workers.org Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! NOV. 3, 2005 VOL. 47, NO. 43 50¢

El Movimiento de Health care Más Millones 12 under attack GM cries poverty Medicaid cuts spell to cut benefits death for the poor By Milt Neidenberg By LeiLani Dowell

Is General Motors, the largest automaker in the world, being In the British Medical Journal of Oct. 22, David Atkins and Remembering reduced to a second-rate empire? Will this giant transnational Ernest M. Moy of the Agency for Healthcare Research and corporation go the way of the dinosaurs? Quality write, “The gap in health between white and black ROSA PARKS Not likely, for now. Its combined assets total $479 billion and Americans has been estimated to cause 84,000 excess deaths a Legacy of a it operates in over 32 countries. Yet slick, high-paid GM man- year in the United States, a virtual Katrina every week.... The civil rights giant 3 agers cried poverty to the United Auto Workers in recent nego- same factors that placed the poorest residents of New Orleans tiations over health coverage. in harm’s way—unemployment, poverty, neglect of communi- They claimed not to be able to afford the full medical cover- ties, and alienation—contribute to health disparities for poor age that some retirees have been receiving at no charge. In a ten- children and adults and those from minority groups throughout tative agreement between GM and UAW, announced on Oct. 17, the United States.” retirees would now have to pay $752 per family or $370 per indi- In a government that placed the needs of its people before prof- vidual each year in deductibles, co-payments and premiums. its, numbers like these would be a clarion call to ensure that every- WIDER WAR? Currently employed GM workers would have to forgo $1 an hour one received adequate and effective health care and prevention. U.S. threatens out of their cost-of-living and wage increases in 2006. Starting The U.S. government, however, is planning the exact opposite. Syria, Iran 9 in December 2006, additional cost-of-living adjustments would be deferred. Florida to cut Medicaid spending GM built its empire on decades of exploitation of the sweat On Oct. 19 the Bush administration approved a plan for and skills of hundreds of thousands of UAW members, many Florida that will limit spending for many of the 2.2 million peo- now retired. Years of strikes and other forms of struggle forced ple in that state who use Medicaid, the government’s health care GM to cover health care for 750,000 U.S. hourly employees, program for the poor. Under the new plan, each recipient must retirees and their families and offer the highest wages in the enroll in a private health insurance plan—and if a recipient does industry. Auto workers paid dearly for this by adjusting their not choose one, the state will select one for them. lives to intense productivity and new and changing technology. Florida will then pay a monthly premium to the chosen pri- Eliminating these wages and benefits is GM’s real target. This vate plan. However, there will be a ceiling on spending by the new agreement is just the first bite out of the apple. And Wall state per user—so that if a person’s health expenses were to Street and Corporate America are loving it. exceed that limit, s/he could feasibly be charged for any addi- WW PHOTO: JOHN CATALINOTTO It’s all about profits: “From a financial perspective, it will cut tional services. Private companies will make many of the deci- health-care liabilities for unionized retirees by about $15 billion, sions as to just how much and what kinds of services are pro- COMMUNIST PARTY or about 25 percent of the liability related to those retirees. Its vided to individual users. OF BRAZIL’S total retiree health-care liabilities were $77.5 billion at the end According to the Oct. 20 New York Times, insurance plans will National Congress 11 of 2004. The cuts will reduce retiree health-care expenses by be allowed to limit “the amount, duration and scope” of services about $3 billion annually on a pre-tax basis, GM said.” (Wall in ways that “current law does not permit.” Street Journal, Oct. 18) The Times reports that other states are already looking UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and his top negotiator, Vice towards similar plans for Medicaid in their states. Medicaid Continued on page 4 Continued on page 5 KATRINA, WAR & LABOR PHOTO: RICHARDO POTTS/PRENSA LATINA Black leaders speak on liberation 6-7 HURRICANE WILMA FIGHTING Cuba saves lives 8 RACISM SUBSCRIBE TO Road to WORKERS WORLD Trial subscription: $2 for 8 weeks anti-war One year subscription: $25 unity 7 NAME

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EMAIL PHONE WW PHOTO: G. DUNKEL WORKERS WORLD NEWSPAPER ‘Forging a United Front’ is the sign on the podium at a meeting Oct. 22 in New York. Seated on the 55 W. 17 St. NY, NY 10011 212-627-2994 panel is Chris Silvera, Brenda Stokely, Malcolm Suber, Saladin Muhammad and Monica Moorehead. www.workers.org Larry Holmes is speaking at the podium. Page 2 Nov. 3, 2005 www.workers.org

NEW YORK CITY. Fire exposes lack of safety

In the U.S. on subways GM cries poverty to cut benefits ...... 1 Medicaid cuts spell death for poor ...... 1 By G. Dunkel fast as possible.” Even train crews didn’t know what was Subway fire exposes lack of safety ...... 2 New York going on, and took their passengers into potentially dan- Rosa Parks remembered ...... 3 gerous situations. Coalition protests anti-immigrant Minutemen ...... 4 Several hundred thousand New York City commuters Of course, 131 stations out of the 490 in the system Oct. 21 protest at UFT headquarters ...... 4 were delayed getting to work on Friday morning, Oct. 21, don’t even have a PA system. The Transit Authority has Free Leonard Peltier! ...... 5 by an electrical fire in the West 4th Street station. Instead a plan to put PAs in 60 of these stations by 2009, but has- Mass. governor vetoes $42M in pay raises...... 5 of dealing with the conditions that created this fire, how- n’t announced any solution for the others. (Daily News, Black leaders link issues to building united front . . . . 6 ever, the city is planning to spend hundreds of millions on Sept. 7) Gov’t inaction deepens suffering for Katrina survivors. 6 a new surveillance system in the subways. However, the TA is planning on spending $791 million Fighting racism: Road to anti-war unity ...... 7 The fire started around 8 a.m. and shut down seven sub- to install 1,000 video cameras and 3,000 motion sensors way lines until the afternoon. Thirteen firefighters were in 299 stations. (New York Times, Aug. 24) This job is so Around the world reportedly treated for smoke inhalation. Eight subway complicated that the TA is going to hire Lockheed Martin, Mumia on on Ojeda-Rios and independence ...... 5 trains carrying 2,000 to 2,500 people had to be evacuated the defense contractor, to plan it and do the actual work. Wilma in Cuba, Florida...... 8 through the smoke at West 4th Street, which was They claim it could prevent a London-style bombing. Bush: Expand the war to Syria and Iran ...... 9 “absolutely safer than evacuating them through the tun- Preventing a London-type bombing was also the justi- Philippine tribunal denounces rights abuses ...... 10 nels,” according to NYC Transit President Larry Reuter. fication given for random searches earlier in October of Congress of Brazil’s Communist Party ...... 11 Tens of thousands of people wandered the subways some of the 8 million daily riders on the MTA. ‘Last phase’ of Milosevic trial near...... 11 looking for trains that never came and waiting for infor- While the TA is willing to spend three-quarters of a bil- Editorials mation on how to get where they were going. lion dollars on high-tech surveillance equipment and a A breakthrough—to what? ...... 10 Station agents, part of whose job is to provide informa- substantial, but unspecified, amount on random searches, tion, didn’t have a “clue as to what’s running,” as one of it can’t get its act together to install PAs that would inform Noticias En Español them explained to a tourist who wanted to get to the for- its passengers and personnel on what is happening, or El Movimiento de Más Millones...... 12 mer World Trade Center site from 57th Street and 7th rewire its stations so it can more effectively fight electri- Avenue. cal fires, or even pick up the trash that overflows from con- Some stations, especially in Manhattan, have public tainers. These are steps that would obviously improve the WW CALENDAR address systems that are generally hard to hear. Often the physical security on the subways and cost far, far less than information is confusing, incomplete or wrong. On Friday, the cameras and motion sensors. LOS ANGELES. Thurs., Nov. 10 some stations in Manhattan announced that just one of Given their budget priorities, the TA and the city admin- Bolivarian Venezuela, 7 p.m. At Fri., Oct. 28 Immanuel Presbyterian Church, the seven lines was out of service. istration of billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg are far Eyewitness Report from Haiti. 3300 Wilshire Blvd. Phone (323) The people evacuated through the smoke at West 4th more interested in surveillance and control of the people John Parker will report from the 936-7266 to volunteer. Street weren’t told anything more than to “please leave as of New York than in providing for their security. delegation, led by Ramsey Clark, that went to Haiti in early Oct. NEW YORK. Video footage from Haiti. 7:30 p.m. At IAC, 5274 W Pico Blvd Fri., Oct. 28 #203. For info (323) 936-7266. Workers World Party Meeting: Fred Goldstein, WW contributing NATIONAL CONFERENCE Sat., Oct. 29 editor, on the Plame scandal, Iraq Workers World Party Marxism war, Katrina and the crisis of the to RECLAIM OUR CITIES class. 3 p.m.-5 p.m. Bush administration. Also: Special For info (323) 936-1416 Tribute to Rosa Parks. 7 p.m. (Dinner at 6:30) At 55 W. 17 St., 5th Fl., Manhattan. For info (212) DETROIT $$ to rebuild New Orleans 627-2994. Wayne State University Workers World FRIDAY SUNDAY and all U.S. cities 55 West 17 Street NOV.11 NOV.13 New York, N.Y. 10011 — NOT FOR WAR Phone: (212) 627-2994 Fax: (212) 675-7869 It is time to launch a struggle to win our right to health care, quality E-mail: [email protected] education, decent housing, food, utilities and jobs at living wages. Web: www.workers.org Vol. 47, No. 43 • Nov. 3, 2005 The money is there to rebuild New Orleans and all U.S. cities— Closing date: Oct. 26, 2005 by taking it from the Pentagon and ending corporate welfare. Editor: Deirdre Griswold Join labor, civil rights, elected officials and community Technical Editor: Lal Roohk activists for a three-day conference. Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell, Leslie Feinberg, Monica Moorehead, Gary Wilson AMONG THE FEATURED SPEAKERS ARE: West Coast Editor: John Parker NELLIE BAILEY of the Harlem Tenants Council Contributing Editors: Greg Butterfield, CLARENCE THOMAS National Co-chair, Million Worker March, ILWU Fred Goldstein, Teresa Gutierrez, Berta Joubert-Ceci, Local 10 Exec. Bd., Alameda County CLC Milt Neidenberg CURTIS MUHAMMAD of Community Labor United Technical Staff: Shelley Ettinger, Maggie LARRY HOLMES of Troops Out Now Coalition Vascassenno NATHAN HEAD of the Metro Detroit Coalition of Black Trade Unionists Mundo Obrero: Carl Glenn, Teresa Gutierrez, Berta Joubert-Ceci, Donna Lazarus, Carlos Vargas, TERESA GUTIERREZ of the International Action Center Internet: Janet Mayes

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Box 130322, (585) 436-6458 Washington, DC 20037, (212) 627-2994; (716) 566-1115 Houston, TX 77219 [email protected] [email protected] Fax (212) 675-7869 [email protected] (713) 861-5965 [email protected] [email protected] www.workers.org Nov. 3, 2005 Page 3 ROSA PARKS remembered BY MONICA MOOREHEAD the spark of hope amongst the African momentum needed to challenge legal segre- struggle for the right to return to the Gulf American masses in the South on Dec. 1, gation in the Deep South, which had kept Coast by displaced African Americans has “My husband, Isaac T. Moorehead, and I 1955. On that day, Rosa Parks said “enough Black people in semi-slavery conditions in sown the seeds of a united front of Black were employed at Alabama State College is enough” when she refused to go to the the aftermath of the Civil War. For instance, activists who are organizing for a caravan in Montgomery in 1955 when Rosa Parks back of a segregated bus in Montgomery, on Feb. 1, 1960, just a handful of Black col- march of Katrina survivors from Jackson, made her historic, courageous stand (or Ala. lege students began sit-ins at segregated Miss., to New Orleans on Dec. 10. should I say sit-in) on the Montgomery This act was not just a whim on Parks’ lunch counters at Woolworth’s department On Dec. 1—the 50th anniversary of Rosa City Transit bus. We owned a car but with part. It reflected a conscious decision by the stores in Greensboro, N.C. By a few months Parks’ blow against racist segregation— us both being Black Southerners, we still NAACP, of which Parks was a member, to later, thousands of Black students were community, labor, anti-war and other social knew firsthand the humiliation and utter challenge the entire system of racist laws in organizing similar sit-ins at lunch counters forces will be remembering this significant disrespect of racism we had to endure the city and state. throughout the South, which eventually anniversary with a nationwide day of when traveling by bus, train or car After Parks’ arrest, the historic Mont- defeated the racist segregation laws. These absence and protest against racism, war and throughout the South. It’s hard to put into gomery bus boycott that began on Dec. 5 sit-ins helped to launch the Student Non- poverty. In New York on Oct. 27, City words the pure elation we felt when we propelled 40,000 Black people, most of them Violent Coordinating Committee, or Councilperson Charles Barron will host a heard that Mrs. Parks would not move poor and bus riders, into a powerful move- SNCC. news conference to announce that he will back further on that bus in order to allow a ment for social change. Dr. Martin Luther What is the legacy of Rosa Parks? It is a introduce a resolution declaring Dec. 1 white man to have her seat. We felt liber- King, then a young pastor in Montgomery, legacy of struggle. But that legacy is not just “Rosa Parks Day” in New York. ated at the time. We became involved in rose to prominence as the main spokesper- to review the past for nostalgia’s sake. More The resolution will call for employers to an organized effort to transport our people son during the boycott, and eventually the important, it is to take the lessons of the past allow workers to leave work and for students who refused to ride the segregated buses, leader of the civil rights movement. and apply them to today’s struggles. to leave classes on Dec. 1 to participate in a to work and to shop during the boycott. No amount of racist repression or intim- Hurricane Katrina and the criminal neg- march and rally on Wall Street in protest of When the boycott claimed success, at last idation could defeat the organized Black lect of the government exposed the ugly the war makers. Student organizers will be we would be afforded our choice of seats masses in this effort. truth that social conditions for Black people organizing walk-outs from their schools in on vehicles of mass transportation in Parks’ action, along with the defeat of bus - especially in the Deep South - have not honor of the struggle-oriented legacy of Alabama. Thank you, Rosa Parks, for segregation in Montgomery, created the changed fundamentally since 1955. The Rosa Parks. being the catalyst in launching a move- ment to liberate Black people in the South from legal segregation.” —CONSUELA LEE, A National Day jazz pianist & composer, resident of Snow Hill, Ala. of Absence “Rosa Parks was a conscious, disciplined Black woman who was chosen by civil- rights leaders in 1955 to help spark the movement against segregation in Montgomery. Fifty years later, she stayed December 1 committed to the struggle for social justice th until the day she died. A lot of people The 50 Anniversary of even today continue to belittle the dangers that she faced when she refused to give up ROSA PARKS’Arrest her seat to a white man. She was not just taking on individual white people infected with racism, but she was taking on the whole capitalist system, including the busi- Against ness sector and the police. We should ele- vate the lives of women like Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman and countless other Black women Poverty, Racism who took heroic actions against racism and other forms of injustice. The best way to honor the memory of Rosa Parks is to & WAR mobilize nationwide protests against racism, war and poverty on Dec. 1, the No School–No Work–No Shopping 50th anniversary of the day that she said ‘no racist segregation.’” Marches & rallies in cities across the country —BRENDA STOKELY, trade union & anti-war leader, Bring the troops home now New York City Justice for Katrina evacuees “Rosa Parks is great not because of the powerful movement that sprung from her Jobs at a living wage single act of courage. She is great because Military recruiters out of our schools she was an ordinary woman who’d had enough. She was not a career activist. She Cut the war budget–not healthcare, was not an ambitious politician. She was just a Black woman who decided that she education & housing answered to a power higher than white To find out what's being planned in your area or to help law and contempt, and that she had free- plan a December 1 activity contact: Troopsoutnow.org doms that were not dependent upon or call 212 633-6646. You can endorse online, or email white permission and disposition. She sig- nifies a powerful truth: It is the everyday your endorsement to [email protected] person that will make change. It is the Rosa Parks Anniversary Nationwide Day Of Absence And Protest initiators. Over 1000 groups and leaders including: Troops Out Now Coalition; Million Worker March Movement; Black Workers for Justice; Teamsters National Black Caucus; Michigan Emergency individual among the masses that will gal- Comte. Against War & Injustice; New York Labor Against The War; Baltimore NAACP; Ramsey Clark; Rev. Herbert Daughtery, Presiding Minister House of Lords Church; Rev. Dr. Kwame O. Abayomi; Trent Willis, Pres. ILWU Local 10; Charles Barron, NYC Council; Guyanese- American Workers United; Chuck Turner, Boston City Council District 7;Minister Don Muhammad, NOI Mosque No 11; Consuela Lee, Montgomery Bus Boycott Participant & Jazz Musician & Composer; Harlem Tenants Union; East Bay Homeless Union, Oakland; Code vanize us to work toward freedom. It is Pink, Bremerton, WA; Artist & Activist United for Peace; Louisiana Peace Action Community; Richmond Action Center;Virginia Anti-War Network; Orlean Area Coalition for Peace & Justice; SBA Farms Anti War Collective, Winnie,TX; So. Jersey Coalition for Peace & Justice; N E Ohio Antiwar Coalition; Minneapolis Anti-war Comte.; Peace & Justice Advocate, Methodist Fed. For Social Action*, Des Moines; Latinos For Peace, Concord, CA; South Miss. United for Peace Stonewall Warriors; St. Pete for Peace, St. Petersburg, FL; Queers for Peace the right action of one person that will & Justice; High County Peace & Justice; United Actors for Peace, Great Barrington; Vietnam Veterans Against The War, Denver; Voices Of Peace, Battle Creek, MI; We Are Michigan, Traverse City, MI; New College Alliance for Peace; Topanga Peace Alliance & Progressive inspire us for centuries to come. Rosa Democrats of the Santa Monica; F.I.S.T. Fight Imperialism Stand Together; Steven Funk, GI resister; Elena Everett, Chair NC Green Party; Colo. Communties for Peace & Justice; Episcopal Peace Fellowship; Steve Gillis, Pres., USWA Lo. 8751 Boston School Bus Drivers; Father Luis Barrios, Pastors For Peace; MLK Jr. Bolivarian Circle; Mumia Abu-Jamal; Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor Pan-African News Wire; Al-Awda; BAYAN; Puerto Rican Alliance of LA; Arab American Civic Organization; Asia Pacific Action; Philippine U.S. Solidarity Org., Parks is my inspiration. Seattle; Action Center for Justice, Charlotte, NC; Arise for Social Justice, Springfield, MA; NY Committee to Free the Cuban 5; United American Indians of New England; Haiti Support Network; Andre Powell, AFSCME 112 Dele. CLC Balto.; Puerto Rican Alliance of LA; ” Fanmi Lavalas; Eugene Craig, Steward SEIU Lo. 715 San Jose; Crockett Peace & Justice Coalition, Crockett, TX; Jane Franklin, Historian, Montclair, NJ; Susan E. Davis, Delegate, Book Div. Co-chair NWU Lo.1981*; Dave Sole, Pres., UAW Lo. 2334, Detroit*, MI; Michaelann —NANA SOUL, Bewseeq, Pres., Arise for Social Justice, Springfield; Jerome Bibuld, Hat City Independent Media Center*, Danbury, CT; Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor Pan-African News Wire; Eugene Craig, Steward SEIU Lo.715 San Jose; Capricorn Rising, LA, CA; Comm. to Defend The Somerville 5, MA; East Bay Coalition to Support Self-Rule for Iraqis; Center for Alternative & Responsible Education, Lafayette, CO; Blauvelt Dominican Sisters Ministry of Social Justice, New Rochelle, NY; Center For a Livable World, Darien, NY; Lost Colony, Mocksville, NC; Minjok- Black Waxx recording artist Tongshin (Korean-American Internet Daily), LA, CA; Power Speaks, Baltimore; Free People’s Movement, NY, NY; Metrovoice Youth Entrepreneurs Program, Inc., Washington, DC; October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, LA, CA; Lesbians for a Better America (LBA), Phila., PA; North Fork People Of Conscience, Southold, NY; North Shore No to Draft, Stoneham, MA; Pattern Interrupt, Mission Hills, CA; Pax Christi, St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ; Peace Presence, Grand Rapids, MI; Radio Free Maine, Augusta, ME; Religious of the & community activist Sacred Heart Of Mary, Monterey Park, CA; Freedom Socialist Party; Full Circle Studios, Chapel Hill, NC; The Garden of Radical Presence, Santa Fe, NM; IndyIraqAction, Concord, CA; IWLU 465, Bonfield, IL; Politicin’ With The Sisters, Boston, MA; Atlantic Insititue of Applied Psychophysiology, St Simons Island, GA; Wolf Enterprises Human Rights Advocacy, Whitefish, MT; Judy Greenspan, Brd Mmbr, CA Prison Focus*, San Francisco, CA; Larry Hales, Denver IAC, Denver; Michael Letwin, Frmr Pres., UAW Lo. 2325*, Co-convener, NYC; All Peoples Congress, Balti., MD; Aztlan Media Kollective, East LA CA; Buffalo/WNY Int’l Action Center; Christians Against Murder & Exploitation, Lacey, WA; Citizens Initiative Omega, Marxzell, Germany Deist Gamse, San Diego, CA; Denver IAC, Denver, CO; DestroyIndustry, These tributes from three respected Black Raleigh, NC; Disabled Rights Alliance, Victoria, BC, Canada The Great Peace March For Global Nuclear Disarmament 1986, Fredonia, NY; Hitec Aztec, Concord, CA; The Humanistic Party, Bronx, NY; Independent Consulting Services, Glendora, CA; Multicellular Organism, Kent, OH; NPLA-New Patriot Liberation Assoc., Whitestone, NY; Old Hippies Sharing Higher Intellect & Thought, Norfork, AR; Peoples Video Network; Planetary Crisis Action Group(reforming), Taos, NM; Public Intellectuals for Social & Spare Change, NYNY; women to Rosa Parks, who passed away Oct. Queertoday.com, Boston, MA; Russian River Times, Monte Rio, CA; Spiritbody Resources Healing Center, Kennett Square, PA; Texas Death Penalty Abolition Mvmt., Houston, TX; Mountains, Woodland Hills, CA TPA / PDSMM, Woodland Hills, CA; Troops Out Now, Gainesville, FL; Two-edged Sword Incorp., Newnan, GA; United American Indians of New England; UP (United Progressives) for Democracy, Bearsville, NY; W.Mass.Troops Out Now; Windy Hill Apple Farm, Newark, OH; Women's Fightback Network, Boston, MA; YCL 24 in Detroit at the age of 92, reflect the Stanislaus USA, Turlock, CA; Yes You Can Cable Show, LA, CA; Nadin Abbott, Pres., Deist Gamse, San Diego, CA; Fatemeh Abdollahzadeh, Prof., Central Conn. State U..*, New Britain, CT; Scott Ainslie, CEO, Cattail Music, Ltd., Brattleboro, VT; Sydney Akerstein, deep gratitude that millions of people had Arroyo Grande, CA; Melissa Alexander, High Point, NC; Sean Alexandre, Bishop, CA; Ellen Allen, Melrose, FL; Mazen Almoukdad, Pres., Arab American Of Anaheim*, Anaheim, CA; Sydney Alonso, Norwich, VT; Patricia Altomare, Pelham, NH; Jon Anderholm, Retired Teacher, United Educators of San Francisco*; Sue Anderson, Pagosa Springs, CO; Franki Andrews, Media Workers, MITF*, Santa Rosa, CA; Erica Anthony-Benavides, San Antonio, TX ; Blair Anundson, Campus Organizer, Washpirg*, Olympia, WA; Louis J. Arcese Jr., for this former Black seamstress who created Chairperson, Center for a Livable World, Darien, NY; Mike Arrajj, San Francisco, CA; Rose Ashbach, student, Arcata, CA; Brooke Atkisson, St Louis, MO ;Azmi & Salwa Audeh, Retired, Boulder, CO; Russ Austin, Denver; Lynn Azar, Bonny Doon, CA; Barbara Back, Page 4 Nov. 3, 2005 www.workers.org CHICAGO. Multinational coalition protests anti-immigrant Minutemen By Eric Struch European and Latino immigrants of not the demonstrators. Police Department, cops from Barrington Chicago Illinois (CAAELII). CAAELII mobilized its The Minutemen have demonstrated Hills, Des Plaines, Franklin Park, Gurnee, allies in the Cambodian, Korean, Indian, their capacity for violence and have made Lake Forest, Mt. Prospect, Palatine, Round As the African-American nation and its Pakistani, Mexican and Latin American statements condoning the use of violence. Lake Beach and Skokie were mobilized in allies rose to their feet in Washington, communities, filling eight buses with The presence of what may well have been an attempt to intimidate the demonstrators. D.C., on Oct. 15 in the biggest display of demonstrators. They ranged in age from Minutemen snipers on the roof posed a Those in the cross-hairs of militant unity in a decade, the racist Minutemen high school students to the elderly, many clear danger to the demonstrators below, racists like the Minutemen cannot expect were meeting behind closed doors in of whom were undocumented. Many were but the cops did nothing to protect the the careerist politicians of the Democratic Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago. attending this demonstration at great risk people against this very real threat. Party to help. Success in the struggle These fascist cowards needed the protec- to themselves and their families, due to The cops assaulted Sabah Khan, an acti- against the Minutemen and their friends tion of more than 100 heavily armed cops their legal status. The demonstration also vist from the Chicago neighborhood of in the Democratic and Republican parties in body armor to continue their “fundrais- drew several left organizations and anar- Albany Park, before arresting him. Penny can only come through more mobiliza- ing and organizing” meeting at the chists. Brown, a World Can’t Wait organizer, and tions of this type and more unity, under Christian Liberty Academy campus, in the More than 100 riot cops, some with Linda Flores, a writer for Revolution news- the leadership of the communities that the face of determined opposition from united rifles, heavy wooden batons and Plexiglas paper, were themselves arrested while Minutemen target. immigrant communities from Chicago. shields, responded violently to the peace- attempting to intervene on behalf of Khan Nor will any protection come from the This attempt by the fascists to organize ful demonstrators, despite the obvious to prevent her arrest. Flores was charged police, defined by Frederick Engels as the support for anti-immigrant racist vio- threat of Minutemen dressed in camou- with resisting arrest and battery. Brown “special bodies of armed men and women” lence was met by a peaceful demonstra- flage uniforms on the roof of the Academy, was charged with two counts of battery to who make up the repressive arm of the tion of more than 300 people, organized who might well have been armed. The a police officer. capitalist state. They certainly showed it in and led by the Coalition of African, Asian, police were there to protect the fascists, In addition to the Arlington Heights Arlington Heights. Teachers for a Just Contract By G. Dunkel UFT organized the protest. time. Schools are going to be open for a new New York The voting, conducted by the American 37-minute period on Monday through Arbitration Association, started in the Thursday; its exact purpose is unclear. Several independent organizations of schools on Oct. 24; the result will be New teachers, who are struggling to teachers are organizing a “vote no” cam- announced on Nov. 3. learn their trade and create lesson plans, paign against the contract negotiated by The proposed contract sounds good: a are worried that this new period will mean the United Federation of Teachers with 15 percent raise over four years, compared a new class, with more lesson plans, and the New York City Department of Educa- to just 5.17 percent for the city’s largest that their supervisors will observe them in WW PHOTO: G. DUNKEL Oct. 21 protest at UFT headquarters. tion. Over 200 teachers demonstrated union, District Council 37 of AFSCME. But this class. outside the UFT headquarters on Oct. 21 the raises are back-loaded. For the first six Many other teachers are angry that they accepted harsher disciplinary rules and urging the “no” vote. months covered by the contract, members will have to return from their summer allowed the principals to assign teachers The UFT is the largest local in the will get no raise. The last raise of 3.25 per- vacations two days early, before Labor to monitor bathrooms and lunchrooms. American Federation of Teachers and cent will be on Oct. 1, 2006, just 12 days Day, to do whatever the DoE wants them As one teacher put it, “Why do I need a represents over 100,000 teachers and before the contract expires. to do. master’s degree to be a potty monitor?” paraprofessionals employed by the DoE. What bothers teachers the most is that The union also gave up grievance rights Members of the UFT voted down a con- Teachers for a Just Contract and the these raises really amount to payments for and seniority rights—which are very tract in 1995. There is a good chance they Independent Community of Educators- a significant amount of increased work important when schools are closed. It will vote this one down, too. GM cries poverty to cut benefits Continued from page 1 lion in concessions at the expense of active and youth, primarily Black, is already at an The magnitude of the fallout is incalcu- President Richard Shoemaker, cooper- members and retirees. alarming level. The markets are glutted lable, especially for workers in industries ated with GM’s demands and reopened It didn’t have to be. They could have from overproduction. Workers, the poor that are an integral part of the auto indus- the contract. Out of fear and weakness, exposed the lies of GM. They could have and oppressed nationalities can’t buy the try: steel, glass, chemicals, aluminum, they agreed to the tentative settlement. said no and mobilized the retirees, their goods and services they produce. rubber, paint and a substantial section of They said in a joint statement that the families and communities, along with the Add to this the government’s racist, the service-oriented work force, which is decision was reached after “in-depth active members, to plan a fightback strat- criminal neglect of the working poor, linked to the industrial workers in a myr- analysis of GM’S financial situation and egy. The existing contract was in force unemployed and overwhelmingly Black iad of ways. intense discussions with GM.” until 2007. The givebacks in health-care population in New Orleans and the Gulf The crisis in the auto industry is follow- What financial situation? GM had benefits and cost-of-living raises are a cut Coast. ing in the footsteps of bankruptcies in air- announced earlier that it would distribute in real wages. All these widespread attacks should lines and steel and, before that, in textiles $2 billion this year to its investors. But on UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and have been a wakeup call for the UAW lead- and apparel. It is a capitalist crisis gather- March 16 of this year, the company VP Shoemaker are playing it cagey. No ers, the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win ing momentum. announced that instead it had a $2 billion date has been announced for the members Federation, which split from the AFL-CIO. Racism and national oppression are on deficit—a $4 billion discrepancy. to ratify the tentative agreement. They The message: there is a war going on, not the rise. The strategy of class war rather The company has plenty of cash flow— want to sell it to the regional and local only in Iraq and Afghanistan but against than class collaboration will move to cen- otherwise it would have threatened the presidents. the workers, organized and unorganized, ter stage. union with bankruptcy. It plans to sell and the oppressed nationalities in this Katrina, Iraq and Afghanistan are indi- GMAC, its money-making financial arm. The economy worsens country. Business as usual is no longer an visible in presenting the urgency to build That will bring in billions. In September, inflation rose to its high- option. anti-imperialist, anti-racist unity. These This manipulation of the statistics est monthly rate in more than 25 years. It The U.S. industrial empire is shrinking. catastrophes have laid bare both the prob- should have sent up the red flag to the reflected the sky-rocketing costs of gaso- The auto Big Three—GM, Ford and lems and the perspective to build a united UAW that the books were cooked. This is line and natural gas after Hurricane Daimler Chrysler—are losing their share front. nothing new for Wall Street and Corporate Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf of the world market. They have plans to This united front will emerge from the America’s wheelers and dealers. Coast. According to a Labor Department reduce benefits, close plants and lay off disunity of the past. There is the begin- The top bond agencies knew what to do report, the overall consumer price index thousands of workers. ning of movement from below, from the to protect investors. Standard & Poor’s cut surged 1.2 percent last month, the highest Delphi, the global giant auto parts more militant and class-conscious sectors the credit ratings of both GM and Ford to monthly rate increase since March 1980. dealer spun off by GM in 1999, is in bank- of the workers. Leaders of the most junk status, sending its borrowing costs Another report from the same agency ruptcy and leading the anti-union chorus. oppressed nationalities will be in the fore- through the roof. showed that average weekly earnings for At great cost to millions of industrial work- front of this movement. The struggle in The UAW leaders should have pro- about 80 percent of the nation’s labor ers, the auto giants are in a bitter struggle solidarity with the poor and nationally tected their members. Instead they bought force—people in manufacturing or non- to survive. oppressed people of New Orleans and the into GM’s slick-talking cries of “we’re all supervisory jobs—fell 1.2 percent from GM, which only two years ago employed Gulf Coast is key and primary. A victory one big family in trouble.” GM posted a August to September, when adjusted for around 400,000 workers, will soon be for their cause will confirm the birth of a loss of $1.63 billion for the third quarter. inflation. down to 84,000. It plans to lay off 25,000 united front movement. So the union leaders gave them over $1 bil- Unemployment among workers of color members in the future. www.workers.org Nov. 3, 2005 Page 5

From Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row Blow to campus workers The Empire's attack on Ojeda-Rios & Mass. governor vetoes Independence The Sept. 23 attack and armed assault on Puerto Rican nationalist Filiberto Ojeda Rios $42M in pay raises left the family and his island without his proud and noble By Bryan G. Pfeifer raises are part of numerous legally nego- each of the state’s legislative branches to presence, but it did not achieve Boston tiated and binding contracts. override Romney’s new veto. The legis- its real desired objective. Those affected include 4,500 union lature early this year approved other The armed agents of Empire attacked the As cost-of-living expenses skyrocket, members at the University of Massachu- retroactive raises for a different time home and family of the 72-year old revolu- especially in housing, Massachusetts setts at Amherst. Romney vetoed $30.27 period. Romney vetoed them, too. But tionary, shot him, and left him to bleed to Republican Gov. Mitt Romney has lev- million of their retroactive raises for the legislators, under mass rank-and-file death for hours in his home in Hormigueros in eled yet another vicious assault on union fiscal year July 2002 to July 2003. and labor/community pressure, unani- the island’s mountainous regions. Dr. Hector Pesquera, president of the workers at the state’s 28 public colleges Romney vetoed another $11.91 million mously voted to override that veto. Hostosiano independence movement, nailed it and universities. in retroactive raises for the same time Some of this pressure included mass when he said of the heavily-armed FBI assault, On Oct. 5 Romney vetoed about $42.2 period for administrators and support actions such as protests at the statehouse “They did not come to arrest Filiberto Ojeda, million in retroactive raises for thou- staffers at state and community colleges. and on various campuses, letter-writing they came to kill him.” sands of workers, including unionized Unions at public campuses in Massa- /e-mail campaigns, building alliances Nor was it mere coincidence that the date graduate student-workers, many of chusetts bargain separate contracts with with progressive community and cam- the FBI chose to raid the Ojeda home was the whom live at or below the federal each campus administration. The con- pus-based organizations, work-to-rule island’s day of national historical significance. poverty level. tracts are then passed on to the governor’s days, and other bold and creative Sept. 23 was the 107th anniversary of “El Romney, a multimillionaire venture office for consultation. When the legisla- actions. Grito de Lares,” when thousands of Puerto capitalist who recently announced the ture votes for the necessary funding, the These and many more protest actions Ricans annually mark a day of resistance state has hundreds of millions of dollars governor historically has approved the will increase until all union members against the Spanish colonizers. Today, it remains a colony of the Americans. in a “rainy-day fund,” is fond of blithely contracts. receive what is rightfully theirs, accord- By the slaughter of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, telling workers and the oppressed that Traditionally, once the legislature ing to the 2,500-member Graduate the issue of independence has arisen like a they need to make more “sacrifices.” At allocated funds for the contracts, the Employee Organization-UAW at UMass flame within the hearts of Puerto Ricans. a press conference last summer a media governor signed off on them with mini- Amherst, a leading force in this struggle. When word arrived of his assassination, I worker forced Romney to admit he did- mal problems. But former Acting GEO encourages supporters to call flashed almost immediately back to Dec. 4, n’t know the cost of the subway fare in Governor Jane Swift, a Democrat, set in Romney’s office “to express outrage and 1969, when Fred Hampton, Deputy Minister of Boston. motion the governor’s office veto activ- disappointment that he continues to bla- Defense of the Black Panther Party chapter in Over the past year Romney has been ity when, in July 2002, citing a “fiscal cri- tantly ignore the state’s legal obligation Illinois, and Peoria’s Black Panther Capt. Mark touring the country—recently in South- sis,” she vetoed the pay raises of all cam- to fund collective bargaining agreements Clark were assassinated in their home in ern states—to gather support and curry pus workers, even though in 2001 she with state workers.” Call Romney’s office Chicago. favor with various right-wing forces for had signed off on the contracts. Swift is at (617) 725-4005 or fax (617) 727-9725. The FBI was behind those murders also. And just like that assassination, the govern- a possible 2008 presidential run. During believed to be the first Massachusetts For more information, contact GEO at ment reacted to their political assassinations this time he has attacked Muslims governor to veto contract funding for (413) 545-0705 or see www.geouaw.org. with lies. repeatedly, calling them “terrorists” and campus workers. Romney is continuing Pfeifer is a 2005 Labor Studies The objective of the Empire was to extin- calling for the wiretapping of mosques. this trend. graduate of the University of guish the fires of freedom and independence He has attacked same-sex marriage, It will now take a two-thirds vote in Massachusetts-Amherst. from the heart of the nation. If reaction to abortion, pensions, the disabled, welfare Ojeda’s murder is any indication, then they recipients and more. have failed miserably. Romney brags fondly of “improving There are events in the life of a people government efficiency” in Massachu- FREE LEONARD PELTIER! that mark them. That spark them. That move setts, something known to workers as their minds and hearts from acquiescence to privatization and/or deregulation. He is resistance. This may prove just such a moment. a firm supporter of the U.S. war on Iraq Dylcia Pagan, former Puerto Rican political and works closely with the Department prisoner, wrote, within hours of the slaughter: of Homeland Security and other repres- “What occurred was a political assassina- sive local, state and national agencies in tion of a Puerto Rican warrior orchestrated by Massachusetts to terrorize primarily a U.S. FBI Federal Task Force. Even the immigrants and those of Middle Eastern municipality mayor Pedro Garcia in a radio descent. interview stated that this occurrence was not a coincidence. The initial strategic firing by Workers want their money now! the FBI took place at 3:00 pm; at 6:00 to 6:30 A $131 million spending bill passed pm another follow-up firing occurred. The Sept. 21 by the Massachusetts legislature president of the Utier Union, Roberto Santos, that represents the electrical workers of had included money for the pay raises. NEW YORK Puerto Rico, called a major radio station to Romney approved $88.6 million but cut WW PHOTO: ANNE PRUDEN inform the Puerto Rican people that he had the rest because he said he doesn’t In New York on Oct. 23, the Jericho Movement sponsored a meeting about the been informed by the FBI that all electrical believe in “giving” retroactive raises. struggle to free Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier. The program featured Bob power to the municipality of Hormigueros This despite the fact that all the campus Robideau, at left, an international spokesperson for Peltier and fellow American would be cut off. It took two days for all of us unions to receive these raises have suc- Indian Movement warrior. Next week’s Workers World will have fuller coverage of to know their justification which was that cessfully agreed to contracts with their this important event. they needed to utilize their [infra]-red equip- —Sara Catalinotto respective college administrations. The ment for security measures. Hormigueros has been under federal seizure for the last four days. All of the Puerto Rican press has not been allowed to bring their cameras into Medicaid cuts spell death for the poor Filiberto’s residence ... .” Pagan adds: “In 1898 El Grito de Lares was Continued from page 1 everyone, and punish those who can’t licans, according to the Times, cite the a fight against Spanish colonialism. Today in serves over 50 million low-income peo- get insurance with tax penalties and cost of hurricane relief as the need to cut 2005 a new Grito de Lares emerges against ple and is jointly financed by the state even garnishment of their wages. the budget, thus trying to pit one group U.S. colonial rule over our nation, Puerto and federal governments. Lastly, an article in the Oct. 26 Wall of poor people against another. Rico.” Street Journal tells that both Senate and At the time of this writing, costofwar. The spirit that led to the assassination of Mandatory health care House Republicans are moving forward com calculates the cost of the Iraq war at Filiberto Ojeda Rios is precisely the spirit that In another attack on the many poor with bills that would cut $39 billion and $203.6 billion, which is enough to pro- led to the brutal and illegal invasion and living in this country who cannot afford $50 billion, respectively, from health and vide a year’s health insurance for almost occupation in Iraq. It is capitalism run wild. It health care—and a boost to the profiteer- social service programs. House Repub- 122 million children. is imperialism in its nakedness. ing health care industry—a bill is being It is the spirit that wishes to crush all written by Massachusetts House law- expressions of human freedom, while doing so in the name of “Freedom!” makers that would make it mandatory To hear Monica Moorehead’s recent interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal go to www.millions4mumia.org It is state terrorism, pure and simple, for individuals to purchase health care. against the very idea of freedom and true According to the Boston Globe, “law- An interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal independence. makers are still settling the details” of this from death row There is only one real response that can bill—for instance, some politicians say Columns by the Black journalist on prisons, capitalism, politics, bring change. they would like to exclude lower-income revolution and solidarity. Additional essays on the prison-industrial Broad, deep mobilization of the people people from the requirement, while oth- complex by Monica Moorehead, Larry Holmes & Teresa Gutierrez. against this neoliberal nightmare. Resistance. Resistance. And More ers, like Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Rom- Order from International Action Center $3 includes s&h ney, want to apply the requirement for 39 W. 14 St., #206, New York, NY 10011 Resistance! Page 6 Nov. 3, 2005 www.workers.org LIBERATION, WAR & LABOR Black leaders link issues to

Special to Workers World SALADIN MUHAMMAD, chairperson, New York City Black Workers for Justice in Raleigh, N.C.; Southern Region Coordinator of On Oct. 22 in New York, the Workers the Million Worker March Movement World newspaper staff hosted an impor- The U.S. government has become tant forum called “Katrina: A Challenge for much more repressive since 9/11. The the Movement: Forging a united front Black working class, therefore, does not between the Black liberation, workers’ and feel strengthened by our membership in anti-imperialist struggles.” The forum the trade union movement unless we attracted an overflowing multinational are also organized as part of an African crowd of progressives and activists from American liberation movement which New York, Philadelphia, Washington, has historically been the catalyst for a D.C., Boston and other areas. broader democratic and anti-imperialist The panel featured prominent African- movement. The impact of this working- American representatives based in New class crisis, particularly the failure of York, Raleigh and New Orleans. These the trade unions as its most organized leaders talked about the issues of the day sector to defend the most oppressed from anti-racist, pro-labor, and exploited sectors, has hastened the need pro-community and anti-war and consciousness for a national Black united MALCOLM SUBER, Katrina survivor perspectives. The following are front. from New Orleans; People’s Hurricane excerpts from each of the The Millions More Movement demonstration Relief Fund speakers’ presentations. Go to that was organized by a national Black united I have been in New Orleans for 27 www.workers.org/2005/us/ front shows that the African American liberation years, leading many, many struggles of oct22_podcast/ to hear and see movement is capable of building and anchoring the working-class, oppressed African the talks in their entirety. a broad peoples’ front against U.S. imperialism. American nation there. I compare what The Black working class must become an organ- happened to us in New Orleans to what ized sector of the national Black united front as happened to my ancestors when we were it continues to develop leadership in a worker’s kidnapped and stolen from Africa. The fight-back movement that seeks to push forward MONICA MOOREHEAD, method and means that they got us out Workers World newspaper and radically transform the U.S. trade union and was like us on the auction block once staff workers’ movement. The Million Worker March again. Men and women, mothers and Movement was the only conscious and persist- Workers World newspaper children, sisters and brothers were split ent effort to agitate for organized labor’s partici- is hosting this forum because up. When you got on the bus, you didn’t pation in the Millions More Movement. our weekly newspaper is very know where you were going. They had proud to have covered the officers with guns and soldiers with guns ideas and struggles of these speakers, on the bus. You couldn’t get especially those with the Million Worker off of the bus. March Movement. Having these leaders NELLIE BAILEY, Harlem Tenants Many of us who have been contribute to our newspaper has made Council; Troops Out Now Coalition active in New Orleans decided our paper so much stronger in helping to to pull together as a united While the ruling class feasts on the provide political clarity to the movement front all of those who had misery of the poor and the have nots, we and broader sectors of people in general. been active in fighting on must not despair, because the conditions We hope that this forum will play an behalf of the working class created in the wake of Katrina will create important role in showing why it is criti- and poor people of New an opportunity for the left that has never cal to build this type of unity, especially Orleans. And we had a meet- existed before. We have activists from in light of the Katrina disaster, which ing a week after the storm, in the South, we have people from the tore away any doubt that may have lin- Baton Rouge, where we began North, we have people calling for a gered that racism and poverty do exist to talk about the necessity of building a regional and national plan to deal with No matter how you feel about the inside the largest imperialist country. We movement with supporters around the what is happening with Blacks in New Nation of Islam or the Million More hope that this forum will help bring a country to allow our people to get back Orleans as a microcosm of what is hap- Movement, 1 million people came to greater understanding of the relationship on their feet and to return home. We pening with poor people throughout the Washington, D.C. You cannot ignore between unity and solidarity, and of the have to build an action to take on the nation. Let us seize this moment to forge that. You can not diminish that. What pivotal, strategic and genuine role that inaction of the government, which has a united political front of Blacks, of are we going to do as the left to forge Black leadership must have when we talk exposed itself. about national liberation, fighting against whites, of workers, of students. Now is an agenda within that movement to the time. war and for workers’ rights. build a working-class struggle? Gov’t inaction deepens suffering for Katrina survivors By David Hoskins This has left localities such as St. evictions expired Oct. 25, exacerbating the These are the survivors who lived just Bernard Parish, on the edge of New problem even further. to see the U.S. government—which The U.S. government is pulling back on Orleans and which now has a much- Lost in all the noise around budget depends on the exploitation of their labor its promise to provide relief for the sur- reduced tax base, hesitant to apply for maneuvering are the personal stories of for its existence—turn its back on them vivors of Hurricane Katrina. loans it knows it cannot repay. families who are suffering from govern- during their neediest hour. The absence of political will combined Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of ment inaction in the wake of Katrina. These are the families left behind while with excessive red tape has denied most families have still not been placed in the Antoinette Landry and her family are the Senate debates whether or not to give hurricane survivors the opportunity to trailers that the government promised as among those being evicted from trailer itself a 1.9 percent cost-of-living raise. take advantage of the limited relief plans temporary housing for those left homeless parks in East Jefferson, as part of the gov- They are the exact workers whom that have been belatedly implemented. by the hurricane. ernment program designed to divide the Congress and the president are attempt- The Bush administration is reported to Now it appears that the provision of poor as a prerequisite for providing emer- ing to prevent from receiving a modest be reducing its spending request for new temporary housing has come at a cost to gency housing to hurricane survivors. increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 Hurricane Katrina relief to a meager $20 poor and working people who live on the In response to the trailer park’s decision to $7.25 an hour. billion. (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 19) cheap land the government has identified to evict her along with her mother and two And now this very same government is Republican leaders assert that this amount as necessary for locating the emergency children, Landry expressed what many attempting to leave them with nothing. is adequate to address future needs. trailers. evicted tenants must have felt when she If any event in modern times has Congress has recently removed a for- Reports from New Orleans indicate said, “We were their bread and butter for stripped so-called democratic capitalism giveness clause that allowed state and that government dealings with landown- years. Now we’re nothing.” of its façade of compassion and justice, it local governments applying for funds to ers in Jefferson Parish have provided an This sentiment is echoed in the some- is the brazen manner in which the U.S. opt out of repaying loans originating with incentive for the eviction of current ten- times haunted faces of survivors who government has launched its attack on the federal Community Disaster Loan ants to free up space. (NOLA.com) struggled daily and played by the only those fortunate enough to have survived program. (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 18) Governor Kathleen Blanco’s stay of rules they were given. the catastrophe of New Orleans. www.workers.org Nov. 3, 2005 Page 7 building united front

CHRIS SILVERA, Million go—because the capitalists LARRY HOLMES, Worker March Movement would demand that he leave, Workers World Party, Eastern Region Co- because business has to go Troops Out Now coordinator; President, on. Coalition Teamsters National How do we ensure that Black Caucus We don’t want to people come back to their leave out the Latin@s, I believe that with the places, because there is also the Arabs, the Pales- Millions More Move- culture in New Orleans. If you tinians, all of the peo- ment, Million Worker aren’t careful, New Orleans BRENDA STOKELY, Million ple from the Middle Worker March Movement March Movement and the will become a museum where East and Asia, Native Eastern Region Co-coordinator; Million Woman March, we heard about jazz instead people—all who must Co-convener, New York City that we need to build on of hearing jazz and all the Labor Against War; Troops Out come together because that. We should be hav- influences of African people. Now Coalition they have a common ing these every six months. You have to We don’t need a nuclear bomb. We don’t enemy in their struggle for liberation, and Workers World has presented render the government inoperable. If on need a dirty bomb. We simply need to that is imperialism. The Gulf Coast has all of us a critical opportunity to Monday morning, there were 5 million organize the people. I believe in the peo- created an opportunity to revive, or at least address a lot of questions that will people in Washington, D.C., that locked ple. I believe that people should have the strengthen in reaction to this development, not be addressed at the forum it down who said nobody is leaving until opportunity to live with dignity, to retire the Black liberation movement. A new chal- today. We will have to have an George leaves, George would have to with dignity. lenge for other sectors is to show that they ongoing discussion. I started out understand that here is the time that you can being involved in the national solidarize yourself with the struggle of Black liberation struggle and tended MALIK RAHIM, resident of Algiers people for self-determination. towards revolutionary nationalism. neighborhood in New Orleans; Common The struggle in the Gulf is a struggle for Been a worker since I was 14, but Ground Collective Black power. We must not let the struggle in not a conscious worker in terms of New Orleans came very close to being the Gulf be secondary, be isolated because the labor movement. But at some plunged into a race war that was perpetu- the bourgeoisie is literally trying to drown it. point in my life, these two struggles ated by an old way of thinking—a planta- It is for us to make sure that the militant converged together. I am an African tion way of thinking that fabricated the Black trade unionists and militant Black rev- American woman; I am oppressed demonization of young African American olutionary communists who are also nation- here in the United States as part of males that are poor. Many were slaugh- alists, and I maintain that there is no contra- an oppressed nation and I’m also tered and many are wasting away under the diction—that they are not isolated. We can part of the working class. These two most brutal conditions. Over 2,000 African struggles are entwined. I consider Americans are now incarcerated for loot- support the front but we must not allow the most advanced myself a Marxist-Leninist revolu- ing. Maybe over 100 were killed by either tionary nationalist. law enforcement or white vigilantes. elements to be isolated or LEILANI DOWELL, We must never be misguided that We have surrounding parishes like marginalized. Fight Imperialism-Stand our ultimate aim is to bring down Jefferson Parish, our neighboring parish Together (FIST) youth the regime of this country, not only that received very little damage as far as group; Workers World newspaper staff for ourselves but for people interna- flooding is concerned, that had empty Youth have a special role tionally. That’s what they depend on land that could have been used to house Dec. 1 grants us to play in that movement. us to do. If people are in agreement at least half of the people evacuated out another opportunity to We face special attacks as that we are in a prisonhouse of of New Orleans. But the only thing they build the movement well. They could call Black nations, then the question of did was build bunkers on every major we’ve been talking about youth “looters” in New rebuilding a united front is talking thoroughfare to make sure that no Black here today. With regards Orleans, but they sure did about building from New Orleans was allowed in that to youth, student walkouts are being try to recruit them to the principled unity and solidarity parish. That was the parish of David organized, some spontaneously. About military once they got to the Houston based on an anti-imperialist Duke. That was the same parish that 100 youth are traveling here from the Astrodome. I encourage everyone here to agenda amongst all those nations. denied Black doctors with medicines South to march on Wall Street on Dec. 1 get involved in carrying today’s dialogue WW PHOTOS: G. DUNKEL; PVN from entering Algiers. for “educational purposes.” forward and building the movement. Fighting national oppression Road to anti-war unity By Fred Goldstein struggle against imperialism, the anti-war caused at least a thousand deaths and “looting,” often for taking their only movement must pay the closest attention incalculable suffering. means of survival. The most important task of the anti-war to the question of national oppression in Those 2,000—overwhelmingly Black movement in this country is to build a this country. It is particularly important at Criminal neglect and occupation males—lanquish in jail today. united front with the workers and oppres- the moment for the movement to reach But added to the suffering resulting The armed force of the racist capitalist sed peoples of the United States. The out and forge unity around New Orleans from criminal neglect—being left stranded state came to ensure “law and order” in a movement must address national oppres- and the struggle for the right of return, on roof-tops, in the Superdome, the Con- situation in which people were starving, sion and class exploitation in a serious way reconstruction and reparations. vention Center and elsewhere for five days dehydrated, sick, injured, worried to death if it is to become an effective weapon in the This is the cutting-edge issue of the —came a brutal military/police occupation. over the whereabouts of their families and struggle against imperialism, and not Black liberation movement today. It The Louisiana National Guard, part of loved ones and had lost everything they restrict itself to being a mere protest move- must be supported by all progressive and which is serving in Iraq, was mobilized owned. ment that assembles periodically. revolutionary forces, not just in word but against the community. The 82nd Air- The working class’s problems are in deed. borne, which carried out atrocities against Deliberate plan to disperse mounting on every front: from union It is an axiom of Marxist class politics the Iraqi people in Falluja, was sent into Black community busting to health-care cutbacks, pension that the ruling class’s foreign policy is a New Orleans. Heavily armed Blackwater Through the command of the National takebacks, wage cuts, unemployment, direct extension of its domestic policy. Put mercenaries—the same group hired by Guard and the regular army, the Pentagon declining safety on the job, massive simply, this means that their wars abroad the Pentagon to guard oil wells and train occupiers of Iraq played a key role in the super-exploitation of immigrant workers, are a continuation of their war at home— U.S. troops in Iraq—turned up on the repression in New Orleans. cutbacks in education and day care, lack the war to enforce exploitation and streets of New Orleans to control the It was they who orchestrated the occu- of affordable housing, the gender gap in oppression. Black population. pation. It was they who sent recruiters wages, racism in hiring, etc. Fighting the Rarely has this connection been sym- Together with the police, this combined into the Houston Astrodome to sign up attacks on the working class must be an bolized so dramatically as in New Orleans armed force herded people onto buses and desperate youths for Iraq in the midst of integral part of the anti-war movement if during the aftermath of Hurricane forcibly separated families—children from the disaster. it is to represent and mobilize the decisive Katrina. The Black community of New parents, husbands from wives, relatives Most importantly, they helped to exe- sectors that can actually stop the war—the Orleans, 350,000 people or more, was from relatives—in a manner many victims cute the planned dispersal of the Black working class and the oppressed people of overwhelmingly the victim of the hurri- said was reminiscent of the days of slav- population of New Orleans to cities across this country. cane in that city. And it was victimized pri- ery and the auction block. the country. It was part of a general plan But in its attention to the class struggle marily through criminal neglect by all lev- People were executed on the spot. to seize the opportunity presented by the and as a special and decisive part of the els of government during the crisis, which Over 2,000 were jailed, allegedly for Continued on page 8 Page 8 Nov. 3, 2005 www.workers.org

Hurricane Wilma in Cuba, Florida Yet another indictment of capitalism

By Deirdre Griswold Entitled “Wilma Floods Havana but schools and other government buildings all the people. Kills None,” the AP report from the Cuban are converted into temporary shelters. It seems to have taken the terrible dis- Once again, the great contrast in how capital appeared on Oct. 26 in the New “Citizens serving on civil defense com- aster on the Gulf Coast—where racism, authorities responded to a natural disas- York Times and several other U.S. news- mittees—organized by community, by poverty and the protect-property-first ter has illuminated the social and class dif- papers. neighborhood, even by block—also go attitude of the authorities led to such hor- ferences between the United States and into high gear, ensuring that each shelter rific levels of death and suffering –to force Cuba. Why no Cubans died is properly stocked with food, water, blan- such a truthful article about Cuba into the Hurricane Wilma hit Cuba twice. First, “Part of the country’s good fortune,” kets and other supplies. ... U.S. press. as it moved northwest through the says the article, “could be because Wilma “By the time the storm hits, the streets Caribbean, it dumped an unprecedented never made landfall here, but many also are empty, with residents tucked away in Florida: curfews, no water amount of rain on Cuba’s western credit the fact people in Fidel Castro’s locations believed to be safe from whip- News about what is happening in provinces. Then, after it hit Cancun in Cuba are instructed from an early age how ping winds and drenching rains.” Florida since Wilma struck that very rich Mexico and swung toward Florida, it to move quickly during a natural disaster. Most of those evacuated—80 percent, state is just now starting to come out. At slammed the island’s north shore with “The United Nations and other inter- according to officials—were taken into least six people are dead. Three million are more rain and high winds that drove huge national organizations have long praised their homes by other Cubans. still without power, “including about 93 waves into the capital city of Havana. Cuba’s track record in preserving lives The AP account continued: “‘Everyone percent of customers in Broward and The recorded annual rainfall in Pinar during hurricanes that regularly batter helps each other here,’ Dayami Gonzalez Miami-Dade counties.” (New York Times, del Rio, a fairly dry western province, has the island. When a tropical storm starts said Tuesday while cleaning up her Oct. 26) Miami-Dade County is predomi- never gone above 57 inches before. With brewing in the Caribbean, a well-oiled Havana home after floodwaters that had nantly Latin@ and Black. Wilma and earlier storms, the province’s hurricane-response machine clicks on in reached more than 3 feet inside began People are lined up in their cars for total rainfall for this year is already at 70 Cuba.” receding. ‘In the United States it seems blocks expecting government deliveries of inches. The article describes how everyone on like there’s more egoism, where everyone water and ice that don’t come. They are Huge waves kicked up by Wilma the island is kept informed when a storm just worries about themselves.’ being told to boil their tap water, but have breached Havana’s seawall and flooded nears. “Jose Rubiera, head of Cuba’s “Giraldo Garcia, 64 and retired, blamed no electricity to do so. the city up to four blocks from the water- National Meteorology Institute, starts the U.S. government for the more than Dawn-to-dusk curfews are in place front. Residents said the flooding, which making television appearances, contribut- 1,000 Katrina-related deaths in New throughout the region. Who will be in places was three feet deep and inun- ing to his near-celebrity status on the Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast. stopped by the police? Wealthy whites, or dated basement apartments, was even island. If asked on the street, most Cubans “‘It’s like those in power don’t think poor African Americans and Haitians? worse than the 1993 hurricane that was can recite the storm’s latest coordinates about anything but war,’ Garcia said. ‘It By contrast, across the state in Naples, dubbed “the storm of the century.” The and projected route.” was so painful to see innocent people “one of the wealthiest cities in the coun- salt Wilma’s waves left behind is If the storm looks like it is going to hit whose lives could have been saved.’ Garcia try” near where the hurricane first made expected to cause more damage to Cuba, the whole country mobilizes for the praised his own country’s system. ... ‘If landfall, “ice and water distribution Havana’s buildings. evacuation phase. there’s any risk to human lives, I know that appeared to be going more smoothly.” By Despite all this, not one Cuban life was “In the days before Wilma passed Cuba, the government won’t leave us to lady Tuesday, Oct. 25, most of the streets there lost to the storm. about 700,000 people were evacuated in luck.’” had already been cleared of fallen trees For the first time, the Associated Press this country of about 11.2 million. Not mentioned in this article is that the and debris. put out an unbiased article on the effec- “All the state’s resources are mobilized, Cubans also don’t have to worry about The hurricane also killed people in tiveness of Cuba’s emergency prepared- focused on the same goal: to ensure that what will happen to their jobs, or how Mexico, Haiti and Jamaica, where it did ness system, which has been recognized by no one dies. they will get health care if needed. In great damage. Most media coverage, how- the United Nations and many other coun- “Vehicles are rounded up to provide socialist Cuba, economic security, educa- ever, has focused on the problems faced by tries as probably the best in the world. transport for people in danger areas, and tion and health are guaranteed rights of tourists in Cancun. Fighting national oppression Road to anti-war unity Continued from page 7 President Dick Cheney’s former firm of poverty, racism and oppression endured well as the struggle against racism. Major, levees breaking and the consequent flood- Halliburton, the U.S. corporate overseer by the Black community of New Orleans. historic demonstrations—such as the ing to fragment and dissolve the Black and prime war contractor in Iraq. The struggle against the war in Iraq can- Moratorium of half a million people—took community, break up any cohesion and Among Halliburton’s tasks in New not be separated from the struggle of the place while Nixon administration’s COIN- prevent it from returning to New Orleans Orleans was to deal with helping the oil Black liberation movement to reconstitute TELPRO operations were destroying the as a community. industry. Halliburton’s primary but not the Black community in New Orleans and Black Panther Party and other Black lib- This operation in New Orleans was as exclusive role in Iraq is to oversee the to exercise the right of self-determination eration organizations. much a conscious act of imperialist takeover of the Iraqi oil industry. in taking control of the reconstruction Ironically, it was precisely the repeated aggression as the war in Iraq. The politi- The same corporations that pump oil effort to rebuild the city, which was 70 per- uprisings of the African American people cal implications for the anti-war move- out of the Gulf of Mexico and refine mil- cent Black before Katrina. against racism, police brutality and ment are as clear as a bell. lions of barrels a day in New Orleans are The intimate connection between impe- poverty, including the simultaneous rebel- The struggle against the war abroad can- the ones that backed the invasion of oil- rialist war abroad and national oppression lions in over 100 cities in 1968 after the not be separated from the struggle against rich Iraq. at home, and the absolute necessity to assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King the war at home. And that war, in the case The giant oil companies work hand-in- combine the struggle against both, must Jr., that were a significant factor that of Katrina, was part of a war of oppression glove with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld become a pillar of the anti-war movement. frightened the ruling class about continu- against the Black nation in the same way and Gens. Abizaid and Casey in Iraq. They ing the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, the that the war in Iraq is a war of national are also a major power in New Orleans, Sept. 24: An opportunity official anti-war movement turned its oppression against the Iraqi people. connected to the corporate and banking for unity missed back on the Black rebellions and the It is no accident that in 2003 President world there—and they are ultimately On Sept. 24 perhaps 300,000 people resistance in the Black community; a George W. Bush appointed Bernard Kerik, responsible, with the rest of the region’s assembled in Washington under the gen- legacy of disunity was established. the former New York City police chief industrialists and financiers, for the eral demand to “Bring the Troops Home Because today’s movement has been under reactionary Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Now.” largely white, and the Sept. 24 demonstra- to train the Iraqi police. Having served as The demonstration was a welcome tion took place in the midst of a massive head of the racist occupation forces in the reawakening of the anti-war movement in crisis for the Black nation, a historic biggest Black community in the United the biggest demonstration since the war opportunity to take a giant step toward States made Kerik eminently qualified to began. It was spurred by media coverage mending relations presented itself. The train puppet colonial police for the of Cindy Sheehan, who camped out in organizers could have used four full weeks Pentagon occupiers. Crawford, Texas. Yet as excellent as it was, to make it known that this demonstration This is yet another living example of the it cannot escape attention that it was over- was going to elevate the cause of New foreign policy being an extension of whelmingly white. Leave aside for the Orleans and come to the aid of Black peo- domestic policy. moment that the organized working class ple in time of need. The Katrina crisis was Also note that Raymond Kelly, Wall was in very limited attendance. the domestic equivalent of Iraq for the Street’s current New York City police To a certain extent, this is due to histor- hundreds of thousands of African Ameri- chief, was the director of the International ical reasons and material reasons beyond cans displaced and dispersed with callous Police Monitors in Haiti during 1994 and the control of the organizers. The anti-war insensitivity and brutality. 1995, training the Haitian police. movement of the Vietnam War era, under To be sure, a few slogans were added on. If things need to be made any clearer, the guidance of liberals and social democ- A New Orleans speaker was included in just look at how the first contracts doled A GUIDE TO RESISTANCE rats, put up a wall between itself and the the program. But what was needed was to out for New Orleans went to Vice Order online at www. leftbooks.com African American liberation struggle as www.workers.org Nov. 3, 2005 Page 9

The Bush solution Expand the war to Syria and Iran

By Sara Flounders to establish a stable puppet government German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, a polit- Palestinian organizations in Syria, and and train a Vietnamese army to take over ical appointee, blamed Syrian President assist in the disarming of Hezbollah in “When faced with an unsolvable prob- the fighting from U.S. troops. But the war Bashar al-Assad for the assassination of Lebanon. lem—expand the problem.” This cynical was unwinnable because the Vietnamese Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. The steps demanded of Syria amount political advice supposedly hangs on the resistance could not be broken. By 1970 Annan had appointed an international to an all-out effort to topple the govern- wall of U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald the U.S. population had turned decisively committee to investigate the assassination. ment and impose “regime change.” At Rumsfeld’s office. against the war. The Mehlis report is full of unsubstanti- the same time they further demonize the Today it is clear to the entire world that The Pentagon suddenly opted to ated charges based on secret witnesses and Palestinian resistance and all Islamic aid the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq “expand the problem” by invading Cam- statements from exile groups in the pay of organizations. is an unsolvable problem. It is a howling bodia, widening the war to engulf all of the CIA. Similar charges by the White blunder, an arrogant miscalculation by Southeast Asia. House about Iraqi “weapons of mass People’s response the political servants of U.S. monopoly Today, the corporate media dutifully destruction” turned out to be a total fraud. The ruling groups in the United States capital. report on endless charges that the resist- Much of the U.S. and European corpo- and Israel clearly had far more to gain Lt. Gen. William Odom, former direc- ance in Iraq is fueled by “foreign” insur- rate media are giving the same uncritical from the assassination of the Lebanese tor of the National Security Agency, has gents and that both Iran and Syria are aid- coverage to Mehlis’s UN report as they did president and the resulting destabilization labeled it “the greatest strategic disaster in ing the resistance. On Oct. 15 a New York to reports, leaks and interviews with right- of the area than Syria did. While an all-out United States history.” Times headline read, “GIs and Syrians in wing exile groups leading up to the U.S. campaign has forced the withdrawal of The war is a crisis for the increasingly Tense Clashes on Iraqi Border.” invasion of Iraq. Syrian forces from Lebanon, it is impor- isolated and beleaguered Bush adminis- Top officials discussed cross-border The very day Mehlis delivered his pre- tant to remember that the same Western tration, whose approval ratings have military operations and other “special liminary report, U.S., British and French imperialist countries now denouncing plunged to an all-time low of 38 percent. operations” at an Oct. 1 White House officials jumped on it to demand that the Syrian interference in Lebanon continue The generals are complaining that meeting. Two days later, Iranian President UN Security Council meet and take dras- to say and do nothing about Israel’s 38- recruiting figures are in a death spiral. The Ahmadinajad accused Britain of involve- tic action, including imposing sanctions year occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights. U.S. military machine is stretched beyond ment in bomb attacks in the southern against Syria. France, it should be remem- The day after the Mehlis report was its ability to fill the next troop rotation. Iranian city of Ahvaz. bered, was once the colonial power in released, hundreds of thousands of Syri- Now the official number of U.S. dead in On the diplomatic front the United Syria and Lebanon. ans poured into the streets of Damascus Iraq has passed the 2,000 mark. States and Britain pressured the Interna- The role of the UN Security Council in and Aleppo to protest, rejecting the In evaluating the orchestrated con- tional Atomic Energy Agency board to all this confirms that Washington still has charges and the outrageous demands frontations with Iran and Syria, which are overrule its own inspectors in order to enormous leverage there—through eco- made on their government. increasing, it is essential to look at U.S. his- push a discussion of Iran’s nuclear pro- nomic, political, diplomatic and military This is the real force U.S. imperialism is tory. The latest threats of military action gram into the United Nations Security pressure on smaller and weaker coun- up against in the entire region. Every effort and regime change may seem to be politi- Council. Meanwhile, John Bolton, U.S. tries—to fabricate a crisis and push to pressure, weaken or overturn govern- cal madness. But expanding the problem— ambassador to the UN, warned that if the through its resolutions. ments and destroy national sovereignty in or widening the war in the Middle East— Security Council doesn’t deal with Iran, its The choice of whom to accuse in the the Middle East is an effort to push back is a dangerous Pentagon option that is now relevance will be damaged. Mehlis report is highly political. It names the popular movements on which these under active consideration. This is a clearly implied threat that the top Syrian military officials and Palestin- governments were originally based. United States will act on its own—as it did ian leaders, while linking Palestinian and As the struggle in Iraq has shown, it may From Vietnam to Cambodia in Iraq. Lebanese charities to terrorist activities. be possible to sanction, starve and invade Thirty-five years ago the U.S. war in In order for Syrian President Assad to a country, overthrow its government and Vietnam became an unsolvable crisis for UN report charges Syria comply with the continuing investigation, put the president in the dock. But it is a far U.S. imperialism. On Oct. 22 a 54-page report delivered he would have to turn over top officials in more difficult task to subdue a whole peo- President Richard Nixon had promised to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan by his own government, expel leaders of ple determined to resist recolonization.

embrace the struggle of New Orleans for that the masses of the anti-war movement house of nations. These nationalities make up the dear life. The Black leaders fighting for the were standing shoulder-to-shoulder with This prisonhouse of nations is made up oppressed sectors of the population and cause of New Orleans should have been the African American people. of African Americans, whose ancestors the multinational working class. They are offered the opportunity to convene and were kidnapped from Africa and enslaved; at one and the same time the most Millions More Movement ignored discuss with the organizers, reshaping the of Latin@s, whose land in the southwest exploited parts of the population and program without sacrificing the struggle Another failure to show solidarity with was annexed when the United States stole potentially the most militant, dynamic against the war. African Americans was the organizers’ one-third of Mexico; of the Native Ameri- force in the struggle against imperialist What was needed was to develop the unwillingness to promote and publicize can population, who were consigned to war and exploitation. most effective methods to use this massive the Millions More Movement rally that concentration camps called reservations But the centuries of racism by the rul- gathering to forge solidarity and unity in was coming up on Oct. 15, just three weeks after their land was stolen; of Chinese peo- ing class works to break up the unity of our the struggle against the Bush administra- later. ple, whose ancestors were brought here as class. The only way to forge that unity is tion, state and local officials and corporate The MMM rally was dedicated to help- indentured servants to build the railroads. for every organization that is based in the parasites, who are all trying to make per- ing the victims of Katrina. It was to be a It is populated by more and more immi- dominant white oppressor nation to manent the destruction of the New unity rally and a gathering of a broad spec- grant nationalities from the Middle East, demonstrate its independence from the Orleans Black community. trum of national African American leader- South Asia and Latin America, people who racist ruling class by recognizing the right Efforts could have been made to merge ship, under the auspices of and at the invi- come here because U.S. imperialist corpo- of self determination of the oppressed and the anti-war message with an explanation tation of Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan, rations have taken over their countries extending every measure of solidarity pos- of the profound political meaning of this head of the Nation of Islam. As it turned and they cannot survive at home. sible in word and in deed. crisis for the African American commu- out, more than a million African American nity—many of whom regard what was people came to the MMM rally, according Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle, Padre Luis Barrios, Ramsey Clark, Noam Chomsky, Peter Coyote, happening as a setback of historic propor- to the organizers. Marcia Campos, Danny Glover, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, August Nimtz, tions. It was necessary to explore follow- In fact, the MMM rally was very much James Petras, U.S. Rep. José Serrano, Rev. Lucius Walker up solidarity and support, to be organized an anti-war rally as well as a rally for and Howard Zinn invite you to: and determined by representatives of the Katrina victims. Most important, though, Black struggle taking up the issue. it was a manifestation of the various cur- What was needed was to make an rents in the leadership of the Black nation. appeal to the hundreds of thousands As such, it was an attempt to take the self- gathered for a massive solidarity and determination of African American people An Evening of Solidarity with support network that would mobilize all as an oppressed nation a step forward. An Evening of Solidarity with over the country and render aid and It was an attempt to bring broader sec- assistance to the New Orleans leadership tors of the African American population in getting the dispersed population at into alliance with Latin@s, Native BOLIVARIAN VENEZUELAVENEZUELA least located, possibly registered, and to Americans, poor people in general, with Cease tensions between the U.S. Africa, Cuba and Venezuela—and to move TUESDAY funnel the information to the organizers government and the Bolivarian Special Guests! of the effort to return. toward independence from the yoke of the For the first time Republic of Venezuela One thing that would have demon- oppressor nation dominated by the white NOV•8 in the U.S., several strated solidarity on the spot would have racist ruling class. Respect international law 6:30 P.M. representatives of Venezuela’s been to march to an armory near the rally and the sovereign rights TOWN HALL Bolivarian Movement in Washington, D.C. There, evacuees were National oppression and unity 123 West 43RD Street of all nations. TH being housed. Such a march would have in the movement Between 6 Ave. & Broadway Times Square • NYC For tickets or served notice to evacuees that they were not The anti-war movement must recog- to endorse call: alone, and served notice on the government nize that the United States is a prison- www.venezuelanov8.org • www.aporrea.org • [email protected] 212.633.6646 Page 10 Nov. 3, 2005 www.workers.org

PHILIPPINES. Tribunal denounces A breakthrough— rights abuses for whom? By Sharon Eolis Two of the witnesses were children who Manila, Philippines had seen their families murdered. Another witness told about the attack and murder ngineers at Stanford University here and around the world, who are An International Solidarity Mission of strikers at a picket line. have made a big breakthrough in wondering how they will get clean water visited the Philippines in August to An attorney recounted the case of two laser-beam technology. Their dis- to drink, enough food for their children, E defend a people under siege from the young children from Mindanao who are in covery of how to switch a laser beam on simple medications that they can afford regime of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and hiding because they were threatened with and off up to 100 billion times a second and other basics of life. All these things her government’s imperialist backers in death if they told what happened. Pictures is reported in the Oct. 27 issue of Nature. are fully possible today, without any fur- Washington. that were part of the testimony showed “Such an advance could have broad ther scientific breakthroughs, but for On the last day of the ISM visit, an how one of these children was injured. applications both in accelerating the many they might as well be on the International People’s Tribunal was held. Witnesses spoke of torture in Sammor, already declining cost of optical net- Moon. This event was endorsed by former U.S. the massacre in February in Sulu, kidnap- working and in potentially transforming The human brain is an amazing Attorney General Ramsey Clark; Noam pings and executions in Mindoro, and the computers in the future by making it organ. Combined with social organiza- Chomsky, linguistic scientist at MIT; and Hacienda Luisita massacre. possible to interconnect computer chips tion, it has succeeded in expanding Jitendra Sharma, former justice of the As the tribunal closed, thousands of at extremely high data rates,” comments knowledge of the natural world at what Supreme Court of India. people marched with banners and flags. the Oct. 26 New York Times. seems like the speed of light. But knowl- The presiding judge was Lennox Hinds, Representatives from the ISM spoke and In the early days of capitalism’s edge is not enough to make a better professor of Law at Rutgers University and chanted at the rally, which ended with a Industrial Revolution, each new discov- world. In fact, the explosion of technol- vice-chair of the International Association candle lighting on the ground that read, ery set off a wave of optimism about the ogy driven by the need to expand capital, of Democratic Lawyers. The second and “Oust Gloria.” future, not just among those who felt which subordinates all other considera- third judges were Irene Fernandez (Malay- It was clear to all that the struggle against they would directly profit from it, but tions, is creating ecological disasters that sia), founder and director of Tenagar human-rights abuses in the Philippines among the general public. Scientific have already made life more precarious (Women’s Force); and Haliaan Karakus will continue. The international delegation progress was welcomed as offering a bet- for many. (Turkey), president of the International left with the task of bringing the tribunal’s ter future for suffering humanity. Marxism has viewed the development Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL). message to solidarity movements around Today, such sentiments are muted. Of of the means of production as the The jury had representatives from the world. course, those with capital who can take engine of social change—but progress Belgium, New Zealand, Canada, Turkey, This is the last of three articles advantage of a cheaper, faster way to do does not take place mechanically. The Australia, Philippines, United States, by Eolis on the experiences of the something in order to boost the return new, more sophisticated tools on which Britain and the Netherlands. International Solidarity Mission. on their investments get very enthusias- the economy rests strain ever more The prosecutors were all well-known The first two, on the Philippine economy tic. And the military, which helped against the confines of existing class human-rights defenders. and on the oppression of the Moro peo- finance the Stanford project through the relations, which become more burden- The attorneys questioned the witnesses, ple, respectively, appeared in the issues Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research some, more irrational, more destruc- asking questions in Tagalog and English. of WW dated Sept. 15 and Oct. 6. Projects Agency, will undoubtedly get tive, more dependent on repression and first dibs at integrating this new technol- social control. All this sets in motion the ogy into its war-making machine. struggle of the working class and the UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE Hollywood and the “financial market- oppressed—who today make up the STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION 1. Publication Title: Workers World place” are other areas of the economy majority of the world’s people. It is only 2. 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I understand that any- WORKERS WORLD NEWSPAPER one who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or infor- 55 West 17 St. NY, NY 10011 212 627-2994 mation requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and impris- onment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties.) www.workers.org Nov. 3, 2005 Page 11 Congress of Brazil’s Communist Party In the Lula gov’t, but critical By John Catalinotto from 45 countries were also present. Most PCdoB’s general analysis of the political comings. The PCdoB says it will be in the Brasilia, Brazil represented communist parties and revo- situation. This analysis was presented by government and, at the same time, lutionary and progressive organizations. Secretary General Renato Rebelo and through the social movements and labor In an atmosphere throughout Latin Among them were representatives of other party leaders at the conference, and unions, will pressure the government to America of growing resistance to the ruling parties of Cuba, China, Viet- at a special meeting with the foreign dele- take more progressive positions regarding Washington’s attempt to impose eco- nam, the Democratic People’s Republic of gations in the National Parliament build- resistance to imperialism and defending nomic and military dominance on the con- Korea and Angola. The U.S. delegation ing. workers’ and peasants’ rights. tinent, the Communist Party of Brazil included Workers World Party and the (PCdoB) held its 11th National Congress Communist Party USA. In government & social movements PCdoB leader heads Parliament Oct. 20-23 in Brasilia. The PCdoB, reviewing world develop- Throughout the summer the right-wing From the continued heroic resistance of Enthusiasm for the struggle ments since the 1989-91 counter-revolu- parties, which have a reputation of socialist Cuba to the profound Bolivarian Enthusiastic cheers punctuated nearly tion in the USSR and Eastern Europe, says ingrained corruption, and the media car- revolution in Venezuela, from mass every speech from the rank-and-file dele- that despite the positive examples of ried out a vicious, hypocritical attack on upsurges that reversed governments in gates and party officials, speeches always Cuba’s defense of its independence, the Lula and his party, the PT, for indiscre- Bolivia and Ecuador to the elections of gov- delivered with great feeling for the class developments in Bolivarian Venezuela tions in campaign funding. The crisis ernments in Argentina and Uruguay that struggle in Brazil. Some of the most enthu- and the success of the Iraqi resistance, the threatened to bring down the Lula govern- have thrown up obstacles to International siastic comrades had traveled long and far world balance of power is still unfavorable ment. Support from the PCdoB was essen- Monetary Fund and U.S. demands, people from the Amazon region. for socialist revolution; it is a period to tial in saving the government. south of the U.S. border have refused to It took one group from Acre as much as “gather strength.” A PCdoB representative in Parliament, submit to U.S. imperialist pressures. five days by boat and bus to get to the point Under these conditions, the PCdoB Aldo Rebelo, was then elected president of In Brazil this resistance led to the 2002 where they could fly to the country’s cap- believes that the best choice for Brazil that body, something the party celebrated election of Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva as ital. These comrades emphasized the need today is to continue to support the Lula at its congress. president. A former steel worker and to struggle on environmental questions, so government. The PCdoB believes that In its written program and in the con- leader of the Workers Party (PT), he won much so that the congress held a special Lula’s foreign policy is progressive and gress discussion, the PCdoB expressed an almost 61 percent of the vote. A central discussion on the issue. that the alternative to Lula would be a acute awareness of the dangers that par- point of political discussion at the PCdoB The goals of the congress were to win rightist, pro-U.S., neoliberal regime that ticipation in a capitalist government pose Congress was the complicated relation- support for the PCdoB’s general political could isolate Venezuela and Cuba and to a communist party. It has taken steps ship between this party and the Lula gov- positions from this representative body, to leave Brazil wide open for imperialist pen- in its party rules that it says will strengthen ernment, which it supports. carry out changes in how the party is etration. The PCdoB hasn't yet openly democratic centralism and reduce this The PCdoB has 250,000 members. organized and to elect a new Central Com- challenged Brazil’s participation in the threat. Some 70,000 take active part in party dis- mittee. All these questions were discussed ongoing occupation of Haiti. Twelve members of the PCdoB have cussions and organization; they are called among thousands of the party’s rank and This choice is further complicated been elected to the National Parliament’s “militants.” file in the months leading up to the con- because—although Lula received 61 per- lower house of 513 members. Six of the 12 At the congress, 1,097 delegates elected gress. cent of the vote in the second round of the are women. But many delegates at the by the members discussed the party’s Brazil is about the size of the lower 48 2002 election—the center and right-wing congress spoke of the need to have more political program for the coming period states of the United States, with a popula- parties that oppose any progressive steps women in the leading bodies of the party. and proposed changes in its organiza- tion of 185 million people. It has a rela- control both the upper and lower houses Afro-Brazilian comrades also spoke of the tional structure. The new party structure tively developed capitalist economy, but of Parliament and 24 of the 27 state gov- need to give higher priority to fighting defines more precisely the different rights one whose foreign debt to the imperialist ernments in Brazil. And the big financial racism in Brazilian society. and responsibilities of the ordinary mem- banks is the greatest in the world. institutions can limit changes and sabo- By all appearances, these important bers and the militants. Brazil borders on 10 other South Amer- tage the economy. points were undergoing full discussion in World imperialism claims that commu- ican countries; it has enormous military, Lula has attended every PCdoB con- the PCdoB. nism is dead. Yet the PCdoB has more than economic and diplomatic weight. gress since 1989. This time, as president While the PCdoB faces many challenges doubled its membership in the last four A right-wing military dictatorship ran of Brazil, Lula was the main speaker at the in implementing its policies in the coming years. It is 3.5 times bigger than it was at the country from 1964 to 1985. During opening session. He thanked the PCdoB period, the results will depend not only on the 9th Party Congress in 1997. that time the PCdoB, described as for its loyal support, to the enthusiastic what happens in Brazil. Any advances in The delegates came from all 27 “Maoist” in that period, was outlawed, and applause of the delegates. He spoke under the struggle worldwide will affect Brazilian states. They reflected all the var- organized a guerrilla war in one of the the PCdoB banner with its hammer and Brazilian society. Not least important will ious peoples of Brazil, including Indigen- Amazon states. sickle and the slogans, “A renewed party, be any increase in the workers’ struggle ous, Afro Brazilian, Arab and East Asian. This congress commemorated the life of a socialist future, a sovereign Brazil.” and the anti-imperialist movement in the The many young comrades present at this the PCdoB’s historic leader, Joao Ama- Despite this support, Gustavo Petto, the United States, which could be of great leadership meeting indicated that the zonas, who led that guerrilla struggle and PCdoB leader in charge of workers, peas- assistance to advancing the struggle for party in general must be quite young. who died after the 10th Congress. ants and other social movements, criti- Brazil’s sovereignty and thus aiding the Some 80 people making up delegations It is only possible here to summarize the cized the Lula government for its short- struggle for socialism. NYC meeting ‘Last phase’ of Milosevic trial near By John Catalinotto attends regularly, either in the courtroom expand the boundaries of what had been will be next spring, or in an explosion.” New York or working behind the scenes. the Yugoslav Serbian Republic. “Seselj International Action Center co-coordi- Schuetz said that while it was clear the was adamant that his party and only his nator Sara Flounders, who chaired the To prepare for what defense activists “trial” was in its final phase, no hard dates party, the Radical Party, supported this meeting, turned the discussion to the new called “the final phase” of NATO’s star- have been set. Later investigation showed program. He insisted that Milosevic was book now nearing completion. She thanked chamber trial of the former Yugoslav pres- that about two-thirds of Milosevic’s 150 opposed to this policy of a Greater Radmila Milentijevic for the “tremendous ident, the U.S. section of the International days to present defense witnesses have Serbia.” job she did re-translating the text from the Committee for the Defense of Slobodan been used, which indicates the trial should Serbian original” and filmmaker Milo Milosevic held a strategy meeting here on end sometime in the spring of 2006. Conditions in Serbia Yeleseyevich, who edited the English trans- Oct. 16 with representatives of the ICDSM “The discussion of the ‘Kosovo war’ is Vladimir Krsljanin, a former adviser to lation. from Germany and Serbia. almost over,” Schuetz added. There were no Milosevic who works with the Serb com- The meeting paid tribute to Harold The main topics of the meeting included: allegations that Milosevic had committed mittee Sloboda, reported by phone from Pinter, playwright and author and recent (1) the latest developments in the trial; (2) any crimes until May 1999, when the U.S. Belgrade about the harsh conditions of life winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a project of the U.S. chapter of the ICDSM and other NATO powers used the ICTY to for many people in Serbia five years after who was a strong opponent of the NATO- to publish by the end of this year a newly bring additional pressure against the the U.S.-backed election/coup that over- sponsored war that led to the dismember- translated English version of Milosevic’s Yugoslav leader as they were in the midst threw Milosevic and allowed a virtual for- ment of Yugoslavia. August 2004 opening defense speech at the of a 78-day bombing campaign against eign takeover of the country. Among those present, besides those International Criminal Tribunal for the Serbia that killed hundreds and destroyed “All the major industry has either been mentioned above, were Prof. Barry Litu- Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, much of the country’s infrastructure. shut down completely or taken over by for- chy, Heather Cottin, journalist George Netherlands, where he faces war-crimes Schuetz reported on testimony given eign capital, with the work force cut in half Szamueley and Serb-American composer charges. The ICTY was specially created by by Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, or less. Close to half the people are border- Milos Raickovich. Political journalist Greg the UN at the urging of then-U.S. who she said made some of the more ing on despair,” said Krsljanin. Elich and author Leonora Foerstel joined Ambassador Madeleine Albright. important political points in recent “There may be few outward demonstra- the discussion by phone. Cathrin Schuetz, an assistant to the months: “One of the main charges tions of the building resentment,” he con- John Catalinotto is co-editor with legal team in The Hague and member of against the president was that he was tinued, “but that doesn’t mean the people Flounders of the IAC’s 2002 book on the German committee, reported on the part of a ‘criminal conspiracy’ to work are content. It can end with a change in the the war against Yugoslavia, “Hidden course of the ICTY proceedings. Schuetz toward a ‘Greater Serbia,’” that is, to political process at the next vote, which Agenda,” available at leftbooks.com. ¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los países, uníos! El Movimiento de Más Millones Mitin en Washington enfatiza la unidad y el poder de l@s negr@s Por Monica Moorehead por la vindicación, especialmente entre los hechos, no en los chismes, en términos de educar a los niñ@s. Washington, D.C. hombres de raza negra, el tema de este lo que hizo el gobierno y lo que no hizo Farrakhan dijo que un Ministerio de mitin fue muy diferente en su mensaje para rescatar la gente de color de los Defensa es esencial porque “nuestr@s El Movimiento de Más Millones político debido a dos principales razones: techos de Nueva Orleáns. También hizo un jóvenes están luchando en guerras equiv- (MMM) tuvo un importante mitin el día 15 el huracán Katrina y la guerra en Irak. llamado a una investigación de lo que real- ocadas — o unos contra otros en este país de octubre en las inmediaciones del Estos dos puntos fueron los temas mente pasó con los diques. o en una guerra injusta en Irak y Afgan- Monumento Nacional en la capital, comunes que se escucharon en muchos de El líder de la Nación del Islam habló en istán.” Él dijo que deben ser traídos a casa Washington DC, que atrajo una muche- los discursos y presentaciones culturales forma conmovedora sobre los 2.500 para defender a sus comunidades. “No dumbre, según los organizadores, de un en todo el día, especialmente la indi- niñ@s, principalmente niñ@s de color necesitas estar en Irak y Afganistán,” dijo. millón de personas abrumadoramente gnación sobre la manera en que el gob- que se encuentran todavía perdid@s “Necesitas estar en nuestros barrios, impi- Africano-americanas. La demanda princi- ierno respondió al desastre del huracán. desde la tormenta catastrófica de Katrina diendo que la policía nos mate a balazos.” pal de los organizadores y de las masas Muchos hablaron fuertemente contra el y la angustia que todavía experimentan Farrakhan vinculó la necesidad de un asistentes fue “¡Poder Negro!” gobierno de los Estados Unidos y contra sus familias. Ministerio de las Artes y la Cultura a la Ni una bandera de los Estados Unidos Bush. influencia del líder de la revolución china, se podía ver predominando en el mar de ‘Organicemos calle por calle’ Mao Zedong, sobre las masas. Farrakhan gente, pero los colores de la Liberación Farrakhan ofrece programa Farrakhan urgió a todo el mundo volver dijo que las ideas de Mao estaban bien Negra de los Estados Unidos—rojo, negro, de unidad a sus casas y organizar–calle por calle y reflejadas en la cultura china porque Mao y verde—se notaban por todas partes. La presentación principal de este mitin casa por casa–para forjar un movimiento tuvo un gran interés en las formas creati- Este mitin fue anunciado por primera estuvo a cargo del convocador nacional de que pueda estar listo antes de que ocurra vas en que las ideas políticas podían ser vez hace un año en conmemoración del la Marcha y líder de la Nación del Islam, otro desastre. Advirtió, “Organizar es algo ampliamente expresadas. 10º aniversario de la Marcha de Un Millón el Honorable Ministro Louis Farrakhan. serio y hay gente que no quiere vernos Farrakhan dijo que en África y el Caribe de Hombres el 16 de octubre de 1995 ocur- La muchedumbre esperaba ansiosamente organizados. Los pobres están sostenien- hacen falta fábricas y que el formar un rida en el mismo sitio. Ese evento atrajo a lo que él, más que cualquier otro orador, do a los ricos, quienes odian a cualquier Ministerio de Comercio podría ayudar en un millón de hombres mayormente de la iba a decir. Y mucho dijo. persona que pueda estimular la conciencia este empeño. También enfatizó que alian- raza negra y fue iniciada por la Nación del Farrakhan comenzó su discurso de 80 de los pobres. ¿Están seguros que quieren zas de intercambio comercial deben ser Islam (NDI). minutos con la esperanza de que la gente Uds. tal movimiento? Entonces, prepá- formadas entre África, el Caribe, Centro y El evento de este año, también iniciado de raza negra, junto con l@s latin@s, indí- rense a enfrentar una oposición severa”. Sudamérica para ayudar a fortalecer estas por la NDI, fue más inclusivo en términos genas y pobres, se unan para forjar una Entonces hizo una propuesta para economías. La lucha por las reparaciones, de incluir a las mujeres, a las comu- fuerte lucha. El declaró, “Yo no puedo cal- establecer varios ministerios. Subrayando él dijo, va más allá del gobierno esta- nidades lésbicas, gays, bisexuales y tran- cular cuantos de ustedes están aquí hoy... que la gente africana americana constituye dounidense disculpándose por el comer- sexuales además de a l@s latin@s, indí- si hay un millón... menos de un millón o un porcentaje importante de la población, cio de esclavos y la esclavitud. Las repara- genas y a otras nacionalidades, quienes más, esto no es lo más importante... crear dijo que los fondos podrían venir de una ciones significan también cancelar toda la estaban representadas tanto en la multi- un movimiento con nuestra gente es proporción de los impuestos igual a la de deuda de los países en camino de desar- tud como en los oradores. La multitud importante.” El expresó su aprecio a la la población negra. Mucho de estos fondos rollo y proveer las medidas para construir que se extendía desde las gradas del cantidad sin “precedente” de líderes de son utilizados para el presupuesto militar. la infraestructura. Capitolio hasta el monumento a Wash- raza negra de diferentes antecedentes Un ministerio de Salud y Servicios Farrakhan prosiguió al recordar a ington, incluía gente de todas las edades, políticos y religiosos que se unieron para Humanos debe realmente cuidar la salud tod@s que una de las razones que l@s a trabajador@s organizad@s y no organi- hablar en “una solo voz”. del pueblo. Farrakhan elogió al gobierno inmigrantes de Latinoamérica están for- zad@s, y a sus familias. Enfatizó que la incapacidad del gob- cubano por haber ofrecido enviar 1.500 zad@s a venir aquí para buscar trabajo es Los discursos cubrieron una amplia ierno de los EEUU de responder a las médicos a la región de la Costa del Golfo porque los Estados Unidos le robó tierra a gama de tópicos, desde el sistema de necesidades de la gente negra y los pobres para cuidar a los sobrevivientes de Katrina. México que ahora son entre otros, los esta- prisión y las demandas de los prisioneros fue expuesta por su incapacidad de La oferta, hasta el día de hoy, ha sido igno- dos Arizona, California, y Texas. políticos—especialmente Mumia Abu- responder al huracán Katrina. Reco- rada por la administración de Bush. Entre los muchos oradores estaban Jamal, Abdullah Al-Amin (anteriormente mendó que el Departamento de Seguridad Farrakhan también agradeció al gobierno Clarence Thomas y Chris Silvera del Movi- conocido como H. Rap Brown) y Leonard de la Patria (Department of Homeland venezolano por haber ofrecido apoyo a los miento de la Marcha del Millón Traba- Peltier—hasta la brutalidad policíaca, Security), junto a su agencia de manejo de sobrevivientes de Katrina –una oferta tam- jador@s; Dr. Dorothy Height del Concilio reparaciones, la negación del derecho al emergencias, FEMA, deben ser el blanco bién rechazada por la Casa Blanca. Nacional de Mujeres Negras; líderes indí- voto, la opresión de las comunidades de una demanda general de parte de l@s genas Russell Means y Vernon Bellecourt; LGBT, el derecho de l@s inmigrantes, sobrevivientes de Katrina, quienes deben Cita la oferta de becas de Cuba la senadora Sheila Jackson; el cantante poder político y económico, educación y ser recompensad@s por todo que per- También elogió al Presidente Fidel haitiano Wyclef Jean; los pastores Al salud, el papel del arte y la cultura en la dieron como resultado de “negligencia Castro de Cuba por ofrecer 500 becas para Sharpton y Jesse Jackson; Viola Plummer lucha por la justicia social y otros tópicos. criminal” por parte del gobierno. La estudiantes de la clase trabajadora de los del Movimiento del 12 de diciembre; Mientras que el mitin de 1995 abogaba demanda, dijo, debe ser basada en los EEUU para que vayan a Cuba a estudiar Damu Smith, de las Voces Negras por la medicina, con la estipulación de que, al Paz; y el cómico y activista social Dick Circulo Bolivariano Alberto Lovera, el Padre Luis Barrios, Ramsey Clark, Noam Chomsky, completar los estudios médicos, vuelvan a Gregory. Se puede ver todo el mitin en Peter Coyote, Marcia Campos, Danny Glover, el Obispo Thomas Gumbleton, August Nimtz, James Petras, el Congresista José Serrano, el Reverendo Lucius Walker los EEUU para proporcionar cuidado 222.millionmanmarch.org. y Howard Zinn les invitan a: médico a aquellos que no pueden pagar. En su mensaje video grabado, el presi- En respuesta al sufrimiento de los dente de la Asamblea Nacional de Cuba, campesinos negros en los EEUU que han Ricardo Alarcón, expresó la solidaridad sido desalojados de sus fincas por el del pueblo cubano con l@s sobrevivientes Una NOCHE de SOLIDARIDAD con racismo y las subvenciones para las gran- de Katrina y con tod@s l@s pobres en los des empresas agrícolas, Farrakhan pro- Estados Unidos. También habló sobre el movió el establecimiento de un Ministerio caso de los Cinco Cubanos que estaban LAVENEZUELA BOLIVARIANA de Agricultura. También declaró que el encarcelados por luchar contra el terror- Cesen las tensiones entre el gobierno pueblo indígena, cuyas tierras han sido ismo mientras que Estados Unidos ayuda de los EE.UU. y la República MARTES ¡Invitad@s robadas sistemáticamente en forma geno- y aloja a verdaderos terroristas como Luis Bolivariana de Venezuela especiales! cida por el gobierno de los EEUU en Posada Carriles. Por primera vez interés de la expansión al oeste, podría El Primer Ministro de Jamaica, P. J. 8 de noviembre en los EEUU, vari@s Respeto a las leyes i alquilar tierras de sus reservas a los Patterson, habló vía video satelital para nternacionales y 6:30 P.M. representantes del los derechos soberanos Movimiento Bolivariano campesinos negros para mutuo beneficio. expresar su solidaridad con l@s pobres y de todas las naciones TOWN HALL de Venezuela Un Ministerio de Educación sería oprimid@s de los Estados Unidos. Su país 123 Oeste de la Calle 43 necesario para ayudar a unir a todos los dio asilo al Presidente Jean-Bertrand Respeto al Tratado de Extradición (entre la 6ta Ave & Broadway) Todos los Boletos $20 educadores negros porque, según Aristide cuando fue secuestrado en Haití EEUU-Venezuela del 1922 Times Square • NYC Entrada General Farrakhan, “el sistema occidental ha ter- por el gobierno estadounidense en febrero Para boletos llame al www.venezuelanov8.org • www.aporrea.org • [email protected] 212.633.6646 minado su trayectoria” y ya no sirve para 2004. Aristide está ahora en Sud África.