Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Feb. 28, 2008 Vol. 50, No. 8 50¢ More fallout from capitalist downturn

• El presupuesto de Bush • Venezuela contra Exxon 12 Towns, cities face

MICHIGAN Fighting bank foreclosures 3 drastic service cuts By Jaimeson Champion revenue and municipal bond issuances. Tax revenue is declin- ing as plummeting property values mean less money in prop- YOUTH JOBS Crises of overproduction have occurred with destructive regu- erty taxes and slowing economic activity results in less sales tax Implode with service larity throughout the history of capitalism. During these cyclical revenue. At the same time, the market for municipal bonds is slump 3 crises, the ruling class systematically tries to force the working rapidly deteriorating. class to bear the brunt of the fallout. In the current crisis, the systematic attacks on the working Now insurers are defaulting MUMIA RULING class and oppressed are painfully clear. Millions of families are Historically, investors have been more than willing to buy being forced from their homes by foreclosures. Massive layoffs municipal bonds issued by U.S. cities, states and towns because 4 Leaves one more appeal have begun across all sectors of the economy. most of them have been insured against default by financial It is the workers who are being forced to pay the toll for a cri- institutions known as monoline bond insurers. sis that the bankers and bosses caused. This crisis has brought But currently, these monoline bond insurers, such as MBIA RESISTERS to the forefront class antagonisms that the superrich have long and Ambac Financial Group, have balance sheets soaked in red TO WAR sought to obscure. ink and are under default pressure themselves as bad bets on Book reviews 5 Now come the latest attacks: plans for even more drastic cuts mortgage-backed securities come home to roost. Cities looking in city and town services across the U.S. Programs that were nev- to sell bonds in order to raise cash are finding that the number er adequately funded during the so-called “boom” times are now of buyers is rapidly dwindling. faced with devastating funding cuts during the economic bust. The municipal bond market is just one of the latest sections of POLITICAL These intensifying cuts are threatened in areas ranging from finance capital to succumb to the financial contagion that is ema- infrastructure development in poor rural communities to social nating from the U.S. and quickly spreading around the globe. CONVENTIONS service programs in poverty-stricken major cities. The cuts are It is hard to believe that as recently as last summer, the Protesters map plans 6 being targeted at services that many workers and oppressed masters of finance capital were proclaiming that growth in the populations depend on for survival, whether in rural towns or financial alchemy of securities, derivatives and other instru- urban areas. ments had made the global capitalist system more stable and Intensifying cuts in services such as HIV/AIDS programs, less prone to crisis. BLACK outreach to the homeless, meal delivery programs for home- Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as new markets HISTORY bound elderly, community health clinics that serve the unin- have been opened up to imperialist exploitation, global financial sured—all will have an increasingly deadly impact on oppressed markets have grown by leaps and bounds. Financial instruments MONTH communities. have been invented to package and sell all kinds of debt to a grow- Detail from Globalization, contemporary These criminal cuts in needed services are part of the ruling ing pool of institutional investors. The mistaken belief was that Zimbabwe economy sculpture class’s intensifying war against the working class during this by spreading risk out among many players, it would neutralize and Obama 6 time of crisis. They are likely to be further exacerbated in the the damage from defaults and make the financial system less coming months as capitalist politicians of both parties seek to prone to collapse. Continued on page 4 address ever widening budget shortfalls by taking more away from the workers, especially those who have already fallen into KOSOVO deep poverty. ’INDEPENDENCE’ Most of the money in city and state budgets comes from tax Washington's new colony 9 International Women’s Day WW 1965 MALCOLM X A Salute to Women’s Resistance 2 Forces behind the assassination 10 Saturday EDITORIAL: March 8 FIDEL’s 12 Noon rally Message 10 Union Square 14th St. & Broadway 1 p.m. March

Subscribe to Workers World 3:30 p.m. 4 weeks trial subscription: $1 One year: $25 Ending Ceremony Triangle Shirtwaist Name Fire Memorial Phone email Site of 1911 fire that killed 146 women workers Address Corner of Washington Sq. Place and Greene St. City/State/Zip Sponsored by International Women’s Day ‘08 Coalition, Workers World c/o Solidarity Center , 55 W. 17th St., 5th Fl, NY, NY 10011 55 W. 17 St. NY, NY 10011 212-627-2994 www.workers.org For information and leaflets call 212.633.6646

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International Women’s Day A salute to women’s resistance

The following statement was put out by  In the U.S. the International Women’s Day ’08 Coalition Towns, cities face drastic service cuts ...... 1 based in New York City. International Women’s Day ...... 2 To sign on to this statement, go to the www.troopsoutnow.org Web site. Activists intensify efforts to stop foreclosures ...... 3 Jobs for youth implode ...... 3 No war on women at home and worldwide  Volvo workers on strike ...... 4 Unite to win our liberation  Phila. court rejects a Mumia appeal ...... 4 On March 8, 1908, working women in the needle trade industry took to the streets of New York City demanding On the picket line ...... 4 better working conditions, higher wages, shorter work- Refusing to commit war crimes–and testifying ...... 5 days and the overall improvement of women’s lives in Protests at Republican, Democratic conventions ...... 6 this country. These women marched through New York City Holmes: Globalization, economic crisis and Obama . . . . 6 demanding justice for women workers and immigrant March 25, 1911, people crowd the streets to protest Battle for reparations ...... 8 the senseless death of their daughters, mothers, sisters workers; they were in fact working immigrant women. Free Rev. Pinkney! ...... 8 The message and militancy of these women were so and lovers, trapped in the Triangle fire. inspiring to women around the world that in 1910 the Workers World in 1965 ...... 10 International socialist Congress, meeting in Copenhagen, The conditions for women worldwide have greatly Around the world Denmark, officially declared March 8 International deteriorated as a result of war, occupation and ruthless Japanese protest U.S. nuclear warships ...... 5 Women’s Day. U.s. foreign policy. This year, on the 100th anniversary of that historic The military occupation of Iraq and afghanistan, cost- Washington gets new colony in the Balkans ...... 9 march, we call on you to join us in commemoration of ing trillions of our tax dollars, has caused a backward P.R. teachers demand contract ...... 9 International Women’s Day 2008 to honor all the wom- movement in women’s rights and freedoms in those Thousands mourn Hezbollah military leader ...... 11 en who have fought for our liberation by continuing the countries, including a decrease in educational opportu- fi ght for freedom today. nities. Women in those countries are losing family mem- New Australian prime minister says 'Sorry' ...... 11 We are in the midst of a rise in attacks on women— bers to murders and illegal detentions and are being including Black, Latina, asian, Indigenous, arab and sexually assaulted, killed and detained themselves. Editorials white here in the U.s.—as well as women who originate The people of Palestine are under a violent and geno- Fidel's message ...... 10 or currently live in africa, Latin america, the Caribbean, cidal occupation by the U.s.-funded state of Israel. Asia, the Middle East, Pacifi c Islands, Australia and Women in the West Bank are seeing the demolition of Noticias En Español Europe. their homes, the murder of their children and the impris- El presupuesto de Bush ...... 12 The attacks inside the U.s. include legal and extrale- onment of Palestinian men and are being imprisoned Venezuela contra Exxon ...... 12 gal attacks on our reproductive self-determination; an and killed themselves. The women of gaza are starving, escalation of sexual assaults and rapes, like those against dying of thirst and watching their children and loved ones Megan Williams and Crystal Mangum; violence toward die from lack of health care, water, food and income—all lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, like the perse- of this forced on them by the U.s. and Israeli blockade. cution of the Jersey 4; and the detention and deportation In the most recent revolt against U.s. imperialism and Workers World of immigrant women and their families. Israeli apartheid, the women of gaza played a key role 55 West 17 street artists worldwide are using their creativity to combat in breaking through the Egyptian wall in order to obtain New York, N.Y. 10011 the anti-Black and anti-woman images we see in today’s food, water and life necessities. Phone: (212) 627-2994 corporate media machines. The media conglomerates Women in sudan and other areas of africa are dying Fax: (212) 675-7869 peddle destructive mind-poison that hatefully twists and from U.s. sanctions; women in the Philippines are E-mail: [email protected] manipulates the images of women of all nationalities being rounded up and killed or imprisoned for resisting Web: www.workers.org and backgrounds. These unrealistic messages promote the U.s.-backed regime; the women of Latin america Vol. 50, No. 8 • Feb. 28, 2008 the rape, abuse and murder of women and young girls and the Caribbean are being affected by economic and Closing date: Feb. 20, 2008 everywhere. political U.s. intervention, forcing them to live in pov- erty and leave their homes for the prospect of better Editor: Deirdre griswold Attacks on living standards and the war budget opportunities. Technical Editor: Lal Roohk The economic crisis is affecting women in a distinctive Indigenous women are being brutally repressed Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell, way. Women, young and old, are uniquely affected by the for reclaiming their original lands throughout the Leslie Feinberg, Monica Moorehead, gary Wilson mortgage foreclosures; demolition of public housing in americas. New Orleans, New York and elsewhere; evictions; lack of Worldwide sex traffi cking has forced women and chil- West Coast Editor: John Parker health care, childcare and job loss that this crisis—inten- dren into prostitution and illegal servitude. Often these Contributing Editors: Greg Butterfi eld, G. Dunkel, sifi ed by Wall Street’s greed for profi ts—has caused. women and children are kidnapped or forced into sex Fred goldstein, Teresa gutierrez, Larry Hales, Women comprise the fastest-growing population of traffi cking as a result of economic disparity rooted in David Hoskins, Berta Joubert-Ceci, Cheryl LaBash, prisoners in the U.s. imperialist plunder of their countries’ resources. Milt Neidenberg, Bryan g. Pfeifer, Minnie Bruce Pratt Meanwhile, war on working-class youth and youth of We mention all these issues because every issue is a Technical staff: shelley Ettinger, Bob McCubbin, color, including racist police brutality and militarization woman’s issue. Maggie Vascassenno of schools, is demonizing and killing our children. Cuts in funding for education and social programs What women are doing now to resist Mundo Obrero: Carl glenn, Teresa gutierrez, are decreasing the quality of life of our youth. The illegal The fi ght for women’s liberation has been a long road Berta Joubert-Ceci, Donna Lazarus, Carlos Vargas wars in Iraq and afghanistan are stealing our children, and will take unity and militancy to complete. Internet: Janet Mayes dehumanizing them and devaluing them into nothing The growing numbers of new union members are supporter Program: sue Davis, coordinator more than property of the U.s. military, or worse, taking largely women willing to stand up against their bosses their lives. Continued on page 3 Copyright © 2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of articles is permitted in any medium JOIN US. National Offi ce Buff alo, N.Y. Houston Richmond, Va. without royalty provided this notice is preserved. 55 W. 17 St., 367 Delaware ave. P.O. Box 595 P.O. Box 14602, Workers World (IssN-1070-4205) is published week- Workers World Party new York, nY 10011 Buff alo, nY 14202 houston, tX 77001-0595 richmond, Va 23221 ly except the fi rst week of January by WW Publishers, (WWP) fi ghts on all 212-627-2994; 716-566-1115 713-861-5965 [email protected] 55 W. 17 st., N.Y., N.Y. 10011. Phone: (212) 627-2994. issues that face the Fax (212) 675-7869 buff [email protected] [email protected] Rochester, N.Y. subscriptions: One year: $25; foreign and institutions: working class and [email protected] Chicago Los Angeles 585-436-6458 Atlanta 27 n. Wacker Dr. #138 $35. Letters to the editor may be condensed and edited. oppressed peoples— 5274 West Pico Blvd., [email protected] P.O. 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After court victory Activists fight to stop foreclosures By Kris Hamel Committee Against War and Injustice attendees. prohibiting MECAWI’s right to leaflet and Detroit (MECAWI) has been engaged in a strug- At the hearing, lawyers for the attor- petition inside Cobo Hall at the Feb. 12 gle demanding the governor declare a ney general and for the city, which owns “avoid foreclosure” forum. New statistics confirm the widespread state of economic emergency and use her Cobo Hall, exposed their animus against MECAWI organizers, buoyed by this crisis in Detroit and throughout Michigan authority under the law to impose a mor- the campaign for a moratorium on legal victory that sprang from their caused by predatory lending and rac- atorium stopping foreclosures. foreclosures. struggle, reported that people attending ist, subprime home mortgages. Wayne MECAWI organizers have opened a In his 16-page opinion and order, which the forum “grabbed up literature and County, where Detroit is located, ranked broad campaign to popularize the idea ruled in favor of MECAWI, Judge Lawson stood in line to sign petitions.” The fol- first in the U.S. in 2007 foreclosures. of a moratorium and to show the basis stated: “The [attorney general] contends lowing day in Saginaw, Mich., MECAWI According to RealtyTrac, a California- for the governor to take such action. ‘[p]laintiffs’ moratorium only delays the activists were allowed to leaflet and peti- based mortgage research company, 4.9 Thousands of people have signed peti- issues. It is not a solution. Further, plain- tion inside another forum hosted by the percent of homes in Wayne County are tions demanding the governor declare a tiffs’ position could disrupt the coopera- attorney general, even though that wasn’t in some stage of the foreclosure pro- moratorium. Victims of predatory lend- tion of the mortgage servicers who are included in their lawsuit and injunction. cess, a figure that is almost five times the ing and home foreclosures have become participating voluntarily. Plaintiffs’ posi- Jerry Goldberg told Workers World: national average. Stockton, Calif., ranked involved in this struggle. More and more tion is hostile to the servicers and focuses “Activists felt great taking on the state second at 4.8 percent while Las Vegas activists are speaking out and organizing blame on them.’” and actually winning. While none of us and suburbs, with 4.2 percent of homes and have received an excellent response The court wrote further: “[I]t appears holds any credence in the judicial sys- in foreclosure, came in third. from the public. from the attorney general’s briefing that tem, and all of us know that the laws are The number of foreclosures filed in its restriction against the plaintiffs’ leaf- stacked in favor of the capitalists, we Wayne County in 2007 was 72,616, a MECAWI wins in court leting is not content-neutral, and limit- felt that this victory was won because of 68-percent jump from 2006. Oakland Recently the campaign has taken on the ing the plaintiffs from distributing leaf- struggle, because we have refused to back and Macomb counties, which together reactionary, repressive state apparatus lets violates the First Amendment. ... The down from putting forward a solution to with Wayne comprise the metro Detroit allied with the banks and financial insti- Court finds that the plaintiffs’ proposed the foreclosure crisis that’s devastating area, had a foreclosure rate of 2.1 percent tutions that want to squash this struggle. leafleting activity advancing [their] view- the working class. The government and of households, ranking them 17th among MECAWI activists filed a complaint point and seeking … political action is banks and lenders may hate our cam- metropolitan areas in the U.S. and nearly in federal court on Feb. 8 claiming their protected by the First Amendment. ... paign, but it resonates with the work- double the rate in 2006. First Amendment rights to free speech shielding lenders and the public who will ers and oppressed who are losing their Overall, the state of Michigan ranks were violated by the City of Detroit and come to see them from this viewpoint cer- homes in record numbers.” third in the country for the highest rate of the state’s attorney general in December. tainly cannot be a governmental interest Moratorium activists are also taking home foreclosures, with 136,205 foreclo- On Dec. 13, Michigan Attorney General … that justifies curtailing speech. ... up direct actions and have begun orga- sures filed in 2007, or almost 2 percent of Mike Cox had hosted an “avoid foreclo- “[T]he plaintiffs have demonstrated a nizing squads and preparing to defend all homes. This rate is 68 percent higher sure” forum at Cobo Hall. More than likelihood of success on the merits of their homes when bailiffs and sheriffs come to than 2006, and a staggering 282 percent 4,200 people came to seek relief. claim. The Court also believes that if the foreclose and evict families. over 2005. The forum provided dozens of banks plaintiffs lose out on the ability to offer MECAWI has called a demonstration Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has and lenders with a forum in which to their message to the thousands of attend- for Feb. 27 at noon outside the HUD failed to acknowledge the crisis, even talk to people and give supposed tips ees, they would suffer irreparable harm.” office in Detroit at the McNamara Federal though the state leads the country in on how to avoid losing their homes. But The court granted MECAWI activists the Building to call attention to the federal unemployment and job losses and has MECAWI activists were ejected from preliminary injunction and ordered that government’s role in paying off banks been in a severe economic depression for Cobo Hall when they tried to leaflet and the defendants—the city and the attorney and lenders, then foreclosing homes and years due to restructuring, outsourcing, petition the attendees about the morato- general—be restrained and enjoined from throwing people into the streets. n plant closures and attempted union bust- rium campaign. ing in the auto industry. The attorney general scheduled another But grassroots political leadership is such forum at Cobo Hall for Feb. 12. Jerry stepping up to the plate, taking on the Goldberg, a MECAWI organizer and pro- Jobs for youth implode inaction of the government and advocat- gressive lawyer, argued at an emergency ing a program that can provide real relief hearing before U.S. District Court Judge By Caleb T. Maupin being eliminated altogether. Self- to Michigan’s working, unemployed and David Lawson on Feb. 11 that plaintiffs service is replacing workers, poor people. The Michigan Emergency should be allowed access to the forum In the late 1970s the British punk many of them youth. band The Clash wrote and performed They are coming up against International Women’s Day “Groovy Times,” a song about a pitched what Marxist-Leninists call battle between unemployed youth and overproduction. In a period of the cops in the Brixton area of London. economic boom, competition drives the A salute to women’s resistance The jobs the youth depended on simply big capitalists to expand the means of pro- didn’t exist any more. duction and at the same time cut wages, Continued from page 2 munities to stop the lack of quality educa- It seems that today the situation is to the point where the volume of goods and fight for justice at the workplace. tion, jobs, health care and a safety net for growing very similar for U.S. youth. The and services produced far exceeds what Mothers, wives, sisters and grandmoth- the disabled, seniors, poor families, the Web site of the Bureau of Labor Statistics workers can afford to buy—even if they ers are organizing challenges to racist homeless and children. shows that in January unemployment have credit cards. As wages decline and cops who murder their sons, grandsons, Women stand up against the racist among young people ages 16-19 rose steady factory jobs are stolen from work- husbands and partners with impunity. immigration policies that separate them steeply, from 15 percent a year ago to 18 ers, they cannot afford to eat out, even at Women are leading the fight against from their children and families. percent today. (bls.gov) This dramatic McDonalds, let alone buy an expensive military recruiters in their children’s Women are struggling to recover their increase has gone largely unreported in coffee in the morning. schools and their neighborhoods. children from the so-called child welfare the capitalist media. The view that capitalism is a paradise, Women are fighting against the legal system. For many working-class youth, espe- created in Ayn Rand novels and other dis- and extralegal heteronormative and Women will use their creativity to cially those trying to get an education, gusting right-wing propaganda, is becom- homophobic assaults on the LGBT conjure what is nurturing, beautiful and jobs in the service industries have been ing a joke to the countless U.S. youth now communities. strong about women in our songs, our their only way of making some money, under the pressure and strain of being Military women are standing up and dances, our poems, our drawings and our especially with the virtual dismantling of unemployed in an economic system inca- resisting the violence against their per- musical compositions. manufacturing in this country. pable of compassion. sons and the imperialist wars. Whether on the streets, in the schools On Feb. 5, the Institute for Supply Some 2 million U.S. workers are now Women across the country are organiz- or in our own homes, women will continue Management reported that an index mea- locked away, the majority of them young ing against domestic violence, rapes and to organize their families and friends and suring the service sector of the economy people, and most for the victimless crime racist torture. will not stop until a more life-affirming had fallen to its lowest level since 2001, of selling drugs—something youth are Women continue to band together to depiction of the sustainers of our world indicating a general economic slowdown. known to turn to when legal means of get- defend their right to control their own bod- becomes mainstream. (New York Times, Feb. 6) This announce- ting by are less available. ies and to fight for reproductive justice. Our mission is to empower women ment was seen as so ominous that it But young people are known for their Women are standing up against the worldwide as well as to bring to the atten- caused big drops in the Asian stock mar- defiance, their will to resist and their cour- bulldozing of their homes and leading the tion of our sisters and brothers that we kets that day. age against injustice. The recession we struggles against displacement, gentrifica- must challenge our oppressors’ divide- McDonald’s recently announced that face currently could become much worse tion, foreclosures and criminal landlords. and-conquer tactics, such as racism, sex- sales in its U.S. stores dropped in Decem­ than the situation British youth faced at Women have mounted strong and unit- ism, homophobia and xenophobia. ber, despite modest profit growth for the the time of the Brixton “riots” that The ed efforts against the destruction of our This call is for all of us to honor and quarter. Starbucks, a corporation that hires Clash sang about. land, air, food, water and environmental uphold the great traditions of women many young people to serve coffee, grew by As capitalism deteriorates and millions racism. warriors who continue to display courage, only 1 percent last year, the worst it’s done of youth are up against a wall, they will Women organize to free their family strength, wisdom and the will to resist “in years.” (businessandmedia.org) discover that they have no choice but to members who are political prisoners. against great odds. Organize, Resist and Many service jobs, like supermarket stand up, fight back and smash the system Women band together in their com- Build Our Movements for Victory! n clerks and gas station attendants, are that holds them down. n Page 4 Feb. 28, 2008 www.workers.org

Volvo workers on strike on the Picket line by Sue Davis By Martha Grevatt The plant is Volvo’s only donate cases of bottled water, heavy-duty truck plant in the six-, 12-, or 24-packs of sodas, Nearly 2,500 members of U.S. and also makes trucks for coffee, condiments, hot choco- UAW Local 2069 have been Mack. Demand for trucks at the late/cocoa, hot dog buns and Shuttle drivers vote union on strike since Jan. 31 against moment remains sluggish, which “weenies.” On Feb. 8, Emory shuttle drivers with First Transit in the metro- Volvo in Dublin, Va. According could limit the strike’s immediate Both Barack Obama and Atlanta area voted unanimously to join Teamsters Local 728. The to Local 2069 President Lester impact. Volvo will feel the pinch, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the Teamsters already represent more than 10,000 First Transit work- Hancock, the company has made however, if it gets a special order days leading up to the Democratic ers around the U.S. Drivers in other Atlanta-area locations are vot- “unreasonable proposals that or if demand picks up. presidential primary, voiced ing by mail; their ballots will be counted on Feb. 22. would erode the wages and ben- The vote to authorize the their solidarity, suggesting their Although lower management threatened and harassed union sup- efits that we’ve fought so many strike was 95 percent in favor, awareness of strong community porters in the days leading up to the vote, the workers filed unfair years to achieve and protect” and the union reports solid backing. labor charges and were not intimidated. Driver Angela Holloway and tried “to dismantle many of member support. Strikers are The workers will “stay out said the drivers are planning to negotiate a contract with “positive the most basic health and safety picketing round the clock. UAW here as long as it takes,” accord- changes in salary, health benefits, pension options and overall treat- protections found in our current Local 3250 in Cleveland, N.C., ing to striker Carol Burton. “This ment.” (emorywheel.com, Feb. 11) agreement.” has been asking its ranks to is our future.” n Workers protest foundry closing Outside a meeting of the Berkeley City Council on Feb. 12, No ruling yet on new trial foundry workers at the Pacific Steel Plant protested a measure that could lead to closing their factory. The workers, mostly Mexican and Asian immigrants and African Americans, are represented by Glass Pa. court rejects Molders Local 164, which spearheaded the struggle for and won the Industrial Retention Ordinance in the 1980s to stop plant closures. Despite the ordinance, Pacific Steel is now the only working foundry a Mumia appeal and one of a handful of manufacturing plants left in Berkeley. (David Bacon, Feb. 12) By LeiLani Dowell etary compensation, to falsely accuse Abu-Jamal as the killer. Adjuncts seek contract at Wayne State The struggle to free world- Pate testified that his stepsister, renowned journalist and political hospital security guard Priscilla Ever since negotiations started on Nov. 16, representatives of the prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal con- Durham, told him the police 900 part-time adjunct faculty at Detroit’s Wayne State University tinues after Pennsylvania’s racist peer-pressured her into falsely have been fighting for their first collective bargaining contract. They courts again ruled against him on claiming that Mumia boasted Long suppressed photos showing are represented by the Union of Part-Time Faculty, which is part of evidence of a police frameup were the Federation of Teachers. Feb. 19, rejecting an appeal filed while at the hospital about kill- recently published in Germany. by his lawyers on his behalf. ing Faulkner. UPTF spokesperson Amanda Hiber said the biggest issue was low pay; adjuncts earn a fraction of what full-time faculty make. “We However, his supporters are Despite the fact that these new procedural grounds, the court also receive no benefits, no insurance, no participation in the retire- still awaiting a separate, major revelations of witness tamper- avoided dealing with the com- ment program, no sick pay. And we pretty much have no job security ruling from the U.S. Court of ing only became known shortly pelling facts establishing that from semester to semester.” She noted that the union’s overall goal Appeals for the Third Circuit before the PCRA petition was the prosecution of my client was is to win respect for adjuncts, many of whom have taught at WSU that will determine if he is grant- filed in 2003, Pennsylvania based upon lies, half-truths and for 20 or 30 years without recognition or support. The adjuncts are ed a new trial, has his conviction Court of Common Pleas Judge bigotry.” the last group of university employees to fight for a union contract. overturned, or sees the death Pamela Dembe dismissed the Other recent developments (www.laborradio.org, Feb. 8) sentence reinstated. petition on the grounds that it in Abu-Jamal’s case include the Abu-Jamal was convicted, was “untimely.” release of photographs taken at in a political frame-up and a The Pennsylvania Supreme the scene of the shooting that Unprotected laundry workers die thorough­ly corrupt trial, of kill- Court is led by former Phila­ reveal police manipulation of On Jan. 14, the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee held ing police office Daniel Faulkner del­phia District Attorney Ron the scene and discredit testimo- a hearing in Linden, N.J., to investigate how Victor Diaz and Carlos in 1982. Castille, who has refused to ny from prosecution witnesses. Diaz were suffocated on Dec. 1 while cleaning a 20,000-gallon tank The appeal that was rejected recuse himself from the case The photographer had offered containing dry-cleaning chemicals at the industrial laundry North on Feb. 19 by the Pennsylvania despite the fact that, during the pictures to the prosecution East Linen. Supreme Court had challenged his tenure as district attorney, during the original trial, but was Their bodies were found with no protective equipment other a 2005 ruling against a Post he fought against Abu-Jamal’s never called. than plastic wrapped around their feet. The hearing showed, among Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) appeals. Organizers in the struggle other things, that Occupational Safety and Health Administration petition filed on the case. After the ruling Hans Bennett, to free Abu-Jamal are asking regulations protecting workers in confined spaces were not followed. The PCRA petition was based co-founder of Journalists for people to reach out to their net- (Unite Here press release, Jan. 29) on affidavits by Yvette Williams Mumia, interviewed several works with updates on his case. and Kenneth Pate, who stated prominent figures in the strug- Pam Africa of International Demand safety in mines that two of the key witnesses gle to free Abu-Jamal. Robert Con­cerned Family and Friends Did you know that Richard Stickler, the head of the Mine Safety who testified against Abu-Jamal R. Bryan, lead counsel for Abu- of Mumia Abu-Jamal said, “I and Health Administration, used to be a coal-mining executive during his original trial had later Jamal, stated: “We were not sur- urge readers to please help fight whose mines had injury rates twice the national average? confessed to them that they had prised since that court has a his- the media bias by going to Abu- That goes a long way to explain why a new study shows the MSHA been lying. Williams testified tory of not addressing the racism Jamal-News.com to see the new has failed to fine coal companies for more than 4,000 safety and that she had shared a jail cell and fraud that has dominated photo evidence, download the health violations over the last six years. That also explains the recent with Cynthia White, who said the the prosecution since its incep- information and spread the word rash of deadly mine disasters like the one at Crandall Canyon, Utah, Philadelphia police had coerced tion over a quarter of a century at this urgent time in Mumia’s last summer and others at Sago, Darby and Aracoma mines. (Point her, with death threats and mon- ago. By dismissing the appeal on case.” n of information: Bush bypassed the Senate to appoint Stickler after the Senate twice refused his nomination.) More fallout from capitalist downturn Go to americanrightsatwork.org to sign a petition demanding improved mine safety. While you’re at it, check out the United Mine Towns, cities face drastic service cuts Workers website (umwa.org) to find out more about this issue. Continued from page 1 The growing interconnected- wrote that “each successive crisis Delta flight attendants want union ness between streams of finance is bound to become more univer- Then-Federal Reserve Board On Feb. 14, Delta flight attendants filed for union representation capital has greatly increased the sal and therefore worse than the head Alan Greenspan said con- with the National Mediation Board. The union campaign began in risks of contagion. Trouble that preceding one.” He predicted that fidently in 2005, “The use of late 2006—management scare tactics had thwarted an earlier drive started in debt tied to subprime the end result would be “a social a growing array of derivatives after 9/11. More than 12,000 workers, who will be able to vote for mortgage loans quickly spread revolution such as has never been and the related application of the union within 60 to 90 days, are “eager for an election” before a into many other debt markets, dreamt of in the philosophy of the more-sophisticated approaches widely anticipated merger with Northwest Airlines. NWA attendants including credit cards, student economists.” to measuring and managing risk are already represented by AFA-CWA. (union press release, Feb. 14) are key factors underpinning the loans, auto loans, municipal In this lopsided world, where greater resilience of our largest bonds, corporate bonds and so the number of billionaires grew financial institutions.” on. to almost one thousand in 2007 Labor against privatizing Iraqi oil Now fast forward to 2008. It The current crisis is daily while almost 900 million people U.S. Labor Against the War has joined with several interna- is these very same securities and proving that the global capitalist went hungry, the inherent con- tional groups to protest privatization of Iraq’s publicly owned oil derivatives that are wreaking system is becoming increasingly tradictions in the capitalist mode resources. On Feb. 22 in front of the Exxon Mobil lobby office in havoc on the global financial sys- more unstable. of production cannot be denied. Washington, D.C., USLAW will release an open letter to President tem and threatening to reduce In his book “A Critique of Poli­ With the growth of worldwide Bush and Iraq Prime Minister Maliki with that demand and also call the large “resilient” financial tical Economy,” Karl Marx’s clos- class solidarity, the social revo- for organizing and bargaining rights for all Iraqi workers. To sign institutions to a heap of ruble. est collaborator, Frederick Engels, lution is sure to come. n the letter, go to www.uslaboragainstwar.org. n www.workers.org Feb. 28, 2008 Page 5 Refusing to commit war crimes–and testifying By Dee Knight brothers were taken away to an American to “draw the enemy out” in “fierce fire- of Iraq in March 2003. About 11,000 have detention facility for interrogation. … I fights and roadside bomb attacks, most deserted, according to Pentagon figures. The Deserter’s Tale: The Story of an never saw one of them return to the neigh- of which could easily have been avoid- African-American GIs are not a visible Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from borhoods we patrolled regularly.” ed.” Tensions and resentment mounted, part of the resistance community, which the War in Iraq by Joshua Key Later Key had to pull guard duty in front and “I heard rumors that soldiers in our does not, of course mean Black GIs are Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private of a hospital in Ramadi, for weeks on end. unit were plotting [the commander’s] not resisting. The Pentagon figures make Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejía A little girl who lived near the hospital assassination.” it obvious that the vast majority of resist- by Camilo Mejía would run up to the fence he was guard- Both Mejía and Key had sufficient ers are living underground in the U.S. Other books of interest: Letters from Fort ing and call out “the only English words direct experience of being ordered to And Canada is far less often perceived as Lewis Brig: A Matter of Conscience by Sgt. she knew: ‘Mister, food!’” commit war crimes in Iraq that they had an option for a young Black man, despite Kevin Benderman; Mission Rejected: U.S. Key said, “She was about seven years enough. As soon as they were allowed the fact that racism is less intense and Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq by Peter Laufer; old. She had dark eyes, shoulder-length out of Iraq on leave, they decided not to strident in Canada than it is in the U.S. Dissent: Voices of Conscience—Government brown hair, and—even for a come back. Mejía chose to Lt. Ehren Watada, who in January Insiders Speak Out Against the War in Iraq young child—seemed impossi- refuse publicly and apply for 2006 became the first officer to refuse by Col. (Ret.) Ann Wright and Susan Dixon; bly skinny. She usually wore her ww conscientious objector status. to serve in Iraq, told the Veterans for Anti-War Soldier: How to Dissent Within the school uniform—a white shirt Book reviews He was rejected, and was sen- Peace Convention in August of that year, Ranks of the Military by Jonathan W. Hutto with a blue skirt and a pair of sandals.’” tenced to a year in military prison and a “I speak with you about a radical idea. It “Trained to kill! Kill we will!” That’s Several weeks into his guard duty at the bad conduct discharge. is one born from the very concept of the what U.S. Army recruits must shout while hospital in Ramadi, Key said, “I was back Key just left. He rejoined his wife and American soldier (or service member). marching to the mess hall for a meal. at my post in front of the hospital. I saw the their then three small children, and went It became instrumental in ending the That’s all it took for Pvt. Jeremy Hintzman girl run out of her house, across the street, underground for over a year. Finally, after Vietnam War. … The idea is this: that to to know he had to get out. He was the first and toward the fence that stood between “googling” the Internet with “deserter stop an illegal and unjust war, the sol- U.S. war resister from the Iraq war to seek us. I reached for an MRE [meals ready to needs help,” he got in touch with the War diers can choose to stop fighting it.” refugee status in Canada. eat-ed.], looked up to see her about 10 feet Resisters Support Campaign in Toronto. In November 2005, Rep. John Murtha, It took a little longer for Pvt. Joshua away, heard the sound of semiautomatic “Sucking up the courage to drive to the a Pennsylvania Democrat and veteran of Key, but he still was not rabid enough for gunfire, and saw her head blow up like a border of my own country was the hard- 37 years in the Marine Corps, switched them. If you fail to show sufficient enthu- mushroom. … est thing I had ever done,” he said. from supporting to opposing the U.S. war siasm, you’re “smoked.” “My own people were the only ones Camilo Mejía found support for his in Iraq. Why? “The future of our military “They made me do push-ups, duck with guns in the area, and it was the sound refusal here in the U.S.—first with the is at risk,” he told Congress. “Many say walks, crawl around on my hands and of my own people’s guns that I had heard Citizen Soldier support organization and the Army is broken. … Choices will have knees, and stand at attention while every blazing before the little sister was stopped its legal director Todd Ensign, and later to be made.” man in my platoon hollered that I was a in her tracks.” with the pacifist Peace Abbey, which gave The GIs who have refused made their ‘useless asshole’ and a ‘stupid shit,’” says The bulk of Pvt. Key’s duty in Iraq was him sanctuary until he turned himself in choices. And they have begun to change Pvt. Key in “The Deserter’s Tale.” “busting into and ransacking homes. … to fight for his right to be recognized as a history. “One day, all 300 of us lined up on Before my time was up in Iraq, I took part conscientious objector. IVAW has found enormous interest the bayonet range, each facing a life-size in 200 raids. … We never found weapons Despite losing his case before the mili- and support among both veterans and dummy that we were told to imagine was or indications of terrorism. I never found tary kangaroo court, and serving nine active-duty GIs to testify at the Winter a Muslim man. As we stabbed the dum- a thing that seemed to justify the terror months in military prison, Camilo Mejía Soldier Hearings, set for March 13-16, mies with our bayonets, one of our com- we inflicted every time we blasted through came out of prison fighting, and has trav- about their experiences in Iraq. And the manders stood at a podium and shouted the front door.” eled around the country speaking and organization has become a potent force into the microphone: ‘Kill! Kill! Kill the organizing. He is now the chairperson of in organizing GIs both here in the U.S. sand n——-rs!’ We were made to shout out U.S. terrorists Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), and in Iraq, to oppose the illegal and rac- [the same thing]. While we shouted and “It struck me,” Key said, “that we, the and deeply involved in building for the ist orders they receive as standard oper- stabbed, drill sergeants walked among us American soldiers, were the terrorists.” Winter Soldier Hearings to be held in ating procedure. to make sure we were all shouting.” Joshua Key was a dirt-poor 19-year-old mid-March in Washington, D.C. Most recently, IVAW has built vibrant That was basic training. Key remembers from Guthrie, Okla., married with two A growing number of others have fol- chapters among active-duty soldiers advanced training with the 43rd Combat infant children, who was lured from his lowed Mejía’s example. In December at Fort Lewis, Wash., and Fort Drum, Engineer Company. His officers repeated job delivering pizza by an Army recruiter. 2004, Navy Petty Officer Pablo Paredes N.Y.—the major deployment points for warnings, “If you feel threatened, kill first His experiences in Iraq “got me think- from the Bronx refused to board ship in combat duty in Iraq. It has chapters and ask questions later.” ing,” he said. “How would I react if for- San Diego and sail to the Persian Gulf. He at other bases, including Fort Bragg, “I had army chants buzzing through my eigners invaded the United States and didn’t want to be “part of a ship that’s tak- N.C., the “home of the Airborne”; Camp head, like ‘Take a playground, fill it full of did just a tenth of the things that we had ing 3,000 Marines over there, knowing Pendleton Marine Base near San Diego, kids. Drop on some napalm, and barbecue done to the Iraqi people? I would be right a hundred or more of them won’t come and Fort Hood in Texas. some ribs.’” up there with the rebels and insurgents, back.” He said he “never imagined, in a IVAW has the strong support of Veterans The real thing was yet to come. In Iraq, using every bit of my cleverness to blow million years, we would go to war with for Peace, the Vietnam-generation group Key’s first duty assignment was to set off up the occupiers.” somebody who had done nothing to us.” that has thousands of members nation- explosives to blast open doors of Iraqi Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejía’s experiences After his May 2005 court-martial, ally. The two generations of veterans have people’s homes, join a six-person assault were essentially identical to those of Pvt. Pablo Paredes was sentenced to three forged a strong bond, based on their com- team storming in to terrorize everyone Joshua Key, except he was a squad leader. months hard labor while confined to base mon experience of having been ordered inside, and take prisoner any male over 5 When he and his squad were ordered to and then discharged. He then became a to commit war crimes in senseless wars of feet tall. “We put our knees on their backs, blast into an Iraqi home, he was respon- counselor for the GI Rights Hotline. That aggression. They also share the experience pulled their hands behind them, and fast- sible to make sure it was done properly. year the Hotline reported an estimated of finding strong support in the general er than you can bat an eye we zipcuffed And to deal with his men afterward— 32,000 individual callers, about 30 per- population when they tell the truth they them. Zipcuffs are plastic cuffs that lock including when the orders they carried out cent of whom were asking for help with were forced to live: that the government on tight. They must have bit something subjected them to unnecessary danger. being AWOL. Tens of thousands of GIs had sent them to war with lies and terror. fierce into those men’s skin. … The Iraqi Mejía said he and his men were ordered have gone AWOL since the U.S. invasion The truth they tell is hard to refute. n Japanese protest U.S. nuclear warships When the U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier Nimitz tested what they considered an outrage. 200 workers protested the Lassen’s entering Nagasaki. arrived Feb. 12 in Sasebo port in Sasebo city, Nagasaki After noon, a protest rally was held in Shimanose As an Aegis destroyer, the Lassen could carry nuclear prefecture, 250 workers with their labor unions came Park in downtown Sasebo, where 1,200 workers weapons. Its targets are in North Korea and China. out to protest its arrival. That morning, after 8 a.m., gathered for a rally. After the rally, participants The anti-war forces refuse to allow this warship to enter as the Nimitz was entering Sasebo port, 27 boats demonstrated against the military base. the port of Nagasaki, site of the Aug. 9, 1945, dropping surrounded the warship and denounced its presence. Three days later, the U.S. Aegis-class destroyer of the atomic bomb. At the same time on shore 120 workers angrily pro- Lassen arrived in Nagasaki port in Nagasaki city. Some —Report and photos by Kikuchi Takao (Japan)

Sasebo Nagasaki Page 6 Feb. 28, 2008 www.workers.org Larry Holmes on: Globalization, economic crisis & Obama

This report is based on the last part of a talk that WWP Secretariat member Larry Holmes made in Detroit to the local Workers World Party branch at a Feb. 9 meeting on Black History Month. One of the important political contribu- tions of Comrade Sam Marcy, the founder of Workers World Party who died 10 years ago, is known well by the comrades here in Detroit. That’s because Detroit was ground zero for the destruction of the auto and steel industries, the closing of factories, the laying off of thou- sands of workers. A quarter of a century ago, Sam—and he was way ahead of his time on this—began to analyze the inevitable social consequences of the introduction of science and technology into capitalist production on a world scale and what has come to be known as globalization. His assessment was that imperialist glo- balization, abetted by technology, would cre- ate a change in the character of the working WW photo: Deirdre Griswold class. At first he was looking at this country, New York march on Martin Luther King holiday stressed Black-Brown unity. Groups make plans to protest at Republican & Democratic conventions By Workers World correspondents executive director of the Arab American Action Network; munities forward by looking back at a time of great resis- Minneapolis, Minn., and Olympia, Wash. Tyneisha Bowens, a leader of Fight Imperialism-Stand tance to war and racism. Together; George Martin of Wisconsin Network for Peace Spagnuolo made reference to the Black Panther Party Plans are already underway for protest demonstrations and Justice; and Barry Reisch of Veterans for Peace. for Self-Defense and its Ten-Point Program, where the this summer when the two major capitalist parties have These organizations emphasized the importance of party provided security, free breakfasts for children pro- their nominating conventions. Two recent conferences in opposing the imperialist agendas of both the Republicans grams and education in many communities. different cities showed the broad range of issues various and the Democrats. He also spoke of the government’s brutal attacks in groups intend to raise when both the Republicans and The diversity of the issues addressed by the Coalition response to the party’s activism, the anti-war positions of Democrats meet. to March on the RNC and Stop the War was reflected in Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, the mass move- Notable is the fact that unions and organizations of the diversity of the attending organizations and activists. ments against oppression headed by organizations such the poor met together with anti-war and anti-imperialist Immigrant rights, Palestine solidarity, Latin American as the American Indian Movement, the Young Lords, the groups, indicating the connections being drawn between solidarity, welfare rights, labor and low-income struggles Gay Liberation Front and many other groups. the growing economic woes of the working class and the were some of the issues included on the agenda and in Racism, imperialist war, poverty—all the things that immense outlay of funds by the capitalist government for the planning of the march and other events to counter the come with capitalism—are still with us, Spagnuolo imperialist aggression abroad. RNC. explained, and though Cointelpro is not around in This respect for diversity was also reflected in the local name, the government has other forms of surveillance Republican National Convention coalition’s open position on various tactics and safe spac- and of targeting activists, such as the massive Homeland The Republican National Convention (RNC) will be es for those not participating in militant actions. Security apparatus. held on Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul, Minn. On Feb. 9-10, in St. On the second day of the conference, the participants Larry Hales of FIST spoke about the numerous cases Paul’s twin city of Minneapolis, the Coalition to March on met in plenaries to discuss the program for a major dem- of police brutality in the Denver area, such as the case the RNC and Stop the War met with more than 60 other onstration on Sept. 1 and coordination and communica- of Loree McCormick-Rice and her then-12-year-old organizations to plan events protesting the Republican tion leading up to the event. Tours were held of the area daughter Cassidy McCormick, who were both beaten by agenda. around the Xcel Center where the RNC will take place in an Aurora, Colo., cop. He spoke of the occupation of the The coalition consists of local anti-war and solidarity September. oppressed communities by police and the role of police organizations, unions and social justice groups. Three For more information, visit marchonrnc.org or pro- in capitalist society. national anti-war coalitions were also represented at testrnc2008.org. Hales asked the students to be mindful of the com- the conference: Troops Out Now Coalition (TONC), the munities and the people whom they are claiming to rep- ANSWER Coalition and United for Peace and Justice Conference on RNC and DNC in Olympia resent. The residents of communities of color are faced (UFPJ). On the same weekend as the Minneapolis confer- with police terror all the time, not just during marches Other organizations present included the International ence, youth and students met in Olympia, Wash., to dis- and rallies. Police brutality is a daily reality for many Action Center; Freedom Road Socialist Organization; cuss preparations to counter both the Republican and working and oppressed people. Latinos Against the War; Fight Imperialism-Stand Democratic national conventions. About 100 people He told them that they must be sensitive to the needs Together; Students for a Democratic Society; New Jersey attended, mostly students from Seattle and surround- of the people and be aware of history that is being made Solidarity-Activists for the Liberation of Palestine; the ing areas, with others from Minneapolis and the states of today. For instance, Hales said, a white woman and a National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera; Teamsters Colorado, Oregon and California. The National Lawyers Black man are running for president. Though they both Local 743 and AFSCME Local 3800. Guild and a few educators were there to listen, observe represent the interests of the imperialist U.S. ruling class A press conference for local and national media and offer advice when asked. and their agenda would be to appease the ruling elite, included speakers from the Coalition to March on the Protest organizers from Minneapolis and from Denver, there are many oppressed people who see the fact that RNC and Stop the War, TONC, UFPJ, ANSWER and the where the DNC will be held on Aug. 24-28, gave presen- they are running and that one or the other may likely win Arab American Action Network. tations on the preparations that had been made, prob- the general election as a milestone. Phyllis Walker, Marie Braun and Jess Sundin opened lems encountered and the significance of the respective People will be out in the streets for many reasons, and the conference with an inspiring welcome from the local conventions. activists have to keep focused on the issues while at the coalition. Two panels laid out the many reasons for For the DNC, two activists who are part of the same time being aware that some people are looking at marching on the RNC. Recreate 68 Alliance spoke. Glenn Spagnuolo of the All these candidates as a victory for women and Black peo- In the first panel Muath Asamarai, a local Iraqi Nations Alliance and Larry Hales of the youth group ple. It will take time for them to see what the develop- American; Leslie Cagan of UFPJ; Sara Flounders of Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST) presented to ment really means, as the next president goes about her TONC and the IAC; John Beacham for the ANSWER the audience in the late evening for an hour and a half. or his business running the U.S. imperialist colossus. Coalition; Carlos Montes of Latinos Against the War; Spagnuolo explained that R68 was formed in January last A whole week of activities, rallies and marches is and Angel Buechner from the Welfare Rights Committee year by local Denver activists from the Latin@, African- planned for the DNC by Recreate 68. To find out about spoke on why their organizations and coalitions are American, Native and white communities, representing them, visit recreate68.org. mobilizing for the march. such different issues as racism, imperialism, anti-war, Tyneisha Bowens, who attended the Minneapolis The second panel consisted of representatives from anti-globalization, for immigrant rights and Indigenous conference, and Gloria Verdieu and Larry Hales, who other endorsing organizations, including Richard Berg, rights. They agreed to work together to create a week of attended the Olympia conference, contributed to this president of Teamsters Local 743; Kosta Harlan, a member political solidarity in resistance and protest. article. of Students for a Democratic Society; Hatem Abudayyeh, The idea of Recreate 68 is being used to move com- www.workers.org Feb. 28, 2008 Page 7 Larry Holmes on: Globalization, economic crisis & Obama

but really it could be extrapolated worldwide, that the character of the working class would change in a revo- lutionary way. Up to the fore would come women and Wall Street—Goldman Sachs in particular. You could Black and Latin@ people in service jobs, low-wage or interchange the advisers, whether on foreign policy or non-union jobs. And that would be the basis for a more the economy, that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has revolutionary working class, a working class that did not with Barack Obama. It’s all about the same. have the baggage of chauvinism, jingoism, xenophobia, He raised more money last month. Some of that racism and sexism. They would not be fearful of their money may be coming from the poor, but most of it is sisters and brothers on other continents around the coming from the bourgeoisie. So it is a bourgeois phe- world. nomenon. He’s running to the right of Jackson. He’s The working class would be globalized. More and not running for a protest, he’s not running for inclusion, more workers all over the world would look like each he’s not running for representation. other and speak different languages and the distance He’s running saying, “Race doesn’t matter, class culturally and politically between Johannesburg or Larry Holmes doesn’t matter. Let’s all be together.” This wonderful Thailand and New York City and even Detroit would not ww photo: nice dream. be so great. Monica Moorehead They are not covering Cynthia McKinney that much. One of the biggest symptoms of globalization is immi- his racist sexist dis last spring. That was an issue of This is very interesting. It is a problem; it’s tragic, but grant workers coming on the scene and bringing back primary concern to the Black community, but also to we’ll do the best we can by it. May Day. There was no way the U.S. labor leaders were women and progressives. We marched from there to Cynthia McKinney, a former congresswoman, served going to bring back May Day. They crushed it. CNN to target Lou Dobbs, who six nights a week bashes several terms in the House before she was kicked out Immigrant workers began organizing for the big May immigrants on this mainstream, worldwide television the first time, and at least one after she got back in and Day uprising in 2006. The party was working very close- network. was kicked out again. She’s running for president with ly with them around the country. What finally happened All this should be making our class more militant, a fairly progressive program tied to the Reconstruction was probably the biggest one-day strike this country has more class conscious, more internationalist, more Party, which comes out of the Gulf. ever seen. Docks closed down, industries closed down. understanding that they can’t fight their sisters and She’s way ahead of anything that Obama is saying, But top union leaders couldn’t deal with May Day. They brothers, whether they be in India or China or in way ahead of anything that Kucinich or any of the other had offered to give immigrant organizers buses, infra- Mexico or down South. bourgeois party candidates have been saying. Not one structure, if they would just have it two weeks later. On the other hand are the setbacks and defeats, the press conference. Not one article. Not one mention of The immigrant organizers said no. They didn’t have opportunism of most of the big labor leaders. Some her. those hang-ups. are corrupt bureaucrats—you can’t say two good words She wrote a critique of Obama. It is a little dated Sam saw the emergence of this revolutionized global about them. Some have a deeper problem: they have now but it still holds. It hit what a lot of Black activists working class. And the bourgeoisie saw it coming in lost the will to fight because they don’t believe they can were really concerned about in terms of the Obama so many ways, too. And for a long time one of their big win anymore. They feel that capitalism is so strong that campaign. objectives has been to undermine it, subvert it. the best they can do is make a deal to save a little here It said, Wait a second. Don’t say stuff that gives the We see on the horizon the biggest capitalist crisis and a little there. But somehow we’ve got to push that impression that racism is no longer a problem. Don’t since the 1930s. Many people think we’re in uncharted back. say stuff that makes people forget about the Jena 6 waters. The only thing you can compare it to is the thir- Who the hell is John Edwards? He’s a charlatan, this and forget about Katrina, and the fact that more of our ties because everybody knows that was a worldwide rich lawyer who gets $400 haircuts and all of a sudden youth are incarcerated than in college. depression. But we shall see. is going to be a champion of the working class. But he Don’t say stuff that lets people forget the fact that The mortgage foreclosures and the banks writing off decided his best chance of running for president in the on every scale Black people are doing worse. Double billions of dollars are the tip of the iceberg. Bankers Democratic primaries was to have a populist approach unemployment, more of us are dying, more of us living and governments are meeting around the clock here, in and start talking about the corporations and the poor shorter lives; we live in worse housing; we get worse Europe, in Asia—and not to stave off a recession. They and workers’ rights and start finding picket lines to health care. have had recessions before. It is to stave off a collapse of walk on. And the media and the bourgeoisie made a How does doing that help the struggle against rac- the capitalist financial system. It is to save banks from decision not to cover him, don’t help him—don’t do ism? It might make people feel good—even right wing- going under like a house of cards. That is what they are anything that helps anybody develop a class perspec- ers. “We’re so glad he doesn’t see race.” concerned about. tive. Help something else, anything else—any other His campaign is a problem for serious leftists or revo- The crisis of the financial system is happening at a diversion. lutionaries. But I think inevitably it will be more helpful time when there’s also a crisis of overproduction and the That is why in some respects we have Obama. Obama than harmful. crisis of U.S. imperialism losing its hegemonic position is complicated. There are some interesting things to say Right now, things have been so difficult, almost any- in the world. To make things even more complicated for about the Obama phenomenon. thing that shakes things up is beneficial, because at least the imperialists, there is this war they can’t get out of. Let’s face it, in this country where racism is so strong, Obama has a lot of people thinking and talking and No matter how many times they say the surge is going so systemic and so knee-jerk, to see a handsome Black debating, particularly all these white people. well, they are still bogged down. man with a name like Barack Hussein Obama winning Bush has so alienated the world. He’s created a The question is, what will the workers do? What will primaries, before you even analyze it politically, part of country at war with everybody—Latin America, Arabs, the unions do? Will they stand up and fight these attacks you is saying, damn, that’s pretty good. Muslims. Some people are voting for or will they somehow be undone and allow the imperial- Moreover we can understand why a lot of Obama as a way of trying to tell the ists a big victory? progressive people and certainly a lot of Black world that we don’t hate them. That is why we talk about Black and Brown unity. It’s people would feel good about it. They feel Bush has so horrified everybody a catch phrase for the Black community’s relationship to proud and rightfully so, because of national that this is a reaction to it. the immigrant and particularly the Latin@ community. oppression and racism. Detail from The Obama campaign shakes contemporary The ruling class conspires to divide the Black commu- But Obama is not Jesse Jackson. It is not Zimbabwe things up. Campaigns like Obama’s sculpture nity from the Latin@ immigrant community. If these that Jesse Jackson was ever a revolutionary. create expectations, but ultimately communities were together on a class basis in this coun- It is just that there is a world of difference in those expectations cannot be met, try, the gravity of that unity would pull in the whites. where Jesse Jackson’s election campaigns came from in and then it is time for struggle. Actually that contradic- Everybody would be clear that what was going on has a ’84 and ’88 and where Obama’s campaign comes from. tion may come sooner than later because, as bourgeois lot to do with race and class. Jesse Jackson’s campaign was a protest campaign, as Obama is and as much as even a lot of right wingers And it is so important because if they can divide Black it was to protest racism and the lack of representation say they like him, it is still a question: Do you think the and Brown then it will be easier for the government to inside the Democratic Party. The revolutionary wing of imperialist ruling class will let a Black man be president make those raids. the Jackson movement, as some of you recall, was hop- of the United States? They just raided a plant in Los Angeles yesterday with ing that after Jackson was spurned he would lead Black If I was a part of that class and we were having two or three hundred workers. Last week they raided a people out of the Democratic Party. That didn’t happen. a meeting at one of the mansions, I’d say, “Let him union hall in Connecticut. This should have set off alarm Jackson stayed in because he stayed bourgeois. become president. Why? Because we’re going to have bells throughout the labor movement. But his campaign was a movement and it was fasci- hell, we’re going to have an economic crisis, we’re in This is clearly an attack on the working class. This is nating to watch. Jackson was never concerned about trouble. Once we have to take away Social Security and union busting. women’s rights—that’s not where he came from. But he what’s left of Medicare and Medicaid, which you know In my neck of the woods, we have an organizing realized as he was building his movement that if he was we’re going to have to do if no one stops us, let it be him drive at FreshDirect—people who deliver food to you. going to get the whole working class behind him he had doing it!” Hundreds of workers, primarily immigrants. All of a to become very interested in women’s rights and get the We are absolutely obligated to set up as strongly and sudden the immigrant police arrive and hundreds of women’s movement out. widely as possible political and movement counter- workers had to leave their belongings, leave their jobs I don’t think he was particularly concerned with points to this bourgeois electoral stuff. and go undercover. It is union busting. workers’ rights. But he realized that if he was going to The layoffs are starting now. When manufacturing is It is the reason why on the Martin Luther King holi- pull people together, he would have to get together with down, they say we’re relying on retail. Heard the latest day in New York, in freezing weather, we organized a the most progressive activists in unions. That made his reports? Retail is in recession. People who thought they demonstration of over a thousand people. movement a class movement in both ’84 and ’88. were middle class losing jobs, losing homes. We marched from the radio station that currently Barack’s movement is a bourgeois movement. It was We have to be in the most serious period of prepara- broadcasts Don Imus, who was kicked off the air for conceived of as a bourgeois movement and financed by tion for the struggle that is on the horizon. n Page 8 Feb. 28, 2008 www.workers.org

Battle for reparations Review of World Conference Against Racism “ Any time you find the government involved in a conspiracy to violate the citizenship or D12 outlined what we saw as three key issues to its success: the civil rights of a people, then you are wasting your time going to that government expect- 1) a declaration that the trans-Atlantic slave trade, slavery and colonialism were crimes against humanity; 2) acknowl- ing redress. Instead, you have to take that government to the World Court (United Nations) edgment of the economic basis of racism; 3) reparations and accuse it of genocide and all of the other crimes that it is guilty of today. for the victims. Over the next four years D12 successfully “So those of us whose political, and economic and social philosophy is Black Nationalism helped organize NGOs of African people from around the Diaspora who planned to participate in the WCAR to put have become involved in the civil rights struggle. We have injected ourselves into the civil these issues at the top of their list of demands. rights struggle, and we intend to expand it from the level of civil rights to the level of human At the same time, understanding that it was the mem- rights. As long as you’re fighting on the level of civil rights, you’re under Uncle Sam’s jurisdic- ber countries of the U.N. who would actually pass a tion. You’re going to his court expecting him to correct the problem. He created the problem. Declaration and Program of Action, we lobbied the U.N. Regional Groupings, particularly the African Group of He’s the criminal. You don’t take your case to the criminal; you take your criminal to court. countries, to support these demands. The African Group’s —Malcolm” X statement, the Dakar Declaration, addressed all the By Roger Wareham organizations) to maintain racism as a human rights issue issues. From the beginning, the Western European and within the U.N. Other (WEO) Group of countries, which includes the U.S., Attention All African People!!! The U.N. has agreed to Following the release of Nelson Mandela from 26 years Canada, Australia and New Zealand, recognized the threat hold a review of the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against of prison in apartheid South Africa, the Western countries, these issues posed to the maintenance of white supremacy Racism held in South Africa. On April 21st, a Preparatory fearing that the spotlight would be turned on their own and their dominant role in the world. Committee meeting for this review will be held. You need racist foundations and practices, fought to have racism WEO launched a campaign of manipulation, bureau- to be there. To understand why this Durban review is eliminated as an item from the agenda of the Commission cracy, threats and economic intimidation to force the rest important to all Black people and our struggle for repara- on Human Rights. of the world to back off these issues. D12, along with tions, some background is necessary. Since 1989, the December 12th Movement, an orga- the National Black United Front (NBUF), organized a In the early morning hours of Sept. 8, 2001, in Durban, nization which arose from the grassroots Black commu- 400-member delegation, “The Durban 400,” to attend South Africa, African people achieved an historic victory. nity’s struggle to defend our human rights, had been car- the WCAR. Our focus was not on the NGO Forum, which The United Nations World Conference Against Racism, rying out Malcolm’s mandate to bring our situation to the was running parallel to the WCAR, but on the conference Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intoler­ international community by regular participation at the of states. ance (WCAR) adopted a Durban Declaration and Pro­ U.N. human rights bodies in Geneva, Switzerland, and The Durban 400 lobbied relentlessly, making it clear gramme of Action (DDPA) recognizing that the “Trans- New York City. In 1993, at the U.N. World Conference on to every country there the importance of the three issues. Atlantic slavery and slave trade was a crime against Human Rights in Vienna, Austria, we called for the U.N. African Diaspora NGOs from around the world pushed humanity.” The first international acknowledgment of an to convene a World Conference Against Racism. But it was their countries as well. This grassroots organizing effort historical truth was the result of a nearly decade-long bat- not until December 1997 that the U.N. General Assembly helped counter the Western onslaught on the develop- tle waged by the December 12th Movement International agreed to do so in 2001. ing countries which represent the majority of the world. Secretariat and a few other NGOs (nongovernmental After the General Assembly approved the conference, The U.S. delegation, seeing that their campaign to derail African people’s demands had failed, walked out of the WCAR. Free Rev. Pinkney! U.N. World Conference Declarations and Action Pro­ grams are decided by consensus, not majority vote. So while the developed world didn’t back down on every issue, the final DDPA was a compromise document. The A fighter against racist gentrification crimes against humanity, excepting colonialism, were By Cheryl LaBash recognized. The language speaks to reparations without Detroit clearly calling it that. And it alludes to the economic base of racism. Racist injustice won’t go unanswered on March 7 So Durban represented an important victory for African when supporters of Rev. Edward Pinkney fill the Berrien people. However the momentum from that victory was County Courthouse to demand his freedom. Pinkney is derailed just two days later by the attacks of 9/11. The currently enduring overcrowded and unsanitary condi- WEO Group grabbed the “terrorism” concerns arising tions in the Berrien County Jail in the latest attempt to out of 9/11 as an opportunity to put WCAR, the DDPA silence him. and its implications on hold and out of the world’s The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and consciousness. Injustice (MECAWI) and the Michigan Welfare Rights The Durban Review is our chance to make the demands Organization plan bus transportation from Detroit to the of African people primary once again. The December 12th hearing. Movement and its companion NGO, the International Berrien Chief Judge Al Butzbaugh dragged Pinkney Association Against Torture, just returned from attend- to jail in December 2007 for quoting scripture that calls ing a meeting in Geneva of the Working Group on People down a curse on dishonest judiciary. Butzbaugh claimed of African Descent (WGPAD). he and his family were personally threatened. Butzbaugh The WGPAD was established by the DDPA and is the now has reportedly withdrawn himself from future hear- Rev. Edward Pinkney Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe only U.N. body exclusively concerned with people of ings on Pinkney’s case because he is the complainant. African descent. At the meeting, there were only three Another reason to remove Butzbaugh from any legal denied—and the election attempt to recall Yarbrough was NGOs present from the entire Americas. We successfully actions involving the 58-year-old human rights activist overturned. Pinkney’s first trial ended in a deadlock but lobbied to have the WGPAD recommend that reparations and to release Pinkney immediately is now coming to he was convicted in a second trial by an all-white jury. be an agenda item for the Durban Review. Predictably this light. Judge Butzbaugh appears to have close and long- Benton Harbor, Pinkney’s home, is 90 percent African- was the only WGPAD recommendation which came under standing ties to a son of the founders of Whirlpool Corp., American. That decision is now in the appeal process. attack from the WEO, who were represented by Germany the multinational appliance manufacturer headquar- In an interview published in the February-March edi- and Belgium. They said its inclusion would threaten tered in Benton Harbor, Mich. tion of Critical Moment, Rev. Pinkney explained: “We the whole review and might force them to pull out. The A 1991 annual report posted on the state of Michigan were still fighting them taking over the city of Benton African Group made it clear that they had learned from website for the “Law & Title Building Condominium Harbor—Whirlpool, Harbor Shores, planning commis- their Durban error and insisted that it be in. The WGPAD Association” lists Alfred M. Butzbaugh and David F. sioners, Cornerstone Alliance. They were all working included it. Upton as corporate officers. together against the people that live inside the city; so their The first substantive international Preparatory Meeting Rev. Pinkney regularly exposed racism in the Berrien whole plan was to drive the people of Benton Harbor out for the Durban Review Conference will be held in Geneva County courts. But he went too far for the local ruling of the city. We did everything we could to stop them.” from April 21 to May 2. We must be there in force to lobby class when he organized the successful recall of Benton MECAWI is organizing transportation to Pinkney’s for and protect our interests. Malcolm is watching. Harbor City Commissioner-at-large Glenn Yarbrough in hearing in Benton Harbor on March 7. Those wishing to Roger Wareham is a New York attorney who helped 2005. Yarbrough was viewed as pivotal to rubber-stamp- go and stand up to racist gentrification and state repres- to introduce a class action lawsuit demanding repara- ing approval for the half-billion-dollar Harbor Shores sion can call MECAWI at 313-680-5508. n tions on behalf of African Americans in 2002. upscale housing and retail development, including a Jack Nicklaus golf course. Marxism, Reparations & the Black Freedom Struggle According to a Feb. 14 Western Michigan Business An anthology of writings from Workers World newspaper. Edited by Monica Moorehead. Includes: Review online article, “Work Continues on Harbor • Black liberation & the working-class struggle • The material basis for reparations in the U.S. Shores Site,” three organizations co-own the Harbor • Brief overview of racist oppression & heroic resistance • What Hurricane Katrina exposed to the world Shores developer. They are Cornerstone Alliance, • Africa: A battleground against colonialism and for sovereignty • Justice for the Caribbean Alliance for World-Class Communities and Whirlpool Foundation. According to the Whirlpool corporate Web • Greeting to the 3rd UN World Conference against Racism from Mumia Abu-Jamal, 2001 site, Cornerstone Alliance is also funded by Whirlpool. • A salute to women revolutionaries • Why fight-back is inevitable • Black labor and class solidarity Rev. Pinkney was charged with voter fraud—which he Order online from www.Leftbooks.com Graphic: Sahu Barron www.workers.org Feb. 28, 2008 Page 9

Battle for reparations Kosovo’s ‘independence’ Review of World Conference Against Racism Washington gets new colony in the Balkans By Sara Flounders arbitrator when it comes to U.S. interven- pro-capitalist forces were financed and 35,000 cluster bombs, used thousands of tion in Kosovo. He is chairman emeritus encouraged. As the Soviet Union was bro- rounds of radioactive depleted-uranium In evaluating the recent “declaration of the International Crisis Group (ICG), ken up into separate, weakened, unsta- rounds, along with bunker busters and of independence” by Kosovo, a province an organization funded by multibillionaire ble and feuding republics, the Socialist cruise missiles. The bombing destroyed of Serbia, and its immediate recognition George Soros that promotes NATO expan- Federation of Yugoslavia tried to resist more than 480 schools, 33 hospitals, as a state by the U.S., Germany, Britain sion and intervention along with open this reactionary wave. numerous health clinics, 60 bridges, and France, it is important to know three markets for U.S. and E.U. investment. In 1991, while world attention was along with industrial, chemical and heat- things. The board of the ICG includes two key focused on the devastating U.S. bomb- ing plants, and the electrical grid. Kosovo, First, Kosovo is not gaining indepen- U.S. officials responsible for the bombing ing of Iraq, Washington encouraged, the region that Washington was suppos- dence or even minimal self-government. of Kosovo: Gen. Wesley Clark and Zbigniew financed and armed right-wing separat- edly determined to liberate, received the It will be run by an appointed High Brzezinski. In March 2007, Ahtisaari ist movements in the Croatian, Slovenian greatest destruction. Representative and bodies appointed by gave his Comprehensive Proposal for and Bosnian republics of the Yugoslav Finally on June 3, 1999, Yugoslavia was the U.S., European Union and NATO. An Kosovo Status Settlement to the new U.N. Federation. In violation of international forced to agree to a ceasefire and the occu- old-style colonial viceroy and imperial- Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon. agreements Germany and the U.S. gave pation of Kosovo. ist administrators will have control over The documents setting out the new quick recognition to these secessionist Expecting to find bodies everywhere, foreign and domestic policy. U.S. imperi- government for Kosovo are available at movements and approved the creation of forensic teams from 17 NATO countries alism has merely consolidated its direct unosek.org/unosek/en/statusproposal. several capitalist ministates. organized by the Hague Tribunal on War control of a totally dependent colony in html. A summary is available on the U.S. At the same time U.S. finance capi- Crimes searched occupied Kosovo all the heart of the Balkans. State Department’s Web site at state. tal imposed severe economic sanctions summer of 1999 but found a total of only Second, Washington’s immediate rec- gov/p/eur/rls/fs/100058.htm on Yugoslavia to bankrupt its economy. 2,108 bodies, of all nationalities. Some ognition of Kosovo confirms once again An International Civilian Representative Washington then promoted NATO as the had been killed by NATO bombing and that U.S. imperialism will break any and (ICR) will be appointed by U.S. and E.U. only force able to bring stability to the some in the war between the UCK and the every treaty or international agreement it officials to oversee Kosovo. This appointed region. Serbian police and military. They found has ever signed, including agreements it official can overrule any measures, annul The arming and financing of the right- not one mass grave and could produce no drafted and imposed by force and violence any laws and remove anyone from office wing UCK movement in the Serbian prov- evidence of massacres or of “genocide.” on others. in Kosovo. The ICR will have full and final ince of Kosovo began in this same period. This stunning rebuttal of the imperi- The recognition of Kosovo is in direct control over the departments of Customs, Kosovo was not a distinct republic within alist propaganda comes from a report violation of such law—specifically U.N. Taxation, Treasury and Banking. the Yugoslav Federation but a province in released by the chief prosecutor for the Security Council Resolution 1244, which The E.U. will establish a European the Serbian Republic. Historically, it had International Criminal Tribunal for the the leaders of Yugoslavia were forced to Security and Defense Policy Mission been a center of Serbian national identity, former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte. It was sign to end the 78 days of NATO bombing (ESDP) and NATO will establish an but with a growing Albanian population. covered, but without fanfare, in the New of their country in 1999. Even this imposed International Military Presence. Both Washington initiated a wild propagan- York Times of Nov. 11, 1999. agreement affirmed the “commitment of these appointed bodies will have con- da campaign claiming that Serbia was car- The wild propaganda of genocide and all Member States to the sovereignty and trol over foreign policy, security, police, rying out a campaign of massive genocide tales of mass graves were as false as the territorial integrity” of Serbia, a republic judiciary, all courts and prisons. They against the Albanian majority in Kosovo. later claims that Iraq had and was prepar- of Yugoslavia. are guaranteed immediate and complete The Western media was full of stories of ing to use “weapons of mass destruction.” This week’s illegal recognition of Kosovo access to any activity, proceeding or doc- mass graves and brutal rapes. U.S. officials Through war, assassinations, coups and was condemned by Serbia, Russia, China ument in Kosovo. claimed that from 100,000 up to 500,000 economic strangulation, Washington has and Spain. These bodies and the ICR will have Albanians had been massacred. succeeded for now in imposing neoliberal Thirdly, U.S. imperialist domination final say over what crimes can be prose- U.S./NATO officials under the Clinton economic policies on all of the six former does not benefit the occupied people. cuted and against whom; they can reverse administration issued an outrageous ulti- Yugoslav republics and breaking them into Kosovo after nine years of direct NATO or annul any decision made. The larg- matum that Serbia immediately accept unstable and impoverished ministates. military occupation has a staggering est prison in Kosovo is at the U.S. base, military occupation and surrender all sov- The very instability and wrenching pov- 60 percent unemployment rate. It has Camp Bondsteel, where prisoners are ereignty or face NATO bombardment of erty that imperialism has brought to the become a center of the international drug held without charges, judicial overview its cities, towns and infrastructure. When, region will in the long run be the seeds of trade and of prostitution rings in Europe. or representation. at a negotiation session in Rambouillet, its undoing. The history of the achieve- The once humming mines, mills, smelt- The recognition of Kosovo’s “indepen- France, the Serbian Parliament voted to ments made when Yugoslavia enjoyed real ers, refining centers and railroads of this dence” is just the latest step in a U.S. war refuse NATO’s demands, the bombing independence and sovereignty through small resource-rich industrial area all sit of reconquest that has been relentlessly began. unity and socialist development will assert silent. The resources of Kosovo under pursued for decades. In 78 days the Pentagon dropped itself in the future. n NATO occupation were forcibly priva- tized and sold to giant Western multina- Divide and rule tional corporations. Now almost the only The Balkans has been a vibrant patch- employment is working for the U.S./NATO work of many oppressed nationalities, army of occupation or U.N. agencies. cultures and religions. The Socialist The only major construction in Kosovo Federation of Yugoslavia, formed after is of Camp Bondsteel, the largest U.S. World War II, contained six republics, base built in Europe in a generation. none of which had a majority. Yugoslavia Halliburton, of course, got the contract for was born with a heritage of antagonisms the camp guards and the strategic oil and that had been endlessly exploited by the transportation lines of the entire region. Ottoman Turks, the Austro-Hungarian Over 250,000 Serbian, Romani and Empire, and interference by British and other nationalities have been driven out of French imperialism, followed by Nazi this Serbian province since it came under German and Italian Fascist occupation in U.S./NATO control. Almost a quarter of World War II. the Albanian population has been forced The Jewish and Serbian peoples suf- to leave in order to find work. fered the greatest losses in that war. A powerful communist-led resistance Establishing a colonial movement made up of all the nationali- administration ties, which had suffered in different ways, Consider the plan under which Kosovo’s was forged against Nazi occupation and “independence” is to happen. Not only all outside intervention. After the libera- does it violate U.N. resolutions but it is tion, all the nationalities cooperated and also a total colonial structure. It is simi- compromised in building the new socialist lar to the absolute power held by L. Paul federation. Bremer in the first two years of the U.S. In 45 years the Socialist Federation of occupation of Iraq. Yugoslavia developed from an impover- P.R. teachers demand contract How did this colonial plan come about? ished, underdeveloped, feuding region Tens of thousands of teachers and other unionists marched to the governor’s man- It was proposed by the same forces into a stable country with an industrial sion in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Feb. 17 to demand that the government resume talks responsible for the breakup of Yugoslavia base, full literacy and health care for the with the teachers’ union over their demand for higher wages and better conditions. and the NATO bombing and occupation whole population. Starting salary for teachers on the island is less than $20,000 a year, even though of Kosovo. With the collapse of the Soviet Union prices are higher than in many parts of the United States, which has ruled over Puerto In June of 2005, U.N. Secretary General in the early 1990s, the Pentagon immedi- Rico for more than a century. Kofi Annan appointed former Finnish ately laid plans for the aggressive expan- The teachers are threatening to strike if the government walks out of negotiations President Marti Ahtisaari as his special sion of NATO into the East. Divide and again. The colonial government in Puerto Rico has imposed a no-strike law on school envoy to lead the negotiations on Kosovo’s rule became U.S. policy throughout the employees. final status. Ahtisaari is hardly a neutral entire region. Everywhere right-wing, —Report and photo by Arturo Pérez-Saad Page 10 Feb. 28, 2008 www.workers.org Workers World in 1965

Editor’s note: Workers World is in its divide and rule the masses and to set the 50th year of publication. Throughout the country more firmly on the road to war. year, we intend to share with our read- The Kennedy assassination revealed Fidel’s message ers some of the paper’s content over the the extreme instability of the ruling class past half century. The following article and its tendency to resort to the most vio- The poisonous hatred of the ruling duties to my last breath. That’s all I can offer. was originally published in the issue lent solutions in its internal faction fights. To my dearest compatriots, who have recently class and all its minions for the great dated Feb. 25, 1965—four days after the Even before this, the mysterious death of honored me so much by electing me a member bulk of humanity whom they oppress, shooting of popular Black Muslim leader Dag Hammarskjold in a plane accident of the Parliament where so many agreements exploit, scorn and abuse can always Malcolm X during a rally at the Audubon while he was apparently pursuing a too be seen in the undiluted, personalized should be adopted of utmost importance to the destiny of our Revolution, I am saying that Ballroom in New York. Malcolm was for “mild” line in the Congo raised strong sus- venom they pour out upon those who I will neither aspire to nor accept, I repeat, I will Black self-determination and self-defense picions in Europe and Africa that the CIA lead the people in struggle. neither aspire to nor accept the positions of and was opposed to the war in Vietnam had really arranged his demise. That seems to be particularly true President of the State Council and Commander waged by the U.S. government. But the assassination of Malcolm when these leaders are people who turn­­ in Chief. reveals, like the phony “Statue of Liberty ed their backs on a life of comfort to join In short letters addressed to Randy Alonso, bomb plot,” that far more is now afoot forces with the hungry, the tortur­ed, Director of the Round Table National TV Malcolm was killed within the country than just a faction fight the dispossessed. Such a person is Fidel Program—letters which at my request were of the big bosses. The intrigues, frame- made public—I discreetly introduced elements Castro. by the racist masters ups, wiretaps and conspiracies against of this message I am writing today, when not He has never wavered in his commit- the oppressed that have become so com- even the addressee of such letters was aware of ment to revolutionary transformation, of the USA monplace, have given way to bursts of not just in Cuba but wherever there is my intention. I trusted Randy, whom I knew very well from his days as a student of Journalism. In police violence, clubbings, shootings–and misery and oppression. And the U.S. They are same ones who assassinated those days I met almost on a weekly basis with assassinations. exploiters of Latin America and much Lumumba and same ones whom the main representatives of the University stu- Malcolm fought all his life We live under such a system and are of the rest of the world have never dents from the provinces at the library of the ruled by such brigands that it is inevi- wavered in heaping their lies, calumnies large house in Kohly where they lived. Today, the Workers World , Feb. 25, 1965 table that, frustrated by failure with other and epithets upon Fidel. Yet he remains entire country is an immense University. The bullet that stilled the voice of methods, they unleash the kind of violence one of the most popular political figures Following are some paragraphs chosen from Brother Malcolm X came from the arsenal Malcolm often exposed before he fell vic- in the world, and is especially beloved in the letter addressed to Randy on Dec. 17, 2007: of imperialist white supremacy. No matter tim to. “I strongly believe that the answers to the his native Cuba. whose was the hand that pulled the trigger, The papers, as usual, turn everything current problems facing Cuban society, which Fidel Castro is now 81 and, after the missile was guided by the same sinister upside down. Malcolm was fond of say- leading an incredibly energetic and has, as an average, a twelfth grade of education, forces who assassinated Patrice Lumumba almost a million university graduates, and a real ing that they invariably make the criminal full life, has suffered ill health over the and his heroic lieutenants in the Congo. possibility for all its citizens to become educated look like the victim and the victim appear last two years. He has decided to focus The vicious perpetrators of the most without their being in any way discriminated to be the criminal. So it is with Malcolm’s his great mental strength on commu- against, require more variables for each con- sadistic violence against the Black People own death. nicating his analysis of current events crete problem than those contained in a chess have struck again–and this time at a most Every single editorial writer for the through his writing and will no longer game. We cannot ignore one single detail; this vital spot. They have struck again, while imperialist racists has managed to say in be a candidate for president of Cuba in is not an easy path to take, if the intelligence of their class brothers of press and radio one way or another that Malcolm “died as the future. a human being in a revolutionary society is to hold up their hands and moralize about he had lived–by violence” or that he “lived He has thoughtfully and gracefully prevail over instinct. “violence”–not the violence of the assas- by the sword and he died by the sword,” “My elemental duty is not to cling to posi- communicated this to the Cuban people sins, but the alleged violence of their etc. It might almost be as though it was tions, much less to stand in the way of younger and the world in the following message, victim! Malcolm who had assassinated someone, which we reproduce here in full: persons, but rather to contribute my own expe- The ruling class that boasts of the great- rience and ideas whose modest value comes rather than the other way around, so per- Message from the Commander in Chief est array of violence in the history of man- from the exceptional era that I had the privilege suasively do these highly paid agents of the kind, the class that has not hesitated to Dear compatriots: of living in. racist ruling class write their obituaries. Last Friday, Feb. 15, I promised you that in my “Like Niemeyer, I believe that one has to be use that violence on the disarmed and the One might almost think that these meek next reflection I would deal with an issue of inter- consistent right up to the end.” helpless throughout the earth, has struck and gentle newspapers were not abso- est to many compatriots. Thus, this now is rather Letter from Jan. 8, 2008: again–and at one of its most important lutely foaming at the mouth over a few a message. “I am a firm supporter of the united vote (a individual targets. youngsters in Harlem last summer. One The moment has come to nominate and elect principle that preserves the unknown merits), Malcolm was a leader of the oppressed, might almost think that they all stood up the State Council, its President, its Vice-Presidents which allowed us to avoid the tendency to copy one who called for self-defense against the in union to condemn Officer Gilligan and and Secretary. what came to us from countries of the former violence of the oppressor and organized For many years I have occupied the honor- ask his removal from the Force for his act socialist bloc, including the portrait of the one the masses with a view to standing up able position of President. On Feb. 15, 1976, the of murderous violence against a 15-year- candidate, as singular as his solidarity towards against this violence and ultimately beat- Socialist Constitution was approved with the Cuba. I deeply respect that first attempt at build- old boy! ing it. free, direct and secret vote of over 95 percent ing socialism, thanks to which we were able to The hypocrisy and the lies are hard Like [Congolese leader Patrice] of the people with the right to cast a vote. The continue along the path we had chosen.” to expose. Malcolm’s murder is being first National Assembly was established on Dec. And I reiterated in that letter that “I never for- Lumumba, he had to be removed. The covered up by the very same forces that 2 that same year; this elected the State Council get that ‘all of the world’s glory fits in a kernel imperialists will let nothing stand in the way murdered him–the racist rulers and their and its presidency. Before that, I had been a of corn.’” of their drive to rule whatever portion of penmen, policemen and politicians. But Prime Minister for almost 18 years. I always had Therefore, it would be a betrayal to my con- the earth they can. And the time they could murder will out. The real murderers will the necessary prerogatives to carry forward the science to accept a responsibility requiring more do this peacefully or “democratically”–if it be brought to justice. revolutionary work with the support of the over- mobility and dedication than I am physically ever did exist–is now long past. And Malcolm’s struggle for the line of whelming majority of the people. able to offer.T his I say devoid of all drama. The government has failed to quench There were those overseas who, aware of my militant self-defense of the Black People Fortunately, our Revolution can still count on the fires of the Black Freedom movement critical health condition, thought that my provi- against the violence of imperialism will cadres from the old guard and others who were with the tepid milk-and-water “civil rights sional resignation, on July 31, 2006, to the posi- very young in the early stages of the process. be vindicated, not least of all, by his own law.” It has failed to bribe the movement’s tion of President of the State Council, which I left Some were very young, almost children, when martyrdom. n real leaders. It has failed to beat the move- to First Vice-President Raul Castro Ruz, was final. they joined the fight on the mountains and later But Raul, who is also minister of the Armed Forces they have given glory to the country with their ment into submission–either in Alabama on account of his own personal merits, and the heroic performance and their internationalist or in Brooklyn or Harlem. So it has taken other comrades of the Party and State leadership missions. They have the authority and the expe- the path of provocation, conspiracy, frame- Australia PM were unwilling to consider me out of public life rience to guarantee the replacement. There is up–and assassination. despite my unstable health condition. also the intermediate generation which learned It cannot dispose of the ideas of the It was an uncomfortable situation for me vis- together with us the basics of the complex and most militant leaders of the oppressed, so says ‘Sorry’ à-vis an adversary which had done everything almost unattainable art of organizing and lead- it must try to eliminate their persons. Continued from page 11 possible to get rid of me, and I felt reluctant to ing a revolution. The depraved, sadistic stooges of the rul- comply. of Native Title, a right of ownership for The path will always be difficult and require ing class have been murdering the lesser- Later, in my necessary retreat, I was able to from everyone’s intelligent effort. I distrust the the Aboriginal communities living on the known, unsung heroes of the oppressed for recover the full command of my mind as well seemingly easy path of apologetics or its antith- land. centuries. But now the U.S. racist masters as the possibility for much reading and medita- esis, the self-flagellation. We should always be Eddie Mabo was a Torres Strait Island­ tion. I had enough physical strength to write for prepared for the worst variable. The principle of have gone in for murdering the leaders. er, a group that is culturally akin to the many hours, which I shared with the correspond- being as prudent in success as steady in adver- The ruling class has even launched upon people living in Papua New Guinea and is ing rehabilitation and recovery programs. Basic sity cannot be forgotten. The adversary to be a program of government by assassina- distinct from the other Aboriginal groups common sense indicated that such activity was defeated is extremely strong; however, we have tion because its own ranks are torn by the in Australia. Mabo proved that his fore- within my reach. On the other hand, when refer- been able to keep it at bay for half a century. upward thrust of the oppressed peoples. bears had always lived on the lands he was ring to my health I was extremely careful to avoid This is not my farewell to you. My only wish In the case of John F. Kennedy and [U.N. claiming. raising expectations since I felt that an adverse is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas. I Secretary General] Dag Hammarskjold, ending would bring traumatic news to our peo- The Aboriginal people have occupied shall continue to write under the heading of the assassinations were directed at a so- ple in the midst of the battle. Thus, my first duty Australia for over 40,000 years and sur- “Reflections by comrade Fidel.” It will be just called “moderate” wing of the oppressor was to prepare our people both politically and another weapon you can count on. Perhaps my vived over 200 years of genocidal attacks class. In Malcolm’s case, it was directed at psychologically for my absence after so many voice will be heard. I shall be careful. from England and its colonizers. They a militant wing of the oppressed class. years of struggle. I kept saying that my recovery Thanks. deserve not only an apology but repara- In both cases, the racist, militarist rulers “was not without risks.” Fidel Castro Ruz tions to make them and their communi- My wishes have always been to discharge my Feb. 18, 2008 of the United States have the same aim–to ties whole, safe and prosperous. n www.workers.org Feb. 28, 2008 Page 11 A liberation hero to Lebanese masses Thousands mourn Hezbollah military leader By John Catalinotto Knesset (Parliament) and the Israeli media celebrated Mughniyeh’s death as a Tens of thousands of people gathered victory for the Israeli state. White House in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Feb. 14 statements also celebrated the military to praise and mourn Hezbollah military leader’s death. commander Imad Mughniyeh, who had Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri been assassinated in Damascus, Syria, Avnery wrote on Feb. 16 of the orgy of self- two days earlier. congratulation in the Israeli media over Photos: Al Manar Mughniyeh’s killing, despite the Israeli In contrast to this massive sympathetic Millions in the Muslim government’s official denial. He described outpouring of Lebanese people, the cor- and Arab world see porate media and imperialist officials, Israel as behind the Israel as being expert in high technology especially in the U.S., have denounced assassination of Imad but even more expert in “liquidations.” He Mughniyeh as a “master terrorist.” But Mughniyeh. Here, an pointed out how earlier liquidations—such outpouring in Beirut as that of Hezbollah General Secretary this is how the oppressors have viewed to mourn him. every military leader of the oppressed, Abbas Mussawi in 1992 by U.S.-built heli- from the rebel slave Spartacus in ancient speech that the Zionist leader David Ben- that is being spilled in Palestine.” copter gunships—roused the same orgy of Rome to Nat Turner and beyond. Gurion, a founder of the state of Israel, Dr. Hazim Abu-Shanab, a Fatah move- self-satisfaction in Israel, but had only led Mughniyeh was a leader of the mili- had written that Israel would fall after its ment leader in Gaza, said: “All the assas- to an increase of strength for Hezbollah. tary wing of Hezbollah, which has fought first defeat in a war. He added that the sinations committed by the Israeli occu- White House spokesperson Gordon Israel’s occupation of Lebanon since recently released Winograd report—about pation state against the Palestinians, Johndroe would say only that he was “not 1982. Israel’s secret police, the Mossad, an inquiry by Israel into the 2006 war— Lebanese and all others are criminal acts familiar with the circumstances of the and the U.S. CIA had been hunting him admitted that this war was Israel’s first that violate international law and can nev- death,” when asked if the U.S. had played since 1983, when he allegedly planned real defeat. These facts were the basis for er be tolerated. All the resistance factions any role in the assassination. (New York truck-bomb attacks on barracks housing Nasrallah’s statement that “The blood of should aid one another.” Times, Feb. 14) Al-Jazeera television said U.S. Marines and French troops occupy- Imad Mughniyeh will eliminate [Israel].” “The stamp of the criminal [Israeli the U.S. had mounted several secret oper- ing Lebanon. The U.S. had reportedly put Defense Minister Ehud] Barak is on this ations in recent years that had repeatedly a price of from $5 million to $25 million Reactions from diverse groups cowardly operation, for which, God will- tried to capture or kill Mughniyeh, but on Mughniyeh’s head. condemn Israel, U.S. ing, he will personally pay a heavy price,” without success. According to Hezbollah and other In the Syrian capital, the leftist Popular said the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Mughniyeh was on the FBI’s list of anti-imperialist organizations in the Front for the Liberation of Palestine armed wing of Palestinian President “most wanted terrorists” and had been region, it was Mossad that carried out the blamed the Israelis for the killing, which Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement. indicted in the U.S. for his alleged role in assassination. they vowed to avenge. Other media reported that Lebanese planning the 1985 hijacking of a TWA air- Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, general sec- Al-Manar, Hezbollah’s television chan- Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, liner. He was accused of an unbelievably retary of Hezbollah, eulogized Mughniyeh nel, said that Mughniyeh exhausted Israel who has been allied with Hezbollah, said, large number of military actions, the most and praised his role in fighting for libera- for a quarter of a century and called his “The assassination of Muganiyeh is a clear dramatic being the bombings of barracks tion, saying that tens of thousands would death a loss to Lebanon and Palestine. aggression on Lebanon and Syria.” of foreign troops occupying Lebanon in rise up to replace the martyr. He called the Usamah Hamdan, representative of the Former Iranian President Akbar October 1983 that killed 241 U.S. Marines killing of Mughniyeh “a big mistake” that Hamas movement in Lebanon, said, “The Hashemi Rafsanjani condemned the U.S. and 58 French paratroopers. would be avenged and said the struggle crime is a direct offshoot of the campaign and Israel for welcoming Mughniyeh’s At that time, the Reagan administra- may be extended beyond Israel-occupied being launched by the U.S. administra- assassination, saying the car bomb that tion and the Mitterrand government in territory and Lebanon. tion against the resistance forces in the killed him was an act of terrorism. France had sent the youth of their coun- Nasrallah said that in the war of 2006, region.” tries to be cannon fodder in an imperialist Hezbollah exposed the weaknesses of Abu-Imad al-Rifa’i, representative of U.S., Israeli role occupation of Lebanon. The explosions the Israelis. At that time, the Lebanese the Islamic Jihad Movement in Lebanon, The Israeli state has assassinated at the barracks drove them out. It should resistance—a coalition that included oth- said that “The blood of martyr Imad many Palestinian and other Arab libera- be no surprise then, that Mughniyeh, er groups, like the Lebanese Communist will breathe new life in, and unleash, tion leaders over the decades, sometimes assuming he was responsible, became a Party, but with Hezbollah as the leading the jihad and struggle of our people in openly taking credit for these terrorist hero and martyr for the Lebanese while force—successfully defended Lebanon Palestine.” He added that “The blood of acts. While this time the Israeli govern- being called a “terrorist” by the imperial- from an Israeli invasion. the martyrs in the Islamic resistance in ment denied it had killed the historic ist oppressors. Nasrallah pointed out in his funeral Lebanon flows together with the blood Hezbollah leader, both members of the E-mail: [email protected] What about reparations? New Australian prime minister says ‘Sorry’ By G. Dunkel said that one opposition spokesperson’s Aborigines live like any white Australian.” She went on, “When I went for a so- comment “was plainly ridiculous.” The Most of the children had white fathers called better life, I was sexually assault- The apology of Australia’s Prime spokesperson had said that the previous and Aboriginal mothers. “Chief Protectors” ed, used as a little slave.” She managed to Minister Kevin Rudd on Feb. 13 for the prime minister, John Howard, had done were appointed by each of Australia’s six return to her father at age 16, after living racist treatment inflicted on the country’s more for Aboriginal people than any other states to become the legal guardians of in several foster homes. Aboriginal people was long overdue. For Australian prime minister. these children. The openly racist content the first time, a prime minister used the Rudd’s apology (www.pm.gov.au) of their reports clearly indicates the geno- Not just stolen, oppressed word “sorry,” even though Sorry Day has singled out Aboriginal children taken cidal intent of Australia’s legal system. Said in many ways been a national event since May 26, 1998. from their families, known as the “stolen Inspector James Idell in 1905: “I would Statistics make it clear how tough life However, for all of Rudd’s repeated generation.” not hesitate for one moment to separate is for Aboriginals compared to white “sorries,” the government is still refusing The 2002 film “Rabbit-Proof Fence,” any half-caste from its Aboriginal moth- Australians. Their life expectancy is 17 to pay compensation to people who lost which follows three Aboriginal girls on a er, no matter how frantic her momentary years less, infant mortality is four times their families, their languages and their 1,300-mile trek through the Australian grief might be at the time. They soon for- higher, unemployment three times higher, way of life. outback as they try to return home after get their offspring.” And Chief Protector average income less than a half, imprison- Rudd’s speech, which was the first being seized by government officials and Cook, 1911, “Children are removed from ment and suicide rates five times higher. order of parliamentary business for his taken away from their mothers, played the evil influence of the Aboriginal camp, Alcoholism and gas sniffing are rampant, new Labor government, drew over 1 mil- a major role in building support for the with its lack of moral training and its risk so common that they constitute a slow lion Australians to stop work, stop classes “stolen generation.” The film was a dra- of serious organic infectious disease.” [Le suicide for whole communities. and gather around large-screen televi- matization of real-life people and events. Monde Diplomatique (Eng.), Oct. 2000] Just after his speech, Rudd’s Labor sions. A major poll released Feb. 18, A government report issued in 1997 The children were supposed to be Party announced a four-year, $58-mil- after much intense discussion had taken revealed that, between 1885 and 1967, put in “charitable” institutions. Faye lion plan to hire 200 teachers for isolated place, reported that over two-thirds of all 30 percent to 50 percent of all Aboriginal Lynam, an Aboriginal from Shepparton Northern outback communities, where Australians supported Rudd’s apology. children had been taken from their fami- in northern Victoria, who was mentioned many people speak their own languages The response of opposition spokesper- lies by government agents. The numbers by name in Nelson’s speech—which she rather than English, illiteracy is high and son Brendan Nelson to Rudd’s apology reported range from 70,000 to 100,000. called “toxic”—told the Sydney Morning many schools are without teachers. was so shockingly racist and filled with Australia stated its position clearly at a Herald: “My dad was not happy that I was Under a 1992 High Court ruling, lies that in many places people shouted Commonwealth conference in 1937, “The taken. They cheated us, they cheated me enshrin­ing the Mabo Act, these Northern him down with raised fists, turned their destiny of the natives of Aboriginal origin, of my life with him and now I feel like I’m communities have title to a large swath backs, or pulled the plugs on their televi- but not of the full blood, lies in their ulti- stolen all over again. I am ashamed that of land that is possibly rich in minerals. sions. The Sydney Sun-Herald, a major mate absorption.” It restated its views in he [Nelson] has done this to me, I’m so The Mabo case was the first recognition newspaper in Australia’s largest city, 1951, “The aim is assimilation ... until the ashamed.” Continued on page 10 ¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los países, uníos! El presupuesto de Bush Banquete para el ejército, hambre para el pueblo ¿Permitirán los Demócratas que se salga con la suya?

Por LeiLani Dowell (Washington Post, 5 de feb.) eliminaría están los programas de ali- ricos sufran por causa de su inflado pre- Agréguese a esa cantidad otros puntos mentación para niñ@s pobres.... la asis- supuesto militar. El mismo reporte dice Hasta los noticieros capitalistas dicen no mencionados en el presupuesto, como tencia para resguardar las viviendas con- que los recortes de impuestos de Bush que es algo increíble. Pero sólo es así por los miles de millones de dólares para tra las condiciones de tiempo adversas, costarán $2,4 mil billones durante los su descaro. cabezas nucleares y para otras agencias las subvenciones para el desarrollo de las próximos 10 años. El Centro dice que los En su último presupuesto antes de reti- como el FBI. El escritor de la columna comunidades... y los programas de revi- recortes de impuestos combinados a hog- rarse de su muy odiada presidencia—en titulada “War Stories” del noticiero elec- talización de viviendas que la Cámara ares con ingresos de más de $1 millón anu- un tiempo de crisis económica que afec- trónico Slate.com, Fred Kaplan, dice que de Representantes acaba de aprobar ales –sólo un 0.3 por ciento de los hogares ta mayormente a l@s trabajador@s—el el presupuesto subiría a $713 mil millones abrumadoramente.” del país– “excedería la cantidad total que Presidente George W. Bush ha propuesto (Slate.com, 4 de feb.) El Centro de Prioridades relativo al el gobierno federal gasta en educación pri- aumentar el presupuesto del ejército a El Washington Post reporta que para Presupuesto y las Políticas, reporta que maria y secundaria, así como la cantidad niveles sin precedente, mientras recorta acomodar este aumento en gasto militar, “casi todas las áreas del presupuesto total que dedica al cuidado médico para a su vez programas domésticos y hace el plan de Bush intentaría “recortar $14.2 doméstico” quedarían afectadas, resultan- los veteranos del ejército de la nación”. de los recortes en los impuestos para los mil millones de los programas federales de do en que 200.000 mil niñ@s dejarían de Bush ha proyectado un déficit de más ricos algo permanente. salud en el año 2009, eliminaría veintenas recibir asistencia para su cuido; 100,000 de $400 mil millones como resultado La cifra de $515.4 mil millones pro- de programas y virtualmente congelaría hogares dejarían de recibir asistencia para de este presupuesto, asumiendo que la puesta por Bush para gastos militares los programas domésticos. (5 de feb.) la vivienda; $433 millones menos para el economía de este país se expanda en un es aproximadamente el total de todos ¿Se acuerda de la crisis continua de Centro para el Control y Prevención de 2,7 por ciento, cifra que parece improb- los presupuestos militares del resto del SIDA, particularmente en las comuni- Enfermedades; $330 millones menos para able en un período cuando la economía se mundo. El diario The Washington Post, dades de color? ¿Se acuerda del decadente la Agencia para la Protección del Medio inclina hacia una recesión. reporta que esta cifra “es 7.5% mayor que sistema de educación, gracias en parte al Ambiente; recortes de $18.2 mil millones Analistas y fuentes de noticias están la del año actual y promete financiar algu- programa de Bush, “Ningún niño dejado en el programa de Medicaid en un lapso diciendo que esto es un lío que Bush va nos de los programas de armamentos más atrás”? ¿Se acuerda de la crisis de vivien- de 5 años y de $556 miles de millones en a dejarle para que arregle a la próxima grandes y costosos de las fuerzas arma- das que continúa dejando a la gente en la el programa de Medicare en 10 años; y una presidencia. Pero, como siempre, la carga das.” (11 de feb.) calle por todo el país? ¿Se acuerda de l@s reducción en el Programa de Asistencia de no la van a sentir l@s políticos, sino l@s Sin embargo, esta cifra ni siquiera sobrevivientes de los huracanes Katrina y Energía para los Hogares de Bajo Ingreso, trabajador@s, quienes van a sufrir innec- incluye las guerras en Irak y Afganistán, Rita? el cual tendría que remover a más de un esariamente mientras el gobierno ali- que serían $70 mil millones más, y eso El Washington Post agrega, “El plan... millón de familias y ancian@s del pro- menta a los contratistas de la industria de sólo hasta el fin de la presidencia de extendería los programas de enseñanza grama, reducir la cantidad de asistencia “defensa” y el impulso para más guerra. Bush, cuando los oficiales del Pentágono de abstinencia [y] crearía cupones de provista en un 22%, o una combinación de Y como siempre, serán sólo las luchas de esperan que la nueva presidencia finan- vales para escuelas elementales y secun- ambas. (www.CBPP.ORG, 7 de feb.) l@s trabajador@s lo que tiene la posibili- cie las guerras con miles de millones más. darias. ...Entre los programas que Bush Sin embargo, Bush no va a dejar que los dad de poner un alto a estos ataques. n Venezuela lucha contra los criminales corporativos de Exxon Por Jaimeson Champion raciones e instituciones bancarias trasna- Contrariamente, PDVSA es propiedad de ataques llevados a cabo por las fuer- cionales. El Banco Mundial está ayudan- del pueblo venezolano quien la maneja zas del imperialismo contra el pueblo de El gobierno venezolano ha prometido do a ExxonMobil en el intento de robar para el beneficio del pueblo venezolano. Venezuela. Encabezado por los Estados que los recientes intentos por parte de la bienes con un valor de miles de millones En 2007, más de $13.3 miles de millones Unidos los poderes imperialistas han compañía petrolera más grande del mun- de dólares al pueblo venezolano. de dólares en ingresos de PDVSA fueron tratado cada táctica posible para intentar do, ExxonMobil, de robar los bienes que En una declaración radial el 10 de encaminados hacia gastos sociales en desestabilizar la Revolución Bolivariana. pertenecen al pueblo venezolano, van a febrero, el presidente de Venezuela, Hugo Venezuela. Desde el sabotaje económico hasta la encontrarse con una dura resistencia. Chávez respondió a los recientes fallos El dinero creado por PDVSA es utiliza- organización de protestas estudiantiles ExxonMobil ha estado cabildeando en de la corte diciendo: “Me dirijo al impe- do para pagar doctor@s y servicios de cui- lideradas por l@s hij@s de la vieja oligar- las cortes imperialistas de los EEUU y rio estadounidense, porque es él quien dado de salud, programas de alimentos y quía, y hasta el robo directo de recursos, Europa para congelar los bienes en el exte- manda: siga así y verá que no enviamos nutrición, escuelas y maestr@s, y muchos los poderes imperialistas han utilizado rior de la compañía estatal de petróleo de ni una sola gota de petróleo al imperio de otros programas sociales en Venezuela. todos los instrumentos disponibles. Venezuela, PDVSA. El 8 de febrero, cortes los EEUU”. Una de las contribuciones más grandes de Pero hasta ahora los esfuerzos de los en el Reino Unido y en los Países Bajos El contraste entre ExxonMobil y PDVSA PDVSA a la sociedad venezolana ha sido imperialistas por descarrilar el “proceso” emitieron medidas provisionales judicial- no podía ser más marcado. ExxonMobil es su trabajo en el desarrollo de sistemas de que así llaman l@s venezolan@s la trans- es que, en espera de apelaciones, conge- una corporación sanguinaria que ha deja- agua potable por todo el país, que ahora formación revolucionaria de la sociedad larían aproximadamente $12 mil millones do muerte y destrucción del medio ambi- traen agua a casas que anteriormente no venezolana de capitalismo a socialismo en bienes de la PDVSA en Europa. Una ente desde Irak hasta Nigeria, pasando tenían acceso. — no han sido exitosos. El proceso sigue decisión judicial en los EEUU será vista por Indonesia y Valdez, en Alaska. Desde L@s trabajador@s de PDVSA desem- desarrollándose mientras el pueblo ven- por una corte federal en Manhattan el 13 derramamientos masivos de petróleo que peñan un papel activo en organizar los ezolano valientemente se enfrenta a los de febrero. han destruido ecosistemas enteros, hasta proyectos sociales de PDVSA. A través ataques criminales perpetrados contra él. Las decisiones de las cortes son un robo guerras criminales por petróleo que han de su participación en lo que se conoce A medida que el pueblo venezo- con sello legal. Las cortes que emitieron destruido países enteros, la ExxonMobil como los consejos de trabajador@s, los lano continúa la lucha contra el impe- estas decisiones son parte del Centro ha ganado fama como el epítome de mal- trabajador@s de PDVSA deciden cuál es rio estadounidense, es imperativo que Internacional para el Arreglo de Disputas versación corporativa y por su brutalidad. la mejor manera de asignar los ingresos l@s trabajador@s aquí en los Estados sobre Inversiones (ICSID por las siglas Muchos de los miles y miles de millones de PDVSA para satisfacer las necesidades Unidos, y por todo el mundo, se unan en en inglés). El ICSID está controlado por de dólares en ganancias anuales de Exxon de sus propias comunidades. solidaridad con sus hermanas y hermanos el Banco Mundial. Opera como un grupo son utilizados para enriquecer aún más a El intento de ExxonMobil de robar venzolan@s, y a su valiente lucha contra de tribunales ilegales, establecidos para los ejecutivos corporativos y a sus accioni- los bienes de PDVSA es sólo la acción el imperialismo. n emitir decretos que favorecen a las corpo- stas ric@s. criminal más reciente en una larga serie