No. 243, November 9, 1979
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WfJRIlERS ,,IN(JIJ,I,, 25¢ .. J(-~2J No. 243 ...........-...... 9 November 1979 For Labor/Black Mass Mobilizations ,GREENSBORO, North Carolina-On November 3, to the horror of more than 100 onlookers, the Ku Klux Klan stormed an anti-Klan rally here with guns blating, murdering five demon strators and wounding many others. The unprecedented broad-daylight murder raid upon the integrated crowd was shocking in its openness. This was no night-ride through town. No mid night cross burning. No hooded intimi dation. This was murder, cold-blooded racist murder. The killers dumped their hooded robes in favor of shotguns and semi automatic rifles for this assassination attack outside the Morningside Homes, a black housing project in southeastern Greensboro. They knew what they were doing. There wasn't a cop in sight as thev drove their cars into the middle of the' peaceful demonstration on their miss\()n 0; J(;(\th. rhis \',<lS d declaration in blood to the enemies ofthe Klan--the blacks. the communists, the Jews and the labor movement-that the KK K is alive and deadly. "They were super-organized," the wife of one of the slain demonstrators I told wv. Accord ing to eyewitnesses, a _. ...to,·. caravan of Klan ears and pick-ups drove DavilS/Greensboro Daily Ne~ through the housing project, the assem Klan and Nazi gunmen ready their weapons just seconds before murderous assault on anti-fascist marchers. bly point for the intended rally. A into the crowd, as panicking people American history as though it were a passenger in the lead car fired a shot into sedan and aim guns at the turbulent, scuffling crowd. raced pell-mell to find cover." blood feud between two competing the air, evidently a signal for the assault "Directly behind them, six or seven men -Greensboro Doilr News, 4 Mafia "families." Busy ensuring the to begin, According to a reporter jumped from a yellow van. November ' "free speech" of Nazis and Klansmen. present at the scene, a gunman began "A dozen or more Klansmen loosed a the liberals deplore the "shootout" screaming, "You wanted the Klan, here barrage directly into the center of the crowd not more than twenty feet away. For Massive Protest Against the which erupted between two "violent" we are." Another observer described They used pistols, shotguns. Greensboro Massacre and· armed extremist groups. "Tragedy what followed: "The killers fired relentlessly, never on the Fringe" ran the New York Times. "Watching in sheer disbelief, I saw four pausing to reload or survey their work. The bourgeois media is treating one or five men step from an old compact Without hesitation, they poured bullets of the most vicious massacres in continued on page 2 Police and city politicians are stone walling an explanation as to how that unprecedented daylight assault could have occurred. At a press conference today. held in Greensboro city council Report From Greensboro chambers, Chief William Swing ex plained that the Klan had in fact been under surveillance prior to the attack. I The fc)II(}1I'inX radio neil's report lI'as asked why the Klan was not stopped and plared on sel'eral radio stations from Chief Swing responded: "Our police car coast to coast. many or them oriented was watching these cars. At that point in tOll'ard hlack listener audiences. In the time there had been no law violated aftermath or the Greensboro murders. whatsoever. We had no right to stop any WV II'as the onlr left newspaper to vehicle." prol'ide on-the-scene col'eraxe or this Although not one KKK assassin was unprecedented racist hloodbath. wounded, official spokesmen as well as the local and national media are NOVEMBER 4-This is Mark Laugh portraying yesterday's murders as a ton reporting for Workers Vanguard in shootout between the Klan and leftists, Greensboro, North Carolina. It's Sun involving "outsiders." Today, in fact, day night and the black community here City Manager Tom Osborne issued a is still reeling in the wake of yesterday's statement which blamed equally the bloody Ku Klux Klan ,..,ck which left victims and the perpetrators of this four dead as an anti-fascist rally was vicious crime. assembling in a predominantly black Those actually present, however, tell housing project in southeast Greens a different story. Eyewitnesses told me boro. In addition to the dead, ten other that when the police remained several demonstrators were gunned down and blocks away from the rally starting Blood of Greensboro: we will not forget. two of these are in critical condition. continued on page 2 downtown Detroit. This campaign of those arrested include convictions for every right to be." "We were not sure KKK terror must be stopped. Socialists and breaking and entering, assault. assault what was going to happen," he said. So militants in the labor movement must on a female, larceny, forgery and the cops provided an escort to this small call on organized labor to mobilize its drunkenness. Harold Covington, a Nazi army through the black community, Murders... tremendous social power, in alliance from Raleigh, offered this "defense" of right into the demonstration. As Burley with black and other minority organiza (continued from page 1) his fellow fascists: "They are guys who Mitchell, State Secretary of Crime tions and the left to stop the Klan in its wcre trained in Vietnam to kill Reds. Control, defended the cops: editorial headline 6 November and tracks. No more Greensboro fheir trainingjust took over" ( Winston "They had no authority to stop the cars continuing: massacres-For massive labor/black Sa/em Journa/, 5 November). As they ... until some law was violated. Very tragically, in this case, the first law that "Some Klansmen and Nazis, members action to smash the Nazis and the Klan! waited for their hearing to begin, the No to gun control! Uphold the right to had been violated involved the murder." of the violent fringe, killed five people. killers could be heard singing "My -UPI dispatch, 4 November The victims were from another fringe, armed self-defense! Jail the killer Country Tis of Thec" and "Onward Witnesses report that several vehicles the Marxist left. Tht;y were members of Klansmen! Drop the charges against the Christian Soldiers." the Communist Workers Party U.S.A. anti-Klan protesters! escaped on Saturday. Only after the and they believed that provoking But it is not just the fascist triggermen killings did police finally arrive at the violence from the Klan might promote who have blood on their hands. Why that point they socialist revolution." Racists in Blue shattered rally. At were the Greensboro police more than a arrested three of the survivors! Workers Going beyond the fraud of journalistic In Greensboro on November 5, block away from the demonstration Viewpoint spokesman Nelson Johnson "objectivity," much of the press cover twelve of the assassins were arraigned rallying point? One Greensboro Dai/y later told WV, "They charged us with age appeared sympathetic to the Klan on multiple counts of murder and News photographer (according to a 5 instigating a riot in the middle of a war for standing up to the communists' . that had already started." At the Sunday insults, and ominously implying the press conference in city council cham demonstrators "got what they de bers, local politicians claimed that served." According to the New York "outside radical influences" were re Times' southern "movement" specialist sponsible for the bloodshed and Greens Wayne King (notorious for his 1976 boro mayor Jim Melvin stated that the articles labeling the victims of the police acted "very responsibly." Ques "Wilmington 10" racist frame-up "ter tioned by the WV reporter as to how the rorists"), the Klan was just retaliating victims were to blame for the Klan's for an earlier Workers Viewpoint murders, city manager Tom Osborne Organi71ltion (\\ yO) "raid" on a July 8 stonewalled, "I don't blame anyone for KKK rally in which a Confederate flag it, because we don't have all the facts was burned. And a 12 November available yet." This, however, did not Newsweek article gloated that WVO prevent him from banning all parades had "publically taunted" the Klan as and marches until further notice, thus "two-bit punks" and "invited" them to cffectively making a previously an show up at the rally. "So they came," the nounced WVO funeral-demonstration magazine smugly concluded. illegal. It was murder, and the bourgeoisie is Currently. 20 fBI agents and the defending it. As John Kissazk, a long entire local office of the state under time organizer for the Textile Workers cover pol icc. SBI, arc investigating the in the Carolinas, put it in a phone After Klan "possibility" that the demonstrators' interview with WV: " ... it's the old massacre, Greensboro civil rights were violated! These investi gimmick-ifyou'redefendinga murder gations will undoubtedly be used to er. the best way to defend him is to cops arrest survivors' increase the harassment of left organiza convince the jury that the person who wounded leader tions. The state attorney general told the got killed descrved to be killed." In thc Nelson Johnson Ra/eiKh News and Observer (5 Novem face of this criminal attitude. it is ever for "inciting a bcr) that in light of stepped-up Klan more urgent that all workers and riot"! activities, he would review plans for socialist organizations, all black and scrutiny of "radical" groups. "We may other minority rights groups, and all have to monitor them more closely." he those concerned with democratic rights said. come forward with a mighty outcry An over the country reformists like against this monstrous deed.