t11wmmmmrnmirn1m11tu11rntm1m111111111m111111111m1111111m111111111m11111m11111111111mJim111111mrnmrnmtm1m1.111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111•11,:11:1111!•1111m THE Witch Hunt MILITANT Published in the Interest of the Working People lnMe,cico

Vol. 31 - No. 29 Monday, August 7, 1967 Price 10¢ - See page 6 - 111Jllllllll111111111!11l[llllflllllllll!lllllllllllllll11111lllllllllll11111111111111111111Jllll111111llllllllllllllllllllllllllltl!lllllllllll!lllllll'11Jfllllt!111111111111!11111111llllllllllllll111llllt!lllllllllll1111111lllllllllilll!llllil!llllllllllllllllllllllllllilliilllllillll!IIIIIIIIIIIIIU.: The Detroit Uprising Report from the Ghetto A BlackSocialist's "Self-Service" First-Hand Account WasIntegrated By Derrick Morrison roerrick Morrison is a member of the national committee of the In Moto:rCity Young Socialist Alliance and is By Evelyn Sell active in Detroit's black freedom movement. He is 21 years old.] DETROIT - There was one DETROIT - In the city where feature of the uprising that is they said it could never happen, unique among the various ghetto it finally happened. Detroit, the explosions that have taken place "Model City," the city where over the past several years. All blacks were supposed to have it so eye-witnesses a'nd reporters were good, the city where so much prog­ forced to recognize the integrated ress was made in the last 25 years character of the events. Whites in police-community relations, fi­ joined with blacks in repossessing nally saw, in the words of one of .items from stores, in setting fires the Brothers, "red flames in the and in the guerrilla warfare east and black smoke in the west." against the police. The lack of And in those red flames and black hostility between whites and TO SPEAK IN N.Y. Derrick smoke went the myth of racial Morrison will speak on the De­ blacks on the streets of Detroit "peace and progress" in the Motor during the most explosive days of City. troit Rebellion at the Militant the uprising made it impossible Labor Forum Friday evening for reporters or officials to sim­ Biggest Yet Aug. 11. ply label the explosion a race The "Thing" was on, and when riot. The overwhelming majority it was over, white America had ers, the Detroit upnsmg began of the rebels were black and the experienced the biggest and cost­ around 4: 30 Sunday morning. This basic causes of the uprising lay liest black uprising in its history. was after the cops had raided a in the treatment of blacks in our Photo by Nick Medvecky, Jr. This was the first time in 24 years speakeasy on 12th St. near Clair­ society. However, hundreds of that the federal government had to mont and brutally beat up one of whites were involved in the ac­ GUTTED. Stores of price-gouging ghetto merchants were par­ send in troops to quell a civil dis­ the men there. This was the spark tivities directed against the white ticular target of Detroit ghetto outbreak. turbance. The last time they were that started the explosion in De­ merchants who exploit poor people used was in the 1943 anti-black troit. The ingredients were the in­ in the inner city. This aspect of the long line. Whites and blacks scene. Occasionally one of the riot here. And this is only the human treatment suffered by the Detroit uprising gives Amer­ stood in groups along the street observers would casually stroll prelude to the Black Revolution. blacks at the hands of police, the ica's capitalist rulers a small taste watching fires and smoke. There across the street and join in the As I walked through the area wholesale looting of black pocket­ of events to come. was conversation between the activity. Word was obviously that was in upheaval, I could see books by the devil-like white mer­ Mixed Area races. As I turned onto Grand spreading around the neighbor­ and feel the sense of togetherness chants, and the general concentra­ I live in a racially mixed area River near Trunbull, I saw a hood because streams of people, and the new pride and dignity tion-camp conditions that exist in just north of downtown. This is group of people climbing into white and black, hurried down the that had been acquired during most ghettos across the country. the section of the city that at­ store windows a'nd leaving with streets toward the stores. One those four days, but which had On Sunday, the blacks took over tracts the poor newcomers from arms full of merchandise. I pulled white girl ran down the sidewalk been shaped under 400 years of 12th St., appropriating commodi­ the car over and watched. Whites shouting, "I'm gonna get me white-racist oppression. The feel­ the south, white and black. This ties and burning stores at will. and blacks stood on the side­ some!" I could see a black man ing was especially evident in those is the new Skid Row, created when Heavy black smoke could be seen the old one was urban renewed. walk pointing to what was hap­ inside the store handing articles Afro-Americans of my generation. Here live southern whites, Detroit­ pening, laughing together over the (Continued on Page 4) According to one of the Broth- (Continued on Page 4) born whites, blacks from the south and native Detroiters, American Indians, Chinese, Mexican - and many other ethnic types. Black and The Cops and Courts Were Brutal white live near each other but not really together. Whole blocks are white while other blocks are DETROIT - More than 4,000 American Civil Liberties Union strongest describe how police in­ $5,000 to $10,000 bonds, jammed black. One apartment in a block persons were arrested during the protested "the legal injustices" vaded homes without warrants, into inadequate facilities at the will be all-black, the next two Detroit uprising and charged with and complained that "almost with­ smashing doors and furniture, in­ Juvenile Home and will probably all-white, the next few black and crimes ranging from inciting to out exception" bonds were exces­ juring inhabitants and tearing be detained up to three months so on. Black, white and yellow go to riot and sniping to breaking the sive, attorneys have been unable rooms apart in a search for guns before trial. 9 p.m. curfew and looting. The 12 to talk with their clients and the and ammunition. A number of the same schools, shop in the same Used Pretext stores. There are, of course, racial Recorder's Court judges met on the system for assigning legal counsel black persons, including women antagonisms but there is also the second day of the revolt and to indigent persons was inade­ and children, were shot and some The police used the uprising as shared feelings and attitudes which agreed on a get tough attitude quate. The ACLU has asked that killed by police firing wildly into a pretext to arrest and harrass are created when people face a which violated all legal and con­ "any judge who has engaged in homes with rifles and machine black militants. One of the de­ common enemy. stitutional rights for prisoners. prejudicial conduct on the bench" guns. fendants in the August police­ during the explosion be disqual­ created riot of last year was ar­ On the second day of the upris­ High Bonds Wholesale Te.chnique ing I went to the supermarket ified. rested for looting as he stepped Many black and white pris­ out of his own store. Vaughn's for milk and bread. Whites and Impossible bonds of $10,000 to ACLU Protest blacks stood together patiently in $25,000 were set for even minor oners report that they were ar­ Book Store, a nationalist center charges. Judge Brennan explained Ernest Mazey, executive direc­ rested by a wholesale technique in the city, came under vicious the high bonds: "It should assure tor of the ACLU, and a group of used by the police who grabbed attack by the police. In their keeping these rioters off the 150 protested the gross violations any person in sight. Prisoners brazen attempt to destroy the book Our Schedule streets." Judge Colombo set some of civil liberties ·by the police. were beaten, cursed at and loaded store, Detroit cops once again For the Summer bonds at $100,000 and $200,000. Complaints about police brutality into buses and cells that were demonstrated that they were one He told one defendant, "I can are numerous. Julian Witherspoon, overcrowded and lacked toilet of the major factors which During the months of July set bond up to $10 million if I chairman of the Citizens' Ad­ facilities. Police garages were touched off America's most cost­ and August, THE MILITANT is wish to." He then told another visory Committee for the city's used to hold prisoners who were ly black revolt. At 4 a.m. of the published every other week. Our defendant, "You're nothing but a anti-poverty program, U.S. Rep. forced to rest on floors covered morning of July 27, eyewitnesses next issue will be dated Aug. lousy, thieving looter." The ac­ John Conyers and State Rep. with oil and urine. Food was not saw four carloads of uniformed 21. Regular weekly publication cused man protested, "You will James Del Rio witnessed police served, water was not available white police break windows and will resume with the issue of have to prove that." Colombo punch handcuffed prisoners in for days in many cases. Hundreds show cases. Books were shoved Sept. 4. turned red and stated, "We will." precinct stations. Residents in the of young boys, some as young as onto the floor and then drenched The Detrnit branch of the areas where the uprising was nine years, were placed under (Continued on Page 4) Page Two THE MILITANT Monday, August 7, 1967 A MILITA,NTINTERVIEW Fren,chAntiwar Activists Visit U.S. By Harry Ring gram for peace and the Liberation doesn't take positions as advanced NEW YORK - An organized Front's four-point program. as that of their committee but movement against U.S. aggression They also emphasized that the feel the movement is headed in The United Auto Workers, ne­ in Medicare. One of the provisions in Vietnam has developed in committee makes very clear its the right direction. "When you talk gotiating under heavy government they want to eliminate from the France, the National Vietnam differences with de Gaulle's posi­ to the people in the different or­ pressure, have signed contracts present bill is the one which allows Committee. Two members of that tion which they regard as merely ganizations," Jackie observed, "you covering 5,200 workers at the doctors to bill patients directly committee, Yves Loyer and Jackie an attempt by French imperialism see that they want more than just Avco-Lycoming Division at Strat­ instead of collecting from the gov­ Baron, are currently visiting the to exploit the difficulties of the the withdrawal of American ford, Conn. Two UAW locals cov­ ernment. They also demand the United States and while in New U.S. in the Far East. troops. At first I thought that if ering production and office­ setting of doctors' fees on a re­ York were interviewed at the Like the U.S. antiwar move­ that is all they want it's not much. clerical workers, had gone on gional basis and the extension office of The Militant. ment, the French committee dis­ But it is a first step. Perhaps with strike on April 16. It took John­ of Medicare to cover disabled or Yves Loyer is an artist who had tributes educational material, holds more demonstrations it will get to son just one day to obtain a Taft­ chronically ill persons of all ages. been active in the movement public meetings and organizes the real point - support of the Hartley injunction imposing an 80- The oldsters dramatized their against the Algerian ·war and who demonstrations. Yves and Jackie Vietnamese people." day "cooling off" period on the demands by parading up Pennsyl­ responded immediately when a noted with a certain satisfaction Yves added that the movement strikers. vania Avenue led by a horse-drawn movement was initiated in defense that their committee had played here is much stronger than they The settlement came just two surrey (with a fringe on top?) and of the Vietnamese revolution. a prominent role in the very vigor­ had anticipated, "It's much strong- days before the expiration of the an old Franklin car. Jackie Baron, a schoolteacher, had ous "welcome" extended Hubert injunction. Production workers * * * previously not been involved in Humphrey on his recent visit to will receive pay increases of 53 The unemployment rate moved any movement but was attracted Paris. The committee's primary cents per hour over three years; up to four percent in June, accord­ by the views and activities of the influence is among students (in­ 18 cents (with 10 cents of that ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­ National Vietnam Committee and cluding, they said, a very im­ retroactive to April 16) the first tistics. But this bare figure hides became a hard-working member. pressive number of high-school year; 17 cents the second and 18 a far more alarming factor. The During their visit here they students). cents the third year. Office-clerical June jobless rate for young peo­ hope to get as full a picture as French antiwar activists are workers received a "general in­ ple 16 to 21 years old was 15.2, possible of the U.S. antiwar move­ much aware of the antiwar move­ crease" but no figures were given. slightly lower than the rates for ment and to promote collabora­ ment here, they said, but have no Production workers also got 1965 and '66. But, all the im­ tion and coordination between the conception of its actual size. a slightly improved cost-of-living provement came among white "Our first impression was one of protection clause, night-shift pre­ youth. The unemployment rate for astonishment at how many local miums, and additional 10 cents black youth held steady at 25 per­ groups there are," Yves said. "We per hour for skilled workers, cent. would need a year to get in touch improved sickleave allowances, * * * with all of them. Our second im­ health and pension benefits, and The longest strike in the history pression was that the coordinating supplementary unemployment in- of the rubber industry has come to groups here, the New York Parade creases. an end. On July 26 the United Committee, the Student and Na­ * * * Rubber Workers signed a tentative tional Mobilization Committees, The National Council of Senior agreement with the last hold-out, have coordinated all these groups Citizens held their annual conven­ Uniroyal Corp. The five companies in a really impressive way. With tion in Washington, D.C. last involved were Goodyear, Goodrich, so many different groups and so month. Petitions containing hun­ General Tire, Firestone and Uni­ many different positions, to real­ dreds of thousands of signatures royal. ize such coordination is a marvel­ were presented to their congress­ One of the main demands of the ous thing." men in an attempt to prod Con­ union in these strikes was the Discussing the various demon­ gress into action to "get Social across-the-board wage increase for strations here, !asked if they were Jackie Baron Security out of the horse and all production workers, not just familiar with the discussion within er than the movement we had in buggy age." the tire workers. The four com­ the U.S. movement on the value The NCSC is seeking increased panies other than General Tire did France against the Algerian war," or lack of value of such demons­ he said. pensions as well as radical changes grant the same increase to all trations. They said they had heard production workers - 43 cents per of the discussions on this but He was quite impressed, he hour over three years; 15 cents had not really had a chance to added, by the extent of resistance each of the first two years, 13 talk with anyone about it. "I to the draft here. "We had sol­ NewYork Ends cents the final contract year. The haven't quite understood the rea­ diers who deserted during the Al­ entire package is estimated to be soning of those who are opposed," gerian war," he said, "but no one Its Lockoutof approximately 85 cents per hour Yves said. "I suppose some of went on the streets and burned over three years, and includes in­ them think it would be better to their draft cards." creased corporation pension and Yves Loyer build a new society to stop the They said they already advised WelfareUnion welfare-fund payments, increased war. But the war must be stopped the French National Vietnam Com­ supplementary unemployment be­ mittee of the coming Oct. 21 By Howard Reed movement here and in France. now and fighting against it helps nefits up to 80 percent of straight­ They are also supporters of the build the new society." mobilization in Washington and NEW YORK, Aug. 1 - Members time hourly rates, and liberalized work of the War Crimes Tribunal Besides, he added, "The con­ they were confident there would of the Social Service Employees vacation schedules. in Paris and hope to encourage flict between the Vietnamese and be a big supporting demonstration Union returned to work today Ratification of the Goodyear and support for the Tribunal by the the United States is a decisive con­ organized in France and elsewhere after being locked out of their wel­ Uniroyal tentative contracts is still U.S. antiwar movement. flict between popular forces and in Europe. fare centers for almost seven in progress, but reports indicate imperialism. The defeat of the The French National Vietnam "It is important that the Amer­ weeks. A union membership meet­ that the workers will accept the Vietnamese struggle would post­ ican people know people in Eu­ ing July 30 voted by a 3 to 2 terms. Committee was organized last fall pone the building of the new on the initiative of Prof. Laurent rope are against the war," Jackie margin to accept an arbiter's pro­ There has been no mention as society." said, "and that the antiwar move­ posal to mediate the issues in the yet whether the General Tire con­ Schwartz, Jean-Paul Sartre, and They are aware that the anti­ other noted Frenchmen. The or­ ment here is supported by people dispute. tract clause on across-the-board in­ war movement in this country all over." The mediator will consider such creases for all workers, not just ganization was initiated at a meet­ issues as the union's request for those manufacturing tires, will be ing in Paris called "Six Hours for automatic clothing grants to cli­ renegotiated. Vietnam." People were asked to ents, a bargaining clause in the * * * contribute six-hours pay to aid the new contract, a fund for workers The Newark, N.J. teachers union Vietnamese freedom struggle and N.Y.Cuba Week Celebration issued on the job, and additional condemned the city's "second-rate, the meeting ran from 6 p.m. to benefits for homemakers. The city deteriorating" schools as a major midnight with prominent speakers accepted this proposal July 31. cause in the recent rebellion. advocating the cause of the Viet­ -Yglesias,Films, Expo Trip Key to the agreement was a Union officials charge that schools namese people. The meeting hall, modified stand by the city on the were old, ill-equipped and over which seated nearly 4,000 was NEW YORK - The week of responded to each slogan with a question of reprisals against work­ crowded and that as a conse­ jammed at 6 p.m. and many had July 26 was "Cuba Week" for the tremendous ovation. ers participating in the job ac­ quence, large numbers of pupils to be turned away. Young Socialist Alliance and the At Expo 67, people from the tion. During the six weeks of the were dropping out. The National Vietnam Commit­ Militant Labor Forum. The YSA YSA bus joined with members of work stoppage, the city had sus­ * * * tee now has some 150 local groups sponsored a series of activities in the Fair Play for Cuba Commit­ pended more than 600 workers, The Pennsylvania State AFL- throughout France. solidarity with the Cuban revolu­ tee in a special tour of the Cuban and 50 had been arrested. They CIO and the Penna. Local Govern­ The committee is the only group tion beginning with Cuban movies Pavilion. Afterward, the Cuban had been threatened with dismis­ ment Conference joined forces on in France specifically centered on on Sunday July 23 and ending guides were awarded a plaque ex­ sal transfers and demotions. July 28 to urge that the constitu­ the Vietnam issue. There is a big with a chartered-bus trip to the pressing Canadian solidarity with A previous mediation proposal, tional convention now in session general peace organization, some­ Cuban Pavilion at Expo 67 the the revolution. There was much accepted by the city, was rejected change current state laws to elim­ what similar in its outlook to the next weekend. discussion and trading of litera­ by the union membership because inate tax exemptions for churches Committee for a Sane Nuclear A high point of the week was a ture and buttons between the 29 of the most active members of and all other nonprofit organiza­ Policy except that it is strongly meeting at the Militant Labor Fo­ young Cubans and the Canadian the union would have been sus­ tions. AFL-CIO president, Harry influenced by the very powerful rum for Jose Yglesias, the novel­ and American youth. pended for two weeks, placed on Boyer, also urged that current tax French Communist Party. ist who recently spent three probation for six months, and exemptions granted utility operat­ The National Vietnam Commit­ months in a Cuban village. transferred involuntarily to other ing properties, be lifted. tee has a clearly defined program Yglesias gave an inspiring ac­ July26 U welfare centers. The present On this point, Boyer said: "The of support to the Vietnamese re­ count of the quality of life in at of Wisc. agreement eliminates the suspen­ increase in such local revenues volution. It is not, Yves and Jackie revolutionary Cuba. He said that MADISON, Wisc. - Despite a sions, but still stipulates the in­ would place to that degree a les­ emphasized, merely for "peace" in although the Revolution faced downpour, 200 University of Wis­ voluntary transfer of the 29, pend­ ser burden upon the common­ Vietnam. It characterizes U.S. in­ many difficulties and that there consin students turned out for a ing arbitration. wealth to subsidize essential serv­ tervention there as imperialist ag­ were yet many problems to be meeting saluting the Cuban Rev­ The Union had initiated a work­ ices at the community and county gression. It supports independence solved there was a tremendous olution on the 26th of July. It was in because Herbert Haber, city level." and self-determination for Viet­ sense of accomplishment and rev­ sponsored by the Young Socialist director of Labor Relations, broke The Catholic and Episcopalian nam, a halt to the bombing of olutionary identity among the peo­ Alliance. They heard Walter Lipp­ his commitment to the union that churches, both among the largest North Vietnam, immediate with­ ple. man of the YSA cite the great all issues unresolved by a strike owners of slum property in the drawal of U.S. forces from South He concluded in the manner of gains of the revolution and urge last January would go to fact­ country, all tax-exempt, certainly Vietnam and recognition of the meetings in Cuba with the slo­ support for revolutionary fighters finding. In accepting mediation on won't go for that proposal! And National Liberation Front as the gans: "Viva La Vietnam Her6ica!" in Latin America. The release of the issues directly, the city has they will be joined by "utility authentic representative of the "Viva La Revoluci6n Socialista!" Latin-American political prisoners conceded the relevance of these operating properties," without any Vietnamese people. It supports "Patria o Muerte, Venceremos!" was demanded. Films from Cuba disputed items to a union contract. doubt. -Marvel Scholl North Vietnam's five-point pro- The audience of more than 200 were shown. Monday, August 7, 1967 THE MILITANT Page Three SPECIAL FROM NEWARK THE MILITANT Newsa Reporter Didn't Get Printed Editor: JOSEPH HANSEN Managini Editor: BARRY SHEPPARD Business Manager: XAROLYN KERRY Published weekly, except during July and August when published biweekly, Special to The Militant by The Militant Publishing Ass'n., 873 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10003. Phone 533-6414. Second-class postage paid at New York N.Y. Subscription: domestic:. As a reporter for a New Jersey $3 a year; C_anada and Latin America, $3.50; other foreign, $4.50. By first class mall: ~omestic and Canada, $8.50, all other countries, $14.00. Air printed matter: newspaper assigned to cover the domestic and Canada, $11.50; Latin America, $23.00; Europe, $27.00; Africa, riot scene in Newark I saw and Australia, Asia (lncludlpg USSR), $32.00. Write for sealed air postage rates. Signed articles by c~ntrib!-!tors do not necessarily represent The Mllltant's views. was told about incidents that · These are expressed m editorials. never found their way into the daily press. Vol. 31 - No. 29 Some of the episodes were re­ ~345 Monday, August 7, 1967 counted by participants in what officials called a "criminal con­ spiracy" but correctly labeled war by the ghetto residents; other The Lesson of Detroit events were witnessed by myself and other newsmen who could not Vice-President Hubert Humphrey managed to point to the convince their editors to use the most apparent lesson to be learned from what happened in material in stories the next day. Detroit. Humphrey told Detroit Mayor Cavanagh, "If it can hap­ The press was anxious to print pen in your town, it can happen anywhere. With all the programs only those stories that conformed you had going and with all the understanding between your to the preconceived view of public Negro leaders and your whites. It can happen anywhere." Detroit officials that the riots were caused has proven conclusively that major urban convulsions can hit any by "criminal elements" planned city in the country. and carried out with the help of "outside agitators." The Detroit uprising exposes the terrible dilemma of Amer­ Actually, the demonstrations ica's capitalist rulers; no matter what they do, they cannot were spontaneous. There was no prevent or contain or stop increasingly serious urban revolts. leadership either from within or Harlem, Watts, Hough and Newark proved that the nation's outside the ghetto. One former ghettos will explode when people are crushed under poverty, organizer for the National Mari­ disease and hopelessness. The myth could still be fostered, time Union and presently an of­ however, that a more "liberal," "enlightened" approach was all ficial of an antipoverty agency in a large northern New Jersey city, that was needed. Detroit proved the futility of the "band-aids and a resident of Newark, expressed lollipop" approach. this view of the war: Band-aids, in the form of anti-poverty programs, could not "It looked more like an act of ease the running sores of hereditary poverty and discrimination. expropriation similar to Castro's A few of life's goodies thrown to a section of the ghetto only action when he took over Ameri­ helped increase the frustrations and alienation of the black masses can property than acts of thefts who saw their potential leaders sucked into the machine of the and wanton looting, These people weren't robbing for the sake of capitalist power structure. robbing. It was like a primitive The capitalist leaders are now engaged in a "Great Debate" form of community distribution of Photo by Randy Abbott - what to do now? One group exclaims, "We daren't reward goods." ON GUARD. National Guardsmen on occupation duty during rioters by giving in to their demands. We've got to cut back on Entered Drugstore Newark outbreak. anti-poverty programs, beef up the police, pass anti-riot legisla­ tion, crack down hard on all militant leaders and organizations." As a Negro he mingled freely among the ghetto residents. He tossed it at the window. It shat­ the rooftop of a project near the Another group. argues, "We haven't given quite enough con­ described one scene where a group tered. Fourth Precinct on West Kinney cessions yet. We have to give enough so that the responsible of men had broken into a drug­ The man waited for the glass Street a police official yelled: Negroes can re-establish leadership control and win people away store on Springfield Avenue and to fall to the pavement, then "Who the hell are we shooting at? from the extremists. We've got to do that or ... " as Detroit's walked over to the open space of Who the hell is up there?" As the proceeded to pass out sunglasses Mayor Cavanagh put it: "We're going to have not just a continua­ to women who lined up in front the storefront, reached and took shooting subsided police realized out a small plant in a flowerpot. they were shooting at National tion, but I'd say - and it's terrible to contemplate - we're of the store. When the glasses going to have some things far, far worse." Then there are the were gone the men distributed in­ He looked at it admiringly and Guardsmen and the guardsmen secticide bombs to housewives. walked away. were returning fire. politicians who want a combination of the carrot and the stick: "Few of the men took anything On Prince Street, a thorough­ Mayor Addonizio and Gov. a few concessions here and there coupled with tightened police for themselves," he recounted. fare crowded with food stores and Richard J. Hughes issued state­ control and a witchhunt. "The same thing happened in a fabric shops that thrives on price ments deploring, among other Black leaders are also debating, questioning, reviewing. The gouging, an empty building was things, what they called the fes­ liquor store on Belmont Avenue crisis of leadership in the black freedom movement was under­ several blocks away, When the the scene of a raging inferno. tive, holiday mood among the Clusters of Negroes and Spanish ghetto residents. "Sure it was like lined by the Detroit uprising. It was obvious from previous ghetto men broke into the store their explosions that the Martin Luther King philosophy of nonviolence first act was to smash the bottles speaking people gathered across a holiday mood. Why shoudn't of liquor on the racks and in the the street in front of the Stella it be?" remarked the former NMU had no hold on the masses of black Americans. The Detroit up­ showcases. Remarkably few bot­ Wright project to watch the de­ organizer. "For the first time they rising didn't even give a passing nod to King and his methods. tles were taken from the store. vastation and the firemen fighting could express themselves and re­ The local subservient black leadership was completely out of They were in too good spirits to the blaze. lease their frustrations. They had touch and out of sympathy with the ghetto freedom fighters. met the enemy and they weren't imbibe any of the spirits. Their "Instant Renewal" With very few exceptions, they rushed to condemn and deplore. aim was not to get drunk but to subdued." This reporter, walking through As guardsmen moved through The Detroit rebellion exerted a power over the total work­ stay sober and to destroy the ob­ ings of the city which has not been matched by any of the ject of their usual weekend sense­ the area, stopped to talk to several the stricken area in tanks and spectators. "Man, that building previous ghetto revolts. Due to the character of Detroit's .living lessness." convoy trucks youngsters ran in This statistic was borne out by never looked so good as it does front of them and alongside conditions, it wasn't just a tightly contained black ghetto that police and press reports. There now," one man remarked grinning waving white handkerchiefs and blew up. The whole city went. One of the largest cities in the were almost no incidents of broadly. "That's what's known as yelling and laughing: "We surren­ U.S. was paralyzed. Businesses and banks were closed, transporta­ drunkeness, barroom or street instant renewal," a second man der. We surrender." The guards­ tion and communication was disrupted, mail was halted, schools observed. "What they don't tear men gripped their rifles tighter. brawls, or family fights. down is gonna get burned down." and universities shut down, downtown was a ghost town. Com­ A florist shop on the corner of Local police, state troopers, and Beaten Up munities throughout Michigan were affected and were put under Belmont and Springfield Avenues Several days later the former the state of emergency provisions. In order to subdue the ghetto was the object of an attack. A Naitonal Guardsmen cordoned off the area. They were armed with union organizer told me he had guerrillas, 20,000 police and soldiers had to occupy the whole man tried to kick in a plate-glass been beaten up by state troopers window with his foot while a shotguns aimed at windows and city. As many persons commented, it was like Vietnam with an roofs, wary of sniper fire. Window as he returned home from work. occupation army trying to pacify the populaiton. large crowd of people cheered him Driving onto Springfield Avenue shades in apartments along the Very few Detroiters were able to escape the sights, sounds on. The glass refused to break. He war-scarred streets were drawn. from the Irvington side approxi­ punched it with his fist. The glass Occasionally a head bobbed mately six troopers approached and smells of the flaming uprising. For many months to come, held. Finally, he picked up an through an open window. A rifle his car and ordered him out. The the physical evidences of the revolt will be on view to those empty metal garbage can and would be aimed at the spot and story, as he related it, was this: travelling along the city's major streets. The twisted, scorched an armed cop would yell: "Get "As I reached down to the rubble will remain as testimony of the awe-inspiring power of that head inside. Get away from floor of the car to put on the hand the uprising and the inability of the rulers of this country to 450Pickets Waited the window. Get in." brake a bayonet was jammed cope with the crises of the dying capitalist system. Through tele­ A helicopter circled overhead against my head and a trooper vision and newspapers everyone in the country has been alerted and the area reverberated with asked me what I was doing. I told to the magnitude of what happened in Detroit. More and more, the rumbling of personnel carriers him. He yanked open the door and ForLBJ in Boston sharper and sharper the questions will be asked: Why can't they BOSTON - Radio reports that resembling army tanks. Fre· dragged me out by my shirt. It was President Johnson would be speak­ quently an armed official would ripped off my back and I was settle the war in Vietnam? Why can't they handle the problems ink here brought out a "welcoming shout there was a suspicious figure thrown against the car. I was told right here at home properly? What kind of leaders are running committee'' of 450 antiwar dem­ leaning out of a window or peer­ to spread my legs apart and lie this country? onstrators July 11. Organized at ing over a rooftop, Shots fired spread-eagle against the car." The press has set a $1-billion figure as the total cost of the the last minute by the Boston Area from their guns punctuated the Continuing, he said: "Before I Detroit uprising. This figure includes a quarter of a billion dol­ Mobilization Committee, the air like a whiplash. Armed of­ could do so a trooper began to lars worth of property damage, the costs of maintaining an oc­ demonstrators gathered at the ficials crouched behind cars, garb­ kick my shins until the skin came Boston War Memorial Auditorium age cans, in hallways - rifles and off and I began to bleed. He was cupation army for a week and the loss of tax revenues from where radio announcements said guns aimed ready to shoot. People about to hit me on the head with sales, property and income. The costs have also been measured Johnson would make an appear­ and ne,wsmen would scatter for his rifle butt when I yelled: in more human terms: 40 dead, over a thousand injured, thou­ ance at the National Convention cover. 'You're assassinating me. I'm a sands driven from their homes by fire, police and fear. of the NAACP. As nightfall covered the city, federal official.' Someone behind The ultimate social and political consequences, however, dwarf Johnson failed to show up but police and guardsmen became him said 'Cool it.' He stopped these statistics and their enormous import are yet to be fully more wary and began to shoot at short. All those killed and wound­ the antiwar protestors marched absorbed. In his message to the Tricontinental, Che Guevara anyhow, chanting "Hey Hey, LBJ 1 will at anything that moved or ed. How many of them were How Many Kids Did You Kill appeared to move in the shadows. victims of trigger happy vicious said imperialist aggression would be defeated in Vietnam when Today?" and "End the War in Viet­ After one 15-minute firing spree police who were just anxious to there are many Vietnams. A big one may be in the making right nam, Bring the Troops Home." from the ground by policemen at shoot anybody?" in the USA. Page Four THE MILITANT Monday, August 7, 1967 Backgroundto a SocialExplosion By Mary Edwards city have black or integrated tire irons and trash cans, and neighborhoods. B 1 o ck clubs, DETROIT - This was the place taunted the Afro-Americans with church groups, community orga­ where IT was not supposed to shouts of "Where's your wife? If nizations and civil rights groups happen - according to all the she was here, we'd rape her and are plentiful and active. The De­ "experts." On the whole, unem­ throw you in the river." In both troit school system created and ployment was low and earnings instances there were complaints published the first "integrated" were relatively good. Figures for about the way police handled the reading primer in the country. 1965 show that per capita dispos­ matters. Proud boasts were made at the Rent gouging and lack of care able income for Wayne County beginning of the year about "new was $2761; this was above the for inner city housing is a constant police-Negro amity." Statistics problem in Detroit. Urban renewal national average of $2367. Wayne were paraded to show a reduction County residents had more money projects are viewed with bitter­ in the number of complaints of ness because of the displacement to spend than people in 98 percent police brutality, im:reased hiring of all the counties in the country. and misery they bring to inner of black policemen and regular city residents. A popular slogan The median family income in the meetings between precinct offi­ Detroit area is $7375 - higher in Detroit is "Urban renewal cials and neighborhood leaders. means Ne,gro removal." than in 99 percent of all U.S. coun­ Officials claimed a "historic" ties. Last year the federal govern­ break through for Detroit which Local Hell ment poured over $200 million was reversing the trend towards During the uprising a black into the county for items ranging increasing bitterness and hostility from food stamps to highway woman exclaimed, "Don't ·1et them between blacks and the police tell you there's a hell when vou construction. Detroit got about $20 forces across the nation. Hubert die. Hell is right here while yo{i're million worth of War on Poverty Locke, a l5lack administrative as­ living." The Detroit hell included: funds during 1965 and is now sistant to Police Commissioner Gi­ inferior schools which robbed getting about $30 million. rardin, stated in January, "If there black children of self-confidence, is hope for any city, I think it's Inolude,d In skills and knowledge; a racist po­ for Detroit." lice force that deliberately created Afro-Americans were included The officially recognized "re­ in the organs of government, the a phony "riot" in August, 1965, in sponsible Negro leadership" had order to test out their riot control Democratic Party machinery and the ear of the city administration. plan and victimize black militants the union leadership to some ex­ Mayor Jerome Cavanagh main­ who had been protesting police tent. There are two black Con­ tained close relations with this brutality; a city administration gressmen from Michigan in the grouping and at the same time that made no serious changes to U.S. House of Representatives. created a "neighborhood report­ improve the lives of black people; There's a black minister on the ing service" to probe the plans Detroit Common Council and a a political machine that skimmed and moods of the bitterly frustrat­ off the top of the black leader­ black doctor on the Detroit Board ed blacks in the most depressed Photo by Nick Medvecky, Jr. of Education. There are black ship and fought any attempts at sections of the ghetto. The black MAIN STREET, DETROIT, USA. Scene on Woodward Avenue, grassroots controls; cockroach legislators in the state government politicians, ministers and union and two black mayors in the state. main street in downtown Detroit. white merchants who sold cheap leaders continually praised and goods at high prices in the ghetto Black unionists are a large part supported Cavanagh's program and drove home to the suburbs at of the secondary leadership and and proudly proclaimed the are organized within the UAW which prevail around the country. even occupy some of the higher and reap the benefits of collective At the end of June an Afro-Amer­ night; giant corporations that ex­ smooth relations between the races ploited black workers and posted UAW posts. Michigan is the only in Detroit. bargaining, the worst auto jobs ican couple was attacked by a state with a constitutionally estab­ are held by black workers. A sur­ large group of white men in Rouge a "showcase Negro" in their front lished Civil Rights Commission. Pulse T'aker vey of 1966 employment figures Park. The wife, six weeks preg­ offices. Living conditions in Detroit are The best that capitalist society Conrad Mallett, the Afro-Amer­ from seven auto firms showed that nant, was threatened with rape more relaxed than in the tight ican on Cavanagh's staff who was black employees make up 12 per­ and was struck with rocks. The had to offer was only enough to ghettos of Harlem, Watts and in charge of "feeling the Inner cent of the total auto labor force. husband was shot and killed. Dur­ reach a thin layer of black people. Hough. Almost all areas of the City pulse,'' said that "things However, black males make up ing the a'ttack, the whites re­ 24 percent of the unskilled and peatedly shouted, "Niggers go The best was only enough to pro­ looked good" right up until the service workers while black wom­ home, this is our territory." A few vide a bright spot in one area of moment the uprising began. He en in these categories total 18 weeks later a group of six young based this estimate on the re­ life - so that the other areas SocialistWins percent. black fishermen were attacked by ports of spies planted inside looked tha't much bleaker by com­ Events in the weeks preceding about 15 white men on Belle Isle. groups of blacks and on the re­ parison. The best that American the uprising give an indication of When the youths attempted to flee ports of thousands of other in­ OhioLegal Case the normal conditions of life for in a car, the whites threw rocks capitalism could offer black peo­ formers. On June 5, for example, Detroit's black people, conditions and bottles, beat on the car with ple was not good enough. By Jean Simon special telephone numbers were CLEVELAND - In a unanimous given to poverty program workers, decision, the Supreme Court of parks and public works employes, Ohio upheld the right to sell politi­ police and thousands of other cal literature on public sidewalks "citizen-sentries" so they could "Self-Servi,ce"Was Integrated without a license. report any signs that Detroit was • • • The conviction of Paul Lodico in for a "long hot summer." three years ago for soliciting sales Detroit was hailed nationally for (Continued from Page l) participated in the repossession ( I prisoners were white. The age range was between 17-25 but there of the Young Socialist on a public its "amicable race relations" and out to whites who took them and say repossession because they sidewalk at Bowling Green State its skillful city administration sauntered away. actually had paid for these goods was one 79 years old white man. University without a license was which managed to keep the situa­ One of these whites told me, "I through the high prices charged Among the whites were some who walked into the back room of the seemed to have lived among blacks reversed by the Court July 12. tion "under control" while Harlem, by these merchants in the inner store and a big black guy was city). "They've been taking from and got along with them plus some The facts in the case, as stated Watts, Chicago, Cleveland and there and he asked me, 'Do you us right along,'' one young white who f e a r e d Afro-Americans. in the opinion written by State countless other cities across the want a rug, kid?' and he heaved man said to me, "It's about time Among the whites was a great Supreme Court Judge J. Schneider, country exploded. a rug at me. I took it." we got some of it back. I hope all deal of hostility towards the cops. were as follows: After the previous ghetto rebel­ The white college students who the poor people around here got "Defendant was on tour through­ During the most explosive days lions, officials and studies pointed live in my apartment building something.'' out the Midwest to publicize a to such things as high unemploy­ of the uprising I drove all over the city and into those areas conference being held at Wayne ment and rat-infested slums as the A white man interviewed on where most of the action was State University under the aus­ causes of what happened. "If TV said he saw the whites who going on. Every now and then I pices of the Young Socialist Al­ only,'' they .said, "we had more set fire to the stores in my neigh­ ... Copsand Courts would get out of the car, stand liance, for the purpose of promot­ anti-poverty programs, if only we borhood. One of my friends talked ( Continued from Page 1) with blacks watching paratroopers ing the candidate of the Socialist had more Negroes in government, to a white 22-year-old college stu­ guarding burned out buildings or Workers Party for President of if only Negroes were integrated with water. As if that were not dent who had been arrested for enough to satisfy the v1c10us people carrying items out of the United States. more into the structure of Amer­ looting, The student described the hatred of the cops, they returned "The magazine in question sold ican society, if only ... Then we brutal treatment he and his stores. I would turn to the blacks the next night, again dumping for twenty-five cents, the proceeds could avoid these riots." But every friends and cellmates experienced beside me and ask about what books on the floor and flooding was happening in their neighbor- going to defray the personal living "if-only" was already a reality in at the ha'nds of Detroit's police them by placing a mop in the . hood. I always received friendly expenses of the defendant. Defen­ Detroit. The situation in Detroit force. He and some friends, in­ sink and leaving the water run­ answers. a matter of fact, as dant testified that if there were was the best American capitalist cluding one black youth, were As ning. They also burned the back any surplus left after tthe pay­ society could offer. And the best stopped by the police after curfew. I drove around blacks would often room of the store. ment of his expenses, it would be was not good enough for the They were beaten with rifle butts pull up close to me and tell me, turned into the general fund of searching young blacks of today's Ed Vaughn, a militant Afro­ and blackjacks, kicked, stomped; as one did, "Hey, ma'm your li­ the Young Socialist Alliance, revolutionary generation. American, told a Militant reporter, the black student was whipped cense plate is falling off in back.'' which published the magazine at What was the full picture of the "When I called the 10th Precinct with a shotgun and kicked in the There were, of course, some in­ groin. a deficit ... " best capitalism has to offer black to report the damage, Sergeant stances r e p o r t e d of hostility The court held that the licensing people? The unemployment rate of Slaughter told me, 'I know it was Roughed Up against whites in primarily black ordinance of the city of Bowling blacks is about 8 percent, double done. I ordered it. We heard you They were held in jail for four neighborhoods and some whites got Green "constitutes a prior restraint that of whites; the unemployment had a gun.'" This was the e·x­ days. When they entered the po­ beaten (most TV and news re­ on speech and publication. Unless rate for black women is even cuse used to cause at least $2,000 lice station they were roughed up porters plus a storeowner who was the 'sale' of the magazine for higher; the rate for black teen­ worth of damage to books which again and were not informed of beaten to death by blacks), but, twenty-five cents to defray the agers higher still. tell the truth about the black man. their lega1 rights until two days on the whole, there was a re­ personal living expenses of the As in other areas of the country, Vaughn has filed a $i0-million later. They were shoved into bull­ markable degree of amity among defendant transforms the distribu­ poverty and hollow promises was damage suit against the city for pens so overcrowded that the po­ poor whites and blacks who stood tion into a 'commercial' venture surrounded by plenty, In the this vandalism. Because the in­ lice couldn't even lock the doors. shoulder to shoulder watching the not subject to the constitutional Twelfth S t r e e t neighborhood surance on the store had been re­ There was no place to lie down, flames of their rebellion and who guarantees of free speech and where the uprising began, the un­ cently cancelled, a fund has been little place to sit. The first day walked side by side carrying press, the conviction cannot employment figures stood at 11 set up to help reopen this center they got no food at all but on the goods out of stores. stand." percent and city housing officials for black thought and activity. evening of the second day they got This poses a class aspect of the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on admitted that 150,000 persons were Contributions may be sent to a bologna sandwich and then it ghetto revolts that marks the De­ the distinction between commer­ jammed into area built to con­ Vaughn's Book Store, c/o Central was another 48 hours before they troit uprising as the worst night­ cial and noncommercial solicita­ tain 30-40,000 people. United Church of Christ, 7625 saw any food. mare the capitalist rulers have had tion were cited. Although black auto workers Linwood, Detroit, Michigan. He said about 10 percent of the to face to date. Monday, August 7, 1967 THE MILITANT Page Five The Message from Detroit Detroit Uprising DETROIT, July 29 - In 1963 the black people of Detroit held • • • the biggest demonstration for freedom that this country had ever (Continued from Page 1) seen. Their march down Woodward Avenue on June 23, 1963, was nsmg from 12th from miles even bigger than the famous march held in Washington two around. By the middle of the after­ months later, and, like the Washington demonstration, it was noon, the uprising had spread all nonviolent. over the west side, and people Now, four years and one month later, the Detro~t ghetto has held another demonstration and has set another record. Only this were waiting to see if the east side time it was spontaneous rather than organized, it lasted several would respond in appropriate days instead of a few hours, and it was not nonviolent. There is fashion. The response was mani­ still disagreement about what to call it, but whether it is called fested that Sunday night. With the an explosion or an uprising or a rebellion or an insurrection, uprising so widespread, the police everybody agrees it is the biggest and most costly that this country could do nothing, the sparks flew has had since the Civil War. everywhere. Even with 7,000 Na­ Between these two events, the people that rule Detroit and tional Guardsmen, the uprising all their lieutenants and lackeys, liberal and conservative, pro­ could not be contained, the area fessional and amateur, white and black, labored and toiled to being so vast. While I was on 12th on Sunday prevent the explosion. Every weapon at their command was night and Monday afternoon, the used - from money to computers and prayer. Every possible people were busily appropriating combination of the carrot and the club was explored and given commodities out of the food, cloth­ a try. Journalists and sociologists came from all over the country ing, and shoe stores. Buildings to marvel at the Detroit "method of preventing riots." that had been burned on Sunday They managed to postpone the uprising, but they could not were still smoking Monday after­ prevent it, and apparently the postponement only served to make noon. I saw the same thing on it bigger when it came. They have been able to quell it, tempo­ Linwood, Grand River, and Dex­ ter. The mood of the people was rarily, but they, and whatever intelligent people are in Wash­ that the eruption was "long over­ ington, are in a state of shock and alarm. And rightly so. Because due." if they couldn't prevent it in Detroit, can any city in the coun­ try now be considered "safe"? Open Defiance And that is the chief message of Detroit: No city in the One of the traits that a lot of United States is "safe" (that is, immune from convulsions dis­ the people exhibit, especially the rupting the "normal" operations of the capitalist system). There younger blacks, was an open de­ is a new generation on the scene since 1963, that simply will fiance of the occupation forces - not accept what their parents and older brothers did. This sig­ the police, National Guardsmen, Photo by Nick Medvecky, Jr. and the paratroopers. Several nifies the opening in this country of a political and social crisis RUBBLE. Detroit ghetto dwellers made clear that they'll either times on Sunday afternoon, it was of the first magnitude, which will grip it with tensions at least impossible for the cops to arrest get their rights or an awful lot will go down with them. equaling and probably surpassing those engendered by the im­ anyone on 12th because of the perialist war on Vietnam. resistance put up by the people. would be that of revolutionary tion. This confusion resulted in -George Breitman And even when arrests were made, fighters, or simply: urban guer­ the cops killing innocent people. the police were taunted and in­ rillas. One sister lit a cigarette in her sulted. dark apartment near 12th one On Monday afternoon, while I The guerrilla warfare reached night, and received a barrage of NewarkRebellion Swelled was eating at a restaurant on its apex on Monday and Tuesday machine-gun fire. Her four-year­ Linwood, the police rode up and nights. On Monday night, it came old daughter was killed in this caught three older Brothers in from the east side, and on Tues­ barrage. Many apartment build­ Sizeo,f Black Power Parley the process of appropriating the day and Wednesday nights, it came ings near 12th had the tops raked wares of a store across the street. from the west side. And on all with machine-gun fire. The gun Two of the Brothers submitted to three nights, the occupation forces fire of the invading forces was in­ By Paul Boutelle revolution, reform, and separation were routed by the black guer­ and autonomy within the society. the arrest, but the third put up so discriminate. They suspected every NEW YORK - When I first much resistance tht the cops hand­ rillas. When the occupation forces high dwelling. Such actions are This discussion was the most im­ were driven away from certain heard about the Newark Black portant result of the conference cuffed his hands behind his back similar to the operations carried Power Conference a few months and forced him into the car. This pockets of the ghetto, the white out by the Yankee imperialist because out of ideological ex­ press described the action by the ago, my immediate thoughts were, changes like this will come a philo­ action immediately drew verbal forces in Vietnam. Every Viet­ this conference is being organized attacks from the people standing troops as "leaving the area to the namese village contains the enemy. sophy and program best suited to snipers." Before the cops and Na­ mainly by moderates who hope to the needs of black people caught around. The main cry was that halt the development of an un­ the cops didn't have the nerve to tional Guardsmen were driven out An Examp,le in the unholy trinity of Chris­ compromising revolutionary move­ try to arrest and subdue a young of one area, 200 of their forces tianity, capitalism and caucasian­ When Detroit blew, it served as ment. i jokingly referred to it as black, instead of an old one. The were pinned down by a handful ism that make up twentieth cen­ an example for other black ghetto "the $25 conference" because of police, who had guns and rifles of guerrillas. tury America. areas in Michigan and around the the $25 registration fee which drawn, hurriedly left the scene. country. These black rebellions Daylight Attacks seemed to be both a hustle and The overall sentiment of the are symptoms from which the con­ Black Troops a barrier to participation by im­ resolutions coming out of the con­ One Brother fired upon the in­ clusion can be drawn that white poverished black militants and ference was unequivocally on the One of the biggest ironies among vading forces for one hour and American capitalism is doomed. At grass-roots people. side of nationalism, black control the paratroopers sent into the city forty minutes without being this stage, the revolution is un­ But, due to the Newark uprising, in our communities self-help, self­ was that a lot of them were blacks caught. There were several in­ organized, sporadic, and spon­ the conference held July 20-23 defense and solidarity with op­ who had fought in Vietnam and stances of armed attacks on the taneous. It shows the revolution­ turned out to be much larger, pressed nonwhites throughout the had relatives in Detroit. One black police in the daytime. Four police ary consciousness that is growing broader, and more militant than world. Vietnam veteran on leave said stations, six fire stations and a Na­ among the black ghetto masses. I had anticipated. Over a thou­ A message of solidarity was that if rice paddies were placed tional Guard headquarters were This growing consciousness cre­ sand black people came from 190 sent to the conference of the Or­ in the rebellious area, there would under heavy attack by the ghetto ates the objective conditions for organizations and 36 different ganization of Latin American Soli­ be no difference between Detroit guerrillas. And again the Brothers the formation of a revolutionary states. darity in Cuba. and Vietnam. were able to elude their grasp. black leadership and organization. Many varied positions on the One of the most significant In the rebeUious area, I got a Such tactics created panic and Such leadership and organization present and future struggles of aspects of the conference was the taste of how a Vietnamese or a frustration among the occupation is a task which all black radicals black people were heard and dis­ strong sentiment for forming a Dominican felt when American troops. The cops were firing every­ must undertake and solve if the cussed. These included socialism, separate black state. A resolution forces occupied their homelands. where except in the right direc- revolution is to win. religious and secular nationalism, which received enthusiastic sup­ The occupation forces had brought port called for "starting a national out all of their artillery - rifles, dialogue on the desirability of machine guns, tanks and helicop­ PollShows New 1Rise partitioning the United States into ters with mounted machine guns. Racist Philadelphia Officials two separate nations, one white During the day you could hear the InAntiwar Sentiment and one black." sirens of police and fire trucks as Impose Curfew to Curb Ghetto Forty-nine percent of the Ameri­ Other resolutions demanded an they made mad dashes through the can people oppose stepping up the end to the Vietnam war, con­ streets to put out over 1,000 fires PHILADELPHIA - Following in face of Mayor Tate's provoca­ U.S. troop commitment in Vietnam demned the Israeli aggression set during the upheaval. the outbreak of ghetto uprisings tion. by 100,000 men, according to the against the Arabs and urged black At night, all you could hear across the country, a state of limit­ Playthel Benjamin addressed July 30 Gallup Poll. Only 40 per­ youth to refuse the draft for Viet­ were more sirens, the noise of the the rally on the subject of Afro­ cent support the massive troop re­ nam. choppers a couple of hundred feet ed emergency was called here July American history. Benjamin point­ inforcement urged by the Pen­ The degree to which a radical above your head, and the blaze of 27. The proclamation jointly is­ ed out the growth of the black­ tagon. spirit dominated the conference bullets coming from the machine sued by Mayor Tate and Police liberation movement and declared According to the same poll, the could be seen even in the talks guns and tanks of the occupation Commissioner Rizzo, makes it il­ that "By 1970, everyone will be a disapproval of Johnson's war pol­ of the more moderate delegates. forces. legal for more than 12 persons to brother and sister whether he icies in this country has grown James Farmer, former head of Rifle Fire assemble on the streets or side­ likes it or not." to 52 percent. Only a third of those CORE, asked to be introduced as walks for any purpose whatsoever. The first use of the city pro­ interviewed support the White "James Farmer - ex-pacifist." But at the same time, you could One hundred thousand copies of clamation came against an anti­ House war program. This is the There was strong feeling that hear the cracking of rifle fire the edict have been printed and war rally, Sunday afternoon. highest level of criticism ex­ black people should use their produced by those Brothers who posted throughout the city ghet­ Twenty-two demonstrators, pro­ pressed in Gallup Polls so far and power politically. A resolution was had taken up the struggle against tos. The police have been mobil­ testing both the war and the pro­ represents a sharp increase since passed calling for launching a the invaders. The white press cor­ ized, and the entire force works clamation, were arrested follow­ mid-June. black political "third force". which rectly labeled this phase of the 12 hours a day, six days a week. ing a vigil outside the Church of The survey also showed: 41 per­ would be "the balance of power rebellion guerrilla warfare. How­ In spite of the proclamation, a Saint Peter and Paul. cent think Washington was wrong in elections." No explicit rejec­ ever, they incorrectly labeled the black rally was held Saturday aft­ The effect of the proclamation to send troops to Vietnam in the tion of reliance on of the Demo­ Brothers doing the shooting as ernoon in the North Philadelphia can be seen in the knots of police first place, another high in Gal­ cratic and Republican parties was snipers. If the term is not used to ghetto to hear Muhammad Ali. which are on all important corners lup's findings; 56 percent think the made. describe those American revolu­ There were over 300 persons in after dark and the red patrol cars U.S. is either "losing ground" or A manifesto put out by the tionists who shot at the British attendance. and police wagons which seem to "standing still," compared with 51 conference called for the conven­ from their rooftops, it cannot be Although Ali could not appear, be everywhere. Many normally percent who held this view at the ing of future black power confer­ used in this instance. The correct the rally was held to demonstrate crowded ghetto streets were near­ beginning of the year. ences before the end of this year. designation for those Brothers solidarity of the black community ly deserted this weekend. Page Six THE MILITANT Monday, August 7, 1967

l,11,,11,,,,,,11111111 Mexico Witch-hunt The Fra111e-Up By Peter Camejo him was alleged possession of a film on Vietnam called "Time of LSince this story was received. the Locust" and a film on Vene­ Peter Camejo was seized by the zuelan social conditions and guer­ Of H. Rap Brown Mexican government and put on rilla activity called "FALN.'' a plane to the United States.] Both films have been shown Authorities in Cambridge, Md. throughout the United States and are determined to frame up MEXICO CITY, July 23-Eleven SNCC Chairman H. Rap Brown Art and Reality Mexicans and two "foreigners," a at the University of Mexico. The government organized a special on the grounds that he caused the "I will sign a proclamation Venezuelan and a Salvadorean violence that broke out there after have been arrested here and bru­ showing for the press which was tonight calling for a day of supposed to prove defintively my he spoke on July 24. He has been prayer in our nation through­ tally tortured. They were charged charged with "inciting to riot" July 19 with conspiring to over­ brother's nefarious doings. out all of our states." (Presi­ All the defendants denied the and "counseling to burn." dent Johnson during Detroit throw the Mexican government. Following his talk at a Cam­ Among them is my brother, Danny charges made against them. The rebellion, July 27, 1967). formal charges include, conspiracy, bridge street meeting, Brown was Camejo, who is 29 and a Vene­ shot and wounded in the fore· They're simple souls that zuelan by birth. "inviting" (not inciting) to rebel­ lion, "contemplating" robbery, head. According to a SNCC spokes• see in black and white I And The discovery of the "plot" came man, it happened as he left the so to ease their doubts and at a highly opportune time for the damaging the property of others and criminal association. meeting with a number of friends. foolish fancies I I plan to call U.S. State Department's campaign As they started down the street against Cuba: the eve of the con­ The hearing before a judge July a national day of prayer I 21 was under the heaviest guard they noticed two cops walking We'll get the biggest preacher ference of the Organization of ahead of them. Then they saw Latin-American Solidarity (OLAS) in Mexican judicial history accord­ in the country I You know ing to court officials. Each de­ cops mobilizing to either side, and which was scheduled to begin July without warning, shooting came the one I mean - the guy's 28 in Havana. On July 18, the day fendant stated how the confessions got class I We'll make it Daniel Camejo had been forced from them. from the direction of the cops. A before the Mexican assistant at­ shotgun pellet hit Brown in the high-toned, dignified, and torney general held his press con, One of the prisoners, Jose Luis pictures of Mao and Lenin were Salva Tellez, telling about the forehead. solemn I Organs, choirs, pic­ ference announcing the discovery Later, a march begun by blacks tures of me, ponderin' I Now of the "plot," the Associated Press run in the daily papers as addi­ "confession" placed before him by tional proof of the plot. the police, said: "I signed because was broken up by police, and other that's the sort of thing builds reported from New York that the violence followed. A carfull of Mexican government had decided The assistant attorney general, they brought in my wife and said confidence. they would kill her. Then I felt whites drove through the black to hold up issuing visas to dele­ Julio Sanchez Vargas, also an­ community with buckshot spraying (MacBird, Act III, Scene I) gates planning to attend the Soli­ nounced that the thirteen planned the barrel of a pistol at my head." Adan Nieto declared: "The gov­ from the windows. A policeman darity Conference. to rob a bank to get funds for received a superficial gunshot As for the so-called plot itself, arms. Apparently the Mexican gov­ ernment can violate the rights of hand account of the Newark Re­ those who are struggling for a wound and a fire destroyed two which was so politically . con­ ernment was embarrassed over the blocks of buildings in the black bellion by Lawrence Stewart at venient, the secret police [Direc­ Chinese only spending $1,600 a world without exploitation and it the New York Militant Labor can convert the virtues of the de­ community. cion Federal de Seguridad - DFS] month to overthrow them and so After warrents were drawn up Forum July 21. Larry Neal of the concocted such an incredible they decided to add a little more fendants into crimes and the vices Afro-American Artists' Committee of the government into virtues. It for Brown's arrest, the FBI began frame-up that their only hope of working capital to their "plot." what was referred to by papers discussed the arrest of author making it stick was to get "con­ The daily papers, like El Sol, can call us thieves, rebels, as­ LeRoi Jones and the efforts to sassins, guerrillas, subversives, but as a "manhunt" for him. When fessions" from their victims. El Dia, El Heraldo, La Prensa, told of this, Maryland's Gov. Ag­ defend him. The forum audience there is something they cannot contributed $145 toward a legal Obtained "Confessions" Excelsior, La Ovaciones, and El new commented, "I hope they pick Universal have been running head­ change: the verdict of history.'' fund for victims of repression. The DFS kidnapped the 13 "con­ The judge just listened. him up soon, put him away and line stories for four days. throw away the key.'' Donations to this fund can be sent spirators" one at a time, beginning to the Afro-American Artists' July 12; took them to a secret One indication of the frame­ Saw Brother Brown was arrested on July 26 up is the fact that the defendants at the Washington National Air­ Committee, c/o LeRoi Jones, 33 house or headquarters of the DFS Today, July 23, I was at last Stirling St., Newark, N.J. and there got "confessions." are not even members of the same port by the FBI. They turned him permitted to see my brother for over to Virginia police. Bail was Raul Contreras Alcantara, for organization. Most are described an hour. During his interrogation * * * set at $10,000. instance, testified he was kid­ by the press here as "members of the secret police produced files Max Stanford, one of the 16 napped, had his hands tied, was the pro-Maoist, Marxist-Leninist * * * black people arrested in the case containing information only the A large rally protesting the blindfolded and driven to a house Movement," while my brother United States government could of the alleged plot to kill Roy July 13. There he was beaten for Danny is described as a "prom­ arrest of Rap Brown was held Wilkins, has had his bail reduced have provided them. by Washington SNCC July 27. days and starved. No one knew inent Trotskyist," and Adan Nieto For instance, his questioner from $100,000 to $15,000. Although it wa:s called at the last what had happened to him until it Castillo, the supposed leader of knew the day my brother first A rally in defense of the 16 will was announced a week later in the the "plot," is an unaffiliated labor moment, 1,000 D.C. people turned be held Aug. 6 at 3:00 p.m. in St. entered the United States in 1940! out for the meeting. daily papers. Of course, Contreras lawyer. Danny told me all the prisoners Albans Plazi., St. Albans, New "confessed." All of the papers report every have to sleep on concrete slabs. * * * York. Eduardo Fuentes y de la Fuente, word of the prosecutor as unques­ Although this is Mexico it gets In Britain, racists are blaming * • • 19 years old, was held for four tionable truth. When it became quite cold at night because of the the rise in unemployment on On the third day of the rebel­ lion, the Malcolm X Society of days and received the same treat­ known the prisoners had all been altitude. He asked me if I could Asian and Indian immigrants who ment as Contreras except he also tortured not one paper protested get him and the other prisoners have come to England in the past Detroit submitted a list of de­ had cigarettes burned on his arms or even demanded an investiga­ some blankets and clothing. decade. Five men were recently mands to authorities. In telegrams and back. tion, not to speak of the "demo­ I had brought clothing and arrested in Sussex County for to President Johnson, Gov. Rom­ Most of the prisoners were cratic" Mexican government. blankets with me but the police selling literature claiming that ney and Mayor Cavanagh, they forced to sit up for 48 hours, some, The trade union bureaucrats like refused to give them to the prison­ colored people were "taking the said "we will ask for a cessation like my brother, not blindfolded Fidel Velazques, and so-called so­ ers. I and a friend gave him some bread from the honest working of all hostilities by insurrection­ but with a light shining in their cialist deputies like Jorge Cruick­ of the clothes we were wearing. man" and referring to them as ists, provided the following eight eyes. shank, Lombardo Toledano's right­ Danny was in good spirits and "potential rapists, torturers and points are accepted and are the Adrian Campos Diaz, a peasant hand lieutenant, have joined in feeling better although he had mutilators." basis of discussion: from the State of Guerrero who the lynch atmosphere with shouts been beaten like the others. He * * * "1. Withdraw all troops. does not know how to read or of "Troskyite agents." described how they held a pistol Stokely Carmichael has been "2. Release all prisoners. write, was coughing blood when to his head and told him he would banned from England by an of­ Even Judge Noticed ficial order of the British govern­ "3. Give amnesty to all insur­ the lawyers first saw him. be killed if he didn't sign the rectionists. What is their crime? The gov­ ment. This was announced after The frame-up was so raw, how­ "confession" they made up for him, "4. Set [establish] district po­ ernment and the widely quoted ever, that the government's Judge and the papers permitting the his recent visit to London where "confessions" claim Red China Pavon felt compelled after a hear­ police to search his apartment. government officials claim he stir­ lice commissioners. was slipping them $1,600 a month red up "racial animosities." "5. Agree to urban renewal veto ing July 21 to modify one of the Morale High to organize "urban and rural guer­ charges levelled by the police Meanwhile in Cuba, where Car­ by residents. rillas" to overthrow the "demo­ against the defendants. Ten of In spite of everything the mo­ michael is an honored guest, the "6. Divide City Council and the cratic" government of Diaz Ordaz. them had been accused of conspir­ rale of all the political prisoners government doesn't seem worried school board by districts. Along with the financial help, ing to blow up an army truck car­ is high, they are all united and about his "stirring up" the island's ·"7. Provide funds for commu­ they claim China was sending all rying troops, arms and money. The will present a united defense. black population. Some 27 per nity-owned businesses and cooper­ kinds of literature including pic­ judge threw out the charge against Even the most badly beaten were cent of the Cuban people are atives, allowing groups of Negroes tures of Lenin, Mao, Stalin and nine of the defendants leaving completely unbroken. black. to go into business for themselves. Marx. Pictures of Castro also ap­ only Adrian Campos Diaz charged There is much speculation that * * * "8. Institute compensatory and peared. with this crime. Campos was al­ Mexico has created this "plot" in Some 175 people heard a first- compulsory equal employment en­ Newspapers have varied on the legedly instructed to dig a hole in order to break relations with Cuba forcement.'' total amount of literature. The the highway where dynamite was under pressure from the United In explaining the telegram, government claims they had placed. States. It is not completely clear Richard Henry, a leader of the twelve tons. Some newspapers The charge was a key one in yet how far this frame-up will go. society, said, "We don't claim any upped it to over twenty tons. The the police frame-up since it was As I was leaving the jail I saw control over the insurrectionists. the only overt act charged against Adolfo Gilly and we waved at But we believe, because of what the victims. each other. Gilly is the writer who we represent, that if we ask for a Who are the so-called plotters? spoke in Berkeley last year under cessation of hostilities based on HUGOBLANCO Adan Nieto Castillo is a lawyer for the auspices of Ramparts maga­ the acceptance of these eight the truckdrivers union. A couple zine. Gilly has been in prison for points as a basis for discussion, it of unions have stuck up for him over a year on a similar "plot" [the end of the rebellion] will MustNot Ole in spite of the government pres­ frame-up. He is still waiting for occur." sure. Nieto, 43, is the oldest of his trial to begin. -Elizabeth Barnes· By those arrested. He has stated that Like Gilly, the 13 arrested last Andre Gunder Frank he does not know any of the other week cannot get bail. Mexican law twelve arrested. does not permit bail for anyone (Text of address to solidarity Among the group is a peasant, facing a sentence of over five The BlackGhetto meeting in Canada by the a government employe, four stu­ years. noted Latin-American expert.) dents and four book sellers who Protests against the barbarous dealt in radical literature. treatment of the Mexican political By Robert Vernon 30 cents My brother was picked up to prisoners should be sent to: Gus­ add a Venezuelan coloration to the tavo Diaz Ordaz, President of the 35 cents ·Ol'der from Republic of Mexico, Palacio Nacio­ frame-up and help give it an in­ MERIT PUBLISHERS MERIT PUBLISHERS ternational touch_ nal, Mexico 1, D.F., Mexico. 5 East Third St., 5 East 3rd St. Of prime importance in the To send funds for defense: P.O. New York, N. Y. 10003 New York, N. Y. 10003 widely publicized evidence against Box 1208, Berkeley, Calif. Stokely Carmichael Monday, August 7, 1967 THE MILITANT Page Seven

[This column is an open forum lion. Rumors spread like forest The Militant on the Middle East tor an viewpoints on wbjects of fires, and the city governments of issue I have begun to understand. Thought for the Week to the outlying cities were no better In all o:f the interpretations, oeneral interest our readers. "Is this reconciliation to be limited only to our citizens? Could than the citizens that I came into analyses and comments no one has Please keep 11our letters brief. we not also be reconc.Ued with our brothers in Vietnam? May I theu be contact with. Everyone was let­ seen fit to attempt an explanation Where necessarv 1.om speak only as a Christian and humbly ask the President to an­ abridged. Writers' initials toiU be ting himself be carried away with of the following facts: 'I shall withdraw our forces immediately from Southern uaed, names being withheld unless the insanity, (1) Nasser's speech of 28 May nounce: Vietnam."' - Bishop Fulton Sheen in his sermon responding to authorization Is given uae.] On Monday, July 24, it was the when he declared: "We intend to J. tor Johnson's request for prayers for an end to racial strife. worst. People on some streets were open a general assault against sitting on their porches with guns, Israel. This will be total war. Our Riot and Revolution waiting to "get a nigra." Others basic aim is the destruction of Detroit, Mich. were actually forming street mili­ Israel." Lenin pointed out that the only Masses of our people are on the Against Both tias. My particular street was one (2) The 1957 United Nations Berkeley, Calif. line for a Marxist to advance was the move fighting the enemy tit­ of the less violent ones. There enunciation of the doctrine of free a principled line. While the sup­ for-tat, responding to counterrev­ The crisis which confronted the were not too many guns, and peo­ and innocent passage through the world from the Middle East is port of the Arabs over Israel at olutionary violence with revolu­ ple talked on the curbs and side­ Strait of Tiran. this moment looks more practical tionary violence, an eye for an eye, one which sparked some conflict walks. (3) The nature of the total­ on the ideological front here at and realistic, when the situation tooth for a tooth. But we are mov­ A theatre two and a half miles itarian and dictatorial regimes in cools, independent of whether ing spontaneously without poUt­ home. I would like to take space from my area was supposed to .be Syria and Egypt; the feudalistic in your paper to advance a few Israel returns the territory it has ical philosophy, organization or di­ burned to the ground. I heard one regimes of Jordan and Saudi Ara­ stolen, the situation will essentially rection. criticisms of the political line teenager remark, "I don't care if bia in contrast with the multi­ being advanced by the SWP and be the same as before, with both In this chaos and dilemma we they burn their own slums down, party democracy of Israel. working classes still under their must thoroughly analyze our strug­ YSA here. The present policy is but I liked that theatre. Who do What can be the basis of the one of complete support for the respective capitalist regimes, com• gle if we are to devise the cor­ they think they are, anyway?" socialist criticism of Israel? Where pletely proving the bankruptcy of rect strategy and tactics to be vic­ Arabs with little or no mention Then a business and shopping area is the sense of reality? If the of the Israeli working class. The the "Support the Arabs" line. torious against the enemy. There­ was supposed to be on fire and Arabs within Israel have not been fore we must ask ourselves the argument which I have frequently If on the other hand, a prin­ looted about a mile and a half treated equitably by the Israeli cipled Marxist position had been following questions: been confronted with in support away, Children told each other government why is no mention advanced, in the long run it would What's the difference between of this line runs something like a the news: "The niggers are com­ made of the treatment of Jews in general, explaining the expediency have been proven correct, con­ a riot and a revolution? ing!" No doubt they heard this tid­ Arab nations? If Israel has been sidering that workers everywhere A. A riot is a spontaneous action of sacrificing his troops in battle. bit of information from their par- . unwilling to accept the hundreds in the world, at each stage of the among the people to express their Studying the Middle East crisis ents. The way these people were, of thousands of Arab refugees game, more at some than others, frustrations. A riot usually be­ I contend there is only one prin­ one would expect armies of black why have the Arab states also re­ cipled Marxist-Leninist line to fol­ look to the Marxists for their gins and then is organized. A rev­ nationalists and looters to descend fused to re-settle them and work evaluation of this or that situa­ olution is organized and then ex­ low and that is, to quote an old upon the city of Warren. out a compensation plan for them slogan, "Turn the imperialist war tion, it would be to our advantage panded. One woman said to me, "I hear based on a peace treaty with Israel as revolutionary socialists to adopt B. A riot has no political ob­ into a civil war." The only correct that troops from Alabama are be­ and a recognition of Israel's sov­ line to take is to urge the work­ a principled stand and not line up jective. A revolution has a polit­ ing sent in. They know how to ereignty? behind the Arab bourgeoisie. ical objective. ing class on both side of the handle 'em." "So did Hitler," I In no way has The M iUtant border, Israeli and Arab, to change Ed Stover C. A riot does not have a polit­ said, either expressed, defined or even ical philosophy. A revolution has the directions of their armed might A Supporter Helicopters flew overhead, ob­ explained its stand on this com• and engage in the overthrow of a political philosophy. viously going to the area of the plex issue. I must conclude that New York, N.Y. D. A riot has no political pro­ their respective governments. rebellion, and this made things rather than being the voice of pro­ While in The Militant, this idea Because of summer vacation, gram. A revolution has a political worse. gressivism and the working class, will you please send The MHitant program. has been touched on, among SWP A tool and die shop began burn­ The Militant has become an apo­ and YSA circles out here it has to my home address. If possible, E. A riot does not have a po­ ing rubbish and in a matter of logist for a policy that seems bent please also send the July-August litical perspective and a political been pushed into the background, minutes two fire engines, a fire on continuing the genocide begun in order to advance the opportunist International Socialist Review to organization base, a revolution has chief, two police cars and a mot­ 25 years ago. I cannot believe that the above address. both. line of support for the Arabs over ley assemblage of vigilantes with all the blame is one-sided. For Israel. The argument used to de· I do enjoy reading your paper On July 27 I went to Jackson all sorts of weapons were on the all your protestations I see no very much. Please keep up the prison to visit two men. The fend this takes the form o:t con­ scene. criticism leveled at the Arab pol­ tending that the possibility of the excellent reporting. prison wa's crowded. The guards The most dominant theory con­ icies. I fear for the socialist move­ and other prison personnel were Israeli workers overthrowing the Enclosed is a $5 contribution to cerning the rebellion was that it ment if you are an example of its Zionist government is not fore­ help the SWP. I wish I could do exceptionally nice. We did not was all gangsters, vandals and best thinking and rationality. visit in the regular visiting room. seeable at the moment, therefore, more. hoodlums, many from out of town, Arnold Feinblatt "support for the Arabs." Period. S.L.W. I was ushered through several who did it while the "responsible barred doors upstairs where we citizens" stayed home. Another sat and talked. We sat on straight­ theory was that the rebellion was back chairs. The two prisoners communist-inspired. told me that the new prisoners The rumors of course were all It Was Reported in the Press were getting bologna sandwiches; untrue. and the regular prisoners, hot D. W. Things-Are-Tough-All-Over De­ food. It Figures - "Campaign Asks excess of the legal limit with the partment - "Johnson Is Said to additional amounts recorded under They just didn't have the facili­ Canada Antiwar Fighters for More Graves - National Le­ ties to feed and house these extra Lose Sleep in Detroit Crisis" - gion Commander Leads Fight for fake names. Meanwhile, in a fit Richmond Hill, Canada Headline in the July 26 New of generosity, Kirk signed a bill people. The prison people were National Cemetery System Expan­ To the American people, York Times. increasing minimum teachers' pay afraid that these (mostly young) sion." - Headline in the July 24 prisoners would start something. As Canadians who participated from $80 a week to $100 - by Pro-Capitalist Uprising? Los Angeles Times. 1969, Connie Mason in the April 15 New York Peace Probing the various aspects of the March against the war in Vietnam, Florida Scene - A Florida ghetto outbreaks, the Aug. 1 Wall Intelligence - Retired Lt. Gen. we would like to thank the many newspaper editor filed suit charg­ Reacti,on in Suburbia Street Journal observed: "At least Arthur Trudeau, whom the U.S. Warren, Mich. Americans who welcomed us ing Gov. Claude Kirk with 20 Army relied on to direct its intel­ part of the looting was based on violations of state election laws. In the city of Warren, where I warmly. the calculated risk of getting some­ ligence efforts from 1953 to 1955, We abhor the Johnson adminis­ Among the charges are that Kirk says the leaders of the demonstra­ live hysteria was the order of thing for nothing." allegedly permitted others to repay the' day during the Detroit rebel- tration's dangerous military policy tions against the Vietnam war are in Vietnam. That the American Subversion in High Places - a $75,000 "loan" he made from his directed from Moscow. He didn't government which claims to stand One TV commentator explained campaign committee and that he say where he gets his intelligence. for freedom should support the that de Gaulle shouting "Vive Le accepted campaign contributions in -Harry Ring: dictatorial regime of South Viet­ Quebec Libre!" from the balcony jWeeklyCalendar nam and send its own sons to be of the Montreal City Hall is like killed on its behalf, is both as0 shouting: "Black Power!'' from the -----, tonishing and deplorable. balcony of the White House. FOR NEW YORK The result of any miscalcula­ THE GHETIO REBELLIONS- A Re­ tion or escalation could lead to the Marxmen? Some people port from Detroit by Derrick Morrison, annihilation of us all. We also might want to buy the Beatles national committee member, Young So­ record, "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely cialist Alliance, who is active in De­ protest against the sending of NEW READERS Canadian armaments used to kill Hearts Club Band," just for the troit's ghetto. Fri., Aug. 11, 8:30 p.m. picture of Karl Marx on the 873 Broadway at 18th St. Contrib. $1. and maim the Vietnamese, and Ausp. Militant Labor Forum. the silent diplomacy of our govern­ cover. If you are a new reader and would like to get better * * * ment. Brazen - New York's first all­ acquainted. you may obtain a special four-month Intro• GUERRILLAWARFARE IN BOLIVIA. Thus we speak out against this girl topless rock group call them­ Speaker: Hedda Garza, editor, U.S. massacre whenever and wherever selves "The Ladybirds." ductory subscription by sending this blank and $1 to Latin American Justice Committee Re­ possible. We offer solidarity with porter. Fri., Aug. 18, 8:30 p.m. 873 all peace-loving Americans and The Great Society - Welfare Broadway at 18th St. Contrib. $1. Ausp. welcome correspondence. We are payments to some 200 Portland Militant Labor Forum. with you. area families were cut off for the B. Bryant, Sec'y summer because there is a short­ • age of berry-picking labor. Farm THE MILITANT SEATTLE York Committee to End the War in Vietnam owners pay starvation wages for 873 Broadway Socialist Educational Weekend It Dynamics of World Revolution Today Box 272, Richmond Hill, backbreaking work. is assumed New York. N. Y. 10003 that the welfare cutoff will make Three talks followed by discussion. Ontario Speakers include Harry Ring, staff writer more hands available to them. for The Militant. Also buffet supper and Pro-Israel Bargam-Basement Special - party. Registration fee for entire week­ end $3.50. Individual sessions 50¢. Re­ Jamaica, N.Y. Sulka's is offering a summer spe­ Name ----·---·----- ..------...... - .....-··----- gistration Saturday, 12-1 p.m. First ses­ For many years I have long cial on custom made shirts. Prices sion I p.m. Saturday. wondered why the ordinary per­ begin at $22.50 each, three shirts I Street------Zip____ _ son in the street had such dif­ SATURDAY,SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 13 minimum order. The offer is avail­ SEATTLESWP & YSA, 5257 UNIVERSITY ficulty understanding the logic and able at Sulka shops in New York, WAY N,E, SEATTLE,WN. 98105. PH: rationality of socialism. After hav­ Chicago, San Francisco, Palm ------State -- ..·--- ME 3-5649. ing read the last three issues of Beach, London and Paris. !City------...__. Page Eight THE MILITANT Monday, August 7, 1967 Copsin EastHarlem War,Ratism VisitorsReport Hanoi TouchOff Outbreak Key Issues CertainU.S. Is Losing By Richard Garza In S.F.Rate By Les Evans NEW YORK - On July 23, on By George Ackermann the island of Puerto Rico, a vote NEW YORK - Dave Dellinger, conference table to justly demand was taken to continue that island's SAN FRANCISCO - Kmploy­ editor of Liberation magazine, and that the United States withdraw dependent ties with the U.S. On ment, housing, education, and po­ Nick Egleson, president of Stu­ its troops from Vietnam and the same day, on the island of lice brutality problems have steadi­ dents for a Democratic Society, would never accept continued Manhattan, in "El Barrio", the ly worsened here over the past few reported here July 26 on their American occupation of South oldest Puerto Rican community in years. Employment prospects are recent visit to North Vietnam. Vietnam. the city, Reinaldo Rodriguez was generally poor, and have gone They were just in Hanoi for two Dave Dellinger was in North shot to death by a plainclothes from bad to worse in the black and weeks at the invitation of the Vietnam in October and November cop. Spanish-speaking ghettos. At the Peace Committee of North Viet­ of last year, at the beginning of A crowd gathered and a patrol same time, the administration of nam. They came back convinced the dry season and the American car sped to the scene. Two cops Mayor Shelley has pushed an the U.S. is losing the war there. offensive. Then, he said, people got out and the crowd continued "urban renewal" program for the Egleson said that North Viet­ were confident that someday the to grow. Someone asked one of Mission district ghetto and West­ namese and representatives of the U.S. would be defeated and forced the cops what happened. "Noth­ em Addition ghetto which is real­ National Liberation Front of South to withdraw, but it was a quiet, ing," he replied, "A spic got fresh ly a "removal of the poor" pro­ Vietnam he spoke to were con­ long-term perspective. and had to be made to mind." The gram. vinced that the war had turned in When he returned this May 9, other cop added: "One spic less." Landlords have taken advantage their favor and the United States at the end of the American of­ That's how it began. of the recent shift of the property was losing ground. fensive, there was "A totally new Puerto Ricans have been killed tax burden to the small home­ Leaders of the NLF reportedly tone, much higher morale. They by cops in New York's Lower East owner as well as the housing told Egleson that their views were are convinced they are winning Side and on New York's West shortage aggravated by the Viet­ based on the general pattern of the war. A frequent comment was Side; they have been found hanged nam war, in order to jack up rents American operations in the war. 'If the U.S. couldn't conquer us in police cells, they have been all over the city. "The Americans are on the of­ at Junction City they can't con­ shot in police cars while on the De facto segregation in the city's fensive during the dry season from quer us anywhere.' " Mayor Lindsay schools is rapidly increasing, but November to June. Major opera­ way to police stations. In spite of Moral Victory protests and promises by the do­ the city "fathers" show no indica­ tions are halted during the rainy zens of agencies in the neighbor­ thrown bricks, bottles and garbage tion of acting to correct it. season because of the difficulty The Vietnamese, Dellinger said, hoods manned by Puerto Rican so­ can covers at the cops but they The immediate cause for the de­ of air support and the muddy were very heartened by the Amer­ cial-worker types and promises of did not use guns. terioration of living conditions in roads. During the last two dry ican antiwar movement and saw investigations by the city authori­ Block workers had spoken to San Francisco is the Vietnam war. seasons the Americans have failed the development of a vocal opposi­ ties, nothing has ever been done the doctor who extracted the bullet Bob Davis and Clyde Cumming, to make any inroads into territory tion in the U.S. itself as a great held by the NLF despite their to the killers. from the body of Mrs. Emma Had­ socialist candidates for mayor and moral victory in their struggle for A Puerto Rican youth worker dock, who had been killed by a supervisor respectively, have em­ massive sweeps such as Operation freedom. Nevertheless,- he said, one block away from where the shot fired into her apartment. He phasized the link between the at­ Junction City." there was one note that bothered found a .38 caliber bullet, the tack on the living standards of shooting took place told me the Can't Hold On them: "The Vietnamese were up­ cops began pushing everyone police regulation size, not a .22 as the workers in San Francisco and set by Negotiation Now. They are around. One cop was saying: originally reported. Another vic­ the attack on the Vietnamese rev­ American forces can drive insulted by a campaign that says Move-on you m---f---g spies." The tim who police claimed had died olution. The cost of suppressing through any area in South Viet­ 'Who is willing to negotiate deter­ of a broken neck in a fall from youth worker remonstrated with the colonial revolution is rising nam, Egleson said, but they have mines who wants to continue the the cop and got shoved. Others a roof was found to have two .38 and the workers are being forced been unable to hold and occupy war.' They say the facts of the slugs in him. were beaten with clubs. to finance it. In lives and dollars, any new areas or to destroy the war itself show who the aggressor One youngster got separated A young Puerto Rican waitress, the price of imperialist reaction is fighting organizations of the NLF. is, which negotiations have nothing working in her mother's restau­ from the rest. He was knocked taken out of the hides of the As soon as the U.S. operation has to do with." rant, explained that after the Tac­ down and clubbed by the cops. nation's - and the city's - passed through, the area is again Dellinger reported a political tical Police had finally been with­ The youth worker intervened suc­ workers. in the hands of the liberation shift in attitudes toward China and drawn, groups of five cops were cessfully and the young fellow Bob Davis' main opponent is the forces. Russia. In November when he was left on street corners. One group was taken to the hospital. Other incumbent Democratic Mayor John Egleson said he asked North last there, the official view seemed had gotten drunk and argued times he wasn't so successful. Wil­ F. Shelley. Shelley claims to be Vietnamese officials under what to be simple neutrality in the Sino­ liam De Jesus, the honorary His­ among themselves. the friend of labor and the black conditions they would enter nego­ Soviet split. In June the attitude tiations with the United States. panic mayor, a columnist for the Just Laughed man, but his record gives the lie was one of the open assertion of He was told that unconditional anti-Castro newspaper El Tiempo, to his pose. Shelley is a former the independence of North Viet­ If the kids were so mean, she cessation of bombing would be a wrote: "I personally have been at­ labor bureaucrat. In May 1967 he nam from both China and the continued, that would have been prerequisite to the opening of tacked ... Not only have I had to opposed the right of transport Soviet Union and stressing of ties the time for them to get those talks. go out and defend many of my workers to strike. Also in May he with Cuba and North Korea. policemen. Instead they just Both North and South Viet­ employes who have been beaten refused to condemn the racist hir­ Dellinger closed with an appeal laughed at them and made fun of namese made it plain that the but I've had to defend myself." ing practices of the Golden Gate to support the Oct. 21 mobiliza­ them. "You know," she said, "the independence of Vietnam was not I asked my friend the youth Bridge Authority. He did not op­ tion in Washington as a more mili­ government should build more negotiable. In Egleson's opinion worker if only young people had pose the shifting of the property­ tant, massive confrontation with projects so that people could move the Vietnamese would come to the participated in the skirmishes. He tax burden to small home-owners the warmarkers. out of these roach-infested places. and renters. His descriptions of the told me he saw people in their 20s The rats aren't only in the build­ and 30s taking part. They had police assault on the Bayview­ ings but are in the open yards and Hunters Point and Fillmore ghettos spaces. Maybe now they'll do last September as a "Negro riot" 1 something instead of stalling. If provoked not by police brutality NotedNew Yorkers Sup port ProbeDemanded they don't, maybe next time it will but by "economic conditions" only, be much worse." was a ma'sterpiece of demagogy. The block worker told me they Naturally, Shelley favors the Viet­ Drivefor Peace Refer-endum InAustin Killing had met with Mayor Lindsay and nam war. told him about the behavior of the Mrs. Cumming is the only woman NEW YORK - H. Rap Brown, referendum centers where volun­ police, "But he wouldn't promise and the only Afro-American ad­ James Forman, Lincoln Lynch and teers can get petitions, instruction OfPeace Activist anything. All he said was that he vocate of black power running for a number of other prominent fig­ sheets and canvassing assignments. NEW YORK - The Fifth Viet­ would talk to the commissioner city office. She is running against ures have rallied to support the These are located at: nam Peace Parade Committee has about it. At one point we got up efforts of the Fifth Avenue Viet­ a collection of local businessmen eMANHATTAN: called for a full-scale investigation to leave, but then we stayed and and professionals whose main con­ nam Peace Parade Committee to of the fatal shooting of Texas anti­ one of the women told him that cerns are the protection of business put a' referendum on the ballot St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 346 war activist George Vizard July 23. she was afraid that after he left profit and the "pacification" of here to give voters a chance to W. 20 St., phone 675-5535; Village Terming the act "an apparent them he would just forget what the ghetto. She declares that a real express their opposition to the Peace Center, 224 W. 4 St., phone political assassination," Parade they had said." solution to the problems in the war in Vietnam. AL 5-1341; and Lower East Side Committee coordinators Dave Del­ Amalia Betanzos, president of ghetto can't be seriously under­ H. Rap Brown is chairman of Mobilization for Peace Action, 105 linger and Norma Becker protest­ the National Association of Puer­ taken until all American troops SNCC, Lincoln Lynch is associate Avenue B, phone 477-9749. ed the attempt by Austin police to Ricans for Civil Rights, told are withdrawn from Vietnam. national director of CORE and eQUEENS: officials to deny a political motiva­ one Spanish-language newspaper, James Forman is international di­ tion in Vizard's murder. "Instead of solving and alleviat­ rector of SNCC. Others who have Queens Peace Referendum Com­ Vizard, 23, was shot in the back ing our problems, the attempt has endorsed the referendum include mittee, 75-29 Parsons Blvd., phone at a drive-in grocery store where been made to oppose the power author Philip Roth; Dr. Otto 658-9405 or 739-9434. he worked in Austin. His body was of an indignant group with police Nathan; literary critic Dwight eBROOKLYN discovered in the store's meat force. This can only bring trage­ MacDonald; William Pepper, of Peace and Freedom Movement, freezer. Police claimed that some dies. This is the reason for the the Conference for New Politics; 722 Nostrand Avenue, phone 967- money had been taken from the disturbances." Muriel Ruykeser, poet; Dave Del­ 9679; Brooklyn Vietnam Summer, store but that $60 remained in the Sergeant Miguel Angel Rodri­ linger, editor of Liberation maga­ 1602 Avenue U, phone 648-4707; cash register. guez, on leave from Germany for zine; and the Fort Washington­ Brownsville: Barbara Bonhomme, Mr. Dellinger and Mrs. Becker his brother's funeral and a veteran Manhattariville Reform Democratic 429 Dumont Avenue, 4th floor pointed out that Vizard had been of Korea, said, "I think what hap­ Club. (Sat. only); Prospect Park: Sha­ recently threatened by the John pened was a mistake by the police. Organizers report an encourag­ ron Finer, 209 Underhill Avenue Birch society, and only a short I believe in respecting the law, ing turnout of volunteers to gather (Sat. only), phone 622-2175. time before the murder the Aus­ but there are other ways of hand­ the necessary 50,000 signatures to tin police had advised him to ling an armed man without having put the measure on the ballot. eBRONX: "cool" his antiwar activities or to kill him." Large-scale mobilizations of can­ Church of St. John the Baptist, they "could not be responsible" for The block worker described one vassers are held every Saturday, 2409 Lorillard Place. his life. block where the Puerto Rican flag meeting at the Parade Committee A special mobilization is planned George Vizard was a member of had been raised as well as head­ offices at 17 E. 17 St. People are for Sunday, Aug. 6, Hiroshima the Austin chapter of Students for less effigies of a cop and of Lind­ also going out every evening to Day, to gather signatures at a Democratic Society, the Austin say. "Maybe," he said "they're be­ gather additional signatures. churches throughout the city. Committee to End the War in Viet­ ginning to recognize who the The Parade Committee has an­ For further information call the nam and the W.E.B. Du Bois Club .. enemy is.'' Clyde Cumming nounced the opening of nine local Parade Committee at 255-1075.