Alex C his/I ndepcdent Politics ago. In 1932, three years before passage before years three 1932, In ago. New Movement Be Stopped? Be Movement aie nos n bran collectively, bargain and unions ganize toor­ people of right working the galized le­ Act Relations Labor National the of B DORAN FORSYTH SUZANNE By about 15about percent of the private sector work Needed Solidarity and as ht fcret rns otne by continue, trends current if that says force belonged to unions. Today only about Can the Decline of the Labor the of Decline the Can 12 percent does. An often quoted prediction shape today than it was 60 years 60 was it than today shape y it now is fast old news becoming that American labor is in worse worse in is labor American that Leadership, Democracy Leadership, in the economy have eroded labor’shave eroded economy the tradi­ in that press left and mainstream the both in the late 19th century. 19th late the in low­ the willunionized, be sector private this decline is inevitable because changes changes is because inevitable decline this est level since the labor movement began movement labor the est levelsince the of less or fivepercent 2000 year the tional base of membership—shrinking jobs expands—and because of the labor labor the of movement’slack of supposed “relevancy” because expands—and sector service the while industry basic in to today’s workers. During the last 30 years, There has been a lot of speculation in in speculation of lot a been has There

however, Canadian unions have moved moved have unions Canadian however, okr’ ihs dly cnutn elec­ conducting delays rights, workers’ marily women. marily pri­ service sector, the in workers among in membership union of terms in gains And fact,of in the most trends. economic similar facing while percent 32 to force of the work 25 percent from representing unrestrained employers. At least one in in one least At employers. unrestrained and harassed fired, being of prospect the last 20 years in the U.S. have been been have U.S. the in years 20 last the hit employers employers hit who violate labor laws with hasn’t and victories, certifying and tions fired. Labor The National Relations Board virtually by intimidated otherwise the face Workers subverted. sys­ tematically been 1930s—has the during tories vic­ union major after only tively—won collec­ bargain and organize to right the 20 workers who wants to join a union is union a to join wants who 20workers (NLRB), ostensibly created to protect protect to created ostensibly (NLRB), N HAT CR PG 16 PAGE 3 PAGE CARE HEALTH AND AFRICA SOUTH IIS ITA PG 30 PAGE VIETNAM VISITS UNIONIST AMERICAN AN EZGVN CII PG 6 PAGE ECONOMY FEATURE: CRISIS HERZEGOVINA BOSNIA- THE BEHIND INSIDE: Unions have declined in part because because part in declined have Unions Continuedon page 11

CONTENTS

C an the D ecline of the Labor M ovement Be S t opped? W hy U.S. Economy Is In a J ob-L e ss Recovery Suzanne Forsyth Doran...... 1 Barry Sheppard...... 16

S outh A frica's “C reeping” C ivil W ar Balance S heet on W orld Capitalist O ffensive Caroline Lund...... 3 Ernest Mandel...... 18

I’ve C ome T o T ell Y ou H ow G ood T hings A re U niversal H ealth C are For A ll Matt McCarten...... 4 Alan Hanger...... 19

N ew Zealand A lliance Leader T ours the U nited S tates Raise the S tandard of Living of the M a sses AlexChis...... 5 Red International of Labor Unions...... 22

Behind the Bosnia-H erzegovina C risis Kendra A lexander: A Life D edicated to S ocialism Malik Miah...... 6 Barry Sheppard...... 26

W omen P rotest W ar C rimes Against W omen in Bosnia A n A merican U nionist V isits V ietnam Claudette BBgin...... 7 Carl Finamore...... 30

A Report Back From C uba F ilm Review: C onstruction W orkers’ Lives Diane Wang...... 8 Adam Wood...... 31

Bankruptcy and M onopoly in the S kies W hy Army Intelligence S pied on A frican-A mericans Carl Finamore...... 10 Malik Miah...... 32

P art-T imers in D ouble B ind Mary Doran...... 14

JOIN Activists for Independent \ INDEPENDENT t Socialist Politics IpLITICS We are entering the worst capitalist crisis dependent Socialist Politics (AISP) seeks in over 60 years. The collapse of the So­ to rebuild the socialist movement in the viet Union only exacerbates this process. United States through collaboration and Independent Politics is a socialist magazine Sudden and severe international and do­ democratic discussions with other activ­ founded in 1992. Signed articles reflect the views of their authors and publication of an article does not mestic conflicts are inevitable as the rich ists and groups fighting for fundamental necessarily mean agreement with its content. Unless compete with each other for control of social change. We are activists in trade otherwise stated, all materials in Independent Poli­ markets and resources, tightening screws unions, feminist groups, Black, Latino and tics may be reproduced with acknowledgement. Please send reprints. Asian groups, student groups, and other on the poor to raise profits. The bulk of © Independent Politics 1993 the economic and social burden falls im­ movements for social change. Closing News Date: June 10, 1993 mediately and most heavily on the working If you agree with this approach and you Editor: Malik Miah people and oppressed of the world. In the would like to participate in effective po­ Editorial Committee: Alex Chis United States, increased attacks on working litical activity in the central social struggles Claudette Begin people in general are disproportionately of the day, collaborate through open and Suzanne Forsyth Doran affecting women, African-Americans, democratic discussions with other activists Alan Hanger Mo Harry Latinos, Asians/Pacific Islanders, Native and groups in the unions and social Lee Artz (Chicago) American Indians, and youth. movements, and work to rebuild a non­ Kathleen O’Nan (Los Only a consciously organized and sectarian, fighting American socialist Angeles) militant mass response can resolve the movement, contact Activists for Inde­ Design and Production: Blue Dog Design Business Manager: Alan Hanger deepening crisis in the interests of the pendent Socialist Politics for more infor­ Printing: Howard Quinn immense majority of humanity. The key mation. Write to: All correspondence and requests for subscrip­ is independent political action by the AISP tions, single issues, or bundles should be mailed to: working class. We need to break out of P.O. Box 78241 Independent Politics, P.O. Box 78241, San Francisco, the framework of the two party system San Francisco, CA 94107 CA 94107. Telephone: (415) 337-7959 controlled by the rich. Activists for In­ (415) 337-7959

INDEPENDENT P o l it ic s 2 Summer 1993 South Africa’s “Creeping”

outh Africa is in Civil War ernment. This would the throes of a preserve a South Africa mighty up­ shaped by white su­ heaval.S premacy and Black By CAROLINE LUND The downtrodden tribal divisions. In Black majority is I May, thousands of pushing forward to- “ white farmers, led by ward a democratic, “ a group of military and non-racial society, amid police officials, rallied intense debate over around demands for a strategy and tactics. The “white homeland”. first one-person-one- The ANC is at­ vote election in South tempting to forge the African history could broadest possible front take place within a year. to destroy apartheid A “creeping” civil and begin recon­ war exists, with the structing a new South white supremacist re­ African nation based gime fostering police on non-racial, non- terror, random vio­ tribal democracy. lence, assassinations, and anti-social behav­ ANC perspective ior to disrupt the Its Strategic Per­ democratic movement. spectives document, More than 40,000 adopted last Novem­ murders have occurred At a community meeting in Kiskamahock the Imfingu people hear a report back from nego­ ber, begins with the tiations with de Klerk about returning to land from which they had been forcibly removed. in the past two years, assessment that the 95 percent of them unsolved. Tensions F.W. de Klerk. The gains wrested from liberation movement does not now have appear to be near the breaking point, as the regime so far (repeal of apartheid laws the capacity to overthrow the apartheid young Blacks taunt police, demonstrators and repressive legislation, release of po­ regime through a revolutionary seizure march on police stations, heavily armed litical prisoners, return of exiles, and the of power. Therefore, it states, the most white supremacist groups like the multi-party negotiations process) have realistic course is: “a negotiations process Afrikaner Resistance Movement publicly already brought important changes to combined with mass action and interna­ flaunt their weapons, and the government South Africa (see accompanying story by tional pressure which takes into account threatens a return to emergency repres­ Marina Carman). the need to combat counter-revolution­ sive measures ary forces and at the same time uses phases The world capitalist recession has hit Growing polarization in the transition to qualitatively change South Africa with a vengeance. Unem­ As the racist regime sees its days are the balance of forces in order to secure a ployment is around 48 percent and in­ numbered, polarization has occurred, thorough-going democratic transforma­ flation is at 20 percent. Even white working among Blacks as well as whites. The Black tion.” people are feeling the pinch. The harsh elite in many of the bantustan govern­ “The fundamental goal of the national struggle for survival fosters a breakdown ments, which were set up as pillars of the liberation struggle,” states the document, of social solidarity. The union movement white regime, are siding openly with the “is the transfer of power to the people as is suffering from the employers’ assault. racist government. a whole and the establishment of a united, The trade union federation COSATU has Chief Mangosutho Buthelezi of the non-racist, non-sexist and democratic for the first time lost members—some KwaZulu bantustan, for example, has society. This should not be confused with 75,000 over the past two years, due to engineered a bloc between his Inkatha the immediate objectives we set for our­ mine and plant closures. Freedom Party (1FP) and the white su­ selves in each phase of the transition. At Within the liberation movement, the premacist Conservative Party and the same time, we should ensure that the African National Congress (AN C) has led Afrikaner Volksunie. immediate objectives we pursue do not the drive toward a democratic, non-ra­ The IFP-white supremacist bloc de­ have the effect of blocking our longer- cial, non-sexist South Africa, through mass mands that South Africa be carved into term goals.” actions as well as negotiations with the various Black and white autonomous re­ white supremacist government headed by gions with a weak, federated central gov­ Continued on page 27

Summer 1993 3 INDEPENDENT POLITICS I’ve Come To Tell You How Good Things Are Matt McCarten is the lion, is 180,000 mem­ President of the New bers. There are two ZealandNewLaborParty By MATT McCARTEN other environmental and the Chair and cen­ movements with over tral organizer of the Alliance. The NewLabor Party was formed in 1989 after the ruling 100,000 members. Labor Party embarked on a “free market" economic policy, beginning a process of attacks Maori people, who have always been on the union movement and privatization of New Zealand’s economy. The party split with oppressed—every indigenous people that McCarten, who was secretary of the Trades Council of the Labor Party, leading a signifi­ has been colonized has been oppressed— cant section of unionists out of the Labor Party. An alliance was formed between the NewLabor make up 15 percent of our country. What Party and M ana Motuhake, the movement of the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand happened in the mid-seventies is Maori for self-determination. people said no longer will we become When the National Party won power, they accelerated the process of union-busting and victims, we will organize ourselves, and economic grief for workers and indigenous people begun by the Labor Party precipitating a movement of Maoris was formed called a more general search for answers on the part of the progressive movement. McCarten, who Mana Motuhake, which means self-de­ is a Maori, took the initiative in forming a broader alliance with the Greens and two termination through pride. We organized smaller parties, the Liberals and the Democrats. The Alliance has captured the imagination our community to be a real force in New of those who want change in New Zealand. As we go to press, the latest polls show the Zealand politics. Alliance leading in the three way race for the November national elections. In the Alliance with the Green Party is This speech was given April 22 in San Francisco at the Women’s Building to a forum co­ the NewLabor Party, which I am the sponsored by the SF Greens, GreenTalk Series, San FranciscoCommittees of Correspon­ president of. It is a party in which two- dence and the SF Green Party. It has been edited for space and clarity.—ALEX CHIS thirds are unemployed. We are a party of poor people, of what you would call the efore I start, Greetings from New program, have built a mass base and are underclass. We are a mass party of work­ Zealand, but particularly from the doing very well. ers and we represent that constituency. Green Party in New Zealand. Ev­ The Alliance is made up of the Green So the Alliance brings us the Greens, in­ eryB time 1 talk to any group that has Green Party, the NewLabor Party, Mana digenous people and labor. And that is a Party members in it, 1 give international Motuhake, [and two smaller parties] .The connection which hasn’t been done be­ greetings from the Green Party in New Green Party speaks for itself, what forces fore. We have ordinary New Zealanders. Zealand! make that up. The environmental move­ We have no business backing at all. All I haven’t been to the northern hemi­ ment is very strong. For example, the our funding comes from our own mem­ sphere before, but from all the interviews Greenpeace organization in New Zealand, bers and our own supporters by raising I’ve had on radio and in the media, they with a population of just over three mil­ money the hard way and we’re proud of always expect me to tell how terrible things ^ 1 — are in another part of the world. I haven’t come to tell you how terrible things are, I’ve come to tell you how good things are. There is a country in the world where progressive forces, which involve ordi­ nary people from all walks of life, are ac­ tually taking back their community against the forces which seem to have some ma­ licious joy in beating them back. In New Zealand we’ve had the problems that other countries have had, but the difference in New Zealand is that we’re organizing a mass base of progressive forces from ev­ ery movement possible, from the peace movement, a huge environmental move­ ment, the Women’s movement, the Maori movement, minority groups, the Gay and Lesbian movement, the Trade Union Matt McCarten, Chair of the New Zealand Alliance and President of the NewLabor party, ad­ dressing the Labor Notes National Conference in Detroit at its opening session Friday night, movement, the unemployed movement April 23. Also pictured (left to right) are U.S. Congressman Bemie Sanders and Kim Moody, have all come together around a common Executive Director of Labor Notes.

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 4 Summer 1993 it, because we won’t be accountable to Matt McCarten Addresses Labor Notes Conference outsiders. We aren’t going to buy our way to victory, we are actually arguing and New Zealand Alliance Leader discussing. We’ll win by convincing people of our ideas. One of the exciting things for us is that Tours the United States we are a very new organization. We’ve only been around [as the Alliance] for 18 By ALEX CHIS months now. What we have is a whole block of people who are searching. We he highlight of Matt McCarten’s and the International Indian Treaty are coming together to see what we have U.S. tour was the Labor Notes Council. in common . And one of the interesting T Conference in Detroit, April 23- From the Bay Area he went to Detroit things has always been that labor and the 25 where he spoke to an audience of over to participate in the Labor Notes confer­ environment were at odds. Members had 1,100 on the conference’s opening night. ence, where he spoke to the People of Color always been trained that if you protect His account of how the Alliance, a com­ caucus with Ron Daniels and participated the environment you would somehow lose ing together of labor. Greens and the in­ in the Committees of Correspondence digenous Maori population was created, Hospitality Suite. Then it was on to Chi­ Continued on page 14 received warm applause. cago where he spoke on area campuses, He explained that the Alliance had al­ including Loyola and the Parkside and ready won elections in Auckland, the Urbana campuses of the University of 1100 Labor largest city in New Zealand, and ended Wisconsin. He addressed an International his talk with a story of a recent strike there. Forum on Indigenous Rights, did a radio Activists Meet On a Monday the police had broken up a interview with Studs Terkel, and spoke strike of Maori and other Pacific Island to a city-wide forum at the Amalgamated This was the seventh Labor Notes workers, hospitalizing several workers and Clothing and Textile Workers Union hall conference and the largest. Held every arresting many more. Early the next co-sponsored by Greenpeace, Labor Party two years in Detroit under the spon­ morning the Alliance mobilized, with Advocates and the Coalition of Black Trade sorship of Labor Notes, a monthly hundreds of people coming to lend sup­ Unionists. magazine published by the Labor port. The police also mobilized, about 250 In his one-day stop in Pittsburgh, Education and Research Project, the of them in full riot gear, and they pro­ McCarten had a Labor Breakfast, addressed conference brings together activists in ceeded to advance on the strikers. They a campus meeting, a city-wide meeting, the union movement from around the stopped short realizing that at the head and spoke with a group of people from United States and even the world with of the workers’ demonstration were Alli­ organizations who are doing independent participation this year from Canada, ance MPs (Members of Parliament), electoral politics in the Pittsburgh area. Mexico, Japan, Sweden and other mayors, and other city officers, part of From Pittsburgh, McCarten went to countries. Among the speakers this year the 78 officials the Alliance recently elected Washington, D.C. where he had a brown were Ron Daniels, Campaign for a New in Auckland. The police were not up to bag lunch at the Institute for Policy Stud­ Tomorrow; Elaine Bernard, former bashing MPs heads; they withdrew and ies co-sponsored by Greenpeace, a re­ chair of the New Democratic Party told the owner that they could do noth­ ception organized by the D.C.-area CoC, (British Columbia); Bernie Sanders, ing more. The workers had a settlement and meetings with U.S. government rep­ Congressman from Vermont; Bob that afternoon, winning all their demands. resentatives including Sen. Robb, chair Wages, President, Oil, Chemical and That story of how the Alliance uses its of the Senate Asia/Pacific subcommittee. Atomic Workers Union (OCAW); Juan elected officials on the front lines drew A meeting with Jack Odell and others from Gonzalez, N ew York N ewspaper Guild; enthusiastic applause from the Labor Notes the Rainbow Coalition got into the me­ and Matt McCarten, President of the conference participants. chanics of forming and working in an in­ New Zealand NewLabor Party. McCarten’s tour, which was sponsored dependent alliance such as the one in New There were over fifty workshops and nationally by the Committees of Corre­ Zealand. union meetings with topics such as the spondence (CoC), began in the Bay Area, From D.C. McCarten flew to Los An­ Mexican Labor Movement: Labor where the City Councils of Berkeley and geles where he had a campus meeting, a Rights as Human Rights, A Shorter Oakland passed proclamations welcom­ meeting with the Greens and the Socially Work Week, Environmental Racism ing him. He spoke to audiences in San Responsible Singles and a city-wide and Stopping Sexual Harassment. La­ Francisco [see speech in this issue], Ber­ meeting at the HERE Local 11 hall. His bor Notes regularly reports on the keley and Stanford. He also addressed last speaking engagement of the tour was struggles for a fighting, democratic labor members of Local 2 of the Hotel and Res­ a meeting in Salt Lake City at the Oil, movement. Subscriptions are $15/yr. taurant Employees Union (HERE), the Chemical and Atomic Workers union hall to Labor Notes, 7435 Michigan Avenue, Alameda County Central Labor Council, Detroit, MI 48210.—ALEX CHIS the American Indian Youth conference, Continued on page 14

Summer 1993 5 INDEPENDENT POLITICS Behind the Bosnia- Herzegovina Crisis he major Western Bosnian Serbs and imperialist powers Croats, like their cousins T are debating how By MALIK MIAH in other parts of Yugosla­ to stop “ethnic cleansing” via, were not chauvinists. (mass expulsions, rape and murder) in stood. The Serbs, Croats, and Muslims While the violence has changed that for Bosnia-Herzegovina, a republic in the have not always hated and fought each many, it was not written on a sacred wall. former unified Yugoslavia. There is no other. There was no historic blood feud There was no genuine socialist leadership agreement. Washington favors direct as the nationalist Great Serbians, Croatians based on respect for all ethnic communi­ military action to stop the Serbian na­ and the Western powers claim. ties’ rights to counter the reactionary na­ tionalists. The European powers say such Modern Yugoslavia’s roots go back to tionalists who took power from the Stalinist intervention would lead to an escalation the last century when the South Slavic rulers. of the conflict. They argue for more di­ peoples of all ethnic origins united to re­ plomacy. sist foreign domination. The first “King­ Collapse of Command Economy Meanwhile Slavic Muslims are being dom of Slovenes, Serbs and Croats” (later he current crisis and breakup of slaughtered, raped and deported from their called Yugoslavia in 1929) was formed Yugoslavia is a result of the same historic homes in Bosnia by both Croatian T process that occurred in Eastern and Serbian nationalists. Europe and the former Soviet Union. The Should the West send troops to Bosnia? Yugoslav state fell apart because of the Should the arms embargo be lifted? Or is crisis of the Stalinist “self-management” the tragedy so complex, as most Euro­ system and its bureaucratic top down pean governments argue, that only a dip­ command economy. The system had lomatic solution (the Vance-Owen solu­ worked for 40 years because it had allowed tion of cantonization of Bosnia) be the standard of living of the masses to pursued? steadily improve until the late 1970s even though there were few democratic rights. Support the Bosnians When the economy began to collapse Both President Clinton’s call for im­ in the late 1970s and early 1980s, reac­ perialist intervention and the “too com­ tionary nationalists used ethnic chauvin­ plex” line argued by London, Paris and ism to push pro-capitalist and rightist so­ Bonn should be rejected. Working people lutions. It was easy for the Serb nationalists, must take the side of the Bosnian people for instance, to blame Croatia (a more seeking to maintain the multi-ethnic developed region) for the problems of the character of their region. We must stand country. Instead of a democratic Yugo­ with the anti-chauvinist Bosnians who are after World War I with the collapse of slavia, the nationalists (who in most cases Serbian, Croatian and Muslim and reject the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian em­ were former leaders of the Communist Great Serbian and Great Croatian na­ pires. The southern Slavs fought against Party) in Serbia pushed for a Serb-domi­ tionalism. foreign domination. They continued nated Yugoslavia. Croatian nationalists It is noteworthy that the Western press during and after World War 11. The Par­ responded by calling for Croatia for is very quiet about the Bosnian Serbs and tisan Movement led by the Communist Croatians— that is, an ethnically pure Croats who oppose the reactionary na­ leader Tito organized a successful anti­ region where the other minorities would tionalist regimes in Croatia and Serbian- capitalist socialist revolution. be pushed out. controled Yugoslavia. It reflects the hy­ Yugoslavia from its earliest beginnings The European powers, led by Germany, pocrisy of the imperialist powers who today was a multi-ethnic state. The Serbs, Croats, responded by supporting an independent blame the Serbians for the violence in Slavic Muslims (Croats and Serbians) and Croatia and Slovenia and quick recogni­ Bosnia even though the same powers other ethnic groups lived together tion of other republics. This killed the yesterday encouraged these reactionary peacefully. Tito’s Yugoslavia in fact ex­ possibility of a democratic multi-ethnic nationalists to fight the former commu­ plicitly recognized the national differences Yugoslavia and meant the stronger re­ nist regime and push for capitalist resto­ of the various republics of the federal state. publics would seek to incorporate “their” ration. What we see are the chickens There was a conscious mixing of the people from other republics into their coming home to roost. populations and cultures, including mixed “nation.” The imperialist policy toward The collapse of Yugoslavia was not in­ marriages. And the rights of Serb minori­ Yugoslavia’s move tofree-market capitalism evitable, nor is the current tragedy in ties in Croatia and Albanians in Serbia encouraged separatism and thus the war of Bosnia. It can be explained and under- were all protected. ethnic cleansing.

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 6 Summer 1993 Bay Area Bosnia T askforce Not surprisingly, former Stalinist turned super-nationalist Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic and his Croat counterpart Franjo Tudjman have the same objective: con­ solidate political power for their “nation” against all others in the Balkans. Their counterparts in Bosnia even met in 1992 to discuss how to carve up Bosnia only for Serbians and Croatians. They agreed that the Muslims had to be cleansed from their historic land. The purpose of the so-called Vance- Owen peace plan is to accept the status quo with a face-saving formula. The for­ mula is that Bosnian Serbs and Croats get most of the Muslim land they occupy, but they must allow the Muslims to control some areas. The imperialists and their new ally Russia can live with ethnic cleansing. What they fear is a major Balkan war that spreads to Hungary, Albania, Greece, Turkey and across Europe. February demonstration at the San Francisco Federal Building by Muslim women protesting Even though Washington is now the rape of women in Bosnia. backing the Vance-Owen plan, it is not so sure this status quo containment policy will work. But this difference with the Women Protest War Crimes European allies is primarily tactical. (Not surprisingly, after Bosnian Serbs over­ Against Women in Bosnia whelmingly rejected the Vance-Owen plan by referendum in May, Washington and By CLAUDETTE BEGIN embargo on Bosnia, for an international its European allies, including Russia, now war crimes tribunal to commence imme­ call for placing Bosnian Muslims in "safe here is growing solidarity among diately and for an immediate opening up havens" - i.e., apartheid-type reservations women of all religious and ethnic of the detention camps for investigation. - which is defacto acceptance of Serb and backgrounds protesting the crimes Many of the demonstrators had attended againstT women in Yugoslavia. Several Croat control of conquered territory.) the convention of the International As­ What must be done? Working people public denunciations of these crimes have sociation of Muslim Women the previ­ and socialists in the United States need occurred in San Francisco this year. ous week where several groups of women to get out the truth about the situation in The National Organization for Women decided to organize a protest. All the Yugoslavia and explain the roots of the (NOW) sent out a call in February to its speakers at their rally were women. Their conflict. We must expose the hypocrisy local chapters to organize protests de­ message: “We don’t want the U.S. to in­ of the imperialist powers and explain why manding an end to the rape and murder tervene. We just want the right to defend direct military intervention will not protect of women in Bosnia and other regions of ourselves.” the interests of Muslims and other mi­ former Yugoslavia. While planning for a A group of Serbian chauvinists at­ norities from Great Serbian and Great protest at United Nations Plaza, leaders tempted to disrupt both demonstra­ Croatian chauvinism. of the San Francisco and East Bay NOW tions.The Serbian nationalists also tried The arms embargo to the Bosnian de­ learned that a group of Muslim women to shout down the speakers. But unified fenders must be lifted. The reactionary were planning a protest of their own at chanting by the crowd quickly silenced nationalists have weapons. Supporters of the federal building in San Francisco. A them. Fierce individual debates raged on. the Muslims and a multi-ethnic Bosnia march from the NOW rally to that pro­ Passersby were even drawn in. don’t. test was organized. In Washington, D.C., NOW President No to Great Serbian and Great Croatian Some 150 people gathered at the two Patricia Ireland issued a statement to the nationalism! protests to hear speakers denounce the national media calling for an international No to imperialist military intervention! rapes and “sex camps” in Yugoslavia.The war crimes tribunal and an end to the arms For multi-ethnic Bosnia-Herzogovina! ▼ protesters demanded an end to the arms embargo. ▼

Summer 1993 7 INDEPENDENT POLITICS “We will resist, we will win!” A Report Back from Cuba “Resisteremos, member of the Council Venceremos!” “We will of State, is the discov­ resist, we will win!” By DIANE WANG ered of the only vaccine I returned from a re­ effective against men­ cent trip to Cuba in May convinced that for its goods. The island is living on about ingitis B. Finlay is heads a national pro­ this is not only a slogan but a reality. The 22 percent of it former income with its gram of research, development, and pro­ Cuban revolution can survive the dan­ international purchasing power falling duction of vaccines at 20 centers. They gerous situation it faces today. Those of dramatically. The recent “storm of the produce vaccines against meningitis, ra­ us who have watched with dismay the century” did some $1 billion worth of bies, measles, rubella, hepatitis B, diph­ defeat of the Sandinistas, the racist riots damage and destroyed vital crops. theria, polio and tetanus. in Germany and the collapse of the So­ The same leadership that led a handful The center is now developing vaccines viet Union too easily brace ourselves for of fighters in the Sierra Maestra to take against hepatitis A and C, as well as an another disaster. That is not the attitude power from the dictator Batista 34 years effective vaccine against cholera and even in Cuba. ago does not find these odds against Cuba against parasitic infections. Other Cuban The Peace for Cuba delegation I trav­ overwhelming. They have charted a careful centers have developed a remarkable eled with was headed by former U.S. At­ course to develop Cuba’s economy de­ epidermal growth factor that dramatically torney General Ramsey Clark, distin­ spite the intensified U.S. blockade and are speeds the recovery of burn victims and guished author Alice Walker, and deepening the revolutionary commitment PPG-40, a by-product of sugar cane that American Indian leader Dennis Banks. We of the Cuban people. effectively lowers cholesterol. took $75,000 worth of medicine and two This work is a tremendous potential Medical research and exports ophthalmological neurologists to help for export and income. UNICEF and most confront the crisis. We were shown the While the United States and Soviet developing countries cannot afford the Cuban medical system and good causes Union devoted billions of dollars to exploitative prices charged by U.S. phar­ for optimism. weapons and space exploration, Cuba has maceutical firms. At a recent international Cuba does face the most serious chal­ spent the bulk of its research money on gathering in Bogata, Columbia for example, lenge since its Revolution in 1959. The the development of medicine. As a result, Cuba offered 50 million vaccines neces­ United States tightened the economic Cuba has developed a highly sophisticated sary for a massive neonatal tetanus pro­ blockade with passage of the Toricelli Bill biotechnology and pharmaceutical in­ gram at a reasonable price. last year, periodically threatens Cuba with dustry. Even in the Special Period, as the cur­ military war games and bombards the is­ The Finlay Research Institute, which rent course of rationing and tight budgeting land with propaganda broadcasts daily. we visited, demonstrates the tremendous is called, medical research is given a pri­ The collapse of the Soviet Union means economic potential. Concepcion Campa ority. “We are not simply dealing with a that Cuba can no longer obtain fair prices Huergo, the Institute’s director and a business,” the Finlay directors explained, “but with life and death.” Selling sun, rum and cigars Cuba is also expanding its tourist trades from Canada, Europe and Latin America to attract foreign currency. The elegant Comordoro Hotel where we stayed, for example, earns $20 million each year for Cuba. Many progressives in the United States shudder at the tourist trade, pointing to the evidence of prostitution that has re­ appeared, the tensions and corruption that seem like an inevitable consequence. But an interview with the director of the Ho­ tel Comodoro, as well as discussions with our tour guides, bus boys and waitresses convinced me that again we underesti­ mated the Cubans. Alice Walker, foreground, and Ramsey Clark, right, with doctors at the William Soler Pediat­ Rogelio Rodriguez, the Comodoro’s ric Hospital in Havana, open boxes of donated medicines. director, responded firmly when I asked

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 8 Summer 1993 whether Cubans tried to get jobs in the Americas, which nurtures not only Cu­ tourist industry so that they would have ban artists but artists from throughout access to foreigners and their money. He Latin America and the Caribbean. admitted that there might be some who Human solidarity, generosity, an ea­ are so self-centered, “but that is not the gerness to provide everyone with a pro­ human quality of our youth,” he insisted. ductive and spiritual life—these remain “They are the creators and bearers of our the standards of the Cuban Revolution. revolution.” This course was definitively approved As evidence, he pointed out that the in the last Cuban elections held a few hotel personnel pool their tips, sharing it months ago. Cuba changed its electoral among all the workers and donating a methods to provide for direct election to portion for public health. After the storm, the National Assembly and to assure the hotel’s workers showed such all-out nomination of candidates from the dedication to repair the damage that the grassroots communities. Dissidents in hotel was ready for business one week Cuba and right-wingers in Miami turned later, earning an award from the Con­ the election into a referendum by mounting federation of Cuban Trade Unions and a a strong campaign urging people to nul­ visit from Cuban president Fidel Castro. lify their ballots (a democratic possibility The workers also donated $6,000 to help we do not have in the United States). in Cuba’s reconstruction. The hotel has Despite their loud campaign, with more active branches of the trade union and who come to work for two weeks. The than 95 percent of the voters casting bal­ the Union of Communist Youth. In the other seven contingents at this one farm lots, only seven percent chose to nullify. last year, nearly one-third of the 650 are made up of 2,400 volunteers who are The huge majority of Cubans voted “yes” workers have participated in the volunteer devoting two years to food production. for the revolutionary leadership and path. farm production plans. “Others would like These people work 11 days and then go As Sergio Lopez of the Cuban Institute to go to the countryside and help,” home to the city for three days. The re­ for the Friendship of the People’s ex­ Rodriguez said, “but we cannot spare them sults have been dramatic: food production plained, “There is quite a difference be­ from their job right now.” at this one farm has increased from 24,000 tween people who complain and who want to 55,000 tons a year. to change the system. There are some who Food production plan The farms have responded to the Spe­ don’t share our socialist ideals, but when Cuba’s main priority is feeding all its cial Period with other innovations. While the gunboats come, they ask to help de­ people. Despite the crisis, Cuba has been two years ago this farm relied entirely on fend the island.” able to guarantee a diet of 2100 calories a oil-fueled machinery, they now have 268 The Cubans are doing everything day to everyone by rationing rice, beans, oxen to help instead. They have found a possible to defend the Revolution against bread and other essentials. But the lack good fertilizer in sugar cane fiber to re­ the New World Order. Olga Alonso, who of concentrated feed has drastically cut place imported chemicals. In fact, Cuba formerly lived in Germany and saw what the milk and meat production. While Cuba is now using 120 products Irom sugar cane. reunification meant, summarized the used to provide milk for all children, now The high spirit of these contingents was Cuban attitude very well. She described it can only assure milk to children under expressed by one older Afro-Cuban woman to me how many of her German friends seven years old and those on special diets. we spoke with working in a kitchen. “How from the Communist Party and govern­ In response, Cuba has mobilized its long are you here?” we asked. “I’m stay­ ment there had committed suicide in the citizens. The Committees to Defend the ing until the Special Period ends!” she face of reunification. “But we Cubans Revolution organized in all Cuba’s com­ answered. would never commit suicide. We will never munities maintain small garden plots to Above all, Cuba is maintaining the val­ give up fighting,” she said. help supplement people’s supply. But most ues it established with the Revolution. That should be our attitude as well. Here importantly, people are volunteering to Cuba still commits its resources to help­ in the United States, we should organize go to the countryside for periods ranging ing those most vulnerable. Despite the solidarity and material aid. Most of all, from two weeks to two years to increase serious food situation, AIDS patients are we must recommit ourselves to doing all farm production. still guaranteed a diet of 5,400 calories a we can to protest, challenge and end the We visited a state farm outside Havana, day. The psychiatric hospital still has a criminal U.S. blockade. ▼ one of eight that provides most of the food full-time orchestra that plays in a pavilion for both the city and province of Havana. for patients and live musicians to assist Diane Wang is Financial Secretary of Along with the 1,400 regular workers, the in psycho-ballet. Instead of dismissing Local 1-326 Oil, Chemical and Atomic farm now has 10 contingents ofvolunteers. cultural efforts as luxury, Cuba still devotes Workers Union in Rodeo, California and a Three contingents are made up of those resources to institutions like Casa de las longtime Cuba solidarity activist.

Summer 1993 9 INDEPENDENT POLITICS Bankruptcy and Monopoly ommercial in the Skies profits even more. Re­ aviation in the versing engines, virtu­ United States By CARL FINAMORE ally every airline except gotC off the ground in 1925 profitable no-frills when Congress authorized mail delivery coming back to the industry, it’s going to Southwest Airlines, has embarked upon by private carriers. Both American Air­ make bargaining more difficult later,” says a substantial capital reduction plan which lines and United Airlines trace their ori­ former US Air Inc. chairman Edwin I. involves laying off employees and can­ gins to the first federal contracts awarded. Colodny (Business Week, April 12,1993). celling or postponing new plane deliver­ Things really took off in 1927 after Col. The corporate myth that high wages ies. From 1990 to 1991 alone, about 55,000 Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic. and benefits are wrecking the industry U.S. and Canadian airline workers have Airlines grew at lightening speed, aided just doesn’t fly. In fact, labor costs have lost their jobs. by unprecedented advances in technol­ decreased from 37.3 percent to 33,8 And still the carriers claim they need ogy, primarily resulting from military re­ percent of operating costs between 1980 more from the workers. One major union search paid for by tax dollars. and 1990. Fuel costs decreased even more is not buying it. The International Asso­ Today, however, all the major airlines ciation of Machinists and Aerospace have fallen on hard times. A March 1993 Workers (IAM) represents 26,000 me­ Merrill Lynch report confirmed “that in chanic, ramp, utility and kitchen em­ the last three years the U.S. airline industry ployees of United Airlines. The union has has lost over $7 billion, more money than so far resisted extreme management the industry has earned in its entire his­ pressure to reopen their contract which tory, and that 20 percent of the industry’s extends to November 1994. The company capacity is now operated by carriers un­ is deadly serious. United Airlines CEO, der protection of the U.S. bankruptcy Stephen Wolf, was sired by corporate raider courts.” and Eastern Airlines union-buster Frank Top executives use this nose dive in Lorenzo. So it came as no particular sur­ profits to pressure concessions from a work prise when Wolf issued an ultimatum force that already gave up billions of dol­ threatening to sell off large assets involv­ lars in wages and benefits during the 1980s. ing thousands of union jobs unless the workers caved in to demands for a sub­ Recently, many airlines have either im­ May 8 rally at San Francisco International posed wage reductions, like Delta and US Airport. stantial 25 percent reduction in wages and Air, or have demanded unions negotiate benefits. Still the union hung tough and major give-backs, like United and dramatically during that decade, dropping said no to concessions. Northwest. These carriers claim that from 31 percent of total operating costs Instead, the IAM organized nationwide lowering labor costs is the only way they to 17.7 percent. job site protests in May. The actions took can survive. At least that’s what we’re told, The airline crisis is management made. place in 12 locations and received espe­ or should I say sold. It is primarily a result of monopolistic cially enthusiastic support in the San Here’s some facts. Most financial ana­ attempts by the majors to squeeze out their Francisco Bay Area where almost half of lysts predict an upturn in both passenger competition. And to a large degree they United’s 26,000 IAM work force is em­ traffic and profits in the immediate future. have succeeded. Starting with around 36 ployed. Many of these workers have either United Airlines, for example, experienced percent of the market in 1985, the Big witnessed or directly experienced con­ a 17 percent increase in March this year Three—American, United and Delta— cession bargaining at airlines like Frontier, over the revenue passenger miles it flew cornered almost 60 percent of the market Republic, Flying Tigers, Continental, in March of last year. Even Merrill Lynch by 1992. To accomplish their goal, these TWA, Pan Am or Eastern—all of whom with its gloomy current assessment pegs mega-carriers expanded by an astound­ imposed major wage and benefit cuts and 1994 industry profits at over $400 million. ing 40 percent from 1989 to 1992. then either went out of business or declared Boeing also confidently observed that the Management’s ambitious expansion plan bankruptcy, leaving tens of thousands of losses incurred in the last three years could was based on the false premise that Eastern, workers without jobs. be halted by merely adding $5 to the price Pan Am, Midway, American West, TWA, The next few years of struggle will de­ of every ticket sold. Continental and even US Air, would crash cide whether history will repeat itself. ▼ In other words, despite recent huge and go out of business. losses, the mega-carriers are well posi­ As it turned out, the latter four sur­ Carl Finamore is a ramp workerfor United tioned to reap big profits as the market vived leading to excessive passenger ca­ Airlines at San Francisco International rebounds. This means companies have to pacity and half-empty airplanes. A fierce Airport and Chair of the Shop Stewards of act quickly against labor. “If strength is wave of fare wars ensued which lowered IAM Local Lodge 1781.

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 10 Summer 1993 Labor Movement F raniT s BAfU|A*-LONA Continued from page 1 meaningful penalties. Anti-labor federal policies began long before the recent Reagan-Bush offensive against working people. After World War II, the power of labor was on the rise. The country experienced a nationwide strike wave involving eight million workers in two years. Union membership rose to a high of 35 percent in 1945. The repre­ sentatives of big business in Washington responded with the use of the anti-Com- munist Smith Act to purge socialists and other radicals from the unions, and the Taft-Hartley Act, which outlawed many of the most powerful tactics unions had used during the 1930s and 40s: mass picketing, secondary strikes of “neutral” employers and sit-down strikes. The Taft- Cezar Chavez Memorial Hartley Act also allowed states to pass Approximately 500 people, primarily young Latinos, participated in a Grape Boycott “right to work” laws, denying unions the picket line and candlelight march through San Francisco's Mission District to honor the ability to use dues check-off and the closed late Cesar Chavez on May 7. shop, where union membership is required for employment. Bank of America’s rationale for this legally mandated maternity leave, better ruthless attack is that it needs a part-time unemployment and pension benefits, le­ Poverty becoming the work force for “flexibility,” and that no­ gally mandated longer vacations, free or “American Way of Life” benefit, poverty wage employment is the very low cost higher education, and The decline of union power has meant current “trend” in the U.S. B of A doesn’t sometimes a bigger say in how work places falling wages and more low-wage jobs. require the same level of “flexibility” from are managed. Real wages have fallen 20 percent since its top management. Five of the San the early 1970s, widening the gap between Francisco Chronicle’s 1993 “100 Top Paid The key to social change rich and poor as the American economy Executives” work for B of A. In spite of the current weaknesses of stagnates and social services are cut fur­ Despite all the rhetoric about making the labor movement both in terms of ther and further. Since 1973, wages have supposedly unproductive, overpaid membership and leadership, activists must dropped from $437 per week (in 1991 American workers “competitive” with the be sensitive to the problems of the work­ dollars) to $355 per week. According to workers of other countries, we may soon ing class. The majority of people still live Fortune magazine, 25 percent of the 13 “enjoy” a lower standard of living than from paycheck to paycheck. The most million new jobs created during the 1980s many other industrialized countries. Even exploited and oppressed people in soci­ were low wage jobs, averaging $250 per during the current worldwide economic ety—women, Black, Latino and other week. Only 18.9 percent of the new jobs crisis, European workers are still ahead national minorities—are overwhelmingly created in 1979 fell into this category. In of their American brothers and sisters in members of the working class. Economic 1979,43 percent of new jobs had pension terms of wages and benefits. Germany’s issues can be the unifying factor across benefits and 23 percent had health care workers are nearly 40 percent unionized divisions of racism, sexism and benefits. By 1988,38 percent had pensions and earn 47 percent more in wages than homophobia. The working class is the and just 15 percent offered medical care. U.S. workers. Back in North America, 35 primary agent of social change simply In real-life terms this “trend” by em­ percent of Canadian workers are union­ because it is the largest segment of soci­ ployers is illustrated by the February 1993 ized and hourly wages are seven percent ety with no material interest in the status announcement by Bank of America of its higher than here. In those countries, the quo, and because of the key role that intention to reduce more than 80 percent higher level of union organization and workers play in running society. of its work force to “hourly” or “part-time” direct participation of the labor movement The labor movement must be seen by status with no job security, reduced part- in the political process through labor party political activists and the organized left time pay and no health or other benefits. candidates results in national health care, Continued on page 12

Summer 1993 11 INDEPENDENT POLITICS Labor Movement 50 percent of NLRB elections. that the Carpenters leadership has ignored them and if they don’t change their policy, Continued from page 11 Democracy is the beginning “We will leave for another union.” Most labor officials still choose to keep The role of Teamsters for a Democratic as the primary social movement. Even the peace with employers rather than risk Union was key to Ron Carey’s victory as while unions lose ground, the majority the union treasury, the union building, international president of the Teamsters. of working people still strongly believe their offices, their desks—no matter what Its continued expansion and involvement in them. In a recent poll of union and the consequences to the people they sup­ is necessary if the Teamsters union is truly non-union Americans, 79 percent said they posedly represent. To them those things to be transformed. Movements for change favor laws protecting workers who want are the union. Because these short-sighted are developing in more and more unions— a union from being fired or otherwise labor officials stand in the way of devel­ from industrial unions, such as the United punished by their employer, and 60 per­ oping organization and struggle, internal Auto Workers and United Food and cent believe unions have been good for fights for democracy and leadership ac­ Commercial Workers, to the large service working people. countability are in most cases a necessary employee unions like the Communica­ Capitalism has been in economic cri­ pre-condition to changing the unions into tion Workers of America and Service sis since at least the 1970s. As socialists, fighting organizations. Democracy within Employees International Union. Virtually we must be within the rank and file of the unions is a key issue in transforming all of these reform movements tie de­ organized workers if we are to be part of the unions into militant instruments for mocratizing the unions’ internal structures new struggles as they arise. The answer social change. to reversing labor’s retreat in the work­ is not for socialists and radicals to become The current conflict between Southern place. staff members or union representatives California drywallers and the Carpenters and hope to influence the labor movement union, reported in the May issue of Labor Socialists must become rank from the top down. Most union officials Notes, is a depressing example. Although and file leaders become part of the bureaucracies which the agreement with the drywall contrac­ Few progressives and virtually no one control most unions. No matter what their tors signed by the Carpenters contained in the labor movement disputes the dire original background or ideals, there is an many of the drywallers’ demands, it also need to organize the unorganized, both incredible pressure to preserve their contained major concessions the to strengthen the labor movement and to privileged status once they gain office.This drywallers did not agree to. The Carpenters lessen the brutal exploitation of many agenda separates their interests from their union does not require a rank and file workers. But in order for this to happen own membership’s interests because union vote on contracts. There is a provision the unions themselves must be trans­ officials benefit by maintaining the sta­ that says 50 percent of workers called back formed. Mass organizing requires mili­ bility of labor relations with employers at can be scabs. But the drywallers maintain tant unions with power and determina­ the membership’s expense. They gener­ that nearly 90 percent of the workers hired tion. This is why as socialists we are more ally end up policing the rank and file rather back are scabs and that the Carpenters effective working as rank and filers within than building workers’ confidence in union officials are allowing laid-off, mostly the unions to transform them rather than themselves and their power. Anglo carpenters to take the jobs meant attempting to organize the unorganized For this reason, political activists must for the strikers. Justice for Drywallers says ourselves. Unions need to be reformed in also struggle for the democrati­ order to become capable of zation of the unions and return f NOVI ALL I NEED 1 [W W VW ME£0 IS ) r waging this sort of struggle. First JOB RETRAINING. I ^ them to the rank and file. Now is we must organize the organized. the time. The employer offensive The history of the labor is causing a crisis within the movement shows us that suc­ unions as the labor bureaucrats cessful organizing is based on continually demonstrate their j k union power. Unionized rank and inability to organize their own file workers have the greatest members or defend, let alone ad­ 1 1 potential for radicalization be­ vance, workers’ interests. In 1972, cause they are forced by circum­ I now a ll I need T there were 443 strikes. In 1989 r------^ stance to struggle against the there were only 43 strikes because p ‘r ^ system, and they have the means in today’s atmosphere, unions are through their organization to do so afraid of losing. During the ' r l\ it. The greater the militancy and 1950s, unions gained one percent strength of any union, the more of the work force each year, and abs&j likely it is to be capable of wag­ won 80 percent of NLRB-run r T S J A S f w n ing real organizing efforts. | ^ a wifcAwfig? elections. Now unions lose over It is also important to target Tom Tolas The Buffalo New* Univcru! PfeM syndicate INDEPENDENT P olitics 12 Summer 1993 those industries in which the workers are Trade unionists belonging to lesbian and Australia and the Pacific Islands. David more likely to organize and fight back, gay groups in New York, San Francisco Arian, president of the International such as mining, trucking, auto, steel, and Boston, for example, are planning a Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s telephone, teaching, and public employees June 1994 conference aimed at bringing Union representing workers on the West in large urban areas, because of their their groups together into a national or­ Coast of the United States and Canada, economic and political power and their ganization. An AFL-CIO reception for gay explained the necessity of the conference: tradition of struggle. and lesbian union members was held in “We cannot keep fighting on a national conjunction with the April 25 march for front when the employers are becoming Labor needs a new face gay rights in Washington, DC. This was multi-national. Increased cooperation [is] There is another side to the revitaliza­ only the second time that gay and lesbian necessary because of globalization of major tion of the labor movement that has to do union members had been hosted by the shipping companies and the increased with its politics and spirit. During the 1930s, the Congress of Industrial Orga­ nizations (CIO) represented a social movement to many working people, students and intellectuals, combining their everyday economic struggles with their aspirations for social justice and dignity. Today unions are portrayed as “special interests” who only look out for their own dues-paying members. Labor activist and writer Dan La Botz has characterized these conflicting conceptions of the labor movement as “union as crusade v. union as insurance company” stating “unions are not about service, but rank and file power.” We must emphasize the word movement in labor movement and offer the oppressed and exploited majority an alternative vi­ sion based upon solidarity and the best interests of all society. The movement must encapsulate the aspirations of the other progressive social movements in order to Massive March for Gay Rights As part of the historic march on Washington, DC for Gay and Lesbian Rights on April 26, do that.This is a critical issue because the 1993 gay, lesbian and bisexual couples, trios, etc. protest the U.S. government’s acknowl­ face of the working class has changed. edgment of only heterosexual legally married couples by publicly marking their unions in Labor cannot grow, cannot succeed unless chalk on the street in front of the IRS building. The march drew an estimated one million it represents the workers as they actually participants for the largest civil rights demonstration in U.S. history. are—54 percent female, and multi-eth­ nic. The majority of American workers will AFL-CIO—the first time being during the concentration of economic power in fewer soon be non-white. Being pro-union must 1987 gay rights march. Right now the three and fewer hands.” also mean being anti-racist, anti-sexist, established regional groups planning the Labor can turn itself around, but it won’t anti-homophobic and internationalist. conference are the Lesbian/Gay Labor happen unless there are changes from the Championing issues such as single­ Alliance founded in San Francisco in 1974, bottom up. Socialists and progressives must payer health care will unite organized and the Lesbian and Gay Labor Network or­ be a part of this process by becoming an unorganized workers across race, na­ ganized in New York in 1986 and the Gay integral part of the unions and partici­ tionality, gender, sexual orientation and and Lesbian Labor Activists Network of pating in the developing rank and file age. Were the labor movement to stand Boston also formed in 1986. movements for democracy, militancy and for civil rights and support women’s fight Another positive development is an solidarity. for equality and actively participate in these increasing awareness of the need for in­ struggles, those who have been excluded ternational solidarity among workers. In Suzanne Forsyth Doran is a member of from the labor movement in the past may San Francisco, the first Pacific Rim Dockers Local 29 of The Office and Professional then look to it for support. Conference was held in April among rep­ Employees International Union in San There are signs of change, and we need resentatives of waterfront workers from Francisco. to be a part of these new developments. North and South America, East Asia,

Summer 1993 13 INDEPENDENT POLITICS Part-Timers in Double Bind

am 25 years old and By MARY DORAN Bank of America got for I still work part- cutting their part-timers time. I have two part-time jobs. I work as you don’t feel too silly going there for hours and taking away their health plan. in a San Francisco restaurant waiting on something as simple as a sore throat or a A little bad press won’t break Bank of tables during the day and afterwards 1 am bladder infection. So that is what we do America or UPS but it does put public off to my night job at UPS. Many of the along with hoping nothing serious hap­ pressure on them. Fortunately, at UPS we people I work with would like full-time pens to our health. have collective bargaining and keeping jobs but it seems that part-time work is Of course, sometimes something does our benefits is at the top of our agenda as the wave of the future and the curse of come up. One man I work with has $900 well as creating more full-time jobs. my generation. Right now one quarter of worth of dental work that needs to be done. And for the first time ever part-timers working Americans, about 30 million If he had even the most basic dental plan have a representive on the negotiating people, are employed on a part-time ba­ he probably could have prevented the oral committee. 1 hope that the part-timers at sis. Only 15 percent of these workers have problems he has from becoming so ex­ UPS will set an example for all part-time medical coverage, and less than 30 per­ pensive. But who can afford to go to the workers everywhere. Just because some­ cent have a pension plan. The ability to dentist with no insurance and working one doesn’t have a full-time job doesn’t skirt health and welfare costs is a major only part-time? mean we don’t need or deserve health care. incentive for business owners to hire part- At UPS, my night job, we are union At UPS we are not going to let them take time workers. and part-timers get full-time benefits. There our health plan away and I hope part-time People often think of part-time work are165,000 UPS T eamsters and 53 percent workers across the country will start as something everyone has to do these are part-timers. The average yearly pay fighting for benefits that all workers de­ days to pay their way through school and for the part-time workers at UPS is only serve. T after graduation they are expected to move $8,000 a year! UPS, like restaurant work, on to permanent full-time jobs. Too of­ is one of the jobs that is thought of as a McCarten Speech ten it doesn’t work out that way. Many of job people do to get through college. It is Continued from page 5 us have found ourselves stuck in perma­ supposedly transitional. Unfortunately, nent part-time jobs. many of us have not been able to make jobs, and that turns the labor movement The restaurant industry has always been that transition into full-time work. It is against the environmental movement. But notorious for giving their staff just enough not because we are not trying to. UPS fills we’ve found that when we listen to people hours to not have to offer their employ­ its full-time work force with its part-time the needs and wishes are the same. ees health insurance. The restaurant 1 work workers. If a part-timer wants a full-time We are perceived as the progressive force for is no exception. Out of a staff of 25, job, they put their name on a waiting list in the community. We’re attacked by the only five work enough hours to be eli­ and those full-time positions are filled mainstream media every day they can get gible for the health plan offered to us. No based on seniority. Because less people away with it. That’s O.K., because we’re one actually receives the health plan be­ are leaving their jobs, I’ve been told I could building a different movement, we are not cause it is too expensive. In fact, two of be on that list for two to three years. I’ve going to actually play their game. And the five full-timers receive MediCal because heard that it used to be one could get a that’s where our strength is because what they cannot afford the health plan that is full-time job less than one year after signing we did was we ignored the traditional being offered by the restaurant. up for one. media. What we did is we went out and This might be forgivable if we were all With UPS workers’ contract coming up knocked on every home. We used people students, transitional workers or on a for renewal this August, part-timers power and went out and actually talked health plan through our parents or through working there are nervous about losing to people about the issues. school. But this is not the case. Presently their full-time benefits. Northern California Most of our movements have the gen­ there is only one student working at the is the last place where part-time workers eral vision of what we want. But then we restaurant. The rest of us are permanent at UPS have the same medical plan as the have to have the discipline of how we put part-time workers and some of us are full-timers. In the rest of the country part- it together. What if we were elected—next supporting children. time workers are covered under the week? That’s the question that we have We do ‘‘get by” most of the time. There company health plan, which includes co­ to ask ourselves—it actually happens! And are ways of getting health care. One thing payments for medical and dental care. we say it’s no good talking slogans, now about working part-time is that you can Considering the size of UPS with over half we had to say what we would actually do. find time to sit in the “free” clinic all day its employees being part-time, they had The city I come from of a million people, waiting to see a doctor. If you cannot get better expect a fight if they try to take the Auckland, in the election results, we got in at the clinic there is always the Gen­ benefits away. I am hoping that they won’t 42 percent, and have 78 elected officials, eral Hospital Emergency Room as long try, being concerned about the bad press two mayors, and we now control the re-

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 14 Summer 1993 It is no good promoting gional government. So, its all very well things which are on our side. We haven’t made one worker saying we’re going to do something, now economically useful but redundant [unemployed]. We haven’t sold. we were in a position that we have to do Not only have we made nobody redun­ it! not socially useful. All dant, have not sold off any of the properties, The other side of the thing which we our policies have to we actually haven’t had a rate increase are doing which doesn’t happen anywhere measure up. either. People start to realize that you can else is we judge all our policies and our do all these things. ideas against three criteria. One, it’s got And these problems are throughout the to make economic sense; it’s got to be world. The problems of poverty, repres­ economically sustainable. The capitalist structure; what they are answerable to is sion and injustice and indigenous peoples’ system always does that, and it’s a disci­ to the things they promised the people. rights, self-determination, and the eco­ pline on us. So it’s got to make economic We don’t break promises! Our candidates nomic question belonging to the people, sense, but what makes us different is two are accountable to this platform. We have and all those issues, you can’t just solve other criteria. What is its social cost? Is it actually dumped elected officials who have them in one country. That was the question socially useful? Is it good for people? What not carried out the program in good faith. last night— what will you do if there is are the pluses, what are the minuses? It is People don’t mind that you’re having international pressure. Of course we can no good us promoting things which are difficulties, but you’re still trying to do it. be defeated [by U.S. interests] but we’re economically useful but not socially use­ But people who have actually ducked on winning the hearts and minds of people. ful. Is it good for people? Politics should our policy have been dumped by the lo­ That’s how we will do it— bring them to be to help people. It shouldn’t be there to cal people. Because people aren’t going our side. Ordinary people, if you win those, oppress them. The third thing that we judge to put up with it; it’s the new politics. then you can stand anything. on is, is it environmentally sustainable? That’s what is different. That is our belief and it’s a very excit­ All our policies have to measure up. It is We’ve got thousands of people now, ing time and I always caution on the way a very strict criteria, a discipline on us. active in governing and knocking on that we may get it wrong. But at this time, All our policies meet this criteria. doors— one out of four houses in New it is right. You just have to have faith in One thing we do with our policies is Zealand. When we knock on their doors people, we’ve just got to continue on. We say this is how much it will cost. It is very we say, “We support you.” One in 20 scared the other two parties like you’ve difficult for the incumbent establishment people actually join us. That’s not bad when never seen. That’s fine. We were told that people to actually attack us, to put down you get five percent of the population if we win, it will be the end of civilization our proposal. We do our homework, we actually joining you, or giving money, or as we know it. We’ve started out to do say where the money is, how much it’s giving support, turning out for meetings. something and we’re going to do it. We going to cost. Then we say where the It is a wonderful feeling, to be part of a think we are going to do wonderful things money’s going to come from and that’s a mass movement. in New Zealand. ▼ new thing for progressive forces. We tell It is an exciting time in New Zealand them who’s going to be taxed and how today because we’ve already done won­ much. Nothing’s free, and what we say is derful things. They tried to bankrupt we will be honest. We tell people what Auckland before we took over. They left McCarten Tour it’s going to cost and what’s in store, so us with a debt, they passed legislation by Continued from page 5 when they elect us there are no nasty the central government to force us to sell surprises. They elect us on our ideas, this off the ports, the sewerage, the water, the co-sponsored by Labor Party Advocates. is what we will have to meet. public transport, electricity— you name Everywhere McCarten went his mes­ And all our candidates sign a public i t . We ran on a program that the people sage that it is possible to build an alliance pledge that they will implement this policy are in charge. We will defy you if we are of workers, the unemployed, people of or they will resign. We give them strict elected, we will not sell! Because how can color and the environmentalists, and that criteria and they actually put down, “We you have an environmental program if you such an alliance can actually win was will implement this because we believe don’t own the resources. You can’t have warmly received. Many people signed up in it.” Then every month, in Auckland, it; you’re just a mere regulatory body. on mailing lists for the CoC and the Greens our elected officials turn up and they give Ownership of the resources like the shores, and went away with more enthusiasm and reports on their progress and how they the harbors and the land—if you don’t hope that we can do in the United States implemented it. When you’ve got five or have that how can you actually be effec­ what they’re doing in New Zealand. ▼ six hundred, or eight hundred activists, tive in carrying out decisions, decisions all there, well I wouldn’t defy a group of that are made by those who own it? Alex Chis was the National Coordinator that number. They give reports and give So what we’ve done is we’ve retained of the Matt McCarten Tour and is a mem­ respect to those forums. People aren’t public ownership. What’s more, we haven’t ber of the Steering Committee of the Northern answerable to a party boss, or a party gone bankrupt, because we had the people California Committees of Correspondence.

Summer 1993 1 5 INDEPENDENT POLITICS FEATURE ECONOMY AND HEALTH CARE

But by the 1970s, this dominance was being increasingly Why U.S. Economy Is challenged. In certain fields, German and Japanese industries especially, achieved higher productivities than those in the U.S. In a Job-Less Recovery Competition sharpened.The world market could not absorb all the goods that could be produced by the competing capitalists. By BARRY SHEPPARD There was more capacity to produce steel, for example, than the market could bear. Vast closures of steel mills hit the world, he present anemic recovery following the recession of including here in the U.S. There are still “too many” automobile 1991 has yet to see any major reduction in unemploy­ plants—if they all produced what they could, there would be a T ment. Major corporations continue to cut their work glut on the market. forces, not in response to the particular phase of the business The intensification of international capitalist competition has cycle, but for deeper, structural reasons. At the end of last year, had a number of effects. One is a race to spread investments a New York Times survey showed that one-fourth of the largest abroad, including in competitors’ countries. Another has been companies planned to get rid of substantial numbers of their to seek low wage countries to build plants that service the busi­ workers in 1993 whether the economy was growing or contracting. nesses in the advanced countries. This much talked about Most of these workers will not be able to find new jobs that “globalization,” however, is not a sign of decreasing competition, pay as well or have as good benefits. Real wages continue to but the opposite. It is a result of, and intensifies, capitalist drop as a result of this and other aspects of the capitalist offensive competition, as all must participate in the scramble to seek lower against the working people that has been going on since the production costs. 1970s. This drop in real wages means a drop in demand for The development of three large trading blocs, dominated by consumer goods, which itself slows the economic recovery. Also, the U.S., Germany and Japan, is another consequence. Within demand for goods produced in the U.S. on the international these blocs certain barriers are eliminated, but between them market is weak, due to slowdowns in Japan and Germany. hangs the threat of trade wars, in spite of the intertwining be­ Writing in the April issue of International Viewpoint, Maxime tween them. Maxime Durand explains: Durand summarizes the situation in the main advanced capitalist “1993 was supposed to be a golden year for Europe, with the countries: “1992 was another year of weak growth, hardly better opening of the great market and the ratification of the Maastricht than the poor results of 1991. However, there was no general­ Treaty [on European integration]. In reality, the panorama is ized recession on the lines of 1980-82 in the sense that all the radically different. Europe is bogged down in unemployment big countries did not see a decline at the same time. The sharpest and the road proposed for its unification has turned out to be a falls have been seen in the flagship countries of neo-liberalism deadend. The European Monetary System (EMS) is more than and the balance sheet of the policies pursued in Britain and just in crisis; it has been smashed to pieces as the [British] pound, Canada is both economically very bad and socially catastrophic. the [Italian] lira, the [Spanish] peseta and the [Portuguese] escudo The USA stabilized its economy after the decline of 1991, France have burst out of the monetary corset and been devalued. and Italy saw a small amount of growth while Japan has en­ “There has been ever more evidence of a rise in protectionism countered a sharp check and Germany has slowed down.” in recent months, including the deadlock in the GATT negotia- Looking at the reasons for this, she writes, “The main dimension of the present slowdown is in fact lack of sufficient outlets provided by demand by wage earners.” By “demand” under capitalism, we should remember that what is meant is not “need,” but need combined with the money to buy. Roots of the crisis For two decades or so, world capitalism has been on an offen­ sive against the wages, living conditions, rights and organizations of working people.This offensive represented a shift in policy prompted by a new world situation. The post-Second World War boom came to an end in the 1970s. During that boom, which was based on rebuilding Europe and Japan and new tech­ nologies emerging from the war, competition between capital­ ists was diminished, as there appeared opportunities for pro­ ductive investments for the capitalists in all the advanced countries. This was also the period of American dominance of the world market.

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 16 Summer 1993 ECONOMY AND HEALTH CARE FEATURE

tions on world trade, the unilateral measures taken by Clinton, tor, who pays low wages and few benefits, if any. This is one way the new wave of industrial restructuring and transfers of plants the average wages of workers in real terms, taking into account which have been in the headlines recently. The cacophony of inflation, have dropped in the United States this last decade and interest rates, which have started to fall in the United States and a half. Japan but are drawn upwards by the pull of high interest rates Jane Slaughter, writing in the May issue of Labor Notes, points in Germany adds another element to the apparent chaos.” out that “contracting out is the trend of the 1990s. Temporary But the major effect of the end of the postwar boom has been employment grew 10 times faster than overall employment between the offensive against working people everywhere. This has taken 1982 and 1990. Taken together, temporary, contract, and part- the form of attacks on wages, both direct wages and the “social time workers now make up a quarter of the work force.” wage” working people have won through past struggles— un­ At the same time that the employing class in the advanced employment insurance, social security, education, etc. Faced countries has been waging war against “their own” workers, with an overall declining rate of profit in this situation of in­ they have been squeezing the workers and farmers of the poorer creasingly intense international capitalist competition, the dependent capitalist countries with a new and unheard of feroc­ capitalists have sought to raise their profits by ity. lowering their biggest cost: the price of labor. All this has been done under a new ideo­ Durand points out: The major effect of the logical offensive that is known as “neo-liber­ “The conventional wisdom which leads most end of the postwar boom alism.” This is sometimes confusing to of the globe’s countries to attempt to push down Americans, who are used to the word “liberal” wages to be able to sell more to others here has been the offensive meaning New Deal type economic policies. reveals its limits and contradictions. It does against working people What is meant by the “neo-liberal” term is the not take a Nobel Prize-winner to understand everywhere. Reaganite-Thatcherite propaganda that the that such policies, which seem reasonable [ from economy will be all right if the “free market” the capitalist viewpoint] for each country taken is just left alone—that is if taxes for the rich separately, must add up to an overall slowdown in growth. are cut, if social services for the working people are cut, if the “This contradiction has emerged in a context marked by both government takes more aggressive action against the unions, a very high degree of internationalization and an absence of etc. regulatory institutions. The much talked about globalization The results so far of this offensive were summarized by the means that today there are ever fewer economic sectors which Marxist economist Ernest Mandel in a recent lecture [See story, can escape competition from the furthest corners of the globe “Balance Sheet on World Capitalist Offensive”, page 18—Ed.]. and that technical progress bears directly on economic activity. “Of course we should not over-estimate the potential to transfer Will Bill Clinton reverse these trends? economic activity to the former Soviet bloc or the Third World; Many working people voted for Clinton as a way of hoping low wages are not the only element in competitiveness, there is for change from the Reagan-Bush years. But can there be change also a need for technically trained and equipped work force. away from the neo-conservative policy under his administration? And there are even more weighty obstacles to the wholesale In the May issue of Labor Notes referred to above, Jane moving of industries, including social resistance and the need Slaughter comments: “Every newspaper, every politician, every to remain close to markets. corporate executive, every manager, and many labor leaders are “The rise in unemployment must, therefore, not mainly be talking about ‘competitiveness.’ Improving America’s competi­ laid at the door of competition from low-wage countries. It is in tiveness, or their firms’ competitiveness, is the goal of the 1990s. the first place the outcome of wage austerity policies pursued in Bill Clinton is determined to be the ‘competitiveness President. the rich countries themselves.” She goes on to point out that by “competitive” these people While some production is being shifted to low-wage Third are talking about profits in the world environment of intensifying World countries, the employers are using other tricks. One of international capitalist competition which impels the employing these is “contracting out.” What this entails is a corporation class to attack the working people of the whole world. The neo- “hiring” an independent contractor to perform a job formerly conservative and neo-liberal (use whichever word you want, it’s done by the corporation’s workers. Of course, this doesn’t work the same thing) policy flows from this situation world capital­ from the capitalists’ point of view unless the amount paid to the ism finds itself in. independent contractor is less than that formerly paid to its Clinton’s main plan for the economy is to reduce the budget workers. And that can’t happen unless the independent con­ deficit. If only the deficit is brought under control, then we will tractor pays his workers far less than the corporation paid its have prosperity down the road. Ross Perot has helped popularize former workers. this idea, and actually helps Clinton perpetrate this swindle. Usually, what contracting out means is getting rid of union­ ized workers, in favor of the non-union independent contrac­ Continued on page 18

Summer 1993 1 7 INDEPENDENT POLITICS FEATURE ECONOMY AND HEALTH CARE

For the message of Perot and now Clinton is that in order to get Compare this proposed stimulus package withjapan’s recent prosperity in the future, working people have to sacrifice even more one—which added over $100 billion— to Clinton’s proposal. than they have already. Of course “everyone” is supposed to Maxime Durand explains the difference: “In this recessionary join this sacrifice, but you can bet your last dollar that the context, we have to grasp the reasons which militate against the “sacrifices” of the rich won’t cut into their lifestyles too much. implementation of programs to stimulate recovery. The two main In other words, Clinton’s program is an austerity program, reasons are the absence of any coordination of economic policy following the Reagan-Bush line. As we have seen, the goal of [internationally] and the weight of public debt. Ten years of this program—driving down of wages even further—holds back free market policies have failed to clean out public finances except economic recovery. in Japan, which therefore has been able to use public spending Clinton isn’t crying too much over the fact that his measly to stimulate growth. However, elsewhere, there are growing budget $16 billion stimulus package was shot down by the Republican deficits. On this front, [neo]liberal policies have failed in one of filibuster. He can say he “tried,” as he gets down to raising taxes their central objectives.” ▼ and cutting services for working people. Balance Sheet on World Capitalist Offensive

The following is an excerpt of a lecture by Marxist economist Under the pretext of giving priority to monetary stability, the Ernest Mandel given at the New York Marxist School in February fight against inflation, and balanced budgets, social expendi­ The full text was printed in the April issue o/Bulletin in Defense of ture and the expenditure for infrastructure has been ruthlessly Marxism. cut. This has resulted in a world-wide rise in social inequality, poverty, disease, and threats to the environment. From a macro- By ERNEST MANDEL economic point of view it is increasingly counterproductive and irrational. From a macro-social point of view it is indefensible ince the mid-seventies there has been a worldwide offen­ and odious. It has increasingly inhuman results which threaten sive of capital against labor and the toiling masses of the the very physical survival of the human race. Third World. This offensive expresses the sharp deterio­ I should point out the basic cynicism of the neo-conservative rationS of the relationship of forces at the expense of the workers ideological offensive which accompanies the conservative eco­ on a world scale. It has objective and subjective roots. nomic policies. The neo-conservatives say that they want to reduce The objective roots are essentially the sharp rise of unem­ state expenditure drastically. In reality, state expenditure has ployment in the imperialist countries from 10 million in to at never been as high as in the 1980s and the early 1990s under the least 50 million, if not more. The official sta­ neo-conservatives. What really happened was tistics are all government statistics and they’re a shift away from social and infrastructure all fake. In the Third World countries at least State expenditure has expenditure to military expenditure, which 500 million are unemployed. For the first time never been as high as in for that period can be estimated at three tril­ since the end of World War II unemployment lion dollars, and to subsidies to business. The is rising massively in the bureaucratized post­ the 1980s and the early bailing out of bankrupt and near bankrupt capitalist societies, too. 1990s under the neo­ financial institutions, like the savings and loan The subjective roots lie essentially in the total conservatives. associations in the United States, as well as failure of organized labor and mass movements the huge interest payments on the steeply ris­ to resist the capitalist offensive. In many ing public debt, belongs in that category. countries these organizations have even spearheaded it: France, The neo-conservatives say that they stand for universal hu­ Italy, Spain, and Venezuela, just to name a few; there is a whole man rights, but in reality, given the unavoidable mass reactions list of these countries. This has undoubtedly made resistance to against these antisocial policies, neo-conservative governments the capitalist offensive more difficult. increasingly undermine and attack democratic liberties: trade- But all this being said, one should not underestimate the con­ union freedom, the right to abortion, freedom of the press, free­ crete impact of pseudo-liberal—in reality neo-conservative— dom to travel, and so on. They create the appropriate climate in economic policies on world developments. These policies, codified which extreme right-wing tendencies—racism, xenophobia, by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and outright neo-fascism—can arise. symbolized by the governments of Thatcher and Reagan and The worldwide growth of poverty is disastrous. In the Third their many imitators in the Third World countries, have been an unmitigated disaster. Continued on page 24

INDEPENDENT P o l it ic s 18 Summer 1993 ECONOIVIY AMD HEALTH CARE FEATURE

are supporting the managed competition model. A Single-payer Plan— The debate in the United States has thus coalesced into a Not Managed Competition struggle between the managed health care model and the single payer plan. As we look at these plans, we see that managed Universal Health Care competition can not address the key issues of universal access and cost. For All Universal Access Universal access to health care for all citizens is the key issue By ALAN HANGER in health care reform. The single payer plan would guarantee health coverage to every citizen and legal resident of the United outh Africa and the United States remain the only two States. This coverage would not be tied to employment or par­ modern industrial societies that lack universal health care ticipation in a managed care plan. Its humaneness and efficiency for all their citizens. For South Africa, the African Na­ is tied to the fact that everyone is guaranteed access to the same tionalS Congress has pledged to change this situation. health care financed by one payer— the government. In the U.S. there is no decisive movement fighting for this Managed competition, on the other hand, will lead to a sys­ fundamental human right. Nevertheless, the situation has be­ tem of universal access to separate but unequal health care. The come a crisis and embarrassment, with some liberal capitalist unemployed and working poor would be lumped in health in­ politicians offering a solution [see box]. surance pools similar to Medicaid which would degrade into The U.S. spends twice as much on health care per person than Canada, Japan, Sweden, Germany and England, all of which Continued on page 20 have a national health system covering all citizens. Yet 37 mil­ lion Americans have no health insurance, and 75 percent of those are workers and their children. An additional 50 million The McDermott Bill have health insurance so inadequate that a major illness would financially bankrupt them. In 1992, 80 percent of all striking A Single Payer Plan for the workers went out to preserve their health benefits. Even those United States who have insurance may have their premiums rise 200-300 per cent, or be canceled altogether if they become ill. The American Health Security Act of 1993, the McDermott Health costs and lack of care have become so distorted that Bill is a single payer plan for the United States that was President Clinton has appointed a special commission headed introduced in Congress in March 1993. Its primary spon­ by his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton to come up with a plan to sors are Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Washington), Senator Paul meet some of the needs of Americans without jeopardizing the Wellstone (D-Minnesota) and Rep. John Conyers (D- profits of hospitals, health care corporations, the drug compa­ Michigan). The bill would create the American Health Se­ nies, and especially the insurance companies. To prevent input curity Program which would: from workers and their allies into a schema designed to pre­ •Cover all U.S. citizens and legal residents for all medi­ serve profits, the President’s health task force has been meeting cally necessary services, including inpatient and outpatient in secret. The plan that will come out of this process is termed care, prescription drugs, long term health care, mental health “managed competition.” and substance abuse treatment, vision and dental care, and Managed competition, also known as “pay or play,” tries to preventive care. preserve the myth that the capitalist market which guarantees •Eliminate co-payments, deductibles, and out-of-pocket huge profits to doctors, drug companies, and the insurance in­ expenses. dustry can, if slightly modified, be the most efficient means of •Offer a free choice of doctors, hospitals, and other health organizing health care in the U.S. Employers would be forced to provide a minimum medical plan or pay into a public health care providers. insurance fund that would cover uninsured workers. In theory, •Administer health care through the states under standards set by a National Health Security Board with cost guidelines by pooling health costs in large insurance funds and forcing set by a national health care budget. doctors into large health maintenance organizations, health care •Finance costs by a combination of payroll and income can be delivered to all citizens efficiently. The drug companies, taxes and state matching funds with the individual health the American Medical Association (AMA), and the insurance companies see this as their last chance to stave off a truly efficient premium set at five percent of personal income taxes. health system based on the Canadian model of health care known •Control costs by setting fees for doctors, giving hospi­ as the “single payer plan.” Even parts of the union bureaucracy tals a budget, and monitoring expenses.

Summer 1993 19 INDEPENDENT POLITICS FEATURE ECONOMY AND HEALTH CARE

Universal Health Care was something that was so alien to me in reading it that it forced me to go back and re-examine, I suppose, the principles of our Continued from page 19 own system. It made me realize that these principles that we take so much for granted in Canada are not taken for granted inferior health care because funding would not keep up with everywhere else.” increased costs. The rich would be able to purchase plans that Even on a philosophical level, it is clear that a system that has give them superior health care. the maintenance of profit as its underlying principle fails on the The single payer model recognizes the fundamental humanity moral test. of equal health care for all; it would not be possible to buy a better level of health care even if you were willing to pay for it. Quality of Care Managed competition only grants the right of access to minimal The single payer system operates as social insurance, guaran­ health care, but allows those with money to teeing everyone the three criteria that are needed buy special treatment. All parties in Canada to make health care available for all: quality, from the Tories (similar to Republicans) to The single payer plan is availability, and cost control. Since every citizen the New Democratic Party (a Labor party) have participates in the health system on an equal come to accept the fundamental right to uni­ so clearly superior that basis, everyone has a stake in the system de­ versal access to equal health care. Perrin Beatty, the comparison with the livering the highest, most cost effective level a Tory with cabinet portfolios from Minister Canadian plan puts of health care. Debates on introducing costly of National Defense to Minister of National new technologies, holding down costs, or fixing Health, describes the fundamental difference “managed competition” delays and problems are decided by health in philosophy between the systems: to shame. boards and representatives, who are elected. “The irony to me was that, having grown In contrast, managed competition preserves up in our system, it never struck me that the current system where health care changes anybody would feel it was appropriate to buy better service or and modifications are determined by insurance companies, health that someone could jump the line as a result of having money. corporations, and drug companies making choices based on what In Canada, we believe deeply that just as equal treatment under is most profitable for them. the law is essential, equality in terms of service for health care is By making equal health care without co-payments or deductibles a human entitlement. It’s not something that comes to you as a available to all, support from the whole population is guaranteed. result of your ability to earn money. The thought that you would By tying health care to the job or medical health group under have unequal treatment based on an individual’s ability to pay managed competition, an individual will have different care

I Health insurance in the U.S.-who doesn’t have it

A profile of the 36.6 million Americans who lack health insurance, based on Industry analysis of the government’s 1992 Current Population Survey, the most recent available:

..white... ..jmieM. ..Jv* in dthim Percent of uninsured Percent of Percent of Percent of people by family uninsured people uninsured uninsured people i income level in by race or ethnic people, by sex: who live, in urban or 1 9 9 1 group: rural areas: Above: $ 5 0 ,0 0 0

$20,000- Under $50,000: $20,000: African American: SOURCE: Employee Benefit Reseercti tnetltuM

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 20 Summer 1993 ECONOMY AND HEALTH CARE FEATURE

depending on their job or health situation. There will be no will be severely limited. T o keep the profits of these HMOs healthy, incentive to provide quality care for all because those with money deductibles will be imposed to keep people from using the health will join health cooperatives, or use private insurance, that will system. To hold down cost, doctors will be restricted in the provide better care. This will soon degenerate into two unequal procedures that they can use. Deliberate delays and long waits medical populations—the poor and the wealthy. Everyone must will become the norm in an attempt to discourage people from have the same health care or the quality of care will not be the using the system. best care available. In Canada, the doctors are not restricted in their daily prac­ tice. They do not have to answer to insurance companies who Administrative Costs are seeking to limit their medical liability, or HMOs which are Under managed competition, large purchasing cooperatives looking at the bottom line. The only relationship to the government are supposed to hold down costs, with market forces allowing people to switch to the lowest cost plan. In reality, this keeps HEALTH CARE COSTS the current massive administrative waste in the system. It is (p*r parson par year) estimated that as high as 22 percent of total U.S. health care costs are spent on administration— billing, marketing, accounting, and other forms of paper pushing. There will be fewer insurance pools under managed competition, but the billing and admin­ u.s. istrative overhead will have to continue. In Canada, administrative overhead is only 3 per cent. That difference is enough to pay for every one of the 37 million Americans without access to health care and still have enough 1*1 left over for providing long term care! Managed competition Canada may be more efficient than the current free market system, but can not be as efficient as a single payer plan, as evidenced by 1,000 2,000 3,000 Medicare and Medicaid which only spend 2.7 percent on ad­ Sourct: OECD. 1989 data ministrative costs. The three intertwined elements of health care availability, AVERAGE DOCTOR’S FEE quality, and cost control cannot be achieved without making TO REMOVE APPEMMX medicine social insurance, not social profit. A managed competition model will build in profit much like occurs with military contracts, and we’re all familiar with the $800 toilet seats. Instead of the $846 catalyst being the need to earn profits, the driving force of the U.S. Canadian system is the medical need of the patients! A revolu­ tionary idea indeed. Availability of Care ID $174 Canadians select the doctor of their choice as many Ameri­ Canada cans do today. There is no third party approving, or disapprov­ ing, the treatments selected by doctors. People don’t wait until 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 they are very sick to obtain treatment because there is no co­ Source: Consumer Reports magazine payment or deductible. is a financial one; they are paid by the single payer, the govern­ Of course the Canadian plan is not perfect, and many coun­ ment. tries in Europe have even better plans. There is limited dental It is not known how Clinton’s heath plan will deal with job care and there can be long waits for some operations. There are changing and pre-existing conditions. Under a single payer plan, also attacks on the Canadian plan now, to weaken it and bring people have more freedom because they can change jobs with­ it closer to the American system, which guarantees huge profits out worrying about losing their health coverage, or having to for “health care” corporations, that is corporations who make leave their family doctor for one prescribed by an HMO. Addi­ big profits from human misery. But the single payer plan is so tionally, since everyone is covered, those with pre-existing con­ clearly superior, especially for the poor and unfortunate who in ditions can move or change jobs without losing their health the U.S. often have no insurance, that even the comparison with care. Many Americans with cancer, AIDS, or other long term the Canadian plan puts “managed competition” to shame. ailments have their lives further restricted because they’re tied Managed competition will force Americans into large insur­ ance plans, or HMOs, where the ability to choose one’s doctor Continued on page 22

Summer 1993 21 INDEPENDENT P olitics FEATURE ECONOMY AND HEALTH CARE

Universal Health Care ders such as Alzheimer’s disease, nursing, or custodial care, all medically necessary care must be provided under the health Continued from page 19 plan. There would be no rules discriminating against anyone on the basis of occupation, health history, place of residence, marital to their health care plan. status, sexual preference, or ability to pay. Coverage would be universal and portable. Managed competition at best can only Cost Reductions deliver on comprehensiveness; moving to another job, or state, Costs are reduced in a single payer plan by overall budgeting will require a change to a different insurance cooperative. controls and planning. Planning introduces new equipment in Cost savings in health care can be achieved through empha­ an orderly way to provide services without costly duplication, sis on more preventive medicine, rather than restricting access induced by companies selling health equipment or hospitals with co-payments and deductibles. President Clinton proposed trying to compete with another hospital. There is an excess of a comprehensive immunization program to prevent disease, but beds in hospitals because there is no plan to have only as many recently backed away from a full program because it would reduce hospitals as needed. the profits of companies making vaccines. Managed care plans to cut costs by holding down the wages Costs are also reduced with a shift to preventive care because of health care workers, not by controlling the profits of the health more doctors become general practitioners than specialists. care industry. Most health care unions are in favor of a single Currently most U.S. doctors become specialists, earning more payer plan because the emphasis is on quality health care. Wages than twice what a general practitioner earns. of nurses, para-professionals, aides, janitors, or even doctors We will not know the details of Clinton’s managed competition are not what makes American health care so expensive. Emphasis proposal until July, but based on general features of the man­ on specialized medicine rather than preventive care, huge drug aged competition model, workers will pay more for less health profits, insurance company profits, lack of planning and du­ care coverage. plication of facilities make U.S. care the most inefficient. The Managed competition is supposed to keep costs down and U.S. spends more for health care than elsewhere in the world make health care more efficient, but unless it challenges the but gets the least for the dollar. idea that corporations and insurance companies have a right to If managed competition continues to preserve obscenely high make a profit from human sickness, it will only build in the drug prices, major cost savings will not be realized. About 20 current inefficiencies and inequalities. Universal health care is a percent of every dollar of the $55 billion dollars spent on pre­ right that can only be achieved under a single payer plan where scription drugs annually goes to promote and market them! Of the goal is quality health care for all. ▼ this $10 billion sum, $3 billion dollars is spent on sales repre­ sentatives alone. Advertising and promotion consume approxi­ Workers' Solidarity, Not mately $13,000 for every doctor practicing in the U.S. Costs of health care will not be held down by restricting care. Competition Rather than trying to limit costs by capping coverage on disor­ Raise the Standard of Living of the Masses The following is one chapter in the “Program of Action of the Red International of Labour U nionsw ritten in 1921. The chapter is called “The Standard of Living of the Masses.” The Red Interna­ tional of Labor Unions consisted of trade unions around the world which looked to the example of the workers’ revolution in Russia, in the early years when the leadership of the Soviet Union was honest,revolutionary and democratic. At that time, working people around the world faced an offensive by the employers against their rights, wages, and working condi­ tions, much as we face today. Union struggles faced great difficul­ ties. The reformist leaders of most unions were too cowardly to even put up a fight to defend the current standard of living of the workers. They fell for the employers’ line that wages must be cut to make the company “competitive The Red International of unions countered with its program of

INDEPENDENT P o l i t i c s 22 Summer 1993 ECONOMY AND HEALTH CARE FEATURE

struggle for the elementary needs of the workers by any means supplier of cheap labour, the supplier at least of cheap merchan­ necessary—even if this struggle must lead to social revolution against dise. The collapse of the value of money and the impoverish­ the whole employer-dominated system of capitalism. ment of the mass of workers of Germany and Austria has made This revolutionary union program is relevant today, when workers the transfer of orders to these countries very profitable for the face very similar conditions.—ED. capitalists of Britain, France and the USA. Many Americans are closing their factories and transferring their orders to German he struggle presently sharpening in all countries is de­ companies. Profiting from the reduction in cost of manpower, veloping in reaction to wage reductions and deteriorat­ certain British entrepreneurs are even ordering machinery and Ting working conditions. The workers may well be other goods from Germany. Naturally the world market deter­ backward, and reformist illusions may well be widespread among mines wholesale prices and this in turn influences working con­ the working masses, but the constant deterioration in working ditions. But the unions that base all their policies on competition conditions is provoking a muffled feeling of protest in them. are very wrong. They are making the working conditions of the Threatened with a decline in their standard of workers depend on forces which are beyond living, not only the reformist organizations but their control. The French, English and American even the Catholic unions and the state em­ The competition between workers who reached agreements with their ployees unions, which have always been fur­ national capitalisms has own bourgeoisie are at present the victims of ther to the right than reformist socialism, are always existed and will their own “victories,” since the lowering of in opposition to the ruling classes and the state. the standard of living of the German workers The struggle of the working class pivots around always exist and can automatically brings about a lowering of that the questions of wages and working conditions. only be eliminated by of the English, French and American workers. We would be committing a serious error if we social revolution. A big difference between the wages in the ignored this great mass movement under the various industrialized countries cannot last pseudo-revolutionary pretext that it is merely long. A leveling-out results according to the over a question of money. This anarchist contempt for the basic average of the lowest wages. Capital looks for manpower at the needs of the mass of workers uses revolutionary packaging to cheapest price. If they do not find any in their own country, cover a reactionary content. We are not revolutionary if we are they order the items and commodities from outside the country. not with the masses in their struggle. It is characteristic of our This shows that the theory of economic patriotism created during time that the struggle for the preservation of established conditions the war, and still cultivated, is nothing more than a dish espe­ goes beyond the limited framework of unionism, in that the cially cooked up for the people. As for the ruling classes, they workers face the organized employers and the bourgeois state. are patriotic only when it is to their advantage and brings them Only those raising the masses to the level of communist definite profits. Even if these profits increase to the detriment of awareness in the daily struggle are worthy of being called revo­ national production, no employer would be disturbed by the lutionary. It follows from this that the revolutionary unions must fact. Capital is international. Its country is where there are great focus their attention on the capitalists’ attempts to reduce wages profits to be pocketed. and worsen working conditions. But we must not limit our­ All these questions about competition in the world market, selves to just demanding the re-establishment of the former though they are important, cannot play a decisive role in the working conditions. In all countries, these former conditions workers’ determining their own standard of living. Revolution­ were below the needs of the workers. We must not only defend ary workers cannot base themselves on the question of which the former conditions but continually aspire to better ones. This exploiter, their own or the foreign, receives the most profits. is why raising the standard of living of the masses must now be They must always take as their starting point the fact that the one of our practical tasks. The working class was weakened competition between national capitalisms has always existed tremendously during the war; the percentage of sickness has and will always exist and can only be eliminated by social revo­ increased greatly in all countries and infant mortality has gone lution. The lowering of the working masses’ standard of living up considerably. The results of the war will be felt for years to so that national capitalism does better in the world market is a come and this is why we must restore the standard of living of capitalist tactic supported by leaders of the reformist unions. the masses and never accept its reduction as has happened in The connection between the reformist unions and national almost all countries. capitalism is so strong that as soon as their is a crisis in the As they reduce wages and worsen working conditions, the world market, the leaders of the reformist unions take it on employers and their ideologues argue that this is necessary be­ themselves to look for ways of reducing expenses in order to cause of the growing intensity of competition in the world mar­ meet competition, either by increasing productivity or by some ket and in the interests of industry and the national economy. other means. It is true that this aid, given to the bourgeoisie to The workers of the Allied countries have fallen into a trap of their own making. At present, destitute Germany is, if not the Continued on page 25

Summer 1993 23 INDEPENDENT P o l it ic s FEATURE ECONOMY AND HEALTH CARE

Capitalist Offensive policies, in all countries in the world, it is considered a truism that the most productive investments are those for education, Continued from page 18 ' health care, and infrastructure. But if you cross the corridor into the sub-department of economics called public finance, then World it has become a historical catastrophe. According to offi­ you suddenly hear that a balanced budget is more important cial United Nations statistics, more than 60 countries with a than investment in education, health care, and infrastructure, total of more than 800 million inhabitants have suffered an ab­ and that there have to be ruthless cuts in these budgets in order solute decline of per capita domestic product between 1980 and to stop inflation. 1990. In the poorest of these countries this decline is on the It should be stressed that psuedo-liberal, neo-conservative order of 30 to 50 percent. For the poorest layers of these countries’ policies are being applied within the framework of a capitalist- populations the figure oscillates around 50 percent. Per capita dominated world economy. Two important conclusions can be domestic product in Latin America in 1950 was 45 percent of drawn from that basic fact of life. First, that much of the ranting that in the imperialist countries. In 1988, it fell to 29.7 percent. Decades of modest rise in public welfare were wiped out in Am\ CHis/lNr>rprNDf \T Politics the course of a few years. What this means concretely can be illustrated by the example of Peru. According to the New York Times, more than 60 percent of the population of Peru is un­ dernourished, 79 percent live below the poverty level, which is quite arbitrarily fixed at $40 a month. Even college educated civil servants earn only $85 a month. That is not enough to pay for a month’s car parking in that country. If one takes into consideration the social differentiation in­ side the Third World countries, the situation is even more di­ sastrous. The poorest inhabitants of the poorest countries have today a daily food intake which equals that of a Nazi concentration camp of the 1940s. A report of the United Nations World Health Organization prepared for a December 1992 conference estimated that half a billion people suffer from chronic hunger in addition to several hundreds of millions of people who suffer from sea­ sonal malnutrition. Nearly 800 million people in the Third World alone suffer from hunger. If you add to that figure the number of hungry people in the post-capitalist and imperialist countries, you arrive at practically one billion people suffering from hunger on this planet. And this is when there exists an overall situation of overproduction of food. Russian Union Leader Tours While real wages have actually declined in the USA, the num­ ber of people having gross annual incomes of one million stable San Francisco Bay Area dollars has risen sixty fold. That of people getting between sixty Vladimir Kondratov, a leader of the Party of Labor, Deputy to thousand and one million dollars has risen from seventy eight the Moscow Soviet, and Executive board member of the General thousand to two million, but there is literally not a single worker Confederation of Trade Unions of Russia, speaking to a San Francisco Bay Area audience at the ILWU Local 6 hall on March among this new rich. 19. Kondratov’s tour of the Bay Area was co-sponsored by Activ­ ists for Independent Socialist Politics. he perverse effects of neo-conservative policies on the world economy are likewise evident. Both the growing T poverty of the Third World and the growing Third World- about the alleged superiority of the so-called market economy ization of sectors of the population in the imperialist countries are just eyewash. Market economy in the pure or near pure form constitute one of the major brakes on any significant expansion does not exist and has never existed anywhere. Second, it can be of the world economy. concluded that any alternative economy policy applied within Third World debt has led to the scandalous development of a that same framework, like the neo-Keynesian policies now net flow of capital from the south to the north, with the poorest proposed by a growing number of international institutions and part of the poor countries subsidizing the richest part of the rich leading capitalists, will not result in any basic change in all these countries. horrible realities which we have outlined. ▼ In all the university departments dealing with development

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 24 Summer 1993 ECONOMY AND HEALTH CARE FEATURE

Workers’ Solidarity provement of working conditions. We must create a program of practical demands around which all workers can be united. We Continued from page 23 must apply this program using revolutionary methods and unmask the present union leaders who neither want to, nor know how assure it high dividends at all times under all conditions, is ac­ to concretely defend the basic vital interests of the mass of workers. companied by verbal protests against reductions in wages. Af­ It is certainly possible that in organizing resistance to wors­ ter these verbal protests the negotiations start and the leaders of ening working conditions revolutionary unions will suffer de­ the unions consent to wage reductions of 10, 15 percent and feats, but these will be only temporary defeats, suffered during more. These wage reductions and the absence of even the slightest the struggle and not because we gave up. Every concession given desire to struggle are the characteristic of the tactics of most of out of good will towards the employer, any giving up of the the present leaders of reformist unions. If this resistance must be denounced in a most de­ tactic continues to be applied, collaboration termined and energetic manner. Raising the between the bourgeoisie and unions can only We must unite the broad standard of living must not remain an abstract grow, obviously at the expense of the mass of masses of workers into slogan, but must be the practical slogan of the workers. sharpest struggle. And when revolutionary Up until now, collaboration has meant that a single front in the unions have brought the largest number of the workers have received only minute crumbs practical struggle for an workers into the struggle to raise their stan­ of the billions pocketed by the employers. Now increase in wages and dard of living, when they have succeeded in that the profits have gone down slightly, the influencing the workers that are in the reformist employers are attempting not only to take away improvements in unions and in tearing them away from the those crumbs, but also to make the full weight working conditions. control of their leaders, then the struggle to of the crisis bear down on the backs of the raise the standard of living can play a great workers. To resist this tactic the revolution­ role in preparing for social revolution. ary unions must bring the broad masses into the struggle. In all Social conflicts have reached such a sharp point in all coun­ unions, regardless of the composition of their leadership, the tries that it will not be difficult to show the workers the link questions of the standard of living must be raised. We must between the raising of their standard of living and the struggle unite the broad masses of workers, including the most back­ for workers’ power. A concrete economic program, elaborated ward, into a single front in the practical struggle for an increase in a specific social and political context, if applied with revolu­ in wages and improvements in working conditions. On these tionary methods, will necessarily unify the broad masses in the purely economic and practical grounds, revolutionary unions struggle against the ruling classes and will prepare the workers and supporters of the Red International of Labor Unions must to take economic and political power in their respective coun­ prove that they are the firmest and most perseverant defenders tries. This implies that the workers’ struggle to raise their stan­ of the interests of the whole working class; in every country we dard of living should serve as the starting point of the larger must draw up and popularize a series of measures for the im­ struggle to destroy exploitation itself. ▼

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Sum m er 1993 2 5 INDEPENDENT POLITICS Kendra Alexander: A Life Dedicated To Socialism endra Alexander, that some groups, includ­ a leader of the ing some who claim to be Committees of By BARRY SHEPPARD Trotskyist, appeared to CorrespondenceK (CoC) have joined the CoCs as a on both the national level and in North­ raiding operation. She knew these groups ern California, died in an accidental fire weren’t really trying to help build the CoCs in her home in Berkeley, California on whatever their political viewpoint, but she May 23. was wary of taking any measures that could Because of the central and unifying role have the effect or even the appearance of she played, her loss will be felt through­ limiting the discussion. out the CoCs, She also didn’t claim to have all of her own political positions worked out. She Former leader of Communist was a real participant in the unfolding Party discussion that is beginning in the CoCs Kendra had been a leader of the Com­ nationally and locally about what kind of munist Party, USA, until its convention organization it should be. in December, 1991. Leading up to that A major concern she had was the need gathering, differences had developed in to reach youth, especially African- the CP over the events in the former So­ American youth and other people of color, viet bloc. As Angela Davis explained in if the CoCs were to consolidate and be­ her eulogy for Kendra at a memorial service come viable. She knew there were no easy in Oakland, California, it became clear to answers, but kept this necessity in the a section of the CP that there were serious forefront. Kendra Alexander problems with political and economic democracy in the former Soviet Union and Kendra was elected as one of five na­ Friendly and warm Eastern Europe. tional co-chairpersons at that conference. In the brief time 1 knew her, I had many It also became clear that there were I first met Kendra in her home last occasions to go over to her house. The serious problems inside the CPUSA September, when 1 raised with her the door was almost always unlocked, and concerning internal democracy. Kendra desire of people who had founded Inde­ the house was used for all sorts of meet­ was one of the leaders of the Initiative pendent Politics to join the CoCs and help ings. movement to democratize and renew the to build it through discussion and activ­ She and her husband, Franklin, always CP. At the December 1991 convention, ist work. Most of us had come from the were friendly, warm and hospitable. If you everyone associated with the Initiative Trotskyist tradition, and we knew there were hungry, you could always get movement was dropped from all levels of were others who had the same origin, such something, and if you were there at national leadership. as Peter Camejo, who were already mealtimes, you would be invited to en­ In March of 1992, Kendra helped lead members and leaders of the CoCs. joy some of Franklin’s excellent cooking. Northern California Communists to a Kendra welcomed our participation. Like many of her generation of African fateful decision. After lengthy open dis­ In the course of working to build the Americans, Kendra’s first political activ­ cussions, Northern California members Committees, I began to learn some things ity was in the civil rights movement. As a voted in their overwhelming majority to about her. teenager, she worked with the Congress leave the CP, and to join in forming the One was that she was completely on Racial Equality during the Freedom CoCs. committed to holding a free and open Summer of 1965, fighting to integrate discussion in the Committees. She helped lunch counters and register Black voters National Co-Chair of see to it that all opinions were heard and in Jonesboro, Louisiana. Committees of Correspondence reflected on leadership bodies and in as­ Returning to Southern California, where A National Conference on “Perspectives signments to activist work. she grew up, she enrolled at Los Angeles for Democracy and Socialism in the 90s” She said on more than one occasion State College. There she joined the DuBois held in Berkeley in July 1992 formed the that she herself was overcoming anti­ Clubs, a socialist youth organization as­ CoCs as a national left activist organiza­ democratic or “verticalist” practices found sociated with the Communist Party. She tion that opened its doors to all who saw in the CP (something all of us who came joined the CP, and helped form the Che- the need for a new organization to work from different traditions have to deal with Lumumba Club of Black revolutionary toward a renewal of the socialist move­ also to one degree or another). activists in South Central Los Angeles. ment in the United States. At the same time, she was concerned Recently she stated that she became a

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 2 6 Summer 1993 communist because she became convinced other, Kendra did not become cynical or allies are also fighting for a multi-party that Black liberation could only be won disillusioned. She remained a communist Transitional Executive Committee, which through socialism. This was true of oth­ with a small “c” as she helped launch the would organize the first elections, estab­ ers who joined different socialist groups. new project of the CoCs. lish fair access to the media, and set up a Another who joined the CP, after being I regret that I knew her for such a short joint command of the police and military recruited by Kendra, was Angela Davis. time, but am grateful for the time I did.T during the election campaign period. In Alexander and Davis traveled to Cuba the long run, the ANC demands reorga­ together as part of the Venceremos Brigade South Africa nization of the security forces to integrate in 1969 to work on the huge effort to the armed wings of the liberation orga­ harvest 10 million tons of sugarcane. Continued from page 3 nizations and to reflect the whole of South Toward this end, the ANC projects an African society. A lifelong communist historic one-person-one-vote election There is general agreement on this When Angela Davis became the victim within a year. From the election would course within the ANC-led alliance, which of the famous government frame-up on emerge a sovereign constituent assembly includes the ANC Youth League, the South murder and conspiracy charges, Kendra charged with drawing up a democratic African Communist Party (SACP), and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to constitution. the trade union federation COSATU. But head the defense effort. The successful Election results would also shape an debate is intense within the liberation campaign to free Davis established Kendra Interim Government of National Unity movement over how much to compromise in the party ranks as a leader. She was (1GNU), which would reflect propor­ in order to stay true to the fight for de­ elected to the CP National Committee in tionally the parties that gain significant mocracy and justice for the majority while 1972, and became Organizational Secre­ support. This 1GNU would continue to at the same time winning support from, tary of the Bay Area District in 1973. govern until elections were held under or at least neutralizing, forces under the At a recent press conference, Kendra the newly adopted constitution, which influence of the racist regime. said, “I do not regret that 1 belonged to would have to take place within no more The ANC Youth League, reflecting the Communist Party nor do I regret that than five years. broader discontent, has criticized the 1 left it. The struggle to make our country The ruling National Party has countered secrecy of some of the negotiations and a better place to live will always remain with a proposal for a “power-sharing calls for all talks to be open to public my life’s work.” government,” in which each party would scrutiny. Unlike many who go through negative have veto power. The Youth League has also opposed the experiences in one socialist group or an­ In the negotiations, the ANC and its Continued on Page 28 Assassination of Chris Hani Conservative Party leader Clive Derby- Lewis, who is part of an international network of ultra-right organizations. Hani was general secretary of the South African Communist Party and a central leader of the ANC. The reaction to his murder showed the tremendous anger of the Black masses and the great moral authority that has been won by the lib­ eration movement. Six million Black workers refused to work on April 14, and 80,000 attended his funeral. The religious ceremony, conducted by the Bishop of Johannesburg, and accom­ panying speech by Nelson Mandela and tribute from Cuba’s Fidel Castro, were carried live over government-sponsored TV and radio. The ANC has projected a campaign of mass actions through the end of May demanding early elections and multi-party control of the armed forces.—CAROLINE LUND

Summer 1993 2 7 INDEPENDENT POLITICS South Africa jority rule dispensation, they begin to be compromised by too many concessions introduce elements of majority rule into to the de Klerk regime. Continued from page 27 government. In the circumstances of the Jordan wrote in an article in New Na­ continuation of the Government of Na­ present situation, the package is a com­ tion: “The ANC alliance.. .has the national tional Unity following adoption of the new promise which can open the way to a liberation of the most oppressed and ex­ constitution. It believes the majority party process of full transfer of power to the ploited as its central objective. This nec­ should be free to implement its program people.” essarily includes the dismemberment of with no interference by minority parties. The statement goes on to say it is im­ the racist state as a priority. The South African Communist Party portant “to be honest with the people about “Since a transfer of power to the op­ (SACP), on the other hand, emphasizes this package, neither underrating the pressed cannot co-exist with the retention the need for a clear cut concession on this significant advance its implementation will of power by the oppressor, it is a final point. A resolution of its central Committee make, nor concealing the real limitations showdown. Historically the AN C’s strategy states: and potential dangers.” was to harness every conceivable instru­ “While the proposed interim govern­ The SACP presently has some 45,000 ment of struggle into a multi-pronged ment of national unity and subsequent members. offensive which would draw the broadest government of national unity and recon­ AN C leader Pallo Jordan has expressed front of opposition to the apartheid regime struction will still fall short of a full ma- fear that the ANC’s long-term goals could into active struggle. In these terms the ANC always posed its objectives as the seizure of power.” South Africa —16 Years Later Jordan warns of the dangers of simply Following are excerpts from an article in Just as clear are the limits of the change “reorganizing” the South African security the March 24 issue of the Australian Green that has occurred. Prejudice and privi­ forces: “If... the officer corps and ranks Left Weekly. The introduction reads: lege are still the driving force behind white of the SADF [South African Defense “Marina Carman’s family left South Africa attitudes. Distrust and deference are still Forces] and SAP [South African Police] in 1977 and returned for theirfirst visit in all too common among Blacks. Apartment are likely to be opponents of a democratic December. Here she describes what she houses are run down. The cities are dirty order, I would have thought that under­ found. ” and violence is rife. Public transport is lined the need to have them vacate these sparse and dangerous to use. The signs of strategically important posts as soon as The one word that hits more than violence and poverty are everywhere: possible. any other and around which everything alarms on cars, broken shop windows, “The gravest danger to a transition and else seems to circle is: change. beggars, news each day of new deaths. the democratic order is precisely such There can be no doubt that change has Squatter camps and the townships still potential fifth columnists. Every repres­ occurred. There is no longer official seg­ house a significant proportion of the Black sive military formation that has been regation. Blacks can go to the same schools, population in abject poverty and are coddled by the democratic forces has not hospitals and beaches, live in the same growing daily. had its teeth drawn, instead it has taken areas and use the same service's as whites. The benefits of change have their price, courage from such leniency.” They can move through the country and and not all can afford to pay. Those who Objective problem cities freely, purchase land and join the can have emerged as the new Black and now legalize liberation movement. Coloured middle class—living in man­ There remains, however, the objective There has been a massive influx of Blacks sions, sending their children to previously problem that the liberation forces are and Coloureds into the numerous high whites-only schools. These gains do not absolutely outgunned by the highly armed, rise apartment blocks that surround the change the dire situation of the majority efficient, and motivated South African central business districts in cities such as of the Black population. security forces. Johannesburg. The streets of the city center When asked their hopes for the new Outside the AN C-led current stand the are lined with stalls selling just about South Africa, whites I spoke to separated smaller Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) everything imaginable, and the crowds into those who seemed to have a genuine and the Azanian People’s Organization along the streets and in city center shop­ wish for a new future and those who (AZAPO). ping malls are almost entirely Black. claimed to support change while hoping The PAC refused to participate in the The ANC slogan, “Mass action for de­ to avoid the worst. This idea of non-par- two previous rounds of multi-party talks mocracy. Occupy the cities” on a poster I ticipatory change is unfortunately per­ held in 1991 and 1992, called CODESAI brought back with me, takes on a strange vasive among whites. and II (for Convention for a Democratic meaning as the whites retreat to decen­ The struggle for liberation is not over, South Africa). Despite its famous slogan tralized suburban shopping malls and but it continues to grow in strength daily. of past years, “One settler one bullet,” the houses in the suburbs. In the country, one When 1 visited the AN C, the waiting rooms PAC is participating in the current talks. can also see the increase in Black land- were crowded with new members or people According to Frank Noakes, corre­ holdings, although the percentage of land turning to the AN C for support in its new spondent for the Australian Green Left in Black hands is still pitifully low. and powerful position. Weekly, the PAC “thinks the ANC lead­

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 2 8 Summer 1993 ership is on the wrong track altogether.” biggest campaign it has ever organized. campaign. Material aid is also needed— Noakes quotes PAC General Secretary International solidarity will be crucial in IBM-compatible computers, fax machines, Benny Alexander: “The PAC does not have aiding the candidates of the ANC and its cars, TVs, and button-making machines. the capacity to stop the interim govern­ allies for the constituent assembly. In his message to the conference Nelson ment, but the PAC does have the capac­ Great difficulties face the liberation Mandela said: “These are complicated and ity to discredit it. We are not going to movement. The ANC estimates that 70 difficult times, for which there are no pat take part in this government. percent of African Blacks can’t read or write. answers. Before we have even attained our “The interim government is an attempt Polls have shown that if elections took freedom we are experiencing an incipient to co-opt the oppressed and prolong the place today, 50 percent of the Indian counterrevolution. After so much sacri­ life of the racist parliament and the Na­ population would vote for the ruling fice by so many, we have the obligation tional Party. National Party. (Indians comprise 4 per­ to prevent disintegration into a Yugoslavia. “The regime wants us to join this in­ cent of the South African population.) ANC “And one of the ways to do this is to terim government of theirs and work with supporters will need to go door to door, hold free and fair elections, where every them for a period of five years, so we too educating, discussing, inspiring the people. South African will vote, for the first time, can fail and we too can have the wrath of The ANC has always been conscious for a government of their choice. the people. We must also become minis­ of the importance of its struggle interna­ “We know that you will march this last ters of labor and be unable to give jobs tionally. In February it hosted a solidar­ mile with us, will work with us to win a and come on national TV and appeal to ity conference attended by 900 delegates resounding victory in these elections. We workers to understand and have the representing 106 organizations from five know you will help us reconstruct South workers rise up against us. We too must continents. Africa in the vision of the Freedom Char­ become ministers of education and fail, It appealed for aid in raising the $65 ter, as a country that belongs to all its because things are going to get worse. million it will need to run its election people. Black and white.” ▼ That’s a trap, a five year trap.” AZAPO has refused to participate in any talks so far. Reporter Noakes quotes Mandela on ANC’s Strategic Perspectives AZAPO Deputy Secretary General Lybon Following are excerpts from an interview any majority party which will emerge af­ Mabasa as saying: with Nelson Mandela in the ANC journal ter the general election. “The present negotiations, as we see Mayibuye, as reprinted in the March 3 Green So this document, therefore, stands for them, are not trying to empower the op­ Left Weekly. the principle of majority rule, which is pressed and exploited, but actually to observed in all democratic countries. What impact has the ANC’s new Strate­ reinforce the power of the regime and the The party that emerges strongest in the gic Perspectives on negotiations had on elite within our community. We are say­ election, especially if it has the overall the process? What does it entail? ing that there should be no secret deals, majority, should be called upon to form there should be no negotiations behind I think it has had a very healthy im­ the government. That party is then free the backs of our people, no negotiations pact. We must remember that the essence to invite other political parties with a sig­ where the government is both player and of the Strategic Perspectives document is nificant following to join the government. referee. to ensure the transfer of political power We therefore think that the democratic “AZAPO holds the view that the regime from a minority government to the people government which will be installed in that is not going to willingly hand over power; as a whole. It is based on the acceptance way will be in a position to have a firm that the process of the transfer of politi­ of the principle of majority rule and the hold on the levers of power. cal power is always dependent on the total elimination of all forms of apartheid We also hold the firm view that the army, capacity of those who are struggling against and minority rule. police and civil service should be re­ those who hold power. With that in mind, At the same time the document takes structured to serve the interests of de­ AZAPO still maintains that the struggle into account the realities of our situation. mocracy and reflect, in their composition, needs to be carried out even more rigor­ We totally reject a forced coalition as the South African society as a whole. ously than it has been carried out before.” government demands. At the same time But we are also saying that individuals These groups’ criticisms of the ANC’s we realize the importance of a govern­ currently serving in these machineries will line have found resonance among Blacks, ment of national unity, both during the not simply be thrown into the streets. Some especially youth, who are frustrated by interim period and when a democratic retrenchment packages might have to be the difficulties of the struggle to overthrow government has been installed. considered. apartheid. But the PAC and AZAPO have We would like to forestall the possibil­ All these proposals of the ANC should absolutely no answer to the National Party ity of a counter-revolutionary onslaught held allay fears of some sections among and other white forces who say “We want on the democratic government which will whites. The proposals can contribute to to negotiate a transition to a non-racial be established. We think we have a very breaking their resistance to the transition. democracy.” good chance of achieving that objective But the essence of our approach remains In the coming year leading up to the if we are able to form a government of the achievement of democratic majority elections, the ANC projects waging the national unity as a result of a decision of rule.

Summer 1993 2 9 INDEPENDENT P o l it ic s Workers and Peasants Need Our Solidarity went to Vietnam to Government authorities see how foreign An American Unionist told me that the new “free investment is af­ market” incentive system fectingI the economy Visits Vietnam made it possible for Viet­ and the everyday lives of nam to export rice for the workers. In my first visit first time in its history in to Vietnam, I had only By CARL FINAMORE 1992. enough time for a five day stay in the capital city of Hanoi. But my | A Low Wage Magnet whirlwind stopover in late May was ex- | ceptionally fruitful because of careful or­ Trade union officials understand that ganization by my hosts, the Vietnam-U.S. in addition to oil and mineral deposits, Association and the Confederation of Labor the country’s extremely low wage base is who welcomed me as “the first American another gold mine for investors. trade unionist to visit Vietnam.” In my discussions, labor leaders rec­ In1986 Vietnam began its “Open Door” ognized the pitfalls of economic devel­ policy of inviting foreign investment. A opment in impoverished Thailand where full range of goods from every part of the Japanese capital opens up one new op­ world are now for sale in the huge three- eration every day on a wage base of $5 a story government department store and In a modem candy factory in Hanoi, day. That paltry slave wage is still ap­ in thousands of small private stands which co-owned and managed by Japanese inves­ proximately five times what the average line the streets of Hanoi. Despite the de­ to rs and the Vietnamese government, these Vietnamese enjoys. structive U.S. trade embargo, a lot of w o m e n workers get paid according to how I also mentioned the toxic wasteland, many kilograms of candy they wrap. American consumer items imported from which is the poisoned legacy of the Singapore and Hong Kong appear on maquiladoras on the U.S.-Mexican bor­ fashionable store shelves and make-shift operations accounted for an output of $ 100 der. Mexican and Thai workers have not street corner table stands. million, 70 percent of which was targeted seen their wages increase beyond $5 a day Prices are extremely low compared to for export. While this still only represents and, in fact, governments in those two the U.S., but all but the most basic items four percent of Vietnam’s production, it countries ensure it stays low. are beyond the reach of workers who earn is a growing sector. Vietnamese trade union officials told an average of $250 per year. Most Viet­ me that there have been several strikes as namese in the capital city appear under­ Behind Growing Investment a result of extremely poor working con­ nourished, but fruits, vegetables, meats But why are foreign capitalists invest­ ditions and lower than minimum wages. and fish are bountiful in all the markets. ing in Vietnam? In one case cited, the foreign investor was Vietnamese government officials Because Vietnam has substantial off­ “convinced” by worker protests to raise proudly informed me that over $3 billion shore oil deposits, has rich agricultural the yearly salary to $600 a year, more than has been invested by hundreds of firms land, and has an untapped market of 68 twice the national average. from over 34 countries in the last several million people. Over 21 percent of for­ Most joint ventures of the Vietnamese years. In 1991 alone, for example, these eign investment has gone into oil and government and foreign private capital natural gas exploration, 28 percent into are not unionized. The government- farming and the food industry, 26 per­ controlled Confederation of Labor has cent for service and tourist operations and represented 4.5 million workers in the state October 1917: Coup d ’etat or 10 percent for transport, communications sector, but is just now beginning to tar­ Social Revolution — The and postal services (1992 government get the private sector for organizing cam­ legitimacy of the Russian figures). paigns. Revolution Some of this investment has been in Labor officials steadfastly refused to by Ernest Mandel operations that were previously state describe their relations with management 64 Pages owned. Privatization of state property has as antagonistic or adversarial. Instead, they also occurred in agriculture. Collective described the relationship as “coopera­ Send $8.00 to: farms enthusiastically offer family-size tion to ensure production and workers’ A.I.S.P. plots to former members of communes rights.” I was informed that 90 percent of P.O. Box 78241 in exchange for a large share of their pri­ enterprise managers are themselves San Francisco, GA 94107 vate production. Excess crops are then Communist Party members. profitably sold on the free market. The dilemma facing Vietnamese de-

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 3 0 Summer 1993 velopment is whether the government will Francisco Central Labor Council from the workers than “Mac.” It follows the life of respond to the concerns of the workers International Association of Machinists Stevie, a laborer hired to help convert a when they conflict with the needs of for­ Local Lodgel781. hospital into luxury condominiums. No­ eign investors to make a profit. Vietnam­ [The Vietnamese General Confedera­ body on this job is looking for fulfillment, ese workers have a big job ahead to orga­ tion of Labor has asked Finamore to an­ just a regular check with a false name to nize in this sector. nounce a special fully-loaded tour pack­ supplement their unemployment benefits. In our contacts and solidarity links with age of $65 per day to U.S. trade unionists These workers don’t have enough money unionists in Vietnam, American trade interested in enjoying an unique cultural to rent an apartment, much less start their unionists can help these workers in their and political experience. You can take own business. fight to see that foreign capital and tech­ advantage of this exceptional opportunity Stevie and his co-workers are slaves to nology is used to uplift their society and by sending a self-addressed stamped en­ the boss. They deal with the humiliation not just line the pockets of investors. ▼ velope to Independent Politics with your the only way they can, through humor. phone number and choice of tour dates— When you can’t beat it, laugh at it. “Riff Carl Finamore is a delegate to the San Editor.] Raff’ has scenes and characters familiar to anyone who has worked in construc­ tion. Multi-storied scaffolding held to­ Two Different Views on Film gether with bailing wire, experienced workers fired with no notice, and the never- Construction Workers’ Lives ending struggle to find a place to go to the bathroom that won’t suffocate you with stench. By ADAM WOOD the post-World War II boom in which Work is a nightmare in “Riff Raff.” The “Mac” takes place than it is in today’s tension builds until the final act of re­ he glamorous life of the con­ depressed economy. venge and destruction that would give Mac struction worker is not a common Mac is now free to follow his own ideal a heart attack. The workers in this film subject for Hollywood films. But of quality craftsmanship, but not with­ feel no personal attachment to the work twoT new independent films shed some light out paying a price. The pressure of coming they’ve done because everything around on different aspects of the jobs that, after up with capital, competing against cut­ them tells them that they don’t count, agricultural work, employ the majority throats like his former employer, and his they’re expendable. It is a true picture of of working people in this country. own compulsive personality combine to the ridiculous world we live in. “Mac” is a film byjohn Turturro about twist him into an aggravated, over-stressed, Both films deal with some of the racial his father, a carpenter. Some may recog­ isolated man. He gradually drives away and ethnic tension that exists on jobs, but nize Turturro, who stars in the title role, most of the people that care about him to neither deal directly with racism and the from his work in several Spike Lee films pursue his dream alone. historical problem it has been in con­ and from the award-winning “Barton “Mac” depicts a man who understands struction. The Black workers in these films Fink.” the potential of work for human beings. are relegated to peripheral roles, usually Work can be an opportunity to consciously as victims. With no women workers in The artistic potential of work shape your own environment, for good either film, the issue of sexism on the job Mac is a craftsman from the old school. or bad. It offers a chance to give meaning is not even touched. Racism, sexism and His work is truly his creative outlet and and purpose to life. But the film also shows craft prejudice among construction he takes pride in its quality. He rejects the roadblocks to such fulfillment in a workers have been the major obstacles the idea that art and work must be sepa­ society where the only point of work is to preventing their trades from playing a rated and tries to unite them in the houses create wealth owned and controlled by major role when other workers have gone and other structures he builds. someone else—a society which stifles into motion for progressive goals. This The film begins with Mac and his creativity and flushes it completely out has also helped the employers drive the brothers working for a typical cheapskate of the regular workday. building trades unions into the weak sta­ contractor. The top priority is to keep tus they are in today. expenses down, no matter what the ef­ The Negative Side The strength and humor of these two fect on the quality and safety of the project. “Riff Raff,” a film about non-union films far outweigh their weaknesses. I Mac has a confrontation with the boss over construction workers in England, starts recommend seeing both for different this but grudgingly goes along with the from this negative side of the work expe­ perspectives on the working experience program. rience and goes down from there. The film today, and if you are not in construction, Finally, Mac reaches his breaking point. was directed by Ken Loach and written to see what you are missing. ▼ He quits, starts his own business with his by Billjessie, a former construction worker brothers, and brings most of his co-workers who died at the age of 48. Adam Wood is a member of Painters’ with him. Wasn’t that easy! Of course, “Riff Raff,” unfortunately, is a lot closer Union Local 4 in San Francisco, Califor­ this was a more realistic option during to the experience of most construction nia.

Summer 1993 31 INDEPENDENT POLITICS our enemies.” Not surprisingly Martin Why Army Intelligence Luther King’s grandfather, the Rev. A.D. Williams, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Spied on African-Americans Church and first president of the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for By MALIK MIAH the program was a maverick project of an the Advancement of Colored People out-of-control Hoover. Most of us knew (NAACP), had an army file opened on n the 1960s, those of us active in the otherwise, and now we have proof that him in 1917. King’s father, Martin Sr., civil rights movement knew that the Hoover was simply continuing a policy successor at Ebenezer, also entered the I FBI was spying on us. We knew that begun by Army Intelligence in 1917. It army’s files. the cops and other government agencies turns out that the U.S. military organized Kingjr. became a special target of army served to protect racists and other bigots a major program of spying on Black intelligence and the FBI. Army officers who harassed Black Americans as we de­ Americans including the maternal followed and photographed King at a manded our human rights. The govern­ grandfather of Martin Luther King Jr. prayer march in Arlington Cemetery and ment, of course, denied any such wrong­ during a church sermon the next day in doing. Massive Spy Operation February 1968. The pictures were later But in the 1970s, we learned that the Stephen Tompkins, a reporter for The used by officers as targets for dart prac­ government had established a special Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennes­ tice. Less than two months later King was COINTELPRO Program (Counter Intel­ see, spent 16 months investigating intel­ murdered in Memphis while supporting ligence Program) targeted at the Black ligence operations in this country by the striking sanitation workers. A Green Be­ community. According to a memo sent U.S. military. He calls their operation the ret special unit was then operating in to agents by FBI DirectorJ. Edgar Hoover, “largest domestic spy network ever as­ Memphis on April 4, 1968. “The purpose of this new counterintelli­ sembled in a free country.” What role did Army Intelligence have gence endeavor is to expose, disrupt, What did Tompkins discover? On May in King’s assassination? Tompkins said misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize 3,1917, the Secretary of War Newton Baker his newspaper “uncovered no hard evi­ the activities of black nationalist, hate- ordered Lt. Col Ralph Van Deman to crank dence that Army Intelligence played any type organizations and groupings, their up the Military Intelligence Division. In role in King’s assassination.” But it’s safe leadership, spokesmen, membership, and ajune 2,1917, memo to Baker, Van Deman to say that the whole story hasn’t been supporters. . . Another FBI document targeted four prime domestic foes: told. Is it really likely that a lone gun­ stated the program’s key goal: “Prevent •The Wobblies (Industrial Workers of man, James Earl Ray, acted alone without the rise of a ‘messiah’ who could unify, and the World) Army and FBI knowledge? It is clear from electrify, the militant black nationalist •Opponents of the World War I draft the COINTELPRO and now Army docu­ movement.” •Socialists ments that King, Malcolm X, Black Panther Many of us were labelled “paranoid” • ’’Negro unrest” Party leaders and other prominent Blacks for claiming the government was violat­ Van Deman tied “Negro unrest” to were targets. ing our Bill of Rights. When the opera­ German influence and declared that “The In 1917 the Black church and NAACP, tion was revealed, some thought maybe Black church will always be a target of the main civil rights organization, were seen as “communist-inspired” and a threat SUBSCRIBE to national security. By the 1920s, Army Intelligence’s spy network had saturated [ Please clip and mail to: Independent Politics P.O. Box 78241 the South. In the 1960s the Army used U- San Francisco, CA 94107 2 planes to photograph civil rights pro­ To call AISP: (415)337-7959 tests in Birmingham, Alabama. By 1968 I Name______it had 304 intelligence offices around the country and “subversive/national security | Address______dossiers” on 80,731 Americans. It also had | City/State/Zip______19 million personal dossiers lodged at the | Organization/Union______Telephone______Defense Department’s Central Index of Investigations. | □ I want to SUBSCRIBE to Independent □ I want to join Activists for Indepen­ In 1917 Van Deman and the War De­ Politics for $8.00 for 4 issues dent Socialist Politics. Enclosed is $15 partment declared “Negro unrest” was I (including $______postage). (including $ ______subscription). provoked by Germany and foreign en­ | □ I want to SUBSCRIBE at the $15.00 □ I want more information. emies. In 1967 Hoover and the FBI said I international rate. □ I want to support your efforts. . □ I want to SUBSCRIBE at the $24.00 Enclosed is $______contribution. King “preached the message of Hanoi and I institutional rate. □ Keep me informed of your activities. Peking.” The fight against racism and for Enclosed is $______for mailing costs. full equality will always be seen as “sub­ I______I versive” by the powers that be. ▼

INDEPENDENT POLITICS 32 Summer 1993