. AUSTRALIA$2.50 . BELGIUM BF60 · CANADA$2.50 · FRANCE FF10 · ICELAND KR200 · NEW ZEALAND $2.50 SWEDEN KR15 · UK £1.00 · U.S. $1.50 INSIDE New Mexico coal miners: 'No contract, no work' TH£ -PAGE3 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 64/NO. 27 JULY 10, 2000 Meat packers 'Our campaign is a voic~ in St. Paul rebut bosses' for fighting workers' antiunton• • ·Socialist Workers launch presidential ticket campatgn• BY TOM FISHER BY BRIAN WILLIAMS ST. PAUL, Minnesota-The bosses at NEW YORK-"The Socialist Workers Dakota Premium Foods are stepping up their campaign is made up of workers, farmers, campaign against the workers there fight­ and youth who are in the midst of struggles ing to win union representation in this and reach out to every other place where slaughterhouse in South St. Paul. working people are taking a stand," stated Dakota Premium employs a little more SWP presidential candidate James Harris at than 200 workers, and kills and cuts some the launching of the party's national elec­ 800 head of cattle a week. The big majority tion campaign, held June 25 at Columbia are workers born in Mexico or other Latin University. American countries. There are also some "We are the most realistic campaign. We workers who are Black, Chicano, and white. tell the truth about what is going on in the Over the past six months the company has world. We explain that the root cause of the jacked up the speed of the production line problems all workers face is capitalism. The to carry through a huge increase in produc­ socialist campaign will provide class an­ tion. This forced march has resulted in nu­ swers to what is confronting working merous on-the-job injuries. people," continued Harris, "and will explain On June 1, workers carried out a sit-down that we need socialist solutions, and that to strike against these conditions. That action achieve this workers and farmers need to served as a launching pad for the ongoing make a revolution and take political power." fight by the workers to organize themselves Joining Harris on the platform was into Local 789 of the United Food and Com­ Margaret Trowe, the SWP's candidate for mercial Workers union. On June 12, some vice president. Both candidates have de­ 200 meat packers and their supporters cades of experience as working-class fight­ marched from the union hall to the plant gate ers and internationalists. Harris is a garment as part of this campaign. worker in Atlanta and a member of the More than half of the workers have signed Union ofNeedlt>tr<!des, Industrial and Tex­ . ·- Militantlleft,Aaron Armstrong; right, Hilda Cuzco · cards indicating they want the UFCW in the tile Employees. Trowe is a meat packer in Socialist Workers candidate for president James Harris and vice presidential candi­ plant. A union representation election is Austin, Minnesota, and member of the date Margaret Trowe announce election campaign at June 25 rally in New York. scheduled for July 21. ·United Food and Commercial Workers Four workers in the kill department quit union. (See candidates biographies on pages under pressure from the company June 23 growing number of workers on strike here ing for a union. 6-7) after management cut their wages and in in the financial center of world capitalism­ Kern described her participation in a la­ The meeting was also the launching of some cases forced them to do jobs that were the campaign of Samantha Kern, 21, a na­ from longshoremen on the picket lines at bor rally 10 days earlier, sponsored by the Continued on Page 9 tionalleader of the Young Socialists, for U.S. Domino Sugar to workers at the Museum New York Central Labor Council, against Senate in New York. Kern pointed to the of Modern Art to janitors in Manhattan fight- Continued on Page 5 Cuban Protesters denounce execution of Gary Graham six-year-old BY LEA SHERMAN by several guards and taken by force to the cent Black man that is being murdered ..... AND DAVE FERGUSON death chamber, where he was killed by an What is happening here is an outrage," he HUNTSVILLE, Texas-Amid outrage injection of poison. declared. returns to by many around the country and interna­ In his final statement Graham, who had Graham said his execution was "nothing tionally, Gary Graham, 36, was executed taken the name Shaka Sankofa, affirmed as more than state-sanctioned murder, state­ here June 22 by the government of Texas. he had for the last 19 years that he did not sanctioned lynching, right here in America, Havana Carrying out his vow to "fight like hell" kill Bobby Lambert, the charge for which and right here tonight.... They know I'm every step ofthe way, he was strapped down he was sentenced to death. "I'm an inno- innocent. They've got tlie facts to prove it." BY MARTIN KOPPEL Thanking all those who had campaigned Elian Gonzalez, his father Juan Miguel for his freedom, he ca:lled for a campaign Gonzalez, and immediate family returned for a moratorium on all executions. "People home to Cuba June 28;hours after the U.S. must come together to stop the systematic Supreme Court rejected a final appeal by killing of poor and innocent Black people," distant relatives in Miami who sought to he stated. "Let the world see the barbarity keep the Cuban six-year-old in the United and injustice of what is really happening States. An injunction from the 11th Circuit here." Court of Appeals barring his removal from Graham was sent to death row at the age the United States expired that afternoon. of 17 on the testimony of a single witness Cubans across the island expressed their who said she saw him shoot Lambert elation over the success of their seven­ through her car windshield from about 30 month-long campaign to gain the return of feet away in a dimly lit grocery store park­ the boy to Cuba. ing lot. Prosecutors never produced any The Supreme Court issued a brief order physical evidence linking him to the case. rejecting the appeal filed by the Miami rela­ Graham's attorneys cited evidence that he tives and a separate emergency requ.est did not have adequate legal representation aimed at postponing the child's departure. at his trial. There are eyewitnesses, workers The emergency request was filed with Su­ at the grocery store, who say the gunman preme Court judge Anthony Kennedy, who was not Graham but a much shorter man; referred it to the full court. The order read these witnesses were never called during the in its entirety, "The application for stay pre­ trial. sented to Justice Kennedy and by him re­ Supporters, family, and friends as well as ferred to the court is denied. The petition opponents of the death penalty began gath­ for a writ of certiorari [the appeal] is de­ ering early outside the Huntsville prison, nied." Militant/Lea demonstrating to demand a reprieve for On June 1, a three-judge panel of the 11th June 22 rally outside Huntsville, Texas, prison against execution of Gary Graham. "I Graham and awaiting the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta had re­ am an innocent Black man that is being murdered," he. declared in his final statement. Continued on Page 8 Continued on Page 10 Miners in Australia strike against extended workday- page 4 Fiji farmer speaks on fight against rightist coup, military takeover BY DOUG COOPER Fijian farmers because he owns 12 acres of SYDNEY, Australia-In Fiji, the sugar­ freehold land. Small farmers lease anywhere cane harvest usually runs from June through from 5 to 10 acres. Most lrido-Fijian farm­ November. But in many parts of the coun­ ers are descended from indentured laborers try, small farmers, both indigenous Fijian who were brought to Fiji from India from and of Indian descent, refused to harvest 1879 to 1916 by the British colonial admin­ their crop in protest against the May 19 istration to work for Australian sugar giant right-wing coup by businessman George CSR in segregated, near-slavery conditions. Speight and the subsequent May 29 mili­ tary takeover. About one-third of Fiji's ex­ Many farmers work as cane cutters port revenue comes from sugar products. Many producers are too impoverished to Speight and his gunmen took Prime Min­ survive off the sale of their cane at harvest ister Mahendra Chaudhry and other politi­ time, so many also work as cane cutters in cians in the Fiji Labour Party-led govern­ gangs organized by foremen known as ment hostage in Parliament. A month and a sardars. The gangs move from farm to farm half after the crisis began, Chaudhry and 26 cutting the cane with machetes and loading others were still being held as Speight and it on trucks that take it to the processing the military continue to jockey for position mills. There are three mills on Viti Levu and on small questions while agreeing on the one on the island ofVanua Levu. Militant/Doug Cooper big ones, especially on the overthrow of the A member of the National Farmers May 31 demonstration in Canberra, Australia, of Fijians and supporters against over­ government. Union, which counts both indigenous and throw of Labour Party-led government. Farmers in Fiji waged a harvest boycott to Mohan Singh, 60, has worked his land lrido-Fijian farmers as members, Singh has protest May 19 rightist coup and subsequent military takeover. his entire life. He is a supporter of the "tried to convince people not to harvest." Labour Party, Fiji's only nonracial party, He summed up the initial view of many in which was founded in 1985.