NEWS & LETTERS Theory/Practice 'Human Power is its own end'—Marx

Vol. 40 - No. 6 JULY 1995 250 Chinatown a Supreme Court opens new racist era J.S. labor by Michelle Landau The U.S. Supreme Court closed out its 1994-95 term in June with a sweeping, retrograde attack on Black jattlefront America, whose effects will be felt for years to come. The Court ruled against the legality of federal mandates for by John Marcotte affirmative action; against efforts to improve the quality It is a long distance from the Midwest farm country of education in segregated inner-city Black schools; and iround Decatur, 111., where Staley, Caterpillar and Fire­ against initiatives that had succeeded in translating mi­ stone workers have been on strike or locked out, to New nority group voting rights into voting power. fork City's Chinatown. It is a distance of a thousand All three decisions (by the same 5-4 majority of Jus­ niles, and of language and culture. tices Rehnquist, Kennedy, Scalia, O'Connor, and Thom­ But Chinatown is every bit as much a war zone as De- as) represent reversals from the one period in the :atur, and if the Chinese restaurant, garment and con- Court's existence when it responded to the progressive itruction workers could meet the struggling workers thrust of American history, the mid-1950s through the rom Staley and Cat and Firestone, I don't think lan- mid-1970s. All three decisions proclaim a "color-blind so­ fuage would be a big problem between them. They ciety," and insidiously use the 1950s-60s language of vould speak the same language, the language of freedom equality and civil rights to reduce the meaning of rom slave labor. "rights" to what the Black anthropologist John Langs- Back when Ronald Reagan was talking about creating ton Gwaltney called in a similar context, "insubstantial obs, but all the jobs being created were low-wage, tem- generality," noting that "The rogue right Supreme >orary jobs, Jesse Jackson aptly said that African Ameri- Court... diminishes human rights whether it affirms or :ans had "full employment" under slavery, and that is denies them." (See the "Afterword" to the 1993 edition tot our goal. Today, it is the Chinese workers organized of his Drylongso: A Self-Portrait of Black America.) n their workers' center, the Chinese Staff and Workers THE COURT: COLOR-BLIND, OR Association (CSWA), who picket Jing Fong, Chinatown's PRESUMPTIVELY RACIST? argest and most profitable restaurant, chanting "No nore slave labor!" • On the last day of its 1994-95 term, the Court's de­ They are protesting wages as low as 70 cents an hour, cision in the voting rights case of Miller v. Johnson effec­ tealing of tips by management, and 70-hour work weeks tively overturned the 1982 Congressional amendment to vith no overtime pay. Decatur workers make I guess its 1965 Voting Rights Act. iver ten dollars an hour. But far from Decatur and Chi- The 1965 Act had granted the federal government the Sacramento rally to defend affirmative action against gov­ latown being worlds apart, I would say Chinese immi­ authority to enforce in the states the voting rights of Af­ ernor's rollback and ballot measure. grant workers are at the cutting edge of today's labor rican Americans. In 1982, Congress had strengthened truggles in the U.S. They are facing today the future the Act, stipulating that minority group voting power trict created with race as the predominant factor "pre­ ilanned by American capitalism for all of us. was consistently dispersed in a number of different elec­ sumptively unconstitutional." With a logic abusively ne­ In the restructured U.S. economy, there will be plenty toral districts. gating the history of the American South, the Court held if jobs—if you are willing to work for low wages and no Following the 1990 census, Congressional redistricting that the Georgia case demonstrated no previous viola­ lenefits or rights. There are plenty of jobs in Chinatown, doubled the number of "majority minority" districts tions of BJack voters' rights, and thus no reason to dis­ hat is not the issue. Slave labor conditions are the issue, from 26 to 52 and the number of Blacks in Congress rupt "traditional" criteria for drawing district lines. onditions of life and work. surged from 16 elected in 1990 to 39 elected two years later; new Latino Congresspeople were also elected, from (Continued on page 3) See John Alan's historical perspective new majority-Latino districts. on affirmative action, p.8 In 1993, the Supreme Court declared the unconstitu­ Black World tionality of North Carolina's 12th District, which had Civil rights advocates like the Voter Education Project just elected that state's first African-American to Con­ fear that this ruling could well terminate all Black con­ gress in the 20th century. Declaiming against the dis­ gressional districts drawn on the basis of the 1990 cen­ Behind U.S. trict's "bizarre shape," the Court ruled that it resembled sus. Others likened the ruling to those that ended politi­ the "racial gerrymanders of the past" and "political cal gains for freed slaves, following the short-lived Re­ apartheid." construction period a century ago. electoral The ruling in Miller goes even further, and threatens • In the school desegregation case, Missouri v. Jen­ the existence of both the redrawn federal districts, and kins, the Court turned the clock that far back as well. It hundreds of state and county "majority minority" seats declared illegal a Kansas City, Mo., program whose focus screen in as well. Although the Georgia district in dispute bears no was state expenditures for improving the quality of edu- Haiti bizarre shape, the Court majority now declared any dis- (Continued on page 10) by Lou Turner The botched U.S. sanctioned June 25 elections in Haiti 's poor reject Clinton HUD policy iave taught the Haitian people at least one great lesson: J.S.-style democracy is as bankrupt exported to Haiti as Chicago—The growing fightback against govern­ HUD's 90-day plan to overhaul the CHA will intensify t has been historically in the U.S. Indeed, the historical ment attacks on Black and Latino working-class commu­ the dispersal of tenants in the Clinton administration's 3 indispensable to any understanding of the present mo- nities took a powerful step forward, June 26, when some frenzy to chalk up a political "victory" for its beleagured dent of U.S.-Haiti relations, Sidney Mintz reminded us 2,000 up-from-the-bottom Blacks and Latinos took it to domestic policy. ecently. "It is strange, but true, that Haiti has never the streets. The professionals and office workers that What the protesters showed by their demands is that ieen forgiven by the West for refusing to tolerate the so- normally bustle around Chicago's downtown Loop in the these most isolated people in American society see the ial and economic structure European intentions had in- morning had to suspend business as usual when the "big picture" more clearly than the political pundits. tailed...." (See Sidney Mintz, "Can Haiti Change?", in masses from Chicago's poorest neighborhoods suddenly Their chant of "No Justice, No Peace" was punctuated oreign Affairs, January-February 1995.) showed up, fired up and demanding answers from the by the more haunting declaration—"No Housing, No The same U.S. imperialist intentions that imposed a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Convention." This was a reference to Chicago being lilitary occupation on Haiti from 1915 to 1934 and set which had earlier in the month taken over the day-to­ showcased as the 1996 site of the Democratic Party Con­ p its modern military apparatus, that engineered the day operations of Chicago's Housing Authority (CHA). vention. Along with references to the infamous 1968 verthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide—the country's first The protesters, mostly youth and women, came from Democratic Convention, which focused the horrified at­ emocratically president—in September 1991, that in- an assortment of community organizations. Arriving in tention of the world on then Chicago Mayor Richard aded Haiti in October 1994 and again made itself re- buses, and from another protest in front of the INS "Boss" Daley's unleashing of the city's mad-dog police ponsible for reorganizing the military-police apparatus, building a block away, the protesters encircled the Met­ department on demonstrators, one community flyer as once more made itself the guarantor of "free and calfe Federal Building while the Chicago police scurried warned: "For you it was 1776. For us it will be 1996." rir elections" (sic) in Haiti. around to make it look as though they had some kind of What Chicago's poor and working class see is that the The anatomy of the Haitian elections must be ana- "presence" in the face of the mass energy surging HUD take-over is the opening salvo of the Clinton and rzed on two levels—the political and the economic, through downtown Chicago. Daley administrations in preempting a repeat of 1968. irst, the June 25 election, which fielded some 12,000 Since the November 1994 elections that made Ging­ They're "cleaning up" Chicago for the presidential poli­ mdidates running for more than 2,000 offices, was, rich's "Contract on America" this country's new "mani­ tics of the 1996 election. Indeed, Daley bungled an at­ ith its confusion and corruption, neither more nor less fest destiny," protests have been picking up. What was tempt to undermine the June 26 protest by illegally de­ fiasco than last year's "democratic" elections in Mexi- distinctive and new about the June 26 protest, aside taining Marion Stamps, the principal organizer of the ), or the kind of election Chicago is renowned for run- from the fact that much of the Left was conspicuously protest, the weekend before. ing from time to time. absent, is that this was not only against the Gingrich In the meantime, the conditions in projects like near- It is the example of Mexico, and the fact that the Right but against the Clinton's repressive public policy north side Cabrini-Green continues to deteriorate. "We ipatistas's Chiapas rebellion almost succeeded in that's now coming down on people. resting political power from the U.S.'s NAFTA ally, the The displacement of CHA tenants through eviction (Continued on page 8) RI, that mobilized the economic democratization of and relocation from buildings that have come under aiti's political landscape. Having boasted 90% voter demolition orders, as well as the security "lockdown" ON THE INSIDE gistration of Haiti's 3.5 million electorate, the heavy- and police sweeps of the housing projects, had already MARXIST-HUMANIST ARCHIVES tnded attempts of U.S. aid agencies, led by USAID, to been carried out by Mayor Daley and CHA chairman, • The African Revolutions page 4 ly the popular movement, marginalize left activists, Vince Lane, going back to the Bush administration. PHILOSOPHIC DIALOGUE • Adorno and id bolster right-wing opponents of Aristide and the Nothing has changed under Clinton, except that after >pular movement, resulted in an only 25% to 50% turn- years of corruption, HUD Secretary Henry Cisnerds has the dialectic of labor page 5 it of registered voters. As the mass-based, left APN chosen this moment to take over the CHA. ESSAY • Community struggles fight What brought forth the protest is that none of the old environmental page 9 (Continued on page 8) practices have desisted. On the contrary, the fear is that Page 2 NEWS & LETTERS JULY 199 Has Women's Studies turned to actijvism? I Lesbian and gay pride by Jennifer Pen basic conditions of global capital," succumbing to the "We are in reality: our theories shovld be too." This market, and that alternative visions of our future are passionately expressed sentiment, spoi ?n by feminist needed. physicist and philosopher Karen Barad, vas reflected in Two Black women gave the fiercest critiques of the in­ many ways by speakers at the 16th Annual National humanity of capitalism. Jacqueline Alexander, a Black Women's Studies Association Conference held in Nor­ lesbian and cultural thejorist, reported that man, Okla., in June. True to the conference's theme of five Caribbean nations have passed ftnti-lesbian/gay leg­ "Cultural, Intellectual and Political (R)evolutions," islation. She insisted that all our analyses of the state women scholars, activists and theorists directly critiqued must include the ways in Which it condones heterosexism as a paradigm of its kiiid of order. Likewise, Black political economist Ruth Wilson Gil- more attacked California's "three strikes law" as a di­ j Woman as Reason rect outgrowth of "de-laborization" land the state's need to control the "social chaos" it co-

from the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya An essay from Presence Africaine [ J Marxist-Humanism and the African Revolutions pendent states, the American Negroes developed their with President Senghor's Humanism is that it is genei Editor's note struggle by "sit-ins" throughout the South. Coinciden- and abstract where it should be concrete and specii Our celebration of the 40th anniversary of News tally, there is a division in the actual contact between The fundamental difference between Senegalese Socii & Letters continues this month with the publication -Americans and Africans who come here either as ism and that envisaged by Marx does not reside in t of excerpts of Raya Dunayevskaya's essay "Marxist- guests of the government, a university, or even the labor difference between "spiritualism" and "materialisn Humanism" which first appeared in the journal movement. They still remain as far removed from the but that between theory and practice. To me, the trage Presence Africaine in 1963. This essay, which dis­ Negro worker as if they were still on their own continent of the African Revolutions appears to stem from the ft cusses the indigenousness of Marxist-Humanism to and neither the white nor the Negro worker has the that its leaders are so weighed down by the awareness the African revolutions, was written shortly after money to go to Africa. There is practically no possible the lack of technology and the need to industrialize rs Dunayevskaya's trip to in 1962. It pro­ people-to-people relationship through any international idly that they turn for aid almost exclusively to the po vides an overview of the "two-way road" of freedom organization. ers-that-be in the technologically advanced countries, i struggles and ideas between the U.S. and Africa, My recent trip to West Africa was, in great part, motk stead of to the proletariat in those lands. Let me make which has been a central theme of News & Letters vated by this state of affairs. The question concerning clear at Once that I am not in the least opposed to a: since our birth. The full essay can be found in The the link between African and Marxist-Human­ African country accepting aid from any source whatev< Raya Dunayevskaya Collection microfilm #9622. ism does not relate to the fact that it is hard to hear the be it from de Gaulle's France, Kennedy's America News & Letters published excerpts under the title voice of the "Second" America over the atomic din of the Khrushchev's Russia. Western imperialism has plu "Marxist-Humanism: African, American: Why Not a established authorities, but rather because of the contra­ dered Africa for centuries, plundered it both of its ma New International?" in April 1963 (#6703), and a dictory statements made by African Socialists them­ power and its natural resources and it is high time for letter by Dunayevskaya on Sept. 25, 1962 presented selves. I do not mean that the voice of American Social­ least some of this African wealth to return to the cou a draft for the essay because "sometimes rough ism is one voice; very far from it. Here, differences are tries of its origin. This, however, is not the main iss notes are more stimulating than the 'finished prod­ shouted, emphasized and over-emphasized, while in Afri­ for Socialists; the point at issue is firstly the relations!] uct" (#9614). ca contradictory statements are made simultaneously to one's own people, the very ones who made indepe with affirmations of pan-Mricanism and a unity which is dence possible; secondly, to the underlying philosophy supposed to exist, although there are now two blocs freedom which is not to be degraded to a changing tac among the independent countries. Although there are dependent on the relationship of forces with the eneir he indigenousness of the roots of African and Ameri­ thirdlyj, and, above all, to the world proletariat which can Marxist-Humanism is questioned by everyone. sharp divisions between Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the Ni­ T gerian Youth Congress in Nigeria, between Ghana and equally desirous as Africa to put an end to -ri The African Revolutions, having written the most excit­ den, capitalist world which is at present hell-bent for n ing pages of post-war history, have indeed given African clear destruction. Socialism an advantage over American Socialism and have secured the recognition of its philosophy. Indepen­ Of all the African Socialists, Sekou Toure is the o dence has made the views of African spokesmen for So­ who appeals most both to the Left in Africa and in t cialism "official." In capitalist America, on the other United States because of the historic sweep of his dee hand, Marxism—not only in its Communist transforma­ and the passion of his views... tion, but in its original form which Marx called "a thor­ [But] this great African leader excludes all "foreigi oughgoing Naturalism or Humanism"—is treated as a ideologies: "Africa cannot agree, without detriment "foreign doctrine." the respect for her personality, her civilization and h Unfortunately, until recently, even among Socialists, proper structure, to become an organic structure of a both the Humanist and the American roots of Marxism system of states or ideologies whatsoever." As if Mai were the least known parts of that great theory of libera­ ism were not the unity of theory and practice, Preside tion. Precisely because we cannot live in the past, nor be­ Toure maintains that "philosophy does not interest u have as if the one world we live in can level all countries We halve concrete needs." to using the same "program," it is imperative that we In a word, particularism, rather than humanism or i master the Marxist dialectic method of approach to the ternationalism, predominates in, Toure's "full re-Af specific problems of our day. Marx found, for example, canization." The ideology of "Freedom NOW," whi that he had to separate himself from the self-styled elicited the elemental creativity of fhe' iiiaises that i Marxists in the U.S. who tried to evade the whole issue shaped Africa, and thus the world, in less than a decat of the Civil War by saying they were opposed to "all slav­ will surely need a more international content for the ft ery, wage and chattel." Marx was actively and unasham­ ward Movement of humanity... edly on the side of the North, because he recognized the fter Marx's death, American Socialism followed world importance of the Civil War and because he found Apath which, both through sectaraanism and opfW there the human forces that would compel the transfor­ tunisjm, has brought it to its present state of theoreti< mation of that war from one for Union to one for the ab­ and organizational weakness. Nevertheless, the exciti; olition of slavery. These forces were: the Negroes, en period of Negro struggles, begun in 1956 and still goi: masse, as they carried on the slave revolts and the daily on, and their world impact as well as the inspiration th activities of organization and thought; and the white Ab­ Nigeria, Senegal and Guinea, Mali and Togo, all insist draw from the African freedom movements, could op olitionists. that they are for pan-African Socialism. Unfortunately, a new page in world relations. A new international, ev What is critical in this crossing of the paths of Marx this only means that pan-Africanism, far from illuminat­ tr ough. at first it may have to be limited to internatior and the Negro and white Abolitionists is that, despite ing what African Socialism is, helps to confuse friends correspondence, is of prime importance. The dynamic the dissimilarity of organization and guiding philosophy more than enemies. of th^ideas emanating from the African Revolutions) between the International Working Men's Association, an excellent beginning, but for it to become the thres headed by and standing for a new world class­ hat is African Socialism? I asked this although I was old of a new universalism, for an age and not only foj less society, and the Abolitionists who were concentrat­ Wnot unacquainted with the writings of African lead­ continent, it cannot separate practice from theory, jj ing on the immediate need to abolish slavery in the U.S., ers—Azikiwe, Keita, Nyerere, Nkrumah, Senghor, the particular from the universal. Precisely because Li there were these overriding similarities: a) the spontane­ Toure...Long before my trip to Africa I was acquainted in was preparing not only foE the Eiissian Revolution | ous feeling for the idea of immediate freedom; b) the in­ not only with their writings but with their aspirations for a new world stage of consciousness, his "rewritirj dependent working-out of the problem in a specific coun­ and some of them were known to me personally in past of Marx's Civil War in France as State and RevoIuti

ON THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF NEWS & LETTERS

The 40th anniversary is certainly constantly corrupting its possible lead­ something to be proud of—keeping alive ers. Whatever the attempts at uprisings j Readers' Views a vital and creative vein of Marxist and revolts, up to 1968 they found only thinking and in constant dialogue with a half-hearted support in the West and representatives of the forces of libera­ its left intellectual circles. The revolts of youngsters don't have that option for with pitting mental against manual la­ tion, the "movement from practice." 1989 changed the situation so fast and the most part. bor. We have to work out in our own If at times the perspectives for world in such as way that both possible revolu­ I am constantly amazed at the depth minds what are our feelings and wants. change have perhaps been overestimat­ tionary subjects and their theory face an of despair common among youth. But News and Letters is the organization of ed, this "optimism" is certainly more unprecedented situation: some of the po­ when I realize that all of the accomplish­ our thinking. creative than the pessimism of so many litical and economic phenomena remind ments won by the masses like civil Retired worker who have simply withdrawn or joined one of early capitalist developments, yet rights, affirmative action, and education­ California the bourgeoisie. I share with you the the means of battling them in theory as al opportunity, are being abolished by sense of urgency and of the challenge of well as in practice have yet to be found. politicians, I begin to understand these our age of retrogression that more than S. Steiger young people's feelings. The recent lead­ CONSCIOUSNESS SPEED-UP ever demands new beginnings. Czech Republic ership crisis in the NAACP is just one Strikes by small groups of workers Richard Greeman example of how important it is, to quote continue to erupt. They remind me oi Connecticut Raya Dunayevskaya, "to listen to the the fate of Native Americans. They put voices from below." up great fights, but are ultimately de­ We have always been a modest organi­ Black intellectual feated militarily by the government. Raya Dunayevskaya did a good job of zation, but sometimes I think we are too Pennsylvania However, back then, communications showing the world who the true Marx is. modest. Our 40th anniversary issue is a were slow. Today, the situation is differ­ But for the most part, the world hasn't case in point, inasmuch as the only indi­ ent. I read once that Lenin said the Rus­ paid any attention and is still enamored cations of our 40 years publishing News sian working class during the revolution with the mirage of the Bolshevik's por­ & Letters were the brief (and, again, FIGHTING had gained more in trait of Marx. Also workers have lost modest) blurbs in the front page box, the in the space of a few months than the faith in themselves and their cause as a small heading of the Dunayevskaya's ar­ THE entire previous generation. With the ad­ result of recent setbacks in the labor chives article, and the editor's note. RIGHT vent of the computer and modern tele­ struggle. This is the challenge for Marx­ Our longevity is no small achieve­ communications, maybe Lenin's few ist-Humanism and N&L. ment, especially when compared with months can be reduced to a few weeks, other left publications that have come Black historian You are giving the congressional elec­ or even days. What is needed is a spark, and gone with all too much regularity. Pennsylvania tions more importance than they deserve and we can be sure that the stinking We have consistently maintained our * * * when you say the growth of the militias capitalist system will provide plenty. revolutionary principles and philosophic has to be seen in light of the climate Postal worker Raya Dunayevskaya's two articles on confidence that history continues to ob­ Nov. 8 created. The growth of the militia Michigan why a paper like News & Letters were jectively confirm. movement began long before November very helpful, especially in our age of A. Phillips and is the product of social changes far computer communications. The two Detroit "historic matters" she said were in­ more lasting than any that might result volved in such a question were Lenin's from last November's elections. emphasis on the need for a paper as a However you were right to draw a par­ meeting place to bring the forces of re­ It's important that N&L was born at a allel between America's militias and the volt together, and the Committees of time of retrogression, in the midst of groups performing "ethnic cleansing" in SCIENCE Correspondence of the American Revolu­ McCarthyism. You could think that with the former Yugoslavia. Christopher AND a big workers' movement then every­ Hitchen's comparison of the militias tion. TTiey helped get me thinking about LIFE how the paper functions today. thing was easier. Workers in the coal with Germany's Freikorps in The Nation Jennifer mines when Automation was being in­ was also to the point. The Freikorps California troduced were asking, "What kind of la­ were ex-soldiers who felt they had won bor should people do?" The philosopher World War I on the battlefield but been Herbert Marcuse didn't see they were defeated by Germany's civilian govern­ When someone pointed out to me that N&L has undergone a tremendous, asking a philosophic question. What's ment. The American equivalent originat­ one source of Gingrich's ideology is the multidimensional development from its the point of philosophy if you're going to ed with embittered veterans of the Viet­ rightwing militarism of the science fic­ beginning. The major development in disregard human beings? It was nam War, and recently acquired fresh tion writers who are his friends and col­ Dunayevskaya's relation to the miners "working the matter out"—the Hegelian reinforcements in the form of Gulf War laborators, I had a "shock of recogni­ and her philosophic digging that allowed: concept Dunayevskaya discussed in her veterans. tion." This strain of militarism is not her to see what nobody else saw. 1955 letter at N&L's birth—was the de­ The New Socialist really new. When J iwas reading sci-fi velopment of a philosophic dimension. Julia Warren, Mich. during the Vietnam War, there were Ml That development did not come easily, Berkeley, Cal. * * * these militaristic stories and you could though the principle was there from the * # * rn her 1970 article reprinted in the tell the writers were pro-war. Sci-fi al­ beginning. The challenge of the 40th an­ *«±ay issue of N&L, Raya Dunayevskaya Philosophy demands patience. It can't ways reflects the contradictions in socie­ niversary is the needed continual work­ caught the moment when creeping total­ be reduced to formulae. It takes time ty. Then sci-fi was following Nixon, ing out and deepening of that tremen­ itarianism began to gallop under the and has to be worked out with other peo­ whereas now Gingrich is following sci-fi. dous ground. leadership of President Nixon and Vice- ple. Today we face not only impatience Computer analyst Lou Turner President Agnew. The November 1994 with philosophy but an out and out in­ Chicago Chicago elections show how far fascism has gal­ validation of philosophy, J * * * loped by today. When the Delta Pride worker (June J.Pen I keep thinking of how Hitler took N&L) asked, "If you can spend money on San Jose, Cal. over Germany. He was "voted in" by the Seeing the 40 year history of East Eu­ machines and cameras that are not nec­ * * * good people of Germany, the same kind ropean struggle is crucial in dealing with essary (the camera was to spy on the em­ of people that voted in the Nov. 8 elec­ the new contradictions today. How hor­ The 40 years since N&L began show in ployees) why not spent it on people?" it tion here. Today's militias are deep-root­ rendous when the only alternative you retrospect that on both sides of the Iron reminded me of the section in Marxism ed in the right-wing extremist move­ think you have is between "free market" Curtain there was a masquerade. State- and Freedom, where Raya ment that gave birth to the John Birch capitalism and totalitarianism! The June capitalism was masquerading as Con> Dunayevskaya points out the Soviet Society in the early 1960s. Today, when Lead showed there has been pro­ munism and private capitalism as de­ Union could build a nuclear weapons the white racist and anti-Semitic groups test—but the situation becomes even mocracy. But who could believe that system capable of destroying the world don't have Communism to squirt their worse when protest is fraught with the such mind-forged manacles could be put several times over, but was incapable of venom of hate at, they are squirting it at worst kind of contradictions. That con­ on people as we are seeing today? improving the lot of their people. the poor. These right-wing know-no­ tradiction is not only the virulent anti- Black retiree Reader things blame everything but capitalism Semitism that appeared in the Ursus Chicago Bay Area, Cal.' for what is making them unhappy. workers' demonstration, but the justifi­ * * * Right-wing types have plagued the woirjd cation of it by a former KOR activist. I recently witnessed a demonstration ever since the French Revolution and so How deep the anti-Semitism is contin­ of high tech that sent shivers down my have the left-wing intellectuals who ued to be revealed, most recently when spine. A public utility now has a pro­ TODAY'S BLACK REALITY struggle with them only to see which Walesa refused to criticize him. How gram operating that enables one person ones will have the power to rule over the sitting behind a computer to observe frightening it becomes when we see this Because 90% of us are Black where I working people and keep them in line what every employee working on tele­ kind of collapse of the Left right here as work, our freedom of voice and our opin­ whiie capitalism continues to rob us of phones is doing for every second on the well, in the justification of the white su­ ion is not heard in negotiating a con­ our production. job. Not only can you see what everyone premacist militia by some of the Left. tract. We had a Black representative. But the company went all the way to Felix Martin is doing, but after every 24-hour period, Women's liberationist Washington to the head of the IUE. California there is a print-out of the full record. Big Chicago They made up a contract in three days * * * Brother is not coming...Big Brother is that was sent to us to accept. We're Many in the militias believe LA street here. And the company is open about working under a contract never agreed gangs are being recruited by the govern­ why it is installing this program into an The development of the former "so­ entire region of this country...to see how cialist" countries between 1955 and upon by the employees. ment to take away their guns. I suspect We say this is a democratic world we this is because the LA Rebellion was as many workers it can lay-off by speeding 1995 can be summed up as from fledg­ up everyone on the job. ling boom to a total decline. Attempts at live in. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave up defining a moment for them as for the Retiree changing the system were only half- his life for that, but we're still waiting rest of us. The multiethnic vision within Detroit promising. With the exception of Hunga­ for our freedom. We want better pay and it horrified them to the marrow of their ry 1956, every other attempt was aiming we want our voice to be heard. I was white bones. Since the stated reason: for * * * ; at a change within the system, not at re­ born in the South and I'm not going the militia's existence is to shoot down The youth page article on the environ­ placing it. This was caused, among other anywhere. I'm going to stay here and those who would take away their giins, ment (June N&L) is on the crisis in the things, both by the fact that masses still fight for my people. this view is no less a warrant for the movement itself. The need to question believed in the possibility of socialism (at Black worker genocide of inner-city Black and Latino society has been subsumed by those who least until the 1960s) and by the fact Mississippi youth than the "Protocols of Zion" were accept the limits of capitalism and the that no alternative could be seen. Creep­ and are for the genocide of Jews. abstraction that "people," not capital? ing admiration for the consumerist side There has always been a working class G. Emnaett ism, pollute. They have given up exam? of capitalism was not strong enough, as or "lower class" among African Ameri­ Chicago ining social relations. Even those in the it was in the 1980s, to make the masses cans. What is new about the "Black un­ There are more jailhouses being built environmental movement who see capi^ "believe" in it. derclass" phenomenon today is that it is now than schools. In Alabama they've talism as the enemy are clueless as td larger and more deeply rooted in the started using the ball and chain again. If how to attack capital. A social solution} Stalinism succeeded in depriving the Black community. Whereas 30 years ago, what's happening here with the militias would give us a basis for living rationalM working class of its revolutionary driving sons of Black automobile factory work­ is not turned around, it will be like Ger­ with our environment. | force, on the one hand by terror and ers like myself could realistically choose many in the 1930s. This system pits us Concerned mass indoctrination, and on the other by factory work as a vocation, today's Black against each other with racism. It begins Berkeley, CaT. JULY 1995 NEWS & LETTERS Page 7 city. If you would like more information Dunayevskaya's ideas with a number of WEALTHFARE VS. WELFARE: CUTS AND LIES about the campaign or how to get in­ revolutionaries in Mexico who are deep volved please call Monica Santana, Juan in the crisis there and eager for broad, We're incensed with the punitive at­ ment functions. The latest announce­ Jimenez or Ana Rodriguez at (212) humanistic perspectives that go beyond tack on welfare recipients while billions ment affects inner-city residents in 473-3936. Our mailing address is Latino the pettiness and old formulas that pass in "wealth-fare" subsidies to corpora­ North Tulsa, many of whom have no Workers Center, P.O. Box 20329, New for Latin Amei-ican "leftism." tions and our nation's rich go car. In order to obtain their driver's li­ York, NY 10009. Intellectual supporter nscrutinized. Here are a few examples cense or photo ID cards they will have to Hartford f where over $200 billion in subsidies is leave the city limits and travel to the Black Dominican worker New York * * * going: $10 billion a year to subsidize surrounding cities of Jenks, Sapulpa or News & Letters continues to be of mansions; $110 billion a year to adver­ Claremore. This is due to the motor ve­ * * * Proposition 187 claims that the people great use in our work here to rebuild the tise McDonalds, Sunkist and other major hicles department being unable to afford Left. We value it highly. U.S. food products in foreign countries. the rent on their only Tulsa office. of California have suffered economic hardships and personal injury caused by Democratic Action Committee Meanwhile, big mining companies pay Meanwhile, politicians continue to Nigeria peanuts to use our public lands and ex­ nickel-and-dime over school funding, "illegal aliens," and denies any medical tract billions in minerals, and all those and educational benefits to them. This is * * * welfare benefits and turnpike tolls. The In today's China, a communist coun­ wonderful commercials and ads we see discrepancy between the desire to main­ wrong. A human being is a human be­ are 100% tax deductible business ex­ tain a low-tax environment and the ex­ ing. Many families come into the U.S. il­ try, very few people are still interested in penses. A short list of special interest tax pectation of services such as drivers' li­ legally with hopes of finding better jobs Marxism, especially not the young peo­ loopholes would be pages long. Let's or­ cense tests, school lunches and rural because they cannot survive in their ple. But to find through you that in ganize to demand the end to this road maintenance has led to political countries. Proposition 187 is only the America, the most capitalist country, "wealth-fare" and to stop the hateful at­ tension between the new Republican first step of the Republican Contract's young people read Marx—that is dialec­ tack on "welfare." governor and the Dixiecratic legislature. assault on children, people of color, the tics. Share the Wealth It seems inevitable that the crisis will homeless, the unemployed and women. Scholar 37 Temple Place, 35rd fl. only worsen, causing a further stagna­ We must stop Prop. 187 and the con­ China Boston, MA 02111 tion and decline in both urban and rural tract if we want a better future. * * « Latina high school student While the struggle in Bosnia is to de­ * * * areas. Chicago A Latina mother told me that bus ser­ Concerned fend a multicultural society that is un­ vices for the after school programs are Oklahoma City der brutal attack, in Northern Ireland being cut. In her neighborhood this is an EAST EUROPE TODAY the need is to transform a sectarian soci­ essential service because "if you cross The forces of the Left are rather on ety into a multicultural one. That seems the street, you're in a different gang FIGHTING the defensive at the present in East Eu­ sure to be a long and difficult transfor­ area. It's too dangerous to walk." rope. They accommodated to the situa­ mation, but the prospects are much bet­ Because of this, many Latina mothers PROPOSITION tion. They are neither able nor willing to ter now that the guerrilla war has halt­ who are involved in Parents of Hum­ 187 search for an alternative to the "new" ed. boldt Park After School Program capitalist order. Whatever their names Correspondent (PHPASP) will be pulling their children are, "spiritually" they are all social-dem­ Oxford, England from the program, regretfully leaving The Latino Workers' Center is an in­ ocrats. Small groups, Trotskyites or an­ * * * them alone at home while they are at dependent organization dedicated to archists, enliven the left part of the poli­ I am glad to send the enclosed contri­ work without things to keep their minds supporting those organizing for better tical spectrum but they do not offer, ba­ bution to your Appeal. N&L is the only and bodies active and developing. working and living conditions. One of sically, anything other than their old, publication worldwide that is currently Speaking of the cuts and lies spewed our principal goals is to promote the self- pre-war slogans. really trying to keep alive Marx's ideas. by those that create and line up behind organization and leadership of the Cen­ The organizations of working women The retrogression which we are facing these policies, she said, "They say moth­ ter's membership, which includes res­ and men such as the trade unions, per­ all over the world is so strong that with­ ers in communities with gangs and taurant, garment, homecare, domestic, manently under attacks by the right, are out N&L you would start to think that drugs don't care about their children. cleaning, and maintenance workers, day far weaker than their West European no one in the whole world thinks like But this is not true! We care: We have laborers, and unemployed persons. counterparts. However, it is they who you do. Thanks to N&L each month I am solutions, but they tell us there is no We began the Campaign for Jobs, Re­ keep up the fighting spirits of their relieved to learn that I am not alone at money. We need community organiza­ spect and Dignity to mobilize our mem­ members as they have to fight for their this very complicated historical moment. tions because others shouldn't be al­ bers, their friends, co-workers, and basic needs. Supporter lowed to make decisions for our kids who neighbors to protest the anti-immigrant Correspondent Bogota, Columbia they don't even know." legislation being proposed in New York, Prague Sonia the budget cuts, and non-enforcement of Chicago labor, laws. OUR THANKS TO ALL WHO * * * INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION From now through September we will HAVE ANSWERED OUR APPEAL The crisis in state government due to be giving presentations in churches, There is a great hunger among think­ underfunding (taxes too low) has result­ adult education classes, community cen­ ing people for the kind of approach N&L TO HELP KEEP N&L GOING! ed in a deterioration of essential govern-1 ters, parks, and festivals throughout the represents. I have been discussing Raya SELECTED PUBLICATIONS FROM NEWS & LETTERS

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N&L as well as other Marxist-Humanist ism: Two Historic-Philosophic Writings by Raya First English Translation $2 literature is available on audio tape. MAIL ORDERS TO: Dunayevskaya • Nationalism, Communism, Marxist-Human­ News & Letters, 59 East Van Buren, Contains "Presentation on Dialectics of ism and the Afro-Asian Revolutions Room 707, Chicago, IL 60605 Organization and Philosophy of June 1, 1987," and by Raya Dunayevskaya $1.25 1953 "Letters on Hegel's Absolutes." Phone (312) 663-0839 $3 paperback, $10 hardcover • Frantz Fanon, Soweto, and American Black Enclosed find $ for the literature Thought by Lou Turner and John Alan $3 checked. Please add $1.00 for each item for BY CHARLES DEN BY • Selections from Raya Dunayevskaya's postage. Illinois residents add 7% sales tax. writings on the Middle East $2.50 Name • Indignant Heart: A Black Worker's Journal 1989 edition includes Afterword by Raya • Working Women for Freedom by Angela Address Dunayevskaya , $14.95 Terrano, Marie Dignan, and Mary Holmes $2 City State _ Zip. Page 8 NEWS & LETTERS JULY 1995 (Black/Red View Affirmative action in perspective The Newt Gingriches, who now control the House and own political stamp on race relations by calling fair em­ by John Alan who are clearly the dominant reactionary force in Con­ ployment practices "affirmative action." gress, have not only continued and developed this old Affirmative action has to be defended against the ret­ The recent decisions of the Supreme Court threw a Reaganism. They're a more arrogant and powerful force rogressive policy of reactionary politicians who are push­ dark shadow of doubt on the constitutionality of affirma­ than Reaganism, and more brutal in their determination ing the clock of history back to the 19th century in the tive action programs. The Court has now found a "legal" to curtail the social needs of a human society, as well as hope of saving a moribund capitalist system. At the same reason to support the! burgeoning growth of a new wave those rights African Americans gained during the Civil time, affirmative action is not a universal answer to rac­ of racism in this country. Rights Revolution. When reactionaries in Congress ism or the permanent poverty existing in many African- Before the Court's decisions many opinion polls in­ move to abolish or limit affirmative action, they're elim­ American communities. Most of its help has gone to the dicated that a majority of white Americans are against inating one of the oldest concrete civil rights that Afri­ Black middle class. The principle is: racism and discrimi­ affirmative action because supposedly it gives preference can Americans were able to force from federal adminis­ nation in all of its forms must be opposed. to poorly qualified Blacks over qualified whites. trations in this century. Whatever the accuracy of these opinion polls, it is In the last week of June 1941, President Franklin more than obvious that African Americans are now be­ Roosevelt signed the now famous executive order out­ ing attacked by racist ideological forces, inside and out­ lawing racial discrimination in defense production and side of government, with the purpose of preventing any The African revolutions creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee to . -J: • • concrete realization of African-American civil rights. oversee its desegregation. Politically, this was a prudent (Continued from page 4) ^The present anti-African-American ideological war is thing for Roosevelt because in ejxchange Roosevelt got A. actually a culmination of Ronald Reagan's old political tion "to a man" must run production and the state, or Philip Randolph, Walter White and other Black leaders there would be a "return backwards to capitalism." This efforts to subvert the realization of the freedoms prom­ of the "Negro March on Washington Committee" to can­ ised by the Civil Rights Movement. If you don't remem­ is exactly what did happen: the failure to extend the cel a planned protest march of 50,000 Blacks on Wash­ Russian Revolution from below, first to Berlin and then ber Reagan, take a look at the National Urban League's ington, D.C., to protest racial discrimination in hiring, at 1983 annual report on the State of Black America. In to Peking and the colonial world, doomed the Russian the very moment U.S. industry was gearing up for a war Revolution itself. Four decades have gone by since then, that report John E. Jacob criticizes Reagan for "aban­ to free Europe from Nazism. doning people-serving programs" by cutting Medicaid, and a new stage of world consciousness has been reached aid to education, food stamps, and so on with the help of The ease by which Randolph cancelled the march which not only combines politics and economics but also a "compliant Congress." The report also said that Rea­ should not be construed to mean that the march had no philosophy, for it reaches down to humanity. gan had retreated from "well-established bipartisan civil mass support. In fact it was th^ great support of the Af­ What tiny Guinea accomplished with its daring "No" rights policy" of past administrations by attempting to rican-American masses that gave Randolph the power to was to re-establish the human factor as decisive. This, subvert the use of busing to desegregate schools, and confront Roosevelt. The Amsterdam-Star News at that and nothing else, was new in action and new in thought. was giving legal support to the court case of white Bos­ time described the feeling of Blacks: "Where there was This is the Humanism of Marxism, translated in our ep­ ton fire fighters who were claiming that affirmative ac­ once tolerance and acceptance of a position believed to be och first by the Hungarian Revolution, then in the Afro- tion was reverse racism. gradually changing for the better, now the Negro is Asian and Latin-American worlds, and finally among the showing a 'democratic upsurge of rebellion' bordering on Negro-Americans. This is the reason why the politically open hostility." "backward" American worker, who has no mass labor The idea of a Fair Employment Practices Committee party like his European brethren, is battling automation grew out of this "democratic upsurge of rebellion" which at the point of production itself. The American wildcat I Schools under siege | was later expanded, due to the upsurge of the Civil striker who demands human and not automatized pro­ Rights Movement. The Kennedy Administration left its Editor's note: On June 24, Local 46 of the Public Ser­ duction is ready for that same new dimension which is vice Employees Union in Chicago held a meeting to pro- essential if we are to avoid the nuclear holocaust which test Illinois' new school reform bill. Below are the com­ is threatening us. ments of a child welfare attendant who participated in Chicago's poor fight HUD Despite the Russian Communist attack on Hegel's ^that meeting. mysticism, that mystic, under the impact of the French Revolution and with his encyclopedic mind full of thou­ Chicago—Bill 206 School Reform was signed by (Continued from page 1) sands of years of history which he defined as the "pro­ Governor Jim Edgar on May 30 and went into effect on need a new playground, the building needs a new paint gress of consciousness to freedom," anticipated the con­ June 30. It replaced the Board of Education with a job, the cabinets are falling off the walls, the floors need crete reality of today when he wrote: "The self-determi­ Board of Trustees appointed by the Mayor of Chicago, new tiles, and the apartments need new toilets," com­ nation in whteh alone the Idea is, is to hear itself speak." Richard Daley. One of our concerns is that the new plained one mother from Cabrini. A South Side resident Board can privatize schools wherever they deem neces­ added that things have gotten even worse, now that the peak, then, independent Africa, untainted by two sary. With a 14-day notice they can lay off someone with state of Illinois has sent out letters to welfare recipients S world power-blocs fighting for world domination. You 25 years of seniority and keep someone who has worked informing them that their benefits will be drastically cut have gained your political self-determination, are strug­ for only two months. The union cannot bargain on be­ back starting in July. gling for economic independence, and are also free to ex­ half of people being laid off; it cannot bargain concerning press the self-determination of the Idea because the ac­ how the Board contracts out work and its impact on The multitude of human survival issues on the minds cumulated thought of centuries has been fructified by union employees. of Chicago's poor was more powerfully illustrated in the the elemental creativity of the masses and today's revo­ If someone has a grievance against the Board of Edu­ various hand-painted slogans carried on picket signs. lutions. Just as the fight for freedom on the part of the cation, the Board is not required to submit to a binding The sign of one young Black girl pleaded, "Don't let Hungarian revolutionaries (who had been raised on process to deal with the resolution of disputes. A princi­ strangers decide my future," while a group of older Marxian theory only to be betrayed by its usurpers) has pal Can schedule staff hours and the work schedule and youth exchanged chants among themselves declaring made them theoretical Marxist-Humanists, the plunge appoint employees per board rules. In the majority of their identification with the legacy of the Black Panther into freedom has made the African revolutionaries the schools, 90% of the staff does not get along with the Party. activist Marxist-Humanists of today. The Marxist-Hu­ principal. If the principal has the authority to hire and Who or what will indeed decide the future remains to manists of other lands are ready to listen and, with your fire there will be total chaos. Who wants to work, know­ be seen. That things have begpn to heat up in Chicago, help to establish that new international which will be ing that at any given moment, if the principal does not however, is becoming more evident with each demon­ free from state control and will aspire torreconstruct the, like you, you can be terminated? Job security has gone stration. — Lou Turner world. out the window. Who will be in the classrooms? The chil­ dren are the ones who will suffer. There is no guarantee that qualified personnel will teach our children. There will be even more nepotism in the schools. Black World Haiti's electoral screen The legislators are picking on Chicago because the ra­ mocracy, in part, through the commodification of U.S. cial make-up of the city schools is Black and Latino. The (Continued from page 1) electoral democracy, paid for by U.S. tax dollars. To add Board of Trustees can now go into a low-income school insult to injury, after accepting the SAP of the IMF- wherd the reading level is below average, lay off every (National Popular Assembly), [which had organized a na­ World Bank, the development funds and $600 million al­ employee in that school—from the teachers to the jani­ tional campaign to abstain from the election, summa­ located for "democracy enhancement" remain largely in tors—and hire new employees. rized the results: "On June 25 more than 70% of those U.S. control, to be disbursed to right-wing candidates Bill 206 takes away employees' right to strike as of of voting age stayed home." and organizations. ""Smuary 1997 when the Republicans think they will have This too shows how much Haiti's elections have in a Republican president in office. But even now you can common with U.S. elections, which are mostly marked One of the illicit liaisons that has historically charac­ strike and be out of a job. The Board does not have to by the indifference they engender in the U.S. electorate. terized Western imperialism's incursions into the Third bargain with any union. What they have to realize is Haiti's elections—not only the June 25 fiasco but the World is the intellectual linkage between social scientists that Illinois is a union state and Chicago has a history of upcoming July 23 run-off elections and the December and order-mongering imperialist governments. In a union struggles. presidential election—are really the screen behind which throwback to the West's imperialist heyday, it turns out Pretty soon the federal government is going to take U.S. imperialism seeks to demlobilize Haiti's massive and that a key player to watch in the coming period is the over state-funded education. We have seen a federal highly organized, left grassroots opposition, and restruc­ U.S. anthropologist Ira Lowenthal, whose U.S. funded takeover of the Chicago Housing Authority. Will we soon ture the Haitian economy to function in the U.S. new and founded Programme Integre pour le Renforcement have a federal takeover of the school system? world economic order. And with a vicious circularity and de la Democracie (PIRED) is a major dispenser of "de­ arrogance that is only found among imperialist policy mocracy enhancement" funding to popular organiza­ makers, those same elections that served as a political tions, labor unions, peasant groups, and human rights Explore Black consciousness in capitalist 1/.5.4. screen to hide the U.S.'s economic bolstering of Haiti's groups linked to political leaders and parties. right-wing bourgeoisie are also made to legitimize this PIRED has been instrumental in creating a database Philosophy and Revolution imperialism lite. of some 60,000 grassroots activists for use by the U.S. From Hegel to Sartre, and from Marx to Mao The U.S., both with governmental and non-govern­ government With its influence and money PIRED has "[S]o deeply grounded is the Black dimension in 'absolute mental agencies, intervened heavily and heavy-handedly turned labor unions and neighborhood organizations negativity/ in the desire for new beginnings through the in the run-up to the June 25 flections with so-called "de­ from being militant critics of U.S. imperialism into pro­ 'syllogistic' resolution of alienation, that George Jackson's mocracy enhancement projects," or what has euphemist­ moters of President Clinton and reconciliation with Hai­ discovery of the dialectic of liberation in that hellhole, San ically been called "low intensity democracy." These come ti's reactionary elite. Lowenthal has been the Clinton ad­ Quentin Prison, can by no means be brushed aside ... For with economic development dollars aimed at undermin­ ministration's man on the ground, bolstering Port-au- good and sufficient reason the Hegelian dialectic has been ing the grassroots movement and its indigenous partici­ Prince Mayor Evans Paul as Aristide's successor, and as called 'the algebra of revolution.'" (xxiii) patory democracy. the key proponent of creating a political center through The ground for this edifice was laid even before bolstering right-wing groups and brokering power shar­ American Civilization on Trial Aristide's return last October when his economic ing arrangements with remnants of the military regime. Black Masses as Vanguard advisors met in Paris last August with IMF-World Bank Whether this would-be governor-general succeeds in "Under [pressure from the March on Washington Move- officials and agreed to a structural adjustment program reconciling Haiti's class antagonisms, or whether the . ment] President Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 8802 (SAP) as a precondition for tike U.S. return of Aristide to grassroots mass movement is able to realize its long­ which barred discrimination in war industries ... [I]t did not "power." Clinton then cynically moved to cauterize Hai­ standing demand for justice, will not be determined by stop the movement as an organization which then pro­ ti's bloody political hemorrhaging, and commence the elections. That many organizations chose to reject U.S. ceeded to transform itself into a Committee to End Jim Crow present stage of pacification and channelizing of Haiti's funding, rather than reconcile themselves with the pup­ in the Army ... Again, the winning of some of his demands historical function as a super-cheap labor supply for pets of U.S. imperialism is a sign of the Haitian masses' only sharpened the Negro's sense of lacking all rights." (24) Western capitalism into its n£w world order. revolutionajy resolve that calls out for our uncompro­ To order, see page 7. Haiti is being democratized into sustainable poverty. mising support. For just as the West never forgave revo­ Which means destroying its grassroots participatory de- lutionary Haiti, so we must never forget. JULY 1995 NEWS & LETTERS Page 9 Essay Article Rising community struggles fight

by Franklin Dmitryev toxic environmental racism Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality, by Robert D. Bullard (Boulder: Westview quality in segregated inner cities and hazardous indus­ Theory and Practice of Environmental Justice. While Press, 1994). trial workplaces. the movement from practice is expansive, implicitly Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Though it is often left implicit, even in these three pointing to the need for a new society, most articles in Grassroots, ed. Robert D. Bullard (Boston: South books, the power of criticizing the mainstream move­ both anthologies end up putting theoretical restraints on End Press, 1993). ment's narrowness in ideas is that it deepens the mean­ this movement from below by jumping too quickly to po­ Toxic Struggles: The Theory and Practice of Envi­ ing of environmentalism, showing concretely that it too litical demands within existing society. ronmental Justice, ed. Richard Hofrichter (Philadel­ is subject to questions of social justice and social trans­ Among the most radical views presented in these phia: New Society Publishers; 1993). formation. That is why many of the authors in these books are those of Cynthia Hamilton's "Coping with In­ The concept of environmental racism emerged on the books aim their sharpest critiques of the mainstream dustrial Exploitation" in Confronting Environmental national scene out of the 1982 struggle to keep toxic movement precisely at its inadequate vision, notwith­ Racism (and a similar ^article by her, "Environmental waste from being buried in Warren County, N.C., which standing some groups' efforts at inclusiveness. Bullard's Consequences of~^Jr1^an Growth and Blight" in Toxic is mostly Black and poor. The struggle led to govern­ concluding essay in Confronting Environmental Racism Struggles). Hamilton sees as crucial "the way we concep­ ment and independent studies concluding that people of declares, "We must be visionary as well as militant." tualize economic development....Industrial development^ has not only produced its opposite, underdevelopment, color are dispropor­ Along 'these lines but is itself self-destructive." She provides an important tionately exposed to Dorceta E. Taylor's historical sketch linking environmental racism with class hazardous waste essay "Environment­ conflict, noting that it was after the labor organizing of sites. alism and the Politics the 1930s that industry discovered the advantages of re­ In 1990, the Gulf of Inclusion" in Con­ locating to the suburbs or to the Sunbelt, leaving the Coast Tenants Or­ fronting Environmen­ inner cities with the toxic residue of production. ganization and the tal Racism sees the Southwest Organiz­ environmental justice Though her historical sketch implicates capitalism it­ ing Project sent an movement as more self in the rise of environmental racism, her conclusions open letter to the Big^ inclusive not only in retreat to blaming "industrialism," a more abstract no­ Ten mainstream en­ terms of race and tion favored by radical ecologists. In Toxic Struggles she vironmental groups, class composition but states that urban transformations like deindus- accusing them of rac­ "ideologically." It trialization have "been propelled not by technological de­ ism and elitism. The "integrates both so­ velopment alone but by the need to reproduce existing concept had been ex­ cial and ecological class relations in the capital accumulation process." tended from racism concerns [and] thus GREEN POLITICS OMIT REVOLUTION in environmental represents a revolu­ policymaking, en­ tion within the histo­ What is it in Hamilton's philosophy that underlies this forcement and busi­ ry of U.S. environ­ contradiction? In Confronting Environmental Racism ness decisions to that mentalism." she criticizes not only liberalism and conservatism but in the environmental Marxism for "its defense of industrial growth and devel­ movement itself. Yet even when opment," a well-worn Green excuse for replacing Marx­ Protesters block trucks loaded with toxic, PCB-tainted dirt It wasn't that peo­ some activists speak ism with criticism of "Western thought," as if it were bound for dumping in their community, mostly Black Warren ple of color had sud­ of the "grassroots" the cause of domination, independent of the mode of pro­ County, N.C. in 1982. denly begun fighting as the source of new duction. Hamilton thereby adopts the Green impatience^ back against the discrimination they had long experi­ militance, this approach can disregard the specificity of with the seemingly overwhelming task of social revolu­ enced in exposure to environmental hazards.* What was the contribution of people of color, at the same time it tion. Hamilton's conclusion new was that environmental racism had become a cate­ evades the challenge in thought. The power of is to call for "ecological de­ gory of thought, providing a new impetus and a new van­ Laura Pulido's "Sustainable Development at Ganados mocracy [which] must also tage point for both the Black freedom movement and the del Valle," also in Confronting Environmental Racism, is criticizing the recognize the class inter­ environmental movement. The new category was quickly one of several case studies that illuminate these themes. mainstream ests"—a far cry from end­ applied to struggles of Native Americans and Latinos as Ganados del Valle is a sheep-ranching and weaving coop­ ing class divisions. well, and the term "environmental justice" was created erative in rural New Mexico, formed by local people movement's nar­ Could it be that the writ­ to recognize not only oppression but the movement known as Hispanos. Unable to buy enough grazing land, ers are yet weighed down against it. they tried for several years to get state permission to rowness in ideas by the contradiction be­ This movement, begun in the Black community and graze their sheep on a wildlife preserve. Though admit­ is that it deep­ tween the need for work mainly organized by women at the grassroots level, is­ ting that, unlike the destructive practices of ordinary and the toxic forms that sued the first radical challenge to abstract environment­ commercial ranchers, the Ganados plan would not be an ens the meaning work takes? No theory that alism that forced the mainstream movement to respond. ecological threat—in fact it would limit land develop­ of environment­ merely synthesizes already Its critique of the uneven distribution of environmental ment and improve the local economy—environ­ existing elements can go risk exposed the hollowness of the attitude that reforms mentalists cited by Pulido supported the state's refusal. alism. beyond the contradiction could be achieved through appeals to those in power, Pulido blames their abstract "approach to preserva­ ————»——^- since the human beings in­ since even they must breathe the air and drink the wa­ tion," which "does not incorporate environmentalism volved are then theorized as being dependent on the ter. into everyday living." Conversely the best side of "sus­ very toxic work that they are fighting. Only a philoso­ tainable development" shown here seeks not only ecolog­ phy that comprehends freedom—that is, a dialectical BREAKING THE JOBS-TOXICS DILEMMA ical sustainability but livable wages and "the develop­ philosophy of revolution—can grasp the future in the Recent years have seen a spate of books inspired by ment of each worker's skills and personality while build­ present and thereby lift theory out of this rut. the new category. One of the most important of these ing on diverse cultural backgrounds." This is one way The traps laid by theory kept in chains are epitomised books is Robert D. Bullard's Dumping in Dixie, first pub­ that the environmental justice movement has challenged by the strange trajectory of the Rev. Ben Chavis, wife lished in 1990, and now in a revised edition. While the prevailing notions of "development" as too narrow. wrote a foreword to Confronting Environmental Racism other two books reviewed here are collections of arti- WHO DEFINES ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE? declaring that the environmental justice movement "has clesrr-on issues from lead poisoning to neocolonialism's the potential to transform the political landscape." environmental devastation in the Third World, from the That challenge vitally links the movement in the U.S. Chavis was active in the 1982 Warren County protests activism of blue-collar women to farmworkers' organiz­ with those in the Third World, as can be seen in Chris and is credited with coining the term "environmental ing—Dumping in Dixie is a full-length study on race and Kiefer and Medea Benjamin's "Solidarity with the Third racism." He headed the United Church of Christ Com­ environmental equity in the South. World: Building an International Environmental-Justice mission for Racial Justice when it produced the land­ Bullard explores what he calls "the environment-de­ Movement" in Toxic Struggles. They credit the "failure mark 1987 study documenting environmental racism velopment dialectic" in the South. The region's industri­ of top-down development" with leading to "increasingly and sponsored the 1991 National People of Color Envi­ al growth in the 1970s and 1980s combined with its vigorous opposition from the poor themselves," and to ronmental Leadership Summit. ~3T "plantation-economy legacy" to produce "uneven devel­ "a holistic notion of sustainable development." Yet suddenly, on becoming head of the NAACP in opment" with a Southern flavor. On the one hand, in­ Kiefer and Benjamin report the sharp Third World cri­ 1993, the very issue that no doubt clinched his election dustries with the best paying and typically cleaner jobs tique of Northern environmental groups. A coalition of almost dropped from sight, taking a back seat to forging steer clear of Blacks, women and rural areas. The flip Amazonian indigenous peoples blasted the practice of unity among African-American "leaders," even—es­ side is that the most undesirable businesses target main­ "debt-for-nature swaps" for dealing with nation-states pecially—Louis Farrakhan. At the same time, Chavis be­ ly Black areas to exploit their desperation for jobs and rather than recognizing indigenous peoples' sovereignty came chairman of a lobbying group financed by insur­ tax revenues, waste facilities ranking among the worst. and stewardship over their own lands. They also point ance, oil and manufacturing companies seeking to weak­ As a result, the environmental justice movement must out that largely white, middle- and upper-class Northern en the Superfund law requiring toxic waste cleanups. face directly an issue mainstream environmentalists of­ groups fail "to identify with poor people of color—be What unites Chavis' leadership group is a willingness ten gloss over: environmental blackmail. Having "to they in the Mississippi Delta or the Brazilian Amazon." to use movements such as environmental justice as tools choose between jobs or the environment is inherently Why then does their article focus on the relationship to advance their political agendas, defined by the politi­ unfair," Bullard points out, but it is a real dilemma, of those groups—and not the homegrown environmental cal and economic bounds of existing society. The duality, whose only solution "lies in making workplaces safe for justice movement—with Third World movements? Espe­ between the logic of environmental justice and the drive workers." cially when Vernice D. Miller's article in the same book to harness it to agendas existing within the limits of tkq The unstated implication is the need to radically finds great promise in the latter relationship as an given, sets the stage for the demotion of environmental transform a society where obtaining the means of life emerging "global movement"? justice to a vehicle for state-oriented reforms and oppor­ requires risking one's health and the community's This is one of the weaknesses of Toxic Struggles. tunism. Chavis' turnabout on toxic waste is only a par­ health. As opposed to what is typical in environmental­ While it aims to broaden the meaning of "environmental ticularly bad manifestation of that duality's power to ism—centering on limits on the scale and technology of justice" to include the struggles of women, workers, suck would-be leaders into the state-corporate arena production—the question hangs in the air, and demands farmers and anti-militarists as well as people of color, a against which the movement is fighting. "'' to be spoken aloud: What kind of labor should a human number of the articles stray so far from the original In the shadow of Gingrich's virulent rollback of regu­ being do? movement against environmental racism as to forget its lations, including all the legal tools used in the fight Aside from disregarding the impact of environmental existence, or just use it as the latest example to prove against environmental racism, the legislative-adminis­ reforms on jobs, environmentalism is seen as elitist for pre-existing conceptions. trative strategies advocated by numerous writers in (1) the predominance of white middle-class activists, In Dumping in Dixie, on the other hand, Bullard sticks these books fade into pure fantasy. Some suggest forging leaders and professionals, and (2) narrow ideology, with to this movement, correctly analyzing it as both "a 'new' strategic alliances. Paramount, however, is the need for issues chosen without input from people of color. The environmental movement," and "an extension of the civ­ a unifying philosophy that can bring the movement from mainstream, Bullard reports, continues to emphasize il rights movement." However, he is more conscious of theory alongside the movement from practice and thus wilderness preservation far more than environmental the latter's strengths—its radicalism, militance and form the foundation of a totally new social order. openness to "the disenfranchised"—than its weakness­ These three books are valuable contributions to our es. The looming question is: How can the environmental knowledge of the environmental justice movement. Nev­ * As early as the 1940s, Black workers wildcatted against dis­ justice movement avoid the morass of accommo- ertheless, the task left to the reader is to trek through criminatory exposure to chemical fumes, as described in Charles datio.nism and disarray into which the civil rights move­ the ideological pollution that would limit the profound Denby's Indignant Heart: A Black Worker's Journal (Detroit: ment has fallen? challenges issued by this movement to environmentalism .WayneState University Press* 1989)» pp. 8&93. , ;. Consider the subtitle of Toxic Struggles, nameh^T^e ; : jaMtpfte wholes society;., i ; - « • ;. ,,• ri -I i . Page 10 NEWS & LETTERS JULY 1995 | Editorial | Sarajevo under renewed fascist bombardment

The fascist Serb shell that smashed into the Sarajevo preserve. hasn't made any serious effort to force the lifting of the television studio on June 28 was an effort to black out The renewed Bosnian struggle posed this question to arms embargo, even from his newfound position of pow­ more than just the images of suffering that the world the rulers of "Western Civilization" at the recent G-7 er. He only becomes less forceful as the Bosnians become has become accustomed to since the siege of that city be­ summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia. President Clinton and more self-reliamt. This is because his real "principle" is gan. It was as well an attempt to douse the blazing light the others, who shortly before were celebrating their to rise to power in an American political landscape re­ of truth that the renewed struggle to break that siege "victory over fascism" in observing the 50th anniversary markably similar to that of Milosevic's Serbia, by em­ has shone upon the hypocritical rulers of the West. of the end of World War II, became at once the most ab­ bracing everything from the ethnic cleansing posed by Shackled by a criminal arms embargo which has left it ject of pacifists when faced with the possibility that the Proposition 187 in California to every kind of attack on at a severe disadvantage in heavy weaponry, the Bosnian Bosnians might cease waiting for "diplomacy to the workers, women and the poor. work"—as if human beings deprived of food, water, elec­ army has nevertheless managed to raise a force of 15,000 For that part of the Left which has failed to stand in tricity and medicine, at the mercy of shells and snipers, troops against the Serb siege and to conduct the "most solidarity with Bosnia, by missing the essence of the had all the time in the world. mature, most complex and most ambitious" offensive of struggle and destroying internationalism by an abstract The same hypocrisy was revealed in another way in the war, in the words of U.N. spokesman Gary Coward. resort to "class struggle" which sees genocidalists and these Western rulers' embrace of Boris Yeltsin at Hali­ (U.S. News & World Report, July 3, 1995.) their victims as fequally at fault, all that is left is for fax. Not only has Yeltsin, at the behest of the Russian them to wallow in their degradation. Whether Right or The Serbs have responded in character, with the mass fascist Right, been a primary supporter of Serbian fas­ Left, in power or aspiring to it, those who fail to support •"^nurder of innocents which has marked the genocidal cism, but at that very moment, the Russian military, the Bosnians now do more than stand aside. They stand policy of Karadzic and Mladic from the beginning. The which has waged its own genocidal war in Chechnya, in history along with the guards and torturers of the intention of their renewed brutal assault can be read in was brutally turning its fire on Chechen gunmen and Nazi death camps. the double-S license plate on Karadzic's car—for "Serbi­ Russian hostages alike in Budyonnovsk (see page 12). an Sarajevo." The shelling of Sarajevo and other U.N. These "anti-fascist" rulers stood naked to the world in For those of us who do stand with Bosnia, it becomes "safe zones" comes in response to some real advances by those few days in Halifax, as did also the hollow imperative to work out the implications of that solidar­ the Bosnian army which, given time, could roll back all triumphalism of their 50-year commemorations of their ity. For instance, how can the human content of the of the political and territorial gains of Serb fascist "eth­ World War II victory and the founding of the U.N. struggle for a multiethnic society there illuminate the nic cleansing." However, it isn't only the rulers who have defined needed response to our own retrogressive political cli­ This is a moment when the most profound solidarity themselves by their response to the Bosnian struggle. mate in which many of the same features are appearing, with the struggle of the Bosnian people is called for, both Barry Romo of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, argu­ including armed neo-fascist militias? And how can dia­ material and political. Pressure must be applied to end ing in support of Bosnia, once asked, "How would you logue be opened with those Bosnians, like Sarajevan poet the criminal arms embargo at long last, and grassroots feel if you could possibly have saved the prisoners in the Abdullah Sidran, who said, "I am in a state of perma­ solidarity must be established both to provide material Nazi death camps and you failed to try?" Both the Right nent disappointment with the West. There is a quality of aid and to bring out the universality of the vision of a and much of the Left have now to answer this question. evil here that; has to be seen. Bosnia is like planet Earth. multiethnic society which so many thousands of Bosnian From the Right this failure was to be expected. De­ If Bosnia is senseless, then the planet is senseless too." Muslims, Croats and Serbs have suffered and died to spite the rhetoric of someone like Sen. Bob Dole, he (The New Yoitk Times, June 28, 1995.) Supreme Court rulings open new racist era

(Continued from page 1) fied on every front, from a bill proposed by Sen. cation in city schools attended by African-American chil­ Alan Simpson that dren, to bring those schools up to a par with ones in would outlaw public as­ neighboring white suburbia. Thus, in effect, the Court sistance to naturalized ruled for the constitutionality of the continuing exis­ U.S. citizens, to the tence of separate and unequal proximate schools for Clinton/Reno Justice Black and white children, an implicit reversal of the his­ Department's accelerat­ toric 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. ed campaign of large- Wittingly or unwittingly, the lone Black (and ultra- scale and sudden depor­ conservative) Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, tations of "illegals." echoed the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson "separate but equal" Chicago-area Mexican- ruling that Brown had overturned. Ninety-nine years Americans have been ago, in laying the legal framework for legal segregation one of the initial target in the U.S., the Court ruled that "We consider the un­ communities (see June derlying fallacy of the plaintiffs argument to consist in N&L), and have re­ the assumption that the enforced separation of the two sponded with weekly races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiori­ protest demonstrations ty." In 1995, arguing that the state of Missouri could at the Immigration of­ spend no more money to ameliorate the achievement lev­ fice. el of Black inner-city students, Thomas wrote: "It never ceases to amaze me that the courts are so willing to as­ IDEOLOGICAL sume that anything that is predominantly black must be POLLUTION inferior." Some 200 demonstrators inarch through the predominantly Latino Pilsen neighbor­ The offensive from • In the affirmative action case, Adarand Construc­ hood to protest the Clinton administration's immigration raids of workplaces in the the politicians is bound tors v. Pena, the Court again reached beyond the partic­ Chicago area that have resulted in the arrest of more than 800 immigrants. to grow uglier in the pe­ ular issue at hand. In ruling against the legality of feder­ riod ahead, as the long al government contract "set-asides" designed to foster Court affirmative action decision: "When they talk about stretch towards the 1996 Presidential campaign begins minority businesses, it declared virtually all federal af­ affirmative action now, they're not talking about Black in earnest. The re cent Supreme Court decisions have firmative action initiatives unconstitutional as well. folks getting jobs, or Latinos, or women. They're talking fortified institutionalized racism, and intensified the pol­ "All racial classifications" by government agencies are about Black businesses getting money, getting contracts. lution of Meas; both of these outcomes will make the bat­ "inherently suspect and presumptively invalid," the How many of us have businesses anyway? When they tle against the swirling racist poisons even harder. Court argued, because, the Justices soberly maintained, talked about affirmative action from the beginning, it The various right-wing campaigns—on immigration, only the most stringent and searching judicial inquiry was about the basic necessity of having a job. But today affirmative action; and "three strikes and you're out" could possibly discern the difference between "remedial" in L.A., Blacks don't have jobs, young people especially." laws—are1 all targeted to elicit maximum racial divisions. uses of racial classifications, and those "motivated by il- On the other hand, a young Latina, a participant in Nor is it an accident that all have used California as a TCgitimate notions of racial inferiority.'' the vibrant student demonstrations against the proposed prime testing ground: this is the state that witnessed, abolition of affirmative action in admissions to the Uni­ three years ago, the Los Angeles rebellion. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: MYTH AND REALITY versity of California, spoke a different yet equal truth. However, the L.A. rebellion proved as disorienting to These three decisions, taken singly and together, have One of ten children raised by a garment worker mother, Black Civil Rights leaders and the Left as this last ses­ far-reaching implications, and the Court's reiteration of she told News & Letters: "I feel that affirmative action sion of Supreme Court rulings and the nationalist ideolo­ the supposed standard of a "color-blind society" spells has just opened a crack, and we have to support the gy Justice Clarence Thomas used to rationalize his neo- out the new language with which segregation, discrimi­ idea." Another activist commented: "Although the hope segregationist opinions in support of maintaining sepa­ nation, and disempowerment will now be justified. and dream of what affirmative action would mean has rate school systems, striking down Black voting rights, been whittled down—still, keeping it is crucial. It is a and undermining affirmative action. Indeed, well before the Court's ruling in Adarand Con­ marker of what direction this country is going in." structors v. Pena, "affirmative action" was facing just Which is why we cannot limit ourselves to the conten­ such bruising attacks, and those campaigns offer a fore­ HOLY WAR AGAINST IMMIGRANTS tion of California Congresswoman Maxine Waters that taste of what lies ahead. "Our job is in the streets organizing. Conferences, ral­ The question of what direction this country is going in lies, protests. We've got to put the numbers together." Thus, it was not the negligible remedies of affirmative grows more urgent every day. We are long past the need for a most massive and un­ ^action programs, as implemented by government, busi­ The latest Labor Dept. reports show that wages of precedented opposition to the present right-wing retro­ nesses, and universities, that was being assaulted, but an American workers are falling; continuing mass layoffs gression in this country. There is little chance of that de­ ideological entity constructed to foster a notion of minor­ translate into a panorama of devastated human lives. veloping if we do not confront the fact that today's retro­ ity "privilege." Called, interchangeably, "affirmative ac­ This wreckage is wrought by the structural crisis of gression flows not just from the actions of the Right but tion" and "preferential quotas for minorities," this fa­ state-capitalism, as government budgets are slashed and from the profound impasse reached in the revolutionary bled entity was/is portrayed as spreading racial polariza­ businesses shutter and move to the Third World. Politi­ movements themselves. tion across the land, as it shuts the door of opportunity cians pawn off responsibility on easy targets—low-wage There is nothing abstract about the "vision" Newt against decent, hard-working white men. undocumented immigrants, a handful of Blacks and Gingrich and his fellow Georgian Clarence Thomas have The widespread existence of such "reverse discrimina­ Latinos who benefit from affirmative action programs, of American society. What is abstract is the assumption tion" has been so widely referred to, by both right-wing­ women on welfare. of those in a rush to get to the streets, in the 11th hour, ers and "liberals," that its actuality is rarely questioned. In California, a pair of disgruntled Republican white that organizing such a mass, sustainable movement can The facts, however, tell a different story. men,' Tom Wood and Glynn Custred, have started a cam­ succeed without clarifying the philosophical principles of Cathleen Decker, summarizing recent labor market paign to place on the state ballot their so-called "Califor­ the kind of new, truly human society we are fighting for. surveys for the Los Angeles Times, concluded: "What nia Civil Rights Initiative" (CCRI), a constitutional The task of working out a liberatory vision of the fu­ *seems undeniable is that white males have not suffered amendment outlawing any type of affirmative action ef­ ture cannot be put off to the 11th hour, anymore than widespread insult....Although affirmative action has fort. Backing CCRI sire many of the same reactionary fighting the Right. What Marxist-Humanism has articu­ helped integrate police and fire departments and blue- forces that successfully canvassed for the anti-immigrant lated as American Civilization on Trial: Black Masses as collar unions, it has had less effect elsewhere....Although Proposition 187 in 1994, even as Prop. 187 proponents Vanguard is the kind of restatement of Marxism for the animosity about affirmative action has increased, its im­ have taken nationwide their California-based crusade American scene that allows us to see the Black dimen­ pact in the workplace has been underwhelming." against the "dirty alien hordes" who are supposedly sion as! revolutionary and ongoing, especially at the mo­ That underwhelming reality is reflected in the reac­ sucking our country's resources dry. ment wfhen one of the recognizable faces leading the ret­ tion of one Black worker in Los Angeles to the Supreme Indeed, the holy war against immigrants has intensi­ rogression is also Black. JULY 1995 NEWS & LETTERS Page 11 Racist sch00 Youth Beware of American dreamers ' closings ( Chicago— Hundreds of mostly Black school children, tism and pride in being an American. One student from parents and teachers crowded into the Healy Elementary by Maya Jhansi the audience asked, "Why can't we consider ourselves School auditorium in Chicago on June 8 for a face-off This month I am turning over the youth column to a human beings instead of just Americans?" with Mayor Daley over his decision to close eight public speech given at a meeting on "Youth leading the fight Eldridge Cleaver reiterated by stressing the need for schools. Several of these schools have important historic against the Right" in Los Angeles by a young Latina ac­ practicality where you can strive to be all you can be. As meaning to the African-American community, such as tivist, Olga. — M.J. Eldridge pointed out, Colin Powell, who strived to be the Lindblom Tech High School. Others represent crucial in­ While Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, and other politi­ best soldier, thus became the best soldier. In this toxic stitutions for impoverished, struggling neighborhoods. cians have their political love-in, youth all over the na­ environment where literally and figuratively one cannot Instead of a forum for their concerns, however, they tion resist being scapegoats to a faltering economy. With even breath at one's full capacity, one's thinking can get found an agenda carefully engineered to avoid their par­ massive cuts to education, the reality of education's ex- muddled. ticipation. Representatives from the Chicago Association pendability becomes evident. In an assembly line educa­ When "practicality" is equal to the immediate para­ of Local School Councils (CALSC) asked preprinted tional system whose main purpose seems to be the pro­ digm only, then any challenge to that "practicality" questions about Daley's plans for overhauling the Chica­ duction of pieces and parts go public school system, none of which had anything to for the Great American Ma­ do with the closings. chine, these prospective ma­ Only when dozens of people leaped to their feet with chine parts hold fast to their V&D NeVeR LeT ^ hands raised near the end of the program did one of Humanity in various forms CALSC reps, Joseph Cole, finally ask about the closings. of revolt. ScHooL K'T>$ GO Students, parents, teachers, and alumni unifed in^a, Although New York seems new coalition, Concerned Citizens of Schools Targetted to be the forefront with doz­ uNF*D /^~\ (CCOST). CCOST has won assurance that the final deci­ ens of protests, the outcry sion will wait until the new Board is in place in July; against the "Contract with however, the Board will be picked by the mayor. America" is sounding out ev­ —Laurie Cashdan erywhere. Student hunger strikes in Ohio, Atlanta and ^Jt^L$ Keep Lindblom open! Illinois, protests and march­ ^m-' y M*> es in Hawaii and Michigan, Lindblom opened in 1919. Last year we celebrated our as well as walkouts and sit- 75th anniversary. If we transfer somewhere else, where ins in New Jersey and here ^^m P~ will we find our pride in our school? We took our picture in California. As Linton leT-fa STAT6> »T/ outside our school in September. Where will our pictures Kwesi Johnson said, "It is go? Where will all our awards and music trophies go? no mystery we're making Lindblom is a magnet school with a curriculum de­ history." signed for college preparation. In most of our classes we These mere statistics of use computers. We have humanities classes like British "the Youth Market" weaned literature that we can't take anywhere else. We have ex­ on MTV where, as they ad­ pository writing and we can't take that anywhere else. vertised, "the revolution will Most of our students go on to college. We have about be televised," are perhaps re­ 97% African-American students. alizing the value of the X in It's a small school, but teachers are able to pay more Generation X. But what hap­ attention to us than at other schools. Daley said he pens with these "Reagan babies" now that the "revolu­ seems impractical. So, this means that looking at one's wanted smaller schools, so why would he close tion" has been televised? self and others as human beings and working on under­ Lindblom? They just spent $4.6 million remodelling Lindblom. Why are they taking the Black students out? * Here in a nation that spends 2% of its budget on Hu­ standing what this means individually and universally, is impractical. The philosophy of capitalism with its exploi­ They say we have to transfer to Harlan. It's far away. man Welfare and 50% on Human Warfare; where the ab­ There's gang violence around there, and we would cross olition of affirmative action "is another important step tation and ruination is known well by all who have an in­ timate relationship with it on a day to day basis. The liv­ gang territories. But they can't fit all our teachers at in our journey toward equal opportunity and a color Harlan. They can't even fit all the students. On the last blind society," perhaps the only color to be seen in this ing and thinking machine parts, a.k.a. workers, keep this backward system moving. The modern day slave is the day of school they were telling us to fill out transfers "color blind society" will be white. Those undesirables saying where we would go if not to Harlan. who fail this blinding white color blind test can find a wage earner. This destructive relationship must be fully home in newly built Institutions of Corrections, built to realized for today's slaves to break their chains. The Lindblom program would go to Harlan in Septem­ compensate for the newly closed Institutions of Learn­ So as we resist this slave system, what kind of new so­ ber, but after three years it would not exist. Since we are ing. The equation: no education, no job; no job, go to jail. ciety can we imagine while still imprisoned by the old? a college preparatory high school, why can't they keep us We humans with our feet on earth, who conceived the going? We have elevators there now, so why can't they Pragmatists and reformists on the Left and the Right bring us disabled students? reevaluate, and try to understand what it is to be a true idea of God must ask ourselves the question News and Letters Committees is seriously asking: "What happens The new board will look into this matter after July 1. American. Anything to keep alive the American dream But the parents are saying they will keep us out of which historically since its birth has been the American after the revolution?" When revolution means forging towards new human relations and freedom, then this school if they decide to transfer us to another school. We nightmare. When listening to a speech given by ex-Black have to pull people together to make the city hear what Panther Eldrige Cleaver, he proudly spoke of his patrio- question directly challenges notions old and new. This speculative, argumentative and controversial question we have to say. Why do they wait until the very end of where nothing is a given is practical and theoretical. If the year, so the students, the parents, the teachers won't What it means to be human "new" means new and "freedom" means freedom then have anything to say? we cannot just rely on intuition to give it birth. If I go to Harlan, at least I will graduate from the New York— Who am I? I'm a human being. A Lindblom curriculum. But what about younger children? young female, one who is part of the beings called the My seven-year-old brother wants to go there. I have a lot human race. Therefore, if I'm part of the human race, Labor challenges Newt of kinfolks who want to go. I hope they keep it open and then I'm part of the history: a part from the past and a give African-American students a chance to experience part of the future. Chicago—On June 17 well over 1,000 people, most it. —Lindblom Tech H.S.junftlfc To be a human means to feel the universal feelings of them trade union workers, marched, rallied and dem­ others have, to share the earth and share history and onstrated against the "Contract on America" and for ancestors. To understand what we must do for the fu­ jobs and justice. Marchers beginning from three differ­ Join the struggle to ture. To be human means to share victories and trage­ ent locations converged at Union Park on the West Side dies; to be part of the same cycle of love, birth and of Chicago in a poor, predominantly Black neighborhood. death; to ask the same questions humans have been ask­ One march drew largely from the Latino neighborhood free Mumia Abu-Jamal! ing for centuries. Each generation experiences different where it started. The largest march, however, was made Chicago—On Monday, June 5, about 200 people ral­ events than their ancestors yet still have the same expe­ up of people from many union locals, predominantly lied at the State of Illinois Building here to protest the rience. As a human I ask the universal questions: "Who from AFSCME, SEIU, and the Teamsters. racist and unjust scheduled execution of Mumia Abu- am I?" and "What is my purpose?" and "I wonder how I At Union Park neighborhood residents joined with Jamal. Mumia, a political prisoner, has been sentenced, am part of this world?" Some of us may never know and union workers to listen to several speakers, including the to death as a result of being framed for the murder of a some will have different views. Rev. Jesse Jackson, speak about the injustice of the Con­ policeman in Philadelphia in December 1981. To be human means to be part of something individu­ tract, of Newt Gingrich and the Republican-controlled Mumia was driving a cab and pulled over to help a al and at the same time part of something bigger. To be legislature, and of privatization. While going along with Black man he saw who was being beaten by police. human is to be the past, the present, and the future. the militance of the crowd, most speakers tried to chan­ Mumia was then shot in the stomach and another police­ — 17-year-old high school student nel it into getting out the vote. man was killed. Mumia was left laying there until after This event may have signaled a change in the response I How to contact the other police officer had been taken to the morgue. to the right-wing attacks. Rather than just a handful of He is a victim of the crime also, as he was shot and then NEWS & LETTERS COMMITTEES Leftists, this demonstration represented the poor and unjustly framed for the murder of the police officer. working population of Chicago. It was Black, white and There was anger in the voices of the people who spoke Chicano, and there were many women. Youth were at the rally, expressing their disgust at a racist 59 E. Van Buren, Room 707 P.O. Box 196 there, many with working parents, some protesting Chicago, IL 60605 Grand Central Station (injustice system that the United States espouses as the school cuts. There were the homeless as well as union answer to its problems. One of the chants was, "Free Phone 312 663 0839 New York, NY 10163 workers—and there was an angry realization of how Fax 312 663 9069 212 663 3631 Mumia, Free Free Mumia." MEETINGS deadly the Republicans' Contract is and a bedrock deter­ During the trial, Mumia was asked many questions MEETINGS mination to stop it cold. —Participants Call for meeting information Sundays, 6:30 p.m. concerning his involvement in the Black Panther Party, Washington Square Church >EHS & LETTERS and other left organizations. He was asked to justify P.O. Box 3345 133 W. 4th St. (Parish House) statements such as, "Political power grows out of the Vol. 40, No. 6 July 1995 barrel of a gun." He responded that America's political Oakland, CA 94609 News & Letters (ISSN 0028-8969) is published 10 times a year, monthly, 510 658 1448 P.O. 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i]J Page 12 JULY 1995 N'EWS' & LETTERS Jut. ] Our Life and Times | Chechens strike back, Yeltsin falters ond shock. The local Russian population, instead of to begin. by Kevin A. Barry and Mary Holmes blaming the Chechen attackers, lashed out at Yeltsin Whether the Russian government will seriously nego­ and company, linking their imperialist invasion of In mid-June, even as the Yeltsin government and its tiate or just play for time is unclear, but three things are Chechnya to the deaths of their friends and relatives. clear. One, the corrupt and increasingly authoritarian Western supporters had begun to consider the war in One typical response was that of a Budyonnovsk man Yeltsin regime is on the ropes. Two, the Russian people Chechnya nearly over, the Chechen resistance suddenly who shouted to Western reporters at the scene: "You are sick of this war. Three, the Chechen people will keep staged a daring attack on the Russian city of should take a picture of Yeltsin with these bodies" (New on fighting. Budyonnovsk. This city of 100,000 is 70 miles northwest York Times, June 17, 1995). One of the Russian hos­ The fate of Shamil Basayev's family is one example of of Chechnya, and not too far from Stavropol, where Mi­ tages, Yelena Kapran, said: "Of course, they're no an­ why this is so. In the mountain town of Vedeno, taken khail Gorbachev was born. gels, but they treated us pretty well, and they didn't try by Russian forces in early June, stand the ruins of The attack began after a large, armed body of Chechen to kill us, like the Russians." Basayev's home. Eleven of his relatives were killed there fighters, led by top-ranking commander Shamil Basayev, Then, an angry and possibly drunk Yeltsin staged a by a Russian bomb. In a racist humiliation sure to be re­ made their way out of Chechnya by bribing soldiers at boorish Khrushchev-style shouting match with reporters membered for generations, a latrine for Russian troops Russian checkpoints. Once they ran out of bribe money, in Halifax, as an embarrassed Bill Clinton looked on. has since been erected in the ruins of Basayev's home. they invaded Budyonnovsk, took hundreds of hostages, Yeltsin refused any blame for the brutal war which has and then holed up in the local hospital, demanding that killed up to 60,000 civilians so far, terming Chechnya Russia withdraw from Chechnya. Two poorly organized "the center of world terrorism" and referring repeatedly Austria's Nazi past attempts by demoralized Russian troops to dislodge to "my friend Bill" (New York Times, June 18,1995). After four years of debate, the Austrian parliament, in - them failed. The next day, Russian Prime Minister Viktor June , voted for the first time ever to give economic com­ If Yeltsin, who by then was at the economic summit in Chernomyrdin, acting in Yeltsin's absence, negotiated a pensation to Austrian victims of Nazism. There are an Halifax, Nova Scotia, had grossly underestimated both settlement whereby the Chechen fighters were given safe estimated 33,000 survivors, who include Jews, Roma the continuing capacity of the Chechen resistance and passage home, the Russian army ordered a cease-fire in (gypsies), lesbians and gays, and poUtical opponents. The the disarray of his own military, he was now in for a sec­ Chechnya, and negotiations to end the war were law was passed so belatedly and so stingily, however—as seen in a provision that compensation should go only to those survivors whose current economic position puts India's communal tensions Negotiations in Chiapas them "in need of social welfare aid"-—that it was sup­ ported by the Right but opposed by the leftist and anti- Religious and ethnic tensions continue to grow in In­ racist Green Party. dia. Several months ago, the neo-fascist Shiv Sena move­ ment won elections in Maharashtra, the state which in­ The Greens termed it yet "another insult to the vic­ cludes India's most technologically modern city, Bom­ tims of Nazism to compensate them in the form of chari­ bay. Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray has long advocated ty." This debate took place in a country which elected the expulsion of Muslims from India and has also ex­ the former Nazi officer Kurt Waldheim to the presiden­ pressed open admiration for Hitler. Two years ago, Shiv cy, and where, despite the tumultuous acclamation by Sena gangs led the mobs which attacked and killed hun­ the population of Hitler's 1938 annexation, public opin­ dreds of Muslims in Bombay during Hindu-Muslim riots. ion still holds that Austria was Na2ism's "first victim." In May of this year, in the disputed Kashmir region, the town of Charar-i-Sharief was burned to the ground during an attempt by the Indian military to dislodge In Brief... Muslim separatist militants from an historic mosque Brazil—The last of Brazil's 50,000 oil workers re­ they had occupied. The people of Kashmir, a predomi­ turned to work in June, their four-week strike against nantly Muslim region, have been seeking a referendum opening the nationalized oil industry to foreign invest­ on questions such as autonomy or links with Pakistan ment crushed. A former Marxist, President Fernando ever since the 1947 partition of the region into two Enrique Cardoso, is being praised by the bourgeois me­ states, India and Pakistan. This latest outrage by the In­ dia and middle class public opinion for his Thatcher-like dian government has strengthened the local Islamic fun­ "firmness" toward the strikers. With hundreds of work­ damentalists. ers fired and still more facing dismissal, the Brazilian Many of India's leftist, labor, and feminist groups have Residents from a community in Chiapas listened to legislature has now begun the process of changing the tried to resist the rising tide of communalism (the Indian proposals issued from negotiations between the EZLN constitution to permit Cardoso's privatization measures. term for inter-religious and inter-ethnic hostility), but and the Mexican government in June. The EZLN has de­ • this has often seemed to be a losing battle in recent manded certain basic guarantees including freedom of Britain—An anti-police rebellion broke out June 9, in years. This does not mean, however, that this varied and movement, safety of EZLN supporters, and no future Bradford, a small Yorkshire city populated heavily by multicultural land, whose population now stands at military attacks by the government. In negotiations be­ Asians (the British term for immigrants and citizens nearly a billion people, is entirely in the grip of funda­ gun June 7, the government proposed regrouping troops originating from the Indian subcontinent). Long the tar­ mentalists and chauvinists. on both sides, and reportedly was ready to cede some ter­ get of racist attacks by both police and skinheads, and One small sign of the mass yearning for an end to ritory to EZLN control. But it still occupies huge areas living in a community where youth unemployment communalism is the totally unanticipated record-break­ in Chiapas following the Feb. 9 invasion. stands at over 50%, Asian youth struck back forcefully in In a provocative move at the end of June, government ing attendance for the new film, "Bombay," directed by response to racist insults by police. Several stores were officials expelled-three Catholic priests whom it accused burned down as the youths battled police. Up to now, Mani Ratman. Released in late April, it portrays the of fomenting unrest in Chiapas, including Fr. Loren 1992-93 Bombay riots through the eyes of two youths, Britain's Asian community has been considered by many Riebe, who was ousted from Yajalon. One of the priests to be less militant in its response to racism than the twin brothers born of a marriage between a Hindu and a stated that "It is becoming clear that what the govern­ Muslim. In one widely discussed scene, the two brothers Black community, but that now appears to be changing ment really wants is more conflict." In the meantime, with the new generation of Asian youth. are almost killed by a Hindu mob which demands to proposals from the June talks have been taken back to know if they are Hindu or Muslim, something which the indigenous communities for discussion. Negotiations -%ey cannot answer. are set to resume this month. | Iranian Mujahedeen deals | On June 13, the German government barred Maryam Who We Are and What We Stand For Rajavi, a leader of the Iranian opposition group, Mujahe­ deen, from entering Germany to address a demonstra­ News and Letters Committees is an organization rooted in her rediscovery of Marx's Marxism m its tion of Mujahedeen supporters in Dortmund. The dem­ of Marxist-Humanists that stands for the abolition original form as a "new Humanism" and in her re­ onstration, which by various estimates included 5,000 to of capitalism, whether in its private property form creation of that philosophy for our age as "Marxwt- 15,000 people, had been scheduled to defend the Clinton as in the U.S., or its state property form, ssjm Rus­ Humanism." The development of the Marxist- administration's recent embargo on Iran. sia or China. We stand for the development of new Humanism of Dunayevskaya is recorded in the doc­ The German government prevented Maryam Rajavi human'relations, what Marx first called a new Hu­ uments on microfilm and open to all under the title from entering the country after the Iranian government manism The Raya Dunayevskaya Collection-Marxist- threatened to stop paying its loans to Germany and halt News & Letters was founded in 1955, the year of Humanism: A Half Century of Its World Devel­ their mutual business deals. Germany has a history of the Detroit wildcat strikes against Automation and opment, on deposit at the Wayne State University good trade and political relations with Iran, while the the Montgomery Bus Boycott against segrega­ Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs in Detroit. Mujahedeen have had their own history of unprincipled tion—activities which signaled a new movement Michigan political alliances in their opposition to the Iranian gov­ from practice that was itself a form of theory. Kews ernment. & Letters was created so that the voices of revolt Dunayevskaya's philosophic comprehension of her creation and development of Marxist-Human­ Recently the Mujahedeen have tried to establish from below could be heard imseparated from the strong relations with the Clinton administration and the articulation of a philosophy of liberation. We have ism, especially as expressed in her 1980s writings, presents the vantage point for re-creating her ideas, Republican Congress. This month 202 members of the organized ourselves into a committee form of organ­ House of Representatives signed a Mujahedeen-spon- ization rather than any elitist party "to lead." anew. Seeking to grasp that vantage point for our- sei.'CS and make it available to all who struRgV fur sored letter asking Clinton to take a harsher line on Iran Raya Dunayevskaya (1910-87), founder of the freedom, we have published Duuayevakaya's origi­ and to recognize the Mujahedeen-sponsored "National body of ideas of Marxist-Humanism, became Chair- nal 19.33 philosophic breakthrough and hi»r final Council of Resistance," led by Massud Rajavi, as the woman of the National Editorial Board and Nation­ 1987 Presentation on the Dialectics of Organization democratic alternative to the Islamic Republic. al Chairwoman of the Committees from its found­ and Philosophy in The Philosophic Moment of Clearly the Clinton administration and the Republican ing to 1987. Charles Denby (1907-83). a Black pro­ Marxist-Humanism (1989), and have donated new Congress's actions on Iran are not motivated by the de­ duction worker, author of Indignant Heart: A supplementary volumes to the Raya Dunayevskaya sire to support a genuine opposition to Iran's counter­ Black Worker's Journal, became editor of the pa­ Collection. News and Letters Committees aims at revolutionary regime. The U.S. is instead eager to vie per from 1955 to 1983. Dunayevskayu's works developing and concretizing this body of ideas for with the Russian and Chinese governments, which have Marxism and Freedom—from 1776 until Today our time. been engaging in nuclear deals with Iran. Russia has (1958); Philosophy and Revolution: from Hegel gone ahead with its plan to build $800 million worth of to Sartre and from Marx to Mao (1973), and Rosa In opposing this capitalistic, racist, s.exis.1., exploit­ nuclear technology in Iran. China has been selling Luxemburg, Women's Liberation, and Marx's ative society, we participate in all class and freedom transcontinental missiles to Iran. Other European coun­ Philosophy of Revolution (1982] spell out the struggles, nationally and internationally A* our tries have been competing to take the place of the U.S.- philosophic ground of Marx's Humanism interna­ Constitution states- "It is our,aim ...to promote owned Conoco Company in a $600 million deal to engage tionally, as American Civilization on Trial con­ the firmest unity among workers, Blacks and other in oil and gas exploration in the Siri Islands. cretizes it on the American scene and shows the minorities, women, youth and those intellectuals The Mujahedeen may be happy that they have now re­ two-way road between the U.S. and Africa. These who have broken with the ruling bureaucracy of ceived recognition from the U.S. Congress. But they works challenge post-Marx Marxists to return to both capital and labor." We do not separate mass have long ago rejected the fundamental principle needed Marx's Marxism. activities from the activity of thinking. Send for a for any genuine revolutionary sohdarity with the Iranian The new visions of the future that Dunayevskaya copy of the Constitution of News and Letters Com­ masses: a banner of liberation independent of all state left us in her work from the 1940s to tb» 2080« are mittees. powers. —Sheila Fuller