Se necesita lucha obrera independiente 12

Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Vol. 59, No. 51 Dec. 21, 2017 $1 Led by Black community Alabama bigot booted By Minnie Bruce Pratt

People far and wide celebrated the defeat of arch-bigot Judge Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate race on Dec. 12. A Facebook message that night crowed: “I just got the good news on my cell phone here in Bolivia!” The next day the BEARS EARS Theft and genocide president of an elite Massachusetts college began his fac- Massive protests streamed through Salt Lake City, ulty meeting: “Let’s take a moment to thank Alabama for that victory.” Utah, on Dec. 4 in response to the Trump seizure of African-American people, especially Black women, led Indigenous land in Bears Ears National Monument. a grassroots mass movement against racism and misog- yny. Soundly trouncing Republican Moore, they voted in a former federal prosecutor, Doug Jones, the first Demo- crat elected to national office from Alabama in 25 years. More on this Stopping Moore was indeed a huge win over a monster Indigenous of bigotry. It’s hard to imagine a more despicable politi- struggle, cal candidate or person. page 8. With his “Onward, Christian Soldiers” ideology and President Trump’s support, Moore was headed for the Senate and perhaps for the high-level Bible study group where Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Sec- retary of Energy Rick Perry attend classes run by Ralph Drollinger, a well-known Christian nationalist. (tinyurl. PHOTO: WTOP.COM com/y76on9w2) Chosen for the Senate instead was Doug Jones, who led the prosecution and conviction in 2002 of two Ku Klux Klan members for the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. There, four young Black girls died and 22 other people were injured. As U.S. attorney for Alabama’s Northern District, CONGO: Jones also built the case against Eric Rudolph, the 1998 bomber of the New Woman All Women Health Care Cen- A fight against ’invisible hands’2 ter in Birmingham. Rudolph had committed a series of anti-abortion and anti-gay-motivated bombings across WW PHOTO: J CATALINOTTO the South between 1996 and 1998. Marie-Claude Manga Most of the corporate media lauded Jones’ election ‘JERUSALEM win. They urged the national Democratic Party to take tips from him on building a winning coalition. Repub- IS PALESTINE’ 3 lican Trump took 62 percent of Alabama’s vote in 2016.

Organized mass resistance PHOTO: MALLORY GIORDANY Behind the Alabama vote, however, was an undying, SEX WORK fierce tradition of organized resistance to racism and and low-wage work 4 right-wing bigotry built in Alabama long, long before WW PHOTO: JEFF SOREL Doug Jones’ arrival on the political scene. In only one historic example of thousands, in Lowndes and Montgomery counties in 1861, a hundred enslaved people of African descent, together with “poor whites of LABOR POWER: the country,” planned a rebellion to redistribute the “land, Cop found guilty 4 mules and money” of plantation owners. Twenty-five Black and four white insurrectionists were executed on discovery of their plot. (Herbert Aptheker, “American Negro Slave Revolts,” 1943) (For more on that resistance Messages for MUMIA 5 history in this issue, see Devin Cole’s article, Part 1, on “Hammer and Hoe.”) Continued on page 5 Communists in Subscribe to Workers World ALABAMA, NEPAL 7, 10 Nepal 4 weeks trial $4 1 year subscription $30 Alabama 1907 Sign me up for the WWP Supporter Program: workers.org/articles/donate/supporters_/ Name ______‘Why I joined WWP—to win!’ 9 Email ______Phone ______

Street ______City / State / Zip ______Workers World Weekly Newspaper workers.org Honduras uprising 10 Imperialism in Zimbabwe 11 147 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl, NY, NY 10011 212.627.2994 Page 2 Dec. 21, 2017 workers.org Congolese women fight ‘invisible hands’ of exploitation  In the U.S. Workers World staff that, to destroy the structure of the entire community.” Led by Black community: Alabama bigot booted . . . 1 New York Manga visited parts of the DRC where mining was be- Congolese women fight exploitation ...... 2 ing carried out in June 2013. On that trip, she met and Marie-Claude Manga, social worker, pastor and fighter got to know “children who worked in mines and escaped” ‘Jerusalem is Palestine’ ...... 3 for the rights of oppressed women, brought the story of and “women and girls who had been torn from their par- Walter Scott: Community/labor wins some justice . . . 4 the plight of women in her original home, the Democratic ents, from their families, to be turned into sex slaves.” Boss Trump attacks low-wage workers ...... 4 Republic of the Congo, to a meeting here on Dec. 16, along After meeting and working closely with women in the Chicago sex workers protest at sheriff’s office . . . . . 4 with the story of their struggle. DRC who were determined to keep on fighting for their Her presentation focused on what the women were able rights, whatever the consequences, Marie-Claude Man- San Diego: ‘Free Mumia and all political prisoners’ . . . 5 to accomplish in their day-to-day work with the aid of ga decided she would have to work on their behalf. She ‘The Hammer & the Hoe: Alabama Communist Party’ . 7 women’s organizations on an international scale. would bring their story to others around the world. Alabama election and African-American liberation . . 7 The DRC is an enormous country of 900,000 square The meeting was organized by the International Bears Ears fight exposes history of U.S. genocide . . . . 8 miles, with extensive mineral resources, inhabited by 87 Working Women’s Day Coalition and the International million people and governed by a weak central authority Women’s Alliance. Others on the panel included Vijou Imani Henry: ‘I believe that we will win’ ...... 9 that leaves its mineral wealth up for grabs by armed forc- Bryant of GABRIELA New York, who chaired; Monica New York: Metro transit debt makes profits for Wall St. . 9 es in the service of transnational corporations. Moorehead, who presented Manga with gifts; “The DRC is a real geological scandal,” Brenda Stokely, who linked the struggle  Around the world she said. “Its subsoil is full of minerals against sexual exploitation abroad Libya: U.S./NATO attacks on Gaddafi brought horrors . 5 of all kinds. Every day, huge amounts to current events in the U.S.; and Hondurans masses ‘fight every day without rest’ . . . 10 of these minerals are mined and Paddy Colligan, who translat- sold around the world by Western ed the speaker’s remarks from Communist coalition wins Nepal’s national election . .10 and Eastern transnational corpo- French to English. How imperialism undermined Zimbabwe ...... 11 rations. These mining regions are regions of endless wars.” WW PHOTOS: JOHN CATALINOTTO; G. DUNKEL  Editorial Manga pointed out: “Militias Free Honduras! ...... 10 are formed and supported by ‘in- visible hands’ (actually by transna-  Noticias en Español tional corporations with economic En la riña entre Mueller y Trump, interests) to maintain a level of insecu- se necesita una lucha clasista independiente . . . . . 12 rity and especially to discourage all those who might try to put an end to this crisis. “The endless armed conflicts that have plagued eastern DRC for 20 years, which have left millions dead We’re taking a break! and displaced, which have caused an unprecedented hu- Workers World publishes 51 issues a year manitarian disaster, are closely linked to the exploitation of mineral resources, particularly the mineral called col- and takes one week off. Next week’s the week! tan, a black or red-brown ore from which niobium and We’ll see you again with our issue of Jan. 4. tantalum are extracted.” Coltan is an essential compo- nent in computers and cellular phones. Left to right: Manga explained how “rape is used as a weapon of Brenda Stokely,

Paddy Colligan, Workers World war, a weapon of mass destruction. I call it this because 147 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl. socially and culturally the woman is the nurturer of the Marie-Claude Manga, New York, NY 10011 community and the guarantor of its values. To attack a Monica Moorehead and Vijou Bryant Phone: 212.627.2994 woman in this way is to destroy her integrity and, through E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.workers.org Vol. 59, No. 51 • Dec. 21, 2017 Closing date: Dec. 19, 2017 Join us in the fight Editor: Deirdre Griswold Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell, for socialism! Kris Balderas Hamel, Monica Moorehead, Workers World Party is a revolutionary Marxist-­ Wages are lower than ever, and youth are saddled with Minnie Bruce Pratt; Web Editor Gary Wilson Leninist party inside the belly of the imperialist beast. seemingly insurmountable student debt, if they even make Production & Design Editors: Coordinator Lal Roohk; We are a multinational, multigenerational and multigen- it to college. Black and Brown youth and trans people are Andy Katz, Cheryl LaBash dered organization that not only aims to abolish capital- gunned down by cops and bigots on a regular basis. Copyediting and Proofreading: Sue Davis, ism, but to build a socialist society because it’s the only WWP fights for socialism because the working class Bob McCubbin, Jeff Sorel way forward! produces all wealth in society, and this wealth should re- Contributing Editors: Abayomi Azikiwe, Capitalism and imperialism threaten the peoples of main in their hands, not be stolen in the form of capital- Greg Butterfield, G. Dunkel, K. Durkin, the world and the planet itself in the never-ending quest ist profits. The wealth workers create should be socially Fred Goldstein, Martha Grevatt, Teresa Gutierrez, for ever-greater profits. Capitalism means war and aus- owned and its distribution planned to satisfy and guar- Berta Joubert-Ceci, Terri Kay, Cheryl LaBash, terity, racism and repression, joblessness and lack of antee basic human needs. Milt Neidenberg, John Parker, Bryan G. Pfeifer, hope for the future. No social problems can be solved Since 1959, Workers World Party has been out in the Betsey Piette, Gloria Rubac under capitalism. streets defending the workers and oppressed here and Mundo Obero: Redactora Berta Joubert-Ceci; The U.S. is the richest country in the world, yet no one worldwide. If you’re interested in Marxism, socialism Andrea Bañuelos, Alberto García, Teresa Gutierrez, has a guaranteed right to shelter, food, water, health care, and fighting for a socialist future, please contact a WWP Carlos Vargas education or anything else — unless they can pay for it. branch near you. Supporter Program: Coordinator Sue Davis Contact a Workers World Party branch near you: workers.org/wwp Copyright © 2017 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of articles is permitted in any medium National Office Boston Detroit Los Angeles Rockford, Ill. without royalty provided this notice is preserved. 147 W. 24th St. 2nd Fl. 284 Amory St. 5920 Second Ave. 5278 W Pico Blvd. [email protected] Workers World (ISSN-1070-4205) is published weekly New York, NY 10011 Boston, MA 02130 Detroit, MI 48202 Los Angeles, CA 90019 Salt Lake City except the first week of January by WW Publishers, 212.627.2994 617.286.6574 313.459.0777 [email protected] 801.750.0248 147 W. 24th St. 2nd Fl., New York, NY 10011. Phone: 323.306.6240 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 212.627.2994. Subscriptions: One year: $30; institu- Madison Atlanta Buffalo, N.Y. Durham, N.C. San Antonio, Texas tions: $35. Letters to the editor may be condensed and PO Box 18123 [email protected] 335 Richmond Ave. 804 Old Fayetteville St. SanAntonioWWP@ edited. Articles can be freely reprinted, with credit to Atlanta, GA 30316 Milwaukee Buffalo, NY 14222 Durham, NC 27701 workers.org Workers World, 147 W. 24th St. 2nd Fl., New York, NY 404.627.0185 [email protected] 716.883.2534 919.322.9970 San Diego [email protected] Philadelphia 10011. Back issues and individual articles are available [email protected] P.O. Box 33447 [email protected] P.O. Box 34249 on microfilm and/or photocopy from NA Publishing, Baltimore Chicago San Diego, CA 92163 Houston Philadelphia, PA 19101 Inc, P.O. Box 998, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-0998. A c/o Solidarity Center 312.630.2305 [email protected] 610.931.2615 searchable archive is ­available on the Web at 2011 N. Charles St. [email protected] P.O. Box 3454 Baltimore, MD 21218 Houston, TX 77253-3454 [email protected] Tucson, Ariz. www.workers.org. Cleveland [email protected] 443.221.3775 713.503.2633 Pittsburgh A headline digest is available via e-mail subscription. P.O. 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Over 200 demonstrators, a majority Georgia International Law Enforcement Palestinian, rallied and marched in At- Exchange program, Atlanta police offi- lanta on Dec. 16 to oppose U.S. recogni- cers learn repressive police tactics used tion of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The by Israel against the Palestinian people. demonstration, organized by Jewish The police then use these tactics against Voice for Peace, was supported by Stu- communities of color in Atlanta. dents for Justice in Palestine, the Inter- Outside CNN headquarters, protesters national Action Center and the Interna- drew attention to the central role major tional Socialist Organization. Speakers U.S. news outlets play in covering up the denounced the oppression of Palestin- daily brutality Palestinians face. They ians, the role played by by the U.S., and charged the city’s powerful in the crime supported the need for international sol- of Palestinian oppression. In response, idarity against racism and imperialism. CNN guards threatened to call the police Oppression in Palestine and Atlanta on protesters. are intimately connected. Through the — Report by Chris Coughlin

WW PHOTO: HANNAH ALEXANDER Indianapolis for Palestine

An emergency rally Dec. 10 in down- Voice for Peace, the Egyptian Student town Indianapolis denounced the Trump Association at IUPUI and the American administration’s attack on the Palestin- Friends Service Committee. Braving the ian people when he declared Jerusalem cold, people assembled for a rally and to be the capital of Israel. Called by Stu- marched to demonstrate that Jerusalem dents for Justice in Palestine at Indiana is the capital of Palestine. They stood University-Purdue University Indianap- in solidarity with resistance to Israeli olis, the action featured speakers from apartheid. Free Palestine! Muslim Student Association groups at — Report by Workers World Butler University and IUPUI, Jewish Indianapolis bureau

PHOTO: STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE- IUPUI, INDIANAPOLIS Boston

The sound of Palestinian Dabke music and chants of “Jerusalem is Palestine!” filled Boston’s Copley Square on Dec. 17. Community solidarity lifted up the struggle for Palestinian self-determina- tion there in the face of Trump’s recog- nizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The spirited rally was co-sponsored by a broad coalition of organizations, includ- ing the New Generation Club of Boston, Massachusetts Peace Action, Workers World Party, Palestine@MIT, North- eastern Students for Justice in Palestine, Team Solidarity of Steelworkers Local 8751 and the Boston Party for Socialism and Liberation. — Report by WW Boston bureau WW PHOTO: STEVAN KIRSCHBAUM

Pensacola, Fla.

TURN THE GUNS AROUND By John Catalinotto Weaving together GI letters, interviews and first-hand narratives with historical research, the author brings to life GI resistance in the Vietnam War era, shows its relation to capitalist state power and highlights why breaking the military chain of command is an essential step to ending oppression around the globe. “If schools in the United States really wanted to impart historical truth, Catalinotto’s ‘Turn The Guns Around’ would be required reading. He tells the true story of this epoch. Few participants know more about the ­massive GI rebellion against the Vietnam War, the anti-war ­veterans’ movement or the history of soldier A three-person team — a Workers World Party revolts from the Paris Commune to the Portuguese coup.” comrade, candidate and friend — painted the Pensacola, – Pvt Larry Holmes GI resister and organizer for Fla., community ‘Graffiti Bridge’ for Palestine on Dec. 16. the American Servicemen’s Union 1972-74.

PHOTO: MALLORY GIORDANY Available at online booksellers Page 4 Dec. 21, 2017 workers.org

Walter Scott: Community/labor organizing wins some justice

By Meghan Watts ously. That is why Leonard Riley Jr. took the lead and arranged the organization- After more than a year and a half of al meeting for the protest at the North waiting, the family of Walter L. Scott Charleston City Hall.” Activists in the sees some semblance of justice. In an community responded quickly and effec- all-too-familiar script, Scott, an unarmed tively — informed by their longstanding Black man, was shot multiple times from involvement in struggle. behind by white police officer Michael This long history of grassroots orga- Slager during a traffic stop in 2015. In a nizing and union struggles must not be court decision almost unheard of in re- overlooked in Charleston. In 2000, just cent cases, Slager was sentenced to 20 15 years before Scott was murdered, the years in prison on Dec. 7 in a federal Dis- Black-led ILA local and other labor orga- trict Court in Charleston, S.C. nizations took up the case of the Charles- Walter Scott’s youngest brother, Rodney ton Five, a group of longshore workers Scott, said: “Hopefully, it sets the platform arrested and charged with felony counts for the future. I hope that other families of conspiring to start a riot. that are still trying to get justice will get In that case, charges stemmed from justice.” (postandcurrier.com, Dec. 7) picketing the Nordana shipping line’s use The Scott case has become a beacon of nonunion workers after a 23-year his- Local community protests the shooting of Walter Scott, North Charleston City Hall, April 8, 2015. of hope in the seemingly hopeless task of tory of employing only union workers. Po- seeking adequate accountability for po- lice attacked the picketers, taunting and arrest Black people — and came together As this experience in Charleston lice killings of U.S. residents. physically harassing the participants. to speak out against this repetition of an showed, communities can come togeth- The sentence, while less than South Those in solidarity with the workers then execution without trial. er to fight back and demand justice be Carolina’s minimum 30-year sentence urged organizers and union members to With the power of Local 1422 and its served. Local 1422’s work is reflected in for second-degree murder, demonstrates speak out against police brutality and ha- history firmly rooted in the fight against the sentencing of Scott’s killer. As Pres- the impact of the efforts made by com- rassment. The five workers were eventu- police harassment, Charleston is an ex- ident Riley promised in the 2015 union munity organizers in Charleston. ally acquitted of all charges — once again ample that other areas can learn from to statement: “Local 1422 will continue to Rodney Scott and two other close rel- highlighting the power of communities. harness the clout of the workers’ st­ ruggle. stand up and speak out against injustice atives of Walter Scott, Marion Green In the case of Walter Scott, union mem- In Scott’s case, a killer cop will see in any form, whether it is racial profiling, and James Gibbs, are members of the bers and community leaders were quick prison time. In too many other cases, racial discrimination or, as in this case, International Longshoremen’s Associ- to rally together in front of the North there is no justice at all. Cops kill people racial homicide.” ation Local 1422. The ILA local issued Charleston City Hall in 2015. This was with impunity and communities are left From Charleston to Ferguson, Mo., a statement in April 2015 regarding the shortly after murder charges were filed to pick up the pieces. More than just a to New York to Durham, N.C., the peo- killing. President Kenneth Riley said: against Slager. The people were all too superficial hashtag movement, victories ple are standing up and speaking out — “Local 1422 recognizes that we have a familiar with broken-taillight policing like the one in this case should be rec- against police brutality, against racism, social responsibility to our community that pervaded their streets — where cops ognized as powerful examples of what a against white supremacy. And the people and we take that responsibility very seri- seized any small offense as an excuse to people’s movement for justice can win. can win! Boss Trump attacks low-wage workers

By Chris Fry nounced a new rule on Dec. 4 that allows wage workers hired by temporary staff- ponent), Arizona, Colorado, Maine and owners to control their workers’ tips. ing firms and contractors. (epi.org, Dec. Washington state all voted to increase the Eric Cantor, Republican House ma- Supposedly, this is so owners can use 15) minimum wage to at least $12 an hour. A jority leader in 2012, put out a tweet to the tips to pay “back-room” workers like Under this ruling, made without any South Dakota measure that would lower celebrate Labor Day that year. It failed to dishwashers and cooks, predom- public hearings, workers who demand the minimum wage for workers under the mention workers at all. Instead, it praised inantly immigrants and higher pay from the contrac- age of 18 was soundly defeated. In No- those who “built a business and earned men of color, who don’t tor-owner can be told that the vember, Maine’s voters approved a mea- their own success.” (nytimes.com, Dec. 14) have contact with franchiser sets pay and work sure to expand Medicaid to 70,000 low- That Cantor heaped praise on the boss- customers. standard rules. At the same wage workers in the state. es while failing to cite workers in any way What this allows time, the franchiser can say Stagnant wages since the 1970s have on the one official U.S. holiday that is the bosses to do, that pay and benefits are up sparked this sense of worker solidarity. supposed to recognize labor’s “contribu- however, is to pocket to the contractor. This ruling “In a notable shift from earlier decades, tions” reveals how politicians and their the servers’ hard-earned rigs the whole system against labor’s share of income is no longer con- Wall Street masters hold the working tip money or, at best, to use the workers. stant, but has fallen from nearly 65 per- class in utter contempt. But this gaffe was this money to keep regular wages low for Of course, these pro-business mea- cent in the mid-1970s to below 57 percent symbolic. back-room workers. sures are designed to blunt the “$15 an in 2017.” (Harvard Business Review, Oct. Far more damaging are the recent Then, Trump’s National Labor Rela- hour and a union” movement. Raising 24) Some in the establishment may con- attacks by the Boss Trump regime on tions Board, by a 3-2 margin on Dec. 14, the minimum wage to a living wage has sider Trump “a loose cannon,” but Wall workers, particularly low-wage workers. rescinded the rule that made franchise struck a chord across the country. Over Street backs him to the hilt in his attempts Workers in restaurants, nail and hair sa- owners and franchisees jointly responsi- the last decade, even voters in the so- to transfer income from labor to capital. lons, and other service workers, predom- ble to abide by labor rules and standards, called most conservative states have, Rulings and maneuvers by Trump’s inantly women of color, need to supple- including bargaining with their workers. when given the opportunity, favored in- stooges will only increase the anger of the ment their low pay with tips, which total This ruling not only harms low-wage creasing the minimum wage. workers and oppressed communities as some $30 billion a year in the U.S. workers at huge franchises like McDon- In 2016 alone, despite Trump’s election they fall further and further behind the Trump’s Department of Labor an- ald’s, but it also harms 24 million low- (with 3 million fewer votes than his op- wealthy corporate parasites. Chicago Sex workers protest at sheriff’s office

Sex workers and supporters rallied ents, resulting in incarcerations, depor- at Chicago’s Daley Center on Dec. 17 to tations, loss of income and, too often, loss express outrage at the recent murder of of life. a New York City massage parlor worker, Participants chanted, “Stop the raids! Yang Song, by New York police. Decem- Justice for Yang Song!” and “Stop crim- ber 17 is International Day to End Vio- inalizing working people! Stop targeting lence Against Sex Workers, so the rally parlors!” The action was organized by fittingly took place across the street from Justice for Alisha Walker and the Sex Sheriff Tom Dart’s office. Worker Outreach Project Chicago and Dart frequently initiates stings and supported by Workers World Party. raids against sex workers and their cli- — Report and photo by Jeff Sorel workers.org Dec. 21, 2017 Page 5 LIBYA U.S./NATO attacks on Gaddafi brought today’s horrors

By Sam Ordoñez ment was a threat to NATO and to Europe. Boston By providing the tools to develop Africa and pursuing a socialized economic plan Anti-imperialists and revolutionaries in development, Gaddafi was showing the gathered outside the Massachusetts State world that there is an alternative to total House on Dec. 9 to express solidarity with reliance on the U.S. and Europe. He was the people of Libya and decry the U.S. rul- showing the world that there is an alter- ing class’s lead role in creating the horrific native to capitalism and ­imperialism. developments now unfolding there. Activists must oppose imperialist war at The rally and speakout were called by any cost. When the U.S. State Department the Answer Coalition of Boston and sup- demonizes a nation — when it says, “Ac- ported by Workers World Party. tivists must destroy it. We must annihi- Before NATO intervention in Libya, the late its government” — the working-class country was prospering. It had a robust movement has to be on the opposite side of system of public education and health these warmongers. We need to be yelling care. It was financing development proj- at the top our lungs: “No to war on Libya!

ects throughout Africa and the Middle No to war on Venezuela! No to war on Syr- WW PHOTO: STEVAN KIRSCHBAUM East. But Muammar Gaddafi’s govern- ia! No to war on People’s Korea!” Rally organizer Nino Brown addresses crowd outside the Massachusetts State House ­expressing solidarity with the people of Libya, Dec. 9. ‘Free Mumia and all political prisoners’

By Gloria Verdieu 1977; and Russell Maroon Shoats, BPP/ San Diego San Diego BLA, locked up since 1972. Representa- tives from the Leonard Peltier Defense Workers World Party hosted a “Free Committee, the San Diego Coalition to All Political Prisoners” forum here at the Free Mumia, the Committee Against Po- Brown Building, a space for activists, on lice Brutality (CAPB), and the San Diego Dec. 9, in a meeting called to pay tribute Black Panther Party (SD-BPP) were pres- to Long Distance Revolutionary Mumia ent. Abu-Jamal on the 36th anniversary of Patrick Germany, an Amity sub- his arrest. stance-abuse counselor and member SD- A slide presentation showed faces of BPP, and Curtis Howard, San Diego na- political prisoners, most of them mem- tive and former inmate in the California bers of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Department of Corrections, were guest the Black Liberation Army (BLA); some speakers. Howard explained how his have been locked up for over 40 years. book, “Cell Mates & Cell Outs,” is about Community activist Mickey Smith what it’s really like to be in prison. It’s not welcomed everyone and emphasized the what you see on TV, Howard explained: PHOTO: FRANKIE GERMANY movement to free Mumia is a movement “For one thing, there is no smoking al- for justice for all political prisoners. lowed in California prisons and as far as Led by Black community After a brief update on the case of weight lifting, CDC banned weights over Mumia, participants watched a recorded 20 years ago.” video presentation by Sekou Abdullah In closing, the gathering listened to a Alabama bigot booted Odinga, a former political prisoner re- “Message of Love” from Mumia. The pho- leased after 34 years in prison. to in front of the Mumia banner donated Continued from page 1 extremely high for an off-year, two-per- Updates were given on political pris- to CAPB by artist Mario Torero in 1997 Moore’s modern-day defeat was son race in majority-Black counties like oners Leonard Peltier of the American will be sent to Mumia along with messag- achieved through mass organizing by Greene and Perry, centers of past civil Indian Movement (AIM), locked up since es of revolutionary greetings and love. people in Alabama determined to fight rights struggles. back against racism, woman-hating, Is- Black women also led door-to-door, lamophobia, anti-immigrant and an- grassroots organizing as African-Amer- ti-LGBTQ bigotry. They resisted the dead ican Alabamians continued their centu- hand of segregation and the use of slav- ries-long fight for basic human and Civil Give to Workers World newspaper! ery-era Christianity to justify murder, Rights — a struggle independent of any rape and all kinds of viciousness. one political party. In exit polls and on We like to think our readers value • Why Che Guevara still lives 50 years Even The Hill, an inside-the-Beltway social media, Black voters said their vote Workers World — because for 51 weeks after his death website, had to concede that victory came was not an endorsement of Jones or the a year we bring you news that doesn’t • Fighting for worldwide socialism means from the mass movement, including “log- Democratic Party, but they had again appear in the corporate media through plenty for all workers and the oppressed ging 1.2 million voter phone calls and gone out “to do what had to be done” a working-class lens. And our Marxist How can you show your gratitude for knocking on 300,000 doors — an effort to block the return to Jim Crow days of analysis of both national and interna- what WW newspaper gives you every made more notable because of the lack of state-authorized racism, rape, reaction tional issues can’t be found anywhere week? One way in this capitalist economy any real Democratic [Party] infrastruc- and death. else in the progressive U.S. press. is with hard-earned dollars. That’s why ture statewide.” (Dec. 12) Voting-while-Black in Alabama on We trust you rely on Workers World we set up the Workers World Supporter Groups involved ranged from political Dec. 12 confronted outright voter intim- for coverage of such topics as: Program 40 years ago. Help us contin- organizations like the Alabama NAACP, idation, codified in the Supreme Court’s • The importance of the 100th anniver- ue to publish working-class truth and the LGBTQ-oriented Human Rights Cam- 2013 Shelby County [Alabama] v. Holder sary of the Russian Revolution build many critical struggles in 2017 and paign and End Citizens United, to non- decision. This ruling gutted key portions • Why WWP sides with People’s Korea beyond. partisan grassroots groups like Greater of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, won with against U.S. warmongering For a donation of at least $75 a year — Birmingham Ministries and Vote or Die. the blood of Black Civil Rights Movement • Defense of the right of athletes to protest and much more if you’re able — members Individuals appealed on Facebook for martyrs, and it has been used to suppress racist injustice receive a year’s subscription to WW, a money to fund home-bound people to vote. voters nationwide, including with restric- • The many ways Trump and Co. like monthly letter about timely issues and Others, ignited by the #MeToo campaign tive voter-ID laws. screwing poor and working people five free subscriptions to give to friends. against sexual abuse and violence toward From Homewood, a Birmingham sub- every day Write checks (either ­monthly or once a women, joined in knocking on doors. urb, social media reported that city police • Why defending Durham activists year) to Workers World and mail them, were systematically stopping and ticket- should be at the top of labor’s agenda with your name and address, to 147 W. Black leadership decisive ing drivers of color on streets approach- • Ending the racist death penalty, work- 24th St., 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10011. The turnout of Black voters was cru- ing a polling place. Homewood City Jail is ing to free political prisoners and tear Or sign up to donate online at workers. cial. It equaled the historic levels of Black where Kindra Darnell Chapman, a Black down the jails org/donate/; it’s easy to set up monthly votes for Barack Obama. Of Black women, gender-nonconforming teenager, died in • How imperialism is expanding its deductions. Know that we’re grateful for 98 percent voted for Jones, together with 2015 under suspicious circumstances. military presence in Africa while China your help in building Workers World — 93 percent of Black men. Turnout was Continued on page 6 builds that continent’s infrastructure for today and for the future! Page 6 Dec. 21, 2017 workers.org Led by Black community Alabama bigot booted

Continued from page 5 Mule, Big Steel” agriculture and business ‘Struggle far from over interests that continue to this day in Ala- for Black Alabamians’ bama. Their propaganda, policy and laws After the election of Democrat Jones, have for centuries indoctrinated white the struggle is far from over for Black workers into racism and set them against people in Alabama. When a reporter Black workers, to the murderously un- asked Jones if Black Alabamians face equal but real detriment of both groups. different issues than white Alabamians, ‘Sitting it out’ vs. solidarity Jones called the question “divisive,” even though Black residents are 2-1/2 times A vote for Jones offered white workers more likely to live in poverty and twice as a chance to protest the racist propagan- likely to be imprisoned. (talkpoverty.org) da of the owning class. Some white vot- Monica Moorehead, the 2016 WWP ers seem to have sat out the election, with presidential candidate, was born in Tus- white-majority counties showing signifi- caloosa, Ala. She told WW: “As a Black cantly lower turnouts than their 2016 vote person who experienced the trauma of for Trump. racist segregation from birth until ado- But “sitting it out” this election was not lescence, the defeat of Moore was really a clear rejection of racism and sexism, a people’s referendum against white su- nor even a neutral position. As the South premacy and heinous misogyny. These continues to be the fastest growing region go hand-in-hand because they are both PHOTO: AFRICAN HISTORY NETWORK economically in the U.S., and as Alabama rooted in the divide-and-conquer system Rose Sanders of Selma, co-founder and coordinator of the Vote or Die Campaign, received competes for more manufacturing and of capitalism. death threats for the organizing efforts she and her group engaged in to turn out the Afri- corporate business to locate there, those “While you can never vote away capi- can-American vote against racist Judge Roy Moore. with financial interests in the state saw talism, voting can serve as a political ba- Moore’s election as an echo of the Old rometer on where the masses stand on ly declared that LGBTQ people should be for exploitation. A Nov. 9 Washington South and “bad for business.” certain issues, more than choosing less- punished, even executed, to “protect the Post story scrupulously documented his A polarizing figure like Moore could er-evil candidates,” said Moorehead. family.” The Alabama Supreme Court de- predatory hunting and sexual assault of stir up community and worker organiz- “This defeat of Moore at the polls was cision denied custody to lesbian mother underage teenage girls in the 1970s, when ing, call up solidarity and threaten the big just as important as a shut-it-down pro- Dawn Huber. Then Chief Justice Moore he was serving as deputy district attorney profits being wrenched from the working test in the streets. The vote reflected the wrote: “[Homosexual conduct] is an in- of Etowah County. class in this “right-to-work-for-less” state. ongoing shut-it-down sentiment against herent evil against which children must Moore’s extreme right-wing statements Meanwhile, all workers, including the Moore and also against the white su- be protected,” adding: “[T]he State ... car- and actions are consistent with his brand white workers who voted for Moore, are premacist and misogynist who occupies ries the power of the sword … the power of “Christian nationalism.” According to going to take it on the chin as Republicans the White House. to prohibit conduct with physical penal- journalist Michelle Goldberg, these “do- continue their attack on Social Security, “My mother’s family is rooted in Wil- ties, such as confinement and even execu- minionists” believe they have “a holy re- Medicare and other benefits won during cox County, ranked the poorest county in tion.” (WW, March 3, 2002) sponsibility to reclaim the land [the U.S.] upsurges of mass organizing from the the state. The fact that Black people, espe- Moore was removed permanently from for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in 1930s through the 1960s. cially women, turned out in record num- the court twice, once in 2002 for refusing civil structures, as in every other aspect Once a bastion of organized labor, the bers shows that despite dire poverty and to remove a Ten Commandments monu- of life.” (“Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Alabama unionization rate was twice that other intense forms of oppression, Black ment he had installed in the state judicial Christian Nationalism,” 2011) of other Southern states, and even on par lives matter in every struggle.” building and again in 2016 for ordering In October 2017, Moore was the rising with some Northern states. Some of those The enduring lineage of Black organiz- county probate judges to ignore the U.S. star of the Christian right as it united with union struggles were won with multina- ing in Alabama is exemplified in Moore- Supreme Court decision legalizing same- white supremacists and neofascists at the tional solidarity. (Payday Report/The head’s family, including great-grandfather sex marriage. right-wing Family Research Council’s an- Guardian, Dec. 16) Doug Jones bragged William James Edwards, who founded An outright white supremacist, when nual Value Voters Summit. (tinyurl.com/ during his campaign that he was the Snow Hill Normal and y95z8w3s) This is the context for grandson of unionized steelworkers and a Industrial Institute in Moore’s consistent Islamopho- union member when working at U.S. Steel Wilcox County in 1893 for bic position that Muslims should Fairfield Works to pay for college. formerly enslaved people. not be allowed to serve in the U.S. But Jones is not calling for mass resis- The institute remained Congress “because of their reli- tance to the state’s right-to-work law. De- open until 1973, and gion.” (newsweek.com, Dec. 12) spite a campaign pledge to help workers then was revived in 1979 According to CBS News on organize in the state’s growing auto in- by Moorehead’s mother Dec. 12, most voters had decid- dustry, all he’s announced is appointment Consuela Lee as an Af- ed one way or the other about of a “labor liaison.” The likely outcome? A rican-American cultural Moore before the story on his predictable attempt to pull workers back center for the impover- sexual assaults appeared. How- into the national Democratic Party orbit. ished county. ever, women with children under Meanwhile, all workers are going to be 18 at home backed Jones by 66 buffeted by the austerity cuts to come as ‘Against the politics to 32 percent, with college-ed- the Democratic Party continues to sup- of hate and division’ ucated white women swinging port the all-military, all-the-time U.S. im- At Jones’ victory par- toward Jones as well. (ABCnews. perialist wars in search of capitalist profit. com, Dec.12) What lesson has the Alabama election ty, LGBTQ signs were Young women marching for voting rights for Black people in Alabama, waved, and Human Rights from Selma to Montgomery, 1965. But racism still left a very to offer? Mass independent organizing; Campaign President Chad heavy mark. Some 63 percent of fierce anti-racist work, especially with Griffin said the win “was made possible asked what would “make America great white women voted for Moore, despite the white workers; solidarity among people by the overwhelming and unprecedent- again,” Moore answered: “I think it was well-supported evidence that as an adult oppressed and under fire because of their ed, grassroots resistance of ordinary Al- great at the time when families were unit- Moore had had “sexual contact” with a nationality, sexuality, gender or disabili- abamians against the politics of hate and ed — even though we had slavery.” (cnn. child under the age of 14 — fitting most ty; resistance that steadfastly seeks the division.” (LGBTQ Nation, Dec. 12) com, Dec. 8) legal definitions of statutory rape in the way forward toward a world without cap- Less visible was under-the-radar or- Moore’s definition of “family” is a rac- U.S. (newsweek.com, Dec.13) italism and governed by socialist princi- ganizing by closeted LGBTQ Alabamians ist, neofascist, male-dominated, hetero- Since almost three-quarters of white ples. That is the only way to a lasting vic- still at risk for losing their jobs, children sexual, “Christian” institution, where men backed Moore, these figures sig- tory against injustice. and family. One visible protest was by wives are ruled by husbands and “unat- nal the still-entrenched hold of the di- Pratt was born in Selma, Ala., and white farmer Nathan Mathis, who sys- tached” girls and women are fair game vide-and-conquer racist strategies of “Big raised in Centreville, Ala. tematically picketed Moore throughout the campaign because of Moore’s an- Learn more. Available on line without charge. Find them at: www.workers.org/books ti-LGBTQ positions. Holding up a photo of his daughter, who committed suicide WHY COLIN KAEPERNICK IS RIGHT at 23 because of anti-gay attacks, Mathis voiced bitter regret for his own anti-gay Articles from Workers World/ Mundo Obrero Newspaper prejudice, condemned the Republican The Klan & Government: Examines the special relationship with the state that candidate’s attack on young women and has allowed the Ku Klux Klan to exist for over a century waved a sign, “Don’t vote for Moore.” FOES OR ALLIES? despite its criminal history of lynchings, and intimidation. (CNN.com, Dec.12) In a 2002 legal opinion, Moore actual- MARXISM, REPARATIONS & the Black Freedom Struggle Available at all major online booksellers. workers.org Dec. 21, 2017 Page 7

PART ON E Lessons of ‘The Hammer & the Hoe: The Alabama Communist Party 1928-1951’

This is Part 1 of a three-part series based on an article that originally appeared and ­despite the increasing on Dec. 14 in The Forge, a socialist newspaper for the South (theforgenews.org). debt of Black planters and By Devin Cole youth — Haywood Patterson, Clarence harvesters, who could hardly Norris, Charlie Weems, Andy and Roy afford to get by as it was, the In 1990, Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley pub- Wright, Olin Montgomery, Ozie Pow- available land where cotton lished the phenomenal book “Hammer ell, Willie Roberson and Eugene Wil- was planted and picked was and Hoe: The Alabama Communist Party liams — were arrested and falsely ac- greatly reduced, causing land- 1928-1951,” documenting the 23-year his- cused of sexually assaulting two white lords to evict these planters tory of the Alabama Communist Party, a women on a train in 1931. It was later and harvesters off their land chapter of the Communist Party USA. revealed that the women were forced with nowhere to go. Formed and molded by Black share- by police to testify that the youth had This allowed white land- croppers and laborers such as Black rev- sexually assaulted them or else they owners in Alabama, who had, olutionary Hosea Hudson, the ACP went would be arrested themselves. through the long-existing above and beyond fighting for the rights of An all-white jury found them all white supremacist system, laborers and workers, Black and white, to guilty and eight were sentenced to acquired land, animals, food, the rights to housing, food and equal pay. death. The ACP and the Internation- seeds and other implementa- The eventual dissolution of the ACP al Labor Defense, a communist-led tions for their fields, to “lease” was brought on by the Red Scare, the Ku legal advocacy organization, rallied land, food, equipment and Klux Klan and reactionary politicians in behind the youth and spread the word shelter to anyone looking for Alabama. But it is important to under- throughout the South and eventually work. Since the largest per- stand that it took the collective effort of made national headlines. In the end, centage of those unemployed the local and state white supremacist eight of the nine young men were were Black people, that was government to bring down the organized freed or paroled, all due to the work of the largest group that would party of mainly Black laborers and work- the ACP and ILD. become workers for the land- ers, and that it took over two decades to lords and planters. Sharecropper Ned Cobb, a.k.a. Nate Shaw, at 22, with his do. This alone proves the resilience of Low wages spur organizing This essentially became spouse, Viola, and their son Andrew, in 1907. Cobb was a a new, legal form of slavery these revolutionary Southerners. The formation of the ACP could not membr of the Alabama Sharecroppers Union, organized that sidestepped the already Though initially skeptical of a commu- have come at a better time: In Birming- by the ACP. nist party in the South, the CPUSA, along ham, Ala., in 1910, the cost of labor flawed 13th Amendment to with other communists all over the United was so cheap that 80 percent of people in involved in domestic work. By 1930, two the U.S. Constitution. White landown- States, eventually had to eat their words. Birmingham earned under $500 a year years after the formation of the party and ers exploited and squeezed all the mon- Despite threats often carried out by rac- [$13,070 in 2016 dollars], while the 1% one year after the stock market crash, ey and resources they could from these ist pigs, by 1934 the Alabama Sharecrop- made $35,000 a year [$915,655 in 2016 16,000 Black women worked in domes- Black workers for little or no pay, and up pers’ Union [SCU] was composed entirely dollars]. This was possible because of the tic services and by 1935, at least 8,000 until the formation of the ACP, no one of Black laborers and had a membership cheap labor of Black workers who were Black women were registered in the Al- could do anything for fear of retaliation of 6,000 people, the largest of any Black (and still are) paid less than white work- abama Employment Services. The wages by the police and the KKK. union in the South. ers. Even though, in 1910, Black men made that Black women made historically were This, along with the day-to-day, sys- The SCU was developed and maintained up 55 percent of coal miners in Alabama, even less than those of Black men, with temic racism, caused an intense wave of by members of the ACP until its dissolution and 65 percent of ironworkers in Birming- Black women working longer hours for fear to constantly linger over the heads shortly after 1936, though by that point its ham, Black men were also over 90 percent just $1 or $2 a week, which comes out to of Black workers, but nevertheless, they membership was at 10,000. Some of the of Birmingham’s unskilled labor force. $48 or $96 a year [$702 and $1,405 per continued to organize anyway, organizing notable victories of the SCU were the raise By 1920, Black women made up 60 per- annum, as of 2016]. strikes and organizing their own commu- of wages per 100 pounds of cotton on some cent of workers, 87 percent of whom were At the height of the Great Depression, nities. In a few cases, they successfully plantations in Alabama to 75 Black people, especially Black women, rallied Black and white workers together, cents in 1934 (roughly $13 a made so little money that they often creating a very rare form of solidarity that day in 2017), as well as the only had enough for rent and ate what- even now can break the tightest chains of stopping of evictions of Black ever leftover food that domestic working the bourgeoisie. and white workers who were women could secure from the tenants of petty-bourgeois, homes they worked in during racist ­landlords. the days and nights. Perhaps most notably, the A new type of legal slavery ACP was instrumental in the handling of organization After World War I, the among rank-and-file commu- price of cotton plummeted, nists and other workers in de- fense of the Scottsboro Nine, The Scottsboro Nine with their lawyer from the Internat­ional Women welders in Mobile, Ala., a case in which nine Black Labor Defense, organized by the CPUSA, around 1932. shipyards during the 1940s. The Alabama election: Which road toward African-American liberation?

The following is excerpted from an earlier article that dealt in more detail demands of the African-American people a failed president. Even the conservative with Moore’s extreme right-wing politics. Interestingly enough, initial reports in- USA Today newspaper, in an editorial dicate that a larger percentage of African published on Dec. 14, said that he is unfit By Abayomi Azikiwe strategist, Steve Bannon, to campaign for Americans turned out to vote for Jones for office. Editor, Pan-African News Wire Moore. Bannon, who left the White House than they did for Hillary Clinton in the Moreover, as it relates to the overall in recent months, then returned to the 2016 presidential race that brought Trump status of African-American people, bloc President Trump traveled to Pensacola, “alt-right” publication Breitbart News. to power. Clinton was unable to inspire the voting, direct action and mass mobiliza- Fla., on Dec. 8 for a get-out-the-vote rally African-American voters played a piv- necessary enthusiasm among nationally tions have been used effectively as tactics for white supremacist Judge Roy Moore, otal role in the defeat of Moore. The divi- oppressed groups, resulting in her monu- since the middle 20th century to achieve the Republican running for the U.S. Sen- sion within the white electorate and the mental defeat in the Electoral College. short-term goals, both on a symbolic and ate in nearby Alabama. Despite this, overwhelming support of African-Amer- Consequently, independent political on a substantive level. Moore lost to his Democratic opponent, ican and Latinx voters resulted in the direction is still required for further prog- However, the strategic objectives Doug Jones, appointed a U.S. Attorney narrow victory by Jones of approximate- ress aimed at full equality and self-de- aimed at total freedom require a far deep- for the Northern District of Alabama by ly 1.5 percent. termination. Even with Trump’s blatant er institution-building methodology. former President Bill Clinton during the With the recent defeats of Republican racist pandering to an ever-shrinking The necessary fundamental trans- 1990s. At the Pensacola meeting, just 25 candidates in Virginia and Alabama, the political base, where his approval rating formation of the economy and political miles from the Alabama border, Trump Democratic electorate has been reinvigo- has sunk to an abysmal 32 percent, the superstructure can only be achieved urged participants to vote for Moore on rated. However, this will not automatical- Democratic Party as a whole is provid- through independent revolutionary orga- Dec. 12. ly translate into a greater commitment on ing no real program to mobilize the Afri- nization designed to create a new social This event was held in the aftermath the part of the U.S. ruling class and state can-American people. ... order based on the acquisition of a genu- of a visit to Alabama by Trump’s chief structures for the full realization of the At any rate, Trump is being revealed as inely egalitarian society. Page 8 Dec. 21, 2017 workers.org Bears Ears fight exposes history of U.S. genocide BEARSEARSCOALITION.ORG

By Stephanie Tromblay Reduction of Grand Staircase/ The military also uses the leftover Huron/Metis nonstatus Escalante National Monument, depleted uranium in armor plat- and Tsalagi heritage unenrolled which is also home to Native ing and bullets. The Pentagon’s historical, cultural and paleon- use of DU has left parts of Iraq The Trump White House’s plan to steal tological sites, is a giveaway to thoroughly poisoned to the ex- 1 million acres from Bears Ears National coal mining interests. tent that women in Fallujah Monument lays bare the history of U.S. Trump and Interior Sec- have been warned to avoid genocide against Native nations and land retary Ryan Zinke’s attack getting pregnant due to it re- theft in the interests of imperialism, en- on Bears Ears is U.S. impe- sulting in horrendous birth ergy companies and the military-indus- rialism’s continuing geno- defects. trial complex, all of which are based on cidal warfare and cultural Drillers and looters that genocide. annihilation. Despite Trump The announced 2-million-acre reduc- and Zinke’s denial of corporate There is a long history in tion of Bears Ears and the Grand Stair- interests in these lands, during the Four Corners area of the case/Escalante monuments is the largest Zinke’s review of national monu- Western states of theft of cultur- cut to federal land protection in U.S. his- ments, the Utah Legislature filed a al artifacts, which are often dug up tory and an unprecedented planned take- 49-page comment alleging Bears Ears and sold to rich collectors, most of- over in the interests of mining and energy National Monument would destroy the ten damaging ruins in the process. An- corporations. The staged announcement state’s uranium industry. cient petroglyphs throughout the West itself displayed Trump’s connections Energy Fuels Resources, owners of have sometimes been drilled or hacked with right-wing land-use ideologues and the White Mesa Uranium Mill and the to pieces to remove parts for illegal sales. A University of New Mexico study re- fossil fuel and uranium corporations. Daneros Uranium Mine, lobbied the ad- This is what Trump meant in announc- cently found 85 percent of Diné homes Trump appeared onstage with right- ministration to give them use of monu- ing that the monument prevented local are contaminated with uranium, and the wing Utah politicians Sen. Orrin Hatch, ment lands. Chief Operating Officer Mark people “from enjoying their outdoor ac- mineral has even been found in their in- Gov. Gary Herbert, Rep. Rob Bishop and Chalmers said there are “many other tivities.” fants’ urine. Navajos living near uranium San Juan County Commissioner Phil Ly- known uranium and vanadium deposits Racist San Juan County Commission- mines have higher levels of the mineral man, all opponents of Bears Ears National located within [Bears Ears].” (Washing- er Phil Lyman, who was onstage with in their bones than 95 percent of the U.S. Monument status, when he made the an- ton Post, Dec. 8) Trump, led a white supremacist ATV ride population. (Jacqueline Keeler, “Trump’s nouncement on Dec. 4 in Salt Lake City. The Ute Mountain Ute community across 1,000-year-old Puebloan ruins in message for tribes: Let them eat yellow- Five Native nations — the Navajo, is directly threatened by the Daneros 2014 to protest the BLM closure of an il- cake,” High Country News, Dec. 16) Hopi, Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute, and Uin- mine and the White Mesa mill. Energy legally created road through the ancient After the U.S. bombed Hiroshima and tah and Ouray Ute nations, united as the Fuels aims to increase capacity to haul ruins. Joining that ride was Ryan Bundy, Nagasaki in 1945, some 30 million tons of Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition — had up to 500,000 tons of uranium through who was part of the 2016 proto-fascist uranium were mined on the Navajo Na- won monument status in 2016 for 1.3 mil- Cedar Mesa, a mountain just below the takeover of the Malheur National Wild- tion reservation. Diné miners were hired lion acres of their sacred ancestral lands two buttes called Bears Ears. Both the life Refuge. During that takeover, white as cheap labor and were not informed of with unprecedented Indigenous over- Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute supremacists plowed over Paiute ruins to the health risks. By the early 1960s, min- sight. Trump’s proclamation is meant to have suffered devastation from uranium create a latrine and pillaged precious pre- ers were getting sick and dying. Survi- strip control from them over uranium, waste and its refinement. served artifacts. vors, widows and family members in the oil and gas deposits and to attack their Since 2013, energy companies have While the Bundyites at Malheur Uranium Radiation Victims Committee cultural heritage. Bears Ears is densely asked the Bureau of Land Management threatened the lives of Malheur BLM began to fight the corporate abuse of their packed with ancient cultural resources. (BLM) to open 100,000 acres of land employees, Trump is considering Kar- community and started a 30-year legal Puebloan ruins in the area are thousands within the Bears Ears area to oil and gas en Budd-Falen, Bundy’s former attorney battle for workers compensation and of years old. leasing, according to the Center for Bi- and ideologue, for nomination to head damages. Navajo Nation President Peter- Angelo Baca, a coordinator of Utah ological Diversity, although oil has not the BLM. This is analogous to Scott son Zah declared a moratorium on urani- Diné Bikéyah and a filmmaker, said, been pumped in the area since 1992. Pruitt’s takeover of the Environmental um mining in December 1992. “Bears Ears will always be Indigenous Protection Agency. There have been clusters of birth de- land, and nothing will change that.” (New Uranium mining: Impact on Diné/Navajo fects and stillbirths in Diné children in Navajo Code Talkers and ‘Pocahontas’ York Times, Dec. 8) Nation and the arms race the Shiprock, N.M., uranium mining The five nations, joined by environ- The history of uranium mining is one The unprecedented downsizing of area. The National Institutes of Health mental and conservationist groups, have of thievery and devastation of Native Bears Ears and Grand Escalante mon- reported in 1992 that more than 320 filed five federal lawsuits against reduc- lands with total disregard for its impact uments was overshadowed by Trump’s kinds of congenital conditions had been tion of the two monuments. The law- on the health of all who live in proximity. racist use of the ceremony honoring detected in Indian Health Service hospi- suits encompass challenges to Trump’s Uranium mining forms the basis of the World War II Navajo Code Talkers. These tal records from Shiprock. In these cas- violation of the 1906 Antiquities Act and infrastructure of the nuclear arms man- veterans were to be honored for their es, the mothers lived near uranium mine the posed threat to hundreds of histori- ufacturing industry. The Navajo Nation vital role in the war against against the dumps and tailings. Some of the fathers cal and archeological pueblos and kivas has taken the brunt of the extraction of Axis powers by using their Diné language had worked in the mines. NIH’s website (ruins of ancient apartment buildings this deadly mineral; it is poisonous and to transmit military communications. states: “Birth defects increased signifi- and ceremonial chambers), petroglyph radioactive. Miners are exposed to radi- Trump posed for the ceremony in front cantly when either parent worked in the (rock art) panels and artifacts. Also, they ation and carry it home on their clothing of portraits of the racist, genocidal Pres- Shiprock electronics assembly plant.” raise the direct and immediate harm that to their families. The winds blow the tail- ident Andrew Jackson, initiator of the Uranium prices remain low for now, would result to paleontological sites and ings from the mines across the lands and Trail of Tears, the enforced removals of but Trump has talked about producing the ecosystem. into nearby waters. Native nations from their lands. Trump more nuclear weapons. The nuclear arms called Sen. Elizabeth Warren “Pocahon- race began with the intention to tas” before the assembled media. make a first-strike attack against the Warren’s claim to Native ancestry is for former Soviet Union. After the fall of the Tsalagi people to decide, but the use the USSR, partly due to the relent- of Pocahontas’ name within the context less economic and political impact of the current culture of calling out sex- of the arms race, nuclear weapons ual abusers says volumes about Trump, stocks were downsized globally. But who has admitted to sexual misconduct. the U.S. still has more than all other Matoaka, nicknamed Pocahontas, a countries combined. The Pentagon daughter of the Native leader Powhatan, surrounds the Korean peninsula was kidnapped and raped by Jamestown with nuclear arms, and Trump has settlers. She was forced to marry a tobac- stated his intention to use them. co planter and taken to England, where The nuclear energy industry ex- she died of pneumonia. The Disney mov- ists because the military-industri- ie about her is based on a myth that she al complex required it to process saved John Smith. She would have been enough refined uranium to make 10 or 11 years old at the time. Smith was thousands of nuclear weapons. Ura- exposed in his day as one who told many nium ore is processed into yellow- such lies about Native women. cake to use in nuclear reactors. The Other sources: bearsearscoalition. The Colorado River runs north of chain reaction generates heat in the org, Deseret News, Indian Country To- Bear Ears National Monument. reactors and produces fissile materi- day, The Navajo Nation, Salt Lake City al required to make nuclear bombs. PHOTO: JIM LO SCALZO / EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK Tribune, Washington Post (Dec. 15). workers.org Dec. 21, 2017 Page 9 H Workers world party National Conference H

Excerpts based on talks given on Nov. 18 - Nov. 19 at the 2017 Workers World Party national conference in Newark, N.J. Full talks are available at workers.org. ‘I believe that we will win’

experience when we’ve had trips to Cuba, people. Bombs were flying, the U.S. was Venezuela and other liberation struggles. going to war, and people met in Boston. A party is a vanguard, fighting organi- And there were Zionists, right-wingers, zation. What is necessary to win! I don’t yelling. even know how to count how long I’ve I didn’t know any of the folks there. I been in the Party. To me it feels limitless, was by myself. because of how much I have learned and A Zionist started screaming at me. have gained. Before I knew anything, a white woman This organization fights on every lev- jumped in front of me and started scream- el. We have decades of years around the ing back and was ready to defend me, de- Imani Henry disabled struggle, or we could talk about fend the Palestinians, the people of Iraq. how many years we have been a part of This was Comrade Maureen. I’ve been in the party since 1993. I’m The other thing was the non-verdict the Indigenous struggle. We could talk The Party is not rhetoric. It is about fighting to liberate myself, and my class, of the four cops that brutalized Rodney about [Dotty Ballan’s 1971] book, “Fem- practice in the struggle: the Leninist and for socialism. King. This was before the internet, but inism and Marxism” or [Bob McCub- application of the national question and I met the party when I was 22 as a someone had videotaped his beating. We bin’s 1976] book on LGBT liberation and fighting racism. Black, newly queer, not-yet trans being. didn’t have to explain police brutality. Marxism. And how comrades have never We figure out stuff every day. We figure The reason I joined Workers World Party You saw it. had to hide in the closet in the Party for out internationalism. We figure out inter- is because I wanted to win. I didn’t have When the verdict came down, my being a communist and being queer at generational. a lot of big political philosophy behind house phone lit up from folks in the com- the same time. We are a cadre, revolutionary, fight- that. munity, my school: “This is outrageous.” Many times at the WWP conferences, ing organization. And in a lot of ways we I was the first of my family to be born This was the first time I organized a comrades disclose things about them- are like a family. We know that we have in the U.S. My parents are Jamaican mi- demonstration. selves, whether it’s about their recovery, each other’s back. That we can call at 4 in grants. I was in Boston, a racist segregat- I understood that it didn’t matter that or the jobs they have chosen in their lives. the morning and say: “Comrade, there is ed city. I had graduated from college; police see Every member of our class, whether sex something going on and we need to move WWP had a big demonstration in Bos- our skin, gender, age, and they kill us. I workers, migrant workers, low-wage on a dime.” If our comrades are getting ton in 1974. Four years later, I was a child knew I wanted to be a revolutionary. workers, are part of the working class. death threats, or being chased by the on a school bus having rocks thrown at Nelson Mandela was touring the coun- We don’t just come to these realiza- state, we know we are going to mobilize. me, the “N” word, snowballs, taunting. try. The city of Boston decided that the tions. We grapple with them. There are We are here if you’re looking for a polit- Two things politicized me. One was the only place Mandela would be is the whit- generations of history and struggle in our ical home, for a place to belong, if you’re first Gulf War in 1990. I had a friend who est of places, Boston Commons. And the understanding that there are comrades looking for comrades. That is the highest was like a young brother who was going Black youths I knew said: “Hell, no. Man- who don’t use pronouns. And there are expression, the best gender-neutral “pro- into the military because he wanted a job. dela is coming to Roxbury, Mass.” comrades like myself who like the pro- noun.” He was one of the first ground troops in In the end, young people I knew were noun “he,” as a trans person. I love my Vinnie Copeland said that the Blacker Saudi Arabia. on stage with Mandela. The city had to binary identity, but fight for my gender we get, the Browner we get, the Redder I understood, maybe not U.S. impe- bring him into the Black community. Our nonconforming comrades. There are cis we are. I want to throw in the queerer, rialism, but that I was opposed to this Party was part of that. comrades who are sometimes out there kinkier, younger we are, the more Indig- war. I didn’t want my friend to be killed. What made me want to join was when the furthest. enous, disabled we are, then the better I understood that Black and Brown peo- the African National Congress had a pri- Comrade Maureen in Boston was the we are, the more able to defeat this ruling ple who can’t find a job shouldn’t be sent vate reception, and the group that got in- first comrade I met. As a young person in class, to defeat capitalism, so we can just away to die. vited was WWP. Boston, who didn’t have a lot of Marxist live our lives. So I joined Emergency New England That made me understand what it is to analysis, I just knew I wanted to be free. And I believe that we are the Party that Coalition to Stop U.S. Intervention in the be in a party, to have relationships with During the opening stages of the first can make that happen. Middle East. And I met the Party. organizations worldwide. I’ve had this Gulf War, there was a convergence of

NEW YORK Metro transit debt makes profits for Wall St.

By Julie Varughese transport workers who were living farther stress of the arrest contributed to his de- New York and farther away from the expensive city clining health. Goodwin’s good name was center where businesses were located. restored Dec. 15, after pressure by Trans- The Metropolitan Transit Authority But not so much good-paying work ex- port Workers Local 100, when a Manhat- here is on a collision course for a financial ists anymore in the city. The evolution of tan judge posthumously dismissed crim- crash. It just approved a $1.9 billion capital capitalism demands that work be automat- inal charges against him. project to build a third track for the Long ed to increase “productivity” — yielding While advocating for Goodwin at MTA Island Railroad, which mostly benefits profits from more work by fewer workers. board meetings, WDC members encoun- suburban commuters and the bourgeoisie. “The bosses really don’t need tens of tered other militants. Seeing the activism Some MTA board members at its Dec. millions of workers anymore,” said Renée around transportation, WDC members 13 meeting feigned concern about approv- Imperato, a disabled veteran and orga- realized they needed to broaden their ing yet another project that may run over nizer with the People’s MTA. “Why feed mission and create a united front. That PHOTO: TWU LOCAL 100 cost projections and require borrowing big us, why educate us and why house us?” was how the PMTA was born. Over the TWU Local 100 members outside Manhat- money. While board members may public- And why transport us? summer, the group’s activities included tan courtroom after judge posthumously ly fret about rising debt to the banks, they responding to massive delays and derail- cleared union comrade Darryl Goodwin for People’s MTA fights for riders and workers aren’t actually fighting on behalf of the ments in the subways. false cop charges against him. working people who use the system. Capitalism leaves our class with a stark Determined to fight for the working The Second Avenue Subway project future. That’s why PMTA has sprung up. class, PMTA’s demands include reduced billions in tax breaks from the Trump broke ground in 2007 with a projected The original members of PMTA, under and free fares, the addition of elevators in administration.” Murphy added that the cost of $3 billion. A decade later, it has the banner of NYC Workers Defense every subway station to comply with the MTA board needs to be replaced with a now sucked up $11 billion — and con- Committee, got involved in struggles Americans with Disabilities Act, more board of workers who ride and operate struction of the line’s second phase hasn’t around transportation in May. Transit buses and trains per hour, an end to racist public transportation. even begun. worker Darryl Goodwin had been ha- policing, and rights and justice for tran- The PMTA has rallied in front of MTA These overruns require the MTA to rassed and wrongfully arrested on May sit workers. While access to affordable headquarters monthly before heading take on more debt. The public agency 16 by an on-duty cop, one of hundreds transportation is being taken away from to the 20th floor of 2 Broadway in Man- already owes almost $40 billion to the hired by the MTA. The agency supports New York City workers, Boss Trump signs hattan to voice demands to MTA board banks, and has only been making inter- “broken-windows” policing — the theo- a bill to spend $700 billion for more wars. members. The next scheduled board est payments, instead of paying off the ry that arresting people for minor issues Tony Murphy, a PMTA organizer, sees meeting is 10 a.m. on Jan. 24. principal. The MTA — with loose fingers like fare jumping will deter major crimes. larger forces at play as the 113-year-old Join us in supporting all workers, with- in its wallet — might very well be the best However, such wrong thinking will not subway system crumbles. He told WW: out whom this society could not function. customer the banks could wish for. fix what’s wrong with the trains. “The MTA board is proving itself capable A public transit system should be a ser- The first subway line in New York City Goodwin died Aug. 16 before his tri- of only funneling money to Wall Street, vice, not a business. was built in 1904 by capitalist bosses to al. His union comrades feel strongly the the same class forces that are getting Varughese is an organizer with the People’s MTA. Page 10 Dec. 21, 2017 workers.org Honduran masses ‘fight every day without rest’ Free Honduras!

As of the morning of Dec. 19, the re- American States — usually a dependable cent election in Honduras is being decid- tool of Washington — saw fit to call for ed in the streets and workplaces — and a new election. It seems the OAS fears perhaps in the political consciousness of the Honduran masses and knows that the soldiers. accepting an obviously fraudulent elec- Elections top the media headlines this tion will likely spark more resistance, week — from Birmingham to Kathman- perhaps spreading elsewhere in Central du to Caracas to Tegucigalpa. America. In each case, Marxist lessons learned At most, OAS endorsement of the sto- in struggle over a century ago still hold len election could lead to a revolutionary true: An election alone cannot decide upsurge in Honduras, going far beyond which class rules society, or whether a a mere electoral victory for Alianza, the nation can free itself from imperialist left opposition coalition. domination. But it would be an error to Former President Mel Zelaya has dismiss elections as meaningless. called on the mass movement to come We can look to elections as a guide to out in the streets and plazas and to stay what the masses are thinking. We can there. News from the front line of this use them to assess the balance of forces struggle is still sketchy. This intense In Tegucigalpa on Dec. 15, a supporter of Salvador Nasralla, presidential candidate of the and the internal conflicts in the enemy class and national conflict is yet to be Opposition Alliance against the Dictatorship, orders the current president, Juan Orlando capitalist class. We can look to see where decided. Hernández, ”out” during massive country-wide demonstrations. there is opportunity to intervene in the Our job as a movement of workers and class and national struggle. oppressed peoples in the center of the By Martha Grevatt Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has Nowhere among these elections is the empire is not only to observe and learn declared him president-elect despite struggle more acute than in Honduras. from this struggle. We must do whatev- Three weeks after Hondurans voted clear indications that opposition candi- The pro-imperialist regime declared er we can in solidarity with the people of in the country’s quadrennial presiden- date Salvador Nasralla was the largest itself victorious in an election every- Honduras who are fighting for their lib- tial election, the struggle over flagrant vote-getter. one knows was a shameless fraud. Still, eration from imperialism and from class electoral fraud is still at a fever pitch. At least 120 separate demonstrations Washington has given its blessing to the oppression. The people have taken to the streets to throughout the country, from the cap- dictatorship, and the European Union The first task is to obstruct the re- demand, “Fuera JOH — JOH Out!” JOH ital Tegucigalpa to remote rural parts, has agreed. gime in Washington from using its force is the hated current president, Juan Or- have shown no letup in the resistance. A On the other hand, the Organization of against the Honduran people. lando Hernández, whose hand-picked “stoppage” called for Dec. 15 was deemed hugely successful. Sections of the police have so far refused to attack protesters or enforce a curfew, instead mingling with the people in the streets. Communist coalition wins Worried bourgeois commentators here describe a nation “in flames.” All over the country the masses are blocking Nepal’s national election major thoroughfares with burning barri- cades. Police and military vehicles have By Deirdre Griswold Nepal has historically been been torched. under the shadow of India. The TSE’s announcement in favor of A coalition of Nepal’s largest com- The largest bourgeois party in Hernández, which it finally made official munist parties won national elections Nepal is the Congress Party, on Dec. 17 after supposedly recounting a held in late November and early De- which was decisively defeated token percentage of votes in order to ap- cember. The Communist Party of Ne- in this election. pear objective, provoked this new wave of pal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and There is much hope among militant mass protests. the Communist Party of Nepal (Mao- the people of Nepal that this Hondurans realized the election was ist Center) together won two-thirds of election will bring closer rela- about to be stolen from them when, after the seats in parliament. Their elector- tions with People’s China, its 70 percent of the votes had been count- al victory reflects Nepal’s continued other huge neighbor. Under the ed and the TSE reported a 5 percent lead deep poverty and underdevelopment leadership of the Communist by Nasrallah over Hernández, the TSE that have only deepened under the Party, China has carried out suspended the count for a whole day, cit- neoliberal agenda adopted by previ- Women have played a major role in Nepal’s revolutionary an astounding emergence from ing dubious technical issues. When the ous governments. movements. Above, women who had previously been sold extreme poverty in little more counting resumed, the president some- Nepal has a population of almost 30 into slavery denounce their exploitation. than a generation. how managed to come out ahead. Statis- million, 70 percent of whom live in the Part of the previous govern- tically this was unlikely, if not impossible. countryside. population lives in rural areas, with wom- ment’s undoing appears to be its rejection Fresh in Honduran memory is the For decades, the World Bank and en outnumbering the men who remain. of a Chinese offer to build a large hydro- “election” of 2013, marked by voter sup- the International Monetary Fund have People living in urban slums have electric dam that could supply both water pression, tampering with results and pushed privatization as a way for Nepal more than doubled in over two decades and power for the country’s development. violence against the LIBRE (Liberty to get out of extreme poverty — defined — from 1.2 million in 1990 to 2.8 million That project is now expected to go ahead. and Refoundation) Party. At that time as living on less than $2 a day. Resisting in 2014. Squatter settlements are rising Nepal has had an elected communist Hernández’s right-wing National Party this imperialist penetration of the econ- in such fast-growing cities as Kathmandu coalition government before. Time will stole the presidency from LIBRE candi- omy and the semi-feudal landlord class and Pokhara. tell whether the change in the interna- date and front-runner Xiomara Castro de who ruled the countryside was an armed This trend intensified after the moun- tional situation can bring about lasting Zelaya, the spouse of Mel Zelaya, who had revolutionary movement led by Maoists. tainous country was hit in 2015 by a 7.8 improvements for Nepal’s workers and been deposed in 2009 in a U.S.-backed After years of struggle, this “Maoist in- magnitude earthquake. Almost 9,000 rural population. coup. President Zelaya had been taking surgency” failed to take power, but won people died and a million lost measures to reduce income inequality many reforms against the semi-feudal their homes. The resulting huge and improve the lives of poor and work- system of land ownership. These reforms loss of agricultural production ing-class Hondurans. have raised incomes in some rural areas, pushed a million more people In the current election, Castro de Ze- but urban poverty has deepened as more below the poverty line. After laya was Nasralla’s running mate on the imported manufactured goods replace this, large numbers of people ticket of the Opposition Alliance Against local industry. left Nepal looking for work. the Dictatorship — a coalition of LIBRE, “More than 3 million Nepali youths, Remittances from relatives Nasralla’s Anti-Corruption Party, and mostly unskilled, have gone abroad (es- working abroad have become a the Party of Innovation and Unity. pecially in Gulf countries, Malaysia and major source of hard currency South Korea) as migrant workers. This for their families and for the na- ‘Fight without rest’ figure does not include the population tional economy. The number of Despite the proclaimed defiance of who are employed in India, estimated to households dependent on remit- some police units, repression has been be around 3 million.” (Nepal Poverty Re- tances has reached 56 percent. PHOTO: VIJAY PRASHAD/ALTERNET brutal. U.S.-trained forces use live am- port, 2016) Remittances make up 25 percent Communists marching toward an imminent, stunning munition against demonstrators. The Today, 87 percent of Nepal’s female of the gross domestic product. victory in Nepal, Dec. 13. Continued on the next page workers.org Dec. 21, 2017 Page 11 How imperialism undermined Zimbabwe

Based on a talk given at a Dec. 2 Workers World Party forum in New York City. To hear the entire talk, go to tinyurl.com/ybfmw8a5.

By Monica Moorehead is a product of capitalist, imperialist and colonialist exploitation. The resignation of Robert Mugabe is “African and Asian societies were de- changing the social landscape not only for veloping independently until they were the people of Zimbabwe but for all of Af- taken over directly or indirectly by the rica. This development is part and parcel capitalist powers. When that happened, of the ongoing struggle for independence exploitation increased and the export of and sovereignty against imperialism. surplus ensued, depriving the societies of Walter Rodney, the martyred Guya- the benefit of their natural resources and nese leader who wrote “How Europe Un- labor. That is an integral part of under- derdeveloped Africa” in 1972, applied a development in the contemporary sense.” Marxist, materialist worldview towards Africa. In the first chapter that addressed Historic roots of colonialism & resistance “What is development and underdevel- The Berlin Conference in 1884-85 — opment?” Rodney states: “An even more the “Scramble for Africa” conference — is indispensable component of modern where the European capitalist countries underdevelopment is that it expresses a met to carve up virtually the entire Af- particular relationship of exploitation: rican continent in order to expand their namely, the exploitation of one country markets for profits by super-exploiting by another. All of the countries named as African labor and plundering its super- ‘underdeveloped’ in the world are exploit- rich mineral resources. The trans-At- ed by others; and the underdevelopment lantic slave trade, resulting in tens of with which the world is now preoccupied A portrait of Robert Mugabe in Harare, Zimbabwe. millions of African peoples being stolen from their homeland, laid the foundation can National Union) led by Mugabe and ing sector and reaching an agreement on for colonialism and neocolonialism. the other was ZAPU (Zimbabwe African the compensation of white farmers.” In the case of Zimbabwe, it was Cecil People Union) led by Joshua Nkomo. Honduran masses Rhodes who became the British coloniz- These two guerrilla factions joined forces An attack on Mugabe is an attack on Continued from page 10 er of what was called Rhodesia in the late as the Patriotic Front to force the Smith Zimbabwe Committee of Families of Disappeared 1800s. Rhodes established the DeBeers government to the negotiating table in Why have U.S. and British imperialism (COFADEH) reports at least 20 people Mining Company, known for its stolen di- Britain and to sign the 1980 Lancaster hated Mugabe since he became the first have died in the past three weeks. Hun- amonds from Zimbabwe. He treated the House Accords, which was a compromise democratically elected president of Zim- dreds have been injured by bullets and entire country as his private slave plan- that supposedly held the British govern- babwe? Why are they glad he was forced clubbings; protests are routinely tear tation with the backing of state brutality. ment accountable for financially com- to resign? gassed. At least 800 have been arrested Rodney comments about Zimbabwe’s pensating white farmers so that Black Mugabe is a bourgeois nationalist, not or detained. earliest stages of development: “When farmers could reclaim their lands. a socialist. There are two fundamental A bus with members of the Council of Cecil Rhodes sent in his agents to rob and A large sector of those who fought for reasons why the imperialists hate him Popular and Indigenous Organizations of steal in Zimbabwe, they and other Euro- the liberation of Zimbabwe were landless so much. Number one is that Mugabe is Honduras (COPINH) was blocked from peans marveled at the surviving ruins Black farmers, now commonly referred to a former leader of a national liberation reaching a mass demonstration on Dec. of the Zimbabwe culture, and automat- as war veterans from the liberation strug- movement that helped to bring an end to 12. COPINH has been fighting to defend ically assumed that it had been built by gle. Twenty years later, these same war a racist, apartheid-like regime. Indigenous land and water against for- white people. Even today there is still a veterans pressured the Mugabe govern- Number two is that he backed the war eign mining interests. On March 2, 2016, tendency to consider the achievements ment to remove the commercial farmers, veterans taking back their land from the COPINH’s beloved leader, Berta Cáceres, with a sense of wonder rather than with by force if necessary, once the British gov- white colonizers and was unapologetic was assassinated. The bus delegation was the calm acceptance that it was a per- ernment reneged on the Lancaster accord. about doing so. With all his political con- led by Cáceres’ daughter, Bertha Zúñiga fectly logical outgrowth of human social Mugabe established a radical land tradictions, Mugabe was willing to stand Cáceres. development within Africa, as part of the redistribution program, allowing war up against U.S. and British imperialists. Unknown saboteurs on Dec. 10 took universal process by which man’s labour veterans to take back their stolen lands, It is this defiance against imperialism, down the transmission antenna for Radio opened up new horizons. The sense of including by force. This included Ian which seeks to break all bonds of inter- Progreso, one of the few media sources reality can only be restored by making Smith’s acres. national proletarian solidarity, especially getting out the truth in Honduras. Since it clear that the architecture rested on a Tony Blair and George W. Bush im- with the most oppressed, that our par- then, broadcasts have been halted. As de- foundation of advanced agriculture and posed sanctions on Zimbabwe starting in ty has done everything it can to defend. scribed by director of Radio Progreso, Je- mining, which had come into existence 2002 as an act of war against the popu- That means defending Zimbabwe’s lead- suit Father Ismael Moreno Coto — better over centuries of evolution.” lation. These sanctions slashed fuel and ership against imperialist intervention known as Padre Melo: “We already veri- By 1914, white settlers, numbering just food subsidies with the aim of turning both economically and politically. fied that it was not an action of the weath- 23,730, owned slightly more than 19 mil- the masses against Mugabe by mak- Like any country, Zimbabwe has a er or the winds. We have precise data lion acres of land in Rhodesia while an ing him the scapegoat for any economic right to develop its economic infrastruc- that what holds the tower was previously estimated 752,000 Africans occupied a hardships imposed by imperialism. ture to meet the needs of the people, and unscrewed, which caused the antenna to total of 21,390,080 acres of land. (“A brief When Mugabe was re-elected as presi- not to have its economy chained to for- split into three pieces. There were exter- history of land in Zimbabwe: 1890-to- dent during his 37-year tenure, both Blair eign debt to the banks that it can never nal hands, criminal hands, that proceed- day,” focusonland.com) and Bush declared the elections undem- pay in 10 lifetimes. ed to create the conditions for the tower Eventually thousands of white farmers ocratic, while attempting to prop up their With all its millions of acres of ara- to fall.” (Giorgio Trucchi, rebelion.org, (colonizers) carried out a systematic cam- puppet candidate. When a devastating ble lands, Zimbabwe has the capacity to Dec. 16) paign of wars and massacres to uproot drought hit Zimbabwe and other parts of feed its population if it weren’t forced to As with the previous U.S. administra- the Indigenous African population from southern Africa very hard in 2003, the export food to pay off the interest on its tion, the government in Washington is their lands. They did so despite many imperialists blamed Mugabe for it. foreign debt. Cancel the debt! playing a criminal role in suppressing the heroic resistance campaigns carried out The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade No matter what happens in Zimbabwe democratic will of the Honduran mass- by the African population who could not Unions, the largest workers union, says going forth, we know that U.S. and British es. Trump wasted no time in recognizing match the fire power of the colonizers. the country’s unemployment rate is now imperialism will not stop their interven- JOH as Honduran president. Mel Zelaya Ian Smith was proclaimed prime min- at 90 percent. The country has also been tion into the internal affairs of Zimbabwe. has denounced the role of U.S. Chargé ister of Rhodesia in 1964 and confiscated severely impacted by the AIDS crisis, They have made that abundantly clear by d’Affaires Heide Fulton in facilitating 6,000 acres for himself. His apartheid along with losing a major trading partner saying that “fair and democratic” elec- “spurious recounting, vote by vote, of policies codified white farmers’ use of the when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. tions have to take place when they say so. electoral documents that all Honduran land for commercial farming of crops like Today, Zimbabwe’s foreign debt is The biggest threat to the African people know have been adulterated.” tobacco to be sold as commodities on the more than $7 billion, more than half of continent today is the U.S. Africa Com- Nasralla and Zelaya have both blasted world capitalist market. So while these its gross domestic product. According to mand, more commonly known as AF- attempts by the Organization of Amer- farmers were enriching themselves, the a July 7 Reuters report, “The suggested RICOM, created by the Pentagon under ican States to split the opposition by in- people of Zimbabwe faced starvation and reforms include slashing public sector the guise of fighting so-called terrorism. sisting Nasralla “disengages completely were reduced to being “tenants” on their wages, now at more than 90 percent of AFRICOM is based in at least 38 African from former President Zelaya because own lands. the national budget, reducing farm subsi- countries. Three of its bases are in Zam- he’s a supporter of Chávez and promotes dies, improving transparency in the min- bia, South Africa and Botswana, coun- Imperialists punish Zimbabwe Democratic Socialism.” Zelaya called on tries that border Zimbabwe. for political defeat the people “to fight every day without AFRICOM does not exist to protect the rest.” (Rights Action, Dec. 14) Carrying forth the legacy of the first South Africa: Which road to liberation sovereignty of the African peoples, but to Grevatt was a member of an Inter- two phases of the liberation struggle, the A MARXIST VIEW protect the interests of the monopolies by national Action Center team of Human Third Chimurenga (liberation struggle) Eyewitness account written in 1993 repressing any kind of mass resistance to Rights Observers that witnessed the created two fronts which arose in the late by Monica Moorehead its brutal occupation, no matter the ideol- electoral coup of 2013. 1960s — one was ZANU (Zimbabwe Afri- workers.org/books.july2012/SouthAfricaMM.pdf ogy of the leadership to that resistance. Correspondencia sobre artículos en Workers World/Mundo Obrero pueden ser enviadas a: [email protected]

Washington, D.C., 19 de diciembre. ¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los paises unios! workers.org Vol. 59 Núm. 51 21 de diciembre 2017 $1 FOTO: NORTHWEST ARKANSAS WORKERS’ JUSTICE CENTER En la riña entre Mueller y Trump, se ­necesita una lucha clasista independiente

Por Fred Goldstein secretario de Estado. Tillerson no es una veces. Pompeo ha coincidido pública- zine, durante la década de 1990, Trump paloma de paz. Fue CEO de la mayor mente con Gaffney en que el presiden- se encontró con más de $4 mil millones Mientras los ataques de la adminis- compañía petrolera privada del mundo, te Barack Obama era un anticristiano y en deuda a más de 70 bancos, y una serie tración Trump contra las masas con- ExxonMobil. Es un reaccionario, dueño pro-estados islámicos. (theatlantic.com, de bancarrotas, fuertes pérdidas finan- tinúan sin descanso, la lucha política den- de cientos de millones de dólares, que 3 de diciembre) cieras y la reestructuración de la deuda tro de la clase dominante se intensifica y pasó su carrera tratando con los jefes Por el momento, Trump ha rechazado llevó a casi todos los principales bancos la crisis política del sistema se profundiza. de los estados petroleros y planeando el la eliminación de Tillerson, sin duda en estadounidenses a simplemente negarse Por un lado, el Partido Republicano saqueo de los países petroleros. respuesta al ataque de Mueller. a hacer negocios con él. ... Él comenzó a y Trump están a punto de finalizar un depender mucho de los bancos extranje- obsequio de rebajas de impuestos para Tillerson: vigilante de Wall Street Líderes del Partido Demócrata, liberales ros para sus préstamos”. (Americanpro- millonarios y multimillonarios por una Sin embargo, Tillerson es un perro y moderados empujan la tarjeta rusa gess.org, 14 de junio) suma de cientos de miles de millones de guardián de Wall Street que ha diferido contra Trump Se podrían citar muchos más ejem- dólares, incluso mientras reducen los con Trump en muchas cosas y ha trata- Los sectores anti-Trump de la clase plos, incluyendo cómo un ex funcionario servicios sociales, la atención médica, la do de mantener muchas de las posiciones dominante, y especialmente las filas de soviético convertido en capitalista abrió educación y la protección del medio am- políticas estándar del imperialismo es- asesores de la clase dominante en los su sede mundial en el Trump Tower. Pero biente y amenazan a cientos de miles de tadounidense en el mundo. medios y los think tanks, así como los no hay espacio suficiente en este artículo inmigrantes indocumentadas/os. Tillerson ayudó a impedir que Trump líderes del Partido Demócrata, esperan para elaborar. Por otro lado, la fiscalía especial bajo abandone el acuerdo nuclear de Irán. Se que Mueller pueda derrocar a Trump o Trump, en otras palabras, era demasia- Robert Mueller acaba de obligar a Mi- opuso a la retirada del acuerdo ambien- hacerle retroceder usando como base do estafador para los estafadores de Wall chael Flynn, ex asesor de seguridad na- tal de París. Sostuvo la espera de nego- las conexiones rusas. Eso es porque no Street. Pero los oligarcas rusos, que se cional de Trump, a firmar un acuerdo ciaciones sobre la crisis coreana y fue re- quieren confrontarlo políticamente por habían convertido en multimillonarios que puede implicar a altos funcionarios prendido públicamente por Trump, quien su racismo, sexismo e intolerancia y su en un día al saquear la economía social- de Trump en tratos secretos con los rusos dijo que Tillerson estaba “perdiendo el ti- estilo autoritario belicista, islamófobo y ista destruida después de la contrarrev- durante la campaña electoral de 2016. empo”. Tillerson se oponía a la alineación antiobrero. olución, primero bajo Boris Yeltsin y lu- Es dañino para las masas permitir que de Trump con el bloqueo por parte de Los liberales y los moderados, es- ego bajo Vladimir Putin, tenían dinero una facción de la clase dominante lidere Arabia Saudita de Qatar donde hay una pecialmente el liderazgo del Partido de sobra para invertir y lavar. La familia la batalla contra Trump. Mueller y su base aérea gigante de los EUA. Intentó Demócrata, sienten que Trump, su famil- Trump, que se había visto privada del fi- agrupación lo harán de una manera com- arreglar las relaciones de Estados Unidos ia y su administración son vulnerables nanciamiento de Wall Street, inevitable- pletamente sin principios, lo que no hará con la OTAN después de que Trump lla- porque están tan enredados con los fun- mente se sintió atraída a ellos. nada para impedir los ataques al pueblo. mara a la alianza de la OTAN “obsoleta”. cionarios y capitalistas rusos. Estas fuer- Por supuesto, la política sigue al dinero, Muchas luchas se han librado en nu- Cuando se le preguntó acerca de las zas anti-Trump han elegido confrontarlo y la familia Trump se enredó con Rusia, merosos frentes contra la reacción capi- opiniones de Trump de que había “bue- con una base reaccionaria y anti-rusa, en financiera y quizás políticamente. Esto talista: en piquetes, en las comunidades, na gente” entre los fascistas portadores lugar de basarse en sus políticas y políti- es lo que hace que Trump sea legalmente en los recintos universitarios, en los cen- de antorchas en Charlottesville, Virginia, cas reaccionarias. vulnerable según la ley capitalista de tros de detención, en las cárceles y en las Tillerson respondió que Trump “habla Para ellos, la campaña contra Rusia EUA. Es sobre esto que los neoliberales, reservas indígenas. Estas luchas deben por sí mismo”. Y se ha informado que tiene la doble virtud de mantener fluidos los peces gordos del Partido Demócrata y hacerse más fuertes y más amplias hasta Tillerson tenía profundas reservas sobre los contratos militares del Pentágono y los sectores anti-Trump de la clase domi- que eclipsen la investigación de Mueller la prohibición de viajar a musulmanes. promover una posición geoestratégica nante están fijando sus esperanzas. y el FBI, enemigos del pueblo. La lucha Estas son todas posiciones imperialistas del cerco militar de Rusia. De eso se tra- popular contra Trump debe ser el centro convencionales que expresan los intere- taba el intento de apoderarse de Ucrania. Trabajadoras/es y oprimidas/os deben de atención. ses básicos de Wall Street y el Pentágono. Ahora los batallones estadounidenses y aprovechar la división para luchar las baterías antimisiles se están movien- Cualesquiera que sean las particulari- Mueller contra Trump Pompeo: islamófobo extremo, do a millas cercanas de Rusia. La excusa dades del caso, sería en detrimento de la y movimiento derechista halcón de guerra, confidente de Trump dada para estas maniobras hostiles es clase trabajadora dejar que la clase domi- La movida de Mueller contra Flynn Pero Pompeo es mucho más dere- que están destinadas a proteger a Polonia nante lidere la batalla contra Trump. está calculada para socavar a Trump en chista. Pasa horas con Trump todos los y los satelites balticos de la OTAN. Si los líderes sindicales no estuvieran en el momento en que se está moviendo días, viajando desde Langley, Virginia, los bolsillos de los patronos, habrían mon- para empujar las cosas aún más brus- a la Casa Blanca para informar a Trump Enredos de Trump en Rusia y los bancos tado luchas masivas contra la propuesta camente hacia la derecha. De hecho, la sobre los acontecimientos. Es un ul- La vulnerabilidad de Trump fluye de ley de impuestos, abrirían la lucha por investigación de Mueller se trata tanto tra-guerrerista que ha hablado de ase- sus años de trato con oligarcas rusos. la salud universal y defenderían a las/os de Trump como de Rusia. Mueller tomó sinar al líder norcoreano Kim Jong Un, Durante la década de 1990 y después de 800.000 inmigrantes de DACA, así como por sorpresa a Trump al no dar a la Casa criticó duramente a Irán y es un fanático la crisis económica de 2007, el acceso de a las decenas de miles de inmigrantes del Blanca ni siquiera un aviso anticipado islamófobo en la misma onda que la orga- Trump a los grandes bancos imperialis- Caribe que enfrentan deportación. del acuerdo con Flynn. nización neofascista Britain First. tas se agotó. Lucharían por un aumento masivo del Mientras que la clase dominante está A diferencia de Tillerson, Trump con- Como escribió este autor en un artículo ­salario mínimo y, sobre todo, abrirían salivando por los planeados recortes de sidera a Pompeo como un consejero de titulado “Detrás del despido de Comey: la batalla contra el racismo / ­supremacía impuestos para multimillonarios, com- confianza. Cuando Trump retuiteó tres una lucha dentro de la clase dominante es- ­blanca, el sexismo y la opresión anti- pañías petroleras, magnates de bienes videos anti musulmanes violentos que tadounidense”, que apareció en el número LGBTQ. Exigirían a las tropas de EUA raíces, etc., también están aplaudiendo vinieron de Britain First a sus 44 mil- del 16 de mayo de Workers World: salir del Medio Oriente, Afganistán, África el ataque de Trump a todas las formas de lones de seguidores, Pompeo lo defendió. “El único banco grande que ha presta- y Corea del Sur, y que detengan los ejerci- regulaciones que limitan el daño que los Pompeo es también un aliado de Frank do dinero a Trump en los últimos años cios militares de Estados Unidos contra la patronos pueden hacerle a las/os traba- Gaffney, que dirige el Centro de Política es Deutsche Bank, que recientemente República Popular Democrática de Corea, jadores, el medioambiente, inmigrantes, de Seguridad. Gaffney considera que se- fue multado con 630 millones de dólares que dejen de hostigar a Venezuela y Hon- educación, etc. guir al Corán es una “sedición” que de- por blanquear dinero ruso en efectivo duras y pongan fin al bloqueo de Cuba. Pero mientras usan a Trump para su bería ser procesada. Pompeo ha estado por valor de $10 mil millones. (cnn.com, Lucharían por cerrar el Oleoducto Da- propio enriquecimiento, los gobernantes en el programa de radio de Gaffney 20 31 de enero) Los grandes bancos de Wall kota Access, no solo en interés del medio imperialistas no quieren que rompa el Street de Nueva York no le prestarán ambiente, sino también en solidaridad sistema global de alianzas y redes de El capitalismo porque se ha declarado en quiebra seis con los pueblos originarios cuyas tierras subversión que han construido durante veces, azotándole un duro golpe a los están siendo destruidas. décadas para proteger sus intereses de en un callejon inversores, contratistas y trabajadores”. Este sería el comienzo de un pro- ganancias. sin salida (Wash. Post, 26 de septiembre de 2016, y grama mínimo independiente de la clase El anuncio del acuerdo de declaración Fred Goldstein wsj.com, 20 de marzo de 2016) ­trabajadora. de culpabilidad de Flynn se produjo poco John Norris y Carolyn Kenney escrib- Esta es la forma de luchar contra después de que la Casa Blanca planea- LowWageCapitalism.com ieron sobre su relación con oligarcas ru- Trump y el trumpismo, así como el neo- ba cambiar al director de la CIA, Mike Available at major sos en “Conflictos de intereses de Trump liberalismo de los imperialistas del Parti- Pompeo, al cargo de Rex Tillerson como online booksellers. en Rusia”: “Como nota el Fortune Maga- do Demócrata.