SWP Scabs on Railroad Strike
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25¢ WfJ/iKE/iS VIIN'IJIIR'... :.~,~Ul' ';, .. No. 216 .. <(;ili"". x ~n 6 October 1978 • rl e aveI strikes h,lIc hit dOlens of cities this fall, Rail Unions: the growing number of strikes is by no means limited to government employ Defy the Government! ees. In the Pacific :\orthwest. pulp and rarer workers have been pn strike for In the most dramatic show of union three months against '12 manufacturers. rower since last winter's coal strike. and In California. Teamsters are engaged in with far more immediate economic a bitter and rrolonged strike against the imraet. railroad workers brought the major grocery chains. In the Midwest nation's trains to a screeching halt on and South. teachers. firemen and Sertember 24. The shock wave sent out sanitation workers have held center bv the ricket squads which shut down stage. while in "\ew York City, the rail yards from Washington. D.C. to newspaper unions hit the major city Washington State was so great that dailies with a solid two-month strike. within hours federal courts were issuing In addition. major strikes were only restraining orders. By Friday President narrowly averted in the key New York Carter had obtained a sweeping injunc Transit Workers Union and the U.S. tion under the Railway Labor Act. But Postal Service, where contract rejection it was only the caritulation by their own votes have been frustrated by the union leaders which took down the incredible cowardice of union leaders rickets. And even that was not enough afraid to lead their members against the to extinguish the unexpected wave of bosses' no-strike laws. strike action which has swept the Everywhere the strike movement country in the last two months. The finds itself confronting stepped-up "miners' fcver" so feared by the bosses is government strikebreaking. Coal min still ali\(:. ers and now rail workers are slapped The two-month-old strike of 4.700 Ilith rresidentially ordered back-to ckrk.' against the Virginia-based "\or work injl·nctions. Teachers are locked lolk & Western railroad exploded when ur in one city after another. California the Brotherhood of Rai\wav and Air Teamsters see their pickets run down lines Clerks (BRAC) threw up picket and murdered by scab drivers while the lines at intcrsection points with 43 other courts ban mass picketing and cops railroads that have been moving scab rolice the picket lines. :'\& W freight throughout the strike. This crackdown reflects the Carter Thumbing their noses at a flurry of administration's escalating offensive federal court back-to-work injunctions, against labor. Everyone of the labor the pickcts spread the next day to 73 rail Photo leadership's pet legislative projects lines. as BRAC targeted the companies Above: Firemen confront National Guard in Memphis. Below: Striking rail (Humphrey-Hawkins "full employ clerks demonstrate in Chicago. which have been contributing $6 million ment" bill. Labor Reform Act, common a week to N& W in a strikebreaking court orders were simply ignored. On pickets shut down hundreds of scab situs picketing) has been slaughtered mutual aid pact. Wednesday. Labor Secretary Ray Mar mines for 110 days last winter, defying in Congress. Meanwhile, with Carter's The power of the picket line was shall high handedly decreed a 24-hour state rolice. National Guardsmen, anti-inflation jawboning tactics getting immediately felt. Despite desperate deadline to end the dispute. The presidential decrees and court orders. nowhere. the administration is gearing attemrts by the railways to maintain deadline rassed with pickets still spread The imract of the miners' militancy is ur a drive to impose across-the-board senice with supervisory personnel, an ing. On Thursday. President Carter evident not just in the BRAC action, but wagc guidelines of 7 percent per year. estimated 350.000 railroad workers ill\oked the Railway Labor Act and in the strike wave that has swept across This is less than the current rate of resrected the BRAC ricket lines in 42 ordered the strikers back to work. He. the U.S. inflation and far less than the double affected states. "\early two thirds of the too. was ignored. So far it has only slightly involved the digit inflation rate most economists are nation's 200.000 miles of railroads. On Friday. Justice Derartment at key industrial unions. none of which predicting for the next two or three freight shirments and rassenger service torneys and lawyers for over 100 rail have contract expiration dates this fall. Years. was tied ur. Chicago. the nation's key roads finally got U.S. District Judge But it is hardly the quiet autumn of Elen the traditionally reliable water rail hub. was hardest hit and the '\ubrey Robinson who the day before labor peace which Carter's economic boys in the trade union leadership are :vlidwest industrial heartland began had declined their entreaties to issue a braintrusters were predicting. It is some now hostile to the White House. Arch grinding to a stop. Seventy percent of temrorary restraining order halting the of the traditionally most quiescent reactionary George Meany has come coal. grain and industrial surrlies and \Ialkout. Still the rickets waited for sectors of the working class, often led by out against the wage guidelines and rarts were stalled and the auto and steel \Iord from their union leaders. When conservative craft union officials. who liberal Doug Fraser walked off the industries immediately felt the squeele. the \1 ord finally came from Kroll to pull have been walking out. This undoubted rrcsidential I.abor-Management Ad With their hands clenched firmly dOlln the pickets. it was clear that it was ly exrresses a mood of anger and I ismy Group bemoaning big business' around the bosses' arteries. the strikers the union's instructions. not the gmern frustration among the ranks. as every "one-sided class \\ar." Last week Wil II cre nC\crtheless ordered back to \Iork me nt's. which ended the walkout. onc of the recent strikes has been greeted liam \Vinisringer. head of the Interna h\ BRAC rresident Fred Kroll after Ihe enthusiasm \Iith which the II ith enthusiasm. And it reflects as well tional Association of Machinists. de tour davs of escalating gO\l:rnment BRAC strikers disratched thcir picket the growing estrangement of the labor clared that his union had "written threats. On Tuesda\'. federal courts had squads and the eager resronse and bureaucracy from the reanut million Carter off" and would not support his re'ronded in knee-jerk fashion to the solidarit\ of the other railroad unionists aire they hclred rut in the White House. re-election. The trade-union tops are rail comranies' requests for restraining Ill're' at least rartl: lIlsrired by the Centered in the rublic sector. where nO\I looking to rromote Ted Kennedy orders rrohibiting ricketing. But the combative coal miners. whose roving teachers' and other municipal workers' continued on page 9 >.: .... ;_:~\~'~:~-:;:.;:.,~::,/-:_,..:, ," '-. '" _ """.,-.:.'" "'- PAGE. 5i~> ,;. '" PAGE 11' PAGE 8 Stamberg NOW: Jimmy SWP Scabs on Ballot Carter's on Railroad in NYC "Ladies' Strike Auxiliary" Courts Gag "Free" Press Evcr since the U.S. defeat in Vietnam actual j,lilings have occurred. And of find. By lorcing disclosure of reporters' and Nixon's Watergate debacle there thl's\.'. with pnhaps two exceptions. it conlidential sources. the state seeks to has been a steady stream of disclosures was t:ithn tht: acti\ities of the left or a turn the press into an investigative arm of CIA/FBI skulduggery and murder. mut:kraking ill\t:stigation of bourgeois of the district attorney's office. The initial response of the American corruption which caused the state to It is not as if Jimmy Carter is staging a bourgeoisie was to proclaim a new era of st:t:k n:prisal (S('II' York Tillles. 26 July personal vendetta against the press in "open government," while limiting the 197~). fhe practict: of subpoenaing tht: style 01 '\iixon and Agnew. He is damage with a technique which could be repor.tns be.l'an in tht: mid-1960's with simply carrying out his election man termed "cover-up by investigation." tht: rise oltht: !'\e\\ l.eft. black national dak from the American ruling class. Recently the imperialist state has gone ism and the .l'hetto t::\plosions. Prosecu After tht: disaster of Vietnam and the over to the offensive in seeking to clamp tors attt:mrtin.l' to labricate criminal stt:nch of Watergate. the credibility of ,\ lid on embarrassing exposcs. The chargt:s a.l'ainst lett and black militants tht: l'.S. imperialist state was greatly result is a full-scale campaign to bind discO\ned that reporters' notes could damaged. Carter cast himself in the role and gag freedom of the press through pnl\ide them with "evidence." The of M r. Clean. the outsider capable of court-ordered police raids. jailings and major 1972 Supreme Court case which reestablishing the bourgeoisie's authori censorship. hksst:d this acti\ity grew out of the t\ for future imperialist adventures. He Open hunting season on the press was FBI's murderous Cointelpro eampai.l'n got the job. and one of his first tasks was declared May ~ I when the U.S. Su to ".l't:t" tht: Black Panthers. Earl to halt the erosion of the secret police preme Court legaliled police raids on Caldwell. a S('II' York Times reporter. apparatus ... by stopping the leaks! The newspaper offices for purposes of \\as subpoenaed to appear before <~ government's campaign amounts to an gathering "evidence" of "crimes." The fednal .l'rand jury attempting to framt: attempt to enact an official secrets act by decision.