Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! Dec. 20, 2007 Vol. 49, No. 50 50¢ NBC airs suppressed Chávez y el referéndum 12 evidence in Mumia case By Betsey Piette policeman holding two guns in his bare hand, contradicting the Philadelphia officer’s (James Forbes) trial testimony that he had preserved ballistics evidence. Another photo shows your husband’s hat on Supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a revolutionary Black jour- top of a car and not on the sidewalk as it is in the official police nalist on Pennsylvania’s death row, rallied outside Philadelphia’s photo of the crime scene. A third shows a blood-stained sidewalk MORTGAGE City Hall Dec. 8. They challenged outgoing Mayor John Street where the shooting took place, but does not show any signs of to “do the right thing” and not cave in to pressure from the the marks in the concrete that might have occurred if your hus- Fraternal Order of Police to withdraw his support for a new trial band had been shot from above, as prosecutors contended. The CRISIS 3 for the world-renowned political prisoner. defense attorney [Robert Bryan] says that he could ‘have a field Mumia supporters also celebrated a hard-won victory. On day’ with these photographs if a new trial—” n Detroit workers: Dec. 6 NBC’s Today Show aired evidence pointing to an unfair At that point Smerconish, while not challenging any of the 'No foreclosures!' trial and Mumia’s innocence. The occasion was an appearance facts Lauer had raised, cut him off to accuse Mumia supporters by right-wing commentator Michael Smerconish and Maureen of “manipulation of the process.” Faulkner then asked, “Where n Bush to banks: Faulkner, widow of slain Philadelphia police officer Daniel have these pictures been for 26 years? Why hasn’t this man 'I feel your pain' Faulkner. They were promoting their new book “Murdered come forth sooner than now?” by Mumia.” The program quickly cut to pickets in support of Faulkner’s question goes to the heart of police manipulation Mumia outside the NBC studios in New York. of the evidence and crime scene in 1981. The authenticity of This broadcast of the Today Show, the highest-rated morning Polakoff’s photos is not in question—several of the 31 photos news show in the country with an audience of millions, featured he shot appeared in local newspapers at the time, and Polakoff archival footage in which Mumia affirmed his innocence, as well offered them to the prosecution. However, the Philadelphia HIV-AIDS as newly discovered original crime scene photos taken by press District Attorney’s office deep-sixed them. photographer Pedro P. Polakoff on Dec. 9, 1981. The photos clearly contradicted the official lies and exposed Proof positive of injustice 5 The photos contradict the testimony of key prosecution wit- the incredibly sloppy and manipulative police investigation. nesses during Mumia’s 1982 trial and 1995 Post Conviction Philadelphia journalist Linn Washington, speaking at a Dec. 4 Relief Act hearing. They have been ignored by the commercial press conference, noted that the DA’s “lack of interest, and the media, with the exception of a Reuters article that appeared fact that they didn’t inform the defense, alone might be reason IRAN & NUKES earlier in the week and an article in the San Francisco Bay View for a new trial.” this past October. The photos also presented a problem for the prosecution Behind the NIE report 9 Even after the Today Show brought these photos to light, because they knew that Polakoff was under the erroneous none of the corporate Philadelphia media mentioned them or impression that Mumia was the passenger in a car belonging to the show. The Philadelphia Inquirer, which features a regular his brother, Billy Cook, that Faulkner had pulled over. Polakoff, column by Smerconish, instead put out misinformation on the who was at the scene within 12 minutes of the shooting, heard Philadelphia rally, claiming that “40 police officers monitored witnesses tell police that the passenger in Cook’s car had shot MISSING 30 supporters of a cop killer,” while in reality over 100 support- Faulkner and fled the scene. Polakoff’s photos can be seen on the ers of Mumia staged a lively march and rally while a handful of Journalists for Mumia website, www.Abu-Jamal-News.com. TAPES police stood by. The timing of the Today Show interview comes at a critical More CIA crimes surface 9 juncture for Abu-Jamal, who is awaiting a ruling by the Third Defense could ‘have a field day’ Circuit Court on several appeals filed by his attorneys in May. Today Show co-host Matt Lauer asked Faulkner and Smer­ Smerconish and Faulkner planned to use the interview to pro- conish about the new photo evidence, saying the photos “show a Continued on page 5

WW photo: Gary Wilson March in Philadelphia demands freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal, on death row for 26 years. EYEWITNESS INDIA

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Interview with Tha Truth An anthem for the poor & dispossessed By Larry Hales H In the U.S. NBC airs suppressed evidence in Mumia case...... 1 Tha Truth has been rapping for nine years. Like Interview with Tha Truth...... 2 many underground rap artists, he honed his skills by Fight-back meeting maps plans to stop foreclosures . . . 3 battle rapping. At the time his rhymes were filled with Bush lets banks write rules for mortgage relief. . . . . 3 braggadocio and laced with what he saw and heard in New Orleans fight for affordable housing ...... 4 everyday life. But he was approached by another artist who influenced him and impressed upon him to use Labor Council backs Gulf Coast program...... 4 his talent to question the things happening around Audience sets up Free the Cuban 5 group...... 4 him and to espouse the positive. On the picket line...... 4 Tha Truth set upon a sojourn and from this journey Spread of HIV/AIDS: ‘Proof positive of injustice’ . . . . . 5 came his moniker and the realization that he affirms Bush gang's plan to attack Iran in the song “Universal Healthcare,” which is really an anthem for the poor and dispossessed. In the song the undercut by NIE report...... 9 artist states, “It’s time for revolution/ we know the CIA destroys tapes in prisoner torture case...... 9 real terrorists/ war, greed, no healthcare and air pol- Bob Kohler: Stonewall vet, AIDS activist, lution/ there is a solution … it don’t matter who/ what, anti-racist fighter...... 10 why or where/ all people need universal healthcare.” ww Photo: John Catalinotto Hip hop artists Jay aka Tha Truth and Colleen Hall. The entire CD, titled “Tha Civil Rights H Around the world Movement Part II,” is a composition—written, pro- … I started questioning stuff around me and the hypoc- Nandigram says 'No!' to Dow’s chemical hub...... 6 risy of some hip hop artists. duced and performed to inform and educate. The CD is Repression and a false policy...... 6 quite a revelation. It is rare that an artist is able to display WWP: How did you start getting involved in the Anti-imperialists meet to discuss and act ...... 7 a full political vision and entertain. This is because the political struggle? arts under capitalist society are a commodity and artists Tha Truth: My partner sparked political change in Civil servants strike, protest in Egypt ...... 8 are made to bend to what is popular, which is manufac- me. She was always protesting and being in the streets. Lavender & red, part 117 ...... 8 tured by constant inundation by bourgeois media outlets I met her in 2003 as the war was starting in Iraq. I had Victory for U .S . war resisters in Canada ...... 8 of the superficial and distracting that affirm the capitalist kind of given up on trying to see change in the system Workers discuss U .S -Latin. America relations...... 11 system. and I was really jaded.... A lot of that was because of Zimbabwe march supports a defiant gov’t...... 11 Tha Truth begins with a quote by Dr. Martin Luther this job I had at that time.... I was trying to do some- Palestinians denounce Annapolis conference...... 11 King Jr.: “The time has come for America to hear thing positive in working for a non-profit but the one I the truth.” worked at for a couple years seemed to be more about H Editorials Tha Truth highlights the case of the Camden 28, exploitation of children and fund-raising than actu- A rotten new bill...... 10 Catholic anti-war activists who attempted to destroy draft ally making kids’ lives better. Then I was working as a cards at the Camden, N.J., draft board in 1971. The group security guard at a hotel, aiming to protect people indi- H Noticias En Español had been set up by Bob Hardy, who was working with the vidually.... My fiancée kept encouraging me to get more Chávez y el referéndum ...... 12 FBI, which watched and raided the brave attempt by the involved politically because she liked my ideas and gen- activists to resist the draft and the imperialist war against eral principles I had shared with her from our conversa- the Vietnamese people. tions.... From there I started to get a lot more involved In the CD the listener will find purely political music, in the struggle and that influenced my music to get Workers World dealing with corporate media, anti-LGBTQ hatred to the point of being as political as it is now. I left the 55 West 17 Street and global warming. Tha Truth uncovers widely held security job and started teaching in a middle school for New York, N.Y. 10011 falsehoods. some time but felt limited by the curriculum, of course. Phone: (212) 627-2994 This reporter was able to interview the artist, who per- I felt like I could combine my passion for wanting to Fax: (212) 675-7869 formed at the Nov. 17 Workers World Party Conference teach about what’s really important with my passion for E-mail: [email protected] on worldwide solidarity. music and that led me toward my first album. I started Web: www.workers.org Larry Hales, WWP: Who were some of the artists watching documentaries. I began reading Workers Vol. 49, No. 50 • Dec. 20, 2007 you were listening to when you first began rapping? World a year ago. Closing date: Dec. 12, 2007 Tha Truth: Group Home, Jeru Da Damaja. I pretty WWP: What do you think of the state of hip hop Editor: Deirdre Griswold much just listened to hip hop and listened to main- now, especially with all the criticism that has re-emerged stream stuff too. after Don Imus’s racist and sexist comments? Technical Editor: Lal Roohk WWP: How long have you been performing? Tha Truth: I think there is a lot of wasted poten- Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell, Tha Truth: I’ve been performing for a year but been tial in hip hop music. It could be a powerful force in Leslie Feinberg, Monica Moorehead, Gary Wilson rapping for nine years. the struggle for change. Now it’s guided by a corporate West Coast Editor: John Parker formula to make money. I think education needs to be WWP: When did you start changing your content? Contributing Editors: Greg Butterfield, G. Dunkel, interesting and creative to hold interest and that music Tha Truth: It was around 1999-2000 when I met Fred Goldstein, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Hales, can do that. It could be a huge catalyst. a conscious rapper who influenced me. I was trying David Hoskins, Berta Joubert-Ceci, Cheryl LaBash, WWP: Do you associate any artists of a different era to deal with a lot of leftover anger I had from a really Milt Neidenberg, Bryan G. Pfeifer, Minnie Bruce Pratt messed up childhood that was filled with violence to the era they performed and lived in? Technical Staff: Shelley Ettinger, Bob McCubbin, toward me. I never really had a father. And, at this time Tha Truth: This is the only period I’ve lived in, but Maggie Vascassenno in my life, I guess I was looking for intelligent, strong from history I think John Lennon was important in his male role models to look up to and I felt like I found time and Gil Scott-Heron. Mundo Obrero: Carl Glenn, Teresa Gutierrez, that in reading books by and about Martin Luther King WWP: You performed at a socialist conference. Do Berta Joubert-Ceci, Donna Lazarus, Carlos Vargas Jr., Gandhi, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. I was also you consider yourself a socialist? Internet: Janet Mayes inspired by reading about Jane Addams. I felt like I was Tha Truth: Well, I haven’t, but I think with anything Supporter Program: Sue Davis, coordinator starting to find a higher purpose for my life at this time the intentions of the leaders are what is important. n Copyright © 2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of articles is permitted in any medium JOIN US. National Office Buffalo, N.Y. Houston Richmond, Va. without royalty provided this notice is preserved. 55 W. 17 St., 367 Delaware Ave. P.O. Box 595 P.O. Box 14602, Workers World (ISSN-1070-4205) is published week- Workers World Party New York, NY 10011 Buffalo, NY 14202 Houston, TX 77001-0595 Richmond, VA 23221 ly except the first week of January by WW Publishers, (WWP) fights on all 212-627-2994; 716-566-1115 713-861-5965 [email protected] 55 W. 17 St., N.Y., N.Y. 10011. Phone: (212) 627-2994. issues that face the Fax (212) 675-7869 [email protected] [email protected] Rochester, N.Y. 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Amid acute housing crisis Fight-back meeting maps plans to stop foreclosures By Bryan G. Pfeifer Gov. Jennifer Granholm and gover- Abayomi Azikiwe speaks at Detroit hous- Detroit nors throughout the country immedi- ing crisis meeting. Also pictured are Pat ately declare states of emergency in their Johnson, Alfreda Weathers, Bryan Pfeifer After being hammered by an economic respective states and use their emergency (standing), Rev. Ed Rowe, Maureen Taylor, Jerry Goldberg and Vanessa Fluker. crisis of unprecedented proportions, some powers under the law to invoke a mora- 75 poor and working people from Detroit torium halting all foreclosures. MECAWI and southeastern Michigan packed a Dec. organizers point out that such a mora- 8 organizing meeting here. The meeting torium on foreclosures was enacted in ended with unanimous approval for reso- Michigan and 24 other states during the lutions and actions demanding a morato- 1930s and upheld as constitutional by the rium on foreclosures and utility shutoffs. U.S. Supreme Court.

The crowd included activists from a “This crisis is an emergency and it’s only m el H a number of labor, community and student the tip of the iceberg. It affects everybody. organizations, among them the Michigan The Bush plan this week has already been Welfare Rights Organization, Green Party, exposed as a joke. It’s a voluntary plan. hoto: Kri s p hoto: Morningside Community Organization, Well, that’s great. It’s like the prey going WW Operation Rainbow/Push Coalition, the to the vultures and asking them for relief. as well as in Detroit. American Federation of Teachers, the It’s going to barely touch the problem. working and poor people of Michigan and Community activist and former Detroit Michigan Nurses Association, the United This is an enormous crisis. It has been to hell with those banks,” said Goldberg. School Board candidate Sandra Hines Auto Workers and Workers World Party. brought on by many factors, including the “We say the people come before the cor- described how she and her loved ones had Detroit City Council member Joann racist predatory lending, the fraudulent porations. The preamble to the state con- been thrown out of their home just one Watson attended and Rev. Ed Rowe of the practices of virtually every finance com- stitution says the health and welfare of the week earlier because of a foreclosure. The historic Central United Methodist Church, pany in Michigan,” said Goldberg. people are of primary concern. It doesn’t movers callously threw her and her sis- a center for many progressive struggles, A Nov. 27 Detroit News article docu- say the health and welfare of the rich. It ter’s household items—many brand new— welcomed the participants to his church. mented that at least 72,000 homes went doesn’t say the health and welfare of the in a dumpster as the women were being Meeting chair Abayomi Azikiwe of the into foreclosure in metropolitan Detroit banks. It doesn’t say the health and wel- removed from their deceased mother’s Michigan Emergency Committee Against over the last two years. Some Detroit fare of the corporations. It’s the people. home, which has been in the family since War and Injustice (MECAWI), sponsor of neigh­borhoods had foreclosure rates of And it’s time that the people get organized 1969. This scenario is playing out every day the meeting, stated: “What’s actually being 17 percent. Although Black homeowners to assert our rights, that we come first. in Michigan and throughout the country. advocated by the mortgage companies, have been hit the hardest, this devasta- “We have a right to housing. It’s a fun- Hines, Maureen Taylor of the Michigan what’s being published in the Wall Street tion continues to slam the white working damental human right just like a job is a Welfare Rights Organization, MECAWI Journal, what’s being talked about by the class as well. right. Just like food is a right. And the fact activists and many others called for bold federal government through President In Detroit 85 percent of mortgages are that we have to fight for these rights in actions to win the moratorium and utility Bush, is far too little, far too late. What subprime and charge higher rates. And the context of the U.S. today shows how shutoffs. they’re talking about is allowing these this is only the beginning, as tens of thou- criminal this system is and we better orga- Proposals that passed unanimously same bankers, these same financial inter- sands more subprime mortgages are going nize because it isn’t going to get any better included demonstrations to protest bank- ests who are responsible for this crisis, to to reset in the next few months, even as unless we do,” concluded Goldberg. ers’ and lenders’ meetings the week of Dec. determine who is to get a fixed interest rate, plant shutdowns and layoffs continue. During the comments section of the 9; planning for other militant actions such who is to get some semblance of relief. About 400,000 jobs have been elimi- organizing meeting, many Black people as blocking sheriffs from throwing people “The only real solution to this crisis is nated in Michigan in the last six years, described how, induced by racist predato- out of their homes, disrupting home auc- a moratorium. We are in depression-like according to a recent University of ry lenders and banks and largely through tions and more. conditions in the state of Michigan. We Michigan study. Forty thousand house- subprime loans, they or their loved ones This fightback movement will build have to put a stop to this. This is what holds in Detroit have had their water had been foreclosed on and are now out for a statewide protest at Gov. Jennifer we’re here for today,” added Azikiwe. turned off due to inability to pay and on the street or subsisting as best they Granholm’s State of the State address on Progressive attorney and MECAWI thousands more have had their heat shut can. Those present heard of how seniors Jan. 29, 2008. Community outreach and leader Jerry Goldberg explained that three off. These shutoffs are ongoing. who had worked for decades to pay off media committees were created at the separate Michigan laws—MCL 10.31, 10.85 “The banks don’t need to be bailed out their home are now out on the street or meeting for this work to move forward. and 30.401—mandate that the governor and they are the ones this government deep in debt. People’s attorney Vanessa Fluker closed declare a state of emergency during peri- wants to bail out. The banks are the prob- Others, from predominantly white the meeting with an educational presenta- ods of crisis, natural or “man-made,” and lem and they need to be attacked. We’re working class and multinational neigh- tion about using legal rights to challenge provide special powers to meet the crisis. not talking about anything to bail them borhoods, described how foreclosures predatory loans. n MECAWI is demanding that Michigan out. We’re talking about bailing out the were also increasing daily in the suburbs Bush lets banks write rules for mortgage relief By Jaimeson Champion of the more than 2 million households months. to slash wages and cut jobs. Yet the only facing foreclosure. Housing advocacy These bailout funds have come in the relief plan the president can conjure up is President George W. Bush and Treasury groups estimate that less than 2 percent form of massive liquidity infusions and to tell workers to “hope” that banks will Secretary Henry Paulson have unveiled of subprime borrowers nationwide would central bank purchases of collateralized voluntarily freeze interest rates on some their subprime mortgage relief plan, qualify for a rate freeze under the admin- debt obligations. CDOs are asset-backed mortgages. which they call the “New Hope Alliance.” istration’s plan. And it provides no help securities that are tied to mortgage loans. Recent polls suggest that the economy The corporate media coverage of Bush’s for the growing number of renters across Banks such as Citigroup and Bank of is fast becoming the number one issue Dec. 6 announcement was massive. Sadly, the country who have been left homeless America hold this now-worthless paper in on the minds of potential voters in the the number of families whom this plan since their landlords entered foreclosure massive quantities. The Federal Reserve 2008 election. Eager to garner votes, the will help is miniscule. due to a subprime loan. has been attempting to bail the major Democrats have also been outlining pro- Subprime mortgage loans are character- The Bush administration has ensured, banks out of their crisis by essentially posals for mortgage relief. It’s part of a ized by interest rates that start at 1 percent however, that the plan is agreeable to taking the worthless paper off the banks’ debate within the ruling class over how to to 2 percent but soon “reset” to much high- mortgage lenders and Wall Street banks balance sheets. smooth over some of the massive fallout er rates. The Bush administration claims by making lender participation in the Working-class households are entering from the currently unfolding crisis. its plan will help families avoid foreclosure relief plan completely voluntary. In other into foreclosure and bankruptcy at levels “Relief” for the working class will not by freezing interest rates on some sub- words, the banks and mortgage lenders not seen since the Great Depression, yet it come through the empty proposals of rul- prime loans for the next five years. don’t have to freeze interest rates if they is the rich capitalist investors and bankers ing-class politicians. It takes the organized The administration has attempted to don’t want to. They are likely to do so only who are given hundreds of billions of dol- resistance of the multinational working portray its mortgage relief plan as a life- if they decide that the housing market is lars in rescue funds. class against the banks and swindlers on line for at-risk borrowers. But the plan is so glutted that going the foreclosure route Across the country, once-vibrant work- Wall Street who are robbing workers of more akin to a wish list for the very same could leave them stuck with property that ing-class communities have turned into their homes. Democrats and Republicans banks and mortgage lenders whose insa- can’t be sold. near ghost towns as “For Sale” signs and can debate back and forth endlessly over tiable greed helped create the currently This hollow “relief” plan stands in stark boarded-up windows have become ubiq- their mortgage plans, with little conse- unfolding economic crisis. contrast to the hundreds of billions of uitous. Workers are also suffering under quence. But millions of workers in the The Bush-Paulson plan includes a dollars in bailout money that the Federal the weight of rising food and energy streets demanding a moratorium on fore- maze of eligibility requirements that are Reserve has handed the Wall Street banks costs at the same time that the economic closures, layoffs and wage cuts would cre- designed to disqualify all but a handful and investment funds over the past few downturn is intensifying the bosses’ drive ate the potential for truly lasting relief. n Page 4 Dec. 20, 2007 www.workers.org

New Orleans after Katrina Residents fight demolition of affordable housing Units in this By Brenda Ryan rights lawyer Bill Quigley against a wall condemned housing and handcuffed him. Quigley represents project would cost far less money to fix than to New Orleans is about to be hit with former residents of the four develop- tear down and rebuild. another horrible disaster. This time the ments in a lawsuit against HUD Secretary federal and city governments are not only Alphonso Jackson that seeks to stop the ments is particularly outrageous given built, the buildings’ detailed brickwork, sitting by and ignoring the tragedy but demolitions and force the city to renovate the homelessness and severe housing tile roofs and wrought-iron balustrades actually causing it. the buildings. Last month a federal judge shortage in New Orleans since Hurricane represent a level of craft more likely found On Dec. 15 bulldozers are scheduled denied their request. Katrina devastated the city in 2005. Most on an Ivy League campus than in a con- to tear down all four of the city’s major The people of New Orleans are not giv- of the units suffered minor damage that temporary housing complex,” he wrote in public housing developments, which con- ing up. Stop the Demolition Coalition, would require far less money to fix than it a Nov. 19, 2006, article. sist of more than 4,500 units. The fed- a grassroots group, is calling on people will cost to tear them down and rebuild. “The low red-brick housing blocks of eral Department of Housing and Urban around the country to join the residents John Fernandez, an associate profes- the Lafitte Avenue project, in the histori- Development announced plans to demolish of New Orleans to resist the destruction of sor of architecture at the Massachusetts cally Black neighborhood of Treme, for the sites last year and the Housing Authority the buildings. It declared Dec. 10 “Human Institute of Technology, surveyed 140 of example, are scaled to fit within the sur- of New Orleans recently approved $30 mil- Rights Day Come to New Orleans.” the units in the four projects. In a declara- rounding neighborhood of Creole cot- lion in contracts for the demolitions. HUD intends to replace the four devel- tion filed on behalf of the plaintiffs in the tages and shotgun houses,” Ouroussoff Former residents and other city activ- opments—St. Bernard, Lafitte, C.J. Peete suit against Alphonso Jackson, Fernandez continues. “As you move deeper into the ists have been waging a fierce battle to and B.W. Cooper—with “mixed income” said he found no structural or nonstruc- complex, the buildings frame a series of halt the destruction of these homes. housing, which means many African tural damage that would reasonably war- communal courtyards sheltered by the Protesters attended a New Orleans City Americans, the sole residents of these rant any building demolitions. In fact, he canopies of enormous oak trees. Nature, Council meeting on Dec. 6 demanding buildings, will be prevented from return- said the construction of these buildings is here, was intended to foster spiritual as that the council take action to stop the ing to the city. A Nov. 29 AP story quot- superior to contemporary buildings. well as physical well-being.” demolitions. When the council declined ed Quigley as saying the current 4,500 New York Times architecture critic Everyone has a right to such well-being to vote on the issue, the crowd began public housing units would be replaced Nicolai Ouroussoff also criticized the as people around the country join in soli- shouting and chanting. with 1,841 apartments, of which only 744 destruction of the housing developments, darity with the people of New Orleans The media reported that a sheriff’s would be fully subsidized. which he said are among the best pub- who are fighting displacement and racist deputy then grabbed and shoved civil The destruction of the four develop- lic housing in the United States. “Solidly gentrification. n Labor Council backs Gulf Coast program Following are excerpts from a WHEREAS, Almost immediately WHEREAS, Katrina brought resolu­tion submitted to the Central after Katrina, President George W. Bush about the largest displacement Labor Council of Alameda County, issued an executive order suspending of African Americans in the U.S. Calif., by Clarence Thomas, delegate prevailing wage requirements on fed- South since the post-Reconstruc- from ILWU Local 10, and adopted by erally funded projects; Bush and the tion period at the end of the 19th the delegates’ meeting on Nov. 5. Republican-controlled Congress sus- century; To read the resolution in its entirety, pended affirmative action requirements, THEREFORE BE IT along with Thomas’ introduction to it, relaxed environmental regulations, and RESOLVED, The Gulf Coast go to www.workers.org. started handing out privatized, no-bid Reconstruction Program include WHEREAS, During the aftermath of contracts like they were bottled water; the right to return to the Gulf, a Hurricane Katrina the world watched WHEREAS, In the weeks after Katrina Gulf Coast Public Works Program, the United States government stand by and Rita, New Orleans witnessed an an end to state repression via and let thousands of African Americans influx of more than 150,000 workers police brutality and racial profil- and poor people in New Orleans and from outside the region, many of them ing, and building solidarity com- throughout the Gulf Coast suffer and recruited from Mexico and Central mittees nationally to continue the hundreds die a most tragic and unneces- America by temporary agencies; struggle for a just reconstruction sary death; WHEREAS, Fifty percent of migrant day and an end to ethnic cleansing in WHEREAS, ILWU Locals 10, 19, 52, laborers were never paid for their work the Gulf Coast. n and the New Orleans Workers Center and the International in conjunction Dianne Mathiowetz, Monica with the African American Longshore has countless stories of transient work- Moorehead, Clarence Thomas and Coalition sent several 40-foot containers ers who showed up at a certain location Delores Thomas visit New Orleans as of humanitarian and construction sup- to get paid, and instead were met by ICE part of a fact-finding delegation in plies, and vehicles along with financial agents and deported; August 2006. support to the Gulf; ww Photo

After seeing ‘The Trial’ Audience sets up Free the Cuban 5 group By Sharon Black Leslie Salgado from Howard County Baltimore Friends of Central America stressed the Supporters of the Cuban Five politi- need to fight against the ongoing U.S. After viewing the film “The Trial” at cal prisoners pack war on Cuba, including the blockade, and its Baltimore premiere, an enthusiastic a local Baltimore Rosa Campos from the Bolivarian Circles crowd unanimously decided to set up restaurant. gave an important update on Venezuela. a local “Free the Cuban 5 Committee.” WW photo: Sharon Black The film showing also commemorated The film depicts the travesty of justice the 40th anniversary of the assassination meted out to five Cuban heroes held in of Che Guevara. Steven Ceci, Baltimore U.S. jails. Organizers had worried that the Workers World Party representative, first snowstorm of the year would halt the the Cuban 5, reported on Che’s significance for today meeting and dampen enthusiasm. Despite answered ques- in the fight against imperialism. Several five inches of snow and icy conditions, the tions from the of the youth activists at the meeting com- room was packed. floor explaining mented on the need to follow Che’s exam- Andre Powell, with the All Peoples the case in detail. ple and lessons. Congress, thanked the sponsors, which She also linked The event was held Dec. 5 at the Yabba included the Baltimore-Matanzas Sister munity activist and educator, Troops Out the issues in the case of the Cuban 5 case Pot, a local African-American restaurant City Association, Generations for Peace Now Coalition, Uhuru Movement, Work­ers to other political prisoners in the U.S., that donated space. Everyone in the audi- and Democracy, Howard County Friends World Party and the Venceremos Brigade. including Mumia Abu-Jamal and the ence got a chance to participate by sign- of Central America, Maryland-Cuba Teresa Gutierrez, a featured speak- fight against racism and immigrant bash- ing a large banner for the families of the Friend­­ship Coalition, Ken Morgan—com­ er from the NYC Com­mit­tee to Free ing at home. Cuban 5 that will be sent to Cuba to show www.workers.org Dec. 20, 2007 Page 5

ON THE PICKET LINE Spread of HIV/AIDS: BY SUE DAVIS Farmworkers target ‘Proof positive of injustice’ By Dianne Mathiowetz ness, incarceration, domestic and other roadblocks to treatment, silver virginity Burger King Atlanta gender-based violence, lack of access rings, censorship of science, discrimi- As part of its continuing struggle to win to healthcare, and inadequate wages nation, misinformation and a country higher wages and better working conditions for It happened as some 3,000 research- or income that plague marginalized full of H.I.V.” tomato pickers in south Florida, the Coalition of ers, scientists, health professionals and communities. The Atlanta march was preceded by Immokalee Workers led a boisterous, colorful agency administrators had gathered These factors are the greatest indica- actions across the country, from Boston march on Dec. 1 to the Miami headquarters of in Atlanta for the Centers for Disease tor of who will contract HIV and die of to Austin to Oakland. Burger King. Students from many Florida col- Control national conference on HIV/ AIDS. In Washington, D.C., on Nov. 30, leges, union members, clergy and community AIDS prevention Dec. 2-5. A coalition Years of “abstinence-only” sex nearly 200 activists—including com- activists took part in the nine-mile march. of grass-roots AIDS organizations, the education, the failure to provide con- munity members, students and people All the workers want is a penny more for a Prevention Justice Mobilization (PJM), doms in prisons, and the rejection of living with HIV and AIDS—brought bushel of tomatoes. Taco Bell agreed to that in intervened to bring a real solution to needle-exchange programs have only together local, domestic and global 2005, all the affi liates owned by Yum Brands the epidemic that has killed millions confi rmed that scientifi c and medical demands for critical changes to U.S. (such as KFC and A&W Restaurants) signed around the world. solutions are being ignored because of HIV and AIDS policies. on in 2006, and MacDonald’s got with the After more than two decades of religious and right-wing ideology, class After the rally, in a separate demon- program earlier this year. But Burger King has research, the methods of transmission and social disparities, and racist and stration in front of the White House, 40 been holding out. of HIV are well established. There are homophobic prejudice. demonstrators wrapped in red tape—a To add insult to injury, the King’s CEO effective medical treatments to enhance On the third day of the conference, symbol of the political red tape block- recently started a public relations campaign and prolong the lives of those infected PJM members poured out of the Hyatt ing effective HIV and AIDS action— charging that the farm workers don’t need a with the disease. Regency Hotel to take their message to and wearing shirts that said “At-Risk raise—that there’s no such thing as farmworker Why then, are the numbers of new the streets. Youth” and “Hand-tied Teacher” sat poverty. The slogan “Doubt our poverty, walk infections rising among certain popu- Some 300 people with whistles, in front of the presidential palace and in our shoes” was prominent throughout the lations, specifically communities of fl ashlights, signs and banners brought refused to move until the government march and at the rally at BK headquarters. color? Why are so many people not the demand for a comprehensive and cut the red tape. There, CIW reps presented a pair of worn-out receiving medical treatment? just prevention program to the many Referencing the three warnings work boots to a BK representative and then workers and tourists on Peachtree given to advocates conducting civil dis- lined up dozens more on the lawn across from ‘AIDS doesn’t discriminate— Street at rush hour on Dec. 4. obedience before they’re arrested, they the building. but society does’ Hotel and restaurant staff came chanted, “Warning one, warning two, Also on Dec. 1, students at Cornell, Notre In Georgia, for example, almost 80 to the windows and gave a thumbs warning three, warning eight. We won’t Dame and Calvin College staged solidarity percent of newly infected people are up. Drivers in their cars honked in leave ’til you cut the red tape!” actions at local BKs. CIW’s six-year Campaign African-American or Latino. It is esti- support. All 40 were arrested. for Fair Food is supported by nearly 20 student mated that 50 percent of Black gay men Denied a permit to march in the street The PJM was initiated by Community groups, including the Student Farmworker in major urban areas are HIV-positive. by the Atlanta Police Department, the HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project Alliance. In London on “Thanksgiving” Day, The greatest increase in new infections marchers nevertheless stopped traffi c (CHAMP) in collaboration with ACT CIW was given the 2007 Anti-Slavery Award by is among people under 25. AIDS is the on this major thoroughfare by crossing UP Philadelphia, AIDS Foundation Anti-Slavery International, the oldest human number one cause of death among back and forth across the street at the of Chicago, the Center for HIV Law rights organization. Black women ages 18 to 49. traffi c lights. and Policy, the Georgia Prevention To the activists with Prevention The rally in Woodruff Park includ- Justice Alliance, the Harm Reduction AFL-CIO for moratorium Justice Mobilization, these facts are ed the singing of “The 12 Days of Coalition, the National Women and proof-positive of social injustice and Christmas.” The final verse went as AIDS Collective, the New York State on foreclosures social and economic disparities. They follows: Black Gay Network and SisterLove. counter the traditional response to the “In the AIDS epidemic, the gov’ment For more information, go to www. The AFL-CIO issued a call for an immediate AIDS epidemic—targeting an individ- gave to me, NO NATIONAL PLAN— preventionjustice.org. Material on the moratorium on subprime mortgage foreclo- ual’s “risky” behavior—by raising the anti-gay bias, a decade of fl at funding, a D.C. demonstration is from that web- sures during congressional hearings on Dec. structural “risks” of rates of homeless- fast track to prison, no decent housing, site. n 6. It proposed that all loans with teaser rates be restructured for 30 years at the original low Mumia supporters demanding NBC's Today Show air new teaser rates. (http://blog.afl cio.org) evidence began arriving before dawn. By the time the Noting that the mortgage market affects mil- show went on, the crowd was large and loud. lions of working families, AFL-CIO attorney Damon Silvers testifi ed: “Unless the govern- ment acts with urgency, hundreds of thousands of workers will lose their homes, millions of workers will suffer pension losses and further millions will lose their jobs.” He linked the housing crisis to “falling or stagnant real wages” and the lack of good jobs that “have left tens of millions of Americans dependent on borrowing to sustain their standard of living.” He called on Congress “to prevent millions of American families from losing their homes.” Stagehands ratify contract Broadway stagehands voted to ratify a con- tract on Dec. 9 with much better terms than they were offered before their 19-day strike. In exchange for 4 to 4.5 percent raises over the next fi ve years, the stagehands agreed to some rule changes. For instance, the number of work- ww Photo: John Catalinotto ers needed to load a production into a theater will be set on a day-to-day basis, as long as it does not fall below 17 for a musical or 12 for a NBC airs evidence in Mumia case play. Continued from page 1 threatened and forced into lying at dence, yet last night Chris Matthews [of “It was an overwhelming ratifi cation,” a mote their book, which calls for Abu- the original trial in 1982. When Jones MSNBC] and other conservative talk union spokesperson told the New York Times. Jamal’s execution. But a concerted tried to tell the truth at the hearing in show hosts did hit pieces on Lauer.” “Everyone’s very happy.” (Dec. 10) That just effort by Mumia supporters, including 1996, she was handcuffed and arrested. Moorehead spoke to the vital role proves why striking is the most valuable tool in an international petition and letter- Jones’ letter was read at the rally. that the movement has played in keep- the workers’ toolbox. writing campaign demanding equal air Speakers at the rally, including Pam ing Mumia alive for 26 years. His case, time for Mumia; press packets from Africa of International Concerned Family she said, was really about silencing a Don’t use FedEx Journalists for Mumia; and a 7:00 a.m. and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and voice that speaks out on all the impor- demonstration in the freezing cold, Monica Moorehead of the Inter national tant social issues, from the struggle during holidays forced the Today Show to give some Action Center, addressed the atmo- against poverty, racism and wars to the fair coverage. sphere of police intimidation that has right to health care, housing and jobs. As part of the ongoing campaign to union- Among those who wrote letters to surrounded the case for 26 years. Other rally speakers included ize workers at FedEx Ground, supporters are MSNBC urging that the program show “All Lauer did was show fairness to Ramona Africa, MOVE organization; asked to sign the “No Ship Pledge” at www. fairness was Veronica Jones, a former both sides,” Africa noted. “He clearly Suzanne Ross, NY Free Mumia Abu- FedUpwithFedEx.org. n prostitute and witness whom police pointed out that police hid the evi- Jamal Coalition; and Tyneisha Bowens, Page 6 Dec. 20, 2007 www.workers.org Nandigram says ‘No!’ to Dow’s chemical hub By Stevan Kirschbaum one quarter of their land would be seized The people of Nandigram are also aware to defend Nandigram by any means neces- Nandigram, West Bengal, India and 70,000 people be evicted from their of the fate of Singur, a nearby area where sary. By March 2007 the people had effec- homes. Some 127 primary schools, four lands were taken away and the peasants tive control of Nandigram and the state For 11 months the people’s movement secondary schools, three high schools, 112 brutalized to make way for the Tata Small could not move forward on the SEZ. of Nandigram has defied the full power temples, 42 masjids and countless houses, automobile project. They were determined It was at this point that the state of the Indian state, military, police and markets, shops and sacred burial grounds not to accept a similar fate. unleashed a vicious terror campaign. armed death squads in a struggle to halt were to be destroyed and the land given to They immediately organized to fight On March 14, in the village of Gokul a planned “chemical hub” that would the Salim Indonesia group—a real estate back. On Jan. 3 of this year, 15,000 people Nagar, police, soldiers and armed civil- destroy their district. “developer.” assembled at the village governing office to ian thugs fired into a crowd of protesters Nandigram comprises 38 villages in the Salim is part of a growing number of protest. Police opened fire and many were who were worshipping to a goddess to East Midnapore district of West Bengal, dirty middlemen who develop the infra- injured. Three days later, over 50,000 save their homes. State forces employed located 60 miles southwest of Kolkata structure—roads, bridges and so on—to people gathered and announced the for- the most cruel and savage of tactics, kill- (formerly called Calcutta). Its population literally pave the way for corporate special mation of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh ing at least 14 and injuring hundreds with of 250,000 consists mostly of peasant economic zones. In Nandigram the SEZ was Committee (BUPC)—Committee Against beatings and shootings. Rape was an farmers, laborers and fishers. to be a chemical hub led by Dow Chemical, Land Grabbing and Eviction. This highly organized police tactic, with hundreds of The people of Nandigram trace their infamous for the development of napalm disciplined, representative body has led documented cases of gang rapes. Many history back nearly 2,000 years. They take used against the Vietnamese people. the struggle. The next day, state authori- people were “disappeared.” great pride in their heritage of fighting to Dow is also hated in India since it ties fired into a crowd of protesters, killing But the people would not be defeated. defend their land. One village is named bought up Union Carbide. On the night three, including a 14-year-old boy. They regrouped, reorganized and con- Pichabani—“We shall not step back”—in of Dec. 3, 1984, a pesticide plant of Union The people then escalated to direct tinued to hold Nandigram. News of their memory of their successful struggle in Carbide released 40 tons of methyl iso- action in defense of their land. For the next inspiring battle spread and they received 1942 to drive the British colonialists out cyanate gas in the city of Bhopal, killing three months, house-by-house and village- solidarity and support from labor union- of the area. upwards of 5,000 people. The disaster is by-village, BUPC organized to establish ists, social justice activists, the urban poor In December 2006, the people of ranked as one of the world’s worst indus- effective people’s power. Roads were dug from Kolkata and beyond, cultural workers Nandigram were given notice that nearly trial catastrophes due to negligence. up, bridges blocked and barricades set up and actors. All came to lend their support. As part of the campaign to inflict maxi- mum punishment and also cover up their atrocities against the people, state author- ities attempted to deny them medical care and falsified the medical documenta- tion of deaths, injuries and treatment. A courageous group of doctors and medi- cal workers, the Medical Service Center, nevertheless went to Nandigram to set up a people’s clinic. They ministered to the people’s medical needs and have been steadfast advocates for their rights. The MSC has produced a document- ed, detailed report on the deaths and injuries—Health Spectra, Vol. 17, Special Nandigram Issue. This horrifying catalog of atrocities is available through msc_cc@ Women tell reporters who accompanied IAC delegation Mother and children in front of burned-out home.. rediffmail.com. (The International Action about attacks on Nandigram. Center has posted this video on YouTube— type in “Nandigram.”) Unable to go forward with its plans, the government announced it would scrap Repression and a false policy the SEZ. The people’s movement, howev- er, vowed to remain vigilant. Faced with How could a party calling itself the India can be built only on the basis of Throughout the 1990s a process of a full-scale state coverup, the movement Communist Party of India-Marxist carry developed capitalism. Thus, it is commit- de-industrialization happened in West demanded justice, a full inquiry into the out a policy of expropriating tens of thou- ted to the smooth running of the capital- Bengal. Based on the drive to maximize state’s atrocities, prosecution of those sands of peasants from their land and ist state. This repressive state apparatus profits by ruthlessly cutting labor costs responsible for heinous crimes, and repa- implementing Special Economic Zones is often used against more revolutionary and undercutting labor militancy, more rations and restitution for damages. with super-exploitation of labor? It is left parties who continue to organize and than 56,000 industries closed shop in the The breadth of the solidarity movement important to look at the history of class agitate among the workers. state. The industrialized work force was forced the Kolkata High Court to take up struggle in West Bengal to understand Although the workers have won gains cut in half, from 9,170,000 to 4,560,000. the case, but it remained silent on its find- this development. and some important land reforms, capi- The CPI-M, anxious to attract foreign ings for months. A left-front coalition led by the CPI-M talist property relations remain basically capital, has expropriated the land of tens On Nov. 6 and 12, 2007, the govern- was elected in Kolkata and West Bengal intact. The repressive state apparatus of of thousands of peasants to create zones ment unleashed yet another terrible state in 1977. It has administered the state police, courts and jails and the enormous where corporations are free of all labor assault on Nandigram. Nearly 100 people for 30 years. state bureaucracy enforcing capitalist own- regulations and there is intense super- were killed, 652 houses were ransacked, West Bengal is the most densely popu- ership also remain unchanged. In West exploitation. 119 homes were burned to the ground, lated state in India, with a population of Bengal as a whole and in the huge city of Rather than utilize land closer to 9,205 people were left homeless and more 80 million. Kolkata has a population of 14 Kolkata, there is desperate poverty and an Kolkata where closed industries used to than 200 rapes were reported. Many peo- million. Beginning with British colonial enormous gap between rich and poor. In be located, the state government selected ple are missing to this day. Villagers state rule, it became the most heavily industri- 30 years of administering the state, the Nandigram, an isolated rural area almost that they witnessed government forces alized city in India. CPI-M has never challenged these funda- 60 miles from the militant workers of and their paid thugs carrying away bodies The region has a long history of revolu- mental class relations. Kolkata, as the site for an SEZ. to be burned in the nearby Janani brick tionary opposition to British colonialism as Especially in the past decade, faced with The corporate media in India has field, in the town of Kahejuree. well as militant trade unionism and peas- demands from the IMF and World Bank praised these policies of the CPI-M as On Dec. 6, authorities discovered the ant organization. Communist and left par- to make the investment climate friendly to “creative” and “flexible.” charred bone and skull remains of bodies ties have a strong base among both work- international capital, the CPI-M has made On a national level, the CPI-M is part of believed to be those killed in November. ers and peasants. From the 1950s through ever-increasing concessions. For example, India's present coalition government. Notwithstanding all these odds, the peo- the 1970s, many workers were killed and based on a World Bank plan to improve he CPI-M’s program and actions in the ple refuse to give in and continue to return thousands jailed in militant union strug- the “image” of Kolkata, many thousands Nandigram affair do the greatest injury to to their burned-out homes, staying with gles. There were general strikes and plant of homeless families who lived and slept the history and name of communism and neighbors and fashioning makeshift tents. seizures. These strikes won important on the streets and along the railroad Marxism. Genuine communist, socialist gains for the organized working class. tracks and canals were forcibly removed and other progressive forces are organiz- Solidarity campaign escalates The CPI-M was elected in 1977 because to vast slums outside the central city area. ing and leading the struggle against the The movement in India, and in Kolkata of this revolutionary political climate. But it This did not solve the problem—it only SEZs, global imperialism and the Indian in particular, has organized exemplary had a totally social democratic orientation. removed it from view. capitalist state. It is these truly revolu- solidarity. On Nov. 14, a massive soli- It had become a reformist, left party admin- With the collapse of the Soviet Union, tionary organizations that represent the darity protest of 100,000 people took istering an oppressive capitalist state. This the Indian bourgeoisie lost billions of dol- future of the Indian struggle for social- to the streets of Kolkata in support of is why the Indian bourgeoisie accepts its lars in Soviet aid and trade. In 2000 India ism. Nandigram provides yet another, if Nandigram. Political activists, jurists, holding office. It put a cap on the struggle. announced the introduction of a Special not the most severe, lesson of the fatal and trade unionists, professors, “Bollywood” The CPI-M has defended its open con- Economic Zones policy. Since then 220 tragic error of communists joining and directors and actors, college students, ciliation with the ruling class with the such zones have been established through- administering a capitalist state. youth workers, environmentalists and utterly false position that socialism in out India. —Sara Flounders doctors are raising one voice to demand www.workers.org Dec. 20, 2007 Page 7 Nandigram says ‘No!’ to Dow’s chemical hub justice for Nandigram and the truth about the state’s criminal actions. On Nov. 16, the High Court finally released its findings declaring that the state’s actions in Nandigram were “uncon- stitutional.” However, instead of taking action against those responsible, the court ordered further investigation. Now the press are carrying daily stories that support the claims of the BUPC and the people of Nandigram. Witnesses have 90-year-old woman in Nandigram tells Ramsey Clark how her come forward with video and still photos Huge rally in Kolkata against U.S. imperialism. home was torched by death squad.. of the rapes committed. (The Statesman, Dec. 1) Missing bodies have been discov- ered. (Press Trust of India, Dec. 7) Finally a few of the thugs have been charged and Anti-imperialists meet taken into custody. However, 10 of these thugs had earlier been picked up and quickly released without charge by the state authorities. Nandigram has now entered the vocab- to discuss and act ulary of class struggle in India. The Dec. By Sara Flounders and growing contradictions among them India–Marxist (CPI-M). Its policies are 1 Hindustan Times carried an article Kolkata (Calcutta), India over the world market. being successfully opposed by a broad headlined “Nandigram re-run alleged in Leading members of Hezbollah gave peasant coalition in the Nandigram dis- Orissa.” The article refers to the govern- It wasn’t just another international con- presentations on the Lebanese Resistance trict and by several revolutionary left par- ment’s campaign in another district to ference. It wasn’t just a talk shop. and the changes it has achieved. Abdul- ties, including the Socialist Unity Center browbeat protesters into submission as The day before the conference on Halim Fadlallah addressed the conditions of India, which was a major force in the “the Nandigram strategy.” But the busi- “Imperialism, globalization, Zionism— and organization that had “inflicted on the anti-imperialist conference in Kolkata. ness pages of the Indian press are filled Resistance to military occupation and occupation state a resounding defeat, the This debate has roiled Indian left politics with panicky articles assuring future war,” which opened on Nov. 28, a power- first of its type in the history of the Arab- and the mass media. The repressive policy imperialist SEZ investors that India is safe ful demonstration and rally of more than Israeli conflict.” Mustafa Haj Ali explained has been the focus of massive demonstra- and that Nandigram is an isolated case. 50,000 people was held in the streets of that “the experience in Lebanon teaches tions and strikes. Kolkata (Calcutta). that it is possible to resist imperialism.” Many of the Indian delegates to the con- Global imperialism’s favorite tactic Most of the international delegates to It was a significant participation by ference had played an active role in defend- A “special economic zone” is global the conference came from areas of suc- important Islamic resistance fighters at a ing the Nandigram struggle. Some had imperialism’s model of super-exploita- cessful armed resistance to imperialist gathering of mainly left secular forces. been severely beaten and even shot. It was tion at its most severe. In different coun- onslaught. Their experiences were reflect- A number of the conference presenta- a living example of the impact of corporate tries the name changes—free enterprise ed in the resolutions. tions dealt with firm opposition to the globalization on the world movement. zones, maquiladoras, SEZs—but the tac- The All India Anti-Imperialist Forum U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan At the conclusion, the conference vot- tics are the same. The people are ruth- (AIAIF) organized the conference, with and to U.S. imperialism’s support for the ed to expand its efforts into a wider anti- lessly driven from the land to pave the way a strong focus on the U.S. imperialist Zionist state of Israel. They covered the imperialist formation: the International for unrestricted corporate exploitation. war in the Middle East and the role of phony “peace conference” in Annapolis Anti-Imperialist and People’s Solidarity Corporations have virtually totalitarian Zionism. An important delegation from and the continuing heroic Palestinian Coordinating Committee. Ramsey Clark authority, ignoring all labor standards, Lebanon attended, including members of resistance. This focus was also reflected was asked to head it up and Manik Muk­ hiring and firing workers with no redress, Hezbollah. Several delegates were denied in the conference resolutions. herjee to act as general secretary, and both paying starvation wages with no social visas by the Indian government, including The continuing armed revolutionary agreed. The organization intends to reach benefits, and ignoring any environmental from Iran. struggle in Nepal against the feudal state out to many other countries and resistance protections. Other international delegates came was raised by Suman Jadav from the struggles. The conference proceeding was In the United States, the union move- from armed resistance in Nepal and from Communist Party of Nepal–Maoist. This chaired by Dhrubajyoti Mukhopadhyay. ment in an earlier period fought against Palestine. There were delegates from Tur­ group is leading the resistance that has Concluding resolutions affirmed soli- what it called the “runaway shop.” Now key, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Russia, France, liberated two-thirds of Nepal and forced darity with the resistance in Iraq and in the runaway is global. Germany, Canada and the U.S. They were negotiations on the archaic social forces Lebanon, solidarity with Iran, full support Why would Dow Chemical pay union joined by 1,500 delegates and several hun- still holding the reins of state. of the Palestinian demand for the right wages to workers in a plant in the United dred observers from across India. The living struggle against globaliza- to return, solidarity with the Bolivarian States when it can pay SEZ workers The Mahajati Sadan auditorium was tion and plans for a Special Economic Revolution in Venezuela and the Cuban pennies a day? Dow just announced it packed to overflowing. Outside were sever- Zone (SEZ) in Nandigram, 60 miles from Revolution, and condemnation of impe- was terminating more than 1,000 jobs al tented areas where video screens allowed Kolkata, had the attention of many con- rialist aggression and destabilization in in Charleston, S.C. In the state of West more people to follow the presentations. ference delegates. For the first time a Latin America, especially against Cuba Bengal, over 56,000 firms have been shut As international delegates entered the popular struggle has actually succeeded and Venezuela. down while at the same time SEZ indus- hall, lines of chanting and cheering Indian in stopping one of these centers of super- Two resolutions dealt with internation- tries are cropping up all over India. delegates greeted us with raised fists. exploitation of labor from being set up. al developments impacting on India. One According to the World Bank, more than warned that the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal is IAC solidarity mission Militant march and rally 3,000 such zones have been established in “part of a blueprint for a bigger political- On Nov. 29, an International Action The day before, many different contin- recent years in 130 countries. Some 220 strategic collaboration between India and Center delegation led by former U.S. gents had marched to the U.S. Consulate SEZs exist in India and more than 500 are the U.S.” A resolution against Special Attorney General Ramsey Clark joined with hundreds of anti-war and anti-impe- on the drawing boards. A conference on Economic Zones noted the “unrestricted with West Bengali activists to visit the rialist banners and placards. One slogan imperialism in this era needs a clear view exploitation, loot and plunder” by foreign area of the attacks in Gokul Nagar. The raised repeatedly was “Death, death to on this aggressive new labor offensive by and Indian capital and demanded their state authorities had sealed off all roads U.S. imperialism!” multi-national corporations, backed up by complete scrapping. n leading into Nandigram both to increase Youth from Nepal played traditional Pentagon weapons and enforced by local their isolation and keep evidence of the instruments as they marched, drawing government repression. November atrocities from the media. broad support that reflected enthusiasm Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attor- Heavily armed police accompanied the for armed resistance to the feudal regime ney general and the founder of the delegation. There was concern this would in Nepal, which lies directly north of this International Action Center, spoke in the make residents fearful to speak freely for West Bengal state in India. opening session of the conference and fear of reprisals. But as the IAC arrived at At an outdoor rally after the demon- at the rally the day before. On the sec- a refugee camp at the Brajomohn Tewari stration and at the opening session of the ond day of the conference, Clark went to School, scores of victims came forward. conference the next day, Hussein Sukur Nandigram with two other delegates from One after the other gave their stories of emotionally described how the U.S. had the IAC—Steve Kirschbaum and Sara suffering and injuries sustained at the supplied Israel with the bombs that wiped Flounders. They returned just before the hands of police and armed mercenaries. out his entire family in Beirut. He is deter- close of the conference to give a report on A mother showed the wounds of her mined that war crimes charges must be the continuing struggle there and the gov- 10-year-old son, Bulu Mir, who had been lodged against the guilty. ernment’s severe repression of local peas- shot through the head but miraculously Manik Mukherjee of the AIAIF set the ants. (See accompanying article.) survived. A 30-year-old woman gave mov- tone of the conference with a paper on the This repression is being carried out by

ing testimony of how she had been gang international situation since the collapse a reformist left party that has held office ww Photos: Sara Flounders raped. She is one of more than 200 wom- of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc. in the state of West Bengal and in the Kolkata march supports Nandigram en, ranging from children to elders, who He described the deepening crisis in the city of Kolkata for 30 years and unfortu- struggle against Special Economic Zone. Continued on page 11 economies of the imperialist countries nately calls itself the Communist party of Page 8 Dec. 20, 2007 www.workers.org Civil servants strike, protest in Egypt By G. Dunkel particularly in the textile mills in the del- we don’t care any more.” Egypt under President Hosni Mubarak ta south of Alexandria. “We fear nothing. We just want our is the most important ally of U.S. impe- Many of the workers in local tax collec- Workers have won some significant rights back,” another cried out. rialism in the Middle East, after Israel. A tion offices in Egypt are no longer youths, victories. The government has hesitated The protesters say they will collect no major question for progressives outside but they have been coming out into the to engage in the kind of mass repression taxes until their demands are met. Such of Egypt is how this strike wave is going streets, confronting the cops, trying to it has used against students and intellec- a stoppage could have a serious impact to affect the U.S. drive to dominate the occupy the office of the official union that tuals demanding democracy. The regime on the finances of Egypt’s provinces and oil, and profits derived from this oil, in is supposed to represent all the workers focuses more on picking off workers’ rural communities. the region. in Egypt, and carrying out a hunger strike leaders and closing organizing centers. Calling the finance minister, the head Joel Beinin and Hossam el-Hamalawy in front of Cabinet offices. This militancy The tax collectors are all state employ- of the official labor union, and even mem- wrote in an article about a strike in the is a sure sign that their living conditions ees who work for the property tax bers of the Cabinet “liars, scoundrels and textile industry, “Some of the strike lead- are harsh and worsening. department. They began their struggle in thieves,” the protesters said they stood ers contacted leftist Kifaya activists in The tax workers told reporters that October when 55,000 tax workers struck. alone, “poor, hungry and no better than Cairo to ask for their support ... suggest- they make $50 to $80 a month after In early December, tax workers from all beggars.” ing that they are beginning to consider decades of employment at jobs that can over Egypt—variously estimated at a few Leaders of the strike say the govern- political issues beyond their immediate often be dangerous—because farmers bit- hundred by the AP to thousands by an ment has so far not responded to demands economic demands, perhaps including terly resent the taxes they are forced to Egyptian journalist—began an “indefi- that they be treated like their colleagues regime change.” (MERIP online, May 9) pay. Inflation is high in Egypt; indepen- nite picket and hunger strike” in front of in departments run by the Ministry of The authors concluded, “The mere fact dent economists put the real rate around Cabinet offices in Cairo. They have done Finance. that a workers’ movement has persisted 16 percent yearly. this despite the refusal of the official “They have no hearts, no children or and achieved as much as it has is eloquent This tax collectors’ struggle is part of a union to support the strike. wives or parents,” a protester told DPA, testimony that the struggle between labor wave of strikes and workers’ protests in One of the protesters told the German describing how “inhuman” the authori- and capital is alive and well—and likely Egypt over the past two years. Hundreds Press Agency (DPA), “We could be dis- ties were. “We are spending our days here to intensify as the neoliberal project in of actions have taken place, at times missed from work, we could be impris- on the bare pavement and they feel noth- Egypt advances.” n involving tens of thousands of workers, oned or beaten up by security police, but ing for us. Where is the mercy?” As prelude to Afghan invasion U.S. war agitation targeted LGBT movements By Leslie Feinberg ready to make war against Afghanistan in youth in the summer of 1994, just a few money changer, gesturing to his two teen- 2000, using same-sex rights as a shield. months before the Taliban took control age sons hunched over wads of Afghani U.S. and British military public rela- And of course, the U.S. did not declare war of Kandahar. Civilians were killed in the bank notes at Kandahar’s currency tions, and their embedded media, focused on any of its client states in the region artillery shelling. “Omar’s group freed bazaar. “At that time boys couldn’t come on Taliban laws and attitudes about same- that punish homosexuality by the boy and appeals began to the market because the commanders sex love to agitate for the October 2001 prison terms or execution. flooding in for Omar to help in would come and take away any that they invasion and justify occupation. In the weeks between the lavender other disputes. By November, liked,” Ullah said. The monopoly corporate media broad- Sept. 11 attacks and the first Omar and his Taliban were One of the Afghan men that the U.S. cast this newfound concern for the rights blast of the imperialist blitz- & # 117 Kandahar’s new rulers.” Department of state claimed was sen- of oppressed sexualities—like its crocodile krieg on Oct. 7, articles in the red Reid quotes Torjan, a soldier tenced to death in 1998 for being “found tears for Afghan women—after 9/11, as imperialist corporate media t loyal to the post-Taliban gover- guilty of homosexual acts” survived. By U.S. imperialism readied the Pentagon to amplified accounts of the 1998H and nor appointed under imperialist law, he was later set free. The Feb. 21, plant its corporate flag in this geo-strate- 1999 executions. These reports also got occupation. Torjan, 38 years old, recalled, 2002, New York Times admitted that the gic Central Asian country. Transnational picked up by media aimed at the lesbian, “In the days of the Mujahidin, there were man—Mullah Peer Muhammad—was a energy behemoths like Unocal and Enron gay, bisexual and trans communities. men with their ‘ashna’ [beloved young former Taliban fighter arrested for sexual were hellbent on siphoning the vast fos- But months later, after the U.S.-led man] everywhere, at every corner, in abuse of young male prisoners while he sil fuel wealth of the Caspian Sea region occupation of Afghanistan was already in shops, on the streets, in hotels: it was was in charge of the central prison in from the former Soviet Union through place, more reports about the period in completely open, a part of life. But in the Kandahar. The Times stated, “The man Afghanistan. which the executions took place revealed later Mujahidin years, more and more had been convicted of raping and killing More than a year before 9/11, the U.S. a more complex reality. soldiers would take boys by force, and a boy.” Department of State’s “Country Reports keep them for as long as they wished. But Clearly a more complex reality existed on Human Rights Practices, 2000” had Struggle against rape when the Taliban came, they were very than the one the New York Post used to stated that during the Taliban rule, “The Tim Reid reported in “Kandahar Comes strict about the ban.” press for war: “Men accused of being gay punishment for those found guilty of Out of the Closet,” in the Jan. 12, 2002, Other media presented similar were executed by having a wall toppled on homosexual acts is to have walls toppled issue of The Times of London that stopping accounts. The New York Times wrote on them.” over them. Although there were no known the abduction and rape of male youths by Feb. 21, 2002: “In 1994, the Taliban, then These accounts aim to divert attention instances of such punishment during the landlord militia commanders “was one of a small army of idealistic students of the from the real issue: The Pentagon—that year, this punishment was carried out on the key factors in Mullah Omar mobiliz- Koran, were called to rescue a boy over armed institution of gay-bashing vio- at least one occasion in 1999, and seven ing the Taliban.” Mohammed Omar is the whom two commanders had fought. They lence—had no right to invade and occupy times in 1998 (resulting in five deaths).” leader of the Taliban freed the boy and the people responded Afghanistan. Whether those facts are accurate or Reid reported that two non-Taliban with gratitude and support.” Next: Embedded anthropology distorted, the Department of State wasn’t militia commanders fought over a male The Times article quoted Amin Ullah, a E-mail: [email protected]. Victory for U.S. war resisters in Canada By Dee Knight resisters in their refugee audience to press the government to say and ruling class elements in the U.S. and claims. It shows a willingness no to Bush and yes to U.S. war resisters. some European countries. The War Resisters of the opposition parties in McDowell took the same message to While celebrating this important vic- Support Campaign (WRSC) Canada’s Parliament to come the Parliamentary Committee, telling tory, the WRSC said, “There is still much in Canada scored a victory together to ensure that none the members about numerous GIs who work to be done to ensure that this motion Dec. 5 when the Parliament’s of these resisters is returned refused to fight in Iraq, did prison time translates into real protection for war Committee on Citizenship to the U.S., where they face and then received bad conduct discharg- resisters.” and Immigration passed court-martials, incarceration es—a permanent felony record. Parliament closes Dec. 13 for the holiday a motion that would grant and possible deployment to Olivia Chow, a close friend of the War break, which lasts until early February. U.S. war resisters the right to Iraq.” Resister Support Campaign, had intro- The WRSC is calling a pan-Canadian stay legally. All three parties Resister Phil McDermott The victory followed rallies duced the motion. Chow represents a mobilization on Jan. 26 to ensure that on the committee that are and his partner, Jamine in eight cities across Canada Toronto neighborhood that is home to deportation proceedings against U.S. in opposition to the govern- Aponte. and an intensive WRSC lobby- the WRSC office. Following the commit- war resisters currently in Canada cease ing Conservative Party—an ing effort. It built on a national anti-war tee vote, Chow said: “Canadians said no immediately; and that the full Parliament ally of George Bush—united to pass the demonstration in Ottawa, Canada’s capi- to George Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq. passes a law ensuring that U.S. war resist- motion. tal, in August, at which Iraq war veteran Now Canadians want Parliament to let the ers refusing to fight in Iraq can stay in The motion still needs to pass in the full and former Sgt. Phil McDowell was a fea- war resisters stay in Canada.” Canada and become legal residents. Parliament. tured speaker. McDowell told the demon- As the New Democratic Party’s main “The best way to think of it,” said one “This motion is a very important step strators he refused to report for a second spokesperson on immigration, Chow is WRSC member, “is as a stepping stone or forward,” the WRSC said, “after the tour in Iraq after serving there for a year also leading a significant move that would a springboard. Just one victory—with the Supreme Court ruled on Nov. 15 that it in 2004-5, and determined that the war have Canada buck the tide of anti-immi- chance for more.” The struggle continues. would not hear the appeals of U.S. war was immoral and illegal. He called on the grant hysteria that has gripped right-wing n www.workers.org Dec. 20, 2007 Page 9

Two strategies against Iran Bush gang’s plan to attack undercut by NIE report

By Joyce Chediac ary struggle that ousted a U.S. puppet, the which are bent on Iran’s destruction and State and Defense and of the Joint Chiefs hated shah of Iran. pose the real threat in the Middle East. on how to approach Iran. A bitter dispute within the Bush admin- But Bush was moving ahead anyway, so Israel has 75 to 200 nuclear warheads, “Loose talk of World War III, intimi- istration became a public fight on Dec. the military pulled the rug out from under according to the Bulletin of the Atomic dation, threats, bellicose speeches only 3 when all 16 U.S. spy agencies jointly him. “The truth about Iran appeared to Scientists. The U.S., with more than 9,000 heighten the dangers we face in the world. announced, in a National Intelligence shatter the last shreds of credibility of nuclear warheads, has a string of bases ... What confidence should we have in a Estimate (NIE) report, that Iran had the White House’s bomb-Iran brigade, in the Middle East, three aircraft carrier strategy that, to date, has nothing to show neither a nuclear program nor nuclear and especially that of Vice President Dick groups in the Arabian/Persian Gulf with for it ... that has achieved no tangible weapons. Cheney,” wrote Time magazine. guns pointed at Iran, and troops on two of changes to Iran’s nuclear program and This intelligence about-face was not the Iran’s borders, in Iraq and Afghanistan. actually has seen the Middle East become result of new spy data or a better spying A victory for Iran more dangerous and Iran more defiant? technique. It was a political move taken by This is why Iranian President Mahmoud Want to subvert Iran Is the U.S. pursuing a policy that could the U.S. military itself to stop the clique Ahmadinejad said, “This report tries to The main movers in the report are very well produce a self-fulfilling proph- headed by President George W. Bush extract America from its impasse, but National Intelligence Director Adm. ecy of the president’s warning of World and Vice President Dick Cheney from the it also is a declaration of victory for the Mike McConnell and Thomas Fingar, War III? dangerous adventure of bombing Iranian Iranian people against the great powers.” chair of the National Intelligence Council. “By refusing to engage Iran in direct, nuclear installations when the Pentagon (aljazeera.net, Dec. 5) This view is held by McConnell, who came out of retirement unconditional and comprehensive talks, is already hopelessly bogged down in the Iranian people as well, according to Al to take on this study, was the chief secu- we are perpetuating dangerous geo-polit- Afghanistan and Iraq. Jazeera’s reporter in Tehran. rity advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff ical unpredictabilities. Our refusal to rec- This victory for Iran reflects the strength While U.S. spies have exposed one lie, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union ognize Iran’s influence does not decrease of the national liberation struggles in the it does not mean that what they are say- and during the first Gulf War. Fingar its influence, but rather increases it. Middle East, which have not been stopped ing now is the whole truth. Iran says it has has a long intelligence history with the “Our strategy must be one focused by Pentagon threats or bombings. It also never sought to produce atomic weapons. State Department and was part of John on direct engagement and diplomacy ... is a result of anti-war sentiment in the “Ali Lariyane, delegate of the Supreme Negroponte’s inner circle. backed by the leverage of international U.S., as even the Pentagon owns up to dif- Leader of the National Higher Security Members of Congress had requested pressure, military options, isolation and ficulties recruiting soldiers to fight in the Council, said if the U.S. government has the NIE report. Among elected officials containment ... not unlike the strategies Middle East. any evidence of this, it should hand it over mentioned in the New York Times in that the United States pursued during the The NIE report removed the linchpin to Mohammad El Baradei, director of the conjunction with the report is Republican Cold War against the Soviet Union.” holding up the Bush-Cheney argument for International Atomic Energy Agency.” Sen. Charles Hagel of Nebraska. aggression against Iran: the nuclear weap- (Prensa Latina, Dec. 7) In a recent speech at the Center for ‘Talks’ as cover for destabilization ons myth. Immediately after the report’s Iran, an oppressed country, has every Strategic and International Relations Hagel continued, “Inside Iran, there release, the attempt by the White House to right to develop nuclear weapons as a on U.S.-Iran relations, Hagel gave more are social strains and serious differences corral the U.N. Security Council for a third deterrent against the U.S. and Israel, details on the view of the departments of Continued on page 10 round of sanctions against Iran fell apart. Who is behind the report? “The secre- taries of state and defense and the lead- ers of the uniformed military had decided CIA destroys tapes in prisoner torture case that diplomacy was the best way to deal with an admittedly hostile and dangerous By John Catalinotto Zubaydah had been captured in a fire- CCR coordinated a large coalition of pro- force in Tehran.” (Time, Dec. 17) New York fight in Pakistan in March of 2002 and bono lawyers, including many from cor- was interrogated at a CIA safe house in porate law firms, to represent the prison- Tehran ‘has no nuclear weapons’ When it comes to “human rights,” Thailand. Al-Nashiri was captured in the ers there and try to get them a hearing. The NIE report represented all 16 the U.S. government has become infa- United Arab Emirates. In 2006, CCR won another case before U.S. spy agencies, eight of them directly mous for two brutal military occupations According to their confessions, the Supreme Court, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, linked to the military. Its conclusions are and for mistreatment of prisoners that Zubaydah is a high-ranking al-Qaeda which was supposed to guarantee the available online. It assessed with “high includes abuse and torture at Baghram, official and Al-Nashiri planned the 2000 detainees a hearing. However, Congress confidence” that “in 2003 Tehran halted Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo prisons. attack against the USS Cole in Yemeni passed a new repressive law, the Military its nuclear weapons program,” had not Now not only has current CIA head waters. Both have challenged the confes- Commissions Act, which placed the cases restarted it, and today “has no nuclear Michael Hayden admitted that the agency sions, saying they were obtained under before special military courts and in real- weapons.” While Iran continues to enrich destroyed tapes showing interrogations of torture. ity denied them hearings. uranium as part of its civilian nuclear at least two “high-level” prisoners, but in The U.S. authorities labeled the two “We have been back and forth in the energy program, the report finds it likely a Dec. 10 statement the agency said that “high-level detainees,” of whom there are courts as the government has tried one that Iran would not have enough pluto- its lawyers had given written approval for 14 at Guantánamo, and classified them maneuver after another to avoid the nium for a nuclear weapon until 2015. destroying the tapes, even though it was as “enemy combatants.” Since U.S. inter- Supreme Court’s past rulings—that the The NIE contradicted its own earlier known they might be needed for legal pro- rogators used extreme sensory and sleep detainees are entitled to challenge their findings, made in 2005, that Iran was ceedings later. deprivation, along with blatant torture detention in U.S. courts,” said Vincent secretly building nuclear weapons. The The tapes destroyed include hundreds like waterboarding, it is possible the two Warren, executive director of CCR. NIE issued this bombshell five years after of hours of interrogation of Abu Zubaydah prisoners told their interrogators any- Warren spoke at a luncheon meet- a 2002 report in which U.S. spies claimed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Both were thing they thought their captors wanted ing of CCR supporters and friends Dec. that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruc- captured in 2002 and are now being held to hear. 10 in the group’s Manhattan offices. He tion.” This blatantly false statement gave at Guantánamo Bay, a territory in Cuba Most of the other 800 prisoners who gave an update on CCR’s third Supreme the Bush gang its rationale for launching occupied and administered by the U.S. have been held at the U.S. concentra- Court Guantánamo case. He recounted what many in the military now see as their Navy despite the Cuban government’s tion camp in Guantánamo since 2002, of how a military lawyer had told him that debacle in Iraq. objections. whom about 305 remain, were picked up the U.S. military had purposely chosen While Bush and Cheney were trying to Hayden said the agency was right to in Afghanistan or Pakistan by Pakistani Guantánamo to build the prison in the construct a similar pretext for bombing destroy two videotapes of interroga- mercenaries. In some cases they were hope of avoiding being subject to U.S. or Iran, the Pentagon spy agencies undercut tions, and claimed that the tapes posed rank-and-file Taliban soldiers, who under any other law. the pretext. a “serious security risk.” He said that if pre-9/11 conditions would be considered Before the Supreme Court on Dec. 5, A year ago “Bush asked the [Joint Chiefs they had become public, they could have prisoners of war. CCR cooperating attorney Seth Waxman of Staff] about attacking Iran. He was told exposed CIA officials and their fami- Others were just in the wrong place at argued that Guantánamo is U.S.-controlled that a bombing campaign could do severe lies to “retaliation from al-Qaeda and its the wrong time, like the al-Jazeera report- territory and that U.S. laws should hold damage to Iran’s military and nuclear sympathizers.” er Sami al-Hajj, captured in 2001 and still there. Thus the prisoners should be enti- facilities, but the Chiefs said they were Others say the tapes were destroyed for held after six years. According to al-Hajj, tled to challenge their detention in civil- opposed to such a strike because of the a different reason: they would make the who was beaten and tortured at Baghram ian courts under habeas corpus. “The U.S. probable ‘blowback.’ The Iranians, Bush Abu Ghraib scandal look like child’s play Air Force Base in Afghanistan, for three government has complete jurisdiction was told, could make life very difficult and expose Washington as the world’s years interrogators tried to get him to and control over this place. No other law for the U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq. home office of torture. say there was a relationship between al- applies. If the U.S. law doesn’t apply, it is They could shut off the flow of oil through The Bush administration, which had Jazeera and al-Qaeda. a law-free zone,” Waxman said. the Strait of Hormuz, thereby creating a promoted abuse and torture, failed to Warren called Waxman’s argument global economic crisis.” (Time) order the CIA to refrain from destroying CCR brings case to Supreme Court defending the prisoners’ rights before the In truth, U.S. generals have reasons to the tapes. It has also come out that lead- The group that has organized legal Supreme Court “brilliant” and was cau- avoid a war at this time against a country ing Democrats, including current House representation for the Guantánamo pris- tiously optimistic that there would be a of 71 million whose population is mili- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, were informed as oners, most held since 2002, is the New favorable ruling. He added, however, that tantly anti-imperialist and showed what early as 2002 about CIA interrogation York-based Center for Constitutional “even with a favorable decision it may they could do just 30 years ago, when techniques, including waterboarding, and Rights (CCR). After winning a case for the still take another two years in the courts” they staged a fierce and mass revolution- approved them. detainees in 2004—Rasul v. Bush—the before the detainees are heard. n Page 10 Dec. 20, 2007 www.workers.org

A rotten new bill

arlier this fall the House of By the early 1960s, young people by Bob Kohler (center) at his Representatives passed, by a the thousands protested against HUAC 80th birthday party with Eridiculous vote of 404-6, a thor- when it started to investigate the anti-war Rickke Mananzala and oughly reactionary bill known as the movement. Its power was already begin- Jesse Ehrensaft-Hawley, “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown ning to wane. By the late 1960s, radicals FIERCE; Joo-Hyun Kang, Terrorism Prevention Act.” Introduced looked forward to being called before Audre Lorde Project; by California Democrat Jane Harman, HUAC. The more flamboyant protesters and Imani Henry and Cori Wiggins, FIERCE. HR 1955 would set up commissions like Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman ridi- called “Centers of Excellence” to study culed the committee. People laughed at what “radicalizes” people and how to pre- it. Everyone had contempt of HUAC. vent it. The Senate has yet to produce its It was not any change in laws that Bob Kohler: version of the legislation. altered the threat of HUAC but a change While HR 1955 is supposed to be in the level of struggle and of mass Stonewall vet, AIDS activist, directed against “terrorism,” its language consciousness. is so vague and broad that civil liberties In a similar way today, HR 1955 threat- activists rightly note that these “Centers ens dissent not just because of its word- anti-racist fighter of Excellence” could be turned against ing but because it signals the intention of By Imani Henry Liberation Front, the GLF had a broad and any direct action and even against dis- the capitalist state to find ways to crack New York revolutionary political platform. senting speech or writing on the Internet. down on opponents. It is important to try The GLF was not only an LGBT anti- HR 1955 is a preliminary step for more to stop it in the Senate, but also to pre- A multinational crowd of all ages imperialist, anti-capitalist formation but state repression. pare a popular struggle against it, should marched on Dec. 9 through the streets it fought sexism and racism and declared To keep its threat in perspective, and it pass. of the West Village, the East Coast birth- itself in support of national liberation to see how to fight it, it’s useful to recall Imagine this scenario. A “Center of place of the modern lesbian/gay/bi/trans movements such as the Black Panther the history of the House Un-American Excellence” (it’s hard to write that phrase movement. Onlookers repeatedly asked, Party. Activities Committee or HUAC. Created without quotes) hearing is held to inves- “What’s going on? What are you protest- Over the years, Bob Kohler became an in 1934, allegedly to fight the KKK and tigate why people become “radicalized.” ing?” Marchers explained that they were activist with many groups, including ACT- German Nazis, HUAC quickly became an Protesters are there with picket signs: actually just saying “Good-bye.” UP and New York City AIDS Housing instrument to investigate communists. “I was radicalized when my job was Bob Kohler, a Stonewall Rebellion com- Network, Sex Panic!, and Fed-Up Queers. When the Cold War peaked, from about outsourced after 20 years on the produc- batant and gay “granddad” to many New He spent 18 months standing outside the 1948 to 1960, it had the weight of a mod- tion line.” “I became a radical when my York LGBT radicals, had died Dec. 5 of NYC Division of AIDS Services with a clip- ern Inquisition. If you were called before home was repossessed.” “I turned left lung cancer. He was 81 years old. board and a cell phone, fighting the city’s it, you could lose your job, be outlawed when I was ethnically cleansed from New With militant chanting and drumming illegal attempts to deny housing to poor/ from your profession, and find your Orleans.” “I found myself considering and carrying signs demanding services homeless people with AIDS. reputation ruined with neighbors and violence when I was sent to Iraq to kill for homeless people with AIDS, over 150 Right up into his 70s, Bob loved to friends. If you stood strong and defied civilians.” LGBT and AIDS activists participated in participate in civil disobedience. He was HUAC, you might do jail time for con- It’s a rotten bill. But if it passes—don’t the political funeral. Led by a banner that arrested at an estimated 32 direct actions tempt of Congress. moan, organize. n read, “We love you, Bob,” marchers chant- in the fight against AIDS, for justice in ed, “Whose streets? Bob’s streets?” as they the police murder of Amadou Diallo, and made their way along Christopher Street in solidarity with immigrants against the on their way to throw Bob’s ashes into the Special Registration Drive. Bush gang’s plan to attack water at the Hudson River piers. “You always knew you could count on In the week following his death, much him to show up at a picket, rally, meeting was written about Bob’s decades of activ- or special scouting mission that could be undercut by NIE report ism. What can never be stated enough helped by an older white man with blue Continued from page 9 Barack Obama, has pulled back from shrill was how, as a white, gay man, he spent eyes who just needed to use a bathroom in of opinion. … There are political divides and aggressive positions on Iran. his life fighting in solidarity with commu- that corporate headquarters,” wrote Joo- in Tehran. ... Our strategy should exploit nities of color, transgender and gender Hyun Kang, founding executive director of these differences. ... The United States Mass struggle made non-con­forming people and people living the Audre Lorde Project. must be wise enough ... and patient Pentagon blink with AIDS. Two of Kohler’s dearest friends were enough ... not to follow the same destruc- This is a falling out among thieves on “Bob was an unapologetic ally, which is the legendary trans leaders Sylvia Rivera tive path on Iran that we did on Iraq.” how best to bring Iran down and how to what every lesbian, gay, I, two-spirit trans and Marsha P Johnson. Marsha and The forces backing the NIE report are stop the struggle in the Middle East. The and gender non-conforming person of Syl­via were also Stonewall combatants just as hostile towards Iran as Bush and NIE benignly describes itself as “the intel- color needs,” said Lucia Leandro Gimeno, and founders of the first New York City Cheney. They merely think other tactics ligence community.” It is really a collec- development and administrative coordi- trans group, Street Transvestites Action would be more successful in bringing tion of assassins, liars, mass murderers nator for the Audre Lorde Project, a cen- Revolutionaries (STAR). Sylvia affection- down Iran. For example, at a conference and destabilizers of progressive govern- ter for community organizing. ately referred to Bob as her “gay father” on regional security in Bahrain on Dec. 8, ments. The Bush-Cheney forces are no Throughout his life, Bob learned because of his love, respect and the soli- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called different. Both sides are hired guns for the meaning of self-determination and darity he genuinely felt towards younger Iran “a grave threat to regional security a U.S. ruling class determined to control respected the leadership of oppressed activists. even without nuclear weapons.” (New Middle Eastern oil. communities. Without any fanfare, Bob A longtime resident of the West Village, York Times, Dec. 9) It is the strength of the mass lib- Kohler would make himself available to Bob later in life became a staunch sup- If Bush doesn’t bomb Iran in the next eration struggles—from Iran to Iraq to do whatever was needed or asked of him. porter and ally to the political LGBT youth year, it doesn’t mean that the next admin- Afghanistan to Lebanon to Palestine— According to an 80th birthday tribute group FIERCE, which leads the fight istration won’t. Norman Podhoretz, a which made the biggest military colossus written by Emmaia Gelman, one of the against police brutality and gentrification senior neoconservative and a cheerleader in the world blink. The spy report is an close friends and activists who took care of the Village. for bombing Iran, is foreign policy advi- admission that Pentagon bombs cannot of Bob in his later years, Bob was born in Bran Fenner, co-director and one of the sor to Rudolph Giuliani’s presidential stop the mass struggle and often drive it May of 1926 and raised in Queens, N.Y. founders of FIERCE, said, “Bob Kohler campaign. And neither of the Democratic forward. It is this struggle that will deter- After a stint in the Navy, he spent the has meant so much to FIERCE personally Party frontrunners, Hillary Clinton or mine the fate of the Middle East. n immediate post-war years working in as well as organizationally. His work in television, before starting his own talent the movement has been immense and so agency. He was a pioneer in representing is the loss that so many of us are feeling. non-big-name African-American actors I feel honored to have been able to work during a time of Jim Crow segregation. with so many radical queer elders such as Subscribe to In the 1960s, Bob became active with Bob and Sylvia.” the civil rights group CORE (Congress for Rickke Mananzala, also a co-director of Workers World Racial Equality) and went to the South to FIERCE, went on to add, “In honor of participate in the Freedom Rides. Bob, our work will stay steady on the road Newspaper In the summer of 1969 immediately fol- to reaching the future that he and other lowing the Stonewall Rebellion, Bob Kohler vision­aries fought for. Thirty-eight years 4 weeks trial subscription: $2 One year subscription: $25 along with other Stonewall combatants after Stonewall, Bob’s legacy will continue to

Name______Phone ______formed the Gay Liberation Front. Inspired remind us that the rebellion is not over!” by the people of Vietnam’s National Bob Kohler, presente! n

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City ______State ______Zip______Books to change the world. that's the point! Workers World 55 W. 17 St. 5 Fl., NY, NY 10011 www.leftbooks.org www.workers.org Dec. 20, 2007 Page 11 Workers discuss U.S.-Latin America relations By LeiLani Dowell Osvaldo Vera, a national coordinator of Tijuana, Mexico the Venezuelan workers’ group, discussed the results of the recent constitutional ref- Workers from Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico erendum in his country and plans to con- and the United States shared information tinue to deepen the revolutionary process and solidarity at a labor conference here there. on the weekend of Dec. 7-9. Plenary talks Elvira Arellano—called the “Rosa discussed the case of the Cuban Five; rela- Parks” of the immigrant struggle, who was tions among the U.S., Cuba, Venezuela recently deported from the U.S. to Mexico and Mexico; U.S. “free trade” agreements and separated from her son, Saulito—and versus the Bolivarian Alternative of the Emma Lozano of La Familia Latina Unida Americas (ALBA); and the immigrant participated in the immigration panel, as rights struggle. did José Medina, a member of the Mexican Irma Sehwerert, a deputy in Cuba’s Congress who was key in founding a new National Assembly and mother of René cross-border organization for the rights of González, one of the Cuban Five, repre- Mexican/Chicano people. sented the five political prisoners held in Namibia Donadio of the youth U.S. jails and their families in an open- group FIST—Fight Imperialism, Stand ing event on Dec. 7 dedicated solely to Together—discussed why youth are the case. The International Committee to inspired by and stand in solidarity with Free the Cuban Five screened “The Trial” Cuba and Venezuela. She recounted her (El Proceso), a new documentary jointly experi­ences on a FIST-organized trip to produced by the Cuban Institute for Cuba this summer. the Cinematographic Arts and Industry An open letter calling on the leadership (ICAIC) and Venezuela’s Telesur. of the AFL-CIO and the International A Saturday panel featured represen- Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to tatives of the Cuban Workers Central stop slandering Cuba regarding its labor (CTC) and Bolivarian Socialist Workers rights was introduced and signed. The let- ter also called on affiliates to work to free Force of Venezuela. Raymundo Navarro Cheryl LaBash of U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange, Raymundo Navarro Fernandez of Cuba Fernández, director of foreign relations for the Cuban Five and end the U.S. blockade and Oswaldo Vera of Venezuela discuss how to build solidarity in U.S./Cuba/Venezuela the CTC, reviewed the history and meth- of Cuba—the U.S. trade and travel ban International Relations panel. WW photo: Bob McCubbin ods of U.S. domination in Latin America. that blocks U.S. workers from traveling to He said, “You can vote for a government Cuba and denies visas for CTC represen- A call for activities for immigrant rights on More will be reported on this confer- but you cannot change the political sys- tatives to enter the United States, making May 1—the international workers’ day and ence in future issues of WW. tem—it means that there is a neoliberal it necessary for such gatherings to take third anniversary of the “Great American E-mail: [email protected] project that is above everything.” place in other countries. Boycott” of 2006—was well received. Palestinians denounce Zimbabwe. Annapolis conference Massive march By Joyce Chediac the right to Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and the right to our land. supports a defiant gov’t Some 100,000 Palestinian people “We were refusing the recognition of demonstrated in besieged Gaza on Nov. Israel as a Jewish state, as this would legit- By Caleb Maupin right to remove Mugabe, the leader they 27 against the so-called peace confer- imize the Zionist ideology of colonialism, have chosen. ence being held in Annapolis, Md. They racism and ethnic cleansing, and effective- Al-Jazeera’s news coverage of “Britain has no right to be sitting and chanted “No recognition of Israel!” and ly exonerate Israel from the crimes of the Zimbabwe’s Million Man and Woman discussing us almost every week in their protested what they called “the renuncia- Nakba [expulsion of Palestinian people in March on Dec. 7 showed huge crowds— stupid Parliament. Have they no shame?” tion of Palestinians’ legitimate rights.” 1948], waiving the right of return. Such estimated in the hundreds of thousands— President Mugabe proclaimed loudly from “We do not recognize those who hold recognition would justify and reinforce marching, chanting and waving red, the podium at the rally. His speech gained talks in Annapolis. They do not repre- the Israeli system of apartheid against black, green and yellow flags. They are the thundering applause from the massed sent the Palestinian people,” said Ismail Palestinian citizens of Israel. ... symbol of the Zimbabwe African National crowds of workers and farmers. Haiyeh, a former Palestinian prime min- “For the oppressed and occupied, Union—People’s Front, the party that has Marchers converged on the capital city ister and member of Hamas who was dis- ongoing struggle and resistance using ruled the country since independence. of Harare from every corner of Zimbabwe, missed by the forces of Mahmoud Abbas, all necessary means … is our only tool to It was nearly 27 years ago, in the very coming by bus, train and even on foot. head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), ensure that ‘negotiations’ talk about how suburb where this march took place, that Songs of the revolution were sung, and who took part in the Annapolis meeting. to achieve our rights and not how to aban- Robert Mugabe declared Zimbabwe— chants supporting Mugabe and in defense A participant in a women’s rally said, don them step by step. Yet for the first time formerly Rhodesia—to be free from colo- of the revolution rang out. “We don’t want more alleged peace con- in the 60 years of our struggle, those who nialism. The war of liberation, also known The march was endorsed by the ferences, which bring us more suffering. claim to represent us at a national level as the “Rhodesian Bush War,” was over Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions, We prefer poverty to accepting shameful are no longer talking about resistance to and the African people had won. The which represents thousands of work- peace.” the attacks of the occupiers. Instead they white-dominated colonial government ers. The ZFTU has had differences with In Gaza, the Palestinian Legislative are disingenuously opening up negotia- had been overthrown. Mugabe and ZANU-PF in the past, but, Council passed a bill against making con- tions relying on the U.S., the occupation’s The recent march was led by thousands according to the Herald—the main news- cessions on the Palestinian refugees’ right most ardent backer, to act as an ‘honest of veterans of the liberation struggle, who paper of Zimbabwe, it was in full support to return to their homeland, as well as the broker.’” (electronicintifada.net, Nov. 28 proudly proclaimed that Washington, of the Dec. 7 march. Palestinian people’s rights to Jerusalem and Dec. 2) n Downing Street and Wall Street have no The leader of ZFTU issued a statement and to resist occupation. in which he proclaimed that Mugabe is Hundreds who demonstrated in the “a leader whose ideals are focused on the West Bank cities of Nablus, Tulkarm, welfare of his people.” Hebron and Ramallah were attacked by Nandigram says ‘No!’ to Dow Mugabe has become the object of scorn Palestinian Authority security forces, who by the Western capitalists due to his pol- killed one demonstrator in Hebron. The Continued from page 7 “We do not need any more Dow Chemical icy of redistributing the land back to the PA had banned the protests. have been brutally raped in a plan to pun- companies in India. We need more food, African people, from whom it was stolen Other demonstrations took place out- ish the community. Daughters and moth- housing and schools. We need health care by the colonial powers and given to white side the territories, in the Palestinian ers were raped in front of their fathers. and opportunities for every man, woman farmers. Britain, in particular, the country diaspora, demanding their right to return. The IAC surveyed homes that had been and child. The people of Nandigram have which once held Zimbabwe in its colonial Speaking of the protests in the terri- burned to the ground and then looted of stood up for us all. Nandigram should be clutches, has, to no surprise, expressed tories, Jamal Juma, coordinator of the all belongings. The worst attacks were the battle cry for the future of humanity.” disapproval of the land redistribution that Palestinian Grassroots Anti-apartheid clearly reserved for leaders of the BUPC. Today corporations have global- Mugabe has championed. Wall Campaign, said, “Our demonstra- Roshmi Das Adhikari, 90, told how state- ized their exploitation. It is critical that But the hundreds of thousands of tion, which was supported by the Popular sponsored forces had set fire to her home the movement globalize the resistance. marchers on Dec. 7 made it clear that Committees of the Refugee Camps and while she was inside. Despite everything, Messages of support and solidarity they would not allow the British, U.S. and over 150 civil society organizations and the people expressed their determination may be sent to Secretary Nanda Patra other Western powers to steal their revo- Books to change the world. that's the point! representatives, called for the upholding to stay in Nandigram. of the BUPC, care of the All India Anti- lution away. Their message was that they of the fundamental principles of our strug- At an impromptu press conference at the Imperialist Forum, 77/2/1 Lenin Sarani, stand behind Mugabe and national libera- www.leftbooks.org gle: the right of the refugees to return, close of the tour, Ramsey Clark declared: Kolkata 700 013, India. n tion 100 percent. n ¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los países, uníos! Chávez acerca del referéndum: 49% dice sí al socialismo Por Berta Joubert-Ceci ismo en Venezuela? Además del proceso para explicar….Hay bastantes elementos que fue grabado en una de las iglesias de electoral, ¿qué métodos pueden ser uti- políticos que debemos tomar en cuenta Caracas mostrando un llamado a ignorar El 3 de diciembre la Comisión Nacional lizados para avanzar la revolución? en esta batalla”. el resultado de las elecciones si la opción Electoral (CNE) de Venezuela anunció los Antes de que cualquiera de estas pre- Él notó, sin embargo, “que haya votado del Sí ganara. resultados del referéndum propuesto con- guntas pueda ser contestada, debemos 49% por el proyecto socialista, a pesar de Otra táctica usada por la oposición fue cerniente a los cambios de 69 artículos de ver muy de cerca los resultados. De los todo es un gran paso político”. la de una escasez severa de comida, creada la Constitución venezolana. El voto del cerca de 27 millones de venezolan@s, 16 principalmente por la retención de ali- “No” a las reformas ganó por un margen millones están registrad@s para votar. La EEUU detrás de la oposición mentos básicos por el sector de negocios de menos del 2% sobre la opción del “Si”, comisión electoral reportó que 8.883.746 A pesar de los avances logrados a favor agrícolas y de distribución de la oligar- el cual habría profundizado los cambios votos válidos fueron contados, reflejando de la mayoría pobre, el modo de pro- quía. Desde hace semanas mucha gente ha progresistas y ratificado la reconstrucción un gran nivel de abstención: un 44%. ducción capitalista aún está vigente en tenido que pararse en largas colas en los de la sociedad sobre un base socialista. En las elecciones presidenciales del año Venezuela. La oligarquía en alianza con Mercales, los mercados subvencionados Luego de haber sido anunciado los pasado, Chávez ganó con un 63% de los los EEUU está en una lucha permanente por el gobierno. Esto, decían los oligarcas, resultados por radio y televisión nacional, votos y la tasa de abstención fue de sólo en contra de las medidas progresistas es lo que puede pasar bajo el socialismo. el Presidente Hugo Chávez dijo sobre su un 25%. y de la posibilidad que se construya el La campaña también trató de asustar al propuesta de reformas que “no pudieron El Referéndum Constitucional era com- socialismo. pueblo haciéndole creer que el gobierno ser hoy, pero yo continuaré proponiéndo- plicado, con 69 artículos divididos en dos La oposición tradicional, los antiguos socialista podía quitarles sus hij@s y sus las, las más avanzadas en el planeta y las bloques, los que se votaban por separado. partidos de la Cuarta República que lle- casas. que propone alcanzar la inclusión social Tomando ambos bloques, los resultados varon a cabo el golpe de estado instigado A fines de noviembre, el contraespio- máxima, un principio fundamental de fueron de 50-51 por ciento de los votos por los EEUU en el 2002, había sido frac- naje venezolano obtuvo una comunicación nuestro sistema”. por el “No” y el 48-49 por ciento por el cionada y debilitada. Pero una nueva capa interna de la CIA relativa a la “Operación Chávez enfatizó que “como presidente “Si”. ha emergido que ha llevado nueva espe- Tenaza” en la embajada Estadounidense de la nación, yo he escuchado la voz del Varios de los artículos trataban de ranza a la oligarquía. Ell@s son mayor- en Caracas. La comunicación fue escrita pueblo y siempre seguiré escuchando. cuestiones concretas como por ejemplo mente l@s hij@s de la burguesía blanca por Michael Middleton Steere, un ofi- Lo llevaré en mi corazón para nuestro la reducción de horas en la jornada de y rica de Venezuela. Algun@s de ell@s cial de la CIA apostado en la embajada, análisis y continuar la construcción de trabajo y garantías de seguro social para vienen de las universidades públicas pero y estaba dirigida al Director de la CIA en una Venezuela bolivariana para nuestros l@s trabajador@s en la economía infor- la mayoría son de las universidades priva- Washington, General Michael Hayden. hijos”. En otras declaraciones recalcó, mal. Otros se trataban de cuestiones más das y católicas. Han organizado manifes- Revelaba distintos aspectos de la cam- “Tendremos que madurar y continuar abstractas que requerían una atención taciones a veces violentas oponiéndose a paña de la CIA contra la revolución, incluy- construyendo nuestro socialismo”. y explicación cuidadosa. Entre éstos se la reforma constitucional y quejándose de endo el trabajo de USAID, la creación de Cuando se conocieron las noticias, incluía una nueva división del territorio que Chávez quiere volverse en un dicta- encuestas fraudulentas y la distorsión las fuerzas opuestas a la Revolución nacional, el cómo bregar con una emer- dor-de-por-vida porque uno de los artícu- de información sobre el referéndum en Bolivariana comenzaron a celebrar en gencia nacional, y los pasos a seguir para los pide la eliminación de los límites del conjunción con los medios privados de los barrios ricos lo que llamaron “el fin la transición al socialismo. período presidencial. difusión nacionales e internacionales. Las de Chávez” y la revolución—en otras Se hicieron intentos para informar a la Éstos hijos e hijas de los ricos se escon- acciones múltiples de desestabilización palabras, sus esperanzas de regresar al población sobre las reformas propuestas. den bajo el lema de “libertad y democra- que la comunicación describe incluyen viejo sistema de privilegios y riquezas La Asamblea Nacional distribuyó diez cia”, mostrando un desprecio arrogante y todo desde protestas violentas en las calles para unos pocos y pobreza y exclusión millones de ejemplares de la propuesta racista no sólo contra el presidente, sino y la creación de un ambiente de desestabi- para la mayoría. entre agosto y octubre. Una línea telefóni- contra l@s pobres y el resto de la juven- lización que hiciera imposible el gobernar Desde que Chávez llegó a la presidencia ca especial fue establecida para consultas tud venezolana, que está fuertemente al al país, hasta la intervención militar. El en 1998, las fuerzas pro revolucionarias y más de 9000 eventos fueron celebrados lado de la revolución. Presidente Chávez leyó el texto por tele- han prevalecido en cada una de las elec- a través del país. El imperialismo estadounidense está visión, llamando al pueblo a estar alerta y ciones locales y nacionales, incluyendo Sin embargo, queda claro que eso no fue tratando nuevas tácticas para detener la listo para la acción. el atentado por la derecha de derrocar suficiente. L@s venezolan@s bolivarian@s revolución. En la edición del 2 de dici- La alegría de los derechistas tal vez no al presidente a través de un referéndum actualmente están en el proceso de anali- embre del Washington Post, Juan Forero perdure. Las fuerzas pro-revolucionarias, revocatorio y la reelección presidencial zar seriamente los resultados. escribió que “algunos grupos estudiantiles en vez de sentirse tristes o derrotadas, de hace un año, en diciembre del 2006. El Presidente Chávez dijo: “A nosotros han recibido fondos para llevar a cabo están expresando un entusiasmo nuevo Habían ganado un total de 10 procesos nos faltaron 3 millones de votos de per- seminarios de la Agencia Estadounidense para avanzar la revolución y establecer el electorales. sonas que no fueron a votar. ¿Por cuáles para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID), socialismo. ¿Qué pasó esta vez? ¿Acaso la revolu- razones? Hay que evaluarlo, estoy com- según documentos que fueron hechos Cartas al sitio de la red Aporrea y ción se está debilitando? ¿La oposición pletamente seguro que la inmensa may- disponibles al Washington Post el sábado. declaraciones de partidos organizados derechista se está fortaleciendo? ¿Está el oría de esas personas sigue con nosotros, . . Los documentos estadounidenses, con- y otras formaciones se han dirigido a la pueblo desilusionado con la revolución u que no votaron por el Sí; se abstuvieron: seguidos a través de una solicitud bajo el necesidad de depurar lo que dicen son opuesto a la idea de construir el social- dudas, temores, faltó tiempo, capacidad Acta de Libertad de Información (FOIA) elementos oportunistas alrededor de hecha por un investigador para el Archivo Chávez que están impidiendo que la revo- de Seguridad Nacional en la Universidad lución avance y también a la necesidad de Fernando González, de George Washington, muestra que ampliar el diálogo con la población para Ramón Labañino, $216.000 fueron dotados desde el 2003 explicar los conceptos del socialismo. Uno Antonio Guer­­rero, a grupos estudiantiles no identificados en de tales oportunistas es el ex Ministro Gerardo Hernández varias universidades para ‘la resolución de Defensa Raúl Isaías Baduel que se y René González. de conflictos’, ‘la promoción de democra- unió a la oposición contra las reformas, cia’ y otros programas”. diciendo que representaban un “golpe En este país profundamente religioso, constitucional”. la Iglesia Católica también ha desem- L@s revolucionari@s también están de peñado un papel desestabilizador. El acuerdo con la necesidad de una reflexión vicepresidente Jorge Rodríguez le envió y un análisis serios para tratar de corregir un video al Nuncio Papal Giacinto Berloco cualquier error cometido. n

¡Libertad para los cinco Cubanos!