JUNE 20, 1975 25 CENTS VOLUME 39/NUMBER 23

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE

·ooarat•- CHAOS' bared

' '

-See page 7

Joan Uttle solidarity actions set for July 14 -page 12 . Portugal: key issues of socialism and democracy -:-page 14

What Texas UFW strikers are · fighting for -page 16

Senate 'debate': 655,000. atomic bombs enough? Militant/Martha Harris -page 23 ·

CLUW debates stand on seniority, 20,000 march in .Y. affirmative action -page 24 to ·save our schools' -See pages 3-6 .THIS In Brief

BLACK JOBLESS PUT AT 25.7 PERCENT: The The convention gave a warm reception to an address by WEEK'S National Urban League has developed what it calls the Starsky, who was fired in Arizona because of his sociaiist "hidden unemployment index" to determine the figure for views. The Political Rights Defense Fund, which is MILITANT unemployed Blacks not reported in official government soliciting support for Starsky's fight against FBI harass- ' 3 Unionists plan actions statistics. Counting workers who are not included in the ment, distributed 500 packets on both Starsky's case and to halt N.Y. layoffs government figures because they are either no longer the Socialist Workers party suit against government actively seeking work or are part-time employees who want surveillance and intimidation. 4 Camejo: mass action full-time work, a new Urban League report put total Black needed to stop layoffs unemployment at 2.9 million for the first three months of TWO CONVICTED IN FOSTER MURDER: Two mem­ this year. Government estimates put the figure at 1.5 bers of the Symbionese Liberation Army were convicted in 5 20,000 march on city million. Either statistic sets a record. Sacramento, California, on June 9 of the 1973 killing of hall to save schools In poverty areas Black unemployment hits 50 percent and Oakland school superintendent Marcus Foster. Russell above, with teen-age joblessness going even higher, the Little and Joseph Remiro had denied their guilt, and one of 6 Means charges BIA plot report found. Unemployment for Black Vietnam veterans their attorneys said he will ask for a new trial. in N.D. shooting twenty to twenty-four years old rose from 22.7 percent for One witness brought by the prosecution, Clifford Jeffer­ 7 Socialists demand: 'Open the last quarter of 1974 to 30 percent in the first quarter of son, a thirty-year prison veteran who claims to have helped all CIA files' 1975. During the same period the statistic for unemployed found the SLA, told the court that he ordered Foster's married Black males doubled from 5 percent to 9.8 percent. killing and others had carried it out. The only eyewitness to 8 Reid winds up One statistic provided striking confirmation of the charge the shooting, Foster's assistant Robert Blackburn, could not West Coast tour that Blacks are the victims of preferential firing. "Blacks identify either defendant. accounted for almost all of the increase in unemployment in 12 Joan Little solidarity the nation during the latter half of the first quarter of 1975," ARREST WAVE IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Using day set for July 14 the report stated. "Of the 49,000 new officially unemployed the pretext that a group of guerrillas has allegedly invaded 13 Army called tune for workers between February and March, 47,000 were black." the country, the Dominican government has instituted a Chicago terrorists widespread crackdown on its political opponents. United BULLETIN-A Houston jury of six women took less Press International reported that 250 have been arrested, 14 Socialism and democ­ than ten minutes on June 10 acquit Peter Camejo, including trade-union leaders and members of several racy key issues for Socialist Workers party presidential candiate, of political parties, among them the Partido Revolutionario Portugal charges of interfering with a police officer. "This is a Dominicano, Partido Liberaci6n Dominicano, and the victory for everyone," Camejo said. ''This is just one Movimiento Popular Dominicano. 16 Texas farm workers more little step to show the people that they can Although the government has dispatched troops to· the face grower assaults exercise their First Amendment rights." The charges hills in search of guerrillas, none have been found 18 Why Mideast peace stem from a March 11 arrest during a campaign tour according to the June 8 El Nacional, a Santo Domingo daily. moves won't work through Texas. A fuller report will appear in next week's Jailed leaders of the central labor council include Julio de Militant. 23 Senate 'debate': Peiia Valdez and Francisco Antonio Santos, as well as 655,000 bombs enough? Julio Anibal Suarez, the council's lawyer. HELP THE 'MILITANT' GET AROUND: Ever think The United States Committee for Justice to Latin 24 CLUW debate on seniority about introducing your friends or co-workers to the American Political Prisoners (USLA) and several Domini­ and affirmative action Militant? One good way is through prepaid subscription. can groups, including Comite pro Defensa de los Derechos cards. It works like this: You buy the cards in advanc~ Humanos en La Republica Dominicana, called a picket line 28 Delegation tells Bradley: each is good for a two-month subscription. When you sell an in New York City June 11 to protest the arrests and demand 'Halt L.A. bombings' introductory subscription to someone, you just fill in their the release of those in custody. name and address and drop the card in the nearest mailbox. 2 In Brief Last week Steve Craine in Boston ordered eleven and has ALGER HISS EVIDENCE SOUGHT: For the first time 10 In Our Opinion already sent back two. Another Bostonian, Don Gurewitz, since Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury in 1950 after Letters sent in two in May, as did Ben Harris from Nashville. denying charges that he had spied for the Soviet Union, he Detroit United Auto Workers member Don Bechler sent in is going to court in an effort to prove his innocence. Richard 11 Women in Revolt another card recently. A number- of his fellow unionists now Nixon first came to national prominence when Whittaker By Any Means Necessary read the paper regularly after getting introductory subscrip­ Chambers testified before Nixon's congressional committee tions. And Gustavo Gutierrez of Tempe, Arizona, just that Hiss, a State Department official, had given him seeret WORLD OUTLOOK returned four cards. "I am sending in the last card of my documents to pass on to the Russians. To prove his charge, 19 Meaning of Villa batch," he wrote. "Please send me eleven more. Hasta Ia Chambers dramatically produced microfilm of documents Constituci6n strike victoria siempre!" hidden in a pumpkin on his farm. The prepaid cards are available from the Militant Hiss and several academic scholars studying the case are 20 Tribute to IRA Business Offic~. 14 Charles Lane, New York, New York suing under the Freedom of Information Act to force the leader Billy McMillen 10014. You can get five cards for five dollars or eleven for ten release of FBI papers and suppressed evidence that they 22 Socialist dollars. believe will reveal an elaborate FBI frame-up. Attorney view on nuclear energy Randy Walster, on be:'lalf '>f '·he National Emergency Civil BOWLING GREEN ANTIRACIST RALLY: Two hun· Liberties Foundation, is representing Hiss. dred students, overwhelmingly Black and Chicano, at· -Nelson Blackstock tended a Student Coalition Against Racism (SCAR) rally THE MILITANT May 30 demanding additional Black and Chicano students and faculty at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. VOLUME 39/NUMBER 23 Cosponsors of the protest included the Latin-American YOUR FIRST t// . JUNE 20, 1975 Students Union, Black Student Union, and the Human CLOSING NEWS DATE-JUNE 11 Rights Alliance. Students recently succeeded in turning back administration attempts to deny funds to Black, ISSUE? Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS Managing Editor: LARRY SEIGLE Chicano, and political groups on campus. Business Manager: ROSE OGDEN Southwest Bureau: HARRY RING COP KILLINGS IN INDIANAPOLIS: Of the twelve Washington Bureau: CINDY JAQUITH persons killed by Indianapolis cops during the past year, SUBSCRIBE· Published weekly by The Militant Publishing ten have been Black. Acting under the auspices of the local Ass'n., 14 Charles lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. branch of the NAACP, an investigative team of attorneys Telephone: Editorial Office (212) 243-6392; Busi­ has begun an independent probe of the most recent killing. ness Office (212) 929-3486. Southwest Bureau: 710 The police shooting of nineteen-year-old Byron Richard­ TO THE S. Westlake Ave., los Angeles, Calif. 90057. Telephone: (213) 483-2798. Washington Bureau: son sparked angry protests in the Black community. The 1345 E. St. N.W., Fourth Floor. Washington, D.C. cop responsible claims his revolver went off accidently MILITIIIT 20004. Telephone: (202) 638-4081. while he was struggling with the youth after pulling him Correspondence concerning subscriptions or over for speeding. However, there are charges that Richard­ changes of address should be addressed to The Municipal workers in New York and cities around the Militant Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, New son was shot while standing spread-eagled with both hands country are facing layoffs, and we all face a deterioration York, N.Y. 10014. over the fender of his car. of the services we depend on. To find out how people are Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. A coalition of Indianapolis Black community organiza­ fighting back and socialist answers to these problems, Subscriptions: domestic, $7.50 a ye~r; foreign, tions, including the NAACP, called a June 8 protest rally. subscribe to the Militant. $11.00. By first-class mail: domestic, Canada, and Active in the protests has been the local chapter of the Mexico, $32; all other countries, $53. By airmail: domestic, Canada, and Mexico, $42. By air printed National Student Coalition Against Racism. matter: Central America and Caribbean, $40; Mediterranean Africa, Europe, and South America, AAUP RESOLUTION BACKS STARSKY: By unan­ Introductory oller-81/2 months $52; USSR, Asia, Pacific, and Africa, $62. Write for imous vote the 369 delegates at the American Association ( ) $1 for two months ( ) New foreign sealed air postage rates. ( ) $7.50 for one year ( ) Renewal For subscriptions airmailed from New York and of University Professors annual convention in Washington, D.C., on June 7 called on the U.S. attorney general and then posted from London directly to Britain, Name ______Ireland, and Continental Europe: £1.50 for eight Congress to take measures to guarantee constitutional issues, £3.50 for six months, £6.50 for one year. rights. "The revelation this year of the furtive attempt of the Address ______Send banker's draft or international postal order (payable to Pathfinder Press) to Pathfinder Press. FBI to destroy the academic career of Professor Morris City ______State ____,~...ip ______47 The Cut, London, SE1 8LL, England. Inquire for Starsky at Arizona State University proves once again the air rates from london at the same address. need for eternal vigilance to protect the fundamental 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014 Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily freedoms of this society," the AAUP resolution said. represent the Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials.

2 NEW YORK CRISIS Avalanche of nink slip..§ Unionists plan actions to halt layoffs By Andy Rose involvement in social struggles, is NEW YORK, June 11-New York District 1199, National Union ofHospi- City· was "rescued from the brink of tal and Health Care Employees. bankruptcy" yesterday, but the news Several delegates in District 1199 is little comfort to the thousands of city have begun circulating and gathering workers who will be out of a job come signatures for a letter to their executive July 1. council, stating in part: The city was "saved" by state "The communities in which the legislation creating a "Municipal As- majority of our members live will sistance Corporation" that will refi- suffer most from the cutbacks. Our nance part of the city's short-term members in city hospitals are directly debt. threatened with layoffs. . . . - But the new corporation does noth- "If successful, the attack on city ing to stop the drastic budget cut- workers will serve as an encourage- backs ordered by Mayor Abraham ment to all employers, including those Beame. On the contrary, it's all part of in the voluntary [private] hospitals, to the game plan. As the New York Post try to force us to accept layoffs, admitted, "The price of the legislation reduction of work hours and pay, and will be years of restricted spending by reduction of benefits. . . . New York City, with accompanying "We not only have a direct stake in job and service cutbacks." the fight to maintain and increase jobs City hall is pressing ahead with a · and community services, but a respon- "crisis budget" for the next fiscal year sibility to act in solidarity with our that is balanced by eliminating a total union brothers and sisters who are of 67,000 jobs. Beame has an alterna- under attack." tive "austerity budget" with "only" The letter concludes by urging the 30,000 layoffs, based on receiving District 1199 executive council "to additional state aid. Nearly 10,000 city initiate and actively build a massive, employees have already been dis- united demonstration with all unions, missed, and more get their notices groups and individuals opposed to the every day. cutbacks, on a Saturday prior to the The avalanche of pink slips is July 1st budget deadline, to demand no rapidly dispelling the illusions of cutbacks and no layoffs." many city workers that Beame's threats were a bluff. The mood in Union members have been "enthu­ many workplaces has suddenly turned siastic and glad to see such an initia­ from cynicism and suspicion to brist­ tive being taken," according to" Caryl · ling anger, and demands for effective Towner, a delegate in the Guild Divi­ action to halt the layoffs are growing sion of District 1199 and one of the within the municipal employee unions. initiators of the letter. Thousands of-workers have turned At a June 5 delegate assembly out for a June 4 rally on Wall Street, a meeting, Towner said, "every single June 9 demonstration at city hall, and delegate we approached-more than other smaller protests against the 'This hurts me more than it does you' fifty-signed the letter, and many of budget cuts. Local 371 of the American them took copies to circulate in their Federation of State, County and Mu­ hospitals." nicipal Employees, representing social 1199, National Union of Hospital and The New York public libraries will be In AFSCME District Council 1707, service workers, has now called its ..own Health Care Employees. cut back anywhere from 15 percent which represents day-care workers and protest for June 17 at city hall. In an interview with the Militant, ("austerity budget") to . 54 percent other community and social agency Local 371 and AFSCME Local 1930, Beasley explained the thinking behind ("crisis budget"), Beasley explained.. employees, the women's committee met representing New York public library this call. "What we're going to do . at "I think there's going to have to be and urged the district executive board workers, have jointly called for an this meeting," he said, "is to get all of concer.ted action involving all of the to work with others toward a mass emergency meeting on June 18 to the community organizations working unions and all of the community demonstration against cutbacks. discuss united action against the cut­ with the unions and see if there can't people behind them," he stated. These initiatives being taken by_ backs. be a way to turn this whole thing "There's been so much disconnected union activists, explaining the need for A letter signed by Local 1930 Presi­ around. action-so many rallies and demon­ unity and mass action, are still modest dent David Beasley and Local 371 "Instead of cutting back services," strations by individual groups-but in scope. But they are winning a President Patrick Knight is now being Beasley said, "we really should be there doesn't seem to be much coordi­ hearing among union members and circulated to unions and community talking about expanding them. We nation. This is the beginning of a are pointing toward the only way groups urging participation in the should be talking about employing coordinated effort." working people in New York can meeting, which will be held at 6:30 more people rather than laying people One of the largest unions in New protect themselves from the assault on p.m. at the headquarters of District off." York, with a history of militancy and their standard of living. 'Rescuing' NY: Why bankers relish 'Big Mac' NEW YORK-The state-created Mu­ to pay off earlier high-interest loans and extravagant wages for its employ­ try executive, former director of House­ nicipal Assistance Corporation-"Big now coming due. ees. hold Finance Corporation. Mac"-is being touted as the answer to As the New York Times pointed out, In case there is any question about • William Ellinghaus, president of New York's financial crisis, but the "The costs are going to be high in whose interests the "Big Mac" board New York Telephone, member of lettuce is all going to the Wall Street dollar terms-as every homeowner members will be looking after, here are boards of directors of Bankers Trust bankers. knows, it costs more to borrow long­ their credentials: and Union Dime Savings Bank. Just from the financial viewpoint, term than short-term.... " • Francis Barry, president of Camp­ • John Coleman, senior partner in . "Big Mac" is yet another mechanism Since this means more money that bell and Gardiner, a brokerage firm. brokerage firm of Adler, Coleman & for wealthy bondholders to plunder the would otherwise be used for city • George Gould, chairman of the Company, former governor and vice­ city treasury. It works like this: operating expenses will go directly board of the investment banking firm chairman of New York Stock Ex­ The corporation was set up to pay off toward interest payments to the rich, it of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. change. part of the city's short-term indebted­ will actually widen the budget deficit • Simon Rifkind, senior partner in • Felix Rohatyn, investment .com­ ! ness by selling up to $3 billion of its for the coming fiscal year by some law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, pany executiye, director of ITI', and : own long-term bonds. To guarantee the $200 million-the equivalent of about Wharton & Garrison, former director of former finance committee member of , interest payments on these bonds, 11,500 city jobs! Sterling National Ban·k & Trust Com­ Rockefeller Brothers. ·income from the city's sales tax and Even more important, the corpora­ pany. And if anybody starts complaining stock transfer tax-more than $1 tion is granted a series of direct • Donna Shalala, the token woman, to their elected officials like Mayor billion a year-will go directly to the controls over the city budget. The political economist from Columbia Beame about cutbacks and layoffs, he corporation. purpose is to allay the fears of what is University. can always say, "I don't like it either, This does not involve one penny of now delicately referred to as "the • Robert Weaver, the token Black, but 'Big Mac' made me do it." real state aid to the city. Instead, it is financial community" that the city has also former trustee of Bowery Savings All in all, the working people of New an arrangement for the city to borrow, been living beyond its means, with Bank. York will find "Big Mac" pretty hard at whatever interest rate the banks set, lavish social services for its residents • Thomas Flynn, accounting indus- to stomach. -A.R.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 20, 1975 3 NEW YORK CRISIS Camejo: unity, mass action needed. to stop assault on jobs, social services By Debby Woodroofe power. "We produce and run every­ NEW YORK-Massive, united action thing that happens in this city," he by the labor movement and its allies, said. "It could not run without us. especially the oppressed Black, Puerto "The rich own the wealth and Rican, and Chinese communities, is completely control the political arena urgently required to halt. the present through the Democratic and Republi­ wave of cutbacks and layoffs in New can parties. But they've got one York City. problem-they are so tiny! The thing That call for action was the theme of they fear most is that our power will a panel discussion held here June 6 on begin to reveal itself.'' "The Fight Against Beame's Cuts: Many different groups-hospital Where Do We Go From Here?'' The workers, community groups, meeting, attended by 300 people, was students-have demonstrated against - jointly sponsored by the Militant the cuts, Camejo noted. But these Forums in the Upper West Side, Lower actions, so long as they are separate Manhattan, and Brooklyn. and fragmented, will not be enough to The panel came just two days after stop the cuts. an anticutback rally on Wall Street They must be welded together into a called by city employees' unions. That powerful force that can stop the as­ demonstration, which drew an estimat­ sault ~m jobs and social services. ed 5,000 to 10,000 participants, protest­ To that end, Camejo urged all those ed the role of the banking profiteers in present at the forum to work within New York's "budget crisis." Militant/Andy Rose their labor, student, and community Peter Camejo, Socialist Workers PETER CAMEJO: 'Ruling class wants to have us fighting each other instead of them.' groups to initiate united actions. party candidate for president in 1976 The numbers who understand and and the featured speaker at the panel, library employees are scheduled to be "The social services being cut back are join in at first may be small, he said that the Wall Street action and laid off. the ones most needed by these commu­ acknowledged, "but here in this hall other protests were steps in the right "In the Human Resources Adminis­ nities. The unemployment rate for we're talking to hundreds, and these direction, proving that people are tration, 151 out of 250 case aide Black youth, already two times that for hundreds can turn into thousands, and ready and willing to take action. The workers have received their pink slips, white youth, will rise even higher." bring hundreds of thousands into ac­ essential next step, he stressed, is to and almost every single one of them is Manuel pointed out that the $125.7 tion." bring together all working people hurt Black or Latino. Fourteen thousand million cut in education will wipe out by the cuts into a powerful social teachers are being laid off. And on and open admission and free tuition at the movement. on, down through every department." city university-gains that were won Beyond the city employees them­ through struggles of Black and Puerto Interest rip-off selves, Markey pointed out, "every Rican youth in the 1960s. He urged Camejo blasted Mayor Abraham single resident of New York will be young people to join with the student Beame for safeguarding the profits of affected." coalition "in responding in the same the rich while jobs and essential social He enumerated what the cuts will manner to protect these gains and services are being slashed. He directed mean for the quality of life in the city: guard our right to an equal education." particular fire at the tax-free interest garbage piling up in the streets, payments to wealthy bondholders. schools that have no bilingual pro­ Racist f'!ysteria These constitute one of the largest grams, inadequate transportation, and Manuel warned that efforts are expenses in the city budget-nearly $2 hospitals that are, as a speaker at the already in motion to whip up racist billion in the next fiscal year alone. Wall Street rally put it, "no more than hysteria as a way of getting white Calling for a moratorium on bond transmission belts to the morgue." workers to support the cuts. payments to the rich, Camejo said, The meeting was chaired by Pat He cited a newspaper account of how "There is no need for the entire city to Wright, a day-care worker and shop whites in Queens attacked welfare suffer to make these people even better steward in AFSCME Local 205, Dis­ spending as the most "wasteful" item offl" trict Council 1707. Wright said that in the city budget. One woman even Militant/Andy Rose Camejo also called for an end to Beame's cuts will force many day-care said, "If this city really wants to save SAM MANUEL: 'Cuts are doubly military spending as a way to provide centers to close, and thousands of money, it ought to stop . forced devastating for Black, Puerto Rican, funds for social services. The $100 women will have to quit their jobs and busing"-although, as Manuel pointed Chinese communities.' billion squandered yearly on war, he stay home. out, less than $500,000 is spent on said, is utter waste from the standpoint "Women have a lot at stake in the busing in New York City. of society's needs. "We can't. eat fight," she said. "We fought for the Camejo also cited the attempts to Camejo explained that the Socialist bullets; we can't drive tanks!" right to go out and work in the early foment divisions among working peo­ Workers party is campaigning on a Panelist Ray Markey focused atten­ days of the women's liberation move­ ple as a prime weapon in the ruling program to transform society on the tion on "the human side" of Beame's ment. And you can expect to see us in class's offensive. "They are very con­ basis of human need rather than cuts, which could mean the loss of the forefront of the developing move­ sciously pitting one against another­ private profit. It raises demands from 67,000 city jobs. Markey is a member of ment to get the recession off our city workers against those in private ending military spending to reducing American Federation of State, County backs." industry; Black against white, employ­ the workweek with no cut in pay, from and Municipal Employees Local 1930 The next speaker, Sam Manuel, ed against unemployed. escalator clauses for wages to workers' and a delegate to the AFSCME District coordinator of the New York Student "They want everyone to say, 'We're control over the factories. Council 37 delegate assembly. Coalition Against Racism; zeroed in on the most important. Cut someone else, "This is the type of program we will "If you're a sanitation worker and the racist nature of the cuts. but not us.' They want everyone to just need to defeat the attacks Qil our you have less than eight years' seniori­ "All of the proposed cutbacks will look out for their own group." standard of living," he said. "But ty, as of July 1 you don't have a job," have a doubly devastating effect on The Democratic and Republican while we campaign to win people· to he said. "If you happen to work in a the Black, Puerto Rican, and Chinese politicians, including those who claim this entire program, we also must be public library, 302 of the 600 branch communities of this city," he said. to speak for workers and the op­ able to answer the question: what can pressed, are joining in this vicious we do right now? We have to begin antilabor maneuver. Camejo pointed to fighting together on whatever level we Rep. Herman Badillo, the city's most can.'' SWP blasts Beame budget prominent Puerto Rican Democrat, Setting masses of people in motion who recently called for limiting wage around their common interests as NEW YORK-Hundreds of people "A moratorium should be placed increases of city workers to 5.5 percent turned out for public hearings on the on all interest payments to the rich. workers is the first step toward inde­ as a "solution" to the budget crisis. pendent labor political action and the New York City budget June 4, most This city is not broke. There is plen­ "That is exactly what the ruling of them to voice their opposition to ty of money down on Wall Street," formation of a labor party based on the class wants," Camejo said, "to have us unions, Camejo said. cutbacks and layoffs. Heisler said to loud applause. "Make fighting each other instead of them.'' Among those who .testified was Ed them sacrifice their profits!" He added that under the blows of the Heisler, cochairperson of the Social­ The most important lesson that must economic crisis, tens of thousands ist Workers 1976 National Cam­ The audience also responded with be discussed in the unions, in the more people are comirig to view social­ ism as a realistic and necessary alter· paign Committee. applause when Heisler urged "a schools, in the communities, and native. "Mayor Beame proposes to make march of hundreds of thousands of among all those opposed to the cut­ working people and the unemployed, people-everyone who is affected by backs, Camejo said, is the nee_d for a "We're moving into what may well the poor, pay for a crisis we did not the cutbacks-on city hall to de­ united response by all victims· of the be the most decisive twenty-five years create," Heisler said. "The Socialist mand an end to the layoffs and cut­ cuts. in American history," he said, "with Workers party proposes to make the backs." Such a fight can be victorious, the real possibility of not only a mass bankers and other rich people pay Heisler's testimony was carried Camejo asserted, once the working labor 'party, but also of a mass revolu­ for the crisis they created. live over Channel 31 television. class of New York becomes aware of its tionary party-the only vehicle that common interests and itR tremendous can move us to a socialist triumph.''

4 NEW -YORK CRISIS 20,000 teachers, students & parents march on city hall to 'save our schools' By Lee Smith . .\. \ ...•... · .· ·... · · ( ·· ·. . NEW YORK-The streets surround- .· · · · · ing city hall were filled June 9 as thousands of Black and Puerto Rican parents and students joined teachers and other school workers in the largest demonstration yet against the cuts in the city budget proposed by Mayor Abraham Beame. The action opposing cutbacks in the education budget was called by the United Federation of Teachers, the Council of Supervisors and Adminis­ trators, and the board of education. It began about two p.m. with several thousand people picketing on the sidewalk around the building housing the mayor's office. As buses arrived from schools all over the city, the crowd swelled to 20,000 and spilled into the streets. At least half of the demonstrators were Black, Puerto Rican, or Chinese. There were hundreds of signs printed by the UFT that· said, "Save Our Schools," "Save Our Children," or "No Budget Cuts." And there were hun­ dreds of printed signs from Local 372 of AFSCME, which represents board of education employees. Many marchers also wore bright yellow "Save Our Schools" buttons put out by Local 372. Protesters jam several blocks near city hall for June 9 rally against education cutbacks In addition there were thousands of hand-lettered signs bearing the names of community groups, parent associa­ Street, off Broadway across from city rat, a board of education member, trying to break into the field. He tions, schools, and school districts. hall. addressed the crowd in Spanish as well maintains the UFT as a white job trust "Let People Learn," "No Layoffs," Entertainer Sam Levenson, a former as English. and takes a hard line against preferen­ "Down with Class Size," "Give Us the New York City high school teacher, Board Vice-president Isaiah Robin­ tial hiring for oppressed minorities. Tools for a Good Education," and chaired the rally. Speakers included son, who is Blac~, asked the crowd, "If The UFT leadership has allied itself "Don't Short-change Our Children," UFT President Albert Shanker, board 75 percent of the students in these with the board of education and city they demanded. of education President James Regan, schools were not Black or Puerto hall against the parents of Black and There were also several mock coffins and other school board members, as Rican, do you think we would have Puerto Rican children, who have been labeled "Special Education," "Kinder­ well as representatives of the Council these cuts?" fighting for a role in running the garten," and other programs threat­ of Supervisors and Administrators, of The crowd roared, "No!" schools in their communities. ened by the cuts, accompanied by the community school boards in School Robinson concluded by exclaiming, Following this racist strategy, muffled drums and a bugle playing Districts Two and Six, and of the New "We need more minority representa­ Shanker has up until now been able to taps, as well as a large, green papier­ York School Boards Association. Also tion in our teaching staffs, in the win for his nearly all-white member­ mAche lizard with a sign reading, speaking were School Chancellor Irv­ administration, and 01i the board of ship contracts that compare favorably "Don't Let the Financial Dragon Slay ing Anker and a high school student. education!" with other urban-area teachers' con­ Our Schools." In addition, the rally was addressed Robinson's remarks point up the tracts. The crowd chanted, "Save our by Victor Gotbaum, executive director contradiction in which Shanker finds Now, however, the worm has turned. schools!" "No cuts!" and other slogans. of AFSCME District Council 37 and himself today, with massive cuts The proposed cuts-even under One group of college students, behind head of the Municipal Labor Commit­ proposed in the education budget just Beame's "austerity budget," the "lesser an elaborate blue-and-gold South tee, a coalition of city unions in which as the UFT's present contract with the evil" to his "crisis budget"-will mean Bronx Community CQllege banner of the UFT does not participate. A UFT city has expired. wholesale layoffs and increased work the type carried by school bands, vice-president spoke the previous week Shanker has built his present posi­ loads and class sizes for all teachers. chanted, "Two, four, six, eight! Beame at a Wall Street demonstration against tion in the union bureaucracy by With teachers under attack on all is a big mistake!" the city cutbacks, called by the Munici­ basing himself on the privileges en­ fronts from the very. forces Shanker After four p.m., there was a rally pal Labor Committee. joyed by older white teachers at the has told them to rely on, the union around a sound truck set up on Murray Both Levenson and Joseph Monser- expense of Blacks and Puerto Ricans Continued on page 26 Minority student gains jeopardized by cutbacks By Baxter Smith The "body" was actually no body at All of the teachers are scared. They're NEW YORK-Even though a couple all. What the students carried was an getting real spooky because they don't of them couldn't blow a good chance to empty mock coffin that had a sign know who'll be next." get in some clowning, to the other "R.I.P. Our Education" written on it. Claudette has a brother going to city thirty students who came over from There were knots of high school and college under the SEEK program, Brooklyn's John Dewey High School college students throughout the demon­ which is slated to be cut, and he is for the anticutback rally June 9, the stration. Many of them had come at worried too. whole thing is no laughing matter. the urging of their teachers, and others Leaflets distributed by the New They know the budget cutbacks are had come simply out of concern for York Student Coalition Against Ra­ serious. Novel projects in a school like their future education. cism explained: "Twenty thousand stu­ Dewey are considered frills and will be Claudette McPherson, an eleventh dents (half the incoming students to among the first to go. If things really grader at Art and Design High School, the City University) are to be eliminat­ get tough, the whole school might have came with about fifty of her class­ ed. The SEEK and College Discovery to close. mates, mostly Blacks and Puerto Ri­ programs which helped thousands of Dewey is an experimental or special cans. They alternately chanted mili­ Black, Puerto Rican, and Chinese stu­ high school with innovative programs tant political slogans, then broke into dents gain a higher education are to be not found in others. Students there gutsy football-style fight songs, some abolished.... " either pass or fail a course, proceed with the words altered to mention the The student coalition has been or­ more or less at their own rate of learn­ cutbacks. ganizing students to participate in the ing, and pursue outside activities and "Teachers' aides and lots of people many anticutback actions in New other projects. are being laid off at Art and Design, York, a:td they were prominent at city "Hey, mister. You want a good pic­ and all my teachers are worried," Clau­ hall with two big banners: "Jobs For ture? Take ours," one of the "pallbear­ dette said. "This morning in one of my All Youth!" and "stop racist attacks­ ers" said to a photographer. "But hur­ classes we spent the whole period talk­ no cuts in seek!-defend open admis­ ry up, this body's getting heavy." ing about what these cuts will mean. sions!"

THE MILITANT/JUNE 20, 1975 5. NEW YORK CRISIS ·Means charges BIA plot in N.D. shooting Dist.l, Shanker & By Lee Gearhart shooting was "an accident." MINNEAPOLIS-American Indian Means told newspaper reporters he Movement leader Russell Means was did not assault anyone in a bar nor shot in the back on the Standing Rock was he in a bar. fight over cutbacks . Sioux Reservation in North Dakota "The BIA made that up to discredit June 7. anything I have to say to the press, By Cliff Conner school board. She summed up the Means was reported in "satisfactory and make it seem that whatever inci­ NEW YORK-The June 9 demon­ feelings of many ·parents: condition" in a Bismarck, North Dako­ dent I'm in has something to do with a stration against educational cutbacks "We aren't fighting to defend the ta, hospital. bar," Means said. , attracted many Black and Puerto teachers' positions-that's the union's Means, in a telephone interview, The AIM leader said that the BIA Rican parents from community school business. But we, the parents, have to charged the Bureau of Indian Affairs claimed that Kelly did the shooting districts throughout the city. Some fight for our children, and we're here to with plotting the shooting. because Kelly's son was not authorized parents from School District One also support education for our kids. Means said he was sho~ ~ :y the son of to carry or shoot a gun. ' participated. "The problem is that when the a BIA policeman. He said that after he As for whether or not Means was District One parents have been parents demonstrate for something, was shot he was taken to a jail in Fort shot from the front or behind, a hospi­ waging the city's longest and best­ the UFT doesn't support us. But when Yates, North Dakota, where he bled for tal spokesperson said Means was prob­ organized struggle in defense of their Shanker wants something for the two hours before being transferred to ably shot in the back. cQ.ildren's education. teachers, he asks for the parents' St. Alexis Hospital in Bismarck. Means has been one of the principal The district's schools are more than support. The bullet apparently went through Indian spokespersons in the United 95 percent Puerto Rican, Black, and "When the [Shanker-controlled Dis­ his spleen, according to doctors. States for Indian treaty rights and Chinese. Over the past few years, trict One] school board removed princi­ The irony is that Means, the victim sovereignty. He was one of the main parents and supporters have taken to pals that the parents selected, and of a number of government frame-ups, leaders of the seizure of Wounded the streets by the thousands to fight removed the bilingual teachers, and now may face yet another because of Knee, South Dakota, in 1973 by Ameri­ against racist cutbacks, to demand ousted the superintendent, Mr. Fuen­ the shooting. He was charged June 9 can Indians. bilingual programs, and to win some tes, we demonstrated. by the FBI with assaulting a federal The government singled Means and voice in their children's education. "And what did Shanker say? He said officer. Dennis Banks out and charged them Many District One parents were we were a bunch of bums!" susp1c1ous of the June 9 Barreto explained another reason demonstration-and justifiably so, in that many District One parents are light of Albert Shanker's prominent hesitant to join in common actions role in organizing it. Shanker, as with the UFT: president of the United Federation of "Shanker is against bilingual educa­ Teachers, has led a vicious, racist tion. Maybe he will negotiate with' campaign against the right of District [Mayor Abraham] Beame-they're One parents to control their schools. good friends, you know-and they'll In the past year alone, a Shanker­ decide to cut bilingual education." backed majority on the local school The Militant also interviewed Cata­ board has fired parent-chosen princi­ rino Garza, a bilingual teacher and a pals, suspended Luis Fuentes (the member of the UFT. Garza explained parent-supported superintendent), and what he sees as the effect of strong virtually destroyed the district's bilin­ leadership from District One in the gual education program. struggle against education cutbacks: A heated campaign for school board "District One parents have always this spring resulted in a 6-to-3 majority been in the forefront of the struggle for the Shanker-backed slate. During against cutbacks. They have fought to the campaign, the "Brotherhood" defend bilingual teachers, paraprofes­ slate's literature, financed by the UFT sionals, and other teachers while leadership, called District One parents Shanker was doing nothing. "hoodlums," "Ethiopian bandits," and "Their leadership in this movement "gangsters." and in demonstrations like the June 9 The week before the June 9 demon­ action could have a powerful impact on stration, District One parents and parents and students in other districts Page supporters discussed whether and how and on teachers. Russell Means, leader of American Indian Movement. Means was shot in back during to participate. Some activists felt that "Why? Because what militant par­ confrontation with cop from Bureau of Indian Affairs. a Shanker-led action would be a ents can provide is a fighting program mobilization of racists and therefore against the cutbacks. Shanker has no should be actively opposed. program to offer except to rely on the Means gave the following account of with ten felony counts in connection Others recognized that regardless of very Democratic and Republican politi­ the shooting: with the seizure. After a nine-month Shanker's role it could turn out ~o be a cians who are ordering the cuts, and to He said that he was driving in a trial in St. Paul, charges against the significant show of force against offer to accept 7,000 teacher cuts four-car caravan 'to a ranch to some two were dropped because of govern­ cutbacks in the city's educational instead of 16,000. - "riding and roping" when BIA Lieu­ ment misconduct. budget and against the impending "What an impact it would have if tenant Pat Kelly drove up and ordered Besides the latest assault frame-up, drastic cuts i:n teachers and programs parents marched into a big demonstra­ the car he was riding in pulled over. Means is charged with being an ac­ in District One. tion with banners that read: 'Not one Means said that Kelly grabbed the complice in a murder, though Means At the demonstration, the Militant teacher to be cut!' 'We demand more driver of the car, Tom Poor Bear, by denies any knowledge of it. internewed Carmen Barreto, a long­ money for bilingual education!' 'No the hair and started to pull him. A "I still face six trials and 200 years' time parent activist and former mem­ layoffs of Black, Puerto Rican, and scuffle ensued. life imprisonment at hard labor if I'm ber of the District One community Chinese teachers!' and 'Support the Means said he wanted no trouble so convicted," Means said. parents' struggle for community con­ he and the other AIM members got out trol of schools in District One.' of their cars to break up the scuffle. Three leaders of the American In­ "These demands stand in stark When he moved in to separate Kelly dian Movement were convicted June 5 contrast to Shanker's willingness to and Poor Bear, Kelly's son shot Means by a U.S. District Court in Cedar sell out minority teachers, young in the back. Rapids, Iowa, on charges stemming teachers, and bilingual education, and Means said the BIA has been out to from the 1973 occupation at Wounded to trade off a few thousand more ·stop him since he applied for a job to Knee, South Dakota. teacher jobs to stay in favor with his head a youth ranch on the Standing Carter Camp, Stanley Holder, and friends at city hall." Rock Reservation. Leonard Crow Dog are the first of Garza added that strong participa­ The BIA has been putting pressure seven indicted AIM leaders to be tiop by parents in all anticutback on the tribe not to hire him, Means convicted in connection with the seiz­ actions can deal a powerful blow said. The BIA threatened to cut off the ure. The three were convicted of aiding against Shankerism, because "it can ranch's funds if Means was hired. and abetting in the detention of a cut right through the ignorance and The BIA came up with another postal inspector and taking a pistol bigotry of many white teachers and version after the shooting. from another. break down Shanker's racist propa­ BIA officials told the news media The government did not try to prove ganda against the communities." that Means was wanted by police in the defendants were personally in­ If the movement against education connection with a barroom incident volved, but claimed that since the three cutbacks in New York City is less earlier in the day in which the police were persons in authority during the unified than it could be, the blame allege Means assaulted two persons. occupation they were responsible. must fall squarely on the Shanker The BIA said that Lieutenant Kelly None of the government witnesses leadership of the UFT. and his son were driving along when was able to identify any of the defend­ The lesson for the teachers in the Means beckoned Lieutenant Kelly to ants in court. present crisis is that they cannot hope stop his police car. The BIA says that Each of the leaders faces a maxi­ to defend their jobs by themselves. Means started the fight and that mum penalty of eighteen years in MilitanVMartha Harris Their natural allies are those most Kelly-not Kelly's son-shot Means. prison and a $5,000 fine. Attorneys for Participant in June 9 rally: 'P.S. 27, directly affected by the cuts, and that The official BIA line is that the the defendants said they would appeal. Bronx, parents strongly protest threat to means the Puerto Rican, Black, and education of our children.' other oppressed communities.

6 'llllnllon- CHAOS' bared iSIS CIA By Cindy Jaquith gade, and Clergy and Laity Concerned WASHINGTON-The Rockefeller About Vietnam. commission report on the CIA's illegal The report does not include in this activities, released here June 10, con­ list either the Socialist Workers party cludes that published charges of or the Young Socialist Alliance, al­ "massive" violations of the law have though both organizations were clearly contributed to "widespread public CIA targets. Peter Camejo, for exar;n­ misunderstanding of the Agency's ple, using the Freedom of Information actual practices." Act, recently was able to obtain heavi­ "A detailed analysis of the facts has ly censored excerpts from his CIA file, convinced the Commission that the which indicate that he was spied on great majority of the CIA's domestic under Operation CHAOS. activities comply with its statutory Operation CHAOS was not officially authority," the report asserts. terminated until March 15,. 1974, But the text of the report itself months after the American people were confirms almost all the charges that told they had heard the "full story" on have been made in the press over the government spying. past six months. But the Rockefeller report's only Perhaps the most explosive issue­ suggestions for reform are stricter the planning of assassinations of Fidel "guidelines" and more "oversight" Castro and other foreign leaders-was from Congress. The report emphatical­ omitted entirely. President Ford ar­ ly rejects the idea that the CIA should gued that this section was "incom­ be abolished. plete" and too "sensitive" for the American people to see. Concern over the CIA murder plots has escalated in 'Intelligence needed' recent weeks with the surfacing of "During the period of the Commis­ evidence that President Kennedy and sion's inquiry," the report states, his brother Robert were directly impli­ "there have been public allegations cated in the plots aimed at Castro. that a democracy does not need an . Promising that "there's not going to intelligence apparatus. The Commis­ be any possibility of any cover-up," sion does not share this view." Ford has dumped the assassination To back up its argument the report data in the laps of the Democrats resorts to cold-war-like warnings about heading congressional investigations. the "stealthy action of 'enemies, for-. The Rockefeller panel was set up by 'I gotta go now-here, you try it. It ain't work, it's fun.' eign or domestic' " and the threat of Ford last January to head off mount­ "violent change." ing demands for a full disclosure of In addition, the report makes recom­ This group investigated the Black the CIA crimes. In an off-the-record Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, mendations that would actually lead to movement as well as student and and the Congress of Racial Equality. conversation at that time, summarized strengthening the CIA's ability to antiwar activists. The CIA's cover for in the June 11 New York Times, Ford In September 1967, the CIA added conduct illegal spying in the United participating in this spying was that it had explained that "the C.I.A. as an the National Mobilization Committee States. was looking for "foreign connections" institution was needed to protect the to End the War in Vietnam to its list. One proposal, which the Washington to protest movements in the United security interests of the United States This coalition was organizing a mass Post called "the CIA's long-sought States. and should not be destroyed. antiwar march on Washington for version of an official secrets act," Over the next few months, the CIA "For that reason, he had picked a October. would "make it a criminal offense for group issued a series of reports to commission to investigate charges Groups added to the list later in­ employees or former employees of the President Lyndon Johnson on such against the C.I.A. that could be relied cluded the Southern Christian Leader­ CIA willfully to divulge to any unau­ topics as "International Connections upon to understand and respect the ship Conference, Black Panthers, War thorized person classified information of the United States Peace Movement," agency's national defense role." Resisters League, Black United Front, pertaining to foreign intelligence or the "Demonstration Techniques," and However, the facts on illegal CIA Washington Mobilization for Peace, collection thereof. . . . " "Student Dissent and Its Techniques activities continued to surface. Just as Washington Urban League, and the A second recommendation would in the United States." Nixon was unable to keep the lid on Black Muslims. give the CIA explicit authority-for the In mid-1968 the group became Watergate, Ford has been unable to first time-to conduct domestic spying, known as Operation CHAOS as the Through its surveillance, the CIA squelch the revelations on the CIA. under the guise of investigating "per­ agency stepped up its surveillance of tried to dig up information on these The details contained in the Rocke­ sons suspected of espionage or other U.S. radicals. The increased spying, groups' sources of funds. It sent special feller report-however sketchy and illegal activities relating to foreign the Rockefeller report says, came "as details out to follow prominent antiwar sanitized-will only add new impetus intelligence." disorders occurred in Europe in the and Black leaders when they arrived to the demands for a full and complete In response to the report, the Demo­ summer of 1968," an apparent refer­ in Washington to speak at demonstra­ disclosure of all CIA activities. crats have offered a few mild criti­ ence to the workers and students' tions. Agents photographed their au­ cisms. But they are hardly in a uprising in France, which had a tomobiles, followed them home to get 'National security' profound effect on the thinking of their addresses, and, of course, took position to escape blame for the cover­ In a statement released June 11, student radicals in this country, push­ photographs of participants in all the up. The House committee investigating Socialist Workers party presidential ing many of them in a socialist direc­ major marches. the CIA has just had to disqualify its candidate Peter Camejo said, "The own chairperson-Rep. Lucien Nedzi tion. The Rockefeller report says that American people have the right to By October 1969, Operation CHAOS nationally a total of 1,000 organiza­ (D-Mich.)- because he was told about know the full truth about the criminal had become deeply involved in infil­ tions and movements were harassed in CIA assassination plots a year ago activity of the CIA here and around trating antiwar, Black, and student this manner. It lists only a few­ and never challenged them. The Se­ the world. The Rockefeller commission organizations in the United States. American Indian Movement, women's nate committee, headed by Sen. Frank concludes that secrecy about CIA liberation movement, Students for a Church (D-Idaho), has yet to hold a activities is · justified by 'national 'Acquiring assets' Democratic Society, Young Workers single open session where the Amen- security'-the very same excuse Nixon In CIA lingo, the planting of the Liberation League, V enceremos Bri- Continued on page 26 used to cover up Watergate. agents in these groups was called "The threat to our security and to "acquiring assets." our democratic rights comes precisely One CHAOS agent, according to the from the CIA, the FBI, and other report, infiltrated one of "the dissident police-state agencies. We demand that groups" in order to provide "detailed all the files of the CIA be opened up, so information on the activities and views that the American people can learn the of high-level leadership." full extent of the crimes carried out Another CHAOS agent, says the against dissidents at home and those report, "was 'to get as close as possible' struggling against U.S. domination and perhaps become an assistant to around the world." certain prominent radical leaders who One chapter of the Rockefeller report were coordinators of the. . . 'Mayday' examines "Operation CHAOS," which demonstrations" in 1971. Information accumulated data on 300,000 people on "planned violence" was of special and organizations, and maintained interest to the CIA, the report added. files on 7,200 individuals in the United The most detailed account concerns States. Operation CHAOS-type activities in Operation CHAOS was set up in the Washington, D.C. There the agency late 1960s in response to the Black launched an intensive surveillance liberation movement and the growth of program with the cooperation of the massive opposition to the Vietnam local police. War. In April 1967, the CIA sent agents , Militant/Brian Shannon In 1967 the CIA set up a department into Women Strike for Peace, the One month before this October 1967 antiwar march on Washington, CIA agents called the "Special Operations Group." Washington Peace Center, the Student infiltrated New Mobilization Committee, which sponsored demonstration.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 20, 1.975 7 Reid winds UP- West Coast tour Oregonians hear SWP solution to jobs crisis By Stacey Seigle Reid uses every interview to explain PORTLAND, Ore.-Willie Mae Reid the socialist solution to growing unem­ shook hands and smiled as shoppers at ployment lines. a Portland supermarket responded to a Urban League director George Ran­ loudspeaker inviting them to meet the kins interviewed Reid for "Albina Socialist Workers party candidate for Report," a Black segment of KPTV's vice-president of the United States. Saturday evening news. Reid ad­ Reid, along with local supporters of dressed her remarks to why socialists her campaign, distributed 200 copies of believe everyone has a right to a job "A Bill of Rights for Working People," and a right to a decent-not the 1976 SWP platform. This super­ "minimum"-wage. market campaigning was one activity "What we need is a shortened of Reid's Oregon tour, the last stop on workweek with no reduction in pay," a campaign swing through Western Reid told Rankins. "Our concern is not states. the profits of the corporations but the Many of the shoppers mentioned needs of human beings, of working that they had seen Reid on TV, and peopl_:~. We need to demand a halt to campaign organizers here estimate the mammoth defense budget, and to Militant/Jim Watson that Reid reached hundreds of thou­ demaml that the money be used to SWP vice-presidential candidate Willie Mae Reid campaigns at Portland sands of Oregonians through a series benefit working people through a supermarket. of media engagements. This included massive public works program." three TV interviews and three half­ In taping a show to be broadcast hour radio interviews. Sunday, June 15, Bob O'Donnell of who have been locked out of the How to solve the problem of unem­ lingstad, one of twenty-five nurses KOIN-TV's "ACCESS" said that he system. But how, he asked, could ployment is point number one of the currently on strike against Woodlawn could understand why socialism would "middle-class" people relate to social­ Park Hospital. - Bill of Rights for Working People, and be attractive to poor people, to people ism? Reid pointed out that the system is SEATTLE-Willie Mae Reid spent failing for almost everyone now. "Un­ several days campaigning in Seattle employment lines are no longer made and one day in Vancouver, Canada, as Join the socialist campaign up of 'hard-core unemployables,' "she Here's how you can get involved: 1976 National Campaign Commit­ part of her West Coast tour. said. "People with skills, with college The highlight of the Seattle tour was tee, 14 Charles Lane, New York, degrees even, cannot find jobs nowa­ a socialist educational weekend spon­ ( ) I want to come to a local cam­ New York 10014. days." paign meeting to help plan activi­ sored by the Socialist Workers party Reid will also appear on KATU-TV's and Young Socialist Alliance. Featured ties. Name ------­ "Reflections on Women," scheduled for speakers during the weekend were ( ) I can do volunteer office work. Address ------­ airing in Portland on June 29. Reid; Evelyn Reed, author of Woman's ( ) I can help distribute campaign City literature ( ) on Saturdays ( ) dur­ Evolution; and Stephanie Coontz, a ing the week. State Zip __ In addition to speaking at three professor at Evergreen College in Portland college campuses, Reid Olympia, Washington. ( ) I speak Spanish and can help Telephone marched in a picket line May 30 at the While in Seattle Reid also spoke to translate and/ or campaign in Portland Airport to call attention to several Black studies classes at the Spanish-speaking communities. Occupation Union _____ the racist hiring practices of construc­ University of Washington and met ( ) Please send me one copy of the Business address tion companies. The picket line was informally with Black faculty involved Bill of Rights for Working People called by the United Minority Workers in a fight against cutbacks at the free of charge. School/Organization _____ and the Student Coalition Against university, which are affecting both ( ) Please send __ copies of the Racism. Black and Chicano studies depart. Bill of Rights. Enclosed is $ __ A high point of Reid's four-day tour ments. (three cents each; two cents each for Officers of the committee-Chairpersons: here was a rally May 31 attended by The League for Socialist Action, the orders Fred Halstead, Ed Heisler, Linda Jenness, of 1,000 or more). more than seventy people. Greetings Canadian section of the Fourth Inter­ ( ) Enclosed is my contribution of Andrew Pulley-Treasurer: Andrea MorelL were given to the meeting by a nation­ national, invited Reid to speak at their $ __ Funds are urgently needed. A copy of our report is filed with the Federal Election Commission and is available for al officer of the Organization of Arab forum in Vancouver. Attended by purchase from the Federal Election Commis­ Students, an Oregon organizer of the forty-five people, the meeeting was one sion, Washington, D.C. Clip and mail to: Socialist Workers United Farm Workers, and Joyce Fol- of the most enthusiastic of the tour. Michigan unemployed sign to put SWP on ballot By Mike Kelly celebrate the completion of petitioning. Campion told me that petitioning at DETROIT-In the first two days of Willie Mae Reid will make her first the unemployment lines was easy. gathering signatures at area unem­ campaign appearance in Detroit "Almost everyone signed," he said. "In ployment centers, hundreds of unem­ around this time. Plans are being fact, inside one of the centers, the ployed auto workers have signed made to bring her campaign to area boards were passed up and down the nominating petitions to put the Social­ unemployment lines and to the Black aisles." ist Workers party presidential ticket of community before she speaks at the Athans said that one Black man, Peter Camejo and Willie Mae Reid on petitioning celebration. about thirty years old, had come up to the ballot in Michigan for the 1976 Important support in the petitioning the petitioners and shouted for every­ election. drive is coming from two special "cam­ one to hear, "I'll sign anything that Campaign supporters are taking paigning for socialism" teams that hit will get rid of the Republicans and advantage of Michigan's election law, the road for the first time this week. Democrats!" which allows smaller parties to com­ Each team, composed of four young Athans said many were surprised plete the requirements for ballot status campaign supporters, will be carrying that the party wasn't automatically on this far in advance of the election date. the socialist campaign to area unem­ the ballot like the two capitalist par­ Warm weather and a desire to get ployment lines and plant gates ties. the petitioning done early in order to throughout the summer months. Dur­ While some of the unemployed were leave the remaining time before the ing the three-week petitioning drive, so angered about being thrown out of election free for campaigning were the they plan to collect 9,000 to 10,000 work that they didn't want to talk with chief reasons for doing it this summer, signatures. anyone while waiting in line, the team according to Margaret Scott, Michi­ I talked with three of the team has met only one person hostile to gan's SWP campaign manager. members to find out how the campaign socialism. The law requires that 17,600 signa­ is being received by Detroit residents~ All of the team members are excited tures of registered voters be collected to where unemployment is the highest in by their first few days on the road and win ballot status for parties other than Democrats and Republicans.' the country. The three-Hugh Piercey, are looking forward to an intensive the Democrats and Republicans. At Tom Campion, and Dean Athans-are summer of campaigning. least 100 of these must come from each all members of the Young Socialist The campaign committee is encour­ of nine different congressional dis­ these requirements. Alliance. aging supporters in Michigan to tricts, and no more than 35 percent Campaign supporters will be mobi­ With school out and job prospects volunteer their help for the petitioning from any one district. lizing for the first three weeks in June dim this summer, all three decided that drive. For more information write: The goal of petitioners, according to in weekday and weekend teams to spending their time hanging around Michigan 1976 Socialist Workers Cam­ Scott, is to gather 25,000 signatures to circulate petitions throughout the the house would be a waste. So they, paign Committee, 3737 Woodward discourage any attempts to challenge state. A campaign barbecue and rally and others in similar situations, volun­ Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48201. Or the petitions as falling short of any of has been scheduled for June 28 to teered to campaign full-time. call (313) 831-6135 or 833-4246.

8 PartY. Building Fund Our critics tell why you should help SWP By Barry Sheppard their concept of "socialism."· used this opening to take some actual zation. It is this victimization that The Socialist Workers Party Build­ Their leaflet attacking the SWP is steps to implement Black control by makes the undocumented workers prey ing Fund is a way for supporters of full of lies, as you might expect from demanding the removal of some racist to the extreme exploitation that is used socialism to put their tax rebates to people who supported Washington's teachers. by the growers against attempts to work to help bring socialism closer. war in Vietnam. However, it also levels Shanker then led the UFT into a self- organize. So it is in the interests of the There are different groups in this some charges against the SWP that defeating racist strike, not against the UFW to fight this victimization, not country and the world claiming to be are illuminating because they show school board in the interest of teachers, support it. socialist, and for a person new to some of the basic differences between but against the Black community and The leaflet charges that the SWP socialist ideas it can be confusing. For the two organizations. the right of the Black community to "has a long history of anti-labor activi­ those who really want to fight for Here are some of these charges. control its own schools. The SWP ties and alliances with racist and YPSL says the SWP was opposed to backed the Black community in that reactionary forces seeking to under­ ·Barry Sheppard is the national the 1968 strike by the United Federa­ battle and did everything it could to mine the labor movement." We leave it organization secretary of the tion of Teachers in New York. "They break the racist strike. This was a up to the reader to judge just who is attempted to break through picket Socialist Workers party. proud chapter in the party's history. aligned with "racist and reactionary lines, openly encouraged scabbing, and The YPSL leaflet also charges that forces" that do indeed undermine the joined with antisemites like Lesley the SWP supported the "Por los Niiios" labor movement. · socialism, supporting the SWP is the Campbell in spreading vicious racist slate in the recent District One school Finally, YPSL says that the Mili­ answer-and why this is so can often propaganda against the United Feder­ board election in New York, against tant "weekly carries the most vicious be seen from the positions of those who ation of Teachers." the UFT-backed candidates. They and slanderous attacks on the leader­ attack the SWP. The "racist propaganda" the YPSL don't mention that District Council 37 ship of the American labor move­ For example, the Young People's So­ is referring to is the SWP's position in of the American Federation of State, ment." They are talking about the cialist League recently put out a leaflet support of the right of the Black County and Municipal Employees also bureaucracy, of course, and especially· attacking the SWP, titled "SWP: community to control its own schools. supported "Por los Niiios." the Meanys and Shankers. Friend of Labor?" The YPSL is the Prior to the 1968 strike, the city The issue is the same as in the 1968 Well, they can have them. -We see a youth organization of the Social Dem­ government in New York tried to racist UFT strike. The "Por los Niiios" · revitalized labor movement shorn of ocrats, USA. It and its parent organi­ contain Black demands for a voice in slate backed suspended District One the dead hand of these reactionary zation support the Meany-Shanker the education of their children by superintendent Luis Fuentes and the misleaders, a movement that will take wing of the labor bureaucracy, support allowing some experiments in this struggle of the Puerto Rican, Black, the lead in the fight against capitalism U.S. imperialism abroad, and offer a direction in Brooklyn's Ocean Hill­ and Chinese parents for control over and for all the workers and all layers patched-up version of capitalism as Brownsville sections. Black parents schools in District One. The UFT- of the oppressed. backed candidates were not prounion- Your help in supporting the SWP they were against Puerto Ricans, will speed the day. Send your tax Blacks, and Chinese in this fight. rebate (or as much of it as you can That's why Shanker supported them. afford) to the SWP Party Building The SWP position is that the UFT Fund, 14 Charles Lane, New York, has to break from the reactionary New York 10014. policies of the Shanker leadership, which have led the UFT into head-on confrontations with the minority com­ munities in New York. This racist stand will surely mean the destruction Scoreboard of the union itself unless it is reversed Area Pledged Collected in time. Atlanta $3,000 $335.00 The teachers should be fighting side Boston 1,865 797.95 by side with the oppressed, instead of Brooklyn 3,700 2,024.14 looking on their union as a white job Chicago 2,500 700.58 trust. Cleveland 2,000 The YPSL leaflet goes on: "Though Denver 715 370.00 they claim to support the United Detroit 200 Farmworkers' struggle for union recog­ Houston 2,100 1,495.75 nition and justice in the battle against L.A. (Central-East) 2,200 1,258.80 the big growers, the SWP has opposed L.A. (West Side) 3,000 the UFW's effort to restrict the flow of Lower Manhattan, N.Y. 5,000 1,694.10 illega.l aliens into the fields." Milwaukee 820 100.00 YPSL is right on that one. We think Oakland/Berkeley . 2,500 745.35 the UFW's leadership's campaign Philadelphia 1,000 170.00 against the "illegal aliens" harmed the Pittsburgh 900 141.00 UFW and we are glad that the UFW Portland, Ore. 730 205.00 leadership has backed off from this St. Louis 1,200 859.75 dangerous and self-defeating cam­ San Diego 425 paign. San Francisco 1,400 In the first place, the "illegal aliens" Twin Cities 1,500 460.00 are fellow workers and should be Upper West Side, N.Y. 3,000 614.08 treated as such. The UFW should take Washington, D.C. 2,200 608.00 on the lead in organizing them and in General 1,259.25 1968 teachers' strike. Social Democrats for supporting such fighting for their full civil rights, actions. against the U.S. government's victimi- Totals 41,955 13,838.75 Milwaukee labor unites to support meatcutters By Tom Mauer- contingents included: International Solidarity" was high considering the Scattered scuffling between picketers MILWAUKEE-In a demonstration Molders' and Allied Workers' Local rally and picket line took place on a and cops occurred when some picketers of united labor support for Milwaukee's 125; Boilermakers Local 107; United weekday afternoon, when many people tried to break through a police line set striking meatcutters, some 700 people, Farm Workers; AFSCME Local 1954, are working. The labor council publi­ up to defend scabs as they left the mostly trade unionists, participated which is currently on strike; Communi­ cized the event through a notice in its company parking lots. June 4 in a rally and picket line called cations Workers of America; and the weekly paper, Labor Press, and a The windshield of one strikebreak­ by the Milwaukee County AFL-CIO Milwaukee Coalition of Labor Union leaflet distributed at plants through­ er's car was shattered by a brick. One Labor Council. Women. out the city. picketer was arrested, although police The militant demonstration showed Nonaffiliated unions participating The picket line was set up at two say it was for a previous charge and the widespread support among the included the United Auto Workers p.m. outside the Peck Packinghouse not related to the demonstration. city's workers for the 750 members of Region 10 and the United Electrical and lasted three hours. Peck is the Meat Cutters Local 248, who have been workers. Notably absent was the largest firm being struck by Local 248 From a struggle that began around on strike since January 28. It also Teamsters union, which has been and has tried to continue operations basic economic issues, the strike by •· provided an example of united action crossing the meatcutters' picket lines. with scab labor. Local 248 against eight firms has by the labor' movement. The demonstration was about 40 A sound truck at the site blared out become a battle to save the union from While the majority of participants percent Black and Latino, with com­ such labor songs as "Solidarity For­ an all-out assault by the Meatpackers were meatcutters, sizable contingents munity leaders present on the picket ever," "We Shall Not Be Moved," and Association. were present from American Federa­ line. Other participants included civil "The Union Makes Us Strong." A local The meatcutters are counting on tion of State, County and Municipal rights activist Father James Groppi, radical singing group, the Cream City support from the entire organized labor Employees District Council 48; Fire the Socialist Workers party, the Unem­ News, also appeared. Between songs, movement. The Day of Labor Solidari­ Fighters Local 215; and Machinists ployed Workers Organizing Commit­ officials from the labor council and the ty was an important beginning and an Local Lodge 2110. tee, and the Wisconsin Alliance. various unions presented messages of example of what is needed to assure Other AFL-CIO affiliates sending Turnout for the "Day of Labor solidarity with the meatcutters. the strike's success.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 20, 1975 9 ·1n Our Opinion Let ten

Pipeline to socialism some portion of this rebate when I That 'veto-proof' Of all the periodicals that I get, receive it. yours is (and has been) the most Best wishes to you all as you informative and well balanced. continue on in the liberating of the Congress revisited l also am seriously considering. working class from whatever distributing copies up and down the enslavement is being conducted by the Despite a lot of rosy predictions out of Washington about an [Alaska] pipeline to brothers and employing class, and also in your work "imminent" economic upturn, unemployment lines continue to sisters who are as anxious as I am to of restoring democracy to all the grow longer. The official government figures showed a jump in keep up on what's happening. You'd be people. A.S. Farris unemployment last month to 9.2 percent, up from 8.9 percent in pleasantly surprised at the astounding number of militants on the line. Chicago, Illinois April, and the highest rate since 1941. I would like to get (to begin with) At the White House, where the bitterness and degradation of about ten or twenty copies of your next being denied a job are viewed as someone else's problem, issue, as I am always running off officials casually noted that the increase in the jobless rolls is copies of articles for friends as I like to No comparison "about in line" with administration forecasts. keep all my own issues for my library. Eleven United Farm Workers are The official statistics are notoriously understated. The I don't want to be a distributor per se gunned down in Texas May 26. How National Urban League has made its own calculations of Black due to this damnable ITT creature I often are strikers gunned down in this unemployment to show the real picture. Taking into account the have the misfortune to work for. But I country? That's equivalent to Kent do wish to tum on some good people up "discouraged" workers and those involuntarily working only State or the Attica massacre. here to your newspaper. I'm sure they Compare the news coverage of this part-time, this index found a catastrophic 25.8 percent jobless will enthusiastically welcome it and atrocity: rate among Blacks. then they can subscribe via you. 1) The May 27 San Francisco What solutions are being put forward to deal with this crisis? Also, if you could send copies of Examiner buried this story on the The Ford administration defends the view that the best thing Young Socialist Alliance and Socialist bottom of page 8. The headline: "UFW to do is nothing. It openly states that unemployment can be Workers party literature, I will gladly plans Texas melon boycott." This is expected to remain above 7 percent through the middle of 1978. distribute them. It would add depth to practically news suppression. the info: The employing class has indicated its readiness to endure 2) I might have missed the Examiner M.B. article but for a twenty-second with stoicism the hardships this will inflict on those who work Fairbanks, Alaska summary of the shooting on an for a living. "There is a tendency to think that the recovery educational TV station, KQED, the means a prompt return to full employment, and that is wrong," previous evening. But the story was says Leif Olsen, senior vice-president at First National City sandwiched among local "trivia, a Bank in New York. typical practice of "Newsroom," the R. Heath Larry, vice-chairman of U.S. Steel, told the Wall Easier to sell, too? Bay Area "alternative" news program. Street Journal, "I think we will have a continuing high level of Enclosed is a money order for five 3) This story is front-page news for unemployment" for the next ten years. dollars. Instead of sending the exact the Militant (June 6, 1975). Who else? amount I will always (at least for the My compliments to the Militant for And what about Congress? With great fanfare they adopted a immediate future) send more than I am getting the real news around. $5.3 billion measure to provide public service jobs. It wasn't billed because I consider the Militant a Duncan Gordon much-low-paying make-work for less than 10 percent of those very worthy enterprise. San Francisco, California out of work. But, as expected, Ford vetoed the bill, and it I also read the Guardian and the became a test case on economic policy. And the so-called veto­ Workers Vanguard. The Militant is far proof Congress upheld Ford's veto. above both. That is why I chose to sell The same day the Democratic-controlled House acted to kill the Militant. An inspiration L.D. The United Farm Workers' work in the jobs bill, the Democratic majority in the Senate refused to Endicott, New York cut even a measly $1.2 billion out of a $25 billion fund for South Texas should be inspiring to all. military research and weapons. Organizing mexicano workers shows the power across the United States of There could be no question about the priorities of the this potent force on the side of the Democratic Congress: billions for death and destruction, not a Unfunny comic UFW. dime for socially useful projects or jobs. I remember well in 1970 during the Did you know that "parolees" and Aztlan tour that as candidates of the The trade-off is gruesome. The cost of one Navy A6-E Intruder "ex-cons" are your prime source of Socialist Workers party, Mariana jet-$9 million-could build 257 new apartments in Harlem. worry if you are carrying large Hernandez, Antonio Camejo, and Just the past cost overruns on the C-5A transport plane and the amounts of money? In the May 25, myself had the most memorable . Pentagon's Main Battle Tank-$2.3 billion- would cover 1975, "Dick Tracy" comic strip, his occasion in South Texas. With thirty­ "Crim.estoppers" says, "A fool and his nearly half the price tag on the vetoed jobs program. six hours' notice close to 200 Chicanos, money are soon parted. Don't flash Six days later, the "veto-proof Congress" again showed its most of them from Donna, Texas, your money in public." fundamental .agreement with Ford's policies by upholding his honored us with a barbecue-beer bash. This is good advice and I agree with veto of a strip-mining bill that would have placed some limits­ Among the first to meet and welcome him all the way. The real snag comes us was Antonio Orendain, the UFW's however inadequate-on the rape of the environment by profit­ with the illustration. A man is pictured regional organizer in the lower Rio hungry coal bosses. in the foreground talking to a Grande Valley. With his leadership, Last year the unions spent an estimated $7 million to elect bartender. In the background are two "friends" in the Democratic and Republican parties, with what people labeled "parolee" and "ex-con." the melon stnkers cannot but succeed. Fr6ben Lozada This is derogatory and degrading to seemed to be overwhelming success. Seventy percent of the Oakland, California AFL-CIO-endorsed candidates were elected. Now these a group of people that have made a "friends" are proving beyond the shadow of a doubt where their mistake and paid for it. The ex­ offender has enough problems without real allegiance lies. In f~1Ct, in New York and other cities the Chester Gould, who for years has unions are forced to demonstrate in the streets against layoffs brainwashed the public about 'Necessary measures'? and wage cuts imposed by the very same Democratic mayors criminals and police control, planting Although I agreed with many of the and governors they eleGted just a few months ago.! even more distrust in the public's labor issues brought out in the The futility of the union leadership's policy of supporting mind. Militant, the cover story on the Democratic and Republican candidates has never been more The implication is that an ex­ Mayagii.ez incident [May 23 Militant] offender will see your money and rob was too much. obvious. Yet the bureaucrats continue to insist that it is "not There are several things wrong with realistic" to launch an independent labor party. you. Statistics show that the bartender would be more likely to rob you. this country, things which should and Nothing could be further from the truth. Masses of working - A prisoner will be righted constructively. You do people are fed up with the racist, prowar, antilabor policies of California not achieve positive results by taking the Democrats and Republicans-but they see no alternative on divisionistic and degrading attitudes the scene. They register their disgust by staying away from the toward necessary measures. polls in droves. Dennis Smit"h Tax rebate fund Louisville, Kentucky A labor party with a program to meet the needs of working Regarding your request for people-not the bankers, not the Pentagon, not the corporate contributions to the Socialist Workers profiteers-could rally these discontented millions behind it. It Party Building Fund from President could spearhead a s.ocial and political movement to reverse the Ford's income-tax rebate, I want to Bigger and better priorities upheld by both Ford and Congress. notify you that I have not received this A while ago [May 23 issue] the The labor movement has the organization, the votes, and at the present time. But I am enclosing Militant carried an article on the qualified representatives to run for office. And if it had $7 a contribution that you can use for this demonstration in New York in support purpose anyhow. million to pour down the drain of capitalist politics, it certainly of the United Farm Workers. If I'm not I am sorry to say that if this tax mistaken, you reported that it gathered has the money. rebate should come to me, I will be 1,000 persons. A labor party is needed and a labor party is "realistic." using most of it to supplement the low Though it may have been 1,000 or Indeed, it is the only way workers can begin to resolve the compensation benefit payments I am under at the rally, and 500 or under at present social and economic crisis. now getting. However, I will send you the start of the march, I am positive (I

10 Women In Revolt Linda Jenness···

was there) that it swelled to well over 2,000 during the procession itself. Since we walked from Fifty-ninth to Sixteenth Street, a good forty-three CP & women political prisoners blocks, many people joined in along At a banquet celebrating thirty-seven years of publi­ these women are counterrevolutionaries and antiso­ the way. cation of the People's World, the West Coast newspa­ cialist. He'd simply repeat what his mentors in Mos­ I write this because I am proud of the per of the U.S. Communist party, editor Carl Bloice cow tell him. work our brothers and sisters of the gave a speech honoring International Women's Year. But it was hardly "counterrevolutionaries" who, in United Farm Workers are doing to win The speech was reprinted in the May 24 People's September 1974 in response to an appeal appearing in the right to have free elections and World. It's an object lesson in hypocrisy. the Soviet journal New Times, asked to be allowed to decide who they want to run their Titled "Women in prison," Bloice's speech attempts donate all the wages that they earn while prisoners to union. Otherwise, the Militant is the to pay tribute to many of the women imprisoned and a fund for the victims of the Chilean junta. It was only paper I know I can get the truth tortured by reactionary regimes. these Ukrainian women political prisoners. Their re­ from. "I do not feel that International Women's Year quest was denied by Soviet authorities. J.H. would be worth a damn," says Bloice, "unless special The Soviet Union was one of the main initiators of Brooklyn, New York recognition is given to the suffering and courage of the United Nations designation of 1975 as Internation­ women of color, if special recognition is not given to al Women's Year. Yet it is the Soviet government that the role played by women in the movements for na­ sentenced one of the first women polijkal prisoners tional liberation.... " during this year. Just a few days before International Stalinist cover-up It won't be worth a damn, either, unless the coura­ Women's Day, 1975, Oksana Popovych was sentenced In her June 6 article on CIA-Mafia geous women imprisoned and tortured in Soviet pris­ to eight years in a labor camp and five years of exile attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, ons are defended-none of whom Bloice ev~n men­ for "anti-Soviet agitation" and circulation of literature Cindy Jaquith pointed out that Senate tioned. not "approved" by the Stalinist authorities. "investigators" are covering up the In the Ukraine, in particular, there are many women Oksana Popovych has already spent ten years in role of John and Robert Kennedy, who imprisoned for fighting for freedom of expreseion and labor camps-from 1944 to 1954-for participation in were president and attorney general at against the national oppression of their homelarld. the Ukrainian fre~dom movement. Those ten years the time. Does Bloice believe that Stefania Shabatura, a physically crippled her. During her interrogation in Well, it seems their former colleagues Ukrainian tapestries artist, should spend five years the current arrest, the Soviet secret police, the KGB, in Congress are not the only ones in labor camps and three years in exile for defending denied her a needed operation and access to medical anxious to downplay the murderous Ukrainian historian Valentyn Moroz? Shabatura was care. plots approved by these "heros" of the arrested in January 1972 and accused of introducing liberal Democrats. political, "anti-Soviet motifs" into her art. Her "anti-Soviet activity" consists of her signature The Daily World reported the Writer lryna Stasiv-Kalynets, microbiologist Nina on a petition in behalf of Svyatoslav KaravanskyJ revelations on May 28, but with some Strokata-Karavanska, poet lryna Senyk, and philolo­ another Ukrainian political prisoner, and her ac­ curious omissions. gist Nadia Svitlychna-Shumuk, along with artist Ste­ quaintance with others who defend Valentyn ·Moroz. "This plot reportedly was carried out fania Shabatura and others, are in a labor camp for If the U.S. Communist party can so easily dismiss during the Eisenhower women political prisoners in the Mordovian Autono­ these victims of repression, and simply mimic the administration," the Daily World says. mous Soviet Socialist Republic. slanders of the Stalinist bureaucracy in Moscow, they Possible, but not likely. All the Their "crimes" include fighting for democratic are not reliable defenders of anyone. newspaper reports I have seen place rights; defending victims of Soviet authoritarianism; , International Women's Year is a good time to de­ the assassination plans in 1961 and pleading for the freedom of Valyntyn Moroz; and re­ mand freedom for all women political prisoners­ 1962, under the Kennedy fusing to forget their national culture, art, and history. including those crowding the prison camps of the administration. Carl Bloice, if asked, would undoubtedly claim that USSR. . Then the Daily World lists the membership at a top-level meeting on August 10, 1962, that discussed "eliminating" Castro: Robert MacNamara, Dean Rusk, John McCone, and McGeorge Bundy. By Any Means Necessary But the Stalinists conveniently forget to mention that Robert Kennedy Baxter Smith was also a member of this committee, which had responsibility for approving secret CIA operations against revolutionary Cuba. And if there was any doubt left, UN debate on Namibia Nicholas Horrock reported in the May John Vorster, South Africa's prime minister, has Black "homeiands," or Bantustans, and forced resi­ 30 New York Times that investigators been playing the Captain Ahab role to the hilt these dency in them for the various tribal groupings. The now have a May 1961 memo on the days. settler government has already set up such Bantus­ CIA-Mafia connection, personally Trying to skipper a course for his white-settler tans in South Africa. initialed by Robert Kennedy. government through the tricky Namibian straits, he's But because of the steps toward independence in the This report has yet to find its way into run headlong into trouble. But like the storybook Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola, and the Daily World. From people who Ahab, who knew he 1was up against more than he what he sees as a troubling situation in Rhodesia over claim to be defenders of the Cuban could handle, Vorster likewise remains as stubborn, the mounting Black nationalist pressure, V orster in RevolutiQn, the silence is deafening­ salty, and ruthless as ever. recent months has been seeking a conciliation or and revealing. Vorster's newest problems stem from South Africa's "detente" with various Black African governments. He The Communist party, you see, is control over neighboring Namibia, which the United hopes to show that apartheid is flexible and can be still trying to dupe workers into Nations-and just about everyone else-says is illegal. softened. supporting "good" capitalist Last December the UN Security Council gave South Just the other day, the Namibian government politicians against the "bad" ones, and Africa six months to outline its plans for withdrawal announced it would remove from all public buildings the Kennedys, like Roosevelt, are from Namibia, or face "appropriate measures." signs proclaiming "whites only" and "nonwhites," supposed to be classic examples of Formerly known as South-West Africa, Namibia was and would allow Blacks into white hotels and restaur­ "peace-loving," "pro-civil rights," seized from Germany during World War I and admin­ ants. "friend of labor" Democrats. istered under an old League of Nations mandate. As in The announcement was timed to influence the "Impeach Nixon" is one thing, but South Africa, white settlers rule over the Black discussion going on in the Security Council on what to besmirching the name of the natives. There are about 90,000 whites and 750,000 do about South Africa for refusing . to get out of "martyred" Kennedys is something Blacks in the country, which is twice the size of Namibia. else. It's just too embarrassing for their California. The most serious talk has been of mandatory trade Stalinist apologists to admit that the South Africa's apartheid laws have been in effect in sanctions like those imposed on Rhodesia in 1967. But shining knights of Camelot were up to Namibia since 1966 and only whites can hold public it is unlikely that such measures will be taken. On their elbows in counterrevolutionary office. June 6 the United States, Britain, and France vetoed a murder plots. Copper, uranium, and diamond mining are the resolution in the United Nations to impose a mandato­ G.A. largest industries in the country, and the U.S.-owned ry arms embargo on South Africa. New York, New York Tsumeb Corporation, Ltd., runs one of the largest Several years ago the United Nations asked for operations. voluntary arms sanctions against South Africa, and Getty, Phillips, Continental, Texaco, and Standard the United States complied. But Washington, looking Oil of California have all run exploration ventures off out for U.S. corporate investments, and allied with the the Namibian coast but have recently abandoned most reactionary regimes throughout the world, is not them even after favorable preliminary findings, be­ about to call for tough, economic sanctions. The letters column is an open cause of what Getty cites as "political changes that Even still, the way things are going, it's only a forum for all viewpoints on sub,. appear in the offing." · matter of time before Namibia wins its independence. jects of general interest to our Although the pressure is mounting, Vorster's inten­ And just like old Ahab one day got done in by a big, readers. Please keep your letters tion is to hold onto Namibia for as long as possible. He bad, white whale, some day soon John Vorster and his brief. Where necessary they will wants to grant it his version of "self-determination." government will get done in by something bigger-but be abridged. Please indicate if Vor6lter's !'self-determination" means the creation of Black-and badder than them. your name may be used or if you prefer that your initials be used instead.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 20, 1975 11 .. Defense fund urges actions Joan Little solidarity day set for Ju By Cindy Jaquith filled with supporters. A rally is also WASHINGTON, D.C.-July 14 will tentatively scheduled to take place that be a day of solidarity with Joan day. (pronounced JoAnn) Little, the Black Supporters of Little are also plan­ woman who faces trumped-up murder ning solidarity activities ih other cities charges in the death of a white jailer for July 14. "We're definitely encourag­ who tried to rape her. Little goes on ing any kind of support rallies that trial July 14 in Raleigh, North Caroli­ take place," said Davis. na. The National Student Coalition In a recent interview with the Against Racism, for example, has Militant, Yvonne Davis, coordinator of issued a call for picket lines in as the Joan Little Defense Fund, Inc., many cities as possible the day tHe described some of the activities trial opens, demanding "Free Joan Little! Drop the charges!" NSCAR has suggested that the protests be held at jails or prisons, to dramatize the racist, Chicago rally inhuman treatment of inmates, or at federal buildings. Joan Little speaking to May 31 rally in Washington, D.C. Demonstrations will be held will hear Uttle Davis told the Militant that the in Raleigh, North Carolina, and around country to coincide with opening of her trial. CHICAGO-Joan Little will be the effort'S of all groups are welcome in featured speaker at a rally here defending Little. "More than wel­ Saturday, June 21, to demand that come," she emphasized, "because the be ·done because of the injustice Joan people don't know, for instance, that the charges against her be dropped. more support you get, the more people had been subjected to. And we felt that Alligood's shoes were found· in the The rally, which will begin at 2:30 you reach. The more people you reach, this was also a big opportunity to corridor; that the TV cameras [used for p.m. at Shiloh · Missionary Baptist the more awareness there is. That's bring out and make people aware of surveillance of Little in her cell] had Church, 4840 S. Dorchester, in Hyde important." the injustices that Black women in been turned off, so that whoever was at Park, is being organized by the Many of those reached and activated particular have been subjected to in the main desk couldn't see what was Chicago Women's Defense Commit­ in the case thus far have been women, the past. going on; that Alligood's pants were tee (CWDC). she explained. This is partly due to the "From this,~fortunately, other prison hidden from the public for a good while Other speakers will be civil rights issues involved. systems are being investigated now, afterward, because there were stab attorney Thomas Todd; Kathleen Little is charged with first-degree and they're finding out that a lot of the wounds on his legs but no stab wounds Thompson, author of Against Rape; murder in the death of Clarence same things are going on." on the pants." Barbara Garrison, CWDC; and Alligood, a sixty-two-year-old white "I would say that much of Joan's Although the mass media have representatives from the Delbert jailer, on August 27, 1974. At the time, support is woman-based or woman­ given unusually extensive coverage to Tibbs Defense Committee, CASA, Little was imprisoned in Washington, oriented," said Davis, "because this is the case, "they've given only a partial and others. Admission is free. For North Carolina, on breaking-and­ a woman who was victimized. In view," Davis noted. "They've left out more information contact CWDC at entering charges. She was the lone particular, Black women have taken a the political issues, of course." (312) 643-1104. woman in the cell block. stand on it, and that's a good thing, Alligood entered her cell with an ice because Black women had been kind of She said she felt that movement and pick and tried to rape her. She fought sitting back-up until the last few underground newspapers have played back and escaped. Alligood was found years-and now, they've started to get an important role in clarifying these planned to win support for Little as the dead of stab wounds the next day. up and start dealing with issues like issues. "We are trying to get as much trial opens. The defense fund, which After a massive dragnet was this." of the press, especially the under­ operates out of Durham, North Caroli­ launched by the state of North Davis, who is Black, said she ground press, to the trial as possible," na, is raising money for legal expenses Carolina-a search that could have thought most Black women see the she explained. "We are appealing to and publicizing Little's case. easily ended in the death of Little-she case "as a racist issue first, then as a people such as yourselves and any "Basically, we're trying to get as decided to surrender, with the aid of sexist issue. Because Joan is a woman, other such publications that exist, many people down to Raleigh as attorneys Jerry Paul and Karen Gallo­ they identify with her more." radio stations, and the like, because possible," said Davis, "especially for way, who are now representing her. But all kinds of people have re~ this is the only means through which the first day of the trial, July 14." She When the case first began, explained sponded, she added, once they under­ the people are going to know what's said she hoped the courtroom will be Davis, "We felt that something had to stand the facts in the case. "A lot _of really happening."

Demand end to cutbacks UCSD teaching assistants stage work stoppage By Mark Schneider the GSU said, "Of course, the state He also pointed out that the universi­ ly demolished by the June 3 solidarity SAN DIEGO-More than 500 teach­ education budget is· inadequate. But ty is planning to spend four times the rally. ing assistants and their supporters our negotiating committee told them, amount of money needed to meet the Undergraduate speakers from the demonstrated on the University of 'Find the money.' When they want to teaching assistants' demands, to build Black Student Union, MECHA, San California at San Diego campus June 4 build a new house for a university an art gallery in La Jolla-one of the Diego Student Coalition Against Ra­ demanding an end to education cut­ president they find the money, so they wealthiest cities in the country. cism, the Women's Center, the student backs and {ln adequate income for can find the money for us." "The University of California sys­ government, and- the Young Socialist teaching assistants. The day before, At the June 3 campus rally, GSU tem spends more on fertilizer than on Alliance solidarized with the GSU's 1,000 students attended a campus-wide President Phil Protter explained, teaching assistants at UCSD!" anoth­ aims. They focused on the debilitating rally to support the teaching assis­ "What we are asking for is less than er member of the GSU told the rally. effect the cutback of teaching assis­ tants. The actions occurred as part of a one-tenth of 1 percent of an education The UCSD administration tried to tants would have on the quality of two-day work stoppage called by the budget of $500,000,000. . . . What they undercut the work stoppage by por­ education at UCSD. Some departments 520-member Graduate Student Union are asking of us is that we live on food traying it as a strike against the face a 50 percent cutback in staff. (GSU). There ·are 1,000 graduate stu­ stamps." undergraduates. This lie was effective- Messages of solidarity were read dents_ at UCSD. from the American Federation of State, The newly formed union has tried to County and Municipal Employees negotiate the following demands with (AFSCME) Local1695 in Berkeley and the UCSD administration: from the GSU in Wisconsin. A repre­ • a salary equal to one-half the sentative of the UCSD AFSCME local salary of a full-time employee (about gave greetings from his union and $4,700 per year); from the AFSCME local at the Univer­ • full-year contracts instead of the sity of California at Los Angeles. present quarterly contracts; Socialist Workers party vice­ • no increase in the student­ presidential candidate Willie Mae Reid teaching assistant ratio; sent a message to the June 4 demon­ • tuition and fee waivers for all stration, which was well received by graduate students. the protesters. She said, "Your struggle helps establish that students and At the June 4 demonstration the working people should not and will not union negotiating committee reported bear the brunt of inflation and depres­ that the administration would only sion. Your fight against deteriorating consider the demand regarding con­ conditions in our educational system is tracts and rejected all other demands. part of a fight that students are For the past five weeks the administra­ waging across the country. I salute you tion has claimed that there is no and pledge the solidarity of my party." money and nothing to discuss. One thousand students at University of California at San Diego rally to support The GSU has vowed to continue its Speaking at the San Diego Militant Graduate Student Union demands for end to cutbacks in education and adequate fight in the fall if its demands are not Forum on May 30, Jim Cavanagh of income for teaching assistants. met when school reopens. 12 'Dal~ygate' continues. Army called tune for ...·-.. htist terrorists By Suzanne Haig members of the SWP with police file CHICAGO-The revelations of identification numbers next to their massive police spying that have rocked names. Ware refused to comment. Chicago in the past few months have led even ultraconservative commenta­ Leaks continue tors to hint at a certain "police-state Like its national counterpart Water­ mentality" of Mayor Richard Daley's gate, the scandal in Chicago continues administration. to unravel. Some of the more recent But Chi~ago's "Daleygate" is more leaks include: than just the excessive shenanigans of • The Chicago state's attorney's the last of the "machine" politicians. office is investigating the possibility Disclosures have linked Daley and his that Chicago police data on persons police intelligence unit ("red squad") with no criminal records were fed into with the FBI, military intelligence, a nationwide computerized intelligence and a right-wing terrorist group in an file. This national Law Enforcement effort to wipe out groups they consid­ Unit, with computerized files contain­ ered a threat to the status quo. ing about 20,000 names, was estab­ Despite a spy network that targets lished supposedly to aid in exchang­ virtually ~very known Daley ing information between police opponent-from the Organization for a agencies on crime syndicate figures. It Better Austin to Illinois Democratic seems, however, that it has "ex­ Governor Dan Walker-the real wreck­ panded" to include information on ing operations were aimed at Black political activists. organizations, the antiwar movement, • The FBI conducted widespread socialists, and other radical groups. surveillance of the Afro-American Pa­ The most startling revelation to date trolman's League, which filed a dis­ is that a right-wing paramilitary crimination suit against the Chicago group, the Legion of Justice, acted at Police Department. The. FBI file, some the behest of Chicago's "red squad" 500 pages, was shared with army and military intelligence during its intelligence and the Chicago Police terrorist campaign in 1969 and 1970. Department. Contained in the files are The Chicago Daily News recently Legion of Justice 1969 prowar march in DeKalb, Illinois. Army helped recruit legion hundreds of names of members of the revealed that the 113th Military Intelli­ members and supplied them with Mace, tear gas, and electronic surveillance Black Panther party, reporters, clergy, gence Group-in coordination with the equipment. local politicians, and others. Chicago police-helped finance, equip, Response to the spying has taken and direct the legion in its attacks on different forms. A speak-out on police the Socialist Workers party, Young Defense Against Terrorist Attacks, outside as the invaders broke" in and spying on April 19 at Chicago's Civic Workers Liberation League, Chicago · brought the police inaction to public stole films and documents. Center Plaza heard authors Sid Lens Peace Council, and others. attention and apparently forced the • The disruption of performances of and Studs Terkel, State Sen. Richard Tear gas, Mace, and electronic sur­ cops to reconsider such blatant colla­ the Soviet Union's Moiseyev Dance Newhouse, Bill Hampton (brother of veillance equipment were supplied to boration with the terrorists. After 1970, Company in 1970 and China's Shen­ murdered Black Panther leader Fred the terrorists, and the army unit re­ the attacks subsided. yang Acrobatic Troupe in 1971 was the Hampton), and representatives from cruited "young men" to join the legion, Some of the recent disclosures link­ work of legion members. Tear-gas the SWP, Communist party, and Oper­ either paying them directly or arrang­ ing cops, of both the federal and local grenades used in these disruptions ation PUSH. ing to have the legion subsidize their variety, with the Legio:q of Justice were supplied by army intelligence. Lawsuits demanding an end to the expenses. include: • The "red squad" and military spying have been filed by the Citizens The documents and lists taken in • A November 1969 armed attack on intelligence also worked with the le­ for a Better Environment and by John burglaries carried out by the legion the Chicago headquarters of the So­ gion in spying on the defense of the Hoellen, Daley's Republican opponent were shared with army intelligence, cialist Workers party and Young So­ Chicago 7, a group of antiwar activists in the recent mayoral election. the FBI, and the "red squad." cialist Alliance during which people tried for their participation in the 1968 Continued on page 26 According to the Daily News's uni­ were Maced and a YSA member was Democratic party convention demon­ dentified informants (former legion clubbed. Files, tapes, and a cash box strations. members who have had a "change of were stolen. Police cars waited outside heart"), the legion strongly supported to ensure that the attack was not U.S. involvement in Vietnam and interrupted. Grand jury Socialists openly advocated violence to disrupt • A March 1970 incident in which In response to the public furor creat­ antiwar demonstrations and meetings. legion members tried to enter a Chica­ ed by these and other disclosures, Legion members were also enlisted go Peace Council meeting, and when State's Attorney Bernard Carey con­ file suit as agents provocateurs at Northern refused admission, burned the hand of vened a Cook County' Grand Jury in CHICAGO-Disclosures of right­ Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, one of the meeting's organizers with a March to investigate the spying and wing violence and police spying during the antiwar upsurge of May cigarette. The "red squad" helped the police links to terrorist groups. against socialists in Chicago have 1970. attackers escape and later arrested the Police officials resisted testifying added substantial evidence to the "They were . told to be the most man who had been burned. and turning over their files, charging Socialist Workers campaign's chal­ violent persons there," an informant • The February 1970 legion beating that to do so would endanger the lives lenge to the Illinois campaign fi­ told the Daily News. of a participant in a Young Workers of police informants. nance disclosure law. Liberation League meeting. Police On May 14, Laura Miller, a member On May 23, the socialists filed suit Police 'inaction' present allowed the beating to occur of the Socialist Workers party and in U.S. District Court charging that At the time of the right-wing cam­ and then threatened to arrest the vic­ former secretary of the Committee for provisions of the "Act to Regulate paign, police refused to take any action tim. Defense Against Terrorist Attacks, Campaign Financing" reqUinng against the terrorists. A united defense • The July 1969 raid on Newsreel, testified before the grand jury. In that they report the names and' effort, organized by the Committee for a radical film group. Police cars waited December 1969, Miller had been pres­ addresses of their contributors are ent as legion goons forced themselves unconstitutional. SWP vice­ into an apartment in DeKalb, Illinois, presidential candidate Willie Mae and beat and Maced the YSA members Reid, who was the SWP's candidate present. against Daley in the April mayoral 'Progressive' cops In April of this year, representatives election, is also a plaintiff. Mayor Richard Daley is noted for of the SWP met with Police Deputy The suit, prepared by attorney his ringing, if ludicrous, defense of Superintendent Mitchell Ware, head of Lance Haddix, cites widespread sur­ his "boys in blue." The following the intelligence division. They de­ veillance and intimidation of sup-. quotes by the mayor and his cronies manded that police files on SWP porters of SWP campaigns and con­ prove no exception: members be turned over and that tends that to reveal the identities of police spying and harassment of SWP new supporters would only subject Responding to the cop scandal, members and supporters be ended. Daley called the Chicago Police them to similar harassment. Ware defended the "right" of police The suit also points to a 1973· Department "the most progressive in to pay agents to spy and referred to the the United States" and added that Chicago Police Department order existence of a list of about fifty organi­ he hoped the newspapers would setting up a special unit to gather zations where "a valid police concern" print that statement in boldface intelligence on "organizations or exists for "monitoring." \type. individuals which present a threat to When asked about police files on the security of the country, state, or "Hell, our job is to investigate. I'll members of the SWP and YSA, Ware city." investigate you; I'll investigate the complained that the press had wrong­ The spy unit also "conducts in­ pope. We investigate ourselves. We "Knowledge of their [community fully accused the police department of vestigations and identifies the lead­ are out to protect the people-that's groups] demonstrations enabled us having files on hundreds of people. He ers and membership of organiza­ what investigating is about."- to prevent traffic tie-ups."-Deputy denied knowledge of any files on the tions or groups" and "investigates . Joseph Pecoraro, head of the Chica­ Police Superintendent Michael Spiot­ SWP and YSA, at which point an SWP and identifies sources ·of financial go Patrolmen's Association. to. member present showed him a "red support." squad" document listing her and other

THE MILITANT/JUNE 209 1975 13 WhY. reformists fall to meet the test socialism & democracy--key issues· By Gerry Foley nist party can better defend capitalism From Intercontinental Press in Portugal by its methods. But it is By resisting the attempt of the clear that in a real sense, the Commu­ military government and the Commu­ nist party's policy is certainly no less nist party to restrict its influence and demagogic than that of the SP. its role, the Portuguese Socialist party not only created a crisis of governmen­ Birds of a Feather tal authority in its own country but on The demagogy of the Communist an international scale raised some party has been so obvious that the fundamental questions about the na­ ousted dictator Marcelo Caetano him­ ture of socialist revolution. self could score a point in the apologia In the context of the world economic he published· in Brazil under the title crisis and the rapidly reviving interest Depoimento (Testimony for the De­ in socialism among the masses in the fense). developed capitalist countries, especial­ "And suddenly a demand · arose, ly the less stable ones concentrated in promoted by a group of agitators, that Western Europe, the question of the was designed to undermine any rea­ .relationship between socialism and sonable effort by the government-the democracy was bound to take on a demand for a minimum wage of 6,000 crucial importance. escudos [US$249 a month]. From that The closing down, through the com­ point on, whatever the government did bined action of the military govern­ would be insufficient. The worst thing ment and a Stalinist-controlled union, was that the maneuver dreamed up by of a daily newspaper associated with Communist elements to embarrass my the party that got by far the largest government was to produce unexpected vote in the April 25 elections raised results when a Communist took over this issue dramatically. the Ministry of Labor [in the first The Stalinist Portuguese Communist Socialist party leader Mario Soares and supporters protesting closing of 'Republica: provisional government installed in party gave a clear answer to the This incident dramatically raised issue of democracy in Portugal. May 1974]. There were some who took questions that were raised, and its him seriously and demanded what it attitude was echoed and supported by had been claimed was easy and just to the Soviet bureaucracy. Alvaro Cun­ grant. Then this was found to be ha!, the' general secretary of the Portu­ an anti-Communist holy alliance. remained silent about the "Battle of neither just nor easy. It was the justice guese CP, was quite frank in explain­ Blocs designed to isolate the PCP Production." They have indignantly of fate." ing this position to Le Monde reporters [Partido Comunista Portugues­ rejected the accusations of the CP, In fact, the CP dropped the demand in Lisbon on May 27. Portuguese Communist party] would, while responding with a pained de­ for a 6,000 escudo minimum wage after The reporters asked him whether, if in fact, have every chance of winning. fense to similar charges from the joining the first coalition government the Socialists-who won 38 percent of You see, there are two roads coexisting military government. For example, set up as a facade for the military. Not the vote in the April 25 elections-were in Portugal today-the electoral pro­ Soares said at a May 22 news confer­ only did it oppose this as a statutory excluded from the government, an cess· and the revolutionary dynamic. ence in Lisbon's Hotel Altis: minimum, but the CP machine in the alternative coalition could be built. Sometimes they run parallel, at others "We support the Battle for Produc­ trade unions opposed this demand in they diverge. In a revolution, some­ tion. And, to the contrary of what has contract struggles and pushed for This article is abridged from the times you have to defend a policy that been suggested, we Socialists are in­ settlements as near as possible to the June 16 Intercontinental Press, may not always be popular. Support­ volved in waging this battle of produc­ m1mmum wage of 3,300 escudos ing wage demands that our economy tion. But for this purpose, it is neces­ available for $.75 from: (US$137) set by the military govern­ cannot afford, calling for cutting the sary to organize discipline on the job, ment. Intercontinental Press, P. 0. Box workweek to thirty-five hours can help to have a plan. And the Portuguese 116, Village Station, New York, N.Y. Only after the mass upsurge touched get you votes. But in view of the state people must be conscious of the choices off by the March 11 coup attempt did 10014. of our economy, this is demagogy, and made and not feel constantly insecure, the government increase the minimum can lead to disaster for us." not knowing what fate holds in store wage to 4,000 escudos (US$166), an Showing political realism, Cunha! for them." increase of 21 percent, while inflation went to the heart of the matter and On the other hand, Soares pointed has remained above 30 percent a year ruled out any coalition that did not out (from a Social Democratic point of under the new regime. include the SP. In such a case, clearly, St~linist Strikebreakers view) the contradictions that arise the facade of parliamentary rule could Cunhal was setting up a straw man. Neither the CP nor the SP had any from trying to use socialist-sounding not be maintained, and the alternative He did not give real examples of the intention of leading a socialist revolu­ appeals to get the workers to work of the military sharing responsibility "demagogy" he had in mind, because tion. This was specifically excluded by harder to save the capitalist economy for running the country with the CP the CP's role in holding back workers both groups in their own way, the SP in Portugal, and the utilization of alone was neither likely nor desirable. struggles and breaking strikes in order stressing the "unviability of a people's Stalinist methods to enforce "labor If, however, the SP continued to to defend the economic policy of the democracy in Portugal," the CP stress­ discipline." prove intractable, a purely military government has become a scandal ing that what was on the agenda was "On the other hand, the Battle for government would be an acceptable among the most militant sections of "national -liberation on the road to solution: the Portuguese working class. This is Production requires the involvement of socialism." all the workers, and if some workers "If a coalition government proves one of the main reasons why "blocs However, the CP had both the capac­ have transformed themselves into impossible, an alternative will have to designed to isolate the PCP would, in ity and the willingness to act as a policemen over other workers and be found-for example, a government fact, have every chance of winning." transmission . belt and police for the discriminate in a partisan way against comprising officers and civilians who This is why the CP has in fact been government in the labor field; while other workers, obviously this battle do not represent parties as such." badly defeated in some elections by the SP did not. will be weakened." The CP g~neral secretary explained blocs opposing the Stalinist machine. that a government installed by the This occurred, for example, in the bank At the same time, Soares made a armed forces over the heads of the workers union in Oporto, where the more profound point. The Portuguese Stalinists Oppose Democracy people should not necessarily be con­ former CP minister of labor in the first workers want to catch up with West The Stalinist training of the CP sidered a dictatorship: provisional government was buried by European standards; they are not activists made them resistant to pres­ "A military government is not on the a 2-to-1 vote. looking forward to a "great national sure from the rank and file. They were horizon at the moment. But in any The French CP apparently felt freer effort" or a "socialist revolution" that inculcated with the idea that only an case, I should make it clear that such a to refer to actual cases where its would mean dropping further below omnipotent machine can lead the government would not be incompatible Portuguese comrades had shown more the level of West European bourgeois workers toward a socialist transforma­ with the exercise of liberties in Portu­ "responsibility" than the SP. An edito­ democracy. tion. Despite the electoralism of the gal. It was, in fact, the MFA that rial in l'Humanite said: This means that the totalitarian Stalinist parties, their fundamental established the freedoms that exist in "Organizing production is the pri­ methods of the Communist party, conception remains that revolution can this country." mary task. But while Mario Soares monolithic control of the press and the never win the support of the majority talks about everything and nothing, he trade unions, along with massive inti­ of workers, that revolutionary policies has been maintaining a total silence midation of the workers by govern­ cannot be popular, that "discipline" on this subject. His friends and allies ment and party transmission belts must be imposed on the masses by the Why CP Is Vulnerable are involved in fomenting strikes and could not "win the battle of produc­ party machine and the government. Cunhal assured the reporters that disorders under various bad pretexts in tion" in Portugal. And so, the SP was a Otherwise, how could the iron-fisted the Portuguese CP favored democracy, TAP [Transportes Aereos · better political partner for the military dictatorship that exists in the bureau­ freedom of speech, and freedom of Portugueses-Portuguese Airlines], in government than the CP. It could cratic workers states, to which the association. However, his real attitude the chemical industry, and in other key achieve the same results by more Stalinist parties remain inseparably toward democracy was revealed when sectors. Mario Soares remains silent. flexible means. tied, be justified? The leadership and he tried to explain why he was opposed And in any case he is taking no It is hard to say whether Soares is the members of Stalinist parties may to the holding of elections soon for the practical steps to get the Socialist correct about this, in view of the idealize the situation in the Soviet municipal governments, where the CP party to participate in the economic worldwide economic crisis and the Union and similar countries, but they has gained many positions by virtue of struggle, which is the prerequisite for narrow limits in which Portuguese are neither complete idiots nor deaf, its machine and its special relation­ the survival of democracy and freedom capitalism has to operate. It may be dumb, and blind. They know that a ship with the MFA. He said: in Portugal." that in these circumstances and in the dictatorial regime exists in those coun­ ''The Socialist party wants to set up Actually, the SP leaders have not conditions of the detente, the Commu- tries and justifying it is one of the

14 :acing the Portuguese revolution fundamental components of their polit­ This alliance is a contradictory one, base in the labor movement rather Social Democrats or the bourgeois ical outlook. especially in the case of the Stalinist than on identification with the Soviet press seize the issue of democracy. If This attitude was revealed very parties, which were formed historically Union that workers struggles could Soares wants a more flexible alterna­ clearly in Cunhal's statements May 27 on the basis of the socialist revolution develop at all in that period. tive than the CP and the MFA leader­ to the Le Monde reporters. Elections and the abolition of capitalist property Likewise, it is clear that if the ship at the moment, he is no less were a tool of the right, because the in Russia. But it does not follow from Stalinists could ·unite the Portuguese committed to supporting the bonapart­ workers would inevitably succumb to this that they will always be in sharp­ trade-union movement under their ist military regime. As a reformist, he "demagogy," even in a country like er conflict with capitalism than the control, they would-as long as they could hardly be. He is committed to Portugal, where the Communist party Social Democratic parties. The oppo­ remained allied to the regime-turn it class collaborationism, and the MFA is already dominates the decisive sec­ site, in fact, has been true at times. into a labor police for the government at present the only viable bourgeois tions of the press and heavily influ­ and ruthlessly purge the very forces . political leadership in Portugal. ences most of the rest. Because of its search for accommo­ that supported them in the mistaken In his Hotel Altis news conference, The logic of this attitude was already dation with international capitalism belief that they were more anticapital­ Soares made quite clear that he really clear at the time of the struggle over and because of its antidemocratic ist or anti-imperialist than the Social would not mind an outright military the "trade-union unity" bill. Because of nature, Stalinism may subordinate the Democrats. dicatatorship as long as it allowed the the way in which it had subordinated interests of the workers completely to SP to function. the interests of the workers to the the needs of deals with the bourgeoisie "One thing the Communist party needs of the bourgeois military govern­ of individual countries or with the general secretary has said I think is ment, the CP had lost a series of key imperialist powers. During the Nazi­ Democracy-a Sharp Issue correct. That was, if there is a com­ union elections. No doubt this con­ Soviet pact, the Kremlin press actually The most immediate danger is that pletely military government, it doesn't firmed Cunhal's fears about the sus­ defended fascism. by succumbing to the illusions held by mean that a military dictatorship has ceptibility of workers to "demagogy." One example of this logic was the a section of the workers vanguard in been established in Portugal. attitude of the Portuguese CP toward the Portuguese Communist party, the "The government can be military, strikes opposed by the military govern­ ~ilitant youth and workers who are but if public freedoms are respected, if ment. The CP, too, opposed them. breaking from reformism will isolate Reason for 'Unity' Law we have pluralism in the media, elec­ Another example was the no-strike themselves from decisive sections of tions in the unions and in the munici­ Thus, it was essential to preserve the pledge of the CP in the United States the masses. palities, etc., if Portuguese political life foundation of the CP machine's power, during the Soviet-American wartime The majority of the workers and its control of the n'ational federation. continues to operate normally until alliance. At that time, the Social Demo­ radical petty-bourgeoisie are looking there is a new constitution, and then, In order to do this, it was necessary to crats, although they were thoroughly for a better life now, including not only prevent the SP from going around the within the terms of the pact-program proimperialist and later became enthu­ a better standard of living but mOl'e [which gives the effective power to the CP-controlled structure. For this the siastic red-baiters and cold warriors, political and cultural freedom, all of government's help was needed and MFA], elections are held for the legisla­ were less subservient to capitalism and which are being fervently opposed by tive assembly, there will not in fact be was forthcoming. The result was the more responsive to the demands of the the CP in the name of the needs of the "trade-union unity" law. a military dictatorship here in my workers than the Stalinists. It was "national revolution." ·opinion." The bourgeois regime, essentially a largely because tbc Social Democrats In fact, there is no reason why revo­ That is, a dictatorship is not a repressive apparatus, as all who call were dependent specifically on their lutionary-minded youth should let the themselves Marxists should know, was dictatorship when it does not interfere with business as usual for the politi­ entrusted with keeping the workers from succumbing to "demagogy," that cians. Respect for the principle of is, attempts to "divide" them by set­ popular sovereignty has nothing to do ·with it. ting up another federation. This law was the first attack on a fundamental democratic right under the new regime-the right of association. It Washington's Attitude was complementary to the attack on Nor is popular. sovereignty what trade-union rights that began with the Washington is worried about. One of antistrike law of September 1974. It President Kennedy's former advisers, was an indication of the antidemocrat­ Arthur Schlesinger, warned U.S. offi­ ic direction in which the regime and its. cials in the June 3 Wall Street Journal Stalinist defenders had to move in not to shout too loudly about dictator­ order to safeguard their demagogic ship lest they reduce their options hold-that is, the control they claimed unnecessarily: to exercise for the benefit of the work­ "Portugal going Communist is not a ers but which was not subordinated to happy prospect. It is also a consider­ the workers or to the immediate or able exaggeration. The immediate pro­ historic interests of the workers. spect, if the democratic forces fail to The demagogic campaign in support sustain themselves, is not a Commuist­ of the "unity" law was momentarily takeover. It is rather the establishment effective. In the first place, the claims of a military regime, Nasserite in its that the SP's alleged moves to estab­ model and neutralist in its foreign lish a rival federation represented a policy, using the Portuguese Commu­ CIA plot provoked the kind of "patriot­ nist Party for counsel anq support. ic" reaction the government had Such a regime might well deny mili­ sought to foster since it took power. tary bases to the United States, but. This fitted in also with the rulers' there is no reason to suppose that, any strategy of presenting their govern­ more than Egypt or Peru, it would turn ment as a kind of ,"national liberation overnight into a Soviet satellite. . . . front." The accusation hurled at the "But, where the Communists are Socialists by Admiral Rosa Coutinho giving the dominant Armed Forces shows the advantages of such a formu­ Movement unconditional support, the la. He claimed that by making such Socialists, under the leadership of noisy protests against the shutdown of Mario Soares, have irritated the mil­ Republica they had, at least partially, itary by their demands for democratic "betrayed the country." liberties." Secondly, there was a large layer of Other well-informed bourgeois com­ workers and the left outside the Com­ mentators have noted that the conflict munist party who shared a certain between the Socialists and the military outlook of the Stalinist ranks. They officers is not exactly based on irrecon­ wanted to fight imperialism and capi­ cilable differences of political principle. talism and were quick to align them­ "The clashes between the officers selves with forces linked to noncapital­ and the Socialists have been more ist states and insurgent military conspicuous, but public and private officers, against Social Democrats with statements by most leading members ties to openly procapitalist parties, of the Movement show strong suspi­ some of which have been, or are, in cions of Communist efforts at infiltra­ power in imperialist" countries. tion and a cold appraisal of a Commu­ Ultimately such a view springs from nist party drive for power," Richard illusions in Stalinism similar to those Eder cabled from Lisbon to the May 27 held by the ranks of the Stalinist New York Times. parties, illusions reinforced by reac­ " 'Most of our members are ideologi­ tionary anti-Communism. However, cally closer to the Socialist than to any both the Stalinist and the Social Demo­ other group,' a leading officer said not cratic parties represent bureaucratic long ago. 'But the party's leaders give forces in the working-class movement inists have made clear that they prefer military rule in Portugal to rule by the us trouble; they criticize us and want to and as such are allied with capitalism masses of workers and peasants. Although radicalization has penetrated into armed take over from us. The Communist on a world scale. forces, military remains a repressive force. leaders support us consistently.'"

THE MILITANT/JUNE 20, 1975 15 On-the-scene rm.x>rt Texas farm workers face continuing By Jose Perez else we could talk~ the workers, signs SAN JUAN, Tex.-As the United say 'private property."' Fann Workers' strike 'against melon Some of the strikers recalled using growers in Hidalgo and Starr counties the same tactic during the 1966 UFW entered its fourth week, a significant strike here. The notorious rinches-as portion of the melon hal"Vest was left Chicanos call the Texas Rangers- on the ground to rot. were called in to brutally smash that 'Heavy rains alternating ' with an strike. intense Texas sun have combined to At about seven a.m. the strike ferment the juice of the ripe melons leaders moved the crowd-by now into wine. Nature is thereby coming to more than 100-to a nearby parking the· aid of the striking Chicano and lot. There they rallied and chanted for mexicano workers by creating an even an hour. heavier burden for the growers. It was an ugly day. The sky was The growers have retaliated with dark and overcast, and many people, arrests, stepped-up har~sment, and a both strikers and nonstrikers, simply barrage of injunctions against picket- did not bother to cross over from ing. Mexico that day. Two strikers were arrested on June It was getting darker and darker as 11. Benito Pefia was charged with the strike leaders began to speak. · "obstructing traffic" while attempting Jesus Luna explained once again the to ·taJk to workers on a bus owned by reason for the strike, why the workers Brand and Griffin Produce Company, will accept nothing less than union one of the area's biggest growers. MilitanVJose Perez recognition. He is an older mad and Ismael Ibarra, one of the eleven UFW leader Antonio Orendain addresses striking farm workers at rally on border has been active in the farm workers workers who had been shot by grower between Texas and Mexico. movement for many years. He is also Chestley Miller on May 26, was arrest- one of the eleven who was wounded by ed on criminal mischief charges. After Miller when he declared "open season" Ibarra and nine others filed assault the compliant courts for injunctions Antonio Orendain told the Militant, on strikers with a shotgun two weeks. charges against their assailant, Miller against picketing. the struggle will continue until the ago. filed the criminal mischief charges The growers' strategy is to tie the harvest ends. Orendain believes that Luna spoke of the injustice of the against them. Three others had al- union up in court fighting the injunc- this strike has been an important step courts and the cops who would not ready been picked up and released on tions. In many cases it is necessary for for the union and has laid the basis for arrest Miller after he almost murdered bond. the union to prove that a disputed road future organizing drives. the strikers. Even now the cops are not Hidalgo County sheriffs deputy is publicly owned or has been general- seriously pressing the aggravated Elias Juarez struck Ibarra several ly open to the public, which is a Strike continues assault charges ten of the eleven times during the arrest. UFW attorney difficult and time-consuming task. Despite all the obstacles, the strike wounded workers have filed. Jim Harrington said that he intends to Farm workers who violate the in- continues, although the demonstra- Lupe Casares, a young Chicano file assault-and-battery charges junctions can be hit with stiff bail and tions associated with it have been activist who has played a big role in against Juarez. fines. smaller in recent days than during the the strike, told the crowd that the Attorneys for several growers made first weeks of the strike. strike would continue "despite injunc- Huge ranches the mistake of citing the Texas "right Each morning organizers and stri- tions, arrests, and even if they sent in The rich Rio Grande- Valley on the to work law" in their petitions for kers who live on this side of the border los pinches rinches [the fucking rang­ U.S.-Mexico border is covered with injunctions against picketing. Because go to the Hidalgo international bridge, ers]." huge agricultural ranches. The UFW of a quirk in this law, this opened the just a few miles south of San Juan. He also singled out the importance of strike is directed at the wealthy grow­ door for the union to demand an They get there at about 5:30 a.m. and the unity that has been forged between ers who own these ranches. election in the field to determine if the talk to those who commute from the commuting workers and those who Access to the fields where the farm workers want the union. Although Mexico. During a period of two or three . live permanently· on this side of the · workers cultivate and harvest the such an election would not have bound hours a crowd of several hundred border. crops is limited to a series of small the growers to recognize the UFW, a gathers, and from there they are Orendain, the main leader of the roads, some public and some private. A union victory would have been a organized into teams to go and, picket strike, was the last speaker. As soon as court decision recently established the powerful morale boost for the strikers. various ranches. he approached the microphone, every- UFW's right to picket on both the Willing judges, however, allowed the On Monday morning, June 9, the one became quiet. Dressed in his well- public roads and those private roads growers' attorneys to wiggle out of strikers went a· step further in using known black shirt and black hat, he is that have generally been accessible to their blunder, and they filed corrected the bridge between the two countries a striking and immediately recogniz- the public. court papers. Nonetheless, the specta- as an organizing center. They went out able figure. No Trespassing signs have rapidly cle of these lawyers deriding democrat- into the center of the bridge itself and He said that" the gringos call this appeared on these roads, including ic elections as "an exercise in futility" began stopping everyone who was valley the magic valley because they some that are clearly. public, in an and "a popularity contest" at a June 6 walking or driving across to talk to make so much money out of it. But the attempt to block picketing by striking hearing helped to expose the wealthy them about the strike. field workers call it "the valley of workers. This is coordinated with a ranchers. Orendain explained why they de- tears, the valley of misery." legal offensive by growers to petition Despite the heavy odds, strike leader cided to adopt this tactc. "Everywhere Although it was starting to rain, not How labor contractors rob farm workers SAN JUAN, Tex.-The main de­ with the contractor. These contractors are between $1.30 and $1.50 an hour, was some of these little yellow pieces of mand of the United Farm Workers' are paid a certain amount by the and when things get really bad they go paper the W9rkers have to sign. On strike against melon growers in the grower, out of which they are supposed down to as low as $.90 an hour. them were wages paid to some of the Rio Grande Valley is for union recogni­ to pay the workers, deduct Social This, of course, never shows up in melon strikers who had gone to pick tion. One advance all of the strikers Security tax, and pay for gasoline and the grower's books. There it says he peppers, which are also being har­ are determined to win under a union upkeep for the trucks that transport gave the contractor so much to pay the vested here. contract is control of hiring through a the workers. workers $1.80 an hour or even more. It On May 20, one worker worked ten union hiring hall, which would do Invariably, however, the troqueros also never shuws up in the contractor's hours at the piece rate and received away with the hated labor contractors. fail to give the workers the full rate records, which are completely fabri­ $17. Another day he worked ten hours, The recruitment of field hands here they are supposed to get. According to cated. and received $11. For the first day, the is done exclusively by the contractors, one striker who was until recently a The worker who is subjected to this troquero put down six hours worked, called troqueros by the workers. Many troquero himself, this is easy to do, and superexploitation cannot file a com­ for the second, only three hours. of the field hands are mexicanos or a totally accepted practice. Since the plaint with the authorities because he Chicanos who reside permanently on fields are right next to a few Mexican or she has to sign a voucher the Another worker put in three full days this side of the border and travel all cities with extremely high unemploy­ contractor prepares at the end of each and received $13, $14, and $2.40. over the country, going from one ment rates, there is always someone to day. If a field hand refuses to sign, the Older people and women workers are harvest to the next. The rest of the replace the worker who refuses to work troquero simply forges a signature. heavily discriminated against, particu­ labor force consists of workers who for low pay. larly in piece-rate work, since the commute each day from Mexico. With some jobs the pay is on an if the worker did not work fast contractors' income for the day de­ The labor-contractor system assures hourly rate, for others it is on a piece enough under the piece rate to come pends on the amount of production. that both the commuters and those rate. Wages are supposed to be $1.80 above the m:inimum wage, the contral:· The workers here see the fight for who reside permanently in this coun­ an hour under the federal minimum tor simply puts down fewer hours union control of hiring as central to try suffer inhuman exploitation. wage law for the bigger ranches, and worked. their struggle. Other gains, such as Here is how the system works. $1.40 an hour under state law for the One of the first things that strike higher wage rates, will have little The farm workers here never deal smaller ones. But these minimum wage leader Antonio Orendain showed me impact unless the scheming troqueros directly with the grower, but rather laws are never enforced. Actual wages when I arrived at the UFW office here are put out of business. -J.P.

16 Spanish voting-rights bill passed by House By Nancy Cole officials serving in the eleven Southern The U.S. House of Representatives states. Today there are 1,587. voted June 4 to extend the Voting While passed by the overwhelming grower assaults Rights Act for another ten years and to majority of the House--:-341 to 70-the one person stopped listening or went broaden its coverage to Spanish­ voting-rights extension evoked heated for cover when the drizzle began. speaking and other non-English­ opposition and last-ditch efforts to Orendain denounced the antipicket­ speaking minorities. "amend" the bill out of existence. ing injunctions and said strikers would If passed by the Senate and signed The state legislature in Texas even return again and again to the bridge into law, the act will require all or rushed through a watered-down while the court orders were in effect parts of some states to provide bilin­ voting-rights bill of its own at the last because that was the only place they g:ual (or possibly miltilingual) ballot minute to provide an argument for that could talk to the mexicano workers. materials and voting assistance. state's exemption from the federal act. He wound up by telling everyone to States or districts that will be affected Supporters of the bill presented evi­ go home. At first, strike leaders had under the act are those where 1) more dence of intimidation at polling places, thought of proposing that there be than 5 percent of the voting-age popu­ inconvenient location of polls· or loca­ picketing of the ranches, he said, lation is made up of any one of four tions where minonLy voters feel unwel­ "because by tomorrow there might not "language minorities" and 2) where come, and lack of bilingual materials be a public road left in the county." the "illiteracy" rate of that minority is as justification for the bill's extension. But instead, they had decided to higher than the national rate. "In House hearings, witnesses testi­ program some rain, "which is just as .. .,The four minorities protected are fied that Texas law-enforcement offi­ effective as picketing." those speaking Spanish, Asian, Ameri­ cials patrol Mexican American, but not Just as Orendain had finished those can Indian, and native Alaskan lan­ Anglo, precincts on election days; words, it started to rain in earnest. guages. sheriffs reportedly walk around polling Some of the workers returned to As with the Voting Rights Act of places brandishing guns and billy Mexico. Others went to El Cuhamil, 1965, states covered must continue to clubs," Rep. Andrew Young (D-Ga.) the local UFW office, in the town of submit any changes in their voting told the Congress. San Juan. laws and procedures to the U.S. attor­ "In Uvalde, Texas, some Chicanos ney general for approval, ·and · the are afraid that their welfare checks El Cuhamil federal government may intervene in will be reduced because of their politi­ At El Cuhamil strikers spent the federal elections where there is appar­ cal activity," Young said. afternoon discussing strategy, evaluat­ ent discrimination. Members of Congress arguing ing the progress of the strike to date, against the . bilingual proVIsions and discussing possible future actions. The 1965 voting act, along with the charged that th~re was no proof of The strike is now beginning to wind 1964 Civil Rights Act, were major discrimination and that the bill would down as the cantaloupe harvest comes Militant/Jose Perez victories for the civil rights movement. only encourage "multilingualism." to an end. No other major harvest will Despite all-out grower offensive, strike Under the pressure of massive mobili­ Quoting Theodore Roosevelt, Rep. begin here until October. In addition, is making new gains for farm workers. zations of Blacks and other civil rights Robert McClory (R-Ill.) said, "In Amer­ many of the workers can stay out on fighters, the Democratic and Republi­ ica there is only one language­ strike for only a limited time, because can party politicians decided to give up English." there are no strike benefits. Juan, has been unable to publish since the Jim Crow system of legal segrega- , Spanish-speaking communities have Nevertheless, the union has estab­ the beginning of the strike, partly tion. been fighting for years on a local level lished a very powerful base of support owing to lack of funds. It used to be "Ten years ago the dramatic demon­ to institute bilingual voting proce­ among the workers, even those who published every two weeks. dures. In 1973 a suit filed in New York have returned to the fields. The strikers have asked that expres­ stration at Selma brought to this Congress and to this country very City by the Puerto Rican Legal De­ One indication of this was given by sions of support far the ongoing fense and Education Fund resulted in Freddy Calderon, a reporter for the organizational campaign take the form significant facts indicating that bilingual ballots for the general elec­ McAllen Monitor. He spent a day, of financial or food contributions. Blacks had not been allowed to vote," working in the fields and reported on Checks payable to the Texas Strike Rep. Robert Drinan (D-Mass.) said tion that year. In areas where La Raza Unida his experiences. Fund and food should be sent to: during the House debate June 3. parties have begun to attract increas­ Almost all the workers he talked to United FariJl Workers, Route 1 Box The 1965 law has been credited with were favorable to the union. One of the 149-B, Alamo, Texas 78516. major advances in Black voter regis­ ing numbers of Chicanos away from reasons is that the growers have raised tration and in the number of Black the Democratic and Republican par­ the pay to $2.15-$2.25 an hour in an elected officials. In 1965, for example, ties, the Voting Rights Act should attempt to undercut the strike. The there were seventy-two Black elected prove an aid in their efforts. workers view this as a victory won by UFW fight the union. Another indication of suppt.~rt is that whenever strikers are able to set up a draws support picket line near a group of field SAN JUAN, Tex.-The farm work­ ers' struggle here has become a Rhodesian police kill workers, many come out and join the strike. rallying point for the Chicano move­ Alongside the county roads in sever­ ment throughout Texas. Chicano al ranches are row after row of activists from around the state have 11 Blacks, wound 28 unpicked melons, reflecting· the grow­ been traveling here to express their By Tony Thomas Smith praised the police for their ers' fear of placing the workers near support. Rhodesian riot police on June 1 "exemplary conduct." roadside pickets. Groups ~>ach as TU-CASA, the San murdered eleven Blacks and wounded The African National Council issued More than 1,500 workers have signed Antonio-based antideportation orga­ twenty-eight others in attacks on the a statement that criticized the suppor­ cards authorizing the UFW to bargain nization, and La Raza Unida party Africari population of several . Black ters of ZANU and ZAPU for using on their behalf. chapters around the state have sent towhships near Salisbury, the Rhode- violence against each other but also contributions of food or money. sian capital. The cops started with an attacked the police for intervening. Moving with harvest Significant, too, is the union attack on several thousand Blacks who The ANC has been holding negotia,: Despite the gains, the central objec­ support. In response to rumors were demonstrating outside a meeting tions with Smith's white-settler regime tive of the strike-union recognition­ citculated in the press that the of that country's African National since December. The great majority of has not been achieved. Once this strike national UFW has disassociated Council in Highfield African Town- Rhodesia's population are Blacks, yet is over, union organizers plan to travel itself from the strike because of farm ship. they are deprived of most political and to other parts of Texas where melons worker violence, UFW Secretary­ The cops claimed they were trying to economic rights and ruled over by a are also being harvested, particularly Treasurer Gilbert Padilla issued a break up fighting between supporters white-settler regime. in western Texas and the panhandle. statement · here stating that '1the of the Zimbabwe African National The pressure of gains by liberation One reason for this tactic is that United Farm Workers union su~ Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe forces in the Portuguese colonies and many of the workers from here wifl ports their efforts for justice in the African People's Union (ZAPU), two of guerrilla struggles and mass actions also be harvesting those melons. In fields." Violence, Padilla noted, "is a factions of the ANC. in Rhodesia itself had forced the Smith several instances the same agricultural tactic of the grower, not of the union. After a crowd of 2,000 outside the regime to open negotiations. companies are involved, and this tactic In this strike-as in all its work-the meeting did not disperse in the face of Plans for a constitutional conference will keep pressure on them while there United Farm Workers is guided by police blank fire and tear gas, the cops in which substantive negotiations are no big harvests in the Rio Grande principles of nonviolence." opened fire with guns into the crowd. would take place have been blocked by Valley. Texas state AFL-CIO President The demonstrators shouted slogans the Smith regime's demand that ANC In assessing the gains and limita­ Harry Hubbard endorsed the strlke calling for Black majority rule, such as guerrillas lay down their arms and his tions of the strike, organizers for the at a news conference and lent his "Zimbabwe shall be free" and "Zanu refusal to free political prisoners. UFW stressed that a serious drawback support to efforts being made by has decided on liberation to free Zim- The New York Times reported that has been the lack of funds. This has campus groups at the University of babwe." on June 3, Gordon Chavunduka, secre- made it impossible to pay strike Texas in Austin to collect food and After this confrontation, Africans in tary general of the ANC, announced benefits and has even made it difficult funds for the workers. Black townships around Salisbury that preliminary talks leading to a to have such simple things as suffi­ The N'ational Coordinating Com­ attacked cars with white passengers, constitutional conference \owuld take cient t~:ansportation to take several mittee of the Coalition of Labor attacked shops, and battled with place. He stated that the government Union Women also passed a resolu­ hundred people from the international police. These actions reportedly ended had stopped insisting on ~ guerriilla bridge to picket lines at the ranches. tion backing the farm workers' the next morning. cease-fire while the ANC had agreed La Voz del Cuhamil, which is struggle at their recent meeting ·in: After the gunning down of the not to insist on the release of politi-cal published by the UFW offi,ce in San Houston. Blacks, Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian prisoners.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 20, 1975 17 Basic Qroblems untouched Why Mideast peace moves won't work By David Frankel The Middle East seesaw has changed direction once again. When Henry Kissinger's last round of shuttle diplomacy broke down March 22, the threat of war was in the air. Now the immediate threat has been sharply reduced. Egypt has reopened the Suez Canal after eight years; Syria has renewed the mandate of United Nations forces on the Golan Heights for another six months; Israel claims it has pulled back some of its forces in the Sinai; and Washington has begun to explore the possibility of new moves toward some type of agreement. Nevertheless, the underlying situa­ tion is unchanged. No matter how many diplomatic trips and penny-ante concessions are made, the basic war threat will remain. The danger of war in the Middle East arises fundamentally from two factors: the imperialist domination of the region, and the existence of the Israeli colonial settler-state. Imperialist intervention ' In all the dozens of countries it has intervened in, Washington always poses as the impartial and disinterest­ ed champion of peace and democracy. After Chile and Vietnam, to name only the two latest examples, the veneer has begun to wear a little thin. Washington is tied to the most reactionary dictatorships in the Middle Palestinian refugees crossing into Jordan after 1967 war. Israeli state was expulsion of hundreds East. It arms and supports the shah of of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland. This injustice is at root of Mideast conflict Iran, King Hussein of Jordan, and King Khalid of Saudi Arabia. greater the threat they pose to Israel foundations of the state. That is why moment for Israel. The next step in such situations is no The conflict between the Israeli the current sE!arch for a Mideast agree­ "It is convenient for the USA that. secret. We have seen the results in settlers and the Arab population rests ment may prod"U.ce temporaey deals, Israel and the Jews are complaining Korea, in Vietnam, and in the Domini­ on the dispossession of the Palestinian but will never produce peace. about delays in the delivery of LancE' can Republic. In the Middle East U.S. people. Writing from a Zionist point of A comment by Christian Science missiles, Laser bombs or F-15 aircraft, troops have also intervened, most view in the February 28 issue of Al Monitor writer Jason Morris on the because such complaints strengthen notoriously during the occupation of Hamishmar (the daily of Mapam, one recent political crisis in Lebanon vivid­ the position of the United States in the Lebanon in 1958. In 1970 Washington of the two main parties in Israel's ly illustrated the role played by Israel Arab world." openly prepared to step in:to the civil ruling coalition)1 Adam Zartel put it in maintaining the imperialist-imposed This tactic is hardly new. Following war in Jordan, mobilizing troops in this way: division of the Arab world. In a dis­ the joint British, French, and Israeli Germany ·and North Carolina and "The tragic problem, faced by Zion­ patch from Jerusalem published May invasion of Egypt in 1956 aimed at massing the units of the Sixth Fleet. ism since the beginning of the Jewish 29, Morris said that "even if the reversing Nasser's nationalization of It is only a matter of time until settlement in this country, has been Lebanese Muslims were to summon the the Suez Canal, President Eisenhower Washington's determination to pre­ the problem of what is called the figures of a population census to prove went so far as to demand that Israel serve capitalism in that region, regard­ expropriation of the Arabs. Weizman that they constitute a majority of withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula, less of the interests of the masses of and others tried to square the circle: Lebanon's population, there would be which it had occupied. people living there, results in another They tried to create a Jewish settle­ little likelihood of Israeli indifference The imperialists, however, never Vietnam-type situation. Despite the ment, without harming the Arabs. to establishment of a Syrian, Egyp­ stopped pouring their guns and money rhetoric about the danger of the Soviet This process was successful, as long as tian, or Libyan-style Lebanese Arab into Israel. In the latest example, on Union taking over the Mideast, what it concerned swamps, deserts, and/or republic. June 6, the Senate voted to extend the the imperialists are really afraid of is rotten effendis who were prepared to "And Israel certainly would move if authorization of military credits to the Arab masses taking control of their sell their country for money. proof that Muslims preponderate in Israel until1978. As Sen. James Abou­ own destiny. As in Vietnam, Washing­ "As a whole, however, the country Lebanon were to serve as justification rezk said, this was "another blank ton has intervened against native was not empty-as it has been de­ for merger or annexation under which check· signed by the Senate for Israel." revolutionary movements, and threat­ scribed in children's songs more than Lebanon would become part of a A letter signed by seventy-five sena­ ens to do so aqain. once. Sooner or later, collision of greater Syria." tors and released May 22 argued in As in Indochina, what is needed first interests over the land was bound to In conclusion, Morris refers to the favor of continuing U.S. arms aid to of all is for the United States to get out. occur, and it did occur. Ownership of frequently raised Israeli threat to take Israel by saying, "We believe that And also as in Indochina, all of the land is the essence of the settle­ over southern Lebanon, noting, "The preserving the peace requires that Washington's "peace" proposals are ment and the essence of the struggle. Israelis long have considered the Lita­ Israel obtain il level of military and intended to do precisely the opposite­ Those who did not try to delude them­ ni River, which bisects southern Le­ economic support adequate to deter a to ensure a situation in which the U.S. selves knew well that when the Arabs' b.~non, as a natural security border." renewal of war by Israel's neighbors." rulers can continue their interference interests came into collision with the Similarly, the Israelis openly threat­ In other words, Israel must militarily in the Middle East. Jewish settlers the latter would have to ened to invade Jordan in September dominate the Middle East. But despite win. 1970 when it appeared as if the popula­ the David versus Goliath propaganda, Role of Israel "It is difficult to guess what the tion there might succeed in overthrow­ that has been the real military situa­ The Arab masses are strongly anti· Jewish state and the Jewish settlers ing King Hussein. The struggle of the tion in the region for the last twenty­ imperialist; they want an end to U.S. would have done had the War of Arab masses for economic and politi­ five years. It has hardly "preserved the domination of their countries. Even the Independence not broken out and if the cal progress and for an end to humilia­ peace." most conservative Arab regimes must Arabs had not run away and deserted tion by foreign imperialism is insepar­ There is a way to peace in the Middle sometimes bow to this powerful Arab the best lands of th~ land of Is­ able from the fight against Israel. East. It requires the establishment of a nationalist sentiment. However, Wash-· rael. ... Palestinian state in which Jews and ington has one ally in the Middle East "Is it not true that most of our Current 'peace' moves Arabs could live together, instead of an that does not have this problem. kibbutzim are on land, which once was Since the October 1973 Middle East Israeli state that aspires to be "as The Jewish population in Israel is inhabited by Arabs and which passed war. Washington has tried to appear Jewish as England is English." Such a overwhelmingly in favor of Washing­ to us as a consequence of war?" as an impartial mediator between the state would not be in endless conflict ton's presence in the Middle East. Arabs and Israel. Like any crooked with all the people who live around it, Having stolen a whole country from The Palestinian people were the first umpire, it has made a few gestures to nor would it serve as an imperialist the people that lived there, the Israeli to feel the impact of the Zionist coloni­ both sides, but Washington's basic base helping to keep the Arab peoples colonizers need whatever support they zation of Palestine, and they have commitment to maintaining its Israeli in subjugation. · can get to maintain their position. The suffered the inost from it and fought client-state has never been in doubt. It is the struggle of the Arab masses, more economically developed the Arab the hardest against it. But they are not As Dan Margalit wrote in the Israeli in particular the Palestinians, for such countries become, the more they over­ alone. daily Ha'aretz April 25, "President a state, not Kissinger's shuttle diplom­ come the divisions among themselves, Israel's territorial disputes with its Ford has not delayed arms shipments acy or the Geneva conference, that the more progress they make in cast­ Arab neighbors and its alliance with to Israel. Ships loaded with the best of holds out the real hope for the future in ing off imperialist domination, the imperialism are built into the very everything are leaving even at the the Middl.e East.

18 utlook A WEEKLY INTERNATIONAL SUPPLEMENT TO THE MILITANT BASED ON SELECTIONS FROM INTERCONTINENTAL ' PRESS, A NEWSMAGAZINE REFLECTING THE VIEWPOINT OF REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM.

JUNE 20, 1975-

'Great battle of Argentine workers movement' ·Meaning of Villa Constitucion metal workers' strike By Judy White jail-and it led to a terrible bloodlet­ "[They] did not have a consistent Avanzada Socialista assessed the ting... .'' class-struggle position on the problem role of the neighborhood support com­ Describing the forces arrayed of the isolation that the bureaucratic mittees: [As a result of their role in support­ against the strikers, Avanzada Social­ trade-union leadership had imposed on "Starting with its leadership jailed, ing and helping to organize the Villa ista said: us. The attempt to form a coordinating the strike continued for two months Constitucion strike. several members "The bourgeoisie, which began committee at the trade-union plenary thanks to the colossal drive, the of the Partido Socialista de los Traba­ claiming to have had nothing to do of March· 1974 was quickly dropped semispontaneous organization, the jadores (PST-Socialist Workers party, with the March 20 attack, showed its when it was opposed by the JTP consciousness of the ranks, and the a sympathizing organization of the true colors: By firing more than 500 [Juventud Trabajadora Peronista­ participation of women and mer­ Fourth International in Agentina) compafieros it showed the real extent Peronist Worker Youth], the Commu­ chants. All of these positive features have been jailed by the Peronist of its participation. nist party, and Salamanca [leader of were shown in the community organi­ regime. Avanzada Socialista is the ". . . the true initiator of the attack the militant Cordoba section of the zations that kept arising and were PST's weekly newspaper.] was the government. The false use of a auto workers]; and only received verbal converted into the symbol of the supposed 'plot' was the pretext to take support from Tosco [leader of the resistance. Almost all initiatives came over the union and launch a direct militant light and power workers in from there-from those for obtaining On May 19 the 6,000 metalworkers provocation against the 6,000 compafi­ Cordoba]." subsistence to those for stopping who had been on strike in Villa eros." "Thus Villa remained isolated at the scabs-and a real community to serve Constitucion for two months went critical moment, as had happened the strike was forged.'' back to work. previously to SMATA, Luz y Fuerza, "Another thing that greatly helped Avanzada Socialista, describing the Greatest Responsibility and Graficos.1 the resistance was the solidarity strike as "one of the great battles of "The same centrist, vacillating posi­ shown. Although there were no mobili­ the Argentine workers movement," "But of the three allied forces, the tion was repeated on the question of zations, in many factories and other offered a balance sheet of the strike in one that has to answer directly to the the guerrillas. The Pichi [Piccinini] sections of the populace all over the its May 24 issue: workers, the national trade-union lead­ leadership never spoke straightfor­ country there were currents that sup­ "The assembly of Saturday, May 17, ership, has the greatest responsibility. wardly to the ranks, posing to them ported the struggle.'' drew 2,500 compafieros who unan- . In the first place because the real the problem of these non-working-class imously decided to continue the strike origin of the conflict must be sought in organizations that were not pursuing three days longer and to make a final the local's four years under trustee­ working-class objectives or using Rapid Recovery try for serious negotiations. . . . but ship. And, in the second place, because working-class methods. For example, Avanzada Socialista is certain that a their endurance had reached a limit. although the national UOM was sup­ the leadership was silent when Breuss rapid recovery can be made: With quarrels masking their feeling of posedly ignorant of the attack was assassinated at Acindar.2 "Five months after the smashing of impotence, some in tears, persecuted, launched by the governmel!t, it is "By not having done this, they per­ SMATA in Cordoba the compafieros exhausted, with thousands of problems responsible for the total isolation of the mitted the guerrillas to grow in an took up the fight again. What at the built up in the course of the two-month struggle, for not having helped eco­ atmosphere of indiscriminate goodwill time was a harsh defeat was rapidly work stoppage, the strikers could not nomically, and for not having taken that gave people the idea that 'they are overcome by the drive of the ranks. hold out any longer. any steps to have the membership of good guys' or 'that they are helping.' "The same thing, perhaps even more "Nonetheless, the morale was not the union support it. Not to speak of its "This was fatal in Villa, as it can be rapidly, can happen in Villa Constitu­ that of an army that had been silence in face of the criminal actions­ in other places. Not only did it mean ci6n where the fundamental priority smashed. The word that began to one that cost the life of compaftero providing the government unnecessari­ task posed is the reorganization of the circulate was 'continue it inside.' That Mancini-carried out by rightist gangs ly with arguments-the 'subversive union in the factories. is why the police and the government against dozens of compafteros. plot'; it also disarmed the ranks on the "In addition, in the struggles now mounted the final provocation against "It is this entire policy of the trade­ negative role played by guerrilla ac­ going on in Rigolleau, Grafa, among ·the strike: They prevented the general union bureaucracy, culminating in the tions isolated from the mass move­ the bank workers, and in those to assembly from meeting and spread the refusal of Lorenzo Miguel [national ment." come, the lessons of Villa and the lie that there was a helter-skelter, president of the UOM] to recognize the meaning of that tremendous strike disorganized return to work. strike committee, that caused the de­ that shook the country will be funda­ "The reality was different. Over the feat.'' mental. Understanding how to distin­ weekend, meetings were held in. the Avanzada Socialista pointed out 1. SMATA (Sindicato de Mecanicos y guish what unites and what divides neighborhoods and an organized re­ that there were also weaknesses in the Afines del Transporte Automotor-Union of the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy, and turn to work starting Monday was leadership of the union local that Automotive Machinists and Allied Trades), the government; understanding how to Luz y Fuerza (Light and Power Workers), approved. . . . [but] on Monday and contributed to the defeat. and Graficos (Printers Union) are three follow a truly class-struggle policy to the following days the bosses began "We described them as a combative, militant unions that were attacked by the overcome isolation and to distinguish the systematic firing of activists, the democratic leadership that had not yet regime in the last year. ourselves from all non-working-class total now reaching more than 500. become an authentic, consistently and centrist currents, especially the "Sad as the truth may be, it does not class-struggle leadership. The two best 2. Breuss was an executive at the struck guerrillas, will help us in the coming stop being the truth: The strike in Villa examples of this are their positions on Acindar plant in Villa Constituci6n. He was battles in which the unforgettable ended in a defeat. It did not achieve its the coordinating committee and the assassinated by guerrillas while the strike memory of the great strike in Villa objectives-the compafieros are still in guerrillas. was going on. Constituci6n will always be present.''

Workers march in Villa Constituci6n during earlier fight. Trade-union bureaucracy bears greatest responsibility for defeat.

19 ·world Outlook

Funeral of Billy McMillen: Tribute to IRA leader By Gerry Foley Fox shooting, the "Official" organ, the most intelligent,. and most sincere United Irishman, said in its May issue: revolutionists of the "Official" leader­ Liam Mac Maolain, commander of "We sincerely hope that there will not ship. His death could be expected not the Belfast Brigade of the Irish Repu­ be a series of reprisals which would only to evoke a strong reaction from blican Army ("Officials"), was shot feed the flames of hatred in the the membership and local leaders but April 28 in Belfast by unknown assail­ North." to remove the figure in the leadership ants. He was forty-seven years old Unfortunately, the membership and most likely to have the stature and and had been in the republican move­ local leadership of the "Officials" objectivity to rise above the factional ment since the age of seventeen. He seemed to be more responsive to the frenzy that has gripped the "Officials." was gunned down in the presence of tone of Goulding's statements than to Furthermore, Garland is one of the his wife, to whom he was married only the specific recommendation of the very few who would have sufficient a few months. United Irishman. Incidents between authority to change the disastrous Thousands of mourners followed the "Officials" and the IRSP escalated course of the organization. Mac Maolain's coffin to Milltown qualitatively after the Mac Maolain Mac Maolain was not of similar Cemetery on April 30, where Cathal shooting. By mid-May more than stature. He did not have Garland's Goulding, chief of staff of the "Offi­ thirty "Officials" had been caught national reputation, his political cial" IRA at the time of the 1969 split carrying weapons by the British army, breadth and flexibility, or his grasp of and in subsequent years, gave the apparently as a result of the conflict socialist principles. But he had an funeral oration. with the IRSP. Weapons charges carry essential quality that seems gravely It was also Goulding who gave the draconian penalties in Northern Ire­ absent now in the "Official" United Irishman funeral oration for Sean Fox, a mem­ land, and such losses could not help leadership-realism. And he had the Billy McMillen ber of the "Official" IRA who was shot but be very serious for the shrinking toughness and organizational skill to February 25 in a clash with members and already demoralized "Official" resist emotionalism. of the Irish Republican Socialist party movement. That is not to say that Liam, or Billy schoolchildren protesting the repres­ (IRSP). At that time, the "Official" The "Officials" claimed that Mac McMillen,, as most knew him, did not sion. They were carrying the Irish leader leveled threats against the rival Maolain's assassins fled to the Divis deceive himself at times, as the other national flag and singing the national organization. At the Mac Maolain flats, a complex of high-rise housing "Official" leaders have been wont to do anthem. That infuriated the Stalinist funeral, his remarks were even more projects at the foot of the Falls Road in the last two years in particular. I civil-rights activist who was with me. violent: regarded as an IRSP stronghold. No remember him trying to convince me "The stupid fuckers ..." will "alie­ "An Orange junta sent Liam McMill­ further basis was offered for claims of that the "Officials" really had more nate the Protestant workers." But en to prison because he fought for IRSP involvement. support in Belfast than the Provision­ McMillen thought it was wonderful. separation. The Provisional Alliance The "Officials" have been quick in ala when it ~as obvious to everyone "We try to encourage patriotism." attempted to assassinate him because the past to blame their political oppo­ that they were rapidly losing out to McMillen was a product of the he held his socialist principles and nents for any attacks on them. When their rivals in the Catholic ghettos. Catholic ghetto and a nationalist fought for civil rights. The RUC [Royal Sean Garland, the ~rganizer of "Offi­ fighter through and through. That was Ulster Constabulary] and the British cial" Sinn Fein, was wounded on his strength and it made him worth Army of occupation harassed and March 1, a statement was issued Belfast Ghettos immeasurably more than all the cen­ hounded him because he was a social­ within twenty-four hours blaming the But Billy McMillen was bound up trist and Stalinist "socialists" who ist republican. A small, mad band of IRSP. "Official" representatives completely with the Belfast ghettos. He came into the movement looking for a fanatical malcontents, the sewer rats claimed that the would-be assassins would not have survived as a local bigger bandwagon than the Commu­ of Costello and McAliskey [i.e., the had been "positively identified," and leader for so long if he had not been. nist party of Ireland, although because IRSP], finally laid him low." privately they even named the persons He could not have failed to recognize of his own political weaknesses he the aberrant character of the "Official" apparently began to defer more to this line that the Protestant terrorist gangs element in the last period of his life.' have a "primitive" form of working­ In the funeral oration, Goulding class consciousness or how disastrous tried to weave a web of proletarian attempts by the "Officials" to turn romanticism around him. That reflects these gangs against the IRSP would Goulding's own formation as a Dublin prove to be in the Catholic ghettos. radical and the extreme economism the In the 1972 congress of "Official" "Officials" have developed since 1972, Sinn Fein, McMillen was one of the as they have tended to collapse into a leaders of a move to get the organiza­ sect. It was what the new generation of tion back on the track on the national "Officials" has been trained to expect. question. He sponsored a narrowly But it had a rather false ring. Proletar­ defeated resolution that would have ian romanticism is still a fairly exotic defined the Protestant gangs as reac­ style in Belfast. tionary, an essential step toward realism, not to say sanity. Irish Language McMillen grasped in an instinctive Despite the overuse of certain tradi­ way the disastrous logic of sacrificing tional devices, Goulding's introduction the unity of the oppressed people in in the Irish language rang truer. hope of ingratiating sections of the Perhaps part of the reason was that Protestant workers: "We're not getting these introductions, which are a stan­ any Protestant workers," he told me at dard feature of republican oratory, the time. "And we're not getting what tend to be general evocations. Thus it IRSP representatives have not de­ they considered responsible. These we should be getting from our tradi­ was not so distorted by the heavy­ nied that members of their organization claims proved to be without any basis tional supporters either." handed dogmatism Goulding tried to were responsible for the Fox shooting, whatsoever. When Billy saw that the Communist put across in the portion of the oration, although they claim that they acted in On the other hand, since the escala­ party would not and could not use the given in English, that could be expect­ · self-defense. The new organization, tion of the conflict in Belfast, Seamas positions it had won by opportunistic ed to be more generally understood. however, has denied any involvement Costello of the IRSP has said that his methods in the Northern Irish trade Not many republicans, especially in of its members or supporters in the organization would accept the protec­ unions to assist the struggle of the the North, learn Irish to the point of assassination of Liam Mac Maolain. tion of shadowy anlled groups that oppressed Catholic people, he drew the fluency. But many among the mourn­ IRSP representatives said that the have developed out of the breakup of realistic conclusion: "The CP hasn't ers must have responded to the tradi­ "Official" commander had been killed the "Official'~ organization in Belfast produced what it promised, so fuck the tional phrases, the Gaelic poetical just before he was scheduled to issue a but that have not joined the IRSP or CP ." If the "Official" leadership as a forms, and the mythological refer­ new statement on the conflict between subordinated themselves to its disci­ whole had been capable of facing that ences. It was the language of Irish the two organizations, a statement pline. This move greatly weakens the reality, it would not have followed the nationalism and the only one that that they expected would end the political credibility of the IRSP and Stalinist leaders of the Northern Ire­ could be used to offer a fitting eulogy violence. creates favorable conditions for provo­ land Civil Rights Association into of Billy McMillen. Only a small part of , A few weeks after the shooting, cateurs and uncontrollable elements. oblivion. its evocative force can be transferred Tomas Mac Giolla, president of "Offi­ Nonetheless, as yet no evidence McMillen did not accept the down­ into English: cial" Sinn Fein, the political wing of whatsoever has been produced that the grading of the national question and "This is a great loss for us. But it is a the "Official" republican movement, IRSP or its supporte~ were responsible national consciousness that came into . greater one by far for you, the armed confirmed that Mac Maolain was for the Garland or Mac Maolain the movement from Stalinist advisers warriors of Belfast, because, believe preparing a peace initiative at the time shootings or that they have played an and was inculcated into the middle me, there will never be the like of Liam of his death. aggressive role in the conflict. leadership by Stalinist-inspired educa­ again. The savior of the Cause of the The IRSP argued that the Belfast There is also a suspicious similarity tional programs. That was one of the Republic is dead. Our hero, our Cham­ "Official" leader was probably killed between the shootings of Sean Garland things that stood out in him when I pion, our shield in battle has fallen. by a British "counterinsurgency" team and Liam Mac Maolain. Both inci­ first met him in July 1970, just after Let us stand our ·ground nonetheless, encharged with inciting conflict be­ dents were decisive in escalating the the Battle of the Falls between the facing our ancient enemy, although tween the two organizations. conflict between the two organizations. "Official" IRA and the British army. the traitor dogs snap at our heels.. In contrast to its attitude after the Garland is one of the most respected, I had been to a march by Catholic Soldiers of Belfast, before you the

20 tumult of battle. But you must fight the lowest layer of the proletariat and according to the words of our fair and the poor. He was a seasoned leader of a noble Liam. ghettoized .people, shrewd, realistic, "Soldiers and people of Belfast, the quietly brave, as well as ruthless and task now is yours. Our hope is in you. rather narrow. Not soft or easy the task before you Outside Belfast, he was like a fish without Liam Mac Maolain as chief out of water. During his exile in the over you. You are now like children period after the internment raids until without a father, like the Fianna the "Official" cease-fire in May 1972, I without Fionn."* hardly recognized him. All his weak­ McMillen was one of the patriot nesses were magnified, and his visionaries who have preserved the strengths were barely visible. He could national tradition of the Irish people not, it seemed, readjust to a wider field and carried it from generation to of activity. generation through all the disasters of Billy never seemed to really regain the conquest and imperialist exploita­ his footing. For one thing, under the tion of the country. In every Catholic smokescreen of an "antiterrorist cam­ ghetto in the North there are men and paign," British capitalism had bull­ women like him who have struggled dozed his Belfast virtually out of against poverty and oppression to existence. The old, tight-knit Catholic learn the difficult old language of the communities of the lower Falls Road Irish people that has been driven back were replaced with an urban jungle of into a few remote corners of the high-rise flats and sprawling housing country by centuries of subjugation to estates. British soldiers are common sight. 'Under the smoke screen of an "antiterro.rist the English. And then, he was particularly un­ campaign," British capitalism had bulldozed his Belfast virtually out of existence.' Billy McMillen spoke Irish fluently lucky. He was charged with possession and with relish, although without of "illegal documents" just before the losing any of the pungent twang of his internment raids and so he was unable pragmatism. As a result, it mistook a opponents are always manipulated by Belfast English. He seemed anxious to to take advantage of the relaxation in speak specifically Ulster Irish, which few commonplace nostrums for the the enemy has one classical source in the repression after April 1972 to whole truth of socialism. It was misdi­ our time-the ideology of Stalinism. he called "our dialect," although Irish operate openly. for him as for generations of Belfast rected by bad advisers and lost its But Billy McMillen's ghost should Besides this, Billy returned to Bel­ way. It was driven into a corner by not become one of the devils that are Catholics was a learned language. But fast at a time when the "Officials" in a way he maintained the link going terrible pressures, the constant threat driving Goulding, his followers, and no were starting to go into a rapid decline, of death, mutilation, and repression, one knows what others, to destruction. back to the time when the Falls Road as a result of their gravely wrong line was the Bothair na bhfaJ., the road of continual heavy human losses, the McMillen deserves better than that. He on the national question and the wearing out of the small group of was like the elder brother in a slum the hedges, the native Irish settlement aberrant misestimation of the dynamic outside the garrison city of the invad­ experienced leaders, a growing feeling family, who, although he himself could of the Protestant paramilitary groups of helplessness in the face of impend­ not . overcome the pressure of his ers. · that went with it. All of his shrewd­ McMillen's strength of character, ing disaster. environment, has made the break­ ness and tactical acumen could not It was unable to reorient itself. As a through for those who will come later. like that of most Northern national­ halt that decline. ists, did not lie in a consciousness of result, a team cemented together by He was really a seasoned old warrior. Furthermore, as their political activi­ long years of common experience was Goulding's comparison with Fionn, the the power of the workers as a class. ty stagnated and all perspective for Most of the Catholic workers are torn apart. Most of the components did wise old chief, and of all the Irish effective political action was lost, the not have the political training to mythological heroes, the one with the unskilled and without security of "Officials" tended more and more to employment; a high proportion of them understand what was happening to most human weaknesses, was an apt become a business operation, an em­ them, much less know how to resolve one. It is hard to believe that Billy was are permanently unemployed. Their pire of drinking clubs. This process confidence has not been built up by the fundamental political differences only forty-seven years old when he was apparently did not bring out the best in a constructive way. What few killed. great industrial victories. in any of the "Official" leaders. McMillen's strength lay in his con­ elements did have a little scientific training were swept away by the flood Vast Experience sciousness of the tradition of the Irish Symbolic of Tragedy people and his confidence that one day of factionalism and did not contribute I remember sitting in his living room they would regain their heritage. He The obscure death of Billy McMillen any objectivity. Inevitably the most in the Lower Falls in 1970 and watch­ was aware that the Catholic people is symbolic of the whole tragedy of the distorted personalities, the most dog­ ing one youth after another come in were overwhelmingly proletarian and "Official" leadership. Perhaps that matic, the most fanatical, the most and ask advice. He had a vast experi­ poor and that the only allies they could explains the emotional tone of Gould­ violent, the most paranoic, began to set ence, especially with the ways of the find were other workers and poor ing's funeral oration, although it does the tone and to transform the move­ courts and the police. masses. He did not believe that there not excuse its bitter, partisan, provoc­ ment into their image. I remember how sharp a political was such a thing as a "Green bourgeoi­ ative spirit, which could only deepen In an armed movement based large­ sense he had, how reasonable and well sie," at least not in the North. But he this tragedy. The tragic implication ly on the permanently unemployed, the balanced he was, how open to new never became a proletarian romantic. was made explicit by the phrase, irregularly employed, and individual ideas. He was like many "Official" He was a very practical person, and "there will never be the like of Liam adventurers, violence is never far from leaders in those days after the Provi­ his goal was national liberation. again." It is an echo of a statement by the surface. Once the bonds of brother­ sional split who were thinking about McMillen was not a romantic of any one of the last members of the Gaelic­ hood in arms are broken, anything is how to build a socialist movement in kind, although he was devoted to a speaking Blasket Island community possible. That is one of the reasons Ireland. Many of them gathered in the fugitive and rather mythologized na­ about the extinction of their way of why harsh discipline is essential. That same living room. It was a time full of tional tradition. That tradition was the life. is probably also why the "Official" possibilities, few of which were ever sword and the buckler of the outcast in The "Official" leadership set out on leadership fear Costello so much. They realized, unfortunately_ Events moved Belfast, the pride and sustenance of the most difficult political path there come out of the same tradition and too quickly, and the "Officials," unable is, the path of building a socialist they know what they might do if they to adjust, withdrew into a dogmatic movement, of leading the Irish people were in his position. Furthermore, of shell that made a mockery of their *Fionn Mac Cumhaill, the legendary leader into a qualitatively higher historical all of them, Costello was apparently positive achievements. of an order of Gaelic heroes. stage, without any guide but crude the most ruthless, the least bound by In the increasing gloom of later the ties of comradeship and personal years, one of the best of these leaders loyalty. That apparently is why he was told me how he looked forward to able to break from a policy and from having political discussions again in leaders that had been proved wrong in Billy McMillen's living room on Ton practice and the rest were not. Street. It was like a lost golden age. As Goulding was mistaken about the far as I know Billy never·returned to howling he heard behind him. It was that house after the internment raids. not the yelping of "traitor dogs." It The British soldiers used to hold was more like the m6r-rioghna, the parties in it on Fridays to let the devils of militarism that the old Irish neighborhood know who was boss. believed drove warriors mad in battle. Now that hope is gone forever. There It was the fears that come out of a can be no return to those days. But tradition of militarism, and from false there can be a return to the rational ideas that, when they are not corrected thinking of better times if the "Offi­ by an honest look at reality, become cial" leaders stop to think objectively paranoid delusions. where their course and the logic of Another devil is Stalinist dogma­ their statements are leading them. tism. Although the threat of violence In the Belfast of 1970, Billy McMill­ in political disputes is part of the en told me that a good soldier always republican tradition, the virulent dog­ keeps open a path for retreat. That matic factionalism displayed in the applies to politics too. And it still "Officials' " attacks on the IRSP is seems like good advice. Perhaps it is completely alien and unknown to that the best advice Billy could leave Masi

21 World Outlook

From Switzerland A socialist view on nuclear energy [The following article appeared in declines very slowly, at least in the long time. They include: the April 28 issue of La Breche, the case of some elements. Safety in the • Solar energy in all its forms. fortnightly newspaper of the Ligue nuclear industry therefore requires • Geothermal energy-the use of Marxiste Revolutionnaire, Swiss sec­ absolute confinement of radioactive heat from the depths of the earth. tion of the Fourth International. The materials in all nuclear installations • Tidal energy-using the difference editors explained in an introductory so that no artificial radioactivity in sea level between high tide and low note that it is "the most succinct increases the natural radiation (which tide. possible condensation" of a dossier on is harmful enough!) in an environment Research in techniques whose princi­ nuclear energy published in the April inhabited by human beings and other ples have been known for some time, in 2, June 21, and July 12, 1974, issues of living organisms. order to facilitate their large-scale La Breche. The translation is by Considering the present state of utilization, is consistently underdevel­ Intercontinental Press.] technology: oped for the simple reason that these • Even if it were possible to isolate techniques offer the capitalists no The technical means to counteract all radioactive wastes (which is cer­ assurance of profits in the short run. almost all industrial pollution already tainly not the case today), the problem Also worth noting is that traditional exist; in some cases they have existed energy sources such as coal, oil, for a long time. But they are not natural gas, and hydroelectric energy applied because it is in the capitalists' are far from having been exhausted. interests to limit costs of production in can nuclear~ To mention only one example: In order to maintain profits. gtveyouwhiterteethf Switzerland, the potential hydroelec­ Each capitalist keeps his eye on his tric energy that technically could be own profits alone, and not the satisfac­ harnessed amounts to 145 billion tion of the real needs of the population. kilowatt hours a year. But in 1973, We seek a socialist society, where the only 27.7 billion kilowatt hours were productive forces will be developed to produced this way! As for oil, natural on satisfy everyone's needs through demo­ gas, and coal, it must be repeated over exists for eliminating these wastes, cratic planning of production on a and over that technologies permitting which will remain active for centuries. world scale. their use without pollution exist, and Within this perspective, extensive that if it were not for the requirements stage the bourgeois state began to industrialization and increased auto­ of capitalist profits, they could be hand it over gradually to certain mation are indispensable. Worldwide implemented immediately. trusts, such as Westinghouse in the planning, carried out entirely with a It must be added that the capitalist United States, at very profitable terms. view to the broadest interests of the system wastes enormous quantities of • The massive infrastructure in­ whole population, will incorporate the energy in the following ways: volved in nuclear industry offers im­ research and apply the techniques that • The production by competing portant markets for key sectors of are required to do away with pollution. companies of two and three times as heavy industry, such as steel, and At the same, time, however, there is many identical commodities as are electrical and chemical engineering one technology-nuclear technology­ required. companies. that we must reject for the present, for • The production of commodities • The short life span of nuclear reasons that we will explain. such as cars and washing machines plants, about twenty or thirty years, Apart from the effects of massive with built-in obsolescence, to provide a assures the constant renewal of the radiation that directly threatens work­ replacement market. market. ers in the nuclear industry in the event • Production and activities that are In face of the waste of energy of an accident, even small doses of socially useless, such as most pharma­ resulting from the anarchy of the radioactivity can eventually induce of eliminating these wastes, which will ceutical products, advertising, and so capitalist system, and the fundamental cancer as well as serious and even remain active for centuries (!), has not forth. disrespect for the public interest that fatal genetic and hereditary damage yet been satisfactorily resolved. • The priority given to private the laws of private profit involve, we among all living beings. • The corrosion and fatigue of transportation over public transporta­ demand: The full scope of these risks becomes material in a nuclear plant limits its tion (at a much higher cost in energy). • A complete and immediate end to evident when you consider that: life span to twenty or thirty years, and • The use of cheap but shoddy the nuclear industry. • There is no known cure for cancer, reduces its safety with age. Moreover, building materials as a substitute for • Nationalization under workers the dismantling of a plant will not adequate thermal insulation. control of the whole energy sector. only necessitate the isolation of large • Without collectivized property and In addition to these demands, we are amounts of radioactive waste, but will economic planning, there is no hope of fighting for a socialist revolution, that also involve considerable risks for the recycling the large amounts of thermal is, for the establishment by the work­ Swiss protest workers and the surrounding popula­ energy produced by some industrial ing class of a social system in which More than 15,000 persons partici­ tion. complexes. the imperatives of private profit will no pated in a national demonstration in • The nuclear industry as a whole is It is profitable for the capitalists to longer play a role, in which the whole Bern April 26 to protest the Swiss far from being completely automated. exploit nuclear energy for the follow­ economy and state apparatus will government's plan to build a nuclear It is still necessary to periodically open ing reasons: belong to the workers and serve their plant at Kaiseraugst. the innermost casings. Thus it is • Nuclear technology was first devel­ interests. This is the only kind of social Protesters had occupied the site of unavoidable that workers in the nu­ oped at the taxpayers' expense pri­ system that will provide for harmoni­ the proposed plant for almost a clear industry will be exposed to marily for military objectives. (In the ous and coordinated growth of the month, blocking its construction. appreciable amounts of radiation. United States, more than $15 billion productive forces on a world scale, so • Besides the dangers inherent in was allocated to nuclear research as to meet the material and cultural the normal , functioning of nuclear between 1947 and 1957.) At a later needs of the whole of humanity. installations we are still a long way especially leukemia, or for the diseases from having 'the means to eliminate linkM to genetic damage. the dangers resulting from possible • Besides the fact that some new accidents during transportation of and unknown dangerous genetic muta­ materials or even in the core of the Coming in the June 23 tions are more likely to appear among installations. humans, there is the danger that new But in addition to these risks, which stocks of microorganisms, impervious are inherent at the present stage of to human antidotes, can arise through development of the technology, there Intercontinental Press genetic mutations. are the risks associated with its appli­ • Concentrations of radioactive sub­ cation under capitalism. The profit "Problems of General Concem in the ments among the dissidents, and Solz­ stances build up in some living organ­ motive, which leads to cutting corners Soviet Dissident Movement." A new henitsyn's recent writings. isms, creating stronger emissions than on safety at all levels, profoundly document by Soviet historian Roy From the forthcoming book Detente Medvedev. and Socialist Democracy. Don't miss it. in the surrounding environment. This contradicts the extreme vigilance that can occur in certain plants and ani­ the safest management of the nuclear mals, in some natural foods consumed industry would require. Topics discussed include effects of the For a copy send $.75 to Intercontinent­ by humans, and in some human or­ Some energy sources have been detente on the struggle for democratic al Press, P.O. Box 116, Village Station, gans. generally underutilized, even though rights in the Soviet Union, disagree- New York, New York 10014. Radioactivity is indestructible, and it their existence has been known for a

22 The Senate's 'gr~t _debate' Are 655,000 nuclear bombs enough? By Cindy Jaquith was an advocate of cutting down on our troops in WASHINGTON-Led by Sen. Edward Kennedy Korea until the events that accompanied the col­ (D-Mass.), the Senate held its "great debate" on lapse in South Vietnam and Cambodia led me to U.S. foreign policy June 2-3. The occasion was a feel that this is not an appropriate time to do that, Defense Department request fo:r $28.6 billion for since it might appear to be an invitation to the new weapons in 1976. other side to move in," he explained. The "great debate," Kennedy had promised, The "other side," of course, is the people of South would probe "the underlying foreign and military Korea, who might be so bold as to try to take over policy issues facing the nation in the aftermath of and run their own country, without the aid of the the Indochina tragedy" and would offer "a series of Americans and their puppets. ~ challenges to the assumptions which underpin the The need to maintain U.S. military might in Defense Department recommendations for spending Europe was also agreed upon, particularly with in this fiscal year." regard to Portugal. Sen. Edward Brooke (R-Mass.), But in two days of long-winded speeches, not one who recently returned froni there, warned that "the senator challenged the basic tenets of U.S. foreign moderation of the upper military ranks [in Portu­ policy-tenets that have been spelled out in recent gal] is not paralleled at lower levels. It is rumored weeks by President Ford's brazen "rescue" of the that some high military officials question whether Mayagilez, threats of new U.S. aggression in Korea, the lower ranks will be willing to obey orders from and Defense Secretary Schlesinger's assertion of their superiors that ran counter to the wishes of the . Washington's willingness to use nuclear weapons in radical left." Europe. IIi fact, after the dust had settled, all that had Reaffirmation happened was that the senators had voted to fatten In sum, the "great debate" amounted to a the Pentagon war chest by another $25 billion. reaffirmation of the fundamentally bipartisan for­ THE U.S. SENATE: Putting on a show for the folks eign policy of U.S. imperialism. It was staged only Bombers, yes; jobs, no back home. to give the Senate chambers the appearance of _In the meantime, the Democratic-controlled discussion and serious "reappraisal" of foreign House had voted to uphold Ford's veto of a paltry "terrible things: of war, of subjugation, of the affairs, and, of course, to build up the image of $5.3 billion jobs bill. The message from the "veto­ prostitution of ancient values and the dimming of ambitious politicians like Kennedy. proof" Congress was clear-B-2 bombers and nu­ future hopes-all brought about in pursuit the The "doves" were particularly conscious of the clear warheads, yes; relief for the more than ten of theoretical nonsense first dreamed up more than a need to restore some kind of public confidence in million unemployed, no. century ago by an unworldly and impractical U.S. military policy. Sen. Walter Mondale (D-Minn.) Then what was the "great deb~te" all about? German named Karl Marx." explained the problem: • The Defense Department's total budget request "As we try to define America's future world role, for 1976 is $104.7 billion, up $15.7 billion from last 'Craft and subtlety' we must take full account of the fact that the year. Included in the request is the $28.6 billion in On the other side, the "doves" were arguing that citizens of this country are profoundly skeptical. "military procurement," which pertains to nuclear defeats like Vietnam could be prevented if the They know only too well that their patriotism has weapons, bombers, military research, and troops. United States would just try to look a little less b~en exploited by political leaders who could no Despite the fact .that the United States has violent and greedy. As Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo~). the longer justify their actions with candor. I do not supposedly reduced its commitments in Southeast ex-McGovern . campaign manager, put _it, such believe that the United States is about to become an Asia, the military procurement request is 38 percent embarrassments "could be avoided if we exerted isolationist country, but the American people no higher this year than last. The overkill this entails more craft and subtlety and discretion and diploma­ longer want to be the world's policemen nor go on is almost beyond comprehension. Sen. Stuart Sy­ cy in our dealings with other nations.". · one-man crusades." mington (D-Mo.) explained that with its current A little more "subtlety" could be applied in South It will take more than empty "debates" an)ong nuclear stockpile, this country could produce Korea, suggested Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.). those who already agree on the basic point under 655,000 bombs of the type that devastated Hiroshi­ Cranston comanaged the floor debate with Ken­ discussion to convince the American people that ma. nedy. policing the world is in their interests. The skepti­ The Senate Armed Services Committee, by shav­ "In Korea, as in Vietnam, we are allied with a cism that worries the Democrats so much is bound ·ing off a few dollars here and there, managed to military dictator identified as a collaborator with a to grow, not shrink, with the news that Congress is bring this request down to $25 billion. At this point colonial power, a burden for him to carry in willing to throw away $25 billion ori weapons of Kennedy stepped in, announcing that there must be relationship to his own people," Cranston observed. death and destruction, but won't spend a fifth of "debate" over the defense budget. ". . . we should do our utmost to persuade President that to provide jobs. He and his "dove" colleagues offered a counter­ Park to avoid President Thieu's error of stifling That skepticism can only deepen the realization proposal in the form of amendments that amounted legitimate expressions of legitimate political opin­ that the capitalist politicians in Washington, to cutting a few cents out of the most bloated ions and differences ... :" whether they be "dove" or "hawk," are not here to progr~UDs, winding up with a grand total of $23.8 Cranston bemoaned the fact that the United represent the interests of working people, but the billion, a mere $1.2 billion less than the "hawks" States has many "intimate ties with dictatorships­ greed of the wealthy war makers who run this proposal. "This will still giveth~ department a 14 worst of all, .those that brutally torture their own country. percent increase over last year's spending," Ken­ people." However, he added, "Relationships with nedy reassured the senators. dictatorships are unfortunately unavoidable." They're "unavoidable," that is, if the United 'Extraordinary seriousness' States is to continue to protect its investments With so little difference between the two propo­ abroad and attempt to cru:sh liberation struggles sals, it is hardly surprising that the "great debate" around the world. And on this point, there was 100 was such a flop. All but one of the amendments was percent agreement among the Senate "debaters." defeated, by votes of roughly 2 to 1. Ever since the defeat in Vietnam, the liberal At most, perhaps twenty senators appeared on Democrats have gone out of their way . to ·take a the floor at any one time during the "debate." (The tough stand on "defending our commitments New York Times took this turnout as an expression abroad." Most recently, Senators Mike Mansfield of "extraordinary seriousness" on the part of the (D-Mont.) and Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.) gushed senators, noting that the number was "far more with praise at Ford's diplomatic trip to Europe. than the usual complement on a day when no votes Humphrey pointed out that since Vietnam, Con­ were to be taken.") gress and the White House are "not as far apart on Debates are not exactly the norm in Congress. As foreign policy as it may appear." ' Washington Star reporter Martha Angle pointed Lest anyone have any doubts, Kennedy himself out, "Genuine debate, particularly on broad policy sought to make this clear once again during the questions, is rare in the Senate. Members are more "great debate." accustomed to addressing the galleries than each other. Take away their prepared texts and their No 'Fortress America' vocal cords seem paralyzed." "The senators who speak today do not propose a A few of the. senators had their vocal cords withdrawal into Fortress America," he said. "They loosened up for the occasion. Sen. Thomas Mcintyre do not seek to tum away from the world. For there (D-N.H.), a stalwart of the Armed Services Commit­ · is no turning away from the facts of international tee, delivered a ringing praise of the Mayagilez involvement. -~ .. ~cident. "Nor could we avoid those involvements even if "I ain bullish on America," he declared. "And I one wished. The degree of our reliance on imported was greatly encouraged by the unanimity of the oil, our massive level of trade with other nations, nation's support of our quick and highly effective our existing alliances-all clearly deny this option reaction last week to a blatant act of piracy on the to any foolhardy enough to pursue it." high seas." Getting down to specifics, Cranston emphasized The most lengthy speeches came from Sen. Barry that the "doves" have no serious intention of urging Goldwater (R-Ariz.), who painted a picture of the reduction of U.S. troops in other countries. "I SENATOR HART: Calls for 'more craft and subtlety.'

THE. MILITANT/JUNE 20, 1975 23 CLUW leaders debate stand on seniority, layoffs, and affirmative-action programs By Linda Jenness The effect of the economic crisis on women workers and the role of the Coalition of Labor Union Women in response to the crisis was the main topic of discussion at CLUW's Nation­ al Coordinating Committee (NCC) meeting held in Houston May 31-June 1. The meeting was attended by eighty­ five voting representatives and twenty­ five observers. The most important job facing the NCC meeting was that of formulating CLUW's position on how to defend the gains made through affirmative-action plans by women and by Blacks and other oppressed minorities in the face of the massive layoffs. The current economic crisis is wiping out many of the gains made in hiring, promotion, and upgrading by dispro­ portionately laying off women and Blacks under the "last hired, first fired" rules of seniority provisions. Women waiting for unemployment checks. 'Last hired, first fired' means women and Blacks bear brunt of layoffs. A wide debate is taking place within the labor movement over whether to uphold the "last hired, first fired" hers will take vigilant action in their under affirmative action programs, setup, or to modify seniority provisions of Olga Madar, national president of unions see that seniority for all in order to protect the gains of women CLUW and retired vice-president of the to wherever layoffs occur, and be it fur­ purposes is measured on the widest and Blacks. UAW. ther possible base in any work place, there­ Defenders of affirmative action are While acknowledging that "aspects" "Resolved: That wherever a seniority by safeguarding workers against lay­ demanding that the layoffs not be used of the seniority system "have not system is used to perpetuate the discri­ offs that run counter to seniority.... " minatory hiring, firing, and employ­ by the employers to reduce the percen­ served women and minority workers Again, the question is begged. tage of Blacks and women at any fairly," the ·resolution in effect upholds ment practices of an employer by The plain fact is that sometimes allowing a reduction in the percentage workplace, and that seniority provi­ the conservative position of the AFL­ defending the gains of women and of women and minority workers gained sions in union contracts be adjusted to CIO hierarchy by ducking the crux of Blacks won through affirmative-action through affirmative action struggles, accommodate that demand. The AFL­ the question of discriminatory layoffs. plans runs up against strict seniority. CLUW stands for altering or amend­ CIO Executive Council and the leader­ The Kopeloy resolution states: "That Where does CLUW stand then? ing that seniority system so as to ship of the United Auto Workers CLUW pledges itself to renewed efforts These questions are left unanswered, protect these gains.... " (UAW), on the other hand, have recent­ to organize unorganized women, not­ and these are the questions being This resolution was defeated with ly released statements attacking those ing that unionized women suffer pro­ asked. forty-two voting against it and thirty­ demanding preferential seniority for portionately less in layoffs and noting three voting in favor. women and Blacks. that a union contract provides almost A third resolution was submitted by The debate on this issue at the NCC the only safeguard against capricious Tussey resolution the Madison-Janesville, Wisconsin, focused on three resolutions. or selective layoffs, which most harm The resolution that went to the heart CLUW. This resolution tried to appeal The resolution that passed, receiving women and minority group mem­ of the issue, and that offered a clear to both sides and suffered the contra­ forty-two votes, was presented by Con­ bers.... " position in defense of women and dictions of fence-straddling. The reso­ nie Kopelov, associate national educa­ Of course, working to organize the Blacks, was the one presented by Jean lution proposed in detail a number of tion director of the Amalgamated unorganized is one of CLUW's goals, Tussey, a member of the International ways workers could voluntarily at­ Clothing Workers of America and and it must be done. But that is not the Typographical Union and a CLUW tempt to alleviate the discriminatory member of Newspaper Guild Local 3. vital question at stake here. state convener from Ohio. Tussey's character of the layoffs, but failed to This resolution represented the views To answer the question "What must resolution was titled "Resolution on be done to stop the discriminatory Discriminatory Layoffs." call unequivocally for no percentage layoffs?" with "Organize the unorgan­ It read, in part: decrease in the number of women and ized" is hedging-at best. How about "Whereas: The current economic Blacks in the work force. the many women who do have union crisis has brought massive layoffs, The Madison-Janesville resolution contracts and are still subject to 'selec­ adversely and disproportionately af­ was defeated with fifty votes against tive layoffs'? fecting newly hired women and minori­ and twenty-one for. For instance, the Ford Motor Com­ ties who recently won jobs in industry pany's Brook Park complex near under affirmative action programs; Buckling to pressure _Cleveland has laid off 2,000 of the and Many of those voting for the Kopelov 10,000 workers at the plants. These "Whereas: These massive layoffs resolution were buckling to the pres­ workers are members of UAW Local threaten to wipe out the gains of the sure on the leadership of CLUW to toe 1250. The layoffs included 600 of the women's, civil rights, .and labor move­ the line of the AFL-CIO and UAW 700 women employed in the plants, ments against discriminatory hiring, officials. most of them hired only last year. In employment, apprenticeship and up­ But CLUW was formed to fight for other words, before the layoffs, women grading practices; therefore, be it equality of women on the job, in the composed 7 percent of the workers. "Resolved: That the Coalition of unions, and in society as a whole. And Militant/Mark Satinoff Now, they are 1.25 percent. Labor Union Women oppose in every if this union women's organization Jean Tussey, of ITU, presented strong The closest the Kopelov resolution way possible any reduction through cannot take a firm stand in practice resolution in defense of affirmative­ comes to addressing the issue is when layoffs in the proportionate number of against discrimination, then the whole action gains. it states: "That CLUW and its mem- women and minority workers hired Continued on page 26 Colorado teachers march for right to strike By Joyce Newell week simply by word of mouth, but senate bill, if the measure is passed by those who are suffering from it-those DENVER-Throughout the country teachers came by car pools and char­ the state house of representatives it who work for a living. today, public employees are waging tered buses from Greeley, Loveland, will take away collective bargaining The fact is that the bill not only militant struggles to secure the basic Pueblo, Hudson, and other parts of rights that have been won on a local denies public employees the right to rights already won-to one degree or Colorado. level by many teachers. strike, but it does not meet the other another-by other organized workers. The action was specifically aimed Republican Senate Majority Leader demands they are raising. On May 27, the Colorado Education against the collective bargaining bill Richard Plock addressed the rally and The CEA supports the demands for a Association brought out 1,000 teachers recently passed by the state senate. tried to tell the teachers the bill was right-to-strike clause, an agency shop, from around the state to demand these Colorado is one of only eight states really in their interests. He said it and "broad-scope" negotiations (the rights. that have no collective bargaining law would grant the teachers everything inclusion of demands other than sal­ The teachers converged on the state for public employees. they were demanding-with the sole ary and hours as negotiable items). capitol in Denver demanding the right The bill requires the immediate exception of the right to strike. Given the stand of the senate majori­ to collective bargaining ("not collective firing of any public employee who Citing England, France, and Italy as ty, it appears unlikely that teachers begging," as one demonstrator's sign strikes. It would also impose fines of examples, Plock claimed that "strikes will be able to win their demands put it), the right to strike, and more $5,000 a day against any public of public employees have brought the unless they and other public employees public funds to provide a decent employee or organization that strikes. economy of those countries to their continue to show, as they did May 27, education for all students. According to Democratic State Sen. knees," placing the blame for the that there is mass support for their The demonstration was built in one Eldon Cooper, an opponent of the instability of the capitalist economy on right to strike.

24 Pa. strike in fourth month

By Jay Johnson encouraged, through a slander cam­ PHILADELPHIA-A long and bitter paign against the union, to bring their strike by eighty-eight municipal work­ own trash to the dumping grounds, ers in Cheltenham Township, Pennsyl­ where private trash collectors pick it vania, has become a significant test up. The commissioners, who "can't for the labor movement in this area. afford" to pay $4.95 an hour, have The workers, who have been out been paying up to $33 an hour to since February 24 in their first strike scabs. ever, face a determined effort by the In the fourteenth week of the strike, township commissioners to break their the township announced what union, Teamsters Local 115. amounts to a lockout-accepting bids Cheltenham is a predominantly from private contractors to take over white, middle-income, suburban town­ the municipal workers' jobs perma­ ship northwest of Philadelphia. The nently. municipal workers organized by Lo~al The strikers have responded to the 115 include trash collectors; drivers; slander campaign with leaflets and an garage mechanics; and highway,park, ad in the local paper explaining their and sewer maintenance workers. bargaining position. About 60 percent of the workers are In mid-April a meeting of some 200 Black, and most of them live in Phila- Teamster officials and business agents delphia. · SCLC's Ralph Abernathy (center) leads march in support of striking Cheltenham, voted to suggest a perimeter picket Their average wage is currently four Pennsylvania, workers. Township commissioners in white suburb aim to crush around the entire Cheltenham town­ dollars an hour, two dollars less than mainly Black union. ship. workers doing the same jobs in Phila­ The perimeter strike was held April delphia. The ninety-five-cent-an-hour 25, sealing off the township from all wage increase they are asking for is sions already. It has accepted a two­ A stringent injunction forbids more truck and bus traffic for one day. barely enough to catch up with infla­ year contract, as long as the ninety­ than two pickets at a time from going That day the township said they tion. five-cent raise comes in the first year. within 200 yards of the plant or any of were ready to negotiate. As soon as the The union is also asking for a It has accepted a compromise on the the improvised dumping sites. These picket ended, the commissioners back­ retirement plan that would allow retirement plan. two pickets are not allowed to walk tracked. One picket commented, "If we workers to retire after twenty years The seven township commissioners, around or to make any gestures or had continued we'd have been all employment at the age of fifty-two. however, have refused to empower mouth motions, let alone speak to the right." To the township commissioners' their negotiating team to make any scabs who operate town equipment for Around this time the Southern Chris­ surprise, a state-appointed fact finder concessions. A tentative agreement the private contractors moving the tian Leadership Conference ap­ recommended that the ninety-five-cent worked out April 17 was disavowed by trash. proached Local 115 to offer their wage increase and the twenty-year­ the· commissioners, who said the town­ The township has brought in state support. SCLC went on to organize a and-out retirement plan be granted. ship negotiators could only "debate troopers as well as police from sur­ march of about 1,000 unionists and According to Joe Yeoman, Local115 and discuss." Only the commissioners rounding communities to protect the civil rights activists on May 17. SCLC business agent, the fact finder also themselves could negotiate. scabs. At one time, more than 200 Executive Director Ralph Abernathy found there is enough money in Chelt­ The union has had to resort to outside cops were brought in when the came to the area several days before enham's budget to pay for the wage subpoenas to bring the commissioners township first decided to move the the march to organize support. increases and retirement plan. The to "negotiating" sessions. At the most trash. Local 115 has filed an unfair-labor­ township is saying they can't afford to recent session, on May 29, the commis­ "To me it looks like they want to practice grievance against Chelten- - meet the demands. sioners arrived nine hours late and provoke violence," one picket com­ ham for refusing to bargain, and has "We know it's not true," Yeoman then refused to sit in the same room mented. Asked what the main issue in appealed the antipicketing injunction. says, "but why not put the budget on with the union representatives. the strike was, he replied, "I think the The strikers don't intend to go back the table and let us look at it." The commissioners' contempt for issue is the union. In fact, this county "till it's over," as one worker picketing The commissioners have consistent­ the workers and their union is just as doesn't want a union in." for the first time put it. ly refused to deal seriously with Local evident if you go to ihe picket lines at The Cheltenham municipal workers But in order to win they'll need 115. After the workers voted to affiliate the Cheltenham Township Public Ser­ are the only unionized municipal determined support from the labor with Local 115 in May 1974, they had vice Facility. One's first impression is workers in Montgomery County. Jim movement in the Philadelphia area. to get the state labor board to force the that there is little militancy. Only two Smith calls this strike a "battle for the The effectiveness of the perimeter township to recognize the union and pickets sit quietly by the gate. But, as a whole county." It's a battle for the picketing organized by their fellow open negotiations. Militant correspondent found out, right of the union to exist. Teamsters and the march organized by The union has made many conces- there's a reason. Cheltenham residents have been SCLC show where their strength lies.

Minn. unionists rally, demand ~Jobs for all' By Bill Onasch Cunningham told of CLUW's pro­ teachers are unable to find work in shopping centers, and unemployment ST. PAU.L--.-Two hundred people gram for combating unemployment, their chosen profession." offices to publicize the action. rallied on the steps of the state capitol including a shorter workweek with no The rally closed with the spirited Although the media emphasized the here ~ay 31 in a demonstration reduction in pay and a massive public singing of "Solidarity Forever." modest sizeof the action, rally organiz­ demanding "Jobs for all." Most of the works program at union wages. Although the rally was endorsed by ers were not discouraged. Claire Cun­ demonstrators were young, and about "It has been nearly forty years," she organizations representing nearly ningham told the Militant that this half were women. said, "since organized labor won the 150,000 workers, few unions actively action was the first such protest The action was organized by the eight-hour day and the forty-hour tried to mobilize their members. Only sponsored by the Minnesota labor May 31 Committee, an ad hoc group of week, and there have been tremendous AFSCME Local 1164 and MFI' Local movement in many years. "We remem­ trade unionists. It was endorsed by the breakthroughs in technology and pro­ 59 actually organized contingents with ber that the first demonstrations Minneapolis Central Labor Union ductivity in this period. banners. CLUW and the Student against the war were small too. Twin Council; St. Paul Trades and Labor "It's time working people started Coalition Against Racism also had Cities CLUW sees today's rally as a Assembly; Teamsters Joint Council32; sharing in the benefits of these break­ contingents. modest step in a long, hard struggle to American Federation of State, County throughs instead of being faced with The May 31 Committee had to rely win full employment in Minnesota and and Municipal Employees District layoffs, penalizing us for our increased mainly on leafleting of workplaces, America," she said. Councils 3 and 6; United Electrical productivity." Workers Political Action Committee; The theme of a shorter workweek and more than two dozen union locals. was also taken up by UE's Joe Miller, Speakers at the rally represented a who said his union will demand a broad spectrum of unions. In addition, seven-hour day in their next negotia­ greetings were read from David Roe, tions. president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, and from Virgil Moline, president of Bernie Bromner~ business agent for the Minneapolis Central Labor Union AFSCME District Council 6, told how Council. the union had successfully fought Claire Cunningham of the Twin plans by the state to close several state Cities Coalition of Labor Union hospitals. "We fought these closings," Women told the rally how CLUW he said, "not only because our mem­ initiated the call for the action by bers would lose their jobs, but also urging the Minnesota labor movement because it would have been a drastic to organize a local action similar to the reduction in care for the patients April 26 jobs rally in Washington, D.C. involved." CLUW members took this proposal Dale Holstrom, executive secretary to their local unions and secured the of the Minneapolis Federation of Militant/Mike Moen impressive list of endorsers for the Teachers, declared that it was a Dale Holstrum of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers addresses May 31 rally. rally. disgrace that "thousands of qualified Action, initiated by CLUW, won endorsement of broad range of unions.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 20, 1975 25 Neither the DemocratS nor the Repu­ their communities and not for the meeting is far from over. CLUW mem­ biicans want a true accounting of the narrow interests of a rphite job trust. bers around the country will continue CIA's activities, because they know it The fact is that the June 9 demon­ to discuss this issue through panels, Calendar would be an indictment of the crimes stration was in complete contradiction educationals, and debates. The vote at of both capitalist parties. These to Shanker's racist policies, and iu. that the NCC, taken after a hasty and CHICAGO crimes-and the gangsters responsible sense represented a setback for Shank­ poorly organized discussion, was only SOCIALIST SOLUTION TO THE CURRENT ECO· NOMIC CRISIS. Speakers: Peter Camejo, SWP for them-should be- fully exposed erism and a step forward for the UFT. an initial expression of opinion. The presidential candidate; Willie Mae Reid, SWP vice­ before the American people. It could not have been lost on the question will come up again at future presidential candidate.· Sat., June 21, 6 p.m., white teachers at the demonstration NCC meetings and will be a major reception; 8 p.m., rally. 428 S. Wabash, Fifth Floor. that the parents and community or­ question at the next national conven­ Donation: $1.50 for rally. Ausp: 1976 SWP Cam­ ganizations they have heard their tion. paign Committee. For more information call (312) 939-0756. leadership vilify as hoodlums, anti­ The NCC called for the next conven­ ... Chicago Semites, and troublemakers were the tion to be held in the Midwest in LOS ANGELES Continued from page 13 very forces that turned out and made December 1975. The convention will be RALLY TO PROTEST POLICE INACTION ON June 9 an impressive show of strength. open to all CLUW members. TERRORIST ATTACKS. Fri., June 20, 8 p.m. The scandal, however, has done little Fritchman Auditorium, 2936 West 8th St. Ausp: to weaken Daley's support among Although Shanker led the crowd in a Several other resolutions were PROF. For more information call (213) 483-8855. Democratic politicans in the state demagogic catechism-"Will you let passed at the NCC meeting. Among legislature. A bill seeking to make them cut out kindergartens?" "No!" the more important was a resolution in MILWAUKEE "undercover police spying on law­ "Will you let them cut out summer support of the undocumented workers, THE WORLD CRISIS OF CAPITALISM. Three schools?" "No!" ... "Are you ready to calling for "the cessation of the inhu­ classes by Dick Roberts, Militant staff writer. Fri., abiding groups illegal unless police June 20, 8 p.m.: The Financial Crisis of America's first obtained a court order" was over­ shut the whole place down if they try mane activity of deportation," and a Cities. Sat., June 21, 1:30 p.m.: How Finance Capital whelmingly defeated in Springfield to make these cuts?" "Yes!" -he had resolution in support of the organizing Leads to Depression and War. 3:30 p.m.: The Myth May 21. no real proposals for further action to drive of the farm workers in the Rio of Keynesian Capitalism. 207 E. Michigan St., Room Daley's legislative "bloc" blasted the stop the cuts. Grande Valley. 25. Donation: $2.50. Ausp: SWP. For more informa­ But just as Robinson contradicted tion call (414) 289-9340. bill. Brandishing two antique pistols on the house floor, one legislator Shanker's racist policies by calling for SOCIALIST CAMPAIGN PICNIC. Guest: Peter exhorted that the bill "would deny minority hiring, another speaker, from Camejo, SWP presidential candidate. Sun., June 22, police the tools they need to maintain the District Two community school 1 p.m. Washington Park, picnic area #1. Donation: order." · board, struck a responsive chord when $2.50. Ausp: Socialist Workers 1976 Campaign she suggested where to get the money. Committee. For information about rides call (414) After the vote, the bill's sponsor ... LA cops ' 289-9340. commented that he was glad he wasn't "Education must have a priority Continued from back page "asking for a majority vote on the Bill higher than the military," she said, to OAKLAND-BERKELEY bings, federal grand juries were con­ of Rights." loud cheers. "We must have money for vened to harass political activists. But THE MIDDLE EAST TODAY. Speaker: Bahram our schools before any money spent on Atai, Iranian student activist. Fri., June 20, 8 p.m. now that radicals are the targets there 1&49 University Ave., Berkeley. Donation: $1. Ausp: military imperialism!" is complete inaction. Militant Forum. For more information call (415) 548- Some veterans in the march around Rose Chernin, a leader of the Com­ 0354. city hall agreed with her. They were mittee to D,efend the Bill ·of Rights, there to protest the proposed closing of SAN DIEGO .. .schools cited recent revelations proving police a special school for veterans on West WHO RULES SAN DIEGO? Speaker: Manuel Continued from page 5 complicity with right-wing terrorists in Barrera, member, YSA National Committee. Fri., desperately needs an alliance with Ninety-third Street. When they were Chicago, and asked Bradley whether June 20, 8 p.m. 4635 El Cajon Blvd. Donation: $1. those who are truly interested in asked, "Do you believe there's no similar complicity accounts for the Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information call money?" they told the Militant, "No!. (714) 280-1292. saving education: the parents, the inaction of the Los Angeles Police students, the community groups, and So long as they're building planes and Department. other unions. bombs, they've got the money." Byron Ackerrilan of the PRDF urged The June 9 demonstration proved Coming in the wake of other mass Bradley to take personal responsibility ... CIA that the allies most ready to fight in a actions against the city cutbacks, the for ensuring an effective investigation.­ Continued from page 7 battle against cuts in education are the June 9 demonstration pointed up the Bradley, visibly angry, refused, stat­ can people can find out what is going very forces Shanker has been pitting potential response to a city-wide cam­ ing, "What do you mean, take responsi­ on. the UFT against for years-the Black, paign led by thll union movement to bility? That is the biggest bunch of $top all the cutbacks. "The buck will ~top with the Senate Puerto Rican, and Chinese communi­ nonsense I've ever heard." committee," Church has promised. He ties of New York. The day before the meeting with claims that he will report in full what Shanker is bitterly hated by the most Bradley, a similar delegation picketed his committee learns about CIA as­ conscious parents and activists who police headquarters and then crowded sassinations: "The American people have had to fight him in their into a meetinng of the Los Angeles are entitled to know what their govern­ struggles for community control and ... CLUW Police Commission to demand police ment has done, the good and the bad, bilingual education. Continued from page 24 action. the right and the wrong." But the enormous response by the purpose of its existence comes into The media gave wide coverage to If this is the case, why doesn't Black, Chinese, and Puerto Rican question. If CLUW fails to oppose this event and the meeting with the Church simply release the eighty-six­ communities showed conclusively that discriminatory layoffs and to honestly mayor. ·Representatives of the delega­ page report on CIA murders compiled these parents are ready to tum out in point to and challenge the discrimina­ tion to the mayor vowed to continue by the Rockefeller commission? Why the streets to fight for their children's tory aspects of strict seniority; it their campaign to focus public atten­ not let the American people judge "the education-even in an action cospon­ cannot hope to be seen as a fighting tion on the city administration's inac­ good and the bad, the right and the sored py the UFT-provided thi! UFT organi~ation for women's rights. tion until the right-wing terror is wrong"? fights for ·the educational needs of The discussion begun at the NCC brought to a halt. Socialist Directory ARIZONA: Tucson: YSA, c/o Glennon, S.U.P.O. ILLINOIS: Champaign: YSA, Room 284 lllini Union, Mt. Pleasant YSA, Box 51 Warriner Hall, Central PENNSYLVANIA: Edinboro: YSA, Edinboro State Box 20965, Tucson, Ariz. 85720. Urbana, Ill. 61801. Mich. Univ., Mt. Pleasant, Mich. 48859. College, Edinboro, Pa. 16412. CALIFORNIA: Berkeley-Oakland: SWP and YSA, Chicago: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, 428 S. MINNESOTA: Minneapolis-St. Paul: SWP, YSA, Philadelphia: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Bookstore, 1849 University Ave., Berkeley, Calif. 94703. Tel: Wabash, Fifth Floor, Chicago, Ill. 60605. Tel: Labor Bookstore, 25 University Ave. S.E., Mpls., 1004 Filbert St. (one block north of Market}, (415) 548-0354. SWP-(312) 939-0737; YSA-(312) 427-0280, Minn. 55414. Tel: (612) 332-7781. Philadelphia, Pa. 19107. Tel; (215) WAS-4316. Long Beach: YSA, c/o Student Activities Office, Pathfinder Books-(312) 939-0756. MISSOURI: St. Louis: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, Pittsburgh: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Press, 3400 Fifth CSU, 6101 E. 7th St., Long Beach, Calif. 90807. INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, c/o Student Activities 4660 Maryland, Suite 17, St. Louis, Mo. 63108. Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213. Tel: (412) 682-5019. Los Angeles, Central-East SWP, YSA, Militant Desk, Indiana Univer~;ty, Bloomington, Ind. Tel: (314) 367-2520. Shippensburg: YSA, c/o Mark Dressler, Box 214 Bookstore, 710 S. Westlake Ave., Los Angeles, 47401. NEW YORK: Albany: YSA, c/o Spencer Livingston, Lackhove Hall, Shippensburg State College, Calif. 90057. Tel: SWP, Militant Bookstore-(213) Indianapolis: YSA, cto Carole McKee, 1309 E. 317 State St., Albany, N.Y. 12210. Shippensburg, Pa. 17257. 483-1512; YSA-(213) 483-2581. Vermont St., Indianapolis, Ind. 46202. Tel: (317) Brooklyn: SWP and YSA, 136 Lawrence St. (at State College: YSA, 333 Logan Ave. #401, State Los Angeles, West Side: SWP and YSA, 230 637-1105. Willoughby), Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201. Tel: (212) 596- College, Pa. 16801. Broadway, Santa Monica, Calif. 90401. Tel: (213) KANSAS: Lawrence: YSA, c/o Christopher Starr, 2849. TENNESSEE: Nashville: YSA, P.O. Box 67, Station 394-9050. 3020 Iowa St., Apt. C-14, Lawrence, Kans. 66044. New York City: City-wide SWP and YSA, 706 B, Nashville, Tenn. 37235. Tel: (615) 383-2583. Los Angeles: City-wide SWP and YSA, 710 S. West­ Tel: (913) 864-3975 or 842-8658. Broadway (4th. St.), Eighth Floor, New York, N.Y. TEXAS: Austin: YSA, c/o Arnold Rodriguez, 901 lake Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90057. Tel: (213) KENTUCKY: Lexington: YSA, P.O. Box 952 Univer­ 10003. Tel: (212) 982-4966. Morrow, Apt. 303, Austin, Tex. 78757. 483-0357. sity Station, Lexington, Ky. 40506. Tel: (606) 266- Lower Manhattan: SWP, YSA, and Merit Bookstore. Dallas: YSA, c/o Steve Charles, 3420 Hidalgo #201, Riverside: YSA, c/o U. of Cal. Campus Activities, 0536. 706 Broadway (4th St.), Eighth Floor, New York, Dallas, Tex. 75220. Tel: (214) 352-6031. 234 Commons, Riverside, Calif. 92507. LOUISIANA: New Orleans: YSA, Box 1330 U.N.O., N.Y. 10003. Tel: SWP, YSA-(212) 982-6051; Merit Houston: SWP, YSA, and Pathfinder Books, 3311 Sacramento: YSA, P.O. Box 20669, Sacramento, New Orleans, La. 70122. Books (212) 982-5940. Montrose, Houston, Tex. 77006. Tel: (713) 526- Calif. 95824. MARYLAND: Baltimore: YSA, P.O. Box 4314, Upper West Side: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Bookstore, 1082. San Diego: SWP, YSA, and Militant Bookstore, 4635 Baltimore, Md. 21223. Tel: (301) 247-8911. 2726 Broadway (104th St.), New York, N.Y. San Antonio: YSA, c/o Andy Gonzalez, 2203 W. · El Cajon Blvd., San Diego, Calif. 92115. Tel: (714) MASSACHUSETTS: Boston: SWP and YSA, c/o 10025.Tel: (212) 663-3000. Houston, San Antonio, Tex. 78207. 280-1292. Militant Labor Forum, 655 Atlantic Ave., Third Ossining: YSA, c/o Scott Cooper, 127-1 S. Highland UTAH: Logan: YSA, P.O. Box 1233, Utah State San Francisco: SWP, YSA, Militant Labor Forum, Floor, Boston, Mass. 02111. Tel: SWP-(617) 482- Ave., Ossining, N.Y. 10562. University, Logan, Utah 84321. and Militant Books, 1519 Mission St., San 8050; YSA-(617) 482-8051; Issues and Activists WASHINGTON, D.C.: SWP, YSA, Militant Book­ Francisco, Calif. 94103. Tel: SWP-(415) 431- Speakers' Bureau (IASB) and Regional NORTH CAROLINA: Greenville: YSA, P.O. Box store, 1345 ESt. N.W., Fourth Floor, Wash., D.C. 8918; YSA-(415) 863-2285; Militant Books-(415) Committee-(617) 482-8052; Pathfinder Books­ 1693, Greenville, N.C. 27834. Tel: (919) 752-6439. 20004. Tel: SWP-(202) 783-2391; YSA-(202) 864-9174. (617) 338-8560. OHIO: Bowling Green: YSA, P.O. Box 27, University 783-2363. San Jose: YSA, 96 S. 17th St., San Jose, Calif. Worcester: YSA, Box 229, Greendale Station, Hall, Bowling Green State University, Bowling 95112. Tel: (408) 286-0615. Worcester, Mass. 01606. Green, Ohio 45341. WASHINGTON: Bellingham: YSA and Young So­ Santa Barbara: YSA, P.O. Box 14606, UCSB, Santa MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA, Room 4103, Mich. Cincinnati: YSA, c/o Charles R. Mitts, 6830 Buck­ cialist Books, Rm. 213, Viking Union, Western Barbara, Calif. 93107. Union, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. ingham Pl., Cincinnati, Ohio 45227. Washington State College, Bellingham, Wash. COLORADO: Denver: SWP, YSA, and Militant 48104. Tel: (313) 663-8766. Cleveland: SWP and YSA, 4420 Superior Ave., 98225. Tel: (206) 676-3460. Bookstore, 1203 California, Denver, Colo. 80204. Detroit: SWP, YSA, Eugene V. Debs Hall, 3737 Cleveland, Ohio 44103. Tel: SWP-(216) 391- Saattle: SWP, YSA, and Militant Bookstore, 5623 Tel: SWP-(3(J3) 623-2825; YSA-(303) 893-8360. Woodward Ave., Detroit, Mich. 48201. Tel: (313) 5553; YSA-(216) 391-3278. University Way N.E., Seattle, Wash. 98105. Tel: FLORIDA: Tallahassee: YSA, P.O. Box U-6350, 831-6135. Columbus: YSA, c/o Margaret Van Epp, 670 (206) 522-7800. Tallahassee, Fla. 32313. East Lansing: YSA, First Floor Student Offices, Cuyahoga Ct., Columbus, Ohio 43210. Tel: (614) WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, P.O. Box 1442, Madi­ GEORGIA: Atianta: Militant Bookstore, 68 Peach­ Union Bldg., Michigan State University, East 268-7860. son, Wis. 53701. Tel: (608) 238-6224. tree St., N.E., Third Floor, Atlanta, Ga. 30303. Lansing, Mich. 48823. Tel: (517) 353-0660. OREGON: Portland: SWP and YSA, 208 S.W. Stark, Milwaukee: SWP, YSA, 207 E. Michigan Ave., Rm. SWP and YSA, P.O. Box 846, Atlanta, Ga. 30301. Kalamazoo: YSA, 3573 Kenbrooke Ct., Kalamazoo, Fifth Floor, Portland, Ore. 97204. Tel: (503) 226- 25, Milwaukee, Wis. 53202. Tel: SWP-(414) 289- Tel: (404) 523-()610. Mich. 49007. 2715. 9340; YSA-(414) 289-9380.

26 ·Just published------""'""------... Lenin's fight Against Stalinism V.I. Lenin and Lean Tratskv Edited with introduction by Russell Block. Few myths have been more generally accepted than the view that Stalin and the Soviet bureaucracy are the legitimate heirs to Lenin and the Bolshevik party. But this unique collection demonstrates that in the last years. of his life, Lenin joined with Leon Trotsky in a struggle against the rising Soviet bureaucracy. Lenin carried out a multifaceted struggle against the first signs of Stalinism, concluding with his call for Stalin's removal as general secretary of the Communist party. This book documents Lenin and Trotsky's parallel fight against Stalin on major political questions of the day: the treatment of national minorities, the state monopoly of foreign trade, and the growth of bureaucratism. Here are speeches, articles, and letters from this crucial period, including Lenin's suppressed testament. 160 pp., $7; paper $2.25.

Order from Pathfinder Press, 410' West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014.

LOS ANGELES------Help sell· Stop right-wing the terror bombings! Militant End police inaction! FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 8 p.m. Meeting to defend civil liberties in Los Angeles. Fritchman Auditorium, 2936 W. 8th St., Los Angeles. For more information contact Political Rights Defense Fund, P.O. Box 57031, Los Angeles, Calif. The socialist 90057; telephone, (213)_ 483-8855. - newsweekly

Help win new readers for the Militant by taking a regular bundle to sell on Life in Which your campus, at your job, or in your neighborhood. The cost is 17 cents per copy, arid we will bill you at the end of each month. Capitalist Send me a bundle of ____ Way for Name ______~dd~ss ______America City ______.state ______""ip ______Teachers! Private Profit Anthology. 22 pp., $.50. The Militant Business Office, .14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Includes: "A Fighting Program for and Social. Decay Teacher Unionists," "In Defense of Anthology,287 pp.,$10, paper $2.95. Quotas: A Reply to Shanker," Includes "Cities in Decay," "You "'Teacher Unity' in New York: The Can't Afford To Get Sick," and Real Record," and "Teachers "Insult and Injury: Growing Old In Discuss the Fight to Defend Jobs, Read the America." Salaries, and Schools." Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 Young West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014. West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014. Socialist

Join the To help celebrate the tenth anni­ versary of Intercontinental Press, reprodudions of sketches by Co­ Young pain, artist for Intercontinental Press, were published by the New Yorlc Local of the Socialist Worlcers Socialist party and bound in an 8.5" ., 11" book. The aim was to use the money gained from sales to help us begin Alliance publishing articles in Spanish. Members of the Young Socialist Alliance are fighters in the struggle against racism in The drawings, of various sizes, in­ Boston, campus and high school struggles, the women's liberation movement, the fight clude portraits of Hugo Blanco, Mal­ of Chicanos to end racist deportations, and other movements for social change. Join us! colm X, James P. Cannon, Che -- I would like more information about the VSA Guevara, Cesar Chavez, Leon -- I want to join the VSA Trotsky, and many more, some of --Enclosed is $1 for 6 months of the Young Socialist newspaper which are suitable for framing. Name: ______~------A limited number of copies of this

Addreu: ______~ colledion of drawings are now Larissa Daniel, anti-Stalinist dissident. available for only $5. City, State, Zip & Phone: ______YSA, P.O. Box 471 Cooper Station, N.Y.,N.V. 10003 Intercontinental Press P. 0. Box 116, Village Station New Yorlc, NY 10014

THE MILITANT/JUNE 20, 1975 27 THE MILITANT

Delegation confronts Bradley

eman • t terror 1n• By Arnold Weissberg campaign headquarters is that SWP LOS ANGELES-A forty-five­ leader Lew Jones, who witnessed the member delegation met with Mayor attack and gave a full report to the Tom Bradley and police representa­ police, is unwilling to submit to police tives June 6 to demand that the Los hypnosis for the alleged purpose of Angeles police put an end to the recent "sharpening his memory" of the event! wave of right-wing terror bombings When asked why they refused to here. arrest Nazi leader Tommasi after he The delegation included repre­ boasted of the bombings, police repre­ sentatives of groups that have been sentatives said they had questioned victims of the attacks, including the Tommasi but since he now denies Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg carrying out the bombings, there is Case, the Socialist Workers party, nothing they can do. Arab Community Relations Council, and the Midnight Special bookstore. Also present were .representatives of 'Joint task force' the . Political Rights Defense Fund In the memorandum, Davis claims, (PRDF), Campaign for Democratic "There presently exists a joint task Freedoms, American Civil Liberties force consisting of L.A.P.D., L.A.S.O., Union, the Committee to Defend the Militant/Arnold Weissberg Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Fire­ Bill of Rights, Social Services Union Steve Schmuger of Political Rights Defense Fund, demanding Mayor Bradley (right) arms, the Federal Bureau of Investiga­ Local 535, and representatives of three act to stop right-wing. attacks. tion, and the District Attorney's investi-­ Los Angeles City Council members. gative personnel. All of these agencies Since early February there have have combined their· efforts in an been fourteen right-wing bombings Liberation Front, Joe Tommasi, February the citizens of Los Angeles attempt to solve the Socialist Workers here, beginning with a February 2 tear­ boasted that his organization was have been awaiting this meeting to ask Party bombings in the greater Los gas bombing of a rally of several responsible for the bombings of the you why there is a policy of official Angeles area." thousand sponsored by the Committee SWP headquarters and Rosenberg inaction on the part of the city and The fact that Davis would have the to Reopen the Rosenberg Case. rally. police depax_tment, and when the public believe that such an impressive Two days later, a lethal fragmenta­ Free Press reporter Jeanne Cordova criminals will be arrested and brought array of law enforcement agencies has tion bomb was exploded in the Central­ wrote, "Explaining that the SWP has to trial." been unable to come up with a single East campaign headquarters of the 'a potential that far surpasses any Bradley told the delegation that he clue to the bombings is a sign of his Socialist Workers party. Twenty-five other left-wing group; Tommasi said it has full confidence in the Los Angeles contempt for basic democratic rights. campaign workers narrowly escaped was his organization's purpose to Police Department, and he handed out At a National Rifle Association meet­ serious injury. That same night the 'stop' the Marxist group. 'We wanted a memorandum from Police Chief ing last April he said that the police Unidos bookstore, run by the October them to know the score,' the Nazi Edward Davis as the only information could no longer protect people and League, was similarly bombed. confirmed, 'We've had our eye on them available after an alleged four-month urged the formation of armed vigilante and they don't get to get away with police investigation. groups. In an interview in the March 21 what they're doing ... or they get to Davis's memorandum is a classic Jeff Cohen of the Campaign for issue of the Los Angeles Free Press, a end up in the river.'" example of making the victim of right­ Democratic Freedoms reminded the leader of the National Socialist [Nazi] Tommasi referred to the Rosenberg wing terrorism the criminal. It implies mayor that when the Weather Under­ rally as "just another Red function" that the reason the cops can't solve the ground ·was accused of several hom- and called his group's bombing of the. bombing of the Central-East SWP Continued on page 26 event "significant and successful." Protest rally He told the Free Press, "We know the LOS ANGELES-On June 20, a cops aren't interested if we bomb the rally to defend civil liberties and Left." protest police inaction in apprehend­ And indeed, the police showed no ing the right-wing terror bombers interest in arresting Tommasi in spite will 1 take place at 8:00 p.m. at of his public admissions of the bomb­ Fritchman Auditorium, 2936 West ings. In the face of this deliberate Eighth Street, Los Angeles. inaction, it was no surprise that the Speakers will include Aris Anag­ bombings continued. nos, president of the Southern Cali­ On the night of May 2, a pipe bomb fornia American Civil Liberties exploded above the roof of the Westside Union; Deborah Chankin of the SWP campaign headquarters while ten National Women's Political Caucus; campaign workers were inside. The Rose Chernin of the Committee to police refused to call the bomb squad, Defend the Bill of Rights; Donald insisting that a "large firecracker" was Freed of the Campaign for Demo­ responsible for the explosion. The next cratic Freedoms;Rev.Stephen Fritch­ day campaign workers found bomb man; Dr. Morris Starsky, "Cointel­ fragments all over the roof and the pro" victim; and John T. Williams, police were forced to admit that indeed of the Teamsters union. a bomb had been thrown. Among the sponsors of the meet­ ing are the Political Rights Defense Protests mount Fund, the board of directors of the In response to the inactivity of the Southern California American Civil police and city administration, which Liberties Union, the City Terrace has had the effect of encouraging the chapter of La Raza Unida party, and bombers, the PRDF initiated a cam­ Social Services Union Local 535. paign to force action against the Telegrams and messages of sup­ terrorism. Public meetings, picket port to be read at the rally can be lines, and letters of protest to Mayor sent to the Political Rights Defense. Bradley were organized. The June 6 Fund, Post Office Box 57031, Los meeting with Bradley was a direct Angeles, California 90057; tele­ result of these efforts. phone, (213) 483-8855. At the meeting, Steve Schmuger, of the PRDF, told the mayor,. "Since