• AUSTRALIA $2.00 • BELGIUM BF60 • CANADA $2.00 • FRANCE FF1 0 • ICELAND Kr150 • NEW ZEALAND $2.50 • SWEDEN Kr12 • UK £1.00 • U.S. $1.50 INSIDE Activists say, 'Free Puerto Rican independence fighters' TH£ -PAGE 6 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 60 NO. 25 JUNE 24, 1996 'Workers in U.S. have an 'Stop the burning interest in fighting Cuba of Black churches!' blockade' Socialists call for protests to condemn racist assaults BY MARTiN KOPPEL AND BROCK SATTER The following statement was issued June by Socialist Workers Party can­ HAVANA, Cuba-The fight to oppose 12 Washington's economic war against Cuba didates for U.S. president and vice presi­ dent, James Harris and Laura Garza, "is an issue of interest to workers, intellec­ along with John Hawkins for U.S. Senate tuals, and farmers in the United States," stated Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's in Alabama, Arlene Rubinstein for Sen­ ate in Georgia, and Jim Rogers for Gov­ National Assembly. ernor in North Carolina. The reason, he said, is that "no society can be free as long as it oppresses another. The Socialist Workers campaign urges the labor movement, all working people, and supporters of democratic rights to organize Build U.S.-Cuba Youth protests to condemn the series of racist ar­ Exchange! - see page 8 son attacks in Black communities across the South. For 18 months, and despite pleas from Black ministers and others, little has been Any society based on injustice against an­ done by federal and state governments to other, on attempting to colonize another, will respond to the string of church burnings. face this as its main problem. The effort to Little was done despite the fact that it has end the injustice imposed by their country been known for some time that white su­ on another must become a vital priority for premacist groups have been publicly agitat­ the workers, intellectuals, and decent people ing against Black churches. The lack of re­ of that country because this is a prerequisite sponse by ruling class politicians to these to achieve their own freedom." fires serves to encourage further attacks. In Alarcon was addressing the opening ses­ Alabama, Gov. Fob James has refused to sion of the Eighth U.S.-Cuba Philosophy make any public statement condemning and Social Science Conference. The week­ Timothy Funderburk, who lives near burned church in Charlotte, North Continued on Page 14 long event, held at the University of Havana, Police took no serious action in response to earlier reports of vandalism, he said. began here June 10.1t brought toge~~r. 84 participants from Cuba and 45 from the United States and a few other countries. Socialists: 'Defend, extend abortion rights' Alarcon, who is also a member of the The following statement was issued Buchanan have made little headway in their like Wisconsin's waiting period and the ban Continued on Page 12 June 13 by SWP candidates James Har- "cultural war" against abortion rights; the on abortion insurance for state workers just ris and Laura Garza. big majority, especially among working issued by Virginia governor George Allen. people, support women's right to choose. Now is the time for all supporters of St. Louis The call by presidential candidate Rob­ While unable to tum back history to the women's rights to press the fight to defend ert Dole for a "declaration of tolerance" on days of illegal, back-alley abortions, Repub­ and extend abortion rights. We urge union­ the question of abortion at the Republican lican and Democratic politicians alike have ists, students, and others to get out in the strikers Party convention reflects the deep gains whittled away at access to abortion -from streets and in front of the clinics to say, "We women have won in establishing the right the federal Hyde Amendment barring Med­ will not go back. Keep abortion safe, legal, prepared for to control their bodies. Rightists like Patrick icaid funding for the procedure to state laws and accessible to all." long battle Germany: workers protest social cuts BY DANNY BOOHER . AND MARY MARTIN BY MARKlE WILSON testers marched, blocking traffic, including Workers in Havana, said that the new fees ST. LOUIS - One week into the strike AND CHRIS MORRIS workers from Volkswagen and Bosch. Traf­ are "part of an attack on the social wage." by 6, 700 McDonnell Douglas workers that BERLIN, Germany- Local trade union fic in Hamburg was blocked for 20-30 min­ He also described protests that have taken began here June 5, members of International mobilizations have spread across Germany utes. In Rostock, in East Germany, 100 place every Monday here, ranging from Association of Machinists (lAM) District in preparation for a national demonstration people demonstrated. 1,000 to 35,000 people. According to another student activist, 837 are staffing the picket lines and strike in Bonn June 15 against the federal Five hundred students from three univer­ Senator Radunsky in Berlin stated recently headquarters, determined to stick out what government's "savings plan," which will gut sities in Berlin attended a meeting here June he intends to push for "student fees as high many say may be a long fight. social benefits. 12 against raising university fees from Outsourcing of jobs is the central issue in On Monday, June 10, the engineers union DM40 to DM100 ($26 to $65) per semes­ as DM1,000 per student each semester; and this strike. The machinists union is seeking IG Metall called actions in Hamburg, ter. Oltan Dertli, a Humboldt University stu­ I think it could be achieved in 2-3 years." guarantees that current work done in St. Bremen, and the Rhineland in the western dent, who recently participated in the con­ University students here are mobilizing Louis will not be outsourced to non-union part of the country. In Salzgitter 14,000 pro- gress of the Central Organization of Cuban to attend the June 15 national march in Bonn. companies or other McDonnell Douglas fa­ The Berlin chapter of the National Student cilities, and that 7,000 lAM jobs will stay Union (GEW) has issued several leaflets Tl1e Socialist Workers Party and lOung Socialists iuvite you to an. describing government cutbacks and call­ in the plant. The company offer calls for a workforce of as few as 5,000 through the ing on youth to join protests against them. ACTIVE WORKERS & One of these flyers said that attacks on life of the contract. Under the company's offer, union work­ INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST CONFERENCE the working class include cutbacks in pay­ ers would receive a 2.5 percent wage raise ments to people with children, slashing health care coverage, reducing sick pay from in the first year of the four-year contract fol­ • Joining the Resistance to Imperialism's War Drive and Growing 100 percent to 80 percent of wages, cutting lowed by lump-sum payments equal to be­ Capitalist World Disorder pensions and unemployment benefits, and tween 2.5 and 3 percent of wages in the fol­ • Defending and Emulating the Cuban Revolution raising the retirement age. lowing years. Workers at McDonnell have • Selling the Revolutionary Books Workers of the World Need Dieter Schulte, leader of the DGB trade not received a wage hike outside of cost of living increases in the past seven years. • Communist Work in the Trade Unions- Recruiting Workers to the union federation, stated in the newspaper Die Welt that a "hot summer" is ahead that The contract offer also demands conces­ Revolutionary Party will make the protests in France look like a sions from the union members in the areas • Reaching a New Generation with Communist Politics- Building "tired imitation." of job classifications, benefits and pensions. the Young Socialists Striker Dan Sanders, 34, spray paints Har­ PRESENTATIONS + CLASSES+ WORKSHOPS + SOCIAL EVENTS Markie Wilson is a member ofUnited Trans­ poon missiles. "I'm one of the younger portation Union in Oakland, California; and workers in the plant," he explained. "There JULY 6·9 OBERLIN, OHIO Chris Morris is member of the Amalgam­ used to be younger workers until McDonnell For more information see listings on Page 12 ated Electrical and Engineering Union in Continued on Page 11 Manchester, England.

- - - - • • • . €) Washington reasserts domination in Europe - page 7 IN BRIEf------

Metal workers strike in Russia reimposing sanctions must be considered More than 10,000 workers went on strike carefully because "the consequences are May 31, over living conditions at the very dramatic." Both U.S. secretary of state Nadezhdinsky metallurgical plant, in Warren Christopher and NATO European Russia's Far North. The strike cut produc­ commander Gen. George Joulwan said the tion at the plant, a subsidiary of the Norilsk imperialist troops would step up patrols in Nickel corporation, in half and reduced Bosnia with the intention of arresting Norilsk's total output by 12 percent. Karadzic. Meanwhile Russian president Boris Yeltsin has been campaigning hard for re­ British beef ban eased election, with the backing of Washington and The European Commission eased the 10- other imperialist governments. Russia's Cen­ week-old ban on British beef products­ tral Bank protested June 6 a move by Yeltsin imposed in the name of fighting "mad cow" to tum over $1 billion to help pay for the disease- June 6. The commission voted to federal deficit, which has risen as he ordered allow Britain to export bull semen, beef fat, the payment of tens of trillions of rubles in and beef-based gelatin. wages, pensions and other benefits to work­ The same week a leaked report from the ers in order to win votes. British Treasury Department stated that the United Kingdom will be displaced as one of Apology for 'comfort women' the seven biggest world economies in the Japan's prime minister, Ryutaro next 20 years. The document predicts that Hashimoto, announced in early June that he in 2015 the top seven markets will be China, would apologize to the "comfort women" India, Brazil, Indonesia, the United States, who were forced into prostitution houses for Japan, and Germany. the Japanese military during World War II. A private fund was set up last summer to OAS criticizes Cuba embargo The Organization of American States compensate the women, but Japanese offi­ Garment workers in New York protest in front of Michael Matisse store de­ cials refused to apologize. (OAS) voted overwhelmingly for a resolu­ manding back pay June 2. More than 100 workers have been cheated by the tion criticizing the "Cuban Liberty and In 1991 the Japanese government admit­ owners of the garment shop. The workers say they are tired of being exploited. ted it officially organized the prostitution Democratic Solidarity Act," or Helms-Bur­ conscription of Korean, Chinese, Dutch, and ton bill, signed by U.S. president William Filipina women. Historians estimate that up Clinton in March. Washington, which gen­ to 200,000 Asian women, mostly Koreans, would grant 10,000 tons of food assistance "eligible" were granted refugee status in erally dominates the organization, was the were forced into the Japanese military broth­ to North Korea, a fraction of the 60,000 tons Ghana. sole dissenter. Cuba has been excluded from els. the United Nations called for to immediately the OAS since 1962 at the U.S. government's relieve the famine. Workers in Morocco hold sit-in insistence. U.S. probes against North Korea Since May 20 hundreds of jobless gradu­ The resolution adopted by the OAS op­ Lt. Gen. Richard Meyer, commander of Liberian refugees denied port ates demanding jobs have taken over a trade poses all laws that "obstruct international all U.S. military forces in Japan, told the Ghanaian officials drove a Russian cargo union building in central Rabat, the Moroc­ trade and investment" or "the free movement Washington Post that the U.S. military in ship carrying refugees from Liberia out of can capital. More than 1,000 men and of persons." The new U.S. law tightens the Asia is focused on preparing for armed con­ the country's waters June 9. The Zolotitsa women are estimated to be in the building. anti-Cuba embargo by allowing U.S. law­ flict with North Korea, in an interview has been stranded at sea for two weeks, On June 3, riot police sent reinforcements suits against foreign companies that "traf­ printed June 8. Meyer added that U.S. troops packed with 450 passengers - including to the seized trade union hall. Reuters re­ fic" in property formerly owned by U.S. training in Japan are supposed to prepare many Ghanaian nationals - who paid $60- ported that dozens of youth were chanting capitalists that was seized by Cuban work­ for any regional conflict, but that Pyongyang 70 each to get away from fighting in the slogans and waving banners from the build­ ers and peasants after the 1959 revolution. is at the top of their immediate agenda. Liberian capital, Monrovia. The government ing, where they are packed into every room, It also calls for excluding the executives of Washington has some 100,000 troops and in Togo also refused to allow the ship to dock the cellar, and the roof. The two main trade such companies from the United States. The its most advanced equipment stationed in the tfiere. unions have called a general strike to force U.S. delegate to the OAS, Harriet Babbitt, region. In May, some 2,000 refugees aboard the the government to honor previous commit­ called the vote an act of "diplomatic cow­ The U.S. government claims that North Bulk Challenge remained at sea for 10 days ments to increase wages and respect trade ardice." A spokesman for the Cuban For­ Korean forces may attack South Korea due as one government after another denied them unions. eign Ministry said the resolution was "re­ to the food shortages in the country. The port along the West African coast. Finally, ally a surprise" and thanked the OAS mem­ Clinton administration announced June 7 it after international pressure, those deemed UN official threatens to reimpose bers for their support. sanctions against Belgrade Orange County sells bonds again The president of the United Nations war It has been eighteen months since Orange crimes tribunal said June 6 that it may reim­ County, California, declared bankruptcy, los­ pose sanctions on Serbia and on the so-called ing $1.7 billion and wiping out workers' pen­ Republica Srpska in Bosnia if two leaders sions, school funds, and other moneys in­ of the Belgrade-backed Bosnian Serb forces vested there. are not arrested. Judge Antonio Cassese is On June 5, the county issued $900 mil­ campaigning for the arrest of chauvinist lion of new debt on Wall Street. Nearly all leader Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, of the bonds were snatched up quickly by the Bosnian Serb military commander, on investors looking at the higher return rates. war crimes charges. Previous economic After the 1994 collapse, Orange County of­ sanctions were lifted after the Dayton ac­ ficials eliminated 41 percent of the county's cord partitioning Bosnia was signed last operating budget by cutting 3,000 jobs, December. slashing prenatal care programs, closing Carl Bildt, thefonner Swedish prime min­ abused women clinics, and ending programs ister who is overseeing the civilian imple­ for children and low-income families. mentation of the agreement, warned that -MEGAN ARNEY

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2 The Militant June 24, 1996 Arson hits 30th Black church in South BY MARTIN BOYERS reach Christian Center was not listed, ac­ against those who attack houses of worship." solved. North Carolina governor Jim Hunt CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - Ar­ cording to a source at the city's Fire Depart­ Rev. Mac Charles Jones reported to are­ offered a $10,000 reward for information sonists burned down a portion of an historic ment, because it was said to be a storage cent board meeting of the National Council leading to arrests and convictions in the Black church here June 6. This is one of building. The congregation's co-pastor re­ of Churches (NCC), these investigators have Charlotte case. Charlotte-based Nations more than 30 fires set in Black churches in futed this claim. often focused their probes against the vic­ Bank offered a $50,000 reward per incident the South since early 1995. A rural Black "We had services in there every week," tims of the attacks. "Rather than investigat­ for up to 10 incidents church was torched in Greensboro, Alabama Brenda Stevenson, one of Outreach's co­ ing the perpetrators of the church bombings About 30 pastors from burned-out June 3. The attacks have intensified calls for pastors told the Charlotte Observer June 8. and fires," said Jones, who is a Kansas City churches met with Attorney General Janet effective federal investigation and prosecu­ minister and associate director to the NCC's Reno June 9 and complained that official tion of those responsible. Pastors harassed by investigators general secretary, "the agents are question­ investigations focus more on church mem­ The wood-frame sanctuary of Matthews President Clinton announced the forma­ ing pastors and their congregants as though bers than on outsiders. Murkland Presbyterian Church was built in tion of a special task force to investigate the they are responsible for the disasters." Rose Johnson, executive director of an 1903 and is home to a congregation that series of arson attacks in a radio address June He said some pastors have been asked to organization that monitors racist attacks, told dates back to freed slaves in 1864. The build­ 8. He said that 200 federal cops, including take polygraph tests implying they may be the New York Times that after a church was ing was no longer in active use. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms police, will lying about the incidents, and that some set on fire in Knoxville, Tennessee, federal Church pastor Rev. Larry Hill vowed, visit churches throughout the South and an­ Black female church members have been cops "fingerprinted church members, "We intend to overcome this in a big way. nounced a toll-free number for information asked if they have been sexually molested showed up unannounced at job sites and We are not afraid." Many individuals from on the attac~. "Fire investigators, national by their pastors. homes, and implied that some church mem­ public officials to religious leaders to indi­ response teams, polygraph examiners, and There have been some arrests in the ar­ bers burned their church." viduals visited the burnt ruins of the church forensic chemists are combing through fire son wave, including two alleged members In another racist attack, a swastika was the following Sunday to express their sup­ sites, interviewing witnesses, and following of the Ku Klux Klan. A 13-year-old white painted on a statue of civil rights leader port. leads," Clinton declared. He also expressed girl was charged June 10 with setting fire to Martin Luther King Jr. in Charlotte's Kelly Alexander Jr., a leader of the support for legislation in Congress making the Matthews Murkland Presbyterian Marshall Park this weekend. Police have no NAACP, called for the creation of Neigh­ it "easier to bring federal prosecutions Church. Most of the other cases remain un- suspects. borhood Church Watch programs. "The neighbors of African American churches must become the first line of defense against arson. Church neighbors must report any 'We have to fight this cop brutality' suspicious activity in and around African American churches promptly to police." BY CHRIS REMPLE day. The story of the beating and plans for A young bus driver for the Board of Edu­ The site was visited June 9 by Myrlie the protest were publicized on several Hai- cation, who heard of the protest on the ra­ Evers-Williams, chairwoman of the National IRVINGTON, New Jersey- Some 20 people turned out June 10 for the beginning . tian radio programs - Radio Verite, Mo­ dio, spoke for many when he explained why Association for the Advancement of Col­ ment Creole, and Radio Liberte - and a of a day-long protest against the police beat­ he had come. "The police beat up my ored People (NAACP). She pledged, "We number of people had come from hearing ing of Max Antoine, a young Haitian law brother so I have to leave my job and come will see to it that those responsible will be of this fight on the radio. down here. Maybe nothing is going to hap­ captured and will be punished." She also student here. Antoine's father, Joseph Najieb Isaac, a 16-year-old high school Antoine, described how the police assaulted pen to them [the cops], but we've got to commended the proposal for a church watch. student from New York, stated, "As far as stand up strong." The NAACP national convention will be his son. I'm concerned, the police always seem to Marie, a food service worker, stated, "It's held in Charlotte July 6 - 11. The cops had come to the door of the find just cause for beating up Black people. not right for them to come and hit people The fire was reported by Timothy Antoine home at 2:00a.m. Sunday, June 2, They always assume a Black person is guilty like that. It could happen to you or it could Funderburk, a 28-year-old hospital worker to tell them to tum down the music at a party and go for their gun." happen to me. We have to fight this." and church member who lives across the they were hosting. Although the music was road from the church. then completely turned off, the cops pushed He related that he has called police 8 or their way into the house and began harass­ 10 times over the past year or so to report ing two women, one of them Max's six­ suspicious activity near the building. The month pregnant sister. church has been broken into, the interior Max told his sister to take down the of­ damaged, refuse has been dumped inside, . ficers' badge numbers so they could file a and the adjacent cemetery has been vandal­ complaint the next day. At that time, one ized. One of the coffins was unearthed and cop leapt across the two women, pushing opened. the pregnant one to the floor, and began slamming Max's head against the wall of No serious attempt to stop vandals the house. When called, Funderburk reported, the After the police handcuffed him, they police did not make any serious attempt to continued to beat him at the house. They catch the vandals. "When I reported that the took him to the squad car and shoved him guys had just turned to the left, the police inside with their feet and gave him two more would take their time getting going and then beatings at the police station. He was re­ tum to the right .... Just today, the police de­ fused medical care or any contact with his partment called and told me they had only family from early Sunday until Monday three reports on record. But that's not true." morning. Funderbunk reported seeing two carloads of At the time of the protest, Max Antoine men driving slowly onto the church prop­ had just been released from the hospital in erty at about 11:30 p.m. a few days before order to go to court in downtown Newark the fire. to face charges of trying to take one of the The list of 30 Black southern churches cops' guns. that are victims of this wave of arson attacks Joseph Antoine attended the Socialist includes five in southern Alabama in the last Workers campaign event in Newark Sunday, Militant/S tefanie Trice six months, and it is far from complete. A June 9, to appeal for solidarity and asked June 10 picket line in Irvington, New Jersey, demands justice for Max Antoine, a March 1995 fire set at Charlotte's New Out- people there to come to the protest the next Haitian law student who was brutally beaten by the police at his home. -YOUNG SOCIALISTS AROUND THE WORLD------­ High school students protest racist attacks, discuss curfew

This column is written and edited by news the night before, Jennifer Benton, So­ two other students about a hundred feet all the same. Clinton just signed a new anti­ the Young Socialists, an international or­ cialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress, away carried a large confederate flag from terrorism bill and now he wants to go after ganization of young workers, students Michael Pennock, and myself went to the bed of their truck and set it in the front gays and put up curfews." and other youth fighting for socialism. Lakeville in solidarity with those taking a seat. It was clear from the stream of purple Another student, when she saw a young For more information about the YS, write stand against the attack and brought to them ribbons pouring out of the school, however, socialist with the Militant, ran up and said, P.O. Box 14392, St. Paul, MN 55114. Tel: the socialist election campaign. that the racists are a tiny minority. "My friend just showed me that paper, I (612) 644-0051, Fax: (612) 645-1674. Many students expressed outrage at the want it!" She was excited to hear that there racial incident. YS campaigns at high schools is an alternative to the Democrats and Re­ BY JACK WILLEY "I'm upset at what is happening. I find Once a week for the final three weeks of publicans. A couple students I met are LAKEVILLE, Minnesota-A racial slur this pathetic that people have nothing better class, Young Socialists went to South High, studying Russian history and want to go on was bleached into the grass at Lakeville to do. At the beginning of the school year, a school of 1,800 in South Minneapolis, with the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange. In fact, High School on June 3. The epithet, "Die somebody wrote on the windows, Go home the Socialist Workers election campaign. We there was a great deal of interest in Cuba N------," stretched over fifteen feet on the N------. We were angry, but we were told were greeted with a warm response and great among several students. A few took appli­ lawn between the student parking lot and the administration would take action. Now deal of interest. cations for the Youth Exchange to read over. the school entrance. It was the second ma­ it just happened again and many of us knew One of the hot topics on peoples' minds In total, fifteen students signed up to cam­ jor incident this school year at Lakeville, a something had to be done," stated Sabrina is the statement by President Clinton that paign with Young Socialists for Harris and suburb of the Minneapolis and St. Paul. Kirkpatrick, one of the Black students who he will support a nationwide curfew for Garza or for more information about the The next night, a group of students came helped initiate the purple ribbon campaign. people under 17. campaign. We sold four new issues of the together to discuss the incident and orga­ Another student said, "Next year's go­ "They treat us like we're a bunch of crimi­ Militant, two back issues, and got dozens of nized a purple ribbon campaign in protest. ing to be different because we are not going nals. Our school is built like a fortress, with campaign brochures in students' hands. In On the final two days of class, hundreds of to stand for any of this," pointing to the area no windows to even see outside, they have addition, we received several small contri­ the 1,200 students at Lakeville wore purple where the racial slur was bleached. guards, some with guns, walking through butions toward the campaign and a couple ribbons, condemning the attack. The incident has further polarized the the hallways and now Clinton wants a cur­ students gave us the names of teachers to Some of the 12 Black students who go to school. Some students refused to wear a few. What's going on?" asked a sophomore look up in the fall to get classroom speak­ school here, their parents, and friends called purple ribbon. Two students said they heard student. ing engagements for our candidates. on the newspapers, radio, TV stations and about the incident on the news, but did not When I mentioned the curfew issue to elected officials to denounce the incident. know what happened and did not really care. another group of students, one remarked, Jack Willey is a member of the Young So­ After learning about the incident on the As we campaigned at the school entrance, "The Democrats and Republicans, they are cialists in St. Paul, Minnesota. June 24, 1996 The Militant 3 CAMPAIGNING FOR THf SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE IN 1996 'I've been looking for a way to end oppression' BY STEFANIE TRICE Harris and Garza, a 24-year-old auto NEWARK, New Jersey -At a pizza worker joined the Young Socialists, and a joint outside the Ford assembly plant in Guatemalan construction worker asked to Edison, New Jersey, James Harris met to join the Socialist Workers Party. Garza is discuss politics with 12 of the plant's United the SWP's candidate for vice-president of Auto Workers members on June 10. Harris the United States. was accompanied by Tom Alter, the Young Her first stop was visiting garment work­ Socialists leader who has been touring with ers during two lunch periods at a mop fac­ him, as well as an entourage of local cam­ tory organized by the Union of Needle­ paign supporters. trades, Industrial and Textile Employees Harris, the Socialist Workers candidate (UNITE). "Democrats and Republicans Militant/Bob Miller for U.S. president, and Alter had begun the want to cut back the only items in the fed­ James Harris (fourth from the left) discuss politics with Ford workers in Edison day with an interview by the daily Bergen eral budget that are spent on millions of dictates. The first person to speak in the dis­ cans," she said. "We urge working people Record, which published a substantial ar­ working people - Social Security, Medic­ cussion after Garza's presentation said that to look around the world at other oppressed ticle on Harris's campaign the next day. aid, and welfare payments," Garza said. the University of Georgia at Athens "gen­ people's struggles and see what we can do "I've heard about democracy all my life "They don't touch the rest of the budget that erates a labor pool of young people for the to join our fights together." but I've never seen it in action. Would a goes to the rich." Several workers nodded local restaurants and industries. It means a socialist government still be operated by and said, "That's right." Clint I vie and Karolina Bjornheden, both lot of young workers here are paid below certain departments?" asked one of the auto Jamaal, an 18-year-old who recently members of Young Socialists for Harris and minimum wage and subject to abusive con­ Garza (YSHG), urged the other young workers. moved to Atlanta from a small town in South ditions - like if you are 5 minutes late they people present to "go out on campaign tables "The problem now is not governmental Carolina, and Angela, an army veteran and dock you a whole hour's pay. You are here to meet other youth and learn from the dis­ forms, it's who the government serves," former postal worker, sat down with the vice in the deep South talking about unionism cussions." They invited others to go with Harris replied. "The U.S. government is or­ presidential candidate for about 20 minutes and workers fighting for our rights - we ganized for the rich; we're fighting for a of discussion. Garza then moved from table them on the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange trip. need that." Also attending the meeting was a textile workers and farmers government, that to table talking with workers from the At the campaign rally that wound up the serves the majority. In Cuba, costs for re­ United States, Colombia, Mexico, and Haiti. worker who drove up from LaGrange, Geor­ tour, one third of the participants were gia, about two hours from Atlanta, to hear tirement and education are guaranteed by During the next lunch period, Paul, a young workers or students. Campaign sup­ Garza. A reporter from the area Spanish­ the state. Why can a poor country do this?" young worker who is Black and helped or­ porters here had invited Ken Piaro, a mem­ language newspaper came to the rally to in­ "I was drawn to this movement because ganize the union at the plant two years ago, ber of the Movement in Solidarity with the terview the socialist candidate. as my experience as a Black man," said an­ quizzed the socialist candidate more about Ogoni People (MOSOP), who recently was At the campaign rally, industrial workers other worker. "I've been looking for the way the Cuban revolution. He has been reading forced into exile by death threats from the and others present contributed $1,032 to the to end my oppression. It seems to me now the book Episodes ofthe Cuban Revolution­ Nigerian military regime. The Ogoni people $90,000 socialist campaign fund and that it is innate in capitalism in general. How ary War by Ernesto Che Guevara. have been fighting Shell Oil's destruction pledged another $435 pledged. does socialism deal with that?" Another highlight of the tour was the 30 of their farmland and have been subject to "In Cuba," Harris said, "white barbers youth who came to Jittery Joe's Cafe in Ath­ brutal repression by the Nigerian govern­ wouldn't cut Blacks' hair. With a revolu­ ens, Georgia, to hear Garza speak. The event Stefanie Trice is a member of the United ment. Garza welcomed Piaro 's participation. Transportation Union in Newark.Ellen tionary government, this was changed by had been organized by two young people "This shows how opposite the socialist cam­ Haywood is a member UNITE Local 2523 racist barbers' shops being shut down. Only who attended a Memorial Day weekend paign is from the Democrats and Republi- in Atlanta. after this action was taken, upon orders of BBQ for the Georgia Socialist Workers can- the Cuban militia, did they cut the customer's hair. Racist divisions within the working class don't come from us, they come from the ruling class." On the road petitioning for socialism When asked about jobs going overseas, Harris responded, "The same people who BY JOSHUA CARROLL with Harris, who was in New York as a part thize and even agree with many people's hire and fire you are the same ones who will BIRMINGHAM, Alabama- On Friday, of his campaign tour. He decided on the spot motivation for not voting: there's no capi­ tell you that immigrants take your jobs. We May 31, this reporter and Andrew Feine to come along and help out. Ten hours later talist candidate who is offering any solu­ start from the right to a job for all working made our way here. Feine is a Yale Univer­ we took off for Alabama. tion worth workers' support anyway. We people anywhere." At the end of the dis­ sity student who will be participating in the At the meeting, Andrew and Antonio said that the Democrats and the Republi­ cussion, four people at the meeting signed upcoming U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange. Both Olivo, a student at New York Technical col­ cans are completely bought stock-lock-and­ up to get involved in the campaign. of us have been active in the New York U.S.­ lege, decided they wanted to support the barrel by the landlords, big-businessmen, Cuba Youth Exchange Committee. socialist campaign by going out to picket and bankers. lines, demonstrations, and other social pro­ With the help of other volunteers from BY ELLEN HAYWOOD We came here to help get 8,500 signa­ test actions to present a working-class al­ the Birmingham area, however, we were ATLANTA, Georgia -The five-day tures on petitions to put James Harris and ternative to the Democrats and the Repub­ able to get 2,200 signatures, including tour of Laura Garza here registered gains Laura Garza on the ballot in Alabama. I vol­ licans. Both signed up as Young Socialists nearly 200 at Birmingham's Gay Pride for the socialist movement. Six youth at­ unteered for this trip a few days earlier. An­ for Harris and Garza. March on June 9. Andrew was the top peti­ tended a meeting of Young Socialists for drew attended a house meeting on May 30 What you do when you petition is briefly tioner during the five-day period he was explain what the socialist campaign is about, there - getting 36 in his very first hour and then ask if the person would like to sign alone. That first hour was hard to match for up to put Harris and Garza on the ballot. the rest of the week, but we were able to Rallies, picnics raise Inoney The two main places we petitioned over the average over 20 signatures per hour. next few days were in a Wal-Mart parking Among other supporters who helped out BY CLIVE TURNBULL president have stepped up their efforts to lot and outside the building where people petitioning were four Young Socialists for NEWARK- Supporters of James Har­ collect funds for the 1996 Socialist Work­ pay their utilities bills. Harris and Garza here. Three of these people ris for president and Laura Garza for vice ers campaign. Donations totaling nearly The response was really good. I would expressed interest in coming to the Interna­ $13,400 from around the country were say over two-thirds of the people who actu­ tional Socialist Conference in Oberlin, Ohio, Contribute to the Socialist mailed in- the biggest one-week collec­ ally stopped to listen to us ended up sign­ next month (see ad on front page). We were Workers $90,000 tion to date. But there's plenty of work still ing the petition. Some of them said they also able to recruit two more young people ahead to meet the $90,000 goal by July 1. 1996 Campaign rund would vote for William Clinton, but thought as Young Socialists for Harris and Garza, In Newark, more than $1,100 in donations it was important to have alternative choices one of whom subscribed to the Militant. Goal Paid Percent and pledges was raised at aJune 9 campaign on the ballot. Others simply agreed when Volunteers are needed to petition there Philadelphia 4,500 3.452 77% rally of 50 people. Harris shared the floor Andrew and I said, "Working people can't full time between now and July 3. Help is Detroit 3,500 2,495 71% with Marie Antoine, calling for support for look for the lesser evil among candidates also needed for other petitioning efforts: her brother Max, who had just been bru­ Newark 5,000 2,999 60% who speak for a few already wealthy fami­ July 10-August 20 in New York; July­ tally beaten by the cops. Pittsburgh 5,000 2,900 58% lies, but have to do something different to August in Washington, D.C.; as well as in "Campaign supporters in Seattle orga­ defend our class interests." Utah, Minnesota, Iowa, Vermont, Rhode Seattle 5,000 2,875 58% nized a picnic fund-raiser over the Memo­ Some people who initially didn't want to Island, and Washington state. Twin Cities 5,000 2,431 49% rial Day weekend that included an auction sign would flatly state, "I don't vote." We Boston 3,500 1,675 48% of items from Cuba," wrote supporter Kathy frequently won these people to sign our pe­ Joshua Carroll is a member ofthe National Houston 2,000 925 46% Wheeler. "Enclosed is $2,115 we raised at tition when we explained that we sympa- Committee of the Young Socialists. Greensboro 1,500 690 46% the event." Miami 2,000 915 46% Supporters in San Francisco organized a barbeque, also over the Memorial Day Peoria 1,200 510 43% weekend, where $883 was collected. Washington, D.C. 2,000 800 40% Contributions to the campaign cover ex­ San Francisco 10,000 3,921 39% penses of the working class candidates to Salt Lake City 2,000 725 36% keep them on the campaign trail around the Des Moines 600 211 35% country and the world. Greg McCartan, the Brooklyn 7,000 2,455 35% SWP national campaign director, said Har­ Morgantown 500 175 35% ris will be traveling to St. Louis to lend soli­ Birmingham 3,200 1,098 34% darity to workers on strike against Atlanta 2,000 570 29% McDonnell Douglas, and plans to attend the National NAACP convention in early July. Los Angeles 8,000 2,077 26% Garza will attend the annual convention Chicago 5,000 1,240 25% of the National Organization for Women, New York 7,000 1,531 22% which will take place June 28-30 in Las Cleveland 1,200 30 3% Vegas. Anyone interested to join Garza at Total 86,700 36,701 42% the gathering should contact supporters in Should be 90,000 54,000 60% Salt Lake City or Los Angeles (see direc­ tory on page 12). 4 The Militant June 24, 1996 SELL THE BOOKS WORKERS OF THE WORLD NEED

,,., .. _-.- .. --.. ------_, -- -- ' ' ' Join the campaignt()

BYIDLDACUZCO tiona/, during the final week "Sales in Australia got off to a good start of the international sub­ in June when a team of Pathfinder support­ scription drive and beyond. ers visited Melbourne to take part in the The initial results of an annual national consultation of the Austra­ international sales and re­ lia-Cuba Friendship Society," writes Linda porting team in Germany are AUSTRALIA 36 10 28% 36 10 28"fi) 29 Harris. "We found a lot of interest in the good as well. On their first day in Berlin, socialist work­ Militant's coverage of the recent conference CANADA of trade unionists in Cuba. All the copies we ers from Sweden, the United Toronto 29 32% 70 0 0% 29 63 had of the their theses were snatched up, States, and the United King­ 90 160 18% including two sold with introductory subs dom sold 10 Militants and Montreal 72 19 26% 64 0 0% 136 19 14% 37 to the Militant." The team also sold a copy Pathfinder titles for a total Vancouver 36 4 11% 28 0 0% 64 4 6% so of New International no. 10, with the article of $72. The activists also Total 198 52 24% 162 0 0% 360 52 17% 87 "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and visited to two commercial Goal/Should be 220 66 30%. 92 27.6 30% 312 93.6 300ft> War," and one of the Spanish-language distributors, taking orders for 38 books, including two Nueva Internacional no. 2, on Che Guevara. NEW ZEALAND They also signed up two members for the New Internationals. Auckland 24 37% 39 Pathfmder Readers Club. While in town, they Jerry Freiwirth from 65 visited a campus bookstore and received an Houston reported that so­ Christchurch 28 4 14% 13 order for 13 titles. cialist workers attending the Total 93 28 30% 52 This is one illustration of the possibilities Labor Party convention in for combining sales of revolutionary books Cleveland June 6-9 got a SWEDEN good hearing. "Our sales fig­ with subscriptions to the Militant, Stockholm 40 0 O% 60 0 0% Perspectiva Mundial, and New Interna- ures include 13 Militant subscriptions, one Perspectiva UNITED KINGDOM MUit(j.nt··•····.suJbSStipti8h pri~~ Mundial sub­ London 95 34 36% 98 98 100% 87 f

BY RON RICHARDS announced there will be a march than to crush them," a report SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico-Activists are on July 4 in support of their re­ issued by the group stated. "The waging a campaign to free 15 Puerto Rican lease. [maximum security] unit should patriots held in jails in the United States. Radio announcements are be closed immediately." The effort is growing here, in Puerto Rican being aired by well known mu­ Under the pressure of groups communities in the United States, and else­ sician Willie Colon, asking like Amnesty International the where. The harsh sentences that the prison­ people to write Clinton de­ unit in question was closed and ers received has led some political figures manding the release of the pris­ the conditions for the prisoners who oppose independence for this U.S. oners. The goal is to create a has improved marginally. colony to support their release as a gesture campaign similar to the one that In 1987 the family of Edwin of reconciliation. They were not convicted forced Washington to release Cortes was traveling from Chi­ of killing anyone but have served more time several nationalist prisoners in cago to Pennsylvania to visit in prison than the average convicted mur­ 1979. These activists were in him in prison when they had an derer. The majority of the 15 have been in­ U.S. prisons for more than 25 automobile accident. As a result carcerated for 16 years on charges of sedi­ years for launching attacks on his brother, Julio, was confined tious conspiracy. the temporary residence of U.S. to a wheelchair. Julio can no More than 100 people gathered on two president Harry Truman and the longer visit his brother in prison Militant/ Susan Apstein U.S. Congress. because the visiting room of the days' notice here to attend a public forum March in August 1986 demanding freedom for Puerto Rican fight­ The 15 prisoners currently prison is on the second floor and to demand freedom for these prisoners. The ers in U.S. jails. The banner reads 'Freedom for Puerto Rican po­ held in the United States include is not wheelchair accessible. principal speaker was U.S. Congressman litical prisoners; Independence for Puerto Rico.' Luis Gutierrez from Chicago. The April 22 two of the "Hartford 15" defen­ The campaign to support the forum was sponsored by the Journalists dants. In that case, 15 oners are just like others, they are treated release of the prisoners has Association and was held at the offices of independentistas were arrested in 1985-86 harsher than the average inmate. Federal law gained some international support. Two win­ the Bar Association. and charged with being members of the allows prisoners to receive passes to attend ners of the Nobel Peace Prize, South Afri­ Other speakers at the meeting included Macheteros (the machete wielders); orga­ dying relatives or funerals but the Puerto can archbishop Desmond Tutu and Adolfo Chicago alderman Billy Ocasio, Cook nizing the robbery of $7 million from a Wells Rican prisoners have been denied this right. Perez Esquivel, have endorsed the campaign County commissioner Roberto Maldonado Fargo armored car in Hartford, Connecti­ Federal regulations also state that prisoners as has Coretta Scott King, the widow of Rev. and attorney Jan Susler, who represents the cut; and using the money to fund revolu­ should be kept close to their families but this Martin Luther King Jr. prisoners. In the U.S. Congress support for tionary activities including giving toys to rule is also violated. Adolfo Matos is jailed Within Puerto Rico the supporters of the the release of the 15 has come from Repre­ poor children. in California and his family lives in New campaign include leaders of all three politi­ sentatives Nydia Velazquez and Jose Virtually none of the money was ever re­ York. Antonio Camacho is incarcerated in cal parties that appear on the ballot. Reli­ Serrano, both of whom were born in Puerto covered. They were convicted with wiretaps Pennsylvania, while his family lives in gious groups supporting the campaign in­ Rico and represent districts in New York that are illegal under the Puerto Rican con­ Puerto Rico. In some cases the prisoners clude the Episcopal, Baptist, Evangelical City. The city council of New York has also stitution. The federal cops say they are not have been transferred to other states with and Disciples of Christ churches. Many of supported the release of the prisoners. bound by the Puerto Rican constitution even no notice. In 1981 Elizam Escobar was these people and groups were listed in an Since the meeting the mayor of San Juan, though it was approved by the U.S. Con­ transferred to another prison in the middle open letter to President Clinton that was Hector Luis Acevedo, signed the open let­ gress. of a multi-day visit by his family. published in the New York Times. ter to President Clinton and the Mayagilez The other 13 prisoners were arrested in Amnesty International denounced the Only one prominent politician in Puerto municipal assembly approved a resolution the early 1980s and were accused of mem­ maximum security conditions under which Rico has attacked the campaign to free the calling for the release of the prisoners. bership in the Armed Forces of National some Puerto Rican fighters have been held. prisoners. Resident Commissioner Carlos Liberation (FALN). The FALN had taken "The conditions and the regiment are de­ Romero said they should not be released Step up campaign in Puerto Rico credit for a number of armed attacks in the liberately and gratuitously oppressive. The unless they show repentance. The Resident Part of the meeting was a discussion of United States but none of the people in constant and unjustified use of chains, the Commissioner is elected by the voters of the need to step up activities in Puerto Rico prison were charged in those attacks. Eleven repeated strip searches, the almost total ab­ Puerto Rico and is a non-voting member of in support of these fighters. Up to this point, of them lived in the district in Chicago that sence of privacy, the claustrophobic absence the House of Representatives of the United the campaign has largely been based out of Gutierrez represents. They were well known of sensory stimulation, the restriction of States. Romero was governor when the Chicago. Campaign leader Luis Nieves in the Puerto Rican community as fighters freedom of movement, the absence of lib­ 1970s campaign to free the nationalist pris­ spoke about plans to organize door-to-door against racism and for social justice. erty to choose their own activities and the oners succeeded in forcing Washington to activities. Since the meeting, it has been Although Washington claims these pris- limited range of contacts cannot be other do so. He opposed that campaign as well.

From the pages of the Peoria Journal Star, Thesday, May 28, 1996 Little shop . of· socialists d The bookstore is called Pathfinder, and itS specialty is the ideas of famed revolutionaries

Meg Novak. left. David Mart~hall, center, and Angel Lariscy are three finder Bookstore, 915 N. Western Ave. The bookstore specializes in of the eight vOlunteers _who staff and run the newly opened Path- works by revolutionaries. intellectuals and labor leadens.

A recent Issue of the social­ bY c:ity. Peoria mtt '12 percent ist vreekly newspaper, •"'lte ol its monthlY sales' goal Short­ Store sponsors political discussions MUitant," edltorlallzed about ly before the bookstore etrorts to sen more books pUb­ opened. Tbe tigure lneludea 28 Pathftnder Bookstore. 915 auto J)lant: and a talk June lished by Pathtlnder and to In­ PaUU\nder books sold tbrOu«h N. Westem Ave.• describes 15 with James Harris ot At· crease the weekly's conunen:lal distribUtors ancf 18 itself as a "center for polltl· lanta. the SoelaJ1st Worker subscriptions. · 1101<1 by VOlunteera. cal books and diseuaion... Party's candidate tor presl· "Boctalists who are In the ''The MD1tant" and "Granma '1'he d1scussion part is a dent. industrial uniona are l'!ttinl . Intemat.ional," a Cuban news- retJU)ar FridaY night forum The book&Lore's reeular more books by revolutionary · c:e'kst.oa:. also available at the sponsored by "''be MW· hours are 5 to 7 p.m. ftghters and about worldng­ tant." a. news weekly. Wednesdays: 11 a.m. to 1 elass stnlggles Into their eo· John Greiner or the Peoria Upcoming diseu.ssiOns in· p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. Thurs­ workers' handll each month ... Peace Network was among elude a panel June 'I focus­ days and Fridays; 11 to those long-time Peorlans who a.m. They are beginning t.o reach signed inC on sexual harassment 3 p.m. Saturdays and noon out broadJ,y in working-class a tetter welcoming the allegations the Mitsublshi 2 p.m. Sundays. bookstore to town. . at to neighborhoods and on cam· Thouah Ore1ner is not exact· puses ••• Selllng subscriptions ly bowled over by Pathfinder's to those who'Ve been buying i

6 The Militant June 24, 1996 Washi~gton asserts domination in Europe NATO meettng reveals growing strains within Atlantic imperialist alliance

BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS These events have created "The U.S. will continue to problems for imperialism be involved in all the crises by producing "violence" NATO will face in the future," and "instability," said State Department spokes­ Thatcher said. man Nicholas Burns. "The "Market reforms" by U.S. considers itself to be a Russian president Boris European power." Bums made Yeltsin and other pro­ these comments after the June capitalist politicians in 3 meeting of the foreign min­ Eastern and Central Eu­ isters of NATO member coun­ rope have not led to re-es­ tries, which took place in Ber­ tablishment of capitalism lin. and bourgeois democracy The gathering highlighted but to a lowering of the the strains among the compet­ standard of living that is despised by most ing imperialist states in the working people. North Atlantic Treaty Organi­ "The _absence of the legal and customary zation as Washington asserted foundations of a free economy led to a dis­ once again its political and torted 'robber capitalism,' " she said, "with military domination in Europe. little appeal to ordinary people." Headlines in the big-business Thatcher's warnings were reminiscent of press tried to paint a picture of statements by former U.S. president Rich­ a "refashioned" and perhaps ard Nixon four years ago. ''The United States more united NATO as a result and the West risk snatching defeat in the cold of this meeting. But what one !Vfargaret Thatcher, inset, speaking in Fulton, Missouri, said end of Cold War has ushered instabil­ war from the jaws of victory," wrote Nixon can point to in the aftermath Ity. Attempts to reimpose capitalism. in ~astern Europe have had "little appeal to ordinary people." in a 1992 memorandum entitled "How to of Berlin are the ongoing at­ Above, over 10,000 workers march m N1s, Yugoslavia, May 13 demanding back pay and work. Lose the Cold War." tempts of a declining British enlargement could progress on the basis Nixon assailed the administration of empire to hang on to of War ended five' years ago," Thatcher said. "It George Bush for meager aid to Yeltsin, Washington's military coattails in Europe to rejection of France's proposals," the French ended amid high hopes of a New World foreign minister said. Order. But those hopes have been grievously whom he called the most pro-Western leader confront a fledgling Franco-German bloc led Probes by Washington to incorporate disappointed. Somalia, Bosnia, and the rise of Russia in history." U.S. aid and invest­ by Bonn. these workers states into NATO have also ments in Russia, he said, are "pathetically The Berlin assembly, and other interna­ of Islamic militancy all point to instability run into fierce opposition by Moscow. inadequate." He proposed pouring in aid tional gatherings that dealt with similar and conflict rather than cooperation and During a visit to Prague in mid-March, funds in the range of $20 billion a year for a questions this spring, also confirmed that harmony. U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher "The international bodies, in which our five-year period. the initial euphoria of the exploiting classes ~i~on 's calls went unheeded. While capi­ over the post-1989 attempts to re-establish said NATO enlargement was "on track and hopes were reposed anew after 1989 and will happen." General Pavel Grachev, talist mvestments continued to trickle into capitalism in Eastern Europe and the So­ 1991," said the right-wing politician, refer­ Russia's defense minister, responded a week Russia, they have been very low compared viet Union evaporated long ago. ring mainly to the United Nations and the later that NATO expansion was the biggest to those in Eastern and Central Europe. From Giving the appearance of concessions to European Union, "have given us neither threat to his country's security and called January 1991 to October 1995, foreign in­ French demands, Washington agreed in prosperity nor security. There is a pervasive for a coordinated campaign among the vestments in Russia, with 148 million Berlin that NATO may occasionally supply anxiety about the drift of events." former Soviet republics against enlargement. The period known as the Cold War was people, amounted to $4.9 billion. Hungary, the Western European Union (WEU) - The day after the Berlin meeting, Kohl with 10 million citizens, received twice as which Paris and Bonn are pushing as the enunciated by U.S. president Harry Truman urged other members of the Atlantic alliance in a 1947 speech launching a massive mili­ much in the same period. ~merging military arm of capitalist powers to take into account Moscow's concern over tary aid program to the rightist regime in Meanwhile, conditions oflife and toil for m western Europe - military forces and the possible establishment of NATO struc­ Greece, which was threatened by a worker working people in Russia have continued equipment for European-only actions. But tures near Russia's borders. "We want solu­ and peasant uprising. The policy outlined to worsen. Life expectancy for men dropped this U.S. military hardware can only be used from63.8yearsin 1990to58yearsin 1995. to carry out "humanitarian relief'' and tions which Russia, Ukraine and our [east­ in that speech, which became known as the ern] neighbors can accept," the German Truman., Doctrine, sought. to prevent the The mortality rate per 1,000 ~ople soared ' 1search-and-rescue" operations, and low­ chancellor said. spread of anticapitalist revolutions like those from 11.2 in 1990 to 15:7 in 1994. Unem­ intensity "peacekeeping" missions. ployment has risen from 7.5 percent to 8.2 U.S. and British representatives pushed that took place in Yugoslavia in 1945-46 and percent, while real wages for Russian work­ in a different direc,:tion, a stance that is bound later in China. 'WEU not suitable for combat' ers plunged 13 percent last year. Millions to exacerbate conflicts with the Russian During that period Washington devoted "I don't see any serious possibility that of workers are frequently not paid on time, government. Prominent conservative poli­ huge resources, both economic and military, the WEU could be suitable to carry out a while prices of basic goods have soared. ticians from Britain and the United States to exert pressure on the workers states of serious combat-related task," commented More than 500,000 teachers went on strike were among the main sponsors and partici­ Eastern and Central Europe, the Soviet British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind. last September to protest unpaid wages and pants at a May 10-12 conference in Prague Union, China, and elsewhere. An integral Alll6 NATO member states will have to low pay. dubbed "New Atlantic Initiative." Former part of this effort was Washington's second approve NATO participation in any opera­ In his election campaign against Yeltsin, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher militarization drive, the first being the U.S. tions initiated by European governments, Communist Party candidate Gennady and Henry Kissinger, former U.S. secretary military buildup in World War II. With the which means the Pentagon maintains its Z7uganov has been exploiting the resulting of state under Richard Nixon and Gerald second interimperialist slaughter barely veto power. An article in the June 4 Finan­ discontent among working people in Rus­ Ford, topped the list of honored guests. over, the U.S. rulers, who emerged supreme cial Times said the agreement states that "the sia. Thatcher described attitudes of workers Thatcher, in particular, pushed for integra­ with Japan's surrender in 1945, felt the need U.S.-led bloc would 'keep under review' the opposed to the effects of "market reforms" tion of Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Re­ to put back together a military force that way its assets were being deployed." Fur­ as "an irrational nostalgia for a totalitarian public into NATO. Her remarks in Prague could be used against the struggles of work­ thermore, any military mission must be di­ order without totalitarian methods." echoed the themes of a speech she gave ear­ ers and peasants the world over. rected by NATO's commanding officer, al­ Moscow is increasingly becoming hos­ lier this spring in the United States. NATO was founded in 1949 with this aim, ways a U.S. general. tile to Washington, Thatcher warned. "Who­ codifying Washington's immense economic French foreign minister Herve de ever wins the forthcoming Russian elections No 'New World Order' but instability and military superiority in Europe in the C:harette made it clear after this meeting that will almost certainly institute a more asser­ aftermath of World War II. Hundreds of his government will not fully rejoin NATO's tive foreign policy, one less friendly to the While the real conflicts between the im­ thousands of U.S. troops, a string of ground military structure until Washington allows perialist powers and the long-term stakes are U.S." its allies in Europe a greater role in orga­ and air military bases across western Europe, .. ·:A revival of Russian power," she stated, often veiled, Thatcher dealt with them with and the U.S. sixth fleet based in the Medi­ nizing military operations. characteristic bluntness in her U.S. speech. will create new problems -just when the In a recognition of U.S. dominance in terranean remain today the cornerstone of world is struggling to cope with problems She spoke at Westminster College in Fulton, U.S. dominance in Europe. Europe, Paris announced six months ago it Missouri, on March 9. The occasion was the which the Soviet collapse has itself created will begin the process of rejoining NATO's 50th anniversary of the address by her pre­ Capitalism not re-established in Russia outside the old borders of the USSR." military wing. France pulled out of NATO decessor Winston Churchill on the same site. "The world remains a very dangerous in 1966, under Charles de Gaulle's presi­ In that talk, misnamed the "Sinews of The crumbling of the Stalinist regimes in place," Thatcher said, "menaced by more Eastern Europe and the USSR at the onset dency, over U.S. rejection of giving any real Peace," Churchill declared that an "iron cur­ unstable and complex threats than a decade of the 1990s marked the end of the cold war. decision making power to European gov­ tain" had descended across Europe. He was Continued on Page 11 ernments within the Atlantic alliance. referring to the Soviet victory in World War At the same time, the recent NATO meet­ II and the subsequent establishment of work­ ing helped spur closer military cooperation ers states in Central and Eastern Europe that In New International #10 between Paris and Bonn. During a Franco­ closed off large hunks of the continent to Imperialism's March towards German summit on June 5, just two days capitalist exploitation. Churchill called for after Berlin, French president Jacques a "special relationship" between London and also: Fasdsm and War Chirac and German chancellor Helmut Kohl Washington that would form the core of an • What the 1987 Stock Market Crash Foretold pledged to a give a "new push" to their mili­ imperialist military alliance in Europe to • Defending Cuba, Defending Cuba's Socialist tary alliance "in a European perspective." contain any extension of the revolutionary Revolution This will include new elaboration of joint overturn of capitalist property relations. The • The Curve of Capitalist Development s 14.00 military strategies and a possible upgrade British prime minister also advocated main­ of their 27 bilateral arms programs. taining a monopoly of atomic weapons In New International #7 within North America and the United King­ Battle focused on Central Europe Opening Guns of World War III dom. While in Berlin, Charette insinuated that "Just as Churchill had broken the eupho­ also: • Washington's Assault on Iraq Paris wrested concessions from Washing­ ria and warned of dangers in the aftermath • Communist Policy in Wartime ton by threatening to block attempts to en­ of the Second World War his heir as well as in Peacetime large NATO. The U.S. government has [Thatcher] ... warned of dangers in the af­ • Lessons from the Iran- Iraq War s 12.00 strongly supported admitting the former termath of the Cold War," noted an article Available from bookstores, including those listed on page 12, or write Path­ Warsaw Pact members in Central Europe - in the April 8 National Review, a right-wing finder. 410 West St.: New_York, NY 10014. Tel: (212) 741-0690. Fax: (212) Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic - U.S. magazine. 72~-0150. A!so avrulable m Spamsh, French and Swedish. When ordering by to the Atlantic alliance. "I don't see how "The long twilight struggle of the Cold mrul, please mclude $3 to cover shipping and handling. June 24, 1996 The Militant 7 Cuban doctors lend a hand in rural S. Africa BY GREG ROSENBERG lucrative employ­ NKANDLA, South Africa- High atop ment in the private a mountain in the verdant landscape of sector. northern KwaZulu-Natal province lies "Cuba helps Ekombe Hospital. The 170-bed complex, many countries in run by the South African government, is the Africa with health only full-service medical facility in reach care," Gonzalez for tens of thousands of blacks living in des­ said, consistent with titute rural villages that dot this rolling coun­ the revolution's Militant/GregRosenberg tryside. For more than two years, Ekombe course of aiding the had no doctor. In February, Dr. Abel Abel Gonzalez, left, is one of 96 Cuban doctors who have al­ oppressed through­ ready arrived to help staff hospitals in rural South Africa. Gonzalez and a colleague arrived to assume out the world. "Cu­ full-time duties -from Cuba. Above are Cuban doctor Norys Mayo Castro (left) and Lulu ban blood was Madalane, ANC health policy coordinator. "The people here have good opinions of spilled in Africa. us," said Gonzalez in an interview. The Cu­ Many Cubans died bans were greeted on arrival by ululating fighting the [former] heard of the de- tive care, but it's not easy because of the workers from the hospital kitchen. South African army in Angola. But without feat inflicted on living conditions. We must talk to the people Ekombe - some 40 kilometers from the that, there would have been no liberation of Pretoria's armies at Cuito Cuanavale in about food, rest, vitamins. In Cuba, for in­ nearest paved road- lies in the heart of the Namibia- and no president Mandela." southern Angola in 1988. "This humiliated stance, we provide vitamins to all pregnant old apartheid KwaZulu "homeland." The the racists," she said. "They thought they women. region is associated with strong support for Expansion of free health care were the bosses around southern Africa and In April, Mayo saw 995 patients, andre­ the Inkatha Freedom Party, which actively Lulu Madalane, coordinator of health suddenly discovered they weren't- they ported that in May the figure would rise. opposed the deployment of Cuban doctors policy for the ANC, enthusiastically offered were dying on the battlefield. They still don't Mayo added that in Cuba, she is a family in South Africa. "I like to work in Africa," to drive this reporter to visit another Cuban want to talk about it! That history has to be doctor. "I would never have so many pa­ said Gonzalez, who comes from Las Tunas doctor working in Sebokeng township in taught in South Africa. Many of our own tients in a month. But I know everybody in province in Cuba, specializing in obstetrics Gauteng province. She reported that due to people still don't know," she concluded. my neighborhood - their diseases and his­ and gynecology. "The people are suffering legislation enacted earlier this year, primary South African health minister Nkosazana tories. People with chronic illnesses are seen too much. Tuberculosis is very common health care is now by law free to all South Zuma announced June 3 that an additional every three months. The healthy are seen here. The TB ward is full- all30 beds." Africans. The challenge, Madalane stressed, 200 Cuban doctors would arrive this month twice a year." An average of 100 people a day make is making that medical care accessible to all, to bolster the free health care program. Dis­ Some nights, Mayo works at nearby their way to the hospital. Gonzalez stressed especially in rural areas. cussions are also being held with several Sebokeng Hospital. "There are many people that having trained doctors posted at this In the three years leading up to May, 3,411 European governments to see if their assis­ with inflicted wounds, especially on the facility could often make the difference be­ nurses in Gauteng alone resigned from gov­ tance can be secured. weekends, from bullets and knives. Wounds tween life and death. "For example, in late ernment hospitals. Most joined the exodus to the chest, back and abdomen. I saw some 'I want to help the people' April there was a big accident here involv­ to the private sector in search of higher pay. wounds like these when I worked in Zam­ ing a minibus taxi. Eight people were hurt Nearly 800 of the most experienced nurses Norys Mayo Castro, who also hails from bia for two years -but I've never seen and one killed. Without a doctor two or three quit their jobs in the past year. Plans areal­ the Cuban province of Las Tunas, is the only these wounds in Cuba. more would have died." ready under way to build new clinics and physician at Empilisweni clinic, which Like Gonzalez, Mayo is on duty six days deploy mobile health centers in sprawling serves the population of Sebokeng. a week, but in practice often works every Volunteered on request of ANC squatter camps that continue to grow "I came to help the people," said the 30- day. She is the only doctor at the clinic. Pri­ Gonzalez is one of 96 Cuban doctors throughout South Africa, as well as train year-old Mayo. The Cuban health ministry, mary health-care nurses are being trained working at hospitals and clinics throughout more community health workers. In addi­ she said, had last year asked for volunteers to treat conditions like flu and hypertension. South Africa- 12 of them in this province. tion, the primary school feeding program, to work in rural South Africa. Those who Both doctors report the supply of medicines The Cubans volunteered for duty at the re­ an initiative of the ANC, provides meals to offered to help had to pass a battery of ex­ and equipment is largely adequate to treat quest of the African National Congress 5.5 million schoolchildren free of charge. ams, which included basic English, and tests patients. Mayo sends 30 percent of her sal­ (ANC)-led government to provide health "Bringing Cuban doctors here was anini­ of medical knowledge. Most, Mayo said, ary to the Cuban government and 27 per­ care in rural areas that face a critical short­ tiative of the ANC long before it got to gov­ had previously served in Africa. cent to her family. The doctor is excited age of trained physicians. ernment," she said. "Cuba offered, as did "The condition of the people varies. Some about a project she plans to initiate in the "We have economic problems in Cuba, few other countries." are very good. But many are very, very bad. near future to begin making calls to people 's· due fundamentally to the U.S. government Madalane, one of the thousands of ANC We came to help the latter group. Especially houses and shacks in Sebokeng to carry out blockade of our country," Gonzalez said. In members who went into exile as part of the those living in shacks - they have nothing. preventative treatment of tuberculosis. addition to his first concern - providing battle to overturn apartheid, recalled the "People come in with respiratory infec­ People begin lining up as early as 4:00 in medical care to those who need it - the impact of hearing of the Cuban internation­ tions, especially tuberculosis, a number one the morning at Empilisweni to see the doc­ doctor said that "my visit here permits me alist troops in Africa. Hundreds of thousands health problem in South Africa. There are tor. "It is so crowded that sometimes they to help my country and my family." He of Cubans volunteered to fight in Angola sexually transmitted diseases, malnutrition, go home without seeing anyone. Sometimes sends the Cuban government and family from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, help­ and pregnant women with anemia. it is not possible," Mayo said. "Cuba is not members a portion of his salary, which is ing to repel successive South African inva­ "In Cuba," Mayo pointed out, "we pro­ a rich country, but it is a medical power. In too low for many South African doctors who sions of that newly independent country. vide preventative care. But here it's cura­ Cuba, I never turned anybody away. We are have left the state hospitals to seek more Madalane was in Tanzania when she tive. I've tried to educate about preventa- a socialist country." U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange gains momentum BY BRIANtAYLOR Cuba Youth Exchange marched in the pa­ self' as they passed out hundreds of flyers were part of raising $110 toward the trip over NEW YORK- "Support the U.S.-Cuba rade together with the Housing Works con­ to marchers and observers. the weekend. Youth Exchange and help send youth to tingent. The Housing works activists were "When was the last time you've been to "Another victory was achieved when a Cuba!" That's what Jason Corley said to focusing on AIDS and its effects in the Cuba?" barked a Cuban-American who young steelworker from Warren decided to spectators while marching in the Puerto Latino community, as well as protesting a opposed the Cuban revolution. He jumped come to Cuba with us," Lewis said. "He Rican Day Parade June 9. Over a half a ban on political issues by march organiz­ over the police barrier, charged at the con­ considered the chance to see Cuba a 'once million people turned out for the event. As ers. All organizations with political mes­ tingent, and began shouting, poking and in a lifetime opportunity,' and said if he the July 1 deadline to have applications and sages were denied official access, so a few pushing on the banner holders. couldn't get time off his job, he would quit money turned in for the Youth Exchange joined other contingents that were sympa­ Almost immediately, marchers from the it." Altogether, there are now four people comes closer, young people throughout the thetic. Nietos and Young Lords contingents and in Cleveland going on the Youth Exchange. country are reaching out to publicize, ex­ A couple of the activists planning to go several others came to defend the Youth Aislinn Pulley, a leader of the local Youth pand participation in, raise funds, and get to Cuba received a good response from Exchange. "Back up man, they can be here Exchange committee in Chicago reports endorsements for the trip to Cuba. members of the ProLibertad Campaign, like anybody else can!" shouted a youth that three people there are going on the trip According to the Cuba Information which is fighting for the release of all Puerto from Nietos. Some of the spectators yelled, so far. They are planning a host of events Project, which organizes travel for the trip, Rican political prisoners. Activists collected "Leave'em alone." With this show of soli­ to raise money, including a June 16 barbe­ over 130 youth had applied by June 10. about $25 in donations for their trip to Cuba darity, the right-winger was subdued and the cue and a June 26 showing of Strawberry Seven people from the New York U.S.- in milk jugs labeled "Go See Cuba for Your- police, who watched the entire event tran­ and Chocolate, a popular Cuban film about spire without intervening, eventually re­ the experience of homosexuals in Cuba. Get.f:,ai:lkltcattoriJii'{ioilv1i!tiie .··: :- .' · . ·: ·~ :--: ·· · · · ·· · ··. ·.. : moved him. They also plan to march in the Puerto Rican 'This past weekend marked a large suc­ Day Parade. cess," said Ryan Lewis, referring to work In Miami, one new person recently de­ U.$.·Cuba Youth EXcllange being done in Cleveland. Activists build­ cided to go on the trip. Of the current eight The National Network on Cuba is ing the Youth Exchange set up a literature participants, one learned about the youth organizing a delegation of young table outside of the Labor Party Advocates exchange at a meeting of the Haitian rights workers and students from around convention there June 7-9. "We distributed group Veye Yo. They will be showing the the United States for a two-week trip several packets put together for donations," to Cuba this summer. The group will movie I am Cuba, and organizing to have a spend most of its time in the prov­ he said. One packet contained the thesis of party to raise money for the trip. inces of Santiago and Guantanamo, the Central Organization of Cuban Work­ Some of the Youth Exchange participants with a few days in Havana at the end ers (CTC) and a series of articles from the have taken the initiative to go to national of the trip. In addition to time spent Militant newspaper covering the 17th Con­ organizations and appeal to them to send working with Cubans, participants gress of the CTC which took place several delegations and endorse the trip. Reggie Ma­ will visit factories, farms, historic weeks ago. The other was a collection of son of the New York U.S.- Cuba Youth Ex­ sites, and other places of interest. For more information contact: The Youth Exchange is open to articles on the May Day mobilizations in change, also president of the student gov­ people between the ages of 15 and National Network on Cuba Cuba, speeches by leaders of the Cuban ernment at Borough of Manhattan Commu­ 35. The cost is $855 from Montreal, C/o Cuba Information Project Revolution, and information on the Youth nity College, says he plans to attend the $600 from Nassau, Bahamas. 198 Broadway, Suite 800 Exchange. Young people planning to go to United States Student Association confer­ Applications for the trip are due by July 1. New York, NY 10038 Cuba sold raffle tickets at a reportback meet­ ence this month to put the issue of the Cuba ing from the CTC congress June 9, which trip on the floor.

8 The Militant June 24, 1996 Working-class fighters Join with the and internationalists Socialist Alternative James Harris, a unionist and nity against police brutality. At the time anum­ member of the National Committee of the So­ ber of young Blacks had been killed by police • cialist Workers Party, has been involved in the SWAT units. Later Harris helped mobilize sup­ 1n 1996 "ight for Black rights, in mobilizations against porters of Black rights in Atlanta to join actions imperialism and its wars, and in working-class in Boston in defense of the battle for busing and politics for over three decades. Harris, 48, is a school desegregation. resident of Atlanta, a worker at the Hormel In 1977 Harris moved to New York to join meatpacking company, and a member of the the staff of the National Student Coalition United Food and Commercial Workers union. Against Racism, which had helped lead mobi­ Harris helped initiate recent protests in At­ lizations for school desegregation. He became lanta to condemn Washington's threats against a national chairperson of the coalition. James Harris -::uba and oppose the bipartisan drive to tighten In the late 1970s the SWP responded to the the economic embargo on that nation. He has first signs of growing capitalist economic cri­ for led union members of the Socialist Workers sis, employer attacks on the unions, and work­ Party in stepping up the defense of the social­ ing-class resistance by organizing to get a big ist revolution in Cuba among co-workers, and majority of its members into industrial unions. U.S. President in selling revolutionary books and newspapers Harris helped lead this effort, becoming a pro­ to fellow unionists. duction line worker at the Ford auto plant in This past April Harris was part of a delega­ Metuchen, New Jersey, in 1978 where he joined .ion of workers from the United States who the United Auto Workers. traveled to Cuba to participate in the 17th Con­ Harris later worked in a garment factory in gress of the Central Organization of Cuban Los Angeles as the party deepened its indus­ Workers. The delegation also visited worksites, trial turn by building fractions of party mem­ talked with fellow unionists in Cuba, and saw bers in the garment unions. In Los Angeles he first-hand the fighting spirit of workers in Cuba helped the branch reach out to the growing in face of the U.S. threats and embargo. numbers of immigrant workers coming into the Harris lived and worked in Detroit in the United States, and was the chairperson of the early 1990s and was a member of the United party in the city. Auto Workers. He helped build solidarity with He also participated in brigades to defend struggles by working people such as those of the Nicaraguan revolution in the mid-1980s, Laura Garza workers on strike against Caterpillar. Harris and joined a delegation to visit revolutionary spent months in Peoria, helping establish a Grenada in the early 1980s to tell the truth about for branch of the Socialist Workers Party there in the first revolution in a Black and English­ response to the battle by members of the UAW speaking country in the Caribbean. Vice President against Caterpillar. He has traveled to Trinidad, Grenada, Zim­ Born into a working-class family in Cleveland, babwe, and SouthAfrica to get revolutionary lit­ Harris's first political activity was in the civil erature into the hands of workers and others. rights movement. With growing protests against Harris served for a time as the national or­ racist discrimination, tens of thousands of Black ganization secretary of the SWP. He was a staff families in the city staged a school strike in the writer for the socialist newsweekly The Mili­ early 1960s, setting up "Freedom Schools" to tant in the late 1980s in New York. He helped study African-American history. cover the South African mass battle to bring On graduating from high school, Harris at­ down apartheid and the strike by members of tended Cleveland State University, where he was the International Association of Machinists at a founding member of the Black Student Union. Eastern Airlines. In September 1994, Harris He organized fellow students into demonstra­ traveled to South Africa to attend the Congress tions opposing the U.S. war against the Vietnam­ of South African Trade Unions convention. tion, and to report for the Militant during the time in the NAACP office during the battle to ese people as well as actions against racist prac­ A longtime advocate of independent work­ "rafters crisis" and subsequent U.S. threats in desegregate the Boston schools and helped tices of the college, which then had only a small ing-class political action, Harris participated in August 1994. As the Socialist Workers candidate build a march in Los Angeles to back the fight percentage of Black students. Harris became a the National Black Independent Political Party, for mayor of Miami in 1993, and a year later for for desegregation in Boston and Los Angeles. nember of the Student Mobilization Commit- formed in Philadelphia in November 1980. U.S. Congress, she participated in debates and In the 1970s, the unionization struggle by tee Against the War in Vietnam and later served Harris is also a member of the National As­ was an outspoken defender of the Cuban revo­ Chicano, Mexicano, and Filipino farm workers on its national staff in Washington, D.C. sociation for the Advancement of Colored lution. She advocated following the same road­ in California gained national prominence. Shortly afterward he joined and later became People and the Atlanta Network on Cuba. that of workers and farmers taking power and Garza participated in marches in the country­ a leader of the Young Socialist Alliance. Fielded overthrowing capitalism-throughout the side and in the cities, also building the boycott as a candidate for school board on the Socialist Laura Garza, currently a staff world. of grapes called by the United Farm Workers. Workers ticket in 1969, he quickly decided to writer for the Militant, has a 25-year record in Garza built protests in support of abortion With the growing weight of the struggles for join the SWP. the fight for socialism-from labor struggles to rights and joined in defending abortion clinics Chicano liberation and for the rights of immi­ A supporter of the Cuban revolution, Har­ battles for women's emancipation and Chicano targeted by rightists in Pensacola, Florida, grants from Mexico and Latin America, the ris participated in the second Venceremos Bri­ liberation. where two doctors and a clinic volunteer were SWP expanded its branches in the Southwest. gade to Cuba in 1969 along with hundreds of Prior to New York, Garza lived in Miami, murdered in 1993 and 1994. She joined others Garza moved to San Antonio, Texas, to build other youth from the United States. Brigade where she was a production worker and mem­ in initiating actions against police brutality in the party. There she helped establish a chapter members cut cane for a couple of months in an ber of the United Steelworkers of America. She Miami and in defending the Haitian refugees of the Chicano student group MEChA at the effort to maximize sugar production. Working helped organize meetings and protests against and opposing deportation of immigrant work­ University of Texas. Garza worked in several along with Cuban workers and meeting vol­ the U.S. embargo of Cuba, for the right to travel ers. Garza opposed the U.S. government sup­ factories organized by the International Union unteers from Vietnam, Korea, and elsewhere to the island, and in defense of free speech in port to Haiti's ruling rich and military and of Electrical workers, and later as a presser at a deepened his sense of internationalism. Miami. stood up against Washington's 1994 invasion Levi-Strauss plant, where she was a member Harris moved to Atlanta in the early 1970s, Garza visited Cuba several times, helping lead and occupation of the country. of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Work­ and joined in the struggle of the Black commu- delegations of youth to learn about the revolu- Born in New York, Garza, 37, joined class- ers Union. mates at her Garza volunteered for months at the Wash­

I junior high ington, D.C., mobilization office for a march school in a against the moves by the Carter administration Sign up to campaign for the socialist alternative walkout to to reintroduce the draft, part of Washington's protest response to the 1979 Iranian revolution and the ·0 SIGN ME UP AS A CAMPAIGN SUPPORTER AND KEEP ME INFORMED OF PROTESTS, Washington's anti-capitalist revolutions in Grenada and Nica­ I ragua. Garza also joined the staff for a 1980 na­ PICKET LINES, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES. war on Viet­ I nam. Her fam­ tional mobilization against U.S. intervention in 10 ENCLOSED IS A $_____ CONTRIBUTION. ily later moved Central America. IO I WANT TO INVITE A CANDIDATE TO SPEAK AT MY UNION, SCHOOL, OR ORGANIZATION. to Chicago, She was elected a national officer of the where she in­ Young Socialist Alliance in 1985, leading the lo ENCLOSED IS $1 0 FOR A 12-WEEK SUBSCRIPTION TO THE MILITANT, A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY, organization in actions to demand that Wash­ I volved fellow OR $6 FOR 4 MONTHS OF PERSPECTIVA MUNDIAL IN SPANISH. high school ington break all ties with the racist regime in students in the South Africa. 0 I WANT TO JOIN THE YOUNG SOCIALISTS. fight for wo­ Garza has traveled widely, helping lead 0 I AM INTERESTED IN ATIENDING THE SOCIALIST CONFERENCE JULY 6-9. men's rights, teams of socialists to sell Pathfinder books, the getting young Militant,and Perspectiva Mundial in Puerto Rico, 0 SEND ME ______COPIES OF THIS FLYER AT 1 0(l EACH (7 (l FOR 1 00 OR MORE.) women to a Mexico, and across the United States. Follow­ NAME ______conference in ing a Mexico City book fair last year, she took support of le­ part in a Militant reporting team to Chiapas, ADDRESS. ______galizing abor­ where she participated in a peasant congress. tion. She joined She also attended the international women's CITY ______STATE ______ZIP ______the Young So­ conference in Beijing last September. Garza is a member of the National Organization for PHONE UNION/SCHOOL/ORGANIZATION------cialist Alliance during this Women, an activist in New York in building Mail to: Socialist Workers 1996 Campaign, P.O. Box 2652, New York, NY 10009 struggle. solidarity with the Cuban revolution, and a Phone: (212) 328-1504 • Fax: (212) 328-1502 • CompuServe: 104124,1405 Garza vol­ member of the National Committee of the So­ unteered full- cialist Workers Party. To contact the Young Socialists call: (612) 644-0051

L------~ The Socialist Workers candidates defend their rights, and immigrants Buchanan, which seek to assemble a cadre that for local, statewide, and federal of­ are increasingly demanding equality will fight in the streets to defeat future work­ fice invite all who want to fight the under the law. They are responding ing-class struggles. They appeal to the resen'­ to Patrick Buchanan's ultrarightist ments, fears, and uncertainties of layers of the reactionary policies of the parties of immigrant bashing by saying, "My population to advance their reactionary no­ war, racism, and economic depres­ name's Jose. I'm here to stay!" Sub­ tions. They say openly and take to the logical sion-the Democrats and Republi­ stantial actions in defense of Black conclusion what more "respectable" politicians cans and other "third" parties that rights have taken place over the past say behind closed doors. year, including those against police accept capitalism-to join in cam­ brutality, for ending the death pen­ Defend the Cuban revolution paigning with us in 1996. alty against Mumia Abu-Jamal, and The example of the fight for sovereignty, ind1 in defense of affirmative action. pendence, and socialism that Washington seeks The socialist candidates provide a working­ In Eastern Europe and the former to wipe off the face of the earth is that of revo­ class voice in this campaign. We advocate work­ Soviet Union workers and working lutionary Cuba. Working people in Cuba are ing people chart a political course independent farmers are resisting the effects of the defending their revolution in face of U.S. of the two major capitalist parties. We need to capitalist market system. Despite ini- threats, while continuing to stand at the head rely on our own collective power, our unions, tial euphoria by the imperialists, of the fight for socialism. We oppose the mis­ and actions in the streets to advance our inter­ capitalism has not been restored in named "Cuban Liberty and Democratic Soli­ ests as a class. any of these countries because tens darity Act of 1996" -also referred to as tiL Our campaign stands with the struggles of of millions of people defend the so- Helms-Burton law signed by Clinton. It rein­ the oppressed and exploited against the increas­ cia! relations conquered with the forces the 36-year economic embargo of Cuba ingly brutal assault by the wealthy minority the abolition of the private ownership of ~ • world over. We wholeheartedly and uncondi­ the means of production. With the tionally support the right of Cuba to defend its crumbling of the Stalinist regimes, sovereignty and socialism. We back the actions working people there can now more of the oppressed in this country, and stand Laura Garza at a union rally in Florida. easily join with the struggles of workers in other shoulder to shoulder with all those who are parts of the world. fighting to lift up their conditions of life and The British rulers have been unable to stem labor. the schools, to introduce "order and discipline," the fight for Irish freedom. Nor have their coun­ We invite all those who want to be a part of and to promote "family values" as the answer terparts in Canada rolled back the battle for this campaign to attend the July 6-9 interna­ to the social crisis created by capitalism. independence of Quebec. The Palestinian and tional active workers and socialist educational Under the guise of "fighting crime," Clinton Lebanese people, in face of continued aggres­ conference that will be held in Oberlin, Ohio. recently put forward measures for a nationwide sion by Tel Aviv, refuse to accept anything short There, young people and workers from around curfew for teenage youth. Legislation institu­ of self-determination as their right. From Eu­ the world will discuss how to build a revolu­ tionalizing discrimination against gays by bar­ rope to SouthArnerica to South Africa and Asia, tionary movement that will fight to take power ring same-sex marriages is being prepared by working people continue to fight back in some­ times explosive and unexpected ways. Internationalism, not nationalism Depression conditions, social crises, and politi­ cal instability push to the fore inter-imperialist conflicts between Washington and its competi­ tors in Europe and Japan, and within Europe itself. Harsher nationalism and chauvinist ap­ peals are the stock-in-trade of these politicians as they attempt to bring their respective popu­ lations behind the "national" interests, be they trading policies or war moves. Underpinning this crisis are deflationary pressures spurred by the declining industrial Protest condemning police beating in Los nft! rate of profit. In a world where billions live without basic necessities, capitalism has created and further restricts travel to the island. Such a crisis of overproduction: too many goods are laws are a blow against to the ability of work­ produced for the wealthy owners of capital to ers and youth to learn for ourselves about the make a profit. This is the fuel for trade wars Cuban revolution. The U.S.-Cuba Youth Ex­ and conflicts between the imperialist powers; change, a brigade of young people that will visit it is behind the competition for new markets; Cuba in July at the invitation of revolutionary and it propels "downsizing" and other cost­ youth organizations in that country; is som<. cutting measures. thing every young person can join and help The U.S. government will more and more use build as a way to strike a blow against these its military power and economic might to gain moves by Washington. advantage over its rivals, moves that will lead A centerpiece of the government assault is Truck drivers march for union recognition in Los Angeles. only to sharper conflicts in the future. The so­ the chipping away at the social wage-entitle­ cialist campaign calls on the Clinton administra­ ments such as Social Security; unemployment out of the hands of the wealthy minority; to es­ the leadership of both parties. New anti-immi­ tion, one of the most war-mongering yet, to get compensation, workers compensation, and tablish a government of workers and farmers, grant laws are being drawn up that seek to en­ its warships, bombers, submarines, troops, and Medicare and Medicaid that have been estab­ and open the fight for socialism. force the second-class status this layer of the hit squads out of every corner of the globe. lished through struggles of working people. Our opponents in this election-William working class, while scapegoating them for The conditions also breed ultrarightist and The attacks on welfare are motivated by the Clinton, Robert Dole, Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, what are really the ills of the crisis-ridden sys­ incipient fascist currents, such as that of Patrick same goal: shifting more of the wealth pro- and others-acting in the interests of the tem of capitalism. wealthy minority; have stepped up their bipar­ The Democrats and Republicans go after tisan assault against working people world­ miserly payments to workers on welfare, pro­ wide. moting fake and abusive "workfare" schemes. They continue their war preparations in re­ After four years of doing nothing they enacted sponse to the increasing world disorder, using a paltry increase in the minimum wage, and threats or military force from Cuba to Liberia, then aim to divide workers even further by from China to Korea, and by backing the Is­ keeping a $4.25-an-hour two-tier setup for those raeli regime's brutal assault on Lebanon. Tens under 20. of thousands of troops are stationed in Yugo­ slavia, in a drive to overturn the nationalized Resistance of workers and youth property relations and restore capitalism. But the billionaire families who run this coun­ Both the Democrats and Republicans refuse try, and the parties that do their bidding in to respond to the devastating drought across Washington and in state houses across the coun­ the lower Midwest in which thousands of farm­ try, are not having an easy time of it. Their ers face loosing their land. As the employers dreams of a "new world order" have a differ­ press forward their anti-labor assault, the poli­ ent reality: a growing capitalist world disorder, cies of these parties reinforce the devastating in which new and unexpected crises emerge effects of the capitalist economic crisis on our every day. class. In the imperialist centers millions have Our campaign takes on the whole frame­ staged strikes, protests, and street actions. These work of how those who rule this country include mobilizations in France for a shorter present world politics. The bourgeois politi­ workweek and in Germany against proposals cians attempt to blame working people-those to freeze wages of government employees; who create all the wealth-for the problems walkouts in the United States by auto workers and breakdowns in society. at General Motors, building maintenance work­ Part and parcel of this assault is what ers in New York, and truck drivers in Los An­ ultrarightist Patrick Buchanan has dubbed the geles; and rallies and one-day strikes in Canada cultural war-the propaganda offensive to protest attacks on social benefits. against abortion rights, to bring back prayer in Chicanos and Mexicanos have stood up to May Day, Havana, Cuba, 1996. Millions marched in defense of Cuba's soverienty and social duced by working people into the pockets of peting more and more among ourselves, we the wealthy class of employers, bankers, and must join together and demand, "Jobs for All!" ~oupon clippers. The socialist campaign de­ This can be done by a series of measures, such mands cradle-to-grave coverage and expansion as shortening the workweek with no cut in pay of Social Security to include free health care, and enacting a massive public works program and a living wage for those out of work. We to repair roads, and build schools, hospitals, oppose all steps to take away the meager ben­ and housing. efits workers receive through AFDC and other In a period of economic crisis workers' welfare programs. wages can also be devastated by sudden mon­ etary inflationary surges, such as happened in An action program Mexico at the end of 1995 with the devaluation Our campaign is part of this working-class re­ of the peso. We demand cost of living allow­ sistance and the preparation for bigger and ances (COLA) be instituted to protect wages, sharper battles in the future. We put forward a pensions, and social security payments. program based on the interests of the vast ma­ Affirmative action-creating a more level jority, one that can unify working people in face playing field in hiring, housing, and educa­ of the nationalist framework of the Democrats, tion-is the only way to organize a united fight Republicans, Reform, and Green party candi­ against the downward spiral of wages, work­ Jates that pits workers in this country against ing conditions, and the standard of living. Af­ their allies abroad. firmative action is necessary to defend us all. This program begins with the working class The employers profit from the oppression of Blacks, Latinos, and women, and use these di­ visions within the working class as a way to keep us from waging a united struggle for po­ litical power. One strong affirmative action measure would be to raise the minimum wage to union scale. One of the chief targets of the ruling rich and their politicians is immigrant workers. They hope to dehumanize this layer of the working James Harris at protest to demand justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Selling revolutionary class as part of justifying lower pay; intolerable literature by Pathfinder, the Militant newspaper, and Perspectira Mundial are central working conditions, and victimization of mil­ goals of the campaign. lions who labor for a living. The labor move­ ment needs to join with immigrants who are organizing unions, marching in the streets to defend their rights, and standing up to reac­ tionary proposals from the bipartisan majority in Congress. We encourage participation in the national October 12 action in Washington, D.C., to demand: "Equal rights for immigrants!" The human toll capitalism is taking on Africa, Asia, and Latin America is unbearable for hun­ dreds of millions. By every measure-infant mor­ tality, caloric intake, real wages, ecological disas­ ters-working people in the Third World are suf­ fering some of the most severe blows of the cri­ sis. This is accelerated by the onerous debts these countries owe to the imperialist banks and the attempts by the wealthy rulers to unload the bur­ den of enormous interest payments on the toil­ l!h:S of two workers from Mexico ers. A worldwide fight for cancellation of the as an international class. We start not with na­ Third World debt is vital. tional boundaries but with the recognition that In their drive to resolve the crisis of the profit society is divided: there is a class that owns the system, the rulers will attempt to impose fas­ wealth and runs society, and a class that works cism and drag humanity into another world and produces the wealth but has no say in how war. The wealthy minority will more and more society is run. come into head-on confrontation with working Working people can unite on a world scale people and our allies who will battle to estab­ to fight for protection from the ravages of the lish a government of workers and farmers-a Laura Garza at Ford plant gate in Chicago universal crisis of the market system. Unem­ government that for the first time represents ployment is the greatest single scourge of capi­ the overwhelming majority of humanity. Such talism: competition for jobs is the greatest divi­ a revolution will join with the fighting people sion sapping the fighting capacities of the work­ of Cuba and their leadership to open the ing class throughout the world-both within struggle for a socialist world. and between countries. Unemployment, even We especially appeal to m advanced capitalist countries such as Ger­ workers, young socialists, and many, has risen to the highest level since the all youth repelled by the future Great Depression, and barely goes down in pe­ capitalism offers. riods of temporary "upturn." Instead of com-

December protest in defense of abortion rights Join with the socialist campaign in 1996 James Harris for U.S. president Laura Garza for vice president

James Harris, a worker at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Laura Garza, currently a staH writer for the socialist Atlanta, has a several decade record in the labor movement and newsweekly the Militant, Is adive in defense of the Cuban the fight for the rights of BlackS, Chicanos, and women. He revolution, and has two decades of uperience as a worker and became adive in the struggle to end washington's war against unionist. Garza has helped build adions to defend abortion the VIetnamese people, and has built adions against the u.s. rights, In opposition to police brutality, and for equal rights for government's continued military assaults abroad. Immigrant workers. The vvorking-class alternative to the parties of vvar, racism, and economic depression

II Jobs for all! II Raise the 111ini111u111 vvage!

II Defend and extend affir111ative action!

II Abortion is a vvo111an's right!

II Equal rights for i111111igrants!

II U.S./NATO troops out of Yugoslavia!

II U.S. hands off Cuba! End the e111bargo and travel ban!

For more information or to get involved contad: For local information: socialist workers 1996 National campaign committee 214 Ave. A (Mailing address: P.O. Box 2652) New York, NY 10009 Phone: (212) 328·1504 • Fax: (212) 328·1502 • compuserve: 104124,1405 ~~Donations needed!

Paid for by the Socialist Workers 1996 National Campaign Committee, Greg McCartan Treasurer 'Our revolution is against imperialism' In 1983, workers and peasants in the West ply give with one hand what they take back African nation of Upper Volta, later renamed with the other.... Burkina Faso, began a revolutionary trans­ The peasants, the "wretched of the earth," formation of their country under the leader­ are also a component of this big majority. ship of Thomas Sankara. Burkina Faso, a These peasants are expropriated, robbed, former French colony, was one of the poor­ molested, imprisoned, ridiculed, and humili­ est countries in the world. Sankara was a ated every day, yet they are the ones whose low-ranking officer in the Upper Volta army labor creates wealth. The country's economy and popular public figure. He was named stays afloat despite its weakness thanks to prime minister in January 1983, and used their productive labor. It is from this labor his post to issue strong anti-imperialist state­ that all those nationals for whom Upper ments and to urge the people of Upper Volta to organize themselves to defend their rights against both foreign and domestic moneyed interests. Along with other radical-minded junior officers, Sankara came into increasing con­ Left photo:Ernest flict with proimperialist forces in the gov­ Above, Cuban president Fidel Castro welcomes Thomas Sankara ernment. On May 17, 1983, he was deposed at Jose Marti Airport in Havana. Left, peasants planting trees at as prime minister and placed under house rally in Pibaore, Burkina Faso. Under Sankara's leadership a cam­ arrest. Thousands of young people took to paign was waged to plant millions of trees throughout the country the streets demanding Sankara's release. to halt the encroachment of the Sahel desert. On August 4, 250 soldiers and other op­ the agenda major demo­ enjoy equal opportunity for success. In or­ ponents of the regime freed Sankara and cratic and popular re­ der to do that, special emphasis will be overthrew the ruling military regime. forms. The National placed on: Sankara became president of the new Na­ Council of the Revolu­ * Promoting the economic development tional Council of the Revolution (CNR). tion is conscious that the of the different regions; The revolution brought gains for the construction of an inde­ * Encouraging economic exchange country's peasants and workers, particularly pendent, self-sufficient, among them; in the areas of health care, education, and and planned national * Combating prejudices among the eth­ popular organization. In action, it answered economy will be at­ nic groups, resolving the differences among the lie of imperialist powers from Paris to tained through a radical them in a spirit of unity; Washington that their "aid" and interven­ transformation of the * Punishing those who instigate divi­ tion is needed to "protect" the people of present society, a trans- sions .... Africa. formation that requires On Oct. 2, 1983, Sankara presented "The Volta is an El Dorado sweeten their lives. the following major reforms: Internationalist perspective Political Orientation Speech" on behalf of Yet it is the peasants who suffer most from * Agrarian reform; Our revolution is an integral part of the the CNR in a national radio and television the lack of buildings, roads, health facili­ *Administrative reform; world movement for peace and democracy address, frankly stating the challenges con­ ties, and services. * Educational reform; against imperialism and all kinds of fronting the revolutionary regime. Below we These peasants, creators of national * Reform of the structures of production hegemonism. That is why we will strive to reprint excerpts of this speech, the entire text wealth, are the ones who suffer the most and distribution in the modem sector.... establish diplomatic relations with countries, of which appears in Thomas Sankara from the lack of schools and educational ma­ The reform of our national economy's regardless of their political and economic Speaks: The Burkina F aso Revolution 1983- terials for their children. It is their children structures of production and distribution systems, on the basis of the following prin­ 87, published by Pathfinder Press. It is copy­ who will swell the ranks of the unemployed aims to progressively establish effective con­ ciples: right© by Pathfinder, reprinted with per­ after a brief stint in classrooms poorly trol by the Voltaic people over the channels *Respect for each other's independence, mission. Subheadings are by the Militant. adapted to the realities of this country. It is of production and distribution. For without territorial integrity, and national sover­ among the peasants that the illiteracy rate is eignty; the highest --'- 98 percent. Those who most genuine mastery over these channels, it is impossible in practice to build an indepen­ * Mutual nonaggression; need to learn, so that the output of their pro­ * Noninterference in internal affairs; BY THOMAS SANKARA ductive labor can increase, are the very ones dent economy that serves the interests of the people .... * Trade with all countries on an equal The establishment of the CNR on August who benefit the least from expenditures for In the field of health care and social as­ footing and on the basis of reciprocal ben­ 4, 1983, and the subsequent installation of a health care, education, and technology.... sistance for the popular masses, the objec­ efits. revolutionary government in Upper Volta The revolution has as its primary objec­ tives to be reached can be summed up as: Our militant solidarity and support will has opened a glorious page in the annals of tive the transfer of power from the hands of * Providing health care available to ev­ go to national liberation movements fight­ the history of our people and country. How­ the Voltaic bourgeoisie allied with imperi­ eryone; ing for the independence of their countries ever, the legacy bequeathed to us by twenty­ alism into the hands of the alliance of popu­ * Initiating maternal and infant assistance and the liberation of their peoples. This sup­ three years of imperialist exploitation and lar classes that make up the people. This and care; port will be directed in particular to: domination is a heavy one. The task of con­ means that the people in power must hence­ * Launching an immunization policy * The people of Namibia under the lead­ forth counterpose their own democratic and structing a new society cleansed of all the against communicable diseases through an ership of the South West Africa People's popular power to the antidemocratic and ills that keep our country in a state of pov­ increase in vaccination campaigns; Organisation; erty and economic and cultural backward­ antipopular dictatorship of the reactionary * Making the masses aware of the need * The Sahraoui people in their struggle ness will be long and hard. alliance of social classes that favor imperi­ to acquire good hygiene habits .... to recover their national territory; alism .... In the 1960s, French colonialism- har­ In the field of housing, a field of crucial * The Palestinian people struggling for ried on all sides, defeated at Dien Bien Phu All of the former political regimes sought importance, we must undertake a vigorous their national rights. [in Vietnam], and in tremendous difficulty to introduce measures to improve the man­ policy to end real estate speculation and the In our struggle, the anti-imperialist Afri­ in Algeria - drew the lessons of those de­ agement of neocolonial society. The changes exploitation of the workers through exces­ can countries are our objective allies. Rap­ feats and was forced to grant our country its introduced by the various regimes amounted sive rents .... prochement with these countries is neces­ national sovereignty and territorial integrity. to installing new teams within the frame­ One of the essential concerns of the Na­ sary because of the neocolonial groupings This was greeted positively by our people, work of neocolonial power. None of these tional Council of the Revolution is to unite that operate on our continent. who had not been indifferent to this ques­ regimes wished to or was able to challenge the different nationalities that comprise Long live the democratic and popular tion but had instead developed appropriate the socioeconomic foundations of Voltaic Upper Volta in the common struggle against revolution! society. That is why they all failed. resistance struggles. The decision by French the enemies of our revolution .... The CNR 's Long live the National Council of the The August revolution does not seek to colonial imperialism to cut its losses was a policy aims to unite these different nation­ Revolution! install just one more regime in Upper Volta. victory for our people over the forces of for­ alities so that they can live in equality and Homeland or death, we will triumph! eign oppression and exploitation. From the It represents a break with all previously masses' point of view, it was a democratic known regimes. Its ultimate goal is to build reform, while from that of imperialism it was a new Voltaic society, in which the Voltaic a change in the forms of domination and citizen, motivated by revolutionary con­ exploitation of our people .... sciousness, will be the architect of his own happiness, a happiness equivalent to the Thomas Sankara Speaks Neocolonialism no different in essence energy he has expended .... The Burkina Faso RevolutiOn, 1983-87 In essence, neocolonial society and colo­ The leader of the Burkina Faso revolution recounts how peasants nial society differed not at all. The colonial Need to advance women's emancipation and workers in this West African country began confronting hun­ administration was replaced by a neocolo­ The weight of the centuries-old traditions ger, illiteracy, and economic backwardness prior to the 1987 coup nial administration identical to it in every of our society has relegated women to the in which Sankara was murdered. $18.95 respect. ... rank of beasts of burden. Women suffer dou­ While Upper Volta is a paradise for the bly from all the scourges of neocolonial so­ How Far We Slaves Have wealthy minority, it is a barely tolerable hell ciety. First, they experience the same suf­ Come! for the majority, the people. fering as men. Second, they are subjected As part of this big majority, the wage earn­ to additional suffering by men. Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro ers, despite the fact that they are assured a Our revolution is in the interests of all Speaking together in Cuba in 1991, Mandela regular income, suffer the constraints and the oppressed and all those who are exploited and Castro discuss the unique relationship and example of the pitfalls of capitalist consumer society. Their in today's society. It is therefore in the in­ struggles of the South African and Cuban peoples. $8.95 income is completely consumed before they terests of women, since the basis of their have even touched it. This vicious cycle goes domination by men lies in the way society's Available from bookstores, in­ on and on with no perspective of being bro­ system of political and economic life is or­ cluding those listed on page 12, or ken. ganized. By changing the social order that write Pathfinder, 410 West St., Through their respective trade unions, the New York, NY 10014. Tel: (212) oppresses women, the revolution creates the Imperialism: The Highest 741-0690. Fax: (212) 727-0150. wage earners engage in struggles to improve conditions for their genuine emancipa­ Stage of Capitalism When ordering by mail, please in­ their living conditions. Sometimes the scope tion .... clude $3 to cover shipping and of those struggles forces concessions from The process of revolutionary transforma­ V.I. Lenin $3.95 handling the neocolonial authorities. But they sim- tions undertaken since August 4 places on

June 24, 1996 The Militant 9 U AW faces ·battle from auto giants

BY FRANK FORRESTAL UQited States. According to Business Week CHICAGO- Initial contract negotia­ 92 percent of them are non-union. tions between the United Automobile Work­ ers (UAW) and the Big Three auto compa­ Series of strikes over jobs, overtime nies- Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors Since the 1993 contract UAW members -began June 10 in Dearborn, Michigan. have waged about a dozen brief strikes, in­ The current three-year contract expires Sep­ cluding a handful of wildcats, against Big tember 14. Three companies. Most of these have been "It will begin with a gentlemanly hand­ at GM parts plants. The key issues in these shake, but the Big Three automakers and the strikes were outsourcing, failure to imple­ United Autoworkers Union could end up ment the 1993 contract in relation to jobs, butting heads before it's all over," reported excessive overtime, and health and safety. the Investor's Business Daily June 10. All In most of these short-lived strikes, the three auto giants will be seeking concessions auto bosses acceded to UAW demands and from the UAW. promised to hire additional workers and Reports in the big-business press indicate curtail some outsourcing. "Halfway through that Chrysler will be selected as the union's the current three-year pact between General choice for negotiating a pattern settlement Motors and the UAW, it is clear that the con­ for the industry. All of the Big Three com­ tract, and the relationship it represents, laid-off workers. (This latter effort is still growth in the U.S. automotive market are panies have said they would like to be cho­ stinks," editorialized the Jan. 30, 1995,Au­ being played out. Kentucky, Michigan, and over - this is a mature market, so the sen by the union. tomotive News. "The UAW has GM over a Delaware rejected GM's effort to cut unem­ growth must come from outside North GM has stated that it plans to go along barrel," the paper continued. "With lean pro­ ployment benefits. Workers in Texas were America," said John F. Smith, GM's chief with a pattern-setting agreement only if it duction, a walkout at a single plant can refused compensation; no decision has been executive and president. In late May, GM meets its cost-cutting agenda. "General cripple output at several plants." In a week made yet in Ohio and Indiana, and so far announced that it had chosen Thailand as Motors is preparing to attempt the most sig­ and a half in late 1994, General Motor's workers at GM's Janesville plant in Wiscon­ the location for a $750 million assembly nificant departure from industry-pattern la­ stock plummeted 16 percent. sin have been denied aid. The UAW is ap­ plant. GM hopes to double its share of the bor contract bargaining in about 17 years "The fact that virtually every strike ends pealing the decision.) Asian market to 10 percent by 2005. -even at the risk of a paralyzing strike this the same way with GM accepting many of Both the union and GM claim that each The company is currently undergoing fall," wrote the Wall Street Journal April26. the union's demands- indicates a weak­ side won ground in the strike. Solidarity said radical changes in its fmancial structure. To "GM's new tough labor stance is as much a ness in the company's labor strategy," wrote the union was "buoyed" by its "recent strike ·return to profitability, GM plans to downsize message to Chrysler and Ford as to the a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in early. victory at a GM plant in Dayton." itself by spinning off some of its compo­ UAW." 1995. Despite losing $900 million in profits on nent parts. This month it spun off Electronic "GM is prepared," continued the paper, Although the 1993 contract requires GM the strike, GM had the support of its board Data Systems, which was bought in 1984 "if pressed - to take a strike that could last to hire one worker for every two that leave, of directors and many on Wall Street. Al­ for $2.5 billion from the company's founder longer than last month's walkout." the company has often not lived up to that though the company made some conces­ Ross Perot. One of the auto bosses' goals is to hire provision. Following some of the strike sions, on balance the auto giant was suc­ Another target is GM's Delphi subsidiary, new workers at lower starting wages, with agreements in 1994 and 1995, GM suc­ cessful in establishing its ability to continue a vast network of 91 GM parts plants in lower benefits, and in plants with harsher ceeded in reopening contracts and getting outsourcing. "Wall Street cheered GM on, which 73 percent of 68,000 GM workers are working conditions. The Big Three are even concessions. especially when it won a settlement permit­ covered by the Big Three contract Accord­ floating the idea of demanding a six-year The 17-day strike in March by 3,000 ting it to continue outsourcing," reported the ing to Fortune, GM "would like to get rid contract. Ford chairman Alexander Trotman workers at GM's Delphi Chassis Systems Investor's Business Daily. of Delphi. . .Its products are pricey, reflect­ declared, "My personal opinion is that in Dayton, Ohio, marked a shift in GM's ing the high wages and fringe benefits - GM strives for higher profit rates longer is better than shorter." stance toward the union. The strike was in $44 an hour on average-paid to members Hundreds of thousands of workers will response to GM's plan to outsource work to According to Fortune magazine, in 1995 of the United Automobile Workers. GM be hired in auto over the next few years. a nonunion supplier, which would result in GM's "sales reached $168.8 billion and its would like to be able to shop more freely in Today the average age of an auto worker is cutting 125 jobs in violation of a 1994 agree­ profits $6.9 billion- both records for GM non-union precincts." 45, reflecting the fact that for most ofthe ment with the UA.W. or,any other American corporation." Return In its parts plants, GM has adopted the past 15 years little hiring has taken place. The company was well prepared for the on assets, however, "skidded downward, slogan: "Fix, Close, or Sell." Auto workers are retiring at a rate of 30,000 strike and showed its resolve by organizing from about 17% in 1965 to below zero a For example, the Wall Street Journal re­ a year. what became in effect a countrywide lock­ few years ago, before nudging up to 3.2% ported June 7 that GM obtained work-rule At its Aprill-3 National Bargaining Con­ out. In all, 26 of GM's 29 assembly plants last year." GM's market share of 33 percent changes at its Allison Transmission plant in vention in Detroit, UAW delegates adopted were closed, idling some 180,000 GM work­ in the United States has barely grown in 10 Detroit from the United Auto Workers, contract goals, a summary of which is ers in the United States, Canada, and years. "even as both sides are girding for new con­ printed in the May 1996 issue of the union's Mexico. GM bosses have their eyes set on Asia as tract talks nationally. In this case, the local monthly magazine Solidarity. They included Not stopping there, the auto giant also a way out to salvage their faltering profits. agreed to negotiate and sign a new local pact among other things provisions to curtail attempted to cut unemployment benefits to "It is no secret that the days of substantial early." outsourcing, win annual wage increases, preserve COLA protection, and eliminate "two-tier" wage schedules. Virginia governor bans abortion insurance UAW membership has fallen from 1.53 million in 1979 to 800,000 in 1996. Accord­ BY BRIAN WILLIAMS erage of abortion procedures for the state's his remarks towards the sizable number of ing to a resolution at the National Bargain­ WASHINGTON, D.C.- Despite major­ 100,000 government worlcers and their fami­ Republicans who remain pro-choice. "We ing Convention, the picture in the auto parts ity sentiment by working people in support lies. Reversing two decades of state policy, can have diversity in our party," he stated. industry is one of "deunionization on a mas­ of a woman's right to choose abortion, capi­ the Republican governor's order bans cov­ "I don't want to build a fence around our sive scale." About 20 percent of the work­ talist politicians continue to chip away at erage except for instances of rape and in­ party and say everybody has to agree with ers are union members in a sector that has this right. cest. "There's no reason that taxpayers me on this issue." added 100,000 jobs over the last decade. In early June, Virginia governor George should subsidize it," Allen declared. "It's Dole then proceeded to issue a formal Japanese and European automakers em­ Allen unilaterally rescinded insurance cov- contrary to what I think is proper policy for statement June 6 making it clear that he ploy more than 100,000 workers in the government." would "not seek or accept a retreat" from State workers in VIrginia must use their the current platform plank condemning own funds to buy coverage for dependents. abortion and pledging to seek a constitu­ Now abortion insurance for wives and tional amendment to outlaw it. daughters will be unavailable even when a Patrick Buchanan hailed Dole's statement Cosmetics, Fasbions1 an~ tbe family member on the payroll is willing to "as expressing support for a pro-life plank pay the full cost. that is undiluted or unaltered in any way." Exploitation of Women In Wisconsin the state legislature passed An article in the Washington Post, noted Joseph Hansen, Evelyn Reed, Mary-Alice Waters on April 30 one of the most restrictive laws that Dole's statement "seemed to be trying How big business promotes cosmetics to generate profits in the nation aimed at limiting a woman's to square a circle. He is attempting towel­ and perpetuate the oppression of women. In her introduc­ right to choose. This measure requires come moderates who support abortion tion, Mary-Alice Waters explains how the entry of millions women seeking abortions to meet with a rights, while at the same time insisting that of women into the workforce during and after World War II doctor at least two times, receive verbal and the ban cannot be abandoned or in any way irreversibly changed U.S. society and laid the basis for a written counseling, and wait 24 hours be­ weakened." renewed rise of struggles for women's equality. $12.95 fore proceeding. The law also makes man­ datory the distribution of a booklet to all Brian Williams is the Socialist Workers can­ women considering getting an abortion that didate for city council at-large in Washing­ Communist Continuit;!) an~ tbe shows various pictures of a fetus. ton, D.C. A federal judge issued a temporary re­ Fi9bt for Women's Liberation straining order preventing the state of Wis­ Documents of the Socialist Workers Party 1971-86 consin from enforcing the new law. A U.S. Edited with an introduction by Mary-Alice Waters district court will hold a hearing June 17 to Women's Liberation and the Line of March of the Work- determine whether the law should be put into ing Class Part 1 $10.00 effect. Women, Leadership, and the Proletarian Norms of the Shortly after signing this restrictive law, Wisconsin's Republican governor, Thomas Communist Movement Part 2 $9.00 Thompson, urged party leaders to modify Abortion Rights, the ERA, and the Rebirth of a Femi- their stance on this issue to accommodate nist Movement Part 3 $11.00 abortion rights supporters at the Republican national convention in August. Available from bookstores, including those listed on page 12, or write Pathfinder, 410 West St., In a recent interview with the ABC tele­ New York, NY 10014. Tel: (212) 741-0690. Fax: (212) 727-0150. When ordering by mail, please in­ vision network, Republican presidential can­ clude $3 to cover shipping and handling. didate Robert Dole also attempted to cater

10 The Militant June 24, 1996 Machinists strike at McDonnell Douglas Continued from front page and sisters. You have to look at them like I laid them off. Since 1990 they have laid off do, as your mortal enemy. I wish they were thousands of workers. This is one of the rea­ dead. I wish their children would starve to sons we are on strike- to fight for jobs." death. I wish they would lose their houses." There are over 15,000 non-union employ­ Although Lanese later denied the re­ ees, - supervisors, technicians, office marks, Forrest Watson, a union negotiator workers, kitchen workers - still on the job. who said he sat across from Lanese in the The company claims to be continuing pro­ negotiations told the Post-Dispatch "That duction with some 1,500 salaried employ­ is exactly what he said. As a McDonnell ees, engineers and supervisors. employee, we would like to beat [Boeing Teamsters Union Local610, which orga­ and Lockheed] out of planes but as far as nizes 75 workers in the plant, is honoring starving people to death, killing them, we the Machinists' picket line. About 260 elec­ don't want that." tricians, members of International Brother­ During picket duty shift change one hood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local striker, a fork lift driver in the plant, offered 1, are still on the job. Many IBEW mem­ her opinion on Lanese. "What gets me, is if bers did not cross the line the first couple Lanese thinks that about the Boeing work­ days of the walk out. But when the local ers and their families, you know he thinks proposed jointly striking McDonnell, with the same thing about us McDonnell work­ both the lAM and IBEW staying out until ers here." both won a contract, lAM officials rejected Commenting on the stakes in the strike, the offer. Following that decision, the IBEW Price said, "This is not a McDonnell Dou­ members voted not to strike. glas thing. This affects every other union in Militant/Danny Booher the U.S." Dozens honk in support of pickets Strikers picket outside the plant in St. Louis. In back are company "security" forces. "And not just in the U.S.," added Caito. At three separate stints on the picket lines, "We've already gotten a call from France. worker correspondents for the Militant noted logistics and support on the picket line and the "greedy" strikers potentially delaying I'd say unions have to stand together not only one negative comment by a passerby in strike headquarters. "We also keep an eye delivery of its orders. only here but in the whole world." who shouted "get a job" compared to doz­ on the company's newly hired security force, The strike "is a setback for everyone and A Father's Day strike support picnic-rally ens of thumbs-ups signs, car hom honks, and ADP, who follow our coffee trucks around very traumatic for the workers involved," is planned for Sunday, June 16, at the Dis­ shouts of "thanks" and "good luck" by pass­ and video tape the strikers on the picket declared Jim Talent, a Republican congress­ trict 837 strike headquarters. Messages of ing drivers. Other union members in the line," Caito said. man from Missouri and member of the Na­ support or contributions to the strike fund area, including lAM Local 9 members, The strikers also face potential interven­ tional Security Committee. "There are na­ should be sent to: lAM Aerospace District Teamsters who work at the airport, and tion from the U.S. government. McDonnell tional security overtones." Federal labor 837, 212 Utz Lane, Hazelwood, MO 63042- United Auto Workers members from a Douglas produces primarily military aircraft officials said if a situation is deemed a threat 2784. Checks can be made out to District nearby Ford assembly plant have dropped at its St. Louis facility. Customers for its T- to national security the president can call in 837 lAM and sent to the same address, at­ off coffee, hamburgers, and iced tea at the 45 training jets, F/A-18 and F-15 fighter jets, both sides and instruct them to resolve it or tention Larry Meadows, Secretary Treasurer picket lines. Some have walked the picket C-17 cargo planes, and AV -8B Harrier jets consider other measures. District 837. For information on the strike line. Owners of local restaurants, taverns, include the U.S. Air Force, Marines, and Meanwhile, McDonnell Douglas presi­ call314-731-0603. and one car dealership have dropped off food Navy as well as the governments of Israel, dent Herbert Lanese drew fire over remarks at the union hall or offered discounts to strik­ Finland, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Swit­ reportedly made during negotiations in Danny Booher is a member of JAM Local ers. zerland. April, trying to pit union members against 1018 at US Air in New York. Mary Martin A court-ordered injunction barring mass their counterparts at McDonnell's competi­ is a member of JAM Local1759 at North­ picketing was slapped on the strikers hours 'National security overtones' tors. According to the June 7 St. Louis Post­ west Airlines in Washington, D.C. Jim Gar­ after they walked out June 5. Any perceived According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dispatch, Lanese said "You in the lAM think rison, a member of United Auto Workers violation of the injunction can subject the the Swiss government has written to the U.S. of the people in Boeing in Seattle and the LocalllO at Chrysler in Fenton, Missouri, union to substantial fines. The lAM local Department of Defense to complain about people at Lockheed Martin as your brothers contributed to this article. has organized security teams to make sure the pickets don't exceed the injunction limit of four per gate. In one incident, a strike supporter bringing coffee to a picket line was accused by company security of acting as a Washington asserts doinination in Europe fifth picket. For this reason, strikers are ask­ adopted a social democratic posture and In contrast to the United Nations and the ing supporters to check in at the union hall, Continued from Page 7 ago." The future, she added, "might look like names - have won recent parliamentary European Union, Thatcher exhorted the vir­ where busses are organized to take them to 1914 played on a somewhat larger scale." elections. These parties support "market re­ tues of the Atlantic military alliance domi­ the gates. 1914 was the year that the first world war forms"but at a slower pace. Millions of work­ nated by Washington. At the same time, she Tracy Caito and Jim Price of the union ing people look at them as a lesser evil to the pointed to the growing problems within security committee explained that they are broke out. Besides instability in Russia, she said, the regimes that have tried to institute massive NATO since the crumbling of the Warsaw responsible for the safety of strikers and for break-up of the Soviet Union has acceler­ cuts in social services and whose policies have Pact. ated proliferation of nuclear, biological, and accelerated joblessness and other social ills. "NATO is a very fine military instrument" from Pathfinder... chemical weapons in countries such as Iraq, Even in the Czech Republic, touted by she said. "But an instrument cannot define Iran, Libya, China, and North Korea. "On Thatcher and other capitalist politicians as the its own purposes, and since the dissolution present trends a direct threat to American one country moving fastest toward capital­ of the Warsaw Pact, Western statesmen have ~ A C K 8 A R N E a shores is likely to mature early in the next ism, the pro-imperialist coalition of Vaclav found it difficult to give NATO a clear one." century," she warned. Klaus lost its parliamentary majority in the Thatcher said capitalist powers in North May elections, while the social democrats The 'English-speaking' alliance America and Europe must seriously consider gained more seats. So what did Thatcher propose? Speedy "pre-emptive military strikes" against such expansion of NATO into Hungary, Poland, governments. But she implied that the world European Union doomed to fail and the Czech Republic; extending NATO's relationship of forces makes such actions by Thatcher also assailed those in the Euro­ role so it can "operate out of area," that is imperialist powers difficult. pean Union who push for instituting mon­ around the world, as long as U.S. generals "Given the intellectual climate in the West etary union among member states. Any such call all the shots; and aiding Washington in today, it is probably unrealistic to expect currency would have to be pegged to the developing a "ballistic missile defense" sys­ military intervention to remove the source German mark, the strongest in Europe, tem that could shield imperialist powers of the threat, as for example against North which the British bourgeoisie vehemently from missile assaults from anywhere. Korea," Thatcher said. Even in the case of opposes. Carrying this out, Thatcher said, "raises, Iraq, she added, "our success in destroying "Across the continent businessmen and in my view, very serious doubts about the Saddam's nuclear and chemical weapons bankers increasingly question the economic currently fashionable idea of a separate Eu­ capability was limited." need for a single currency at all," Thatcher ropean 'defense identity' within the Alli­ said. "It is essentially a political symbol­ ance.... Like the single currency, it would Betrayal of the 'West' the currency of a European state and people have damaging practical consequences." Thatcher assailed the European Union, which don't actually exist, except perhaps The push by Bonn and Paris for such a dominated by Bonn, for its failure to incor­ in the mind of a Brussels bureaucrat." "European" military alliance "contains the porate the Central European countries into The national interests of each capitalist germs of a major future Trans-Atlantic rift," its structures and accelerate their integration class also determine foreign policy, Thatcher said. And the capitalist powers in into the world capitalist market. Thatcher pointed out. Europe are too weak militarily to challenge .Jack Barnes As a result, Thatcher said, "The early en­ "Perhaps the best example of utopian U.S. superiority. "Even a French general A handbook for workers coming into the thusiasm for the West and Western institu­ aims is multilateralism," she said. "This is admitted during the Gulf War the U.S. forces factories. mines. and mills. as they react tions began to wane," in these countries. the doctrine that international actions are were 'the eyes and ears' of the French to the uncertain life. ceaseless turmoil, "Facing tariff barriers and quotas in West­ most justified when they are untainted by troops. Without America, NATO is a politi­ and brutality of capitalism in the closing em Europe, the Central Europeans began to the national interests of the countries which cal talking shop, not a military force." years of the twentieth century. It shows erect their own. And those politicians who are called upon to carry them out." The right-wing politician claimed that how millions of workers. as political had bravely pursued tough-minded policies The military intervention in Somalia un­ "the English-speaking peoples of the West" resistance grows, will revolutionize of economic reform ... found themselves left der the aegis of the United Nations did not offer the best example of prosperity in the themselves. their unions. and all of in the lurch when the going got rough." solve any problems for imperialism, world today. She reiterated Churchill's call for a special relationship between Washing­ society. $19.95 The former British prime minister pointed Thatcher said, "since America and the UN out that in the last few years openly pro­ were unwilling to govern Somalia for 30 ton and London, and said the essence of the Available from bookstores, including capitalist politicians in Eastern and Central years." She also described the UN "peace­ Atlantic military alliance is, and must be, those listed on page 12, or write Europe have lost elections one by one "to keeping mission" in Yugoslavia, led for a "America as the dominant power surrounded Pathfinder, 410 West St., New York, NY be replaced by nee-communist governments couple years by French commanders, as a by allies which generally follow its lead." 10014. Tel: (212) 741-0690. fax: (212) promising the impossible: transition to a "sorry episode." Only the massive NATO Thatcher's blunt statements point to what 727-0150. Please add $3 for shipping market economy without tears." bombing campaign and subsequent inter­ was more veiled at the NATO meeting in and handling. In Hungary, Poland, and Bulgaria, for ex­ vention by some 20,000 U.S. troops at the Berlin: the crumbling of the Warsaw Pact ample, parties that descended from the former end of 1995 may salvage the situation, she has accelerated the disintegration of the At­ ruling Stalinist organizations - which have said. lantic military alliance. June 24, 1996 The Militant 11 Cuban leader blasts tightening of embargo Continued from front page ber of the airplane along with the Brothers requests for information and that, by the end workers have organized discussions on the Communist Party of Cuba's Political Bu­ to the Rescue logo, USAF, which stands for of April, the U.S. government had failed to measure in every factory and other work­ reau, devoted most of his remarks to the the United States Air Force. provide crucial information, including data places throughout the island. Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity "So apparently Ms. Ros was successful" from U.S. radar in Florida on February 24. "This is what democracy is all about," (Libertad) Act of 1996, commonly known in securing the military planes, Alarcon re­ Even after a one-month extension to early Alarcon stressed. He added that the Cuban as the Helms-Burton law. The measure tight­ marked. Brothers to the Rescue "was acting June, the missing information is still not government has taken a similar approach to­ ens the 36-year-long U.S. economic em­ with impunity. They didn't even bother to forthcoming from Washington. ward every major measure taken to deal with bargo on the Caribbean nation. Among other erase those letters that identified them as the country's severe economic crisis. "A punitive measures, it allows U.S. business­ U.S. Air Force airplanes." Facts 'not fit to print' in 'Times' government must be not onlyfor the people men whose property was confiscated by Brothers to the Rescue was so brazen More recently, the Federal Aviation but by the people," he stated. Cuban workers and peasants after the 1959 about its violations of Cuban airspace that Agency (FAA) suspended Basulto's pilot Alarcon explained that in the United revolution to sue companies abroad that in­ they published a bulletin with photos docu­ license, an acknowledgment of Cuba's as­ States, the government has not only vest in those properties. menting their provocations. Alarcon showed sertion that Brothers to the Rescue had vio­ launched attacks on social gains like medi­ The Cuban leader noted that a week ear­ one issue of the bulletin with a picture of a lated Cuban airspace. The FAA cited viola­ cal care for retirees, but hasn't even pre­ lier the Organization of American States had July 1995 flight that, according to the de­ tions from July 13, 1995, to February 24 of tended to consult working people about such adopted a resolution widely interpreted as scription, had actually flown over the Uni­ this year, Alarcon said. measures. critical of the Libertad Act. Emphasizing versity of Havana. The Cuban leader pointed out that the "Here, no action the government takes has that the OAS had "never before in its his­ After Clinton used the plane incident as New York Times barely devoted a few lines been done with massive involvement by the tory made such a decision criticizing U.S. an excuse to sign the Libertad Act in March, on an inside page to the suspension of people," he said. "Thousands of meetings policy," he said U.S. officials had replied what happened? Alarcon asked. What did Basulto's license, although this move rep­ have been held, involving the entire people." that "this was a U.S. law and they would the U.S. media report? resented a damning admission that Wash­ Alarcon addressed the audience on their­ continue to apply it regardless of the OAS Washington had initially gone to the In­ ington had lied about the February 24 events. replaceable role of those in the United States or international opinion. This is a norm of ternational Civil Aviation Organization Apparently, Alarcon remarked, this news who are fighting Washington's attacks on conduct for the empire.... They have acted (ICAO) to try to ram through a quick state­ "was not fit to print" in such a major liberal the Cuban revolution like the Helms-Bur­ like this toward Cuba for more than 35 ment accusing Havana of shooting down daily. ton law. years." civilian aircraft in international waters. That Likewise, the president of Cuba's Na­ "This requires a special effort that must Alarcon challenged the claim in the big­ effort failed and the agency decided at a tional Assembly underlined, no major U.S. begin by promoting greater awareness business media that the adoption of the March 7 meeting in Montreal to launch an capitalist paper has published the full text within the United States that the illegal Helms-Burton law was caused by the Cu­ investigation of the incident. of the Helms-Burton law for the U.S. pub­ policy against Cuba and the U.S. blockade ban government's shootdown of two hos­ Alarcon referred to a provisional, unpub­ lic to study. of Cuba are important questions for U.S. so­ tile U.S. planes violating the island's air­ lished report by the ICAO investigating In contrast, the Cuban press has published ciety," he said. As long as Washington is space on February 24. "The media insists commission, which stated that the Cuban and distributed the complete text of the leg­ able to carry out such attacks, "the people that, had it not been for that incident, the government had fully met the commission's islation. Over the last several weeks, Cuban in the United States will never live in peace." president would have vetoed the law," he said. "But no one can quote a single state­ ment [by Clinton] ever indicating his oppo­ -MILITANT LABOR FORUMS------sition to the bill." ALABAMA The Fight for a Free and United Ireland. Speaker: Greg Rosenberg, just returned from that The White House simply used the Speakers: representative of Socialist Workers country where he reported for the Militant. Fri., shootdown as a pretext to sign a measure it Birmingham Party, others. Fri., June 21, 7:30 p.m. 780 June 21, 7:30p.m. 1930 18th Street N.W., (en­ basically supported, Alarcon said. In fact, A New Rise in Racism? What is behind the Tremont St. Donation: $4. Tel: (617) 247- trance on Florida at 18th). Donation: $4. Tel: he pointed out, the Clinton administration recent burnings of Black Churches? Speaker: 6772.Texas (202) 387-2185. Karl Sachs, Socialist Workers Candidate, 4th "had already arranged a deal in the U.S. CD, member of United Steelworkers, Local Houston Congress as early as December 1995, well 12014. Fri., June 21, 7:30p.m. 111 21st Street BRITAIN before the plane incident." South. Donation: $41$2. Tel: 323-3079. Safety in the Refineries: An Accident Wait­ ing to Happen? Speakers: Tim Webster, Chair, Manchester U.S. lies about 'civilian planes' joint union safety committee, Exxon Refinery South Africa Today. Speaker: member, Com­ Alarcon meticulously dismantled the lie FLORIDA and member of Gulf Coast Industrial Workers munist League. Fri., June 21, 7 p.m.Unit 4, 60 Union; Wesley Carter, Chair, Workmen's Com­ peddled by the U.S. government and major Miami Shudehill, Tel: 061-839-1766. Lessons for Labor Today. Report on the mittee, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers The Crisis in the Tory Party. Speaker: mem­ media that Cuba had shot down "civilian Union (OCAW) 4-227 on strike against Rhone­ ber, Communist League. Fri., June 28, 7 p.m. planes" in international airspace and killed McDonnell Douglas Strike and showing of the video: "Labor's Turning Point: The Minne­ Poulenc; Carol Alvarado, Manchester Civic As­ Unit 4, 60 Shudehill, Tel: 061-839-1766. innocent civilians. apolis Truck Strikes of 1934". Speaker: Rep­ sociation; and Jerry Freiwirth, member of The Cessna 337 planes flown by Broth­ resentative of Socialist Workers Party. Fri., June OCAW 4-367 at Shell Oil. Fri., June 21, 7:30 ers to the Rescue, a right-wing Cuban­ 21; 7:30 p.m.J37 N.E. 54th Street.Donation: $4. p,m. 3260 South Loop West. Donation: $4. Tel: CANADA American outfit, were not civilian aircraft. Tel: (305) 756-1020. (713) 349-0090. Vancouver Anyone checking a well-known aviation Update on South Africa. New Constitution: reference book like Jane's All the World's MASSACHUSETTES WASHINGTON, DC A historic gain. Speaker: Tony Di Felice, mem­ ber, Communist League and International As­ Aircraft would see that the Cessna 337 "was Boston South Africa: The Democratic Revolution created and conceived for military mis­ Advances. Eyewitness report from South Africa. sociation of Machinists. Fri., June 21,7:30 p.m. sions," said Alarcon, showing the audience a copy of the handbook opened to the ap­ propriate pages. He pointed out that Wash­ -IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP------ington had used such aircraft in its war against Vietnam and later in its military in­ Where to find Pathfinder books and dis­ Tel: (313) 875-0100. 26507. Tel: (304) 296-0055. Compuserve: tervention against the revolutionary move­ tributors of the Militant, Perspectiva MINNESOTA: Twin Cities: 2490 Univer­ 70543,1637 ment in El Salvador. Mundial, New International, Nouvelle sity Ave. W., St. Paul. Zip: 55114. Tel: (612) AUSTRALIA Another revealing fact was the efforts by lnternatiollllle, Nueva lnternacional andNy 644-6325. Compuserve: 103014,3261 Sydney: 19 Terry St., Surry Hills 2010. Florida congresswoman Ileana Ros­ International. NEW JERSEY: Newark: 141 Halsey. Mailing address: P.O. Box K879, Haymarket, Lehtinen in the early 1990s to get some of Mailing address: 1188 Raymond Blvd., Suite NSW 2000. Tel: 02-281-3297. Compuserve: these leftover military planes for Brothers 222. Zip: 07102. Tel: (201) 643-3341. 102174,1243 to the Rescue. Alarcon showed a copy of UNITED STATES Compuserve: 102330,106 BRITAIN the July 19, 1992, issue of the Miami Her­ ALABAMA: Birmingham: 111 21st St. NEW YORK: Albany: P. 0. Box 2357, London: 47 The Cut. Postal code: SE1 8LL. ald with an article by David Lawrence, the South. Mailing address: Suite 252, 267 West E.S.P. Zip: 12220. Tel: (518) 465-0585. Tel: 0171-928-7993. Compuserve: paper's publisher, who had been invited to Valley Avenue Zip 35209. Tel: (205) 323- Brooklyn: 59 4th Avenue (corner of Bergen) 101515,2702 . fly with Brothers to the Rescue chief Jose 3079. Compuserve: 103402,1231 Zip: 11217. Tel: (718) 399-7257. Compuserve: Manchester: Unit 4, 60 Shudehill. Postal Basulto. The accompanying photo in the 102064,2642. New York: 214-16 Avenue A. code: M4 4AA. Tel: 0161-839-1766. paper depicted the Cessna plane. CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles: 2546 W. Mailing address: P.O. Box 2652. Zip: 10009. Pico Blvd. Zip: 90006. Tel: (213) 380-9460, "You can see four letters above the num- Tel: (212) 328-1501; 167 Charles St. Zip: CANADA 380-9640. Compuserve: 74642,326San Fran­ 10014. Tel: (212) 366-1973. Compuserve: Montreal: 4581 Saint-Denis. Postal code: cisco: 3284 23rd St. Zip: 94110. Tel:( 415) 282- 104113,2150 H2J 2L4. Tel: (514) 284-7369. Compuserve: 6255, 285-5323. Compuserve: 75604,556 -CALENDAR- NORTH CAROLINA: Greensboro: 75253,265 CONNECTICUT: New Haven: Mailing 2000-C S. Elm-Eugene St. Zip 27406. Tel: Toronto: 827 Bloor St. West. Postal code: coNNEcTicuT address: P.O. Box 16751, Baybrook Station, (910) 272-5996. Compuserve: 103475,672. M6G lMl. Tel: (416) 533-4324. Compuserve: Hartford West Haven. Zip: 06516. 103474,13 OHIO: Cincinnati: P.O. Box 19484. Zip: Vancouver: 3967 Main St. Postal code: 3rd Annual Celebration in Friendship with FLORIDA: Miami: 137 N.E. 54th St. Zip: 45219. Tel: (513) 662-1931.Cieveland: 1832 Cuba: Live Music, Food, and Poetry! Sat., 33137. Tel: (305) 756-1020. Compuserve: V5V 3P3. Tel: (604) 872-8343. Compuserve: Euclid. Zip: 44115. Tel: (216) 861-6150. 103430,1552 June 29, 2-6 p.m. Central Baptist Church, 457 103171,1674 Compuserve: 103253,1111 Main Street. Benefit: U.S.- Cuba Youth Ex­ GEORGIA: Atlanta: 803 Peachtree NE. PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia: 1906 FRANCE change. Donation: $10. For more information, Paris: MBE 201, 208 rue de la Convention. (860) 236-3036. Sponsored by Greater Hart­ Zip: 30308. Tel: (404) 724-9759. Compuserve: South St. Zip: 19146. Tel: (215) 546-8218. call Postal code: 75015. Tel: (1) 47-26-58-21. ford Coalition on Cuba. 104226,1245 Compuserve: 104502,1757 Pittsburgh: 1103 ILLINOIS: Chicago: 1223 N. Milwaukee E. Carson St. Zip 15203. Tel: (412) 381-9785. Compuserve: 73504,442 Ave. Zip: 60622. Tel: (312) 342-1780. Compuserve: 103122,720 ICELAND AUSTRALIA Compuserve: 104077,511 Peoria: 915 N. TEXAS: Houston: 3260 South Loop West. Reykjavik: Klapparstfg 26. Mailing ad­ Sydney Western. Zip: 61650-0302. Mailing address: Zip: 77025. Tel: (713) 349-0090. Compuserve: dress: P. Box 233, 121 Reykjavik. Tel: 552 East Timor: Its future in the Asia- Pacific. P.O. Box 302. Tel: (309) 676-2472. 102527,2271 5502. INTERNET:[email protected] Speakers from East Timor, Indonesia, Austra­ Compuserve: 104612,147 UTAH: Salt Lake City: 209 E. 300 S. Zip: NEW ZEALAND lia, Portugal. Fri., June 21- Mon., June 24. Uni­ INDIANA: Bloomington: P.O. Box 1304. 84111. Tel: (801) 355-1124. Compuserve: versity Hall, University of Technology, Sydney. Auckland: La Gonda Arcade, 203 Zip:47402. E-mail: 76714,1545 Karangahape Road. Postal address: P.O. Box Registration: $301$15. Sponsors: University of [email protected] Sydney School of Asian Studies; UTS, Institute WASHINGTON, D.C.: 1930 18th St. N.W. 3025. Tel: (9) 379-3075. Compuserve: for International Studies; University of New IOWA: Des Moines: 2724 Douglas Ave. Suite#3 (Entrance on FloridaAv.). Zip: 20009. 100035,3205 South Wales Human Rights Centre. Zip: 50310. Tel: (515) 277-4600. Compuserve: Tel: (202) 387-2185. Compuserve: Christchurch: 199 High St. Postal address: With Che Guevara in Cuba and Bolivia. 104107,1412 75407,3345. P.O. Box 22-530. Tel: (3) 365-6055. Speaker Leonardo Tamayo (Urbano), General in MASSACHUSETTS: Boston: 780 Tre­ WASHINGTON: Seattle: 1405 E. Madi­ Compuserve: 100250,1511 Cuba's Ministry of the Interior, fought along­ mont St. Zip: 02118. Tel: (617) 247-6772. son. Zip: 98122. Tel: (206) 323-1755. SWEDEN side Che Guevara in Bolivia 1966-67. Sat., June Compuserve: 103426,3430 Compuserve: 74461,2544. 29,2 p.m. Waverly Library, 14 Ebley St., Bondi Stockholm: Vikingagatan 10 (T -bana St WEST VIRGINIA: Morgantown: 242 Junction. Tel: (02) 389-1111. Sponsors: Austra­ MICHIGAN: Detroit: 7414 Woodward Eriksplan). Postal code: S-113 42. Tel: (08) lia-Cuba Friendship Society, Waverly Library. Ave. Zip: 48202. Compuserve: 104127,3505 Walnut. Mailing address: P.O. Box 203. Zip: 31 69 33. Compuserve: 100416,2362 12 The Militant June 24, 1996 -GREAT SOCIETY------The values system - "MIAMI outsourcing - For the aerospace dog, Lee snapped back at his crit­ by stealing cocaine from a for the California transportation de­ (AP) -As divers raked the murky company, outsourcing is not a mat­ ics that this happens because, "I am bust?" - California news item. partment billed the state for such "ex­ bottom of the Everglades for the ter of principle, even if the issue me." He added, "It's not a level penses" as football tickets, skiing and remains of passengers in the ValuJet sparked a strike at its St. Louis plant. playing field." The justice system- James golf. Also, raises for employees. The crash, lawyers circled the hotel For instance, earlier this year, it paid Trimble, an Urbandale, Iowa, cop principal raise went to Steve Tobia, a fine for overpricing spare parts for Free-market medicine- Ivan was busted last January while car­ the company owner. His wages in­ federal contracts. A subcontractor Namihas, a southern California doc­ rying a $20,000 stash of metham­ creased from $75 an hour to $120. had been making door hooks for tor, was convicted in federal court phetamines. Trimble, who worked $389 apiece. The company decided of conning nine patients into believ­ in a youth antidrug program, admit­ A good learner - Michele Harry to make them itself, billing the feds ing they had such diseases as can­ ted lifting the drugs from the police Noble, a first-year high schooler, $8,842 each. cer or AIDS and performing unnec­ evidence room. He wasn't charged won the California History Day com­ .Ring essary laser surgery. Under federal with theft, and he wasn't tried on petition with a display on the late Fact-of-life dep't- Even rich sentencing guidelines, he faces six the drug possession charge in fed­ Cesar Chavez and the United Farm people find it tough to get housing years, max. eral court where he might have Workers. After visiting farm areas where relatives were staying .... in Singapore. So it didn't sit well drawn five to 15 years. Instead, he and interviewing farm workers, she Some were handed fliers, some re­ when it was disclosed that Senior Easy, by being a cop - was tried in state court where he got commented: "They have one of the ceived flowers; many got phone Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his son "Workaholic Jim Slate was one of probation. toughest jobs outthere. [Now] when calls and mailings." had picked up a luxury condo at a the best officers Merced ever had, I go into the grocery store I think $700,000 discount. Formally retired So how did he wind up betraying Where the taking is easy -A about all the work put into the food McDonnell Douglas and as prime minister, but still the top his family, his town and his badge public relations firm that does work that's there. Food isn't just there." Black activist in Toronto aquitted of frame-up BY SYLVIE CHARBIN diet rendered In February 1994, Laws was convicted on TORONTO-A collective sigh of relief, by this jury, three counts of conspiracy to "smuggle applause and raised fists went up from some one Laws sup­ aliens." Laws worked as an immigration con­ two dozen supporters present in the court­ porter ex­ sultant at the time. The trial revealed that room June 1, as the jury pronounced aver­ claimed, "The Laws was the target a massive entrapment dict of "not guilty" on all three charges of message here is operation organized jointly by the Metro sexual assault laid in February 1995 against that there's Toronto Police and the Royal Canadian Dudley Laws. The verdict came after 10 hope for hu­ Mounted Police, in collaboration with U.S. hours of deliberation. manity." immigration cops and courts. A motion to Laws is a leading antiracist fighter here Laws told stay the guilty verdicts against Laws on the and founder of the Black Action Defense the Militant, grounds of police entrapment was dismissed Committee (BADC). For more than a de­ "When the by the presiding judge. He was handed a cade, BADC has waged a campaign against charges were nine-month sentence in that case, which is the killing of Blacks and other working first laid, I still under appeal. people by the Toronto cops. This frame-up thought this A 1989 secret police report revealed dur­ trial followed a series of legal charges had to have ing the entrapment hearing documented po­ against Laws because of his outspoken views been orches­ lice surveillance of 13 groups and 18 indi­ about police racism and brutality in Toronto. trated by the viduals - including Laws - who were ac­ Outside the courthouse following the ver­ police. I still tive in the fight against cop brutality, rac­ dict, Laws said that he was pleased with the feel that there ism, and apartheid in South Africa. outcome of the two-week trial. was underlying "It's not often in the day-to-day struggle The woman who laid the charges, who is police interfer­ that ordinary working class people win a Black, testified that Laws raped her as often ence in the victory" said BADC activist Lennox Farrell, as three times a week from the time she was case." at a victory celebration held at his home the seven years old until she was 14, between Laws was day after the verdict was pronounced. 1968 and 1976. sued in 1991 Laws thanked his numerous supporters Under questioning by the defense, the by the Metro­ and said that the verdict had given him "the woman stated that she opposed Laws's po­ politan Toronto freedom to continue my work" and that "the . . Militant/Colin McKay . Police Asso­ allegations will not impair my continued de­ litical views, which she said promoted ha­ Dudley Laws speaking at rally against cop brutality; October 1994. tred towards whites. The woman, who is now ciation for li- fense of the Black community." in her 30s, lives in Thailand teaching En­ bel, when after glish. At the time of the alleged assaults, nesses - are required to get a conviction. a series of racist police shootings, Laws ac­ Sylvie Charbin is a member ofInternational Dudley Laws was working as a welder for a The presiding judge at the trial, Justice Vic­ cused the Toronto police of being "the most Association of Machinists Lodge 2//3 at construction company, drove a cab and was tor Paisley, instructed the jury to carefully ex­ murderous in North America." That suit Ford Electronics. Gary Kettner contributed an active member of the Universal African amine the credibility of both the accused and was later dropped. to this article. Improvement Association. the accuser in rendering their verdict. In lengthy testimonies describing their The mostly working-class jury was made family life, both the woman's mother and up of six men and six women and included -25 AND 50 YEARS AGO~--- brother vehemently denied that there was only three members of "visible minorities," any sign that she was abused. Among those none of whom were Black. Out of a pool of called to testify by the prosecution was a 140 potential jurors, there were only three THE clinical psychologist who stated that the ac­ Blacks. Outside the courthouse following the TH£ MILITANT cuser showed symptoms similar to a sexual verdict, Charles Roach, one of Laws' law­ PUaLISHID IN THIINTIRIITS OP 1HI WORKING PIOPLI abuse victim. But under cross-examination yers, stated that if there had been Blacks on NEW YORK, N.Y. FIVE (5) CENTS he acknowledged he had never actually spo­ the jury, they would not have taken so long to MILITANT ken with the woman. arrive at a verdict. "Although the police can Published in the Interest of the Working People June 22, 1946 The prosecution based its case on recent find large numbers of (Black) people to Price 10¢ changes in Canadian law, which state that in charge as defendants" he said, "they can find June 25, 1971 Thirty-one hand-picked Negro victims of cases of childhood sexual abuse, no physi­ very few to bring here as jurors." Tennessee's white ruling class have been cal or corroborative evidence- that is wit- In another reaction to the not-guilty ver- DETROIT- On June 10, the Student standing trial since May 28 in Maury County Mobilization Committee held a demonstra­ courthouse, Columbia, Tenn., on a frame­ tion at the graduation ceremonies at up charge of "attempt to commit murder." Andover High School in Bloomfield Hills, This is the second phase of a campaign Baltimore rally demands an a wealthy suburb. of mass terrorism and murder launched This was a new situation for the against the segregated Negro community of Bloomfield Hills Police Department. Be­ Columbia last February. State troops, com­ end to the death penalty fore the event, the organizers of the action ing to the aid of a white lynch mob, blasted were pulled out of class many times to con­ Negro homes and business with machine BY CHESTER WILSON The Hunt case demonstrates several other fer with the superintendent of schools, the guns, shot and injured scores, invaded and BALTIMORE-Fifty persons gathered aspects of racism and prejudice against work­ principal, and police officers. Their chief ransacked homes, and drove the helpless outside the Maryland State Penitentiary and ing people in the judicial system: he was de­ concern was the "safety" of the keynote Negro population into the streets. They mer­ the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Cen­ nied competent counsel and an adequate de­ speaker at the ceremonies, Edward N. Cole, cilessly clubbed men, women and children, ter, or "Supermax," June 1 to protest the fense; the prosecution tampered with wit­ president of one of the biggest war profi­ jailed more than a hundred and lynched two death penalty and the ordered execution of nesses; and the judge improperly·instructed teers - the General Motors Corporation. men in jail. Flint Gregory Hunt. Hunt, who had been the jury. On the evening of the demonstration, The trial is taking place in a Jim Crow convicted in 1985 for the shooting death of In Maryland the barbaric conditions in spe­ there were six uniformed police, a great courtroom where no Negro has ever served a police officer, was scheduled for the gas cial prisons like the "Supermax" have been number of plainclothesmen, including three on a jury. Attorneys, provided by the Na­ chamber the week of June 10 but on May condemned by a department of justice report. on the roof of the school, and a police dog. tional Association for the Advancement of 31 received a stay of execution. After the speak out, the crowd marched One incident occurred when an enraged Colored People, are introducing evidence Several speakers condemned the dispro­ around the "Supermax", chanting to those man attacked two demonstrators and at­ proving that Jim Crow prejudice is so wide­ portionate use of the death penalty against inside, "Keep the faith! Be Strong!" After­ tempted to destroy a huge banner reading: spread that it is impossible to secure a jury Blacks. Fourteen of the 16 Maryland death wards the activists present agreed again to "United States Out of Southeast Asia Now." that would give the defendants a fair trial. row inmates are Black. meet about the Hunt case and others, like that The police refused to take the man's name While this mass frame-up is going on, not In 1995 a racial justice amendment was of Marshall Eddie Conway, a former Black or allow demonstrators to file a complaint. a single white hoodlum who participated in withdrawn from the state senate after a prom­ Panther member. Conway has been jailed The demonstration consisted of 35 pick­ the February armed assaults upon the de­ ise by Governor Glendening to establish a since 1970 on a frame-up stemming from the ets, while 50 to 60 sympathetic graduates fenseless Negro population has been arrested task force to study racial discrimination in U.S. government's COINTELPRO operation wore black armbands and antiwar buttons and indicted. No action has been taken the state's application of the death penalty. carried out against a range of political groups. on their gowns.The graduates face the against the two officers of the "law" who The governor has not commissioned the task A demonstration to support Conway is choice of either fighting and dying in an im­ shot two jailed Negroes to death in cold force and refused to discuss the Hunt case. planned on June 8 in Baltimore. moral war, joining the ranks of the unem­ blood. The fascists who marked a large KKK He declined to meet with Jesse Jackson, who ployed, giving 78 percent of their tax dollars on a casket in a Negro undertaking estab­ spoke with Hunt and supports a commuta­ Chester Wilson is a member of United Auto to the war, or working to end the war. The lishment are at large and continuing their sin­ tion of his sentence. Workers Local 239. demonstrators urged the latter alternative. ister work of inspiring a lynch atmosphere. June 24, 1996 The Militant 13 -EDITORIALS------Yearn for more The disintegration of NATO porous borders

The crumbling of the Warsaw Pact has accelerated the the overturn of capitalist property relations. Its strategic Two letters came in this week questioning the Militant's disintegration of the reactionary Atlantic military alliance. effort to weaken the workers states became one of apply­ stance on immigration. Reader Brian McGarity asks, "Isn't NATO was already strained because of sharper ing pressure on the bureaucratic castes to police the work­ allowing non-tax paying foreign nationals to work in place interimperialist competition among its members states and ing class in those countries and keep them isolated from of union brothers and sisters self-defeating?" the shifts in alignments among the rival national capital­ the struggles of workers and peasants around the world. This is not a new discussion in the workers' movement. ist classes. With the crumbling of the Stalinist regimes and their At the Stuttgart Congress of the Second International in The prospects for a united capitalist Europe with a single replacement by openly procapitalist politicians, and with 1907, Morris Hillquit, a founder of the U.S. Socialist Party, currency are pretty much nil. Instead, increasing rivalry prospects for a military assault against the former Soviet presented a nationalist view on the question. "Capitalism's and trade conflicts among the current members of the so­ republics less feasible than ever, imperialism still faces importation of foreign labor cheaper than that of native­ called European Union, and between them and the U.S. the same challenge, but from a weakened position. born workers," Hillquit said, "threatens the native-born empire, are coming to the fore. Imperialism enters the 21st Capitalism won't return without establishing new rela­ with dangerous competition and usually provides a pool century in a weakened position. What's on the horizon is tions of exploitation based on the crushing defeat of work­ of unconscious strikebreakers. Chinese and Japanese work­ not a "New World Order" with Washington at the helm, ing people and the seizure of the means of production by ers play that role today, as does the yellow race in general. but growing instability and capitalist world disorder filled a new capitalist class. While we have absolutely no racial prejudices against the with the prospect of world war. Nixon touched on that problem four years ago, when Chinese we must frankly tell you that they can not be or- This is what could be glimpsed through the diplomatic he pointed to the lack of what he called a "managerial obfuscations, and some of the more candid remarks, ut­ class" in Russia. Thatcher, likewise, acknowledged the tered at the NATO meeting in Berlin. And this is what "absence of the legal and customary foundations of a free Margaret Thatcher, just like Richard Nixon four years economy" - free, that is, for the exploitation of the labor DISCUSSION WITH ago- both heads of state who retired involuntarily - of the toiling majority by a tiny propertied minority. pointed to in her blunt speech at Westminster College. Unlike what Nixon suggested, however, imperialism OUR READERS The fact is that U.S. imperialism has lost the Cold War. was not, and is not today, in any position to buy its way The Cold War was the term used - somewhat inaccu­ back to capitalism in Russia, Poland, or even East Ger­ rately, since it was dotted by a number of "hot" wars -to many. Thatcher is pointing to what appears to be a less ganized. Only a people well advanced in its historical de­ describe the strategic course forced upon the U.S. rulers utopian perspective from the point of view of the exploit­ velopment, such as the Belgians and Italians in France, and their allies coming out of World War II in face of the ing classes. Shoot your way back to capitalism. That's can be organized for the class struggle." limitations imposed by the international relationship of what Washington and its allies are attempting to do in Hillquit was answered well by Kato Tokijiro, a delegate class forces. These limitations ruled out for the foresee­ Yugoslavia, with very limited success so far. from Japan. "The Japanese are under the heel of capital­ able future the use of massive military force to accom­ But the battle over Yugoslavia, as well as the Central ism just as much as are other peoples," Tokijiro said, after plish Washington's goal of overturning the Soviet Union European workers states, is exacerbating conflicts between explaining to Hillquit that he was influenced by the racist and Eastern European workers states and reestablishing imperialist powers. That's what the row over whether or notion of the so-called yellow peril. "It is only dire need capitalism there. how fast to integrate Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Re­ that drives them from their homeland to earn their liveli­ Washington was blocked from pursuing this goal by public into NATO reveals. Thatcher's not so subtle anti­ hood in a foreign land. It is the duty of Socialists to wel­ the refusal of the Gls in Europe and Asia to go back to German and anti-French language also shows that come these poor brothers, to defend them, and together war- this time against former allies, the Soviet Union interimperialist competition is becoming more and more with them to fight capitalism. The founders of socialism, and the workers and peasants of China. Thatcher described the motor force of politics today. above all Karl Marx, did not address themselves to indi­ this period as the "fatal hiatus" of 1944-46- fatal, that In this world, imperialism confronts a new. and more vidual countries but to all humanity. Internationalism is is, for the class she represents. The U.S.-led assault on confident actor in the world class struggle: the working inscribed on our banner." (The transcript of this debate Korea in 1950, which tested the "back door" approach to classes of Eastern and Central Europe and the Soviet can be found in Pathfinder's Lenin's Struggle for a Revo­ undermining or overthrowing the Soviet Union and the Union, who are less isolated than ever from their brothers lutionary International pp. 15-20.) fledgling Chinese revolution, failed. The Democratic and sisters in the imperialist centers and elsewhere. Ac­ Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin amplified these points in a People's Republic of Korea was not overthrown and the celerating unrest in East Germany over economic and so­ later article titled "Capitalism and Workers' Immigration" fighting ended in a stalemate at the 38th parallel. Moscow's cial conditions and mounting labor resistance across Ger­ in the Russian newspaper Pravda in October 1913. "Only development of nuclear weapons in the 1950s chilled any many to the assault by the bosses on wages, hours, and reactionaries can shut their eyes to the progressive sig­ idea of a direct military assault on the workers states. social security is a case in point. nificance of this modem migration of nations," Lenin Given these realities, Washington was restricted to us­ That is the specter that haunts the bourgeoisie through­ wrote. "And it is into this struggle that capitalism is draw­ ing its military power to try to contain any extension of out Europe and across the Atlantic. ing the masses of the working people of the whole world, breaking down the ... national barriers and prejudices, uniting workers from all countries in huge factories and mines in America, Germany, and so forth." Workers from neocolonial countries immigrate to North Support striking machinists America, western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand today in order to escape the unlivable conditions created The 6,700 striking Machinists at McDonnell Douglas Washington, Bonn, London, Paris, or Tokyo. They try to by imperialism in their homelands. in St. Louis deserve the support of the entire labor move­ convince workers to see each other as the enemy, and keep They are often battle-tested fighters and bring impor­ ment and other fighters. By standing up to the aerospace us competing for jobs, in order to better divide and rule. tant experiences from the class struggle in their countries giant, they have put themselves on the front lines of the When workers begin to fight for their rights and dig­ of origin, making the working class in the imperialist coun­ resistance by working people to the bosses' drive to cut nity, like those at McDonnell Douglas, they become open tries more international and for that reason stronger. It workers' wages, job conditions, and expectations. to seeing that, as one striker put it, "unions have to stand would be self-defeating for the labor movement to see McDonnell Douglas is trying to impose what every together not only here but in the whole world." Workers them as "non-tax paying foreign nationals," rather than capitalist enterprise must do today under the pressures of employed by McDonnell Douglas face the same enemy brothers and sisters who should have equal rights with intensified competition with rivals in the United States as those working at Boeing, Lockheed, Airbus, and other native-born or immigrants with proper job documents. and abroad- cost-cutting, outsourcing, and job combi­ companies around the world - this capitalist system and Capitalism breeds competition among workers and re­ nations aimed at reducing the workforce by another 1, 700 the joblessness and worsening conditions it breeds. inforces prejudices. Rulers pit workers in capitalist coun­ workers over the duration of the proposed contract. Unionists and other people fighting against tries against each other, against foreign born workers, and When McDonnell Douglas President Herbert Lanese Washington's war moves around the world, against rac­ against workers in exploited countries, while trying to advised the machinists to "think of the people in Boeing ism and attacks on immigrant rights, and in defense of convince the working class some of us are to blame for all and Lockheed Martin .. .like I do, as your mortal enemy," affirmative action should get out to the picket lines to give social ills, instead of seeing where the crisis really comes he meant it. Working people recoiled from Lanese's state­ solidarity to the McDonnell Douglas workers. We should from - the innate development of capitalism. ments. Although Lanese later sought to deny these com­ demand the government end its picket line injunctions and "The bourgeoisie incites the workers of one nation ments, they accurately reflect the true colors of the capi­ threats of intervention against the strikers. against those of another in the endeavor to keep them dis­ talist bosses and their governments whether they be in Support the McDonnell Douglas strikers! united," Lenin explained. "Class-conscious workers" re­ alize "that the breakdown of all the national barriers by capitalism is inevitable and progressive." The bosses have no borders when they want to exploit labor. The national borders of the employing class in each Stop the church burnings now! country are defined by the area within which the bour­ geoisie can use its currency and its army to protect its Continued from front page pact of the capitalist economic crisis. currency. The proletariat truly has no country and should these attacks. Meanwhile, he has served as pointman for It is both the Democrats and Republicans who share not be deceived by the divisions the wealthy rulers seek reintroduction of chain-gangs and other abusive treatment direct responsibility for these attacks. Their bipartisan to foster with their borders. of workers behind bars - a disproportionate number of assault and increasing scapegoating of whole layers of the Unions in the United States should fight to organize whom are Black. Now, with more than 30 churches in population-Black youth, "welfare mothers," immigrant and win equal rights for all workers - regardless of their ashes, several ultrarightists have finally been arrested un­ · workers, and others-for the social and economic prob­ country of origin or whether they crossed the border with­ der growing pressure from Blacks across the South. lems caused by capitalism, creates a political atmosphere out checking in with the hated Ia migra. At the same time, Protest actions, picket lines, and speak -out events can in which ultrarightists feel emboldened to carry out direct the labor movement should call for the cancellation of the help press forward an effective answer to the terror cam­ and brutal assaults on sections of the population. third world debt and offer its unconditional and active soli­ paign. The actions can support the demand made by church President William Clinton says he will deploy. more darity to struggles by workers in Mexico, Brazil, or any­ officials to the Justice Department in Washington that the . federal agents throughout the Southeast to investigate the where in the world. Workers who live and toil in Mexico police cease harassing parishioners and running lie-de­ fires. He also proposed changes in federal law to make it can take care of organizing themselves. tector tests on pastors, and instead find and prosecute the easier to prosecute those suspected of carrying out "at- In reply to our reader from behind bars in Woodbourne perpetrators of the violence. Any local church should be tacks on places of worship." · - it was the imperialist powers, specifically the British able to call on and receive federal or state police protec­ But like the recently passed "anticrime," "antiterror­ colonizers, who ran the Maori off their land in New tion if needed or desired. ist," and "sexual predator" laws, Clinton's proposed law Zealand, not immigrant workers. Communists stand for To claim, as the Clinton administration has, that the will be used to whittle away at democratic rights. No fur­ the right to self-determination of the Maori people. But federal government, the FBI, the AFT, and other police ther laws are necessary to prosecute arsonists. wouldn't Maoris in any powerful upsurge of their struggle agencies don't know much about this string of church The labor movement, youth, and all fighters for social against oppression reach out to and politically attract all burnings is sheer hypocrisy. Federal secret police agen­ justice must join with Black organizations in demanding those who truly want to fight against racism, national chau­ cies, and local and state cops, are involved in every right­ the arrest, prosecution, and jailing of those responsible vinism, imperialist subjugation, and capitalist exploita­ ist outfit in this country. for the arson attacks.lt is only by keeping up the pressure tion? Including immigrant workers demanding equal The intent of this campaign is clear: to intimidate Afri­ through such actions that the government will be forced rights? Proletarian internationalism is a principle all work­ can-Americans and others from fighting to defend their to put a stop to the arson. ers and oppressed nations can be won to. That's what the hard won rights and to responding to the devastating im- Stop the church burnings now! Bolsheviks proved in Russia. -MEGAN ARNEY 14 The Militant June 24, 1996 Farm workers picket Prime mushrooms This column is devoted to re­ balance precariously without lad­ fronted with porting the resistance by work­ ders between two rows to get to the this group of ing people to the employers' as­ highest ones. irate union­ sault on their living standards, "Then when someone gets hurt, ists, leaving working conditions, and unions. they say it's our own fault," the kitchen We invite you to contribute Calderon explained. There have open for the short items to this column as a also been problems of sexual ha­ visiting del­ way for other fighting workers rassment on the job. egates to tour around the world to read about Unions represented at the Publix at their lei­ and learn from these important picket line included the Maritime sure," he struggles. Jot down a few lines Workers Union; Transportation added. about what is happening in your Workers Union; United Teachers of The deter­ union, at your workplace, or Dade County; AFL-CIO Central mination of other workplaces in your area, Labor Council; Teamsters; Union of the strikers including interesting political dis­ Needletrades, Industrial and Textile and support cussions. Employees; and the American Fed- from other airport work­ Tony Savino ers resulted in May 31 rally defending farm workers' union rights at Quincy Farms in Florida the removal ON THE PICKET LINE of company goons by a court order, manding wage cuts averaging 36 Picketers reported that occasion­ the right for union members to make percent across the whole plant. The ally they have processed double the MIAMI BEACH, Florida - eration of State, County, and Mu­ random kitchen inspections, and a company's contract offer would number of carcasses per worker per Seventy-five unionists and others nicipal Employees. court prohibition of the use of scabs mean an A-grade beef boner would day as the current industry norm. picketed outside a Publix supermar­ There were also members of the working off site. drop from about NZ$23 per hour at Nightshift workers have been de­ ket here May 31 demanding that the NAACP, the National Organization The workers rejected a "final of­ present to about NZ$15 per hour nied pay for public holidays. store stop selling Prime mushrooms, for Women, the Women's Political fer" by the company of a wage (NZ$1 = US$0.67). Laborers would The strike began when the boss grown by Quincy Farms. Caucus, and the Greater Miami freeze for three years, no more shift drop from NZ$17 to NZ$12 per told the day shift they would be laid Quincy Farms dismissed 85 Rabbinical Association. Laura premiums, reduced dental coverage, hour. The company is also is de­ off, while the night shift would con­ workers in March after they joined Garza, Socialist Workers candidate no more double time for overtime, manding job cuts and increased out­ tinue working. Workers on both a lunchtime demonstration orga­ for U.S. vice president, also joined and work rule changes that would put. shifts are supporting the strike, de­ nized by the United Farm Workers the protest. amount to speed up. The workers have not had a cost­ spite mounting economic pressures. of America (UFW) calling for Rebecca Flores Harrington, na­ Arlene Labrador, a former stu­ of-living raise since 1989. Since An early attempt by the company higher wages and better working tional vice-president of the UFW, dent activist in the Philippines and they are piece workers, all pay in­ to keep the plant running with scabs conditions. Twenty-five workers said "We won't give up until the striker, said, "The manager called creases since then have been was pushed back. The strikers have were arrested for "trespassing." workers at Prime have a union." The us a bunch of Filipino nannies and achieved by increasing output. In joined the Meat Workers Union. Five farm workers fired from UFW has been organizing picket stupid drivers during a meeting be­ 1993 their piece rate was cut 7.8 Workers at both plants are begin­ Quincy drove 10 hours to be part lines and demonstrations around the fore the strike. But we're going to percent. ning to win support for their actions of the May 31 demonstration out­ state. stand up and fight." The union members are picket­ in the local communities. side Publix, the largest grocery Support from other airport work­ ing the plant. Freezers on the site The Hawera strikers participated chain in Southern Florida. Catering workers strike ers has been outstanding according are being operated by management in a golf tournament put on by the Signs in English and Spanish to Dixon, "Whether it be aircraft staff to process production from the company for its farmer-suppliers. reading, "Boycott Prime Mush­ at Vancouver airport fuelers refusing to touch aircraft company's non-union killing plant They entered a team in the compe­ rooms" and "Support the Farm RICHMOND, British Colum­ catered by CLS, or doughnuts re­ at Bulls. tition, and took the opportunity to Workers" were held up along with bia- On May 14, some 180 mem­ ceived from ramp workers, or the Meanwhile, at nearby Hawera hand out leaflets explaining their dozens of red flags with the farm bers of Canadian Auto Workers simple act of walking the picket line Processors, 45 meat workers are stand to the farmers participating. worker symbol, a black eagle in a (CAW) Local 2213 went out on with us in the wee hours, a strong into their sixth week of a strike. The Eltham workers were plan­ white circle in the middle. strike against Cathay, Lufthansa, message has been sent to our em­ After the plant was privatized in ning to demonstrate outside a pub­ The picketers gave shoppers leaf­ Skychef Catering (CLS) at the ployer." 1989, the new owners began with­ lic meeting for the rightist politician lets promoting the mushroom boy­ Vancouver Airport. holding union fees deducted from Winston Peters when he visited the cott. The majority of strikers are NZ meat workers fight the workers' wages and refused to region. "We want justice," Eudocia women. The workforce is multina­ forward them to the union. Later the The Meat Workers Union is or­ Calderon told the crowd. "We're the tional and young, composed mainly worsening conditions company de-unionized the plant and ganizing speakers from both facili­ ones who pick the food people eat. of Fijian, Chinese, Punjabi and Fili­ TARANAKI, New Zealand­ put workers on individual contracts. ties to tour the unionized plants, and We deserve a better wage." pino born workers. "We are fighting for a collective When a night shift was hired ear­ collections to support the strikers The farm workers get paid piece "From day one the company employment contract," meat work­ lier this year, their wages were sig­ have been organized in a number of rates and many make less than $5 brought in goons who tried to in­ ers at Hawera Processors told a nificantly lower. plants. an hour. Calderon, 26, worked at timidate us. By the end ofthe first team of Militant supporters who One worker told us that he was Quincy Farms outside Tallahassee day several strikers had been pushed visited their picket line May 25. The persuaded to go onto the night shift, Seth Galinsky, member of United for eight years before she was fired. around, knocked down, and had workers are one of two groups of and found that despite going up to Transportation Union Localll38 "It's not just wages," she said in an heard racist abuse," explained CAW members of the Meat Workers a higher skill grade, his wages in Miami; Ned Dmytryshyn, mem­ interview. "Working there is unsafe. Local 2213 bargaining committee Union of Aotearoa in the Taranaki dropped by NZ$200 per week. ber ofInternational Association of There are many accidents." chairman Dave Dixon. region who have taken action to While most piece workers earn Machinists Lodge 721 in The workers brought pictures "On day two, dozens of delegates defend their jobs, wages, and their about $16 per hour, one contract Vancouver, and James Robb, mem­ taken at the farm to prove their from the Canadian Labor Congress union in recent weeks. offered to nightshift workers guar­ ber of the Meat Workers Union of point. They often have to pick convention being held in Vancouver·. At Riverlands Beef in Eltham, antees them no more than the legal Aotearoa in Auckland, New mushrooms from planters stacked arrived to bring solidarity," said 110 workers have been locked out minimum wage of NZ$6.25 per Zealand, contributed to this week's 15 or 20 feet high. They have to Dixon. The thugs "fled when con- for twelve weeks. Riverlands is de- hour. column.

-LfTTfRS------~------Immigration I to defend the right of anyone grants will do, if it becomes I just read an article in your June to immigrate to New Zealand, necessary for the United States 10 edition on INS raids in the Twin but he also defends the land to intervene militarily in Cities. I must admit the "Bosses" rights of the Maoris, which · Mexico to keep that country and the INS sure do seem to be co­ means their right to stop any­ under control. conspirators, and the deceitful and one from immigrating into This whole problem of im­ dehumanizing way the INS is pre­ their land without their permis­ migration is very complex, and senting itself is appalling. I have a siori. This is a contradiction interwoven with the problems question, though, regarding illegal which needs to be explained. of nationalism and ethnic iden­ foreign workers in our union facto­ If his point is the that capital­ tity, as well as who "owns" or ries and plants. I thought the whole ists should not be allowed to controls the land and water and idea behind unions is to protect the· control immigration for their other natural resources in dif­ wmkers from being exploited by die pursuit of private property, I ferent parts of the world. These bosses. Isn't allowing non-tax pay­ heartily agree. Butifhemakes problems call for different tac­ ing foreign nationals to work in the right of anyone to go and tics to fit different circum­ place of union brothers and sisters live where they please into a stances. One only causes con­ self-defeating? I am in no way de­ sacred principle, he is being fusion by oversimplifying fending the trampling of human absurd. these problems, and setting up slogans and making them into rights and Gestapo tactics, but don't Is Cuba supposed to allow principles instead of the tactics you think trying to organize Mexico unlimited immigration from they really are. would be a more productive solu­ Haiti and other neighboring tion then simply defending the ille­ A prisoner countries? Even when we have Woodbourne, New York gal practice of working with out world-wide socialism, where papers? everyone who can work will be re­ BrianMcGarity quired to have some useful occupa­ We need to develop international because they can use the enlarged The letters column is an open from e-mail tion, if there are no jobs available labor solidarity to build up the surplus labor pool to drive wages forum for all viewpoints on sub­ in an area people will not be allowed working class and the economies of down. But the capitalists-as-a-class jects of general interest to our to immigrate there to live and work. all countries, as well as demand that (the capitalist state) fears unlimited readers. Please keep your letters Immigration II And there will be other restrictions all residents of a country should immigration, since it brings in brief. Where necessary they will The position set forth by Terry on immigration, such as the effect have equal rights, even "illegal" masses of people who have no loy­ be abridged. Please indicate ifyou Coggan in his essay " Immigration people and their activities will have immigrants. Many individual capi­ alty to their capitalist state, they prefer that your initials be used is a right" is confusing. He seems on the environment. talists favor unlimited immigration, wonder what all the Mexican immi- rather than your full name. June 24, 1996 The Militant 15 THE MILITANT France: workers rally against gov't policies on wages, unemployment BY NAT LONDON union congress recently held in Cuba. He PARIS-A little yellow sticker summed and 200 other members of the CGT union up the mood of tens of thousands of angry at EDF had just come back from a trip to workers as they hit the streets of Paris in a Cuba where they had participated in a mara­ series of demonstrations the first week of thon race and in the May Day demonstra­ June. "Juppe," warned the sticker, "the rail tions. Didier is now working on setting up a workers are back to kick your a ... !!!" refer­ sister relationship between his union in ring to Prime Minister Alain Juppe. Tours and unions in Camagtiay, Cuba. He The June 7 Paris financial daily La Tri­ was very interested to hear about plans for bune Desfosses described the demonstra­ a world trade union conference to be held tions of rail workers, gas, electric and tele­ in Cuba next year. communication workers, teachers, and re­ Jose Perez from Rouen, a leader of the tirees as "impressive" mobilizations, prepar­ rail strike last fall as well as of the previous ing a "hot offensive" by the unions in the rail strike in 1986, said there is a threat to fall against the scourge of unemployment rail as a public service. "They want to close and government wage policy. "The Unions thousands of kilometers of unprofitable Send a Warning to Juppe for the Fall" said lines, leaving many regions without rail ser­ the paper's main headline. vice," he said. Gas, electric, and rail utili­ On May 23, 10,000 workers demonstrated ties, the post office, and the telephone sys­ in Paris and thousands more in other cities tem were all recognized as public services demanding a reduction in the work week following the liberation of France from Nazi with no cut in pay to create more jobs. occupation near the end of World War II. Unemployment in France is at 11.9 per­ They are state monopolies, and everyone is cent and has hovered around this level for considered to have the right to access to several years. Increasing numbers of French these services at the same fixed rate. workers see a shorter work week as a solu­ Freddie Roberts and Terry Barrett came to the railroad workers demonstration. Both tion to this problem. According to public Workers in France demonstrate in defense of public services, jobs, and wages. opinion polls, 41 percent of the French popu­ are among 500 Merseyside dock workers lation held this view in 1994. This figure system of public services as an equal right gan of last fall's strike wave - gave the two from Liverpool, England, who were fired rose to 51 percent last year and now stands to everyone in the country." actions a spirited and combative air. last September for refusing to cross a picket at 60 percent. A majority of workers now The high point of the week of actions was Didier, a member of the CGT and an elec- line. They have been invited for an 11-day believe that there should be no cut in pay if the two massive demonstrations in Paris on trical worker from Tours, saw the ending of tour by the CGT and by rail workers in the working hours are reduced. June 5 and 6, first by 40,000 gas and elec- the state monopoly in electricity as the first new union SUD. They will be visiting Paris On May 30, some 90 local actions drew tric workers from all over France followed step towards privatization. Different rates and Rouen in Normandy looking for sup­ tens of thousands of retired workers into the by an equal number of railroad workers next would be charged for electricity in different port in their struggle. "We all have the same streets. One week later, 5,000 retired work­ day. Delegations vied with each other in in- regions "as is now done in Britain," he said. aim," Roberts said. "To make things better ers demonstrated in Paris. The retirees are genuity, with waves of giant balloons and He also wanted overtime work to be stopped for the working class and to let the bosses protesting their declining purchasing power. banners, whistles, firecrackers, horns used so that EDF, the state electrical company, know we won't be threatened and pushed As part of the Juppe plan to slash social by rail work crews to warn approaching would have to hire the unemployed. around." security, taxes have been raised on retire­ trains, smoke grenades, and railroad flares. Didier stopped by a table featuring cop- ment pensions. Exemptions from paying Demonstrators in hard-hats and costumes ies of the Marxist magazine Nouvelle Nat London is a member of the CGT at the some type of social security taxes, which carrying all sorts of noisemakers and shout- Internationale and books by Pathfinder Renault plant at Choisy-le-roi. Jean-Pierre are withheld from workers' paychecks, have ing "All together, all together" - the slo- Press to buy a copy of the theses of the trade Dubois contributed to this article. been lifted. Last fall, massive strikes and demonstrations forced Juppe to back off on some of the elements of his plan. He aban­ Sinn Fein protests exclusion from doned his efforts to raise the retirement age for 5.5 million public workers. One million work days were lost during the December strikes alone. Ireland talks as rightists walk out On June 1, more than 10,000 teachers demonstrated in Paris to protest threatened BY PAUL DAVIES talks by the British and Irish governments Mayhew. The question of the chair remained cutbacks in pubic employment. Many of the AND PETE CLIFFORD on the grounds that the Irish Republican unresolved at the end of the session. The banners angrily pointed to Juppe's recent LONDON- "It is with frustration and Army had not declared a cease-fire. They speeches of the British and Irish prime min­ remarks that the civil service system creates a sense of anger that Sinn Fein views the received a record high of 15.5 percent of isters were meant to be shown live on BBC, "bad fat." The prime minister announced opening of talks today in Belfast," said the vote in the May 30 elections, the fourth but the British government pulled the plug budget restrictions to get rid of this "excess Belfast City Sinn Fein Councilor Pat highest vote among the different parties. a half-hour before, fearing this wrangle weight" that will result in layoffs. McGeown June 10. He was addressing a The elections were imposed by the Brit­ would become a focus for TV coverage. Three days later, thousands of telecom­ London press conference at the House of ish government in order to select represen­ Instead the Independent reports, "While munication workers took a tum in a one­ Commons, on the opening day of talks or­ tatives to participate in the June 10 talks. the Prime Minister was opening the talks, day national strike and local demonstrations. ganized by the British and Irish government Attending the negotiations are nine parties, the cameras instead feasted on the strong According to management of France at Stormont Castle in Northern Ireland. including two aligned with the rightist Loy­ simple image of the republicans being de­ Telecom, some 32 percent of the 155,000 McGeown began a speaking tour of Britain alist death squads. nied a place at the table." telecommunication workers walked off the as other Sinn Fein leaders demanded their On June 5 an IRA statement explained it In response to their exclusion, Adams and job - slightly less than their last one-day inclusion in the talks from outside the gates "will not be decommissioning its weap­ other Sinn Fein leaders fielded questions and strike April 11. of Stormont. ons .... It will never leave nationalist areas interviews for several hours at the gates of "We are all really worried about the re­ On the third day of talks, two right-wing defenseless this side of a final settlement." Stormont. Adams issued the speech he had structuring of France Telecom and the parties, the Democratic Unionists and UK Prior to the meeting leaders of various planned to make at the opening of the talks, privatization of its most profitable sectors," Unionists, stormed out of the talks to pro­ unionist (pro-British) parties condemned the entitled 'Transforming Hope Into Reality.' said one demonstrator, sporting a badge of test the appointment of former U.S. Sena­ decision of the British and Irish govern­ In the speech Adams outlined Sinn Fein's the CGT, his union. "Workers will be forc­ tor George Mitchell as chair. ments to appoint former U.S. senator objectives. "It is our intention to put the ibly transferred to other areas of France. A Explaining Sinn Fein's position, Mitchell as chairperson of the talks. Deputy union (with Britain) on the agenda. Nego­ multi-tiered system will replace the current McGeown said, "We and our people are an­ leader of the Ulster Unionists John Taylor tiations are an area of struggle," he said. gry because while the British government complained, "This appointment is the "The claim of the British government to declared that an elective process 'would lead equivalent of an American Serb presiding sovereignty in Ireland, is the key matter An •••~•n immediately ... to the convening of all party over talks on the future of Croatia." Demo­ which must be addressed in any negotia­ ...... negotiations.' Here we are after an election cratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley said tion." Adams added that "the whole issue confron• •be Com~na with the British government denying the Mitchell would be "some sort of Pope sit­ of demilitarization needs to be resolved. This Econom~c Cr~s~s democratic outcome." ting over all the talks." includes the release of political prisoners, Speaking alongside McGeown at Speaking in London, Sinn Fein leader disarmament, policing, the administration of A Program for International McGeown pointed to how the British gov­ justice and an end to repressive legislation." Working-Class Struggle Today Westminster June 10, Labour MP Tony Benn said "to exclude [Sinn Fein] would ernment had always "resisted the interna­ In other developments, ~hree days before How a program to fight for jobs and affirma· be to disenfranchise all those who freely tionalization of the conflict in Ireland." The the opening of the talks, British police seized tive action, and to combat imperialism's pillage chose to vote in the recent Northern Ireland appointment of Mitchell, he said, "shows a five people in South Armagh, Northern Ire­ of the Third Wor1d, is crucial to uniting working Forum elections .... The delay in advancing sign of weakening on this question." land, and one in London who they claimed people internationally. Available in English, the peace process since the cease-fire has The first day of the talks turned into a were responsible for the February 9 bomb­ Spanish, Icelandic. and Swedish $3.00 been due to the failure of the British gov­ debate over who would chair and what ing of Canary Wharf in the British capital. Coming soon in French! ernment to respond to the opportunity." would be on the agenda. Paisley threatened By June 9 they were forced to release two Available from bookstores, including those listed on Later that day, Sinn Fein president Gerry that his party would walk out if Mitchell was of those detained. Just weeks before, Lon­ page 12, or write Pathfmder, 410 West St., New York, Adams, chief negotiator Martin McGuin­ in the chair. In response, after Prime Minis­ don admitted that forensic evidence used to NY 10014. When ordering by mail, please include ter John Major's address, the chair was $3 to cover shipping and handling ness, and 15 other elected Sinn Fein offi­ convict several Irish prisoners had been ex­ cials were excluded from the opening of the handed to Northern Ireland secretary Patrick tracted in a contaminated machine.

16 The Militant June 24,1996