JANUARY 24, 1975 25 CENTS VOLUME 39/NUMBER 2

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE

No hope forj ,in Fof ' econom1c• program

-:~~~~-~:t:: ...... Chicago, Jan. 13. Thousands iam city hall in search of public service iobs, as unemployed lines multiply throughout the country.

How to defeat antibusing drive/8 U.S. sends war threats to Hanoi/13 Texas Blacks protest killer-cops/18 In Brief

AN UNFAIR TRIAL? Last month, prosecutors in a 1972 lected by its predecessor, the House Un-American Ac­ trial ·of three North Carolina Black activists disclosed tivities Committee, on the alleged subversive work of more in court: than 750,000 Americans." - That two state witnesses- the only ones linking the Any questions? THIS defendants to a fire that they were accused of setting- were each paid $4,000 by the federal government for their ABORTION RIGHTS I: Three important court decisions WEEK'S testimony. The money deal was approved by convicted reinforcing the legal right to abortion have been handed Watergate criminal Robert Mardian, who was then the down. On Jan. 13 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously assistant attorney general of the United States. affirmed a decision pr~enting Louisiana from suspending MILITANT - That one of the prosecution witnesses, Walter Wash­ 3 Ford economic program a doctor's license on charges that he performed an abor­ ington, was promised that he would not be prosecuted tion in 1969. The decision indicated that the court would 4 Must steelworkers choose on a parole violation. Washington, a convicted armed not permit states to punish doctors for abortions per­ between layoffs and pol­ robber diagnosed by Army doctors as schizophrenic, was formed before the January 1973 decision legalizing them. lution? a suspect in five murders at the time he testified, but was In a second decision issued the same day, the court never prosecuted for any of them. 5 Bar firing of Mich. refused a request by Pennsylvania to permit enforcement -And finally, that this information was withheld by teachers of a law -requiring consent for abortions from a husband the prosecution from the defense, judge, and jury in the or parent, and banning the use of state or local welfare 6 YSA campaigns for original trial. money to pay for abortions. Camejo and Reid In July 1972, the three men- James Grant, T. J. Reddy, The third decision was handed down by the Washington 7 J. B. Johnson granted and Charles Parker-were sentenced to 25, 20, and 10 State Supreme Court Jan. 11. The ruling overturned the new trial years imprisonment respectively. Judge Sam Ervin III conviction of Dr. A. Frans Koome for performing an -the son of U.S. Senator Sam Ervin-is in the process 8 Busing struggle: lessons abortion on an unmarried 16-year-old woman without of deciding whether the defendants received a fair trial. her parents' permission. The court held that the parental of civil rights movement The man will need the wisdom of Solomon to figure that permission requirement in Washington's abortion law was 9 Boston school board let one out. unconstitutional, saying that minors have constitutional off the hook rights and should not be subjected to an "absolute and 13 U.S. sends war signals NLRB RULES AGAINST MACMILLAN WORKERS: On potentially arbitrary parental veto" against abortion. Dec. 31, Local 153 of the Office & Professional Employees to Hanoi International Union (OPEIU), ·AFL-CIO, was informed·· 14 How Bolshevik diplomacy ABORTION II: In an attempt to circumvent th~ 1973 that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortions, the Boston promoted class struggle dismissing a union charge of unfair labor practice against district attorney's office has charged Dr. Kenneth Edelin 15 Working for Ma Bell the Macmillan publishing company. with manslaughter in connection with a legal abortion 16 Police spying on Balti­ The union brought the complaint to the board last he performed in 1973. more Blacks October, when Macmillan suddenly fired close to 200 Dr. Edelin, chief resident in obstetrics and gynecology workers at its mid-town Manhattan offices. 17 CIA panel: bankers and at Boston City Hospital, is accused of causing the "death Th.e firings came immediately following Local 153's by suffocation" of "Baby Boy Blank," a fetus of 20 to businessmen announcement that it was filing a petition with the NLRB 24 weeks. His indictment came after a city council hearing 18 Texas Blacks protest po­ for a union representation election at Macmillan. Many at which fetal experimentation was denounced by politi­ lice murder of those fired were ac~ivists in the union organizing com­ cians and anti-abortion groups. 19 New U.S threats of oil mittee and the Macmillan women's group. Edelin's trial opened Jan. 10. Still to be tried under In its response to the NLRB's dismissal of the com­ war charges stemming from the same right-wing anti-abor­ plaint, Local 153 stated: "This decision proves that em­ 24 Menominee Indians fight tion campaign are four doctors from Boston City Hospital ployees will have to rely on their own collective strength who have been indicted under a nineteenth-century law for new hospital rather than depending upon governmental agencies to against grave robbing. The four were involved in research protect their··rights. We must now renew our determina­ with fetuses. 2 In Brief tion to win job security, fair working conditions, and 10 In Our Opinion living wages at Macmillan through a legally binding COMMEMORATION OF BLOODY SUNDAY MASSA­ union contract." Letters CRE: The Joint Action Committee for Irish Political Pris­ oners will hold a demonstration in front of British Air­ 11 By Any Means Neces­ UNION DRIVE AT PUTNAM'S WINS A ROUND: On ways in New York City, between Forty-fourth and Forty­ sary Dec. 17 the NLRB handed down a ruling that will help fifth streets on Fifth Ave., Saturday, Jan. 25, from 2 to Women in Revolt the drive for unionization at G.'P. Putnam's Sons pub­ 5p.m. 12 The Great Society lishing company. The NLRB ruled that the bargaining The demonstration will commemorate the 13 civil rights National Picket Line unit at Putnam's would include both clerical and editorial marchers who were massacred by British paratroopers in workers, as "a community of interest exists in the pub­ American Way of Life Derry on Bloody Sunday in 1972. It will be one of a lishing business because the end product is ordinarily number of demonstrations that will be taking place 20 In Review the result of the close cooperation and joint efforts of all throughout the world. For further information contact departments." the Joint Action Committee, c/6 Irish Institute, 326 W. WORLD OUTLOOK The bosses have claimed that editorial and clerical work­ 48 St., New York, N.Y. 10036. -DAVE FRANKEL 1 Year of crises for Europe ers should not be represented by the same bargaining unit because of a lack of "community of interest." Put­ 4 Unemployment, inflation nam's workers are to vote on the question of union rep~ spark Malaysian protests resentation by Local 153 of the OPEIU on Jan. 22. YOUR FIRST OHIO EMERGENCY CONFERENCE ON ECONOMY:. A conference on the economic crisis has been called by a ISSUE? THE MILITANT group of 20 prominent political, religious, and trade­ VOLUME 39/NUMBER 2 union leaders in Cleveland. The purpose is to "develop JANUARY 24, 1975 programs, policies and activities which can combat infla­ CLOSING NEWS DATE-JAN.15, 1975 tion and stop depression." SUBSCRIBE Among the sponsors are Sebastian Lupica, executive Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS secretary, Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor; Rev­ Business Manager: ROSE OGDEN TO THE Southwest Bureau: HARRY RING erend James Stallings, executive secretary, NAACP; Cora Licursi, president, Coalition of Labor Union Women; Published weekly by The Militant Publishing Ass'n., John Yates, CAP chairperson, United Auto Workers, Re­ MILITIIT 14 Charles Lone, New York, N.Y. 100 I 4. Telephone: gion 2; and Representative Louis Stokes. Dale Fenster, tdiloriol Office (2 I 2) 243-6392; Business Office (2 I 2) 929·34B6. Southwest Bureau: 7 I 0 S. Westlake Ave., Cleveland Typographical Union No. 53, is coordinator Revelations of CIA spying on the antiwar and civil rights Los Angeles, Calif. 90057. Telephone: (2 I 3)4B3-279B. of the conference. movements have been met with the standard White House Correspondence concerning subscriptions or changes It is open to all interested organizations and individuals, response: cover-up. But the truth is leaking out anyway. of address should be addressed to The Militant Business and will convene Sat., Feb. 1, at 1 p.m. at the ILGWU The Militant will bring you all the news- and the facts Office, 14 Charles lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. behind the news. Don't miss an issue- subscribe today. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. Sub­ hall, 3233 Euclid Ave. There will be a $10 registration scriptions: domestic, S7.50 a year; foreign, s I I .00. fee. By first-class moil: domestic, Canada, and Mexico, S32; all other countries, S53. By airmail: domestic, NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T: "Democratic Introductory ollar-81/2 months Canada, and Mexico, S42. By air printed matter: Cen­ Representatives voted today to abolish the House Internal ( ) $] for two months of The Militant. tral America and Caribbean, S40; Mediterranean Af· ( ) $2 for two months of The Militant and three months rica, Europe, and South America, S52; USSR, Asia, Security Committee," reported the New York Times Pacific, and Africa, S62. Write for foreign sealed air Jan. 14. According to the Times, "while it must be ratified of the International Socialist Review. postage roles. by the whole House, today's action made it seem certain ( ) . $].SO for one year of The Militant. For subscriptions airmailed from New York and then that the work of the committee would end." ( ) New ( ) Renewal posted from London directly to Britain, Ireland, and Has the Democratic Party really broken with its witch­ Continental Europe: Ll for eight issues, L2.50 for six hunting past? Read on. NAME------~------months, LS for one year. Send banker's draft or in­ "With hardly a dissenting voice, members of the House ADORESS------­ ternational postal order (payable to Pathfinder Press) CITY ------STATE ------ZIP------to Pathfinder Press, 47 The Cut, London, SE I BLL, Democratic Caucus voted to transfer to the House Judi­ 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. I 0014. England. Inquire for air roles from London at the ciary Committee some of the functions and staff of the some address. Internal Security Committee together with the files col- Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent The Militant's views. These ore expressed in editorials.

2 PlentY- for oil trusts Ford program: no hope for jobless ...... By DICK ROBERTS President Ford's State of the Union message Jan. 15 failed to offer solu­ tions to any of the pressing prob­ lems facing working people here or abroad. The United States is in its worst economic crisis since World War II. Unemployment is mounting across the country: In the last week of Decem­ ber 813,000 persons applied for un­ employment insurance, the highest for a single week since the depression. There is the real danger that the present U.S. recession could touch off a new world depression. Yet the measures announced by Ford will not alleviate the unemploy­ ment in this country in any signifi­ cant way. They will increase the inflationary pressures in the economy- directly, Offshore oil rig. Ford proposes drastic incr:ease in oil price to spur domestic oil production- and billions in profits for energy trust. through higher fuel prices, and indi­ rectly, through bigger government deficits. economic and civil rights of Black about unemployment. Higher oil prices have been the cen­ Ford had nothing to offer Blacks people, such as the current racist cru­ In order to help foster this illusion, tral aim of the oil trusts from the and other oppressed minorities, who sade to outlaw school busing in Bos­ the capitalist press will give Ford's outset of the supposed "energy cri­ are the hardest hit by the deepening ton, Ford blithely repeated Harry Tru­ trifling tax rebate tremendous pub­ sis." Ford, in his speech, went the crisis. Last month, Black unemploy­ man's assertion that "all Americans licity. farthest so far of any top-level pub­ ment rose from 11.7 to 12.8 percent, do have a fairer chance to pursue At the same time, however, even lic official in enunciating these aims. an increase nearly twice that suffered happiness." the minimal steps outlined by Ford In order to understand oil strategy by whites. While millions of Americans are be­ will increase the inflationary pressure it is important to grasp the two-sided Studiously ignoring attacks on the coming increasingly alarmed about in the economy. Ford indicated that policy of the oil trusts. On one side the threat of a U.S. invasion of the this year's budget deficit could reach they want to raise world energy prices Middle East and the danger of a re­ $30-billion and next year's, $45-bil­ to a maximum in order to make it newed direct military role in Vietnam, lion. profitable to develop alternative Ford resorted to jingoistic rhetoric Just before Ford made his speech sources of energy (coal, oil shale, off­ and thinly veiled appeals for more it was announced that wholesale prices shore oil, and nuclear), which they war spending. for the full year of 1974 had risen couldn't produce profitably at lower Ford plan Declaring that the "international sys­ 20.9 percent. These higher wholesale world energy prices. tem is now in jeopardy" and that "at prices will be passed on to consumers At the same time, they are trying stake is the future of the industrial­ this year. Coupled with higher fuel at a glance ized democracies," Ford said, "Our prices the inflation rate could be even For an editorial on the "state These were the main points of military forces are strong and ready." greater in 1975 than 1974. Ford's Jan. 15 State of the Union On the energy front Ford proposed of the union," see page 10. Tax sop m~ssage: policies that any rational person Ford proposed one sop for work­ Unemployment: No proposals. might find hard to believe. For a year to undermine the consumption of ing people: reduced tax rates in 1975 Inflation: A moratorium on all and a half the capitalist press and OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Ex­ and a "rebate" on 1974 taxes. But government have been propagandiz­ new government programs in porting Countries) oil in order to these will be completely insignificant ing against higher oil prices "imposed health, education, and welfare; a drive down the price they must pay for most working families. by the Arab oil cartel." 5 percent limit on the wage in­ OPEC countries for the oil. creases of all government workers; New York Times financial expert That is the catch. OPEC oil is pur­ Leonard Silk admitted Jan. 14 that no cuts in war spending. Energy hoax chased by the oil trusts and marketed "it will be difficult for many members Energy: A $3 tax on imported The American ruling class wants by them internationally. Thus, while of Congress representing working oil starting April 1. Proposal to lower oil prices, right? the oil trusts would purchase OPEC class constituencies to explain why Congress to decontrol domestic oil oil more cheaply, they could still sell they should go along with a proposal Wrong. prices and impose a comparable They want higher oil prices. Continued on next page tax on domestic oil. Net result that would give $1,000 to.a taxpayer would be a 15 to 20 cent per gal­ with $40,000 income or more, but lon rise in price of gasoline and only about $50 to the head of a family 15 to 20 percent rises in heating of four with an income of $10,000, costs. $12 to a family of four with an in­ Environment: Five-year mora­ come of $5,000- and nothing at all Atlanta: thousands try torium on auto air-pollution mea­ to those with incomes too low for them sures; moratorium on regulations to pay taxes." concerning nuclear and coal energy Ford pretended that these tax mea­ for a handful of jobs production; demand that Congress sures would "turn the economy ATLANTA- Bill Boyd is 24 years ment scene in Atlanta- it was al­ ·"rewrite" strip-mining bill. around." But it is hard to see how an old. AI Billings is 19. They are most totally Black, mostly com­ infusion of merely $16-billion- the to­ Taxes: A tax "rebate" of 12 per­ both members of the Young So­ posed of people in their early twen­ tal amount of the tax rebate-could cent of 1974 income taxes up to a cialist Alliance, but on Jan. 10 there ties, and with. many Vietnam vet­ have a significant effect on the econ­ limit of $1,000; reductions on 1975 was nothing to mark them off from erans. omy. taxes. Reductions in corporate taxes the 3,000 other people who turned When the people waiting outside The difference between what the econ­ and extension of investment tax out at the Atlanta civic center in were finally allowed to enter the omy could produce annually if there credits. hopes of ~anding one of 225 newly civic center, a glass door panel was was no recession and what it is pro­ created public service jobs. broken by the pressure of the crowd ducing now is well over $100-billion, Boyd, a carpenter, has been out and four people were hurt. Extra, and this gap is widening week by of work since Oct. 27 and is getting police were called out- "They week. $70 a week in unemployment in­ labeled it a riot," Billings said. Moreover, the rebate is supposed surance. Atlanta's Black mayor, Maynard to come in two stages, with the first "How long does it have to run?" Jackson, addressed the crowd, to half not scheduled until May. "About six more weeks." some heckling and no applause. Ford also implied that money the 'What are you going to do then?" "The mood wasn't exactly friendly," government would take in on his pro­ 'Well, hopefully I'll have a job. Boyd said, but the anger was di­ posed energy taxes, amounting to an Or there'll be some extension. rected more at the general situation expected $30-billion altogether, wouJd I don't know. I really don't." than anything in particular. be spent to help revive the economy. Billings, a freelance photographer, 'When the TV cameraman came But this refers to even more distant has been out of a job for almost around, someone said, 'Now every­ spending programs, some of which a year. He doesn't get any unem­ body look poor,'" Billings added. stretch out over the next decade. ployment, and he has to rely on People cracked jokes to keep their The truth is that the American ruling parents and friends. spirits up. class has decided against acting de­ When news of the job openings After waiting four and a half cisively at this stage to reduce un­ went around, they went down to­ hours and filling out_ a couple of employment. lt believes that it can gether to apply. Billings is Black forms, the two were told that they'd .. get away with still higher unemploy­ and Boyd is white, but the crowd be called. Neither has heard any­ FORD:·' Sacrifice!' ment levels, provided people think the as a whole reflected the unemploy- thingyet. government is trying to do something

THE MILITANT/JANUARY 24, 1975 3 Must steelworkers choose ... Ford between layoffs and pollution? Continued from preceding page it at higher world prices. By ,fOHN ISENHOWER ing to the Gary Post- Tribune, the That is why Ford called for an im­ CHICAGO- The U.S. Steel corpora­ council adopted a resolution that en­ port tax on foreign oil and at the tion had a dismal New Year's greet­ vironmental groups should now "set same time called for decontrolling do­ ing for 500 steelworkers in Gary, Ind. aside their convictions and adopt an mestic oil prices and possibly even On Jan. 1 the company threw them ecoiwmy-minded attitude. Save the taxing domestic oil. This will allow out of their jobs and closed down the jobs now and clean up the air later, oil companies to raise the price of Gary Works Number 4 open-hearth was what the council advocated." domestic oil to correspond to the auto­ shop rather than pay a court-ordered The environmental groups are put­ matically higher prices of OPEC oil. fine for its pollution. It threatens fur­ ting the blame where it belongs, "Domestic oil, if decontrolled," ther layoffs as the lost production af­ though. Barry Greever, research direc­ Leonard Silk pointed out in the New fects other plants. tor for the Citizens for a Better En­ York Times article already cited, "ap­ A battle has been raging for more vironment, blasted U. S. Steel for pears likely to rise to the same level than a year between environmental "thinking only in terms of its invest­ (as OPEC oil]. This could increase groups and the federal, state, and city ments." He charged that "the name the present 'blend' price of a barrel environmental commissions on the of U. S. Steel is now synonymous with of oil from about $8 to $14- a jump one hand, and this giant steel trust on the corporate abuse of power" and that that, even with 'windfall' taxes on oil the other., the company seeks to "have labor and producers, would be felt by consumers Gary Works is an antiquated mon­ environmental groups fighting among directly in their gasoline prices and strosity that has been polluting the themselves." prices of home-heating oil and indi­ Calumet area for 65 years. It spews The reaction of most officials of the rectly through the prices of virtually out 70,000 tons of smoke, dust, and United Steelworkers of America everything else.... ash every year, producing vast gray ( USWA) to such situations has ranged "The cost of living index might go and orange clouds over Gary. The from fatalistic acceptance of the layoffs up a few percentage points as a re­ waters of a nearby stream and lake to echoing company propaganda sult." are covered with oily slime. against pollution controls. U. S. Steel agreed 10 years ago to "We have lived with the imminent Inflation replace the open-hearth furnaces with closing of the open hearth for a year The ruling class cannot allow the the cleaner, more efficient Basic Oxy­ now," said Harry Piasecki, president rate of inflation to get completely out gen Process (BOP) plants. The com­ of USWA Local 1014, whose 15,000 ED SADLOWSKI: 'You can make steel of hand. This would place it at a dis­ pany had already received two exten­ members work in Gary. "It's not some­ and have clean air at the same time.' advantage vis-a-vis its international sions of deadlines for replacing Num­ thing we haven't known about; we're competitors and might provoke a ber 4, the last open-hearth furnaces to as prepared as we are going to be." reaction of the American public that go. Ed Sadlowski, newly elected direc­ clean air" is a dilemma only if profits could ultimately threaten capitalist The latest court order offered the tor of USWA District 31, which in­ are considered sacred-more impor­ rule itself. company another 90-day extension, cludes Gary, is taking a different at­ tant than human lives. Faced with a certainty of higher fuel but only if it paid a fine of $2,300 titude. He insists that "you can make The steelworkers union is one of prices and bigger deficits, therefore, a day. This was supposed to give the steel and have clean air at the same the most powerful in the country. If Ford proposed some measures aimed company some incentive to stop stall­ time." its ranks were mobilized it could de­ at stemming inflation. But these were ing on the new equipment. Sadlowski said District 31 might try feat the steel trust's schemes. It could every bit as reactionary as the rest But U.S. Steel has refused to budge to intervene in the federal court case, forge an alliance with environmental­ of his message. from its "principle" that it has the right 'just to find out why, if we can put a ists and others to fight for jobs for all Ford demanded that government to pollute without paying "daily trib­ man on the moon, U.S. Steel can't and clean air. workers' wage increases be limited to ute." put precipitators on smoke stacks." To start with, the union can and 5 percent in 1975- a level guaran­ Company officials have admitted There is no lack of money. In the should demand that every worker who teed to be well below the inflation that one of the more advanced plants first nine months of 1974 alone, U.S. was laid off receive full wages until rate. may be in operation within a month. Steel netted profits of $463.4-million, ~wj~sare~~Wed. Itc~Wde­ Further, Ford demanded a mora­ This new facility, however, will re­ and the industry looks forward to mand to carry out its own inspection torium on all new government pro­ quire fewer workers. another record year in 1975. of the company's books and records, grams in the field of health, education, The fine levied is of course a mere Steelworkers certainly are not re­ to discover the industry's real profits and welfare. Only the Pentagon's cher­ pittance to U.S. Steel. The company's sponsible for the problem. Their pro­ and expose its antisocial policies. ished war budget is exempt from the intransigence is meant to strike a blow ductivity has increased tremendously Beyond that, it is becoming more White House cutbacks. against enforcement of pollution con­ over the years, with more steel being dangerous every day to leave the de­ The poor and the unemployed who trols, and at the same time to lay off produced by fewer workers. cisions about this vital industry- de­ most need aid get least. several hundred workers with the aim The fact is that the steel trust has cisions affecting the jobs of thousands But even with these budget restric­ of producing steel with lower labor reaped billions in profits by automat­ of steelworkers and the quality of life tions, deficits are certain. "A $20 bil­ costs in the future. ing workers out of jobs and wanton­ for all of us- in the hands of those lion tax cut could bring next year's The attitude projected by the steel ly poisoning the air and water. whose only concern is profit. deficit to some $50 billion, and if trust is that it's an unavoidable choice, The cost of cleaning up the environ­ If the steel companies refuse to spend the stimulus didn't work, the deficit a "trade off"- either layoffs or pollu­ ment, constructing safe and clean steel­ the money to clean up their opera­ could balloon above the previous rec­ tion. making facilities, and providing job tions, if they threaten to close down ord of $53.8 billion at the height of The Gary city council agreed, ask­ security for all steelworkers should be plants instead, they should be taken World War II," Newsweek reported ing the federal judge who imposed the paid by these profiteers, not by the over by the government and run Jan. 20. daily fine to suspend it so the com­ workers. under the control of the workers them­ It is in expectation of these mas­ pany wouldn't close the plant. Accord- The cruel dilemma of 'jobs versus selves. sive budget deficits that monopolists can so confidently raise prices even as production and sales are falling. Times author Silk commented, "In effect, under Mr. Ford's [energy] plan, income would be transferred through excise taxes on oil from consumers to businesses." The combination of recession and inflation at the same time means that the same process takes place through­ out the economy. Those who are un­ employed and those whose wages do not keep up with inflation- most peo­ ple, in other words- are forced to pay more and more for the same physi­ cal quantity of goods, or even for a declining physical quantity of goods. The wealth the masses of people lose in this way enters the pockets of the monopolists through higher prices. Ford's economic policies are aimed at defending and extending this rob­ bery of workers 'by the ruling class­ even as the capitalist world teeters on the brink of world crisis. And it is this blindness to all but the most nar­ row interests of monopoly that makes the capitalist government incapable of offering a viable solution to the press­ ing economic hardships.

U.S. Steel's Gary Works before shutdown. Industry has reaped billions in profits while poisoning our air and water.

4 Strikers rally_ labor SUQQOrt Court bars firing of Michigan teachers By PAULA REIMERS and strike support funds are being her local out if the situation worsens. DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. -The raised by such unions as the Detroit Labor support has been crucial in 184 striking teachers of the Crestwood Federation of Teachers. breaking the isolation of the union Education Association won an impor­ Hundreds of pickets from dozens and turning around the vicious cam­ tant victory when a three-judge panel of different unions, especially other pa·ign of vilification of the teachers of the Wayne County circuit court teacher locals from across the state, carried out by the capitalist news me­ ruled Jan. 9 that the Crestwood board have marched in the picket lines de­ dia. of education acted illegally in firing spite subzero weather and cop attacks The picketing and the court decision them. and arrests. have also undercut the scabbing oper­ The decision is a serious blow to The most dramatic development in ation attempted by the board. The the Michigan law forbidding teachers' the five-week-old strike came when 11 150 scab teachers hired by the board strikes. locals of the Michigan Education As­ have steadily dwindled. On Jan. 14 The panel also ordered both the sociation (MEA) voted to walk off only 48 chose to cross the picket lines union and the board to submit to· the job in sympathy with the Crest­ and enter the schools. Student atten­ binding arbitration and ordered the wood teachers. The walkout, scheduled dance is down to less than 50 percent. teachers back to work. for Jan. 8, was postponed to await The teachers reluctantly agreed to the outcome of the court ruling. The Detroit Free Press, liberal the binding arbitration, believing that Following the ruling, 20 MEA lo­ mouthpiece for management locally, their right to have a union and to cals met on Jan. 12, and 15 of them is worried about the potential explo­ strike have become the key issues, again decided to strike if the appeals siveness of the situation. In a Jan. 7 rather than the particular contract pro­ process goes against the Crestwood editorial it cautioned the school visions they originally struck for: teachers. board: "This is Detroit, home of the higher wages and a cost-of-living union movement. The AFL-CIO and clause. Other unions have promised sim­ the UAW, despite what some critics The Crestwood board appealed the Paula Reimers, vice-president of Wayne ilar action. Wayne County Commu­ may think of the labor movement, decision and won a stay of the court County Community College Federation nity College Federation of Teachers, • are powerful political forces in this order to reinstate the fired teachers of Teachers, pickets in support of Crest­ AFT Local 2000, voted to walk out community .... for one week pending the appeal. The wood strikers. whenever the MEA locals do. Local "It is impossible to say what exactly union, in turn, has appealed the stay 2000 has also called on the Mich­ would happen if Crestwood becomes to the Michigan Supreme Court. tributed a statement by Jack Wood, igan Federation of Teachers to or­ the focal point for an all-out labor­ The Jan.. 9 court ruling came in the secretary-manager of the council, say­ ganize a statewide walkout. management struggle involving the face of mounting labor outrage over ing, "The key issues are the right to Local 2000 also submitted a reso­ schools." the blatant union-busting tactics of the organize and hold a job without fear lution to the Detroit AFL-CIO Council The next day it repeated that, de­ school board. What started out as of being fired for union activity and calling on it to implement its promise spite the school board's wishes, "It a strike by 184 teachers in a Detroit replaced with scabs. If it can happen to call a "labor holiday" if the teachers is simply impractical in Detroit to suburb has become a challenge to the to union teachers without protest and need it. Council President Tom Turner break a union." It is up to the union entire labor movement in Michigan. action by the labor movement then made this pledge at a Jan. 8 news con­ movement to continue and step up On Jan. 14, 200 pickets from a it can happen to any union." ference. its solidarity with the Crestwood number of unions in the Greater De­ Statements of support have come Mary Ellen Riordan, head of the teachers to make it absolutely clear troit Building Trades Council joined from area leaders of the AFL-CIO 10,000-member Detroit Federation of just how "impractical" the school the teachers' picket line. They dis- and the United Auto Workers (UAW), Teachers, has also promised to take board's attack is. Bay Area unionists back striking machinists By HARRY RING Committee, a trade-union formation pickets present at the time, and al­ stration in support of the Dalmo Vic­ BELMONT, Calif.- Some 200 Bay working to promote labor solidarity. most that many cops- some with tor workers to be held at the Federal Area unionists joined the picket line A key figure in the committee is Walter dogs-the police asserted the strikers Building in San Francisco. at the struck Dalmo Victor plant here Johnson, a leader of San Francisco had "attacked" them. Jan. 7. About 180 members of Lodge Retail Clerks Local 1100. Local 1100 The six were originally booked on 1327 of the International Association won a long, bitterly fought strike at felony charges, but union attorneys of Machinists (lAM) have been on the San Francisco Sears stores last have since been able to get the charges strike since last June. Their picket line year. reduced to misdemeanors. Trials are was the target of a vicious police at­ The Dalmo Victor strikers have pending. tack this past Sept. 26. stood solid in a difficult situation. Ac­ The strike was deliberately forced cording to Chuck Barnes, the local The United Labor Action support by the company, a Textron subsid­ business agent, the company is con­ demonstration for the strikers ended iary, which is doing nicely with De­ tinuing to receive government con­ with a rally that was addressed by fense Department contracts. The com• tracts even though the scabs are un­ representatives of various participat­ pany has refused to sign a contract able to maintain anything resembling ing unions. based on terms negotiated by the lAM normal production or meet federal Walter Johnson, who chaired the with some 500 metal-trades plants in quality control standards. rally, declared that the need for labor the San Francisco area. Barnes said the company has re­ solidarity was becoming increasingly The company is demanding that ceived an additional $15-million in urgent. He expressed the view that any agreement include seniority for war contracts since the strike began. any strike that lasts more than a the scabs it has hired since the strike Barnes and five of the strikers are month should become the responsibili­ began. facing prison terms as a result of the ty of the entire labor movement. Militant/Harry Ring The Jan. 7 solidarity action was or­ Sept. 26 police attack on the picket Johnson announced that a date is About 200 unionists turned out Jan. 7 ganized by the United Labor Action line. Even though there were only 40 being set for a united labor demon- to support Dalmo Victor strike.

By JACK RASMUS sciously engineering unemployment as sidize the SUB fund from other union FREMONT, Calif.- In protest part of its so-called anti-inflation strat­ funds instead of from the employers' Calif. auto against mounting layoffs in the auto egy. He added that "the fat cats are profits, for proposing to assist cor­ industry, · 200 auto workers and sup­ making more money than ever be­ porate executives in a campaign to porters held a hastily arranged march fore," while "all we get are a few hand­ sell more cars by spending union and rally here Jan. 4. downs from the federal government." money on magazine ads, and fer not workers The demonstration was called by Dias concluded by remarking that helping to mobilize the union mem­ United Auto Workers (UAW) Locals the higher costs being claimed by the bership on a local level. 1364, 560, and 76. auto companies should be absorbed Other UAW speakers declared that march by them out of past superprofits, and the real cause of the layoffs is the Marchers gathered at a suburban that the UAW's fast-depleting SUB companies themselves, not the Arabs, Fremont shopping center and (supplemental unemployment benefits) immigrant workers, or minorities, as against marched nearly two miles to a near­ fund should be replenished by the the corporations want us to believe. by city park, chanting "We want our companies until those laid off are re­ The spirit of the rally was perhaps jobs" and "Let us stay-make GM hired. best expressed by a young woman, pay." Early Mays, chairperson of the Lo­ recently laid off, who declared, "We're layoffs At the rally that followed, Vern cal 1364 shop committee, also ad­ going to walk off our jobs not with Dias, president of Local 1364, blamed dre~sed the rally. He criticized the our tails between our legs but with the Ford administration for con- UAW leadership for proposing to sub- our .heads up and willing to fight!"

THE MILITANT/JANUARY 24, 1975 5 Young Socialist Alliance plans ~biggest campaign ever' for Camejo-Reid ticket By ANDY ROSE munity in Boston. Both candidates ST. LOUIS- Campaigning for the will work to mobilize opposition to the Socialist Workers Party 1976 presi­ racist attacks on busing. Both Came­ dential ticket will be one of the central jo and Reid helped organize the activities of the Young Socialist Al­ Dec. 14 freedom march in Boston, liance for the next 22 months, dele­ and they will be campaigning to build gates to the recent YSA national con­ the National Student Conference vention decided. Against Racism in mid-February." The high point of the convention, A third theme will be the defense of held here Dec. 28-Jan. 1, was an en­ democratic rights, "not only for our thusiastic rally of 1,000 people to rights as socialists but for the rights launch the SWP campaign of Peter of the working class as a whole, for Camejo for president and Willie Mae the rights of the unions, the Black Reid for vice-president. community, prisoners, Gis, gay peo­ "Our candidates are fighters who ple, and youth." have devoted their lives to the strug­ 'We're not only going to be cam­ gle against oppression and expolita­ paigning against the immediate effects tion," YSA National Secretary Rich of the capitalist crisis," Finkel said, Finkel told the convention in a report "but we're going to be talking about on perspectives for the 1976 cam­ the necessity for an entirely new so­ paign. 'We have the kind of slate that ciety, a socialist society." can inspire young people from one Finkel also discussed the tasks end of the country to the other." facing the YSA in the campaign. "The YSA national office will be. functioning The Democrats and Republicans will as the youth coordinating center for have a lot of trouble in 1976 coming .. the SWP campaign," he said. "The up with candidates and demagogy Young Socialist newspaper will be the that can arouse enthusiasm among Militant/Pot Hayes voice of all young people who sup­ working people, Finkel said. Peter Camejo and Willie Mae Reid. 'We have the kind of slate that can inspire young port Camejo and Reid." Ford and the Republicans have been people,' said YSA National Secretary Rich Finkel. The first big campaign activity unable to escape the "nightmare of coming up, Finkel said, will be na­ Watergate" that supposedly ended with take action on the problems facing the ployment, and other problems in the tionwide speaking tours this spring Nixon's ouster. Ford's own popular­ American people. "And the Democrats most popular and easily understood by Peter Camejo, Linda Jenness, and ity began to plummet from the mo­ have no more answers to the economic way." Ed Heisler. Jenness was the SWP can­ ment he pardoned Nixon. And ex­ crisis than Ford does, except to throw Camejo and Reid are calling for didate for president in 1972, and posures of the deceit and corruption in the threat of new wage controls," adoption of a Bill of Rights for work­ Heisler was the party's nominee for of capitalist politics have continued he added. ing people that includes: the right to U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1974. to plague the administration, from In today's atmosphere of sharpen­ a job; the right to an adequate in­ This spring Willie Mae Reid will Rockefeller's "dirty tricks" to Kissin­ ing class struggle and distrust of cap­ come; the right to free education, free be campaigning primarily in Chicago, ger's complicity with CIA subversion italist politics, Finkel said, the SWP's medical care, and secure retirement; where she is challenging Richard around the world. 1976 campaign stands to be the big­ the right of oppressed national mi­ "Boss" Daley in the mayoral race. Failure to provide any solutions to gest and most successful ever run by norities to control their own affairs; 'When our candidates or other lead­ inflation and unemployment is now the party. the right to know the truth about ing speakers come to a campus," the major factor eroding confidence economic and political policies that Finkel said, 'it is a big political event, in the government. He went on to outline some major affect our lives; and the right of work­ and we want· the entire campus to While the Democrats have temporar­ themes of the SWP campaign. "First ers to decide economic and political know about it We want to publicize ily gained as a result of Watergate, is the concept that working people policy. it from one end of the campus to the Finkel said, disillusionment and cyn­ shouldn't have to pay for the crisis 'We want to go on a drive to dis­ other with posters, leaflets, banners, icism are growing with respect to both of the capitalist system. The concept tribute this Bill of Rights to millions and through the media. These tours capitalist parties. of the new Bill of Rights for working of people," Finkel said. can prompt a tremendous outpouring In fact, by virtue of their landslide people will be one of our greatest "The second theme will be defense of people who are sick and tired of victory in the 1974 elections, the Dem­ weapons, enabling us to explain the of the Black struggle, focused right the Democrats and Republicans and ocrats are now put on the spot to socialist solutions to inflation, unem- now on defense of the Black com- Continued on page 22 San Antonio YSA active in Chicano struggles ST. LOUIS- The south Texas city ed San -Antonio last fall, she said, to campaign by organizing an anti­ fight for their full rights. of San Antonio, with a population "They had a literature table set up deportation rally, which was spon­ Gonzalez and Zapata report that of more than 800,000, has long been and Pedro Vasquez and some other sored by CASA [an antideportation there is growing interest in the YSA a major center for the Chicano move­ Chicanos were talking. They were organization], the SAC student gov­ in San Antonio. Activists from the ment. Today it. is feeling the impact really going at it about the deporta­ ernment, and the YSA. Mario CantU, antideportation movement and the of an active and growing chapter of tions, because a lot of us didn't under­ a leader of CASA, and Pedro Vasquez, Mrican Liberation Support Committee the Young Socialist Alliance. stand what was behind them. He sold the SWP candidate for attorney gen­ have asked to have discussions with During the recent YSA national con­ me a Militant, and so I started read­ eral, spoke at this rally. We had a the YSA, they said, and there are vention here, two members of the San ing The Militant." turnout of about 150 students." tentative plans to set up a series of Antonio YSA told The Militant about When the team returned to SAC YSAers were also active in the cam­ classes on Marxism. -A R. some of the work they have been again later in the fall, Zapata had paign of Raza Unida Party candidate doing. further discussions with YSA members Daniel Meza. His campaign for state Andy Gonzalez, -20, first came in and decided to join. representative scored an important contact with the YSA back in 1972 The deportation drive against un­ breakthrough in winning the support when he was a campus coordinator documented mexicano workers is a of several union locals, and ended up for the McGovern campaign. He heard big issue in San Antonio. "Over and with about 25 percent of the vote. a speech by Socialist Workers Party over again the newspapers run big So far relatively few people in San presidential candidate Linda Jenness headlines saying all these undocu­ Antonio are aware of the struggle over and started reading The Militant. mented workers- they call them 'ille­ busing in Boston, the YSAers said. "I was already getting very discour­ gal aliens' and 'wetbacks'- are com­ Nevertheless, they helped organize a aged with McGovern, with all the po­ ing across the border and taking jobs demonstration in solidarity with the sitions he was backtracking on," Gon­ away from American workers," Gon­ Dec. 14 freedom march. Held down­ zalez said. "Four or five months later zalez said. town in front of the federal building, I joined the YSA." Mter one racist article appeared, it drew 60 people. Gonzalez is well known in the Chi­ threatening a big increase in deporta­ Ever since the YSA was first formed cano movement at San Antonio Col­ tions, the YSA organized a news con­ at SAC, it has had to wage a running lege (SAC). He was a founder of the ference on the SAC campus at which battle against the administration to be campus UMAS (United Mexican­ SWP gubernatorial candidate Sherry able to set up literature tables, hold American Students) and last year ran Smith spoke out against the racist hys­ meetings, sponsor forums, and so on. for student government president with teria. By this time, because of the broad the endorsement of UMAS, losing by "About 100 students attended the support won for its rights, the YSA only one vote. news conference, and it had wide cov­ can function freely, although it is still Sylvia Zapata, 18, is ·also a student erage on TV and radio and in the denied formal recognition. But the Militant/Mary Jo Hendrickson at SAC. When a team of YSA mem­ newspapers," Gonzalez said. YSA members said when they return Andy Gonzalez, YSA leader in San An­ bers traveling throughout Texas visit- "Then after the election we continued to campus they plan to continue the tonio, Tex.

6 Victim of racist frame·UP- J. R Johnson granted new trial denied bail By NORTON SANDLER another year in the penitentiary. A Supreme Court argument, state ST. LOUIS- "J.B. Johnson is my motion for Johnson to be released on officials were forced to admit that the son," Mary Watkins told the thousand bail was turned down by the court. disappearing rings were "a contradic­ people assembled here for the Young Among those who have spoken out tion that cannot be explained by the Socialist Alliance national convention. in defense of Johnson's right to bail record." "His name is just the initials: J.B. are U.S. Representative William Clay, Mary Watkins told the YSA conven­ But when he was· taken to the Missouri former U.S. attorney general Ramsey tion that Johnson had refused offers State Penitentiary he was given anum­ Clark, Georgia State Representative to drop the murder charge against ber for a name. The number is 23931. Julian Bond, all seven Black state him if he pleaded guilty to a lesser "Plus the name they gave him for the representatives from St. Louis, two offense. J is James and for the B is Ben, which state representatives from Kansas "He stuck to his innocence, he went is not what I named him. City, and St. Louis Alderman C. B. to court. If he had been guilty he "But they did worse than that. They Broussard. would have taken that 10 years- the gave him 99 years and one day in Danforth is determined to keep the last thing they offered him was prison for a crime that he did not com­ case bottled up in lengthy appeals. 10 years. He would have taken it, mit." State officials fear that their five-year and J. B. would be here tonight with Mary Watkins was greeted with a frame-up of Johnson will fall apart us," she said. standing ovation when she was intro­ during another jury trial when thou­ Referring to President Ford's par­ Militant/Mary Ja Hendrickson duced to make a special presentation sands of Johnson supporters would doning of Watergate criminal Nixon, to the convention on the latest develop­ Mary Watkins, mother of J. B.. Johnson, be following the developments. she said, "They say Nixon's family ments in the fight to free her son. tells YSA convention of developments Johnson was convicted by an all­ has suffered enough. So have L I Johnson, now 24, was arrested on in his case. white suburban jury. He was never have suffered enough too. J.B. needs Jan. 23, 1970. He was the scapegoat identified as having been in the jew­ a pardon too." victim of a frantic police search fol­ elry store where the police officer was Watkins appealed for people to help lowing a jewelry store robbery that souri Supreme Court last Sept. 19. shot. In fact, the jeweler picked another get out the word about the case of led to the death of a white cop. William Kunstler argued the case for man from a police line-up. The man J. B. Johnson, and also asked that peo­ As Mary Watkins said, "He was the defense. arrested outside the jewelry store and ple write to him in prison. Letters can young and Black and in the wrong On Dec. 16 the court ordered a new convicted in the cop's death has sworn be sent to J. B. Johnson 23931, Box area at the wrong time. They arrested triaL "We won the case in the Supreme that Johnson was not his accomplice. 900, Jefferson City, Mo. 65101. J. B. at gunpoint and they told him Court and that was snatched away The "evidence" used to convict John­ "I know who my friends are," Mary if he moved they would blow his brains from us by the -great Attorney Gen­ son consisted of two rings that cops Watkins said. "And they are here. With­ out" And he has spent almost all of eral John Danforth," said Watkins. claimed to have found in his shoes out the support of people like you, the last five years behind bars despite Danforth insisted that the ruling by after he was arrested. J.B. and I could not survive. I wish compelling evidence of his innocence. the three-judge division be reviewed However, a police evidence bag to my heart that he was here tonight Mter persistent efforts by Mary Wat­ by the entire court. The crowded state photographed at the time of the cop's with us. I hope by the next convention, kins and the Committee to Defend J.B. of the court docket means that the death contained seven rings. When this when J.B. gets out, everybody here Johnson, his appeal for a new trial decision cannot be reviewed before next same bag was introduced in court, two will see him, because he will be on the was heard by Division I of the Mis- May, so that Johnson may spend yet of the rings were missing. During the scene. That's for sure." How news media reported YSA convention By DUNCAN WILLIAMS With few exceptions, the coverage News ran an editorial headlined "A cies; always it has required mass re­ ST. LOUIS- The fourteenth nation­ was noteworthy for its accuracy and Welcome Reversal," complaining that sentment against political and social al convention of the Young Socialist seriousness. Instead of red-baiting or nowadays "every attempt to keep tabs oppression that invite revolutionary Alliance received the most extensive trying to pass off the YSA as a "luna­ on radical activities is decried as a leadership." news media coverage in the history tic fringe" group, most articles gave menace to the Constitution.... " The fact that much of the news cov­ of the YSA a reasonably straightforward presen­ Even the Communist Party's Daily erage was informed and honest is a Here in St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch tation of the YSA's positions. World, which had consistently refused sign of the changing times. Anticom­ and Globe-Democrateach carried con­ The YSA's determination to mobil- to cover the YSA's and SWP's suit munist prejudices are being broken siderable advance coverage and ran . ize support for desegregation in Bos­ against the government, finally felt down, and editors no longer . auto­ major articles almost every day of ton was widely reported. One UP/dis­ compelled to run an editorial con­ matically kill stories sympathetic to the convention. There was more than patch began: "Members of the Young demning the appeals court action. socialists. 20 minutes of prime-time TV news Socialist Alliance yesterday approved The St. Louis Post-Dispatch got in Also, much of the working press coverage, a·nd almost hourly reports a political agenda pinpointing Bos­ the last word, though. On Jan. 2 it today is made up of young reporters on several local radio stations. ton as the battleground for civil wrote: "If the FBI was looking on, its who have been affected by the rad­ The Associated Press and United rights." It went on to quote from the agents might properly have learned icalization around them. Indeed, one Press International wire services sent YSA's political resolution on the issues something fundamental about both de­ reporter at the convention bought a out a number of stories, which were at stake in Boston and to report that mocracy and revolution." copy of the History of American Trot­ printed by newspapers all across the the YSA is helping organize participa­ Revolution, the editorial said, skyism, and another took out a sub­ country. The ABC, CBS, NBC, and tion in the National Student Confer­ "hardly results from SIJlall conspira- scription to The Militant ence Against Racism. National Black Networks all sent out r material to their affiliated radio sta­ Among the papers that picked up tions. this one item were the Boston Globe, One focus of attention by the media Chicago Defender, and the New York was naturally the launching of the Times, which ran it along with its 1976 Socialist Workers Party presi­ news article that day on developments dential campaign. It was carried on in Boston. the front pages of the Minneapolis Anoth~r area of.major coverage was Star and the Atlanta Journa~ and the YSA 's effort to get a court order presidential nominee Peter Camejo ap­ against FBI spying on the convention. peared on national network television The St. Louis papers and the New -NBC's "Today" show- on Dec. 30. York Times in particular reported each The National Observer ran a ma­ major development in the case in the jor feature on Camejo's campaign, week before the convention. and large photographs of the can­ The legal battle provoked a running didates with the announcement of the editorial debate between the two St. campaign were carried by the Chi­ Louis dailies, with the Globe-Democrat cago Sun- Times and the San Fran­ backing FBI spying and the Post-Dis­ cisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle. patch speaking out for the YSA's Vice-presidential candidate Willie rights. Mae Reid has been highlighted in the Other papers not only reported but Black press, including a full-page "Pro­ also took sides. The Chicago Sun­ file" in the Chicago Defender and ma­ Times hailed the district court judge's jor front-page articles in the Milwau­ order barring all FBI surveillance as kee Courier and the St Louis Argus. "a courageous and intelligent position The Memphis Press-&imitar ran a in favor of political freedom," as did story under the headline "Ex-Mem ph ian New York Post columnist James Will Be on National Ticket," recalling Wechsler under the headling "Letting that Reid '\vas active in the Memphis Freedom Ring." bus movement protesthig segregated When an appeals court overturned seating for blacks in 1958." the judge's order, the New York Daily St. Louis papers carried daily coverage of YSA convention

THE MILrTANT/JANUARY 24, 1975 7 members spoke at their weekly demonstrations. fore illegal. This was an inspiring victory for the The lack of a powerful response to the racist fight against Jim Crow, but this decision would drive encouraged the reactionary forces. This led have remained a scrap of paper had it been left First ol a series finally to the gathering of a lynch mob outside to the capitalist politicians. By WENDY LYONS South Boston High School on Dec. 11. More than The successive Republican and Democratic ad­ The Dec. 13 National Teach-In Against Racism 100 Black students narrowly escaped from the ministrations of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and John­ and the Dec. 14 march in support of desegregated school with their lives, under police protection. son spouted rhetoric about equality for all, but schools in Boston set the stage for building a new But the Dec. 14 march signaled the opening time and again refused to implement the laws movement for Black civil rights. of a countermobilization. The demonstration guaranteeing equality, and dragged their feet in These actions were powerful displays of oppo­ showed that large numbers of people could be~ halting terrorist attacks on Black freedom fighters. sition to the racist offensive that is aimed at beat­ moved to stand up and say, "Enough- these stu­ It took the mass independent action of the civil ing back the gains won by Black.s during the ear­ dents have the right to an equal education without rights movement to win the battle against Jim lier civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. fearing for their lives!" Crow. The student committee that initiated the teach-in The teach-in and other building activities for These actions began as local protests, such as and helped organize the march has now called the demonstration enabled organizers of the action the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott that suc­ for a national conference Feb. 14-16, in Boston, to explain far .11nd wide the truth about what is ceeded in desegregating buses in that city. In the to discuss further actions. going on in Boston- that the issue is racism. early 1960s the movement became national in This conference will be open to all who agree that The protests also helped to demoralize the racists scope. Sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters, and Freedom Rides to desegregate interstate buses took place. In 1963 solidarity actions were organized around the country in response to a brutal police attack on a civil rights demonstration in Birming­ Busing struggle ham, Ala. This led to a massive march on Wash­ ington, D. C., of 250,000 people. Actions such as these finally forced the govern­ ment to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Mass action: Lesson of 1965 Voting Rights Act. Set example The protests against racial injustice that awak­ ened the American people and led to the death of Jim Crow set an example that has affected the civil rights movement struggles for social change in this country ever since. Many of the activists who organized the first demonstrations against the war had their train­ ing in the civil rights movement In this struggle, too, the futility of relying on the capitalist poli­ ticians was 'shown time and again. Both Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon won elections by proclaiming themselves "peace candi­ dates" while they secretly plotted new campaigns of terror against the Vietnamese people. Congressional "doves" made fiery antiwar speeches- and then turned around and consistent­ ly voted for war appropriations. Had the antiwar movement relied on capitalist politicians, rather than on mass demonstrations in the streets, the B-52s would still be pounding the Vietnamese. It was the strategy of mass independent actions that first won the majority of American people to oppose the war and finally forced the U.S. govern­ ment to withdraw the troops from Vietnam. The Democratic and Republican politicians can­ not be relied upon in the struggle against war- or in the struggle for decent education, housing, and jobs for Blacks. This is because they are committed to upholding capitalism- a system that thrives on war, racial oppression, and exploitation. They Part of crowd of 250,000 at 1963 civil rights demonstration in Washington, D. C. Mass actions like this led to can be forced to make concessions only when defeat of Jim Crow. they face a compelling political movement, a move­ ment that relies on the power of mass action. The Feb. 14-16 National Student Conference the racists must be defeated. It will provide an op­ and cause divisions among them. Their counter­ Against Racism will be considering plans for fur­ portunity for supporters of civil rights from all demonstration, the day after the Dec. 14 march of ther actions like the Dec. 13 teach-in and Dec. 14 over the country to participate in discussing and 12,000, was less than half the size of the anti­ freedom march. deciding upon what to do next racist march. Trade unionists,. clergy, and community and po­ Since the opening of school last fall, Blacks and While they were dealt a blow by the Dec. 14 supporters of Black liberation across the nation litical organizations should all be drawn into plan­ demonstration, the racists are far from being d~ ning and participating in such protests. Demo­ watched in frustration as racist acts of terror es­ feated. Black students still face a powerful threat calated against Black students in Boston. As these cratic and Republican politicians should also be to their right to go to desegregated schools in Bos­ students faced daily indignities, brutality, and asked to support actions against the segregation­ ton. threats on their lives, there seemed to be no power­ ists. They should just understand that the anti­ ful force that would defend them- that would stand It is clear that the elected Democratic and Repub­ racist movement will not be for sale.. It will not up and say, "We are behind you." lican officials cannot be relied upon to change the be a vote-catching machine for anybody. The reactionaries in Boston tried. to hide their situation. Many questions and some differences of opin­ racist opposition to desegregation by claiming that Boston's Democratic Mayor White recently autho­ ion have arisen among supporters of civil rights the issue is just "neighborhood schools." The capi­ rized the use of city funds to appeal the court d~ about the most effective tactics to fight the racist talist news media cooperated by portraying the cision upholding school desegregation. offensive. Among the questions being discussed are: racist movement sympathetically. Judge Arthur Garrity, who initially ordered bus­ How does desegregation relate to the fight for com­ Many were confused and others were intimidated ing to achieve desegregation, has backed down munity control of the schools? Should we call on from standing up to tell the truth about what was from contempt charges against the racist school the federal government to send troops to en.force going on in Boston. committee, despite the fact that the committee has desegregation? How does the busing fight relate The Black community there is small, and the atti­ clearly violated a court order to submit a final to the struggle against the capitalist system? plan to desegregate the schools. tude of most of the community leaders was to r~ In future articles we will take up these and other main quiet so as not to "provoke" the reactionaries. It will take more actions like the one on Dec. questions. Those few protest actions that were organized were 14 to win the battle in Boston- actions that can smaller than the weekly rallies of the racists. mobilize increasing numbers of people in support of Boston's Black community. The history of the early civil rights movement Role of capitalist politicians testifies to the effectiveness of such a mass-action The Racist Offensive The capitalist politicians were no help. ·President strategy. The fighters for civil rights won gains Ford rejected pleas from the Black community to through rallies, marches, picket lines, sit-ins, boy­ Against Busing send troops to Boston in order to enforce the fed­ cotts, and other forms of mass activity- not by r~ eral court order for desegregation. He pointedly lying on the capitalist politicians. As a result of THE LESSONS OF BOSTON expressed his own opposition to court-ordered bus­ these protests the system of legal segregation (Jim HOW TO FIGHT BACK ing. Crow) was put to death. Senator Edward Kennedy, who masquerades as The men and women who started the move­ a defender of Black rights, got booed by the reac­ ment to smash Jim Crow faced tremendous odds. BY WILLIE MAE REID, tionaries early in the school year, when he visited They were standing up to a deeply ingrained sys­ PETER CAMEJO, Boston, and he hasn't said a word about the sit­ tem of laws that defined Blacks as less than hu­ AND OTHERS uation there since. man beings. This system was enforced by terror. $.50 Many of the local ele~ted officials were leading Many who dared to stand up for their rights were the antibusing campaign. The all-Democratic Bos­ lynched in the course of the struggle. Order from: Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New ton city council turned over its chambers for the In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that seg­ York, N.Y. 10014. weekly meetings of the racists, and a number of its regated schools are inherently inferior, and there-

8 Considers 'voluntarY-' busing_P-Ian Boston judge tries to let school board off hook By JON HILLSON resistance to desegregation has also BOSTON- Racist foes of school de­ been high. segregation received a shot in the arm When South Boston High reopened, here Jan. 8 when Federal District more than 500 local and state police Court Judge Arthur Garrity said he were on hand inside and outside the may accept a new "integration" pro­ school to enforce an order by Gar­ posal from the Boston school com­ rity prohibiting the gathering of mittee that does not require busing. groups of more than three people with­ The school committee's new plan in 100 yards of the school. As a re­ was submitted in an effort to purge sult, there were no "greeting com­ three of its members of civil contempt mittees" of bigots shouting racist ep­ charges leveled against them by Gar­ ithets at Black students being bused rity on Dec. 26. This verdict came 10 there. days after the committee refused a Attendance at South Boston High court order to submit a phase two was low on the opening day. Fear of continued racist violence resulted in a drop of attendance by Black students. Only two buses came to the high school, both half empty. About 30 Black students, out of a projected Three recalcitrant school board members, from left: Paul Ellison, John Kerrigan, John Black enrollment of almost 400, McDonough. showed up. The racist boycott of school by whites also continued. Only about 150 On Jan. 10 the school reopened The bigots appear to be concen­ of a projected white enrollment of under heavy police presence, but 100 trating their energy now in support 1,068 showed up. white students walked out of Roslin­ of the appeal by the school committee During the week, Black enrollment dale High School in an antibusing to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking figures crept upward as the heavy po­ protest. a reversal of Garrity's original ruling lice presence resulted in a relative res­ Garrity will rule on the new school requiring the desegregation of the pite from the racist harassment that committee plan by Jan. 20. The orig­ schools. has been a daily occurrence for Black inal phase two plan, which Garrity White has agreed to have the city students attending the school. has allowed the school committee to pay the legal costs for the school com­ As the buses rolled up on the first junk for the time being, would have mittee's appeal. day, however, one could occasionally doubled the number of students to be year shouts of "nigger." One bus dri­ bused for the purpose of deseg­ Bomb plot ver told The Militant that rocks and regation. Schools in East Boston and In related developments, the FBI stones continue to be thrown period­ Charlestown, where antidesegregation disclosed late in December that it has ically from the white housing projects sentiment runs high, would be deseg­ been investigating a plot by the racists · in South Boston as the buses pass by. regated under the plan. The NAACP to blow up "three access routes to has said it will resubmit the phase East Boston as an antibusing pro­ Fight at Hyde Park two plan to Garrity's court. test," according to the Boston Globe. At Hyde Park High School, a fight Other organizations are also expec­ It is believed that the group of 14 Cops wrestle Black students out of Hyde between one Black and one white stu­ ted to file proposals and amendments suspects, all South Boston residents, Park High after fight Jan. 9. dent touched off a small police riot to the school committee's draft. also intended to destroy several Catho­ Jan. 9. According to witnesses, po­ On Jan. 8, Boston Mayor Kevin lic schools because of the Boston Arch­ lice patrolling the hall attacked Black White petitioned Garrity to perman­ diocese's support of the desegregation plan that would have required busing students. Thirteen Blacks and only ently close South Boston High because effort. The FBI, though indicting n~ to desegregate the remainder of Bos­ two whites were arrested. Several of the violent incidents at the school. one, has kept the case open, the Globe ton's public schools by September. Black students and their parents have While Garrity has rejected White's re­ said. After finding the committee mem­ stated their intention to file suits quest, he has agreed that closing the Also, a staff report of the U.S. Civil bers who voted against the plan to against the police for brutality. The school is a possible "last resort" if Rights Commission made public Dec. be in contempt, Garrity gave them parents are protesting the dispropor­ racist violence explodes there again. 24 said the Boston busing situation until Jan. 8 to submit another plan tionate numbers of arrests of and re­ Governor Michael Dukakis, State may mark "a critical turning point or face legal penalties. peated brutality against Black stu­ Education Director Paul Parks, and in American racial history." It added, The new committee plan calls for dents. White have announced the location of that President Ford, by his antibusing the ''voluntary" desegregation of Bos­ Boston NAACP President Thomas alternate school sites to the South Bos­ remarks, has "contributed to the prob­ ton schools without mandatory busing. Atkins charged that the police "cre­ ton complex in ''neutral locations" lem." This plan is simply a legal maneuver ated an incident by responding to a should the school be closed. The commission, which supports the to continue the committee's 10-year fight with incredibly bad judgment, Since their last antibusing march, desegregation effort, said "some action efforts to block the desegregation of almost without any judgment, they held on Dec. 15, the racists have not is needed to strengthen the vacillating city schools. set upon the students." as yet renewed the weekly motorcades public officials, to move them to af­ School committee member Paul Tier­ The Jan. 9 incident forced the closing and rallies that they conducted firmative postures and to neutralize ney, in voting for the new plan, ex­ of the high school for the day. throughout the fall. those openly opposed." plained that it was "pie in the sky because voluntary busing cannot meet the federal guidelines for desegrega­ tion." The struggle to win equal education 'We will defeat antibusing movement' for Black students_ would receive a BOSTON-"For 21 years !walked a course of action against the anti­ association at the University of Wis­ severe setback should Garrity rule that the streets of the city of Boston busing movement, will be held here consin at Milwaukee. the new plan meets federal desegre­ without fear. . . . Now I'm afraid Feb. 14-16. All who support the To obtain more information on gation requirements. By even ac­ of this city. I'm almost afraid to right of Black students to a deseg­ the National Student Conference cepting the new plan for consideration, go out of the house.... regated education are urged to Against Racism, write to 720 Bea­ Garrity has thrown a sop to the ra­ "I wake up in the middle of the attend. con St., Boston, Mass., 02215, or cists. night and I think about it. I have The conference has already re­ call (617) 353-3642. Outgoing committee chairperson to sit on the edge of my bed, shak­ ceived broad endorsement from stu­ John Kerrigan termed Garrity's stand ing, until I can fall back asleep." dent leaders and Black activists "a sign of reasonableness ... the first What Colly Seabron was relating around the country. Recent new en­ one." He hailed Garrity's withdrawal to a Boston Globe reporter last dorsers include John Lewis, execu­ of contempt charges as "a personal month were his reasons for decid­ tive director, Voter Education Proj­ victory." Kerrigan has been the ing to move back to his native ect; Ralph Abernathy, president, mastermind of the committee's efforts Virginia. Seabron, a 48-year-old Southern Christian Leadership to block desegregation. Black man, was beaten by six white Conference; Atlanta civil rights hoodlums who dragged him from leader Hosea Williams; Sandra his delivery truck in South Boston Flowers, National Black Feminist South Boston High reopened on the afternoon of Oct. 23, 1974. Organization; Reverend J. W. Staf­ Since then, he's been a bundle of ford, Free-For-All Baptist Church, Garrity's Jan. 8 decision coincided loose nerves. Atlanta; and Georgia State Repre­ with the reopening of South Boston "We intend to defeat this antibus­ sentative Ben Brown. High School, the scene of the most ing movement, which has whipped Also, Sheryl Pence, president, At­ violent resistance to desegregation. some whites into an anti-Black lanta chapter, National Organiza­ The school, which had been closed fever, and make the streets of Bos­ tion for Women; Gene Guerrero, since a white mob threatened the lives ton safe again for Black people," executive director, Atlanta chapter, of Black students on Dec. 11, reopened Maceo Dixon, an organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union; without incident. National Student Conference Paul Zuchowski, student govern­ Mol otnnt/ Moork Salinoff However, a violent police attack on Against Racism, told The Militant. ment president, University of Wis­ Maceo Dixon urged large turnout for stu­ Black students occurred Jan. 9 at The conference, which will plan consin at Madison; and the student dent anti racist conference. Hyde Park High School, where white

THE MILITANT/JANUARY 24, 1975 9 In Our Opinion Lett en

Suggested reform Seize Oil?" the ruling-class publica­ State of the Union The Socialist Workers Party must tion U. S. News & World Report Even as Gerald Ford stood up to deliver his State of the be correct in saying that we have stated: Union message to Congress, thousands of angry people were to change the system, not just "... most strategic and foreign­ marching outside the White House to demand jobs. Protests reform it. For evidence, we only policy analysts discount the risk of for jobs, organized by Operation PUSH, were also held on have to look at what a mess the Soviet intervention. They see the present system has gotten us into Russians as realists when it comes Jan. 15 in Chicago and other cities. (Next week's Militant to vital interests-theirs or will carry full coverage of these demonstrations.) after all the reforming done to date. But here is one reform that would America's. To quote a high-level Despite talk about a "slowing down" of inflation, prices be a giant step: make it mandatory U. S. policy maker: are rising faster than ever. More people are out of work than that all labor contracts be nego­ "'The Soviets would recognize that at any time since the Great Depression, with· thousands more tiated on the same day each year. American military intervention in laid off every week. Working people are looking for answers Then the working people would Arab oil states involved vital U. S. and for action. find out that 1) no wealth is interests and only marginal Rus­ It may well be that few expected to get the answers from created without their labor, 2) the sian interests. They would stand Ford- the latest Harris poll showed that 86 percent, a new parasites reap most of the benefits aside-just as we did in Czecho­ slovakia where we recognized record, disapprove of his handling of the economy. And there of their labor, and 3) they have the power to change the system. that Soviet national interests were was nothing in Ford's speech to change that view. at stake.'" The proposals to "fight recession" were little more than a L. U. Keppinger Huntington Park, Calif Such is detente. public-relations sham-on a par with WIN buttons to "fight David Ellis inflation." Along with the token tax cuts to allegedly stimulate Indianapolis, Ind. the economy, administration economists were leaking fore­ casts that unemployment may hit 9 percent this year and re­ main above 7 percent for years to come. Viva Ia causa! I wish to thank you for sending me Furious Ford did not have one word to say about providing public The Militant. and please do continue service jobs for the millions desperate for work. Instead he Please cancel my subscription as doing so. soon as possible. Your stand offered: My congratulations to all of you on the Middle East left me furious. e Drastically higher prices for oil and therefore for gaso­ for your good work. I really enjoy I can't believe you are so easily line, electricity, heating, and before long for everything else. reading The Militant. It's about the persuaded by all the pro-Arab e Huge budget deficits that will guarantee breakneck in­ only paper that tells it like it is, propaganda that is out these flation for the foreseeable future. especially in this town. days. eMore tax breaks for corporations. Viva la causa! Your essays were so biased that Pablo Espinoza e Not another penny for urgently needed social services I would rather not read or have United Farm Workers local director sent to me anything that I know such as health care and education. Lamont. Calif e Rollbacks on pollution controls, strip-mining curbs, and is false and will greatly influence those who know very little of safety standards for nuclear reactors. the subject. The Democrats responded to Ford's program with bluster. Andrea Liff "It's merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," scoffed Student athletics Mill Valley, Calif. Senator Henry Jackson (D-Wash. ). "Congress will not stand Your readers, especially high school idly by," according to Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.). And House students and teachers, will be interested in a special form of dis­ Speaker Carl Albert (D-Okla.) declared, ''We want the Amer­ crimination that exists against ican people to know we intend to move." potential student athletes in Wash­ Denied benefits I am a World War II veteran and But when it came to specifics, the Democrats offered a pro­ ington, D. C.-and surely elsewhere. have been receiving veterans gram essentially the same as Ford's-only dressed up a bit Many students are denied the right benefits for service-related injuries. to participate in interscholastic with vague promises of tax reform and public works. Such In January 1972 I filed for athletics because they are "over­ promises are the standard script for Democratic liberals, but Social Security disability benefits. age." But for many inner-city stu­ the proof will come in their real-life performance. Nearly all Although both private and govern­ dents athletics is what keeps them of Ford's proposals require approval by the solidly Demo­ ment doctors say that my disabilities in school and wins them college qualify me for these benefits, the cratic Congress, which could vote for genuine tax reform, an scholarships. Social Security Administration has end to war spending, and millions of public service jobs if As a track coach at Cardozo denied them to me. it so chose. High School I have seen students A recent article in the Washington But it's a sure bet that what the Democratic Congress finally who would have become drop-outs Star shows that there are at least stay in school and go to college adopts will be little different from what the Republican admin­ 4, 200 others in the same predicament because of their athletic skills. istration has proposed, and for one simple reason. Both in Washington, D. C., alone! The 1972 decision Mills v. parties approach the economic crisis with the sole aim of I have refused to accept this maintaining corporate profits and the profit system. And the Board of Education and the recently arbitrary opinion, which shows no passed Student Bill of Rights hard truth is that there is no way off the mad seesaw of real concern for my health and guarantee all students equal educa­ inflation and recession within the confines of the profit system. welfare. On Dec. 20 I filed a law­ tional opportunity until age 21. I suit in U. S. District Court against The Democrats and Republicans pretend to debate whether have brought this matter to the at­ Health, Education and Welfare it is more important to "fight inflation" or "fight unemploy­ tention of the D. C. school board, ment" l3ut there is really only one fight going on: the fight Secretary Caspar Weinberger, asking but have received nothing but that my disability benefits be to make working people bear the costs of preserving a cap­ harassment from school officials who granted. italist system that is decaying and becoming ever more de­ are embarrassed by this discrimina­ I think that a victory in my structive. tory situation. case would help many in similar The Socialist Workers Party candidates-Peter Camejo for Michael Gallion situations receive the benefits due president and Willie Mae Reid for vice-president- approach Washington, D. C. them, which are now being denied. the problem from the opposite standpoint They put the needs James Curry of working people first Washington, D. C. Ford's speech amounted to an admission that what lies Fruits of detente ahead is more inflation and more unemployment The SWP With the growing economic crisis in candidates reply that working people can protect themselves the capitalist world, the American from this double-barreled attack, but not by relying on the ruling class has found a convenient Behavior modification promises and patchwork reforms of the Democrats and Re­ scapegoat in the Arab oil-producing We prisoners appeal to you for aid. countries. With the Arabs being publicans. Urgently needed are: In February, the state of Pennsyl­ blamed for everything from infla­ vania will open up the new eJobs for all through an immediate, massive program of tion to recession, there is mounting maximum security facility that is useful public works. Shorten the hours of work for everyone, concern with the possibility of now being used for the criminally with no loss of weekly pay, to spread the available jobs to U. S. military intervention in the insane. all who need work. - Mideast. This hideous facility is for the e Cost-of-living escalators in all contracts to automatically It seems that the ongoing debate alleged incorrigibles in the state's _raise wages to fully compensate for every increase in prices. in ruling-class circles is how to five correctional institutions. successfully seize Arab oil with the The same escalator provision should apply to Social Security, We "possible candidates" claim least risk to imperialism's interests. that the selection process will not veterans' payments, welfare, and pensions. This debate automatically leads to only be prejudicial, but diabolical Demonstrations like the Jan. 15 marches for jobs point the speculation about the role the as well. The program is solely real way forward: independent action by working people in Soviet Union would play in the to change a man's way of thinking the factories, in the streets, and in the political arena to defend event of U. S. troops being sent in. arid to leave him barren of his our right to a job and a decent standard of living. In an article titled, "Will U. S. instincts and responsibilities.

10 By Any Means Necessary Baxter Smith

Psychosurgery lobotomies and The Klan rides at Napanoch other behavior-modification programs-genocide-will be The Klan is a cowardly outfit They have perfected "The guards used to look down on them [the pris­ forcibly implemented to deter or the art of making Negroes be afraid. And as long oners] and feel superior to them, and now suddenly terminate a prisoner's free will of as the Negro is afraid the Klan is safe. But the Klan they have all these people who know their rights, thoughts and creative thinking. itself is cowardly. One of them never comes after who know what's happening and insist upon being To speak up against maltreatment you. They all come together, 'cause they're scared of treated as human beings." or to protect yourself when you you. And you sit there when they're puttin' the rope Loorie, who used to be president of the Local Amer­ are approached in a threatening 'round your neck saying, 'Forgive them, Lord, they ican Civil Liberties Union, now keeps a loaded re­ and belligerent manner will know not what they do. ' As long as they've been volver in her home, though friends have advised her indubitably make you a candidate doing it, they're experts at it, they know what they're to get a shotgun and be on the safe side. for Pennsylvania's new genocidal doing. -Malcolm X She believes that "every citizen should have the program. right to belong to any group he wants to, but if your We need the public's support. Nancy Loorie has faced the Klan and can attest to job means that 85 percent of the people you're deal­ You may aid us by writing letters their cowardly acts. But she's not from the South. ing with are not white and you are such an overt of protest to Governor Milton She's not even Black. And because she's still kicking racist that you have to join the Ku Klux Klan, which Shapp, Main Capitol Building, today, she's never been the surprise guest at a Klan is hardly the Lion's Club, then there's no way you Harrisburg, Pa. 17120. necktie party. can be fair." A prisoner Loorie, 39, is the director of volunteer services Schoonmaker openly defends his racist views. "I Pennsylvania at the New York state prison at Napanoch, where consider myself biased, but not prejudiced," he says. she's worked for a year and a half. Some of her "A prejudiced person doesn't know what he's talking co-workers are the finest people she can imagine. about. I'm a white Christian and I'm proud of my Some are not. race and proud of my religion and proud of the civi­ Prisoner fund "I've known all along that we've had some really lization we have created. I don't think we have to Thank you for continuing the horribly overt racists there, but now we've been able bow down to anyone." prisoner subscription fund. I to. find out the organization that some of them be­ Loorie is trying to get all the Klansmen fired, but hope it remains as a permanent long to," she told The Militant the other day. prison authorities are resisting. part of your organization. Some of Loorie's co-workers, you see, are members The presence of Klan members in prisons, riding Although I cannot make a of the Ku Klux Klan- about 15 or 20 by her esti­ roughshod over defenseless prisoners, is an affront monthly pledge, you can count on mate. And because she always treats the prisoners- to prisoners and Blacks everywhere. It simply should me for occasional contributions as 60 percent of whom are Black-like human beings, not be tolerated. If the prisoners had an elected com­ long as I am financially able to. that drives the KKKers crazy. She even leaves her mittee with the power to control who gets hired and I want my· contribution applied to office to mingle with the prisoners- a woman, a who gets fired, that would put a quick end to the the free subscriptions for pris- white woman a.t that!- and that drives them batty Klan's presence. oners. too. Then the only place people like Schoonmaker could D.R. So last September the KKK began a campaign of ride would be into the sunset. Minneapolis, Minn. harassment to drive Loorie out of the prison. They (NOTE TO PRISON CENSORS: If you've read sent her nasty notes, broke into her office, banged this far, you 'II probably keep this issue of The Mili­ up her car, and did other mean things. tant from reaching our prison subscribers. You 'II An investigation found that the Grand Dragon of likely say this issue ''incites disrespect for correctional In their names the New York Klan, Earl Schoonmaker, was a teach­ authorities" or some such garbage. But you can't out­ I can't help but notice that many er at the prison. And because he insisted on bringing law the ideas we are voicing. Many of our readers of your correspondents are my in material not listed on the course syllabus- Klan with friends and relatives behind your bars will clip brothers and sisters, grasping at literature- prison officials dismissed him on Dec. 23. this column and get it to those for whom it is writ­ lines of freedom from behind bars, Now the guards are really mad. ten. And you can bet our prison subscribers will con­ while I read The Militant from a They've tried to pit the prisoners against her and tinue to protest the unconstitutional regulations that home with wide-open doors. against each other. But the prisoners have "exhibited allow you to arbitrarily ban certain issues. Above I am very glad that The Militant beautiful self-control," Loorie said. all, you will never stamp out "disrespect" for Klan gets through to them. Some may "Although the focal point is on me, it's not really agents and other racists with positions of authority find it difficult to afford a me," Loorie says. over our brothers and sisters in prison.) subscription. For them, our brothers and sisters, I wish to send you the enclosed five dollars. Please accept my modest contribu­ Women In Revolt tion in their names, not in mine. M.M. Los Angeles, Calif. Linda Jenness ·•····. [The Militants special Prisoner Fund makes it possible for us to send complimentary or reduced-rate subscriptions to prisoners who Setback for affirrriative action can't pay for them. To help out, The Department of Health, Education and Welfare percent of women were professors, and only 21 send your contributions to: Militant (HEW) is, at best, a fair-weather friend of women percent associate professors. Prisoner Fund, 14 Charles Lane, and the oppressed minorities. No sooner does the Foes of affirmative action are, of course, de­ New York, N.Y. 10014.] economic going get tough than HEW retreats from lighted with the HEW memorandum. Writing in its support to affirmative-action hiring programs. the AFLrCIO News, John Roche congratulates A recent memorandum from HEW explains that Representative James O'Hara (D-Mich.) for his the federal government's affirmative-action require­ role in changing HEW's position. "For quite a Macmillan strike ments Jor college faculty hiring "must not operate while," he writes, "the opponents of reverse dis­ A minor error crept into my to restrict consideration to minorities and women crimination [his term for affirmative action] felt article on the Macmillan strike only." The memorandum further warns that job like voices crying in the wilderness. The Dept. of that appeared in the Dec. 27 requirements must not 'be waived or lowered in HEW seemed above the law, and its affirmative Militant As printed, the article order to attract women and minority candidates." action enforcers, power-drunk, went wandering gives the incorrect impression To read the memo one would think that colleges around the nation threatening administrations that that all of the striking workers and universities have hired nothing but women did not present the proper demographic profile." were prevented by the company and Blacks over the pa11t few years and it was Albert Shanker, racist demagogue of the Ameri­ from returning to work-in ef­ now time to give the white men a break. That's can Federation of Teachers, calls the new directive fect, fired. Actually, about half of hardly the case. a "heartening action." And even more "heartening" the strikers were fired. "Statistics from the American Council on Edu­ for Shanker was the decision made by the New Carol Lisker cation show that in 1969, 2.2 per cent of college York State Commission on Human Rights, which Brooklyn, N.Y. and university faculty positions were held by ruled recently that a Puerto Rican woman hired blacks, and 19.1 per cent were held by women," as an acting principal must be replaced with a reports Tom Wicker in the New York Times. "By white man 'born on the U.S. mainland." Why? 1973 ... those percentages had grown scarcely Because, in the commission's opinion, the com­ The letters column is an open forum at all- to 2.9 per cent for blacks, and to 20 per munity school board members had voted on "an ·for all viewpoints on subjects of gen­ cent for women. White males are plainly not being ethnic basis" and had discriminated against the eral interest to our readers. Please excluded-much less removed-from faculties, nor white male because he was born "on the U.S. keep your letters brief. Where neces­ do the percentages of blacks and women yet sug­ mainland"! sary they will be abridged. Please in­ gest that the effects of discrimination against them The new HEW memorandum represents another dicate if your name niay be used or have been overcome." attack on the gains made by women and Blacks if you prefer that your initials be used Other statistics show that of the men on college through the affirmative-action programs of the instead. and university faculties in the academic year 1972- past few years. It will encourage reactionaries 73, 30.3 percent were full professors, and another like Shanker to try to roll these gains back even 25.1 percent were associate professors. Only 11 further.

THE MILITANT/JANUARY 24, 1975 11 The Great Society Harry Ring

Terminal terminology- •• Let's get penses in developing the budget. into homosexuality. It's contrary to eration is designed to prepare the unit away from the term, 'throw-away' Finally, subtract expenses from net what the home and the Bible has stood to assist in the reestablishment of gov­ packaging. A better, more meaningful pay to determine expendable income. for. When God set up the human race ernmental functions of a country out­ name is single-lise recyclable pack­ The expenses are bigger than the in­ there was a division of sexes. A side the United States in the event of aging."-William May, chairman, come? That's your problem. woman's place is in the home, barring full-scale hostilities." American Can Company. unusual circumstances." For God's sake- Two Connecticut See, it's simple- Can't cope with un­ Baptist ministers may sue over a re­ The Kissinger Peace Plan?-While Thought for the week- "We scream employment andfor inflation? Heed quirement that male students take a other Army reserve units were march­ and holler about marijuana but to­ a New York credit counseling service. sixth-grade home economics course. ing around, one Oklahoma company bacco is the most dangerous addictive First, use only your net income in Said Reverend Lynn Mays: "By spent its two-week training period drug of all."- Frank Chappell, calculating your budget. Next, figure having a young boy cook or sew, practicing running a government Ac­ science news director, American Medi­ both monthly and nonmonthly ex- wearing aprons, we're pushing a boy cording to Associated Press, "The op- cal Association.

National Picket Line Frank Lovell Layoffs: challenge to union movement Top officials of most major unions have made and cannot find buyers, the auto corporations cago, Washington, and other cities organized by formal protests of some kind in recent months are laying off workers and closing assembly lines. the Chicago-based civil rights organization, Opera­ against massive layoffs. As unemployment accel­ About 300,000 of the 700,000 members of the tion PUSH. But at this juncture the entrenched erates at an increasing rate from week to week, United Auto Workers (UAW) employed a year officialdom of the UAW prefers to do its own thing. the labor skates must create the impression that ago in auto plants in this country have been laid It may be that hard-hit UAW locals around they are trying to do something about it off. This has jolted the UAW officialdom to do the country will decide to carry a message of Their protests until now have been scarcely aud­ something-but not much. their own to Ford on Feb. 5. The UAW has a ible, as if they were striving to maintain stoic si­ UAW President Leonard Woodcock is promising rich tradition to draw upon. It has fought longest lence in the face of adversity. Among the reasons to bring several thousand unemployed auto and hardest for the escalator clause to protect for their strange behavior is that they don't know workers to Washington, D.C., on Feb. 5, to ask wages against inflation. It coined the slogan "30 what to do and are afraid of saying something the Ford administration for some form of relief. for 40," a 30-hour workweek at 40 hours pay. It that may embarrass "their" industry. They don't Up to now Woodcock has been more interested championed the idea of plant conversion after believe that they can do much about the economic in relief for the industry than for the workers he World War II, demanding that government-built crisis anyway. is supposed to represent. However, early revival tank plants be converted to the building of pre­ Union officials have not been called upon to of the industry seems unlikely. According .to Wood­ fabricated homes instead of handed over to the trouble themselves much about such matters as un­ cock, " ... projections based on industry figures auto corporations. And it called for public inspec- employment and inflation since before World War indicate that a million employees of auto firms - tion of the secret accounts of General Motors. II. They expect the employers or the government and their suppliers will be unemployed at some These are useful ideas for the present scene. to provide jobs. They view their own function as time during the first three months of 1975." What the working class needs is a shorter work­ only to negotiate a fair day's pay for a fair day's The UAW plans to send buses from its23 regions week with no reduction in take-home pay. This work. As for rising prices, this is something that in the United States and hold a rally at 9 a.m. in would put laid-off workers back on the job. Some­ will be regulated by the time-tested economic law the Washington Armory, which seats 5,000. Pres­ thing the unemployed auto workers can tell Con­ of supply and demand. ident Ford has been asked to speak to the un­ gress is: "Pass a 30-hour work bill now." These primitive notions are being dispelled by employed auto workers. Mter that they may march This country also needs a massive public works the hard facts of the present-day capitalist economy. to the capitol to petition Congress. program to rebuild the cities, clean up the polluted In the past few years the union movement has It is a modest demonstration, very respectful of streams and lakes, build houses, and put together finally come to recognize the need for a cost-of­ the president and the Congress. A march on Wash­ a rapid transit system connecting by rail all major living clause in all contracts to keep wages ad­ ington for jobs is a good idea. But it would be cities. Such urgently needed projects would lift th~ justed to rising prices. better if the unemployed auto workers went to quality of life and bring full employment Monopoly price-fixing has forced up the prices tell Ford something instead of listening to what It would also be a good idea for the unemployed of all commodities while vast surpluses accumulate. he has to tell them. By Feb. 5 they should already UAW members, while they are in Washington, to The auto industry is typical. The price of a new know all that he has to say on the economy and let their 'friends" in the Democratic Party know that car has jumped $1,000 as acres of unsold models some other matters too. they are tired of waiting, and intend to send some pile up at the end of assembly lines. The UAW could have mobilized its ranks for replacements to Congress who represent the Since these new cars are priced out of the market the Jan. 15 "Jobs For All" demonstrations in Chi- working class, not the capitalists.

The American Way of Life

Frame-up at the Metropolitan Museum Jean Toche, a New York artist, faces trial for New York's museums-some 10,000 persons­ Margaret Ratner, and William Kunstler, Toche supposedly sending a "kidnap threat" through the be held as "war hostages" until "a People's Court has since 1969 'been active in most of the demon­ mail, a federal crime. The "kidnap threat" was is convened to deal specifically with the cultural strations that took place at the Metropolitan de­ actually an open letter that was sent to some 60 crimes of the ruling class." Toche contends that manding basic changes in the museum's policy, museums and news media. this was not to be taken literally. especially its policy of expansion and attitudes One of the recipients, C. Douglas Dillon, is chair­ The letter also demanded the release of Tony toward the poor, the Black and Puerto Rican citi­ man of the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Shafrizi, the man who was imprisoned for de­ zens, discrimination against women, and the mu­ seum's silence about the war in Vietnam." Art in New York. Dillon is a banker and was facing Picasso's Guernica, the famous antiwar treasury secretary in the Eisenhower administra­ painting that hangs in the Museum of Modern The Metropolitan Museum, it was learned, kept tion. He is the one who called the police on Toche. Art in New York. a file on Toche as a "dissident artist." The file was In spite of what Toche's attorney Michael Ratner A letter in defense of Toche has been sent to turned over to the FBI when Dillon asked that called 'his increasingly foolish posture," Dillon has Dillon by Amnesty International, the New York Toche be arrested. To top it off, Toche was ordered . refused to withdraw the complaint. Civil Liberties Union, and hundreds of artists, by a federal court to submit to a sanity test to Toche is one of the founders of the Guerrilla Art editors, poets, writers, and museum staffers. The determine whether he was competent to stand trial. Action Group, an organization that looks to the letter- points out that Toche obviously wasn't se­ He was ruled "sane" last November. tradition of the protest art of the surrealists and riously intending to kidnap anyone and that his Whatever one thinks of Toche's views or methods dadaists. arrest is a clear frame-up and a violation of the of protest, all supporters of democratic rights The part of Toche's open letter that brought his right to free speech. should join in demanding the dropping of all arrest was where he suggested that the officials of According to Toche's lawyers Michael Ratner, charges against him. -MICHAEL SMITH

12 Ask S300-million more for Thieu Washington sends war signals to Hanoi By PETER GREEN Kissinger issued the ritual denial­ From Intercontinental Press there was "no basis of fact" to the re­ Following the liberation of Phuoc­ port, said a State Department spokes­ binh, capital of Phuoclong province, man-but the January 12 New York by the forces of the Provisional Rev­ Times sa~d that other officials had olutionary Government on January 7, reaffirmed that Kissinger's regrets had the hawks in Washington came out been relayed to the Pentagon. Accord­ in force. Not only did they issue ing to one report from "well-placed threats, some veiled and some not­ officials," when Kissinger was in­ so-veiled, but the White House and formed that the task force had not the Pentagon have set to persuade been directed toward Vietnam, he re­ Congress to step up allocations for sponded, "Why the heck didn't we?" the war. At a news briefing on January 8, A U. S. Seventh Fleet task force one day after the liberation of Phuoc­ headed by the nuclear-powered air­ binh, administration officials an­ craft carrier Enterprise set sail from nounced that Ford had decided to Subic Bay in the Philippines on the ask Congress for at least $300 mil­ day that Phuocbinh fell. A United lion in military aid for Saigon in the Press International report from Sai­ current fiscal year in addition to the gon quoted American diplomatic $700 million already appropriated. U.S. tanks rushed to Saigon prior to 1973 'cease-fire.' U.S. aid to Indochina war sources as having said that the ships They also said that Ford would be has topped $6-billion in two years since 'peace' accords. asking for $1.3 billion in military aid for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The columnists and editorial writers U.S. threat chimed in dutifully. The U.S. "cannot tal aid for Thieu, the shipment of am­ Thieu of sending troops and tanks In a new escalation of its war cut and run," editorialized the January munition stocks to Saigon, the mobili­ to comb the countryside of Phuoclong threats against Vietnam, the U. S. 8 Christian Science Monitor. Any sup­ zation of the marines, and the admis­ province and other regions, burning State Department released a state­ plementary aid request from Ford, sion about flights of spy planes over rice harvests that the Saigon army ment Jan. 13 accusing North Viet­ they said, should be looked at "respon­ Vietnam, ail these actions had the could not seize. nam of ''turning from the path of sibly." same purpose-putting pressure on In a dispatch from Saigon to the negotiation to that of war." The One "high Administration official" Hanoi and the liberation forces, and January 12 Washington Post. Philip U.S. rulers stated that Hanoi "must quoted by the January 9 New York trying to create a climate in the Unit­ A. McCombs reported that most "Ha­ accept the full consequences of its Times also speculated that public ed States that would allow Washing­ noi-watchers" there were agreed that actions," without saying what those knowledge of the supplemental request ton to escalate its military interven­ a general offensive was not in the off­ "consequences" might be. "might serve as a useful signal to Ha­ tion. ing. McCombs reported that the num­ On the same day the Defense De­ noi." ber of PRG troops in South Vietnam partment revealed that the aircraft As though there were any shortage The actual fall of Phuocbinh was was about the same as at the time only incidental to the process. In fact, carrier Midway, along with two de­ of such "signals." of the cease-fire. plans for the Pentagon's propaganda stroyers and a guided-missile frig­ • Stockpiles of U.S. ammunition in According to analysts there, he said, offensive had been made well before ate, had left Japan for an undis­ Thailand were being moved to South the current fighting "has limited mili­ the capture of the provincial capital, closed destination. Pentagon offi­ Vietnam, according to a U.S. military tary objectives." He also pointed to according to the January 9 New York cials denied they were definitely spokesman in Bangkok quoted by the the importance that Hanoi is currently Times: heading for Vietnamese waters, but January 10 Washington Post. attaching to its own economic develop­ "A Pentagon memorandum written suggested that the administration • Marine and air force units at the ment. The general opinion was that several weeks ago called for a broad had deployed them to keep open U.S. base in Okinawa, Japan, had "Hanoi is unlikely to order any vast been put on alert since January 6, the publicity campaign to convince con­ escalation of its military activities in the option of intervention in gress and the public that an emergen­ Vietnam. Washington Post reported on January the South if it would jeopardize the 10. Marine authorities denied the re­ cy effort was needed or the Saigon long-term development of the North." port and air force officials declined to government would run out of ammu­ The North Vietnamese themselves would sail into Vietnamese waters to comment. nition in 30 days. denied charges by Washington and demonstrate support for South Viet­ eOn January 11 Washington ad­ "Senators and Congressmen were to Saigon that a general offensive had be encouraged to visit South Vietnam, nam and as a warning to North Viet­ mitted that U. S. planes are doing re­ been launched. In a statement broad­ reports and assessment from the field nam. Speculation and rumors about connaissance of North and South Viet­ cast by Radio Hanoi and quoted in resumption of direct U.S. involvement nam. The question was raised when wer.e to be shown to them, material the January 5 Washington Post. a were sparked off around the world. Nhan Dan, the official Hanoi news­ was to be leaked to reporters and cer­ spokesman for the North Vietnamese The White House issued denials, dis­ paper, said that "manned and pilotless tain Congressional committees were Foreign Ministry said the charges claiming any intention of defying leg­ reconnaissance planes from U. S. to receive special attention." were "a trick aimed at misleading pub­ islative bans on U. S. reentry into the bases in Thailand" had guided the The usual denials were forthcoming. lic opinion and covering up U. S. and civil war. The mission of the six-ship heavy retaliatory bombing raids "When asked about the memorandum, South Vietnamese systematic viola­ naval task force, a Pentagon spokes­ against Locninh, the PRG administra­ a ranking Pentagon offidal respond­ tions of the Paris agreem Emt on Viet-_ man insisted, was "not connected with tive center thirty miles from Phuoc­ ed that it had 'no status' and that nam." anything going on in South Vietnam." binh. 'there is now no calculated campaign, "It is also aimed at pressing the U.S. Just in case anyone missed the real but one may develop.'" Congress to increase aid to South Viet­ point of the exercise and for. some The Nhan Dan report was officially However one interprets the "no nam," the broadcast said. reason took Washington's denials at denied by the U.S. Embassy in Sai­ status" category, Phuocbinh was cer­ face value for a change, the opinions gon, the January 12 Washington Post tainly seized by the Pentagon as the At first glance, Ford's prospects for of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger reported, "but sources acknowledged cue to fully develop its campaign. getting his aid proposals through were leaked to the press. Quoting "ad­ that American planes had been flying " . . . Phuocbinh, a military debit, Congress don't seem promising. Sen­ ministration officials," the January 11 reconnaissance missions along the is about to be converted into a politi­ ate Democratic leader Mike Mansfield New York Times reported that Kis­ North Vietnamese coast and over cal asset by allied planners," wrote told reporters January 9 that singer had "expressed regret to the South Vietnam and Cambodia ever the January 12 Washington Post. Congress would resist Ford's propos­ Pentagon" that the naval task force since the Paris cease-fire agreement "They are displaying Phuocbinh as als. "Additional aid means more kill­ "had not been used to signal Amer­ was reached two years ago." a grim example of the fate that awaits ing, more fighting," he said. "This has ican determination to North Viet- The deployment of the naval task more important South Vietnamese got to stop sometime." nam. " force, the soundings about supplemen- towns, cities and provinces unless the However, Chairman John C. Sten­ new Congress provides more aid." nis of the Senate Armed Services Com­ Phuocbinh was portrayed as the open­ mittee said that if "there is real proof' ing of a big new offensive by the lib­ of need for additional aid "then I eration forces. would take the lead in helping get The reality is somewhat different. more money. It doesn't look good Phuocbinh was an isolated pocket of over there." Saigon military resistance in a pro­ In the past the White House has vince aim ost totally under PRG con­ been very adept at digging up the trol. kind of "real proof' to crumple the "The communists controlled every­ token resistance of Congress. Often thing but the towns anyway," said According to figures recently com­ one analyst quoted by the January piled by Representative Les Aspin, the 4 Washington Post. "Phuoclong was U. S. Congress has now authorized like_ an overripe fruit waiting to be more than $6 billion in U. S. military plucked off, and they could have done and economic aid to Vietnam, Laos, it any time during the past two years." and Cambodia since the January Apart from the general stepping up 1973 "cease-fire," plus about $2 billion of military activity during the dry more spent for U. S. support forces in se-ason, one reason for the removal the area. of this outpost now rather than at "This must be the most expensive War refugees in the south. U.S. planes guided Saigon's some other time was given by Nhan cease-fire in the history of man," As­ to North Vietnamese. Dan on January 6. Nhan Dan accused pin said. "It must also be the phoniest."

THE MILITANT/JANUARY 24, l975 13 Detente vs. world revolution How Bolsheviks used diplomacy to adv Second of a series ist powers, and the imperialist drive talk about reducing armaments, no of workers and peasants, it had no in­ By CAROLINELUND to reverse the socj.alist revolutions that 'democratic' reorganizing of the terests apart from the masses of toil­ According to the Daily World, news­ have taken huge sections of the world League of Nations will save mankind ing people of the world and would paper of the U.S. Communist Party, out of the reach of the capitalist ex­ from imperialist wars." conduct its diplomacy openly. the dl!tente between Washington and ploiters. Lenin's view of the international po­ The "Decree on Peace" adopted on Moscow can lead to an "irreversible Since Lenin's time, the development sition of the first workers state was Nov. 8, 1917, by the new Soviet gov­ cooperative relationship" between the of nuclear weapons has added a new that salvation of the Soviet Union "is ernment declared: "The government two countries and social systems. The dimension to the imperialist war dan­ possible only along the road of in­ abolishes secret diplomacy, and, for World hailed the Vladivostok summit ger. The imperialists no doubt have ternational socialist revolution that we its part, announces its firm inten­ meeting last November as a step to­ more hesitations now about moving have entered." tion to conduct all negotiations quite ward "peace for all." to all"out war, if only because of the He stated further: "The Russian pro­ openly in full view of the whole peo­ The Daily World was even more possibility that it could mean self-an­ letariat cannot by its own forces vic­ ple. It will proceed immediately with categorical in its report on the June nihilation. But the predatory nature toriously complete the socialist revo­ the full publication of the secret treaties 1973 Nixon-Brezhnev summit in of capitalism remains unchanged. Any lution. But it can give the Russian endorsed or concluded by the gov­ Washington. Under the headline "Pact major confrontation threatens to touch revolution dimensions such as will ernment of landowners and capital­ signed to end A-war peril," the article off the imperialist stockpile of nu­ create the most favorable conditions ists from February to October 25 .opened with the statement, 'With the clear weapons. for it, such as will in a certain sense [Nov. 8 on the Western calendar], eyes of humanity upon them, the So­ But the bureaucratic rulers who sit begin it. It can facilitate matters· for 1917." viet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Presi­ in the Kremlin ignore this objective the entrance into a decisive battle on dent Nixon signed at the White House reality. They would have us believe .the part of its main and most reliable Brest-Litovsk negotiations today an agreement to 'exclude the that today dl!tente can solve the prob­ ally, the European and American so­ The Bolshevik approach to diplo­ outbreak of nuclear war.'" lem of war. This theory is not new­ cialist proletariat." macy was illustrated in the 1917-1918 This position-that the danger of it has been the policy of the Krem­ The early Soviet government under Soviet-German peace negotiations held war can be eliminated by pieces of lin since Stalin's rise to power in the Lenin concluded many trade and mili­ in the German-occupied East Euro­ paper signed by the U.S. imperialists 1920s. It was originally formulated tary agreements with the imperialist pean city of Brest-Litovsk. and the Kremlin bureaucrats- is a by Stalin as the theory of "socialism countries, according to its needs. This The Bolsheviks had denounced complete repudiation of Marxism, of in one country"- the idea that impe­ is an absolute necessity for any work­ World War I as an interimperialist the positions of Lenin, and of the rialism would allow the Soviet work­ ers state existing within a predomi­ war aimed at dividing up the world principles upon which the Soviet state ers state to exist and develop if it nantly capitalist world economy. among the capitalist profiteers. One was founded. It has also been refuted did not promote revolutions in other But for Lenin and the early Bol­ of the reasons for the victory of the Oc­ by the actual course of history. countries. sheviks, Soviet diplomatic policy was tober 1917 revolution was the Bol­ Lenin explained that wars are not viewed in the context of the needs of sheviks' stand against the war. caused by the good will or bad will World socialism the world struggle for socialism. The After the revolution the Soviet gov­ of governments, but by the contra­ This represented the complete aban­ real audience for their diplomacy­ ernment had to decide exactly how dictions existing within and between donment of Lenin's analysis of the the power that they appealed to-was to extricate itself from the imperial­ economic and political systems. nature of imperialism. The view of not the capitalist ministers of state, ist slaughter. Large sections of the but the working people and oppressed former Tsarist empire were occupied peoples of the world. by troops of the German Hohenzol­ For Lenin and the Bolsheviks, no lern empire. The Western powers that narrow Soviet diplomatic needs could had been allied with Tsarist Russia possibly justify telling lies to the world were equally hostile to the new Soviet working class. In fact, diplomacy was government. seen as one vehicle for educating the After Soviet appeals for a general workers and peasants of the world peace were rejected by the Western about the expansionist drive of im­ powers, the Soviets agreed to partici­ perialism and the differences between pate in peace talks with Germany a workers government and the cap­ alone. italist rulers. Leon Trotsky, commissar of foreign Lenin polemicized against the "re­ affairs of the Soviet government, was actionary method of consoling the sent to head up the negotiations at masses with hopes of permanent Brest-Litovsk. Refusing categorically peace being possible under capitalism, to engage in any secret negotiations, distracting their attention from the the Soviet representatives used the dip­ sharp antagonisms and acute prob­ lomatic arena to explain the truth­ lems of the present era. . . " that the new workers state was forced by its weakness to sign a separate No secret diplomacy peace with Germany. One principle that flowed from this approach was that of no secret di­ plomacy. The early Soviet govern­ Internationalism ment proclaimed to the peoples of the When Trotsky arrived in Brest, to­ Revolutionary upnsmg in Berlin, 1918. Bolshevik foreign policy at the time was world that its foreign relations would gether with Karl Radek, they con­ geared to promoting a socialist revolution in Germany ... be totally different from those of any ducted themselves in such a way as to previous g.overnment-that as a state make a demonstration of internation­ embodying the interests of the masses alism and of rejection of the standard Throughout recorded history hu­ Lenin, and of Marx, was that the only manity has suffered terrible blood­ way for humanity to end the barbar­ shed from wars resulting from the ism of war was to overturn the cap­ conflicts inherent in various economic italist system and replace it with world systems based on private property socialism. and class divisions. Lenin's view of the meaQing of the With the rise of capitalism, the level intervals of peace between wars was of destruction caused by war has far illustrated in this statement from 1920: exceeded that of all preceding history. "We have now passed from the arena The new methods of slaughter have of war to the arena of peace and we caused the death of 50 million in have not forgotten that war will come World Wars I and II alone. again. As long as capitalism and so­ cialism remain side by side we cannot No peace under capitalism live peacefully-the one or the other In his book Imperialism, the High­ will be the victor in the end.... At est Stage of Capitalism, Lenin ex­ present we have only a respite in the plained why the root cause of war war." in the present epoch is the capita.l­ This position was made one of the ist economic system itself. He ex­ founding principles of the Communist plained that competition for profits International, the international party leads inexorably to the growth of huge of world socialist revolution that was monopoly powers, spreading through- initiated by the Bolsheviks under Len­ . out the world in their drive to gaJn in and Trotsky after the Russian rev­ control over markets and raw ma­ olution. terials. One of the conditions of affiliation This internal expansionist drive of to the Comintern, adopted in 1920, capitalism leads to the three main as­ was to "systematically point out to pects of the war danger today: impe­ the workers that without the revolu­ rialist aggression against the colonial tionary overthrow of capitalism, no ... North Vietnamese workers vow to resist U.S. aggression of 1960s. Kremlin for­ world, conflict between the imperial- international courts of arbitration, no eign policy now is to sacrifice Vietnamese revolution on altar of detente.

14 Views of CWA leader Working for Ma Bell: tnce class struggle 'It's almost slave labor' By RACHEL TOWNE "So they cut out 20,000 employees NEW YORK- The men and women over three years and they are trying who keep the nation's vast telephone to push it down even further. I would network functioning- or try to-are say that eventually the company beset by problems of rising prices, wants to have a completely automated job insecurity due to automation, and system," Serrette added. harsh working conditions dictated by The demand for a shorter workweek an arrogant management. "is always on the bargaining list," he The three-year contract negotiated said, "but somehow it always ends last year by top officials of the Com­ up at the bottom. I predict that it will munications Workers of America be the foremost issue at the next bar­ ( CW A) offers little to alleviate their gaining session, though. It is going plight, though, says Dennis Serrette. to be an increasingly important ques­ Serrette is vice-president of CW A Lo­ tion as unemployment increases and cal 1101 in New York and president as many other industries are also au­ of the New York state chapter of the tomated." Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. The company's degrading treatment In a recent interview with The Mili­ of telephone operators, nearly· all of tan' he discussed the contract and whom are women, "is one of the most the conditions facing employees of the brutal examples of almost slave labor vast Bell Telephone System. you could ever see anywhere. They Last year's bargaining was the first have to raise their hand and ask per­ LENIN: The Soviet government 'abolishes secret diplomacy' and will 'conduct all to be conducted nationwide between mission to go to the bathroom. They negotiations quite openly in full view of the whole people.' the Bell System and all the unions cannot chew gum. They cannot turn representing telephone workers, Ser­ from side to side. They cannot sound rette pointed out. Half a million are in to an irate customer like they got the CWA and another 250,000 are up on the wrong side of the bed. Then lies and niceties of capitalist diploma­ by a German attack. Trotsky thought represented by various other unions, cy. As they got off the train, they let this tactic would be most helpful to on top of all that they are timed at the most important of which is the their breaks by a bell." the official German delegation stand the German workers movement, the International Brotherhood of Elec­ waiting while they proceeded to dis­ strongest in Europe, in making clear trical Workers (IBEW). tribute antiwar leaflets to the German that the Soviet government was not The united bargaining could have soldiers. making an unwarranted deal with led to major gains, and rank-and­ 'Absence control' Afi part of its campaign to demand their ruling class. file sentiment for a strike was high, One of the worst abuses is "absence an end to the imperialist slaughter, Lenin, on the other hand, favored but CWA President Glenn Watts an­ control," the company policy on time the Soviet government spent two mil­ signing the first peace terms proposed nounced an agreement with the Bell off for sickness, personal business, or lion rubles to aid antiwar and rev­ by Germany, following a brief stalling System just hours before the scheduled any other reason. "There are five olutionary propaganda abroad, and period in which to test the response of strike deadline last Aug. 4. 'steps' to the plan," Serrette explained. publicized this fact. the workers movement in Europe to "Most of the rank and file feel that "The fifth step is 'final warning.' It In all ways the Soviet delegation the Soviet bid for peace. He felt that we were sold out," Serrette said. "This does not matter how much time you comported itself in a manner befitting it was impossible to predict revolution is the feeling all around the country, have with the company, even if you workers' and peasants' representatives in Europe in the near future, and that especially in the major cities. They have 18 yeats, you are not allowed in facing the representatives of the putting priority on the immediate to take any more time off. bosses and exploiters. feel we should have had more wages, preservation and consolidation of the that there should have been some lan­ "God forbid you should get sick, The members of the Soviet advance first workers state would be the sur­ guage on automation and 'absence because you can be fired. For fear delegation to Brest were inexperienced, est aid to the world revolution. of being fired, many operators and and were at first somewhat taken in control.' These have been issues for a His position had nothing in com­ long time." other workers come in sick or are by the German attempts to soften them mon with the Stalinist policy of sub­ forced to neglect their children. Three up with diplomatic wining and din­ ordinating the revolution in other operators have died in New York in ing. One of Lenin's instructions to countries to the diplomatic needs of Threat of automation the past year directly because of this Trotsky was to call a halt to all such Automation is a major threat to the Soviet Union. In fact, in discuss­ telephone workers, Serrette said. "It policy. relationships. ing the Brest- Litovsk negotiations with In New York the operators are rep­ One of the German negotiators wrote is cutting us down at a frightful rate. Trotsky, Lenin said, "If it were neces­ We are at a point where many clas­ resented not by the CW A but by the in his diary, "The easy social inter­ sary for us to go under to assure the small Telephone Traffic Union. sifications are in trouble, including course outside the conference hall has success of the German revolution, ~e Serrette said the wage increase in repairmen, installers, and operators. ceased. Trotsky has requested that the should have to do it. The German rev­ the current contract is about 10.3 per­ The telephone company is now asking delegations be served their meals at olution is vastly more important than cent in the first year and 3.1 percent people to take the phones home and their quarters and has generally for­ ours." in each of the next two years-far just plug them in." bidden any private contact and en­ below the rate of inflation. There is "Three years ago AT& T stood at tertainment." Brezhnev and Nixon a cost-of-living escalator clause, but 108,000 employees, operators as well The Brest-Litovsk negotiations gave What a far cry from the ingratiating Serrette estimates it will only add $13 as crafts. Since that time they have rise to differences within the Bolshevik or $14 to weekly wages in its first buffoonery engaged in by Brezhnev moved the figure down to 82,000 and Party over the precise tactics to be year. And the raise comes only after today at the detente summit meetings! they are speaking in terms of 78,- followed. This debate over tactics re­ What a far cry from Brezhnev 's jok­ a full year of inflation, so that '"we 000. volved around what approach would ing and clinking champagne glasses always end up losing a year on this best advance the socialist revolution with Nixon at the May 1972 summit, thing." in Germany and other advanced Eu­ while U.S. bombs terrorized the peo­ He said operators make about $170 ropean countries. The differences that ple of Vietnam! or $180 a week and skilled workers arose within the party at the time were Brezhnev even goes so far as to will be getting $300 a week by the explained by Lenin in the following exchange gifts with the imperialist rul­ end of the contract. "They still fall way: ers at these summits. Lenin would far short of other industries in terms "Our extreme isolation from West­ have been revolted at such hypocriti­ of benefits and other things." ern Europe and all the other coun­ cal displays. In June 1973, for ex­ It is Serrette' s opinion that the top tries deprived us of any objective m a­ ample, Brezhnev accepted a jacket union leadership did not press for terials for judging the possible rate from Nixon complete with the presi­ better terms because they were main­ of development, or the forms of dential seal embroidered on the front. ly concerned with securing the "agency growth, of the proletarian revolution It was perhaps symbolic of the fact shop" nationwide. An "agency shop" in the West. The result of all this com­ that Brezhnev and his cohorts had simply provides that all employees plicated situation was that the ques­ earned the seal of approval from the have to pay dues whether they are tion of the Brest-Litovsk peace war criminal and gangster Nixon for union members or not. The New York brought out many differences of the Kremlin's betrayal of the work­ CW A has had such a provision since opinion in our party." ers and peasants of Vietnam. 1971, when they struck independently One faction, headed by Bukharin, The enormous gulf between the di­ for seven months. favored refusing to sign a peace with plomacy of the early Soviet Union Serrette thinks that the national German imperialism and waging a and of the Kremlin today reflects the union officials were alarmed about war to extend the revolution into Eu- gulf between Leninism and Stalinism, · the prospects for losing membership . rope. between support for world socialist and that "the only guarantee of Trotsky took the position of "no revolution and support for the capital­ growth that they would have in these peace, no war." That is, he felt the So­ ist status quo. hard times is for an agency shop. viet government was not in a position Next week, we will examine the rea­ This more or less assures the financial development of the union itself." to launch a revolutionary war, but sons for Stalin's rejection of the per­ Militant/Baxter Smith at the same time should stall on sign­ spective of world revolution and the Dennis Serrette, vice-president of Com­ The IB EW did strike Western Elec­ ing any unjust peace terms with the ways in which Soviet diplomacy be­ munications Workers Local 1100 in New tric, a subsidiary of the AT& T con­ German r~lers until forced to do so gan to change in the late 1920s. York. Continued on page 22

THE MILITANT/JANUARY 24, 1975 15 Police spying on Baltimore Blacks uncovered By BAXTER SMITH of clergymen, antiwar and women's in hospital, teachers', and sanitation of the Black Panthers and the Baltimore Police Commissioner Don­ liberation activists, labor unions, and strikes and infiltrated their strike S. 0. U. L. School (a Baltimore black ald Pomerleau, hoping to appeal to reporters. The spying has gone on committees. activist group) which had been infil­ racist passions in a white reporter and since 1966. The unit has also spied on city trated by the lSD agent." make him kill his story, told him dos­ A subsequent Washington Post ar­ school board members and has kept The report added that the "under­ siers were kept on "just the Blacks," ticle quoted a police spokesperson as dossiers on an environmentalist group cover man, who was new at the time, when confronted in December with evi­ saying that the Inspectional Services that opposed a nuclear power plant attended (the rally) only to increase dence of massive secret police spying Division ( lSD), set up in 1966 and at Calvert Cliffs. The lSD even kept his credibility with the Panthers and on Baltimore residents. But his attempt responsible for the surveillance, closed dossiers on a consumers group that the S. 0. U. L. School." boomeranged. down its political surveillance opera­ protested electricity rate increases. Public furor over the disclosures In a copyrighted story that ap­ tions in 1973. Olesker anq Nawrozki, Olesker and N awrozki also found prompted the city to initiate a grand peared Dec. 23, 1974, Baltimore News however, learned through sources in that lSD agents spied on reporters jury investigation. But Democratic American reporters Michael Olesker the lSD itself that the unit is still in­ who wrote or broadcast critical or in­ Governor Marvin Mandel, after re­ and Joe Nawrozki told of secret police volved in such spying. vestigative stories on the police ceiving a report on the espionage surveillance not only of Baltimore's Last spring, they found, the lSD department. charges, has already said: "... there Black officials and organizations, but spied on municipal workers involved But the bulk of the disclosures, is no suggestion of anything wrong." which are bringing new headlines vir­ tually every day, have concerned spy­ Upon learning of the existence of ing against Blacks. the files, Parren Mitchell demanded The lSD has kept close files on State the resignation of Pomerleau. Senator Clarence Mitchell (D-B alt.) "I am convinced that he is contin­ and on U.S. Representative Parren uing that operation even up to now. Mitchell, his brother, also a Dem- • He has done this knowing full well ocr at. that that kind of domestic espionage The lSD infiltrated Parren Mitchell's is in violation of the constitutional election campaign last fall and secretly rights of people," he said. photographed campaign workers, "It's obvious that he has conducted Olesker and Nawrozki found. a Watergate-CIA type operation It was also disclosed that the lSD against black people and white social attended Parren Mitchell's election activists." campaign functions to determine his In their original story, Olesker and links with militant Black organiza­ Nawrozki noted that the lSD ''works tions. One report filed about an lSD directly with the FBI, Army Counter­ agent who attended a debate in 1971 Intelligence Corps, and at least some between Mitchell and an opponent said of the unit's top members have under­ PARREN MITCHELL: 'A Watergate-CIA type operation against Black people' the debate was attended by "elements gone training by the C lA."

By JOSE G. PEREZ respondence had been obtained The FBI maintains 160 agents in directly from the general post office Puerto Rico whose sole function is to in Hato Rey through an FBI contact persecute the proindependence move­ there." ment on that island of 2.8 million She noted that sometimes the FBI people. This was among the facts re­ would return the letters to the postal vealed by a former FBI employee system for delivery, but in other cases at a news conference in San Juan the intercepted communications would at the end of December, as reported be put in FBI files and never reached in Claridad, daily newspaper of the their destination. Puerto Rican Socialist Party ( PSP). The FBI also obtained copies of Gloria Teresa C aldas Blanco bank records of proindependence worked as a secretary for the San groups. The FBI would gather this Juan FBI from July 1969 until the material through a contact at the main end of 1971, and during that time office of the Banco Popular. she held a top security clearance. After Among the organizations targeted leaving the FBI she joined the Puerto by the FBI were, in addition to the Former FBI employee Gloria Teresa Caldas Blanco with PSP leader Juan Mari Bras at Rican Independence Party and is now PSP, the Puerto Rican Independence news conference in San Juan. a member of the PSP. Party, the Nationalist Party, the So­ Caldas Blanco revealed that one of cialist League, the Puerto Rican Com­ the methods employed by the FBI is munist Party, and other left-wing in the United States and Puerto Rico, information related to her work for to send agents into proindependence groups. but even when they were visiting other the FBI. organizations. 'My sister Joan Caldas, Caldas Blanco noted that "at no countries. The latest information about the who was a student at the University time did I gain knowledge that any Mari Bras, who also spoke at the FBI's activities comes in the wake of of Puerto Rico, was approached by work was done with respect to the news conference, pointed out that the a stepped-up campaign of harassment agent Gordon McGinley. He offered Popular Party, the New Progressive FBI's actions violated the rights to of proindependence militants related her a monthly payment if she would Party ... or any organization, open freedom of speech and association. to the recently concluded strike at the join the FUPI and give them infor­ or clandestine, that promoted the sta­ He said that sworn statements by Cal­ Aqueducts and Sewers Authority. mation on that organization." The tus quo or statehood for Puerto Rico." das Blanco would be submitted to the Earlier in December the PSP had FUPI is a university student group Particular targets for harassment United Nations and other inter­ responded to this harassment by filing associated with the PSP. were prominent leaders, such as Juan national bodies. a complaint with the Civil Rights Com­ Other FBI techniques included illegal Mari Bras, general secretary of the · The PSP also pledged to defend the mission of Puerto Rico. The complaint mail tampering. "On various occasions PSP, and Ruben Berrios, a leader of former secretary from any attempts charges the U.S. and Puerto Rican I saw agents of the FBI bring in cor­ the Independence Party who is also to victimize her for bringing to light governments with a conspiracy to out­ respondence addressed to proindepen­ a senator in the Puerto Rican legis­ the FBI's activities. She has been law, disrupt, and discredit the party. dence leaders and militants," Caldas lature. Their movements were followed threatened with a $10,000 fine and A hearing on the charges will begin Blanco said. "I was told that this cor- on a 24-hours-a-day basis, not only several years in prison for revealing in Februrary. U.S. Army gives up witch-hunt against socialist By CAROLINE LUND Socialist Workers Party, which has whose retention, in any capacity, is that may have been caused to you," After suffering much embarrassment been designated as a subversive or­ contrary to the best interests of nation­ Noll wrote that the Oct. 18 letter ''has and unwanted publicity, the Army has ganization by the Attorney General al security." been withdrawn and is without force finally given up on trying to railroad of the United States." Wattenmaker demanded an Army and effect." Steven Wattenmaker out of the Re­ The only problem was that former Field Board of Inquiry where he could Wattenmaker, who works in the YSA serves as a "subversive." president Nixon had officially abol­ challenge the blacklisting threat national office in New York, called the The Army had charged, in an ished the attorney general's "subver­ against him. Attorney David Kairys Army's retreat "a victory for the con­ Oct. 18, 1974, letter to Wattenmaker, sive list" five months earlier. After be­ of the National Emergency Civil Lib­ stitutional right of Gls to engage in · that his retention in the Reserves ing barraged with phone calls from erties Committee agreed to represent political activity." would be inconsistent with "the inter­ reporters, and after reversing its posi­ him. Calling the Army's apologies about ests of national security." But the only tion twice, the Army finally stated that Finally Wattenmaker received a let­ inconvenience "pure hypocrisy," Wat­ basis the Army could cite for this the reference to the attorney general's ter dated Dec. 10 from Colonel Wal- tenmaker warned that ''the Army is charge was that Wattenmaker was a list in the Oct. 18letterwas "in error." lace Non· of the Army Reserve say­ probably right now trying to come up member of the Young Socialist Al­ The Army statement concluded, ing that "your case has been re­ with new legal formulas for getting liance. The YSA, the Army claimed, however, with the claim that "the Army viewed ... and closed favorably." rid of G Is with dissident political was "controlled and dominated by the has an obligation to discharge those Apologizing for "any inconvenience views."

16 CIA investigation hoax Rockefeller panel: bankers, businessmen By CINDY JAQUITH ommendations the President cannot WASHINGTON, D. C.-A myriad of accept." White House and congressional hear­ Syndicated columnists Rowland ings were set into motion this week, Evans and Robert Novak pointed aimed at stemming the growing pub­ Jan. 12 to another reason for the lic anger over illegal CIA spying here composition of the CIA panel. It was and abroad. "deliberately set in a conservative The panel of bankers and business­ mold," they wrote, "to reassure the CIA men appointed last week by President that no witch-hunt is in store." Ford to investigate the CIA met here According to the columnists, the Jan. 13, primarily, it appeared, to White House fears that the scandal pose before TV cameras. However, the could produce another "John Dean" panel head, Vice-President Nelson inside the agency. They quoted an ad­ Rockefeller, once again affirmed to ministration official who said: "If those reporters his solid support for the CIA boys get scared and start jumping and other secret-police agencies, which ship, every secret in the agency may he called "essential to our security as a be up for grabs by the media. If they nation." see a witch-hunt coming, they may The day before, Rockefeller had want to save their own skins by quit­ been confronted with yet another skele­ ting and spilling the beans." ton in the family closet- new evidence As the credibility of the Rockefeller of the Rockefeller empire's close ties panel continues to decline, Congress is to the CIA under more pressure to make a show At a Bertrand Russell tribunal in of concern about the CIA spying. The Brussels, ex-CIA agent Philip Agee Democratic leadership in Congress is disclosed that an oil company in the in an uncomfortable position, since its Rockefeller domain uses CIA agents members are the heads of the commit­ to run security checks on employees tees supposedly watching over agency in Venezuela. The company, Creole activities. Petroleum Corporation, is an Exxon Thus far, four congressional com­ subsidiary. Rockefeller is the former mittees have announced hearings on director of Creole. the scandal. Senator John Stennis (D­ "In 1960," Agee testified, ''they were Miss.), head of the Senate Armed Ser­ letting the CIA assist in employment vices Committee, said parts of 'We must hove a bit of a fight, but I don't core about going on long,' said Tweedle­ decisions, and my guess is that those his hearings will be open to the pub­ dum. 'What's the time now?' Tweedledee looked at his watch, and said, 'Half post name-checks . . . are continuing to lic. This is an unusual move for Sten­ four.' 'Let's fight till six, and then hove dinner,' said Tweedledum. this day." nis, an archconservative. It indicates Meanwhile, it was revealed that an­ how worried the capitalist politicians other "distinguished" panel member, are about the growing outcry against was known as 'inail tapping," Crain Meany's mail in the 1950s to make former solicitor general Erwin Gris­ government spying. said, adding that "officials of the sure he was spending CIA funds prop­ wold, wormed his way out of an in­ Another Democratic committee head, C. I. A told me they knew it was illegal erly. For years the agency had been dictment for perjury in the ITT scan­ Representative Lucien Nedzi of Michi­ and unconstitutional.... " secretly pouring millions into the dal. According to an article by Sey­ gan, said his special subcommittee on Crain said he went to former secre­ AFL-CIO to undermine trade-union mour Hersh in the Jan. 8 New York intelligence will also conduct hearings tary of state Dean Acheson- "one of struggles in other countries, with the Times, Watergate special prosecutor in public. ·· my heroes"- to protest this practice. cooperation of the union tops. Leon Jaworski decided to hush up "I told him about the mail intercep­ Meany's close colleague, Secretary­ Griswold's involvement in the scan­ tions, that they were illegal and un­ Treasurer Lane Kirkland, sits on the dal, leading several members of the 'Not a springboard' constitutional and should be stopped. Rockefeller C lA panel. prosecution staff to resign in protest. However, an aide to Nedzi told The But he seemed disinterested and im­ e The Army provided the CIA with Such embarrassing facts are making Militant that some testimony would patient during our interview," Crain secret briefings on domestic radicals. some politicians here chafe at the have to be heard behind closed doors, recalled. Ralph Stein, a former army intelli­ "poor selection" of the Ford commis­ because of "national security." When e One target of the mail tampering gence agent, told the New York Times sion. However, there is no evidence asked if the committee would solicit was AFL-CIO. President George that in 1967 he met With high CIA of­ that Ford and the ruling class he rep­ witnesses from outside the govern­ Meany. According to the Jan. 10 ficials "who asked a lot of questions resents chose the panel members light­ ment, such as victims of CIA crimes, Washington Post, the CIA spied on Continued on page 22 ly. the aide barked indignantly, "This is not a springboard for people to air their views!" No 'runaway commission' In other words, the Democrats in­ tend to "open" their hearings only as Judge orders government In fact, the New York Times report~ much as they are forced to. CIA con­ ed Jan. 8, the blatantly pro-CIA make­ spirators such as Director William up of the commission was chosen de­ to produce secret CIA files Colby and former director Richard liberately "to avoid a common occur­ Helms will be allowed to use the hear­ While President Ford's commission cies "organized to produce this ma­ rence of recent years- the runaway ings as a "springboard" to justify their goes about its whitewash of CIA terial." And he added, "I really don't commission that issues findings or rec- illegal attacks on dissenters, but their operations, there is another, much care how voluminous. If they have got file drawers and file drawers of victims will not be allowed to answer. more vigorous, inquiry into the material, just make it available, be­ And the American people may not agency that might really force out some of the truth about CIA ha­ cause we have to have it." even get to hear all the testimony. He agreed that the government This is not surprising, given the na­ rassment of domestic dissidents. This is the suit by the Socialist could block out the names of under­ ture of the committees doing the inves­ cover informers "initially at least." tigating. As Representative Michael Workers Party and the Young So­ Harrington (D-Mass.) pointed out in cialist Alliance against the CIA, the Jan. 13 Washington Post, the in­ FBI, and other government agen­ The SWP and YSA suit is now in telligence "oversight" committees 'have cies. The suit is demanding an end the stage of "discovery," which consciously steered clear of the to all forms of government surveil­ means that the two sides can request lance and political persecution. agencies whose activities they are information from one another in re­ On Jan. 7, District Court Judge charged with monitoring." lation to the charges. Gries a's re­ Thomas Griesa, who is hearing the "Rather than seeking out informa­ quest for all the files was in re­ socialists' case, told the govern­ tion about possible illegal or other­ sponse to YSA and SWP demands ment's lawyer to produce all the wise agency operations," Harrington for documents concerning the na­ CIA and FBI files dealing with any charged, "they have conspired by si­ ture of government spying and dis­ ·of their activities in relation to the ruption activities, such as the FBI's lence and disinterest to shield the in­ YSA and SWP. He said he wanted telligence community from any con­ "Cointelpro" operations. The suit is "all the results of any surveillance gressional examination." expected to come up to trial some conducted of the SWP or the time later this year. But the combined cover-up tactics YSA ... Whether it was under the of the Democrats in Congress and the The Political Rights Defense Fund Huston Plan or some other plan, (PRDF), which is organizing pub­ Republicans in the White House have it doesn't really make a lot of dif­ been unable to plug the continuing licity and funding for the suit, is ference, just all the files relating to leaks of illegal C lA activities. making a special appeal for sup­ everything that was gathered about port in view of the new opportuni­ 'Mail tapping' these plaintiffs." ties the case provides to unearth Griesa said he also wanted any CIA secrets. To send a contribution e Former CIA official Melvin Crain, "documents relating to the purpose or offer support, contact the PRDF in an interview in the Jan. 8 New York of the activities." He charged the at Box 649 Cooper Station, New CIA spied on George Meany's moil to Times, revealed that the agency began government lawyer to get the CIA, York, N.Y. 10003. Phone: (212) see if he was spending CIA funds 'prop­ opening and reading private mail at FBI, and other government agen- 691-3270. erly.' least as early as 1958. The practice

THE MILITANT/JANUARY 24, 1975 17 Texas Blacks ~rotest ~olice murder Young Black shot in back 'trying to escape' By RICK CONGRESS confronted the city council, which was jury report to the Black leaders. many by saying, "We're going to do PORT ARTHUR, Tex.- The brutal meeting in special session. The Black GCB C leader Reverend Ransom something about this so that it won't police murder of a young Black man leaders demanded suspension of the Howard responded: "At this particular happen again. We don't want violence, has sparked an angry, massive mobi- three policemen involved in the slay­ time, our committee rejects this whole but any means necessary must be used lization of the Black community in ing. proposal." to stop police murders like this." this small port city near the Texas- The three cops had merely been re- On Jan. 5 some 500 persons attend­ On Jan. 6, 1,500 people attended an Louisiana border. assigned to desk jobs pending the con- ed the funeral for Clifford Coleman at evening rally called by the CCBC. Following a series of protest dem- elusions of a special grand jury in­ Mount Olive Baptist Church. Before Reverend E. E. Gibbs, a leader of the onstrations, 2, 500 persons rallied in quiry into the killing. the services several of those present committee, announced a march on city the Black community Jan. 9 in re- Mayor Bernis Sadler rejected the de­ described to The Militant the racism hall the next day to make sure that the sponse to a grand jury report clear- mand that the cops be suspended. He and police harassment that has long scheduled "All-American City" celebra­ ing the three cops involved in the saia there was no evidence the three characterized Port Arthur, a city of tions would not take place. killing. cops had done anything wrong, since about 60,000 that is 51 percent Black. Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen The police victim was 22-year-old Texas law sanctions the use of deadly Commenting on the "law-and-order" had been scheduled to speak to the city Clifford Coleman. He was fatally shot force to prevent escape of an arrested statements by the mayor, James Tow­ council that day in ceremonies honor­ in the back early on the morning of suspect. er remarked, "IT law and order means ing Port Arthur as an "All-Am eric an" Dec. 29 in front of the police station. The Committee of Concerned Black getting shot in the back while hand­ city as part of the bicentennial cele­ He was handcuffed at the time. The Citizens (CCBC), a civil rights coali­ cuffed, we need a different kind of bration. police claim he was trying to escape. tion in Port Arthur, rejected this rea- law and order!" Mayor Sadler had canceled the cele­ Coleman had been pulled out of soning. The committee demanded that bration on Jan. 6, as demanded by the his parked car earlier in the evening the city manager or the city council Another Black activist gave a per­ CCBC, after four prominent Blacks by three cops and arrested on a take responsibility for firing Police sonal example of the kind of sadis­ who had helped win the city's desig­ charge of "abusive language," a mis- Chief James Newsom as well as the tic treatment Black people receive from nation as "All-American" announced demeanor. cops involved in the killing. the racist police. He had been arrest­ their withdrawal from the ceremony. In response to this cold-blooded City Manager George Dibrell also ed (but never charged), beaten, and The four "cited the police murder and murder, 300 Black people marched refused to take any action against the nearly shot in the head for refusing the reactionary stance of the city gov­ from the Christian Faith Church to police, but tried to satisfy the CCBC to kiss a cop's foot. ernment. city hall on the morning of Jan. 2. with a four-point proposal that in­ Thurmon Bartle, 20, a student at Four hundred people marched on A delegation of 18 Black leaders, in­ cluded a plan for a grievance pro­ Lamar University and an activist in the city hall the morning of Jan. 7. cluding clergy, representatives of the cedure for complaints against the po­ the protest movement against the po­ After a meeting between the mayor, NAACP, and Black elected officials, lice and an offer to show the grand lice killing, summed up the feeling of Continued on page 22

Oil workers reach tentative contract settlement The 12-member oil policy bargaining calator clause in the Gulf settlement is ing standards against continuous committee of the Oil, Chemical, and a clause to reopen negotiations in price rises. Contracts there do not ex­ At~mic Workers (OCAW), meeting at 1976, providing the U.S. Labor De­ pire until Jan. 31, 1976. union headquarters in Denver, ap­ partment's Consumer Price Index rises Struck Canadian companies include proved on Jan. 11 a wage settlement 5 percent from the level of Jan. Texaco, Petrofina, Shell, IJP, Canada with Gulf Oil Corporation. Other oil 1, 1975. Ltd., and Westcoast Transmission, companies are expected to concur. This settlement does not become final which operates a natural-gas pro­ The two-year Gulf contract calls for and will not set the wage pattern until cessing plant. a 75-cent hourly raise retroactive to it is ratified by a membership vote The Canadian strikers are members Jan. 8, when the old contract expired; of 300 OCAW locals, representing of OCAW, except for about 1,500 in another raise of 4 percent (averaging 60,000 refinery workers. Montreal who belong to the United about 26 cents) on July 8; and 8 per­ Oil Workers of Canada. cent more (56 cents) on Jan 8, 1976. Local strikes are underway in Cal­ Hourly wages before the settlement ifornia, Texas, and Ohio. OCAWmem­ OCAW is weakened by extensive averaged $5.95. Under the new con­ bers walked out at Standard Oil's big automation of the industry, which tract the average will rise to about El Segundo, Calif., plant; at Texaco makes it possible for small crews of $7.52 at the beginning of the second plants in Port Arthur and Port Neches, scab supervisors to maintain produc­ year. Texas; at Gulrs Port Arthur refinery, tion. The companies have traditionally This is far short of OCAW' s demand where 2, 500 are on strike; and at a taken advantage of this to impose for a $1.50 raise in each year of a Standard Oil refinery near Toledo, a system of separate contracts, new three-year contract, plus a cost­ Ohio. Altogether about 8,000 strikers of which there are 430 in the United of-living adjustment clause (COLA) are out. States. to protect wages against rising prices. In Canada, oil and gas workers After approving the Gulf wage settle­ COLA was a key issue in negotiations: from Fort Nelson, British Columbia, ment, OCAW president A.F. Grospiron The oil companies remain adamantly Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Pres· to Montreal walked out for a $1.50 said, "The local issues, of course, will opposed to it. ident A. F. Grospiron noted that local is­ hourly raise to offset inflation, and have to be resolved before there can The closest approximation to an es- sues have yet to be resolved. an escalator clause to protect their liv- be a complete settlement." Job protest plans move ahead despite threat By JUDY HAGANS went on to speak of the need for "mass wealthy, and present monopolistic and CHICAGO, Jan. 11-Amid theflurry actions in the street" to demand that oligarchical practices of the largest of prepara'tions to build the Jan. 15 the government provide full employ­ corporations." demonstration to demand ':Jobs for ment. Operation PUSH initiated the While calling for support to the All," Reverend Jesse Jackson, presi­ call for the Jan. 15 actions, which Equal Opportunity and Full Employ­ dent of Operation PUSH, was have won broad support. ment Act of 1976, sponsored by Con­ threatened today by a gun-wielding Among other speakers backing the gressmen Augustus Hawkins (D­ man. Jim. 15 action were Chicago Alder­ Calif.) and Hubert Humphrey (D­ George Jefferson, reported to be a man William Cousins; Jim Wright, Minn.), Jackson asserted, "The major­ Kansas state penitentiary parolee, staff representative, United Auto ity of us have seen our personhood stood up during Jackson's address to Workers; Charles Hayes, international attacked over the last few years be­ the regular Saturday PUSH meeting. vice-president, Amalgamated Meat cause of the economic assault on our Shouting, "Jesse Jackson, I want to Cutters and Butcher Workmen of standard of living, still others have talk to you. Jesse, I've got a gun," North America; Frances Davis, Op­ reached the point of outright human Jefferson was disarmed by defense eration PUSH; Jacqueline Vaughn, survival, but all of us feel compelled guards after drawing a 38-caliber re­ vice-president, Chicago Teachers to move to the streets again." volver. Union; John Swearengen Jr., presi­ . According to the PUSH communica­ dent, Chicago local, American Postal Support for the Jan. 15 demonstra­ ·tions department, two Chicago police­ Workers Union; and a representative tion here has come from Blacks and men were among the guards. of the Senior Citizens Coalition. many unionists. Jefferson, charged with unlawful use In a press statement released after Leaflets demanding "We want jobs of a weapon and failure to register the rally, Jackson charged the federal now!" are being circulated by union a firearm, was being held on $25,000 government with failure to deal with officials and members who have JESSE JACKSON: Threatened by gun­ bond in Cook County jail. "waste, the extravagance of the mili­ formed the Chicago Labor Union wielding man at Operation PUSH meet­ Undaunted by the incident, Jackson tary budget, tax favors for the Committee for Full Employment. ing.

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

JANUARY 24, 1975

took its most acute form in the threat-• And more 1n store for '75 ened war between Greece and Turkey at the end of the summer. More than differences over Cyprus, the bone of contention was ownership of the oil 1974: A year of crises for Europe found under the Aegean. However,· the whipping up of chauvinism in Tur­ By Gerry Foley the major West European states, of the presidential elections May 5 key and the dispossession of the ma­ joined Italy in the category of eco­ when the official Gaullist candidate, jority of Greek Cypriots of their homes With the fall of the dictatorships in nomically weakest large countries. Jacques Chaban-Delmas, won only 15 and property by the Turkish military Portugal and Greece, the deepening One factor in this turnabout was the percent of the vote as opposed to 32.6 occupiers considerably aggravated the of the prolonged crisis in Italy, and failure of British capital to keep up percent for the black sheep of the Gaul­ festering crisis in the eastern Mediter­ the buildup of tensions in Spain, the with the advances in industrial tech­ list family, the "modernist" liberal Gis­ ranean. phrase the "soft underbelly of Europe" nology and organization. Another card. The Greco-Turkish conflict also in­ began to gain a new meaning in 1974. was the strength of the union move­ In the elections, Giscard was able dicated that the d~tente has increased Churchill used this expression ar­ ment, which, in a contradictory way, to promise reforms almost as exten­ the possibilities for local wars into guing for a Mediterranean site for the because of its political backwardness, sive as those called for in the popu­ which the United States and the So­ Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied West­ remained more united than in coun­ lar-front program. In his first year in viet Union could be drawn. Such a ern Europe. Militarily it was nonsense. tries such as France, where it has been office, his credibility has waned very sharp clash between two members of Churchill's real objective was to head split among Stalinists, Social Demo­ rapidly. NATO would have been inconceivable off social revolutions in this chronical­ crats and Catholics. On the other hand, the revival of the before the U. S.-Soviet deal. ly explosive part of Europe. Socialist party under Mitterrand of­ The energy crisis also sharpened In Italy, with the help of the Com­ Unrest in France fered the bourgeoisie more maneuver­ the problems of one of the oldest capi­ munist party, which called on the pop­ ing room. Through its electoral al­ talist states in Europe in more ways ular militias to lay down their arms Although France has not yet suf­ liance with the Communist party, the than one. A third of the Scottish elec­ and give allegiance to the slightly re­ fered economic or social problems SP, which had been a declining shell torate voted in the October 10 elec­ constructed fascist marshal recognized anywhere near as severe as Britain, since the second world war, gained tions for a separatist party campaign­ by the Allies as the ruler of "demo­ the rise of massive strikes this fall set new credibility as a broad party of ing on the slogan that the North Sea cratic" Italy, Churchill's strategy was the capitalist commentators speculat­ reform. oil profits should go to develop Scot­ successful. Now, thirty years later, the ing again about the possibility of a It forged an alliance with the inde­ land and not to bail out the British weakest links of capitalism in Europe revolutionary crisis in France similar pendent trade-union federation, the economy. seem once again to be nearing the to the one in 1968. In an effort to CFDT ( Confed~ration Fran«;aise et For centuries, the strength of the breaking point. break long strikes by public workers, D~mocratique du Travail- French British state and economy has been In fact, the crisis of capitalism that the Giscard d' Estaing government Democratic Confederation of Labor), so great that Scottish bourgeois and hit almost all the advanced countries called out an army whose ranks have which includes new layers of skilled petty-bourgeois interests accepted inte­ in 197 4 affected Europe in a more un­ been showing signs of discontent. workers and has shown a certain gration in an English-dominated econ­ even way than any other region. While While the French bourgeoisie has openness to the radicalized younger omy. Now the decline of that economy in the Mediterranean countries, back­ been able in the last decade to modern­ generation. At the same time, the SP has led to the blossoming of probably ward economies threatened to collapse ize its economy more quickly than its seemed to attract some of the young the largest separatist movement in de­ under the pressures of inflation and English ally-rival, its political ma­ far left, such as, for example, R~gis veloped Western Europe since the Nor­ the slump, Europe also included the chinery remains more clumsy and dis­ Debray, the systematizer of the "foco" wegian revolution of 1905. world's most stable states, notably jointed. Despite the fact that almost all theory of guerrilla warfare. Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, the bourgeois political forces united In the period since the May elec­ Scandinavian Countries Switzerland, and for the time being, behind Giscard d' Estaing in the May tions, tensions have increased between West Germany. 19 elections in order to block a pop­ the revived SP and the Communist In the case of Norway, the rush for The economic unevenness arose not ular front set up by the Communist party, which now, for the first time the oil under the European continental just from the pattern inherited from and Socialist parties, they have not in its postwar history, faced a strong shelf may have a direct effect on the the industrial revolution and the rise been able to create a stable party to competitor for the left vote. youth radicalization. The dominant of modern capitalism but from some represent the bourgeoisie as a whole. The effects of the "energy crisis" also Maoist group has followed a nation­ specifically post-World War II trends. The political empire left by Charles increased the national contradictions alist-populist course. Since Norwegian Britain, historically the most stable of de Gaulle collapsed in the first round in the European area in 197 4. This oil claims may clash with Soviet terri­ torial claims, the nationalism and ex­ treme anti-Moscow line of the Maoists could take a reactionary direction. Already in Sweden, the Peking lead­ ership's line of a front against "the su­ perpowers" has led the main Maoist faction to drop its defense of the Viet­ nam revolution in favor of turning its Vietnam front group to defending the "national interests" of Sweden against the "superpowers." In No. 6, 1974, of the internal newsletter of the "NLF Groups," the Maoist leadership said: "Vietnam is no longer the flashpoint of the primary contradiction in to­ . day's world. Hard struggles are being waged on other fronts- Palestine, the raw materials question, and the ques­ tion of boundaries for fishing rights." For some small countries, questions that are still marginal in the context of the general resources crisis are mat­ ters of life and death. Iceland, for ex­ ample, has been hard hit by the de­ pletion of fish stocks in the North At­ lantic. The conservative government, ~~,~~ installed July 5, announced its inten­ Militancy of Greek workers and youth, like that of Portuguese, exploded in 197 4 and shows no sign of disappearing in 1975. tion to extend the country's territorial Above, Greeks demonstrate in Salonica. waters to the 200-mile limit. On No- Continued on next poge World Outlook W0/2

... 'In these conditions revolutionary groups can make Continued from preceding page der to British imperialism the furthest, vember 24, the gunboat Aegir fired its failure should tend to discredit the on a West German trawler off the coast whole settlement with British imperial­ of Iceland. ism represented by the 1957 Anglo­ The small and narrowly based Ice­ Irish Free Trade Agreement. landic economy proved particularly Growing discontent with the coali­ v-ulnerable to inflationary pressures. tion government seemed to be prepar­ The price rise from July 1973 to July ing the way for a revival of mass 1974 was more than 40 percent. anti-imperialist sentiment in the for­ Another small Scandinavian coun­ mally independent part of Ireland. try, Denmark, proved especially vul­ This sentiment fell to a low point in nerable to the change in the interna­ 1973 following the demobilization of tional economic situation. By the end the oppressed Catholic population in of 1974, unemployment totaled 8 per­ the North, .a process that culminated cent of the work force. The March 6 in the British military occupation of elections revealed general discontent "Free Derry" on July 30, 1972. with all the big parties. A demagogic However, the hard-pressed British "tax payers" party led by Mogens Glis­ capitalists have not offered any eco­ trup won 8. 5 percent of the vote. nomic concessions to reduce the des­ On November 26, an estimated peration of -chronically unemployed 100,000 persons demonstrated outside Catholic youth. On the other hand, Immigrant workers in France. Racist attacks on foreign workers have been mounting the government building in Copen­ in the face of reactionary Protestant in all of Europe. hagen, demanding the resignation of opposition, the political deal with the the bourgeois government and mea­ bourgeois nationalists that was based sures to halt rising unemployment. on the defeat of the mass struggle, referendum in Switzerland October 20 the continuing relative stability in the Sunningdale Agreements of Decem­ calling for mass expulsions of foreign We.st Germany were shown by Irish Stabilization Erodes ber 1973, has not been implemented. workers. It was defeated with 66 per­ the ouster of Willy Brandt from the The war-weariness that set in with cent of the voters opposed. But there chancellorship over a Soviet-bloc spy In the formally independent part of the decline in the mass movement will almost certainly be more xeno­ scandal. The rise of Helmut Schmidt Ireland, one of the weakest links both seems, after another year of grinding phobic campaigns in the coming year. as head of government reflected a politically and economically in capi­ intimidation and reactionary terror, In France, for some time there has rightward evolution of the Social Dem­ talist Europe, the precarious prosperi­ to be turning into a mood of despera­ been a pattern of rising racist violence ocratic party leadership. But Brandt's ty of the last decade began to collapse. tion, at least in some strata of the against North African workers. In policy of overtures to the Soviet bloc By January 1975, the Irish Eco­ Catholic population. The concentra­ West Germany, where the most im­ was not reversed. In fact, at the end nomic and Social Research Institute tion camps and prison complexes that portant concentrations of foreign of the year Schmidt visited Moscow, estimates, unemployment will have have become a major feature of North­ workers exist, growing unemployment among other things, to negotiate for reached about 90,000, close to 9 per­ ern Irish life exploded October 15-16 only began to attract attention at the a share of Soviet energy resources. cent of the work force. in a series of prison rebellions that end of 1974. If the economic system Growing discontent with the con­ As the international crisis deepens, touched off the strongest mass upsurge worsens, the German bourgeoisie will servative policies of the Social Demo­ the foreign companies are closing in the Catholic ghettos since the intern­ almost certainly exploit the special crats was indicated 11y the sharp de­ down the plants they established in ment raids of August 9, 1971. status of foreign workers, who have feat they suffered in the elections in Ireland to take advantage of govern­ The movement in Britain for with­ almost no legal rights, to make them Hesse this fall. At the same time, the ment tax concessions and cheap labor. drawal of the troops from Ireland al­ pay the largest share of the cost. party leadership and the bourgeois At the same time, the benefits to Irish so showed an upturn in the fall of press have kept up a furious red­ agriculture expected from Common 197 4 after a period of decline. 'They Want Our Money' baiting attack on the left-wing elements Market entry have not proved lasting, In the last weeks of 1974, the Brit­ centered in the Young Socialists. The even for the most favored categories. ish bourgeoisie decided to take ad- With the lowest inflation rate and government approved legislation in the most substantial liquid reserves, March limiting access of known radi­ West Germany remained politically cals to public employment. Captured and economically the most stable of members of a small terrorist group the major capitalist states. However, called the Red Army Faction were because of its dominant position in tortured in prison. the area, the economic difficulties of The government and the capitalist its weaker Common Market partners press continued a witch-hunt cam­ tended to rebound against it. Bonn paign over the alleged "terrorist dan­ was forced to try to shore up the Ital­ ger." The campaign reached its height ian economy by large loans. The after a Berlin chief justice Gunter question of loans to Greece and Por­ Drenkmann was assassinated Novem­ tugal was raised. Other countries ber 10, purportedly in retaliation for pushed for Common Market aid to the death of a Red Army Faction disadvantaged regions, aid that would member, Holger Meins, who died the have to come essentially from Ger­ day before after a two-month hunger many. strike. The December 2 issue of Der Spiegel offered long excerpts from a speech Stalinists Push Popular Fronts long Kesh internment camp in Belfast. Prison rebellions in October touched off new by Bundeskanzler Helmut Schmidt to There were four important elections mass upsurge in Northern Ireland. a closed-door meeting in Berlin of in Europe in 1974, the two British the ruling Social Democratic party, general elections in February and Oc­ in which he said, among other things: tober, the French presidential elections "There are discussions in the Com­ in May, and the Greek general elec­ The problems of the small farmers vantage of pub bombings in Birming­ mon Market on social funds and re­ tions in November. have increased dramatically. ham, which the capitalist press and gional funds, on currency support and The Greek elections were the second The position of the coalition gov­ government attributed to the Provi­ credits, on agricultural policy and major test in 1974 of the Communist ernment of Labour and Fine Gael, sionals, to launch a witch-hunt against mines. We are trying to minimize the parties' new popular-front offensive, the historically more pro-imperialist the Irish population in Britain. In the sacrifices to the German economy the first being the elections in France. bourgeois party, seemed to be weaken­ context of threatening economic disas­ without endangering European co­ This new push has gained momentum ing rapidly. In the June 1974 local ter and the rise of rightist tendencies, . operation. I admit that no fundamen- both from the detente and the econom­ elections in Dublin city, the coalition this move was particularly ominous. tal solution has been found. We could ic crisis. The combination of these two share of the vote dropped from 54 per­ On the other hand, if systematic per­ solve the problem by Europeanizing factors made it possible, for example, cent scored in the February 1973 gen­ secution of the Irish is started, it will everything. But then our reserves for Italian CP representatives to offer eral elections to 4 7 percent. almost certainly provoke a strong na­ would soon vanish. The Italians need their party's participation in a "nation­ The coalition won the 1973 elections tionalist reaction on/their part. $2 billion, every quarter, the English al unity" government as the only on a program of "peace and pros­ not much less. means of stabilizing the country. perity." It called implicitly for surren­ Foreign Workers Victimized "They might need big grants out of "What is the interest of the Western dering the historic Irish national as­ our budget; they are already raising European countries and of the United pirations in return for profitable eco­ this question. It's always paraded in States?" an "authoritative party nomic collaboration with imperialism. The question of immigrant workers, some sexy new costume-development spokesman" was quoted as asking. But in 1974, the coalition proved un­ which has the longest history in Brit­ aid, agricultural policy, mines, social "Are they interested in the kind of able to produce any "peace" or any ain, continued to grow more acute or regional funds. But these are only Italy as she is now, economically un­ "progress." It produced only more re­ in most of the leading capitalist states a come-on. The fact is that they want stable and politically ungovernable? pression. Since the coalition govern­ as the general economic downturn our money." Or are they not interested rather in ment has carried the policy of surren- deepened. A proposal was put to a Both the underlying tensions and seeing Italy giving guarantees, to W0/3 substantial gains' them also, of economic and political popular-front strategy suffered a rapid efficiency and security?" and grave setback. The old rightist The Italian CP was in a position political boss Constantine Caramanlis to make such an offer largely because refused to include either of the two of the defeat of the ruling Catholic Communist factions in his cabinet. In­ party in the May referendum on di­ stead, he took advantage of the CP's vorce. The CP sought in every way early support to prepare a Bonapart­ possible to avoid a confrontation on ist plebiscite in which voters were giv" this question. The growth of the wom­ en a choice between him and dictator­ en's liberation movement, also op­ ship. His revived rightist parliamen­ posed by the Communist party, helped tary party won 55 percent of the vote to force an open challenge to Catholic in the November elections. morality. · The two CPs, which were forced by In Portugal, the pro-Moscow Stalin­ Caramanlis's maneuver to join in a ists had a chance to prove their bloc and try to hold their working­ capacities as a "stabilizing factor." class support, got only a little more When the dictatorship fell abruptly on than 9 percent at the polls, the wor.st April 25 because of contradictions electoral showing of the Greek-Stalin­ within the bourgeoisie itself, the Com­ ists in decades. munist party was the only force ready Another factor, apparently, that and willing to channel the masses be­ helped to persuade the Kremlin-recog­ hind the Bonapartist military officers nized "exterior" CP to bloc with the ex­ who ousted the Caetano regime. communicated "interior" faction was Italian workers protest rising prices and unemployment. Communist parties are offer­ It was the Communist party essen­ Moscow's decision to step up the pres­ ing their help to capitalists in containing working-class upsurge. tially that enabled the bourgeois mili­ sure for popular fronts and to win tary government to contain the mass more of a role for the Stalinist parties ferment that boiled over when the dic­ in parliamentary politics. This is ap­ workers to sacrifice their interests for trend. Although the Greek bourgeoisie tatorship was removed. By this, it parently one of the aspects of its the sake of "the national welfare," has been able so far to keep the mass paved the way for a bourgeois clamp­ strategy of detente for capitalist Communist parties have taken over upsurge in Greece under tighter con­ down on the entire left, including Europe. To achieve this, the Kremlin some of the role that was earlier trol than its counterpart has in Por­ itself. has been compelled to make conces­ played by Social Democrats. This has tugal, the explosive potential may be At the end of September, the "demo­ sions both to the more independent been the case in Britain, where left even greater because of the country's cratic" and "patriotic" general so much elements in the Stalinist camp and to bureaucrats and activists affiliated to strategic position. praised by the CP in the first months the Social Democrats. the CP played a leading role in the In Spain, the bourgeoisie remained after the April coup nearly succeeded The mid-October meeting of the unions' resistance to Tory antilabor deeply divided over how to achieve a in carrying out a rightist putsch. At Communist parties in Warsaw con­ legislation. In Denmark, CP shop stable political formula to rule a coun­ the last minute, to save itself and to firmed this policy. In particular, the stewards held the initiative in the No­ try that has changed greatly over the avoid being bypassed by more mili­ Kremlin official in charge of relations vember mass demonstration outside last decade. Powerful right-wing ele­ tant groups, the CP agreed to mass with the West European CPs, Boris N. parliament. In Norway, an alliance ·ments violently opposed making any mobilizations against the rightists. Ponomarev, stressed the importance of of left Social Democrats and pro-Mos­ concessions to parliamentary democ­ However, although the defeat of the CP participation in the "democratiza­ cow Stalinists seems to have emerged racy. Spinola putsch slowed the govern­ tion" in Portugal and Greece. as a significant force in the electoral The Arias government carried out a ment's turn to the right somewhat, the arena. harsh repressive drive in 1974, not crackdown on the left and "irrespon­ only against the left but against petty­ sible strikes" soon resumed, with the Reformist Crutch Possibility of Sudden Upsurges bourgeois democratic groups. The CP supporting the government's "aus­ first part of the year was marked terity and hard work" schemes. The As the economic crisis has deepened If the international capitalist econo­ by the execution of the anarchist Puig party general secretary, Alvaro Cu­ in Europe, the reformist workers par­ my continues to move toward a slump Antich, the latter part, by arrests of nhal, made it clear that the CP had no ties have gained a new momentum at the present rate, these reformists intention of following up on the exam­ from the growing discontent and at and left reformists will very quickly ple of the rrpeople' s militias" (as Spi­ the same time have become more use­ be put to a decisive test before the nola called them) that blocked the ful to the bourgeoisie as a means of masses. In these conditions, revolu­ September putsch. He was widely getting the workers to accept "austeri­ tionary nuclei can make substantial quoted as saying the CP didn't need ty" measures. In Portugal, this contra­ gains if they put forward a program arms because the weapons were "in dictory role of the reformists has been corresponding to the needs of the good hands" already, that is, in the the clearest and its limitations most masses, and in particular its most op­ hands of the "democratic" army. quickly demonstrated. In Italy also, pressed sectors. Although the Portuguese bourgeoi­ the dual role of the reformists has been On a whole series of social questions sie was forced to make more conces­ crystal clear. In France, the reformist such as the oppression of women, of sions to the nationalist movements in parties in the Union of the Left were nationalities, of foreign workers, and Africa than some elements such as Spi­ most successful in creating illusions. of youth, the co·mmunist parties have nola apparently wanted, the colonial In some countries where big Social already been outdistanced by mass question was far from solved in 1974. Democratic parties have been used struggles. This occurred particularly In Greece, the Communist party's many times before to persuade the among high-school students in 1974. In industrial and other economic Spanish dictator Franco faces increasing struggles, the established apparatus of the CPs has put them in a rela­ problems. tively better position. But the coming year may see some sudden upsurges among the workers that both the left the Democratic Council of Catalonia. and right reformists will have a dif­ At the same time, a number of sharp ficult time controlling. Reformist meth­ workers struggles developed, includ­ ods of fighting can often be shown ing a rapidly spreading strike wave up rather easily as inadequate in a in the Barcelona area in July. In De­ · .. . period of sharp economic crisis. And cember, 200,000 workers and students the CPs' detente strategy of alliances walked out in the Spanish-ruled part with the Social Democrats, and the of the Basque country in support of opening of some Social Democratic political prisoners. parties toward the radical youth in an In 1974, a number of weak spots effort to gain more leverage against showed up in the capitalist order in their prospective popular-front part­ Europe that promise to widen in 197 5. ners, will make it more difficult to The Mediterranean was more than maintain tight bureaucratic control ever the "soft underbelly of Europe," over any mass movement. but conditions also seemed to be build­ The coming year may see even more ing up for a new explosion in Ireland. acute revolutionary tests than the At the same time the pattern was one May-June 1968 upsurge in France. In that could lead to upsurges in unex­ particular, the Portuguese situation pected places. It seems certain that as has developed rapidly since April. the general economic crisis develops, In Greece, the vote against the mon­ the unevenness in the European area archy in the December 8 referendum will increase even more dramatically, Portuguese demonstrators hail fall of Spinola. 'Democratic" and has shown that Caramanlis's victory as will the variety of issues that can praised by Stalinists nearly succeeded in carrying out rightist coup. did not reflect a general conservative trigger explosions. World Outlook W0/4

necessities have jumped by 50 to 200 percent. Hard hit have been the prices of beef, milk, sugar, flour, and bread. According to the Kuala Lumpur f,OOO students iailed daily The New Straits Times of Oc­ tober 29, the cost of living in Kuala Lumpur is 4 percent higher than in London. This must also be considered in Unemployment, inflation terms of the buying power of Malay­ sian workers, whose wages are as low as $1 [A$1 equals about US$1.33] a day. In addition there is a high spark Malaysian protests level of unemployment, around 20 By Jamie Doughney try. They were also protesting cor­ percent, and strikes are forbidden by ruption in the Government law. Forty percent of the residents of Kuala Lumpur are squatters and [The following article appeared in The demonstrations began on De­ Malaysian people have been hard hit by the December 13, 1974, issue of Direct 350,000 peasant families have no cember 3, when 5,000 students took effect of falling rubber prices. Action, a revolutionary-socialist fort­ to the streets in Kuala Lumpur. The land or inadequate land, and this fig­ nightly published in Sydney, Aus­ Singapore daily The Straits Times re­ Act provides for those arrested to be ure increases at a rate of about 10,000 tralia. ported on December 4: "More than detained without trial. a year. [Although little news of the student 1,000 student demonstrators were ar­ Apart from "civil offences" which can Along with this, working people and upsurge it describes has been carried rested yesterday following a day-long be brought against the students who the rural poor have been hit by the in the press outside of Malaysia, the running battle in which university un­ were arrested, they can also face pros­ decline in rubber prices on the inter­ struggle there is continuing. According dergraduates and police fought it out ecution under the notorious Univer­ national market, as the imperialist to a report in the December 27 Far in the streets, at the National Mosque, sity and University Colleges Act, which countries aim at driving down the Eastern Economic Review, the student the General Post Office and various _provides the Government with the prices of raw materials. In Baling, boycott of the December and January parts of the city. means of rigidly controlling the activ­ an area in northern Malaya, the pop­ examinations appears to have met ini­ "The major demonstration of the ities of the student population. One rel­ ulation, most of whom are rubber tial success- in lpoh, only sixty of the day was sparked off after about 500 evant section of the Act stipulates: tappers, have been suffering greatly 650 students turned up for the first­ students gathered at the Selangor Club "15 ( 1) No students' council, facul­ from the drop in prices as the rainy year papers at Ungku Omar Poly­ Padang [a park-like area in Kuala ty students' organisation or any body season has come. To date a minimum technic. Lumpur in which Malaysia's indepen­ or group of students of a university of five people have died of starv a­ [Undergraduate examinations are dence was declared and where official shall have any affiliation with, or tion, and the figure is most likely scheduled for January 13, and the celebrations are conducted] in front shall do anything which can be con­ higher but obscured by government government has threatened to fail all of the Secretariat building at 9.15 strued as expressing support, sym­ censorship of reports from the area. those who do not take them. Several a.m., protesting against inflation and pathy or opposition to any political Malnutrition is high amongst the university lecturers have suggested the falling rubber price." party or trade union as established whole population of the region. that the present third term be nulli­ The demonstration was broken up and regulated under law or . . . to Reacting to this situation a dem­ fied and a new one held during the when the Federal Reserve Units, Ma­ any unlawful group or body of in­ onstration of 1,000 people from Kg long vacation as "a face-saving mea-' laysia's paramilitary riot police who dividuals." Weng and Borgor, in Baling, was sure" for the government. are renowned for their vicious attacks Conviction for these "offences"- of­ held on November 19. It was "dis­ [A further focus for the student against demonstrations, were sent in, fences which clearly prohibit any po­ persed" by the FRUs, who attacked struggle will be provided by the up­ firing tear gas at the students. By that litical activity, including criticism of it with tear gas. The next day a sim­ coming trials of squatters and stu­ night the number of arrested stood the Government- would make a stu­ ilar demonstration was held in anoth­ dents arrested during the upsurge in at 1,167. dent liable for six months jail as well er part of the region. The following September after the government for­ Other demonstrations took place in as a fine. day, November 21, 13,000 people cibly removed squatters from a settle­ Penang and Ipoh, foreshadowing the One of the key features of the Gov­ from all over Baling came to demon­ ment in Johore Bahru and razed their widespread antigovernment actions ernment's attack on the students has strate against worsening hunger but homes. Forty-eight squatters are which were to continue throughout the been the charge that they were inspired were again attacked by the riot police. scheduled to go on trial January 12- week. In these encounters with the by students and student organisations Finally on December 1, when25,000 14, and five student leaders are to FRUs many more students were in Australia, New Zealand, and Brit­ again gathered in Baling, some con­ go on trial February 25-26, among arrested. ain, including radical Malaysians cessions were won from the authori­ them Hishamuddin Rais, the general The repression with which the Ma­ studying in these countries. The Aus­ ties. Despite the news blackout by the secretary of the University of Malaya laysian Government responded to the tralian Union of Students has come authorities, it is clear that the star­ Students Union.] protests reflects its complete unwilling­ in for particular attack. Michael vation and semistarvation in Baling ness to tolerate any form of opposi­ Richardson, staff correspondent in is not exceptional but reflective of the tion. It saw the issues around which Singapore, wrote in the December 10 situation in all of Malaysia. Also clear After a week of concerted protest the students were demonstrating as Sydney Morning Herald: is that these demonstrations were one over the worsening economic situation particularly threatening. In the pre­ "Australian students were attacked of the major reasons for government faced by the masses of people in Ma­ vious months actions by rubber work- . by two Malaysian ministers yesterday sensitivity to the militant protests .of laysia, police have occupied two uni­ ers and peasants over the erosion of for allegedly meddling in Malaysian the students. versities in Kuala Lumpur, and re­ their living conditions were becoming affairs. The influential Home Affairs ports indicate that over 2,000 students more widespread and sharply directed Minister, Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie and have been arrested and are currently against the Government. the recently appointed Education Min­ SUBSCRIBE TO under detention. The target of the stu­ Using the repressive powers at its ister, Dr Mahithir Mohamed, also dents' actions has been Malaysia's disposal the Government moved to lashed out at New Zealand and Brit­ skyrocketing inflation, growing unem­ isolate the student leaders. The Aus­ ish students. . . . Intercontinental ployment, and falling rubber prices, tralian of December 10 reported that "Both Ministers charged overseas which have led to increased poverty 22 student leaders had been detained foreign students with indirectly encour­ Press and starvation throughout the coun- under the Internal Security Act. This aging some Malaysians 'to create a World Outlook can publish oniy a small lot of problems in this country.'" portion of the international news and These statements follow earlier at­ Marxist analysis contained each week tacks by Mahithir on radical Malay­ in the newsmagazine Intercontinental sian students studying in Australia Press. To be thoroughly informed of and New Zealand, describing them international revolutionary develop­ as "neocolonialists out to undermine ments, subscribe to Intercontinental the nation." The recent cases of Khoo Press. Ee Liam, a Malaysian student who studied in Australia and New Zea­ ) Enclosed is $7.50 for six months. land, and Wong Siang Seng, who ) Enclosed is 50 cents for a single studied in New Zealand, who were copy of the latest issue. both arrested upon return to Malay­ sia for having associations with left­ Name'------wing organisations while overseas, are an example of the Government's Address ______intention to intimidate Malaysian stu­ dents studying in other countries as City------well as at home. The economic situation which State ______sparked the student upsurge has be­ come extremely serious for the vast Send to: Intercontinental Press, Box 116 One of early student demonstrations, with riot police standing by to intimidate pro-_ majority of Malaysians. Over the last Village Station, New York, N.Y., 10014. testers. two years the prices of basic daily New threats of oil war U.S. tells Arabs: ~Knuckle under or else!' By DAVE FRANKEL The threat of force is a constant The proprietors of the most massive element in the relations between Wash­ military apparatus ever seen are ington and the colonial countries that threatening to unleash it once again. are exploited by U.S. capitaL When "In the backrooms of Washington, the Sixth Fleet "shows the flag" in the alarmed policymakers are calling for Middle East, the shah of Iran is re­ a showdown with the oil-producing minded that he owes his throne to a countries before it is too late," wrote CIA-organized coup; the people of columnists Jack Anderson and Les Lebanon are reminded of the occupa­ Whitten Jan. 6. tion qf their country by U. S. Marines If the, oil producers don't knuckle in 1958; the people of Jordan are re­ under to U.S. demands, say Ander­ minded that their country was pub­ son and Whitten, "military interven­ licly threatened with an American in­ tion will become inevitable." vasion in 1970 when it appeared that The war talk is coming from other King Hussein might be overthrown; quarters as well. The January issue and the Arab people as a whole are of Commentary magazine, edited by reminded once again that any one right-wing social democrat Norman of their countries could be next. Podhoretz, contains a long article la­ The growing danger of Washington menting "the absence of the meaning­ resorting to its "military option" in the ful threat of force" by the United States dispute over oil prices was underlined in the oil dispute. by the negative reaction of its Euro­ "Suddenly, we find ourselves in a pean allies to Kissinger's threat. strange universe," writes a saddened The European imperialists, of Robert Tucker. A professor of inter­ course, are motivated not by any prin­ national relations at Johns Hopkins, ciples against military occupations, Tucker sounds as if he has his eye but by the risk to their own econ­ on Henry Kissinger's job. Speaking French underestimated power of Arab revolution in Algeria (above), and were driven omies if the supply of Mideast oil out after eight years of war. U.S. strategists may be making same mistake. up stoutly for the good old days of is interrupted. It was Britain and napalm and strategic hamlets, he France, after all, that reacted to the fondly reminisces: rying out amphibious maneuvers in more-Vietnams' trauma is still very nationalization of the Suez Canal in "We know how the oil crisis would sand dunes on the Sardinian coast. powerful." 1956 by invading Egypt. have been resolved until quite recently. Vice-Admiral Frederick Turner, the To Tucker, as to the unnamed gen­ In addition to the danger of an in­ Indeed, until quite recently it seems commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, eral, the massive opposition to im­ terruption in the flow of oil, and of safe to say that it would never have assured the television audience: 'We perialist aggression generated by the possible Soviet countermeasures, there arisen because of the prevailing ex­ don't want to invade, but we are pre­ slaughter in Indochina is an unfor­ is a third danger to imperialism that pectation that it would have led to pared." tunate trauma, a psychological quirk would accompany any U.S. military armed intervention." The escalation of menacing state­ that should be eliminated. Insisting action over oil: the reaction of the As if in answer to the good pro­ ments from Washington and the that intervention in the Arab-Persian masses. As Kissinger explained in his fessor's dreams of a blitz against the appearance of articles such as Tuck­ Gulf area would be the best way to interview with Business Week: Arabs, Henry Kissinger himself er's represent a serious attempt to put the oil-producing countries back "If you bring about an overthrow pointedly raised the possibility of a soften up American public opinion for in their place as uncomplaining sup­ of the existing system in Saudi Arabia U.S. invasion in the Middle East in a new military adventure. As Tucker pliers to the imperialist vulture, Tucker and a Khadaffi takes over, or if you a year-end interview with Business nostalgically notes, 10 years ago writes reassuringly: break Iran's image of being capable Week. "To make clear that this state­ Washington wouldn't have hesitated "Since it (the Arab side of the Gulf] of resisting outside pressures, you're ment was neither accidental nor casual an instant about unleashing the Ma­ has no substantial centers of popu­ going to open up political trends that but rather a deliberate declaration of rines in the Middle East. But times lation and is without trees, its effec­ could defeat your economic ob­ American policy," wrote the Jan. 20 have changed; the experience of Viet­ tive control does not bear even re­ jectives." U.S. News & World Report, ''the State nam has made a more circumspect mote comparison with the expeience However, whatever tactical doubts Department distributed the interview approach necessary. of Vietnam." and hesitations Kissinger and the oth­ in advance under its own imprimatur. An opinion poll in the Dec. 16 U.S. So eager is Tucker to win his readers er Strangeloves in Washington may And the White House subsequently an­ News & World Report gave an in­ to a favorable appreciation of his vis­ have, they have proven repeatedly nounced that Mr. Kissinger was re­ dication of the sentiment in the U.S. ion of U.S. Marines in Kuwait that that they are willing to risk all in flecting the views of President Ford." Asked, "If need be, should U.S. use he conveniently forgets that the Arab their attempts to dominate the world. The White House position was re­ armed force to get Mideast oil?" 72.4 population of the Gulf area is com­ Horrified as they may be at the iterated by Ford in an interview pub­ percent answered "No." parable to that of Algeria during its thought of an Arabian Khadaffi-let lished in the Jan. 20 issue of Time. "We could do it all right,,; said one eight-year-long war of independence alone an Arabian Castro- to them In the meantime, on Jan. 9, French general to New York Times-reporter against France. The lack of trees there this is just one more risk to be television viewers were treated to a Drew Middleton, 'but would the coun­ didn't stop the Algerians from driving weighed, along with that of nuclear 20-minute film of U.S. Marines car- try stand for it? I doubt it. The 'no- the French out of their country. war.

Sadat charges ~Trotsk}!ite ~lot' Egyptian workers & students protest inflation By PETER GREEN Cairo University the following day That night the government issued a industry." From Intercontinental Press said the workers began their demon­ decree banning all demonstrations Recent government measures, such "Violence hit the streets of Cairo to­ stration intending to gather peaceably and warning thatit would "deal firmly as massive imports of wheat or forced day after a demonstration by 1,000 in front of the offices of a daily news­ with all forms of violence." reduction of the price of certain items industrial workers against low pay paper to demand publication of their Thousands of spectators watched the of clothing, have not made much dif­ and high living costs developed into grievances. A worker on the demon­ demonstration in Liberation Square ference. In fact, the liberalized econom­ a full-scale riot. .. , " Washing ton Post stration interviewed by the Washing­ from an overhead pedestrian bridge. ic policies the government introduced correspondent Michael Tingay report­ ton Post described the worsening eco­ The motives of the demonstrators to attract investment have only served ed from Cairo January 1. nomic plight confronting him, and would have been well understood, not­ to further widen the gap between rich The workers were mostly from the went on: ed Le Monde of January 3, since "the and poor. Stores are stocked with Helwan iron and steel complex about 'We tried to go to the National As­ majority of the townspeople, not to goods that the vast majority of Egyp­ fifteen miles south of Cairo, and they sembly meeting. We asked to speak to speak of those from the country, suffer tians cannot possibly afford. were joined by several hundred stu­ the speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Sa­ more and more from the rising cost On January 1, it was reported that dents and a number of passersby. yed Marei, but the area was cordoned of living-which increased about 50 separate protests erupted in other The demonstrators shouted slogans off. percent since October 1973-from the parts of Cairo when news of the large as they marched on Liberation "The march moved on to the In­ black market, and from the scarcity of demonstration arrived. Hundreds of Square: "Down with the high cost of terior Ministry, where the minister, essential products such as tea, rice, students at Cairo University assem­ living," "Sadat, meat costs £2 a kilo Mamdouh Salem, addressed the sugar, soap, etc." The high prices of bled the following day to demonstrate (about US$5.50]," "Nasser, where are crowds for 15 minutes with a mega­ shoes (about $17 a pair) and meat their solidarity with the Helwan work­ you?" "So where is socialism?" phone. He told us, 'Your problems are particularly resented. ers. The students shouted slogans de­ Armed with shields, helmets, and will be solved and we take note of Le Monde also pointed out that the manding that the workers be granted clubs, and firing tear-gas grenades, your demands.' Then the minister of demonstration was even more signifi­ the right to strike. They were then the police charged the demonstrators, war production told us, 'Go back to cant since ''the Helwan workers, the dispersed by security forces sent rapid­ breaking them up into small groups your factories.'" cherished children of Nasserism, have ly to the spot. and forcing them down separate According to the Post, it was after a privileged life with their pay of £20 Wall newspapers printed by the stu­ streets. this address that the violent clashes a month (about $55), which is nearly dents reported that the workers also Newssheets published by students at with the security forces took place. double the minimum salary paid in Continued on page 22

THE MILITANT/JANUARY 24, 1975 19 In Review The Du Ponts: merchants of death Du Pont: Behind the Nylon Curtain by Ger­ ard Colby Zilg. Prentice-Hall, Englewood CliHs, N.J. 623 pages with index. $12.95.

By DICK ROBERTS "Why, my fellow citizens," President Woodrow Wil­ son asked in 1919, 'is there any man here, or any woman-let me say, is there any child here­ who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?" In 1935 Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "The full measure of America's high productive capacity is only gained when our businessmen and farmers can sell their surpluses abroad.... Foreign mar­ kets must be regained if America's producers are to rebuild a full and enduring domestic prosperity for lrenee du Pont, blowing smoke rings while facing Senate committee in 1934. Evidence produced in 'munitions our people. There is no oth-er way.... " hearings' showed that the DuPont family had raked in profit increase of 1130 percent during World War I. Wilson's remarks were made a year after World War I, the conflagration that Wilson promised he would keep America out of. Roosevelt spoke at the And the Du Pont business got off the ground or asphyxiated by the poisonous fumes in the bottom of the depression. He too would promise to in Delaware in 1803 because Pierre du Pont Wilmington factories where they labored. Zilg notes keep America out of war in election campaigns in France helped urge Napoleon to sign the with bitter irony how "explosions would blow both while secretly preparing for U.S. entry into the Louisiana Purchase, and President Thomas Jeffer­ men and machines across the creek, sometimes second world war. son rewarded Pierre's son !renee with government as far as the flower gardens ofDu Pont mansions." But in these two quotations both presidents ex- gunpowder contracts for the new Delaware firm. The parasitic relation between capital and labor "From his hilltop office overlooking the Brandy­ power- so often completely overlooked in Ameri­ wine," writes Zilg, "!renee now watched his mills can history- is of the essence of that history. The churn out hundreds of pounds of powder daily, progress of the country from a colony in revolt to Books powder that found a ready market thanks to war. the world's number one superpower was inevitably Some 22,000 pounds of Du Pont powder were used also the progress of monopoly and of the ruling­ pressed the fundamental reality of capitalism that by U.S. warships in the undeclared war against class fortunes it gives rise to. monopoly has an insatiable drive to expand its Tripoli and the other _North African city- The Du Ponts, as munitions makers for the fore­ markets abroad and, as Wilson frankly admitted, states.... " On July 4, 1805, Jefferson's Secretary most world military power for practically its entire that world war is rooted in this need of monopoly. of War ... announced that !renee's company history, could not have fared otherwise. In the The two quotations are taken from Gerard Colby would do all the government's powder work. 1930s they bought into Remington arms and later Zilg's remarkable history of the Du Pont family. Napoleon's puppet government in Spain also or­ into both North American Aviation (now North It is remarkable because Zilg has successfully in­ dered 40,000 pounds, much of which was used to American Rockwell) and Boeing. terwoven the history of one of the most powerful crush rebellions by the oppressed Spanish popu­ sectors of the American ruling class with the history lation. Civil War profits of the United States, as viewed from the interests "But to !renee du Pont there were no victors, The Civil War gave birth to most of the domi­ of this family- and especially its interest in war. no losers, no oppressors or oppressed, and above nant sectors of Eastern finance capital. Zilg writes, This is Zilg's first book, and it takes its place all, no causes- just rows of wooden casks filled ''By the thousands ... workers went to die in a among a small handful of outstanding histories with black powder, and a mounting family fiery holocaust while young industrialists like An­ of American ruling-class fortunes. In five years treasure." drew Carnegie, Philip Armour, James Hill, John of research Zilg managed to accumulate consider­ That treasure, in the subsequent 170 years, be­ D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, and J.P. ably more knowledge about the Du Pont family came one of the four largest fortunes in the United Morgan, all in their draftable twenties and all (the book is more than 600 pages long) than has States (alongside the holdings of the Rockefeller, destined to become luminaries in American busi­ previously been published. Mellon and Morgan interests). The DuPont Chem­ ness history, managed to buy replacements for ical Company, through cartel agreements with their numbers in the draft lottery for only $300." 'Merchants of death' Britain and West Germany, is the most powerful Staunch opponents of the abolition of slavery The Du Ponts became known as the "merchants force in world chemical markets. The largest of all up until the war started, the Du Ponts switched of death" because of their manufacture of gun­ industrial companies in the capitalist world, allegiance to the North in the Civil War. Their powder, nitroglycerin, and poisonous gas during General Motors, is roughly 17 percent Du Pont­ wealth "didn't depend on slave labor," Zilg re­ World War I and the huge profits they reaped from owned, a stock value in the billions of dollars. marks, "but on a strong, doling Washington, and this war. But they began making weapons a lot "If we buy high-test gasoline for our cars," Zilg Lincoln had made contact months before the out­ earlier. says, "we are helping to strengthen the Du Pont break of the war." In fact, unlike some of the other big American empire. If our shirts are made of Dacron, or our The Du Ponts upped the price of their gunpowder fortunes, the Du Pont fortune began abroad, in frying pans of Teflon, we enrich the Du Ponts.... from 16 cents a pound in 1861 to 33.5 cents a France, where_ the "original" Du Ponts manu­ If we fly on a Boeing jetliner, ride the Penn Cen­ pound by the end of the war, profiting more than factured gunpowder. They came to the United tral, drink a Coke, eat a Chiquita banana, or $1-million, and laying the base for the monopoly States in 1800 with the hope of setting up a busi­ sprinkle Domino sugar over our cereal, we have they built in the decades to follow. ness here, chased out of their home country by the enriched the Du Ponts. Zilg quotes Harriet Tubman's description of storm of a revolution they opposed. "Our ties may well be made of Du Pont rayon Black soldiers dying in front of Fort Wagner. and colored with Du Pont dyes. Our cars may be "And then we saw the lightning," she said, "and upholstered with Du Pont artificial leather and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder finished with Du Pont lacquers. If we have an and that was the big guns; and then we heard the X ray taken at a hospital or buy see-through rain falling and that was the drops of blood cellophane packages at the supermarket, spread falling; and when we came to get in the crops, fertilizer on our lawns or Lucite paint over our it was dead men that we reaped." walls, take home-movies on vacations or fish with Zilg continues, ''But for the new nobility of in­ a nylon line or hunt with a Remington rifle, we dustrialists and bankers, the harvest was pure may have just helped buy some Du Pont his next gold. After the war was over, it was they who $600 suit." sat in the seats of power, who held the reins of the new Republican Party, who plundered the na­ My~hs of capitalist democracy tion's natural and human resources. Nothing could Zilg's work pokes holes in many myths of Ameri­ be denied them, and they made sure nothing was. can capitalist democracy- not least, the myth of It was as if the great war for freedom, with all its social mobility. Here is one of the biggest and most sacrifice and suffering, had been for them." powerful American fortunes. Rarely is the unbridgeable gap between wage Monopoly building labor and capital so vividly illustrated. In their Monopoly building, the era of trustification, was many-hundred room Wilmington mansions, mod­ the order of the day. The Du Ponts put together the eled on eighteenth-century French chateaux, the Powder Trust to divide the American market, and Du Ponts intermarried among themselves and as­ one by one they hacked down their smaller com­ sociated for decades only with the highest levels petitors inside and outside of the trust. By 1881 E. I. du Pont's original gunpowder mills along Brandy­ of society. Du Pont had seized control of 85 percent of the wine Creek had only three stone walls; the fourth was Yet their fabulous wealth is solely the result of the nation's black powder industry. made of wood to vent explosions that threw men and labor over as many decades of countless thousands "By 1897," Zilg writes, "the American market machinery across the creek, but left the building still of American and foreign workers. Not a few of was too small to hold the Du Pont giant. Eugene standing. these workers were blasted to pieces by explosions [du Pont] wanted to branch out across the world,

20 and the growth of the United States as a world power was a big lever with which to wrench open foreign cartels.... "While the Du Pants of Delaware were growing richer during the 1890's, most Americans were growing poorer. The economy had boomed, all right. ... Coal production in 1870 had been 33 million tons; by 1890 American industry was using DuPont powder to blast out more than 157 million tons. Iron production quadrupled. Silver produc­ tion increased fivefold; copper output was nine times greater. "Then American capitalism simply ran out of a continent. Based on the existing technology at the time, there were no more new markets. The problem again became a surplus of capital and goods." The ultimate result: World War I. Before the war started the Du Pants had reached munitions agreements with other imperialist powers as well. "With World War I, DuPont Company moved from a tertiary to a primary American industry, pro­ ducing 40 percent of all explosives shot from Allied cannons. The Du Pants didn't flinch a muscle when Secretary of War Baker called them 'a species of outlaws.' They just kept counting their $1.011 billion in military contracts, the equal of 276 years of previous military business and 26 years of regular business from all Du Pont commodi- ties.... Support of semifascist groups by Du Pants did not prevent a reconciliation with Franklin Roosevelt in time for "Profits in 1916 alone reached over $80 million World War II contracts. Above, President Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt pose with Eugene du Pont Jr. and and there seemed no end to the dizzying shower of his wife in 1937. In the center are newlyweds Ethel du Pont and-Franklin Roosevelt Jr. gold and blood."

of 1936-37 at GM's biggest auto plant. The Du Surely the Du Pants, whatever they said in public, • General Motors Pants "spent $994,855 between 1934 and 1936 were promoters of this policy. Both Du Pont and It was with the vast profits accumulated in the for 'detective work' in G. M. plants, including arms General MQtors were well on the way to becoming fU"st world war that the Du Pont family diverted and gas; $419,850 went to the infamous Pinkerton multinatianal corporations by this time, not to holdings into many other of the most powerful Agency. This spy system was, as the La Follette mention their direct interest in war industries. branches of American monopoly. Above all was Committee explained, 'a gigantic commercial en­ In any event, Zilg gives us the results. "Fifty­ their most successful of all American investments, terprise in which employers collaborate with pro­ four new plants at thirty-two locations around the not only in the history of the Du Pont family but fessional spies in assaulting citizens because they country were built by Du Pont with $1 billion in American economic history as a whole- the exert their lawful right to organize for collective of taxpayers' money, the company investing only taking over of General Motors (GM) and the build­ bargaining."' 5 percent.... ing of it into the biggest manufacturing corpora­ But spys, harassme~t- including murders of "By June 1943 Lammot [du Pont] was able to tion in the world. Blacks and unionists by the Du Pont-supported boast that Du Pont was producing more explo­ It was through GM that the Du Pants became one "Black Legion" whose ranks were filled with sives than were being. made in the entire country of the most pivotal factors in American politics as KKKers-failed to halt labor's drive. On Feb. · at World War I's peak of production in 1918. well as economics. They had long controlled Dela­ 11, 1937, the Flint strikers succeeded in forcing In one day, every day, Du Pont produced more ware politics and through one branch of the family GM to sign with the United Auto Workers. explosives than it made for the Union throughout were becoming the most important sector in the four years of the Civil War.... Florida politics as well. (They still hold both these World War II "The 1942 Annual Report announced the largest positions today.) If there is a weakness- and it is minor- that sales volume in the company's 140-year history, But in the 1920s and 1930s the Du Pants should be mentioned of Zilg's study, it is the lack $498 million, generating a profit of $55 million. emerged as primary powers in the Republican of space devoted to the preparations by U.S. Then, as now, . friends in Washington helped. and Democratic parties. A former Du Pont secre­ monopoly for World War II. Former G. M. vice-president Edward R. Stettinius tary and later a director of General Motors, John There is no question of the utter secrecy that was federal Commissioner for Industrial Materials, Raskob, became the national chairperson of the came to surround corporate and government while Alfred V. du Pont was consultant to the Democratic Party. policy in that period and the consequent extreme Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Du Pants supported Roosevelt in his first difficulty of pinning down the facts. election campaign and the initial steps of the New Nevertheless, Charles Beard's President Roose­ Profit bonanza Deal, but they grew to oppose it and by the mid velt and the Coming of the War: 1941, the State "But the real bonanza was netted by General 1930s were by far the largest supporters to right­ Department's China 'white Papers (1949), and even Motors. G. M. gross~d $14 billion in contracts wing causes, including semifascist organizations, sections of the Pentagon papers, to name a few from the War Production Board, which was chaired and, Zilg believes, they were involved in an abor­ sources, all show that from at least 1937 on, Roose­ by none other than G. M. 's own president, William tive attempt to stage a coup d'etat in 1934. velt planned for war and a new expansion of U.S. Knudsen, and had Du Pont in-law George P. Ed­ Zilg records one of the most memorable strug­ markets- the extreme obstacle being the deep anti­ munds as adviser. The board awarded G. M. one­ gles against the Du Pants, the Great Flint Strike war sentiment of the American people. twelfth of all its contracted funds, and much of this found its way to Wilmington." Zilg, as can be seen, well understands that in the present epoch, the ruling-class fortunes founded in the nineteenth century did not disappear. They became richer and more powerful, especially as a result of the victory of U.S. imperialism in two world wars. With the profits of the second world war, the Du Pont empire expanded as never before. Zilg gives the facts and figures down to the present day (including Vietnam war profits and Southeast Asia investment ventures) to prove it. Zilg advances the thesis that in comparison to the other main sectors of Eastern finance capital (especially the Rockefeller and Morgan sectors), the Du Pants have been relatively weakened in the postwar period because of their failure to capture any large banks. To a greater degree than any other ruling-class family, the Du Pont interests were consistently refuelled by wars and, at least until recently, they did not have a comparable need of independent financial sources. This thesis and a number of other points sug­ gested by Zilg are worth further exploration and undoubtedly will be explored as American con­ sciousness of "its own" ruling class deepens. That 'With World War I, Du Pont Company moved from a tertiary to a primary American industry, producing 40 per­ process gains a very valuable text in Du Pont: cent of all explosives shot from Allied cannons.' Behind the Nylon Curtain.

THE MILITANT/JANUARY 24, 1975 21 seized, the agency added. There was Afterward, the Times said, Stein 'in­ to campaigning among high school no further amplification on the nature formed at least one Senator to no students, Finkel said, "holding street of the new organization. However, the avail of his suspicions of C. f. A do­ rallies outside high schools, getting Calendar New York Times reported that "gov­ mestic activities." our speakers into the schools, and in CLEVELAND ernment officials and members of the e In addition to the 10,000 Ameri­ some cases actually organizing classes THE WORLD FAMINE: WHO IS TO BLAME? Speakers: National Assembly are known to have cans the CIA kept files on, the Justice on 'what is socialism.'" Fred Ross, author of two research works an the world used the term 'Trotskyites' ... in con­ Department gave the agency another Finkel emphasized that young peo­ food crisis; Jeff Feather, Young Socialist Alliance. Fri., nection with the alleged ringleaders list of 9,000 dissenters in 1970, sup­ ple who support Camejo and Reid Jan. 24, B p.m. 4420 Superior Ave. Donation: $]. Ausp: Militant Forum. Far more information call (216) of the riot. This has been interpreted posedly to check on "foreign influence. n and want to campaign for socialism 391-5553. as an effort to make it clear that the According to the Washington Post, the year-round should be encouraged to Government is not blaming Commu­ list included members of the Black become members of the YSA "It's the PITTSBURGH nists who are under Soviet influence." Panthers, the Weatherpeople, and YSA's responsibility to let people YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO GET SICK: HEALTH CARE IN 'Vietnam war critics." The CIA snoops know about our organization, to let AMERICA. Speaker: Susie Beck. registered nurse, mem­ The January 1 action was the most ber of Socialist Workers Party. Fri., Jan. 24, B p.m. significant protest against. the regime found "no conclusive evidence of for­ them know we need and want and 3400 Filth Ave. Donation: 51. Ausp: Militant Forum. since the student demonstrations of eign financing or supporUor the anti­ appreciate their efforts, and that we Far more information coli (412) 6B2-5019. 1971. The January 3 Le Monde de­ war movement," the Post reported. want them to join the YSA"

TWIN ClfiES scribed it as "a severe warning to ABORTION: TWO YEARS AFTER THE SUPREME COURT the authorities." One anti-Sad at slo­ DECISION. Speakers: Mary Hillery, Socialist Workers gan chanted by the demonstrators Party; Beverly Braun, Abortion Rights Council and summed up the new angry mood of representative of Elizabeth Blackwell Health Clinic. Marxism vs. the masses- increasing disillusion Fri., Jan. 24, B p.m. 25 University Ave. S. E., Mpls. with Cairo's failure to regain the ter­ Donation: $]. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more informa­ ... CWA Neo-Anarchist tion call (612) 332-nBI. ritory seized by the Zionists and Continued lrom page J5 mounting discontent with their eco­ glomerate, for three weeks, but they Terrorism WASHINGTON, D. C. nomic hardships. "Hero of the cross­ were eventually forced back to work SPECTER OF WORLD FAMINE: A PANEL DISCUSSION. Speakers: Mikh Snyder, Fast lor Famine Relief; Erich ing," they shouted, "where is our for essentially the same terms ac­ by George Novack. 25 cents. Path­ Martel, Socialist Workers Party. Fri., Jan. 24, B p.m. breakfast?" cepted by the CW A. There were also finder Press, 410 West St., New 1345 E St. N. W. (Fourth Floor). Donation: 51. Ausp: local wildcat strikes in many areas. York, N.Y. 10014. Militant Forum. For more information call (202) 7B3- The contract ratification was con­ ~ ~- 2391. ducted by a mail referendum, mini­ mizing the opportunity for workers to discuss the terms and decide on a ... Texas united course of action. Continued lrom page J 8 "We here in New York urged our the city manager, and representatives people to turn down the national pack­ ... 'plot' of the CCBC, it was announced that age and accept the local package," an agreement had been reached be­ Serrette said. "However, I understand Continued lrom page J 9 tween the CCBC and the city govern­ that District 1, which includes New demanded the replacement of their ment; A federal mediator was to be York and New England, was the only union leaders, whom they accused of called in from the Justice Department's district that voted down the national not defending their interests. The Jan­ community relations board, and the package. I'm sure that many more uary 4 Le Monde reported that the CCBC agreed to hold no more dem­ locals turned it down, though, and agitation continued inside the univer­ onstrations during the mediation. there were bad feelings about the en­ sity throughout the morning. Some Justice Department representative tire contract." classes were shut down, and contin­ Gustavo Gaynatt said the subject of uous meetings were held in the main the mediation would be not only the amphitheater. On January 4, similar Coleman killing, but "all the issues demonstrations took place at Cairo facing the Black community." and Ain Shems universities, the Jan­ The CCBC vowed, however, to call ... YSA uary 6 Christian &ience Monitor re­ a meeting to plan a response if the Con•inued lrom page 6 ported. grand jury refused to indict the killer­ interested in hearing what socialists The regime has responded with a cops. The Jan. 9 meeting of 2, 500 have to say about the issues. n harsh crackdown. More arrests were was in response to the grand jury Finkel also said that one of the report, which ruled that the cops were made, and a "plot" discovered. The most important parts of every cam­ official Middle East News Agency "justified in using deadly force" to pre­ paign event would be "the meeting Leon Trotsky's 1925-28 writings on the vent Coleman's alleged escape at­ (MENA) announced January 5 that after the meeting. n That is, after a burning political issues facing British 120 persons had been questioned, tempt. candidate speaks, all those interested revolutionists: how to break the ideolo­ fifty-six had been charged with "anti­ in finding out more about the cam­ gical hold of reformism over the work­ state" activities, and seven were re­ paign and helping to work on it ing mosses; how to win them to the rev­ garded as actual "ringleaders" in the should be invited to another meeting olutionary party; how to lead the class demonstration. United Press Interna­ to immediately involve them in ac­ forward to a successful socialist revolu­ tional quoted sources who said more ... CIA tivities. tion. Introduction by George Novack. than 400 persons had been jailed, but Continued lrom page 17 Campaign supporters will be en­ A MONAD PRESS BOOK. 344 pp., an official in the Interior Ministry de­ that indicated that they had already couraged to join in sales of The Mili­ $8.95, paper $3.45 nied this as "exaggerated. n carefully examined some of the under­ tant and Young Socialist, in orga­ distributed exclusively by The previous day MENA had an­ ground publications in question­ nizing meetings and distributing lit­ PATHFINDER PRESS, INC. nounced the discovery of a "new Com­ such as the Berkeley Barb and erature, and in taking part in political 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014 munist organization." Pamphlets at­ S.D. S. [Students for a Democratic So­ struggles along with the YSA. tacking President Sad at's regime were ciety) manuals." The YSA will glve special attention Socialist Directory ARIZONA: Tucson: YSA, c/o Clennon, S. U. P. 0. Box St., N. E., Third Floor, Atlanta, Ga. 30303. SWP and Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich. 4BB23. hoga Ct., Columbus, Ohio 43210. Tel: (614)268-7860. 20965, Tucson, Ariz. B5720. YSA, P. 0. Box B46, Atlanta, Ga. 30301. Tel: (404) MINNESOTA: Minneapoli.. St. Paul: SWP, YSA, Labor OREGON: Portland: SWP and YSA, 20B S. W. Stark, CALIFORNIA: Berkeley-Oakland: SWP and YSA, 523-0610. Bookstore, 25 University Ave. S. E., Mpls., Minn. 55414. Filth Floor, Portland, Ore. 97204. Tel: (503) 226-2715. 1849 University Ave., Berkeley, Calif. 94703. Tel: ILLINOIS: Chicago: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, 42B Tel: (612) 332-77BI. PENNSYLVANIA: Edinboro: YSA, Edinboro State Col­ (415)54B-0354. S. Wabash, Filth Floor, Chicago, Ill. 60605. Tel: SWP­ MISSOUR~ St. Louis: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, lege, Edinboro, Po. 16412. Los Angeles, Central-East: SWP, YSA, Militant Book­ (312) 939-0737, YSA-(312) 427-02BO, Pathfinder 4660 Maryland, Suite 2, St. Louis, Mo. 6310B. Tel: Philadelphia: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Bookstore, I 004 store, 710 S. Westlake Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90057. Books- (31 2)939-0756. (314) 367,2520. Filbert St. (one block north of Market), Philadelphia, Pa. Tel: (213) 483-1512. Urbana: YSA, Room 284 lllini Union, Urbana, Ill. NEW JERSEY: New Brunswick: YSA, c/o Richard 19107. Tel: (215) WAS-4316. Los Angeles, West Side: SWP and YSA, 230 Broad­ 61BOI. Ariza, 515 S. First Ave., Highland Park, N.J. OB904. Pittsburgh: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Press, 3400 Filth way, Santa Monica, Calif. 90401. Tel: (213)394-9050. INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, c/o Student Activities Tel: (201)B2B-471 0. Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213. Tel: (412)682-5019. Los Angeles: City-wide SWP and YSA, 710 S. West­ Desk, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. 47401. NEW YORK: Albany: YSA, c/o Spencer Livingston, State College: YSA, 333 Logan Ave. •401, State Col­ lake Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90057. Tel: (213) 483- Indianapolis: YSA, c/o Dave Ellis, 1309 E. Vermont, 317 State St., Albany, N.Y. 12210. lege, Po. 16801. -357. Indianapolis, Ind. 46202. Brooklyn: SWP and YSA, I 36 Lawrence St. (at Wil­ TENNESSEE: Nashville: YSA, P.O. Box 67, Station Sacramento: YSA, c/o Marlene Metcalf, P. 0. Box KANSAS: Lawrence: YSA, c/o Christopher Starr, loughby), Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201. Tel: (212)596-2B49. B, Nashville, Tenn. 37235. Tel: (615)3B3-2583. 2061, Sacramento, Calif. 95B10. 3020 Iowa St., Apt. C-14, Lawrence, Kans. 66044. Tel: Buffalo: YSA, P. 0. Box 604, Buffalo, N.Y. 14240. TEXAS: Houston: SWP, YSA, and Pathfinder Books, San Diego: SWP, YSA, and Militant Bookstore, 4635 (913)B64-473B or B42-B65B. New York City: City-wide SWP and YSA, 706 Broad­ 3311 Montrose, Houston, Texas n006. Tel: (713)526- El Cajon Blvd., San Diego, Calif. 92115. Tel: (714) KENTUCKY: Louisville: YSA, Box B026, Louisville, way (4th St.), Eighth Floor, New York, N.Y. 1 0003_ 10B2. 2B0-1292. Ky. 4020B. Tel: (212) 9B2-4966. San Antonio: YSA, c/o Andy Gonzalez, 2203 W. 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THE MILITANT/JANUARY 24, 1975 23 THE MILITANT

OccuP-ation for treaty rights Menominee·lndians fight for new hospital By JOHN SIDEBOTTOM hard line toward the Indians. They cut and LARRY THOMAS off power, telephones, and heat; re­ KESHENA, Wis., Jan. 13-Between fused to allow food to be brought in; 1778 and 1871, as the U.S. govern­ disrupted negotiations; and, according ment expanded westward, it made.389 to the Menominees, initiated the shoot­ treaties with Native Americans. Every ing incidents that took place earlier one of these treaties was broken. in the week. The situation at the Alexian One of the Menominee occupiers in­ Brothers Novitiate near Gresham, terviewed by The Militant, who pre­ Wis., occupied by Menominee Indians, ferred not to have his name printed, is another example of the U.S. gov­ said the shooting broke quite a few ernment breaking a treaty. windows and that "there were several According to the treaty between the very young children, three to . four Menominee people and the govern­ months old, and a lot of other kids ment, if land that had been taken from maybe three to five years old, who the Menominees is abandoned, the were in there while the fire was being land reverts back to the Menominees. directed at the monastery." The Alexian Brothers Novitiate and The National Guard took a different its surrounding land have been un­ approach. They turned the power and used since 1968. The only occupants heat on, allowed food to be brought were a caretaker and his family. in, and tried to aid negotiations. News The Menominee Warrior Society, media, however, have been barred which led the Indian occupation of the from the novitiate. building on New Year's Day, thinks that this unused property should be Wounded Knee turned into a much-needed medical A rally of 140 people in solidarity center for the Menominee people and with the occupation took place Jan. 11 run by the Menominees. in the town of Keshena in Menominee Menominee County has the worst County. Russell Means, a leader of health record of all the counties in the American Indian Movement (AIM) Wisconsin. One of the Menominees and a participant in the Wounded Denver picket line Jari. 11 Militant/Frank Lord who had participated in the occupa­ Knee occupation in 1973, said that tion told The Militant about conditions in his opinion the National Guard on the Menominee Reservation. would try not to make any move that Menominees from the novitiate by want?" When he answered that he was "I lived in a two-room log house," would gain attention in the press, stall­ force. On Jan. 11 about 100 whites, a school teacher, this drew more jeers he said. "There was an upstairs and ing until "everyone has forgotten what armed with pistols and deer rifles, held and abuse. a downstairs and we heated the en­ is happening at the novitiate," and then a rally in opposition to the right of tire house with a small Coleman-like would attempt to break the occupa­ Indians from other areas to come in­ space heater. tion. to the area in support of the Menomi­ Need national support "Wages in the area are very low He said that at Wounded Knee, 'it nee occupation. In this volatile situation, it is im­ and the unemployment rate, I have wasn't until interest subsided that the On Jan. 12 a Shawano town meet­ perative to get out the truth about heard, is 50 percent now in Menomi­ government really started firing." ing was called in an attempt to cool what the Menominees are fighting for nee County." The Alexian Brothers, a Catholic things down. About 300 townspeople and increase the demonstrations of On Jan. 7 Wisconsin Governor Pat­ order, are asking $750,000 for the no­ were present. support from around the country. rick Lucey sent 250 National Guards­ vitiate and surrounding land. The two Doug Durham, an AIM representa­ Solidarity actions have taken place men to the Gresham area at the re­ possibilities most widely mentioned tive; Neal Hawpetoss, the chief nego­ in a number of cities. Dennis Banks quest of local authorities. This number are that the state or federal govern­ tiator for the Menominee Warriors So­ and Neal Hawpetoss spoke to a rally has since increased to 300. ment could subsidize the purchase, or ciety; and Colonel Hugh Simonson, of 200 people Jan. 10 in Milwaukee. At the beginning of the occupation, that two sympathetic businessmen commander of the National Guard After the rally a number of people state and local police had taken a might buy the property and lease it to troops, tried to answer some ques­ joined a caravan from Chicago taking the Menominee Warrior Society until tions, but it was almost impossible food and supplies to Gresham. A pick­ the society could repay the loan. for them to complete a sentence be­ et line was held in Denver on Jan. 11:. The Alexian Brothers have pro­ cause of the jeering of the whites in The Menominee people are up posed selling the property to the Me­ the crowd. against powerful opposition- includ­ nominee Reservation Committee, the As soon as Neal Hawpetoss, a Me­ ing the duplicity of the federal govern­ official governing body on the res­ nominee, walked in, he was booed and ment, the racism of local whites, and ervation, rather than to the Warrior jeered. The atmosphere was highly the hypocrisy of the Catholic church. Society. The Reservation Committee charged and blatantly racist. The paternalism and racism that has denounced the occupation as "un­ The first to address the crowd was Indians have faced in this country for ethical" and "anarchy. n Simonson, who was greeted with hundreds of years was exemplified .in Local organizing efforts in support shouts of "Simple Simon!" He finally a statement by Brother Florian Eber­ of the Menominee Warrior Society are managed to receive some applause le, head of the Alexian Brothers Order. taking place at the Keshena Youth when he labeled the Indians inside He said the order might have given Drop-in Center. Contributions of food the novitiate "criminals." A response the novitiate to the Menominees if they and clothing have been coming into from the crowd at this point was "send hadn't resorted to an armed takeover. the center from around the state. in tanks and clean them out." Now, he said, "I will not give it Every time the word "hospital" came over." Racists organize up, the response was boos and shouts National support from other Native Some white residents of the nearby of "on the reservation, not in the American peoples and all supporters Militant/Linda D'Rand town of Shawano have organized abbey!" A racist asked Hawpetoss, of human rights can help strengthen Dennis Banks of American Indian Move­ racist rallies demanding that the Na­ "Have you people ever thought of and encourage the Menominees in ment. tional Guard immediately expel the going to work and earning what you their struggle.

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