Israeli gov’t Whitewater scandal clamps down; protests rock shakes White House territories BY GREG ROSENBERG As the Israeli government poured Capitalist rulers send warning to Clinton troops into the occupied territories and continued 24-hour curfews over much of BY NAOMI CRAINE the Gaza Strip and West Bank, Palestinian The Clinton administration was be­ fury over the Hebron massacre and sub­ sieged by new allegations in the sequent military repression continued. As Whitewater inquiry in early March of March 8, die Palestinian death toll with the subpoena of 10 White House from the slaughter at the Cave of the Pa­ and Treasury Department officials and triarchs and subsequent army attacks was the forced resignation of White House no fewer than 74. attorney Bernard Nussbaum. Tel Aviv and Washington are seeking The affair centers around the busi­ a rapid return to negotiations with the ness dealings of U.S. president Bill Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton The PLO, however, has suspended talks with a failed savings and loan; attempts on last year’s accord with the Israeli gov­ to conceal and possibly shred docu­ ernment. If ever implemented, the agree­ ments related to the case; the inade­ ment would allow for limited Palestinian quate investigation of the death of self-rule in Gaza and the West Bank city Nussbaum’s assistant, Vincent Foster; of Jericho. The PLO leadership, which and meetings between White House has seen popular support for the accord staff and the agency charged with in­ plummet to new lows following Israeli vestigating the case. As the scandal un­ settler Baruch Goldstein’s murderous at­ folds, it also lays bare the web of inter­ tack on the mosque, insists that the phys­ meshing business, political, and per­ ical safety of Palestinians be guaranteed sonal ties that make up the Clinton ad­ before talks resume. ministration. The Israeli regime is cracking down on In October the Resolution Trust the territories with huge troop deployments. Corp., a Treasury Department agency “Most of the Gaza Strip remains under cur­ charged with investigating failed few,” said Palestinian journalist Ziad Abbas thrifts, referred the case of Madison in a March 8 telephone interview from Beth­ Guaranty Savings and Loan to the Jus­ lehem. “About 120,000 people are under tice Department, naming the Clintons curfew in Hebron. It is forbidden for anyone as possible beneficiaries of illegal ac­ Hillary Clinton, left, and Bill Clinton’s dealings are at center of scandal. from Gaza or the West Bank to enter Israel tions by Madison’s owner, James Mc­ — for work, to go to the hospital, for any Dougal. The Clintons shared ownership of More than a week before the case went to in the March 4 Washington Post. “How can reason.” Whitewater Development Corp., which had the Justice Department, Treasury Depart­ administration lawyers not respect that pro­ On March 7, Israeli troops shot two Pal­ its account at Madison, with McDougal in the ment counsel Jean Hanson met with Nuss­ hibition?” estinian youths dead in the territories and 1980s. baum to inform him of the impending inves­ Ten officials who took part in these wounded 18 people, including Associated tigation. At least two other meetings took meetings, including Nussbaum and Han­ Press photographer John Gaps. Gaps said he Meetings to discuss investigation place between White House and Treasury son, were subpoenaed March 4 to testify was shot from 100 yards away by an army Among other misdeeds, there is evidence Department officials to discuss the White­ for a grand jury convened by special coun­ sniper. that tens of thousands of dollars from Madi­ water inquiry, a probable violation of federal sel Robert Fiske. The Clinton administra­ The Zionist regime also sent warplanes to son were diverted to pay Clinton’s debts from ethics regulations that puts the impartiality tion had hoped Fiske’s appointment in bomb areas of southern Lebanon on March his 1984 campaign for Arkansas governor. of the investigation in serious doubt. January to investigate Madison, Whitewa­ 8, following attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas Madison went belly up in 1989 at a cost of “Criminal referrals are restricted and ter, and the related cover up would help on Israeli-backed Lebanese militias that $60 million in federal deposit insurance. privileged information,” noted an editorial Continued on Page 6 Continued on Page 12 Solidarity convoy crosses border with aid for Cuba

BY JERRY FREIWIRTH Canadian subsidiary no longer sells insulin LAREDO, Texas — To the cheers of car­ to Cuba and Heinz has stopped selling baby avan drivers and supporters, nearly 70 food. trucks, buses, and cars loaded to the brim Despite some petty harassment by U.S. with humanitarian aid crossed the U.S.- customs officials, the U.S. government Mexico border here March 9 on its way to clearly made a decision to allow the bulk of Cuba. the vehicles and aid across the border. Ear­ The U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment caravan lier, caravan drivers and material aid had vehicles, covered with signs and artwork successfully crossed the Canadian border demanding an end to the U.S. economic into Detroit; Blaine, Washington; and Swan- embargo of Cuba, converged on Laredo af­ ton, Vermont. ter traveling 13 different routes through At one point early in the Laredo crossing, Canada and the United States. The caravan government agents unloaded a donated stopped at more than 100 cities and towns ambulance filled with thousands of dollars to participate in local events and to collect worth of medicine. As TV cameras zoomed aid from students, workers, church groups, in on the aid, customs officials confiscated and others. a quantity of medicines used to treat children The U.S. government has enforced a trade suffering from cancer. Suddenly — appar­ embargo against Cuba for more than 30 ently realizing they were creating a public years in an attempt to crush the socialist relations disaster — these same officials re­ revolution there. In recent years, the U.S. treated. The cancer medicine was returned Congress has passed new legislation further and the ambulance reloaded and allowed to tightening the embargo, including regula­ cross the border to chants of “Cuba si, tions forbidding subsidiaries of U.S. corpo­ Bloqueo no!" rations from trading with Cuba. Angela Marino joined the caravan along Lisa Valenti, a caravan activist from Pitts­ with five other students from Evergreen burgh, explained for example that Eli Lilly’s Continued on Page 8 Peasants protest in Paraguay plans to pump in another $ 1.8 billion Some 300 peasants barricaded a central on additional capacity and add 6,000 highway 125 miles northeast of Asunción, jobs to its payroll. The Big Three — Paraguay’s capital, at the end of February. Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors Peasants demonstrated in other parts of the — are focusing on adding third country as well. The farmers were demand­ shifts, working overtime, and keep­ ing a boost in the price they are paid for their ing open some plants scheduled to cotton crop and the right to sell their prod­ close, but have no plans to build new ucts in Brazil. The police fired rubber bullets factories. and tear gas at protesters, injuring dozens and arresting more than 50. The demonstra­ More part-time professors tions began a week after the violent eviction According to a recent study by the of 250 families from the property of former U.S. Education Department, 58 per­ president Bias Riquelme in Colonia Na­ cent of college teachers now are vidad. part-time or temporary instructors. Part-time faculty members earn a U.S.-Canada salmon talks end fraction of the salary of permanent Pacific Salmon Treaty talks between employees, receive no benefits, and Washington and Ottawa broke down March often must shuttle from school to 4. The agreement, which was signed in 1985 school to eke out a living. and expired last year, regulates how fisher­ In addition, the American Associ­ men from the United States and Canada ation of University Professors re­ share access to salmon stock that migrate ports that between 1975 and 1985, across international borders. “The negotiat­ the number of male part-time faculty ing process between Canada and the U.S. is rose 10.3 percent, while the number at an all-time low,” said Bob Wright, a ne­ of female part-time faculty rose 54 gotiator for the Canadian government. Un­ percent. less something is done to break the logjam, Baku moves on oil deal Canada and the United States will end up in Haiti Progrès a fish war this summer, endangering salmon Heydar Aliev, president of Azer­ Thousands demonstrated March 5 in front of the United Nations to demand return to stocks and possibly fishing some runs to baijan, has agreed to restart negotia­ power of Haiti’s exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide was inside meeting with extinction, he said. tions with a seven-member consor­ UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Aristide rejected a U.S.-supported plan that According to the New York Times, 13 of tium of oil companies, which in­ would have left much of the rightist-backed Haitian military and police in place. the 17 principal fishing zones in the world clude British Petroleum, Statoil, face severely depleted stock and the decline Penzoil, Amoco, and Ramco. The oil in salmon in the Pacific Northwest is already companies are seeking rights to ex­ “catastrophic.” ploit the multi-billion-dollar oil reserves in threatened to begin a formal strike March 7 ment meeting in Moscow March 4. The plan the Caspian Sea. Aliev placed the Azeri State in the state of LowerSaxony. Unionists there recommends more aggressive reforms that, Antiabortion thug convicted Oil Company back in charge of negotiations must approve the pact by a 75 percent mar­ according to Yeltsin, will ensure “the proper Michael Griffin was convicted of first-de­ and told negotiators to conclude the deal as gin in a vote the second week of March. If level of social protection for those who adopted, the agreement could be a model for cannot make due without state support” gree murder March 5 in the shooting death soon as possible. IG Metall’s other western German regional Yeltsin also denounced Parliament for of a doctor outside an abortion clinic in According to the Financial Times, the chapters, which represent 3.6 million work­ granting amnesty to his opponents, who Pensacola, Florida. He was immediately Azerbaijan government, which had been sentenced to life in prison. Griffin shot Dr. stalling on the negotiations, is forced to take ers in the engineering, automotive, and elec­ have been jailed since their confrontation trical industries. with him last October. The Russian presi­ David Gunn three times in the back at point- action now as a result of the costly war with Under the proposed contract, employers dent presented plans for reforming the tax blank range March 10,1993, during an anti­ Armenia over the disputed enclave of Na- system, stimulating investment, and forcing abortion demonstration outside the Pensa­ gomo Karabakh, the collapse of a major will be allowed to reduce the workweek to the government and businesses to pay debts cola Women’s Medical Services clinic. platform in the Gneshli oil fields, and a as little as 30 hours per week from 36 with­ decrease in the amount of oil produced by out compensation. Vacation and Christmas promptly. Yeltsin said he will fight to lower U.S. auto giants to add jobs the state oil company as a result of lax bonuses will be frozen for one year. Work­ inflation to 5 percent a month from 20 maintenance. ers will receive a wage increase of 2 percent percent. The U.S. auto industry is adding more beginning June 1. The union had asked for than a million units of North American car German unionists vote on pact a 5.8 percent raise to offset inflation, which and truck production capacity and approxi­ is projected to reach 3 percent this year. Pyongyang accuses U.S. gov’t of mately 9,500 new jobs. Vehicle sales rose Officials of the IG Metall trade union in Hundreds of thousands of metalworkers moves to threaten inspection pact almost 20 percent in February from a year Germany reached a tentative agreement participated in warning strikes in February earlier. Chrysler is leading the way with with employers March 5. The union had Pyongyang accused Washington in early after negotiations for a new contract reached March of making “ill-boding moves. .. one an impasse. after another” that could threaten the com­ pletion of an agreement to allow interna­ Millions strike in Romania tional inspections of nuclear sites in North Two million workers participated in a Korea. February 28 general strike in Romania. Inspections by the International Atomic Dock workers closed the Danube port of Energy Agency began in the Yongbyon nu­ Galati and disrupted shipping at Constanta, clear complex March 3. The U.S. govern­ the main Black Sea port ment has threatened North Korea with an The unions are demanding the govern­ economic embargo if the inspections are not ment implement a collective labor contract, successfully completed. However, if Pyong­ improve the social security system, and yang allows the inspections and exchanges move ahead with market reforms. envoys with Seoul, Washington says it will reopen high-level talks between the countries Yeltsin presents 1994 budget and suspend this year’s joint-military exer­ Russian president Boris Yeltsin and Prime cises with South Korea. North Korean offi­ Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin promoted cials said the envoy exchange was not part of their 1994 budget at an expanded govern­ the deal. —PAT SMITH

2 The Militant March 21,1994 Rightist coalition in S. Africa fractures over April elections BY GREG ROSENBERG question. “As long as I live, there will never South Africa’s right-wing Freedom Alli­ be a Volkstaat in this country. That puts an ance split when confronted with a decision end to that question,” Mandela said. on whether to register for the April 26-28 elections in that country. The Inkatha Free­ New massacre in Natal dom Party, which represents the privileged In southern Natal province, masked gun­ homeland rulers of the KwaZulu Bantustan, men wielding AK-47 assault rifles and shot­ registered for the poll. Gen. Constand guns butchered 11 people on March 6. It was Viljoen also signed up under the auspices of the third mass killing in Natal in less than the Freedom Front, but without the agree­ one month. ment of his organization — the white-sepa- The attackers hit Bhambayi, a squatter ratist Afrikaner People’s Front. camp of some 10,000 people housed most­ The general bolted to register just minutes ly in wood and tin shacks. The attackers before the midnight deadline March 4. Of­ moved from house to house, shooting their ficials of the Afrikaner People’s Front cen­ victims and setting fire to 20 shacks. All Militant/Greg Rosenberg sured Viljoen for his actions at a March 5 the victims lived in a block dominated by Bhambayi squatter camp in Natal province where 200 people have been killed in meeting. The organization then declared a supporters of the ANC. political violence in past year. Area is divided between ANC and Inkatha supporters. poll boycott. Some members of the Conser­ vative Party at the meeting argued in favor of participation in the elections. A Reuters dispatch from Johannesburg re­ Sydney event celebrates Mandela book ported that one grouping of right-wing whites, including some members of the Con­ BY LINDA HARRIS the peoples of the world.” sentative of the ANC in Australia, said that servative Party who sit in South Africa’s SYDNEY, Australia — “I congratulate Also speaking at the gathering were Paul this union especially had been a pillar of soon-to-be-abolished white-minority Parlia­ Pathfinder for producing this book. It is a Matters, secretary of the South Coast Labor support for the antiapartheid struggle here, ment, met March 7 to discuss the possibility great book because it is the book of Nelson Council; Meridith Burgmann, Labor Party along with other unions, the churches, and of leaving the Afrikaner People’s Front and Mandela — one of the true giants of the 20th member of the Legislative Council in the the labor movement as a whole. participating in the elections. century.” This is how Bob Hawke, former New South Wales State Parliament; and Ntshinga, who also recently returned Meanwhile, officials of the Bophuthatsw- Labor prime minister of Australia, intro­ Pathfinder Books representative Mamie from South Africa, said the election process ana homeland, which is presided over by duced his remarks at a meeting held Febru­ Kennedy. represents one of the first phases of victory. military ruler Lucas Mangope, said that they ary 17 to celebrate the publication of Nelson Messages were received from Lois Pointing to recent attempts to disenfranchise would stay out of the race. However they Mandela Speaks: Forging a Democratic, O’Donoghue, chairperson of the Aboriginal 4 million voters in the Transvaal and Orange left the door open to participation, saying Nonracial South Africa. Hawke, the patron and Torres Strait Islander commission, and Free State, he said there are those who ben­ the homeland legislature would take up the of Australians for Democracy in South Af­ from the Rev. Dorothy McMahon of the efited from apartheid and will refuse to go question on March 15. Civil service workers rica, had just returned from South Africa Uniting Church. with the future. But they will not have the and others are conducting a round of strikes where he met with Mandela. During the meeting, which was held at capacity to derail the election process. and protests in the homeland. About 80 people attended the meeting the offices of the Construction, Forestry, “I thank Pathfinder for this marvelous In response to these developments, Afri­ here — many drawn by the broad panel of Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Steve book,” stated Ntshinga. “It puts in a very can National Congress president Nelson speakers. Kevin Tory, from the Trade Union Dixon, a CFMEU organizer, presented a clear way where the struggle is going and Mandela said the deadline for all parties to Committee for Aboriginal Rights, gave a donation from the union to the ANC’s elec­ what the ANC’s responsibility is to the peo­ register for the election should be extended. welcome on behalf of Aboriginal people. tion campaign. Thanking the union for its ple of South Africa, the women of South He reiterated the ANC’s firm stance that Marcelino Fajardo, the Cuban consul- support, Ndumiso Ntshinga, chief repre­ Africa, and the international community.” “there is no possibility whatsoever of us general to Australia, said, “Mandela’s strug­ shifting” the date of the April elections in gle for freedom is ours, his fight against response to complaints by Inkatha leader racism and oppression is ours too.” Refer­ Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who demanded that ring to the speech contained in Nelson the poll be postponed. Mandela Speaks, on the occasion of Man­ PATHFINDER The ANC president told a rally in the dela’s visit to Cuba in July 1991, he stated, Lebowa Bantustan in northern Transvaal “Mandela spoke about solidarity and broth­ that the rightists’ demands for a new apart­ erhood between our peoples. The victory of AROUND THE WORLD heid mini-state or “Volkstaat” is out of the the ANC will be of historic significance to BY RICH STUART

Pathfinder, located in New York with Clinton restores ‘Super 301’ distributors in Australia, Britain, and Canada, publishes the speeches and From Pathfinder readers behind bars: writings of working-class and commu­ A regular reader in prison in Florida just trade weapon against Japan nist leaders of the worldwide struggles sent in an order with his hard-earned con­ against exploitation and oppression. tribution for The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State; Is Biology BY ROBERT MILLER pher defends Super 301 as “a tool to accom­ Pathfinder bookstores are listed in the directory on page 12. Women’s Destiny?; Che Guevara: Eco­ In another episode in the ongoing trade plish the end of the opening of [the Japan­ nomics and Politics in the Transition to skirmish between Washington and Tokyo, ese] market and obtaining access to it. Socialism; Thomas Sankara Speaks; and U.S. president Bill Clinton signed an exec­ A March 5 editorial in the Times, how­ Socialism and Individual Freedom. utive order March 3 resurrecting the “Super ever, labeled Clinton’s move as “unneces­ The latest of several recent reviews of Another long-time Pathfinder reader in 301” trade law. Under this order the U.S. sary, dangerous and misguided. Super 301 Nelson Mandela Speaks: Forging a Dem­ prison was recently transferred, put in government will publish a report March 31 is dangerous because the added threat moves ocratic, Nonracial South Africa appears solitary confinement, and separated from surveying trade practices around the world. the U.S. one step closer to a trade war with in The Carrier, the base newspaper at the his books, his Pathfinder catalog, and bis The Clinton administration then has until an important ally and could undermine the Naval Air Station in Alameda, California. address book. After scrounging for a September 30 to single out governments it fragile coalition of Prime Minister Hoso­ Reviewer Richard Lee opens die column stamp, he wrote explaining his situation claims are erecting trade barriers. It will kawa”, the Times wrote. saying, “In each generation a figure comes and asking for another catalog. “I was notify those countries of this designation Peter Sutherland, director-general of the to represent a movement, a movement so lucky to remember your address,” he says. and — if they fail to change their trade prac­ General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade powerful that the man and the movement “I’m structuring my personal economy for tices to conform to U.S. government de­ (GATT) also lambasted the U.S. move as are inseparable. Such a man is Nelson educational material from Pathfinder.” mands — impose punitive tariffs of up to “misguided and dangerous.” He said, “A new Mandela and the African National Con­ 100 percent. outbreak of bilateral trade tensions is putting gress.” The decision to revive this expired section the achievements of the Uruguay Round to Many Pathfinder authors, including of the 1988 Trade Act was portrayed by the the test even before they are fully operation­ Leon Trotsky, James P. Cannon, Farrell New York Times as “the trade war equivalent al.” The accords worked out during the Uru­ Dobbs, Fidel Castro, Malcolm X, and of polishing one’s artillery in clear view of A social studies teacher from Natick guay Round of GATT talks will be signed High School in Massachusetts recently Nelson Mandela, devoted time in prison enemy lines, in the hope that the other side next month and take effect in 1995. to serious study. Letters From Prison by will retreat before it becomes necessary to wrote Pathfinder asking for Nelson A March 8 column in the Wall Street James P. Cannon, soon to be reissued by fire the big guns.” Mandela Speaks for use next school year Journal titled “A U.S. History of Trade Hy­ Pathfinder, recounts among other lessons, Although the executive order can be used as a supplementary text for the Global pocrisy” argued that “Super 301 should be die extensive reading and study program against any country, Prime Minister Mori- Studies class, a required class for all 250 mothballed in the Smithsonian, not en­ organized in Sandstone prison by leaders hiro Hosokawa of Japan was the only person ninth-graders. The teacher met Pathfinder shrined as keys to American economic sal­ of the Socialist Workers Party jailed for Clinton telephoned before signing the order. at last December’s African Studies Asso­ vation.” ciation conference in Boston. their opposition to World War II. In mid-February, trade negotiations be­ Pathfinder makes books and pamphlets Japanese officials were reported as being tween Washington and Tokyo over opening available to prisoners at half-price and “angered” by the revival of Super 301. How­ Japan to increased U.S. exports of cars and counts on contributions to help cover the ever, the Christian Science Monitor reported auto parts, telecommunications, medical From Lackland Air Force Base in San costs of the books and shipping. Pathfind­ in its March 7 issue that some business and equipment, and insurance collapsed. Last Antonio, Texas, a reader writes, “I have er processed well over 100 book orders political leaders in Japan were relieved. month Clinton announced the U.S. govern­ just finished reading Malcolm X Talks to from prisoners in 1993. You are encour­ ment would impose sanctions on Japan for “Investors felt that die mandatory two- Young People. After reading the book I aged to support this important effort by violating a 1989 trade treaty aimed at pro­ year negotiating period before sanctions noticed seven other books that I would sending a donation earmarked for “Books viding access for cellular equipment made could be imposed would be more than love to purchase.” The new 1994 Path­ for Prisoners” to; Pathfinder, 410 West St., by Motorola Inc. enough time for current trade disputes to be finder catalog is on its way. NY, NY 10014. U.S. secretary of state Warren Christo­ settled,” The Monitor said.

March 21,1994 The Militant 3 Thousands protest in West Africa against devaluation of franc BY NAT LONDON manently garrisoned throughout West Afri­ PARIS — Strikes, demonstrations, and ca. They regularly intervene when the inter­ violent clashes with the police and army ests of the imperialist rulers of France are have been spreading across the former threatened. For instance, at the end of Feb­ French colonies of West Africa since the ruary French paratroopers landed in Camer­ January 12 devaluation of the CFA (African oon, which is engaged in a border dispute Financial Community) franc. with Nigeria, a former British colony. While formally a decision of the CFA gov­ This presence has allowed Paris to main­ ernments, the move to slash the currency’s tain a stranglehold on the local economy. value was made under heavy pressure from One-third of Ivory Coast’s manufacturing in­ Paris. The devaluation — the first since 1948 dustry is owned by French companies. Forty — cuts the value of the African franc in half to percent of the country’s imports come from 100 CFA for one French franc. France. Gabon is the source of 20 percent of On February 16, demonstrations in Da­ France’s petroleum. The local petroleum kar, Senegal, left seven people dead, includ­ companies are also French-owned. ing five policemen. “We intend to keep our privileged rela­ Tanks took up positions in the capital of tionship,” France’s Minister of Cooperation, Gabon February 22. Petroleum workers in Michel Roussin, told the Paris business daily Port-Gentil, the oil center of Gabon, went La Tribune Desfosses. Roussin is in charge on strike to demand their wages be doubled of relations with the former colonies. He to compensate for the devaluation. The gov­ noted that West Africa was the third largest tations. We now import our rice and the and many have already started to fold. Ex­ ernment responded by imposing a national market for French companies. “state of alert,” including a nighttime curfew devaluation means the price will double. It’s porters of coffee, cacao, bananas, pineapples, a catastrophe for most people. Maybe fish­ sugar, peanuts, fish, or cotton, particularly in and a ban on demonstrations. Debate among workers in France Actions have also been reported in Niger, ermen and peanut fanners who produce for industries that employ large numbers of The devaluation has sparked a debate export will benefit but for the rest of us it Congo, and Benin. workers, will profit from the devaluation. about the role of French imperialism in Af­ means less food.” There are currently 14 countries in the CFA The move also effectively doubles the rica. This has spread to workers in France “I don’t agree,” said Cheikou Drame, who zone. Senegal, the Comoros, Burkina Faso, debt owed by countries in West Africa, who have immigrated here from the former comes from Mali and has worked at the Ivory Coast, Chad, Benin, the Central African many of which already pay as much as 25 colonies. same Renault plant as Lopy for the last 13 Republic, Congo, Gabon, Niger, Cameroon, percent of their gross national product each ‘Twenty years ago,” said Louis Lopy, Togo, and Mali are former French colonies. years. “In a lot of villages, the only money year to the imperialists’ banks. The French who is from the Casamance region of Sen­ that comes in is from those of us who work Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, government claims it will reduce the debt egal and has worked at a Renault automobile in France and other countries. Our wages are joined the system in 1985. of some countries by 50 percent — that is, plant near Paris for the last 23 years, “we paid in French francs. What we send back back to the level of indebtedness that existed Prices will double were a major rice producing region. Now home is now worth twice as much.” before the devaluation. the prolonged drought has lowered the river The devaluation has particularly contra­ The devaluation means that prices of im­ level and the rice fields have dried up. In dictory effects on different capitalist con­ Nat London is an auto worker and member ported goods will double. A whole range of other areas of Senegal, former rice fields cerns. Those that import goods from France products, from antimalarial drugs to school- of the General Confederation of Labor have been turned into large sugarcane plan- and other imperialist countries will suffer, (CGT) at Renault. books, have now been priced beyond the means of many workers and farmers. The price of rice, a staple food throughout the region, has soared. In countries where the government has tried to impose price con­ Thomas Sankara: neocolonialism is trols on certain products, merchants have simply closed up shop or withheld goods from the market. The CFA system was set up by Paris as a ‘paradise for some, hell for the rest’ way of deepening its control over its colo­ nies. Although independence was granted to Thomas Sankara, assassinated leader alism to cut its losses was a victory for our the French West African countries in the of the revolutionary government in people over the forces of foreign oppression early 1960s, the French rulers maintain an Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), and exploitation. From the masses’ point of iron grip on the region. laid bare the legacy of French colonial view, it was a democratic reform, while from One indication of this control is the fact rule in Africa in a speech given Oct. 2, that of imperialism it was a change in the that the French government pays the wages 1983. The excerpt below is taken from the forms of domination and exploitation of our of civil servants, including teachers, in its collection Thomas Sankara Speaks, copy­ people. former colonies. After the 1983 revolution right © by Pathfinder Press, reprinted This change nevertheless resulted in a in Burkina Faso, Paris withheld its pay­ with permission. realignment of classes and social layers ments. The accumulated funds were re­ and the formation of new classes. In alli­ leased in 1987, a few weeks after revolu­ In the 1960s, French colonialism — har­ ance with the backward forces of tradition­ tionary leader Thomas Sankara and the ma­ ried on all sides, defeated at Dien Bien Phu, al society, and in total contempt of the jority of the ministers in his government [Vietnam,] and in tremendous difficulty in masses, whom they had used as a spring­ were assassinated. The devaluation of the Algeria — drew the lessons of those defeats board to power, the petty-bourgeois intel­ CFA franc also cuts in half France’s contri­ and was forced to grant our country its ligentsia of that time set about laying the bution to government workers’ wages. national sovereignty and territorial integrity. political and economic foundations for There are currently 100,000 French gov­ This was greeted positively by our people, new forms of imperialist domination and ernment functionaries, businessmen, and who had not been indifferent to this question exploitation. technicians in the region. This is twice as but had instead developed appropriate resis­ With the support and blessing of imperial­ many as were present at the end of the tance struggles. ism, Voltaic nationals set about organizing the colonial period. French army units are per­ The decision by French colonial imperi- systematic plunder of our country. With the crumbs of this pillage that fell to them, they were transformed, little by little, into a truly Militant/Emest Harsch parasitic bourgeoisie that could no longer Thomas Sankara control its voracious appetite___ All this has unfolded in full view of the weakness thanks to their productive labor. honest, courageous, and hardworking Volta­ It is from this labor that all those nationals ic people, a people mired nonetheless in the for whom Upper Volta is an El Dorado most squalid misery. sweeten their lives. As part of this big majority, the wage earn­ Yet it is the peasants who suffer most ers, despite the fact that they are assured a reg­ from the lack of buildings, roads, health ular income, suffer the constraints and pitfalls facilities, and services. These peasants, cre­ of capitalist consumer society. Their income ators of national wealth, are the ones who is completely consumed before they have suffer the most from the lack of schools even touched it. This vicious cycle goes on and educational materials for their chil­ and on with no perspective of being broken. dren. It is their children who will swell the Through their respective trade unions, the ranks of the unemployed after a brief stint wage earners engage in struggles to improve in classrooms poorly adapted to the reali­ their living conditions. Sometimes the scope ties of this country. of those struggles forces concessions from It is among the peasants that the illiter­ the neocolonial authorities. But they simply acy rate is the highest — 98 percent. Those give with one hand what they take back with who most need to learn, so that the output the other. of their productive labor can increase, are The peasants, the “wretched of the the very ones who benefit the least from earth,” are also a component of this big expenditures for health care, education, majority. These peasants are expropriated, and technology. robbed, molested, imprisoned, ridiculed, Stated most succinctly, this is the situation and humiliated every day, yet they are the in our country after twenty-three years of ones whose labor creates wealth. The neocolonialism: a paradise for some and hell country’s economy stays afloat despite its for the rest

4 The Militant March 21,1994 Black history month program sparks discussion BY MARK CURTIS rican government’s army in Angola. FORT MADISON Iowa — Inmates here celebrated The ANC, led by Nelson Mandela, Black History Month with speeches and a showing of the is leading a revolution to wipe video Malcolm X. The program, organized by and for apartheid off the earth and, in the prisoners here at the medium-security prison, took place process, uniting South Africans of over the last weekend of February. all colors to build a democratic re­ About 30 men congregated February 26 in the dining public in its place. hall to hear some of our peers give brief talks. Some spoke The program ended with three about Blacks who— in spite of important political, scien­ men leading the meeting in an a tific, or other contributions — had been forgotten by this cappella rendition of the Black Na­ racist society. Joslyn Downs-Bey, for example, talked tional Anthem. about Dr. Charles Drew, who discovered blood plasma and On February 27 we viewed the was the director of the first American Red Cross Blood video tape of the movie Malcolm X Bank. Drew resigned after disagreement with the Red directed by Spike Lee. Everyone was Cross over its decision to use only blood from white donors served ice cream banana splits for members of the military in World War II. bought from a local store with About a dozen men took the podium, including myself. money raised from more than 60 inmates. A cake decorated with the words “Black History Month” was BEHIND made in the kitchen. Organizers did not turn anyone away, even those who hadn’t paid. PRISON More than half the men in the prison came for at least part of the program. WALLS I ate my share of ice cream and can certify it was good, maybe because I explained that as a politically active worker I have found it seemed nearly gourmet for this in the speeches of Malcolm X thoughtful lessons on fight­ place. Or maybe it just tasted better ing racism and war and straight talk on who our enemies because it was ours, and eaten amid and allies are. the feelings of unity that seemed to I quoted Malcolm X’s broad view of the “race problem” in prevail among all the prisoners there. America from the Pathfinder book February 1965: The Fi­ This feeling came out in comments nal Speeches. “It is incorrect to classify the revolt of the Ne­ on how successful the program was. gro as simply a racial conflict of Black against white, or as a “We ought to do more things for purely American problem,” Malcolm X said. “Rather we are ourselves,” more that one participant today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the said. Militant/Margaret Jayko oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter.” The program was organized by an Union and political activist Mark Curtis Malcolm X denounced the U.S.-backed war against ad hoc committee of inmates shortly liberation fighters in the Congo (today Zaire) in the 1960s. beforehand. We collected donations, posted an­ imum-security unit was ordered by the warden after five The US government camouflaged its bombing of innocent nouncements, scooped ice cream, and negotiated with the guards were allegedly assaulted by two inmates. This people there by calling it a “humanitarian mission” just prison administration. probably contributed to the security concerns. like they do today in Somalia and Bosnia. We had proposed inviting Damon Tinnon, a student at The event has sparked continuing discussions and ev­ If we look around for leaders like Malcolm X today, the University of Minnesota and organizer of last year’s eryone here agrees we want more programs like it A I said, our eyes would fall on the Cuban communists Black History Month program there. Our request was number of people have asked to see the new Pathfinder and the African National Congress of South Africa. The denied due to the “lack of time” to get Tinnon a security catalog and want to read Malcolm X’s speeches and discuss Cubans sent armed forces to defeat the racist South Af­ clearance. Right before that, a total lockdown of the max­ politics some more. Parole board rejects Curtis’s request for hearing

BY JOHN STUDER a law-abiding citizen.” sic program at Oakdale,” the Parole Board pleted.” Furthermore, Stevens said, “I do not DES MOINES, Iowa — On February 17, After being evaluated by a psychiatrist said in its February 17 answer to Kutmus. support movement to Minimum until pro­ the Iowa State Board of Parole rejected assigned by the Oakdale facility, Curtis “The Board is still making the same recom­ gramming in Medium is complete; specific­ union and political activist Mark Curtis’s was refused admission to the medical mendation and when he has completed the ally the Sex Offender Treatment Program request for a parole hearing. prison facility because they had deter­ program, his case will be reviewed.” [SOTP] at MSU [the Mount Pleasant correc­ Curtis, who has served five and one half mined there were “no psychological is­ Curtis had also requested from his prison tional facility]. I do support movement to years in prison on frame-up charges of rape sues” in his case. counselor a meeting to discuss whether he MSU at your direction.” Curtis — who has and burglary, was denied a parole hearing William Kutmus, Curtis’s attorney, then could be recommended for parole or move­ now served out the required time on the last October. The board instead recom­ requested that the board, having had its ment to minimum security status. frame-up rape conviction and is in prison mended that he be transferred to a psycho­ question answered, grant Curtis a hearing Scott Stevens, Curtis’s prison counselor, solely on the burglary charge — has declined logical prison unit in Oakdale, Iowa, for and give him parole. responded February 25 in a written memo to enter the SOTP program, which requires evaluation to determine whether he was “At Curtis’ annual review, the Board has that he would not prepare a progress report all participants to proclaim their guilt “able and willing to fulfill the obligations of recommended that he participate in the foren­ until Curtis’s “evaluation has been com- ‘Neither fair nor defensible’ Kutmus responded to the parole board on March 2, writing “Your decision is neither Supporters demand: Release Curtis now! fair nor defensible. “There is no reason for you now to in­ The Mark Curtis Defense Committee eligible for release on parole. As I under­ Maire Leadbeater sist that ‘The Board is still making the has launched a campaign to urge the stand it, Mark’s evaluation indicates that he same recommendation’ that he go to Iowa State Board of Parole to grant Cur­ is able and willing to fulfill the obligations Auckland, New Zealand Oakdale and to refuse to review his case until he has completed a program that the tis a hearing and release him. Below are of a law abiding citizen, and prison psy­ I was very concerned and surprised to Oakdale staff has already determined there excerpts from a few of the letters sent to chologists say there is “no psychiatric is­ learn that Mark Curtis has not yet been is no need for him to go through,” Kutmus the parole board mi Curtis’s behalf so far. sue” in this case. released on parole. I understand that he has added. “The effect of your stance is to Please exercise the thoughtful compas­ already served a period of time in prison place Mr. Curtis in a Catch-22 limbo. “Mr. sion that Americans are known for, and that represents the usual length of actual Richard Walter Curtis is an excellent candidate for release recommend a parole for Mark Curtis as sentence served by others convicted of sim­ Verdun, Quebec on parole,” Kutmus continued. “As he has soon as possible so he may return to his life ilar charges. I am hereby requesting that you grant Mr. as a free citizen. finished serving out his conviction on sex­ I also understand that Mark Curtis has ual assault, the Sexual Offenders Treat­ Mark Curtis die right to a parole hearing. Chris Spotted Eagle is a filmmaker and As is clear to ail, you have never given now had a psychiatric evaluation as a pre­ ment Program is irrelevant. In addition, I Native American activist. Mr. Curtis the right to be fully heard. Had liminary to a Parole Board Hearing. I sin­ have strongly advised him, and he concurs Mr. Curtis been given a fair trial in the cerely hope that a date for a Parole Board fully, that he should not participate in this beginning, requesting a parole hearing now Jake Edwards Hearing may by now have been set If this program as he has an appeal of his con­ would not be necessary. Cherokee, Iowa is not the case then I respectfully request viction currently active in Federal District I hope that you choose to govern your­ that such a date be set as soon as possible. Court and strongly asserts his innocence. self accordingly. I was one of those present at a meeting “Mr. Curtis is an excellent candidate for with you October 6, 1993, in support of Maire Leadbeater is a peace activist and Richard Walker is president o f Canadian member o fthe Auckland Regional Council. release on parole,” Kutmus continued, immediate parole for Mark Curtis. I have pointing to his excellent prison record, a Auto Workers Union Local 1900, Chrysler subsequently followed with interest the Section. well-thought-out parole plan, and the progress of his case. I’m given to under­ “support and backing of a large commu­ stand that he has been given a clean Psy­ Rev. Donald Gruber nity of supporters.” Chris Spotted Eagle chiatric Bill of Health by the State of Ames, Iowa “I urge you to reconsider this decision,” Iowa’s own shrinks who apparently are not Minneapolis, Minnesota I have for some time now reviewed the Kutmus concluded. “I earnestly request the inclined to find anything wrong with him. I would like to urge the Board to move case of Mark Curtis and wonder why your opportunity, along with two or three repre­ Why should we build new prisons when for a hearing as soon as possible regarding board has repeatedly denied him a parole sentatives of Mr. Curtis’ family, to meet you keep them filled with people who are Marie Curtis. As you know, Marie has com­ hearing. I believe he has met all die require­ with you to discuss his situation.” not dangerous and in fact are productive? pletely served out his conviction few sexual ments you have placed before him. The The Mark Curtis Defense Committee has assault. And, he has an excellent work and I believe that it would be inappropriate cost to taxpayers for prolonged incarcera­ to further delay Mark Curtis’s release. asked that supporters send letters to the conduct record. Like all of us, he needs his tions is one sad thing but even worse is the Iowa State Board of Parole, Capitol Annex, family and they need him. Jake Edwards is second vice president of seeming unwarranted delay of even giving 523 East 12th Street, Des Moines, Iowa He has met die requirements of his im­ United Food and Commercial Workers Lo­ this man a hearing. My conscience is trou­ 50319, to urge that Curtis be freed. Copies prisonment under Iowa State Law and is cal 179. bled by your actions. should be sent to the MCDC, Box 1048, Des Moines, Iowa 50311.

March 21,1994 The Militant 5 U.S. government presses frame-up of W. Virginia miners BY STEVE CRAINE years in prison. AND ELIZABETH LARISCY Immediately after the shooting, some of YOLYN, West Virginia — Eight coal the company’s security guards were depu­ miners from Arch Mineral Corp.’s Ruffner tized to assist in gathering “evidence.” They mine here are scheduled to go to trial April helped cordon off the area to prevent union 4. The workers, members of the United members from getting near the scene. Mine Workers of America (UMWA), face Local prosecutors declined to indict any­ trumped-up federal conspiracy charges one in the case because of the lack of evi­ stemming from the shooting death of non­ dence. A later investigation by the FBI and union contract worker Eddie York. the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire­ The incident occurred during the UMWA’s arms led to charges of conspiracy to interfere seven-month strike against major coal opera­ with interstate commerce and to violate fed­ tors in the eastern United States. eral firearms laws. On July 22,1993 the unionists, including Miner Jerry Lowe is charged with federal UMWA Local 5958 president Ernie Woods, firearms violations and faces 50 years in Militant/Yvonne Hayes were on the picket line. York was shot in the prison and a $1 million fine. The other seven Miners at Arch Ruffner picket shack during last year’s strike back of the head while leaving the mine in could receive prison terms of 25 years and a convoy of four vehicles escorted by secu­ fines of $500,000 each for conspiracy. convict the entire UMWA. Arch Mineral’s ferent coal companies in six states. rity guards. vice president Blair Gardner told the press, A flyer now being distributed by the union Company harassment of strikers The union pickets were not attempting to “this ends the pretense of a peaceful UMWA declares, “Although the strike is over, the prevent York or other contract workers from The shooting occurred after weeks of intim­ strike. The circumstances of this tragedy nightmare for the families of ‘The Arch 8’ has entering or leaving the mine to do mainte­ idation of the pickets by special security point to a conspiracy to commit murder con­ only begun.. . . The members indicted are nance work. York had used this entrance to guards hired by Arch when die strike began in ceived in a UMWA picket shack.” longtime UMWA members whose only the mine routinely without any interference May. The hired goons threw rocks, shined A week later Arch filed a suit against the ‘crime’ is that of being decent, hard-working from the strikers. high-powered flood lights at the picket shack, union under the Racketeer Influenced and people. They have been falsely accused. The pickets were in front of York’s car. fired guns in the air, and tear-gassed the shack. Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The Their persecution at the hands of the federal The shot that killed him came from behind. The company responded within hours of York killing was tacked onto a list of alle­ authorities has caused tremendous hardship The miners face possible sentences of 25-50 the shooting with a campaign designed to gations spanning 10 years involving 30 dif- for their families. We must band together to support them in their time of need.” Howard Green, UMWA international executive board member, said that govern­ Coal bosses attack black lung benefits ment lawyers and the U.S. attorney's of­ fice are aggressively pursuing this case. BY JOHN HAWKINS Lung Benefits Act, including the “true doubt courts have upheld the rule. “They have been convicted by law en­ BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — If the coal rule, are based on that act. “Obviously the Black Lung Benefits Act of forcement officials, the judiciary system, operators have their way, miners suffering While a Labor Department review board 1969 was enacted as remedial legislation,” at­ and by the press without setting foot in from coal workers pneumoconiosis — upheld both Ondecko’s and Santoro’s claims, torney David Tulowitzki told the Militant. the courtroom,” said Green. “Having the black lung — will have an even more diffi­ the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Tulowitzki’s firm represents United Mine court packed on April 4 will be the best cult time proving they are eligible for ben­ Philadelphia reversed the decision in each Workers of America (UMWA) District 2 and presentation of support for the miners and efits. The Supreme Court is to rule on a case case. People seeking benefits must prove union member Ondecko. their families.” that could have far-reaching implications on their cases by a “preponderance of evidence,” “The law was passed to right a wrong. Contributions and messages of support miners’ and other workers’ demands for dis­ the appeals court said. That’s why the benefit of the doubt is given should be sent to: UMWA Region II De­ ability compensation. The two cases are now on their way to to miners,” Tulowitzki said. fense Fund, 4500 MacCorkle Ave. SE, Spearheading the coal companies’ attack the U.S. Supreme Court which will decide “If the appeals court decision is allowed Charleston, West Virginia 25304, or phone is Greenwich Collieries, based in Ebens- whether the “true doubt” standard should to stand it will make it all the more difficult (304) 925-6917. Green recommended that burg, Pennsylvania. continue to be applied. The court agreed to for miners to receive just compensation for supporters who plan to attend the trial con­ After working for Greenwich for 31 years, hear the cases since other federal appeals black lung disability.” tact the union office in advance. Andrew Ondecko sought disability benefits under the Black Lung Benefits Act The com­ pany challenged Ondecko’s claim as is stand­ ard procedure in the industry. Black lung is Scandal shakes Clinton administration known to be caused by years of breathing mine air laden with coal dust. Continued from front page Hillary Clinton, including Nussbaum, today.. . . Her moral compass is as strong as The federal administrative law judge as­ quiet down the entire affair. whom she worked with during the Watergate anybody’s in this country.” signed to the case decided in favor of Fiske is also charged with looking into investigation of the Nixon administration. The Whitewater scandal breaks at a time Ondecko. Ruling that the evidence presented the death of Foster, Nussbaum’s deputy and Nussbaum was forced to announce his res­ when the strong support for the Clinton by both sides was of equal weight, die judge a former law partner of Hillary Clinton. ignation after word of the meetings between administration among a broad layer of the invoked the government rule contained in the Foster was found dead in a Virginia park in the White House and Treasury Department ruling class is showing signs of wear. The Black Lung Benefits Act requiring that any July in an apparent suicide. got out He had been central in earlier fiascoes president’s health insurance scheme is com­ “true doubt” be decided in favor of the person The U.S. Park Police, who carried out the of the Clinton administration, such as firing ing under increasing attack, as is his policy seeking benefits. initial investigation, immediately concluded White House travel office staff and replacing in Bosnia. And just a year after he and his The same judge ruled in favor of a similar that Foster had killed himself. They did not the agency with an Arkansas-based firm in attorney general Janet Reno ordered a raid claim for disability, medical, and death bene­ take the normal steps to look for all possible May 1993. Nussbaum, who will return to a on the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, fits made by Pasqualina Santoro, widow of evidence, even failing to seal Foster’s office $1.8 million-a-year corporate law practice, Texas, leaving scores of people dead, a court longshoreman Michael Santoro, under the for more than 12 hours after his body was defended his actions around Whitewater, say­ acquitted 11 members of the sect of murder. Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensa­ found. Two days after Foster’s death, Nuss­ ing he was simply carrying out his duties as William Saffire, commenting on former tion Act. A number of provisions in the Black baum sorted through all his papers, showing White House counsel. U.S. president Richard Nixon’s visit to Mos­ very few to investigators. The White House On March 8, Clinton announced the ap­ cow in a March 10 column in the New York attorney sent many of the files, including pointment of Lloyd Cutler as interim coun­ Times, writes that Clinton also faces big those on Whitewater, to the Clintons’ per­ sel, until administration officials can find a problems in Russia. “Clinton is still zigging, sonal attorney, a fact the president did not permanent replacement for Nussbaum. while Russia has zagged,” Saffire says, add­ acknowledge for five months. Webster Hubbell, one of Hillary Clinton’s ing that the administration requires “at least former law partners and now a high-ranking a major course correction.” Clinton could A college student who works for the Rose Justice Department official, has also come use Nixon’s help, Saffire adds, except for Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, told the under investigation. He billed the govern­ the “Whitewater Ain’t Watergate” dilemma. grand jury in the Madison-Whitewater case ment more than $37,000 for work on a case Republican senators have vowed to pre­ he had been instructed to shred a box of involving Madison Guaranty while he was vent the confirmation of Hillary Clinton’s Foster’s papers in the company’s basement a partner at the Rose Law Firm. Hubbell’s longtime friend Rikki Tigert to head the Fed­ in January, after news of the investigation father-in-law was a borrower and consultant eral Deposit Insurance Corp. — and to hold had been made public. Foster was a partner to the thrift. up other appointments — until congressional at the Rose firm, along with Hillary Clinton, Other records show the president’s wife hearings are held on the Whitewater issue. before moving on to the White House. — while with the Rose firm — took part in A March 7 article in the Wall Street Journal Hillary Clinton ‘at center of questions’ pursuing a government lawsuit against Dan­ attributed the Clintons’ problems largely to iel Lasater. Lasater was a fundraiser for inexperience, saying, “The worlds of busi­ The Rose firm began a system of shred­ Clinton’s campaigns who was later con­ ness and politics overlap more often and more ding documents soon after Bill Clinton be­ victed for cocaine trafficking. The suit, ini­ casually back home [in Arkansas] than is the gan his presidential bid in 1991. Several tially for $3.3 million, was settled for only custom in buttoned-down Washington.” former employees said the pace of shredding $200,000. Senior White House advisor Elliott Abrams said the problem is that picked up after the election. The lawyers Bruce Lindsey argued it did not represent a “scandal rules” have gone into effect Writ­ denied any wrongdoing, saying they rou­ conflict of interests for Hillary Clinton to ing in the Wall Street Journal, he argued that tinely destroy papers to maintain privacy work on the case just because Lasater was the Clintons’ actions are legitimate and, in and save storage space. a family friend and political supporter. fact, standard procedure — until a scandal A front page article in the March 6 New Responding to criticisms of his wife’s is declared. Abrams, assistant secretary of York Times titled “Inquiry Is Putting First actions, Bill Clinton declared at a March 7 state for inter-American affairs in the Lady At Center of Ethics Questions” noted news conference, “If everybody in this Reagan administration, was convicted of that many of the key players in the scandal country had a character as strong as hers, we withholding information from Congress in are close friends and business partners of wouldn’t have half the problems we’ve got the Iran-Contra affair.

6 The Militant March 21,1994 Sales drive off to a good start

BY BRIAN WILLIAMS “On the first day of the subscrip­ tion campaign in Sweden,” writes Dag Tirsen, “many youths on win­ ter vacation gathered around the Militant sales table set up in the center of Stockholm. One young man decided on the spot he wanted a subscription to the Militant after he heard the paper was the best source of information about devel­ opments in South Africa and the struggle against the U.S. embargo against Cuba.” Reports coming into the Militant business office since the March 5 launching of the circulation drive indicate that Sweden is no excep­ tion. The campaign is off to a good start around the world. The 10- week international effort, which runs through May 15, aims to sign up 3,000 subscribers to the Militant, 650 to Perspectiva Mundial, and to sell 1,000 copies of New Interna­ Militant/Candace Wagner tional magazine. Steve Marshall, socialist candidate for Congress in New Jersey, sells Writing from Greece, Georges ‘Militant’ March 5 and petitions to get Mark Rahn on ballot for mayor. Mehrabian reports, “We kicked off the drive with a regional team to the Janet Roth. “One recent immigrant tionals, and 60 single copies of provincial town of Volos, a four- from South Africa proudly ex­ the Militant. hour drive from Athens. We partic­ plained his participation in an ANC Supporters from Brooklyn and ipated in a protest meeting of about youth group at his Afrikaans uni­ Manhattan sold 10 copies of Nou- 100 people, half of whom were versity. Another bought a subscrip­ velle Internationale at a March 5 working farmers.” A Pathfinder ta­ tion to the Militant." During the Haiti solidarity demonstration held ble set up at the event featured New first three days of this effort, sup­ outside the United Nations in sup­ International number 4 on the crisis porters sold 5 subscriptions to the port of exiled Haitian president facing family fanners. A copy of Militant and 32 single copies. In Jean-Bertrand Aristide. After sell­ this was sold along with a Militant, addition, 14 students who bought ing 13 New Internationals during and several Pathfinder books and single copies left their phone num­ the first week of the drive, Manhat­ pamphlets. ber to be contacted about getting a tan distributors decided to raise Supporters in Auckland, New subscription. their goal from 45 to 85. Zealand, launched the circulation Phoning from Laredo, Texas, A chart listing results from the drive by setting up daily tables at Ernie Mailhot reports that partici­ first week of the drive will appear Auckland University. “A feature of pants in the U.S.-CubaFriendship- in the next Militant. To be counted, the first day’s sales was the number ment caravan had so far bought 2 subscriptions and sales reports of students of South African origin M ilitant subscriptions, 2 to Per­ must be in the business office by who came up to the table,” writes spectiva Mundial, 2 New Interna- Tuesday, 12 noon E.S.T. Jury convicts four in trade center bombing trial

BY NELS J’ANTHONY in the United States. NEW YORK — Despite the lack of evi­ James Florio, then governor of dence presented in the World Trade Center New Jersey, called for using the bombing trial, the jury handed down guilty death penalty against “whoever is verdicts on all 38 charges against the defen­ responsible for the terrorist actions dants here on March 4. The four — Moham­ at the World Trade Center.” med Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Ahmad Ajaj, Congressman Charles Schumer and Mahmud Abouhalima — were charged took the opportunity to propose new with conspiracy and carrying out the bomb­ legislation to screen immigrants ing. All the defendants face life sentences. seeking to enter the United States. During the five-and-a-half-month trial, the FBI officials chimed in, saying prosecution presented 207 witnesses and the bombing showed they don’t 1,003 exhibits. But all of the government’s have enough leeway to spy on legal evidence was circumstantial. None of the political and religious groups. The witnesses saw any of the defendants doing cop agency has used the case to push anything illegal. The government failed to for greater powers. produce anyone who could place any of the Big-business journalists and pun­ defendants at the trade center or anywhere dits joined in smearing immigrants, near it on the day of the blast In fact one de­ especially those who are Muslim. fendant, Ajaj, was in jail at time and had been An editorial in the Newark Star- for almost six months. Ledger the week after the blast Despite the fact that the government had called for tighter immigration laws no proof, Salameh’s defense lawyer, Robert and expanding the “register of un­ Precht, told the jury in his summation that desirable organizations” maintained Militant/Stu Singer he believed there was a bombing conspiracy by the U.S. government. March 1993 rally outside vandalized mosque in Jersey City, New Jersey, protesting government and that his client was involved. Precht ar­ “They’re supposed to be houses and media attempts to whip up anti-immigrant sentiment after World Trade Center bombing. gued that Salameh had been duped by Ramzi of worship,” stated one article in the Yousef — who was also accused in the case New York Post soon after the bomb­ but left the country — into doing things ing, “but three area mosques appear to have dence and ordered him deported a few U.S. government once again bombed Bagh­ without knowing the purpose. been the breeding ground for the heinous weeks after the bombing. dad with cruise missiles, killing 8 Iraqi ci­ plot that culminated in last week’s lethal vilians and wounding 12. Salameh said he was shocked by Precht’s Conspiracy frame-up statement, and that he had not agreed to it. blast at the World Trade Center.” The main evidence in this case is die The lawyer later claimed Salameh had “re­ The paper was referring to mosques in Along with 14 others, Abdel Rahman was testimony of Emad Salem, a former Egyp­ affirmed his confidence in me.” Brooklyn and Jersey City, New Jersey, where later charged with conspiring to “levy a war tian army officer and well-paid FBI inform­ Omar Abdel Rahman preached. The Egyp- of urban terrorism against the United ant In a tape recorded conversation with an Calls for immigration restrictions tian-bom cleric has been routinely labeled a States.” The government claims die men, FBI agent, Salem actually says he was die From the beginning the government has “radical Muslim fundamentalist” in the me­ most of them immigrants from the Middle one who built the trade center bomb. used the explosion, as well as a related dia. Most of those charged in the trade center East and Sudan, plotted to blow up tunnels, To strengthen their otherwise flimsy conspiracy frame-up scheduled to go to trial bombing had attended his services. bridges, and buildings in die New York area. case, a column in the Wall Street Journal in September, to wage a campaign against After the first arrests in the explosion, the No bombings actually took place, though, pointed out, prosecutors are likely to try immigrants’ rights and other democratic lib­ mosque in Jersey City was vandalized; ev­ except for the World Trade Center explo­ to get some of those convicted in the World erties. ery window was smashed. Six hundred peo­ sion, and no evidence has been presented to Trade Center blast to testify for the gov­ Authorities immediately declared the Feb. ple demonstrated in Jersey City March 20, link the men to any specific illegal act. ernment in return for lighter sentences. All 26,1993, bombing to be the work of “foreign 1993, protesting this attack and the virulent Following die first arrests in the conspir­ four have been named as unindicted co- terrorists.” This was used as a pretext for a na­ anti-immigrant propaganda in die media. acy frame-up last June, Washington moved conspirators in the alleged plot. Only a few tionwide campaign of spying and harassment Without a shred of evidence that he was to place Sudan on a list of “terrorist” coun­ of the defendants in the conspiracy trial against a wide range of legal political organi­ involved in the blast, a U.S. immigration tries that includes Iraq, Iran, Libya, and even knew the men accused of bombing zations, especially Palestinian organizations judge revoked Abdel Rahman’s legal resi­ North Korea. Around the same time, the the trade center, however.

March 21,1994 The Militant 7 Hundreds attend Cuba caravan events

BY HARVEY McARTHUR Cuba, raised several thousand dollars to pur­ SEATTLE — “The youth of America chase a used bus with a wheelchair lift. should help the youth of Cuba: reach out Three bus mechanics, members of the Amal­ hand in hand to end the embargo and come gamated Transit Union, volunteered their together with the people of Cuba. Together time to get the vehicle ready for the long we are fighting for humanity and rights!” trip. High school student Tami Peterson Two workers at Polo Clothing Co. in brought this call to action to the U.S.-Cuba Lawrence, Massachusetts, took the initiative Friendshipment send-off rally in Salt Lake to ask others in the shop to contribute money City, Utah, February 26. This rally of 50 to help buy school supplies for Cuba. This people was one of dozens of public events generated a lot of debate and discussion held across the country as more volunteers about Cuba — as well as $120 in donations. and vehicles joined the caravan, coordinated A sizeable donation of medical supplies nationally by Pastors for Peace. came from Los Angeles, where Pediatri­ Some events attracted substantial cover­ cians and Parents for Peace raised $100,000 age in local news media. The Salt Lake worth of medicine and two ambulances to Tribune, for instance, ran a news story and send on the caravan. an editorial February 23 stating: “Seeds of Several local elected officials spoke at a different public attitude toward Cuba can Friendshipment events, including Morgan­ be found sprouting throughout the United town City Council member Ron Justice, States.” Oakland City Council member Igancio de The Friendshipment meetings demon­ la Fuente, and former Texas state legislator strate a growing interest in Cuba, especially Sissy Farenthold. among young people, and the opportunities The Houston send-off meeting, held in to draw more workers and other political Militant/Marla Puziss Participants in Friendshipment caravan passing through Atlanta on way to Laredo the Allen Parkway Village public housing activists into discussion and actions to op­ complex, drew 125 participants and featured pose the U.S. embargo. Pastors for Peace spokesperson Gail Walker Speakers at the Salt Lake meeting in­ Youth League, told of Cuba’s decisive role tation Union in San Francisco signed a and other Friendshipment activists. cluded Thabo Mzilikazi, member of the in defeating the South African invasion of petition to ask the Santa Fe railroad bosses ANC Youth League; Cuban-American pro­ Angola in the late 1980s. “I look forward to to give coworker Kathryn Crowder a Patsy Butler, a member of Oil, Chemical fessor Marta Acosta; Harold Bauman of the the day when I will be able to visit Cuba,” month-long leave of absence to participate and Atomic Workers (OCAW) Local 4-227, Salt Lake City Interfaith Peacemaking Mzilikazi said. in the caravan. An assembly mechanic at read a message welcoming the caravan to Houston. It was signed by Tom Gentry, Council; and Rob Hayworth. Hayworth is a the Kenworth Truck plant in Seattle drove member of the band “State of the Nation,” Trade unionists participate to Olympia, Washington, to bring a pair president of OCAW Local 4-227, Sonny Sanders, secretary-treasurer of Local 4-447, which participated in a benefit concert that Across the country a significant number of crutches to a Friendshipment sendoff and OCAW International Representative attracted 300 people, mostly high school of trade unionists have joined the efforts to rally. Jim Byrd. students, and raised $1,000 for the caravan. build the solidarity caravan. San Francisco activists, hearing that there Mzilikazi, speaking on behalf of the ANC Fifty members of the United Transpor- were no wheelchair-accessible buses in The Houston meeting successfully warded off a disruption attempt by a small group of right-wing Cubans. A half dozen rightists attempted to break up a press con­ Cuban diplomat speaks against U.S. embargo ference held immediately before the rally by shouting anti-Castro slogans in Spanish. BY YVONNE HAYES Cuban right wing on Congress and the who must decide the future for Cuba.” One disrupter eventually had to be escorted FREDERICK, Maryland — “The true White House. Jim Small, who runs an auto parts store from the room by Friendshipment activists, cause of the hostility of the United States “It’s time for the United States to think in Taneytown, Maryland, described his ex­ and the subsequent send-off rally was held against Cuba is that for 34 years we have about its national interests, not just the in­ perience on the first Pastors for Peace U.S.- without problems. tried to be independent and have refused to terests of a small portion of the Cuban- Cuba Friendshipment caravan in 1992. He simply obey the orders of the United States. American community. We have opened up urged support for the third caravan, which Harvey McArthur is a member of Interna­ We broke the pattern of regional domina­ our country to foreign investment and U.S. was just getting under way. Nearly $200 was tional Association o f Machinists Local 289 tion,” said Rafael Dausá.á. businesses are losing ground while other donated on the spot for medicines for the and an activist with the Seattle-Cuba Friend­ shipment. Also contributing to this article Dausá, representing the Cuban Interests countries enter into joint ventures with us,” shipment. were Eileen Koschak from Salt Lake City, Section, joined a panel of speakers at a Dausá said. Yvonne Hayes is a member of United Steel­ Kathy Rettig from Morgantown, Al Budka meeting here February 24 to discuss the U.S. “Cuba is facing very difficult problems,” workers o f America Local 7886 in Frederick, from Houston, Jim White from San Fran­ embargo of Cuba. Sponsored by the Freder­ he said in conclusion. “But we are confident Maryland. cisco, and Kevin Jones from Los Angeles. ick Peace Resource Center and departments that we will pass through this special period at Hood College, Frederick Community and preserve our revolution.” College, and Mount St. Mary’s College, the Cliff DuRand, a professor of philosophy at event drew 45 people. Gail Bowerman, vice Morgan State University, described condi­ Solidarity convoy crosses border president of the Frederick County commis­ tions he witnessed on a January trip to Cuba. sioners, moderated the panel. “Many of the gains won by the Cuban people Continued from front page “The impact of this blockade is very over the last three decades in health, educa­ peasants, a socialist government. The Cuban great,” Dausá said. “It has meant á a loss of tion, and other areas are being eroded,” State College in Washington state. “We or­ ganized a benefit concert, film showings, people are fighters with a 35-year record of $45 billion in 35 years. Not only is trade DuRand said. Many Cubans are forced to rely standing up to U.S. imperialism and with the U.S. prohibited, but U.S. subsidi­ on a growing black market to get needed speakers, bake sales, and lectures,” she told the Militant. “I feel like the most important selflessly aiding those under attack — from aries in other countries cannot do business foods and medicines, a market that is supplied Vietnam to Nicaragua and Angola. with Cuba and pressure is put on other with goods stolen from state supplies. thing we can do is to organize to end the immoral and unjust blockade against Cuba.” Cuban-Americans from Miami and countries to end their trade with the island. Anamaria Goicoechea, a Cuban-Ameri­ northern New Jersey were prominent partic­ “The policy of the Clinton administration can and professor of social work at the ‘A big opportunity to talk about Cuba’ ipants in the caravan. Fourteen members of is the policy of the Reagan and Bush admin­ University of Maryland, urged the audience the Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Com­ istrations, with a few modifications, mostly to join the efforts to force the U.S. govern­ Kitty Loepker, a steelworker in Granite City, Illinois, sold $660 worth of raffle tick­ munity from Miami participated in the bor­ negative,” D a u s ásaid. ment to lift the embargo. She has disagree­ der crossing. The Cuban official attributed the intran­ ments with some of the policies of the Cuban ets on the job to raise funds for the trip. “I found that deciding to go on the Friendship­ Although nearly all of the aid raised by sigence of Washington in its policy toward government, she said. “But I’m an outsider. the Friendshipment was allowed to cross the Cuba to “the weight of the Cuban-American Those who stayed, those who have truly ment was a big opportunity to talk about Cuba,” Loepker said. “At first, people at border into Mexico, a 10-foot satellite dish, vote in Florida and the influence of the gone through this process, they are the ones work would call me crazy, but then they which the leadership of Pastors for Peace wanted to know why I was going. Everyone had included at the head of the caravan, was wants to hear about the trip,” she said. held up by customs officials. Molly Jenkins, a 16-year-old high school As part of the border crossing activities, student from San Francisco, explained that about a dozen members of the caravan crossed the international bridge on foot, wav­ few of her fellow students even knew of the embargo against Cuba. “The schools don’t ing dollar bills to protest laws preventing U.S. citizens from spending money in Cuba. teach us what the U.S. government does to other countries,” she said. On her return, Not all the caravan participants thought this was a good idea. “I thought it was wrong Jenkins plans to report on her trip to other high school students. that we went across with all those dollars,” Libby Mullins, a student at Evergreen Col­ Bernie Senter, a production worker at lege in Olympia, Washington, said. “It Mylan Pharmaceuticals in Morgantown, doesn’t represent justice, it represents impe­ West Virginia, told how coworkers and the rialism and the state Cuba was in before the Cuba solidarity committee, along with his revolution. All that Cuba accomplished local of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Work­ couldn’t have been done with dollars,” she ers union convinced the company to donate added. 500,000 doses of antibiotics and other med­ After leaving the United States the cara­ icine for the Friendshipment. In addition, 44 van headed for Tampico, Mexico, where the workers in the plant signed a petition calling goods will be shipped to Cuba. A six-day for an end to the embargo. program of activities in Cuba has been or­ “Some coworkers asked me why we ganized for the caravan drivers. should send aid to Cuba since it’s not the poorest country in the world?” Senter re­ Jerry Freiwirth is an activist with the Hous- ported. “I explained that Cuba is the only ton-Cuba Friendshipment and a member of country with a popular revolutionary gov­ Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Local ernment based on die power of workers and 4-367 in Houston.

8 The Militant March 21,1994 Cuban youth begins U.S. tour in Midwest

BY JON HILLSON accompanied by Arleen Rodriguez Derivet, MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — In frank editor of Juventud Rebelde, Cuba’s second exchanges with some 400 students, faculty largest newspaper. Despite protests, the members, community residents, and union­ Clinton administration has refused to grant ists at five campus meetings here March 3-8 her a visa to enter the United Sates. Cuban youth leader Pável Díaz Hernández Mary Bellman, a leader of the S t John’s began a visit to more than a dozen U.S. University Young Socialists, chaired a meet­ cities. In most appearances Diaz affirmed ing of 150 for the Cuban youth leader at her that youth and working people in Cuba “will school in Collegeville, Minnesota. never renounce the revolution, never re­ At Normandale Community College nounce socialism.” here, Diaz addressed two classes, while at Diaz, a 30-year-old associate researcher other campuses professors encouraged stu­ for the Havana-based Center of Studies for dents to attend his meetings. Youth, is Cuba’s representative to the Orga­ “Why is the Clinton administration main­ nization of Iberoamerican Youth. taining its hostile policy toward Cuba?” was These events were sponsored by a broad a question several students asked at different range of student governments, faculty, and meetings. campus organizations. Washington’s hostility to the Cuban rev­ At the University of Minnesota here Diaz olution, Diaz said, stems from “the existence was introduced by Chris Brown, vice pres­ of the socialist revolution and the clear de­ ident of the Minnesota Students Association. cision of the people to defend what we have Jessica Rio, a leader of Adelante, the Latin won, the education, health care, social secu­ American student group, welcomed Diaz to rity, equality, and dignity. Because we will Macalaster College in St. Paul. never renounce our ideals,” he continued, Pável Díaz Hernández speaking at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, March 4. The youth leader taped a one-hour radio “we will never renounce our sovereign right interview. Articles about his visit appeared to determine our own social system, our own investment is absolutely necessary. Without heavily on the Third World where “poverty, in the Minnesota Daily, the University of destiny, and our own leaders.” it we cannot buy food or fuel.” unemployment, and [economic] ‘shock Minnesota student newspaper in Minneapo­ Diaz also responded to several students at therapy’ are growing. lis. ‘A new level of awareness’ Macalaster who asked about political pris­ “I do not wish to criticize the great coun­ Diaz also addressed 40 activists from the Diaz noted a “new level of awareness” in oners in Cuba. Challenges facing the revo­ try I am now visiting,” he said, “but I know Twin Cities Cuba Friendshipment Commit­ the United States in the fight against the lution have made Cuba a huge forum of that the problems of workers and minorities tee, Freedom to Travel Campaign, and other embargo. He hailed the initiatives of Pastors debate, the young communist noted. have also increased over the last decade. groups opposed to Washington’s 32-year for Peace, Freedom to Travel Campaign, The people of Russia and Eastern Europe economic embargo of Cuba. He met with visits like his own, and other attempts to The themes of these debates were also are not happy with the prospect of life under staff members of Pastors for Peace, includ­ discuss and challenge U.S. policy. reflected in the questions asked by the pre­ dominantly student and youth crowds Diaz capitalism.” ing national director Tom Hansen. The In 1993, Cuba hit “rock bottom,” Diaz These situations, he said, “are the basis young Cuban spent hours in informal dis­ said in response to a question from a Uni­ addressed. At several meetings, for example, of social explosions.” cussions, over meals, coffee, and after meet­ versity of Minnesota student about Cuba’s he was asked about Cuba’s role in Africa. ing with groups of students and youth activ­ current economic crisis. “This was a very, Diaz served in Cuba’s Revolutionary What did the Cuban socialist make of ists through the region. very hard year. Slowly, however, we are Armed Forces (FAR) in Angola while Cu­ claims that “socialism is dead?” one person Diaz’s visit is nationally coordinated by coming back. But even if the [U.S. econom­ ban volunteers along with fighters from the asked. the Faculty-Student Cuban Youth Lectures ic blockade] is lifted tomorrow, this will not South West Africa People’s Organisation of When it’s said that “socialism and com­ Committee at the University of Minnesota. solve our problems. It will allow us to begin Namibia and Angolan armed forces defeated munism are dead,” Diaz responded, “it is An intense national protest campaign to address some of our problems.” the invading South African armies at Cuito only true that the USSR and the socialist waged by the lectures committee helped The Cuban youth pointed to the U.S. Cuanavale in 1988. camp are dead, or that they killed them­ selves. But the ideas of [Karl] Marx and convinced the U.S. State Department to economic embargo, the loss of trade at pref­ Cuba’s role in Africa grant Diaz a visa February 22. Initially, U.S. erential prices with the Soviet Union, as well [V.I.] Lenin, of Cuban socialism, are alive. officials denied him the right to accept the as errors made in Cuba as the cause of the “I will tell you,” he noted to the campus “Perhaps over there, they never devel­ more than 50 speaking invitations extended economic crisis today. audiences, “this was the most important ex­ oped these ideas, these values,” the young by various faculty sponsors and student Diaz, a member of Cuba’s Union of perience of my life, not because it was some­ Cuban revolutionary continued. “The idea groups at colleges and universities across the Young Communists (UJC), talked about thing fantastic, an adventure. Not because I of setting an example, of an alternative” to country. Cuba’s “integration in the Council for Mu­ learned what it meant when shots are fired the crisis of capitalism. Diaz visited the offices of Congressmen tual Economic Assistance,” the trade and at you. Angola was a school for me. “The slogan ‘socialism or death’ is pop­ Martin Sabo and Collin Peterson and Sena­ commercial operation organized by the for­ “I don’t mean a school in a military ular in my country,” he said, “at rallies, tor Paul Wellstone to thank them personally mer Soviet government that Cuba joined in sense,” he continued, “but what it means to mobilizations, at dances, in clubs. It ex­ for their letters to the State Department. 1972. “We gave them nickel and sugar,” be with people who are willing to die for presses the validity of our ideals in the world The young Cuban leader was to have been Diaz said, “and they gave us everything.” you.” today. That they are still alive.” This “generosity,” Diaz told the students, The approaching elections in South Afri­ And, Diaz said, “we intend to continue “allowed us to develop and advance,” but, ca and the likely victory of the African proving this is true.” it also resulted in Cuba “not developing National Congress, he said, “is the real con­ Following his visit to Minnesota, Diaz agriculture at a national level. Imagine that! clusion, the climax of what the Cuban pre­ headed for speaking engagements in Ames, You all know Cuba is an agricultural coun­ sence in southern Africa was all about.” Iowa, and Salt Lake City, Utah. try. But we imported nearly everything. The Diaz was also asked about the world eco­ meat, the beans, the cereal, the cooking oil, nomic crisis. The worsening crisis of inter­ Jon Hillson is a member of the United all came from the lands of Europe. When national capitalism, he explained, falls most Transportation Union. those societies collapsed, we had nothing. “It would be easy to criticize this now, to say what mistakes we made. And we copied thousands of errors [from the USSR and Eastern Europe],” Diaz said. “We had a tremendous naivete. But the main thing is, we are not doing this now.” The crisis that erupted from such devel­ opments and errors, the youth leader said, “has forced us to look to the creativity of our people,” for solutions, particularly in agriculture, in food production. Diaz discussed the efforts to stimulate rural production through the transformation of state farms into agricultural cooperatives, called Basic Units of Cooperative Produc­ tion (UBPCs), as part of the effort to allevi­ ate the food crisis. “We have had different forms of produc­ tion in the countryside,” Diaz said, “state farms, co-ops, private farmers, yet we had no food. So we are trying this [UBPCs], to see if it will stimulate production. And the first results, after six months, are positive. Food production is up. “You can walk around with [revolution­ ary] banners for years,” he said, “but people cannot be political unless there is food in their stomachs.” At several of the campus events, Diaz was questioned about the impact of tourism on Cuba. The bottom line, he said, is that Cuba “has been unable to get credit anywhere in the world for the last 12 years. The [hard currency] generated by tourism and foreign

March 21,1994 The Militant 9 ‘More than ever we need Che’s legacy’ Director of Havana Center for Studies of the Americas urges rereading Guevara

The following article appeared in the by Fidel [Castro] five cluding our own Marti and Fi­ April-June 1993 issue of Casa de las years ago now more ur­ del? Américas, a quarterly published in Cuba. gent and necessary than For all these reasons I be­ The author, Luis Suárez Salazar, is the di­ ever: that Che’s entire lieve that under today’s circum­ rector of the Center for Studies of the Amer­ works should be made bet­ stances, we must return to Che, icas in Havana. ter known in Cuba and to a dialectical and revolution­ The article is based on a presentation throughout the world. And ary reading of his legacy. We Suárez made during a relaunching of the they should be made must do so, above all, to gain book Pensar al Che (To Think of Che), known not merely for ac­ fresh insight into the way his published in 1989 by the José Marti publish­ ademic reasons, but out of ideas and his actions can help ing house. The event was held at the Mod- the conviction that now shape our program. ema Poesia (Modem Poetry) bookstore in more than ever before we Havana, on the 25th anniversary of Ernesto need Che’s legacy. In the Why must we reread Che? Che Guevara’s death in combat Guevara, midst of the daily heroism To make clear the revolu­ one of the leaders of the Cuban revolution, to which Che summoned tionary value of his utopias and was killed by U.S.-trained troops in Bolivia us, we need his legacy to of his hopes concerning the es­ in October 1967 while leading a guerrilla forge and solidify our in­ sential and inevitable transfor­ struggle that aimed to overthrow the tyran­ dividual and collective ac­ mation of society. nical regime there. tion in intransigently de­ To highlight anew his reflec­ Translation from Spanish and sub­ fending the socialism be­ tions on the insoluble structural headings are by the Militant. ing built in Cuba as an crisis of capitalism in the un­ indispensable part of the derdeveloped countries. To set revolutionary and anti-im­ forth again his intransigent perialist struggles that, de­ anti-imperialism. BY LUIS SUAREZ SALAZAR spite everything, are de­ To recall once again, to­ A few days ago, in presenting the two- veloping and will continue gether with Che, that socialism volume Pensar al Che to Cuban readers, I to develop in Latin Amer­ is and continues to be the pre­ pointed out that in the context of commem­ ica and throughout the condition for the sovereign and orating the 25th anniversary of Che’s phys­ world. We also need Che’s independent development of ical disappearance, a recurring battle would legacy to steel our cer­ our country, and for the sover­ again surely develop. On one side are those tainty in the final victory eign and independent develop­ who by action or omission, by conviction or of our cause. ment of the majority of the opportunism, wish to bury, mystify, distort, Some will see more world’s countries. diminish, or downplay Che’s theoretical and than one contradiction in To not confuse die errors practical heritage. On the other side are these affirmations. Apply­ committed in building social­ those of us in our country and elsewhere ing simple and formal ism in other countries with con­ who wish to return to his legacy, his intran­ logic, some might perhaps Ernesto Che Guevara at textile mill in Cuba genital deformations of a new sigent anti-imperialism, his consistent inter­ ask themselves: How and economy and society. nationalism, the timeliness of his thought why must we return to the theoretical and We should keep in mind the historic cir­ To continually enrich Che’s reflections and action, the way his words matched his practical heritage of Che at a time when the cumstances, the political and intellectual cli­ concerning objective contradictions, which deeds, and the enduring example he set for socialist camp, to which Che attributed a mate in which his beliefs and convictions are unavoidable in the transition to social­ those seeking to understand and transform central role in overcoming the principal con­ were forged. We need to give consideration, ism, above all under the conditions of an in a revolutionary way the reality that we tradictions of our epoch, has virtually disap­ whenever necessary, to the modifications that underdeveloped country, physically and face today. peared? How and why must we return to have occurred in the national, Latin Ameri­ structurally dependent (much to our dis­ I also pointed out that this recurring battle Che under circumstances in which our coun­ can, and international situation during the may) on a capitalist market that is increas­ over Che and the relevance of his works try is forced to resort in some areas of the twenty-five years since his death in combat ingly multinational. today takes place under conditions much economy to what he defined as the “dull In short, we should adopt the dialectical, To bring out the creative dynamics of his more difficult than in the past We have instruments of capitalism” in order to assure theoretical-practical, and practical-theoreti- views concerning society and, from that witnessed the resounding collapse of “actu­ the survival of the revolution and continue cal method with which Che helped subvert standpoint, to synthesize the experiences of ally existing socialism” in Europe; the dis­ fighting for the economic, political, and dogmatism, oversimplification of every socialism as it is being built in Cuba, in all its appearance of the USSR; the difficulties of ideological self-reproduction of the social­ type, and the reformism that permeated (and concreteness, autonomy, and individuality. Asian socialism; the vicissitudes of revolu­ ism being built in Cuba? permeates today even more) significant as­ To see in his writings clear intuitions, tionary and anti-imperialist struggles in the pects of revolutionary theory and practice. premonitions, and lessons on how to find so-called Third World and in Latin America How must we reread Che? Let us constantly remember Che’s call to all socialist and communist formulas aimed at in particular; as well as the problems that I think we would all agree there is only Marxists that “if new events require new trying to resolve the internal and external must be resolved in our own country as a one possible way to reclaim the theoretical ideas, one must never take away from those contradictions facing socialism, our social­ result, among other things, of our own errors and practical heritage of Che, given the who came before us their piece of the truth.” ism, and even to confront the unwanted and those of others. Without doubt all this many contradictions that exist today be­ But the effort to reclaim Che’s ideas in a effects of the policies that our country today will be employed by the new and old detrac­ tween his ideas and the concrete reality we dialectical, antidogmatic way should not views as necessary to implement both inter­ tors of Che to try to demonstrate the incor­ face. That is to reread and reanalyze his (under penalty of turning them into a ritual) nally and in relations with the rest of the rectness (or at least the inapplicability today) works without the slightest intention of be confused with the effort to accommodate world. of his ideas. From the camp of our enemies transforming his ideas and actions into his ideas and his work — through extracting But we must also return to Che to there will continue to come forecasts of the dogma. No effort should be made to convert quotations of greater or lesser relevancy — reencounter his concise explanations con- coming defeat of the undertaking to which Che, ever the iconoclast, into a saint In to a possibilist or defeatist course of action Che devoted his entire life and intelligence. approaching his legacy, no apologetics are when analyzing the development of the 44------This, in our view, makes the call issued necessary. world revolutionary process. It would also be wrong to try to make Che’s ideas conform To recall that socialism is to each and every one of the concrete poli­ and continues to be the cies that the leadership of our country today views as necessary to adopt in confronting precondition for sovereign the adverse relationship of forces facing us in Latin America and die world. and independent We cannot and must not turn to Che in development of Cuba order to transform, through magic, our ob­ ... jective necessities — sometimes unavoid­ able— into immortal and eternal virtues. Nor should we use him to legitimize the ceming the place and role of the political tactical measures taken to ensure the sur­ vanguard in the entire process of political vival and reproduction of Cuban socialism and social transformation. To recall, at the today; such steps should not be transformed same time, the dynamic role of human will into petrified, rigid strategies to be applied (without voluntarism) and of the subjective in Cuba and elsewhere, at all times and in factors (without subjectivism) in all revolu­ all places. tionary activity. On the other hand, we cannot and must To continue to forge the political unity of not turn to Che nostalgically, falsely suppos­ the people around our vanguard, the Com­ ing— as is sometimes done — that the munist Party of Cuba. To assure that this course of history, our history, would have organization, the party of the Cuban people, been different had Che abandoned his inter­ constantly deepens its selectivity, its inter­ nationalist commitment, or succeeded in nal democracy, and its links with the surviving it physically. Saying this does not masses. deny that Che would surely have placed his To retain a critical and self-critical spirit legendary personal stamp on all activities he toward each and every one of our individual might have been involved in. I am simply or collective acts. trying to establish that the complexities of To reject reducing democracy to the lib­ the historical process and of the develop­ eral ideas now being foisted on us from ment of society often put objective limits on abroad, while also rejecting the idea that the ideas or actions of even the most out­ efforts to improve our socialist democracy standing individuals. If not, how can one should be limited to more or less specific understand the synthesis of utopian and changes introduced into our constitution practical — not pragmatic — policies asso­ and our electoral laws. ciated with other great men of history, in­ To remember at all times that our utopia

10 The Militant March 21,1994 of socialist democracy is based above all on the people’s participation in decision mak­ ing and in solving all the problems that confront our people; for this they must be adequately and thoroughly informed about all the events affecting them. To remember that there is no genuine so­ cialist planning without the conscious and or­ ganized participation of the producers; with­ out a clear focus on the social, political, and ideological objectives of the economy; with­ out a stubborn battle against tendencies to­ ward reducing controls, toward indiscipline in political life and in work, toward the tech- nocratism and bureaucratism that also exist under the conditions of our socialist state. We must go to Che, moreover, to recover the ethical and moral inspiration of his ex­ Workers’ Education Class at sugar factory in Grenada during revolution there in early 1980s. Guevara emphasized need for working ample. To remind ourselves again that rev­ people to transform their consciousness and participate in building a new society through collective, voluntary labor and study. olutionary cadres have to teach through ex­ ample. They have to live — without exces­ and communist utopia does not simply pur­ change in consciousness resulting in a new a subversive force that impels us constantly sive egalitarianism— just as our people sue a different form of distributing social fraternal attitude toward humanity, both at to new revolutions in our revolution, and to live. They have to be creative, audacious, wealth. It must bring about a radical trans­ an individual level, within the societies new anti-imperialist and anticapitalist revo­ faithful to the ideology of the Cuban revo­ formation in culture, in social relations where socialism is being built, and on a lutions throughout the planet lution; in culture, technology, politics, and among men, in human motivation. A revo­ world level, with regard to all peoples suf­ Let us remember every day that the duty ideology they must be trained in the best lution in ethics that, dialectically related to fering from imperialist exploitation.” of a revolutionary is to make the revolution, traditions of our country’s thought and lib­ the transformation of material and social In short, we must conserve, recover, and both before and after the seizure of political erating actions, capable of critically assimi­ relations, produces new men every day who enrich Che’s legacy so that his example and power. Let Che’s legacy help us find the lating ideas from abroad and theoretically are capable of being active participants — his ideas continue illuminating the world, our most correct road to systematically over­ and practically enriching our own. without alienation of any kind — in the America, and our society. We must preserve coming the contradictions in the reality we To never confuse the changing needs of work of the revolution. And that in this his symbol, his ideological, emotional, and face, as well as identifying and overcoming our state foreign policy with the indispens­ endeavor the youth is the fundamental clay moral weight in different countries of the our own errors. For this road of identifying able reciprocal solidarity with the popular of our work. world — Cuba above all — as an eternally and overcoming our errors, as Fidel has and revolutionary movement of the world. To remember always, together with Che, subversive force against every injustice, no said, is the one that will some day perhaps To remember, in short, that our socialist “that socialism cannot exist without a matter where in the world it is committed. As lead us finally to communism. Marxist magazine: Nicaragua defeat not inevitable BY BRIAN WILLIAMS against the exploiters — both at home and Congress and the White House. in 1979 had already ceased to exist In mid-January Lawrence Walsh, the abroad. It encouraged the formation of The revolutionary war the Sandinistas New International explains that this out­ White House-appointed independent prose­ unions, peasant organizations, women’s had fought and won had forged a new layer come was not inevitable. The Nicaraguan cutor, released his final report on the U.S. groups, and youth groups; nationalized the of worker and peasant cadres who could revolution was not defeated by the power of government scandal of the mid-1980s banks and insurance companies; established have been organized to help deepen the imperialism and its mercenary contra mili­ known as “Iran-contra” or “Contragate.” controls on export trade; and expropriated revolution’s anticapitalist political course. tary operation, nor did it decline because of Centra] to this affair was White House and some key factories. Through these and other Despite these opportunities, the FSLN lead­ the weakening (and later collapse) of the CIA sponsorship of a secret network that pri­ measures that began to encroach on capital­ ership turned away from its previous ten­ Soviet Union and the resulting drop off in vately funded arms purchases and other aid to ist property and prerogatives, the FSLN-led dency to rely on the organization, mobiliza­ aid. These problems and pressures were real, the mercenary counterrevolutionary army, power rapidly emerged as a workers and tion, and political consciousness of Nicara­ as was the need for concrete tactical judg­ the “contras,” who were waging a war of ter­ farmers government This triumph occurred guan working people. ments and retreats by the vanguard of Nic­ ror and sabotage to overturn the Nicaraguan just four months after the victory of the Instead, in the face of the deepening eco­ aragua’s workers and peasants. But the de­ government led by the Sandinista National revolution in the Caribbean island of Gre­ nomic and social crisis, exacerbated by mas­ mise of the revolutionary government in Liberation Front (FSLN). Some of the funds nada, led by Maurice Bishop. sive destruction from the contra war and Nicaragua was the product of conscious po­ came from reserves from the clandestine U.S. economic sanctions, the entire top litical decisions by the FSLN leadership to shipment of U.S. arms to Iran via Israel. ‘Three giants rising up’ Sandinista leadership increasingly looked to reject an anticapitalist course and the build­ The report concludes that top White These developments in Central America capitalist market relations and integration ing of a communist party. And, as the intro­ House officials in the administration of then- and the Caribbean provided a new impetus into the world capitalist system as the way ductory article in this issue of New Interna­ president Ronald Reagan were involved in to the socialist revolution in Cuba and to out They turned away from mobilizing the tional explains, this perspective has been carrying out and covering up this operation. revolutionary struggles throughout the workers and peasants to tackle these press­ reaffirmed and deepened since 1990. This affair highlights the trend in the latter Americas. “Grenada, Nicaragua, and Cuba ing problems in ways that advanced their Recent developments from Chiapas, half of the 20th century towards growing cen­ are three giants rising up to defend their class interests against those of the land­ Mexico, to Argentina, to resistance by work­ tralization of political power in the executive right to independence, sovereignty, and owners and factory owners. More and more ers and youth in the imperialist countries branch of government — and in particular, justice, on the very threshold of imperial­ of the burden of the crisis fell on the ex­ show that workers and farmers will not stop the secret military operations organized by ism,” stated Cuban president Fidel Castro ploited producers. fighting back against the devastating effects the White House and CIA that have become a in March 1980. This course of the FSLN leadership dur­ of the deepening world capitalist economic permanent aspect of U.S. foreign policy. The But by the closing years of the 1980s, ing the closing years of the 1980s, the re­ depression. As these struggles intensify, a resources and energies the U.S. rulers poured both the Nicaraguan and Grenada revolu­ ports in New International explain, had gut­ new generation of Fighters in the factories, into creating and sustaining the contras also tions had been defeated. Cuba was once ted the government’s pro-working class ori­ mines, fields, and schools will look for les­ reveals the extent to which the capitalists felt again the only revolutionary government in entation by the end of 1989. The February sons and inspiration from the ongoing rev­ their class interests threatened by the advanc­ the Americas. 1990 electoral defeat of the FSLN by a olution in Cuba, from the real history of the ing social revolution in Nicaragua. The new issue of New International traces coalition patched together in Washington Russian revolution under the leadership of But was the defeat of the Nicaraguan the accomplishments and anticapitalist dy­ and Miami was a big blow to the country’s the Bolsheviks, and from powerful anti­ revolution inevitable, given the vast array of namic of the Nicaraguan revolution in its sovereignty, and to working people both capitalist revolutions such as those in Nica­ military and economic power set in motion opening years, the heroic war fought by the there and around the world. But the workers ragua and Grenada. This issue of New Inter­ by Washington in an effort to crush it? An workers and peasants of that country against and farmers government that had emerged national is for them. upcoming issue of New International an­ the U.S.-organized counterrevolution, and swers this question with a resounding “no!” the subsequent political degeneration of the “The Rise and Fall of the Nicaraguan FSLN into the radical bourgeois electoral Revolution,” issue number 9 of New Inter­ party it had become by the end of the 1980s. national, will come off the press at the end The documents in this issue, written by of March. partisans of the revolution, were enriched Spanning the decade of the Nicaraguan by the week-by-week coverage in the Mil­ revolution’s triumph and demise from 1979 itant by correspondents for its Managua to the closing years of the 1980s, this issue bureau, which was founded just weeks af­ includes reports and resolutions adopted by ter the 1979 revolution and functioned un­ the leadership of the U.S. Socialist Workers til the end of 1990. Party and its sister communist leagues in By the close of 1981, the U.S. rulers began Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Iceland, training and financing the contra army, which New Zealand, and Sweden. New Interna­ was headed by Somoza’s ex-officer corps. tional is a magazine of Marxist politics and Over the next six years, the contras mounted theory whose editorial board is composed of terrorist assaults and waged a bloody war to leaders of these organizations. destroy the revolution. In July 1979 a popular insurrection in The workers, peasants, and youth in the Nicaragua's cities and land seizures in the Sandinista army courageously fought back. countryside toppled the U.S.-backed dicta­ By the latter half of 1987 the Nicaraguan torship of Anastasio Somoza. The new government had defeated the contra army, FSLN government responded to and helped although the mercenaries continued to cany promote mobilizations by the workers and out sporadic raids from their bases in Hon­ peasants to advance their class interests duras— with ongoing military aid from

March 21,1994 The Militant 11 Israel gov’t Continued from front page killed seven soldiers. Protests by Palestinians living inside the borders of Israel have subsided for now, according to Michel Warshawski of the Al­ ternative Information Center in Jerusalem. The explosive demonstrations in Arab towns had set off alarm bells in Israeli ruling cir­ cles. The newspaper Yediot Aharonot re­ ported February 27 that “yesterday the In­ tifada arrived in Jaffa. Yefat Street on Sat­ urday morning was as packed with people as any main street in Gaza: burning police cars, smashed windows, stones and bottles being thrown in every direction, tear gas, masses of border patrol policemen, helicop­ ters circling above, and below hundreds of Arabs shouting: ‘The army participated in the massacre in Hebron.’ ” Warshawski reported that on March 5 the Israeli group Peace Now held a demonstra­ tion 25,000 strong in Tel Aviv to condemn the massacre. “One byproduct of the massacre in Hebron is the fact it has forced the question of the settlements back on the agenda,” he said. “[Israeli prime minister Yitzhak] Rabin wants to keep the settlers as a pressure on the PLO.” “More than 1,800 students demonstrated March 7 at Bethlehem University,” and were tear-gassed by Israeli troops, said Abbas. “Many leaflets are circulating here — not just from organizations, but special leaflets about what is happening in Hebron. The Israelis closed all the schools here. Black flags are flying all over the place.” Police in Cairo also fired tear gas March 4 at 10,000 demonstrators denouncing the Hebron massacre. At least 30 protesters were arrested and some badly beaten in the Egyptian capital. Palestinian groups differ over response PLO leader Yasir Arafat met with Israeli Corrections officials in Cairo March 7. It was the first The article “Meetings in Britain win meeting since the Hebron killings. No agree­ new support for Curtis defense effort,” ment was announced following the meeting. in the February 21 issue of the Militant, According to the Christian Science Mon­ quoted Gerry McCarthy as saying that itor, some prominent PLO leaders in the he “subpoenaed the cops for my trial.” occupied territories have refused to travel to It should have said that he subpoenaed PLO headquarters in Tunis for meetings. A “agents provocateurs who worked for number of demonstrations in the territories the cops.” are demanding a halt to negotiations with Tel Aviv and a fresh start beginning with the The final paragraph in the article demand that all settlers be expelled from the “U.S. fighter jets down four planes over occupied lands. Bosnia” in the March 14 issue should A leaflet signed by the Unified Leadership have read, “Russian president Boris of the Intifada, the group that directed the Pal­ Yeltsin failed to prevent the release estinian uprising in the territories, called for from prison of Aleksandr Rutskoi and the “reinstitution of strike forces all over Pal­ Ruslan Khasbulatov at the end of Feb­ estine,” and urged people to “begin with at­ ruary.” tacks on occupiers and settlers . . . Hit these Also in the March 14 issue, the last criminals as hard as they hit us,” the flyer said. line of die article “Argentine ‘miracle’: In some areas, members of the Fatah a nightmare for workers” listed the slo­ Hawks, a PLO group, and Hamas have gan painted on the wall as “The time of joined together in demonstrations. Hamas is the sleep is over.” It should have read, a Palestinian organization that is opposed to “The time of the sheep is over.” both the PLO and Israeli rule. It uses radical In the same issue, the article “Meet­ demagogy to advance its goals. Hamas is­ ing celebrates new book of speeches by sued a leaflet March 7 saying it would attack Nelson Mandela” should have identi­ residents of five Israeli settlements if they fied Rhonda Williams as a student at didn’t leave their homes by March 15. “We the University of Pennsylvania, not have chosen our targets and our living mar­ Temple University. tyrs have been instructed to carry out the suicide operations,” it said. Israeli government moves At a March 6 meeting of the Israeli Cab­ inet, seven of the 15 members spoke against keeping the Hebron settlements. Rabin re­ fused to change his position, which is that the settlements are not negotiable. Rabin’s government has been building settlers’ housing at a faster pace than any other administration since Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. Before the massacre took place, Israel’s housing min­ istry had announced plans to spend $660 million on new “settlers only” roads. Tel Aviv recently confiscated thousands of acres of Palestinian land for road building and settlement expansion. Some 11,500 acres of West Bank land have been taken since the accords were signed on Sept. 13, 1993. In another move to stem Palestinian an­ ger, Rabin ordered the establishment of a commission of inquiry to look into the He­ bron assault. The three judges, a university president, and the former army chief of staff began meeting March 8. Israeli army com­ mander Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom repeated the assertion that Goldstein had acted alone, while admitting that five of six soldiers assigned to the mosque had failed to show up for duty on the day of the attack. Tel Aviv has released about 1,000 prison­ ers in a bid to get the PLO back to the negotiating table. It holds 9,000 more Pal­ estinians in Israeli jails.

12 The Militant March 21,1994 GREAT SOCIETY Ex-basher — “I’ve been called Brass roots — “We’re now kids need to be more respectful.” tabling a projected series of nucle­ learned you also had to buy four a bigot by so many people today building from the top down,” ex­ ar power plants for at least 20 boxes of Nabisco crackers. that it’s unbelievable. I wasn’t plan­ plains Volney Com, a spokesperson ‘Don’t get mad, get even?’ — years. for Ross Perot’s United We Stand “He wasn’t like some unhappy post­ They’re sure she was posing? America. He says the organization in al employee, ready to blow up. He Quake aftermath — Concerned — In Ohio, a woman got eight to 15 currently selecting people with mili­ didn’t whine, he didn’t complain, he about the consequences of future years for conning small sums from tary background as paid staffers for didn’tcry about how they were treat­ earthquakes, the Alcor Life Exten­ elderly people by promising them the “grass roots” organization. ing him.” — An acquaintance spec­ sion Foundation, which freezes free medical benefits and more. Au­ ulating that Aldrich Ames moon­ corpses for possible future revival, thorities said she posed as a member lighted for Russian intelligence has moved its inventory and sales of­ of the Clinton administration. Cultural war zone — School because of a frustrating lack of ad­ fice to Arizona. officials in Greenwood, South Car­ What sick society? — Dave vancement at the CIA. olina were ticked off on learning Details were in the FBI warn­ Ryan, a Minnesota radio perform­ ning to bum the Japanese flag; I was that “Springfield,” the name chosen Pink slip for Pluto — We re­ ing — California officials are er, made the winning bid of $8,800 just planning to pound a couple of by students for their new elementa­ ported the ad campaign by Japan’s charging Blockbuster Video with for Lee Harvey Oswald’s toe tag Toyotas.” — An Oskaloosa, Iowa, ry school, is the name of the school nuke industry, featuring Mr. Pluto, false, misleading advertising. It and a lock of his hair. Charged car dealer who hurriedly cancelled animated cartoon character Bart a cartoon character who plugs plu­ had promoted the sale of Beauty with the assassination of President a “Japan Bashing Day” after getting Simpson attends. Declared one edu­ tonium as almost better than broc­ and the Beast with a $5 rebate of­ John Kennedy, Oswald was mur­ hit with some 200 protest phone cator “He’s an obnoxious, talking- coli. But the cute little fella didn’t fer. After you opened the box and dered while in police custody. The calls. back little kid. He’s a rebel and most fly. The Japanese government is dug out the rebate coupon you toe tag identified his corpse. Women’s oppression aids bosses, hurts workers

As part of our coverage for Women’s numbers also begin to think in broader social History Month, we are reprinting below terms and to act as political beings. They excerpts from the “The Capitalist Ideo­ become increasingly class conscious. They logical Offensive Against Women Today,” play an expanding role in struggles by the by Mary-Alice Waters. Waters prepared labor movement that can wrest higher wages this article in 1985 as the introduction to from the employers and social programs the Pathfinder title Cosmetics, Fashions, from the capitalist government, thus pushing and the Exploitation of Women. up the value of labor power for the entire Copyright © Pathfinder Press, reprint­ working class. ed with permission. These were the kinds of economic and social developments that took place in the Since the beginning of the industrial rev­ decades of the post-World War II capitalist olution in the eighteenth century, capitalist expansion, weakening the foundations on expansion and the lash of competition have which the entire edifice of women’s oppres­ dictated the incorporation of larger and sion is built. As these objective precondi­ larger numbers of women into the labor tions combined with the political changes of force. This is so because capital always the 1950s and 1960s above all, the civil seeks to incorporate into the work force rights and anti-Vietnam War movements the large numbers of workers in oppressed so­ “second wave” of feminism exploded onto cial categories (in this case women), the the scene. As a result of the women’s liber­ value of whose labor power under capital­ ation struggles since the end of the 1960s, ism is less than that of others. This is a further broad advances have taken place in key way in which the employers drive women’s attitudes toward themselves and down the overall average value of labor their place in society, as well as in the views of men on these matters. Woman working on aircraft during World War II. Entry of millions of women into Today the employers are once again workforce after war weakened entire edifice on which women’s oppression is built FROM PATHFINDER making a concerted political effort to roll back, or at least slow down, some of the the beginning of the industrial revolution. market but to push them down to jobs with changes in consciousness about women’s power by heightening competition among Instead, the aim is to make women more fewer paid holidays, more piece work, less place in society. They are taking aim at workers for jobs. vulnerable to increased exploitation. The safety, shorter lunch breaks, less union pro­ concrete gains won through hard struggle The development of capitalism, how­ goal is not to push women out of the labor tection, and lower wages. ever, creates real — and ultimately insolu­ in the 1960s and 1970s, such as abortion ble— contradictions for the exploiting rights and affirmative action programs. class. The capitalists’ increasing purchase So far defeats and setbacks for working of women’s capacities as wage laborers people continue to outnumber victories, and 25 AND 50 YEARS AGO the bosses and their politicians retain the inevitably brings in its wake greater eco­ liberal Democrat currently running for may­ initiative. But that has not put a stop to nomic independence for women. It con­ or, insisted on the need for “law and order.” resistance. To the contrary, the willingness tributes to further disintegration of the “Police must respond,” he said, “when they and desire of working people to fight back family, and expands the need for household are called by school authorities .... In this continues to assert itself. appliances and prepared foods. These fac­ country, not even the church ground is sanc­ tors, in turn, tend to raise the value of The capitalists’ offensive against wom­ tuary from the police.” women’s labor power, to raise the wages en’s rights is not aimed at driving women they can command in the labor market on out of the work force. That is historically average, other things being equal. precluded. The percentage of wage and sal­ Through their experiences in the work aried workers who are female has been ris­ A police attack on a peaceful sit-in of THE MILITANT force and the unions, women in growing ing, from one plateau to another, ever since students at Carver Junior High School here [Los Angeles] has sparked a massive revolt in the city’s high schools, colleges and black March 18,1944 community. According to eyewitness ac­ Britain’s ruling class stands panic-strick­ counts, 150 club-swinging policemen at­ en as over 100,000 striking coal miners tacked approximately 200 12- to 14-year- enter the second week of their militant old students on Friday, March 7, when they struggle, the greatest demonstration of sat down in front of the principal’s office at British working class power since the 1926 the school to protest the “trespassing” arrest General strike. The majority of the South of a Black Student Union [BSU] member Wales miners, who represent the heart of from Southwest Junior College who had the strike movement, at rank and file pit been invited onto the campus by the Carver head meetings today rejected the demands BSU. of their treacherous leaders that they resu­ In protest against this assault, the meeting me work. These leaders over the week-end held that night by various groups and indi­ sought to drum up a back-to-work vote viduals in the black community, including with frantic patriotic appeals and glib the Black Student Alliance (the citywide promises that all the miners’ demands will coalition of college BSUs), the BYA (high- be granted after they return to work. But school Black Youth Alliance), the Black the labor bureaucrats have, for the time Panther Party, the NAACP, ministers and being, lost all control of the situation. The others, called for a boycott of classes to rank and file members are fighting mad. begin Monday, March 10. The strike was launched early last week In an interview with The Militant, War­ by 85,000 workers in the key South Wales ren, vice-chairman of the BSA, stressed that collieries and quickly spread with thousands this was a movement of the whole black of other miners walking out all over England community. “The citywide boycott is the and Scotland. The conflagratory sweep of natural evolution of our struggle,” he said. this struggle in Britain’s most vital industry “We have seen walkouts at single schools immediately evoked hysterical and fear-rid­ produce black principals, but the second- den agitation by the entire capitalist press. rate education remains. Black administra­ A United Press dispatch recounts: “The tors can relate to the community, but as long scene of Richard Llewellyn’s best-seller as they are responsible to City Hall and not ‘How Green Was My Valley’ today has a tint to us, that second-rate education will con­ of red. The coal miners talk admiringly of tinue. The Carver incident was just a spark. communism.. . . One man, who said he Given the conditions, the boycotts would earned 4 Lbs. a week after forty years in the eventually have occurred anyway.” pits, said: ‘Our only hope for this country is City Councilman Thomas Bradley, black to have the Communists take over.’”

March 21,1994 The Militant 13 —EDITORIALS ------Did Marx, Engels support Radical Behind Whitewater scandal Reconstruction? U.S. president Bill Clinton’s statement that Hillary Clin­ and White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum could carry ton’s “moral compass is as strong as anybody’s” has a grain out such a blatant cover-up, since both were involved in In this week’s letters section Paul Montauk from Oak­ of truth in it — if you’re talking about the employer class. moves to impeach Richard Nixon 20 years ago. The answer land, California, comments on the review of Marx and The Clintons’ actions in the Whitewater affair and cover-up is they couldn’t learn the “lessons of Watergate” because Engels on the United States that appeared in the February are typical of the corruption that is standard among the this is how their class always behaves. 21 issue of the Militant. What basis did I have for stating capitalists and their representatives in government. One Wall Street Journal article said the problem is things that nineteenth century communist revolutionaries Karl But the subpoenas, resignations, and grand jury aren’t are more “casual” in Arkansas than in Washington, and the Marx and Frederick Engels “supported Radical Recon­ really about whether the Clintons skimmed some money president is still adjusting. It may be true that this admin­ struction — the fight for political power by Blacks” after off a thrift and a realty company, or even over unethical istration is more ingrown than most, but the Clintons and the U.S. Civil War, he asks. meetings in the White House corridors to discuss the their cohorts are not that unusual. Montauk also cites Friedrich Sorge, a leader of the impending investigation. This flap, like other scandals, can That’s why Elliott Abrams — convicted of lying to Con­ International Working Men’s Association in Hoboken, be viewed as a barometer of the capitalist rulers’ confidence gress about illicit operations to arm counterrevolutionary New Jersey, who collaborated with Marx and Engels. in the Clinton presidency. mercenary thugs in Nicaragua under Ronald Reagan — Sorge, Montauk says, referred to freed slaves as “voting Its wake up time for Clinton. The president’s health care said what the Clintons did is legitimate and normal, until cattle” for the Republican Party. scheme is faltering. The employers want more thorough­ a scandal has been “declared.” “The organized Marxist movement here was preoccu­ going inroads against Social Security and other entitle­ The Whitewater affair gives working people an instruc­ pied with the intensifying struggle emerging between the ments. Clinton has failed to contain the Bosnia fiasco and tive glimpse of who the ruling class is and how it functions. has been unable to decisively advance imperialism’s inter­ It makes the idea that these people have any “moral ests in Russia. The administration is under fire for moving compass” laughable to most workers. DISCUSSION WITH to quickly escalate the trade war with Japan, and hasn’t Nevertheless, this corruption isn’t the real problem fac­ brought North Korea to heel. The president can’t even ing workers. Rightist demagogues such as Patrick Bu­ convince a jury to support the slaughter he and his attorney chanan try to whip up indignation around issues like OUR READERS general ordered last April in Waco, Texas. The U.S. capi­ Whitewater to win support for their anti-working-class talist class is sending him a warning. agenda. But endemic corruption is just one small facet of early unions and the capitalist bosses,” Montauk writes. If the employing class had utter confidence in Clinton, the the normal workings of capitalism. The correspondence of Marx and Engels and documents Whitewater inquiry would slide over easily. And if things This system generates wars, unemployment, hunger, and of the International Working Men’s Association (TWMA), take a turn for the better (from the capitalists’ point of view), racism on a daily basis, as the bosses seek to squeeze more however, show that these two leaders were partisans of the the hubbub about who met with whom, what papers were profits out of the sweat and blood of working people. fight for the rights of Black toilers in the former slave- shredded, and where the money went will die down. It’s the criminal capitalist system that working people holding states. Some columnists have wondered at how Hillary Clinton need to keep our fire on. In May 1865, in the wake of the victory of the North in the war against slavery, the General Council of the IWMA sent a letter — composed by Marx — to U.S. president Andrew Johnson. Johnson had taken office after the assas­ sination of President Abraham Lincoln in April. “Yours, Sir, has become the task to uproot by the law what has World Trade Center travesty been felled by the sword, to preside over the arduous work of political reconstruction and social regeneration,” Marx The trial and conviction of four defendants accused of A concurrent campaign by the big-business press served wrote. “A profound sense of your great mission will save bombing the World Trade Center in New York registered to convict those accused before the trial even began. you from any compromise with stem duties.” a blow to democratic rights. The U.S. government can be Warnings of “Arab terror” and “Islamic terror cells” were By June it was clear that Johnson was bending to the expected to use this fact as a precedent to victimize union aimed at winning acceptance for the democratic abuses pressure of the Southern oligarchy, which was moving to militants, fighters for Black and women’s rights, and op­ needed to gain a conviction. Cops launched a nationwide institute “Black Codes” and to block efforts by former ponents of its wars abroad. harassment crusade against legal political organizations, slaves to gain rights and land. “Johnson’s policy likes me When the government, in a related case, indicted Omar especially those of Palestinians. Big-business politicians not,” Marx wrote to Engels in June 1865. “The reaction Abdel Rahman and 14 others last August on sweeping used the charges to advance demands for furthering anti­ has already set in in America and will soon be much charges of seditious conspiracy, attorney Ronald Kuby democratic restrictions on immigrants. fortified if the present lackadaisical attitude is not ended made an appropriate comment. He said Washington’s case, The presumption of innocence was junked at the trial, immediately.” which goes to trial this September, was “so big, so vast, which was surrounded by police barricades, double metal Engels wrote back in July, “Mr. Johnson’s policy is less that it is almost impossible to prosecute, impossible to try, detectors, and extra cops to create a besieged atmosphere. and less to my liking, too . . . Without coloured suffrage and impossible for the jury to understand. They are hoping Even blatant contradictions to the prosecutors’ story were nothing can be done, and Johnson is leaving it up to the that the jurors will see just one large indistinguishable wad buried in this avalanche. A key witness for the government defeated, the ex-slaveowners, to decide on that. It is ab­ of Arab terrorists.” couldn’t even identify one of the witnesses — and instead surd.” This was exactly the federal prosecutors’ modus ope- pointed the finger at a juror. He “recognized” the defendant In a September 1865 letter ‘To the People of the United randi in the World Trade Center case. the next day. States of America,” leaders of the IWMA expressed con­ cern over erosion of the gains of the Civil War. After On day one of the trial, a government prosecutor admit­ The right to be presumed innocent is a right treasured by working people. The burden of proof is on the accusers congratulating the Americans on the great victory of the ted that evidence in Washington’s case was entirely cir­ war against slavery, the IWMA leaders advised, “Let your cumstantial. Not one witness or other piece of evidence to show hard evidence — in this case the government had none. citizens of to-day be declared free and equal, without could physically tie the defendants to the scene of the reserve. explosion. Instead, prosecutors spent week after week The same tactics will be employed in the upcoming trial “If you fail to give them citizens’ rights,” the General presenting shards of metal and simulating blasts. The of Abdel Rahman, and the April trial of eight West Virginia Council letter continued, “there will yet remain a struggle government’s strategy was to recount the explosion and its miners on frame-up conspiracy charges. The labor move­ for the future which may again stain your country with impact on those inside the building, including graphic ment should expose the racist anti-Arab hysteria and vio­ your people’s blood. The eyes of Europe and of the world descriptions of deaths, injuries, and terrifying experiences. lations of rights being peddled as justice in the capitalist are fixed upon your efforts at re-construction, and enemies The aim was to get the jury emotionally worked up. courts. are ever ready to sound the knell of the downfall of republican institutions when the slightest chance is given. ‘Remove every shackle from freedom’s limb’ “We warn you then, as brothers in the common cause, to remove every shackle from freedom’s limb, and your Cancel Africa’s foreign debt victory will be complete,” it stated. The decision to devalue the African franc brought mil­ such as rice. The cost of a range of needed commodities, In November 1866, after the defeat of Johnson and the victory of the Republicans in Congress who supported lions of working people closer to the knife’s edge of from antimalarial drugs to schoolbooks, has been doubled Radical Reconstruction, Marx wrote to Francois Lafargue survival. The governments of the African Financial Com­ — yanked beyond the reach of many workers and peasants. (his daughter’s father-in-law), “You will have been just as munity ostensibly made the choice. But in reality the deed The devaluation registers the relationship between the delighted by the defeat of President Johnson in the latest was done at the urging of the former colonial master — semicolonial countries of Africa and the imperialist ruling elections as I was. The workers in the North have at last Paris — which dominates much of the economic and po­ classes who grew fat off the sweat and blood of toilers in fully understood that white labour will never be emanci­ litical life in the 14 countries in the franc zone. those countries. Africa is a continent that was carved up pated so long as black labour is still stigmatised.” Working people throughout Africa confront calamitous by vultures: the bosses of Britain, France, Portugal, Bel­ In the February 21 review, I cited the letter Marx wrote social and economic conditions — from famines brought gium, and so on. As Thomas Sankara, leader of the 1983 to Engels in July 1877 after President Rutherford Hayes on by imperialist oppression to the deaths of half a million revolution in Burkina Faso, pointed out, when the colonial aided the violent overturn of Reconstruction by withdraw­ people annually from tuberculosis, a curable disease. powers were driven out new capitalist governments, sub­ ing troops from the South. Marx expressed his hope that servient to their former masters, grew up in their place. “The total wealth of Africa, with twice the population the workers movement, which was in the midst of a Today working people are squeezed between the two. of the United States, is little more than that of Belgium,” national railroad strike, would make an alliance with ex­ an article in the March 5 Economist stated. This underlines the truth of Fidel Castro’s assertion that ploited farmers and support the resistance of southern The protests and strikes that erupted in Senegal, Gabon, capitalism has nothing to offer humanity. Blacks. and elsewhere in West Africa are a sign of more instability In 1993 the total foreign debt owed by African govern­ Friedrich Sorge, who led the IWMA in the United States to come as Africa is wrapped more tightly into the world ments to creditors in the imperialist world reached almost for a number of years, exemplified the strengths and economic depression. The franc devaluation is a large-scale $229 billion, or a shocking 55 percent of the entire gross weaknesses of the IWMA leadership in die United States. move to “downsize” and “restructure.” These are terms that domestic product of the continent. Sorge carried out politics in a rather narrow milieu of workers in the United States, France, Britain, and else­ The debt is a vehicle for the massive transfer of wealth German-speaking immigrant workers, and he didn’t where in the imperialist world have become acutely famil­ created by the labor of workers and peasants into the readily lead the IWMA members to participate in die social iar with. coffers of the bosses in North America, Europe, and Japan. movements of the day. His view that many Blacks were The French ruling families hope the devaluation will Working people around the world have an obligation to manipulated by Republican politicians was accurate in make companies they own in Africa that export petroleum, demand that this crushing burden be lifted — and that the itself, but he erred in seeing that as the main fact, instead minerals, and agricultural products more fit to compete debt be completely cancelled. This is essential to uniting of focusing on the need to mobilize the ranks of labor, with their rivals on the world market. ourselves as a class with common interests in the face of Black and white, to take up defense of Reconstruction as The immediate effect is to skyrocket the price of staples the worldwide catastrophe that capitalism is preparing. a life-or-death question. —MAGGIE TROWE

14 The Militant March 21,1994 Workers conduct five-hour strike at Union Pacific This column is devoted to re­ Atlanta unionists support who make only $5 an hour. porting the resistance by working The company has denied people to the employers’ assault fight of Dallas workers the Occupational Safety on their living standards, work­ Some 40 unionists made an un­ and Health Administration ing conditions, and unions. expected visit to the corporate head­ access to the plants. We invite you to contribute quarters of Home Depot in Atlanta Representatives from short items to this column as a to show their solidarity with work­ ACTWU locals at Arrow way for other fighting workers ers fighting for a contract at one of Shirt in Austell and Cedar- around the world to read about the company’s suppliers in Texas. town, Georgia, and Green­ and learn from these important The workers demanded that Home wood Mills in Lindale, struggles. Jot down a few lines Depot pressure its suppliers to Georgia, as well as mem­ about what is happening in your come to terms with the union. The bers of the United Steel­ union, at your workplace or other action was organized by the south­ workers of America, Ser­ workplaces in your area, includ­ ern regional office of the Amalga­ vice Employees Interna­ ing interesting political discus­ mated Clothing and Textile Work­ tional Union, the building sions. ers Union (ACTWU) located in At­ trades unions, strik­ lanta. ing American Signature More than 7,000 members of the Home Depot, which owns a rap­ workers, staffers from United Transportation Union idly growing chain of stores selling ACTWU’s southern and (UTU) conducted a systemwide home repair materials, distributes southwestern regions, and other unionists, were part of the February 24 meet­ ing. □ N.J. textile workers work stoppage March 1 against the windows and screen doors made at Union Pacific railroad (UP). The four plants in the Dallas area. The accept concessions strike began at 2:00 p.m. Central plants — Skotty and HR Windows Members of ACTWU Standard Time and was halted less — are owned by Joseph Fojsatek. in northern New Jersey than 5 hours later when U.S. district Last spring, workers at the four sites were dealt a blow when a judge Thomas Shanahan issued a voted overwhelmingly to join long-standing basic con­ temporary restraining order. ACTWU. Since then, Fojsatek has tract covering 1,800 tex­ In the Salt Lake City, Utah, refused to bargain seriously with tile workers at 29 plants switch yard the strike shut down the union and the workers, who was broken. Workers at operations, including at the diesel remain without a contract and are 11 of the plants are now repair facility, where workers are subject to harassment, firings, and working without a con­ organized by other unions. miserable wages and working con­ tract, while a state-medi­ The main issue in the strike was ditions. ated concession agree­ the railroad’s implementation of “The conditions are very hot in ment is in place. Workers United Steelworkers of America members picket Wheeling-Pittsburgh new work rules in a number of west­ the plant, up to 150 degrees,” ex­ at six plants are working Steel Corp. in Martins Ferry, Ohio, March 1 during two-day strike. The ern terminals in violation of the plained a worker, who has been under the contract pro­ 4,700 workers from eight plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia union contract Union Pacific has employed at one of Fosjatek’s posed by the union. returned to work after a tentative agreement was reached. The proposed been requiring conductors on some plants for three years and recently Some 1,600 members contract includes work rule changes, a $2,250 bonus, and wage increase. freight trains to leave their trains and lost his job due to union activity. of ACTWU locals 1733, drive company vehicles in order to “We are constantly harassed by the 1790, and 1932 struck 23 deliver paperwork and carry out supervisors. We start at 6:00 in the textile, dyeing, and print­ three-year contract and an increase imposed their final offer, which in­ other duties. With the conductor morning and often they won’t let us ing shops Oct. 23, 1993, after their in the number of machines each cludes overtime pay only after 40 gone, the train continues toward the eat until 2:00 in the afternoon. We contract expired. worker is required to run from two hours worked and a freeze on terminal with the engineer as the get no help when we’re injured; we In mid-December, the strikers to three. wages. □ only crew member on board. Engi­ have no protective clothing.” ratified a government-negotiated A month later, 360 strikers nar­ neer-only-run trains are not allowed Of the 850 workers at the four fa­ agreement with the 10-member rowly voted to return to work with­ The following people contributed to under the union contract and are a cilities, 340 suffered injuries in companies of the Silk and Rayon out a contract. Ten companies, this column: Susan LaMont, mem­ safety hazard to workers and the 1993, including being cut by glass, Printers & Dyers Association by a members of C.P. Associates, have ber o f ACTWU Local365 in Austell, public. respiratory problems, and back inju­ 587-362 vote. Two independent refused to lay off the scabs, so only Georgia; Lisa Hickler and Eileen The judge included a ban on forc­ ries caused by lifting heavy loads. companies signed die agreement at a handful of strikers have been re­ Koschak, members of UTU Local ing train service employees from op­ The company offers health insur­ a later date. called to work. The rest were put on 1366 at Union Pacific in Salt Lake erating off-track vehicles as part of ance for $37 a week — a cost that’s The contract includes a modest a list and will be called back as City; and Nancy Boyasko in New­ the temporary restraining order. □ way out of reach for most workers, wage increase for each year of the openings occur. The bosses have ark, New Jersey.

Radical Reconstruction war of occupation as the new colo­ days after the strike, our local UPS nial settler state came into existence driver delivered the weekly bun­ In Maggie Trowe’s article on and in the process disinherited an dle of the M ilitant to the Seattle “Marx and Engels on the United entire Palestinian population. From Pathfinder Bookstore and told us States” in the February 21 issue of being victims of one of history’s he had a 98-pound box with no the Militant, she notes that “Marx worst crimes, these Jews were warning labels and no one to help and Engels supported Radical Re­ transformed into the tools of colo­ him that day. “We should have construction — the fight for politi­ nial oppression. struck for more than one day,” he cal power by Blacks. . . ” after the The triumph of Schindler’s List concluded. Civil War. I would be interested in lies in its searing and brutally accu­ The day after the strike UPS an­ her reference. There is no mention rate portrayal of the true face of nounced it was filing a $50-million of this in their speeches, documents barbarism in our epoch — fascism. lawsuit against the Teamsters, and letters in the period from 1866 The failure of Schindler's List claiming damages to its “business” to 1877. Friedrich Sorge, a leader lies in taking an historic fact — the and “reputation” due to the strike. of the International Workingmen’s migration of a mass of holocaust The bosses are seeking to pressure Association (the First International) survivors to Palestine — and, to the the union, taking advantage of di­ from the United States, was quite accompaniment of a war song, visions amongst the Teamster offi­ backward on this issue. He referred transforming this fact into a crude cialdom, many of whom did not to the Freedmen as “voting cattle” artistic metaphor whose patent pur­ support the strike. In Washington for the Republican Party in his his­ pose is to advocate the political vi­ state, for example, only Local 174, tory of the U.S. labor movement. sion of Zionism, which is a dead which represents 1,600 UPS work­ The organized Marxist movement end. ers in the Seattle area, struck. Strik­ here was preoccupied with the in­ John Rubinstein ers here told me that Tacoma union tensifying struggle emerging be­ New York, New York members had voted to strike, but tween the early unions and the cap­ spective it advances, and because song sings the beauties of the Old their local president refused to call italist bosses. of the disgraceful manner this was City and a yearning to be there them out. expressed. once more. It came out a short UPS strike Paul Montauk The UPS suit is an attempt to The war has just ended. while before the Six Days War, Seattle was one of the cities Oakland, California punish the workers for striking and Schindler has left his factory and whose result was Israel’s brutal where the February 8 Teamsters to intimidate and weaken the labor occupation of the Gaza Strip, the strike at United Parcel Service bid farewell to the hundreds of Jews movement everywhere. We should ‘Schindler’s List’ Golan Heights, and the West Bank, (UPS) was very effective and I who worked for him and whose give all the support we can to broth­ lives he courageously saved. What including the old city of Jerusa­ think it is worth adding a few points I write this letter having just re­ ers and sisters at UPS as this con­ lem. With the war’s end, a final to the report that appeared in the turned from seeing Steven Spiel­ are they to do? Where should they frontation continues. berg’s movie Schindler’s List. This go? A Russian soldier tells them not verse was added celebrating the February 21 Militant. much talked about and reviewed to go east because there, they are just accomplished conquest of the As the report in the Militant in­ Harvey McArthur movie, centered around the sys­ hated. But neither should they go Old City. dicated, UPS backed off a little in Seattle, Washington tematic extermination of over 6 west. Then, looking beyond he It is one of history’s travesties order to end the one-day strike, million Jews by the Nazis during says, “But over there, there is a that in the aftermath of the Holo­ agreeing to talk with the union on The letters column is an open World War II, and the efforts of city.” As the camera closes in on caust, Zionism should have stepped how to implement the higher forum for all viewpoints on sub­ one man, Schindler, to save the their faces, their gaze is into the forward to embrace tens of thou­ weight limit, to provide special la­ jects of general interest to our lives of over 1,000 men, women, distance and filled with hope. The sands of Jews who survived the bels for heavy packages, and to readers. Please keep your letters and children, is both powerful and music that accompanied this image concentration camps and bring have two workers on hand to handle brief. Where necessary they will moving. And yet, one of the con­ stuck in my throat like so much them over to what was then Pales­ boxes weighing more than 70 lbs. be abridged. Please indicate if cluding scenes stirred me to anger sawdust. tine. Once there, many of these sur­ However, the company immedi­ you prefer that your initials be because of the utterly false per­ Called “Jerusalem of Gold,” the vivors were drafted into Zionism’s ately violated the agreement. Two used rather than your full name.

March 21,1994 The Militant 15 London vigil protests rightist attack

BY IAN GRANT “They’re doing what the BNP LONDON — More than 400 [British National Party] tried in opponents of racist violence the elections last year,” said one gathered by candlelight here student. February 11 to protest the latest Last September, Derek Beack- and most horrific attack in a se­ on, a racist right-wing politician ries of organized assaults by in the BNP, won an election for rightist thugs. the local council in Tower Ham­ Muktar Ahmed, a 19-year-old lets. There are allegations that student was attacked February 8 BNP supporters intimidated As­ by a gang of up to 30 rightists, ian voters near polling booths yards from his home in London’s prior to Beackon’s win. Local predominantly Asian and work­ community leaders also link an ing-class East End. As he lay on increase in rightist attacks over the ground he was kicked and the last five months to his victory. beaten with weapons. All the Some 30,000 people marched in blows were aimed at his head, the vicinity of the BNP’s organiz­ where he sustained three separate ing headquarters last October to fractures. His injuries were so se­ protest against racism and rightist vere that his own father was un­ attacks. able to identify him. Working “Some people say we should people have been shocked by pic­ just go and get one of them [right­ tures of Ahmed that appeared in ists], but there’s another side to national newspapers and on tele­ that argument,” a student said. vision. “It’s not just the BNP, the police Five men were arrested and re­ are behind them and we’ve al­ leased on bail within a short time ready got nine of us arrested.” of the attack taking place. Militant/Celia Pugh Demonstration against racist assaults last October in East London, England. The British Trades Union In a letter printed in the na­ This assault occurs as the com­ Congress has called a national antiracist demonstration March 19 to protest continuing attacks. tional daily The Guardian, Ku­ munity is mobilizing for the March mar Murshid, chairperson of 19 national antiracist demonstra­ the Tower Hamlets Anti-Racist tion called by the British Trades Union Con- the court February 1 at a hearing for the youth, Militant reporters February 16 that security Committee, called on antiracist fighters to gress (TUC). The march was initiated by the The Tower Hamlets College Student Union on campus had been tightened by the au- back the March 19 TUC demonstration, Transport and General Workers Union fol- had a prominent banner at the picket and thorities and the students had been sub­ lowing a September 8 assault that left 17- many of those present were students from the jected to a heavy police presence in the Asylum and immigration bill year-old Quddus Ali in a coma. Police took college. They led the crowd in chants of immediate area. Students had been pre- As Britain’s economic and social crisis weeks to make any arrests in connection with “Racist Attack: We Fight Back!,” and “Who vented from leaving the college in groups deepens government attacks on foreign- that beating. are the Racists? Police are the Racists!” larger than four or five, they said. bom workers are being stepped up. One Nine Bengali youth were arrested on A gang of rightists wielding batons and Several students expressed interest in the hundred ninety passengers on a flight land- charges of rioting following a police attack on garden implements leaped from a van Feb- Militant coverage of the ANC Youth League ing from Jamaica December 21 for a vaca- a vigil organized shortly after Ali’s beating. ruary 10 and set upon Tower Hamlets Col- Congress, which reported on the debate over tion with relatives were detained by immi- More than 80 supporters of the Tower ^e8e students eating lunch in a park beside how to respond to Inkatha attacks in South gration cops on suspicion of trying to enter Hamlets Nine Defence Campaign picketed c°dcge. Student Union officials told Africa’s townships. the country illegally. Twenty-seven were deported Christmas day. An asylum and immigration appeals bill being debated by Parliament aims to further Athens steps up drive against Macedonia reduce the rights of visitors refused entry to Britain by removing their right to appeal. BY NATASHA TERLEXIS and disagreements among their more pow­ Athens “is a valued ally,” its “latest threat to In his message of solidarity following the Three weeks after it announced it was erful imperialist competitors in an effort to commerce and its invitation to a wider Balkan assault on Ahmed, Communist League closing its ports to goods shipped to and further their own interests in the region. war go too far.. . . It needs to be told firmly, leader Pete Clifford pointed to the impor­ from the Republic of Macedonia, the Greek They have openly allied themselves with the by its friends, that its tactics on Macedonia are tance of opposing all attacks on immigrant government is continuing to whip up nation­ Serbian and Russian governments in their dangerously wrong.” workers. “We join with antiracist fighters alist sentiment against the former Yugoslav endeavors. This course has put the Greek Former prime minister Konstantinos Mit- everywhere in condemning the growing province. Athens has also shut down the government on a collision course with many sotakis has raised the possibility of splitting racist attacks in the area,” Clifford said. Greek consulate in Skopje, Macedonia’s members of the European Union, whose from New Democracy, citing his opposition “These attacks are inspired by the govern­ capital. Five ships carrying goods to or from rotating presidency Athens currently holds. to the embargo as one of the bones of con­ ment’s racist policies as they deepen their Macedonia have been blockaded in Thes­ The measures were announced the day tention. Also, Theodoras Pangalos, Alter­ offensive against working people. We join saloniki in the northern Greek province of after a well-orchestrated march of tens of nate Foreign Affairs Minister in charge of with you in demanding the prosecution and Macedonia. thousands in Thessaloniki called by the Or­ European Affairs, has expressed concern punishment to the full extent of the law of One oil company after another stated they thodox church hierarchy. Schools were emp­ with allowing the issue of the former Yugo­ the individuals responsible for carrying out would voluntarily abide by the ban on sell­ tied out and teachers shepherded students to slav republic of Macedonia to “dominate these brutal and vicious attacks. We pledge ing oil to Macedonia. The leaderships of the the rally site. The nationalist, pro-war slo­ public opinion.” to redouble our efforts to build the broadest unions representing oil workers and dock gans ranged from “Macedonia, 4,000 years The only party in Parliament to oppose possible support for the March 19 TUC workers have added their voices to the pro­ Greek” to ‘Traitors — Americans” and ‘To the embargo is the Communist Party, which antiracist demonstration.” war campaign demanding the compliance of arms! To arms! Lets take Skopje.” In the has also objected to schools being shut by all companies with the measures. Earlier in nearby city of Drama, streets with American administrative decision for these rallies. The Ian Grant is a member of the Transport and the year the oil workers union had itself names like Roosevelt had their plaques tom Communist Party is also organizing public General Workers Union. Joyce Fairchild carried out a boycott of oil shipments to the down and their names changed overnight. protests in solidarity with rightist forces in and John Shrapnell also contributed to this republic. On March 3 another demonstration was Serbia and Bosnia. article. What has been put in place is a virtual held in the port city of Pireas near Athens. embargo of Macedonia, which was getting Schools, shops, and public offices were its oil through Greece. Using other routes closed so that students and employees could such as through Albania or Bulgaria would participate. Thousands took part in the gov­ be much more difficult because of the lack ernment-sanctioned event. Another rally of facilities and greater distances involved. was held the same day in the city of Corinth. Seventy percent of Macedonia’s trade passes Schools there were also closed by the local through Greek ports. After Italy and Ger­ government decision. The actions have in many, Greece is the third largest exporter to general been smaller than those a year and Macedonia, with 65 percent of that trade a half ago. Demonstrations like these have being in petroleum products. taken place in several cities and plans are These measures come on the heels of the being set for another mass rally in Thes­ long-expected recognition of Macedonia by saloniki on March 31. the U.S. government. Their stated aim is to The three main capitalist parties — the put the squeeze on Macedonia to change its social democratic PASOK, New Democ­ name, flag, and sections of its constitution. racy, and Political Spring — have all enthu­ Athens claims the use of the name Macedo­ siastically lined up behind the government’s nia by the former Yugoslav republic implies actions, beating the drums against “Skopje’s territorial claims on the northern Greek intransigence.” province of that name. This question has Disagreement within the capitalist class, been part of the propaganda arsenal of the however, is also being expressed more openly Greek rulers in their efforts to play a role in, as the international repercussions of the em­ and benefit from, the Balkan crisis. They are bargo are weighed out. A March 8 editorial in attempting to take advantage of the conflicts the New York Times commented that while

16 The Militant March 21,1994