NOVEMBER 12, 1976 25 CENTS VOLUME40/NUMBER 43

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE RED SQUAD NEW YORK COPS MUST TURN OVER DATA ON SWP. PAGE 7. CHill 'GUARDIAN' NEWSPAPER IS UNDECIDED ON PURGE. PAGE 8. Victory DElVER lor RALLY CONDEMNS ILLEGAL FBI HARASSMENT. PAGE 13. People lEW YORK A Socialist Analysis TEACHERS -PAGE 5 A STRATEGY TO SAVE EDUCATION. PAGE 16. Unions' Political Power Wasted SCOTTSBORO -PAGE14 ONE BLACK MAN'S 40-YEAR FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. PAGE 18. Ethnic Purity S. AFRICA in Plains THOUSANDS HELD IN WITCH­ -PAGE 3 HUNT. PAGE 22. COIORESO N.J. PUERTO RICANS DEBATE ELECTION STRATEGY. PAGE 25.

Richard Avedon HOW FBI KILLED FRED HAMPml -PAGE 24 THIS WEEK'S In Brief

MILITANT PSP MEMBER RELEASED FROM JAIL: Two hundred indictment an effort to whip up hysteria against the rights 4 Camejo winds up fifty supporters greeted Lureida Torres, a member of the of undocumented workers. campaign in N.Y. Puerto Rican Socialist party, upon her release from a New The Manzo Defense Fund is urging protests demanding York jail October 28 after completing a four-month sentence. that all charges against Cowan be dropped. Protests should 5 Carter: no victory Torres was imprisoned June 26 for exercising her be sent to U.S. Attorney William Smitherman, La Placita for workers constitutional right to remain silent during a grand jury Village, Tucson, Arizona 85701. Send copies to Manzo 6 Judge tells FBI fishing expedition into the PSP. Defense Fund, 1025 North Grande Avenue, Tucson, Arizona official to testify 85705. 8 'Guardian' undecided CAPITALIST MURDER MACHINE MOVES AHEAD: on China purge Nuclear power protest Utah has set November 15 a8 the day Gary Mark Gilmore will go before a ruing squad. The date was set November 1 9 FBI used ele.ction reports after Gilmore lost a bid for a new trial. for enemies list The U.S. Supreme Court has given attorneys for Ernest 13 Denver rally condemns Benjamin Smith until December 11 to appeal a Texas trial FBI harassment that sentenced Smith to death for his alleged role in a robbery-related killing. 14 How labor lost Smith, a Black man, pleaded not guilty to the charges. the '76 election But Texas authorities have already set November 22 as the day Smith will be executed. Socialists debate 15 Smith's lawyer says he will file a motion for a delay of the Senate opponents execution until the U.S. Supreme Court can review his case. 16 Issues facing Concerned that racist forces in Massachusetts may win N.Y. teachers passage of a death penalty law, opponents of leaglized murder picketed the Department of Corrections in Boston 17 Steel Fight Back 'STOP THE NUKE': Militant correspondent Douglas October 29. The protest was org.anized by the Coalition to spreads across country Smith reports that this was the theme of an "alternative Help Prisoners and their Families, the National Student 18 'Scottsboro Boy': long energy fair" and rally October 23 in Hampton, New Coalition Against Racism, and the Massachusetts Prisoner road to freedom Hampshire. The event was organized by the Clamshell·· Reform Organization. A teach-in against the death penalty Alliance, a coalition of fifteen New England groups opposed was held October 30 at Boston's Arlington Street Church. 24 How FBI set up to nuclear power plants. Fred Hampton The rally of 2,000 was held to protest plans to build twin FREE MUSTAFA DZHEMILEV!: An October 18 protest atomic reactors in nearby Seabrook. outside the Soviet airline offices in New York City 25 Puerto Ricans debate Gov. Meldrim Thompson has okayed construction, despite demanded freedom for Mustafa Dzhemilev, a Crimean political strategies his promise to honor a referendum that rejected the reactors Tatar leader imprisoned in the USSR. 26 Vietnam: steps against as unsafe. Meldrim's contempt for both the environment Dzhemilev, thirty-three, was sentenced to his fourth term capitalism in south and the democratic rights of New Hampshire voters has of imprisonment last April. His "crime" was to demand that prompted four protest demonstrations so far. Crimean Tatars be permitted to return to their homeland, 2 In Brief the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, estab­ EMBATTLED CWA STRIKERS: Ninety communica­ lisped in 1921 by the Soviet government under Lenin's 10 In Our Opinion tions workers have been on strike against Focus Cable TV leadership. Stalin abolished this republic in 1946 after Letters in Oakland, California, since July 7. Focus, a union-busting deporting the Crimean Tatar population to Central Asia two years earlier. 11 National Picket Line outfit controlled by the giant Hughes Corporation, refuses to Women in Revolt negotiate with Communications Workers of America Local 9455. SIGN OF THE TIMES: Detroii cops were called out 12 The Great Society On October 30 more than 100 Local 9455 supporters November 1 to handle a crowd of 5,000 people who jammed Capitalism in Crisis marched in front of Focus's offices. The demonstrators came the personnel office of the Cadillac auto plant to apply for · By Any Means Necessary from more than a dozen unions, as well as from the jobs. Cadillac, it turned out, was only taking applications Coalition of Labor Union Women and the Alameda County for future job openings. But a local unemployment rate of 10 percent prompted people to begin lining up at 4:00 a.m. The WORLD OUTLOOK Labor Council. - Cadillac plant, meanwhile, is working heavy overtime to 19 Lebanon: new attacks meet a record demand for its luxury product. on Palestinians MORE CAMEJO-REID ENDORSERS: Dr. Armando Gutierrez, vice-chairperson of the Texas Raza Unida party, -Peter Seidman 20 Defense for imprisoned has added his name as an endorser of the 1976 Socialist Polish workers Workers presidential campaign. "Speaking as a Chicano," said Gutierrez, "Camejo and Reid offer the only real 21 World News Notes alternative." 22 Thousands held in . Others who have added their names to the final list of S. African witch-hunt endorsers were Ramona Austin, a leader of the National Organization for Women in Minnesota; Nicholas Topping, a prominent Milwaukee activist; Jeff Kleinert of Protect Political Rights, a Milwaukee group; and Frank G. Green­ wood, a Los Angeles playwright and lecturer associated THE MILITANT with the Langston Hughes Players. VOLUME 40/NUMBER 43 Elizabeth McAlister, a Baltimore antiwar activist who 14,443 NOVEMBER 12, 1976 won prominence as a defendant in the Harrisburg Seven CLOSING NEWS DATE-NOV. 3 frame-up, said, "As Ford and Carter offer no realistic alternative in this election, I urge voters to consider Peter Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS Camejo and Willie Mae Reid or other socialist candidates." Managing Editor: NELSON BLACKSTOCK Business Manager: HARVEY McARTHUR Black activist Stokely Carmichael and the All-African Southwest Bureau: HARRY RING People's Revolutionary party expressed the view that most Washington Burasu: NANCY COLE Black people would not vote, and therefore they did not Published weekly by The Militant Publishing Ass'n., endorse any candidate. They did, however, urge those 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: Blacks who planned to vote to "vote for the Socialist Editorial Office (212) 243-6392; Business Office Workers party or the Communist party, who ar~ at least (212) 929-3486. Southwest Bureau: 1237 S. Atlantic raising real issues for people to consider." Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90022. Telephone: (213) SDaC-ETODIY 269-1456. Washington Burasu: 2416 18th St. NW, ·washington, o.c. 20009. Telephone: (2021 265- ATTACK ON UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS IN 10 weeks lor 81 6885. ARIZONA: Last spring, the U.S. Immigration and Natu- corresponc~ence conceming subtc:rlptlons or al' · Se • (l d rted th c:Mnges of eddress should be lddl'ftled to The . r tzatlon rv1ce a m.igra) epo more an 100 Militant Business Office, 14 Charln Lane, New · workers in Tucson, Arizona. Shortly afterwards, la migra York, N.Y. 10014. · raided the Manzo Area Council (MAC), a service organiza- Second-class postage paid at New York. N.Y. tion for immigrant workers. Without a subpoena, agents 0 $1 for ten weeks Subscriptions: u.s .. $7.SO a year; outside u.s.. carted ·off records involving 750 MAC clients. The records $13.00. By first-class mail: U.S .• Canada, and Mexico. 0 $7.50 for one year $35.00. Write for surface and airmail rates to ail other were turned over to a grand jury. Name ______countries. Subsequently, more than fifty of those listed in the Address ______For subscriptions airmailed from New York and records have been deported. In October, MAC Director then posted from London directly to Britain, Margo Cowan was indicted for perjury and twenty-five City ______Ireland, and Continental Europe: £1.50 for eight issues. £3.50 for six months, £6.50 for one year. felony counts for aiding "illegal aliens." Cowan faces State'------'iP'------Send banker's draft or international postal order penalties totaling seventy-seven years in prison and $98,500 (payable to Pathfinder Press) to Pathfinder Press, in fines. Make checks payable to 'The Militant,' 14 Where 47 The Cut, London, SE1 8LL, England. Inquire for Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014 air rates from ~ondon at the same address.. At an October 27 news conference, leaders of the NAACP, weare Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily American Civil Liberties Union, and other groups called the. represent the Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials.

2 Nov. 20 deadline Well on way to ~Militant' subscription goal By Harvey McArthur Some of the best subscription sellers The elections are over. But the are new members of the SWP. campaign to sell Militant subscriptions Sue Millington, who recently joined and bring socialist ideas to thousands in Detroit, has sold thirty subscrip­ of American working people goes on. tions so far. She also helped arrange a From Boston to San Francisco, from discussion about socialism in a local Chicago to New Orleans, 2,315 new housing project and invited new sub­ subscriptions were sold this week. Our scribers to attend. total now stands at 14,443-72.2 per- New Orleans socialists recently or­ cent of the goal of 20,000. This leaves ganized a special subscription blitz in 5,557 to sell by our November 20 Destrehan, Louisiana, home of Gary target. Tyler, a young Black framed up on Socialists in two more cities- murder charges. Juanita Tyler urged Baltimore and Oakland-have raised the Militant salespeople to sell to her their subscription quotas-each by neighbors, since the paper reports twenty-five. This makes a total of regularly on her son's defense case. eleven cities that have upped their The top salesperson was Patsy Can- goals so far. non, a young Black woman from the * • • University of New Orleans who joined the YSA in September. San Francisco led the way this week by selling 230 subscriptions. Stacey • • • Seigle told me, "We found an amazing The subscription campaign is also number of people who had heard of the introducing more and. more unionists Socialist Workers party presidential to the Militant. Helen Meyers reports Subscription scoreboard candidates and Sylvia Weinstein, SWP that Baltimore socialists have sold Sent Edinboro, Pa. 30 18 60.0 candidate for board of education. forty subscriptions to steelworkers, Goal in % New York 2,000 1,168 58.4 "Many of them plan to vote Socialist many of them employed at the big Kent, Ohio 30 52 173.3 Detroit 800 456 57.0 Workers and bought Militant subscrip­ Bethlehem Steel plants. Toledo 100 93 93.0 Denver 600 337 56.1 tions to follow what the SWP is doing." Oakland socialists have been help­ Portland, Ore. 350 299 85.4 St. Paul 175 98 56.0 San Francisco's Western Addition ing organize support for a strike by Berkeley 400 335 83.8 Salt Lake City 50 28 56.0 Richmond, Va. branch sold especially well. They Local 9455 of the Communication 125 104 83.2 Buffalo, N.Y. 25 14 56.0 Boston 800 683 82.9 Bloomington, Ind. 50 27 54.0 signed up ninety new readers, includ­ Workers of America against Focus Louisville 150 122 81.3 Atlanta 600 321 53.5 ing fifteen at a showing of the film Cable TV. Last Saturday, at a union Newark 400 322 80.5 Cleveland 450 240 53.3 Last Grave at Dimbaza, a documen­ picket line of 100, 14 strikers signed up Washington, D.C., Area 750 600 80.0 Lexington, Ky. 50 26 52.0 tary about apartheid. to be regular Militant readers. Tacoma, Wash. 115 90 78.3 Kingston, R.I. 25 13 52.0 Chicago socialists sold 150 Pittsburgh reports a friendly re­ San Jose 300 231 77.0 Albany, N.Y. 40 20 50.0 subscriptions-their best week yet. sponse to the Militant at meetings of Cincinnati 150 115 76.7 St. Louis 425 202 47.5 Gregory Banks, who sold thirty-six, Steelworkers Fight Back during a tour New Orleans 225 169 75.1 Miami 80 35 43.8 reports, "the Militant really sold well there by Ed Sadlowski, insurgent Dallas 150 111 74.0 Tallahassee, Fla. 25 10 40.0 through our door-to-door canvassing in candidate for president of the United Kansas City, Mo. 150 111 74.0 Boulder, Colo. 20 8 40.0 the Black community. We went into Steelworkers of America.- One new Oakland, Calif. • 375 275 73.3 Newark, Del. 5 2 40.0 Baltimore• 325 237 72.9 Charleston, W. Va. 10 3 33.3 the Henry Homer projects for the first subscriber is the young president of a Seattle 475 345 72.6 Binghamton, N.Y. 25 6 24.0 time this week and sold 14 subscrip­ USWA local. San Antonio 175 126 72.0 Sarasota, Fla. 25 6 24.0 tions in one afternoon. Some people The Militant also got a warm recep­ Ithaca, N.Y. so 36 72.0 Arlington, Tex. 30 3 10.0 didn't have money just then, but tion from the 600 people who registered Phoenix so 36 72.0 Knoxville, Tenn. 10 1 10.0 invited us back to talk with them later. for the seventh annual convention of Indianapolis 100 71 71.0 "The campuses were great too. In the Puerto Rican Congress of New Philadelphia 650 458 70.5 Campaign teams fact, it seemed like people were just Jersey last month. Thirty-one Militant Chicago 900 630 70.0 New Mexico 85 85 100.0 waiting for socialists to show up. One subscriptions were sold there, along Allentown, Pa. 20 14 70.0 Ohio 400 250 62.5 morning Andrew Pulley, SWP candi­ with ninety dollars in other socialist San Francisco 800 548 68.5 Northeast 400 172 43.0 date for Congress, and I went to literature. Champaign, Ill. 25 17 68.0 California 300 128 42.7 Pittsburgh 450 303 67.3 Rocky Mountain 215 75 34.9 Governors State University and sold If you haven't done so already, why State College, Pa. 30 20 66.7 Michigan-Indiana 400 89 22.3 nine subscriptions and every single not join the thousands of people across Los Angeles 1,000 664 66.4 Midwest 165 21 12.7 copy of the Miliant we had. We also the country selling Militant subscrip­ Madison, Wis. 100 66 66.0 Southeast 250 22 8.8 sold eleven subscriptions another day tions? Introduce your friends, neigh­ Minneapolis 700 457 65.3 General 1,586 at Harry S. Truman College and met bors, and people you work with to a Houston 900 584 64.9 Total 20,00014,443 72.2 one subscriber there who wants to socialist viewpoint on the news at our Milwaukee 650 420 64.6 Should Be 14,000 70.0 start a chapter of the Young Socialist special introductory offer of ten weeks San Diego 400 249 62.3 *Areas raising their goals Alliance." for just one dollar.

'Ethnic guritv.' in Plains Blacks banned at Jimmy Carter's church By Nelson Blackstock reporters outside the church realized it the church, Lillian Carter said she Rev. Clennon King learned the was segregated. supported banning King because "this meaning of "ethnic purity" on Sunday Carter termed the incident "political­ man is an activist who shouts from morning, October 31. ly inspired." While he said he objected street comers." The Black minister was told that to the whites-only policy, he refused to Typical of the Black Democrats who "niggers and civil rights agitators" are resign from the segregated church. In rushed to Carter's defense was Newark not allowed in Jimmy Carter's church. recent years, several politicians have Mayor Kenneth Gibson, who called the _ The preacher of the Plains Baptist publicly resigned from private clubs episode "political trickery." church notified King and three other exposed for banning Blacks. Blacks of the policy. "Carter's continued membership in a The Blacks arrived at the all-white church with overt racist policies is an Willie Mae Reid responded, "Demo­ church after earlier announcing their affront to all Blacks in this country," cratic party accusations about election­ intention to apply for membership. In said Willie Mae Reid, Socialist Workers eve dirty tricks do not change the fact anticipation of · their visit, church party candidate for vice-president. that Carter is a deacon in a church officials decided to cancel services that "Jimmy Carter's church closed its that has a policy of excluding 'niggers morning rather than admit the Black doors to Rev. Clennon King because it and civil rights agitators.' applicants. follows Carter's philosophy of oppos­ "If Carter is seriously concerned ing 'Black intrusion' and maintaining about ending racial injustice,'' Reid Jimmy Carter is a deacon of the 'ethnic purity,'" she charged. continued, "why wasn't he at his church arid -teaches a men's Sunday Carter's mother, "Miss Lillian," church on Sunday to accompany school class. His visits to the church endorsed the racist exclusion. Often Reverend King to the services? have frequently been played up in the portrayed as a sensitive humanitarian, "What Carter has done is ignore this media to i>ortray the Democratic nomi­ she said, "If you ask me, I'm glad they racist exclusion the same way that he nee as a pious symbol of small-town didn't admit him." and President Ford have ignored the 'Niggers and civil rights agitators' policy virtues. But few people who watched While insisting that any Black who problems of Blacks throughout this kept Rev. Glennon King and three Carter on television chatting with was "decent" would be admitted into election campaign." others out of Jimmy Carter's church.

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 3 outspoken conservatives-led eleven twenty-three socialist headquarters women staff members of the New York across the country. Twenty months Camejo weekly newspaper the Village Voice to later, there are eighty-five active endorse her senatorial campaign. groups of campaign supporters." Gallo met with three of them. "They Socialist Workers party vice­ winds up do not consider themselves socialists, presidential candidate Willie Mae Reid but they deeply identify with women's was describing the growth of the • liberation," she said. "They are com­ socialist movement during the 1976 $20,000 mitted to its goals." election campaign. campa1gn Camejo debunked the "Great De­ The SWP's growing size and influ­ bates" between Ford and Carter. ence was apparent in city after city Neither big-business candidate offered that Reid visited during the last month Camejo in N.Y. any solutions to the problems of war, of her twenty-two-month-long cam­ By Dick Roberts racism, unemployment, or sex discrimi­ paign. NEW YORK-Socialist Workers nation, he said. In the last two-and-a-half weeks presidential candidate Peter Camejo Camejo also discussed the insurgent before traveling east to Boston, Reid &Reid campaign of Ed Sadlowski for presi­ campaigned in five midwest cities. In ended his fall campaigning in New York. The final day before elections, dent of the United Steelworkers of four of them, new SWP branches had • Camejo appeared at campuses in the America. "It is the beginning of a been formed only months earlier. campaign Bronx and Queens. massive rebellion against the bureau­ In Toledo, Ohio, Reid supporters In the South Bronx, with a large cracy that runs the unions today," sponsored a rally at Scott Park Com­ Puerto Rican and Dominican popula­ Camejo said. munity House October 16. A wide tion, Camejo spoke at Hostos Com­ "Sadlowski is saying that the array of Toledo activists came to hear fund munity College. Hostos is the only workers have the right to run their Reid, including a well-known Black bilingual college in the Eastern United own unions. He is saying that the radio commentator who was recently States. Camejo spoke in\ Spanish. unions must fight for the interests of fired for airing news of the Paul X At Queens Qollege Camejo debated the workers, not look out for the profits Moody frame-up case; a United Auto Michael Harrington, national chairper­ of the corporations. That the right to Workers activist; leaders of a commun­ It's been the biggest election son of the Democratic Socialist Organ­ strike is not to be surrendered. ity group called the People's Tribunal; campaign in the SWP's history! izing Committee. Harrington, who "Sadlowski is saying," Camejo said, and several members of the Nation of Newspaper and TV coverage teaches at Queens, appealed to the "that the union should fight for social Islam. was the most extensive. More students to vote for Carter. The entire justice, against racism, against sex­ Paul X Moody spoke at the meeting leading activists and prominent debate was carried on the eve of the ism. He says it should have fought to appeal for support. Moody is a individuals endorsed our slate. elections by WBAI radio. against the war in Vietnam. young Black student at Bowling Green State University who was framed up The SWP appeared on more "We must help spread the word about Sadlowski's campaign," Camejo on a rape charge. "I am innocent," he state ballots. By far the greatest On Saturday, October 30, New York socialists held a wind-up rally for the continued,"because it can also open up said, "and I need your help to get out amount of socialist campaign a new optimism among others­ the truth." literature was distributed. And SWP campaign that was attended by more than 400 people. In addition to Blacks, women, students, members of Reid supporters in Kansas City it was capped by thousands of Camejo, speakers included Marcia other unions-who also want to fight focused their efforts on building a city­ warm letters of support, some Gallo, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate back. wide meeting at Penn Valley Commun­ more of which are printed on from New York; Catarino Garza, "If Sadlowski's campaign should ity College October 20. More than 100 page 15. But we still need candidate for Congress from the Eight­ triumph-as it will inevitably, whether people attended the meeting. Reid's $4,300 to meet the $20,000 goal eenth Congressional District; and he wins or loses this election-it will so fiery speech evoked an enthusiastic in the final twelve days of the Marvin Titus, a nineteen-year-old inspire people that you will see a response from the audience. "This is fund drive. Last week more Black member of the Young Socialist complete transformation of the politi­ the only thing in this whole election I've heard that makes sense," said a than $3,000 was received-from Alliance hom in the Virgin Islands. cal situation in this country. "The logic of the Sadlowski cam­ Black woman who brought her three Baltimore, Minneapolis, Ken­ Titus explained why he joined the YSA. "There was no alternative in paign points toward the transforma­ children along to the meeting. tucky, Detroit, Houston, St. tion of the labor movement into a Paul, New York, San Francisco, either the Democratic or Republican parties to the situation students faced. social and political movement fighting In both St. Louis and Boston, people Chicago, and Boston. If you Both parties were calling for the end of for the interests of all workers and all who joined the SWP earlier in the can help, any amount will be free tuition, open admissions, and the the oppressed," Camejo concluded. presidential catnpaign played major appreciated. cutting of 'non essential' "That is why it is the most important roles in: ci"rganizing Reid's tour. departments-or even the closing political event taking place in this In St. Louis, Mary Pritchard, a Black down of entire schools. country at this time." feminist, chaired the city-wide rally. "The school that I had just been She joined the SWP last year. How we're doing admitted to, York College, was sche­ In Boston, Chris Homer helped duled to be axed. It was no coincidence organize media interviews for the $20,000 .---• November 15 that York has a large Black enroll­ socialist candidate. Horner, a carpen­ ment. Like the victory in saving ter, ran into the SWP in Roxbury this 18,000 Hostos College, my school is still alive summer when he was asked by an because of the mobilization of students Reid: SWP campaign supporter to sign a 16,000 November 3 and faculty at York, which the YSA nominating petition. $15,704 14,000 was centrally active in." Beatrice Cohen, a nurse at a hospital Titus also said that "Marcia Gallo ~Many in Worcester, Massachusetts, spoke at 12,000 was the only senatorial candidate who the campaign rally in Roxbury. Cohen 10,000 came to our campus when the cuts is participating in a union organizing were coming down and spoke out new drive. 8,000 against them. [Republican Senator "I have always tried to be an James] Buckley and [Democratic can­ ' independent voter," she said. "This 6,000 didate Patrick] Moynihan never once backers' year, all I've found to vote for are those 4,000 showed their concern-much less their By Barbara Mutnick on the SWP ticket. faces." "When Peter Camejo and I began "When I read the socialists' cam­ 2,000 At the Saturday rally, Gallo ex­ our campaign for president and vice­ paign platform-the 'Bill of Rights for 0 plained that the choice between Buck­ president in December, we tried to Working People'-! felt the soft touch ley and Moynihan-both of them figure out how we could get to all of sanity," she said.

Make checks payable to the Socialist Workers 1976 National Over 1,000 Berkeley students hear Camejo Campaign Committee, 14 Charles Lane, New York, New York 10014. 0 Enclosed is my contribution of $---- 0 Please send me more information on the SWP campaign.

Name Street ------­ City ------State _____ Zip ____

Occupation ------­ Business address ------

A copy of our report is on file with the Militant/Eli Finer Federal Election Commission and is available for purchase from the Federal Election Camejo's wind-up appearance in California was at the University of California, Berkeley. Enthusiasm for Camejo's talk Commission, Washjngton. D.C. Chairperson, was shown by the large crowd-which quickly grew from 200 to more than 1 ,000-and by the large number who Linda Jennes\1; treasurer, Arthur Hughes.• attended an informal discussion with Camejo afterward. Eight students asked to join the YSA. More than 65 'Militant' subscriptions were sold.

4 Socialist rallies wind UP- campaign Carter: no victor for workin pie By Dick Roberts "Young people need a new hope, a NEW YORK, Nov. · 3-Forty-five new commitment," Reid said. "This is socialist campaign headquarters were a central aim of the socialist move­ alive with activity last night, as ment." supporters gathered to watch election returns and hear speeches by Socialist Labor vote Workers party presidential and vice­ The labor vote for Carter occurred presidential candidates Peter Camejo under different circumstances from and Willie Mae Reid. Camejo, speaking 1960, when it helped put John from New York, and Reid, speaking Kennedy in office, and in 1964, when it from Chicago, addressed the meetings helped elect Lyndon Johnson. via a nationwide telephone hook-up. Ten or fifteen years ago, the U.S. As we go to press it is still too early and world capitalist economies were to report and assess all the major expanding rapidly, especially under national and local election results. But the impact of enormous war spending. several conclusions are clear. The jobs and other concessions prom­ Millions of American workers saw ised by the Democrats could at least be no important differences between Ford partially fulfilled. and Carter. A significant number of Today the economy is in deep them, however, figured that they might trouble-not only in the United States, fare better with the present Ford but in Europe and Japan as well. administration out of office. They PETER CAMEJO speaks to nationwide audience on election night Unemployment and layoffs are rising, knew that Ford had presided over even in a period of slight economic cutbacks, rising prices, and high unem­ recovery. While Carter can still make ployment. Maybe Carter would be This is an early indication of what is that they didn't bother to vote for certain concessions, there will be no better, they hoped. in store for American workers with the either one. return to the prosperity and victories of Voters also booted a good number of incoming Democratic administration. "Those people who did vote, voted the 1950s and 1960s. incumbent representatives and sena­ reluctantly," Peter Camejo said in High jobless rates, rising prices, and tors out of office-Democrats and Two-party monopoly remarks heard at SWP election-night social service cutbacks are here to Republicans alike. The overall compo­ The monopoly by the Democrats and rallies. "Millions agree with much that stay-under Carter as well as Ford. sition of the Congress was little Republicans over the electoral process we have to say. They may be active in Carter is a big-business politician, and changed, however. makes it extremely difficult to find out some social movements, but they are he has no intention of taking the only the vote totals for other parties and not yet ready to break from voting for steps that can solve these problems­ candidates. Election boards stall on the ruling parties. steps that place the interests of work­ One day before the November 2 revealing these figures, and the big­ "They voted for Carter to stop Ford. ing people above private profit and election Peter Camejo debated Michael business-owned press gives them little, And those who voted for Ford, voted to war spending. Harrington, chairperson of the Demo­ if any, attention. This treatment is stop Carter. Americans were put in the cratic Socialist Organizing Committee, being extended to a certain extent even position of having to figure out which Important struggles around these at Queens College In New York City. to Eugene McCarthy. one would do the least harm." issues are already under way in the Harrington urged a vote for Carter, We will report these figures as they Willie Mae Reid's national address unions. Camejo pointed to Ed Sadlow­ while Camejo urged the audience to become available. The Militant will centered on accomplishments and ski's challenge to the bureaucracy in vote Socialist Workers. also offer further analysis of the future plans of the socialist movement. the United Steelworkers. He said that The debate was carried In full that national and local elections. "We've more than tripled the twenty­ in the postelection period the SWP night on New York's WBAI radio and Meanwhile, it is clear that the scales two offices we had in 1974 when we plans a major effort to reach steel­ rebroadcast on election day. After the were tipped to Carter by the votes of launched this campaign." workers with the Militant and a rebroadcast, WBAI set aside two-and­ trade unionists, Blacks, Chicanos, and "Our hard work and enthusiasm put pamphlet on The Fight for Union one-half hours for listeners to call In to Puerto Ricans in major cities. the socialist alternative on the ballot Democracy in Steel. comment on the Camejo-Herrington According to an NBC poll, 63 percent in twenty-eight states," she said. During the fall elections, Camejo confrontation. of union families voted for Carter. Five "The Black news media published said, more Americans than ever before Militant readers will be able to read percent of Carter's supporters were our press r-eleases regularly, sometimes were aware that a number of different major excerpts from this Important unemployed. "A majority of Carter using. them as the basis for commen­ independent parties and candidates debate on working-class electoral stra­ voters listed inflation and unemploy­ tary in the Black community. were on the ballot across the country. tegy In coming Issues. Watch for lt. ment as the main factors in their "Democrats and Republicans around The idea that there are alternatives to decision to support the Georgian," said the country," Reid continued, "are the programs and candidates of the Two important victories were scored the New York Daily News. preparing to fade from the scene until two big-business parties became more in Colorado and Massachusetts. The These workers were barraged by an vote time again, while our offices will widely accepted. attempt by reactionary forces to repeal intensive "get out the vote" campaign continue to hum with activity: Millions of Americans were opposed Colorado's state Equal Rights Amend-. by the big-city Democratic machines "Building a large and powerful to the undemocratic refusal of the me.nt was soundly defeated. and by the AFlrCIO. movement against racism-from Bos­ Democrats and Republicans to allow In Massachusetts an ERA was "Mr. Carter owed large debts to ton to South Africa; the struggle to alternative ideas to be debated, and at added to the state constitution, also by Mayor Frank L. Rizzo of Philadel­ defend abortion rights and to ratify the the obstacles placed in the way of a large margin. The Massachusetts phia," the New York Times reported. ERA; the fight for union democracy; independent parties and candidates ERA forbids discrimination on the In Chicago, Mayor Daley's Demo­ the struggle against the racist, barbar­ getting on the ballot. basis of sex and race. Its passage deals cratic party organization distributed ic death penalty and for the freedom of In this political climate, Carter's a blow to the racist, antibusing forces tens of thousands of leaflets headlined, young Gary Tyler in Louisiana and inability to make good on his cam­ in Boston and spurs the nationwide "Americans Live Better Under Demo­ other victims of racist frame-ups." paign promises will lead many people struggle for women's rights. cratic Administrations." Reid made special mention of two to take a good hard look at the Farm workers in California suffered In New York City-battered by upcoming events: the National Student Socialist Workers party. "We expect to a setback in their fight for fair union layoffs and cutbacks during the past Conference Against Racism scheduled grow," Camejo said, ''and we invite representation elections with the de­ year-the pro-Carter leaflet handed out for Boston, November 19-21, and the those of you who have helped us in our feat of Proposition 14. Democrats, everywhere reproduced a Daily News national convention of the Young campaign-but have still not joined including Carter himself, who were front page from last fall. "Ford to City: Socialist Alliance to be held in Chica­ the SWP- to do so. Join us as we gear nominally committed to passing this Drop Dead" was the headline. "Vote go, December 29-January 2. up for important battles ahead." farm labor initiative failed to cam­ for New York, Vote Carter/Mondale," paign for it in any significant way. the leaflet declared. Workers are pressed to forget that in all three of these cities, . and many JointheSWP others, Democratic party administra­ On November 3 Democratic and Republican campaign offices began folding tions are in office. These politicians up shop. have cooperated with a Republican But ti1e Socialist Workers party· won't be closing down its campaign White House in carrying out devastat­ headquarters. We will continue fighting for the interests of women, Blacks, ing attacks on working people and Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and all working people. "Human needs before national minorities. profits" is more than an election slogan for us. It sums up what the SWP fights for 365 days a year. Low turnout Help us build toward a socialist America. Join the Socialist Workers party! Despite the news buildup during election day that the voter turnout was 0 I want to join lhe SWP. "larger than expected," figures now 0 Enclosed is my contribution of $ ______indicate that only about 53 percent of Name ______those who were eligible to vote went to the polls. Address ______It was the lowest voter participation in decades-even lower than the 1972 CitY------race between Richard Nixon and George McGovern, which saw a 55.4 State·------'iP------­ percent voter turnout. Telephone ------­ Roughly seventy million Americans Return this coupon to: Socialist Workers party, 14 Charles Lane, New York, Militant/Stu Singer concluded that the differences between New York 10014. WILLIE MAE REID Ford and Carter were so insignificant

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 5 Suit contests gov't use of sgies Judge tells FBI official to testify in court By Diane Rupp have none of the seven indicated any NEW YORK-On October 28 U.S. fear of the Socialist Workers party . . . District Court Judge Thomas Griesa but the only fear that was expressed ordered a top FBI official to testify was the fear of the FBI." about the bureau's use of political The record shows that it is the FBI, informers. James Adams, deputy direc­ not the socialists, that is violence­ tor of the FBI in charge of all investi­ prone (see box). gations, will have to appear at a court In his statement Adams says that hearing in the Socialist Workers informers who are unmasked would party lawsuit against government ha­ face other problems. rassment. These, Adams says, include: "Noto­ A legal battle for files of nineteen riety and publicity . . . Union prob­ past and present informers assigned to lems . . . Marital problems; Fear of the SWP has become a fight over the peer group disapproval of acting as an government's use of spies for political 'informer,' which activity has always cases. This is the first time the FBI's held an unsavory connotation in shroud of secrecy over its use of certain circles regardless of motive;" informers against political activities and "Ostracism of themselves and has been tested in court. their families from community activi­ The socialists want the complete ties." files of the nineteen so they can In other words, these informers document how the government uses would face the public contempt they informers. The SWP insists that in­ have earned. formers do more than just "inform"­ they carry out disruptive and illegal Informers qulttin9 operations, such as burglaries. Adams claims that mformers are so A sworn affidavit submitted by the afraid of being exposed that the entire SWP explains why it is crucial to get FBI spy network is in danger. He the complete files on the nineteen reports that twenty-three informers informers. It points out that the have quit in the past three months. government has already admitted that Adams does not explain, however, more than half the information about whether this is all just because of the the nineteen supplied in previously SWP lawsuit. Maybe informers are submitted summaries of the files was quitting as a result of the general inaccurate. publicity about FBI crimes. The government summary about a After all, public support for the FBI person identified only as Informer No. has dropped to new lows. In 1965 84 357 is a good example of how the FBI LEONARD BOUDIN: 'The history of the SWP is an absolute guarantee that no percent of the country gave the FBI a covers up the record. The FBI had said informers are in danger.' Courtroom drawing by Caryl Loeb. "highly favorable" rating in the Gal­ that "there was no indication" how lup poll. But in 1975 only 37 percent No. 357 picked up Young Socialist felt that way. Alliance bank statements. "I have to face the fact," Griesa examination by the socialists' attor­ But when the complete FBI files on said, ". . . that I have had misrepre­ neys when he appears in court. No. 357-Timothy Redfearn-were sentations made to this court in sworn Other government briefs add to made public they showed he had stolen documents." Retaliation? Adams's statement. The Justice De­ the material in a burglary of a Denver The government's lawyer, William Adams's claims are farfetched. He partment claims that the FBI haa socialist's apartment. Brandt, tried to brush aside the FBI's says the FBI fears "physical retalia­ closed its case on the socialists. lies as "some bad communication." tion and intense harassment" against "The threat of allegedly disruptive FBI 'scuttlebutt' But Griesa said, "It is just as plain its informers. · tactics of informants is eliminated,'' The government has filed several as can be that there is a danger here Adams describes violence by the claims the government. And that is legal briefs and affidavits arguing the that an agency is using a claim of fascistlike National Caucus of Labor supposed to end the need for files. In informer files should be kept secret. privilege to avoid revealing things that Committees. Then he goes on to claim legal jargon, the government claims FBI official Adams supplied a sworn will be damaging to that agency in the that "there is no reason to believe that the informer issue is "moot." affidavit defending the bureau's use of view of the officials of that agency. SWP or YSA members would not But while the FBI says it has closed informers. "We have a very serious problem, engage in similar retaliation against its case on the SWP, it claims it should At the October 28 hearing Griesa and that is this: these informants." continue operations against SWP said he could not base his decision on "If a government investigative agen­ Leonard Boudin, the socialists' attor­ members. Adams's statement. Calling the G­ cy can use confidential informants to ney, answered Adams's charge at the The socialists insist that if the case man's affidavit a "mixture of opinion perform illegal activities and then hearing. were really closed there would be no and hearsay," Griesa said, "A lot of cover the revelation of that by saying, "The history of the Socialist Workers reason left to keep the files secret. this could be just scuttlebutt." 'We have a confidential relationship,' party is an absolute guarantee that no Griesa ordered Adams to appear in that, I think, creates some extremely one is in danger of being injured and At stake court to testify and face cross­ serious problems of getting such activi­ no one will be injured if his identity is The government warns, "What is at examination. This is especially neces­ ties corrected and vindicating the revealed,'' said Boudin. stake on this motion [for the files of sary because the government has lied rights of injured people." "We now know the names of seven nineteen informers] is nothing less before in the SWP case. Adams will have to face cross- people [informers], at least. Not only than the ability of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to obtain information which is vitally neces­ sary." Syd Stapleton, national secretary of Violence: some FBI success stories the Political Rights Defense Fund, An excellent example of the effec· FBI about planned Klan violence the KKK cases an "excellent exam­ which is organizing support for the "dozens of times." But the govern­ ple of the effective use of infor­ tive use of informants is their use in lawsuit, disagrees. the investigation of the Ku Klux ment did nothing to prevent these mants." "What is at stake is whether the crimes. Klan ("Klan''). The previous success There are other examples, too. In government can disrupt legal political In 1961, for example, Rowe gave of the FBI in preventing violence by San Diego FBI informer Howard activities that are supposed to be the FBI three weeks' warning that Godfrey operated in the right-wing the very dangerous and volatile protected by the Bill of Rights,'' Klan organizations was directly the KKK and Birmingham police Secret Army Organization (SAO). Stapleton told the Militant. attributable to an intensive and were planning to attack prodesegre­ Godfrey testified that the FBI The challenge is a unique one for the successful effort to develop infor­ gation freedom riders when they gave him $10,000 to $20,000 worth of courts. The Senate Select Committee on arrived. A local cop told him, "We weapons aRd explosives. mants. Without informants, resolu­ Intelligence pointed out: tion of the many bombings and don't care if you kill 'em, bum 'em, The SAO used this FBI backing to "The Supreme Court has yet to be bomb 'em out, we don't give a terrorize political activists in San violent deaths would have been presented with the type of factual highly unlikely, if not impossible. damn." Diego. It vandalized and smashed situations-such as intensive infor­ On May 14, 1961, the KKK at­ the presses of two radical newspa­ -James Adams mant coverage of lawful political Deputy Associate Director, FBI tacked the freedom riders with pers. It fire bombed at least one activity and personal matters-which chains and bats, as Rowe had person's car. It burglarized the may produce a chilling of rights warned. But the FBI did nothing offices of the Communist and Peace guaranteed by the First Amend­ except take pictures of the violence. and Freedom ·parties. ment.... No court has seen the In this sworn statement for the What about solving racist bomb­ And in 1972 Godfrey and another overall pattern of FBI intelligence Socialist Workers party lawsuit ings and murders? Rowe testified SAO member shot at anti-Vietnam informant coverage of citizens and against the government, a top FBI that he gave the FBI the names of War leaders Peter Bohmer and groups. Consequently, courts have official claims that the agency's paid eight klansmen he suspected of Paula Tharp. been unable to assess the full impact of informers prevent violence. bombing the Birmingham church The FBI doesn't use informers to the informant system on the exercise But Gary Rowe, an ex-informer in where four Black children were prevent violence. Instead, the record of constitutionally protected rights." the KKK, told a different story last killed in 1963. But the FBI never shows that the government uses year in testimony before the Senate solved that case. informers to wage war on the Black The hearings on the nineteen in­ former files and Adams's testimony Select Committee on Intelligence. Maybe Adams was telling the and other progressive social move­ will give the American people the Rowe said he had tipped off the truth despite himself when he called ments. -D.R. chance to challenge the FBI's use of informers in court.

6 NYPD ordered to give red squad data to SWP By Diane Rupp helped the FBI burglarize and disrupt seen, he said. And the boxes are old NEW YORK-The New York Police the socialists. and things might fall out. Department must make the red squad's The NYPD has put up a fight But Griesa ordered the list to be political files available to the Socialist against turning over the records. made. He also told Duschaneck to look Workers party, even if it means letting Lawyers for the cops argued that the in the file drawers and to make a quick the SWP help move boxes of those files NYPD purged its political files in 1973. survey of what is in the boxes. at the NYPD headquarters. So ruled All these records, the cops claimed, Duschaneck then tried a final argu­ U.S. District Court Judge Thomas were piled up in a room where they ment. He demanded that the socialists Griesa October 28. could not be used. pay for the Work involved. The project The SWP and the Young Socialist Three weeks ago Judge Griesa or­ might take two days for a number of Alliance have demanded the cops' dered the cops' lawyer to inspect the highly paid people with security clear­ political files for their lawsuit against storage room and discuss the problem ances, he said. government harassment. The files with the socialists' attorneys. Jordan objected to the NYPD setting may show how the local red squad At the October 28 hearing Herbert such a ransom for the files. He said the Jordan, an attorney for the socialists, socialists should not have to pay just reported the results. Jordan was not because the police department had allowed to see the room, but he waited piled up its files in a disorderly way. outside while Richard Duschaneck, the Griesa rejected Duschaneck's propos­ cops' lawyer, went inside to look at the al. "The thing that bothers me is that so-called purged files. you are creating a lot of the costs Duschaneck came out and described . . . .If there is to be any search you the room to Jordan. It was twelve by want to do it in the most expensive fifteen feet, he said. There were file way that anybody can dream up by cabinets inside, and cardboard boxes . having security-cleared policemen do piled up in some places to the ceiling. all this. Militant/Caryl Loeb Despite the disorder, however, all the "Okay, if you want to do it. that way, Lawyer for New York red squad cabinets and boxes were labeled. One you do it. But I am not too inclined to complains that moving files is too cabinet, for example, was marked make the plaintiffs pay for all that." difficult. "Nation of Islam." Griesa had an alternative for the Jordan asked the police department police: to reveal any great secrets." to make a list of the labels. From that "It seems to me that if you are "And they can be under guard. " list the socialists could decide which talking about taking a salaried police­ Griesa added with a grin, "so they do boxes or cabinets relate to their law­ man of New York City to cart boxes not peek." suit. and cartons and move file drawers Duschaneck protested. But Griesa But the cops refused to do even that around, well, I would imagine some of replied, "I think you take it or leave it. much. these young plaintiffs might be willing Do you want to do the moving your­ Griesa agreed with Jordan that such to go over there and help do some self? Okay, do it. But I am not going to a list was "absolutely a minimal re­ moving. have [the socialists] pay the cost of quest." "And before you say no, and before your moving, if [they are] willing to Militant/Caryl Loeb Duschaneck complained that mak­ the police department just says that come over and physically do it. That is Socialists' attorney Herbert Jordan ing this list was too much work. It this is going to deprive the community up to you." describes boxes of files at New York would mean moving the boxes out of of all security, why, I have an idea that The police department is to report Police Department. the room so that the labels could be the outside of 11 file cabinet is not going back with its list in two weeks.

Socialist campaigners Open Rosenberg files! released to prove that the witch-hunt trial framed the Rosenbergs. arrested in Michigan The government has refused. It By Nancy Rosenstock the threats to the safety of the three has turned over only 6 percent of the A team of Socialist Workers party campaign workers." files. The Rosenbergs' sons, Michael campaign supporters touring Michigan Immediately after the arrests, Rei­ and Robert Meeropol, are working campuses was arrested October 20 at mers's supporters on campus launched with the NCRRC for the release of Central Michigan University in Mount the Committee for Democratic Rights the rest of the material. Pleasant. and began to circulate petitions on The petition to Levi says: Tom Smith, Brigid Douglass, and campus demanding that all charges We, the undersigned, demand Jim Garrison-all members of the against the YSA members be dropped. that the U.S. government imme­ Young Socialist Alliance-were arrest· A letter to the Central Michigan Life diately release all files in the ed while distributing leaflets publiciz­ protesting the arrests was co-signed by Rosenberg-Sobell case, as re­ ing a meeting for Paula Reimers, SWP the chairpersons of the Organization quired by the Freedom of Infor­ candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan. of Black Unity, the Associated mation Act. The three were charged with tres­ Womens Students, and Project Alpha. We demand an end to secrecy passing and "illegally occupying a This attack on the YSA's democratic in government, and an end to university building." The arrest oc­ rights occurred in the context of a cover-ups of illegal and uncon­ curred outside a meeting where former general attack by the campus adminis­ stitutional acts. History has CBS correspondent Daniel Schorr was tration on student rights. shown a pattern of government speaking to a crowd of 1,000 students. Responding to these stepped-up at­ abuse of power and misconduct Conviction carries a possible six tacks, the Committee for Democratic in the form of political trials months in jail and a $1,500 fine. Rights organized a rally of 250 stu­ against Rosenberg used to silence the American Reimers protested the arrest October dents October 27. It is planning a execution. Electric chair did not put people. The American people 22 at a news conference on the steps of follow-up rally November 8. an end to doubts about case. have the right to know what the the city government offices in Mount government is doing. Pleasant. By May Cramer We have the right to know the "The arrest of three of my campaign On November 15 the National truth in the Rosenberg-Sobell workers is an outrageous attack on the Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg case. rights of the American people to free Case (NbRRC) will present thou­ To add your name, write the and fair elections," she said. "The sands of petitions to Attorney Gener­ National Committee to Reopen the arrest was ordered by the administra­ al Edward Levi. The petitions de­ Rosenberg Case, Room 606,250 West tion of Central Michigan University mand that the government make Fifty-seventh Street, New York, New . and carried out by plainclothes police. public all its files from the famous York 10019. My three campaign workers were Rosenberg-Sobell case. The petitions will be presented to handcuffed behind their backs and In 1951 the government charged Levi at the conclusion of an NCRRC roughed up during the arrest. They, of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and meeting in Washington D.C. During course, offered no resistance. Morton Sobell with passing atom the conference a public meeting is "The prosecutor's office has decided bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. scheduled on Saturday evening, to lodge a string of charges together, The Rosenbergs were executed­ November 13. all of them pure frame-up, in order to murdered by the government-in On Sunday, November 14, there victimize my three campaign workers," 1953. They went to their deaths will be a showing of a new slide Reimers said. "This is being done in an declaring their innocence. Sobell show about the Rosenbergs and a effort to prevent the ideas of the was kept in prison for nineteen replaying of a recorded debate be­ Socialist Workers party candidates years. tween Michael Meeropol and Roy from getting a hearing. Militant/Gary Davies The NCRRC wants all govern­ Cohn, one of the prosecutors in the "I hold [university president] Dr. From left, YSA team members Brigid ment files from the case to be 1951 case. Harold Abel and his staff directly Douglass, Jim Garrison, and Tom responsible for these illegal arrests and Smith.

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 7 'Guardian' still undecided on China purge ByLes Evans which he "imds unconvincing," the During the past ten to fifteen years, main accusation in the Peking press, thousands of young and not so young that the "gang of four" made a radicals in the United States were "desperate, illicit grab for power and persuaded that Mao's regime repre­ lost." sented a socialist alternative to the Smith refers throughout to the ouster counterrevolutionary bureaucracy that of the four Maoists as a "purge," a new rules the Soviet Union. word in the Guardian's vocabulary. He The Guardian newspaper based in even leaves open the possibility that New York has been the most widely "the party right wing has smashed the heard proponent of this view, adopting 'Maoists.'" For those still trapped in the jargon of Mao Tsetung Thought the Maoist schema that a "bourgeoisie and looking to the pronouncements of lurks within the Chinese Communist the Peking press for political guidance. party, this would be tantamount to the The current purge of Chiang restoration of capitalism. Ch'ing-Mao's wife-and three of In fact, this "theory" is designed to Mao's closest associates poses a se­ allow the bureaucracy to brand its rious dilemma for this Maoist milieu. critics as "class enemies," the better to Guardian Managing Editor Jack silence them and frame them up. Hua Smith has begun a series of articles to learned these methods directly from explain the new tum of events to his Mao Tsetung, who in tum took them readers. But by the second installment, from Stalin's notorious Moscow trials in the November 3 issue, the most of the 1930s. definite conclusion he could draw was While taking a first hesitant step in this: questioning such methods, the Guard­ "The purge probably means there ian is plainly undecided where to go will be some modifications in party next. After admitting that the new line in the next period. Exactly what regime is lying to the Chinese people, they will be is not known with any that the nature of the real political certainty-not the least reason being differences between Hua and Chiang that a frank exposition of the political Ch'ing are kept secret and covered up differences between the party center "like a lion" against "the worst of the longtime partisans of Peking must with a sexist slander campaign, the and Chiang Ching et al has not been excesses and injustices" ofthe Cultural have begun to wonder if there was any Guardian still leaves open the possibil­ revealed. Virtually all the charges Revolution to save Teng Hsiao-p'ing, truth to this unlikely script. Even if the ity of lining up behing Hua Kuo-feng. made against the four have been "the cadre who will most likely replace accusations were true, what kind of Smith concludes his article by sug­ devoid of specific political content." him as prime minister." Less than "communism" was this where there gesting that everything may be for the Smith's hesitation in accepting the three months later, however, in its was more intrigue than a medieval best after all: "It is this writer's guess victors' official version is a departure April 14 issue the Guardian accepted court? And if the whole thing was a lie, that Hua and the forces behind him from the Guardian's past practice. . the official Peking line that the Chi­ what kind of monstrous frame-up thought the party left was pushing its During China's so-called Cultural nese leadership had again been saved system was Mao running? antiright campaign too far in the Revolution in the late 1960s, for from counterrevolutionary disaster by When, after Mao's death, the pre­ months leading up to Chairman Mao's example, Mao Tsetung and Defense unmasking Teng as a bourgeois agent. viously obscure Hua Kuo-feng "disco­ death . . . the faction led by the ousted Minister Lin Piao accused head of As Robert Friend, the Guardian's vered" yet another capitalist plot-this four was maneuvering for influence in state Liu Shao-ch'i of being a secret Peking correspondent, put it, "The one by Mao's best-known followers­ the post-Mao era that it did not agent plotting to restore capitalism. indictment [against Teng] was damn­ the Guardian decided to take some deserve-by virtue of politics, populari­ The Guardian has hailed the Mao ing. He was emerging as a man of distance from these new charges. ty or power-to possess. A clash faction for saving socialism from 'reactionary nature who is going Jack Smith reminds his readers in between the party center and left was counterrevolution. It has never asked against the trend of history.'" his November 3 article that "all four perhaps inevitable.". for evidence, and none was ever If that seemed a little vague, Friend [of the purged leaders] have worked Isn't it time for the Guardian and offered.. Nor was Liu ever permitted to reassured his readers, "To put 'the closely together for years and were other uncritical friends of Maoism to present his side of the case where the unrepentent capitalist-roader in the brought to their prominence in the stop guessing at explanations for Chinese masses could hear it and offer party' in the post of premier . . . would party urider the aegis of Chairman Peking's conduct-explanations the their own views. have allowed the forces who continue Mao.'' regime itself does not put forward? In 1971, Lin Piao, leader of the "left in the path of Liu Shao-chi and Lin The campaign against them, he Isn't it time to judge the Stalinist wing" that had just saved socialism, Piao an intolerable advantage in the says, has emphasized "personal vilifi­ bureaucracy in China by the criteria of was in tum branded with the identical intense class struggle over whether the cation of the four-particularly Chiang Marxism and even simple common charges. The Guardian accepted that bourgeoisie or the proletariat shall rule Ching. Some of the charges can only sense-by what it says and -does? too. in China." be described as sexist. The tactic was Isn't it time that the Chinese On January 21 of this year, after the Teng was not permitted to comment to discredit the four from the begin­ workers and peasants themselves be death of Premier Chou En-lai, the on these charges. No evidence to ning of their careers, implying they allowed to discuss and democratically Guardian paid tribute to Chou for, support them was made public. were always bad communists.'' determine the policies that will decide among other things, having fought After the third replay, even some Smith dismisses as "speculation," their future?

By Peter Seidman as diplomats or consular officials in York Times, "They sent agents to my Revelations of violence and initimi­ New York, Washington, Los Angeles, office last year and told me if I didn't KCIA dation by South Korea's Central Intel­ and other cities with sizable Korean stop criticizing the Government, 'You ligence Agency (KCIA) against Ko­ communities. and your children will be retaliated reans living in the United States have An article in the October 29 New against'; ·they also said they could harasses lifted a comer on the seamy world of York Times reported that one KCIA detain my children in Korea." lawyers, lobbyists, payoff artists, reli­ agent stationed in Los Angeles is Kim Embarrassed by these disclosures, gious quacks, and goons who work to Ki Whan. He was the KCIA station the Department of Justice, the FBI, protect the interests of U.S.-backed chief in Tokyo when agents kidnapped and the State Department now say Koreans reactionary regimes around the world. former South Korean presidential can­ they have launched investigations of There are 250,000 Korean residents didate Kim Dae Jung and took him to these illegal KCIA activities. in this country. They should be free to Seoul, where he is now in prison. But Washington will not take mean­ in U.S. exercise their democratic right of In Los Angeles, where 70,000 Ko­ ingful steps to curb the activities of its freedom of speech. reans compose the largest such com­ South Korean puppet's secret police. But those Koreans who try to· take munity outside Asia, South Korean Since the fall of South Korea's sister advantage of the relatively freer politi­ agents are reported to have beaten up dictatorship in South Vietnam, Wash­ cal climate in the United States to or threatened violence against several ington has continued to spend·millions speak out against the dictatorial poli­ dissidents. A Los Angeles police detec­ in military aid to Park. Last June, cies of Park Chung Hee become targets tive was quoted in the October 30 New Congress approved $485.5 million in for the South Korean secret police. York Times as saying, "The K.C.I.A. military aid to South Korea, overriding According to Koreans opposed to the has people in almost every important critics of Park's suppression of demo­ Park dictatorship, the number of organization in the community.... cratic rights. known KCIA agents under official They're always at anti-Park rallies This funding, plus 40,000 U.S. troops cover in the United States has risen gathering information." stationed in Korea to back up the from about five in 1971 to about Kim Woon Ha, the editor of the anti­ dictatorship there, shows Washing­ twenty-five today. Many of them pose Park weekly New Korea, told the New ton's real intentions.

8 Washington official testifies FBI used election reports for enemies list By Nancy Cole _ A related legal case-the SWP's $40 WASHINGTON-Does the FBI scru­ million damage suit against govern­ tinize financial reports from socialist Ci- ment persecution-has forced the FBI election campaigns to draw up enemies to reveal numerous examples of ha­ lists? rassment and crimes against the The answer to that question is yes, socialists and their supporters. Be­ judging from sworn testimony by cause of this history of government Larry McCoy, a high-ranking official crimes, Socialist Workers campaign of the Federal Elections Commission committees since mid-1974 have re­ (FE C). fused to file the names of their contrib­ McCoy, deputy assistant staff direc­ utors. tor of the commission, said FBI agents The Federal Election Campaign Act inspected the Socialist Workers party's went into effect in the middle of the campaign finance reports for 1972. The 1972 campaign and was amended in G-men showed a special interest in 1974. It has been hailed by its congres­ lists of contributors. sional backers as a law that will Reports filed by the socialists in 1972 finally end the corrupting influence of and 1974 included the names, ad­ big money on the American electoral dresses, and workplaces of ninety-six process. contributors of $100 or more. 'Hit him again with the deodorant!' But its main effect is to strengthen FEC official McCoy testified that in the hold of the big-business-dominated the summer of 1972, FBI agents visited two-party system over elections. So­ what was then called the Office of called minor parties have to meet Federal Elections. At the time McCoy nary citizens could have returned to VISIOns of the Federal Election Cam­ stringent regulations for collecting was assistant to the director of the inspect files any number of times, with paign Act. money and disclosing contributions to office. no one the wiser. The suit was filed two years ago by presidential campaigns. Democratic The G-men flashed their badges and At least eighteen of the ninety-six Joel Gora, a staff attorney of the and Republican candidates, on the asked to see the SWP's financial supporters disclosed in the 1972 and American Civil Liberties Union, on other hand, have their campaigns reports. They pored over the records for 1974 reports subsequently became behalf of SWP campaign committees. financed from the public treasury. forty-five minutes. victims of FBI harassment. They or The suit demands that sections of In addition, loopholes aplenty exist McCoy said the agents also asked to their friends, relatives, or employers the law requiring identification of for big business. The dairy industry, look at records filed by the Communist received visits or calls from bureau individual contributors be ruled uncon­ for example, legally contributed $1.2 party. agents. Two contributors lost their stitutional as applied to the socialists. million to congressional candidates On their way out, McCoy recalled, he jobs. Gora says these provisions threaten this year. Not surprisingly, prominent talked with the agents. "They were McCoy also stated that later the "the right of privacy, the right to among the recipients are members of somewhat surprised that the records same day he told his boss, Phillip associate with individuals or groups the House Agricultural Committee, that we had with donations and names Hughes, about the visit. Yet in a without government disclosure, and which is responsible for handing out and contributors, this type of thing statement submitted in court this past the right of political anonymity­ milk price supports. was available for public inspection just March, Hughes said he had "no rights which were central in the by anybody that walked in," McCoy knowledge or information" that'he or creation of the First Amendment." · said. his staff had ever received any FBI Peter Camejo, Socialist Workers There are those who defend this Their surprise is understandable. inquiries about the SWP reports. candidate for president in the recent phony reform at all costs. For example, This is just the kind of information for Asked by the Militant to explain this elections and treasurer of the Socialist Common Cause, the self-styled citi­ which FBI agents and informers have contradiction, Hughes said he couldn't Workers 1974 National Campaign zens' lobby, has intervened in the illegally burglarized SWP headquar­ recall. Couldn't recall if McCoy told Committee, said that· McCoy's testi­ socialists' disclosure lawsuit on behalf ters. him of the FBI visit. Couldn't recall if mony "clearly shows that turning our of the government. McCoy said that "the only thing that in preparing his sworn statement he contributors' names over to the FEC Common Cause claims to be against could have been called out of the had bothered to consult his staff. That will lead to FBI harassment. government disruption of the SWP. ordinary" about the inspection is that staff included McCoy, who-in Hugh­ "Last month we received $3,332 in But its officials argue that the sacred the FBI agents bothered to show their es's own words-was "in charge of the contributions from 946 people who disclosure law is a different matter credentials. office" from 1972 through the end of watched me on NBC's 'Tomorrow' altogether. "When other people came in," he 1974. show," Camejo said. "If we had to tum The question for Common Cause added, "we wouldn't know who they McCoy's testimony was part of over all those names to the FEC, it now is this: What was the FBI doing were." pretrial proceedings in a civil suit would be a ready-made 'enemies list' with the lists of SWP campaign con­ Clearly, FBI agents posing as ordi- challenging contributor disclosure pro- for the FBI." tributors?

~This is a party that takes politics seriously' By Joe Ryan the need to build a party with a and is raising a daughter, Tiffany. She fact, a socialist party needs the talents SAN DIEGO-What kind of people program to meet the needs and de- feels her life is typical of a lot of and energies of all kinds of working are joining the Socialist Workers mands of Chicanos and all working women. people. party? People from many different people." "I caught on," Rue said. "My prob- If you would like to join, contact the backgrounds. This summer every SWP branch held lems? They weren't just mine. They're SWP branch nearest you (see directory Anthony Gonzalez and Carmen Rue discussions over a three-month period the same problems that the majority of on page 31). Or write to the SWP, 14 are two examples. to prepare for the national SWP women face." Charles Lane, New York, New York Gonzalez, nineteen, is a Chicano convention. Attending those discus- Rue quickly became convinced that 10014. student at the University of California sions in San Diego and talking to other the Democrats and Republicans were at San Diego. He has long considered Chicano members convinced Gonzalez not offering any solutions. himself a nationalist. He is a leading that the SWP was the party for him. "They never talked about the issues I activist in MEChA, a campus Chicano "The reports and discussions, espe- thought were important-like child group. cially on the Chicano struggle," he care, like the Equal Rights Amend- said, "showed me that this is a party ment, like abortion rights." that takes politics seriously and knows When Ru~ read the SWP campaign how to lead struggles." pamphlet on women's rights, she knew she had found a party that was doing Carmen Rue found out about the something about these issues. SWP while she was in line for a benefit So she wrote the Militant, asked to concert for Tom Hayden, who ran in join the SWP, and is now a provisional California's Democratic party primary member. (A three-month provisional for the U.S. Senate nomination. An period gives people a chance to become SWP campaign supporter gave her a familiar with the party before joining.) Last winter Gonzalez joined the copy of the socialists' platform, "A Bill At a recent campaign rally, Rue Young Socialist Alliance, a student of Rights for Working People." She talked about her decision to join the organization that collaborates closely planned to read it at home, but didn't SWP. with the SWP. He saw that YSA get around to it. "I found the SWP to be a party of members were consistent supporters of Several weeks later Rue ran into the people who work hard and assertively Chicano rights. The local YSA chapter SWP campaign again, at a feminist with dedication, loyalty, and concern was also organizing to fight cutbacks film series. She received a copy of for the real and immediate problems in programs that Chicano students another campaign brochure, "The currently facing us: sexism, racism, had won at UCSD. Fight for Women's Rights." This time, lack of jobs, and government crimes," "It was through the YSA that I firfi.t she made it a point to read the pam­ she said. met members of the SWP," Gonzalez phlet. The SWP needs nationalists like explained. "I found that I agreed with Rue is divorced, holds down a job, Gonzalez and feminists like Rue. In Carmen Rue and daughter Tiffany

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12', 1976 9 In Our Opinion Letters

Southern Africa & Israel Never has it been tactically astute I read with satisfaction and for revolutionaries to support left­ Boston conference approval Tony Thomas's speech on talking army officers. Early examples On November 19-21, the National Student Coalition Against southern Africa (Militant, September of the worth of the tactic are Communist party support for Marshall Racism is hosting the third National Student Conference 17). In the flood of reports and analyses on the southern African Pilsudski in Poland and Chiang Kai­ Against Racism at Boston University. developments, Thomas's speech shek in China in 1!:126. Since then the Its ·theme will be "No to racism: from Boston to South presents a really valuable Marxist CP and others have pursued the tactic Africa." Student coalition leaders expect the major topic of analysis of the situation and of the toward similar figures who have discussion to be mobilizing an action campaign against U.S. tasks of the revolution in that area. surfaced in Indonesia, Argentina, support to South Africa's apartheid regime. As Thomas rightly observes, the Sudan, Peru, and more places than can NSCAR was founded almost two years ago by students who Zionist regime has good relations with be mentioned here. Vorster's racist regime. Since Vorster's Sukarno, Peron, and the rest had one wanted to help organize a powerful response to Boston's racist thing in common. No matter how antibusing movement. Busing remains the major target of visit to Israel last April, cooperation between the two racist regimes has radical they talked, they all defended opponents of Black rights in this country, and there will be an qualitatively intensified. Huge new the hierarchy and discipline of the important discussion at the conference of how to continue the joint projects have been worked out. bourgeois army. The same goes for struggle to defend and extend school desegregation. According to press reports, Israeli Carvalho. To support the likes of them In addition, there will be workshops on many other aspects of "experts" operate in Namibia aiding (no matter how critically) is to cross the fight against racism, including defense efforts ranging from Vorster's troops to slaughter and carry the class line in politics. The workers the five Puerto Rican nationalists to the Gary Tyler case. out mass expulsions of the Namibian always get clobbered when they do people. Missile-boats are being that. When the Portuguese Trotskyists We urge all Militant readers-especially students-to attend refused to go along with the Carvalho this conference and become part of the antiracist movement. manufactured here for South Africa, etc. campaign they were on the right track. For more information contact: NSCAR, 612 Blue Hill Avenue, The Israeli press reports almost David Herreshoff Dorchester, Massachusetts 02121. Telephone (617) 288-6200. daily of closer relationships between Highland Park, Michigan the Zionist and the South African bourgeoisie. Altogether symptomatic in itself is the coverage provided in the Israeli Ralph Metcalfe ERA victories press of the recent events in South The article in the October 29 Militant The women's liberation struggle won a resounding victory at Africa. Racism runs like a leitmotiv on my campaign for Congress in the polls when voters in two states cast their ballots for state through all the reports, which are Illinois's First District contains several Equal Rights Amendments. The 61 percent pro-ERA vote in wholeheartedly sympathetic with the factual errors concerning Ralph racist minority rule of the whites. Metcalfe, my Democratic opponent. Massachusetts and the 64 percent vote in Colorado showed once These developments prove more than The article quoted me as saying that again that the majority supports women's fight for equality. anything else the common interest of Ralph Metcalfe "pretended to run Voters repudiated the reactionary forces out to stop the the two regimes, which today form a against Daley's machine in the ERA-the same forces out to outlaw abortion and halt busing. counterrevolutionary, racist axis Democratic primary." The reporter These are the first victories for the ERA in many months. directed against the masses, both in must have misunderstood me because Last year eleven state legislatures considered the federal ERA, the Middle East and in Africa. They Metcalfe did in fact run a primary race but only one ratified. Last November in New York and New also indicate their common fate to be against the Daley machine candidate, Erwin France. It was precisely because Jersey referenda on state ERAs were defeated. overthrown by the masses. R.M. Metcalfe was opposing a machine Those setbacks shocked women's rights supporters into Haifa, Israel candidate-whose backing by Daley action. A national ERA march on May 16 and rallies and was seen as "punishing" Metcalfe for demonstrations across the country helped pave the way for not being sufficiently servile-that Tuesday's victories. Metcalfe won the election by an Before election day, Phyllis Schlafly, national leader of Stop More on prisons overwhelming margin. ERA, traveled to Massachusetts and proclaimed: "A defeat [for I have been reading the Militant for Since the primary, Metcalfe has the past six months and must praise made several gestures toward mending the state ERA] in Massachusetts would sound the death knell to fences with Daley. But a rapproche­ the federal amendment as well." you for the truly commendable publication it is. It is quite interesting, ment between the two hasn't come ERA supporters should now stand this prediction on its head. not to mention ironic, to read biased about. Indications of the continuing Women, unionists, Blacks, students-all ERA supporters­ capital-controlled papers (which never bridge between Metcalfe and Daley are must take these state victories into the national arena. Now is bring the public the real news), and Metcalfe's refusal to endorse Mike the time to mobilize the majority sentiment in local and then to turn to the Militant. There are Howlett, the Democrats' candidate for national actions to force four more state legislatures to ratify two sides to every story. Although governor, and his backing of Bernard the federal ERA. money doesn't come easy these days, Carey, Republican candidate for Cook enclosed is my check for the next year. County state's attorney, over Daley's I would like to see more coverage on man, Edward Egan Carey. penal institutions and more space Of course, while Metcalfe's old ties devoted to the "rehabilitation" myth. with the machine have been broken, he With a friend presently incarcerated in is still a loyal Democrat. He recently Aid for Vietnam! California, I am thoroughly and sadly joined with other Democratic party Almost eighteen months have passed since the Vietnamese acquainted with what goes on behind "independents" here to urge people to people completed the liberation of their country from U.S. institution walls. vote for Jimmy Carter. domination. In that time, they have confronted the overwhelm­ I'm sure many of your readers realize Andrew Pulley ing task of repairing the damage done by more than a decade of the important correlation that a Chicago, Illinois U.S. occupation and bombing. The Vietnamese inherited a U.S. socialist movement has with the prison struggle for decent justice and legacy of bomb-blasted villages, orphaned children, maimed humanity. I fervently hope that in the war veterans and civilians, unemployment, and disease. future your otherwise excellent paper In an effort to overcome these problems, the government of will pay heed to the many victims of Fine article on Argentina Vietnam has demanded that the U.S. government meet its the racist, repressive, and I'm sending this letter to obligation-recognized in the Paris accords of 1973-to aid in dehumanizing prison system. They congratulate you on the fine article by the reconstruction of Vietnam. must not, be forgotten. Judy White, "Argentina: anti-Semitic terror growing" (Militant, October 22). Washington has rejected these claims, hypocritically accus­ Linda Pericciuoli Rutherford, New Jersey It once again proves that the ing the Vietnamese of violating the Paris accords. (In fact, Militant and the Socialist Workers President Richard Nixon encouraged puppet dictator Nguyen party are in the forefront of the Van Thieu to violate terms of the accords Washington viewed struggle against oppression, whoever it as concessions to the liberation forces.) Support to Carvalho? may be aimed against. The destruction rained on the Vietnamese people by succes­ H.C.S. J.B., a reader from Fond duLac, Farmingville, New York sive U.S. governments is one of the greatest crimes of human Wisconsin, asks whether it would not history. Instead of spending our tax dollars on preparing new have been "tactically astute" for and more horrible Vietnams, America's rulers have a basic Portuguese revolutionaries to have moral obligation to provide massive financial aid to Vietnam given critical support to former without delay and with no strings attached! General Carvalho in the Portuguese Vote socialist in USA & PR elections [Militant, September 17]. He A report recently issued by the reasons that since Carvalho attracted United States Commission on Civil a lot of militant workers, support of his Rights was written up in the New York candidacy would have given Times October 14 under the headline, revolutionaries a chance to "obtain a "Puerto Rican Plight in U.S. Is genuine hearing from the workers for Deplored." The contents of that report revolutionary criticism of their 'leftist' made one thing very clear; Puerto leadership." Ricans here and in Puerto Rico cannot

10 National Picket Line Frank Lovell rely on capitalist politicians to defend us, much less fight for our democratic rights. It's clear that we must oppose the capitalist parties and depend solely on Auto: not $0 settled after all independent political action, which Officials of the United Auto Workers announced In announcing that Chrysler would be next in line to alone can put forth a working-class October 27 that the Chrysler Corporation is the second sign the new contract, top union officials were careful alternative and put an end to the "target" in the 1976 round of contract negotiations in to say that their decision was made before release of appalling conditions which face us. the auto industry. A pattern settlement was reached the corporation's third-quarter profit reports. However, Well, here in the belly of the monster, earlier with Ford Moter after a twenty-eight-day strike, Douglas Fraser, a UAW vice-president and chief such an alternative does exist. It calls and ratified by a majority vote of UAW members at negotiator in the Chrysler talks, noted that the $76.2 for a massive public works job pro­ Ford plants on October 12. million quarterly take is an all-time record for this gram, a thirty-hour week with no cut in The union is demanding that Chrysler accept the company. pay, independence for Puerto Rico, free same terms as Ford in a three-year contract, no more "The $303.4 million it [Chrysler] earned in the first medical care and education, and sup­ and no less. The strike deadline for Chrysler's nine months of 1976 is not only a record for any port for the Equal Rights Amendment acceptance was set for 6:00 p.m. November 5. previous nine-month period but it also exceeds any for women. Such is the alternative Union officials had expected to settle with Chrysler previous full-year profit figure by nearly $13 million," offered by the Socialist Workers party. without a strike and then turn their full attention to Fraser said. A vote for the SWP here (especially for General Motors, largest and most prosperous of the This unearned profit, although small compared with Catarino Garza, the socialist Puerto "big three" auto corporations. UAW Vice-president what Ford and GM are raking in, is more than Rican congressional candidate run­ Irving Bluestone, head of the union's GM department, adequate to cover the minimal gains of the 1976 auto ning in New York's Eighteenth Dis­ announced after the Ford strike that GM negotiators settlement that will go to the 100,000 UAW members trict), like a vote for the Puerto Rican were refusing to make a contract offer based on the who work in Chrysler plants. Socialist party in Puerto Rico, can be Ford settlement. He said that bargaining at GM could A sober review of what was won by the union under seen as a concrete step to link the struggles, both on the island and here not begin until the company puts its offer on the table. the master agreement at Ford shows that wages will in this country. The truth is that GM is holding out against the remain unchanged from what they would have been R.T. union's demand for recognition in seven nonunion with the traditional 3 percent annual improvement Bronx, New York auto plants in the South. If Chrysler signs with the factor if the 1973 contract had been extended. Under U A W, union officials will then feel free to decide the new contract the base wage on the assembly line whether the union shop for all GM plants is a will be $7.30 in 1979. Skilled pay scales will range strikeable issue. They want time to explore this around $9.29 per hour, about $2 above unskilled pay. question and probe the corporate attitude on the The cost-of-living allowance remains unchanged. In Contact with outside matter. At the start of negotiations last summer, GM the past three years this added $1.14 to the base wage, Your newspaper is for me and my took a tough position against union recognition at its poor compensation for the rise in consumer prices. If comrades of incarceration a contact new plants. prices rise at the same rate in the next three years, with the outside world. The economic decline, despite the current recovery of auto workers will continue to lose commensurately in I translated some of your articles in the auto Industry, has caused GM to show signs of the race against inflation. French for our organization, the FLQ dissatisfaction with the cozy union-management It turns out that the much-publicized "shorter work (Front de Liberation du Quebec) relationship built up over the past quarter century. time" in the new contract amounts to only seven new section, St. Denis. Union members who are critical of the general paid days off over the next three years, hardly enough A prisoner policy of collaboration with the corporations have said to dent unemployment. Contrary to claims by UAW Georgia that· UAW President Leonard Woodcock, deeply officials, the new auto contract will create no new jobs. involved in the Carter presidential campaign, is This explains why auto workers are less than counting on the outcome of the general election for enthusiastic about their latest contract. The prospect extra leverage against the auto giants. He hopes, they of three more years of labor-management cooperation Dysfunctional and imprecise? say, to restore the old relationship, which ensured means higher profits for the corporations-and more Your newspaper suffers from two stability and high productivity in the industry but speedup, declining living standards, and mass unem­ faults. The rhetoric employed is gained few advantages for the workers. ployment for working people. dysfunctional: the most frequently occurring response I get when I ask non-Trotskyists about your paper is that it is rhetorical garbage. To woo people with different views requires sensible, scholarly, inexorable logic and language. Whoever is responsible Women in Revolt for the current use of alienating language is doing a disservice to all workers. Part and parcel of this rhetoric is the Cindy Jaquith lack of sociological or anthropological precision. The paper needs more excerpts and gleanings from scientific Lolita Lebron writings, more definitions of terms, "As a little girl, I went to school where the first under which the U.S. government has held them for more documentation of facts. thing I learned was, after the bell rang and the line more than two decades. On a separate account, I want the was formed, to place my little hand upon my heart to The five nationalists-Lolita Lebron, Oscar Collazo, party to delineate its position on salute and pledge allegiance to the flag. Andres Figueroa Cordero, Rafael Cancel Miranda, and defense (the war budget as you call it, as, indeed, it is sometimes, in some "I learned afterward that the flag was the highest Irving Flores-are all imprisoned because they support instances). What are the chances for symbol of the nation and that the nation was not independence for Puerto Rico. Collazo has been in jail hostilities and aggression in specific Puerto Rico, but a faraway country named the United since 1950. Cordero, dying of cancer, has been denied areas, from specific governments, States of America." release by pijson authorities. within particular fronts? Is no defense Pledging allegiance to the flag of U.S. domination All five prisoners have been victimized throughout desirable? Is unilateral disarmament was only one of the childhood experiences Lolita their incarceration. In 1971, when Lebron helped safe? Lebron grew up with in Puerto Rico. But it was organize a work stoppage at Alderson-in solidarity These are valid questions in this symbolic of the oppression of the Puerto Rican people, with the Attica strike-she and the other women primitive century and an eclectic, who to this day suffer under colonial rul~. prisoners were thrown into solitary confinement for informed, responsible position has to Lebron, fifty-six, is today the longest-held woman sixteen monthes. be free of rhetoric, undocumented facts, political prisoner in the Western Hemisphere. She is The five nationalists are not criminals. They are imprecise theory and overabundance incarcerated at Alderson prison in West Virginia for being kept behind bars by the criminal exploiters of of conviction. The Socialist Workers her part in the 1954 armed attack on the U.S. Congress Puerto Rico. The demand for their freedom is a party must distinguish itself in the by four members of the Nationalist party of Puerto demand for simple human justice. political mire by intelligent exposition. Rico. One need not agree with their tactics to recognize James E. Bonsteel In a recent article, Lebron described the poverty of that these are political prisoners who are being kept in Brentwood, Maryland Puerto Rico that led her to join the struggle for jail as a warning to the Puerto Rican independence independence: movement. "I saw a peasant wife taking a piece of meat out of They are meant to be a warning to the Puerto Rican the garbage cans of the landowners. This beautiful women fighting against the imperialist plot of forced The letters column is an open woman took that piece of meat from inside that sterilization and to the Puerto Rican workers forum for all viewpoints on sub­ garbage can and refried it at the wood stove of a little struggling for jobs and a living wage. jects of general interest to our kitchen and divided it among her five little hungry On November 13, demonstrations demanding the readers. Please keep your letters children." immediate release of the five nationalists are sche­ brief. Where necessary they will The case of Lebron and four other Puerto Rican duled at the United Nations and in San Francisco. be abridged. Please indicate if nationalist prisoners has won growing support in this These demonstrations deserve the active support of your name 'may be used or if you . country as people learn the outrageous conditions women's groups everywhere. prefer that your initials be used instead.

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 11 The Great Society Harry Ring

The art of positive thinking­ Collins included a division of the Data dep't-'!'he American Lung and thrifty, built up a Lower East Side Polls showing that respect for the family wheels. She got the 1969 white Association asserts that coffin nails "conglomerate," including several United States in Western Europe is at Rolls Royce. He got the '69 yellow Rolls are responsible for 300,000 U.S. deaths apartment buildings, a liquor store, a twenty-two-year low are misleading, and the '71 green one. , annually-more than alcoholism, he­ and a coin laundry. according to an official of the United roin addiction, and car accidents com­ States Information Agency. It's mis­ Witch and ghost hunter-Lewis bined. leading because no poll was taken two Harrison, who ran for the New York Social note-D.C.-area readers may years ago at the height of Watergate. Assembly on the Conservative ticket, be interested in the upcoming Interna­ Then, he said, "U.S. prestige was says he was attracted to the right-wing New York's Finest-Vincent Alba­ tional Gala. The three-day bash opens probably even lower." outfit by a concern for East Europeans no, a retired N.Y. narcotics detective, with cocktails at British Ambassador living under communism. Harrison pleaded guilty to evading $67,000 and Lady Ramsbotham's and includes One for you, two for me . says he is also a professional ghost federal income tax on unreported brunch with the Kissingers. Tickets, A divorce settlement agreed to by actor hunter and offers his services to people income over a four-year period. Probers $175. Proceeds to liquidate the $20,000 George Hamilton and ex-spouse Alana who suspect their house is haunted. say the cop, apparently hard-working deficit of the Washington Horse Show. Capitalism in Crisis Andy Rose VVhathappenedtotherecove~ What ever happened to the recovery? • Industrial production has been stagnant since ·sales have been stagnant since last March. That's the question being asked from the corpo­ July and remains lower-after a year and a half of "You cannot count on the consumer to add any rate boardrooms on Wall Street to the homes of recovery-than in June 1974. significant lift," Business Week magazine warned thousands of industrial workers hit by unexpected • The rate of increase in the gross national October 18. And it explained why: "Inflation is still layoffs. product slowed to 4 percent in the third quarter of eroding purchasing power." Even White House economic adviser L William this year. The GNP was rising at a 9.2 percent rate The head of Chase Econometric Associates makes Seidman admitted recently that the "pause in the in the first quarter and 4.5 percent in the second. the same point: "The average worker has less nation's economic growth has become a lull." • Unemployment for September was officially money in his pocket, in real terms, than he had in The slowdown in the recovery has been evident reported to be 7.8 percent, no significant change 1972 and 1973." since last May, when unemployment began to rise from 7.9 percent in August. The AFL-CIO estimates The capitalists have succeeded in boosting their again. But alarms started ringing in the capitalist that the real unemployment rate is more than 10 profits by holding wages down. But that very press at the end of September, when the govern­ percent. success has helped undermine the basis for the ment's index of "leading indicators" was reported to The typical pattern of recovery in the capitalist recovery. The prospects for working people are have dropped 1.5 percent in August-the first drop business cycle starts with a pickup in sales of clear: in eighteen months. This index is a composite of consumer goods (clothing, appliances, cars-the "Under no circumstances" will unemployment economic statistics that are supposed to signal in things people buy for their own consumption). decline to 7 percent by year-end, according to the advance the direction of the economy. Then, as business improves for the companies that director of economic studies of the Brookings The biggest factor in the August decline was an produce consumer goods, they start investing in Institution. New York Times financial analyst increase in the factory layoff rate. Layoffs in­ capital goods (new machinery and plants). Thomas Mullaney writes that economic prospects creased from 1.1 out of every 100 workers in July to Along the way, more workers are hired. They "do not offer much hope for reducing the current 7.8 1.5 in August. It was the biggest jump in more than have more money to spend on more goods. Business percent unemployment rate to any great ex­ a year and the highest layoff rate since November expands-until the inevitable crisis of overproduc­ tent.... " 1975. Meanwhile, the new hiring rate fell to the tion and a new slump. We still have to answer: Why doesn't the lowest point since January. This recovery, however, has hardly gotten out of government just provide more stimulus and perk up The index of leading indicators dropped again in the starting gate. The stimulus of government tax the economy? Why are businesses refusing to September, with the layoff rate staying at a high 1.5 cuts last year gave a temporary boost to purchase of increase their investments in capital goods? We'll percent. Other signs of the slowdown: consumer goods. But that has petered out. Retail take these questions up in future columns. By Any Means Necessary Baxter Smith A costly boycott-almost One point six million in legal tender, Mississippi such a civil judgment post a bond equaling 125 and it was segregated. Chancery Court Judge George Haynes had ordered. percent of the amount of the award. "In fact, Mr. McDaniel, who is one of the Payable by October 21. And, he had said, no more The injunction will allow the NAACP some complainants in the suit, closed that dining room excuses on paying the bond, no delayin', no stallin', breathing room while preparing an appeal to the down and it is still down today because he refused no nuttin'. Crack open the piggy bank! Mississippi Supreme Court. Carter said there are to integrate." Faced with this judgment, it looked like the twenty-four points of error in Haynes's decision The boycott was put on all white Port Gibson NAACP would take a hard fall on its kisser. that the civil rights group plans to appeal. merchants, many of whom were elected public "It was as if there wasn't even any defense in this Carter said the judgment against the NAACP is officials who bore responsibility for ending discrimi­ case," Charles Carter, the NAACP lawyer, said in about the fifth such similar award against a civil nation. an October 28 interview. rights group by a Mississippi judge. "A couple of But the merchants brought suit in 1969 claiming The judge had ruled in favor of Port Gibson, the others nearly broke SCLC [Southern Christian they had been unjustly deprived of fair trade Mississippi, white merchants who had sued the Leadership Conference]," he said. through the boycott. Last August Judge Haynes NAACP for damages claimed as the result of a The case stems from a Black boycott of white upheld them. boycott during the 1960s. merchants that began in 1966 in Port Gibson, a "His decision looked as if he took, almost exactly, town of 2,500 people, 75 percent of whom were "We were just trying to get some dignity and parts of the complainants' brief, including their Black. equal treatment for Black people in Mississippi," damage figures," said Carter. Carter pleaded. "And one of the major issues in the Eight days earlier, the day before the $1.6 million The boycott was spearheaded by the NAACP to whole complaint was to get courtesy titles. To get bond fell due, a federal judge injlincted Haynes's prompt white merchants into hiring Blacks and them to call me mister or missus, rather than boy order and said the NAACP had to post a $110,000 calling off the mean Jim Crow dog in public and girl and nigger and all that stuff." bond instead. accommodations, in light of the leash law in the There is a story about Port Gibson that says that "He knew his decision wouldn't hold up," Carter form of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. the town was the only one left standing by Ulysses said of Haynes. "That's why he awarded the "There were still Black and white signs in all the S. Grant in his swing through Mississippi during damages so 'high. They were just ·out to break the public restrooms," Carter recalled. "There were the civil war. Grant, it is said, was struck by its NAACP on getting up the bond money." segregated facilities in the bus station, and McDa­ charm and said the town was "too pretty to bum." A Mississippi law requires that parties appealing niel's drug store had the only lunch counter in town But not too pretty to bum the NAACP.

12 AIM rot est Denver rally condemns FBI harassment [The following are excerpts from of fantastic plots. I suppose they remarks made at the October 23 thought I had lists of Gls in sensitive rally for democratic rights in positions or something. Denver.] Of course, there were no such lists. There was only the overwhelming and JOSE ANGEL GUTIERREZ, Texas profound political fact that millions of Raza Unida party Americans were opposed to an immor­ I want to thank everyone here on the al war. That's all. stage with me this evening for their There wasn't any secret and there efforts and assistance in going after wasn't any plot. Great social move­ the FBI and exposing them for what ments are never the result of plots. they are. I commend the Socialist , They are the result of political pro­ Workers party for their perserverence cesses. And political processes just and diligence in going after the FBI happen to be protected by the Bill of and helping all of us-and all Rights. That's not accidental. The Bill Americans-to understand fully the of Rights was the product of a revolu­ threat we have from within the govern­ tion. ment to the basic civil liberties we are The right to think for oneself has to all supposed to enjoy. be respected, defended, and protected. Our party has decided to sue the This monstrous machine of surveil­ FBI, the CIA, and other agencies lance, intimidation, and disruption of [because of a] series of unexplained every legitimate movement for social attacks on the RUP. progress is not respect for the right of Our candidate for governor in the dissent or for the right of humanity to last election was recently indicted, settle disputes on the basis of the supposedly on conspiracy to smuggle fullest available knowledge. marijuana. Supposedly, the evidence The FBI justifies all this nonsense was obtained through telephone taps. Colorado ACLU leader James Joy addressing October 23 rally for democratic rights on the grounds of "national security." This alleged conspiracy took place in Denver. But I never had a military secret in my eighteen months earlier. But eighteen life. months earlier, he was running for What they governor, not By Ruth Getts really mean is peddling mari- DENVER-More than 175 people heard leaders of the Chicano move­ that if you don't juana. ment, American Indian movement, the Socialist Workers party, and agree with them, We were, of others blast the FBI's illegal and undemocratic attacks on political rights there's some­ course, subject­ at a meeting held here October 23. thing wrong ed to extreme Speakers at the rally were Jose Angel Gutierrez, chairperson of the with you. You're criticism. The Texas Raza Unida party; John Trudell, national chairperson of the not supposed to newspapers American Indian Movement; James Joy, Colorado director of the compete in the made a big to-do American Civil Liberties Union; James Reynolds, director of the marketplace of about that par­ Colorado Civil Rights Commission; Ruth Getts, Political Rights Defense ideas on an ticular indict- Fund; Fred Halstead, SWP; and Militant staff writer Miguel Pendas. even-stephen ment. Gutierrez and Pendas highlighted the extensive government repression basis. The brother of of the Chicano liberation movement in Colorado, Texas, and throughout The SWP is one of our or­ the Southwest. willing to compete in the marketplace ganizers in Webb County was found in The fight for the right of dissenting political groups to function freely of ideas on an even-stephen basis. All the Rio Grande, hands bound with has received particular attention here in Denver. FBI informer Timothy we want is that break. bailing wire and shot. Redfearn was caught burglarizing SWP campaign offices here last July. Not long ago, Ignacio Perez and Editorials in Denver's two major dailies have denounced the govern­ JOHN TRUDELL, national chair­ Mario Cantu were arrested in San ment's failure to take action against FBI officials for their part in the person, American Indian Move­ Antonio for harboring "aliens." This burglary. ment was in a restaurant, mind you. The SWP's $40 million lawsuit against government harassment was a Senator Eastland recently conducted I'd like to point out some things that major focus of the October 23 meeting. Gains already won by the suit an investigation of the American Indi­ the CIA considers to be important. For were pointed to by many speakers as examples for all Americans of how an Movement. The investigation had example, at the bottom of one page [of to fight for democratic rights. one witness-an FBI informer. Then a CIA document], footnote "B" says, The meeting was sponsored by the Political Rights Defense Fund, Eastland published a report saying we "MAYO, a youth organization, direct­ which is organizing support and publicity for the suit. It was endorsed by were committed to violence. ed by Jose Angel Gutierrez, has a more than thirty organizations, community leaders, and political figures. I'd say that the very opposite of that policy line more radical than that of Among them were: is true. the Alliance." I never heard of any Colorado Civil Rights Commission; U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D­ We're not organization called the Alliance. Colo.); the Denver Federation of Teachers; the Denver chapter of the committed to Maybe I should have. National Organization for Women; the student government at Metro any kind of vio­ It says, "MAYO attempts"-now State College; and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. lence. We're just this is really terrible-"to organize Rep. Patricia S~hroeder sent a message to the meeting. It read, in part, tired of the vio­ politically in areas where there are a "I fully support your struggle to clear the good name of the Socialist lence of racism majority of Mexican-Americans and to Workers party and prevent future illegal activities by the FBI. and the double win public positions. MAYO advocates "We must join hands firmly to prevent the erosion of .our First standards of the need for a political program and Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. justice in the united action by all Mexican­ "Your action tonight is helping to preserve those precious rights." courts. We're Americans." Sen. Floyd Haskell (R-Colo.) also sent a message. "For nearly forty tired of the vio­ I knew I was dangerous, but God years," he said, "the Socialist Workers. party has been subjected to lence of hunger, almighty, doing all those terrible massive and unwarranted surveillance. All citizens should be repelled by of alcoholism, things: getting people organized and this violation of civil liberties. and of drug addiction. voting, and running for office! "My political and philosophical differences with the Socialist Workers If Eastland wants to talk about a party are many and well known. Let it be remembered however, that threat to the internal security of the when the founders of this nation adopted the Bill of Rights, they did not American state, then he should be JAMES JOY, director of the Colo­ include a list of exceptions." talking about the Federal Bureau of rado American Civil Liberties Investigation. They should be talking Union about themselves and get off our In Pennsylvania, some people broke reduced in rank, or transferred to to organize, to join, to contribute backs. into the FBI offices and went through Fairbanks, Alaska. There has not been money, to tell your friends, to contact When the FBI comes to the reserva­ their files. One of the things they a single criminal charge made against anybody you know who might be in tion, they wear military fatigues and learned is that this police force is any member of the CIA or the FBI for power and express your unwillingness they carry M-16s and grenade ' spending about 15 percent of its funds all their illegal activities that have to tolerate oppression in the United launchers. They come in armored and time working on organized crime. been exposed again and again. States. personnel carriers. Thirty percent was spent on internal So what I'm asking for today is your They kick people's doors in and do paperwork. Forty percent was spent anger. I want you to join with me in a FRED HALSTEAD, Socialist exactly as they please. The FBI to our fighting draft resisters. It's amazing. sense of indignation that our rights Workers party 1968 presidential people is the 1970s version of the The FBI is clearly a body out of have so systematically been stripped candidate cavalry. control, and I personally call for its away from us. Mter I had just gotten back from a I hope that we can all come together dissolution. I call for its dismantle­ It's important that we insist that campaign tour of Vietnam, my brief­ in some way so that we can go after ment. I call for the American people to every American, no matter what his case was stolen and my apartment the FBI. The threat that they pose is gather together and rid ourselves of views, has a right to organize, to speak searched by FBI agents. very real. You can't leave it up to the this Federal Bureau of Investigation. out, and to be heard. Now, what were they doing and politicians. You can't leave it up to Let me remind you that there has not But more than your indignation and why? In their own gumshoe minds I Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter. The been one agent fired, or suspended, your anger, I ask your action. I ask you suppose they had elaborated all kinds people are going to have to do it.

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 13 :::.:::~:==:=..:= :-no:.==::-T..!:-:=::.:=E :='-!.t::--==--=··-~------­.. ----· HOW LABOR LOST THE 76 ELECTION

--· 5.E. Caunc:l wins, 301·96 otExchlnp---· Food-.__ , rotifJ B.C. pact

By Lynn Henderson "The big thing we were worried deciding and implementing policy. and Republicans alike, are parties of Labor has lost another election. about from the start of the campaign "Labor, for all its vaunted power, big business. Not a single candidate was elected­ was apathy," said AI Barkan, head of has been unable to get a pro-labor law Organized labor does have the poten­ to the White House, Congress, or any the AFI.rCIO's Committee on Political passed for as long as I can remember," tial for tremendous political power. But state legislature or executive post­ Education. admitted Jerry Wurf, president of the that potential can only be realized by who will represent the interests of So the unions went all-out to con­ American Federation of State, County breaking with the Democrats and working people. vince millions of workers who correctly and Municipal Employees, in an inter­ Republicans and launching an inde­ But then, the union officialdom did saw no difference between Carter and view in the MayI June issue of Skeptic pendent political party of labor-based not campaign for any such candidates. Ford-who couldn't trust either one­ magazine. on, run by, and accountable to the Instead, it devoted unprecedented to swallow their revulsion, go into the "What I've found, essentially," Wurf labor movement. amounts of union money, time, and voting booth, and pull the lever. said, "is that the only people who seem effort to electing Carter, Mondale, and In a nationwide radio address, AFI.r to know how to elect candidates and If the time, money, and effort the (for the most part) other Democrats. CIO President George Meany pleaded: maintain their loyalty are big busi­ unions poured into the Carter cam­ The New York Times called it "the "Vote as you please, but please vote." ness." paign this fall had instead been biggest, most expensive, best organ­ Meany assured unionists that vital Despite this damning admission, devoted to independent working-class ized and most sophisticated campaign issues would be decided November 2: Wurf was again in the forefront of political action, labor could have taken that organized labor has ever conduct­ "Will you have a job or not; will you be getting the labor vote out for Demo­ a giant step forward. ed in support of a Presidential candi­ able to purchase a decent home at a cratic politicians, including Carter. Instead, the union bureaucracy con­ date." price you can afford or not; will your The reason that politicians "main­ tinues to lead the labor movement Unions distributed more than 80 children get a decent chance for tain the.ir loyalty" only to big business down an increasingly treacherous and million pieces of literature aimed at quality education or not; will those is simply that both parties, Democrats self-defeating road. getting Carter into the White House. who become ill have a chance for good In the manner of old-time ward­ medical care at a price they can meet heelers, shop stewards and · union or not.... " officers were instructed to put the arm All this and more, according to of local members at lunch breaks and Meany, would be decided by whether on the job. Carter was elected over Ford. A lew buck the tide Other techniques were ultramodern. The unions were indeed instrumental The United Electrical Workers Workers party presidential candi­ The AFI.rCIO's computer in Washing­ in getting out the vote, in preventing a union (UE), not an AFI.rCIO affil­ date Peter Camejo and Socialist ton ·has the names, addresses, wards, record low turnout, in propping up the iate, voted at its international con­ party nominee Frank Zeidler. and precincts of most of the federa­ decrepit two-party system, and in vention September 13-17 not to tion's 14.5 million members. These electing Carter. endorse either Carter or Ford. The were painstakingly matched with voter Complete analyses are not yet avail­ UE has traditionally backed Demo­ * * * registration, party enrollment, and able, but the labor vote was apparently crats. Many local unions were willing to telephone numbers to ensure that crucial for Carter's victory. It was UE President Albert Fitzgerald hear representatives of the Socialist every possible union member would be decisive in such states as New York told the convention that working Workers party campaign. One of contacted to vote for Carter. and Pennsylvania, without which he people must never again choose these was Communications Workers The final preelection issues of union could not have come close to an between the lesser of two evils. of America Local 4309 in Cleveland. newspapers were largely turned into electoral majority. "Only if the labor unions of this The union's newsletter, Percep­ campaign leaflets for the Carter­ What did labor achieve with this count!'y let the politicians of both tion!, carried. an editorial in its Mondale ticket. massive effort? major parties know that we are not September issue backing the SWP It played a key role in electing a tied to the tails of any political candidates' right to ballot status in Carter received firm backing even president who is opposed to busing to party, will we be able to get what we Ohio. The October newsletter carried from unions, such as some of the achieve school desegregation. need," he declared. profiles of the positions of Peter building trades, that have traditionally Who opposes the right of women to Camejo, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy remained aloof from presidential polit­ have abortions. Carter. Representatives from all ics. Who is committed to continued * * * three campaigns addressed the lo­ According to U.S. News & World increases in military spending. Delegates to the Wisconsin Federa­ cal's October 7 membership meeting. Report, "In the midst of its strike Who, in the name of government tion of Teachers state convention against Ford Motor Company, the efficiency, will carry out further cut· voted October 29 to reject their United Auto Workers still kept the backs in education, health care, and leadership's proposal to endorse the * * * campaign in mind: members who other social services. Carter-Mondale ticket. After heated The most impressive union back­ wanted strike benefits in Illinois first Who is a known supporter of antiun­ discussion, the endorsement was ing for SWP campaigns came in San had to attend political-education ion "right to work" laws. defeated by a 1!10- U:l:'l roll call vote. Francisco. Sylvia Weinstein, SWP classes.'' The unions seem to have great Of tiw teachers opposed to endors­ candidate for bohrd of education was The union officialdom was deter­ political clout. But under the present ing the Democratic slaw. a minority offirially endorst>d by Civil Service mined to elect Carter. But it also had a policy their only clout is to serve the were Republicans. Most were inde­ Association I ,ocal -100, Painters broader aim· in mind: to get out•the interests of labor's enemies. Tied to the pendents or supporters of third-party Local 4, and Retail Clerks Local vote and thereby show that "the Democratic and Republican parties, candidates, including Socialist 1100. system works." labor has no say where it counts-in

14 Letter.s'·to~, SWP campaign 'Been looking for my party-hope I've found it' [The following letters are some of He's A-1 jo's beliefs and my own are very similar I was taught that socialism represent­ the many received recently by the Sorry I couldn't afford more-but every on government and on what is best for ed dictatorial oppression. Socialist Workers party presidential little bit helps or hurts, depending on the United States. Well, I guess you can't believe every­ campaign of Peter Camejo and Willie who you're for. I would like to help and, while my thing you hear! Mae Reid. I thought your presidential candidate money contribution is something less Bloomfield, New Jersey [More than 3,400 letters alone was A-1 on the "Tomorrow" show. I have than huge, t would like to contribute my were received in response to Peter been looking for "my" political party. time to the SWP. I do not and will not Aware of common people Camejo's October 14 appearance on Hopefully I've found it. Send me any work for profit-oriented organizations. So I saw Peter Camejo on the "Tomorrow" NBC-TV's "Tomorrow" show.] information you might have on your I ltave plenty of time to contribute, but show and was very impressed by many party-l'm really interested. Also I'd like very little money, regrettably. of the things he said. I am grateful that Votes from Idaho panhandle your papers on Ford and Carter. They there is someone running for president My husband and I saw Peter Camejo's should be humorous. Your suggestions would be helpful and who is aware of the common people and interview on public television and were City of Industry, California much appreciated. Also send me some their problems, wants, and needs. very impressed. You have two votes from reading material by and about the SWP. I am twenty-seven years old, and the Idaho panhandle. The more the better. I've read Nelson although I once worked for the Kennedy We would appreciate more information Blackstock's book, Cointelpro, and while campaign, I have never voted. So far, about the campaign and your organiza­ Plain ole truth I've known for some time FBI and CIA there has never been a candidate I felt tion in general. We consider ourselves Saw your candidate recently on Tom tactics, the book was very informative. was worth voting for. This time around I socialists, but have no formal affiliation Snyder's "Tomorrow" show for the short Dubuque, Iowa was determined to vote-even if it was to a party. If there is a local organization time that he was on the program, and I just to go vote against someone, and for in Spokane, Washington (our nearest feel that everything he said was the He got my vote the lesser of two evils. city), will you please send us the address. plain, everyday truth that we all can see Saw Peter on the tube last night with So, you'll understand why I'm so Enclosed is a small donation from our around us. Paul Duke. He got my vote. pleased to find a man like Peter Camejo unemployment benefits. I'm disgusted with the monopoly of the I almost had forgotten myself and was in the running. Although the chances are Coeur d'Alene, Idaho two-party system and the control of the going to go the lesser-of-two-evils route against his winning the election, I'm military-industrial-government complex and vote Carter. I'm glad I was reminded going to go out and vote for him anyway. Proposals most refreshing over all our lives. I'm fed up with all the to keep the ideals of democracy in mind. San Francisco, California I just finished watching the end of your vast promises made before each election The enclosed donation is literally all I Public Broadcasting Service interview period, only to blow away in smoke the have in the bank. with Paul Duke. I must say that after day after the election. San Francisco, California At last someone to vote for having previously listened to the Carter­ Would like to purchase a book he I saw your candidate for president on Ford debate I found your proposals and mentioned on the program-the Cointel­ You can't believe It the Tom Snyder show. At last I have observations most refreshing. pro book. Just a note from a concerned citizen someone to vote for. At last a group that I would greatly appreeiate your send­ Pueblo, Colorado who feels his country growing away from is willing to see America for what it is, ing me more information on the Socialist him. I was taught in school that our has been, and can and should be. Workers party's philosophy and posi­ Nix on profit orientation nation was free. (Only as free as its most Please! Send me some information on tions. I am sincerely interested in learn­ Recently, I was fortunate enough to oppressed minorities!) your organization and also the pamphlet ing more. hear the SWP candidate for president, I was taught that our nation represent­ on Carter. Madison, Wisconsin Peter Camejo, on television. Mr. Came- ed the feelings of its people. Indianapolis, Indiana Socialists debate opponents in Senate races Guard killing of four Kent State I'm concerned, that's 100 percent. such as hospitals, child-care centers, University students in 1970.'' You've got my vote." and schools. Ohio The Cleveland daily also cited A student at Cleveland Heights High "Instead of spending billions for By Brad Kahn Singler's condemnation of racist anti­ School wrote, "I skipped school on destruction,'' Evans proposed, "let's CLEVELAND-"She stole the show busing violence in Boston. Friday and boy I'm glad I did-1 would launch a crash program to help pro­ with a fast paced, strident attack on When Singler concluded her re­ have never heard about you." vide constructive jobs for those out of American capitalism." marks, the City Club audience gave The City Club debate ended an work. This was the Cleveland Plain Deal­ her a rousing hand. They were show­ exciting month of campaigning for Responding to Kennedy's defense of er's evaluation of Melissa Singler's ing an uneasy recognition for this Singler. Singler traveled to twenty-five Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy in south­ performance at an October 29 debate capable young socialist. They knew Ohio cities, spoke on nineteen college em Africa, Evans blasted U.S. govern­ between Ohio senatorial candidates. campuses, and was interviewed or ment support for white minority re­ Singler, the Socialist Workers party reported on by twenty-six television gimes. candidate, is challenging incumbent stations, more than fifty radio sta­ "If Kissinger believes in Black ma­ Republican Robert Taft and Democrat tions, and thirty-five newspapers. jority rule, why has he remained silent Howard Metzenbaum. about South Africa?" Evans asked. The prestigious Cleveland City Club "The truth is that Kissinger is only sponsored the event at the Cleveland concerned with protecting U.S. corpo­ Plaza Hotel. Taft and Metzenbaum, rate interests in that part of the world. both_ millionaires, felt at home among We socialists are for Black majority the wealthy businessmen who domi­ Massachusetts rule throughout Africa. Just as we nated the audience of 600 people. By Susan LaMont supported the Vietnamese people in Singler didn't aim her comments at BOSTON-On Sunday, October 31, their struggle for national liberation, this elite crowd. She was speaking to Massachusetts voters heard Socialist we give our full support to the Black the millions of Ohio workers, Blacks, Workers party candidate for U.S. freedom struggle in southern Africa.'' youth, and women viewing the debate Senate Carol Henderson Evans con­ When Robertson denounced busing, on television or listening to it on radio. front her opponents, including Sen. Evans jumped in to defend Black Television stations in Cleveland, Edward Kennedy. The televised debate youth seeking an equal, desegregated Columbus, and Cincinnati carried the also included Republican candidate education. Kennedy, on the other confrontation live. Twelve other TV Michael Robertson and Graham Lowry hand, maintained his habitual silence stations in seven cities rebroadcast it of the right-wing U.S. Labor party. on busing. during prime time over the weekend. MELISSA SINGLER It was a refreshing change from the Evans was also the only candidate And eighteen radio stations across the phony presidential debates that ex­ to urge a huge voter tum out for a state also covered the debate. cluded all candidates except Ford and "yes" vote on Question 1, a referendum Metzenbaum spoke first, offering that many people in Ohio are listening Carter. to add an Equal Rights Amendment to vague promises to bring more industry to the SWP candidate. In 197 4, for Each of• the Massachusetts candi­ the state constitution. into the state and dampen unemploy­ example, Nancy Brown, SWP candi­ dates fielded questions from reporters ment. date for governor, polled almost and presented two minute wrap-up Mter him, Singler tore into the 100,000 votes. statements. In contrast to her oppo­ hypocrisy of the Democratic and Re­ At the debate, Taft followed Singler nents' predictably vague responses, publican parties-the parties responsi­ at the podium. He began by turning to Evans presented concrete proposals for ble for soaring unemployment and the socialist and saying, "Melissa, eliminating the state's 8 percent unem­ high prices. · that's a tough act to follow.'' ployment. Describing Singler's presentation, Also speaking at the Plaza were "Measures like the Humphrey­ the October 30 Plain Dealer wrote, candidates for the American Indepen­ Hawkins Bill, which Senator Kennedy "Warning that her views are 'consi­ dent party and the Socialist Labor supports, will do nothing to solve the dered dangerous by the government,' party and an independent candidate unemployment problem,'' Evans said. she said, 'this is an irrational system. for Senate. "What we need as the first immediate Most of the wealth and power in this During the days after the debate, measure is to reduce the workweek to country is in the hands of a few rich letters flooded the Socialist Workers thirty hours with no reduction in pay. men and the rest of us have to struggle campaign office. "I've always voted "The Socialist Workers party also for a living.' for the Democrats, but I'm fed up with calls for eliminating the war budget. "She urged a 100 percent tax on all hearing about 8 percent unemployment The $115 billion, which is currently war profits and all businesses tlrat or how good 5 percent unemployment being used to defend U.S. corporate pollute. She also urged a reopening of would be,'' wrote a resident of Lorain, interests around the world, should be the investigation of the Ohio National Ohio. "I'm unemployed and as far as spent on much-needed social services CAROL HENDERSON EVANS

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 15 By Ed Berger . ., . . . A winning strategy has to be based on joining in NEW YORK-The Delegglle ASsembly of New mutual support with other union& and with the York's United Federation of Teachers met October Black and Puerto Rican communities. This is where 22 at a time when the union faces a new, double­ the Shanker leadership has failed most abysmally. barreled attack: loss of dues checkoff and the Issues • In 1968 Shanker led the union in a racist city­ announcement of drastic new budget cutbacks. wide strike against the Ocean Hill-Brownsville The week before, a state agency revoked dues experimental school district, an attempt by the checkoff privileges for the UFT because of its Black community to control their own schools. five-day strike in 1975. This action was taken under facing • Since 1968 the UFT has vindictively fought the state's notorious Taylor Law, which prohibits against efforts by Puerto Rican, Black, and Chinese strikes by public employees. parents in school District One to shape education to Next came the announcement by Mayor Abra­ the needs of their children. ham Beame and the Emergency Financial Control N.Y • Bending to pressure from racist antibusing Board that budget cutbacks in fiscal year 1977-78 forces, Shanker insisted at the 1975 American will be the worst yet: $500 million in new cuts. UFT Federation of Teachers convention that the union President Albert Shanker told the delegates this take no position on busing. would probably mean the loss of 4,000 to 5,000 more teachers • At the 1976 AFT convention a weak probusing teaching jobs. resolution was adopted, only in order to head off a Shanker's strategy for fighting against these stronger resolution presented by the AFT Commit­ attacks on education and on teachers' standard of tee on Desegregation and Equality in Education. living was embodied in a motion .passed at the With a record like that, why should the Black and previous delegate assembly. That motion committed Puerto Rican communities support the UFT? the UFT to work to "ensure the election of a Yet during our September 1975 strike, despite Democratic President of the United States and a Shanker's record, the minority communities under­ Democratic Senator from the State of New York." stood that the attack on teachers was part of a At the October meeting Shanker said that general attack on education. Their support testifies "working toward this goal means getting more to the great potential that still exists for a teacher­ money for COPE"-the AFL-CIO's Committee On community alliance to fight the cutbacks. Political Education. The UFT, for its part, did virtually nothing to It is utopian, Shanker declared, to think that organize and mobilize this support. Shanker called off the strike-the most solid in the UFT's history­ Ed Berger is a teacher at Grady High School in after five days. The resulting settlement, a disaster for everyone, fell hardest on the Black and Puerto Brooklyn and a member of the United Rican communities. Federation of Teachers. Discriminatory layoffs teachers can gain anything from mass actions or Further alienating the communities from the UFT increased militancy. He implied that the 1975 strike is the virtual elimination of Black and Latino was a big mistake. If teachers had taken the money teachers from the schools, through layoffs based on lost in wages and fmes resulting from the strike and strict seniority. · instead invested it in politics, he said, "we would In the 1973-74 school year minority teachers made now have the best politicians money can buy." up 12 percent of the total in New York City. By But if Shanker doesn't already have "the best April 1976 layoffs had cut them to less than 5 politicians money can buy," it is not from lack of percent of the work force. Of the teachers laid off up trying. to that time, 45 percent were minority teachers. Under Shanker's direction the UFT has a long Yet Shanker condemns any adjustment of seniori­ record of pouring money into the campaigns of PARENTS, STUDENTS: Join picket lines in '75 strike. ty lines to preserve the proportion of minorities as Democratic and Republican politicians. What does "racism in reverse" and "discrimination against that record show? whites." In 1969 UFT funds "bought" the support of Affirmative-action plans to hire more Black and ninety state legislators. They were alleged to be Puerto Rican teachers-and unyielding defense of "proteacher" bcause of their racist opposition to their gains in times of layoffs-are absolutely Black and Puerto Rican community control of necessary if the UFT is ever to convince the Black schools. Seventy-three of these "friends of educa­ and Latino communities that the union cares about tion" had voted for the Taylor Law, which has been the education of their children. ruthlessly used against the UFT and other munici­ The Latino communities also want the extension pal unions. of bilingual programs and the hiring of more · In 1973 the UFT endorsed, for the first time, a bilingual teachers. candidate in a New York City election: Democrat While giving token, verbal support to bilingual Abraham Beame for mayor. education, Shanker has consistently opposed its "Our endorsement of Abe Beame reflects teachers' implementation. He wants to recertify older white growing political awareness," Shanker declared at teachers as bilingual rather than see young Latinos the time. He praised Beame as "a progressive and hired. How can this stance gain support for the enlightened public official," able "to get people UFT among Latinos? working together" to improve wages and working conditions in New York City schools. Time to fight back The next year the UFT went all out to elect New York teachers and their union are now in Democrat Hugh Carey as governor. Teachers had grave peril. As Shanker himself admits, "The whole "a tremendous feeling of excitement" about Carey, series of layoffs and penalties raises the question in Shanker said. the minds of members of whether the union can Teachers were told that Carey would work to get really do anything for them." rid of the Taylor Law. Instead, both of these Many will ask why they should keep on paying Democrats have spearheaded the elimination of MilitanVlou nearly $200 a year dues to an organization that, some 20,000 teaching positions and the gutting of BLACK EDUCATORS: Protest discriminatory layoffs. when the chips are down, seems incapable of public education. And they have used the Taylor defending them. Law as a club against teachers who try to resist. But leaving the UFT is no answer. It only leaves teachers unorganized and powerless. Now Carter? Teachers should look instead to transforming the Despite this record of failure and betrayal, UFT and reversing the disastrous policies of Shanker is busily peddling Jimmy Carter as the Shankerism. This is not an impossible dream. answer to our problems. Electing Carter will bring Thousands of teachers are discussing a new course hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to New York and the need to change the old policies. City, Shanker promises. Shanker is correct when he says that political The October 25 Wall Street Journal presents a action is the only realistic course for teachers. But more informed and accurate assessment. "Beyond a for Shanker, the beginning and end of political difference in rhetorical tones, and wishful thinking action is reliance on capitalist party politicians. in City hall... ," the Journal's editors write, The first question in politics is: Who are our "chances are that when New York returns to friends, and who are our enemies? Shanker's Washington in January with its plea for more help, policies tie us hand and foot to our enemies and it will get about the same reception, regardless of divide us from our friends. who is in office." We should fight side by side with the Black and Shanker's strategy has been tried. It has failed. A Latino communities against the bipartisan budget­ new strategy is needed. cutters. That is political action. First, it is necessary to recognize that the city We need mass demonstrations in the streets to crisis affects all social services, not just education. savejobs and education in New York City. That is Individual, isolated demonstrations and strikes political action. cannot tum this situation around. Shanker uses We need a policy that will also lead to a new kind this obvious fact to try to discredit the idea of of electoral political action-independent of the demonstrating against injustice. at all. Democrats and Republicans. To the formation of a But the c~rrect conclusion is that the UFT should political party based on the trade :unions, which will reach out to all the victims of the crisis and wage a MilitanVlou Howort put forward a social program that defends the consistent fight against all layoffs and all cutbacks. SHANKER: Seeks 'best politicians money can buy.' interests of all the working people and oppressed.

16 Steel Fight Back spreads across country giving steelworkers more power in union members "whether they're for, ton plant, it didn't work. Hughes LOS A nge Ies bargaining. He said this was one of his against, or sitting on the fence ... to supporters of Ed Sadlowski are going major goals. This response struck a hear for themselves what Ed has to full speed ahead with plans to build By Chris Hildebrand very positive note with his audience. say." the biggest possible meeting for Ed on LOS ANGELES-More than 150 Los Several supporters of Lloyd McBride, The meeting will be held at the Nov. 7." Angeles-area steelworkers gathered Abel's handpicked successor, stood Holiday Inn on Eastex Freeway (High- Riehle's rehiring was an example of here October 17 to hear Ed Sadlowski outside the meeting distributing an way 59) at Little York, beginning at how to stand up to management and and Ignacio "Nash" Rodriguez, insur­ anti-Sadlowski flyer. In addition to 3:30 p.m. win. Both the rehiring and Sadlowski's gent candidates for president and thinly disguised red-baiting, their leaf- Sadlowski supporters in Houston arrival in Houston are beginning to secretary of the United Steelworkers of let included a racist dig at Rodriguez, have been hitting plant gates daily to turn around the climate of intimida- America. talking about his failure to support get out the word of their candidate's tion whipped up this summer and fall Many local union officials were there "one of his kind" in some other union visit. The District 37 newsletter re- by management and other antiunion in an initial demonstration of support election. ports: forces. to the Steelworkers Fight Back slate. When Sadlowski invited these Abel "Houston steelworkers kicked off the Meanwhile, at recent union meetings Among them were two of the four supporters inside the meeting to voice fall campaign with a widely publicized at Hughes Tool, American Can, and candidates for District 38 director, Roy their criticisms, they quickly disap- distribution of campaign literature for some other USW A locals, motions were Santa Cruz and Mike Friedhoff. Dis­ peared. Sadlowski said that similar Ed Sadlowski at Armco Steel's Hous- rammed through to "endorse" McBride trict 38 is the huge Western region of leaflets and behavior had followed him ton Works. In spite of severe harass- for president and Ed Ball for district the union. around the country. He strongly con- ment last summer, including the shoot- director. More than half of those at the demned red-baiting and racism as ing of Sadlowski backer Ben Corum at Former District 37 Director James Sadlowski meeting were Chicanos, a divisive and incompatible with trade the Hughes Tool plant, and a physical Ward-whose regime was marked by reflection of the largely Chicano com­ unionism. attack on leafletters last July at the violence, red-baiting, and suppression position of District 38 steelworkers. The current District 38 director, Armco plant, there were no incidents of dissent-dropped dead October 15 of It was Sadlowski's first public rally Frank McKee, is running for interna- this time around. Subsequent literature a heart attack. Ball, one of Ward's in this area. After a brief presentation tional treasurer on the McBride ticket. distribution at other Houston plants staff, has quickly moved to assume · outlining his basic platform for union There are four announced candidates has been peaceful, also." control of the district machine. democracy, he answered questions for to succeed him as director: Santa Cruz, A recent attempt to victimize Sad­ almost two hours. Friedhoff, Bob Petris, and Juan Chac- lowski supporters in Houston backfired The "endorsement" motions are out The first question dealt with the 6n. when Hughes 'I:ool Company was of order and meaningless, since the Experimental Negotiating Agreement, Sadlowski said he was neutral in the forced to reinstate campaign activist official period for local nominations the no-strike pact signed by USW A District 38 race. He urged those present David Riehle. Riehle had been fired on does not begin until November 8_ President I.W. Abel with the basic steel to help get all of the candidates on the phony charges of "discrepancy in work Special meetings must then be held to companies. Sadlowski vowed to work ballot to allow the widest possible record" and "excessive absenteeism." allow all local members to nominate to eliminate the ENA as rapidly as choice in the election. Hughes steelworkers leafleted the whomever they wish for district and possible. "When the Wall Street Jour­ "Nash" Rodriguez, who shared the plant gates protesting the company's international office, and vote on the nal praises ENA you know there is platform with Sadlowski, is a popular arbitrary action. At a subsequent proposed nominees. something terribly wrong," he said. figure locally. He has worked in the hearing the company responded to a Ball's rush to create the impression Sadlowski also stressed the need to mines and mills since he was seven- grievance filed by the union and of monolithic support for the "official create a new consciousness. within the teen. He has been an elected leader of reinstated Riehle. family" candidates, steelworkers here union so that there could never again Local 1549 at American Can Company The District 37 newsletter states: "If speculate, may indicate that the right­ be a no-strike deal in any steel con­ since 1958 and local president since Hughes management was trying to wing forces are less than confident of tract. 1973. intimidate Ed's backers at their Hous- their hold over the District 37 ranks. One questioner asked about the Rodriguez said that although Steei­ consent decree, an agreement between workers Fight Back was officially the government, the basic steel com­ neutral, he personally had committed panies, and the union for a weak himself to Roy Santa Cruz before he affirmative-action program for women joined the Sadlowski slate and would and minorities. Sadlowski said the continue to support him. consent decree doesn't go nearly far Rodriguez also spoke of the impor­ enough to eliminate discrimination tance of Sadlowski's choice of Chicano and job tracking. and Black running mates. He contrast­ A young steelworker asked if Sad­ ed this to the tokenism and patroniz­ lowski supported the strict constitu­ ing attitude of the Abel officialdom. tional requirements to run for local The spirited gathering was a good union office, including attendance at start for building a powerful Sadlowski at least one-half of the union meetings campaign in this area. Supporters held during the three years prior to have opened a headquarters at 4833 candidacy. Sadlowski said he favors Slauson Avenue in Maywood. eliminating this restriction, which is aimed at younger unionists. One worker criticized the discussion for focusing on problems in basic steel, where only a minority of the USWA's Houston 1.4 million members are employed. By Jean Starbuck This point is especially relevant in Los HOUSTON-Ed Sadlowski is com­ Angeles, where 25,000 to 30,000 steel­ ing to Houston. The rebel candidate for workers are scattered in more than 200 president of the United Steelworkers small shops, few of them under basic will fly in Sunday, November 7, from steel contracts. weekend stops in Knoxville and Bir­ Sadlowski called for bringing the mingham. nger smaller plants under regional and A newsletter published by District 37 Sadlowski supporter leaflets at Armco Steel in Houston. Persistent campaigning is ultimately nationwide contracts, thus Steelworkers for Sadlowski urges all beginning to turn around atmosphere of right-wing harassment and intimidation.

Pittsburgh SWP sets blitz week for steel sales By Pat Douglas union politics for the first time. SWP members and also our campaign steelworkers while selling the Militant PITTSBURGH-A special blitz ef­ "We find they are also very open to supporters ·will take the pamphlet door in Pittsburgh," she said, "and this fort the week of November 7-13 will discussing socialist ideas. This pam­ to door in neighborhoods with a high pamphlet makes important reading for launch the Pittsburgh Socialist phlet, along with the Militant, is the concentration of steelworkers. It's the other working people as well." Workers party's campaign to sell The best way to introduce them to our same way we sell Militant subscrip­ Finally, efforts will be made to place Fight for Union Democracy in Steel at party and our ideas about the labor tions. copies of the pamphlet in the many plant gates throughout the area. movement." "Then,-throughout the week, we plan newsstands, stores, and coffee shops This pamphlet by Militant staff Sadlowski spoke at three rallies in to saturate the plants. We'll go to each around the mill gates. "Perhaps we writer Andy Rose discusses the issues the Pittsburgh area October 29-31. "Of plant first with thousands of leaflets can't get that many steelworkers to our in the steelworkers union and the the 300 people who attended the that tell about the pamphlet and the bookstore right now, but we can get a significance of Ed Sadlowski's chal­ rallies," Robinett said, "57 bought the Militant. We want to hit every gate part of our bookstore to the steel­ lenge to the union bureaucracy. pamphlet, 30 bought copies of the and every shift. Then the next day we workers." "The response has been tremend­ Militant, and 2 bought Militant sub­ will be back to sell as many pamphlets ous," says Ruth Robinett, SWP branch scriptions." as possible." How many pamphlets do they eXpect organizer. "We've sold more than 100 Now, she said, the SWP intends to Of course, the sales drive will contin­ to sell? "We haven't set a specific copies already, and we've hardly been reach the tens of thousands of other ue "right through the union election goal," Robinett replied. "This cam­ trying. steelworkers who haven't turned out next February," Robinett said. paign is really an experiment for our "Because of the Sadlowski cam­ for meetings. Salespeople going out to sell the branch. But we've already sold more paign," Robinett explained, "many "The entire party membership in Militant, whether on street corners or than 100 copies, and we believe the 350 steelworkers are getting involved in Pittsburgh will be involved. On the at plant gates, will take along copies of we've ordered so far won't last us very the union and are thinking about Sunday after the election, November 7, the pamphlet. "You run into a lot of long."

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 17 'Scottsboro Bo had·lon road to freedom By Baxter Smith One of the two white women, Ruby With no apology, with no compensa­ Bates, reversed her story in 1933 and tion for forty years of wrong, Alabama took the witness stand to deny the authorities finally lifted the weight rape. from the neck of Clarence Norris. "I was excited and frightened by the ruling class of white people of Scotts­ "I feel a lot better," Norris said. "You boro and other towns," Bates later have no idea of how it feels living with stated. She said "those police . . . a ballast around your neck." made me tell a lie.'' Norris, the sole surviving "Scottsbo­ In 1937 the state dropped charges ro Boy," was reacting to news of his against four of the nine: Montgomery, pardon October 25 by Alabama Gov. Williams, Roberson, and Leroy Wright. George Wallace for a parole violation The others were again sentenced to connected to the much-publicized 1930s death or long terms. rape case. In 1944 Andrew Wright, Weems, and The sixty-four-year-old Black man Norris were paroled. was quick to draw a meaning from his Norris said a condition of his parole plight: was that he work in a lumber yard in "The lesson to Black people, to my Montgomery for forty cents an hour. children, to everybody, is that you He disliked those conditions and should always fight for your rights, went to New York. Rearrested when he even if it costs you your life. Stand up returned to Alabama, Norris spent two for your rights, even if it kills you. more years in prison. That's all that life consists of." In 1946 Powell was paroled. Norris Norris, a Brooklyn resident, added, was released and left the state, never "I'm just glad to be free. They said that to return. I was a nobody, a dog, but I stood up All during the trials and appeals, the and I told the truth." NAACP was a major defender of the For forty-five years, through three nine. The case also drew wide support trials and fifteen prison years-five on from civil liberties, labor, and political death row-Norris has been telling the groups around the world. truth. But Alabama authorities never heard them yelling like crazy how they convictions. In 1970 NAACP officials began to listened. were coming in after us and what Ozie Powell, Olen Montgomery, work on a pardon for Norris. The civil It was March 25, 1931, when Norris ought to be done with us. 'Give 'em to Andrew Wright, Willie Roberson, Char­ rights group sought to convince Alaba­ and eight other Blacks-aged thirteen -us,' they kept screaming, till some of lie Weems, Eugene Williams, Norris, ma authorities that Norris and the to twenty-were taken from a the guys, they cried like they were and Patterson were sentenced to die. others had been wronged for more Memphis-bound freight and accused of seven or eight years old." Only Leroy Wright, the youngest, was than forty-five years and that their beating a white drifter. Two white It was this atmosphere that brought spared. names should be cleared. women on the train also told sheriffs a quick trial for the nine. Protests were soon organized. Some The state attorney general, William the Blacks had raped them. "Gentlemen of the jury," Patterson drew tens and hundreds of thousands, Baxley, wrote a letter to the parole The nine were taken into custody recalled the prosecutor saying, "I don't as the injustice of the Scottsboro board recommending dismissal of and jailed. Word of the arrests spread say give that nigger the chair. I'm not frame-up became know. Norris's case. quickly through the small town of going to tell you to give him the "Rally to the Defense of the Scottsbo­ "In my opinion," wrote Baxley, Scottsboro. electric chair. ro Boys!" said a headline in the June 1, "after a thorough review of all aspects "We could look out the window and "You know your duty. 1931, Militant. of the case of Clarence Norris, that this see a mob of folks gathering. They "I'm not going to tell you to give the "The defendants are transparently individual never should have been were excited and noisy," wrote Hay­ nigger a life sentence. All I can say is, innocent," the article said. "The trial charged with any offense against wood Patterson, one of the nine, in hide him. Get him out of our sight. was a farce. Elementary democratic Ruby Bates or Victoria Price, and that Scottsboro Boy. "Hide them. Get them out of our rights were violated." his repeated sentences of death and his "Round about dusk · hundreds of sight. The defendants were tried three and 15 years spent incarcerated in Alaba­ people gathered about the jailhouse. "They're not our niggers. Look at four times, and the convictions were ma prisons can only be termed tragic." 'Let these niggers out,' they yelled. We their eyes, look at their hair, gentle­ overturned twice by the U.S. Supreme The machinery was now in motion. could hear it coming in the window. 'If men. They look like something just Court. Governor Wallace only made it official. you don't, we're l:oming in after them.' broke out of the zoo. At one point, an Alabama judge But there was no apology. And there White folks were running around like "Guilty or not guilty, let's get rid of reversed a conviction and said he was no compensation frolll Alabama mad ants, white ants, sore that some­ these niggers., found "absolutely no evidence" to authorities for the nobody, for the dog body had stepped on their hill. We This atmosphere also brought quick prove guilt. who kept telling the truth. Black lawyers discuss goals at nat'l convention By Baxter Smith sixth annual convention of the group. National conference lawyers have ers (D-Mich.) was a guest speaker at DETROIT-Meeting here October Its theme was "Rights in Crises: Days participated in the Hampton family the opening night session. 21-24, the National Conference of of Repression." lawsuit, which seeks some $40 million Diggs said that events in southern Black Lawyers condemned U.S. moves Lennox Hinds, national director of in damages for the murder of Hampton Africa now "signal that the countdown in _southern Africa, renewed its sup­ the organization, stated in his opening and Panther Mark Clark. has ended and the final stage of the port for Black victims of racist frame­ night address that for Blacks the National conference lawyers have revolution has begun." ups, and vowed to arouse public "promise of the sixties" has been also litigated cases in the past year The senior Black congressperson opposition to the death penalty. shaken by recent Supreme Court ac­ involving accused Black Liberation blasted Secretary of State Henry Kis­ Some 275 people turned out for the tions. Army members Clark Squire and singer for refusing to say that the "They lifted the stay on execution in Joanne Chesimard (Assata Shakur); United States would not recognize Georgia, Texas, and Florida by refus­ Rosedale New Yorker Ormistan Transkei, a parcel of land in South ing to reconsider the death penalty Spencer, who faced frame-up charges Africa that the white regime has deciSion they announced most fittingly for defending his home and family bound over for Blacks. on July 2, 1976, on the eve of the from a white mo}); Muslim Lewis 17X Diggs pointed out that while the nation's birthday party," Hinds said. Dupree, for allegedly shooting a police administration is saying it favors "Happy Deathday to the 600-plus officer; and the Leavenworth Brothers, Black majority rule, it is currently Black, minority, and poor people­ prisoners" convicted of trumped-up riot allowing five U.S. banks, headed by men, women, and children-who are in charges. - New York's Citibank, to put together a the death rows of this country waiting A convention workshop on criminal $150 million loan to bolster apartheid. to be fried, gassed, or strangled.'' justice discussed national conference The Black lawyers also held work­ The lawyers group has some 800 lawyers' work on cases involving the shops on prisoners' rights, legal servi­ members in twenty-five chapters, in­ Wilmington Ten, Charlotte Three, and ces for the poor, and Title VII litiga­ cluding in Canada and the U.S. Virgin Republic of New Africa. A representa­ tion, that phase of the 1964 Civil Islands. tive from the Political Rights Defense Rights Act that covers employment Most recently, the group opened a Fund, the group coordinating support discrimination. law school in Chicago, the Fred Hamp­ for the Socialist Workers party nation­ The organization announced that it ton Community College of Law. It is al suit against government harass­ will hold a conference with the Nation­ named for the Chicago Black Panther ment, was a panelist at the workshop. al Lawyers Guild on affirmative action leader who was slain in his sleep by U.S. Rep. Charles Diggs (D-Mich.) and employment discrimination No­ police in .a predawn raid in December keynoted a workshop on U.S. policy in vember 6 at New York University 1969. southern Africa. U.S. Rep. John Cony- School of Law.

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

NOVEMBER 12, 1976

Lebanon: rightist forces greet new truce with more

attacks on Palestinians ISRAELI PATROL ON LEBANESE BORDER: Zionists may seek new territory after blows dealt Palestinians by Syria. By David Frankel The truce force is also supposed to separate the warring factions, confis­ Arab heads of state met in Cairo cate all heavy weapons, arrest viola­ against the Palestinian movement and Riyadh also calls for the return of October 25 for another round of discus­ tors of the truce, and help the Lebanese the Lebanese left. The only objection of Palestinian guerrillas to their bases in sions on the war in Lebanon. On the government to reestablish its authority Sadat and his Saudi and Kuwaiti southern Lebanon-another provision agenda was implementation of the and restore public services. backers to this was that Assad was that cannot be carried out without cease-fire plan adopted a week earlier Despite the fact that Assad has been trying to freeze them out by acting coming into collision with the Israeli at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under pres­ publicly advocating such steps, Khalid alone. Also, as has been demonstrated army. In a report from Jerusalem sure from that country's King Khalid. reportedly had to put heavy pressure by the latest truce agreement, they reflecting the tone of unofficial com­ But in Lebanon itself, an ominous on him to get agreement to the plan. hoped to use Assad's predicament in ment by Israeli ministers, Francis offensive by right-wing Christian for­ Assad would prefer not to be hampered Lebanon to force him to end his Ofner said in the October 21 Christian ces backed by the Israeli regime placed by the other Arab regimes in his campaign against the Sinai agree­ Science Monitor, "If the implementa­ a question mark over how long the actions in Lebanon. Also, the Saudi ments. tion of the Riyadh agreement reopens latest truce would last. regime, which backed the Egyptian­ But now that Assad has made his this area [of southern Lebanon] to anti­ On paper, the agreement worked out Israeli disengagement accords in the deal, can he carry it out in Lebanon? Israel troublemakers, the consequences October 18 among Khalid, Palestine Sinai, apparently has finally forced Bashir Gemayel, military commander could become most inflammatory from Liberation Organization head Y assir Assad to give up his campaign against of the right-wing Phalange, greeted the the point of view of a possible new Arafat, Syrian President Hafez al­ the Sinai accords as part of the deal on · new cease-fire agreement by saying, Israel-Arab warfare." Assad, Egyptian President Anwar el­ Lebanon. "We refuse anything that takes us The fact is, however, that the Arab Sadat, President Elias Sarkis of Le­ "As though a hidden conductor had back to before April 13, ·1975, because regimes involved in Lebanon want to banon, and Kuwaiti Sheik Sabah waved his baton," John K. Cooley that means all the destruction and reach a negotiated settlement with al-Salam al-Sabah represented a sub­ reported from Cairo in the October 20 death will have been in vain." Israel at the expense of the Palestini­ stantial victory for Assad. It was Christian Science Monitor, "strident Phalangist forces, using tanks supp­ ans. reached after Assad's troops brought Egyptian and Syrian propaganda lied by Israel, have taken eight vil­ Is it true, though, that the defeat of their invasion of Lebanon to the campaigns against each other sudden­ lages near the Israeli border since the the Palestinians in Lebanon will open threshold of leftist strongholds in West ly fell silent.... " truce went into effect October 21. the door to a negotiated settlement in Beirut and Saida. Cuts in economic aid from Saudi Fierce fighting has taken place around the Middle East? Far from it. In fact, The plan called for a pan-Arab force Arabia would have had a devastating the town of Merj 'Uyun, and the town what is likely to emerge from such a of 30,000 troops to supervise the cease­ impact on the Syrian economy, which of Bint Jbail, an administrative center defeat is a renewed danger of a general fire. There was no mention of a Syrian is already laboring under the burden of with some 15,000 inhabitants, is under Middle East war. withdrawal from Lebanon, and the the intervention in Lebanon. Although heavy rightist pressure. The de facto alliance of Assad, the likelihood is that the largest single the rate of inflation in Syria is official­ "We shall not lay down our weapons Maronite rightists in Lebanon, and the contingent in the truce force will be ly put at 14 percent, some experts until we clear the south of the Palesti­ Israeli regime is based on their com­ composed of the Syrian troops current­ believe it is as high as 30 percent. nian mercenaries and their allies and mon enmity toward the Palestinian ly occupying most of Lebanon. Assad has spent $200 million on the in order to attain this goal we are national liberation movement. But Furthermore, the outline of the truce intervention in Lebanon since June­ ready to cooperate with the devil what will happen to this bloc if Assad plan is similar to what Assad has been almost as much as has been allocated himself," the Phalangist radio quoted finaily breaks the Palestinian move­ demanding all along. Rival forces are for social services in his current one rightist officer in the south as ment in Lebanon? supposed to withdraw to the lines they budget. saying. There is no reason to believe that the occupied before the civil war began in Shortages of basic consumer goods Thus, if Assad is serious about Maronite rightists would welcome April 1975. The pan-Arab force will are increasing, and there have been implementing the cease-fire in the Assad's tutelage once he renders their then supposedly supervise enforcement reports of widespread unrest in the south, he will have to tum on his right­ main enemy helpless. The Israelis, too, of the 1969 Cairo agreement restricting towns of Hamma and Aleppo. wing allies. But the Israeli regime has can be expected to demand that As­ -Palestinian guerrillas to refugee camps Assad's purpose in Lebanon all made it clear that it will not tolerate sad's troops get out of Lebanon once and to specific. areas of southern along has been to maintain a domi­ . Syrian forces near its borders unless they think the Maronites can handle Lebanon, while limiting their arma­ nant position for his regime there by they are there to fight Palestinians. the situation on their own. ment. playing off the Maronite rightists The cease-fire agreement reached in In reality, if Assad does the work of the Israelis for them in Lebanon, the Zionist regime will have even less incentive for negotiating a settlement. In fact, the Israelis have yet to cede Jordan's King Hussein an inch of territory on the West Bank in spite of his massacre of the Palestinians there in 1970. Whatever illusions Assad may hold, they are not reflected within the Israeli regime. Lieut. Gen. Mordechai Gur, the Israeli chief of staff, was quoted in an October 4 dispatch by New York Times correspondent William E. Farrell as saying: "The quiet on Israel's northern borders with Syria and Lebanon has enabled us, the Israeli defense forces, to worry less about current security problems and concentrate more en .. .. . preparing ourselves for total war. The Arab leaders ratified cease-fire plan at summit (left to right): President Anwar Lebanese conflict has enabled us to Assad, King Khalid of Saudi Arabia, and Yassir Arafat of Palestine Liberation Organization. concentrate more on central matters."

19 World Outlook

S!lJ2.P-ort price-hike protesters Defense for imprisoned Polish workers By Tony Thomas crowded into forty-five cells, with a in Ursus, to tum over to those who Tomezik were called before the regional minimum of twenty-five persons to a were fired 50 to 80 percent of their court in the city of Radom. They were A group of oppositionists in Poland cell. wages. In addition, at Radom there are followed by Lieutenant Prusek, and at have announced the formation of the It also said, "Unverified rumors are many more than 200 families in need." about 2:30 p.m. they were arrested and Committee to Support Worker Victims circulating that five persons were The rising struggle against the taken to the local police headquarters. There, an effort was made to interrogate of the Repression. Its aim is to rally killed in connection with the events of bureaucracy and the actions of the them. Three of them were released about public support for workers who have June 25. The names and conditions of committee have encouraged a political 7:30 p.m. the next day. That day as well, no been victimized since the strikes at dea~h of two of them are known. defense for workers on trial. legal reason for their arrest was given. Radom and Ursus in June. Father Zenon Kotlarz was killed at his F. Dupain, a correspondent for Moreover, L. Dom was beaten on the soles In a public appeal issued September home by unknown persons about two Rouge who was able to attend the trial of his feet. · 23, the committee condemned the weeks after the events of June 25, after of a number of workers from Ursus, Gierek regime's "total contempt for the his release and after the security quoted a speech of one of the defense On October 1, Antoni Macierewicz law" and declared that it was the bodies had accused him of having lawyers in the case: and Jan Josef Lipski, two members of responsibility of the Polish people to blessed the demonstrators. In addition, the committee, were arrested along If I had not been the defender of Chmie­ defend the workers against the regime. Janusz Brodyna, twenty-eight-years with Lipski's son in the corridors of the lewski, I would have believed what the courthouse at Radom. They had come The founders of the committee not old, died in Koszarowa Street, after a "' newspaper Zycie Warszawy asserted, that only signed their names, but added brutal interrogation." to attend the trial" of N ogi and Gierek, this was the case of a hooligan and a two workers arrested at Radom on their addresses and telephone numbers Of the seventy victims of repression drunkard. But I know today that this is an so they could be contacted by support­ the committee has received direct exemplary worker. How can these workers June 25. ers of the fight for socialist democracy. information from, "all have been be accused of having acted against the 'Drunkenness' Among the committee's initiators beaten, the real word is tortured," the economic interests of the country, when it is precisely those interests they were defend· Gierek, who had earlier been sent· were Jerzy Andrzejewsky, one of the communiqu~ reported. enced to two years in prison plus three most popular contemporary Polish The committee is also carrying out a ing by expressing their discontent? If real freedom existed in this country, none of this years of probation, was sentenced at writers; Jacek Kuron, one of the fund-raising campaign to help the would have happened. It should be pointed this trial to a fine of 10,000 zlotys and authors of the 1965 open letter to the families of workers imprisoned and out that more things were said in Polish twenty-two hours of obligatory "volun· Polish Communist party; and Edward laid off during the struggles. By the newspapers between 1876 and 1906, when tary" work. He was also forbidden to Lipinski, one of Poland's best-known time the formation of the committee there was official censorship, than today. be "caught in a state of drunkenness economists. was officially announced, it had raised under penalty of being sent back to As part of the defense campaign, the 200,000 zlotys (in 1975, 15.9 zlotys Supporters of the defense committee have gone to the trials of the worker prison immediately." (The regime has committee has issued a series of public equalled US$1). tried to claim that the worker militants communiqu~s documenting the Stali· The September 24 communiqu~ said: militants, even at the cost of arrests and beatings by the Stalinist police. were drunkards.) nist regime's violation of workers' "At present, financial aid for the Dupain reported that for simply rights. Excerpts from the first commu· workers of Ursus and Radom has trying to attend the trial, which was niqu~. dated September 24, 1976, were reached the sum of 160,000 zlotys. For Radom trials supposed to be public, Macierewicz and published in the October 6 issue of the the month of October, we will need Lipski and Lipski's son were accused The September 24 communiqu~ said French Trotskyist daily Rouge. 555,000 zlotys for the two towns. This of having links with "Radio Free The communiqu~ reported on the will allow us to meet the minimum that on September 16 and 23 six Warsaw youths-Ludwik Dom, Zofia Europe" and of being "undesirables." conditions in Bialystok prison, where requirement at Radom, for we have Dupain, who met them as they came some 1,100 workers from Radom were given up hope of being able, as we were Krajewsla, Jan Tomasz Lipski, Antoni Macierewicz, Stanislaw Puzyna, and out of prison, reported that they had Zofia Winawer-went to the trials at been taken to the local and then Radom of the workers accused of being regional police headquarters, where involved in the June 25 action. they were stripped of their clothes and interrogated: The communiqu~ reported: As they were leaving the courtroom at the Since they refused to answer, they were end of the trial, around 3:00 p.m., they were charged with belonging to an illegal organi· arrested by a group of militiamen led by zation. They were then jailed in different Lieutenant Lech Kaminiski, an officer of cells (designed for three, but each had the security police. They were handcuffed fifteen persons in them). When they were and were all led off to the local police released twenty-seven hours later, they were headquarters in Radom. told that they were considered responsible There, the police tried to interrogate them for every news article that appeared in the in an illegal manner, without telling them West and they would suffer the consequen· why they had been arrested. The interroga­ ces for them. Their case was then placed in tion lasted until 12:30 a.m. During the the hands of the authorities in Warsaw. interrogation, they were threatened and The courageous example of the insulted, and an attempt was made to committee and the Polish workers they confuse them as to what their rights were. are defending is a sign of the rising Ludwik Dom was beaten by the security police including, among others, Lieutenant struggle for socialist democracy in Prusek. They hurled anti-Semitic insults at Poland and throughout Eastern Eu· him. He was beaten in the ribs, and they rope. Their example will carry all the tried to strangle him. more weight if it is backed intemation· ment cracked down on protests of price hikes and A week later, on September 23, L. Dom, ally by all supporters of workers' shortages created by bureaucratic mismanagement. G. Jaglarska, A. Macierewicz, and M. democratic rights.

On October 4, George Fernandes nearly a year of clandestine activity, which has been chained and fettered became the first prominent Indian he was arrested in Calcutta June 10. by dictatorship, a symbol of the Fernandes political prisoner to be brought to trial In the sixteen-page charge sheet, infamy that has been perpetrated on since a state of emergency was de­ Fernandes and his codefendants are our country." clared in June 1975: Together with charged With setting off explosions He also pledged, "Even without us, frame-up twenty-one other defendants, he is and carrying out other sabotage ac· our movement will not cease until Mrs. accused of having taken part in a tions in several parts of the country. Gandhi is out." "deep-rooted criminal conspiracy" to Gandhi apparently hopes to use the overthrow the dictatorship of Prime trial and the charges of sabotage as a trial begins Minister Indira Gandhi. justification for her authoritarian rule Fernandes is the chairman of the and for the continued detention with· Socialist party of India and a former out trial of the thousands of other president of the All-India Railway­ political prisoners. in India men's Federation. In May 1974, he led The trial is being staged as a a general strike of railway workers courtroom spectacle, with 575 prosecu­ that paralyzed the country's transport tion witnesses slated to testify. Two system for twenty days. Foreshadow· weeks earlier, censorship of foreign ing her later adoption of massive journalists was lifted to ensure that the repression against all opponents, show trial receives wide publicity. Gandhi broke the strike by arresting Although Fernandes has been held tens of thousands of railway workers. in solitary confinement for four When Gandhi proclaimed the state months, his spirit has not been broken. of emergency on June 26, 1975, assum· After hearing the charges against ing dictatorial powers, Fernandes was them, he and the other defendants the most important opposition leader raised their hands in the air, jangling to escape arrest. He went underground their heavy chains. "The chains we and tried to organize continued resist­ bear before you today," Fernandes ance . to the Gandhi regime. After said, "are symbols of the entire nation

20 Challenge labor law Argentine electrical World news notes Repression in Thailand King Phumiphol Aduldet of Thailand approved October 22 the workers go on strike establishment of a new military-dominated regime in the aftermath of the bloody October 6 coup. He also signed into law a new constitution, By Judy White which excluded the extensive bill of rights that was part of the constitution abolished on the day of the coup. Light and power workers in Greater On October 20, Col. Karoon Kengradomying announced that 4,287 Buenos Aires, Rosario, and La Plata persons had been arrested since the coup, of whom 2,647 were still in went on strike October 5 in one of the custody. Other government officials indicated the real figures may be most direct challenges to the Videla higher. dictatorship since it seized power in a Among additional measures taken by the military junta are the military coup March 24. following: - The strike was called to protest the • An ordinance allowing preventive detention without trial or layoff of 208 workers at Servicios charges was extended from thirty days to six months. Electricos del Gran Buenos Aires • All cases are to be tried before military tribunals, with no right to (SEGBA-Electric Services of Greater appeal. Buenos Aires), almost all of them • Wide areas of the countryside have been declared "Communist­ leaders of the banned light and power infested zones," where all civil liberties are suspended. workers union. • The teaching of all political theory, "including democratic Also involved were possible revisions concepts," was banned in the schools. in the workers' collective-bargaining At least thirteen newspapers have been banned since the coup, and agreement. on October 19 two rightist papers published a list of names of fifty­ Thirteen days later, the strike was seven journalists and editors slated for possible arrest. still on, having been rekindled by the Police and troops are continuing to seize and burn "subversive" October 8 kidnappings of three SEG­ books, and according to a report by Lewis M. Simons in the October 20 BA workers. Washington Post, "Huge bonfires burn everyday at police stations Following a wave of street demon­ throughout the capital." strations by striking workers, Victor JUNTA'S VIDELA: Sent troops to break Francisco Seijo, Amado Oscar Mere, strike. and Oscar Polizzo were released. How­ 60,000 prisoners in South Korea ever, the official news agency Telam strike in the bud has begun to give rise According to the South Korean Ministry of Justice, more than 60,600 reported on October 14 that they had to the first public criticisms of its persons were being held in twenty-nine prisons at the end of June. Ten been beaten and showed unmistakable conduct by various sectors of the thousand new prisoners swelled the ranks of those jailed by the Park signs of torture. Mere and Polizzo were bourgeoisie. dictatorship in 1975, and in the first six months of 1976 the prison among the workers who had been laid The October 18 issue of the Buenos population increased by 10 percent. off. Aires Herald said in an editorial, "The The strike cut off electric and water results of the current strike of light and Italian CP under pressure power in large sections of Argentina or power workers will be what decides "Italy's powerful Communist Party is coming under growing reduced voltage to the point that it was who is ruling the country-the armed criticism from rank-and-file members for supporting the new Christian adequate only for lighting. forces or the trade unions." The paper Democrat Government's austerity program," David Willey reported in The October 16 issue of the Buenos asked, "Is the government strong a dispatch from Rome in the October 13 Christian Science Monitor. Aires daily La Opini6n reported that enough to impose its will on the Stalinist leader Enrico Berlinguer felt it necessary to assure his Compafifa Italo Argentina de Electri­ powerful trade union?" followers in Naples in a recent speech that the CP "is and wilJ always cidad (Halo-Argentine Electric Com­ La Opini6n, the newspaper that remain a Communist party." Nevertheless, doubts must be increasing pany) was operating at 50 percent most bluntly called for a military coup at a rapid rate in view of the CP's tacit support to the government, capacity, while SEGBA was function­ in the weeks prior to March 24, which would fall without the abstention of the Stalinists on important ing at 64 percent. characterized the situation as "criti­ parliamentary votes of confidence. Sabotage was reported at several cal," and one of its staff writers, Fanor "This had been a bad year," Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti power installations. The union denied Diaz, urged the government to be explained earlier this month. "New sacrifices will be needed by all." responsibility for these acts, labeling "flexible enough" to permit the conflict Andreotti's austerity program puts the burden of the crisis of Italian them as provocations and mounting to be negotiated. capitalism on the working class and the most oppressed. The guards from their membership to La Naci6n, the most influential government has abolished five paid holidays; it has raised railway protect power lines. Argentine daily, said in an October 18 fares, postal charges, and other public service costs; and it has frozen Bombs also exploded at several editorial that allowing the strike to cost-of-living increases on salaries above $7,000 a year. Inflation is headquarters of the light and power continue had "not done the govern­ expected to run over 20 percent this year, with price increases planned workers union and the homes of union ment any good." It noted that the for medicines, pasta, electricity, newspapers, urban transport, tele­ leaders, the October 15 issue of La strikers had been able to take advan­ phone service, and gasoline. Opini6n reported. Among those whose tage of the fact that "not all sectors homes were targets of such attacks that support the government had the Secret U.S.-Spain treaty revealed was Juan Carlos Saluzzi, the head of same opinion, at least not on the · The Spanish regime has secretly agreed to permit American planes the Rosario section of the union. wisdom of the steps taken by SEGBA." airlifting military hardware to other countries-including Israel-to The Argentine press reported arrests The combined redbaiting campaign use Spanish bases. The agreement was reached in January when during the strike but did not specify and use of the armed forces in the Henry Kissinger visited Spain to finalize the adoption of a new the total number being held. Among power plants may break this strike, but military pact, according to an October 10 dispatch from Madrid filed those jailed was Neifer Junco, a its breadth, militancy, and duration by Washington Post correspondent Miguel Acoca. twenty-year leader of the light and are a clear sign that the junta has a Although U .8. and Spanish officials both denied the existence of power workers union in Rosario. long way to go to smash the Argentine such an agreement, Acoca reported that the deal is already in The junta's inability to nip this workers movement. operation. "The first beneficiary of the arrangement is Iran," according to Acoca. Bulletin reports on political repression International appeal to save Murrays Four members of the Argentine gust 6, the judge gtanted him provi­ Fifteen thousand persons in West Germany, along with several Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores sional release, but as of October 5 he internationally known personalities, signed a statement in defense of (PST-Socialist Workers party) have was still being held. A writ of habeas Noel and Marie Murray, sentenced to death in Ireland on the charge of died at the hands of the Videla junta's corpus was filed on September 13, shooting a policeman. It was sent in early October to the president of repressive apparatus since the begin­ demanding an end to the delay, but the the Irish Supreme Court, which will begin hearing the Murrays' appeal ning of July. government has not responded to it. on November 1. Adolfo Fenon Carrera, Armando The news bulletin reported a broad The statement particularly condemned the use of torture to extract Navarro, Cristina Isarregui, and a range of prominent individuals and false confessions as well as the fact that the sentence was handed party member whose last name was organizations in Colombia, Venezuela, down by a Special Court without a jury and without the common law Cabello were all kidnapped and mur­ and Portugal who had sent letters and safeguards regarding verification of evidence. dered by unidentified persons, accord­ telegrams to Videla protesting the Signers included Ernst Bloch; Heinrich Boll, Nobel-Prize-winning ing to a news bulletin issued October 5 victimization of PST members. author; Professor Gerhardt Schneider; Franz Peter Hancke; Peter by the PST leadership in exile. Bruckner; Hans Magnus Ensensberger; Professor Alexander Mitsche­ This list includes only "those whose Among them were protest letters rich; and Jec ·t-Paul Sartre. bodies have already been found," the signed by twenty-eight members of the PST said, "since the list of those who Colombian legislature, headed by Lib­ Martial law in Colombia have disappeared is much longer." eral party leader Luis Villar Borda; by Martial law and a curfew were decreed in Colombia October 7. The bulletin also reported the latest members of the Venezuelan parliament President Alfonso L6pez Michelsen claimed the steps were needed news on Jose Paez, a central leader ,pf from most of the political parties because of "a grave domestic disturbance of public order." the PST who ·has been in prison in holding seats; and by a number of The decree was directed principally against public health workers, C6rdoba since January 1976. On Au- trade unions in Portugal. who have been on strike since September 6, protesting government attempts to cut back on their fringe benefits.

21 VirtuallY. everY. known Black leader behind bars Thousands held in South African witch-hunt By Ernest Harsch Prisons James T. Kruger has singled out the Black Consciousness move­ Whenever Blacks in South Africa ment for particular attack. Kruger, have stood up against the racist white according to an August 14 report by minority regime to demand their basic Burns, condemned Black Conscious­ human rights, they have been ans­ ness "as an absolutely negative, des­ wered with police clubs, bullets, and tructive ideology, and cited unrest prison cells. This has been particularly among urban blacks in the United true since the massive Black protests States in the 1960's as an example of that began in Soweto in mid-June. the chaos it can produce." During the demonstrations and The influence of Black Conscious­ strikes, hundreds of young Blacks were ness has spread rapidly since the early gunned down in the streets and thou­ 1970s, particularly among Black sands were arrested. Claiming that the youths. According to the 1971 "Policy actions were fomented by "agitators" Manifesto" of SASO, "The basic tenet and "Communist enemies," the securi­ of Black Consciousness is that the ty police launched a witch-hunt in the Black man must reject all value Black townships of Johannesburg, systems that seek to make him a Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, and foreigner in the country of his birth other major cities, searching out and and reduce his basic human digni­ arresting virtually every known Black ty .... leader in the country. "The concept of Black Consciousness South African students give Black power salute during Soweto protests. Black Under such draconian measures as implies the awareness by black people consciousness movement has been especially hard hit by government repression. the Terrorism Act and the recently of the power they wield as a group, adopted Internal Security Act, anyone both economically and political­ can be detained without charges, bail, ly.... " leader of the passive resistance cam­ court appearances, or access to legal One of the most prominent leaders of Joseph Thloloe, the president of the paign carried out by Indians2 in Natal Union of Black Journalists. aid. Since the police are not even the Black Consciousness movement in 1946 and a defendant in the infam­ The repression in the Transkei, obliged to reveal the names or wherea­ seized by the V orster regime is Steve ous Treason Trial, which lasted from bouts of those seized, it is impossible to Biko. He was a founder of SASO in Pretoria's "showpiece" Bantustan, has 1956 to 1961. Shortly after the Sharpe­ calculate the precise number of politi­ late 1968 and the organization's first also been intensified. Transkei Minis­ ville massacre in 1960, Fatima Meer cal prisoners held under these laws. president. In 1972, he helped establish ter of Justice George Matanzima an­ partiCipated in protests against the the Black People's Convention. In nounced October 11 that two Black imprisonment of thousands of Black Daily detentions 1973, together with several other Black actors, John Kani and Winston Ntsho­ leaders. na, were arrested under the territory's In a report made public September Consciousness leaders, he was banned1 Her son, Rashid, has also been 20, the antiapartheid Christian Insti­ for a number of years. security laws. Kani and Ntshona were seized. Together with two other student tute of Southern Africa stated, "We Biko was at first held under the recipients of the 1974-75 Tony Award leaders at the University of Durban­ have reached a point in time when General Law Amendment Act, but was for best actor for their New York Westville, Yunus Ismail Karrim and barely a day goes past without the later held under Section 6 of the performances in Sizwe Banzi Is Dead Lloyd Padayachee, he was picked up detention of at least one further per­ Terrorism Act. The report by the and The Island. by the security police and held under son, and as at September 10 1976, 300 Christian Institute pointed out, "This Following demonstrations in Lady the General Law Amendment Act. Frere in solidarity with the Soweto people are believed to be in detention. allows for solitary confinement and Shortly after the arrests, 1,500 Indian This figure includes only those de­ creates an ideal climate for interroga­ upsurge, fifty-seven Transkeian high­ students at the university met and tained under the security laws of South tion and torture." school students were each sentenced to Africa." Other key leaders of the Black denounced the detentions as "blatant six months in prison. In July, Hector The institute estimated that an Consciousness movement who are psychological warfare" by the police. Ncokazi and twelve other leaders of additional 2,600 persons were arrested known to have been seized by the They decided to continue a boycott of the opposition Democratic party were during the protests. "This figure can be security police include Mongezi Stofile, classes (initially called in solidarity jailed in the Transkei. Jairus Kgokong, Silumko Sokupa, and with the Soweto demonstrations) to Those arrested since the Soweto Barney Pityana of SASO; and Mxolisi protest the arrests and then marched upsurge are only the most recent Mvovo, Thomas Manthatha, and Ken­ through the campus singing "We Shall victims of the white regime's repres­ neth Rachidi of the BPC. Overcome." sion. The witch-hunt against the Black Consciousness movement actually be­ Other targets Coloured population gan several years ago, when SASO, The Black Parents' Association, a After Coloured students and workers the BPC, and other groups were began participating in demonstrations broad umbrella organization including initially established. Scores of Black and strike actions, the apartheid re­ SASO and the BPC, as well as other Consciousness leaders were arrested gime also started detaining prominent groups, was formed shortly after the and more than sixty were forced to flee leaders of the Coloured population. The initial protests in Soweto. It, too, has the country. most important figure arrested so far is been a target of Vorster's political Other Black nationalist leaders have Rev. Alan Hendrickse, the chairman of police. Four of the five members of the been rotting in Pretoria's jails since the national executive of the Labour BPA's executive have been arrested. the early 1960s. Among the most well party, a Coloured organization op­ They are Harrison Motlana, Aaron known are Nelson Mandela, Govan posed to apartheid. Also detained are Mathlare, Aubrey Mokoena, and Win­ Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, and Ahmed his son, Peter; Joseph Titus, the nie Mandela, who is also the vice­ Kathrada, leaders of the ANC who are principal of a Coloured school in Cape president of the Black Women's Feder­ serving life sentences on Robben Town; and Professor Ismail, the head ation and the wife of Nelson Mandela. Island. Robert Sobukwe, the leader of of the mathematics department at the Among the other prominent Black the Pan-Africanist Congress, is living University of the Western Cape. dreds arrested during figures picked up are Mohammed in enforced exile in Kimberley in Cape A total of ten journalists are known apartheid protests this summer. Timol, the chairman of the Human Province. to have been detained since the initial Rights Council; Barney N gakane, an Pretoria's repressive policies are not protests in June. Only one, David official of the South African Council of only reserved for Black political lead­ >wwever, on the basis of Rabkin, has been charged and tried. contested, Churches; Rev. Mangaliso Mkatswa ers, but are directed at the Black ·r~ports in the Press which Senten·ced by a Cape Town judge individual and Dan Mokwena of the Roman population as a whole. At any one nuch higher number of September 29, Rabkin drew a ten-year suggest a Catholic Bishops Conference; and time, there can be up to 100,000 :ed, many of whom have prison sentence on charges of promot­ people arr Gibson Kente, a playwright. Members persons, the overwhelming majority of r weeks, having had bail ing the aims of the outlawed African been held and leaders of the Black Research them Black, in South Africa's prisons. National Congress and the South applicatio ·dused and then inexplica- Institute, the Institute of Black Stu­ Each year, one in every four adult without having been African Communist party. bly rele<' dies, and the Black Renaissance Con­ Africans is arrested, primarily for charged." Two of the journalists, Nat Serache vention have also been jailed. violations of the pass laws, which and Harry Mashabela, have been Especia' hard hit by the witch­ Fatima Meer, a sociologist at the regulate African movement. This hunt are L groups identified with the released. Those still believed to be in University of Natal and the president amounts to an average of about 3,000 nationalist current known as the Black jail include Peter Magubane, Willie of the Black Women's Federation, was Africans arrested each day. Consciousness movement, such as the Nkosi, Jan Tugwana, Patrick Weech, initially banned in mid-August from An international campaign in de­ Duma Ndlovu, Anthony Holiday, and South African Students Organisation attending meetings for a period Qf five fense of these political prisoners is (SASO), 1' South African Students needed to save their lives and to years under the terms of the hiternal 2. South Africa's Black population is com­ Movemer .SASM), and the Black Security Act. She was later arrested. demand that the apartheid regime People's ( vention (BPC). According posed of 710,000 Indians, 17.8 million Her husband, Ismail Meer, was a release them. This is a particularly to a Sept, 1er 18 report from Johan­ Africans, and 2.3 million Coloureds. The Indians were originally brought to South important task in countries like the nesburg !· New York Times corres­ 1. A banning order prohibits a person from Africa as indentured laborers for the sugar United States, Britain, France, West pondent ,; '·n F. Burns, about 250 of attending gatherings of three or more plantations of Natal. The Coloureds are Germany, and Japan, which have those beink held without trial berong to persons, traveling outside his or her town, descendants of the early white settlers, major investments in South Africa or these groups. or publishing or helping to prepare any­ Indians, Malay slaves, and native Khoik­ which provide Pretoria with military Minister of Justice, Police, and thing for publication. hoi, San, and other African peoples. aid.

22 ... NSCAR meeting to discuss defQ11188'~----- Continued from back page tionally. The ongoing actions-picket retreats every day on enforcing Black lines, rallies, meetings, and rights that exist in law." demonstrations-by busing supporters Boston, where NSCAR's national have put pressure on the city and offices are headquartered, "remains federal government to enforce the court the national hot spot, the focus of the order to the degree they have. struggle between racists and the Black "That is why we formed NSCAR," community and its allies," Dixon said. Dixon continued. "Through such activ­ "For more than two years, the bigots ities we have helped educate the public have used every method-their power about the need for busing-a task as elected officials, court appeals, NSCAR is committed to until full marches, school boycotts, terror, and school desegregation is a national violence-to sabotage and attempt to reality." overturn desegregation. The continuing violence in Boston, "They have been supported by the the Pasadena decision;and the govern­ government-city, state, and federal­ ment support to Wilmington's segrega­ which has yet to move forcefully tionists make one thing clear, Dixon against them. They have received the says. "It is suicidal for Blacks and our blessings of the_ White House. They supporters to rely on the government, have made Boston unsafe for Blacks on the courts, to win and defend our and polarized the city. But they have rights. We must rely on ourselves. not destroyed the court order. The Founding conference of NSCAR, February 1975. NSCAR's ongoing education "We need a fighting, independent buses continue to roll." campaign has been key part of defense of busing. mass movement to back up our rights, That antibusing forces have been to force the courts and government to stood off, Dixon says, "is a partial enforce them," Dixon says. "It took victory. Thousands of Blacks students the cops and government still treat "And you can survey the rest of the decades of struggle to win those rights. now are going to desegregated schools them with kid gloves. That's why they country. In Louisville, the school board Now, everything we fought for is being where they are getting a better educa­ tried to kill Black students a couple of has allowed thousands of illegal white stripped away by the government and tion than before. Surveys commis­ weeks ago with those bombs. transfers as a way to undermine the politicians who administer it. And sioned by both major daily newspapers "They thought they could get away desegregation. In Los Angeles, the desegregation is their main target. If in Boston show increasing support in with it. As long as this kind of mood state supreme court has blocked bus­ they beat back the buses, it's full steam the Black community for busing-as exists in Boston, there is no guarantee ing. In Chicago, America's most segre­ ahead against the Black community." much as 75 percent. The majority of that the court order will be implement­ gated city, the schools simply rot away The National Student Conference whites, including those opposed to ed." along with the futures of Black chil­ Against Racism is, Dixon told me, "an busing, are now against the use of Nationally, Dixon believes the situa­ dren. important place for us to keep fighting violent force as the way to stop bus­ tion is not much different. "That is the "Then," Dixon said, "there is Wil­ back. To discuss ideas. To move for­ ing." impact of Boston," he said. "In some mington and the decision by the U.S. ward. "At the same time," Dixon cautions, cities, like Milwaukee and Dallas, the government to back the racists. They "American Blacks have a history of "the most virulent opponents of busing first two major post-Boston busing say there is too much busing planned stuggle," Dixon says, "and its legacy have not let up. Leaders of ROAR, for orders have been piecemeal and half­ for Wilmington. · today, the threat of new struggles, still example, are waging a political, educa­ hearted at best. Whole sections of the "NSCAR says there is segregation in exerts pressure against the govern­ tional, and agitational drive to whip school systems in those cities remain Wilmington, and any segregation is ment. white sentiment against busing. all white or all Black." too much. That is what the Black "And today we have a tremendous parents said, what the federal court ally in the masses of African Blacks "They plan to organize more rallies Dixon pointed to the Supreme Court said," Dixon told me. "It is going to fighting for majority rule in South and demonstrations. They have said decision several months ago concern­ take a fight, it is going to take a Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. that Blacks can expect more physical ing. Pasadena, California. That, he struggle, a campaign of actions and "Our conference," Dixon told me, abuse in the schools and in areas the says, "was a major setback for Black protests and demonstrations to ensure "says to the racists we have not racists consider 'theirs.' rights. The court said, in effect, if the implementation of school desegre­ conceded an inch to them. It is a "South Boston and Charlestown population shifts resegregated schools gation. And national support is essen­ protest. We're just the tip of the iceberg high schools," Dixon went on, "have after a desegregated order is partially tial. of millions of Blacks and whites who been war zones for Black students this implemented, that doesn't matter. "The Boston racists have not been are opposed to racism in America and fall. Hyde Park High School is con­ There is no legal necessity to reorgan­ able to gut desegregation so far be­ apartheid in southern Africa, who stantly on the edge of explosion. The ize enrollment or assignment to dese­ cause there has been steady resistance support school desegregation, and who racists continue their violence because gregate. by probusing forces locally and na- are just getting ready to fight." Transkei fraud: attack on African rights By Ernest Harsch Kaiser Matanz1ma arrested more than From Intercontinental Press a dozen leaders of the Transkei opposi­ When South African Prime Minister tion Democratic party in July, includ­ John Vorster was asked by an inter­ REPUBLIC OF ing Hector Ncokazi, an opponent of the viewer October 18 if he foresaw the SOUTH AFRICA phony "independence" scheme. Two of possibility that the Black majority South Africa's most prominent Black would ever rule the country, he replied, actors, John Kani and Winston Ntsho­ "I cannot foresee such a day at all na, were arrested October 11 and ..." (New York Times, October 19). expelled from the Transkei two weeks Just eight days later, on October 26, later for their criticisms of the Bantus­ the white supremacist regime in Preto­ tan program. ria proclaimed the "independence" of the Transkei, an impoverished African Just before October 26, about 2,000 reservation, or Bantustan, along the Christian Science Monitor South African troops and more than coast of the Indian Ocean. It was 650 police were rushed to the Transke­ precisely in an attempt to put off the ian capital of Umtata. The October 23 assumption of power by Blacks in all political "rights" Africans supposedly Transkei administration itself is finan­ weekly edition of the Johannesburg of South Africa that Pretoria went have in the Bantustans as a justifica­ cially dependent on Pretoria, with the Star reported: ahead with the fraudulent "indepen­ tion for continuing to deny them their apartheid regime supplying $95 mil­ dence" ceremonies. The formal separa­ basic human rights in the country as a lion of the Transkei's $156 million A security net has been thrown around tion of the Transkei from the rest of whole. budget. Umtata to prevent disruption of the celebra­ tions culminating in the granting of inde­ South Africa is a key part of the In fact, the imposition of an "inde­ The "citizens" of the Transkei have pendence to the Transkei at midnight apartheid regime's overall strategy of pendent" status on the Transkei is a thus been reduced to the status of Monday.... divide and rule. further attack on African rights. Ac­ foreign laborers in their own country, Transkei police have been given intensive V orster and his Black administra­ cording to Pretoria, the 1. 7 million with no political rights whatsoever. riot and crowd control training over the tors in the territory claim that October inhabitants of the Transkei-as well It took the white supremacists more past two months and are patrolling residen­ 26 marked the achievement of "nation­ as the 1.3 million Africans living in than a decade and a half, however, to tial areas of the town-especially the White al self-determination" for the inhabit­ "white" South Africa who have been suppress most of the active opposition section-at night. ants of the Transkei. But it is the very assigned there-will no longer be to this scheme within the Transkei Plainclothesmen are keeping a close opposite of real national self­ considered South African citizens. itself. A state of emergency has been in watch on visitors. . . . determination, having been imposed The impoverished Bantustans can force there since 1960, when massive Although this show of force fore­ by force against the wishes of the never be economically independent. peasant rebellions broke out against stalled any major demonstrations in African population. They are an integral part of the South the imposition of government-paid Umtata, it did not prevent the African The Transkei is only one of ten African economy, serving essentially tribal administrators. That unrest was population from expressing its disdain Bantustans, which comprise 13 percent as dumping grounds for "superfluous" stifled only after 5,000 persons were for the "independence" fraud in other of South Africa's total land area. All Africans and as sources of cheap arrested and more than twentyexecut­ ways. In the Transkei general elections eighteen million Africans, who make migrant labor. There are virtually no ed. held a few weeks before October 26, up 72 percent of the population, are real industries in the Bantustans. Repression in the Transkei is contin­ there was a turnout of less than 45 assigned to one or another of the About 85 percent of the income of uing. To ensure that no embarrassing percent in the constituencies where Bantustans, whether they live in them Africans assigned to the Transkei is criticisms were raised during the seats to the Legislative Assembly were or not. Pretoria has cited fictional earned outside of the territory. The "independence" ceremonies, Chief being contested.

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 23 -Abortion· rights still in danger lA By Ginny Hildebrand NEW YORK-The federal govern­ ment is pressing ahead to deny women on Medicaid access to safe, legal How the FBI set abortions. On October 29 government lawyers asked Federal District Judge John Dooling to guarantee the refund of federal outlays for abortions if his Dirr:t~JP for \b.~ .t5.i~Lting whi~ Piper said the raid was "successful." ruling against the Hyde amendment is CHICAGO-Lying facedown on a had diminished and then a voice He credited O'Neal with obtaining the overturned. courtroom table, Deborah Johnson saying, 'Come out or we will put information that made it possible. This The Hyde amendment cuts off feder­ lifted her head momentarily and stared something in there to get you out.' information, Piper said, was "not al Medicaid funds for all abortions wide-eyed. She was demonstrating " I heard a rapid succession of shots available from any other source" and except those necessary to save the life what she said was the only movement and noticed that I was hit several proved to be "of tremendous value." of a pregnant woman. Judge Dooling of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton times and hollered in agony," Satchel Washington approved the bonus. declared the amendment unconstitu­ during a predawn police raid on a continued. He said others in the room Tests have shown that Hampton had tional and placed an injunction on it West Side apartment that took his life also cried in pain. been drugged prior to the raid. O'Neal, October 22. and that of Panther Mark Clark. it is believed, followed FBI instructions The government's new request would Johnson was testifying here recent­ 'We got 'em' in slipping Hampton the drug­ have sabotaged the injunction. Hospi­ ly in a multi-million-dollar civil suit "I heard a noise from the area of the seconal. tals and clinics would have immediate­ filed by the families of Hampton and doorway say, 'We got 'em, we got 'em.' Meanwhile, it has recently been ly stopped performing Medicaid abor­ Clark and the seven raid survivors. Then I said, 'I'm shot and I can't learned that the FBI asked Marie tions rather than risk huge financial Fighting off sobs, Johnson recalled move,'" reported Satchel. He then Fischer, another of its informants, to losses. how the bed in which she and Hamp­ heard a voice say, "Come out or we'll drug Hampton just prior to the raid. Fortunately, the judge rejected the ton slept during the raid had lurched kill you." Fischer, in a statement to the plain­ government's maneuver. and pitched under the force of police The police maintain that they only tiffs' lawyers, said the former head of On the same day, Sen. James Buck­ machine-gun bullets. returned fire they received from the the Chicago FBI asked her to adminis­ ley, Sen. Jesse Helms, and Rep. Henry "I saw a lot of sparks in the apartment. But investigators have ter a "harmless and tasteless" sub­ Hyde asked the Supreme Court for a darkness," she said. "I heard all the determined that at most one shot was stance to Hampton that would "put stay on the injunction. This too would shooting. The bed was vibrating real fired from the apartment, while the him in a deep sleep." Fischer said she effectively halt Medicaid abortions by fast . . . going up and down . . . . It cops discharged ninety-nine rounds. refused. cutting off federal funds until all seemed like a long time." The plaintiffs maintain that the raid According to recent revelations, appeals are completed. Justice Thur­ Johnson said that after the shooting was conducted as part of the govern­ O'Neal's job for the FBI was not only good Marshall is now weighing this stopped, she and the others were ment's war on Black organizations. to inform on the Chicago Panthers. He request. herded into the kitchen. But attempts by the plaintiffs' lawyers was also supposed to encourage Panth­ Keith Jones of the U.S. solicitor "I heard a male voice say, 'He's to introduce FBI "Counterintelligence ers to violent acts. general's office told the Militant that barely alive,' or 'He'll barely make it,'" Program" (Cointelpro) documents as the amendment has nothing to do with she said. "Then there was more shoot­ evidence have been repeatedly blocked Provocateurs restricting women's right to abortion. ing and somebody said, 'He's good and by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Plaintiff Truelock explained that "The only real issue is whether the dead now.' " Sam Perry. O'Neal urged Chicago Panthers to federal government will pay or the The trial, now in its tenth month, Perry-a frail, often rude, seventy­ burglarize a McDonald's hamburger states will pay," he said, since "some has heard testimony from the survi­ nine year old-once countered that stand and to blow up military armories states are under court order to continue vors and from Chica~o FBI officials. "the Black Panther party is not on to obtain weapons. to perform abortions" with or without William O'Neal, the FBI informant trial here," when denying the plaintiffs In a sworn statement, Truelock said federal funds. who supplied the raiders with a floor access to FBI surveillance records on he visited O'Neal's father's home in What about women in states not plan of the Panther flat, is expected to the Chicago Panthers. October and November 1969. covered by such court orders? "The testify. The floor plan had an X indi­ During the pretrial discovery phase, "On the first occasion . . . O'Neal Hyde amendment might have some cating, "Hampton sleeps here." High fewer than one thousand pages of showed us a satchel full of explosives," coercive effect," Jones admitted. Chicago cops and Edward Hanrahan, government files on the Panthers were Truelock said. In fact, coercive motherhood is at the the former Cook County state's attor­ turned over. After the trial began, an "Inside the satchel was putty, blast­ heart of this amendment. Senator ney whose men conducted the raid, are FBI agent mistakenly testified about ing caps and several plastic bottles of Helms, a sponsor of a constitutional also expected to be called to tne wit­ part of an FBI file the plaintiffs did liquid. amendment that seeks to outlaw all ness stand. not possess. Perry ordered the files "O'Neal said when the plastic [explo­ abortions, argued on the Senate floor The plaintiffs aim to prove that FBI connected with it turned over. sive] was put into a building, you could that the Hyde amendment is a way to officials conspired with local cops to The "government wheeled in eight blow the building up. He said armories stop "tax-paid abortions." deprive the Panthers of their civil and shopping carts of files," said Jeffrey could be blown up this way, and we When asked why government law­ human rights as part of an intricate Haas, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, in could get their guns." yers don't admit the amendment's web of government operations against an interview. On the next visit, Truelock said, antiabortion purpose, Carl Anderson a Black organizations. Though the defendants have main­ O'Neal showed him explosives and spokesperson for Helms told the Mili­ Plaintiffs Louis Truelock and Ronald tained there was no conspiracy on said he knew of a McDonald's they tant, "In a court of law it has to be Satchel have sworn that the police, their part, evidence shows that orders could take off. worded differently." who say the purpose of their raid was to get the Panthers came from the "He stated we could use the explo­ In other words, the courtroom argu­ to confiscate illegal weapons, an­ highest circles in Washington. Never­ sives on the safe's door. I told O'Neal I ment is a crude lie to avoid the nounced their presence by shouting theless, Haas believes, "it's very dan­ did· not want to go back to jail," question of women's rights. insults and chopping in the front and gerous if they can get away with Truelock stated. Are anti-abortion politicians aware rear doors. murder by saying, 'We were just On occasion, Truelock added, O'Neal that the Hyde amendment would force "I began to listen, to become alert to carrying out orders.' " would carry a handgun in a shoulder hundreds of thousands of women to what was going on, when I heard FBI agent Robert Piper, supervisor holster while acting as Panther chief risk their lives at the hands of back­ gunshots," Satchel testified. He said he of the Chicago bureau's "Racial of security. This apparently alley abortionists? Anderson's only reached for his pants and put them on Matters Squad," testified that one bothered Hampton, who ordered response to this was, "It's just a fact as the firing became continuous. week after the raid his office sent a O'Neal to ditch the gun. Hampton then that one has to accept. . . some will Satchel said he heard plaster falling request to Washington asking for a "stripped [O'Neal] of all his duties make a choice injurious to them­ as bullets cut through the room. bonus for O'Neal, the informant. except running errands for Panther selves." leaders," Truelock said. Alarmed by the danger to women's Perry has refused to let the six­ rights, pro-abortion organizations are person ju.ry hear Truelock's sworn continuing to hold urgently needed testimony. protests. On October 28 in Atlanta, more than FBI setup sixty people picketed outside the offices Although the plaintiffs believe the of the Catholic Archdiocese. They were raid's purpose was murder, the official protesting the hierarchy's escalated pretext was a search for illegal wea­ drive to impose its anti-abortion dog­ pons. Truelock's portrait of O'Neal ma on all women. raises anew the question of O'Neal's The picketers pointed to the Hyde role in bringing illegal weapons into amendment as the greatest immediate the apartment. danger to abortion rights. So far in the trial, the plaintiffs have Two television stations covered the

~ --r;!i~ brought in as evidence the beat-up, action, which was sponsored by the r··-;;,~7 bullet-riddled door that led to Hamp­ Georgia Abortion Rights Action ~_::t-p:;~/ ton's bedroom, and a scale mock-up of League, Atlanta National Organiza­ Chicago Journalism Review the apartment that shows one of tion for Women, Georgia State Univer­ Hampton's bedroom walls with forty­ sity Women's Coalition, Socialist The apartment where Fred Hampton and two bullet holes. Workers party, and others. A week ,. Mark Clark were murdered. Markings do not "The last time I saw Fred Hamp­ earlier, sixty-five people participated in indicate the precise number, location, or ton," testified Deborah Johnson, "he an abortion rights speak-out at Geor­ direction of police gunshot holes. was lying on the bed." gia State University.

24 600 attend N.J. convention Puerto Ricans debate political action strategies By Jose G. Perez only a few supporters of the amend­ CHERRY HILL, N.J.-Puerto Ri­ ment and resolution for independent cans need political representation to political action were able to speak. combat the grave social and economic One was Richie Ariza. Ariza problems they face in this state. answered the argument that running This was the theme that emerged in Democratic primaries is a tactical most strongly at the seventh annual question. "What we're talking about is Puerto Rican convention, sponsored by not hustling votes to get in the Demo­ the Congreso Boricua de Nueva Jersey cratic party," he said. "What we have (Puerto Rican Congress of New Jer­ to do is organize our communities sey). around the issues." The theme broke through in keynote A woman supporting the amend­ speeches and workshops and in a ment added, "This country is already sharp debate over how Puerto Ricans sick of political swindles, and that is can win real political representation: the reason people don't .vote." She said running independent candidates or there was no point to joining the becoming part of the Democratic party. Democrats and Republicans when According to convention organizers, their ship was sinking. more than 600 persons registered for There were at least two or three the meeting held here October 23-24. dozen active Democrats present, many Any Puerto Rican resident of the state wearing "Amigos de Carter" (Friends could be a delegate by paying a small of Carter) or other campaign buttons. registration fee. Militant/Jose G. Perez They made no attempt to defend their The Congreso Boricua is an antipov­ Delegates vote on resolutions at seventh annual convention of Puerto Ricans in New party, its candidates or its record, erty organization set up in 1971. It Jersey. however. played an important role in winning a Instead, they tried to cloud the state law for bilingual-bicultural edu­ issues. When this failed, they turned to cation. Puerto Ricans. But Congreso officials ed to address the convention included red-baiting. Although the Congreso is prohibited said there is only one elected Puerto Thomas Ford (President Ford's broth­ "I'm opposed to the amendment," a from taking part in partisan politics, Rican officeholder in this state-a city er), Ray Maduro (an aide to President "Friend of Carter" said, "for the sole many current and former staff council member in a town of 2,600. Ford), California Gov. Edmund Brown reason that it limits independence only members are active Democrats. Second, as the 1970 census showed, (who was on the East Coast Cam­ to the Democratic and Republicf,n There are several reasons for the Puerto Ricans are at the bottom of the paigning for Carter), and Roberto parties." heightened interest in political action social and economic ladder in New Garcia (assistant leader of the Demo­ "Okay! I was waiting for someone to at the convention. Jersey. And conditions since 1970 have cratic minority in the New York Se­ say that," said Mathias Rodriguez, First, the corrupt Democratic party gotten worse. nate). who was chairing. "Because there's a machines in New Jersey-with help And third, this slippage since 1970 The first debates on running inde­ socialist party out there that's the one from the Republicans-have shut Puer­ has convinced many involved with pendent Puerto Rican candidates ver­ pushing the amendment." Rodriguez, to Ricans out of politics here altogeth­ social service agencies that govern­ sus running in the Democratic party one of the "Committee of 100," was er. ment antipoverty programs are ineffec­ took place at the political workshops also wearing a Carter button. There are more than half a million tive. held Saturday afternoon. He then decreed all further discus­ Latinos in the state, most of them Since the Congreso's annual conven­ I attended the largest of these sion out of order. The vote on the tions provide one of the few authorita­ workshops. Richie Ariza, a member of amendment was roughly forty for, tive voices for Puerto Ricans here, they the National Committee of the Social­ sixty against. naturally become a focus for discon­ ist Workers party, spoke in support of An amendment to read "independent tent. running candidates "independent of from all parties" was then introduced Before this year's convention, Demo­ and in opposition to the Democratic by another Democrat. Rodriguez again crats in the Congreso privately worked and Republican parties." insisted there was no more time for out a plan to run Puerto Rican candi­ The Sunday morning session was debate. Both the amendment and the dates in the 1977 Democratic primaries the only decison-making plenary of the resolution package were then over­ for governor and the state legislature. convention. Some 120 delegates were whelmingly approved. Shortly before the convention, Demo­ present. The convention took no steps to crats sent out a letter signed by At this session, mem hers of the implement the resolution for indepen­ Mathias Rodriguez-a member of the Puerto Rican Socialist party, along dent political action. And the Congreso Congreso's board of directors­ with others, supported a resolution itself cannot implement it because of announcing the formation of a "Com­ urging the formation of an "indepen­ its tax-exempt status. mittee of 100" to push a candidate for dent political organization." During Hector Rodriguez, the proposed can­ governor. The suggested candidate, the discussion, a PSP member made a didate for governor, told me after the Hector Rodriguez, was for several motion to amend the resolution to state vote that he would ignore the resolu­ years executive director of the Congre­ specifically "independent from the tion repudiating his nomination. so. He is now a minority affairs consul­ Democrat and Republican parties." "That's only frustration speaking," he tant. The resolution also urged the con­ said. "That's a reaction of the social­ The night . before the Congreso vention to "nullify and reject" the plan ists." opened, the "Committee of 100" met in to run Hector Rodriguez in the Demo­ Nevertheless, the debate and vote at Cherry Hill ·. and "tentatively" ap­ cratic gubernatorial primary. the Cherry Hill convention were signif­ proved Rodriguez nomination. All resolutions had been pre-sorted icant. The debate around independent Militant/Jose G. Perez Election-year politics dominated into "packages" by a resolutions com­ political action versus supporting Dem­ RICHIE ARIZA: 'Run independent much of the convention, which began mittee. A fifteen-minute limit had been ocrats will continue as the 1977 state candidates.' the following morning. Speakers invit- set for discussion of each package. So elections approach. ... Camejo visits nationalist political prisoner Continued from back page The five have also been subjected to nationalists should be released imme­ "Figueroa Cordero told me he was people like this unless there's that arbitrary rules and regulations not diately and unconditionally, as has sent papers to ask for parole. 'But I pressure from below." applied to other prisoners. been demanded by the legislature and sent them back.' He said he would not Camejo reported how the national­ By and large, their visitors are all politictll parties of Puerto Rico," sign any papers or do anything that ists have been treated by prison restricted to people they knew before Camejo said. could be taken to mean he has aban­ officials. "Since I've been in prison," they entered prison more than twenty "The five remain in prison today doned his principles or his demand Figueroa Cordero told Camejo, "I've years ago. They can write letters only because they have not wavered in their that he and his four compai'ieros be been allowed to receive only three to people approved by prison officials. support to Puerto Rican independence. released unconditionally." books." Correspondence and packages sent to He is now permitted a book a year­ them often fail to arrive. at Christmas time. Last year he "Cordero told me one example of the received the first volume of the selected harassment," Camejo said. "He had works of Don Pedro Albizu Campos, requested to purchase an overhead 250 march for release the leader of the Nationalist party, projector to help him with his painting. By Michael Laird ers where Andres Figueroa Cordero who died in 1965 after a long imprison­ Other prisoners have been allowed to SPRINGFIELD, Mo.-Some 250 is being held. Mter a short protest ment. purchase them, but his request was people-about half of them Puerto in front of the prison, they went to Figueroa Cordero said he is hoping denied without explanation." Ricans-demonstrated here Oct­ a church for a rally. to receive the second volume this Camejo said he visited Figueroa ober 30 to demand immediate, Christmas. Cordero "to show my solidarity with unconditional release of the five Slogans included, "Free the five," In addition, he told Camejo that him and to be better able to explain the Puerto Rican nationalist prisoners. "Andres should not dh; in prison," Claridad, a proindependence daily issues in this case during the closing Demonstrators assembled at the and "Free Lolita [Lebron], free the published in · Puerto Rico, does :riot days of the campaign. Medical Center for Federal Prison- five, free Puerto Rico-right now." reach him regularly. "Figueroa Cordero and the other four

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 25 Vietnam: new steps against By Fred Feldman of the Stalinist leadership. After tolerating capital­ From Intercontinental Press ist property relations in the South for more than a Vietnam, forcibly carved up for more than a year, the leaders committed themselves at the July century by French and American imperialism, meeting of the National Assembly to "consolidating today is politically united. The Vietnamese Nation­ the dictatorship of the proletariat" throughout the al Assembly formally sealed this advance on July 2 country by speedily overturning capitalist property by proclaiming the Socialist Republic of Vietnam relations in the South. (SRV), encompassing both the Northern territory of The overthrow of capitalism in the South under the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and the the present Stalinist leadership will confront the former "Republic of Vietnam" (South). The assem­ Southern masses with the further task of joining bly adopted the red-and-gold star flag of the DRV as with the workers and peasants of the North in the emblem of the new government. The border making an antibureaucratic political revolution. between the two halves of Vietnam, maintained during the first year after liberation, has been Class-collaborationist program abolished. In carrying out the political reunification of the The organizations through which the long and country and initiating steps that point toward the costly struggle against foreign domination in the overthrow of capitalist property relations, the South was carried out-the National Liberation Vietnamese Stalinist leaders have been compelled Front, the People's Liberation Army, the People's to move far more quickly than they counted on. Revolutionary party, and the Provisional Revolu­ Moreover, they have moved in contradiction to the tionary Government-have been fused with their program they have strenuously advocated for many Northern counterparts. · years. The National Assembly elected a government to During the long struggle against American rule the united country. Its leading figures were the imperialism and its local agents, the leaders of the most prominent members of the government of the DRV and NLF presented reunification as a long­ DRV. ·Ton Due Thang, president of the DRV, term goal. The objective of the armed struggle, they retains this post in the SRV, as do Premier Pham insisted, was the establishment of a progressive but Civilians welcomed North Vietnamese troops Van Dong, Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap, and nonsocialist regime that would accept the prospect following 1975 liberation. Despite popular support for Troung Chinh, president of the Standing Commit­ of eventual reunification. In the interim, the united, socialist Vietnam, Hanoi has stalled on tee of the National Assembly. The key post of first coalition would forge a political and economic abolishing capitalism in south. secretary of the Lao Dong (Vietnam Workers) party alliance between the two halves of the country. This conception was closely linked to the Vietna­ will be held, as before, by Le Duan. to compromise hesitated to break with Washington. Representatives of the former Provisional Revolu­ mese leaders' objective of combining a military struggle based on the peasantry with an alliance The American imperialists, determined to drown tionary Government occupy lesser posts in the the colonial rebellion in blood, rejected all proposals with bourgeois forces in the cities. This strategy cabinet. Nguyen Thi Binh, foreign minister of the for a coalition government. precluded calling for rapid reunification with the PRG and its most prominent international represen­ No significant Vietnamese capitalist forces were workers state in the North or mobilizing the tative, heads the Ministry of Education. Nguyen ready to risk losing the protection offered by the Southern workers around anticapitalist demands. Van Hieu, the PRG ambassador to China, is Saigon military-police apparatus, however much The creation of the Provisional Revolutionary minister of culture. they rankled at its venal brutality and its resistance Government in 1969 indicated that the NLF-DRV seriously sought bourgeois support. The PRG to the most minimal reforms. Contradictions The Paris Accords of January 1973 did not Through these measures the deformed workers offered "to enter into consultation with the political change this situation. Despite provisions calling for state that was established in North Vietnam in the forces representing the various social strata and a tripartite "National Council of National Reconcili­ years after 1954 formalized the extension of its political tendencies in South Vietnam that are for ation and Concord," Thieu launched massive political apparatus and control to the South. In peace, independence and neutrality . . . with a view military offensives against the liberated zones. He doing so it has come face to face with a major to setting up a provisional coalition govern­ counted on the threat of a U.S. military invasion to contradiction. ment.... " prevent the DRV from coming to the aid of the In contrast to the North, the economy of the To smooth the way to such discussions, the PRG beleaguered Southern fighters. South remains capitalist in nature although it is a insisted that "industrialists and traders must enjoy The DRV, however, did not withdraw its material weak and battered capitalism. The Vietnamese freedom of enterprise." It promised "to protect the aid to the Southern fighters, although it attempted rulers are thus confronted with the choice of right of ownership of means of production." for a time to shift its emphasis to domestic coexisting with capitalist forces in the South or economic recovery. Antiwar sentiment among the completing the social revolution in the South Reunification American people, intensified by the Watergate through the overturn of capitalist property relations This position found its corollary in the PRG's revelations, barred Nixon and then Ford from and the creation of a planned economy. stand on reunification with the North. The PRG's further escalation of the war. Should the Vietnamese leaders decide to coexist immediate goal was to "reestablish normal rela­ According to the June 6, 1975, issue of Far with a capitalist economy in the South, the recovery tions between South and North Vietnam ... to Eastern Economic Review, "In an off-the-record and growth of capitalist forces would be encour­ maintain economic and cultural relations according briefing in Hanoi during July [1974], newsmen from aged. Their penetration into the government and to the principle of mutual benefit and mutual help fraternal countries were told that the Paris Peace into the economy of the North would be facilitated. between the two zones." Agreement of January 1973 had failed and the third The ground could thus be prepared for the reaction­ Reunification, the PRG held, "will be achieved Indochina war had begun." ary overthrow at some future time of all the step by step, by peaceful means." progressive gains of the Vietnamese revolution, The course of the revolution diverged widely from including the planned economy in the North. the schema of the NLF-DRV leaders. No significant The final months In reality, however, Vietnam is moving toward a bourgeois forces could be found to enter into an DRV forces played an increasing role as the progressive resolution of this contradiction, despite alliance with the NLF. fighting intensified. This was owing in part to the the hesitations and class-collaborationist practices Those among the bourgeoisie who were inclined fact that the military forces and cadres of the NLF while retaining wide support in the countryside: had suffered heavy casualties as a result of the 1968 and 1972 offensives and the CIA's "Phoenix" assassination program. The recently published account by General Van Tien Dung, the DRY's army chief of staff, provides valuable information about the last months of the war. According to Dung, the decision to launch an offensive was made at the beginning of 1975. An initial campaign that year, consisting heavily of surprise attacks, was to be followed by an all-out offensive aimed at military victory in 1976. To the surprise of the rebel forces, the first assaults led to the disintegration of Thieu's army. Faced with the opportunity presented by the Saigon army's collapse, the Vietnamese leaders decided to bring the long war to an end on their own terms. Tens of thousands of DRV troops poured across the border to aid in the liberation of Kontum, Hue, Danang, and other cities. Down to the last possible moment, the NLF-DRV stance left the door open for governmental alliances with bourgeois leaders who would accept the changed relationship of forces. The bourgeoisie preferred to cling to Thieu's crumbling apparatus. The DRV and NLF won a sweeping military . . ng, farming impossible in many areas. Vietnam has justifiably victory without achieving their long-standing demanded U.S. economic aid to help repair war damage. . · political objective of an alliance with a "progres- 26 capitalist system in south sive" or "patriotic" sector of the Vietnamese bour­ fisted bureaucratic allies. an important role in the first days in providing a geoisie. Thus far, the Lao Dong leadership has sought to link between the new regime, with its weak Political and military power after April 30, 1975, solve these problems through methods in line with organization in the cities, and the urban population. was wholly in the hand~ of the Stalinist Lao Dong their deeply rooted Stalinist outlook. The stance taken by the Vietnamese leaders and party, which immediately absorbed the Southern The Vietnamese Stalinist leaders rejected swift by rank-and-file workers on the future of Vietna­ formation, the People's Revolutionary party. Its reunification and opposed completing the social mese capitalism has been vividly described in the only allies in the NLF were some petty-bourgeois revolution in the South through the overturn of book Giai Phong! The Fall and Liberation of Saigon sympathizers of the Lao Dong. capitalist property relations. Instead they attemp­ (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1976), by Tiziano ted to implement the class-collaborationist program Terzani, an Italian journalist who is highly sympa­ A devastated country of the Provisional Revolutionary Government. thetic to the Vietnamese revolution. Terzani writes: There can be no doubt that the DRV and NLF "As for actual reunification between the North leaders, on taking political power in South Vietnam, In the first days the situation in the factories of Saigon and the South," one Southern official told UPI was still confused. A declaration by the new authorities confronted grave economic and social problems in correspondent Alan Dawson May 14, 1975, "it had assured owners that "manufacturers and dealers will both parts of the country. These conditions could might take years.... Our brothers in the North have their goods safeguarded and will be able to continue not be quickly overcome without massive infusions realize we cannot have a regime like that of the activities profitable to the national economy and to the life of economic and technical assistance from abroad. North immediately." of the population." But in some establishments the Millions of tons of U.S. bombs had pounded the Dawson reported May 30, 1975, that North and workers had announced a takeover, and in some cases had rural areas of South Vietnam and virtually the South Vietnamese officials had concluded that even held the first people's trials against the bosses. entire DRV. Agriculture had been disrupted. From a reunification was at least five years away. In many other cases, however, the government significant exporter of rice, South Vietnam had In the August 1, 1975, Far Eastern Economic resisted workers' demands for the expropriation of been transformed into an importer. Review, Malcolm Salmon quoted a formula "much the capitalists. Terzani continues: Today the restoration of agriculture­ in vogue" to describe this anomalous situation: The problem of maintaining foreign ownership and undoubtedly the first priority for the new regime­ "Vietnam has one Party, one army and two keeping foreign technicians in the factories, at least for a requires the painstaking work of filling and governments." certain period, was felt strongly by the cadres in the center replanting twenty-six million bomb craters. The military victory of the rebel forces in the on Le Van Duyet Street [headquarters of the government­ Millions of peasants were forced from the rural absence of capitalist allies undermined the reason sponsored trade-union federation]. In their discussions areas into the cities by U.S. bombing and search­ with workers' committees, which often put forward radical for existence of the PRG, which was designed and maximalist positions, they advised prudence and and-destroy expeditions. caution. The new authorities made energetic efforts to "First of all, it's important to resume production," they return refugees to their villages or to settle them in repeated, and this watchword was printed in large capital "new economic zones," as the bombed-out and letters in Saigon Giai Phong [the daily established by the depopulated areas of the countryside are called. Military Management Committee]. About 1.5 million persons have returned to the The class-collaborationist views of Nguyen Nam countryside thus far. In exchange for the harsh Loc, a member of the Executive Committee of the conditions of life and grueling work that await official trade-union federation, were also quoted by them, the government has offered them ownership Terzani: of small plots of land. The American occupation not only rained destruc­ When a worker in the course of a discussion asked why the bosses shouldn't be expropriated immediately, Loc tion on the land of an already impoverished people, replied: but left a legacy of disease as well. Malaria as well "Now's not the moment. Just now it's a question of as instances of bubonic plague have been reported. reeducating the owners. We must make them understand In the cities, venereal disease afflicts a sizable that their profits come from the workers and should be percentage of the population. Antibiotics and other distributed more fairly. We want to encourage enterprise, medicines are in short supply and doctors are few. not discourage it. That's important at this moment so as to consolidate the people's power." Throughout the nation, hundreds of thousands of crippled and maimed civilians and war veterans Fear initiatives urgently need assistance. Tens of thousands of The policy of preserving capitalism for a time in orphans must be provided for. South Vietnam was not justified by the supposed Many of these problems worsened in the after­ conservatism of the Saigon masses. On the con­ math of the fall of the puppet regime. Economic trary, the course taken by the Lao Dong party may activity came to a standstill as factories shut down. have been motivated in part by fear of the Some were closed down by their owners as they fled initiatives these workers might undertake, which Vietnam; others were processing plants that re­ might go far beyond the goals of the Stalinists. This quired raw materials from the United States and fear may have been especially strong in the first other countries. The embargo on trade imposed by months of the regime, when the bureaucratic Washington after the liberation has helped to block apparatus in the South was only beginning to be the restoration of production in some of these precisely as a magnet for bourgeois groupings. organized and the masses were caught up in the factories. With the collapse of the Saigon army and Nonetheless the Provisional Revolutionary Govern­ excitement of victory. bureaucracy, unemployment in the South imme­ ment took office in Saigon on June 6, 1975. The policy of upholding and fostering capitalism diately rose from one million to 3.5 million. Although the Hanoi leaders remained the ulti­ held sway throughout the first year of the new mate authority, the decision to formally turn power regime, despite the shattered condition of Vietna­ Impact on North over to the PRG amounted to an effort to preserve mese capitalism. Less attention has been paid to the economic the fiction of a coalition government designed to In the April 30, 1976, issue of the Washington impact of the war on the North. While social protect the property of the remaining capitalists for Post, Nayan Chanda, an Indian journalist drew a dislocation was less severe than in the South the time being. It meant an indefinite postponement conclusion that has been echoed by virtually every because of the revolutionary spirit of the people and of the establishment of a planned economy. journalist who has observed the South's economic the advantages of a planned economy, the economic A policy decision had been made not only to course since liberation: "Partly as a result of the development and the living standards of the preserve two governments in the North and South, gradualist approach, partly because of a serious population were hard hit. The cities of the South but two contradictory social systems as well. lack of trained managers, it is still the market were largely off limits to American bombers (except Some Western observers and journalists attribut­ forces that dominate the economy." for brief periods during the 1968 and 1972 NLF ed the decision to postpone a full-scale social Chanda predicted that this situation could not offensives), while the cities of the DRV were revolution in the South to fear of the supposed continue indefinitely: "The present striking contra­ primary targets. Except for Hanoi and Haiphong, anticommunism of the Southern urban masses. Lao diction between the ideals of socialism set for the the urban centers of the North were bombed to the Dong officials have encouraged that belief. whole country and the continued if subdued ground. existence of the old t,ocial-economic structure must If Vietnam is to make rapid progress in repairing Attitude of workers and students be viewed as a passing phase." war damage and constructing a prosperous econo­ In reality the liberation forces were eagerly my, considerable aid from abroad is essential. The welcomed by important parts of the populace of other workers states, which measured out minimal Saigon and other cities-particularly in the Offer 'peaceful coexistence' military aid during the U.S. aggression, are not working-class districts and the universities. This In their search for desperately needed assistance, 'doing much better today in sur- · ving economic initial sympathy broadened out rapidly as it the new rulers of Vietnam have offered "peaceful assistance. became evident that the scare stories about an coexistence" to the United States and its clients in This grave economic and socia. situation con­ inevitable bloodbath were anticommunist fabrica­ the region. In Stalinist parlance, this includes fronted the new leaders with massive and complex tions. Because of the depth of Vietnamese national­ political support to counterrevolutionary govern­ tasks. On the one hand, South Vietnam urgently ism and the tragic consequences of the division of ments. needed a planned economy to eliminate unemploy­ the country, support for reunification was, if In the past, this treacherous policy led the DRV ment, restore production, assure the distribution of anything, even wider than sympathy for the new and NLF leaders to support the Bandaranaike basic necessities, and take the initial steps toward government. regime's sweeping repressions of radical youth in industrialization. In the hours immediately preceding the liberation 1971, the bourgeois Armed Forces Movement At the same time, they had to urgently seek of Saigon and in the days following it, many government in Portugal, and other regimes that foreign assistance. Here the vast reserve of interna­ factories were abandoned by their owners. Workers, voiced verbal sympathy with the struggle for tional support won by the Vietnamese people usually under the leadership of NLF cadres, in freedom in South Vietnam. through their heroic struggle against imperialism many cases occupied these factories to prevent the The regime's policy toward the United States was provides a powerful lever for prying assistance out destruction of property and to restore production enunciated by Pham Van Dong in Hanoi on June of both the capitalist states and Vietnam's tight- where possible. Committees of these workers played Continued on next page

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 27 sought to assure worried city dwellers that a sweeping attack on unemployment would soon be launched. A Saigon radio broadcast reported in the ..Vietnam May 21, 1976, New York Times quoted him as Continued from preceding page saying: 3, 1975, three days before the PRG was officially To root out the unemployment problem and to tum placed in power in Saigon. Saigon into a productive city, we need a ring of industrial Addressing the opening session of the DRV's and agricultural zones around Saigon. To make this a National Assembly, the premier demanded that reality, we need two million workers from the Saigon area. Washington abide by provisions of the Paris These workers will be employed in factories, agricultural Accords (backed by private promises from President areas, power stations, water works, sanitation and communications centers and so on. Nixon) obliging the United States to contribute to Vietnam's" reconstruction. Dong continued: An undertaking of this scope could hardly be carried out if South Vietnam's economy were to On this basis, and on the principle of equality and mutual benefit, the Democratic Republic of (North) remain capitalist. Vietnam government will normalize its relations with the During the June 24-July 3, 1976, meeting of the United States in the spirit of Article 22 of the Paris National Assembly, which formally completed the agreement on Vietnam and will settle the remaining administrative reunification of the country and problems with the United States.... adopted a five-year economic plan, Le Duan an­ The State Department rejected this overture, nounced: cynically describing as "ironic" the appeal for aid In the south we must immediately abolish the compra­ from a nation the American imperialists had tried dor bourgeoisie and the remnants of the feudal landlord to destroy. Later, Kissinger modified this stance classes, undertake the socialist transformation of private slightly, holding that Washington's response would capitalist industry and commerce, agriculture, handicraft depend on Vietnam's "conduct" toward imperialism and small trade through appropriate measures and steps, and its allies in Southeast Asia. In the meantime, combine transformation with building in order actively to steer the economy of the south into the orbit of socialism, Washington continued to deny diplomatic recogni­ and integrate the economies of both zones in a single tion to the new government and to bar Vietnam . PREMIER PHAM VAN DONG system of large-scale socialist production. from the United Nations. The Vietnamese Stalinists clearly signaled the Turning point for VIetnam advantages of "peaceful coexistence" when Hanoi economy moving. Wilfred Burchett wrote in the Such a policy would represent a turning point for hailed Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's October 17, 1975, Far Eastern Economic Review: the Vietnamese revolution, the abolition of the reactionary coup in 1975. primacy of capitalism in the social and economic During the first months after taking power, the By the time many people were on their way to work, life of the Southern masses. It would mark a new Vietnamese leaders demanded that Thailand and workers, businessmen, housewives, and others, paraded qualitative advance, following upon the expulsion through the streets under banners demanding punishment of the capitalists from political power on April 30, other neighboring capitalist states eliminate U.S. for hoarders and profiteers, a clean-up of the marketing · military bases that could be used against Vietnam. system, and price controls. One big procession of some 1975. Hanoi has now established diplomatic relations 8,000, composed of delegates from most of the trade To accomplish changes of this scope, the regime with the Philippines and Malaysia, while relations unions, marched through the central market area, shout· will have to mobilize the Vietnamese workers and with Singapore and Thailand have thawed some­ ing slogans while merchants peered cautiously from poor peasants on an even larger scale than was what. behind their shop-windows. done during the campaign against the "compra­ Other groups, obviously from the poorer parts of the dores" in September 1975. Only the working class is The social policy adopted by the victors in city, invaded the exclusive shopping centre of what used Vietnam is consistent with their attempt to achieve to be known as the European area.... Among the most capable of taking command away from the capital­ "peaceful coexistence" in the international field. By militant of the demonstrators were Chinese workers and ists in the factories, counteracting their resistance, delaying the overthrow of capitalism in the South businessmen in the heart of Cholon-the section of Saigon demoralizing their remaining followers, and provid­ for as long as possible, the Vietnamese leadership where about half of South Vietnam's 1 million Chinese ing a popular base for a new social order. signaled willingness to coexist with capitalism live. This presents problems for the Lao Dong party elsewhere. In addition, they may have hoped that In the aftermath of this crisis, the Political leaders,· however, for their regime in the North rests protection of capitalist interests would reassure Consultative Conference on National Reunification on the exclusion of the workers from political power. potential foreign investors on the determination of was held in Saigon in November 1975. This Consciously modeling their political structure on the new leaders to protect future investments. conference called for elections to a single National the bureaucratic regimes in the Soviet Union and In describing the perspective for South Vietnam Assembly for the entire country to be held in April China, the Vietnamese leaders have sought to in a major speech. on May 15, 1975, Le Duan 1976, a big step toward full reunification. protect the privileged position of the ruling bureau­ projected the creation of"a fine national democratic The "anticompradore campaign" further wea­ cratic caste. · The Stalinist leaders, compelled by regime, a prosperous national democratic economy" kened the capitalists. There was no fundamental circumstances to move toward carrying out a social in the South. change in economic policy, however, although overturn in the South, fear that the workers will not This projection was in line with the theory of a Troung Chinh and others spoke about the impor­ accept bureaucratic control in doing away with two-stage revolution long advocated by the Vietna­ tance of moving more speedily toward socialism. capitalism, but may challenge the supremacy of the mese Stalinists. The theory calls for a lengthy Despite the economic reforms of September 1975 bureaucracy itself. This fear contributes to their period of "national democratic" development guided and the accelerated steps toward reunification, the delays and hesitations. by a coalition government, a regime that is economy remained in deep trouble. supposedly suspended between capitalism and the Richard Nations, writing from Bangkok in the dictatorship of the proletariat. Events in Vietnam August 24, 1976, Financial Times of London, Urban workers Although the urban working class of South have again exposed this class-collaborationist line. asserted: The "stage" of "prosperous national democratic Vietnam was not directly involved -in the military economy" in Vietnam has proved to be a period of Shortages of essential goods are chronic. The unem· confrontations that finally brought the neocolonial­ ployed squeeze a living by queueing at ration shops for stagnation for the economy, particularly in the ist regime down, it is not without a militant hours and then selling their quotas on the open market tradition of its own. From 1963, when the masses in cities. About 3.5 million persons out of a population where prices are much ·higher than the controlled ones. of twenty-one million remain unemployed. The Anti-biotics are almost non-existent except in the burgeon­ Saigon and elsewhere staged demonstrations that scope of unemployment makes it impossible for the ing "under-the-counter" sector. helped topple Diem, no regime has been able to government to effectively combat such evils as A black market thrives in dollars at ten times the firmly establish its totalitarian control over the crime and prostitution. official exchange rate and diamonds at twice world urban masses, despite the brutal repression carried Although rationing has prevented starvation, the market prices. The rich continue to live comfortably, if out by Thieu and his predecessors. only through dis-investment. standard of living in the cities has declined under Strikes, including general strikes, and workers the impact of unemployment and inflation. The To make matters worse, Vietnam suffered a demonstrations have taken place. Students, Bud­ prices of rice, fuel, and other commodities have setback in agricultural production this year as dhists, Catholics, and war veterans protested the risen sharply. Businessmen attempted to squeeze drought blighted the spring and summer crops. To corruption and injustices of the regime. Many maximum profits from the difficult situation assure an adequate water supply for the land and political tendencies existed in the underground and through black-market activities, currency manipula­ sufficient food for the cities, the authorities are the tradition and ideas left by Trotskyists like Ta tion, counterfeiting, and hoarding. attempting to organize the peasants into "work­ Thu Thau were not without influence. Having exchange" teams, an early stage in the development fought so long, the masses may prove resistant to of cooperatives. bowing their necks to the bureaucracy's yoke. As the economic situation worsened and popular Despite the drought, Vietnam 'bas made impres­ One indication of such resistance is the wide­ discontent grew, the new government took mea­ sive strides toward the restoration of agriculture, spread criticism of the highhandedness and, in sures against the most hated sectors of the capital­ although this promises to be a long and difficult some instances, corruption of the bureaucrats. Some ists. process. Everywhere bridges, canals, and irrigation of these complaints have found their way into the On August 30 all banks except the government­ works are being repaired, land is being reclaimed, Saigon press. In response to these charges, the owned National Bank were shut down. A new and new roads built. government h; ,.. launched an "antibureaucratic" currency was established soon afterward. publicity campuign denouncing the derelictions of On September 11, 1975, PRG Prime Minister ShiH toward planned economy lower-ranking officials. This campaign has been Huynh Tan Phat issued a fourteen-point program The first steps toward the reorganization of reflected in the North as well. By turning lower­ aimed at "compradore capitalists who have monop­ agricultural production on a cooperative basis ranking and inexperienced officials into scapegoats, olised and illegally hoarded goods and disrupted the increased the pressure on the government to move the Lao Dong party leaders hope to deflect criticism markets." Armed security forces raided the homes toward a more thoroughgoing land reform and to from the dictatorial command exercised by the tops of a score of the wealthiest families in the Cholon establish planned industrial production in the and from the bureaucratic system of rule as a district of Saigon, and seized substantial hidden cities. The social tensions generated by widespread whole. stores of goods. The property of these "compra­ unemployment in the cities also press the leaders in Mobilizations against the remnants of Southern dores" was nationalized. this direction. capitalism could undermine the stability of the Lao The enthusiasm aroused by such measures Signs of a sharp new turn in economic policy Dong party's power base in the North, where the indicated· that the Saigon ma8ses were eager for began to appear in May. Vo Van Kiet, chairman of regime has confronted growing discontent with the anticapitalist measures aimed at getting the stalled the Saigon People's Revolutionary Committee, slow pace of economic advance.

28 Political considerations of this type may have regime), government officials, and military officers solving Vietnam's problems. Such a regime, having motivated the "East European observer" who told of the old regime. More than 200,000 persons have nothing to fear from the people, will do its utmost to Chanda that the Vietnamese leadership's "prag­ now been held in such camps for a year. open up educational opportunities, foster the ad­ matic" policy in the South may have "averted a While some of these people are undoubtedly guilty vancement of culture, and guarantee freedom of possible Budapest." The carrying out of the over­ of real war crimes against the Vietnamese people, discussion. The revolution must be a school of tum of capitalism in the South is closely inter­ few have been charged with, tried for, or convicted unfettered thought! twined with the tasks of the political revolution in of any crime. The struggle for these rights and institutions of the North. The danger that the Stalinists will tum to large­ workers democracy in the South can play a role in scale political repression will be especially great as inspiring the masses of the North to advance along Fear of workers democracy the regime carries out its promise to move against similar lines in the struggle against bureaucratism. The Vietnamese Stalinist leaders have not carried the remaining landlords and capitalists. The Vietnamese revolution urgently needs eco­ out sweeping repressions in the South thus far. In the East European countries and China, the nomic assistance from the capitalist world. For a Their actions, however, have been consistent with equivalent period saw the imposition of tight police time it may be necessary to offer economic conces­ their deep and long-standing antagonism to regimes, eliminating the very narrow leeway for sions to foreign capital, particularly in developing workers democracy. They have betrayed no inclina­ dissent that had been allowed earlier. The task of Vietnam's oil resources. In addition, concessions to tion to give the masses a decisive voice or, indeed, suppressing active procapitalist counterrevolution­ small traders and the peasantry may have to be any voice at all in the shaping of the policies that aQ.es was used as a pretext for assaults on made. guide the regime. democratic rights aimed at preserving bureaucratic But these needs do not justify the leadership's The local committees established in May 1975 rule against the masses. delay in overturning capitalism and landlordism in with the fall of the Saigon government are closely In Eastern Europe, Stalin followed up the the South. In Vietnam it is illusory to count on controlled by cadres of the Lao Dong party and its overturn of capitalism with sweeping purges aimed economic development along "national democratic" fronts. These organizations provide the Lao Dong at eliminating all potential dissidence. In 1952, lines. The history of revolutions in the colonial with a mass base for carrying out its policies or for when the Maoists were beginning to undertake the world has demonstrated conclusively that a use against recalcitrant bourgeois elements, but measures that eventually led to the elimination of planned economy is a prerequisite for swift, they neither debate nor decide political, economic, and social policy. The trade unions perform similar functions. According to Father Tu, an organizer of the Trade Union Federation of Liberation, the federation's task "will be to keep watch over the life of the workers, to forge a bond with all levels of govern­ ment." (Quoted in Terzani's Giai Phong.0 All political parties that existed under the old regime, including the oppositional parties of the "third force," have been abolished. The new rulers have made no provision for political tendencies to exercise their right to form parties that support the revolution while criticizing or opposing the policies of the Lao Dong party. On some occasions, the antidemocratic policies of the regime have met with unexpected opposition. An instance of this was the response to a May 15, 1975, order by the Office of Information and Culture in Saigon barring the circulation, sale, and lending of all publications printed during the American occupation and under the puppet regime. Student supporters of the government ransacked libraries and private homes in search of materials that fell under the ban. Prohibited books were publicly burnt in bonfires. At this point, Tiziano Terzani reports in Giai Phong!, "the population began to protest." 'Hoc tap' Hoc tap or "reeducation" is another practice of the Lao Dong leaders which contradicts the norms of workers democracy. In its mildest form, hoc tap means attendance at lectures on the liberation struggle or discussions (often taking the form of self-criticism). In this form, virtually the entire urban population is expected to pass through hoc capitalism, they ordered the arrest and imprison­ balanced economic reconstruction and full employ­ tap, which continues until each individual is ment without charges or trial of dozens of Trotsky­ ment. regarded to have sincerely repented relations with ists. Nor does the need for foreign capital justify the the neocolonial regime, if any, and to have reached Lao Dong leadership's stubborn adherence to the full support of the objectives of the new govern­ For freely elected committees reactionary policy of "socialism in one country" ment. As the Vietnamese revolution advances, the issue and the Stalinist practice of "peaceful coexistence" Whatever its uses in introducing the population to of workers' democracy will become more acute. with the imperialist powers. the policies and goals of their new rulers, the For instance Le Duan has indicated that the During the years of the New Economic Policy in system of "reeducation" has a built-in tendency to people of the South may have to accept a lower the Soviet Union, Lenin and Trotsky favored classify virtually the entire urban population as standard of living for a time. In view of the grave making temporary concessions to foreign capital tainted to some degree or other by association with problems confronting the country, this may prove to and the market economy; but they stressed the fact the old Saigon regime. This extends even to those be the case but it is not'Le Duan's decision to make. that the way out of poverty and economic isolation who actively opposed the regime through the It is the Vietnamese people who have the right to for the Soviet Union was on the road of the world organizational forms that were available to city decide. If austerity proves necessary, should not the revolution, and in particular the socialist revolution dwellers (union struggles, Buddhist and Catholic privileges of the bureaucracy be cut to the bone in the advanced capitalist countries. Diplomatic protests, and so forth). before the bare living standards of the masses are maneuvers were not allowed to determine the This view of the urban masses is especially sacrificed? political strategy, positions, and program of the dangerous because of the possibilities opened by the The workers and peasants in Vietnam, struggling Bolshevik party and the Third International. new advance in the revolution. While peasant rebels to complete the destruction of landlordism and under capable military leadership proved able to capitalism and to establish effective economic New revolutionary party deeply undermine and (with major aid from the planning, will tend to form rank-and-file-controlled The Lao Dong party, because it represents the DRV) finally smash the old government, the committees. They will seek to exercise their right to interests of a crystallized bureaucratic caste estab­ building of a new society requires the leadership of debate issues, to read and write what they like, and lished in the North, which has extended its control another class, the urban workers. The concepts that to form tendencies and parties without official to the South, is incapable of establishing workers underlie hoc tap provide a ready-made excuse for interference. democracy. A new revolutionary party, firmly stifling the initiatives of this class and for imposing rooted among the Vietnamese workers, is required bureaucratic tutelage over it. Revolutionary Marxists will certainly support for that. The Bolsheviks under Lenin and Trotsky had a their efforts to build such committees and to oppose Socialists and all those who oppose new imperial­ different approach to winning the support of the all efforts by the government to subject them to ist wars like the one in Vietnam must keep up the masses. They knew that the allegiance of workers bureaucratic control, as the government has done demand that Washington meet its obligation to aid and peasants can be won and maintained only by with the committees established under Lao Dong in the reconstruction of Vietnam. Restitution must actions against the landlords, capitalists, and sponsorship. be made for the damage inflicted on Vietnam, imperialists, and not by pressuring the masses to One of the sharpest phases of the struggle may although America can never fully repay the repent supposed past derelictions or compelling well involve the right of the masses to elect and Vietnamese for the death and destruction wrought them to attend propaganda lectures. recall all officials, a demand that was first sounded on this small country under Johnson, Nixon, and at the time of the Paris Commune in 1871. Against Ford. 'Collective reeducation' the monolithic parliament erected as a showpiece In addition to demanding massive aid for The most severe form of hoc tap is "collective by the Lao Dong party, the workers and peasants Vietnam, opponents of imperialism must call upon reeducation" in camps in the northern regions of will certainly press for a soviet form of government. Washington to recognize the new government, end Vietnam. This treatment appears .. to have been A soviet regime enjoymg the enthusiastic support the trade embargo, and get out of Southeast Asia, reserved primarily for former Saigon politicians of millions of workers and peasants can mobilize where the Pentagon still threatens the peoples of (including some bourgeois opponents of the Thieu immense human forces, one of the requisites to Indochina.

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 29 Pittsburgh debate SWP, CP clash on ERA, support to Dems By Paul LeBlanc CP and SWP differ from each other. Another major disagreement, she his point, Storey said that many and Bill Kalman "The main debate here tonight," added, is over the Equal Rights Democratic and Republican party PITTSBURGH-Both the Socialist Jenness answered, "is not between the Amendment for women. The SWP is politicians support the ERA. Workers party and Communist party two of us, but is the two of us against an active fighter for the ERA, while A few moments later, however, presidential slates were on the ballot the two parties of big business." She the CP opposes the amendment. Storey defended his party's support for here for the November 2 presidential pointed out that both the CP and SWP Storey responded, "Trotskyism is an a Democratic candidate by saying, election. (Overall, the SWP ticket this year are calling for a vote against ideology which comes at you from the "Well, we are politicians living in the achieved ballot status in twenty-eight the Democratic and Republican presi­ left, but props up the bourgeoisie, real world." He added, "When you states, the CP in twenty.) dential candidates. argues for bourgeois norms, bourgeois have an opportunity to elect to the A debate here several weeks before Nonetheless, Jenness said, there are democracy, and places the workers in Senate a Black candidate, or several the election helped clarify the differe­ important differences. the tail of the bourgeoisie. . . . Black candidates-well, you're for ing viewpoints of these two parties and "Their anticommunism is just as bad equal representation for Blacks, aren't their candidates for students at the First, she explained, the CP is not as Carter's and Ford's," he said. This you?" University of Pittsburgh. consistent in opposing candidates of charge of anticommunism is absurd. A reporter for the Pitt News asked The debate, attended by more than the two big-business parties. Although The SWP has been the target of witch­ Storey if this wasn't a compromise of seventy people, featured representa­ the CP this fall is not supporting Ford hunting tactics by the government and the opposition to the Democratic party tives from the presidential campaigns or Carter, for example, it supports right-wingers for decades. It has con­ that he had been advancing. Isn't a of the Democratic and Republican many liberal Democrats in state, local, sistently defended members of the CP Democratic politician-Black or parties, as well as the CP and the SWP and congressional races. and other groups against red-baiting white-still a Democrat? she asked. slates. It was endorsed by the Young Another major difference, Jenness and victimization. To Storey, however, Storey termed the question "objec­ Socialist Alliance, Young Republicans, said, is that the CP "supports the kind any criticism of the lack of democracy tively racist" because "it denies equal Young Democrats, and Student Gov­ of government, and the theory and inside the Soviet Union is "anticom­ representation to Black people, an ernment Board. ideology of the government, in the munist." oppressed national minority." Linda Jenness, the SWP's presiden­ Soviet Union. Jenness criticized Storey's "tirades tial candidate in 1972, spoke on behalf "The Socialist Workers party does Later in the debate, Storey launched against Trotskyism" and "slanders of the party's 1976 slate; Peter Camejo not. . . . We are staunch supporters of another false and even more slander­ that we're agents of the bourgeoisie, and Willie Mae Reid. Rasheed Storey, the socialist revolution of 1917 and of ous attack on the SWP. "During the agents of the CIA, that we're Hitler­ district organizer for the CP in western the planned economy there. But we do Second World War," he said, "do you ites." The purpose of such gutter Pennsylvania, represented Gus Hall not think that the government there is know who the Trotskyites supported? charges, she said, is to avoid discuss­ and Jarvis Tyner. democratic. We think that it is a They were allied with Hitler. They ing "the real differences in ideas and totalitarian, reactionary government were allied with Hitler against the programs that exist on the left." She In contrast to the Ford and Carter on the question of democratic rights, Soviet Union.... Why? Because their stressed the need for "open, honest spokespeople, both Jenness and Storey and we're the people who believe that main frame of reference was to snuff discussions of these differences. drew an enthusiastic response from the democracy and socialism go hand in out the kind of socialism that they "Anything else is a disservice to the audience. This reflects the widespread hand. We think that the government in didn't like." workers movement," Jenness said. disenchantment with the Democrats the Soviet Union should be replaced Defending the CP's opposition to the "It's poison in the workers movement and Republicans this year and the with one that's controlled by the people ERA, Storey dismissed the amendment and has been ever since it existed. And growing willingness of many people to who live and work there." as something "which does not touch you must reject that." . consider alternatives to these two The CP, Jenness said, supported the the profit system. The profit system is Jenness told the audience, "We are capitalist parties. Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslo­ the main factor in the oppression of appealing to you on the basis of During the question period, a vakia in 1968, while the SWP opposed women. If you don't touch it, you are program and ideas, and for you to member of the audience asked how the it. playing the bourgeois game." To prove honestly decide which you choose."

If You've Been Reading Calendar ATLANTA social systems. and their strategy for DEFEND ABORTION RIGHTS. Speak­ socialism in the U.S. Tues., Nov. 9, 8 p.m. ers: Cathy deiCampo, Atlanta NOW; 186 W. 4th St., 7th Floor. Donation: $2. Myrian Richmond, news director, WAOK; Ausp: School for Marxist Education. For Doris Mclittle, Family Planning Clinic, more information call (212) 989-6493. Every Week Spelman College; and others. Fri., Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m. Drew Park Community NEW YORK Center, 145 East Lake Blvd. Donation: $1. FREEDOM FOR THE FIVE PUERTO Ausp: Militant Bookstore Forum. For RICAN NATIONALISTS. A community more information call (404) 755-2940. forum. Speakers: representatives from the For The Committee to Free the Five; Bimbo Rivas BOSTON and Jorge Brandon, poets from El Teatro SOCIALIST SUIT AGAINST THE FBI, Ambulante; Jose G. Perez, Militant staff CIA, ET AL. Speakers: Judy Uhl, co­ writer who recently visited Andres Figu­ Past 111 Years founder, Committee for Democratic Elec­ eroa Cordero; others. Wed., Nov. 10, 7 tion Laws; others. Fri., Nov. 12, 8 p.m. 510 p.m. Bracetti Houses, 296 E. 4th St. Commonwealth Ave. (Kenmore Square). (between Aves. B & C). Donation: $1. Donation: $1. Ausp: Boston Socialist Then, starting back in 1865, right to the pres­ OAKLAND, CALIF. You have been reading comment by such of Forum. For more information call (617) ent era of Corporation-dominated America, our contributors as William Butler Yeats 262-4620. BLACK WOMEN STRUGGLE FOR you have not only kept fully abreast of polit­ EQUALITY. Presentations and slide show Ralph Nader, Henry james, Elizabeth Holtz~ by Naima Washington of The Profiles in ical and social events ... but you have also man, Leon Trotsky, Carey McWilliams, john LOS ANGELES had a refreshing, independent, and venture­ PICKET LINE TO FREE GARY TYLER. Black, Brown, and Beige. Speakers: Dos Passos, Corliss Lamont, Andre Malraux, some perspective of the undercurrents-the Wed., Nov. 10. 4 to 6 p.m. Federal Bldg. Frankie Arrington, director, Women's George McGovern, Thomas Mann, Emile Ca­ (Temple and Los Angeles St.) Ausp: Gary Reentry Program; Kara Obradovic, former dynamics-of events .. Also, you've been get­ pouya, Robert Frost, Robert Sherrill, Emily Tyler Defense Committee. For more member, Merritt College Black Student ting a straightforward analysis and review of Dickinson, and a sparkling lot of other writers information call (213) 759-0920. Union, member YSA. Fri., Nov. 12, 8 p.m. literature, music, poetry, theatre, lV, films, and thinkers. 1467 Fruitvale Ave. Donation: $1. Ausp: art and dance. LOS ANGELES Militant Forum. For more information call BERNADETTE DEVLIN SPEAKS ON (415) 261-1210. The Nation, America's oldest weekly, has been ahead of the news ever since its first issue in 1865 IRELAND. Fri., Nov. 12, 8 p.m. Immacu­ late Heart College, 2021 N. Western Ave., If You Haven't Been Reading The NATION For The Past 111 Years Administration Bldg. Auditorium. Dona­ SOCIALIST EDUCATION CONFER­ tion: $1. Ausp: Viewpoint. For more ENCE ON BLACK LIBERATION AND Get with it-Subscribe today! information call (213) 732-8197. SOCIALISM. Sat., Nov. 13: 2 p.m., Blacks ·------and the Labor Movement. Speaker: Clif­ I Please enter o subscnpt1on to The Nation as checked below for I NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. ton DeBerry, SWP. 4 p.m., Black Libera­ I 0 I year (47 issues) $21.00 0 2 years (94 issues) $37.00 DINNER TO PRESENT ACLU'S CIVIL tion and Socialism. Speaker: Tony Tho­ When I LIBERTIES AWARD TO MARTIN SOS­ mas, SWP. 1467 Fruitvale Ave. Donation: I f\klme (plpq<,P 0f'IOf) Subscribing TRE. Sat., Nov. 13. Commons at Rutgers 50¢ each class. Ausp: SWP. For more Address ------You May I University. Ausp: American Civil Liberties information call (415) 261-1210. 1O!v State ,0,___ _ Send One Union of New Jersey. I Send o g1ft subscnpt1on to Or More I SAN JOSE Gift NEW YORK Nome I THE FIGHT AGAINST DEPORTA­ ,Address------PARTIES AND TENDENCIES OF THE TIONS. Speakers: Froben Lozada, head I Subscriptions For Just I U.S. LEFT. A talk by the Mass Party of Chicano studies at Merritt College. 101y State 1P Organizing Committee, as part of a series Also a film. Wed., Nov. 10, 8 p.m. 957 S. $18.00 Each I presenting their theory of social change, First St. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant their perspectives on the Russian and t!"orum. For more information call (415) l- ____ 100-14- I Chinese reYolutions and the resulting 295-8342. f 33.:-3Snd-nA!!~~=N_v _·------~I A.w 11.011.., ..... to< c.....ta""" -=odd u.oo ...... oil-...... l I

30 Come to the YSA convention cineaste FALL 1976 ISSUE The Early Films of Luis Bunuel I How Left is Lina WertmUller? I VIET­ NAM!, VIETNAM! -John Ford's Propaganda Docu­ mentary for the USIA I Cinema in Revolutionary Portugal I Clandestine The Young Socialist Alliance national convention will take place December Filming in South Africa 31-January 2 at the Sheraton-Chicago Hotel in Chicago. I Sherlock Holmes and The convention is the perfect place to find out more about the socialist New Detective Films I movement. Reviews of ONE FLEW To find out more about the convention or to join the YSA, contact the YSA OVER THE CUCKOO'S chapter nearest you (listed on page 31), or fill out the coupon below. NEST, TAXI DRIVER, JACKSON COUNTY JAIL, D I want to join the YSA. HURRY TOMORROW D I want to attend the YSA convention. D Send me more information. PUERTO RICO: NEXT ISSUE: The Left U.S. Colony in and Porno I Pro-Con Name ______the Car•bbean debate on UNDERGROUND Address ______By Jose G. Perez. 24 pp., 35 cents $4 for four issues CitY------State ______Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014 333 Sixth Avenue Zip ______Phone ------New York, N.Y. 10014

Clip and mail to: YSA, P.O. Box 471 Cooper Station, New York, N.Y. 10003. Socialist Directory ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP, P.O. Box 10772, Phoenix, 0737; YSA-(312) 427-Q280. North Minneapolis: SWP, P.O. Box 11245 Highland PENNSYLVANIA: Edinboro: YSA, Edinboro State Ariz. 85064. Tel: (602) 956-1181. Chicago, North Side: SWP, Pathfinder Books, 1870 Sta., Mpls., Minn. 55411. Tel: (612) 378-9678. College, Edinboro, Pa. 16412. Tempe: YSA, Box 1344, Tempe, Ariz. 85281. Tel: N. Halsted, Chicago, Ill. 60614. Tel: (312) 642- Southeast-West Bank Minneapolis: 15 4th St. SE, Philadelphia, Germantown: SWP, Militant Book­ (602) 277-9453. 4811. Mpls., Minn. 55414. store, 5950 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. Tucson: YSA, SUPO 20965, Tucson, Ariz. 85720. Chicago, South Chicago: SWP, Pathfinder Books, Southside Minneapolis: 23 E. Lake St., Mpls. Minn. 19144. Tel: (215) Vl4-2874. Tel: (602) 795-2053. 9139 S. Commercial, Room 205, Chicago, Ill. 55408. Philadelphia, West Philadelphia: SWP, 218 S. 45th CALIFORNIA: Berkeley: SWP, YSA, Granma Book­ 60617. Tel: (312) 7;34-7644. St. Paul: SWP, Labor Bookstore, 176 Western Ave., St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19104. Tel: (215) EV7-2451. store, 3264 Adeline St., Berkeley, Calif. 94703. Chicago, South Side: SWP, Pathfinder Books, 1515 St. Paul, Minn. 55102. Tel: (612) 222-8929. Philadelphia: City-wide SWP, YSA, 218 S. 45th St., Tel: (415) 653-7156. E. 52nd Pl., 3rd Floor North, Chicago, Ill. 60615. MISSOURI: Kansas City: SWP, YSA, P.O. Box Philadelphia, Pa. 19104. Tel: (215) EV7-2451. East Los Angeles: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Bookstore, Tel: (312) 643-5520. 27023, Kansas City, Mo. 64110. Tel: (816) 531- Pittsburgh: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore, 5504 1237 S. Atlantic Blvd., East Los Angeles, Calif. Chicago, Uptown-Rogers Park: SWP, Pathfinder 2978. Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15206. Tel: (412) 441- 90022. Tel: (213) 265-1347. Books, 1105 W. Lawrence, Room 312, Chicago, St. Louis: City-wide SWP, YSA, 6223 Delmar, St. 1419. Echo Park: SWP, P.O. Box 26581, Los Angeles, Ill. 60640. Tel: (312) 728-4151. Louis, Mo. 63130. Tel: (314) 725-1571. State College: YSA, c/o Lynda Joyce, 169 W. Calif. 90026. Chicago, West Side: SWP, Pathfinder Books, 5967 Northside St. Louis: 4875 Natural Bridge Rd., St. Prospect, State College, Pa. 16801. Tel: (814) 234- Long Beach: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Bookstore, 3322 W. Madison, Second Floor, Chicago, Ill. 60644. Louis, Mo. 63115. Tel: (314) 381-0044. 2240. Anaheim St., Long Beach, Calif. 90804. Tel: (213) Tel: (312) 261-8370. Westend St. Louis: 6223 Delmar, St. Louis, Mo. RHODE ISLAND: Kingston: YSA, c/o Box 400, 597-Q965. INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, c/o Student Activities 63130. Tel: (314) 725-1570. Kingston, R.I. 02881. Los Angeles, Crenshaw District: SWP, YSA, Path­ Desk, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. NEW JERSEY: Newark: City-wide SWP, YSA, 403 TENNESSEE: Knoxville: YSA, P.O. Box 8344 Univ. finder Books, 4040 W. Washington Blvd., Los 47401. Chancellor Ave., Newark, N.J. 07112. Tel: (201) Station, Knoxvil!e, Tenn. 37916. Tel: (615) 525- Angeles, Calif. 90018. Tel: (213) 732-8196. Indianapolis: YSA, c/o Student Activity Office, 923-2284. 0820. Los Angeles: City-wide SWP, YSA, 4040 W. Wash­ IUPUI, 925 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis, Ind. Newark, Broadway: SWP, 256 Broadway, Newark, TEXAS: Austin: YSA, c/o Student Activities, Texas ington Blvd., Suite 11, Los Angeles, Calif. 90018. 46202. Tel: (317) 631-3441. N.J. 07104. Tel: (201) 482-3367. Union South, Austin, Tex. 78712. Tel: (213) 732-8197. Muncie: YSA, Box 387 Student Center, Ball State Newark, Weequahic: SWP, 403 Chancellor Ave., Dallas: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, 2215 Cedar Oakland: SWP, YSA, 1467 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland, University, Muncie, Ind. 47306. Newark, N.J. 07112. Tel: (201) 923-2284. Crest, Dallas, Tex. 75203. Tel: (214) 943-6684. Calif. 94601. Tel: (415) 261-1210. KENTUCKY: Lexington: YSA, P.O. Box 952 Uni­ NEW YORK: Albany: YSA, c/o Michael Kozak, 395 Houston, Northeast: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, Pasadena: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Bookstore, 226 N. versity Station, Lexington, Ky. 40506. Tel: (606) Ontario St., Albany, N.Y. 12208. Tel: (518) 482- 2835 Laura Koppe, Houston, Tex. 77093. Tel: El Molino, Pasadena, Calif. 91106. Tel: (213) 793- 266-0536. 7348. (713) 697-5543. 3468. Louisville: SWP, YSA, Box 3593, Louisville, Ky. Binghamton: YSA, c/o Andy Towbin, Box 7120, Houston, North Side: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder San Diego: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore, 1053 40201. SUNY-Binghamton, Binghamton, N.Y. 13901. Bookstore-Libreria Militante, 2816 N. Main, Hous­ 15th St., San Diego, Calif. 92101. Tel: (714) 234- LOUISIANA: New Orleans: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Ithaca: YSA, c/o Ron Robinson, 528 Stewart Ave., ton, Tex. 77009. Tel: (713) 224-Q985. 4630. Bookstore, 3812 Magazine St., New Orleans, La. Am. 13, Ithaca, N.Y. 14850. Tel: (607) 272-7098. Houston, South-Central: SWP, 4987 South Park San Fernando Valley: SWP, P.O. Box 4456, Panora­ 70115. Tel: (504) 891-5324. New York, Bronx: SWP, P.O. Box 688, Bronx, N.Y. Blvd. (South Park Plaza), Houston, Tex. 77021. ma City, Calif. 91412. Tel: (213) 894-2081. MARYLAND: Baltimore: SWP, YSA, 2117 N. Charles 10469. Tel: (713) 643-0005. St., Baltimore, Md. 21218. Tel: (301) 547-0668. New York, Brooklyn-WIIIIamsburgh: SWP, Militant Houston: City-wide SWP, YSA, 3311 Montrose, San Francisco: City-wide SWP, YSA, 3284 23rd St., College Park: YSA, c/o Student Union, University of Bookstore, 57 Graham Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. Houston, Tex. 77006. Tel: (713) 526-1082. San Francisco, Calif. 94110. Tel: (415) 285-4686. Maryland, College Park, Md. 20742. Tel: (301) 11206. Tel: (212) 387-5771. San Antonio: SWP, 1317 Castroville Rd., San San Francisco, Ingleside: SWP, 1441 Ocean Ave., 454-4758. New York, Brooklyn-Crown Hts.: SWP, Militant Antonio, Tex. 78237. Tel: (512) 432-7625. YSA, San Francisco, Calif. 94112. Tel: (415) 333-6261. Prince Georges County: SWP, 4318 Hamilton St., Bookstore, 220-222 Utica Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. P.O. Box 12110, Laurel Heights Sta., San Antonio, San Francisco, Mission District: SWP, 3284 23rdSt., Am. 10, Hyattsville, Md. 20781. Tel: (301) 864- 11213. Tel: (212) 773-Q250. Tex. 78212. San Francisco, Calif. 94110. Tel: (415) 824-1992. 4867. New York, Chelsea: SWP, Militant Bookstore, UTAH: Logan: YSA, P.O. Box 1233, Utah State San Francisco, Western Addition: SWP, 2762A Pine MASSACHUSETTS: Amherst: YSA, c/o Mark Cer­ Libreria Militante, 200% W. 24th St. (off 7th Ave.), University, Logan, Utah 84322. St., San Francisco, Calif. 94115. Tel: (415) 931- asoulo, 13 Hollister Apts., Amherst, Mass. 01002. New York, N.Y. 10011. Tel: (212) 989-2731. Salt Lake City: YSA, P.O. Box 461, Salt Lake City, 0621. Boston: SWP, YSA, 510 Commonwealth Ave., New York, Lower East Side: SWP, YSA, Militant Utah 84110. San Jose: SWP, YSA, 957 S. 1st St., San Jose, Calif. Boston, Mass. 02215. Tel: (617) 262-4620. Bookstore, Libreria Militante, 221 E. 2nd St. VIRGINIA: Richmond: SWP, 1203 A W. Main St., 95110. Tel: (408) 295-8342. Boston: City-wide SWP, YSA, 510 Commonwealth (between Ave. B and Ave. C), New York, N.Y. 2nd Floor, Richmond, Va. 23220. Tel: (804) 232- East San Jose: SWP, 1192 E. Santa Clara, San Jose. Ave., Boston, Mass. 02215. Tel: (617) 262-4621. 10009. Tel: (212) 260-6400. 3769. Calif. 95116. Tel: (408) 295-2618. Cambridge: SWP, 2 Central Square, Cambridge, New York, Queens: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore, WASHINGTON, D.C.: North-at SWP, 2416 18th Santa Barbara: YSA, P.O. Box 14606, UCSB, Santa Mass. 02139. Tel: (617) 547-4395. 90-43 149 St. (corner Jamaica Ave.), Jamaica, St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20009. Tel: (202) 797- Barbara, Calif. 93107. Roxbury: SWP, 1865 Columbus Ave., Roxbury, N.Y. 11435. Tel: (212) 658-7718. 7706. Santa Cruz: YSA, c/o Student Activities Office, Red­ Mass. 02119. Tel: (617) 445-7799. New York, Upper West Side: SWP, YSA, Militant Washington, D.C.: Southeast: SWP, 727 8th St. SE, wood Bldg., UCSC, Santa Cruz, Calif. 95064. Worcester: YSA, Box 229, Greendale Station, Wor­ Bookstore, 786 Amsterdam, New York, N.Y. Washington, D.C. 20003. Tel: (202) 548-2162. COLORADO: Boulder: YSA; Room 175, University cester, Mass. 01606. 10025. Tel: (212) 663-3000. Washington, D.C.: City-wide SWP, YSA, 1424 16th Memorial Center, University of Colorado, MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA, Room 4103, Mich. New York: City-wide SWP, YSA, 853 Broadway, St. NW, Suite 701B, Washington, D.C. 20036. Tel: Boulder, Colo. 80302. Tel: (303) 492-7679. Union, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. Room 412, New York, N.Y. 10003. Tel: (212) 982- (202) 797-7699. Denver: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore, 137~81 48104. Tel: (313) 663-8766. 8214. WASHINGTON: Seattle, Central Area: SWP, YSA, Kalamath, Denver, Colo. 80204. Tel: (303) 623- Detroit, East Side: SWP, 12920 Mack Ave., Detroit, OHIO: Cincinnati: SWP, YSA, P.O. Box 8986, Hyde Militant Bookstore, 2200 E. Union, Seattle, Wash. 2825. Mich. 48215. Tel: (313) 824-1160. Park Station, Cincinnati, Ohio 45208. Tel: (513) 98122. Tel: (206) 329-7404. Fort Collins: YSA, Student Center Cave, Colorado Detroit, Southwest: SWP, Militant Bookstore, Libra­ 321-7445. Seattle, North End: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Book­ State University, Ft. Collins, Colo. 80521. ria Militante, 4210 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit, Mich. Cleveland: SWP, YSA, 2300 Payne, Cleveland, Ohio store, 5623 University Way NE, Seattle, Wash. FLORIDA: Miami: SWP, YSA, Box 431096, South 48209. Tel: (313) 849-3491. 44114. Tel: (216) 861-4166. 98105. Tel: (206) 522-7800. Miami, Fla. 33143. Tel.: (305) 271-2241. Detroit, West Side: SWP, Militant Bookstore, 18415 Cleveland Heights-East Cleveland: SWP, P.O. Box Seattle: City-wide SWP, YSA, 5623 University Way Tallahassee: YSA, c/o Suzanne Welch, 765 El Wyoming, Detroit, Mich. 48221. Tel: (313) 341- 18476, Cleveland Hts., Ohio 44118. Tel: (216) 861- NE, Seattle, Wash. 98105. Tel: (206) 522-7800. Rancho St., Tallahassee, Fla. 32304. Tel: (904) 6436. 4166. Tacoma: SWP, P.O. Box 1312, Tacoma, Wash. 224-9632. Detroli: City-wide SWP, YSA, 1310 Broadway, Columbus: YSA, Box 106 Ohio Union (Am. 308), 98401. Tel: (206) 627-5821. GEORGIA: East Atlanta: SWP, P.O. Box 5596, Detroit, Mich. 48226. Tel: (313) 961-5675. Ohio State Univ., 1739 N. High St., Columbus, WISCONSIN: Eau Claire: YSA, c/o Chip Johnson, Atlanta, Ga. 30307. East Lansing: YSA, First Floor Student Offices, Ohio 43210. Tel: (614) 291-8985. 221% Ninth Ave., Eau Claire, Wis. 54701. Tel: West Atlanta: SWP, Militant Bookstore, 137 Ashby, Union Bldg., Michigan State University, East Kent: YSA, c/o Bob Laycock, 936 Carlisle Ct., Kent, (715) 835-1474. P.O. Box 92040, Atlanta, Ga. 30314. Tel: (404) Lansing, Mich. 48823. Tel: (517) 353-0660. Ohio 44240. Tel: (216) 678-2489. La Crosse: YSA, c/o UW La Crosse, Cartwright 755-2940. Mt. Pleasant: YSA, Box 51 Warriner Hall, Central Toledo: SWP, P.O. Box 2325, Toledo, Ohio 43603. Center, 1725 State St., La Crosse, Wis. 54601. ILLINOIS: Champaign-Urbana: YSA, 284 lllini lfn­ Mich. Univ., Mt. Pleasant, Mich. 48859. Tel: (419) 242-9743. Madison: YSA, P.O. Box 1442, Madi'lon, Wis. 53701. ion, Urbana, Ill. 61801. MINNESOTA: Minneapolis: City-wide SWP, YSA, 23 OREGON: Portland: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore, Tel: (608) 251-1591. Chicago: City-wide SWP, YSA, 407 S. Dearborn E. Lake St., Mpls., Minn. 55408. Tel: (612) 332- 3928 N. Williams, Portland, Ore. 97227. Tel: (503) Milwaukee: SWP, YSA, 3901 N. 27th St., Milwaukee, #1145, Chicago, Ill. 60605. Tel: SWP-(312) 939- 7781. 288-7860. Wis. 53216. Tel: (414) 442-8170.

THE MILITANT/NOVEMBER 12, 1976 31 THE MILITANT Camejo visits political prisoner 'We will win' Nationalist says after 22 years behind bars

By Gilberto Firmat "I was sentenced as a common "but they are not. Those who control efforts on his behalf, but on behalf of NEW YORK-"I've lived long criminal," Figueroa Cordero told are simply a minority. the people of Chile, Brazil, and other enough. Why should one worry so Camejo, "but it was not a common "They look only at the profits they Latin American nations suffering much about dying, when in Latin crime, it was an action against the can make from 'free enterprise' and do under military dictatorships." America and the United States 375,000 government demanding freedom for not see the sacrifices made by masses Camejo asked Figueroa Cordero babies die of hunger each year?" my homeland." of workers." about the unanimous resolutions de­ That was what Andres Figueroa "He told me some of his story," "What moved me most," Camejo manding release of the five passed by Cordero-one of the five imprisoned Camejo said. "He started working for said, "was the courage and dignity of the Puerto Rican House of Representa­ Puerto Rican nationalists-told Peter very low wages when he was twelve or the man. Through two decades of tives and Senate. Camejo during a recent visit by Came­ thirteen and was always-in his own imprisonment he has stood fast by his "They've done this due to pressure jo to the Springfield, Missouri, Medical words-'a poor oppressed worker.' principles. from below," Figueroa Cordero ex­ Center for Federal Prisoners. "He was forced to come to the United "And now, when he has but a few plained, "not out of good will. Camejo, Socialist Workers party States because he could not make a months to live, the first thing he said "We can expect nothing good out of candidate for president, visited the living in Puerto Rico." was not that we should redouble our Continued on page 25 nationalist October 28. The Militant Figueroa Cordero's access to infor­ interviewed Camejo the following day mation in prison has been limited, but in New York. Camejo is the first "he has followed political develop­ candidate for public office ever to visit ments very closely," Camejo said. Figueroa Cordero in prison. "One thing that impressed me about March Nov. 13! Figueroa Cordero has been in the Figueroa Cordero is his optimism," Demonstrations have been sche­ government see and hear." prison hospital since November 1975. Camejo said. "He remains certain the duled for November 13 in New York Figueroa Cordero emphasized that He has twice had surgery for cancer cause of Puerto Rican independence at the United Nations and in San it would take "pressure from below" there. According to doctors, Figueroa will be victorious." Francisco to demand the immediate, to win release of the five. Cordero had at most three years to live "He told me, 'Of this there can be no unconditional release of the five at the time of the first operation. doubt: even in the United States the Puerto Rican nationalist prisoners. Further information on the case of Figueroa Cordero and four other workers will triumph.' " During his visit with Andres Figu­ the five, the demonstrations, and members of the Nationalist party of "The crisis of the North American eroa Cordero, Peter Camejo asked how you can help can be obtained Puerto Rico-Rafael Cancel Miranda, working masses is very bad now," the the nationalist to comment on these from: National Coordinating Com­ Lolita Lebron, Oscar Collazo, and prisoner told Camejo. "They need new upcoming demonstrations. mittee to Free the Five Puerto Rican Irving Flores-were imprisoned in the leaders in their unions, and they need "All those demonstrations," Figu­ Nationalists, Post Office Box 319 early 1950s for armed actions in to put their leaders in the legislatures eroa Cordero responded, "are very Cooper Station, New York, New support of Puerto Rican independence. to represent them. essential for the struggle, because York 10003. Telephone: (212) 243- They are the longest-held political "Those who govern call themselves there is no other way of making the 6412. prisoners in the Western Hemisphere. the majority," Figueroa Cordero added,

NSCAR meeting to discuss busing fight By Jon Hillson to desegregate the city's dual school gation struggle on the eve of the third BOSTON-In their final debate, system, continuing a pattern of eight National Student Conference Against Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter both years of obstruction of the law of the Racism, set for Boston University came out against the use of court­ land. November 19-21. Hundreds of Black, ordered busing to achieve desegrega­ • October 26. Louisville racists Latino, and white student activists tion. That was no surprise. file their second desegregation appeal from across the country will be there. The fact that they mentioned busing to the U.S. Court of Appeals, attempt­ The gathering will set priorities for at all was noteworthy. ing to overturn busing. NSCAR work in coming months. It is Both ruling parties sought to obscure • October 28. The United States expected to launch campaigns in the "race issue" in the campaigns of government, for the first time since the support of Black majority rule in their candidates. Meanwhile, busing is historic 1954·Brown v. Board of Educa­ southern Africa and against U.S. at the center of a national drive by tion decision, becomes a "friend of the complicity with the racist white minor­ racist forces to roll back the gains won court" for foes of desegregation. The ity regimes, in opposition to the death by Blacks during the past two decades. move is made by Solicitor General penalty, and for freedom for victims of While Ford and Carter shadowboxed Robert Bork. The city is Wilmington, racist frame-ups-such as Gary Tyler into the waning hours of the election Delaware, where city-suburban busing and the Wilmington Ten. campaign, desegregation rights came has been ordered for the fall of 1977 to In addition, the meeting will discuss under increasing attack: break down the dual system encom­ NSCAR's continuing work in support • October 25. Racists unsucess­ passing the area. of busing. Today this primarily means fully try to bomb classrooms in "Events like these should serve organ1zmg a national educational Charlestown and South Boston high notice on all opponents of racism that campaign on why busing is needed to schools in a coordinated assault. desegregation is not a 'dead issue,'" implement school desegregation. Twenty-two whites are arrested. Lucki­ Maceo Dixon told the Militant in a "That issue," Dixon says, "remains ly, the intended Black student"Victims recent interview. Dixon is a national the number one target of organized Militant/Baxter Smith escaped injury or death. coordinator of the National Student racists. This includes opponents of NSCAR leader Maceo Dixon hit • October 25. The Philadelphia Coalition Against Racism (NSCAR). busing in the government, which government move to back racists in school board again rejects state orders We discussed the state of the desegre- Continued on page 23 Wilmington, Delaware, busing case.