AUGUST 31, 1973 25 CENTS VOLUME 37/NUMBER 31

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY /PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE Exgose new Teamster trickerY-

--

Militant/Howard Petrick More than 7,500 marched in funeral procession for Nagi Daifullah, Arab farm worker killed by a deputy sheriff. Cesar Chavez condemned new Teamster moves to divert attention from killings.

By HARRY RING said the growers, the Teamsters, told him the day before that Team­ sidered meaningful, he declared. ARVIN, Calif., Aug. 21- United and the police are responsible for sters union President Frank Fitz­ He recalled that the Teamsters Farm Workers Union President these deaths. simmons had pledged he would officials had signed sweetheart con­ Cesar Chavez has denied recent Chavez made his remarks at a notify the growers that Teamster tracts with lettuce growers in 1970 news reports that the Teamsters news conference following the fu- contracts stand repudiated. and then "repudiated" them. But, union had given up its grape con- neral procession for Juan de la Chavez branded Fitzsimmons's he pointed ·out, the hard fact is Cruz, a founding union member move as hypocritical. He pointed that the contracts not only for additional on-the-spot cover­ who was shot down on a picket out that Fitzsimmons had an­ remained in force but were age of the United Farm Workers line here last week. More than nounced as early as Aug. 10 that renewed just a few months ago. struggle, turn to pages 8-9. 5,000 farm workers marched in he was repudiating the contracts Chavez said the UFW intends to tracts in the Delano area and is in the funeral procession. This was and that Fitzsimmons's letter to bring the growers to the bargain­ effect leaving the grape workers the second burial of a slain farm the Delano growers simply re­ ing table by intensifying the grape to UFW jurisdiction. worker this week. On Aug. 17, peated that the contracts would boycott and the boycott of A& P Chavez charged that the an­ more than 7, 500 marched in the not be enforced. and · Safeway. He predicted the nouncement was designed as a funeral for N agi Daifullah. However, Chavez said, the con- present boycott would become even smokescreen to distract attention During the discussion with re- tracts still maintain full legal force. more effective than the one that from the fact that two members porters, Chavez said George . Nothing less than the legaldissolu­ forced the growers to terms of the UFW have been killed. He Meany, AFL-CIO president, had tion of the contraCts would be con- in 1970. In Brief THIS GRAND JURY HEARS CASE OF NCLC GOONS: Steven area, and the Control Office. Twelve of the Camp Allen Getzoff and George Turner, two National Caucus of La­ defendants have been convicted on a variety of charges WEEK'S bor Committee members identified as among those who as a result of the incident. have attacked members of the Socialist Workers Party Johnson faced eight charges carrying a possible sentence MILITANT and Communist Party, appeared for preliminary court of 100 years. The most serious charge was soliciting 3 Spiraling cost of eating hearings Aug. 2 in New York. to mutiny, a clear attempt to hold him personally respon­ The felony case against Getzoff was refered to a grand sible for the rebellion. Johnson was found not guilty on 4 Washington seeks deal jury, which heard testimony Aug. 13 from three mem­ this charge but was convicted on several minor counts. with Sihanouk bers of the SWP. The grand jury's action has not yet He has been sentenced to 18 months at hard labor, loss 5 VV A W case exposed as been announced. Getzoff is charged with taking part in of pay, and a bad-conduct discharge. frame-up a June 9 clubbing attack on the three SWP members that 6 Agnew caught with arm left Jesse Smith hospitalized with head injuries and a FORT WORTH FIVE OUT ON BAIL: The five Irish New Yorkers who have been imprisoned in Texas since in pie fractured arm. Jan. 29 have finally won their long battle to be released 7 Nixon's 'counteroffensive' The case of George Turner, arrested June 11 for an assault on two supporters of the Communist Party, was on bail. a flop bound over for trial. Getzoff was also arrested in this The Fort Worth Five were imprisoned on contempt 9 Houston teachers strike attack, but charges against him were dismissed when charges for refusing to answer a federal grand jury's for living wage the victims did not appear to testify. questions. The grand jury investigation attempted to link 12 Haitian refugees fight them to the illegal purchase of guns for alledged shipment to Ireland. for asylum SAN FRANCISCO TO VOTE ON CHILDCARE: Child Paul O'Dwyer, a lawyer for the Fort Worth Five, said 13 SWP holds 25th nat'l and Parent Action (CAPA) of San Francisco has filed that Watergate may have helped his clients "because it convention 15,000 signatures on petitions at City Hall to place a disclosed what kinds of things the government has been 14 Convention focuses on child-care initiative on the ballot in the November elections. doing." international questions Twelve thousand six hundred signatures are required. 15 Socialists map plans for CAPA is a coalition of community groups, parents, PICKETS PROTEST HARASSMENT OF IRISH AC­ TIVIST: More than 100 Irish Northern Aid members expansion teachers, trade unionists, and students who have joined together to place the child-care initiative before the voters. and supporters rallied in Philadelphia Aug. 19 to protest 16 Black feminists form The initiative states: "It shall be the policy of the people the continued detention of Daniel Cahalane. Cahalane, national organization of the City and County of San Francisco that low cost, a member of Irish Northern Aid, is being held for refusing 17 The Guardian: Debate quality child care be made available to all San Francisco to answer the questions of a federal grand jury in Phila­ on China children. Child care shall include infant care, pre-school delphia. He and three other leaders of the Philadelphia Irish community, Colm Friel, Dan Duffy, and Neil Byrne, 18 The 'Prague Spring'­ and after school programs. Policy shall be made by the parents and faculties at each center. Funding shall be were subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury Interview with Jiri Pelikan procured by the City and County of San Francisco." investigating arms shipments to Northern Ireland. 21 Militant protests hit 3 The demonstrators carried picket signs saying "U.S. Detroit auto plants WOMEN TO CELEBRATE AUG. 26: Aug. 26 is the Justice Department stop doing Britain's dirty work. Re­ 24 Angry Black workers fifty-third anniversary of the winning of women's suffrage. lease Dan Cahalane" and "Don't make Ireland another close Chrysler plant On Saturday, August 25, activities will be held around Watergate. You bug Dan Cahalane, now we bug you the country to focus public attention on women's liberation until he is released." demands. Cahalane is now being held without bail, a ruling that In New York, a rally and women's festival will be is being appealed. Letters of protest can be sent to the 2 In Brief held in Battery Park from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The day's U.S. Attorney, Ninth and Market Streets, Philadelphia, 10 In Our Opinion activites are sponsored by the National Organization for Pa. 19107 Letters Women (NOW), Women's Political Caucus, New York N.Y. SWP MAYORAL CANDIDATE FILES PETITIONS: 11 By Any Means Necessary University Women's Liberation, Women's National Abor­ Norman Oliver, Socialist Workers Party candidate fm National Picket line tion Action Coalition (WONAAC), Feminist Party, and other women's organizations. Speakers at the rally will mayor of New York, has filed 26,128 signatures of reg­ include Wilma Scott Heide, president of NOW; Susan La­ istered voters on SWP independent nominating petitions. Mont, national coordinator of WONAAC; and Brenda The law requires 7,500 signatures for mayoral candidates. WORLD OUTLOOK Feigen-Fasteau of the American Civil Liberties Union. Oliver filed the signatures Aug. 21 on behalf of himself 1 Pompidou forced to free At President's Park in Washington, D.C., an ali-day and eight other SWP nominees, whose candidacies require a smaller number of signatures. These include Maxine Krivine festival will feature displays, booths, and speakers. Williams, Mark Friedman, and James Mendieta, candidates 2 Workers control in A Women's Day demonstration in St. Louis will call for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), as for borough-wide races in Brooklyn; B. R Washington French watch factory will rallies in Bloomington, Ind., and Atlanta. and Richard Ariza, candidates for borough-wide races 4 Israeli skyjack fails to Passage of the ERA, child care, equal pay, and im­ in Manhattan; and Eva Chertov, candidate in the District capture Palestinian leaders plementation of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion 3 city council race. are some of the central issues the Aug. 25 activities will The SWP also filed signatures in Nassau County on focus on. Aug. 21 for Frank Manning, who is running for Nassau County executive. -MIRTA VIDAL If you subscribe to The Militant and plan to move soon, don't forget that the post office does not for­ ward newspapers. Send your old address label THE MILITANT and your new address into The Militant business YOUR FIRST office at least two weeks before you move to ensure miss issues. VOLUME 37/NUMBER 31 that you will no-t any ISSUE? AUGUST31, 1973 CLOSING NEWS DATE-AUGUST 22, 1973 IRS DISBANDS WITCH-HUNTING DIVISION: The cli­ SUBSCRIBE Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS mate created by the Watergate scandals is forcing the Business Manager: SHARON CABANISS Southwest Bureau: HARRY RING government to retreat from its campaign of harassment TO THE against radical organizations. It has now been announced Published weekly by The Militant Publishing Ass'n., that the "special services starr• of the Internal Revenue 14 Charles lone, New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: Service will be disbanded. This division of the IRS was MILITANT Editorial Office (212) 243-6392; Business Office (212) 929-3486. Southwest Bureau: 1107 1/2 N. Western set up in 1969 to investigate "extremist" groups. Its pur­ WATERGATE: Nixon's few remaining friends still insist he's Ave., los Angeles, Calif. 90029. Telephone: (213) 463- pose, according to the IRS, was to investigate the financial innocent. But the majority of the American people know 1917. resources of political organizations and "check the income­ he's guilty. Read The Militant for weekly socialist analysis Correspondence concerning subscriptions or changes tax status of the organizations and their principals." of address should be addressed to The Militant Business of the Watergate scandal. Office, 14 Charles lone, New York, N.Y. 10014. In announcing the decision, Commissioner Donald Second-doss postage paid at New York, N.Y. Sub­ Alexander said that the division will continue to investigate scriptions: Domestic: $5 a year; foreign, $8. By first­ tax-resistance organizations and "tax rebels, but," Introductory oller-S1/3months class moil: domestic and Canada, $25; all other coun­ Alexander admitted, "political or social views, 'extremist' ( ) $1 for three months of The Militant. tries, $41. Air printed matter: domestic and Canada, or otherwise, are irrelevant to taxation." ( ) $2 for three months of The Militant and three months >32; Mexico and the Caribbean, $30; latin America and Europe, $40; Africa, Australia, and Asia (including of the International Socialist Review. USSR), S50. Write lor sealed air postage roles. CAMP ALLEN DEFENDANT WINS PARTIAL VIC­ { ) $5 for one year of The Militant For subscriptions airmailed from New York and then TORY: The court-martial of A.Q. Johnson on charges ( ) New { ) Renewal posted from london directly: England and Ireland, l1.20 stemming from a rebellion at the Camp Allen brig in for 10 issues, l4.50 lor one year; Continental Europe, Norfolk, Va., last November, ended in a partial victory NAME------l1.50 lor 10 issues, l5.50 for one year. Send banker's ADDRESS ______draft directly to Pathfinder Press, 47 The Cut, london, this month. SE1 8ll, England. Inquire for air roles from london at Johnson had been singled out as the "ringleader" of CITY------STATE------ZIP------the some address. the rebellion, during which Black prisoners, reacting to 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily racist harassment, took over a dormitory, a cell-block represent The Militant1 S views. These ore expressed in editor iol s.

2 Meat comQ.anies raking it in Cost of eating spirals at fastest rate ever By DICK ROBERTS down, industry sources said. The only a massive and increasing export of Herbert Stein, chairman of the Presi­ NEW YORK- The meat monopolies move that could halt the impending U. S. farm products that decreases the dent's Council of Economic Adivsers, are putting Americans through a wave of closings, they added, is an supply here and all the more allows told the American Bar Assbciation re­ wringer with the sharpest climb offood immediate removal of the ceiling on the U.S. monopolists to jack up their cently, "we are going to be continu­ prices ever recorded. The steepest rises beef prices.... " prices. This begins with grain itself. ously confronted with choices between are in protein substitutes for beef, Having made their threats, the meat Wall Street Journal staff reporters higher prices and shortages." He which is being held off market shelves monopolists are sticking to them­ Norman Fischer and Gene Meyer added, "this is going to lead to hard by. the meat trusts. In New York in they have nothing to lose and every­ wrote from Chicago early this month -and many people will say bad­ the. first week of August, food prices thing to gain. By Aug. 16, 170 meat that "accelerating exports are threat­ decisions." soared 3. 9 percent in that week alone. plants had been closed around the ening to clean out U.S. grain bins, In other words, Stein urges surrender At an annual rate that works out to country and 728 were on reduced portending short supplies and even to the foodcprice blackmail. If the mo­ 203 percent! operations. There are 11,157 em­ higher food prices for months to come." nopolists hold back food to break the In that one week prices for chicken ployees currently laid off. The Wall Street Journal reporters back of the government controls, give zoomed up 24 percent. Chicken prices Feedlot operators-who in "normal" cited an official of a Kansas City· up the controls. A cynical comment have climbed 49 percent since I resident times fatten cattle on a diet of wood milling company who declared, "We're going around Washington is, "the only Nixon ended food price ceilings except pulp and groundupnewspapers-were actually on the verge of a panic." answer to higher food prices is ... for beef July 18. Bacon climbed from reported by Business Week Aug. 11 Since Phase 4 was announced July higher food prices." $1.43 a pound to $1.77, up 23 per­ to be "putting cattle on holding 18, the price of wheat in Chicago has There are other answers, but they cent in the same period; pork chops rations," while they wait for the prices climbed more than 40 percent. Corn don't lie in the direction of the bank­ to rise. What kind of feed this amounts and soybeans, the basic feed crops for rupt policies of the federal government. to is anyone's guess. cattle, hogs, and poultry, are . also The same issue of Business Week shooting up rapidly. Chicago corn Wages should be tied to prices also reported the profits of major U. S. prices rose 27 percent in the last through escalator clauses that auto­ corporations for the second quarter month. These feed price increases will matically raise wages when prices go of 1973-April to June. "The profits be passed on to consumers in the next up. Union and consumer price-watch boom rolls on," Business Week de­ months and years. Food shoppers face committees should be set up to monitor clared. It reported "second-quarter a virtual catastrophe in the super­ prices, and provide week-to-week re­ after-tax earnings at better than a $70- markets in the months ahead. ports on actual increases in the cost billion seasonally adjusted annualrate And there is no relief coming from of living. The organized labor move­ -up more than 30% from the $53.4- the Nixon administration. Nixon's top ment should take the lead in this strug­ billion rate of the second quarter of advisers have claimed that they are gle, which is becoming a dire emer­ 1972." incapable of doing anything about it. gency for millions of Americans. Thus the profit rise for all U.S. industry was 30 percent, at a time when workers' real wages are being undercut by spiraling prices. How did the beef monopolists fare in this profit Bacon: up 23 percent bonanza? Iowa Beef Processors, the largest meat-packing firm, chalked up a whopping 120 percent profit in­ rose from $1.67 a pound to $2.06, crease; the profit increase for Missouri up 23 percent; and eggs, from 81 Beef Packers, the second biggest firm, cents a dozen to $1.04, up 28 per­ was 415 percent. That's right, 415 per­ cent. cent. Beef monopolies are . at the center of the meat price squeeze. They don't Food shortages deny it either; they boast about it. As despicable as the fantastic profit Last March, as meat prices across gouge of the meat monopolies is, it is the country were soaring, the White only one aspect of the inflation of food House finally imposed a supposed prices, which is an international prob­ ceiling on meat prices. And when the lem and one that threatens to get much President announced "Phase 4," lifting worse before it gets better. the ceiling on most food prices, he A worldwide shortage of food lies declared that the ceiling on beefwould behind the shortage of food in the remain in effect until Sept. 12. Since United States and the sharp upward the beef companies know they will be momentum of U.S. food prices. For­ able to raise prices then, they have eign inflation coupled with the devalua­ simply withheld their stocks. tion of the dollar has made U. S. food The Wall Street JournalreportedJuly goods cheaper to foreign purchasers, 26, "Starting Monday, beef-packing even though they are selling at higher plants across the nation will be closing prices abroad than here. The result is PUSH, UA W back Chi. anti-inflation action By DIANE R UPP tant issue in the negotiations," he con­ manipulated for the benefit of the rich." out that Nixon has already admitted CHICAGO-A demonstration against tinued, "and it dramatizes one of the The Coalition for Jobs and Econom- his fear of demonstrations by Black Nixon's Phase 4 has been set here for main thrusts of the September 8th ic Justice has announced that the the and student protesters. Barrows said Sept. 8 by the Coalition for Jobs and demonstration- namely, the ruinous march will assemble at State and the strategy of the coalition must now Economic Justice. Endorsers of the inflation and high prices resulting from Wacker streets at 11 a.m. From there be to involve others-workers, old action so far include United Auto an economy of scarcity that is being it will proceed down State Street to a people; everyone-because "the crisis Workers President Leonard Woodcock; rally at the Grant Park Bandshell. is here." Jesse Jackson of Operation PUSH, a Woodcock, Jackson, and Jerry Wurf, To implement this strategy, the meet- Black civil rights organization; the president of the American Federation ing divided into workshops to make Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; of State, County and Municipal Em- concrete plans for involving Chicago and many other union officials and ployees (AFSCME), are slated to trade unions, high school and campus church, Black, and political groups. speak at the rally, students, Black organizations, homes Robert Johnson, director of UAW Sixty-seven unions and union rep- for the elderly, and civic groups. Region 4, hailed the demonstration as resentatives have already endorsed the Participants in the meeting included the "organizational beginning of what demonstration. These include Patrick representatives of the Chicago Teach- -I hope will be a broad national move­ Gorman, secretary-treasurer of the ers Union, the United Transportation ment seeking effective federal and state Amalgamated Meat Cutters; John Cole- Union, American Federation of Gov­ legislative action on the problems of man, president of the Building Service ernment Employees, AFSCME, Steel­ the unemployed, the underemployed, Workers Union; and Albert Fitzgerald, workers for Change, Chicago Peace the overtaxed and the overpriced." president of the UnitedElectricalWork- Action Coalition, Clergy and Laity In a letter sent to UAW locals in ers. Concerned, Student Mobilization Com­ the Illinois-Iowa Region 4 area, John­ The demonstration has also been mittee, Young Socialist Alliance, So­ son urged support for the demonstra­ endorsed by the Chicago Urban cialist Workers Party, Communist tion. "The date of the march and meet- League and the National Association Party, and various church and Black ing- September 8-is less than a week for the Advancement of Colored Peo- organizations. away from the expiration date­ ple. For more information or to September 14-of our UAW contracts About 100 people attended an Aug. volunteer to help build the Sept. 8 in Auto," he stated. 16 meeting of the Coalition for Jobs march and rally, call the Coalition for "The retaining and improving of our JACKSON: Supports Sept. 8 dem- and Economic Justice. Coalition di- Jobs and Econom.ic Justice at (312) cost-of-living wage clause is an impor- onstration. rector Reverend WillieBarrowspointed 373-3550.

THE MILITANT/ AUGUST 31, 1973 ia Washington seeks WATERGATE: 'Executive privilege' deal with Sihanouk Behind debate on By DICK ROBERTS Sino-Soviet affairs, Joseph Harsch, Everything is in place for a full-scale wrote Aug. 21, "A reneutralization un­ Nixon W'gate tapes resumption of U.S. bombing in Cam­ der Prince Sihanouk is preferred in bodia. In Washington, D. C., Urn Sim, Washington.... " Harsch believes the ambassador to the United States of that the alternative to Sihanouk is con­ the crumbling Lon Nol regime, has quest of Cambodia by Hanoi. appealed to the "moral obligation" of But Sihanouk is not biting so far. Washington not to betray "a small In an interview in Peking Aug. 21, country which has cast its fate with he attacked President Nixon for charg­ you." ing that he had approved of the secret Phnompenh was encouraged to take 1969 bombing of Cambodia. New this step by President Nixon's belli­ York Times correspondent JohnBurns cose address to the Veterans of For­ reported the Sihanouk interview: "It is eign Wars in New Orleans, Aug. 20. futile for Americans and others to ap­ Nixon attacked the compromise with peal for a negotiated settlement that Congress that he agreed to six weeks would place him at the head of a coali­ ago to halt the U.S. bombing of Cam­ tion government, because such a solu­ bodia Aug. 15. He said "this congress­ tion is advanced only as a means of ional act undermines the prospect of perpetuating America's neocolonialism world peace by raising doubts in the [ Sihanouk] said. minds of both friends and adversaries "Besides, he went on, he is power­ concerning the resolve and capacity of less to prevent a Communist triumph, the Up.ited States to stand by interna­ even if he wanted to, which he does tional agreements when they are vio­ not. lated by other parties." "The Communists would provide Meanwhile, the Pentagon has an­ Cambodia with an independent, neu­ nounced that the Saigon regime could tralist government free from corrup­ "legally" use U.S. military equipment tion, something even he had been un­ to invade Cambodia to attack North able to accomplish in his years in Vietnamese "sanctuaries." Washington power, the Prince said." maintains that there are 43,000 North According to Times reporter Burns, By ANDY ROSE Anthony Lewis_ points out some pre­ Vietnamese troops in Cambodia. "Prince Sihanouk also said that am­ Oral argument was heard this week Watergate uses of executive privilege. While the bombing of Cambodia- is munition shortages and fear of renewed in U. S. District Court in Washington, He mentions General Maxwell Tay­ temporarily suspended, about 400 American intervention had persuaded D. C., on whether Richard Nixon must lor's refusal to testify about the 1961 U.S. fighter-bombers and 175 B- the Communists in Cambodia to put turn over tapes of his conversations Bay of Pigs invasion staged by the 52s remain on call in Thailand, in off any attempt to take Phnom Penh with former White House aides to W at­ Kennedy administration to overthrow Guam, and aboard aircraft carriers until the beginning of the dry season ergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. the Cuban revolution, and former in the region. President Nixon has said in December at the earliest." The tapes could prove that Nixon is Treasury Secretary John Connally's he will take "appropriate action" if the President Nixon kept up the deadly guilty in the Watergate break-in and refusal to discuss the Nixon admini­ situation warrants it. bombing of Cambodia until the last cover-up. Nixon, while insisting they stration's $200-million loan to Lock­ But Nixon's hands are tied. In the moment. By Aug. 15 there had been would show nothing of the sort, claims heed Aircraft Corporation. face of the overwhelming American 160 consecutive days of intensive B- he cannot release the tapes because the Nixon himself tried to cover up the "principle of confidentiality of presi­ CIA-ITT conspiracy against the Al­ dential conversations is at stake." lende government in Chile. Supposedly a challenge to this "prin­ He tried to keep hidden the Penta­ ciple" could provoke a "constitutional gon papers, which exposed years of .. J. crisis." Nixon's legal brief asserts that lies by Democratic and Republican the "issue here is starkly simple: Will administrations alike about the mo­ the Presidency be allowed to continue tives and methods of the Vietnam war. to function?" The government made every effort Whichever way Judge John Sirica to prevent the people from learning decides, the case will eventually be about its secret bombing raids on heard by the U. S. Supreme Court, Cambodia and North Vietnam, about perhaps in several months. A separate massacres like Mylai, and about the legal test may result from a suit by deliberate bombing of dikes and hos­ the Senate Watergate committee, head­ pitals. ed by Sam Ervin, also demanding When public opposition to the war access to the tapes. reached a peak in the May 1970 anti­ Nixon's defense of "executive privi­ war upsurge, the government drew up lege" based on "national security" has a secret plan for police-state opera­ focused attention on the government's tions against radicals and antiwar growing tendency to cloak its activi­ forces. ties in secrecy. Anthony Lewis, in his It concealed a nationwide campaign column in the Aug. 20 New York of infiltration and murderous police Times, writes that of all the occasions assaults against the Black movement. in American history when executive Neither Senator Ervin nor prose­ privilege has been invoked to refuse cutor Cox questions the fundamental information to Congress, two-thirds "right" of the capitalist government to have come in the last 20 years, and function this way. But they differ with one-third have come during Nixon's Nixon on how blatantly such tactics Wrlll:'ht-Mlaml Dally News 'Thanks a lot' presidency. can be used and whether to use them Power is increasingly centralized in against other sectors of the ruling the White House staff, hidden from class. And they are searching for a public view. "What was once a modest way to restore public confidence in disgust with the White House and its 52 bombing. In four-and-a-half years private office has become, under Mr. the government, so badly shaken by Watergate band of hoodlums, the pres­ the United States dropped more than Nixon, an establishment of more than the Watergate revelations. ident is unwilling to confront Congress 240,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia 2,000 persons," Lewis notes. They are not anxious to set prece­ on the Cambodia issue. alone, 50 percent more than the con­ The government needs secrecy be­ dents for forcing public disclosure of In these circumstances, Washington ventional explosives dropped onJ a pan cause it is the instrument for the rule government operations, as shown by appears to be seeking a compromise in World War II. of a tiny power elite, the moguls of the Senate committee's often-repeated with the former ruler of Cambodia, But this holocaust of destruction ut­ finance and industry. It must try to proposals for compromise, such as N orodom Sihanouk. U. S. News terly failed to crush the revolutionary hide information that exposes whose reviewing the tapes in a special closed & World Report, a magazine that often tide. The civil war continues with the interests it serves and the gangster meeting. reflects the Pentagon's viewpoint, de­ Lon Nol regime controlling only methods it uses to safeguard corporate The senators' current posture of de­ clared in its Aug. 27 issue that the Phnompenh and a few other cities. The profits around the world. Nixon's rhet­ fending constitutional liberties is just "general feeling (in Phnompenh] was rebels control some 85 percent of the oric about national security and exe­ as fraudulent as Nixon's appeal to that one of two things would happen: rest of the country. cutive privilege really mean that capi­ constitutional "separation of powers." Either the Government would crumple The demand of those who defend the talist security and capitalist privilege Both have the interests of capitalist through military defeat, or negotia­ right of the Cambodians and the other are his highest principles. minority rule at heart. tions with the insurgents would pro­ peoples of Indochina to determine their Recent Watergate fallout includes The interests of the majority of duce a new regime, perhaps one head­ own destiny must remain what it has more evidence of how giant corpora­ Americans would best be served by ed by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who been from the outset: total and im­ tions like ITT and the dairy trust full public disclosure of the Watergate was ousted in a coup that led to the mediate withdrawal of all U.S. forces bought favorable government rulings tapes and all the rest of the govern­ outbreak of war in 1970." and military support from Southeast with contributions to Nixon's cam­ ment's secret deals and undercover Christian Science Monitor expert on Asia. paign. activities as well.

4 WATERGATE: Agents·& provocateurs

Informers on stand, FBI in closet Case against VVAW exposed as frame-up By PETER SEIDMAN 400 indictments. However, only about AUG. 21- The government has been one-tenth of these indictments have led trying to use its sensational charge to convictions, and many of these have that the Vietnam Veterans Against the been on lesser charges. War (VVAW) plotted an assassination The government, perhaps not fully assault by automatic weapons, cross­ trusting the credibility of its own wit­ bows, and slingshots on the 1972 Re­ nesses, has also resorted towidespread publican Party convention to justify wiretapping at the trial, presumably many of its Watergate crimes against in an effort to find more damaging the antiwar and radical movements. evidence than it already has. Seven VVAW members and one sup­ At the end of July the defense caught porter, known as the Gainesville Eight, two FBI agents red-handed, holding are now on trial for these alleged a suitcase full of wiretapping equip­ crimes. The Nixon administration has ment in a broom closet adjacent to a been attempting to whip up a witch­ room where the defense was having a hunt atmosphere against the defen­ meeting. dants. Twenty-five special federal mar­ Further, five members of the jury shals have been brought into Gaines­ have sent Judge Arnow a letter saying, ville, supposedly to ensure order. "Perhaps the jury has become paranoid Federal district court Judge Winston [One could hardly blame it after seeing Arnow has imposed a gag-rule bar­ how many government informers were FBI agents Carl Ekblad eft) and Robert Romann rush past photographers after being ring only the defendants from talking brought forth as witnesses in the trial!]. caught red-handed in illegal attempt to bug meeting of Gainesville Eight and their to the press about their views on the But three-forths of our home telephone attorneys. case. The sweeping order also includes numbers have been acting strangely." the defendants' lawyers and "anyone cial.legal harassment operation in the Poe, took the stand. Poe not only Arnow told the defense itwasmaking acting in concert with the defendants" Internal Security Division of the Justice betrayed the confidence of defendant a "mountain out of a molehill" and as well. Department. His frame-up machine is Scott Camil, who had considered him assured the jury that their phones were One security measure taken by the part of the Nixon administration's se­ a close friend, but also kept the gov­ not being tapped. government in an attempt to smear cret effort "to get" its radical oppo­ ernment informed of what went on in The defendants telegrammed Sam the defendants with the brush of vi­ nents. His stock-in-trade is the use meetings between defendants and their Ervin, asking his Senate Watergate olence backfired on the first day of of government informers and pro­ lawyers in an earlier stage of the case. Committee to probe these illegal wire­ the trial. A special metal detecting de­ vocateurs. Such meetings are regarded as confi­ taps because "the executive and judi­ vice installed to screen all those en­ The four major witnesses in the dential. The revelation that Poe was cial branches of our government ap­ tering the courtroom was triggered Gainesville Eight case so far, for ex­ present at the meetings as an agent pear incapable of offering any im­ by three of the defendants, Scott Camil, ample, have all been government in­ directly gave the lie to sworn state­ mediate relief from such abuses of Alton Foss, and John Kniffen. Even formers. Leading this pack has been ments by the prosecution that no justice." However, as of yet, the de­ when the three removed their belts "star" witness William Lemmer. Lem­ agents or informers were present in fense has received no reply from the and shoes, the electronic metal detec­ mer served at one · time as the Ar­ these sessions. Ervin committee. tors still signaled danger because the kansas state coordinator of theVVAW. Despite this outrageous violation of Support did come, however, on Aug. machines had been set off by shrapnel He is a former paratrooper and Green the privileged relationship between at­ 4, when approximately 1,000 people, remaining in their bodies from Viet­ Beret who has a history of mental torney and client, a privilege even including several hundred veterans, nam wounds. instability. President Nixon invoked in his Aug. demonstrated for the defendants in "It has been our witness as Veterans Lemmer sometimes carried a bull 15 TV Watergate speech, Judge Arnow Gainesville. Among the speakers at that has helped expose the lies of the whip and wore a red cape and high has denied defense motions to either the demonstration were Pentagon Nixon Administration about the war laced boots. Although he has denied dismiss the charges against the de­ papers trial defendant Anthony Russo, in Indochina," VVAW coordinator under examination at the trial that fendants or bar Poe's testimony antiwar activist Tom Hayden, and John Musgrave told reporters earlier he has ever experienced mental prob­ because of government penetration of Pete Seeger. this month. "In truth we are living, lems, Lemmer did admit, when shown the defense camp. Contributions to help the defense, walking, talking Pentagon papers." his Army medical records, that he The Gainesville trial is the latest of or inquiries about it, can be sent to: The government's case against the recalled "everything except the amne­ Goodwin's attempted frame-ups stem­ Gainesville Eight Defense Committee, vets is being organized by Guy Good­ sia or loss of memory." ming from at least 100 investigations P. 0. Box 14078, Gainesville, Fla. win. Goodwin is in charge of the spe- Today, the fourth informer, Emerson in 36 states that have led to more than 32604.

Role of undercover a~nt probed Justice Dept. reopens Kent State inquiry The Justice Department announced dents on riot charges. ed in the murder of the four Kent early this month that it was reopening The reopening of the investigation State students. its investigation of the Kent State Uni­ is a victory for the antiwar and stu­ Although the FBI has had full versity massacre. On May 4, 1970, dent movements, which have long de­ knowledge of Norman's presence on Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire manded this action. It is the Water­ the campus during the massacre, news on Kent State students who were dem­ gate revelations that have placed the of his role was kept secret until the onstrating against the U.S. invasion government on the defensive and confirmation hearings for newly ap­ of Cambodia. The Guardsmen killed helped make possible victories like pointed FBI director Clarence Kelley. four students and wounded nine others. these. It was only following the FBI's ac­ These shootings touched off the larg­ The new Justice Department deci­ knowledgment of Norman's role that est student strike in the history of sion, for example, comes after the un­ the Justice Department decided to re­ the U.S. covering of new evidence showing that open the case. Undoubtedly this de­ The Justice Department decision was the Kent State shootings were sparked cision was influenced by administra­ an admission that previous govern­ by the actions of a government pro­ tion fears that news of the cover-up, ment pronouncements whitewashing vocateur. which had begun to leak out in the the National Guard and other gov­ The provocateur, Terrance B. Nor­ wake of the Watergate investigations, ernment agencies at Kent State are man, was on the Kent State campus would further undermine the credibil­ now "inoperative." Until now govern­ as a photographer for the FBI. Nor­ ity of the government and focus ad­ ment policy has been to blame the man is the only person known to ditional attention on widespread gov­ student demonstrators for provoking have had a gun on the Kent State ernment use of agents provocateurs. the violence. It has been revealed, for campus on May 4, 1970, besides example, that the Justice Department members of the National Guard. Wit­ Two days before the Justice Depart­ kept evidence critical of the National nesses have told reporters that Nor­ ment announcement, the Christian Sci­ Guard away from an Ohio grand man admitted firing his pistol, per­ ence Monitor gave the following ac­ jury. The grand jury exonerated the haps precipitating the volley of fire count of Norman's activities the day National Guard but indicted 25 stu- by National Guardsmen that result- Kent State, May 4, 1970 Continued on page 22

THE MILITANT/AUGUST 31, 1973 5 WATERGATE: The vice-president What was that about law and order? Agnew caught with whole arm in pie By LINDA JENNESS missioner, a former member of Ag­ Agnew, however, is leaving open a "Agnew's biggest asset," said one GOP new's vice-presidential staff, and now defense based on the contention that as strategist, "has been the fact that he president of Greiner Environmental vice-president he is immune from pros­ was Mr. Clean in this administration. Systems, Inc. Another is Lester Matz, ecution. He maintains that no grand Now Mr. Clean is being investigated a partner in Matz, Childs and Asso­ jury has "any right to the records of by a federal grand jury." ciates. Wolff and Matz, both cronies the Vice President." He questions the At a news conference Aug. 6 Vice­ of Agnew, have negotiated for immu­ "propriety of any grand-jury investiga­ president Spiro T. Agnew, who had nity from prosecution in return for in­ tion of possible wrongdoing on the thus far escaped involvement in the formation on Agnew. part of the Vice President so long as Watergate scandal, told the country Agnew has labeled the accusations he occupies that office." This argument that he was under investigation for as "damned lies" and "false and scurri­ is an extension of the argument put bribery, extortion, tax fraud, and con­ lous and malici9us" rumors. Reclaims forth by Nixon's lawyers that the pres­ spiracy. he has "absolutely nothing to hide." ident is above the law as long as he The investigation, which started last is president. January, at first probed reports of At the same time, the vice-president Syndicated columnist Joseph Kraft kickbacks by contractors to current is not denying that bribery and extor­ summarized the situation this way: officeholders in Baltimore County, Md. tion exist in state and federal politics. "So, despite the distances Mr. Nixon In recent months, the investigation He told reporters that "anyone that's and Mr. Agnew are plainly taking broadened to include state contracts been around the political scene in the from each other, the President's case awarded during Agnew's two years as United States who would expect that is ... inextricably mixed up with the governor, as well as contracts award­ campaign contributions don't come case of the Vice President. Together ed in Maryland since he became vice­ from contractors doing business with they will sink or swim." president. Agnew says he first learned the State and Federal Government is Another theory, however, is that Ag­ of the investigations through "rumors quite naive." However, "Mr. Clean" new might be forced to resign. Then, in the cocktail circuit." claims that these contributions are under the provisions of the 25th Some of the items turned up so far made in return for the right of con­ Amendment, Nixon would pick a suc­ in records subpoenaed by federal in­ tractors to "consult with" and have cessor to be approved by a majority vestigators include the following: "access" to officeholders. in both houses of Congress. e Nine Maryland consulting engin­ Agnew revelations have struck another Nixon has been less than anxious "If a new Vice President were in­ eering companies contributed $18,250 blow at credibility and authority of gov­ to defend the vice-president. The only stalled," writes Time, "Nixon himself to Agnew during his 1966 campaign ernment. statement released to the press was a would be under greater pressure to re­ for governor of Maryland. meek assurance from White House sign so that the country could put e A special fund established for the Four of the consulting engineering deputy press secretary Gerald Warren Watergate behind it. . . ." 1966 Agnew campaign that was put companies under investigation that there was "no reason for the Pres­ up by a group of wealthy Republicans bought $35,000 worth of tickets. ident to change his attitude of confi­ and Democrats. This fund was called More than 20 Maryland contractors dence toward the Vice President." And the "Executive Assembly," and donors and businessmen have told federal Melvin Laird, Nixon's domestic ad­ paid $1,000 each to defray his "per­ prosecutors that they funneled cash viser, has called leading Republicans sonal 'political' expenses." payments to Agnew associates in to warn them against "making hasty e Financial funny business relating return for state contracts. At least three public statements" in defense of Agnew. to the "Salute to Ted Agnew Dinner" of them have said they turned the It was more from necessity than held in Baltimore in 1972. Two differ­ money over to Agnew personally. One gallantry, then, that Agnew told the ent sets of records were kept. Both contractor says he gave Agnew a lump press, "I think the Vice President of show that more than $170,000 was sum of $50,000 after Agnew became the United States should stand on his raised, but one set failed to note that vice-president. own feet. It really isn't that important $49,900 of that came from the Com­ One thing is obvious-the vice-presi­ what a President says.... So I'm mittee to Re-Elect the President. dent's lifestyle isn't hurting. Agnew's not spending my time looking around e In 1966 Agnew took in $63,550 assets have increased by $112,000 in to see who is supporting me. I'm de­ from "sale of tickets to a bull roast." the last seven years, and that doesn't fending myself." Seven weeks later an additional include a new $190,000 home. His Time magazine predicts that the in­ $9,625 was turned in from the "bull reported assets are up a whopping dictment of Agnew "appears inevita­ roast." 7 6 percent from four years ago. ble." It quotes a Justice Department of­ e $38,562 from a $50-a-plate "testi­ One of the main figures under inves­ ficial as saying that "the evidence is Agnew blowing whistle at hecklers. monial dinner" was reported about a tigation in Maryland is Jerome Wolff, so strong that the case must be taken Whistle is now being blown on him for month after Agnew took office in 1966. a former Maryland state roads com- to trial." bribery, fraud, extortion, and conspiracy. Nixon gets summons in SWP W'gate suit NEW YORK - A nationwide civil steps in the case. Defendants who are esa has been assigned to hear the case. the Southern Conference Education liberties defense campaign is now un­ currently government officials have 60 Meanwhile, the PRDF is planning Fund. derway to build support for a law suit days to respond. Those who are form­ to intensify its support and publicity To take the issues of the case direct­ to stop governmentharassmentofradi­ er officials have 20 days. drive during the fall. Supporters of ly to groups and individuals across cal political organizations. The Polit­ The suit charges the government , the PRDF have already held news con­ the country, the PRDF is sending ical Rights Defense Fund (PRDF) is with 25 years of "illegal acts of black­ ferences in eight cities across the coun­ out four national field secretaries on organizing the drive. listing, harassment, electronic surveil­ try to publicize the suit. speaking and organizing tours. Mike The suit was filed in light of there­ lance, burglary, mail tampering, and The initial national news conference Arnall, Janice Lynn, Cathy Perkus, cent Watergate revelations. The plain­ terrorism" against the SWP, its mem­ held in Leonard Boudin's law office and Syd Stapleton will be on tour tiffs are the Socialist Workers Party bers, candidates, and supporters, and in New York was covered by AP, during October and November. and the Young Socialist Alliance. similar acts against the YSA. UPI, and Reuters. In addition to wide­ In addition to appearing at news conf­ Named as defendants are Richard Nix­ The suit asks for a court injunction spread coverage in the U.S., news erences and radio and TV interviews, on, John Mitchell, John Dean, H. R. to stop all illegal government intimida­ of the case has been carried by such the PRDF representatives will be speak­ Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and oth­ tion and harassment of the SWP and papers as the International Herald ing to campus meetings, before unions, er officials and former officials of the the YSA. It seeks to have the attorney Tribune and the Wellington, New Zea­ and to Black and women's organiza­ U.S. government. general's list of "subversive" organiza­ land, Evening Post. tions and community groups seeking U. S. marshals began serving sum­ tions ruled unconstitutional. The SWP The PRDF has initiated its drive to support for the case. monses and copies of the complaint has been on this list since 1948. In raise funds for legal expenses and to The PRDF is urgently in need of on the defendants in mid-July, when addition, the plaintiffs ask for more gather sponsors for the case with an funds to help cover these initial legal the suit was filed. President Nixon than $27-million in damages for the appeal signed by Noam Chomsky, and publicity expenses. If you can was served on July 24, and all the violations of constitutional rights suf­ Ruth Gage-Colby, and attorney Vin­ make a contribution, or want to ar­ defendants but one have now received fered by the two groups and their cent Hallinan. range a meeting for a representative the summonses. The attorney for the members. Other initial sponsors include colum­ from the PRDF, write to: Political suit, Leonard Boudin, is waiting for The PRDF expects the next stage nist Nat Hentoff, Nobel Prize winner Rights Defense Fund, 150 Fifth Ave., all the defendants to answer their sum­ of legal proceedings to begin in Oc­ George W ald, suffragist Florence Lus­ Suite 737, New York, N.Y. 10011. monses before taking the next legal tober. Federal Judge Thomas P. Gri- comb, and Ca~l and Anne Braden of Telephone: (212) 691-3270.

6 WATERGATE: Nixon in hotseat

Confidence in P-resident hits 20~ear low Nixon 'counteroffensive' a flop By PETER SEIDMAN George McGovern would receive 51 AUG. 22-At his first news confer­ percent of the vote to 49 percent for ence since last March, a nervous, stam­ Nixon if the 1972 election were held mering President Nixon today failed today. to extricate himself and his administra­ Nixon's drive to restore faith in his tion from theW atergate hook on which administration was undoubtedly they have been dangling. spurred further by a growing nervous­ The central question looming over ness in the highest circles of the cap­ the news conference was, can Nixon italist ruling class over his ability to restore popular confidence in his best defend their interests. ability to rule? One reporter asked the president point-blank, "Would you con­ 'Old boy network' sider resigning if you thought your New York TimescorrespondentJohn capacity to govern had been seriously Herbers reported on Aug. 15, for ex­ weakened?" ample, "Outside the Government, men Nixon conceded in his reply that of great wealth and power, ranging media coverage of the scandal raised from the Rockefellers of New York "some questions" with regard to. his to the lawyer barons of Washington, capacity to govern. But he arrogantly who form a kind of 'old boy network' insisted he would not resign in any whenever the Republic is endangered, case. He cited what he referred to as have been on the telephone asking one "the mandate of the 1972 election" as another one unanswered question: justification for his remaining in office 'What is the state of mind of Richard despite the fact that he presided over M. Nixon?"' theW atergate crimes. And an Aug. 11 Christian Science Nixon neglected to mention the fact Monitor survey of 168 senators and Nixon's inability to restore public confidence in the government has the capitalist that abundant evidence has made clear representatives (about one-third of rulers worrjed. that his own reelection committee's Congress, including 63 Republicans) multimillion dollar effort to rig that found that by 157 to 21, those polled 1972 election may have affected the believed Watergate will hurt Nixon's or "pretty good," as against 64 per­ The sudden discovery of this "plot" degree of his "mandate." ability to govern in the next three cent who judged it "only fair" or"poor." struck many observers as suspicious. More importantly, a whole series of years. In a special Gallup poll commis­ The Aug. 21 New York Post reported, public opinion polls taken since the sioned by the New York Times fol­ for example, that, "In Washington, the The first step in Nixon's counter­ Watergate scandal broke show that lowing the speech, about 44 percent official report of a possible conspiracy offensive was his Aug. 15 speech and the support Nixon enjoyed at the found the speech "not at all" convincing, to kill Nixon created little excitement. statement. In this speech, Nixon ex­ beginning of his second term has been while only 27 percent concluded that it A few reporters even regarded it cyni­ plicitly refused to rebut the many spe­ reduced to the lowest margin enjoyed was "completely" or "quite a lot" con­ cally as an effort to create sympathy cific charges of administration com­ by any president in the last 20 years. vincing. for the President, beleaguered by the plicity in the Watergate crimes. He Watergate scandal." Nixon's counteroffensive also repeated the theme that it was Like Jell-0 In summarizing the impact of Nix­ the example set by the civil rights Nixon's press conference was part The Wall Street Journal also sent on's Watergate counteroffensive, the and antiwar movements of violence of his much-touted Watergate "counter­ a team of reporters out to survey the Aug. 22 Wall Street Journal observed and .civil disobedience that created the offensive." The counteroffensive sup­ popular response. In summarizing that nothing done so far, "is any sort climate in which what he called "the posedly began following the release their results the reporters cited this of an answer to the basic questions Watergate mentality" prospered. of an Aug. 3-6 Gallup Poll that re­ observation made by a Montana stock­ of Watergate, and we doubt that the This attempt to turn the victims of ported this 20-year-low in popularity. broker on Nixon's talk, "It's kind of President's strategy' will truly succeed the government's Watergate crimes into The poll showed that only 31 per­ like Jell-0," he said. "A little shaky in defusing the scandal. The issue of the criminals backfired. In the words cent of the people approve of the way and you can see right through it." the citizen's trust in government is too of journalist I. F. Stone, "It is a speech Nixon is handling the presidency. This The second prong of Nixon's of­ fundamental, and we doubt it can be Checkers would have found ir­ was a drop of nine percentage points fensive, apparently calculated to build resolved unless Mr. Nixon finally per­ resistible." in only four weeks, and 37 points since on the hoped-for success of the Aug. suades most of the people that in the Nixon's inauguration to his second A series of public opinion polls taken 15 speech, was his address to the con­ here and now he is essentially telling term. The Aug. 15 New York Times immediately following Nixon's address vention of the Veterans of Foreign the truth about Watergate. This,. in observed that, "According to the Gal­ confirmed the failure of what the Aug. Wars in New Orleans Aug. 20. Nix­ turn, may involve some sort of lup figures, Mr. Nixon is more unpop­ 20 Christian Science Monitor described on's speech there avoided the subject penance for the crimes committed in ular today than President John!!onwas as "a desperate effort to recapture the of Watergate-presumably in an at­ his name, some modern equivalent at the height of public protests against trust of the American people." tempt to show that the president was of Henry II having himself flogged the Vietnam war, protests that helped A Harris survey taken after Nixon's turning to other "more important" after the murder of Becket." persuade Mr. Johnson not to seek speech found that by 67-20 percent, issues. It was overshadowed, however, But Nixon's arrogant performance another term." the public felt that Nixon "did not give by spectacular headlines noting that at his Aug. 22 news conference, like Another poll released on Aug. 15 convincing proof that he was not part Nixon's motorcade through New Or­ the rest of his Watergate game plan, was conducted by Oliver Quayle for of theW atergate coverup." leans had to be canceled following constitutes neither a convincing argu­ NBC--TV news. This poll showed that Only 21 percent of the public gave the discovery of a "well-organized" as­ ment that he is telling the truth nor Democratic presidential candidate Nixon's speech a rating of "excellent" sassination plot aginst him. penance from the White House.

People 'fed up' with both capitalist parties "Since 1958 experts at the Universi­ sequent plummeting of popular con­ of the degree to which Watergate Trust in Government ty of Michigan's Institute for Social fidence in the government- indi­ threatens the public's confidence Support Research have been monitoring the cates why the capitalist rulers are in the two-party system. faith Americans have in their po­ so upset about Watergate. They l litical system," the Aug. 20 New don't have too far to go before they The number of persons identi­ York Times reports. Highly paid hit the bottom of the charts. fying themselves as Republicans experts venture out and ask a cross The Michigan University scientists dropped to 18 percent the week end­ section of the population such ques­ have already warned them, accord­ ing Aug. 3, and the number calling tions as "whether the Government in ing to the Times, to beware of a themselves Democrats dropped to Washington is pretty much run by "growing cynicism that may lead 26 1percent. a few big interests looking out for either to large-scale party realign­ The Los Angeles Times reports, themselves or for the benefit of all ment or to the rise of a new po­ "Sindlinger said theW atergate back­ the people.' litical party.'' lash was hitting Democrats as hard The answers are plotted on as Republicans, as people across graphs like the one shown here. Another study, recently released the country reported they were 'fed The graph, which only goes up to by pollster Albert Sindlinger and up' with politics and politicians. the time the Watergate scandal be­ published in the Aug. 16 Los An­ "Both parties are now at an all­ gan- and does not show the sub- geles Times, gives further evidence time low," Sindlinger said.

THE MILITANT/AUGUST 31, 1973 7 Strikers firm desgite financial strain Farm workers urge: Extend the boycott! By HARRY RING ful agribusiness outfit, the Farm and even a stronger union than the dred people attended a noontime mem­ DELANO, Calif.- The failure of the Bureau, to destroy the UFW and de­ UFW couldn't shut down that kind orial service Aug. 17 for the two slain AFL-CIO Executive Council to con­ prive field workers of a union of their of a sprawling operation the way pro­ farmworkers. Participating in the meet­ tinue financial support to the strik­ choice. duction can be shut down by pickets ing were a number of labor represen­ ing United Farm Workers is another As hard-won contracts with the table­ at factory gates. tatives, who voiced their union's sup­ big hurdle for the beleaguered union. grape growers expired throughout the port to the striking Farm Workers, This spring, the Executive Council state, the Teamsters have been sign­ The initial response to the present and several religious leaders. contributed $1. 6-million to the union ing sweetheart "contracts" with the boycott efforts confirms there is a basis John Colstead of the Communica­ strike fund. This enabled the UFW growers. These agreements contain for mounting an effective national and tions Workers of America and United to significantly expand its ranks by only token wage increases and provide even international campaign against Mine Workers attorney Joseph Raub offering strike benefits of $7 5 a week for reestablishing the highly ex­ scab grapes. sent statements of support to the rally. instead of the previous $25 a family. ploitative labor-contractor system. The Now, with the $1.6-million almost UFW contracts had replaced this hated used up, and no more forthcoming, employment system with a union hir­ the union has already been compelled ing hall, which made jobs available to stop paying strike benefits in Fresno on a seniority basis without regard County. Benefits are continuing here to sex or age. in Delano, where strike efforts are now For some time Meany has been hold­ being concentrated. But these will soon ing secret meetings with Fitzsimmons. have to be substantially reduced. Early this month they reported This will mean that many of the "genuine progress" in reaching a set­ 3,000 strikers will be unable to stay tlement. Neither of them has said what on the picket lines. It is not likely they considered a basis for a settle­ that they will return to the struck ment. vineyards, but most will have to move Further negotiations were conducted on to other areas to obtain work. between the Teamsters and AFL-CIO The $1.6-million contribution was to officials in San Francisco. On Aug. cover a three-month period. At the 10, for the first time, these meetings time it was pledged, AFL-CIO repre­ included UFW leader Cesar Chavez. sentatives promised that the amount These talks collapsed, however, when would be renewed. But when the Ex­ it was revealed that while the nego­ ecutive Council met early this month, tiations were going on, a Teamster it declared continuing support for the official had secretly signed contracts strike but failed to come up with the with 25 of Delano's 29 table-grape money. growers. In the initial stage of the strike in Charging that the UFW had been Coachella Valley, the expanded strike "stabbed in the back," Chavez walked benefits made possible by the $1.6- out and has so far refused to return. million greatly increased the effective­ Top officials of the Western Con­ ness of the strike. While the growers ference of Teamsters said it was all were able to round up enough scabs a big mistake. They announced the to harvest most of the crop, the ab­ closing of their office in Delano and sence of experienced crews slowed down said they had fired Jim Smith, their production and contributed significant­ paid staff member who negotiated the ly to an inferior crop. new sweetheart agreements. UFW representatives say they are not surprised by the Teamster action. DELANO, Cal~f., Aug. 22- The They see it as part of a consistent United Farm Workers today pattern of double cross. In 1971, an began organizing striking work­ agreement was reached with the Team­ sters after they had begun raiding ers to fan out to cities across the the United Farm Workers jurisdiction country to promote the nation­ in the lettuce fields. After the UFW wide grape boycott. The union called off the lettuce boycott, the Team­ is aiming at having strikers spark sters promptly signed sweetheart pacts boycott activities in 63 cities. It with the growers. UFW representatives are not ready has decided to continue the sus­ to agree that the failure of the AFL­ pension of picketing at struck CIO board to render further financial ranches and to concentrate the aid is a pressure move for a set­ union's resources oh building the tlement with the Teamsters. One union activist said, "We didn't Despite slayings of two strikers, farm workers are determined to step up boycott. boycott. ask for any money, so we can't com­ A constitutional convention of plain about not getting any." the United Farm Workers Union, Another one said, ''We're a proud In Chicano communities throughout In Philadelphia, more than 125 sup­ to which supporters are invited, union. We don't like to be begging the Southwest there is- a strong sense porters of the UFW attended a memor­ will be held in Fresno Sept. 21- people. When you have people giving of solidarity with the United Farm ial meeting for Daifullah and de la you money, they expect results, they Workers. Chicanos correctly see the Cruz on Aug. 20. At the meeting a 23. Building the boycott will be expect you to follow their agenda." farm workers' struggle as a fight statement from Cesar Chavez was read a central point of business at Reverend John Bank, the union's against racist oppression as well as by Ruth Shy, the Philadelphia UFW the convention. director of information, said the UFW against economic exploitation. boycott coordinator. was ready to renew its signed com­ Throughout the country, thousands Present at the Philadelphia meeting mitment not to organize workers in of people have expressed their readi­ were Ed Toohey, president of the Phil­ Now, with the need to substantially canneries and food processing, where ness to participate in and help build adelphia Central Labor Council, AFL­ curtail strike activity in the vineyards, the Teamsters have jurisdiction, but the boycott movement. This is true CIO, and Dick Lynch, secretary of the the union is turning to the boycott that was all. among students, unionists, church New Jersey State AFL-CIO. as its principal weapon. The stepping "If I have any personal feeling on groups, and many others. In an earlier action, more than 700 up of the boycott was signaled here it," Bank said, "it's that the Teamsters The key to the effectiveness of the UFW supporters joined a spirited rally today as hundreds of strikers were have to get out of all farm labor. boycott will lie in the UFW taking and march through the Mission dis­ dispatched to Los Angeles and San And we're not going to compromise the lead in organizing these forces trict of San Francisco July 28 to help Francisco to spark the picketing of on that." for direct, massive involvement in the strengthen the grape, lettuce, and Safe­ Safeway stores. Along with A&P, Safe­ He recalled that it took a five-year boycott movement. If that is done, way boycotts. way is the nation's largest buyer of struggle before the UFW won its first despite the obstacles, victory for the scab grapes. contracts in the vineyards, and he United Farm Workers remains a re­ The demonstrators carried hundreds The failure of the AFL-CIO to re­ emphasized that, if necessary, they're alizable goal. of red UFW flags and chanted, "Boy­ spect its financial commitment came ready for another five-year fight. cott Safeway, shut it down." Led by as AFL-CIO head George Meany As it was in the first struggle, he The murders of Nagi Daifullah and a contingent of 15 striking farmwork­ pressed efforts to negotiate a settlement sees the nationwide boycott as the key Juan de la Cruz in two separate in­ ers from the Gallo winery near Salinas, of the strike with Teamster union Pres­ to victory. The very nature of the cidents in mid-August have been met the demonstrators marched to the ident Frank Fitzsimmons. industry makes the boycott essential, with outrage by United Farm Work­ largest Safeway in town. There the The Teamster bureaucrats have been he explained. The biggest grower in ers supporters throughout the coun­ crowd divided up to picket Safeway-s working hand-in-glove with the power- Delano, for example, farms 6,000 acres try. In Washington, D. C., several hun- throughout the city.

8 Thousands protest killings of Houston strikers demand investigation teC!chers DELANO, Calif.,-Thousandso~farm strike for workers marched in the funeral pro- cession here for a striking member of the United Farm Workers Union II.VI·ng wage who died at the hands of a deputy sheriff. As the rites were conducted, By BECKY ELLIS plans were already under way for the HOUSTON- Five thousand Houston funeral of a second striker-this one teachers met here Aug. 19 in Delmar shot to death on a picket line. Stadium and voted 2 to 1 to strike. Police officictls, who took a count The strike began Aug. 20, the first from helicopters that hovered over­ scheduled day of classes. head, said 7,500 people joined in the The strike marks a historic first for funeral march behind the coffin of teachers in the South. Teachers are Nagi Daifullah, a 24-year-old immi­ forbidden by law to strike in Texas. grant Arab worker from Yemen who In addition, the law states that striking died Aug. 15 of compound skull frac­ teachers immediately lose their teach­ tures. Other reporters estimated there ing certificate and can no longer work were 10,000 in the funeral march. in the Texas public services. Daifullah had been at a local bar The 9,000 teachers in Houston are with other strikers when sherifrs dep­ represented by the Houston Teachers uties provoked a fight. Daifullah was Association (HTA), an affiliate of the pursued from the bar by Deputy Gil­ Militant/Howard Petrick National Education Association. The bert Cooper, who claims thatDaifullah HTA is asking for an $1,100 across­ threw a bottle at him during the melee. Arab workers lead UFW funeral procession for Nagi Daifullah, a striker. killed by deputy sheriff. the-board raise. Beginning teachers Using a heavy flashlight as a weap­ now receive only $7,100 a year. The on, the deputy struck Daifullah to the HTA is also asking that the school ground. Cooper claims he only hit Because of the union-busting activity against 249 pickets arrested for de­ of local authorities, the UFW has de­ fying injunctions. A court clerk said board provide adequate facilities and Daifullah on the shoulder, and that materials, which many teachers now the double fracture from which Dai­ manded federal intervention. They are that because of lack of facilities to insisting that the Justice Department bring them to trial, steps would be pay for out of their own pockets. fullah died resulted from his slipping The school board wants the teachers and falling to the sidewalk. Eyewit­ act in the killing of the two strikers taken to file civil charges, eliminating and that the FBI take action to halt the need for jury trials. This reduces to pay more for their health insurance nesses insist the cop clubbed Daiful­ premiums this year without any added lah over the head. the violence and other infringement the possibility of serious victimization The day after Daifullah died, Juan of civil rights. Senator John Tunney of strikers. de la Cruz, a founding member of (D-Cal.) has demanded that U.S. At­ These victories were the fruits of the NO the union, was gunned down as he and torney General Elliott Richardson take courage and tenacity of the strikers, ro,~rnm other pickets watched scabs ending "strenuous federal actions to prevent who continue their fight in the face of NO further violence." the violence and victimization by the Wf'H Jerry Cohen, chief counsel to the race-baiting, union-busting forces ar­ HH UFW, told reporters that he would rayed against them. demand a federal investigation into That determination was clearly evi­ I "the pattern of conduct by the sher­ qent as the thousands of strikers iffs' departments in Kern, Tulare, and marched silently in the funeral pro­ It Fresno" counties. He said the local cession for Nagi Daifullah. For near­ police were acting like "a private army ly four miles in the blazing morn­ of the growers." ing sun, the long funeral procession Vineyard owners, foremen, and made its way down a dusty highway scabs have been openly carrying guns through the struck vineyards as it in the strike area and have used them proceeded from Delano to the union's

on several occasions. headquarters at nearby 40 Acres. Militant/Tom Vernier Two pickets were shot Aug. 10 dur­ There, in a huge open area, Moslem DAN FEIN: Teacher and SocialistWorkers ing a confrontation with scabs in near­ and Catholic services were held for candidate campaigns in support of strike. by Tulare County. One suffered ahead the slain unionist. His body is being wound and the other had a bullet shipped home to Yemen for burial. removed from his hip at the Farm Cesar Chavez spoke briefly. He as­ coverage. The HTA wants no Workers clinic here. sailed the greed and hate of the grow­ increases. HTA is also demanding a The wounding of the two strikers ers responsible for Daifullah's death reduction in class sizes. Many class­ had been the fourth shooting incident and reiterated his belief in the need rooms in Houston last year had more Militant/Jack Barrett in 24 hours. Previously shots were for nonviolence as the means of win­ than 40 students. Farm workers' support action in Los fired at unionists outside a migrant ning. The first mass meeting to discuss Angeles. labor camp and at cars driving in Joan Baez led the largely Chicano the situation was held Aug. 15. The the area of struck vineyards. gathering in singing "We Shall Over­ 5,000 teachers at that meeting In one such incident, a car driven come" in Spanish. decided to begin around-the-clock ne­ a day's work at a struck vineyard by Howard Petrick, a photographer As one stood among the throng of gotiations and called for the Aug. 19 near Bakersfield. for The Militant, was struck by a workers assembled there it was clear meeting to discuss the progress made. De la Cruz and his wife, also a bullet. that despite the heavy odds against The school board has sabotaged all striker, were standing in front of their On Aug. 15 gunshots were fired at them this is a movement, a cause, consultation with the teachers since car when a pickup truck sped by and a picket line that included two sons that has the capacity and potential February and has stated during the began firing at the strikers. He was of UFW leader Cesar Chavez. to win. -HARRY RING negotiations that the teachers have no the only one hit, and he died several Along with others, Fernando Chavez, rights. hours later with a bullet from a .22- 24, and his brother Anthony, 13, nar­ In an attempt to discourage striking caliber rifle in his chest. rowly escaped injury in the shooting. teachers, Dr. George Garver, general Acting on the basis of a description In a number of instances, strikers superintendent of the Houston indepen­ of the truck by strikers, police later have demanded that deputies arrest dent school district, announced that. arrested two nonstrikers reportedly growers and scabs who openly pointed the strike was a flop and that 85 per­ employed at another ranch. According guns at them in the presence of the cent of the teachers had showed up to to the UFW, the rifle was still in the cops. The police have simply refused work the first day. The HTA quickly truck at the time of the arrest. to make such arrests. respond.ed by documenting 30 schools One picketer, Nellie Navaras, told Meanwhile, in Fresno County, the that had to close down completely reporters she had been standing near strikers won a victory as they defied because almost no one reported to de la Cruz during the split-second an injunction limiting the size of pick­ work. shooting episode. What struck her, she et lines and the use of bullhorns to Dan Fein, Socialist Workers Party said, was how the sherifrs deputies, appeal to nonstrikers. candidate for mayor of Houston, was who always have a heavy presence More than 400 strikers and sup­ chosen picket captain at Jones High at the picket lines, seemed to have porters, including 60 members of the School, where he teaches. Fein said disappeared just before the shooting. clergy, filled the county jail for near­ that at his school 7 5 percent of the stu­ Seconds after the shooting she re­ ly two weeks. They refused to post dents refused to go to class and about alized "there were no deputies, no bail or to be released on their own two-thirds of the teachers were picket­ sheriffs, no nothing.... It seems like recognizance on the condition ofpledg­ ing or staying home. they had a meeting, all the sheriffs, ing to respect the injunction. On Aug. Reporting on the Aug. 19 meeting, and just then they rode away." 14, a state superior court judge over­ the Houston Chronicle quoted Fein The suspicion of police complicity ruled the local judge who tried to saying, "I can't see how we can do in the killing stems from the mount­ impose special conditions on the pris­ anything but strike; a united strike is ing antiunion violence in the area and oners' freedom. Militant/Howard Petrick how to win." Fein also appeared on the open support the "law enforcement" Two days later, in Tulare County, Chicana farm worker in funeral proces­ Channel 13 TV, addressing the Aug. officers have been giving the growers. officials dropped criminal charges sion. 19 meeting.

THE MILITANT/ AUGUST 31, 1973 9 In Our Opinion Let ten

Danish press A note from New Zealand Mobilize for boycott! Militant readers might like to know Congratulations on your excellent that the headlines in the Danish publication. It has been a source of The United Farm Workers Union is fighting for survival papers from July 12 to July 15 went knowledge unavailable elsewhere for against the unholy alliance of California growers, cops, and like this: "President Nixon is getting our movement. We in the Socialist Teamster bureaucrats. These racist union-busters have now better," "Today, Nixon has been able Action League have found your pa­ shown they will not hesitate to resort to murder if that's what to sit in his armchair," "Doctors: per an invaluable guide to revolu­ it takes to smash the UFW. The Teamsters are trying to Nixon discharged in about a week." tionaries beyond comparison to any Nothing about Watergate or other radical paper from the United cover up murder with deceit by phony announcements of Cambodia. The obedience of the States or internationally. "repudiating" their contracts with grape growers. Danish press to its superiors is Your coverage of the new radical But thousands of farm workers refuse to be cowed by the well known! movements, from the women's libera­ violence or tricked by the lies. They are determined to defend Alf Andersen tion to the Black struggle in the U.S., their union and the gains they have won through it. Denmark and especially the antiwar movement, The UFW has called for extending the boycott movement has provided us with material for throughout the country. Striking farm workers are traveling use in similar developments in New to more than 60 cities to lead in boycott activities. Zealand. The farm workers face difficult odds and they need support. Other radical organizations have Militant used in classes also used your material. Recently the The way to honor the martyred strikers, N agi Daifullah I have a subscription to your fine and Jose de la Cruz, is to build a massive boycott campaign. Auckland University Gay Liberation newspaper. I will be moving and Movement reprinted an article by We should work to educate everyone about the justice of therefore want to give you IPY new David Thorstad from The Militant the farm workers' cause. Members of unions and other or­ address. in their four-page supplement in the ganizations can organize support for the boycott and send I teach Chicano studies at Cal. student newspaper Craccum. financial contributions to the UFW. Students can make sure State College, Los Angeles, and thus M.T. when classes open that not a single college or high school I use some of your material on La Auckland, New Zealand purchases scab produce. Raza in my class lectures. Meetings and rallies should be organized in every city to R.S. Alhambra, Calif express solidarity with the farm workers and publicize the boycott. The picketing at stores that sell non-UFW grapes SWP lawsuit and lettuce, and especially at Safeway and A& P, must be I have just learned from the July 27 stepped up. King Richard's Court issue of The Militant of the law suit against Nixon and the rest of his Every socialist, every trade unionist, every Chicano, every­ Imagine. King Richard's Court has the audacity to condemn consumers cohorts. It is something that should one who supports the right of the farm workers to a decent have been done long ago. It is a very life and the union of their choice should take action now! for "panic buying," "hoarding," and the like because we are desperately brave thing to do considering the trying to defend ourselves against harassment that could follow Linda the huge increases in food prices Jenness and the rest of the SWP. The and "scarcity." Imagine that! SWP, YSA, Communist Party, and And these same administrative czars any other groups have our firm sup­ and bourgeois spokespersons find port, though financially there is little The Gainesville 8 nothing wrong with encouraging a we can do to help. The frame-up trial of seven members and one supporter of different class of people, our beloved We well appreciate the harassment the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) is now under "speculators" on wheat, corn, soybean, the YSA, SWP, and other groups with similar beliefs go through. We are way in Gainesville, Fla. The Gainesville Eight are accused meat, and other "commodity" markets, the recipients of our own brand of of <;onspiring to carry out an armed attack on the Republican to bid up prices to their heart's con­ tent. They call it "free enterprise." "gestapo" type oppression. Party national convention in 1972. A prisoner Once again, Nixon and his fellow Watergate conspirators Them that's got, they can do as they please. But what about the Iowa are seeking to victimize a section of the antiwar movement. rest of us? They are staging this trial with the aim of discouraging radi­ Looks like the time has come for cal opposition to their policies. adopting our own way out. End all The Alaska pipeline The government has obviously spared no effort- illegal that damn "defense" spending! Add an The U.S. government and the oil wiretaps, provocateurs, and informers-to concoct its frame­ escalator clause to every wage, salary, companies it is representing have ' pension and Social Security payment, up charges. The extraordinary number of dirty tricks devoted really "gained" from their efforts to and welfare and unemployment pay­ to victimizing the Gainesville Eight is a testimony to the Nixon deceive the public into believing that ment! Peg those escalator clauses to . administration's special hatred for and fear of the Vietnam-era we have a tremendous oil shortage. a price index established by union­ veterans who participated in the antiwar movement. In a tie vote broken by Vice-pres- consumer committees. These antiwar veterans cut across the government's jingoist ident Agnew, the Senate voted to start • End unemployment by cutting the construction of the Alaskan pipeline lie that the demand for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. workweek immediately to 30 hours rather than to allow an 11-month troops from Vietnam betrayed the interests of American Cis. and thereafter however much is waiting period. The sight of thousands of Vietnam vets throwing down their needed to absorb all of those wishing During that time alternate pipeline combat ribbons in disgust with the war was an inspiration to work, without taking away one routes would have been studied. Even to millions-including active-duty Gis-to join in mass dem­ penny from our incomes. Build a after a 6,000-page environmental im­ onstrations for the withdrawal of troops from Indochina. labor party! And if our good citizen pact statement was filed, carefully "speculators" scream they can't "afford" Perhaps most galling to the imperialists in Washington documenting why this pipeline should it, then let's open their books and was the fact that the participation of Gis and veterans in not be built, our representatives have see. the antiwar movement revealed a fatal flaw in their war plans. still decided to proceed with this A worker and consumer The U.S. imperialists know that to win and maintain support destructive measure. Schenectady, N.Y. for colonial wars, they have to keep the truth about these As a result, much of the Alaskan wars from the American people. environment, including wildlife, water, But the warmakers in Washington have never figured out and permafrost, will be devastated~ how to fight these wars without armies made up of human The thousands of barrels of oil that beings-human beings like those now on trial in Gainesville, Stealing food have already been spilled and those who saw the truth about what was happening in Vietnam Stealing food is up, reports a recent that will be spilled will seriously New York Post article, as New York­ endanger life in that area. and came back as "walking, talking Pentagon papers." ers stagger resentfully under the high A terribly dangerous precedent has The U.S. government sent more than two million young prices. The Post surveyed market been set and this as well as other men to fight in its illegal and immoral war in Indochina. managers and found them defensive environmental issues should be Many never came back. Many, like some of the Gainesville and apologetic. These are not "hard­ extensively examined from a rev­ defendants, came back with their bodies riddled by shrapnel. ened criminals," one manager pointed olutionary socialist perspective. The same government that sent them to Vietnam to "fight out. Another described his feelings Carole Lesnick for freedom" is now attacking their constitutional right to after catching a 70-year-old man Madison, Wis. oppose the war and other injustices. These vets should be lifting a package of baloney: "You supported by all defenders of democratic rights. know, I was much more embarrassed than he was." One manager told this story: "I A lot of bull remember one lady, 68, who took Nixon, Ehrlichman, Haldeman, his a couple of tomatoes and when we nibs' nervous finks and tin-badge caught her, she just looked at us twerps have shot so much bull in with sad eyes and said, 'I just recent months that it's surprising we couldn't afford it."' have a meat shortage. Michael Smith G.M.C. New York, N.Y. San Diego, Calif.

10 By Any Means Necessary Baxter Smith·

Far out You have a far out paper-to use Secret bank loans to S. Africa the jargon. Keep printing no matter From 1966 to 1969, several churches, Black or­ volved. Nonetheless, representatives of the EABC ac­ what. I find yours the only readable ganizations, and other groups organized a success­ knowledged veracity of the document in a meeting journalism around. ful campaign against 10 U.S. banks with invest­ with Judge William Booth, president of the American Please send copies to my home. ments in South Africa. The protest campaign forced Committee on Africa. The parents and kids might read it. the banks to withdraw some $40-million in credit To hide their involvement from public access, sev­ A.M. from the white-settler regime. eral of these banks provided the loans through their Bloomington, Ind. But the story didn't end there. In recent weeks it Nassau branches. Reverend Sterling Cary, the Black has come to light that new secret U.S. loans and president of the National Council of Churches, re­ bank credits have been made to the South African cently wrote to Lynden Pindling, prime minister of government. the Bahamas, requesting him to stop these U.S. banks Information contained in the "Frankfurt Documents" from using their Nassau branches to make the loans. Disagrees about abortion reveals that 40 banks from the U.S., Canada, and Pindling, whose country was granted formal indepen­ Enclosed is a small contribution. It Europe have been lending more than $210-million to dence last month, has not yet ~esponded. is enlightening, if discouraging, to South Africa since late 1970. The "Frankfurt Docu­ read what is really happening in ments" were leaked by someone inside the European­ The loans were made to the South African Ministry the country. American Banking Corporation, and made available of Finance; the South African Iron and Steel Corpora­ Know, however, that I am com­ in West Germany. The information has been published tion (ISCOR); Metkor Investments Limited, a sub­ pletely opposed to your support of by the Coporate Information Center of the National sidiary of ISCOR; and the Electricity Supply Com­ abortion. Since when does a woman's Council of Churches. !Dission of South Africa (ESCOM). right to "control her own body" per­ One of the most powerful banking groups in the · The loans will probably be used for general balance mit the killing of what is by all world, the European-American Banking Corporation of payments purposes, and to purchase machinery criteria clearly another individual, (EABC), has spearheaded the loans project. and equipment for ISCOR and ESCOM, according distinct from, if dependent on, her According to the July 21 Carolina Times, the reve­ to the Corporate Information Center. One ofESCOM's body? If it be "reactionary" to defend lations are so sensitive that "an expose written for chief tasks is the supplying of electricity from the human life, let it be so. But only publication in the New York Times last week, for Caborra Bassa dam project in Mozambique. the standard of selfishness can make instance, was suddenly pulled from that newspaper Protest is being organized. In Petersburg, Va., the the unborn something less than hu­ at the last minute." The Carolina Times states that majority Black city council plans to issue an open man, a kind of appendage at a at least one of the banks exercised "sufficient financial letter to the United Virginia Bank, denouncing the woman's disposal. leverage" on the New York Times to kill the stor.y. secret loans, and possibly tci introduce a resolution Surely a paper published "in the Eleven U.S. banks are involved. These include calling a halt to the city's business dealings with interests of the working people" has Wells Fargo, First National Bank of Louisville, First the bank. better tasks to fulfill than promoting Israel Bank of New York, City National Bank of Information from the "Frankfurt Documents" will be the deaths of unborn babies for the Detroit, Central National Bank in Chicago, United invaluable to all opponents of apartheid and of U.S. convenience of women "liberated," Virginia Bank, and Wachovia Bank and Trust, one financial support to the South African regime. The perhaps only from responsibility. Is of the largest banks in the Southeast. documents can be obtained by sending 60 cents to: socialism also to destroy the power­ W achovia is clearly identified in the "Frankfurt Corporate Information Center, Room 846, 475 River­ less at the will of the majority? Documents," but has continued to insist it is not in- side Dr., New York, N.Y. 10027. William Stockelman Cincinnat~ Ohio National Picket Line From a farm worker As a farm worker, I especially ap­ Frank Lovell preciate your coverage of the United Farm Workers Union struggle. I'd like to see more articles on China and other workers states de­ Lessons of Kalkaska fining the Socialist Workers Party's The Battle of Kalkaska ended in the middle of July. in the nation's largest industry." critical support. You are to be com­ But the class war that erupted between the building­ This defeat cannot be blamed on any lack of com­ mended for facing the bitter truth. trades unions and union-busting contractors is des­ bativity by union members. Building tradesmen were True support has to be fortified tined to continue. determined to stop the scab operation. They con­ with criticism when due, or it's Kalkaska, Mich., will never be the same again. verged on Kalkaska from all corners of the state. just hogwash. The rural community that was once part of the rich But the traditional policy of craft-conscious union T.D. fruit-producing country is being absorbed by the bureaucrats limited the strike action and the boy­ Forestville, Calif. new gas industry that is changing the economy and cott of Shell to the demand that Shell cancel its con­ the en,vironment. State officials estimate that $500- tract with Delta and sign up with one of "our" union million will be spent during this decade in the quest contractors. These union officials are more interested for natural gas and oil in 'Michigan. in organizing bosses than workers. Bertolt Brecht A secret agreement signed in U.S. District Court They made no appeal to local workers in Kal­ at Grand Rapids provides that Shell Oil Company's kaska to join the union. If any had asked to join This poem by Bertolt Brecht speaks new natural gas processing plant at Kalkaska will they would have been told "our books are closed," for itself: be built with nonunion labor. Shell and its Texas­ or "we don't have any jobs now." Those who take meat from the table based scab contractor, Delta Engineering, will hire As a result of this policy, the construction indus­ Teach contentment. all workers through the state employment office with­ try is largely unorganized. Union work is confined Those for whom the taxes are destined out regard to union membership. Preference will be to new construction in some of the major cities such Demand sacrifice. given to local residents. as New York, San Francisco, Detroit, and Chicago. Those who eat their fill speak to the Shell and Delta had brought he~vy damage suits If the nonunionized workers are not organized, hungry against the unions, charging destruction of property. the moribund building-trades unions cannot hope Of wonderful times to come. The National Labor Relations Board had requested to control the construction industry- and maintain Those who lead the country into the union wage standards and conditions of work. abyss an injunction against the unions for conducting a secondary boycott against Shell. Modern construction methods make the old craft Call ruling too difficult divisions obsolete. Any serious effort to organize For ordinary man. At the height of the battle to force Shell to hire construction workers will have to be done by an A reader union labor, 500 state troopers were deployed in industrial organization that brings all these workers Los Angeles, Calif. and around Kalkaska. Union pickets were jailed, into one big union. and heavy fines were levied. Some were held over One of the ironies of the Kalkaska "settlement" is for more severe criminal charges. that the officials of the building-trades unions in In the settlement, Shell and Delta agreed to drop Michigan tried to console themselves (or deceive The letters column is an open forum all court actions against the unions, but criminal others) with the claim that they are, in this case, for all viewpoints on subjects of gen­ charges against pickets were not dropped. indirect social benefactors. eral interest to our readers. Please The unions agreed to work without a contract, The Michigan AFL-CIO News reports, "Any sav­ keep your letters brief. Where neces­ side-by-side with nonunion workers. Union officials ings Shell made from using non-union labor are sary they will be abridged. Please in­ claimed that union members would be paid union wiped out in the agreement which requires Shell and dicate if your name may be used or wages and receive fringe benefits, but this was dis­ the contractor, Delta Engineering Inc., of Houston, if you prefer that your initials be used puted by the bosses' representatives, who reserve Tex., to each give $125,000 to Kalkaska Town­ instead. the right to reject "unsatisfactory" workers. ship for unspecified public works construction proj­ This temporary truce is a serious blow to the build­ ects." ing-trades unions and the entire union movement in Workers in Kalkaska and throughout Michigan will Michigan. It is understood as such and hailed by return this many times over in the form of under­ leading publications of big business. The July 31 paid labor unless an organizing drive of construc­ Wall Street Journal gloats, "the settlement under­ tion workers begins soon. Kalkaska would be a scores the growing trend toward nonunion labor good place to start.

THE MILITANT/AUGUST 31, 1973 11 QQJl.Onents of 'BabY.. Doc' Duvalier Haitian refugees fight for asylum in U.S. By CLAIRE MORIARTY But the ImmigrationDepartmenthad NEW YORK- Last December, 65 men not reckoned on Reverend John ·-..:· and women slipped into a boat moored Jenkins, who had been sheltering the off the Haitian coast. They were flee­ 117 Haitians since their arrival ::: ing Haiti- not the Haiti of the travel in Miami. He protested. Others joined .,, .. brochures but the Haiti of bloody re­ him. The Immigration Department a pression, secret trials, torture, and ex­ backed down, and the roundup end­ ecution-the Haiti of "Baby Doc" ed. Bail for the 28 refugees was set Duvalier. at $1,000 each. The 65 were followed by other ref­ This victory gave the Haitians and . ugees- 25 on one boat, 'six on an­ their defenders confidence. They pro­ other, 21 in a third- 11 7 in all. tested the exorbitant bail and pressed They fled to Miami, a hostile Miami. for the release of the 28. They held where jobs and homes are difficult several demonstrations and on June to find if you don't have proper visas 27, they won. or travel papers. On that day attorneys and activists On June 8, 1973, the U.S. Immigra­ defending the Haitians met with Im­ tion Service caught up with eight of migration officials in Washington, the refugees. They pleaded for asylum. D. C. The government had certainly Saleem Joseph of the Association to Prevent Discrimination Against Arabs speaking But the Immigration Department not anticipated a defense like this. Pro­ to July 28 antideportation rally in New York. Seated at left is Andrew Pulley, national turned a deaf ear. "There's nothing to tests had spread from Miami to New secretary of the Young Socialist Alliance. fear from the Haitian government," York. they claimed! -and then began a gen­ The 28 refugees were released on eral roundup of Haitian refugees. their own recognizance. Centro Chicano, Third World Peoples treatment of counterrevolutionary Cu­ Twenty-eight were jailed. Or as the The United States Committee for Jus­ Coalition, Puerto Rican Socialist Party, bans in Miami to the U.S. govern­ government put it, "held under pre­ tice to Latin American Political Pris­ Coalition of Concerned Black Ameri­ ment's treatment of the Haitian exiles ventive detention until deportation." oners ( USLA) took up the defense cans, and the Socialist Workers Party. there. "U.S. big business controls the The U.S. government might just as of the Haitian refugees. On July 5, Speakers at the July 28 rally in­ Haitian economy," he said, "and well have said "until imprisonment in USLA held a press conference and cluded Gerard LaTortue, former Hai­ through Baby Doc Duvalier dictates Haiti and likely execution" because picket line in front of the Immigra­ tian political prisoner; Bert Corona, its politics." at least 12 of the Haitians were es­ tion offices in New York City. a well known Chicano leader and Gerard La Tortue, one of the Haitian caped political prisoners. USLA then coordinated another dem­ founder of CASA-Hermandad in Los exiles who has had his permit to re­ onstration to demand asylum for the Angeles; Digna Sanchez, managinged­ main in the U.S. revoked, reaffirmed Haitian refugees. The rally was held itor of the Puerto Rican Socialist Par­ his opposition to the Haitian regime in New York City July 28, the fifty­ ty's newspaper, Claridad; Reverend and appealed for recognition of his sixth anniversary of the U.S. inva­ Sterling Cary, presidentoftheNational right to political asylum in the United sion of Haiti in 1917. Council of Churches; Ira Golobin, de­ States. In addition to opposing the depor­ fense lawyer for Gerard La Tortue; His case is scheduled to come be­ tation of the Haitians, the rally de­ Andrew Pulley, national secretary of fore the Immigration officials August nounced the deportation of undoc­ the Young Socialist Alliance and 197 2 23. His deportation to Haiti would umented workers in the Southwest, and vice-presidential candidate for the So­ mean imprisonment, torture, and al­ the dragnet raids on suspected ;'illegal cialist Workers Party; and Saleem most certain execution because of his aliens" on the East Coast. Joseph of the Association to Prevent opposition to the Duvalier regime. Cosponsoring the rally were Coa­ Discrimination Against Arabs. The au­ Bert Corona spoke at the climax lici6n de Latinoamericanos y Amigos dience of 250 heard speeches in Eng­ of the defense rally. He compared the de Latinoamerica (CLAN), El Co­ lish, Spanish, French, and Creole. experiences of the Mexican "illegals" mite, Committee to Defend the Rights Saleem Joseph related the Immigra­ [undocumented workers] fighting de­ of the Haitian People (KODDPA), tion Service's threats to deport the portation in the Southwest to the strug­ nt/Walter lippmanr Friends of Haiti, Comite pro Defensa Haitian exiles to its witch-hunt against gle of the Haitian exiles. "The only CORONA: Explained parallel between de los Derechos en la Republica Do­ Arab students, particularly since the way to end deportation," he said, "is struggle of Mexican 'illegals' and plight mm1Ca, El Centro Dominicano de Munich events of September 1972. by unifying. And the only way to win of Haitian exiles. Orientaci6n y Asistencia Social, El Andrew Pulley compared the favored is by taking our fight to the streets!"

Socialists urge action to defeat Rodino bill The following statement was issued by the New to the U. S. for permanent residence." vice against Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, York Socialist Workers Party 1973 Campaign The sponsors of the Rodino Bill would have us Dominicans, and other Latino people. Committee, and distributed at the July 28 anti- believe that they are protecting U.S. labor from • Oppose all deportation including the deporta- deportation rally in New York City. "aliens" who steal jobs. In reality, the undocumented tion of political refugees and deportation from the "aliens" would be forced to do the same labor as U. S. for political activity in this country. The U. S. Immigration Service is now conducting U. S. workers for substandard wages. e Grant asylum to the 117 Haitians and all a wave of dragnet raids in the Chicano commu­ This superexploitation enables employers to keep political refugees. nities on the West Coast and in the Latino, Do­ wages low for all workers. The attacks on immi- • Oppose all quotas that restrict immigration minican, Haitian, and Puerto Rican communities grant workers are attacks on the entire U. S. work to the U. S. on the East Coast force. The United Farm Workers Union, recog- • Welfare, Social Security, and unemployment Ostensibly, the raids are designed to round up nizing that the problems of "illegal aliens" are al- benefits at union scale for all unemployed workers, "illegal aliens"- those without visas or work per­ so the problems of U.S. workers, hasrecentlycalled including immigrant workers. mits. In reality, these raids have involved the for the defeat of the Rodino Bill. • Shorten the workweek with no reduction in illegal search and seizure, detention, and deporta­ It is the immigrant and U.S. workers-and pay to spread the available work to all who need tion of dark-skinned "Latin-looking" or "Latin­ not the employers-who would be the victimsofthis jobs. sounding" people without due process. law. The law provides that the employers only be Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, have also slapped on the wrist. But what of the immigrant been victims of these raids. The U. S. government workers? They are used as a source of super­ has also been in complicity with the reactionary exploited, supercheap labor. The flow of so-called . Duvalier and Balaguer regimes in· rounding up illegal aliens is regulated by the Immigration au­ Haitians and Dominicans who face political per­ thorities. When there is a labor surplus, there is a secution after they are deported. stepped-up drive to deport them. Right now in Miami, 117 Haitian refugees face The Socialist Workers Party opposes this harass­ deportation. If the Immigration authorities turn them ment of "illegal aliens" by the Immigration Service over to the "Baby Doc" Duvalier government, they and supporters of the Rodino Bill. We support all will be tortured and killed. For the Miami 117, demonstrations, rallies, and pickets protesting the deportation means death. Rodino Bill and the current dragnets. We urge all The Rodino Bill, which was passed by the U. S. trade unions, civil libertarians, and community House of Representatives last September, has faced organizations to oppose these racist, undemocratic little opposition by the Democrats and Republicans attacks on noncitizens. in Congress. If it is passed by the Senate and made We urge Mayor John Lindsay and the other into law, it would provide the legal cover for the candidates for mayor of New York to speak out harassment and victimization that is now being against the dragnet raids and harassment directed carried out. at this city's Latino and Haitian communities. Militant/Baxter The Rodino Bill would revise the Immigration The Socialist Workers Party demands: Norman Oliver (left), SWP candidate for mayor and Nationality Act by making it "unlawful for e Defeat the Rodino Bill and all legislation vic­ New York, on picket line sponsored by United States any employer ... knowingly to employ . . . any timizing noncitizens. Committee for Justice to latin American Political Pris- alien in the U. S. who has not been lawfully admitted e Stop racist dragnets by the Immigration Ser- oners.

12 A WEEKLY INTERNATIONAL SUPPLEMENT TO THE MILITANT BASED ON SELECTIONS FROM INTERCONTINENTAL PRESS, A NEWSMAGAZINE REFLECTING THE VIEWPOINT OF REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM.

AUGUST 31, 1973

Pompidou forced to free Krivine Confronted by an international pro­ to debate him on national television. Act in Canada in 1970, the letter test campaign, the French government Marcellin is the government figurewho states: "It is the traditional view of or­ has been compelled to allow the re­ has pressed the hardest for the arrests ganizations and political parties of la­ lease of Alain Krivine from prison. and banning of the League. bor, and of democrats and civil liber­ Krivine was a central leader of the The provisional release of Krivine tarians that 'an injury to one is an in­ Communist League, French section of is a significant victory for the cam­ jury to all.'" the Fourth International, which was paign that has developed, both in On July 20, some 40 persons from banned by the Pompidou regime on France and internationally, in defense various organizations gathered in June 28. Although he is at liberty un­ of the rights of the League and its Montreal to form the Quebec Com- der the terms of provisional release, former members. Krivine still must face trial. The breadth of support for the The pretext for the arrest of Krivine League inside France was expressed in Statements of support for the cam­ and the banning of the League was an the delegation of prominent individ­ antifascist demonstration sponsored uals who visited the French Ministry paign in defense of the Commu­ by the League and other groups on of Justice July 25 to demand the lift­ nist League in France should be June 21. The protest was against a ing of the ban on the League and sent to: M. F. Kahn, 75, rue Clerc, meeting of the fascist group New Or­ freedom for Krivine and Rousset. In­ Paris 7, France. Copies of any der, which is conducting a racist cam­ cluded in the delegation of 22 were top protest statements sent to the Pom­ paign to keep immigrant workers out leaders of the Socialist Party and the pidou government should be sent of France. CFDT (the second largest trade-union Another former leader of the League, federation in France), actress Simone to the same address. Financial Pierre Rousset, remains in prison. Signoret, and many well-known scien­ contributions to the defense cam­ Rousset was jailed simply for being tists and intellectuals. paign should be sent to: C. C. P. present in the League's headquarters The campaign continues to gather Michel Foucault, Paris 26-15, when it was sacked by police June 22. steam outside France as well. An ex­ France. One of the purposes of In addition, 25 other ex-members of ample was the response from Cana­ this fund is· to assure the con­ the League still face charges stemming dian labor figures at the July 19-22 from the June 21 demonstration. federal convention of the New Demo­ tinued appearance of the news" Krivine held a news conference upon cratic Party (Canada's labor party). paper Rouge, formerly the paper leaving prison. He declared that the Scores of prominent members of par­ of the Communist League. Communist League would not go un­ liament and trade-union officials derground but would fight for its right signed an open letter to French Presi­ to exist. dent Pompidou calling for the release mittee against Repression in France. Demanding the right of revolution­ of former members of the Commu­ The meeting was chaired by Andre ists in France to express their views nist League and immediate rescinding Leclair of the Quebec Federation of on civil liberties, repression, and the of the ban. Labor. The group will fight for the role of the police, Krivine challenged Referring to the imposition of re­ lifting of the ban on the Communist Interior Minister Raymond Marcellin pression through the War Measures League and the dropping of all charges against former League mem­ Rouge bers. The Militant received a report from from the Provisional Republican Dave Holmes on Aug. 5 concerning Movement, the SocialistWorkersMove­ the growth of the defense campaign in ment, the Official Republican Move­ Australia. A petition protesting the re­ ment, and the Revolutionary Marxist pression against the Communist Group (Irish supporters of the Fourth League was initiated by the Socialist International) protest the repression Workers League, supporters of the against the French revolutionists. Fourth International in Australia. Ac- A joint statement issued by Sinn ' cording to Holmes, "this petition has Fein (Kevin Street), People's Democ­ been endorsed by leaders of almost racy, and the RMG cited the interna­ every political organisation to the left (ional cooperation by the capitalist of the Labor Party, leaders of most ruling classes in repressing social of the major trade unions, and many movements, as exemplified by the role prominent academic figures." of Britain in Ireland and around the Among the signers are Dr. Jim world. "To this type of [capitalist} soli­ Cairns, Minister for Overseas Trade darity we must oppose working-dass and, Secondary Industry; Dr. Moss internationalism; the ban of one or­ Cass, Minister for the Environment ganization is a setback for all the Left and Conservation; and Bob Hawke, on an international scale." federal president of the Labor Party A letter protesting the measures and president of the Australian Coun­ taken against the League was cil of Trade Unions. delivered to the French Embassy in On Aug. 1 some 230 people held Caracas, Venezuela. It was signed by a protest meeting at the Sydney Trades Federico Alvarez of the Venezuelan Hall. "The sponsorship of the gather­ Communist Party; Rafael Jose Nery, ing was unprecedentedly broad," writes rector of the central university of Ven­ Holmes. "In fact, not for a very long ezuela; leaders of the MIR and MAS time has there been a meeting in Aus­ (Movimiento de Ia Izquierda Revolu­ tralia which has drawn together such cionaria-Movement of the Revolu­ a wide spectrum of left and labor tionary Left, and Movimiento al So­ forces." Speakers included representa­ cialismo -Movement Toward Social­ tives of the Communist Party and So­ ism); and Alfonso Ramirez, editor of cialist Party of Australia. Voz Marxista (Marxist Voice. pub­ Pierre Rousset (left) and Alain Krivine upon their release from prison five years ago. In Dublin, Ireland, a meeting last lished by supporters of the Fourth They were jailed then for their role in the May 1968 workers upsurge in France. month of 85 activists heard speakers International). World Outlook W0/2

!:JP- emr:2loyees show bosses are not needed French workers take control of plant to stop Ia)

By Caroline Lund of 15,000 held to support the Lip strike- the largest demonstration in Besam;;on the city since its liberation from the 3,000 police se1ze factory The long banner covering the fence Nazis in 1945. August 20- Since the story on this French railway system announced at the entrance to the Lip watch fac­ To a visitor in Besan~on, signs of page was written, the French gov­ a one-hour strike in solidarity with tory in this town in eastern France support for the strikers are everywhere. ernment has carried out a massive the Lip workers. reads: "It can be done-We are pro­ One sees the red and white stickers on assault on the workers of the Lip The weekly newspaper Rouge, ducing and selling. [Signed] TheWork­ automobile windows: "Support the Lip watch factory. At 6 a.m. on August formerly the paper of the French ers." workers-No to layoffs; No to dis­ 14, a force of 3,000 national po­ Communist League (see story on The 1,320 workers at Lip, France's mantlement." Posters cover the walls, lice descended on the factory and page WO/ 1) released a statement largest, oldest, and best-known watch signed by the two unions at Lip, the evicted the 50 workers who were on calling for an immediate, united, company, took over the enterprise on CGT and the CFDT (Confederation guard duty at the time. massive response, including sympa­ June 19 when faced by a company Generale du Travail- General Confed­ The government planned the as­ thy strikes wherever possible. announcement of massive layoffs and eration of Labor, and Confederation sault for the height of the vacation According to a report on the po­ refusal to pay the workers salaries. Fran~aise Democratique du Travail­ period and the day before Assump­ lice assault carried in the August Since then the workers have organized French Democratic Confederation of tion Day, a widely observed holi­ 1 7 People's Translation Service, the to continue production on their own, Labor), the Lip Action Committee, day in France. Lip workers' representatives an­ selling the watches they produce to the the various far-left organizations. The Protests immediately broke out de­ nounced that the vital watch parts public at 40 percent discount. main highways coming into the city are dotted with prominent red arrows spite the vacation period. The day "had been stored in a secret place, pointing the way to Lip for the con­ of the police assault some 10,000 as well as thousands of watches people took to the streets in Besan­ whose return the government is de­ The Lip workers are appealing stant stream of factory delegations ~on. Appearing in the demonstra­ manding. They said they had also for solidarity from other workers coming to visit the plant. tion was the mayor of the town, taken away four tons of documents, throughout the world; both mes­ The French capitalist class is well Jean Minjoz. All municipal employ­ among which the computer tape in­ sages of support and financial con­ aware of the implications of this new ees and transportation workers in cluding all the information about tributions are needed. All the work form of strike, unprecedented in Besan~on, as well as many other the firm's activities; no one would of popularizing the Lip struggle France. For example, the Paris Cham­ workers in the town and in the re­ be able to find the phone number of must be paid for out of the solidar­ ber of Commerce and Industry warned: gion, declared strikes in sympathy a single client." ity collections, not from the sale of "Lip is the most disturbing social con­ with the Lip workers. The workers had all taken their watches. flict ... because the continued opera­ The August 15 New York Times tool kits with them from the factory, Contributions should be sent to: tion of the factory, after a robbery, speculates that the government take­ and have now vowed to continue Comite de Defense Lip in essence, of the shareholders, calls over of the plant could provoke the production of watches in a gym­ C. M.D. P. No. 421.388.40 into question the principles of authori­ "a test of strength that could lead nasium donated by a local school 25.000 Bescan~on - Palente ty, of property, of responsibility, of to labor turmoil across France." in Besan~on. France respect for contracts vis-a-vis sup­ Asked whether the workers feared Send messages of support to: pliers and subcontractors, which are In response to an appeal by the legal action would be taken against Collectif Ouvrier Lip, 25.000 Be­ at the very base of our economic sys­ major French unions and the Com­ them, a representative replied that san~ on, France. tem and of our commercial law." But despite their fears, the capital­ munist and Socialist parties, work­ everything has been "done by 1,000 ist rulers are reluctant to move against ers in various factories throughout people. It is no use hiring other the strikers because of the solid sup­ the country have carried out work workers and taking legal proceed­ Popular support for the Lip work­ port they have received from the over­ stoppages or protest strikes. For ings against us. Lip cannot function ers is immense and has spread whelming majority of Lip workers and example, all union members in the without us." throughout France. Hundreds of from the rest of the French working workers- in delegations from factories class. The basic issues generating the struggle at Lip- guaranteed employ­ all over France and from other Euro­ the factory walls with leaflets and post­ A turning point in the Lip struggle ment for all and the sliding scale of pean countries as well-have traveled ers as part of an ongoing political came on June 12, when the adminis­ wages- are issues touching all French to Lip to express their solidarity with discussion of how to assure employ­ trators of the factory announced to the strikers, to buy watches, and to workers. ment for all. Objections from the fore­ the workers representatives that the deliver collections for the supportfund. The Lip Company is a subsidiary men were overruled by the workers company was applying for bankrupt­ Dozens of factories across the coun­ of Ebauches, S. A., a Swiss multina­ with the demand for "respect for free­ cy, and the workers would no longer try have voted to launch unlimited tional corporation that also owns the dom of expression." receive their salaries and also would strikes if the government or the bosses Longines Company. Last April The Lip workers turned to the pop­ not receive their vacation pay (vaca­ move against the Lip workers Ebauches announced plans for "re­ ulation of Besa~on for support to tions for all the workers were to start by force. structuring'' of the Lip enterprise in or­ their demands for no layoffs and no June 29). Faced with this ultimatum, In Besan~on itself, a city of 140,- der to make it more profitable, result­ dismantlement of any sections of the the workers representatives decided to 000, the workers have received sup­ ing in layoffs of 200 workers. factory. Workers passed out leaflets hold the managers in their offices in port from almost every local institu­ The workers responded with imme­ at entrances to the city, engaging in order to find out more about the com­ tion, from the trade unions to the diate protests. The CFDT and CGT dialogues with motorists. One thou­ pany's plans against the workers. masonic lodges to the Roman Cath­ unions at Lip initiated general assem­ sand of the 1,300 Lip workers dem­ Going through the managers' port­ olic archbishop. On June 15, the arch­ blies .of the workers to discuss what onstrated April- 26 at the prefecture. folios, the workers found documents bishop of Besan~on was one of the to do. Work stoppages and slowdowns On May 10 a rally of 5,000 took laying out plans for layoffs of nearly speakers at a regional demonstration were conducted. The workers covered place in Besa~on in support of the half the work force at Lip, by dis­ workers' demands. On May 28 a dele­ mantling whole sections of the plant.• gation of 534 Lip workers traveled In a press conference held at the fac­ to Paris to demonstrate and appeal tory, the workers denounced the for support. Political discussions and schemes and lies of the company that meetings were taking place constantly were exposed in the secret papers. in the factory on "company time." One of the documents described the Since June 18 the struggle of the company's plans to put aside 2 mil­ Lip workers has found an echo of lion new francs (more than $500,000) solidarity across the border in Switzer­ for expenses from "social disturbances land, where the problem of layoffs (foreseeable if this plan is put into in the watch industry affects thousands effect)." Another revealed plans for a of workers. Many meetings have taken wage freeze, and the elimination of place in solidarity with the Lip strug­ the sliding scale of wages and other gle, and on June 23 there was adem­ benefits that the workers had won dur­ onstration of 800 persons at the bor­ ing the May 1968 general strike. Still der town of Chaux-de-Fonds. Militants another document detailed the methods of the Ligue Marxiste Revolutionnaire of police surveillance used against (LMR, Revolutionary Marxist League, trade-union militants at Lip. Swiss supporters of the Fourth Inter­ In the middle of the night of June national) were at the center of the or­ 12-13, several hundred mobile guards ganizing activities that built these sup­ and CRS (Compagnies Republicaines lip workers general assembly, where decisions are made democratically. port actions. de Securite - Republican Security W0/3

roffs

Corps) descended upon the factory to "free" the two managers. Several strik­ ers were injured in the brutal attack, which was obviously designed to in­ timidate the workers. In face of these provocations, the Lip personnel voted in general assem­ bly the following day for an unlimited occupation of the factory "to safeguard our tools." Their demands were for 1) guaranteed jobs; 2) continued pay­ ment of wages; and 3) the staggering of vacations. The workers foresaw that -. if all of them were to leave for vaca­ lip workers and supporters in Besancon demonstrating against layoffs. tions as usual, they would most like­ ly face a lockout when they returned. As security, the workers took over a store of 65,000 watches worth $2.5 right now, gives the bosses the right ship of forces established around the be strangled in the economic arena." million and hid them in Besanc;on. to 'take the law into their own hands.' exemplary struggle of Lip." Another statement by the unions "These watches are being kept as our In fighting against dismantlement and The Pompidou regime has also been states, "We are struggling against capi­ guaranty of employment," a spokes­ layoffs, through effective form•s of ac­ forced to handle the Lip situation with talism; we don't want to become capi­ man for the workers told New York tion that are decided collectively and kid gloves. Edgar Faure, president talists." Times reporter Clyde Farnsworth. In are appropriate to the situation, we of the National Assembly, has made On July 18 the workers delegates general assembly June 18, the workers are exercising our legitimate right of statements that the situation at announced their refusal to fill an or­ decided not to touch these watches, defense." Lip demonstrates that the workers are der for 30,000 watches from a Ku­ but to start up production again and On June 27 the women workers at capable of "participation" in the run­ wait businessman, even though it sell the watches they produced to as­ Lip (they are more than half the work ning of a company. would have meant some $75,000 in sure a living wage. force) took to the streets in a special French President Georges Pompidou revenues. "We are not watch merchants "They refuse to pay us our salaries? demonstration together with their stated July 19: "It is in the interests of and our aim is not to deal with busi­ We're going to pay them ourselves," children to emphasize the meaning of everyone, including the workers, to ar­ nessmen who would retail our watches the workers declared. The decision was the threat of unemployment for their rive at an agreement. To make a busi­ at a profit," stated the workers repre­ explained by union leaders as "self­ families. ness run, like it or not, you need sentatives, quoted in the July 19 Le defense, not self-management." Two days later, the company felt money and you need workers. Thus Monde. One assembly line was set in mo­ constrained to retreat a step. It agreed it is necessary that the two have an The Lip section of the CFDT and tion, and the Lip workers organized to pay the workers their vacation pay understanding." the Action Committee (a volunteer themselves into six commissions to and bonus, hoping the strikers would The unions at Lip replied in a pub­ body made up of both unionized and carry out a long-term struggle. A pro­ leave the plant and the struggle would lic statement, pointing to the responsi­ nonunionized militants in the factory) duction commission was responsible be diffused. But the workers decided to bility of the government "to make a drew up a manifesto which was ap­ for producing the watches. A recep­ give up part of their vacations and rapid decision that will assure the po­ proved by the workers in general as­ tion commission was setuptowelcome stagger them so that 600 workers tentialities of Lip in its entirety. It is sembly. Addressed to "all workers," and take care of visitors to the plant. would always be present to continue imperative that there be no dismantle­ it outlines the perspectives of the strug­ A popularization commission set out production and sale of watches. ment of Lip, and that employment gle: to spread word about the Lip strug­ Meanwhile, after postponing a de­ for all be guaranteed. "[The Lip workers] have shown that gle and to appeal for solidarity from cision for week after week, the Besan­ One union delegate, quoted in the the bosses are not indispensable and other workers. A sales commission c;on Tribunal of Commerce finally July 20 issue of the Communist party that the workers are capable of or­ and a management commission were ruled July 13 on the company's appli­ daily l'Humanite, noted that "the gov­ ganizing themselves, on their own, set up to organize the sale of watches cation for bankruptcy. It declared ernment has to realize what the con­ even in the economic sphere (produc­ and the bookkeeping. And finally, a liquidation of the enterprise, appointed stant threat of unemployment means tion and exchange of goods). It is security and maintenance commission a public trustee charged with taking to a worker and his family." not only the management of Lip that was set up to organize a twenty-four­ an inventory, and authorized con­ One solution that the government has been challenged, but the whole hour defense guard for the factory tinued operation of the plant until De­ has put forward as a way of diffus­ employer class. . . . and cleaning of the premises. cember 31, 1973. The capitalist jour­ ing the explosive example set' by the "Obviously at Lip we are in a privi­ In response, the company accused nal Les Echos publicly attacked the Lip workers is a proposal that the leged branch of production: The watch the workers of theft and threatened tribunal judge for "running away from workers take over the factory as share­ is a finished product that is quite easi­ to prosecute anyone buying Lip his responsibilities" in legitimatizing holders in a cooperative. The work­ ly sold. The action carried out here watches for receiving stolen goods. operation of the plant under workers ers have rejected this. A statement by is not transposable, across the board, The workers answered: "Nothing we control if only until December. the CFDT explains: "We are not going to all enterprises. Nevertheless, the are doing can be considered illegal. "In reality," wrote the weekly Poli­ to fall into that trap .... We would method we are using, adapted to lo­ These watches are the fruit of our tique-Hebdo, "this decision seems to soon be stuck in the contradictions of cal circumstances, can be utilized in work." be an exact measure of the relation- the capitalist system and could easily hundreds of factories. In a public statement denouncing "It is up to you to think this over, "robbery" and "unauthorized sales," the to collectively take the initiatives nec­ company refused any negotiations un­ essary to enlarge the breach made in til a stop was put to "social agitation." the 'system' that imprisons us.... The company attempted to justi_fy its "Our struggle can be an important plans for massive layoffs and dismant-.. gain for all workers, if tomorrow other lement on the grounds of "increased attempts are made in the same direc­ financial burdens due, among other tion, if we collectively think out our things, to losses resulting from the methods of action to make them most political developments of May '68 as effective." well as obligations imposed on so­ A first run of 150,000 copies of ciety in the social arena under the these manifestos are now being dis­ pressure of the same events." tributed throughout France. At the last On July 3 the capitalists of the pro­ minute the CP-led CGT refused to add vince of Doubs, where Besanc;on is sit­ its name to the document. The CGT uated, proclaimed indignantly that"the bureaucrats felt the statement went too errors of management at Lip do not far in generalizing from the Lip work­ give the personnel authority to take the ers' experience. law into their own hands." The CGT explained its position in The Lip workers answered this a separate statement, belittling the im­ charge in the July 11 issue of Lip portance of the methods used at Lip. Unit€, the information bulletin pub­ "It is strange," says the CGT docu­ lished by the popularization commis­ Daniel Montibelli ment, "that those in power and so­ sion. The workers replied: "But the In this old bus, lip workers toured the region surrounding the factory to explain their called revolutionary organizations right to order layoffs, which exists struggle to other workers and request their support. Continued on next page World Outlook W0/4

UN condemns act of piracy Israeli skyjack fails to capture Palestinian leaders

By Caroline lund 108 persons. In April, Israeli com­ the Israeli regime and Israel's"defiance mandos executed a raid on the homes of the United Nations and interna­ of Palestinian resistance fighters in tional law." The U.S. representative The Israeli government's recent hi­ Beirut, assassinating three leaders in immediately made clear that Washing­ jacking of a Middle East Airlines their beds. ton would veto any resolution calling plane struck a new high in terms of The Aug. 10 hijacking was aimed for economic sanctions against Israel. unabashed aggression against the at capturing four top leaders of the Even in voting for the final resolu­ Palestinian resistance movement. After Popular Front for the Liberation of tion, U.S. delegate Scali took pains years of attempting to brand the Palestine, including George Habash, to assure the Zionist regime that his Palestinian liberation fighters as ter­ head of the organization. Fortunately, vote "in no way represents a change rorists and international outlaws, the the four had canceled their reserva­ in my Government's views on the Zionist regime carried out the first tions at the last minute and thus es­ problems and possibilities for a so­ skyjacking officially ordered by a caped kidnapping or death. lution in the Middle East"- that is, government. Just after the Middle East Airlines U.S. backing of Israel against the The act was so blatant, and world plane had taken off from Beirut on just claims of the dispossessed Pal­ reaction against Israel so strong, that a scheduled flight to Baghdad, it was estinians. even Washington felt compelled to ver­ surrounded by four Israeli fighters Lebanon has also made a formal bally dissociate itself from the too­ and forced to land at a military air­ request for the expulsion of Israel crude tactics of its client state. On field in Israel. Heavily armed Israeli from the International Civil Aviation Aug. 15, U.S. representative John soldiers forced the 81 passengers out Organization, an agency of the UN. Scali joined in the 15-0 vote of the of the plane at gunpoint anc:J. ques­ Even the Israeli Airline Pilots' Asso­ United Nations Security Council to tioned them for two hours before al­ ciation has publicly announced its censure Israel's violation of interna­ lowing the plane to return to Beirut. opposition to the piracy operation. tional law. HABASH: 'It's time for public opinion to The soldiers demanded to know if The resolution of censure went fur­ know who are actually the terrorists.' any of the passengers were Palestin­ In an Aug. 13 statement, Dr. George ther than past motions in that it threat­ ians, reported Iraqi Minister of Plan­ Habash of the PFLP told reporters ened "adequate steps or measures" if ning Jawad Hashem, who was a pas­ that his organization had ceased all Israel does not stop carrying out "such senger. "They asked me if I were a hijackings, "But Israel, which was acts." Also, the resolution did not con­ in the Israeli government's stepped-up guerrilla," he said. condemning us all the time, is prac­ tain the usual charges of so-called terror campaign government against In response to the skyjacking, ticing it now." Arab terrorism to "balance" its con­ the Palestinian resistance movement. Lebanon called for a meeting of the "It is time for world opinion to demnation of Israel. Last February, Israeli jet fighters shot UN Security Council, asking that it know who actually are the terrorists," The air piracy was the latest atrocity down a Libyan civilian airliner, killing confront the "arrogant challenge" of Habash stated.

.. .Workers control in French watch factory

Continued lrom preceding page General assemblies are held daily, legitimatize the current situation, Mon­ ways be made, papers can be signed; join together in amazement that the where reports from the commissions tibelli felt that, of course, that would it makes no difference. The capitalists workers of Lip prove the capacity of are heard and important decisions be best, but it was "only a hope, with will not hesitate to violate their own self-management. . . . It is not a ques­ made. not much chance of achievement." If legality when their interests are at tion of mindlessly copying forms of A child-care center has been set up Lip were nationalized under workers stake. So? Will the workers have to struggle which, while positive in a for children of the workers, and volun­ control, he said, "then all the workers bear the costs of profitability, of the given situation, could prove to be not teers from Besanc;on are asked to help of France would want the same thing." deficit? Not at all. so good, and even detrimental, in staff it. The July 20 issue of Rouge, weekly "Under the existing conditions, why other cases." The factory has been opened up to newspaper put out by French Trotsky­ won't the government take over the Despite its wishes, however, the CP all visitors who solidarize with the ists, set forth the revolutionary-Marx­ Lip business, with the workers keep­ is powerless to keep the example of struggle, and every care is taken to ist solution to the Lip "problem": welcome them and inform them about "In fact, there can be no good em­ ing charge of the management and Lip from inspiring workers through­ of working conditions? Nationaliza­ out France. The continued involve­ the situation. The reception area con­ ployer or good manager that will not tion of Lip under workers control is ment of the rank-and-file Lip workers, tains photographic displays showing raise the question of profits. Adminis­ the only avenue that would allow for despite the many weeks of struggle, the course of the fight, long bulletin trators can be changed and bankrup­ guaranteeing both employment and testifies to the depth of sentiment be­ boards containing messages and tele­ cy can be declared, but the financial the other gains of the struggle. And hind the workers' demands. grams of solidarity from workers all problems of distribution and profita­ bility remain. What's more, promises what's more, it is the only realistic For example, one worker told are­ over the world, displays of press cov­ of guaranteeing employment can al- thing to do." porter from the revolutionary-socialist erage, and a large board containing weekly Rouge about the long hours the latest financial situation of the fac­ many workers put in for the struggle: tory and of the solidarity fund. "There are guys who work during the A refreshment area .has been set up day and also take part in the night especially for visitors. The factory guard, in the weekend guard, etc. For premises are kept cleaner than ever before. The production workers have Intercontinental Press example, last Saturday and Sunday found that they can produce in four I stayed about fifteen hours in the fac­ THE COMING CONFRONTATION hours under workers control whatthey tory. That doesn't keep me from com­ Where is Allende taking Chile? When the chips are down, where will the mil­ did in nine hours under the boss. ing back today. itary stand? What are the organizations of the workers, peasants, and the left "And then, you don't stay only in What will be the outcome of the Lip doing? What are their programs? What are the perspectives facing the Chilean the shops; there are discussions. You struggle? According to Daniel Manti­ people? have to keep on top of things. You belli, a CFDT member in charge of For the answers read lntercontinenta'l Press, the only English-language weekly go to meetings; you go to see the press relations for the popularization magazine that specializes on news and analysis of revolutionary struggles from guys from the Action Committee, etc. commission, the workers would con­ Canada to Chile and all around the world. "This is why I am ready to do work sider it a victory, and would turn over Intercontinental Press: A socialist antidote to the lies of the capitalist media. that I would refuse to do in normal the factory, if a new capitalist would Name ______times." sign a written agreement to their de­ The struggle by the Lip workers mands: No dismantlement, guaranteed Address ______for economic demands has taken on jobs for all 1,300 workers, and main­ many aspects of a social movement. tenance of all other gains- such as The workers have organized a whole the sliding scale of wages-won in CitY------State ______Zip------program of social events to help main­ the past. tain the solidarity and morale of th~ Asked what he thought about the de­ ( ) Enclosed is $7.50 for six months. ) Enclosed is $15 for one year. strikers, including presentation ofthea­ mand for nationalization of the factory Intercontinental Press, P.O. Box 116, Village Station, New York, New York 10014. ter performances, singers, and films. under workers control as a way to SWP convention Socialist Workers Party holds 25th national convention; 1,450 attend By ANDY ROSE More than 1,400 delegates and ob­ servers attended the twenty-fifth nation­ al convention of the Socialist Work­ ers Party, held Aug. 5-11 in Ohio. The week-long gathering attested to the SWP's steady gains in member­ ship and influence, and also its geo­ graphical expansion. For example, representatives attended from SWP or· ganizing committees in St. Louis and Pittsburgh, where, it was reported, new party branches will soon be chartered. The enthusiasm of all the conven­ tion proceedings reflected the party's involvement in actions on every front of the class struggle, and the favor­ able prospects foreseen for further growth of the socialist movement. Most of the convention reports and discussion concerned questions of pro· gram and strategy now being dis· cussed in the Fourth International. The first session was devoted to the revolutionary movement in Latin America, focusing on developments in Argentina and Bolivia. Defense of the Vietnamese revolution has been a cornerstone of the SWP's activity for the past decade, and a Mil Petrick lengthy discussion was held on the Hundreds of socialists, including many international guests, gathered for reports, discussions, panels, and workshops at SWP Paris peace accords and recent events national convention. in Southeast Asia, the nature of the Vietnamese Communist Party, and the lessons of building the international than 1.5 million words! -were print­ tioning of the capitalist system, which pate in picket lines and rallies, and antiwar movement. ed. Discussions and debates were or­ is increasingly incapable of meeting support the poycott of scab lettuce Another session dealt with building ganized in each SWP branch, often two those needs. The depth of public dis­ and grapes. revolutionary parties. in Western or three times a week, during the pre- trust in the capitalist _government can Europe, where the upturn in the class convention period. · be seen in the reaction to the Water­ Trade-union program struggle poses new opportunities and Several minority tendencies pre­ gate affair, which itself has further Driven by the need to improve their new challenges to the Trotskyist par­ sented political positions opposing deepened the radicalization. competitive position in relation to ties and groups there. those of the outgoing National Com­ The organization report, presented Japanese and Western European capi­ Following the international discus­ mittee and Political Committee. by Lew Jones, projected the major talism, the U. S. capitalists have sharp­ sion, the convention assessed the cur­ At the end of the preconvention dis­ tasks of the SWP, which fall into two ly attacked the living standards of rent political situation in the U.S. and cussion, each SWP branch voted on the categories: first, continuing to support American workers. While prices are decided on the activities of the SWP resolutions and elected delegates based and build actions around a wide vari­ rising at record-breaking rates, wages for the period ahead. on the number of votes for the dif­ ety of issues, many of them of a local have been held down by government fering political perspectives. Three del­ rather than national scope at this time; controls since August 1971. Anger A thorough discussion egates out of a total of 7 5 were elected and second, launching a large-scale against high prices has resulted in The national convention, which is representing minority tendencies. campaign to reach people with social­ protests developing outside the unions, the highest decision-making body of Then at the convention sessions. the ist ideas and win new adherents to the like the meat boycott last April. the Socialist Workers Party, was the delegates from all around the country revolutionary movement. But the present union leadership has culmination of a three-month period held further discussions, attempting to In addition to the regular conven­ utterly failed to defend the workers of intense political discussiop. All mem­ convince each other of their views. tion sessions, major panels were held against inflation, unemployment, and bers of the SWP had the opportunity The overwhelming majority voted to on the SWP's particip~tion in thetrade­ speedup. The main job of the SWP to contribute articles a;nd resolutions support the resolutions and reports union, Black, and women's move­ in the unions is to get out its program on any topic to the SWP internal dis­ presented by the outgoing national ments. And 27 smaller panels and for an effective fight around these is­ cussion bulletin. Thirty-five bulletins, leadership. workshops mapped out implementa­ sues. This program includes calling containing 240 articles-totaling more National Organization Secretary tion of other aspects of party work. for mobilizing the power of the unions Barry Sheppard reported on the po­ One important area of activity will around demands for the cost-of-living litical resolution prepared by the out­ be exposing the continued U. S. in­ escalator clause in all contracts as going Political Committee. The resolu­ volvement in Southeast Asia and or­ protection against inflation, an end to Convention tion examines such developments as ganizing protests against it. The SWP wage controls, for a shorter workweek Washington's detente with Peking and will be in the forefront of defending the with no cut in pay to end unemploy­ largest ever Moscow, the withdrawal of U.S. Vietnamese revolution, including ex­ ment, and for an end to war spending. posing the betrayal by Moscow and SWP election campaigns and Mili­ The total attendance of 1, 4 7 8 at troops from Vietnam, the new eco­ Peking. However, the convention noted tant sales are good ways to popular­ the recent SWP convention made nomic situation, and the Watergate that the signing of the Paris accords ize this program for the unions. Dele­ it the largest ever· held. By com­ revelations. It concludes that radical ideas and moods are spreading to and the withdrawal of most U.S. gates from Oakland and Berkeley, parison, the previous convention, Calif., reported that their branch has held in 1971, was attended by about ever-wider sections of the population, troops from Vietnam objectively rule although there has been a temporary out antiwar demonstrations on the organized regular Militant sales at 17 1,100 people, while ~he 1969 con­ plants and other workplaces in the vention drew 660. decline in protest activity. same massive scale as in previous years. area and sells about 100 copies each Convention participants came The political resolution states: "The ~The organization report and trade­ week at these locations. from 27 states. Some of the largest central contradiction of the radicaliza­ union panel pointed to some new op­ The trade-union panel heard reports groups were 30 1 from New York, tion remains the fact that large sec­ portunities for the SWP' s participation on the activities of SWP members in 220 from California, 88 from Mas­ tions of the labor movement have yet in the trade unions. Helping to or­ the Teachers union, Social Service sachusetts, 88 from Illinois, and to take the road of independent politi­ ganize support for the United Farm Union, Steelworkers union, Typo­ 77 from Texas. In addition, .ob­ cal struggles." This contradiction re­ Workers Union, under attack from graphical union, and other unions. servers were present from many for­ tards the independent movements of the grape growers and Teamsters It was pointed out that many issues eign countries. Blacks, students, women, and other union bureaucracy, was singled out originating outside the unions are of Of those present at the conven­ groups, and has in fact contributed to as a major task for every branch. interest to workers and provide new tion: the current downturn in activity in "The UFW," Jones said, "is a pro­ openings for union work. Examples e 44 percent were women; some of these movements. duct of the radicalization, closely tied cited were protests against police bru­ e 55 percent were under 25 years However, new upsurges, including to the Chicano movement. This at­ tality, struggles for Black control of of age; upsurges of the working class, are in­ tack is a challenge to the unions, to Black schools in relation to the Teach­ e Members of 55 trade unions evitably being generated by the same the Chicano movement, and to the ers union, and support for the Equal were present; process that first spurred the radicali­ entire left." The convention decided that Rights Amendment. e 38 percent were attending their zation-that is, the clash between the SWP members should work to get their Branches have also been involved first SWP convention. social and economic needs of the mass­ es of people and the profit-based func- unions to support the UFW, partici- Continued on page l 5

THE MILITANT/AUGUST 31, 1973 13 SWP convention Discussions focus on issues before international revolutionary movement By CAROLINE LUND all afflliated and sympathizing orga­ of dictatorial regimes throughout the The banner behind the speakers po­ nizations. continent. dium summarized the theme of the Although the SWP is prevented by A separate panel discussion was led 1973 Socialist Workers Party conven­ the reactionary Voorhis Act from be­ by SWP members who are active in the tion: "Our movement has been edu­ longing to the Fourth International, U.S. Committee for Justice to Latin cated in a great school-the school it is in political solidarity with the American Political Prisoners ( USLA). of internationalism." International and participates actively The SWP has been a consistent sup­ This statement by James P. Cannon, in the international discussion as a porter of USLA's activities. The panel a founding leader of the SWP, ex­ fraternal organization. gave participants an overview of pressed the party's view that interna­ First on the agenda of the conven­ USLA's current campaign against tor­ tional solidarity must be the corner­ tion discussion was the question of ture and repression by the U. S.-backed stone of a revolutionary party- es­ revolutionary perspectives and strat­ regime in Brazil. pecially for the revolutionary move­ egy in Latin America. The debate dealt Mary -Alice Waters presented the re­ ment in the heartland of U.S. impe­ with such questions as whether the port for the Political Committee dealing rialism. The vast reach of U.S. impe­ model of the Cuban revolution can be with perspectives for the revolutionary rialist domination means that virtually repeated in Latin America, the balance socialist movement in the capitalist all struggles and revolutionary gains sheet of guerrilla struggles on the con­ countries in Europe. This discussion throughout the world are threatened tinent, and the lessons to be learned assessed the continued deepening of by it. This imposes a special obliga- from the mass peasant struggles led by worker and student upsurges in Hugo Blanco in Peru in the early Western Europe since May 1968. 1960s. An important related question is the The report summarizing the thinking strategy and tactics of revolutionary of the outgoing SWP Political Com­ parties in leading the workers move­ Militant/Howard Petrick literature mittee was given by Peter Camejo. ment in defending itself against MARY-AliCE WATERS: Reported on ques­ Equal time on this and other points growing attacks from company goons, tions facing socialists in Europe. on the agenda was granted to rep­ racist and fascist groups, and the sales high resentatives of several delegates hold­ police. This problem has been dra­ Horowitz for the Political Committee The debates and discussion at the ing a minority view. matically posed in France, where the drew a balance sheet of the key role SWP convention evidently whetted Camejo pointed out that the discus­ Communist League, French section of played by the SWP and the Young So­ appetites for Marxist literature. Path­ sion on Latin America was especially the Fourth International, was banned cialist Alliance, and of the Fourth In­ fmder Press, a major publisher of important because the perspectives of for organizing an anti-fascist demon­ ternational supporters throughout the socialist books and pamphlets, sold Trotskyist forces there- particularly stration. world, in building the mass antiwar more than $5,700 worth of liter­ in Bolivia and Argentina- have been In the convention discussion, actions that helped limit the options ature from a table they set up at the tested under the fire of prerevolution­ delegate Charles Scheer, a longtime of U.S. imperialism in Southeast Asia. convention. Pathfinder reports this ary situations over the past four years. SWP leader, described to the predom­ Another topic of debate was the extent was the largest volume of sales they A question-and-answer panel was inantly young gathering how the SWP of pressure and influence of Stalinism have ever had at a single gathering. held to provide more detailed informa­ had organized successful mass mobili­ on the leadership of the Vietnamese The top seller was the recently tion on the work of Trotskyist forces zations against groups of fascist thugs struggle. released book Speeches to the Par­ in Argentina and Chile. Those at­ that arose in 1939 and 1946 in the Representatives of each branch of ty by James P. Cannon. Every one tending the panel were especially in­ u.s. the SWP met during the convention for of the 600 copies taken to the con­ terested in hearing of the experiences The convention voted to send a mes­ a more thorough discussion of concrete vention was sold. The other best of the Socialist Workers Party of sage of solidarity to Pierre Rousset, possibilities for antiwar organizing to­ sellers were also new books from Argentina (Partido Socialista de los a former leader of the Communist day, including plans for actions in the Pathfinder: Teamster Power by Far­ Trabajadores-PST). The PST has League who is still being held in prison event the congressional bombing ban rell Dobbs, 256 copies; and the new promoted and identified itself with the by the Pompidou regime in connection is violated in Cambodia. The parti­ edition of The Case of the Legless developing class-struggle left wing in with the League's role in the demon­ cipants also discussed the possibilities Veteran by James Kutcher, 204 co­ the Argentine trade unions. stration against the fascist meeting. for working with other groups on the pies. As a result of its stand in the last In addition, a separate organizing questions of amnesty for draft resisters Convention participants also Argentine elections, the PST recruited meeting was held to plan continued and deserters as well as demanding bought a total of about $5,500 in hundreds of young revolutionists. The activities in support of the interna­ freedom for political prisoners held SWP discussion bulletins and $500 PST was the only force on the left to tional campaign against the ban on by the Saigon regime. in Education for Socialists bulletins. oppose both Per6n and the military the Communist League. Special panel discussions were also dictatorship with a working-class, so­ The third major international topic organized on the situation in Ireland cialist alternative. It ran Juan Carlos of discussion was Vietnam and the and the struggle for. socialist democ­ Coral for president and some 2,000 antiwar movement. The report by Gus racy in Eastern Europe. tion on revolutionists within the U. S. trade-union leaders for offices through­ to fight this monster from an interna­ out the country. The PST is now pre­ tionalist perspective. paring to run candidates against Per6n Four days of the six and a half in the new elections that have just day convention were devoted to debate been called. and discussion of international While lively debate occurred over questions. The deliberations were en­ the questions of revolutionary strategy riched by the contributions from ob­ in Latin America, all delegates and servers who attended the convention international observers alike were from revolutionary socialist orga­ united in their determination to be nizations on six continents. in the forefront of opposition to inter­ Many of the questions taken up at vention by U.S. imperialism in Latin the convention are also presently under America. Delegates cited the long his­ discussion within the Fourth Interna­ tory of U. S. aggression, including the tional, the world revolutionary party blockade of Cuba, the Bay of Pigs founded by Leon Trotsky. This inter­ invasion, the U.S. occupation of national discussion is conducted Santo Domingo, the ITT-CIA inter­ Militant/Howard Petrick through an internal bulletin open to vention in Chile, and U. S. backing FARREll DOBBS: longtime SWP leader spoke on history of world Trotskyist movement. r Young Socialist leaders report plans Andrew Pulley, national secretary and high school students, noting sales drive with the goal of 10,000 predominantly Black. of the Young Socialist Alliance, pre­ that these have not been stopped by copies sold each month. Another aspect of the YSA's work sented a report to the Socialist Work­ the frequent media proclamations Young Socialist sales to high stressed by Pulley was regional ex­ ers Party convention on behalf of that students have returned to the school students will be key to a pansion. He said the YSA will field the YSA national leadership, de­ conservatism of the 1950s. major effort by the YSA this fall 12 traveling Young Socialist teams scribing the YSA's achievements and to establish a stronger base in the this fall to visit campuses across perspectives. His report described A major accomplishment of the high schools. Another side of this the country, selling the Young So­ the fall plans of the YSA as de­ YSA during the last year, Pulley effort will be organizing high school cialist and subscriptions to The Mil­ cided by its National Committee said, was relaunching the Young student support for the SWP 1973 itant, and recruiting new members to meeting last June and amplified by Socialist as the monthly newspaper and 1974 election campaigns. the Y SA. The teams will also en­ a brief National Committee plenum of the Y SA. On the heels of a suc­ Pulley said the YSA also plans courage attendance at the Young shortly before the SWP convention. cessful spring sales drive, the YS to extend its influence in much the Socialist national convention, sched­ Pulley described the role the YSA has been expanded from 16 to 20 same way to more city and com­ uled for Chicago, Dec. 28 through \..has played in struggles of campus pages. '!'he newspaper plans a fall munity colleges, many of which are Jan. 1.

14 SWP convention More election cam~gns, Militant sales Socialists map plans for expansion "Our aim will be to reach the widest "Our sales goal," Jones said, "will other state offices will be open. to support PRDF and aid its efforts. possible audience with our socialist be street sales of 9,500 to 10,000 The political resolution adopted by By taking the initiative to build a program offering solutions to the copies of The Militant every week .. the convention states: "If the meat boy­ broad civil liberties campaign uniting problems facing working people and In addition to continuing high sales cott demonstrated that the credibility all those who support the SWP's dem­ all the oppressed," said Lew Jones on the campuses, we want to increase gap which developed during the Viet­ ocratic rights, regardless of whether in the organization report adopted by sales in the Black community, at plant nam war still exists, the Watergate they agree with the program of the the recent Socialist Workers Party con­ gates, and at other locations where we scandal is widening that gap to a can­ SWP, the party hopes to set an ex­ vention. can reach large numbers of working yon. With each new revelation of the ample for the entire working class of His report presented a detailed pro­ people." methods of rule of the capitalist class, how to take the offensive against the posal for accomplishing this goal At the same time, a drive will be distrust of the government intensifies." government's secret-police operations. through three sets of activities that conducted to sell 15,000 introductory This growing crisis of confidence in Alongside support to the PRDF, the will be major campaigns of the SWP subscriptions to The Militant and bourgeois rule forms the basis for SWP will carry out its own education­ in the period ahead. 2,500 subs to the monthly Interna­ the third aspect of the SWP's fall cam­ al campaign to explain why the anti­ First is a drive for sales and sub­ tional Socialist Review. Most of these paign. The SWP and Young Social­ democratic practices symbolized by scriptions to the revoiutionary press. will be obtained on two "Militant Blitz ist Alliance have fil~d suit against the Watergate are a necessary part of cap­ The forty-fifth anniversary of The Mil­ Weekends" -when supporters of The government, challenging its huggings, italist class rule. itant will be commemorated with an Militant all over the country will mo­ break-ins, mail spying, infiltration, "Carrying out this complex of so­ ambitious circulation drive. Jones not­ bilize to sell subs- and by two sub and other Watergate-style attacks on cialist propaganda activities, tied in ed that last fall The Militant completed teams and 12 Young Socialist teams the SWP and its supporters. with our participation in day-to-d.ay the largest subscription drive in its his­ that will be on the road this fall. The The Political Rights Defense Fund struggles," Jones concluded, "will en­ tory, obtaining more than 35,000 new "Blitz Weekends" are set for the last (PRDF) has been established to pub­ able us to present our ideas to wide readers in nine weeks, while last spring weekends in September and October. licize the suit and raise funds for the layers of people and help recruit to a successful single-copy sales drive The monthly Young Socialist news­ legal· costs. The SWP convention voted the SWP." pushed average weekly street sales paper has also announced a fall sales from about 3, 500 to between 6,000 drive to reach 10,000 monthly sales. and 7,000. This fall's campaign will Socialist election campaigns are the r combine both the subscription and second aspect of the fall effort to reach Rally launches Militant drive sales aspects of Militant circulation. people with socialist ideas. Jones called "The Militant- 45 Years in the Other speakers were SWP leader the 1973 municipal campaigns of the Struggle for Socialism" was the Fred Halstead and J acquie Hender­ theme of a spirited rally Friday son, a leader of the League for So­ SWP "the most successful the party evening, Aug. 10, winding up the cialist Action/ Ligue Socialiste Ou­ has ever run." These have been par­ vriere of Canada. ticularly valuable, he said, in expres­ SWP convention. Harry Ring, former Militant editor Norman Oliver, Young Socialist sing the SWP' s position on many issues and current chief of the paper's Alliance National Committee mem­ of local concern. In Atlanta, for ex­ Southwest Bureau, chaired the ral­ ber and SWP candidate for mayor ample, the campaign of Debby Bustin ly. The first speaker was Militant of New York City, appealed for do­ for mayor has helped publicize the Business Manager Sharon Caban­ nations to the Militant Forty-Fifth demands of striking Black workers iss, who explained the goals of the Anniversary Fund. The enthusiastic and in turn won support from many forty-fifth anniversary campaign­ crowd responded with contributions of them. boosting weekly Militant sales to totaling more than $12,000 to kick Jones pointed out that the San Diego more than 9, 500 and obtaining off the fund. SWP's campaign in a special state 15,000 new subscribers. Oliver displayed an attractively assembly election this spring, followed Cabaniss also explained that a printed and bound volume of 45 by a campaign for city offices, helped special fund has been established to Militant front pages, one from each establish the party as a political force raise $20,000 as part of the cam­ year of the paper's history, and ex­ in that city. paign. This money is needed to plained that each contributor of $45 This fall, he said, the municipal cam­ finance the expenses of two Mili­ or more would receive a commem­ paigns will go into high gear as the tant subscription teams and 12 orative volume. elections approach. At the same time, Militant/Howard Petrick Young Socialist teams that will tour Contributions to the Militant SWP branches will be announcing MACEO DIXON: SWP candidate for may­ the country this fall, introducing Forty-Fifth Anniversary Fund their slates for the 1974 races, in which or of Detroit. Convention decided to step thousands of new readers to the should be sent to 14 Charles Lane, up socialist campaigns in the 1973 and all congressional seats, a third of the \..revolutionary press. New York, N.Y. 10014. '74 elections. senate, and many gubernatorial and 25th nat'l SWP convention •••Continued from page 13 continue to break out, mostly sporadic victory," she said, "the fight for legal, they see as important. This is shown in strike support activities, for ex­ but sometimes of a sustained charac­ available abortions is not over." She by the role of women in the consumer ample, supporting the recent oil work­ ter." Among the examples he cited were described the efforts by right-wing protests and by conferences of trade­ ers' strike in Houston. the Black student strike at Southern "right-to-life" forces to maintain or union women and Black women. The convention reaffirmed the SWP's University last fall, protests by Black reimpose restrictions on abortion, and The convention saw an extensive positions of support to Black nation­ sailors, actions against cutbacks in stressed the importance of combating exchange of views on the significance alism and advocacy of a mass Black social services, and defense campaigns these attacks. and potential of the gay liberation political party as a break with the for victimized militants. She also discussed other struggles movement. The SWP's position is one capitalist Democratic and Republican Several speakers from Atlanta point­ by women that the SWP has been in­ of full support to the struggles of gay parties. It also reaffirmed the party's ed to the significance of a series of volved in, such as defense of child­ people for their civil. and human rights. view that the coming American revo­ recent strikes by Black workers there. care facilities against cutbacks in The final order of business for the lution will have a combined charac­ The Atlanta SWP election campaign funds, passage of the Equal Rights convention was the election of the Na­ ter as both a working-class revolu­ has supported and publicized the de­ Amendment, struggles by women tional Committee, the highest leader­ tion for socialism and a revolution mands of the strikers. workers for equal pay and job oppor­ ship body of the party between con­ by Blacks for self-determination. In addition, a number of partici­ tunities, and campus struggles against ventions. A number of younger par­ Derrick Morrison presented an ex­ pants in the panel had been activists sex discrimination. ty leaders were newly elected to the tensive panel report analyzing the cur­ in the coalitions that built the May Carole Seligman from San Fran­ National Committee by this conven­ rent stage of the Black struggle in the 26 African Liberation Day demonstra­ cisco and Lisa Potash from Portland tion. They included members active face of the worsening conditions in the tions. They explained the potential for spoke on the child-care actions that in many facets of the party's work, Black community. He said, "The Black continuing protests against U.S. com­ have taken place in those cities. Ruth­ from the Black struggle to the trade liberation struggle has been and con­ plicity with the oppression of southern ann Miller described efforts to union­ unions to internal party-building ac­ tinues to be marked by a decline in Africa, and the necessity for a non­ ize women workers at Columbia Uni­ tivities. activity as compared to the upsurge exclusionary approach in building versity in New York, and other speak­ This convention of the SWP regis­ of 1967-69." such actions. ers also indicated the diversity of lo­ tered important gains for the party He attributed this decline to the crisis Convention delegates from New cal issues in the women's movement. in several respects: in understanding of leadership in the struggle, the gov­ York City also reported on the strug­ Jenness said that "although the or­ the world political situation and the ernment's repression of some Black gles by Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and ganized women's liberation movement problems of the international revolu­ militants and co-optation of others, Chinese for community control of the has been in a relative downturn, the tionary movement; in analyzing con­ and the objective difficulty of dealing schools in District 1, in which the SWP impact of feminism on the American cretely the development of the radicali­ with the deep-rooted social problems has been active. . consciousness is greater today than zation in the U.S.; and in preparing of the Black community when the Linda Jenness presented the main ever before." The spread of women's the party to move forward through in­ masses of white workers have yet to report to the panel on women's lib­ liberation ideas has made masses of volvement in the class struggle as it enter the radicalization. eration. "Although the Supreme Court women more willing to assert their unfolds in the period immediately However, Morrison said, "struggles decision in January was a tremendous rights and take action around issues ahead.

THE MILITANT/AUGUST 31, 1973 15 Black feminists form national organization BY LINDA JENNESS "Black women have suffered cruelly to downplay the linkage between those tion would add "enormous credibility NEW YORK - The National Black in this society from living the phenom- who fight racism, those who fight sex- to the current women's liberation Feminist Organization (NBFO) an- enon of being Black and female, in a ism, and the increasing number of movement" and at the same time nounced its formation and laid plans country that is both racist and sexist. persons who recognize the need for strengthen the "efforts of the Black for an eastern regional conference at "It has been hard," she continued, fighting both. The potential force of liberation struggle by encouraging all a recent press conference in New York. "for Black women to emerge from the the combination of both movements of the talents and creativities of Black Speaking at thepressconferenceAug. myriad of distorted images that have is probably too frightening to con- women." 15 were Margaret Sloan, an editor portrayed us as grinning Beulahs, template." of Ms:magazine; Eleanor Holmes Nor- castrating Sapphires, andpancakebox State Senator Wynona Lipman sent ton, New York City Human Rights Jemimas. As Black feminists, we real- a telegram to the press conference stat- Commissioner; and Doris Wright of ized the need to establish ourselves ing that such an organization of Black the National Organization for Women. as an independent Black feminist or- women "is long overdue." Gloria Stei- Statements of support were read from ganization." nem called on women of all races Florynce Kennedy, founder of the Fern- Sloan stated that the eastern regional to support the new organization. inist Party; State Senator Wynona Lip- conference, to be held in New York Eleanor Holmes Norton called the man from Newark, New Jersey; Ail- in late November, will be "the first formation of NBFO "historic." "In a een Hernandez, former president of time Black women will come together time when everyone else is standing NOW; and Gloria Steinem, an editor under the feminist banner. We have up," she said, "Blackwomenmuststand of Ms. been so divided for so long that that up also." The NBFO was initially formed last in and of itself is revolutionary." It was pointed out that recent opin- May by a small group of Black women Aileen Hernandez's statement point- ion polls, one sponsored by Virginia "to work on the specific areas of op- ed to efforts by the press to pit the Slims and another by Parade maga- pression that affect the lives of over Black . and feminist struggles against zine, have shown Black women even Militant/Norman Oliver one half the Black people in this coun- one another. "In fact," her message more in favor of women's liberation Eleanor Holmes Norton and Margaret try- Black women." read, "sometimes I believe there is a issues than white women. Sloan announce formation of National Margaret Sloan told the press that conspiracy on the part of the media Sloan added that the new organiza- Black Feminist Organization. Houston women fight for abortion clinic By GENE LANTZ Caucus, and Houston Women's Equity of one commissioner, who told re­ the groups organiZmg the protest HOUSTON- The women of Houston Action League-mobilized last month porters, "I don't believe people ought spoke in favor of funding the walk­ recently won an important victory to defeat this challenge to the newly to be able to go out and play and not in abortion clinic. Diane Van Heldon, against anti-abortion "right-to-life" won right to abortion. be responsible for their actions. I don't an ACL U attorney, said she believed forces and the all-male Harris Coun­ A massive phoning campaign and want them to just be able to line up the commissioners' decision was in­ ty Commissioners Court. · a quickly organized news conference for abortions." consistent with the law, and that the Earlier in the summer the commis­ focused public sentiment against the The showdown took place at the ACL U was prepared to take it to sioners had deleted a $90,000 appro­ budget ruling. The abortion rights July 12 County Commissioners Court court. priation budgeted for a low-<:ost abor­ groups called on women and men meeting. Here's how the Houston Post The commissioners at first refused tion clinic. A broad coalition of wom­ in Harris County to show up at the described it: "Like an Army recover­ to reconsider their position. The day en's groups- spearheaded by the next Commissioners Court meeting to ing from a defeat, Houston's 'pro­ after the meeting, however, they told Houston Women's Abortion Coalition, demand a reversal of the decision. abortion' forces rallied Thursday to local reporters that the clinic would the National Organization for Women, The women's organizations were march on Commissioners Court and be restored. At the next Commission­ the Harris County Women's Political particularly angered by the remarks it appeared they might win their bat­ ers Court meeting, well attended by tle. With placards, speeches, and a women's rights activists, the commis­ promise of a law suit, they challenged sioners announced officially that the the action of the Court last week in funds had been restored for the clinic. cutting a $90,000 abortion clinic from the 1973-7 4 Harris County Hospital Budget." When they arrived at the meeting, abortion rights forces found that a "right-to-life" group, 50 or 60 strong, had already filled the front rows of seats. Twelve anti-abortion speakers addressed the Court with emotional appeals to end or limit abortion rights. Thirteen speakers spoke in support of the abortion clinic for the poor. Socialist Workers Party candidate for Houston school board, Kris Vas­ quez, said that the present situation eliminates all possibilities of legal abortion for poor women, especially for Chicanas and Blacks. She point­ ed out that most of the women who die from illegal abortions belong to Kris Vasquez, SWP candidate for Hous­ Militant/Tom Vernier minority groups. ton school board, speaks in County Com­ Abortion rights groups in Houston pack a meeting room to demand reinstatement State representatives Ron Waters missioners Court in support of walk-in of funds for abortion clinic. and Woody Denson and leaders from abortion clinic. 'Maude's' right to have abortion defended BY PAM BURCHETT 36 CBS affiliates to drop the shows. to women." what Americans shall hear and see NEW YORK -A news conference and Speaking at the news conference "Abortion is now a reality for Amer­ on TV .... This display of raw pow­ picket line took place here Aug. 1 7 were representatives from the National ican women, ·a constitutional and a er underestimates the strength of in front of American Home Products Association for the Repeal of Abor­ human right," declared Karen Stamm American women. They can meet pow­ Corporation. More than a dozen na­ tion Laws (NARAL), Women's Na­ of WONAAC. "It can no longer be er with power when their rights are tional and local abortion rights tional Abortion Action Coalition dealt with as it was so often in the trampled upon." groups were protesting the fact that (WONAAC), National Organization post by brushing it under the rug, Lader then announced that a co­ seven corporations withdrew sponsor­ for Women (NOW), and Zero Pop­ hushing it up, or clothing it in shame­ alition of 10 national organizations ship of two episodes of the television ulation Growth. ful secrecy. If those with an opposing will boycott the products of American series "Maude." Wilma Scott Heide, president of view wish to make their opinions Home Products and other companies The "Maude" show is a popular NOW, told reporters that "most Amer­ known, they should do so openly, "that have seen fit to join the Catholic comedy. In last year's series two of ican women and men of all faiths, in debate, or in other forms where bishops in this onslaught against free­ the programs dealt with Maude's de­ all races, and all backgrounds now efforts at suppression play no part." dom of the press." cision to terminate an unwanted preg­ believe and practice the right of wom­ Stamm said, "WONAAC supports All of the speakers denounced the nancy. The programs were scheduled en to control our own bodies. Our Maude's and every other woman's blatant censorship involved and re­ for rerun on CBS on Aug. 14 and 22. numbers increase daily." She said it right to choose an abortion, and the minded the press that abortion is now Under heavy pressure from the was "unconscionable" that American right of the public to watch 'Maude.'" a legal and constitutional right. Catholic Church, American Home Home Products would withdraw spon­ Lawrence Lader of NARAL told re­ Norman Oliver, Socialist Workers Products and six other companies re­ sorship of a program "which attempts porters that Catholic bishops "have Party candidate for mayor of New fused to sponsor the reruns and forced to present an issue of vital concern set themselves up as the dictator of York, participated in the picket line.

16 own class problems and win the na­ ternational as an "associate pa-rty" to the policy of a revolutionary bloc Third of a series tional liber-ation of their country. early in 1926. Chiang Kai-shek was between the workers and the petty­ By TONY THOMAS The major tasks confronting a rev­ electeq an honorary member of the bourgeoisie. In such [backward] coun­ Distortions and outright lies are the olution to win national liberation for Executive Committee of the Comintern. tries this bloc can assume the form basic elements used by Carl Davidson China included driving out the imperi­ It is this policy of supporting the of a single party, a workers' and in constructing the apologetics for alists and smashing the reactionary national capitalist class, and holding peasants' party, akin to the Kuomin­ Stalinism and Maoism he wrote for Chang Tso-lin government; unifying up figures like Chiang Kai-shek as tang ..." (Problems of Leninism.) the Guardian last spring. the country; distributing the big land­ capable of leading the struggle for Our last article on "The Guardian holders' lands to the hundreds of mil­ national liberation, that Davidson is Class independence lions of peasants; establishing demo- defending when he defends the Com-- and Trotskyism" (Militant, July 27) Trotsky pointed out that Stalin did not invent this policy of supporting the national capitalists in the bour­ geois-democratic revolution: he merely revived the policy advanced by the The Guardian & Trotskv.ism Mensheviks and opposed by the Bol­ sheviks in Russia. Lenin, for example, said this about the Russian revolution: "Our revolu­ tion is a bourgeois revolution, the workers must support the bourgeoisie The real debate on China -say the worthless politicians from the camp of the liquidators. Our rev­ olution is a bourgeois revolution, say showed how Davidson falsified Lenin's cratic liberties; and laying the ground­ intern's positions in the Second Chi­ views on how oppressed nations could work for the industrialization and de­ nese Revolution. And it was this policy achieve liberation. Davidson's aim velopment of China. In addition to of subordinating the Chinese revolu­ was to make Lenin appear to be a these democratic tasks affecting the tion to the capitalists that Trotsky supporter of the Stalinist theory of nation as a whole, the growing work­ and the Left Opposition opposed. two-stage revolution. ing class in the cities was faced with Davidson uses the same technique vicious economic exploitation at the Trotsky's position in his article "Trotskyism and China's hands of both Chinese and foreign Davidson writes: "Trotsky consid­ Revolution," published in the April 18 capitalists. ered the 'bloc of four classes' counter­ Guardian. This article tries to defend The debate within the leadership of revolutionary and a manifestation of Stalin's support to General Chiang the Comintern centered on how to 'Menshevism' imposed in China by Kai-shek and his capitalist Kuomin­ solve these problems. Stalin. In his view the struggle had tang (Nationalist) Party as the leader­ to be spearheaded against the bour­ ship of the Second Chinese Revolution Stalin's position geoisie as a whole. At the same time, in the 1920s- a policy that led to The Stalin-Bukharin faction, which he played down or dismissed entirely the defeat of the revolution. controlled the Comintern, insisted that the feudal and imperialist targets of the Chinese Communist Party must the revolution." In other words, Da­ China in the 1920s give uncritical support to Chiang Kai­ vidson claims Trotsky denied that the In 1926 a dispute over strategy and shek and the Kuomintang. In fact, predominant character of the Chinese tactics for the Chinese Communist over the protests of many of the revolution was that of a bourgeois­ Party broke out in the leadership of Chinese Communist leaders, the­ democratic revolution. the Communist International between Comintern ordered the CCP to dis­ He lies again. Trotsky wrote that the Stalin-Bukharin faction and the solve and told its members to join the Chinese revolution was a bour­ Left Opposition, led by Leon T-rotsky. the Kuomintang and submit to its geois-democratic revolution and that At that time China was severely ex­ discipline. national liberation was one of its cen­ ploited by Western a.nd Japanese im­ Davidson, who defends this policy, tral tasks. Trotsky did not oppose perialism. The imperialist powers con­ admits that the Kuomintang "repre­ the Chinese Communists engaging in trolled large portions of the country sented the interests of the national united-front-type blocs for specific ac­ and had colonial "concessions" in bourgeoisie," that is, the Chinese cap­ tions with the Kuomintang or other major cities such as Canton and italist class. He describes the position bourgeois forces. Shanghai. China's tariff and customs of the Comintern this way: But Trotsky pointed out that the system was in the hands of the im­ "... the Comintern's call during the basis for such a bloc was "not al­ perialists and their agents. 1920s [was] for a revolutionary 'bloc lowing either the organizations or the Most of the country, particularly of four classes' in China. The 'bloc' banners to become mixed directly or northern China, was in the hands of was seen as a national united front indirectly for a single day or a single the Chang Tso-lin regime. This regime of the workers, peasants, petty bour­ hour; it consists ... in not believing based itself on the big landholders geoisie and national bourgeoisie. The for an instant in the capacity or and on complete subordination to the spearhead of the struggle was to be readiness of the bourgeotsie to lead foreign imperialists. In the southern aimed at foreign imperialism." a genuine struggle against imperial­ section of China, a Kuomintang-led Davidson falsely claims that the sub­ ism or not to obstruct the workers government based on the Chinese cap­ ordination of the CCP to the Kuomin­ and peasants." (Third International italists and middle-class elements held tang was essentially a united-front ar­ After Lenin. Emphasis in original.) power. rangement for joint struggle against Stalin, however, rejected such united­ The Kuomintang wanted to increase common enemies. He writes that the front alliances and took the position TROTSKY: Posed need for independent its own power by extracting conces­ "leading force" of this bloc "was to that the Kuomintang represented the struggle for power by workers and pea­ sions from the imperialists and land­ be the proletariat and its motive force interests of the workers and peasants. sants. holders. Because of its more "militant" was to be the agrarian revolution of (This happens to contradict David­ stance, the Kuomintang had more sup­ the peasant masses against the feudal son's admission that the Kuomintang we who are Marxist. The workers must port among the Chinese workers and landlords." Davidson also lies when was a capitalist party.)· Stalin wrote: open the eyes of the people to the peasants. They viewed the Kuomin­ he claims that the Comintern leaders "The communists must pass from the rraud of the bourgeois politicians, tang as more likely to solve their opposed the subordination of the CCP policy of a united national front . . . teach them not to place trust in prom­ to the Kuomintang's capitalist leader­ ises and rely on their own forces, ship. on their own organization, on their The real position of the Comintern own unity, and on their own weapons under Stalin was that the Kuomintang alone." could provide the leadership for the Trotsky believed that in China as Chinese revolution. The Stalinists even in Russia no bourgeois or petty-bour­ said the Kuomintang-a capitalist geois force could lead the revolution: party-could play the same role that "... for the solution of the basic na­ the Bolshevik Party- a mass revolu­ tional tasks, not only the big bour­ tionary workers party_;_ had played geoisie but also the petty bourgeoisie in the Russian Revolution of 1917. was incapable of producing a political In January 1926, the presiding com­ force, a party, or faction, in conjunc­ mittee of the Communist Party of the tion with which the party of the pro­ Soviet Union, controlled by Stalin, letariat might be able to solve the sent this message to the Second Con­ tasks of the bourgeois democratic rev­ gress of the Kuomintang: olution. The key to the situation lies "To our party has fallen the proud - precisely in the fact that the task of and historical role of leading the first winning the movement of the poor victorious p-roletarian revolution in peasants already fell entirely upon the the world. . . . We are convinced that shoulders of the proletariat, and di­ the Kuomintang will succeed in play­ rectly upon the communist party; and ing the same role in the East and that the approach to a genuine solu­ thereby destroy the foundation of the tion of the bourgeois-democratic tasks rule of the imperialists in Asia. ... " of the revolution necessitated the con­ CHIANG KAI-SHEK: Stalinized Commu­ (Emphasis in original.) STALIN: Ordered Chinese Communist centration of all power in the hands nist International supported him as lead­ Stalin went so far as to admit the Party to submit to discipline of Chiang's of the proletariat." (Third lnternation- er of the second Chinese revolution. Kuomintang into the Communist In- ·bourgeois party, the Kuomintang. Continued on page 22

THE MILITANT/AUGUST 31, 1973 17 The movement for the renaissance maturity. They were amongthestrong­ of socialism, known as the Prague est opponents of the Soviet intervention Spring, was nothing other. than an and the return of the neo-Stalinist ele­ . attempt by communists and socialists ments to the leadership. I have only to solve. this deep crisis by developing to mention the great student strike By CAROLINE LUND a socialist alternative. In fact, nobody in November 1968, the tragic gesture The following interview with Jiri Pel­ advanced the idea that the factories and of protest of Jan Palach in January ikan, a leading figure in the 1968 banks should be restored to private 1969, and the subsequent demonstra­ upsurge in Czechoslovakia, was ob­ owners. tion of students and young people, tained this spring, after Pelikan fin­ The main goal of the movement was joined by workers and a great part ished a short tour in the United States. to give workers and citizens a real in­ of the population. Be spoke to American audiences on fluence over the economic and polit­ Despite the setback to the movement, the meaning of the '68 events, or the ical development of their state; to trans­ I am convinced that this political ex­ "Prague Spring," as they are some­ form the state ownership of factories, perience of the young generation in times referred to. directed by a leading bureaucratic 1968 remains valid among the.youth This month marks the fifth anni­ group, to a real collective ownership by and will bring results. versary of the invasion of Czechoslo­ the workers through forms of workers vakia by Warsaw pact troops to crush democracy, particularly by creating Q: You were director of Czechoslovak the rebellion. workers councils and other forms of television during the 1968 events. What Pelikan joined the Czechoslovak self-government. was the role of TV and radio in these Communist Party as a 16-year-old This socialist democracy cannot ex­ developments? student in 1939. Be spent five years ist while there is only one party con­ in underground work against the Nazi trolled by a leading group using dem­ A: An important condition for socialist . occupation of the country, living un- ocratic centralism for imposing its own democracy is that the people have ac­ der false names and in prison. His discipline and rule. Therefore, we de­ cess to all information regarding the mother was assassinated by the Nazis. clared our intention to transform the policy and economy of the state. There­ After the war he became secretary political system into a pluralistic one fore during the Prague Spring we abol­ of the Communist Party student or­ with several political parties expressing ished censorship and established free­ ganization in Prague and later presi­ the different interests of sections of the dom of expression. We considered that dent of the International Union of population and also different concep­ the mass media is one of the essential Students. tions of socialist society. elements of democratization, and our From 1963 to 1968 Pelikan served At the same time, we were trying to aim was to put the mass media under as general director of Czechoslovak transform the Communist 'Party itself the control of the p1.1blic- of the work­ in such a way that it would exercise ers, peasants, young people- and in its influence through just policies and their service. That is, we opened up the new ideas- not through administrative media to the masses, which is prob­ IITERVIEW WITH JIRI PELIKAII measures. Also we wanted the possi­ ably the original Leninist concept too. bility for differing opinions to be ex­ This point is very often misunder­ pressed within the party: giving a min­ stood by the Western left, which tends ority the chance to become a majority, to consider the demand for freedom of but respecting the unity in action of expression and information as a speci­ the party. fic problem of intellectuals. Futhermore, the workers must have But the political revolution in so­ the possibility of defending themselves cialist countries must solve this most in case the state does not respect their important problem so that another rights. Therefore the autonomy of the bureaucratic group cannot take away trade unions must be guaranteed, as the power from the masses. The work­ well as the autonomy of other organi­ ers must know the budget of their zations of the masses. factory, of their region, of the whole These were the main aims of the state, if they are to make decisions - movement in 1968, which was just correctly. Otherwise only the techno­ beginning and was interrupted by the crats can decide "on behalf or' the Soviet invasion. workers. We do not deny that there were also some rightist trends and demands, as One of the forms in which we attempt­ well as exaggeration in the mass me­ ed to do this was to broadcast meetings dia. But this was not. characteristic in the factories, or in the agricultural at all. apposition to socialism exists cooperatives, where citizens were put­ in all socialist countries in Eastern ting questions to the ministers or rep­ Europe. During 1968 this OPP.OSition resentatives of the party-sometimes in Czechoslovakia got a chance to ex­ very embarrassing questions. press itself publicly. This didn't These meetings were in fact a school strengthen its influence; on the contrary, of democracy for our population. They it only confirmed its isolation. were referred to as an "explosion of truth," in the sense that many of the realities of our life were for the first television. In 1964 he was elected a Q: What was the role of youth and stu­ time explained. member of parliament, becoming in dents in the Prague Spring? We tried to institutionalize this demo­ 1968 the president of its Commission cratization of the mass media by es­ for International Affairs. Pelikan was A: Young people are particularly sen­ tablishing a form of popular control. elected a delegate to the Fourteenth sitive to the contradiction between the We prepared new regulations for the Congress of the Czechoslovak CP, ideals of socialism as a just society radio-television which would give con­ which was held secretly in a Prague with equal rights and broader freedom, trol not only to the parliament but al­ factory in August 1968 under the guns and the practice of Stalinism or neo­ so to special committees including rep­ of the Warsaw Pact occupying forces. Stalinism. resentatives of the trade unions and At this congress he was elected to the Thus even before 1968 there was a different sections of the population. central committee of the party. series of discussions and demonstra­ Under the crackdown by Moscow tions demanding the transformation Q: What was meant by the slogan following the invasion, Pelikan was of the one youth organization so that "for socialism with a human face"? removed from his directorship of tele­ it could express the genuine demands vision and was sent as a counselor and interests of different sections of to the Czechoslovak embassy in the youth. The demonstration of stu­ Rome. Be was then expelled from the dents in November 1967, and its sup­ Communist Party and from parlia­ pression by the police, was one of the ment. Finally his citizenship was with­ explosive points of the Czechoslovak drawn by the Ministry of the Interior. crisis. This crisis culminated in Jan­ Be now lives in exile as a journalist. uary 1968 with the replacement of Antonin Novotny with AlexanderDub­ Q: The Soviet bureaucrats try to jus­ cek as first secretary of the Czecho­ tify their invasion of Czechoslovakia slovak Communist Party. in 1968 by saying that the Prague During the spring of 1968 the youth Spring was a development toward the movement was reorganized in several restoration of capitalism. Why do you new organizations-the union of stu­ believe that the Prague Spring was dents, union of workers, peasants, pi­ rather a movement toward strengthen­ oneers, etc.-each autonomous but ing socialist development? working together in one federation. A: The Prague Spring must be seen Young people and students support­ in the context of the political, economic, ed the new ·course and the leadership and moral crisis of Czechoslovak so­ of Dubcek, but with a critical attitude, ciety prior to 1968. It was the crisis demanding more radical reforms. I of the Stalinist, bureaucratic model of would say that during the Prague socialism, imposed by Stalin on Czech­ Spring young people for the first time oslovakia and other Eastern European had an opportunity to participate in countries-with our approval and sup­ political life, and they demonstrated port at the time. a great degree of consciousness and

18 A: From a purely theoretical point So there was a mutual clarification After three days of these discussions, what Trotsky really said and wrote. of view, of course, this expression is of position, which led to a kind of the Soviet command sent these troops But the possibilities to do so are still somewhat inexact and superfluous, be­ alliance between· the intellectuals and back to Poland and moved in fresh limited. cause one can say that there can be no the workers. troops, who were instructed not to socialism without a human face. But There were meetings of all kinds carry on any more discussions with Q: What are the lessons you would I think it was necessary to adopt some throughout the country; we can say the population. draw from the experience of the 1968 formula that would differentiate the so­ that it was as if all of Czechoslovakia upsurge? cialism we wanted from the existing had been transformed into a mass Q: What has been the extent of re­ forms of"socialism"-or what is called meeting. pression in Czechoslovakia since the A: There are several lessons. One is socialism- in Eastern Europe. That is, Yes, it is true that the masses really crushing of the 1968 upsurge? that for any real change that is not to differentiate from the bureaucratic­ began to enter the political scene. This limited to simply technocratic reforms, ally centralized, police form of social­ was also true when the Warsaw Pact A: The repression began in April1969 it is necessary to achieve a kind of al­ ism. countries sent the ultimatum to the Dub­ with political and administrative mea­ liance, or unity, between the three most I think this expression was under­ cek leadership in July 1968 and Dub­ sures. First there were the mass purges important forces: the working class, stood to mean that socialism should be cek was obliged to convene a meeting in the party. About 480,000 members as the main force; the progressive in­ more attractive to the population; that of the central committee, where the old were either expelled or left the party. tellectuals who are able to formulate the it should- as Lenin had foreseen­ Stalinist forces were still in a majority. The second step was the purges in political program; and the youth, which give more democratic freedom and There was great concern that the cen­ the trade unions. Almost all the lead­ is the dynamic force because they feel liberties than the capitalist parliament­ tral committee might decide to accept ers of the trade-union movement elect­ the contradiction between the ideals ary system or any other system; that the ultimatum and overthrow Dubcek. ed at the March 1969 congress of of socialism and its practice. there should be no human problems Hundreds and thousands of delega­ the trade unions were removed as right­ The second lesson is that it is impos­ neglected; that people should not feel tions came from different factories, in­ ists or revisionists. The same took sible to expect a change to come from any kind of alienation towards their sisting on their right to speak with place in the youth movement, the stu­ only inside the Communist Party, al­ socialist state. members of the central committee to dent movement, and the unions of though a certain process of differen­ hear how they would vote. And the writers, filmmakers, and journalists, tiation takes place within the CP, which Q: Would you say that during the central committee members were which were dissolved. is the only legal political platform in Prague Spring the masses of people obliged to come out and speak with The first arrests started in Septem­ Eastern Europe. But this process can in Czechoslovakia began to enter the the delegations from their regions, who ber 1969, after the great demonstra­ always be limited if there is no pres- political arena? Could you describe tion on the first anniversary of the So­ how the workers became involved and viet occupation. They began by arrest­ began to assert their demands? ing some students, then some journal­ ists and intellectuals, later on some A: From the very beginning, the lead­ leaders of the Communist Party. Then ing group wanted to hold the changes the group of Petr Uhl was arrested, within limits that would be decided by the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Then the leadership of the party. Therefore, some other arrests, and the culmina­ progressive sections of the leadership tion came with the arrests in Novem­ came to realize that if they really want­ ber '71 and January '72 after the ed to extend the reform movement into campaign ofleafletting against the elect­ a real movement for democratization, ions. · (Oppositionists passed out leaf­ they would need the support of the lets urging voters to exercise their con­ masses. stitutional right to cross names off At the beginning of the Prague Spring the list of government-approved can­ there was a mass meeting in Prague. didates.) To the great surprise of everybody, They arrested Jaroslav Sabata 10,000 came. It was impossible for (former high official in the Commu­ them all to enter the hall. It was full nist Party of Moravia}, Milan Huebl of young people and it was . . . an (former rector of the Communist Par­ explosion. People asked about every­ ty college), Jiri Littera (former sec­ thing - about internal party policy, retary of the Prague party committee), about the role of Novotny, about po­ and many others. litical trials, about the relationship of No one knows exactly how many the party to non-party members, about people have been arrested for political relations between Czechoslovakia and reasons because the regime does not the Soviet Union and China, about recognize any status of political pris­ who was responsible for the deforma­ oner. There 'are about 200 well-known tions, and how citizens could really people that we know about; but there exert their democratic rights. are several hundred, or maybe thous­ The meeting began at about 7 p.m. ands, of young people, workers, teach­ and didn't finish until 2 a.m. There ers, who have been arrested for polit­ were so many people that the leader­ ical reasons, but nobody knows about ship was obliged to promise another them. meeting the following week, and again The repression takes other forms, some 10,000 people came. too, which are maybe less brutal but There was such a great demand to no less efficient. People are removed hear these discussions that it was de­ from their jobs, their children are not cided to broadcast them on radio and allowed to attend the university. Al­ television. And that was actually the so the right to strike has been taken beginning of the explosion because for away, so workers cannot defend even the first time, through this broadcast, their economic and class interests. the people in the villages and in dis­ To some extent the repression has tant places understood that something been successful, but on the other hand, was really happening. Before that, we know that the families -of those Militant/Gus Horowitz many people had the impression that who have been arrested are supported Flowers in memory of Jan Palach, who it was just one group opposing another by a sort of fund of solidarity. They Youths carry Czechoslovak flag in de­ immolated himself in protest of Soviet group, and therefore not so important are no longer isolated like the victims invasion of Czechoslovakia. for them. fiance of Soviet occupation force, Aug. of the Stalinist trials in the '50s. Now 211 1968, they are well received in the factories, I will mention other examples. We and people are ready to help them broadcast a meeting from an agri­ told them if you want to consider your­ and make them feel- they are support­ sure from the masses, particularly from cultural cooperative near Prague. It selves our representatives you must ed. the youth, the intellectuals, and the was there where the people said for reject this ultimatum, you must stand workers. the first time, "Why are we, the peas­ for this cause. Q: Leon Trotsky has written extensive­ The third lesson is that it is impos­ ants working on the collective land, This mass involvement culminated, ly on the nature of bureaucratically sible to achieve any real change in not allowed to have our own organi­ in the first days of the occupation deformed workers states like Czechoslo­ compromise with the present Soviet zation of peasants?" Before 1968 the when, really without leadership, the vakia and the struggle against such leadership. You mustbeawarethatany peasants were not allowed to have masses came into the streets and dis­ regimes. Are the works of Trotsky real revolutionary process will come any kind of organization, not even cussed with the Soviet soldiers, asking available in Czechoslovakia, and were into conflict with them. You should a formal one. This was a big demand, why they had come. The people be­ any of his writings published during have no illusions, as the Dubcek lead­ which was later realized in the crea­ haved with a great political maturity. the Prague Spring? ership had, that the Soviet leadership tion of the Union of Agricultural and will accept this sort of development be­ Cooperative Peasants. Q: What was the response of the Soviet A: Officially, Trotsky's works have not cause it is in favor of socialism. Be­ Of course, there were also meetings troops when Czechoslovak citizens be­ been available since 1948; they were cause they are not so much interested in the factories. I was at some meetings gan to fraternize with them and tell strictly forbidden. Of course they cir­ in socialism as in their privileges and where journalists came to speak with them there was no counterrevolution? culated in some restricted circles. It great power interests. the workers and, speaking about the was only in 1968 that it was possible And the fourth lesson would be that past, the workers criticized the journal­ A: They did not understand at all why to know anything at all about Trotsky. it is impossible that such a movement ists, asking, "Why were you silent?" they were sent to Czechoslovakia. They For example, one of the strongest pro­ will be successful in one single coun­ The journalists said we were silent be­ were told there was a counterrevolu­ tests from the Soviet side was when try- that it has more of a chance if cause it was dangerous to speak out. tion and they had to save socialism. Literarni Listy published some excerpts it develops in several socialist coun­ The workers said, but you should Some of them, many of them, were from Isaac Deutscher's book on Stalin. tries. It would be more difficult for the have tried. The journalists replied, yes, ashamed when they heard the argu­ Today again many people are being Soviet leadership to intervene if the but would you have moved in soli­ ments of the Czechoslovak citizens. accused of being Trotskyists, even if movement arose in two or three coun­ darity with us? When there were ar­ Some officials even committed suicide they are not. I have no doubt that tries, like Czechoslovakia, Poland, and rests you did not move either. after these discussions. young people are interested in reading Hungary.

THE MILITANT/AUGUST 31, 1973 19 In Review Detroit: City of Race and Class Violence Detroit: City of Race & Class Vi­ order for the employers to reap a With no revolutionary working-class olence by B. J. Widick. Quadrangle profit. leadership, the war-aggravated social Faced with these conditions, the problems in Detroit exploded into a Press. New York, 1972. 271 pp. workers became more and more re­ race riot in June 1943. The police $8.95. ceptive to radical ideas. and white mobs roamed the streets, beating, maiming, and killing Black "Eleven local union [UAW] presidents From Klan to CIO people. Twenty-five Blacks and nine in the Detroit area are now black. . . . As white workers entered into strug­ whites lost their lives in the conflict. the auto industry now has over 250,- gle against the bosses, many of them Although officials of the UAW, in­ 000 black blue-collar workers: GM transferred their fanaticism for the cluding Walter Reuther and the union about 25 per cent, Ford 35 per cent, Klan to support for the Congress of functionaries of the Stalinist Commu­ and Chrysler about 25 per cent. They Industrial Organizations, the CIO. nist Party, deplored the white rioting, are concentrated in the Detroit area. In fact, it was in one of the Klan they continued to carry out the no­ "The friction and outbreaks of vio­ strongholds, Akron, Ohio, that U.S. strike pledge and to subordinate so­ lence in the city and the plants in the workers began to use the radical new cial struggles to the needs of the im­ early 1970's indicated that color-con­ strike technique-the sit-down. Rubber perialist war, thus blinding the work­ sciousness was prevailing over class­ workers there adopted the new tactic ers to the real enemy. consciousness. This was due, above in the strikes against Goodyear in The end of the war brought on a all, to the new awareness and grow­ late 1935 and early 1936. gigantic strike upsurge. Widick ing power of the blacks. Forty years recounts this, and then describes the of strikes had not made Detroit work­ The tactic of the sit-down factory occupation got its biggest use in the beginning of the cold war and Mc­ ers class-conscious, only union-con­ 1937 strike against General Motors Carthyism, the witch-hunt of radicals scious, and this loyalty was being and Chrysler. This outright violation in the plants and the purge of many strained by the emergence of black of the "right" of private property quick­ Stalinists from the UAW, and unionism." ly forced the employers to recognize the growth of relative prosperity. These are some of the conclusions the newly formed United Auto Work­ These factors halted the radicalization of B.J. Widick's new book Detroit: ers union. and led to the entrenchment of the City of Race and Class Violence. These victories in turn set off a wave bureaucracy and gang~terism in the Widick chronicles the struggles of CIO unions. the Detroit Black community from the of sit-down strikes by office workers, restaurant employees, sanitation men, With the prosperity, more and more 1920s to today and depicts the im­ Blacks entered the plants as the city's pact of the auto industry and the rad­ and steelworkers. (For a fuller pic­ ture of the radicalization of the 1930s, Black population grew. By 1970, ac­ icalization that produced the United cording to government figures, Blacks Auto Workers. see Labor's Giant Step by Art Preis, and Farrell Dobbs's Teamster Rebel­ constituted 43.7 percent of the Detroit lion and Teamster Power. All three population of 1,492,507. books are distributed by Pathfinder The rise of the Southern civil rights Press, 410 West St., New York, N.Y. movement in the early 1960s encour­ Books 100 14.) aged the struggle of Blacks in the The American Federation of Labor North. On June 23, 1963 (not July In line with the times, Detroit in the (AFL) organized only skilled or craft 23, as Widick states), more than 200,- 1920s was a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan workers, opposed strikes, and prac­ 000 people, mainly Blacks, marched activity. This era of racist reaction ticed racial discrimination, but the CIO down the main street in Detroit for was coupled with an economic boom and its affiliate, the UAW, were quite "Freedom Now" in solidarity with the that transformed Henry Ford into an different. They organized both the Southern struggle. auto baron and made Detroit the auto skilled and unskilled, they were built capital of the world. For the European upon the weapon of the strike, and 1967 Black rebellion immigrants and the white and Black they championed the equality of work­ Four years later, on July 23, 1967, migrants from the South, the auto ers regardless of religion, creed, or the rise in consciousness and expecta­ plants offered immediate employment. color. tions that this march helped generate The work was grueling, the hours Thus the Black community, which suddently exploded in open rebellion. long, and the layoffs came often. the employers had long used as a Touched off by an incident of police Ford reserved the hardest and dirt­ source of scabs, became a supporter brutality, the uprising became the big­ iest work for his Black wage-slaves­ of the CIO. gest urban eruption of the 1960s. whom he graciously hired in propor­ The UAW's stance against racism As Widick points out, nobody in City tion to their percentage of the popula­ was one of the keys to the strike vic­ Hall expected it because Blacks seemed tion, 10 percent. In 1929, before the tory at Ford in the spring of 1941. so "well-off' and "satisfied," with many stock market crash, Blacks numbered The Black workers and the Black com­ jobs paying $4 and $5 an hour in the about 40,000 out of a blue-collar auto munity broke with Ford and came auto plants.· work force of 450,000. In the city, ac­ over to the side of the union. Since the 1967 rebellion, despite to­ cording to Widick, there were about With their new-found positions in ken poverty and employment pro­ 120,000 Blacks out of a population the unions, Black auto workers began grams, the problems of the Black com­ of 1. 5 million. to fight the corporate policy of segre­ munity and the city as a whole con­ After the crash, half the auto work gating them into the dirtiest and hard­ June 1963. 200,000 people, mainly tinue to worsen- police brutality con­ force was thrown into the streets, push­ est jobs in the plants. Black workers Blacks, marched in Detroit for 'Freedom tinues and the public school system is ing unemployment in the city to 66 also attacked discriminatory hiring Now.' on the verge of collapse. percent. Eighty percent of the Black policies. Nevertheless, because of the central work force was unemployed. And for role Blacks play in the UAW and other workers remaining on the job, wages March on Washington to strike for the duration of the war. labor unions, Widick sees Detroit as were slashed and slashed again in This sentiment got dramatic recog­ This meant the unions agreed to the "Black Metropolis of the Future." nition when A. Philip Randolph, a abandon any serious struggle for His vision of this "metropolis" is rather prominent Black labor leader, threat­ wage hikes and improvements in the limited, though. In keeping with his ened a mass, all-Black march on conditions of work. The no-strike own illusions, he equates the inevita­ Washington to demand fair employ­ pledge ruled out any direct action by ble election of a Black Democrat or ment practices. This threat of mass the unions against race discrimination. Republican as mayor of Detroit with action came as Washington was pre­ Under these conditions, what class Blacks coming to power. Nothing paring to intervene in World War II. consciousness the white workers pos­ could be further from the truth. President Franklin Roosevelt success­ sessed gave way repeatedly to their Widick's own account of the class fully headed off the march by issuing socially ingrained racistprejudices. So, and racial struggles that have rocked an executive order banning discrimina­ when the bosses made token efforts Detroit demonstrates that there can be tion in the war industries. Randolph, to place Black workers in previous­ no headway toward solving the prob­ clutching at Roosevelt's promise, ly all-white departments of the pla_nt, lems of Blacks as long as they re­ called off preparation for the march the white workers would sometimes main tied to the capitalist Democratic in 1941 (not 1942, as Widick erron­ respond with wildcat strikes, opposed and Republican parties. eously reports). by both the union and the company. The election of a Black Democrat The struggle against racist hiring And outside the plant, the scarcity or Republican as mayor would mean and segregationist policies of the in­ of government-built housing units ex­ only cosmetic change, not real change. dustrial barons was hampered by the acerbated white racist hostility to To bring about real change the mass­ prowar stance of the CIO and UAW Blacks trying to move out of the hell­ es of Blacks will have to break from leaders. They tied labor's fate to the hole of the ghetto. While Widick ac­ the two capitalist parties and set out two capitalist parties, making it easier curately describes the situation, he be­ to build an independent Black party. More than 25 percent of the auto workers for the Roosevelt administration to lieves the prowar stance of the unions The formation of a mass Black par­ in Detroit are Black. extract a pledge from the unions not was correct. Continued on page 22

. 20 UAW gicks ChrY.sler as strike targid Militant protests hit 3 Detroit auto plants DETRO IT- The United Auto Workers walkout was phenomenal. Only 60 t'"'~~ ~ union has picked the Chrysler Cor­ out of 1, 500 workers went back to ... . poration as its 1973 strike target. Con­ work the second day. This very ef­ tracts with the "Big Three" auto com­ fective six-day strike was carried out panies expire Sept. 14. without any violence. This decision to single out Chrysler in the UAW's "one-at-a-time" strike The Mack Ave. occupation strategy comes on the heels of three The occupation at the Mack Avenue separate militant actions by Chrysler stamping plant began Aug. 14 after workers here during recent weeks. an employee, William Gilbreth, was These actions have been triggered by fired for supposedly having falsified smoldering resentment against Chrys­ his job application. Gilbreth, who is ler's racist policies, typical of the in­ white, is a member of the Progressive dustry, and demands for improvement Labor Party- a small, sectarian in health and safety conditions in the group that used to consider itself Mao­ plants. ist. On July 24 two young Black work­ After being fired, Gilbreth came in­ ers, supported by several hundred oth­ to the plant with a fellow worker and ers, shut off the power at Chrys­ sat on the conveyor belt of the assem­ ler's Jefferson Avenue assembly plant bly line. Plant security guards came for 13 hours. to eject the two, and a fight broke out. A spontaneous walkout at the De­ More than 7 5 workers gathered troit Forge (Lynch Road) plant be­ around in solidarity with the two men gan Aug. 8 after the company reject­ and began a sit-in. Picket lines were ed a complaint on health and safety thrown up outside the plant as word Supporters from Black community lift bags of food to workers occupying Chrysler conditions. This walkout lasted six spread. Signs read, "End Racial Ha.r­ Mock Avenue plant. days. assment," "Slow Down the Line," and And on Aug. 16, a third action "Clean Up This Mess." ended after a 30-hour sit-in by some The treacherous role of the UAW tions, taking advantage of the atmo­ companies that must be dealt with im­ 75 workers at the Mack Avenue stamp­ officials was highlighted two days la­ sphere created by these statements, re­ mediately. ing plant. This sit-in was sparked by ter. One thousand UAW officials of peatedly broadcast management ap­ "The issues and circumstances of the the firing of several workers and de­ Detroit-area locals, wearing yellow peals for the Mack Avenue workers three shutdowns have been different, mands for improvement in working armbands reading "sergeant-at-arms," to return to the plant. but in all three instances workers took conditions. massed outside the Mack Avenue UAW Vice-president Douglas Fraser, matters into their own, and out of Black workers provided the driving plant to make sure the plant would head of the union's Chrysler depart­ the UAW's hands. The union must force behind these actions, and won open. They carried baseball bats and ment, showed his contempt for the regain control, and there are positive support from white workers. The strik­ walking sticks. More than 100 cops rank-and-file workers as he traced the signs that it is beginning to. . . . ers have had to confront UAW officials were also on hand. source of the trouble at the Lynch "Worker discontent, obvious in all who are dragging their feet in the According to the Aug. 16 Detroit Road and Mack stamping plant. three Chrysler plant closings, must fight for better working conditions and News, "The decision to mobilize local He explained that the problem was be understood and dealt with at the have sided with management to halt UAW leaders to assure the reopening the success of Isaac Shorter and Lar­ bargaining table." work stoppages. But the sabotage by of the plant was made yesterday after­ ry Carter, who led the action at the these union bureaucrats has not pre­ noon by the union's international of­ Jefferson Avenue plant in the first of Impact on negotiations vented the workers from taking action. ficers." the recent actions. "It was absolutely These militant actions will have a The recent events in the auto plants Gilbreth was attacked and beaten a mistake for Chrysler to give in dur­ big impact on the negotiations for here are embryonic expressions of as he tried to enter the plant. The ing the Jefferson lock-in," Fraser de­ new contracts now under way. Even pentcup frustrations and boiling anger justification for the union bureau­ clared. though the union officialdom was com­ at backed-up grievances and racism. cracy's strikebreaking activity was The ruling class in Detroit, and first pletely opposed to these actions, they At the Lynch Road plant, a number given by UAW Secretary-treasurer and foremost the auto barons, are will stand on them and consequently of Black workers had been fired for Emil Mazey. He explained that the well aware of the explosive situation go to the bargaining table with a bogus reasons in the last few weeks. Aug. 16 mobilization by the bureau­ in the plants, and the mood of the firmer hand. Also, just before the walkout, a skilled cracy was a declaration of war against Black workers. The daily papers here These actions, however limited in tradesman got four fingers chopped off radicals who have been "disrupting" have been on a big campaign to iso­ scope, show deepening discontent by his machine. the UAW's relationship with the auto late and discredit the militants. The among the UAW ranks. They also How widespread the hazardous companies. Aug. 16 Detroit Free Press, in a shrill show the readiness of workers to move working conditions are can be seen editorial entitled "Takeovers Aren't the into action to win their demands. As from what happened when the strikers 'A bunch of punks' Way To Solve Safety Problems," said: the Sept. 14 strike deadline nears, the went to court to fight an injunction. Mazey said, "We are not going to "The lawless takeover of the Mack Chrysler workers- and all other UAW As evidence of safety hazards, they let a bunch of outsiders take over our Ave. stamping plant-the third un­ members-will be watching closely the produced many workers who had lost union. They are a bunch of punks. authorized shutdown of a Detroit course of the negotiations, and the ears, fingers, and feet in plant acci­ We are not going to let them destroy Chrysler facility in the last month­ progress on their demands. If a na­ dents. everything we worked so hard points to a potential crisis for both the tionwide strike is called, they will be The support for the Lynch Road to build." Local radio and TV sta- United Auto Workers and the auto ready . ... Black workers explain fight vs. Chrysler Continued from page 24 er over the plant," explained Shorter. ditions, there is speedup. "They run of living in this country. If we're go­ workers booed them down. We kept "Many workers would stay in. Others on the average about 62 cars an ing to keep up with the food prices, demanding that they negotiate so ev­ would be penalized. And we couldn't hour," Carter told me. ''When they we're going to have to have the mon­ eryone could see. Finally, they gave really hit back at the company. speed it up it goes to as much as 7 5. ey." in. But this wasn't until 6:55 that ''We had support from the surround­ They did that this week. When the What about unemployment? "The evening, about 13 hours later. ing Black community and from work­ line breaks down and they want to unions should stress that too, especial­ "Then management and union of­ ers from other plants around the city. make up for lost cars, they speed ly unemployment in the Black com­ ficials came to us and we began the And they were out front with picket it up." munity. The union should demand negotiations. The workers set up a lines on our behalf. It started with And there is the heat. "If it's 80 of Chrysler that it cut down· on some table in front of the cage and we about 80 protesters on the line. We degrees on the outside then it's 95 of the work they're putting on the stayed inside. The production man­ also told the workers to notify the inside," said Shorter. "There's no ven­ workers in the plants in order to give ager began writing- what we wanted news media, but plant protection tilation and very few fans. Those that some jobs to others. The workers in them to write. He agreed to all three wouldn't let reporters inside." they do have are in the areas of the the plants are overworked. The av­ of our demands. The conditions in the Jefferson Ave­ white, skilled workers." erage worker does the job of two The tactic Shorter and Carter used nue assembly plant are similar to Both Shorter and Carter were very people." was in some ways similar to the great many of the auto plants in this city. interested in the negotiations now go­ The two men also mentioned the sit-down strikes conducted by auto The air is polluted. "It's just like the ing on between the UAW and the auto need to "clean up" the plants, install workers in the past. I asked how they city of Los Angeles," said Shorter, companies. air conditioners and safety devices, had decided to follow this course. Why "polluted at all times." Shorter said he felt that there should and end compulsory overtime. hadn't they proposed a walkout? I mentioned a newspaper account be "an open session where the workers "We had a walkout when Woolsey that referred to the "ghetto-like" atmo­ can voice their opinion about the con­ I mentioned that UAW President first removed the seats off the line," sphere inside the plant. "Right!" Short­ tract, tell them what the workers want. Leonard Woodcock had said earlier Carter said. "Some workers walked er exclaimed. "They have big rats run­ I think the workers should vote on this year that he didn't think a strike out, but those who did got written ning around inside, about as big as the different stands the union should would be necessary. up. And they were threatened with cats. There is trash all over. They be taking." "The reason he said that," respond­ being fired if they did it again." have sto~ in all the aisles, and work­ Shorter said he thinks that wages ed Isaac Shorter, "is because the union "We knew that a walkout wouldn't ers trip over it and get injured." should be "the primary objective in isn't asking for anything in the first be as effective as far as gaining pow- In addition to the dangerous con- the talks, because of the high cost place."

THE MILITANT/AUGUST 31, 1973 21 pistol. Mr. Delaney says he took the pistol and gave it to a campus police officer who exclaimed, 'My God, it's ... Guardian been fired.' ... Detroit Continued from page 17 "Mr. Delaney's account is corrobo­ Continued from page 20 al After Lenin. Emphasis in original.) rated by former Akron TV newscast­ ty will signal the break of a racially The real difference between Trotsky er Fred DeBrine, who identified the oppressed minority from the parties of and Stalin was thus the difference be­ campus officer as Detective Tom Kel­ racism. It will also represent the break tween the Leninist position, that only ley. However, Detective Kelley, along of the most oppressed section of the the working class aligned with the with Patrolman Harold Rice, who was working class from the capitalist two­ poor peasants can solve thejbourgeois­ also present when Mr. Norman was party system. This would mark tht democratic tasks by overthrowing the disarmed, wrote in the official Kent first stage in the development of a la­ capitalists, and the Menshevik position bor party. State police reports that no shots had that the bourgeoisie should be sup­ been fired. The dynamic of the Black struggle ported as the leadership of the bour­ stems from the combined and dual "Mr. DeBrine, who had met Mr. Nor­ geois-democratic revolution. man . . . before, says the youth had character of the Black condition. As In fact, the Stalinists in China went told him that on occasion he took .. . Widick demonstrates in the case of the even further than the Mensheviks had pictures on campus for the FBI. .. . auto workers, Blacks are an oppressed -the Mensheviks never dissolved their nationality as well as an integral part "Mr. DeBrine says he heard cam­ party into the parties of the Russian pus detective Tom Kelley say Mr. Nor­ of the U. S. working class. Any inde­ capitalists! pendent action that this oppressed na­ man's pistol had been fired. But when Contrary to Stalin's predictions, the newsman visited Detective Kelley tional minority takes will have pro­ Chiang Kai-shek did not lead the Chi­ found consequences for the working two days later, the officer told him he nese revolution to victory over imperi­ class as a whole. had been 'kidding' about the weapon's alism·. Instead he acted as the bloody Although Widick's book fails to having been used. executioner of the Chinese workers and draw these revolutionary conclusions, "In his response to Senator Bayh, peasants, and Stalin's policy of sup­ it nonetheless provides a useful his­ FBI Director Kelley disclosed that the porting him under the cover of the tory of the Black struggle in Detroit. bureau had never questioned Mr. Nor­ "bloc of four classes" resulted in a -DERRICK MORRISON man after May 4. Nor had it probed tragic defeat. Now that Davidson's the circumstances of his gaining press falsifications of Trotsky's position and credentials as an FBI photographer. Stalin's position have been sorted out, Calendar and classified ad rates: 75 The FBI received Mr. Norman's gun our next article will take up the true cents per line of 56-character-wide type­ on May 5, 1970, the day after the history and lessons of the Second Chi­ written copy. Display ad rates: $10 per shootings, but never examined it to leon Trotsky nese Revolution. column inch ($7.50 if camera-ready ad determine whether it had been fired is enclosed). Payment must be included ntroduction by Ernest Mandel with ads. The Militant is published each "The bureau questioned the two cam­ week on Friday. Deadlines for ad copy: pus police officers who denied the gun Friday, one week preceding publication, "Trotsky's attempt to arouse the had been fired, but it never contact­ for classified and display ads; Wednes­ rking class of Germany to the ... Kent ed Mr. Delaney or Mr. DeBrine, al­ day noon, two days preceding publica­ danger that threatened it was Continued from page 5 though Mr. Delaney spoke with an lion, for calendar ads. Telephone: (212) his greatest political deed in of the massacre and the FBI's sub­ FBI agent at the scene and volun­ 243-6392. exile. Like no one else, and sequent handling of his case. "Mr. teered his name and address." much earlier than anyone, he Norman received press credentials to Since this account was published, grasped the destructive delirium enter the campus on May 4, when TV news programs have broadcast ith which National Socialism he appeared before the National film coverage of Kent State showing Bert corona Guard public relations officer Michael Norman handing his gun over to the to burst upon the world." Delaney with a campus security of­ campus police officer. These TV ace Speaks Isaac Deutscher, The Prophe ficer who told Mr. Delaney that the counts also say that Norman is now on La Raza Unida Party & The 'Illegal Outcast youth was 'shooting pictures under working for a special department of Alien' Scare. In English or Spanish. pp., $12.50, paper $3.95 contract for the FBI.' the Washington, D. C., police depart­ 35 cents. "Mr. Delaney told the Monitor he ment. As yet, however, the FBI has Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, PATHFINDER PRESS next saw Mr. Norman running from still not indicated whether it/has ques­ New York, N.Y. 10014 10 West Street, New York, the scene of the shooting holding a tioned him. :N.Y. 10014

Socialist Directory ALABAMA: Tuscaloosa: YSA, P. 0. Box 5462, University, Ala. 35486. Lake Charles: YSA, c/o Cathy Harrison, P.O. Box 16, MSU, Lake Upper West Side: SWP and YSA, 2744 Broadway (I 06th St.), New ARIZONA: Phoenix: c/o Steve Shliveck, P. 0. Box 890, Tempe, Ariz. Charles, La. 70601. York, N.Y. 10025. Tel: (212)663-3000. 85281. New· Orleans: YSA, c/o Clarence Williams, 3141 N. Tonti St., New OHIO: Bowling Green: YSA, Box 27, U. Hall, Bowling Green State CALIFORNIA: Berkeley-Oakland: SWP and YSA, 3536 Telegraph Ave., Orleans, La. 70117. University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43402. Oakland, Calif. 94609. Tel: (415)654-9728. MARYLAND: Baltimore: YSA, c/o Dave McKim, 2103 Belair Rd., Balti­ Cincinnati: YSA, c/o C. R. Mitts, P. 0. Box 32084, Cincinnati, Ohio Chico: YSA, c/o Kathy Isabell, 266 E. Sacramento Ave., Chico, Calif. more, Md. 21213. Tel: (301)732-B996. 45232. Tel: (513) 381-2897. 95926. College Parle YSA, University P. 0. Box 73, U of Md., College Park, Cleveland: SWP and YSA, 4420 Superior Ave., Cleveland, Ohfo 44103. Los Angeles: SWP and YSA, 1107 1/2 N. Western Ave., los Angeles, Md. 20742. Tel: SWP- (216) 391-5553, YSA- (216) 391-3278. Calif. 90029. Tel: SWP- (213) 463-1917, YSA- (213) 463-1966. MASSACHUSETTS: Amherst: YSA, R. S. 0. Box 324, U of Mass., Amherst, Columbus: YSA, c/o Daryl Drobnick, 1510 Georgesville Rd., Colum­ Riverside: YSA, c/o Univ. of Calif. at Riverside, 1134 Library South, Mass. 01002. bus, Ohio, 43228. Tel: (614)878-5297. Riverside, Calif. 92502. Boston: SWP and YSA, c/o Militant labor Forum, 655 Atlantic Ave., Toledo: YSA, c/o Shannon O'Toole, 1606 Freeman St., •2, Toledo, Sacramento: YSA, c/o Darren Crown, 2321 "~' St., Sacramento, Calif. Third Floor, Boston, Mass. 02111. Tel: SWP-(617) 482-8050, YSA­ Ohio 43606. Tel: (419)472-2592. 95816. (617) 482-8051; Issues and Activists Speaker's Bureau (IASB) and Re­ Yellow Springs: YSA, Antioch College Union, Yellow Springs, Ohio San Diego: SWP, YSA, and Militant Bookstore, 4635 El Cajon Blvd., gional Committee-(617) 482-8052; Pathfinder Books-(617) 338-8560. 45387. San Diego, Calif. 92115. Tel: (714)280-1292. MICHIGAN: Detroit: SWP, YSA, Eugene V. Debs Hall, 3737 Wood­ OREGON: Eugene: YSA, c/o Mary Pauli, 1195 Tyler, Eugene, Ore. San Francisco: SWP, YSA, Militant labor Forum, and Militant Books, word Ave., Detroit, Mich. 48201. Tel: (313) TEI-6135. 97 402. Tel: (503) 344-5525. 1519 Mission St., San Francisco, Calif. 94103. Tel: (415) 864-9174. East Lansing: YSA, Second Floor Offices, Union Bldg. Michigan State Portland: SWP and YSA, 208 S. W. Stark, Filth Floor, Portland, Ore. University, East lansing, Mich. 48823. 97204. Tel: (503)226-2715. · Son Jose: YSA, c/o Krista Zone, 514 1/2 San Benito Ave., los Gatos, MI. Pleasant, YSA, P.O. Box 98, Warriner Hall, CMU, MI. Pleasant, PENNSYLVANIA: Edinboro: YSA, Edinboro State College, Edinboro, Calif. 95030. Tel: (408) 354-2373. Mich. 48858. Po. 16412. San Mateo: YSA, c/o Chris Stanley, 1712 Yorktown Rd., San Mateo, MINNESOTA: Minneapolis-St. Paul: SWP, YSA, and labor Bookstore, Philadelphia: SWP and YSA, 1004 Filbert St. (one block north of Mar­ Calif. 97330. , 1 University N.E. (at E. Hennepin) Second Floor, Mpls. 55413. Tel: (612) ket), Philadelphia, Po. 19107. Tel: (215) WA5-4316. Santa Barbara: YSA, c/o Carolyn Marsden, 413 Shasta ln., Santa 332-7781. Pittsburgh: YSA, P. 0. Box 7353 Oakland Station, Pittsburgh, Po. 15213. Barbara, Col if. 93101. St. Cloud: YSA, c/o Atwood Center, St. Cloud Stale College, St. Cloud, Tel: (412) 422-8185. COLORADO: Denver: SWP, YSA, and Militant Bookstore, 1 203 Cal­ Minn. 56301: SOUTH DAKOTA: Sioux Falls: YSA, c/o Deb Rogers, 2309 S. 4th St., ifornia, Denver, Colo. 80204. Tel: (303).573-1588. Bookstore open Mon.­ MISSOURI: Kansas City: YSA, c/o Student Activities Office, U of Mis­ Sioux Falls, S. Oak. 57105. Tel: (605) 332-4654. Sat., 10:30 a. m.-7 p.m. souri at Kansas City, 5100 R~ckhill Road, Kansas City, Mo. 64110. TENNESSEE: Nashville: YSA, 1214 17th Ave. S., Nashville, Tenn. CONNECTICUT: Hartford: YSA, P. 0. Box 1184, Hartford, Conn. 06101. St. Louis: YSA, P.O. Box 8037, St. louis, Mo. 63156. Tel: (314)371- 37212. Tel: (615)292-8827.\ Tel: (203) 523-7582. 1503. TEXAS: Austin: YSA, SWP, Militant Bookstore, Harriet Tubman Hall, New Haven: YSA, P.O. Box 185, New Haven, Conn. 06501. NEW HAMPSHIRE: Portsmouth: YSA, P. 0. Box 479, Durham, N.H. 1801 Nueces, Austin, Texas 78701. Tel; (512)478-8602.\ Storrs: YSA, U of Conn., P. 0. Box 344, Storrs, Conn. 06268. 03824. Houston: SWP, YSA, and Pathfinder Books, 3311 Montrose, Houston, FLORIDA: Tallahassee: YSA, c/o Sarah Ryan, 1806 lake Bradford Rd., NEW JERSEY: Central New Jersey: YSA, c/o Bill Balderston, Box 445, Texas 77006. Tel. (713)526-1082. Tallahassee, Fla. 32304. Woodbridge, N.J. 07095. Tel: (201)634-3076. San Antonio: YSA, c/o P.O. Box 774, San Antonio, Texas 78202. GEORGIA: Atlanta: Militant Bookstore, 68 Peachtree St. N. E., Third NEW MEXICO: Albuquerque: YSA, c/o Kathy Helmer, 9920 Leyen­ UTAH: Logan: YSA, P. 0. Box 1233, Ut~h State University, logan, Utah Floor, Atlanta, Ga. 30303. SWP and YSA, P. 0. Box 846, Atlanta, Ga. decker Rd. N. E., Albuquerque, N. M. 87112. Tel: (505)296-6230. 84321. 30301. Tel: (404)523-0610. NEW YORK: Albany: YSA, c/o laura Grunberg, Box 2179, Mohican Salt Lake City: YSA, Student Activities Center, University of Utah, Salt ILLINOIS: Carbondale: YSA, c/o Jim Miles, 1207 South Wall, Hollman Hall, Indian Quod 1400, Washington Ave. SUNY, Albany, N.Y. 12203. lake City, Utah 84112. Ho·Jse '147, Carbondale, Ill. 62901. . Binghamton: YSA, Box 1073, Harpur College, Binghamton, N.Y. 13901. VERMONT: Burlington: YSA, c/o John Franco, 241 Malletts Bay Ave., Chicago: SWP, YSA, and bookstore, 180 N. Wacker Dr., Room 310, Tel: (607) 798-4142. Winooski, Vt. 05404. Chicago, Ill. 60606. Tel: SWP-(312) 641-0147, YSA-(312) 641-0233. Brooklyn: SWP and YSA, 136 lawrence St. (at Willoughby). Brooklyn, WASHINGTON, D.C.: SWP and YSA, 1345 ESt. N. W., Fourth Floor, INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, c/o Student Activities Desk, Indiana Uni­ N.Y. 11201. Tel: (212)596-2849. Wash., D.C. 20004. Tel: SWP-(202) 783-2391; YSA-(202) 783-2363. versity, Bloomington, Ind. 47401. Long Island: YSA, P.O. Box 357, Roosevelt, L.l., N.Y. 11575. Tel: (5161 WASHINGTON: Pullman: YSA, c/o Dean W. Johnson, 1718 A St., IOWA: Cedar Falls: YSA, c/o Mark Jacobsen, 2310 College St. Apt. B, FR9-0289. Pullman, Wash. 99163. Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Tel: (319) 277-2544. New York City- City-wide SWP and YSA, 706 Broadway (4th St.). Seattle: SWP, YSA, and Militant Bookstore, 5257 University Way N. E., 1\ENTUCKY: Lexington: YSA, P. 0. Box 952, University Station, lex· Eighth Floor, New York, N.Y. 10003. Tel: (212)982-4966. Seattle, Wash. 98105. Hrs. II a. m.-8 p.m., Mon.-Sat. Tel: (206) 523- ington, Ky. 40506. Lower Manhattan: SWP, YSA, and Merit Bookstore, 706 Broadway 2555. LOUi-SIANA: Lafayette: YSA, c/o Cliff Schlicher, 216 Spring St., la­ (4th St.), Eighth Floor, New York, N.Y. 10003. Tel: SWP, YSA- (212) WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, c/o James levitt, 411 W. Gorham St., fayette, La. 70501. 982-6051; Merit Books- (212) 982-5940. Madison, Wis. 53703. Tel: (608) 257-2835.

22 twowolumes The First Five Yean of the Communist International by Leon Trotsky During its early years the Communist (or Third) International represented the revolutionary aspirations of socialists around the world. These two volumes contain the major speeches, manifestos, and other writings prepared by Trotsky in close collaboration with Lenin for this international body. Cloth $8.95, paper $3.75 per volume. Two volume set: cloth $17 90, paper $7.50. Monad Press Books, exclusively distributed.by PATHFINDER PRESS, INC., 410 West' Street, New York, N.Y. 10014 Tel. (212)741-0690 James Kutcher Now available The story of a man who fought January-June 1973 Militant and defeated the witch-hunters bound volume and index, during the Joe McCarthy era. $10.50. Index only, $1. The Militant, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. "Your book moved me profoundly, and I would like to tell you why .... In this book, which is so completely American, and yet so purely free from national pride and arrogance, so personal and yet so objective, you have unknowingly given the movement a model example of the right way to ex­ plain socialism to those who need the information most."- James P. Cannon, The Militant , First U.S. edition, expanded. Photos. 256 pp., $8.95, paper $2.95 Issues in A Monad Press Book exclusively distributed by PATHFINDER PRESS, INC., 410 West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014 Tel. Radical (212) 7 41-0690 Therapy IRT is a pr101ctical journal which speaks to people who are in opposition to establishment psychiatry. IRT contains articles which grow out of doing Rad­ MWTANT SHOULDER BAG ical Therapy. Articles about how to Order your Militant carrying bag to­ do it. Theoretical articles. Articles day! Bright yellow canvas bag with a Marxist red or black lettering. 19x12x9 about the oppressive misuse of psy­ chiatry. Articles about how political inches deep, with strong shoulder oppression causes psychiatric distur­ strap. large enough to carry dozens analysis bance. And more. of Militants plus books, leaflets, etc. Indispensable for the fall sales cam­ paign. Enclosed is $6 ($12/institutions), 4 issues/year oftoday's Send me ( ) Militant shoulder bags Name------• at $4 each. ( ) Red ( ) Black Address; ______Enclosed is $___ _ tssues Name ______City------Address ______State ______City ______Send to: P.O. Box 23544, Oakland, State_____ Zip----- Calif. 94623. 14 Charles lane, New York, N.Y. 10014 subscribe. 3 mos. $1 I 1yr. $5

------) Enclosed is $1 for 3 months of the ISR. Does capitalism--...... ) Send me 1 year of the ISR for $5. bug you? Name ______Address ______City State Zip---- Join the International Socialist-Review, 14 Charles Lane, N.Y., N.Y. 10014 Young Socialist Sell The Alliance! The Young Socialist Alliance is a multi-national revolutionary youth organiza­ Militant tion. We stand for fundamentally changing society by fighting against racism, Help The Militant get around by sexism and the exploitation of working people. Our goal is a socialist society, Land or taking a regular weekly bundle to democratically controlled by the ;,ajority of people- not by a handful of powerful sell on your campus, at your job, bankers and millionaires. We know that a better world is not only possible, but or near where you live. The cost Death is 12.5 cents each, and we bill is absolutely necessary. Join us in the fight. you at the end of each month. Please send me 5 10 25 _I want to join the YSA. by Hugo other _I want more information about the YSA. -Enclosed is $1 for 6 months (6 issues) of the Young Socialist. Blanco Name------With an introduction by Peter Camejo. Name ______Address --'------$6.95 cloth, $2.45 paper. PATHFINDER PRESS, 410 West St., Address------~~------~-­ City------CitY------:-:------"j,j,,oo..JO------New York, N.Y.10014. Zip ______~P~h~o~n~e------State Zip ____ 14 Charles lane, New York, N.Y. YSA, Box 471 Cooper Station, N.Y., N.Y. 10003; (212) 989-7570 10014

THE MILITANT/AUGUST 31, 1973 23 THE MILITANT A Militant interview Angry Black workers

l!Jy MACEO DIXON DETROIT- On a Tuesday morning late last month Chrysler Corporation's huge Jefferson Avenue assembly plant was brought to a standstill. Two Black workers, Isaac Shorter and Larry Carter, both spot welders, climbed into a wire-enclosed cage and cut the power running the assembly line. Their goal was to force the com­ pany to fire a racist supervisor. The two men were protected and supported by hundreds of workers who remained in the plant. By that evening, the company had been forced to capitulate. The racist supervisor was fired, and Shorter and Carter won their additional demand of no reprisals. A few days after the shutdown, I talked to Shorter and Carter. I know

Maceo Dixon is the Socialist Work­ ers Party candidate for mayor of Detroit both of them, since they had been active in the Coalition to Abolish STRESS, a group I helped to orga­ nize. STRESS is the acronym for a plainclothes Detroit police terror squad "Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets." I asked the two what led them to Ira Rosenberg take the action they did. "From the Isaac Shorter (left) and lorry Carter held up in triumph by workers at Chrysler plant after forcing company to fire racist time Tom Woolsey, the racist super­ supervisor. visor, came into the department," Shorter said, "he has been constantly Woolsey directed this harassment in the crowd. with us in the open for the workers harassing the workers, laying work­ primarily at the Black workers. One "Right! Black and white workers sup­ to see for themselves what was hap­ ers off, firing them- you name it, he newspaper account told of him call­ ported us," Shorter said. "But it was pening. So every time management was doing it. ing one employee a "Black sonora­ majority Black. There are also a lot would say something to us the crowd "And so we decided, Larry and I, bitch." of Arabs in the plant, and they were would boo them away." to draw up a petition for the imme­ Isaac Shorter described what hap­ supporting it too." "And when plant management tried diate removal of Tom Woolsey. We pened the morning they decided to Representatives from the local and to tell them to go back to work," add­ carried the petition around to the act. "When we went in, I saw one the international union came in. "They ed Carter, "they were booed away workers and got a good response. worker and told him what we were wanted to know what our demands again." We had 214 names on the petition," going to do. But I didn't tell him were," Shorter recalled. "We told them Shorter continued his account: Shorter explained. There are 250 the exact place. At 6:03 a.m. we were our demands were: 1) immediate re­ "Workers were coming in from all workers in the section where Shorter · climbing over the 10-foot fence and moval of Tom Woolsey; 2) amnesty; areas of the plant. We were in the and Carter work. we cut the power off. Then workers 3) all negotiations to be conducted north plant. Workers from the south Carter delivered the petitions to the started gathering around asking us out front for all to see. Not behind plant would come up to show their United Auto Workers union (UAW) what was going on and telling us closed doors, isolated from the work­ support. Workers continually came chief steward. "The steward didn't we had their support. ers. We wanted the workers to know bringing us pop, food, and cigarettes. come to me and tell me anything more "At that point, two tradesmen came what was going on." "Workers offered to take our place about the petition," Carter said. "When in the area to find out what was hap­ The chief steward was also there. and escort us to and from the rest­ I turned them in he didn't say if they pening on the line. And the foremen "He came and told us to come out. room. They wouldn't allow anyone were going to remove Tom Woolsey and supervisors were running around Come out of the cage," Carter said. to touch us. But we didn't leave the or not. So I didn't ask him any more trying to find out what was wrong "But we just told him we weren't going cage because we didn't want any vi­ about it. We moved to a higher level with the line. They kept running past to come out." The steward told them olence. of struggle." us, not knowing who had cut the pow­ they would be fired. "During this time we steadily talked Was there any one particular in­ er off. "Chrysler sent the general plant man­ to the workers, like a political educa­ cident that set off the decision to cir­ "We wrapped a piece of cable around ager and the production manager," tion class. We explained what we were culate the petitions? "Yes," Carter ex­ the gate. When they found out we were Shorter said. "They came down and doing and why." plained, "Woolsey had gone up and in there, they wanted to torchweld the told us they were going to fire Wool­ Company officials came down five down the line and removed all the cable. But I put my hand around sey and that no charges would be times to talk with Carter and Shorter. chairs so people couldn't sit on them. the cable, so they didn't. do it. Also, pressed against us. That was about The first three times, they offered only You see, when we go on our relief, all the workers had gathered around, 7 a.m. verbal promises. The fourth time, they most people just sit right on the chairs and they said if they torched my hand "We told them our demands, and presented a written proposal, but it near the line. But Woolsey came along there would be bloodshed right there they said they would go back and was inadequate. Shorter explained and removed all the seats and took in the plant. So they didn't try to negotiate them with the union. We said that "we kept demanding that they them back upstairs to the cafeteria." torch it." we didn't want it like that. But they negotiate with us out front. We would The incident with the chairs followed The newspapers had said that sev­ ignored us. Then they came back and negotiate, not the union. Us and the on the heels of harassment by the eral hundred workers had gathered said they fired Woolsey and no charg­ workers. supervisor. Workers were fined and around the two men. I asked if there es would be pressed against us. "We wouldn't listen to them. The laid off for being late. were both Black and white workers "But they still would not negotiate Continued on page 21

24