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Meat Packers Press for Union Victory in St. Paul

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Meat Packers Press for Union Victory in St. Paul . AUSTRALIA $2.50 · BELGIUM BF60 · CANADA $2.50 · FRANCE FF1 0 · ICELAND KR200 · NEW ZEALAND "$2.50 · SWEDEN KR15 · UK £1.00 I).S. $1.50 INSIDE Jack Barnes on working class & transformation of learning THE . -PAGES 8-11 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 64/N0.29 JULY 24. 2000 Meat packers press for Protests push back union victory in St. Paul rightist Dakota Premium bosses step up antiunion propaganda march in BY TOM FISHER ing ways to answer the attacks and to move over the previous six months. Many work­ SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minnesota-Two forward. ers say they were being forced to perform weeks before the union election, the bosses Dakota Premium, with some 200 work­ double the amount of work from before. The N. Ireland at Dakota Premium Foods here have ers, the majority Spanish-speaking, is a beef company was also forcing meat packers to launched new attacks on the union-organiz­ slaughterhouse where the employers carried work while they were injured. BY PETE CLIFFORD ing drive in the plant. Workers there are find- out a drive to intensify the speed of work Workers in the plant responded to these PORTADOWN, Northern Ireland-"The intolerable conditions with a seven-hour sit­ nationalist community is confident and down strike on June l to demand a decrease won't be intimidated by these threats," de­ in the line speed and press other demands. clared Sinn Fein leader Francie Molloy. Thousands protest killing of Black man The company, surprised by the swiftness Molloy and hundreds oflocal residents had and st:riousness of the strike, made conces­ gathered here July 9, behind razor wire and at shopping mall in Dearborn, Michigan sions on the line speed and some other is­ barricades erected by the British Army, and sues. To safeguard their advances, workers successfully prevented for the third year launched a new drive to organize a union in running a rightist Orange Order parade from the plant, United Food and Commercial going down Garvaghy Road, a majority Workers Local 789. A previous organizing Catholic community here in Portadown. drive in 1991 had succeeded, but the union "This isn't about a parade going down the was voted out in 1992 when it failed to gain Garvaghy Road. It's about those who are a contract. marching trying to reverse the political pro­ The union election is set for July 21. cess, trying to kill off the Good Friday On July 11 the company called together Agreement and once again put the nation­ small groups of workers from various areas alist community under siege," stated Molloy, of the plant to hear talks against the union­ who represents Mid Ulster in the Northern organizing drive. Speaking for the company IrelandAssembly. Sinn Fein is the party that were company manager Steve Cortinas and has been leading the fight for a united Ire­ Dominick Driano, a director of Human Re­ land free from British rule. sources for the holding company of Dakota The 1998 Good Friday Agreement pro­ Premium Foods, Rosen Diversified Indus­ vided for the establishment of the Northern tries. The lawyer did most of the talking. Ireland Assembly with limited self-govern­ According to workers in the plant, the law­ ment powers. It registered the continued yer made points to the different groups of weakening of British rule over the northern ·workers along the following lines: six counties oflreland, including the weak­ "Don't vote for the union. The union is ening of pro-British groups such as the Or­ another business, a company that comes ange Order. between the worker and Dakota Premium For years, the Orange Order has orga­ Militant/Ilona Gersh Foods. The union prevents you from hav­ nized hundreds of triumphalist parades in Some 5,000 people rally July 5 against the killing of Frederick Finley, a 32-year­ ing any say over your conditions. Northern Ireland, aimed at reinforcing anti­ old Black man who was choked to death by a mall security guard in a mostly "If the union wins the election, what will Continued on Page 12 white suburb. Another protest is planned for July 17. See story on page 3. it mean? They won't get a contract. Eight Continued on Page 14 Marchers in Socialists .launch ballot drive in New York Mississippi: BY GREG McCARTAN dustrial and Textile Employees. the interest ofpeople in learning more about AND ELENA TATE Mackie, one of the organizers of the pe­ the campaign. This is a reflection of the Black youth NEWYORK-"We collected 1,780 sig­ tition drive, said, "Team members reported deepening working-class resistance that our natures tonight!" said Don Mackie, after the collecting well over the 15 signatures per campaign is a part of." first day of petitioning to place the socialist hour that we had set as our goal. Supporters The three branches of the party, along was lynched campaign on the ballot in New York. Some in Brooklyn averaged more than 23 per hour. with the Young Socialists, held planning BY ROBERTO GUERRERO 50 campaign supporters fanned out across Veteran petitioners reported being struck by Continued on Page 5 AND BRIAN TAYLOR the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn, armed with clipboards, campaign fliers, and the KOKOMO, Mississippi-"Everybody Militant and Perspectiva Mundial newspa­ get your walk on! Everybody, everybody get pers, and got the drive to collect 30,000 sig­ your walk on, what!" sounded offmany high natures off to a flying start. school students who joined this 700-person­ July 11 was the first day of the campaign strong march here, in searing southern heat, to win ballot status for James Harris and to demand a federal investigation into the Margaret Trowe, Socialist Workers Party circumstances surrounding the hanging candidates for U.S. president and vice presi­ death of Raynard Johnson. dent, along with Jacob Perasso for U.S. Sen­ Local police have declared the Black 17- ate and Paul Pederson for Congress. Perasso year-old's death a suicide. He was found is a packinghouse worker and leader of the hanging from a pecan tree in his front yard Young Socialists. Pederson is the chairper­ June 16. But the prevailing view here is that son of the Brooklyn branch of the SWP and · Johnson was the victim of a racist lynching a worker in the printshop of Pathfinder carried out as a result of his relationship with Press. a female classmate who is white. Family Also running for Congress are William members say the suicide claim just doesn't Estrada, a meat packer and member of the add up. The belt Johnson hung from, for United Food and Commercial Workers example, was not his. union; John Hawkins, a worker at Many local residents of this small rural · Pathfinder's printshop; Olga Rodriguez, an town pointed to the fact that a deputy of the airline worker and member of the Interna­ local police department was the uncle of the tional Association of Machinists; Douglas young woman Johnson had a relationship Nelson, also a worker at Pathfinder's with. According to residents, since the night printshop and leader of the Young Social­ of the hanging, the deputy and his family , Militant photos/Ruth Nebbia have left the Marion County area. ists; and Glova Scott, a garment worker and Socialists campaign for ballot status in New York. In left photo: Jacob Perasso, candi­ member of the Union of Needletrades, In- Melvin Hollins, head of the local NAACP date for U.S. Senate; in right photo: Paul Pederson, candidate for U.S. Congress. Continued on Page 14 Striking miners: 'They haven't loaded one coal train' - page 15 Swedish trial of U.S. bases in Okinawa draw protests youths attacks rights BY DAG TIRSEN of what the authorities determine to be a riot STOCKHOLM, Sweden-The govern­ can be charged and convicted. Sentences for ment here took another step in its assault on "fomenters and leaders" are up to 10 years democratic rights and the labor movement in prison and for participants up to four through the course of a mass trial of 30 years. This law was used last year in the ar­ youths who occupied an abandoned hospi­ rests· of 243 people taking part in a "street tal in Linkoping. The state used a piece of party" organized by Reclaim the City. The antilabor legislation that allows prosecution violence on the part of the cops was widely of a group for "violent rioting." criticized, and a sizable protest was orga­ With the exception of minors among nized. them, all the youth had been held in cus­ Another argument put forward by the tody for more than one month awaiting trial. prosecutors was that the youths were all Two of them were sentenced to six months guilty of attempted violence because they in prison, another to three months. Most of were there "together and in consultation." the rest were sentenced to mandatory "com­ They argued that all the participants in the munity service." None were cleared of the occupation knew about stockpiling of stones charges. and other "weapons," and all had a "com­ When asked why the court had meted out mon intent" of committing violent actions. Residents of Okinawa rally outside the Japanese island's Futenma U.S. air base, such stiff punishments compared to a simi­ This was also central in the media campaign. where a U.S. marine accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl is stationed. The lar case five years ago, a district attorney The formulation "together and with a soldier was arrested July 3.
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