unfortunately, Backlash's 552 pages selves, from those that sound the alarm on a female work force since the massive influx directly, but banning abortion might be offer few answers for those seeking to un "'man shortage' endangering women's op of women into industrial jobs during World one way to apply the brakes. If they derstand what lies behind the recent attacks portunities for marriage" and the" 'infertility War 0. The author traces the ups and downs couldn't stop the growing numbers of on a woman's right to choose abortion or epidemic' striking professional women who of women's integration into the labor forc.e women from climbing into the sexual what led to the Buffalo victory. The book postpone childbearing" to those that warn of and notes that, notwithstanding the "cultural driver's seat, they could at least make the does little to arm fighters on where to go the" ·great emotional depression' and 'bum images" promoted to cast women as home women's drive more dangerous - by jam from here in the struggle for women's rights. out' attacking, respectively. single and career makers and mothers, "the proportion of ming the reproductive controls." women.'' working women doubled between 1940 and But while right-wing outfits such as Op 1950 and for the first time the majority of --FROM PATHFINDER---. Backlash attempts to expose the faulty eration Rescue no doubt include many who reasoning behind these studies and their them are married" and that the "proportion hold such beliefs, this does not explain the distortion of the facts, by denouncing their of women in the paid labor force has been driving force of the antiabortion movement. methodology and by counterposing other rising with little interruption since the The antiabortion drive is part of the shift Cosmetics, studies that show the opposite. Victorian era.'' to the right in bourgeois politics, based on To the question: Who is behind the ideo Faludi notes that these advances in the promoting "family, faith, and country." Re Fashions, logical offensive against women? Faludi's labor market have not brought women inforcing "women's place" as wife and number one answer is the "media," followed "full equality." She states that instead, "the mother whose "first duty" is to husband and and the by "men," "the government." Reagan, and culture simply redoubles its resistance, if children, is central to this rightist drive, "the New Right." not by returning women to the kitchen, which has the backing of very powerful Exploitation ''The press might have looked for other then by making the hours spent away from forces including sectors of the ruling rich, sources of women's unhappiness in other their stoves as inequitable and intolerable of the churches, government, and the news places," notes Faludi. "It could have inves as possible: pushing women into the worst media. Denying women's right to abortion of Women tigated and exposed the buried roots of the occupations, paying them the lowest is a key piece of this effort. backlash in the New Right and a misogynis wages, laying them off frrst and promoting The handful of ruling families that own tic White House, in a chilly business com them last." most of the wealth, not only in the United munity and intransigent social and religious But the reader will have to look elsewhere States but around the world as well, gain institutions. But the press chose to peddle for answers to questions such as whose "cul great advantages from the continued op the backlash rather than probe it." ture" is responsible for keeping women at pression of women, as well as of Blacks, As Faludi points out, the news media - the bottom? Why do they relegate women to and other oppressed nationalities. Paying from women's fashion magazines, to news the worst jobs and at the same time try to lower wages to women and other op papers, and television networks - play a undermine their confidence? How can pressed layers in society enables the cap big role in promoting and disseminating women achieve full equality? italists to hold down wages of workers in reactionary ideas about women. But who Backlash not only fails to provide an general. owns and controls these opinion-molding swers to these fundamental questions but As their market system falls more and institutions? gives a superficial view of how women more into crisis, threatening their continued The "media'' is a multimillion dollar busi made the gains they have today. ability to reap profits and stay ahead of their ness run by and in the interest of those who The author reduces the gains that came Continued on Page 12 By Joseph Hansen own it. While documenting how the media from the struggles by the tens of thousands and Evelyn Reed perpetuates the myth of womens' inferiority, who were involved in the women's libera with an introduction by Faludi does not answer the question of who tion movement to achievements "made for stands to gain from the ideas they peddle? women by the feminists'' or won through -CALENDAR- Mary-Alice Waters Nor does Faludi attempt to place the gains the "lobbying efforts" of groups like the This volume contains a lively 1954 made by women or the "backlash" against National Organization for Women. NEw JERSEY debate over the relation of the mar them within the context of what has been ln the chapter "The Wages of the Back Glen Ridge keting of cosmetics and fashions to going on in society at each particular mo lash: The Toll on Working Women," Faludi Fundraiser barbecue for the Mark Curtis Pa the exploitation of women. It dis ment. takes up the losses suffered over the past role Now! Fund. The Frame-Up ofMark Curtis cusses how the standards of beauty decade by women in the workplace. video will be shown. Sun., June 14 2-6 p.m. For and view toward work are determined Gains made in the 60s and 70s After reviewing the effects of the ideo more information: (201) 643-3341. in capitalist society. 138 pp. $11.95 The important gains won for women's logical offensive on women employed in the Available at Pathfinder bookstores (see rights in the 1960s and 1970s, such as abor news media and in sales jobs, Faludi takes MINNESOTA di rectory on page 12) or from Pathfinder, tion rights and affirmative action programs, up "women in the blue-collar world." Using St.. Paul 410 West St., New York. NY 10014. Send were the result of massive struggles that the example of women who in the early 70s Socialist \\brkers Campaign Picnic. Sun., June $3 for shipping and handling. drew inspiration and strength from other were able to break into skilled crafts pre 14, Noon to 5 p.m. Phalen Park. Donation: $12. struggles taking place in society. What is viously barred to them, she tells the story of Tel: (612) 645-1674.
10 T he Militant June 19, 1992 How Washington supported Israel's development of a nuclear arsenal
BY MARK CURTIS The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Ar senal and American Foreign R»licy by Seymour Hersh. New York: Random House, 1991. 345 pp., $23 hardcover.
During the war on Iraq the U.S. govern ment tried very hard to convince working people here that we should support the bombing and killing of Iraqis. One of the justifications was that Iraq was close to BOOK REVIEW
building a nuclear bomb, which Washington said it had no right to do. Since the end of the war the embargo on Iraq continues, and United Nations teams have destroyed Iraqi nuclear facilities .. CIA director Robert Gates recently told congress that Iraq would have a nuclear bomb by now (Left) Israel's top secret nuclear weapons plant at Dimona in the Negev desert. (right) Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at if it had not been for the Gulf War. Dimona who was kidnapped by Mossad in 1986 after revealing that Israel bad more than 200 nuclear warheads. We are told to feel good about Wash ington's bloody war against Iraq because it Gobain Techniques Nouvelles (SGN), was the Gaza Strip, Jordan's West Bank, Syria's Acknowledging publicly that both Israel stopped someone else from getting the contracted for the job, and hundreds of SGN Golan Heights, and the city of Jerusalem, and South Africa were working together on bomb. lf U.S. government propaganda is workers, technicians, and engineers poured bringing I million more Palestinians under atomic weapons, however, dido 't fit in with successful, we will be feeling good about into the nearby town of Beersheba. it<> control. stated U.S. policy goals. If the White House the future wars they have coming. Sometime in the mid 1960s a successful In 1973, Egyptian and Syrian armed admitted these two rogue governments had Tl;e people of Korea are one target of the nuclear test was conducted by the Israelis in forces attacked Israel in an attempt to regain the bomb, it would have to do something latest U.S. war threats. An editorial in the the Negev desert. The reprocessing plant the lost territories. The first days were a about it. The South Africa apartheid regime, New York Times begins this way: "Nuclear was completed in 1965 and fullscale pro stunning rout of the Israelis. Egyptian tanks like Israel, was given political cover by renegade. That's what many feared North duction of nuclear weapons was taking rolled through the Sinai; Syrian forces re Washington to shield it from world public Korea would become - a nation capable of place by 1968. conquered the Golan Heights and moved to opinion. producing a nuclear bomb, yet so isolated the edge Israel has always denied its true nuclear of Galilee. Without arms resupply The rulers of Israel claim it is a homeland and paranoid that it would not listen to the ambitions. Publicly, Dirnona was a nuclear from the United States, Israel faced defeat. world's pleas for sanity." for the Jewish people. Su-pporters of Israel's power plant for "peaceful energy purposes Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan told nuclear weapons program argue that having How sincere is the U.S. government when only." In line with its ballyhooed campaign journalists, 'The situation is desperate. Ev it claims to be using its military might to the bomb is an unfortunate but necessary to "make the desert bloom," Israel's nuclear erything is lost. We must withdraw." But evil that makes Israel a more secure place make the world a safer place? A good an they dido 't withdraw. Instead, Israel called projects were touted as developments to for the people who live there. Is this really swer is found in the book The Samson Op its first nuclear alert, armed its nuclear desalinate water and produce energy for true? tion by journalist Seymour Hersh. Hersh agriculture. However, as Hersh says, "the weapons, and pointed them at Cairo and rips the curtain off Israel's dirty little secret desert would glow before it bloomed." Damascus. They were ready to exercise the Israel has fought five major wars with its -that it is one of the world's most heavily The U.S. government first became aware Samson Option. Arab neighbors since 1948 and expanded armed nuclear powers. He also exposes of the Dimona plant in 1958 from photos The name comes from the biblical myth its borders into conquered territory. Mil Washington 's hypocrisy in helping Israel taken by the U-2 spy planes. The photos of Samson, who, when captured by the Phi· lions of Palestinians have been forced out keep its secret while screaming bloody mur listines and put on display in their temple, as refugees and others remain there as sec der when other governments do the same. revealed the huge cavern being dug and the construction of facilities in a pattern strik pulls the temple down, killing himself along ond-class citizens, all in the name of creat The state of Israel was created in 1948, ingly similar to the nuclear facility at with his enemies. ing and protecting a Jewish state. at the end of World War 11. The people of Marcoule, France. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Algeria and other coun When Washington learned of Israel's nu But every war there, from the creation of tries in the Middle East were fighting for The U-2 photos were quickly taken to clear threat, it quickly resupplied arms and Israel to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, has and winning their independence. Israel's U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower. The CIA ammunition. Israel then used its remaining made it a more dangerous, not less danger weapons, not to defend its position, but to creation was a help to the winners of the war agents who reported to Eisenhower, how ous place to live. ever, were in for a surprise. There was "no retake the territories. The blackmail worked. -France, England, and the United States In the Gulf War last year Israel again request for details," the agent explained. in their attempt to keep Arab colonies pol Israel's nuclear capabilities became ordered its nuclear forces onto full alert, "Nobody came back to me, ever, on Israel. itically and economically subordinate. known to the public in 1986 when Mordecai ready to launch them into Iraq on command. I was never asked to do a follow-up on any Vanunu, a former technician at Dimona, Israel's capitalist rulers, under prime minis The Middle East remains an area of insta ter David Ben-Gurion, began to build Israel of the Israeli briefmgs." defected and gave an interview to the Lon bility and war. The chances of the next war into one of the world's strongest military This was to be the pattern for the next 30 don Sunday Times. Vanunu had once been there becoming a new holocaust for the powers. years as evidence of Israel's nuclear weap fired for his pro-Arab views but won his job peoples of the region are higher, not lower, There were two holocausts in World War ons program piled up through photos, de back through his union. He was again fired because of the nuclear weapons in the arse 11 - the genocide of the Jews in Europe fecting scientists, and purchases of equip after speaking at a rally and supporting the nals of Tel Aviv, Washington, London, and carried out by German imperialism and its ment and technology. Publicly, the U.S. demand for a Palestinian state. Paris. allies and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima government denied knowledge of the Israeli Between firings Vanunu smuggled a cam Washington's complicity with nuclear and Nagasaki, Japan, by the U.S. bomb while it denounced nuclear prolifera era inside the Dimona plant and took 57 armed South Africa and Israel shows that Claiming that "never again" would they tion in other countries. As a close ally of color photographs. The photos revealed that its hypocritical campaign against prolifera allow one holocaust to be repeated, the lead Washington, Israel was held to a different Israel had more than 200 warheads and that standard. it was able to make a neutron bomb, which tion is just another face in its march toward ers of Israel turned to the weapons of the war. second holocaust. They embarked on a crash The political game became absurd. Pres kills humans and other living things within program to develop the nuclear weapons of ident John Kennedy's supposedly profound its range but does little damage to property. Working people must be clear about the mass destruction. commitment to nonproliferation led to in Before the story was published, however, real nature of the U.S. government's polit Ernst Bergmann became the head of spections of the Dirnona facility to ensure Vanunu was kidnapped by Mossad, the Is ical campaign around the issue of nuclear Israel's nuclear program. Bergmann, like a that it was only a nuclear reactor and not a raeli CIA. The Mossad was tipped off by weapons. Workers and farmers, united number of other scientists who immigrated weapons plant. The Israelis played the agents working for the London Sunday Mir around the world, are the only force capable to Israel, had been involved in nuclear re game, laying bricks and a fresh coat of ror, whose owner, now-deceased billionaire of stopping the billionaires' march toward search in Germany, France, England, and plaster over the bank of elevators that led to Robert Maxwell, personally called the Is World War III. the reprocessing plant 80 feet below. A false raeli embassy in London. Mossad agents the United States. Mark Curtis, a union activist and socialist. Dimona, located in the middle of the control room was built, with computerized lured Vanunu to Rome where he was kid gauges measuring false readings consistent napped, drugged, and taken to Israel. He was is incarcerated in Fort Madison, Iowa, on Negev desert, was the site selected to con frame-up charges of rape and burf?lary. struct the facilities necessary to build the with a standard reactor. tried, convicted, and sentenced to 18 years bomb. To mai ntain secrecy, the huge com Aoyd Culler, the U.S. inspector, knew he in a maximum-security prison. plex was built underground, a difficult and was being duped, and he understood why. The Samson Option makes it clear that expensive project. The inspections, he said, were "part of the the U.S. rulers' campaign against "nuclear Palestine Two stages are necessary in the construc game of .. . finding ways to not reach the renegades" is just a smokescreen to go after tion of a nuclear weapon. The first is the point of taking action." its enemies in the world. A government and the creation of plutonium, a highly radioactive Finding ways of not taking action became carrying out policies Washington approves element. Plutonium is a by-product of a a priority for the parade of U.S. presidents of isn't likely to be taken to task by the U.S. Arabs' nuclear reactor. This plutonium must then from Eisenhower to Bush, through Demo government. Maybe the best example of this Fight lor be reprocessed to make it usable in a cratic and Republican administrations. Ac is shown in the way Washington handled the weapon. cording to Hersh, "Dimona became a non situation when Israel gave a helping hand to U&eration The government of France gave Israel the place and the Israeli bomb a nonbomb." South Africa's nuclear weapons program. help it needed to make the bomb. In the Washington became the largest supplier of On Sept. 22, 1979, clouds broke over the 1950s Paris was fighting a losing war to weapons and economic aid to Israel, back Indian Ocean and a U.S. satellite recorded A pomphlet Fred Feldman and maintain its control over Algeria and other ing its wars against the Arab people. two flashes of light a fraction of a second by Georges Sayad. 62 pp., $3 . colonial possessions and decided that an In 1956 Israel, together with Britain and apart - strong evidence of a nuclear explo Available from Pathfinder, 41 0 West alliance with Israel would bolster its influ France, attacked Egypt for nationalizing the sion. In fact, intelligence officials in Jimmy St., New York, NY 10014 or from ence and business interests in the Middle Suez canal. In what is now called the Six Carter's administration concluded that Is bookstores listed on poge 12. Include East. Day War, Israel attacked its Arab neighbors rael and South Africa had just exploded an $3 for postage. A French chemical company, Saint- in 1967 and siezed Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, atomic bomb, and they were right.
June 19, 1992 The Militant 11 -MILITANT LABOR FORUMS------The Militant Labor Forum is a weekly IOWA NEW YORK Albion St., Surry Hills. Donation: $3. Tel: 02- free-speech meeting for workers, farm 281 3297. ers, youth, and others. All those seeking Des Moines Manhattan to advance the fight against injustice and Embargo No Solution to Yugoslav W..r. Come Hear Estelle DeBates, Socialist Workers candidate for US. vice-president. Fri., June 12, CANADA exploitation should attend and partici Speaker: Chris Remple. Socialist Workers Party and member International Association of Ma reception, 6:30p.m.; program, 7:30p.m. 191 7th pate in these discussions on issues of im chinists Local254. Sat., June 13, 7:30 p.m. 2105 Ave. Donation: $5. Tel: (212) 727-8421. Vancouver portance to working people. Forest Ave. Donation: $3. Tel: (515) 246-8249. Behind the Continuing War in Yugoslavia. 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Sat., June 13, 7:30 dape Guerra. Video showing on the defense agatan 10 (T-bana St Eriksplan). Tel: (08) 31 69 p.m. 1622 S Broadway. Donation: $3. Tel: (314) case and panel. Speakers: Alvaro Hernandez 33. 421-3808. women's rights Luna, defense committee; Randy Warren, Social Sanctions on Yugoslavia Will Not End the Socialist Educational Weekend June 20-21. ist Workers Party and member International As Farmers Face the Crisis of the '90s. Speaker: W..r. Sat., June 18, 7 p.m. Yik.ingagatan 10 (T Continued from Page 10 sociation of Machinists. Sat., June 13, 7:30p.m. bana St Eriksplan). Tel: (08) 31 69 33. Doug Jenness. Sat., June 20. 7:30 p.m. The 4806 Almeda. Donation: $3. Tel: (713) 522-8054. competitors around the world, the employ Origin of the Myth of Race. Speaker: Doug ing class is pressed harder to try and make Jenness. Sun.. June 21 , 1 p.m. 1622 S Broadway. UTAH workers shoulder more of the burden of the Donation: $3 for each class or $5 for both. Tel: Come to Oberlin, Ohio capitalist crisis. (314) 421-3808. Salt Lake City To this end they attempt to weaken the Civil \\ar in Yugoslavia. Speaker: Steve Iver August 5-9 son, Socialist Workers Party. Sat.. June 13, 7:30 ability of working people to resist by pro p.m. 147 E 900 S. Donation: $3. Tel: (801) for an international youth moting divisions, such as between male and 355-.1124. and socialist campaign female workers. The Socialist Conversations with Japanese Workers. A US. Women workers are different, they say, Alternative to War, Oil \\brker Reports on a Fact-Finding Tour. conference women are, or should be, wives and moth Speaker: Joel Britton, member of Oil, Chemical ers. These ideas are promoted in a thousand Racism, and Economic and Atomic Workers union in California. Sat., Join young people, students, different ways. Depression June 20, 7:30p.m. 147 E 900 S. Donation: $5. workers, and others who are cam The rulers' ideological offensive along Tel: (801) 355-1124. paigning for the socialist alternative these lines is aimed not only at women but in 1992. Participate in discussions on at men as well, as they attempt to undermine WASHINGTON Buchananism , the fight to prevent class solidarity and weaken the striking Hear: james Warren Seattle World War ill, lessons of the alter- force of a united working class, the only Free Leonard Peltier! A showing of the film ~illar strike, defending a:ooriion class that can effectively challenge their Socialist Workers candidate Incident at Oglala. Speaker: Mary McLaughlin, • rights, .and more: Heru- ari'd rn~tbui! ' rule. for U.S. president Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. Sat., June didates for u,.s. president an~ yice As Faludi points out, women continue to 13, 7 p.m. 1405 E Madison. Donation: $4. Tel: ~si(lent James Warren and Estelle (206) 323-1755. DeBates. join the work force. And through this pro Miami, Florida cess the division along sex lines is in fact WASHINGTON, D.C. further broken down, leaving the working [ ] Yes, I want tq atten.d the confer-· 137 N.E. 54 St. Abolish the Death Penalty! Speakers: Janice em:e. Send me Sc;>tne iliformation. class in a stronger position than ever to do Lynn, Socialist Workers Party; others to be an battle against the bosses. Sunday, june 14, 5:00 p.m. nounced. Sat., June 13, 7:30 p.m. 523 8th St SE. The battle-tested young forces, both male Donation: $3. Tel: (202) 547-7557. N~e --~~--~~~------ and female, being forged in the fight to A reception will follow the program. defend abortion rights will have an impor Donation requested: $3.00 • M~------~----- tant role to play in the stniggles that are Sponsored by: Florida Socialist City/State/Zip ------=---'- unfolding today and those that lie ahead for Workers Campaign AUSTRALIA Phone ____ Age------the labor movement. Through these fights working people will develop leadership and Sydney For more information: (305) 756-1020 The Burnie Paperworkers Strike: An Eyewit be able to wrest power from the ruling rich Send to: Sociaii.t Workel:$ Party ness Account. Speakers: participants from Mili 406 West$(., ~Yolk. NY 10014. and open the road for the true emancipation tant reporting team. Sat., June 13, 6 p.m. 66 of women and of humanity as a whole. By short changing them with the superficial observations in Backlash, Faludi does these young fighters a disservice. IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP--- Where to find Pathfinder books and MISSOURI: St. Louis: 1622 S. Broadway. Sheffield: 1 Gower St., Spital Hill, Postal New Alliance Party's distributors of the Militant, Perspectiva Zip: 63104. Tel: (314) 421-3808. code: S47HA. Tel: 0742-765070. Mundial, New lnU!rnational, Nouvelle ln NEW JERSEY: Newark: 141 Halsey. Zip: CANADA rightist politics ternationak, and Nueva InternacionaL 07102. Tel: (201) 643-3341. NEW YORK: New York: 191 7th Ave. Zip: Montreal: 6566, boul. St-Laurent. Postal Continued from Page 6 UNITED STATES 1001 1. Tel: (212) 727-8421. code: H2S 3C6. Tel: (514) 273-2503. ALABAMA: Birmingham: Ill 21st St. NORTH CAROLINA: Greensboro: 2000-C National Alliance recently devoted an en South. Zip: 35233. Tel: (205) 323-3079, 328- S. Elm-Eugene St. Zip 27406. Tel: (919) 272- Toronto: 827 Bloor St. West. Postal code: tire issue to attack Ron Daniels, a former 3314. 5996. M6G lMl. Tel: (416) 533-4324 leader of Jackson's Rainbow Coalition who CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles: 2552-B W. OHJO: Cincinnati: P.O.Box 19484. Zip: Vancouver: 3967 Main St. Postal code: V5V is now running a third-party campaign for Pico Blvd. Zip: 90006. Tel: (213) 380-9460, 45219. Tel: (513)221-2691. Cleveland: 1863 W. 3P3. Tel: (604) 872-8343. president. The paper included the text of a 380-9640. San Francisco: 3284 23rd St. Zip: 25th St. Zip: 44113. Tel: (216) 861-6150. "rap song" that "sends an unmistakable 94110. Tel: (415)282-6255. PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia: 1906· ICELAND message to Ron Daniels and his bosses." CONNECTICUT: New Haven: Mailing ad South St. Zip: 19146. Tel: (215) 546-8196. Pitts Reykjavik: Klapparstig 26. Mailing address: "You oreo token," it threatens, "mess with dress: P.O. Box 16751 , Saybrook Station, West burgh: 4905 Penn Ave. Zip 15224. Tel: (412) P. Box 233, 121 Reykjavik. Tel: (91) 17513. 362-6767. the girl [Fulani] and in your ass we'll be Haven. Zip: 06516. TEXAS: Houston: 4806 Almeda. Zip: 77004. steppin'. We'll f - you up royally." FLORIDA: Miami: 137 N.E. 54th St. Zip: MEXICO 33137. Tel: (305) 756- 1020. Tel: (713) 522-8054. As their record shows, New Alliance UTAH: Salt Lake City: 147 E. 900 South. Mexico City: Nevin Siders, Apdo. Postal27- GEORGIA: Atlanta: 172 Trinity Ave. Zip: 575, Col. Roma Sur. Mexico DF. Party is not a left-wing party. NAP shows 30303. Tel: (404) 577-4065. Zip: 84111. Tel: (801) 355-1124. unmistakable parallels with the rightist evo ILLINOIS: Chicago: 545 W. Roosevelt WASHINGTON, D.C.: 523 8th St. SE. Zip: NEW ZEALAND lution of the LaRouche group. While the Rd. Zip: 60607. Tel: (312) 829-6815, 849- 20003. Tel: (202) 547-7557. WASHINGTON: Seattle: 1405 E. Madison. Auckland: La Gonda Arcade, 203 Karan LaRouchites use right-wing demagogy and 7018. Zip: 98 122. Tel: (206) 323-1755. gahape Road. Postal Address: P.O. Box 3025. IOWA: Des Moines: 2105 Forest Ave. Zip: NAP currently uses left-sounding dema WEST VIRGINIA: Morgantown : 242 Tel: (9) 379-3075. gogy, the Newman-Fulani group plays on 50311. Tel: (515) 246-8249. Walnut. Mailing address: P.O. Box 203. Christchurch: 593a Colombo St. (upstairs). insecurities and prejudices to attract support KENTUCKY: Louisville: P.O. Box 4103. Zip: 26507. Tel: (304) 296-0055. Zip: 40204-4 103. Postal address: P.O. Box 22-530. Tel: (3) 656- by posing as an "independent leadership" 055. that defends the "little people" against cor MARYLAND: Baltimore: 2905 Greenmount AUSTRALIA Sydney: 19 Terry St., Surry Hills, Sydney rupt politicians and big government. Ave. Zip: 21218. Tel: (410) 235-0013. ~llington: 23 Majoribanks St. Courtenay MASSACHUSETTS: Boston: 780 Tremont NSW 2010. Tel: 02-281-3297. Pl. Postal address: P.O. Box 9092. Tel: (4) 384- The key is not NAP's stated program, St. Zip: 02118. Tel: (617) 247-6772. BRITAIN 4205. which changes according to need, but their MICHIGAN: Detroit: 5019V2 Woodward London: 47 The Cut. Postal code: SEI 8LL. actions and their political trajectory. They Ave. Zip: 48202. Tel: (313) 831 - 1177. Tel: 071 -928-7993. SWEDEN are a rightist, anti-working-class organiza MINNESOTA: Twin Cities: 508 N. Snelling Manchester: Unit 4, 60 Shudehill. Postal Stockholm: Vtkingagatan 10. Postal code: S- tion with clear elements of fascism. Ave., St. Paul. Zip: 55104. Tel: (612) 644-6325. code: M4 4AA Tel: 061-839 1766. 113 42. Tel: (08) 3 1 69 33.
12 The Militant June 19, 1992 GREAT SOCIETY------Gotcha -The census found that Next, a 'Good Bureaucrat' They all watch Murphy Brown He killed another cop? -The old metal ones hold up better under over the past decade, median (half award-"A Good Employer - In Los Angeles County, the num Los Angeles Times noted that some fire for identifying remains. over, half under) mortgage rates rose award organized by Nelson trade ber of homeless people jumped as months ago, a TV station reported It's contagious?- A Los Ange 27 percent to $737 a month, and unions has been mothballed because much as 16 percent last year. By the that an L.A. cop fired for brutality les sheriff's deputy drew a fast four median rents jumped 16 percent to no nominations were received." - most conservative method of esti four years previous, had been re years as part of a ring of deputies The New Zealand Herald. mating, at least 38,400 people are hired and given a desk job so he which stole credit cards from elderly without shelter any given night. Re could qualify for pension benefits. motorists and used them to purchase Subversive Salvation Army - searchers said a more broadly based That doesn't much surprise us. But more than $75,000 worth of goodies. In New Zealand, the Salvation estimate indicates as many as 68,600 we do wonder what the cop did to A shrink testified that the deputy had Harry Army said government cutbacks in homeless. get fired for brutality. suffered a head injury that impaired Ring social programs had spurred de his sense of right and wrong. mand for the organization's charity. Cruel and usual - The media Nothing's perfect - A growing The social welfare minister retorted made much of the fact that big-time number of businesses and govern ·'This oil and a better engine ..." that the cutbacks were not respon junk bond swindler Michael ment agencies are spreading the use - Finding the claim "completely un sible. "Rather," she explained, . Milken was assigned to a "country of the "smart card," a computer substantiated," a federal judge ordered $581. Meanwhile, 42 percent of "there has been an increasing re club" type prison. But now it's dis chip embedded in a piece of plastic, that Pennz.oil revise its long-running households were scraping by with sponse from organizations such as closed that prison rules bar him and storing a multiplicity of infor ads which claim that their motor oil incomes under $25,000. That's up your own which has resulted in from wearing his customary tou mation. The Army considered using will prolong the life of your engine. from 31 percent a decade ago. greater demand." pee. them as dog tags but found out the Pennzoil said it will revise the ads. Socialist unionists turn toward young fighters
BY JIM ALTENBERG litical action, he said. The campaign pro NEWARK, New Jersey- Socialist work vides a means to answer the right-wing ers active in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic proposals of the capitalist candidates and Workers union (OCAW) met here in mid parties, all of whom promote a program of May to discuss the political opportunities for "family, faith, and country" and talk about socialists posed by the deepening crisis of working people as something the middle the market system and the continued insta class should fear. bility. polarization, and danger of war that flows from it. Outrage at police violence In a report to the meeting, Militant editor A good example of the political openings Greg McCartan explained that the capital that exist was provided at the Newark Mil ists in every country have no answers to this itant Labor Forum held the same weekend. crisis. Everything they have tried, from the Eli Green, Socialist Workers candidate for war against Iraq to the effort to impose Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors capitalism in Eastern Europe, has only led 2nd District and a member of OCAW Local to greater instability and new problems for 1-128, spoke about the antipolice riot in that them. city. The socialist campaign, he said, is get This crisis, McCartan said, is part of the ting a good hearing from young people out normal workings of the capitalist system. raged by the day-to-day experience of police These new conditions provide significant violence and looking for a way to fight back. Militant(fim Elliot' opportunities and challenges to working Green said that the cops who beat Rodney Socialist campaigners and candidates in Los Angeles. Eli Green (back right), said SWP class fighters who are seeking a way out King should be indicted on federal civil campaign is winning a good hearing from opponents of cop violence. of the crisis. Important struggles are al rights charges now. None of the capitalist ready taking place, from defense of abor parties agree with this, he explained. All they contribute to the SWP. Although most wages that contributions of $1 ,000 or more tion rights such as in Buffalo to protests seek to divert the discussion away from people cannot count on getting such "wind could be stretched out over the months be against cop brutality, and it is essential police brutality and from the mass arrests falls" the socialist OCAW members voted tween now and Jan. I, 1993. Twenty-four that fighters in the Socialist Workers Party that took place in Los Angeles. Socialists in to raise $30,000 for the fund. Britton ex thousand dollars were pledged toward the (SWP) and others tum their attention to that city immediately hit the streets to dis plained that the money could also be raised Expansion Fund goal at the meeting. ward youtb.who IU\Ve begun to participate cuss the Rodney King verdict, Green said. through bonuses that some oil workers will in and lead many of these. The SWP, The socialist campaigners pointed to the fact get, early retirement, and the fact that many Jim Altenberg is a member ofOCAW Local McCartan said, must take every measure that no sustained political fight was waged OCAW members make sufficiently high 1-5 in Martinez, California. to recruit young people and give them to remove Police Chief Daryl Gates a year space to play a part in leading the party. ago after King was beaten and it was thjs The 35 socialist unionists at the two-day failure that led to the antipolice riot. meeting adopted a number of proposals Although the Los Angeles Pathfinder -25 AND 50 YEARS AGO-- aimed at advancing this process. Bookstore was burned down during the riot, Baden. From there they have been obliged Participants decided to place campaign work on a new bookstore is proceeding, and to walk to the river, the officials said. ing for the Socialist Workers 1992 candi socialists in theOCAW voted to raise$1,000 TH£ "In some other places, they added, loud dates at the center of all of their political from coworkers in the refineries and plants speakers warned the inhabitants: 'You have activity. The socialist election campaign is toward rebuilding it. Participants also voted two hours to leave. After that we cannot a big opportunity to talk politics with co to take a goal of winning 30 endorsers for the MILITANT guarantee your safety.' " workers and youth, explained Joel Britton, socialist campaign in the OCAW by the time Publi shod in tho Interest of iho Working People a member of OCAW Local 1-547 and SWP of the international youth and socialist cam June 19, 1967 Pnce toe candidate for U.S. Senate from California paign conference set for August in Oberlin, who gave a tasks report. Ohio. Nearly $5,000 was pledged toward the In a gloating pro-Israel editorial on June TH£ MILITANT PUII..ISHID IN fNI I NUIIITI o• fM I WOIItiNO PtO' U Workers are frustrated with the capitalist $75,000 Socialist Campaign Fund. 9, the New York Times described the Israeli 1'\FWYORK. r-tY candidates, and there is no step anywhere in Circulation of the Militant newspaper, attack on the Arab countries as a "blitzkrieg" the labor movement toward independent po- Britton pointed out, is the main and most -Israel's "own version of Pearl Harbor." June 20, 1942 effective means of campaigning. The meet In the section of Jordan now occupied by The federal government agencies are in ing adopted a goal of selling to fellow oil the Israelis, reports place the number of the throes of an extensive witch-hunt, with Pathfinder presents workers 42 Militant subscriptions, 3 sub Jordanian dead between I 0,000 and 25,000. the Army and Navy Intelligence, the FBI, scriptions to the Spanish-language publica The June 13 Christian Science Monitor Secret Service, and Civil Service investiga Books for fighters tion Perspectiva Mundial, and 17 copies of reports: "A team of 24 doctors from the Amer tors combing the ranks of government em New International, a Marxist journal. ican University Hospital in Beirut, which has ployes and giving the axe to every person Pathfinder building reconstruction returned here from the Syrian and Jordan suspected of having even the remotest con fronts, estimated that napalm bombs were nection, past or present, with liberal, labor A highlight of the meeting was a tour of responsible for 7'5 percent of the casualties." or radical organizations and ideas. newly reconstructed floors in the Pathfinder Already up to 200 individuals are known building, where the Militant newspaper and As the Jordanian army and civilians re Pathfinder books are published and where treated, the June 13 Times reported: "On to have been dismissed. Most of them have not even been told why although they have the Socialist Workers Party national offices Wednesday morning, after the Israeli forces strong suspicions. The liberal New York are located. Over the past year, the SWP has had taken Jerusalem, their Mirage jets been working on an ongoing project to thor streaked over the Judaean hills and down the · newspaper PM last week carried a list of questions which the government investigat oughly redesign the building into an effi length of the road [from Jericho into Jordan] cient, professional facility for writing and bombing everything that moved." ing agents ask their prospective purge vic New International No. 7 featuring: producing the literature and political mate Just as in Vietnam, such terror is produc tims. Here are a few: The Opening Guns rials working people need as weapons of ing new refugees. The Christian Science "Have you any reason to suspect Mr. X of World War III struggle. This effort has been accomplished Monitor reports that the first wave of refu of being un-American? Is he a Jew?" by J.ack Barnes, 333 pp. $12 by the voluntary labor of the party's sup gees stre--aming into Jordan is more than "Is Mr. . . . an atheist?" The Conununist Manifesto porters, who have worked full-time for 100,000 in spite of Jordanian pleas that they "Did you ever belong to the League Karl Marx, Frederick Engels months-long stretches on various parts of stay in their homes. Against War and Fascism. the American 47 pp. $2.50 the project. Central to the facility is a com The Israelis are also forcibly driving out Civil Liberties Union, the American Peace Malcolm X Speaks pletely reconstructed library, which contains those who do not flee. The Times reports on Mobilization?" hardcover only, 233 pp. $16.95 thousands of indexed and easily accessible June 12: "Senior United Nations officials "Did you ever work for Loyalist Spain?" who have sifted many reports from the ref The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: archives, books, notes, and reports discuss "Do you consider Nazism and Fascism a ing the experience of the workers' move ugees believe that a pattern of expulsion is The Proletarian Party and the greater menace to the country than Commu ment around the world. emerging. They say the Israelis appear to be nism?" Trade Unions This reconstruction project has been concentrating on pushing out the inhabitants by Jack Barnes, 346 pp. $18.95 funded by contributions of $ 1,000 or more of the big refugee camps ... "Is it true that you favor the CIO over the to the party's Expansion Fund. These con "In the frontier villages, they say, soldiers AFL?" Available at Pathfinder booketor.,; listt June 19, 1992 The Militant 13 This column is devoted to a discussion with our -EDITORIALS readers- printing remarks, questions, suggestions, and other comments sent to the Militant. Where possi ble we wiD take up issues raised in notes and letters as a way to help clarify and expand on the coverage in the paper. Denmark vote exposes rivalries The "Discussion with our Readers': column in the May 29 Militant covered some of the questions that have arisen The European Community, led by the capitalist rulers countries into the EC fold. Another sign of the deep out of the Los Angeles antipolice riot. of Germany and France, has been seeking to end internal divisions within the EC was the recently announced cre One related question Socialist Workers Party presiden barriers to trade, labor, and capital movement by the end ation of the Franco-German military corps, which aroused tial candidate James Warren and other party candidates of 1992 and present a common front against other imperi fears in London and Washington that it could challenge have often been asked is what is the role of gangs in Los alist rivals. The vote in Denmark against the Maastricht the military predominance of NATO in Europe. Angeles? Warren responded to this question at a socialist cam- European Community (EC) unification treaty registered a The British rulers, and increasingly those in Sweden, blow to this quest. are relying on their special relationship with Washington Parallel to the EC unification moves, the United States to counterbalance the dominance of Germany and the and Canada have taken steps to create a similar bloc, continuing decline of their former empire. Many among although trade rivalries between the North American im the capitalist politicians in Britain were vocally jubilant at DISCUSSION WITH perialist powers have also grown. The Australian and New the results of the Danish vote. Maastricht "is dead," de Zealand capitalists have formed their own "free trade clared former cabinet minister Norman Tebbit. OUR READERS zone" as well. In a May 15 speech at The Hague, former British prime This growing protectionism increases the economic dev minister Margaret Thatcher dismissed EC institutions as paign rally in Chicago, May 16. astation of the semicolonial countries, by further closing "yesterday's solutions, becoming tomorrow's problems.'' "The gangs played a role, of course, but that's not what markets to them. It is coupled with steadily growing attacks Referring to EC officials' demands for more powers for we need to concentrate on," Warren said. "The responsi in all imperialist countries against the rights of immigrant the European Commission, Thatcher said, "A half-Europe bility for the antipolice riot had more to do with the workers from the Third World. In Britain, the notorious imposed by Soviet tyranny was one thing; a ha'lf-Europe misleadership of the Black and labor movements. Asylum Bill was signed into law with the support of the imposed by Brussels would be a 'moral catastrophe.'" Labour Party. In France, Jean-Marie Le Pen's fascist-like "The liberals and their hangers-on blocked off any calls to expel African immigrants from France gain It was vital, said Thatcher, to keep a U.S. presence in genuine political action-like demonstrations-directed strength from the anti-immigrant policies of the Socialist Europe. "It reassured the rest of Europe in the face of against the cops and the government," Warren said. "When Party government. Australia, too, has recently taken steps Soviet power yesterday and it provides similar comfort the verdict came down, there wasn't any ongoing political to restrict refugee rights. against the rise of Germany today." work to take advantage of. They had channeled the move ment away from political initiatives by workers and youth. "In Belgium and Luxembourg, with large immigrant The mounting interimperialist rivalries will lead to fur For over a year there was nothing for young people to grab populations, there is consternation over a provision of the ther trade wars and shooting wars. This is what the in a hold of. [Maastricht] treaty which empowers non-nationals to vote creased calls for military intervention in Yugoslavia are all in EC and municipal elections," said a June 4 article in the about. "One of the most popuiar pastimes of Black elected British daily Independent. officials and civil rights leaders is to lament the lack of Steps for EC unification, already faltering, have nothing At the same time, the divisions within the imperialist enthusiasm amongst Black youth to go to school and get to do with defending the standard of living and rights of trading blocs themselves have become explosive under the out and vote," continued the socialist candidate. ".They workers faced with a deep economic crisis. pressure of the worldwide economic depression. ignore the fact that these youth have very little to look Bonn has achieved even greater political, economic, and Working people need unity among ourselves to fight the forward to. military dominance with respect to its European rivals, capitalist rulers' onslaught, no matter what trading bloc "They point to these youth and blame them and their despite the battering its economy has taken from the they belong to. The rivalries between the imperialists will lack of initiative for the conditions their generation faces attempt to absorb the workers' state in the east. Politicians lead us to World War Ill if the employers succeed in today. Nothing could be further from the truth," said in Germany have declared the goal of achieving parity in inflicting crushing blows against working people, in Eu Warren. living standards throughout EC countries as a ''dangerous rope and elsewhere. Misleaders are responsible illusion," reacting to the possibility that Germany might A fight for working-class unity should begin by demand have to foot the bill for improving living conditions in less ing jobs for all by shortening the workweek with no cut in "These so-called leaders are directly responsible for developed countries like Portugal or Greece. pay, affirmative action programs, and cancellation of the refusing to lift a finger to mobilize potentially massive Applications by Malta, Cyprus, and Turkey to join the foreign debt that devastates Third World countries. The political forces into the streets demanding jobs for these EC are likely to be turned down. The German rulers are labor movement should oppose all restrictions on immi youth and the right to a desegregated education. not keen on the idea of accepting any Eastern European gration and travel. 'They refuse to provide Black youth with the political alternative they were presented with in their own youth during the rise of the civil rights and Black nationalist movements in the 1960s and early ' 70s. "Those movements pointed toward realizing our worth Japan rulers' military drive and humanity through struggle as well as getting concrete and measurable results out of these struggles. Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has won parlia agenda since the end of the war against Iraq. ·'Instead, these youth today are offered the 'alternative' mentary acceptance of the principle that Japan's military They are working overtime to get around the strong of voting for these angle merchants or opting for gang may be used abroad. Despite legislative "safeguards" sup antiwar sentiment among Japanese working people and membership. posedly postponing implementation to a dim distant future, youth. "The vast majority of Black youth are not members of the direction Japan's rulers wish to move is unmistakable: gangs. But this does not negate the fact that around the towards the ability to use their power to guarantee stability As the imperialists in Japan, as well Min Germany. take country tens of thousands of Black youth find themselves for their interests in Asia. The latest mass demonstrations steps to wield military power, the dangers facing the world tied into these outfits. become clearer. by students and workers in Thailand underline their con "Where do these gangs come from? What are they a cerns. Utilizing their military might around the globe will product of!" asked the presidential candidate. "First and Led by Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, the Japanese result in misery and devastation for the world's working foremost they are a product of the absence of political imperialists are acting on the lessons they learned from the people, just as the destruction wrought against Baghdad struggle against the crisis-ridden capitalist system," ex U.S.-led war drive on Iraq. Along with Germany, Japan by the United States, Britain, France, and the other "allies" plained the. candidate. Warren said this crisis has deepened paid billions of dollars to the United States, one of its chief brutalized first and foremost the people of Iraq. over the last 16 years. "The social conditions that exist rivals, for a war that was fought for Washington's interests. This destruction - and the ultimate nightmare of a today," said Warren, "are even more segregated-by race Japan has a large and modem standing army. The coun serious military confrontation between imperialist powers and class- than the late 1960's. try spends around $30 billion a year maintaining a force - can only be prevented if the imperialists are disarmed. "In most major cities in this country almost two gener of 247,000 soldiers in uniform. Miyaz.awa now seeks to This is the fight for workers in every country. We must ations of Black youth have in their vast majority been iced transform this army into a force capable of taking decisive fight to take away their ability to wage war. out of any hope of getting a job," said the socialist. "Under action in the world. The Japanese rulers have every inten In the end this will require workers and farmers taking these conditions, a layer of these youth will join youth tion of acting as a military power in Asia. power out of the hands of the imperialists, and creating a gangs. Ridding themselves of the constitutional restriction on society free of the inexorable drive to war that is built into the use of their military has been on the Japanese rulers' capitalism. Lives ' worthless' Gang members have had their "humanity assaulted," living their lives as if "they weren't worth a dime. It's as if the gangs have internalized the idea that under capitalism their lives are worthless," continued Warren. This is cod Fight undemocratic ballot laws ified by the courts and the prison system. Warren pointed to the positive development that these youth have stopped shooting each other. "But the gangs Since its founding in I 938, the Socialist Workers Party come a reality that touches the lives of millions of working and their leaders do not have progressive ideas," he said. has had a proud history of fighting undemocratic election people around the world. They are repeating what liberals like Jerry Brown are laws. These Jaws are designed to keep parties independent The sharp debates in capitalist politics in this year's saying, which is mostly calling for federal aid. They have of the Democrats and Republicans out of politics. Such election reflect the impact that depression-like economic also asked for reactionary workfare programs in place of laws show the true face of capitalist society. and social conditions are having on working people and welfare and the elimination of busing in some instances. The SWP has been involved in dozens of legal battles the middle class. "We don't hold these youth responsible for their lack of to protect its rights, often expanding democratic rights and political clarity. How could it be any different?" Warren political space for others in the process. The socialists tum There has been a steady bipartisan shift to the right in asked. the restrictive rules - in particular the requirement to capitalist politics for a number of years. But this shift does collect thousands of signatures in order to appear on the not automatically mean that there is also a narrowing of "In the weeks since the riots, an all-out assault has been ballot - to their favor by reaching out with petitioning the political space for discussion and debate in the working waged against the people of Los Angeles. The FBI is there efforts to discuss politics with working people and youth class. If anything, the space to argue, protest. and discuss in force. who are looking for a political way forward. politics has grown since the U.S.-led war against Iraq. This "A terrible defeat has been set up by the rulers in Los This year's election period takes place at a time of the has been proven this year as supporters of the socialist Angeles. Thousands of people have been rounded up and most extensive political debate in U.S. politics since the campaign have fought to get their candidates on the ballot. thrown in jail. Frame-ups will go on for months. The presidential election of 1968. More working people realize In this situation the fight for ballot status that socialists assault on democratic rights will get worse not better. that a social catastrophe has begun. This catastrophe is are waging takes on even more importance. It is connected "This is why a fight must be organized to indict the cops caused by the normal workings of the capitalist system. to asserting the legitimacy of working-class political par who beat Rodney King simultaneously with a fight against The wars, the sharpening interimperialist conflicts, the ties, and making use of the democratic rights that have the massive frame-ups. Out of such a fight thinking youth opening of a worldwide depression, and the crisis of the been won by previous generations. Establishing and de who are Black can and will come to realize their worth international market system that the socialist election cam fending ballot rights for socialists helps defend the demo.. and their ability to change the world. It is this we can look paign of 1988 explained was fast approaching, have be- cratic rights of alL forward to," emphasized the socialist candidate. 14 The Militant June 19, 1992 Ravenswood Steelworkers discuss proposed pact This column is devoted to re The proposed settlement would Strikers picket Kroger and helpers and all 4,300 youth Pittsburgh bus drivers porting the resistance by working put union members back to work shareholders meeting carriers within two years. Drivers still without a contract people to the employers' assault and force the company to fire 1,300 had been working without a con "What do we want? A contract. on their living standard, working scabs who have been working at the tract since January I. Six weeks after they returned to When do we want it? Now!" and work, Pittsburgh transit drivers are conditions, and unions. plant, according to union officials. In response to the strike, Press "No more scabs!" were the rally still without a contract. Bus and Working people around the Some 1,500 USWA members management locked out all union ing cries of more than I 00 trade trolley drivers in Pittsburgh ended world are involved in skirmishes would be eligible to go back if they employees on May 18, including unionists who gathered in Cincin their four-week strike April 1. 3 over speedup, forced overtime, pass the company physical, includ typesetters, printers, reporters, ad nati, to send a clear message to a after a court injunction ordered layoffs, and attacks on health ing 12 employees fired for "strike vertising personnel, and others. Kroger shareholders meeting them back to work. The 2,700 and safety benefits. Some union misconduct." However, two work Only the nonunion editorial staff there. members of Amalgamated Transit ists faced with sharp takeback ers who have been convicted of remains on the job. Under a fed "We're gonna win!" said Don Union (ATU) Local 85 went on demands, lockouts, and union felony charges will not get their eral joint operating agreement the Rough, a member of United Food strike because Port Authority busting moves have gone on jobs back. The company has threat Press prints and distributes and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Transit refused to grant raises and strike to force the bosses to back ened to close the plant unless union Pittsburgh's other major daily Local 227 in Louisville, Kentucky, pension improvements recom down. members ratify the pact. newspaper-the Post-Gazette. who joined Kroger workers from mended by its own fact-finding We invite you to contribute The company is offering $2,000 The lockout has halted production Detroit at the protest. commission. short items to this column as a in back pay instead of the $80,000 of both newspapers. way for other fighting workers many workers believe they are Thousands of Kroger workers in The injunction was sought by Michigan have been on strike since The II unions who organize the City of Pittsburgh, which pre April 13. workers at the Press and Post-Ga sented 30 witnesses over several The pickets are determined not zette have joined together in the days of hearings to testify to the ON THE PICKET LINE to buckle to Kroger's takeback de Pittsburgh Newspaper Unions hardships and safety hazards al mands. The Detroit strikers were Unity Council. Members of the legedly caused by the transit joined by three Cincinnati Teamster Unity Council, as well as other strike. The ATU did not argue around the world to read about owed and a I 0 percent after-tax locals and UFCW workers from unionists and supporters, rallied against the injunction because and learn from these important profit-sharing plan. Other terms in Cincinnati, Louisville, and Colum May 18 in a park across from the union officials thought any back struggles. Jot down a few lines clude a $1.25-an-hour wage in bus. Ohio. downtown headquarters of the to-work order would include send to let other Militant readers crease over three years, cost-of-liv Members of UFCW Local 227 Press. The "Stop the Press" rally. ing the conflict to binding know about what is happening ing raises, and improved pensions. in Louisville expressed great con numbering between 2,000 and arbitration, which was their goal. at your workplace or in your The company will maintain job re cern about the fight in Detroit be 3,000 participants, called for unity The judge, however, did not order union. If there is an interesting structuring that has been imple cause their contract will be coming in the strike against the Press and binding arbitration, but instead or political discussion going on at mented in the plant. According to up for negotiation in October. The demanded that management return dered the union and management work, we would like to hear RAC officials, 1,000 replacement Louisville local has been sending to the bargaining table. to return to negotiations. about that too. workers have been doing the work four of its members to DetrOit every Most drivers saw no alternative formerly done by 1,700 Steel week to help its union brothers and The Unity Council has been dis tributing a fact sheet on the strike to accepting the union officials' workers. sisters. proposal to obey the injunction and A tentative agreement has been "The money they're using for which explains that the lockout is Many union members were glad continue to fight for binding arbi reached between Ravenswood Alu scabs . . . they should be putting in Press management's first step in a that the company had been forced tration through the courts. But a minum Corp. (RAC) and the your pockets!" said one of the drive to replace 1,200 union work to settle. But some expressed anger few weeks later the court rejected United Steelworkers of America strike leaders at the end of the ers with "low-wage, part-time at job eliminations and other con the request for arbitration. (USWA). More than 1,000 mem picket. Kroger has hired an esti hourly workers who get no health tract terms. "We expected more bers of USWA Local 5668, locked mated 2,500 replacement workers insurance, no vacation, no noth after all we' ve been through," ex The following people contributed out of the plant for the past 19 and spent $300,000 on security ing." plained union members Diana to this week's column: Linda Joyce, months, met in Charleston, West guards since the strike began. Virginia, May 30 to discuss terms Talbert and Carolyn Reed. "If On May 28 the nonunion edito member of International Union of of the proposed contract. Voting we've won, it's not what we've rial staff of the Press produced the Electronic Workers Local 627 in is taking place by mail and will be been fighting for." Teamster strike shuts first issue of a 28-page newspaper, Fairmont, West Virginia; Tom tallied June 12. If the pact is ap Pittsburgh newspaper the Allegheny Bulletin, which was Nichols, member of International proved, Local 5668 members Ernie Cobb, a worker with 28 On May 17, 600 drivers and printed by an outside contractor Association of Machinists Local would return to their jobs June 29. years at RAC, said, "1 feel it's a route managers who belong to and mailed out. The newspaper 298 in Morgantown, West Virginia; The agreement was reached after victory even though it's not a good Teamsters Local 21 1 walked off the unions are threatening to organize Mark Gilsdorf in Cincinnati; Jo marathon bargaining sessions contract. We have to go back and job at the Pittsburgh Press. The boycotts of the businesses that ad anne Kuniansky and Lorraine throughout May, which followed fight the battle inside the plant. strike came after Press manage vertise in the Bulletin. The unions Starsky in Pittsburgh; and Matilde the shake-up of top management at We 've had 19 months of a real ment began implementing its new are also considering publishing Zimmerman, member of the Inter the end of April and the reopening education-an education that newspaper delivery system, which their own paper during the shut national Ladies' Garment Workers' of negotiations. didn't come cheap." will eliminate 450 Teamster drivers down. Union in Pittsburgh. -LETTERS ~I Ramona Africa It is an issue of injustice. An injus tice affects everybody. It is a threat Ramona Africa was released to everybody. I know Rodney King May 13 from the State Correctional never thought that he would be the Institute in Muncy, Pennsylvania. victim of the injustice he was," she Africa is the only adult who sur noted. vived the brutal 1985 police bomb Henry Hillenbrand ing, of a house belonging to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania MOVE, an organization in the Black community in Philadelphia. The bombing, which started a fire Planning to subscribe that eventually destroyed more than l received a sample copy of the 60 adjoining houses, was ordered Militant newipaper and found it by then mayor Wilson Goode. very informative, interesting, and Heavy police gunfire prevented provocative. The articles are local, five other adults and six children national and international; and you from escaping the flames. They give a perspective that's usually de were burned to death. nied and overlooked in the majority Arrested immediately upon her of controlled state media in this escape, Ramona Africa was sen country. tenced to between 16 months and I'm sorry to say we don't even seven years on charges of conspir have a library here (or anything else acy, riot, and assault. other than cells which they're still Authorities offered to release her building), so l can't ask them to on parole after the first 16 months subscribe to your paper. But I have of her sentence if she would re the "discount prisoner subscription nounce her assoc1at10n with form" you sent and will hold on to MOVE. Because she refused to that until I can subscribe myself. So give up her right to freedom of you can look forward to my sub speech and association, Ramona scription hopefully in the near fu Africa was forced to serve out the rure. maximum term of her sentence. A prisoner warehouse worker, was out mush ing him any questions about his any wrong doing in his arrest, how Africa used the wide media atten Jessup, Maryland tion surrounding her release to de room hunting when he accidentally head injuries. "I was not drunk, ever, County Attorney Owens said mand freedom for 12 other MOVE splashed some mud on a cop. ''The and the cops did not even conduct he would continue to investigate cop then began kicking me," said a breathalizer," he said. members who are still in prison. Iowa cop brutality Jsley's arrest. Isley. "He kneed me in the face and Nine of the 12 are serving 30 to A protest of about 25 people Isley later pleaded guilty May 13 Maurice Williams when l looked up l could see an 100-year sentences on frame-up against the brutal police beating of to one count of public intoxication, Des Moines, Iowa charges in connection with the John Isley was held May 9 on the other one laughing. I passed out two counts of criminal mischief, and woke up in a jail cell." 1978 death of Philadelphia police courthouse lawn in the Iowa town and two counts of interference with The letters column is an open man James Ramp. of Albia. The demonstration was Larry Burk, Isley's stepfather, official acts. forum for all viewpoints on sub Africa encouraged people to organized by relatives and friends forced the cops to take him to the Monroe County Attorney William jects of general interest to our write letters to local, state, and fed who carried handmade signs. One hospital. The doctor X-rayed his Owns said Isley was sentenced to six readers. Please keep your letters eral officials demanding freedom sign read, "This is not L.A .. " in hand although he complained about months in county jail and fined $1 00, brief. Where necessary they will be for the MOVE prisoners. reference to the beating of Black head injuries. Isley said the doctor but was placed on probation. As part abridged. Please indicate if you "We want people to know that worker Rodney King. told him, "Looks like you were of the court proceeding Isley signed prefer that your initials be used this is not an issue of MOVE alone. Isley, a 23-year-old unemployed drunk and fell down," without ask- a statement releasing officers from rather than your full name. June 19, 1992 The Militant 15 TH£ MILITANT Nova Scotia miners vote to join union BY ROGER ANNIS To date the government has not re said one miner. "It was like walking on the tested this decision, warning that the mine MONTREAL- Miners at Curragh Re sponded to their demands. moon." was too unsafe to permit work inside. sources Inc.'s Westray coal mine in Pictou "Right now there's a lot of uncertainty The documentary also explained how The miners also said that restoration County, Nova Scotia, have voted 81 percent over our future," said Walsh. "We feel we Nova Scotia premier Donald Cameron and work would amount to tampering with the in favor of joining the United Steelworkers have no control over what the company or Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney physical evidence of the explosion. 'They of America (USWA) union. the government does. Without the union we - who represented Pictou County in the warned that a cover-up of the unsafe con 'This is a big win for humanity," miner might be overlooked at the inquiry into the Canadian parliament in the mid-1980's ditions that prevailed in the mine was under Gordon Walsh told the Militant. "It makes explosion at the mine." successfully lobbied to override the safety way. Miners also released an internal com us unified and stronger." concerns about reopening the mines there. pany memorandum which detailed proce The unionization vote is the latest de Miners expose safety violations Both their governments provided substan dures for a massive document-shredding velopment in a political and legal battle Testimony by Westray miners about hor tial subsidies to the Westray mine, which operation being undertaken by Curragh. against Curragh and the Nova Scotia gov rendous violations of safety conditions in began production in July 1991. On May 26, Leroy Legere, the provincial ernment by miners and the families of the the mine continue to fill newspaper, radio, A federal government study in 1988 made labour minister, announced that the govern victims of the terrible explosion that ripped and television news reports in Nova Scotia. no mention of the long history of methane ment had received a request from Curragh through the Westray mine on May 9. The On May 28, the Canadian Broadcasting gas explosions in Pictou County coal mines. to permanently seal off the portion of the blast killed all 26 miners who were on Corporation televised a 40-minute docu Some 250 miners have been killed there in mine where the explosion and the deaths shift. mentary during its prime-time national news the past century. The United Mineworkers occurred. Legere said he saw no problem The miners are demanding a full investi broadcast in which miners detailed the union (UMWA) in Nova Scotia had argued with granting the request. gation into the May 9 disaster. They want safety violations at the mine. against reopening a mine there. The last The following day, a portion of the formal recognition of participation at the Their testimony describes a mine with Pictou County mine before Westray closed mine's roof collapsed and there was a large judicial inquiry that has been established by excessive methane gas and coal dust accu in 1967. leak of methane gas. the Nova Scotia government and to be pro mulations; inadequate methane gas detec Curragh is pressing ahead to reopen the vided with the necessary legal counsel. They tors, ventilation, and training; unsafe work mine. The company began recalling miuers 'The mood in Pictou County is chang ing," Rannie MacDonald, a member of are demanding the same thing for the fam procedures underground; and frequent rock to restore the mine less than two weeks after USWA Local 1231 at Trenton Car Works ilies of the victims. falls. Coal dust was ankle-deep or deeper, the explosion. A group of 70 miners pro- and a vice-president of the New Glasgow and District Labor Council, told the Mili tant. "People are getting ~ore and more angry. Nobody trusts what the company Australia gov't restricts refugee rights says. Everyone I talk to is saying, 'Cover up, cover-up.' "What people want to know is how in the \"!F hell can the company get into the mine, then talk about sealing it or flooding it, before the inquiry or any other independent body has even had a look in there?" The first official report of the May 9 explosion was released by the government on May 26. It was produced by Donald Mitchell, a Pennsylvania mining engineer hired to advise the government. Mitchell says there were two explosions that occurred on May 9. A methane gas ex plosion at one of the mine work. faces killed 11 miners working there. 'The gas explosion then touched off a much larger coal dust explosion that ripped through the rest of the mine and killed the other 15 miners who were working in a diffe.rent section. Government: 'typical explosion' Mitchell, who did not observe the mine himself, then went on to tell reporters, "I would say that, based on what we know today, this is nothing more than a typical explosion where a number of regrettable things all came together." The report did not address the contro versy surrounding the Westray mine's safety record. Curragh received at least four formal warnings by provincial government mine inspectors after the mine went into operation in J uJy 1991 about violations of the provincial Mine Safety Act. New revelations show that Curragh re Militant/Paul Shaw ceived important exemptions from the Mine Cambodian refugees facing deportation from Australia participate in protest action. Gerry Hand is the Australian immigration Safety Act after construction of the mine minister. Some 300 boat people from Cambodia and China are being imprisoned in detention centers in Australia. began in 1989. It was exempted from pro visions that call for a certified coal examiner BY DOUG COOPER month limit on detentions. However, the foreign minister. developed the plan and to ensure safety at the mine and that require SYDNEY, Australia - The Labour Party "clock" is suspended for the period that hundreds of Australian troops are now in all coal miners to be certified, that is, thor government dealt a blow to democratic refugees use the courts to appeal adminis Cambodia to help enforce it. oughly trained. rights May 5 when it rushed legislation trative decisions. On May 10 activists from the Sydney Joe Parker of Upper Musquodoboit, Nova through Parliament restricting the rights of The Sydney Morning Herald reported that based Action Committee for Refugees in Scotia, told CBC Radio May 17 that when he refugees. The hastily drafted amendments to Gerald Hand, the minister for immigration, Australia organized a protest of 150 out was hired at Westray he received only an the Migration Act block legal appeals by told Parliament that the amendments were side the Villawood Detention Centre. Cam eight-hour classroom training course. people seeking release from detention while "designed to send a clear message to current bodian refugees facing imminent Parker is an experienced hard-rock miner their applications for refugee status are and future boat arrivals that migration to deportation participated from behind the and recalled being surprised at receiving so being reviewed. Australia may not be achieved by simply barbed-wire-topped fences. Speakers in little training. Like many other Westray The amendments were introduced and arriving and expecting to be allowed into cluded John Newman, a Labour member workers, he soon quit the job out of fear for passed less than 48 hours before a federal the community." of the New South Wales state parliament, his safety. court was to hear the case of 37 Cambodian Eve Lester, a lawyer for the 37 refugees, along with a city council member from a Collections of money for the families of refugees who have been imprisoned for two described the government's action to the nearby municipality who emigrated from the dead miners continue to pour into Pictou and a half years awaiting an administrative Herald as "a shameful attempt to deprive Vietnam. The action followed a similar one County. According to Brendon Macintyre, decision on their applications. these people of their fundamental right to that drew 60 people in April. a member of Local 2501 of the UMWA in The 37 are among some 300 so-called court access." Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, tens of thou That same day 10 Chinese people in a boat people from Cambodia and China in Prominent civil libertarians, and even the sands of dollars have been collected among carcerated in detention centers. The prisons government's own human rights commis wooden boat were escorted into Darwin Harbour in Northern Territory by govern the several thousand coal miners there who are located at Villawood, in Sydney, and at sioner, Brian Burdekin, have spoken out are members of the UMWA. Miners at the ment officials. They seek to join relatives Port HedJand, in Western Australia. The Port against this violation of due process. Phalen mine at New Waterford contributed living in Darwin. They are being detained Hedland facility has been described as "a Government officials point to the imperi $10,000 at one plant-gate collection. concentration camp" by the archbishop of alist-organized Cambodian "peace" plan at a former leper colony and were given 28 days to file their immigration applications. Perth. imposed by the United Nations as evidence Roger Annis is a member ofCanadian Auto In a cynical effort to mask its intentions, that Cambodian refugees no longer have a The Action Committee called another Workers Loca/1900 in Montreal and works the government's amendments set a nine- "genuine" claim. Gareth Evans, Australia's protest for June 6. at A/can Aluminum. 16 The Militant June 19, 1992