inside: • PANTHER SiSTE.RS ON WOMEN'S UBERATION
SEPTEMBER 1969 192 VOL.5 NO. 8 • ALl6TO'S LABOR UNION • CI-t fCAGO NATIONAL ACTiON 25*
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BULK RATE THE MOVEMENT PRESS U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 8603 330 Grove Street SAN FRANCISCO. CALIF. ~.Ir. &. Mrs. Grant Cannon San Francisco, California 94102 4907 Kiatte Road Cincinnati, OhiC' 45244 , \ ,
ALETTER FROM THE EDITORS •
DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS, READERS, WRITERS, SUBSCRIBERS,
We would have mailed out letters, but we couldn't afford the postage (about 150 dollars). The financial situation of THE MOV.EMENT is so bad we doubt that we will be able to continue printing, unless we have your help, unless you think the paper is IUnpOrtant enough to give some financial sup port. The unfortunate facts are: DEBTS: I. $250 to phone company who will cut off service if we don't pay in five days. . 11.$700 old printing debt, now owed to a collection agency that is taking us to court. m $150 to photographic platE; man who runs a marginal business, he was always good to us and we shouldn't screw him.
CURRENT COSTS: L $750 printing bill. 11. $400 maUimg bill. m.$150 phone,utUities,etc.
TOTAL DEBTS AND CURRENT COSTS: $2400 THESE FIGURES 00 NOT INCLUDE SALARIES FOR THE PEOPLE WHO WORK FULL-TIME FOR THE NEWSPAPER AND CANNOT AFFORD TO CONTINUE WORKING WITHOUT PAY. NONE OF WHAT LITTLE THERE IS HAS GONE FOR SUBSISTENCE SALARIES. INCOME: Money has been trickling into the office at the rate of about $75 a week..·.not enough to cover even our mailing costs. One problem is that people don't pay tor their bulk orders. We realize that selling THE MOVEMENT helps people live, and it's also groovey to distribute the paper free. All this would be fine, if we got some other contributions, but we don't, We have always believed' that the MOVEMENT' played an importalll\t function.That is why we keep printing. We are not.professional journalists. We, like you, are trying to become revolutionaries of the people, and see no need to hang on to an unnecessary institution, just for the sake of having that institution. BAYAREA HIGH SCHOOL So when we're faced with the financial impossibilities we just des cribed, we seriously doubt that we are doing the right thing. We wonder if putting out the paper is worth it. We need both moral :and material encouragement. . If you dig THE MOVEMENT,think it's useful and LIBERATION worth continuing, you have to help us with money---small,medium and large contributions. IF each subscriber sent us one dollar, we could pay our debt. IF people regularly paid their bulk bills we would always CO~FERENCE break even. IF we got a few very large contributions, everything would be OK too, at least for a while.
But if none of these things happens this may have to be our last. On August 9th and 10th high school students from issue. It's up to you. .31 schools around the Bay Area got together to hear speakers and discuss the problems of the high schools FOR STRUGGLE AND REVOLUTION, today, to organize a Bay Area High School Student Union and plan a fall offensive based around a nine THE EDITORS. point program which deals with these issues: 1) An end to the tracking system which channels third world people and working class white stUdents into factory jobs and the army. Education based on the needs of the people, not the corporations. 2) An end to racism in the schools, support for the struggles of all oppressed peoples, and third world studies departments controlled by third world stu ANNOUNCEMENT students. In the midst of all this a child has been born to Renee and Joe Blum and 3) An end to male supremacy in the schools, such as channeling girls into home economics and business his name is Huey. He hasn't made a statement yet, but keeps his fist courses. clenched. Power to the People! 4) An end to the complicity of the schools with the draft and ROTC. 5) Open admission of lower income people to all schools, colleges, and universities. 6) An end to all suspensions, expulsions and discipli nary actions which are simply another form of track THE MOVEMENT is pUblished monthly by THE MOVEMENT PRESS, 330 ing. Grove street, San Francisco, California 94102--(415) 626-4577 7) All police out of the schools. No interference in SUbsCriptions -~ $2.50 per year; $3.00 foreign (no Canadian postal money the right of students to form organizations and to order Please.) distribute leaflets. 8) Control of the schools by the community, not the Joseph A. Blum and Arlene F,:isen Bergman, Editors corporations and the police. The schools must serve the people. Staff: Lincoln Bergman, Renee Blum, Gary Grimshaw, Frank Cieciorka, 9) Unity with our brothers and sisters in all the Jerry DenSCh; Comalana Smith, Terry Cannon. POW: Jeff 8egaJ schools and with the struggles in the Third World, the factories, the communities, and the colleges. CIl1C81'O staff: ROQm 204, 162 N. Gl1Dton, Chicago, illinois 60606--(312)327 3~.81. The union consists of four regions, the primary responsibility of each of which is to organize the Los Angeles staff: Ken Cloke, Bob Niemann, Mike Davis, Judy Davis. 1657 schools in that region. The regions are San Francisco, Federal Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90025 -- (213) 4'18-9509 East Bay, Marin and the San Francisco Peninsula...... Together the regions will run the central office in San New York staff: SDS Regional staff.. 131 Prince street, New York, New York Francisco. For information about the Bay Area High 10012 -- (212) 6'14-8310. School Student Union, contact c/o R.O.C., 330 Grove Street, SanFrancisco 94102. Detroit staff: NOC, Box 9571 /North End Station, Detroit, Michigan 48202. Bulk orders at speclal rates available at all offices. APOLOGY-We're sorry that this issue is shorter than usual, but we couldn't Printed in san Francisco and New York afford to print or mail a larger issue.
T ~2 THE MOVEMENT "EPTEMBER 1969 .. S.F. WORKERS BATTLE MAFIOSO ALIOTOI
By Wildcat Brothers have gi VE'n up out of disgust, a fact un counting does not incluae alleged gifts and pay offs.) doubtedly relished by the officials who found it A rank and file member of the union might earn Laborers' Local 261, 18th and Shotwell suddenly much easier to pack the meetings. II thousand per year if he were fortunate enough Streets in San Francisco, is known to many as At the height of the McCarthy Era the caucus to not suffer a layoff, but lay offs are common attempted to run a slate of minority candidates to in the bUilding and construction field. Mayor Alioto's favorite local, having been the break the white control. A not too subtle whispering The main source of control over the membership most prominent labor support in his success campaign initiated by the officials cast the stigma Is simple and direct: The officials have the power of com munism on the slate and killed its chances, to starve a man into submission if he objects to their ful campaign for City Hall. That such support slight as they were. Hired goons and blatant racist open disregard for the rights of the brothers. Their ($5000, initially) was garnered by a man with appE'als by the union bosses killed the caucus. Local control of the plugboard (from which members are 261, and the other West coast locals, crushed their a known anti-labor background raises obvious released to jobs as employers request men) allows progressive elements, but still remained relatively them to juggle plug numbers to give better jobs to questions: How? Why? "Why" is the easy half free of the l\lafia domination which characterized their "yes" men and keep dissident brothers from to answer. the East. finding relatively steady employment. Men on the job are aware that if they complain to a business agent Alioto's liberal facade depends on his public friend UNION POLITICS ON THE MAKE about job conditions they are likely to get' Jheir ship with organized labor--a friendship which masks walking papers within a few days. Neither union the systematic exploitation of the city's working Of the 7000 members of Local 261 (no one except officials nor company bosses want rank and file class and the erosion of the union members' rights the officials is certain of the actual figure), ap members to challenge the. prevailing system or and bargaining power. The union no longer rep proximately 650/( are black, 20S: Spanish-speaking, create discontent on the job. Dissent is stifled resents its membership, and the membership is and 15% white, The controlling officials, C,R (BUd) in othr ways as well. almost without recourse. City politics dominate the Johnson (Pres.) and George Evankovich (Sec-Tres.), Local, and the politics of the International comple are white, but the officE' staff includes several ment this arrangement nicely. non-whites: George Ando (recording secretary and WAITING FOR ZAPATA Local 261 is the largest local in the California dispatcher) who is Japanese and speaks Spanish; Northern District Council of the International La LeRoy McArthur, the black man behind the desk; Probably the most vicious and complete control borE'rs' of North Arne-rica (AFL-CIO), formerly known and Abel Gonzales, who controls the Chicano brothers is perpetrated against the Spanish-speaking brothers; as the International Hod Carriers, Building and for the officials. Through the Centro Social Obrero (the place where Common Laborers' Union of America. In 1925 the The rise to power of these men is typical. Given Hubert Humphrey spoke in the i\lission district International came under the control of Joseph V. the nod from higher up they moved smoothly into during his campaign) undE'r the control of Abel Moreschi who retired this past year at the age of control with little or no opposition. Most of them Gonzales, the union bosses hold tight rein on these 88. He was replaced by his long time sharer of began their rise as' vocal anti-communists mouthing brothers. The Obrero' s hold their meeting shortly power, General Secretary-Treasurer Peter Fosco, the well worn platitudes of the union movE'ment before the union holds its monthly meetings, when they a graduate of ward politics and Hod Carriers Union while securing the favor of local bureaucrats and are briefed by Gonzales on how to vote in response politics in Chicago. Terry 0'Sullivan, who rose politicos. Bud Johnson came into the Local with to his signals. In order to get into the Local, and to prominence out of the muck and mire of Local 261 nothing and won the support of brothers by posing in order to get a job, they must not only pay in by red-baiting after the Korean War, moved into the as a crusader for the rights of the working man--a itiation fees, dues, insurance, and a so called "vol position vacated by Fosco. For seventeen years role he never fUlfilled. George Evankovich was no untary political contribution," but they often have Moreschi ran the International without calling a newcomer to labor politics; raised in a prominent to grease the palm of Gonzales. national convention; and the first convention was called CP famlly in Butte, Montana, It is alleged that Because of their ethnic and language difficulties in 1942 only after Westbrook Pegler began exposing he jumped the fence and was instrumental in breaking in white America, these brothers are easily ex the corruption of the IntE'rnational and its officials. the'Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers strike in Denver ploited and are generally afraid to do anything During the .nineteen twenties a series of murders in the mid 1950' s. A number of brothers went to jail. about it, although recently discontent among the of union officials cleared the way for PE'ter Fosco's Abel Gonzales bought his way into citizenship and Obreros has risen significantly. Gonzales has been rise to Joe Moreschi's sidE'. Meanwhile he continued a salaried position with the Local by his willingness known to take brothers off jobs if they challenge to consolidate his pOWE'r as boss of Chicago's not to do the bidding of Johnson and Evankovich in keeping his supremacy, and other brothers, who are not orious First Ward, In 1949 he wielded this power the Spanish-speaking brothers in line. citizens, have reported that the union has hassled to defeat legislation recommended by the Chicago Incomes for thE'se men range from 20 to 30 thousand their families in :\lexicQ in order to whip them Into Crime Commission--legislationwhich directlythreat dollars per year, which includes regular salaries, line. ened the sanctityofhis empire. Within the International expenses, and miscellaneous expenditures. (This ac- The initial consolidation of the Chicanos Into an the Moreschi and Fosco famllles, by now thoroughly administration voting bloc came in 1966 during the entrenched, were busily consolidatingand centralizing • union elections. In the six months previous to the the political structure of thE' union. Gradually the ...... "",...... ------....:....---...,
elections bE'tween 500 and 600 Spanish-speaking lab orers were admitted to the Local--all of them mem bers of the Social Obrero. In order to raise the money nE'cessary to bUy a book in the Local they werE' all found jobs on the' waterfront. As a reward for this Gonzales was appointed I¥lder Rebels Cayton, Alioto's minority relations man. His appointment lasted a few months before he was dropped (Informed autonomy of the locals disappeared and district sources have it that Alioto finally realized that none and regional councils assumed the bargaining re of Gonzales' bloc were voters). At the election one of sponsibilities of the locals. This removed any real the Obrero officials checked off each Obrero as he control over wages or conditions from the rank and voted and' brought those who had not yet voted to file membership. The last major battle for local the hall, giving the incumbents' a solid 600 votes- autonomy was fought in 1952 by thE' three most more than enough to guarantee them the election, militant locals in the International. (Local 400 in However, in the last election (June, 1969), their Seattle, Local 147 in New York, and Local 36 in bloc had diminished to about 300, an indication of San Francisco.) But with the help Of the McCarthy the discontent which Dick Nolan, labor columnist Era the International was able to purge itself of for the S.F.EXA:o.lINER, chronicled in an article dissE'nt and make its control nearly complete-- a dated :\larch 14, 1969: ....1 have become much in "family" affair at that--and from Sicily. terested in a small murmur or mutter, sounding Even following the purges, a degree of militancy lin much like Spanish, emanating from the lowest depths gered on the West coast, but it was dying fast. Old of Laborers Local 261. ..Spanish-speaking newcomers, timers in the union tell of the Mafia dominated unable to cope with union officials because oflanguage IntE'rnational's sweeping appraisal of the West coast difficulties, greenhorn deference and other handicaps, locals--"They're all commies out t1wre.- And for a are being "used- by the Laborers Union--discrim decade the International did not move to solidify its inated against in the hiring hall and pressured control of these unions. In San Francisco, Local into making political contributions along with their 261 had always been dominatE'd by whites-- mostly rather hefty initiation fees." Nolan, though, is pess of Irish birth or E'xtraction, and mostly city E'mployees. imistic about anything being done to rectify the sit Then, and now, the local was composl'd of men working uation, particularly on the part of the Chicanos. in the construction industri('s. city and state emploYE'es and, recently, Fedf'ral employees. THE JOB TRAINING BUSINESS In the fifties attf'ndance at mE'E'tings l'l'llIained larg·e. A secret caucus which mf't in thE' :\lission, Fillmore, Besides the manipulation of the Obreros, who pro and Huntf'rs Point districts managed to win a fE'W vide the controlling votes at the meetings, programs battles on thE' floor, since parliamentary procedure such as Youth for Service offer the officials both was still followed at medings. But their victories good pUblicity in the middle class liberal community were short lived. (Pn'sE'ntly the officials do not and excellent means of controllingdissent at meetings. make the slightest prl'tensl' of following accepted AMBASSADOR UNION PRES. MAYOR YFS, headed by Orville Luster, is a program osten- parliamentary rulE'S at meetings. As a result attE'n dance has dwindll'd to 200 to 300 out of ahout 7000. HENNIN~ FOSCO ALIOTO CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
SEPTEMBER 1969 THE MOVEMENT PAGE 3 '-1
FEUDALI$M IN THE FIELD$ By Terence Cannon We told our friends we were going to Delano for the weekend. out1.aw farm Vlorker strik2s during' har last mOll~h when the groWi!rS, who had vest anj m;L';0 it a federal offense to quit asked for negofiations, refused to agree "Where?" they said. "What for?" your job in a di spute over wages. "SUo~h to a pesticide regulation clause, broke The movement wrote Delano off its political map in 1967 and moved a la..v would probab~y In.!an th,,, end I)f off negotiations and blasted th,? union any hope for a non- violent so~utioll of in the press. on to campus fights, the streets, the draft and the Black Panthers. "Stu the farm 13.1)1)" y:)blem ," commented "Over 1000 peop~e, mostly farm work" dents are like a whirlwind," Cesar Chavez said. "They always have Larry Itliong, AssisL'l,!l Director of th.~ 21'-';, are injured and poiso:wd "'very /"::1r unian. in California alone from misu..,e of pest another cause to move on to." Besides, the National Farmworkers Asso The biggest singl3 move against th,? icides," Chavez said in COa(:llella. "We ciation has joined the enemy, the AFL-CIO; Delano was a non-violent boycott has been taken by the Defense want protection from this in ou r contracts. movement, a union, a reform operation, the political handmaiden of the Department. The generals are gorging We don't care what the state laws say, on grapes, buying them up at a fantastic or wh?ther tht' growers are legally' in Kennedy machine. rate. In 1957, when the boycott was just nocent' of breaking any laws or regul.'l beginning, the Army shipped 458,000 tions, but we'll be damned if we will pounds of grapes to Vietnam. This Y:!'l; stand by and watcli the' ;.ysl,ematic pois The farmworkers stayed. They had no on the cost of prod'lction for ea,:::h var they have already sent 2,500,000 pounds oning of our people. ~ other cause to move on to.• They were iety of grapes for the last 20 years, to our boys in Asi'l. Grapes purchased by union ml'mbers left to fight America's f..' udal agricui where they are selling their grapes, a Last year, when th."re was a shortage in a Safeway stor~ in Washington DC alont~, tural empire with the financial list of their profits and losses, audits of apples and oranges, th.~ Army catled a few w~,,~:<'S ago were tested and found aid of the AFL and the political aid of of total incoffiP, expenses and taxes, its corn manders in Vietnam" suggesting" to contain the samf! poison used on th3 the churches and the liberals. and details of the busin.~ss operation. that th.,y take grapes as a substitute. cranberry crop in Massachusetts, whl<'.h The movement has corne around now Th.? growers are not about to hand over The union is now planning to leaf.,'; ·.vas destroyed as dangerous -- the grapes in its whirlwind path to recognizlng the this information and lh,e suit will prob Gl's, and is attacking thl~ Defense De had ~8 tim.,:" as much! Union leaders are importance of America's workers and ably be dropped. partment head 011. Union Vice-President now tal.king about a suit to have the entire it is to remind us that the farm workers In the major cities most supermarkets Dolores Huerta testified at a hearing grape crop in California destroyed. are workers fighting the most reaction haVi.! stopped selling grapes. The biggest in Washington last month on the Army's ary section of American industry that lioIdout is Safeway, the second largest. grape orgy, Defense Department officials IT ISN'T THE SHIP THAT MAKES THE 1 write this article. supermarket chain in the world. One of refused to reveal the names of the gro'l'/ WA YES, IT'S THE MOTION OF THE Delano is an administrative center. Lit Safeway's directors is president of J.G. ers with which t,hey d,?al, and the amo'.mts OCEAN tle organizing goes on there. Three houses Boswell, Inc, one of the lagest cotton pur,:::hased. liold the hiring' haH, the national grape growers in California and the largest poycott headquarters, the health and wel grape grower in Arizona, Last year he DE FOLIATION' fare office and the staff of the union. Tho' motion in the farmworker move received thf' largest subsidy ever given mt~nt continually comes from where all For almost two years all activity has by the government, $4,0!H,818, for not The furor over th." use of agricultural been .concentrated in the boycott. The motioll begins, the people. Farmworkers growing any colton. Another is a director poisons began in Delano last year, and across the country want to strikl'! and adobe brick cooperative gas station is of thl~ Kern County Land Company, which has become the Second Front of th,e empty, its rooms filled with canned goods are striking. At a mass meeting in De owns most of Kern County and is being farmworker ,;iruggle. It is a non-neg lalh1, w,e met workers from Arizona, and medical equiptment from the aban struck by the farmworkers, otiable demand [or future union contracts. doned medical clinic. The best talent Coachella Valley and Ohio-Michigan, who 1000 farmworkers a year are poisoned, had just completed strikes in the fields. of. the union, the people who camf! up THE FEUDALISTS STIC.1( TOGETHER a dozt'm or more in Cal ifornia fatally through the ranks during the strike in Th.? slow office motion of Delano was poisoned. Studies in the San Joaquin shattered. As they each told their stories, 1965-6 are all over north America, For every liberal politician that nods Valley have shown that already farm organiZing grape boycott c'om mittees in the hall erupted in <:hl~ers and clenched in the direction of the farmworkers, there workers have dangerous amounts of DDT fists. (I didn't see no raised clenched Chicago, Boston, New York, Cin:::innati, are others who are increasingly using the in their bodies. MontreaL.Hardly anyone I knew from fists in Delano two years ago). power of th,? government to smash the Two r.1ontfl,s ago 40 million fish wera The Coach.~lla strike was one of th.? the "militant" days is in the husk of struggle. Last year GOVi'!rnor Reagen si.mt killed in thf~ Rhin.~ River when two bar pelano. best in farmwm·!.;er history. The Coach state labor inv'~stigat'lrs t.o Delano. They rels of the insecticide endosulvan fell ella Valley is in t.he Southeastern cor talked only to the growers and ended up' off a barge. A state of emt~rgency was ner of California, near the rich folks' DON'T BUY GRAPES decprtifying 1I10st of the Delano strik!'!s. called in German and Duteh tmms along Ilangout in Palm Springs, Til,? picking This meaas that greencard workers from the river. Amsterdam and Rotterdam season com.~s t.h.~r-:! fint and then moves Even the growers have finally admitted Mexico may legally work in the struck ;,witched to reserve water supplies. En- that the boycott is successful. They are north through thf~ suml.ll.~r. fields. ,dosulvau is a d~'r'i "11',1'," of nerve gas, 200 workers walked out on May 28. sueing the Union for $25,000,000 dam "It looks as if, in addition to fighting manufadJr,~d by a German chemical firm ages, the amount they claim they have Organizf.. rs from Delano and Coachella the im mensely powerfUl grOwt!rs, we will ...that produced poison gas for the Nazis. had begun preparing in March. By April lost from the boycott. After arguing for alsCl be fighting the Federal and state It ,i~ extensiv'~ly u5.~dO!l crops in Cal 4 years that there was no strike, and an organizer reported, "We really know governme!lts,~ corn mented the farmwork ifornia. the area, th,? growers, th,e vineyards,. for 2 years that the boycott was inef er newspaper EL MALCRIADO. So importaut is this to the union that fective, their backs are against the wall. almo..t row by row. We are ready on Senator George Murphy has proposed negotiations were broken off in Coachella the legal front. And the workers are The union replied by demanding that slave-labor legislation 1.1 congress, His each grower submit detailed statements ,ready, more ready than ew!r bdor-:!, "Consum€r Food Protection Act" would and organized and prepared to do what lias to be done." There are four types of workers in Coachella. The largest group are local workers, who live there year round. They are the backbone of the union and led the strike in 1968 which was broken by the growers and police. The second group are the Filipinos. In 1968 they were not solidly for the strike. This year they were organized and among the most militant. The Fil ipinos at Badgasarian Camp #2 led a sit-in of 37 workers at the camp of Mike Bozick, leader of the Desert GrapeGrow ers League. Bozick called the cops and
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PAGE 4 THE MOVEMENT SEPTEMBER 196! I /
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cleared the camp. arresting three of the Filipino leaders, 'who now face the pos sihility of several years in jail, When negotiations hegan, Dolores Hu erta gave special credit to the militant Filipinos. "Their courage, their actions, may have heen the final straw that scared the growers into opening discussions," A strike hanner calls for farmworkers to emulate BagdasarIan #2. The third group arf' the unorgani:i.erl migrants who Iive in the camp and are easily intimidated. This year many of them lost their fear and joined the strike. The fourth group broke the strike last year--the Green Carders, temporary workers shipped over each day from'l\1ex iel!. At least half of the Green Carders, Chavez said, are not proletarians in Mex ico. They are small farmers, cabdrivers, hal' owners, small businessmen, In Amer ica they are peasant-workers, but t!I"y i,!entil'y more dosely wit.h the growers and contractors than they do with the farm workers, They come t.o Arneriea, earn $10 a day, and hire two guys in Mexico to take (:are of their business at home for $1 a day and make what is to them a big profit. They are a counter force to worker organizing. If the Lahor Depc,rtment certified the strike, the growers could not hire Gn'en Carders to break it. But the Departrn"]Jt. refused. The Regional Director of the Labor Department told a union lawyer that "orders from Washington" forbade him from investigating or certifying the strike. In Ohio and Michigan striking farm workers have just signed a contract for a union shop, hiring hall and wage in creases. In Arizona the strike was lost., but the workers are optomistic about next year. Arizona, a "right -to-work"' state will be one of the hardest. to organize.
THE FUTURE
It is possible to hurt the gr?wers badl}' at thp point. of produetion, They were smashed in Coachella. $3-4 million dol lars worth of grapes were lell on the vines to rot, Several of the growers may go bankrupt. As the season moves north, so do .... the strikes, The workprs nf>ar Bakprs (l) .D.... 'field, California are on strike! now at :::s the old DiGiorgio Raneh. (DiGiorgio sold .c:,... all its grape fields to S, A, Camp, who .D refus(~d t.o recognize the Di Giwgio o i=O farmworker contrad). St.rikes will prob >, ably take place' in Delano and Fresno,- .D Mf>anwhile, grape production and pro-' 2 o fits are plunging. Lugs (22 pound boxes) ..c of grapes' that sold for $10 last year, 0- ,.,dl for $6 this year. As of Junp 6, I total comhined rail and truck deliver ies of grapes to the 41 major ('Hies of North America came t.o 71 ear lots, compared to 209 last year. The boycott is training and dewlop ing young leaders who will r('turn to Delano after thp boycott is ovpr. Sp(' ondary leadprship and militancy arp ris ing from thp struggles in thp fields. view from the top Nueleusps of farmwork c'omrnittpps an-' By Thorstein Smith what his boss spends for lunell. This is it \\'ill r'eceive in U,S, money $197 springing up around thp ('ountry, ready production \\'orkl'rs- - the average retail Financial brains in thp Estahlish million over twelve years, at 60/c in to moyp when thpy have gathpred thpir workl'r scrapes along at about $/5 per terest for the unpaid balances, tax strength, ment are busy on a balancing ;;l('t bp week, barely above the poverty line, and free. The rest will be turned over .* ... *.+* .... -.:* twpen inflation on the onl' hand, and then' art' 8 million of t.hem. Yet in gradually in a similar way, up to 1981. controls on the p('onomy which risk 1966 the Lalxlr Department said it took The - stock dropped because investors Farttlworkers remain in a peculiar running us into a re('ession on the $9 .. 191 for anavpragecityfamilyoffourto think this deal will erode Anaconda's position in thp American pconomy, The other, But.. as the WALL ST.JOUH!\AL fpudal-industrial systPlll thpy are fight maintain a "moe!l'rate" standard of liv earnings, !\ow if you were getting 6% points out, that issup has already been ing--that's about 82,000 more than the ing is dppply imbpddpd in ihe hourgeois spttled for the averagp American work per yeaI' tax free you'd have to be avpragp SKILLED \\'orker makes, and holding municipal bonds of something, industrial state and pxprcises political er--his purchasing powpr is at rp be~'ond he's thp aristocrat of thp working' class. or making 10'( before taxes. Your friend powpr far its domain, Merely cession levPl now evpn though his dollar ~ow ll't's look at the myth that the ly neighborhood savings and loan will to attain thp status of "avpragp" workers, incomf' is prptty near an all-tinH' high. community and statl' colleges an' when> give you, maybe, 5 1/2 ~( , taxable. the farmworkprs will havp to smash According to the Lalxlr Dppartnwnt. av certain feudal institutions. such as thp you gpt to talk t.o the children of the Your earnings should only" erode" that erage income of a nonsupprvisory \\'orkp I' contrac'tor system, which now procures working class. TIll' averagl' state univ way, in private industry with three dpppn ersity now costs 82,000 a year-- it. fol and ovprseps farm labor for tllP growprs. dents -- our ,·typical" worker -- was ThC' Dplano lllOvpmpnt will not gu the 100\'s, then, that Ipss than one-fourth ***** $112.13 per wepk last ,\pril: but his pur of all high school graduates who are tradC' union routp. Thpy havp rpfused all chasing' power was only $,'/.62 aftpr working-class enter colll'ge, \\'orking That "average production worker", ol'fprs of growers to recognizp "grapC' taxes and inflation. which is $2.24 Ipss class kids do tlwir junior year abroad of course, has no savings to earn 51/2% workprs' locals" and insist on "onp big than a year, ago, and a dollar It'ss union" of farm workprs, Pan'd and as membel'S of tlH' a rnH'd forces. It or anything else. He borrows, at about than it was four ~'C'ars agO, Top brass. squp,'zpd by nwdlanization. thp union should also be rempml1l'n'd t.hat 80", 7'" if his credit is any good, to own on thp other hand. is l1laking l1lon' every of t1w poor an' white, and most work his own home, Unfortunately this is that rpmains 10 years from now may year--G,:\l 's top officprs and diredors be a skillpd union in the AFL main full-time. . getting harder and harder since the got $I7,739.S00 last year in salaries. \\hile it is important to rpnH'mber Establishment insists on raising interest strl'am, But thl's" an' not a vC'ragC' Am feps. bonuses a:lll stock c[pdits. up 19', eriean workers: their cla,5s and national that thl' proportion of blue-collar work rates, so that' fewer homes are being over tllP prpvious ye3 r. l' ers is going dO\\'I1. it's still in t.hp fac built. In a period of increasing housing backgTound forbids it, Thei pntrancC' This crunch on the a vt'ragl' worker tory that you spp working-class kids, shortages, volume of home-building has into thp org',mized working class will is l'pf!('c.t"d inlarg,'r nUlnbprs ot working' change the nature of that rlass and its not at collegp. True, then' are about dropped one-fourth since January. Funny wives (up IS- 20', in job- sepking OWl' last organi zations. (j 1/2 million collegp kids now. and thing is that the guy who is least able year),moonlighting.and ,'ven som" shol't They havp bpen fore'pd by t1lPir uniqup iI1cr,>asin[.;' all thl' time, l3ut then' arp to find housing at prices he can afford agps of jobs for coll,'[.;'p graduates. rural and fpudal condition to sppk thl' 2:;0,000 \\'orkprs 30 or und,'r in the is also going to get laid off first be ,\ vpragp ch'rical workprs, intprest aid of Dpl1locratic Farty forces in order big thr"p in auto alone, ane! 600,000 in cause people aren't building homes. ingl)' pnough, don't do as \\'pll as indus to su!'Vi VP. l3ut they a rp pa rt pI' tllP thE' \\'holp L\\\' alone (about 300,000 'you figure it out. trial workprs: in a surn'y of 6,01/ Third \Vorld and ,\merica cannot C'sc:app an' undpr 25). ,\bout ;; million trade On the other hand, you can buy a "se companies .. thl'ir
KICK THE ASS OF THE RULING CLASS The leading imperialists of the world plan to meet in San Francisco in September to formulate plans to tighten their stranglehold on the throats of the people. The people have other ideas. During the week of September 15-19, 500 corpor Black Panther Party in particular, have escalated and ate leaders from over sixty countries will meet for the intensified tremendously. Witness Huey P. Newton, Fourth International Industrial Conference (lIC). At Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Hutton, Bunchy Carter, the meetings, high level executives plan to discuss the Fred Hampton and the Chicago 16, the New York problems and techniques of the international expan Panther 21 and Ericka Huggens-. The ruling class has sion of multinational corporations. made it clear that they intend to crush the Panther Although the Conference's theme is "Closing the Party, as they will try to crush anyone or anything World's Income Gap," Conference sessions will deal that threatens to stop their attempt to continue to with such topics as "coordinating the development rule the world. efforts of private business and governments," "im proving the public image of private enterprise," "ob FIGHT REPRESSION stacles to foreign investment," "safeguarding inter WITH INCREASED STRUGGLE national investments," and "developing feasible alter natives to free collective bargaining and strikes." We are returning to Chicago to make it absolutely lIC policy board members include David Rocke clear that the only way to fight repression is to esca feller (general chairman of IIC); John H. Loudon, late the struggle against the system that created that chairman of Royal Dutch Shell; Roger Blough, chair repression. Any attempt to slacken off, or hold down man of the Board of Directors of US Steel; and many the level of struggle for fear of reprisals from the rul of the other controllers of International Big Business. ing class will merely communicate to the people, and A number of organizations including the Brown to the ruling class, thorough weakness and lack of Berets, the Red Guard,the Asian- American Political seriousness on the part of the movement. The effect Alliance, Los Siete de la Raza and SDS and affiliated of that perception of weakness would be infinitelv organizations will demonstrate to the Super Pigs that San Francisco will not be used to plan the further plunder of the world, while the international crimi nals sit around gazing serenely at the Bay Bridge and playing grab-ass with the topless dancers. General mobilizations are planned to meet the Japanese fleet on September 5th and Spiro Agnew on the 9th. Activities specifically around the IIC will take place on the 15th, when the Conference begins. People will hold a rousing welcome for Superpig more dangerous than the risks we now take-and will Nixon when he arrives on September 18th. have to take more and more in the future-against the In organizing around the Conference, we will em repressive apparatus of the state. phasize the connection between the policies of global We are returning to Chicago to re-affirm the issues imperialism carried out by the corporations and local that brought us to Chicago la&t summer-the war, repression and economic exploitation. This will be racism, the bankruptcy of the system-and to expand especially apparent here in Wall Street West, where Third World people are being driven from their homes . on those issues and up the ante against the ruling to make way for expansion of the home offices of class. We will take action not only against the Viet those imperialist forces reaching out from San Fran , nam war, but against the. whole imperialist system cisco into the Pacific. that made the war a necessity. We will take action not No more ruling class conferences in San Fran only for immediate withdrawal of US troops, but in cisco ... or anywhere! Power to the People! ~ support of the heroic fight of the Vietnamese people and oppressed people everywhere-and in support of the National Liberation Front and the' Provisional PAGE 6 THE MOVEMENT ~EPTEMBER 1969 / ------
J .I
I I / / , 'j ~ ',... 4 •
A LETTER FROM SISTER ERICKA HUGGINS
I will waste very few words have changed. j hope that many to drive the working class- ners of Connecticut and Colorado of my own because Ericka said minds are open to what. is hap the working class must drive the looks vague at this point. But in just about anything there is to say pening. I know that many ea rs unions. Our fight must be endless times of difficulty we cannot lose regarding the fascist treatment, have been listening to the foul to organize the workers of this sight of our achievements. We must not only of herself but of all the utterances that America spits out country, to overhaul and change see the bright future for the peo political prisoners. This was writ at the world. \\'e have Iistl'ned every assembly line in every fac ple and pick up our courage. We ten in prison on July 8 of this yea r, too long and the hite·h. her mouth tory. We cannot allow medical ser realize that there are people that reeking of death says, "We ha ve vices in our commuilities to re support us and that however lon~ "Lon!!" live the United Front A thoroughly oppress('d our people main inadequate. \\'e need more we remain here, we serve as a gainst Fascism! Down with the re at home. We are. succeeding at hospitals, more doctors, more catalystic agent to move the peo actionaries of all kinds I keeping the people of Yietnam in nurses, and less insistance on ple forward. 1'm trying to speak It is Impossible to say what I a state of decay, We are tramping medicinal genocide or birth con for all of us; for Landon Williams feel now. It would take too long on Africa. We are destroying trol. We cannot allow the reform and Rory Hithe, who were rammed and the state doesll't offer enough South America. making bigger and ists to clean up the surface into a hole with no food; for Rose paper. But because none of us can better alliances with Hussia. \\'e while the inner structure rots. We Smith who will bear a child in be with you, I will try. I can ha ve only to wait for 1\1 ao to need a revolution! All of our December, for the isolated poli envision as I write the people that die, and we will be the world thoughts, each of our actions, tical prisoners and for the other will hear this. I can sl'e their power. And then we will place our should lead us to one goal: the prisoners in Connecticut, I cannot faces. I can feel their warmth. murder on the moon." emptying of the shit that fills the say what they feel, but I know they The warmth that comradl's often America is plotting universal bowels of this country. \Ve can no want to be with the people. I know ha ve for each other. I can also imperialism. It wlll be the same longer allow the senselessness of that their nights are sleepless like see the faces of some who always everywhere. First Coca Cola then anarchy and arbitrary destruction. mine art> because they wanttotake appear among the people- - the wor Oscar I\leyer Weiner and then, We need no morf' impulsive, op their places on thp streetswith the ried, empty, brutal faces of the the troops. (applause) The people portullistic, movements, groups or people. I know the New York 21 agents of fascism, Worried want to be with you. I know that cannot take this. \\'e cannot allow political parties that endure on ~ because they know that people, fascist fanatics to continue to de socialistic rhetoric. \\'e need so Huey, the Chicago 16 and all other 0- poor people, oppressed peoplp, ga prive us of our human rights. \\'e cialism in practice: (applause) For political prisoners long to be there. '"0- thered together for one reason: must organize and form an ever example, SDS regUlars, and PL in I know Papa misses America's ~ To analyze the conditions of the lasting l'nited Front against ca fighting. We nepl! people of all congested streets. But we are there (l) Z oppression and wipe it out. Empty pitalism, against imperialism, a colors, who realize the Yanguard in spirit and revolutionary agree ment. We only ask that you rea ~ because they have no fet'ling for gainst class distinction, against of the peoples' revolutionary camp ~ the masses of people, for the souls racism, against fascism. (ap must be the most oppressed, those lize who your real friends and your of revolutionaries we ha ve lost, plause) real enemies are~ We must draw § who always rely on action through ~ a clear line of demarcation be for the starving lJabies of this We cannot .lllow concessions tested and proven theory. We must ~ country and the world. And brutal frulll the fedft,<)._L.government for allow no backsliders, liberals, tween the oppressors ,and the op because they will fight to the last the continual harassments and un chauvinist renegades, provocateur pressed, between the imperialists p:i'" and the internationalists, between (l) ditch to destroy the revolutiona ry warranted brutality of the people, agents to cause confusion in our ~ fervor of the people. They all con We cannot allow our children be ranks. And - on the other hand, the pigs and the people. Who .sits .... tinue to run back, oinking to the op next to you? e lhl'y Black, i\lexican, Indian, Ja we ha ve no need for dogmatism o pressors about the peoples' plans panl'se, Chinese or White to be and coercive force. We need unity All Power to the People SEPTEMBER 1969 THE MOVEMENT PAGE PANTHER WOMEN: The Blaek Panther Party does without men, Movement organizations have always been not have any program that is specifically addressed dominated by men. the way civil rights organizations to women, per s~~. There is, on the National Com used to be dominated by white ppople. mittees to Combat Facism, a committee on the nation PANTHER WOMEN:I don't know, that sounds illogical al steering corn mittee oi womE'n. But the primary to me because you can·t solve the problem apart from function of this committee is to channel those women the problem. You can·t be liberated from male chau PANTHER who are proponents of women's liberation into areas vinism if you don't even dpal with it- -if you run away of work integrated into the liiJeration movement. from it. And I think forming any separate organization with that in mind is negating or contradicting what you're setting out to do. I think any type of inside Even though the Panther Party doesn't have a organization that deals with women's liberation should SISTERS women's program per se, (I don't know whether we take into consideration that women's liberation is im will in the future or not) I think we realize that the portant, but what is primary is the People's liberation. best effort is thru practice and that our liberation is If they want a women's club. those have existed for gonna corne thru the realization on the part of the centuries- -they should form that, instead of calling CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PA&E brothers that they can't practice male chauvinism, themselves revolutionaries. but even more important, it comes from a conseious effort on the part of the sisters to educate themselves •MOVEMENT: One of the arguments that's been made and not to accept menial positions or relegate them .is that the movement has failed to attract a lot of selves to submissive positions. The brothers can be women because of thechauvinism within thp movement back because of this. This is one reason why the non-chauvinistic as much as they want, but unless the and because of the intimidation that's found in a lot revolutionary practitioners, because of theTepression sisters realize that they have to aecept an equal of political organizations. We fail to attract the other we're suffering, can't take time out to go off by our position or act as a revolutionary, then this isn't half because men dominate, Women have to get together selves to solve some of our backwardness. Thiswould going to do any good. So I think the best criterion to talk about their special problems ln order to lnvolve be just another dividing tactic as far as I can see. for that is practice. more women in the struggle. PANTHER WOMEN: I think our judgment of caucuses, WOME~'S LIBERATION IN PRACTICE just like independent groups, is going to have to depend on whether or not they foward the revolutionary move In addition to that-- simply because of the fact that ment in the end. I mean if their purpose for caucusing I think it's important to recognize the dangers we are members of the Black Panther Party and are among themselves is to make a more efficient organi that separate women's groups face immediately, just therefore in the vanguard, does not necessarily mean zation and if they. in fact, are able to do that thru because they're women's groups and there's a good that we can deem ourselVf>S ehampions of women's their practice, then Right On. But if they fall into a chance that they're going to get off base in terms of liberation. We believe that male chauvinism must be trap of just getting by themselves and just complaining what the primary struggle is. However, I think we stomped out, because we have corne to realize that about the situation and arp unable to put forth a have to be very careful in terms of condemning it is bourgeois, Bourgeois ideas are those whieh are positive program, then that form is not viable. Again, forms that are used in the movement. I think that perpetuated upon us by the bourgeois class and is thei r practice is going to have to tell--whether or not there is room for special organizing of women. something we're fighting against. But because we've they further the revolutionary organization PERIOD. There are positiTe things that these kinds of groups come to realize all these things just recently. we're -can do: for example, canneries, special plants where very new at it. So that whether or not we wlll bf'come there's primarily women, electronics and this sort of champions of women's liberation, whether or not we'll ROLE FOR ADVANCED WOMEN thing in terms of working class organizing, in terms be able to provide the example to lead other organi of organizing cooperative nurseries to liberate the zations towards women's liberation will comf> thru our energies of women. practice. Alsv for a person to use the argument that the But, they are always facing certain dangers in terms struggle does not ATTRACT women to the organization, of turning in on themselves, in terms of becoming a WOMEN'S CA UCUSES I think, is eoming from a sUbjective point of view. Be very petit bourgeois little clique where they just talk cause if they understand that it's not a women's or about how they have to take care ofthe kids all the time MOVEMENT: What do you think about all women's a man's struggle, it's not an attraction for a man or {)r become a gripe session. So,I think,while we as Pan caucuses inside thp organization? Some peoplp say .1 woman, but we're here for the liberation of opprE:'S thers, while we integrate the struggle of the brothers that within movement organizations therp's male sed people, irregardless of whether male chauvinism and sisters within the Party, we still will see how these chauvinism and women must deal with it from a pos exists, the women would still corne' into the Party or separate women's liberation groups do thru their ition of power. so they should organize their own movement because they agree or are willing to support practice. And that's where our judgment of them will caucuses. They also say there's a parallel between the revolutionary principles that exist. Ifthey find male corne in. women's liberation and black liberation and just like chauvinism, they should be willing to fight it on the black people had to get themselves together without basis of principle and unity. And to say, "they're not We have a phrase that says that the only culture whites first, so women ha ve to get themselves to!!ether attracted to it" - -there's no advertisementfor getting worth keeping is a revolutionary culture. Now, our rid ofoppression. It's an attraction based on principles, culture dictates that we become revolutionaries, Ir not based on some subjpctive wishes or wants. So 1 regardless of what the brothers say, like Rosemary say that women who say that they don't want to corne says, we should function in a position that furthers into the struggle because they're not ATTRACTED to revolution and revolutionary culture. The women's the struggle aren't really interested in thp first place. liberat~on groups tbat are separating away from the MOVEMENT:No, they say the movempnt doesn't men (1 think Roberta said there is some room for deal with their special oppression. them, and we can't· vacillate on whether there is or PANTHER WOMEN: Well, that may be true, but still, not, we have to judge them on their practice) should if you're interested in the struggle of oppressed people, take into consideration that we're here to liberate you can come into an organization and bring that the people and like we said, it's a socialist liberation question in yourself, instead of staying away from it. struggle and we can't operate as halves. You can fight on the basis of unity within an organiza If women's liberation is going to eXist, it should tion, not on the basis of,"wpll.they're not dealing with exist with the goal in mind to channel the energies the women's question and they're not dealing with the they liberate into a united liberation of the men and special oppression of wompn, so therefore 1'm not women ··together - -not as a bourgeois cult, because going to participate". They're still being subjective, this has happened many times. They' ve become ex tremist organizations of female superiority and have totally forgottenl about lhe people's struggles and Well, I think that's one place where women who are oppressed people and have, themselves become op already advanced are going to have to takE' a strong pressors. stand. The fact is because of objective ('onditions in this society wompn are more backwards, because of PANTHER PROGRAMS their positions in their home, or in school, even working women who are more exposed to what's hal?' MOVEMENT: Do the Panthers have any specific penning in the world, are still relegated at horne and programs directed at women in the community to get to the family jobs to the children, etc, etc, and their them involved in the struggle. perspective in terms of the world is morE' limitpd. So it's very important that women who arp more advanced, who alrf'ady understand revolutionary principles, go to them and explain it to them and struggle with them. We have to recognize that women are backwards pol itically and we have to struggle with them. And that can be a special role that revolutionary wonwn can play. SEPTEMBER 1969 4C~UBA' This song and the leaflet printed on this page A~~:::; H'" 'rec~ui~~~~.t~~~ o~ 0 ,""",11 if" ::':::i::,rt Arreri ca were used in demonstrations against Rocke feller's arrival back from his "Fact Finding" de'" • 0"' ,,,deo' re fi0 " PUBLI C."" "'" nstrator~killed c:.. ~ fIIII"YDOMINICAN blowoRE ",:" St,"d"d Oil tour through Latin America, in New York at Kennedy Airport. The song is to be sung to the tune by Brecht-Weill from Three Penny COSTA RICA' 2000 stUde~ts Opera, "Kanonensong." The English text of delOOnstrated VENEZUELA: students seized ,uni vers ity buildi ngs ...street· the song begins, "Let's all go barmy, let's join ~ fighting with small arms and the army ..." etc. PANAMA' n . .- rocks ...Rocky's visit cancelled due to nationwide protests. PO d"'Y ~,""d Rocky! ''% the people hate you. COLOMBIA'special ~e 20~000-man tried to c~ur, ty force Rocky! stri kes and n~rol student they'll expropriate you fi ghti ng. eavy street ~ from Argentina to New York. 1 They'll take your Standard Oil, ECUADOR: ten striking BRAZIL: thousands of people your Chase Manhattan Bank, . ~. arrested to prevent demonstrations students killed by c.~'.'~"'.'. ·-;'0-·~ all of your wealth and powers, ....\...'.""" ...press censorship eliminates police ••.Rocky's car protected by teargas showers. nearly overturned. anti-U.S. articles. The people now prepare themselves Your end is near. Rocky! the people rise up. Rocky! they soon will crush you from Saigon to Harlem. BOLIVIA: 22-hour visit cut short to three hours in the They'll take off Duvalier, airport under heavy Quard. Thieu, Ky, Ongania, Nixon and all the others who murder our brothers. PARAGUAY: Rocky embraced by dictator Stroessner, We'll fight, we'll strike, we'llsmash your might. while delOOnstrators burned The People Will Win!!! U.S. flag. RUGUAY: General Motors plant burned down -- $1,000.000 loss •.. Rocky's visit moved to Punta del Este under tight security. CHILE: nationwide strikes and demonstrations forced government to cancel Rocky's visit. ' ARGENTINA: Nine Rockefeller-owned supermarkets bombed and burned - $3,000,000 loss.nationwide labor strike..•one student delOOnstrator killed by police ... tear gas used to disperse crowds of people ANOTHER DAY Two men fight hand to hand In the light Of early dawn, as around them - Once .again the long arms of An occupying army FASCISM bave stretcbed forth to Is defeated ensnare a revolutionaryftghterlD to the cesspool known as the Qak land pig ja1l. Cbar1es Bursey, our A man runs down the street comrade in the struggle for the In the black people's liberation, is now fae1nC a life sentenee for allejed1y at- "" Of ghetto night, and is murdered tempting to murder a pig duringthe By a cop, as around them "ambusb" of Pantbel"son AprU 6. of last_>.'.e~. . Businesses burst into flame. The pip are OD a fast-paeed" time sebedule to totally obliterate the Panther Party. Its leadersbip A child cries of hunger and members be<1&US8 they fear In the black and white the rising politieal awareness and ~rganization among the masses. Of day and night Cbarles Bursey Is one of the many His parents broken brothers and sisterswbo have been tbe vietims of attempts of system.. While a few can eat their fill. atie genocide. OUr M1n1ster of Information,'· A man and woman make love Eldridge Cleaver stated, comlne out of the ambush in AprU of 1ut But afterward year--"the pip tried to ldll me. Must ask themselves what they can do "Jut Wte they ldUed LU' BobbyaDd only the people sbouttnc stopped" To make this world them." Tbe plcs, d1ssat1sfled 01; Fit for their children. not baViDc the OPPOrtunity tot1D1sb our eomrades off In the street., are noW bent" on exhausting alf Also meaDS to destroy them in their . Today so-called "courts." To set up a kangaroo eourt, judge, old-wblte, They shot decrepit jury Is notbtng aecordtne A rocket to their perverted sense of law, order, aDd justiee. To the moon. . Reprinted from the. J3LACK PANTHER: .sEPTEMBER 1969 THE MOVEMENT PAGE 11 I (, ) ::~::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::E::::::::::::::E:E:E::::::::::E:E:E:E::::::::::E:E:E:E:E::::::E:E:E:E:E:E::::::::~E:E:E:E:::~:::E:E:E:E:E:E:i:;:~;E{::fr;~::,:.::;1:;:r:E:E:~ ~j ~~wJf~··· ::: ~~._;:~ U: :: . ;:~ ...... _·~J~vnllm~l!:~1L\l3L.~l!l!Jlj ..U. L\J .. ;E;E=E:E:E:::::;::E;E:E:E:E:::::;:;E;::::E:E:::;:;E;E:E:E:E:E:::;:;::E:E:E:E:E:E:;:;::E;E:::E:E:::;:::;::::::::::::::;:::::=::E:E:E:::::;E:::::::::::;:;::::::E:E:E:;:;:;::E:E:::::::;::::::::E:::::;:;:;::::E:;:; By Ernest O'Shea Ireland was the first European nation to fight a war of national liberation against imperialism. The Irish Citizens Army, organized by James Connolly, was the "first Red Army in modern Europe," according to Lenin. Ireland has paid a terrible price for its The police state is legalized in the 800 years of foreign oppression and Special Powers Act of 1922, passed by national resistance. It is a partitioned the British Parliament. It gives the pup- country. The North (also called Ulster, pet government the right to. arrest with- the Six Counties, or Occupied Ireland) out warrant, imprison without charge or is united politically with England and trial, enter and search homes without a occupied militarily by British troops. warrant, deny trial by jury, prohibit the It is ruled by the British Parliament- circulation of any newspaper, and arrest certain lesser powers (housing, justice a person who does anything "calculated and local government) being delegated to be prejudicial to the preservation of to the Northern government in Stor- peace or maintenance of order in North- mont. ern Ireland." THE COLONIZED NORTH THE SOUTH Economically, the North is a British The South, (the 26 Counties, the colony. It produces I /3 of Britain's Republic of Ireland) is a neo-colony of bacon, 20% of Britain's shirts. Harland Britain. It was given formal political and Wolff Ltd. is the North's largest independence in 1921, after a two-year employer; they build missiles, ships and guerrilla war. And like most formal cranes; their largest stoc\<.holder is Aris agreements, this one meant little. Irish totle Onassis. farmers are forced to sell food to Eng Since 1945, American industry has land at or below cost. Almost all the moved into the North-Dupont, Mon- large private enterprise companies in the Irish Liberation. The present "civil rights" movement . santo, IT&T, Ford, Goodyear ... to the South are either all or mostly controlled A CENTURY LATER is based on these radical students, the tune of $200 million in investments. by British and other foreign companies. discontented Catholic middle class and Were England to have to pay Northern The wealth produced' by Irish labor is James Connolly, socialist, trade union the misery of the Catholic poor. In Ireland for all it now gets, it would sent overseas, and the economy is ruled organizer, and friend of Lenin, brought February, .I 968, the Derry Housing break her. by people who have British profit, not a socialist revolutionary framework to Action Committee began a direct action Politically, the North is a police the Irish people, at heart. the Irish struggle in the early years of campaign of rent strikes and disruption state. The Stormont puppet government Where there is economic dependence. the 20th century. Revolutionary poten of city council meetings. Forced by in is controlled by a Protestant society there is also political dependence. The tial returned. British imperialism was in creased grass-roots pressure, the North known as the Loyal Orange Order, a South's foreign policy tags along after crisis during the First World War; the ern Ireland Civil Rights Association labor union movement, based around fascist, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic clique England. When it comes to voting in the (NICRA), a liberal group formed a year UN on the colonial struggles of the Connolly's Transport Union, was devel earlier, decided to begin demonstrations. of perhaps 100,000 members, which oping into an armed revolutionary force. world, Ireland, once the lead~r of the A In Augu~t, the first, m.arch to Dun founded the ruling Unionist Party. But the Easter Rising of 1916 failed; Law and Order are maintained by national liberation movement, imitates gannon, the scene of an earlier housing Connolly was killed. protest, was stopped by a police barri the British Army, the' Royal Ulster its imperialist masters. The Six counties of the North are the When the Treaty was signed, dividing cade. The second march went to Derry Constabulary and two recently formed Ireland north and south, civil war broke groups, the Ulster Protestant Volunteers most impoverished section of the United in October and initiated a police riot. Kingdom. The 26 counties of the South out in the South between pro- and anti The Royal Ulster Constabulary ram and the B-Specials. The Volunteers are a Treaty Republicans. The anti-Treaty Re 10,00D-man vigilante group organized are a wagging tail to British imperialism. paged through the Catholic ghetto, beat by the "Reverend" Ian Paisley. Based on How did this come to pass? publicans rejected the Treaty because it ing workers and smashing into their ~ did not free Ireland at all: it gave South homes. Barricades were set up in the the sons of the petite-bourgeoisie, it THE TARNISHED GOLD fails to be a full-fledged fascist move ern Ireland dominion status inside the streets and the people held out for three ment only because it does not have the The "Golden Age" of Ireland flow Empire and Northern Ireland the right days until armored cars were brought in support of large capital. It does have an ered during Europe's Dark Ages. Society to secede from the South, which it did. to smash the barricades. enormous effect on the politics of the was based on the communal ownership The anti-Treaty wing of the Irish In January, a student march from business class. of land. Called the Clan system, society Republican Army failed to identify Belfast triggered. another insurrection. The B-Specials is a voluntary, govern was decentralized and cooperative. Ac itself with the social and economic The people of Derry defended them ment-sponsored militia, 10,000 strong,' cording to James Connally, "the Irish needs of the people. As a result, the selves with barricades and molotov cock armed and trained by the police. It chief in reality held his position on the labor movement remained neutral and tails. "For a few days, Bogside in Derry draws from the same Protestant, petit sufferance of his people, while the land the Free State (Dominion Ireland) was became a liberated zone, off limits to bourgeois and de-classed elements as the or territory of the clan was entirely re able to crush it militarily-with the help the Unionist State; workers erected Paisleyites. moved from his private jurisdiction." of England. barricades, created their own militia, their own general assembly, their own The clan system was forcibly de THE PRESENT stroyed by the British under Oliver radio station, declared themselves a free Cromwell in 1649 and replaced by a The Unionist Party has ruled North city. Further militant demonstrations system of British-controlled plantations. ern Ireland continuously for fifty years and occupations occurred in Newry The oppressors were foreign and protes by welding together the landowners, the where the armored transport of the tant; the cause of Irish independence industrial bourgeoisie, the urban petite police was captured and destroyed by became identified with Catholicism. bourgeoisie, the working class and the local militants. Within three or four Tens of thousands of British protestants peasantry. According to Peter Gibbon in months, the Civil Rights movement had were given land in Northern Ireland, ex New Left Review, "This bloc has his shattered the whole equilibrium of Ul pelling the native Irish peasantry, who torically been led by the landowning ster society and unleashed multiple con became laborers on the land they once class. It has been united by the ideology tradictions within it. There has been a had owned, or became outlaws in the of Protestantism. It has been integrated permanent political crisis ever since." mountains and forests. by the institutions of the Orange Order." (Peter Gibbon). The more far-sighted Irishmen under Thus it has controlled class struggle CRISIS IN COLONIALISM stood that the landlord system was the in the North. It is far to the right of the British Conservative Party in its anti The Unionist machine was breaking enemy of Protestant and Catholic alike. up. Prime Minister Terence O'Neill In fact, the early rebel leaders Wolfe worker policies; it considers trade unions Tone and Robert Emmett were both anti-Unionist because they contain, of called for special elections as a vote of Protestants. Tone in the 1790's rejected course, Unionists, Nationalists, Republi confidence. Instead, he created a situa Catholic- landlord leadership of the cans, Socialists and Communists. tion where the radical wing of the civil rights movement could clarify its differ movem-ent, declaring, "Our freedom The opposition to the Unionist Party ences with the Nationalists and the lib must be had at all hazards. If the men of is not much better. The Nationalist property will not help us they must fall; erals and carry a positive program to the " Party has not changed its policies in people. we will free ourselves by the aid of that eighty years. "Its politics are clerical large and respectable class of the com conservatism, its social base the Catholic The group that took this initiative munity-the men of no property." landowners, tenant farmers and sections was People's Democracy, a student The peasant rising of 1798, based on of the agricultural proletariat." It has based radical socialist organization. The the landless peasantry and led by Tone's controlled and limited any serious dis PD platform attacked gerrymandering secret revolutionary organization, the content on the part of the Catholic and deprivation of voting rights, called for the repeal of the Special Powers Act \... United Irishmen, failed, depending on work ing class. and the disbanding of the B-Specials. It its armed support from the French, THE NEW IRISH REVOLUTION which did not come through. Tone was also called for democratic control of murdered by the British, thousands The revolt began with the students at public housing by tenants' councils, a were murdered and exiled to penal colo Queens University in Belfast. Middle crash program of new housing, cancella nies in Australia and New Zealand.. class and petit-bourgeois, separated from tion of all Housing Trust debts to the central banks, an end to incentives to "We must replace the names of Cath their religious and cultural backgrounds, olic, Protestant and Dissenter with the agitated by the world-wide student re common name of Irishman," Tone had volts of 1968, they became quickly declared. These words remain the key to radicalized. -~ PAGE 12 THE MOVEMENT SEPTEMBER 1969 "-/ SOSTRE in SOLITARY Shortly before the midnight gestapo raid on the By Gerald Gross, chairman, evening of July 14, 1967, Sostre had told me and Buffalo chapter of YAWF other friends that his store was under police sur veillance from across the street. Earlier in the In a vain attempt to stop the growing Black year, FBI agents and some of the local gumshoe pigs on the Buffalo Red Squad had entered the store liberation struggle in Buffalo, New York, in and demanded that Sostre stop selling" Black hate 1967 the ruling class engineered the frame-up literature" or they would "take care" of him(frame him). of Martin G. Sostre, owner of the revolution Shortly after the arrest, Police Commissioner ary Afro-Asian Bookshops in the black ghetto, Felicetta suddenly appeared before HUAC and im plied that ";'vlartin X" (Sostre had becom,' a C'vluslim on trumped-up riot, arson, narcotics and as in Attica Prison where he spent twelve years, four sault chare:es. in solitary confinement, and was "educated" like In a "Buffalo-Mississippi" style kangaroo inquest, Malcolm X by the colonial prisons--Sostre broke with Sostre was convicted by an all-white jury and sen the :\Iuslim movement when Malcolm did)was getting tenced to 41 years and thirty days in prison--after narcotics from Red China and Rob Williams. In having been already tried and convicted in the white another appearance before HUAC, Felicetta read press as the "instigator" and" ringleader" of the into the record a list of Chinese Communist and '67 Buffalo Black rebellion. The struggle to free Black I\ationalist books sold by Sostre, leaflets Sostre, who in the opinion of many is the principal supporting Sostre issued by YAWF and the Sostre political prisoner in New York state, has inspirE'd Defense Committee, and submitted photographs of a progressive and revolutionary movement in ultra pro-Sostre demo.1strators (see HU AC pamphlet June reactionary Buffalo. 20, 1968). An extremely backward, heavily industriaUzedcity, with a large East- European catholic working-class COURTS AND JAILS ON TRIAL population, and almost totally lacking in cultural life ordinarily associated with a large metropolis, During his trial, as on those other occasions, Sostre Buffalo has seen very little radicalism since the appeared before the ruling class judge without a law big labor battles of past years. Consequently, when yer. He was always brought to court surrounded by a movement began to develop around two draft re fearful guards, his armS chained around his waist sisters holding "symbolic sanctuary" in a local and his wrists handcuffed. After being unshackled, church it met immediate repression; the Buffalo he would raise clenched fists to his supporters and FBl made a well-coordinated attack and arrested defense committee. nine leading student activists on phoney charges of Sostre, a legal genius in his own right and a assault on federal officers. self-taught expert in Constitutional and International The movement to free the Buffalo Nine has been Law, did most of the legal work for the Attica-Muslim greatly inspired by the heroic example of Martin case. Now he has initiated a legal suit against Nelson Sostre who continues to fight the common class A. Rockefeller, Governor of the State of I\ew York; oppressor despite his being thrown into the "hole" Paul D. l\lcGinnis, Com missioner of Corrections; at Green Have Prison for nearly a year. The struggle Vincent Mancusi, Warden of Attica Prison; and Harold to free political prisoners grew into a mass campus W Follette, Warden of Green Haven Prison. The rebellion culminating in the physical destruction of suit will be heard soon in Foley Square in I\ew York Pentagon" Project Themis" construction buildings. City in the US District Court, Southern District of Recently, this movement has linked up directly with New York. All militants should pay close attention the workers during the South Buffalo Rail Strike. to :his significant case and likely public court ap Workers, locked out by the company, were hit by pearance by Sostre. a court injunction prohibiting strike activity. Upon Upon being convicted for 41 years, Sostre was the worker· rE'quest, student militants picketed in quickly whisked out of Buffalo and thrown into the hole proxy fo r the rail workers at the gates of Bethlehem at Green Haven Prison in Stormville, I\ew York. Steel Plant. Here Sostre has been subjected to inhuman treatment and savage brutality in the hole where he has been for nearly 12 months now. In his legal brief which he THE FRAME-UP prepared from the hole, Sostre says that he was Around midnight on July 14, 1967, poUce smashed put into the hole on the pretext that he was" prac into the premises of the Afro-Asian Bookshop, lo ticing law without a license' when he tried to send cated in the Black ghetto of Buffalo, New York, his appeal attorney, Joan Franklin, a letter. The and arrested Martin G. Sostre and his helper, Mrs. brief is a highly significant document for the Black Geraldine Robinson, a Black mother of five children. liberation struggle because it characterizes the ruling The Black bookstore had been the center of at class prisons as concentration camps for Black tention of high police officials during and shortly people wherein Blacks and Latin Amf'ricans are after the massive uprising in the Black ghetto in treated worse than prisoners of war. Paragraph #31 June, 1967. Many Black youths had sought refuge of Sostre's brief reads as follows: in Martin' s~~~!ore from the billy clubs, tear "The relationship existing between the white racist gas, mace, and vicious police dogs. The bookshop and sadistic guards and officials and the largely was the only disseminator of revolutionary Marxist non-white population of I\ew York State Prisons oriented Black Nationalist literature, art, and music is identical to that which existed between the Nazi in the Western New York {area and had, during guards and the Jewish inmates and which now exists the invasion of the Black community by hundreds between the white guards and the Black victims of armed white police, become a meeting place for of the Black detention camps of Rhodesia and South the Black youth who would rap with Martin about the Africa. Only the last-named victims of vicious correct road to Black liberation and freedom. racist oppression and the Afro-American oppressed When a fire broke out in the Woodlawn Tavern people who are innocent victims oithe similarly vic next door to Martin's bookshop, the racist fire ious American racist society can fully know what department utilized the opportunity for a "book it means to be victimized by sadistic bigots suf watering". They raided and sacked the bookstore, fering from the mental disease of racism; only turning their high-powered hoses on the bookshelves these victims are aware and feel the full signifi that contained the literature that told things the way cance of the ugly curl of the lip accompanying hte they werE'. racist sneer of hatred and contempt..." .~ industrialists, workers' control of all fac tion ot the people who support us least, the small Catholic farmers (one of the Ireland is one nation and has always tories, the transformation of large es but they are a decisive part of the urban most oppressed sectors), the Protestant been. As I write this, the worst fighting tates into cooperative farms, and an end proletariat. Therefore everything de skilled workers in developed areas, the yet has broken out in Derry. British of segregation of Catholic and Protes pends on winning them over." Protestant and Catholic workers in de troops are being moved in. One thing is tant children into parochial and public To do this they must fight the one clining areas who suffer from greater un clear, only a socialist program will unite schools. thing the English and Ulster ruling employment, the unskilled and part the Catholic and Protestant working People's Democracy did not intend classes have been most successful in time unemployed workers, and the classes. And only a socialist revolution, to win the elections, and much to their doing for 300 years, dividing the Irish hard-core unemployed, together with north and south, will unite Ireland once embarrassment they did win one, which along religious lines and integrating the radical student and Republican po again. sent a 22-year-old carpenter's daughter, them across class lines. litical movements. It may be the first in Europe. Bernadette Devlin, to the House of "The idea of revolution," says Ea REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL Commons. monn McCann, PD member, "is not at • • • Ireland is definitely in a pre-revolu all alien to the Irish working class, as it Note: I have drawn heavily for this PD recogn~es that the only solution article on several sources you should to Ireland's subjugation is socialist revo tionary stage. The civil rights movement is to the English, and when one calls for· embodies more revolutionary potential revolution. no matter what one actually read for yourselves, which go into much lution. Its problems are immense. It has greater and better detail: . been submerged in the reformist civil than its American counterpart. because demands there is always a link to Con rights movement (as SNCC was in the the Unionist Party COI/I/Ol give the nolly and to 1916 and the armed up The Rising of the Moon, monthly slightest reforms. Tht: Unionist con rising. " newspaper, c/o Patrick Brennan, 17 United States) and has been unable so Fayette St., Cambridge, Mass. far to unify a socialist policy. sensus is falling apart at the scams along To this. adds Michad Farrell, "Bour class lines. Since it has been the single geois democracy and the national state The Felon, newspaper of the Irish Part of the I'D's dilemma is summed strongest force for class collaboration in American Action Association, 509 7th up by Cyril Toman, 26-year-old I'D are recent developments in Ireland and the North, its weakening releases the their traditions do not run deep, in con Ave., San Francisco, Ca. spokesman: "If we arc gOing to have a possibility of class struggle. socialist rt:public then we have got to trast to the tradition of armed insurrec New Left Review, May-June, 1969 have Protestants in it. Tht:y are the sec- To win, the rt:volution mllst unite tion, of revolution as a means." SEPTEMBER 1969 THE MOVEMENT PAGE 13 ILIOTO Continued sible designed to take minority group members, give them job training, provide counseling, and place them on jobs after their training. Program trainees get their work experience on projects such as Alioto's Mini-Parks and the construction of the' 'impressive" Centro Social Obrero located at 2929 19th St. in San Francisco. The involvement of Local 261 in the program is pervasive. Out of the 119 men originally enrolled, 81 found permanent jobs, and 36 of these were ad mitted to the Local and are on jobs throughout the '" city. In a society which systematically excludes minority group members from decent employment this would appear to be a program in which the liberal community could (and does) take pride. However, the conditions for union membership appear to be undying gratitude and loyalty to the officials. Youth for Service graduates are used a body guards and goons at the meetings and in the hall. At the regular meeting in April, Orville Luster Rudolph lowe, shop steward at the Bethayres Concrete was present as a guest of the officials--uninvited by the membership. According to the by-laws of Products plant, in front of the block machine. the constitution no non-member may be present during a"meeting without a prior vote of the mem bership in attendance. When a rank and file bro- . ther questioned the officials about this disregard for regular procedure he was shouted down by ment with a variety of literature and a lot of hard raises a number of obvious and crucial problems. Bud Johnson and threatened by the goons: the Youth rapping. Charges against the officials for a mul Another consideration is the suspicion and ignorance for Service members of the Local led by Joe Vargas, titude of sins, ranging from extortion and coercion to with which white radicals are generally viewed. For a YFS supervisor in charge of the Bayview District mismanagement of the plug board, have been filed most of them, especially the white laborers, the Playground. Luster was then escorted to the podium, through the several avenues of appeal available: chimera of cold wa.r propaganda often binds them eulogized by Johnson, and allowed to tell the brothers NLRB, US Dept. of Labor, and the various councils more closely to the company and union bosses than about his abiding love for organized labor. A number of the union--from Local to International. As one to any rank and file labor movement. The most ef of brothers were upset enough by this incident might expect, very little comes from these charges ficacious approach is to relate the obvious daily to try breaking the story of the program's relation and appeals other than a polite slap of some official's examples of on the job exploitation to the nature of ship with the union through the CHRONICLE and hand; in most instances the cases are suppressed. their lives (and your life) off the job and refrain from EXAMINER. Presently there is a solid case of extortion against rhetorical bullshit and propaganda. Most of them are Immediately a series of articles appeared com union officials before the Bureau of Labor-Management aware they are being worked over, but they are not mending Orville Luster and the officials of Local involving the so called" voluntary political contrib sure exactly how or by whom. If you can't explain 261 for their efforts in making the program a success. ution" to the Laborers'Political League which a large it maybe George Wallace can. It is up to the indiv On April 28, 1969, Herb Caen announced a test- number of brothers were forced to pay in order to idual to show the similarities between the student . imdnial dinner for Luster with these words: "Orville work. But all indications are that the case will not movement and the union movement, and the relation . Luster, one of the town's authentic unsung heroes, will go to court and that the Local will be required ship between increasing technology and working con at last be sung about at a banquet in his honor at the only to return the $20 to members who ask for it ditions In the United States. A porkchop political Fairmont May 16. As head of Youth for Service back. Members who are afraid to ask for it out of philosophy prevails among the union members. As (we now quote an official who truly knows), 'Orville fear of reprisal will still be out $20, and the union long as they are working steadily they remain rather has done more than any other person- to keep this bosses will suffer only minor embarrassment. conservative and not easily mobilized around issues city from blowing up. He works in the toughest areas Complaints filed with the International are similar which reach too far beyond the immediate. with the toughest kids, and his achievements can never to petitions to the king, or having the police inves The pressing problem in the San Francisco local be fully appreciated.' " Present at this testimonial tigate charges of police brutality. However, such is the International's move to secure control of the according to a CHRONICLE article dated MayI7,1969, complaints recently produced positive results, al union and local political apparatus. Any fight within were 800 guests, "inclUding Mayor Joseph Alioto, though by accident. On August 5, 1969, a panel from the union mllst be carried to the community at Police Chief Thomas Cahill and business leader the International convened in the Del Webb Townhouse large by all available m(~ans--the union Is only one Joseph Magnin." Then on May 26, 1969, a lengthy in San Francisco to hear grievances from union link in a chain of power dominated by the Mafia, article by Dick Meister, CHRONICLE Labor Cor members in locals .from Vancouver, B.C. to the and the politics of City Hall must be evaluated In respondent, detailed the success of Luster's program Mexican border. Even if the panel produces neg terms of these factors. The fact of incipient rebellion in glowing terms. He wrote that the success was ligible results with regard to the complaints heard, brewing among the laborers across thf' contry has "most especially" obvious " in the enthusiasm of the it brought together dissidents from all the West thrown the powers that be on the defensive. They white union labor leader, Bud Johnson, and the black coast locals, giving them an opportunity to meet remain fully aware that ifthey lose control of the work community leader, Orville Luster," and quoted each other and relate to their common problems. ing dass they lose control. Power to the People. Johnson: "When we deliver a guy, everything's behind This meeting was encouraging to many who had him; the hangups are gone. We guarantee that he's previously felt isolated in their struggle and opened ready, willing and able--and the employers will take the way for joint action in the future. him." So, the real story is suppressed and Alioto's political machine covers its shit with sweet smelling RADICAL POTENTIAL flowers for the good people of San Francisco to savor. Besides their involvement with Youth for Service, Radical elements within the locals may still be the officials of Local 261 have their fingers in other small, but their potential for growth is obvious Women's pies throughout the community. Bud Johnson is active in the fact that 'active rebel caucuses have formed in the Model Cities program, and on May 21, 1968, in all the major locals of the International during work the Local was accepted in membership by the Mission the past several years and are gaining strength and Coalition Organization (for a detailed analysis of the momentum. This resurgence of union activism com Now ready: An important analysis MCO, see LEVIATHAN, April 1969); the Centro bines young workers--minority group members and of the subordinate position of Social Obrero is also a member of the Coalition. white college dropouts--with middle-aged activists women in our society and the Their presence in the MCO only serves to emphasize who fought for the working class beforf' the McCarthy the intricacies of the ever tightening political and reasons for it. In "The Political ~ra squashed their militancy. This new activism has Economy of Women's Liberation," economic control exercised through the Mayor's not gone unnoticed by the officials, either on the Margaret Benston Iinks the subject office and the Mafia dominated International. local level or in the International, and there has with the concepts of "productive" HARD ROAD TO RESISTANCE been a subsequent increase in repressive tactics of late. and "non-productive" labor. Also, In Local 261 the rank and file militants ar~ con the editors write on the moon shot Among the rank and file there is growing unrest, but centrating on exposing the officials to the membf'r and how it tells more about the their progress is slow and difficult. Black, brown, ship while establishing themselves as responsible American system than the plane and white brothers have been continually played off and consistent spokesmen for the rights of all the tary system. Send for your sample against each other by the officials in order to hinder brothers. GrOWing discontent within the Obr~ros has , copy of the September issue now. any alliances based on class interest. Restlessness added fuel to the flames and brought a number of pre has been greatest among the construction workers, viously quiet members into the fight. A few black who number around 3500--approximately half of the brothers have been constant critics of the union total membership. This can be attributed to the higher bosses, but of the 65~; of the membership which is rate of unemployment among them--usually about black, relatively few are actively involved, suggesting MONTHLY 10%--the more secure jobs with the city, state, ~,- that some serious organizational work needs to be and Federal governments have traditionally been the done among the black laborers of the city- -within reward given to brothers loyal to the officials. the community as well as in the hall and on the job. REVIEW It is the brothers waiting in the hiring hall for their The same is true with the Spanish-speaking COlllllluni ty, num bers to be'called who are most aware of the cor although the ball seems to be roll~ng ther~ better Ediied by Paul M. Sweezy ruption and exploitation, and the most at its mercy. than an}'When' else. White workers are morl' rliffirult and Harry MaRdoff They know that to complain means to get the worst to reach off the job because they art' not concl'ntrated Depl. 8 116 West 14 Sl. N.Y.• N.Y. 10011 and shortest jobs or no job~ at all; and though they in any particular area (or areas), and on the job $7 a year students $5 (foreign add $1) mutter and grumble about these conditions they are organizing in construction is too often hit or miss rarely motivated to strike back. Nevertheless, a few because of periodic nature of employment. Also, militant brothers have attacked the union establish- the problem of racism among the white laborers PAGE 14 THE MOVEMENT SEPTEMBER 1969 action itself. Generally, affinity groups (small groups of people who have some experience running together and who have basic trust in one another) work: out THE WAR B'OME! best in mass'demonstration situations. In areas where there are regional collectives or political/work: collec tives, (hey can provide the basis over the next month CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 for setting up affinity groups. As many people as hitionary collectives allover the country. This will with, and even the cadre we have developed, are possible -from a given area should be into afflnity not be a demonstration or guerrilla theater attacking trapped by a lack of political confidence and basic groups by the time they get to Chicago. only the cultural images that oppress women (pri liberal timidity to bring our politics to the people. Equally critical is self-defense. It is clear to us all marily middle class women feel this oppression, while Too often we have failed to raise the issue of the now that the Man no longer thinks we're funny, and working class women suffer more directly from the war-and support for the NLF-in an aggressive, up his patronizing smile is turning into a growl People structures of male supremacy.) This action will be an front way in the shops, on the streets and in the who come to Chicago will be best off if they come attack by class conscious women against institutions schools. Too often we have fallen into fighting prepared-not because the pigs definitely will attack, of imperialism and racism, combatting male chauvin.' economist· struggles because they "relate more" to but because they can attack; not because you defi ism and male supremacy primarily by being an exem- working people's lives. And,-too often we have mini- • nitely will get hurt, but because you can get hurt. - plary women;s fighting army. mized or totally submerged the vanguard role of the All affinity groups or other conft!w'ations of Thursday night we'll have some kind of rock-greak black liberation struggle in this country-not only people should study karate and techniques of self sex festival in Lincoln Park (October 9th is the anni because of racism-but because of alienation from the defense; and also learn elementary first aid and the versary of the Great Chicago Fire, when a cow kicked people and fear that the people cannot change. And, legal regulations of the city of Chicago (curfew, a lantern and burned half the damn city down.) Fea instead of pushing the importance of the black traffic, bond, etc.) struggle, we have played around with "white" de tured guests will be Ho Chi Minh, Eldridge Cleaver, ACTION DOESN'T END OCT. 11 Lin Piao and Sirhan Sirhan. mands, or "white working class demands" (what Friday we go after the courts. The "Conspiracy" about demands for the class as a whole?) When we go to Chicago we should leave behind in "'" trial will be going on at the Federal Building, in the In this period, the National Action is one of the every institution-hospitals, schools, shops-a contact downtown loop area. Our slogan for this action best ways to combat the liberal timidity-and revi person who can serve as part of a communications should be "Stop the Trial." Though not necessarily sionism-that plagues the movement. All the issues and bail network during the action. The actual organ ization of such networks will vary, but the goal is the· meaning an invasion of the courtroom, the slogan, are there. It can provide concrete, material aid to the same: for us to establish our own communications so like "Stop the Convention" last year, must signify Vietnamese, the blacks, and oppressed Third World our determination to make the ruling class pay a people everywhere by openly identifying with the that people who stay home won't have to rely on the price-a heavy price-for carrying out repression struggles of Third World peoples, and struggling bourgeois press for all of their information, and so against the people and against the movement. against the institutions of imperialism and racism that tha.t those of us who do come to Chicago won't have to rely on "sympathetic" liberals for all of our bail. And finally, on Saturday, October 11, will be the oppress poor and working people throughout the mass march. The specific route of the march is not world. It can bring out tens of thousands of new It is clear that today there is an ever-increasing yet decided, but we are seeking permits from the city people-many of whom will be working class youth sentiment against the war in Vietnam. Working of Chicago. On this, as on all other days, we must be who will be won over during the struggle. It can raise people know who pays for it-through taxes, infla ~ prepared to defend ourselves against any attacks the the issues of imperialism and racism in a mass way tion, speed-up. Young people know who fights pigs might make against us. that few, if any, local organizing situations ever it-through a 2-S deferment that keeps elite kids out -~ really provide. And, it can up the level of struggle so that poor and working class kids-and particularly (The pigs have already begun their attack in the and, at least in part, set the terms for struggle in the black kids-are sent to Vietnam. And everybody form of a vicious rumor that we plan to bring guns to coming year. knows who's making money off of it. Chicago. Such a rumor only serves the pigs because it can cut down on our numbers and also provides an DO IT NOW Our task is to build off this anti-war sentiment, to place the war in the context of imperialism, to id'en-· excuse for an unprovoked attack by the pigs against At this time, the National Action is only a few tify who are the real enemies of the people, and to the movement. While we do affirm the right of people weeks away. It is critical that if people have not move people into struggle- against imperialism,~white· to use arms in self-defense, we are not calling for started to organize for the action, they do so im supremacy, male supremacy, fascism. The National people to bring arms to Chicago for the National Ac mediately. And, if people have begun to do organiz Action is planned to do this. tion. We would be adventurist fools not to recognize ing for the action, they must intensify their efforts that the struggle is not at a stage appropriate. for immediately, The National Action is also part of a larger fall massive armed confrontation.) We've got to get into every high school, junior offensive against the war and imperialism that will· The march will center particularly around the war, college and college in every city in the country; flood include: the black and brown liberation struggles, and GI them with propaganda, challenge them with actions, I) An action at the International Industrial Con struggles. The slogans for the march will be: pull 'em in. ference in San Francisco (see notice in this Occupation troops out of Vietnam, all foreign We've got to hit every beach, drive-in restaurant, issue of The Movement). countries, the black and brown communities park and hangout with literature, raps and struggles. 2) The November 8 Movement, called by SDS, to and the schools. We've got toleaflet every factory, every National attack the institutions of power in every city across the country. Support the NLF and the PRG ofSouth Vietnam. Guard Armory, every place that GIs congregate or Free all political prisoners. pass by. 3) The massive mobilization against the war in Support the black liberation struggle. Washington, November 15, called by the New We've got to call mass city-wide meetings of all the Independence for Puerto Rico Mobilization Committee. groups who might be won over to the action, to ob Support for GIs' rights and GIs' rebellions. tain as much mass participation as possible. 4) The Venceremos Brigade of people who will End the surtax. And other things. People in various parts of the express their solidarity with the Cuban people Solidarity with "The Conspiracy" country have opened up National Action storefronts by helping in the 1970 sugar harvest in Cuba. This scenario has been developed out of discus to coordinate city-wide organizing, ..how movies, have Building off the motion of the National Action, sions with people throughout the country. We are. raps, etc. Other places are planning region-wide or we can move on November 8th with larger numbers hoping that other organizations will participate in the city-wide actions a few weeks before October 8, to and greater militancy than ever before to end the war action and help to further develop the scenario. generate enthusiasm. Others are setting up rock con in Vietnam and bring the war home! OVERCOMING TIMIDITY WITH THE PEOPLE certs with local groups, partly to raise bail money, partly to reach a new constituency of kids. Many In all of our work at this time, key to our political places are working closely with the underground strategy is the building of political cadre, disciplined press, which is pretty much turned on to the action, VENCEREMOS I3RtGAOE-p" to a collective, involved in thorough criticism-self and helping out a lot. criticism of practice, serious study and ongoing strug As part of any organizing program, it is key to EXPRESS YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH THE gle. Yet, too often the college kids we have worked develop the forms best suited to operating at the PEOPLE OF CUBA. HELP HARVEST THt: TEN MILLION TONS OF SUGAR. JOIN THEVENCEREMOS BRIGADE.: FOR MORE INFORMATION AND APPLI· SUBSCRIBE TO THE MOV~.MENf! CATIONS, WRITE TO: THE BRIGADE Please send me: P.O. BOX 643 Next 12 issues of THE MOVEMENT CATHEDR~L STATION Malcolm X posters '($2.50) NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10025 $1.00 EACH. ONLY .75t ~ to Movement subscribers .' NEW CRITICS PRESS The New Critics Press Inc. is a new publishing house organized by insurgent •• social scientists and publishers of critical A_ID social science in various fields. -em STATI ZI' Scholar-critics are invited to submit manuscripts for possible publication. Translators of French, German and Ital SPECIAL BULK RATES ian are also invited to inquire: MAIL TO TilE MOVElI\ENT 330 Grove Street New Critics Press 9 Washington Terrace ~an Francisco.Califomia 94102 St. Louis, Mo. 63112 THE MOVEMENT PAGE 15 SiPTEMBER f69 '1, . . :,' " .:. " if:: ------.------.. Yout\~ 'Peop"~\.s '{>t\9!.. BACK TO SCHOOL • • <> ~ II ...... 'Pled¥ your (J"eg'Qn(,~ to . +t.e fleOVL£ • tlot to +t-e flag.. Tal k To 'lout' brothers t sis- ters ~ ma\(tI up &.lour own t'U'.S ~O\"' princip 'es t\nd +e~c.her.s. !P youth\nk a-\~' . yOU're r'9ht... APo\tJER -\-0 \.~e st~dup ant\ ~eopLe ~ 'Ft6"'Tl --~~D I~ l ...J' 0-.