· AUSTRALIA $1.50 · CANADA $1.50 · FRANCE 1.00 EURO · ICELAND KR100 · NEW ZEALAND $1.50 · SWEDEN KR10 · UK £.50 · U.S. $1.00 INSIDE For a democratic, secular Palestine Int’l capitalism in crisis—a death trap for the Jews — PAGE 6 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 70/NO. 34 SEPTEMBER 11, 2006 Survivor of Sago Socialist Workers Party candidates: disaster, others sue bosses for Legalize all immigrants now! miners’ deaths BY CINDY JAQUITH ‘We’re workers, not criminals!’ PITTSBURGH—Randal McCloy, the The following statement was issued sole survivor of the Sago Mine disaster August 30 by Róger Calero and Maura Elvira Arellano gets support to fight deportation in West Virginia, and the families of DeLuca, Socialist Workers Party candi- two miners killed at Sago have each dates for U.S. Senate and governor of filed lawsuits charging the companies New York, respectively. involved with unsafe practices that sent 12 miners to their deaths. Amnesty now! Unconditional, imme- A methane gas explosion ripped diate residency for all undocumented im- through the Sago Mine January 2 from migrants! End the immigration sweeps a portion of the mine that had been and deportations! sealed off with Omega block, made of We urge participation in the Labor lightweight fiber material. One miner Day and other mobilizations for the le- was killed from the impact of the blast. galization of immigrants—especially the The other 11 died from carbon monoxide September 7 march in Washington—to poisoning while waiting for rescue teams, which took 41 hours to reach the trapped workers. STATEMENT BY The suit by McCloy names as defen- SWP CANDIDATES dants the International Coal Group (ICG), the conglomerate that owns Sago; Wolf advance these demands, which the labor Run Mining Co., an ICG subsidiary that movement and all working people need Militant/Rollande Girard Elvira Arellano, a former airplane cleaner at O’Hare airport, was arrested in a 2002 runs the mine; CSE Corp., which makes to champion. the oxygen air packs used at the mine; immigration raid. She is pictured August 20 at Chicago’s Adalberto United Methodist The latest immigrant rights demon- Church, where she recently took sanctuary after defying deportation order (see p. 4). Burrell Mining Products, Inc., which strations build on the unprecedented manufactures Omega blocks; GMS Mine mass mobilizations in the spring, Repair and Maintenance, a contracting when millions said, “We are workers, company that built the Omega block seals not criminals!” The May 1 actions Contingents from 17 states that burst with the explosion; and Raleigh involved 2 million workers, in what Mine and Industrial Supply, Inc., which became the first nationwide general po- expected at Sept. 7 D.C. rally sold the blocks used for the seals. litical strike in the United States. This The other two suits also name ICG working-class movement is setting an BY SETH DELLINGER of people I’ve talked to recently already and other related companies as defen example for all workers: an example WASHINGTON—“The word is knew about it,” he said. dants. “During 2005, the Mine Safety of solidarity, organization, and struggle. spreading,” said Raymundo Núñez, a América Calderón of the NCIC said in Continued on page 9 It is having an impact on many U.S.- construction worker who has been vol- an August 29 phone interview that orga- born working people seeking a way unteering to distribute flyers building nizers now expect participation from 17 Continued on page 9 the September 7 immigrant rights march states on the East Coast. Black lung here organized by the National Capital There is plenty of activity in this area to disease affecting Socialist candidates Immigration Coalition (NCIC). “A lot Continued on page 4 younger miners in Iowa: ‘Drought Political crisis unfolds in Israel BY SALM KOLIS relief, affordable HARLAN, Kentucky—A study re- credit for farmers!’ in aftermath of war on Lebanon leased by the National Institute for Oc- BY BRIAN WILLIAMS down to the last soldier.” cupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) BY KEVIN DWIRE In the aftermath of the war against At the same time, the head of Shin Bet, shows that despite an overall decline DES MOINES, Iowa—“The double Lebanon, a political crisis is unfolding in the Israeli intelligence service, called the in cases of black lung, coal miners are blows of drought and higher fuel prices Israel. An open discussion is taking place war “a fiasco.” According to the August contracting the disease at a younger are hitting farmers throughout the Plains among Israeli military and political lead- 24 Boston Globe, Shin Bet director Yuval age. The report identifies 22 counties region of the Midwest,” said Frank For- ers about steps necessary to transform Diskin said at a closed security forum, in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, restal, the Socialist Workers Party candi- Tel Aviv’s military to prepare for and “There were many failures, and the public and West Virginia as “hot spots.” It date for secretary of agriculture in Iowa. wage the next war more effectively. sees and understands this…. Someone also notes a handful of other such He recently spoke with farmers while Hundreds of reservists marched on has to provide explanations and take counties in Alabama and Colorado. campaigning at the Iowa State Fair and Continued on page 3 In these states miners in their 30s, at the August 25–26 meeting of the Iowa the offices of Israeli prime minister 40s, and early 50s are getting black Farmers Union in Ankeny. Ehud Olmert at the end of August. They lung. That’s about 10 to 30 years sooner “The drought comes at a time when protested what they called the ineffective than in the past. Thirty-five percent production costs are up because of rising use of military force in conducting the month-long war on Lebanon, USA Today Also Inside: of the cases were described as rapidly prices for fuel, fertilizer, seed, pesticides, Democratic candidate in progressive, meaning the scar tissue in and other inputs,” said Forrestal, who reported. The reservists set up a tent city there with signs calling for the resigna- Connecticut: critic on Iraq the lungs was spreading about twice as works on the kill floor at Tyson Foods, a war, belligerent toward Iran 2 fast as normal. pork processor in Perry, Iowa. tion of Olmert and Defense Minister Black lung is contracted by pro- In response to these conditions, the Amir Peretz, both of whom have little military experience, and the military A year after Katrina, evacuees longed breathing of coal dust. There socialist candidates have called for face cutoff of gov’t aid 3 is no cure. But the disease can be pre- “government-funded affordable credit chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz. vented by properly ventilating coal for working farmers and price supports In a public letter sent to the soldiers mines. As far back as 1995, NIOSH to cover their production costs,” For- August 24, Halutz admitted that the Is- Immigration police recommended lowering the coal-dust restal said. “We also demand protection raeli military operations involved “short- arrest 326 in Houston raids 4 limit from two to one milligrams per for working farmers who suffer losses comings in various areas—logistical, cubic meter. The federal government, from drought and floods.” operational, and command…. Questions Cape Verde honors however, has taken no action on the Drought conditions have hit the Great will be answered professionally, and ev- Cuba’s internationalism 7 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 2 eryone will be investigated—from me Communist League launches Iowa socialist campaign mayoral election campaign in Toronto Continued from front page two came in the 1930s and 1950s. Plains the hardest from North Dakota “Some ranchers have been forced to to Nebraska and Texas. Many farmers sell their entire herds, and others are have faced drought conditions for six either moving their cattle to greener years. pastures or buying more already-costly “I’ll be using the highest-price diesel feed. Hundreds of acres of grasslands I’ve ever bought in my life to combine have been blackened by fires sparked the lowest-producing corn I’ve ever by lightning or farm equipment,” ac- produced,” Klint Cork, who grows cording to an Associated Press report. corn and soybeans in western Iowa, Conditions are so bad that farmers in told the Des Moines Register. He said North Dakota are carrying fire extin- in his area it rained less than an inch in guishers while working to cut down May, June, and July. Parts of his farm on grass fires. may produce just 30 bushels an acre “This is not primarily a natural disas- of corn at harvest time. Iowa’s average ter—it’s a capitalist disaster,” Forrestal corn yield this year is expected to be told farmers he spoke with. “The profit 173 bushels an acre. system concentrates wealth in the hands While much-needed rain finally of capitalist farmers and companies, Militant/John Steele came, high fuel costs are eating into while driving small farmers to the brink. TORONTO—The Communist League in Canada launched its election cam- farmers’ bottom line. At the Iowa State And the policies of the twin capitalist paign here August 18. It is standing Joe Young for Toronto mayor (above), Beverly Fair, Bob Beckman, a dairy farmer in parties, the Democrats and Republicans, Bernardo for city council in Ward 14, and Michel Dugré for city council in Ward West Burlington, Iowa, told Forrestal are designed to benefit the rich.” 12. Young is a meat packer and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers. Bernardo and Dugré are garment workers. he is paying $2,000 a month for fuel, “The labor movement needs to cham- “The Communist League campaign presents a working-class alternative to all almost double what he had been paying. pion demands in support of farmers and capitalist parties,” said Young. “The workplace deaths of nearly 1,000 workers Beckman has 50 cows on his 300-acre build an alliance of working people to across Canada in 2004 are a key reason to build and extend union power.” farm. fight for our common interests,” he said. The communist candidates are campaigning in support of workers’ struggles to The farmers most affected are in “Revolutionary Cuba, where working organize unions and use union power to resist the bosses’ attacks, he said. They an area stretching from south-central farmers are guaranteed they’ll never champion the land fight by Natives from the Six Nations Reserve in Caledonia, North Dakota to central South Dakota. lose their land, is an example of what Ontario, as well as the Quebecois fight for independence. They call for the A U.S. Agriculture Department official a workers and farmers government pulling out now all Canadian and other foreign troops from Afghanistan. said the drought, which began in 1999, can accomplish. That’s what we need —ROBERT SIMMS is the third worst on record. The other here.” Democratic nominee Lamont: critic on Iraq war, belligerent toward Iran BY MARTÍN KOPPEL and perceived closeness to President will continue to caucus with members of has been preoccupied with Iraq while Since liberal businessman Ned Bush,” as an AP report put it. his party if reelected. He is one of the Sen- national security and efforts to curb Lamont’s August 8 upset victory over Recent polls show Lieberman running ate Democrats who have most strongly terrorism have suffered,” according to Sen. Joseph Lieberman in Connecticut’s neck and neck with Lamont. A number of supported the White House’s conduct of an August 11 AP dispatch. He proposes Democratic primary elections, the Republican officials, including President the U.S.-led war in Iraq. redeploying National Guard forces from incumbent senator has continued his George Bush, have praised Lieberman Lamont, a wealthy cable TV executive, Iraq to reinforce “homeland defense.” campaign for a fourth term by running and distanced themselves from Republi- has focused his contest with Lieberman In New York State, Jonathan Tasini, as an “independent.” can nominee Alan Schlesinger, who is far on criticism of the U.S. conduct of the Iraq described by the media as an “antiwar Much of the media attributed Lamont’s behind at 3 percent in the polls. war. Having backed the U.S. invasion of Democrat,” is engaged in a longshot Sen- narrow victory to his criticism of Lieber- Lieberman, who was the Democrats’ Afghanistan, he argues that Washington ate bid against incumbent Hillary Clinton man’s “outspoken support for the Iraq war 2000 vice presidential nominee, says he is not making sufficient headway in Iraq in the September 12 primary. and should cut its losses to press more Tasini, a liberal blogger and former effectively on other fronts such as Iran. president of the National Writers Union, “We’re not making progress in the has criticized Clinton for being one of 29 war in Iraq right now,” Lamont said in a Senate Democrats who in 2002 voted to July debate with Lieberman. “There are support the U.S. assault on Iraq. He cam- deaths of Americans. It’s going downhill.” paigns along lines similar to Lamont. He proposed to set a “timeline” and “start Saying the U.S. invasion of Iraq was New Orleans: How workers minimized bringing our troops home now.”“Today, “unnecessary,” Tasini calls for “bringing America is no safer, Israel is no safer, Iran the troops home now” and replacing post-Katrina toll in face of gov’t apathy is more dangerous, Osama bin Laden is them with occupation forces from “a UN still at large,” he argues in campaign Security Council–backed real coalition Since Gulf-Coast disaster a year statements on his website. of truly willing countries.” Clinton is ago the ‘Militant’ has described Lamont says “the Bush administration expected to easily win the primary. how the events that produced the social calamity had been pre- Africa, Asia, and the Middle East: Send $65 pared at local and federal level The Militant drawn on a U.S. bank to above address. by Democrats and Republicans. 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2 The Militant September 11, 2006 Political crisis unfolds in Israel after war on Lebanon Continued from front page contradicts the principles and values of “Both the regular army and the reserve ties, including developing new arms. The responsibility.” warfare upon which we were trained at forces have essentially been serving for defense establishment is working under Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservists the Israeli Defense Forces,” the petition years as subcontractors of the Shin Bet the assumption the Israel Defense Forces who served in the Spearhead Brigade in states. “The blunders of the past six years security service and substitutes for the needs to be prepared quickly.” Lebanon signed a petition they sent to and the underpreparation of the army police. The army mans checkpoints, A number of voices are pressing for Peretz and Halutz that highlights some have been carried on our backs—the arrests wanted men, accompanies the the war to resume soon. of their criticisms. “There was one thing backs of the fighters. In order to face the Shin Bet during arrests and carries out “If a nation in Israel’s fundamentally we were not and would not be willing next battle prepared—and this may hap- assassinations—a host of activities that weak strategic situation has lost a war, it to accept: We were unwilling to accept pen soon—a thorough and fundamental prevent it from training for large-scale must win the next war convincingly and indecisiveness,” it says. “The war’s aim, change must take place.” operational activity against a professional pretty soon,” John O’Sullivan, a contrib- which was not defined clearly, was even In an August 23 editorial titled “Save and well-entrenched enemy.” utor to the U.S. conservative magazine changed in the course of the fighting. the IDF,” the Israeli daily Haaretz urged Preparations to meet such demands National Review, wrote in the August 22 “The indecisiveness manifested itself in the current government to speed up its are already under way. According to an issue. The protests by reservists mark inaction, in not carrying out operational withdrawal from the occupied Palestin- August 27 Haaretz article, “Defense of- “the beginning of a major shift in Israeli plans, and in canceling all the missions ian territories in order to retrain the ficials are seeking NIS 30 billion [1 New politics to a more realistic strategic and we were given during the fighting.... military to fight large-scale wars. Israeli Shekel = US 23 cents], mostly in diplomatic posture,” he said. “The next “To us the indecisiveness expressed “The army is not to blame for the fact fiscal 2007 and 2008, for resupplying, war will be very different from the one deep disrespect for our willingness to that it has been dealing with ongoing reacquiring weapons systems damaged that has just been interrupted.” join the ranks and fight and made us feel security in the occupied territories for during the war and preparing for the next Meanwhile, steps are slowly be- as though we had been spat on, since it almost 40 years now,” Haaretz said. war based on the lessons of recent hostili- ing taken to deploy an international “peacekeeping” force under the United Nations banner. The French government A year after Katrina, evacuees face cutoff of aid increased its pledge of troops to that force BY STEVE WARSHELL could lose the housing subsidy unless needed to switch the bills to their own from 200 to 2,000. The Italian govern- HOUSTON, August 27—A year ago they qualify under a new program. names. But many say they had no warn- ment, which has agreed to commit 3,000 Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Houston TV station KTRK reported ing. “I just found this out when I picked troops, is expected to command the force Gulf Coast. In its aftermath, more than on August 25 that thousands of Katrina my daughter up from school, came in- by February, replacing Paris, which is to a million people were driven from their evacuees are without power because side, and the lights were out,” Shewanda take the lead at first. homes. As the first anniversary of the nobody told them they needed to begin Wilson told KTRK news. About 1,800 The Israeli government claims that, social disaster approached, government paying their electricity bills directly to the customers lost power last week in the first until that force is deployed, it has the agencies have begun to cut off benefits utilities. Under a FEMA relief program, wave of cutoffs. right to carry out military actions in- that have enabled those affected by Ka- the government agreed to pay those bills Federal Medicaid waivers were also side Lebanon. Tel Aviv has continued trina to live in somewhat decent condi- for one year. The city of Houston claims ended by June 30, so many evacuees are to maintain an air and naval blockade tions in Texas. it sent letters notifying evacuees that they now without medical insurance. of the country since mid-July. On July 7 the U.S. Census Bureau re- leased data showing population changes that the Houston Chronicle called “pos- Chinese Historical Society hosts Bay Area event sibly the largest, fastest forced migration of U.S. residents in the nation’s history.” on book by three Chinese-Cuban generals The data shows that Harris County, which contains most of the city of Hous- BY LEA SHERMAN cards with the cover photo of the book organized a conference at the Univer- ton, grew by about 92,000 residents after SAN FRANCISCO—The Chinese are being mailed and distributed. Leaflets sity of Havana in 1999 on the Chinese the storm. But local officials suggest as Historical Society of America (CHSA)— promoting the meeting have been issued diaspora in Latin America and the many as 150,000 evacuees might reside the oldest and largest organization dedi- in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Caribbean, and one at Berkeley in 1998 here, about 90,000 of them in the hous- cated to the study, documentation, and In the book, the three Chinese-Cuban on U.S.-Cuba relations; Felicia Lowe, a ing funded by the Federal Emergency dissemination of Chinese-American his- generals—Armando Choy, Gustavo filmmaker who plans to show movie clips Management Agency (FEMA). tory in North America—is sponsoring a Chui, and Moíses Sío Wong—talk about from her travels to Cuba related to the According to the governor’s office, panel discussion on September 9 here on the historic place of Chinese immigra- history of Chinese immigration there; some 220,000 evacuees, largely from the book Our History Is Still Being Writ- tion in Cuba, their own participation in Steve Wake of Tsukimi Kai, a Japanese- Louisiana, are still in Texas. The Chris- ten: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban the clandestine struggle and 1956–58 American organization; and Mary-Alice tian Science Monitor reports that a Gallup Generals in the Cuban Revolution. Path- revolutionary war that brought down Waters, president of Pathfinder Press and survey, due out in early September, will finder Press, which published the book, a U.S.-backed dictatorship and opened editor of the book. Waters was among also show that 59 percent of the evacuees and Eastwind Books in San Francisco a door to the socialist revolution in the those who conducted the interviews with still in this state don’t have jobs and 41 are co-sponsors of the event. Americas, as well as more than 50 years the Chinese-Cuban generals that resulted percent live in households with incomes CHSA is located in the heart of San of revolutionary action and internation- in Our History Is Still Being Written. of less than $500 a month. Francisco’s bustling Chinatown. It in- alism, from Cuba to Angola, Nicaragua, The event begins at 3:00 p.m. It will Many people were transported to shel- cludes a museum and learning center and Venezuela today. take place at CHSA’s offices at 965 Clay ters here a year ago after nearly a week with exhibits and space for book launch- The panel of speakers includes: L. Street. (See also ad below.) in the suffocating heat and degradation ings and other activities. Ling-chi Wang, professor emeritus at Those attending can come early to see of the New Orleans Superdome. Once in To build the event, 2,000 color post- University of California, Berkeley, who the museum. A special exhibit is current- town they were given a chilling welcome ly on display there. Called, “Earthquake: by the city’s mayor, who warned them The Chinatown Story,” it documents the that jail cells would be ready for all those CALENDAR experiences of the Chinese community who stepped out of line. Since then, Hous- here during the devastating 1906 quake. ALABAMA speaker on Che Guevara. A founding member The museum’s permanent collection ton officials have consistently pointed to of the Cuban Communist Party, he worked as the former New Orleans residents as a Birmingham head of the Philosophy Department at Havana features a history of Chinese-Americans September 7 leading cause of crime in the area. University. Sponsors include: North London from the 1800s on. Regional Action to Stop Attacks on Immi- Cuba Solidarity Campaign; Alberto Durango, The Associated Press reported that grants. Gather at 4:00 p.m. at Linn Park on Latin American Workers Association; Min some 7,000 families in Texas who were 7th Ave at 20th St. N. Tel.: (205) 281-4020 or Quan, Chinese People’s Rights Organisation; displaced by Hurricane Katrina risk (205) 602-0067. RMT European Passenger branch; Colombia Solidarity Campaign. Tel.: 07930-570667. becoming homeless in September. For WASHINGTON, D.C. the past year, these families have been September 7 receiving rental assistance from FEMA. March to Demand Legalization for All Im- Free the Cuban 5 However, the agency’s program that pro- migrants. Gather at 4:00 p.m. at 7th Ave. and Constitution. March to Washington Monument. vides such aid ends August 31. Evacuees Buses coming from along the East Coast. For NEW YORK more information contact Carecen, Tel.: (202) September 12 328-9799; or Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Gather at Times Square 4:00 p.m. March to Support Collaborative, Tel.:(202) 518-6737. Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (E. 47th St. and MILITANT 1st Ave.) For more information contact (718) 601-4751, or email freethecubanfive CALIFORNIA LABOR UNITED KINGDOM @hotmail.com San Francisco London Saturday, September 9, 3:00 p.m. FORUMS The Cuban Revolution: Yesterday, Today WASHINGTON, D.C. A Panel Discussion on ‘Our History Is Still and Tomorrow! Special guest speaker: Fer- September 23 Being Written’ and the History of Chinese NEW YORK nando Martínez Heredia. Sat., Sept. 9, 3:00 Gather at U.S. Justice Department at 11:00 of Cuba. Speakers: Mary-Alice Waters, Path- Manhattan p.m. Bolivar Hall, 56 Grafton Way, London a.m. and march to White House. For more finder Press; L. Ling-chi Wang, professor at Next Steps in the Fight for Immigrant W1T 5DL. (Nearest Tubes: Tottenham Court information, contact National Committee to U.C. Berkeley; Filmmaker Felicia Lowe; and Rights. Fri., Sept. 8. Dinner, 7:00 p.m.; Road, Goodge Street). Martínez took part in Free the Cuban 5 at: (415) 821-6545. Email: Steve Wake of the Japanese-American group program, 8:00 p.m. Donation: $5 dinner, $5 Cuba’s revolutionary struggle to overthrow the [email protected] Tsukimi Kai. 965 Clay Street. For more info. program. 307 W. 36th Street, 10th floor (near Batista dictatorship as a member of the July 26 visit www.chsa.org or call: (415) 391-1188. 8th Ave., use north set of elevators). Movement. He has been a prominent writer and visit www.freethefive.org The Militant September 11, 2006 3 Anti-immigrant ordinance In tour of Boston, leader of struggle for defeated in Palm Bay, Florida immigrant rights campaigns for legalization BY ERIC SIMPSON “I hear most crimes are committed PALM BAY, Florida—Defenders of by immigrants and that immigrants are the rights of immigrants scored a victory taking jobs. But people are not here to be here August 17 when they mobilized and a problem, only to look for a better life,” pushed back an anti-immigrant proposal Pastor Rafael St. Juste from Ft. Lauder- being considered by the city council. dale, said in an interview. The measure, which had initially passed “My program is simple,” Omari Musa, 4–1 at the first reading two weeks earlier, the Socialist Workers Party candidate would have fined—and eventually tried for governor of Florida, told the meet- to close—local businesses that were ing. “Amnesty. Legalization for all the shown to hire undocumented workers. undocumented. An end to document The law was modeled on one passed checks for employment. We welcome our earlier this summer in Hazelton, Penn- immigrant brothers and sisters here.” sylvania, which also sanctions landlords “Our country is being invaded by an for renting to workers without documents insidious enemy—and Americans want and established English as the “official the invasion stopped,” Don Wassmer, a language” of that eastern Pennsylvania supporter of the anti-immigrant measure, Militant/Ted Leonard town. told the council. BOSTON—“We need to focus on full legalization for all 12 million un- documented workers,” said Jesse Díaz (above, third from right) during an The version being considered in Palm Others blamed low wages and unem- August 25 program here on “Which Way Forward for the Immigrant Rights Bay, a city with some 90,000 residents lo- ployment on immigrants. “We have a Movement” that drew 40 people. His four-day tour of this area was initiated cated on the east coast of central Florida, tremendous illegal alien problem—it’s by the Boston May Day Coalition, an immigrant rights group. made no mention of housing or making killing us,” said David Caulkett of the Díaz is a co-founder of the Los Angeles March 25 Coalition, which helped English the official language. Those sec- group Floridians Against Illegal Immi- mobilize hundreds of thousands in Los Angeles and joined in calling the tions were removed after a similar ordi- gration, one of several rightist organiza- nationwide May 1 strike to demand legal status for all immigrants. nance was defeated in the city of Avon tions represented at the meeting. At an event in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Díaz was joined by local school Park, Florida, in July. Its sponsors also But with the rightists in the minority, board member Martina Cruz, who urged those present to attend the Sep- removed a statement that “illegal aliens” two city council members who had ini- tember 7 march on Washington for immigrant rights. cause crime after an early draft ignited tially voted for the ordinance withdrew —TED LEONARD local protests. their support. A vigil held before the meeting at the “Because we heard from the residents, nearby Our Lady of Grace church drew I cannot support the ordinance,” said 200 people. council member Donna Brooks. She re- Sept. 7 immigrant rights march building along East Coast “I am here so that they will straighten ported that of the 68 speakers, 48 spoke out that proposed law for us all,” said against the ordinance. Two other council Continued from front page Maryland provides social services José, 20, a local construction worker members then spoke against the proposed build the demonstration too. Núñez for immigrant workers, including who joined the protest and asked that his measure. said he joined Casa de Maryland operating hiring centers for day last name not be used. Cheers broke out when it was clear that members on August 26 to reach laborers. After the vigil, hundreds marched to it did not have the votes to win. At 12:30 out to thousands of soccer fans at a Sergio Luna, president of the the city council meeting, outnumbering a.m. the measure died without coming to celebration of the 10th anniversary of Columbia Heights Youth Soccer the rightists who turned out to support a vote, as it became clear that only one of the DC United soccer team. Casa de League, said he spent his weekend the measure. the five council members supported it. handing out flyers for the march to hundreds of soccer fans—and play- ers—at parks in the District where Chicago: Arellano wins support against deportation many workers relax and games are held on weekends. “We want to go BY ROLLANDE GIRARD to Mexico. postponement of her deportation. to the next coaches’ meeting,” to CHICAGO—“As a human being I Among groups supporting Arel- On Sunday, August 27, four sup- promote the march, Luna said. have the right not to be treated as a lano are the Labor Council for Latin porters of the rightist Minutemen “Then they can reach all the play- criminal for the sole reason that I want American Advancement; the Coalition showed up outside the Adalberto ers.” Luna estimates there are some to work,” said Elvira Arellano in an of African, Asian, Arabic, European United Methodist Church demanding 2,500 amateur soccer players in the August 20 interview here. and Latinos Immigrants Coalition; and that government authorities carry out metropolitan area here. Five days earlier, Arellano, a former the March 10 Movement, which helped the deportation. Some 50 supporters Trade unionists and other sup- airplane cleaner, refused to report for organize the May 1 immigrant rights of Arellano stood outside the church porters of immigrant rights are deportation to the Department of mobilization here. Several elected of- in her defense. also building the September 7 Homeland Security. Instead she took ficials have also voiced support, includ- action by distributing flyers at sanctuary in the Adalberto United ing Rep. Luis Gutierrez and County Rollande Girard is a sewing machine busy train stations, churches, on Methodist Church in Humboldt Park, Commissioner Roberto Maldonado. operator and member of UNITE HERE the job, and by word of mouth. a largely Puerto Rican neighborhood Mayor Richard Daley called for the Local 39C in Chicago. of Chicago. She remains there with her seven-year-old son Saúl, a U.S. citizen. La migra arrests 326 immigrants in Houston raids As this reporter visited the church, dozens of others came by to show BY ANTHONY DUTROW by ICE agents. Many workers had residential buildings in Spring Branch support by contributing water, food, AND JACQUIE HENDERSON to shutter themselves in their homes were also raided. clothing, and money. HOUSTON—Immigration police rather than risk being swept up. Any- “They went door to door, without Arellano, 31, who has lived in the announced August 22 they had ar- one the cops deemed a possible im- any warrants, checking documents. United States since 1997, was arrested rested 326 immigrants here as part migrant was challenged to produce Later I found out that they arrested 16 by FBI agents in December 2002 in a of a nationwide operation they called documents. people in my complex and all but one, raid at O’Hare airport for allegedly us- “Operation Return to Sender.” The “Those who commit crimes should a citizen, were deported,” she reported. ing a false Social Security number. As week of raids and arrests was carried be arrested, but most of us who came “No one here thinks a single one was a result of her public fight for the right out at the same time as a Congressional here to work should be protected, not on their lists,” she added, referring to to live and work here and the broad hearing in Houston, which focused on persecuted,” María, a Guatemalan- the cops’ claim that they were target- support she won, she was granted three what elected officials and cops claimed born worker who has lived here 16 ing only a list of immigrants who have one-year stays of deportation. Since is the threat of criminal activity by un- years, told the Spanish-language been issued final removal orders by an taking sanctuary her case has received documented workers. daily El Día. immigration judge. national and international coverage. “Criminal aliens are a threat to At the Pine Gardens apartment ICE announced August 22 that they U.S. Immigration and Customs the safety of our children, families, complex in the Spring Branch section had already deported 142 of those ar- Enforcement official Timothy Counts community and our nation,” Kenneth of Houston, Sharegj Díaz de Ortega rested. In addition, the media reported said Arellano was a “fugitive” and Landgrebe, a U.S. Immigration and told the Militant, “At 4:00 a.m. they several workplace raids around the faces possible jail time. Customs Enforcement (ICE) official, pounded on my door. When I opened country, including the arrest of 51 Centro Sin Fronteras, an immigrant said in an August 22 statement on the the door they wanted to know if a ‘Juan workers—two-thirds of the work- rights group organizing Arellano’s de- arrests. “Our goal is to remove these García’ lived here and claimed he lived force—at a chair assembly factory fense, has filed a lawsuit to stop her threats from the United States.” in this complex. I told them there was in Sulphur, Oklahoma. Immigration deportation, arguing that the rights The La Plaza apartments on the no Juan García that lived here.” Díaz raids were reported in Atlanta, Los of her son, a U.S. citizen, would be Northwest side of Houston was one de Ortega, a live-in manager at the Angeles, Phoenix, Washington, and violated if his mother were expelled of the housing complexes targeted apartment complex, said several other Newark, New Jersey. 4 The Militant September 11, 2006 ON THE PICKET LINE New Zealand: garment workers contract, with a 2.2 percent pay raise for in Auckland strike for contract the fi rst year, and a second-year increase AUCKLAND, New Zealand—Chant- to be solely determined by the company. ing “Join the union, join the strike!” and Strikers held placards saying “5% for us,” passing out union leafl ets, some 60 strik- a raise above the 4 percent current rate of ing workers marched around, and then infl ation. The contract would also remove through, the Cambridge Clothing factory the present long-service entitlement of here August 21. Marchers then returned an annual week’s vacation, replacing it to the busy street outside to continue their with one day off on a worker’s birthday. one-day picket to back their fi ght for an Strikers hailed from Pacifi c Island na- improved contract. tions, India, Fiji, the Philippines, China, National Distribution Union members Cambodia and Korea, as well as from New Zealand. at Cambridge decided to strike after re- Militant/Felicity Coggan jecting the company’s offer of a two-year –Colin Parker Garment workers picket Cambridge Clothing, August 21, in Auckland, New Zealand. ‘The Case of Leon Trotsky’ answered Stalin’s 1930s frame-ups The Case of Leon Trotsky, with an in- als helped steel a new generation of Asia, he said. sharpens social contradictions and mass troduction by George Novack. 726 pp., working-class militants attracted to Trotsky argues in an extended discontent. But that is insuffi cient for Pathfi nder Press, 2006. $30.00. a communist movement that fought exchange in the testimony that the the triumph of the proletarian revolu- to maintain Lenin’s revolutionary Spanish workers had the opportunity tion. Without a revolutionary party BY BERNIE SENTER course. to take power several times. But the rooted in the masses, the revolutionary MIAMI—The republication of The Trotsky tells how the Stalinist bu- fascist forces in Spain could only be situation leads to the most cruel defeats. Case of Leon Trotsky by Pathfinder reaucracy evolved and gives a full defeated by building a working-class The task is not to ‘expedite’ war—for Press makes available this long out- presentation on the fi ght against this party on a principled political founda- this, unfortunately, the imperialists of of-print Marxist classic of the workers development. His detailed testimony tion that would give no political support all countries are working, not unsuc- movement. The book is the verbatim describes and analyzes the irremediable to the capitalist regime, at the same time cessfully. The task is to utilize the time transcript of Trotsky’s testimony before contradictions of the Stalinist regime fi ghting against Franco. The Stalinist, which the imperialists still leave to the the hearings of the Dewey Commission that would lead to its collapse. anarchist, and social-democratic forces, working masses for the building of a of Inquiry held in Coyoacan, Mexico, Trotsky explains both how the frame- on the other hand, had shackled the revolutionary party and revolutionary April 10–17, 1937. The commission, up trials were based on forced confes- fi ghting capacity of the workers and trade unions.” chaired by prominent U.S. philosopher sions and fabricated facts; and how cen- peasants through their participation in This book offers invaluable lessons to tral leaders of the Russian Revolution the capitalist government. workers, farmers, and youth engaged in were pressured into “confessing.” By “The key to the situation in the Soviet the class struggle, and seeking to under- the time of the fourth Moscow Trial of Union is not in the Soviet Union, but in stand the dynamics of today’s world. IN REVIEW 1938, virtually all members of the Bol- Europe,” explained Trotsky. “If the peo- shevik Party’s Political Bureau in 1917, ple in Spain are victorious against the Dave Prince contributed to this re- John Dewey, was investigating the with the exception of Stalin, had been fascists, if the working class in France view. charges against Leon Trotsky, a central framed and condemned to death. will assure its movement to Socialism, At the heart of the book is Trotsky’s then the situation in the Soviet Union leader of the Russian Revolution, in the Back in print! Stalin-organized Moscow Trials of the defense of a revolutionary working- will change immediately.” Trotsky 1930s. class perspective, and the example of noted that such a victory would give The Case of Leon Trotsky Today’s readers will fi nd a treasure the Russian Revolution, as humanity’s a mighty revolutionary inspiration and The new Pathfi nder chest in this edition of the book, which only way out of the economic and so- impulse to the German workers. edition of The Case is adorned with a beautiful cover, larger cial crisis, fascism, and wars bred by Trotsky was asked during the inves- of Leon Trotsky: Trotsky’s testimony type size, and new text layout—making capitalism and imperialism. tigation, “What is your opinion about In his testimony before the Dewey the desirability of war as furthering the before the 1937 it more accessible for reading and study. Dewey Commission The lively cover painting of the commis- Commission, during the Spanish Civil interests of Socialism?” investigating charges sion is by the New York artist Dorothy War, Trotsky argues that world war He answered, “It is almost the same as made against him in Eisner, who attended the Dewey Com- is not inevitable after the victory of if the question were asked: What is your the Moscow Trials mission and assisted in its work. fascism in Germany in 1933, and the opinion of cholera and epidemics for hu- makes one of the In a single volume Trotsky’s testi- sharpening interimperialist rivalries. man civilization?… To wish a war—it is great classics of the If the revolutionary developments then absurd from every point of view.” workers movement, long out of print, mony provides a unique sweep of the available once again to workers, concrete application of Marxism to the taking place in Spain resulted in a vic- Trotsky returned to this point during his summary remarks: farmers, and young people engaged momentous events of the 1930s and the tory for the working class, that would in class battles today. $30 Russian Revolution of 1917. The issues be the greatest brake to the imperialist “War has in fact often expedited revo- dealt with are deeply connected with war drive, and open up further revo- lution. But precisely for this reason it WWW.PATHFINDERPRESS.COM social and political questions posed lutionary developments in Europe and has often led to abortive results. War today. The regime of Joseph Stalin organized the trials as part of a political counter- 25, 50, AND 75 YEARS AGO revolution by a privileged caste in the Soviet Union that led to the reversal of the internationalist revolutionary course of the Bolsheviks under the leadership of V.I. Lenin. Central leaders of the September 11, 1981 September 10, 1956 September 12, 1931 revolution were framed up and executed For the last two months, the racist Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver With the gaunt specter rising of a on charges of terrorism, sabotage, and South African regime has been wag- were in Clinton, Tennessee, on Aug. 30, winter of misery and starvation for the collaboration with Berlin and Tokyo to ing a brutal, undeclared war in southern the third day of the white-supremacist millions of unemployed, the two lead- precipitate war and reestablish capital- Angola. And it has been doing so with rioting against the integration of 12 ing contenders for the capitalist nomina- ism in the Soviet Union. the confi dence that it has the backing Negro school children in the previously tions for president in 1932, Hoover the After a five-month international of the Reagan administration in Wash- lily-white school. Republican and Roosevelt the Demo- investigation, the commission con- ington. But neither Stevenson nor Kefauver crat, are racing against each other to the cluded that Trotsky was not guilty of On August 26, South African Prime said one mumbling word against the rac- goal of their ambitions with the plight the charges against him, and that the Minister Pieter W. Botha fi nally admit- ists or for the courageous Negro students. of the unemployed as the football they trials were a frame-up. Its findings ted the invasion. Not in Clinton, or anywhere else in the kick around as they proceed. The latest were published in Not Guilty, a sister The Pretoria government now claims state, did the Democratic candidates for act in this criminal play with the lives of volume to The Case of Leon Trotsky that troops are withdrawing, after killing the country’s highest offi ces make any millions of victims of “prosperity,” has is soon to be brought back into print by more than 450 people. But Angola public statements about the anti-Negro just been unfolded at the jubilee celebra- Pathfi nder. reports fi ghting is still going on. violence that was fl aring up under their tion of the founder of the Red Cross in The fi ndings of the commission and Botha justifi ed this fl agrant violation noses in Tennessee, as well as in Texas this country. Each of the tacitly avowed the campaign by the workers movement of Angola’s national sovereignty by and other parts of the South. presidential candidates delivered a ra- to expose the trials struck a heavy blow claiming the apartheid regime has the They were in Tennessee to attend dio address on the occasion which was to Stalinism. Trotsky’s testimony in right of “hot pursuit” to enter Angola a regional conference of the Demo- concerned far less with the Red Cross defense of the conquests of the Octo- to hunt down liberation forces of the cratic Party and receive the pledges than with a pronouncement of their re- ber 1917 Russian Revolution and the South West Africa People’s Organisa- of allegiance of the white-supremacist spective positions on the most burning campaign to expose the Moscow Tri- tion (SWAPO). politicians. problem before the working class. The Militant September 11, 2006 5 For a democratic, secular Palestine International capitalism in crisis—a death trap for the Jews

The following is an excerpt from with a majority of the children, grand- “The World Crisis of Imperialism and children, and great grandchildren of these the Contradictory Dynamics of the immigrants moving into better-off layers Labor Vanguard,” adopted by the June of “rent” collectors among the middle 2006 national convention of the Socialist classes and professionals.1 Workers Party. It is based on a political According to a study last year by the report by SWP national secretary Jack American Jewish Committee, the per Barnes adopted by the party’s National capita income of Jews in the United Committee earlier that year. States today is almost twice that of the The Israeli assault on Lebanon in July rest of the population on average, while and early August is one more by-product 61 percent of Jews had at least a four-year of the increasing disorder of the world college degree versus 22 percent of the capitalist system. The sharpest conse- overall population. quences for imperialism are today in the In fact, one of the central aims of The Middle East and Central Asia. Washing- Bell Curve2 when it was published in ton’s response has been the launching of 1994 was to justify this higher average what it calls “the long war.” income by arguing that even compared to Since 2001 the U.S. rulers have toppled others of relatively pale complexion in the governments in Afghanistan and Iraq, United States, Jews—“specifi cally, Ash- and are stepping up threats and pressures kenazi Jews of European origins”—are against Iran and Syria. Israel’s aggression smarter than other people. According in Lebanon is one front in these broader, to the book, this explains “their dispro- ongoing wars. The unpreparedness of Militant/Paul Boutelle portionate level of success, usually by Tel Aviv’s armed forces command, and Slogan on a wall in Lebanon, 1968, points to irrepressible roots of Palestinian struggle: orders of magnitude,” in various arenas the outcome of this initial battle of a war violent expulsion of Palestinians from their land in 1947–48, when Israel was established. of achievement. Thus, no guilt: you were that has only begun, has brought on a just born smarter than “shvartzes” and political crisis in Israel, as the capitalist attend calls to enlist in the future for any BY JACK BARNES their slightly lighter-skinned brethren. rulers accelerate the transformation of mission we will be required to complete, The prospect of a “Greater Israel,” Adam Smith’s invisible hand takes care their active-duty units and reserves to but we would like to know that these mis- stretching from the Mediterranean to the of the rest. Be generous and tolerant. fi ght more effectively next time. sions will be part of a clear objective and Jordan River, has ended for a decisive Enjoy being an American. In past Israeli wars and major polic- will be carried out by striving to engage majority of the ruling class there. The So long as the imperialist system pre- ing operations, groups of army reserv- in combat.” United States, not Israel, has turned out vails, however, neither the United States ists have issued petitions protesting Tel The Militant is running this excerpt to be the “promised land” for the Jews. nor anywhere else will be a “promised Aviv’s brutality toward Palestinians and from the 2006 report to help clarify This is refl ected even in gross statistics. land” for the Jews for a long period in residents of surrounding Arab countries. the issues at stake. Portions of it were Of the world’s 13 to 14 million Jews, 6.2 history. For Jews in this country, the This time, a protest petition signed by quoted in a letter by Barnes published in million make their home in the United consequences of the long hot winter hundreds of reservists was of a different last week’s issue (“‘We are for whatever States, while 5.3 million live in Israel. world capitalism has entered will bring character: “The blunders of the past six strengthens the confi dence and capacities As of a few months ago, the number of more—and much worse—than the years and the underpreparation of the of the toilers’: Letter from SWP leader on Israelis leaving the country since 2003 mounting economic instability and inse- army have been carried on our backs— Israel’s murderous war on Lebanon”). outpaced immigration by some 70,000 curity that will hit widening layers of the the backs of the fi ghters,” they wrote to Copyright © 2006 by New Inter- people. middle classes. It will bring in its wake Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Chief national. Reprinted by permission. Meanwhile, the Palestinian population a new rise of fascist organizations that of Staff Dan Halutz. “In order to face the Subheadings and footnotes are by the in the territories under Tel Aviv’s control will target not just the labor movement, next battle prepared—and this may hap- Militant. Footnotes appear on page 8. has grown to 5 million. That’s just shy of Blacks, women, and others among the op- pen soon—a thorough and fundamental a majority. pressed and exploited, but will also lace change must take place…. We will all  Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert their radical anticapitalist demagogy and has declared, as Ariel Sharon and other conspiracy mania with Jew-hating fi lth leaders of the state and army in Israel and carry out physical assaults on Jews. had done previously, that Tel Aviv’s The U.S. bourgeoisie and their petty- For further reading from Pathfinder goal, above all, must be to “ensure a bourgeois spokespersons—including Jewish majority in the country.” Last year many who are Jewish—promote com- In ‘New International’ no. 7 when Olmert, then deputy prime minister, fortable assurances that “it can’t happen Washington’s Assault on Iraq: spoke to some 250 new immigrants from here.” But such delusions offer no greater Opening Guns of World War III the United States who were opposed to protection to Jews in the imperialist Unit- by Jack Barnes Also available in Farsi, French, the Israeli government’s withdrawal from ed States (or Europe) than it did to those Spanish, and Swedish. $12 Gaza, he told them: “Maybe if you or a convinced in the 1920s and 1930s that few million of you had come earlier, we they had fully “assimilated” into capital- wouldn’t have had to leave Gaza.” But ist society in enlightened Germany. In ‘New International’ no. 12 that never happened and was never going Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun to. Now it’s clear it never will. Not a ‘peace process’ by Jack Barnes Includes SWP resolution, “Their Transforma- Withdrawing from Gaza and from What the Israeli rulers are seeking tion and Ours.” Also available in French and Spanish. $16 much of the occupied territory on the to impose in order to consolidate Israel West Bank is reaching near consensus within borders of their own choosing is Capitalism’s World Disorder status within the ruling class of Israel. not a “peace process,” as it’s dubbed by Working-Class Politics at the Millennium liberals in the big-business media. It’s the by Jack Barnes Not the ‘promised land’ consolidation of an Israel still based on The social devastation, fi nancial panics, political Of course, the imperialist United the forcible expulsion of the Palestinian turmoil, police brutality, and military assaults around States will not be “the promised land” majority, together with the “right of re- us are not chaos but the inevitable product of capi- for Jews forever. The next great social turn” of those of Jewish parentage—and talism. But the future capitalism has in store can be crisis will settle that for those who live only those of such parentage. Its newly changed by timely solidarity, courageous action, and on hope rather than proletarian politics. imposed borders will roughly correspond united struggle of workers and farmers. Includes section on the But for several generations it has and to the 400-mile-long wall the Israeli rul- book, The Bell Curve. “The Bell Curve is above all about social continues to seem that way. The big ers are building inside the occupied West class,” says Barnes, “an open self-rationalization of class inequal- majority of Jews who emigrated from Bank, which lops off up to 10 percent of ity and privilege benefi ting a growing middle-class layer, and its Europe to the United States in the last that occupied territory for Israel. What’s justifi cation for the rightward bipartisan convergence.” $24 half of the nineteenth century and the fi rst more, Tel Aviv intends to hold onto East Israel and the Arab Revolution half of the twentieth became workers in Jerusalem and selected large suburban Education for Socialists bulletin Includes 1971 Socialist Workers this country, many of them considering Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as Party resolution that explains the political centrality and revolu- themselves socialists or communists of well as strategic military locations along tionary character of fi ght for democratic, secular Palestine. $10 some variety. But the class composition the Jordanian border. of the Jewish population has changed There can and will be no long-term dramatically over the past half century, Continued on page 8

6 The Militant September 11, 2006 Cape Verde honors Cuba’s internationalism

BY MARY-ALICE WATERS AND LUIS MADRID HAVANA—At a ceremony here July 21 Cuban internationalist combatant Víctor Dreke was decorated with the Amilcar Cabral Order, the highest honor conferred by the government of Cape Verde. The order, bestowed in recognition of Dreke’s contribution to the struggle against Portuguese colonialism in Africa, was presented by Crispina Gomes, Cape Verde’s ambassador to Cuba. From February 1967 to late 1968, Dreke led a column of some 60 Cuban internationalist volunteers who fought alongside the anti-imperialist forces of the African Party for the Independence Militant photos by Luis Madrid Above: Crispina Gomes (left), Cape Verde’s ambassador to Cuba, presents of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). Víctor Dreke with the Amilcar Cabral Order—the highest honor conferred by The state decree was signed by Pedro her government—on July 21 in Havana. Left: Dreke is congratulated by Jorge Rodrigues Pires, himself an indepen- Risquet (left), who in the mid-1960s led an internationalist mission in Congo- dence fighter and current president of Brazzaville, and Brig. Gen. (r) Rafael Moracén, who from 1965 on helped lead the archipelago nation off the coast of Cuba’s internationalist aid to Angola’s national liberation struggle. West Africa. The decree acknowledged the contributions made nearly four de- was placed in charge of Military Unit Cabral, who was born in Guinea-Bissau Cuban internationalists at ceremony cades ago by 25 foreign-born “generous 1546, training Cuban internationalist of Cape Verdean parents, fought to unite More than a dozen Cuban inter- men and women…in the process that volunteers and revolutionaries from the liberation forces in the two parts of nationalist volunteers who fought for led to Cape Verde’s independence” in other countries who had asked the Cu- the Portuguese colony in a single struggle. the independence of Cape Verde and July 1975. The struggle that put an end ban government for help. This included “Cabral believed that when Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau and other Portuguese to five centuries of Portuguese colonial cadres of the independence struggle in was liberated, Cape Verde too would be colonies attended the ceremony. One rule, Rodrigues Pires noted, required Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. free,” Dreke emphasized. Cabral’s politi- of them was Pedro Rodríguez Peralta, “audacity, sacrifices and much personal Amilcar Cabral, the central leader cal course represented an important break himself a recipient of the Amilcar Ca- selflessness in an unequal and persistent of the PAIGC, was among the revolu- from the divisions fostered by Portuguese bral Order. Rodríguez, who headed the combat.” tionary leaders from around the world imperialism. Colonial domination of the Cuban forces in the Guinean southern who converged in Havana in January region had for a long time relied on the Began revolutionary activity in 1952 front, was wounded and captured by the 1966 for the Solidarity Conference of relative privileges bestowed on the Cape Portuguese in November 1969, winning Dreke, who is today Cuba’s ambas- the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin Verdean population. The Portuguese his freedom a week after independence sador to Equatorial Guinea, began his America—known as the Tricontinental sought to inculcate Cape Verdeans with was declared in 1974. revolutionary activity in 1952 when, as Conference. a sense of racial superiority over Africans Also among the 25 “generous men and a teenager, he threw himself into the on the continent. women” on whom the Amilcar Cabral Anticolonial struggle struggle against the U.S.-backed military Recognizing that Cape Verde’s topog- Order has been bestowed is Ahmed Ben coup by Fulgencio Batista. Dreke rose to “In our present historical condition, raphy precluded waging a successful Bella, president of Algeria’s revolution- the rank of captain in the revolutionary there are only two possible paths for guerrilla struggle on the islands, Cabral ary government from 1962 until its war that toppled the dictatorship on Jan. 1, an independent nation,” Cabral told organized the scores of Cape Verdeans overthrow in 1965. 1959. From 1962 to 1964 he commanded the gathering, “to return to imperialist trained in Cuba to join the guerrilla The ambassador of Angola to Cuba the special units that defeated the U.S.- domination (neo-colonialism, capital- fronts on the continent in Guinea-Bis- and ranking officials of the embassies sponsored counterrevolutionary bands ism, state capitalism), or to take the road sau. Cabral’s course was a measure of his of Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau at- in the Escambray mountains in central of socialism.” Those seeking to rid their leadership caliber, Dreke emphasized in tended the award presentation. Cuba, which were trying to overthrow countries of colonial oppression cannot accepting the decoration. Among the Cuban leaders present were the revolutionary government. ignore the fact, he added, that “the essen- Cabral’s political capacities, and the Fernando Remírez, head of international In 1965, Dreke served as second-in- tial instrument of imperialist domination military, medical, and other assistance relations for the Central Committee of the command to Ernesto Che Guevara, who is violence.” By then, the PAIGC had from Cuba, enabled the PAIGC to Cuban Communist Party; Jorge Risquet, was leading a column of 128 Cuban in- been waging a war of national liberation become the most effective liberation who led Cuba’s internationalist mission ternationalist volunteers responding to a for nearly three years against more than movement in sub-Saharan Africa at that to Congo-Brazzaville in 1965–67; Brig. request for aid from anti-imperialist 20,000 Portuguese troops; the indepen- time. “Portugal took its heaviest mili- Gen. Arnaldo Tamayo, first Cuban cos- forces in the Congo. At the end of that dence movement had a third of Guinea- tary blows in Guinea-Bissau,” stressed monaut and head of foreign affairs for the wrenching seven-month effort, Che Bissau under its control. Ambassador Gomes. The impact was Revolutionary Armed Forces; Brig. Gen. wrote of Dreke’s conduct, “The only The PAIGC, Dreke recalled in an in- felt not only throughout the Portuguese (r) Rafael Moracén, who from 1965 on reason I am not recommending that he terview with the Militant, was carrying colonies but in the metropolis itself. “It was centrally involved in the leadership be promoted is that he already holds the out political work across the country, or- was a weighty factor in the ‘Carnation of Cuba’s internationalist aid to Angola’s highest rank”—comandante. ganizing peasants, youth, women. It had Revolution,’” she added, referring to the freedom fighters, and is currently head of Much of this history is recounted by popular support. It had a leadership with April 1974 overthrow of Lisbon’s nearly international relations for the Association Dreke in his book From the Escambray structure and discipline that was in the 50-year-old dictatorship. of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution; to the Congo: In the Whirlwind of the field, fighting alongside the ranks. This In face of a decade of armed struggle, and Brig. Gen. (r) Armando Choy, former Cuban Revolution. stood in stark contrast to the Congo ex- Portugal acknowledged defeat, and on Cuban ambassador to Cape Verde. On his return to Cuba in 1965, Dreke perience, he stressed. “You may start as Sept. 10, 1974, Guinea-Bissau became a small group, but you must win people independent. Fewer than 14 months over,” and the PAIGC was doing that. For further reading later Lisbon had ceded independence After the Tricontinental Conference, to Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé From the Escambray Havana’s collaboration with the PAIGC and Príncipe, and Angola. to the Congo: deepened. The Guineans and Cape Verdeans, Cabral insisted, had to lead the In the Whirlwind of the struggle themselves. In agreement with Cuban Revolution the Cuban leadership, they wanted only a by Víctor Dreke limited number of internationalist volun- Dreke’s account of how teers whose combat experience they took working people in Cuba full advantage of to advance—directly overthrew the Batista dictatorship in on the field of battle—the training of 1959, began the battle to transform the social relations inherited from capital- their forces. ism, and charted a course of proletarian Little more than a year after leaving internationalism in Africa and worldwide. the Congo, Dreke returned to Africa at $17 the head of the military mission aiding the struggle led by the PAIGC. WWW.PATHFINDERPRESS.COM

The Militant September 11, 2006 7 For a democratic, secular Palestine Continued from page 6 fifteen years ago5, has proceeded apace. for a democratic peace with the dispossessed Palestinian The PLO long ago exhausted its capacity secular Palestine, people on that basis. Or on any other to lead forward the Palestinian toilers in and for socialist basis that forcibly seeks to guarantee fighting for national liberation. revolution—can a permanent, large Jewish majority in The bourgeois-nationalist opposition, and will be built, Palestine. The Israeli rulers aren’t pulling Hamas, with its origins in the Muslim however. It will be back from their “right” to demolish the Brotherhood, neither has any alterna- built as growing family homes of Palestinians accused of tive program or strategy to advance the numbers of toilers bombings or other attacks, let alone their struggle, nor offers more space to the come to understand “obligation” to “execute” members and proletariat to organize and act in the that if this task is leaders of Palestinian organizations they interests of the toiling majority of the not achieved in hold responsible for “terrorism.” Palestinian people. time, there will be little left of that part Factionalism in bourgeois politics A road forward of the world. Nor will this be a smooth process A road forward out of this political mo- January 2006 within the Israeli ruling class itself. rass can only—and will—come out of Factionalism is on the rise in bourgeois the response of new generations of work- politics there, too. We should take seri- ing people and youth as the struggle con- NOTES ously the end of the exclusive domination tinues on many fronts: fights for land; for 1. The high incomes of those in better-off of the Labor Party by Ashkenazi Jews water rights; for freedom of movement, middle class and from Europe, as signaled last year by freedom to travel; for jobs, decent wages, professional layers the defeat in the race for party leader of and union protection; for the release of are accounted for by longtime Labor patriarch Shimon Peres political prisoners; for women’s equality; the fact that on top of by Amir Peretz, a Moroccan-born Sep- against the brutal operations of Tel Aviv’s any payment they may hardic Jew. Peretz is also the top official cops, troops, and commandos; against receive for the sale of “Greater Israel” would include Gaza and the still occupied West of the Histadrut, the union federation and war threats and mounting prospects for their labor power Bank, shaded area adjacent to river between Jordan and Israel. social organization closely tied into the devastating military blows against sec- (comparable to work- Israeli state from its origins. This shift tions of Israel itself; and many others. ers’ wages), their relatively privileged posi- Sharon resigned from Likud in November in the Labor Party, which governed un- Neither we nor anyone else has a script tion in bourgeois society allows them to skim 2005, forcing a split in the party that ruled interruptedly for almost three decades or a timetable of how the forging of such a off a portion of the surplus value extracted at that time. Fourteen Likud members of parliament and two from the main opposi- following Israel’s establishment in 1948, leadership, a communist leadership, will by the capitalist class from the exploitation of workers. These excess sources of income, tion Labor Party joined him in launching a unfold in Palestine, or anywhere else in became inevitable once that government substantial for the individuals concerned, are new political formation called Kadima, or monopoly had been broken in 1977 by the the world. called “rents.” “Forward.” Sharon suffered a massive stroke Likud Party, which has a strong electoral As for Israel itself, a revolutionary lead- 2. Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles in January 2006 and has remained in a coma base among the more highly proletarian ership that is proletarian internationalist Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and ever since. Kadima nonetheless won a plu- Sephardic Jews. to its core must be built there too—a Class Structure in American Life (New rality in the Israeli elections in March and Now the Likud has split, with Sharon, secular, multinational leadership, with York: Free Press, 1994), p. 275. This book formed a coalition government that includes Olmert, and other of its leaders forming a a substantial Jewish component in its seeks to provide a “statistical” and “scien- the Labor Party. new party, Kadima, and picking up Peres makeup. This is a difficult task under tific” rationalization for the high income of 4. For an explanation of the political and others on the rebound from Labor, at the social, political, and military condi- middle-class and professional layers. In a centrality and revolutionary character of least for the time being. Olmert is also the tions prevailing in Israel. It won’t happen computerized society in which a “cognitive the fight for a democratic, secular Palestine, first Israeli prime minister who is neither rapidly. And the Palestinian people will elite” is in great demand, the authors argue, see the 1971 Socialist Workers Party resolu- such wealth and privilege are rewards for tion, “Israel and the Arab Revolution,” in the a military figure from one or more of Isra- not wait, and cannot be asked to wait, for being smarter. According to the authors, as Education for Socialists bulletin of the same el’s wars from 1948 to today nor a veteran class divisions and conflicts to deepen you move from lower to higher IQs along name (Pathfinder Press, 1973). leader of the Zionist organizations that es- enough inside Israel for such a process the “bell curve,” those in the upper middle 5. For more on the political evolution tablished the Israeli state. Those were the to take place. classes (the “cognitive elite”)—due to “in- of the PLO see “Washington’s Assault on roots of David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Once again, no timetables. A commu- nate” intelligence—will be bunched at the Iraq: The Opening Guns of World War III,” Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, and nist leadership of Jewish and Arab work- right or “smarter” end. by Jack Barnes, in New International no. 7 others. The military is how Ariel Sharon ers and farmers—dedicated to the fight 3. Former Israeli prime minister Ariel (1991), pp. 87–91. made his mark in Israel for four decades before settling in as a Likud Party leader in the mid-1980s. IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP Olmert’s Likud opponent in the up- Where to find distributors of the Mili- 113 Bernard coming elections, former prime minister MINNESOTA: St. Paul: CANADA tant, New International, and a full display St. E, West St. Paul. Zip: 55118. Tel: (651) ONTARIO: Toronto: 2238 Dundas Benjamin Netanyahu, served in an elite of Pathfinder books. 644-6325. E-mail: [email protected] unit that carried out commando opera- St. W., #201, Postal code M6R UNITED STATES NEW JERSEY: Newark: 168 3A9. Tel: (416) 535-9140. E-mail: tions at the Beirut airport in 1968 and in ALABAMA: Birmingham: 3029A Bloomfield Ave., 2nd Floor. Zip: [email protected] 1972 at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, dur- Bessemer Rd. Zip: 35208. Tel: (205) 07104. Tel: (973) 481-0077. E-mail: FRANCE ing which he was wounded. (Benjamin 780-0021. E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Netanyahu’s brother, Yonatan, moreover, Paris: P.O. 175, 23 rue Lecourbe. Postal CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles: 4229 NEW YORK: Albany: Tel: code: 75015. Tel: (01) 40-10-28-37. is an Israeli hero and martyr, having been S. Central Ave. Zip: 90011. Tel: (323) (518) 929-4786. E-mail:Young E-mail: [email protected] killed in action while leading from the 233-9372. E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Manhattan: front the near-legendary 1976 commando San Francisco: 3926 Mission St. Zip: 306 W. 37th St., 10th Floor. Zip: ICELAND raid on Uganda’s Entebbe airport. Some 94112. Tel: (415) 584-2135. E-mail: swpsf 10018. Tel: (212) 629-6649.E-mail: Reykjavík: Skolavordustig 6B. 200 Israeli special forces stormed the air- @sbcglobal.net [email protected] Mailing address: P. Box 0233, IS 121 FLORIDA: Miami: 8365 NE 2nd PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia: Reykjavík. Tel: 552 1202. E-mail: kb- port building, rescuing 100 Air France [email protected] passengers, mostly Israelis, being held Ave. #206. Mailing address: P.O. Box 188 W. Wyoming Ave. Zip: 19140. Tel: (215) 455-2682. E-mail: hostage. All seven hijackers, twenty 380846. Zip: 33138. Tel: (305) 756-4436. NEW ZEALAND E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Pittsburgh: 5907 Ugandan soldiers, and three hostages Auckland: Suite 3, 7 Mason Ave., Penn Ave., Suite 225. Zip: 15206. Tel: Otahuhu. Postal address: P.O. Box were killed during the operation. Ne- GEORGIA: Atlanta: 2791 Lakewood Ave. Zip: 30315. (412) 365-1090. E-mail: PittsburghSWP 3025. Tel: (9) 276-8885. E-mail: tanyahu was the only Israeli commando Mailing address: P.O. Box 162515, @verizon.net [email protected] killed.) Zip: 30321. Tel: (404) 768-1709. TEXAS: Houston: 4800 W. 34th Christchurch: 287 Selwyn St., But that period in Israeli politics has E-mail: [email protected] St., Suite C-51A. Zip: 77092. Tel: Spreydon. Postal address: P.O. Box come to an end. Olmert’s Kadima Party (713) 869-6550. E-mail: swphouston@ 7103. Tel: (3) 930-3373. E-mail: ILLINOIS: Chicago: 3557 S. Archer sbcglobal.net will get the biggest vote in the election, Ave. Zip: 60609. Tel: (773) 890-1190. E- [email protected] but whatever party or coalition of parties mail: [email protected] WASHINGTON, D.C.: 3717 B SWEDEN comes out on top, this overall direction Georgia Ave. NW, Ground Floor. Zip: IOWA: Des Moines: 3707 Douglas 20010. Tel: (202) 536-5080. E-mail: Stockholm: Bildhuggarvägen 17, in bourgeois politics in Israel is irrevers- Ave. Zip: 50310. Tel: (515) 255-1707. [email protected] 12144 Johanneshov. Tel: (08) 31 69 33. ible.3 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] As all this unfolds, the stakes continue MASSACHUSETTS: Amherst: WASHINGTON: Seattle: 5418 Rainier Ave. South. Zip: 98118- to mount for the Palestinian people in 307 Brooks, 160 Infirmary Way. Zip: UNITED KINGDOM 2439. Tel: (206) 323-1755. E-mail: ENGLAND: London: First Floor, 120 forging a leadership adequate to the tasks 01003. Tel: (914) 466-6772. E-mail: [email protected] Boston: 13 [email protected] Bethnal Green (Entrance in Brick Lane). before them, which remains the fight for Bennington St., 2nd Floor, East Boston. AUSTRALIA Postal code: E2 6DG. Tel: 020-7613- a democratic, secular Palestine.4 The Zip: 02128. Tel: (617) 569-9169. E-mail: Sydney: 1st Flr, 3/281-287 Beamish 3855. E-mail: [email protected] bourgeoisification and political retreat [email protected] St., Campsie, NSW 2194. Mailing SCOTLAND: Edinburgh: Second of the leadership of the Palestine Lib- MICHIGAN: Detroit: 695 Gullen address: P.O. Box 164, Campsie, NSW Floor, 105 Hanover St. Postal code: eration Organization, described in “The Mall Apt. 408. Zip: 48360. Tel: (248) 860- 2194. Tel: (02) 9718 9698. E-mail: EH2 1DJ. Tel: 0131-226-2756. E-mail: Opening Guns of World War III” some 9341. E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] cl.edinburgh@ btinternet.com 8 The Militant September 11, 2006 STATEMENT BY SWP CANDIDATES Black lung Continued from front page Immediate residency for all immigrants! recommendation for a decade. The study tracked X-rays of more than Continued from front page already wealthy capitalists. 29,000 miners between 1996 and 2002. It forward. Elvira Arellano, a former airplane cleaner in Chicago All current “immigration reform” bills should be opposed. found about 3 percent had black lung, or coal waging a public fight against deportation, is not a unique Both the House and Senate measures would beef up the im- miners’ pneumoconiosis. That compares to case. She exemplifies the many immigrant workers who migration police. All variants of the Senate bill would impose 10 percent in 1969. This study was conducted have gained self-confidence, are taking a militant stand in heavy restrictions, including workers’ dependence on bosses before the recent boom in coal production face of government and employer attacks, and are winning for gaining legal status. Instead, the workers movement should and the related speedup by the mine owners broad support. take an unambiguous stand: immediate amnesty and resi- and their profit-driven disregard for safety. These developments confirm that the historic influx of dency with no conditions! This has resulted in the deaths of 37 miners immigration in recent decades has irreversibly strengthened Some Democratic Party “friend of immigrant” politi- so far this year, overwhelmingly at nonunion the U.S. working class. Workers and farmers are driven to cians warn against using militant methods that “might cause mines. immigrate by grinding economic conditions in countries a backlash.” They insist, “Don’t be unrealistic. Go lobby the The study cites Somerset County, Penn- dominated by imperialism. But immigrants are not suf- senators. Settle for what’s possible to get from Congress now. sylvania, as one of the worst counties in the fering victims. They are fellow workers who bring their And elect us in November.” Such advice is detrimental. Sup- country for black-lung rates. George Ellis, class-struggle experiences, help broaden the horizons of porting capitalist politicians or subordinating the struggle to Pennsylvania Coal Association president, their co-workers, and themselves shed prejudices about who gets elected is a sure recipe for failure. The only effective said the findings contradict much of what U.S.-born workers. course, the only effective lobbying working people can do, is he hears, reported the Tribune Democrat. The battle for the legalization of all immigrants is crucial through mass mobilizations and uncompromising struggles “It’s the first I’ve heard of a problem in for the labor movement. Working people as a whole face an like that by Arellano. Pennsylvania,” he said. increasingly brutal employer offensive against their wages, Capitalism, as its economic crisis worsens, is breeding According to AP, Kentucky Coal Asso- job conditions, and rights. Key to this offensive is the effort sharper class polarization, including ultrarightist groups ciation president Bill Caylor said that more to maintain a superexploited section of the working class like the Minutemen and the Confederate flag–wavers who research should be done before coal opera- with diminished rights, to divide workers and drive down recently confronted immigrant workers and their supporters tors are blamed. He pointed to the study’s the wages of all. in Riverside, New Jersey. Such anti-working-class outfits reported overall decline in the disease in the The use of undocumented labor today is an integral part must be taken on and defeated. This can’t be done by relying last three decades to back up his claim. of U.S. industry and agriculture. The migra police raids, de- on cops or capitalist politicians, nor on small, isolated con- “Miners are getting black lung at a younger portations, and legal restrictions against the undocumented frontations. They can be defeated only by workers organizing age and a more advanced state,” Sparkle are designed not to expel most immigrants but rather to keep countermobilizations and other large, public, and disciplined Bonds told the Militant in a recent phone in- them as superexploited pariahs to fatten the profits of the actions with unwavering demands. terview. Bonds works for the Virginia Black Lung Association. One miner who visited her office in 1998–99 died six years later at the age of 43, Bonds said. Another developed Survivor of Sago disaster, others sue bosses acute silicosis after just three years. According to the United Mine Workers of Continued from front page In June, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) America, every year 1,500 former miners die and Health Administration cited the Sago Mine more than 200 filed a lawsuit to force the Mine Safety and Health Admin- from the disease. times for violations of federal safety regulations,” McCloy’s istration (MSHA) to periodically inspect oxygen packs and The 1969 Federal Coal Mine Health and suit states. “That same year, state regulators issued the mine provide emergency training in their use to all coal miners. Safety Act mandated that black lung be an additional 144 citations.” It points out that the accident rate U.S. District Judge John Bates threw the suit out of court eliminated. The law established a benefits at Sago was roughly three times the national average. August 23. program to compensate victims. A three- Noting that ICG claims a lightning strike caused the explo- In another court decision that day, the Sago mine own- week strike that shut down coal production sion, the McCloy suit argues that the owners had not insured ers were rebuffed in their demand to know the identities of in West Virginia was a key factor leading to proper installation of arrestors to prevent a lightning strike miners who were being represented by the UMWA in the passage of this legislation. from triggering an underground explosion. ongoing investigation of the disaster. Another federal judge But being diagnosed with black lung and “Regardless of the ignition source, the explosion...was pos- ruled that MSHA can keep these names confidential. “We’re getting benefits are very different things, sible only because the seal in that area did not in fact ‘seal’ glad that the judge upheld the right of these workers to have James M. Taulbee told the Militant. Taulbee that area and a deadly combustible mixture of oxygen and representation and to do so without fear of being exposed and worked in coal mines in Kentucky for 17 years. methane was present,” the suit says. being intimidated by the company,” UMWA communications He said he was disabled after injuring his back “This deadly mixture of methane gas and oxygen pre- director Phil Smith told AP. in a roof fall. He has also been denied black existed the lightning strike of January 2, 2006, at or about Meanwhile, hundreds of Omega block seals continue to lung benefits despite having X-rays and a 6:26 a.m.,” the suit explains. “This deadly mixture of methane exist in mines across Appalachia. Following the Sago disaster, doctor’s letter verifying that he has the dis- gas and oxygen was the direct result of the illegal and unsafe five miners were killed when an explosion ripped through the ease. Taulbee and his father, James I. Taulbee, mining practices of the defendant Wolf Run.” Darby mine in Kentucky, destroying Omega block seals. spoke to Militant reporters August 20 in their McCloy’s suit says the mine seals made of Omega block “Every sealed area in every underground coal mine in home in Harlan, Kentucky. were “shoddily constructed.” The Omega block itself “could West Virginia and throughout the United States should be “This is what they do, you have two doc- not reasonably protect coal miners from underground explo- considered a potential time bomb—and treated accord- tors who say you have black lung and they sions when used to construct mine seals.” ingly,” said J. Davitt McAteer, director of MSHA under find two others who deny it. And they keep As for the air packs the miners carried, manufactured by the Clinton administration, in a preliminary report on the appealing and appealing until you give up,” CSE, “at least four” of the self-contained rescue devices, Sago disaster issued in July. He said the blocks at Sago James M. Taulbee said. designed to provide an hour’s supply of oxygen, failed to were “pulverized” and “reduced to the consistency of flour.” His father, who drove coal trucks for 30 function, preventing miners from fleeing the area filled with McAteer has been appointed by West Virginia governor years, qualified for black lung benefits. In smoke by the blast. Joseph Manchin to conduct an investigation at Sago. order to fulfill a requirement that recipients “As a result of the mass malfunction, Mr. McCloy and According to McAteer, there are 942 Omega block seals in retrain for other jobs, however, his father the other miners with working rescuers had to share their 56 mines in West Virginia. Sixteen of Virginia’s 118 mines has been ordered to go back to school for a already limited supply of oxygen with those having none,” use Omega block seals, according to the Pittsburgh Post- 17-week course to get a GED. But James I. the complaint reads. Gazette. An investigation by Kentucky officials following Taulbee is 65 years old. Despite providing GMS was providing contract labor at Sago and does so at the Darby explosion revealed 236 Omega block seals used the required doctor’s note explaining he was a number of mines throughout northern Appalachia. GMS in that state. According to Joseph Sbaffoni, director of Penn- unable to go to school full-time because of employee James Scott testified in the Sago investigation that sylvania’s Bureau of Mine Safety, there are no permanent a heart condition, the retired miner was cut he had never before built seals using Omega blocks and that Omega seals in Pennsylvania mines. But McAteer estimates off benefits after 17 weeks. his work crew was himself and two inexperienced miners. that between 40 and 50 such seals exist in that state too. “My lawyer told me to give up fighting because they would only reduce my social security by the amount I get for black lung LETTERS benefits,” the elder Taulbee said. Cuba mobilizes reservists of reservists and militia members, who be called up and how long they will stay Shawn Smith, 21, a bolt runner in a non- In an interview by Granma editor are going through military exercises. “If in these units guarding the Homeland.” union mine near Harlan, told the Militant his Lázaro Barredo August 18, Acting we were looking only at the internal sit- Matilde Zimmermann job exposes him to an even higher amount of President and Minister of Defense Raúl uation, we would not need to mobilize” Havana, Cuba coal dust than most of his co-workers. “We Castro informed the Cuban people of anyone, he said. The maneuvers are run the miner down the middle of the mine,” measures taken by the government organized in response to recent threats The letters column is an open forum he said. “On one side there’s fresh air, the since the July 31 announcement of Fi- and attacks from Washington that “have for all viewpoints on subjects of in- ‘intake.’ But I work on the ‘return’ side where del Castro’s surgery and his passing of not gone beyond rhetoric.” The troops terest to working people. Please keep the fans suck out all the dirty air.” responsibilities to other leaders. “will be rotated, in approximately equal your letters brief. Where necessary Raúl Castro said he had ordered a groups, as they accomplish their objec- they will be abridged. Please indicate Seth Dellinger from Washington, and Tony state of preparedness for the regular tives,” he said. “[They] will be given ad- if you prefer that your initials be used Lane from Pittsburgh contributed to this army and the mobilization of thousands equate advance notice of when they will rather than your full name. article. The Militant September 11, 2006 9