workers.org Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! JULY 6, 2006 VOL. 48, NO. 26 50¢ Remember COINTELPRO?

Líder cubano en Miami 12 Miami arrests seen Campaña para derechos de inmigrantes 12 as racist entrapment By Larry Hales recruited the group to set up an “Islamic Army” to wage a What is behind the FBI arrest “jihad” in the United States and SENATE VOTE of seven Black men on June 22 then contacted an FBI agent, in this election year, barely a who was posing as a member of SIGNALS year after thousands of Black Al Qaeda. Batiste allegedly gave No ‘reconciliation’ in Iraq 9 and poor white residents were the agent a list of necessary left to die in New Orleans in the equipment and asked for aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? $50,000. Five of the men arrested in However, although several Miami are African-American, buildings are said to have been Once again and two are Haitian. Lyglenson searched, no evidence was defend Palestine! Lemorin was arrested in Atlanta, found, other than a reported list where he had moved. The men, and several photos of Miami EDITORIAL 10 who range in age from early 20s buildings that the men suppos- to early 30s, are charged with edly gave to the government- conspiracy. paid informant who helped set Patrick Abraham, one of the the trap. The men were not Haitian men, had already been found to have any of the mate- FREE in the custody of immigration rials they were said to have officials since May for staying in requested. The claims that they MUMIA the United States past his visa had sworn allegiance to Al Solidarity in date. Stanley Grant Phanor was in custody for weapons charges. Qaeda are farfetched as well. The only person who ever claimed Harlem 3 The other men are Narseal Batiste, Naudimar Herrera, Burson to have any contact with Al Qaeda was the undercover agent. Augustin and Rotschild Augustine. The men had tried to start a At a June 23 news conference, FBI Deputy Director John construction company. Pistole stated that the defendants’ “conspiracy” was “more aspi- According to the federal grand jury indictment, Batiste Continued on page 11 Teamster LGBT PRIDE: FROM COAST TO COAST leader urges: TransJustice triumphs 7 Highlights of Pride 7 S.F. Pride: Labor support for same-sex rights 7 ‘Revive liberation struggle!’ 6 Stonewall: ‘LABOR MUST Toronto: Socialist message cheered 7 ‘All hell broke loose!’1 2 UNITE GLOBALLY’ 4 Photo above, Chris Silvera WW PHOTO: LIZ GREEN

9/11 RECOVERY WORKERS: ‘Gov't deceived, abandoned us’ 10

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1969 Stonewall uprising against police repression

In the U.S. Miami arrests seen as racist entrapment ...... 1 ‘All hell broke loose!’ Lavender & red, part 67...... 2 Harlem meeting in solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal. . 3 By Leslie Feinberg Lavender& Red focuses on the Court suit filed in police brutality case...... 3 relationship over more than a century Shaka Sankofa remembered...... 3 No recording device captured the roar or ferocity of the between the liberation of oppressed crowd outside the Stonewall bar, enraged by the police sexualities, genders and sexes, and Texas prisoner honors life of Shaka Sankofa ...... 3 raid and the physical brutality and sexual and gender the communist movement. You can Labor in the global economy ...... 4 humiliation that was interwoven into the state repression. read the entire, ongoing Workers Baltimore victory won over utility company ...... 4 World newspaper series by Leslie However, the militancy and determination of those who Farmers vow to fight for their land ...... 5 Feinberg online at www.workers.org. fought back that night—June 28, 1969—is recalled in the SF: Time to revive militancy of LGBT movement . . . . 6 Stop and get a subscription while you're there! words of the top cop who led the raid, Deputy Inspector Feinberg: Putting ‘liberation’ back into ‘gay liberation’. 6 Seymour Pine: “I had been in combat situations, [but] LGBT Pride 2006 highlights ...... 7 Voice journalist Lucian Truscott said he had climbed there was never any time that I felt more scared than TransJustice triumphs ...... 7 then.” Pine had written the U.S. Army’s manual for hand- atop a garbage can to watch the action and he almost top- Union leaders support same-sex marriage rights . . . . 7 to-hand combat in World War II and was in a mine explo- pled when two men yanked it out from under him and U.S. weapons of mass destruction protested ...... 8 sion at the Battle of the Bulge. heaved it at the bar’s west window. By many accounts, the Black, Latin@ and white youth, Participant Morty Manford emphasized: “And it esca- Senate’s war budget ...... 9 many of them homeless and/or gender-defiant—includ- lated. A few more rocks went and then somebody from 9/11 recovery workers ...... 10 ing Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Zazu Nova and inside the bar opened the door and stuck a gun out. Their Getting rich with ‘homeland security’...... 11 Jackie Hormona—fought fiercely that night. And small arm was reaching out with a gun telling people to stay wonder. These were the bodies and lives most often scar- back. And then withdrew the gun, closed the door and Around the world red by police terror and torture. While everyone fought went back inside.” Venezuelan ambassador on ‘offensive against poverty’ 5 bravely, historian David Carter wrote “the preponderance Yet even the threat of being shot did not stop the crowd. Toronto: Socialist message kicks off pride week . . . . . 7 of witnesses who are both the most credible and who wit- Historian David Carter summed up descriptions by par- 25,000 protest Bush’s visit to Vienna...... 8 nessed significant amounts of the action agree that the ticipants of what happened next. “A general assault now Korea farmers resist U.S. military base ...... 8 most marginal groups of the gay community fought the began on the Stonewall Inn using anything and everything hardest—and therefore risked the most—on this and the the crowd outside could get its hands on: garbage, Editorials following nights.” garbage cans, pieces of glass, fire, bricks, cobblestones, Once again, defend Palestine!...... 10 Many in the multi-national, multi-generational crowd and an improvised battering ram were all used to attack Minimum wage vs. estate taxes ...... 10 of hundreds amassed outside the bar began to hurl their the police holed up inside the Stonewall Inn.” pocket change, shouting “Here’s your payoff!”—referring Someone, or more than one person, reportedly cut the Noticias En Español to the common practice of payoffs between bar owners, electric and phone lines, so the police were inside with- Líder cubano habla con periodistas en Miami ...... 12 many times tied to organized crime, and the police. out the ability to call for backup. Activistas planean campaña para derechos de inmigrantes . 12 The police showed signs of panic as they were hit with According to accounts compiled by historian Martin a hail of flying projectiles. They retreated towards the Duberman: “The cops then found a fire hose, wedged it Stonewall Inn, the club they had just emptied out in the into a crack in the door, and directed the spray out at the WW CALENDAR raid. One cop near the doorway was reportedly hit in the crowd, thinking that would certainly scatter it. But the eye with a thrown object, and was visibly bloodied. The stream was weak and the crowd howled derisively, while NEW YORK. recent Peoples Alternative Summit inside the cops starting slipping on the wet floor.” in the Dominican Republic. 7 p.m. police, wrote Village Voice journalist Howard Smith, who At 55 W. 17 St., 5th Fl., In his later Voice coverage, stinking of bigotry, Smith Thu., June 29 was at the scene, “are all suddenly furious.” Three of the Workers World Party meeting: Manhattan. For info phone cops rushed the crowd to try to back them away. later wrote that from the inside of the Stonewall, “The Hear Imani Henry and Leslie (212) 627-2994. But the crowd would not be pushed back. The streets sound filtering in [didn’t] suggest dancing f——-s any Feinberg on the LGBT struggle here & around the world. Also, outside the club belonged to the people, and they could more; it sound[ed] like a powerful rage bent on vendetta.” guest speaker Vannia Lara on the feel it. They could see the cops were scared, too. One par- Smith said he heard “the shattering of windows, fol- ticipant, Tom, observed, “A few plainclothesmen were lowed by what we imagine to be bricks pounding on the Workers World surveying the crowd, obviously panicked.” Ronnie Di door, voices yelling. The floor shudders at each blow.” 55 West 17 Street The crowd outside roared “Gay power!” and “We want Brienza stressed in an article in the East Village Other that, New York, N.Y. 10011 freedom!” “During the height of the action, you could see the fear and Phone: (212) 627-2994 disbelief on the faces of the pigs.” Pine described: “Now they really in earnest started to Fax: (212) 675-7869 A beer can struck Deputy Inspector Charles Smythe in come after us. We covered everything [but] whatever we E-mail: [email protected] the head. Smythe, who had also been in World War II could find to put up against the windows and the doors Web: www.workers.org combat, later said, “I was still shaking an hour later. didn’t last very long. They began to batter this down and Vol. 48, No. 26 • July 6, 2006 Believe me, I’ve never seen anything like it.” made some holes.” The window—which the owners had Closing date: June 28, 2006 reinforced with plywood and two-by-fours—was smashed Pine reached out from the doorway of the bar and Editor: Deirdre Griswold reportedly grabbed the first person he could lay his hands and the barricaded door was swung open. Technical Editor: Lal Roohk on, folk singer Dave Van Ronk, and pulled him inside the Smith peeked out a hole in the splintered plywood, and bar. Van Ronk later explained that the cops accused him he thought it seemed that those massed outside were Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell, Leslie Feinberg, Monica Moorehead, Gary Wilson of throwing the beer can. They held him down, punched thousands-strong. him hard and kicked him. They left him handcuffed on the In anticipation of the angry crowd rushing in, the cops West Coast Editor: John Parker floor of the bar. drew their weapons; one cop picked up a nearby baseball Contributing Editors: Greg Butterfield, G. Dunkel, Pine came outside to evaluate the relationship of forces. bat. One cop reportedly vowed, “We’ll shoot the first m— Fred Goldstein, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Hales, Berta He told the other cops: “Let’s get inside. Lock ourselves —-f——r that comes through the door.” Joubert-Ceci, Milt Neidenberg, Bryan G. Pfeifer, Minnie inside; it’s safer.” Voice reporter Howard Smith went But it was an arm that came through the shards of the Bruce Pratt inside the Stonewall with the 10 members of the police plywood covering the window. Then the scent of lighter Technical Staff: Shelley Ettinger, raiding squad. They barricaded the doors with overturned fluid, the fiery tip of a lit match, and flames ignited inside Maggie Vascassenno tables. the bar. Mundo Obrero: Carl Glenn, Teresa Gutierrez, And then, Pine remembered, “All hell broke loose.” Next: Police reinforcements arrive; Berta Joubert-Ceci, Donna Lazarus, Carlos Vargas Smith reported, “The exit left no cops on the street, and battle shifts to the streets. Internet: Janet Mayes almost by signal the crowd erupted into cobblestone and Email [email protected] Supporter Program: Sue Davis, coordinator bottle heaving.” Workers World (ISSN-1070-4205) is published weekly except the first week of January by WW Publishers, 55 JOIN US. Workers World Atlanta Chicago Los Angeles San Diego, Calif. Party (WWP) fights on all P.O. Box 424, 27 N. Wacker Dr. #138 5274 West Pico Blvd., 3930 Oregon St., W. 17 St., N.Y., N.Y. 10011. Phone: (212) 627-2994. issues that face the Atlanta, GA 30301 Chicago, IL 60606 Suite 203 Suite 230 Subscriptions: One year: $25; foreign and institutions: working class and (404) 627-0185 (773) 381-5839 Los Angeles, CA 90019 San Diego, CA 92104 $35. 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Fax (212) 675-7869 [email protected] (713) 861-5965 [email protected] [email protected] www.workers.org JULY 6, 2006 Page 3

HARLEM. Meeting in solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal Pam Africa and Julia Wright, leaders of African American writer Richard Wright, Pam Africa, left, International Concerned Family and had traveled from her home in France to and Julia Wright

Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, were fea- speak in New York and elsewhere. She PHOTOS: tured speakers at a packed meeting at discussed the significance of the April 29 ROBERTO MERCADO Salem Methodist Church in Harlem June ceremony, attended by Africa and other 23 for an evening of international solidar- U.S. activists, where a new street in the ity with Abu-Jamal, a revolutionary polit- Paris suburb of Saint-Denis was named When members ical prisoner on Pennsylvania’s death row. for Abu-Jamal. of the Philadelphia Abu-Jamal was convicted of the first- Africa, who is also the Minister of City Council voted to support this resolu- Rican activist Esperanza Martell; former degree murder of a white Philadelphia Confrontation for the MOVE organiza- tion, Africa and other Abu-Jamal support- Black Panther Rosemari Mealy; poet police officer on July 3, 1982. His original tion, spoke about the recent struggle with ers went to several council meetings to Sonia Sanchez, who read a message of trial was deeply flawed, with at least 29 the Philadelphia chapter of the Fraternal demand a public hearing on the issue. support for Abu-Jamal from actor Ruby constitutional violations, including racist Order of Police, which opposes the street Africa’s message to the June 23 Harlem Dee; and Suzanne Ross co-chair of the behavior on the part of the presiding judge naming and also wants to bring back the audience was to resist the efforts by the New York Free Mumia Coalition, which and prosecutor against Abu-Jamal, who is death penalty for Abu-Jamal. The FOP got FOP and others to silence the movement sponsored the event. Black. There are federal appeals in some of their allies in the U.S. Congress to on the issue of the street. Abu-Jamal sent a special, inspiring motion, based on these violations, to try put forth a reactionary resolution to pres- Other speakers at the Harlem event taped message to the event praising Julia to win him a new trial. sure the French government to revoke the included Elombe Brath of the Patrice Wright and Richard Wright. Wright, whose father was legendary name “Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal.” Lumumba Coalition; long-time Puerto —Monica Moorehead

MILWAUKEE. Civil suit filed in police brutality case By Bryan G. Pfeifer back what the police officers the only three officers charged in of police brutality. Bartlett has been took from my family and Jude’s beating—Andrew Spengler, charged at least three times with “exces- On June 19 Frank Jude Jr. filed a $30 me,” said Jude. “No amount Jon Bartlett and Daniel Masarik— sive force” against Black men, including a million claim against the City of Milwau- of money can undo what sparking worldwide condemna- fatal shooting of which he was acquitted by kee on behalf of himself and Maria Jude, happened, but this claim is a tion and ongoing protests includ- a federal jury in May. Masarik used a Taser his wife. He consciously filed the claim on first step in allowing me to ing an April 18 demonstration of stun gun on at least six people over a three- Juneteenth. According to Jude’s attorney, recover from my injuries, 4,000 people. On May 15 massive month period in 2005. All three continue the city can immediately reject the claim, my medical bills, my lost motorcades from three churches to receive pay and benefits under a Wis- suggest a recommendation or fail to act for wages and jobs, and most converged on the federal prosecu- consin state law while they appeal their four months, meaning the claim is importantly, my dignity.” tor’s office in Milwaukee dismissals from the Police Department. “deemed denied.” After that, a lawsuit can Jude’s claim details his Frank Jude Jr. demanding that a federal case be The Jude claim is among the biggest be filed. near killing in October 2004 opened. Ministers from over 50 filed against the city. The family of Ernest The claim, among other charges, states when he was savagely beaten during a congregations participated in the “Death Lacy, who died in police custody in 1981, that selective hiring, training procedures party by as many as 15 off-duty white cops. of Justice” motorcade, delivering petitions also filed a $30 million lawsuit, and settled and supervision in the Police Department The cops claimed Jude stole the wallet and with over 12,000 signatures. (Final Call, for $600,000. The family of Daniel Bell, all were responsible for the savage beating badge of one of the officers, who hosted June 6) who was killed by Milwaukee police in of Jude. the event at his house. All three acquitted cops have a history 1958, filed a $100 million suit, and settled “I am filing this claim to allow me to get On April 14 an all-white jury acquitted Texas prisoner honors life of Shaka Sankofa On 6th anniversary of his execution I met Shaka Sankofa face to face for the first time in the winter of 1998. It was a bitterly cold and oppressive morning on death row. Two nights before, I and six other men had been captured during a failed escape attempt, and as a result the Shaka Sankofa prison was under a system-wide security lockdown. There would be no recreation and no hot meals for the indefinite future. The cage that I was placed in was without a mattress and my clothes were remembered effectively stripped away. I paced back and forth for most of that night to stay warm, but by dawn I was so utterly exhausted that I laid down on the cold steel By Gloria Rubac Taharka also read a moving tribute to bunk. With a toilet paper roll as my pillow, I slept until the next day. Houston Sankofa by death row prison activist When I finally came to, a Black man in handcuffs was standing in front of my Howard Guidry. Guidry, another inno- cage arguing with a group of guards. By the way the guards kept anxiously looking The Houston chapter of the National cent Black man, recently had his death into my cage, [I knew] they were obviously talking about me. I got up to listen. Black United Front held its annual Shaka sentence overturned by the federal After a better look, I realized the Black man was Shaka. He was spitting out a and Assata Community Work-In on June courts and is in the county jail in fiery lecture on the constitutional rights of prisoners, demanding my bare necessi- 22, to commemorate the life and contribu- Houston awaiting a retrial on July 17. ties and refusing to return to his cage until they allowed him to speak with me. I, tions of Shaka Sankofa and to remember Njeri Shakur, organizer for the Texas on the other hand, was getting in the best position to reach through the bars and the dozens and dozens of political prison- Death Penalty Abolition Movement, grab one of the guards. It was all that I could do to help the brother. I knew he was ers locked away in prisons around the spoke of Sankofa’s courage and leader- soon to get jumped on. But to my surprise, the guards conceded. I was brought a United States. ship on death row. She encouraged pair of boxers with the promise of a mattress and a blanket later in the day. The Houston chair of NBUF, Brother everyone to remember his words: “The Shaka was facing a pending execution date at that time. But when the brother Kofi Taharka, began the work-in by read- odds and dangers we face in the strug- stepped to the bars to speak with me, his concern was entirely about MY well- ing the last words of Sankofa, an innocent gle are great, but even greater is the being. Shaka Sankofa was willing to sacrifice himself for me. We became friends in Black man who was executed by the state power of the people.” that moment and remained so until his final execution date. of Texas on June 22, 2000, after a long Prince Imari Obadele, a former New Shaka Sankofa was a leader. A father. A student of revolutionary ideology. A struggle to win his freedom. Afrikan Independence Movement polit- strong, analytical, intelligent Black man with the heart of a lion. “I’m an innocent Black man that is ical prisoner, also spoke. From first- But above all, Shaka Sankofa is a selfless spirit, a constant flame in the struggle, being murdered. This is a lynching that is hand experience, he told of the hard- reminding us all of our right to stand strong and our duty to fight relentlessly. happening in America tonight…. Keep ships faced by political prisoners in the As we celebrate Shaka’s life today, may we also embrace and carry on his fight moving forward, my brothers. Slavery United States, of the loneliness of being against injustice. couldn’t stop us. The lynching couldn’t locked away for decades and hoping Long live that African! Long live Shaka Sankofa! stop us in the South. This lynching will not that those in the struggle have not for- —Howard Guidry, June 22, 2006, Harris County Jail stop us tonight. We will go forward. gotten you. He spoke of his father, a Guidry has spent the last decade on death row in Texas after being forced “Our destiny in this country is freedom founder of the Republic of New Africa, into confessing to a crime he knew nothing about. In September 2003, and liberation. We will gain our freedom and of members of the RNA, the Black Federal Judge Vanessa Gilmore threw out the forced confession, overturned and liberation by any means necessary. By Liberation Army and the Black his conviction and ordered Harris County to release or retry him in 180 any means necessary, we keep marching Panthers whom he grew up knowing. days. Texas appealed her ruling but lost, and Guidry now faces retrial on July 17. For more information email [email protected]. forward,” said Sankofa as he lay strapped Obadele reminded the crowd of the to the gurney awaiting his murder. Continued on page 4 Page 4 JULY 6, 2006 www.workers.org Labor in the global economy

By Chris Silvera nership with capital. Partnerships mean In addition, the U.S. labor movement working class. We must begin to harness that labor is in collusion with capital, and must become more attentive and involved the vast resources of the labor movement Workers today need to build a real rank- these relationships cannot be in the long in issues that affect workers in other coun- and invest in programs that lead the way and-file global fight-back movement. The term interest of the class. tries, and the developing world in partic- for the government to propagate, such as labor movement must embrace grass- It is, in fact, a sure sign of the end of the ular. The policies of the United States and the breakfast program initiated by the roots rank-and-file formations like the era of the AFL-CIO and a new epoch in the G-8 group of nations are having a pro- Black Panther Party which evolved into the Million Worker March Movement to unite labor. foundly negative economic impact on Head Start Program as we know it today. Black, Brown, Yellow, Red and White Workers must reject any idea of “part- workers in Mexico, the Caribbean nations, Black trade unionists must establish a workers into a militant force for progress nerships” with the bosses. We must get up Central and South America. This in turn progressive program that is tied to work- on behalf of the working class. The labor and fight and become mobilized politically leads to the mass migration of affected ers’ agenda. As trade unionists, we reject movement must share its resources with to elect people with a workers’ agenda. workers in search of work. all forms of discrimination within the these worker formations while resisting The immigration debate is centered on Historically, when workers lose trac- labor movement. the temptation to always need to “run a failed premise of appeasing racists and tion—that is, the ability to support one’s Like the immigrant struggle, workers in things” in exchange for cooperation. xenophobes, but does not solve the family—then they migrate in search of the United States must hit the streets and The current crop of labor leaders did not problems facing workers here at opportunities for sustaining work. demand full protection for defined-bene- rise up from the shop floor. They are the home and globally as workers Some of these mass movements fit pension plans, full health coverage from products of Ivy League and other nation- confront this advanced capi- of workers were the Irish the cradle to the grave, protection and ally recognized universities. Others are the talist paradigm. We must GUEST workers fleeing in the improvement of Social Security, and full result of the “legacy system” that allows beware that the walls we Commentary wake of the “Potato employment for all eligible workers. extreme nepotism to envelop the move- build do not become a Famine,” the Sicilian exo- Capitalists in the United States have ment’s leadership. They all joined the prison that separates domestic dus to the United States par- established a system based on checks and union at the upper levels or at the top of workers from their global coun- ticularly after World War I and balances. It is not a system of cooperation the organization. These Ivy League labor terparts. Capital seeks unfettered exacerbated after the rise of and collaboration. When we work in part- leaders have implemented a business global movement in search of profits; Mussolini and fascism, and the mass nership with the “corporate bosses,” do we model and address the issues of working why not the worker in search of work? migration of African Americans from the receive a partner share of the profits? If families using this business approach. Organized labor is not advancing its agricultural Jim Crow South into the these are the terms of the “partnership,” They are more comfortable with the own agenda; its leadership instead follows growing factories in the industrial North. then it can be a basis for negotiations. bosses and politicians than they are with the pathetic approach of the Democratic All mass worker migrations have one When the “working partners’ retire, no the rank and file. Party. The leadership that allowed U.S. common denominator, and that is the one writes them a check for $140 million. The labor movement still suffers from workers to direct the global struggle for degradation of work and oppression in the Certainly, there can be no partnership the sudden and dramatic loss of leaders the eight-hour day must be resurrected in geographic areas of the origins of the when pension plans are laid to waste, that began during the McCarthy era. order to revitalize the labor struggle and worker movement. workers’ wages are out of step with the cost Those tough, up from the craft, militant protect the standard of living we have Black people have suffered high unem- of living, and with the continued assault and analytic, movement-oriented leaders come to know. ployment since the end of slavery, which against the foundation of organized labor, were replaced by the businessman union The destruction of defined-benefit pen- was the only period of full employment for (i.e., the erosion of Davis-Bacon), the leader. Today we organize as if we are sell- sion plans and health and welfare benefits, Black people, and as a result must seek destruction of defined-benefit pension ing a product, instead of building a move- and the downward pressure on wages, their own methods to minimize the effects plans, the continued increase in health- ment. Labor leadership is inviting work- must be reversed. Only the workers, mobi- of racism on their ability to obtain and care cost sharing, and increased privatiza- ers to “join the union; we are the best of a lized to fight, will reverse the decline in retain work. tion and outsourcing. These cannot be the bad situation,” never trying to change the labor’s presence in the private sector. Black workers must be the catalyst for basis for “equal partnership.” Workers will bad situation… People join winners—and labor must worker solidarity on a global scale. We must achieve equal partnership when labor There can be no real labor movement begin to win. We can only reverse these never forget that Mexico lost its northern checks capital and there is a real increase without a class consciousness as its trends with full labor solidarity and a will- territory because of its opposition to slavery in working families’ bank balance. Organi- foundation. ingness to “take it to the street.” To be of and providing sanctuary to runaway zed labor must take the helm and lead The business-model union does not relevance, the union must reverse the flow Africans during their enslavement. It was workers on a path of relevance. Organized have sustainable attributes. In fact, it only of capital from the workers’ paychecks their opposition to the expansion of slavery labor must take stock of the needs of the reacts to the behavior of the capitalist and into the pockets of the ruling class. that led to the Mexican-American War and class and forge a dynamic future. does not attempt to lead the workers in a Labor today must demand the same the subsequent loss of land for Mexico; and Chris Silvera is the chair of the struggle between opposing forces for dom- freedom of movement as capital has a most valuable gain for the United States of Teamsters National Black Caucus inance. It seeks to work within whatever achieved. Workers today must be able to America. Mexicans have a point when they and secretary-treasurer of Teamsters constraints are placed around it, while follow their trade as it traverses the globe. say that they have not crossed the border, Local 808. ignoring the need to confront capital and Workers must be able to take their collec- the border crossed them. defeat the greed of the corporate bosses. tive-bargaining agreements and their Black workers must become relevant in We must fight to implement a plan that unions and move to any country to which their communities to gain the support of Visit www.workers.org/ sets forth a lasting solution for the issues their work has been relocated. Just as cap- unorganized workers. Organized labor On the Web affecting the working class. We must suc- ital seeks to remove all barriers that must begin to invest in their communities Read these and more at cessfully work toward a shift to a workers’ impede its movement, so too should labor and related organizations. We can only www.workers.org! paradigm. Capital is in an unending quest seek unfettered movement in search of organize on relevance and on a compre- for increased profits. There can be no part- work. hensive demand for the benefit of the • 30 years after Soweto Uprising: Heroism of South African youth saluted BALTIMORE. • Black Workers For Justice: ‘Another world is possible: Partial victory won over utility company but not through spontaneity!’ • Guest commentary: ILWU Public outrage over a proposed 72-percent rate Washington of the coalition said, “We know these politicians aren’t the convention denies voices of increase by Baltimore Gas & Electric, and the friends of poor and working people and the vast majority of them voted Black members actions of community groups such as the Maryland for deregulation seven years ago, so we are here to make it clear to the • Southeast Social Forum: Coalition to Stop the Rate Hike, forced a special legislature that we want no rate hike.” The legislative session resulted ‘Another South is possible’ legislative session of the Maryland General in a reduction of the rate hike to 15 percent. Steven Ceci, a volunteer Assembly to address the issue on June 13. Renee organizer with the coalition, said, “We do feel the lowering of the rate increase is a partial victory, but we won’t be satisfied until there is no rate increase.” —WW Baltimore bureau Shaka Sankofa PHOTOS RENEE WASHINGTON remembered Continued from page 3 importance of writing to and supporting the political prisoners in the United States. Around 50 letters to various political prisoners were circulated and signed, including ones to Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier. A special focus of the letter writing was on political pris- oner Jalil Muntaqim, aka Anthony Bottoms, who the NBUF corresponds with. Muntaqim is up for parole in July See www.thejerichomovement.com for more information. www.workers.org JULY 6, 2006 Page 5

Despite evictions Farmers vow to fight for their land By John Parker Los Angeles

On June 13 at 5 a.m., Los Angeles County Sheriffs deputies obeyed their marching orders from landowner Ralph Horowitz and evicted South Central farm- ers from a land they have been cultivating for 14 years–a rare green space in an industrial area of Los Angeles that pro- vided much-needed food to a community underserved by the city. Close to 70 people were arrested in the raid led by hundreds of riot police backed up by helicopters flying overhead. Many supporters of the farmers had organized The South Central Farm in November 2005. PHOTOS: FERNANDO FLORES civil disobedience to defy the eviction. Some chained themselves to trees and to Horowitz to sell the farm. He said that Three hundred fifty families had plots more bulldozing on the property and wait- each other. after Horowitz was notified of the avail- on the land on June 12. On June 13, there ing for the court hearing. On the north side This eviction came in spite of the money able money for purchase of the farm he were no families. of the farm half of it has been destroyed. that was raised by the farmers and chari- then raised the price another $2 million. However, the farmers and their sup- So we will be doing a hunger strike.” table organizations that met Horowitz’ Villaraigosa could have used his power porters have refused to give up the fight. He commented on the city considering asking price of $16 million. Even Los as mayor to first stop the eviction, and then They are keeping up daily vigils at the farm the renovation of a coliseum for a National Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who begin the process of invoking eminent along with actions at the mayor’s mansion Football League team: “There shouldn’t be until the eviction had shown no real intent domain over the property, giving the land to demanding that the farm be returned to any money for the coliseum. How can they to assist the farmers, made public com- the farmers. In fact, the city did use eminent them. They are also engaged in a lawsuit have millions for that and none for the ments critical of Horowitz. domain to acquire the same property 14 that challenges the city’s secret sale of the farm?” After celebrities like Danny Glover, years ago to use it for a garbage incinerator. land to Ralph Horowitz three years ago. The farmers are determined to main- Martin Sheen, Joan Baez and especially After the Los Angeles rebellion in 1992 Since this was public land there should tain their struggle. Supporters have been Darryl Hannah—who refused to leave the following the Rodney King police brutal- have been hearings before selling it, but asked to come to the daily vigils at the farm farm until she was arrested—got involved, ity verdict, the city scrapped the incinera- none were held. The land, at the time val- at 7 p.m. Villaraigosa began to discuss the issue in tor idea as a concession to the community. ued at over $13 million, was sold to “They may have cut down some of the public. This allowed the land to be held by a pub- Horowitz for $5 million. trees and uprooted the crops but they At a news conference on the day of the lic trust and the farmers to clean up what Said Alberto C., one of the farmers help- haven’t hurt our spirit. The land belongs eviction, Villaraigosa said that he was dis- was a dump site and turn it into a cele- ing to coordinate fight-back actions: to the people,” said Alberto. appointed after trying to persuade brated 14-acre farm. “Right now we are making sure there is no

DETROIT.. Venezuelan ambassador discusses ‘offensive against poverty’ By Cheryl LaBash The crowd, many of whom are veteran extend the free eye surgery program begun Again, we are not going to solve all the Detroit fighters for affordable water, erupted in by Cuba to the U.S. Midwest. He also told problems. But together we can show that applause when Alvarez quoted President of plans to transform the value of the oil another world is possible, with a little Standing ovations greeted Venezuelan Chávez: “You know that we always talk discount into a social development fund. resources and a lot of solidarity.” Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez at a about the North and the South. He said Alvarez summed up his message say- While in Michigan, Ambassador Alvarez Community Meet and Greet Reception in what is key here for me is that the South ing: “The only way to fight poverty is and the Chicago Consulate delegation met Detroit June 14. Organized by Michigan exists in the North. All these struggles through empowering the poor people. Be with the Michigan Legislative Black Welfare Rights Organization, the packed we have had against neoliberalism and part of this offensive against poverty and Caucus in Lansing, and in Detroit with city grassroots potluck was supported by U.S./ this idea of an inhuman form of capital- exclusion. council members and the mayor. Cuba Labor Exchange, Justice for Cuba ism is not only affecting us, it is affecting Coalition, Latinos Unidos, International people in the U.S.” Action Center, Call ‘em Out and more. In addition to the social exclusion of the The community reception capped a African American communities exposed daylong visit to Michigan by the ambas- by Katrina, Alvarez observed personally sador and representatives from the through heating oil deliveries that in Venezuelan Consulate in Chicago facili- Vermont and other Northeastern states tated by Michigan State Rep. LaMar many white people are also very poor. Lemmons III. Alvarez described the condition of one oil Ambassador Alvarez explained how recipient on a fixed income whose husband the home heating oil program that is unemployed and suffering from severe assisted 200,000 people in nine U.S. diabetes: “For her it is as simple as whether states last winter grew from needs she heats her house or pays for medicine. exposed by the Katrina hurricane disas- As simple as that! It is incredible.” ter. Bolivarian Venezuela organized Alvarez commented that perhaps the immediate aid, including opening most advanced societies are in Africa and CITGO’s Lake Charles oil refinery for among the indigenous in Latin America emergency shelter, funding housing for because although there is poverty no one evacuees in Houston and even bringing is left behind. buses from Miami to transport stranded As many in Detroit fear anti-immigrant people to safety. But Venezuelan deportation raids, a special note hit home President Hugo Chávez predicted that the with the crowd. Alvarez described how the skyrocketing oil prices from the hurri- Bolivarian government found 3 million canes compounding the invasion of Iraq people in Venezuela with no official iden- would create even more hardships in poor tification documents. Nearly 1 million of communities inside the United States. them were immigrants from Haiti, Colom- “Then we started thinking that the most bia, Ecuador and other countries. All have vulnerable, the weak sectors of society received Venezuelan citizenship and the were the low-income families who use right to maintain dual citizenship. heating oil,” Alvarez said. Alvarez announced a new program to Page 6 JULY 6, 2006 www.workers.org

SAN FRANCISCO. It’s time to revive militant legacy of LGBT movement By Judy Greenspan Compton’s Cafeteria to commemorate the San Francisco 40th anniversary of the rebellion. A plaque placed in the pavement in front of the cafe- This year’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and teria site was unveiled. It reads in part, Trans Pride celebration was in many “Here marks the site of Gene Compton’s ways dedicated to the Compton’s Cafe- Cafeteria where a riot took place . . . when teria Rebellion of 1966, a little-known transgender women and gay men stood up battle against police brutality and LGBT for their rights and fought against police oppression that took place here three brutality, poverty, oppression and dis- years before New York City’s Stonewall crimination.” Rebellion. However, trans and queer One of the people honored at this plaque WW PHOTO: BOOH EDOUARDO activists had to work hard to ensure that dedication, as well as throughout the week- Workers World banner at S.F. Pride 2006. the real heroes and struggles of the day end, was retired San Francisco Police also demanded an end to the gentrification during the march that began at Dolores were commemorated. Sergeant Elliot Blackstone, who served as and destruction of the BayView-Hunters Park and ended at the Civic Center. The Compton’s Cafeteria Rebellion was police liaison to the LGBT community dur- Point African American community by The Dyke March on June 23 was the set off in August 1966 after a police sweep ing the 1960s and 1970s. Blackstone was redevelopers and the city government. only event that did not host any police or of the Tenderloin and harassment of perhaps too effective in his friendship and Feinberg also called for a mobilization city officials. Rally speakers included Latina, Asian, Black and white trans peo- support of LGBT liberation, because in 1972 to pressure New York City Michael activists from the queer Arab and South ple, at that time self-identified as drag he was framed on phony charges and even- Bloomberg’s administration and the New Asian communities, as well as anti-Zionist queens, in Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, a tually forced to retire from the police force. York Police Department to stop denying Jewish lesbians. Dyke March organizers popular eating place. Unfortunately, in honoring Blackstone—an trans and gender-non-conforming people received threats and complaints from a When a cop harassed and tried to arrest anomaly in an otherwise bigoted and anti- of color the right to march down Eighth local Jewish shopkeeper, but refused to one of the drag queens, outraged trans- gay police force—the SFPD felt welcome to Avenue on June 23. allow any pro-Israel speakers. Laura gender women, butch lesbians, gay men send its top brass to the commemoration. The second annual Transgender rights Whitehorn, an anti-imperialist former and others in the cafeteria fought back. Their presence and statements, including a march here on June 23 brought out sev- prisoner, challenged everyone there to According to the 1972 Official Voice of the statement by Police Chief Heather Fong, eral thousand transgender, transsexual, fight for the freedom of all political pris- Christopher Street West Parade blurred and marred the true meaning of intersex and gender-variant people. While oners and to join the anti-war struggle. Committee, “A police car had every win- the day. Feinberg was again a featured speaker at Tens of thousands of lesbians, led by dow broken, a newspaper shack outside The next speaker after the police was the rally, District Attorney Kamala Harris Dykes on Bikes, marched through San the cafeteria was burned to the ground, Leslie Feinberg, a well-known transgender and County Supervisor Bevan Dufty also Francisco that night. and general havoc was raised that night in author and activist and a managing editor spoke. TIP, a transgender prisoners’ rights On June 25, while hundreds of thou- the Tenderloin.” of Workers World newspaper. Surrounded group, marched into the crowd with picket sands of LGBT people from all over It was a night of struggle that trans- by police brass, Feinberg raised her signs protesting police brutality against California and the country marched formed the early LGBT community in this clenched fist and said: “The struggle the transgender community and the con- through San Francisco, members of sev- city and gave rise to the early gay libera- against racism, police brutality, poverty, tinued use of “three strikes” sentences in eral organizations—including the radical tion movement. And it is a history that has oppression and discrimination continues San Francisco. activist group LAGAI, QUIT (Queers been buried for too long. today. I express my deep solidarity with the A Workers World contingent carrying a Undermining Israeli Terrorism), and the On June 22, members of the transgen- family and community of Asa Sullivan, banner reading, “Stonewall Means Fight San Francisco Branch of Workers World der community, including veterans of the gunned down by cops here on June 6, and Back Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Party—carried out an action at the Civic rebellion, gathered at the site of the old other victims of racist police violence.” She Transgender Oppression,” was well received Continued on page 10 Putting ‘liberation’ back into ‘gay liberation’

Speech given by WW Managing Editor Afghanistan or Iraq or Iran in order to lib- Leslie Feinberg at the 2006 San erate women or liberate gay people. Since Francisco LGBT Pride Parade. when was the Pentagon a vehicle for women’s and gay liberation? Our job here It’s time! It’s time! It’s time to put the is to demand: No wars for oil! Bring the “liberation” back into “gay liberation”— troops home, now! into lesbian and bisexual, transsexual and And what about the racist war right transgender, intersexual and queer liber- here? Look at New Orleans—an African ation. American and LGBT capital. You know No politician is gonna do it for us. The why the levees broke? Because the money Democrats and Republicans have to fortify them was channeled into the war declared war on same-sex marriage. We drive. Now tens of thousands of Black need to be the ones to fight this state dis- people have been forced into yet another crimination against our families. At the WW PHOTO Members of Trans/Gender Variant in Prison (TIP) and Leslie Feinberg (center) Diaspora, while real estate developers in same time, imagine how we could electrify protest District Attorney speaking at S.F. Trans March. New Orleans are popping champagne the country if we declare that people corks as they plan to gentrify the city for shouldn’t have to get married in order to cops, like Asa Sullivan, killed by police will be scrutinized and policed as well. The wealthy whites. Let us demand the right have health insurance—we demand health here on June 6. We want money to rebuild government is sowing the seeds of racism. of all Katrina survivors to return home. care for all! our cities, not more prisons and police ter- Let’s tell them: No human being is illegal! The same real estate interests are dis- Frederick Douglass said it best: “With- ror. Stop deporting our loved ones! There are placing the Black population of Bay out struggle, there is no progress.” And In the 1970s, many of us in the gay lib- no borders between our struggles. View/Hunter’s Point here. We want solidarity is what unites us in struggle. eration movement organized in defense of Our South Asian, Arab and Muslim affordable housing for all, not war! Those who fought the police at the 1966 Chicano farm workers struggling to create immigrant co-workers and neighbors are We want money for AIDS and breast Compton’s Cafeteria Rebellion and the a union—the United Farm Workers—in being locked up without charges by the cancer funding—not war. We want Deaf 1969 Stonewall Uprising knew that in the California fields. And Cesar Chavez government in secret locations. For those and disabled access, not wars that kill and their bones. Asian and Latin@, Black and and the UFW have defended gay rights. who ask: How could Japanese-Americans maim. We want reproductive rights, not a white, trans and gay, lesbian and bi—when Today, the UFW is asking us to help stop have been interned in WWII here in war on women’s bodies. We want jobs at they united against a common enemy, union busting by boycotting Krug and California—this is how it begins! Let us decent wages, not an economic draft. they gathered the storm clouds of their Mondavi grapes. Let’s tell the UFW: We raise our voices to demand: Stop the In order to fight for rights, as well as for power. support you! round-up of Muslim, Arab and South liberation, we have to make the struggle We need to gather our power today. Let’s show solidarity with the life-and- Asian immigrants! against racism and sexism, and for greater Our movement was born out of strug- death struggle of embattled Colombian In the Middle East, Wall Street and the and genuine respect for the leadership of gle against police violence. Let us unite trade unionists by supporting their call to Pentagon have been funding the brutal people of color and youth and women the today with those whose communities are boycott all Coca-Cola products. occupation of historic Palestine with our top priority of the agenda for movement occupied by police the way Pentagon Let’s truly mobilize our movement in tax dollars. Let’s organize to build the boy- building. troops occupy Baghdad. Let us offer our support of undocumented immigrant cott of the World Pride March in Jeru- Can we build the kind of unity that we deepest solidarity to the families and com- workers. As the federal and state govern- salem. There is no pride in occupation! need to win our liberation? ¡Sí se puede! munities of Black and Latin@ and Asian ments scrutinize identification docu- And beware when Big Oil and Wall ¡Sí se puede! Long live the spirit of Gwen and Native and Arab youth gunned by ments, many LGBT bodies, lives and loves Street say they’re going to war against Araujo! www.workers.org JULY 6, 2006 Page 7

NEW YORK. TransJustice triumphs By Minnie Bruce Pratt with 233 of those classified as assaults. rialism and the so-called U.S. war on According to the Police Department’s own terrorism being waged against people TransJustice held the second annual figures, the rate is up from last year. at home and abroad. These issues are Trans Day of Action for Social and (Village Voice) compounded for TGNC people of color Economic Justice on June 23 in New York, On June 10 four attackers assaulted leg- by the fact that homophobia and trans- kicking off with a rally of fiery speeches, endary drag star Kevin Aviance, putting phobia are so pervasive in society. As a WW PHOTO: DEIRDRE GRISWOLD Dee Perez, left, of GLOBE followed by a militant march of more than him in the hospital with a broken jaw, a result, our community is disproportion- 500 people who defied police restrictions. fractured head and back, and knee ately represented in homeless shelters, in Acknowledging these wins, Toole, her- TransJustice is a political group “exclu- injuries, and leaving him out of work dur- foster care agencies, in jails and prisons.” self a formerly homeless lesbian, added sively by and for Trans and Gender Non- ing Pride month. Like so many working Speaker after speaker at the rally passionately: “But we need to get our peo- conforming [TGNC] People of Color” ini- people in the United States, Aviance has affirmed these difficult truths and cried out ple out of jail—and out of the shelters. We tiated in 2004 by the Audre Lorde Project, no health insurance. The same weekend for action. Jennifer Ramirez of FIERCE— need affordable housing. We need to an organizing center for lesbian, gay, two other gay-bashing incidents in the city Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals march on the welfare offices!” bisexual, two-spirit, transgender, and gen- also sent the victims to the hospital or left for Community Empowerment—identified Speaking as a representative of the Inter- der non-conforming people of color. them out of work. (Gay City News) herself as a pre-operative transgender national Action Center, LeiLani Dowell New York Police Department and woman and told how transgender youths emphasized that anti-racist and anti-impe- Mayor Michael Bloomberg denied Trans- Economic justice & trans justice are severely harassed and targeted by the rialist organization’s strong support for Justice organizers a permit to march down Gathering marchers first heard Jack police, especially in the West Village piers transgender justice issue. Dowell charac- Eighth Avenue and across 42nd Street Aponte of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project elo- area. terized the permit denial as an attempt to past the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The quently highlight issues raised by Trans- Dee Perez, a transgender Latina repre- deny the history of activism by transgen- route was chosen to honor Amanda Milan, Justice in its call for the Day of Action. senting GLOBE—Gays and Lesbians of der people of color. She noted that LGBT a 25-year-old African-American transgen- The TransJustice call said: “The specific Bushwick Empowered—was a friend of people have participated in every single der woman who was viciously murdered issues that TGNC people of color face mir- Amanda Milan. She spoke of being pres- struggle for social justice in the United near that location. ror those faced by broader communities of ent as Milan lay dying amidst jeers and States, both before and after Stonewall, The denial of the permit showed once color in New York City: police brutality laughter. She ended by saying: “We will including mobilizations to free political again a shocking contempt for LGBT lives and harassment; racist and xenophobic fight back! Sí se puede!” prisoners such as Mumia Abu-Jamal and on the part of city authorities, given the immigration policies; lack of access to liv- D’Angelo Johnson of TransJustice and current opposition to the war on Iraq. recent increase in bashings in the city. The ing wage employment, adequate afford- Jay Toole of Queers for Economic Justice Richard Burns, executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project able housing, quality education, and basic celebrated two recent victories. As a result Lesbian and Gay Community Services reported 566 total hate incidents in 2005, health care; and the impact of U.S. impe- of struggle, a separate “gay and trans” Center, affirmed the center’s commitment housing unit at Rikers Island, a New York to transgender justice issues. Other speak- City jail, slated for closing, will be kept ers included the Rev. Pat Bumgardner of open as a measure to minimize danger to the Metropolitan Community Church, detainees at risk of rape and assault. A Charles King of Housing Works, and rep- struggle also changed a Department of resentatives from Jews for Racial and Homeless Services policy used to force Economic Justice and the Green Party. transgender people into shelters based on Readying for the march, the crowd birth sex, rather than assigning housing heard rally moderator Lourdes Hunter say appropriate to gender expression. Continued on page 9 TORONTO. Socialist message kicks off Pride week WW PHOTO: JOHN CATALINOTTO New York Pride 2006. By Beverly Hiestand 4400; Canadian Women in Science & Toronto, Canada Engineering—Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; Ontario Public Service More than 500 people showed up June Employees Union; United Steelworkers Pride 2006 highlights 18 for a sold-out event here to hear Toronto Area Council and Steel Pride. Workers World Managing Editor Leslie Feinberg is herself a member of Pride At By LeiLani Dowell Feinberg kick off Toronto’s Pride week. Work/AFL-CIO, a national steering com- The Toronto Women’s Bookstore— mittee member of the LGBT Caucus of the An estimated half-million which also serves as a multinational, mul- National Writers’ Union/UAW, and an people turned out for Chicago’s ticultural lesbian, gay, bi and trans com- associate member of the Steelworkers’ Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Pride munity center—hosted the event at an Union. parade on June 25, and the auditorium at the University of Toronto. Struggles by Canadian unions have led multinational throng of spec- Many diverse community-based organiza- to court decisions in Ontario and other tators cheered wildly for the tions, university groups and departments provinces that require employers to pro- radical contingent organized by co-sponsored. vide equal benefits to same-sex spouses, the Gay Liberation Network. Significantly, so did many Canadian including bereavement leave and medical, Banners and signs denounced labor unions. Union sponsors included the dental and pension benefits. (www.uswa.ca) anti-gay bigots, President George Canadian Auto Workers; Canadian Union The website of the Canadian Auto W. Bush, and the Iraq war. of Public Employees, Locals 3903 and Continued on page 10 Chants proclaimed, “Equal mar- WW PHOTO: LOU PAULSEN Chicago riage is a right” and, “Stonewall vive, vive–la lucha sigue, sigue!” (Stonewall lining Peachtree Street in Atlanta for this lives–the struggle continues!) The GLN year’s Pride parade when a massive rain- Union leaders support distributed thousands of leaflets about a storm forced cancellation of the program. June 27 demonstration in Marion, Ind., Nevertheless, a multinational contingent same-sex marriage rights against Exodus International, a religious- from the Progressive Queer Agenda, Men right project that claims to “cure” gay peo- Stopping Violence, International Action With the judges of New York state’s top United Federation of Teachers Presi- ple. Supporting groups included Code Center and others marched from the court poised to rule on same-sex marriage, dent Randi Weingarten stated succinctly, Pink, Black LGBT & Allies for Equality, parade to the State Capitol, carrying ban- some two dozen city union leaders “All New Yorkers who want to marry World Can’t Wait, the IWW, Pomegranate ners that read: “No Homophobia! No War weighed in on June 26 to publicly demand should be allowed to do so, period.” Radical Health Collective, ANSWER, and and Occupation! Unite to Fight the Right!” an end to state discrimination against UNITE HERE General President Bruce Workers World Party. In New York, the International Action equal rights for lesbian, gay, bi and trans Raynor said he is committed to “fighting Around 200,000 marched and paraded Center’sbanner—demanding full rights for couples. against injustice in any and all forms.” The in Seattle on June 24 and 25 at the Dyke all and the immediate return of troops from SEIU 1199 health-care workers’ union Hotel Workers Rising campaign of UNITE March and the Raise your Voice March. Iraq, as well as expressing solidarity with President Dennis Rivera said, “We … sup- HERE reached out in solidarity to the This year’s march celebrated the new immigrants and Katrina evacuees—was port the right of same-sex couples to access LGBT movement at Pride Month events, statewide gay non-discrimination law, received with loud applause and cheers. the full and equal rights, responsibilities showing support with rainbow T-shirts, which was passed after 30 years of march- Lou Paulsen, Jim McMahan, and and economic benefits of civil marriage, stickers and placards calling for support ing and going to the legislature. Dianne Mathiowetz contributed to and [we] oppose laws and constitutional for contract rights. There were tens of thousands of people this article. amendments that deny that right.” —Leslie Feinberg Page 8 JULY 6, 2006 www.workers.org U.S. weapons of mass destruction protested By Kermit Leibensperger Ft. Detrick’s efforts at gene splicing and tion of dairy farms, upon which the Korean War. Referring to stories that cap- Baltimore other DNA modification techniques to bioweapons labs were built. “One day tured American pilots who confessed to increase the virulence of existing strains of there was a sign along the road saying we dropping bioweapons were brainwashed, If President Bush has his way, tens of viruses and bacteria are perhaps the most had to vacate three of our fields,” Mrs. Norman Kanoyen confided to Olson, “It billions of dollars will be taken from pub- foolish and dangerous part of the Bush Koehl told me as she paged through a wasn’t all brainwashing. Get it? Your dad lic health spending in the coming years administration’s WMD programs. In a scrapbook filled with newspaper articles, found it was true.” How much bioweapons and allocated to the U.S. Army’s Ft. recent four-article series on the lab, the photographs, and land plans documenting testing was actually done in Korea Detrick, the headquarters of U.S. bio- Frederick News-Post reported Ft. Detrick the Federal land takeovers and the numer- Kanoyen didn’t know or wasn’t willing to weapons research, located in Frederick, had “161 mishaps” from 2002 to 2005. ous illnesses and deaths in her family, say, Olson reported. MD. The administration’s plans for mas- Speakers representing the entire pro- neighboring families, and farm animals Frederick lawyer and congressional sive expansion of the number of BLS-4 gressive-revolutionary political spectrum that followed the opening of the Army candidate Barry Kissin noted in his speech containment suites and related WMD called on groups and individuals to work labs. “They took fields my father rented that Ft. Detrick had the creation of anthrax facilities were protested June 4 by a rally to bring out the community en masse for from Dr. Rau for what was called Camp bombs on their agenda since 1943. At that and march through crowds gathered for a the hearings, and denounced Ft. Detrick’s Detrick back then, along with land from time the Army planned to use anthrax fair in downtown Frederick. bioweapons research as not only a threat other farmers.” bombs in Germany, but the project was Activists alerted the community of to Frederick County, but to all humanity. By taking only portions of farms, the not completed before the end of WWII. upcoming Environmental Impact Study Documentation of illnesses and deaths Army effectively made the farmers and Olson also believes his father opposed hearings in late August or September, related to leaks from the sprawling facilities their families human guinea pigs. Mrs. the use of Ft. Detrick-produced chemicals when the Army will try to gloss over the may be found at www.frederickpac.org. Koehl denounced the book “50 Year History and biologicals in the Korean War for what danger posed by experiments—past and Two speakers added very sad, personal of Ft. Detrick,” recently published by the was then called “terminal interrogation.” future—with disease-causing viruses and notes to the rally, stories which deeply government, because it makes no mention This is what the Bush administration’s bacteria for which there exist neither vac- touched those present. Mrs. Grace Free of the forced farmland confiscations or of spin-doctors now term the “extraordinary cine nor cure. Koehl spoke of the involuntary confisca- the health consequences to the Free fam- rendition” of kidnapped suspects that the ily, their cattle, and the surrounding area, CIA conducts in secret prisons in Europe, which came to be a “cancer cluster.” according to Dana Priest’s recent Pulitzer Prize winning exposé in The Washington 25,000 protest Son of Frank Olson speaks out Post (December 4). “He would have Eric Olson, whose father held a key known,” Olson said. “He was [chief of the] position at the nation’s most secret biolog- Special Operations Division, the CIA— Bush’s visit to Vienna ical warfare laboratory during the Cold Detrick liaison for the CIA.” War, told the rally that the government Olson encouraged the audience to learn covered up the killing of his father, Frank details of CIA crimes, including the killing Olson, not just once, claiming his fall of 10 of his father, by seeing a documentary stories from a Manhattan hotel was a sui- made for German public television’s ARD cide or accident in 1953, but with a second network titled “Code Name: Artichoke— deception in 1975, when President Ford The CIA’s Secret Experiments on Humans” called the Olson family to the White House by Egmont R. Koch and Michael Wech and apologized for the LSD that was (Available at Satellite Video, Walkersville, administered to Frank Olson without his MD; 301-845-2737). Olson said that PBS knowledge. had scheduled to show the film, then can- However, after receiving information celled. More information, including a from an old friend of his father’s, Eric Olson transcript of the film and Olson’s contin- has become convinced his father was killed uing investigation of his father’s murder because he was appalled at reports that and other CIA criminal activities, may be bioweapons bombs were being tested in the found at www.frankolsonproject.org.

PYONGTECH, KOREA . Farmers resist Vienna June 22. By John Catalinotto passed by. He had to see it. U.S. military base “Other guests at the café spontaneously Some 25,000 people came out in held the banner and joined in shouting, Following are excerpts of a discussion interests. First the Japanese military Vienna June 22 to protest U.S. President ‘Bush go home.’ Even the people below on held at the New York International came and forcibly took their land away George Bush’s visit to the Austrian capital the street joined in. The police did not Action Center with the Rev. Kyu Hyun from them. Then in 1945, the United and especially the U.S. occupations of Iraq want to interfere. Twenty-seven years ago Mun, chairperson of the Solidarity for States occupied Pyongtech at the end of and Afghanistan. Bush was attending a when a U.S. president [Jimmy Carter—to Peace and Reunification organization in World War II, made the Japanese mili- summit of European Union leaders. sign SALT II] came the last time to visit South Korea, translated by Yoomi Jeong tary bases their own, and expanded The protest’s size and energy reflected Vienna people were standing on the road of the Korea Truth Commission. Rev. them, taking even more land from the the opinion polls for both the Austrian and waving U.S. flags.” Mun is also involved in the struggle of Pyongtech farmers. European populations—in Austria only 14 The AIC report noted that this protest farmers in Pyongtech, South Korea, The farmers had to move to new land, percent support current U.S. policy, while was as large as those that occurred before against the expansion of military bases prime that land for agriculture and culti- 64 percent think the U.S. plays a reac- the March 20, 2003, invasion of Iraq, but on their land. He planned to return to vate it, without government compensa- tionary role in world politics. In Europe, that now there is much stronger popular Seoul to participate in a hunger strike tion or subsidies. They did this by them- 36 percent believe U.S. policies are the support for an anti-imperialist position, against the arrest of a leader in the selves with their own hands and feet. greatest danger to world peace. including supporting the Iraqi resistance. struggle. The farmers believe that the cultivat- Bush traveled with over 500 CIA and Awni al-Kalemji, representing that resist- ing of food is the cultivating of life, and other security agents to organize protec- ance, spoke at a rally of some thousands. I would like to extend my deepest their own contribution to world peace. tion and give orders to the local authori- Although there were two rallies—one solidarity and gratitude to those of you The Chinese character for “peace” ties. In addition, some 3,000 Austrian more social democratic and one anti- who have been involved in the Korean depicts rice entering the mouth. The police were deployed. While they did their imperialist—some well-known speakers struggle all these years. land now being forcibly taken from them worst to keep the president isolated from like British anti-war Member of Parlia- The Pyongtech farmers’ claim is this: — almost 320 acres, a huge amount of the protest, the overwhelming public ment George Galloway and German They are willing to give up the farming land—can produce six months’ worth of opposition broke though. member of the European Parliament land they have cultivated for generations rice for all of Pyongtech’s 360,000 citi- Willi Langthaler of the Anti-Imperialist Tobias Pflueger addressed the anti-impe- if it is in the national interest. But if it is zens. Camp (AIC)—one of the organizers of the rialist rally. This shows that the anti- for U.S. aggression, the farmers are They are amazed at the current situa- protest—reported that: “When Bush drove imperialist sector of the movement is no adamant not to give up their land. tion —the South Korean government, at into downtown Vienna in his armored longer isolated and has attracted young The farmers deeply believe their strug- the behest of the United States, forcibly vehicle the road blocks brought all life to people along with representatives of the gle is not just their own, but a step taking land from them. Recently, the a standstill. Activists of the Anti-Imper- Turkish and Arab immigrant community toward world peace and justice, a strug- head of the farmers’ committee was ialist Camp were uncoiling a huge banner and radical Moslems, and some of the gle for a better livelihood for all. arrested. My older brother is now on a reading ‘Bush go home’ from the terrace Austrian groups, according to the AIC These are farmers who have histori- hunger strike outside Cheong Wa Dae, café of a multi-story building where Bush report. cally suffered at the hands of foreign Continued on the next page www.workers.org JULY 6, 2006 Page 9

While masses flee Ramadi siege Senate’s war budget vote signals no ‘reconciliation’ in Iraq By Greg Butterfield in Iraq, to dramatically reduce troop lev- Neither of the withdrawal proposals vocatively seized a respected Sunni cleric, els by the end of 2007 was leaked to was taken seriously by the Democratic Sheik Jamal Abdul Karim al-Dabban, and On June 25 the Iraqi puppet govern- reporters while Maliki’s plan was in the Party senators, as their unanimous vote four others as “suspected terrorists” in an ment presented a 24-point “national rec- news. This gave Bush the opportunity to for the war budget proves. No worker or early-morning raid June 24. Within onciliation” plan that purports to help end say Casey’s plan was one option being con- other opponent of war and oppression hours, outraged crowds gathered in Bagh- armed resistance to the U.S.-led occupa- sidered, while continuing to evade any should forget this unanimous vote on dad and other cities to protest Sheik tion and bring stability to the country. actual commitment to withdraw. Election Day. The Democrats are as much Dabban’s arrest. While the military Does this plan, announced by Iraqi During Bush’s surprise visit to Baghdad a party of imperialism and war as the released al-Dabban later that day, claim- “Prime Minister” Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, in mid-June, Maliki had promised “stabil- Republicans. ing it was a mistake, the firestorm of anger herald the beginning of a new era of sta- ity” in Iraq within 18 months. hasn’t abated. (CNN, June 24) bility in Iraq and the prospect of a timely At the Bush administration’s insistence, Ramadi under siege withdrawal of foreign occupation troops? the pliable prime minister reportedly Republican or Democrat, White House What’s behind Baghdad Or is it a cynical ploy meant to divide and dropped a timetable for ending the occu- or Pentagon—Washington isn’t the least ‘emergency’? conquer the Iraqi resistance movement pation from his plan, and severely nar- bit interested in “reconciliation.” In Baghdad, Iraq’s capital city of 6 mil- and revive the political fortunes of U.S. rowed the amnesty offer at the last minute. Lt. Gen. John F. Satler told the June 26 lion people, a state of emergency and cur- President George W. Bush and his Repub- New York Times that no matter what, few were imposed on June 23. But the lican allies at home, while obscuring the Democrats pro-war troop levels would not be reduced in crackdown had already begun June 13, occupation’s ongoing crimes against Iraqi Even though Maliki tailored his “recon- Western Iraq’s Al-Anbar province, consid- with tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi civilians? ciliation” plan to suit the Bush administra- ered one of the strongholds of the resist- troops flooding the streets. The June 26 New York Times reported tion, it was too strong for some Democrats ance. The southern city of Basra has been that the plan offers “neither a broad to take. In fact, some party leaders seem There the city of Ramadi is bracing for under a similar state of emergency since amnesty for insurgents nor any new to be positioning themselves to the right a siege by U.S. forces like “Operation early June. options for members of Saddam Hussein’s of Bush on the issue of amnesty for the Phantom Fury,” which leveled 70 percent Maliki ordered the state of emergency long-ruling Baath Party, the two most tens of thousands of Iraqi men rounded up of neighboring Falluja in November 2004. with just two hours’ notice, while Friday heavily disputed items. … The decision in mass sweeps and imprisoned by U.S. Maurizio Mascia, program manager of prayers were still in progress. It included appeared to have been influenced by reli- troops, in some cases for over three years. the Italian Consortium of Solidarity, a shoot-on-site authorization for anyone gious Shiites who form his base and by the While the White House said, “Recon- which provides relief to refugees in suspected of carrying a weapon or display- American military command.” ciliation must be an Iraqi process, led by Western Iraq, told Inter Press Service: ing “threatening” behavior. According to a June 25 British Broad- Iraqis”—after the proper compliance with “The Americans, instead of attacking the “Aren’t they supposed to give us a day’s casting Corp. special report, the “reconcil- Washington’s colonial mandates, of city [Ramadi] all at once like they’ve done notice?” asked taxi driver Muhammed iation” plan “is part of a grand strategy by course—Carl Levin, senior Democrat on in their previous operations in cities like Saleh. “How are people who went to work the Bush administration to stabilize Iraq— the Senate Armed Services Committee, Falluja and Al-Qa’im, are using helicop- or to pray supposed to get home? This is a or to stabilize the perception of Iraq—in denounced Maliki’s plan for daring to ters and ground troops to attack one dis- decision by someone who is not wise, not advance of the mid-term elections for offer any kind of amnesty to “suspected trict at a time. reasonable.” (Washington Post, June 24) Congress in November. terrorists” opposed to the U.S. occupation. “The main dangers for the population The Associated Press reported that “Other parts of the plan are an insis- “That would just be unconscionable,” are the [U.S.-controlled] checkpoints and workers and worshipers scrambled to get tence that democracy has arrived in Iraq Levin told “Fox News Sunday” June 25. the snipers; both usually shoot at any home or find shelter before the deadline, and must be supported, [and] a refusal to “For heaven’s sake, we liberated the movement that they consider dangerous— since vehicular traffic had already been set any date or timetable for a total with- country.” causing many victims among civilians.” banned on Friday afternoons. “U.S. sol- drawal of U.S. troops,” the BBC concluded. Other high-ranking Democrats joined U.S. troops are setting up loudspeakers diers frisked men also dashing home Conveniently, a proposal by Gen. Levin’s jingoist tirade. They include Sen. and blasting messages calling on residents against a backdrop of thick, black smoke George Casey, commander of U.S. forces Russ Feingold, who with John Kerry had to flee the city or turn in suspected resist- rising above the white high-rise buildings sponsored a perfunctory bill to withdraw ance fighters. This is after weeks of cor- of Haifa Street. Helicopters flitted back the troops by July 1, 2007. It was defeated doning off the city of 400,000. and forth overhead.” Continued from page 8 86-13 on June 23, as was a second vague Imad Al-Muhammadi of the Iraqi Red Most reports vaguely chalked up the the office of the president. proposal to begin withdrawing troops this Crescent said: “There is no positive sign on sudden state of emergency to “insurgent The farmers believe the Pyongtech year but with no definite date to end the the American side that shows a different attacks.” However, the Washington Post, struggle is one for democracy, peace, occupation. solution from those of Falluja and other in the most detailed account published in justice and human rights. And we For all the bluster filling newspapers cities which have been ‘deleted’ in order to the United States, reported that the unrest believe that the Pyongtech farmers will and airwaves about heated partisan be ‘liberated.’ Civilians, as usual, are the began when members of the Shiite Mahdi prevail soon. They have one demand: debate on Iraq in the halls of Congress, the ones living the hardships of the occupa- Army were attacked by an alleged “Sunni renegotiation between South Korea and truth comes down to this: On June 23, the tion and definitely the ones dying in vain.” militia” on their way to Friday prayers. the United States and the South Korean Senate voted unanimously to approve a Families face “horrible living conditions While the U.S./Iraqi Army forces were farmers. The South Korean government $517.7 billion war budget for fiscal year in tents, abandoned schools and are stay- supposedly coming to their rescue, the made a deal with the United States with- 2007, including $50 billion designated to ing under any roof that protects them from Mahdi Army fighters exchanged fire with out the consultation of the farmers. The maintain the occupations of Iraq and the burning summer sun,” he said. them at checkpoints, and “later set up hope is that through negotiations the Afghanistan. According to the Institute for War and checkpoints of their own on roads leading United States will give up on turning That’s right. Every senator, Republican Peace Reporting, “People in Ramadi ... toward the mosque.” (Washington Post, Pyongtech into another U.S. rapid- and Democrat alike, voted to approve the estimate that 70 percent of the city’s pop- June 24) deployment site. war budget. ulation have fled in the last week, many The provocative attack on the Mahdi We appeal for your solidarity, which What’s more, they voted for nearly $100 holding white flags for fear of being shot Army is suspicious, since that group has will strengthen our determination to billion more than the House of Represen- at by Marine snipers.” strongly opposed the U.S. occupation. struggle for justice and peace. tatives had approved earlier in the week. Meanwhile, U.S. troops in Tikrit pro- Who actually attacked the Mahdi forces, and why? The U.S. big-business media have ignored this question, but it should be asked. NY TransJustice triumphs What is behind the spread of so-called sectarian militias, particularly in Rebellion, began Street Transvestite Action tors then wound through Chelsea and the Continued from page 7 Baghdad, where the U.S. forces are head- Revolutionaries—STAR—along with John- West Village, first marching past the Port that this march was “37 years in the mak- quartered? The rise in bombings and son, an African American Stonewall vet- Authority on 42nd Street in tribute to ing” since the original Stonewall Rebellion. other violent acts directed at religious eran found drowned in the Hudson River Amanda Milan and veering defiantly onto Tamiko Beyer of Q-Wave, an organization groups and civilians, rather than at occu- under suspicious circumstances in 1992. Eighth Avenue at one point. Marchers “for lesbians, bisexual women and trans- pation troops and Iraqi collaborators, is Gunn, a 15-year-old African American AG, shouted, “Whose streets? Our streets!” to folks of Asian descent,” recited a poem with strikingly similar to the work of U.S.-spon- or masculine lesbian, was stabbed to death reject the police limits on their protest. the refrain: “We rise! We rise! We fight! We sored death squads in Central America in Newark, N.J., in 2003. Passersby carefully studied, and many fight!”—which was taken up and chanted during the 1980s. Henry launched the crowd into motion, cheered, the signs that covered a wide vehemently by the energized crowd. John Negroponte, Bush’s director of saying: “We have given our blood to make range of demands, from non-gendered Finally, Imani Henry of TransJustice, national intelligence, was a key figure in sure we can live and breathe in this city access to bathrooms to an end to deporta- lead organizer for the Trans Day of Action the creation of right-wing death squads in every day. The mayor and the police are tion of immigrant workers. Finally people for Social and Economic Justice, called on the 1980s. Now the so-called sectarian trying to keep us from being activists, but marched jubilantly up to the LGBT Center marchers to honor the memory of Amanda militias emerged on a large scale in after we are taking to the streets.” on 13th Street and celebrated this day of Milan, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Negroponte’s 2004 appointment as U.S. Chanting fiercely without let-up for the TransJustice with an electric slide dance and Sakia Gunn. Rivera, a Latina transgen- ambassador to Iraq. der combatant at the 1969 Stonewall next two-and-a-half hours, demonstra- in the street. Page 10 JULY 6, 2006 www.workers.org

9/11 recovery workers: Once again, ‘Gov’t deceived, defend Palestine! abandoned us’ By Deirdre Griswold people in this country without health care. nce again, the high-tech Israeli Zionist terror bands—the Irgun—drove New York A special program for 9/11 responders millions into exile and massacred many military, bought and paid for set up at Mount Sinai Medical Center in with U.S. taxpayers’ money, has who resisted. O Millionaire Christine Todd Whitman, Manhattan has seen about 15,000 people launched a murderous assault on the From the beginning, the state of Israel the Bush appointee who used to head the since 2002, according to Dr. Robin Palestinian people. On June 28 Israeli denied the rights of the Palestinians and Environmental Protection Agency, said Herbert. Almost five years after the col- warplanes fired at least nine missiles at even their existence as a people. exactly one week after the collapse of the lapse, it is still getting 100 new cases each the only power station in Gaza, cutting So it is more than disingenuous when Twin Towers, “I’m glad to reassure the month. So many are applying that there’s electricity to 65 percent of the densely Tel Aviv today says it can’t talk to the people of New York that their air is safe to now a three-to-four-month backup. As of populated strip, and destroyed a major Hamas-led elected government because breathe.” early this year, the program had received bridge. The power plant was left in the Palestinians won’t recognize Israel’s Capitalist politicians, from President not one penny of government funds. flames, creating a humanitarian crisis by right to exist, and then uses this—once George W. Bush to Mayor Rudolph In January, WABC-TV Eyewitness News knocking out both the power and water again—as the excuse for trying to starve Giuliani, put on hard hats for the cameras reported on the death of Chris Pellegrino, supplies. out the Palestinian people and break up and praised the “first responders,” calling a cable installer who had worked at ground This was followed by Israeli tanks, their political organizations. them heroes and offering all their support. zero for months. He died of lung illness at which blasted their way into Gaza for the Since Hamas took office in March, But today, thousands of those who age 42 after developing “World Trade first time since Tel Aviv made a big point Israel has frozen tax revenues it collects worked at ground zero after the buildings Center cough.” The number of responders of withdrawing from the impoverished from the Palestinian people that are sup- collapsed are furious at the government, and recovery workers who have died, some area last August. posed to go to the Palestinian Authority. which they charge deceived and aban- in the prime of life, is now well over 30. Just Israeli planes also broke international Amounting to $52 million a month, this doned them. one attorney, David Worby, said in law once again when they flew low over deficit has left 130,000 public employees This June 17, some 200 held a rally at January that 21 of his clients had died of the house of Syrian President Bashar without paychecks. Israel has also closed the site to demand comprehensive health Sept. 11-related diseases since mid-2004. Assad in a gesture that threatened retali- the borders around Palestinian territory, care for all those sickened by the work (Associated Press, Jan. 18) ation for any help Syria might give its causing shortages in food and medicine there after the disaster. “Many of the two It took the death of a police detective, Palestinian neighbors. and a halt in exports. dozen or so people who spoke at the event, 34-year-old James Zadroga, for the state And once again, the U.S. is abetting Now, with the destruction of their including former recovery workers and to finally acknowledge the link between this aggression, calling it a “response” to power plant, the 1.4 million residents of their families, said that top federal, state breathing in the toxic dust and fatal lung the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Gaza face the worsening of what is and local officials seemed to be focusing disease. Zadroga’s father said at the rally, Palestinian militants in Gaza. already a dire situation. on 9/11 memorials while workers who however, that doctors and Police Depart- No matter what happens, Israel is Israel is Washington’s right-hand in untangled the gnarled debris at ground ment officials had ignored his son’s sick- always “responding” and the Pales- the Middle East. It is favored by the U.S. zero continued to face red tape, resistance ness until it was too late. tinians are always “attacking,” according ruling class because it can be depended and skepticism over their claims.” (New Doctors at Mount Sinai say they’re now to the U.S. government and media. on in any struggle between imperialism York Times, June 18) seeing more cases of the severe lung scar- So it’s important to look once again at and the Arab and Muslim masses. Just Like U.S. soldiers sickened by the ring that killed Zadroga. (Newsday, June how this seemingly endless conflict like the war in Iraq, these struggles are Pentagon’s use of Agent Orange and 1) They also report that cancers of the began. basically over who will control the oil, depleted uranium in its wars for empire, blood, kidney and pancreas are appearing The fact is that, although Israel was the most precious resource in the region. these workers—whose health is failing among this group at a rate much higher set up in 1948 under the Zionist slogan The Palestinian struggle for self-deter- after breathing in the toxic dust left by the than in the general population. of a “land without a people for a people mination is central to the worldwide towers’ collapse—are being treated as After 9/11, Congress rushed to pass the without a land,” there were millions of struggle of oppressed peoples against malingerers by a capitalist government Patriot Act, which has turned into a huge people living there—the Palestinians. imperialism. Free, free Palestine! that spends hundreds of billions each year boondoggle for big business. (See accom- for war and for state repression at home panying article, p. 10.) But when it comes but has cut essential services. to allocating tax money for a real public Many former recovery workers who are health program that would end the crisis Minimum wage too sick to labor now find themselves in health care, these servants of capital run vs. estate taxes unemployed and joining the 45 million the other way. he U.S. Senate, true to its class wage bill. San Francisco allegiance to the rich and power- The same week millions of workers Tful, just turned aside an increase were condemned to work in poverty, the in the federal minimum wage from $5.15 House passed a bill exempting a few LGBT movement an hour to $7.25. It has been 13 years thousand families whose estates run since the federal minimum wage was from $1 million to $5 million. This tax Continued from page 6 Stonewall paid for a permit?” one QUIT increased. exemption, tacked onto ones already in Center to draw attention to the struggle of activist asked the event staff. Presently, 7.3 million workers in the place, will be worth tens of billions of the Palestinian people for liberation and Despite attempts by City Hall and some United States work for the minimum dollars. the call for a boycott of World Pride 2006 Pride organizers to water down this year’s wage. Another 8.2 million workers are Rich people are getting richer and in Jerusalem. activities, words of militancy and libera- so close to the bottom that they would poor working people are getting poorer, QUIT members presented a parody of tion were still heard from the podium. likely get a raise, too, if the minimum because while the minimum wage has the company Estee Lauder, one of this Leslie Feinberg reminded the crowd about wage increased. Counting their families, stagnated, inflation hasn’t. That is the year’s LGBT Pride financial backers and a the need for solidarity. Laura Whitehorn at least 30 million Americans would live program Congress has established— major supporter of illegal Zionist settle- directly followed with a strong message of better. while their wages and perks go up, the ments in Palestine. Coining the name struggle. She said the prisons are filled The justification for voting against the “gifts” from lobbyists pile higher and “Estee Slaughter,” the group handed out with revolutionary political prisoners like increase was that poor people need jobs, higher, and the ditch between them and mock “Realityfold TM” sleep masks expos- Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier and need to learn entrepreneurship, that the people grows deeper. ing Estee Lauder’s role in supporting Marilyn Buck. “It’s time to free all of the companies like McDonalds, Burger They must be replaced, lock, stock Israel, and called for the boycott of World political prisoners,” she said. Actor Danny King, and Safeway would go out of busi- and barrel, Republicrats and Democrans LGBT Pride, which will be held in Glover spoke on workers’ rights. ness because they couldn’t afford their alike. The sooner the better. Jerusalem in August. Their action was so In a statement written for this year’s effective that the SFPD sent its cops to stop Pride Guide, Joey Cain, president of San the distribution. Francisco LGBT Pride, said: “Work to lib- QUIT members and their supporters erate our people and extend the fields of Subscribe to Workers World continued handing out the anti-occupa- freedom in all the regions of the human tion masks until they were all distributed. heart, mind and body. Justice, equality, a Special trial $2 for eight weeks (new subscription) $25 for one year The Workers World Party banner—“No place to live, health care and individual Pride In Occupation, Free Palestine, U.S. dignity are human rights, not ‘market Name ______Out of Iraq”—served as a backdrop for the driven’ privileges.” The police and City Hall and their sup- Phone number ______protest and received many supportive comments throughout the afternoon. porters tried once again to blur the lines Address______Attempts by the police and parade moni- of struggle—but the spirit and militancy of tors to isolate this protest in a so-called the Stonewall and Compton’s Cafeteria City/State/Zip ______“free speech zone” of the rally area were rebellions were clearly present throughout Workers World Newspaper 55 W. 17 St. NY, NY 10011 (212) 627-2994 ignored. “Do you think anyone at the weekend’s LGBT Pride activities. www.workers.org JULY 6, 2006 Page 11 Getting rich with ‘homeland security’

By Deirdre Griswold Transportation Security Administration utive branch from negotiating for future utives or lobbyists is nothing new. That’s and moved to Choice-Point, a Department jobs with companies they oversee. It also how every capitalist government works. It didn’t take them very long. Much of of Homeland Security contractor. prohibits them from lobbying former gov- But the brazenness of those who wore the the gang who jumped on the bandwagon Ridge, the former Pennsylvania gover- ernment colleagues or subordinates for at cloak of “national security” has few mod- of “homeland security” when the Bush nor who signed Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death least a year after they leave office. But, says ern parallels, says the Times. administration was still plotting the inva- warrant, was Bush’s choice to be the first the article, “by exploiting loopholes in the For those worried that government sion of Iraq are now taking home the green secretary of DHS. Last year, three months law—including one provision drawn up by snoops may be looking at your bank as executives and consultants for compa- after resigning from that position, he department executives to facilitate their account, tapping your phone or reading nies wanting to sell “anti-terror” expertise joined the board of Savi Technology, “a entry into the business world—it is often your e-mail, remember this: State repres- and devices to the government. maker of radio frequency identification easy for former officials to do just that.” sion is driven not just by fear of “terror- “At least 90 officials at the Department equipment that the department pushed The revolving door between ists” but by the most powerful motive of of Homeland Security or the White House while he was secretary.” Savi is now being Washington officials and corporate exec- all under capitalism—corporate greed. Office of Homeland Security—including bought by Lockheed Martin, a huge mili- the department’s former secretary, Tom tary contractor. Ridge is expected to profit Ridge; the former deputy secretary, Adm. “handsomely” from selling stock options James M. Loy; and the former under sec- he acquired before the buyout, says the retary, Asa Hutchinson—are executives, Times. Miami racist entrapment consultants or lobbyists for companies Hutchinson began work at Venable that collectively do billions of dollars’ LLP, “a Washington law and lobbying firm Continued from page 1 said that he received the injuries in the worth of domestic security business,” that represents major domestic security accident. The coroner’s report contra- wrote Eric Lipton in a detailed, two-part contractors like Lockheed Martin,” one rational than operational.” dicted the cops’ original story, but, even series called “Homeland Security Inc.” day after he left his job as under secretary Yet on the day of the arrests, the capi- with one of the cops testifying as to the real that ran in the New York Times starting for border and transportation security. He talist media ran the story far and wide. The events, the jury still acquitted. June 18. now has his fingers in companies that pro- next day, pictures of the men were front Residents in the area rebelled. “More than two-thirds of the depart- duce or sell data-mining software, finger- page, with sensational captions. One ment’s most senior executives in its first print-identification technology and anti- would think that Osama Bin Ladin, Al U.S. funds real terrorism years have moved through the revolving radiation drugs. Zarqawi and Jack the Ripper had all been The case of the seven men is indeed one door,” says the initial article. The articles provide many more exam- caught together. of entrapment. It shows how far authori- And they are being generously ples of former officials who have jumped The treatment of these men and this ties are willing to go to demoralize com- rewarded by the companies that want from their “national security” jobs right case exposes racism, not only in the munities of color and activists. This is their expertise and connections. Carol A. into lucrative positions in the industries media, and not only in Florida, but in the reminiscent of the FBI counter-intelli- DiBattiste increased her salary six times that lobbied them. United States. gence program known as COINTELPRO, over when, within a month, she left her job Why aren’t these former officials in jail? The case highlights how severely reac- which was used in the 1960s and 70s to as deputy administrator at the Federal law prohibits officials in the exec- tionary the ruling class’s government has break up the Black Panthers and other grown. militant Black organizations, the Amer- ican Indian Movement, and Chicano ‘No weapons, no explosives’ organizations, and also to spy on a few Socialist message Howard Simon, director of the American socialist parties. Civil Liberties Union’s Florida branch, However, the difference is that today said: “We’re as puzzled as everyone else. the movement is not at the same point as kicks off pride week There’s no weapons, no explosives, but during COINTELPRO. But the message is this major announcement.” clear. The ruling class is becoming more Continued from page 7 amongst those who view themselves as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales reactionary, and is trying to prevent a mil- Workers states: “We have proven that progressives in the U.S. kept them from admitted that the men had no means or itant movement in the streets, especially fighting back does make a difference and supporting the Afghan democratic revolu- money to commit any act. Yet, he said, one arising from the most oppressed. Pride season is one of those times that we tion of 1978, Feinberg emphasized. “We took action when we did because we There are terrorists in Miami-Dade— can fight back. This year will be no excep- Similarly, anti-communism holds back believe we have an obligation to prevent but it’s not these men. The real terrorists tion to that history, we intend to not only the working-class struggle in the United America from another attack here.” have waged a war against the revolution- celebrate Pride but politicize it. This is States and Canada, she said. “We cannot Rotschild Augustine’s lawyer Nathan ary government of Cuba for nearly 50 your opportunity to join the LGBT com- fight for economic and social justice if we Clarke said, “This thing took place over years. They have been funded and trained munity and be part of the struggle for accept that capitalism is the end of history. eight months, according to the indict- by the CIA and they operate in the light, equality.” (www.caw.ca) Look around at all that we have built with ment, and at the end of the indictment it not bothering with any sort of shroud. our work, and that of our laboring ances- says that this thing became disorganized These terrorists have launched hun- ‘An injury to one is an injury to all!’ tors. We have to collectively tear up the and nobody had ever done anything or did dreds of attacks against the Cuban people, Dan Irving—a contract faculty member deed that says a few families own it all. anything.” attacks that have led to many deaths and at York University, a trans male and a “We need to bring the anti-capitalist Albert Levin, the court-appointed injuries. One of their ilk, a man reportedly Marxist—introduced Feinberg as a revolu- struggle out of the closet. We are on the eve attorney for Patrick Abraham, said that responsible for blowing up a jetliner and tionary organizer, a theoretician and a of momentous struggles. We need to put it is a clear case of entrapment. Most of killing 80 people, is being held on immi- comrade, and thanked her for consistently a movement-wide discussion about social- the talking was done by the paid inform- gration violation charges, but the United and courageously speaking as a socialist. ism and its higher stage, communism, on ant. The defendants mostly listened. States refuses to extradite him to The crowd cheered when Feinberg’s our agenda now in order to position our- No one in the neighborhood felt the Venezuela, where he escaped prison. This first words expressed solidarity with Arab, selves in this battle,” Feinberg stressed. men were any threat. A man named Bro- man is Luis Posada Carriles. South Asian and Muslim immigrants in She concluded that we can’t wage an ther Corey, an associate of the other men, Posada Carriles and the other terrorists Canada and the U.S., support for the effective fight against our bosses unless we said that the group the men allegedly in Miami wage their war of terror in coop- Haudenosaunee (Six Nation) people are fighting oppression, and that means belong to—Seas of David—mixes Islamic eration with a government that openly struggling to defend their land against that fighting racism, sexism and LGBT and Christian beliefs. plans for the takeover of the Cuban gov- Canadian state repression, and a salute to oppression have to be critical components Family members and residents of ernment after Fidel Castro dies. So terror- Toronto transportation workers for their of the agenda of labor and the progressive Liberty City, location of the warehouse ists in the U.S. government’s employ are recent wildcat strike. movement. “An injury to one is an injury where the men live and work, said the men okay, as long as the terror is in the ruling Feinberg said she thought the thing to all—that’s the granite truth the labor were quiet and well mannered. Marlene class’s interest. most appropriate for someone from the movement is built on,” she said. Phanor, Stanley Phanor’s sister, said, “All The case of the seven men begs the U.S. to raise was the need to build a mili- The audience gave Feinberg’s message they was doing, was trying to do, was clean question: What would five Black men and tant movement against the imperialist war a prolonged standing ovation. No opposi- up the community.” two Haitian men have against the United in the Middle East. tion was expressed during the long ques- Liberty City is a poor working-class States, since Alberto Gonzales announced She warned that big-business propa- tion and answer period. In fact, one per- neighborhood where almost half of that the men “view their home country as ganda makes imperialist wars seem like son in the audience said she came to the Miami-Dade County’s over 500,000- the enemy”? If one took Florida itself— “humanitarian” interventions, “but they are event with doubts about what she thought strong Black population lives. It is one of from the decimation of Native peoples and wars of conquest by the fused power of the Feinberg was going to say, but left with an the poorest areas in the country, in a city slavery, to the Rosewood massacre and banks and corporations—the same bosses attitude of openness and admiration for with a 30-percent poverty rate. Jim Crow, and flash forward to the 2000 we are battling on the domestic front—who the ideas. It is also where a rebellion sprang up in elections when Black votes were sup- are trying to expand the domination of their An event organizer stated, “We heard 1980. In 1979, cops were charged with pressed, to the killing of Martin Lee capital in order to squeeze every drop of what we needed to hear tonight.” beating to death a Black motorcyclist, Anderson—there is plenty to despise. profit and secure global positioning.” After the event, organizers and partici- Arthur McDuffie. The cops were acquitted The ruling class has the idea to squelch Feinberg said that in the early 1990s, pants expressed great satisfaction in the by an all-white jury. One of the cops the desires of working people, poor peo- U.S. imperialism drowned in blood the fact that the large audience contained a involved testified that McDuffie crashed ple and the oppressed, and so the move- Afghan Revolution against feudalism that broad representation of workers and his bike, and when the cops reached him ment must see this case for what it is: a was liberating women, yet in 2001 it char- oppressed peoples’ organizations and he was okay. But one of the cops took off threat to organizations of people of color acterized its invasion as an attempt to lib- other activists, including from the anti- McDuffie’s helmet and beat him to death, and activists and revolutionary organiza- erate women there. Anti-Soviet attitudes war movement. then put the helmet back on his head and tions demanding real, deep change. ¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los países, uníos! Líder cubano habla con periodistas en Miami Por Deirdre Griswold describe el Proyecto Cuba de esa agencia, comprar — por ejemplo, algunas partes a veces llamado también Operación para equipos médicos que sólo vienen de Ricardo Alarcón Querían tenderle una trampa. El presi- Mangosta, que comenzó en 1961. los Estados Unidos ... El bloqueo nos hace dente de la Asamblea Nacional de Cuba, Los documentos dan “detalles fasci- pagar más por lo que compramos.” Ricardo Alarcón, fue invitado a hablar por nantes sobre el dinero pagado a periodis- Cuba sabe que si una compañía esta- conexión satelital el 14 de junio con la tas en Cuba y en el sur de la Florida,” dijo dounidense compra o se combina con una Asociación Nacional de Periodistas His- Alarcón. “Cuba ha sido sometida a una firma de otro país, ésta cancelará cual- panos, la cual se estaba reuniendo en ‘ofensiva propagandística’ según las mis- quier contrato comercial que la firma tenía uyendo en comparación con otros países Miami. Él fue interrogado por la peri- mas palabras de la CIA,” añadió. con Cuba. en el área, aunque bajo el Acta de Ajuste odista del New York Times Mirta Ojito, Estos detalles están descritos en el libro Sin embargo aún con el bloqueo, la eco- Cubano, a l@s cuban@s se les permite quién había salido de Cuba con su familia “El proyecto de Cuba: operaciones secre- nomía cubana está mejorando. Alarcón entrar automáticamente a los Estados durante el éxodo de Mariel en 1980. tas de la CIA 1959-62,” publicado por dijo que la vivienda es ahora una prioridad Unidos una vez ponen un pie sobre la Desde su primera pregunta: “¿Por qué Ocean Press. para el gobierno, el cual está construyendo tierra de este país. continúan reprimiendo la libertad de Refiriéndose a los que han trabajado más de 100,000 unidades de viviendas “¿Qué pasaría si hubiera un Acta de prensa en Cuba?”, la hostilidad de la entre- para los Estados Unidos en su larga histo- este año. Ajuste Dominicano o Mexicano o Hai- vistadora quedó evidente. ria de invasiones, bloqueo y subversión Ojito acusó a Cuba de impedir que su tiano?”, preguntó; añadiendo que decenas Pero Alarcón no tuvo ningún problema contra Cuba, Alarcón dijo: “Son dependi- pueblo tenga acceso a la red de Internet. de millones más de personas latinoamer- para mostrar que Cuba no es la dictadura entes del poder extranjero que ha tratado Alarcón contestó que el bloqueo contiene icanas y del Caribe vendrían a los Estados represiva que la comunidad en el exilio en de destruir nuestro país. Tenemos el dere- ciertas leyes que restringen el acceso de Unidos a causa de la enorme desigualdad los Estados Unidos ha presentado. Y citó cho a defendernos.” Cuba a la Red, la cuál fue desarrollada por en las riquezas en este hemisferio. a fuentes de la CIA para describir cómo el También señaló que mientras “muchos el Pentágono. Sin embargo añadió que La eficacia de Alarcón al explicar las gobierno estadounidense ha ido tratando periodistas han sido asesinados en cada aula de clase en Cuba, hasta en las posiciones de su país a un público que de forjar un “cambio de régimen” en Cuba Latinoamérica y en otros lugares” en años zonas montañosas más remotas, tiene antes era reticente a oír representantes desde los primeros días de la revolución. recientes, ningún periodista ha sido computadoras para los estudiantes. cubanos podría explicar el porqué el New Respondiendo a la alegación derechista asesinado en Cuba desde que el régimen Otra pregunta insinuó que los esfuerzos York Times todavía no ha escrito nada de que Cuba ha encarcelado a 24 periodis- de Batista, apoyado por los Estados de Cuba por forjar el socialismo fueron un sobre este evento aunque su propia tas, Alarcón dijo que las personas men- Unidos, fue derrocado en 1959. fracaso y que la emigración a los Estados reportera estuvo involucrada. cionadas fueron detenidas no por escribir A una pregunta sobre el porqué, con los Unidos está creciendo. Alarcón señaló Sin embargo, se puede encontrar un o expresar puntos de vista diferentes a los nuevos acuerdos comerciales de Cuba con que antes de la revolución, en 1958, Cuba enlace del audio del intercambio en la ver- del gobierno, sino porque éstos eran China y Venezuela, el bloqueo esta- era el país con el mayor número de per- sión online de “Alarcón de Cuba echa la agentes estadounidenses. Entonces se dounidense todavía importa, Alarcón con- sonas que emigraba a los Estados Unidos culpa a los Estados Unidos por encarce- refirió a los documentos de la CIA que testó que aunque esté cambiando el después de México. Durante los años lamientos” en el Miami Herald del 15 de fueron desclasificados en 1997 donde se mundo, Cuba “todavía tiene que vender y recientes ese número ha ido dismin- junio. En Los Ángeles y Nueva York Activistas planean campaña para derechos de inmigrantes Por Heather Cottin y Hagel-Martínez (S-2611). trabajadores agrícolas mexicanos propor- cualquier persona que ha usado una iden- La conferencia en Nueva York se reunió cionaron mano de obra barata para todo, tificación falsa pueda ser castigada con la Decenas de activistas en ambas costas en una escuela en Jackson Heights de desde los supermercados hasta el empacado deportación. Como dijo Beatriz, una del continente se reunieron el 17 de junio Queens, una comunidad de diversas de carne, desde el trabajo agrícola hasta la colombiana del taller sobre la cuestión de para lanzar un verano de lucha por los nacionalidades de Asia, el Caribe, África, preparación de comidas, desde la construc- legalización, “Casi todo el mundo que llegó derechos de l@s inmigrantes y la unidad y Latinoamérica. Se dividió en comités que ción hasta la jardinería ornamental. sin documentos tuvo que obtener papeles de l@s trabajador@s. La Coalición del 25 discutieron cuestiones legales, económi- “La cuestión de los derechos de l@s falsos para poder trabajar”. de Marzo en Los Ángeles y la Coalición 1º cas y sociales. inmigrantes es una cuestión para tod@s La conferencia terminó con un plan de Mayo en Nueva York convocaron con- Un grupo habló sobre la oposición a los l@s trabajador@s”, dijo Brenda Stokely, para endosar las manifestaciones a nivel ferencias de planificación para dirigirse a acuerdos de libre comercio, específica- una líder del Movimiento de la Marcha de nacional a favor de los derechos inmi- las políticas reaccionarias de Washington, mente el Acuerdo de Libre Comercio de un Millón de Trabajador@s quien enca- grantes del 15 de julio y la Conferencia las cuales están calculadas para provocar América del Norte y el Acuerdo de Libre bezó el taller en la conferencia de Nueva Nacional para Estrategias sobre Inmi- una reacción racista y dividir a l@s traba- Comercio de Centroamérica. Junto a la York sobre cómo forjar alianzas con los grantes, del 28-30 de julio, en la Univer- jador@s en los Estados Unidos. Organización Internacional del Comercio sindicatos. Vicente “Panamá” Alba del sidad Americana en Washington, D.C. Las dos coaliciones han estado colabo- y a los programas de “ajustes” impuestos Local 108, del Sindicato Internacional de La Coalición 25 de Marzo de Los Ánge- rando desde principios de la primavera de por el Fondo Monetario Internacional, Obreros de Norteamérica, habló sobre les dedicó su conferencia a la planificación este año para forjar un movimiento a nivel estos mecanismos han incrementado el reforzar la unidad con grupos en contra de de un verano de protesta. Un mitin de nacional. Ambas coaliciones ayudaron a nivel de pobreza y desempleo alrededor del la guerra, ambientalistas y otras organiza- estudiantes para explorar la cuestión organizar a millones de personas en las mundo y han forzado a millones de per- ciones progresistas. Muchos han tardado inmigratoria se llevará a cabo el 15 de julio, marchas del 1º de mayo para los derechos sonas a emigrar desde sus países natales en adoptar la causa de los derechos de l@s seguido por un mitin a finales de julio para de l@s inmigrantes. hacia países desarrollados mientras se inmigrantes. apoyar a los jornaleros. La coalición tam- Ahora están proponiendo una serie de enriquecen las empresas transnacionales. La Coalición del 1º de Mayo tiene la bién está planeando un mitin en solidari- demandas: plena legalización para toda Este comité también declaró que se intención de producir literatura expo- dad con la comunidad negra de la persona sin documentos; no murallas opuso a la ley Taft-Hartley de 1947, la cual niendo la campaña reaccionaria y racista Universidad UCLA. El estado ha recortado fronterizas; no detenciones ni deporta- el Congreso de Organizaciones Indus- en contra de l@s inmigrantes y demo- sus programas de acción afirmativa tan ciones de inmigrantes; protección de los triales (CIO) ha dado llamado “la ley de la strando cómo la propuesta de ley Hagel- severamente que la matricula de estudi- derechos civiles de tod@s; no al programa esclavitud”. Martínez sería una declaración de guerra antes negros en la universidad ha caído al esclavista de “obreros invitados”; oposi- El trabajo esclavizado es parte intrín- contra l@s indocumentad@s. Esa prop- nivel más bajo que nunca. ción a la “penalización” de l@s inmi- seca de las propuestas de leyes inmigrato- uesta de ley podría resultar en el encarce- La Coalición 25 de Marzo se va a unir a grantes; derechos laborales plenos para rias actualmente bajo consideración por el lamiento y deportación de millones de tra- sindicatos y trabajador@s no sindicaliza- tod@s; medidas para la reunificación de Congreso. Es la razón por la cual Washing- bajador@s y sus familias. Está calculada dos en una marcha en el Día del Trabajo las familias de inmigrantes; revocación de ton quiere un programa de “trabajadores para dividir a l@s inmigrantes, depor- en Los Ángeles en lo que esperan sea un sanciones contra los que emplean traba- invitados”. Los colaboradores del Congreso tando a millones mientras que promete día nacional de protesta y apoyo para la jador@s indocumentad@s; y no a las prop- con el gran capital quieren resucitar al otorgar residencia legal a otr@s que han unidad entre l@s inmigrantes y l@s tra- uestas de leyes Sensenbrenner (HR-4437) Programa Bracero bajo el cual millones de vivido acá por más de cinco años. Pero bajador@s.